Light of Love

Sermon Luke 1:26-38 December 24, 2017 Advent 4

Light of Love

Last Sunday we spent our worship experience focused on the story of the birth of Jesus through the Christmas program. The children and the choir shared the news words and music. Our hope was renewed as we witnessed our children participating in the promise of God. It was truly a light of joy.

Today on the fourth Sunday of Advent we spend time reflecting on the words of Mary as she encounters the angel Gabriel. I find myself pondering on the moment of discovery for Mary.

What is it like for us in those moments of surprise?

When the unexpected comes to us?

When the derailment of our plans and our dreams occurs, what is our response?

When we are left vulnerable to our family’s opinions, cultural expectations, and the views of the world, how do we react?

Are we aware of the presence of holiness when it appears?

There is quite a lot for us to ponder on this fourth Sunday of Advent.

God does enter into ordinary lives in ordinary ways. The angel called Mary highly favored. There was nothing in Mary’s life that would have been considered as something to be highly favored. She was poor. She lived in a town that people said nothing good comes from Nazareth. She was engaged to be married to a carpenter not a statesman or a wealthy, famous person.

God does enter into a real place in time and space. 

God breaks from heaven and begins dwelling among us in the most vulnerable way. 

Life and death hang in the balance for many a mother and child. 

Pregnancy and child birth are still to this day challenging. To conceive for some is without a thought and for others a time of great disappointment, despair, and grief. 

There are so many women who have suffered in silence as one pregnancy after another is lost and the hoped for infant returns to heaven. 

Women in childbirth are still at risk even with the best doctors and equipment available. There were safer ways for God to come to us to be among us than through this risky means.

And yet, in a little town, in a little house, with a young girl, we witness something new, something that changes our lives forever.

Mary heard the words of the angel and knew that God had come to her. Holiness had invaded her space. Holiness had come.

She asked the angel Gabriel, “How can this be?” We don’t have the opportunity for tone or inflection so we have to guess. We wonder if she is afraid, or if she was incensed, or confused, or just pondering the logic of what the angel is telling her. 

She talks with the messenger of God! She is not a silent bystander. She gets involved with the work of God within her. She becomes a partner with God in this process of redemption.

 Her response to the angel is so amazing. “May it be as you say, here am I the servant of the Lord,” is not a passive resignation for God or anyone else to do what they want with us. But, it is a response of commitment and participation with the work of God in this world.

Imagine if we too heard the word of God through the angels who visit us. Imagine if we too took a stand with God and said, “May it be as you say, here am I”.

Mary as we read further in Scripture sang a song which we now call the Magnificat. 

It was a song of liberation, a song of reversals, a song of resistance and even rebellion. 

Mary took her role as the mother of God in strength and in resilience. 

She had the resolve to follow through with whatever was to come. She had the ability to stand with a task that was contrary to the current culture. She stood firm in her faith as she faced the possibility of death. She stood firm in her faith when her son grew and took the risk of death upon himself. She stood firm in her faith as she sat at the foot of the cross and watched her son die. She stood firm in her faith even as she was cared for by others in her old age.

It is so hard for us as people of faith to figure out what God is calling us to do. 

We agonize over the call God has placed on us. We wonder if we are really doing what God has asked us to do. We agonize wondering if God really loves us. Are we worthy?

 Are we doing the right thing?

And then once again the story of Mary reminds us that God has not abandoned us. 

God chose to enter the human race by means of the human race. 

God’s creation so destroyed and distorted by acts of violence upon the earth, the creatures and each other could have been destroyed in the same breath by which it was created. But, somehow God looked upon everything there and burst forth in love. 

The Light of Love chose to push through all the depravity, sin, corruption, and discord to wash it all pure again beginning with waters of the womb. Our being drawn to the Light of Love is a rebirth in the same way.

God has sent angel messengers to us to announce that we too have received the power of God through his son born to us today. Let us say yes, let it be as you say, here am I your servant. Amen. 

Graveside service for Baby Faith

It has been over a year now since we lost our precious granddaughter Baby Faith. I never knew how much her little life would continue to impact us everyday. My daughter and I have since written a book for children. She has written several blog articles at her blog site: https://sandhillcranelove.wordpress.com/

And even now I realize the more we write and the more we make resources available the more help this provides for other mothers and families who have experienced loss.

