Sacred Moment.

Sacred Moment.

A moment of the sacred entered my life on Sunday.

He was three years old.

He looked at me from a distance and wasn’t really sure if he should approach. I saw him clutch his daddy’s hand a little tighter. I squatted down so we could be face to face and I said hello.

He smiled at me.

Barely verbal, he said hello back.

I told him how glad I was to see him.

I stood back up and greeted his father and the man who came to be his Godparent. They appeared as if entering the church was not a common or familiar practice for them. The father was kind and genuine. I could tell both men were determined to be there for this child. Both men were set to offer this child into the hand of God.

We had very little time before the service was to begin.

We had not spoken before.

We had not done the usual pastoral visit,

nor the usual meeting with the child.

I had received a phone call earlier in the week from the child’s grandparents’ expressing their son’s desire for his child. SO, with the permission of the elders, we forged ahead to prepare for a Sunday baptism of a child we had not met and the father they barely knew nor had I met.

I was convinced that this was a moment Jesus would honor.

The little boy was ready to run and discover as he tried to tear away from daddy’s grip. I said to him, “Do you want to play with toys?” His eyes lit up as he said to daddy, “Toys, toys!” We found our way upstairs to the nursery and there he played with fire engines and everything that made noise. Through the sirens I ran quickly through the liturgy for dad and Godparent. I shared the questions I would ask and the expected response from each of them. I again thanked them for choosing baptism for this child. It was all in such a rush, not the way we would expect it to be done right. But, what is right really? Did Philip hesitate at the request of the eunuch? I think not.

I looked at the little boy and said, “Let’s go downstairs and I’ll show you the water and everything that will happen this morning.” We went downstairs and I showed him the pitcher that held the warm water to be poured into the font. He pulled away unsure and not too keen on water. I held out the pitcher and again offered it to him to touch and then I gently took his hand and put his fingers in the water. He looked up at me with big eyes and he touched the water again dipping his fingers deeper. We walked to the font and I spoke of what would happen next and how the water would be placed on his head and, if he let me, I would lift him up and hold him.

Time was running out and it was clear we needed to empty the sanctuary and allow the congregants to gather. We squeezed through the side door and we parted ways for the time being.

The moment in worship arrived and I called the family forward and all the children to be witnesses to “remember our baptism as we witness today’s baptism.”

The little boy was filled with energy. He saw the baptism candle and tried to blow it out as one would blow out a birthday candle. He took the wooden cross to be given to him at the end and gripped it in his hand. He reached around dad and looked at the children seated there. He looked up at all those grown-ups staring down at him.

He smiled.

All through the long liturgy and the many words and prayers he held the hands of several people. He looked at them and eyed them with a wondering heart.

And then the moment came to pour the water.

Together we took the pitcher in hand and as we poured together I prayed the prayer of the presence of the Holy Spirit over the waters. It seemed in slow motion as we intentionally emptied the pitcher together into the font.

We eyed each other with satisfaction.

God had united our hearts and made us one in Christ.

I reached to pick him and he went willingly into my arms. And here the little child who was so afraid of water received the water poured over him. His eyes were mesmerized and so large.

He didn’t say a word.

“I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen!”

He was motionless,

still,

ever so quiet.

Again, we looked at each other as I said the words. “This promise is for you, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him has eternal life…you too will grow to love God as God loves you.”

In my arms he stayed as I walked with him all around the large sanctuary and as I shared the story of home and the place to belong with God and this congregation.

                                                             I believe he saw God that day.

                                                     I believe he saw the real face of God,

                                                             his eyes and his body showed it to me. 

                                                          Yes, I’m sure he saw God that day.

The only other time I have seen this awe on the face of a child was when my son

was three years old. We had stepped inside a cathedral in the midst of mass. And there was the priest wearing white and waving his arms with the liturgy. We stood there for some time taken in with the worship. And then with respect as to not disturb the rest of worship since we were tourists we quietly departed. As we came out my son looked at me with enormous eyes. He face was almost drained of color as he stared at me. He said to me, “I saw God.” I said, “You did? Where?” He responded, “He was inside wearing white and waving his arms.

I saw God.”

I do not doubt that he saw God that day.

Just as I do not doubt this little boy saw God.

                        Because I too caught in the holy moment of Sacrament,

                                           not only experienced God,

                                                              but

                                                         I saw God.

             A moment of the sacred entered my life on Sunday.

                                                          He was three years old.

