Living Among Us

Advent 3B – Living Among Us – sermon based upon Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 & John 1:1-14

Good morning.  We’re halfway through Advent which brings us nearer and nearer to Christmas.  As we’ve been journeying to Bethlehem, we’ve been exploring the themes of our Advent devotional.  So far we’ve looked at the extraordinary faith that it took to journey under such conditions and the unexpected peace that was found in an unlikely place.  This week, we’re going to focus on new life.

New life is a phrase that can mean lots of different things to us depending upon where we are in our own lives.  It can be the very literal experience of having a child.  It can also be an equally momentous occasion of a radical transformation where we find new life through the healing of an old wound.  For example, think of helping someone else through their grief with the power of our own experience or the use of a painful encounters like bullying to help support others.  New life can also be in finding new worth for something that was previously cast away.  An example of this might be the renovating of an old building to usefulness or tapping into an old hobby for new pleasure.  We’ve even used our God given skills to bring new life through organ donation.  And each day we wake up and move forward in hope, we are claiming the promise of new life.

We could make long lists of our experience with new life and we should be able to do this.  Why should we?  Because as our gospel lesson says, “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”  See, by our faith and I would suggest by our very God given nature, we are seekers of life.  We find darkness and destruction unpleasant, even unbearable.  But life… now that’s something we really crave.

We crave it and God provides it.  God’s love poured out on us and the glimpses of joy we receive when basking in that love are amazing experiences of life.  Those feelings like our Psalm talks about of being held, understood, loved, known, supported, and special invigorate in us a sense of life and liveliness.  To be fearfully and wonderfully made is to know life while at the same time having a sense of just how fragile and precious it all is.  It’s diving into the wonder and experience no matter what the journey may bring.

So, let’s think back to Jesus’ birth for a moment.  The past few weeks, we’ve talked about the uncertainty of this time and journey for Mary and Joseph.  They moved forward in faith and hope but it was still an anxiety filled and treacherous time.  In the time of the Roman Empire, over 30% of all babies born would die before they were a year old.  Compared to today, far less than 1% of babies die in this country.  I think the number is something like 0.6% infant mortality rate.

I believe the courage to bring a baby into a world where you know that 1/3 of your children will die young is pretty remarkable.  And even if the baby lives, lots of other dangerous things awaited.  The average life expectancy in that time was only 28.  If you were lucky enough to avoid being in the army and you made it to adulthood, you might live to be 52 but that was a very hopeful expectation.  So when ask what new life means in Bethlehem, I think we need to stop and realize that it means far more than what we might see at first glance here in the modern era.

You see, I think we don’t realize that when Angels foretold of this special baby becoming a special man, that was nearly unheard of in that time.  Birthrights, future prospects, and such were not things that were typically discussed until a child neared adulthood because there were too many things that could go wrong.  So when we read of God’s promise to this family that a child would be king, we are reading of something that is not only miraculous from a spiritual standpoint but also a miracle in a very practical way as well. 

But assuming that we can wrap our minds around how amazing this story is, we are still left trying to figure out how to take this remarkable narrative and combine it with our God given desire for new life and do something useful with it.  We know the true meaning of Advent and Christmas isn’t in shopping and gift giving or in decorations or holiday treats.  There’s nothing wrong with those things but it’s not what that precious birth or the Word becoming flesh is all about.  So what is it that ties all this together for us in our daily lives?

Well, in our gospel lessons the previous two weeks, we read Christ’s birth stories.  They tell us of a special child who was coming to be a special leader, Emmanuel… God with us.  This week’s gospel lesson reminds us that Christ lived and lives among us even still as the true light of God in our lives.  As much as we love the birth stories in Matthew and Luke, I have to be honest and say that I find the true meaning of Christmas in this passage from John.

Let’s re-read part of this passage from John chapter 1: It goes,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.  But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

What we’re really talking about here is creation.  God brought all this forth.  And why?  Was it to prove God’s powerfulness?  No.  At its very core, all of God’s actions are born out of love.  This light that brings things into being is a rich and full metaphor for love.  The act of bringing a child into the world is an act of love.  God’s reaching out to Mary and Joseph and all creation to become flesh and live among us is an act of love.  Our craving for life is an act of love.  The shedding the commercial elements of Christmas to get to the real root of God’s gift is an act of love. 

Everywhere we look in this story, our lives, and God’s promises, we see that God is constantly reaching to us in love and the gift we receive in that is new life.  This birth is “not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.”  New life is always about love and hope and promise in God.  And new life is our gift to claim each and every day with the enthusiasm of a child opening the biggest Christmas present under the tree.

See, much like the way Scrooge in A Christmas Carol comes to live with Christmas in his heart every day of the year; we too can do that by embracing the love and new life that God offers us each day.  Love that heals, hope that builds vision, peace that comforts, and faith that guides are ours when we open ourselves to what Christ has for us and God provides to us.  This Word that became flesh, Emmanuel, God with us, is truly full of grace and truth.

But just like Mary and Joseph found it hard to claim God’s promise and new life in the face of so much danger, we too often find it difficult to claim new life in the midst of grief, worry, doubt, financial struggles, and other hardships.  We may not face the same trials as Mary and Joseph but life is still fragile and complicated by adversity.  Yet, our hope always lies in God and the promise of new life that is offered to us just as it was to Mary and Joseph.

Sisters and brothers, Advent, Christmas, and the journey to Bethlehem are times to recognize how remarkable God’s love is and the new life that can be found in Christ.  The opportunity to embrace new life, renewal, and hope are rooted in the gifts God implants within us.  God leads us through all that happens in our lives showing us ways to remember who and who’s we are.  Life in Christ can be new life each and every day, redeemed and renewed.  May we receive the love that God is pouring out and let it breathe new life into this holiday and all days.  Amen.

Peaceful Refuge

Advent 2B – sermon based upon Psalm 34:1-7, 15-22 & Luke 2:1-20

Good morning. As we continue to make our way toward Bethlehem, we are looking more deeply at some of the gifts that Advent brings. In case you missed it last week, each week in worship we are tying in the theme from the Advent devotional in a variety of ways.  The music, liturgy, and even the scriptures have been chosen to walk us through the true gifts of this season.  This past week, we've explored the gift of faith.  On this second week of Advent we're looking at the gift of peace.  And new life and love are the themes we'll connect with in the coming weeks. 

So today, we have a story of what it looks like to  have nearly everything you think could go wrong, go wrong and still it turns into the best Christmas ever... well, I guess it's the first Christmas ever.

All joking aside, it really is one of those stories that we might be tempted to rush to the happy ending and say it all worked out.  But it wasn’t easy to get to that happy ending.  A nine month expectant mother and her fiancé had to take a dangerous trip because the government needed to tax them.  Upon arrival, there wasn’t room for them in the inn nor did they have the money for a nicer place.  We can assume they didn’t have family in the area either.   They were all alone and in a bind.  But they found refuge in a barn and in the end discovered blessings and a peace they could have never imagined.

Most of us are unlikely to have such an experience that is still being told over 2000 years later but it is much like many experiences we have all had.  For example, on the way to what was supposed to be a special dinner out for my grandmother’s 75th birthday, we got a flat tire.  Then, I stained my shirt changing the tire. At this point we’re running late and if you knew my grandmother, you’d know that punctuality is next to Godliness.  By the time we got to the restaurant, we were so late they gave away our reservations.  So, we walk down the road to a greasy spoon diner because it's the only place without a wait and we're tired and hungry and cranky by this point so we go in. 

