MOIRAJO
  • Barry Manilow & Mother T
    • Post 1 "I Write the Songs"
    • Post 2 "I Am Your Child"
    • Post 3 "Life Will Go On"
    • Post 4 "Sweet Life"
    • Post 5 "Can't Take My Eyes off of You"
    • Post 6 "As Sure As I'm Standing Here"
    • Post 7 "All the Time"
    • Post 8 "Mandy"
    • Post 9 "Here Comes the Night"
    • Post 10 "Lay Me Down"
    • Post 11 "It's A Miracle"
    • Post 12 "Sunrise"
    • Post 13 "Looks Like We Made It"
    • Post 14 "Daybreak"
    • Post 15 "Where Do I Go From Here?"
    • Post 16 "Somewhere Down the Road"
    • Post 17 "It's a Long Way Up"
    • Post 18 "Ay Amor"
    • Post 19 "Copacabana (At the Copa) Remix"
    • Post 20 "New York City Rhythm"
    • Post 21 "If I Can Dream"
    • Post 22 "Memory"
    • Post 23 "You Begin Again"
    • Post 24 "If We Only Have Love"
    • Post 25: "Put Your Dreams Away"
    • Post 26 "Good-bye My Love"
    • Post 27 "Please Don't Be Scared"
    • Post 28 "Keep Each Other Warm"
    • Post 29 "Ready To Take a Chance Again"
    • Post 30 "The Stars in the Night"
    • Post 31 "We Can Be Kind"
    • Post 32 "Look to the Rainbow"
    • Post 33 "Life Will Go On"
    • Post 34 "God Bless the Other 99"
    • Post 35 "Not What You See"
    • Post 36 "Welcome Home"
    • Post 37 "Everything's Gonna Be All Right"
    • Post 38 "Do Like I Do"
    • Post 39 "Brooklyn Blues"
    • Post 40 "Old Songs"
    • Post 41 "Could It Be Magic?"
    • Post 42 "I Made It Through The Rain"
    • Post 43 "Paradise Cafe"
    • Post 44 "Beautiful Music"
    • Post 45: "Harmony"
    • Post 46 "One Voice"
    • Post 47 "Appendices" Let Freedom Ring" >
      • Postlude "Even Now" : Seeing Barry at Barclays After 37 Years"
  • Blog: E-Lifts
  • Weekly Message
  • Sermon Podcasts
  • Links
  • Contact

"Arise, Shine!"

1/7/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Isaiah 60: 1-9; Matt. 2:1-12;
 
 Happy New Year! the ball dropped in Times Square to a socially distanced crowd – a handful of carefully selected essential workers and their families- at an event that normally draws tens of thousands of revelers.  The coronavirus didn’t miss a beat and continued to set records  of infection and death across the country. The divisions in our nation continues to cast its stubborn pall as conflict continue to drive us apart.  We yearn for the day when we stand united.

All these hopes and concerns are at the forefront today as we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany.  Wednesday is officially the last day of the Christmas season.  In the ancient church, Epiphany was the most important day of observance, not Christmas.  It is the feast of light. The in-breaking of revelation.

The gospel lesson for Epiphany is always the story of the journey of the Wise men, the Magi, some even call the Three Kings, from the Far East, bringing gifts to bear to the child Jesus:  gold, frankincense and myrrh.  But Epiphany also brings us gifts to carry into our new year. 

   The gift of epiphany to us, simply put, is that Jesus is our Light.  He is the “Bright and morning Star” (Rev. 22:16), “the Light of the world,” (John 8:26) that shines in our heart when we look within.   But Jesus’ light is no ordinary light.  The rabbinic writers in the Babylonian Talmud, the earliest commentaries on the Hebrew scriptures, talked of a hidden, primordial light of creation, light that God used on the first day of creation, “Let there be light,” is not the same light we experience as coming from our sun; after all, the sun and the moon are not created until day four. Instead, this first, primordial light was unique to God alone. Rabbinic tradition teaches us that this hidden light will shine once again during the days of the Messiah.  So this primordial light of creation is Jesus:  as the evangelist John declares:  Through him all things were made (John1:3); and  Psalm 36 tells us: “in your light we see light.”  In Jesus, Light Incarnate, Light in which we find light, we see how we are to live. To love. To forgive. To be community. 

Scientists tell us we that life as it currently exists cannot live and grow properly without light. We cannot see properly without light.  We would not have energy without light.  So it is with Jesus, we cannot live or grow or have energy without Jesus.

        We too are created by light and are light – light to the world (Matt. 5:14), Jesus says. He further instructs us: “let your light shine before all, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matt. 5:16).

          And therein lies our challenge and choice.  Epiphany gives us the gift of choice. In our lesson from Isaiah, we learn that the people of Israel have been released from captivity from exile to Babylon. These people had been in exile for fifty years – a generation had passed, a new one begun.  They were permitted to return. What did they find?  The Jewish cities were in rubble and their homes were in rubble and their farms were in rubble and their temple was in rubble and their lives were in rubble --it was very much a new beginning – too much time had gone by to simply resume life as it had been. They would have to create new lives. But Isaiah writes with words of such hope: “Arise, shine, your light has already come…Nations shall come to your light!”   In the midst of trouble and despair, the people were directed to light. We can find light, in the choices we make about how we live. Light heals and rebuilds.  And so, the people of Israel rebuilt.  And their light was renewed. And through this light, the country was healed.

        So, epiphany leaves us precious gifts to begin our year:  Jesus is our Light – a light of creation, salvation and growth.  We too are creatures of light.  We are meant to shine.  But we too have a choice.  will we take the easy way or the right way?  Will we wallow in despair in the rubble created by COVID19, in the rubble caused by sin and false idols that seek to entice us, or will we choose light, compassion, and righteousness?

        As I recently heard: Hello, welcome to flight 2021. We are prepared to take off into the New Year. Please make sure your attitude and blessings are secured and locked in an upright position.  All self-destructive devices should be turned off.  All negativity hurt and discouragement should be put away. Should we lose Altitude under pressure, reach up and pull down a Prayer.  Prayers will automatically be activated by faith.  Once your faith is activated you can assist other passengers.  There is no baggage allowed on this flight. The captain – God – has cleared us for takeoff.
Destination Greatness. So rise - let your light shine!
 

        

0 Comments

"Joy to the World!"

