tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-200422932024-03-07T04:05:54.337-05:00Fryer Drew's SermonsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.comBlogger299125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-32089750670704126302013-07-31T15:13:00.000-04:002013-07-31T15:19:47.610-04:00Pray Uppity<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;"><a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=242297692" target="_blank">Luke 11: 1-13</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9RJA1KlfPtSNXwpMaGJ5uXrWzZv-PepAtvJMw9GZpW3C8P0lKWEwNR3M1vNMvbkps-RC-k69XwGE1ucPJYtLS7erskwNG9KDu1yggX1NQMbqw2c4z7TLIF_e3v31-YJTTkdGQ6Q/s1600/pray-clip-art_415341.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9RJA1KlfPtSNXwpMaGJ5uXrWzZv-PepAtvJMw9GZpW3C8P0lKWEwNR3M1vNMvbkps-RC-k69XwGE1ucPJYtLS7erskwNG9KDu1yggX1NQMbqw2c4z7TLIF_e3v31-YJTTkdGQ6Q/s320/pray-clip-art_415341.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">It seems to
me, as I reflect on the week I spent at the St. John's Monastery in Minnesota,
just how much I have prayed 3 times a day with brothers (or sisters at St.
Benedict's in St. Joseph), and another couple times a day, plus a time each day
of Lectio Divina with my own brothers and sisters in the dispersed community of
St. Brigid of Kildare. At some times in
my life, that amount of prayer would have equaled a years' effort. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;"> What first struck me a couple of years ago,
when I went to St. John's the first time, was the silence. Most people don't know what to do with
silence. Some just can't stand it. They will turn on a TV or a radio not to be
entertained or informed, but just so that void can be filled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">But in this
week, silence was a constant companion, and for those used to it, a
companionable one. We each had our own
room, or “cell”, I guess in monkish terms, and that was a place of quiet and
peace. The brothers would walk in
silently to pray, and walk out just as quietly.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">The main
structure of Benedictine prayer is to pray the Psalms, all 150 of them, in a
week. Each Psalm is either recited or
chanted, and there are always three or four, plus other worship elements. And there is at least a full minute of
silence between each element, between each Psalm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">Being
comfortable with silence is something many of us human beings grow into. For us in the developed world, silence
doesn't feel natural, the way it might for the vast population of the US. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">Now this is
not a sermon about how “I am such a better pray-er than you.” We were all raised, those of us who were
raised in the church, anyway, to believe that prayer was a requirement, a
duty. Maybe, for some of us, it even
became a chore. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">When prayer
feels the same to you as doing the dishes, we've missed the point. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">We're
trained by our culture about what prayer should be. We assimilate the proper ratio of praise to
petition, and to use poetical words.
We've all learned the way to do it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">Have you
noticed, though, that the Lord's Prayer does it wrong?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">Have you
noticed that the Lord's Prayer rushes through a perfunctory praise section, and
gets right to the asking for stuff? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">“Our
Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be
done...”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">“All
righty”, we say, “got that done, now to
the petitions, which is the point” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">“Give us
this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those
who trespass against us.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">Don't you
think that's kind of odd, that the language seems to put a one-to-one
equivalency between what we forgive and what we're forgiven for? That isn't what it means, I think. I think it means that we are to forgive as
God forgives, meaning, in the same manner, with the same generosity and the
same forbearance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;"> And lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil...”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">In other
words, “please God, keep us fed, don't let us be punished as harshly as we
might deserve, and help us to be graceful with the people who have hurt
us.” oh, and keep us safe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">And then we
get a little more praise at the end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">Jesus prays
it wrong, according to the ways we were taught as Christians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">Whoops.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">Jesus then
goes on to talk about persistence in prayer.
He tells the story of a man who goes to his neighbors' house at three in
the morning, because he's just received a guest, and the guest is hungry. The man has no food in the house, so he goes
to the next door neighbors' hoiuse and says “help help! I need some bread for my guest!” Well, the neighbor of course tells him he's
not going to get up, it's three in the morning, the door is locked, all the
kids are asleep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">But Jesus
tells us that if we are persistent, the neighbor will of course get up. There's another story of the same type, a few
chapters later in Luke, which Jesus tells the story of a woman who is
persistent in her complaint with a Judge, and the judge finally grants her her
justice just so she'll stop bothering him.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">Where I
grew up, the word “bold” was generally a positive term-you could get bold flavors,
paint in bold colors, or someone had made some bold (and therefore admirable)
decisions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">Then I move
to Northeastern PA, and learn that it is a negative attribute here. It means “uppity”, or “impolite”, or “rude.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">Folks, this
text is telling us to pray boldly. We're
being told to pray impolitely; we're told to pray persistently. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">There's a
quote that I want to share with you all, which was very new to me this week,
but is apparently an old chestnut, from George Buttrick:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">“If God is not and the life of man poor, solitary, nasty,
brutish and short, prayer is the veriest self-deceit. If God is, yet is known
only as vague rumor and dark coercion, prayer is whimpering folly: it were
noble to die. But if God is in some deep and eternal sense like Jesus,
friendship with Him is our first concern, worthiest art, best resource and
sublimest joy.”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">What he's
basically saying is: If God doesn't
exist, prayer is a self delusion. We<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">re
hollering our worries and joys into a vacuum.
If God does exist, and yet we don't know anything about God, God is just
a great big unknowable entity, then prayer is pathetic and sad. We don't know whether God cares. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">But if
Jesus can be seen as evidence of God's character, if we know about God because
we know the stories of Jesus, then we know we lift our prayers to someone who
hears and cares. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">Now, of
course, Buttrick believes the third choice.
Scripture tells us that Jesus is indeed a reflection of God; the term
“Emmanuel” means “God with Us.”
Everything we know about God's character, we know through Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">It pays,
therefore, for us to pay attention to the words of Jesus in the Bible. It behooves us to attend to what Jesus tells
us about prayer. They are the answers to
the test! It is God telling us how to pray
to God!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">And God's
telling us to be bold... to be impertinent.
God tells us to be uppity!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">God tells
us to be persistent. This is how we are
supposed to pray. Not lady-like, or
gentlemanly, but whooping, and crying, and sighing and groaning. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">Thy will be
done, give us this day our daily bread, forgive us as we forgive others, and
don't let us get into trouble. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: large;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-32712609774500768022013-07-24T14:01:00.000-04:002013-07-24T14:02:45.956-04:00Tree Stumps and Tombstones<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"><a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=241688748" target="_blank">Romans 1:2-6</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<i>Preached July 14 in the Throop and Dunmore UMC's</i><br />
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilGDo8brkAfBQTeWFIykaQTq7W3aZvLXUyswv2JVnyhWDrxVZH1uUcOh-iZF9JNlYYOytO8isTv-SLQ5a5_yThUst3IyhwG7ESddHB2xSjd1zocRtJ-CofmR5VbWv7tM8RNtBXxA/s1600/JW+on+dads+grave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilGDo8brkAfBQTeWFIykaQTq7W3aZvLXUyswv2JVnyhWDrxVZH1uUcOh-iZF9JNlYYOytO8isTv-SLQ5a5_yThUst3IyhwG7ESddHB2xSjd1zocRtJ-CofmR5VbWv7tM8RNtBXxA/s320/JW+on+dads+grave.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;">This is the
very beginning of Romans. You may
remember in your Bible studies about Romans that this book is the pinnacle of Paul’s
theological thought. Of all the letters
that Paul wrote to the churches in the Mediterranean sea region, Romans is the one
that is written to a congregation that he did not start. It is an existing congregation that he is
introducing himself to. He doesn't know
the context, as he would in Corinth or Colossae. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">He’s
presenting his bona fides to the Roman Christians. So the first part of this letter is a very
basic understanding of the Christian faith, one that he builds on later, but is
simple here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><sup><span style="background: white; color: #777777; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">2</span></sup></i><i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">which he promised
beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><i><sup><span style="background: white; color: #777777; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">3</span></sup></i><i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">the
gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><i><sup><span style="background: white; color: #777777; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">4</span></sup></i><i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">and
was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by
resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><i><sup><span style="background: white; color: #777777; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">5</span></sup></i><i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">through
whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of
faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><i><sup><span style="background: white; color: #777777; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">6</span></sup></i><i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">including
yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, (NRSV)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">All of this statement is basically orthodox
(and did anyone else notice that, even though it is 5 verses, in this version
of the text, there is not a complete sentence in it anywhere? It is one fragment), and nothing that the Romans
would see as controversial.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Until you get to verse 5, where he states that
gentiles can also be part of the body of Christ. That might be a little controversial in Rome,
or anywhere else, for that matter. That
was a relatively recent decision to the believers, certainly within 30
years. And here’s Paul saying this is
what Christians are called to do and be, and this is what I am about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The most operative part of the verse, however,
is the second half of five, where it says that “we have received grace and
apostleship…” In the Common English bible,
it says it this way: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Through him, we have received God’s grace and our appointment
to be Apostles.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When Paul says “we”, here, he isn't talking
about himself, or Peter, or James, or John.
When he says we, he is talking to his audience. We are Apostles. And while yes, he may or may not have been
thinking about future generations of Christians, it is nonetheless our entry
into this text. We have the same access
to grace through Jesus Christ into the love of God. It would then make sense that we, too, are
called to be Apostles. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So, now that we are all Apostles, let me tell
you about another one. The founder of
our practice of Christianity was named John Wesley, who was born in 1702, and
was an Anglican priest. (Anglican means
Church of England, which in America is today called the Episcopal church). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">He had a difficult ministry, I don’t know if he
ever had his own parish. His spiritual
journey is well documented though, though his own diaries and sermons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">For all his being raised the son of a priest
and a wonderfully inspired mother, he still was in doubt about his salvation. It took a difficult sailing voyage and recent
failures in his life to put enough stress on the question of salvation,
however, and the answer began to be seen in watching German Pietists sing
joyful hymns and pray in peace while on the same ship. (</span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;">According to Free Online
dictionary, it is</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif;">A reform movement in the German Lutheran Church
during the 17th and 18th centuries, which strove to renew the devotional ideal
in the Protestant religion.</span><span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">He began to seek earnestly for that same sense
of peace, and it took a few years. But
one evening, he went to a Bible study run by these Pietists, and found himself
assured of his salvation in a way he had not ever had before. Methodists call it his ‘heart strangely
warmed” experience. He knew that, if he
were to die, he knew that where he wanted to go, he would. And he wanted to share it with the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So he began to preach this new message wherever
he could, guesting in other pastor’s pulpits.
But after a while, he rubbed to many people the wrong way, and was not
asked into pulpits anymore. He decided
then to become “more vile”, and began to preach on top of tree stumps, or wagons,
rock ledges, or stacked boxes. One time,
he even stood on his father’s crypt to preach.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When he changed the venue, he changed the
audience, and the movement started among working class and the poor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #010000; font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">They did not know, had not heard, about the grace
that God extends in Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">This is who
we are, as Methodists. Yes, we are
Christians, just like Paul writing to the Romans, we believe in the essentials
of the faith. We believe in the Trinity,
We believe that Christ was the son of God, we believe that Jesus was
resurrected from the dead. Everything
else in the Christian faith is discussion and opinion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">Nowhere in
our faith do we have a political requirement.
Nowhere in our faith do we have a requirement to maintain a social
status quo, Nowhere are we required to defent our society when it deviates from
the gospel. In fact, we are called to
extend grace to those to whom grace is not extended. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">What do we
do when people are hungry? Tell them to
pick themselves up and go get a job and some self respect? Not if you are Christian. Not if you are Methodist. You walk by a beggar in New York city, he’s
got a buck after 6 hours in the cold. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">We can find
ways to help those who are in need without enabling behaviors we don’t want to
support. My old internship church in
Dallas would do food bags for the homeless that are so much more prevalent in
warmer places like the south-we would take plastic newspaper bags, toss in some
tuna that could be opened with a pull tab, some crackers, carrots or celery or
something, and a Gatorade, and keep them in the car for when we came to street corners.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;">We've</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";"> always had great ideas as Methodists, as Christians. Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying, once, “Thank
God for the Methodists! No religion has
put more soldiers in the field, and more nurses in the hospitals (not an exact
quote). It meant that Methodist acted on
their convictions, and they knew their actions were their evidence of faith. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Book Antiqua, serif;">This is who
we are, this is who we've always been. As
Methodists, we emphasize grace, over almost everything else, while holding to
the basics. Everybody is entitled to
grace. Everybody is entitled to the love
of God. The only way that gets
communicated is by our actions. We can
sit in church and feel all warm and fuzzy about the folks at the local soup
kitchen, or addicts’ recovery house, or veterans’ home, or children’s home, but until our bodies are in their presence,
until our feet are on the same floor, our hands are building or cooking or
making what they need for life, there’s no witness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">This is who
Methodists are. This is who we are. The guy who founded the movement, preached
off of tree stumps and tombstones, preached the message of grace and love. It is possible to have a relationship with
God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif";">Paul said,
we are apostles. Just like his people,
and there is no difference between us and them, other than that we are not
wearing togas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-34887241900208391032013-07-08T16:49:00.000-04:002013-07-08T16:49:01.959-04:00Naaman's Road (and ours)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_vYf66r1eR9CkUYwRoGuuY_lW2FeE8Qp7x1usU6iR_qzdV1xKfL46Pw2ygptsiauX8eoWTBNav3ltGwv2F99vca4QIO9y_EFZk8Zrva9ywAgsVOgIB_VTrykUZh-JEQPSB5bbEg/s1600/naaman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_vYf66r1eR9CkUYwRoGuuY_lW2FeE8Qp7x1usU6iR_qzdV1xKfL46Pw2ygptsiauX8eoWTBNav3ltGwv2F99vca4QIO9y_EFZk8Zrva9ywAgsVOgIB_VTrykUZh-JEQPSB5bbEg/s320/naaman.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<em>Preached on July 7 in the Throop and Dunmore churches.</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>(Naaman's Road is a major road in Northern Delaware, near where I have a lot of hometown ties. This has nothing to do with that street!)</em><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=240316136" target="_blank">2 Kings 5: 1-14</a></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It’s
an interesting story to think about, when you put it into our context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Essentially, a foreign and sometimes enemy
official is advised by a captured prisoner of war to travel to the prisoners’
native land to be healed of a disease that the officials' own country cannot
cure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
hear of world leaders going to their allies for medical care, like Chavez to Cuba before he died, but not often their enemies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that is what this official does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this official isn’t just going to a
healer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is going to a religious
leader, and the cure involves the God of his enemy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When
you put it into our context, it becomes a little hard to believe, doesn’t it? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">To
take it a step further, how would you feel if the country was the United
States, and the foreign dignitary was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the recent president
of Iran?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Wouldn’t
we be seeing this on the news for days?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wouldn’t there be debates between those who would want to bar him entry,
and those who wanted to extend grace?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
have no doubt that, as a nation, we would ultimately do what was necessary, do
the right thing, but you would probably agree that there would be a fair amount
of fuss.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What
I think is also true, unfortunately, is that Ahmedinejad has talked himself
into such a corner with regard to the US that he could never accept the
invitation to be healed here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There
are two things going on in our story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yes, it is true that Israel offers an enemy healing, but it is also that
Naaman must accept that Israel (or at least, Israel’s God) can heal him. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It means that his Gods couldn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What makes it worse is that, as we’ll see,
the program that Elisha puts him on is so easy, he reacts by saying he could
have done it at home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But
apparently not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently he needed to
make the journey.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What
is true is that there is something about Israel and Israel’s God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Something that even their enemies knew about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
King of Israel doesn’t seem to be in this loop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He receives the letter from the King of Aram, and somehow he has
forgotten about Israel’s God, and it’s prophets, because his first thought is
that the letter is pretext for war-Naaman, this great Aramean general comes,
cannot be healed, perhaps he accuses Israel of damaging him further, and off to
war they go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Naaman
knows Israel’s power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Naaman knows that
Israel fights, as the boxers say, “far above it’s weight.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knows that Israel’s God is powerful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what he is about to learn is that Israel’s
