First Presbyterian Church of Potsdam, New York

A community gathering in Christ and ministering as God leads

Sermons Delivered by Pastor Rich (current and archived)

Sermon: "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" (December 4, 2005)

Sermon: "Getting the Clay Ready" (November 27, 2005)

Isaiah 64: 1-9 - —O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence—as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil—to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed. We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.

There once was a potter. He was Master of His craft. He made the most beautiful vases and most usable drinking cups. He shaped the clay with skilled hands. In the blink of an eye a common serving bowl could be transformed into something grand and glorious. One day the Master left the workshop for a few moments. That's when something peculiar began to take shape in the Master Potter's shop.

A drinking cup was concerned that the Master Potter may return at any moment and remake it into a less noticeable vessel. Timidly, the vessel ventured closer to the Potter's Kiln and walked in. This event was not left unnoticed by the other pottery, still warmed by the touch of the Potter.

Soon a vase finds the flame an irresistible attraction. "A vase captures the scent of a thousand flowers and provides beauty for the Master's table." It began, "I must hurry if I am to be assured a place of honor at the Master's table." And with that, the little vase lost sight of the Potter's wheel. This was followed by a bowl and a decorative serving vessel. Soon every vessel but one became the vessel they had been temporarily shaped into as the flames of the kiln fire hardened them to the Master's touch. When the Master returned He was saddened to find only one lump of clay remained from the work He had begun. One by one the self-satisfied vessels emerged from the kiln thrilled that they had become what they had always hoped to be. The Master Potter rose and took the first vessel and traced the lines that had been lumpen clay not so long ago. Then He did a most peculiar thing - He picked up the last remaining vessel on His wheel and dropped it to the ground. All the other vessels looked on as the bowl became misshapen and seemed beyond repair. They were suddenly very glad that they had taken it upon themselves to finish the work of the Potter themselves. With great sadness the Potter took the first vessel He had only recently received and dropped it to the ground as well. The vessel became useless shards on the floor as the other vessels looked on in horror. The Master Potter gently retrieved the lump of smashed clay and placed it firmly back on His wheel and an even greater vessel emerged. He then picked up some of the broken pieces of the baked pottery and placed them on the wheel. It became apparent that there was little that could be done with that vessel. The Master Potter needed His clay to be pliable. The stubborn refusal of the hardened vessels to submit to His hand made it unfit for the Potter.

Then the Potter spoke.. “Don't I have the right to fashion this clay as I see fit? I make one vessel for practical use and another for its simple beauty. Some may be used for simple chores while others may grace the head table of a banquet hall. How is it possible for the clay to decide what I will do with it. Clay is simply clay, it only become something as it yields to My touch and design. Yet, today we have seen what happens when the clay decides what is best. Please tell me if you can, what use can I find for this vessel now?

One of the vessels that had taken it upon itself to enter the kiln reflected the shame of the others and replied, “We are the clay, and You are our Potter, and we all are the work of your hands. Do not be exceedingly angry. (Reference Isaiah 64:8.9)

The rest of the vessels join the first vessel and offer themselves back to the Master Potter who takes them one by one and places them on His work bench and returning to his wheel, begins yet again throwing more clay upon his wheel, shaping new vessels.

This little story, written as a combination Mime/Drama by Glenn A. Hascall, takes the words of the prophet Isaiah in verses 8 and 9 of this morning’s Old Testament passage and reminds us of the hand of God in our lives. It also speaks to the importance of patience and waiting for the Master Potter to do creative work in our lives. In addition, the concept of readiness or preparation is an essential ingredient in considering the entirety of the scripture reading. As we begin our Advent season this morning, and in the weeks to come, we will have a number of opportunities to ponder the wonderful gift that awaits us. Many of us would rather have the four weeks lumped into a few days, so we could get on with the celebration of the birth, share in the excitement of new life, revel in the traditions of gift giving and receiving. Yet, the prophet is significantly humble in the lament, the pleading for the God of Abraham and Jacob to be present in the lives of the Hebrew people. In this lament and pleading, Isaiah acknowledges for the people that they first of all are in great need. He admits the recalcitrant behavior of the people in their transgression, in their wavering faith. Isaiah speaks to the complicity in ignoring God and all that God has to offer the people. The people have reached the limit of their separation from God. The prophet implores God that the people are ready to again begin preparation for the presence of God in their lives.

“Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people. We are the clay, and you are our potter.” I find it quite interesting that the Hebrew translation did not say, you are ‘the’ potter, but the ‘one being potter of us’ (itz-reh-nu)—indicating the very personal relationship the people of Israel held they possessed with God. It is through this personal relationship that Isaiah had with God that he urges God to bring peace to a wavering people. Through the centuries previous to the writing of Isaiah, God had exercised great patience and faithfulness. I make the bold assumption that Isaiah is banking on this pattern continuing, but not taking it for granted. He in turn praises God and admits to the faithlessness of the people. Then pleading with great earnestness, he tells God that the people are ready to be less stubborn, more pliable, just as clay is to the hands of a Master Potter.

“We are the clay, and you are our potter.” If we truly believe that God can make a difference in our lives, can create a new being in us, we can believe that God’s hand is as present as our openness to God’s will, God’s grace, God’s gift of salvation to come. We must not rush God and God’s faithful purpose for us. We must be patient, listening, waiting, meditating, praying, expecting and preparing. As a wise fellow traveler on the journey of the Way shared with me, “We must be prepared to come to the table, always, and when we are ready, then we can truly take part in the life of the One who asks us to remember Him.” In the same token, getting our clay ready, means that we allow God’s hand to shape, mold, and make us ready, make our hearts, minds, and spirits ready for the Gift of the Promise and yield to God’s touch and design.

AMEN

Sermon: "A Shepherd's Crown" (November 20, 2005)

Matthew 25: 31-46 (34-40) - Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ If that doesn’t wake us up to the picture of the world, nothing will. These few words, heard this day when we celebrate Christ the King, begin our thanksgiving week, and consider the powerful intimation of the judgment promised by Jesus, must become for us not only words of warning but also words of hope.

‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ If that doesn’t wake us up to the picture of the world, nothing will. These few words, heard this day when we celebrate Christ the King, begin our thanksgiving week, and consider the powerful intimation of the judgment promised by Jesus, must become for us not only words of warning but also words of hope.

Each one of us have individuals in our families, past and present, perhaps even future, who are the black sheep of the family. I guess I must have been overly blessed because I’ve had a cousin in jail for felony charges, a cousin who was in and out of jail on drug charges, eventually lost his life because of suicide, a couple of narrow escapes by my brother and yes even I wasn’t considered an angel by any stretch of the imagination. We could consider these individuals goats—but are they really? Think of your imaginary or real relative who was the proverbial bad apple. Would they fit into the category of one who had to be separated, had to be sent into eternal punishment? I know for my relatives each of them had a heart as big as this church. Even though they may not have darkened the entryway of a church (at least not that I knew), and, excepting the behaviors that got them into trouble, they would give you the proverbial shirt off their backs. Turn the scenario to Jesus’ words, and each could be considered the ‘least’ on one hand and on the other, a person who reached out to one of God’s children and satisfied Jesus’ treatise: ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

Now that we have a picture of a world not unfamiliar to many of us, let us ponder the return of the Christ, his manner of judging, and the consequences of certain kinds of behaviors by the children of God. While few of us relate to the modern concept of royal realms, Kings, Queens, princes and lords, we can relate to the rural aspect of our areas, traveling in every direction there are plenty of sheep to view, occasionally goats, a few llamas, lots of cows and horses.

