Author Archives: RevJule

About RevJule

RevJule is a pastor of the Presbyterian Church (USA). She is The Rev. Dr. Jule, who holds a BA in Theology from Valparaiso University, a Masters of Divinity from Vanderbilt University Divinity School, and a Doctorate of Ministry (in Gospel and Culture) from Columbia Theological Seminary of Decatur, GA. She soon recently completed a Certificate of Christian Spiritual Formation from Columbia Theological Seminary of Decatur, GA and is beginning to be trained as a Spiritual Director through the Haden Institute in North Carolina. RevJule has served in a variety of professional ministry settings ranging from specialized ministry among children and families to adult ministry to solo pastorate work. She began writing almost before she could read and it was her way to connect deeply with God, others, and her truest self. RevJule currently enjoys creating weekly worship experiences and sermons for a congregation she is leading on a journey of self-re-definition. She enjoys teaching and connecting with others about matters of faith and life. She makes time almost daily for sitting quietly, being with her closest friends, walking her toy poodle Rufus, reading great books, and digging into the soil of whatever garden she can create. If you like what you are reading here, contact her to schedule a retreat or other spiritual formation experience for your faith community.

Rocks

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A Sermon for 2 October 2016 – World Communion Sunday

A reading from the gospel of Luke 17:1-10. Listen for God’s word to us.

“Jesus said to his disciples, “Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble. Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.” The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”

And a reading of Psalm 137. Listen for God’s word to us.

“By the rivers of Babylon – there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem’s fall, how they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations!” O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

Rocks tie these texts together today. Millstones hung around necks that sink to the bottom in an instant. And big, immovable ones that are best for the dashing against. Harsh feelings cause such fateful acts. A desire for retribution because heinous things have been done. It’s exactly why the Psalmist’s lament is filled with those shocking words. “Happy shall they be who do the unspeakable to your little babies!” (paraphrase of Psalm 137:9) The words seethe with hateful vengeance over the exile to Babylon. . . . In that context, maybe we can understand such sentiments. I mean, who among us too can tell a story about a time we were hurt so deeply by another, that we really wanted to lash out? Who here hasn’t stood stuck in the muck that makes for a bitter grudge? Has your spirit ever been shattered? Maybe a significant other pledged faithfulness, but strayed. Maybe a sibling has put your parents through high waters. Maybe due to the unthinkable, the earth-shattering, the awful that we’ve experienced in our lives: we close our hearts. The wall grows taller. We are too weary to trust again and again and again. . . . And these just are situations between people who know each other – not anything quite as destructive as the exile when Jerusalem was ransacked, burned to the ground, and the people carted off for the next seventy years to the distant land of their invaders. What about when nations clash today? What about when races can’t find a way forward? What about when one group seeks to hold back another for eons? How are we to live together pain after pain after pain?

If you were listening closely to the gospel reading of Luke, then you heard Jesus’ disciples declare: “O Jesus, increase our faith!” . . . That’s what the apostles said when Jesus told them the truth about life together. According to the text, it’s the context of the infamous: “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree” – by the way, it’s a mulberry tree in Luke, not a mountain as in Matthew’s gospel. So you could say to this great big tree: “be uprooted and re-plant yourself in the sea” (Luke 17:6). . . . At the beginning of chapter 17, Jesus states: “Occasions for stumbling will come. . . . If another sins,” Jesus says, “tell them so.” I always like to add, “Just please be gentle when pointing out my mess ups.” I mean, “Log in your own eye,” remember (Matthew 7:3)? . . . We are told to forgive. To practice being ready – at all times – to receive back into the fold one who repents – one who turns to say, “I am sorry;” not only in words but in changed behavior too. We’re even to forgive the same person seven times in one whole day if it comes to that! . . . So be honest with yourself: is there a more appropriate response to such a charge than, “Lord, increase our faith!”

We’re human beings. Continuing in communion, as our Christ commands here, is tough stuff. Because, of course, that’s just it: all people in the whole wide world are human beings. We are not error-free. We all sin by separating ourselves from God and each other – sometimes intentionally and sometimes without us even knowing it at all. With the professional theologians, we can scratch our heads all through the day wondering about God’s original creation. We can expend great energy trying to parse out if sin is our natural state or not – which seems to be contrary to Scripture’s witness. After all, – Genesis 1 professes that the Creator declared it and us all good! Very, very good! (Gen. 1:31) . . . Still: “occasions for stumbling are bound to come.” We’re not supposed to try to do it. We’re supposed to do our best. We are supposed to aim for right-relationship between us and each other and the whole of the world – no separation between ourselves and others. But it happens. Jesus knows. God knows. Why do we expect otherwise? Whether one trips over their own two feet, or deliberately orchestrates an elaborate fall, no human being in this whole wide world is perfect. If we’re going to be in community, we’re going to have to find a way. . . . Jesus might as well simply say, “You will be hurt. And you will hurt.” Certainly God doesn’t want it like that. Still, such tumbles will happen. As servants of the unconditionally merciful God, we are to be ready to do our part. Seek to walk right. Rebuke gently when needed. Turn around to start again. And always forgive. There just cannot be community – will not be real community – without such forbearance.

Be certain to understand that Jesus is NOT saying that in community, anything goes. We were not created to be doormats. Every action is not okay – and some things that are okay at one time and place are not in another. At the same time, Jesus is NOT insinuating that we roll over to play dead by pretending that the pain caused by sin simply isn’t felt. It’s real. It hurts. Why do you think we have Psalm 137 with the blessing of those who bring an end forever to the ones who brought an end to us? It’s not there to justify our thirst for vengeance. It’s there to remind us that this relationship with God stuff is real. It’s about who we really are and how we really feel. Every last emotion that wells up within us is to be brought to our God. Nothing separates us from God’s love. That rage we feel is our signal that for us something has been violated. The Psalmist knew that. The issue is: how are we going to act after such damaging violations? . . . As an example: say so and so really screws up. Either we point it out to them, or they come to realize their mistake on their own. They stand ready to begin again – ready to turn around and act differently. Will we forgive? Will we do what forgiveness is: freely give grace to another so that reconciliation can begin? . . . According to Luke’s Jesus, even if it’s seven times in one whole day, “you must forgive” (Luke 17:4). In other words, forgiveness is a practice. One might even say it’s a spiritual discipline. Do you get it? Sometimes it takes practicing forgiveness repeatedly; choosing to release that bitter, begrudging desire within over and over and over until we can freely give grace to someone for the one thing they did that we just can’t seem to let go. Depending on the particular violation, we might have to wake up every morning and before we even set foot on the floor, we might have to plead: “O Lord, before I awake and let the bitterness I hold against so and so creep in, increase my faith right now!” That is what life together demands. And they say it only takes 21 times of doing something before it becomes a habit. So forgive that sin today and tomorrow and the next day for 21 times until the defenses in your heart breakdown and release that person for that particular act.

Of course, we’d like to remind Jesus that even if we’re busy gently pointing out each others’ transgressions in rebuke, not everyone comes to us ready to turn things around. Not everyone repents, right? Then what? Even if the transformation of reconciled life together never will take place, can we still forgive? Must we still forgive? . . . I love the artwork I think I’ve mentioned before as it’s been such a powerful illustration for me. It’s of two sets of chains in a dark, dank dungeon hanging free. The title reads: forgiveness. Ponder that a moment. Two sets of chains hang free. One was for the person we were convinced deserves it because of their hurtful actions. The other set was locked around us; the ones whose lives were just as mangled by life-squelching bondage because we refused to release our clutch upon the one who wronged us. That’s the most amazing thing about forgiveness – maybe reconciliation will not come because another refuses to change their behavior. Nonetheless, forgiveness can go forth. It must. We have to let go of the desire to punish another. For without such release, we are not free to be the ones Jesus sends out.

Is there any better message – even if it’s quite a challenge one – for us this day on World Communion Sunday? Jesus’ teachings on life together. . . . If we can practice it here among us, maybe those beyond the sanctuary walls will begin to see it too. Like the pebble falling into the water that sends ripples far beyond its reach, maybe our little bit of faithfulness will spread to the farthest corners of the world – showing another way. Servants of a magnificently merciful God, keep at it. Even the tiniest bit of faith will help us find the way.

In the name of the life-giving Father, the life-redeeming Son, and the life-sustaining Spirit, Amen.

A Message for the Journey

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A Sermon for 25 September 2016

Today we’re in the latter half of what has been attributed as Paul’s first letter to the young, zealous Timothy. Scholars generally agree that this letter actually wasn’t written by the Apostle Paul – more likely by a scribe or other mature leader in the movement who was trying to stand on the authority of Paul to address rising opposition from false teachers in the church, likely in the community of believers in Ephesus. These words at the end of 1 Timothy read like a letter of encouragement from home to a struggling protégé who is bone-tired weary from keeping the faith in the midst of constant challenge. . . . In case we need that same encouragement today, listen for God’s word to us in a reading of 1 Timothy 6:6-19.

“Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the right time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life. Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the profane chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge; by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith. Grace be with you.^”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

In the earliest days of Christianity, it was common for new converts to the faith to be connected with an older and wiser mentor. 1 Timothy is a good example of why this personal support was needed. The one receiving this letter already was mature in the ways of Christ and was trying to teach others too. If even he needed a message of encouragement for his journey, then wouldn’t those just starting to show interest in what this radical movement of the Way was all about, certainly need it too? I know I would have loved to have someone early in my faith life sit me down to give me a little talk about how it all would unfold. Maybe for our baptisms, or when we each were confirmed; it might have been really helpful for a wise one in the faith to school us in how it would be. Not so much teach us the Apostle’s Creed, all about Presbyterian polity, and the history of the Reformation – as typically happens for many young participants in Confirmation Classes today. But more so someone sitting us down to give us the real scoop of how difficult it can be to keep faith no matter what in a world that isn’t all that interested in the ways of self-giving love, the forgiveness of second-chances, and the joy of living generously with who we are and what we have.

It’s kinda what we get in the sixth chapter of First Timothy. A sort of pep talk on what to expect in the life of discipleship – a message for the journey on how it most probably would be. And the great encouragement to keep the faith through it all. Likely, we all need the very same charge. So for a little something different today – and despite the fact it may be a bit embellished, listen. Hear as if a wise one in the faith is sending this message to you for your own journey. Listen.

Dear child of God, the road before you shall be long, no matter the number of your days on earth. You’re following the Lord Jesus Christ; one whose life was filled with great joy and immense pain. After his own baptism, he went about telling of God’s love for us all. He’d enact God’s grace as he welcomed and listened and laughed and encouraged. He healed those in any need, setting free the Spirit of God alive in them already. He kept the faith – resolute. Centered. Content to live in this world with the clothes on his back, the food set before him, and a few good friends at his side. Striving only for the kingdom of God, his life is our pattern. . . . So we must remember that everywhere he went, some misunderstood. Some were striving for other things. Some were misguided in the ways they thought they knew of God. They didn’t make his life easy. Questioning and snickering and in the end setting him up for the biggest fall. . . . Too often that’s still how it is in the world. So get ready, precious child of God, for a life patterned after Christ will be a life of great joy and continuous struggle. Right-relationships are to be your aim; though everyday you will be surrounded in this world by people who like otherwise – those who use others for their own ends. Sometimes those you love most dearly won’t know how to be connected to you through the purity of love God commends. It may hurt because they won’t know how to be due to the wounds they’ve endure. Still, as for you, pursue these right connections. Live in proper relationship to every other creation of God. See God’s Spirit alive in it all and give thanks as you seek to honor each one. . . . I’m not telling you to live as if you are holier than everyone else, but do aim to imitate our God. Love others, even as you love yourself. Forgive, even as you want to be forgiven. Trust and be one in whom others can trust. . . . Endure patiently as one filled with hope in the life-giving power of our God. We’re with God on God’s mission to re-create the whole world into the kingdom of enduring shalom, the wholeness of everlasting peace. Whether you experience it in full in your lifetime or not, carry on. With gentleness, not with the kind of force you will see around you in the world each day. Remember that the good fight that you are to fight is one that heals. Builds. Repairs; not destroys. The power within us is the power of God. The smallest word we might speak has the ability forever to transform a life – for good, or ill-spoken, for ruin. So be care-full in the fight of faith. . . . God desires to give Life – amazing, Spirit-infused life here and now to all things. When you promised (in your baptism) to turn from the ways that separate us from God and others, you promised to turn to the ways of Christ. So live as one who bears his name. He is the King over all kings. He is Sovereign over any other lords. Remember that because when you open your eyes each morning it may look like someone – or something else is winning. It takes immense trust to remember it’s not. To bear hope when hopelessness seems to prevail. . . . It all can be so confusing because things that are good, when not kept in check, can become what we put ahead of our True Lord. Riches will be the biggest challenge for those of us alive today. The world around us seems to think wealth is the point of it all. That more and more money is our only security. That what we have will ensure our life is good. But we follow one who had very little in terms of the wealth of the world. A simple man who trusted God would provide every need. Relationships were his greatest treasure. Touching the life of one in need to make it better brought him the greatest joy. Being aligned with our God no matter the cost was a commitment worth dying for in his eyes. Such is the life that truly is Life. . . . Child of God, guard what has been entrusted unto you. Each breath is an amazing gift from God for you to awaken each day to the joy of the most Generous Giver. Say yes to this life daily – Real Life; for just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy. Let grace be the hallmark of all of your days. Living as graciously and generously with yourself and others as God is and ever will be unto us. . . . When you tire, as you will, gather with other children of God. Listen to one another’s woes. Encourage each other. Build each other up so you may return to the kind of Alleluia-living God desires. . . . Enjoy who God has made you to be so that the God living in you may enjoy the goodness of life through you. . . . I urge you, child of our Most Amazing God, even if you fall some days. Get back up. God is the God of second chances; grace is sufficient to cover you. . . . So keep at this Life that truly is Life. Knowing that the presence of God is with you always; at the beginning of your journey, in the middle, at your end, and beyond. . . . This we know is Grace forever with us. May peace remain in your always, Dear one! In the life-giving Father, the life-redeeming Son, and the life-sustaining Spirit, Amen.

Clash of the Generations

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A Sermon for 18 September 2016

A reading from the gospel of Luke 16:1-13. And just a warning in advance: this really is one of Jesus’ more confusing parables. One commentator writes about this text: “A parable is a grassroots lesson connecting the ordinariness of life with the extraordinary nature of God. Parables usually are gifts of clear insight into God’s choices for our lives. However, this parable is difficult to read and difficult to preach. The reader is oftentimes left to struggle for meaning, just as the preacher struggles to interpret. Both end up frustrated” (Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol. 4, Helen Montgomery Debevoise, p. 92). In other words, get ready to join me in how I’ve felt all week about preparing a sermon on this text! . . . Another commentator writes of this text: “None of the parables of Jesus has baffled interpreters quite like the story of the dishonest steward (or is he better labeled ‘the shrewd manager’ or ‘the prudent treasurer’?). The story is clearly set in a context in which wealth is of paramount importance” (Ibid., Charles B. Cousar, p. 93). That part seems clearest in this text – the admonition at the end, which scholars believe to be a move on the part of the gospel’s author. The thought there is that the parable was floating around along with a bunch of other sayings folks had heard from Jesus. And when the gospel story was being written down, the author decided the parable needed the saying from Jesus about wealth and God to follow it. Maybe the text came to us in that way. We don’t really know. What we do know is that we have a puzzling parable before us today. Hold on, and if you find yourself saying: HUH? It’s ok! Just listen for the word of God to us in a reading of Luke 16:1-13. And remember this comes right after the gospel of Luke’s unique parables about the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Brothers – also called the Prodigal Son. Listen:

“Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.’”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

Did you hear that the new season of Survivor begins this Wednesday? If you’re a fan, record it so you still can come to our gospel of Luke Wednesday night study! I’ve never watched the show. But I think it’s a whole competition to be the last one standing – avoid being the one voted off the island. Survive to the end and you get a bunch of money, I guess. This new season it’s the Millennials versus the Gen Xers. And it’s got me thinking about the clash of the generations. While many Presbyterian Churches really don’t have among them a whole lot of people born after 1964 and before the turn of the 21^st Century in the year 2000, the two generations of those who are between eighteen and fifty comprise about 43% of the total population of the United States (www.marketingcharts.com). We’d do well to know something about them. The Millennials are slightly larger as a generation than are the Gen Xers – so they’ll have the numbers advantage in this upcoming season of Survivor. Each generation has its own flare – based upon general worldview, societal realities in their most formative years, and lived values passed on through their parents. Well, these are the first two generations of U.S. adults who primarily experienced two working parents in their household – if they still had two parents in their household. Their parents’ and older siblings’ anti-authority push of the 1960s was ancient history for these two generations. The Millennials are the first generation to grow up experiencing the realities of school shootings – mass violence at the hands of their peers so that factors like bullying, mental illness, gun-control laws, and other realities coming to light in their formative years (like sex-scandals, harassment, and college campus rape cases). All of this significantly shapes the way they understand the world. The way they view the institution of the church, and how they choose to connect with God. . . . Rachel Held Evans, the blogger who is the author of the book we’re about to study for Home Book Club, describes herself as “having one foot in generation X” while “identifying most strongly with the attitudes and ethos of the millennial generation” (Searching for Sunday, p. xii-xiii). Thanks to the 1992 de-regulations regarding marketing to children, about millennials Evans writes: “We millennials have been advertised to our entire lives, so we can smell (BLEEP) from a mile away” (Ibid., xiv). Millennials demand authenticity. Gen Xers pretty much want it too. Both generations tend to be drawn more to what they are for rather than what they are against. Millennials seem to be a bit more optimistic about life than many Gen Xers do, and for the most part are more ready to throw themselves into working together to make a positive impact in the world. Gen Xers and Millennials alike all were born after postmodernism began – the movement that stepped outside of the box, was more comfortable with AND rather than OR so that pluralism became an expected norm, and wasn’t about to buy into top-down authoritarian anything. Grassroots is a typical term for Gen X and Millennial adults – not only because formation from within tends to be their way, but also because sustainability of the earth is a crucial value for them. In fact, most of them have grown up believing earth to be only one significant part of this universe thanks to the readily-available-on-the-internet photos of it all from the Hubble Space Telescope. For the most part, Gen Xers and Millennials aren’t all that interested in the sweet by and by. If they’re not dreaming about how to make it to Mars or beyond, they’re focused on the ground under their feet and the community that will accept them to provide a stable sense of belonging in the chaotic world into which they were born and in which they continue to live. . . . I’m not about to watch, but it’s bound to be a very interesting season of Survivor!

