tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352810552024-03-07T20:32:40.928-06:00Time Loves a Hero<i>Well they say time loves a hero,<br>but only time will tell,<br>If he's real, he's a legend from heaven,<br>If he ain't he was sent here from hell.<br><br></i>
Written by Bill Payne & Paul Barrere and recorded by Little Feat.<br><br>
I know of one hero, since people have considered him a hero for almost 2,000 years he could be considered a legend, or rather, He could be considered a legend.
Welcome to my sermon blog.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.comBlogger387125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-50085253619123266562016-09-25T13:18:00.000-05:002016-09-26T10:06:31.900-05:00HopeThis sermon was heard at The Federated Church on Sunday September 25, 2016, the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time<br />
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Jeremiah 32:1-15<br />
Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16<br />
1 Timothy 6:6-19<br />
Luke 16:19-31<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVR9JC5tLUDaklbs07nqVg4WJA1K5TeqNVVqiTI1B3wEWQxz788VpZDN69DE9agajkUihp8HBEDlb8knCEMoyAav1XaHWb0WZ3qH9EKqxI2gM2rvZOKnxaV0mX6R5TYlO_JfllUA/s1600/hope.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVR9JC5tLUDaklbs07nqVg4WJA1K5TeqNVVqiTI1B3wEWQxz788VpZDN69DE9agajkUihp8HBEDlb8knCEMoyAav1XaHWb0WZ3qH9EKqxI2gM2rvZOKnxaV0mX6R5TYlO_JfllUA/s1600/hope.jpg" /></a>I might have told you before, and shared this with the Lunch and Liturgy participants on Tuesday, that when I look at the Sunday scripture, I look at several translations. As I said last week, all translation is interpretation. When I look at the Old Testament scriptures, I look at the Jewish Publication Society translation alongside the English language versions I use for the New Testament. I do this because I want to see how Jews translate and interpret their own scriptures and compare it to the versions used by Christians.<br />
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I find this version interesting not just because of its wording, but because of its rhythm. There’s a lilt to the way it can be read, but Hebrew is that way to someone who speaks the language well, which I don’t. But in the English, I hope you agreed.<br />
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There are a few people in this narrative you need to know, the first of course being Jeremiah. Jeremiah prophesied from the thirteenth year of King Josiah until the end of the reign of King Zedekiah. The biblical books of Kings, Jeremiah, and Lamentations are all ascribed to Jeremiah, via the hand of his scribe Baruch the son of Neriah. It was Jeremiah’s lot in life to be known as “the weeping prophet,” it was Baruch’s to record these histories and prophecies, to document the weeping. It is important to know Baruch because without him we would not know Jeremiah.<br />
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Then there is Zedekiah, the king of Judah mentioned in this narrative. Jeremiah prophesied over the reigns of five kings of Judah, Zedekiah being the last because, well, we read that prophecy today. A prophecy which came to be. As Zedekiah’s reign ended, not only did the prophesied destruction occur, Solomon’s Temple was destroyed as Jerusalem was taken. <br />
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In short, Zedekiah imprisoned Jeremiah because every time Zedekiah asked Jeremiah to prophesy, praying he would prophesy deliverance, Jeremiah would say, “Well Zed, The Lord is going to deliver you and all Jerusalem to the King of Babylon and not you’re not going to escape. In fact, you’re going to be his prisoner until the Lord decides to remember you. Fight all you want; it won’t matter.”<br />
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Jeremiah was under arrest in the court of the guard. He could wander as he wanted on their grounds and the public areas of the guardhouse, but he was not free. He was constantly being watched. He would be allowed visitors, certainly Baruch came to bring food and wine and hear and take Jeremiah’s prophecies, but he was in a fancy jail. Prophecy the reason for his confinement. <br />
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So, how’s that for a beginning. The Weeping Prophet is in jail for giving the king the Word of HaShem, the Word of the Lord. He’s wasting away. He knows that the city will fall sooner or later. He knows one day, one day soon or years away, the guard will leave only to fight the last valiant, futile battle to save Jerusalem, save Judah, and save Zedekiah; and he has a vision from the Lord. Hanamel, the son of Jeremiah’s Uncle Shallum will come to offer to sell the family field in Anathoth.<br />
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Hanamel will come to Jeremiah because he has the primary right to redeem the purchase of this land. At the time in Israel and Judah, the tribal lands had to be kept within the families, you couldn’t just put land on the market for sale. Then not only did the land have to stay in the family, there was a hierarchy of who the land had to be offered. In this case, Jeremiah had the first right of refusal. <br />
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Sure enough, Hanamel comes to Jeremiah and asks him to purchase the plot. Realizing this is the way of HaShem, Jeremiah agrees. He weighs out the seventeen shekels of silver and the deeds are prepared. One deed is prepared as a public record, the other to be sealed and put into an earthen pot, a jar of clay. This is the safety deposit box of the day. This cool dry storage will ensure the safety of the document. Baruch takes the silver and the documents to the Elders at the city gate, because Jeremiah can’t go, he’s in jail. These Elders are the official witnesses of all major transactions. <br />
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Together they make the deal.<br />
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The deal though is not complete until Jeremiah makes an important prophecy. Baruch delivers the word of the Lord from Jeremiah saying, “For thus saith HaShem of hosts, the G-d of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land.”<br />
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Jeremiah is in prison. The city will be sacked. The temple will be destroyed. The king will be taken to Babylon. Everybody worth anything will be taken too. Judah and Israel will be left to the aged and the infirm. Jeremiah will be taken to Egypt, but before all of this happens and before all of this ends, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Judah has a future. People will return. The nation will rise again. Things will be better.<br />
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How do we know this? Jeremiah prophesies “houses, fields, and vineyards will be bought in this land again.” The people will return. There will be life. Families will return and thrive. There will be crops and there will be vines. There will be bread and there will be wine. The people will return and there will be a need for records in earthen jars, so they must be kept. <br />
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In the midst of siege, battle, prison, prophesy, fear, despair, and a king who will be the last of the Kings of Judah, there is hope. There is hope because the weeping prophet says there is. Jeremiah proclaims a future in the land for the people. Thus saith HaShem of hosts.<br />
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Because there is hope, Paul tells us through Timothy, “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” Promises made in the waters of our baptism.<br />
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We aren’t called to be trapped by harmful desires. Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness are the marks of life well lived. What we consider wealth is uncertain, so Paul warns the rich not to be haughty, not to flaunt their wealth. Paul instead bids we become “rich in good deeds, to be generous and willing to share.” So that for the coming age, an age that may not be unlike Jeremiah’s, we will have a firm foundation so that we may take hold of the life that is truly life.<br />
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What is life that is truly life? I like this story from Luke’s gospel, not only for its wonderful lesson about “life that is truly life,” but for its implicit irony. You see, Luke’s gospel was written sometime between 75-85 AD. So when Jesus tells the story of the rich man and Lazarus and the rich man cries out to Father Abraham…<br />
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“Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.<br />
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“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’<br />
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“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’<br />
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“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”<br />
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The irony of this is that by the time of the recording and telling of this tale, Jesus has died and risen. I like that, not the community patting itself on the back which is haughty, but the humor of Father Abraham saying “they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead” after Jesus has been risen from the dead. <br />
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The main lesson though, the flashy life of the rich man is nothing in the realm of true life. For all of the abuse the world laid at the feet of Lazarus, his life was true and he receives his reward. <br />
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The hope that comes from this story is that there is hope. There is repentance. Our Lord does not turn his back on those he loves and the Lord loves us all. Yes, there are consequences for our actions. Zedekiah found that. Jerusalem found that. The entire nation found that. The rich man in the parable finds that there may be no hope for his brothers. I refuse to believe there is no hope, repentance may yet come, but if they continue as their brother did there is not. <br />
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Paul was a Pharisee and a citizen of Rome was one of those rich men. He met the man who died and rose to live again. He found the difference between the good life he led and the true life he could have, and he took it. <br />
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What does “true life” mean to us? As this part of the body of Christ what do we need to do to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness? I thank God for what we do. Meals on Wheels, the Food Banks, the Ministerial Alliance, Positive Pathways, Denominational Support, because those are good missions, that’s good outreach. <br />
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I thank God for what we do in Christian Education, teaching and learning and growing in God is important. Good examples like Jeremiah, Baruch and Timothy and bad examples like Zedekiah show us where God delights and where God does not. <br />
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But there is more. There is so much more. The Lord does not want us to be anxious. Anxiety doesn’t even sniff at that list of qualities that defines true life, things like righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. So let us pray. Let us seek. Let us plan. Let us go forward. Above all let us hope because that is true life where HaShem finds delight.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-17163675734572261572016-09-18T12:00:00.000-05:002016-09-19T13:58:09.499-05:00Dishonest? Unrighteous? Shrewd?This sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Waterford, Oklahoma on Sunday September 18, 2016, the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time.<br />
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Jeremiah 8:18-9:1<br />
Psalm 79:1-9<br />
1 Timothy 2:1-7<br />
Luke 16:1-13<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.<br />
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As you recall, last week I mentioned that there are some Sundays pastors don’t look forward to preaching. Welcome to one of those Sundays. It seems logical that the parables are ready made for sermons, Jesus tells a story, the pastor explains the story, we have coffee after church and go to lunch. Unfortunately, parables aren’t that easy. Give me an Old Testament narrative for that sort of sermon any day. <br />
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The parables are often filled with strange twists and turns that betray simple retelling. On top of twists, there are cultural variables we don’t understand. So if the pastor tries a simple retelling, it’s possible to skate across the surface of the parable glazing over important points. Skating across the text reminds me of the line from an old song, “If you should go skating on the thin ice of hot life, don’t be surprised if a crack in the ice appears under your feet.”<br />
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Jesus teaches his disciples, out loud, “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” If you aren’t confused, you aren’t paying attention. I’ve preached this passage several times and it never ceases confusing me. With this paragraph is Jesus commending dishonesty? It seems so out of character. What’s going on here?<br />
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Let’s look at the parable again. There was a manager who was being wasteful with a Rich Man’s possessions. This isn’t refuted by the manager; he squandered the rich man’s possessions. So the rich man pulls the manager aside and says, “‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.”<br />
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“The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg—I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’”<br />
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First, the rich man did something silly. To put this in modern terms, he fires his manager, then demands he go back to his office and put his books together so he can report on whether he was wasteful or worse. These days you’re met at your desk by security and the forensic accountant and you might get to leave with the photograph of your wife and kids; but not until security makes sure you haven’t written any computer codes on the back of your pictures. <br />
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Second, let’s give this manager some credit, he’s self-aware. Too proud to beg, too weak to dig, he needs a new job and he’s sure he’s not going to get a letter of recommendation. So what does he do, he plots to endear himself to the people who may give him his next job, people who need managers, the people who owe his master money. So he gets in contact with them and plays “Let’s make a deal.”<br />
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This is where I got the cover for today’s bulletin: The boss yells “You’re fired” and the manager responds “Okay, mind if I take care of a couple things first?”<br />
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He calls in the first debtor and asks, “‘How much do you owe my master?” Let’s pause here. There’s one guy in charge of knowing how much Olive Oil Guy owes his master and he doesn’t seem to know. If there were three or four people in the books that’s one thing but there aren’t. It’s just the manager and he doesn’t know, he should be fired for that alone.<br />
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Then again, he could be shrewdly offering Olive Oil Guy a chance to set his own terms. He may know good and well the master is owed nine hundred gallons and hoped Olive Oil Guy would take his own discount? “How much do you owe? Wink-wink.” “Ah, four hundred and fifty gallons? Wink-wink?” but this little conspiracy doesn’t play out.<br />
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Alas the manager was clueless or Olive Oil Guy was honest; so the manager says, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.” This continued with the man who owed his master wheat who got a 20% discount instead of a 50% discount. <br />
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When the rich man caught wind of what happened and scripture gives us this gem, “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.” This is where knowledge of the languages hurts more than it helps. The word our bibles translates as “master” is very common in the Greek New Testament, usually it’s translated as “Lord.” Imagine how dizzy that made the disciples, this is the Lord? I’m dizzy? How are you doing?<br />
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John Dominic Crossan quotes other bible scholars when working this text saying this man wasn’t stealing from his boss, he was stealing from himself. This is what made him dishonest and shrewd rather than a felon. Let me explain this in a modern setting which may make more sense.<br />
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Let’s say a big boss has someone in sales working on commission. The boss gets the quarterly reports and notices that somebody has been very naughty. Office supplies have gone missing and somebody has traded up their office chair for something nicer, a Cadillac Escalade (Boy, those “Push it in, pull it in, drag it in” trade-in sales are great, aren’t they!).<br />
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Knowing who has mismanaged corporate assets, the boss calls this shrewd employee in and as a good reformed Christian believes in grace; so the boss tells the employee to get their stuff in order and get out. Too proud to beg, too weak to dig what does the employee do? Go to the clients and give them discounts. But if there is any more theft from the boss, grace will turn to disgrace and a place on the Police Report in the paper. So the employee gives discounts from their commissions hoping for a quick job offer. <br />
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Yes, it’s a kickback. Yes, this is illegal in America, but this isn’t America. This isn’t even real; this is a parable. So Crossan and these scholars aren’t looking at the grand action of the parable like theft like I have for years. He’s seen as being shrewd; though shewed isn’t a particularly complementary word.<br />
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The Greek word used here gets a workout from the translators. Some use dishonest, others use shrewd, others unrighteous. You will hear me say this time again, all translation is interpretation. The word used depends on the intent and the theological slant of the translation committee.<br />
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Dishonest? He’s not telling anybody where their discount is coming from. The master will know. Do the debtors? The parable doesn’t say, but they might. But who would hire a crook? The parable tells us the manager was wasteful, but is that the same as dishonest? He doesn’t lie to the boss, he just discounts everybody’s debt without telling the boss. Not good, but not dictionary dishonest.<br />
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Shrewd? Yes, he is being shrewd. He’s taking his share and he’s using it to try to secure his future without telling anybody what he’s doing. Unfortunately, there’s too much melodramatic baggage with “shrewd” to suit my taste. I imagine the manager twirling a handlebar mustache while not doing his job and pursuing a soft landing. It works, but it’s not quite right.<br />
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Unrighteous? That’s the word I prefer. While dishonest and shewed can work, I prefer unrighteous because there’s a theological basis to it. Job is righteous. This guy, not so much because his actions served his lifestyle. He did whatever he had to so he could keep living not like a rich man, but in a rich man’s house. He didn’t want to do the work to be a master, a Lord, he wanted to be his slave, as long as he was a comfortable slave.<br />
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We read in 1Timothy our Lord sent his Son so that we may come to the knowledge of truth, the truth of the righteousness of Christ. Seeking righteousness in the love of cash, status, comfort—especially comfort in slavery, will never get us where we want to be, where we need to be, where God wants us to be. We cannot love these things equally. As I said last week, we must love Christ above everything if we are to love at all.<br />
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In 1987, Oliver Stone made “Wall Street” starring Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen. This is the movie where Douglas made the famous “Greed, for the lack of a better word, is good” speech. Since the movie came out Douglas has lamented that speech. Not the quality of the words or even the acting, but its interpretation by now two generations of business school yuppies who think that wealth is all that matters. He tells them that they don’t get it. They forget that Sheen’s character goes to jail. Douglas’ character is yet to be dealt with by the Securities and Exchange Commission.<br />
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Greed is not good. It’s not dishonest. It’s not shrewd. It is unrighteous. We need to spend our time and commit our energies to the one who is righteous instead. AmenTime Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-27597238379972341812016-09-11T12:00:00.000-05:002016-09-11T12:29:03.555-05:00The MissingThis sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday September 11, 2016, the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time.<br />
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Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28<br />
Psalm 14<br />
1Timothy 1:12-17<br />
Luke 15:1-10<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.<br />
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There are certain Sundays pastors look forward to preaching, and certain Sundays we don’t. They vary from pastor to pastor of course. As for me, I believe this is the first time I have ever preached on September 11th. It’s not that I’ve avoided it in the past, and I might be wrong. If I did the sermon wasn’t memorable. This year is different for some reason.<br />
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Fifteen years ago I was sitting in a seminary classroom learning the Hebrew alphabet. At 9:30ish there was a commotion in the hall, but I thought nothing of it. Some classes let out at that time. It was louder than usual, and Prof. Rev. Dr. Kathryn Roberts did not take interruptions lightly, she took them personally. So I focused on the board instead of the distraction. <br />
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I went down to Financial Aid after class. That was when I first found out about what had happened in New York City. None of the computers at the seminary were powerful enough or fast enough to process video, except for the server room of course. So Financial Aid Director Glenna Balch and I listened on the radio. I told her this must have been what listening to “War of the Worlds” felt like, except this was really happening. Then I rushed back to our apartment where I found Marie in shock.<br />
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In New York City people started putting up signs almost immediately. There were flyers with people’s pictures everywhere asking “Have you seen…?” followed by somebody’s name. Pictures from people hoping, begging that someone might have seen someone else. Had a piece of news. Maybe a friend of a friend or something. <br />
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First responders, police, firemen, EMT’s, nurses, all sorts of people came out of the woodwork to make things better. They became helpers. Some became heroes. Some became fallen heroes. Some were looking for loved ones. Everybody was looking because it was the right thing to do. <br />
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The last missing person, Michelle Guzman McMillan became a survivor when she was pulled from the rubble at about 12:30 pm on September 12. That was more than 27 hours after the North Tower fell. Her office was in that tower on the 64th floor.<br />
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But I don’t have to tell a Sooner about any of this. A little over six years earlier, Oklahoma City had its own disaster at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. On April 19, 1995, a Ryder truck loaded up with fertilizer and diesel was dropped off and detonated in front of the Murrah building blowing the front third off of the building killing 168 people, 19 of whom were children under the age of six and wounding 800 more. <br />
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At 9:03 am, the first of over 1,800 911 calls were received by the OKC Emergency Medical Services Authority, but by that time, EMSA ambulances, police, and firefighters were already headed to the scene, because they heard the blast. People who had witnessed or heard the blast arrived to assist the victims and emergency workers soon after. Within 23 minutes of the bombing, the State Emergency Operations Center was set up, with representatives from the state departments of public safety, human services, military, health, and education. Assisting the them were agencies like the National Weather Service, the Air Force, the Civil Air Patrol, and the American Red Cross to find the lost, tend the wounded and recover the dead. Immediate assistance also came from 465 members of the Oklahoma National Guard, who arrived within the hour to provide security, and from members of the Department of Civil Emergency Management because heroes need heroes too.<br />
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The summer of 2002, the summer after 9/11, Marie and I stopped at the Oklahoma City National Memorial traveling from Austin to Kansas City. I’m getting choked up, forgive me. Two things left me raw, emotionally raw from the visit. The first was the 168 chairs on the lawn, each one bearing the name of one of the victims ripped from this life. Of course there was a special punch in the stomach for the 19 child sized chairs. The other was the chain link fence that still bore the flyers with people’s pictures everywhere asking “Have you seen…?” followed by somebody’s name. Pictures from people hoping, begging that someone might have seen someone else. Had a piece of news. Maybe a friend of a friend or something.<br />
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Brandy Ligon was the last person to go from missing to found from the Murrah building bombing. She was fifteen at the time. She was in the nursery and could hear children crying after the bombing. Of course she heard children stop crying too. She was saved thirteen hours after being listed among the lost.<br />
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This is the week when we read that a shepherd will leave the 99 to find the one lost sheep to return it to the flock. This is the week when we read that a woman will sweep her house until she has blisters on her fingers if it means finding a tenth of her wealth. Both then will call everyone they know to celebrate because what was missing, is now found. <br />
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Most pastors at this point in the sermon take apart the parable to make sense of it. I have preached this passage before and that’s what I did, but not this year. The usual lesson we take from this is that we are called to seek the lost to make life whole again.<br />
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But after considering 9/11 and 4/19, it hardly makes me think we will ever really feel whole again, not this side of glory.<br />
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This year I stopped reading the passage after verse two, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” <br />
So why did I stop here?<br />
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These readings are about the missing, the lost. These two short parables preface the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke’s gospel, a story of a wayward son, but even more so, the story of a Father who longs for his son’s return. <br />
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These parables, the two we read today and the parable of the Prodigal, are about the missing which is found. So instead of saying we are called to seek the lost, which is surely true, let me say this instead, in Christ, we are never missing. <br />
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In Christ we are never missing.<br />
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So often, the Pharisees of this world look at those they call “sinners,” and call them the lost. They have left the fold. They are weak. They are soiled. They are unclean. They are broken. They allow themselves to be used. They point and ask “Where is God?” and the answer is found right here. God in Christ is right there, at the table, breaking bread with them.<br />
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I often talk about of our baptismal identity because baptism is the sacramental symbol that shows how Christ joins us. Being celebrated once, unless we make a real effort to remember our baptism, its importance wanes, and I want us to stem that tide, so I remind us to remember our baptism.<br />
