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What Wondrous Love

3/10/2022

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As we begin our Lenten season tonight, it is good that we start our observance with the question from our opening hymn, “What wondrous Love is this?”   What wondrous love is this, drives at the heart of Lent as we recall the profound gospel message that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, who took our sins to Calvary where he died so that we might live.  What wondrous love is this, we ask ourselves tonight, because it is easy to get caught up in life’s worries, demanding routines and troubles that the message of love escapes us.  Lent is our time to recapture the awe of God’s wondrous love, and in turn deepen our capacity to love.
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In this shadows of this Ash Wednesday evening, we pause to think about love in a world that seems void of love.  This past week, unfolding before our very eyes, we have been witnessing the invasion of the Ukraine by Russia, the daily bombardment of missiles, the air raids, the needless destruction, the strangulation of the Ukraine’s sovereignty and the flood of refugees.   On other fronts we have been told once more that the earth is at a critical point is climate point, we will soon reach a point of no return and parts of the world will soon become inhabitable to life.  We read of floods in Australia, droughts in nearly half of the United States. Where is love in all of this?  What is troubling your heart tonight, that makes God’s wondrous love seem remote and inaccessible? 

Not even Jesus seems loved very much, if at all, especially at the very end of his life. Nowhere in the gospels does it say that someone loved Jesus.  The fickle crowds turn on him from shouts of hosanna on Palm Sunday to Crucify him! On Good Friday.   Peter denies Jesus.  Judas betrays him. The vast majority of disciples desert him. The religious leadership put him on trial and cooperate with the Roman authorities to see Jesus put to death.  The only loving act bestowed on Jesus is the anointing of Jesus by Mary, with that costly perfume. Even this loving act is vociferously protested by the disciples, as they blame Mary for wasting the expensive ointment that could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor.  Jesus can’t even be loved without a fuss.  Yet it is during this time where love appears withdrawn from Jesus, Jesus puts love front and center of his life. After washing his disciples’ feet Jesus declares: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. This is my command: Love each other." John 15:9 -17

It is interesting to note, that in one of the earliest recording teachings of Jesus, from the sermon on the plain which we need a few Sundays ago, Jesus makes love a core directive.  Jesus first words about love are this: “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”  Matthew 5:43-48 Luke 6:27-36.  Love your enemies, Jesus said.  What wondrous love is this, that commands us thus – to love those who would do us ill?

Toward the end of his earthly ministry, gospels record the following directive:  Mark 12:28-34 and Matthew 22:34-40” You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This the greatest and first commandment.  And a Second is like it” You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  What wondrous love is this, that commands us to love not just our friends, what all the people who live around us who may be different from ourselves?

So, Jesus bookends his teaching ministry with the command to love.  From loving our enemies, to loving God, to loving our neighbor, to loving each other.   That about covers the field. Love is what we are called to do, not just loving when it is easy, but when it is difficult, impossible except for the grace of God

 So, it is right and fitting that we consider the season of Lent from the viewpoint of a God of Love, who seeks to reconcile with us, seeks our repentance so that we can be in union with him.  With a God who wants only to lavish upon us love, a love that brings us to our senses, restores us to our right self, heals our hearts so we in turn can love properly and wholly.  So, tonight God beckons us to follow the footsteps of a wondrous love that Jesus will reveal for us over these next six weeks.

Jesus guides us tonight, as we are called to acts of prayer, charity and fasting, to grasp that we are recipients of wondrous love. No matter how many times we fall or sink down in life Jesus is ready to pull us up. Lent may call us to reflect on our sins and failings but not as an end into itself. No matter how far we have fallen, no matter how many mistakes we make, no matter how engrained our faults our, or how dire our situation is, God loves us.  Such wondrous love.

What Wondrous Love may begin with lament and sorrow, but it ultimately ends in wonder, in glorious praise.  Not a sentimental love with emoji hearts and teddy bears, but a steely love of sacrificial acts for the wellbeing of others.  If we follow Jesus, if we allow this wondrous love to seep into every nook and cranny of our lives, if we keep to his will, the sorrow and griefs we bear, even the scars of live that are always present, become illumed, charged with joyous song and praise.  Our hearts cannot contain this wondrous love, it bursts forth in us in word and deed, we cannot contain it, even in troubled times.  Deep in our world’s despair singing seems almost blasphemous – however in fact sacred singing is an act of defiance. As what wondrous Love models for us, we will sing to God and the Lamb, we will sing on, in face of all that evil or even death. 

That’s what wondrous love does to us.  It lifts sinful burdens from us, it frees our hearts with the fire of love and each one of us finds ourselves fitted with song that shares our true selves, beings of love that we are, created to love, created in love, by love and for love.  By Easter we will not be able to contain ourselves.  Filled with wondrous love, we will burst out in song, a new song, as the people liberated from slavery in Egypt respond with a new song, and as the saints in heaven fall down before the throne of God, singing a new song.  Our world today needs this new song. Perhaps we see a glimpse of this, in Oksana Gulenko, who from inside her devastated apartment in Kyiv, sang her country's national anthem, titled (in English) 'Glory and Freedom of Ukraine Has not yet Perished'.

Even as we begin this night in sorrow and penitence, it is Wondrous love that finds us here, seeking to fill our hearts, to strengthen our feet, to ready us to be good news in a time of terror. So, as we begin Ash Wednesday mindful of our sins, committed to pray, good deeds and fasting in body and spirit, let us travel together each week.  Let the songs of Lent, the songs we will sing over the next six weeks heal us and restore us to our nature to love. As our hymn teaches us to love once more may we fill the earth with the song of peace and justice, may it reverberate throughout eternity in an never ending chorus – with Jesus we’ll sing on, yes we will sing on. Amen.
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In Glorious Splendor

3/2/2022

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2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2; Luke 8:28-36 
 
       This past week, my daughter decided to have some fun with us.  Using her TikTok app, she recorded both Forrest and me while we were relaxing and watching TV.  Now the filters she used distorts the mouth.  So, she ended up laughing her head off with images of us looking like this: puckered lips or exaggerated smiles. Our pets got the same treatment.  Imagine a cat or dog with their mug like this (exaggerated smile). All in good fun, right?  Fortunately, she deleted the videos as we requested. But it made me wonder:  what about all those times people video-record their friends or even strangers with these enhancing features that then get posted? 

Like many people her age, Hannah loves to take selfies, and she plays around with these filters that distort her face or body shape. People it seems are desperate to put their best foot forward and to look attractive according to worldly standards.  But this is far from new:  In order to promote unrealistic body images, social media uses photoshopping to trim a few pounds, to make wrinkles disappear, to make lips poutier, or muscles more bulging.  We live within a culture that glorifies impossibly slim body shapes and is quick to fat-sham. The more youthful the better.  Liposuction is becoming a common way to get rid of stubborn body fat. Face lifts, nose fixes and tummy tucks have created a 16.5 billion cosmetic plastic surgery industry in the US; with an additional 62 billion spent on beauty products, and 33 billion on weight loss products. This points to a profound struggle people have to accept themselves, and others, just as they are, warts and all. We are bombarded with images from every corner that want us to believe we aren’t good enough – we need the help of expensive products, scalpels and body-shaping apps on our phones to be worthy.  Our minds are hardened. It is like there is an invisible veil covering us, hiding us from who we truly are.

