Watch for Signs

Sermon Matthew 16:1-12 January 26, 2020 Ordinary Time

Watch for Signs

In this 16^th chapter of Matthew Jesus is met by religious leaders again to test him. They appear in the gospel of Matthew as antagonists and as resisters to the truth Jesus is teaching. Both Sadducees and pharisees were the keepers of the Torah, they were the experts, they were the ones that knew the truth.

People came to them to know how to live, how to interpret God’s law for their life.

People trusted them.

And now they are threatened by the person of Jesus who has come to teach about the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus, a man who has never been to college or had the training of these leaders, is telling others about the truth of God and has a following that threatens the status quo of the life of faith of the Jewish people.

So what do all good religious leaders,

or any other leaders,

do when they feel threatened?

They throw out ways to catch the

person in a lie,

a falsehood,

a misstep.

They ask him for a sign about God, “Give us a sign about heaven.”

They want to dispute Jesus’ identity and trap him so they can verify that he is a fraud.

So Jesus points to the sky and talks about the weather!

How many looked to the sky this morning on the way to church? How many turned on the weather app before getting dressed this morning?

Weather is something we take for granted.

We make fun of the weather meteorologists when they get the weather right or wrong.

We have scientists who climb into planes and vans and boats and chase storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes in order to learn more about them for the safety and sake of human life and property.

Just trying to understand weather trends is important for economics, for farmers to improve their planting and harvesting seasons, for families to plan vacations, for national parks to know when to open or close, for oceanographers to know how to help freighters to navigate the seas as they transport products around the world.

Everyday on our sailing trip we used our satellite phone to download a weather grib file. And we also used our Single side band radio to obtain the global weather charts. These tools are amazing. And they were amazingly accurate. We were able to be prepared for the high winds and seas that were forecast and to make choices ahead of time about our sails or our course. These tools provided information for sailors to maintain safety as they cross oceans.

In Jesus’ day looking to the sky, ‘red sky at night sailor’s delight, red sky in the morning, sailor take warning’ was the best they had for weather prediction.  

I have taken our weather predictions for granted assuming they had always been something important.

But, when I recently watched the movie the “Aeronauts” about James Glaisher and his ballooning efforts in 1862 to fly as high into the atmosphere as possible, it dawned on me how we have only recently accepted study as science.

As human’s we have an insatiable need to know and to understand. It is what drives our will to discover and to learn.

The trouble for us starts when

we seek to understand

in order to control.

Jesus’ responds to the leaders who are trying to control him, to trap him.

They are asking him for a sign.

They had their expectations of who and what a messiah should be and they wanted him to prove that he was a fake.

Jesus knew how to live above the fray.

He knew how to be exactly who he was as the Son of God

without falling into the temptation to ‘prove himself’.

The leaders were unable to control his message.

They could not make him go away.

Jesus was too skilled at confrontation.

Jesus dismisses them with the statement,

‘the sign you’ll get is the sign of Jonah’.

Which Jesus said to refer to his death and his resurrection.

It seems we are at our worst when we assume we have all the answers.

When we are in positions of authority, are educated, have life experience, we tend to overlord to others what is right and wrong. Or worse what is right and what is true.

If we are met with the possibility that something could be opposite of our way of understanding, believing, behaving, how do we respond?

Our first reaction is disbelief and resistance.

As educated leaders we consider ourselves the elite and become offended by another idea, viewpoint, or worse another truth. Humans are fickle creatures.

Imagine with me if you will.

Another truth is introduced-perhaps it’s the fact that chickens lay eggs that are brown and blue. But we have never witnessed brown or blue eggs. We only know that chickens lay white eggs. Our truth is threatened. Our truth may be wrong. We might have to admit that we are wrong.

Something like this may not affect my identity or alter who I am.

But, truths about slavery, human trafficking, poverty, the value of people have all been threats to the ways people have thought through time and especially recent times in our history such as WWII.

To accept a truth would place us in the position of having to alter who we are and our identity.

Jesus was a threat

to the very identity

of the religious leaders

and all they have ever believed.

When I was in South Africa and listened to the seminary professors and how they had to rewrite all their theology of the African black race, we were still witnessing the pain on their faces as they had difficulty saying they were wrong.

How do we act or respond when our identity is threatened like that?

Those who spoke truth in the name of faith…Polycarp, Blandine were burned at the stake. Those who spoke the truth against inhumane treatment of others…lost everything, Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela.

What truths is God calling us to speak?

