Jesus, Shine in Us

Sermon Matthew 17:1-9 February 26, 2017 Transfiguration

Jesus, Shine in Us

Some of you may have heard me say this week say that I really don’t like preaching about Jesus’ transfiguration. And you may have wondered, “What’s got in to her?”

It’s not that I don’t appreciate the story of Jesus on the mountain with Moses and Elijah. Nor do I refute the story of Peter’s desire to build tents for the three and stay awhile. I do not have a problem with shimmering glory or dazzling whites either. But, I want to think and preach differently today. Listen to this sentence-I’ll read it twice.

The power of the divine mystery in which our faith seems to totter with the practical and pragmatic action of faith keeps us at odds with what we can let go and to what we can hold on.

You see this is a Sunday that we sing the contemporary song (if we think songs from the 80’s is contemporary) Shine Jesus Shine.

We get all caught up in the mountain top experience.

We learn about how we cannot stay on the mountain.

We hear that life is lived in the valley and on the plains.

It’s almost as if we hear this incredible powerful story of God’s ability to transform and we miss the whole point.

We take a story of mystery and power and reduce into a moral lesson.

We chastise Peter once again for ‘not getting it’.

We pride ourselves in being able to understand the story.

We praise God for all our own moments of being on that mountain where we had our all time ‘mountain top’ experience and we ‘got it’.

We preachers preach about how those moments nourish us to get us down the mountain to be able to do the work of God in the world.

It all sounds so wonderful and uplifting.

But, I struggle with all those ways in which we tell this story

because there’s a part of me that doesn’t believe that.

I don’t think we can reduce God to a moral lesson.

I think as preachers we do that because We DON’T understand the mystery.

I’d rather discover the power of God to transform.

God was there on the mountain with six figures-Peter, James, John, Jesus, Elijah and Moses. We discover the miracle of the story is that: God spoke. Jesus reached out and touched. The disciples changed.

We are moving into the season of Lent.

It makes sense that we have this story of Jesus the Sunday before we open our hearts to God for examination.

We move into Lent every year with a bit of trepidation.

We wonder how much navel gazing God will demand of us as we learn about ourselves. We are a bit afraid of what we might discover.

We don’t necessarily like this season.

We’d prefer to be in Advent in that hopeful waiting for the baby to appear.

Yet, in Lent we are in a hopeful waiting to witness God’s power at work to bring life to death and death to life.

In this season, God is at work within us.

God is in the transformation business.

God is in the change business.

God will not let us stay the way we are.

God is forever at work drawing us near and shining within us.

Karoline Lewis says, “The transfiguration is the threshold moment between what was and what is to come. You get a glimpse of what could be, when actually it was there all along.” This transfiguration story is an ongoing story of God’s power to change us and move us.

It is not a morality story but a miracle story.

One way God’s power changes us is into salvation. God speaks. Our salvation story is the mystery of God incarnate present with us to engage us into a life lived through mercy, justice and humbly walking with God.

Salvation is God’s grabbing us and not letting go. It’s the part of our life where we turn in every which way to wonder who God is and why God is. And then in a moment in which we cannot explain God becomes fully present shining in us.

Like Peter, we are full of questions and full of a need for explanation and reason.

Like Peter, we need to hold on to what we know and we are afraid to let go of what we do not know.

We need God to show us and have it make sense. Part of confirmation that matters to me most is the freedom to ask questions. For we find our faith is not about answers but is all in our questions. In the truth of seeking God, we God is revealed in us.

The glory of God’s incarnation, God’s transformation of our relationship with God is one we cannot fully explain. We are continuously drawn to God in our desire for God.

We are on a path of being awakened to the joy of salvation as we enter and engage in those moments where we catch a glimpse of the Divine.

The mountain figuratively is where we catch that glimpse and it changes us forever.

Another way God changes us is through God’s presence. Christmas is the celebration of our faith that God came to live among us in Jesus the Christ. Jesus reaches out and touches. Lent is the time we move to allow the work of Christ to be fully present in us.

It is a time of transformation.

It is a time of change of who we are. And that friends can be exciting.

Yet, change can also bring grief.

Because as we look to life in the possibility of becoming new, we must let go of some of the ways which have become familiar to us.

Sometimes we need to be in a place we do not wish to be. In this place God is mightily at work. God’s presence in us stirs us, comforts us, and provides for us. We look to one another and realize we are the body of Christ transformed as a community built up together with the foundation of God’s love for us.

This power of the presence of Jesus begins to shine even brighter within us.

And then the thought of change is an anticipation of joy rather than sorrow.

Imagine what God can do over the next several weeks as we open our hearts in new ways!

Finally, God’s transformation moves us into action. We, the disciples are changed.

This year on Ash Wednesday when we recognize our messy lives and messy world and our mortality we will say to God we are ready.

We are ready to know we are finite. We are ready to know this life is but a moment.

We are ready to know that in God’s hands dust lives.

And in the power of God all things are possible.

We will embrace the mystery of our salvation.

We sense the presence of Jesus with us always.

We will be changed.

We can and will become the change agents God wants for this world.

We will receive courage where we were once afraid.

We will receive joy where we once had sorrow.

We will show mercy where we once had anger.

We will work for justice where we once had apathy.