God is also compassionate and merciful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And this God has such a hold on the people who worship that this slave
girl, this prisoner, still believes even though she is far away from home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So,
based on the slave girl’s word, Naaman asks his king if he can go check it
out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The King assents, and sends along
gifts and an introductory letter-doing the diplomatic thing, you know?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Naaman
goes to the King.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he’s told to go
to this prophet out in the sticks, and then, when Naaman presents himself
outside the house, Elisha doesn’t even come out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A bit of a blow to Naaman’s stature and ego,
wouldn’t you think?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s certainly the
impression he gives in the text.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
would imagine Elisha’s take is something along the lines of “piece of cake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is hardly any trouble for our God, I can
even do this one by messenger.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Naaman’s
a little angry, wanting incantations, fire, fireworks, and it takes Naaman’s
own servants to calm him down, and say to him “what’s the harm?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Easily done, taking seven baths in the
river.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why not try it out?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So
he does, and it works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t say
how the Arameans and the Israelites’ diplomatic relationship improve after
this, we don’t know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we know that
there was an Aramean general who had a soft spot for the small adjoining
country after this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">You
may not be aware of it, but we live in a world with many Gods just like Elisha
and Naaman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are of a certain age,
you may not be aware because your social circle is probably filled with people
who are similar to you, in belief and education and economic class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But
when you go younger, into the 20’s and teens, you can’t take someone’s faith
for granted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are people in these
younger age groups who have never been to church, or synagogue, or mosque.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it’s not a big deal, they’ve never been
to France, either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And maybe the trips
seem equally daunting. But there is no God as church people know God, so they are replaced with other Gods. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Maybe
there has never been divine experience at all, and they may call themselves atheists,
but they are really agnostics. They’re people from Missouri’ they say ‘show me”
when it comes to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But
we who are here this morning, and everyone in other churches, we all profess to
believe in a God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you hear the
Naaman story, and there is talk about “our God” and “their God”, it makes me
wonder; Are we presenting our God properly?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If we <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">How
do we talk about God in our everyday lives?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’d be willing to bet (if Methodists bet, which they don’t) that we talk
about God and our faith little to none.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s not polite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not
seemly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t want to be known as
Jesus freaks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are people that we
can have a high level of trust with, and we may share our faith with them, but
in general, we don’t talk about our faith. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You know, that’s ok, sometimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In our world, people do not do it well, and
often, being asked about your faith is usually a pretext for that person to
tell you about theirs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d rather keep
to myself, too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But
our God is relational.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our God has a
relationship with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our best sharing
of God is in a relationship with others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The best relationships in our lives are ones of give and take.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Let
your lives be evidence of your belief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Let your life be a witness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let your
lives be lived in such a way that people want to know what that inner light is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Live your lives in such a way that people
have to ask why you do what you do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why
do you go down to that place where the people are weird and smell funny?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why do you give to that charity?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why do you take a week of vacation to go to
Mississippi to rebuild houses?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s your
vacation!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tell me at least there was one
drink with an umbrella in it!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It’s
just not what we do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vacations are not a
bad thing, but our actions show our beliefs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Let
your light shine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">That
is who we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let our lives be such
that foreign dignitaries come to us for help and healing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Let
our lives attract our enemies to our grace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-34228724441507792382013-07-04T09:22:00.001-04:002013-07-04T09:22:36.882-04:00Setting Your Face Toward Jerusalem
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=239944112" target="_blank">Luke 9: 51-62</a></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><em>Preached June 30 in Dunmore and Throop UMCs</em></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRGviY2LISL0fjZYgcpmXa4LohK0R2dBNbZmoJHoJ2rKw6vtl1EARV6M3FVbpnlV0VebBEgB-2epiNj0WFutAMsVlH1OAi0-nh9lLiCgj5nSdzvVvuKPNVla-X-vnQ5UAakNntaQ/s440/745165.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRGviY2LISL0fjZYgcpmXa4LohK0R2dBNbZmoJHoJ2rKw6vtl1EARV6M3FVbpnlV0VebBEgB-2epiNj0WFutAMsVlH1OAi0-nh9lLiCgj5nSdzvVvuKPNVla-X-vnQ5UAakNntaQ/s320/745165.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Jesus
set his face for Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That means
more than he pulled out a map and traced his route, marking all the Stuckey’s
restaurants where he could pick up nut rolls and Bolsa blankets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It meant more than he called AAA and ordered
up a custom triptych. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He
set his face toward Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knew
that the time had come for the climax of his ministry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It
was a pretty direct route, because he doesn’t avoid Samaria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Historically, Samaria and Israel didn’t get
along.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a nutshell, here’s why:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Once,
Judea and Samaria were one country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
ten tribes of Israel in the north were conquered by the Assyrian empire, and
were culturally and religiously influenced by their conquerors, and their expression
of the faith as given by Moses became different than in the south.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">A
couple centuries later, The Babylonians conquered Assyria, and all their land
holdings, including the ten northern tribes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Babylonia kept going, though, and conquered the two southern tribes,
too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So now here were two people who
couldn’t avoid each other, being in the same empire, but their faith
expressions had changed enough that they were alien and foreign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There had been intermarriages in the north
which were literally un-kosher in the south.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One had Mount Zion for its holy mountain, the other Mount Gerzim.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It
would be as if someone who was born and raised in Northeastern PA, Scranton
area, were to move to New Mexico.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Same
nation, but different culture, and good luck finding a pierogie there!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
Samaritans and the Israelites had many different understandings of faith, but
used many of the same terms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps
then, it is understandable that this particular Samaritan town doesn’t take to
Jesus, once it’s known he has set his face for Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s not there for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s not stopping to preach, not stopping to
heal, he’s on a schedule.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So they aren’t
very hospitable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">James
and John then ask if they should rain fire down on this village.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember, earlier in chapter nine, they have
seen Jesus transfigured by God, and in the air with both Elijah and Moses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They remember Elijah doing that same thing
once, so they ask if he wants it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he
tells them to knock it off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was
“stern” with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s not why we’re
here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Then
in the scripture, there are a series of small stories in which three different
situations are presented of people wanting to join Jesus’ ministry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One says “I will follow you wherever you
go.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus warns that one that there
will be no home, no roof nowhere to rest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We don’t know if that guys joined up after that or not.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
second one is invited by Jesus; the man replies that he has important family
obligations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus tells him to go and
proclaim the kingdom of God; presumably at the funeral and after.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
third one says “let me say goodbye, and I’ll join you”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus tells that one he must be focused on
one thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He uses the image given again
by Elijah, this time when he calls Elisha to follow him, and Elisha drops
everything, and leaving the plow in the field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Do
these situations sound fair, frankly?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is
Jesus really telling this man to leave everything, the possibility of wife and
kids, to follow him?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Some
might say that this young man is putting family above Christ, and he is a fool.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But others might say that this man has
family duties and responsibilities, and Jesus is asking this man to shirk
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Each
one of these stories give us a certain amount of trouble.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know how I’d answer each one, and one
could very well say that, because I am a clergyperson, I have already answered
this call.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It
is a troubling set of stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I
think the key for us in understanding the greater picture, the application in
our lives, is to go back all the way to the beginning of today’s periscope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To look at the beginning where it says “Jesus
had set his face toward Jerusalem.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
was focused on his goal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When
Jesus was on earth, bodily, there was cause for urgency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cause for people to drop the plow and
follow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To leave a parents’ burial
journey and follow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was very short
term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
do not have that urgency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have a Holy
Spirit that is always waiting for us, standing behind us, flinging lit matches
under our own spirit, waiting for something to catch fire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">While
the urgency is not the same, with someone standing before us saying “you, come
with me,” the call is the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are
still called to serve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are called to
expend ourselves in God’s service.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
are called to set OUR faces toward Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are called to be like Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Can we do this while we are burying our parents?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Can
we do that while we are plowing fields?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Can
we do that while making sandwiches for our grandkids?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Yes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Can
we do that while mowing the lawn, or working on homework?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Can
we be shining lights for Christ, no matter where we are or what we do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we keep our faces pointed toward
Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This
lesson does not teach us that we are failures because we have duties. Our
duties separate from explicitly serving God are not distractions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What we are being taught is that the goal of
imitating Christ, the WWJD of it, is to keep our faces pointed toward
Jerusalem, no matter who we are and what we’re doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To unify our lives into one wrapped in and
directed by God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">To
keep our faces pointed toward Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-12440317606552109372013-07-04T09:14:00.003-04:002013-07-04T09:14:50.028-04:00We Are Descended from Bible Moths
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=239943593" target="_blank">Matthew 28: 16-20</a></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><em></em></o:p></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><em>Preached June 9, in Dunmore and Throop UMC's</em></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguvQF38q1zOhPB9hPr_qA5HEr-ZLyI6KqgRFbNDn-UPOYkHoL7ZhO2Iqp4Nznyng1Icmfbr6yRjiaq6aPjl8OK8FaYcvYLTw8imiFqoHA737ca8U7Bg3m7hFwLyk_rhoG7F39_FA/s428/441100.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguvQF38q1zOhPB9hPr_qA5HEr-ZLyI6KqgRFbNDn-UPOYkHoL7ZhO2Iqp4Nznyng1Icmfbr6yRjiaq6aPjl8OK8FaYcvYLTw8imiFqoHA737ca8U7Bg3m7hFwLyk_rhoG7F39_FA/s320/441100.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">England
in the 18<sup>th</sup> century was a very tough place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Especially in the early part, there were
strong economic disparities, lots of distance between rich and poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t uncommon to wake up in the morning,
in certain neighborhoods, and find that there had been people who had died
during the night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not of alcoholism, not
of drug use, but from simple hunger.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
way the church worked at that time was that you rented or bought a pew to sit
in, and you were a member of a parish whether you went to church or not-it was
by government design what parish you belonged to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">People
were moving from the countryside into the cities, as this was the beginning of
the industrial revolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coal was not
yet a big part of the revolution, it was still about 80 years in the future
before they learned how to burn anthracite down in Wilkes Barre.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Church
was something that you did as part of being middle class, or respectable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You rarely found the poor in church, unless
they were filling an obligation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was
just too expensive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People who were
hungry and sick probably found it hardtop care what was being said from any
pulpit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Into
that mix, culture time, was born one of 19 children, ten of whom achieved
adulthood, named John Wesley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His father
was a priest, and so he was what we called a PK, or “preachers’ kid”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Their
mother Susanna was the one who instilled spiritual discipline in the children,
insisting that all the boys AND the girls learn how to read and write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She believed that it was through reading and
writing that her children would become better instruments for God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">John,
who they called “Jack”, went to Oxford and became an Anglican priest, as well
as his brother Charles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They and a group
of friends together began to have regular meetings where they would pray
together, study Bible together, talk about problems, and go out and do acts of
charity and compassion together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
other students at Oxford mocked them for this, calling them the “Holy Club,”
“Bible moths”, and the worst one of all,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“Methodists.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Yes,
our worldwide denomination of 29 million people were named by college boys who
were mocking our guys.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">They
were regular, and they were doing a lot in the community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would visit those who were sick and in
prison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would feed the hungry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they would study and pray, at regular
times.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">John
and Charles were invited, after college, to go to the colony of Georgia to
chaplain the colonists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It did not go
well, and Charles left after a few months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was worse for John, who fell in love with a woman named Sophey Hopkey
who did not return his love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he
chose another to marry, he refused her communion, and the colonists chased him
out of town-he had to leave Savannah in the middle of the night to get to
Charleston SC, to get a boat home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">On
the way back to England, in doubt of his faith and depressed, the ship passed
through some terrible storm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, on top
of everything else, John was not just in doubt of his faith, he was in doubt of
his salvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But on that ship was a
group of German-speaking Christians, Moravians, who were singing hymns and were
generally unconcerned with their plight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was fascinated with their faith.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He
wanted that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He visited them a number of
times, both in England and Moravia, over the next decade or so, and it is
finally at one of their Bible studies, on a street in London called Aldersgate
Street, he has what we call the “Aldersgate Experience”, when John received a
strong feeling of assurance, for the first time, of his salvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reader that night was reading out of the
preface or the prologue to Martin Luthers’ commentary on Romans, and something
in those words about salvation by faith alone, freely given and unearned, spoke
to Wesley in a new way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We say, in the
Methodist Church, that “his heart was strangely warmed.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He
was 34 by this point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’d been clergy
for over a decade, and had preached hundreds of sermons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he just now gets what assurance means.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He
has no parish, so he begins to preach the availability of this assurance to
anyone who will listen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know of his
preaching in the open air a lot, once being chased out of a field by a bull
that been let loose on purpose, once standing on his own fathers’ crypt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He would preach to miners coming out of the
shaft, he would preach to seamen getting off their boat in the harbor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He’s
not preaching to people who go to church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He’s preaching to the lower classes, the ones who are not sure of God
knows them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s giving the reassurance
of Christ to people who had not yet heard it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">As
he is heard more and more, and people want to grow in Christ, he organizes them