Once inside, we meet a server who smiles and treats us like family.  She brings us coffee without asking because she can see we're cold.  She tells the soup is no good but the meatloaf is outstanding.  And it turns into an evening of comfort and refuge in an unlikely place.

That is a true story and I can tell you lots of others.  In my work at the hospital, I meet people all the time who think the worst thing that could ever happen to them would be for their child to be sick and in the hospital.  They cry with agony and worry about how they don't think they can handle it.  They wonder where God is and why this is happening.  They feel alone and lost in a strange place.

But if they keep their eyes open and don't succumb to the despair, what they find is people that have their best interest at heart.  They feel hands of care and concern that will hold them in the tough moments.  They experience support that comes in unexpected forms and packages.  And most importantly, they find God working in their lives, even in this unfamiliar and scary place.  I can't tell you how many families when referring to the hospital say to me something like, "This place has been the home we never expected and blessing we didn't know we needed."

Life is like that.  Just when it isn't going the way we wanted, we find that God has prepared a place for us where we least expected it.  And God is like that.  When we toil in the brokenness of the world, God reaches out making a safe harbor in humble and unexpected places. 

So, what do we make of all this?  Why is it that sometimes we find God in the dark places and sometimes we don't?  Is it that God wants to help us some of the time and other times we're on our own?  Is it that God picks and chooses on supporting us?

Well, I don't think it works that way.  From what we learn in this scripture and what I've seen working at the hospital and in my own life, I believe that God is always reaching and supporting us even if we can't always see it.   And more than that, I suspect that we would be far worse off if God weren't constantly reaching toward us to help and support us.  Oh, it’s true that sometimes we succumb to despair or become blinded by bitterness or get lost in the mire of worry so much so that we can no longer see God's work and provision for our lives.  But when we can stay open to God's work, amazing things happen.

Let’s think back on this story for a minute.  If Mary had let the worry of such a long journey overcome her, we wouldn't have such an amazing birth story.  If Joseph had let the frustration about having to travel at such an in convenient time blind him, he might have mouthed off to the inn keeper and not even gotten to use the barn.  If the shepherds had been more concerned with their own matters, they would have missed seeing the young messiah.  Things in this story weren’t going so well for them but they kept journeying forward faithfully.  And because they did, they found God’s love and provision laid out for them.

See, this journey toward Bethlehem is one of unknowns and fears like we talked about last week.  But faith is journeying forward anyway.  Yet, God gives us more than what we need for just a faithful journey.  We can find peace along the way.  We can know safe havens and helpful nurture.  We can experience God's love and work for us that is present and reaching to us even when we can't yet see or receive it.  But when we can, peaceful nights of sleep, calm in the storm, and blessings in the midst of difficulty are there for us to claim.

So how do we tap into God’s support for us when we’re just nearly so overwhelmed that we can’t take another step?  How do we keep from letting frustration about our circumstances and disappointments get the better of how we deal with it so we can be open to the peaceful refuge God has offered?  And what does that refuge even look like?

Well, just like in our biblical story and the stories I told, it requires openness on our part to believe in and see God’s blessing in the tough times.  I’m not saying that we have to just be optimistic.  Being optimistic is not always realistic.  For example, we can’t use positive thinking to take care of mortgage difficulty or brokenness in our relationships.  Optimism alone in such situations would leave us homeless and alone. 

Instead, openness to the goodness around us is more like faith than optimism.  It’s listening to that inner voice to pick up the phone and call a friend for help rather than toughing it out alone.  It’s allowing ourselves to see something differently so that we recognize the blessing instead of seeing just another obstacle.  It’s knowing that we are really not alone and that if we hold fast to what is truly important, we will find safe harbor even if it doesn’t look like what we expected. 

Sisters and brothers, the journey to Bethlehem was a tough one but God provided from them in ways they didn’t know and couldn’t expect.  Still today, God is working in our lives to help us along the way.  As we journey in faith, may we always be open to the peace and refuge that God offers regardless of what it looks like.  May we support one another to ease the burdens.  And may we truly experience God’s provision for us when we need it most.  Amen.

Onward In Faith

Advent 1B - Sermon based upon Psalm 42 & Matthew 1:18-2:12

Good morning and welcome to Advent.  This is a season of expectancy and preparation. A season of joy, hope, and promise.  And given the themes of our advent devotional and sermon series, it is also a season of faith, peace, new life, and love.

You’re going to notice a pattern in the coming weeks that lead us all the way through Christmas.  Each week’s theme that goes with the devotional is going to be lifted up in worship in multiple ways.  The devotional theme is The True Gifts of Christmas: The Journey to Bethlehem. The music, prayers, liturgy, and even scriptures will go along with the weekly theme.  Each week we'll have a Psalm that captures the emotional experience of the theme and a Gospel passage that tells the story.

But for now, we’re here on the first week of Advent.  We enter with the theme of faith and the story told in Matthew about Jesus's conception and birth.  If ever there was a story of faith in God, this is it.

Here we have a young unmarried woman who finds out she's going to have a very special baby.  The scripture tells us that her fience doesn't want to disgrace her but he's still going to “quietly dismiss her.”  After transformative encounters, they both believe in God’s will for this child move forward to have the baby. 

From the Luke story of Jesus’ birth we also know that they had to make a journey to Bethlehem for census and taxation.  That must have been horrible.  Can you imagine setting out on a donkey, a man and a 9 month pregnant woman, in a time when life was so much more treacherous than it is now?

And even after Jesus is born, King Herod sends spies so that he can plot against the young Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us.  But they too had a transformative experience rooted in joy and did the right thing to protect this child.

And our Psalm this morning is also a true story of faith.  It is about the fear and anxiety we experience when we can’t quite feel God’s closeness to us.  We want to lash out as the Psalmist does with “Why have you forgotten me?  Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?”  But just as with Mary and Joseph, the Psalmist remembers “hope in God.”
These are some pretty powerful scriptures if we pause to let them capture our feelings and imagination.  So, what do they have to tell us on this first Sunday of Advent?

Well, I think one of the messages is that just because we’re journeying faithfully doesn’t mean that it’s smooth sailing.  It’s often an anxiety and fear filled path.  Even Joseph was going to leave Mary because he couldn’t understand how God’s plan for Mary included him and I imagine he felt a lot of social pressure as well.

How often are our lives like that?  Maybe it’s that we know what the right thing is to do but we feel the pressure and embarrassment of what others are saying around us.  Or sometimes it’s that we are not sure how we fit into God’s plan.  Or sometimes it’s more a feeling like the Psalmist had of wondering where God is in all this and how to remain faithful while it feels so dark.  When faced with loss, uncertainty, and other things that raise our fear level, our lives, just like Mary and Joseph’s are filled with moments that make our faithful walk forward feel more like a burdensome trudge. 

Whether it’s the journey of the PNC in search of a pastor or the daily work it takes to make relationships last, we are ALL journeying… and sometimes it’s a tough one.  But here’s where the story turns. 