Jesus presents a clash of generations too. Here in the gospel of Luke he paints a picture of the generation of this eon – or the shrewd children of this age – and the children of light – who he seems to call here the overly-naïve generation of those following him. The text points to the clash of those chasing wealth against those chasing the ways of God. It’s hard for us to believe, as the parable seems to state, that Jesus would want us to embrace practices of securing dishonest wealth. When the squandering manager realizes he’s about to be fired; he indebts the rich man’s debtors not only to himself but also to the rich man. While still in the role of representing the rich man, the manager decreases their debts in what surely seems to them an act of great generosity. The debtors now may see the rich man as one who cares about them. And as the agent of that kindness, the debtors now owe the manager a favor – which he hopes will secure him somewhere to go when the boss cuts him loose – brilliant really as everyone seems a winner in the end. But it sounds like Jesus is saying the end justifies the means – the sneaky, conniving-to-save-his-own-skin act is something that shouldn’t irksomely rub against our sense of right and wrong. Is this parable really promoting that we act likewise?

We forget the backdrop of the story. The Pharisees are within earshot – at least according to verse fourteen of chapter sixteen. The gospel records: “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. So Jesus said to them: ‘You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God’” (Luke 16:14-15). While it seems this parable is addressed to Jesus’ disciples, clearly some are present who are squandering what was entrusted to them. Maybe they really care about the little guy getting a break in the eyes of the rich man. But it sounds a whole lot more like they’re just putting first their own desires for wealth, power, and security – even if they have to align themselves, as was happening in Jesus’ day, with the powers-that-be in Rome. Is it possible that Jesus is trying to expose the ways of the children of this age while teaching a lesson to the children of the light? Is this parable supposed to confound us so that we find ourselves going right along with Jesus as he speaks until we have to perk our ears because he suddenly sounds like an unexpected trickster? Is he backhandedly saying you can put your hope in securing your own wealth, or you can put your hope in God? You can take on the values of the ways of this world, or you can stay true to being light in the darkest places?

It’s clear we cannot put our energies to both ways. There’s a Cherokee legend of two wolves battling within. The legend goes that a grandfather is trying to teach his grandson about life. He tells him: “’A fight is going on inside me.’ . . . ‘It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One (wolf) is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.’ He continued: ‘the other (wolf) is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.’” The grandfather wisely states: “’The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person too.’ The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, ‘Which wolf will win?’” The story goes that “The old Cherokee simply replied, ‘The one you feed.’” (http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/TwoWolves-Cherokee.html).

We cannot feed our striving for the accumulation of wealth, as is typical of the children of this age, and our striving for the ways of God. With the ways of God growing in us, we share when we see someone in need. We welcome the stranger. We walk alongside those going through any kind of need just so they know they are not alone and they will make it through. Maybe we need to get a little bit wiser in dealing with the powers-that-be around us. After all, there really are those who starve the good wolf in them while sumptuously feeding the other wolf that also is in us all. Maybe the children of the light need to wake up to that. To open our eyes to see what too often is right before us. Maybe the most important thing we need to know is that the clash is real. Children who live for the Light walk differently. They live differently. They feed in themselves the way of joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. They seek first to serve the One we know in Jesus the Christ. And in so doing, we are welcomed here and now, and forever, by an incredibly Gracious Master.

In this we can trust.

In the name of the life-giving Father, the life-redeeming Son, and the life-sustaining Spirit, Amen.

The Forming Family

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A Sermon for 11 September 2016 – Kirkin’ o’ the Tartans Service

(NOTE: The NRSV Scripture reading below has pronunciation hints included for some of the difficult names listed. Use them to aid you in your reading and not just skip over the gospel writer’s message of a very important heritage! If you stumble over any of the names below, call to mind names in your own family line — perhaps unique family names passed on through the years. Let all those ole’ family names surround you to steep you in your own long, proud lineage!)

A reading from the gospel of Luke 3:23-38. Listen for God’s word to us.

“Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his work. He was the son (as was thought) of Joseph son of Heli [Heé-lie], son of Matthat [Máth-that], son of Levi, son of Melchi [Mél-kigh], son of Jannai [Ján-nigh], son of Joseph, son of Mattathias, son of Amos, son of Nahum [Náy-humm], son of Esli [éS-lie], son of Naggai [Náy-guy], son of Maath [Máh-ahth], son of Mattathias, son of Semein [Sah-máy-in], son of Josech [Jóe-zech], son of Joda [Jóe-dah], son of Joanan [Joe-án-nan], son of Rhesa [Reá-sah], son of Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel [Shih-áll-te-al], son of Neri [Nár-rye], son of Melchi [Mél-kigh], son of Addi [Áh-die], son of Cosam [Có-sam], son of Elmadam [El-ma’dám], son of Er [Air], son of Joshua, son of Eliezer [El-ee-á-zar], son of Jorim [Jóe-rim], son of Matthat [Máth-that], son of Levi, son of Simeon, son of Judah, son of Joseph, son of Jonam [Jóan-ham], son of Eliakim [El-ee-á-kum], son of Melea [Mah-láy-ah], son of Menna [Mén-nah], son of Mattatha [Máh-tah-tha], son of Nathan, son of David, son of Jesse, son of Obed, son of Boaz, son of Sala [Sáh-lah], son of Nahshon [Náy-shan], son of Amminadab [Ah-mín-ah-dab], son of Admin [Ád-min], son of Arni [Ár-nigh], son of Hezron, son of Perez [Pée-rezz], son of Judah, son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, son of Terah, son of Nahor [Náh-hor], son of Serug [Sáir-rug], son of Reu [Rue], son of Peleg [Péll-leg], son of Eber [Éb-ber], son of Shelah [Shéll-lah], son of Cainan [Káy-nann], son of Arphaxad [Ar-fáx-add], son of Shem, son of Noah, son of Lamech [Láh-meck], son of Methuselah, son of Enoch, son of Jared, son of Mahalaleel [Mah-háh-lah-lel], son of Cainan [Kén-nann], son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God.”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

I heard a quotable quote this week. It stated: “Your life will be determined over the next five years by the books you read and the people you hang around” (Jim Rohn, source unknown). It was the second time I heard that sentiment this week. During an interview, an inspirational speaker said something like: who you love and spend your time with drastically impacts who you end up becoming. . . . It gives us pause to consider the people who are around us each day. They affect us – for good or ill. Think about it: if you are a young child who spends each day in a classroom of an angry, bitter, cutting teacher; I dare say you’re going to face pretty significant problems. If you are a teenager who surrounds yourself with other teens that try really hard to make a positive difference in the world; then even if it’s against your own will, it’s likely you’ll be pulled along to find yourself helping out others a little bit each day. If you are a grown adult who always is alone, your own mind may take over – leaving you in a state of constant worry, causing you to think you don’t matter to anybody else in the world, or maybe over-inflating how wonderful you may think you are. But if you surround yourself with friends who make you laugh, co-workers who encourage you instead of compete, family members interested in knowing more about what really matters to you; then it’s likely your life will grow into a garden of great joy. For you not only will love and cherish yourself. You’ll find yourself grateful for the amazing people with you on the journey. You will become someone who makes others laugh, encourages instead of competes, and wants to know more about what really matters to others. Your life will blossom to bring a beautiful fragrance to the world.

Though two of the New Testament gospels give the genealogical ancestry of Jesus, we are left to speculate about who surrounded him those first thirty years of his life. Before he stepped out into the Jordan River to be baptized by John; who greatly impacted his life each day? He wasn’t a loner – the culture in which he lived really wasn’t set up that way as is ours. He was a part of a family – a clan of a nation that long had known tremendous upheaval. In chapter three of the gospel of Luke, he’s traced back through the one thought to be his father, named Joseph. We’re told he came from the line of King David – which was why Joseph had to take his about-to-burst pregnant wife with him to Bethlehem when the Romans wanted to count up everyone in the lands they occupied. They were to be registered, not for any sort of upcoming election. More likely it was to know how much tax the Romans could expect from each of the lands they occupied. So Joseph loyally and courageously took Mary with him – ensuring a young woman impregnated before she was properly married was not left undefended back home in Nazareth. The story goes that Mary gives birth out back in the cave for the animals in order to ensure no other travelers to Bethlehem are defiled by her unclean state that night. And, though I doubt men were involved in childbirth in those days, we like to believe that dutiful Joseph is nervously pacing right there at her side the whole way. The infant descendent of King David through his father’s line, and likely of the great line of Israel’s priests through his mother’s side, is born into humble conditions while his parents were on the move out of town.