1/7/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 , John 1:6-8, 19-28:  
        Many of you know my love for words and language. I delight to come across a new word and to savor its meaning. One of my favorite pages that pops up on my Facebook feed is “Grandiloquent Word of the Day,” which offers an obscure word for every day of the year.  Words like: honeyfuggle (to entice with flattery). Quoikerwodger (to pull the strings of an old-fashioned wooden toy – also a politician controlled by someone else.  Or Plisky (a practical joke).  Or for those who detest all things to do with zombies, ambulonecrophobia (AM-bew-low-NEK-row-FOW-be-ya (fear of the walking dead)!
Then this jewel of a word caught my eye: macarism. Macarism.  It means to find pleasure in being the source of another’s joy. How appropriate is it that this word enters into our vocabulary today, the third Sunday of Advent. The Advent day that asks us to reflect on joy to prepare properly for Christmas.  Our task today is to discover and claim the ability to be macarists – people who find pleasure in bringing joy to others. 
Joy is an attribute of God. Joy is a gift God’s bestows on us. Advent reveals a God who derives pleasure in being the source of our joy. A God who takes pleasure in finding joy in all God’s creatures and all of God’s creation.
     We know from the study of the scriptures God offers us daily doses of joy.  The Psalmist declares “This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! (Psa 118:24).”  The prophet Nehemiah reminds us that “the joy of the Lord is our strength” (Neh. 8:10).        
     The imprisoned apostle Paul, wrote in chains to the early Christians, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” Phil 4:4).  Despite the trials we face, the burdens we bear, the extreme quoikerwodgering in the nations of the world, joy is our spiritual mandate. Joy is our strength.

We find joy in the gospels, especially in the in the details about John the Baptizer’s life. John was an intense man, someone we don’t necessary at first blush think as joyful. Yet he was. He inspired joy in many. Remember when the Angel Gabriel declared this prophecy about John, “he will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth?”  It is the unborn child John who leaps with joy in his mother’s womb when Mary, the mother of Jesus, enters the home of Mary’s kin, Elizabeth and Zachariah.  At the end of his career, as Jesus began his public ministry, with prison and death around the corner, John’s disciples began to complain about Jesus.  His disciples left John to follow Jesus.  John didn’t care.  John dismisses this at once, explaining, “the friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice.  That joy is mine, and it is now complete.   He must become greater, I must become less.” 

John’s is a life overflowing with joy.  Joy announced at his birth.  Joy filled him as he faced death.  John had a joy that enabled him to live boldly and speak truth to power. The clarity of his purpose, the singularity and purity of his thought, the consistency of his actions, produced joy. John is macarism at its finest.
        The prophet Isaiah along with John, are examples of people who denounce sin, expresses anger against hypocrisy, and stand for, like Jesus, for righteousness, justice, righteousness. Their example inspires joy.  Joy is there because their loves are rooted in fulfilling the will of a joyful God.  The poet Robert Louis Stevenson encouraged: “Find out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing.  For to miss the Joy is to miss all.”

On the day of Advent Joy, the lives of John and Isaiah are lifted up for us to ponder. Too often those who preach repentance or who stand for justice have a hard time experiencing real joy in their lives.  Anger at the cruelties and inequalities we see can dampen our spirits. The task of confronting sin and oppression takes a toll. The statistics are staggering. The work is endless.  Hope seems a long way off. Without the cultivation of joy, the work can become unbearable and we can turn bitter. Joy comes from being in relationship with God in Christ who makes us whole (not perfect, whole) and holy. Joy makes our witness irresistible.  Most of us gravitate towards truly joyful people – the macarists of the world, who are people connected to joy in all circumstances of life.  The 20th century evangelist Billy Sunday preached, “If you have no joy there’s a leak in your Christianity somewhere.”
        Joy is the spiritual habit that beckons us, especially as we commit ourselves to righteousness and justice. It is not surprising that Jesus, when he began his public ministry, deliberately selected excerpts from passage from Isaiah that integrates joy, justice and macarism. Consider once more a few of the lines from Isaiah:
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me-
..to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor … for everlasting joy shall be theirs.
 
By choosing this significant, prophetic text from Isaiah, Jesus points out that everlasting Joy is our companion in a life that seeks to bring comfort, that restores health and wholeness, that uplifts the poor and the hurt, a life that exults in God.  Joy is our natural state, unmarred by sin. Joy is our birthright.  At our spiritual center we are macarists – we find pleasure in being a source of joy to others.

Advent joy would restore us as it points us to Jesus, because Jesus is Joy incarnate. Recall what the angels proclaim the night of Jesus’s birth: “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people…. A Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

Advent also reminds us how Jesus, at the end of his life, right before his crucifixion, reassures his disciples, “I have said these things to you so that my JOY may be in you, and that your JOY may be complete” (John 15:11).  Jesus, like John, led a life overflowing with joy. Jesus, imbued with the Holy Spirit, was a card-carrying macarist.  He lived to bring joy and wholeness to others. Giving and sharing setting an example joy, expressed every day, no matter the circumstances.  

What is the new yet ancient word that will sustain us this season?  What word shall speak to us? That the spirit of the Lord is upon us?  Like all holy people, we will rejoice in God?  That we are people who continue to cry out in the wilderness? Rejoice always? To pray without ceasing? To give thanks in all circumstances?  That we are knit into the circle of happiness and joy? That giving is an expression of joy?
​
This week, let joy be the word speak through us.  Let macarism take hold of us.  In this way, we become joy to the world.  Thanks be to God.

http://1stpres.com/wp-content/uploads/122413-The-Carols-of-Xmas-Joy-to-the-World.pdf
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/mega-christmas-joy-mark-opperman-sermon-on-christmas-196661?page=3

0 Comments

Christmas Eve Meditation

1/7/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture

 
     The heart of Christmas is family. Each of us can recount precious memories, traditions such decorating the house, setting up the tree, cookie recipes handed down for generations, gift-giving, carol singing to just name a few.  What traditions are beloved in your family?  Our family get-togethers, well-loved activities are all rooted with the telling of the story of the first Christmas family.  The Scriptures tell us about a young couple, Mary and Joseph, who are expecting their first child.   As the birth approaches, Mary and Joseph discover they have to leave their home, their family and friends, to go to Bethlehem, 90 miles away, where they must register to pay taxes. The all-familiar tale reminds us there was no room for them in the inns.  They were already filled up with travelers.  Finally, an inn-keeper took pity on their circumstances and so they found shelter in a stable. There Jesus was born, not with extended family nearby, no grandparents, no aunties and uncles and cousins to help out, just the animals as companions.
     This sacred story takes on special meaning for us is this difficult time of COVID-19 pandemic.  For the first time in many of our lifetimes, we too, like Mary and Joseph, find ourselves separated from family and friends. Travel plans have been cancelled.  Parties have been nixed, replaced by meetings on Zoom. Room is limited to the very closest to us in our homes. No pictures with Santa this year. Quarantining and social distancing have resulted in families sending kisses through the window and leaving presents on the doorsteps.  Tomorrow morning, we will miss emptying stockings with family, to see who got the lump of coal handed down the years (A Smith family tradition in my home that can’t seem to die out).  No Christmas dinner with distant relatives at the extended table, the chatter of stories told as presents are unwrapped, hugs exchanged, and smiles warm our hearts.
      This year will be different.  We can appreciate very deeply Mary and Joseph’s dilemma celebrating their first Christmas.  It was just the two of them, with the newborn Jesus.  That is how the first Christmas began.  Despite being far from home, the love of Joseph and Mary did not diminish.  The baby still came, despite the harsh circumstances they faced. No breaks, no short cuts for the Son of God. Yet despite the difficulties they faced, their joy grew as they cared for, carried, protected Jesus. Somehow, they made it work.  Love was strong enough to adapt to these adverse circumstances. So, it is true for us.  Love will see us through, in the darkest of nights, the hardest of days.

