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“Church”

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A Sermon for 23 August 2015

A reading from 1 Corinthians 12:27-31. Listen for God’s word to us, church:

“Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.”

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

You remember we’re working our way through the Foundations of Presbyterianism this summer. And today we’re on principle number 3 in section F of the 2015-2017 PCUSA Book of Order. We started with God has a mission then moved to Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church. And today it’s all about us – finally! The Calling of the Church. Except, as the church, we don’t really get to focus all on ourselves. And we’re certainly not left on our own. Which is a really good thing when you hear what I’m going to read in just a moment from the Book of Order. Because if it really is all about us, then we’re in big trouble!

We’re supposed to be unified – one whole Church of Jesus Christ. United in and by Christ. Of course, it’s easy to doubt our unity as one WHOLE Church. Too often we see it’s that denomination calling that denomination not a true church. Or this faction of the denomination calling the other faction not Christian enough. Our fractious nature certainly must break God’s heart. . . . We’re marked by holiness – being set apart. Not just the pastor, or even just the pastor and the ordained ruling elders. ALL of us Christians baptized into Christ are to be about striving “to lead lives worthy of the Gospel we proclaim,” as mark of the church letter b states (F-1.0302b). . . . We’re catholic. Which means universal – not Roman Catholic – but lower case c catholic. “Catholicity is God’ gift to the Church in Jesus Christ” the Foundational Principles state. Which means: “Because in Christ the Church is catholic, (we) strive everywhere to testify to Christ’s embrace of men, women, and children of all times, places, races, nations, ages, conditions, and stations in life” (F-1.0302c). With a net cast that wide to catch us all, we’re supposed to be a sign of deeper faith, larger hope, and: “a more complete love” that exemplifies God’s grace (F-1.0302c). Look at F-1.0302d, the next mark of the church listed on the insert in your bulletin. I stumble over the pronunciation of this word every time. And you know: if we can’t even say it, how in the world are we gonna live it out! . . . The “A-pos-to-lic-ity of the Church.” Unfortunately, the doing of it’s a whole lot harder than the saying of the word! A-pos-to-lic-ity is the word apostle; made into an adjective. I hope you recall that apostle is a Greek word that begins to occur in the gospel texts only after Jesus looks at those gawking around him and basically says: “Enough now.” . . . You see, up until a-pos-to-lic-ity in the New Testament, Jesus is just a really great teacher. And a really great healer and preacher and Messiah and I’m guessing an all around really amazing person to be around. You know, inspiring, fun-loving, someone who you just feel would really have your back. A kind man. A true gentleman, in the meaning of the word that’s unfortunately quite fleeting today. He’s a really good guy with whom you’d enjoy sitting down to a good glass of whatever. Unless of course you’re a Pharisee. Or a Sadducee. Or a High Priest. Or a king, or emperor, or any number of those wanting to retain the status quo to control the notion of God for their own benefit. . . . Until a-pos-to-lic-ity in the story of Jesus being in the world, everyone’s just a disciple. A student of the Greatest Teacher ever. Student: that’s the meaning of the word disciple. The meaning of the word apostle is one who is sent out. On a mission. Everyone’s got disciples, students. Jesus has apostles. Those on a mission. Ones sent into the world to put into practice the lessons he’s been teaching.

So in the gospels we learn of twelve men being sent out (Mark 6). The first apostles of Christ – whose choosing doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with them or their individual ability. They’re going to be remarkable despite themselves – just like us, the rest of the church. Jesus suddenly matches them up two-by-two and sends them out into the villages and countryside. Armed with nothing but the authority of his sending – just like us, the rest of the church. And they go about two-by-two, just opposite of the animals that once came into the shelter of the ark. Instead, Jesus makes twelve of his disciples the first apostles and they go about healing and teaching and showing the unlimited, unearned, unleashed favor of God on all creation (Mark 6:6-13). To this day, that’s us. The church. Individual members, all of us: sent out to bring others in as we share and care and bear witness to our Head Jesus Christ while we participate with him in God’s mission.

Now that you’ve got some background on Foundation number 3, listen at least to a portion of Presbyterian Foundation number 3. It’s a long one so some of it you’ll have to read for yourself – not now, but later – much of it is on your bulletin insert. And if you want to read the entire section, I can get it for you from the 2015-2017 PCUSA Book of Order.  Listen to the Calling of the Church (2015-2017 Presbyterian Church U.S.A. Book of Order, F-1.03).

Point 1, “The Church Is the Body of Christ: Christ gives to the Church all the gifts necessary to be his body. The Church strives to demonstrate these gifts in its life as a community in the world (1 Cor. 12:27–28): The Church is to be a community of faith, entrusting itself to God alone, even at the risk of losing its life. The Church is to be a community of hope, rejoicing in the sure and certain knowledge that, in Christ, God is making a new creation. This new creation is a new beginning for human life and for all things. The Church lives in the present on the strength of that promised new creation. The Church is to be a community of love, where sin is forgiven, reconciliation is accomplished, and the dividing walls of hostility are torn down. The Church is to be a community of witness, pointing beyond itself through word and work to the good news of God’s transforming grace in Christ Jesus its Lord. Point 2 (F-1.0302), The Marks of the Church: With all Christians of the Church catholic, we affirm that the Church is “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.” First, The Unity of the Church: Unity is God’s gift to the Church in Jesus Christ. Just as God is one God and Jesus Christ is our one Savior, so the Church is one because it belongs to its one Lord, Jesus Christ. The Church seeks to include all people and is never content to enjoy the benefits of Christian community for itself alone. There is one Church, for there is one Spirit, one hope, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4:5–6). Because in Christ the Church is one, it strives to be one. To be one with Christ is to be joined with all those whom Christ calls into relationship with him. To be thus joined with one another is to become priests for one another, praying for the world and for one another and sharing the various gifts God has given to each Christian for the benefit of the whole community. Division into different denominations obscures but does not destroy unity in Christ. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), affirming its historical continuity with the whole Church of Jesus Christ, is committed to the reduction of that obscurity, and is willing to seek and to deepen communion with all other churches within the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. Second, The Holiness of the Church: Holiness is God’s gift to the Church in Jesus Christ. Through the love of Christ, by the power of the Spirit, God takes away the sin of the world. The holiness of the Church comes from Christ who sets it apart to bear witness to his love, and not from the purity of its doctrine or the righteousness of its actions. Because in Christ the Church is holy, the Church, its members, and those in its ordered ministries strive to lead lives worthy of the Gospel we proclaim. In gratitude for Christ’s work of redemption, we rely upon the work of God’s Spirit through Scripture and the means of grace (W-5.5001) to form every believer and every community for this holy living. We confess the persistence of sin in our corporate and individual lives. At the same time, we also confess that we are forgiven by Christ and called again and yet again to strive for the purity, righteousness, and truth revealed to us in Jesus Christ and promised to all people in God’s new creation. Third, The Catholicity of the Church: Catholicity is God’s gift to the Church in Jesus Christ. In the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, by the power of the Spirit, God overcomes our alienation and repairs our division. Because in Christ the Church is catholic, it strives everywhere to testify to Christ’s embrace of men, women, and children of all times, places, races, nations, ages, conditions, and stations in life. The catholicity of the Church summons the Church to a deeper faith, a larger hope, and a more complete love as it bears witness to God’s grace. And fourth, The Apostolicity of the Church: Apostolicity is God’s gift to the Church in Jesus Christ. In Christ, by the power of the Spirit, God sends the Church into the world to share the gospel of God’s redemption of all things and people. Because in Christ the Church is apostolic, it strives to proclaim this gospel faithfully. The Church receives the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ through the testimony of those whom Christ sent, both those whom we call apostles and those whom Christ has called throughout the long history of the Church. The Church has been and is even now sent into the world by Jesus Christ to bear that testimony to others. The Church bears witness in word and work that in Christ the new creation has begun, and that God who creates life also frees those in bondage, forgives sin, reconciles brokenness, makes all things new, and is still at work in the world. To be members of the body of Christ is to be sent out to pursue the mission of God and to participate in God’s new creation, God’s kingdom drawing the present into itself. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) affirms the Gospel of Jesus Christ as received from the prophets and apostles, and stands in continuity with God’s mission through the ages. The Church strives to be faithful to the good news it has received and accountable to the standards of the confessions. The Church seeks to present the claims of Jesus Christ, leading persons to repentance, acceptance of Christ alone as Savior and Lord, and new life as his disciples. The Church is sent to be Christ’s faithful evangelist: making disciples of all nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; sharing with others a deep life of worship, prayer, fellowship, and service; and participating in God’s mission to care for the needs of the sick, poor, and lonely; to free people from sin, suffering, and oppression; and to establish Christ’s just, loving, and peaceable rule in the world.” . . . Section F number 3 goes on with The Notes of the Reformed Church: the true Church is present where the “Word of God is truly preached and heard, where the Sacraments are rightly administered, and where ecclesiastical discipline is uprightly ministered” (F-1.0303). . . . And finally number three ends with: “The Great Ends of the Church are: the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of the truth; the promotion of social righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world” (F-1.0304).

