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Discipleship: Expect the Unexpected

1/11/2023

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Isa. 42:1-9, Matt. 3: 13-17
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Whether or not you are a football fan, Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin, has become a household name this week.  In a game televised last Monday to determine which teams would advance in the NFL playoffs, Damar Hamlin collapsed nine minutes into the first quarter of the game, suffering a cardiac arrest after completing a tackle. 
     
You could hear a pin drop in the stadium as medics worked to revive him. Members of both teams formed a circle around the critically injured player as he was being resuscitated.  Tears streamed down their faces as they knelt in prayer.  Fans from both teams held candlelight vigils outside the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where Hamlin remains in treatment.  Hamlin’s GoFundMe page for his children’s foundation, set up to raise $2,500, has now surpassed 7 million dollars, with donations pouring in from around the country.

It is clear that Damar Hamlin is a man of faith.  The slogan on his helmet says, “Choose Love.”  The athlete spoke opening about his faith saying, stating, “My faith is in God. So, whatever he has planned for me, that’ll be it.”   “I feel like that's God talking to me,” he told a reporter in 2021, referring to his charitable work. “I really feel like that's what my purpose is. That's why He put me here.” While Hamlin is still in ICU, he is improving, and his witness continues to touch countless millions of people. It is a reminder to us of God’s power to bring good out of even adverse situations, as Paul in Romans 8:28 declares: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

People of faith are not immune from pain, suffering, difficulties. Have you ever had something unexpected happen to you, whether it was something good or something scary?  Your life is going along as planned and then out of the blue, something unexpected happens and life’s journey takes a turn in a new direction.  You discover you are expecting a new baby. You’ve been turned down for a promotion.  You get into fender bender.  You suffer a health scare.  You incur an unexpected expense on an already tight budget, and you have to decide which bill to pay.  We’ve all been there. Plans suddenly change. We’re caught unawares.  We can count on one thing on this faith journey:  Expect the unexpected.  Where have you experienced the unexpected in your life?

Remember Abraham and Sarah?  There they were, sitting on the porch in their rocking chairs, enjoying their retirement, when God commands: “Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. (Gen. 12)
There was Moses, minding his own business, tending the sheep, when he sees the burning bush and God tells him he is on holy ground. God then declares: “I have seen the suffering of the Israelites in the land of Egypt. I want you to lead them into a land of freedom and save them from slavery and suffering.”

Remember the notorious Samaritan woman at the well, going to fetch water at the unheard-of hour of noon, only to encounter Jesus, and after a lengthy discussion, she leaves her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 'Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? ' They went out of the town and were coming to him.”

There was Saul, the great persecutor of the early Christian movement, who encounters Jesus on the road to Damascus, and ends up being the greatest missionary, a renowned apostle for the early church.

Today’s gospel finds John the baptizer with an unexpected situation.  Jesus comes to him wanting to be baptized.  But John’s baptism is a baptism of repentance, and Jesus didn’t need to repent. Try as he could to understand, John just couldn’t get Jesus’ motives. It seemed messed up: Jesus should be baptizing John, not the other way around.  But Jesus has his reasons. Jesus did the unexpected, allowing himself to receive John’s baptism in order to demonstrate his complete identity with sinful humankind.  John’s baptism of Jesus is a baptism into the fullness of humanity with all its joys and sorrows.  And the Son of God chose this. “Let it be so now,” Jesus says to John. “Then he consented.”  Our lives our like John’s. Like Abraham and Sarah, like Moses.   
     To be a disciple means to expect the unexpected.  To do the unexpected. To learn to consent to the will of God  and in doing so, to hear and see God in new and amazing ways.

 Expecting the unexpected calls us to be present to whatever is before us and whatever is coming to us, even if it is difficult, painful, or the last thing we wanted. Expecting the unexpected isn’t about being in control or having all the answers. Expecting the unexpected means being open to new and radical ways God is working in and through our lives. It means we are not in control.  God intervenes. It's being like Damar Hamlin, allowing God to use a painful accident to bring all sorts of people to their names, joining their hands in prayer.

Expecting the unexpected is a profession of faith, hope, and love. That’s how Jesus lived his life.  Every time the disciples expected Jesus to act a certain way, he did the opposite.  He called ordinary fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, and traitors to follow him. He ate with tax collectors and sinners.  He healed on the sabbath, a big no-no for the frustrated Pharisees and Sadducees that closely followed his ministry.  He went to weddings and turned wine into water.  He raised people from the dead, expelled demons.  He allowed women to touch him, and he spoke to them with respect.   His teachings turned everything upside down: love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.  Receive the prodigal son. Act like the good Samaritan. Give the widow’s mite.  Take up your cross.  

Jesus never turned away, backed down, or walked away from dificulties. He welcomed the unexpected, even the betrayal of his own, and being put to death by jealous leaders conspiring with foreign powers who just wanted to “keep the peace.”  Jesus accepted the teachings of the prophet Isaiah (55:8-9): “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," …. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

The unexpected comes to us every day.   In these situations, God seeks to use the unexpected to help us love deeper, give more, be more open to service, pray more fervently, to give witness to the power, majesty and glory of God.  The unexpected reminds us of what Paul says to the 1 Corinthians 1:24-29: “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength…. God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-- and the things that are not-- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. (NIV)”
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As we enter a new year, we will be exploring different aspects of discipleship.  Today, let us be on the lookout for the unexpected ways God is reaching out to us and to use us for his holy purposes.  Whether we face hardship or new exciting opportunities, let us embrace it. Let us place the unexpected in the sure hands of God, who will make his good will come to pass through us.  Who knows whom you will touch, whose lives you can change, whose heart you will transform, by turning over all the unexpected in our lives to the loving mercy of God.  As we live through all the unexpected situations life throws at us, let us be assured that the knowledge that God makes all things work together for the good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. As a post from Damar Hamlin’s twitter feed from last month read: “from losses to lessons to blessings. Thank you, God!”  Thank you, God. For the faith to expect the unexpected. Amen.
 
https://sports.yahoo.com/damar-hamlins-go-fund-me-hits-6-million-after-bills-safetys-cardiac-arrest-on-monday-night-football-231541893.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACe7srWO6Mtk18GYp6TR_fCNFaxZftD-ON0zIiV-MCiIy3wv-FS8DHMXTSFqnyEltFkgS8KE_mNxxxTC1S7va49vvcDgrS-Pb7_bAXCsCrwpDKdfVPEVpE5NibF2via3zNz6FhLxZt56vY8SQBlvGkOloXlhS3bZVAtKpBh0vL5Q
https://interruptingthesilence.com/2020/01/15/consenting-to-life-a-sermon-on-matthew-313-17/
https://sports.yahoo.com/choose-love-damar-hamlins-motto-offers-a-way-forward-after-tragedy-132139931.html
https://thedeaconsbench.com/damar-hamlin-i-see-myself-through-gods-eyes/
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2023: Journey to Jesus (Epiphany)

1/4/2023

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Matthew: 2: 1-12
 
Happy New Year!  The New Year is a time of festivities, family and friends coming together to ring in the New Year.  The beginning of the New Year is also a time of introspection, reflecting upon where we’ve come during the past year and planning goals for the new year.  Although 43% of resolutions don’t make it past February, and 9% survives until the end of the year, setting attainable goals, having a vision for one’s life, is important.  Time flies by, and before we know it, another year has gone, and for many of us, we have been stuck in a cycle of work, sleep, eating, watching TV. We need to take the time to dig into our hearts, decide on what we want to change or improve or have an idea where we want to be in a year’s time.
 
The top goals people choose for a new year are often to exercise more, lose weight, get healthier, get more organized, save money or spend less, quit smoking, learn a new skill or hobby, or find a way to live life to the fullest.  As Christians, we need to set spiritual goals.  How exactly can we grow in faith and draw closer to Jesus?  Should we pray more?  Read the bible more?  Attend a retreat? Come to church more? Serve our neighbor more?  Journal or spend time in other uplifting ways? What are other goals you can think of?  In order to be successful, we need to choose goals that are attainable, goals we can actually measure, like volunteer at the food pantry once a week, journal daily, say our prayers every day.  
 
