God, Christ, Earthly Things, Life

This sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday July 31, 2016, the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary

Time.

Hosea 11:1-11
Psalm 107:1-9, 43
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

On the cover of your bulletin is a piece of art known as a word cloud. This particular one is called a Wordle. To make one, you put together a piece of text, this is Colossians 3:1-11, paste it into the Wordle generator, make a couple of style choices, and “Bingo!” your Wordle is created.

To create the design, Wordle takes out words like conjunctions, prepositions, and articles. If it didn’t, words like “and,” “but,” “about,” “a,” and “the” would dominate the piece. Then it takes the words used most often, makes them larger, and moves them toward the center of the design. In its way, Wordle shows us the most used, most important words in a piece of text. In Colossians 3:1-11 that would be God, Christ, Earthly, Things, and Life. “Honorable Mention” goes to Self, Also, and Now for their importance, but let’s look at these.

Paul wrote this letter to the church at Colossae. He wrote from his prison cell having never been there. This congregation was a church plant by a man named Epraphas who had filled Paul in on their plight. Modern church leaders think they have it tough, Paul was in jail and local pastors were seeking his advice. In this part of the letter, Paul was giving instruction and encouragement.

He reminded them that they have been risen with Christ! Since they have risen with the Lord they should set their minds, hearts, and hands to the things of the Lord. They should “set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God,” not on earthly things.

Oh, and what a list of earthly things we have. He tells the Colossians to do away with whatever belongs to their earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed. Now here’s something tricky where the original languages come in handy. When this was read in worship today, Marie read “greed, which is idolatry.” Because of how English arranges itself, it sounds like greed is the only item on the list which is idolatry. When we take a closer look at the Greek, the word “idolatry” actually describes the phrase “whatever has to do with your earthly nature.” So greed isn’t the only thing on the list of “earthly things” which is idolatry, they are all idolatry. None worse than any of the others.

From here, people tend to ask a lot of questions, technical questions, about what exactly idolatry is. Here’s the easiest answer, anything that anyone puts between themselves and the Lord is an idol. Worshiping that earthly thing is idolatry. I mentioned the Rev. Bill Clarke to you a couple of weeks ago, the Pastor from First Presbyterian Church in Lamar, Colorado. He considered professional football an idol because of the way it is worshiped. Stay with me here…

Being raised in the Central Time Zone, and a fan of a Central Time Zone team, games begin at 12:00 Noon. I could easily go to church, pick up some Pizza-Pizza, and get home before the end of the first quarter. First Presbyterian Lamar started worship at 10:30 but because Colorado is in the Mountain Time Zone, the early game begins at 11:00 am. Folks who went to church and had lunch with the family might make the fourth quarter.

This was the 1990’s, John Elway’s first Super Bowl victory run, and people stayed home from church to watch the games. People who had tickets to Mile High Stadium in Denver were minor celebrities next Sunday, especially if it was a good game. People would take AMTRAK from Lamar to Kansas City to wear orange in the sea of red. To Bill, the NFL was idol, it came between the congregation and worship, between the people and the Lord.

Idolatry, it’s not just the Baal’s anymore.

Paul not only wants us to do away with our earthly nature, the things that rest in our minds and in our hearts, Paul wants us to change our behavior. Since we are raised with Christ, new creations in God, setting our minds above earthly things; Paul now expects us to change our lives!

Paul wants the Colossians to be rid of ill will from your lips. Once again, the English would have think it was only filthy language that Paul wants rid from our lips, but no, it’s the entire laundry list. I suspect this was literal in the day, but now must be dealt with on social media. Paul not only wants that language from our lips, but from our fingertips, which calls for the need to be rid of anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from Facebook and Twitter too.

So, in God, in Christ, our old selves are gone. Everything we were before is now gone. So what are we? Well, we aren’t Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free. Thank you, Paul, The Artist formerly known as Saul of Tarsus, you have told us what we aren’t but not what we are.

In God and in Christ, we aren’t who we used to be, separated by our faith like Jews and gentiles. In God and in Christ, we aren’t who we used to be separated by the scars put on bodies by our faith like circumcision. In God and in Christ we aren’t barbarian or Scythian. Now that one escapes us because we don’t know their history, but the Scythians were a tribe of, for want of a better word, Black Sea pirates, worse than barbarians. Then whether we are slaves or free.

