Signage and Its Purpose

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday April 15, 2012, the 2nd Sunday in Easter.

Podcast of "Signage and Its Purpose" (MP3)

Acts 4:32-35

Psalm 131

1 John 1:1-2:2

John 20:19-31

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

The District of Columbia was created to serve as our nation’s permanent capital in 1790. Within the District, a new capital city was founded in 1791 to the east of the settlement at Georgetown. The original street layout in the new City of Washington was designed by Pierre Charles L’Enfant.[1]

A planned city, Washington was modeled in the Baroque style and incorporated avenues radiating out from rectangles. The District itself is divided into four quadrants. The axes separating the quadrants radiate from the U.S. Capitol building. In most of the city, the streets are set out in a grid pattern with east-west streets named with letters and north-south streets named with numbers.

One of the oddities to the city’s layout is that there is no J Street in any quadrant. Legend has it that J Street was deliberately omitted by L’Enfant because of a dispute with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay over The Treaty of Enmity, Commerce and Navigation.[2] In truth the probable reason is more mundane. It is far more likely that the reason there is no “J” Street is because in the Gothic writing style popular until the mid-nineteenth century, the letters “I” and “J” were indistinguishable.

One of the better narratives explaining this is found in an episode of NCIS. At the conclusion of the episode Assistant Medical Examiner Jimmy Palmer shared his take on why there is no J Street with Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard. He said it was because the founding fathers did not want anyone to get lost.[3]

One very important purpose of signage is so people do not get lost.

In my opinion, Thomas, or “Doubting Thomas,” gets more abuse than he deserves for being skeptical. I find his tendencies to speak his mind and to ask questions when he doesn’t understand admirable. Thomas was not a man to be persuaded willy-nilly.  In John 14[4] when Jesus says “And you know the way to the place where I am going;” Thomas is the one who says, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” If we truly believe there is no such thing as a stupid question, then Thomas belongs in the Hall-of-Fame.

I imagine Thomas was a man of home spun wisdom. He had a “Show-Me” mentality that would have been popular here when Marshall was the Confederate capital of Missouri-in-Exile.[5] He was deliberate and he was cautious. He has questions and he wants them answered. He has doubts and he wants them vanquished.

So it was the evening on the first day of the week, the day of Jesus’ resurrection; and the disciples had locked themselves in the house where they met. Not detoured by physical barriers, the Lord entered the room and offered them his peace. He showed them his hands and side and the disciples were overjoyed. In the next moment, they received their vocation, their directions; they were pointed in the direction they were to take so they would not get lost. They were also given the most important thing they could take on their journeys; by the breath of Christ, in the wind of God, they received the presence of the Holy Spirit.

As for Thomas, scripture doesn’t say why he was not with the other disciples; only that he wasn’t. So when the others finally see Thomas, he got an ear full. “We have seen the Lord!” they proclaimed loudly and joyfully. They weren’t rubbing it in his face, I think they were rejoicing and wishing he had been with them to share the glorious gifts they had received.

The Missouri Mule spirit that had served Thomas did not desert him. He knew all about the crucifixion and he knows dead is dead. He seemed willing to believe some sort of apparition, a Holy Spirit, but the physical presence of the Lord in the glory of his resurrection body struck him as unlikely. He had to see the Lord Jesus for himself. He had to touch him. He needed it before he would believe it was true.

Sure enough, a week later they gathered for fellowship. Give Thomas credit, he wasn’t sure about the resurrection, but he still believed and still worshiped Jesus. Then just like the week before, Jesus came into the closed room, stood among them, and said “Peace be with you.”

Quoting John’s gospel, “Then [Jesus] said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas, answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’”

Then, as a word for the world to come, Jesus blesses the generations that follow the original apostles and disciples. This first generation believed because they saw. The next generations, including those who hear and read this gospel then and now, they believe only because of these words and by the witness of the lives of the disciples that have followed since.

We live in a world where we, like Thomas, did not receive the Holy Spirit along with the disciples on that first Easter Sunday so long ago. Like Thomas at the beginning of our reading, all of humanity longs to see Jesus, behold the glory of his face, and touch his hands and side. Like Thomas, we can find the resurrection difficult because we have not personally seen the person of the resurrection. Like Thomas we all want to stand before the Lord and worship crying, “My Lord and my God.” We want to sing out adoring God in the happy chorus begun by the morning stars.