Luke seems to tell of Jesus’ birth more from the perspective of his mother Mary – leaving out a whole lot of details about the one thought to be his father. But it is made clear that both of his parents were God-loving Jews. They saw to the Jewish rites of his naming and presentation in the Temple. Luke 2 records: “When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they [Mary and Joseph] brought [Jesus] up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it was written in the law of the LORD, ‘Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the LORD), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the LORD, ‘a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons’” (Luke 2:22-24). Skip ahead a few years to when Jesus was twelve, and the gospel of Luke records that “Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover” (Luke 2:41). They were a faithful family practicing the religious rites of their people in order to be connected with their God. . . . These parts of Jesus’ story are unique to the gospel of Luke which leaves us to wonder – especially on a day like today when we come together to celebrate our family and faith ancestry. We’ve got to wonder how much this gospel writer wanted to emphasize the importance of being grounded for our work in this world by a faithful, God-loving family.

It may not have been the case for us all. Maybe our parents were or maybe they were not God-lovers who ensured we were raised early on as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. Maybe today you brought with you a tartan or other family symbol that leaves you flooded with memories of love. Maybe you are finding yourself today nourished in this time of remembrance by moments when your mom took you along to help out aging neighbors, or your father taught you how to say your prayers at night before closing your eyes to sleep. Maybe your family symbol reminds you today of the grace you experienced from a grandfather who always had a soft spot in his heart for you, no matter how you messed up in your choices. Can you recall a great-grandfather or great-grandmother who taught you how to bait a fishing hook or feed the birds in order to just enjoy the beauty of God’s amazing creation? . . . Even if the particulars aren’t the same, I hope you can dig down deep enough inside to be sustained by experiences of at least one family member who treasured you as a precious gift from God. That’s worth celebrating today. Worth giving thanks to God for being born into a circle of love that has dramatically impacted for good who you have become!

And if you were not, know all is not lost. You are here. Now. And your commitment to Christ transfers you into another family. A family that better be sustaining you and showing you every moment that you are a treasured, precious gift to this world from God! It’s so easy to lose our way, as Christ’s body, the church. To forget why we really exist. We are here together in this world to be the kind of people, to each other and to all those we meet every week, to be the kind of people who positively impact the lives of others. We are here to lift each other’s burdens, and to be examples of faithfulness even when it’s costly, and to inspire others to commit to God’s way of love. We are together to ensure no one has to try to go it alone in this life – that all are welcomed and cherished for who they are just because they are our brothers and sisters in the human family – gifts given by God to shape us more fully into that beautiful fragrance needed in the world today.

We are family to each other now – whether we have a loving biological family beside us each day too or not. We are the family of God. Sons and daughters, and siblings to one another, of the One who once took on human flesh to be about a great work in and for this world. Surrounded in such a way, it’s a joy to consider who we shall become.

In the name of the life-giving Father, the life-redeeming Son, and the life-sustaining Spirit, Amen.

The With-us Potter

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A Sermon for 4 September 2016

A reading from the prophet Jeremiah 18:1-11. Listen for God’s word to us.

“The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

I wish we each had a lump of clay in our hands today. That would be the best way to spend some time with this text from the prophet Jeremiah. All of you sitting there with a ball of the soft stuff. Squeezing and kneading and working it in your hands. . . . If you’ve ever held clay before, then you know that it has such potential. It can become anything you want it to be: a pinch pot, which typically is the first thing you learn to make in a pottery class. A long snake of clay that you then can wind together into a flower vase. You can flatten it out in your hands as thin as a pancake in attempts to make a plate. Tear it into smaller bits to fashion little balls for earrings or even into the shape of a cross for a necklace.

Throwing a pot is a bit different. First you have to work the clay. Push down one way, then turn it to force it down the other direction. It’s kinda like warm up stretches before running. You’ve gotta get the clay ready before you put it on the wheel. It’s a process of moving around the molecules and getting out any air. In pottery class, they always said this is the most important step, which never ever should be skipped, even though so many novice potters wanna get right to the wheel. . . . After you have your clay ready, you finally take it to the wheel. Water and equal pressure on both sides are key – it’s what is needed to center the clay. Something you have to get right if the clay’s gotta a shot of becoming anything. Next, cutting into the centered clay, all the while keeping the wheel turning at a slow and easy pace. Too fast and the clay goes spinning out of control. Too little or too much water and the clay won’t form as you’d like in your hands. Too much pressure too quickly from one hand or the other and the next thing you know, the clay is collapsing between your fingers. Your intended beautiful bowl falls into a misshapen mess. . . . It’s fascinating to watch a master potter at work – and if you’ve ever attempted it yourself, you know it’s no where near as easy as it looks!

A lot of potters will tell you you have to listen to the clay. Let it tell you what it wants to become. . . . But not according to this text! According to Jeremiah, the potter has a good plan for what the potter wishes to make. That clay in the potter’s hands has an intended purpose. . . . I remember the pottery instructor always saying that to create on the wheel, you have to be willing to let go. Fail and begin again when the clay wobbles off center out of the form needed for a bowl. It’s not really that there’s only one way to make it, but it is the case that a pot thrown with too thick a bottom or too thin a wall won’t last the firing in the kiln. When the clay goes array on the wheel, it’s better to scoop it off to begin again because once it begins to set out of form, the clay will be wasted entirely. No use at all when it breaks in the scorching fires of the kiln.

It’s a mighty metaphor for our lives in God’s hands. . . . At God’s command, Jeremiah goes down to the potter’s house to hear a word from the LORD. He sees a potter at work. A typical potter who’s obviously mature in his craft. For the potter doesn’t hesitate one moment when the clay spins off track. He scoops it up to begin again. He’s not about to waste his clay. I’d imagine that potter Jeremiah was watching had been through quite a process to get that lump of clay in the first place. I don’t know everything about where you get clay and what all the right ingredients have to be, but I know clay is found in certain parts of the ground. The potter either paid a high price for his clay, or did the hard work himself of digging for it. Each piece is precious to the potter. If it all goes array, he’s going to scoop it up to re-work, re-center, and begin to create again. He’s a committed master potter, who’s not afraid to let go of what it’s become because he wants the clay to be what he knows it can be.

The process is a little scary, however, when we start to understand ourselves as the clay. That’s what Jeremiah is hearing as he sees the potter at work. The house of Israel is in the process of going array. It’s an act of love that God won’t just let it be, though the words the prophet hears seem kinda harsh. “Can I not do with you . . . just as the potter has done? . . . Just like the clay in the potter’s hands, says the LORD, I can pluck up and restart” (paraphrase of Jer. 18:6, 7). All this talk about disaster on those devising evil. We don’t really want to face this seemingly harsh-sounding God. It sounds so like: turn or else! A threat with punishment if not heeded – which doesn’t fit so well with our warm-fuzzy notions of God. And actually it isn’t the best way to bring about true, sustained transformation.

What we do know is that this is the same God, through Jeremiah, who says to the people: “For surely I know the plans I have for you. Plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope” (Jer. 28:11). A few chapters later, God declares: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people . . . for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more” (Jer. 31:33-34). . . . Like the master potter, God has a plan for the people’s good use. When the clay goes array on the wheel, when the people turn from who God intends for them to be; like the master potter, God will re-work the vessel as seems good to God.

If you’re familiar with the work of Brené Brown, then you may know about her research on shame and the power of vulnerability – acts that take a whole lot of trust. The first thing Brown underscores is that all of us have a need for love and belonging. Shame leaves us feelings as if we’re not worthy of such love and belonging, which in turn makes it really hard for us to be willing to be vulnerable – to be willing to trust. Brown’s research testifies that: one powerful way to send a message of shame, which leads to one being stuck immobile, is to disengage. No longer be involved with someone when their behavior is unacceptable. Refuse the healthy act of engagement by setting proper boundaries with them. According to Brown, when we fail to do so – to set those proper healthy boundaries, it actually creates a deeper sense of shame in the other. Disengaging sends the message that you’re not worthy of a sense of love and belonging from me. . . . Do you hear the truth in that? The worst possible thing the potter could do to the clay when it goes array is to let it go array. Disengage from the process and just let it be. Scooping it up to re-work, re-center, and re-create again may be a process that really hurts – a process that seems like destroying. Plucking up and breaking down in order to re-build and plant may sound kinda vicious; but with the clay, the potter stays engaged all the while. The potter sends the message to the clay that it is so entirely valued, so deeply loved, that the potter just won’t let it go into whatever the clay itself might want to be. For surely the potter knows the plans the potter has for it . . . plans for the clay’s welfare – not harm – to give an amazing future overflowing with hope.