It’s the calling of the Church, fellow members of the Church. I guess you can see it’s not at all about us – even though it is all of us. A community of faith, hope, love, and witness. The body of our Head, Christ, that is unified because of him. That is holy – set apart – by him. That is universal – catholic in that everyone is embraced by God to be a part of us. And finally: sent out – our a-pos-to-lic-ity – our work. The whole reason we exist. . . . Thanks be to the love of God known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. . . . Empowered by the Holy Spirit for each day of our lives, may we ever strive to fulfill our grand call!

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

© Copyright JMN – 2015  (All rights reserved.)

“Living Wisdom”

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A Sermon for 16 August 2015

A reading from the gospel of John 6:51-58. Listen for God’s word to us.

These are words recorded on the lips of Jesus: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

Next, a reading from the book of Proverbs 9:1-6, wisdom passed on to us. Listen for God’s word to us.

“Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table. She has sent out her servant-girls, she calls from the highest places in the town, “You that are simple, turn in here!” To those without sense she says, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

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

A little song from Sunday School had a significant impact upon me when I was a child. Inspired by one of Jesus’ parables, the words are: “The wise man built his house upon a rock.” Do you know it? “The wise man built his house upon a rock. The wise man built his house upon a rock and the rains came-a-tumbling down. The rains came down and the floods came up.” Can you guessed what happened? “The rains came down and the floods came up. The rains came down and the floods came up and the house upon the rock stood firm!” Stanza two: “The foolish man built his house upon the sand. The foolish man built his house upon the sand.” Now, you have to understand that I actually was growing up on the sand. To this day, my family’s home remains along the shores of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin. Actually we live right across the road from the sandy beach and my dad and his brother own what was in my childhood one of the sole spots of sandy beach for miles around – it felt like our own little ocean oasis. The level of Lake Michigan was high in those years. Over the decades it changes – something to do with the dams way up at the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Supposedly, the water levels of the Great Lakes fluctuate according to what’s going on with those dams. My dad remembers sandy beach stretching on for miles during his childhood along Lake Michigan. The water’s also down these days so that my niece and nephew have enjoyed miles and miles of Lake Michigan sandy beach during their childhood too. Not so during the years my sisters and I were growing up. It was true that a foolish family built their house right on the shoreline and when the level of the lake rose, they failed to install the tons of gigantic rocks everyone else had to in order to keep their homes from being washed away. The house long had been abandoned. We weren’t supposed to go in it because – like the little song says: the foolish one built their house upon the sand and before they knew it, the whole thing had tipped on its side. It was ruined. The song from childhood summed it up well: “And the house upon the sand went SPLAT!”

From that little song, we were supposed to be learning a lesson about wisdom – the best way to build a life. The foundation upon which to stand. And I guess in some ways I was. Though every time we sang that song, my childhood mind was stuck on the literal house down the beach from us – kind of like those recorded in John chapter six who are listening to Jesus that day. He’s trying to teach them about the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation – the food which is him that metaphorically must be taken in as the way to life. The way that we drink in his words and scarf down his deeds in order that he’s seen abiding in us, even as we abide in him. . . . His listeners are confusing what he’s saying with cannibalism – thinking he literally wants them to eat a chunk of his body and vampire-like drink of his blood. The early Christians often found themselves accused of this as they gathered around the table saying, “Take and eat: his body has been broken for you. Drink, for his blood has been shed for you.” It was an act to form them. To shape them more and more into those who lived like him. . . . He’s giving his listeners the words of life – the wisdom they need in order to live now and forever. And they, like the foolish ones, are missing it.

Proverbs doesn’t use the word abide. Instead the writer paints a picture almost exactly about which Jesus speaks: to abide in him and he in us. . . . Wisdom has gotten things all ready. Her house is solid – majestic enough for seven massive pillars. In other words: big enough and strong enough for all. Every last detail has been tended – right down to the polished silver at each table place-setting. She’s invited all who will hear to come, sit at her table. She’s waiting – ready for all to feast together. To abide in her home. Dwell with her. Live – in her company. Walk in her ways. . . . The wise one lives so. To their detriment, the foolish turn to their own way. . . . We sure could use a little more wisdom these days. A few more lingering long at the table of wisdom – drinking in her ways, feeding upon her deeds until all we do resembles her.

Be clear that wisdom is personified throughout the Old Testament in the feminine. But it’s not the female part of God, though some people kind of think of it that way. Wisdom often is interchanged with Spirit – Sophia in the Greek, Chokmah in the Hebrew – the word used in the original language here in chapter nine of Proverbs. Both words are feminine – not girly, just given the label feminine in the construct of language. English is so unlike ancient – and many modern languages too that label every noun either masculine or feminine. The labels have nothing to do with gender in the way we think of male or female – what’s macho masculine or frilly feminine. So it’s not like God the Creator or Father is the boy part of God, and God the Spirit or Wisdom is the girl part. It’s just another aspect of the Spirit which is God. The depth of insight we know comes from God and is a part of God. The Wisdom of which Proverbs writes is a knowing part of God that certainly resides in Jesus, the Son too. It’s not like the facts and figures that make up information. More than that, it’s real knowledge. Wisdom is kinda like the insight in our guts that moves us to do what God would do. To live as God would have us.

And my, how the world needs it today. Though it wasn’t discussed in depth at Home Book Club this week, Sister Joan Chittister writes of Wisdom in her book that explores the gifts of aging. Wisdom – that deep understanding, Joan writes, “Is the bedrock of a society. It enables us to see why we do what we do, to realize why we cannot do what we want to do in all instances.” And not just because she’s writing about aging, but because she truly believes the elders of a society have something particularly significant to give, she goes on to write: “It is in the development of understanding (or wisdom) for the next generation, in the co-creation of the world, that the older generation has so serious a role to play” (The Gift of Years, p. 123). Sister Joan wrote these words nearly a decade ago when she already was in her early 70s so she says: “Our role now (elders of the world) is to be what we have discovered about life. Our responsibility is wisdom.” We must show “all another way to live” (Ibid., p. 125).

I would agree and add that wisdom is not the responsibility of the aging alone. Wisdom is the land in which all we who claim Jesus Christ Savior and Lord are to dwell. “Laying aside immaturity,” as Proverbs claims, “and walking in the way of insight” (Prov. 9:6). This is the way of living not to our own desires – as the immature do. But to the desires of God. As those filled up on Christ, until his ways are all that’s seen in us. After all, it is as if those who take him into their lives are ingesting him so that the blood that courses through our veins looks just like his – ready to be poured out for the benefit of another. The flesh that is our bodies mimics his – enacting his very same deeds that bring life to the world. . . . This is the way to live wisdom. The way (metaphorically) to make our homes in the presence of the One who leads our actions each day. . . . Living wisdom is our responsibility even as it is the gift we give to all today who need to see another way to be in this world. Not out for our own gain. Not in it all on our own so that we fail to remember that we are tied to one another. Like a world-wide web of life that realizes “that the only thing that is good for any of us in the long run is what is good for all of us right now,” as Sister Joan also wrote in that chapter on Wisdom (Ibid., p. 126). We are all in this changing world together. And we, in whom Christ dwells as we dwell in him, know best that the only thing that the remains in the end – all that survives the storm of life – is him: Love. Life poured out for the life of all. . . . Let us lay aside any other foolishness to walk, live Wisdom.

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

© Copyright JMN – 2015  (All rights reserved.)

“Who’s In Charge?”

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A Sermon for 9 August 2015

A reading from Colossians 1:9-20. Listen for God’s word to us.

“For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from God’s glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”

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

And one more reading because today we are continuing with our look at the Foundations of Presbyterianism from section F of the PCUSA’s Book of Order. . . . Remember Foundation #1: God has a mission: the transformation of the whole creation! A re-created world where all is at one with God! . . . Foundation #2 has five points and is entitled: Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church. Listen.