Listen to this story of love manifesting in the humblest of circumstances. There once was a little boy new to an orphanage with Christmas drawing near. From the other children, he heard tales of a wondrous tree that would appear in the hall on Christmas Eve and of the scores of candles that would light its branches.  Instead of the orphanage's regular fare of gruel, they would be served fragrant stew and crusty, hot bread that special night.  Last, and best of all, the little boy learned, each of them would receive a holiday treat. He would join the line of children to get his very own orange. An orange?
     An orange! Of his very own? Yes, the others assured him. There would be one apiece. The boy closed his eyes against the wonder of it all. A tree. Candles. A filling meal. And an orange of his very own.   Christmas Eve was all the children had been promised. The piney scent of fir competed with the aroma of lamb stew and homey yeast bread. The boy watched in amazement as each child in turn eagerly claimed an orange and politely said "thank you." The line moved quickly, and he found himself in front of the towering tree and the equally imposing headmaster.
     I’m sorry young man, I’m sorry. But the count was in before you arrived. It seems there are no more oranges. Next year. Yes, next year you will receive an orange."
Brokenhearted, the orphan raced up the stairs empty-handed to bury both his face and his tears beneath his pillow.  The boy felt a gentle tap on his back. He tried to still his sobs. The tap became more insistent until, at last, he pulled his head from under the pillow.

He smelled it before he saw it. A cloth napkin rested on the mattress. Tucked inside was a peeled orange, tangy sweet. It was made of segments saved from the others. A slice gifted from each child. Together they added up to make one whole, complete fruit. An orange of his very own.
        We have been orphaned in so many ways this year. Traditions turned upside down. Yet in the most difficult of circumstances we have each other, and each of us can donate a slice of love, to bring the gift of love to someone to whom an orange is the world. We can still love in simple ways. COVID19 hasn’t taken that away from us.
May the example of Mary and Joseph, the example of those orphaned boys, the magnificent gift of an orange inspire us now and into 2021.  Because that’s what it means to be family. Merry Christmas and a healthy, safe New Year to all!
 

 
 


0 Comments

"Songs of Love"

1/7/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
​Luke 1:39-56
​
     I find one of most special, most blessed parts of the Advent/Christmas season is the singing of carols and popular holiday songs.  It’s wonderful to turn on the radio, crank up spotify or deezer, or youtube channels, pandora radio, or even commercial radio stations, and listen to the music for hours on end.  The COVID pandemic has put a crimp into our beloved habits of holiday singing, caroling, the traditional vespers service. We have had to modify the children’s pageant and we’ve toned down the Christmas eve lesson and carols.  It’s put a sad dent into the season, has it not?
     The Protestant Reformer, Martin Luther, wrote: “Next to theology I give to music the highest place and honor. Music is the art of the prophets, the only art that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.”   
     Luke’s nativity contains a lot of singing. Mary hears that she is going to be a mother and during her visit to her cousin Elizabeth, she sings the amazing song we call the Magnificat as it is known in the Latin, or “glorify, make great, make known, revealing” in English. When the angels announce the birth of Jesus – they sing. When the shepherds saw the child in the manger - they sing.  When Jesus is dedicated in the Temple, the priest Simeon and the prophet Anna sing praises to God.  Jesus is welcomed in song.  What a wonderful way to welcome a newborn baby, with song.
     Mary song is solidly rooted in the writings of the psalms and prophets: she actually quotes parts of five psalms in her song. She mirrors Hannah’ song, the mother of the prophet Samuel who sang praises to God in 1 Samuel 2.  So, in every line of her song, this illiterate girl proves that she knows scripture. The stories of her people are deep in her bones and come alive.
    Mary’s song is not only a song about God’s justice, God making things right for us, but also a song of history, because in her, she acknowledges that the promises God made to her people’s ancestors, Abraham, Israel, would be fulfilled – fulfilled she proclaims in her son.  Mary sees herself connected to her people to the past, and to those of the future, who would see that she indeed was blessed by God. The God of the past, present and future come together in Mary’s song.  No wonder Mary’s song, known as the Magnificat, as is its title in Latin, became one of the most well-known religious canticles in western history.  It is the song that helps us celebrate Mary’s “yes” to God, prepares us for Jesus’ birth.  In Mary’s song we find an invitation to say “yes” to God as well, in join the chorus in these final days as we countdown to Jesus’ birth.
            That’s what great songs do, throughout our lives --if we take the time to find the songs that speak to us. Those unique songs that echo in our soul. They connect us to the past, to our ancestors’ voices, as we sing these powerful carols and songs of the season, we find our voice, “in the hopes and fears of all the years” as the “Little Town of Bethlehem” reminds us. 
        I recall the story how in one particular African tribe, the tribe gathers to sing the song of life to an individual. Whenever a crime or a serious anti-social offense is committed, the person is called to the center of the circle and expected to admit to the transgression. Then, the village sings their song of life to the child within the person. In this way, it is believed poor behavior is corrected by reminding the individual of who their real self in the Creator's eyes.   You can no longer be confused, lost, alone and depressed. When you know your song of life, you have two obligations:  The first is to find people who have a similar song and sing it to each other.  The second is to pass this wonderful custom down to the next generation.   In this way we support our brothers and sister in their walk, and we provide future generations with peace and happiness. 
         Today, we have a song that breaks through the silence.  A song given to us. A song to sing to each other. God will lift us up when we are low.  God will fill us with good things when we are hungry. Hungry for food, hungry for love, and acceptance.  Yes, God today reaches out as he always did, with mercy.”  Mary shares her song with us today. Because she wants us to remember. To connect – to the history – and find our future – and see a present, like hers, that God blesses.  And we must pass this Song on.
        we each are a song of God. We are a divine note hung lovingly in the universe that nothing can extinguish. No longer shall we forget – we promise Mary – we promise each other –in case we forget – our soul magnifies God.  God will do great things for us.  And Holy is his name.
​
In Mary’s song and all the other transformational songs, carols, hymns we have come to know and love, we are lead to God’s love and blessing: and choose this telling quote to accompany her profile: “You got to dance like nobody’s watching. Dream like you will live forever, live like [you're] gonna die tomorrow, and love like it’s never going to hurt.” 
        Thank you, Mary –– for sharing so generously your songs.  We sing with you “For the Mighty One has done great things for me, and Holy is His name.”  So in this final week of Advent, let us indeed declare all the great things God has done for us.  Shout it out. Reveal it for all to see.  Sing it, if you can. Sing the carols and songs that capture what God has done for you.  In each song you hear, what speaks of the blessings God has bestowed on your life. Think about it, as you get ready for Christmas.  Let all these songs of love, connect us to each other, remind us who we are and who we are called to be, through the power of Christ our Lord.  Amen.