We look a little deeper into what Paul said here. First he said that the Colossians were no longer worse than barbarians and people worse than barbarians. He also said that they weren’t slaves. These people lived on the Black Sea, modern day Turkey. Many of these people were Roman citizens, most were free locals. I imagine they looked at this letter and asked “Paul, buddy, you’re the one in jail, we were never slaves?” Paul says they were raised, so we had to be raised from something? What they were slaves to was, wait for it, the people they were in the beginning of this reading. They were slaves to everything they put before God. They were also slaves to rage, anger, malice and slander.

For any Colossian who wanted to believe the misguided assumption Paul wasn’t talking to them, they must not have paid attention to the preceding sentence, “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

These are people Paul never met, but he knew them. He spoke with them just like they were friends because they were. They were friends in Christ. He spoke to them like he knew them because in a way he did, they were all washed in the same baptism as the children of Christ.

I’ve often talked about our Lord’s vocal inflection. In the “Parable of the Rich Fool” as the NIV calls it, I imagine Jesus looking at this man and mourning “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” This is the way Jacob Marley cautions Ebenezer Scrooge, with pity that is filled with love.

We read this and we don’t see him as such a fool. This man is the essence of the Protestant work ethic. He’s a hard worker, not a freeloader. He’s not sitting around, he’s about to begin an expansion project and God calls him a fool? Yes, he is a fool.

In this parable there is no mention of family or heir or even a friend. God’s question about who will get what he has prepared isn’t mocking. It’s a real question. Who will get his goods? Recently the rock star Prince died without a will or family. Who will receive his wealth? Half of it will go to the lawyers who act as the points on the swords of the people battling over his wealth. As for this rich fool, who, indeed who, will receive what he leaves? Who will receive what he leaves? Ashes to ashes. Rust to rust.

The reason this man, steeped in hard work and careful planning, successful by every measure the world uses, the reason he’s a fool is that he’s alone. He’s a fool because he is surrounded by all of his wealth, and he’s all alone. In a world where he is judged a success he’s about to die alone, judged by his God who sadly declares him a fool. Say this for the Colossians, whatever they had, they had each other.

Life isn’t about tools and schools and programs and projects. It’s about living together. It’s about caring for one another. It’s about fellowship. It’s about community. It’s about coming together. It’s about living with, in, and by the words and life of Christ as our one best example. It’s about seeing what’s important, God, Christ, and Life; Life in God and in Christ. It’s about who we bring along for the ride. It’s about sharing all these things. All of that, all of that is worship. It’s not about our stuff.

So here’s our Wordle. God, Christ, Earthly Things, Life. Important either for what they should mean or important for what they shouldn’t. Jesus isn’t telling us not to work hard, he is telling us to balance our time and other scarce resources between God, family, and work. As for wealth, I like what John Wesley says, “make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” Work hard, be fruitful, be prudent, and be generous. I like that. And always put relationships before wealth. Wealth fades, but love endures. Amen.

Audacity

This sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday July 24, 2016, the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Hosea 1:2-10
Psalm 85
Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)
Luke 11:1-13

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

I love that over the past eight weeks we have had an opportunity to get to know one another better. Some of you I have gotten to know better than others. Over the next couple of months, I hope to rectify that further. Today I am going to share another bias with you, I am a fan of the New Revised Standard Version of the bible. There’s nothing wrong with the New International Version, but sometimes it loses some of the nuance the New Standard Revised keeps. Then again, there are times I prefer the NIV over the NRSV, and last week I showed used the New Living Translation, so I do tend to look around and see what’s faithful to the original text and what’s not. The reading from Hosea got a white-washing from the New International Version.

The NIV reads… “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” Yes, I called that white-washed.

In the NRSV that same half of Hosea 1:2 goes like this… “Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”

No good editor likes to use the same word three times in the same sentence, but who says the Lord needs an editor? I won’t say the NIV sounds appealing, what with promiscuous, adulterous, and unfaithfulness, but each of these words have different shades of “bad” in English as we read them. I mean it’s not good, but it could be worse, right?

The New Revised Standard gives us the “what’s worse,” whoredom, whoredom, and great whoredom. Perhaps the most concentrated use of the word “whoredom” in scripture. It’s a blue ribbon for Holy Writ! We have reached maximum whoredom.

Another translation I find useful is the New American Standard Version because it provides a very good word for word translation. The Hebrew here is translated as harlotry, harlotry, and flagrant harlotry. What’s flagrant harlotry? Is it like basketball where you get two shots from the line and the ball back when your team gets a flagrant harlotry foul? Whatever it is, Israel has done it. Mazel tov Israel, the Lord is done with you.