We’re looking for miracles; we’re looking for signs to point us toward belief. We are looking for signs of assurance.

In one way or another, one of the great questions of life is “What size miracle are you looking for?” In a society where bigger is infinitely better, the land of the super-size, we want big-big miracles with a big-big crunch. We want “burning-bush” and “loaves-and-fishes” sized miracles. Of course, as is usually the case, we should beware what we ask for when we ask for big-big miracles.

One of my favorite miracles is a big-big one. It comes from Numbers 11. The people of Israel are in the desert and they aren’t happy about it. They have been so long with only manna to eat that they have begun to grumble and long for “the good ol’ days” when they were in Egypt eating fish and cucumbers and melons and leeks and onions and garlic and ate them at no cost. No cost except for their freedom, but they were so bored with their food and their journey that they longed for the regular hours of strict manual labor under the whip.

Moses hears the grumbling and fears for his life, not a bad reaction if I say so myself. Moses asks the Lord “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me?”

I wonder if this isn’t a big question among all overwhelmed leaders. 

Moses even tells the Lord “I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.” He finally says if he can’t get relief he would rather die at the hands of the Lord than the crowd.

So the Lord tells Moses to assemble the leaders of Israel and tell them this,

“Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”

Beware what you ask for, because you just might get it.

People look for miracles. People look for signs and it looks like the people of Israel missed one. It looks like they blew through the “Yield” sign to me. In the parable of the vine and the branches John’s gospel would translate “Yield” as “Abide.” But for our purposes and the purposes of the people in the desert, it appears that Israel blew through a “Yield” sign.

Of course, the witness of the Old Testament, the New Testament, and all human history shows us that on the whole humanity has a tendency to blow through the “Yield” sign. And “Stop” signs for that matter too.

Another very important purpose of signage is to warn people and give them direction.

Everybody looks for signs and in our reading everyone gets the sign they need. The disciples saw the hands and side of Jesus and they believed. Thomas not only wanted what the other disciples got, he wanted to touch Christ’s rich wounds too. In the end though, seeing Jesus was enough. When he saw his Messiah he declared his faithfulness crying “My Lord and my God!”

In this world, people want their own “resurrection appearance” miracle. Everybody wants to see Jesus just like the disciples, but scripture says that’s not for everybody. So what kinds of signs and what kind of miracles should we be looking for?

Last Saturday there were a lot of little miracles wondering around the lawn. To see the smiles of the kids as they were having their pictures taken with the Easter Bunny was joyful. It was a sign of new life and the promise of what can be.

Last weekend there was a little boy who arrived late and was only able to find one egg on the ground. There were also several teenage boys who made pouches out of the front of their t-shirts that they filled with eggs. (Why t-shirts? Take it from a former teenage boy, baskets would not do.) When they saw the sad little boy they dropped eggs where he could get them. This little boy went from dejected to elated because he found eggs, enough eggs to fill his basket. Leaving greed behind in the name of sharing is always a miracle. Just like it was in the time of the early church as we heard from Acts this morning.

As for the disciples, they were asked to share forgiveness with the world. Now that’s a miracle as small as a smile and as big as a burning bush. This was tough because the disciples knew that only God could forgive sins, and they knew that even with the Holy Spirit they were not God. Yet they received the power and responsibility to forgive or not forgive people who had hurt them and others.

Their power was not to limit or empower God. Their power was given so that they might no longer be bound to anger and vengeance. God forgives, but unless we forgive we bind ourselves to the past. We don’t forgive so others can go on with their lives, but so we can get on with ours.

Let me add that if you have ever tried to get over such harm on your own, you’ll know it takes the work of the Holy Spirit to do the job.

Here’s the final sign we need, the green light. We need to be the miracle. We need to live so that others can see that our God lives. We need to live like the disciples of every time and age before us who lived so we could believe. Our lives need to show those who see us that our God lives so they can believe. It is our call and our vocation to live lives worthy of Christ so that they can believe and become Christ’s disciples.

