Treasure--The Verb

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday December 30, 2012, the 1st Sunday after Christmas, the day of the baptism of Mathieu and Chelsi.

1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26

Psalm 148

Colossians 3:12-17

Luke 2:41-52

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

Over the last several weeks when we have been talking about stewardship, one of the words I used is “treasure.” In that context I had been talking about financial treasure, the asset side of the balance sheet. More often than not treasure means something liquid like cash and coin, although there are other kinds of assets like life insurance, stocks and bonds, and real estate. But this introduction to accounting is not our focus today. We’re not talking about treasure as a noun, but as a verb. The New Testament only uses the word treasure as a verb twice, both in Luke’s gospel, and both with the way Mary thinks about her family’s life.

The first time is found early in the second chapter of Luke. The shepherd boys have just heard the blessing of the angel announcing “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” They were so excited and motivated by this message and by the chorus of the heavenly host singing “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” that they took their leave from the fields to go to Bethlehem and see what has happened, this thing which the Lord has told them about. Luke tells us Mary treasured up all these things.

The other time is in our reading from today. You’ve just heard the story so I won’t rehash the whole thing, but here are some highlights: Jesus went with the family to Jerusalem for the Passover. When it was time to go, Mary and Joseph and the family caravan journeyed a day before they said to one another, “I thought he was with you.” It took a day of travel to get back and then three more days before Mary found her son in the temple. For five days the twelve year old Jesus was on his own in the big city and not only was he holding up better than McCauley Culkin in “Home Alone,” but the people who heard him teach were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

The family reunited at the temple and Jesus wondered why it took three days of wandering around the city before finding him in the only place he would be. It was then when they returned to Nazareth that Mary had time to reflect on all that had happened and she treasured all these things in her heart.

Believe it or not, there are two different Greek words to show how Mary treasured, two different verbs. The root of these words means to preserve or protect. To guard is also a definition of the root.[1] It’s the prefixes that make the difference.

The first, the one we read on Christmas Eve, means treasure, but it also means to preserve against harm, to protect, and to defend along with hold and treasure up.[2] Another source[3] says this word means to keep in the way one would keep a memory. It’s like thinking about someone and caring for them. On Christmas Eve it would seem that it would be way too soon for Mary to treasure the memories of her son, not in the way the word is defined here. It’s more likely Mary treasured the memory of the events of the evening. “Scrapbooking of the mind” might be one way to put it.

The version we have today means to keep something mentally with implication of duration, to keep in mind forever.[4] Compared to the Christmas Eve translation of “treasure,” this version is a more careful and permanent storing in memory. This is locking something deep, deep into memory. In this case, in today’s reading, Mary locks this memory deep, deep into her heart.

There is also the implication that this way to treasure something allows a deeper look into the memory. Where the first is like a picture image, this treasuring allows us to think back in time and forward to the implications of what is being treasured. Luke’s gospel tells us that to Mary it’s one thing to have a bunch of rag-tag kids coming to see your son, it’s another when a bunch of Rabbis hang on his every word. That is the treasuring Mary is doing today.

Today we will share a memory worth making. Today we celebrate the baptism of Mathieu and Chelsi. It should be a joyful memory locked into each of our hearts, especially Patrick and Chrystal. I bet there will be some proud grandparents too. What a moment this will be! There will be water, lots of water. There will be water from the font and there will be plenty of tears too. But let me ask you a question, what’s the most important thing about our baptism? Is it the water or is it something else? Friends, it’s something else.

The water is a symbol. Mr. Al gave us all the perfect example of a Christmas symbol in today’s children’s message, the candy cane. It’s not the hard white candy with the red stripes that’s important; it’s what the symbols represent. It’s the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus. It’s the solid rock, the foundation of the Church and the firmness of the promises of God. It’s the name of Jesus and the staff of the “Good Shepherd.” It’s the blood of Christ from being scourged and from the cross, the blood of eternal life.[5] It’s not the thing, it’s what it represents.

In our baptism, water is a symbol of cleaning. It’s a symbol of birth and the womb. It’s a symbol of death and the tomb, both womb and tomb. Water is a sign of chaos in the creation story and in the gospels. It’s also a symbol of refreshing life. The water in the font is as we say a symbol of the living water of Jesus Christ.

There’s nothing overly special about this water. It was taken from the tap in the fellowship hall, a place where we break bread. It is where we have celebrated fellowship dinners, wedding receptions, and bereavement meals. It is where we, this part of the body of Christ shares many stages of life together. The water will be poured from a Marshall Pottery jug. Is there anything that says more about our community than pouring the tap water from a Marshall Pottery jug? This is a symbol; this is how we celebrate baptisms here.

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, these are our two sacraments. They are the outward signs of God’s inward grace. They aren’t magical. They’re intentional. Our Lord Jesus participated in both sacraments. Jesus was baptized by John and he instituted the Supper. They don’t beckon supernatural blessings. They don’t cause salvation. What they do is remind us of what Jesus has done and continues to do. Friends, with everything else our sacraments accomplish, they must give us memories to treasure.

So, what do we treasure? Let’s treasure today as we celebrate the sacrament of the baptism of Mathieu and Chelsi. In a couple of weeks when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we should treasure the gift of the meal that satisfies our soul and our palate. When we meet together, let us treasure not the things, but what the things represent.

Over the past two weeks it has been difficult, for me and especially for Georgia. What has been difficult is taking the phone calls from people trying to pick the still warm bones of this part of the Body of Christ.

Last week a woman came to see her Sunday School room which hasn’t existed since the education wing renovation of the 1950’s. A woman who was once a member was here last Sunday suggesting we get into the wedding business because that’s where the money is. I have heard more requests for the family pew than I care to recall. Shreveport TV stations have called to get the scoop. Friends offer comfort in one moment and ask “what happened” in the next, not a move of pastoral care as much as it is a try to get the latest gossip.

What’s sad to me is people wanting the stuff, not what it represents. Some people treasure the things, not what they stand for. What our sacraments stand for is the relationship our Lord seeks with his people, with all creation. Mathieu and Chelsi’s baptism isn’t about the water and the words spoken over them, but the relationships we forged as the body of Christ; relationships that transform time and space, even this time and space.