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Today we look at the other sacrament we celebrate, the Lord’s Supper. Jesus feeds his disciples, his children, the missing and the lost of this world because we are all missing and lost. The Apostle Paul knew this, maybe a bit melodramatically he shares this with Timothy. For all of the good that Paul has done and for the status he holds, he knows that he has done horrible things and is a man of sin, not grace. Paul also knows and shares that salvation comes through grace alone, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He writes, “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”<br />
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This grace comes not because of who Paul is or anything he did, but because of who Jesus is and what he does. Who is Jesus and what does he do? He is Immanuel, God with us, who comes and he sits with sinners, breaks bread and shares a meal. Through the Lord’s Supper, a meal only he can invite us to take and eat, we continue to share this meal.<br />
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In a few minutes, we will hear from Ashlyn Dillon who will tell us about her African mission trip last summer. This was not her first trip, and maybe not her last. The recurring theme I hear from missionaries is that when they return, their faith is stronger. I’m sure there are many reasons this could be, but I have a guess… I bet they sat down, shared a meal together, and discovered that in Jesus Christ, they weren’t among the missing anymore.<br />
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Amen.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-62527780134285574262016-09-04T12:00:00.000-05:002016-09-06T16:39:30.117-05:00God's Little Instruction BookThis sermon was heard at the Federated Church on Sunday September 4, 2016, the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time.<br />
<br />
Jeremiah 18:1-11<br />
Psalm 139:<br />
Philemon 1-21<br />
Luke 14:25-33<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, oh Lord, our rock and my redeemer. Amen.<br />
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Over the last few weeks we have been on the road with Luke as Jesus travels from Galilee to Jerusalem. In this time Jesus has been welcomed and rejected. We have been with Jesus as he has taught and healed in the synagogue and in homes. He has welcomed the outcast and rebuked the powerful. We have seen humility and hypocrisy. We have joined Jesus for meetings with Pharisees, publicans, and prostitutes. We have heard him speak of love, grace, and forgiveness. We have seen Jesus in action and we have heard him teach with authority. So by this time it is no wonder large crowds were travelling with him.<br />
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Because of the way Jesus turned and spoke to the crowd I make these two assumptions: First, that there were true believers in the crowd, those who believed they were ready, come what may, when they reached Jerusalem. But secondly, I am just as sure that there were people who followed because it was a great crowd.<br />
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Sensing the time was right; Jesus turns to the mass of followers and announces what it takes to complete the journey, what it takes to be his disciple. He tells the crowd that to be his disciple they must hate their families and their own lives. He ends by telling the crowd that to follow him they must give up everything. I can only imagine this must have put quite a damper on the festivities.<br />
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When I started seminary, one of the supplementary textbooks for Introduction to the Old Testament was Michael Joseph Brown’s, “What They Didn’t Tell You, A Survivor’s Guide to Biblical Studies.” This book offers twenty-eight “rules of thumb” for seminarians. Some of the information was useful, some wasn’t. But one of the rules has stuck with me like a stone in my shoe. Rule ten says, “The Bible means what it says, and says what it means. Except when it doesn’t.” Luke’s discourse on hating family is the essence of this rule.<br />
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The original language of the text is an idiom, an expression unique to the culture. Fortunately for us, the parallel in Matthew’s gospel expresses what Jesus said in a way we can better understand. Matthew’s gospel records Jesus saying “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” While it is probable that Jesus said what was recorded in Luke’s gospel, its meaning is better rendered in English the way it is written in Matthew’s.<br />
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Either way, Jesus calls for a radical realignment of priorities. What has been acceptable in the past isn’t anymore. Anyone who is not ready to make the sacrifice Jesus demands follows at their own peril. The law isn’t changing, but its interpretation in Christ is new and different.<br />
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This is an example of scripture meaning what it says, except when it doesn’t. We aren’t supposed to hate, loathe, and despise our families and our lives. To follow Christ, we must love the Lord our God more than we love our families and our lives. In their place, Jesus put discipleship above all other obligations. Inherently we knew that Jesus did not abolish the law to honor thy father and thy mother; but it is difficult to understand that from this passage’s English translation.<br />
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The final verse in this reading was difficult for many in the crowd to hear then and it is now too. Jesus tells the crowd none of them can become his disciple if they do not give up all their possessions. Jesus doesn’t offer any wiggle room here; this is not an expression. Just as we are called to put Jesus above all human relationships we are called to part from all things for the sake of discipleship. This reading points to a renunciation of all possessions as a part of the radical realignment of our lives. To be a disciple of Jesus, we must put Him above everything.<br />
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Jesus goes on in this lesson to warn us about what will happen should we fail. If we cannot bear the cost of discipleship, we stand to be mocked just as the builder is ridiculed when unable to finish building a tower. Just like a warrior who doesn’t bring enough firepower to win a battle. <br />
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But I skipped something, and this sentence is the hinge pin between the two parts. “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” We are told we have to put Jesus above all else. And we are warned about the results of following without being fully engaged. But what does it mean to carry our cross?<br />
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Theories abound. Some New Testament language scholars see bearing the cross as the metaphorical beginning of discipleship. We do in our lives as Jesus does on his journey. Others compare this to taking on a yoke, its mantle representing the patibulum, the horizontal piece of the crucifix. Others attribute this phrase to a popular expression which was originally a curse applied to the zealots and later to Jesus’ followers, “Ah, take up your cross.” Perhaps it was some sort of rallying cry having militaristic characteristics. “Take up your cross!” But there is one theory I find quite interesting.<br />
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In ancient Israel, the Greek letter “Tau”, our letter “T” was worn by some as a cultic mark, a sign of protection and possession. After the crucifixion, the Tau was related to the historical cross of Jesus as a seal of possession in Christ. While scholars do not think that this was in the mind of Jesus, perhaps it was in the mind of those who wrote this gospel. Now, don’t worry, this is not a call for all of us to go and get tattoos. The Tau is a sign, a symbol. Symbols communicate action; they do not perform the action. We have another symbol to communicate this action.<br />
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We carry the cross in the waters of our baptism. As some took the Tau as a symbol, we accept the water as the sign that we rise and die and rise again with Christ. As Jesus called the followers to take up the cross daily, we are called to remember our baptism. In our baptism we accept Jesus’ call to faithfulness, rebirth, and covenant into the body of Christ.<br />
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Several years ago, on a rainy Easter Sunday in Austin, Texas, the Reverend Doctor Ellen Babinsky began the service of the Lord’s Day by saying that it was damp and that in our baptism we are called to live wet. The morning was rainy and sloppy. We were never promised that living wet would be tidy; on the contrary, living wet is frequently sloppy. <br />
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In 1993, Honor Books published “God’s Little Instruction Book, Inspirational Wisdom on How to Live a Happy and Fulfilled Life.” What the book does is couple little insights with scripture. I’ll admit some of them bother me. For example, “There is a name for people who are not excited about their work—unemployed.” This isn’t a pastoral thing to say.<br />
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Another is “the best way to forget your own problems is to help [solve someone else’s].” While this is not inappropriate under many circumstances, this advice can be a disaster for problem solvers with mental health issues. This “inspirational wisdom” could make matters worse for both.<br />
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When the authors remind us “If at first you don’t succeed, try reading the instructions,” I just hope the instructions don’t contain an idiom translated from Ancient Greek. This is the problem with clichés. These guides to a “happy and fulfilled life” are so glossy that when forced to bear the weight of the cross they crumble like sand castles. The way of the discipleship is more precious than simple sayings.<br />
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One of my favorite movies is Rob Reiner’s “The Princess Bride.” If you have never seen it, then after church get supper to-go from Lucille’s or Benchwarmer Brown’s or Taco Mayo or Micky-D’s or your favorite restaurant and pull it up on Netflix. You’ve deprived yourself and your children too long.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfZO267BynePmbr3NWQBy3Z_LsJrrJjSXDx3V9nJ6aLRiIvp2_CSG8wtedre7MiPZTtuifTxs7Lm8InJahYH3SclNdlDNZ3KCN3x3TIvUNo41yLRyeAPcjpi4N-lQ1aMSW9xcRMg/s1600/princess-bride.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfZO267BynePmbr3NWQBy3Z_LsJrrJjSXDx3V9nJ6aLRiIvp2_CSG8wtedre7MiPZTtuifTxs7Lm8InJahYH3SclNdlDNZ3KCN3x3TIvUNo41yLRyeAPcjpi4N-lQ1aMSW9xcRMg/s320/princess-bride.bmp" width="320" /></a>The image from the cover of the bulletin has two characters from the movie, Mandy Patinkin as Inigo Montoya, and Wallace Shawn as Vizzini. Vizzini has been hired to kidnap the Princess Buttercup and has hired a swordsman, Inigo, and a brute played by the late professional wrestler Andre the Giant to assist him. Vizzini as the brains of the operation has laid out a diabolical plot, but he is being followed by a Man in Black who seems intent to thwart their plans.<br />
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Every time the Man in Black gets closer, Vizzini gets more flustered. Every time Vizzini gets flustered, he cries out, “Inconceivable!” Finally, after the fifth time Vizzini cries out “Inconceivable” Inigo says “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” As for our reading, Jesus says we have to hate our families, but as we now know, that does not mean what we think it means.<br />
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As for me, I believe that the bible is always right; but I know I get things wrong. There are things we don’t understand. Great is the mystery of faith. What we must understand is that we are called to live in community, in the assembled body of Christ, living wet, and bearing our crosses.<br />
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Fortunately, we have the perfect role model for this relationship. We have the example of Jesus who as a person teaches us how to relate to one another with humility, love, grace, and forgiveness. We have the example of Christ the Lord who models the perfect relationship; existing as one in three in an eternal dance of being in community. When we live wet, when we bear our cross in Christ, then we can follow and be his disciple. Amen.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-54858720583232816522016-08-28T12:00:00.000-05:002016-08-28T12:00:06.264-05:00His Name Was EarlThis sermon was heard at The Federated Church on Sunday August 28, 2016, the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time<br />
<br />
Jeremiah 2:4-13<br />
Psalm 81:1, 10-16<br />
Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16<br />
Luke 14:1, 7-14<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen<br />
<br />
This is an odd story, as many stories are. Of course if all stories were "normal" there would be no point to recording or telling them. This is the story of someone I met one day at First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas named Earl. I'll let you decide if this story is worth recording and telling.<br />
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Early one Wednesday afternoon I had a meeting with my Spiritual Director. According to the Spiritual Director's International Website, Spiritual Directors are folks "who share a commitment to the art of contemplative spiritual compassionate listening." The closest certified Spiritual Director to Weatherford is the Rev. Carol Waters in Clinton.<br />
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Spiritual Directors aren’t counselors. They are fellow travelers who listen and ask good questions like a counselor, but their concern is with spiritual health and development instead of mental health. The image they use to describe their work is called The Three Chairs. This description of The Three Chairs Concept comes from their website:<br />
<blockquote>
<i>In one chair a seeker sits, desiring a deeper relationship with God, a Higher Power, or Ultimate Reality. In a second chair, a spiritual director listens, inquires, and holds the space for the seeker to encounter the true Spiritual Director in the third chair</i>.</blockquote>
On that Wednesday afternoon, to help me encounter God, he asked me how I had been blessed lately. I talked about my second anniversary at the church (celebrated about ten days earlier) and about other stuff, but he knew there had been so many stresses in my life that sometimes the tiny diamonds of blessings got buried under tons of dung. One comes sprinkled like pixie dust and the other comes dumped from a bucket truck. Ever feel like that? Can I get an "Amen"?<br />
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Not long after my Spiritual Director left, a man rang the church doorbell. He was a black man at the door, maybe in his late 20's but looking much older. He told me his name was Earl and he could not read or write; and he sounded like someone who could not read or write. I hate using what we from Kansas called "discouraging words," but it was true. He was dirty. His clothes were in tatters. He looked, moved and sounded like the walking-talking stereotype of an illiterate black man in deep east Texas. God forgive me for this overgeneralization, this stereotype; but then again, this might have been a part of some sort of test. More on that in a couple.<br />
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When I answered the door, he said that he was sent over to us from another church because he was looking for some bibles. While he couldn’t read, that was no problem because his mamma could. While he couldn’t read them for himself, he knew some bible stories but he had no idea what they were called or where to find them.<br />
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I said "Sure" and headed toward the chapel where there was a surplus of bibles. Georgia, the church secretary, offered to go and get some from the spares stored in the choir room instead. That was perfect. So he came into my study while she went to the choir room for the bibles. I also gave him a Gideon New Testament-Psalms-Proverbs book. He asked for three of those. No problem, there are plenty more where that came from.<br />
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He asked me to mark some things for him. No problem. He asked me to mark "that place where it says 'the Lord is my shepherd.'" No problem, the 23rd Psalm coming right up! By this time Georgia got to my office with the other bibles and she started marking them. Then he asked for that story of the guy who "Satan took everything he had but God returned it seven times. "No problem, Job coming right up!”<br />
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This is when Georgia told me she had to leave. She had an appointment. No problem, it had been in the works all week. That left us alone, Earl and me, just the two of us. <br />
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This is when Earl made a less precise request. He said that he was watching the Trinity Broadcasting Network the other day and they mentioned a scripture "where God brings two people together who have nothing in common, but it blesses them both."<br />
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I thought about it for a moment. By this time, I had begun to believe Earl was a soul God placed in my day so I could be blessed, and be a blessing too. Kind of the on the nose about what my Spiritual Director said not twenty minutes earlier.<br />
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I told Earl that I didn't know the verse they used on TBN or what they were talking about, but I wanted to share Hebrews 13:2, "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it." I told him that as much as we were a blessing to him by giving him the bibles, he was a blessing in my life. He was the man I needed to see that day. So I marked it in the bible he handed me and that's when it got weird.<br />
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Suddenly, Earl's demeanor completely changed. He stood taller. His eyes became clear. His voice took on a power and command I did not expect. He blessed me. I mean he blessed me, not in some general “you are a blessing in my life” way, he blessed me. I don't know exactly what he said because I was so taken aback that I didn't hear everything he said. What I did hear was, "We won't see each other again for a long time, but we will see each other again," and that's where it got fuzzy again.<br />
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As he started to leave he dropped one of the small Gideon testaments, and when it hit the floor, the moment was over. The electricity in the room was gone. His old voice returned, he smiled and said "Whoops."<br />
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It's said that the vast majority of people never have a spiritual experience while in church. Well, I had mine that day. I met a man who seemed to shrug off his human facade like I’ll take off this robe after church. He blessed me and told me that we will meet again one day. He spoke with a voice of peace and authority that I haven't ever heard another human being use. Was Earl an angel? Perhaps, I think so. Biblical Greek translates the word we use for “angel” as “messenger” and I got a message. <br />
Does that make me crazy? Well, if I’m crazy, that’s not the reason.<br />
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I was asked if I had been blessed lately and not an hour later, there’s a man who in his own way is giving me the message that “God said ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” Don’t get me wrong, at that moment my life didn’t turn around. Life wasn’t a bowl of cherries. Every moment hasn’t been “happily ever after.” There is struggle, but as much as I have ever felt helpless I have never felt hopeless. <br />
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If Earl had walked into most offices, he would have been ushered out as quickly as security could get there. That’s the nature of most offices. Not so in the church, thank God. So it was my good fortune to be blessed that day to offer him a seat and because of that he blessed me. <br />
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There was nothing tangible, physical on this earth he could offer me. Nothing. He had nothing, he owned nothing. He was waiting on his mamma to bring back the car. They might have been sleeping in it for all I knew. All he wanted was the Word of God and I had plenty of the printed variety. He wanted some instruction too and so I could offer him the Word of God proclaimed. He had nothing, but he had a lot of it.<br />
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So in a way, without intending to, purely because I was living in the moment, I was doing as Jesus commanded in Luke 14:12-14. There was a man in my office who could never repay me. He had nothing to give me; and I didn’t know he had anything I wanted. I was able to have him sit at the table and feed him with the bread of life and give him the living water that satisfies hunger and thirst, the Word of God. By this I was blessed. I was blessed by an angel named Earl.<br />
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Come to think about it, maybe those were the verses the folks on TBN were talking about. “God brings two people together who have nothing in common, but it blesses them both?”<br />
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After he left, about five minutes later our Worship Leader, a man named Al, came in to pick hymns for Sunday’s worship. I asked him if he saw a black man leaving, either getting into a car or walking away on foot, because I wanted to tell him this story. He said he didn’t. I didn’t think there was any way Earl could make a “quick getaway” and was sure Al would have seen him. No, Earl was gone. <br />
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Friends, I keep asking if you have had any experiences like this. Last week’s board meeting included this story and three others from three board members. So that you know, the other six aren’t off the hook, there’s another meeting in two months. <br />
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There are so many questions of faith, but here’s one for the people of faith: How have you been blessed? How have you been blessed lately? How does your faith make a difference in your life? As Christians in a world that has a warped view of Christian values, we are like Jesus, we are being carefully watched, and when we live our lives like our faith makes a difference, the world sees. That’s when the world begins to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s time to show the world the Gospel again.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-8213563066728912962016-08-21T12:00:00.000-05:002016-08-21T12:00:36.387-05:00A Most Unlikely SwordThis sermon was heard at The Federated Church on Sunday August 21, 2016, the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time.<br />
<br />
Jeremiah 1:4-10<br />
Psalm 71:1-6<br />
Hebrews 12:18-29<br />
Luke 13:10-17<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.<br />
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Reading Paul’s epistles to the churches is a lot like reading a Jeopardy board. The board is filled with answers and the contestants come up with the right questions. His first letter to the church at Corinth contains the answers to questions from that congregation which are still used. The latter part of Chapter 14 deals with answers about worship. <br />
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Starting at verse 26, Paul gives instructions about psalms, doctrines, tongues, revelations, and interpretations and their use in worship. The verse ends saying that the purpose of these things is to edify, to build up the Church. Through verse 39, Paul goes into who can, who must, and who mustn’t participate in worship. He also speaks to propriety in worship. He sums up his talk in verse 40 which I share with you from the King James because it cuts to the chase, “Let all things be done decently and in order.”<br />
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There is a joke among Presbyterians that this verse is tattooed on us before leaving seminary. Actually Presbyteries quit mandating the tattoo in the early 80’s. (Small joke, very small.) But I say this because pastors, especially freshly minted pastors, often get wound a little tight. Everything has to be just so… I was a basket case on my first Easter Sunday in the pulpit. If I knew then what I know now. A couple of years later, I was so comfortable in worship that on a Sunday when preaching on “good gifts” my children’s sermon included me taking a bite out of a Milk Bone brand dog biscuit. <br />
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Just so you know, you will never find a Milk Bone in the Communion tray replacing our traditional wafer, and that is not a joke. <br />
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I imagine all denominations have their own stories about “decently and in order” and today we hear one where Jesus is the star of the story.<br />
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We begin with a woman. There isn’t much we know about this woman. There is much we assume, but not much we know. We know she has what the King James calls “a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.” While the NIV’s language may be more accurate, “she was bent over,” there is a poetic quality to being “bowed together” which captures her plight better than “bent over.” <br />
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We really know nothing else about her. She could be in her late 20’s, her back bowed because of an accident. She could be in her 30’s and bowed from childbirth and work. She could be older and with these same conditions and have a disease like arthritis. We know so little about her, she could have a birth defect and this eighteen year “spirit of infirmity” may be visited upon an eighteen-year-old.<br />
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There is no talk of other family. Is she a teen? Are there children? Are they young or adult? Is she a respected woman, a real “Proverbs 31” gal whose body has paid the price? Is she a widow? We know nothing. What do we know?<br />
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We know this. Jesus was teaching on the Sabbath in one of the synagogues. The crippled woman was there. Jesus saw her. Jesus called her forward. Jesus said, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he laid hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. This we know. Then we get an earful from a synagogue leader who seems to have been a fan of Paul from his “decently and in order” Pharisee days.<br />
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Back to the King James, “And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, and said unto the people,” Notice his indignation is toward the people, not Jesus, “‘‘There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.’” The synagogue leader is doing what he’s supposed to be doing, keeping order in the assembly. If he doesn’t, worship doesn’t glorify God. Right?<br />
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Jesus made a rookie mistake, he’ll get a talking to in the coach’s office in the clubhouse after the game, but not in front of the press or the other players. <br />
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But Jesus isn’t going into the clubhouse. This is the second time in two weeks of readings Jesus has called people “hypocrites.” Last week he dropped “the H-Bomb” on the crowd who couldn’t tell what direction the wind was blowing. This week he drops it on religious leaders who think order is more important than relationship. Hypocrite is a word that’s bandied about often, especially these days, so what does it mean?<br />
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Random House tells us a hypocrite is somebody who pretends to have virtues, morals, religious beliefs, or principles that they don’t actually possess. Especially a person whose actions go against those stated beliefs. Another slightly different nuance is someone whose public persona doesn’t match their private attitudes.<br />
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In biblical Greek it literally means to judge or to decide from under. Not very helpful, is it. It’s because it’s an idiom, an expression, one that came from the theater. It means “to act from under a mask” like the Greeks did in the theater, using masks so you could see what character they were portraying. Another way to approach that, two-faced. That’s what Jesus was calling the people when he was calling them hypocrites. He was calling them two-faced.<br />
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Jesus is saying that it’s time for the church to take the lead and make a difference in the lives of the people who need the Church to make a difference. It’s time for the church to take the lead and make a difference in the lives of the people who need the Church to make a difference.<br />
