Fruit that Lasts.

Sermon John 15:9-17 May 6, 2018 Easter 6B

Fruit that Lasts.

Last month was science fair month in many of the local schools. Charlie worked on a project about fruit. He wanted to know how long fruit lasts. More accurately he wanted to what lasted longer-whole fruit or cut up fruit.

How long fruits lasts is an important question if you pack your lunch for school or work. It is also an important question if you buy fruit from the store. Stocking up on tons of bananas when there is only one person in the house that eats bananas would not be wise if they all rot before they can be eaten.

It’s helpful to know how long fruit lasts and how long anything lasts.

Here in the gospel of John, Jesus is talking to his disciples and to a whole crowd of followers. He wants to give his final thoughts on how they should be living after he goes away.

When I hear Jesus talking to his disciples like this it reminds me of my dad. It reminds me of my grandfather. It reminds me of a teacher from long ago. It also reminds me of my pastor-who really wanted me to understand how to live out this amazing faith that gripped me and made me so in love with Jesus. He really wanted me to grasp what it meant to live in abiding love.

Have any of you ever thought on those words of Jesus-abide in my love?

It sounds a lot like something that happens when tow people marry.

It sounds a lot like this: marriage is not the culmination of love, but only the beginning.

Love remains and deepens, but its form changes. Or, more accurately, it renews itself in a different way. Less and less does it draw its waters from the old springs of romance, and you should not worry if over time these dimensions fade or are seen less frequently. More and more, love draws its replenishment from love itself: from the practice of conscious love, expressed in your mutual servanthood to one another. . . .

It will transform your lives and through its power in your own lives will reach out to touch the world. . . . But how to stay in touch with that power? At those times when stress mounts and romance seems far away, how do you practice that conscious love that will renew itself and renew your relationship? . . . CAC core faculty member, Cynthia Bourgeault

Those words are beautiful and they are words to seek to live by.

But, if we always use these beautiful words of Jesus about abiding in his love as they relate to girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands and wives, we might never get the idea that these words of abiding in his love about you and me and the church and everyone outside the church. 

Jesus says abide in my love because that’s the only way to be able to be consistent in love. It’s the only way to have the strength of love when we are angry and when we are crazy excited. Love in the way Jesus tells us here is not a feeling but an action. “Love seeks the well-being of others and is expressed in concrete efforts on their behalf. Thus love can be commanded.”

Love is not about us, but about the other.

It is about the surrender of our will.

It is about the giving in to God and the giving up of things that would be obstacles to another’s receipt of love.

Regardless of how we feel we move forward and show love towards another.

That’s why Jesus can say to us that our joy may be complete. The unity of the love of Christ within us makes it possible to move our way into new relationships, to strengthen old ones and sustain the ones we have now-all these leads to joy made complete.

Love is shown in ways of doing that are not always noticed as love when it comes to teaching responsibility, or saying no, or using time out. Love comes in ways that are difficult when we walk with someone through disease, illness or loss. Love is really challenging when those we love go a different way from what had hoped for them.

Henri Nouwen writes, “If we wait for a feeling of love before loving, we may never learn to love well…Mostly we know what the loving thing to do is. When we ‘do love’, even if others are not able to respond with love, we will discover that our feelings catch up with our acts.’ Joy complete!

Jesus reminds these amazing followers that they are his friends. It is so important to have friends. Jesus also reminds them that he is the one who chose them. It is so terrific when we discover someone who wants to be our friend. We have the choice to receive the gift of their friendship or turn on our heels and walk away. We have the extreme gift of the power of God’s love in us to choose friendships as he chose us-undergirded with genuine love.

How often have we gone out of our way to seek new friendship or sustain the current ones?

Are we tired?

Are we too busy?

Are we just exhausted from even the idea of one more task, esp. talking to someone?

And yet, Jesus points out that it is through his initiative that these friendships exist.

Perhaps that is our main lesson about fruit that lasts.

Perhaps, we are reminded again through the words of Jesus to abide with him and seek out others to share his love. 

Yes, that’s it. 

Abide in Jesus, 

do love, 

seek friends, 

and so our joy is complete.

The science experiment shows us how fruit lasts. 

Thank you, Charlie. 

Cut up fruit doesn’t last. 

Whole fruit such as bananas and strawberries last longest when they are kept in the bunch or on the vine. 

And mostly, we know it lasts best when it is shared. Amen.

Love & Loyalty

Sermon Ruth 1:1-19 June 25, 2017 Ordinary Time

Love & Loyalty

Love, commitment, joy, sweetness, are all the wonders we hear when people get married. June & July are the months that seem to be alive with weddings and anniversary celebrations. In our own two congregations, we have each had the pleasure of celebrating a nuptial in our sanctuaries.

I think we are still fascinated with weddings.

We witness all the froo froo and just enjoy watching two people make a commitment to each other and then seal it with their vows.

I often ask couples who have been together for years,

why they even want to get married when they’ve proven their commitment through the way have lived their lives together.