God reassures Joseph of his part in all this.  Then God protects Jesus from Herod.  God even touches the wise men and they go on a different path.  Hope and joy healed them from their worries, doubt, and uncertainty.  In the case of the wise men, quite literally, the story tells us that they were overwhelmed by joy. 

I think this is the real heart of our scripture lesson for today.  We worry and struggle in uncertainty quite often. And it becomes a cycle that just gets worse if left to our own devices.  The more we worry, the more we drag ourselves down.  The more we drag ourselves down, the more we fret about digging back out of the hole of fear, grief, and depression.  The more we fret about those things, the more ashamed we feel.  And the more ashamed we feel… well, that’s just a terrible spiral downward. 

But God’s support and love for us is never wrapped up in fear or shame or overly burdensome toil.  God reaches out to us with hope and joy offering us help to put one foot in front of the other and continue our faithful journey.  That support comes in all kinds of forms.  In the case of Joseph, it came in the form of messenger from God and I imagine it also came in the form of support from people around him and most especially from Mary.  For the wise men, they found support from God to do the right thing through an intense sense of joy at the witness of a phenomenon in nature right before meeting Jesus.  And while most of us don’t have an experience of meeting and angel, I know that all of us have met messengers from God or had experiences that coincided with special event that invigorated our faith. 

See, this is what faith is about, whether it’s during the season of Advent or any other time.  We are on a journey and each and every day is another opportunity to keep moving forward toward the hope and promise of God while being open to the nurturing support God gives us.

Now, I’m not trying to make this sound easy.  I’ll give you a deeply personal example.  All my life, even as a little child, I’ve struggled with depression.  It seems to be genetic because most of my family struggles with it.  Depression has gripped me in ways that I’ve often felt forgotten by God.  The way depression chokes off the light is painful.  And after feeling the emptiness and darkness months on end, I’ve even thought that it wasn’t that God had forgotten me.  I’ve felt that God must be punishing or cursing me.  Now logically, I know that isn’t the case.  But depression is an illness that tells us lies about ourselves, others, and God.

Having struggled with this illness for most of my 37 years, I can tell you quite a few things about finding God in the darkness and what faith looks like when you barely have the energy to get out of bed.  But I can also tell you that faith cannot be stifled or destroyed by darkness, fear, worry, doubt, and uncertainty. 

Just like Mary and Joseph, I have found God’s support every step of the way.  Just when I thought I couldn’t bear the isolation any longer, God has sent messengers that reminded me who and who’s I am.  God has placed people in my life to help me when I couldn’t help myself.  When I needed a jolt to point me in the right direction, God has shown me great joy through phenomenon in nature.  God has called me forward in love all along the way. 

God’s nurturing love and my faith in that love have helped me journey forward every step of the way.  In fact, you’ve even been part of God’s work in my life.  As you know, I’m a chaplain and I work night shift at Children’s Memorial Hospital.  Working night shift is more than a choice.  It’s a metaphor for my experience with God.  Because I’ve had to work so hard to find God in the long nights of depression, I want to be part of God’s light to others in the night.  I never thought I’d work in a church because I thought my place was in the darkness.

But being here with you has shown me that God calls me into the light as well.  The way you’ve encouraged me and the relationships I’ve built here have shown me new paths in my own faith journey.  My faithful journey is not only that of holding people in the night but also that of proclaiming God’s radiance in the light and you’ve been the ones who’ve helped cultivate that in me and show me God’s way for which I’ll always be grateful.

Now I didn’t tell you all that to spew out my own story.  I told you about my journey because I believe it speaks to the struggles we’ve all had.  Advent, holidays, faith, journeys, family, church… all of these things are precious but they also stir in us anxiety and fear about the unknown.  But God is with us, each and every one of us.  God is speaking and leading and calling us every step of the way.

Sisters and brothers, as we move forward in Advent, may we have faith that God is alive and well in all areas of our lives.  Even when it feels scary or burdensome, God is with us, offering us support wrapped in love rather than fear.  Our job is to keep putting one foot in front of the other on this journey taking the next step in faith and being open to all the ways God is supporting us.  Emmanuel, God with us… We welcome you!  Amen

Reformed & Always Reforming

Ordinary 31A – sermon based upon Micah 3:5-12 and Matthew 23:1-12

Good morning.  It is good to be with you today.  I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately.  It’s hard not to. You’ve become so dear to me that you stay close to my heart.  And I note that for two reasons.  One: I believe we should all know when we’ve been valued and loved and I love and value you.  And Two: It relates to the ultimate point of today’s sermon.  That if we are living the love of God, then meaningful relationships, God inspired changes, and love-filled growth become a way of life.

Now you may be asking how I got that conclusion from two biblical passages about leaders who abuse their power.  Well, let’s start down the trail and I promise that’s where we end.
See, today is Reformation Sunday and that’s a kind of interesting day in the church because we get to remember the past, honor change, and look to see how we’re doing today.  A quick history lesson is that around the 16th and 17th centuries the church leadership, at the time primarily Roman Catholic, had become overrun with leaders who were everything that today’s scripture in Micah and Mathew say not to be. 

They waged war against the most oppressed.  They took bribes and acted with great injustice with their power, land, and money.  They told people to follow God’s law but did as they pleased.  They put heavy burdens and cast harsh judgment upon people, displaying no concept of mercy and compassion.  They did religious activities for the purpose of being seen and honored personally.  To say that many in religious power were corrupt would be an understatement.

For example, the church would rent out its farm land at unfair prices, control what could be grown, and take more than a fair share while leaving the families that worked the farm starving.  And what’s worse, some priests would then tell families that their loved ones were spiritually condemned to hell for not giving even more to the church.  For sure the church has always had people who abused power but this was just a horrible time in the history of religion! 

So, an uprising of faithful people began and they started in separate places and pockets of just a few.  But as the movement grew and communities caught wind of the change the Spirit was blowing in and around Europe, this movement grew into what we call the Protestant Reformation.

The Protestant Reformation brought with it some key changes and some key ideas.  Part of is was a call to return to what today’s scripture says about not being in leadership roles over and above one another.  We are to be in servant roles with each other. I mean that when the bible says don’t be called a Rabbi it doesn’t mean that we are not to have specialized callings.  But it does for sure mean that no calling stands over another.  Those religious leaders that had taken advantage of others would have and could have never done that if they started from a place of knowing that they are but mere servants in the broader, more beautiful body of Christ.

Another idea of the reformation was to recognize that God’s work is alive and well and still being revealed to us.  Just as Micah proclaims that he has power and Spirit and justice and might because he possessed a living faith, we too are called to live with the movement and reflect the ongoing revelation of God in the world.

John Calvin believed that the we must have the presence of the Holy Spirit in order to approach the biblical Word of God because it is with the help of the Spirit that the Word becomes alive in our hearts and lives.  He also reminds us that Jesus Christ is the Word of God and that we live and move and thrive in this ever morphing body… full of truth in this moment and always revealing more.

From Luther and Calvin and others, some important pieces of doctrine immerged that reflected this call back to a more genuine faith.  If it is that we are servants together and that God is working in and amongst us then we must be both redeemed and still being further redeemed, meaning that God’s work is both sufficient in us and that we are called to be more.