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There’s more flooding in South Louisiana. The Disciples of Christ and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance are already on the ground in South Louisiana, and do you know why? It’s because they’re still down there because of Hurricane Katrina. There is still so much to do post-Katrina that the people of God are still on the Gulf taking care of God’s business. They are there ready to meet the challenges of this new crisis. What they need is reloading.<br />
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Our denominations are working with disaster assistance in Syria and throughout the Middle East. They are in Nepal after the latest round of earthquakes. They are working in Hungary, Austria, Germany, Sweden, and other nations to help settle refugees. Here in Oklahoma they have helped provide emergency relief and helped rebuild after tornadoes and ice storms. They do this seven days a week, even on the Sabbath.<br />
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Last week our Gospel reading talked about how Jesus would separate families. Jesus wields a most unlikely sword, a sword of love, separating the people of faith. Today he separates those who only serve in robes from those who serve with their heads, hearts, and hands. Jesus shames the leaders, all powerful, affluent men. They untie their livestock so they can get water on the Sabbath, but they disgrace a sister, a daughter of Abraham who has been bowed under crippling pain for eighteen years. They will free their animals, but not their own people.<br />
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Eighteen years of crippling pain, Jesus sees her and “Plan A” takes a back seat to grace and mercy. “Decently and in order” get put on the back burner and a relationship is kindled instead. Jesus could have gone along with the liturgy, but his spirit is grieved by the condition of one of his lambs. She is lifted to a place she never imagined being, a place known only to those who know Jesus. <br />
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We end hearing, “When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.” We have to be careful with this though. Forgive my foray into the political, but there’s a problem with people who delight in gaffes, when someone powerful is disgraced. There are people who wait for the humiliation and find elation. They find joy in others’ embarrassment. They delight in shame. They don’t find relief or relationship. <br />
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What our reading says is “the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.” They were not delighted in the humiliation of the powerful, but in the lifting of the infirm. They found joy in the building of the synagogue through the new work of Jesus Christ, the work of relationship and service. Joy was found edifying the body as Paul would tell the church in 1Corinthians. As tempting as it may be to delight in the shame of others, it never glorifies God.<br />
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You know, there’s a funny thing about Jeopardy. The questions the contestants give aren’t always the ones that go with the answer Alex Trebek reads. We read Paul’s answers, but we really don’t know the Corinthians’ questions, just like we don’t know exactly who the bowed together woman is. What we know is Jesus, the fully human and fully divine Lord of all chose that moment, stopping all that was seemingly holy, to make a holy moment of gracious connection. <br />
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It was out of everybody’s comfort zone, I imagine the leader, the woman, and the crowd wondered what Jesus was doing. I imagine the woman was both physically and emotionally uneasy coming forward too. But she did, and she received the blessing of encountering God. Let us rejoice! It is good to worship decently and in order, but we can’t let decency and order become a straightjacket that prevents us from encountering God and being healed.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-17049494437263162732016-08-14T12:00:00.000-05:002016-08-14T12:00:05.017-05:00He KnewThis sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday August 14, 2016, the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time.<br />
<br />
Isaiah 5:1-7<br />
Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18<br />
Hebrews 11:29-12:2<br />
Luke 12:49-56<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen<br />
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I haven’t watched a lot of TV lately, but I do see some. With some TV come some TV ads. Geico Insurance ads never fail to amuse me. The “...it’s what you do” campaign has been entertaining. One of the most recent is a band of pirates taking a British frigate. The pirate tells the captain what he’s going to do and his parrot repeats everything he says… and more.<br />
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“Let’s feed him to the sharks…”<br />
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“AWK, Let’s feed him to the sharks…”<br />
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“And take all of his gold…”<br />
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“AWK, and take all of his gold…”<br />
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Then the parrot keeps talking! “AWK, and hide it from the crew.” This is when the pirate crew stops in their tracks and gives their captain the stink-eye. “AWK, they’re all morons anyway.”<br />
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It’s damage control time for the captain, “I never said that.”<br />
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“They all smell bad too. AWK.” <br />
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This is when the pirate crew surrounds their captain who’s talking fast, “No, you all smell wonderful, I smell bad.” In the meantime, the British captain skirts away from his captors.<br />
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Then the voiceover says, “If you’re a parrot you repeat things, it’s what you do. Wanna save 15% or more on auto insurance…” and so on. <br />
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I love it when a plan comes together, then parrots repeat things. It’s what they do. There’s no reason we shouldn’t expect the unexpected, but we don’t. When the unexpected happens, everyone is in shock. This is our reading from Luke.<br />
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Over the past two weeks, we have read warnings and encouragements, the Parable of the Rich Fool, do not be afraid, and a treatise on watchfulness from Luke’s gospel. Today we read something completely unexpected, something never read in Sunday School. Today we read that Jesus comes not to bring peace but division.<br />
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This is not the Prince of Peace we’ll find at Advent. Frankly that Jesus is a lot more likeable.<br />
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Every week I begin worship saying “May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” Every week I end worship saying “May the grace of God, the love of our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” It seems like nobody read this when putting together the liturgy. So we should ask, if what Jesus said is true, and we always begin there, then what does it mean?<br />
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Let’s go to the beginning of the reading, “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!” To find more on the Baptism of the Lord, let’s go back a little further. <br />
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In the third chapter of Luke we find John the Baptist in the wilderness, “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. John answered them all, ‘I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’” When Jesus speaks of bringing fire, he’s simply reminding us of what John has already said. This isn’t anything new, but from the mouth of the Lord it sounds far more ominous. <br />
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Then Jesus speaks of his coming baptism, though he has already been baptized in the waters of the Jordan. There are many images wrapped around baptism, washing, cleansing, renewal, birth, life, new life; but one that often gets overlooked is death. Yes, death is found in the waters of baptism. Ask any sailor about the dangers and terror of the water and they’ll tell you death is a possibility. Jesus knows that he is on his way to his death, to his tomb. His death is as much a part of his baptism as his life. To teach this will take time, and he knows that he will be pressed for time.<br />
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He does not have much time to be with his apostles, his disciples, the people he calls his Body. He knows that time is short before this Earthly part of his mission will be completed, so yes, his time is constrained. This brings him distress. It is because he loves so much that he feels the pain of his limited time. He knows his time is limited and his work is eternal. So much to do, so little time.<br />
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Now let me ask this, is there anything particularly divisive in the Gospel? The gospel, it’s love. It’s grace. It’s peace. It’s service. It’s caring. There is sacrifice and that’s not anybody’s favorite, but we get grace and peace in exchange, definitely the better end of the deal.<br />
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Still Jesus knows people will make decisions about him. Who he is, his Lordship. Is he God? Is he a man? Is he perfect? Is he crazy? How do we follow him? Do we follow him? And every time people make one of these decisions about Jesus, it creates something of a theological crossroads. Some will go one way, some another.<br />
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As people make those decisions, Jesus knows what will happen next, division. This is why he says “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.” It’s tempting to lay this indictment at the feet of those who do not believe in God, but this wasn’t who Jesus was talking to. He was talking to his people. He was talking to believers. <br />
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He knew how people would interpret his nature and his message would cause division. The first division was between the Jews and the Jewish Christians, the Jewish followers of Jesus, both followers of the Lord God, the God of Abraham. Their first decision was whether Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, or not? This division was during his lifetime and led to his death. <br />
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Then came the division between the leaders of the Jewish Christians and the leaders of the Gentile Christians. The Jewish Christian leaders taught followers had to become a Jew before becoming a Christian. It made sense, Jesus was Jewish, most Christians were Jewish Christians. That turned out to be a stumbling block to the Gentiles so a council was held in about 50 AD, not twenty years after Jesus’ death. Acts 15 is where this council’s decision is reported and the division was made. In its wake came two branches, Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. <br />
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Splits like these have been happening ever since. As for the denominations that form The Federated Church, five American denominations came out of the late 18th century movement that birthed the Disciples of Christ. Presbyterians take the cake. Presbyterianism in America dates back to 1706, but because of schism, reunification and schism again, there are ten branches of Presbyterians in America, the most recent schism in 2012. (Actually, I thought there were twelve.) As for the United Churches of Christ, in 1957 the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches united to form the UCC. So in a world of division, there is hope. <br />
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So people love the gospel, even if we don’t believe the same things the same way. We received the gospel of love and grace and peace and service and caring and sacrifice and some things we don’t like as much. So it’s easy to see that there’s something for everybody to love and something for everybody not to love. So then what was Jesus trying to tell his disciples?<br />
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The Church (the capital C Church) must take heed. Some churches will say this scripture is about nonbelievers, but Jesus wasn’t talking to nonbelievers, he was talking to his children. The scandal is splits between believers; the division in the pews, and the witness that is to the world.<br />
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Next Jesus tells us the Body of Christ can’t say things like “Come join with us, not him, he doesn’t love Jesus like I love Jesus.” That sentence says one of two things. The first is that I love Jesus better than my neighbor; or the second my neighbor doesn’t love Jesus at all. This puts the speaker in the place of God, saying who is faithful and who is not.<br />
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So, we must remember in accepting the truth of the gospel, in sharing the gospel, in teaching the gospel, in living the gospel, not everybody is going to accept the Good News the same way if at all. Some will want to live by their old ways, but remember, we are reformed and always being reformed. God is continuously showing us new life. We are called to be faithful and follow. <br />
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Importantly, we have to realize since decisions about who is faithful and who is not aren’t up to us the subject and the object of our faith is the Triune God: Father, Son, and Spirit. When we make decisions about the gospel, and we will, divisions will be made. Let us pray our decisions are faithful. <br />
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Finally, this is the good news; God is faithful even when we are not. Our reading from Hebrews is known as the “Heroes of the Faith.” They were heroic because they were faithful. The scripture continues, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”<br />
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Here is the hope for humanity: In Christ, by Christ, through Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of faith—one day all of the things that we let divide us, the things that seem so important, one day, because of Christ’s great love, none of these divisions will matter. Not one little bit. Jesus knew this. <br />
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He knew this all along.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-45578312298124751202016-08-07T12:00:00.000-05:002016-08-07T12:00:36.833-05:00Swing Your FeetThis sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday August 7, 2016, the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.<br />
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Isaiah 1:1, 10-20<br />
Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23<br />
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16<br />
Luke 12:32-40<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen<br />
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On our first date, I took Marie to the North Pole, a delightfully cheesy Christmas themed amusement park at the foot of Pikes Peak. The buildings were like Swiss Chalets. There are odd statues on the grounds. And elves; some of the elves are people in costume, others are statues, some are painted wooden cutouts. One of these had this mildly malevolent expression so Marie and I named him “Omar the Evil Elf.” In my study there is a picture of Marie posing with Santa I took that day.<br />
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Something you always discover on first dates are the things that you like and the things you don’t. Me, I don’t like super spinney rides. I get dizzy, I get nauseous, and that’s a bad look on a first date. Marie hates, loathes, despises, abhors, roller coasters, cable gondolas, generally things that hang you over the ground with little support. She’ll tell you. She doesn’t even like bridges.<br />
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She was a good sport that day, she went on the gondola ride with me. It’s not a 100-yard-long loop and doesn’t go higher than 20 feet. Not much unless you hate these rides like Marie does. She got on. We were going up and I was falling in love with this wonderful woman. <br />
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I was having a great time. She was in abject terror. I told her “Swing your feet!” and she said “NO!” She had a white knuckle grip on the bar that she released one hand just long enough to show me her sweaty palm. Then suddenly the ride stopped, with us about 50 feet from the end, 15 feet in the air. At the end of the ride they helped two people jump down from the gondola in front of us because they couldn’t get the ride going and it was “close enough.” After we got off I didn’t think she would talk to me for the rest of the day.<br />
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So if she feels that way about a puny gondola ride at a cheesy amusement park, you know the chances of me getting her on one of those glass walkways like the one over the Grand Canyon or Tower Bridge in London are bad. What is infinity to the power of infinity against? Those chances got lower last year when one of the panels on the Yuntaishan Scenic Walkway in China’s central Henan province cracked, well, shattered.<br />
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Nobody was in any danger according to Chinese officials. Each panel was three pieces of tempered glass about nine square feet. Built like a piece of plywood, it was designed to support 1,700 pounds, and that much weight on one square yard isn’t that much if you consider three guys my size couldn’t stand comfortably in one square yard and don’t weigh 1,700 pounds. Then consider people would be walking along so these panels wouldn’t have to tolerate sustained weight. What would cause the impact needed to crack one of these panels is a dance team doing high kicks in stiletto heels. That would put tremendous force on a very small space. But scenic bridges were not made for a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader high-kick routine and they don’t wear that kind of heel anyway.<br />
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The whole idea of the glass bridge is to give us a different way to see the glory of creation while asking us to have faith that something we don’t think should hold us will. But when one layer of glass cracks, when what was once clear became pebbled, when what was filled with the laughter of people filled with awe became screams of people yelling “get out of my way,” when what was stable shuddered with the fracture causing just a tiny panic; faith gave way to “feet don’t fail me now.” Park officials reported nobody was injured, but they also reported the entire structure trembled with the break.<br />
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So when we hear our reading from Hebrews, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see,” we get it. We can’t really see the clear bridge panels, but we know they’re there. We can walk on them, but stepping out takes faith because walking on glass seems unreasonable. We’ve seen too much broken glass to have faith in it as sidewalk material, but these walkways keep going up. <br />
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That verse is one of scripture’s more renowned, “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.” And surely this is true. The remainder of the reading from Hebrews is filled with examples from the most ancient ancestors of the Hebrews, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Lord made them promises, promises which were kept. The ending to our reading makes an important point.<br />
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The ending of the reading notes that the most important promises, those of a nation so vast that they will be as countless as the sands by the sea and the stars in the sky, was not kept during their lifetimes. While the means to keep that promise was finally put in place during the life of Jacob, it was not fulfilled before the deaths of these Desert Fathers.<br />
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As our reading reminds us “they did not receive the things promised,” but they had the promise. They had faith in the promise and the one who made it. Their faith endured even though they did not. Their faith endured in the hope that God would fulfill the promise, if not today, if not soon, one day. Their faith had a long memory, back to the days of the covenant of Noah, their faith had a basis in promises kept by the Lord. They had faith that the promises of the Lord, the promises that we know as the covenant with Moses and the Exodus would come. <br />
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They had a vision of the heavenly country to come. By their great faith in the promises of God for this world and for the next, as it says in Hebrews, “God is not ashamed to be called their God.” This is all because by faith, by faith alone we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. As this is from the New Testament, fulfillment of the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is old news to those who know. And by faith, faith that profits from the experiences of our forbearers, we share in the covenants of old and the new covenant sealed in the blood of Christ.<br />
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Luke shares one of the most common commands in scripture, “Do not be afraid.” This command is found 70 times in the NIV. This is both a promise as well as a command. He promises us something better commanding us not to fear. Jesus offers more than fear. Jesus offers light. Fear should not be our guiding light, though all too often it is. <br />
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Then come the words “little flock.” Jesus describes his followers like a shepherd describes lambs. Lambs not ready for slaughter. <br />
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Jesus realizes that in our own way we have come together, but not always of our own volition. Often we are herded. We are small and we are weak and with just the wrong push at just the wrong time in just the wrong way we panic, like crowds on a bridge of shattered glass. It may be safe, but you can’t look to a flock for wisdom. We may not be ready for slaughter, but our own fear may take us over an edge we were never intended to find. Think about lemmings. Think about how natives used to hunt buffalo off of a cliff. <br />
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Is this an excuse for “peer pressure?” I’m acknowledging that when people fail to see that our Heavenly Father is pleased to give us the kingdom, we’ll settle for less. As Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” We are meant to be children of God in the Kingdom of Heaven. When we give up our liberty in Christ for safety in what we know, we don’t deserve either and often seem to lose both.<br />
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But God in Christ knows we will be anxious, liberty can be scary and a little flock is never known for its confidence. This is where we must rely on faith, the confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is where we have to remember to store treasures in heaven, in a purse that will not tear. Treasures that will not spoil.<br />
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I was at the Hyatt Regency Chicago for a convention in 1982. Coming through the front door I saw a decorative hanging covering construction over the lobby near the front wall. A minute later another man who had just checked in said, “I wonder what they’re doing up there?” I said, “I bet they’re fixing the skywalks like the ones that fell in KC last summer.” He looked at me and agreed, then he asked how I knew so quickly. I told him I was from Kansas City; my second grade teacher was among the dead. He nodded, we parted. <br />
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Faith in what looks secure, steel and concrete. Faith in what had held for years. Faith in what the engineers said would hold. Faith that the change order placed by a later architect was tested. Faith that the best laid plans of mice and men don’t go askew. Faith in the greatest structures built by men. This faith lasts as long as it takes for the first pane of glass to crack and send men, women, and children scurrying like so many lost sheep.<br />
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We are to have faith in the Lord who loves us more than that. The Lord who gives better gifts. The Lord whose promises were kept yesterday. The Lord whose promises are for today, tomorrow, and more tomorrows than we can count. We are to have faith in one another in God’s holy name, not in our own. We are called to love in his name. We are called to give in his name. We are called to have faith that surpasses all understanding… not in us, but in Christ and Christ alone. <br />
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So on this holy ride we call life, rely on the promises of God, look at the person next to you, let go of that hand rail, and swing your feet.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-41321126971749764482016-07-31T12:00:00.000-05:002016-08-01T17:26:09.948-05:00God, Christ, Earthly Things, LifeThis sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday July 31, 2016, the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary <br />
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Time.<br />
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Hosea 11:1-11<br />
Psalm 107:1-9, 43<br />
Colossians 3:1-11<br />
Luke 12:13-21<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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…<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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Idolatry, it’s not just the Baal’s anymore.<br />
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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! <br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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.” <br />
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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. <br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-90406212240387389662016-07-24T12:00:00.000-05:002016-07-24T12:00:00.212-05:00AudacityThis sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday July 24, 2016, the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. <br />
<br />
Hosea 1:2-10<br />
Psalm 85<br />
Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)<br />
Luke 11:1-13<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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.”<br />
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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?<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.”<br />
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Over the past couple of weeks we have sung, “Seek Ye First.” The second verse goes like this:<br />
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Ask and it shall be given unto you,<br />
seek and you shall find;<br />
knock and the door shall be opened unto you -<br />
Allelu, alleluia!</blockquote>
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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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I have a friend, Dr. Steve, who once preached on prayer and used this children’s sermon. This is the condensed version.<br />
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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.</blockquote>
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. <br />
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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. <br />
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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.’” <br />
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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:<br />
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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/)<br />
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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. <br />
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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. <br />
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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. <br />
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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!”<br />
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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. Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-70855483447962774642016-07-17T20:30:00.000-05:002016-07-18T09:50:28.873-05:00BusynessAmos 8:1-12<br />