The gospel writer Matthew knew as he wrote to the new Christians in the diaspora that they would be facing many challenges in their life of faith. They would discover that they would not be accepted anywhere. They would discover that their new truth in Jesus would be challenged.

And they would also discover (I believe) that their understanding of truth would continue to challenge their identity as their faith evolved.

As believers, the truth we know is always challenged.

It is through the personhood of Christ that we can have the courage to listen, seek to understand, and wonder if God is not seeking to teach a truth we have yet to discover.

When we look at the rest of these verses from 5-12 we learn that Jesus is just as troubled with his disciples as he is with the religious leaders.

He can’t believe they still don’t understand his identity, his authority, his ability to perform miracles. Matthew places this encounter following the discourse with the leaders to point out that even the disciples struggle to understand.

There is a gap of understanding about Jesus’ identity on all sides.

The truth of Jesus is a discovery for all who encounter him.

Jesus shows concern for the anxiety the disciples show in their lack of understanding so he admonishes them about their faith. He pushes them, he challenges them to have the confidence in their faith. He admonishes them with their anxiety with his words, ‘you of little faith’-had they already forgotten the miracles Jesus did the day before? We forget the truth of ourselves so quickly. We forget the truth of our faith. We forget who and whose we are in our times of anxiety. We allow our frustrations to take control and we act as if Jesus is nowhere near us. We forget our own capabilities, our own capacity for living truth. We lapse into the control of the world around us and get bounced around like a boat on the sea without a rudder.

I learned a lesson about control and weather and understanding the signs around us when we were at sea.

While we were seeking understanding of the weather forecasts we were adjusting our sails to accommodate the 20-25 knot winds.

Sailing downwind can be very uncomfortable as the waves knock the boat from side to side. We would do our best to adjust our autopilot response to the waves to try to be a little more comfortable. But, one day after being thrown about the boat by the waves, getting soaked by the ones that came over the stern, and getting mad at having to constantly have one hand on something to keep from falling, I shook my fist at the wind and the waves.

I said, ‘what is it that neither the wind nor the sea obey her!”

We seek to control the external over which we have no control.

Jesus says look for the signs-not control them.

I realized there was nothing I could do about the external wind and waves.

The wind was going to blow at 20-25 knots with 30 knot gusts.

The ocean was going to continue to throw rogue waves our way in the midst of 10 foot swells. That WAS the truth.

We knew the weather forecast.

We knew the capacity of our boat.

We knew the capability of our sailing.

We couldn’t control the external factors,

but we could work our little boat within them.

We could adjust how we moved through the water. We could adjust how we handled our anxiety. Once I settled and laughed at myself in the midst of this crazy ocean, I was able to go with the truth of the way things were knowing that the calm was just ahead.

We can’t control the signs, the weather, the world around us.

But we can adjust our little boats to navigate

through them and

to learn new ways to deal

with the storms that come.

Watch for signs is what Jesus expects of all those who believe and don’t believe.

Keep an eye out for an encounter with Christ that will change our life. Don’t be anxious for anything. Let the truth of Jesus be our identity. Let the truth of Jesus be our guide and our strength. Be lost in his love and be at peace.

Amen.

Boat Lessons

Sermon Luke 5:1-5 January 19, 2020 Ordinary Time

Boat Lessons

We are gathered here in worship in churches on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Water is a way of life here.

We can’t deny it.

We can’t hide from it.

We are surrounded by it.

We have no mountains.

We have no canyons.

We have no prairies.

We have no desert.

We have no rain forest.

We have a sliver of land 60 miles long and 15 miles wide.

We have more coastline of Bay and Atlantic Ocean and creeks and coves than we have land acreage.

And this is our life.

This is where we spend everyday.

And God meets us here.

Perhaps that’s why any of the stories of the New Testament that relate to water affect us.

Today’s story from the gospel of Luke is incomplete.

I stopped the Scripture reading before we got to the miracle of the abundance of fishes.

Verses 8-11 gives us the rest of the story of the miracle of so many fish that the boats began to sink under the weight of all of them. It tells of how Simon was struck by the miracle of abundance that Jesus offered them. It tells of how Jesus called them to follow him and they left everything and went with him.

But, today, today,

I stopped the reading of the Scripture

before the miracle happened.

I stopped so we could look more closely at the setting that was in place prior to the miracle.

You see,

we always jump to the miracle

before we notice

the setting,

the environment that was there

ready for the miracle to take place.

I think we should stop just shy of the miracle.

Look around and notice the scenery.