into class meetings that meet during the week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So, in a church of 40 today, there would also be four groups of 10 each that
would meet during the week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When
this movement came to the American colonies, there were preachers commissioned
here to travel up and down the countryside, starting around Baltimore and
Philadelphia, and expanding north and south, called circuit riders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These were single men who had power to marry
and baptize.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would be assigned to
geographic areas, called charges, which is where we get that term from, though
we no longer have strings of 20 or so churches.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
most famous of those circuit riders was named Francis Asbury, and his diary has
records of him preaching in all original 13 colonies, and Kentucky and
Tennessee as the US spread west.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have
record of him preaching in Berwick and in Clarks Summit, using what we now call
Route 11.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
United Methodist church has its roots in a faith that takes the Gospel to the
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes the Word out to where
they are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They don’t wait for people to
come to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They go out and feed the
people, visit them, care for them, show compassion and charity, where they are.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In
this modern time, when we as church institutions are trying to recapture what
it is that made us so vital, we borrow terminology from advertising, and talk
about “branding”, and “re-branding”, and “our market”, this is who we are: we
act out our faith by serving those who need it-those who need help, because the
Word of God is not as important to them as recovery, food, clothing,
housing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
come to church to be refreshed in that work, to encourage each other in our
work, and to be reassured of Christ’s love for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But our work is not here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is OUT THERE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wesley claimed the whole world for his
parish, and we are called to that work as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There
is nothing in what we believe that says that all of Christianity must believe
and act like us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are hundreds of
Christian expressions, and we are but one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are no more and no less than any other expression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But our special recipe, our method of being
followers of Christ, is to study, read Scripture, pray, and be in mission to
help the last, the least and the lost.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Just
as Zen is a technique of how to be Buddhist, Methodism is a technique of how to
be Christian.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Our
faith is demonstrated in our walk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
may talk about it as well, depending on our personality, but it is clearest in
our actions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This
is who we are, this is who we are trying to become.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Methodism
does not make you more or less Christian, but it does give us the tools with
which to be authentically Christian.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-30453473465040035152013-07-04T09:03:00.003-04:002013-07-04T09:03:44.289-04:00The Faith Available to Us
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=239942978" target="_blank">Luke 7: 1-10</a></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><em> Preached June 2 in the Throop and Dunmore churches</em></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKlegWLzBQpEhpdA2ucXZHoVuf1Vfew-VETexqjnQHqZKVjWJPl4mN0-6GdPcq-mDaqoo3nBgEMPTW_w6GFGU2m2sitQs2faBzHAkCvTTGXZS-NuoWyNPGTzAr4oyNI2b82Nzcag/s800/Lord+not+worthy+of+you.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKlegWLzBQpEhpdA2ucXZHoVuf1Vfew-VETexqjnQHqZKVjWJPl4mN0-6GdPcq-mDaqoo3nBgEMPTW_w6GFGU2m2sitQs2faBzHAkCvTTGXZS-NuoWyNPGTzAr4oyNI2b82Nzcag/s320/Lord+not+worthy+of+you.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There
are a few things that we need to make clear, that aren’t immediately clear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
am no Greek scholar, but a number of different commentators note that the word
used as “servant” in our translation is generally more clearly understood as “slave”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the Centurion is concerned about someone
he owns, rather than someone works in exchange for wages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So
that makes it all the more interesting to note that the centurion would ask
Jesus for help.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">About
that Centurion:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve heard other stories
about centurions who become “god fearers”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The term in modern parlance, I think, is that this centurion might be accused
of having “gone native”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
commentators speak of this happening because, probably, their disappointment with
the decadence and incoherence of their own Roman religious culture, as well as
it’s wider society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Roman culture at
the time of Jesus was, shall we say, complicated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In contrast, the Jewish culture, which had
been oppressed and suppressed, you might say squashed down into its essential
elements, had become simply stated, and its ethics were clear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So
this Centurion, just like the one in the tenth chapter of Acts, is attracted to
the Jewish faith enough that the Jews start to call them “god fearers”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This particular Centurion was particularly
respected by the Jews of Capernaum, enough so that, or because of, he had built
their synagogue. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also has good enough
contact with the Jewish leadership of Capernaum that he asks them to ask Jesus
to come heal his slave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So
often, and so many times, we hear stories that complicate our simple, black and
white view of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So often we’ll
hear of people who repudiate or reject their native culture in favor of one
that is clearer of somehow better in their sight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think of the movie <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dances with Wolves</i>, in which the Union soldier played by Kevin
Costner becomes so much a part of the great plains Indian tribe near his
abandoned fort that, when the fort becomes active again, and begins to make
trouble for the local tribe, he stands and fights as a member of the tribe
instead of the Union.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
all know stories where this happens, and this Centurion may very well be
another of these.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">While
this Roman soldier could be considered exemplary for his ethics, he is still
someone who needs Jesus to save the life of this slave he cares for so
much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So
it is very interesting to Jesus that as he is traveling toward the Centurion’s
house, he is met by another group of people sent by that Centurion, who then
relay the message that the centurion believes:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Jesus, I am a soldier and a commander.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I tell people to go, they go, I tell people to retreat, and they
retreat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tell my slave to serve, they
serve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I understand command, you command
God’s healing power, and so I know you can stand where you are, without
demeaning yourself by coming to my house, and command my slave to be well, and
he will be well.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
can think of another occasion or two where Jesus heals at a distance, but each
of the rest have been for Jewish people, never for a “foreigner”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we can also think of occasions where
Jesus has no power at all, because of the disbelief of the people around him,
most notably in his hometown.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In
Nazareth, no one believes that Jesus can do what he claims, all they can see is
the man who used to be the boy running around the yard, barefoot and in his
swaddling clothes chasing chickens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">For
Jesus to do his work, then and now, it takes our faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes our action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes our belief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is a hard thing to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus lived before the Scientific
Revolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus lived before the
Enlightenment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus lived before
telescopes, and planets, and string theory, and quantum physics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He lived in a world where it was generally
understood that the world was flat, and that heaven was on the other side of
the blue shell we called the sky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
know it isn’t a shell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know what’s
beyond it, we’ve even sent stuff billions of miles beyond that shell that have
sent back photos. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It
is therefore SO much harder to have faith for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know so much more about the universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Faith is harder for us, because of those
facts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in the ways of life, such as
making sure babies have enough water on hot days, such as teaching the young in
the ways that they should go so that when they grow, they will not depart from
it, those things haven’t changed at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Faith
is harder, but faith is something that hasn’t changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What was available to those in Jesus’ time is
available to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But for us, on this
side of the Scientific revolution, it does take more work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More work reading the Bible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More work praying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More work doing the things of God, such as
feeding the hungry and cothing the naked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is how we get to where they were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We read the things that uplift us, feeding our minds with what is
possible, rather than just reading the news and filling our minds with wht is
impossible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Knowing about the world is
important, but knowing how to be good in the world is just as important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When
we pray, we should spend half as much time talking as we should
meditating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two ears, one mouth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were designed that way to remind us of
this!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It
takes work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes carving time out of
your calendar, and awake time at that, no counting your prayer time as when you
go to bed after the light goes out: “Our Father, who art in heavzzzzzzzz…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course you can still pray then, but that
isn’t your primary time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It
takes work, but the faith that the centurion as is available to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
have seen it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trust in God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-62432586985075336322013-07-02T22:40:00.003-04:002013-07-02T22:40:39.588-04:00Like A Hen
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=239819189" target="_blank">Luke 13: 34-35</a></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
Preached May 12, 2013, at Throop and Dunmore UMC's. <br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Artistic+Hen&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=artistic+hen&sc=8-12&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&id=91BC27764841943BCCDCB7D0E8E5876905869E7A&selectedIndex=6" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRGhMTFwXfUtDLowWUvUmKyZ_heOk1Glt1CxLG4Zeq1nhbVm0VLAICw-7TC7RD_7DO3XFgO6RJGCtbGvNTJoXHmNy2CNCFug5srdpRd5Bp-yGrm7w7EokYvjFGOjCoRBD61hWloA/s320/LITTLE-HEN-BATIK-COMMISSION.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">On
my Facebook page the week before Mothers’ Day, I asked this question: <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Mothers Day is this
weekend, and I have found the day problematic the last few years. The
brokenness of this world gives the lie to what Mothers' Day traditionally highlights
in so many ways; friends who were unable to have children, friends who have
problematic or broken relationships with their own mothers or children,
children who have lost their mothers far too early, stepmothers, and the view
of motherhood and womanhood that the holiday projects onto so many women, an
image that just doesn't fit so many. In a Christian church, to go to scripture
for help also just doesn't help, the choices and actions of mothers there are
so complicated. As the poker dealer says, "no help there."<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So, what is Mothers Day for you? As a child,
do you see it is a blessing or a duty? If you are a mother, do you expect a
certain kind of observance, and are you disappointed if it doesn't go as you
expect?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It
was a large and varied response.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some
women wrote about how wonderful it was to be able to celebrate their own
mothers, others were honest about the coercive nature of the day, still others
were truthful about their own difficulty with the day because of their not
having had children, or missing their own mothers.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">By
doing this day today, even though all of the pain and capitalism, everything
that insists on its own way even when they deal relationship with a mothers
doesn’t exist, there is still something that is at its root, isn’t there?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There
is something within us that is being spoken to.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
talk about caring, we talk about softness, we talk about nurture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is something there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I think this little passage from Luke is
what we’re talking about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In
this part of Luke’s version of the story, Jesus knows what is coming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He tells the disciples that he must go to
Jerusalem, because the prophets can’t be killed outside it’s walls, which is a
little bit of foxhole humor, I think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But then he says that all he’s ever wanted to do was to gather the
people of Jerusalem (and by extension, all of the people of God) together and
keep them warm and protect them, like a hen gathers her brood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It’s
not a paternalistic image; it’s not swords and shields.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is maternalistic; it’s protection, and
warmth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is nurture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It
is not just mothers that can do this (and I’m not just writing that because I
am a single dad); as I preached at Throop last weekend, there was a fretful
baby, and the baby was being calmed by her father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both genders have within them the ability to
be nurturing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Being
caring, supportive, and loving, does not depend on ovaries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is Jesus, a man, saying he would gather
the city as a hen gathers her chicks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When
we celebrate Mothers’ (or Fathers’) day, maybe we should say instead “Happy
Nurturers’ and Protectors’ Day.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
are the traditional gender roles for these days, we can all acknowledge, but I
know of a couple women who can strip a machine gun and clean it lickety-split.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who are tough enough to take with me if I go
down a dark alley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know women who run
marathons, and who teach karate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I, the
male, the man, can do none of those things.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
all have nurturers in our lives, we all have people who have shown interest in
our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have not all been our
mothers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we all know people who have
gathered us up under their wings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">People
who were able to do for us what Jesus wanted to do for Jerusalem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-60588204558542218232013-07-02T22:28:00.002-04:002013-07-02T22:28:57.771-04:00His Heart Grew Three Sizes that Day
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=239818484" target="_blank">John14: 22-29</a></span></div>
<br />
Preached on May 5, 2013 for Throop and Dunmore UMC's.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzfvADlgIIR07chlpN_zpsDbSLys3y0H8INAaifYmnMRgbS94JBPC_rci4k1C71iGX1LeOFynBW1S-9_mpiXyeoppjoIt_sWM-VcyVh_HFaH4RY97mGek-P2-e6rzPBFFsHU0gjQ/s1280/grinch-heart21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzfvADlgIIR07chlpN_zpsDbSLys3y0H8INAaifYmnMRgbS94JBPC_rci4k1C71iGX1LeOFynBW1S-9_mpiXyeoppjoIt_sWM-VcyVh_HFaH4RY97mGek-P2-e6rzPBFFsHU0gjQ/s320/grinch-heart21.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">To
give you a little bit of background, here in the gospel of John, this is of
course a passage that we often hear in funerals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the context is that Jesus is preparing
them for the events of Jerusalem (In John, Jesus is portrayed as have knowledge
of the future), and is reassuring them that it will be all right, in the
end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Judas
(not Iscariot, John is careful to mention) asks why they are getting all of
this special knowledge, but the rest of his followers, and the populace at
large, aren’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Jesus
says essentially that “not everyone gets this. Yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are things that will have to happen for
others to get this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But because you have
been with me, and you have stayed, and you have believed me, I am telling you
who I really am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And who I am, you also
can be for the world."</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
Holy spirit is coming to you, and will be your companion, and will remind you
of everything I have taught you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Up
until now, they have had Jesus, a physical being, with them, and their
connection to God has been through this flesh and blood friend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, with his death imminent, he is
reassuring them that they will not be alone, and his connection to God will be
available to them, with the arrival of the Holy Spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Where
I am going, he says, I go to prepare a place for you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">These
disciples were not any different than you and I are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They may have eaten different foods, less
beef, more fish, more grains, more wine, but they atill needed food, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They got married, had children, worked, the
same as we do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes, they have had
sorrows, just as we do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">They
were not any different that we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
all the ways about being human that matter, they were the same as us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And
yet, they were told by Jesus that the Holy Spirit would come and be in their
lives, because they believed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In
this way, they are no different than us, either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Holy Spirit can come into us, as
well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She (I like she for the Holy
Spirit, it balances the trinity, with Jesus as male and God as both, or
neither) can give us leadership when tough questions arise in us, when
difficulties appear in our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
change occurs around us, the Holy Spirit IS with us, just as she was with
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Now,
does the Holy Spirit come to us, in order that we may do healings, like Peter
and Paul?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can she come to us so that we
may speak in the tongues of those whom surround us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know; I have never experienced that,
but there is more to this world than in my experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But
have you ever had those moments, at 3 AM, when you’re tossing and turning,
worried, and a peace comes over you which enables you to sleep with a decision
in hand?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s the Holy Spirit, too. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">She
may come upon you while you’re sitting around a campfire, and singing songs,
and everyone there sees the same shooting star, and just knows in that moment
that God is with you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It
might even happen while sitting in church, in a pew, in worship!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Everything