Psalm 52<br />
Colossians 1:15-25<br />
Luke 10:38-42<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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? <br />
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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. <br />
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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!’” <br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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?<br />
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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.<br />
It is better to be alongside than around.<br />
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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:<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-59675544768531476692016-07-10T12:00:00.000-05:002016-07-12T11:57:30.999-05:00Where the Light IsThis sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday July 9, 2016, the fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time<br />
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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.<br />
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Genesis 1:1-5<br />
Luke 11:33-36<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer, amen. <br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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! <br />
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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. <br />
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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. <br />
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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. <br />
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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!<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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? <br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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Like I said, it’s been quite a week. <br />
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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…<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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].”<br />
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I saw that in a world full of darkness, the light still shines.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-32130899810563711692016-07-03T12:00:00.000-05:002016-07-03T12:00:14.162-05:00You 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.<br />
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2Kings 5:1-14<br />
Psalm 30<br />
Galatians 6:7-16<br />
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen<br />
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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.”<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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. <br />
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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’!” <br />
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Naaman does and his flesh is made anew, baby soft.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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. <br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.”<br />
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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, <br />
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“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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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. <br />
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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. <br />
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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. Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-5918807460949545272016-06-26T12:00:00.000-05:002016-06-26T12:00:29.268-05:00Freedom of the ServantThis sermon was heard at the Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday June 26, 2016, the Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time.<br />
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2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14<br />
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20<br />
Galatians 5:1,13-25<br />
Luke 9:51-62<br />
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May the words of mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen<br />
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The Reverend Chip Andrus is the Pastor at South Salem Presbyterian Church in South Salem, New York. I knew Chip when he was the Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Harrison, Arkansas. He’s one of those people I want to be when I grow up. If envy wasn’t a sin, I would covet his musical talent. I tell people I’m musical, but not musically talented. Chip is both.<br />
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A few years ago Marie and I went to Sunday worship at First Harrison and the sermon had to do with being a servant. The choir didn’t do an anthem that day. Rather than the full choir and organ, Chip and a small combo of guitars gathered around the font. They sang the first single released from Bob Dylan’s 1979 studio album “Slow Train Coming.” It was his first release since becoming a born again Christian. They played “Gotta Serve Somebody” and played it quite well. During the sermon, Pastor Chip quoted the song:<br />
<i><blockquote>But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes<br />
You're gonna have to serve somebody<br />
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord<br />
But you're gonna have to serve somebody</blockquote></i>There are two things from last Sunday’s sermon that I want to say again. The first is this paraphrase of Paul from Galatians, “there was a time when the nation of Israel lived under the custody of the Law, the Torah, until the faith could be revealed. The Law acted like a guardian taking care of the nation. Then the Christ came and we are now justified by faith and now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.”<br />
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I bring this back because this leads us to the beginning of our reading from Galatians. The words found on the cover of our bulletin, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”<br />
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In the days of Jesus, the Pharisees literally turned the law into a yoke of slavery. To be right with the law was to be right with the Temple Elite was to be right with the Pharisees. If you didn’t do as the Pharisees wanted, your relationship with God would be brought into question. In Jerusalem, at a time when everything revolved around the temple, if you ran afoul with the leaders you could be kicked out. Being kicked out would lead to spiritual, social, and financial ruin.<br />
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In the sacred and the secular, the Pharisees had the people in a yoke of slavery made from the law. In and of itself, the law was not bad, but when people use the Law, the word of God, to make the people slaves, that is bad. <br />
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We are no longer under the guardianship of the law, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need safeguards. Without rules people have a tendency to get off the leash and run. Folks can become overzealous. Our gospel reading from the New International Version says, “Jesus sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him.” Remember, the Jews and the Samaritans were cousins who didn’t get along. Back to the story, “[they did] not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, ’Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?’ But Jesus turned and rebuked them.” <br />
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Another translation, the New American Standard Bible, includes a comment by Jesus not found in earlier manuscripts. In this translation, Jesus rebukes the disciples saying, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” In that translation, not only do we know that James and John were rebuked, but how they were rebuked. <br />
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James and John were two of the most trusted disciples. They will see the transfiguration. They will accompany the Lord to Gethsemane when the time comes; and they get scolded for offering wrath when that is not the will of God. The Samaritans are the Hatfield’s to their McCoy and the nuclear option looks pretty good, but that is not the will of God. <br />
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To live in the age of grace that follows living under the law, we need to live in the right spirit, the Holy Spirit of God in Christ. To do that, I first want to bring back the other thing from last Sunday’s sermon. In the conclusion I said, “This is the good news of Jesus Christ. The God who sent his Son to show us a better way, to be the better way, became the living Torah so we can live by faith and not under the law.” <br />
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It’s not wrong to ask the question “if we don’t live under the law, then what do we live under?” You might even ask me if I am “anti-law-and-order.” Rest assured I love order contrary to the appearance of my desk at any given moment. But I heard it said that laws and rules are written for society’s dumbest people. Why is there a speed limit? So people don’t drive 145 mph through downtown OKC. Why does the NFL make football stadiums quit serving adult beverages after the third quarter? To reduce the number of drunk drivers. Why can’t you drive drunk? It’s about safety, the drinker’s and everybody else’s. <br />
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As Paul writes, the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit and what the flesh wants is, “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” Paul sure knows how to make a list, doesn’t he?<br />
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When talking about Jesus as the Living Torah, the Law of God that came to be with us and to be one of us, we must remember that the Messiah only wants what is good and right for the children of God. Nothing bad can come from Jesus. I’ll say that again. Nothing bad can come from Jesus. This is the breadth of God’s love for us. The Lord who can do all things from creation to destruction, chooses love. There is no hate, no spite, no arrogance, no ignorance, no impatience, no grudges in the name of God.<br />
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In this “What Would Jesus Do?” moment, we have to remember that the answer is to live in the spirit of God. Paul has a list for what it means to live in the Spirit too, ‘love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” He ends saying, “Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”<br />
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Our reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians ends with an admonition that can be read as a prayer, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” He tells the Galatians that they live in the Spirit! Yes, they live in the Spirit! <br />
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Paul says freedom is in Christ. When we stand firm in Christ the burdens others place on us are gone. That doesn’t mean everything in life will automatically be peaches and cream; there are people who will try to put the yoke of the law around your neck again and again. There are Pharisees in every age who will tell you what to think and how to act and will do it in the name of God. When done to lift up what is not Godly, Paul tells to beware, “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” <br />
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Yes, people err. People goof. People make mistakes. You know the old expression, “To err is human, to blame is also human.” This is the nature of sin which we will not escape this side of glory. We can rejoice that while to err is human, to forgive divine. Living under the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we are not servants to the law or, more importantly, the Pharisees, whether ancient and modern, who would bind us with it.<br />
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Pastor Chip quoted Bob Dylan saying:<br />
<i><blockquote>But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes<br />
You're gonna have to serve somebody<br />
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord<br />
But you're gonna have to serve somebody</blockquote></i>I love Chip as a friend, pastor, and colleague in ministry. I follow him on Facebook, but not as a prophet. I am not a servant of Chip. As for Dylan’s music, I like this song. The album got fair to good reviews and the song won a Grammy. I’m not a servant of Dylan or his music. We are servants of Christ, and as his servants we are free from the yoke of the law. We are free. Free to live by the Spirit, serving one another humbly in love, for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-19327892875714904382016-06-19T12:00:00.000-05:002016-06-19T17:13:23.896-05:00Heirs to What Comes AfterThis sermon was heard at the Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday June 18, 2016, the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Happy Father's Day.<br />
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1Kings 19: 1-4, 8-15a<br />
Psalm 42-43 <br />
Galatians 3:23-29<br />
Luke 8:26-39<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen<br />
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Last week during the collection of the prayers, when the shooting at Pride in Orlando was mentioned, I had seen the headline on my internet newsfeed, but had not read the article. The headline was poorly constructed because the way I read it, it sounded like over fifty law enforcement officers had been shot and killed. I knew if I said this to Marie she would have been so very upset she would have been beyond consolation, so I kept it to myself. When it was mentioned in church I didn’t share my misconception and I’m glad I did not for all the right reasons. Then I found out what really happened, that was enough of an atrocity.<br />
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Marie and I have been living without TV for a little over two years now. There are some things each of us miss. She would love to see her favorite crime shows, but she’s been catching up on them between unpacking boxes. She has also been very patient waiting for me to get Starz so she can see Outlander. Me, I miss ESPN. I didn’t get to see my hometown baseball team in either of the last two World Series and I missed that. What I haven’t missed and will never miss is cable news.<br />
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News on television has quit being news. It has become 24-hour editorial. I’ll agree that every news outlet has an editorial bias, but we’ve gone way beyond bias and gone to a slant that makes the Leaning Tower of Pisa look vertical. What I’ve avoided on cable news I’ve gotten on the computer, and it’s 99.9% noise. <br />
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People yelling at each other, both literally and figuratively. It’s as if the loudest wins. Not the best or the smartest points take the day, it’s the loudest points that take it instead. Then comes the bickering. The infernal bickering between “friends” done in Hatfield/McCoy style. It’s when Gun Control folks look like they want to kill you that you know it’s getting real. <br />
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The problem with that though is that truth is never found in the noise.<br />
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Consider Elijah…<br />
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Just before our passage, Elijah had set the people to kill the 450 prophets of Baal who ate at Jezebel’s table. Of course this doesn’t make the queen happy. You know the saying “behind every great man is a great woman.” Considering we know the name Jezebel from scripture and the name Ahab from <i>Moby Dick</i>, I think I know which one has left a greater impression on our culture and on us.<br />
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Elijah might be mighty; he knows he has the Lord on his side, but he also knows when it’s time to pick up his cape and his staff and get out of Dodge. Jezebel gets the news and she gets… upset. She’s come after Elijah with both barrels blazing.<br />
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Reaching Beersheba Elijah leaves his servant behind and travels into the wilderness. He has made his way into places where people don’t go. He has evaded capture. He is where nobody will find him. He is safe. In his newfound safety he cries out, “I have had enough, Lord. Take my life.” More a cry of passive suicide than victory.<br />
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He has won! He has evaded capture. As long as he has water he can survive, but you know what, he is done. Elijah has had enough. Elijah is sick and tired of being sick and tired. He knows truth and light are on his side and there are 450 prophets of Baal enjoying their afterlife to prove it. The Lord accepted Elijah’s sacrifice while Baal has proven to be the lump of clay it is. His servant is faithful. His Lord is faithful. And Elijah is finished. Done. Kaput. He lay down, fell asleep, awaiting his fate.<br />
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Fate was not going to make a final stop under that broom tree, not today. Fed by an angel, Elijah travelled forty days and forty nights to Mount Horeb. Finding a cave to where he slept. The next day the Lord asked the simplest of all questions, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”<br />
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Elijah wasn’t shy either. Reading scripture, realizing this is a story, an oral tradition passed down from generation to generation long before it was written, I often wonder how this was told. What tone of voice was used? I imagine it could have been like Elijah was giving a report, like a branch manager to the CEO. But I also imagine a bit of whine in his voice, a prophet speaking to his Lord with more than a grain of “aren’t you paying attention to what’s going on with your people? <br />
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I can imagine Elijah starting with Hey, look here, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”<br />
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The Lord, being the Lord, is of course the one to say, Relax, it’s going to be alright. “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now Elijah knew two things about the appearance of the Lord. He knew: One, it was going to be impressive and Two, you can’t see the face of the Lord and survive.<br />
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So Elijah left the cave and went out to see the spectacle; and a spectacle he saw. There was a wind so great and powerful that it tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks. Then there was an earthquake. The ground beneath Elijah’s feet rumbled and rolled. The noise was great and frightful. Then came fire burning all that could burn and scorching all that would not burn. The crackling and popping and the sound of the air being sucked past him to fuel the fire would have been great and terrifying. Surely this impressive display of power is just the sort of impressive demonstration of the proverb “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”<br />
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But the Lord was not in the wind.<br />
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Nor the earthquake.<br />
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Nor the fire.<br />
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Friends, I’m fifty-some years old. Some of you say, “That’s all?” The children think “Wow, people get that old?” Still, in those fifty years, which have been framed by the Kennedy assassination, urban riots, Watergate, the Charleston Nine, and the shootings at Pride; all around us we have been braced by the wind, felt the ground roll from the earthquake, and been singed by the flames. Our world has been stupid, I don’t care if you are conservative or liberal, left or right, rebellious or reactionary, progressive or regressive, Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female, our world has become less because people tend to listen to the noise when we should be listening to something else.<br />
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Elijah heard the noise, and he did not hear the voice of the Lord in the noise. He listened. He paid close attention. Then after the fury of the wind and the earthquake and the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then the voice of the Lord asked him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”<br />
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Again, with the oral tradition I get to imagine the voice of the storyteller. I imagine a more reticent tone as Elijah repeats what he had told the Lord. In response, the Lord told him what to do. The Lord gave Elijah instructions and said “Go.”<br />
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In the words of Paul, there was a time when the nation of Israel lived under the custody of the Law, the Torah, until the faith could be revealed. The Law acted like a guardian taking care of the nation. Then the Christ came and we are now justified by faith and now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.<br />
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But we still tend to think and act like we not only need to but want to live under a legal guardian, and for some, any law will do. For some, bad law is better than no law at all. The perfect example of that are kids in gangs who live by a code we don’t understand. <br />
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So now in Christ Jesus we are all children of God through faith. We come to the font because we who were baptized into Christ clothe ourselves with Christ who is the living Torah, the living law. In this new way there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. We are not different; we are one in Christ. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise of God. We are heirs to what comes after the wind and the earthquake and the fire. We are heirs to God’s question, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” <br />
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Our world loves the wind and the earthquake and the fire, and we’ve got to stop paying attention to the noise that surrounds us and pay attention to the whispers from the voice of God in Christ. It’s time to stop arguing about the horrors of this world and if we can’t solve what’s going wrong surely we can be with the victims. We can offer cold water. We can hold a hand. We can shed a tear. There is no slave or free, for we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. There are no Jews or Gentiles—that would be people from our nation and people from other nations—there are only brothers and sisters in Christ. <br />
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This is the good news of Jesus Christ. The God who sent his Son to show us a better way, to be the better way, became the living Torah so we can live by faith and not under the law. This is the God who made Israel the children of God, a nation to be a blessing to the world. This same God sent his son Jesus so that we, the foreigners, the gentiles, can be part and parcel of that holy nation to be a blessing. This is what it means to be a holy nation, a Christian nation. It means that it’s time to listen for the whisper of God and be the heirs of what comes after the noise. Then “Go” where the Lord tells us to go; doing what the heavenly Father tells us to do.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-9519668621301170832016-06-12T12:00:00.000-05:002016-06-12T12:00:04.731-05:00Un/WorthyThis sermon was heard at the Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday June 12, 2016, the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time. <br />
<br />
1Kings 21:1-21a<br />
Psalm 5:1-8<br />
Galatians 2:15-21<br />
Luke 7:36-8:3<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen<br />
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Here’s a name baseball fans will remember, Al Hrabosky. “The Mad Hungarian” came up through the St. Louis Cardinal Minor League system to become one of the most influential relief pitchers of the Seventy’s. Was it his wicked delivery? His unrivaled intensity? His Fu Manchu mustache?<br />
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If you selected “All of the above” you got the Hrabosky effect.<br />
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In 1978 he left the Cards to sign a contract with the cross state rival Kansas City Royals. Two years later Hrabosky became a free agent and signed with the Atlanta Braves. When asked why the Royals did not choose to match the Braves’ offer, General Manager Joe Burke said he wasn’t worth it. Hrabosky countered, “The Braves are willing to pay me, so I must be worth it.”<br />
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This is today’s lesson in free market economics, something is worth as much as someone else is willing to pay for it. We’ll get back to this.<br />
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In our gospel reading, it’s getting along to be mealtime. It seems Luke’s gospel has Jesus going from one meal to the next, my kind of gospel. Jesus is invited to the home of Simon the Pharisee for a meal. Others are invited too.<br />
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Just a couple of things you may not be aware of that will be helpful. This isn’t a closed off banquet hall with high style chairs. This table is not very high at all and those who will eat lay on mats on their left elbows and eat with their right hands. Their legs will be splayed back and away from the table. Also, strangely to us, it is not uncommon for people to just drop in on the festivities seemingly for no good reason at all.<br />
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So Jesus goes with Simon to the festivities. Everyone was reclined at the table and the servants brought the food. Among the passersby is a local woman who has led a sinful life. As you see, anybody can just drop by a fancy dinner, even this sinful life leading woman! She breaks open an alabaster jar of perfume and anoints the feet of the Lord Jesus.<br />
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Can you imagine how good that felt after a long day on the road? The oils and the balm being rubbed lovingly into your feet. She’s weeping. She’s washing your feet with her long, long hair. Do you think he might have closed his eyes enjoying this tender care?<br />
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Well, she’s in his house, on his grounds, and Simon can’t keep quiet. He mumbles “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”<br />
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This is Simon the Pharisee’s “Al Hrabosky” moment of human economics; and as far as he’s concerned she’s not worth all that and a bag of chips. Jesus on the other hand teaches that heavenly economics are not human economics.<br />
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Jesus engages Simon in a riddle, actually a common form of entertainment at get-togethers like this in the day before college football and TiVo. He offered the story of a moneylender who forgave two debts, one of fifty denarii and another of 500 denarii. <br />
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First though, a quick lesson in ancient finance. A denarius was a day’s living wage for the common worker. It was fair, it wasn’t extravagant, it was a living wage. So 50 denarii would amount to a healthy credit card bill and 500 would pay for a nice sedan. <br />
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Neither bill so high it can’t be incurred or repaid over time, but when bankruptcy comes, broke is broke. <br />
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Jesus asks, “The moneylender forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Isn’t it obvious? It is to Simon, the one with the larger debt. <br />
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Jesus tells him he made the right choice. Technically it’s not much of a riddle, but then again, I find the rest of the conversation has a bigger riddle.<br />
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Back in the day, hospitality rules said that when you invite someone over you provide water for them to wash their feet. When you wear sandals and share roads with beasts of burden, you’d want to wash your feet too. On a side note which will become a matter of no small importance, you wash your own feet. A slave can’t be compelled to wash someone else’s feet.<br />
