Thirteenth Sermon - Priorities: A reflection on Luke 14:25-28;33

Scriptures:

Luke 14:25-28;33 https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=529312427

Jeremiah 18:1-6  https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=529312820

Psalm 139: 1-18, 23-24 https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=529312500

“‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate fathers and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

Wow. That’s a lot to unpack. Jesus tells us that in order to be his disciple, we must hate our mother and father, sisters and brothers, spouses and children… even our own lives; and to give away all our possession? How can we be given a command that goes against the fourth commandment to honor mother and father?  How can Jesus ask us to love even our enemies and yet tell us to hate our own families?  

Let’s consider what Christ means when saying, “be my disciple.” Being Jesus’ disciple means to accept his teaching, to show love and compassion, to humble yourself, even as he humbled himself on the cross.  To recognize God’s presence with you from the highest heights to the lowest lows. To open yourself to God’s shaping your soul and your way of life. Scripture gives us some examples: “for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a immigrant and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.”  
When we recognize the image of God in all others, when we see that even the least of these are fearfully and wonderful made, and we begin to open ourselves to true discipleship.

So, in order to do that, why do we need to hate Mom and Dad? What could that possibly mean?  Some have said that this command is Christ telling us that if our families are actively against us being a disciple of Christ, we must reject them.  

But lets look into the context.  Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem where he will literally have to carry his own cross.  He has just healed a man on the Sabbath, a healing I would add, that required him to turn from traditional rules and religious cultural norms. He chose to act even though in following the way of compassion, he also gave his detractors evidence that could be used against him in his trial before the High Priest.  He prioritized doing good over avoiding accusation. Is this what he meant by hating one’s own life?

Well, word is spreading like wildfire about this teacher, this healer.  He sees the numbers growing, many just there to see what the big deal is, others following because they see no harm in joining the crowd… they do not yet know what is the cost of discipleship.  

Jesus then tells the story of the man who invited his closest friends and family to a wedding feast but each of the invited replied with an excuse. “I have this going on.” “I just bought land.” “I got a new ox.” “I just got married.” No one shows up. So angered was he that he commands that his servants fill the hall with the poor, the lame, the wretched refuse of the teeming shores.  He has his servants compel people to come in and eat. Main point, he doesn’t want anyone who was initially invited, those closest to him, to taste the feast.  Is this what he meant by hating family?  That’s possible.  

Let’s look at the text. The word that is translated as “hate” here is a Greek phrase that comes from a Semitic expression meaning, “to love less, to turn away from or detach oneself from.”  The thing that Jesus is trying to convey is that to be his disciple, for us to be following in His path, we must subordinate all other priorities in our life.  Consider what is most important in your life.  I recently saw a bumper sticker that said “Guns, God, and Country”. Mom and Dad didn’t even make the top three for that person and I found it interesting where God came in the list. 

Other than following Christ, what do we have on our list of priorities? Is it a sports team (I'm partial to FC Cincinnati), devotion to a particular university basketball or football program? I know many here are avid UK fans.  Is it a political party or candidate? Is it our nation? These are all priorities that people have. Sometimes we let them get in the way of loving our neighbors, loving our enemies, following the greatest commandments.  Now, I would guess that most people would put family, financial security, and career as a few of their top priorities.   But these are the very things Jesus told us that we would need to be ready to detach from if it was required to follow him.  

I don’t think he was commanding us to turn away from our families or sell everything we own; rather I think he was using it as an example of what people would consider most important.  Think back on what the wedding guests used as excuses. “I’ve just gotten married.” “I just bought some real estate.” “I’ve purchased a means of production.”  When it comes down to it, are we willing to risk financial security to help the poor? 

 I recently heard a nursing student say, “The crazy thing is that $5,000 would completely turn my life around. But for someone else, it’s just a new purse.”  We are blessed with possessions but could it be that Christ is telling us that those possessions should never get in the way of discipleship, should never inhibit us from joining in the wedding feast that welcomes the stranger and feeds the poorest of all. Is that what he meant by “give up all your possessions”?

Are we willing to risk the ire of our family to follow Christ?  To do what is right, to speak out for the marginalized, to stand up for the oppressed, to seek justice, love kindness , and walk humbly?

It seems strange that doing what’s right could cause division. But sometimes it does. More often it seems in these days of extreme polarization.  Year after year, we spend millions of dollars trying to make one point or another, worshiping at the political throne of one idol or another. All the while, ignoring the call to justice, kindness, and humility. We are called to love. We are called to be changed. May we all be open to the potters hands as God seeks to mold us into the likeness of Christ.  And let it be so.

Twelfth Sermon - Intercession

Intercession (Sermon on 10/14/2018)

            Scriptures:    Job 23:1-9, 16-17, Psalm 22:1-15 , Mark 10:17-23 

Prayer is a powerful means of building relationship between you and God, between each of us, and among God, ourselves, humanity, and the rest of creation.  Prayer is a powerful tool. I’ve been told that my whole life. As a child, we said grace before every meal, before bedtime, and at various other moments through the day.  For example, my mom would pray when I was learning to drive… and most fervently when she was in the car with me learning to drive.

Mom prayed for everything from lost keys, to friends’ illnesses, to finding a parking space at the mall. I learned to do this as well. So, when we found the keys, heard about the friend’s flu getting better, or got that parking space near the door, we knew that prayer had worked and that we were special to God.  If the keys weren’t found for a while, the delay kept us from that horrible accident we noticed on our way to our destination.  If the illness progressed, it was God’s way of calling that person home.  If we didn’t find that parking space, God was reminding us that we needed some exercise.  Despite it all, we knew that we were special to God.

As the years went on I began to wonder. What about the people who were in that horrible accident? What about the person who we beat to that parking space at the mall? What about all the people who didn’t get what they prayed for in order that my prayer might be answered?  The #blessed movement really got me thinking a lot about this.  For the unaware, #blessed is when people post a picture to Instagram, snapchat, or Facebook showing their good fortune or how God has blessed them; a new car, a sweet vacation, a great dinner at an expensive restaurant, or winning some sport, contest, or lottery.  It comes from the mindset that “I’m special to God and God is rewarding me.”  When we experience this “I’m special” mindset, we raise ourselves above others. We exalt ourselves instead of humbling ourselves. We do the opposite of what Christ calls us to do. We often do this collectively in how we are fanatical about our team or our school.  It is often cloaked in the guise of pride, hometown pride, state pride, national pride, group pride.  We say God bless America, but not the rest of the world.  Because we are special.

We are all special though in the sight of God. You are special… just like every other person ever born… just like all of God’s creation. But, it is true. You are specially chosen to humble yourself and work for the reconciliation of the world. 

The young man in Mark 10:17-23 felt special because he had great wealth. It became what made him feel special more than following God’s law of love, he needed his wealth more than he was willing to help the poor, more than he valued entering the Kingdom of Heaven. When Jesus told him that he needed to give away all he had, his basis for feeling special fell and he went away grieving.

In Psalm 22, I get the impression that David felt his sense of being special fall away as enemies plotted against him and his kingdom.  Job felt his feeling of being special fall away when his life was turned upside down and he lost everything. In their fear, David and Job cried out to God. The question that comes to mind is how do we understand God’s response to our prayers.  What does it mean to ask God for stuff… from parking spaces, to security, to healing, to justice? Does God play favorites?