Because we have seen his glory. We can say, ‘Jesus, shine us’; even sing it in that 80’s version.

In dazzling glory Jesus resides in us.

And we can and will be transformed. Always transforming and drawing nearer and nearer to God. Amen.

Resources:  Feasting on the Word; Working Preacher Karoline Lewis

God first, Us Second

Sermon 1 Corinthians 3: 1-9 February 12, 2017 Ordinary time

God first, Us Second

When we hear the words of Paul we wonder which words gets our attention? He says so much in each of his phrases.

Going back to chapter one of First Corinthians, and all the way here to chapter three, he talks about allegiance and the cross and babies and plants and buildings and servants. It can be a challenge to keep up with him.

There are a few things to keep in mind when we read this letter of Paul to the Corinthians.

One: the letter is directed to the believers in the church.

Two: the letter is in response to the reports he has received about the behavior of the believers and the way they worship.

Three: he is none too happy with how they are representing the Way of Christ.

The letter however, is more than a reprimand, it is an encouragement for the believers. Paul, shares with them the purpose of the church, the order of worship, and how to prioritize everyday living.

Perhaps the most comforting thing to notice is that the earliest churches were not perfect. All the letters in the New Testament provide a glimpse into the churches of the first centuries. They had so many concerns with how to be a church and how to manage life as faithful followers.

They didn’t start out perfect and so when we look back to what might have been in our imagination as the ‘glory days’ of the church, we can read today’s lesson and know that every age has had its issues.

Here in Corinth, the church had become divided.

People were taking sides.

They had chosen a person who they felt was the best leader and they were standing behind that person.

Worse yet, they were claiming themselves better than the others.

They began spouting off at how their way was best and their leader had more qualifications than the other.

It was getting rather ugly to the point that the people outside the church witnessed the division within it.

I think all of us have experienced a time either in the church or in the workplace or in the neighborhood, where one person began to have the idea that they were of superior wisdom about something

and a group stood behind them

and then before you can blink

everyone is divided over something rather simple

(or at least you thought it was simple).

You can think of things, such as carpet

or curtain color,

or where to put the staff water cooler,

or how many chickens can you have in the neighborhood,

or whether skateboards can be on the sidewalk.

Paul does not say that the people should not have opinions

or should not have the ability to make difficult decisions.

However, he points out their way of going about it removes God from the equation.

By lifting up someone other than to whom we belong we place ourselves in idol worship. It happens so easily.

By claiming that Apollos had superior wisdom than Paul the believers were not putting God first. They were putting themselves first.

It is the presence of the Spirit in our lives that gives way to Christ-like living.

Holding our allegiance firmly in Christ we allow the Spirit to fill our lives with those special gifts of kindness, gentleness, patience, self-control.

In this manner, we are able to have a determined focus of our heart, soul and mind.

And in so doing when the desire to call someone out or to seek to divide for one’s own self-promotion-our hearts are quickly called to task.  

(I am Second videos-these videos can be found online as famous people share how they have learned to put themselves second and God first)

I watched a 60 Minutes episode about the Pope’s Choir.

It was a wonderful story describing how boys and men are selected for this choir that songs for the Vatican events and for the pope.

The choir director talked about how the choir was before he became the director. He said the choir had a poor reputation. It was considered a cacophony of sound. He remarked many of the members were present to promote their own wonderful voice. He said they sang over each other, they were loud and most of all they did not harmonize. With his determination to move the choir from self-promotion to realizing who they were truly singing for, he began to hear the difference.

The choir today is known for its beauty, its angelic sound. The members are very proud of their ability to work together to create the most magnificent sound to reach the very heights of heaven.

Putting Christ first in our everyday life does not mean we are “amening” or “praise Jesusing” at every breath.  

Putting Christ first unifies our heart, soul and mind with the will of God. And in so doing we can trust our conscience, our gut, in our decisions as we wake for the day.

What I appreciate when Paul gives us the example of planting, watering, and God giving the growth, is that hard work by individuals is still honored. Paul and Apollos and many other saints down through the ages have been hard at work planting and watering and we honor them and remember them for all they have done to bring us to where we are today. So, as we continue the legacy of planting and watering we can be assured that God is with us bringing about growth.

Part of the purpose of the church is the common purpose of planting and watering. We are in the business of sharing the love of God and allowing for opportunities to grow in faith and love.

Within these walls in worship we gather, we pray and support, we fellowship, we strengthen each other’s faith, we teach, we serve, all in the spirit of the love of Christ. Whether we are working together within this church or in the community with several churches we serve a common purpose.

Sanctuary French Reformed Church Autun, France

A few years ago, around 130-202 AD there lived a man. Ok, so it was a little more than a few years ago. Irenaeus was a Bishop in Lyon, France. It was during the time of the martyrdom taking place in the amphitheaters there. Christians in this city really did suffer persecution. Irenaeus of Lyon was a source of strength and courage for the believers. He counseled believers saying, “take refuge in the church; drink its milk, be fed by the Scriptures of the Lord.” He said, “the church has been planted in the world as a paradise.” The church was an oasis for the believers. A place where they could gather in security and sacredness from a dark and chaotic world. The church in the early century in Lyon was a haven and believers were eager to there.

May the churches in this current world be a refuge, a paradise, an oasis, a sacred safe space for all of God’s people.