The two metaphors used by Jesus and the writer of Matthew are easily related to by the disciples and early Christians. Yet, these two metaphors describing Christ seem to be in opposition to each other. But that is at first glance. When I re-read this passage, I first thought in pictures. I attempted to see the Christ returning in glory. My first inclination was to go the Cecil B. DeMille route and have Jesus in flowing white robes, golden scepter in hand, the royal crown upon his head, with Jesus’ mixed look of consternation and compassion coloring his face. But then as he descended, the angels surrounding began to transform into all sorts of different people, some like children, some older, some very elderly. Some wore expressions of joy, while others deep sadness was etched upon the furrowed brows. While this picture was transfixing my gaze, it again revealed other beings around, crowds of individuals, of all conceivable ethnic backgrounds, and around their feet gathered flocks of sheep. Jesus remains a King, but now leads the people as a shepherd would a flock. I look more closely and the royal crown morphs into a tightened wreath of thorns. Jesus’ look of compassion overtakes his regal pose. He tends to his flock, his family, with a crown of thorns mercilessly digging into his forehead.

‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ His words give us a more poignant meaning to digest. As he looks at the faithful about him, he says it to all of us. On the one hand, Jesus speaks to his death on the cross at the hands of the Romans, acquiescing to the Temple leadership. On the other hand, he talks of the complicity of humankind in his dying and sacrifice. The picture in scripture tells of a merciful Son of Man, but a Son of Man who sits in judgment. The judgment becomes real as we reassess our own lives in the light of those who are the least among us. We could express a litany of sins of omission and/or commission that would satisfy negative behavior towards our fellow life travelers during our lifetimes. We could also recall thousands of instances when we cared for one of God’s children (those least among us) and those acts would answer in the positive Jesus’ question. But there is a deeper meaning that must be drawn from Jesus’ statement if it is to convince us of its power. If we see the crown of the shepherd/king as a remembrance of Christ suffering for us, we have to seek that meaning.

Rev. Dr. Frederic Jones, Pastor of the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Vallejo, CA, asks the question, “When are we Going to Stop Crucifying Christ?” and shares these powerful words:

“When we crucify the weak, or different, or alien, either literally or through neglect we crucify him. We Christians confess that the Christian community is the “Body of Christ.” In America we have a self-professed “born again Christian” president and most of our congress people and senators claim to be Christians. The real question, then, at least for Christians, is when are we going to STOP crucifying Christ? When are we going to stop as individuals? When are we going to stop it in society? When are we going to stop using war as a substitute for diplomacy? When are we going to stop causing gay and lesbian people to suffer for their god given difference from heterosexuals? When are we going to stop denying women full access, done by churches in the name of Christ, to Christian sacraments and service? When are we going to stop bombing innocent people, men, women and children, in the name of protecting ourselves from threats and terrorists?”

It is easy to be thankful for what we have in this country, this area. It is easy to enjoy the comforts of relationship, home and surroundings of the beautiful creation given us by a faithful and gracious God. In our comfort, we must be reminded of the needs of the world beyond our warm homes. In his presentation yesterday at Presbytery, Fahed Abu-Akel, moderator of the 214th GA in 2002-2003, spoke about hospitality and how Americans are good at listening and then forgetting. He reminded those present that we need to “see” those needs, and then we will act on those needs, more than just listening to them. We need to see the crown of the shepherd as a crown of thorns, a symbol of Christ’s suffering, and the suffering of God’s children here on earth. We need to be responders to that symbol, responders who will react to the needs of the Christ among us, beyond us, and throughout the world.

Mother Teresa, in a message given to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. nearly ten years ago, said,

“It is not enough for us to say: "I love God," but I also have to love my neighbor. St. John says that you are a liar if you say you love God and you don't love your neighbor. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live? And so it is very important for us to realize that love, to be true, has to hurt. I must be willing to give whatever it takes not to harm other people and, in fact, to do good to them. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise, there is not true love in me and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me.” “It hurt Jesus to love us. We have been created in His image for greater things, to love and to be loved. We must "put on Christ" as Scripture tells us. And so, we have been created to love as He loves us. Jesus makes Himself the hungry one, the naked one, the homeless one, the unwanted one, and He says, "You did it to Me." If we remember that God loves us, and that we can love others as He loves us, then America can become a sign of peace for the world. …. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for. God bless you!”

‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ Who are the least among us? It is you, it is I, it is the one next to you, the one at work, at leisure, at home, abroad, beyond. May we open our eyes and hearts that we might see the Christ, feed, clothe, befriend, and care for Him that wears the shepherd’s crown.