Waters of Life

Sermon Exodus 2: 1-10 June 7, 2015 Ordinary time-communion/baptism

Waters of Life

 Last Sunday during the church picnic we had a trivia game and one of the categories was Bible and there was an option of Old Testament or New Testament, well the groups always chose New Testament-so dear friends you might note that today’s lesson and for  the next three Sundays comes from the Old Testament. Coincidence perhaps-and then again perhaps not. J

Our story begins today in Exodus. You may all well know that the previous book Genesis ended with Joseph, the son of Jacob, being the hero and the rescuer as he delivered the people of Israel, the sons of Jacob, from famine by bringing them down to Egypt. Joseph welcomed his family and so did all the people of Egypt welcome these immigrants to a foreign land. They were well received and were given a new home. And we enter into the book of Exodus, 400 years later, 400 years from the welcome of immigrants and opening up their society to those in need, to turn and to close themselves to these Israelites-these Hebrews. The welcomed people are now the oppressed and living in slavery.

Now most of you are going to tell me this morning that you know all about the story of Moses. And most of you know the story well because we have all watched Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments. And this is good news if we remember the story.

The people of Israel were a people familiar with chaotic times. They had threats surround them and times of helplessness and serious conditions befell them. Their history speaks of the need for God to intervene in the most chaotic and horrendous times. This story of Moses and his leading of the people out of Egypt is the core of the faith of the Jewish people. God the great God is the one who rescues his people.

Every story has its beginning and the beginning of the Moses story is essential to the Jewish faith and its spirituality. There is much here about the sovereignty (the BIGness) of God about how God intervenes through the lives of people who do not even know God or acknowledge God’s existence.

There is much here about how a life of purpose comes unwittingly through the hands of others and how they mold and shape and prepare those in their care for the greater things of life.

Imagine if we were aware of the impact we had on the lives of people with whom we work or care for or encounter on a daily basis?

Think perhaps even how we might have been the instrument of being the ‘angel unaware’ as we assisted someone by the roadside or took in an animal needing shelter or simply smiled at a person in line at the grocery store.

There were so many players to make this event come to pass; the midwives, the mother, the sister, the Egyptian princess, all who acted from the heart, their hearts which were filled with love and concern for life. This princess who rescues the Hebrew baby ends up being the giver of life to the one who ultimately rescues all of God’s people from oppression, from slavery. Moses is known as the redeemer of the Jewish people.

The story works through many facets of planned and unexpected turns for the sake of the life of Moses.

His mother makes a basket for him and places it in the reeds near where she is aware the princess comes on a daily basis to wash. The reeds I assume are much like the shallows we have around here, where one can walk through them waist high. The princess has much autonomy in the Egyptian culture as well as authority to execute contracts and secure personnel.

She does so with the mother of Moses who then becomes the caretaker of her own son in the palace of the pharaoh. We can be sure that she nurtured his mind and character and instilled in him the values and traditions cherished by his people.

The salvation of Moses from certain death through the acts of others on his behalf points again to the power of God at work to bring about the salvation of all of God’s people. The very act of placing Moses in the waters is to put him in a vulnerable spot.

How could a mother do that?

How could mother put her child vulnerable to the elements of the water?

We who are the people who live between the waters know very well what it is like to be vulnerable on the water.

 We know about storms and seas and wind.

We know about going under and coming up again.

We know about how we are at the mercy of the elements when we place ourselves on the water.

Yet, this mother knew that to be vulnerable enough to place her child in the water was to place him in the hands of God, the Creator and giver of life.

We do the same through the act of baptism.

We place our children in the waters of baptism

placing them in the hands of God

and offering them up to new life in Christ.

In this story God is not mentioned on purpose. Because the writers of this story knew that the people hearing it and reading it would have also known all those other regional stories about babies in the water and how the gods intervened. God’s name is withheld to remind the people of the power of God fully present in the most vulnerable times. Again, pointing out the BIG God, the sovereign God we have who provides for us and uses the least likely to fulfill God’s will.

There are people who God has put in place to be vulnerable and take risks.

It happened in my life.

People came alongside and took the risk to invite.

A young girl who had no use for God,

who had no faith in God,

who had little faith experience

and people chose to invite,

despite the negative response.

And so after a yes to the invitation

and several weeks that followed

and continued yesses to invitations,

I too became vulnerable

to the place God had brought me

opening up to a new way of life with Christ.

And the most powerful sealing moment

was when the priest

shed his ecclesiastical robes

and became Christ for me.

He knew I was not baptized

nor would I have the opportunity

to be confirmed

or to join the church

or to be in full communion

and he became vulnerable to the moment

and he offered the bread and the cup to me

and my life was forever changed.

To be vulnerable is to take the risk that God will not only carry us on the water but will take us through the waters into new life.

To be vulnerable is to trust ourselves in the hand of God!