Similarly, the near mantra of the Reformation emerged.  In Latin it was said, “Ecclesia semper reformanda est” (Latin for "the church must always be reforming") or semper reformanda, "always reforming.”  It’s not enough that we as individual people of faith grow and change.  The church, both as an institution and as a body of believers, must grow and change.  Complacency and denial of the Spirit’s guiding presence is what had brought the church to the problems it was having at the time.

So here was this uprising and it was at times violent, at times spirit filled debate, and at times exciting renewal.  It was not just about ideas and doctrine.  It was about the lived life of faith.  And while we know that the Protestant Church rose out of this movement, we should also recognize that several other meaningful changes happened in other groups of Christians as well.  The Catholic church did get the message and made some changes.  The Anabaptists, Anglicans, Puritans, and others rose out of the movement.  What could defiantly be said is that this was a time where people were in tune with the call of the Holy Spirit to not be complacent and to be open to where God led them.

So when I look back at that time, I find myself asking what was really going on in people’s lives.  What did the average day in a Christian’s life look like?  And this is where I come to the conclusion that I shared with you earlier. 

See, everyday people were building churches… not necessarily grand cathedrals but just modest churches.  They were connecting with people they would have never come in contact with before.  The walls between pastor and congregation were redefined with servant leadership in mind.  People were reading the bible in their own language for the first time in their lives.  It was amazing!

What were my words earlier?  I said that if we are living the love of God, then meaningful relationships, God inspired changes, and love-filled growth become a way of life.  And that’s what that time looked like in the everyday lives of people.  And it’s’ also the history of the reformation and of the Presbyterian Church.  When we think we’ve got it all figured out, the Holy Spirit comes and reminds us that we are called to deeper relationships, other forms of faithful witness, and growth that reflects that love of God.  We are reformed and always reforming.  Both sanctified through God’s grace and always becoming more in the life of God’s ongoing revelation.

Do you like history?  I do.  And I’m especially fond of that history.  It’s the story of us.  And I don’t just mean this church.  I mean it’s the story of our lives.  If we are complacent and don’t listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit we fall into corrupt decay. 

Look at the global economic crisis of today.  How did that happen?  Well, it was too many political and financial leaders were abusing their power and acting unjustly.  Meanwhile, everyday folks extended unearned trust and didn’t question what was going on.  And just like Micah said, it laid to waste our land… or economy in this case.

But this isn’t just paralleled in global issues.  The Reformation is also mirrored in our private lives.  Sometimes we think we are content with our lives.  We don’t want to change.  Yes, there are some things going on like an old hurt or perhaps a relationship that is causing pain but we’d rather ignore it than do something about it.  And over time, it erodes and damages our self and ability to love even more.

You see, the Christian life is one that demands that we honor the holiness of God’s gifts in the present but also live in openness to the Spirit and where it is leading.  Reformed and always reforming.  The global economic crisis would have never happened if people had been living, as I suggested before, the love of God whereby meaningful relationships, God inspired changes, and love-filled growth become a way of life.  And the decay and crumble of our lives would not happen either if we were living this way.

Now, a word of caution… this is a “we” thing.  I’m not saying that if someone has struggles that it is their fault for not being faithful enough.  Just as Micah and Matthew both reinforced, we are in community, bound together.  My struggles represent my difficulties but my struggles equally represent the failure on the part of others to respond and support me in healing relationships.

For example, the person mired in grief or bound by a history of abuse defiantly has a responsibility to reach toward and receive the love and healing of God.  But we each also have a responsibility to reach back to them and do the same whereby meaningful relationships, God inspired changes, and love-filled growth are reflected in our way of life. 

And this is where we find ourselves today.  Economically, we are in a very anxiety and fear filled time.  The church, both locally and universally, is also having painful struggles that represent the push and pull between being reformed and continuing our work of reforming.  Our lives are places where injustice, pain, complacency, and fear gain too much power over us and abuse us.  It would be easy to feel like this is a pretty dark place.

But there is another motto of the Reformation that applies here.  In Latin it is “Post Tenebras Lux” which translated is “After darkness, light.”  At the dawn of the Reformation, people were nearly hopeless.  They were being crushed by the decay.  But light does come and God is always near.  History would tell us this was the end of the dark ages and beginning of the Reformation.  But we know it was simply being open to the Holy Spirit once again, just like Micah and Matthew call us to today.

Sisters and brothers, our calling is to embrace the love of God and the Holy in the present… to be reformed.  Our calling is also to let that love hold and open us to the Spirit who guides us into ever more meaningful relationships, God inspired changes, and love-filled growth that becomes a way of life… to be always reforming.  We need not fear this path because we are God’s and we are One in the Body of Christ.  Amen.

Building The Kingdom

Ordinary 27A – Sermon based upon Psalm 19 and Matthew 21:33-46

Good morning.  It’s good to be with you on this World Communion Sunday.  It’s a special day when we pause to recognize in gratitude all the different peoples and cultures in which Christianity and the fellowship of the table thrive.  So you might be wondering what today’s scripture message does to uphold that notion because on the surface, it just doesn’t seem to fit.

I mean here we have this story of gang like violence where the workers of a vineyard scheme against the owner, selfishly claim their own superiority, and even brutally kill the owner’s servants and son.  So what is up with this passage that it shows up in the lectionary on World Communion Sunday? 

This passage is one of those parables that stands out from Jesus’ usual teaching parables.  This parable does not use story telling to reveal something of the nature of God, as do so many others parables. One of the reasons is that rather than being aimed at the every day folks of faith, this one is aimed at the religious leaders.  So this parable that seems to have been misnamed “the parable of the wicked tenants" really should be something else. The tenants, of course, play a major role, because Jesus is pointing to the way the Pharisees have mistaken their leadership over Israel for outright ownership of Israel.  But the real focus of the parable is to clarify who Jesus is.

Now when I started writing this sermon, I thought I’d spend a lot of time talking about the history of what all the symbols mean and what it’s getting at but I’m going to do something else instead.  So, I’m going to give as quick an overview of the historical and symbolic significance and meaning as I can.  And then I’m going to move forward to something more practical.  But if you feel like you missed out on some of the nitty gritty of deciphering this passage, just ask me later and we can discuss it for hours.

So we have this cast of characters.  The tenants represent the religious leaders who are more concerned with their own wealth and status.  They want to “inherit” is rightfully Jesus’.  They are responsible for pointing Israel to God, yet they have instead pointed her to themselves. The indictment, then, is not against the people Israel per se, or even against the temple "institution," but rather against God's appointed leaders.  The slaves symbolize prophets sent by God to call the leaders back to God’s purposes.  The son represents Jesus, the son of God.  And the owner represents God. 

Well, the tenants kill the slaves and the son in an attempt to claim the inheritance from the owner.  But then the owner comes and restores the son that was previously cast off… killed.  And all of this points to how amazing the works of God are.

Who is Jesus according to this parable? He is the Son who has come to reclaim what rightfully belongs to his Father. He is the Son whose mission is violently rejected by the Father's own tenants. He is the Son whose rejection is vindicated by the Father. And he is the Son whose vindication prompts the final judgment of the unfaithful tenants.

In coming to reclaim what rightly belongs to his Father, the Son sets out to restore the world to its divinely created order. One need only look at Jesus' ministry to see what this looks like: the sick are made well, sinners are restored, and God is praised.  In short, Jesus brings wholeness to a broken world, providing glimpses into what he elsewhere calls "the kingdom of heaven."