May we be filled with the Spirit as God’s servants, working together as God’s field, God’s building. Amen.

Resources: Feasting on the Word. 

More Salt, Please

Sermon Matthew 5:13-20 February 5, 2017 Ordinary Time-communion at NMPC

More Salt, Please

As you heard in the children’s sermon, salt does a lot more than make our French fries taste great.

Salt makes colors pop, softens hide to make leather and is an essential ingredient in the production of plastics.

Now I’m sure when Jesus was sitting on the hillside sharing his thoughts with the crowd the idea of plastic toys and products was nowhere in his imagination.

But, truly salt is an essential component of life.

In the times before refrigeration salt preserved meats and lengthened the shelf life of many products.

Salt was so valuable that some people were even paid with it.

But, today, who cares about salt and light and the Law anyway?

Perhaps what’s most intriguing is that Jesus isn’t just having a nice conversation with the people on the hill to make them feel good.

His words are quite provocative.

His words were more than words of instruction;

                                                                they were and still are today a challenge, a call!

Dare we get up today and take God’s Law seriously enough that we will enact it in our every breath?

For Jesus says, “whoever does the Law and teaches others to do the same, they will be called great in heaven.”

So, then do we even know the Law to teach it?

Perhaps some of us still remember the ten commandments which we were taught in grade school Sunday school. Hmmm…let’s see if we can recite a few?

Oh yes,

1) I am the Lord thy god, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

2) Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

3) Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

4) Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

5) Honor thy father and thy mother.

6) Thou shalt not murder.

7) Thou shalt not commit adultery.

8) Thou shalt not steal.

9) Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

10) Thou shalt not covet anything that belongs to thy neighbor.

These were the first ten of 613 laws of Judaism. But Jesus also said this about the commandments: Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. — Matthew 22:35-40.

The easy way to remember this commandment from Jesus is to think of the cross. The cross has a vertical bar and a horizontal bar. The vertical bar relates to our relationship with God. It our understanding that we are to love God with our heart, soul and mind. The horizontal bar reminds us of our relationship with others and the world. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. SO, if we can’t remember the ten, we can easily remember the two.

In order to fulfill the fullness of the Law it appears, according to Jesus, that we have to begin with loving God and end with loving our neighbor.

That shouldn’t be too hard, should it?

Well, if only I knew your neighbor, you might be thinking.

Especially today being the Super Bowl you might have a split household on which team you will be rooting for-this could be a great challenge in living out the love your neighbor rule…

And isn’t it a gift to know that we can share the couch with friends of different teams and at the end of the game have our friendships intact. We can certainly be the same in our differences in many more things.

The greatest challenge I see with this call of Jesus in today’s terms,

is

how do I live a life that has the powerful, penetrating, preserving, and particular flavor of God’s kingdom’s good news?

Since salt is a penetrating, preserving, and has a particular flavor-how is God calling us to live our salty lives?

It makes me question what living like that looks like for me.

Does it mean marching in the streets,

or does it mean being at home knitting prayer shawls,

does it mean sending cards to soldiers overseas,

does it mean going to town council meetings,

does it mean volunteering in the schools?

I believe that God has a unique call on each of us.

God know who and how we are

and in that context God gives a job to do for the kingdom.

God might be asking us to just be present with someone who needs love.

And that is quite a heavenly task,

to join hands with someone and give them all your love.

Yes, God has something for each us in the midst of what we are already doing to bring a ‘pop’ of color to it and a ray of light.

Perhaps, all of these begins with a basic knowledge of what Jesus teaches us in the Bible. I would like to suggest that the good news that Jesus preaches is the news we should take some time to learn in the form of Bible study and reading of Scripture.

Old and New Testament.

In doing so we can get the flavor of God’s Word into our system and then shine forth with the light of the God we worship.

A second way that we can become the zesty salty folks (no not salty dogs-although some of you may prefer that), is to open our hearts to the practice of prayer. 

The more read and learn about Jesus,

the more we realize he was in communication with God as often as possible.

If we could begin our day and end it in prayer that would be a good start.

One of the joys of being around the elders of this church is their ability to pray without fear. They have provide an example of simple words spoken from the heart to God.

In choir we ask that someone say a prayer before we leave.

In the moment we hear such things as, “Lord thank you for getting us to hit the right notes in practice and help us do the same on Sunday.”

 Practice praying at mealtime if you don’t already do so.

Being grateful for the food before us helps us to then carry a grateful attitude toward other areas of our life.

As we pray for our meals we set an example for those who join us at the table of our home. This act is a simple way to share the good news of the kingdom.

Finally becoming salt and light and living the fullness of the Law in this day and time means answering the call of God for each of us.

The challenge is not for each us to be alike.

The challenge and the call is to be aware of God’s claim on us as God’s own and to live as God’s has uniquely called each of us.

Listen to your heart, for God is speaking to you there.

Listen to your neighbor for God is calling you to serve there.

Listen to your world for God is calling you to shine bright in it.

We are Christ’s body, his call to us is to be nourished by his Word,

to be strengthened by his love in prayer,

and to be made strong by his truth in service.

SO, in my prayer to Jesus, I’m asking him for more salt please.

Amen.

Blessed are They

Sermon Matthew 5:3-12 January 29, 2017 Ordinary time

Blessed are They

Children's sermon: the Bee-attitudes

sermon: 

The Beatitudes are beautiful aspiring words.