that was available to the disciples is available to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus says to them “when I leave you, I go to
prepare a place for you”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus’ promise
to them is Jesus’ promise to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do
not live in a Godless time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God is
ever-present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So much of what we
consider evil in this world is not because of people not believing in God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is instead from people who are religious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It isn’t because of people having no
religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the most peaceful
people in our world are atheists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No,
the wars, the strife, and the anger come from people having an incorrect
understanding of religion, or too much religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A religion that is going away from God’s
intent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">If
your religion tells you that other people are less than human; if your religion
tells you that you are right and others must be banished or eliminated because
they are wrong; then folks, you’re being taken down the wrong road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
Holy Spirit is a Spirit of Peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is
a Spirit of Love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Those
times when you feel your heart expand, like the Grinch’s when framed by the
x-ray machine at the end; that is not an absence of the spirit, it is a
visitation of the Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The more the Spirit
is in your life, the more love there is; the less the strife. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This
is the Holy Spirit, and if your religion tells you otherwise, it’s the wrong
road.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
Epistles talk about testing the spirits, and this is a test; what is God’s love
in this thought?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is God’s love in
this action?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Perhaps
a congregation is being led in a direction; is it a loving direction?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does it show God’s glory through our
service?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is a test.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it love? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If it is not, we are to step back from it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Jesus
said, I go to prepare a place for you and where I go, there you will be
also.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We believe that place to be
heaven, but we also know that when the world ends, there will not be a
separation; we will not ascend to heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Heaven will come to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The new
Jerusalem will descend, and the world may not look much different than it does
now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it will be heaven, because the
Holy Spirit will be fully present, for the first time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There will be no cancer, no war, no
murder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">For
us, in our hearts, that can start now, by allowing the Holy Spirit in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-42627675646900376612013-04-29T14:30:00.002-04:002013-04-29T14:30:36.642-04:00Let No One Call Profane
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=234260180" target="_blank">Acts 11: 1-18</a></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP_TQ9qSVbmcQZE3MfSfQExxla5AQ6HuZKtEggPu5ttvyAJ4AkNNsnEGYsHb2unYyxJDhwmwanalz-Q-OlGayjH11DPIcqYOMNMfAzcqmmLiclr2j29RMj6be0RSv5Q4yqhh1biA/s1600/peter_vision.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP_TQ9qSVbmcQZE3MfSfQExxla5AQ6HuZKtEggPu5ttvyAJ4AkNNsnEGYsHb2unYyxJDhwmwanalz-Q-OlGayjH11DPIcqYOMNMfAzcqmmLiclr2j29RMj6be0RSv5Q4yqhh1biA/s320/peter_vision.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
think I have said before that this part of Acts is my favorite part of
scripture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some may also know that I went
to seminary in the South.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
practice of Christianity in the South is a little bit different than it is in
NEPA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Folks want to know your conversion
story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They will buy you a cup of coffee
and ask you about how you came to Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It matters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’ll ask you what
your favorite scriptures are. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This
are different up here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I first learned
this when I was the associate pastor at Shavertown UMC, and was teaching
confirmation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sat them down in class
one day and told them that I would teach them how to respond when someone
approached them in school about whether they were saved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a common question to ask in rural Texas,
and I just thought it was a common thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">They
looked at me like I had two heads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
had never happened to them, and in fact, they found it hard to imagine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When
we talk about scriptures that guide us, it’s an easier conversation there than
here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when I am asked that question,
this part of Acts, 10 and 11, are what I say.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Chapter
11 is the report of Peter to the Jerusalem folks, the leaders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one had approved Peter going and baptizing
gentiles, no one had discussed it, and yet he’d gone and done it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He needed to share why.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chapter 11 is that explanation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Peter
had been up on the roof of a house in Joppa, getting fresh air and praying, when
in that prayer time, he has a vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
that vision, a sheet of some sort descends from the sky, and on this sheet are
all matter of animals, and birds, and lizards, and such.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The subtext is that this sheet is filled with
all of the animals on earth, and that means there are both clean and unclean
animals, there. We know this mainly because there is Peter responding to the
visions’ voice saying “kill and eat” by saying “I cannot eat, Lord, I am
observant.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So,
to help us understand what it is that on that sheet, let’s put it into our
understanding, by saying what it is that modern observant Jews can’t eat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Lobster.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Cheeseburgers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Catfish.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Baby
back ribs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Meat
pizza.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This
gives us an idea about what might be there for Peter, and what he is saying by
denying the voice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
next line is the important line, the reason for the vision; “what I have
created, you will not call profane.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It
is said three times, and then the sheet rolls back into the sky, and
immediately there is a knock on the downstairs door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
men at the door are the emissaries of Cornelius, a Roman commander, who has
been told by an angel to send to Joppa and bring Peter back to his house.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And
there’s Peter, in that house, having just had this vision, now receiving the dirtiest
of the dirty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not just gentiles, but
also officials of the occupation force that is subjugating his country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And
Peter says ok.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">At
Cornelius’ house, Peter meets everyone, and he begins to go into his sermon,
the Holy Spirit descends on the people, just like it did as described in the 2<sup>nd
</sup>chapter of Acts, when tongues as of blue fire flicker over the heads of
the believers, and a great wind blows.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This
is very important to notice-the same exact event has happened now to gentiles,
not just the Jews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Up
until now, the people who follow Jesus have almost entirely been people who
define themselves in separation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
separate themselves, by food, by gentile, by sex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But
in this moment, God has destroyed those lines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And Peter has listened to the Holy Spirit, though he is surely not
comfortable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But now he has to go
explain what happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He
does, and they “settle down”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They didn’t expect it, but
now the word of Jesus is to be extended to the whole world, no exceptions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no one who should be considered
exempt from the love of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Which
means there is no place for prejudice in the Christian faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no place for gossip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are all alike, we are equally loved by
God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When
the Holy Spirit comes upon us, our heart expands, our prejudices disappear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When
the Holy Spirit comes upon us, we truly see each and every person around us,
the person in line at the grocery store, the person who honks their horn as
soon as the light turns green, even though they are like 4 cars back (I hate
that!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even that person has the spark
of God within them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Darn it).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">All
whom we meet, all whom we know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All whom
we don’t know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All whom we hate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people who have hurt us, the people who
have destroyed our families, the people who set off bombs at marathons:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All are eligible for the love of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
gentle and easy way to say it is Olly Olly Oxen Free.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everybody’s out can come in.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">A
spiritual discipline for Christian spiritual growth, is to identify whom it is
you don’t want in your life, and realize that that little part of us, the one that
resents, resists, and shuns, is NOT Christ like. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And to work on it.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">That
is who we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are people in
progress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is who we are supposed to
be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all have our prejudices, we all
have our biases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To grow in Christ is to
name them and to work on them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">To
truly be able to say “what God has created, let no one call profane.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-8909311274202523882013-04-15T15:07:00.000-04:002013-04-15T15:07:24.971-04:00Emmanuel
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=233052575" target="_blank">John 21: 1-14</a></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
haven’t ever been on a fishing camping trip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When Donna and I went camping, at the end of the summer, I bought a
fishing pole once, and a weighted bob (I think it was a bob), and I would just
use it to cast and reel in, cast and reel in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No hook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got pretty accurate,
but it was just about the meditation, not about catching fish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO-_FWirzgKxaku3MYnxWQSc4TDvd69JwYrN-2VjlPGad9wURNPNcef5uNzlIinNINDAv4aq89F8tcJxIuHKCgc1dmErfbg0lFlXwL4y4BuzKL7W-cL_z_4QImOVtsXp8HIZ4bKg/s1600/Einstein+Sailing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO-_FWirzgKxaku3MYnxWQSc4TDvd69JwYrN-2VjlPGad9wURNPNcef5uNzlIinNINDAv4aq89F8tcJxIuHKCgc1dmErfbg0lFlXwL4y4BuzKL7W-cL_z_4QImOVtsXp8HIZ4bKg/s1600/Einstein+Sailing.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There’s
a story about Albert Einstein that is similar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He loved to sail, but knew nothing about sailing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So he’d put out in his boat, and float around
Long Island Sound, and then at dusk, the Coast Guard would go out and bring him
back in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He’d
be out there all day, just thinking.</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I’ve
never been on a fishing trip that featured the pressure of actually catching
fish, or the added pressure of having to catch fish to feed your family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But
I do know the meditation of being on the water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And this is maybe what Peter is thinking about when he tells the other
disciples “I’m going to go fishing.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">You
must remember what these disciples have been through in the past couple of
weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus has been killed, Peter has
failed him, the disciples were less faithful than Peter, then the women go to
the tomb and report back the disappearance of Jesus’ body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then they gather together in a locked room, and
Jesus appears anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then he comes
back the next week for Thomas. </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Put
yourself in their shoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wouldn’t you be
a little scared, a little confused.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus
is supposed to be dead, and some of us have now seen him, in the flesh, twice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It
would cause you to think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would cause
you to go find somewhere familiar and meditate, doing something mindless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would cause you to go fishing.</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
rest of the disciples with him, some of whom are not even fishermen, decide
they are going as well.</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And
they don’t catch anything all night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
the morning, there’s this guy out on the beach who hollers out to them “hey, catch
anything?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re only about a football
fields’ length out, so they can hear, and respond with a big fat “no”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
man on the beackh hollers back “try the right side of the boat!”</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So
Peter tosses the net, and as soon as they start pulling on the rope, they can
tell it’s different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The net is very
heavy, and hard to pull.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They wrestle it
to the surface, so they can see that it is full of fish, but they can’t get it
any higher into the boat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And
remember, this is the Gospel of John, so I’m willing to bet that these fish aren’t
the bottom of the lake skinny ones, either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Just like the wine that got better than the stuff served before it at
the wedding in Cana, Jesus’ first miracle, these fish are probably big and fat,
and have very few bones.</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Peter
figures it out: he realizes it is Jesus, and says “it’s the Lord!”, and he
throws his clothes on and starts swimming to shore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rest of the guys in the boat paddle the
boat and the trailing huge net of fish back.</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">They
get there, and Jesus invites them to put some of their fish on the charcoal
fire he’s built, and they do.</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtwyGFE1wrw_ZHFqDwcK2w5Hv3ZXvWEi1BYuNefKj5-s2P1bY4FHzWociAy4_2N6lWRJbkfB7lIwa9wYoFSZIRaQ2OmeB2_MBHXxTjLduwaK9FH0DINohaDS5JEaT3u9krNDDmCw/s1600/db_41-feed_my_sheep11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtwyGFE1wrw_ZHFqDwcK2w5Hv3ZXvWEi1BYuNefKj5-s2P1bY4FHzWociAy4_2N6lWRJbkfB7lIwa9wYoFSZIRaQ2OmeB2_MBHXxTjLduwaK9FH0DINohaDS5JEaT3u9krNDDmCw/s320/db_41-feed_my_sheep11.jpg" width="254" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">If
I’ve had a stressful night of thinking and confusion, I would think that
grilled fish on a beach at daybreak would be the cure of a lot of what ails
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That just sounds wonderful!</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
lesson from the text, separate with what he says to peter, immediately
following this, which is really it’s own sermon, is this; Jesus is starting to
be able to be relied on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the
third time he’s showed up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The disciples
are starting to get the clue, that Jesus will be with them anywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which could also mean everywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not just the Upper Room anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
say the word at Christmas:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Emmanuel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Christmas is the promise, of what Jesus can
be for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in Easter, and these
stories after Easter, we see the fulfillment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We see the reality of Jesus as Emmanuel, and what that really looks
like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bit by bit, step by step.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This
is the story the disciples begin to tell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Peter goes to Rome, and Paul goes all over the eastern Med, and legend
has it that James is buried in far western Spain, and Thomas ends up in
India.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">As
the story spreads out, the tale is Jesus Christ, Emmanuel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they haven’t just heard it, they have
experienced it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have lived it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is testimony, not hearsay.</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Just
as I said last week with Thomas, there is nothing wrong with proof.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we first step out in faith, we have to
have it proven to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a while, we
realize that faith has become trust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After the third time, the disciples surely must start expecting Jesus at
odd times and in odd places.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a
while, we do the same thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We move
from fear that Jesus won’t be with us this time, to expectation that jesus will
be with us at some point along the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Or all the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the
difference between a mature faith and a childlike faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
need them proven to us at first, just like the disciples did. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter sees it first, and they get it from
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They tell others of their proof,
they testify, and then others tell their stories, and so it goes, all the way
to America, through our ancestors, here to church and our families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then someone told you.</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Now
the story is ours to tell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God is with you, and now you are called to
tell your story of God’s presence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
can be in the dark of the night of chemotherapy; it can be in the loneliness of
a relationship in trouble; it can be in the room when a child is born.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">After
a while, you just begin to know that God is with you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this is the story you can begin to tell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Go
tell it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-9480481897151342262013-04-12T09:43:00.001-04:002013-04-12T09:44:36.136-04:00Trusting the Rock Bridge<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=232773627" target="_blank">John 20:19-29</a></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk1ljEE1ItKdq7eIkQOX6tLqc66vFchLzxedWXhZcDa0SqphTxCUJ15eQLO4x5pe-yv7IXvNf9bqHyWk30BsNkJP4oaaiLKEaisITv6SrV35ZmylLJcdXylWWRxZmw7onFrjxuZg/s1600/Thomas+and+Jesus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk1ljEE1ItKdq7eIkQOX6tLqc66vFchLzxedWXhZcDa0SqphTxCUJ15eQLO4x5pe-yv7IXvNf9bqHyWk30BsNkJP4oaaiLKEaisITv6SrV35ZmylLJcdXylWWRxZmw7onFrjxuZg/s320/Thomas+and+Jesus.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Thomas
gets a bad rap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is only saying the
things we’d all think or say when given the same circumstances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re so used to Jesus being divine, and
reading the stories of the Bible, that when does something interesting, or
miraculous, or in this case a little spooky, we all say “well, that’s just