“(Point 1): The Authority of Christ. Almighty God, who raised Jesus Christ from the dead and set him above all rule and authority, has given to him all power in heaven and on earth, not only in this age but also in the age to come. God has put all things under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and has made Christ Head of the Church, which is his body. The Church’s life and mission are a joyful participation in Christ’s ongoing life and work. (Point 2): Christ Calls and Equips the Church. Christ calls the Church into being, giving it all that is necessary for its mission in the world, for its sanctification, and for its service to God. Christ is present with the Church in both Spirit and Word. Christ alone rules, calls, teaches, and uses the Church as he wills. (Point 3): Christ Gives the Church its Life. Christ gives to the Church its faith and life, its unity and mission, its order and discipline. Scripture teaches us of Christ’s will for the Church, which is to be obeyed. In the worship and service of God and the government of the church, matters are to be ordered according to the Word by reason and sound judgment, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. (Point 4): Christ is the Church’s Hope. In affirming with the earliest Christians that Jesus is Lord, the Church confesses that he is its hope, and that the Church, as Christ’s body, is bound to his authority and thus free to live in the lively, joyous reality of the grace of God. (Point 5): Christ is the Foundation of the Church. In Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Christ God reconciles all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross (as we just heard in Colossians 1:19-20). In Christ’s name, therefore, the Church is sent out to bear witness to the good news of reconciliation with God, with others, and with all creation. In Christ the Church receives its truth and appeal, its holiness, and its unity.” (PCUSA 2015-2017 Book of Order, F-1.02).

Do you remember the What Would Jesus Do craze of a few years back? I think it started with woven bracelets to wear around your wrist. And I believe it was a movement primarily targeting youth – at least initially. WWJD was right there on your arm as you went about your day. The theory was that whenever you ran into some sort of situation in which you didn’t know what to do, WWJD would be your guide. Like a moral compass. So say the mean girl at school got knocked down in gym class and was struggling to get back up. WWJD: What would Jesus do? Turn around and run in the other direction? Pin her down further, then point and laugh? Or walk right up to her and offer her a hand? . . . Maybe it was about the big test on which you really needed an A if you were going to be able to graduate. As you walked down the hall past your teacher’s classroom, you noticed she dropped the answer sheet right there at your feet. WWJD: What would Jesus do? Pick it up, shove it in his backpack before anyone noticed, and hurry away to memorize all the answers? Choose not to cheat and just quietly walk away? Or maybe go find the teacher to let her know the test had been compromised? WWJD? What would Jesus do? It’s not a bad reminder – even if it first was a bracelet fad for youth. Because as we move through the stages of life it seems the situations get a little more complicated – the stakes, higher. The ethical dilemmas when trying to live faithfully in this world seem to grow more complex each day. WWJD? What would Jesus do? What shall we? . . . What would Jesus do? Because the Christian life is not just about what we think – even if such right thought has been our Presbyterian hallmark through the years. As our theological forbearer John Calvin taught: it’s about right thought that leads to right action. Just as Foundational Principle #2 proclaims.

Under the authority of Christ, “the Church’s life and mission are joyful participation in Christ’s ongoing life and work” (F-1.0201). We are called and equipped by Christ “for mission in the world – for sanctification,” or being in the process of becoming holy, more like Christ, “as we are in service to God” (F-1.0202). Joyfully: as a privilege we get the opportunity to fulfill. Christ gives us our life as a church – our unity, our mission and we are to obey his will (F-1.0203). As our hope, (according to point 4 of Foundation #2) “we are bound to his authority and thus free to live in the lively, joyous reality of the grace of God” (F-1.0204). What a powerful witness a lively, joyous response to God’s grace would be! We are sent out to bear witness in the world to the good news of the reconciliation of all things (F-1.0205). . . . All of these: participating in Christ’s ongoing work; being in mission in the world; obeying Christ’s will; living freely in a lively, joyous reality; and bearing witness to the reconciliation accomplished in Christ. All of these are about DOING – not just sitting around thinking or just believing certain things. But getting up and getting out there to BE as Christ would be in the world. Asking ourselves in every moment: what would Jesus do? Because he is the One in charge. How does he want to live through us?

It’s like Colossians reads: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him all things in heaven and on earth were created” (Col. 1:15-16). In the words of Presbyterian Foundation number 2: he’s the Lord of it all – yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is the head – not the session, not the pastor, not the biggest financial backer, or even the members who do the most work. Jesus Christ is the head. And you and I, the church, are his body – his hands and fingers and feet. . . . Think about the metaphor literally. Our head is the brains of the operation that is each one of us – at least most of the time I hope! For the most part, our body moves and does its thing because our head tells it to – sometimes consciously; sometimes just automatically. In the same way, with Christ as the head, we – the body of Christ – participate in Christ’s ongoing life and work today according to him – our head. Sometimes automatically, but often times consciously we must stop to consider: WWJD? What would Jesus Christ, our head, have us do? . . . In case it’s ever extra difficult to discern, the final point of our denomination’s statement on The Understanding and Use of Holy Scripture gives a clear guide. It’s a helpful little document for those who need a reminder of how Presbyterians approach it all. The statement culminates in the Rule of Christ – which is the Rule of Love. We believe we read all scripture through the Rule of Christ – the way of Love; for Christ is the definitive revelation of God’s infinite, unconditioned love. Christ has called us into being. He is with us always as the Risen Christ. And he gives us all we need for our mission of love in the world today.

One fiery commentator forcefully proclaims of the church that: “the purpose of the Church is not to be a place of entertainment where persons . . . come to be spectators while leaders . . . ‘put on a show’ using whatever gimmicks and novelties they can pull out of their bag of tricks so that everyone has fun. . . . The purpose of the church is not maintenance – to be a safe place, a refuge for its members – until Christ comes again. . . . The purpose of the church,” the commentator continues, “is not fellowship where the entire energy of the congregation is focused on its social relationships so that each person feels as if he or she belongs.” The commentator clarifies that “fellowship is an important dimension of the church, but it is not the church’s central purpose.” . . . Neither is the church’s purpose “protection, where the community, terrified of the world beyond its walls, invests all its energies in constructing a safe place where its members can dutifully worship, study, and enact their sacred rituals. The real purpose of the church is clear – to be the community of disciples of Jesus Christ and as such, to proclaim Christ” daily in word and in deed! (Feasting on the Word, Yr. C, Vol. 3, Rodger Nishioka quoting David Ng, p. 258, 260, 2010). Living as he lives. Doing as he charges. Being his body in the world today because we are “bound to (Christ’s) authority” (PCUSA Book of Order, 2015-2017; F-1.0204). And if we are not, we’re something other than the Church of Jesus Christ. . . .

With him in charge, obedient to his will; may the life of the Risen Christ be seen in us each day!

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

© Copyright JMN – 2015  (All rights reserved.)

“Bread Alone?”

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A Sermon for 2 August 2015

A reading from the gospel of John 6:24-35. And before I begin reading, it’s helpful to know that the gospel of John puts this story pretty much immediately after the miracle of the multiplication of the fish and the loaves: the infamous feeding of the five thousand. In the gospel of John, it’s an amazing feat done from the generosity of a little boy who shared his lunch of five loaves and two fish. By the way, the photo on the front of the bulletin captures the image used still at and near the Galilean spot called Tabgha, which is believed to be the site of this incredible work of Christ. You’ll notice it has just four loaves in the image – the same way the mosaic at Tabgha is shown in order to emphasize that the fifth loaf was the one Christ took, blessed, broke, and gave to the people. When the great crowd had eaten their fill and the left overs were properly secured, the gospel of John tells that the people wanted to take Jesus by force in order to make him king over them. After all, when last did they know such a leader who had provided so abundantly for their needs? . . . Jesus withdrew, but the crowd persisted in looking for him. At last, as we’re about to hear, he’s found by them. Listen for God’s word to us in this reading immediately following such events.

“So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom God has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

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

Have you heard of “rice Christians?” Supposedly in nineteenth-century China, missionaries were encountering a lot of these (Feasting on the Word, Yr. B, Vol. 3; O. Benjamin Sparks, p. 308). I don’t think they intended the name to be as derogatory as it might sound. They simply observed many folks who were in pretty bad shape. For one reason or another they would turn to the church. I guess they had heard word of generous, compassionate missionaries and other Chinese Christians who were the church in their midst. When times were tough, people would head to the church in order to be fed. Literally. They were seeking rice to feed themselves and their families. They lived in such joy as the church was meeting their physical needs. After all, it’s common to be grateful when you’re at rock bottom and someone throws you a rope. But as these new Christians slowly made their way out of the rock-bottom pits of their lives, the missionaries noticed that the “rice Christians” were less and less involved in the life of the church. It was as if they were standing on solid ground with God as long as their needs were being met. But when things in their life improved, they were nowhere to be found. Rice Christians: those who were tight with God and God’s people when they needed it, but took off once they perceived they had gotten their lives together. I wish we could say such rice Christians only were a nineteenth-century phenomenon in China. . . . But a look in the mirror reminds that the tendency is in us all.

Because isn’t it true that so many of us need something from God in order for us to remain faithful. As long as we’re getting something out of the relationship – with God or with God’s church – we’re solid. In worship every week. Saying our daily prayers. Serving with great joy. Giving of tithes and offerings. Growing deeper with God on the journey. But what happens when it feels as if no one’s listening? When week after week worship here becomes life-less – routine? When God seems nowhere to be found whether we’re in our deepest despair and desperately need some sort of affirmation, or maybe when things are improving and we just can’t recapture the gratitude we had when it seemed God had delivered us from what could have been the absolute worst disaster? . . . What happens with our life with God and God’s church when whatever needs we envisioned would be met no longer are?