In this case, the purpose of signage is to move people off the mark; going where they are supposed to go.

So, what size miracle are we looking for? Here is the biggest one of all. Here is the miracle we are to share with the world. We were created by the Triune God who loved so much that he created life. The Lord not only created matter to love and care for, our God created a race of people who could choose to love the Lord God back. (Risky move that is.) We are loved by a God who loves us so much that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. This by the grace and peace given freely by God in Christ.

Signs have their purpose. They make sure we don’t get lost, they assure us, they warn us, they give us direction, and they get us going when we are supposed to go. On the whole, this is a worthy vocation Jesus sends us into the world to share.

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[1] Much of these first paragraphs are taken and adapted from: “Streets and Highways of Washington DC.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streets_and_highways_of_Washington,_D.C.

[2] “No J Street in Washington DC,” http://www.snopes.com/history/american/jstreet.asp

[3] “Jimmy Palmer,” The NCIS Database” Wiki. http://ncis.wikia.com/wiki/Jimmy_Palmer. The episode is called “Broken Bird.”

[4] John 14:4-5

[5] Marshall, Texas,  The Republic of Texas and the Civil War (1841–1860) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall,_Texas#The_Republic_of_Texas_and_the_Civil_War_.281841.E2.80.931860.29

Even in the Quietest Moments

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday June 20, 2010, the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

1 Kings 19:1-15
Psalm 42 & 43
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39

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

Marie has got me reading, "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. According to the back cover, Gilbert’s tale is the story of how she left behind the outward marks of success and what she found in their place, "a balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence."[1] One of the recurring themes of the book is prayer.[2] Throughout the text, Gilbert shares several of her prayers and God’s responses.

One example is when she is on her bathroom floor in the Manhattan apartment she shares with her husband and she prays, she begs, "Please tell me what to do" She repeats this prayer again and again. She finally hears what she says is her own voice, but a perfectly wise, calm, and compassionate version of her voice; a version of her own voice if it were filled with love and certainty. She hears this warm and affectionate voice say to her, "Go back to bed, Liz."

This voice, in five words, told her what she needed to know. It told her that there was nothing she could do about her situation at 3:00 in the A of M on that Thursday in November. In these five simple words this omniscient, intelligent voice told her that she was loved. In these five simple words, she knew that she would need all of her strength over the next few months, she knew she would need her rest.

The love of God as she understands God gives her the word, the answer to prayer in this most chaotic moment, "Go back to bed, Liz."

In the second part of her three part book, this dedicated student of yoga goes to India to an Ashram; a sort of monastery for yoga students. Like a monastery, the Ashram is not a tourist attraction. People come from all around the world to study and pray and serve. There is one chapel that’s open to the public, but the rest is for students. In that way, she says it’s more like a university than a chapel; it is for serious students, not casual visitors. In local terms, it’s more like Little Portion Monastery than like Throncrown Chapel.[3]

This is where she meets a man called Richard from Texas, and by her descriptions, Richard is all Texan. In a conversation one night about prayer, Richard shared, that at one time his prayer was always the same, "Please, please, open my heart. And please send me a sign when the event has occurred." Well, in Richard’s own words, be careful what you pray for. The author’s words are better than my recap, so in the words of Elizabeth Gilbert:

"After a few months of praying constantly for an open heart, what do you think Richard got? That’s right–emergency open-heart surgery. His chest was literally cracked open, his ribs cleaved away from each other to allow some daylight to finally reach into his heart, as though God were saying, ‘How’s that for a sign?’"[4]

Yep, how’s that? Signs, signs, oh how we look for signs. Sometimes the signs are as subtle as being told to go back to bed, sometimes they are as thunderous as open-heart surgery. Today, let’s look at some other signs.

Our reading from 1Kings has Elijah in some serious trouble, as is the way of the prophets. Elijah has just vanquished the prophets of Baal with a sword. He did what he was called to do by the Lord. Because of that, he was threatened with the same fate that befell the prophets of Baal. Why? Because Queen Jezebel was angry that’s what angry Queens do. As an Israelite, this may not have meant so much to King Ahab, but to Queen Jezebel, the one who was raised worshiping Baal, this was a huge deal and as we all know from thousands of years of experience, "If momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy."