                                      ------------------------------------

Almost 20 years ago, I was in a hospital room with my dad and my Uncle Dan.  It wasn’t good. With Dad, we were pretty much just waiting for his heartbeat to stop.  It had been a long road, a very long road.  But here was my Uncle Dan, praying intensely, binding demons, casting out disease, absolutely claiming what he had been told he had the right to claim, complete healing for my father. As we read in the bible, anything you ask in my name will be given unto you.  I just sat there and wept as my father’s heartbeat slowed to a halt.  So, what happened?  Why didn’t the prayer work?  Why had my God, and my uncle’s God forsaken us?  There was no reason my dad should have died at such a young age. He was an amazing pastor, a loving father and husband, a righteous and upright man… kind of like Job.  And let me tell you, at that moment, I felt absolutely forsaken. I was poured out like water, my body ached, my heart felt ripped out, I did not know where God was in that moment. It was a terrible time and my uncle’s prayers did not help.

Sometimes in our lives, we feel a little like Job, maybe not exactly since he had lost his wife and all his children and everything he had and was covered with boils from head to toe. Nonetheless, we may feel that troubles have come our way through no fault of our own, that the calamity that has befallen us is unjust, and God is silent.

Other times we may feel a little like David who wrote today’s Psalm, maybe not exactly because none of us have a kingdom, many wives and concubines, and great treasures.  Nonetheless, we may feel like God is not responding to our prayers in times of struggle. We may feel that our prayers are going unanswered. Sometimes we can relate to these groanings, these laments.  Sometimes we can wonder where God is in our times of trouble.

Prayer seems to be the thing to do in times of trouble. Aren’t we told to ask God to help us? Aren’t we promised that God will do what we ask?  Over and over we read

·       Matthew 18:19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

·       Mark 11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

·       Luke 11:9 So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.

·       John 14:13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

There we have it. All four gospels… so why didn’t my dad get healed? Why weren’t my uncle’s prayers answered? There are so many answers to this question.  It wasn’t God’s will. It was his time.  God brought him home. His suffering was ended. What we think is best and what God thinks is best may not be the same thing. There are lots of ways that people have tried to explain why prayer did not work.  But what if the problem isn’t so much that prayer didn’t work. What if we didn’t really understand the point of prayer at that moment. What if we need to understand prayer in much deeper way. 

There are many types of prayer.  There are praises like the Hallelujahs that we lift up in song, there are supplications when we ask for something personally, there are confessions where we ask forgiveness for our sins, there is thanksgiving where we show our gratitude for all God has done for us, there are intercessions where we pray on behalf of others, and there are other ways to pray as well.  Today I want to talk about intercessory prayer, praying for another person; and supplication when we call out to God for help.  When we pray for ourselves, we call God to mind and grow in relationship with God. When we pray for someone else, whether they be a friend or someone we are angry with, we also call them AND God to mind.  In bringing them to mind and considering their trouble, we may feel empathy for them, we may feel that God is drawing us to do something to help them.  Bringing others to mind in prayer is a way of bringing our bonds with them to our consciousness and strengthening those bonds while communing with God. This is true of friend and foe alike.

Because, we are a family, members of the body of Christ, a community bound by the sacraments of water, the cup, and the bread.  Through our baptism and in our communion, we are reminded of this bond and the responsibilities we have because of this bond.  One of those responsibilities is that we are called to pray for one another when someone is feeling forsaken, broken, in despair, or abandoned.  We even are called to pray for people who are not part of the church, to bring their sufferings, joys, and struggles to our mind and God’s. And we do it, we gladly tell people, “I’ll be praying for you.”  You’ve heard it or seen in on Facebook…  How many times have you said or heard said, “you are in our thoughts and prayers.”  It happens quite often, in my experience.  So much so that some cynics laugh it off.  They say, “you can keep your thoughts and prayers. What we need is action.”  And that’s true.  Because if “thoughts and prayers” is just said as a cliché, it does not do what it should.  Sometimes people say it and don’t do it. Sometimes people pray but nothing more.

So prayer… is left at the doorstep to the church. 

This brings us to supplication.  Is it self-centered to come to god begging for our own benefit?  Is it wrong to ask where God is and why we cannot get a sense of God’s response? David and Jesus are both quoted as saying, “My God, why have you forsaken me?”

In a recent message Pope Francis said

"Is it blasphemy when Jesus complains - 'Father, why have You forsaken me’? This is the mystery. I have often listened to people who are experiencing difficult and painful situations, who have lost a great deal or feel lonely and abandoned and they come to complain and ask these questions: Why? Why? They rebel against God. And I say, 'Continue to pray just like this, because this is a prayer'.

It was a prayer when Jesus said to his father: 'Why have You forsaken me!'". Crying out to God is good, heck, any conversation with God is good because you are talking to God.  In doing so we are bringing to mind the bond we have with God, the bond that is not just with God but also with the rest of the body of Christ; we are also allowing God to bring about change in us.  One woman recently wrote that when they are crying out in anguish, it brings to mind other people who are also suffering, and so she would begin to pray for them, strengthening the bond between them within the love of God. Soon her problems would slip from her mind and she would begin to figure out ways to help those others and in the process her problems sometimes would begin to be solved.

Helping others is often the key to finding our own solutions.  But helping others is not always easy.  We may feel that it is too much to risk, especially when we are already struggling. Or perhaps we might have to make a life change that would be too  much to sacrifice. And why help someone who has been a pain in our side all our lives.

In our gospel reading today, the “rich young ruler” as he is often described declares his obedience to the law and wants to know what else he must do to attain the kingdom of heaven.  Christ tells him to obey the law of Moses. He responds that he has done this since his birth.  But one thing he lacks, Christ continues, sell all you have and give it to the poor.  He has the means and the opportunity to answer the prayers of many who are poor and suffering. But when he is told of what he must do, he goes away grieving because it is so much more than just offering thoughts and prayers. 

Answers to prayers sometimes come in the form of demands being made on the praying person. We are taught that salvation comes through faith, as a gift, not by works.  But, sometimes we need to be reminded that when we are blessed, it is so that we might bless the world through our prayers, our words, and our deeds.  How hard it is for someone who has been blessed to enter the kingdom of God if they have not shared that blessing with the world. When God made covenant with Moses, God said “I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

For the young ruler, he was blessed with wealth.  For others, we may be blessed with other gifts such as counseling, healthcare, carpentry, accounting, or whatever skills we have been given.  And this brings us back to what prayer is and how our intercessions often lead to action. As Corrie ten Boom said, “We never know how God will answer our prayers, but we can expect that He will get us involved in His plan for the answer. If we are true intercessors, we must be ready to take part in God’s work on behalf of the people for whom we pray.”

We have to be involved in some way.  I’ve mentioned a couple times already about how we strengthen the bonds between us and those who we pray for simply by asking God to be present in their situation, simply by praying for them.  We change the story, our friends, and ourselves by bringing their names before God.  Thomas Merton wrote, “When I pray I am, in a certain sense, everybody. The mind that prays in me is more than my own mind, and the thoughts that come up in me are more than my own thoughts because this deep consciousness when I pray is a place of encounter between myself and God and between the common love of everybody” He is describing the body of Christ. We are each members of the body of Christ with Christ at the head. It is no wonder that some of those thoughts that come to us in prayer, come from the whole body with Christ as the source.  Perhaps this is what the scripture means when Christ says “I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you,” that in our prayers we become one body. 