So that is the somewhat quick overview of this passage.  But there’s a part I want to zero in on.  Verse 40 reads, “Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?"

That’s really the million-dollar question, isn’t it? What will he do to them? What will the one in charge do to those who have blatantly, flagrantly disobeyed and violated their roles?  They’ve even committed murder.

Well, listeners said the owner should kill them all and start fresh.  But let’s go back to what all this symbolizes.  Is that what God did to the Jewish leaders?  Is that what God does to religious leaders today that go awry?  Is that how God deals with any of us in our failings? 

No it is not.  Jesus may have been pointing to himself as the savior but he was also pointing to a God that never gives up on God’s people.  This parable tells us that the son who has been killed… you know, Jesus will be restored and become the cornerstone, holding all of this together. 

God’s work is not that of smiting and smacking us down when we fail.  God’s work is that of restoring and reconciling us.  God raised up his son and restored him for the goodness and healing of creation. 

This stands in stark contrast to persons of faith in that time and still today who act with self serving intentions.  They call for judgment of those around them.  They use the failings of others to feel superior while ignoring the log in their own eye. They see control and conquest rather than reconciliation and healing.

But before we get too carried away with all these “they” do this and “they” do that’s, we need to be humble enough to see that sometimes we all fall into that kind of judgmental thinking.  We get focused on our particular ways of doing things and turn those into our standards instead of using God’s measuring stick of love and mercy.

And I think that is the real point of this parable today.  Jesus was talking to the Pharisees but if Jesus told us this parable today, and we replied with “kill the tenants,” I hope we would be able to see that the message of Jesus being a conduit for restoring the kingdom through peaceful means instead of vengeful ones would sink into our hearts and minds.  I hope we could see God’s interest in making creation whole rather than clear cutting the land.  And I hope we can receive the healing of that part in us that calls for retaliation so that we can be co-creators with God in building the Kingdom.

So here we are.  It’s World Communion Sunday where we celebrate the way God has reached out with wide arms to the world.  We collect the Peacemaking offering that goes to programs both near and far that work to be beacons of God’s peace, love, and mercy.  And even if those things weren’t going on, we ourselves need a good bit of God’s love and mercy rather than the judgment and shame we so often heap upon ourselves and one another. 

Sisters and brothers, we’ve gone all the way from a bizarre parable of gang like violence to God’s message that healing comes through the peaceful and loving reconciliation through Christ.  That’s one wild journey.  But I think it mirrors our own experience.  We have no trouble imaging the violence but we have trouble making the leap to peaceful healing.  But that is the point. We don’t have to make the jump.  Christ made the leap for us.  And thanks be to God for that. 

Our charge is to be humble and open to God’s work of healing and reconciliation. May we be every willing to be part of the Kingdom God is building with us.  Amen.

The True Miracle

I am blessed to know a lot of chaplains and religious leaders from many faiths and backgrounds. While we share and grow through the diversity of our experiences, the true gift is the camaraderie we have in a particular shared experience. We each want so deeply for the people we encounter to grow more deeply in their faith.

To grow in faith sounds simple enough on the surface but in reality most of us feel like Paul in his cry from Romans 7, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” The truth is that all of us struggle to grow in faith in some way. It might be the adhering to spiritual practices or it could be the living out justice filled beliefs. Regardless of the particulars, faith is always marked by some sort of strife.

Next come the behaviors we use to cover our pain and sorrow. That too is varied in its expression. For some, they hide the pain by delving into false piety and “holier than thou” behaviors. Others of us take on the experience as a personal failing resulting in self-loathing. Still others work very hard to desensitize themselves and live in the proverbial bliss of ignorance.

We religious leaders bump up against these behaviors that are symptomatic of faith struggles both personally and professionally. Whether it’s congregational life, hospitals, or park benches the sore spots of our faith struggles are out there to be rubbed and made even more raw.

This is where that shared experience of clergy comes back. Our desire for people to grow either becomes a healing balm or an irritating liniment to those sore spots that reveal the faith struggle. When we are blessed to witness healing, it is a deeply meaningful experience as a person of faith. However, when that healing doesn’t occur it can be painful, frustrating, and even consuming when our own faith struggles take this experience personally.

I feel such deep sorrow when I watch other clergy become so wounded and discouraged with the strife they experience and the perceived lack of growth in their flock that it becomes a barrier to their own faith and participation in creation. All this leads me to what I see as the true miracle. To me, the true miracle is that in spite of humanity’s bent toward violence, destruction, and fearfulness healing continues to occur and the lives are transformed.

When we look throughout history, it’s remarkable that faith persists at all. The perception of “end days” violence today holds nothing against the atrocities against people, races, and nations throughout history. I personally might have lost faith in God if I had been part of the one million plus Armenians slaughtered in the early 1900’s or witnessed the inquisitions of the 12th and 13th century. Moreover, these are not isolated incidents. The pain and suffering of humanity when we look at the lives of everyday people has been and continues to be on a scale that most privileged people in the United States cannot begin to imagine. And yet, faith persists. The violence we wrought on one another cannot seem to squash the meaningful ways faith keeps us going despite all that we face.

We, as clergy, keep looking for people of faith to become something wholly different and completely transformed. I personally even preach about transformation in a way that unfortunately misleads people into thinking that they are chasing after a destination rather than an ongoing process that will be ever challenged and ever changing. But the reality of history and our daily lives is that of a process. We take steps forward that are met with a new challenge that could push us back.

Therefore, when we see people that work to stay bind to the injustice of the world or persons in the hospital who act “tougher than cancer,” we are seeing defense mechanisms that have been heaped on after experiencing so much disappointment and pain. Deep down they want to live a life of faithfulness that matches an unrealistic ideal. Deep down, that ideal crushes. But again, instead of completely running away, humanity finds a way to maintain some level of faith in spite of the struggles.

Truly I can’t tell you how many people I know that are completely unable to forgive themselves for their struggles in faith yet act content in their faith on the outside. Sadly, the notion of a loving and forgiving God is not near as difficult to grasp as the concept of forgiving ourselves. And still, we persist in faith.

The call of faith is tough and the notion of celebrating the journey is rarely upheld or practiced. We place too much emphasis on the destination or expect people to be at a point on their journey that is unrealistic given their experiences and level of faith. Yet, I suspect that reorienting ourselves to celebrating even the little milestones is what we need if we are to heal the sore spots that become barriers to healing. That healing likely won’t bring about a radical transformation in the church, but it is part of the ongoing work that counteracts the sorrow, fear, and destruction of the world. May we all be instruments of healing and peace that represent the true miracle of creation.

Where Are We Going?

Ordinary 25A - Where Are We Going? - (off lectionary sermon series on the body of Christ based upon Isaiah 43:18-21 & Matthew 9:9-17)

Good morning.  It’s great to be with you today as we wrap up the 3^rd in this sermon series about being the body of Christ alive in the world.  If you missed the others, you can pick up printed copies just outside the back door or listen to them online.  You could also just use your imagination from the recaps I’m about to offer.  See, 2 weeks ago, we talked about Christ being the only true authority in the church.  The rest of us are faithfully trying to live out Christ’s calling but do not stand over or under one another. We are faithful together.  Last week we tried to zero in on the diversity of calls within the church and uplift all forms of service as holy.  We are all called to be ministers in different ways.  So whether it’s inside or outside the church doors, but most especially outside the doors, using our gifts and the fruits of the spirit honors God and builds up the body of Christ. This week, we’re going to look at where our lives in the body of Christ might lead us when we’re open to where God is taking us and we’re doing so by examining scripture from Isaiah 43.