AMEN

Sermon: "Hidden Talents" (November 13, 2005)

Matthew 25: 14-30 (14-18; 24-30) — For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your latent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Many people at this time or year in the life of mainline churches are tired of hearing about money. They are tired of hearing about the need for giving, and increasing of pledges. They are tired of being asked, again and again to consider prayerfully the needs of the church. I hope as I preach this morning I don’t have to rank and rave to keep us all awake!! This probably won’t be a “Hell and Brimstone” sermon, and quite possibly it won’t go off the charts as a number one exhortation, but I do trust that what is shared from the gospel lesson might touch us in new and insightful ways as we look at one of the most intriguing parables Jesus taught to his disciples.

The parable of the talents is the last parable within the fifth discourse where Jesus continues his critique of religious leadership. In the previous chapter, Jesus is teaching about the end of the age, the kingdom of heaven, and the place the disciples are to take when he is gone from them. In the today’s gospel account of the parable of the talents, Jesus refers back to chapter 13 (11-13) in his answer to the question, “Why do you speak in parables?”—“ “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” This connecting phrase is a part of what is intriguing about the parable. We could take a cursory look at the parable and make a number of assumptions. We could blithely say that the Master refers to Jesus or God and that the slaves are those who follow the teachings of Christ. Then, of course, is this our picture of a gracious lord who is merciful and kind? Perhaps not.

Another assumption is that the talents referred to in the parable are the gifts and talents that people have and that we are to give generously and then we would be rewarded exponentially. One more assumption might be made is that Christ is denying the kingdom of God to those who criticize how God operates.

What if Jesus was being concrete in his teaching, and this was not meant totally in parable form at all? In the days of Jesus’ walk on earth, and for those who were in the first century AD (those to which this passage was written) a talent was actually a monetary unit. 5 talents were equivalent to 30,000 denarii—one denarii being the going wage for a day’s work of a laborer. What if the talents given were actually belonging to the person who was entrusting his money to his workers (during those days it was common for the slaves to be given the responsibility for managing for the master’s money)? While Jesus was attempting to get them to realize both the kingdom of heaven and his imminent departure, he uses a monetary concept to help them realize the importance of their obedience (and ultimate understanding of God’s sacrifice), the importance of taking risks to the point of total trust in him. This monetary concept is a concept that was easily understood. What might have been difficult to understand is the treatment of the third man. Jesus, in his own walk on earth and his treatment of the disciples is not reflected there. What is reflected is Jesus’ understanding of the way in which a master’s behavior can demand total obedience in almost ruthless ways. We certainly have heard stories or have been the recipient of such behavior.

Therein lies the problem and the dilemma for 21st century Christians. How many of us have lamented the concept of the ‘rich get richer and the poor get poorer?’ How many of us have heard and recognized the actuality of corporate executives lining their pockets with the profits gleaned from the diligent labor of the workers? How many of us are incensed when we hear of unfair labor practices that emanate from ivory towers that take away built up pensions for the workers, or take away benefits contracted years before, but because of ‘corporate greed’ elderly are left deciding which to choose—food or medicine? Could it be that Jesus is making a point about the impoverished, and saying that this master in the parable is not the best example to emulate? If we believe that God gives us the ability to respond to God’s goodness (the talents), we must also believe that we must trust what God wants us to do with these talents. Sarah Dylan Breuer, Anglican Scholar and theologian feels that this parable tells us:

“That we should line ourselves up to ride the wave of God’s kingdom coming, and not bank on what our culture says is most profitable. The live question for us, I think, about his Sunday’s gospel is whether we can really believe that, if we really can trust in that enough to risk living as Jesus taught us rather than according to the demands of those who try to set themselves up in Jesus’ place as our lord, who try to enslave us to worldly standards by telling us that our security is in acquiring resources for ourselves and striking out at our enemies.”