Be aware of the people.

Recognize the situation, the circumstance.

Observe what is happening in the ordinary moments of the day.

God meets us in the places where we already are.

God does things even when we don’t notice.

It’s up to us to be ready to receive and aware of God with us.

Let’s look at what Jesus does.

He comes to the lake of Gennesaret otherwise known as the Sea of Galilee. He is preaching to a crowd, but they are getting a bit too close for his comfort. Jesus is uncomfortable with people pushing him and getting into his face. It’s nice to know that Jesus has boundary and personal space issues.

SO, we watch Jesus do a number of things in response to the situation he is in.

He sees two boats.

He gets in the one he knows is Simon Peter’s.

He asks to be pushed out into the water.

He sits down.

He teaches.

He finishes speaking and

gives individual instruction to Simon to go deeper.

He witnesses Simon’s obedience.

He offers abundance, grace, a miracle.

He extends an invitation.

When I read in Scripture that Jesus saw two boats and he chose the one that belonged to Simon Peter, it tells me how much faith he had in Simon Peter.

When Mike and I became part of the ARC+ rally we were intentional about joining the rally and we knew ahead of time the requirements and the setting of where everything would take place.

On the day of our inspection, the phrase that struck me most from the inspector was, “Know your boat.” He recognized that we had our boat for 20 years and he emphasized the importance of knowing all that she could do and all the details of her workings. He said he was confident that our boat was in good hands because we demonstrated that we knew a lot about our boat, the details of her engine, the sails, the things that could go wrong and much more.

In his inspection he was looking for things to be up to par with the list, but he was also watching and listening to us show aptitude in problem solving, emergency situations, equipment handling.

He mentioned that more often than not people join these rallies with vessels they have just bought and have barely tested with plans to cover more 3000 + nautical miles.

His concern is that people don’t do enough preparation to appreciate the vessel that will carry them across oceans. To learn it and to trust it. To be aware of the environment and the situations their vessel and they will in.

We learned in our experience that knowing our boat was key to being in the right setting for good things to happen. And to be confident when the storms come along. My confidence increased when the inspector shared how much confidence he had in us and in our boat.

We know from earlier in the gospel that Jesus already knows who Simon Peter is. We read in chapter 4 that Jesus was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum by Galilee. After the worship he went to Simon’s house and healed his mother-in-law. From there Jesus left to Judea teaching and healing and then found his way back to Galilee by the sea with the fishermen in chapter 5.

So why is it that Jesus trusts Simon’s boat?

Jesus knew that Simon Peter knew his boat. He was a fisherman who took care of his vessel. Jesus wouldn’t have climbed into his boat if it didn’t have a sound hull. Jesus would never have climbed into his boat if it had been neglected and had rotting boards or broken hinges, or torn sails or worn out equipment.

He knew that when he climbed into Simon’s boat it would be all he needed to do his job to proclaim the good news of God’s Kingdom.

Perhaps, that’s what’s most encouraging of all.

Jesus, God is willing to climb into our everyday life and use what we have to communicate his gospel to us and others.

God knows when a vessel is ready for the using and spreading of his Word.

How well do we know our boat?

How well do we know our bodies?

How well do we know our church?

How well do we know our congregation?

Is it ready for Jesus to board if he comes and tells us he’s climbing in?

Jesus uses what we have to communicate with us-are we ready?

What is clearer than anything is that miracles take place in everyday life.

Miracles happen when we are going about our everyday business.

Miracles do not wait for us to be in a holy sacred place.

All of our spaces are settings that are waiting to be ready

for the sacred and the holy to enter in.

The holy happens beyond the sacred walls of the sanctuary more often than we realize.

The sanctuary is known as the nave, the boat, where we are all together.

The nave taken from the Latin for ship is the central part of the church, the place where the congregation sits and worships-how well do we know this boat?

Jesus relies on us to take care of our boats. Jesus relies on us to know our equipment. Jesus relies on us to know all we can possibly know to do our daily work. So that when he shows up in our daily lives he can trust our stuff enough to do his work.

How well are we taking care of ourselves?

How well are we taking care of our churches?

How well are we taking care of our homes?

How well are we taking care of our communities?

How well are we taking care of …?

When Jesus shows up to teach his message will he trust our stuff enough to step into it?

I honestly believe the miracle of the fishes happened because Simon Peter and his friends were already doing their very best to honor the work they had been given.