Merton was a mystic Jesuit who spent most of his time at a monastery here in Kentucky.  I highly recommend taking a retreat to Gethsemane to get a taste of what this kind of prayer can be like. 

What effect does intercessory, bond-strengthening, oneness experiencing prayer have?  I mean, does anyone else change or is it something for your personal prayer experience?  Primarily it changes the way you feel about the other person.  And how you feel about the other person can change how the respond to you, and rippling out to the rest of their world. This change is evident even when you are friends but even more so when you are praying for those with whom you disagree. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that “A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses. I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed in intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner.” If there’s a better explanation of the benefits of praying for your enemies, I’m not sure what it is.

So intercessory prayer and prayers of supplication are both means of communing in the spirit of God while growing stronger in our relationship with God, with one another, and I would dare say with all of creation.

So what about my dad?  What about the promise of whatever we ask we will get?  The sooner we stop trying to turn God into some form of cosmic vending machine, the sooner we will actually grasp what prayer is about.  Prayer is about oneness with God and one another.  If we are truly asking God in faith, the things we will be asking for will be that God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.  We will ask for strength, for skills, for caring words with which to help others through their storms. We will ask for peace and wholeness for a family mourning a loss. We will ask for comfort, for emotional healing for those experiencing trauma. We will ask for God to use us all to God’s purpose for the reconciliation of our friends, our family, our enemies, our world, and all creation.

Amen

Eleventh Sermon - Known and Not Alone (June 3, 2018)

• First reading and Psalm
  • 1 Samuel 3:1-10
  • Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
• Gospel
  • Mark 2:23-3:6

Growing up as a pastor’s kid afforded me many wonderful things. I had a huge playroom next to my house in which I could delve deep into boiler room dungeons, climb into belfry castle tops, hear the echo of my voice and piano plunking, and otherwise invent adventures mostly in solitude, yet something made me feel like I was safe and not alone.

  

I grew up in the church, almost literally.  I spent time there when my parents were working there. I spent hours there as an unpaid official of the collate, fold, and staple variety; in the diaconate of taking down tables and stacking chairs; and as a contemplative monastic by simply wandering.  I even took a few naps there as a small boy (not during Sunday service of course).  I wonder what I would have thought if I had heard God audibly calling my name while I slept in the House of the Lord like Samuel did.  I know I felt God’s presence there and a peace that I didn’t feel elsewhere. Sometimes we experience a calling less audibly but no less spiritually. Whether audible or not, you are called by God.

One Sunday morning as my father was preaching his sermon, my friend David and I were playing tic-tac-toe on the back of a bulletin in the balcony, although we knew we should be paying attention.  As we were writing our Xs and Os, a booming voice poured out, “Jonathan and David!” and we jumped and sat straight up! Red faced and fearing what was to come, we sat like statues while my father continued with his sermon about King Saul’s son Jonathan and his best friend the soon to be King David.  The thing was, we heard him and knew he was calling our names (which I found out later, he most assuredly was) … even though he blended it into the sermon, so the rest of the congregation didn’t know what he was up to.  

You know when your parent calls your name, you can hear it across a room or in a crowded grocery store. Being called has a special significance, especially when you are called by someone who knows you fully and loves you deeply. 

The Samuel scripture is known as one of the vocational passages, the ones that are used in ordination services or when celebrating the calling of someone who is considering going into the ministry.  Most pastors have a story about what happened the moment when they felt a call to the ministry.  But sometimes we forget that we are all called, called by God.  

What does it mean, to be called? How can we know what we are called to be? It begins with being known by God and finding your true self.

To be called, to be really called, to be called by name, you must be known.  

In our Psalm today, we learn that God knows us with astounding clarity. God knows you and has always known you. God knows how fearfully and wonderfully you are made. God knows every step of your path, your lying down and all your ways. God knows your true self and your true calling. 

God knows the injuries you have endured and the injuries you have inflicted. God knows the joys you have experienced and the great gladness that you have brought to others.  God knows the needs you have had, those that been fulfilled and those that are yet to be. God knows the ways that you have neglected to fill a need and when you have filled a need of another even at great cost to yourself.  Even knowing all our flaws, God still calls us, God still is with us. We are fully known and not alone.  God knows what you can do and where your talents lie, and from that knowledge you are called. 

How can we know what that is?  Frederick Buechner says (of course I had to quote Buechner), he says, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”  And “Your vocation in life is where your greatest joy meets the world's greatest need.” 

So, God is not calling you to be inauthentic or to grow some new

 talent.  God is not calling you to do something that someone else thinks you should do or what you feel you ought to do.  God calls you to be confident in God’s presence beside you as you discover your true self, your talents and passions, your means of shining light into the world.  If your gift is comforting those who weep, that is a calling. If you find joy in cleaning gutters for a shut-in, that is a calling. If you find joy in helping a child with their school work, that is where God is calling you.  

Theologian and Civil Rights leader Dr. Howard Thurman said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”  God knows what makes you come alive. And God is calling you. And God will be with you. 

Where can I go from your spirit?

   Or where can I flee from your presence? 

If I ascend to heaven, you are there;

   if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. 

If I take the wings of the morning

   and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, 

even there your hand shall lead me,

   and your right hand shall hold me fast. 

If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,

   and the light around me become night’, 

even the darkness is not dark to you;

   the night is as bright as the day,

   for darkness is as light to you.

Why is it important to be known by God when discussing this whole calling thing?  Because God calls you to what God knows is part of who you are.  

Why is it important to know that there is no place that we can go from God’s presence?  Because God is there to remind us of our true self, of our purpose, of our worthiness for the calling, and of God’s great love for us.

How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!

   How vast is the sum of them! 

I try to count them—they are more than the sand;

   I come to the end—I am still with you.

Amen

Reflection (bad poetry) Why Did Jesus Curse the Fig Tree?

Why Did Jesus Curse the Fig Tree
- Jonathan Jones (Mark 11:12-14, 21-22)

Reading through the Bible one night
With my son, my pride and joy
I saw something was just not right
With my troubled little boy

Reading from the Gospel of Mark
When Christ cursed the barren tree
He had that look like when the ark
Left all others in the sea.


Why did Jesus curse the fig tree?
Also, why did Grandpa die?
If God loves us, how could this be?
There must be a reason why.

My friend Mikey now has cancer
And Aunt Lilly lost her child
Tell me, Pappa, what’s the answer
How is Jesus meek and mild?

My friends fighting in our classroom
Grown ups fighting in the war
As I lie here in my bedroom
There are things I can’t ignore.

Is God mad or did we do this?
Was that fig tree really bad?
Is there some great point that I miss?
Does God care when I am sad?


Real good questions my sweet scholar
I can see you’re real confused.
Sometimes life can make you holler
When it seems we’ve just been used

It’s OK to not know reasons
It’s OK to question God
For everything there are seasons
Even questions that seem odd.