Back in the Fourteenth Century, an amazing little book was written by an English monk who remains anonymous to this day. It is entitled: The Cloud of Unknowing. The book was meant to be sort of an instruction manual for our lives with God. Almost as if we’re being encouraged from some 600 years ago, the writer reminds us that as we go deeper into relationship with God, it can be like entering into a misty cloud of unknowing. It’s entirely possible that all words, all familiar images, all the previous ways we experienced God with us may fall away. In The Cloud of Unknowing, we’re told that it has to be this way. One author expounds on it claiming that if we’re going to go deeper into a relationship of love with God, then it must be through this mysterious path of unknowing. This scary, unpredictable, uncontrollable experience in which it can seem God really is no longer anywhere to be found. The author writes: “It comes down to this: if God wants to work in your soul, God has to work in secret. If you knew (what was going on), you would get puffed up, you would run in fear, you would try to take control of the process, or you would close down the whole Mystery with your rational mind.” The author continues: “We each must learn to live in the cloud of our own unknowing” (Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation: The Cloud of Unknowing, Part II; 24 July 2015; Center for Action and Contemplation). The point of pure trust – even in the darkest mystery of our lives.

It takes us right back to the crowd from the gospel of John that’s on a man-hunt for the one who just filled up their bellies with the five loaves and two fish. They want someone over them – some power, some authority that will fill their personal needs as effectively as Jesus just filled up their rumbling bellies. And why not? They want perpetual bread – the physical stuff that you can touch and smell and taste. They want their physical needs met, when Jesus is standing before them as the Bread of Heaven. The Bread of Life that will satisfy the cravings in their spirits that they haven’t yet begun to recognize – no matter the circumstances of their days. It’s not to say that God doesn’t care about the real needs of our lives. It’s just that God wants something so much deeper with us than being some sort of magic gumball machine that always will give us exactly what we want. God wants intimate connection with us. Deep union in our hearts and minds and spirits through the good, bad, and indifferent of all of our days. Soul connection that allows us to experience the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit always, even as God lives in and through us each day mysterious working on us to continue to bring life to the world. It’s so much better than getting a taste of the fish and bread that fill up our bellies but leave us lacking for the real Bread of Life. . . . It’s the point in our lives with God when things go from a sort of parent-child relationship in which God always is there to give us what we want, to a relationship of awe in which we simply trust the One with whom we’ve fallen in love. We trust the Bread of Life – the true gift of heaven – to feed us always. Like an overflowing fountain that perpetually washes over us in waves of renewing love. It’s the food that endures forever. . . . the Bread of Life come to give life to all the world.

Thanks be to God for such an amazing gift!

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

© Copyright JMN – 2015  (All rights reserved.)

God’s Mission

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A Sermon for 26 July 2015

A reading from the gospel of John 1:1-14. Listen for God’s word to us.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of humankind, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”

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

           

Today we are launching a new way for the session of this church to be organized. It’s a way that takes seriously the reason why this church exists – to be a community growing in Christ through worship, study, and service. It’s a way of being organized for ministry to ensure ALL are In Ministry at least in some way. Large or small, one thing or as many as your plate has room for; the AIM is for every person to be about at least one piece of the collective ministry of this church as a way of growing in your walk behind Christ. And before these new teams and every one of you, we must remember to keep to the difference this church seeks to make in the lives of one another and those of the surrounding community: To support each other and those of the surrounding community through life’s challenges for the grace of God to be experienced by all. It’s not like this is really anything all that new for this congregation – in terms of the reason why you exist and what difference you are trying to make in people’s lives. From all I’ve heard and seen, you’ve been shooting the arrows of your ministry towards this target for a very long time. It just might not have been as clearly articulated as it is now. And isn’t a clear target a lot better to aim at than one that’s just fuzzy or moving or not at all there?

It all reminds me of the beautiful new section of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Book of Order. Part 2 of our denomination’s constitution. This one’s just out this month. The 2015-2017 edition. Ok: truth be told, the new section of which I speak isn’t all that new. You may or may not be aware that in 2010 this part of the PCUSA’s constitution underwent a radical revision. Book of Order section F was created. . . . It’s not that everything in F was entirely new. Much of it had been in our Book of Order for years – since the days of John Calvin himself. It just wasn’t quite as organized and clear as it now is. It flows from that which we believe to know of God and God’s purpose from scripture. And it’s called section F: The Foundations of Presbyterian Polity. The core of what we believe and value and resolve to do because of the God we have come to know through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. . . . All this may be old news to you. You already might have fully digested and put to memory section F. But on the slight chance that you missed this radical revision to the Book of Order, I want to be sure you’re aware. Partly, it seems my duty to you during this time of pastoral transition. Partly, it seems a gift to keep us grounded and inspired as this congregation sets off intentionally to live according to the reason why you exist and the difference that has been discerned that you seek to make in each others’ and those beyond this membership’s lives. . . . All that we’ve been up to these past several months is not just for your Pastor Nominating Committee to be able to complete the paperwork needed for the search. It’s because of what we hear in the gospel of John and also in The Foundational Principles of Presbyterianism. There are four key principles in the new section F, so I’ve created a four-part sermon series for this summer. Don’t worry, we’ll space them out a little between now and Labor Day. But for now, listen to a reading from section F, Chapter One: The Mission of the Church. This one’s entitled: God’s Mission (F-1.01). Listen: “The good news of the Gospel is that the triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – creates, redeems, sustains, rules, and transforms all things and all people. This one living God, the Scriptures say, liberated the people of Israel from oppression and covenanted to be their God. By the power of the Spirit, this one living God is incarnate in Jesus Christ, who came to live in the world, die for the world, and be raised again to new life. The Gospel of Jesus Christ announces the nearness of God’s kingdom, bringing good news to all who are impoverished, sight to all who are blind, freedom to all who are oppressed, and proclaiming the Lord’s favor upon all creation. The mission of God in Christ gives shape and substance to the life and work of the Church. In Christ, the Church participates in God’s mission for the transformation of creation and humanity by proclaiming to all people the good news of God’s love, offering to all people the grace of God at font and table, and calling all people to discipleship in Christ. Human beings have no higher goal in life than to glorify and enjoy God now and forever, living in covenant fellowship with God and participating in God’s mission.”

It’s beautiful. I love it! Because #1: God has a mission! . . . The opening to the gospel of John tells us about it too. “In the beginning was the Word – and the Word was with God and the Word was God” . . . “and the Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:1, 14). Because we needed life – the light of all people! As verse 5 states: it’s a light that shines in the darkness of our lives never, ever to be overcome! That’s God’s mission. Simple. Beautiful. The transformation of all things and all people! That we would be the children of – not just the creation of – but the precious, related, intimately connected children of God who are busy reflecting to the whole creation the very same mission of our heavenly parent.

One way to think about this is in the first essential tenet of Reformed Theological faith. Hopefully you know this one: the sovereignty of God! It’s the belief that it all begins and ends with God and it is THEE quintessential Reformed idea. That God is #1. The Alpha and Omega. The initiator. The One from whom all flows. . . . Why do we baptize babies who can’t understand one iota about God’s grace? Because of the sovereignty of God. Why do we welcome all to the table of our Lord – no matter who or how they are? Because of the sovereignty of God. God initiates it all – a plan to create us all. To love us all. To be with us all everyday and throughout eternity. God is the One that works to transform us all into the blessed creation God intends us to be. God has a mission – a purpose. A work on which God never shall give up. It’s God’s mission into which we are invited. Foundation #1 of Presbyterian Polity reminds: We are invited to “participate in God’s mission for the transformation of creation and humanity by proclaiming to all people the good news of God’s love, “offering to all people the grace of God at font and table, and calling all people to discipleship in Christ” (F-1.01).

It has been said that Christianity is “a demanding, serious religion. (And that) when it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether” (Joseph D. Small, ed.; Proclaiming the Great Ends of the Church, Introduction, p. ix). We know that. Because Christianity is about what God wants – not us. It’s about God’s mission and God’s invitation to enter into a life of glorifying and enjoying God now and forever as we live in covenant fellowship with God by, like Christ, “announcing the nearness of God’s kingdom. By bringing good news to all who are impoverished, sight to all who are blind, freedom to all who are oppressed, and by proclaiming the Lord’s favor upon all creation! That is the mission of transforming the whole world through the goodness of God’s love! (F-1.01)

There’s a wonderful song of the Iona community of Scotland. It’s called “The Summons.” It’s our invitation into the mission of God. The words of the song are: “Will you come and follow me if I but call your name? Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same? Will you let my love be shown, will you let my name be known, will you let my life be grown in you and you in me? Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name? Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same? Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare? Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me? Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name? Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same? Will you kiss the leper clean, and do such as this unseen, and admit to what I mean in you and you in me? Will you love the ‘you’ you hide if I but call your name? Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same? Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around, through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?” (Glory to God; The Presbyterian Hymnal, 2013, #726, Text by John Bell and Graham Maule, © 1987; WGRG, Iona Community, [admin. GIA Publications, Inc.])