They loved their work as fishermen and respected the work they had been blessed by. I honestly believe when we offer ourselves whole heartedly into the work we have been given. When we respect the equipment we’ve been blessed with. When we know and realize what we have, we have the setting ready for Jesus to show up and be comfortable enough to sit down and get to do his work.

Simon Peter obeys Jesus when he is asked to push Jesus into deeper water.

Even though he tells Jesus the truth about their fishing experience, he honors Jesus by doing what he is asked-even in his doubts he obeys Jesus’ command.

He was prepared to receive the abundance of Christ.

Are we ready to receive the abundance of Christ?

Let us be willing to let Jesus use our stuff.

Let us trust him as he trusts us.

We are churches on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. This is where we spend everyday. And God meets us here. To God be the Glory.

Let us pray. Amen.

Go, Pray!

Sermon Mark 1:32-39 February 2, 2020 Communion Sunday

Go, Pray!

“And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own, and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.” The words from the hymn ‘In the Garden’ written in 1912 by Austin Miles has the emotional twinge that draws us into the desire for a closeness with Jesus that we may never have felt before. It is a song that tugs at our hearts strings and gets us into a place of want, a place of falling in love. The verse of Mark 1:35 (which I think the NIV captures the Greek translation best) “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” Jesus, in the middle of everything happening around him, took time away, to get up, to go to a solitary place, and pray.

He took time to get above the fray and go pray. We wish we could be with him in this moment. Jesus took time to pray. It’s what we wish could be the practice of our lives.

But, we have too many things that tug at us that are greater distractions than running to Jesus in the Garden for this apparent quiet, solace.

Yet, we are a people of prayer.

We do pray.

We do take time to think about the things that require God’s intervention.

We do seek God for guidance.

We do fall in love with Jesus over and over again.

Why do we kick ourselves so hard about our prayer life?

Let’s think about when we do pray. At meals-check; when we wake up-check; ummmm…

Before we go to bed…maybe.

Do we pray when we are thinking of our work, our friends, our circumstances?

Do we pray while we are standing in line at the post office, the grocery store?

Do we pray when we are riding down the road in the car, on the way to practice, in the halls at school?

AND…what are we praying?

Are we asking God for something,

are we thanking God,

are we praising God,

are we confessing something,

are we just talking to God,

processing our thoughts with God?

Prayer is something that eludes us.

Rabbi David Aaron, calls prayer an opportunity to invite God in to the intimate part of our world. He believes the Jewish holidays provide the space to call to God and to experience God’s love. He believes the different Jewish holidays provide us with an experience of God in the different ways we know God to be such as a judge during Rosh Hashana. 

During Yom Kippur we experience God as a forgiving parent and during Sukkot we experience God as our lover. He says that the life of faith teaches us that the source of true happiness is holiness. 

During the holiday of sukkot (the harvest celebration when we appreciate how God cares for the earth and we build our tents) we recognize how God is completely one with us even and especially when we are about the business of living-such as eating and sleeping.

We begin to realize that prayer is less about the actual words and more about the time of sharing who we are with God in our everyday world.

Our Christian holidays do the same for us to experience God through the moments of the holy days.. They give us a chance We have Advent to remind us that God is always with us. In Lent we come to God to discover forgiveness and healing. Easter we celebrate the new life we have forever with Christ. These experiences help us to understand God and to know him more closely. It becomes easier to whisper words of prayer, of our thoughts to share with God.

We look to Jesus in the Bible to learn about how he lived his life of prayer.

We really don’t know what he prayed.

We just know he got up to go and pray.

And perhaps that’s just it, to go pray.

The night before, on the holy Sabbath Jesus left the synagogue in Capernaum, and went to Simon Peter’s house. There Simon’s mother in law was ill and couldn’t show her usual hospitality to her family and guests. She had the gift of caring and sharing her home to frequent guests. Jesus witnessed her illness and healed her. Her healing was so miraculous that she returned immediately to doing what she loved, serving others.

As she fills her home with good food and fellowship there were many who came to her door seeking Jesus. They wanted him to heal them, to drive out the demons that haunted and filled their bodies with torment. Jesus attended to them, he healed them, he prayed for them, he touched them, and made them whole. The Spirit of God was upon him and when the day was done his body was exhausted and spent. He spent the night there with Simon Peter and some of the disciples.

Jesus then gets up very early, while it is still dark and goes to a solitary place to pray. After a crazy busy day, Jesus gets up early to pray. He pauses in the middle of everything that has to be done to save the world and he prays. He takes care of what is most important, his relationship with God. Prayer is most important.