All this is contrary to what the scriptures teach us about ourselves. Each one of us is way more than our height, weight, skin or eye color, hair type. Right from the getgo we are told that we are made in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:26).  The apostle Paul reminds us: Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? (1 Corinthians 6:19).  The psalmist reminds us that we were shaped by the loving hands of God: “You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.  I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139: 13-14). This outer shell, this body that encases our spirit, that houses our soul, is a superficial representation of who we really are.  We live under constant spiritual assault that seeks to convince us to measure ourselves to unfeasible standards, that whispers in our ears we are worthless, ugly, we don’t measure up.  

Our gospel lesson flips this evil message on its head.  In the story of the transfiguration, Jesus, while praying on the mountain, is physically altered.   Luke tells us that the appearance of Jesus’ face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning or dazzling white.  Moses and Elijah, appear next to Jesus in glorious splendor.  It’s as if Jesus was turned inside out and the disciples can see Jesus in his pure essence.   This is the image and likeness we are made from, not the shape or color of our physical body. The disciples get a glimpse of Jesus’ inner being, and by seeing Jesus like this, they get, as we do, some insight into themselves, and we in turn gain insight into the essence of our being. The disciples do not see Moses and Elijah as they looked when they lived on earth, but as they exist in heaven, in glorious splendor. They get a peek at the glorified bodies, made in the image and likeness of God. They see what awaits all of us. 

Each of us has a glorified body, the kernel of which resides within us at this very moment, at the very core of our existence. It exists in us at this very moment. When we are at peace with God, we can sense it.  When we act in a Christ-like manner we display it.  Ultimately, death just peels away this outer level and we become whom we were truly created to be, in all our glorious splendor. 

It is not surprising that just before the transfiguration and the witness of Moses and Elijah in their glorious splendor, that Jesus had his first open discussion of his mission with his disciples. Luke tells us that Peter had just proclaimed that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God. Following this, Jesus declares to them that he would undergo great suffering, be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.  Jesus tells them the truth of who he really is, what he has come to earth to accomplish.  All filters are off. Erased are all the superimposed images of Messiah as conqueror of Rome, the restorer of the old covenant, the defender and newly minted King of Israel. What’s left is the essence of Messiah, the Son of Man, who comes to suffer for our sins. The implication of this is that we too deny ourselves and take up the cross and follow Jesus.  We must put aside the superficial flesh and all that is represented by the outer world and seek to be who God has created us to be.  Other-centered. Selfless.  Seeking God’s will, not our own. Not focused on the ways of the world. We are called to live in glorious splendor, a heavenly glory, while here on earth. A glory that the outer eye can’t comprehend.  It is a glory that only spiritual sight can apprehend.

There is a way for us to get a glimpse of that glory. Just image what 16.5 billion dollars spent on cosmetic plastic surgery could go if it were invested in early childhood education? What 62 billion spent on beauty products were spent for the hungry and for clean water in the world? What 33 billion spent on weight loss products would accomplish spent on helping the homeless?  Imagine what all those hours spent fretting on appearances were redirected to tutoring and mentoring vulnerable children?  Or picking up litter? Checking in on shut-ins? Visiting those in prison?  What if the energy we expend on worrying about our self-image or seeking to be right all the time went to energy seeking to find ways to build each other up, to speak words of kindness and encouragement?  Because that’s what in glorious splendor looks like here this side of the veil, here on earth.  We may not see it with our physical eyes, but our spirits capture it when we live like Jesus did.  When we grasp the truth about ourselves as God sees us. When we embrace our mission to pick up the cross and follow Jesus.  When we go to some sacred space apart from the world and pray – and through praying find our very selves transformed, just as Jesus was, there on the mountaintop.

As we approach the season of Lent, which begins this Wednesday, we will explore the themes each week of being good enough.  We don’t need self-enhancement products. We don’t need special surgery.  We don’t need special apps on our phone to change our appearance. Perfection may be impossible, but transformation isn’t.  So, let’s train our hands and feet to good deeds that make glory visible on earth. Let’s develop the spiritual sight that sees the good in others beneath the rough exterior that we adapt to survive in the world.  May we set aside that vital time to pray, just as Jesus did, and discover the truth about ourselves underneath the layers of lies and distortions we have carried for so long. We are glory embodied in all its splendor. 
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As we follow Jesus to the cross over the next six weeks, let’s peel away all that gets in the way and let us live in glory, let us bring glory wherever we go, and may we rest in the truth that we are good enough because Jesus made it so. May the dazzling light of Christ guide our steps these next 40 days and may we encounter the glorious splendor in ourselves, and in each other.  amen
      
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
https://dataprot.net/statistics/cyberbullying-statistics/
 
 
 
 
 

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Enemy Territory

2/23/2022

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Gen. 45: 3-11, 15; Luke 6:17-38
 
        This week’s gospel lesson continues Jesus’ teachings and continues a pattern of great reversal – last week we heard how the hungry will be filled and those who are full will become hungry.  Today Jesus flips another commonly held belief that one should ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy – which actually is not in the bible.  Jesus is challenging a deeply entrenched oral tradition that considers social outsiders and foreigners as enemies. Jesus declares: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you and pray for those who abuse you.”

So, do you know of any enemies?  Is there anyone in your life at some time that disliked you so intensely that they would be happy to see you stumble a little, or fail, or even actively tried to make this happen? Someone who has hurt you profoundly?  Is there someone who opposes you vehemently and wants you to be proven wrong?  Is there an adversary that promotes gossip, negativity about you?  Or let’s flip the coin:  have you ever been an enemy, an opponent, and adversary to somebody?  Have you ever hurt someone to the point of estrangement?  Chances are at some time in our lives we have treated someone with such contempt, anger or opposition that we would qualify as an enemy, an adversary, an opponent. Let’s take a closer look at the enemy territory.

Enemies are around us and they are everywhere in the bible.  In the very beginning in the garden of Eden, the serpent has clearly indicated himself as an enemy to humanity and to God as it successfully gets Adam and Eve to sin and fall away from God’s grace. So, Satan is not only the number one opponent to God’s will but to us as well as 1 Peter 5:8 warns: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”   In our Hebrew lesson, Joseph and his brothers were estranged.  Jealous of the favoritism shown to Joseph by their father, they sold Joseph into slavery and faked his death.  22 years later, Joseph is reunited with his brothers. Joseph ends the conflict by forgiving them.  Next, Egypt, by enslaving the Hebrew people, was an enemy. Israel’s neighbors were constant enemies, engaging in ongoing warfare for land and resources.  King Saul became an enemy to David, seeking to kill him. Paul was first an enemy of the church until his conversion.   Scriptures teaches that the very Spirit of the world has set itself in opposition to the word of God.   Finally, we are often our own worst enemy, often engaging in behaviors that mare our spirit or our body.  The apostle Paul puts it this way: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  And if I do what I do not want to do.” (Romans 7:15). To all this Jesus says: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Pray. Bless.

 The spirit of enmity is strong all around us and within us since the dawn of time. Families fight. Communities fight.  Nations war against each other, committing genocide and enslaving one another.  The twentieth century has been called the “century of genocide”: two world wars, the Jewish holocaust, the Armenian holocaust, forced starvation in the Soviet Union, the millions of lives lost in the Great Leap Forward in Communist China, countless death in Namibia, Rwanda, Nanking, Bangladesh, Serbia, Cambodia, Latin America – the list stretches on to so many places, so much hate, so much destruction, so much death. Yet Jesus says to us: Love your enemies. do good to those who hate you.