So Elijah got up and fled for his life going to the southern end of the Kingdom of Judah to Beer-sheba. For those of us who don’t remember our Ancient Mid-East geography (let me raise my hand), the priests of Baal were killed in the neighborhood of the Wadi Kishon,[5] at the northern end of the northern Kingdom if Israel. Fleeing, Elijah went to the southern part of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. To flee Jezebel, Elijah went as far as he could go and still remain in the Holy Land.

Then he went one more day south.

Why did he go? Why did this hero of the Lord, this slayer of the prophets of Baal go so far away? He went to ask the Lord that he may die. He went south to declare he was no better than his ancestors and prayed that the Lord take his life. He prayed to die on his own terms. He was afraid and rightfully so. He got out of Dodge. I think he would rather let the Lord take him out than the Queen.

So when Elijah travels to the southern reaches of Judah and prays to die, the angel of the Lord appears telling him to get up and eat. The Lord then provided for Elijah’s needs for forty days and forty nights until he was ready for his next duty. In Elizabeth Gilbert’s words, the angel of the Lord told Elijah to get off the floor and go to bed.

The Lord asks Elijah why he was still there and Elijah protests. He reminds the Lord that Jezebel and the prophets of Baal have killed all of the other prophets of the Lord, and by the Lord’s help and protection, he put the prophets of Baal to the sword. He is a marked man and when it’s the Queen’s marking, peril isn’t far behind.

Now from the hand of the Lord, Elijah had received forty days and forty nights of food, water, and sleep, and still he still protests. (Of course, don’t we all protest the Lord now and then.)

So the Lord tells Elijah "Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then he receives blessed assurance: "There was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave."

Then there came a voice to him and asked, "What are you doing here?" Elijah protests one more time, actually, protest may be too strong. I imagine his protest is now more of an accounting of the last couple of months than shaking his fist at the Lord.

Elijah hears the rush of the great wind, a wind so strong that it split mountains and broke rocks. Then he hears the rumble and experiences the tremors of an earthquake. The fire follows with its burning light and searing heat. But the Lord is not in the wind or the quake or the fire. The Lord is not in any of this power, any of this destruction, any of this chaos. Then, then the sound of sheer silence falls.

When Elijah hears the silence, silence that can be heard, he wraps his mantle (his robe’s hood) around his face and went out, standing at the entrance of the cave. Then he is told that he has something to do, go to Damascus.

In all of the power and wreckage, Elijah does not find the Lord. Elijah finds the Lord in the still silence of creation in the midst of broken life. After this, he is given his next command, his next commission. Then this is not unusual. Our gospel reading vividly gives us the stillness of the Lord in the light of broken creation.

This is the sort of story that makes great movie. It begins with Jesus crossing over the sea to the country of the Gerasenes. It’s dramatic because it follows Jesus calming the storm. It’s dramatic because it is the first time the Good News is being taken to the Gentiles. It’s dramatic for what happens next.

Just as soon as the disciples get out of the boat, they are met by the man we call the Gerasene Demoniac. This man is infested with so many demons that they call themselves Legion. Based on the Roman Legion and its 1,000 soldiers, these demons consider themselves a vast and formidable force in this man’s body and soul. But this legion of demons knows one thing, they know that Jesus is Lord. Knowing they are to be exorcised, they ask not to be sent to the abyss.

So the legion of demons asks Jesus for permission to enter a nearby heard of swine. Jesus allows it to happen and the swine take a full gainer with a half twist down the bluff and into the lake. Since the Legion of demons meet their end in the sea this shows how the power of Jesus and how horrible the abyss must be as because demons were known to avoid water at all costs.[6]

We are told that this man was naked and lived at the city tombs. He did not live in a home and he was chained up like a dog; only to break his bonds and frighten everyone with his uncontrollable behavior.

Jesus hastens the man to change. In one fell swoop, the man is transformed from demon possessed to calm. He goes from the storms that raged in his mind and through his body to a man Luke tells us was in his right mind. He was possessed by a legion of demons, now he is filled with the grace and peace of Jesus Christ. This man is a new creation, a new creation in Jesus. From personal chaos, he hears the holy stillness of the Lord.