Our gospel passage today of the magi’s, or more popularly called wisemen’s, journey to see the Christ Child contains excellent pointers for us to set spiritual goals and guideposts to plan our spiritual growth in 2023.   Let’s look at some of the features of the story that give us pointers as we plan to grow over the next 12 months. I invite you to take out the worksheet in your bulletin and follow along.
 
The magi/wisemen knew the purpose of their journey, to see the baby borne King of the Jews.   They were guided on this journey by the Star, rising in the east.  If we want to follow in the footsteps of the magi, we too need to make encountering Jesus our priority in 2023.   We need to assess where we are now and make improvements.  We need to reflect back on our spiritual high points and low points of 2022.   How well did we live out gospel values in our life?   Be honest: What did your spiritual journey of 2022 look like?  What did you do well? Did you deepen a pattern of forgiveness or humility? Learn to be patient or more tolerant?  What were the low points?  Getting angry too easily?  Gossiping too much?  Expressing too much pride?  The more specific you can be with yourself the better.  
 
So today, as we move forward, Let’s look at the magi/wisemen story for guidance. What stars are God placing on your horizon to move you forward?  How is God working in your life?  What persons through whom is God speaking to you? What other incidents have happened that God is using to reach you?  It could be anything from a song you heard, a health scare, to a comment someone made to you.  Did you have a dream, or an encounter with someone or something that is speaking to you? Identify the stars that are calling you forward and name them.  Write them down.
 
Let’s move on. The second step to clarify your 2023 spiritual journey is to identify the Herods in your life. Who or what is blocking your way?  What’s fears or faults are trying to distract you from obtaining your goal of being with Jesus?  What people or situations drag you down, bring out the worst in you, make you selfish instead of outward centered?  We all encounter Herods. Evil is always working, trying to derail our efforts.  What is important is that we name it.  We give it to Jesus.  The magi chose not to engage Herod.  After they found Jesus, they returned home by another path.  We need to be able to know when we are tempted to stray and pray for the strength to maintain our focus on Jesus.  We need to learn to avoid Herod whenever we can.  Name your Herod.  Ask the Holy Spirit to point it out to you. It can be a personal trait or an actual person or situation we find ourselves in.
 
Finally, third step the magi/wisemen led us to in 2023 is to name the gifts that we bring.  We are called to dedicate our gifts to Jesus, so he can bless them and use them for the benefit of the good news.  What are your gifts?  Can you name some of them now?   The next thing to ask is how do you use these gifts on behalf of the Lord?  If you sing, do you use your voice to lead others in singing?  If you are a listening person, do you extend yourself to a lonely person, a shut in, or someone who is ill?  If you have been blessed with finances or resources, do you place them at the disposal of God?   We are all abundantly gifted, sometimes in ways we don’t even see.  Another important step we might do is name the gifts we see in each other.  During this upcoming week, I invite you to tell three people what gifts you see in them.  Another good step is to ask them to name the gifts they see in you.
 
As you name your gifts, I invite you to pay homage to Jesus by dedicating your gifts to him.  Place your gifts in his hands.  Let him direct you to best use your gifts on behalf of the gospel.
 
So, our passage tells to do at least three things to mark our journey to Jesus in 2023:
1. Name the stars in your lives that lead you to Jesus.
2. Name the Herods operating in your life that  block your way to Jesus.
3. Name the gifts God has given you and dedicate them to the Lord, placing them at the disposal of the good news.
 
Please take a minute to jot down anything more that comes to your mind.
 
Let us pray:  Precious Lord, today we chose to dedicate 2023 as a year we come to you.  Help us to find you each day, throughout the year, so we can pay you homage. Place stars on our path that guide us to you, help us to see them and follow them. Help us identify the Herods in our midst that would seek to snare us away from you.   Finally help us to name the gifts you have blessed us with.  We dedicate these gifts to you for your use, for the uplifting and salvation of all you place in our lives.  Make 2023 a banner year a year in which we draw even closer to you, to each other, and may your star shine bright in our lives, and may our lives in turn be a way to you that others may follow to know you and serve you.   This we ask in your holy name, Amen.
 
 
 
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Christmas Eve Meditation

12/28/2022

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https://www.preaching.com/sermons/its-whats-inside-that-counts-an-object-lesson-using-gift-wrap-ribbon-bow/
https://www.stjamesedison.org/godhttps://catholic-link.org/matter-jesus-wrapped-swaddling-clothes/s-wrapping-paper-christmas-sermon-2018/
https://waterfromrock.org/2009/12/22/bands-of-cloth/
https://aleteia.org/2019/12/21/the-symbolism-of-swaddling-clothes-at-jesus-birth/
https://latterdaysaintmag.com/what-does-it-matter-that-the-lord-was-wrapped-in-swaddling-clothes/
https://www.calledtoshare.com/2018/12/20/why-swaddling-clothes-of-jesus-is-mentioned-three-times-in-the-nativity-story/
 
One of the most endearing, images I have of Christmas, deeply etched on my heart to this day, is the sight of a decorated tree surrounded by beautiful presents through my childhood eyes.  What a magical, wondrous image. Who’s with me on this? Whether humble or grand, who couldn’t wait until the early morning hours, tearing down the stairs, shrieking with delight at the thrilling image of a twinkling tree, with presents waiting to be claimed, stockings whose contents ready to empty.  
 
 Now from decades of observations and opening countless gifts, I have noted two types of gift wrappers.  There are those who carefully pick out beautifully colored paper, who lovingly select color-coordinated ribbon and bows.  The wrapping paper is precisely, expertly folded with just the right amount and no more. Labels are carefully written in one’s best penmanship.  The end result is a masterpiece – a work of art – that one laments having to tear to reach the gift contained within. 
Then there are the other gift wrappers.   Paper is haphazardly taped on – patterns are crooked, different types of paper are used with no care to match. You’re lucky if a lonesome bow is affixed.  Names are illegibly written, and a family guessing game ensures to figure out the proper recipient.  There are those who use recycled gift bags year after year, with tissue paper crammed in to barely cover the gift.  I must confess I fit in the later group. We get home after Christmas Eve services, usually by 11pm, we dump those gifts into bags along with last year’s tissue paper and viola! All presents wrapped in 10 minutes or less. On to the egg nog and Christmas cookies.
Down through the ages, God has proven to be an amazing gift wrapper.  Creation is but stunning wrapping paper that reveals the beauty of God – dazzling sunsets and sunrises, mighty snow-capped mountain peaks, the force of the wind that we are experiencing this weekend, the stunning diversity of creatures, fields, forests and flowers, to the vastness of the cosmos – amazing wrapping paper, isn’t it?  To top it off, on Christmas, we remember that God, the master gift-wrapper, put on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ.  God could have shown up as an angel, some other spiritual creature or alien being.  God could have chosen to skip the baby stage and gone straight to being a strong adult, a king, a warrior, as many actually believed the messiah would be. God could have revealed Godself in any manner feasible. But the piece de resistance of God’s wrapping abilities is in enveloping his love, his mercy, his redemptive saving power, in the human flesh of a helpless baby.
What a contradiction in terms: a baby savior.  A baby is small, weak, helpless.   A baby is vulnerable to illness, fevers and diseases. A baby needs to be fed, burped, changed.  A baby needs to be kept warm, held for comfort, kept clean and safe. A baby we fall in love with at first sight. Talk about unexpected wrapping paper for God’s gift to the world! This wrapping paper is something we can touch, hold, embrace, kiss, hold closely to our heart. This wrapping paper stirs our emotions, aligning us with God’s purpose for our lives – all the while wiping away all sins that dim our abilities to love and connect to God and each other.  Some wrapping paper, isn’t it?
 