The arrival of modern media in all its forms as fanned the flames of hate.  In 1915 D.W. Griffith produced “The Birth of a Nation” one of the most financially and popular films of its days, it put cinema on the map. The birth of a Nation, however, reinforced racism by depicting African Americans as Lazy, stupid and dangerous, while glorifying the Ku Klux Klan. Inspired by this success, the Nazis produced “Jud Suss” a film portraying Jews as greedy and treacherous and was required viewing by Nazi stormtroopers. Al Qaeda exploited the internet online chat rooms and blogs to promote its agenda of Anti-Israel and anti-American Anti-west sentiments. Social media with its ability to provide immediate, widespread impact, is used to deliberately promotes discord and hatred and bullying; truth, compassion forbearance and tolerance have become casualties in this never-ending war. To all this Jesus says: Love. Go Good. Bless Pray.

Jesus clearly saw the hatred, persecution, and division around him.  Jesus knew the centuries of bloodshed and bad blood between Israel and its neighbors, Jesus was aware of his surroundings: Jews hating Samaritans and the current oppressor of the day, the Romans. Samaritans despising Jews. Jews prejudiced against gentiles. Pharisees and Sadducees opponents to each other Everyone looked down upon tax collectors and the poor.  Anyone disabled was considered a sinner and out of favor with God.  Into this this raging soup of conflict, distrust and ethnic hatred, Jesus declares: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who persecute you. Bless those who curse you.

It would have been so easy for Jesus to toe the party line.  But he didn’t. Jesus instead insisted that his disciples follow the principle of love. The word for love Jesus uses is important: Jesus doesn’t use the word for kinship love, sibling love (phileos) but instead he uses the word agape, meaning unconditional love, redemptive love, love rooted in the divine. We don’t have to like our enemies or what they do to us. But we are commanded to love them, as God loves them, we have to stop wanting their downfall, seeking out bad things to happen to them; we have to stop putting them down, planting lies, plotting the worst.  Jesus uses action verbs: love, do good, bless and pray.  Jesus sums it up by saying “do unto others as you would have them do to you.” Let’s want for others what we want for ourselves. Not just those whom you love. But those whom you hate, despise, hold in contempt. That’s what makes the difference, Jesus says between sinners and disciples.  We are called to be disciples to help radically transform a world mindset that perpetually seeks a win-lose scenario in every area of our lives and in the world. Jesus says stop! Stop this madness! Only agape love seeks a win-win scenario – all are redeemed by the God who makes the sunshine on the sinner and saint alike.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, preached at the beginning of the civil rights movement in 1957 a powerful sermon entitled “Loving Your Enemies.” King contends that in the best of us there is some evil; and in the worst of us there is some good. Therefore, there are three choices to respond to oppression: 1. respond
violently with corroding hatred and end up as bad or worse off as your oppressor. 2. To submit to the oppression – which he considered just as wrong: noncooperation with evil is just as much a moral obligation as cooperation with the good.  3. Finally, King tells us massive nonviolent resistance rooted in love is the only answer.  Like what Jesus said. Love. Do good. Bless. Pray.

        You see, hate and love operate in similar ways.  Hates distorts the hater. Hating is a poison, according to Buddha, a live coal we intend to aim at someone else but that burns our own hands.  Love, on the other hand, heals and betters the one who loves.  Agape Love is the antidote, the spirit of transformation that can demolish divisions, create bridges and heal wounds.  King knew, Jesus knew, what the scientists have been telling us for ages: hating and loving changes our brain chemistry, for worse or for better. With hate, the brain becomes obsessive, fixated, ruminating, paranoid, anxiety, anger or depression deepen. Nothing good comes from hate.  Hate will bring us down quicker than any plot we devise toward an adversary. So, if just for sake of mental health: love your enemies. Pray for your persecutors.

        We need to acknowledge that some of us have been hurt so deeply, wounded so profoundly, that loving, doing good, blessing and praying for whoever has hurt us is an insurmountable obstacle. In moments like this we remember that what is impossible for us is not impossible for God.  Leave the hate, hurt and anger in God’s hands. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. Let go, Let God handle it in his time, and let us be freed from the destructive power of hate and its constellation of negative emotions.

        There is an eraser for everyone today as you entered the sanctuary. Take a moment with that eraser in your hand. Imagine a hurt whatever is festering deep in your heart.  Start with something small but start somewhere. Ask God to erase the hate, the malcontent, the incident in your life that a bad spirit has you fixated upon, and let God erase it for you. Let God carry that burden for you. For we are not made to carry burdens of hate but of love. Begin today. start small. Give over to God a person, some entity, some movement, some idea that holds you imprisoned in your mind.  May the mercy of God fill us and so heal us that we can become carriers of this mercy to a love-starved, world. In doing so, we act as Dr. King says, we make of this old world a new world, a new world governed by love. So let us remember. Love, do good. Bless and pray.
 
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/loving-your-enemies-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church
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"Living on the Level"

2/16/2022

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Psalm 1, Luke 6:17-26 “Living on the Level”
 
Who here considers themselves level-headed?  You know, calm and sensible. Reasonable. Thinking before responding in any situation.  Able to appreciate the pros and cons of a situation?  Able to take in different points off view?  Someone who tries their level-best does the best they can, given the circumstances.  To be on the level means we are honest and truthful. Who here wants to be level-headed? On the level with each other?

In the Bible “level” takes on a deeper meaning.  It’s used dozens of times, many instances just referring to the physical plain, level ground.  But in many other instances, level takes on a spiritual connotation. Level in the Bible often means “being right with the Lord.” In sych with God’s ways.  We hear the psalmist declare:   Psa 26:12”My foot stands on level ground;” and also pleads Psa 27:11 “because of my adversaries, show me Your way, Lord, and lead me on a level path.”  The prophet Jeremiah 31:9 describes it this way: “…..my people have forgotten me and offered sacrifices to worthless idols! They have left them to walk in bypaths, in roads that are not smooth and level”.  And of course, we all know of the famous messianic pronouncements of Isaiah: 40:3 “The voice of one who calls out, "Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.”  It is this famous passage which John the Baptizer refers to when he quotes in Luke 3:5, as he refers to the coming of Jesus as: “The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth; and humanity will see God’s salvation.”

Today Luke records for us for the first-time words of Jesus’ teachings to his disciples and the crowds. The text tells us Jesus stood on a level place.  Perhaps Jesus stood on actual level ground when he taught. Looking deeper, however, we can see that Jesus stood on a level place because he stood in the ways of God Almighty.  Jesus is the one who straightens out the crooked ways of the people, Jesus smooths the rough places in people lives, Jesus is on the level with us. He is forthright. Jesus levels with us. He tells us the real deal. His teachings are the best, the truest, revealing the heart and will of God.

So, Jesus teaches about four blessings and four woes, or warnings.  Blessings on the poor, the hungry, those who weep and the persecuted; woes on those who are rich, well fed, those who laugh and those well-spoken.  It is a teaching of great reversal. Because of sin or simply the human condition, we often get things backwards.  Jesus sets us straight. Jesus puts things on the level for us.

Blessing and woes taken on a different meaning when we are living on the level.  It is easy to believe that being rich, having plenty of food, being happy and well thought off as blessings. And you know want, indeed they are.  But there’s more going on.  Jesus makes clear that biblical message that God is especially close to, and cares for, people who are poor, the orphan and widow, the foreigner, those who struggle, who are hungry, weeping and persecuted for living on the level.  The scriptures repeatedly tell us that God hears the cries of the oppressed, sees their misery and cares for them.