0 Comments

"Voices of Peace"

1/7/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Isaiah 40: 1-11; Mark 1: 1-8
 
     Coming from the Midwest, one of my favorite winter sights is the vision of the trees and ground coated in untouched new-fallen snow.  Despite the hassles that snow can bring, I still feel moved to peace and tranquility that a snowfall brings. As corny as this sounds, I think of the symbolism of snowflakes in this holy season: they remind of what religious writers describe:  That the exquisite uniqueness of each snowflake -- so intricate and small -- reminds us that Christ sees the individuality of each and every person. God calls every creature each by our own name.  Does not the prophet say, “Fear not for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name.” As snowflakes blanket the world in white the scriptures again declare that “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”
     Today is the Advent Sunday of peace. Our readings this morning lead us further to images of creation to give us another under-utilized image of peace:  the peace and comfort discovered as every mountain and hill is brought low. The peace of every valley filled.  The peace of every crooked path made straight.
     These mountains and valleys exist in our hearts. The mountains and valleys exist in the collective heart of humanity. Each of us has a life of highs and lows. Each of us know the gulf created by mountains of sin. We also know the valleys of depression and defeat. Furthermore, we find ourselves in a huge global gap between human predators of all stripes and shapes and the preyed-upon. Between the higher-ups and the lower downs. The haves and have nots.  The hawks and the doves.  The self-styled strong and the weak and heavy burdened.
   Consider just this one gap between mountains and valleys in our world:
The top three wealthiest people control the combined wealth of more than half the U.S. population. That’s three people own more than 160 million.
     The richest 80 persons on the planet have the same wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people.  
     Now wealth in and of itself  is not necessarily a bad thing.  The issue is that the extent of one’s wealth should not condemn others to homelessness, illness, and suffering.  Advent reminds us there cannot be peace when humanity allows a minority in live lavishly on the mountains and the majority are consigned to valleys of woe.  The prophets Isaiah and John call us to the holy task of peace, peace in our hearts from following the ways of God, peace in our world as an extension of peace as an interplay of our interior life to our communal exterior life. Mary the mother-prophet of Jesus, sings in her great song that proclaims the holy leveling of God in Christ: “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly (Luke 1:52).”
Peace is the spiritual tool to bring down those mountains.  To raise up the valleys. To straighten what’s been made crooked in our hearts, in our world. This of how peace permeates our Christian life.
  When we say, “Peace be with you” in the passing of the peace, aren’t we actually saying, “May you live well!”  When the carol extols us to “sleep in heavenly peace” don’t we pray for respite that has conquered the mountains of worry or strife?  When we wish for the “Peace on earth” that the Christmas angels proclaim, don’t we confess a world free of conflict and war?
     Wait, there is more. Don’t the scriptures teach us that this is just the tip of the iceberg?  Peace envisions a better world for everyone.  We recall that the Hebrew root of peace means "to be complete" or "to be sound." Peace proclaims that it is God’s desire that all people get to live in a state of wholeness, health, safety, tranquility, prosperity, rest, harmony; free from agitation or discord, a state of calm without anxiety or stress.  That’s how we bring down the mountains.  That’s how we raise the valleys.
The New Testament adds another layer to this. Peace in the gospels can also imply, "to join or bind together something which has been separated or divided." That is why Jesus is called the Prince of Peace, or as Paul says, “he is our peace (Ephesians 2:14).” Jesus before his death could’ve blessed his disciples with anything, but he told them “Peace I leave unto you, my peace I give you (John 14:27).”   
    Jesus underscores the importance of pursing peace when he teaches in his beatitudes, “blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God (Matt. 5:9).”  The task of peace is to bring God’s wholeness to earth.  Bring low those mountains, raise those valleys.   Jane Adams, the first woman to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, described it well: “True Peace is not merely the absence of war, but the presence of Justice.”
        This is the work of God’s peace. To bring down the mountains. To fill in the valleys. To make straight the crooked paths.  In our individual hearts and heart of humanity.  Listen to the following story.
“Tell me the weight of a snowflake,” a sparrow asked a wild dove.
“It is nothing,” was the answer.  “In that case, I must tell you a marvelous story,” the sparrow said.   “I sat on the branch of a fir, close to its trunk, when it began to snow. Since I did not have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952. When the 3,741,953rd dropped onto the branch, nothing more than nothing, as you say-the branch broke off.”  Having said that, the sparrow flew away.
The dove, since Noah’s time an authority on the matter, thought about the story for a while, and finally said to herself, “Perhaps there is only one person’s voice lacking for peace to come to the world.”
     You know what? I may sound silly, but I reclaim the power of the single snowflake. The power of one voice. The power to wear down the mountain. The power to fill the valley. The power in unity to straighten the path. The power together to break the branch.   And when those mountains are finally worn down, when the valleys are finally filled, when the branch has finally broken and the path straightened, may we know peace on earth.  Peace in every heart.  
Thanks be to God.
 
 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/economic-inequality-it-s-far-worse-than-you-think/
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/01/07/5-facts-about-economic-inequality/
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/19/world/wealth-inequality/index.html
Read more: Are You in the Top One Percent of the World? | Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/050615/are-you-top-one-percent-world.asp#ixzz50bPBYFMW 






0 Comments

Thanksgiving Meditation, 2020 "Giving Thanks"

11/25/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Last year, I attended the birthday party of my grandniece who was too young to read the notes written on her presents. She did not know from whom her gifts came. Instead of ripping into her gifts like most youngsters, I watched as she talked with her mom who sat beside her to determine who had given her each package. She then searched for the giver to thank them before opening the present.

How many of us did that as a kiddo?   Before opening a gift, seeking out the giver personally and saying Thank you?  Especially if you are 4 years old surrounded by a cohort of kids hyped up on sugar and eager to open the beautifully decorated package to get to the prize inside?  Most of us had to learn over years to execute restraint, be polite and show appropriate manners to the gift giver.  We had to learn like my grandniece did, to be thankful, and say our thanks first and foremost.

This act of my grandniece inspires me to consider the orientation of my heart and mind as we approach Thanksgiving.   The heart of Thanksgiving calls us to be grateful before opening the gift.  Before cutting the Turkey or the pumpkin pie.  So we gather, and pause before digging in and say Thank You for the blessings God bestows upon us.  We say thank you for the presence of our loved ones, those who make a difference in our lives. We pause to examine how God has been present especially in the hard times we have been going through. The feast will taste better if we name what we have learned to old special throughout these difficult days.

One morning several months ago, I was feeling emotionally and spiritually sluggish. Not surprising, because we have been in the midst of a pandemic since March. My suspicion was that I had a vitamin deficiency of gratitude, so I took a tour of our home and pointed out everything that we had been given. The gifts ranged from artwork, to kitchenware, to our favorite books and movie DVDs. Our pets. Pictures of loved ones.  The church directories with names of people who have enriched my life and give it meaning.  The value was not in the items named, but in the fact that they reminded us of people who had invested in our lives. The gifts simply reminded us of the givers. When we come to see everything we have as a gift, our perspective begins to change, and a strange sensation emerges. I call it joy.