We are the clay – not just us individually, as we so often read into this text – but us collectively as a part of the body of Christ, the church. And the Master Potter seeks to re-create us into what is needed today in this world. It’s not easy to know what exactly that will look like. After all, the clay being re-worked doesn’t know if it’s going to end up a beautiful bowl that will be able to feed those who hunger; or an amazing cup that will quench all those who thirst. The process is a mystery that takes all of our trust. . . . It has been said that “we are not so at home with the resurrected form of things despite a yearly springtime, healings in our bodies, and the ten thousand forms of newness in every event and life . . . resurrection offers us a future . . . one that is unknown and thus scary. . . . (it’s not a) resuscitation of an old thing, but the raising up of . . . an utterly new thing” (Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond, 2013, pp. x-xi). In this we can trust. For a Master Potter holds us every step of the way. Indeed our Loving God continues with us until all things are entirely new! For this we give great thanks!

In the name of the life-giving Father, the life-redeeming Son, and the life-sustaining Spirit, Amen.

Freedom and Rest

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A Sermon for 21 August 2016

A reading from the gospel of Luke 13:10-17. Listen for God’s word to us.

“Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

Remember the Blue Laws? Some fifty or more years ago in the United States, no matter where you went on Sundays, most everything was closed. The doors of sanctuaries were open and it was expected everyone who was anyone had their entire family with them in a pew. Laws throughout the United States banned such things on Sundays as open restaurants, open department stores, open car lots, and open liquor shops. “You did not even hear the whistle of freight trains . . . on Sundays, because it was illegal to haul goods on the Sabbath” (Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World, p. 128). Sunday had become the day you did not! Radically, to this day, a county in New Jersey still bans “the sale of clothing, shoes, furniture, home supplies, and appliances on Sundays” (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law). And of course, we all know that if you want to enjoy some wine over Sunday dinner or a beer for the afternoon ballgame, you better be sure to stock up before Sunday morning arrives.

Ironically, the fourth of the infamous Ten Commandments begins not with shall not but with this: “Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). . . . Remember the Sabbath day? Way back in Genesis 1 and 2, the Great Creator went about all the work of making this amazing world. Separating light and darkness, crafting an environment in which creation could thrive – waters above, waters below, with dry land in there too. Fruit trees and pines and, as the story was told from the perspective of the land tucked between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, certainly there were figs and pomegranates and grapes galore. The stars twinkled in the brilliant night sky and the moon waxed and waned to keep track of all the seasons. Fish and cattle and creeping things of every kind came into being until earth was mixed with the divine breath to concoct such a creature as had never been before: humankind came into this world! And then, at last – not because we wore God out in our making, though the news each day might cause us to wonder – then, the Great Creator stopped. It was finished. The Great Creator paused in delight declaring: “Ah! Very good! Very, very good indeed!” . . . Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy – because God wants everyone of us to stop too. To pause, if just from one sundown to sundown, to declare in delight: “Ah! Very good! It all is very, very good indeed!” Set apart in this way, we too make the rest holy.

That was the purpose of Sabbath, at least until the Exodus when Sabbath took on another meaning as well. Observant Jewish brothers and sisters welcome Sabbath in their homes each week with the lighting of two candles when at least three stars can be seen in the sky. One is this candle command of creation – the pause for creatures to delight. To rest. The other is the candle of freedom. Once we were enslaved by the ways of the Pharaoh. But God heard the cries of the people. The wringing of hands over if there would be enough this month to feed the children. Would we ever get a break from the boss who has been breathing down our necks these past several months over our performance on the job? Is that all it all is: toil for a paycheck and worry everything shall work out? . . . Will we ever get a break from defining ourselves by what we do and being defined by others in that way too, instead of simply being accepted for who we are – warts and all? God hears all those cries. Every wonder and weary worry. In response, once a week for a whole 24 hours; we are free! None of it matters. We are invited to put down such heavy burdens to take a walk in the park with someone we love who loves us back just as well. We can take a nap no matter the piles of dirty dishes or chores to do outside. Lay in a hammock or rock out on the front porch if only for 20 minutes just to listen and observe. Rest from the pecking order of this world at least for one whole night and one whole day and see if you wake ready to worship the next morning. Do it on a Saturday, as was first the plan; so that the next day you can gather with others in the faith to swop stories over how good it was for just one night and day this week to rest in the freedom of God.

That is what has Jesus all incensed in the story before us in the gospel of Luke. At a glance it might appear all is well, but the Sabbath command is violated. Not by the one accused of doing the healing. Rather, this particular synagogue leader failed to see the burden on the shoulders of a woman bound by her body for eighteen long years. They would untie their ox or donkey every Sabbath that the animals might get what they needed – even on the day of rest and freedom. But that synagogue leader would not have it that a child of the covenant might get a bit better treatment than beasts of burden on the weekly day to live God’s freedom and rest! . . . Notice that this woman didn’t seek out Jesus. The text says nothing of her coming to the synagogue expecting any sort of healing that day. The author gives great detail that the woman was “bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight” (Luke 13:11). So that even if she wanted to seek out Jesus, about all she’d be able to see as an identifying mark in her search would be feet. Some of you live with back problems that have hindered you to stand up tall to look another straight in the eye. You know the pain that becomes the constant companion. The desperation of wanting to be well. And if you’ve been dealing with it for nearly twenty years, you know too how crushed a spirit can get. So crushed, it would seem, this woman just goes to the synagogue – no indication she’s expecting any sort of release, even there among religious folk you might hope would be concerned enough to find a way to help. . . . Though the leader might spit in his criticism that she was in the wrong for seeking healing on the Sabbath; the story never questions her motives or throws any sort of blame her way. Jesus who has stop to rest and remember – to delight in the goodness of it all and to be free from anyone else’s expectations – while Jesus is observing this day of Sabbath in the synagogue, he sees someone who needs immediately to be set free. Likely, he saw a whole synagogue full of faithful Sabbath-keepers who desperately needed to be free. Free from law over grace. Free from rules trumping compassion. Free from external expectations over the will of God. Free from mental, emotional, and spiritual ailments that weigh heavy upon the backs of every last one –even if those burdens haven’t yet imprinted physically on the body. None of it is ok with this faithful Sabbath-keeper. Keeping his eye on the true intent of the fourth command; with one word, much like the Great Creator at the beginning of it all, Jesus releases the chains upon this woman’s back. He lays his hand upon her and in an instant she is set free. With a full body alleluia, she stands upright, for the first time in eighteen years, to praise God! . . . True Sabbath. True freedom. True joy-filled rest as a beloved child of God! In the whole room, they’re the only two rightly practicing Sabbath. The only two resting in the delightful freedom of the LORD!

In An Altar in the World, the book we’ve been reading this summer in Home Book Club, Barbara Brown Taylor reminds that Sabbath is a “’palace in time’ . . . into which human beings are invited every single week of our lives. The question is: “Why are we so reluctant to go?” (p. 127) . . . I get it. For far too long we’ve been told it’s all about thou shall not. For far too long we’ve let the world around us demand our time and attention. Maybe you’ve been taught to believe Sabbath is all about Sunday and “going to church” – which is not at all what the bible records anywhere! Sabbath is about entering the beautiful palace in time each week to sit a spell, not in an effort to do anything holy, but just to be. Just to rest and remember that we are free. Free from it all because the Great Creator hears us and loves us and commands us just to stop. That in itself is holy! . . . If one sundown to the next sundown is too long for you each week, then at least begin with an hour – preferably sometime Saturday so you at least have some bit of gratitude in your tank when you race in to worship on Sundays. Give it a try, if you don’t already. And enjoy the freedom and rest of God! It is so good. So very, very good indeed!

In the name of the life-giving Father, the life-redeeming Son, and the life-sustaining Spirit, Amen.

Instead Consider

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A Sermon for 7 August 2016

A reading from the gospel of Luke 12:22-34. And remember: they’re still on the road with Jesus, out of Galilee for the last time as they head for his final trip to Jerusalem. Listen for God’s word to us.

“He said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will God clothe you—you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

Believe it or not, most of what I just read from the gospel of Luke is not an assigned reading according to the Revised Common Lectionary. O, the part about selling our possessions to give it away as alms is – which is miracle in and of itself that our church mothers and fathers had the foresight to have those words of Jesus read before his body at least once every three years. But the part about do not worry is not. The lectionary would have us skip from Jesus’ parable of the rich fool and the plea to take care against defining our lives according to our possessions, to striving for the purses that do not wear out as we’re ready for whatever twists and turns life brings. But worry? The invitation to consider the simple things around us like birds. How do they all get enough to eat each day? And enough to drink? And with all of them around; yet each little bird finds a place somewhere in this world to build their nests to snuggle down safely for the night away from any circling prey. And what about the wildflowers? In Galilee, there still are bright yellow flowers popping up all over. Wild mustard I was told, not lilies. But wildly prolific nonetheless. Have you ever been walking along a sidewalk and seen all those beautiful little purple flowers pushing their way through tangles of gnarly Bermuda grass or popping through whatever crack in the path they can find? How do they grow? Presumably the wind alone scatters their seed. When it rains, they drink. When the sun shines, the nutrients they need seep deep into their little-flower pores. It’s like it just happens. They get what they need to grow.

