Along the Way…Hosanna!

Sermon Mark 11:1-11 March 29, 2015 Palm Sunday

Along the Way…Hosanna!

There are some things we want to hang on to for a while.

The taste of a delicious pastry.

The smell of freshly brewed coffee.

The feel of the warmth of the sun on our cold bodies as it beams through the window. The joy in our souls as we hear the children singing.

We want these things to linger and stay with us because we know they do fade away and we don’t want to lose the power of these moments on our lives.

These moments can move us into new directions and set us on new paths. They can because these moments bring us hope.

They fill us with wonder.

They renew us in spirit.

Good things feed our bodies and our souls!

Today we can hang on to the moment of the crowd.

Jesus entered into Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. This was the time that many pilgrims came to the city and the whole place erupted every year as the parade of visitors came to celebrate and remember all that God has done for them throughout history.

                       

                            It was not unusual for shouts of hosanna-“God save us”-to take place.

 It was not unusual for to shout blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Because as these pilgrims made their way to the city the people lined the streets excited to see their coming and they shouted and cheered much as we do when we have our town parades and we cheer from the sidelines. the crowds and pilgrims were preparing to celebrate Passover, God rescuing them from Egypt, so Hosannas meaning God save us were filled with remembrance of God’s love and power to save!

But this year, there is one that comes and enters riding on a donkey. One who comes ceremonially, regally, and as a king. Jesus gets on a donkey that has never been ridden and everyone there knows that this means he is serious about claiming kingship!

The crowds burst forth with hosanna not as they have in the past-singing, “God save us” but his time they shout to the One, this Jesus, “God save us.”

The crowd is blessing Jesus!

They are recognizing him as the One who can change the course of the way life is for them. Even if they are not sure how this will happen or what will take place for him to lead them, they seek him and praise him with shouts and cries and worship.

We can shout hosanna.

We can be caught up in the moment of awe and wonder at the One who enters ceremonially, royally, riding on a donkey.

We can be witnesses to this moment as if it is happening today.

Who is this?

We might not know how to answer this if someone waving a branch next to us asks us. We might be the one asking the question.

Who is this? This is Jesus!

Perhaps that is all we know.

This is Jesus and we and the crowd are calling out, “blessed is he.”

And perhaps for today that is enough.

For tomorrow is Monday, Holy Monday and we know what happens next, we’ve read the text. Holy Week happens next and those days are the rest of the journey along the way to the cross and to the empty tomb with Jesus.

So, for today, let us hang on to the hosannas.

We can, sing, cry, worship, prepare and invite this moment into our lives.

We can sing out to God.

We can raise our voices in ways we never have before. Could you imagine your neighbor hearing you sing? Ok, so maybe some us of wouldn’t want our neighbors to hear us sing-but then again why not? We don’t mind if they hear us shouting cheer for our sweet sixteen basketball teams, or for college football teams, for our kids little leagues. We can even wave our palms as visibly as we wave our team banners!

We can cry out to Jesus, “Hosanna-God save us!”

We can cry out in loud voices of adoration. We can recall all the psalmist’s words through the ages of how God has heard the cries of God’s people and guided them to safe haven.

We can worship.

We can bow down in prayer, sit in silence, and stand in praise.

We can prepare.

We can prepare our minds and our hearts for the rest of the journey, all the way to Easter. We can prepare because we’ve held on to the hosanna today knowing the God of our salvation has entered in.

We can invite.

We can invite ourselves to participate in the gift that these hosannas bring. Even if we don’t have all the answers. Even if we are not quite sure of who this is. We can invite the one who we call blessed to be part of our life along the way. Who is this?

This is Jesus!

So, as this poem reminds us…

Hold on to the Hosannas

(inspired by the events in Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11,

Luke 19:29-44, John 12:12-19)

Let us stay with the Hosannas for a while

Let us let them keep on ringing in our ears

Hosanna!

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord

Instead of rushing on to hear the cries

that came later in the week

Let us stay with the Hosannas

Maybe once we have heard those

in a new way

we will be ready

to make the rest of the journey

A journey that was hastened

and given new purpose

by those Hosannas

For those Hosannas were not

simply the innocent cries

of palm branch waving children

Those Hosannas were the war cries of adults

tired of the oppression

of occupying forces

Those hosannas

were the hopeful cries

of a nation seeking liberation.

Those Hosannas

were an investment of hope

in one they thought would deliver.