Sometimes life is just life my son
Sometimes there’s no how’s or why’s
Fig trees like your broken bike chain
Sometimes make us angry guys

Jesus loves us, of this I’m sure
Trees will come and trees will go
Grandpa died ‘cause there was no cure
Not because God didn’t know

Why did Jesus curse that fig tree
Hmm, I guess I don’t know why
Maybe for you to ask of me
Why your Grandpa had to die.

You know what? You can be helpful
With your friend when he feels weak
Love Aunt Lilly when she’s doubtful
We’re the answer that we seek.

You see, my son, we are God’s hands
God’s feet and voice. We do God’s will
When bad things come then life demands
We get to work and not be still.

If there’s one thing you remember
Know God loves you very much
Of God’s family you’re a member
Try to sense God's loving touch

And now that we’ve had our talk
Time for bed my sweet young son
It’s very late; look at the clock
Sleep in peace oh little one.

Tenth Sermon - Senior Sermon 11/04/2009

The Love is Genuine (sermon based on Paul's Letter to the Romans 12:9-21)

There are parts of our scripture reading today that seem good, intuitive, and easy to understand: abhor evil, cleave to good; love each other with mutual affection; weep with those who weep, rejoice with those who rejoice… yes, there are lots of good solid truths. But then there’s verse 14 “Bless those who persecute, bless and do not curse.” Well, maybe we’re just meant to pray for them like the Rabbi in Fiddler on the Roof who says, “'May God bless and keep the Czar... far away from us!” Or wouldn’t it be nice if it read, “If your enemy is hungry or thirsty, heap burning coals on his head.” That coals on the head part seems such a relief after reading all that love and bless stuff. It seems contrary to our nature, right? People don’t actually normally bless those who persecute them, do they?

On a brisk October Monday, in 2006, Charles Carl Roberts IV drove his pickup up to the West Nickel Mines School, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a one room Amish school for the Old Order Amish community of Nickel Mines. After ordering, at gunpoint, the males in the class to help him carry in wood, nails, tools, and sexual lubricant, he allowed them to leave along with a pregnant woman and a few others. Ten girls were left bound with plastic ties. Knowing their fate, the two oldest begged him to take their lives and spare the others. Both were shot… as were the other eight girls. Some were shot with a handgun and some with a shotgun. Finally Roberts took his own life. Three, including Roberts, died at the scene, three later in the hospital, and the remaining five have disabilities ranging from mild to near vegetative existence.

What was the response of the families? What was the retaliation of the Amish? Anger? Condemnation? A call for better police security? A lawsuit levied against the family of the killer? No, the response was immediate and it was grace. The response of forgiveness and the extension of compassion was swift; within hours of the shooting, the community visited Marie Roberts, Charles Roberts’ wife. Amish visited the family of Charles Roberts to comfort them in their time of loss. It is said that an Amish man held the father of the Roberts for over an hour as he wept. Where does such grace come from? It seems so counter-intuitive. It seems like it could not possibly be genuine. I think there is a part of us deep down that wonders exactly how many of the mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters truly feel the way that was reported in the news. It’s hard to imagine that it was authentic, that it was heartfelt. But… the thing is, it was genuine.

In fact, according to Paul’s description, this is the most genuine love that there is. It is a love that has been poured into us. In Romans 5, Paul writes, “we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

A person’s nature is their reflexive way of acting; the pattern of behavior that reflects their inner essence. I’ve often thought that a response such as the Amish gave is contrary to our nature and I suppose I still believe that in a way… it is contrary to our fallen nature. But in Christ, we are given a new nature. Earlier in Romans 12, Paul writes, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” So by the transforming power of God, we are given a new nature… Now whether this as a gradual process of sanctification or a dramatic change that occurs all at once, I’ll leave to you to ponder. In either case, there is a change.

It may be just a guess, but after reflecting on these verses I’ve come to the hypothesis that

1. Without God, we live in the illusion that it is natural to return evil for evil; to love friends and hate enemies.
a. Although we can act otherwise, it is in tension with that nature.

2. With God we see that our true nature is to overcome evil with good; to love friends and to love enemies.
a. Acting otherwise causes tension, we strive against our true nature when we act according to the false nature.

Let me say more about that. If our former understanding of our nature is to return evil for evil and to retaliate with vengeance, then why do we see acts of forgiveness outside the Christian community? I do believe this is possible and authentic, but still in tension with our false nature. God is able to act where God chooses.

But why do I believe this 'way of grace' is part of our true nature? Because of the weight of carrying a grudge, the nagging pain of bearing un-forgiven anger towards another, and because of the obvious joy we feel when we are the giver or recipient of forgiveness.

There is something in us that loves a story of redemption. We love to see such grace in news items, books, songs, and movies. For instance, in Les Miserables, after being granted hospitality by a benevolent Bishop, Jean Valjean assaults him and robs the Bishop. But when Jean Valjean is caught and brought back by the police, the Bishop tells them to release him, telling them that the silver was a gift. Later he says to Valjean, “You no longer belong to evil. With this silver I've bought your soul. I've ransomed you from fear and hatred. And now I give you back to God.” As the story moves on, Valjean takes that to heart and does become a loving and generous man. The act of grace causes a chain effect not only within the story but also in us as we read it.

Do you feel that? Do you sense it? Do you remember seeing such a story and getting a bit choked up? Was there a wetness in your eye?
That is our true nature. We recognize the beauty of it.

One other thing, though. As I was writing this, it seemed to me that we love stories of redemption and can even see the good of pursuing resolution when it is not so close to home. It’s easier to talk about working for peace between our nation and another, than working for resolution between ourselves and that family member who hurt us or abused us. It’s easier for us to work for understanding through religious pluralism than it is for us to humbly embrace our neighbors across the road at that other seminary. But there are no qualifications on who our enemy might be. No, we are called to bless and show love and hospitality to our enemies… period…

Consider who that might be for you. Osama Bin Laden? Fred Phelps who pickets funerals? Political pundits who virulently perpetuate a culture of hate? People on one or the other side of the abortion picket lines? The men who tied Matthew Shepherd to a fence, pistol whipped him, and left him to a slow death? The ex-husband who beat you? The uncle who sexually abused you? The mother who emotionally tortured you through your childhood?

Consider in your own life… think about that person who came to mind when you held that stone in your hand. It’s painful. It’s so much work. It hurts to hold a grudge. We seek to allay the pain in many ways. Sometimes we block that person out of our mind, sometimes we seek revenge, but does vengeance ever heal us? Does cutting them out of our lives bring joy?
…
Now consider a time in which you have forgiven someone… consider an event from your history in which you have sought to bless, reach out to, and love someone who has harmed you deeply… Was there an unburdening? Was there healing? Was there a restoration of your soul? Was it replenishing?

How else can we understand what is part of our nature if not by observing what is healing to us, what is restorative to us? This love IS what is described so well in Romans 12. This love IS genuine.

But what about those hot coals? The ones heaped on the heads of our enemies when we show them grace, love, hospitality, forgiveness. To understand this, I can look back at the times that I have been forgiven for no reason at all and no repentance of my own. It set my head on fire with a recognition of what I had done, a desire to say I was sorry, and a mind to grow closer to this person… a mind to share this grace with others around me. In literature we see this reflected in how the forgiveness and blessing from the Bishop cause repentance in Valjean and in turn blessings for those who Valjean encountered.