Jesus; and anyone who doesn’t believe that just doesn’t believe in Jesus.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
forget that these are just folks, and what they’ve just gone through has been
hard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lots of stuff has happened that
has been hard to believe for the people living through it, just like it would
be for us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">They’re
in that upper room, and remember the story says that the door was locked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one heard the door open, no one heard the
door close, no one heard the lock being picked, and yet, here he is all of a
sudden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the first time, at least
in John, that they see him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s
supposed to be dead!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sotyr that the
women have told is all very good and interesting, and they’ve seen the empty tomb.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“OK”,
they say, “the body isn’t here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s
next?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is what’s next.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Jesus
appears to them, and says “look at me, I’m here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look at the holes in my hand, look at the cut
in my side.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This
proves two things:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s Jesus, and that
he isn’t a ghost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s tangible,
physical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In another text, he eats a
piece of fish to prove it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He’s
for real.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s what the resurrection
did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Poor
Thomas, he’s not there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe he’s off
getting the hot dogs and buns right then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He comes back, and they all say “You’re not going to believe what just
happened!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently Jesus came, did the
thing, and left before Thomas got there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So Thomas hears the story, and responds like we all would, like Cosby in
the Noah routine:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Riiight!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And
so, as an indicator of grace, Jesus comes back at the same time the next
week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And is it fair to think he came
back for Thomas?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He gives everyone his peace again, and then
pulls Thomas aside, and gives him the same opportunity he gave everyone else. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What
else could Thomas respond with, other than “My Lord and my God!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s all righ there, literally and flesh and
blood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What
gives Thomas a bad rap is the general interpretation of the last line, “Have
you believed because you have seen me?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has come to mean “Those of you who expect
empirical or scientific proof of Christ are foolish.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
beg to differ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The things that Jesus is
asking those first disciples to believe in that first visit; he tells them that
his peace he brings to them, and his peace he leaves with them, and he breathes
on them the Holy Spirit; this is John’s version of Pentecost, right here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And
then he shows up again to do the same thing for Thomas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they are all sent out to do what Jesus
was doing; teach, do miracles, even die in the faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To spread the story around the world; not
just among Jews, but Gentiles, too; Peters’ Centurion, Philip’s Eunuch, and
others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The world began to spread out,
but it had to start with these disciples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Now
imagine these mean and women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ve now
been told that you can do what Jesus did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You can heal and teach, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Can
you imagine what Peter must have felt like, that first time, as he tried to
heal?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then what he felt like when it
did happen?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Wouldn’t
that prove to you that you could, if you did? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">That’s
proof, isn’t it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So
maybe Thomas isn’t such a bad guy, then, for wanting proof.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
don’t know many here among us who can lay hands on and heal, or other stuff
that gets done in Scripture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we can
still see proof of the love of God in the people around us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
all know people whose life just seems to be a succession of difficulties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet they know that God is not the source
of their struggle, but rather God is the companion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sure, they may have made bad choices, or just
circumstances, but God is with them at all times.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">When
they say that “God is with them”, instead of “why Lord have you done this”, it
is proof of faith.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There’s
a scene from the movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, that gets shown
often in churches equipped with the technology when the subject of faith is
raised.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/xFntFdEGgws?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
background is like this-Indy’s father has been shot, and they know that the cup
of Christ can save him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So Indy is sent
to face the trials that must be faced before the cup is recovered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s avoided the head-cutting saws of the
first test by kneeling like a penitent man, and now, he’s faced with a chasm
across which it’s too far to jump, and there is nothing to use his bullwhip on
a swinging vine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Now
he’s got the clue in the book with him, and it’s a knight walking in midair
across this chasm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the words say
“you must walk by faith”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, Indy’s
got trouble with this, because he knows he has no faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet, here he must, with his dad dying
behind him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So
he closes his eyes, and steps out into midair, and falls into the chasm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Except
he doesn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, he comes down onto
a rock bridge that has been carved to look exactly like the facing rock wall,
as an optical illusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until he stepped
out in faith, he did not know that it was there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This
is what we have to do when we step out in faith, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the beginning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a few times of stepping out in faith,
we begin to trust it’s there, and faith of that sort isn’t as necessary as it
had been. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Many
of us are like Indy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe we don’t have
the trust in God that seems to be required of the churchy people around
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe we haven’t had the experiences
that cause us to believe, yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need
proof in our own lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Our
proof comes in acting out of faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John
Wesley has said that we must “preach Christ until you have Christ”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There
is a goal to which all Christians aspire, and that is to have faith in God at
every moment of the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the way to
do that is to prove it to ourselves, and the best way to prove it is to act as
if you believe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">After
a while, those who trust in faith who began by saying, “O, my goodness this is
scary, will God show up”, start to say instead “Oh, goody, Let’s see where God
shows up this time!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
have to grow into the sight of God in the world. We have to experience the
arrival enough times that it becomes less scary, and more anticipated. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So,
when Jesus says “blessed are those who do not see and yet believe”, it isn’t a
rebuke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a technique.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is how we grow in faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is necessary for growth in faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">How
to put your foot out into the chasm and trust that it will land on the rock
bridge, and eventually just know that it is there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-43272735349607618052013-04-12T09:25:00.000-04:002013-04-12T09:25:23.328-04:00Where We Live<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Easter
Morning</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Preached
on March 31, 2013<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=232772803" target="_blank">Luke 24: 1-12</a></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
can finally say Alleluia, again!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s
this ancient church tradition that says that during Lent, you omit the word
“Alleluia from all worship, because there is nothing to be happy about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJr7jd88FNotCYZf9Ue_2aPmIS-ju2WWyXBLthQHjNF6Ti8g9DZPO8WbC4FgOKI7tZ4axjGd4XXwV2C4XN7LwZEvK1poAjun0rSTUAHshZ6Xm_9U3uJN_qi68DOBqGNQ7ifAnaVg/s1600/empty-tomb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJr7jd88FNotCYZf9Ue_2aPmIS-ju2WWyXBLthQHjNF6Ti8g9DZPO8WbC4FgOKI7tZ4axjGd4XXwV2C4XN7LwZEvK1poAjun0rSTUAHshZ6Xm_9U3uJN_qi68DOBqGNQ7ifAnaVg/s320/empty-tomb.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Now
is a joyful time!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve already talked to
a few people who have food in the ovens at home, preparing for some sort of
dinner event later today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A couple of
the people who came to sunrise service did so because they wanted to get
worship before they chained themselves to their stoves!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Some
folks have decided that cooking is for the birds, and they’ve made reservations
somewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Some
folks, like preachers, are going home and sleeping after church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There
is joy in Easter!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are joyful
things to be had; candy in baskets, deviled eggs; sales at Target (or Sears), <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There
is joy in Easter, but sometimes we forget what the root of that joy is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There
are folks who are not in church this morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not everyone is Christian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some
people are celebrating Passover this week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Some are Muslim or Hindu, or something else, and some people worship at
the church of St. Mattress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But
they do all benefit from the holiday we have given our culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our holiday is the reason for secular
sales.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But let’s not celebrate Easter
the way that the world participates in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At least lets not forget what it is we are really acknowledging in this
holiday.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Easter
is where we live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This day, and the
things we commemorate on this day, is the root of all it means to be
Christian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">If
we do not have Easter; if we do not have the resurrection of Christ, then a
very wise rabbi and teacher was killed as a political prisoner in Jerusalem by
the Roman Empire, and thus endeth the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We’re done.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He
is merely a son of God the way we are all Children, and that’s it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It
takes today to make this unique and special.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It takes Easter, it takes the Resurrection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes the women who come to the tomb at
daybreak, finds the tomb open and two strange men standing there, telling them
that he is not there, and going back to the disciples and saying they would
love to dress the body, but there’s no body there! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In
one of the other Gospels, they find the body gone, and the rest of the women go
away, and Mary Magdalene is left standing there crying to talk to the
gardener.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He says, in a certain tone of
voice, “Mary!”, and she realized that it’s Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Notice,
in all these stories, that the first people to give the announcement of the
empty tomb, the first ones to proclaim the Gospel, as it were, are women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are the ones who bring the first message
<u>to</u> the male disciples.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
message that they carried is the message we carry now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus was more than just a wise man who was
killed as a political prisoner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was sent
by God so that we may know God’s love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The final proof we have that God loves us, is that Jesus was raised from
the dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Death has no power over us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may not believe in heaven, but it is your
choice to do so, but in our central core of belief, we are told it is
there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can’t prove it scientifically,
we can’t point to it in a telescope, or reach for it through time travel or
quantum physics, but we know that death here on earth is not the end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And
God has given us the power to overcome death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We may not be as we were, but we know there is something after.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This
is the joy of Easter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the
promise of Easter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is why we do the
things we do in this world, as Christians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We follow more than just a wise man; we follow the Son of God, who was
raised from the dead by God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This
is why people dip Peeps in chocolate; this is why hams are baked, and kielbasa
is smoked, and potatoes are scalloped; to show love in various ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We cannot show love by raising people from
the dead, so we bake, we get up early, we dress our finest; we’re trying to
express joy!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Christians
have millions and millions of ways to show Christ’s love in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they are all based in the joy of this
day, of Easter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are all based in
the truth that Christ was given back to the world; Christ was not killed;
Christ was resurrected!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And
so we can say again, Alleluia!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-17027928954477022662013-04-12T09:15:00.000-04:002013-04-12T09:15:01.572-04:00Faithfulness
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Maundy
Thursday<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=232772239" target="_blank">Matthew 26:17-31</a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
realized something as I read the text for Maundy Thursday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the story of Jesus adapting their
Passover meal into we call Eucharist or Communion, and after the foot washing,
and then the garden, we hear nothing more about the disciples, except for Judas
and Peter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone disappears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">At
one of the two churches that I serve, there is a Maundy Thursday service, but
no Good Friday service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in thinking
about this text in that good old Ignatian style (the spiritual practice of
inserting oneself as a specific character into a biblical story, and imagining
with all senses what you experience), it kind of pushed me to identify with the
other disciples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ones who scattered
when the soldiers showed up in the garden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">They
were even more faithless than Peter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter
may have denied the Son of God three times, but he showed up, at least.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Did
they even know what was happening before Peter told them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe John, once, in the Gospel named after
him, had a little bit of a clue, because he accompanied Mary to the cross.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">If
I was a fire and brimstone preacher, I would talk about how faithless we are
when Jesus calls us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But
I’m not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9fJlg_SCKRZnfW9vz9jDBb8pbZLiz3SDa_7F49BkQScAZcNFDRbM1wXZ_bqkQLgbUJVgWzS89wcJM263lz5f-3ySyQpiVG5V-fAU-1Na2QJNw8V0IPCsBVcylP586jgU0-UTANA/s1600/Women+at+the+Cross+Stained+Glass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9fJlg_SCKRZnfW9vz9jDBb8pbZLiz3SDa_7F49BkQScAZcNFDRbM1wXZ_bqkQLgbUJVgWzS89wcJM263lz5f-3ySyQpiVG5V-fAU-1Na2QJNw8V0IPCsBVcylP586jgU0-UTANA/s320/Women+at+the+Cross+Stained+Glass.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What
I also notice, in the text, is that there are faithful disciples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are hardly ever mentioned, but I’d
imagine that they were every place that their society would allow them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They stood under the cross.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They might have been in the courtyard, they
may have been in the garden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But 2000
years ago, women were not always worth mentioning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>WE don’t know, therefore, where they were if
they were a passive part of the crowd.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But
when it came to Jesus’ crucifixion, they were standing right under Jesus, who,
according to Adam Hamilton and others he attributes, was not hung high in the
air, but was really only three feet or so off the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Close enough to be touched.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be heard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To be seen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Jesus
was NOT alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
would expect, since the disciples were just folks the way we are, that they
respond in the varied and different ways that we would when inserted into the
same scenario.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of us would run
away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of us would care enough to
follow, but be afraid of being associated, for fear of being killed, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And some of us would not even be noticed as
they followed Jesus, because, after all, they were only property themselves, commodities
to be traded for land and prestige.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Times
have changed, society has changed, its two thousand years later, and we are no
longer in the Bronze Age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Disciples can
clearly be men or women, just as both can be pastors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no reason to think differently about
gender, only about gifts and graces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
our responses as disciples remain as varied as they would have been then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">On
this night, Jesus said to his disciples “you are no longer my disciples, but
you are now my friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This Passover
meal, is not as a teacher and students, but as friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he changed the meal they were
celebrating.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He
also washed their feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was so
shocking, because there was still an aura around him, that maybe even yet he
would become the Messiah they still wanted, the military leader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he destroyed the last vestige of that,
because a general does not wash the feet of a private. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But
Jesus did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Our general, our leader, the person we are
called to follow, to emulate, to do impressions of as best we can, said to
them, I have come to serve you, now you must serve each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">How
do we serve each other? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">How
do we serve the wider world?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I’m