God desires for all his people to have good things, material and spiritual. But people who think they had it made, who have all that money can buy, whose bellies are full, those for whom life is a breeze and are well regarded according to world’s standards are brought to task by Jesus: There is more to life than material wellbeing, but all are deserving of material wellbeing.  If that is all life is for us to make money, be held in esteem, to have a good time, to have three squares a day – well Jesus levels with us – we have failed because we have allowed our paths to go crooked.  Jesus wants us all back on the right path. The level space, where issues of sin, inequality and justice matter.

My Blessings should become a blessing to others. My riches should help alleviate the situation of the destitute.  My access to good food and clean water should not permit others to go without. My happiness should not shut out those who are grieving.  My good stature in the world does not turn my back on the persecuted.  Jesus, out of love for all of us, levels the playing field – where all have fair access to the necessities of life – food, resources, spiritual and mental wellbeing.  Christians rich or poor alike are called to living on the level, where the focus is righteousness before God.  

At the last meeting of the Presbytery of Long Island, on January 29, we spent a great deal of time discussing an overture to the 225th General Assembly, to be held this June in Louisville, Kentucky.  The approved recommendation states: “As a beginning step in the quest for truth, equity, justice, reconciliation and repair, The Presbytery of Long Island overtures the 225th General Assembly (2022) to offer an Apology to African Americans for the sin of Slavery and its legacy.”  The purpose of this overture is an act of living on the level.  As a presbytery we recognize the first presbytery was organized in 1705 by an enslaver, Rev. Francis Mackie. In 1740 Samuel Davies, an enslaver and educator, believed slavery was ordained by God.  The renowned Presbyterian, evangelist Charles Finney, spoke out against slavery despite believing African Americans were inferior and opposing integration. The General Assembly of 1836 accepted the argument that slavery was recognized in the Bible.  There were others who opposed slavery like Rev. Jacob Green in 1776. Like Rev. George Bourne who in 1815, presented an overture to the General Assembly raising the question of whether Presbyterians who owned slaves could be Christians. The Assembly refused to act. Upon his return home to Harrisonburg, his presbytery voted to defrock him, to remove him from the ministry.  In 1858, on the eve of the Civil War, the United Presbyterian Church of North America was formed with opposition to slavery one of the founding tenants.  So our church has historically mirrored the good and the bad.  But if we want to live on Jesus’ level, we got to do better: we need to actively seek to transcend and transform culture.  Jesus calls us to seek God’s level in all matters, mediated to us through the scriptures, clarified through Jesus’ example of healing and his teachings, and through the working of the Holy Spirit in our midst.

This overture of the Presbytery is an attempt to live out the level of Jesus Christ.  During Black History month, we have the opportunity to deepen our awareness of the sin of slavery and its legacy that lives on in our days, to celebrate the contributions of the African American community. We are called to straighten out the highways, to repair the roads, to level the circumstances we find ourselves through the lens of faith. Let us be levelers in the manner of Jesus. Let us stand on the level plain. God’s level. May God bless our acts of leveling and may we be blessed through the grace of God as we strive to make level the ways of life for all peoples. Amen
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In Too Deep

2/9/2022

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Luke 5:1-11; 1 Cor. 15:1-11

Have you ever gotten involved in something or with someone and found yourself in too deep? 

A teenager starts experimenting with alcohol. He begins hanging out with a different crowd, his grades plummet. and before he knows it, he’s driving a car drunk, and causes an accident. He’s gotten in too deep.

A businesswoman makes an investment that isn’t paying off, and to keep things afloat, she keeps shoveling more money into the enterprise.  Soon she realizes she’s in too deep – she’s got a mountain of debt to pay.

A married man starts flirting with a co-worker.  One thing leads to another and he ends up breaking his marriage vows.  He keeps lying to cover it up but it doesn’t work. He’s just in too deep.

We all know like when we’re in too deep.  We in over our heads. Our feet can’t touch the bottom of the pool.  A problem has gotten too large to solve by ourselves. Our own resources are inadequate to the task at hand. Our emotions can no longer cope. Our faith is stretched beyond its endurance. We want to escape, give up, just don’t see a way out, but we’re in too deep to just walk away.

The deep is one of the first things encountered in the Bible. We find it in story of creation in the opening lines of Genesis.  In verse 2 it reads: “darkness covered the face of the deep.”  The root of the Hebrew word for deep has a range of meanings: “waste, waste space, futile, meaningless, empty space, nothing, confusion and chaos.”

The deep conjured up the most dangerous, chaotic, dark places in the world. The watery depths destructive and out of control. The place where sea monsters dwell, where perhaps evil can lurk. In the biblical worldview, the deep was cosmic ocean out of which God begins to create.  Our scriptures vividly convey this. Genesis describes the flood in this manner: "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened." Genesis 7:11. The prophet Ezekiel declares concerning the enemy country of Tyre: Thus saith the Lord, “When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited, when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and many waters shall cover thee (Ezekiel 26:19).”  The psalmist describes the providence of God while the people of Israel face the terror of the crossing of the Red Sea: “God rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, he led them through the deep as through a desert “Psalm 106: 9-10a).

It is intriguing then that Jesus, when he begins to create disciples, out of the multitudes of people, he doesn’t start at a synagogue or a temple, where the religious folk hang out.  We already established last week that he didn’t go to his hometown of Nazareth and select from his oldest of friends.  Jesus begins the process of creating disciples as he preaches from a boat on the waters of the sea of Galilee, finds some fishermen, and the first thing he tells them is not some bible verse, not some word of piety, but “put out into the deep water.”   

Never mind that they had been fishing all night. Never mind that they failed to catch anything. Never mind that fishing during the day, especially out in the deep, meant that the fish would be swimming deeper to avoid the light, and they would be harder to catch.  And Simon Peter, despite what he logically knows from all his years as a fisherman, puts that knowledge aside.  He accommodates Jesus.  He’s polite to the rabbi and obeys his wishes. Perhaps it is because he saw Jesus heal his mother-in-law of a fever. He saw Jesus rebuke the demons that tormented people.  Simon is in deep with Jesus already, so he has to humor him.

The nets are cast into the deep, and there are suddenly so many fish, so many that the nets begin to break. They need to call for a another boat to come over to bring in this haul.  And Simon, instead of rejoicing in his catch, that he’s made some money for the day, instead of asking Jesus for some other choice spots to cast his net, he falls down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Lord I’ve gotten into bad habits so deep I can’t get out.  Lord my sins are too many, I can never get over them. Lord, go away I am not worthy to be in your presence, I have fallen too deep.
It takes Simon going into the deep to see the depth of his sins, too real to hide, and he also see the breadth and width of the majesty, the power the love of God in Jesus.  In the deep place, Simon’s feet can’t touch the ground.  Simon can no longer hide who he is. 

Do not be afraid, Jesus says. From now on you will be catching people.  That is how a disciple is made.  A disciple fails over and over, and gets in it too deep.  Too deep into self-righteousness. Too deep into pride.  Too deep into selfishness. Just too deep into sin.  But what the scriptures reveal is that nothing is too deep for Jesus. Jesus goes into the deep and brings us to safe shores.  And that’s how we become disciples.