If that wasn’t amazing enough, we hear of even more unexpected wrapping paper in Luke.  We read that Mary, Jesus’ mother, wrapped her new-born son in bands of cloth.  
In my imagination, I see those bands of cloth as humble material, made not from super-soft silk but ordinary cloth, humbly homespun. Common and ordinary, something everyone would have.  But there is more to this that meets the eye. In Luke’s story of Jesus’ birth, the angels tell the shepherds, “This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger” -- an animal’s feeding trough. This phrase, at least in part, is repeated three times in the Nativity story (Luke 2:7, 12, 16), so this sign is significant.  Pause and take this in:  God chose to wrap the most precious gift to humankind, a gift thousands of years in the making, in ordinary human flesh, with ordinary household cloth, in a manger meant for animals, not human beings.  What kind of gift-wrapper is this? But wait -- there is more to this story.
 
There is a tradition that the shepherds, who in the hillside were not too far from Jerusalem, provided the “lambs without blemish” for the temple sacrifice at Passover. That first new-born lamb, to protect it from blemish (as it was required to be by the Law), was wrapped in swaddling cloth and placed in a food trough apart from the other sheep. What again did the angels say? They would find the Savior, Christ the Lord, wrapped just like they wrapped the sacrificial lamb.  This amazing, wrapped Baby was also the perfect lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. 
 
This wrapping paper, the bands of cloth, would point us to Jesus’ death.  Recall that the Gospel of John tells us that the dead bodies of Lazarus, and the Lord Jesus were wrapped in “bands of cloth” (John 11:44; John 19:40; 20:5-6).  But wait, there is more. The Hebrew word, of which “swaddling” is the English translation, denotes cloths used in the binding of broken limbs (Ezekiel 30:21). This symbolically relates to Christ’s ministry of healing the spiritually broken (Ezekiel 34:15). 
 
Thus, Christ our Lord begins and ends his life wrapped in bands of cloth. Throughout his earthly life he carried out a ministry of binding the sick in body and spirit.  This is his reason for coming.  To wrap up our salvation is ways our hearts could grasp, our eyes could, our minds comprehend, and ultimately so that our hands could receive such an amazing gift, beautifully wrapped only as God could do it.
 
Ambrose, the fourth- century bishop of Milan, put it this way: “He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, so that you may be freed from the snares of death. He was in a manger, so that you may be in the [temple]. He was on earth that you may be in the stars. He has no other place in the inn, so that you may have many mansions in the heavens. ‘He, being rich, became poor for your sakes, that through his poverty you might be rich’ (2 Cor. 8:9).”
 
That first Christmas is not the end of God using unexpected wrapping paper for gifts.  Remember that God the Eternal Gift Giver, has continued throughout history to use unexpected wrapping paper for divine gifts to humanity.  God uses our human flesh to continue to convey the good news of salvation to all humankind.   God uses our lips to tell of Jesus, our arms to embrace the lonely and stranger, our hands to feed the hungry and house the homeless, our eyes to see injustice and oppression and to respond with right living. We are God’s every day, amazing wrapping paper to tell the tidings of great joy to all the earth.
 
This Christmas Eve, unwrap that precious gift God gave us in Jesus. God’s saving love wrapped in a baby-savior. Take up this present in your arms and hold it close to your heart. Look with childhood wonder on this amazing, beautiful gift. Tear that wrapping open with the glee of a child. Then let God’s glory shine in you and through you, and may it forever shine bright, bringing love and glad tidings of great joy this Christmas and every Christmas forevermore .  Amen. 

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Leaning into Love

12/21/2022

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​Matthew 1: 18-25

 
A few weeks ago, a Time Magazine readers poll named the women of Iran  Heroes of the Year for leading the mass protests these past three months.  Irani women are protesting the death of 22 year old Mahsa Amini.  Last September, Amini died in the custody of the country's morality police. The police detained her for not wearing a headscarf.  Situations like this are from unusual and highlight the state of women in the world:
 
Somewhere else in the world there is a brother who murdered his 16-year-old sister after he discovered she had been raped—by a family member.     Somewhere else, a 17-year-old ran over his 18-year-old, handicapped pregnant sister with his pickup truck, ignoring her pleas for mercy.   Someplace in Egypt, there is a father who displayed his dead daughter’s severed head before his neighbors and proudly announced, “at last my honor has been restored.”

In cultures where women are seen as little more than property, or less valuable than men, any hint of sexual misconduct, a refusal to accept an arranged marriage, a rape, or seeking a divorce, a desire to learn or to work or just take a walk alone outside the home can be seen as an affront to male honor and leaves a woman vulnerable to violence by her male relatives. The UN estimates the number of “Honor Killings,” the killings of women  who allegedly break some moral code, at least about 5000 a year. 

These are disturbing stories, they are not the kind of stories we want to hear a week before Christmas. But we have had an unusual Advent, have we not, with tales of judgment day and two weeks of the stark message of repentance from John the Baptizer, and here now we learn of Joseph’s plans to divorce Mary.  The stories of these past four weeks have been fraught with tension.  We live in tense times, harsh times, and Advent has plunged us further into these tough situations. Yet these stories, the stories of the Masha Aminis of the world, are what we need to hear to get at the horror and the scandal when Matthew writes, “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.  When his other Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”

This crisis is not just about how Joseph felt toward Mary. It is a crisis rooted in the kind of community Joseph and Mary lived, traditional communities that exist in our world today. The law was clear.  A woman caught in adultery was to be stoned to death.  
Matthew tells us that Joseph was a righteous man.  He decided he could not go on with the marriage.  However, he felt a public handling of the situation would be distasteful.  He resolved to divorce Mary in secret.   This way, he could preserve his family’s honor.  He would avoid a public airing of the scandal. But it would not resolve the matter for Mary.  In fact, it put Mary in even more jeopardy.   How would her father or uncles respond, or how would her brothers react when they learned of the divorce? When they learned of her pregnancy?  Mary’s future looked bleak indeed.

This leads us to ask, what kind of God would choose to flaunt human, social convention in such a manner?  What kind of God would operate outside the very law regulating marriage and the procreation of children established in God’s law in the scriptures? What kind of God would put a young vulnerable woman at such a risk?   What kind of God would cause a righteous man to face such a no-win situation?

Stunning, isn’t it? God chose an unmarried woman over a respectable matron. God chose the manger over a warm palace. God chose angels over theologians and shepherds over priests.   God pushed a respectable man to take a leap into the unknown. God chose the place where Joseph’s religious training and respectability had not prepared him to go. At that hard, hard place, where life no longer made sense and honor was lost, God’s love appeared and spoke to Joseph, as clear as it speaks to us today.

“Joseph, Joseph son of David, don’t be afraid, Take Mary as your wife, Be the father to this baby, and name him Jesus.”   And one day, this Jesus will even follow Joseph’s example. He will keep a mob of angry men from stoning a woman caught in adultery.  He will restore outcasts to community; He will bring God’s light to the world.  He’s going to save us from our ignorance and sin.  He will teach us how to love, to love as God loves: scandalously. Unconditionally.

When Joseph awoke from this dream, that confused place of his that didn’t understand, that wanted to play it safe, was changed into a place that could accept uncertainty, risk even the perhaps the ridicule of neighbors.  He would go on to save Mary’s life, then the infant Jesus’ life from a murderous King Herod, because he was present to the workings of Divine Love.

Who is this Love who promises to love us at our worst?  Who speaks words of daring beyond our wildest dreams? We need to know this, in these remaining days before Christmas, because we live in a world of war and where girls still hide from their families and they still stone them. Like Joseph, we lean to solutions that are traditional, that make sense. But God asks us to lean into Love.

This is where God chooses to find us.  At those places where our righteousness fails and our best is no longer good enough, where our dreams become disturbing. In a tired and cranky moment when all the gaiety of the season and light-hearted Christmas carols cannot hold back the confusion in our hearts and the pain in the world. That’s when we are called to take a great leap of faith.  To say “yes” like Mary did.  To obey the angel’s voice like Joseph did.  To incarnate love, like Jesus did.