Normally millions of people this week would be thankful for the feast on Thursday that in the past fueled shopping sprees that opened the holiday gift buying season. In years past, we have tended to buy more things at the suggestion of a culture that tells us we do not have enough. We have commercialized the meaning of the holiday and distracted ourselves from asking the big questions of life that derive from being thankful. I am not suggesting that we should not shop. However with the second surge of the pandemic we are living through,  millions who have lost jobs, prices rising, income dropping,  at a time where we are suffering emotionally, told not to travel and be with extended family and friends this year,  we have a challenge  to find blessing and be thankful in the midst of difficulty. We are challenged to keep in our hearts the doxology “Praise God from whom all blessings flow” and appreciate the gifts we have been given, but also in the knowledge that the Giver has made Himself known even in our darkest hours. So, our challenge is to take a moment to be still and thank God.
 
In, our passage of Joel we hear how the land has been decimated by plagues of locusts, which has brought people and animals to the brink of starvation. Ancient people often faced locust swarms, and even today one swarm can wreak incredible devastation. Modern technology can barely contain locust swarms, so we can only imagine their horror in the ancient world. 

As a nation we recall similar times of different types of plagues.  In 1621 the surviving settlers who lost half their company to disease and starvation come through the event with an act of thanksgiving. President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving an annual national holiday in November in 1863, in the midst of a deadly Civil War. Lincoln asked Americans to go before  God and to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” Words that ring true today.   In the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of the month to stimulate the economy. So, today we are encouraged to follow the example of giving thanks in  and through our suffering and turmoil, as we face now.
​
Giving thanks is the foundation of our spirituality. I often begin my day thanking the Lord for another day of life. I have no idea what this day will hold. Yet, I do know that the heart of the Giver is geared toward my good and his glory, and I can thus thank Him not only for what has been, but for the gift of another day that I have yet to open and explore.

We give thanks for the food banks, the food pantries working overtime this week to give millions of hungry and food insecure families and persons. There are people who because of the pandemic are going to ask for food for the first time in their lives, who never dreamed they would be standing in line for hours to feed their family. The level of hunger has tripled in US households since 2019.  54 million of our fellow citizens are food insecure. The proportion of American children who sometimes do not have enough to eat is now as much as 14 times higher than it was last year. Long Island has seen an almost 74% increase in food insecurity and triple the applications for food stamps since the Pandemic began in the spring. So our harvest table today represents just a token of the giving of our church family to our neighbors in need.
//Even in the midst of COVID and social distancing, six shut ins received thanksgiving baskets from the deacons.

//COVID may have halted our traditional thanksgiving boxes, but our deacons still led a drive that raised to date $2,500 and reached 65 families through the Freeport Food Pantry.   We give thanks to those in hard times give to help others in deeper trouble.  We give thanks for this.

In the midst of the uncertainty we are living in, the way to remain healthy, to remain sane, is to take a few moments each day to be thankful.  Name whatever you can. It is fitting to set aside a day each year to count our blessings with our friends and families. However, our lives are filled with joy that glorifies God when thankfulness becomes a daily routine and not just an annual holiday.
​
Not only have we been given good gifts, but we also know the Giver. Take time to give thanks to the gift Giver who promises to restore the years the locust has eaten, the years the pandemic has eaten the years hard times has eaten.
May your meal, not matter who gathers at your table, no matter what’s on your table, be thankful, and may you celebrate the source of your joy.
 

 

0 Comments

Being a Gift Giver

11/25/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Matthew 25:14-30, Judges 4:1-7

 
We are all familiar with the phrase, “use it or lose it” aren’t we?  For older folks it is a strong warning to keep exercising our minds and bodies to keep them in the best of shape as possible. Some people have applied it to democracy:  get, stay active and involved or lose it. Others apply it to health or vacation benefits on the job – use it or lose it at the end of the year.  However, the advice to “use it or lose it” is sound advice for how live life.  Jesus was getting at this in his parable of the talents.

When I was a teenager, I fell in love with language and words.    I read voraciously.  I dabbled at writing.  But most of all I was fascinated by foreign languages. I don’t want to imply I was good at languages - my grasp of grammar remains pathetic.  But I loved a well-written book; I loved the sound of French which I studied for five years. I was thrilled to learn Spanish after college and to spend a year abroad in South America where I began to master Spanish, even dream in Spanish.  I was introduced briefly to German and Latin. I loved studies the similarities in language.  Later, in Seminary I was an eager, struggling student of biblical Greek and Hebrew, loving the different shapes for letters, learning how language shaped consciousness and experience shapes language.

That was at least 5 years ago.  Today I can catch a word or two of Spanish and French.  I need lexicons and dictionaries to review Greek or Hebrew. I should be fluent but I’m not.  And the reason I am not is simple: I was afraid.  I was frozen by fear when it came time to speak another language.  I was afraid of saying something wrong.   I buried my love for languages deep inside.    I still am fascinated by language, words, and writing but fear holds me back.   The same is true for playing piano and guitar, and decorating cakes.  As I have aged I have not keep up. So I have lost those talents in all but some rudimentary form.

Jesus’ parable of the talents is a warning about how we are to live in the world.  While “talent” does refer to money to a huge sum of money in his day, it is also symbolic of much more. The talents in Jesus’ parable refer to the gifts, abilities and gifts  that God has graced each one of us with. The master rusts his slaves with an important task.   The three slaves receive 5, 2 and 1 talent respectively.  The first two slaves double the investment, pleasing the master who calls them “good and trustworthy.”  

  Using the talents well, the first two slaves get to experience the joy which God possesses and experiences. God gives joy because He is joyful. He is the source of joy.  So using our talents well creates in us the ability to experience and know joy.

In contrast to the first two servants, the slave with the one talent buries it in the ground out of fear.  So, he returns that one talent to his master.  He explains away his actions.  He considers the master a harsh man, a man who reaped where he did not sow, and gather where he did not scatter.  His experience of the master is vastly different from the first two slaves.  The third slave covers his own lack of success by projecting onto his master negative traits that kept him from acting productively.
The master is outraged with the third slave.  The slave is called wicked, lazy and worthless.  He is criticized for not even investing the money with the bankers and getting some nominal interest.  This hapless slave is then thrown into the outer darkness.

What is Jesus getting at here?  The slave didn’t steal the money.  He didn’t run away. He was honest about his feelings and motives with the master.  In the long run, none of this matters.  He was entrusted with something important.   Because of fear, he failed.
The parable reminds us that each of us is gifted by God. Each of us has many blessings.  We have abilities, resources, skills, or opportunities. Anything that God has trusted us with — our job, our family, our material goods, hobbies, even how we use our free time — can be considered a talent.

In the kingdom of God, everybody gets something. There is no such thing as a no-talent person. Scripture says, "We have different gifts, according to the grace given us." (Romans 12:6)  God has given us gifts, talents, skills, abilities, experiences, personality traits, temperaments — all to make you, you. There's nobody else like you in the world. God made you – each of us for a purpose. 

What we have comes from God and belongs to God.  The primary reason God has given us these talents but to build up the kingdom of God, so it can bear fruits of love, forgiveness, peace, justice, joy and righteousness.  Someday, may even today, God asks us: What have you done with what you have been given? 