Gomer bore Hosea three children. The first is named Jezreel, named after a nation of people wiped off of the face of the earth. The second is named Lo-Ruhamah which means “no love” or “no pity.” Their third child is named “Lo-ammi.” The NIV says this means “not my people.” The NRSV doesn’t offer up the translation in parentheses, it goes straight to the explanation, “you are not my people and I am not your God.”

Over the past couple of weeks we have sung, “Seek Ye First.” The second verse goes like this:

Ask and it shall be given unto you,
seek and you shall find;
knock and the door shall be opened unto you -
Allelu, alleluia!

These words come loosely from today’s Luke reading. This is often used to tell people that if you only ask, God will provide. This has given way to something called “The Prosperity Gospel.” Prosperity proponents see faith as a contract, not a covenant between God and God’s own. If we have faith, God will deliver us not only in the heavenly realm but here on earth with security, health, and prosperity. If we act in faith, God will deliver. So if you give, God will give you wellness and wealth. I believe the scriptural term for this is “hogwash,” or at least it is in Arkansas, home of the Razorbacks.

But you know, these words are in scripture, so what do we do with them? First, we keep them with the words that precede them. This a parable about a man whose guest arrives late at night, so late that he didn’t have any bread to serve when he arrives. So he goes to see if his neighbor has three loaves. He knocks. He knocks loud. He knocks hard. He knocks often.

His neighbor is ticked off, and who wouldn’t be. It’s after midnight, and while the man wasn’t up watching Colbert (again, my preference) he had to get up early in the morning to work and work hard. The kids were in bed, with him. That was a cultural thing. Houses didn’t have rooms and beds for everybody. Getting up is a bother. Getting up would wake the kids. Then again, it’s not like the knocking and yelling is helping anybody sleep.

Now here’s an instance where I prefer the New International over the New Revised, the NRSV says the man with the guest will get bread because of his “persistence.” In the NIV the man gets what he needs because of his “shameless audacity.” Everything else being equal, give me the more expressive translation. Yeah, shameless audacity. Jesus tells his disciples to pray like this man asks his neighbor for bread, with shameless audacity.

I have a friend, Dr. Steve, who once preached on prayer and used this children’s sermon. This is the condensed version.

Once upon a time on the Barbary Coast, a bunch of school children and their teacher were going to go to the beach for a picnic. They hoped and prayed for good weather because there was only one day they could picnic and if there was bad weather there would be no picnic that Spring. Well, the big day came and it was pouring rain so the picnic was cancelled and they were all disappointed. They all wailed and cried. BUT what they didn’t know is that because of the weather Pirates couldn’t come ashore, pirates who surely would have taken them and their teacher and made them all slaves. The End.

Notice I didn’t say it was a good children’s sermon. His lesson was that we should just pray “God’s will be done” because what God wants is best for us. As far as it goes, I can’t disagree that what God wants is best for us and we must pray God’s will be done. We’ve just prayed “God’s will be done,” it would be foolish to preach against that. There’s nothing audacious here except for the nightmare ending, but there has to be more.

Did Hosea pray to God, “Golly Lord, thanks for telling me to wed this promiscuous woman, er, whore of whoredom, ah, I mean harlot?” No, I can’t imagine that was a good time at family dinner during the Shabbat either, “Mom, Dad, this is Gomer. Yes, I know her name means “complete” but the Lord is done with us as a nation, so it’s appropriate. Look I brought wine! (Gomer, Strong’s Concordance, 1584)” I can’t imagine that was a nice dinner at all.

This is the life of the prophet Hosea, with his harlot wife and children of harlotry named after the fate of Israel, flagrant harlotry; and how does our reading from this disaster end? Israel will be decimated, but… but the Lord prays, “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

Now that’s a prayer you don’t expect after whoredom, adulterous, and flagrant harlotry. Even the Lord prays with shameless audacity. What can come from shameless audacity? This is a piece of a letter from a Texan living in Chicago named Chris Ladd:

Watching Ronald Reagan as a boy, I recall how bold it was for him to declare ‘morning again’ in America. In a country menaced by Communism and burdened by a struggling economy, the audacity of Reagan’s optimism inspired a generation. (https://goplifer.com/2016/07/22/resignation-letter/)

Say what you will, Reagan had some audacity. Like him or not, Regan had some audacity. Right or wrong, and history will be the judge, Reagan had some audacity.

Like him or not, like his policies or not, Reagan was largely responsible for ending the Cold War. Agree with how he did it or not, Reagan was responsible for making the United States the last standing super-power in a world of tiny little despots and frightened rulers. Like it or not, agree with him or not, say what you will, audacity was not lacking.