We will make covenant with these children to be good Christians and good role models and good teachers of the faith we have received. We will promise to support and encourage. We will promise to guide and nurture by word and deed with love and prayer; encouraging these children to know and follow Christ and to be faithful members of God’s holy church. This is what we must remember, this is what we must hold close to our hearts, this is what we must treasure; not the water, but the promises we make over the water.

Mary treasures all of these things in her heart. She treasures the shepherds. She treasures the looks of the people in the temple. Above all she treasures her son who is of her body and not of this world. What do we rejoice? Friends, we must treasure our relationships more than we treasure the treasures of this place and time.

Gold, frankincense, and myrrh are things which over time are used and used up. It is the relationship with our Lord and with one another which fade only if we let them. Like Mary, let us treasure these things in our hearts.

---

[1] thre,w, Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. VIII, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 1972, page 142.

[2] sunthre,w, A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Christian Literature, Third Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, electronic entry.

[3] Ibid Kittel, page 151.

[4] diathre,w, Ibid Greek English Lexicon.

[5] The Candy Cane Story, http://www.kidtokid.org/candycanestory.html, retrieved December 29, 2012

His Disciples Remembered

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday March 11, 2012, the 3rd Sunday of Lent.

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Exodus 20:1-17

Psalm 19

1Corinthians 1:18-25

John 2:13-22

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

Scholars teach there are three sections to the Ten Commandments, this morning’s reading from Exodus. The first three commandments, verses 4-7, tell us how humanity is to relate to the Lord our God. Verses 8-11 teach us how to relate to creation by way of the Sabbath.  Finally, verses 12-17, the last six commandments, address social relations, how we deal with and take care of one another. Most of the Ten Commandments teach using action verbs, though usually through their negative. We shall not make; we shall not bow; we shall not take; we shall not murder; we shall not steal; and so on. 

The only commandment that seems passive is “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” But this is not so, the command to remember the Sabbath is not just a mental exercise, it’s active too. Verses 8-11 instruct us not only to remember the Sabbath but how to remember the Sabbath. We are instructed not to work, not only us but everyone and everything in our household is not to work. We are to remember that the Lord made heaven and earth in six days and on the seventh the Lord made, blessed, and consecrated (consecrated means “made holy,” or more simply “set aside”) a day of rest for all that was created.

In English, often we think of remembering as a mental exercise, like remembering our multiplication tables or the alphabet. We know to “Remember the Alamo,” but what does that mean? What exactly are we to remember about the Alamo?

For the Alamo, we can be called to remember the bloody military battle and its horrendous body count. We can be called to remember political consequences of this battle to the Republic. We can be called to remember “Remember the Alamo” as the slogan used by the Republic forces at the Battle of San Jacinto, the battle which ended the revolution in favor of Texas.

Remembering the Alamo, I want to remember the words Lieutenant Colonel William B. Travis wrote about Davy Crockett during the battle. “The Hon. David Crockett was seen at all points, animating the men to do their duty.”[1] Crocket reminded the men of their duty, what they were to do in service to the Republic of Texas. The men were not only to mentally remember their duty; they were to perform their duty in service to the Republic.

This is a very Hebraic—Jewish—way to remember, not only do we remember in our minds, but we remember with our actions.[2] As important as it is for us to bear the Sabbath in mind, it is important that we respond to the Sabbath. We are to meet the sovereign God and answer the Lord’s call keeping the Sabbath day holy. This is the command of the Lord to Moses and all God’s people. 

The reading from John’s gospel is the story of Jesus coming to the temple for the Passover and seeing it turned into a marketplace. It is the story of his acts in cleansing the temple for worship. It is also a prophecy of the destruction of the bodily temple Jesus inhabits; and the resurrection of that same temple.

But there are two very interesting pieces to this reading that aren’t common to our lectionary readings. Most of the time, our readings are real time narratives. There is a sense of “you are there” in the readings. There is no indication that what we read wasn’t recorded as it happened until in verses 17 and 22 where we are told that his disciples remembered. The disciples not only remembered the events, but they remembered teachings that preceded these events.

They remembered what happened in the past as foreshadowing of what would happen in the future. This reading is one of the few times that we realize the author was remembering the events and actively reflecting on them after they happened. They remembered not only words and lessons; they remembered the actions that would follow them.

As the last verse in our reading teaches us, they remembered and by remembering they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. They remembered not only in their minds, they responded through belief; and through their belief, through their faith, were able to do many great things in the name of the Lord.

We are called to remember our baptism. In the words of John Calvin, “As often as we fall away, we ought to recall the memory of our baptism and fortify our minds with it, that we may always be sure and confident of the forgiveness of sins.”[3] 

Surely those of us who were baptized as infants, like Billy Wayne, Elizabeth, and Isabel were, we won’t remember the events of our baptism. We don’t remember the chill of the water as we are anointed as God’s own. But as these children of the Body of Christ were baptized into the community God calls into existence, we are called to remember the vows of our baptism too.

We are called as the community to accept the responsibility to encourage those receiving this sacrament. The baptismal liturgy in The Book of Common Worship asks the congregation:

Do you, as members of the church of Jesus Christ,

promise to guide and nurture these who receive this sacrament

by word and deed,

with love and prayer,

encouraging them to know and follow Christ

and to be faithful members of Christ’s church?[4]

Answering “We do,” as surely as we who were baptized as infants will not be able to remember our baptism, we can remember those who are now baptized. And by our very words, we are called to remember the promises we make to them upon their baptism; promises not only of word but deed, not only of thought but action; actions including teaching, serving, rejoicing, weeping, sharing food, and breaking bread together.[5]

As we celebrate the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, we hear the words of institution:

On the very night He was betrayed

Jesus took bread and gave You thanks

He broke it and gave it to His disciples,

“Take, eat, this is My body which is given to you;

do this in remembrance of Me.”

In the same way, after supper

He took the cup and gave You thanks

He gave it to His disciples, saying,

“Drink this, all of you;

this is My blood of the new covenant,

which is shed for you and for many,

for the forgiveness of sins.

Do this as often as you drink it,

In remembrance of Me.”

If you are thirsty, drink the Fount of Life

If you are hungry, eat the Bread of Life.

Blessed are all who hunger for this Bread

And thirst for this Fount.

