Following Jesus…to where?

Sermon Mark 8:27-38 September 16, 2018 Ordinary Time

Following Jesus…to where?

Life is messy.

We know that more due to the events of this past week than we really might want to admit. A hurricane was coming and we had to decide how we would respond to it. Was it really going to come to the Shore? It doesn’t usually.

Do we pray it away?

And if we do, where does it go?

But, would we just accept it the way it was?

No.

We decide to pray for it to go away,

to be just a storm,

anything to keep the chaos away.

And that is ok according to the words of Jesus about prayer.

Schools were closed. Our VDOT folks had to go into disaster mode. Our local first responders

had to stay alert and be ready for the next phase. The stores had to triple their supplies. Homes had to prepare, stock up, clean up, check on their neighbors. People had to evacuate Zone A areas. Churches, restaurants, and theaters cancelled events and shut down. It was messy for our regular way of life.

The storm went south and has decimated areas of North Carolina and is relentless there. It is far from over.

So, we keep praying for the storm to go away.

And we ask ourselves why are we still praying?

And we answer ourselves (because that’s what people like me who talk to themselves do),

‘we are still praying because we know God shows up.’

In our prayers, God is there.

In our messes, God is there.

In our fear, God is there.

In the storm, God is there.

And in the absence of the storm, God is there.

God shows up.

This is what we believe.

When we read in the gospel the question Jesus asks, ‘who do you say that I am?’ Are we like Peter and state clearly what we believe?

We believe that God shows up in Jesus Christ.

That God shows up in Jesus as our Savior, the Messiah.

God showed up in the beginning of creation sorting out the chaos and bringing order to it. God is still showing up in the chaos and sorting it out and bringing order to it.

If I believe that, really believe it, then when Jesus asks me the question about who I think he is, what is my answer?

This is my chance to say what I really believe.

This is my chance to be authentic about my faith.

This is my chance to be honest with myself, with Jesus,

and with the people around me who will hear my answer.

Because when I give my answer

I am telling all, everyone,

how I believe about me.

Huh?! What’d you say?

You see, how we live our lives,

how we work out our faith,

how we commit ourselves to following Jesus and who he is

is the measure of our discipleship.

It is our answer to the question who we say Jesus is.

Who I am is how I am a follower of Jesus.

Following Jesus…to where, then?

Have we been in conversations about shaming others and blaming. Have we been pointing our fingers at ‘those people’? Have we been more accuser and judge? Is our Jesus we follow the right Jesus, and all the others are wrong because they look different from us? If so, then we are telling everyone exactly who we are and the Jesus we believe in.

OR…

Have we been the ones who have sought to lift up those in need? Have we been in conversation where we have held up the integrity of human love. Have we looked to those who are beyond our understanding and reached out and called them neighbor? If so, then this is the Jesus people see and this is how I believe about me.

We hear a lot about integrity these days and we hear a lot about being Christian. It is Christians against Christians in several arenas. And it bruises my soul to hear it and to watch it.

When I come back to the gospel and read the words of Jesus again, I hear Jesus speaking to me and asking me if I’m willing to take up the cross. Now, what does that look like in my life? How do the anxieties of our finances, of our jobs, of our children, of our communities fit into this cross carrying kind of life?

Jesus is calling us to live lives where we are healthy in our bodies, in our minds and in our spirits. Perhaps, cross carrying is assumed to be suffering as Jesus suffered. 

Perhaps, cross carrying is assumed to be as it was in the crusades where people were oppressed and persecuted into believing.

But, maybe the suffering of the cross is not about self-abasing but about self-reflecting.

If Jesus asks us to take up our cross without thinking about who we are and what we are doing when we carry it, we are doing the cross carrying a disservice.

Jesus is asking us not to be ashamed of what we believe nor how we carry our cross as disciples.

As we self-reflect,

we open up our vulnerability.

We open ourselves to places of pain,

places of hurt,

places of sorrow,

places of regret,

places of shame,

places of vanity,

and violence.

Jesus asks us to lift up our cross and

be released

from the things

we have allowed the world

and our own heart

to define us.

Let us be fully aware that God loves us and that God shows up all the time.

As we carry this cross, God is taking our insecurities and turning them into profound strength.

When we choose to carry our cross, Jesus is present in every action and every circumstance we face.

We deny ourselves-but we do not disregard ourselves.

We deny our desire to run the show for God.

We deny our notion that we have a better way of running missions and care for the poor than Jesus does.