Those Hosannas

that we have sanitized over the years

rang out in clear insurrection

sealing the fate

of one who rode on a donkey.

so, let us stay with the Hosannas

Let us wrest them from the lips of children

and allow them to ring in our ears

and spew from our mouths

as a call to action

a call to justice

a call to love.

Let us stay with the Hosannas

even as we journey

with the Christ

who carried those Hosannas

all the way to the cross

and ensured their fulfillment

as the justice and love of God.

Let us stay with the Hosannas.

— written by Rev. E. Crumlish of Castlehill Church, Ayr.

Amen. 

Compelling Love

Sermon 2 Corinthians 5:6-20 March 11, 2015 Ecumenical Lenten Meditation

Compelling Love

I’m fascinated by the simple things. Magnets are amazing. Have you ever played with one? When I was a kid I used to dump out the box of paper clips and use the magnet to see how many could fit on it. That magnet trick entertained me for hours. Recently I got one of those cool iPhone magnet holders for my car dashboard. Once again I returned to my fascination with the strength of a magnet to attract. The power in that thing just ripped the phone out of my hand and stuck it to the mount. I’m impressed with the strength of this thing to draw something unto itself.

It caused me to think about other things that have a compelling nature.

We are blessed to be people who live on the land between two waters. And the sea has a compelling nature of its own. Mike (my husband and I) are drawn to sound of waves and the smell of salt air just as strong as those paper clips are drawn to the magnet.

As you think about the things that have a compelling nature on you it is that vein that Paul is talking to these church goers in Corinth. He has been compelled by the love of Christ to turn his life around. He unfortunately is having to prove himself to these believers. They are not too sure that his faith and belief in Jesus is real. Most of this second letter is his defense not to the crowd out there but to the people within. That’s a tough position to be in. Has that ever happened to you? People judge whether or not you are a believer in Christ and you feel like your whole conversation is all about proving your faith to them? It’s a tough thing especially inside the walls of the church when everyone is supposed feel the bonds of love and the compelling strength of Christ that draws all together.

But, Paul isn’t fazed by this behavior. He uses it to fuel his proclamation about the compelling nature of the love of Jesus Christ. It is so strong and so powerful as to completely turn one’s life around. “Look at who you are!” He exclaims, You are a new person, you are a new creation, you have a new life!

And the reason you are changed is because of the power of God in Christ to reconcile and draw you unto himself! God has drawn us all like magnets into the ministry of being made whole and new and stuck us so tight to Christ that there is no letting go!

He agrees that this life in the real world is hard. He shares that he would rather be away from the body than face the struggles this world gives. But, we live in the real world and are to be workers in it. We are called to be ambassadors for Christ sharing the good news of his love with others. That is our challenge even today. How can we as new creatures in Christ move into being ambassadors for his sake?

Perhaps part of it is to remember this new creature way of life is a process. Gegonen in Greek is in the perfect tense. It signifies ‘the continuance of a completed action.’ In other words it is a work of God through Christ that moves in us day after day drawing us ever closer to the purity of Christ. It is a notion of “God isn’t finished with us yet.” It is a process that even Martin Luther claimed, “We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not finished but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road…” As people of faith in this community we have realized that Christ is our plumb line. We have been drawn to Christ through faith in him. We are God’s people working together in this life.

These are words of encouragement and strength and power! Together we are God’s instruments called out to be ambassadors, people who represent the Good News. Together we can grow in the love of Christ. Together we can work in the community side by side showing how the love of Christ compels us to seek justice and peace for all. Together we can answer the call of Christ and be drawn to each other as we are drawn to Him. As we are reconciled to Christ we are reconciled to one another and this is the ministry and the message the world will see and hear.

Let us be drawn to the irresistible magnet love of Christ and say yes, Lord Here I am. Amen.

My Confession: Yes, I Was One of Those Moms

My Confession: Yes, I Was One of Those Moms

My kids grew up with a mom that didn’t do much for them.

Yes, I was that mom who didn’t make breakfast; the kids had to make it themselves. But, I was up with them before school started and I was there to kiss them goodbye as they walked to the bus stop. Oh, yes, I was one of those moms who made her children ride the school bus too.

I was also that mom who didn’t help them with their homework, at least not the way they let me know other moms did. Their homework pages were filled with smeared eraser marks and scratches of where they made their own corrections. I let them go to school with pages showing how they arrived at the answers all by themselves.

It was clear I didn’t help them with their science projects either. They had done it all by themselves even down to the crooked lettering on the poster. But, every A on their work and every A on their report card was completely earned all by themselves.