They look good on a plaque or cross stitch hung in the hallways of our homes.

They are sweet lovely platitudes that offer a sense of peace and comfort. We view them in this way and rarely consider them in other way.

Yet, these words of Jesus are a call to discipleship. They are a call to living for God. They are a call to live for the kingdom of heaven.

As a whole they are God’s blessings to have the ability to live for the pursuit of righteousness in accordance to God’s righteousness. To live as we heard from the verses of Micah 6:8, “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.”

The word beatitude comes from Latin beātitūdō, from beātus blessed. Beatitude means happy. William Barclay one of our contemporary theologians tells us that happy means, ‘a joy which has a secret within itself, that joy which is serene and untouchable, and self-contained…completely independent of all the chances and changes of life.’

The Beatitudes are a message of hope, simplicity and compassion in a world of chaos, confusion, and misery. And yet, when we hear them we wonder, “Who in their right mind, can achieve the lofty goal of living into each of these?

When we hear things such as the pursuit of righteousness, and blessed are the peacemakers, the people who pop into our mind are people like Mother Teresa, MLKjr, Desmond Tutu. As we think of these names we convince ourselves that we cannot measure up to these larger than life figures of our history. We set aside those beatitudes as something that ‘those’ people do. We cannot bring ourselves to think of them as a call to us.

Yet, each of these larger than life people did not aspire to make history. They started simply within their own context of living doing small things to make a difference where they were. They sought the kingdom-the desire for equality and humaneness for all-as their dream to reach. But, they lived practically one small step at a time until it grew as God allowed it to.

One thing about context for us to remember is that the gospel writer of Matthew placed these words of Jesus in what we call a narrative context. As we read through the gospel we are made aware of the sociopolitical climate into which Jesus was born. A climate of oppression under the Roman Empire. And his religious context was an environment of religious elitism and corruption. Both contexts put this Sermon on the Mount in direct contrast to the culture in which Jesus was living. Jesus presented to his listeners an alternative community. For the followers of Jesus, his disciples and his crowds of listeners-he provided them with the opportunity of another way. The Way of the future reign of God.

Jesus pronounces blessing upon those within his reach. He recognizes that the people surrounding him are the poor, the meek, the hungry. Through his words he reinforces the strong Jewish principles of living for God. He brings back the words of faithful living for the people. The words of Deuteronomy and Micah are threaded throughout these beatitudes.

The culture that Jesus was going against was a culture that dehumanized and dismissed people whether through political oppression or religious dogma.

Jesus is calling the disciples to action.

I guess you call Jesus’ agenda a political one or a counter religious for his time.

His agenda as we read these beatitudes is the pursuit of righteousness. And in his sociopolitical context this meant being willing to risk their lives for the sake of others- for the sake of the stranger, for the sake of their neighbor, for the sake of their children, for the sake of their loved one.

God always chooses the side of the weak, the forgotten, the despised, the justice seekers, the peacemakers, and the persecuted.

Jesus couldn’t be more relevant today than he was when he was walking the streets of Galilee.

Every century of our history has shown a time of sociopolitical unrest and oppression and worse it has shown religion in its most disturbing exclusionary ways.

Just this week we had Holocaust Remembrance Day. A day in my context of living which is so important. I spoke to my brother this week as well. In September I had given him copies of my father’s diaries. The diaries recorded my father’s experience during the war. My brother asked me about an entry about my grandfather being bedridden for three weeks. I shared the reason he was bed ridden was because he suffered from severe Rheumatoid arthritis and the complications of it caused him great immobility. The reason for the severity of the complications was because this was during the time that the only thing they had to eat was tulip bulbs. As a result of poor nutrition, he became bedridden. The context of where and how we live is so important to how we hear these words of Jesus and the words of Micah. My father’s family hoped for the day when someone out there would hear the cries of the people and come to do justice and love kindness.

Our opportunity in the context of our lives is to grasp the richness of the blessings that Jesus offers us.

As we live each day we have the opportunity to risk our life for the reign of God. We have the opportunity to stand up for those who are unable to stand up for themselves. Christ calls us to partner with him in the mission of the kingdom of heaven. To be his hands and feet and voice.

How do we practically risk our lives for the kingdom?

As we are blessed, so we choose to bless others.

It doesn’t take money we don’t have.

It doesn’t take time we don’t have.

It doesn’t take objects or possessions we don’t have.

What it takes is the awareness of who we are where we are.

As we drive kids to school we notice the person in the line ahead of us and we wave and smile.

We show kindness in every circumstance.

We help the person who dropped their groceries on the floor.

We call a neighbor when we go to the store and invite them to go with us-because we’re going anyway-it doesn’t cost us anything.

As we develop these small risks to reach out,

God grants us more courage to do more

and to step further beyond ourselves.

We can do this! We are blessed. And blessed are they! Amen. 

Knee Jerk Followers

It's been some time since I've posted a sermon. I appreciate those who read them. My prayer has been that posting them offers opportunity for further study and reflection. Blessings to you on your journey of faith,

Sermon Matthew 4:12-23 January 22, 2017 Ordinary Time

Knee Jerk Followers

Every time I read about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in the gospel of Mark or Matthew I’m struck by the reckless obedience of the disciples. I wonder what could have been so irresistible about Jesus’ authority to make people jump up and follow him at the call of their name? And it makes me wonder if Jesus still has people who are knee jerk followers when he calls their name?