As Marie Roberts wrote later "Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need. Gifts you've given have touched our hearts in a way no words can describe. Your compassion has reached beyond our family, beyond our community, and is changing our world, and for this we sincerely thank you."

Consider, as we listen to this song, what God is laying on your heart. After the song, there will be a time to pray and reflect; a time to return to the thoughts of the one or ones who have harmed you in body, mind, or spirit; a time to consider what to do with that weight you carry. I encourage you to listen for a word from God…

Thanks be to God.

(Song: That Guy – Andy Gullahorn)

Ninth Sermon - Butter Side Up; Butter Side Down 07/19/2009

Butter Side Up; Butter Side Down (Scripture reading: Ephesians 2:11-22)

There is a children’s book, a Dr. Seuss book, that was written in the early 1980s. The reason it was written was to show how the inability for two sides to agree to disagree on ideological differences can lead to mistrust, geographical isolation, demonization of the other side, and most importantly… the threat of mutual annihilation.

The author simplified the argument to a minor difference between those who liked their toast with the butter side up and those who preferred their toast with the butter side down. He was criticized for trivializing the differences between the two global sides to which he was alluding… the democratic free west and the communist superpowers of the USSR and China.

The book describes how each side simultaneously begins to build bigger and more lethal weapons while also speaking in increasingly exaggerated derision of the other side. As many of you remember, there was a term for the separation between capitalistic west and communist east; it was called the Iron Curtain. It was most significantly manifest and symbolized in the Berlin Wall; a wall that was built down the middle of a German city to separate the democratic side from the communist side. Can you imagine if a wall was built separating the northern part of Louisville from the southern part of Louisville?

The wall between eastern and western Europe has fallen, the emotionally charged video marks the beautiful event. I still remember where I was when I saw those revolutionary Germans jump up on top of that wall and go at it with hammers and picks… whatever they had that could help tear it down. For those of you who were there… close your eyes for a second and remember that emotion… there’s something in us that loves to see a wall come down, that loves to see a parent forgive their child, that loves to hear the story of reconciled friends.

But there’s also something in us that holds to the old adage, “Good walls make good neighbors.” The same people who pointed out the great evil of the East Germans who built the wall in Berlin to keep people from fleeing to the free west are now demanding new walls be built between Israel and Palestine, between the US and Mexico. Political purists celebrate their red statedness or their blue statedness. Neighborhoods, though legally free of restrictions, are still segregated to a great extent on racial and especially socio-economic bases. Many neighborhoods in Louisville have actual walls or gates separating them from others. There is something in us that loves to see a wall go up.

Physical walls go up but even before the mortar is mixed or the bricks are bought, a wall has been erected. We create walls in our minds to separate those who believe and act and live as we do from those who don’t. We create walls between those who worship as we do from those who don’t. Why shouldn’t we? We can see justification for walls in certain readings of the Hebrew scriptures, can’t we?

Yes, in certain readings of the Hebrew Scriptures, there are clear divisions between God’s chosen people and… us…meaning Gentiles, non-Jews, the Other, the Stranger, the alien, the goy. However, a closer look reveals that though there were many calls to be separate, there were many more and much stronger calls to honor, respect, and even love those who were foreign to us, those who had different backgrounds, traditions, religions, and ways of living. Is this how we respond to people of other denominations (Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals, those who attend what some have called “Six Flags Over Jesus”)?

Is this how we view and interact with Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and… especially these days, Muslims? Is this how we move through the world as the heart rate increases or the purse is clutched tighter or the hand slides into the bag to find the can of mace… when someone from a different part of town approaches from the other direction as we walk down the street. Even by Hebrew Scripture standards, I think we all could find evidence of walls in our past and sometimes present behavior.

There is something in us that loves a wall and by the time that Christ walked the streets of Jerusalem, there were actual dividing walls between different levels of the temple based upon ethnic background, religious perspective, personal holiness, and finally upon rank within the system of religious hierarchy. It is to this division that the author of Ephesians writes about in our scripture today.

The letter is addressed to gentiles. The author reminds them of the way that the chosen people of God referred to them… the uncircumcised, the unclean by reason of birth. They (we) were not born into the covenant relationship that God had with the people of Israel. It’s true, God had chosen a covenant people, a people called to be a royal priesthood, a people who had access to God and God’s promises. A people from which Priests arose who had direct access to God in the inner chambers of the temple. Remember, remember, that you were once outsiders. You were once the other. And if you tread on temple grounds, you were once the illegal immigrant in God’s chosen land.

It seems from the scripture reading, that there had been some real and active hostility between Jews and Gentiles. We know that there was a great debate about whether or not Gentiles must first become Jews to become followers of Christ. Remember that until about 70AD, there was no Christianity separate from Judaism. Followers of Jesus were a sect within Judaism.

So there was still a dividing wall, a hostility between them. But the author writes that Christ came to break down that wall, to abolish the things that separated the Jew from the Gentile (and as we see in Galatians, also things that separated free from slave, man from woman). The result is not that Jews adopt Gentiles, nor that Gentiles superceed Jews. But rather, the result is that in Christ, one new humanity is created in place of the two, thus making peace. Not only between Jew and Gentile, but also the wall or separation between humanity and God is broken down.

In Christ, humanity is reconciled to God and becomes one body. The death on the cross was the death of all that separated us from God. Consider that for a second. The first division that was destroyed was the division between Jew and Greek, a division between humans. We must first reconcile to our sister, we must first make amends with our brother, we must first ask forgiveness of our mother, we must first forgive our father, before we approach the throne of grace to accept the forgiveness that has already been granted to us through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. There is something in us that loves to see a wall come down, and that something (or someone) is Christ.

We, the body of Christ, are not immune to wall building, though… clearly. I was talking with a chef at work this past week. He’s no longer a Christian but has a very caring attitude toward people of different faiths, but likes to laugh a bit at the sad realities of those who claim to follow the Prince of Peace.

Two of his friends, from differing Christian backgrounds, I won’t say which, were discussing the question of Christ’s ascension on their facebook walls. Well, the discussion became a debate, the debate became an argument, and in full swing, verses were quoted by one to support the claim that Jesus ascended immediately after seeing Mary in the garden then returned to minister to his followers until his ultimate ascension 40 days after his resurrection. Verses were quoted on the other side to say that Christ only ascended after the 40 days and not immediately after resurrection.

One might guess how the argument started, a mention of the second coming, a response that Christ already came a second time so it will be the third coming… You can see the implications, it’s proof that Jesus’ words can be trusted when he tells his disciples that this generation will not pass before the son of Man returns. Back and forth they went, in full view of God and all their facebook friends. My chef friend was amused.


My heart grieved and I was reminded of the times that I have been in their place. His only question to me was, “How does any of this tell us how we should treat other people?” in other words, what does this have to do with how we live our lives? Does it matter?

It’s so easy to be drawn into theological arguments about things that are later labeled “non-essential” or adiaphora (indifferent things) or not related to our salvation. We want to know God. We want to be sure that we know God. We want to be right about what we know of God…because we love God.

However good it is to want to know God, it is never a good excuse to fight. Because in fighting, we simply reveal how little we know of God. “For he is our peace, in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.”