Together we remember and proclaim

the mystery of Christ.[6]

Again, this remembrance is more than a mental exercise. This remembrance is a call not only to know in our minds but to reimagine—even recreate the Lord’s last supper.[7] In our remembrance of the Lord, we are not just to imagine as we celebrate the sacrament. We are not to experience remembrance as a solitary event. Remembrance is an event of the church. We celebrate the body and blood of Christ as the Body of Christ. By repetition, we are to take this remembering into our very beings and into the world. Doing this in remembrance of the Lord is so important to us that these very words are carved into the table.

We do this together until he comes again. In an oddly wonderful command, we are to remember into the future. We are to remember what is to come. The same Hebraic understanding of remembrance that allows us to experience anew the past also allows us to experience already the future.[8] The hope that is rooted in the historic past is the source of our Christian hope for the future. It is in remembrance that we connect these things in the present. It is in this sacrament that we are fed, nourished as the Body of Christ for God’s work in the world.

As the last verse in our reading teaches us, they remembered and by remembering they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. They remembered not only in their minds, they responded through belief, and through their belief, through their faith, were able to do many great things in the name of the Lord.

To us in the world of today, this kind of remembering, remembering with our minds and our actions, is foreign, it’s paradoxical and ironic. I know about remembering, but what does this kind of remembering have to do with the Republic of Texas? What does that have to do with the sacraments? What does that have to do with the cross?

One of the ways this takes us to the cross, one of the ways this takes us on our Lenten journey, is it teaches us something special about our remembering; when we remember by our own wisdom, we gain nothing at all. When we remember by our own wisdom, we gain nothing at all.

For those wise in the ways of the world, the wisdom of the cross is lost. When we base our wisdom on our own understanding, the wisdom of God seems foolish. When we try to figure out how the things of God work in the ways of our world, our thinking cannot help but be too small.

Those who demand signs may receive them, but the ability to interpret them properly will fall short as long as we use what makes us wise to read them. We can study and we can debate and we can interpret and reinterpret all creation, but when we do, God will make our wisdom foolish.

In human wisdom we are told that those with the most toys win. We are told everyday that the only value anything has is the value that can be measured with a price tag. Let’s face the truth of this; Donald Trump gets better ratings than a Billy Graham Crusade. Keeping our life and life style is all that some people value.

Unfortunately, if that value cannot be earned honestly it can be stolen, and if it can be stolen it must be protected. Walls have to be built, power has to be collected. Giving becomes a sign of weakness.

This is not the power of the cross. This is not the power of God.

Paul writes God has made foolish the wisdom of the world. To those who build walls and store treasures, their reward is kept. They cannot give and perish a little more everyday. But to those who are bathed in the power of the blood, those who are bought with the body of Christ, we who see the cross as the world’s greatest failed attempt at controlling God; we are saved through the grace, peace, and glory of Jesus the Christ. This bit of wisdom is a stumbling block to those whose understanding is in the tangible things of our flawed, sinful humanity.

Instead we are to call on the Lord, whose foolishness is greater than all of our collected wisdom; whose weakness is greater than all of our combined strength. Paul remembers this, and Paul teaches not only the Corinthians to remember, but us as well.

On Wednesday evenings we are studying a book by Adam Hamilton called, “Final Words from the Cross.”[9] In last week’s lesson Hamilton teaches us that “‘Remember me’ meant ‘help me and deliver me.’ In the Old Testament, when God remembered individuals God delivered them.”[10] He goes on to cite Noah and Abraham, and Rachel among those God remembered and delivered. His disciples remembered and they are delivered; but it is the Lord remembered them first. God’s remembering is their salvation.

In the waters of our baptism, in the bread and the cup of the Lord’s Supper, we participate in the life and death and resurrected life of Jesus Christ, the special revelation of God, the Law incarnate, the living Torah. We are called to participate as Jesus did; not in the pomp and ceremony of the temple sacrifices, but in the life of the Church, the Body of Christ on earth and all of God’s good creation. 

As the apostles and disciples before us, we are to remember and by remembering believe. By believing and through faith, the Lord is able to do far more with us than we could ever hope or imagine doing on our own. 

We are called to remember. In remembering we are called to respond to God in gratitude. Answering God’s call because of an obligation is only necessary when gratitude is missing. In gratitude we are called to share the good news of Emmanuel, God with us. 

We are called to share from the very life we are given in Christ.  Today let us begin by remembering the Sabbath day and keeping it holy. Let us remember God’s wondrous love and respond. Let us remember the foolishness of our wisdom and weakness of our strength. Finally, and most important of all, let us remember who remembered us first.

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[1] Groneman, Bill, “Alamo Defenders: A Genealogy, the People and Their Words.” Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 1990, page 27

[2] “rAk±z"” entry, Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Electronic Edition found in BibleWorks version 7.0.019k.1 (Print Edition Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907, page 269)

[3] Calvin, John, Institutes of Christian Faith, vol. 4, part xv, section 3.

[4] “The Book of Common Worship” compiled by The Theology and Worship Ministry Unit for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.  Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993, page 406.

[5] Boonstra, Henry, “Perspectives: Remember Your Baptism”, in Reformed Worship Magazine, #14, http://www.reformedworship.org/magazine/article.cfm?article_id=243, retrieved March 14, 2009.

[6] Imago Dei Christian Community, a community drawn to Christ, Celtic Communion Liturgy, http://imagodeicommunity.ca/category/celtic-communion-liturgy/, retrieved March 10, 2009.

[7] Stookey, Laurence Hull, “Eucharist, Christ’s Feast with the Church.”  Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993, page 28.

[8] Ibid, page 31

[9] Hamilton, Adam, “Final Words from the Cross.” Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2011.

[10] Ibid, page 43.

Come and See

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday April 24, 2011, Easter Sunday. He is risen. He is risen, indeed.

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Jeremiah 31:1-6

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

Acts 10:34:43

John 20:1-18

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

I ended last week’s sermon,[1] with these words:

The powder keg is lit and it leads to Pilate and the glory of Rome. The fuse he lights also leads to the Temple, and the scribes and the Pharisees. The fuse is lit; the course of history has begun. Eventually the spark will reach the charge and an explosion the world has not forgotten will blow.

In the mean time, much will happen:

There will be prophecy, and there will be prophecy fulfilled.

There will be scrutiny, and there will be examination.

There will be a supper, and there will be a betrayal.

There will be a trial, and there will be a judgment.

There will be a torturous death.