There were two most important gift lessons we learned. 1. Always use Baby's name. even if it is too difficult to name baby encourage this to happen-the hospital was so wonderful in making sure this was done.
2. Make sure a funeral, a prayer, a special acknowledgement is done. All this has made the difference in the months and now the year since.

Here is a sample service. It was done on the rural property of my daughter's family. May God's grace, mercy and strength be with you.

Service of Witness to the Resurrection

W

Faith Elisabeth Rodgers

February 10, 2016

February 13, 2016

Welcome

Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.

We gather here today to bring honor to the little life of our daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, and child of God, Faith Elisabeth Rodgers.

We only knew her as our hope and joy, the anticipation of all the good God has to offer us in new life.

We are here under this treasured tree, on this land, this solid ground, this earth, to which we remember holds us all together. From dust we were made and to dust we shall return. Here this space has been special and so under the canopy of this tree and the canopy of God’s love we gather now in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

Scripture

Psalm 139:1-3;13-18

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
² You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from far away.
³ You search out my path and my lying down,
    and are acquainted with all my ways.

For it was you who formed my inward parts;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
    Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
¹⁵     My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
    all the days that were formed for me,
    when none of them as yet existed.
¹⁷ How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
    I come to the end^[a]—I am still with you.

Mark 10:13-16

¹³ People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. ¹⁵ Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” ¹⁶ And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Words from the Family

Our hearts are filled with the loss of the hopes and dreams we held for the life of Baby Faith. Yet, we hold to the truth that a mother and father hold their children’s hands for but a short while and their hearts forever.

Prayer

Loving God,

Your beloved Son took children into his arms and blessed them. Give us grace that we may entrust

Baby Faith Elisabeth Rodgers to your never failing love and care. Comfort us in our sorrow; strengthen us with hope; and breathe peace into our troubled hearts. Assure us that the love in which we rejoiced for a time is not lost. The love we hold here together as a family unites us forever with each other and with you.

In our loneliness, may we remember Baby Faith in love until the eternal morning breaks.

Through Christ, in Christ, always surrounded and wrapped together in the loving arms of Jesus. Amen.

Poem

I give you this one thought to keep

I am still with you-I do not sleep

I am a thousand winds that blow

I am the diamond glints on snow

I am the sunlight on ripened grain

I am the gentle autumn rain

When you waken in the morning hush,

I am the swift, uplifting rush,

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not think of me as gone-I am still

With you-in each new dawn.

Commendation

You only are immortal, the creator and maker of all. We are mortal, formed of the earth, and to the earth we shall return. This you ordained when you created us, saying, ‘You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” All of us go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

Give space, O Christ, to your child Baby Faith, with all your saints, where there is neither pain, nor sorrow nor sighing, but life everlasting.

Into your hand, O merciful Savior, we commend your child, Baby Faith Elisabeth Rodgers. Acknowledge we humbly pray, a sheep of your fold, a lamb of your flock, a baby of your own redeeming. Receive her into your arms of mercy, into the blessed rest of eternal peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.

Benediction

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Jesus is Alive, Surprise!

Sermon Matthew 28:1-10 April 16, 2017 Easter Sunday

                                                Sermon: Jesus is Alive, Surprise!

A friend of mine (Jo Ann Staebler) said,

“The Easter gospel begins with great grief.”

At first I thought, “No way. Easter is a time of joy. There is no grief.” And then I realized, “Just a minute-of course it begins with great grief.’

The women were on their way to the tomb where Jesus lay. And these women were deep in grief. The women have gone into muscle memory mode. They are going through the motions of grief that all do when tragedy, death, destruction or trauma strike.

And it is also true that it is darkest before the dawn.

And our greatest fears rise up in those darkest hours.

Everyone was in shock and they did not know what to do without their Lord.

Their faith had been crushed, beaten, and dismantled by the death of the Savior. And they were very afraid of what would happen next.

In our journey of faith we too have faced times when everything we believed was crushed, beaten, and dismantled.

We have been in dark hours where we did not know what to do or what to say.

We too were functioning in muscle memory mode.

We too were going through the motions just to get through the day only to have to repeat those motions for more days than we could remember.

The gospel lesson of Easter pulls us into all the

grief and drama of the power of loss.

And then while we are still caught in the challenge of grief,

God astounds us with the BIG SURPRISE!

Jesus is not here.

He is ALIVE!

It is a surprise beyond our imagination.

It is a surprise that once again startles our faith!