     I think back on my buried treasure, my fear of speaking foreign languages, my fear of writing and leaving myself open to criticism – has not only diminished my life but has kept me from significant ministry.  I’ll never know who I could have helped, how my life would have grown if I had but given up my fear and risked failure and put myself out there.  Stop a minute and think of the treasured you have buried. We all have done it.  While we cannot reclaim those lost years, we can work to triumph now over our fear.  That is what our parable asks us to do.  To become the giving, sharing, upbuilding disciples Jesus has called us to me.  

        We can take Deborah the prophet, as an example. Deborah was the only female judge in Israel.  She was a counselor, judge and prophet, and led the people to victory over the king of Canaan, who was oppressing the people ruthlessly for twenty years. Deborah could have played it safe.  She could have remained a mother and wife as her culture dictated.  She could have buried her prophetic gifts, her judging abilities in the ground.  She risked and stepped outside traditional boundaries to become a civil and spiritual leader in order to free her people from foreign control.    There is even a passage called the “Song of Deborah” considered one of the oldest in the bible, which states:  “… when the people offer themselves willingly—  bless the Lord! “We are called to be unique like Deborah, and to use our talents, to help the people.

        Last week we began to reflect on the importance of giving as a spiritual discipline. Our stewardship drive is underway.   There are opportunities for us to support our Church and the ministries connected to it. All these opportunities to give are for our own personal benefit as it is to benefit the church and others.  It is clear that the church – meaning the people, the missions, down to our physical plant – cannot flourish without each of our gifts. God has called us here, and so we are called to invest our talents here – to get involved in volunteer opportunities, to pledge financially – and invite others to be a part of our growing community. If we won’t do it, who will?  God has given us the talents.  Multiply them here.

Please do not bury your talents.  I can tell you from my experience what a mistake it is to hold back when you can give; to stay silent when you have something valuable to contribute; to ignore the need when it is in front of your face.   We not meant for sadness and regret that withholding results in; we were created for joy; a joy that stems from generous self-emptying. 

At the end, Jesus says a curious thing. To those who have more will be given, and they will have an abundance.    The more we share, the more we help, the more we get involved, the fuller our lives will be.   We truly get more when we give.  More will be given if only we keep the giving flowing.
​
Unearth those talents.  Use them or lose them.  You are a part of God’s world and you are needed.  There are people only you can reach. There are words only you can say.   There are ways only you can bless.   So, get involved.  Pledge.  Everyone’s pledge is needed – whatever the amount.   Make a personal investment of your time and talent – this is your community; God has led you here for a purpose. So use those talents and hear Jesus as he says,  Come, enter the joy of the Lord. Amen

0 Comments

Whom Shall We Serve?

11/25/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25; Matthew 25:1-13

 
There once lived a man who was the stingiest guy around.  All his life, every time he got paid he cashed his paycheck, took 300 dollars and put it under his mattress. Then he got sick and was about to die. As he was dying, he said to his wife, "I want you to promise me one thing." "Promise what?" she asked. "I want you to promise me that when I’m dead you’ll take my money from under the mattress and put it in my casket so that I can take it all with me.”  He died, and his wife kept her promise. She went in and got all that money the day he died, went to the bank, deposited it, and wrote out a check and put it in his casket."

        It is said that shrouds do not have pockets and never do we see a u-haul attached to a hearse. The only thing we can take with us is what we give away – or as author Louisa May Alcott puts it: “Love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go.”  In order to move on to the next phase of our life’s journey, whenever we turn the corner, we have to let go of our old baggage.  We need to say goodbye to what once used to define us and embrace the unknown new. We need to keep our light burning, remaining alert, for God is doing a new thing.

Recall  how Abraham and Sarah left their family and long-established home behind to go forth as God called them. We remember the people of Israel left behind material security as they traveled from a state of slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.  It was been a journey fraught with anxiety and fear of the unknown.  The people, stuck in old habits, grumbled and complained at the slightest struggle.  They hung on to old ways. Yet God was faithful and provided every step of the way.  Today, we heard Joshua stand before the people as they prepare to enter the promised land and ask, after all this, “Whom shall you serve?  Will we remember God’s favors when we are settled in, enjoying our new home and its bounty? Yes, Joshua declares, for me and my house will serve the Lord.  Join me! Choose! By the same token in our gospel reading  we see Jesus responding to being challenged and questioned by suspicious leaders, but here he turns the tables, seeking to get people to wakeup, be prepared, and to root their lives in the love of God and neighbor.  When Jesus calls us, will we let go of the past, let go of all we cling to for security, and follow our Lord?

For the next several weeks, leading up to Advent at the end of November, our texts ask us to explore our level of commitment to love God and to put God first in our lives and to love our neighbor as ourselves. To stop hoarding ourselves. Stop hoarding our gifts and talents. To embrace the call of giving ourselves away to God’s vision.  This message coincides with the season of giving thanks, getting ready for Thanksgiving. Furthermore, in most churches it is stewardship season – a time where congregations and friends are asked to make a pledge for the following year, so budgets can be set, mission giving determined and giving priorities determined.  Our plate is full, but the time now is critical.

        Today, Joshua asks us:  whom shall we serve?  Additionally Jesus warns us against becoming like the “foolish bridesmaids” who fail to do what is required; they become actually useless-- according to the original Greek -- they failed to care for their lamps, their light properly.  The illustration is stark, the questions direct.  Who are we serving?  Are we living every day, or are we hoarding life, stuffing it into a mattress for some far-off rainy day?  Are we minding our lamps, so they burn bright at the time they are needed? For the time Jesus beckons.

There is enormous potential in Community Presbyterian Church Merrick/First Presbyterian Church of Freeport. Think of the potential to deepen our love of God, for outreach into our community, for serving each other and growing in the faith.  Do we want to make this vision real, make God’s purpose came alive, and do we want to be a part of it?  This is the pressing question, a question we will address head on over the next few weeks as we prepare ourselves for Thanksgiving, for Advent, and for the long-anticipated season of Christmas.  All this too in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, in the context of national and global unrest.  In light of all this, how shall we serve the Lord? This season, we are asked to shine by not hoarding ourselves,  but giving of our time, talent and treasure.

        Many churches loathe to appear materialistic or overly focused on money. They find stewardship campaigns awkward.  We are apologetic about asking for money to pay the bills.  It all feels unspiritual.  We are not trained to address money matters.  I never learned about paying bills, giving away money neither at home or in church. Yet fundraising drives are taking place all around us – I must throw away about 15 requests for everyone I respond to.  So today I would like for us to pause, to reflect on the  process of giving, letting go,  in order to deepen our spiritual lives, strengthen our moral lives. We live in a time where God is calling us to momentous change, to move to a righteous and just society, at a time of deep division and mistrust. We as people of faith have a role to ply. Our faith must shine, our witness must shine, our caring must shine. Giving of ourselves as God seeks to use us to establish the reign of heaven here on hearth. So, we are asked to give of ourselves,  our time our talents and our treasure.
Recall that scriptures teach us that “Everyone shall give as s/he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.”