Surely by now the people would have thought that the powder keg had blown. The people have seen the Lord’s betrayal on Maundy Thursday and his crucifixion on Good Friday. The unthinkable has happened, the Lord God is dead.  But that wasn’t the end of the sermon, and death was not the end of the Lord as we heard in today’s reading.

It’s early on the first day of the week.  The Sabbath is coming to an end, but it’s still dark. Until the sun rises it’s still the Sabbath and Jews don’t leave their homes until the Sabbath ends.

Not Mary Magdalene, she’s gone to the tomb. The Chief Priests wouldn’t be out and about yet, but the Romans would be. If she is found she could be in trouble. For violating the Sabbath certainly, but if she is found at the tomb they would assume she was one of Jesus’ partners in revolution. This the Romans would not take lightly.

When she comes to the tomb she sees that the stone had been removed from the entrance.  Scripture is silent, but perhaps she looked into the open tomb, for just a moment.  If she didn’t look in, she must have had a sinking feeling in her heart.  Either way, she had come to the correct conclusion.  Jesus’ body was not there.

She has come and she has seen and Jesus was gone.

The Lord is not there, how can this be?  Mary sees the open tomb, overwhelmed by grief and maybe by panic she runs to Simon Peter and the beloved disciple to tell them.  The Lord has been taken from the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. 

Mary’s panic is shared by the two disciples.  They run together, Peter falling behind as they race to the tomb.  The other disciple arrives first, looking in he sees only the linen that had been wrapped around Jesus.  Peter arrives on his heels and we read that he is the first who dares to enter.  Peter too sees the cloths that had been around his body and the wrapping that had covered his head and face folded, set aside by itself.

After the other disciple entered the tomb, they saw and they believed.  They believed that he was gone.  Simon Peter and the beloved disciple; they had entered the tomb of their Lord and Master, and his body was gone.  Scripture is silent, but would I be wrong to think they were devastated?  He is tried, he is crucified, and now he is gone.

They have come and they have seen and Jesus was gone.

Logic says he was taken.  If the authorities thought that they had taken him, if they thought these disciples had taken this rabble rouser’s body to cause more religious unrest, then they would be next on the Pharisees’ and Pilate’s enemies list.

They didn’t understand what had happened.  They didn’t understand the scripture.  So they did what seemed sensible.  They needed to sort out what was happening.  They needed to mourn.  They may have needed to hide.  So they went home. 

Mary remains crying at the tomb.  Her Lord is dead and missing.  The two people she shares her worries with have abandoned her.  She is alone again.  She is lost.  She is distraught.  She cries and she looks into the tomb.  What else can she do?

Suddenly she finds two angels sitting in the tomb. They ask why she is crying.  She repeats her lament, “They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Can you hear her heart breaking?  Flowery speeches are unnecessary. “They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Then, she turns and sees a man she doesn’t recognize standing before her.  Who is this man? she wonders. Did he take the body of the Lord? 

He breaks the momentary silence repeating the angels’ question, “Woman, why are you crying?” adding “Who is it you are looking for?” Scripture tells us Mary supposed he was the gardener. This supposition would have given him the benefit of the doubt; she may have also thought he was a thief or a fool.  

Only a fool wouldn't know what had been going on in Jerusalem over the past week. The Passover was only a part of what was happening now. The Nazarene, Jesus came into Jerusalem triumphantly on the back of a colt. Later, he was tried as an enemy of the state or of the church depending on the accuser. Then he was crucified with two criminals. This was his crypt, and if this man was the gardener either he was oblivious to the events of the last week or he was the one who moved the body.

She answers his question without contempt toward its foolishness, but she is not above suspecting this gardener of taking Jesus. “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him.” How Mary is going to carry the dead weight of a man is irrelevant. If this gardener knows where the body is, she will retrieve it and return it to its proper resting place.

It’s the least she can do. The Lord delivered Mary from her life in the world to life with him. The gospels tell different stories about Mary and her history, but there is one thing that is certain. Jesus finds Mary and then she becomes useful to his ministry. Carrying him to his final resting place is the least she can do.

Her world is shattered. Being useful in this small way is all she can think to do. It is all she dares to believe she can do. What else is there? 

Jesus then calls her by name. “Mary!” She turns and recognizing him calls out “Rabboni.” It’s amazing; she doesn’t recognize the Lord until he says her name and that makes all the difference in the world.

She has come and she has seen her Lord and her God.

She is flooded with emotion. The warmth must be glorious. Her tears of grief and fear become tears of joy and relief. The Lord reveals himself to her by saying her name. She has found him and the world is turning anew. She rushes to him, she clings to him. Then Jesus tells her this is not yet the time for he has not yet returned to the Father. Jesus tells Mary to tell the brothers, “I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

Mary does as she is told. She comes back to the place where the disciples are staying and she tells them what she has seen and what the Lord has shared.

There’s such a difference a moment makes in our lives. Mary’s world has been turned over three times in the last three days, the twice within the last hour or so. If she is running she is skipping. If she is walking she is walking on sunshine. Life is never going to be the same. Her Lord lives. And she is trusted to take the Good News to the others. “I have seen the Lord,” and life, which had all ready been turned on its ear, is turning again.

She comes and sees; then she says “I have seen the Lord.”

Come and see. It’s a recurring theme in the Easter story. Mary comes and sees the tomb. She then comes back to the disciples and sees them. Mary, Peter, and the beloved disciple come back and see the tomb. Then comes the glorious turn, Jesus comes and sees Mary. Mary finally recognizes him and sees her Lord.

This is the ebb and flow of scripture, we come and we see. We come and we hear. We come and we receive. We come and we receive the visible signs of God’s invisible grace. Today is no exception, today is the most glorious example.

There are so many other things I want to say today, so many things, but that’s not why we came. We came to hear the Easter Story. We came to celebrate Wilda Leigh joining this part of the Body of Christ. We came to celebrate the sacraments: Belle’s baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

We came because Mary came. We came because Peter came. We came because the beloved disciple came. And most of all, we came because Jesus came. This is why we come and this is what we see.

If you remember, there was more to last week’s sermon. After I said “There will be a torturous death.” I followed with these words:

And there will be a glorious resurrection.

Hosanna! The fuse is lit. Let it burn.

And I’ll see you next Sunday for the big explosion.

Today we have come and we have seen the big explosion.