The time in our church calendar from Christmas to Easter is a time of learning and commitment. We hear the stories about the life and ministry of Jesus.

One of the reasons for this is to help us recognize that Jesus did more than just come to be born and to die. Jesus came to bring life and to preach about the kingdom of God.

Our faith centers around the incarnation of God with us in Jesus and God the Christ who died and rose again.

And yet, our faith is more than this.

Our faith relies on the God who came to give us life and live among us. It is in the teachings of Jesus and his call to us that we learn about the God who loves and who calls us into a life of purpose. Jesus’ death and resurrection have no point unless it includes his life and his ministry.

This is why we have the gospels.

This is why we have the words of Jesus.

This is why we have the accounts of his miracles.

This is why we seek to live like him.

And this is why between Christmas and Easter we gather to listen and to learn all we can about the teachings of Jesus.

After his baptism at the river Jordan, Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

His ministry began here.

It is important for us to recognize that Jesus’ ministry had a beginning.

And so it is with us.

We are always beginning something in our life.

Here in this country we have a new beginning with a new president.

We have a new beginning with the largest ever Woman’s March around the world.

We have a new beginning with a gathering of two congregations for worship last Sunday. We have a new beginning in the church with new leaders, renewed vows of our elders.

Some beginnings are comforting and some are terrifying.

Some beginnings offer hope and some offer challenge.

The call Jesus gives to the fishermen was not a call to some future salvation, to some pearly gate in the sky.

The call Jesus gave to those fishermen, was the very present reality of the God of heaven, right there in their face, saying, “Come, be with me, come follow me, now. Now is the time for action, come and work with me.”

Can you imagine Jesus, ‘in your face’ calling your name?

Can you imagine if your child got up and joined some rag tag team and the only thing they told you was this guy came and asked them to follow him and they couldn’t refuse? You would be all over this guy.

You would call the cops.

You would do anything in your power to stop this person who is going around telling people stories and getting them to follow him. You and I both know that we would not let our kids join some group led by a guy who was acting against the current norms. We would not let them be part of some culture that speaks against what we consider appropriate. And yet, Jesus, did all that. It’s no wonder he ended up at the cross.

We live in an age of skepticism like no other age before. We can’t even agree which facts are the real facts. We debate and spend hours upon hours of news tape just to try to settle the argument of one factoid over another. Well, maybe, there was another time or two when people disagreed on facts-such if the earth was the center of the universe or if the sun revolved around it. Or when the earth was flat or was it really round. Those facts that were perpetuated until proven cost lives.

We are so hesitant to believe anything, that we prod, we test, we assess, we strip things down before we will offer or weigh in on what we believe.

We do the same with our decisions.

We spend more time analyzing and procuring information that by the time the opportunity to act has come, we have destroyed the opportunity into tables and details. And we miss the precious moment to act.

Augustine’s book, ‘Confessions’ is a great book. It’s simple, it’s small and it’s not difficult to read. In it is the story of how he came to a life of faith. He was one of the grandest skeptics of his time.

He opens his book with this, “our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.”

It would seem that this is the stirring that goes on within us as we seek to know God.

It is the restlessness of heart and mind that are within the depth of us as we grow and go through this life.

It is a preparedness for the moment that Jesus shows up at our seashore and says to us, “Come, follow me.”

And then in reckless abandonment we are ready to drop our nets,

to drop our preconceived notions,

to drop our worries,

to drop our skepticism,

to drop our burdens and

move forward into a life following him.

The scene played out before is the call of Jesus for now.

The fishermen dropped everything and followed him. Jesus calls us now to follow him into a life of action.

What things in our church are struggling to be born?

What things in our community are struggling to be born?

Are we aware of the things coming into the light?

Are we aware of the light that is rising within us daring to go forth?

And are we willing to hear the irresistible authority of God with us and respond with radical obedience?

The time is now. So, let us arise, for our light has come. Amen. 

A Place for Joseph

Sermon Matthew 1:18-25 December 11, 2016 Advent 3A

A Place for Joseph

Often life gets in the way of our perfect dreams.

We hope for order.

We seek peace.

We yearn for love.

We desire joy.

We want a place to call our own.

We want a place that offers us opportunity.

We want a place that provides us space for our perfect dreams to come true.

More often than not our place is found in the unexpected.

Our dreams are met through imperfection.

When we think about Joseph,

the one engaged to Mary,

we wonder what place he had in the story of Jesus our Savior.

Where does he fit into the narrative of Emmanuel, God with us?

We struggle to answer the question of who he is.

When we talk to our children about him as we put the nativity pieces together, we stumble over our words, “He’s, umm, he’s uhh, well, he’s Jesus’ earthly dad.” “He is the one who raised Jesus and taught him all he needed growing up.”

But, there is more to Joseph than this.

There is much more to tell about him as we listen to the words from the gospel of Matthew. Joseph is probably the one in the nativity who is given the least attention. He is the one who we rarely talk about as we go through Advent and Christmas.

And he is the one who does not have much place in our conversations about faith and life and salvation.

Joseph, we read, is a righteous man from the house of David.