Some might argue that the swarms of common house sparrows and the droves of little purple wildflowers that are so insignificant they rarely are seen as beautiful; someone might say they matter more in this world than people. But most of us believe we matter a little bit more than them. A proper orientation towards all the creation that surrounds us might better be that we equally matter. Species are mutually beneficial to one another. After all, it’s not just beauty little wild flowers provide. They actually have a purpose for our lives too. Did you know that “seaweed, algae, and marine phytoplankton make up the overwhelming majority of the world’s oxygen producing plants” (www.secrets-of-longevity-in-humans.com/oxygen-producing-plants.html)? Even that which we consider worthless slim is important to sustaining our human life. Without oxygen in every cell of our bodies, we cannot live. And there they all are. Chirping sparrows, little purple wildflowers, seaweed, algae, and marine phytoplankton too. Doing their thing without one care in the world. If they could talk and we asked them what rattled them awake in the middle of the night, I’m sure they would say: “nothing. Not one thing.”

It’s we humans that seem to live a different way – which might be why God created a whole world first that knew how to just be before setting us loose in the garden to worry our little heads off. . . . Someone pointed out to me this week that it’s not really helpful to tell someone who’s trying to change their behavior not to do it. Like “Don’t worry,” Jesus says here. “Do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying.” It’s not really all that helpful because the words alone churn up our anxious hearts. Now we worry too that we worry so much and Jesus told us not to do it. It’s like he’s kicking us when we’re already down – even if he didn’t mean further harm. He really is trying to paint a different picture to give us a loop hole out of the worry trap. Jesus knows we need the what to do more than the what not to do in order to make any sort of lasting change. The details may be a little lacking about what it looks like to strive instead for the kingdom, but the actual practice he first suggests is the way out. Watch the birds. Pay attention to the little lilies. See how everything in this creation fits together. As we notice, we might just come to the conclusion that it’s all going to be all right.

One of the most helpful things I have come across for deepening my trust in God, actually is something I’ve learned from the energetic therapy called Healing Touch. After a healer asks someone the physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual healing they seek and before going on to the next step; the healer silently repeats that desire as if it is the prayer for the healing. And then, if the healer is doing it right, they must release that desire to the Highest Good. Literally, if a healer is doing it right, they must let go of the outcome. Who is anyone of us to really know what another person needs as they make their journey in this world deeper into who God would have them be? Who is anyone of us to really know what we ourselves need as we make our journey in this world deeper into who God would have us be? . . . We definitely can ask, and by Jesus even, in a few verses just prior to this portion of Luke, are told in fact to ask for exactly what we want (Luke 11:1-14). And then, we must release that desire to the Highest Good. Something many of us refer to as the will of God. (As in: “Thy will be done.”) A daily practice each one of us gets is to release, then wait – even if it takes nearly forever – we must wait to see how God will take what we may consider the worst garbage of our lives and somehow make a way to something new. . . . In the admonition not to worry, Jesus is inviting us to let go of our firm need to stay in the driver’s seat. To welcome the mystery of what will unfold. Do not worry means: know that God’s got this, because God’s got you – and every other creature too.

In a lot of ways, worry gets straight to the core of whether or not we trust what Jesus says – not to mention trust who Jesus is. Do we trust, what our ancestor in the faith, John Calvin, once so formally professed: that God is benevolent towards us (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion; Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960, 3.2.7). In other words, Jesus asks: do you believe the God of the Universe loves us, or not? . . . How we answer that question is meant to make a difference even in whether we’re able to get a restful night’s sleep. It does not mean everything always is going to be easy or turn out the way we want it. We will experience pain in our life – it’s part of the package. In fact, it’s a gift really, though we seldom think of it that way. Pain in our body, mind, or spirit can be considered a great teacher if we turn aside for a moment to explore what message we’re supposed to be hearing from that pain. What our body, mind, or spirit is crying out for us to notice and most likely stop to change something about how we are going about life. Even if all it is is to remember: “O yes, God! I need to get back in the passenger seat to enjoy the view of where you are taking this all.”

Do not worry is not easy. A lot of us already have cut a really deep channel in our brains to go right from wonder over what’s taking place to incessant, can’t-sleep-a-wink worry. If watching the birds isn’t helping one bit. If paying attention to the wildflowers and even trying to appreciate how the seaweed just does its most helpful thing is not making a difference to stop your worry. Then, turn to the ways of the kingdom, as Jesus also tells us to do. Get out of the house to go show love to somebody. Make peace maybe through a caring gesture to someone who really has been on your nerves. Be a little more generous with your thoughts about why that person always is so mean – what burden might they be bearing that you know nothing about? Share what you have with someone who really needs it, then see how you feel after. Do these kingdom things and you might just find you sleep a whole lot better at night. You might just wake rest-full, ready to greet the first bird’s beautiful song.

In the name of the life-giving Father, the life-redeeming Son, and the life-sustaining Spirit, Amen.

Store Up

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A Sermon for 31 July 2016

A reading from the gospel of Luke 12:13-21. Listen for God’s word to us as we continue to hear of Jesus’ final journey from Galilee to what lie ahead in Jerusalem.

“Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.’”

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

Has anybody ever meddled into what you make in a year? It happened to a school teacher at a dinner party. Perhaps you’ve read the story. It goes that a CEO was leading the conversation – waxing on about the problems of education in America. Maybe he genuinely wanted to know, though it seemed more like a smug turn in the conversation. Looking directly to the school teacher sitting across the fancy table from him, he said: “You’re a teacher Bonnie. Be honest: what do you make?” The room fell silent as all the guests were shocked by the condescending nature of the CEO’s question. Bonnie, ever a teacher, took a deep breath and frankly replied: “You want to know what I make? Well . . . I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor winner. I make kids sit through forty minutes of class time when their parents can’t make them sit for five minutes without an IPod, Game Cube, or movie rental. Do you really want to know what I make?” The story goes that she paused to look at each and every person sitting at the table, then continued: “I make kids wonder. I make them question. I make them apologize and mean it. I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions. I teach them how to write and then I make them write. Keyboarding isn’t everything. I make them read, read, read. I make them show all their work in math. They use their God-given brain, not the man-made calculator. I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know about English while preserving their unique cultural identity. I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe and secure. Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts; they can succeed in life. Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are so ignorant. You want to know what I make?” The teacher said. “I make a difference in all your lives, educating your children (and grandchildren) and preparing them” to become who they will become. Returning her gaze to the man across the table from her, the teacher went on: “What do you make Mr. CEO?” The story ends by stating: “Don’t educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be happy, so they know the value of things, not the price. (For source, search: Funny Videos and More).

We may know plenty of teachers who don’t approach what they make in this way. And, there are CEOs who aren’t just in it for the money. But the story gets the point across. Too many of us have our values all messed up. We labor for a paycheck instead of the contributions we are making for the betterment of the world. We choose our life’s path according to the bottom line of the good old American buck and all we believe will come with it. We work hard to store up whatever we think we will need – experiences, products, larger sums in the stock market. . . . I’m sorry to sound as if I’m meddling now, but the text before us makes it pretty clear. Long the church has remained silent or apologetic in the area of life in which Americans today just might need the most faith-based guidance. That which we value – that for which we will toil; giving our blood, sweat, and tears. The way we define abundance. . . . It’s obvious from Jesus’ words here – and his words throughout the gospels. In fact, read through the gospels – especially the gospel of Luke and you will see that Jesus preaches and teaches about money, possessions, abundance, value more than any other hot button topic of the day. He’s most concerned with what to do with what we have. How to put God before that which we can get in this world. How to put our trust not in what we can earn or how much we have saved up. None of that makes us secure. Only in God are we truly secure. . . . If I was brave today, I’d have us all take out our check book registers – or for those of us who no longer keep such a thing, get online to look at our bank account expenditures. Take a good look. Then ask yourself: what is it you value? Or pull out your weekly calendar, if you feel like your money doesn’t deserve the scrutiny of your faith. Take a good look and ask again: what is it you value?