Their response is most often the desire to make their commitment public-to ‘seal the deal’, so to speak. Living together through commitment is one things but, making vows to each other are clearly another thing altogether.

Whether people believe in God or not,

God is present wherever vows are made.

Marriage vows, whether in a church, a courthouse,

a field somewhere, are made before God.

Vows are binding.

Vows are not to be made lightly.

They are for a lifetime-unless one partner breaks the vow-and that’s a whole other story-they are what seals us, and sticks us like a magnet to the other.

In this story, Ruth makes a vow to Naomi-it is one we’ve often heard at weddings. The story behind those words is worth your time learning about. And that is what we will do beginning today.

The story of Ruth is really the story about Naomi.

 It is a story about turning.

It is a story about God’s impact and influence in the lives of others.

It is about grace and mercy. It is about a woman who suffers so much, without the possibility of rising above the miserable circumstances which have befallen her.

Naomi had nothing to do with the tragedy that came upon her.

We are often so quick to judge and this story puts calamity in perspective.

Sometimes horrible things happen to ordinary, regular people. ‘It is what it is.’

Naomi, with her husband, moved from her homeland to a foreign country to find food. During difficult times, people seek to find the way to turn their circumstances around. Sometimes it’s through a move, a change of jobs, or a change of environment. To turn in a new direction and to leave behind everything is a challenge in itself. Naomi and her husband Elimelech did just that.

They lived as foreigners in the land of Moab. While there her sons married. They were there for more than ten years. Then within a short period of time all the men died.

Tangent: While Ruth is part of the lineage to King David and therefore also the lineage to Jesus, the story seems to also be a significant parable. Because in the telling of the story the names of the characters signify their fate-Mahlon means sickness, and Chillion means failure. However, Elimelech means, God is my King.

Naomi was left a widow and a childless mother.

Her daughter in laws were also childless. So, here in this foreign place to which Naomi had turned and moved to with the intent to build a new life, has now left her utterly alone with no future. So, she struggles with what to do. In a culture that is not your own, it is really difficult to navigate problems and solutions. Naomi has heard that things had improved in her homeland and so she turns and faces the place from which she came. She decides to go back to Bethlehem and the customs she understand for widows. She still has a relative left alive so she chooses to go to his house and rely on the Jewish custom of caring for the family.

All of us here have moved at one time or another.

We know what it’s like to pick up and all of our belongings and plunk down in a new place.

It’s hard.

Even if the move was to something exciting and wonderful, it is still hard.

Even if the move was just down the street from the old house, it is still like starting over because the neighbors are different and new relationships have to be built.

Naomi’s decision to move in the first place was for survival because of famine.

Now her decision to move is again based on survival.

This time because of culture.

As a woman, she could not be independent and was required to be under the protection of a male.

As she is thrown into another survival situation her heart turns bitter.

She is bitter to her circumstances,

she is bitter to her surroundings,

she is bitter toward her God.

She cannot see any good in her life.

And this is where the grace of God enters into the life of Naomi through the words of a woman who worships other gods.

Here in this beautiful story is the beginning of how one woman’s emptiness is turned to hope, and then to fullness.

As you go home today and read this short Old Testament story you discover the power of God at work in the people that surround Naomi. Four short chapters.

God is in the business of constantly surprising us through the grace and mercy offered in unimaginable ways.

Naomi had her way set and turned toward Bethlehem.

In her bitterness, she cuts off the very people who love her. Her daughter in laws adore her and only want to stay with her. But, she sends them away hoping for them they can begin a new life with another husband. Orpah obeys her and leaves. But, Ruth, as stubborn as she is, disobeys.

In our lives we do the same, we get so caught up in our grief, or our bitterness, or our hurt, that we cut off and cut out the very people who love us most.

I’ve heard it asked by some special folks over the years,

‘Why do people stop coming to church when they experience hardship?

Isn’t church the very place where people love and support you through the hard times?’

In our emotional turmoil of things, we tend to behave in some crazy ways.

It’s in times like those that we need a Ruth in our life.

We need a Ruth to ignore our ever so rational and logical statements and tell us like it is.

We need a Ruth to hold on tighter to us when we try to shake her off and get her out of our life.

We need a Ruth to grab us around the waist and hold on to us saying she will never let us go.

We need a Ruth to say she loves us forever, she loves us no matter what we say to her, she loves us even if we try to leave her.

We need a Ruth in our lives who makes a vow to bind herself to us.

Friends, I hope more than anything, that we the church, can be the Ruth for those who need a Ruth in their lives.

We have a job to do.

Let us be faithful for those who struggle to be faithful.

Let us be faithful to those whose lives need a binding.

Let us be faithful even when we are pushed aside.

Let us be the lineage that holds firm to a future we don’t even know.

Let us learn how to be Ruth for the world. Amen. 