Arguing about little things is futile. We are reminded by conventional wisdom to “not sweat the small stuff,” and to “choose your battles.” But either because we have a much deeper problem with our adversary or maybe it’s just that we are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired (HALT), we bicker about whether it’s best to eat our toast butter side up or butter side down.

The argument becomes emotionally charged (especially when it has to do with religion or politics), we begin to demonize the other person, bringing up stuff from their past that has nothing to do with the current issue. But the time and energy invested in this type of argument is downright sinful.

Why? Because we invest more and more emotion and value in this one little thing that we do damage (sometimes lifelong damage) to our relationships and we ignore the command we have to love one another. I don't deny the importance of debate. But when you are furious about whether it's best to use water rather than milk in your oatmeal preparation, then it is a futile argument over a little thing.

My goal... and I hope it might be yours as well, is to divest little things of emotion especially when such an investment blinds me to the harm I might be doing or the good that I ought to do. How much time we waste on things that don’t matter. How much time we waste when so much needs to be done about things that do matter.

For he is our peace. In Christ we are made into one. The dividing wall has been broken down. Let us not seek to build it back up. There is something in us that loves a wall… and that is love for and fear for ourselves and our safety. There is something in us that loves to see a wall brought down… and that is love for God and others and willingness to risk loss and trust in God’s power to unify us.

Let us strive to tear down walls, to bare our hearts to one another, to accept the differences of the other, to remember the good intentions of others despite possible disagreement on the means to the ends, to celebrate the diversity of God’s creation.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. Let us act like members of the household of God, brothers and sisters who may differ in opinion but can agree to disagree, and who hold the love of this family of humanity as a greater value than which side our bread is buttered on.

Eighth Sermon - Thank God for Storms 06/21/2009

Thank God for Storms (Scripture readings: Job 38:1-11, Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32, Mark 4:35-41)

Our reading today describes the familiar story of how Jesus calmed the storm. So let's look at what’s going on in the text of our gospel reading?
On the surface, this is what happens: Jesus has been teaching in parables all day, sitting in a boat because the crowd is pushing in. Evening comes and Jesus says, “Let’s go to the other side” leaving the crowd behind. They set out, experienced fishermen, and head to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus falls asleep in the stern, the part of the boat reserved for people of importance but also the part of the boat that the navigator steers the boat from.

A violent storm erupts with waves that are swamping the boat. Their efforts to bale out the water are futile, more and more water is filling the boat and they are about to capsize. We can imagine how frightening this must have been especially in the dark of night.

They turn to see Jesus sleeping in the stern and are clearly upset in their words, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Jesus wakes up and does not respond to the disciples but simply speaks to the waves and the storm in the same way he spoke to a demon in a possessed man in the previous chapters, “Be quiet, be still” and the storm went from complete chaos to complete calm.

I imagine the water becoming flat as ice reflecting the moon and the stars above. Even the lapping of the water against the boat in the quiet moonlight swaddles the mind with a peaceful comfort.

The water is still in the boat and needs to be baled out; their hearts are still racing; adrenaline is rushing through their veins; and their fear of the storm turns to fear of what Jesus did. When they woke him up, they were probably hoping he would help them bale water out of the boat. They had no expectation that he would be able to control the storm. But Jesus is God of storm and sea, Lord of all creation, of water earth and sky. And the disciples, rather than rejoicing like the seafarers in the Psalm reading today, stand in awe and fear of him.

How has Jesus been teaching his disciples? Through parables. This story seems like yet another parable, but a real life parable that teaches both through experience and through interpretation.

The boat is our existence, so precious, floating on the border of life and death.

The storm can be anything that enters our life that threatens our security: an illness, a divorce, a loss of employment, terrorism, war, arguments in the home, the death of a loved one.

But what about storms... Let us consider. Where do the storms come from? Our Psalm reading says, ”He commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.” It would seem that God sent the storms so that the sailors would cry out to God for help. So do the storms in our lives come from God? Are they sent for punishment? Are they sent for a reason? Where did the storms in Job’s life come from?

I believe that storms are a natural part of our existence… it’s part of what happens as the world turns on its axis. We have such a desire though to find meaning though. We want to know why. This can be either a pitfall or an opportunity.

If we assign meaning that attempts to place God in our own perception of justice, we may end up like Job’s friends, telling a suffering soul that their own sin has brought on their pain. In Romans 8 (you know what Ken says about Romans 8… read it every day) in vs. 33 we read, “Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?” We so often seek to assign blame for the tragedies in our lives and the lives of others. Remember how, when the apostles encountered a blind young man, they asked Jesus who had sinned, the young man or his parents, to cause his blindness. Jesus replied that neither had sinned. Seeking to find the evil cause of tragedy can lead to the pitfalls of hypocrisy and self-righteousness.

But if we seek to find good even in our darkest hour, we have the opportunity to grow closer to God and neighbor. Viktor Frankl wrote of his time in the concentration camps, “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
I agree with Frankl but would add that it is God’s gift to us to allow us the peace and grace to choose the way of good, even in suffering.

I’ve talked about the boat and the storm. But what of the calm… the calm is the presence of Christ in our boat; the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The calm is the peace that passes all understanding that guards our hearts and minds in Christ. The calm is our surrender of control, surrender of the helm, while remembering our role in still working to bale out the boat.

Our lives
We live in a world in which there is both joy and sorrow. Most of the time we are in between those two extremes. Where do we see ourselves in each of these times?

In Joy, we are like a boat on the water, when it flies along the surface of the water, dancing on the waves as we guide our vessel with sail and rudder. The rush and joy of this moment fills us as we revel in our skill and ability to deftly maneuver along the sea.

In sorrow, tragedy, or fear, our boat is tossed about, thrown this way and that by crashing waves, heading straight for the rocks, or filling with water like the boat in our story today. It is not our skill or ability that we notice in these times but the force of nature bearing down on us. We are in pain, feeling the wind whipping us, tearing our sails. We are bogged down by the water of depression filling our boat. We worry and are filled with anxiety as we see or imagine the rocks of future calamity in the distance.

Joy and sorrow are very salient experiences. They make for the most vivid memories in our lives. But most of the time our boat is either steadily on course or it just floats along, possibly in the doldrums, possibly gently gliding along in a relaxing meandering way, sails down, fishing line out, our feet dangling over the side. We’re on autopilot; neither rejoicing nor crying out in pain; simply going about our daily routine.

Where do we see God in each of these times?
In Joy, at our best we notice that the wind that propels us speedily on our joyride is God’s dance with our sails. But sometimes we ignore the wind except for how exhilarating it feels whipping through our hair as we revel in our own accomplishments.

In time of tragedy, we are all too aware of God… or what we perceive to be God’s absence in our pain and struggle. We ask, “Why me, Lord? Why me?” or “Why my family? Why my friend? Why my child?” We either cry out for God’s help or stamp our feet and demand answers threatening to no longer believe in a God who could treat us or those we love so unjustly. Like Job, we demand an answer from God why!? Times like these… are good times to read the part of Job we read today. (Job 38:1-11 and following)

The time when we notice God the least is when nothing much is going on… when we are going through our daily routines, same stuff, different day. Our lives are neither in peril nor in any particularly joyful state. At those times, the divine, the supernatural, the sacred might seem unrealistic, impractical, or overly emotional.