What confusing times are we living in.  Despite the message of joy, many of us are stressed, depressed, worried.  The customs of our culture encourages us to spend more than we have, to eat more than we should, to extend ourselves beyond our human strength.  No wonder we are confused, broken and exhausted and we dare not admit this to one another. Yet the message of this final week of Advent is still clear:  the scandalous love of God still wants us. It speaks to us, through angels, in dreams, through each other. God’s love beckons us. It invites us to risk to love deeper, to jump further in faith, and embrace God’s scandalous love however it presents itself to us. In the conundrums of life.  In the stretching of our spirit to believe the impossible, to dream the unimaginable, to partake in the newness of life and in the unlikely ways it shows its presence in our lives.  To buck the trends. To love the unusual. To see God’s hand working outside the box. To lean fully into that kind of love.

In these final days leading us to Christmas, lean into love, and bring love’s scandalous presence wherever the angels call you to be. Be the voice of justice, mercy and compassion. Be heros, sheros of faith, shining the light of Christ in those dark and broken places on earth where through us and make God’s scandalous love bring justice, righteousness and peace to all women and men on earth.  amen
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Leaning into Joy

12/14/2022

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        Hereeeeee’s Johneeeeeee!
Out of all the Biblical characters Advent lifts up for us as a guide, John the Baptist is the one perhaps we would least associate with joy, the theme of this third week.   Remember we talked about John last week:  how his message of repentance is the procurer to peace in our lives.  Today our gospel calls us to look more closely at John, whom Jesus calls as “Greater than any person ever born.” So, what does John have to teach us about following Jesus and having Joy?

        At first glance, John and joy seems an unlikely pairing. John is the prophet who recalls the fiery, colorful Hebrew prophets like Elijah or Jeremiah; who are bold, confrontational and passionate, but not necessarily joyful.  John’s the wild one who lives in the desert of Judea, dressed in camel hair, a leather belt about his waist, and lives off locusts and wild honey. And there in the desert the word of God came to John.  So, John began his work around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in order to prepare the way for the One who is to come who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.

        John was not one to mince words. His comments from last week are still ringing in my ears: “You brood of vipers!”  Remember how last he yelled at those coming to be baptized whom he felt were less than sincere.  “Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”  Bam! Talk about a 1-2 punch.

        John taught that those with two tunics and extra food should share with those who had none.  He instructed those who collected taxes that they take no more than required to.  John advised soldiers not to take bribes or accuse people falsely, and to be content with their pay.  When people began to contemplate that John was the messiah, or Elijah or great prophet returned, John denied it all, saying, "I baptize with water," John replied, "but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie." 

        John did not hesitate to confront the politically powerful.  He publicly rebuked King Herod for adultery, which led to his arrest, imprisonment and ultimate beheading. Other than Jesus, John is the only other New Testament prophet whose birth story is told.  The angel Gabriel told his father Zechariah: “for he will be great in the sight of God. … he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth” 

        But Gabriel also added this message about John: “He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth.”   It is the John who jumps with joy in his mother’s womb when Mary, the mother of Jesus, enters the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth.  At the end of his career, as Jesus began his public ministry, and imprisonment and death around the corner for him, some of John’s disciples come to him complaining about Jesus; followers were leaving John and flocking over to Jesus.  Shouldn’t John be jealous of this upstart?  John dismisses it at once, explaining his relationship with Jesus “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 bookmarked by joy and infused with joy.  Joy enabled him to live boldly and hold nothing back.  As a result, John poured his life into his mission of setting the stage for Jesus.  John knew who he was and he knew who Jesus was, before anyone else. Such knowledge can only come from beyond: it comes from realm of grace, the realm of joy.

        We more easily think of joy in the context of celebration, feasting, dancing, abundance and everything going right; not a monastic, severe, subsistence lifestyle like the one John led. Jesus differs from John in that regard; for Jesus is depicted as eating and drinking and enjoying the company of outcasts – so much that his detractors call him a “glutton and drunkard.” Yet both Jesus and John are examples of Joy-filled men.  So, it is not the lifestyle as much that we should look at, but the life that is present in the actions.  We have probably all been at parties or gatherings where there was plenty of celebration, but very little joy.  We all probably know people or groups who are not afraid to denounce evil and oppression, who shun the consumer lifestyle (and will boast of it to your face), but who demonstrate little joy.  And we also know people who seem to radiate goodness and joy not matter the circumstances of their life.  My stepmother is such a person, who despite the loses in her life, including two children, is a joyful person. It is healing to be in her presence because she is able to let joy and peace flow freely. 

        John is an example of someone who stands, like Jesus, for justice, righteousness and joy.  Joy is just there, because God’s life is truly there in the depths of us. Joy is a fruit of the spirit, a byproduct of God’s indwelling life that would fill us and guide us, if we would just let go and let it.  John had to be a joyful person, for why else would people flock to him, someone whose lifestyle was so different from theirs?   It was John’s joy, which radiated from him, and gave him the firmness of his convictions, that people responded to and hungered for.  It was joy that gave John’s preaching its depth and power.  

        Advent would have us consider John and joy together because too often, those who preach repentance, those who stand for social justice, often have a hard time communicating joy in their message or experiencing real joy in their lives.  The task of confronting sin and oppression takes its toll.  The statistics are staggering, and the work seems endless.  As we have been stating for months, we live in troubled times, difficult times, lean times.  Times where it is hard to lean into Joy. Yet without the cultivation of joy, the work John did, indeed the work we do, becomes unbearable, not just for ourselves for others.   Mahatma Gandhi observed that “Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant or the served.  But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service that is rendered in a spirit of joy.”  Billy Sunday, the great evangelist, also observed, “The trouble with many men (people) is that they have got just enough religion to make them miserable. If there is not joy in religion, you have got a leak in your religion.”

On the other hand, joy, without doing the prophetic tasks of hope building and peace making, without the context of unconditional love, becomes empty and trite.  Advent teaches us we need to hold it all together, hope and peace, love, and joy.  John is our witness; John is our model in this advent season of someone who was both joyful and prophetic.

        Joy is always there, available to us. Joy is not contingent on the circumstances of our lives.  Joy is not contingent on how well or poorly we are doing.  Joy is not contingent on our age, our intellect, or anything outside of you or me.  Joy is there in the recesses.  Joy is not to be contained but released.  We can hold back joy, we can lock joy up so that it never is visible, and we can choose to access joy only when our moods are positive.   The work ahead of us is to deliberately access joy and release joy in all we do.  The task for us is to make joy more present in our lives. The best gift we can give ourselves, no matter what struggle we face, health, relationships, goals we set for ourselves, be it for career or for personal growth is to experience joy.   It is not surprising that Jesus, when he began his public ministry, deliberately selected the passage from Isaiah; a passage that integrates joy and justice:  “I will bind up the broken-hearted, release the prisoners, proclaim good news to the oppressed; but I will also give them garlands instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit; everlasting joy shall be theirs.” Can we give ourselves both justice and joy? 

        It is said both the Koran and the Talmud teach that we will be held accountable for every permissible pleasure life has offered us and that we have refused to enjoy during our earthly sojourn.  So joy is a holy right, even an obligation. The Upanishads, writings sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists, add:
That which is Whole is joy.
There is no joy in fractioned existence.
Only the Whole is joy. (VII. 23)
 
          John would point us, like Jesus, to the whole.  God wants us whole, complete, filled with Joy.

So, this is our task at hand, as we draw closer to Christmas and as we plan for a new year, and as our church enters a new chapter of its life as a congregation.  To be whole, like John was, like Jesus was – so that access to the depths of our being is not blocked by fear.  To be whole, so joy can flow through our work, through our pleasures and through our words.  So, joy can be released and proclaimed in us, as Jesus intended.  Let us lean into Joy and may we gift our church and those we meet with joy this holiday season.  Amen.
 

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Leaning into Peace

12/7/2022

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Isaiah 11:1-10; Matthew 3:1-12

 
 
“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”  What a welcome to our second week of Advent! Can you imagine such a greeting on a Christmas card? You brood of vipers! Merry Christmas! Yet this is the message Advent gives us today. Not to shop. Not to decorate. Not to sing carols. Our sole purpose today is repent.  Like last week, when we discussed the message of the Second Coming of Christ, once more we have an in-your-face, no holds barred, message that seems to put a damper the holiday spirit.  But there it is: the message of Advent peace says to us “repent.”