He knows his family story and his family name and has lived his life accordingly. He is an upstanding citizen known in the community and is a fine carpenter. He is engaged to a beautiful young woman named Mary. He is a man of faith. He has been raised in the faith, gone to school to learn the Word of God, publicly professed his adherence to the Law of God and has lived a righteous life.

His life has followed the ‘proper order’ and it appears he has a future where his perfect dreams will come true.

And yet, as we learn from scripture the life of Joseph and his perfect dreams, becomes anything less than perfect. There is a huge cloud of trouble that descends on this sweet couple.

Thanks to the artists of old we have a painted picture of perfection in our minds of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Yet, the birth of Jesus was anything but idyllic.

As a matter of fact, Jesus was born into a family that was subject to scandal, gossip and disgrace.

This couple found themselves torn and in turmoil.

Joseph was caught in a crisis!

The relationship of Joseph and Mary was at stake.

His fiancé was with child and he was not the father!

All honor, faith, and righteousness disappeared in the announcement of this impending birth.

Every dream Joseph had was immediately dashed.

Joseph was caught in the midst of a very messy family drama (and we all know what that’s like) and there appeared to be only one way to handle this mess.

Being a righteous and honorable man Joseph realized he only had two choices according to his faith. -He could break the engagement, dismiss Mary and send her away in quiet disgrace.  -Or he could also implement the Law and have her publicly accused of wrong doing and have her stoned to death.

Either way, his choices were honorable, and righteously just. It was crucial for the sake of the family and the a descendant of David to follow the rules, to maintain his place in his family and society.

We still live like that today. (And that’s a good thing) We still want to maintain honor and dignity and follow the rules. We want to live lives of integrity and maintain our places in society and our families.

Yet, we know that life is messy.

Families are anything but perfect.

There is always drama, turmoil and crises.

I find it reassuring that our Savior was born in real life, flesh and blood circumstances. Jesus was born into real and honest family relationship crises.

Can you imagine what the parents of Mary and Joseph were saying?

What I appreciate most about our Father God is that he loved us so much that becoming one of us meant becoming part of the mess! God came into the midst of real life drama, suffering, scandal, gossip, and relationship struggle.

Joseph makes a choice of his place in this salvation story of God by hearing the word of the angel and doing the unthinkable.

Before Jesus turned the tables and the world upside down,

Joseph turns the tables of what doing right is all about.

His actions were the beginning of an upside down world of grace!

Caught in the tension of the Law and the command from God, Joseph moves from doing what is right to doing the right thing.

Sometimes grace is counter to justice.

Sometimes grace is contrary to righteous rules.

Sometimes grace is converse to accepted traditions.

Sometimes grace is clashing the proper order.

And all the time grace breaks through the messy,

the crises,

the tension,

the expectations,

the perfections,

and dumps out love,

pours out compassion, interrupts the norm, offers the unexpected, gathers the lost, unites the lonely, brings together the broken, and lifts up the outcast.

Joseph makes the intentional choice of love to be a husband and a father despite all the oppositions around him. Without this most unusual offering of Joseph, the holy family might not have been as we know it today. Perhaps the words we hear from Jesus about love and grace were first heard while he sat on the knee of his earthly father Joseph.

As we look at our nativities we can look at the place for Joseph as one of great love and grace. May we be as willing in our place to hear the words of the angels and allow God to enter into our messes. May we be willing to be the ones who offer grace all the time. Amen.

Live Like a Shepherd

Sermon Luke 2:8-20 December 4, 2016 Advent 2A

Live Like a Shepherd

The first thing that comes to mind when we hear the word shepherd (esp in church) is an image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. We recall the parable of the lost sheep, the words of Psalm 23, The Lord is my Shepherd, or the phrases, sheep without a shepherd are like those gone astray from God. We are familiar with shepherd language because the Bible is filled with it.

And for good reason.

Sheep were the most important domesticated animal in Palestine. Sheep were used for more than sacrificial purposes. They provided wool, food, milk, fat, skins and horns all important to the textile industry and the food market. Not only were sheep important to the people of Palestine they were important through the then known world. It only makes sense then that the Bible is filled with sheep and shepherd images. If the Bible were to be written today, can you imagine the images the authors would use to be relevant to a vast majority of people? I think it would be using technology instead of sheep, or perhaps, dogs, cats, and other home domesticated animals…who knows.

Yet, as we learn the context of the times and the people, the language of the Bible is as relevant today as it ever has been.

But, today we turn our focus away from the images for a moment and look to the manger scenes;

the crèche where we find all those characters

gathered around the infant king.

We’ve learned about the angels and the power of their presence and the presence of God through them.

What can we learn from these shepherds kneeling at the manger?

Literally shepherds were hard working men, boys, women and girls. They worked in the plains and in the hill country both day and night. They were responsible for small and large flocks of sheep. Sheep are rather docile creatures. They are subject to the elements around them and are quite inadequate of self-defense. They easily wander away and get lost. The shepherd was responsible for maintaining food and water and to move the sheep from one grazing area to another.

One might assume that the work of a shepherd was rather boring.

But it required a great deal of endurance as well as diligence.

It also required an ability to live with simple means.

There were no fast food restaurants close by so they had to rely on their own ability to pack a lunch.