If we choose to serve God, our commitment must be reflected to a significant degree in local ministry, our church..  As unglamorous and unspiritual as it seems, we have to pay the heat, the light, the repairs, the staffing of this congregation.  We pay for worship, for missions that we participate in here in this place, locally, city-wide, national and international. In the time of COVID, we have all taken big hits. Costs have risen while budgets are reduced or fixed. Yet we are still asked to raise these issues, to trust God and discuss stewardship.   We all can give something, even if it’s the widow’s mite.  Our personal spiritual growth requires that we practice giving.  Jesus did not call us to raise our standard of living, but our standard of giving.  Our goal as a healthy, vibrant church is that everyone is important, everyone can give. No matter what it is, can we have 100% participation?  Everyone’s light must shine.
        Joshua puts it to us: who will we serve?  The questions are clear:  Does our Church make a difference in your life? Does not  faith has a place in the secular arena?  We still have something to share, to say, to make a difference. Is this the kind of community you want your children to which you want your children/your neighbor’s children raised?   We need to reflect carefully on these questions on these questions for the next several weeks.  Jesus is calling us to be wise bridesmaids, bridesmaids who made sure their lamps could shine at midnight.    If the church is not making a faith difference, for us for our community, then frankly, we need to change.   If our Church, however, does make a difference for you, then if you wish to grow in faith, give what you can financially, give what you can of your time and your talents as part of a mature spiritual life to which each of us are called.

We need to shine.  We need to bring forth our light, to the glory of God.  Over the next several weeks I challenge us to several goals:  that we have 100% in giving to our stewardship campaign. Everyone gives something. Give what you can.  When you get your pledge card, pray and challenge yourself to increase it, even if it’s a baby-step. But make a pledge to give.  Giving changes our lives and it will change the church. 

The second way to shine is to get involved. For Advent, I challenge you to come to church every Sunday. Watch the recording every week, if you can’t come in person. Make church a priority.  If for some reason you are away then go to the local church.  Stay connected to faith, to a spiritual community, to God.  One hour a week is not a lot. So get involved.  Bring in food for the hungry.  Take the food to the food pantry.  Visit or call a homebound person.  You are needed for the healing of the world. There’s a place God has made for you to give and shine.  Find it and plug in.

Even in the age of COVID, you can get involved in the life of the church.  Your talents are needed as leaders. As Presbyterians we ordain our deacons and elders to service, it’s a big deal. To keep our church healthy, we need a turnover of new leaders. Leaders who have been serving for years need a sabbath. And the Church frankly needs the insights of new leaders. You may be overwhelmed by the idea of being ordained, becoming a deacon or elder and serving the church. So talk to current elders and deacons and learn what the ministry is about. We need to grow our church make our church strong and frankly, to do so new leaders are needed. I have confidence that there are many here who can step up and lead. Pray and see if God is calling you to service, yes in the time of COVID yes, in the time of social change. Let your light shine.

Let us make it happen. Don’t hoard your time, talents and treasure. Let us not be stingy with our lives.  With our talent. With our Treasures. Be a Giver-however God is calling you forward to be. The time is urgent. The Bridegroom calls. Get involved. Help transform our church, our country and the world. Our community our Nation needs our witness. That is how we serve. That is how we keep our lamps burning bright.  Amen.


0 Comments

Becoming a Saint

11/25/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12         Luke 19:1-10
 
This has been a year of firsts due to the coronavirus. Last night was another one: it was the first time we did not celebrate Halloween the way we are accustomed to: No incessant knocks at the door,  No pouring candy into the grubby hands of little aliens,  baby sharks, animals and creatures of all kinds roaming the streets. No tricks, no treats, hardly any decorations and carved pumpkins on the neighborhood porches.  COVID has forced us to change our practices – while some scaled-down version of Halloween took place, I doubt children did not get the same big stash to last them to the end of November.
       Today however, we acknowledge All Saints Day, a holiday with a long history, and one that fortunately hasn’t been canceled.   We celebrate today like the church has for centuries those who belong to the church triumphant in Eternity.  In the days of early church, Christians would set aside different days to celebrate the anniversaries of the death of martyrs, who had sacrificed their lives for the faith.  Eventually the church decided to make it  one day to observe all martyrs, and that became All Saints Day, celebrated in the Western Christianity on November 1.  
        Now to make it all more confusing: hundreds of years later All Souls Day was added on November 2, so that people could pray for all the faithful who died, the average Joe or Jane Christian who might not be good enough to make it to heaven (in the thinking of the day), or who didn’t die a martyr’s death. These were not the non-monks, nuns, priests, hermits, those A-level  persons super saints who lived lives of such sacrifice  to border on the miraculous. This was based on the idea that the souls of the faithful who didn’t make it into heaven would wait in purgatory, a place between heaven and hell where those souls  could be purified to get ready for heaven.  And they could still be helped by the prayers of people on earth.
The Protestant Reformation changed this way of thinking. Protestants don’t believe in purgatory, so we don’t pray for the souls of the dead, beyond trusting them to God’s care and giving thanks for their lives.  So after the Reformation, we merged All Souls Day with All Saints Day, and honor anyone who has died, especially those who were part of our community of faith.  Protestants also don’t believe in a hierarchy of God’s servants, leading to a hierarchy to a of saints.  We believe we are all in this together.  The Greek word that is translated “saint” means “set apart for God’s use.”  And Paul called all Christians “saints.”  Most of his letters are addressed to “the saints’ in various parts of the world, meaning the Christians.  It is clear from the letters that not all of the saints acted in a “saintly” manner.  There were all sorts of problems and controversies among the faithful.  Yet Paul still addressed them as saints, because they had been called so by God. 
        In the gospel story this morning, we heard about a man who was far from a saint who became one of the saints.  Zacchaeus was a chief tax-collector and he was rich.  He was rich because he was good at what he did, that is, collecting money from the people for the Romans, and keeping a healthy share for himself.  Tax collectors had a well-deserved reputation for being dishonest.  And Zacchaeus himself confessed that he was no exception.  But when Jesus called him by name, and invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house, Zacchaeus had a change of heart – he received Jesus joyfully.
        Because it is Stewardship season, I can’t resist pointing out that this was not just a spiritual conversion for Zacchaeus.  He had a financial conversion as well.  He responded to Jesus by saying, “I will give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay back four times as much.”  We don’t really know what happened to Zacchaeus after this.  But if he continued to follow Jesus, we can count him among the saints.  Saints are ordinary people, sometimes even bad people, who turn their lives around in response to God’s call. It reminds me of the powerful saying, every saint has a past, every sinner has a future.  And in that future is becoming a saint.
        In Thessalonians, Paul gave thanks for the Thessalonian saints because “your faith is growing abundantly and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing…”  Paul saw this growing in faith and love as something to be proud of.  What do we have to proclaim here?  We should be proud of the saints of Merrick/Freeport Church. What do you think?  First, I would say that we welcome all kinds of people and make an effort to understand and work together.  We have a servant mentality. We receive and give thankfully, like Zacchaeus.   We do not get into power struggles; instead we are eager to pitch in and help.  We are open-minded and willing to welcome new ideas, new leaders, and new ways to worship, and this is bringing us closer to God.   Most of us are not wealthy but we want to do what is right, and we give what we can to all the mission programs.  We have a lot to proclaim about here.  God is making us worthy of his call, we becoming his saints.
        Today we will light a candle and list those saints who made a difference in our lives as a way to give thanks and honor the light that was in them, and the grace God that shone in their lives.  Especially we want to remember those we care about who have died in the past year or in blessed memory. But whether it was days ago or years ago, the impact of a Saint in our life lives an imprint forever. And that is something we can never cancel or curtail its celebration.
        Let us remember all those saints who made our lives so rich and full.  Let us rejoice, like Zacchaeus, that we too, by following their examples, are becoming and will indeed be counted among the saints.   Amen.      