Offering ourselves to God,

to allow God to breathe the breath of life in us,

to allow the waters to flow freely,

is to say, “Take my Life and let it be all for Thee…”

Take my life, Lord.

Amen. 

12 Baskets

Sermon Matthew 14: 13-21 May 31, 2015 Casual Sunday/Church Picnic/Festival of Singing

12 Baskets

Leftovers in a deserted place, twelve baskets full!

Just to set the story straight-this is not a story like the story “Stone Soup”. The miracle here is bigger than that. We know that there were leftovers in this story and that is what the miracle is about. Matthew writes this story about the disciples and not the little boy.

It is a story about Jesus commissioning the disciples to do and be the pouring out of the abundance of miracles created by him.

In a world where refrigeration didn’t exist and Sunbeam Bread wasn’t heard of, the disciples were left with twelve baskets of food. What was Jesus thinking when he looked up to heaven to the God of glory?

What was Jesus thinking when he took the loaves and blessed them and then broke them and gave them to his disciples to share with the crowd?

Had Jesus forgotten the date stamp on the bread was only good until morning at best? As we look at the leftover baskets we could consider Jesus wasteful with the resources of God’s good earth. Perhaps Jesus just wasn’t as good at calculating for company when he performed the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. 

The disciples were amazed at what Jesus had done to satisfy the hunger of the people.

Yet, they were the ones who had to collect the baskets of leftovers and then figure out what to do with them.

It reminds me of another story in the Bible. When the people of Israel were wandering in the desert they were provided with manna-bread that rained down from heaven. There in the desert, the place of wandering, uncertainty and fragility, God made sure there was bread for every day. There was just enough for each day and no leftovers. The people were warned not to get too much because if they did the manna would rot and get worms.

In today’s text we find Jesus in a deserted place and he is trying to come to grips with the loss of his dearest friend John the Baptist.

But, Jesus has a crowd of followers who want to be close to him, to touch him and be healed by him. They don’t want to let him go for even a minute. They are hungry for his presence. They are hungry for his touch. They are hungry for his words. They are hungry for his love.  The text we read doesn’t say they were hungry for food. The disciples are the ones worried about that. It’s interesting that the ones closest to Jesus were worried about the scarcity around them. The ones who knew him best were the ones worried!

Perhaps it was Judas that was calculating the size of the crowd and realizing that there were not enough funds in the account to cover the cost of sustaining these people with a meal. Perhaps it was Peter who was looking at the amount of work it would take to prepare a meal and then have to share it. Peter saw 12 disciples and 5000 plus people and his head started spinning. There was no way that just a handful of people could do all the work. Or perhaps even John the beloved could only see the scarcity of the situation and couldn’t see past the lack of resources.

The leadership team was more worried about the reality of the situation and felt it their responsibility to let the Savior know that it was time to go. The disciples as they are watching Jesus perform miracles of healing are telling him there isn’t enough food so send those people home!

What is wrong with this picture? Can God provide a table of plenty in a deserted place?

Of course God can!! And that is the point of this miracle. In a world where bread had to baked daily and where the very act of making bread was a sacramental and time consuming process, Jesus held before the masses strength and sustenance. Jesus held before them the provision for their future, all that they needed and in abundance!

More than enough to go around, more than enough to be filled to overflowing, more than enough to have to worry about the leftovers.

When the focus is on the scarcity of resources, God turns it around so that the focus is on the abundance! And this is Good News!

How we steward what is God’s that we can see creates the ethical and moral framework for what we don’t see. (Joel Salatin).

The miracle of this story is as much for us as it was for those first disciples.

When we are faced with the reality of something too big for our imagination that is staring us in the face (like the crowd staring Jesus and the disciples in the face) our tendency is to focus on our lack of resources, our inability to respond to something beyond our capacity or capabilities.

We are human and so all we see is what can’t be done. All we see is how there isn’t enough. All we know is how there aren’t enough people to help.

And when we are faced with a desert story like this one, we are just like the disciples and we speak to Jesus and ask him to send away the crowd. We want Jesus to send away our dilemma. We want to Jesus to send away our crisis, our difficult circumstances. We want Jesus to send away the crowd that is crowding in on us.

But, Jesus responds to us out of the same compassion that he did for the disciples and for the crowd. Everything about Jesus, his mission and ministry, stemmed out of his compassion for humanity.

He became God with us because of his love for us.

Jesus was all about God’s people and still is!

His desire is for us to do and be likewise.