St Augustine says, “True, whole prayer is nothing but love.” Jesus wants to spend time with the one who loves him, the one he loves.

Richard Foster says, “To pray is to change. To pray to God is to find a path that leads us toward love.” The Rabbi says, “Prayer is not a passive supplication to God. Prayer is a powerful force. Prayer hooks us up to the motor of our lives: Our willpower.”

It just seems that Jesus needs a strong force of prayer to keep him going as well as anyone else. He needs the power of God within him to be able to face the challenges before him every single day.

He grabbed the best few moments of his day and chose to spend them with the intimacy of the One who sent him to be among the world.

Perhaps, that’s why its such a big deal for us to

grab a few precious moments of our day

to be in the intimacy of the one who calls us his child;

to recognize the God who reaches out

and touches us with the breath of life.

Perhaps, its less about the words we use,

or the amount of time we spend and

more about our awareness of

the fullness of God surrounding us.

If we wake up in the morning, with the alarm and say a breath prayer, “Good morning Lord, it great to see a new day again.” We are already starting our day with God with our first breath. A solitary place provides the opportunity to regroup, to recharge, and mostly to reconnect uninterrupted with our Lord.

Many of you have described God through the devotional that was put together during Advent.

The phrases expressed there are really important.

Why, because they give the rest of us a glimpse into who God is through your experience.

We all learn from each other as we ponder God together.

Many of you talked about how you felt close to God in nature. Your pictures showed about how it reminds you of the hymn “This is my Father’s World.” Others experienced God through the moments on a bus. Others have said you feel God’s presence in church. I also, have loved the questions you ask God. I do hope these questions have been asked, because they are questions we all have, ‘are there aliens’, ‘, how many animals has God created’, ‘what is heaven like, are our loved ones there’ really important questions that guide us to knowing God more and feel close enough to share our intimate thoughts.

But, we discover Jesus didn’t stay long in his solitary space, because the disciples came seeking him. And so he got up and went to work. We can’t all be in a solitary space for as long as we’d like, because there’s always an interruption, someone seeking us to be with them, to be about our work, there’s much to do. So we get up just as Jesus did without complaint but fully present with the ones seeking us. We go and proclaim as Jesus did. We go and we heal, we go and spread good news.

“And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own, and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.”

Let’s Go Pray! Amen.

Sustaining Word

Sermon John 1:1-16 January 12, 2020

My first Sunday back in pulpit after a 15 week sabbatical. Our congregations Naomi Makemie & Francis Makemie Presbyterian Churches and my husband Mike and I were granted the gift of the CTS Clergy Renewal Grant funded by the Lilly Endowment. As part of our renewal we made the transatlantic crossing with our sailboat NEVERLAND. The congregations were served by two amazing pastors in our absence. And they were able to have a renewal time of their own.

Sustaining Word

Let me open with a word of prayer. An ancient and favorite prayer that I never knew would be the ungirding prayer of our passage. 

Steer the ship of my life, good Lord, to your quiet harbor, where I can be safe from the storms of sin and conflict. Show me the course I should take. Renew in me the gift of discernment, so that I can always see the right direction in which I should go. And give me the strength and the courage to choose the right course, even when the sea is rough and the waves are high, knowing that through enduring hardship and danger in your name we shall find comfort and peace. Amen. Basil of Caesarea 4^th century.

Prayer words.

Scripture words.

Written words.

Words in pictures.

Sustaining words.

In this prayer I just prayed and in the words of the prologue of the gospel of John we recognize words that have been etched into eternity. These are words which have lived through time and will continue to. They are not forgotten and they keep coming forward to the surface, they appear and reappear in the lives of many publicly, privately, they show up in books, on the internet, in movies, TV shows, podcasts, newspapers and magazines, and they make a difference.

On our send-off Sunday in September, Susan Grove handed me a tray of beautifully ribbon wrapped cards. She resists taking credit for this amazing work and turns to all of you who helped her bring an idea to life. 

In these cards Mike and I discovered good words, real words, words drawn and written with love. In these cards we discovered how they sustained us, challenged us, made us chuckle, giggle and roar with laughter, and sometimes made us uncomfortable, and yet most importantly these cards did and do *‘illumine us, heal us’ and give us renewal of life and faith. (side note-your hard work and openness to share for the devotion book, that Donna created, edited and compiled and you wrote, is the way Mike and I will go forward in 2020 as we continue to be surrounded by words etched into eternity).