"John Newton, the author of the beloved hymn “Amazing Grace, “began his life’s career by searching throughout the African coast for slaves to capture and eventually to sell for profit. On one journey, Newton and his crew encountered a storm that swept some of his men overboard and left others with the likelihood of drowning. With both hands fastened onto the wheel of the boat, Newton cried out to God saying, “Lord, have mercy on us.” After eleven hours of steering, the remainder of the crew found safety with the calming of the storm. From then on, Newton dated March 21 as a day for a time of humiliation, prayer, and praise.

Upon arriving safely home, Newton did not venture out to seek more slaves. God changed him from a man who was an advocate for the slave trade to a man actively working towards abolishing it. In later years, Newton began to lose his memory. Although his thoughts were limited, Newton said he could remember two things, “That I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.” With this conviction of newly found life that he found only in Christ, Newton passed from his earthly life in 1807, at the age of 82. Newton did live long enough to see the signing of The Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade." Unfortunately, while England no longer engaged in slave trading, its financial institutions continued to invest in slavery in the United States.

Where is life just too deep for us today? Around us we feel division and discord that seem unresolvable. Illness that remains unhealed. A materialistic society drowning in things, while denying the spirit. Today we are reminded just go out to the deep, wherever it is, for Jesus. Let Jesus catch us in his mercy. May we experience the abundance of life Jesus is waiting to open to us as we encounter him in the deep places of life. And don’t be afraid, for that’s just how disciples are caught – and how we learn to be a beacon for others who just are in, too deep.
 
https://www.geneva.edu/blog/uncategorized/hymnology-amazing-grace
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Love Endures

2/2/2022

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1 Cor. 13: 1-13; Luke 4:21-30

We all know the adage, “Familiarity breeds contempt” - a saying that goes back as far as Publius the Syrian, in 2 BC. The entire caption reads, “Familiarity breeds contempt … while rarity wins admiration.” Not to be upstaged, Mark Twain drolly added: “familiarity breeds contempt … and children.”  

That seems to sum up the mood, it seems, by the end of our passage today from Luke. Our reading today picks up from last week. If you recall last Sunday we heard how Jesus, preaching his first sermon in Nazareth, reads a passage from Isaiah, a passage the congregation would immediately associate with the Messiah. The Messiah who brings good news to the poor. The Messiah who brings recovery of sight to the blind. Who brings release to the captives.  The Messiah who inaugurates the year of God’s favor, God’s jubilee, upon the people.

The people are spellbound. They have heard of all the amazing things Jesus has been doing in the countryside and even at Capernaum. Miracles. Healings. Surely word has reached them from Cana that Jesus makes a pretty mean batch of wine. So, the people wait with baited breath.  If Jesus did all these incredible things for strangers, surely, surely, he would pull out all the stops for them.  King Messiah would bring fame and fortune to their backwater town. The pavements will be paved in gold. Money will rain down from the sky. King Messiah would heal all their sick, kick out the Romans, put all the nasty gentiles in their place to boot. Most of all, the Messiah will hire all the locals for all the new jobs that will be opening up to run the court that Jesus would establish right there in downtown Nazareth. Jesus, the local boy made good! Who would have guessed this of Joseph’s son? Tickled pink, the townsfolk just want nothing more than cashing in on a piece of the action.     

Unfortunately, Jesus puts the kibosh on all these dreams. He doesn’t let them down gently either. Jesus stuns them by citing two stories from the Hebrew scriptures, stories that seem vague and elusive to us, but to Jesus’ listeners, would surely have carried a stinging wallop.  Jesus first tells the story from 1 Kings 17, how during a 3 ½ year famine in the land the prophet Elijah was sent not to Israel’s widows, but to a foreign widow, a widow in Zarephath, in the region of Sidon. Sidon was known for its opulence and wickedness. Sidon’s idolatry and pagan practices even led Israel to copy its sins (Judges 10:6–16; 1 Kings 11). To a Jewish audience in Jesus’ day, Sidon was synonymous with wickedness. So, in our passage from Luke Jesus alludes that his blessings were not going to pour out on the good folk of Nazareth but on evildoing, idol-worshipping pagans.

Jesus doesn’t stop there. He rubs it in even further. He next gives an example from 2 Kings 5, from when Elisha the prophet healed the great commander of the army of Syria, Naaman, of his leprosy. Weren’t there enough lepers in Israel that Elisha could have healed? Syria, or Aram, as it is called frequently in the Bible, fought viciously with Israel for centuries. Syria was a canker sore that never healed. Syria was a burr in Israel’s side. Jesus just had to remind them how the great prophet Elisha healed the mighty Syrian warrior, Naaman. Another slap in the face.

        Needless to say, the good townsfolk of Nazareth do not take kindly to the gist of what Jesus is saying.  The blessings of the messiah aren’t going to be manifested exclusively in Nazareth and the Jewish people, but also in foreign lands, foreign peoples, known for centuries for conflict and sin.  How more scandalous could Jesus be? Predictably, the community is up in arms. They want to run him out of town on the proverbial rail, tarred and feathered, and leave him for dead at the bottom of the cliff! And you should see the bottom of those town cliffs in Israel. Often, they are garbage dumps. They want to hurl him into the garbage dump, amongst the fires and the ashes that are always burning down there.

        Jesus, in his startling way, shows his hometown folk that the work of the Messiah is not to limit God’s love and care, but to expand it to all peoples.  The select examples of mercy shown to the widow of Zarephath and to Naaman the Syrian are now, under the messiah’s reign, going to be commonplace for Jew and Gentile alike.  God’s love is universal. It is for all people. Not just for the hometown folk.

        Paul’s letter to the Corinthians puts meat on the bone of Jesus’ message. Paul writes to a squabbling community, with a lot of internal conflict. Paul wrote these immortal words to stop the infighting and encourage them to take the high road: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8. Indeed, Love endures all things.

What makes this a radical, scandalous message is that Jesus declares, what Paul spells out, that we are to act lovingly to all our neighbors. Not just the neighbors who look like us. Not just the neighbors who speak the same language as us.  Not just the neighbors who hold the same religious or political views as us.  Neighbor is now redefined as all of God’s children.  Imagine being patient with someone who intensely frustrates us. Imagine not being rude to the person who just cut you off in traffic. Imagine not keeping a record of wrongs against someone we might consider a nemesis. Imagine now, seeking the healing, the restoration, bringing light to people we are on the outs with. Jesus boldly teaches us that we are not just to show favors to the hometown folk. But to all.


        What he said that day in Nazareth is just as true today: Live the life Isaiah proclaimed and Paul describes so eloquently. Love. All the neighbors in our midst. I think of police officers Jason Rivera and Officer Wilbert Mora, who were gunned down in New York City last week while investigating a domestic violence complaint. Both officers were in their 20s, and had joined the force to make a difference, to change the attitudes toward police, to change how policing, and to care for their communities. In their memory, let us continue their dream of being peace makers, striving to better our communities, willing to face conflict to bring healing and justice where it is needed. To bring mercy and care where it is most needed, regardless of nationality, race, or ethnicity. This is how we will become a Beloved community of King Messiah. As the old hymn exhorts us, “Blest be the binds that tie our hearts in Christian love.” Indeed, this is the Love that endures in us and always. Amen.

. https://www.episcopalchurch.org/sermon/we-are-his-epiphany-4-c-january-30-2022%EF%BF%BC/
Sam Levenson, You Don't Have to Be in Who's Who to Know What's What.
 