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Well, Simon didn’t provide so much as a basin of water. Simon did not meet his guest with a kiss either. Nor did Simon give oil for washing. This sinful woman provided perfume, her kisses, her tears, and her hair for our Lord’s feet. She could not be compelled to wash his feet, yet she did she served him on her own accord out of love. Yes, she may have been a sinful woman, and we don’t know what her sins are, but by my count the score is Sinful Woman 5, Simon 0.<br />
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Jesus continues, “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” To her alone he says, “Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”<br />
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This woman seemed to know what Paul tells the Galatians over and over. They are not saved by the Law, but by grace. Yes, she is a sinner, a sinner serving God. By accepting Jesus the Christ, by loving and serving Christ, she has found her way to forgiveness. She has found shalom. She has found peace. <br />
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Paul says what Christ shows, we who know God, we who know the Christ will find ourselves “among the sinners.” I find this ironic, I have always found that when we find ourselves around those who know God we find ourselves among those who sin too. People like Simon.<br />
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While we are on this earth, we sin. People sin. Some days we sin like we owe fifty day’s pay. Others like 500 day’s pay. Others we owe a government sized bailout. Who needs more love? Of course it’s the one who owes more. <br />
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But let’s ask this question, who’s more worthy?<br />
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The question of worth is always based on some scale. Some external scale that somebody sets up and interprets. Did you meet the scale? Did you exceed expectations? Did you earn this bonus? Are you worthy of this reward?<br />
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The Jews measure this through the law. The 613 Commandments, the 613 Mitzvoth. The 248 positive commandments and the 365 negative commandments; if you were going to be judged by a code, that was quite a code. There were people who would judge. There were courts and there were scribes and Pharisees. Paul knew all of this. Paul was raised in this and he was esteemed in all of this. <br />
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Then Paul received the revelation of the better way. “So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.”<br />
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By his interpretation of the law, Simon judged the woman a sinner. She was way down on his totem pole. He, a Pharisee, was having Jesus, the “next big thing,” the “Flavor of the Month,” over for dinner. Simon’s star was ascending. He was seeing and being seen by all the right people. He had kept the law since a young child. Simon was living right. He thought he was on top of the world and in all the right ways, he was. <br />
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But with Jesus at the table, everything had changed. Paul says it this way to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Jesus didn’t give himself for those with the best marks in the law. God in Christ knew the people who needed him most were those in the most difficulty, those who owed 500 denarii. <br />
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Those who owed fifty couldn’t save themselves though. It’s just that those who are in worse shape will love the redeemer more.<br />
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That’s the issue here. We have laws. We have lots of laws. They can be called benchmarks or standards or goals or outcome projections. They will end up as judgements. We face them every day and we will be judged worthy or unworthy. <br />
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In God’s law, we have all fallen short of the mark. We all sin. We are unworthy of the salvation freely offered through the life, work, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Yet, in God’s economics, as the children of God, though we are unworthy, we are saved. God loves us so much, that even if we think we have done enough, we haven’t, we can’t, and his grace is sufficient. <br />
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This takes me back to Simon and the sinful woman. Simon the Pharisee serves the Church and the Law, but he forgets the simplest principles of hospitality, water, oil, and greeting. The sinful woman brings these and the tears of shame knowing she’s not worthy, or is it tears of joy knowing that while she is not worthy, she is yet at the feet of her Lord.<br />
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Scripture doesn’t say. But this question makes me wonder this riddle, in our reading is Simon the fifty denarii sinner or is he the 500 denarii sinner? It also makes me wonder which I am. But in truth, all the answer to that riddle will show us is how grateful we should be when the moneylender forgives our debt.<br />
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In the end our response to this question must be to be like response of the sinful woman. Seek the feet of Christ and serve him where he is, for there is forgiveness. Not because we are worthy, because we are never going to be. Our human condition will forever keep us from that.<br />
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But here’s the Good News of Jesus Christ, like the sinful woman we seek and serve the Lord not because we are worthy, but because he is.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-85957018555849040012016-06-05T12:15:00.000-05:002016-06-05T12:23:12.268-05:00ChangesThis sermon was heard at the Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday June 5, 2016, the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time.<br />
<br />
With thanks and praise to God and grateful thanks to the people of The Federated Church, this is my first Sunday as Pastor of The Federated Church.<br />
<br />
1Kings 17:8-16<br />
Psalm 146<br />
Galatians 1:11-24<br />
Luke 7:11-17<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen<br />
<br />
I want you, for a moment, to consider the plight of the family in our reading from 1Kings. At the beginning of this chapter, Elijah declared a drought upon the land because Ahab, the son of Omri the King of Israel had built a temple to worship Baal. At the same time Hiel of Bethel sacrificed two sons, his oldest and his youngest, to rebuild Jericho. <br />
<br />
Joshua’s son Nun warned this would happen. These chickens have come home to roost at Bethel. It’s ironic that Bethel is the Hebrew word for “House of God.” This would be the First Commandment, “The Lord is our God” God, not the god Baal. So yeah, ironic. Hence, the prophet has declared a drought.<br />
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This also reminds me of wealth distribution like it is today, the powerful cats play, the weak mice pay. While everybody was hurt by the drought, those who were better off weren’t hurt so badly nor so quickly. For the rich things hurt, but not immediately. For those on the fringes of society, the widowed, the single parents, pain already knew their address. <br />
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As we read, sometime later the brook died up at Zarephath. Everything dried up at Zarephath. Even hope dried up at Zarephath. In a time when without a man you were nothing, she became less than nothing. She had a son to feed, we’ll never know his age, but he wasn’t old enough to earn his keep. Imagine how she scrimped and saved to get meal and oil for bread. <br />
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So here comes Elijah. The Lord commands him to see the widow who has likewise been commanded to supply him with food. So he arrives asking for some water and a piece of bread. <br />
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How does the widow prepare for the prophet’s arrival? She’s fetching sticks. Her words, not mine, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”<br />
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Prepare a meal for myself and my son so that we may eat it and die. Desperation, dislocation, separation, condemnation, isolation, desolation—poverty caused by a drought caused by men who would not follow the Lord the God of Israel. The powerful curse the prophet, all the while the poor prepare to die.<br />
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Take just a moment in her shoes my friends. You know her decision was not made lightly. It’s not that she hit a quick bump in the road and said, “Well, <br />
it’s time to shut off the lights.” <br />
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She had a family. She has a son who is dying of malnutrition. All they have left is nothing but one more meal and sticks to heat it up. She has nobody, nobody to fight for her in this life. No husband, she literally has no breadwinner. There is nobody else she can rely upon since there is no other family. If there was a widow’s share from life insurance or the union or social security or food stamps, it’s long gone because the economy has gone to… yeah, you know, the drought. <br />
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On death row you can get steak and lobster, she doesn’t even have any more oil to put on the bread. <br />
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How distressed is she? How depressed is she? How hopeless does she feel? Verse nine says the Lord tells Elijah the woman has been told to give the prophet food. God has spoken to her and still as far as she’s concerned there’s nothing to do but to have a last supper, curl up and die.<br />
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She acknowledges the Lord God lives and she still can only see death for her and hers. Desperation, dislocation, separation, condemnation, isolation, desolation.<br />
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Elijah cries out, fear not! (Are lovelier spoken in scripture?) Do this for me and the Lord God promises you have meal and oil until rain comes again upon the land.<br />
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Now take a walk in Paul’s shoes. The shoes that have lived the life he now shares with the Galatians. How he has changed, and how he hasn’t, is the heart of this part of this letter. Paul who persecuted the church. Paul who was Pharisee Employee of the Month at the Stoning of Stephen is now Christ’s Apostle to the Gentiles. Changes don’t get much bigger. This one is so big he isn’t completely trusted.<br />
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Paul makes it clear that he is not the disciple of any man. When he received his revelation it came from Jesus himself. He then spent three years on the road before going to Jerusalem. When there, did he go to “All Disciples Temple” to get his teaching approved? No. He did go see Peter (Cephas in our reading), James, and John, and he didn’t seek their approval.<br />
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Now it’s time to put on our gospel shoes and walk with the widow of Nain from Luke’s gospel. This reading takes the setting from a step further. Her stresses are raised exponentially when her son dies. This woman now has no family. There is nobody to take her in. Her life is lifeless on a bier carried by bearers. <br />
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As hopeless as the widow in Kings was, this woman’s plight was much worse. Imagine the crying. Imagine the wailing. Imagine the horror. Imagine the people thanking God it wasn’t them. <br />
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They weren’t thanking God it was her, but they were grateful it wasn’t them.<br />
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Burying a spouse and an only child, nobody is prepared to face that change.<br />
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These folks have faced changes that are absolutely brutal. Paul’s life was set. He was a learned man from a good family. He could have been head of the Sanhedrin. Instead his life, socially, politically, and economically were ruined. He went from being greatly esteemed by one group and greatly feared by another to being loathed by everyone. Now he is hated by his fellow Jews and not easily trusted by the followers of Jesus. <br />
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The women, the widows have faced changes that have taken their lives away. With no other family they have nowhere to go. With no means of support they have no way to put a roof overhead or put food on the table. The widow of Nain also lost any hope of gaining a place in her son’s home in the future. One woman was preparing for death and the other was as good as dead already.<br />
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But they had one thing in common, one thing. They had an encounter with the Living God. An encounter that changed their lives. Paul went from trying to destroy the Church to being the its greatest evangelist. It is rightly said if not for Paul the Good News would have died as a limited reform movement in Judaism. If you are looking for proof, the Christian movement came out of Rome and Constantinople, not Israel.<br />
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As for the women, they received something more important. Their very lives were redeemed. Through the work of God delivered by the words of Elijah a family was saved. As for the widow of Nain, not only was her son raised from the dead, but in a very real way, she too was raised from the dead. <br />
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By the work of God through Elijah, Paul, and Jesus; in the power of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; changes were made in the lives of these people lives were saved. <br />
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Yes, oh yes, there was terror. There was no promise that the terror would not return. The story of the woman in 1Kings parallels the story of the woman in Luke’s gospel. This even after she meets Elijah and is blessed by the Lord God. The fate of Paul is well known, ultimately ending in exile from the Holy Land. Terror, oh yes, but there is salvation in God.<br />
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These are interesting texts to use for my first sermons with you as your pastor. They come from the Revised Common Lectionary, a group of readings which ensure that I don’t focus on one book of the Bible or one topic for years on end. So in that way, these readings picked us.<br />
<br />
They became special to me because they describe tragedy and turmoil that lead to wonderful changes. These are people who know God is in control and still have to face demons. <br />
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I’m sure the widow in 1Kings would have loved Elijah to have arrived well before she was at the brink of passive suicide. The woman in Luke never knew she would meet her redeemer on this side of the tomb. There’s a surprise I can only begin to imagine. <br />
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As for Paul, he knew his Lord. He didn’t know he was persecuting his Lord’s people. Now he’s sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ until the people came to know him as a great prophet of the Risen Lord.<br />
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As for me, I have faced my share of demons. I have faced horror and turmoil I had rather not. At least if I had to make them I wish there was another way to make them. I seemed to have taken the hard road for a good long time.<br />
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I know too there is relief that there is a pastor here in the pulpit, in the office, and in town. That was a long and difficult road to hoe and as the old saying goes, no job is done until the paperwork is finished and that’s not all done either.<br />
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Still, here’s the good news. <br />
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We have faced these changes. <br />
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By the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we have survived and thrived in these changes; even when the world was intent on making the road seem like an Everest summit.<br />
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In relying on Jesus, and by the power of the Holy Spirit we are stronger. Our faith is stronger because it is based on the Christ revealed to us through scripture, prayer, and work.<br />
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Together these are the things that will take us into the future Jesus intends us to live together.<br />
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In Christ, there is hope. That is what we know from our readings and from our experience, there is hope and it is only in Christ.<br />
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No, it won’t always be easy. But what it can be is joyful. Glorious. Peaceful. Fun. We don’t have to give into the drama Paul saw in the ways of men. <br />
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Rather let us together seek the way of God. Yes, we will do that for one another, and we will do that for our community too. <br />
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Above all, the first reason we will do what we do as the Body of Christ is for the Glory of God and the Kingdom of God.<br />
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By our hope in God the love of God, in Christ, with Christ, through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-48635040984421147442016-05-15T16:30:00.000-05:002016-05-15T20:14:09.436-05:00Something Old, Something New (Pentecost Edition)While this sermon shares the same name as my last sermon, the spelling, text, and message is different. This sermon was heard at Broadmoor Presbyterian Church on Sunday May 15, 2016, Pentecost Sunday.<br />
<br />
Genesis 11:1-9<br />
Psalm 104:25-35, 37<br />
Acts 2:1-21<br />
John 14:8-17, 25-27<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, or rock and our redeemer. Amen.<br />
<br />
There’s an ancient hymn of the church, “Old Time Religion.” There are almost as many different authors listed of this hymn as there are versions. Depending on the source, we learn that the song is an old Negro Spiritual. Then checking the authorship of the Jim Reeves version and it credits Reeves, Tommy Hill, Leo Jackson, Ken Hill, and Gordon Stoker with no mention of the spiritual. Then there’s the Tennessee Ernie Ford version and the Buck Owens version with their fingerprints in the credit line. The version recorded by The Blind Boys of Alabama is attributed to someone named J. Baird. <br />
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You know me by now, of course I wouldn’t mention this song unless I meant to say something about it. And here goes, check out these choruses:<br />
<br />
It was good for the Hebrew children.<br />
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It was good for dad and mother.<br />
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Makes me love everybody. <br />
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It was good for our mothers. <br />
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It has saved our fathers. <br />
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It will do when I am dyin’. (I love that, It'll <i>do</i> when I'm dyin')<br />
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It will take us all to heaven. <br />
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Give me that old time religion, it’s good enough for me.<br />
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Let me throw a wet blanket here, but the religion of the Hebrew children was not the “old time religion” of my father and mother. It’s a wonderful chorus, but good for the Hebrew Children isn’t in my experience. It was a classic of Twentieth Century Protestant hymnals, but “Old Time Religion” isn’t found in the new Presbyterian Hymnal.<br />
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Now here’s the fly in the ointment, as a Negro Spiritual, the faith of the Hebrew children is very important. The stories of the Exodus, the stories of people whose freedom was denied for hundreds of years by the Pharaohs in Egypt until the coming of Moses, were and continue to be very important. These stories are important for the men and women whose freedom was taken and continues to be in peril.<br />
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This was important to the slaves who originated this hymn. It was important to the Blind Boys of Alabama. But I can’t imagine Jim Reeves or Tennessee Ernie Ford or even Buck Owens catching the theological subtext because like me, it’s not their experience.<br />
<br />
It may not be in our hymnal, but let’s go down Southfield Drive until it becomes Hollywood and see if it’s in the hymnbooks at Hollywood Presbyterian, a historically black congregation just down the road. Something old, something new. <br />
<br />
Something old, something new. Pentecost has been a part of the celebration of the Church since before the Church was Christian. Pentecost is a part of the old time religion, but in Christ it became something new. Jews from every nation were living in Jerusalem on that first Christian Pentecost. When it began, it began with a sound like the rush of a violent wind. <br />
<br />
Being people of the New Millennium, children of the Information age, we tend to look at scripture like we’ve seen it a hundred times. This is one of those times. We hear “a sound like the rush of a violent wind” and tend to think “whoosh” when we should think Hurricane Camille, Andrew, or Katrina. We should think about the tornadoes that blew through town a couple of weekends ago. We should think about a “Mike Bettis from the Weather Channel doing a remote from your front porch” kind of violent wind sound. This isn’t something soft and pretty, this is a “change your life” event.<br />
<br />
With this comes fire that licks like tongues and those tongues are speaking in the native languages of a world full of new believers and old skeptics. The world of Judaism was living in Jerusalem and the world was hearing the Gospel in their native languages. Not the angelic tongues we often think of when we hear of Pentecost, but languages with known words and grammar and these were used so people could hear the Word of God and understand it so they can share it.<br />
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Of course the old skeptics would say they sounded like a bunch of drunks. Then again the words of Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, non-Jewish Judeans, Cappadocians, Pontians (is that what you call a resident of Pontus?), Asians (folks from what we call Turkey), Phrygians, Pamphylians, and Egyptians with Galilean accents might sound drunkish.<br />
<br />
Peter stands up for the Apostles declaring, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning.”<br />
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Then being this close to Mardi Gras “only nine o'clock in the morning” is meaningless when it comes to day drunk, but that’s not the point. <br />
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Peter was sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ as fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. The Spirit of God is being poured out upon all flesh. Sons and daughters prophesy. Young men see visions. Old men dream dreams. Slaves, even the male and female slaves, receive his Spirit and they prophesy.<br />
In the name of God, by the work of Christ, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord is saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord is saved. Christ does not replace the Law; Christ fulfills the law.<br />
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This brings us to an interesting part of our reading from John, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” You will hear a lot of people who quote this invoke all sorts of things out of Leviticus. As for me, if we invoke too much Leviticus we won’t be able to eat the Red Beans and Rice I brought for today’s potluck and that would be a pity. So what does Jesus mean?<br />
<br />
Some scholars say that the Ten Commandments serve three purposes. They give instruction on how to relate to God, to creation, and to each other. Christ knew how well we had done with this since the days of Moses so he knew the Advocate was a must to help us carry out these commandments. <br />
<br />
As for the Levitical laws, they served all sorts of purposes. Some of them helped the people keep the commandments. Some of them helped keep family relationships in a semblance of order. Some were necessary to keep the people from getting trichinosis. We’ve been through this before, there were 613 mitzvoth, 613 laws; 248 thou shall’s and 365 thou shall not’s. Some became passé like the dietary restrictions. Peter would even argue with God, argue with God about dietary restrictions. He wouldn’t dare touch shrimp, lobster, bacon, or crawfish. But after a vision from the Lord God, the “mudbug,” a critter whose name makes its inclusion on the dietary restriction list self-explanatory, is now good eating.<br />
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So what did Jesus mean when he told the people to keep his commandments? The 613 seem to be in a state of flux since Peter saw his first catfish. What did Jesus mean? I believe the answer lies in the end of our reading from John’s gospel:<br />
<br />
"I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid."<br />
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What exactly does the Holy Spirit remind us? What has Jesus taught us? Jesus has taught us that even though he did not replace the law, he has fulfilled it. Fulfilling it he has done so in a new and glorious way, a way we could not expect or imagine. The scribes and Pharisees expected one thing and Jesus showed them something else. <br />
<br />
They tried to trick him into blasphemy and he could not be tricked by their worldly games. They fawned over him, ingratiated themselves, then tried to spring a trap only to find that their traps had no power over Jesus. They complained he ate with whores and other women. He ate with tax collectors. He ate with zealots. He ate when he should have fasted, but these same temple leaders complained when the Baptist fasted when they would have rather he had a sandwich. Jesus tells his people the world will never be happy with them.<br />
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The world will never be happy with them, so why bother?<br />
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Jesus gives his people something better, something the world cannot offer, his peace. Peace we extend to each other during this very service! Let’s do it again!<br />
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May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all!<br />
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And also with you!<br />
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Jesus says “My peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let your hearts be afraid." <br />
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On this Pentecost Sunday this is the commandment Jesus wants us to remember. If it doesn’t bring his peace, is it really his commandment?<br />
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The Civil Wars were Joy Williams and John Paul White, an Alternative-Country musical duo who from 2008 until 2014 recorded two CD’s a couple of EP’s and won four Grammy awards. The second single released from the first disc was the title track “Barton Hollow.”<br />
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Ain't going back to Barton Hollow<br />
Devil gonna follow me e'er I go<br />
Won't do me no good washing in the river<br />
Can't no preacher man save my soul<br />
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It only took a few minutes of research on line for me to decide that there are more opinions about what this song means than copies sold, I bring up this song for this chorus.<br />
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If there is one thing every pastor, minister, and evangelist should want you to know it’s this, “Can’t no preacher man save my soul.” Absolutely not. We are saved by faith though grace in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who was born to live to die and rise again. Today we celebrate the coming of the day he promised until he comes again in victory, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, His Spirit.<br />
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Friends, there is a difference between religion and faith. Let me say this again, there is a difference between religion and faith. Straight out of John Calvin’s “Institutes of the Christian Religion” we receive this definition of faith:<br />
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Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit. <br />