Last year at the Wabash Pastoral Leadership program we (16 pastors) listened to Richard Gunderman the chancellor of the IU medical school. He reflected on the life of Kent Brantly one of his former students. Kent has made national news. He is the medical missionary for his church the Church of Christ serving with Samaritan’s Purse. He has contracted the Ebola virus from the very people he was serving in Liberia.

 Anyone would say he was foolish to take a risk like that knowing that he had a wife and two small children to care for.

Yet, this man even while in medical school had another purpose.

His whole focus of life was about serving God.

As Dr Gunderman said, “Kent sees the micro-challenges of his own life – what field to study, what career to pursue, what kind of husband and father to be – in terms of the macro-challenges of the world – mouths to be fed, wounds to be dressed, diseases to be treated, and suffering human beings to be comforted.” “Kent sees his life as serving others and has the courage to follow it.”

Being a disciple is not an easy task and standing there on the hillside with his disciples Jesus made that point clear as he lifted his head to heaven to bless the five loaves and two fish.

He poured out God’s love into the food before him.

He knew that this would be the one way the disciples could act on the resources that had been given to them as they too were called to go forth and share,

not from the reality of what they could see but from the compassion bubbling up from the heart of what they could not see.

Jesus was setting them up to be good stewards and create a new framework for their lives.

The question for us today is what task or situation before us is so big and so beyond our imagination that we would ask Jesus to send it away?

Are we unable to see the abundant leftovers that there will be because we are so focused on the scarcity of the resources around us?

Jesus shows us in this miracle to remind us that all the resources are there. 

All we need to do is respond from a heart of compassion for the bigger picture.

Twelve baskets of leftovers! One basket full for each disciple!

We are not told how the disciples probably had to scramble to figure out how to share this abundance.

We are not told what their reaction was to this new dilemma.

But we get the joy of God’s work among God’s people. We get it! We really do!

Think of some of the activities we have done together as a church. How many of those activities would have died on the drawing table if we had said things like, “we are small, we don’t have enough people, we don’t have the funds, we don’t have the energy etc.”  But, we haven’t done that (even if we thought it).

And we have been blessed with leftovers!

How will we be good stewards of the leftovers?

How will we handle the baskets of good fruit?

There were twelve baskets and twelve disciples just enough for each one to carry and bring to someone to keep the abundance of giving going.

Jesus gives us more than manna for our daily bread. He gives us leftovers to carry with us and share with others. He gives us so much that we are not depleting our resources but are giving from the abundance given to us.

Let us offer our hearts to God, be blessed and broken, and poured out for many. Amen.

Enter!

A Call to Worship/or a poem of invitation/or whatever...

Enter!

Chalon sur Saone port de l'eglise

Come! Enter with me!

Open the windows,

Tear open the shutters, push the cobwebs away,

Let the breeze, the wind, the air fill this place.

Enter! Open the doors, break open the locks, don’t be afraid

Let the doubt and certainties, let the fears and failings get swept away,

Let the rhythm of songs, let the refrain of praise lead the way.

Come! Enter with me!

Come men and women, girls and boys,

Come neighbors and shop keepers, come vacationers and strangers,

Let the refrain of summer,

the sun, the sea, the sounds of birds

open our eyes, fill our nostrils, and unplug our ears.

Let the whole world find the way to enter here!

Come! Enter with me!

Let the sounds, the rhythms, the refrain of life’s love

-the God who sets us free-

Ring true for you and me.

Come! Enter with me!

The place is clear, the space is safe, the sound is sacred.

Let the refrain of worship,
glory and honor, prayers and wonder,
be from the beginning and forever
our way of life to be.

Come! Enter with me!

For All the Saints-a Memorial Day poem/thought

For All the Saints-a Memorial Day poem/thought

For all the Saints who from their labors rest

That in thy name oh Jesus, they be ever blest.

Your soldiers Lord they lived and died

protecting those from every side

Their lives they gave oh God most high

keeping watch by day and night

Your people first they were and

then to you they gave their souls

as they fought the fight from coast to coast

to bring again the peace of earth

to which creation was once had known.

For all your saints who from their labor rest

may we who live today give honor to their names.

May we who live today remember all their faces

and say their names so in our pause this day

we may know their lives were not in vain.

For all your saints who from their labors rest

soldiers of the world, not just of this place,

have given to those who trusted them

to do the work to end the strife of pain and hate,

to bring a place where flowers grow

and love is stronger than the foe.

Help us oh God not to forget those who went before

and fought for all you taught to love and honor and obey

the kingdom rules given on a mountain so far away;

To love the stranger, widow, orphan and to walk in God’s ways.

And so today in honor of all the saints who from their labors rest

we will your people be and never to forget

we too shall lift our hearts and brave we shall be

and with the force of love, peace will cover the land and sea.