“Take care!” Jesus said. “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” . . . What does your life consist of? What do you store up? In other words, how do you define abundance? . . . A whole world around us has very clearly defined it for us: get more. Make more. Take more for yourself. . . . It sounds a lot like the man in Jesus’ parable. The rich fool. I mean, just listening to the story it makes you wonder what was wrong with him. The land produces so much more than he ever could imagine. He had barns, but they obviously already were full or could only hold so much of that amazing bumper crop, which he seems to think he made happen all by himself. And the ONLY solution he can imagine is to build himself a bigger place for storage? . . . It reminds me of the day my house in Chicago sold and I still was living here in the guest room at a friend’s house. Panicked about what would happen the day my moving truck arrived in Nashville and I had no home yet in which to unload; I went to one of the MANY storage places nearby to look into having a place for my things to be until I would be in the position to move out of the guest room into a house. The man at the storage rental told me he had just one unit left the size I needed. I knew Nashville had a lot of new people moving in but I was a bit shocked his HUGE storage complex could be so incredibly full. Curious, I asked him if that many people were in transition like me – in a temporary housing situation that required their possessions to be stored for a while. He looked at me as if I was the dumbest person on the planet. But still trying to be kind to get my business, he said: “Not really. Most of our units are people permanently needing extra storage. A lot of people have more stuff than can fit in their homes. We stay busy year-round.” . . . One look at my office and you can see I too have a lot of stuff. Jesus’ parable messes with every one of us. And I realize some of us have storage units for all sorts of good reasons: maybe it’s to store the belongings of a loved one whose house sold after they died sooner than we could sort through it all. Maybe we only have a closet or two at home – or no place for special seasonal items that we love. Maybe it’s the grown kids’ stuff while they’re away at college – or not yet in a home large enough for their personal belongings. Whatever. Jesus’ isn’t trying to judge us – he even says to the sibling trying to get him involved: “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” He doesn’t intend to judge; he intends to keep us on the path with him.

Couldn’t that man in the parable have thought of ONE other option for his accumulated crops? “You fool!” Jesus says. “This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” . . . What if he threw a grand, week-long feast? Invited friends and family. Neighbors and strangers too. Imagine the fun! The laughter and love around one great big table as whoever arrived to enjoy a celebration together. When at last he laid his head on his pillow that night, never to wake again; a smile would have been on his lips, the voices of new friends still lingering in his ears. That would have been an amazing way to go out! . . . Could he have valued the immediate needs of the widows, orphans, and sojourners in the land over his own future situation? Maybe just put what he could in his existing barns and instead of trying to stock-pile more, just give the rest to the ones God long has commanded us to tend – the most vulnerable in our midst? . . . Presumably he didn’t do all that work in the fields himself. Did he have employees or day laborers who might have enjoyed an extra basket or two of the crops themselves? . . . Could he define abundance in no other way? Shown he valued anything else more than himself? Things like generosity. Kindness. Connection with others. Sharing because we know nothing comes to us all by our own efforts. We are NOT self-sufficient, no matter how much we want to live in the illusion that we are. Is storing up for ourselves really the only way to be in this world?

Long, long ago, Jesus said: “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” . . . With the way we’re saturated in our consumer culture each day, we would do well to keep Jesus’ words as a mantra in our hearts. Life in Christ does NOT consist in the abundance of possessions. Guided by his way, we get to define what we value – what abundance means to each one of us each day – because of what he values; how his life defined abundance. . . . Take care, followers of Christ. Take care.

In the name of the life-giving Father, the life-redeeming Son, and the life-sustaining Spirit, Amen.

“When You Pray”

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A Sermon for 24 July 2016

A reading from the gospel of Luke 11:1-13. Listen for God’s word to us.

“Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.” And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirt to those who ask him!” (N.R.S.V.)

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

How many times in your lifetime have you prayed? I’m not just talking about the times you rotely raced through The Lord’s Prayer, or did you best to stay awake in corporate worship during the pastor’s impassioned but a bit too long Prayers of the People. From the time you were birthed into this world, through your growing years, until today: how often have you prayed?

If we were going to begin to figure out how to compute that equation, then we might first want to know what counts. What defines prayer? Do we have to be on our knees pouring out our hearts to God? What about the sudden thought that comes to us when we’re sitting in traffic or are in the bathroom taking a shower: You know, those times we may even out loud say: “O! I really hope so and so is doing ok. I know they’ve been having a tough time since their mother died.” What about the elation that arises from a phone call delivering very good news: a beloved friend is flying into town. Your son’s okay even though his car was totaled. The test came back negative. Does it count as prayer to be in the silence of the forest walking instep to the beat of your own heart as every cell inside seems at one with it all? . . . I’m not sure which amazing saint said it, but a wise pastor told it to me many years ago when I was struggling with prayer. She said: “If the only prayer you every say is thank you; that would be enough.” Standing on the side of a mountain, or at the shore of the ocean, if thank you arises in your soul; it is the most honesty, most authentic, most appreciated prayer of thanksgiving to the great Creator of the universe. Author and sage Anne Lamott even has a down-to-earth book on prayer entitled: Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers. Think about it: “Help, God! Thank you! And oh wow! That was amazing!” What more really needs to be said as we walk through the days of our lives?

Prayer was the foundation of Jesus’ life. The gospel of Luke records that he’s off again, praying in a certain place. After he finishes, a follower asks, “Lord, will you teach us too?” They knew that John the Baptist instructed his own. So Jesus’ followers want to know how he would have them pray. The question’s nothing new. Rabbis frequently tutored pupils in prayer. Ancient Judaism included model petitions. Parts of everyday were set aside for the repetition of the prayers one’s rabbi taught. In some ways, it was known that those who prayed thus belonged to rabbi x. And those saying this obviously sat with rabbi y. Kinda like diplomas today telling us something of one’s educational background, thereby possible intellectual insights. While we’re not privy to the lessons with which John the Baptist or any other rabbi responded, the gospel of Luke gladly gives us Prayer 101 according to Jesus who is called the Messiah.

“When you pray,” orders Jesus, “Say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial” (Luke 11:2-4). Short. Sweet. To the point. We repeat nearly the same each Sunday – whether or not we’re attuned to what we say. We can mindlessly race right through it; but Jesus didn’t want us just to say the words. He wanted those belonging to him to use his words to know the One to whom we pray; and to know how to act according to God’s very will. He wanted the words – the meaning of what we’re praying – to shape us. To show we are his disciples. Students of this rabbi.

It’s clear from his prayer it’s an intimate connection of care with the God he here calls Abba, Daddy – though most translations use the more formal word Father. If you’re going to pray like Jesus – if we’re going to follow the lessons of this rabbi – then we have to know how deeply God cherishes us. Jesus says: “what father among you would ignore the pleas of his child in need?” If you’ve raised children, you’ve been there. It’s the middle of the night and the house sits all in silence. You’re fast asleep until a little yelp escapes somewhere near your face. Your eyes pop open to see your child with that quivering lip and cheeks wet with big, round, streaming tears. Whether it was a nightmare, a thunder clap, or an ache or pain somewhere. Are you really going to turn over on the other shoulder and tell them to get lost? God never would! Jesus wants us to know that even in the darkest night of our lives, our Loving Parent will listen. Will wrap us in arms of tender care and hold us until we can see the light of day again. “Abba, Daddy!” he teaches. Hallowed is your name!”

Praise, honor, glory goes unto the God to whom we pray. So incredible, so holy is this Supreme Being. . . . When first Jesus tells us to turn to petition God, it is God’s kingdom for which we are to pray. One of Jesus’ greatest teaching is that in him, it’s begun. He is the embodiment of God’s kingdom – the way of love and joy and peace, of kindness and generosity and unity. Justice – just enough for us all; which means getting and giving. Some letting go so others can gain. Those are the words Jesus taught us to pray so that all might know his followers live and die for the full expression of that kind of kingdom.

He goes on to teach us to ask for daily bread. I wonder if we remember when we race through The Lord’s Prayer that this petition for our daily bread grounds us in two ancient truths about God. First, the petition is plural. So that it might be better to pray: “Give us – O God, ALL of us – our daily bread.” The way of God is not some sort of individual path. Our own needs are not more important to God than the needs of every other creature in the human family. Jesus teaches us to ask not for ourselves alone but for us all – give us our daily bread, O God! Second, with this petition, Jesus grounds us in the great providence shown by God to our faith ancestors. Daily bread is nothing new. Forty years God’s people were provided manna daily in the wilderness. Everybody got a share. None was saved up for tomorrow because it’d only rot. When no other food could be found around, God made the miracle each morning. Communicating loud and clear to them and to all who remember that a good, loving God not only cares, but also acts for us all. In our plea for our daily bread, we call upon a loving God to make a way for us all to have enough.

Admittedly, a whole lot of us have been a bit tripped up on what he commands next. “Forgive us our sins,” Jesus teaches us to pray, “for we ourselves forgive those indebted to us.” Now, it might be helpful to know the system under which Jesus’ first followers lived. Society set up a sort of enslavement. If one did another a favor, the other was expected to repay. So if, as a courtesy, you milked your neighbor’s cow one day; then he would owe you at least one favor in return. The whole structure was: I do for them because they will do for me. Jesus attempts to break that cycle. Through his prayer, he teaches forgiveness of such debts. He’s talking about living a different kind of life where one freely gives whatever: forgiveness, favors, food – freely, no strings attached. No expectations earned. And these words of the prayer are present, active tense: we ourselves are forgiving. In other words, we are praying that we are living counter to the system by simply doing for doing’s sake. We trust God to be as well. We cannot work to get God’s forgiveness. No one can. “So please God,” we pray, “forgive without restraint; for each day we seek to be likewise.”