It’s a lofty summons indeed, from a God that’s in the business of re-making you and me and the whole wide world – all things new!

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

© Copyright JMN – 2015  (All rights reserved.)

The Pit Stop

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A Sermon for 28 June 2015 (Ruling Elder Installation Sunday)

A reading from Ephesians 4:11-13. Listen for God’s word to us.

“The gifts (Christ) gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.”

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

And one more reading for today. From the gospel of Matthew 28:18-20. Words recorded on the lips of the Risen Christ. Listen for God’s word to us.

“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

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

Early this week, I returned from something called CREDO: a conference for mid-career pastors that is organized and funded by the Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Considering the long view of ministry, from the time a pastor is ordained until the time we retire; it was the perfect pause for personal reflection on what this whole call to professional ministry has been and will continue to be about. I am grateful to you for the time to attend CREDO and I am grateful that our denomination is providing such a mid-life assessment for pastors to come away with renewed intention regarding everything from our personal health to our spirituality to our home life to our finances. As you support the Board of Pensions through the dues you submit each month, CREDO kinda is an extension of your care for us pastors – for the one stationed here at any given time and for the other clergy, families, and churches who end up benefitting from 30 or so pastors being a part of one of Presbyterian CREDO’s six sessions each year. So THANK YOU for being about this level of care – even if you weren’t previously aware that you have been doing this!

CREDO was a great time – though it was an exhausting schedule of 12-15 hour days, depending upon if you chose to get up extra early for optional morning exercise or stay up a little later in order to connect with other pastors from all over the country. . . . But one thing about my experience was disturbing. I heard pastor after pastor speak of how incredibly depleted they are. Burn-out was hiding behind every corner. Some of us are struggling to find time to regularly eat each day. Some of us rarely see our families. Some of us don’t even bother anymore to take time for spiritual disciplines because too many churches don’t value anything but the time they see their pastor sitting beyond a desk in a church office each week. This does not bode well for the present or the future of the Presbyterian Church. I admit, some of it is on us: pastors who need our own egos stroked so much that being everything to everybody all the time is our aim. Almost like trying to jump into the role of God for others instead of modeling behavior that keeps us all remembering that God is God and the primary connection for us all is to be there in that relationship with the Holy – for those in ordained offices as well as for the whole church. At the same time, I’ve been in this business in a variety of settings for two decades now so that I know that some of can be the church. Members who, for whatever reason, have expectations of pastors that not even Jesus himself could fulfill. In-side-out churches that circle up the wagons believing it’s all about them and their own preferences so that the Spirit of God isn’t even welcomed in. It’s easy to get there – either as pastors or as churches until we’re not much good for anything anymore. I think Jesus said it as salt that has lost its saltiness and has to be thrown out under foot to be trampled upon (Mt. 5:13). No zest for the good news of God’s unmerited love for the world. No joy over the ways God continues to bring new life to each of our days. No hope for anything being all that different tomorrow. . . . So just a side note here as your interim pastor: when you get to the point of face-to-face interviews with potential installed pastoral candidates; might I suggest you remember to ask them not only about the professional gifts they have to bring to you all, but also about their personal commitment to their own spiritual, emotional, relational, and physical life. And might I suggest that you all continue to be the kind of wise faith community that encourages intentional attention to each aspect of pastoral life because the health of a particular church is highly dependent upon the overall well-being of the pastor who seeks to lead each week. Ok. Enough sermonizing!

One of the greatest reminders from CREDO came Sunday afternoon at Worship for the Lord’s Day. The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson gave a rousing sermon speaking to the very concerns we had been vocalizing all week. He had a little suggestion for us all too. Instead of worrying about the fate of the church, he said, why not focus less on serving the church, and more on fulfilling Jesus’ command to seek first the kingdom of God. Everything else will fall into place. Seek first the kingdom of God. . . . Installation of ruling elders couldn’t have fallen on a better Sunday! Because what if all of us understood what we’re about here to be for the point of seeking first the kingdom of God? Empowering and equipping one another in order for all of us to be out in the world living the ways of God’s kingdom. What if we saw this sanctuary and the ministry of this church more as an oasis on the highway of life rather than the destination?

I’m not a regular watcher of Nascar, but I know that in car racing, when a driver needs something in order to continue the race, he or she pulls in for a pit stop. The quicker the better – as long as the time in the stop really is getting the car and driver ready to get back out there to finish the race. What if we understood everything about life together as the church as the pit stop we need in order to be out on life’s highway bringing healing, like Jesus did, to those carrying deep wounds? What if we came together here in order to head back to our daily paths to speak hope, like Jesus did to those who were living in desperately hopeless situations under the reign of Rome? What if we worshipped and studied and served here together so that, like Jesus, we could be makers of peace in this world because our own hearts are at peace in the joy of God’s love for us all? What if we, as the church, worried less about the church and more about living the ways of God’s kingdom? The primary concern that would make our joy complete. That would build us up as the body of Christ until ALL would grow fully into the life-giving ways of Christ? . . . How did it ever get to be otherwise, because the Risen Christ’s final charge wasn’t to come together to build a church building and then gather at least every Sunday if not more often throughout the week in the fellowship hall. The Risen Christ said: “GO! Out into the world! Knowing I go with you always!” (Mt. 28:19-20). There’s a message those out there need to hear. A kingdom-way-of-life they need to see in their midst. . . . Everything the ruling elders do, who are being installed today, and the rest that this church’s session does, should be for that purpose. Building you up as Christ’s body in order for you to be in the world as his hands and his hope. The job is not for everyone. Some of you are better equipped to be out there living the kingdom, while these elected ruling elders hopefully are at a place in life where they can be leading you and seeing to your spiritual needs so that you are ready to go. Ensuring that you, the saints, are properly equipped for your particular work of ministry. Out in the world being the body of Christ. . . . What if, o church? What if?

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

© Copyright JMN – 2015  (All rights reserved.)

It’s Like . . .

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A sermon for 14 June 2015 – 3rd Sunday after Pentecost

A reading from the gospel of Mark 4:26-34 (NRSV). And just a heads up that: these few verses are situated near the end of one of Jesus’ teaching sessions. What began along the Sea of Galilee as a vast crowd gathered to listen, dwindles to just the twelve and a few others who remain with him. When they are alone, Jesus is questioned about the meaning of his public, parabolic teachings. He launches into an explanation and goes on to tell a few more parables, until, at last, he turns to the topic of the kingdom – a way of telling about what God and God’s desired reign is like. . . . Listen for God’s word to us.

“Jesus also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.” Jesus also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.”

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

 Figo became a hero this week. If you know this dog’s story, you might agree that he already was one before Monday. But that was the day he and his owner were out for a walk. It’s not been reported where Figo and his owner Audrey were heading. But at some point on their walk together, they had to cross a road. They safely started across the street, and then it happened– a gas station attendant saw it. A mini school bus failed to yield to the blind pedestrian and her seeing-eye dog. So that right before she was to be hit, Figo threw himself in front of the bus. He took the blunt of the blow so that Audrey only suffered a few broken bones. Figo, on the other hand, had to undergo immediate surgery as his front right leg was badly cut – all the way down to the bone. Before everyone showed up on the scene, Figo, the heroic seeing-eye dog, drug his body over to his owner who was sprawled on the street. Despite his injuries, he insisted he get back over to her side. According to those arriving on the scene, not once did Figo bark or yelp or whine. He just kept pulling his body closer to hers in order to ensure she was safe. This eight-year-old golden retriever went above and beyond the call of duty Monday in order to ensure Audrey was going to be all right. . . . It’s like that . . .

I have a potted clematis at home on the back patio. I hardly can believe what happened to it this March. For months the pot was overrun with dead vines from last season. For whatever reason, I never got around to winterizing it last year. And honestly, I wasn’t so sure a clematis would come back in a pot anyway. You know how much ice and cold we had here back in January and February – and even the beginning of March! One night late in March, I was rocking away under the warming spring breeze when the pot of dead vines caught my eye. I couldn’t believe it. A little green hint was sprouting. The next day I cleaned up the old stuff in hopes that the green indeed was an infant clematis vine instead of a nasty weed that more likely would show up in the spring. Day after day the shoot got bigger until one day I noticed a vine trailing up the trellis. By mid-April, several vines were climbing and all of a sudden, little flower buds appeared on each one. Beautiful purple stars began to greet me every morning as that clematis grew higher and higher up the trellis. The other day I noticed it’s taken off above the trellis and is threatening to keep on climbing up the bird feeder hanging above. It’s never done that before! From what seemed like an empty, dead pot; an unable to be contained clematis is bringing joy to the bees and the birds and me too! . . . Clearly, it’s like that . . .