The Isaiah passage shows God as both guide and comforter.  In this monologue, God is telling the people of Israel that they need to let go of old ways so that they can be open to what God is doing.  They need to trust that God is not going to burden them with things they can’t do right now.  Rather, the call of the Holy is to lay our burdens and sins to rest with God so that they may be healed.

All this relates to being the body of Christ alive in the world because we need to figure out what God is calling us to in our lives and we need this for two main reasons.  The first is that to see where God is doing something new like Isaiah says, we need to let go of and grieve those things, places, times, and people.  The second reason is so we can open ourselves up to being instruments of that unfolding… and unfolding of something God wants for us and others that maybe we’ve never even imagined before.

Let’s reread parts of this Isaiah passage. 

¹⁸Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.¹⁹I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.²⁰The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people,²¹the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise. ²²Yet you did not call upon me… ²³You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you… But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities.²⁵I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

Now first, let’s tease through some of the language here and get some stumbling blocks out of the way.  When God says, “¹⁸Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old” this does not mean that we should not have memories.  The Hebrew word we translate as “remember” is a much deeper word than that.  This word implies intimacy and deep connection.  When God says, “Do not remember” our understanding should be do not be bound to or let our minds be so deeply attached. 

The second translation issue we need to understand more deeply is the idea of God being burdened or wearied.  Does this passage does not mean that when we heap upon God our concerns that God is crumbling under the weight of it.  The linguistic piece that is lost here is that of transference.  We are burdened by sin and wearied by iniquities.  We transfer that to God and God blots out sin and does not “remember” our sins.  There’s that word remember again.

So what is it that we need to not be bound to so tightly so that we can be open to where God is going?  Well, we really could spend days unearthing all kinds of things that we each need to be let go so that we can be part of God’s always unfolding reality.  But for time’s sake and for from what might be very pertinent to this grouping of the body of Christ, let’s get very specific here for a few minutes.  Then if we do this well, the model can be used for dealing with other areas of our lives.

What if God stepped right here and said to us, “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way.”  What do you think God might be talking about?  Well, a few things come to mind but the search for a new pastor seems to loom large.  And I believe God truly is saying to this grouping of the body of Christ that very thing.  God is saying, “grieve what you need and open up for something new.” 

Now before you think I’m just pulling a scripture passage and making it say what I want it to say, first of all I want you to hear that I’ve been hearing this message for a long time from God about this body.  I’ve even been addressing it in worship at different times.  But more importantly, you can judge for yourself.  Is that what God is saying?

Let’s look at the evidence.  This congregation has gone through some tough ups and downs and turns.  Even in good times, transition is hard and this church has stayed in transition for a long time.  But when you look around at each other, the quality of the faith and the earnestness of the love for one another is extraordinary. 

I recently told someone that by all accounts, most churches that have gone through all this church has gone through would have closed their doors.  Yet, this one is thriving.  It may have lost some members and it’s had it’s financial concerns but from what I can tell, the faith here is outstanding.  So, if you just look on the surface at the faces and numbers, the church is definitely different from 10 or 20 years ago.  But when you look into the hearts, the body of Christ is most definitely alive and well here. 

And, how did all this happen?  All I can surmise is that God has been here every step of the way making a way.  And I think the very best thing we can do is figure out how to be open to that.

So, did I convince you I’m not just making this up?  I hope so.  Because here comes the hard part… actually letting go of the things, places, times, and people of the past in a way that still honors the meaning they still hold but not being bound to them as if they rule where God is going. 

So often we long for the way things were or at least the idea.  It seems simpler and more comfortable.  And sometimes it really was a simpler and more comfortable time though often that’s a trick our mind plays.  But regardless, we are called to live as God’s people in a living, moving, every changing, body of Christ so we can’t go back in time no matter how badly we might like to and we can’t recreate the past because God has already taught us those lessons so it’s time for something else.

See, just like the Pharisees and the followers of John the Baptist in today’s gospel message, we are often our own stumbling blocks.  Many times it is the existing people of faith who struggle most by holding fast to our own notions, pride, memories, wounds, and other things that keep us from seeing where God is leading us today.

When we think of this church being without a pastor or calling a new pastor, what notions about old pastors gone by or old times in the church do we need to honor and let go of?  Where do we need to honor the things we’ve learned or the people we’ve encountered so that we can cherish what is good and move forward?  What are the old wounds, doubts, grudges, and struggles that we need to place in God’s hands so that God can heal and transform them into some new thing?  I trust that God has already placed something on your hearts even now.

So, what does grieving the things gone by like?  How do we do this?  Letting go and grief is a process but, let’s keep it simple.  Earlier, you were given slips of paper to write on.  In a moment we’re going to pray to hear what God wants each of us to cherish yet move forward from when we think about this church’s past.  We’re also going to pray for God’s support to grieve and mourn the things of the past that we feel bound to or that still have a hold on us. 

Next we’re each going to write just 1 thing on this paper that God said to us.  Later, when the offering plates go around, please place it in the plate.  I’m going to collect them and burn them.  On October 2^nd, in 2 weeks, you can join me as I take the ashes and till in the old memories into the flower bed outside where the things we let go of will always be a part of the beauty of this church but don’t have to bind up where it is going.

Sisters and brothers, being the body of Christ alive is about being here and now and participating in what unfolds.  When we unburden ourselves from wounds, sin, and the past by turning to God, we become fertile ground for God’s plans.  Pray with me now that we may be a full participant in that plan.

Holy God, thank you for the way you have guided us.  Please help us cherish the meaning of the past and honor what you’ve taught us.  Also, speak to us what we need to let go of so that we can be a part of your plans as this church calls a new pastor.  God we trust in you and your work.  Relieve our fear and anxiety during this time without concrete answers and help us to stay focused on faithful living today.  Amen.

What happens next?  Does this mean that God is going to turn everything upside down?  Well, it could happen.  But more likely we’re going to feel the anxiety of the emptiness from trying to let things go.  Yet, we have each other to see it through.  And where there is emptiness, God offers us hope: hope that God’s workings in and around us are healing, hope that life in the body of Christ is faithful, hope that with God’s help we can grow in deeper love of creation, and hope that First Presbyterian Church is on the edge of something even more remarkable and beautiful than it is right now. 

Now I invite you to write on the paper what God has told you and give it to God in the offering plate.  And trust that God will take it and heal or transform it into something even more extraordinary.  Amen.

Serving Together

Serving Together (off lectionary sermon series on the body of Christ based upon Matthew 28:16-20, Galatians 5:16-6:2, & G-2.0101)

Good morning. If you were here last week, you know that this is week 2 of a 3 week sermon series on being the church alive in the world. But as I said last week, don’t worry if you’re not here for all of them. They stand alone nicely so even if you missed it, you won’t be lost today. But just to recap, we looked at scripture and at a passage from the book of order and talked about how Christ is the only true authority in the church. Our job is to faithfully live out Christ’s calling. So we do not stand over or under one another in our workings and callings. No one calling is more special than another. Whether it’s my calling to be a pastor or someone else’s calling to put out donuts, we are faithful together… side by side.