Finally, at least according to the gospel of Luke, Jesus teaches: “And do not bring us to the time of trial.” We know life overflows with testing. Everywhere we turn we have the choice to walk in God’s ways. To live faithful to who we are as God’s children – or not. Once again we can look to the great trials of our ancestors in the faith. Abraham was called to sacrifice his only son. When the Israelites finally settled in Promised Land, it would be a daily test to see if prosperity would pervert them. Job was told to take the easier path: to curse God and die. Even Jesus. After forty days of fasting, he was tempted in the wilderness; then again one agonizing evening in Gethsemane. We beg to be spared if not from – then at least through those terrible moments when you and I might go astray; wandering from the ways of God.

The gospel of Luke’s record of The Lord’s Prayer is not long. But it’s loaded. Loaded with words to shape our love of God and our lives in this world. It’s the lesson on prayer taught by Rabbi Jesus, who wants his followers to be in deep communion with the God who loves more than we ever can know. . . . The next time you say it, don’t just put your mind on cruise control to thoughtlessly race right through. Ponder the prayer our Lord taught. Know its meaning. Let it shape your living each day.

In the name of the life-giving Father, the life-redeeming Son, and the life-sustaining Spirit, Amen.

How not What

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A Sermon for 17 July 2016

A reading from the gospel of Luke 10:38-42. And remember that this story comes after the gospel writer has clarified that Jesus intently has set his face to go to Jerusalem. He’s resolute in his march towards the Holy City and all that awaits there. Along the way, here’s one thing that happens. Listen for God’s word to us.

“Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.””

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

Sometime around the winter of 1630 in France, an eighteen year old boy (named Nicholas Herman by his parents) was lingering outside on a mid-winter day. We’re not really sure why he was outside – if his stroll had something to do with his work as a young foot soldier, or if he was out on an errand for his parents. One thing is for sure: he was not on his way to university for any sort of studies. For Nicholas Herman never received any formal education. He was a simple young man from a simple French family who lived nearly four-hundred years ago. And yet I am talking about him today! . . . It so happened on that winter day in his eighteenth year, that Nicholas Herman looked upon a tree. It’s been described as a “dry, leafless tree standing gaunt against the snow” (The Practice of the Presence of God with Spiritual Maxims, Revell Books, p. 12). Whoever would think one seemingly life-less tree in the dead of winter could make all that much of a difference? After all, you and I are blessed to be surrounded by trees every day. Not many of us stop to intently look upon them. Not many notice at all the grandiosity of a single tree – spring, summer, fall, or winter – roots digging down deep into the rich soil of the earth, branches reaching as far as possible up into the heavens, trunk firmly resolved to stand among us whether we turn aside to notice or not.

It wasn’t the case with the young Nicholas Herman that mid-winter day his eighteenth year in France. Before he knew it, his full attention was on that dry, leafless tree that stood scrawny-like against the wintry white mounds of snow. Like our ancient ancestor Moses who after around forty years of tending sheep in the very same spot; one day finally turns aside to notice that the same old bush that had been there yesterday and the day before and the day before that for like the past four decades – yet suddenly, that day, that same old bush was burning. That’s what Moses finally noticed when at long last he turned aside with eyes opened wide to see it. There he was standing on Holy Ground with a message from God awaiting. . . . That winter day his eighteenth year in France, Nicholas Herman opened his eyes to that dry, leafless winter tree to suddenly realize that change would come in the spring. Nicholas reports that the message of that tree resonated so deeply within that in an instant, he fell in love with God. He suddenly knew God and the immense favor God has for us all – the with-ness of our LORD, who will not leave us alone in the wintry storms of our days. Who in due time will bring about change in us as certainly as new life will spring in that dry, leafless tree. From the day Nicholas Herman stopped to intently look upon that tree, his life would never be the same again.

He’s known today as Brother Lawrence, the saint of a man whose words about the continual presence of God have spanned the centuries to inspire millions to simply remain attuned to God in our midst. No matter his duties – and for fifteen years Nicholas Herman, who became the lay brother called Brother Lawrence, would serve in the kitchen among Carmelite monks in Paris. Work he dreaded and found himself not at all cut out for, due to his clumsy nature. Yet Brother Lawrence sought to keep himself attuned to God in all things so that even while scrubbing the dirtiest pots in the heat of the summer for fifteen years in that kitchen, he would pray: “Lord of all pots and pans and things . . . make me a saint by getting meals and washing up the plates!” (Ibid., p. 11). In all things, he sought to act for the glory of God, to keep himself aware of and connected to God in his midst. So that it’s been recorded he would say: “The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament’” (Ibid., p. 12). That’s the wisdom of Brother Lawrence, the simple French boy who once turned aside to see that dry, leafless tree. You can read all about him in the Christian Devotional Classic called: The Practice of the Presence of God.

Even though Brother Lawrence faithfully concerned himself all those years with the pots and pans in that monastery kitchen, I think Jesus really would have loved him. Even the Jesus whose words are before us in today’s reading from the gospel of Luke. I’m guessing most have heard of this little story tucked into the travelogue of Jesus’ last journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. In my experience among Christian women, there seems to be an innate pecking order about who is a Martha and who is a Mary? As one of five daughters in my family, we all know which one of us would stomp around the kitchen, noisily banging the pots together as the fury radiates off of us as surely as steam spouts from a boiling kettle. At long last, in total exacerbation, we’d pound our way into the living room to insist our lazy sister be made to help us! . . . If you were raised in a family with any siblings, then certainly you know this scene. One commentator cautions preachers of this text that it’s not just in families were such tantrous tiffs take place. We’re to tread lightly here – especially on fellowship coffee Sundays – because isn’t it always the case one person of the church seems to be left alone to do all the work. The last thing in the world we’d want to do is offend the Marthas among us – who, after all, really make this place work. You know, those of you who tirelessly count the offerings, and fix up the grounds, and wash yet another dish in the church kitchen. Those who teach Sunday School every week, and greet the children in our mid-week ministries, and work the Food Bank or Good Samaritan ministry week after week after week. We need you! We need you to go about such work because without it, this church has no ministry! I doubt Jesus – even the Jesus pulled into a triangle between two sisters – I doubt this Jesus would tell us to stop such faithful efforts. Just drop to his feet and sit around on your pew as Mary seems to do in this story. Though many of us have heard it interpreted so, this is not an either or kind of story – at least not an either or between faithful service to God or devoted study at Jesus’ feet. Rather, this is a story – an imperative by our Lord to choose the better way.

Isn’t it true that we can go about anything with the kind of attitude captured here in this one, little, unfortunate moment of Martha’s life? Martha happens in us all. We start off with the best intentions. She does too. Though the text never clarifies exactly what work she’s doing, it’s likely she’s in her kitchen preparing a meal for The Guest who has come to dwell with her. Jesus never belittles her gracious acts. Rather, hear what he does say: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things” (Luke 10:41). Worried and distracted by many things. It’s not about what Martha is doing – or what Mary is doing, for that matter. It’s about the way in which each sister goes about doing whatever it is she’s doing. The better way – the better part Mary seems to display – is the same sort of intent focus that changed Nicholas Herman’s life for good. It’s attention. It’s focus. It is attuning to the presence of God always in our midst. Connecting deeply with our LORD, no matter the task at hand. As Brother Lawrence once said: “the most excellent method he had found of going to God was that of doing our common business . . . purely for the love of God” (The Practice of the Presence of God with Spiritual Maxims, Revell Books, p. 27). In all things we can align ourselves in love to remain in communion with God. Even the most mundane, maddening of tasks can be done to the glory of God. Attuned to the Spirit’s presence in our midst. Worry and distraction released. Intent focus instead, blessed notice of God in our midst whether we’re doing all the work alone again, or sitting in the quiet reading the words of our Lord. It’s not about what we do, it’s about how we do it – the better way in which we can live each moment of our lives.

I’ve heard it said that’s regrettably what’s missing among churches today. Disciples of Christ like us just skimming the surface of things – never diving down deep no matter the moment to attune to God. Worry and distraction can take over among a whole church so that anyone who comes among us can smell the panic. The frenetic pace we go about each week – rushing through worship to get on to the meeting we feel like we have to sit through once again. We can go through the motions of being church and allow worry and distraction to be our driving mission. Fear of scarcity our constant companion. . . . But the better way – the way we’re called to by our Lord – is the way of deep communion. Connection with one another and with God because we constantly seek to attune fully to the Presence in our midst. We do it all for the glory of God. In love – ready to notice whatever message from God awaits. Jesus seems to tell us that we have a choice. It really is up to us because everywhere we are is Holy Ground – every place we stand God is with us – in our midst. . . . All we have to do is turn aside from worry and distraction. Open our eyes to notice.

In the name of the life-giving Father, the life-redeeming Son, and the life-sustaining Spirit, Amen.

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