And creation in harmony will find its rest indeed. 

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.

God’s Kids-That’s Us

Sermon 1 John 5:1-6 May 10, 2015 Easter 6 Mother’s Day

God’s Kids-That’s Us

Today is a good day to remember what it’s like to be a kid. We can begin by making a funny face. What, you ask, a funny face?

Are you kidding!

Really, let’s see if we can try to look at each other and make a funny face or a silly expression. Making funny faces is one way to be a kid again. Hopefully by just mentioning the idea of being silly makes us laugh inside. We might be adults but according to Scripture we are still kids.

We are God’s kids!

We are bound together in love of God, Christ and one another. This text draws us inexplicitly into the promise of God through Jesus Christ. As we love God who is our parent we also love the child who is the Son. And as we love the Son we heed the commandment of the Son to love one another. It sounds more like a round or a spiral kind of logic that seems a bit too simple to grasp as adults. Life is more complicated than that, we say. Yet, when is the last time we looked at life more simply?

Perhaps on days like today, days in which we bring honor to parents-specifically today mothers, we have the opportunity to look back at what it was like to be the child. Now I know for some looking back at childhood can be painful, or disappointing. Perhaps childhood had many unrequited dreams or lost loves and dashed hopes. But, perhaps also there were times of joy and wonder and amazement that remain untapped.

God, the parent, the creator of life, the creator of this world established all things with love and with care. God’s desire in creation was to fill the world and human life with good things. In creation and in this text of 1^st John we are reminded whose we are. We belong to God and therefore also God’s Son, Jesus the Christ who gave us the example of true love by giving his life for us.

We are God’s kids-that’s us.

You, your neighbor, your parents, your children, your friends and your enemies are all God’s creation and therefore God’s own.

And this makes the idea of loving all God’s children challenging.

But, the writer here tells us these commandments are not burdensome. The command to love is not meant to be hard or weighty or even painful. Yet, we know too well the cost of love. We have been witnesses to the loss of those we love and we have experienced the pain of love that was returned with hurt.

Yet, love is the theme of our faith.

It is the basis of who we are in God and it is the ungirding of our very life.

And so, I return to what it’s like to be a kid and ways in which we too can discover the simpler things, the essence of what makes us smile inside. For, I am convinced that in these simple moments of joy, laughter, and wonder, we rediscover the truth of love.

Here are some ways to be a kid again:

Make a funny face

Color in a coloring book

Eat ice cream for dinner

Plan a play date with a friend

Buy a stuffed animal and pretend to go on a safari

Build something with Legos

Go to the park and swing on a swing or go down the slide

Wear purple or anything you want, striped socks or polka dots

Sing

Dance.

In letting loose we are reminded of the freedom we have in our very being. As we open ourselves up to a freedom of being we open ourselves up to genuine love, a place where love flows freely. In a childlike nature we are more willing to give and receive love. God, the parent has freely given. God has not forced love but offered it from generation to generation, from family to family, from community to community. Love from God doesn’t come to us through fear or any form of coercion. Our relationships with others ought not be based on fear or coercion either.

By allowing God’s love to come through us we are able to trust and in trust our faith grows and this leads us to deeper and more caring relationships.

In God’s call to obedience in love we also recognize that obedience requires recognition of limits. At Helen’s funeral this week her daughter Barbara spoke eloquently of the gift her mother gave to her children-love, limits, and letting go. These were wise words to pass on to another generation. God’s love for us works in the same way.

Limits are given out of love and for protection and care. God as parent does not want us walking into places that will cause us harm. When I took a course in ministry one of the tools they gave us was when to say something and when not to. The acronym they gave us was U-HALT.

It was there to guide us from doing harm to others or ourselves through our actions or words. It was an acronym to use as a self check. Whenever we felt unappreciated or we were hungry, angry, lonely, or tired we should stop what we were doing or saying and take a break.

Our obedience to God in our giving is also obedience in knowing when to stop and take a break. This too is a way of living in love.

As God’s kids-yes, that’s us, we have the opportunity to conquer the world through faith. We can think like kids and believe in the day when love wins. We are all in this mission together. We are compelled and propelled by the love given us as we share the embrace of God with others. We all have gifts given to us and God call us to use them. Let’s plan to go forth together in God’s name of Love.

Perhaps this love thing is simple-we might think too simple-but it is never trite.

 It is true and sure and strong.

Go ahead, make a funny face and discover the child like joy in being God’s own. Amen.