A few months ago, my cat-loving friend sent me a You Tube clip. She and I never can get our animals together, what with her cats towering over my toy poodle. She added the caption to the link she sent me saying: “See Jule! At least some dogs and cats can come together and not fight like cats and dogs!” The clip was entitled: Orphaned Kittens adopted by Mama Dog. A beagle-sized dog is in a crate with four cute puppies and something like six screaming kittens. She lays down so each of them can feed. Four little puppies and five little kittens are busy sucking away. All the while, one black kitten lies motionless at the other end of the crate. Something in this all-inclusive mama can’t sit still while even one lies alone away from her and the source of milk she gives. Waddling over with those four little puppies and five stray kittens still glued to her, a warm nose nudges at the lone cat. She nuzzles and waits to see if this last little one will arise to join the feast alongside all the others. . . . Certainly it seems as if it’s like that too . . .

The kingdom. Of God.

The phrase is used repeatedly in the gospel of Mark. Right from the start when Mark records the first public words of Jesus to be: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near! Repent, and believe in the good news!” (Mark 1:15). But who can know just what that is like? Just what is God’s kingdom? What happens to show one is a citizen of it instead of some other norms of the world? After all, those within earshot of Jesus all were living under another kind of king: the kingdom, or empire of Rome. Long ago their ancestors had their own king. In the first reading today we hear how King David was chosen. Though he was one of Israel’s greatest kings, not even his reign touched the kind of rule rightly labeled the kingdom of God. In order for us to get it – while not being so specific that we take the description literally and start throwing seeds everywhere as if that’s the work of God’s kingdom – Jesus tells some stories. Parables – packed with a punch for those who first heard. The two gems we hear in the Mark reading for today are Jesus’ only two parables of the kingdom that find their way recorded in Mark. The kingdom of God is like scattered seed that somehow, significantly grows! The kingdom of God is like the smallest seed that grows into shade enough for all. It’s like that . . .

As we’re getting ready to discuss the adoption of a statement that summarizes the reason why this church exists and what difference you seek to make in the lives of others, I can’t help but think of how else it is. The kingdom. . . . A few months back when the session continued discussion about all this, the following Thank you notes were shared. “To My Church Family: I want to thank you for your kindness during the illness and death of my wife. Your prayers, your cards, your phone calls are all greatly appreciated. You are a loving family.” It’s like that, the kingdom of God. . . . “Dear Church: What a beautiful surprise to receive such a wonderful gift, and delivered by the smiling face of one of you! It makes me humble to think of all the labor of love you put into my Christmas gift. Your expression of God’s love is in every stitch! I try to walk every day and the beautiful cap will keep me warm. The wind can be pretty brisk at times. I love you all. You are dear to me. May God’s blessing be upon you all.” It’s like that, God’s kingdom. . . . “Dear Church Family: Thank you to everyone for all the thoughtful gifts, cards, well-wishes, food, and other support that the church has offered us at the birth of our baby. We are so appreciative of our church community and are very lucky to have found this wonderful group of people!” It’s like that, the kingdom of God. . . . You might remember the story told at the church’s Annual Meeting this January. A woman showed up in the office one day late in the month of December. We get folks coming here a lot – you all know that. Typically we hear of something they need during the difficult period they are facing. And typically, this church responds to fill that need. This woman was different. She merely showed up to give a check to the church. She said she’d be back with another check after she paid her property tax bill. And, incredibly, she did come back. Another check in hand. When asked who she was and what connection she had to the church. In other words: why in the world is this complete stranger showing up to give money to us? Her response was: I used to visit both my mother and my aunt at the nursing home across the street. As the primary care person to both, it often felt overwhelming. Sometimes she’d just need a break – a little peace and quiet to re-group. She explained that she’d often come across the street to just sit here in the courtyard or rest on the swing out back. No one ever shewed her away or asked her to explain herself. She merely was left to sit in the quiet to get her mind and spirit re-freshed in order to go back to take care of her mom and aunt. It’s like that, God’s kingdom.

People who actively seek to support those facing life’s challenges. A body (a church) providing a space for others simply to rest and be renewed by the loving presence of God. It’s like that . . . the kingdom of God already in our midst. The reign of God expanding to touch the life of another and another and another. . . . Don’t ever forget: it’s not just making a meal, or offering a prayer, or knitting a cap, or having a spot for refuge. It’s living the ways of God’s kingdom. Being citizens of the rule without end. Alleluia! Amen!

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

© Copyright JMN – 2015  (All rights reserved.)

Family Letters

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A sermon 7 June 2015 – 2nd Sunday after Pentecost (An infant Baptism Sunday!)

A reading from the gospel according to Mark 3:20-35. Listen for God’s word to us.

“Then Jesus went home. And the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered. Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.” Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

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

Admittedly, this is not the best text for a day like today. Here we have a baptism of a beautiful little boy who has been born into a wonderfully loving family and we’re hearing Jesus kinda casting aside his own biological family. As Jesus is going around Galilee healing those others wouldn’t touch. Calling regular ole’ folks to come follow in the ways of the reign of God he is announcing. Saying that God’s favor is with those who suffer. Even breaking Sabbath rules as he’s trying to let folks know that in him the feast has begun! Then, early in his ministry, he’s reported as going home. Who would have thought that there – by his own mother and brothers and sisters, he’d be told to get back in line. We may understand that they were just afraid for the reputation and life of one they loved. But their seeking to talk sense into him shows his biological family is as confused as the next that the Spirit at work in him is of God – not another. He must be so very disappointed that not even his mother and siblings can recognize the difference. So that when they persist in pushing their way through the crowd to get close to him, at least according to the text – maybe it just didn’t get recorded that he finally went out to speak with Mary and his family. But according to the text, he proclaims that his true family are those right there with him. Seeking healing, opened to hearing, wanting to know how best to live according to God’s rule of love. “Here are my mother and my brothers!” he’s reported as saying. “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35). If we want to build up the connections in our biological families, we will not find Jesus’ support of that here.

The last thing I want to have happen today is for little Daniel, who is about to be brought forward by his loving mother and father that they might make the promises of Christian discipleship for him. At least for now until he’s old enough to claim Christ’s saving and sending love for himself. We don’t want him to absorb any kind of teaching today that gets between him and his family. We want to hold in balance the beauty of life together in a Christian biological family that will care for him at home and teach him the faith and the family of God here – his spiritual family of the church – that also will care for him and raise him up to God’s desires for his life. As that is part of what we celebrate today, listen to a few family letters. The first one goes like this:

Dear Church Family: It’s little Daniel here. We all know I can’t yet write, but if I could, here is what I would say to you as the family of God in which I am included, as my baptism shows today. So dear Church – which includes my mom and dad and big brother too. And while I’m at it, I might as well say this to those of my extended family who have come today who too are a part of God’s church, just not necessarily gathering here each week. So (as is said in the South) to all ya’ll: thank you! Thank you for welcoming me into this loving fellowship where young and old alike seek to worship and follow God. Thank you for supporting my mom, dad, and big brother as they made space for me in their hearts and home. I am so young and so small so that it might be easy to overlook my needs among you. God has put me here with you in order for me to begin to experience that unconditional love that is God in our midst. You can practice it – as will my mom and dad at home – so I will begin to feel it. . . . My little body is growing and taking in this world through you all each day. For the next several years as I continue to develop, you – my church family alongside my family at home – will be how I come to know God. How I come to trust and love and feel peace in my life. . . . Tend me well – even if it seems I’m too little to matter much, because you are setting the foundation for me to be able one day to say yes to God! To say: “Yes, God! I love you so very much and I want to use the gifts and abilities you have put in me in order to live a little bit more like Jesus each day – in order for the principles of your reign to be seen through me – things like grace and forgiveness and acceptance of all as those in whom the imprint of God can be seen.” . . . Every generation has its challenges – I’m not too young to know that. And I hope, church family, that you will remember mine. That I have been born into this great big, globally-interconnected world. Things are changing at the speed of light and babies like me have no idea what it all will look like just a few years from now when I start kindergarten. I’ve already heard of scary things like bullying on the playground and violence in schools and horrible storms and bitterly dividing fear. I need you to tell me the stories of God’s presence always with me so that I grow up secure in the love that never lets me go – no matter what I have to face in life. I need you to live the ways of God’s reign so that I will know that the other kinds of things I see which seek to hurt and destroy are NOT the ways or the will of the God who lives in us and wants us all to know we are one united family. I need you to pay attention to me and all the other boys and girls of this church and community. When I seem withdrawn, just hug me and ask me if everything is ok. When I’m acting out, sit with me until we’re both clear what I really need. Pray for me, please, and teach me to pray for you too as I get older. Be the kind of family that lets me know you always celebrate me, and support me, and accept me as I grow into whoever my little body, mind, and spirit will grow to be. Listen to me and love me – not just today when I’m all cute and cuddly, but in the years ahead when I’m a rambunctious elementary school boy and a rapidly changing puberty-stricken teen and a young man heading off into the world to find God’s place for me. Remember the promises you are making to me today so that I will be able to grow into one who can say for himself: “I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I reject the things that lead us away from God and with God’s help I seek to fulfill my calling as a disciple of Jesus Christ!” These are my wishes and words to you on this monumental day in my life with you, with the world, and with God!