Do the storms come to wake us up? Is God trying to shake us into consciousness, to draw us out of our doldrums? It is true that our crying out to God is often the result of pain, suffering, or tragedy. But to say that God intends to wake us from our apathy by imposing pain and suffering would be a bit like blaming the victim or imposing our idea of justice on God. I prefer to leave it that good can come of tragedy and whether God caused or didn’t cause it is beyond our understanding. See Job!

There’s a song (Laughing With – Regina Spektor) that I have heard recently that goes like this:
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God
When the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one’s laughing at God
When it’s gotten real late
And their kid’s not back from the party yet

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke,
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head
you think they’re ‘bout to choke

God can be funny,
When told he’ll give you money
if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one's laughing at God when they've
lost all they got and they don't know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize
that the last sight they'll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one's laughing at God when they're saying their goodbyes

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

The message of this song is not to accuse people of laughing at God but to point out how easy it is to vacillate between being apathetic about God and desperately needing God. In those steady-as-she-goes times, our attitude toward our God and creator can be such that we can even laugh at jokes that mock or belittle belief in or dependence on God.

But when the storm waves are pouring water into the boat… we cry out, Jesus, Teacher, don’t you care that we are perishing!? What a strange thing to cry out. How strange to expect that Christ can do something to help us when we lacked the faith to trust God to see us through before the storms came.

But the beauty of the gospel reading is this… Jesus woke up and spoke to the storm, “Peace! Be Still!” without threatening us, without abandoning us. Christ calls us to have faith by asking why we are afraid. Christ calls us to trust God by seeing us through the storm. Christ calls us to Peace by silencing the demons of doubt, fear, self-blame, and anxiety, “Peace. Be still!” Christ calls us to trust in God by being with us in the boat, by being with us in our suffering.

What do we draw from this story?
What we do know is that we have storms in our lives.
What we don’t know is why there is a storm,
if it was our fault or anyone’s fault,
if God sent the storm for some reason,
if God did not send the storm for any reason,
or really much about how, in the first place,
we got into this boat… in the dead of night… in a storm prone sea.

Honestly, when I look back at my own life, most of my storms have been pretty mild compared to those of others. Today being Fathers Day brings to mind the storm of my father’s long illness and death… long before I was ready to deal with loss in my family. But when I consider the beauty that came in that time of suffering, the blossoming of my father’s faith, the mending of a rift that began in my childhood, and the deepening of our relationship, I see God at work in that storm. So I say, “Thank God for storms.” Because without them, we would never see such beauty, we would never take notice of people, time, and events so precious to our lives. The pain of losing my dad, and a few years later losing my mom, still aches, still cuts deeply especially days like today. But also on days like today, I rejoice in the great memory of my father’s life and legacy. For those of you who are sitting next to your dads, for those of you who can call your father in the next state or even in another country, for those of you who have a mom who did the job of two parents, and for those of you who, like me, can remember your father or father figure, this is a day to thank God for dads as well. And I don’t mean to draw a parallel between storms and dads… although, if memory serves me, there were times…

However, getting back to the gospel lesson, the message of the story is… regardless of the how’s and why’s of the storm, Christ is in our boat. And that is the source of our peace, our assurance that whatever we are facing, we are not facing it alone, no we are facing it with the most powerful ally in the cosmos, the one who with a few words silences storms, clearing the sky for moon and stars to shine silently on the reflecting waters. God’s presence doesn’t always miraculously take our problems away,
but it gives us confidence
and assurance,
and peace
and comfort,
that with Christ with us,
we can weather the storm.

Once again, in Romans 8, Paul writes, “…all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Paul continues to say, “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? …Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So be sure of this: If life circumstances seem stormy or even life-threatening, know that God is in control and will give us peace and help guide us through to calm waters. So rest assured and be at peace in the midst of, even if not apart from, your storms, trials, and struggles. When the storms of pain, illness, or tragedy crash against your boat; or the waves of fear and anxiety pour into your mind …swamping your vessel, call out to Christ to silence your storm, to bring calm to the waters.
Amen

Seventh Sermon - What is the Holy Spirit? 05/31/2009

As I was preparing this sermon, the thought crossed my mind that I might simply allow the Holy Spirit to speak through me… to not prepare anything myself but to rely on the Spirit to put words in my mouth. After all, that’s how Christ sent the disciples out; that’s how the Spirit worked at Pentecost. Don’t worry, though, I do have a sermon written.

What is this Holy Spirit, though? When we talk about Jesus, we have a pretty good idea of his form while on this earth. There are numerous artists depictions. We know that he was born in Bethlehem. God in the form of Jesus is tactile, substantive. We understand Jesus, at least to some degree, in a way we can relate to. How Jesus was conceived, but there’s the Holy Spirit at work in his conception. How Jesus was baptized, again there is the Holy Spirit descending like a dove. How Jesus died, rose from the dead, and met his disciples… where he breathed on them… yet again, the Holy Spirit is involved.

And God known to Jesus as Father. We have seen Michelangelo’s depiction of God floating in the clouds. Most have God looking like a very old white bearded man. A recent book, The Shack, shows God as a short old black woman. We understand this aspect of God in how God created the world, how God spoke, how God made covenant with Abraham, how God gave the Law to Moses, how God breathed life into Adam… but wait, breathed life? Doesn’t that sound a bit like today’s time with young disciples? Yes, the Spirit shows up in creation, in how the Spirit of God hovered over the waters of the deep. The Spirit shows up in the covenant with Abraham.
If you remember in that story, when God visits Abraham the visit is described as three men coming to visit. What about Moses? What was that bush doing? Burning with a fire that did not consume it. Hmm, sounds a bit like the tongues of fire that danced over the heads of the followers of Christ at Pentecost. And the law was given to Moses on what day? Yes, the Jewish festival of Pentecost or Weeks is the celebration of when the Law was given.

The thing is, we see the Spirit of God show up throughout the Bible but we don’t have a good idea what this power is. We know where it comes from, but is it a personage of God? Is the Spirit equal in power to the Father? Equal in personal relationship to us as the Christ is? Why do prayers often begin Our Father or Lord Jesus but prayers never seem to begin with Holy Spirit?
I think the answer lies in the ineffability of the Spirit. This is the mystical aspect of God. This is where a lot of what we don’t understand comes from. The Holy Spirit is the power that proceeds from both God the Father and Jesus. The Holy Spirit is that aspect of God that we find most difficult to explain; whose interaction with us is most difficult to convey to others; and who has no artistically depicted form other than a dove, or wind, or fire. It’s hard to relate to wind and fire.

Sometimes it is just easier to describe what the Spirit does…

After Christ’s ascension into the heavens, the disciples (not just the 12 apostles) were gathered. We are told that they were all in one accord, in agreement, patiently waiting for whatever was coming, whatever it was that Christ had promised. They were like Tony in West Side Story when he sings,
There’s something’ due any day;
I will know right away
Soon as it shows.

The air is hummin’,
And something’ great is comin’!
Who knows?
It’s only just out of reach,
Down the block, on a beach.
Maybe tonight.