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So if this is faith what’s religion? Religion is how we celebrate that faith. If faith is the fabric of our lives, then religion is the hanger we put it on. Religion is a framework. We are the theological heirs of the Reformation; Calvin, Knox, Hus, Zwingli and many others. Our Jewish brothers have their scripture and authoritative writing as do our Roman Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters. There are many old time religions, many theological hangers on which people hang the fabric of faith.<br />
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Ain't going back to Barton Hollow<br />
Devil gonna follow me e'er I go<br />
Won't do me no good washing in the river<br />
Can't no preacher man save my soul<br />
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It only took a few minutes to find dozens of interpretations to this song. It doesn’t take as long to find even more meanings to the Pentecost. But on this Pentecost Sunday I want us to remember these things:<br />
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That hymn, it may not be ours to sing. <br />
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That whooshing sound, if you find it deafening, could be that’s as it should be. <br />
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If what you hear makes perfect sense coming from one pastor but another pastor makes no sense at all, that’s alright too. Remember that first Pentecost had one Apostle speaking your language and the others speaking goobledy-gook. <br />
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Yes, when we love Jesus we keep his commandments, yes those commandments are found in scripture, and yes, those commands are found in the life of Christ. <br />
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Finally, we are saved by grace through faith. It’s not our religion but our Lord who saves.<br />
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Barton Hollow says it won’t do us any good to wash in the river. That’s true as far as it goes. No words of a preacher will save our souls either. The power is that Jesus shared our baptism. There was no need, he didn’t need the cleansing we need. Yet through baptism he identifies with us. That’s the power. No preacher man will save our souls. The words are Christ’s not mine. It is grace alone through faith alone through Christ alone.<br />
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It has been an honor and a pleasure to share the word of God with you these past three years. Of course it wouldn’t seem like I preached a sermon if I didn’t play with the Greek would it? Jesus called the Spirit the Advocate. Used this way, Advocate means one who walks beside. What a wonderful image. What a glorious truth. Let us rejoice in his Holy comfort, God in Spirit who walks beside us.<br />
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Marie and I thank you for walking beside us too.<br />
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Amen.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-78426005977099593742016-05-01T01:30:00.000-05:002016-05-01T21:43:19.390-05:00Something Olde, Something NewThis sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on May 1, 2016, the Sixth Sunday in Easter.<br />
<br />
Acts 16:9-15<br />
Psalm 67<br />
Revelation 21:10, 21:22-22:5<br />
John 5:1-9<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, or rock and our redeemer. Amen.<br />
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Words, they are such imprecise things. What I mean is that when I use a word it may not mean the same thing to you it means to me. Still, we are people of the Word, the Word of God. No matter how imprecise words are, the Lord used them to communicate with the prophets, priests, and kings. Jesus used words with his apostles and disciples, but it is still no wonder that we get confused by them. <br />
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My favorite Hebrew word is ruach. I love to hear it, I love to say it. I love what it means, both its simple definition and all of the wonderful meanings it carries. In Genesis 1:2, this is the word our bibles translate as “Spirit” [1] or “wind.”[2] Listen to the word again, ruach. It sounds like wind and spirit. There is a breathy, otherworldly quality to this word that mystifies me. Say it with me, ruach.<br />
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In Genesis, this breath of God, this is the spirit imparted just before light is created. It is the breath that blows across the chaos, the darkness, the void. This is the breath that precedes life. This is the breath that gives life to all creation.<br />
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This is the wind that comes off the water in the morning. It’s the cool breeze that brings the dew that falls on the grass. It’s the summer breeze that rustles the leaves in the trees and tells us that all is right in the world. It is the Spirit that reminds us that God is in charge regardless of the chaos of the world around us. It is the Spirit that says Emmanuel, God with us. This is the wind, the Spirit we read about a couple of weeks ago from John’s gospel when the disciples received the breath of Jesus. It’s the wind that will blow in two weeks on Pentecost.<br />
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Our gospel reading begins during a Jewish festival and Jesus is walking past the Sheep Gate by a pool the New Revised Standard Version called Beth-zatha. In Hebrew this could mean House of Shame or House of Disgrace. There are five porticoes in this pool, five porches reaching into the waters. These porches were loaded, overloaded with sick men and women; blind, lame, and paralyzed. They came to the pools to be healed.<br />
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Legend said that when the pool was stirred, its healing power was activated, and the first person in the waters would be healed. Angels bathing in the waters were said to cause those ripples. Since the pool was surrounded on all sides by the city walls or the slope of the hills, breezes in the pool would be infrequent. The pool was fed irregularly by an underground spring which would cause rippling. So the waiting game had to be played with patience.<br />
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In chapter nine of John’s gospel the disciples will ask “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Their understanding of disease was based on first century traditions. They had no understanding of germs and viruses. Illness was caused by sin, and maybe not even the sin of the ailing. Illness could be due to someone else’s sin. The sick were literally “sin sick.”<br />
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Further, the blind, lame, and paralyzed on the porticoes probably didn’t have much opportunity for wound care or basic hygiene. We have already established that because of location and architecture the pool had poor air circulation, so there would have been a stench that only a hospital worker with hazardous waste experience or a butcher whose power has been off all weekend can truly appreciate. <br />
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Remember too that this pool was used to wash the sheep prior to their sacrifice in the Temple. This use of the pool gave the water a halo of sanctity,[3] and I imagine it gave the pool a another distinct set of aromas.<br />
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The point I want to make is that our gospel reading is happening at a place where we would least expect to find a King. It’s loaded with the sick and infirm. It smells like infection and people who have been sitting in their filth because they have been waiting on healing. It smells like a sheep pen which would be a combination of barnyard and wet wool. While we don't know whether the spring had a harsh odor or not, we know there's a reason Glade doesn't make "Hot Spring." Oh, I forgot the flies. It would be safe to say Beth-zatha would not have been on the Chamber of Commerce tour.<br />
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So Jesus arrives at the pool seeing the sick: the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. There, Jesus spotted a man he wanted to know. He learned that this man had been lying there for a long time, thirty eight years to be exact. Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be made well?”<br />
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Oh what a wonderful question! “Do you want to be made well?” How would you answer this question? “Oh my Lord, yes, I want to be made well!” Imagine people being asked this question all over the world? Imagine people crying from the roof tops, “Oh yes Lord, I want to be made well!” But you know, this isn’t the answer Jesus gets.<br />
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The man tells Jesus, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”<br />
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So, is that a yes or a no?<br />
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Really, I’m asking. This isn't rhetorical.<br />
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Is this a yes or a no?<br />
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It really isn’t an answer as much as it’s an explanation. The man explains that he is unable to reach the healing waters. He tries. He really tries to make it on his own, but he cannot because there is no one there to help him. Alas, woe is he. He is unable to make it to the waters first.<br />
So Jesus says to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”<br />
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This man has waited thirty-eight years for the wind to blow across the pool. He has waited so very long for the wind to blow and for the healing power of the water to be activated for him. He waited to be caressed by the ripples in the pool caused by angels bathing.<br />
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Instead, he got something new. He got what he expected least in this world. He didn’t feel the wind blow causing the pool to ripple. He met the wind.<br />
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He met the wind. He met the living God. He met the one who causes the healing wind to blow. He didn’t meet an angel, he met God incarnate. He was waiting to feel the breeze so that he could race to the pool. Instead he met the one who is the wind. In the most real and least expected way, he met God with him; he had a personal encounter with Emmanuel.<br />
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This passage in the New International Version does not call the pool Beth-zatha. It says Bethesda. Bethesda means “House of Mercy” or “House of Grace.” That name is fitting for a group of invalids who seek the unmerited favor of healing by the restorative powers of the waters. Is it any wonder that a Presbyterian Church founded near the sight of a bubbling spring in rural Maryland in 1820 would be called Bethesda? Is it any wonder one-hundred-and-twenty years later a Naval Medical Center built nearby would come to be called Bethesda?[4] A place named for the House of Grace would be the place to receive special treatment, both medical and spiritual.<br />
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For this man, there was no more “House of Shame.” He has met the one who brings the living waters of the “House of Grace.” In a glorious new way, he was baptized not in water, but in the Spirit of the Lord, by which he took his mat and walked. That day, that Sabbath day, Jesus showed that he is come to reconcile all creation into right relationship with himself. As the wind blew across the water in Genesis beginning all creation, Jesus blew across this man who was not able to get himself to the pool, not even able to say he wanted to get himself to the pool, and gave him new life.<br />
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I love words, and in one act, Jesus changes Beth-zatha to Bethesda. He takes the House of Disgrace and makes it a House of Grace. He makes this House of Shame a House of Mercy. This is the wind that blows across the healing waters. This is ruach.<br />
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Jesus has taken something old, the ancient myths and legends of the healing waters of a pool of water. A pool called the House of Shame and Disgrace because these afflictions were considered shameful and disgraceful. The Messiah, Jesus the Christ instead offers something new, grace and mercy, where neither existed before. He takes the stench of what kept them unclean and gives new life. Gone is the old, in Christ new life has come in abundance.<br />
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Our Lord, our Messiah is the one who is able to do more than we could ever hope or imagine. He is able to do the unexpected. We read this in Acts. Acts 16:13 tells us that on the Sabbath, Paul and his traveling party went down to the river, down to the place of prayer, and spoke to the women who had gathered there. I am not going to go into the big explanation about why the women are the people we would least expect Paul to speak with on that day, we know about the subordinate roles women played in ancient times. Paul had crossed into Europe to share the Good News of Jesus Christ in the Roman Empire and first shared it with women.<br />
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One of the women in the group, a believer in God named Lydia, was listening to Paul at the river. She was a dealer in purple cloth. To decode this phrase, she was in her way rich and powerful. Her clients were rich and powerful because only the rich could afford to purchase purple and only the powerful were allowed to wear it.<br />
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This woman, rich and powerful in her own right, brought her household to Paul for baptism. In effect, her household is the first toehold of Christianity in Europe. A woman’s home in Thyatira becomes the site of the first European Christian church. This easily qualifies something new. [5]<br />
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This gives us hope in Christ. This bit of Bethesda, this slice of the “House of Grace” comes again to the water and the wind blows across it bringing something new, the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ to the world where it is least expected. By the grace and mercy of God, these women are reconciled to all creation.<br />
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Even more unexpected is the vision of New Jerusalem found in our reading from Revelation. The winds of change, the winds of reconciliation, the winds of life blow across the river of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. If you noticed, there is no temple in the city because there is no need. There is no need for a temple because all of New Jerusalem, the city where nothing accursed will be found, becomes the new temple.[6]<br />
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This is the wonder and the glory of new life in Christ. The most glorious things we could never expect are just the beginning. The wind of new life blows across Bethesda lifting a man who had not walked in thirty-eight years. The wind blows across the river where the women pray and opens Europe to the gospel. The Gospel Incarnate, the Lamb of God will be seen again on the day of the New Jerusalem when there will be no more night.<br />
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Pope John Paul II took the opportunity to “put Bob Dylan right” when the two headlined a gig together in Bologna, Italy in 1997.[7] Dylan met His Holiness on stage during a Catholic youth event before playing three of his best-known songs. After the two men had shaken hands and exchanged a few words, the Pope stepped up to the microphone and took the singer to the theological cleaners.<br />
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“You say the answer is blowing in the wind, my friend,” he observed. “So it is. But it is not the wind that blows things away, it is the wind that is the breath and life of the Holy Spirit, the voice that calls and says, ‘Come!’”<br />
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Clearly enjoying the thunderous applause that greeted these words, the Pope continued in a style that would not have disgraced a television evangelist: “You ask me, how many roads must a man walk down before he becomes a man? I answer: One! There is only one road for man, and it is the road of Jesus Christ, who said I am the Way and the Life.”<br />
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Rejoice! The wind that blows over the creation of creation blows today. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, God in Christ is doing something new. It is up to the Body of Christ to listen for the word. It’s time to feel the wind, stand up, take up our mat, and walk.<br />
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Amen.<br />
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[1] Jerusalem Publication Society, New American Standard Bible, New International Version, New Living translations<br />
[2] New Revised Standard Version<br />
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pool_of_Bethesda, accessed May 12, 2007<br />
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethesda%2C_Maryland and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Naval_Medical_Center accessed on May 12, 2007<br />
[5] Cousar, Charles B, Gaventa, Beverly R., McCann, Jr., J. Clinton, Newsome, James D. “Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, Year C.” Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994, pages 314-316.<br />
[6] Ibid, pages 318-320.<br />
[7] Ship of Fools Magazine Online, September 29, 1997 as found at HomileticsOnline.com, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1887, May 7, 2010.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-83901101414628432232016-02-28T15:30:00.000-06:002016-02-28T20:40:22.888-06:00The Test and the TutorThis sermon was heard in Rossville, Indiana on Sunday February 28, 2016, the 3rd Sunday in Lent.<br />
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Isaiah 55:1-9<br />
1Corinthians 10:1-13<br />
Luke 13:1-9<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen<br />
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About twenty years ago, my wife Marie and I were involved with a Presbyterian Revival organization that went to local churches. We were blessed to visit churches in La Junta, Colorado and Papillion, Nebraska. On our first trip with this organization to La Junta we were making a planned stop at a nursing home visit to a woman who had lost nearly all of her hearing. Her daughter was there with her and explained that her mother would not be able to hear us, but she would tell her mother what was going on because they could still understand each other.<br />
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As we were getting ready to leave, Marie looked at me and said, “Well Paul, do you have a word of scripture before we go?” and frankly I didn’t. Instead of saying “Nope, what do you say we pray…” I silently prayed “Lord, I don’t have a word and I need your help here. Bless me with your word to share with your child.” So I opened my bible blindly. I opened a little more than three-quarters into my bible, knowing I would be in the New Testament, hopefully in the Gospels. Well, close, but no cigar. I ended up opening my bible to our reading from 1Corinthians. The heading at the top of the page, the one that gives the highlight of what’s happening on that page, read “Sexual Immorality.” <br />
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I’m sitting bedside of an 85 year old woman, in a nursing home, with her daughter, I pray for scripture, and I get “Sexual Immorality.” Thanks God, so glad to know you have such a wonderful sense of humor.<br />
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When I read the passages for this week’s sermon, that was my feeling. These are glorious pieces of scripture. All scripture, even the difficult and weird stuff is glorious. Our reading ends with God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength,” but who’s going to remember that when you begin with “Sexual Immorality?”The heat is on, when I’m preparing to share the Word of God in a place I hardly know, the lectionary gives me Sexual Immorality and the death of hundreds and thousands of people. It’s not what I wanted to see. <br />
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At least I know better than to ask, “O Lord, what am I going to do with this?” That’s the wrong question. The better question is “O Lord, how are you going to shape me, how are you going to shape your people for your word?” Those questions I asked, again and again.<br />
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As I already read, our gospel passage gives us not once but twice, “do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others…? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” This is the equivalent to reading “Sexual Immorality to an 85 year old woman. Yeah, sure, there is something there, there is wisdom in the passage, but you have to pray and work to find something.<br />
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One of the issues that all pastors face when interpreting scripture is how it is to be read, not only reading silently but aloud. Our bibles have all of this wonderful punctuation that didn’t exist in the original manuscripts. All of the commas and semicolons and periods are later additions. With translation and interpretation we often end up losing nuance too. To quote Kurt Vonnegut, “even the funniest joke translated into King James English is destined to sound like Charlton Heston.”<br />
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In this case it is easy to read that Jesus is telling the people that unless they repent they will die the same miserable, horrible, tragic deaths that the people of Galilee and Jerusalem faced, not to mention those folks in 1Corinthians. When we read that we will die “just as they did” we might read that “we will die in a similar manner.” Do we fear this means our remains will be desecrated like Pilate desecrated the Galileans? Do we fear this means we will be crushed in the falling of a great tower, like what happened in New York City not fifteen years ago? If you read it this way you have achieved a faithful reading in English, but I don’t think that’s what the original text meant. I don’t think that’s what Jesus meant. <br />
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A better reading is that as they died, we too will die. It’s Ecclesiastes, “To everything there is a season/A time to live and a time to die.” It is a statement of fact more than it is a bold theological assertion. But that assertion comes with its own bold declaration. <br />
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In Christ’s baptism he identified with humanity. Even without sin he identified with the human condition. Being fully human and fully divine he embraced the words of the John Donne poem “No Man Is an Island:” <br />
<blockquote>
<em>Any man’s death diminishes me,</em><br />
<em>Because I am involved in mankind,</em><br />
<em>And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;</em><br />
<em>It tolls for thee.</em></blockquote>
I suggest this is what Jesus meant when he said “we too will die.” When we die, when anyone dies, a little bit of all humanity dies too. As humanity dies, the humanity of Christ suffers. The deity of Christ grieves.<br />
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So if this is what our death means to the Christ, what does it mean when Jesus says “unless we repent, as they died, we too will die.” If it doesn’t mean we will die facing the same earthly fate from Pilate or architecture, then what? <br />
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Repentance is an easy word, and a difficult concept. It means turn around. We have placed a lot of theological and cultural baggage on this word, but in its simplest form, all it means is turn around.<br />
Yes, this turning means that we are to turn from our old ways, the ways of sin and death and toward the ways of new life. This is where we get to the “easier said than done” part of our program, isn’t it? I’ve always found it to be that way.<br />
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The parable of the man and the gardener gives us a wonderful example of moving on, changing, growing, or to use the image from John’s gospel, bearing good fruit. The parable reads: A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. For three years he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to his gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still nothing! Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ The gardener replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year. Let me dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”<br />
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There was the landowner, like a judge, like Pilate condemning the fig tree for not doing what fig trees are supposed to do. But the gardener knew better. He knew that if the tree received nurturing it would stand a better chance of reaping a harvest next season. He was prepared to tend the roots and the soil. He was ready to fertilize and water. He was ready to bring in the harvest the tree should be ready to produce. He was there to help. He couldn’t bear the fruit, but he could help in as many ways as possible.<br />
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This is something I read on the Internet, so you know it must be true. It’s attributed to a graduate of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, a PC (USA) seminary:<em> </em><br />
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<em>When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news and my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.</em></blockquote>
</div>
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This Presbyterian Minister was the Rev. Fred Rogers, yes, that Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers, and he’s in accord with our parable’s gardener. When the fig tree, which often stood for Israel and Judah in Isaiah’s prophecy, when the fig tree faced sudden annihilation, the gardener was there to help. The tree has to bear the fruit, and the gardener does all he can to help it along. <br />
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This is the lesson of Mr. Rodgers too, when someone says he wants to rip you out of the soil, pray there is someone else nearby to help you grow into the tree you are meant to be. When it comes time to change behaviors in your life that need change, pray there is a helper there for you. Who are these helpers?<br />
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The first and most important helpers are parents. Believe it or not they have seen what you are seeing. It looked different when they saw it, I know, but they saw it. They want to help. You may have a big brother or big sister who is willing to help too. Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, coworkers, all of these people can be helpers too. Of course your Pastor and Sunday School teachers want to help you too. There is nothing that any of us wants more than to see you grow into the best fig tree you can be. <br />
In the case of the fig tree, to repent means to turn from a leafy tree and become a tree that bears good fruit.<br />
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Of course, the one who helps you and all of the helpers is our Lord Jesus Christ. We are all tested every day. There are little tests and there are big tests. There are tests that are pretty obvious and tests that are far more subtle. Tests that are overt and tests that are covert. Tests that are hidden like blood in wine and tests that fall literally like a ton of bricks. Praise God we have a tutor. Jesus who came as one of us. Jesus who is fully human. Jesus who is less when we fail because as John Donne says: <br />
<blockquote>
Any man’s death diminishes me,<br />
Because I am involved in mankind</blockquote>
So sitting in a nursing home in La Junta, Colorado, opening my bible to “Sexual Immorality” and giving thanks to the Lord (more like “Gee, thanks God…”) I wondered “what next?” Next was on the facing page. That page was 1Corinthians 11:1, “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ.” I reminded her that to the glory of God, she taught her children to be imitators of Christ for the glory of God. Her daughter agreed and was preparing to tell this to her mother.<br />
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Hooray, something worth sharing! God is great! No sexual immorality and I don’t look like a complete fool saying “Nope, sorry honey, no scripture, let’s just pray this out and get going before the shadow of shame covers me completely.”<br />
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And then something amazing happened… This 85 year old deaf woman looked at me and said, “I always made sure we were in church so that they could learn what’s right.” By the grace of God, she heard what I said. It wasn’t because of my big voice, my fog cutter pipes. I had spoken earlier and she didn’t hear me. But when I read and God’s word was interpreted for her, she heard me. You should have seen the look of shock in her daughter’s eyes too, “Mom heard.” Praise God, we were all taken aback. <br />