We deny our self-importance and offer ourselves fully and totally to the God who has named us and claimed us.

When we become fully lost in Christ, his love increases, his presence in seen and known, his essence fills every space.

I now have the ability to live responsibly and to live with courage because as I go I pick up my cross. As I carry my cross I can see everyone else and their crosses. I’m not stuck in self-pity. I’m not stuck in my depression. I’m no longer stuck in self-criticism. Jesus offers us his presence as we are propelled into the world. He grants us grace to live.

Following Jesus…to where?

Following Jesus, everywhere, cross and all.

Life is messy.

God shows up.

This is what I believe.  

Amen.

Reverend Monica Gould

PCUSA

Resources: Feasting on the Word; 11^th Hour Preacher Party-Terri Cole Pilarski

Press On, Dear Sisters

Sermon Ephesians 1:15-23 May 13, 2018 Ascension/7^th Sunday Easter

Press On, Dear Sisters

It is always a joy to hear uplifting words of praise. Today’s letter from Paul to the Ephesians is one such letter. Listen to the words and let us see how God moves within us…

Some of you who were around in the 1970s might remember a pop singing group called the Carpenters. They had a song out that was a real hit. It became the go to song for couples to have sung at their wedding. Marriage was just the beginning, it was the kick-off to a long life together.

The words went like this: 

We've only just begun to live

White lace and promises

A kiss for luck and we're on our way

(We've only begun)

Before the risin' sun, we fly

So many roads to choose

We'll start out walkin' and learn to run

(And yes, we've just begun)

Sharing horizons that are new to us

Watching the signs along the way

Talkin' it over, just the two of us

Workin' together day to day

Together

And when the evening comes, we smile

So much of life ahead

We'll find a place where there's room to grow

(And yes, we've just begun)

Sharing horizons that are new to us

Watching the signs along the way

Talkin' it over, just the two of us

Workin' together day to day

Together

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is that kind of song. It is a hymn, proclaiming the death, resurrection, and now the ascension of Christ as only the beginning for the followers of Jesus, for the church. The cross might be where Jesus died, but the hope of people of faith lies, not in his death, but in the fullness of his being-his birth (his incarnation), death, resurrection, & ascension. Paul writes it’s the future hope and the present reality of those who believe.

Paul makes what we might call a ‘prayer wish’ for the readers of this letter. He make a prayer wish for the eyes of their heart to be opened, for the riches of Christ’s glorious inheritance be among the saints, and for the immeasurable power of Christ who fills all in all be in them.

I find that prayer wish so powerful and so comforting. Isn’t that what we all would like for ourselves and for those we love?

In the story of our life and our journey of faith we are met with crossroads and as we enter into the unknown of those experiences, we discover it is a new beginning and the words, ‘we’ve only just begun’ echo through our first few steps of this new adventure.

The words of this letter to the Ephesians are timeless. We need those prayer wish words of Paul to fill our lives. 

How do we find answers to those age old questions that linger in our heads, or perhaps our children ask us and we have no clue how to answer. One such question about our future hope is, “If all of us go to heaven when we die and people from the beginning of time are there, including gramma and grampa, isn’t it really crowded; how would we find them?”

It sounds like a funny question that we would brush off-because who among us knows the answer? But, I’m sure we’ve all wondered about things such as these. The questions that come to us that stump us, "Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons?"

It’s the sort of question mothers and fathers get as they are trying to tuck the children in to bed at night. It’s the sort of question we struggle with as we come home from the funeral of a friend. We have a need to be comforted about the future and we have a need to be assured here and now about our present life.

I think women through the ages have given us a ray of sunshine as we witness how they have coped and been strengthened through all kinds of adversity.

In the book Dance of the Dissident Daughters, Sue Monk Kidd describes her awakening to the God she thought she had known all her life. She enters into a journey about her faith, religion, and life as a woman. She becomes shocked, disenchanted, fearful, and finally at peace with her discovery of who God is in her life. 

She recognizes the power of women to stick together through so much. She says this, “Solidarity is identifying with one another without feeling like you have to agree on every issue. It’s unity, not uniformity. It’s listening without rushing in to fix the problem. It’s going deeper than typical ways of talking and sharing—going down to the place where souls meet and love comes, where separateness drops away and you know these women because you are these women.”

 She urges women to “Press On, Dear Sisters” Press on in life, press on in faith, press on in all that encompasses women, press on through all things and know that no matter what, we are not alone, we will stick together.