Ode to my Mother

Ode to my Mother

Ode to my mom:
you never baked cakes or cookies,
you didn't attend our concerts and games,
you didn't sit up with us late into the night,
you didn't give kisses to our bruised knees
or egos,
you didn't tell us you loved us
until late in life;

BUT

you courageously crossed two oceans
to bring us to new life,
you left behind all you knew
so we could know another way, 
you held it together 
when life fell apart, 
you took on challenges 
that no other would have, 
you paved the way 
in a unique manner 

AND 
that is why I am proud 
to call you 
my mother. 

Happy Mother's Day 
to all those women 
who have paved 
the way for others.

written May 2011

The Hardest Question

Sermon Acts 8:26-40 May 3, 2015 Easter 5-Communion

The Hardest Question

One of my greatest joys in ministry over the years has been working with youth. The opportunity to be present with youth as they discover their faith and grow into it has filled me with rejoicing.

Weekly encounters with them through youth group allowed us to get to know each other on deep levels. But the situations where we were able to witness great growth in their faith and their maturity was during retreats, confirmation and mission trips.

I always wondered why it was in those settings that hearts became more open.

I’ve realized much had to do with the work God was doing in the lives of these youth as they experienced new situations.

                   But, I’ve also realized this was a time that

                                       God’s Spirit took me and the leaders and told us ‘to get up and go.’

The transformation in us and our lives was as strong as the transformation in the lives of the youth.

This story in Acts is about Philip, the eunuch and the Spirit of God.

Three times in this story the Spirit is leading.

Luke makes some strong points in this text to draw our attention to the details of how humans encounter each other through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Philip is told by the Spirit to get up and go towards Gaza via a wilderness road. Philip doesn’t ague with the Spirit or talk about how he’s not equipped or even fuss about that he is being sent on the road known as the wilderness road. He responds to the call to go and does just that.

One year our youth mission trip was to the Louisville Hotel in the town of , you guessed it, Louisville, Kentucky. It was a hotel that had been abandoned and would have been torn down until an organization decided it would be a great place for a homeless facility. It was a building that wasn’t just used to house the homeless, but everywhere you turned at the reception desk, the concierge, the restaurant, the gift shop, the housekeeping, and laundry were all run by people who had been homeless and had been taught the skills of hotel management.

It was a bit of a risky setting with youth who had never worked one on one but we decided we were up to the challenge. We stayed in the same hotel with those who needed refuge for the night and those who had been there for years.

The devotional book we used during that week was titled, “Do Hard Things.” It was written by youth for youth. We studied the chapter entitled “that first scary step-how to do hard things that take you out of your comfort zone.”

The authors sited three reasons why youth (and we know we are no different) do not get involved in ministry or even life for that matter.

1.They are not as good as someone else they know;

2.they don’t have all the resources they think they need;

3.and they don’t want to fail and look like losers.

The misconception hiding in these reasons, the authors point out are-

1. God only uses the best and the brightest,

2.God only uses people when all the tools are in the right place, and

3.God only uses people if they can get credit for good work.

The hardest question for the youth on that trip was to meet the homeless where they were,

                          to listen to their stories without judgment,

                                                       and to hear God in the midst of all of it.

But, the harder question for we, the leaders, was where were our preconceived opinions about homelessness, and how willing were we to allow God to open our hearts and minds to think and act in a new way?

How willing were we to accept the Spirit’s leading to share and to welcome the least of these?

Philip was faced with the leading of the Spirit to run to the chariot of a foreigner, to engage in conversation with an outcast. He was called by God to move toward a person outside of his known world.

Yet, this outcast welcomes Philip into his chariot to explain the word of God that he does not understand.

The eunuch is reading from the 53^rd chapter of Isaiah, the fourth depiction of the suffering servant. He asks Philip who is this servant? And Philip begins to teach that this servant is the one he knows as Jesus the Christ. He teaches that this Old Testament prophecy has been fulfilled in Jesus and that no one is excluded from entering into the community of faith. Despite any teachings or doctrinal laws that Philip has understood from the past none of them seem to enter into his conversation with this man.

Here was a man who was quite wealthy because he had his own chariot and could afford his own written scroll of Scripture. He held a most elite political position as the treasurer to the queen and he was well educated reading aloud the scriptures and pondering upon their meaning. In his world he had it all, he was well respected and trusted and had great responsibility.

Yet, in the religious world he was an outcast.

The laws of Deuteronomy and Leviticus banned him from full participation because of his nationality and his gender condition. He was not permitted in the full assembly of the Temple.

Yet, his greatest desire was to worship God.