In these cards we discovered Scripture verses, original poems and writings, good strong thoughts and well wishes, prayers, artwork, designs, and stories. As you can see, we saved each one. They hold in them words for eternity.

Perhaps that’s why the prologue to the gospel of John is so appropriate for us to hear today. They are words etched in eternity. God begins with Word, creates with Word, dwells with Word and sustains with Word. The Word causes us to see, to see light, to see life, and to be embraced by grace. The Word showed up in flesh in the middle of our mess and became a finite mess with us. “Jesus is the fleshed-out truth of God.”

In the prologue and throughout the gospel we understand the power of Christ. We begin up close and personal with the very God of creation. There is no historical context of the beginning only a cosmic one. There is no DNA Ancestry lineage, only the truth that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. It’s a profound proclamation of who Jesus is and a profession of faith of the truth of God in Jesus Christ. It’s a word about the Word with no doubts and with no confusion of words of God incarnate.

Why does all this Word talk matter to me?

Perhaps its because of the 90 cards that were sent with us on our passagemaking journey of awe and wonder.

There were 20 different Scriptures shared,

five original writings and poems,

two warnings to look out for pirates,

10 hymns, and many, many other poems,

wise sayings and warm thoughts.

When we opened our first card it said, “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way…” Ex 23:20.

We knew we were not alone.

We were also given an angel to hang in our boat with the saying, “Sometimes angels sing to you in the wind, all you have to do is listen.” 

When we approached Gibraltar at sunrise and watched the rock change colors as the day broke across sky, the hymn, “How can I keep from Singing” was rolling through my head. The beauty of a rock-it’s just a giant rock sticking out of the water, but its incredible. I can see why an insurance company used it as their symbol.

When we left the straits of Gibraltar we realized two things. One, we were really out on the ocean. We were in the Atlantic Ocean and it was different than being on the Mediterranean Sea. The ocean produced swells instead of peaked sharp waves. The second thing we realized was that we had taken our last remaining link to Europe away from there. NEVERLAND, our sailboat, had sailed the seas there since 2006 and would not return, at least not with these owners. Sometimes its hard to face the reality of our story of life. But, we know God sends us on to new experiences and encounters and gives us the language we need to share it.

We sailed a total of 5000+nautical miles over the three months. There were several times when we dealt with high winds and rough seas. The rough seas and acceleration winds occurred as we left on each passage/leg. It was rough from Gibraltar to Agadir, Agadir to Arrefice, Las Palmas to Cape Verde and on to St Lucia, and again to our final destination in Aruba. Yet after two or three days the winds would calm down, the seas would settle and we would enter into the rhythm of the sailing.

During those rough times the words we had to sustain us were, “always remember you are stronger than you think, braver than you know”; “everyday we set sail in our ship…it’s the little things that remind us God is at the helm”; “God is the wind, faith is the sail”; “God is your life compass”; “awake my soul, stretch every nerve”; those cards reminded us of the courage we needed. And then were the jokes, “Why can’t sailors play cards? Because they’re standing on the decks.” Humorous jokes like this and the pictures of the kids capsizing boats, or the photos of pirates reminded us not to take things too seriously.

Language is the key to all experience-to share life’s moments requires language.

How does each moment, each encounter, each event find words to hold it into eternity? 

We (you here and Mike and me out there) have had the opportunity in these past few months to witness moments, holy occasions, sacred pauses.

How have we found the language to share the stories?

Often we watch our little ones work so hard to tell us their stories and we witness them struggling to find expression. We realize they are trying to ‘express in words they do not yet possess.’* And so we listen and share our stories and the language becomes rich and refreshing, new and joyous. And our children’s vocabulary increases with all the wonders they hear and can now find ways to share themselves.

I saw the sea as described in Psalm 104 “vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number, living things both large and small.” We saw dolphins, whales, birds of so many kinds, and yes, we saw turtles. I was at a loss for words at the encounter with these amazing creatures. And yet, there was a phrase from one of our cards that reminded me we were on a “hair raising, mind blowing, alluring life adventure.” Our language to share our awe and wonder moments may not yet be there, but it will come.

When we joined the community of the World Cruising Club ARC+ (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers), we discovered that the encouragement of the group and the friendly competition caused us to completely rethink how we sail our vessel and how we work as a team.

It made me think of the church.

We seem to be able to learn a lot about ourselves when we work together. But, we also learn a lot about the capacity and capability of the church as a whole.

Mike and I have been sailing NEVERLAND for 20 years.