So this week, we are taking the next step trying to unearth what those callings might be for each of us and as a church and our scripture for the day gives us a great place to start. But much like last week, I want to weave in another nugget of wisdom from the Book of Order that we might use as an outline for our thinking today. It comes from G-2.0101 and is entitled "Christ’s Ministry." It reads:

The Church’s ministry is a gift from Jesus Christ to the whole Church. Christ alone rules, calls, teaches, and uses the Church as he wills, exercising his authority by the ministry of women and men for the establishment and extension of God’s new creation. Christ’s ministry is the foundation and standard for all ministry, the pattern of the one who came "not to be served but to serve" (Matt. 20:28). The basic form of ministry is the ministry of the whole people of God, from whose midst some are called to ordered ministries, to fulfill particular functions. Members and those in ordered ministries serve together under the mandate of Christ.

Well, given what I just read, you might be thinking "isn’t that the recap of last week’s sermon?" Well, sort of. But we are going to go deeper in to 2 of these ideas and think about "Christ’s ministry is the foundation and standard for all ministry" and "The basic form of ministry is the ministry of the whole people of God." And I think today’s scripture lessons have some guidance for our thinking.

Our scripture passages are The Great Commissioning found in Matthew where Jesus calls on his followers to go out into the world and baptize, teach, and fellowship with others while all along knowing that Christ is always with us. The second passage is about the fruits of the spirit and reminds us what living by the spirit looks like. It also calls on us to be healers of one another as we struggle to claim who and whose we are.

So we have these very big ideas and as a big picture kind of person, these are the things that ignite in me curiosity and wonder about how it will all unfold. But I realize that for more detail oriented people, these open ended visions are somewhat anxiety producing. So, we’re going deeper today to look for the practical ways of ministry and our callings within it. We are doing so because some of us are curious. Some of us find comfort in details. Others of us need reassurance.

I raise this issue of what we are each getting by our study together because it has bearing on what we will uncover. See, if it is that "Christ’s ministry is the foundation and standard for all ministry" then a great thing to recognize about the life and teachings of Jesus is that he lived and taught in ways that spoke to people the way they each needed to experience it.

We are all very different from one another. Different gifts, different personalities, different interests, different struggles, different experiences… all of which come together to make us unique and yet somehow only made whole in the body of Christ. So to reach out to such diverse groupings, Jesus used stories so that people would zero in on the parts they each needed to hear. He also shared a lot of meals and living room time where people have their guards down and true relationships are built. He used symbols and metaphors so that people would have to think and stretch themselves to understand. And no matter where he was or what was going on, his starting place was that of love for God’s special creation… people.

Over and over again, he astounded people by loving them instead of judging them because he knew that judgment is God’s and the path to true healing is that of love. He didn’t walk up to the woman at the well and call her wretched names or think judgmental thoughts about her. His starting place was that of love for who she was: a child of God with gifts and struggles that was living a life of suffering. Harsh words would have just alienated her more but love heals and transforms.

And while we’re looking at Jesus as the foundation and standard for all ministry, let’s not forget his humility. He is the one who came "not to be served but to serve." Ministry that models Christ is that of service rather than status. Born in a barn, murdered for his faith… those are extraordinary bookends to a life. But in some ways, even more extraordinary are the pages between the bookends that tell of a life of reaching out in search of God as a young child and extending the love of God as an adult. What would our lives look like if we each had such love?

And that’s the question of the day. Christ modeled what ministry looks like and we are called to minister to the "whole people of God." So what would our lives look like if we each had such love? What does ministering to the "whole people of God" look like?

Last week we read scripture that talks about the body of Christ and the different callings. This week we see in Galatians different gifts that we are given by the Spirit. And all along we have Christ telling us to go out and do something with these callings and gifts.

So what does it look like? Well, it starts by taking the time to find out who God made us to be. Jesus invited us to look into ourselves to know and honor this special creation of God. Searching ourselves is critical to knowing how we can serve. God asked Moses to live beyond his skills and God still asks the same of us today but we can’t go farther if we don’t know where to start.

So we each need to consider what our personality is, what our interests are, and what we have to offer as we look to see how we each may minister in the body of Christ. For example, you wouldn’t want me to sing in the choir but thanks be for those that can and we welcome them back this year. And I would be pretty bad at serving on the budget committee because I get overwhelmed with all the numbers. But you know what? I love the bible and I love people so one thing I can do is weave those two together into sermons and worship leadership.

See, it’s pretty much as simple as that. We start with who we are and what God has given us and ask "where can God use me?" Lend a Hand Day, teaching Sunday School, greeting, serving on committees, and all those other forms of stewardship are servant ministry. And even talking and sharing with one another is servant ministry because we are building up the body of Christ as we extend ourselves to one another in fellowship. 

But ministry is about far more than what happens inside these walls. The real work of Christ is out there in the world. So again, let’s ask the question, what would our lives look like if we each had such love as Christ? What is our ministry in the world? When we look at our gifts and skills, how do we serve in the body of Christ beyond these walls?

The answer to those questions are as varied as can be. But I think our scripture can guide us. Galatians 6:1 reads, "My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness." What does that have to do with our servant ministry? Well, most of our work both inside these walls and beyond is about healing. Almost everything we experience boils down to the brokenness we encounter within ourselves and around us. So much of our ministry and ministering is about being conduits of peace, healing, and reconciliation through the love of Christ.

Our charge is to heal with a spirit of gentleness. When we see wrong doings, we’re not called to judge, we’re called to restore. Sisters and brothers, each and every one of us struggle. When we think about the things we do wrong, we see a chain of events where we didn’t set out to hurt anyone but it all made sense at the time. As Paul said, "why is it I do what I don’t what to do?" As parents, as teachers, as ministers, as friends, as business people… we all struggle because we all have broken places in us and all need the grace of God and the love of Christ. The surest path to healing is not by wagging a finger at ourselves or others. Changing our behavior out of guilt isn’t really living in the Spirit. Healing comes by modeling Christ and loving the wounds away.

So if our lives are at the intersection of brokenness and love, who are we each called to be in the world? For the person who’s a little shy but always watching, maybe part of their calling is to be the one who always extends a kind smile. For the one gifted with leadership skills, maybe servant ministry looks like being a business person of respect who looks out for how employees are treated. For the ones with a mind for numbers, maybe it’s being a beacon of integrity so that wealth is not used to corrupt or squash others. For those who cook well, maybe it’s offering a meal to someone struggling or bringing the cookies to a meeting that reminds us of what’s important. Perhaps for those of us with old wounds that have been healed, it’s about sharing our path with those in need. If one of our blessings is extra time, maybe servant ministry is about volunteering.

And when the big stuff like 9/11 happens we still see the same things. Firefighters being firefighters and caring about people, even at the risk of losing their lives. Everyday folks dropping everything to clear debris because it serves and restores hope. People far away donating money, blood, and other resources because they love enough to want to be a part of the healing.

See, we get caught up in thinking of our daily lives as work, chores, and strife but if we look deeper we’ll see the way we are functioning as the body of Christ and honor that. And when we look deeper, we might even see new and different ways of sharing our gifts and callings. And that’s what we’ll talk about next week.