So what does he want to do, he wants what every good person who is personally blessed by the Lord should want to do. He wanted to follow, and he wasn’t planning to turn from the plow.

But this is not what the Lord has in mind. Instead, Jesus tells the man, "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you." Sound familiar? The Lord tells Elijah, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus." When he arrives at Damascus he is to anoint Hazael king over Arum. The formerly demon possessed man is told to return home. There he is to declare how much God has done for him.

In the midst of noise and terror; in the midst of unrest and fear; in the midst of all of the chaos that the world can give a human being, God is present. The signs of stillness, whether at the mouth of the cave as Elijah heard or in the tombs at Jesus’ side, the Lord is there with what is needed to be whole again. This is all the sign we need.

Then the Lord is there to show what we are to do next. Yes, there may be protest as our plans quickly become god’s chuckles, and the Lord shows us the way.

Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, The Reverend William Williman shares this story with Christian Century Magazine:

"This is really unacceptable," I told the first-year divinity student who had just informed me that she would once again not have her paper in on time. "You’re going to be a pastor. Pastors must be punctual. You can’t stand up on Sunday and say, ‘I had hoped to have a sermon for you today, but first one thing and then another came up. We’re going to break up into buzz groups instead of listening to me preach today.’"

"I agree with you," she told me. "I have few obvious gifts for ministry. I’m always late. I’m too old. I know I have no business being in seminary. I’ve told God that repeatedly. My being here is God’s idea, not mine."[7]

With wonder and joy, we are called by the Lord. We are not called in the wind, tremors, and fire that consumes this world. We are not called by the thousand voices that fill our heads with trouble and distress. We are called by the sheer silence Elijah hears. We are called by the still presence of the Lord. We are called to go, and return, just as both Elijah and this gentile hear. Even in the quietest moments, we hear the Word of God; loving us, empowering us, healing us, and sending us.

In the words of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we are called to respond in the waters of our baptism, the waters that bring us together as a community. We are called not because it is the Law that brings us together to do what is right, or at least what’s not wrong. It is in Christ Jesus we are all children of God through faith, heirs according to the promise of God. Saved by grace through faith, we are called to respond the grace freely offered with thanks and discipleship, just as Elijah and the gentile do.

Willimon continues: Upon reflection, I thought [this seminarian] had it about right. We are in ministry, in service to God and God’s world, because we have been called and put here by a God who just loves to make something out of nothing.[8]

Eat, pray, love. In the presence of the God, Elizabeth Gilbert heard from the Lord while praying. Elijah and the Gentile man heard the God’s words too . Eat, pray, love. Pray, listen, and respond. Because even in the quietest moments, we hear the Lord cry out, the Lord our God who just loves to make something out of nothing.

Reference:
Cousar, Charles B,. Gaventa, Beverly R., McCann, Jr., J. Clinton, Newsome, James D., "Tests for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, YEAR C", Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994, pages 391-40

Endnotes:
1. Gilbert, Elizabeth, "Eat, Pray, Love, One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia." New York: Penguin, 2006, back cover Penguin Paperback edition.
2. Note: These lines were cut from the sermon: Gilbert prays to God, a god she describes as an experience of supreme love (page 14). While her description would not be good for a Trinity Sunday sermon, I would not say she is wrong. I would say it is incomplete.
3. Little Portion Monastery and Throncrown Chapel are two of the many spiritual sites in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. While Little Portion does have a conference center and hosts many workshops, the monastery is dedicated by the community to the Lord for worship and service. Throncrown Chapel is the dream of a man named Jim Reed. Designed by Arkansas Architect E. Fay Jones, the chapel has won many awards for its design of 425 windows and over 6,000 square feet of glass. The Little Portion Monastery can be found at http://littleportion.org/. Throncrown Chapel can be found at http://www.thorncrown.com/.
4. Ibid, page 139-140.
5. 1Kings 18:40.
6. Cousar et. al., page 398 .
7. Willimon, William H., "Summons to Ministry." Christian Century, February 21, 2001, page 7 as cited at HomileticsOnline.com, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1653, retrieved June 15, 2010.
8. Ibid.