Yes, we need to seek God’s will in our lives. We need to come together in prayer. We need to come together. We need to see where God is leading us and his church. As I said last week we need to sit at his feet, we need to be close so when God moves we can move with God. Yes, it begins with prayer, then it goes further.

As Jesus teaches us “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

We are called to pray for the greatest gift of all; not a car, nor a house, nor any other wealth which rots on this earth. We are called to pray to receive the greatest gift God can give us. His spirit. Come Holy Spirit. And through the Holy Spirit, we will be able to seek God’s will for our lives and the life of the Church which is his body. That is audacity at its most valiant.

Busyness

Amos 8:1-12
Psalm 52
Colossians 1:15-25
Luke 10:38-42

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

It’s one of the great “Women’s Fellowship” questions of all time, are you a “Mary” or a “Martha.” Ladies, you can help me here. The Martha’s do the work in the kitchen. The Martha’s are the women who make up the Funeral Dinner and Kitchen committees. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying these women are passive homebodies. These women know how to get things done and if you should besmirch the church kitchen you will pay. The Reverend Bill Clarke at the First Presbyterian Church in Lamar, Colorado, one of my mentors, taught me to be careful when putting away silverware because spoons put in the wrong drawer can bring a fate worse than death.

Now when it’s time to come to the lessons and the worship and such, that’s where the Mary’s take over. They are a little more studious and are definitely more comfortable presenting it. Before the event, they’re the ones doing the organizing. They’re doing lesson plans and putting together the teaching supplies too. Of course, it’s the Martha’s who make sure the snacks are on the table to gnosh.

I’m not saying Martha’s can’t have Mary traits and Mary’s can’t have Martha traits, but I am saying that we have comfort zones. Not many of us excel in both, some do, but not many. Both are blessed. Both are necessary. I’m glad we have both in this congregation.

When it came to Vacation Bible School I was blessed. At the first organizing meeting, I did my part, then the women, I was the only man at that meeting so I repeat, then the women ran with it. When I had to go with Marie to the doctor’s office on Friday, all I had to do was put together the lesson plan and one of the Mary’s took it and made it sing. It’s as if the theme for the week was “No Problems.” Some of the ladies apologized to me for this or that. I smiled to say that everything was fine because it was. It wasn’t perfect because nothing is, but the lessons, the music, the crafts, the play; was glorious. God bless all of you Mary’s and Martha’s. It doesn’t always run that way though. It didn’t with the first Mary and Martha.

According to Luke’s gospel: “As Jesus and his disciples were on their way to Jerusalem, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?’” It’s that last sentence I want to focus on.

Hospitality is important. It has been important since Abram and Sarai (that’s right, they weren’t Abraham and Sarah yet) hosted three travelers in their tent. It was at this meeting where they were blessed with their son Isaac and their new names. Martha wasn’t fishing for a blessing, she just had her Lord, his disciples, probably various hangers on and very little warning that they were on the way. When she got the news, she went into “Martha Stewart Mode.” She had to get everything just so and it wasn’t when he got there.

The New International Version says Martha was “distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.” The New Living Translation said Martha was “distracted by the big dinner she was preparing.” In this case, like the New Living Translation, it’s a bit more descriptive. It has that feel that the Messiah has come for dinner with the feel that Martha is trying for a spot on “Iron Chef Palestine.” She’s got her sauces on. The meat is over the spit. The naan is being baked and it’s going to be yummy. Maybe there’s an antipasto ready to be passed around. Everybody has washed their feet and she has that laundry sorted.

Everything’s going according to plan, almost. Jesus is teaching but Martha’s sister Mary is at the feet of the Lord. She’s taking the position of a disciple instead of helping which is her place not only as a woman but as the younger sister. Doesn’t she know her place?

Here’s today’s bible study lesson. We need to know what translations or paraphrases we are reading. All translation is interpretation; you’ll hear me say that a lot. The New International is a very good translation. The NIV is a pretty easy read and has a more evangelical tilt. That doesn’t mean conservative/evangelical, it means it’s accessible to new seekers.

Paraphrases take more risks and generally aren’t translations from the original Hebrew and Greek at all. They rephrase other versions to make them easier to read. Unfortunately, in making things easier, some things get lost, some things get tacked on. In the NIV we read “She [Mary] came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’”

Eugene Peterson’s famous paraphrase, The Message this reads, “Later, she stepped in, interrupting them. ‘Master, don’t you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend me a hand.’” Gosh Martha, passive-aggressive much? No other translation takes this tone with the Lord. Martha is so lost in her busyness that she comes off cranky.