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Jesus' Mission...and Ours

1/23/2022

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Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; Luke 4:14-21;

 
We are going to begin today with a little quiz!
 
Can you guess the following mission statements to its company?
 
(Google): “To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
 
(Starbucks): “To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.”
 
(Nike:) “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”
 
And:

(CPC-Merrick)
Our church takes the word "community" in our name seriously.  We are a community of love, accepting and welcoming all to our church family, and centered in the teachings of Jesus Christ.  While we come from diverse backgrounds, we gather as a united family to joyfully worship God's amazing grace in praise and thanksgiving.
 
(FPC-Freeport)
Our mission is to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God” as we look towards a new heaven and a new earth (Micah 6:8)
 
Mission statements are de riguer for any self-respecting organization. Mission statements are meant to capture the essence of the organization’s vision in concrete ways.   The mission statement guides the organization to successful outcome that should be measurable. Google boosts of 5.6 billion searches a day. Starbucks prepares about 4 billion cups of joe and other exotic beverages a day. Nike sells 25 pairs of shoes a second.

To achieve the best possible outcomes in life, we need to have a purpose. With a purpose, a vision, we can then set goals, even if they are modest or day by day.  You had a goal to get to church today – or those watching remotely, to attend worship from home. One of my son’s goals is to get a degree in computer science, which he is chipping away at semester by semester.  My daughter wants to get a driver’s license.  So, she is studying the manual to get her learner’s permit. We tend to get more out of life when we set goals and work to achieve them. As Christians perhaps those goals might include reading  the Bible every day, reaching out and helping others.  Ultimately each of us is called to have a vision, and ideally create a mission statement for ourselves. To borrow from Nike, to bring inspiration to every person we meet. To share the good news in some way with those whose path we cross.  How many of us actually have a personal mission statement that we review on a regular basis? What would it be like to create one and live by that message?
 
In this week’s Gospel reading, we hear what we might call Jesus’ mission statement.  They are his first words in Luke.  The passage makes this scene very important to understanding who Jesus is and what he is up to.  It points us to not only Jesus’ future, but the future he has carved out for us in his ministry, death and resurrection. Jesus, accompanied only by the Holy Spirit, went to his hometown of Nazareth.  That tells us something about Jesus’ mission:  he intends to focus his concerns on the ordinary person, not the high and mighties of the world. 

Likewise, in our Hebrew scripture readings from Nehemiah, we see how the ordinary people, assembled in a rebuilt Jerusalem regain a mission, a purpose for themselves.  Nehemiah, the bureaucrat, governor and master planner, rebuilt the destroyed Temple and Jerusalem in the fifth century before Christ. At that time the city was in utter ruins. Through the hard work of Nehemiah, the city was rebuilt and repopulated. Finally, the temple was rededicated. The people rededicated themselves to God after the long captivity by foreign powers. During this inaugural ceremony, the priest Ezra read from the Law of Moses, all day, in the great square. The people heard the message, the mission of the covenant people, and the community was renewed. In this act of reclaiming their history, people wept. They had rediscovered their mission, their purpose. The people were exhorted to put away their tears; to rejoice once more. They were home. They were free.  There was hope. They were ready to start over.  They realized their had a vision, a mission a purpose. Proverbs 29:18 reminds us that “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but happy is the person who keeps the law.”  

So Jesus went to Nazareth, his hometown, the place that had quite a reputation as a bit of a dungheap of a town, if we are listen to the disciple Philip who said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:45). Yet is was in Nazareth Jesus begins, and he starts in the synagogue.  He got up to read words from the prophet Isaiah, chapter 61: 1-2: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. “Then he sat down.  He concluded with the briefest of commentary: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus states his mission. He and the mission are one.

Jesus built his mission statement, and the symbolism surrounding it, from a passage in Isaiah written to console the people still in captivity.  From this passage, Jesus states his mission, sets the agenda and the tone for what he would be doing in the next three years.   He would be about bringing good news to poor people. Proclaiming release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind. Letting the oppressed go free, and all about proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor, the year of jubilee, when property gets returned to people who have lost it, when debts are forgiven, and people are restored.

According to the book of Leviticus, the Year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:10), was set at every seven years and every fifty years, according to the Law of Moses.  In the time of Jubilee – God’s favor -- “no business as usual can be done…slaves must be given their freedom…families can return to lands lost in litigation…farmland and field get a Sabbath of rest, for there can be no planting or harvesting; debts are…cancelled.”  The Jubilee Year is to be a for-taste and celebration of the Kingdom of Heaven. Now there is little evidence that Jubilee was ever followed. It was too radical and just too hard -- Liberation, restoration, health cared for, jails unlocked, land returned: a time to start new.  Yet Jesus reclaimed that mission -- to embody the compassion and justice of God to everything but especially to the overlooked, downtrodden, forgotten people of the world.  God’s favor was key in Jesus’ ministry and his intent to establish community that would mirror the heavenly kingdom, to which we are heirs in Jesus’ name.  We are the flag-bearers of that jubilee.  That is Jesus’ mission statement…and ours.
​
Let us make 2022 a flagship year by putting into practice this mission statement.  Today we make Jesus’ mission statement our own. We will carry out the goals of jubilee: being good news bearers. Casting light were there is darkness. Freeing those who are bound by oppression in all its forms and sin.  May the spirit of Jubilee – God’s favor –be our purpose. May the joy of this mission be our strength, as we continue the journey in 2022, faithful until the mission of Jesus is fulfilled everywhere on earth. Amen.
        

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Wedding Signs

1/21/2022

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Isaiah 62:1-5; John 2:1-11

 
The miracle of changing the water into wine at the wedding feast of Cana has lent itself to more jokes than we can imagine.  A cartoon has been making its way through cyberspace that depicts stacks of bottles of wine, underneath is the caption: Jesus was here.  Also:   Jesus walks into a bar with his disciples and tells the bartender, “"Thirteen glasses of water, please!

        According to John, it is his first miracle of his public ministry.  Weddings were huge social events in the ancient world, just as they are now, but then they involved not just the immediate family and friends, but the entire village. In dreary, grueling, monotonous village life a wedding was a break from hardships of routine living.  So, there was an expectation that the family would provide appropriately for the guests who had come to celebrate this marriage. Accommodations along with the best food and drink the family could afford signified not only the importance of the event and but conveyed the value of hospitality, the highest code of conduct people lived by.  It was a matter of family honor to pull off what was often a week-long celebration. Families then as now saved for years, sold the prize cow, to afford a proper wedding.

But then an unthinkable emergency happened.  Somehow, at some point during the celebration, the wine ran out. An unheard-of miscalculation. A social catastrophe in the making.  Even today we could imagine the embarrassment of a modern wedding couple if the liquor suddenly ceased to flow at their reception. No more booze?  Let the wedding cake topple over, let the chicken be dried out, let the Let the DJ not show up, let the flower girls throw a tantrum, but friends, at a wedding, the wine must flow.  

It is not Jesus, but Mary, his mother who notices the predicament. Out of this sense of goodness for those who would face great shame in their community, shame from which they would not recover, she turned to her son, says, “They have no wine!”  Jesus is respectful but hesitant.   His hour has not come, Jesus says. How often we seek the right timing or wait for just the right moment to make a pronouncement or take a desired action.  Jesus, fortunately, realized like Dr. King once said, “the time is always right to do what is right.”  So, Jesus instructs the servants to fill the six huge stone water jars with water and take it to the chief steward. Upon tasting it, the steward declares it to be the best wine ever – the best saved for last.  