0 Comments

Give To God What Is God's

10/30/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture

  Exodus 33:12-23; Matthew 22:15-22

 
An Internal Revenue inspector walks into a church and asks to see the pastor. He is shown to the pastor’s office and is offered a seat.   "pastor, I believe a member of your congregation, Ms. Smith, states on her tax return that she has donated $100,000 to the church. Tell me, Pastor, is this correct?"  The pastor answers, "Yes, it will be!"

Taxes. They are the bane of our daily existence.

      The Jewish population in Jesus’ day found themselves paying roughly 30-40% of their income and produce in taxes to Rome and to the Temple. There were grain tolls, taxes on produce, sales taxes, various temple taxes, tithes and sacrifices; occupational taxes, custom taxes, transit taxes, and other taxes, including illegal extortion allowed by tax collectors.

        People dislike taxes, and tax collectors, then as now.  Yet the gospels go to great lengths to show that Jesus frequently spent time with tax collectors. He hailed and selected to stay at the home of a prominent tax collector, Zacchaeus.  He selected tax collector Levi, also named Matthew, as an apostle. Jesus openly paid his and Peter’s temple tax (Matthew 17:24 – 27). Despite this, Jesus’ detractors (in Luke 23:2) accuse Jesus of "forbidding us to pay taxes to the emperor" as part of their scheme to have Jesus killed.

     Today’s gospel controversy centers on taxes paid to Rome. Understandably they were highly contentious.  It was a reminder that Israel was a conquered nation, and they had to pay for that occupation and protection. The tax in question was the annual tribute tax to Rome. Jews were divided about this tax. The Temple authorities had chosen to collaborate with Rome and endorsed the tax. They also enjoyed a kick-back from the collected funds for their own personal use. But many orthodox Jews resisted this tax and often got themselves into trouble.

So in our gospel lesson we see some bible frenemies:  The Pharisees  (religious separatists) and the Herodians (advocates of the ruling class and status quo), team up to trap their common opponent, Jesus, with the no-win question: "Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?"

       This annual Roman tax was the equivalent of a laborer's daily wage. The tax had to be paid with a Roman coin, the denarius, which had the image of the emperor stamped on one side and an inscription on the other: "Tiberius Caesar, august son of the divine Augustus, most high priest." For many religious people, possessing and using the coin was blasphemy against God's law, particularly the commandments against graven images and idolatry. 

Jesus’ answer stuns his adversaries.  “Whose image” or “likeness” is on the denarius?  Jesus asks them.  “Caesar” is the reply. So,  Jesus declares, "Give, or give back, to the emperor the things that are the emperor's "and to God the things that are God's."   Jesus flips the question and forces the Pharisees and Herodians to address a more important issue:  Giving back to God what is God’s.

The denarius bore the image of the emperor’s face. But it is the unseeable face of God that we owe tribute to, as Moses discovers on the mountaintop.

Moses prays:  Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people…. Show me your glory I pray.” God tells Moses that it is impossible to see God’s face and life.  God’s face, unlike Caesar’s -- cannot be seen – but yes, it can be traced in goodness, graciousness and mercy.  We, who are made in the image and likeness of God, (Genesis 1:26-27) are also are stamped with goodness, graciousness (or goodwill) and mercy.  
In essence, we are like those coins the Herodians and Pharisees held up to Jesus. We are God’s currency on earth.  We are living, breathing coins; and we get to decide how we will fund with our lives.  So, through our lives we fund the well-being of our family.  Through our lives we fund our education, our vocation, our wardrobe, our housing, our food.  Through our lives we fund our entertainment—movies, theater, books, vacations.  Well and good – but the tax God has placed on us is one of service and care – we give back to God in giving to others.

        Paul puts it this way for us in his letter to the Romans: “8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law-  Romans 13:8”     This is how we are to manifest God’s unseeable Face in the world.  We owe a debt of love.  We bear that image of God revealed on Mt. Sinai  - goodness, graciousness (or goodwill) and mercy – in how we chose to connect to our communities, to our church, to the stranger, outcast, ill, needy in our midst. 

        Jim Cymbala,  pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church, shares a story that reminds me of the debt we owe in bearing and bringing forth God’s image in the world. Jim says it was Easter Sunday and he was so tired at the end of the day. He looked up and there in about the third row was a man who looked about 50, disheveled, filthy. He looked up at Jim rather sheepishly, as if saying, "Could I talk to you?" Jim thought to himself, though he felt ashamed later, "I've had such a good time, preaching and ministering, and here's a fellow probably wanting some money for more wine."
The man got up and walked to Jim with hair matted; front teeth missing; eyes slightly glazed. When he got within about five feet of Jim, he smelled a horrible smell like he never smelled before. It was so awful that when he got close, Jim would inhale by looking away, and then he’d talk to him, because he couldn't inhale facing him. Jim learned that the man’s name was David, he was 32 (although he looked 50) and had been living on the streets for six years.

Jim fumbled to pick out some money to give to David. David put up his hand and said, "I don't want your money. I want this Jesus, the One you were talking about, because I'm not going to make it. I'm going to die on the street."  Jim started to weep.  He realized he automatically reached for the money because it was the easiest way to get rid of David. Jim realized – David was sent to him – as a face of God – to show Jim God’s glory.  Jim’s debt of love to God was to be paid to Jim. That is what goodness is all about.  That is where God’s glory is found.

Jim could have made the excuse that he was tired. It’s understandable. We all do it. He didn’t see David the way God saw him. Jim was not feeling what God felt. Jim prayed for forgiveness Please forgive me God. I am so sorry to represent You this way. I'm so sorry.  He prayed. He began to cry right there.

Jim started to weep deeper and David began to weep. David fell against Jim’s chest and there they wept on each other. The smell of David’s person became a beautiful aroma. The Lord made it real to Jim: If you don't love this smell, I can't use you, because this is why I called you where you are. This is what you are about. You are about this smell.”  The smell, Jim realized, was the aroma of God. 

       That day David gave his life to Christ. He got sober, with help got housing. Jim walked with David all along the way. Amazingly, eventually David was ordained and became an assistant minister in New Jersey. 

That is giving back to God what is God’s – a broken life, transformed and redeemed.  That’s our tax – to heal what is broken –to care for the ill. We make God’s glory visible through  our deeds, our witness and our gifts to love, divine currency from our hand to our neighbors. amen

0 Comments
<<Previous

    Author

    Moirajo is a minister, social worker, wife, mother, writer and animal lover. That's just for starters. Join the story, there's so much we can share together! 

    Archives

    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

© Moira Ahearne 2017. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.