They had to be willing to sleep on hard ground and to travel distances away from home. Two of the tools at the disposal of a shepherd were a staff and a rod. A staff was used to herd the flock and keep them together. A rod was used to ward off enemies. They also carried a sling (as we know from the shepherd king David).

While studying a little bit about shepherds I became aware of the value of looking at their way of life as an example of how we could live our lives today.

1.       1. Live with courageous awareness. A shepherd must live alert. It is impossible to do the job without being fully aware of the surroundings in which a shepherd works and lives. Not only does a shepherd need to be aware of dangers, despair, and disasters, but a shepherd must know the sounds and sights of his/her flock. A shepherd needs to have the patience to listen and know the voices of the flock, to learn of new places and safe places to gather the flock. A shepherd must have enough fear and awe to respond appropriately to the signs around him/her. If we have our noses in an iphone we’ll never know the sounds or sights of those around us and we’ll be completely unaware of danger or wonder if it happens right in front of us.

Courageous awareness gives us the ability to hear sounds and to discern whether they are sounds that bring joy or terror or both. Courageous awareness keeps us from running away but allows us to face what is before us and make an informed decision on how to respond.

Think of people who hunt or fish or paint or sculpt. They cannot do what they do well if they are not willing to sit still, observe, listen, be a little scared, and have the ability to be in awe.

2.     2.  To live like a shepherd is to live with faithful curiosity. “let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place that the Lord has made known to us. So they went in haste.”

Imagine having enough courage to hear the angels and then the discernment to go and check out everything they had been told?

The shepherds had just enough faith to realize they had heard the words of God through the angels. They had just enough curiosity to run and see and witness what they had been told.

If we are not curious about all that is before we will never leave our safe space to go and discover the wonders of God.

If it had not been for the faithful curiosity of the likes of Madam Curie or George Washington Carver we would not have received the healing powers of medicine and the ability of the peanut to create dyes, plastics and gasoline.

We can and we must be people of faith to be encouraged to live with the curiosity to discover the wonders around us.

We must be willing to run to seek out what is new,

have the enthusiasm to rejoice in what is different

and to always desire to be open to God sending us beyond our safe places.

3.     3.  Finally, to live like a shepherd live with Holy Boldness. “The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.” These are the words used often by my predecessor (Robert Close). A Holy Boldness is what these shepherds had.

They unabashedly proclaimed God as they returned to their flocks.

They didn’t stay at the feet of Jesus and live their lives on their knees.

They went back to work with a new perspective.

They returned to their lives with a boldness to speak out.

They went back to their sheep and could share the power of God present with them as Emmanuel.

They had the audacity to speak the truth of what they saw without any hesitation and without any worries of what people would think of them.

Perhaps, this is the message of living like a shepherd that means so much to me.

These fellas didn’t decide they had to go and become something else.

They didn’t change their jobs after their encounter with Jesus.

What they did was to receive the power of God to continue in their own backyard the message of God and God’s love with a holy boldness.

Let us go from this day of kneeling at the manger and live like a shepherd with courageous awareness, faithful curiosity and holy boldness. Amen.

Bread of Life

Sermon John 6:25-35 November 20, 2016 Thanksgiving theme

Bread of Life

Proclamation of the Day:

In the first year of the presidency of George Washington in 1789, a Day of National Thanksgiving was set side for the last Thursday of November. Since that time, Americans have celebrated this day in remembrance of all the blessings which God has poured down upon this nation and her citizens.

In the presidential proclamation for Thanksgiving Day in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln had this to say:

"It is the duty of nations as well as of citizens to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord....

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

"It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."

President Lincoln was not a popular president. As a matter of fact, the people at the time thought him inept and had all kinds of names to call him. He was president during a time that this country was torn apart with war. Brothers were fighting brothers. Freedom was for some but not for all. And the meaning of freedom could not be agreed upon by many.  But, Where bread is broken…Healing can begin.

There have been many times in our American history when we can say, “these are troubling times” Some would say that of our history today while others would vehemently disagree. Yet, we are here and we gather together to hear the Word of God for us today.

We come to these words from the gospel of John around the season of Thanksgiving because it talks about bread…and who doesn’t love bread?! I love the commercials about bread. And especially Oprah Winfrey’s commercial for Weight Watchers when she proclaims, “I love bread.” Bread has been a staple for human consumption for as far back as we have history. Bread is what has gathered communities and families. It is only fitting that Jesus uses bread to provide thousands with satisfaction from their hunger.

The crowd followed Jesus around the lake to the other side and wanted more from him. Jesus points out to them that they want more signs because their bellies are full. They just want the earthly feeling of being full. He tells them not to work for this earthly feeling but to seek after that which sustains the heart and the soul for all of life. They remain confused and want to know what kind of work is it they have to do to have that fulfillment. Jesus tells them the ‘work’ to be done is ‘believing’-believing in him who was sent by God. The crowd is still confused and again asks for a sign. They utilize the only reference in their history of faith and ask Jesus if he will send down manna as the sign for them to believe just like God did for their ancestors. Jesus again points out that it is not about bread, it is not about work and it is not about signs-it is about LIFE. What Jesus offers them is life.

 

In him-in Jesus-the embodiment of God himself-is life. It is not in the signs and the wonders, it is not in the works that he has done, it is not in the words that he has said, but the life is in him for those who can believe in him as he has come down from heaven.