sure we can all think of way, a way we’re not doing now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Something that humbles us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
remember my father singing a song at a talent show once, “O Lord, It’s Hard to
be Humble, When You’re Perfect in Every Way.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But we believe that we are made perfect in love THROUGH humility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">So
what is that way we know we’re being called to serve, but are resistant
to?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps it might even be to serve
ourselves, to make ourselves stronger, to not spread ourselves so thin we serve
no one and damage our spirits?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">How
do we find a way to imitate Jesus?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-85301930328090734442013-03-26T13:08:00.000-04:002013-03-26T13:08:07.956-04:00The Other Neverending Story
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=231317599">Mark 11: 1-11</a></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhda2GxcuX6HnyJSvx1rgr1S4MRfspXVKZ45c0nSS4rQSRRSAEaC2dRrIr8is0cohEpT5FRH-UbBLOqfLxHOhsAAE1Je9Oobb_HD2agm1avU8zKU82FWGLv67vSZGItR9jJ0idnwg/s1600/1333286468_Palm%2520Sunday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhda2GxcuX6HnyJSvx1rgr1S4MRfspXVKZ45c0nSS4rQSRRSAEaC2dRrIr8is0cohEpT5FRH-UbBLOqfLxHOhsAAE1Je9Oobb_HD2agm1avU8zKU82FWGLv67vSZGItR9jJ0idnwg/s320/1333286468_Palm%2520Sunday.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There’s
a tradition about the palms that so many of us had last Sunday that says that
these provide the ashes we use for next years’ Ash Wednesday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, my ashes are store bought, and in my
little pyxis (the clay jar I keep them in) is enough to last me the rest of my
career, unless they get spilled sometime in the next 30 years. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
tried once to burn the palms I needed for Ash Wednesday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was in Trenton, TX, my second year, and I had no idea what techniques
there were to do it properly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried to
do it in my barbeque, it seemed safer that inside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they burned incompletely, and I didn’t
catch them properly, so I neded up scooping them out with some of the ash
alkready in the bottom of the barbeque.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So my Ashes that year looked suspiciously too white, and smelled suspiciously
like hickory and KC Masterpiece.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Store
bought ashes are just fine, thank you!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
have now almost come full circle. Wednesdays’ ashes have become Sunday’s
Palms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We celebrate today the day that
Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, riding a donkey colt, and the people shouting
Hosanna!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is also the week in which
popular sentiment will turn against Jesus So quickly, and there are many factors
that go into why.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
1. <span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">He wasn’t the Messiah they were thinking of; and </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">2. </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The crowd listened
to their leaders’ whispers, and began to think that Jesus needed to be dead.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I’m
not going to talk about the reason for Jesus’ birth, or death, or how these
events freed us and saved us-that is a sermon on it’s own, and perhaps several.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or you can just look at <a href="http://www.wheneftalks2.blogspot.com/2009/04/confronting-atonement-theology.html">this article</a>, written
by a friend of mine:</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It
is our place, today, to meditate on these scriptures we have heard-where do we
put ourselves in this crowd?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do we
feel when we see the latest Messiah come into our city with confusing images,
like on a donkey, instead of a grand warhorse?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And
then, how do we feel when we go home, and already there is gossip swirling
around about the things that this latest Messiah might have said, like wanting
to destroy the temple, and that he may have upset all the folks in the outer
courts by destroying their tables, where they keep their money exchange
businesses?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
opinions begin to turn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And you may be
there thinking “well, I would have known it was Jesus, and I would have seen
him for who he was.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Probably
not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Public opinion can turn so
fast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While not comparing them to
Christ, may I remind you how many front runners the Republican party had just
last summer? 5?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>6?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
same human characteristics are at work then as are at work now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Public opinion can be fickle, and when it’s
told to you by someone in authority, it carries even more weight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It’s
hard for this sermon to have one point, because in the story, we are in the
middle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The last supper is coming in
the story, the prayers in the garden, the arrest, the trial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve been telling the story of the last 24
Hours all during let, but in holy week, we have to be aware of the story that
comes before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
know the end to this story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know that
Jesus is killed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know that Jesus is
resurrected, and stays with the disciples another 50 days, and then ascends to
heaven, after telling the people that they will have the power to tell the
story, to teach and to love.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">But
then we really don’t know the story in its entirety, do we?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We really don’t know how it ends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">That’s
because the story winds down the centuries, through the early church fathers,
the church in Rome, and Constantinople, The Crusades, the birth of
Protestantism, the colonization of the Americas and Africa, down to us right
here right now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
story isn’t finished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You and I are
writing the newest chapters now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are
entrusted with the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our faith
tells us how it ends, but it takes our actions to continue it-to write the new
episodes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We
carry the story forward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>May God give
you the strength to tell the story, of Christs’ choice for us, and our choice for God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-1315137150414493412013-03-23T20:50:00.000-04:002013-03-23T20:51:22.735-04:00Our Best Work<a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=231085681 ">Mark 15b-23</a><br />
<br />
You start to get a sense, by the fifth week of this story of the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life, that humans aren’t all that strong. Time after time after time, when humans are confronted with the choice of what they know or the unknown love of God, they choose what they know. Call it fear, call it peer pressure, call it whatever, we3 do not hold to our principles.<br />
<br />
Think of Peter. He was So strong, so insistent in saying to Jesus “I will never deny you!” Jesus looks at him and tells him “not only will you deny me, Jack, you’ll do it three time by dawn tomorrow.”<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxmIvEQlHOgM2yZVyd3j0srdyyXPeZxdT7bLcSNfr1bJviO2IUhbu3U8EjqzL-M3amL7_RoEYJLk0x1vXdXdU2bpm-rEL6Se0FIYYNxkD_hRqrrWOSQsm8MpIZQZXKDZb5B21NDg/s1600/Chagall+Cockcrow.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxmIvEQlHOgM2yZVyd3j0srdyyXPeZxdT7bLcSNfr1bJviO2IUhbu3U8EjqzL-M3amL7_RoEYJLk0x1vXdXdU2bpm-rEL6Se0FIYYNxkD_hRqrrWOSQsm8MpIZQZXKDZb5B21NDg/s320/Chagall+Cockcrow.jpg" /></a>So the soldiers come for Jesus, and it could be considered a failure that Peter whips out his sword and cuts off the ear of that servant. This is NOT what Jesus had told them to do! And yet Peter let his impulsiveness control his actions.<br />
<br />
Then Jesus is led away, and throughout the night, he is spit on my people who really should know better, people of decorum and status in the daylight. In the dark, away from prying eyes, they become animals, just like the people they consider themselves above.<br />
<br />
The first line of today’s scripture was “and Jesus was flogged”. Mark skips right over that, in order to get to the crucifixion. But it’s worth noting that the penal code of that time required a flogging. Another example of man’s inhumanity to man, and man’s inhumanity to the messenger of God’s love.<br />
<br />
When we talk about flogging, most folks will remember the flogging scene from Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.” The movie overall was definitely problematic, but the flogging scene was probably accurate. Hamilton talks about the whip used having pieces of glass or metal in the tips to strip pieces of flesh from the victim. And then the victim is required to carry the crossbar of his own cross, which Hamilton says is about 100 lbs, at least the one he is carrying in the video, probably a third of a mile to Golgotha.<br />
<br />
How do we do these things? We may think that we can’t do this to each other; we have evolved, we have progressed. We are Christian, or English, or Irish, or German, or Japanese, or Chinese, we are Hutu, or Tutsi, or Zulu. We are Christian. We can’t do this anymore. <br />
<br />
How many people stood by, of many nations, including Americans, as 6 million Jews were exterminated? <br />
<br />
Hamilton writes about an experiment at Stanford in the 70’s in which students were either chosen to be guards or prisoners, and put into an improvised prison setting in the basement of the psychology building. The experiment was scheduled for 14 days, but it has be cancelled after six, because of the level of abuse and oppression that the “guards” had begun to inflict on the “prisoners”.<br />
<br />
Another experiment that Hamilton writes about happened at Yale, where people were picked randomly off the sidewalk and told they would be paid four dollars for one hours’ work (in 1963, I guess this was a lot!). the work was to sit in a room without windows and which had a console of dials and gauges. Each time someone in another room answered a question wrong, they were to push a button which they were told administered an electric shock to the person who answered incorrectly. Upon command by a person off authority, they were to increase the voltage the subject. No one was being shocked, no one was answering questions. Before the experiment started, according to Hamilton, the estimate was that about 1 percent would be capable of administering a lethal dose of electricity, about 450 volts. <br />
<br />
They found that 65% were not only capable, but did so, even with piped in screams of pain in their ears. <br />
<br />
It’s troubling to think that, when we are given the permission, the tools and the power to oppress each other, we will. There was nothing mentioned in either experiment about what percentage of guards or prisoners or button pushers were Christian. It doesn’t say whether they filtered Christians out, or paid no attention to it at all, but what I do know is that, if we are truly followers of Christ, in the way that Christ is described in the Bible; if our discipleship in this world is to imitate Christ, there is no other choice for us, than to be the other 35%. <br />
<br />
Scripture is crystal clear; all of the justifications that people have used throughout history to justify slavery, or the secondary status of women, or any of a number of other statements, where people point to passages in the Bible to justify their opinions, this is called proof texting. It’s taking the line you like, and saying that the Bible says it. And we all know that’s wrong. The bible’s whole atmosphere, it’s whole direction, it’s whole point, is to point us toward peace. Toward showing us, and us showing to others, the love of God. <br />
And what it also shows is, is that, in these last 24 hours of Jesus’ life, how far short people can fall. Yes, there are a million individual reasons. Anger, fear, the need to earn a living, the need to not get killed yourself, the need to go along to get along, each show the truth that when put under these pressures, we will more often than not, conform. <br />
<br />
But that is not the Christian way. Our way is peace. Our way is grace. Our way is trust, and truth, and passion, and forgiveness. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFnhyphenhyphen4ySIxEaqlN0PBLFbv1xHMAUScwsJBeMXB0Z4Klb0Ubcb2A3OlrRyb_aRy-hGdUwqwoiVnt6W2VcCGd7shwHxA1NmfOyyKuQIeoZeYKPSWRPO7DxxFFXf4MfOKv9qeBJ5RKg/s1600/forgiveness-copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFnhyphenhyphen4ySIxEaqlN0PBLFbv1xHMAUScwsJBeMXB0Z4Klb0Ubcb2A3OlrRyb_aRy-hGdUwqwoiVnt6W2VcCGd7shwHxA1NmfOyyKuQIeoZeYKPSWRPO7DxxFFXf4MfOKv9qeBJ5RKg/s320/forgiveness-copy.jpg" /></a>So let’s exert our own peer pressure. Let us say to each other; “I know you will act with Christ’s best interests in mind; I know you will act with Christ’s Conscience; I know that you will forgive family members for the pain they have caused; I know you will forgive the person who stole your 401K" (like Abramoff). <br />
<br />
Yes, sometimes it takes something out of us to forgive. Sometimes it takes a lot out of us. But it is what we are called to do. For us, there is no place for revenge. There is every opportunity for repentance, there is every opportunity for forgiveness.<br />
<br />
I don’t me4an cheap forgiveness, like “oh, it’s ok, I didn’t need that $500,000, anyway”. Revenge is not ours to take, and we do not get to set the terms of punishment. Yes they did us wrong. Yes, they owe us the money back. But punitive measures outside of the legal system are not ours to take. When families are having trouble, the pain can go back decades. They have to be forgiven. Not forgotten, that is impossible. But it is a conscious work of ours to say “you are my family, I am still family with you. I trust that you will cease from this behavior, because I have told you how much it has hurt. And yes, they might do it again, and yes, you might need to separate yourself for self-preservations’ sake, but forgiveness can happen in that place, too. <br />
<br />
Forgiveness is our call. Compassion is our call. Grace and Love are our call. <br />
<br />
My wish is for you all is that you continue to progress toward forgiveness of your hurts. That you overcome the prejudices you were raised with, that in a marriage, 1 Corinthians 13 is your guiding star, not “an eye for an eye.” <br />
<br />
Yes, both are Scripture, but one gives life, and ultimately, giving life in Christ’s image is our call.<br />
<br />
<br />
Preached at Throop United Methodist Church, 3/17/13.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-52113132900946704552013-03-23T20:37:00.000-04:002013-03-23T20:37:51.250-04:00Choosing the Loser<a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=231085409 ">Mark 15: 1-15</a><br />
<br />
Adam Hamilton, in the book that we are following this Lent, seems to have a lot of background about who Barabbas is. He says that Barabbas, a leader of an insurrection, is brought into Jerusalem just like Jesus was, with the waving of palm branches, and the shouting of Hosanna, which means “save us.” Hamilton also states that the palm branch waving tradition goes back 190 years from that period, back to the Maccabees being brought into Jerusalem after defeating the Seleucids. All leaders, Hamilton seems to claim, are bought into the city with the waving of branches and the shouting of Hosanna. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbyjsbiNXnQV_trnB57hoRPuQDJPUAiMnFyGwGSB6PTueJrOtSXqLZ13IWKNGKY1EBFjFsSguNXd_pB3zaE3x1px0VOA89CzoC2zY3idb9bcSYLEdg7MkND8qzllXmi3L6MRU0NA/s1600/Jesus+entry+into+jerusalem.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbyjsbiNXnQV_trnB57hoRPuQDJPUAiMnFyGwGSB6PTueJrOtSXqLZ13IWKNGKY1EBFjFsSguNXd_pB3zaE3x1px0VOA89CzoC2zY3idb9bcSYLEdg7MkND8qzllXmi3L6MRU0NA/s320/Jesus+entry+into+jerusalem.jpg" /></a>So if Hamilton is correct, then Jesus being brought into Jerusalem as a conquering hero, donkey or not, it may not have even been the only time that had happened that week! Barabbas was the other.<br />
<br />
It’s important to remember here, that what people expected to see as the Messiah, was not what Jesus was. It is true, certainly that the chief priests incited the crowd to call for Barabbas over Jesus. But it was not as hard a job as we might think, with hindsight of 2000 years. Barabbas, as a military leader, a soldier, was closer to what the people had been expecting a Messiah to look like, to do. They expected a military leader who would throw off the yoke of oppression, dismiss the Roman Empire, and there would again be self-rule in Judea. Definitely a better fit than Jesus would have provided.<br />
<br />
It got me to thinking. When there is a chance for a change, a huge change, a sea change, a way in which culture works differently with the assent of almost everyone, we default into the belief that such changes can be done with force of arms. I don’t think that this is what Christ teachers, I don’t think this is what Christians should believe.<br />
<br />
The example Hamilton gives is the difference between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. Not necessarily religious differences, thought they were not of the same religion; more, the techniques they advocated to bring about change in American society.<br />
<br />
They were advocating for the same sort of change, the full inclusion of all Americans. Their styles were different, though; Malcom X advocated forcing change “by any means necessary”, which included violence. Martin Luther King, however, influenced by Ghandi and Jesus, advocate change by nonviolent means.<br />
<br />
In our society, today, we have more change that has been affected by nonviolent means than by violent. More change has happened because of the changing of hearts than by the taking up of arms. Yes, even in the nonviolent movement, people died. But the shock of their dying, unarmed, had the reverse effect occur than those who did the shooting expected. Public sentiment swung away from the ugliness, and toward the beauty of sacrifice.<br />
<br />
The lesson here, in our own history as well as in Biblical history, is that change almost ever comes through force of arms. It always seems to come in more substantial and important ways through nonviolence. Even in our own Revolution, we could never of fully defeated the British on our own. The war only truly ended as soon as it did because the British could no longer afford to keep this theater open with a rising French threat worldwide. So they cut their losses here; our independence was cheaper, in the end, than fighting a world war with France. <br />
Force of arms never changes things. The way to change the world is to act on your beliefs, and to live your life in such a way that it is apparent what you believe. <br />
<br />
The crowd was scared by what Jesus presented. “What do you mean, turn the other cheek, and that will eventually drive out the Romans?” Barabbas presented a more comfortable and familiar form of resistance, a form that allowed for violence and anger and war.<br />
<br />
We are in our churches, this morning, because we believed in the other guy. We don’t believe in force of arms. However you may want to argue about self-protection and “the castle doctrine” and whatever else we hear in our news these days, we are here because we chose the guy who died. This has implications for us as actors in our own society that we chose the loser. We chose the actual son of God, not the “sword” of God. <br />
<br />
How does that change the way you see the world? How does that change the way you see our society and how it should work? How does it change your everyday life?<br />
<br />
These are your questions to answer.<br />
<br />
I pray that my words have been the Lord’s intention this day, AMEN. <br />
<br />
Preached at Throop UMC, 3/10/13<br />
<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-34780198463072378402013-03-04T12:26:00.000-05:002013-03-04T12:26:43.178-05:00What Are You Afraid Of?Mark 14: 53-72<br />
<br />
This is a tough part of the story, and as stated by Adam Hamilton, who is the author of the book that is inspiring my sermons this Lent, this is the most difficult point for self-reflection. If we are to place ourselves as characters in this scripture, we will inevitably place ourselves as either the Sanhedrin, or Peter. <br />
<br />
In both of those cases, Christ is denied, Christ is abused, and Christ is handed over to be killed.<br />
<br />
This is also who we are.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-lWq_aMkWr-KnPfG0r4cgC1Pbr_BlKsY8juwnH6p7sZBRZN5w2VsR2KjMX4KFdtLTef5ySRuQRYZbUti3xVKajFI17paXcmSpjaKKxdOJrWcA7zTpexeHTnv9wVgtz_7T6-d5FA/s1600/sanhedrin.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-lWq_aMkWr-KnPfG0r4cgC1Pbr_BlKsY8juwnH6p7sZBRZN5w2VsR2KjMX4KFdtLTef5ySRuQRYZbUti3xVKajFI17paXcmSpjaKKxdOJrWcA7zTpexeHTnv9wVgtz_7T6-d5FA/s320/sanhedrin.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
The Sanhedrin was a group of seventy elders of the Jews, and not just of Jerusalem-for all of Judaism at that time. They were the political descendants of the seventy that Moses gathered at the command of God to help him govern the Israelites in the desert some 200 years before. They are the most holy, the most religious, the most righteous, in the world, so it is believed.<br />
<br />
And here they are, spitting on a man. <br />
<br />
And here they are, covering up a man’s face and beating him. <br />
<br />
It’s as if you gathered every pastor you’ve ever admired, male and female, every Bishop, and gathered them together at midnight to secretly try a mouthy homeless man, then they spit in his face, then put a bag over his head and beat him. <br />
<br />
This is exactly how stark a reality we’re talking about. And why are they doing all of this?<br />
<br />
Because he threatens their way of life. Their power. Their way of existence; their comfort; their connections to the Romans and to the law. Jesus threatens all of that. <br />
<br />
And he’s not even threatening them with a substitute, competitive system. He wants to change EVERYTHING. Completely.<br />
<br />
These are the most religious people in their society, and when they are threatened with the dissolution of their system of advantage and privilege, they respond like thugs. <br />