This is the normal point in the sermon where the pastor points out that Jesus points out Martha is worried about many things but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will be better. Remember, after “Iron Chef Palestine” Mary will have the learning and Martha will have the dishes, thus comes the rhetorical question “who is wiser?” Well I’m not going there.

Now, something I find interesting as a language geek is the Greek verbs used in this passage to describe what Mary and Martha are doing. More accurately, I find their prefixes interesting. The prefix used in the Mary verb is para-, it means alongside. The Martha verb prefix is peri- meaning around. We say Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet and Martha is distracted, but to peel the Greek verb like an onion, Mary is literally sitting alongside and Martha is literally hovering around. Other ways to translate the verb used to describe Mary’s activity include overburdened or overwhelmed. Mary is being with Jesus while Martha is doing things for Jesus. Martha is paying attention to cultural norms and Mary is not, but because Martha is not paying attention to Jesus, she doesn’t really know what he wants, does she?

So the question for us isn’t study vs. service, or active vs. contemplative, the question is where do we put ourselves in relationship to Jesus? Do we sit alongside him or do we hover around him? Do we rest at his feet, moving when he moves? Or do we constantly work anticipating our Lord’s next move, his next need, making plans which may or may not come to fruition? When we are alongside Christ, as he moves we can move. If we are constantly in motion, making contingency plans, when the Messiah moves we might be in a committee meeting trying to figure out the next big thing for ourselves. Or worse, we could be trying to figure out how to recapture the glory of days gone past.
It is better to be alongside than around.

I know cradle Disciples and UCC members may not be familiar with this, but if you have ever been to a church that used creeds, our reading from Colossians may sound familiar. Colossians 1:15-20 says:

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

It’s very nice to say, “I have no creed but Christ,” but in the earliest days of Christianity, theologians had too many different ideas about what that meant and some of the crazier ideas needed to be weeded out. So, in 325 AD, Roman Emperor Constantine called a council of Bishops to make the very important decisions about “what is the nature of God.” Decisions which split the church between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. In 381, Roman Emperor Theodosius I continued and completed this work which became the Nicene Creed. I could tell you more, but then you’d have to kill me, or at least you'd want to kill me.

All you need to know is that the writer of Colossians, thought to be a student of Paul from sometime around 80 AD, wrote this to remind his readers, the church at Colossae, Paul’s thoughts on the nature of Jesus which are orthodox in the church around the world. Many of these words making their way into a creed used over 1600 years later. This is the same Jesus we all understand. This is who we stand alongside.

So yes, Mary chose the better way, not because there are fewer dishes or because the meal Martha prepares nourishes for a time and the Body and Blood of Christ nourish for a lifetime but because it is better to be alongside Christ than it is to be around Christ. We do this through study. We do this through contemplation. We do this through remembering our stories. And we do this through sharing our stories. It’s not a bad idea to have something to gnosh on, but a genuine word of God and a Chips Ahoy are in the words of our Lord, “what is better.” After all, if the word is sincere, store bought cookies will be good enough.

Where the Light Is

This sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday July 9, 2016, the fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

While I ordinarily preach using scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary, this is Children's Sunday. The Federated Church just completed its "Fun with Bells (and Parables) Vacation Bible School. Keeping with the theme of the week, I am preaching the parable of the light and the basket.

Genesis 1:1-5
Luke 11:33-36

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer, amen.

This is one of those Sundays when there is too much to say and too many places to start. So let’s start here. Some people will say that the pulpit is no place to talk about politics. I will agree that the pulpit is no place to endorse a political candidate or a political party. Aside from the tax ramifications, which are important, it’s a bad pastoral move. It’s not my role to endorse anyone and you don’t want to hear it. But, to say the gospel is apolitical is misreading the gospel.

In ancient Rome, Caesar was Lord. Caesar was the master over the empire and ruler of all. The word of Caesar was life and death. To declare “Jesus is Lord” was a political statement. To say “Jesus is Lord” was to put the authority of somebody else before the Emperor and was punishable by death. The Romans were pretty lenient with religion; they didn’t care because it kept the locals happy. But to declare a living man was God and Lord of all was to challenge Caesar, and that wasn’t happening.

So if I should ever sound political that’s why and that’s what I consider before I say anything in the pulpit. Yes, the gospel is political.

This week has been a study of contrasts. It’s been hard wrapping my head around it. The news has been filled with lows and the church has been filled with highs! It’s not like we have turned a blind eye to the world, but Vacation Bible School has been glorious. To see the joy in the kids and the volunteers was wonderful!