We are halfway to Bethlehem.  But this morning we find ourselves in the wilderness of Judea with John the Baptist, covered with camel’s hair and a leather belt, dinning on locusts and wild honey.  And we find ourselves confronted by this formable character. He rants and raves.  He’s pushy.  Call him rude.  Call him a fanatic.  He doesn’t care.  He’s a man with a mission.  He is the prophet, John the Baptizer, upon whom the spirit of the Lord has rested.  John is our unlikely guide for this part of our Advent journey.  If we want to make it to Bethlehem we need to listen to John.  John doesn’t mince words.  He tells it like it is.  Repent, he says. Make your paths straight.  Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 

Repent you brood of vipers!  The world would keep us busy trimming the tree, buying and wrapping presents, outdoing our neighbor with lights and decorations, humming the season’s oldies and goodies. From that warm and fuzzy cocoon, John the Baptizer calls us back to the basics of Advent, because John’s task is to bring us to Jesus.  So, John wants us to get honest with ourselves.  Get right with God.  Repent and find peace.

         Instead of “Making a list, checking it twice,” John today invites us to think deeply on our lives. Are we living self-centered lives or are we truly other-centered as Jesus was? Is Jesus at the heart of our being, are we loving and giving sacrificially or we avoiding the needs of others?  All these questions take time, and Advent invites us to take the time, undistracted by holiday busyness, to examine ourselves, see where we fall short, and turn our lives around, orient our hearts back to Jesus. This, Advent teaches us is the way to peace.

To repent, we need to lean in on the biblical concept of peace.  Peace is an active, engaging experience, not some abstract concept. Achieving peace requires effort on our part.  Who hasn’t sat quietly, trying to calm down, only to be plagued by interior drama? We have to consciously choose and work for peace. The Bible talks to us about three different kinds of peace: Peace with God which is the reassurance we receive through faith. The Peace of God - that calm center we develop through our faith in Christ, that we especially feel in the midst of life's storms. Then there’s Peace with Others. Peace with others is based on relationships that, despite differences, seek the best for each other, work for justice, right living, cooperation and forbearance.  Peace with others can be peace in our family, peace with friends, peace in our community or peace among the nations of the world.

The Hebrew word translated as peace is the well-known word shalom, which means completeness, soundness, and welfare. The root of shalom means making amends or making whole or complete.  Shalam is often used in terms of making restitution. Take Exodus 22:4, for example; if a man stole an ox or a sheep from his neighbor, he was to restore or shalam what he had taken under the law.  This is a very important point about peace:  peace -- especially peace from God -- is about healing. God’s peace is about restoration of what once was broken. Our relationship with God has been restored through Christ.  That’s peace.  We have a sense of wholeness inside us because of our faith in Jesus. In Jesus we have received restitution for our sins. That’s peace!  Where there is peace in the world it is because of the power of God through Christ that works in us, around us and with us, bringing about just living conditions, a just relating,  in all of God’s creation.

The word peace in the New Testament is from the Greek word eiréné . Eiréné means peace, quietness, and rest. It originates from the root word eirō, which means to join, or tie together into a whole.   To bring what is separated together again. Eiréné means unity; it is bringing multiple parts together to form a whole or set it as one again. For example, two friends who reconcile after a fight make eiréné; that is, they come back together, and their relationship is whole. So shalom and eirene describe the heart of biblical peace: to bring together in healing and harmony that which was once apart, divided.

      The peace of God is different from the peace of the world. The peace of the world is unstable, usually based on bank accounts and accumulation of resources. Worldly peace is driven by seeking security, which is elusive and changes with the times. There is a fake peace held together through by unequal power.  There is a false interior peace that people seek through overindulging in pills, alcohol, and other things, like designer clothes, or fancy cars, that grabs our attention. Worldly peace comes and goes.

          Biblical peace, which comes from God, on the other hand, is different. Biblical peace is the “peace that passes all understanding” because it is rooted in an Eternal God who loves and seeks the best for all creation. Grounded in God, shalom and eirene seek out restoration. It is the state of the world before sin entered the picture, and it is the state of the world with Jesus at the center of the picture – because biblical peace redeems, saves, finds us in our brokenness and restores us to life with God.   Peace comes from repentance, when we turns our lives around, turn our hearts around, turn our world around – back to its primary focus:  life in God through Christ.

Biblical peace is not something we can create on our own; it is a fruit of the Spirit. Ultimately God is the source of all peace, and one of  God’s names is Yahweh Shalom (Judges 6:24), which means the LORD Is Peace. Jesus is the prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6) and calls us to be peacemakers who are children of God (Matt. 5:6).  Peacemakers actively forgive, seek reconciliation, act as repairers of the breach (Isa. 58:12).  So, Peace always seeks out what’s needed to be complete, balanced, whole.   The prophet Isaiah gives us a profound image of peace when he describes:

6The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.”

Isaiah’s image is of the powerful not being predators. It is an image of the weak and defenseless knowing security where once danger lurked.  The experience of biblical peace, Isaiah demonstrates for us, is found in the restoration of loving relationships where once enmity and exploitation existed.  Only the grace of God can bring about such change.  God’s grace for Peace is available to us for the asking.

      The truth is, if we are honest with ourselves, we are not a peaceful people, our hearts are pulled in thousands of directions, and we do not live in a culture that knows peace.  We are more polarized politically and economically than ever. We live in lean times, uncertain times, broken times. We are in so many conflicts, conflicts with other nations, adverse policies with the homeless, the poor, and the stranger and alien. Problems ferment in our faith communities. We have deep conflicts in our hearts. We want to do what is good, but we fail.

        Our advent message this week is that we seek peace and make peace. The scriptures tell us repeatedly how to find peace. The Psalmist records: “Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it” ( Psalm 34:14). Paul exhorts us repeatedly in Romans: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18)  and “… let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (Romans 14:19); “Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”

        What fruit of repentance will we bear over the next few weeks? What peace-making tasks will we do to draw close to the Prince of Peace?  How about this:


Apologize to someone whom we have hurt and mend a relationship. End a quarrel or a resentment. Forgive someone who has hurt us.  Give an encouraging word.  Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust.  Manifest loyalty in word and deed.  Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge.   Will we read the scriptures and pray for our church and world. Think of someone else first. Be kind. Be gentle.  Laugh. Express gratitude. Welcome a stranger.  Visit the sick.  What else will you do to foster peace?  The Peace of God.  Peace in God. Peace with Others because God is present to all who call upon God’s name.

What will we do?  We are half-way through Advent. We are in the wilderness. It is time to get ready.  Let us listen to John.  Repent. Bear fruit.  Make the path straight.  Find peace: with God, inside our hearts and in our world. Draw near to Jesus.  Peace, the signpost that the Kingdom of God is near.  And Bethlehem is closer than you think. Amen
https://www.wordsoffaithhopelove.com/what-is-peace-in-the-bible/
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Leaning into Hope

11/30/2022

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Romans 13:11-14, Matthew 24:36-44
 
In the hustle and bustle of holiday cheer --finishing off the remains of the turkey and the last morsels of pumpkin pie--  in the blitz of black Friday sales, yesterday’s Small Business Saturday offerings, tomorrow’s  Cyber Monday goodies, and--  hopefully there’s enough left over for Giving Tuesday requests that has jammed our mailboxes – as we are pulled to and fro, from store to store and house to house, in the midst of it all -- the first week of Advent arrives today unannounced.  All of a sudden, the church linens have changed to purple or blue, and the candle of Hope shines, we take the first step to the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas Day.  Friends, where did the time go? Advent has slipped in our schedule unnoticed, unprepared for, demanding our attention. It calls us away from the glitz and glamour that has come to define these final weeks leading to Christmas.

To make matters more confusing, our readings today seem to have nothing to do with the spirit of joviality conveyed through all the decorations and holiday images cramming the airwaves and cyberspace.  Today Jesus forewarns his disciples to stay awake and alert, because no one knows the hour and day of the arrival of the Son of Man.  In the Greek the arrival of the son of man, the second coming of Jesus, is called parousia, which was translated into the Latin by the early church as “Adventus” from which we get our word of the day, Advent.  Yet for us, Advent means those weeks taking us to the birth of Jesus, right?