But for now, Christ invites us to see who God made us to be and offer that back to creation. As we go from here this week, may we look more deeply at who we are and what we can be in the body of Christ. And most importantly, may we live that calling each and every day. Amen.

A Community Of…

Off lectionary sermon series on the body of Christ based upon Colossians 1:15-23a, 1 Corinthians 12:27-28, & F-1.0301

Good morning.  Today starts a three part sermon series on being the Church Alive.  You may or may not have noticed that for this sermon series, we’re going to be off the lectionary path.  And what you’re also about to find out is that I’m going to be weaving in pieces from the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s constitution.  But the hope is that all of this, the sermon, our worship time, and the weavings of the Holy Spirit, bring us to a place of looking with fresh eyes and renewed hope at how we can be the body of Christ and the church alive in the world.

So, today is just the beginning.  We’re going to focus on Christ as the head of the church.  But come back the next 2 weeks and we’ll be considering our various callings within the body and how we can be open to and participate in what God is calling us to right now… or if we’re already open to it, how we might make it even better.

Well, I said I’d be drawing from the constitution and I am.  I don’t know if you’ve ever taken the time to read some of this book but you should.  Sadly, what most Presbyterians know of this book is how to spew an alphabet soup of rules that work for or against an idea.  But there is some truly beautiful and amazing theology in here.  Given the history of this document, it makes it even more impressive just how clearly the love of Christ flows through its pages. 

So, hold our scripture readings from Colossians and 1 Corinthians together in your mind and let’s see what the foundations section has to say about how to understand it.  Section F-1.0301 “The Church Is the Body of Christ”:

The Church is the body of Christ. Christ gives to the Church all the gifts necessary to be his body. The Church strives to demonstrate these gifts in its life as a community in the world (1 Cor. 12:27–28):

·         The Church is to be a community of faith, entrusting itself to God alone, even at the risk of losing its life.

·         The Church is to be a community of hope, rejoicing in the sure and certain knowledge that, in Christ, God is making a new creation. This new creation is a new beginning for human life and for all things. The Church lives in the present on the strength of that promised new creation.

·         The Church is to be a community of love, where sin is forgiven, reconciliation is accomplished, and the dividing walls of hostility are torn down.

·         The Church is to be a community of witness, pointing beyond itself through word and work to the good news of God’s transforming grace in Christ Jesus its Lord.

This brief passage is really quite amazing.  I couldn’t preach a better sermon or hold out a better vision than that.  It’s a whole statement of faith… no really a statement of calling… no more like a statement of having been called and truly heard the word of God. 

So, tipping my hat to the years of history, tradition, and faithfulness that goes into this (F-1.0301), I’d like to use it as the outline for our thinking today.  See, this statement reminds us of just how deeply relational God and creation are.  God doesn’t stand in the distance like a puppet master and we are not islands unto ourselves.  The church is a community of:

·         faith - entrusting itself to God

·         hope - rejoicing in the prospect that God is making a new creation

·         love - forgiveness, reconciliation, restoration

·         witness - pointing beyond itself to the transforming work of God

So let’s start with the first marker of the church.  We are “a community of faith, entrusting itself to God alone, even at the risk of losing its life.”  That’s a pretty powerful statement.  Does it mean that we’re called to go out and be martyrs for the faith?  No, this statement is about the church as an institution verses the church as the body of Christ.  We, meaning all believers, are called to live as the body of Christ, no matter where that leads us, even if it means losing the institution we call the Presbyterian Church (USA) or it’s buildings or it’s holdings. 

We, the body of Christ, are not the stored up treasures of an institution and we should not be bound by them either.  So long as the organization of the PC(USA) is a wonderful and beneficial thing, it can support us, help us join together our resources in more useful ways, and be a true conduit for making Christ’s reign known in the world.  But the faithful wisdom built in these pages (The Book of Order), is that we are to live as if the institution doesn’t matter.

We do this because we are not only a community of faith but we are “a community of hope, rejoicing in the sure and certain knowledge that, in Christ, God is making a new creation.”  Our hope is not in our own ingenuity or cleverness.  It is not in politicians or even religious leaders.  No, our hope is in the way God works around and through us to transform life after life after life.

It is God who pours out gifts on us and then calls us to organize as a body so that they will be used in even more amazing ways.  We “strive to demonstrate these gifts” in the way we are together and in our workings in the world.  But it is because Christ is the only true head of the church, calling, guiding, proclaiming, that we have seen and felt the vision of something bigger when we join together in service. 

Now, take a look here at the statement “The Church lives in the present on the strength of that promised new creation.”  This is a pretty power packed sentence.  It does not say the church only lives in the present because we know that it has been, is, and ever will be alive.  Rather this is about how we can find our way to stay living in the present.  It is in the strength that hope provides us.  We can keep our work focused here because we are emboldened by our hope in the way Christ is timelessly working to make creation new.

And with experiences like that, we know that we are also “a community of love, where sin is forgiven, reconciliation is accomplished, and the dividing walls of hostility are torn down.”  Our lives individually, as families, as congregants, as coworkers, as sisters and brothers are bound in the quality of love we share… a love that we learned from the first lover of creation, God. 

When we are living as the true body of Christ, our work is that of building up each other, healing wounds, soothing anxieties, and even the big stuff of dismantling the walls that divide us from one another and the rest of creation.  The work of love in community is beautiful but it is demanding.  Yet, when we are living the love of God together, moments and lives and communities are forever made different… holy.

And that’s why we are “a community of witness, pointing beyond itself through word and work to the good news of God’s transforming grace in Christ Jesus its Lord.”  Our time together is for the cultivation of and fellowship in the love of God.  But our calling is not to come into the church walls and hang out.  Our lives together should be pointing to something bigger, to God, all along the way.  Our words and works should not be pointing to us to say, “look what I’ve done.”  They point to God to say, “look at the never ending, always faith inspiring works of God.”

See, the point of all of this is that we are living in a body of faith, hope, and love… and a body with a calling to share those and other gifts with the world.  We are all called to be nurtured by and serve in the body of Christ.  We don’t have to worry about the future of it or how it will sustain itself because Christ, as the head, is in charge of that.  But we are called to be the living body of Christ.

The reformed tradition has a way of talking about that called the Priesthood of Believers and Baptismal Calling.  See, we are called to honor all works in the body because they all serve as witness in different ways.  All believers are ministers, just of different callings.  The words “lay leader” or “clergy” and “teaching elder” or “ruling elder” are words of the institution for how it orders itself.  But our work transcends such language, no matter our title or calling.

The person who unlocks the doors and scrubs the toilets is as deeply honored in the body of Christ as the person who leads worship.  Does that offend me?  That I compared the work of a sexton with the work of a pastor?  No, and it shouldn’t offend you either.  Membership and witness in the body of Christ is about commitment in covenant, not status.  And ministry and ministering is about service, not privilege.  My ordination is about my function, not my rank or prestige. 

The things that should offend us are when we stand in the way of that witness and become stumbling blocks to one another’s callings.  The things we should feel anxious about are when we stop loving and working together or become indifferent to the needs around us.  Our real work is to hear and respond to the cries of those in need of the body of Christ.  Our focus need not be on solving every problem but it should be on the call of Christ in each one of us and living that each and every day.  Everything else is in God’s hands.  And thanks be to God for that.  Amen.