When I was in Berryville, Arkansas, four churches came together for VBS and it was fun, but there were over a hundred kids and it seemed like as many parents and it became a huge production. Don’t get me wrong, it was great, but by the time it was done I was exhausted. The production was huge. And I didn’t really get to know any of the kids. This week, walking down the street, sitting in The Cup, playing “Telephone,” teaching lessons, hearing the bells, seeing the crafts, and just watching your children and grandchildren, and neighbors; I got to know the kids. I could see and feel the Holy Spirit at work. I could see joy in their faces. I didn’t see pride, I saw delight. Even playing there was love and cooperation and peace that surpassed my understanding.

To hear the questions, the comments, oh, it was so wonderful. We checked out the foundation in the baptistery and they asked me questions about baptism, so it’s probably time for that conversation for some of you.

Let me share this wonderful story, Zach saw the gaps in the Magill’s back patio wall and asked what they were, Terry told him they were to drain the patio after it rained and that very few people ever noticed them. As this was happening I was sitting next to Alice and said he was going to be a Detective someday. Alice suggested he could be an intelligence analyst. Let’s face it, the kid’s got a future.

Just to sit by the pool, watch the children play, watch Lisa juggle, drink a limeade; do you mind if I praise God that you called me to be your pastor? That you called Marie and I to come to Weatherford and The Federated Church? Thank you and praise God!

Then during the afternoons, I would go into the office and check the email. One of the joys of serving The Federated Church is that for four generations, you have figured out how to be one Body of Christ with first two and then three Christian denominations under one roof. You figured that out. God knows the Presbytery hasn’t figured it out, just ask Jody and Bruce, they’ll tell you. You have found the way. The flipside of that is that with three denominations I get triple the newsletters and triple the action alerts. Because of the violence in Baton Rouge, St. Paul, and Dallas this week, that’s been a lot of reading.

Just to add more blood to this fiasco, while editing the sermon, Marie told me about two more on Saturday, another shooting in Alabama and the incident at the Dallas Police Headquarters.

Some of those emails asked how I was planning to modify today’s worship and sermon. Well let’s start here, I wasn’t planning on telling you about my email. I was planning on a lovely extended children’s message. Lighter than usual, a pleasant change for everybody. To help, some folks provided ideas for worship. These included links and letters and resources. These provided food for thought. There was a lot of good information. Some suggestions. A couple of suggestions those weren’t very subtle either.

This quote came from Texas Governor Greg Abbot during a Friday afternoon press conference, “We as a people need to move forward and live our everyday lives knowing that Texas is going to be greater going forward unaltered, unaffected by this act of cowardice.” (Dallas mayor and Texas governor address shooting, http://finance.yahoo.com/video/dallas-mayor-texas-governor-address-001007137.html, retrieved July 9, 2016. Remark found at 11:30.) Really, as a city, as a society, as a people, we need to move forward unchanged, unaffected after a peaceful protest is shattered by sniper fire? The Dallas Police Department, I can’t say they supported the protest, but they supported the rights of the protesters. Then these protectors became victims of this heinous act of cowardice and we’re going to be greater going forward unaltered and unaffected?

I was shown other more conciliatory words from the Governor later in the day. More polished, but not from a dais, not from a microphone. These words came first.

In this great nation we have killings in schools and in movie houses, in homes and in the streets. Police and civilians are killed by police and by civilians. First degree murder and justifiable homicide, warranted and unwarranted killings and for the love of God a seminary classmate from Dallas buried her mother and two cousins last year because they were shot and killed in a House of God. They were members of the Emmanuel AME Church. They are three of the Charleston Nine.

Still we are told we “need to move forward and live our everyday lives knowing that [our world] is going to be greater going forward unaltered, unaffected.” We live our everyday lives unaltered, unaffected, like nothing has changed because nothing has changed. And if we continue to live like this nothing will change. Violence and hatred and rage and darkness will be a way of life until something drastic changes. Unaltered and unaffected is the last thing we need to be.

Like I said, it’s been quite a week.

I try to be subtler than this in my sermons, but one of the things I do is work through the musical question, “So what?” Well, so this…

Jesus said, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy (the NIV text note says this could mean ‘generous’), your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy (the NIV text note says this could mean ‘stingy’), your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.” You should have seen it here this week. You got a taste of it earlier. There was a light shining that glowed from within these kids. There was a light that glowed, reflecting the light of the Holy Spirit that burns.