I was the unhelpful mom when it came to scouting too. My son’s Pine Wood derby cars always looked like a kid made it. The wood was never smooth and sleek like his buddies, it had an odd shape to it and often his cars look lopsided. However, there were times when he won the races and came home proud of his blue ribbon. Today, he has no trouble working with tools, getting dirty or daring to learn a new skill.

Now don’t get me wrong I did help some. I went with the girls or my boy to the store to pick out the paint or the poster board. We bought the glitter and the glue together. But they were the ones in basement pulling the long hours trying to make their projects perfect. I remember during those years feeling like a crummy mom at times. Because when I would show up at school my child’s project clearly looked like a kid had done all the work. Sometimes I felt guilty because I was one of those moms.

Today my kids are amazing adults. They take the initiative to tackle all kinds of projects and they aren’t afraid to do the work. And the work in their jobs has earned them financial perks and awards of recognition.

By the time my girls reached middle school they wanted clothes their friends had and I knew we couldn’t compete. They received a clothing allowance at the beginning of the school year. They could buy whatever they wanted with that money. But, when it was gone it was gone until the next school year. One year one of my daughters had to have an expensive pair of jeans. She used most of her allowance to have that pair. She had a tiny wardrobe that year. I was not a very fair mom. But, my girls learned at an early age how much things cost. Today those girls can stretch a dollar better than anyone I know.

I was also one of those moms who made her kids do chores. Every Saturday was a routine of bathroom cleaning, bedroom cleaning and sheet changing. Vacuuming, dusting and mopping had to be complete before anyone could go out with friends. Time management skills became an essential part of life and leisure.

My children were working in the kitchen as early as three years old. By the time my oldest was five she could make a grilled cheese, fry an egg and bake brownies. When she was eight she was cooking an entire dinner of baked chicken, vegetables and pudding for dessert. Some people thought this was careless or irresponsible but I thought it was normal. But, I guess that’s because I was one of those moms. They learned to cook from scratch and continue to cook that way today.

All of my children are amazing cooks now! Each one of them can open a cupboard and create a meal from what is there. They learned early to love and appreciate the creativity of making meals.

Yes, I confess, I was one of those moms!

But, years later I’m starting to feel pretty good about having been one those of moms.

And pretty proud of my kids too. 

Along the Way…the Blind Man

Sermon John 9:1-17  (18-41) March 8, 2015 Lent

Along the Way…the Blind Man

I love hearing and reading about miracle stories. I’m amazed at the stories of survival from incredible circumstances. I must not be the only one since a television series called ‘in an Instant’  just started this week on ABC.

But, the miracle stories of healing are the ones that still catch me with a lump in my throat.

Maybe I’m cued into these stories because of all my years working as a nurse. And as a nurse I became acquainted with the wonder of healing from disease, illness and accidents. So, when I hear about the healing stories in the Bible, the miracles that Jesus performed, my ears are tuned a little closer to what is said.

SO when I started into the study of these verses (which by the way go a lot further than verse 17-the story doesn’t get close to ending until verse 41).

I discovered that the story doesn’t start with a person asking Jesus for his help.

It doesn’t start with Jesus taking pity on someone who he encounters along his way.

My eyes and ears got a jolt because

                     it starts with the disciples debating the question

                                        of why do bad things happen to people,

who is at fault for all the things wrong in the world.

They witness a blind sitting on the roadside

                                           and all of a sudden

                                 this man is the object of discussion.

       The man never asked to be part of the debate about sin

                                                           and yet

                                  he was entered into this encounter at

                                                no request of his own.

Has that ever happened to you?

Have you ever been somewhere sitting by yourself minding your own business and the next thing you know you overhear people talking about

                                                               you

                                                  and your situation

                            and you wonder how you ever got into their conversation

                                                   without an invitation?

I think we do this more often than we realize.

We witness all around us circumstances and conditions that make no sense to us and we ask the questions,

                        “Whose fault is it that there

                                               are poor and suffering,

                                               homeless and diseased,

                                               unemployed and disabled,

                                               abandoned and addicted,

                                               imprisoned and prejudiced,

                                               angry and hurtful, hateful

                                               people in this world?”

We, like the disciples, walk along the way and ask Jesus (and each other) these very questions.

We ask these questions as if we can find an answer through the process of debate and discussion. We assume there is a moral solution to all of these situations that still exist today.

Jesus looked at his disciples as they asked the question about sin and let them know that looking at this man on the side of the road was not a question of morality.

                        This man’s disability had nothing to do with any moral dilemma.

        Nor, is this man’s disability a purpose of God.

That’s right.