He is risen. He is risen indeed.

---

[1] http://timelovesahero.blogspot.com/2011/04/lighting-fuse.html

Sloppy Faith

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday April 3, 2011, the 4th Sunday in Lent.

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1Samuel 16:1-13

Psalm 23

Ephesians 58-14

John 9:1-41

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

I believe in action. I believe in living faith. This is why I believe our sacraments are important to who we are as Christians. Sacraments are the visible signs of God’s invisible grace. This is why when I share the invitation to the table I will say, “This is the Lord's table. It is our Savior Jesus the Christ, not I, nor this congregation, nor this denomination, who invites those who trust him to share the feast which he has prepared.”[1]

The invitation is open to all who have faith in Christ as their Lord and Savior. It is for those whose faith is in Christ; not just those who ascribe to Presbyterianism. This is why I will also say:

Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup,

you proclaim the saving death of the risen Lord,

until he comes.

Remembering God’s gracious acts in Jesus Christ,

we take from your creation this bread and this wine

and joyfully celebrate his dying and rising,

as we await the day of his coming.[2]

We can’t see God’s good grace, we can see instances of grace and we can see the effects of grace, but we can’t see grace. It’s like the old Billy Graham saying, I can’t see the wind; I can see effects of the wind but I can’t see the wind. And of course, we have no more control over where God’s grace blows than we have over the wind. Our gospel reading is the glorious story of how this wind of faith blows.

Jesus was going along and saw a man who was blind from birth. So the apostles asked “Who sinned; this man or his parents that he was born blind.”  Short of anything resembling grace, this question is couched in traditional Jewish speculation about the relationship between illness and sin.[3] In this time and place, being born blind was considered more than a physical malady; it was seen as a spiritual malady too. But Jesus’ response tells the disciples that their question, shrouded in rabbinic tradition and Jewish history, isn’t the question.

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be displayed in his life.”  John’s gospel offers sin differently from Jewish tradition.  Sin is not a moral category; it is a theological category about how we respond to the revelation of God in Jesus.[4] Jesus teaches that this man was born blind for God’s glory, not as a punishment for sin.

So Jesus took a step back and spit on the ground making a poultice of wet clay that he placed in the man’s eyes. He then told the man to go to the Pool of Siloam to wash. When he did, he came home seeing.

By the way, notice that after Jesus told the man to go, the Lord isn’t in the story until its very end. Hold that thought.

Now, if you think I used a lot of water on Cindy’s baptism in January, imagine walking through town from wherever Jesus found the man born blind to the Pool of Siloam. There always seemed to be a crowd around the Lord, so it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to imagine that a bunch of people saw him spitting on the ground, rolling it around into a paste, and packing it into the man’s eyeballs.

Anyone who isn’t saying “Ick” right now has gone to the end of the story. I want us to pause here for a moment.  I’ve made my fair share of mud pies, but none of them with my own spit. I’ve thrown some mud, but I’ve never packed it into anybody’s eyeballs. I’ve been dirty before, but I’ve never had anybody’s muddy spit ooze down my face. Friends, let’s admit it, as the miracles of Jesus go, this ranks up as one of the grossest. Glorious, yes, but still, it’s gross.

It’s said that Jesus could have done this miracle without all of the spit and mud, and that’s true. He healed Peter’s mother in law. He healed the little girl saying “Talita, cum.” He saved the Centurion’s slave with a word; Jesus wasn’t even in the neighborhood for that healing. So Jesus didn’t have to make the balm they wouldn’t make in Gilead, but he did.

To say that I know why he did this is beyond arrogance, it’s ignorance. Still, I’m going to give it a guess because it’s a part of my vocation to ponder the things of God. I believe Jesus finds value in symbols. I believe God finds value in symbolic action. Jesus didn’t have to create the saying “Here’s mud in your eye,” but he did. There was something of value to him creating the pumice and the man wearing it until washing it off in the Pool of Siloam.

Was it the man’s obedience that cured him? Was it Jesus making magic mud? Was it something else? I don’t know. What I do know is that Jesus asked a man to participate in his miracle when it could have been done with a snap of the fingers. Jesus wanted him involved in his miracle.

This is the point of the story when we go from icky sloppy to sloppy because of what happens next. We’re not half way through with John’s gospel and the Pharisees are coming at Jesus with both barrels. Of course like any good mobster movie, they don’t go at him directly; they go after the one he cares about. They dissect the man so recently given sight.

The neighbors ask the man who now sees “Where is he?” Where is Jesus? His relpy: “I don’t know.” I love that. “No, I don’t know where he went, I was blind, hello!”

This is where his newly blooming Christian bud is tested. The Pharisees quiz one another, is this healer a saint because he can do such miraculous signs or is he a sinner because he does them on the Sabbath? The man who now sees really doesn’t have an opinion on the learned matters that belong to the scholars; he just knows that the one who can do such healing is a prophet.

Of course the Pharisees decide to check their facts. Was he blind from birth? Really? If he wasn’t then there was no miracle. So they go to his parents who confirm blindness. But they know that this sloppy bit of religiosity can blow up in their faces. They could be put out of the Synagogue and cut off from their faith and social lives and that won’t do. They throw their son under the bus instead. Hey, you want to know what happened to him, ask him. He’s a man. He’s responsible for his own actions. In effect they say “Leave us out of this.”

They try to get the man who now sees to throw Jesus under the bus this time and this time he wades head long into the slop of his new faith. He doesn’t know who was a saint and who was a sinner, but he does know he was blind but now he can see. He doesn’t know who the Pharisees are or what they want, but he knows that Jesus has done what no other prophet has ever done, give sight to a blind man.

Finally, the Pharisees can’t take his disrespectful behavior another minute. By disrespectful I mean earnest, honest, and loving. They throw him out of the Synagogue for no doing of his own. He was thrown out because he did something foolhardy, he was healed.

Well, as the old song goes, if loving you is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

This is when Jesus reenters the story. He shares his identity with the man who now sees in front of the temple rulers who are blinded by their own inflexible faith. The man believed and worshipped. Those whose neck remained stiff rested in their own sin.

The man who now sees is living in the sloppy faith where he is healed with spit and clay on the Sabbath. He is thrown out of the Synagogue, which was the center of his faith. He is evicted from the community that he had called his own; thrown out into the muck and mire of the world without the faith of his fathers. The faith taught that his blindness was the result of sin, now we discover that the removal of blindness leads him to the new way God is working in the world.