The stories of the strength of women in Scripture are filled with those who have led a people, who have fed a crowd, and who have challenged God, and carried God.

But, this prayer wish from Paul is for the church men and women, old and young, rich and poor, of all nations and tribes. Paul encourages them through this prayer for insight and vision. At every crossroad of our life we need the eyes of our hearts to be opened.

Our hearts are seat of knowledge and wisdom. May the days, months and years ahead begin with the eyes of our hearts opened so we can have the hope of our calling; so we can experience the riches of Christ’s inheritance; be filled and live with the immeasurable greatness of his power.

On this Mother’s Day I think of all my sisters in the world.

I think of all the women who are powerhouses of strength,

forces to be reckoned with;

who have challenged and been challenged in the workforce,

who experienced motherhood, daughterhood, and sisterhood.

I think of the prayer warriors,

the casserole makers,

the card writers,

the stay at home woman,

the go to work woman,

the everything to everyone woman.

I think of how as women,

daughters of God,

we’ve only just begun,

and yet,

we’ve been so far.

And I pray the prayer wish

for all of you

as Paul did

and I say Press On, Dear Sisters,

Press On.

Amen.

Resources: NIB Ephesians; Dance of the Dissident Daughter; Working Preacher.

Moving in Suffering

Sermon Luke 22:39-46 February 25, 2018 Lent 2

Moving in Suffering

When there is suffering in the world and/or in our lives we often wonder how this can happen. We spend little time questioning how we can live and Move in Suffering or how we can keep going in the midst of it.

Mostly we are consumed with the why of such things. 

I find this a reasonable question.

Children are the first to approach us with the why of things. They ask us why about the color of the sky, where the sun goes at night, the reason we need water to live, and why do people hurt and die.

Most often our responses to those questions are explained through the wonders and magical words of science. Or if these fabulous explanations escape us, we respond to the why questions with, “Because God…”

When we seek to answer our curious children about why are there mean people in the world…or why people hurt and die,

we like our children are lost in responses that truly answer the why of it all.

We don’t even fully understand the why of our Savior who died on the cross.

I honestly believe when we are caught up in the why-

when we allow ourselves to digress to the stories of the fall,

or the ages of cruelty and pain of one person to another,

or as the prophets of the Old Testament preach the sins of the people,

or the lack of prayer,

or the lack of love of God,

or worse the lack of obedience to the commandments,

especially the love of neighbor;

we lose out becoming actively involved in the suffering and

we deny the opportunity of receiving what we need in the moments of hurting and grief and pain.

The why often seeks to fix without investment.

The why often is someone else’s doing.

The why often results in lack of ownership for the cause of things.

The why often keeps us stuck.

In A.A. Milne’s story Eeyore Loses a Tail, Pooh comes across Eeyore who is out of sorts. Pooh discovers Eeyore has lost his tail. Eeyore, made aware of the absence of his tail, responds, “That accounts for a good deal.” Followed with a long silence,

Pooh not knowing what he could say that would be helpful,

offered to do something helpful instead.

I believe this prayer of Jesus in his suffering prior to his arrest is

an offering of something helpful to us in times of trial and temptation.

I believe this prayer is a response for the

‘how, we can move and live in suffering’ and keep going in the midst of.

The opening words of the choir anthem Compassion are: There is an everlasting kindness you lavished on us. God has offered us love, kindness, and peace as we live this life here and now.

Let’s look at this prayer and these verses. There are seven points that are important to note for our own well-being.

In this prayer we enter into the humanity of Jesus. Luke, the evangelist, points out several things as he writes this account for the benefit of the future church. (One of which happens to that Jesus prays at the Mount of Olives and not in a garden or at Gethsemane.)

The first note about Jesus was he went to pray, as was his custom. Prayer throughout the gospel of Luke is central to who Jesus is. Jesus stops to pray at all the key moments in his ministry. For Jesus, prayer is an essential piece of how he moves through his life, even unto his death.

Jesus has a routine for prayer.

We, too, can begin to examine how we can incorporate prayer into our life. Perhaps, it is as simple as the petition five finger prayer that I shared with the children in the our chat together.

Perhaps, it is a three-times a day prayer of beginning the day with the Lord’s Prayer, praying the Beatitudes at noon, and going to bed with the 23^rd Psalm.

Perhaps, it is setting the timer on our phones to just pause and pray.

Jesus got through his ministry with prayer as his custom. Perhaps, this season we can begin a custom of prayer.