At least, that’s what I imagine little Daniel would say to you today, his church home – and his biological family. . . . And because I’ve been listening to you all during my time as your interim pastor, I can imagine exactly what you’d say right back to little Daniel.

Dear Daniel Patrick – precious, precious child of God! We are SO excited to welcome you into this expression of God’s family! We are young and old alike – a few from each generation – and we seek to love one another and those beyond this membership as much as we love God. We practice grace here. We forgive. We start over. We are generous and we seek the justice – the just-enough-for-us-all, which is God’s desire for the world. We have so much to teach you about the grace of God and the ways of God’s Spirit in our lives. How we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. How we can face any challenge that comes to us collectively or in our individual lives back home because we are never alone – we have each other and we have God among us too. We want you to know that you are so very treasured by the great Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of it all! . . . O little Daniel, we look in your face and it is as if we can see the holiness of God. The purity of Christ. The joy of the Holy Spirit pulsing through each little finger and toe of your sweet body. We want to remember that every day. Not just today when life is new for you, but each day as you grow. And may we never forget that each step of your life, YOU have something to teach us too. How God lives through and experiences this world in you! . . . We wish all the chaos, trouble, and difficulty of life in this world were not here and never, ever would come to touch you. But we know; we all know the challenges of the living of these days. The sadnesses that come when you open wide your heart to love in a world that is not perfect. The fear that can get under your skin when you live by what your eyes can see instead of what God’s Spirit in and among us can do. But o the joy too! The beauty of this gift we are given called life! May you never forget – and may we, and your parents, and brother, and whole extended family never let you forget to cherish each glorious breath of this journey of life. To enjoy the ways Christ lives in you. To be courageous and ready to pass along all that you will learn in the adventure of life! . . . On this very important day for us all, our prayer for you is a life filled with peace, joy, and love. Brimming with the hope we have in God. The never-ending possibilities known to us because of our resurrecting LORD of Life! . . . Savor each step, little Daniel! And thanks be to God! For we cannot wait to see it all unfold!

I think it’s safe to say, that’s just a fraction of the hopes and dreams we as God’s people have for this fresh little one created, redeemed, and sustained each day by God! . . . May God make it all so!

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

© Copyright JMN – 2015  (All rights reserved.)

Holy Mystery

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A sermon for 31 May 2015 – Trinity Sunday

Click here to read Isaiah 6:1-8 first:  http://www.biblestudytools.com/nrsa/isaiah/passage/?q=isaiah+6:1-8

 It seems wise to begin today’s sermon on Trinity Sunday with the disclaimer that the Trinity is a mystery. Three energies coming together into one. One energy having three aspects. How can this be? We don’t really know. We just believe it so. Because, in part, God is a mystery – revealed fully in Christ and among us in the Holy Spirit, and still beyond us; not able to be completely understood. . . . Imagine being Isaiah. Minding his own business when suddenly he’s having a vision of the LORD God almighty. Crazy stuff like God on a throne with a great big robe overwhelming the temple. This is the stuff of nighttime dreams – not quite like what we know in waking life. Creatures with six wings flying about, calling out: “Holy, holy, holy! . . . The whole earth is full of God’s glory!” (Is. 6:3). Who can fully make sense of such a vision? . . . Such a vivid, image-packed experience that might leave our minds tied up in knots. We can seek to gain further insight – not only to joyfully profess the Triune God; but also, with the prophet Isaiah, to encounter and in fact stand in absolute, wonder-filled awe of our ancient-and-living, three-and-one, transcendent-and-so-very-with-us-immanent God. Our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Mystery. Holy Mystery, the Trinity is, which need not frustrate our reason-seeking minds, only fill our God-seeking souls.

Now, Christians believe the Trinity, God in three persons, or the One God who is made up of three personas, is from the start. A close read of Genesis chapter one reveals the creating God whose Spirit is hovering over the watery chaos until the Word goes forth. And automatically, creation takes place. Throughout the Old Testament, we see evidence of a God who is giving life like a caring father, and seeking to save the people like a mighty redeemer, and dwelling among the people like a guiding sustainer. . . . The gospels proclaim Jesus as the full revelation of God. By the Spirit; he ever acts, and prays, and has his being. Always he is in complete union with the life-giving God, who he usually calls Abba, Father. And because Christ does not exist without the other two, Jesus, the Word-in-flesh, often goes out to the wilderness to pray, to be connected both with the Father and the Holy Spirit that descended upon him in his baptism. He is the embodied Word of God that has come among us in flesh to know us in full. Because, as Jesus, the Christ, God experienced our life as a human. With an earthly mother and father who certainly had to drive him nuts sometimes. And siblings who must have gotten on his nerves every now and again. As a human he knew the pressures of learning a profession (carpentry), and living as a God-fearing Jew, in an occupied nation no less. In Christ, God came to know fully what it’s like to be us – with all the temptations we face, but without all the mess ups we make in our sins.

Perhaps it’s helpful to consider the Trinity in light of triplets – not the kind in music. But triplets: as in children. Many of us might be familiar with twins. Some of you might be a twin. And thanks to the conveniences of modern fertility treatments, triplets are more common today than in days gone by. Triplets all grow in the same womb. Some even from the very same egg. They are connected in a way that singles are not. Yet, even triplets that look exactly alike, never truly are exactly the same. One might have a birth mark another does not. Or a shade lighter hair. And certainly each has characteristics unlike the others: one is withdrawn. The other out-going. And other incredibly unsure of themselves. Triplets are a set; and yet, they each are unique. . . . You could say the Trinity is a set. Yet each persona or aspect of the Triune God is distinct. One being, with three unique functions.

Somewhere along the way Christianity – at least the branch from which we come in the West – went a little bit astray regarding the Trinity. We start off as concrete literal thinkers, which from childhood on really can do a number on our images of God so that we can take things like Isaiah’s vision of God in the temple as a literal picture of the divine. . . . The limits of our language and of our minds ended up leaving many of our Christian ancestors thinking that there’s some sort of pecking order in the Trinity – we see it everywhere else. Why not in God? Before you know it, we start to believe that one persona of God is more important, or above the other. Like a hierarchy where one is over the other – more powerful, more ancient, just more. In our minds and in some of our church architecture, we started drawing triangles for the Triune God instead of circles. I think the idea was that the top point of the triangle represented the all-powerful Father-God, the oldest and most important. In this thinking, the Son and the Spirit come later in the story and so get represented at the lower points of the triangle. Hear me now: centuries ago the church declared such thinking un-biblical heresy, though this hierarchal image of God still lingers in some. . . . Thankfully a part of the tradition preserved another picture of God. The perichoresis of our three-in-one God. Three interconnected circles, distinct in their own function, but equal. Always, all together existing even from beyond time. The image is of three interconnected, equal circles. The perichoresis of God is the dancing around together in relationship as the life-giving, life-redeeming, life-sustaining God. An energy like a three-fold cord that cannot be unbound. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, blessed Trinity! . . . Christians believe it’s the we referred to by God here in Isaiah’s vision. As in “who will go for us?” (Is. 6:8). . . . It’s the we proclaimed in Genesis chapter one when God says: “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). And like our Triune God, we too are made for relationship. Connections of equality where we all may not have the same function, the same gifts and abilities. Still we’re made for relationships of mutuality in which life for us all is promoted.

I’m not sure we all fully appreciate each aspect of our Triune God. I’m guessing most of us gravitate towards one aspect of God over the others. I mean, let’s face it: Presbyterians haven’t been known for monumental focus upon the Holy Spirit. Though I’m encouraged that our latest confession, A Brief Statement of Faith, gives equal billing to God the Holy Spirit: everywhere the giver and re-newer of life. It’s high time all of us welcome a little bit more of that part of God into our individual and collective lives because each part of the Trinity is necessary for us. Like all those years of perfect musical chords our retiring organist has played here in this sanctuary. One note of the chord isn’t more important than the other. They’re all needed for the beautiful, inspiring music they make. It’s like that in God. . . . Think about it: are you feeling kinda fragile? Like you really need to know someone cares and seeks to protect, nurture, and provide? God our Creator, the persona of God often named Father, might be just the encounter with God that you need. . . . At times we need to know someone understands. Someone will stand by us no matter what – even take a bullet for us if it all comes to that. Christ Jesus our Redeemer, often called the Son, might be exactly our guy. . . . We all experience those times when we need to be guided. Sustained by something beyond us, which strengthens and burns, and moves in us the ways we need to be, even beyond our own wills. God the Holy Spirit, the Sustainer, is the persona of the Trinity we cannot live without.