What an amazing sign this is for us: that God cares for us, cares that even there’s enough wine to celebrate. God provides goodness and abundance for all. Jesus wants all the guests to enjoy the goodness and the abundance of wine whether they are aware of how it got there or not. Few people knew the source of the wine, but everyone enjoyed its abundance—that’s how God’s grace and love and generosity work. Jesus shows us that God’s abundance is not earned—it is given; God’s grace is not paid for—it is freely offered; God’s love is not won—it is simply received. Do you know how much wine there is in six stone jars holding twenty to thirty gallons each it’s about 3,200 glasses! That’s the party of lifetime!

Mary took a stand against humiliation and for compassion, and this interchange between Mary and Jesus reflects the encouragement for action between Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.  By refusing to give up her seat on the bus on that ordinary day, December 5, 1955, in Montgomery, Parks set the stage for King’s entry into that civil rights moment. The wine of justice had run out.  Jesus, in raising up the prophet that Dr. King was, made sure that wine would flow again.

        Rosa Parks noted that there was no more wine of justice.  Dr. King was the relatively unknown but rising force at the Dexter Street Baptist Church, when he was called upon to head the Montgomery Improvement Association.  Under Dr. King’s leadership the historic Montgomery bus boycott, spurred on by Rosa Park’s action, which lasted 381 days, resulted in a Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional.   Did Dr. King know his hour had arrived?  Surely, he had his qualms and indecisions.  But he responded to the situation brought forth by Rosa Parks, and others before her. 

“While Martin Luther King, Jr did not change water into wine, he did change a movement into the new wine of commitment.  Thousands gathered to hear him.   He led the sanitation workers strike in Memphis, TN.  King proclaimed to the educated of America that they needed to born again in mind and spirit to see the sin of racism and poverty.  Writing an unforgettable letter to white clergy in a Birmingham jail, King lifted up the dead daughters of Birmingham, killed in a bombing at 16th Street Baptist Church.  Yes, King lifted up a cup of living waters, transformed to the wine of justice and compassion and we drink from it still."

“From his studies and years of activism, Dr. King further developed the concept of the Beloved Community as a global vision, in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. Citing King’s papers, in the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood. In the Beloved Community, international disputes will be resolved by peaceful conflict-resolution and reconciliation of adversaries, instead of military power. Love and trust will triumph over fear and hatred. Peace with justice will prevail over war and military conflict.”  Remember Dr. King’s famous words?

We must learn to live together as brothers(and sisters) or perish together as fools. . . .The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace, and brotherhood.  MLK,Jr.“Strength to Love”]

Our celebration of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, and Rosa Parks, and through them the civil rights movement shows us the signs of the wedding are everywhere.  They are there whenever we say no to oppression and yes to love and justice.  They are there when we are invited to take action to help others, and we say yes, even if we are not ready.   The signs are there whenever we take delight in what is right, good and just.     
So let us be the signs of wedding by forging the Beloved Community wherever God plants us.  Turn water into wine through our caring, our joy, our commitment to turn wrongs into rights, the tragedies and complications into celebration.   This way, the glory of God will be revealed, and God will take delight in us—and we as signs of the wedding feast – will be a delight to the world.
Amen.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/biteintheapple/cana-an-unexpected-time/
http://www.thekingcenter.org/king-philosophy#sthash.NQCtbq8q.dpuf
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/martinluth106169.html
https://www.soulstorywriter.net/177-mlk-day-through-the-lens-of-the-wedding-at-cana
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Baptizing Jesus

1/21/2022

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Luke 3:15-18, 20-22, Isaiah 43:1-7
 
 
How many people received their 2022-star words this past week?  The Star words, as you know, are the randomly chosen word that is meant to be your spiritual word, or theme or idea to reflect upon, act upon and apply to your life in 2022.  I hope you refer to your word frequently and pray upon it often, seeing how God is speaking to you through this word.  I got the word accountability. Accountability. All week long I’ve been thinking about what being accountable or responsible for means, especially in regard to my walk with Jesus.  In addition, I have been wondering what accountability or being responsible applies to baptism, particularly the baptism of Jesus, which our gospel lesson highlights today.

The baptism of the Lord is one of the few events that made it into all four Gospels – a rare feat and a sign of how important this event is in the life of the early Christian church. The baptism of Jesus is the inauguration of Jesus into ministry. It was His coming out party - His grand opening, so to speak. It is Jesus being accountable to his mission of salvation.

It reminds me of the story of the curious teenage boy who stumbled upon a baptismal service one Sunday afternoon down by the river. It was down south, back in the day, and this kid walked right down into the water and stood next to the Preacher. The minister turned and noticed the youth and said, "Son, Are you ready to find Jesus?" The youth looked back and said, "Yes, Preacher. I sure am." The minister then dunked the kid under the water and pulled him right back up.

"Have you found Jesus?" the preacher asked. "No, I hav
en't!" said the boy. The preacher then dunked him under for a bit longer, brought him up and said, "Now, brother, have you found Jesus?" "No, I haven't Preacher." The preacher next held the teenager under for at least 30 seconds this time, brought him out of the water and said in a somewhat exasperated tone, "Friend, are you sure you haven't found Jesus yet?" The youth wiped his eyes gasping for breath and said to the preacher, ..."Naw preacher, are you sure this is where he fell in?!"

Unlike the words of that old preacher, Baptism isn't where you find Jesus. It’s the starting point of where we pledge to take responsibility for our walk of faith. Where we hold ourselves accountable to know Jesus. We hold ourselves accountable to help each other on the Christian path. It’s the sign of commitment to Jesus as Lord and Savior.

The Story about baptizing Jesus’ is intriguing because, depending on what you think about baptism, there doesn't seem to be any reason for Jesus to be baptized. John didn't just come up with this baptism idea on his own. It was already a symbolic ritual of desiring forgiveness and wanting to start fresh, a new life. John told the people to bear fruits worthy of repentance.  So, John baptized people for the forgiveness of their sins as a symbol to turn their lives around.  But Jesus didn’t need to turn his life around. Jesus was sinless. 

        Jesus didn’t have anything he needed to repent for. Yet Jesus deliberately sought out his cousin John and sought out baptism.  Jesus planned it intentionally. The distance from Galilee to the Jordan was at least a full day’s journey.  Anywhere from 30-60 miles.  It was a long walk for Jesus and required significant effort and determination.  Why was baptism so important to Jesus? What was he holding himself accountable for?

Nowadays, some people think Baptism as the formal entry point into the family of faith. How many of us were baptized as infants?  How about at a different age?  No matter what age you were baptized, it isn’t the event in and of itself that saves us.  Jesus does that. Most of us were baptized as infants, it is the most common way that Presbyterians and mainline Christians receive the sacrament. Baptism is a seal of the assurance of God’s love even before we have the ability to really do anything in return. And that’s it, baptism is a gift from God not for anything we have done or can do, but just because God chooses us, loves us and wants to spend all our lives with him.  That is what grace is all about.

The downside to infant baptism is of course that we can’t remember the event ourselves and appreciate its importance.  We need others to tell us what it was like. Surely the infant doesn’t feel any different. Yet it makes a difference for the rest of us who stand in its place, pledge our love and care as a congregation.  That has always been the most meaningful part of the baptismal service for me – when the congregation holds itself accountable for raising the infant in the faith, loving, caring and guiding the child so that he or she comes to know Jesus and the gospel as he or she matures.