I was filled with such joy because I got to be a part of it! What a privilege! What an honor! These kids were so generous with their love for God and for one another. They shared what they had. They shared time and energy. They made sure no one was left behind. They laughed together, they learned together, and, during the parable of the Good Samaritan, when they discovered the smelly kid in their class at school was their neighbor too, they paused together. At that moment, they became more generous with who they thought was their neighbor. Their light became healthier.

These kids are so generous. They submitted to the Word of God and to learning and the bells and the crafts and most of all to one another. Kids that didn’t know each other on Tuesday were friends on Thursday. The light that shined was full and bright. At the food bank they came to realize that the poor not only needed bread and cereal, but baby formula and toilet paper. The epiphany was obvious; poverty means more than they knew. Generosity means more than they know.

Yes, they learned that they will goof, to use grown up words, that’s the nature of sin. In a world that spends so much time and energy on mayhem, murder, and bedlam, in that darkness there is light. In a world where my internet news feed is 85% chaos or Kardashian, in that darkness there is light. These wonderful children, who live in this circus learned that by love of God, the grace of Jesus Christ redeems the world and their “whole body [will be] full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on [them].”

I saw that in a world full of darkness, the light still shines.

Terry taught them a song, “This little light of mine/I’m gonna let it shine/Not gonna hide it under a bushel/Gonna let it shine on everybody/I’m gonna let it shine. The light shines and we are called to take that light and shine in the world. Genesis tells us, the Lord created the light and separated it from the dark. That’s what the Lord was doing here all this week, taking the light and separating it from the dark.

For those of you who weren’t here last week I asked, “What’s your story?” This is mine. This is a time when Jesus and the church made a difference in my life. During a week when the darkness threatened to swallow everything, your children shined the light of Christ. The light of Christ shines and I pray it can be seen in my eyes. Don’t let your light rest in a place where it will be hidden, under a bowl. We all need to be able to share our light, and let it shine, and the children will lead us all.

You Want Me to Do WHAT?

This sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday July 3, 2016, the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

2Kings 5:1-14
Psalm 30
Galatians 6:7-16
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

In this life, there are things we have to do. Our bosses, our parents, and even our children tell us there are things to do. Sometimes it’s society, whether the government, which is just the formal arm of society, or obligation and expectations, like keeping the lawn mowed. Often we don’t want to do them. We’d rather laze around the house, hike in the mountains, sit on the back patio with a beverage of choice, or shoot the back nine. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld said it like this, “A recent study showed that more people are afraid of public speaking than are afraid of dying. That means that at a funeral, the average American would rather be in the coffin than giving the eulogy.”

Naaman is a mighty warrior. He has won many battles and gained glory in the name of the King of Aram. Of course he doesn’t get to share the spoils with anybody because he has leprosy. A tiny slave girl laments over the fate of her master. She tells her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” If you think your health plan has hoops, here’s a slave girl referring her master to a Jewish Prophet in exile in Samaria through her mistress. So the King of Aram signs off on this and sends Naaman off to the King of Israel with a signed letter and a gift of silver and gold worth about $680,000 by today’s standards.

Unfortunately, when the King of Israel got the letter it said “so you may cure him.” His first response was You want me to do what? “Am I God? Can I cure disease?” He rented his garments, a fancy way to say he dramatically tore his clothes in woe, grief, sorrow, and in this case he wondering if the King of Aram was raring for a fight sending his mightiest General. Elisha caught wind of this and sent the king a note saying send him to me. The king was more than happy to pass the buck. He sent Naaman to see the prophet in Samaria.

Let me set the scene for you. Naaman isn’t travelling alone or with a small cadre of officers. The man is traveling with a small army including the slaves who serve them. He’s got an entourage that would make a Hollywood diva positively jealous. Elisha’s house isn’t a ranch style three bedroom with attached garage a couple blocks from good schools either. It would be more like a Mexican Villa. There would be a main house with a walled courtyard surrounding the larger compound. This is where Naaman knocked and the servant met him.

Now imagine this, you’re a servant, probably the chief steward to Elisha, the prophet of the Lord, you have received Naaman at the gate and seen the army of the King of Aram. You have received the formal request that Elisha heal the General of his leprosy. So Elisha’s in the 9th Century BC equivalent of his man cave and he tells you to tell the General, in front of that army, to go take a bath in a dirty river.

Imagine being that guy, now say it with me, “You want me to do what?” You get to meet an army and tell its General to get naked and take a bath in front of the very people he has defeated in battle. If you’re imagining sudden death, I suspect you’ve put yourself in his sandals. Naaman couldn’t give Elisha’s servant the satisfaction of hearing it, so he says it to his servant, “He wants me to do what?” Instead he talks about cleaner rivers at home. The servants shrug and say “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”

Naaman does and his flesh is made anew, baby soft.