But it wasn’t until we joined the ARC+ group and the challenge of crossing the ocean without using our engine that we recognized the capability of our little sailing vessel. We had to think differently, plan a new way of trimming sails with our little boat in the big blue sea. We had to pay closer attention to our speed, our direction, our chart plotting, and our time. We were more vigilant and more attentive. Not only for the boat but for each other as well.

Friends, your words were grace upon grace. They did not come by accident. They did not appear on paper without purpose. Your holy pause with God and pen and paper were essential for the sacred holding they were for us as we opened each envelope, one at a time, day after day. Those penned words, creative drawings were paused for just the right moment as we took a deep breath and quizzed each other. “What’s our word for the day?”

This passagemaking experience, you here and we out there as not by accident. It was through long intentional hours, days, months, years of preparation by teams of the church and Mike and me. It is true that ‘intentionality leads to creativity and spontaneity’*. It wasn’t by accident that Steve and Donna have been active in our congregations before the passage. It wasn’t by accident that we are all surrounded by sea and beauty, the tangible, visible sign of God’s grace. Grace upon grace is who you are as children of God (whether you choose to believe it or not-God claims you). It is the driving force of the Word alive in you. It is what propels you forward through the actions of your day.

There were transitions in our departure and there will be transitions in our return. God’s grace was in all of it. What remains for us is the sacred holding of those moments before God. How will we remain with the Word today and tomorrow? As we transition together may we remember the wisdom gained, the encounters with those who were our guides. May we keep our vision renewed. We are all changed and we trust God’s Word that we are better for it. Steve and Donna are changed too. Your courage and openness have allowed God to work a blessing for you through them. We cannot be more grateful.

Prayer words.

Scripture words.

Written words.

Words in pictures.

Sustaining words.

Let us be nourished and sustained by the Word at Table.

Amen.

Resources: NIB Gospel of Johnn-Gayle O’Day; Encounters with Jesus by Francis Taylor Gench; Faith Words-essays by writers. * Doris Betts; *Blenden C. Lane; *Katherine Patterson;

A Good Neighbor

Sermon Luke 10: 25-37 September 1, 2019

A Good Neighbor

The story of the Good Samaritan is a story you have heard since the cradle or just about that long. When you hear the words “Good Samaritan”, you might think of the parable or perhaps the many hospitals with that name or centers for assistance. Or perhaps the “Good Samaritan” laws for those who assist people along the side of the road after an accident. All these references are to “good deeds”.

We naturally equate this parable with doing good deeds, even Jesus tells the lawyer at the end of the story “Go and do the same”.

But this is not a story about good deeds;

it is a question about eternal life.

The lawyer’s first question is what brings us eventually to this parable: thus many would be led to believe that to receive eternal life we must go around doing acts of kindness. If we spend our lives picking people up out of ditches, then God will surely recognize us and then grant us our reward.

Unfortunately, this is how the words of Jesus have been reinterpreted through time. We seem to need a way to make excuses for the choices others make. When we provide rational excuses for someone else’s inappropriate behavior, then it gives us a way out for our inappropriate behavior-our excuses. “I would have stopped, but I was on my way to a doctor’s appointment I had been waiting for for months.” “therefore God, my eternal life is intact, right?”

First the lawyer:

Jesus has been healing the sick on the Sabbath, he has been associating himself with unclean people, he has welcomed known sinners and so this lawyer seeks to find out if Jesus really knows the Law; to clarify to Jesus That HE does not obey the Law.

Hosea 6:6 “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings”. From this verse we know God requires more than obedience.

Jesus turns the question on the lawyer and he responds with the correct formula answer.

He knows that God requires this double love; love of God and love of neighbor.

We have a God who is all about relationship. It would seem that eternal life has to do with this double love; the ability to love God and our neighbor. As believers we then conclude that eternal life is about doing, about loving and trying to do what is right.

So, the lawyer who understands justice and judgment wants Jesus to clarify and asks, “who is my neighbor?”.

Second, we enter now into the parable.

The focus of this parable is on two people, the person in the ditch and the one who rescues him.

The man in the ditch is without description. He is anthropos, everyman. Perhaps like the “everyman” in the 15^th century play who was looking for eternal life. Everyman, any man, humanity, was lying in the ditch in need of rescuing, in need of someone to come and save him.

Two religious people pass by and do not even bother to stop, as a matter of fact; they make a wide berth around the victim in order to avoid him.