And then comes Pentecost. One of the highest Holy Days in the Jewish calendar. The town is full, bustling with pilgrims from all over the known world. Still, they are gathered together waiting.
Imagine if you will how they felt when they heard a rushing of wind fill the air, rush around their building, coming in through every open window, then the tongues of fire alighting on each of their heads…. They were filled with the Spirit (as Samuel says when he describes the Spirit) mightily.

They begin speaking, because they cannot contain the good news that has been put inside them. But although they understand what they are saying, it’s coming out in a completely different language… a language that one of those passers-by understands. He turns and is shocked! How do you know my language? You look like a Galileean.

Others who hear all these different languages stand on the sidelines and say, “oh, they are drunk.” But no, the disciples don’t care what people are saying, they are joyfully proclaiming the wonderous works of God… That is how the Spirit works in this wonderful birth of the Church!
Does it still happen today?

A young man once came to his friend, distraught and confused, not knowing whether he wanted to live or die, burdened by the troubles of the life he was living, wondering if there was any way out and pretty pessimistic about the prospects.
He had recently lost his Mother to cancer.
He hated his job and his career was going nowhere. And the night before his fiancé had broken off their engagement. He didn’t blame her.
He knew his problems had had an impact on his behavior. He was drinking a bit more than he should. He wasn’t paying much attention to her.
He was consumed by depression.

Having known each other for years and having been friends from a men’s bible study, his friend gladly met with him;
mostly listening,
sometimes joining the young man in his tears,
but mostly listening.

As he sat quietly, in the ministry of presence, he prayed silently for the young man, to be able to find some words to say that might show him that there is hope.

Then in desperation the young man said, “Why would God do this to me? It’s like he hates me.”
Then the friend began to speak. He did not know what prompted him. He did not know where his words came from. He only felt compelled to begin.
He could feel a strange sensation flowing through his body, more than once he felt his skin alive with goose bumps. His voice became something that was not his own. Passionate, powerful, touching chords in the young man’s soul. It was like his tongue was on auto pilot.

The words were clear, loving, soothing, and relevant. He could feel the Spirit moving through him, surrounding him, empowering him. He put his hand on the young man’s shoulder and he actually felt like the power of God was flowing through his body and out to the troubled man. He was almost shaking the power of God was so intense, building and building in the communion between these two.


And then, like a powerful summer rain suddenly falls into a calm mist, leaving the sweet smell of wet grass and a soothing peace, the words stopped. Both men had tears coming down their faces. God had invaded the space between them and empowered them both with the Spirit.

Full of the Holy Spirit, the friend asked if he could pray with the young man. Yes! Of course! Again, the words were not his own but this was a softer sound, a prayer of intercession from one brother for another. Finally, they hugged each other, the way guys do, with some hard pats on the back and a laugh catching back the last of the lumps in their throats… as brothers in Christ.


Well, the night was late and the young man had to be getting home. They said their goodbyes. After he left, the friend thought and thought but could not remember one word he had spoken. He wanted to write it down because as it was coming out, he thought… wow, this is not from me… this is truth from the Source of Truth… truth from the Spirit.

But the words, like the great wonders of God the disciples told, were not able to be written down. They had found their destination in the heart of the young troubled man. There was no record of exactly what was said…But there was hope. There was peace. And there was joy! This is another example of how the Spirit works.


In Acts, we see the Spirit being poured out upon all those who were gathered as followers of the risen Christ. And the Romans reading describes how the Holy Spirit empowers us to pray when we don’t have the words or means to pray ourselves. This is another way that the Spirit works.

Our Gospel reading today in John tells the story of how Jesus promises his disciples that he will send the Spirit to guide them, to reveal truth that they could not bear without the Spirit’s help, and to give them the gift of discernment to see things they could never see before but also the strength to live out the truth in their daily lives. This is another way that the Spirit works.

When I consider the disciples gathered together after Christ’s ascension, I think about how although they know they are to make disciples of all nations, they aren’t sure exactly how to go about this. And then it comes, the Spirit is poured out and without knowing how, they begin to speak and prophesy, and preach the good news. The power of the Holy Spirit, in some mystical miraculous way, enables them to follow Christ’s commission. Yes, this is the amazing mystical powerful way that the Spirit works.

These days, when we embark on a new venture, the start of a new job, the opening of a new business, or the beginning of a new mission or ministry in the church, we try to prepare for it. Or also, when a business is stalled or a workout has reached a plateau or a relationship seems to be going nowhere or when a church seems to be growing smaller, we seek out experts to help us move forward, often in the form of books or seminars.

There are myriad examples of books like 7 habits of highly effective people, the One Minute Manager, or How to Win Friends & Influence People. The bookstore shelves are full of these tools. At school or work we hear terms like six sigma quality. Quality enhancement programs; quality assurance; efficiency, effectiveness. These are ways that we seek to take control of our lives, to bring about a positive change. Ministers and lay leaders often find great insights and strategies for improving the church’s ministries by turning to such resources.

But what are we doing in the church now or in our lives personally that goes beyond our own strength, knowledge, and adherence to advice from books? Where is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit clearly seen in our lives and churches?
Is it possible that we Americans are so full of the ideals of self-reliance and independence that we block the Spirit’s leadership? What would have happened if that young man’s friend had not released control to the Spirit’s guidance?

I’m not suggesting that we should throw out all the management books and the quality improvement programs. I’m not suggesting that we ignore the wisdom of leaders in management and business. All truth comes from God. This is not an either/or sermon.

But clearly God has a certain way of acting that is contrary to modern management theory. For example, the greatest King of Israel was…. David. Right. And before he was a King, he was a…. shepherd.

Not a very well prepared lad for ruling over a people and providing good government, would you say? Not really properly vetted. Even after he was King he was a huge failure at being a good law abiding leader. What was the key to his success? David was a man after God’s own heart. The Spirit of God was able to come upon him mightily. He had a radical reliance on God. He was fully in Love with the Lord and sought out the Spirits guidance.

So where do we see that now? How do we find that supernatural reliance on God these days?

In the story about the young troubled man, I found out that months later, the friend of that troubled young man got a card from him in the mail. It was one of those blank-inside cards. It had a nice picture of a calm sea on the front and on the inside it had a short note, “Thank you for being Christ to me. Thank you for letting God work through you. Thank you for being the voice for the Holy Spirit to bring me back from the brink. You saved my life.” He could have referred his friend to a book or said nothing. But he opened himself up to the Spirit’s guidance. This is how the Holy Spirit works.

Radical reliance on God, supernatural intervention, or whatever you want to call it happens! Ask the young man who was kept from potential suicide. Ask your friends and family. Ask the person next to you in the pew. The stories are out there. The stories are plentiful. The problem is that we keep forgetting them. You can even ask our own church treasurer and she can tell you… how time and again the ministries and necessities of this church are provided for through what can only be called pennies from heaven… well, more than pennies. The Spirit of God moving people to share out of their abundance for the glory of God.

Go into the world and remember the church at Pentecost, how a group of fishermen were able to surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit to be used to start a movement, a revolution of God’s grace, love, and hope. Search for opportunities to continue that revolution in your daily lives; opportunities to surrender to the Spirit’s leading; and the Holy Spirit will provide the strength, courage, and the words.
Thanks be to God, the Holy Spirit. Amen