Divine Dice

Sermon Acts 1:15-17, 21-26 May 17, 2015 Easter 7

Divine Dice 

“Who are we?” “What do we do now?” “Where do we go from here?” “How can we be anything at all?” I imagine these are the questions going through the minds of the disciples and the other followers of Jesus as they waited in the room in Jerusalem. Transition and change were upon them. They were in a room with a one sentence instruction manual! Wait for the Holy Spirit to come. So, there they were the huddled masses seeking to be freed from the room and sent out with a purpose, instruction, and some sense of Jesus present with them.

In the midst of the waiting for the Holy Spirit, it occurred to Peter that they were down one player and if they were going to be ready for the appearance of the Spirit they needed to be a full team again.

Peter set about regrouping and organizing the disciples for mission.

I’m not sure if you are aware of what it is like to start a new chapter of life or work or whatever without any training manual or any kind of instruction sheet. Now some of you might say that entering into parenthood was like that. And I would agree that no amount of books or friendly advice is enough to prepare for that adventure.

But, here are the disciples entering and moving into a new way of which no other had ever gone before.

Perhaps we can wrap our brains around this when we think of the pioneers of our space programs, or the sailors who crossed oceans, or the Wright brothers with their first flight.

Entering into a domain of where there are no precedents can either be exhilarating or incredibly frightening or foolishness or all of the above.

Peter had a sense of God’s calling into new leadership as he spoke to the believers. After all Jesus had been with them for 40 days after the resurrection and had now ascended into heaven. Surely there was some instruction going on between the Risen Lord and the disciples before he ascended into the clouds.

Sometimes I wonder if this account from Luke is more than just a historical note of how the first organizing meeting of the church took place.

I wonder if this might also be an opportunity for the continuing church to witness and participate in those same questions the first church had.

“Who are we?” “What do we do now?” “Where do we go from here?” “How can we be anything at all?”

It seems as though the church is always in transition and change.

It seems as though the church is always needing to rebuild its team.

It seems as though the church is always needing to regroup and organize.

And perhaps the testimony of these early believers can continue to encourage the continuing church.

From among the approximately 120 believers gathered two fit the criteria to fill the 12^th ‘man’ post of the disciples. They were named Joseph and Matthias. The voting process began with prayer and then proceeded with the roll of the dice. This process of rolling dice is a shock to our Presbyterian system and perhaps all of our current denominations would be appalled at choosing leaders through such chance acts as dice rolling.

But, casting lots was a common practice for decision making in the Roman world as well as the world of the Hebrews. There are several accounts in Old Testament where decisions were made at the roll of dice.

Which leads me to believe then that there is such a thing as Divine Dice.

It leads me to believe that the Divine (God) acts through the resources that are available at the time. Today, we have electronic voting booths and other fancy equipment to help us make fair choices. So, if we look back and scoff at the method utilized by the first church as unthinkable we lose sight of the work of God in the midst of current circumstances.

The decision the disciples made with the toss of the dice was not trivial or the luck of the draw. It was based on the faith they had in God to guide them through the system and they knew and they trusted.

Even if the system was flawed in some ways they still had faith that this was the system they had at the time and trusted that God would work through it.

I don’t think we’re any different today more than 2000 years later. We have systems in place to help us make choices. …

When many of you arrived at retirement what systems were in place for you to make the decisions for the next chapter in your life? As the door of your job closed, before you even got to your car, there was a whole new world of opportunities and possibilities opening up. You were in a position of wondering which direction to go and who to say yes to. There were all kinds of good choices before you, all kinds of good causes to join, and all kinds of good paths to take. But, knowing which was the right one for you to say yes to was not always easy. There are always many good choices before us and as individuals, as the church, and as the community. The challenge is knowing which good choice is the right one for us.  

We have church government documents to guide us in our organization. We have procedures in place to instruct us on how to do the work of the church. We realize they are not perfect nor are they sealed in stone as the ‘only’ way.

But, for the moment they are the resources that we have.

And like the first church we can choose to trust the system and the process knowing that God meets us with what we have.

When my middle daughter was a teenager she had trouble making decisions-not unlike every member of our family. Her uncle decided she needed help with her decision making. He gave her a wrapped package and in it was a pair of dice. He instructed her to use one when having trouble with a decision. He then said the second die is to be used when you don’t like the choice the first die made.

The powerful testimony of the faith placed in the process of the dice was that once the decision was made they were ready to move forward and they were ready to do the work that Jesus had called them to do.

And so we the church today can also place our faith and energy into the decisions that lie ahead and trust that God will be there to guide us and to be in the midst of the process.

Then we too can be ready to go and do the work that Jesus has called us to do.

The disciples were at the crossroads of the way things used to be and the way things will be. I believe the church in every age is at the very same place the early disciples were.

The church as it opens up to God will always be asking these questions:

“Who are we?”

“What do we do now?”

“Where do we go from here?”

“How can we be anything at all?”

Through prayer and faith and a commitment to seek God and God’s will

in all of life

and

as the church

we open ourselves to God and God’s new way to be believers in this age.

I’m excited about the days and years ahead for the church.

I pray you are too.

We are workers of the Lord and we give thanks!

Amen.