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Lent is a time of reflection and repentance. It is a time to take stock and inventory. It is a time to see where we have come from and where we are going. It is a time to stop and if need be, it is a time to turn around. <br />
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For this woman in the nursing home in La Junta, her kids had many teachers, including the First Presbyterian Church of La Junta. They all had one tutor, the Lord himself. Many lessons were learned, and yes, I am quite sure the roots needed some tending and the tree needed some pruning; and good fruit was borne. There were figs aplenty. She was passing her test. Death would come; death, like life, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe that was the difference Jesus was talking about all along.<br />
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This Lenten season, let us reflect on that; stop, reflect, and ask what do I need to repent? What do we need to repent? And thank God we have a tutor to help us with the test to come.<br />
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Amen.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-62814271578080261252016-02-07T13:30:00.000-06:002016-02-07T13:30:06.279-06:00Blinded by the LightThis sermon was heard at John Calvin Presbyterian Church in Shreveport, Louisiana on Sunday February 7, 2016, the Last Sunday in Epiphany, Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday. Sorry, no audio.<br />
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Exodus 34:29-35<br />
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2<br />
Luke 9:28-36<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen<br />
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Twenty years ago next month, while I was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Lamar, Colorado, I was helping host a Presbyterian Revival called “Spirit Alive.” Yes, yes, a Presbyterian revival, sounds kind of funny. I joked that “Presbyterian revival” meant that nobody drank decaf all weekend. I was the Hospitality Chair which meant I put together the drinks and snacks for the visiting team that was doing the presentations.<br />
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The visiting pastor who led the revival was the Reverend Scott Luckey. On Saturday night, he preached a sermon on forgiveness. To make a long story short, at that moment in time I was handling the breakup with a girlfriend poorly. Even though the breakup had happened eight years earlier, I was still handling it poorly. I was so scarred that I couldn’t forgive. Not because I was unable to forgive, but because I couldn’t think of what I needed to forgive her for. Again, long story. But see, I had met someone; and those thoughts and feelings were beginning to reawaken. I knew if I couldn’t get beyond those old feelings I would mess up the best thing to happen to me in a long time.<br />
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In the Saturday night sermon, Pastor Luckey said only when you are able to forgive will you know what it is to be forgiven. Now, I don’t know about you. I don’t know where you were twenty years ago at about 8:30 PM Mountain Time, but a shaft of light entered that sanctuary and shined down on me. I don’t see how anybody within 750 miles could have missed it! It was glorious.<br />
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When he said that, things began to change. I say began because things weren’t always perfect. They never are. There was still healing to be done, but after eight long years I was finally off square one.<br />
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One of the most common images used in scripture is light. One of the first images in scripture is light, Genesis 1:3, “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good.” Don’t forget, light is always good in scripture. As for me, sitting in that sanctuary on that dark Saturday night, the light of Christ’s forgiveness was good.<br />
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Light is often associated with the presence of God. John’s and Luke’s gospels call Jesus the Light of the World. In 2Corinthians Paul writes, “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Jesus is the light. Knowledge of Christ is the light shining out of the darkness. <br />
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There are many more examples, if you have a concordance or the internet you can find more, but I think biblically we can say “Light—Good.”<br />
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Earlier this week I saw an article from Forbes about dumb things bosses say. One of the important things it says is every boss, unless you are very, very lucky, will say something dumb from time to time. That’s just being human. It is when saying dumb things becomes a pattern that employees should worry. Enter Peter, stage right…<br />
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Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him up on the mountain to pray. While he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw Moses and Elijah talking to him. Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were swallowed by the brightness, the light shined such that Jesus’ robes became as white as white can be. The three apostles are blinded by the light.<br />
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They are overwhelmed by who and what they see! They see Moses who was last seen going into the mountains alone to watch the people enter the Promised Land. They see Elijah who was last seen by Elisha being swept away by the whirlwind into the heavens. These heroes of the faith are chatting with Jesus, apparently speaking of his departure. <br />
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So what does Peter do with this overload, he erupts! “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Dang. Peter takes a perfect moment, not a perfectly good moment but a perfect moment, and goes off the farm hoping to build “Mountainside Holy Land Village and Retreat Center,” three prophets, no waiting. <br />
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Our translation says, “not knowing what he said.” Another way to say that could be “he had no idea what he just said.”<br />
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We’ve all got that friend, don’t we? Open mouth, insert foot? That fine ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. It generally comes with a moderate amount of embarrassment. Scripture doesn’t record the look James and John gave him. Then again, maybe all Peter did was save James and John the indignity of being the first to say something dumb.<br />
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Before their critique could come, they were all covered in a cloud and heard a voice saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen (or ‘my beloved’ depending on the translation); listen to him!” Then, suddenly, it was a day like it was before the face of Jesus changed (and that’s all the word “transfiguration” means, change face).<br />
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Friends, we’ve all been blinded by something or other. Peter was blinded by the light. He was so flummoxed by what he had seen that he had no idea what to say. Peter’s problem was that he thought something needed to be said and then he said something. When we live our lives like an action movie, we tend to say all the wrong things at all the right times. This hardly makes Peter special, it only immortalizes him in scripture. Among my friends, I was the one who said the dumb things. I’m better now, but it made the ‘70’s and ‘80’s memorable. <br />
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So how do we avoid this? Here are some starters. The first is to pray. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal where God is working in our lives. I’m not saying we will be able to discern the invisible hand of God at work. I believe when we “see” that, we put God’s name on what we want to call God’s work, what we hope is God’s work. So if we don’t look at the work where do we look? We need to look at the faces of those around us. As we become more aware of others we will begin to see the face of Christ around us.<br />
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When we see the face of Christ in those around us, we will treat each other differently. When we look for light instead of darkness we behave differently. When people do the same toward us we’ll notice that too. All too often, even in a city this size, people treat one another like obstacles or like nothing at all. If we seek the face of Christ in one another it is impossible to behave that way.<br />
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When the voice in the cloud said “listen to him,” this is what it meant. In the ancient languages, “listen” meant more than “hear,” it also meant “respond.” Pray and listen. See where God is working and go work with God and God’s people.<br />
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Then we need to stop and smell the roses. We need to spend time with God and with one another. In the church we call this koinonia, we call this fellowship. We act as a community. We come together and share a meal. We spend time with people for no other reason than it is good.<br />
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Look at it this way, God exists as distinct three persons; Father, Son, and Spirit. If community is good for God’s very existence, it must be absolutely necessary for us. Without a community, we are nothing. Only through others can we see the face of God in Christ. <br />
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And vice-versa, only through the face of God in Christ can we really see others.<br />
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Only when we are quiet, only when we pray, only when we become aware, only when we come together and only we respond to one another can we see the light, be in the light. Is this scary? Peter, James, and John were scared in the presence of the Lord so it would be foolish if we weren’t. We might be blinded by the light like Peter, we may even say something dumb. But as we pray, come together, and respond with and to one another; that will happen less and less. And the rewards of life abiding in Christ are glorious.<br />
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Oh, that woman I met twenty years ago, this July she and I will be married for nineteen years. Friends, let’s hear it for my wonderful, wonderful wife, my partner, my bringer of perspective, (in Hebrew) my ezer, my love and my heart, Marie. I thank God for her every day. I can see the light of Christ reflected through her like a prism shining many glorious colors. She helps me see the light of Christ. And I say fewer dumb things because of her. Praise God. <br />
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Halleluiah, Amen.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-43100138285616582462016-01-31T15:30:00.000-06:002016-02-01T07:52:37.281-06:00meanwhile back at the ranch...This sermon was heard at John Calvin Presbyterian Church on Sunday January 31, 2016, the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Sorry, I don't have any audio for this one.<br />
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Jeremiah 1:4-10<br />
Psalm 7:1-6<br />
1Corinthians 13:1-13<br />
Luke 4:21-30<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen<br />
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I’m a big fan of sermon titles. I noticed that Pastor Beth usually lists the sermon title as “The Message,” and that’s fine, but I don’t. My sense of humor, irony or the “ah-ha moment” doesn’t allow it. Now it doesn’t mean that the title of a sermon won’t change, but that doesn’t happen often and it didn’t happen this week. You see, the way the lectionary is set up there is a real “meanwhile back at the ranch…” feel to it.<br />
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This week our gospel reading began with the same words it ended with last week, “In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus read from the book of the prophet Isaiah, and began to say, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” It’s a set up. The folks who put the Revised Common Lectionary together practically begged ministers and preachers to do a two part sermon. Who am I to disappoint, right? So, meanwhile, back at the ranch…<br />
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So the people have just heard that the One they had been waiting for was in their presence. The Spirit of the Lord is upon him! He has been anointed to bring good news to the poor! Release the captives! Recover sight to the blind! Set the captive free! He has been sent and anointed—he has been ordained by God to do the things that only God can do! He is all but claiming the role of the Messiah, the Christ. He’s not saying he is… but he’s not saying he’s not. The people were stoked like the fires of a kiln ready to fire clay into fine pottery.<br />
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Oh how they gush over him like a clear cold spring of water. “Is not this Joseph’s son?” They are so proud of him, they invoke the “family” name. Yeah, Joseph’s son! Not only did they help build my house, they built most of the furniture! They’re better than the Amish I tell ya!<br />
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They are so stinking proud to be there to hear the message of fulfillment that they can hardly believe it. They’re sitting up ready to see signs and miracles in Jesus’ home town like he has already performed in Capernaum. After all, you always play better before the home fans than you do on the road. They know they are living in an “I was there” moment, they just didn’t know the true shape of the moment.<br />
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So, what does Jesus do with this moment? He turns it on its ear. Jesus is kind of famous for that, isn’t he? He does this by upholding the faithful. He upholds the widow at Zarephath in Sidon who fed the prophet Elijah. Her faithfulness was rewarded with grain and oil so that she and her family would have bread through the drought. A drought caused when Elijah himself stopped the rains! <br />
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He upholds Naaman, the general who slaughtered many Israelites. Through a household slave, Elisha instructs Naaman to bathe in the Jordan seven times to rid himself of his leprosy. Naaman is incensed because there are much better rivers at home, but he is convinced and after faithfully bathing is cleansed. <br />
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Hooray! The prophet has come! He’s the son of our very own Joseph! Let’s kill him! You’d think it was an American election the way the crowd turns so quickly. They try to herd him off a cliff, but he manages to escape unharmed. What is it about these two examples that makes them so enraged? It’s really quite easy.<br />
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These examples, these great heroes of the faith, these names mentioned in the synagogue as people whose faith carried the day are not Israelites. One was a gentile widow from a Sidon, north of the nation. Israelite widows are starving every day because of the drought that Elijah himself called upon the land, but the hero of this story is a gentile woman.<br />
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Naaman is a great general, but he’s no Moses! He conquered Israel! There should be no love lost over the fate of the skin condition of your Syrian enemy. This is tantamount to curing Bin Laden’s kidney ailment! Hundreds of years later, hundreds of years after the Babylonian emancipation, well into the Roman occupation, Jesus is holding up Naaman’s cure as something worthy, something good. <br />
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If you’re wondering what my point is here, that’s my point! Of course the people are going nuts! There are people at home who need the help, not these foreigners you’re talking about Jesus. It’s time to build a tram so we can ride you out of town on a rail.<br />
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But here’s what’s important, Jesus is talking about their faith. Elijah is rejected, he has to leave. The kings of Israel were so bad that his first appearance in scripture is to call this drought on the land. The widow of Zarephath is preparing her family’s final meal but instead prepares a meal for the prophet as well and is rewarded for her faithfulness. <br />
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Naaman could have slaughtered Elisha’s entire household, he brought the firepower to do it too. But instead of bringing wrath at the offense of being told to take a bath in a filthy foreign river, he follows the word of the prophet and is healed. <br />
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In their faithfulness, these people, not the children of God, are freed from the captivity of hunger and disease. Through grace, the oppression of their lives has been lifted. The blindness of life beyond what they can see with their eyes is lifted.<br />
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I enjoy a good children’s sermon. There are Sundays when after hearing a good children’s sermon all I want to do is read the scripture, say, “Yeah, what she said,” and sing a couple of extra hymns. Last week, Pastor Beth warned the children, “So next week if I ask you ‘What are the three gifts of the Holy Spirit’ what are you going to say?” Well my first thought was “does that mean she’s going to call in the children’s sermon? I can put her on speaker.” But I figured no, so I’ll do it, “what are the three gifts of the Holy Spirit?” Everybody together now, faith, hope and love. <br />
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Paul writes to the Corinthians about the spiritual gifts. The Corinthians were a gifted people, but they lorded their gifts over one another for personal advantage. Paul needed to put an end to that. He didn’t tell them not to use their gifts until they could use them properly, he taught them the guide post to follow to use them properly. Love.<br />
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Yeah, I can speak in tongues. I can prophesy. I have great knowledge and understand the great mysteries of life and beyond. I have faith that can move mountains, I’m generous to a fault, I am willing to give my life! But if I do this without love that what am I? Nothing. What have I done? Nothing. What have I gained? Nothing. Or worse, I can become so arrogant that I become insufferable while offering faint or even false praise to God.<br />
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This is what happens without love.<br />
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Everything we have comes to an end. Prophecies, tongues, knowledge, all of them ultimately sands through the hourglass of time. It is as Paul says, when the complete comes the partial comes to an end. The mirror in which we see dimly will be replaced by the glorious face to face visage of the perfect love of Christ. <br />
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Paul also teaches, “faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” Why is love the greatest? <br />
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Perhaps it is that faith is rooted in the past. In the “Institutes of the Christian Religion” John Calvin himself writes, “Faith is ultimately a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us found upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” Faith is based in our knowledge, our knowledge of the past and our faith of what it means as the people of God. <br />
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As for hope, hope is based in the future. Hope is about what is to come. Hope is about the reign of Christ that we say is now, but we can’t see yet. Hope is about the coming of Christ, it’s not about earthly things that fade and rot. Again as Paul says, when the complete comes the partial comes to an end. The mirror in which we see dimly will be replaced by the glorious face to face visage of the perfect love of Christ. This is our expectant hope.<br />
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But love, love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. <br />
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Faith is in what was. Hope is in what will be. Love is because of what is, because of who God is in Christ.<br />
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So what does what Jesus’ message in the Synagogue have to do with love? That’s kind of messy. It takes a special kind of Messiah to be so loved that you want to kill him, and oh how the people want to kill him. The Reverend William Sloan Coffin was the pastor of the Riverside Church in New York City, one of the premier Christian pulpits in the world. One of my favorite quotes from a Sloane sermon speaks to a nation, but points to the church, “There are three kinds of patriots, two bad, one good. The bad ones are the uncritical lovers and the loveless critics. Good patriots carry on a lover’s quarrel with their country, a reflection of God’s lover’s quarrel with the world.”<br />
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Jesus is having a lover’s quarrel with Israel. He’s telling them that great examples of what God expects do not always come from God’s people. He’s saying that as much as that might pain them to hear, it is important because it’s true. Truth hurts and with love truth heals. The people boast “We know his daddy!” and but Jesus doesn’t say, “Who’s your daddy?” He doesn’t say “Who’s your Momma?”<br />
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He isn’t rude or arrogant. He’s frank, but he’s not rude or arrogant. He isn’t irritable even if the nation finds him irritating. He isn’t a noisy gong or clanging symbol. He isn’t gleeful that they are doing it all wrong so the gentiles can be grafted into the Kingdom. (God knows the gentiles, the Christian world, will get enough wrong on its own. Literally God knows.) God in Christ will endure all things, even death on the cross to show his love has no end.<br />
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Friends, believe the good news, in Christ we are forgiven. Only though the love of the Messiah, through Christ’s life and death and resurrection is this possible. Only by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ is this even conceivable. By our faith in the hope of God’s love is this even conceivable. God loves us enough to have that lover’s quarrel with us and by that we are saved.<br />
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So meanwhile, back at the ranch, the people weren’t happy. Nobody is ever happy when discipline comes down. Whether it is being told someone is a better example like Jesus did or being told you are a bad example like Paul did. But by grace we are given God’s discipline in love. It is up to us to receive it the same way or face the fate of this assembly—they heard the word, responded with rage, and Jesus escapes without them even knowing he left their presence.<br />
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Amen.Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0Shreveport, LA, USA32.5251516 -93.7501788999999832.0964276 -94.395625899999985 32.9538756 -93.104731899999976tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-14766507106641860172015-11-22T15:00:00.000-06:002015-11-25T07:20:54.256-06:00Kings and KingdomsAlmighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.<br />
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Revelation 1:4b-8<br />
John 18:33-37<br />
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Kings and Kingdoms, Princes and Principalities. At the risk of sounding whiney, the last time you shared your pulpit with me I cried over the tragic loss of a friend’s mother. Today we cry over a world continuing to go mad. Violence in Ethiopia, Baghdad, Syria, France; and yesterday Belgium went on high alert against suspected terror attacks. Belgium! Except for NATO Headquarters, fine chocolates, and the Chimay Abbey with their wonderful ales, what in the world is there in Belgium that would warrant Enhanced Terror Alerts? What in the world would elicit an attack? <br />
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I guess that goes to show what I know about world affairs. <br />
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“What in the world…?” is actually a question asked in our gospel passage today. Or at least that’s how I paraphrase Pilate’s question to Jesus on this day after state elections in Louisiana. I mention our elections because Roman politicians, Pilate included, were sophisticated enough that had they met Hughie Long he would have addressed them as “Suh.”<br />
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<em>Jesus, son of Mary, what in the world have you done to make these people so upset that they come to me? What have you done to make the Sanhedrin, the temple elite, think I, the Roman Prelate of Palestine, am less of an enemy than you? What did you do to turn the entire countryside on its ear? What did you do to earn this level of spite from your own people? </em><br />
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Now that’s a question. <br />
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I love that their exchange includes repartee straight out of “The Princess Bride.” Remember when leaving the Fire Swamps Prince Humperdink shouts “Surrender!” to Westley and Westley graciously accepts? Listen to this—<br />
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Pilate asks “So, you a king?” Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king.” Like I say, right out of “Princess Bride,” but Jesus continues, “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." But as Jesus said earlier in the passage, “my kingdom is not from here.”<br />
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We have heard the words of the glorious images that make up the answers to Pilate’s question since we began reading Mark’s and John’s Gospels at Advent last year. The images of the Baptism of the Lord, the miracles, the healings, the wisdom; these things begin answering the question, “What did you do.” But more than all of these things, more than these wonderful and glorious things, today we are given an image from John the Revelator about who Jesus is, what Jesus did and who he still is and what he continues to do.<br />
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He is the faithful witness. Jesus is the Christ, the select, the anointed. He is the one who was elected to come and bring the Word of life to the world. He is the one who does only what he sees his Father doing. He is the one who is in eternal relationship with the other persons of the Trinity. He participated in the works of God since before the beginning. He is the one who came to earth, fully human and fully divine, teaching us through his words and actions.<br />
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He is the firstborn of the dead. He is the one who was born to live to die and rise again. As we testify in the traditional version of the Apostles’ Creed, he descended into hell and rose again from the dead. As the firstborn of the dead, He is the Son who leads his brothers and sisters who have died and will die. He is the one who conquered death so that we will no longer know the full sting of the cold hard hand of mortality.<br />
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He has freed us from the power of sin by his own blood. As the Lamb of God, there is no other sacrifice that can be made that will be able to do what God has done now and forever through His Holy Son Jesus. There is no other priest that can make a sacrifice like the one the high priest of God makes of his own body, his own blood, his own life. By the power of his blood, we are free. <br />
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He is the ruler over the kings of the earth and has made us to be a kingdom of priests to serve him now and forever. Amen. <br />
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The question is not just what did Jesus do, it is what does Jesus continues to do. Pilate’s question is almost rhetorical. The answer he wants isn’t about the charges against Jesus. The politician in him knows all he needs to know to rule from the Pharisees who bring Jesus. As Tetrarch, Pilate knows what he plans to do, he wants more.<br />
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The question Pilate wants answered is much deeper than just a recitation of the charges; Pilate wants to know the Truth, “Truth” with a “Capital T,” about Jesus. The Truth Pilate wants to hear is the Truth we claim and testify on this Christ the King Sunday: The Lord is King and for this he was born and his kingdom is not of this earth. Creation is but a part of His kingdom. <br />
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From my “easily amused” file, November 6 was a pretty big day at our house. For the first time since September 2010, Olusegun Samuel released his seventh CD of original music titled, quite imaginatively, 7. Yes, he released a second disc of soul covers in 2011, but this is the first original music in over five years. Big deal, right? The name may not sound familiar, but Mr. Samuel is an acclaimed performer. He has won multiple Grammys and been nominated for an Academy Award.<br />