Faith is often sloppy. Often faith is not always easy and straight forward like we want it to be. Often it’s like this man who now sees. The glory of God reigns making our old way of life impossible, and that gets sloppy. Often it’s like David’s kingship, established in danger over seven older brothers.

People want a good solid list of things we can be for and things we can be against. It makes sense, yet no matter how we rebel against it, we long for structure. Unfortunately, life in Christ doesn’t always lead us down the straight line we want. Sometimes like with David and the man born blind it puts us at odds with our own families.

Frankly, it’s easier to stand against something than it is to stand for something. The Westboro Baptist Church has made a mission out of standing against America in the guise of standing for God. It’s easier to say no than it is to say yes. No limits our boundaries, yes opens them up to places we may not be comfortable.

I guess this is where I should apologize to Cindy. For a denomination renowned for baptism by “sprinkling,” I used a lot more water than she expected, than anyone expected.  Now, I’m not apologizing for using a lot of water, I won’t ask to be forgiven for that. I do pray Cindy will forgive me for not warning her or having a towel ready. That was bad form on my part and I apologize for that. For everyone else who was surprised about the amount of water I used, don’t worry. It’s alright in the eyes of the Book of Order and the Directory for Worship. The amount of water I used is Presbyterian kosher.

What’s true is that water is the symbol we use in baptism. Baptism itself is the symbol that represents the grace of our Lord who was himself baptized. We are baptized for remission of sins. Baptism also represents a bath, a bath that cleans our skins and our lives. The waters of our baptism also represent the fluids of our first birth. In our birth into faith we are reminded of our birth into life. The sacrament of baptism in the Presbyterian Church represents a welcoming into the community of faith; this is why it is as proper to baptize infants and children as it is to baptize adults. Since one of the responsibilities of baptism is that the community helps care for and instruct all of the baptized, it is actually good for children to be baptized as soon as the parents desire.

So if water is a symbol, then the amount of water used is also a symbol. We can use as much or as little as we want. We can dunk or dab people. The symbolic action God wants is represented either way. But there is a reason I choose to make people drip with water when we are baptized, and that’s that our faith can be sloppy. Since our faith can be sloppy, our baptism shouldn’t be a dainty little affair, it should be sloppy too.

We live a faith that can be sloppy, a faith where God says yes. Yes gets us healed on the Sabbath, even though every stitch of the faith tells us just to wait until after sunset. Yes introduces us to people we wouldn’t associate with in a million years. Yes puts us in situations we never dreamed to imagine. Yes puts David on the throne. Yes puts us outside the Synagogue with Jesus and the man who now sees.

No puts us with the heroes of the orthodoxy, which isn’t always bad but often lacks elbow room for the Holy Spirit. No gives us the Alcoholics Anonymous definition of insanity, “When you do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.”

Our God is the God of “Yes.” Our faith should be the faith that says “Yes.” Say yes to God, say yes to the sloppy faith that is faith in Christ, and let us remember the waters of our baptism, and the sloppier the better.

---

[1] This is a part of what I say in the “Welcome to the Table” before celebrating the Lord’s Supper.

[2] Book of Common Worship

[3] The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume IX, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995, p 653.

[4] Ibid.

Looking for Jesus

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday December 27, 2009, the 1st Sunday After Christmas.

1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26
Psalm 148
Colossians 3:12-17
Luke 2:41-52

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

For me, it has become impossible to read today’s gospel reading without thinking about the movie “Home Alone,” the 1990 comedy starring Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to France for Christmas vacation. This notion is seemingly inspired by this tale from Luke’s gospel.

In the movie, as the McCallister family hurries into a shuttle waiting to take them to the airport, an annoying neighbor child piles in with the McCallister’s spouting on about his family’s vacation plans.[1] When it comes time for mom, Kate McCallister, to count heads in the van, she mistakenly counts the neighbor child as one of her own. On the plane the parents are sitting in first class and the kids in coach, so this mistake is not caught until well after the family is in the air.

Whoops, Kevin is home alone in Chicago and the family is on the way to Paris.

Jesus shares a similar situation as his family leaves Jerusalem to return home after the festival ended. As the clan leaves, while there is apparently no head count, presumably each parent thinks the young Jesus is with the other. While there is no annoying neighbor child in a knit cap being mistaken for Jesus, I can imagine the scene of the family setting up camp after a full day of travel when Mary and Joseph look at each other and say, “I thought he was with you!”

Whoops, Jesus is alone in Jerusalem and the family is on the way home to Nazareth.

If you are going to lift plot lines, you ought to take from the best.

In the movie, Mom’s trip from Paris to Chicago takes several days. Mary and Joseph return to Jerusalem taking two travel days, one out and one back, before they are in the same zip code as their son. Then they spend three days in Jerusalem before finding Jesus. This is a total of five days on the road and in town looking for a twelve year old who his parents fear is all alone in a major city after a major festival. Imagine losing a twelve year old at Times Square on New Years Eve or worse, in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, that would be close to the level of terror Mary and Joseph experienced every moment they were looking for Jesus.

They finally find him in the temple. And when Mary and Joseph arrive, they were in shock. He is not alone; he is with the teachers of the law where all who heard him were amazed at his understanding; his questions and his answers. When his parents find him, is Jesus received with relief? Well, of a sort. “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” Does this sound familiar to any parents here this morning? He is received with relief overwhelmed by a scolding.

If I am not mistaken, Kevin got the same reaction from his Mom when she finally found him home alone and safe.

While the differences are many, there is one very significant difference between little Kevin McAllister and Jesus of Nazareth that I want to make clear. Kevin was at home at the family manse in Chicago. Scripture doesn’t place Jesus’ residence at the homestead in Nazareth. No, according to verse 49 Jesus is at home in the Jerusalem temple.

Being found after three days of searching, and two more days of travel, Jesus asks “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Jesus asks this question as if there should be no question about where he would be or where he should be. He was at home in the temple, of course. It is as if he asks Mary and Joseph and the world “Where else would you expect to find me?”

Where do we expect to find Jesus? Looking for Jesus, looking for God; is our holy journey. Jesus is found in body and in spirit, in praise and in worship, in word and in work; and as is obvious by our reading, Jesus is found in the temple. Jesus is found where He is worshipped. For us, for Christians, the church is where we look to find the Lord Jesus.