<br />
We might want to think at some point; “we could never do that, we are followers of Christ!” <br />
<br />
Perhaps, but I invite you to interview any number of women clergy who were the first ones into the churches they serve. I invite you to interview any number of pastors of color, and ask them how they were treated in some of their first appointments. Things haven’t changed all that much. Perhaps we don’t spit anymore, perhaps we don’t punch anymore, maybe we’re more decorous, more polite, but we will still see someone who shares our faith but practices it differently, and we won’t always respond with grace and peace and acceptance.<br />
<br />
What was the system that Jesus wanted to bring to his society? What were the Sanhedrin so afraid of? What are we so afraid of?<br />
<br />
Adam Hamilton, in his chapter of the book we’re using, quotes a passage from 1 John, one of the tiny little letters right before Revelation in the back of the Christian testament. Here is what he quotes: <br />
<br />
<i>God is love, and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them. 17This is how love has been perfected in us, so that we can have confidence on the Judgment Day, because we are exactly the same as God is in this world. 18There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love. 19We love because God first loved us. 20If anyone says, I love God, and hates a brother or sister, he is a liar, because the person who doesn’t love a brother or sister who can be seen can’t love God, who can’t be seen. 21This commandment we have from him: Those who claim to love God ought to love their brother and sister also. </i> –Common English Bible<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNMILe_efZLj9U8ZItiiF9US9AXvQDvqf1tQ2Yn0iVf4MLYeO87pe5hPqPlGXc33fHI_-dlpOiocp198i7sbKZlrGnr96CEUdQuDDO8BWgStg6iqA3JjFuPkEHFrYB35_yK9Oqbw/s1600/TheScreamFear.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNMILe_efZLj9U8ZItiiF9US9AXvQDvqf1tQ2Yn0iVf4MLYeO87pe5hPqPlGXc33fHI_-dlpOiocp198i7sbKZlrGnr96CEUdQuDDO8BWgStg6iqA3JjFuPkEHFrYB35_yK9Oqbw/s320/TheScreamFear.jpg" /></a><br />
<br />
This is what people were so afraid of. Perfect love casts out fear. The opposite of fear isn’t confidence or courage. It is isn’t comfort. The Biblical opposite of fear is love. And the Christian life is a constant journey to seek to love those whom we hate. It takes strength, it takes work, it takes attention, to cast our fear. And the first step of that is an honest humble assessment of what it is we are truly afraid of. <br />
<br />
So what are you afraid of? <br />
<br />
Are you afraid of the people who are moving into town with a different color skin? Are you afraid of family and the scars they have left on you? Are you afraid of change of any kind? Are you afraid of death?<br />
<br />
All of these examples, which are surely paltry when compared with the fears of whomever reads this, can be eradicated by love and work. It takes work. <br />
<br />
Lent is the time when we begin to do that work. Sometimes, Lent isn’t even the time when we start and finish. Sometimes Lent is merely the time we dedicate to clarifying the problem! Easter, then, begins the real work.<br />
<br />
Perfect love casts out fear. We are all afraid of something. My prayer for you all is to have confidence in the truth that God’s love is sufficient for everything you need to fight, to conquer, to overcome. Trust in God’s love, and with honesty, and work, it will be enough. <br />
<br />
It will be enough.<br />
<br />
I pray that my words have been the Lords’ intention this day, Amen. <br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-70081114945165370122013-02-22T09:40:00.000-05:002013-02-22T09:40:12.584-05:00Who Did It For You?<i>These sermons of Lent are inspired by the chapters of the book “24 Hours that Changed the World”, by Rev. Adam Hamilton.<br />
</i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=228543518">Mark 14: 12-25</a><br />
<br />
The meal that Jesus gathers with his friends for in this story is the Passover dinner, a ritualistic meal in the Jewish faith that remembers the Exodus, or the story of their deliverance, as a people, from slavery in Egypt.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkH0YnhE5733Yks6_YoeZtKTGM1ABMBrcxHdmJufvLK4KEb-2ewaWJAN57ahqDjxK0dM2dfSxUUlO0HU19Vlf-XtIZLu_RVn9fdPUEuSKsESmddtj7xfRO1dXQyjoIxQ0g80K0TQ/s1600/Simon_ushakov_last_supper_1685.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkH0YnhE5733Yks6_YoeZtKTGM1ABMBrcxHdmJufvLK4KEb-2ewaWJAN57ahqDjxK0dM2dfSxUUlO0HU19Vlf-XtIZLu_RVn9fdPUEuSKsESmddtj7xfRO1dXQyjoIxQ0g80K0TQ/s320/Simon_ushakov_last_supper_1685.jpg" /></a>I’m not real clear on the symbolism, or even if the Passover as observed now is the way it was 2000 years ago. I do remember, in the modern Passover that there’s a place where the youngest person ion the room gets to ask “why this night isn’t like any other night?” <br />
<br />
The order of ritual is called a Haggadah, and there are many variations in the modern world. <br />
<br />
What they all commemorate, though is the greatest event in the Jewish world, the event that created them as a people. As good Jews, Jesus and his disciples and friends would of course have observed this, too.<br />
<br />
Remember when Jesus told John the Baptist that it should be so for now that he should baptize Jesus? There are just certain things that we have to do as matters of passing, matters of societal acceptance. It may seem weird for Jesus to have observed the Passover, but also remember that he was a good Jewish man, and this is what good Jewish folk do. There may have even been a few years in which Jesus was the one who asked why this night wasn’t like all other nights, if they did that back then. <br />
<br />
Passover is a remembrance. It’s a way to remember their history; a way to remember who they are. <br />
<br />
Last night, at dinner at a restaurant, my father asked my son a question about his genealogy from his mothers’ side, a question about Edward I, Longshanks of England, whom my wife’s family can trace back to. He was asking about whether he was related to the body that had just been discovered recently in England (which turned out to be Edward II).<br />
<br />
My father tells these stories for the same reason the Jews celebrate Passover-so we may remember who we are and where we come from. We all have certain facets of remembrance in our lives. There are stories we all tell about what is important to us. <br />
<br />
Jesus, in the Passover dinner, is no different. <br />
<br />
They were there to tell the story of their common heritage. But Jesus changed it up, that night. He took up one of the four cups used in the Passover then, and said to the people around the table (including Judas, who Adam Hamilton suggests was immediately to Jesus’ side at the place of honor the way the table was set up in those days), that this wine was his blood. Then he told them that the unleavened bread he held was like his body.<br />
<br />
Surely this made the disciples tense, because they knew that the clouds were gathering, the evil was rising, the bad people were starting to have a plan. But when he says “each time you eat this, remember me,” they were surely confused. Jesus is not using the language of resistance.<br />
<br />
Something new was instituted that night, and that something new itself became a remembrance, which is what we are doing today. Communion is a direct outgrowth of the actions Jesus took at the Passover dinner the night before he died.<br />
<br />
During these next six weeks of Lent, we’re going to be concentrating on the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life, as written about by Rev. Adam Hamilton of the church of the Resurrection, a United Methodist church in suburban Kansas City. <br />
<br />
Jesus gathered his friends for Passover, which is a remembrance. We take communion as a remembrance of Jesus’ choices for us. We may also remember the ones who have come before us to the rail we come to in our churches. We may remember some significant moments while taking communion at camp, or at your wedding, or wherever. <br />
<br />
Whatever it may be, may this be the beginning of a fruitful and meaningful Lent, as we rededicate ourselves to God’s purpose, of loving the world as he would love it. <br />
<br />
<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-16302909087702933522013-02-22T09:28:00.000-05:002013-02-22T09:29:30.564-05:00Ash Wednesday 2013<br />
2/13/13<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVQIEk_WXSHoUsC5dMH_eahsw9Nq4Jkw1-PF_vXdxHuV-N5GgmRyMb8MdwnkP2-g7rokFIW2ZrbifFPchcGr4g8AbVzl1lHGhHn4tYx0fIvmOGX-Q6ulX5dcTyeFAHrrtrt1fDfw/s1600/dead-poets_l_7721.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVQIEk_WXSHoUsC5dMH_eahsw9Nq4Jkw1-PF_vXdxHuV-N5GgmRyMb8MdwnkP2-g7rokFIW2ZrbifFPchcGr4g8AbVzl1lHGhHn4tYx0fIvmOGX-Q6ulX5dcTyeFAHrrtrt1fDfw/s320/dead-poets_l_7721.jpg" /></a>It’s not easy for us to remember that we’re going to die, someday. <br />
<br />
It’s inconceivable for this kids who are, here, and maybe just a little more conceivable for those who are more mature in years, but still extremely unpleasant. We also, however, know people who have said top us or to others, “I have lived too long. I am ready for God to take me home.”<br />
<br />
We don’t want to think about it, though, until it is time. This may even be true for those who have seen death, both timely and untimely. We may have sen death in war, or the death of elderly and not so elderly, loved ones, or car accidents, or disease. Through those occurrences, there may be a few of us who are slightly more settled with the concept of death than others, but it is still uncomfortable for all of us. <br />
<br />
And yet the traditional language of Ash Wednesday is nothing but the contemplation of returning to dust.<br />
<br />
There’s a scene in the movie “Dead Poets’ Society” in which the English teacher, Mr. Keating, has taken all of his students to the awards case in the school’s foyer. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDS8a0QeybnpRY-16nTYNzkDWdZ2wxFaRbHKEgLXJXBkdV9eXsli0mT96qhr4gURNBoiy_bolf3dhwdCZCcQc8EC-d0xRh_JRebkcGE4rDdbRpwumMCGElYqMe4ySByT_pVftvSQ/s1600/carpe.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDS8a0QeybnpRY-16nTYNzkDWdZ2wxFaRbHKEgLXJXBkdV9eXsli0mT96qhr4gURNBoiy_bolf3dhwdCZCcQc8EC-d0xRh_JRebkcGE4rDdbRpwumMCGElYqMe4ySByT_pVftvSQ/s320/carpe.jpg" /></a> He bids them to look at the pictures, see the faces, see their pride, their arrogance, their power, and their joy. He says that these boys in these pictures were once exactly like them, with pimples, hormones, wonderings about their future. He tells them that all that is different between the boys in the pictures and the boys staring at them are that the boys in the pictures, grew, up, married, had children, grew old, and have died. They are no more. They have gone the way of all flesh. But their voices still speak to us.<br />
<br />
It is the ultimate stroke of humility in our lives to realize that, after all, we are not immortal. We are not indestructible. Just as that foyer had those photos in them of those who had gone before, so too we have the photos in our churches, large Sunday school classes, social groups, people who were once young and vital, and their parents and grandparents. They were just like us, in all the ways that matter. Some hated paczski, some loved them, some could not conceive of getting ashes on their foreheads, as too Catholic of a thing, others did so without a thought. <br />
<br />
They had the same frustrations about parenting and weather, and people not showing up for church roast beef dinners enough. They lived the same lives we did. And now they are gone. <br />
<br />
And there will be a time in which we will no longer be here, either. There will be a time in which we are not.<br />
<br />
From dust we have come, to dust we shall return. <br />
<br />
You might be uncomfortable right now, wondering why the preacher is hitting so strong on the idea of death. <br />
<br />
It is, in part, that idea of a finite amount of time on earth that gives us the permission to not feel like we need to finish the Work of God before we are Gone. We know, most likely, that we will leave the job undone.<br />
<br />
It is a relief, perhaps, to realize that. While we are not permitted to abdicate our responsibility to share God’s love, to comfort the sick, feed the hungry, neither are we required to finish the building of the Beloved Community. God has designed it this way, and we know this by the fact that we do, in fact, return to dust.<br />
<br />
We’re only called, just like the people in all those photos on the walls, to do the best we can while we’re here. <br />
<br />
We are indeed God’s children, put on earth for a finite amount of time, a time span which we don’t know the length of, and neither do our families, or our doctors. <br />
<br />
And we are given a task with that time. The general task comes from Scripture: To Make Disciples of Jesus Christ. The United Methodist church adds on “for the transformation of the world.”<br />
<br />
But how we do that, how we use the gifts and graces we’ve been given in the time we have, this is the riddle of life, this can be what Lent is for.<br />
<br />
Once we realize we are not immortal, once we realize that we must decide how our gifts and graces should be used to construct our own little piece of the community, this can be what Lent is for.<br />
<br />
Once we realize we are not responsible for the whole world, that weight of the world slips off our backs, and we take responsibility of just what is in front of us.<br />
<br />
There’s the story of the guy walking down the beach, throwing starfish into the ocean. A friend comes along and tells him he’s nuts, and does he really think he can save every starfish? And he replies “well, I made a difference for that one!” <br />
<br />
That’s all were called to do, with the time we have. And Lent is the time we can use to rededicate ourselves to our task. <br />
<br />
And it starts with the reminder, tonight, that we are finite. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-62373494421647671392013-02-04T16:08:00.000-05:002013-02-04T16:08:17.484-05:00Prophets and Hometowns<a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=227011927">Luke 4: 21-30</a><br />
<br />
2/3/13<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Ri4xzTCwCen85yK2JZs7EctpHRMWa1zvwRoPWcf7f2-r4JGM9OgAarJ9hunLtTFgfK8ERlZAV7PHqOQPOcziS3vCj19bZnQBbn-fSmQYOMsfSQSKdyiIvmB9293YZpHmCYV49w/s1600/Jesus-being-thrown-off-a-cliff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="231" width="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Ri4xzTCwCen85yK2JZs7EctpHRMWa1zvwRoPWcf7f2-r4JGM9OgAarJ9hunLtTFgfK8ERlZAV7PHqOQPOcziS3vCj19bZnQBbn-fSmQYOMsfSQSKdyiIvmB9293YZpHmCYV49w/s320/Jesus-being-thrown-off-a-cliff.jpg" /></a></div><br />
“No Prophet is without honor except in his hometown.”<br />
<br />
And then Jesus illustrates this by telling the story of Elijah, who, in a time of drought in Israel, is not sent to prophesy to any of the widows of Israel, but instead to a widow in Sidon, who lives in the town of Zarepath. <br />
<br />
And then there was Naaman the Syrian, Who was a great and powerful leader of the Syrian army, and was therefore an enemy of the Israelites. And whom was he sent to to heal his leprosy? Elisha. A prophet of Israel.<br />
<br />
I talk last week about how hard it can be to be a leader of a people when you have grown up amongst them. People tend not to believe the wisdom of someone for whom they have babysat, or dated, or tipped cows with. <br />
<br />
You actually tend to have, in a way a certain amount of contempt for them, if "kindly" contempt is a word we can use. <br />
<br />
Think of Einstein’s wet nurse. He knew about his learning delays, his inability to speak before he was 8. To her, that is all he would ever be. When his brain starts working, and he gains great renown through his research and his theories, she probably still rolled her eyes. To her, he was probably just “putting on airs.” <br />
<br />
Most folks never find out what that feels like. We accept what people tell us we are. We never find, or feel led, into the excellence that God has given us the gifts for. <br />
<br />
It doesn’t have to be Einstein, or a pastor, or a CEO. But if you say to someone “well, I’m going to use my vacation to go build houses in Ciudad Juarez,” there will be some folks who will say “Really? Don’t you want to go further down the coast to Acapulco and have a REAL vacation?” Of course, what they are really saying is: “Acapulco is where I want to go, and by you choosing to do that, I now feel bad, and I don’t like that! And now I’m mad at you!”<br />
<br />
It takes strength to be excellent. It takes strength to follow your call from God. It takes change. It takes the people re-adjusting to the person you are now. <br />
<br />
And yes, there are people who will hear the criticism of their family and friends, and will step back, if for no other reason than they just don’t want to continue to be beat up. It is indeed, very hard to be a prophet in one’s hometown. Some say that one should leave where one is from in order to fulfill ones’ call, and indeed, these are the reasons that United Methodist pastors are not usually allowed to serve their home congregations. They just know you too well. And you may carry with you old childhood impressions of people that would not serve you well as an adult prophet.<br />
<br />
We are called to grow. We are called to change. We are called to be prophets-to call people to account regarding the will of God. <br />
<br />
You might think you are having a hard time. If folks think you are pitting on airs, because you are going to school; or because you might be the first person in your neighborhood who has been made a manager of your plant, and there are people saying “what, are you better than us?”<br />
<br />
You might think you are having a hard time. But Jesus had it worse. When he started “putting on airs”, they tried to throw him off a cliff! He was that troubling to them.<br />
<br />
Be who you are called to be. If you have a strong sense that you are called be somewhere that you are not right now, take the steps to get there. Our God is strong enough to lean on, so we can grow into who God leads us to be.<br />
<br />
Or another way: We are called to be strong. We are called to be independent; we are called to be a loving witness. But sometimes, the people around us don’t want us to do that. God is strong enough to lean on in those cases, so we can be who God intends.<br />
<br />
God is strong enough.<br />
<br />
God is strong enough to hold back a whole towns-full of people wishing to see you fall off a cliff, and let you walk right through them. <br />
<br />
God is strong enough for you, too.<br />
<br />
<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-40923201988679483752013-02-04T16:02:00.000-05:002013-02-04T16:02:21.329-05:00Waving our Bibles at the Comet1/27/13<br />
<br />
<a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=227011427">Luke 4: 14-21</a><br />
<br />
This scripture that we read today is a great opportunity, for those who live today, to feel a little superior to the people who lived in Jesus’ time.<br />
It’s easy for us to say, and indeed I have heard, that we would have known Jesus is the messiah at that moment in the synagogue.<br />
<br />
But may I submit to you that, if someone who grew up in your church, whom everyone had seen for years, and then who went away for a while, to college or to military service or for a job, and then came back to your church, as asked to read scripture, and then claimed that the scripture they had just read was actually about them; may I submit to you that you might be thinking that person might be a little disturbed? I know that if it happened in my churches, I would be thinking in my mind which mental health professional I could call. <br />
<br />
I’m thinking that the people in that synagogue that day were no different than us, and this was a troubling event. I can hear the voices! “Who does that Jesus kid think he is? We remember babysitting him; we remember him throwing the baseball through my window; we remember him dipping that girl’s braid into ink.” <br />
It’s no accident that the second half of this passage ends with the townspeople wanting to throw Jesus off a cliff.<br />
<br />
It’s a strong claim he’s making to the people he’s grown up with. And just as we would have reacted to someone making claims like that in our churches, so they probably reacted then.<br />
<br />
And yet.<br />
<br />
He was right.<br />
<br />
I’m not one for apocalyptic visions. If you asked me about the Mayan calendar, if you asked me about Harold Camping (twice!), if you asked me about every prophecy about the world ending, my answer is always going to be “don’t believe it!” But that doesn’t mean I do not believe Jesus will return. I just pretty much believe that Jesus will come again at a time and place, and in a way we don’t expect. I think it’s likely that he’ll return again as an infant, in an occupied territory, as a member of an oppressed minority. Maybe he already has been born, and lives in Syria, or Mali, or Darfur. Maybe he (or she) lives in the great big city dump in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, or the mountains of West Virginia. It’s going to be that sneaky, again.<br />
<br />
Like a thief in the night. And it’s probably going to be someone we, because of our worldview and culture, don’t like. Someone who we are uncomfortable with, because of who we are.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRB08WMHo9TxQP46LE3fHYK-v0fvsjSmhfGe4dO-s4Bhq1wBW2ZeNEcGPl6lQEOhas8QhxolXjXJpD-jIkWDhigOTWFNuyqlRoA_h7rX-zRry1wQldrOY5KZT5NQWrzVgXa9AFcA/s1600/fig%252Cbaby_blue%252Cmens%252Cffffff.u1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="201" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRB08WMHo9TxQP46LE3fHYK-v0fvsjSmhfGe4dO-s4Bhq1wBW2ZeNEcGPl6lQEOhas8QhxolXjXJpD-jIkWDhigOTWFNuyqlRoA_h7rX-zRry1wQldrOY5KZT5NQWrzVgXa9AFcA/s320/fig%252Cbaby_blue%252Cmens%252Cffffff.u1.jpg" /></a></div><br />
There’s a t-shirt I once saw in Deep Ellum, the music and nightclub section of Dallas TX, that said “Jesus is Coming, Look Busy”. <br />
<br />
We are not called to be people who recognize the Messiah when he or she comes. We are called to be, instead, people who are trying to serve God as best we can in whatever way we can, even when it is uncomfortable, or challenges our prejudices. And when we just happen to meet Jesus in those circumstances, among those whom we have learned to see as children of God, well, then, we have been caught serving. Oops. We aren’t called to be the people on the roof of the skyscraper, waving out bibles in the air as the comet flies by, but we are the people down the street in the basement, making sure the clothes are sorted properly, or that the women in front of us wearing donated business clothing, looks good for a job interview.<br />
<br />
Giving people dignity. This is who we are called to be.<br />
<br />
Who knows? Maybe some of those people in that synagogue later were convinced, and followed Jesus. Even if they remembered the baseball through their windows.<br />
This is who we are called to be. Gentle, humble, joyful, passionate, generous, forgiving, compassionate, not prone to gossip, or prejudice.<br />
May you be such people, in your lives, to the best of your ability. And know that we learn more how to do it every day. There are always people we’d rather not be around, and we are called to see them as children of God.<br />