He had been to Jerusalem to worship and was on his way home to Ethiopia. There at the Temple he was again reminded of his condition and the restrictions it held from fully being included into the household of faith. As he traveled home he was reading from the prophet Isaiah. The book of the Old Testament known as a book of hope and promise. Perhaps he chose to read from this prophet to find comfort in hopes for the future. Chapter 56 of this book held the promise that there would be a time when eunuchs and others would enter into full participation in the assembly and they would receive a name greater than sons and daughters.

And there was Philip led by the Spirit rather than doctrine to share the good news of one who knew suffering and one who too had been cast out. Philip was transformed in this leading from God as it led him into ‘places no human authority had permitted him to go.’

And then Philip was faced with the hardest question,

“What is to prevent me from being baptized?”

Here before him was a man with the wrong job, the wrong country, and the wrong physical or gender condition.

And yet, God’s grace opened wide that day, wider than had ever been known.

Here in this moment of poured out water Philip responds to the Spirit’s calling to gather in the lost, the marginalized, the pushed away and the forgotten.

His mission marked the first step in spreading God’s Word beyond Jerusalem and tradition.

His openness to radical inclusion helped create the character of the church community.

Being followers of Jesus causes us to do hard things and to be faced frequently with the hardest questions.

Where does God’s Spirit lead the people who claim Christ today?

Is the church today still an instrument of the restoration of all people?

Is the character of the church still revolutionary in its radical inclusion of all those seeking to know God?

The end result for the eunuch was that he left rejoicing and the Word of God spread throughout Ethiopia.

May we as God’s people be open to the Spirit’s leading and

be open to “Do Hard Things.”

Amen.

Resources: “Feasting on the Word” Year B Volume 2; Do Hard Things by Alex & Brett Harris

Sunday Prayer  by rachelhackenberg

What a wilderness road this is, O God our God.
You call us to engage its mysteries, its challenges,
and its unexpected encounters -- and we call you
to guide us and to be with us along this journey.

No matter how far we wander, how wild the wilderness,
whether our days feel easy or our lives feel burdened,
you are our hope, our praise, and our satisfaction.
In gratitude, we name our joys before you: ______.

Trusting in your faithfulness, appealing to your grace,
we give voice to our stresses, our worries, our fears,
and our sadnesses: ______. Be a loving presence,
we pray, and a healing touch to all who need you.

O God, tip your hand at long last and let justice flow.
Strengthen those who are marching in the streets,
calling for a new day; sustain those in marbled halls
who are working to overturn racism in our institutions.

We long for your love and your peace in our world and
in our lives; insist that we find your love in one another.
Embolden us to be shameless, foolish even, in risking love
for the sake of heaven and earth. In Jesus' name, we pray.

God’s Pursuit!

Sermon Psalm 23 April 26, 2015 Easter 4 Shepherd Sunday

God’s Pursuit!

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

² He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

³ He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

⁵ Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Six verses.

                 That’s all there are.

                            The most famous six verses of the Bible in the King James Version.

Those who have never opened the Book or ever entered into the walls of the church know these six verses.

We heard these words recited at gravesides day after day. We know these words as they are shared at the bedside of those we love in hospitals and nursing homes. We know these words in dark shadows of the night as we whisper them to calm our fears.

Psalm 23 is a psalm we know for bad and sad times. Yet, it is more than that-it is also a psalm rich for life and for good times. In it we discover the very nature of God in a way might not have imagined before.

There is a radical nature of God exploding upon us at the very end in the last verse. And so that is where we’ll begin. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

As I shared with the children, we have a God who we cannot shake. In the game of tag the end game is to catch the one we pursue. The end game is to keep chasing until we tag the intended target. Radaph or Radap in the Hebrew for follow is God’s active pursuit! God’s pursuit of us is active and unrelenting. God, like the hound of heaven, is nipping at our heels. God is chasing you and me all the days of our life!

And God’s pursuit is one of goodness and mercy.

Mercy in the Hebrew is written as Hesed. Here as we look at the letters-three letters-(to describe something about God that we lose in translation)-our English language cannot capture the fullness of this word about God.

God’s great and most amazing love, mercy, grace and kindness are all wrapped up in this one word Hesed. We aren’t being chased by judgment or a harsh God but by all that is good!

So, if we know from the beginning that God is in hot pursuit of us with goodness and hesed. God’s most fundamental nature is one of goodness and Hesed-mercy, grace, and love!!

It is then without a doubt that the psalmist could give God the most royal and kingly title of Shepherd. The Hebrew word for shepherd is ‘roi’ And so here in the very beginning this psalmist makes it clear who he is committed to and who he is loyal to-and how he is fully dependent on God. God is ours and we are God’s!

There are many names the Old Testament uses for God but in this psalm it is not Elohim or another name but the very name the Jews would not pronounce out of utter respect and awe God. The name for God used here is, the I AM, our Shepherd.