 I said this man’s disability is not God’s purpose.

We have too often used it that way.

Our modern translations make the words of Jesus awkward.

        And the words of Jesus weren’t meant to come out that way.

What is the purpose of God is the need of the moment for God’s works to be made known.

God must be revealed!

And God is to be revealed through Jesus’ act of healing.

Jesus takes the initiative and performs a pure act of grace.

Jesus astonishes the crowd and the leaders, once again, through the miraculous signs he performs.

The man does what Jesus says and washes the mud from his face in the pool of Siloam and he receives his sight. His eyes have been opened and he has experienced healing. When he is questioned by the crowd he lets them know it was Jesus who gave him his sight.

The rest of the story that doesn’t make it into our reading this morning is in the rest of the chapter. The man becomes the subject of debate again!

This time among the religious authorities.

They question him and his parents.

They want to know who is responsible for this man’s sin.

They want to know who the sinner is, is it his parents, Jesus or this man.

They are caught in the moral dilemma of defining sin for the world. According to the understanding of the day, sin was anything that was bad, any act that was against the commandments, any disorder that was not perfect was defined as sinful.

Yet, the writer of this gospel makes it known from the beginning that Jesus has come into the world to take away the sin of the world (1:29).

Jesus has come into the world to give access to the Light of God and the Love of God. That love and light has come through the very act of grace given to this man through his healing.

His ability to see goes beyond the gift of physical sight. As the story progresses he comes to the realization that Jesus is more than a prophet, or a man that comes from God. By the end, through all the pushing and shoving and challenging that he gets from these authorities he comes to the point where he sees Jesus as the son of God in verse 38 and says to him, “Lord, I believe.”

The disciples witness the power of God at work through Jesus as he brings healing to this man. They witness the grace and love of God revealed as the blind man receives the sight of faith in Jesus. They receive their answer to the question about sin as they witness this man restored to new life and made whole.

Sin is not about actions or moral behavior,

 it is not about conditions of birth or looks.

Sin is about a person’s relationship to God.

Through God’s incarnate Word revealed in the life of Jesus one is able to see the Light of God come into the world.

When the eyes of those who witness God at work through the presence of Jesus come into the Light they move away from darkness.

They move away from judgment, they move away from blind accusations.

Now you might be sitting there thinking, ‘that’s a lot of lovely fluff you just spilled out.’ You might be asking me how any of what I said can make sense today. So let me share a story of my own experience.

 I remember being blinded by my judgments when I worked as a nurse in the Burn Intensive Care Unit. One of our patients had a 90% burn injury. She was a young woman in her 20s. I worked night shift and often in the middle of the night she asked me to read the Bible to her. I did in those wee hours and it brought comfort to both of us. She eventually recovered after about 3 months in our unit. Back in the 1980’s this was a miraculous recovery.  She was discharged to go home and begin life out there in the big wide world.

However, this woman was badly disfigured.

I remember begin angry at God. I remember telling God how unfair this was for this woman. I argued with God about her return to the ‘real world’ and wondered how she could have a productive life and a full and rich life knowing she would always have trouble facing the public looking the way she did.

A few years later I was working in the hospital clinic doing examinations of children.

A woman walked in pushing a stroller.

I saw her via my peripheral vision. I caught a glimpse but that was all.

She walked with confidence.

Her voice was cheerful.

She recognized me before I realized who she was.

She came to me and told me all about her life over the past few years since her discharge from the hospital.

She talked all about the grace and kindness of her family and friends.

Her eyes were full of light and life.

She talked about how she was accepted in her community and how the children in the neighborhood were scared at first but then they fell in love with her. She said she knew God loved her because love was all around her.

Because of the circle of love surrounding her she became a childcare worker and was now in charge of caring for children. That is how she came to the clinic that day.

                                    My eyes were opened that day!

                                    I saw the Light of God at work.

                              I saw God revealed to me in that moment.

In that moment the work of God healed my spiritual blindness and gave me sight again.

As she talked with me I no longer saw a disfigured face.

I saw a woman full of joy.

I saw a woman fully restored to new life.

And her story of relationships and new life restored my relationship with God and brought me into new life.

Our questions and comments to Jesus can change

                                                          from

                    wondering whose fault it is, who is the one with sin, who’s to blame

                                                              to

                                                  show us God’s love,

                                          reveal to us the glory of God,

                                             shine your Light so we may see!

Yes, I love to hear about miracle stories.  

Our God through the presence of Jesus offers us new life and an opportunity to be made whole in his Light.

May we see what God has for us today. Amen.