Breuer also speaks of signs that in our day and age, others are following Christ’s mandate to reach out to others, to fight to eliminate extreme poverty in this generation. She shares the statement of purpose of an organization called ONE where over two million have signed its pledge:

"WE BELIEVE that in the best American tradition of helping others help themselves, now is the time to join with other countries in a historic pact for compassion and justice to help the poorest people of the world overcome AIDS and extreme poverty. WE RECOGNIZE that a pact including such measures as fair trade, debt relief, fighting corruption and directing additional resources for basic needs - education, health, clean water, food, and care for orphans - would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the poorest countries, at a cost equal to just one percent more of the US budget. WE COMMIT ourselves - one person, one voice, one vote at a time - to make a better, safer world for all."

Whatever this parable means to you, or however it touches you this morning, I trust it takes on new and fresh insights in your journey, especially during this approaching time to Advent. What this parable means to me is the willingness to take risks, the way God calls us to use the abilities that God has given us, and to be faithful in whatever way we can, to the best of whatever abilities God has given us. C.S. Lewis in his “The Four Loves,” tells us of the quintessential risk:

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries, avoid all entanglements, lock it up safe in the casket or the coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket-safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken, it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is hell.”

In the area of stewardship, many have heard the adage, “Give ‘til it hurts!” I like to say, “Give ‘til it helps.” Jesus speaks of talents, but speaks of talents in the gifts that have been given to us. When Jesus speaks of hidden talents, and the dangers of not using whatever gifts we have, he is speaking of the greatest gift given humankind: the gift of the heavenly kingdom, the gift of salvation, the gift of love. He invites us today to take the risk and take his hand, his gift of love. He invites us today, to take that gift and be enriched by our sharing. What a gift, what an awesome responsibility!! Take that gift, live for the Christ, love humankind with His love, let us make no secret of God’s expectations of us, make our intentions be made manifest in our actions.

AMEN

Sermon: "Ready to Choose" (November 6, 2005)

Joshua 24: 1-3a, 14-25 (14-18, 21-25) — "Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." And the people said to Joshua, “No we will serve the LORD!” Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LROD, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.” The people said to Joshua, “The LORD our God we will serve, and him we will obey.” So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statures and ordinances for them at Shechem.

A choice was made. A life was saved. Another choice was made. Another life was saved. A choice was made. A nation survived. As human beings we are inundated with choices our entire life. As I realize that I have lived more years in the past than I will in the future, choices are particularly important. I am convinced that those who are gathered here this morning, as well as those who are not present, made a decision about the worship, the purpose of this period of time when we praise the God of Abraham, Jacob, Moses and Joshua, and our Lord Jesus Christ. I am convinced that most of the decisions and choices made this morning will be from the heart, for the right reasons. This morning we celebrate in special ways. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper, remembering God’s sacrifice for us, Jesus’ command to be his body in the world.

We celebrate the dedication of our financial gifts and pledges for the future of the ministry of Jesus Christ to the community and the world. Choices will be made. Gifts will be dedicated or set apart for a sacred purpose, in other words, sanctified for the use of God’s purpose in the life of this precious community of faith.

Joshua is nearing the end of his life, nearing the end of a faithful tenure as the leader of the Israelites, having drawn them into a union of twelve tribes. Joshua made a choice, however timidly and with trepidation, to answer God’s call to service. He now is urging the people to make a choice as he has made. Even in their seeming willingness to answer Joshua’s exhortation to serve God, the people are asked again and again during this pivotal point in their lives, “Choose this day whom you will serve!!” In the words of Anna Grant-Henderson (Uniting Church of Australia):

"Joshua was not convinced by the people's affirmation that they would serve only the Lord. He really pushed them to repeat their response as though this will help them to embed it within them. Many people are unaware that many covenants are made or renewed in the Hebrew Scriptures; we sometimes speak as though there are only a few. Joshua obviously thought it important to remind the people about their relationship with God at the point they were settling into the land.”

The gifts of leadership that Joshua brought to the people who were enslaved by Egypt, freed through the sea, protected in the wilderness, and given the promised land were legion, including the gifts of discernment, wisdom, exhortation and the ability to follow through on contracts. Joshua exhorted. The people responded. A choice was made. A people were led. A choice was made. Lives were saved.