The real Advent in the New Testament Scriptures points to the second coming of Christ.  So, for us, this season of Advent calls us to live in a tension of anticipation of the birth of Jesus with the anticipation of the second coming of Christ; aka Judgment Day. The moment when Jesus comes again, amidst many signs and wonders, to separate the sheep from the goats, the righteous from the unrighteous, and realize the words of the Lord’s prayer that declares “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. The second coming of Jesus has become the stepchild of Advent: Who here has ever seen images of Judgement Day portrayed in the scenes from in shop windows or in commercials hawking goodies for us to buy or eat?  Who has heard a Christmas carol hailing the second coming of Christ?  Yet today’s scriptures are adamant that we are called in this season of Advent to be awake and alert to Jesus’ eventual return.

This waiting for Jesus to return abounds in the New Testament. Jesus declares (Matthew 16:27 )“For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.”

 Paul exhorts us in our reading from Romans today that night is over, dawn is about to break.  Elsewhere Paul teaches ( 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17): “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God” and (Hebrews 9:28):  “So Christ… will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

Luke reports at Jesus’ ascension how the angels remind the disciples:
 (Acts 1:10-11): “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Peter reminds the churches: (2 Peter 3:10): “ the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.” 
 
Doesn’t sound very Christmasy, does it?!

The first generation of Christians believed Jesus would return in their lifetime.  However, when the Parousia, the second coming was delayed, spiritual fervor fell by the wayside, people dismayed of hope, old sinful habits crept back as believers began to doubt the word of God.  Jesus forewarns of this in today’s reading: stay awake and alert, because no one knows the time and day of his return.  Jesus declares that he doesn’t even know!  

Every generation since Jesus’ ascension into heaven has believed they lived in the end times and thus Jesus’ return to earth was imminent.  Gallons of ink have been spilled creating endless theories about the delay, interpreting scripture to fit various guesses to pinpoint when it will all take place.  The accuracy rate of all these guesses is one big fat zero.  As Jesus said it, no one knows the time or the day.  The psalmist reminds us (90:4): “A thousand years in your sight, are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.”  But the one point that is true is that indeed we are living in the end times, we have been living in the end times since Jesus returned to heaven, and we will live in the end times until Jesus returns to earth.  And truthfully, that’s all we honestly know. 

So, what on earth does all this talk about the end times, the second return of Christ, staying awake and alert have to do with us, here on first Sunday of Advent, 2022, as we reflect on the hope candle? 

I am reminded that Hebrew has two words for hope, the first is yachal, which means to wait, hope, expect.  It is first used in Gen. 8:12 in the story of Noah.  Remember the whole sorry tale on how wicked humankind had become, so God despaired of the whole lot, expect for Noah who was righteous and walked with God?  So, God tells Noah to build an Ark, then take two of all creatures on it, and then sends the waters to flood the earth.   After the flood had wiped out the earth, and the ark settled on Mt. Ararat, Noah tested to see if it were safe to leave the ark.  First, he sends out a raven, which promptly returns.  Then he waits sends out a dove, which returns in seven days with an olive branch.  Noah waits and sends out the dove again which doesn’t return.  The word for waiting here is also hope.  Noah hopes, after living through the wickedness of humankind.  Noah hopes, as the floods cover the earth.  Noah hopes as the waters slowly recede. Noah hopes until finally the dove doesn’t return and the time has come to leave the ark.

Hope implies waiting.  Hope implies a profound trust in the word of God to be fulfilled in God’s time.  Hope implies belief in an outcome that has yet to come to pass.  Hope is the focus point of the word of the prophet Micah, who declares:  “But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me (Micah 7:7).”  Just replace “wait” for hope and we get the message of the Hebrew text. Because of Jesus’ birth, his life on earth, his death on the cross and resurrection, we are confident of his eventual return. That’s hope. Hope implies waiting, but not a passive waiting where we twiddle our thumbs, or we become impatient, lax, and begin to sit around gorging ourselves, and drinking, carousing and getting drunk, indulging our baser instincts, filled with jealousy or dissension.

Hope calls us to Christ-like action: that we walk with God like Noah, that we fill our days with good deeds. Hope says keep our hands busy serving each other and standing up for matters of peace and justice.  Hope says use our minds filled with promises of God contained in Scripture.  Hope says speak to upbuild one another. Hope says encourage the best. Hope says live to our spiritual finest. Hope says speak the truth with love.  Hope says test the waters, send out the dove. Like Noah we live in a sea of wickedness.  God has placed us in the ark which is the church.  And in these end times, for however long it takes, we wait, we hope, we endure. We act with prophetic courage for the age to come. That’s the hope that Advent calls us to have.

The advent practice of leaning into hope means that we don’t get overwhelmed by the sorrows and evil of the world, but we actively pursue overcoming evil with good. Leaning into hope means we don’t get distracted by the superficial gaiety of the season which commercializes and distorts the unconditional love, witness and bravery of the Christmas story.  Hope claims for us Mary’s yes, Hope claims for us Joseph’s faith, Hope claims for us the shepherds’ devotion, Hope claims for us John’s brave witness to the truth. Hope claims for us the generosity and wisdom of the magi.  Hope claims for us the brilliance of the Bethlehem star.  Hope was born on Christmas day and hope will return to us and bring us a new heaven and new earth.  And in this in-between time, these last days, we get busy and we hope.

So, as we juggle messages of pain of another mass shooting, another hate crime, one more earthquake, another nation’s cruelty, the incessant cries of the poor and oppressed -- with that pounding, compelling messages to buy, buy, buy; gorge, bake, decorate, drink to oblivion – let us stop! Let us breathe. Let us fix our eyes on this candle of hope. Let us lean into the brilliance of its flame, and there find the strength to wait. Let hope awake us, and prod us to be alert. Let us find the hope of a better world that compels us to act with love now, to clothe ourselves in Christ now, and to walk righteously with God now, with the confident assurance in the promise that Jesus is with us, now to the end of the age.  Amen.
 
 
 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcSu69jIfhA
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Generosity in Lean Times

11/22/2022

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2 Corinthians 9, Mark 12:41-44 
 
As we pause to give thanks for God’s blessings on this Harvest Sunday, we remember all for whom the harvest this year is leaner than before.  Heather, a social worker, and her husband, a veteran, lost their jobs and home, their small business folded, multiple relatives died and health crises pushed them into medical debt. “It just went from a drip to a flood very quickly. And we just lost it all," Thomas recalled.

Clara, and her husband lost their jobs at the start of the pandemic — she couldn't clean homes anymore due to her clients' COVID fears, and work stopped at her husband's construction sites.  They barely get by with food stamps and food pantries. 8-year-old Zoey from Louisiana, reported that her family often eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and she sees her parents go without food in order to feed their children.

Heather, Clara and Zoey are just three of the 33 million faces of the hungry and food insecure in our country today.  On this day we celebrate Harvest and Thanksgiving, on a day we give thanks for blessings, even blessings in lean times, we recall those among us who scramble to eat.  Some of us know what it is like to receive handouts. Some of us are economizing, cutting back, uncertain what is coming around the corner. Last week we talked about how we are living in lean times, difficult times, times when we need 1.17 cents to buy something that cost a dollar a year ago.

In these lean times, cutting back for some might also include cutting back in what we give to church to charity.  It’s human and natural.  We cut back everywhere even to those in need.  As people of faith however, the scriptures teach us differently.  Radical generosity is at the heart of the Christian’s life.  We are called to give out of trust. We are called to give God from our first overs, not our leftovers.  The prophet Habakkuk (3:17-19) declares the stance we are called to take in our lean times: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD,  I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

This attitude of gratitude, this declaration of acting in trust, in grounded in the biblical concept of the first fruits.  The concept of first fruits derives from an understanding that since God created all that is, everything belongs to God (Psalms 24:1). One of the first lessons God taught the people of Israel, is found in the book of Exodus 23:16 -- while they were still roaming in the wilderness -- is that the hallmark of a faithful people is in how they give back the best offering from our first offerings; including not only from the crops of the field, but from the sheep and cattle, even the first-born son was dedicated to God.  In all circumstances, we are called to return to the Lord our first and our best.