We have all learned about Shepherds and we know very well what they do and if don’t we know how to google it and find out. We heard in this morning’s reading from the gospel of John who Jesus is as the Good Shepherd and how he cares for his flock, his sheep, that he lays down his life for them.

A shepherd is responsible for a flock, to guide them and protect them. A shepherd does what it takes to keep the flock calm and keeps them from getting lost. They give their life to this occupation, they spend all day with them and if they have traveled too far to bring them home at night they will stay with them until morning. The prophet Ezekiel describes God as a loving shepherd. The prophet Isaiah also uses the shepherd to describe God’s protective care as well as God’s sacrificial love.

And isn’t that what we all need,

what we all want and

what we all hope for?

Just like children trust their parents to keep them from harm and we trust our doctors to keep us healthy and we trust our local and national leaders to keep us secure, we want to trust that our God can do the same and more.

But when bad and sad news comes close to home,

when it hits our family and our friends,

we need the promise of a psalm like this one to sustain us through these dark times.

The earthquake in Nepal,

a devastating church fire in Paris Tennessee,

a death of a child seeking a toilet in a country where homes do not have them,

a child who hurts herself because her pain within can’t find relief,

a child injured by people who are supposed to protect her,

the diagnosis of cancer,

the presence of illness and loss and pain

have done more than make the news,

they have been part of our personal family pain this week.

We need this psalm of promise to carry us through the unfairness of this world and to get us beyond the evil that seeks to prevail over us.

And that is one reason why the verse of darkness of the valley impacts us so strongly. The deep valley that has dark shadows and frightening circumstances perhaps even an abyss of threats where it seems there is no way out.

God speaks to us and affirms that even in the death shadow of the valley we do not need to fear because the I AM, t

he Good Shepherd carries a rod

that will ward off evil and knock

senseless the wild beasts who seek to attack us.

The people of Exodus remember Moses and his staff. They remember being guided through the wilderness without fail by God. The miracles of the past, the triumph over evil of the past, and the resurrection over death of the past, are the memories that strength our faith and restore our love.

Rabbi Harold Kushner tells of his son who was born with an incurable illness. He said looking back he wondered how he and his wife got through those times and he said that instead of this event shattering his faith it strengthened it. He said they used up all the resources within themselves and realized the only answer to the difficulties was to turn to God who restored their love and faith. He wrote the book “When bad things happen to good people” because of this experience. Just as God carried the people through the wilderness, God our Shepherd will bring us through our wilderness.

Jesus proclaimed that he is the Good Shepherd. He said he is the “I AM” the true shepherd that has come to gather his people and restore them to himself. As we look to God for our strength and renewal through this psalm we can also look to Christ and know that he has also been through the valley for our sake. He has come through on the other side. His death and resurrection assures us and gives us hope that he not only is there to greet us on the other side of the valley but he is with us every step of the way never letting us leave his side.

But we can’t stop here with the psalm because it is more than comfort in bad and sad times it is one that fills us with good things. So we can have a new way of using these words to refresh and fulfill us. We discover God as the one who provides us with food and drink and shelter, our most basic necessities.

We lack for nothing.

All is provided.

Our lives are fully dependent on God.

The imagery of green pastures and still waters are so strong to our senses that we can see and

feel and

even touch.

God brings us to places of healing and refreshment. The Hebrew word for lie down offers the image of being stretched out. Now those of you who do yoga, you understand this image. And those of you who have been part of one Debbie and Nina’s contemplative retreats, you get this idea of stretching out full before God.

It’s like lying on our backs, looking up at the fluffy clouds floating by in a bright blue sky while the green lush grass is beneath us filled with soft clover flowers cushioning us like a down comforter.

Some people I know who are much better at rest and quiet reflection than I am have shared with me how they have discovered the place where they can connect with God. They have a few places where they go and in those places God stretches them out and quiets their spirit.

One friend shares with me how her garden filled with flowers and working in the dirt is the way God enters as she kneels by the earth.

Another friend who goes fishing and he goes down to the river or creek he watches the water ebb and flow. He said it still his mind and refreshes him as well as a cool glass of sweet ice tea.

Another friend has an amazing workshop where he works and creates art with wood or canvas and in his workshop he finds the shelter of the Lord.

Yes, we are struck deeply by this psalm as it has become part of our own makeup, our very being ushered into the arms of a personal God. We’ve been drawn together as the flock of the Shepherd, the Church, the Body of Christ. God’s immeasurable abundant desire for us is set at the table. God brings our cups to overflowing.

God’s pursuit is unrelenting.

Goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for days without end. Amen.