Jesus is found in the Word written and proclaimed. Jesus who inhabits all scripture is found in our Call to Worship. Jesus is found as we “Praise the Lord from the earth… young men and women, old and young together. Let us praise the name of the Lord.”[2]

Jesus is found in our proclamation. We say that Jesus is Lord, he is sovereign. In words more familiar to us, Jesus is in charge; all power and authority are his now and forevermore.

We say that Jesus is fully human and fully divine. We say that he is fully divine and we say that we are not. We say that he is fully human and we say that in the fullness of his perfection he is more human than we will ever be.

We say that he is God and he is the Son of God. He sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty from where he will come to judge the living and the dead.

We look for Jesus in the visible signs of God’s invisible Grace. We look for Jesus in the mystery of the sacraments.

In the waters of our baptism, we are covered in the newness of life. The world of our old life is washed away. When washed, we are fully reconciled to Christ. We are free to fully trust that we belong to God. Dressed in the robe of Christ, we are to free our minds and hearts, bodies and souls to be truly free in this world, free to be ministers of His reconciliation. Only in this sacramental relationship can this happen, otherwise we fall back into our self doubt and self rejection.[3]

Nourished by the Lord’s Supper, we are fed the bread of life and the cup of salvation. We rest in the promise that it is Christ who comes to the door and knocks. He calls us and if we hear and invite him in then we will eat with him, and he with us. We invite no one to this table; we give thanks that Jesus invites us to come, taste, and see that the Lord is good. We remember that in these gracious acts of Jesus Christ, we take the bread and the cup and joyfully celebrate his dying and rising as we await the day of his coming in victory.[4]

As much as we are called to look for Christ in the church, by the Word and sacraments we are called to take Christ into the world. It is important to remember that the world looks at us while looking for Jesus. It is in wearing the clothes of Christ that we become the body of the Lord in the world.

Colossians provides us with the most excellent way to wear the clothes of Christ, to become the body of Christ in the world. We are to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. We are to bear with one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, we are to forgive one other; just as the Lord has forgiven us we too must forgive.

Above all, we are to clothe ourselves with love that binds everything together in perfect harmony. Letting the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, we are called in the one body. And we must be thankful letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly; teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. With gratitude in our hearts, we are called to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever we do, in word or deed, we do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

This is the time when we begin to make New Year’s Resolutions. We must resolve to improve our relationship with one another and with the Lord God Almighty. We begin with remembering our baptism into the body of Christ. We are to be clothed as Samuel was in this robe of white, this robe representing our membership with the baptized wearing this robe as Jesus wore his; as Jesus wears his faith in the water of his baptism.

We are nourished in his faith by the bread and cup of the Lord’s Supper. By this meal we become empowered through the Spirit of the Lord to be Christ’s presence in the world. Nourished in this sacrament, as Jesus is God with us, we are called to be the hands and feet of God with the world.

I am not saying that we will become Jesus, but our call, our vocation, is to become more Christ-like. And this is a noble and worthy goal. It is truly the only one that matters. It is how we participate in Christ’s work of reconciliation.

Let us look for Jesus here in the church, and then go taking Jesus out of the sanctuary and into the world for those who also seek him.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Alone, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099785/ accessed December 31, 2006.
[2] From the 148th Psalm, paraphrased from the Presbyterian Book of Worship.
[3] Nouwen, Henri, Bread for the Journey, A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith, December 26 entry.
[4] Christmas Communion Setting, paraphrased from the Presbyterian Book of Worship.

t3h msg

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday April 6, 2008, the 3rd Sunday of Easter.

Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
1Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35

This sermon mentions a bulletin insert. This is the text of the insert:
Dad@hvn, ur spshl. we want wot u want &urth2b like hvn. giv us food & 4giv r sins lyk we 4giv uvaz. don test us! sAv us! bcos we kno ur boss, ur tuf & ur cool 4 eva! K?

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

In your bulletin is a lavender sheet of paper, take a moment and look over it. Tell me the truth, does it look just a little like gobble-de-gook to you? If this looks like gibberish to you, and unless you’re a teen, a college student, or the parent of one there is no reason it shouldn’t, it’s because it is written in Short Message Service abbreviation script, a common way to format cell phone text messages. [1]

In text messages, grammar goes out the window, numbers and odd characters are used for letters, and punctuation is used in ways that would have given my second grade teacher Miss Bedene[2] a heart attack. Because of a keyboard so small it can only be operated with thumbs and a screen so small the display is at most six square inches[3] (and my phone’s display is only about 1.25 square inches) and a message size of 160 characters, an entirely new dialect of English is evolving.

A few years ago, the online Christian magazine “Ship of Fools” sponsored a contest to format a familiar prayer in SMS script in 160 characters or less; the maximum length of a cell phone text message. Matthew Campbell from York College in the UK submitted this winning entry. Do you recognize it yet? Believe it or not, it’s the Lord’s Prayer.

The “literal” translation of this text message is: “Dad in heaven, you are special. We want what you want and earth to be like heaven. Give us food and forgive our sins like we forgive others. Don’t test us! Save us! Because we know you are boss, you are tough and you are cool forever. Okay?”[4]

It’s not the King James, is it?

Beginning in 2004 there has been a UK advice forum called “Text Talk” providing a new voice and a new way to ask for help. “Text Talk” offers information on a wide range of issues, including counseling, housing, substance abuse, and careers with guaranteed immediate response. In the first nine months of operation, 200 young people, many of them boys, accessed the service.[5] And let’s be honest, anything that can help boys ask for help is a good thing.

Short Message Service text, it’s not the King James English, but then again that’s the point, isn’t it?

We can say what we want, but there is a new slang, dialect, lingo, jargon of language coming along; just like a new jargon has come along with each coming generation; the way language has evolved since long before King James.

Peter raised his voice and addressed the crowd. “This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear. Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Israel is the Lord’s promised people. The nation has had a special, intimate relationship with the Lord since the days of Abram. And now Peter indicts them, convicts them of crucifying Jesus, the one whom God has made both Lord and Messiah.

The people are cut to the heart by the actions of their people and words of the disciple. They ask, “What shall we do?”

“Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” Peter commands them, “so that your sins may be forgiven.” Repent, and be baptized for this promise is for you, for your children, and for all who fall away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.

This is new to Israel. They had awaited the coming of the Messiah since the days of the prophets and now he is crucified. But now, through the risen Christ, the nation of Israel—and by Israel all people—are given the gift of forgiveness of sins by the grace of God almighty.

The language of sin and repentance is dicey. It has always seemed to me that when people start talking about sin, there is a tendency to either talk about the sins of others or sins the speaker tries to hide from the world.

The March 12 issue of the “Washington Post” includes this little tidbit from a speech titled “The Need for Both Passion and Humility in Politics.” Quoting theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, the speaker said: “Driven by hubris [a fancy word for arrogance], we become blind to our own fallibility and make terrible mistakes.” The speaker was former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.[6] Spitzer decries hubris and then is brought down by his own. I can’t decide if this is prophetic or ironic.

As tempting as it is to point at the arrogance of others, Paul warns us against this in Romans. After a laundry list of sin, Paul reminds the church of Rome that when we pass judgment on another, we condemn ourselves because we are doing the very same things.[7]

So when both Peter in Acts and Paul in Romans talk to the church about sin they make this one point, there is no one without sin, there is no one without the need of repentance. To say that someone else needs to repent shows all too well that our world is broken, when we judge the sins of others, we condemn ourselves.

So what does Peter mean when he tells the assembly to repent? Peter is telling the people that they need to feel remorse; yes this is one of the things he is telling them.[8] But remorse alone is nothing. Sorrow might be a normal reaction, but it can hardly be our only reaction. Shame is worthless to the people and to the Lord. So if sorrow and regret are incomplete and shame is not the way to respond, how should we react in repentance?

Even more than remorse, Peter is telling them to be converted. He is telling them to turn from the ways of the law and to the ways of peace and grace through the Lord.[9] And he is telling them with their repentance, they need to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

As Peter told the people to be baptized, today we are called to remember our baptism. Dr. Stan Hall wrote, “Teaching and washing or washing and teaching, at the core of the assembly in the name of Jesus, signifies gospel appropriated by faith.”[10] Teaching and washing, word and sacrament together are at the heart of our worship and have been since the beginnings of the church. The word informs us and the baptism washes, just as it washed the three-thousand in our reading from Acts.

Dr. Hall goes on to say that the corporate confession and absolution says we begin from our baptism. In this sacramental washing we experience new birth in the name of Jesus Christ. In this way the three thousand in Acts were washed and made clean of the sin of the nation of Israel. Notice I say nothing about any particular individual’s sin. Peter was dealing with Israel’s sin, as an Israelite himself; Peter who denied Christ, Peter who would become the rock of the Church; even he needed to atone for the sins of his nation.

Peter said, “Repent and be baptized.” This is a new language, a new way of communicating with one another. In the waters of our baptism in the corporate confession of sin, we come together a community of the Lord our God. We are washed and made clean. We are called to remember this bath as we confess the sin of humanity, the church, and ourselves, not for guilt and shame, but to remember that we have been born anew and washed in the waters of our baptism.

Baptism is the foundational sacramental element of coming together in the community established by Jesus Christ. Continued feeding of the faith is also needed.

Luke’s gospel shares the story of two men, Cleopas and his friend traveling to Emmaus. Jesus, not recognized by either man, asks them what they are talking about. He might as well have asked one of us if it has rained lately,[11] the two men were flabbergasted. Hadn’t this lone traveler heard? Doesn’t he know?

The three reach Emmaus. Jesus was walking on when the others invited him to stay the night. The day is nearly over, they said, come and stay with us. Together at the table Jesus took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. When they received the food he blessed, their eyes were opened and they recognized him.

When they received the food he blessed, their eyes were opened and they recognized him. In this simple supper of bread and cup, the same supper we celebrate today, this sacramental, sacrificial food; in this food the men were restored from despair to hope. Hope that though he was crucified, Jesus lives and continues to live.

In this same breaking of bread we are fed and nourished in the gracious gifts of God.

In Acts, Peter was teaching the nation of Israel that something new was happening. At Emmaus, Jesus showed the two that though he was crucified, he still lives and will be with them eternally to provide the bread of faith and the cup of salvation.

Something new was happening. The elements of water and grain have been around forever. But in Jesus Christ they became something new. Today we celebrate the sacraments in remembrance and in confidence.

“Dad in heaven, you are special. We want what you want and earth to be like heaven. This new text, this new dialect, is a new expression of the ancient truth. It may seem unusual to us, but no more so than baptism did to Peter’s assembly or Jesus’ blessing over dinner did to the travelers to Emmaus. We are invited to join, and remember this in the water of our baptism. We are invited to come to the table and taste and see that the Lord is good.

This new message is the same message Jesus and Peter shared with their listeners, it is the same message the Lord continues to share with us and it is the message we share with the world, and that’s why I titled this sermon “The Message.”

[1] The title of this sermon is a combination of two abbreviated message formats. “t3h” is the word “the” in Leet Speak. In Leet (short for “Elite”) Speak numbers often replace letters and order of letters is often changed. “msg” is Short Message Service Script for “message.” SMS is often a phonetic language.
[2] My second grade teacher, died in the Hyatt tragedy in Kansas City Summer 1981.
[3] My estimate of the size of an iPhone screen based on specs found at http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html retrieved April 3, 2008.
[4] Txt Tlk, Homiletics Online.com, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/btl_display.asp?installment_id=93000057, retrieved April 2, 2008.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Century Marks, Irony of It All, “The Christian Century” Vol 125, No 7, April 8, 2008, page 8. Spitzer is the former governor of New York caught patronizing call girls.
[7] First person reformatting of Romans 2:1 (NRSV)
[8] “Metanoeow”, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd Edition, Revised and edited by Frederick William Danker based on Walter Bauer's Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der frühchristlichen Literatur, sixth edition, ed. Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, with Viktor Reichmann and on previous English editions by W.F.Arndt, F.W.Gingrich, and F.W.Danker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000
[9] Ibid
[10] Hall, Stanley R. “Essential Tenets of Reformed Worship?” Theology and worship occasional paper no. 10, PC (USA); Louisville, KY., page 17
[11] According to Weather Underground it has rained 13.4 inches since March 1. This is much higher than usual.