<br />
Let the Christians take care of themselves. You be a follower of Christ.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-56881753826979877852013-02-04T15:53:00.000-05:002013-02-04T15:53:48.285-05:00The Miracle of Hospitality1/20/13<br />
<br />
<a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=227010861">John 2: 1-11</a><br />
<br />
Everyone has a few favorite scriptures; mine include Acts 10, when God tells Peter than what God has created no one shall call profane; this is another one. <br />
This one is another one-it was one of the ones read at my wedding. It is important because of the obvious, that it was a wedding scene, but it was also important to me because Jesus’ first miracle is a miracle of winemaking.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQEKHUxg02ko89tzj7ZNV2pMP_zFNAcC9li8UgZ_l64wKoIlls37nHTciJf5WaFcXS7FH0vtfl2T7iM3RpUvYRaxdy1uyOkD6VzUkhCPZmUw_Dzl9SrDIUpLdiS1NPjl6mxCiC3g/s1600/Winemakers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="213" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQEKHUxg02ko89tzj7ZNV2pMP_zFNAcC9li8UgZ_l64wKoIlls37nHTciJf5WaFcXS7FH0vtfl2T7iM3RpUvYRaxdy1uyOkD6VzUkhCPZmUw_Dzl9SrDIUpLdiS1NPjl6mxCiC3g/s320/Winemakers.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Before I was in ministry, I was in the wine business. I was born in Napa Valley, CA, and went through a phase of life where I wanted to be a part of the fabric of what made my hometown significant. So I was a cellar worker, dipping my arm up to the shoulder through the top of an outdoor 10.000 gallon tank of Pinot Noir to get a lab sample; I was a tour guide, leading groups of folks through the tank rooms and aging rooms of the California branch of a French champagne company.<br />
<br />
When you read this scripture, and preach it in a town like Napa, you get to do all kinds of things with it, such as applying brand names to be lesser and greater wines; “The steward praises the bridegroom for holding back on the Mondavi till all the Gallo had run out;” things like that.<br />
<br />
Aside from all the wonderful stories I can tell as a preacher in conjunction with this scripture, what I love about it is how few people actually knew about it when it happened. It also matters who knew.<br />
<br />
This is a wedding, there are likely hundreds of people there. Jesus is there, the disciples are there, Mary is there; probably most of the town of Cana is there. The steward figures out that the wine is going to run out; maybe it’s a hot day, or maybe there are more guests than expected, or maybe the consumption is way more than expected. It doesn’t matter-the bridegroom is about to be embarrassed. Mary is sensitive to this, and lets Jesus know there’s about to be a social faux-pas in that wedding, and she hollers over to Jesus to do something. <br />
<br />
Jesus’ first miracle isn’t the returning of sight to the blind, or healing someone who can’t walk. It’s a quiet little miracle that keeps a bridegroom from being embarrassed on his wedding day. <br />
<br />
And he doesn’t even know it. The steward doesn’t either. I can imagine the face of the groom as the steward compliments him; a certain amount of bewilderment, pleasure, and relief at a problem solved.<br />
<br />
But the servants know what happened. The disciples probably know, Mary knows, but the wider parties, including the principals, have no clue. And maybe they never do. They just know that that wedding that day was awesome, because the wine was above average.<br />
<br />
Isn’t that the way with miracles? Miracles, to me, are those things that change the way we act in life, but are not big splashy things that make it into newspapers. Miracles are very generally huge to the people they are affected by, and unknown to the people around the rest of the world.<br />
<br />
We do misuse the world miracle, too. Was it really a miracle that the USA beat the USSR in ice hockey in 1980? (“Do you believe in miracles?”) Was it really a miracle that Sully Sullenberger was able to land that plane in the Hudson river after all of his engines failed, or was it, as he said, just well trained people doing their jobs? Is it really a miracle that chemotherapy and radiation works? Or is it just medical science doing what’s designed to do?<br />
<br />
It’s a hard thing to talk about miracles. There needs to be this unexplained component of an event, but more importantly, there has to be a component of the event giving glory to God in some way. It has to point to God. No matter what may have been said back then about “godless Communism”, the US’ hockey victory points more to the glory and power of coaching, training and teamwork, than God.<br />
<br />
It seems to be frivolous that Jesus’ first miracle is to provide the drug that keeps the party going. For teetotalers, this miracle becomes problematic as well.<br />
But keeping the party going is not Jesus’ intent. His intent is hospitality, which for many people is the only grace they feel they are capable of. When someone is sick, everyone can cook (or order out) food for the family of the sick person. Lasagna, brownies, each of those things is hospitality; helping other people, providing comfort to others, is as important to the testifying of God’s love and grace as any return of sign to the blind. In a sense, even those healings are hospitality, too!<br />
And the miracle of hospitality is the thing that we are all capable of. This is within our grasp. I cannot make someone who can’t walk to walk again; but I can make a plate of fried chicken! I cannot take away cancer, but I can learn how to perform surgery to remove it as best I can, or I can clean their cat box, or clean their bathroom. <br />
<br />
The miracle is in the love we show. The miracle is in the caring we show, and it is no less a miracle than turning water into wine. <br />
It may sound like a strong statement, but try it sometime. And then try to receive someone else’s hospitality. When we receive someone else’s grace, it can be as powerful as successful surgery.<br />
<br />
Hospitality can be a miracle. Truly. <br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-75181311942149833542013-02-04T15:45:00.000-05:002013-02-04T15:45:07.410-05:00Baptism of Christ<br />
1/13/13<br />
<br />
<a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=227010539">Luke 3: 15-17. 21-22</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7oCDbuoOoUPI9UKqfWIiQuhgE_J3SCZRK2pseIeYdTTJEKfquIkm583XZX-jn1JbbGCsLT8M8tCdqBQujw1ECpepWEplHUZzmvp2HRONBekOMYDW8QmuK5_TGgnY__FTkvhDR0w/s1600/Baptism+of+Christ+panel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7oCDbuoOoUPI9UKqfWIiQuhgE_J3SCZRK2pseIeYdTTJEKfquIkm583XZX-jn1JbbGCsLT8M8tCdqBQujw1ECpepWEplHUZzmvp2HRONBekOMYDW8QmuK5_TGgnY__FTkvhDR0w/s320/Baptism+of+Christ+panel.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Nobody is born a Christian. You can be born into a Christian culture, just like you can be born into a Jewish culture. But one can be an atheist in still be Jewish. You cannot say that about Christianity. You must choose it, at some point. <br />
<br />
It may feel like you can; some of you were born into Christian families, and have been attending church since you were brought in a baby-carrier. But there was some point at which you made some sort of a decision, either in small portions, or all at once, to become a follower of Jesus Christ. <br />
<br />
I was in and out of Methodist and Episcopalian churches my whole life, wherever my father was hired as a singer or a choir conductor. But I did not become a Christian in either of those denominations; instead, I became a Christian at 26 years old in a non-denominational church. I remember the day well, and am still friends with one of the people who were also baptized that day. It was a time when I needed help, and I saw in God the strength to do what I needed to do, but that I could not do myself.<br />
Those of us who were baptized as infants do not remember the day. You were brought to the church by your family or friends, and the congregation (if it was Methodist) pledged to bring you up in the ways of the faith, until such time as when you were able to be confirmed, and at that time, you took responsibility for your own salvation. <br />
For each of us, there has been a time when we were not Christian. Whether it be for a few weeks, a month or two, or a year, or whether it was much longer, like me, there was a time when we were not marked as God’s own. Baptism was the sign that we all participated in to mark us as Christ’s own.<br />
<br />
Today is the baptism of Christ. Today is the day we acknowledge that even someone who had the connection with God that Jesus did; access to the bandwidth that Jesus did, had to start with a very mundane procedure to mark the acceptance of God’s grace in his life; his “repentance”.<br />
<br />
John, in another account of the story, sees Jesus coming and, since they’re cousins, and since John knows who Jesus is, since his birth, says, “I should be baptized by you!” Jesus tells him “let it be so for now.” <br />
<br />
No one is worthy of being the person who performs baptism, but it still has to happen. Baptism is for us the “outward and visible sign of an inward movement and change.” Someone’s got to do it, but we all know that we are not anything more than just the vessel through which the Spirit works. <br />
<br />
There are some churches, as well, who believe that you must be baptized again each time you change churches, but we in the United Methodist traditions do not. We do not “rebaptize”, whether you come from Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, whatever. If you were baptized in any church that believes in the Trinity, that Jesus was the Son of God, and that he was resurrected; if the church claims that doctrine, even if you personally have issues with it, you are still not rebaptized.<br />
<br />
But I do know that it can be hard to find meaning in baptism, or in being baptized, if you don’t remember. For others, our baptism is a memory that needs to be claimed and cherished.<br />
<br />
So this morning, we do a re-affirmation of our baptisms. <br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-13238753027139664192013-02-04T15:39:00.000-05:002013-02-04T15:39:40.854-05:00Nativity Scenes<a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=227010189">Matthew 2: 1-18</a><br />
<br />
<br />
It’s an important thing to remember; the lectionary reading for today ends at verse 12, but it’s important to remember what happens after Jesus’ birth, in Matthew. The coming of the Messiah, the coming of Jesus, even as a human baby, meant a threat to people in power. <br />
<br />
You read this whole periscope, therefore, so we are reminded that the coming of the messiah does indeed bring a sword; that Herod was so threatened by the appearance of three wise foreigners to his land looking for a king foretold in the heavens, that on their word, he sends soldiers to kill every child under two years old in the district the wise men mentioned they were headed toward, as a way of ensuring that that one child would also be eliminated.<br />
<br />
It is important to remember that these things happen. Power is jealous. That which is good in this world is often opposed by those for whom the world will change.<br />
<br />
It is important to remember, but it is not my main point today. <br />
<br />
Many churches these days will display nativity scenes in their sanctuaries, or outside in their yards. Many folks will also have them in their homes. <br />
<br />
Do you know where the tradition of nativity scenes comes from? The inventor of the idea is generally understood to be none other than St. Francis of Assisi himself! That makes nativity scenes a tradition some 800 years old. <br />
<br />
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativity_scene<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbAhSLaQPEqeHGPMU0N_aCZzf8KUhwXW9yuiPXZJdpwJWlWVoAJEd5vP4lHFvp9Eix7-IMqjjmEWkg6GIQfQ_6Mv9pU-Iatq-ICSFpqFcy_z6wM5eXJj_HyEHhuVfZGuBZc2TKOA/s1600/veggie-tales-nativity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="207" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbAhSLaQPEqeHGPMU0N_aCZzf8KUhwXW9yuiPXZJdpwJWlWVoAJEd5vP4lHFvp9Eix7-IMqjjmEWkg6GIQfQ_6Mv9pU-Iatq-ICSFpqFcy_z6wM5eXJj_HyEHhuVfZGuBZc2TKOA/s320/veggie-tales-nativity.jpg" /></a></div><br />
From his invention, we see Polish woodcarvings that depict the steeples of one town’s churches surrounding the holy family; we see Veggietales characters as Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men and Jesus; and scenes that are on the lawns of courthouses, private residences. We see live ones, static ones, rubber ones, stone ones, ones dressed in traditional first century middle eastern garb, and ones that reflect the regular dress of the people who created it. <br />
<br />
My son has a self contained one that holds only the Holy family, that as created out of a gourd, and the people inside are dressed in traditional Bolivian garb, with Mary wearing that distinctive fedora women wear there.<br />
<br />
If you have a crèche, you probably have a story about where it came from. <br />
<br />
The birth of Christ, and his childhood, are universal touchstones. Many of us know what it means to care for a newborn and infant. We may not know what were used for diapers on Jesus; Procter and Gamble didn't exist back then. But sleepless nights from colicky babies is something Mary may have known as well as us. The wondering when the proper time is to transfer the baby to more solid food; the worry if the baby will get enough to eat if Mary’s milk dried up too early. Just as we have these worries now, Mary may have had them then. <br />
<br />
Because Jesus came as a human being, we all understand what his life was like, to a certain degree. <br />
<br />
This is what Francis wanted to see, I think. He invented the practice after having gone to the traditional site of the birthplace, to the church built over the site, and the reality of such an occasion was what he wanted to highlight; this is why he invented the practice. That’s real straw, those are real donkeys and goats, these are the smells and the sights that greeted the Christ child when he drew his first breath on earth. <br />
<br />
I think he also would have loved that these scenes have taken on the colors and the clothing and the styles of the cultures that create them-it highlights to me anyway, the universality of the gift of the messiah. I think he would have loved that these scenes can be made into toys, even LEGOs and Veggie Tales! <br />
<br />
This story is for everyone; so everyone is allowed to dress their characters as they want to. Masai tribes-people can put Kente cloth on their figures-Japanese can put kimonos on theirs. <br />
<br />
“Unto us a son is given”, we sing in the Messiah. This means the whole world, no exceptions. For some, that is a blessing. For others, as we read at the end of the passage, it is a threat. <br />
<br />
Which is it for you?<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20042293.post-39318845752594551792013-01-05T16:21:00.000-05:002013-01-05T16:21:41.943-05:00Vehicles of GraceDecember 30, 2012<br />
<br />
<a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=224420511">Ecclesiastes 2: 1-8<br />
Revelation 21:1-6</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxs-QAnjnXdsBX-nSEpEm7yhuzRuBa13c2ajFkNAcn4AxLGU8TifAieIuG7IAFITbV3_1ctSfZKgfV0ePr8HyOLFLF4VpDrNtbKdB6J5ribsb4MhGlGY7m6Wl1lunn3zdC76Ni_A/s1600/express+lane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxs-QAnjnXdsBX-nSEpEm7yhuzRuBa13c2ajFkNAcn4AxLGU8TifAieIuG7IAFITbV3_1ctSfZKgfV0ePr8HyOLFLF4VpDrNtbKdB6J5ribsb4MhGlGY7m6Wl1lunn3zdC76Ni_A/s320/express+lane.jpg" /></a></div><br />
I don’t know if there is anyone who has led a blameless life. I don’t know of anyone who hasn’t made a mistake somewhere in their lives. As much as we may be loved by our families, or highly regarded by our co-workers and colleagues, or esteemed by those who love us, for each of us, there is always someone who does not wish us well. There is always someone whom we’ve hurt.<br />
<br />
There are also always people whom we are uncomfortable with, because of the choices they have made in their lives. One of the things that have caused us to hurt them is that we have had to draw back, out of necessity, to pull away from them. We know that continuing to be in closer contact with them means that we will be damaged. We also know people who have made choices in their lives, and we can then say in result: “There! Them! That person right over there! That’s who I am better than! That’s who I can safely feel above!”<br />
<br />
For a whole lot of people, that person was a friend of mine from high school. She was wonderful, she was amazing, she was giving, and she has had three husbands. She could spend a fortune as a counselor trying to figure out why, analyze each and every choice, but sometimes that’s just micromanaging. In the end, she has decided that her issue with each one was a belief that she could change them, or that they would choose to change on their own though her love for them.<br />
<br />
Anyone ever heard that one before?<br />
<br />
None of the three of them did. Surprise. None were what you’d call pillars of virtue, and the one whom she thought was the safest, the one with standing in the community and economic resources, turned out to be the most controlling, even to the point of influencing her doctors without her knowledge.<br />
<br />
When she got dropped from his insurance, she discovered that the meds she’d been on weren’t necessary. And she didn’t go jump off a bridge-instead the sun came out, and her mood evened out.<br />
<br />
She has two children, one adopted and one by birth from the third husband. And she has learned how to support the two of them on her own.<br />
<br />
To everything there is a season. She has met someone. He is strong, and good, and accepts her for who she is, history and children and all. He is everything that the other three weren’t. Yes they fight, sometimes they have what the Irish call “donnybrooks”, but even in the midst of the heat of battle, they never lose respect for each other, they never lose sight of the fact t that they love each other, and have a relationship with each other that is worth preserving. They never try to destroy each other. <br />
<br />
Two nights ago, I received word that, in the midst of her vacation with him, it had happened; he had proposed and she had accepted, without hesitation. <br />
<br />
There is redemption in our life. We are all worth the best that the world can give us. If anyone ever says “well, you did this and that and so and so, so you must deserve unhappiness,” while there are natural consequences to our choices, we are NEVER less that human beings in the midst of our choices. <br />
<br />
Even if we have fallen under the cloud of addiction;<br />
Even if our low self esteem makes us choose ways to live that do not benefit us;<br />
<br />
We are never less than as God sees us, and God sees us at our best potential as he created us, which is in his own image.<br />
<br />
That doesn’t mean gender. That doesn’t even mean arms and legs and a head. That means that we are a creative force built for love-this is the image of God.<br />
<br />
It might be hard to remember that at times in our lives, especially when we read a passage like this morning’s Ecclesiastes passage, where it says a time for war and a time for peace, and a time for love and a time for hate. All of those things we list on the left side of that column, fear, hate, whatever, we need to remember that we do not generate these things; these things come to us all in our lives, in different seasons. But they are only for a season. It is only for a span of time. It is NOT the whole of our lives.<br />
<br />
And the revelation passage tells us that final season will not be earthquakes and fires and asteroids and John Cusack driving a minivan over a crack in the earth; when the world ends, it ends by heaven coming to earth. The passage tells us that the New Jerusalem descends to earth at the end of time. God comes to us. God’s place is with us. There’s that bumper sticker that we all know, but uses one of those words we generally aren’t encouraged to use in church, but it is still true: **it happens.<br />
<br />
To everything there is a season.<br />
<br />
There are times of pain, that keep you up at night, that no painkiller can solve; and there are times of comfort and joy. There are times when money is really tight, and you get tired of the taste of ramen; and there are times you can walk into the meat market and buy the whole ribeye and get it sliced the way you want it. There are times you will be out of your mind with love, and will drive through a snowstorm to be with that person; and there will be times you will feel so lonely you’ll think you’ve dropped into a pit with no light, no heat, and almost no air.<br />
<br />
But in the end, heaven comes to us. If you’re in that pit, if you are in the midst of mourning and sorrow, it might be of small comfort. It’s not just my idea, though, it is the word we receive from our ancestors, and those who have also known God and faith. Whether you are a literalist, or see Scripture as a chronicle of how the people of God see God, the promise is the same; God is with us. God is Always with us. God does not choose for us to be in pain; that statement about God not giving us more than we can take? Hogwash. Life gives us more than we can take. But life is not for us to be protected from. Life is for us to live, and to find triumph in. And our strength is not to be found within ourselves. If that is true, we will fail. Our strength is to be found in God. Now, God can manifest Godself through the technology that has been developed in the medical field to help us; God can manifest Godself in the care of us by those around us (I do not remember how many lasagnas we were given when Donna was sick, but it was enough). These are the graces. That grace, that love, that hug, that letting the other driver through the light before you go through; that’s life. That’s goodness, that’s the evidence of God; yes, even just the courtesy of letting the person behind you in the grocery line who has one box of Kleenex when you’ve got a whole basketful.<br />
<br />
Heaven comes to us. Heaven can also come through us. Sometimes we’re the person with one item, sometimes were the one with the cart-full.<br />
<br />
Sometimes we are the vehicle of grace.<br />
<br />
Three hundred years ago, this practice, this technique of the Christian faith, Methodism, was started by an Anglican priest named John Wesley. He wrote a lot, he published a lot, he rode a lot of horses over a lot of miles, and as one of the things he gave to his followers, and to the Christian practice, was a Covenant Prayer.<br />
<br />
Traditionally, he would conduct this prayer either at the end of the year or the beginning, and asked his followers to always keep it in their minds; this is the prayer in modern language:<br />
<br />
<i>I am no longer my own by yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.</i><br />
<br />
<i>And now, glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.</i> Amen.-- http://www.gbod.org/site/apps/nlnet/content.aspx?c=nhLRJ2PMKsG&b=6590121&ct=9143883<br />
<br />
If you choose to say this prayer, you’ll choke on some of these things. But seek it as a goal. <br />
<br />
<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16832178794758219632noreply@blogger.com0