Bread is the metaphor. But, Jesus wants the crowd to understand that he is not a metaphor. And so, we find throughout this gospel the desire for Jesus to turn those around who seek after him. To help them see the light of God in him. Jesus is God. Jesus is the feast of joy of God’s love.

As Christians in the church we are often still seeking Jesus like the people in the crowd. We follow after him and wonder and ask the same bewildered question, ‘When did you get here?’

We forget that Jesus is always here.

Jesus is here drawing us together into the one body, the one faith, the one baptism in order to be his people for the world.

“For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

When we gather around the table of Thanksgiving with family and friends this year, let us remember that where bread is broken…healing can begin.

In the words of Abraham Lincoln, we are invited to take time to remember the good and abundant life to which we have been blessed.

We are reminded to take time to ask forgiveness of one another and to bless one another.

Yes, this country has been through the best of times and the worst of times.

It will continue to go through many more growing pains along the way.

Yet, this week on Thursday we pause and remember the One who brought us life and as we break bread together we will remember the words of Jesus, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Amen. 

When Food and Words Matter

Sermon John 6:25-35 November 22, 2015 @NMPC Thanksgiving Sunday Originally preached November 24, 2013 Community Thanksgiving Worship

When Food and Words Matter

This is Thanksgiving week and today we are here to worship. We are hoping to be filled with good words, good feelings and good thoughts so we can make it thru Thursday. Some of us are so excited for this day to come that we can’t contain our joy. Some of us are anticipating reunions, with new babies, grown children, happy couples just engaged or wed, grammas, grampas, colleagues and special friends. 

Whether we are filled with joyful or wary anticipation, we sure know we need strength for when all those people descend upon us.

And so here we are today gathered in as people of God reminded of the One who came to us as the Bread from Heaven. The Word made flesh dwells within us, the feast of heaven sustains us.

In the gospel of John Jesus, walks the seashores reciting to those who would hear about the offer of eternal food.

In this gospel it is clearly written that food and words DO matter!

We are hungry people. We are yearning people. Within all of us is the deepest desire and longing for relationship and love.

It is a human desire whether we believe in God or not. It is a hunger to love, to be loved and to move closer to the Source of love.

That’s what the crowd in this story of Jesus is doing. They chased him around the lake asking for more words to fill them. They wanted Jesus to show them more miracles and tell them, one more time, what they had to DO to be satisfied.

Isn’t that what we do too? If God could just DO another miracle or show us another sign or at least give us a clear directive then we’ll believe enough to be confident in his love for us.

But, Jesus didn’t offer the crowd a metaphor and doesn’t offer us one either. Jesus gives a clear statement of who he is. He uses the ‘I AM’ directive-the holiest of holy names for God, I AM the bread of life. Jesus IS the bread of life.

Where there is no bread, life cannot flourish. Nations upon nations have fought over bread and still do. The Dr Suess’ book ‘The Bread and Butter Wars speaks to the power and value of bread-such that there is no end to the battles of power for the sake of who has control of the food.

Food matters! And Jesus makes it clear that he is the food that not only nourishes, but gives new life AND gives it to the world!

Words matter too!

And this could be our highest stressor on Thanksgiving.

We certainly can look up the list of things NOT to say at the table. Things like, ‘gee, I think gramma’s pie was the best’-ah, not smart when the hostess just used gramma’s recipe.

Thanksgiving is not the time for disguising thanks with thoughtless digs, or airing grievances, or picking fights, giving advice, or making bold announcements.

Thanksgiving is just that. A time to give thanks, to gather, to listen, to sing, to speak and to offer ourselves to one another. It is a time for conversation-the opportunity to better understand one another; a time to create an environment of hospitality where each person feels welcome.

Our conversations matter. Conversations are at the core of who we are as humans.  Someone asked, “Are we human beings so immersed in conversation that, like fish in water, conversation is our medium for survival, and we just don’t see it?

Could this be true? That our words are a matter of survival? Could it be true that our one on ones and our group meetings and our family meal conversations all are part of the creative nature that sustains, and transforms the realities in which we live?

If this is true then we have the opportunity to start with this holiday season to pay attention to our words.

We have the moment open to us to maintain eye contact, listen with an open heart, speak with confidence and seek to understand the other in our life.

There are all kinds of books and websites out there filled ways to communicate effectively. There are books about strengthening relationships and building families. There are books about reconciliation and forgiveness.

The main focus of these resources is that words matter!

Its not time to stress.

It’s time to look to the Word-with a capital W-who really matters-in this Word-with a capital W- we find the core of who we are as humans.

In this Word-with a capital W-this Jesus- we find who we need for survival.

From the very beginning of this gospel we understand how powerful that message of Word is-the Word became flesh and lived among us, the glory as of a father’s son, full of grace and truth…from his fullness we have received grace upon grace.

Let us turn our hearts to what matters the Food and Word of our Life in Jesus Christ.

By God’s Word and Bread we are fed and this is what satisfies our hungry hearts.

The words of the Eucharist hymn come to mind:

You satisfy the hungry heart with gifts of finest wheat; come give to us O saving Lord, the bread of life to eat. With joyful lips we sing to you our praise and gratitude that you should count us worthy Lord to share this heavenly food.

Amen.