For Jesus, baptism is a sign of taking on the mantel of discipleship. Remember the last commandment Jesus gave his followers as he ascended to heaven was, “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” (Matthew 28:19).  Fasting, all night vigils, and exorcisms were all part and parcel of baptism in the early church.  Baptism was significant, and people often studied for months or years before being baptized. That’s what it meant to be a responsible follower of Jesus in the ancient world.

  But that doesn't answer the question, "Why was baptism so important to Jesus that he sought it out, and allowed himself to be baptized by John?"

        Jesus allowed himself to be baptized as a sign of responsibility to us and out of love for humanity.  The First letter of Peter 2:24 tells us that Jesus bore our sins “in” his body. John’s first letter declares that Jesus himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world (1 John 2:2).  Instead of being repulsed by our sinfulness and failings, Jesus instead embraces us, and allows himself to become one with us., pledging to be the one accountable to God on our behalf.  One of the most powerful expressions of this is found in Philippians 2:6-8.  Which speaks of Jesus who, emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of humankind.  He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death -- even to death on a cross. Jesus’ baptism is a pledge to take on the cross on our behalf.
​
So, Jesus’ baptism was an immersion into humanity, a sign of solidarity and of love for us. Jesus holds himself accountable to God for us, much as we vow to be accountable to help those who are baptized in their journey to Jesus.  Let us remember with thanksgiving our baptismal vows this day. In remembering the waters of baptism, may we pledge ourselves responsible to help each other find Jesus in each and every day, and live out the promises of baptism to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ, always remember Him, keep His commandments, and serve Him to the end, just as he serves us.  Amen
 
 
https://www.lifeway.com/en/articles/sermon-baptism-jesus-jordan-john-matthew-3
 

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His Star...Our Star

1/21/2022

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Picture

Psalm 72, Matthew 2:1-12
 
https://www.bobcornwall.com/2013/01/following-star-sermon-for-epiphany.html
 
One of the first songs most of us learned as children was this old English lullaby:


Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,  
Like a diamond in the sky.

It’s not a Christmas carol or even an Epiphany hymn, but the third stanza seems to fit today’s service:  


Then the traveler in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see which way to go,  
If you did not twinkle so.
 
Light pollution makes it difficult to see the stars in the night, but if you get away from the metropolitan area, maybe go up into the mountains, you might get a sense of how the stars looked to the ancient world. That’s one of the things I miss from our upstate vacations with the kids every year; being able to look up at the night sky and see the endless blanket of stars every which we looked. Ancient travelers carefully plotted out the constellations and turned confidently to the stars for guidance.  Stars were the original GPS system of the ancient world, of a world actually not too long ago.

        According to Matthew, Magi – Zoroastrian priests from Persia -- followed a twinkling star to the house of Jesus, so they could honor him as king of the Jews.  As we bring the Christmas season to a close this week, we hear a story that invites us to look forward to new journeys upon which the Spirit of God will lead us in the coming months of the new year. 

 The message of Epiphany is this: The light of God is made manifest in Christ to the world, and as the body of Christ, the church, is called to be this light throughout the world. Jesus reminded us to not put our lamp under a bushel basket; instead put it on a lamp stand so that our light will “shine before people, so they can see the good things we do and praise our Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:15-16 CEB). Isaiah put it this way:  9:2 The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them” (Is. 9:2). Paul writes to us in his second letter to Corinthians 4:6 “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”  It is the reassurance that in the darkest of times Jesus was born, and not even the darkness of sin can keep out the light of God in our lives.

       In Matthew’s story, a star shines brightly in the darkness of the night sky, “his star,” drawing the attention of the Magi, who recognize that this light in the sky is a sign that something important is occurring, and that they need to follow the sign to where it leads. Whatever it was, a flare up of a star or the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, this light was a rare occurrence and the Magi were skilled enough to pay attention.  They were faithful enough to take action and follow its trail. You may have heard the slogan: “wise men still seek him.”  It’s an invitation to us to join these people of wisdom in finding enlightenment at the feet of Christ.

   There are, of course, other characters in Matthew’s story besides Jesus and the Magi. There’s even a villain – Herod – an evil man who represents the darkness of the time into which Jesus was born. So, while it’s not surprising that when the Magi come looking for the “King of the Jews,” they first stopped at Herod’s palace, this wasn’t their final destination.  What they learn from Herod, however, is that the prophet Micah had spoken of a shepherd arising out of Bethlehem.  And so, they head out from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to find their promised king.  Of course, Herod, always concerned about his own power, had other designs in mind.  He wants to extinguish the light that has come into the world.

       The Magi, non-Jews, foreign scholars, recognize Jesus as the true king, but as we learn from the gospels, his kingdom is very different from that of Herod.  His is a kingdom of light rather than darkness; love instead of domination.  Instead of enslaving us, it sets us free. In fact, it’s the kind of kingdom described in the Beatitudes, where Jesus declares:   Blessed are the poor, the grieving, the meek, the ones who hunger after righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted.  It’s no wonder that Herod tried to snuff out the realm of God at the beginning, even as Pilate tried to do the same later on.  Tragically Herod, trying to extinguish this light, had the baby boys under the age of two in Bethlehem – causing Mary and Joseph to flee with the child Jesus to Egypt. The message of Epiphany is clear – as the gospel of John declares: the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.     

 So, where do you see signs of God’s kingdom present in your life? What star shines even in the darkest places, leading you forward? Remember when the older President Bush spoke of “a thousand points of light?”  He was talking about voluntarism, but on this Epiphany Sunday, as we celebrate the coming of God’s light into the world, I think it’s an apt description of how we, having been enlightened by our encounter with the child born in Bethlehem, carry the light of God into the world.  

        So today, let us invite the light of the Jesus in our lives as we embark on 2022. What darkness are you struggling with? The darkness of sin holds us bound. The darkness of estranged relationships. The darkness of illness or death. The darkness of economic hardship. The darkness of conflict enveloping our families, our churches our neighborhoods.  The darkness is there, but the good news is that each of us has access to the light of God that twinkles in the night sky, that twinkles in the darkest moments of our life, guiding “us to thy perfect light.” 

        In a little while, we will be picking star words – a word to guide our spiritual journey throughout 2022. Keep the word you pick close to you throughout the year. Meditate on it daily. Find out what it might want you to learn about yourself, or your relationship with God or others. Let this word illumine your live, let it be a point of reference, as you travel the next 12 months of 2022.

May your Star word turn you to the Light of Jesus that God shines in our lives as we embark on a new year. Poet Amanda Gorman encourages us forward in her New Year’s Poem, “New Day’s Lyric,”

This hope is our door, our portal.
Even if we never get back to normal,
Someday we can venture beyond it,
To leave the known and take the first steps.
So let us not return to what was normal,
But reach toward what is next.
*
What was cursed, we will cure.
What was plagued, we will prove pure.
Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree,
Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee,
Where we weren't aware, we're now awake;
Those moments we missed
Are now these moments we make,
The moments we meet,
And our hearts, once all together beaten,
Now all together beat.
 
Let us step forward together into the light of 2022 and may its star shine bright in all our days. Amen
https://www.bobcornwall.com/2013/01/following-star-sermon-for-epiphany.html
 
 
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