Now, did you notice this about the story, the people who move the action along are the people with the least power. When Naaman balks at taking the trip to the Jordan, it is his servants who convince him to go. Before that it’s not Elisha but his servant who delivers the delightful news of the cure. When Naaman arrives at the King of Israel’s throne with an army and the blessing of the King of Aram seeking a cure it’s Elisha who takes this problem off the King’s hands. Finally, and most significantly, it’s a slave girl that gets the ball rolling. Her concern for her master causes her to seek her mistress and tell her where to find a cure. An Israelite slave girl is the ultimate non-person in this place and time. Age, race, and gender all play against her. She is nobody and she sets this chain of events in motion. Over and over I have asked “You want me to do what?” and nobody asked her anything.

After all of this history, and all of this narrative, here comes another question: How many of these servants really wanted to speak up in front of the people with such power? You already have my opinion about the King of Israel sending Naaman to Elisha, he was glad to have him out of the throne room. And the servant of Elisha, going to meet an army alone to tell the General to take a bath. I’m guessing he feared for his life.

What about Naaman’s servants and the little girl? Did they want to speak up? The Naaman’s servants knew giving such bold advice alone could get them killed, and if it didn’t work, it would get their dead bodies stomped to dust. As for the little girl, she wanted the General who conquered her people cured. Now that’s something. She had the least, and she had the purest motive and without her there would be no story of the healing power of the Lord through the authority of the prophet Elisha. People want others to do what is right in their eyes and the eyes of their peers for their own gain. The little girl gained nothing.

Paul warns the Galatians that powerful people want them to be circumcised not for their benefit, but for the benefit of the people in charge of the Synagogue. He writes, “The only reason they do this, is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.” Before Paul became a force in Christianity, the gentiles who wanted to accept Jesus were required to first become Jews. It was logical at the time, Jesus was a Jew, the followers of Jesus were Jews, so to be a new follower of Jesus was to first be a Jew.

It was all to keep the law, but “not even those who are circumcised keep the law,” reminded Paul, “yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh.” The truth was the ritual wasn’t so much for the glory of God or Christ, it was for the leaders who wanted the gentiles circumcised. Paul, who was one of those leaders before his conversion, refused to accept those accolades anymore. He cried out, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” He would die for none but his Lord Jesus the Christ. What others wanted, Paul knew was worthless, submission to the cross is all that mattered, and he made sure the Galatians knew.

This power through submission theme continues in our gospel reading. Jesus sent the seventy-two to offer his peace upon a household, and if his peace remains to stay. Then “Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” Of course when they return they tell another story.

When they returned they had fish tales to tell, one pair landing bigger fish than the last. “Lord,” they said, “even the demons submit to us in your name.”

Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” Jesus says,

“Yeah, you have this power. This is good, but this is not why I sent you out.” He sent them out to share the good news. To heal the sick. To bring in the harvest. Demons and snakes and scorpions were tools to do the work, not the work itself.

Jesus told them, “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” The flashy part isn’t the important part. Relationships, that’s what’s important. A relationship with the heavenly Father, that’s what’s important.

In this world, we will be asked to do a lot of things and our first impulse is to answer, “You want me to do WHAT!” We see it in our reading from Kings. Our reading from Galatians offers it up in a form, but Paul has told us that form is no longer required. In Luke, Jesus has paired up 72 disciples and sent them out, but it seems they became more enamored by the frosting than the cake. Here’s what I want you to do.

I want you to remember a time in your life when faith changed your life. Was it a mended relationship, or forgiveness, or healing, or a turning point. Think about it. Really think about it. Then, can you find a way to share that story in a couple of minutes? In evangelism (WAIT, YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT! It’ll be alright, hold on!) these are called “elevator talks.” Share what you want to share in just a couple of minutes, the length of time it takes to go up a couple of floors on an elevator. People don’t want to know theologies, they want to know what kind of difference Jesus, what kind of difference this body of Christ has made in your life.

That’s what I want you to do. Be just like that little girl in 2Kings. She knew there was a prophet, she knew there was healing to be had, and she shared. Now I’m not saying “tell the world” tomorrow. Share the story with your spouse, or someone from the congregation. Share it with me or Marie, we love good stories, and we’ll share our stories with you. This way together we take the first step to share the good news of the kingdom of God with the world… one person at a time.