He is alive shocks us as much as his death did.

It is too much to bear.

Now what do we do? He is ALIVE!

How do we act? He is ALIVE!

And how do we share this news? He is ALIVE!

Jesus said he would return again, but how many really believed it would happen like this?

He said it over and over again.

But how well did they listen?

I know my husband is always trying to get me to listen-to really hear what he is saying.

I know I’m told things for my own good over and over again-but I don’t seem to hear it-even when my life depends on it.

Jesus spoke in riddles. Some we can give the disciples a break-maybe not judge them so harshly. The parables of Jesus were hard to follow…

Remember the one when he was telling Nicodemus about being born again. We, like the disciples, scratched our heads wondering how this renewal of life can actually happen. We know our bodies don’t go through the birth process more than once. So how can new life be born in us?

Jesus was full of surprises alright.

He had a way of making food appear out of a couple slices of bread. He touched people and they were healed. He taught the leaders of the synagogue things about God no one had ever known. He walked on water.

He raised Lazarus from the dead…wow, he really was full of surprises.

He really did do things beyond anyone’s imagination.

He really did do miracles.

Perhaps, then his rising from the dead is true too.

And if this surprise is true then we can remember all the things he did.

We can talk about them to people.

Jesus didn’t do all these surprising things to entertain us.

He did them to transform us; to change us; to make us new.

Just as the caterpillar crawled into the tomb of its chrysalis and rose from it as a magnificent butterfly; so Jesus has risen-magnificent from the depths of his tomb. Transformed. And so he declares we are too.

You see, in dying, God is making sure there is rising!

For if God goes down to the dead and rises to new life;

rest assured God has made the way for us who die

                                              to rise to new life!

We can be assured and raised up with strength as we witness the surprise and wonder of the Resurrection;

of new life;

of a new creation!

This is our hope!

Believing in this surprise, this miracle of God, fills us with new life.

We rise up today filled with joy and wonder.

God makes all things new through the power of the resurrection born in us.

Jesus has risen to new life so we too rise to new life.

It is the miracle that grants us the power to change not only who we are but the world around us.

SO we wonder again,

what do we do?

How do we act?

What news do we share?

We go out from here today rejoicing in the strength and courage of the Savior born anew in us.

We go out from this place nourished and fed at Table so we can do the things Jesus did.

We can make the abundance of food appear from two slices of bread. We have the capacity to offer our extras to others in need.

We can share the abundance of our joy with our neighbors.

We can take the abundance of our knowledge and offer to help others learn and live. Just like those who volunteer with the literacy council, we offer the abundance of our knowledge through tutoring, mentoring, teaching.

We can take the abundance of our courage and stand in the gap for those who can’t.

The list goes on and on of what we can do.

And how can we share this great surprise?

Through sheer faith in believing. We may not understand it, and we may not be able to explain it, but, we can believe it by the evidence of God’s love within us. It is real because God’s love is real.

Friends let the warmth of love flow through you today.

Let the love you cannot imagine surprise you.

Let the power of the resurrection surprise rise up in you.

Go now and live. Go now and give.

Jesus is alive-surprise! Amen.

This is the good news which we have received, in which we stand, and by which we are saved, if we hold fast: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, and that he appeared first to the women, then to Peter, and to the twelve, and then to many faithful witnesses. We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus Christ is the first and the last, the beginning and the end; he is our Lord and our God

At the Crossroads-John

Sermon Matthew 26:36-46 April 2, 2017 5^th Sunday in Lent

At the Crossroads-John

We are at our final week of conversations with people we have met at the crossroads of their life. It has been an interesting journey learning about the different stages people have entered into their decisions to follow Jesus.

Today, we heard the Scripture read from the gospel of Matthew. In these final hours of the life of Jesus he goes once again to pray to his Father in heaven.

It is a most powerful scene.

The tension and the drama of Jesus caught in the struggle of obedience to continue movement toward the cross and his desire to remain on earth demonstrate the real struggle of the power of love.

Jesus shows the depth of his relationship with his disciples as he begs them

           to stay with him,

                     to watch with him,

                                 to remain with him.

Jesus hangs on to his love for them and their love for him.

The scene points to the essential need for relationship especially in dire times.

The Garden of Gethsemane is a place of choice.

It is a place where will and desire are put to the ultimate test.

The Garden is a place where what must be battles with what wants to be.