This is an act of radical trust and obedience. We can well imagine that the people are taught to give their best when they were probably experiencing lean times. Typically, agrarian people lived off the the harvest from the prior year, which was nearly exhausted by the time of the new harvest. Giving the first fruits is an act of trust because the farmer doesn’t know how the rest of the harvest will turn out.  Will there be enough cattle and sheep?  Will there be more children?

In addition to the first fruits, Jewish law went further and mandated that the corners of fields, wild areas, left-overs after harvesting and unowned crops  could not be used as the First Fruits offering. They were intended to be left as charity for the poor.  Remember the story of Ruth?  When she and Naomi returned to Bethlehem Ruth had to glean from the fields in order to eat. These teachings remind us that the first thing we do with what we have is set aside the best for God and a portion for the care of the poor. In this way we cultivate gratitude and a radical generosity, the foundation of faith in God in Christ.

        The first example of offering the first fruits is actually in Genesis 4, the story of the offerings of the brothers Cain and Abel.  Abel was a shepherd, and his offering to the Lord was “the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock” (Genesis 4:4, NLT). Cain was a farmer, and his offering was “some of his crops” (Genesis 4:4, NLT).  Abel’s offering, we are told, was more acceptable to God.  Abel offered to God the best portion of the first lambs, again not knowing if more would come. Cain’s offering was from some of his crops, his leftovers, not the first fruits, not the best.  We know how things turned out for Cain. His lack of generosity transforms in jealousy, resentment and rage, as he ultimately kills his brother Abel. The more we hoard what God has given us to share, the more we risk selfishness, the easier it becomes to turn our backs to others.

According to the Bible Jesus is God’s first fruit (1 Corinth. 15:20) Jesus is the best that God has to offer us.  Jesus is our life, our salvation, our Lord and our Savior. Through Jesus God shows us how we are to live.  Jesus reveals a radically generous, giving God whose life we emulate most clearly when we in turn give, as Paul instructs us in 2 Corinthians 9:7 “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not regretfully or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” The act of giving to God and to our neighbor in need should be a joyous act.  Giving should make us happy, satisfied, fulfilled as people of God. We give, in good times and bad, because we have a God who does not leave or forsake us. Thus, we are assured by Jesus’ very brother, James (1:17-27) who declares that “Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, …In fulfillment of his own purpose… so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.”  Thus, in our acts of faithful giving, we too become God’s first fruits to all creation.  We embody the best of God’s love for the world, in our testimony of radical giving, radical trust, a radical faith in a “God whose Giving knows no ending.”

So, the question that Harvest Sunday, that Thanksgiving poses to us is this:  are we witnesses of radical generosity?  Do we give of our “first overs,” our first fruits, trusting in the care o God?  Or do we give of our leftovers?  How do we look in Jesus’s eyes, who saw the Pharisees giving enormous amounts, but declared the widow’s mite was greater, because she sacrificed more?  Do we take the best for ourselves and leave the crumbs to God and others?  Imagine what a world we would have if we all practiced giving our first fruits, the best portion? We would experience a world like the prophet Isaiah describes: (58:11): ‘If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry, and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. ‘We would not have anymore Heathers, Claras, or Zoeys, or any of God’s children dying of hunger or in dire need.

We are called to generosity of our time, talent and treasure in lean times. We are created to be a first fruit people. Such a witness is the hallmark of a mature, grounded God-centered, Spirit-filled life. Like the widow’s mite, may we give in trust, not content to just share of our leftovers, but of our first fruits. Let us act in faith, be thankful in all things, for that is God ‘s will for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. For Jesus commands us: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. (Luke 6:38).”  Let us give like Jesus, the first fruit of all creation.

May we practice generosity in lean times and may there be a blessed thanksgiving to all!
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keOkDBIwVog
https://www.licares.org/who-we-are/impact/
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/02/1125571699/hunger-poverty-us-dc-food-pantry
https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/real-stories-of-hunger/lamonts-story
Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Hunger
https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/what-does-it-mean-that-believers-are-the-firstfruits-of-god.html
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Lean Times: Lean on Jesus

11/16/2022

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Nehemiah 2:1-5: 11-17; Luke 21:5-19
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Inspired by Andy Cook
https://www.lifeway.com/en/articles/sermon-perfect-vision-imperfect-times-nehemiah-2
 
It is Mid-November and in Chicago last week we gazed at lampposts decorated with brilliantly-lit snowflakes despite the abnormally mild weather in the Windy City. Friends, it has begun. Beautiful holiday ads are  flooding the air waves: Who here has seen: decked out trees? Smiling families wearing matching pajamas exchanging gifts?  Happy coworkers guzzling holiday Starbucks or adding holiday brand coffee mate to their brew? Air fresheners that promise those precious smells that bring us back to grandma’s kitchen.  Black Friday ads already priming the pump for November 25.  In the midst of the vamping up to the High Holy Days of Commerce, millions of Americans find themselves facing great struggles in the face of record high inflation that has reached a 40year high. A majority of Americans report being squeezed financially and having to curtail spending. Fears of a national recession around the corner are dampening our moods. Dramatic stock market losses have taken huge bites out of once-healthy retirement accounts.  It all adds up to a disturbing twist of life: These are “Lean Times.”
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The economic choices are complex; but the faith challenge is simple. If we face “lean times,” we’d better have a good foundation, a strategy, a plan, on which we can “lean.”  By leaning on our relationship with Jesus, we won’t just survive lean times. We can spiritually thrive in tough times. Take for example, Nehemiah, the Jewish lay leader who is the author of our first reading, was determined to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple after it had been destroyed by and under the control of foreign conquerors for 70 years. Nehemiah, a Jew but also a trusted government official in the Persian court, who in turn trusted in God to lead the people of Israel to rebuild from the ruins of war and exile. Ironically, in our gospel lesson, Jesus initially warns his disciples of destruction and despair to come to Jerusalem by Rome. Jesus foretells how that rebuilt Temple and Jerusalem from Nehemiah’s day would be destroyed yet again. Hard times, lean times, were coming, not just in the disciples’ lifetime, but in our lifetime as well.  It’s time to lean on God. Jesus promised in the midst of the oppression and pain, by endurance and faith, our souls will be secured, saved, survive.

If we want a way forward in tough times, we need a vision, a plan, a purpose. A Vision that sustains us. A vision that encourages us. A vision that gives us hope. A vision we can lean on.  Nehemiah was propelled forth by a vision of restored walls. Jesus gives a vision as he outlines the signs of the times: spiritual endurance through tough times.  Staying faithful to the gospel. Confess our trust in the Lord.
So, acquiring a vision in hard times is critically important. We are called to lean on God, on Jesus, on the scriptures, to receive a new vision, a new pathway forward.  If we want to be a vital congregation, we must lean on the Lord in difficult times, from which will come a vision that sustains us and moves us forward.

With a vision, anything is possible. Remember Walt Disney? He was a great visionary, making ground-breaking movies, taking animation to never-imagined levels of use, and … of course … creating Disneyland in California, and the massive Disney World, just outside Orlando.

When Disney World first opened, Mrs. Walt Disney was asked to speak at the Grand Opening, since Walt had died. She was introduced by a man who said, "Mrs. Disney, I just wish Walt could have seen this."
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Mrs. Disney stood up and said, "He did.” Walt Disney had already enjoyed Disney World, though he wasn’t even alive when the gates opened for the first time. He had the vision.

In our first reading today, the people of Israel faced the leanest of the lean times, living amidst the rubble of a destroyed city, leveled for seven decades.  In the midst of this devastation, Nehemiah was given a vision by God of a rebuilt Jerusalem, a new Tempe to worship in. One by one, each gate was up and finished. Block by block, each stone was back in place on the wall. Nehemiah stayed the course. And that got the job done.