We have justified these two people over the years by saying the priest was unable to come near anything unclean and that is why he could not stop and that the Levite was on his way to the temple and if he stopped then he would have too much ritual to go through to carry out his functions in the temple.

Yet, Jesus doesn’t give any explanation as to why they didn’t stop!

We want to rationalize their behavior because it helps us rationalize our own.

It is the Samaritan,

the one despised by the Jews

who shows pity.

In the apocryphal scripture Sirach they refer to the Samaritans as “stupid” people. Who are the people we refer to with that name?

It is exactly this detested person that Jesus gives the hero role to.

It would have been a whole lot better if the Samaritan was the one who was in the ditch. It’s always easier to do kind things for those who are considered less than ourselves. “We’re good people we serve soup to the poor every Saturday night”, We’ve turned our house into a shelter for the homeless, we went to Africa and built a school for orphans; all these acts of doing things for the “less fortunate” make us feel good, make us feel justified.

Remember friends, we don’t have the identity of the person in the ditch except “anthropos” humanity. He could have been wealthy, or poor, he could have been royalty or a common man.

What we have is the identity of the one who came to save,

a person despised by many,

a person oppressed, rejected,

acquainted with grief and

not held in esteem.

Do we recognize someone else who fits this description?

This person, this Samaritan, is moved with pity.

The Greek word actually means moved from your gut, a very deep emotion, one that musters up all of your body’s senses. Several places in Scripture Jesus is moved with the same pity, the same emotion.

Everyman (humanity) is lying in the ditch and receives grace and mercy from someone despised by others, everyman accepts this grace without a word.

Notice that the person in the ditch does not have a dialogue yet he is the object lesson for us. Everyman or humanity has the opportunity of receiving grace, has the opportunity to receive eternal life.

God’s justice and God’s grace is not limited to a select few, but is open to all.

A few years ago, I took a youth group to spend three days working at a homeless shelter in Louisville. The shelter was a hotel and those who lived there were learning all the skills of hotel work. Cooking, cleaning, management and so on. It was an eye-opening experience and a lesson about ‘all God’s creatures’.

I asked myself, ‘would I be willing to be vulnerable and get help from one of these people? I came to serve them, this was my mission to feel good about what I did not what they did for me.’  And yet, my life was altered and my tunnel vision changed.

I think the experience at the homeless shelter was recognizing the dignity restored to the men and women in the hotel.

People, once homeless, were given new life.

The men working in the kitchen were able to teach us how to do their job.

They taught us with pride and

helped me to realize that I wasn’t there just doing something to lift them out of the ditch

but

they were doing something to lift me

out of my short sightedness.

Thirdly, we then want to identify who is the neighbor.

Jesus, at the end of this parable turns the tables on the question who is my neighbor to who was the neighbor.

The answer was the one who showed mercy,

the one who approached others with grace.

Bonhoeffer says, “Neighborliness is not a quality in other people, it is simply their claim on ourselves”. I am the neighbor; you are the neighbor in this story.

Friday and Saturday our local CCYF (Community Christian Youth Fellowship) had a weekend experience at Camp OOTB. We had 11 youth gather to sleep in tents right on the water of Occohannock creek. We cooked our dinner over a fire, roasted marshmallows, made ourselves vulnerable to each other through challenge games, climbed a rock wall, went canoeing and swimming.

We learned a lot about each other.

We bonded.

We worshiped.

We grew in our understanding of our neighbor.

I think too often we choose not to participate in events or charity opportunities, or programs because the people involved are just not cool enough for us,

or the venue is only where ‘those’ people hang out.

Sometimes being a good neighbor is more about

 how we make ourselves vulnerable among the least of these

and allow them to be the teacher,

to be the ones who open the gates of heaven for us.

Perhaps, that’s the point Jesus was trying to make with this story more than anything else…perhaps.  

We as followers of Jesus Christ have the opportunity to share his grace with all those who we meet. We have the opportunity to share the good news of eternal life with humanity.

You see this parable of Jesus is meant to throw us into new awareness.

It is meant to help us understand the fullness of the Law.

The fullness of the Law is that it is about justice and grace.

The two go hand in hand, you can’t have justice without grace nor grace without justice.

If there was no grace in the Law then we’d all still be in the ditch.

But, grace is what lifts us out of the ditch and gives us new life, eternal life.

We are called to live our lives with the same grace that we have received.

The Good Samaritan is not just a good deed story

nor a rescue event,

but an example of how God

reached out to humanity through his son Jesus Christ

who gave his life for us so that we might reach out to others and so it goes…

Amen.