I could remind us of the egg: shell, yoke, white stuff. Or roots, trunk, leaves. Someone once suggested to me Neapolitan ice cream – chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. Decide for yourself which part of the Trinity is the chocolate, which the vanilla, and which the strawberry.   . . . All sorts of images are out there to help us wrap our minds around this holy Triune mystery. In the end, perhaps it’s best just to be alongside the prophet Isaiah: filled with incredible awe as we encounter One we cannot fully comprehend. Ready to respond when God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit calls. Our Triune Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. . . . Whether or not we fully can wrap our minds around it, today – and every day – our spirits can join in the chorus: Holy! Holy! Holy! Blessed is the amazing Holy Mystery!

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

© Copyright JMN – 2015  (All rights reserved.)

Hello and Good Bye

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A sermon for 17 May 2015 – Ascension Sunday (7th Sunday of Easter)

Acts 1:1-11  (NRSV scripture included below.)

Today is the Sunday closest to Ascension Day – which is celebrated 40 days after Easter – two Thursdays before Pentecost every year. The idea being that for 40 days (the same amount of time Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for his ministry); likewise, for 40 days the Risen Christ was among the disciples preparing them for the ministry before them and readying them for their empowerment by the Holy Spirit. Listen for the word of God to us in a reading of Acts of the Apostles 1:1-11.

“In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.””

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

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never really liked goodbyes. Whether it be from a best friend moving across the state or a beloved family member dying. Such endings are emotionally tough. Oh, I realize for certain Enneagram types, which we’ve been learning about on Wednesday nights, goodbyes are no big deal. But for most of us, it feels like a part of our insides is being ripped out and taken along. Like the security blanket is being snatched right out from under our feet. We might do all we can to make it not so: avoid the feelings of loss. Deny the intense emotions with which we are left. Still, we wake up the next morning and the person’s not there. And the world seems worse than when they were with us in it.

Years ago Joyce Rupp wrote an incredible book on the goodbyes of life. It’s called: “Praying our Good Byes.” From the loss of a job, to the death of a dream. From goodbye to health in our bodies, to grieving the loss of a pregnancy. From the shattering of trust in times of betrayal, to the letting go of the lies with which we let ourselves live. From the best friend moving across state, to the loved one whose life slips from this world. Rupp includes beautiful liturgies for acknowledging the loss of all sorts of the goodbyes we experience in life. Feeling that pain and finding a way to let it go. In a way, she seeks to normalize life’s goodbyes – or at least give us some tools to navigate through them. One of the greatest insights she gives for those broken by endings is that life is in fact goodbyes. And life is hellos too. Life is hello and goodbye. One cannot be without the other. Rupp is a deeply devoted Christian who is influenced heavily by the death and resurrection of Christ. So that as we face the mystery of the Ascension we hear of in Acts of the Apostles, Rupp’s reminder rings. She writes: “hello always follows goodbye in some form if we allow it. There is, or can be, new life, although it will be different from the life we knew before. The resurrection of Jesus and the promises of God are too strong to have it any other way” (joycerupp.com). Life is hello. Life is goodbye. And, if we face the loss so that it doesn’t get the chance to take us down all together, sooner or later we see that life is hello again!

It seems a fitting metaphor for the experience we hear about today from Acts of the Apostles. The Ascension of the Risen Christ. Like I said, forty days earlier he had been raised from the death of Good Friday to the new life of Easter. It must have been an incredible time to be a part of his inner circle. Surely they were much afraid. But then they’d open their eyes to see the Risen Christ standing in their midst. He’d be greeting them with peace. Truly trying to bring healing to their hearts and minds from the reality of his violent death. We don’t know everything he said to them during that forty day period back among them. But Acts of the Apostles does record that he told them to wait. Something soon would be coming upon them. The Holy Spirit of God would be the power they would receive to turn any fear in their bodies into unstoppable courage. And then, like grains of sand that quickly slip through an hourglass, like a flash of a star shooting across the dark night, like something that seems to be before your eyes in one second until it vanishes in the next; he’s gone. The imagery here should remind us of a few other unfathomable experiences. Who can forget Moses being up on Mount Sinai in the thick cloud of God while the Israelites fidget below? (Exodus 19-20). And remember Elijah being taken away in the whirlwind – which I’ve heard a Jewish teacher describe as a tornado coming to carry him off on the winds (2 Kings 2:1-12). It wasn’t even the first time a few of them had seen Jesus in a cloud. It happened on that mountain of transfiguration when two men – presumably figures of Moses and Elijah – appeared with him then as well (Luke 9:28-36).

One commentator writes of the ascension that “so long as Jesus was physically present, he was available only to those he encountered (directly); by the Spirit he became powerfully present to many” (A. Katherine Grieb, Feasting on the Word, Yr. B, Vol. 2; p. 507). In other words, he had to go. Like it or not, the goodbye was necessary. There’s really no need to waste our energy on where exactly he went, how, or when he’s returning. Like the figures said to the disciples who remained there mouths gapping as they searched the clouds of the sky to see if they could spot him again. I love the way the translation called The Message puts it in the quote on the front of the bulletin today: “Why do you just stand there looking up at an empty sky?” (Acts 1:11, The Message). They just received instruction from the very mouth of the Risen Christ. They were to wait for the promised gift of God’s Spirit and then they were to get out there in the world, beginning right there in Jerusalem where he’d been crucified, then to the rest of those in and around their land, until they entered even among their bitter enemies the Samaritans, and at last to break the barriers between them and the gentiles all over the world. There’s a hello to get ready for so that time and effort wondering the where and hows and whens is as fruitless as the disciples asking the Risen Christ if in his resurrection he now was going to overthrow the Romans and restore the throne of Israel. He obliterates all such concerns with a re-focus on the hello. The Holy Spirit will be upon you – in you – in us all! Get ready for a great hello that will empower us to carry out his world-wide revolution of life according to the ways of God’s kingdom!

What a brilliant hello! A power that dissipates all fear. Dispels doubt and makes of us who we need to be to continue the work of the One taking his leave from the confines of his physical form so that he can be with us anew forevermore! The essence of ascension is that he had to go. To take his leave in that way that we all could be ready for the mighty hello of the Spirit. All that was to come after as the mission of God went forth from that one time and place to everywhere and always around this globe. . . . It might leave you wondering what else might need a goodbye in order for an amazing new hello? I’m sure we could make a list of a few things in our personal lives. Patterns and habits that are keeping us from living fully into our God-desired selves. Ways that seem to leave us drowning in the living of our days. . . . And what about in the church – in life together as the body of Christ in this place? For all the wonderful ways we are faithful week in and week out as Christ’s church, aren’t there a few things that need a goodbye? You all are an amazing expression of the love of God and I am honored to be journeying with you during this time of your pastoral transition. I know many of you have been around here a long time and others of you are just getting started. So that your eyes can become cloudy about who you are and the incredible potential in you for future ministry because of your genuine kindness, your helpful care, and your grateful generosity. It will take some rallying together. Some new ways of sharing ministry – every one of you taking on a piece or two of the whole work of God through this church. You’ve experienced it already in my time among you, it takes openness to new ways of worshipping and learning and serving and being led. Letting go of the pain in the goodbyes and looking forward to the joy of hellos. Recognizing the changes you will experience in yourself and in one another as you continue to move into a more intentional direction of making a difference in other people’s lives for the sake of God’s kingdom. As vital churches today seek to do. It will take some giving up and it will bring new life that cannot yet be known. We’re all having to learn new ways of connecting with God and others as the culture in which we live continues to change at break-neck speed and the circumstances of each of our lives keep right on shifting too. Another pastor in the Presbytery and I are banning together to organize a group for clergy who might want be honest together about the ways we need to change as pastors if we’re going to lead congregations of God’s people into this unfolding future with all the energy, intelligence, imagination, and love we can muster and God will give. It’s a challenging time to minister and be trying to live out our baptismal vows as Christ’s disciples. I know we all might hate the goodbyes and want to deny it’s so, but what a gift to be entrusted by God into this time and place for the sake of God’s mission in the world. Like the disciples at ascension who could not yet see the road ahead after Pentecost; we too can trust that amazing hellos await! Glory be to God as we mourn the loss of any goodbyes and get ourselves ready for the wonderful hellos ahead!

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

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