Lean times. Tough times. That’s the time to stay the course. Jesus tells his disciples that there would be wars, persecution, arrests, they would be hated and betrayed because of Jesus.  Jesus told them about these lean times not to instill fear or despair.  Jesus gave them these warnings to strengthen faith, for the disciples to lean on Jesus when times got tough. For them to cling to the gospel vision that Jesus imparted to them. To be faithful while being persecuted, while in midst of the pain.  What’s that saying by Robert Schuller? Tough times never last, but tough people do?

When Nehemiah challenged the people to rebuild the walls, the people replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” And the Bible says, so they began this good work.” (2:18). Out of their lean times they leaned on God and received the vision of a rebuilt community. And they rebuilt it -stone by stone. 

God finds us in our lean times and equips us with vision of a new heavens and new earth. In evil times, God called Noah to build an ark. In the midst of the evil of slavery, God called Moses to lead the people of Israel to the promised land. David was hardened by battle and struggle by the time he got to the throne room of Jerusalem. Perhaps Jesus was trained for years in Joseph’s carpentry shop to patiently and carefully create masterpieces out of slabs of wood, just as he would create spiritual masterpieces from people, people like us, with struggles, conflicts, people in the midst of lean times, tough times, oppressive times, people seeking a new path forward, a new vision for life, a renewal of spirit.

We face Thanksgiving and the food pantries and soup kitchens are busier than ever.  Our wallets are being squeezed tighter, but we are still called to give and be generous in lean times as in times of plenty.  Soon we will enter the season of Advent, the beginning of the Christian year, this November 27.  We begin, knowing we are in lean times, tough times.  Leaning times. Time to lean on Jesus and each other.  That’s how a vision develops. That’s how we forge a purpose together.  We come together to worship. We come together to serve our community. We come together to pray for each other. In each food basket created, each prayer uttered, each hand extended, like Nehemiah’s stone upon stone, God leads us forward into a new vision, that emerges out of our times of chaos, our times of difficulty these lean times. 

Let’s take advantage of these lean times and lean on Jesus. Lean on each other.  From now until December 19, we going to talk about lean times, and leaning hard and fast on God’s word, and discover, as we serve, as we pray, God is building masterpiece in us and through us. A community of faith that can withstand all the hard times we experience and that we know are coming.  Leaning on Jesus, leaning on each other, in these lean times, we will make a way, we will find a vision, we shall endure, we shall possess our souls in the fulness of life.  Amen.
 
 
https://news.gallup.com/poll/400565/inflation-causing-hardship-majority.aspx

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Becoming a Saint

11/16/2022

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Inspired by: 
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/what-makes-a-saint-kenneth-sauer-sermon-on-saint-181758?page=4&wc=800
 Kenneth Sauer on Jan 3, 2014

One day a mom was walking through a beautiful church building with her 4-year-old daughter.  As they walked, the young girl looked around.  She stopped and was curious about the stained-glass windows that looked so beautiful with their bright colors. As she looked at the windows, she asked, "Who are all the people in the windows, mommy?" 

  "They are Saints," said the mother.  "What are Saints mommy?" the kid asked. The mother was stuck. How was she going to explain who saints were to a four-year-old girl?  As the girl was still looking up at the windows and the mother was still wondering how she would explain who saints are, the young girl suddenly shouted out, "I know who saints are, mommy. They are the people that the light shines through."

When you think of the word, “Saint,” who do you think of? Quite often we think of saints as those famous people of faith such as Saint Francis or Mother Teresa, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Oscar Romero, Dorothy Day, or Martin Luther King Jr. The Saints with a capital S. Who are your BIG go to Saints when the going gets tough?

In the Bible, a saint is simply a follower of Jesus Christ. They become saints by being born again by the Holy Spirit.  They were called, they were holy, and they were extremely dedicated, but they were still real people, far from perfect.  They were fishermen, farmers, tent makers, doctors, teachers, carpenters, former prostitutes, tax collectors, extortionists, outcastes, robbers, even Pharisees and the wealthy.

All the words in both Greek and Hebrew that are used in the Bible translated into the word "saint" all have the same definition.  According to the Bible a saint is someone who is sacred, holy, pure, blameless, dedicated. The word "holy" means "set apart."......"set apart to serve God.” Day in and day out.  We are all set apart to serve God, in each of our unique ways.  With whatever gifts we have been given, with whatever resources available to us.  In church and at our job sites. In our homes and out in the world. 

A saint most likely will fall into sin, lose their temper, hurt another by word or deed, but a saint asks God for forgiveness, accepts that forgiveness and asks God for the strength to grow in love. A saint might not get it right, but she perseveres.  
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A saint is anyone who responds to the love of God. That means we are saints. We are all saints. There are 69 times when saints are referred to in the Bible. Interestingly, not a single person is ever called a saint. That’s because in the bible the word saint never occurs in the singular – it’s always plural.

That means the only saints are those who gather with other saints. We cannot be a saint on our own. We need others to help us on the way to be saints, and other Christians need us for them to be saints.

Remember Jesus’ words today in the beatitudes. "Happy are you who are poor, because God's kingdom is yours.   Happy are you who hunger now...Happy are you who weep now...But how terrible for you who are rich, because you already received your comfort.  How terrible for you who have plenty now, because you will be hungry."  Jesus isn’t pointing out individual persons, he’s talking to us together.  The “you” here is plural. Saints learn in the nitty gritty day in and day out of life the kingdom values guide us to be present to the needs of the world and to give generously, and act prophetically, even when it is difficult, inconvenient or hard. Saints learn to sacrifice from a place of compassion and love that grows inside us as we follow Jesus and obey his words.

I think most of us have known such people. If we had not, I doubt we would be here this morning. Most of us were given our first glimpse of Jesus through one of His saints.  Maybe it was a mother or father. Maybe it was a neighbor, schoolteacher or friend. Maybe it was a pastor or a member of the church fellowship we were raised in or a Sunday School teacher.  Whoever it was, there was something about them……something that separated them from the rest of the crowd……something special about them that intrigued us and caused us to want to have that something special as well.  They were the people who would go the extra mile for us or anyone...…they were the people that we knew we could count on no matter what……they were the people who made us feel loved……who gave us just a glimpse of the Divine.

Who are your saints?  Who made you feel love?  Who inspires us to be your best? Through whom did you see the light of God shine?  I will always remember a poor unnamed neighbor who pulled me into her house and gave me a hot drink on a cold wintery day.  I will also always remember meeting Mother Theresa as a teenager, and was so moved by her testimony that I asked her, with childlike innocence, how do you become holy?  I bet she didn’t expect that question from an adolescent. Even at 17 I was feeling the movement of the holy spirit.  I will also always remember the beginning of her answer, which she took her time to answer – begin with prayer. 

The funny thing is, the older I get, the further I feel away from “saintedness.”  I think that’s pretty common – as we mature we realize through our failures and successes – that being set apart and following Jesus’ footsteps is only possible through the grace. Cracks appear in us, and that’s where God’s light shines through. It reminds me of the Japanese art of Kintsugi. Kintsugi is he process of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold — built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, you can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art.  That us – saints of God, with all our flaws and imperfections.

Think of all the ordinary people around us, obedient to the ordinary call of their lives. They are the first Bible that we really, really read. I read the bible last week in the hospital, I took in the image of Amanda Kelly-Pitt holding her precious sick son Noah.  Seeing Amanda cradling a sick baby, I saw a saint there. All the aunts and grandparents who cooked for us. Smiled at us. Encouraged us. Those goofy college friends sharing scripture with me while I quoted Marx back at them - they were the Bible I was first exposed to right before I had my born-again experience in college.  And because of this, they have also passed this fullness of life to me.   And I pray I have passed some of that light onto others.

Who are the saints that have touched your life with the incredible love of Christ? Maybe they are still alive. Maybe they are members of this very congregation. Maybe they have passed on, and you will light a votive candle in their memory this morning. Like them, we are to let Christ’s light shine, like the light shining through the figures in the stained-glass windows.

Through the grace of God, we are all ‘becoming saints’--people dedicated to God, dedicated to each other.  May the light of Christ may shine through the cracks and imperfections in us. May that light of our words and our actions in turn inspire others to become the saints of God. Amen.
 

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