Second, he prayed through all circumstances. Henri Nouwen wrote, ‘It can be discouraging to discover how quickly we lose our inner peace.

People enter our lives and we suddenly have a restlessness and an anxiety that appears. We thought we were at peace and centered with God and a situation or a person cause us to feel insecure.

He suggests we befriend our emotions and then little by little, in all circumstances we can come to sense the closeness to God that we need and desire.

Jesus, chose to experience all the emotions within him and trusting God to work through them with him. We, like Jesus, have the opportunity to offer our prayers to God in all circumstances. And through this sense the ever presence of the God who loves us.

Third, he kept those he loved close. Notice the verse says, they were a stone’s throw away. Jesus, did not go off alone, as much as he surrounded himself with those he trusted and those he loved. He was there praying to the Father for guidance and direction, keeping his friends at his side. One thing we can learn from this is our need to be at home with the people of our faith.

Years ago, the Catholic church in America realized it was losing its members at the same rate as the major protestant denominations. They started an initiative called, “Catholics come home.” It was rather successful as people who had been brought up in the church were stirred with a sense of renewal and chose to return to being active in the church.

As Protestants, we too have sought a variety of initiatives to not only invite those who grew up in the church to ‘come home’,

but to invite those who have never been at home in the church to find a place to belong and call home, perhaps for the first time.

In all of life we have a need to be surrounded by friends who lift us up and grant us grace, and offer us friendship.

When we come home to the church,

we come home to God,

and receive the faithful promise of God to love.

Home is where we are safe.

Let us keep church as that safe, sacred, space that Jesus had when he prayed this prayer.

Fourth, Jesus, allowed the angels to give him strength.

There are those angels unawares all around us who provide for us in ways we could never have imagined for ourselves.

Without going into a completely long tangent about angels, suffice it to say, they exist in the spiritual realm as the Bible teaches us,

and they exist in the realm of our living through those inspired to offer kindness and hospitality.

Fifth, ‘in his anguish, he prayed more earnestly’;

Jesus, stayed the course in his prayer even through the pain of it all.

When the pain and the temptation of the trial ahead of him became too great, Jesus, remained in prayer.

He chose to be more vigilant in his relationship with God.

He stayed with his pain in the very place where healing could take place.

Jesus dared to stay with his pain, and his anguish of what was about to occur. Dare to stay with your pain!

He didn’t sugar coat anything about his feelings or his circumstances.

When we can stay with our pain and acknowledge it,

when we can own it for what it truly is

then we can be in full communion with our God.

In that giving of ourselves we are able to receive the healing and the comfort we so need.

We have a tendency to seek out others or create fantasy worlds where we can have things disappear or have others deal with it for us.

Yet, our reality is here with Jesus as we witness him owning his own temptations to have what is before him removed. In his ownership of the temptation he received the strength to give it up to God. We too have the capacity to own our temptations and then give them to God to give us strength to do what we must do.

Sixth, grief is exhausting. We witness the disciples going to sleep. Luke is the only gospel writer to be gentle with the disciples when they fall asleep while Jesus is praying. Luke says they were filled with grief.

Anxiety, sorrow, deep sadness, are all energy drainers.

In times of uncertainty our emotions come out of synch.

The cross we bear daily can be overwhelming and it can render us powerless.

These disciples were following Jesus into the unknown.

Perhaps, we too, need an evangelist like Luke to soften the story of our life a little. Perhaps, we too, need an understanding that sometimes grief takes hold and all we can do is sleep in that moment.

Sometimes, in the midst of it all, a nap is a good thing.

God is gentle and kind and offers us a place of rest and a place healing. Be kind to yourself as God is kind to you.

Seventh, and final Jesus says to the disciples, ‘Get up, and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.’

The instruction Jesus gives the disciples at the start of this story he gives to them again. Getting up is as important as staying vigilant in prayer.

Jesus, uses the term, ‘get up’, rise, throughout his ministry of healing.

When we get up and stand and face those with whom we travel this journey of faith, we have the opportunity to speak and share, laugh and rejoice, be comforted and renewed. When we get up we are able to give and to receive.

When we get up we can see the community in which we dwell.

We can act from our center and we can live out the commandment of love one another as I have loved you.

How can we live and Move in Suffering in our times of temptation and trial?

We follow Jesus and live into his example given to us today. Amen.

Resources: NIB Luke, Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne; The Inner Voice of Love, Henri J. M. Nouwen