In the Garden of Eden in Genesis, human will for the ‘want to be’ was great

and it won over

       the will

           to remain with God,

                        to be with God,

                                to watch with God.

The Garden in Eden was the place where relationship and the fullness of life with God was lost.

We recognize sin

             as the willful disobedience of humanity.

Adam and Eve were fully aware and fully in control of their decision to disobey,

            no matter who they tried to blame.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, the Father brings around the restoration of God’s relationship to the people through the willful obedience of Jesus.

Jesus was fully in control of his decision as he reached the end of his prayers.

Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him as he moves further in the garden to pray. He keeps his closest companions with him. They fall asleep and Jesus wakes them begging them to support him in his efforts to reconcile himself with his fate.

Yet, the hour is late and they still fall asleep.

The human anxiety that Jesus faces because he is fully aware of what is about to happen, contrasts with the sleep of the disciples because they are not yet fully aware of what awaits Jesus. This points again to imperative of relationships of one with another.

It’s really hard to be supportive and present when we still can’t grasp the gravity of a situation.

I know as followers on this side of Easter we judge those disciples for not understanding Jesus and his predictions of his death.

But, I know when I want to deny the truth that is right before me because it brings me too much pain, I am like the disciples and I lack understanding even if the truth is staring me in the face.

We have all had those times.

We do not want to believe a diagnosis;

                                     or a termination notice;

                                                         or a break up, or…

We would rather crawl under the covers,

                                       fall asleep,

                                           turn the other way,

                                                   than witness the struggle before us.

John and his brother James were known as the sons of thunder. They were close to Jesus. These two and Peter are always at Jesus’ side. John is credited with the authorship of the gospel of John, Revelation and the letters that bear his name. John is also praised by the apostle Paul as one of the pillars of the Jerusalem church.

The fourth gospel is written in a way that it draws the reader into the stories as a participant. The prologue identifies the theology of the author. Jesus is more than his death on the cross. For the writer of the fourth gospel the power of God’s love for the world begins with the incarnation.

God’s love and desire for the restoration of creation begins with the birth of Jesus.

The importance of joy and light and life are prominent in this gospel.

In the life of Jesus, the first miracle that takes place is at the wedding of Cana. The abundance of wine demonstrates the abundance of all that God has for God’s people.

In the fourth gospel Jesus proclaims he is sent by the Father more than 100 times. It is essential for John to make clear that Jesus is the one who has completed what is needed for the salvation of the world.

Jesus is the great I AM.

He is the bread of life.

He is the living bread.

He is the light of the world.

He is good shepherd.

He is the resurrection and the life.

He is the way, the truth and the life.

In this fourth gospel, John has sought to clarify that the decisive measure of one’s relationship with God is one’s faith in Jesus. The coming of Jesus into the world is what has given the world access to the light and love of God.

In the fourth gospel, Jesus talks to his disciples about the power of God’s presence with them. He prepares them for the time when he will no longer be with them. He talks to them about the Holy Spirit.

He seeks to prepare them for the comfort of his presence through the presence of the Spirit to come. It is this Spirit that dwells with us at our crossroads of life. Jesus said. “Abide in me, as I abide in you.”

It is his invitation to us to allow the fullness of his presence always.

The Garden of Gethsemane was the place where we witnessed the restoration of God’s relationship with God’s people through the willful obedience of Jesus. Jesus went to the cross, he rose again, he fulfilled the promise of God.

Let us recognize the transforming power of God’s love in us. Let us say yes, to following Jesus. Amen.

Humble Heir

Sermon Genesis 15:1-12, 17, 18 February 21, 2016 Lent 2C

Humble Heir

Lent is a time of reflection and a time of opportunity. In Lent we intentionally choose to think about those who have influenced our life of faith. We take the time to think about all the people who have influenced our lives.

We think about how the courage and fortitude of others has impacted who we are today. We think about those people who mentored us, those people who changed the course of our lives just by being faithful to their principles and their understanding of what mattered.

We think about those who we know followed the call of God. Often the people that influenced us most were not the ones getting the accolades and fame, but the ones who quietly and humbly walked through life, steadfast and true to their calling.

                                         Who were or are those people for you?

Abram was the heir to all the promises of God for a future people. He was an heir to a promise that he would not see until the fourth generation. Abram was granted righteousness because he followed God, believed God, and listened to God.