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This is where I give you the “Paul Harvey” “Rest of the Story” moment and tell you Olusegun Samuel is better known by the name Seal. <br />
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I have loved Seal’s music since his first CD, and being who I am, I prefer some of the unfamiliar songs from the CD’s that most people don’t hear very often. For example this song from his first disc released almost twenty-five years ago:<br />
<blockquote>
But if only you could see them<br />
You could tell by their faces<br />
They were kings and queens<br />
Followed by princes and princesses<br />
They were future power people<br />
Throwing love to the loveless<br />
Shining a light ‘cause they wanted it seen.<br />
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Well there were cries of why<br />
Followed by cries of why not?<br />
Can I reach out for you<br />
If that feels good to me<br />
And the riders will not stop us <br />
Cause the only love they find is paradise<br />
No the riders will not stop us <br />
Cause the only love they find is paradise.</blockquote>
“Future Love Paradise” from Seal’s first CD is definitely one of my favorites. Funky beat, big hook, mad groove, great lyrics, what’s not to love? <br />
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But in a world gone mad, a world gone so very mad that Belgium has gone to “Alert Level ‘Danger Will Robinson’,” we have two choices. The first is to pack up the plantation, fill the moat, and pull up the drawbridge. We can retreat into ourselves so very deeply that we think, hope, we pray nobody can hurt us. We can try to create a cocoon that will protect us from the elements the world throws at us hoping to emerge like a butterfly when spring comes again to the world.<br />
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This doesn’t always work for the chrysalis though, does it? Last week’s squall line showed the damage one errant hailstone can inflict; the damage a big gust of wind can bring. Multiplied umpteen times and our shells don’t stand a chance.<br />
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Or we can take a better path. In Seal’s words, we can live like princes and princesses. We can shine the light because the King and the Kingdom want it seen and when the world asks why we can answer “why not?” Reaching out is always better than living in fear. Always.<br />
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That is future, love, paradise. In the words of our Prayer of Illumination, we act on our prayer that “the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under [God’s] most gracious rule.”<br />
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We need to remember the words of the American sonnet called “The New Colossus” which was placed at the foot of a French statue: <br />
<blockquote>
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, <br />
With conquering limbs astride from land to land; <br />
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand<br />
A mighty woman with torch, whose flame<br />
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name<br />
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand<br />
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command<br />
The air bridged harbor that twin cities frame.<br />
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“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she<br />
With silent lips. “Give us your tired, your poor, <br />
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,<br />
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.<br />
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,<br />
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”<br />
These American ideals, these Christian ideals, these show the world that we are not afraid of its chaos. We know the author of peace. We know the author of joy. We know the King of Kings. </blockquote>
The King of Kings lives and breathes and remains with us. We are to share this glorious hope not as people in pews, not as a man in the pulpit, not as mere mortal beings, but in the words of the Revelation, “as priests serving his God and father.” In this we rejoice in God’s triumph on behalf of all creation.<br />
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Yes, we know that the world is in an uproar and I see no end in sight. To paraphrase one of my favorite passages from Job, we know that Satan, the oppressor, the King of Lies, is in this world, just wandering around in it like an evil Johnny Appleseed sowing discontent. Yeah, we know that’s true.<br />
But what’s more important than Satan’s lies is God’s truth. What’s more important is what Jesus tells Pilate, the Lord’s kingdom is not from this world. That is the truth we are called to share, that is our testimony. <br />
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As princes and princesses in the Kingdom of God we are called to shine the light of hope, the hope of God in Christ who came on a colt, not on a tank.<br />
And so now I say again in the words of John the Revelator, “Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.<br />
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“To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-44710527608273902222015-08-09T15:30:00.000-05:002015-08-09T15:30:01.264-05:00The New DealThis sermon was heard at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Bossier City, Louisiana on Sunday August 9, 2015. <br />
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Ephesians 4:25-5:2<br />
John 6:35, 41-51<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen<br />
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It’s a cliché that the Presbyterian Church is aging, but unless you are over 80 years old, you don’t personally remember the Great Depression. From 1929 to 1933 the American economy was in a free fall. Manufacturing output fell by one-third. Unemployment went from 4% to 25%. Many who had jobs found themselves going from full to part-time. Prices fell by 20% causing deflation that made it harder to repay debt. Over 800,000 families lost their homes to foreclosure. Nearly half of the nation’s human capital went unused and the GDP fell accordingly.<br />
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Bank insurance? It didn’t exist. Banks failed in wholesale fashion and life savings were wiped out. There was no unemployment insurance. There was no Social Security. Our economy hasn’t come out of its doldrums, not for those in the bottom of the ladder, but there’s still a reason why we use the phrase “…not since the great depression.” <br />
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This was one reason for the groundswell that brought Franklyn Delano Roosevelt into the Presidency in 1932 and The New Deal in 1933. The New Deal was a series of reforms and programs that provided what historians call “Relief, Reform, and Recovery” to the economy. To provide relief the New Deal gave us the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Rural Electrification Administration which brought electricity to rural areas especially in the South. Along with the FDIC, the New Deal gave us the Securities and Exchange Commission on the reform side. To help with recovery the New Deal gave us Social Security, the Works Project Administration, the National Youth Administration, and the Civilian Conservation Corps.<br />
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It was said that the WPA and the CCC provided “make work” programs for people and that may be true. But what those “make work” projects provided was quick cash and a way to teach skills people could use when the economy picked up again. <br />
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Before seminary I worked over ten years in higher education, most of them in rural Southeast Colorado, the home of a WPA work camp which still stands and Colorado WPA Project #1, a stone tower in a city park which marks a spot where Zebulon Pike camped on his march west. This is the sort of history school children and sojourners learn because of the New Deal. To this day I can imagine not only Pike camping, but the men who worked and the families that were fed because of FDR’s New Deal.<br />
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Jesus said “I am the bread of life.” “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” “He who comes to me will never be hungry.” “If anyone eats this bread he will live forever.” Now that’s some bread. That’s the most special bread on Earth. It’s the most important bread on Earth. But if there is one thing that needs to be said, it’s that our relationship with bread is different from those living in the Holy Land. One of the best understandings I have found was this from Bill Hinson in “The Power of Holy Habits.” He writes:<br />
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I heard an Armenian describe the bread of life. He said that Westerners do not understand what Jesus was saying when he said, 'I am the Bread of Life.' In the Middle East, bread is not just something extra thrown in at a meal. It is the heart of every meal. They have those thin pieces of pita bread at every meal. </blockquote>
This isn’t so different from traditional Mexican cuisine. Substitute “tortilla” for “pita” and you are on your way. Many Middle Eastern cultures today do this with naan, another kind of flat bread made with yogurt. We don’t have the same relationship with bread, but there are still echoes in our meals today. As for me, I can’t imagine a hamburger without a bun. Continuing Hinson’s words:<br />
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Those strict people would not think about taking forks and putting them in their mouths. To put an object in your mouth defiles it. You certainly would not take a fork out and put it in again and go on defiling yourself like that. Instead, you break off a piece of the bread, pick up your food with it and eat it. </blockquote>
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So where we often use bread as a side dish, in the time of the Lord bread was instrumental to the meal. In Jesus’ time meat was rare for regular folks. Fruits and vegetables had their seasons. Grain kept so bread was available. Bread was a staple.<br />
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So out of something ordinary, out of something people ate at every meal, out of the most basic component of every meal, Jesus made his point about who he is. Again, from Hinson:<br />
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Indeed, the only way you can get to the main dish, he said, is with the bread. Jesus was saying that the only way you can come to life is through him. That is why he was saying - I am the Bread of Life; I am the only way to come to life. </blockquote>
When choosing something to compare himself to in John’s gospel, Jesus chooses the most important things in the lives of the people of Israel, bread and water. Jesus chose things the people could not live without. It’s as easy as that. We can’t live without Jesus; he is the way to life eternal. He made that point clear to the people who heard and he tries to make that point just as clear to us.<br />
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That does leave us with one very important question though, what does Jesus mean by eternal life? <br />
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I feel very, very strongly that salvation is not something that once received we thank God then await the hereafter like waiting on a bus. With salvation, with the bread of life, the bread that came down from heaven and the living water comes eternal life, a life we are called to live today and share today. We are called to take the light of Christ into the world.<br />
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The Rev. Dr. Michael Jinkins writes of the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Jinkins writes, Bonhoeffer “protests against our tendency to let the decisive theological question ‘Who are you?’ dissolve into questions about ‘how’… The how questions are the fragmenting mechanical, manipulating questions, the debilitating questions about mere techniques and technologies.” Bonhoeffer makes a point that is abundantly clear from our reading.<br />
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Jesus never once tells the people “how” he did what he does. He never shows us how a miracle happens. He never shows us that, as a friend of mine once told me he suspected, the feeding of the 5,000 happened because everyone stopped being greedy for one moment, opened their lunch pails, and shared their meals with one another leading to a surplus of food. (As if that wouldn’t be a miracle!)<br />
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Jinkins goes on to make a very astute observation: Good answers only come from good questions. He tells us that the right questions the church needs to answer have nothing to do with how and everything to do with who. The right questions according to Jinkins are “Who is Christ? and Who does Christ want us to be?” The answer to this first question is what we hear today, Christ is the bread of life that fills us. Christ is the one who satisfies our thirst.<br />
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The answer to the second is our vocation.<br />
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The Jews (and by the way, John used the phrase “the Jews” to mean “the leadership” not “the people on the street”), these leaders begin to grumble about his claim. “How can he say ‘I came down from heaven’ if we’ve known him since he was a baby born in Jerusalem?” Their grumbling makes Bonhoeffer’s and Jinkins’ point. When the “how” question gains traction the “who” question gets lost.<br />
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When we focus on what we know and understand and try to fit everything into our understanding; we grumble, we complain and we try to fit our square pegs into God’s round holes just like the Jewish leaders in our reading did. On that day, they failed to ask “Who is this?” and instead went for “How does he make this claim?” What they don’t realize is that the answer to the first question is the answer to the second.<br />
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The answer to “who” is the answer to “how.”<br />
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In John 4 Jesus calls himself the living water. In this passage Jesus calls himself the bread of life and the drink that ends thirst. Jesus shows us all that out of something ordinary comes something extraordinary. Many didn’t understand. That’s nothing new. This was true in the day of Jesus. It was true before the day of Jesus. It is still true today. In our over-enlightened “How does it work?” world, we won’t understand as long as our understanding is shrouded in human sin.<br />
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It is only when we begin to answer the questions “Who is Christ?” and “Who does Christ want us to be?” that everything else comes into place. As Jinkins says, these questions drive all of our other questions. These are the questions we must ask if we are to have any future as the Church Christ called to be his body. <br />
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So who does Christ want us to be? Paul gives the Ephesians an answer to that question. He shows us what it means to be His body. <br />
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He reminds us not to be false with one another. He tells us this specifically means speaking the truth, but I believe this not being false means more. It means acting in truth, putting what is best for the community above what is best for the individual at the expense of our neighbor. <br />
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Not letting anger, rage, and bitterness swell and fester. It is said that bitterness is like drinking a poison hoping the intended victim falls sick. Forgiveness is the only way we can prevent letting this devil into our souls. <br />
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He calls for thieves to give up stealing and instead labor honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Now I ask what these thieves steal? Is it money? Or goods? Or time? Or hope? Regardless! People who thieve need something else to do. Does this sound a little like a “make work” project? Perhaps it does.<br />
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As for gossip, Paul commends us only to speak what is good for the community. Honestly this is one of the reasons I am beginning to hate my Facebook feed! So many people, so much rage. If it’s not one thing it’s another! Nobody is building up anything, people are only tearing down and there is so little grace to be found.<br />
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Paul finally calls us not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. <br />
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Now here’s the tricky part, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” What makes this tricky is that God gave everything. God gave his life. What can we give? What do we give?<br />
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I mentioned my Facebook feed a moment ago. The internet has given us something called memes. Memes are captioned cartoons, generally with a bit of sarcasm or snark. Last week I found this one on my Facebook feed and it does not have any snark. It’s an image of Pope Francis and something he said, “First you pray the hungry are fed then you feed the hungry. That’s how prayer works.” <br />
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We call on God, we call on God in Christ to work; and through the power of the Holy Spirit we become the Body of Christ to do that work. Why do this? Paul said it gloriously, “for we are all members of one another.” That’s the new deal in Jesus Christ.<br />
<br />Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35281055.post-79051146140633689862015-07-05T15:30:00.000-05:002015-07-05T21:33:09.604-05:00SloppyThis sermon was heard at St. Mark Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas on Sunday July 5, 2015<br />
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2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10<br />
Mark 6:1-13<br />
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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen<br />
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Most of us have never seen a coronation. The last major coronation was Queen Elizabeth II and that was in 1953, over 60 years ago. Any images from the event were in black and white and they were on film, not video. They might have been on television via satellite, but it is more likely those who saw it saw pieces of her coronation on newsreels in the theater.<br />
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Anyone under the age of thirty will need to Google half of the words in those last two sentences. Black and white? Via Satellite? Newsreels? Those three phrases alone show that coronation is positively archaic to Americans where we have no monarchy.<br />
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We read in 2Samuel, “So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David,” who was king of Judah at the time, “made a covenant with them at Hebron before the LORD, and they anointed David king over Israel.” Considering we have almost no idea about what is involved in a coronation, do we even have a clue about what it takes to make a covenant? Considering the more proper term is “cutting” a covenant, not “making” a covenant, no.<br />
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While the fullness of this expression is unknown, one reason is that in cutting the covenant, the sacrificed beasts were cut in half from head to tail. Then the parties making the covenant would pass between the cut halves of the offering. Doing this, they symbolically take upon themselves the fate of the animals should they violate the covenant. So in this case, the Elders of Israel came to David and said, “Let’s do this and should we fail may this fate befall us.”<br />
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Between you and me, I think we could use some of that in DC and Austin. I believe we could all benefit from politicians sharing our fate. Anyhoo…<br />
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These days though, the symbolism and the theology of the sacrifice system are beyond us. So unless you grew up on a farm or ranch or are a butcher, the whole process is more than most of us could imagine. It began when the priests took first a heifer, and then a female goat, and then a ram, and split each of them in half. They didn’t have chain mail gloves like many who work in slaughter houses. They didn’t have power tools or refrigeration. There was no high powered water jet to cut the animals. They had iron or bronze knives which they used to slaughter and then prepare the animals for the sacrifice. They cut skin, fat, muscle, tendon, cartilage, and membranes preparing the livestock. <br />
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Imagine the blood and muck, not just on the priest’s clothes but in the mud between his toes. Finally, after hours or perhaps even days, when the preparations were made, David and the priests put the finishing touches on the stock; adding a full dove to one stack and a young pigeon to the other. The offering was complete, but until the covenant ceremony was finished, they had to drive the buzzards from the carcasses.<br />
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Then came the walk between the halves of the offering, between the carcasses. Carcasses, what a word! It creates the sort of image that might make a steak eater cringe and does make a PETA member scream “that’s what I’m talking about.”<br />
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To seal the covenant, the parties would pass between the halves of the offering, the pieces of the carcasses. The experience would be absolutely visceral. The ache you would feel from the hard work of preparation. The frustration and the danger from keeping the scavengers from the offering. The smell of the livestock and their entrails. The blood and fat which has saturated your apron and gotten into your clothes. Finally, as you pass between the halves, the feel of blood and bile and refuse between your toes. Covenant promises aren’t made lightly or forgotten quickly.<br />
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This worship preparation would take days. It would be difficult. It would be back-breaking. It would require a special set of skills that only the priests and the Levites had. There was no butcher’s union back in the day, the Levites were the butchers. The entire experience would fill every sense to overfilling. It would end in a bar-be-que to make the BBQ Pitmasters finale look like amateur hour. It would be a mess. It would be sloppy. It would be sloppier than we can imagine.<br />
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This is not what the Prince of Wales will go through when he becomes King Charles III.<br />
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There has been a trend in the gospel readings in the Revised Common Lectionary over the past few weeks which did not escape today’s reading. It begins with Jesus working. In this case he is teaching and doing great works. The people who were there were astounded. The passage reads, “’Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands!’” but that’s not where it ends.<br />
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In this case, after a brief genealogy lesson, Mark’s gospel says, “And they took offense at him.” They took offense at him. What a switch! In basketball you’d say that was the kind of move that would make a defender break an ankle. The passage goes from power (hooray!) and glory (hooray!) to offense. Talk about sloppy. We go from astounded by the wisdom to offended by him. It doesn’t say offended by his words, or his teachings; it says offended by him. His person. His being. His very existence. There’s a lovely turn of events.<br />
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About ten years ago I was at Montreat for the “Hope of the Church” conference. The event moderator shared something with us about the nature of the Church. She said that about every 500 years there’s a tremendous shift. About 2,000 years ago saw the birth of the Jesus. It was not only the birth of the Messiah, the Christ, but the birth of Christianity; and it doesn’t get bigger than that. <br />
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About 1,500 years ago came Constantine and because of him the Nicene Creed. The first 500 years of the Church saw a lot of good and a lot of very, very bad theology. The Nicene Creed was humanity’s first real attempt to state what we believe. Its continuing authority is proof that these bishops got something right.<br />
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About 1,000 years ago saw the great schism between east and west, the split between the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches. Honestly, we don’t pay too much attention to that because 500 years ago was our split, the Reformation. Luther had no intention of forming a new church. He wanted to reform the Mother Church, hence Reformation, but when they put a bounty on your head schism’s the way to go.<br />
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As for today, 500 years after the Reformation, people say the church isn’t the same as it was 50 or 60 years ago and I say this is true. People say things are changing and I say this is true. Some people say we’ll never have the same status we had in our glory days and I say not the same…<br />
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People say, quite correctly, that the splits in the modern church are nasty, but at least the PC(USA), the EPC and ECO don’t have death squads. Say what you will about what happened at Highland Park, First Longview, and dozens of other congregations, but nobody put out a hit on anybody and that’s progress. <br />
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People say nothing’s like it used to be and it’s not right. I won’t go that far. Things are changing and it’s not easy. It’s sloppy, but the church reformed and always being reformed is sloppy.<br />
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The reformation, the real reformation began with the birth of a child, God incarnate, Emmanuel, God with us. The in breaking of all that’s holy into a world that is anything but. God came to earth not in power and glory but as the least powerful being known, a human baby born of an unwed mother. Sloppy.<br />
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Now look at the crowd in the synagogue from our Gospel reading… They were at the feet of the Lord. They heard his words first hand. They spoke the same language. They saw him doing great deeds of power and were astounded, and in the next breath they were offended. Fully human and fully divine; man and God in one. His presence was offensive to his own people—and we wonder how come people don’t understand the Good News like we do.<br />
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I wonder how we understand the gospel the way we do. Praise God the Holy Spirit because it is only by the Spirit that we understand the gospel at all, and in truth, we don’t understand the full breadth of the gospel. We can’t. God is too much for us to understand. Like in Mark’s gospel the people expected one thing and when they got Jesus they were astounded and then offended. Sloppy.<br />
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The last couple of weeks have been sloppy on a national level. Supreme Court decisions, the 1001 Worshiping Communities Controversies, symbols and what they mean; sloppy. I’m not here to tell you what to believe about any of these things. I’m your guest, trying that would be ignorant on my part. <br />
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What I am here to say is this, take off your sandals. Walk in the sloppy, sloppy faith knowing this—There is no place we can go that Christ has not gone first.<br />
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There is no place we can go that Christ does not lead us. Rules come and rules go. This is how we get to eat bacon and shellfish, rules change. Our understanding of the faith changes. Changes came 2,000 years ago, and 1,500, and 1,000, and 500 years ago and changes come today.<br />
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To say that God has nothing new to teach us today is the sort of arrogance people of faith cannot afford to have. That sort of arrogance says we cannot be taught. We cannot learn. To be taught God can no longer astound us, that’s a world I don’t want to live in. <br />
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Sure, it’ll be sloppy, but it beats the alternative, a world where God is done with us. Because if God is done with us, and this, this world is all that’s left, well, that’s not much of a life. Give me God’s sloppy grace and peace and love over human wisdom and folly any day. Time Loves a Herohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09810951324564462365noreply@blogger.com0