Abram, we consider a humble man, not because he blindly obeyed, but because he had the courage and boldness to follow through even in the midst of uncertainty. He was promised much from God but remained as true as possible to who he was. He messed up, he did some dumb things, he wasn’t perfect, yet he kept going with the promise God had given him as his hope for the future. A future he was not sure he would see.

And so when God comes to him again in this chapter he begins to speak and ask questions.

Here is the question of faith for us:
Can a person who has doubts, and questions God be an example for us about faithfulness?
If a person asks questions about God’s plan and God’s actions in their life does this make them unfaithful?
If a person is in this situation are they having a crisis of faith?

This story of Abram-and perhaps many more Biblical stories-demonstrate for us that his journey is our journey and the doubts, the questions, and the uncertainty are not a crisis but an element of faith.

Frederick Buechner says, “Faith is better understood as a verb than a noun, as a process than a possession. It is on-again-off-again rather than once-and-for-all. Faith is not being sure where we are but going anyway. A journey without maps. Tillich said that doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.”

 

Brian Peterson-Night Sky

As we look to this story of Abram we notice three elements of his faith as he converses with God.

1.       This first element of faith we witness is that God speaks and Abram listens.

In our time alone with God do we give God room to speak or are we the ones doing all the talking. Some of the ways we give room for God to speak is by sitting quietly with God’s Word and allowing the words from the text to sift into our minds. We pause and maybe we fall asleep, or maybe our mind wanders to all the distractions around us. Can we sit long enough with God to allow God to speak to us in the silence that surrounds us? If we like to fish or hunt or garden or cook or sew or knit or clean; can we allow the words from God to filter into those activities of our lives to offer us guidance and peace?

2.      The second element of faith we witness in this story is that God promises and Abram believes.

Abram trusts God’s promises. I think most of us trust God’s promises of love and life too. The promise of God that I believe Abram trusted was God’s power and presence. He recognized in hearing God that God was with him even in his questions and doubts. Abram knew God enough to ask God the how and even the why questions. He trusted God’s presence enough even to challenge God about God’s purposes. When we struggle to understand the direction or the course of life we are on, it only makes sense to ask God what this means and if there will be something revealed to help us know we are still moving in the right direction. We face many struggles and in our struggles we are faced with anxiety, fears and doubts.

I find it a comfort to be able to reach out to God and question it all.

It is not our lack of faith that puts us there but our desire to be faithful!

Show us God!

Help us see!

We read that Abram believes God after he is shown the stars in the sky.

But, is it the stars he believes, or the future, or the existence of God?

Somehow Abram finds assurance of who God is and who he is in this exchange of words and dreams. Yes, it’s in his exchange with God, his connection, his conversation, that he finds his assurance. In his exchange with God he is affirmed and that brings him to belief.

And perhaps when we exchange our doubts and fears with God we too can find assurance.

Hebrews 11:1 Says faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

3.      And the third element (I’m certain there are many more, but these we observe today), God commands and Abram obeys.

Abram doesn’t have answers to all his questions. he doesn’t have the details of the future spelled out for him and he certainly doesn’t have a blueprint, excel file, or map of where to go or what to do next. Abram doesn’t even fully understand what God meant.
But, he forged forward anyway.

These elements of faith sustain.

And so do the prayers of faithful people.

This past week as you know has been difficult in our family’s loss. Yet-we have been carried by your prayers as if being raised up on wings of eagles.

Prayers are our life blood.

And they hold me now as I try to talk about Abram and faith.

The thing that hurts is Faith is the name given to our granddaughter and in her loss,

Baby Faith-Tiny Feet

it hurts just to say it.

Perhaps, that is the truth about our faith and our walk with God

sometimes it hurts just to say it.

And sometimes it hurts to live it.

And sometimes it hurts to know its truth-faith in God is from everlasting to everlasting. And when we or I remember that, then
saying,

living,

speaking

Faith
is joy

and the hurt is mingled with wonder and love that fills our hearts with peace.

Faith is this mystery that carries us from day to day.

It is the hope we have in the promises given to us in Jesus Christ.

The promises of love to sustain through all things.

The example and person of Jesus Christ renews the promise that we are heirs to all God has for us.

In this Lent let us open our hearts and minds to listen, believe and be led forth not only for ourselves but for future generations.

Amen.

Resource: Feasting on the Word-Dan Debevoise; Wishful Thinking-Frederick Buechner.