So, the key in this passage has to do with choices. The key for us this morning, in the light of this passage is “Are we ready to choose?” Are we, like the followers of Moses and Joshua, ready to choose to serve the Lord? Are we, like the saints who have gone before us, ready to forego the gods of our parents, grandparents, the gods that when served, take us away from the LORD God almighty and his promise to us, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit of God? Could our question be the question of John Jewell, theologian and scholar of Old Testament history:
“Who shall we be in the light of what God has done?”
He speaks to the community of faith in a way that all of us are invited to ponder in light of choices made or unmade:

“Although community is central to the life of God's people, there is still a choice to be made by each of us. Our parents cannot make the choice for us. Our brothers or sisters cannot make the choice for us. The choice is not made for us by some kind of osmosis just because we come to worship or go through the rituals. There is a "choosing of God" that each of us must do for ourselves. Joshua lays the choice before the people. "Revere the Lord and serve him faithfully." And then he expresses his choice, "As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

While I need not list the little/big gods that we find in our life’s journey, the gods to which Joshua or any latter day theologian might allude, I encourage each of us to note those things that take priority in our lives and take us away from truly serving the Lord. When we consecrate/dedicate our pledges and gifts this morning, we are promising to serve God. Revering the Lord appears in ways Joshua could never imagine. The choices we make this day and throughout the year, to further the kingdom of God will impact countless individuals, known and unknown to us at this time and in this place.

Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

I urge you to follow these axioms, but perhaps you might consider this: Work as if God is watching you; love others, knowing that they have been hurt; dance the Lord’s dance with grace and enthusiasm (God within us); sing the Lord’s praise as you do God’s work; be the angel for the lonely, showing them what heaven’s all about.

Are you ready to choose? A choice was made. A life was saved. Another choice was made. Another life was saved. A choice was made. A nation survived. “Who shall we be in the light of what God has done?” Who shall we be in the light of what God has done for us? What shall we do in our service to God? How will we respond when the call comes, will we say, “Take my life, and let it be, consecrated, Lord to thee; take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise, let them flow in ceaseless praise.”

Sermon: "Semper Reformanda: Saying and Doing" (October 30, 2005)

Matthew 23: 1-12 — Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribe and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

“…..the church, in obedience to Jesus Christ, is open to the reform of its standards of doctrine as well as of governance. The church affirms “Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda,” that is, “The church reformed, always reforming.” According to the Word of God and the call of the Spirit.” Thus it is said in the Book of Order (G-2.0200), where are written guidelines for Government, Worship and Discipline by which those who are ordained leaders and members of the church (called the Presbyterian Church (USA) are to be led. No more evident was this statement than at the Synod meeting where commissioners gathered to put the finishing touches on the transformation that has been taking place over the last three years. While this is not a time to discuss these changes (exciting and challenging at the same time), it is good for all of us to recognize the need for change, not only in the judicatory bodies beyond the local church, but the local church as well, and in the lives of each and every one of us who claim to be a follower of the Christ.

The church reformed, always reforming. The believer reformed, always reforming. Jesus, in his teaching often indicated the need for transformation in the lives of those he taught. More importantly, Jesus, through his teaching, attempted to point out the right and proper way to be in relation with God and with God’s children.

On this special day, when we recognize those who have gone before us, prepared the way so to speak, the saints who have faithfully carried out the work of the church through the ages, we are reminded of the reason for our being. We are reminded that the struggles and challenges experienced during the early years of the church continued, century after century. The church, nor its members, rarely remained static. There were shifts, changes, upheavals, revolutions, crusades, insurrections, inquisitions, throughout the history of the church up to this very day. In the Presbyterian Church (USA) we struggle with issues of ordination, divisiveness, inclusion, exclusion, varying theologies that counter one another, and individual pettiness that flames into contradictions and hypocrisies, making many wonder why the church exists at all. But the important message is the constancy of Jesus Christ, the universality of his teaching, and how it can and will impact our lives as we open our hearts to him. The church reformed, always reforming.

Our first hymn, as most of us know, was authored by Martin Luther back in 1529. Without Martin Luther we would not exist as a church reforming. I share a brief note on the importance of Martin Luther’s actions:

“Martin Luther dealt the symbolic blow that began the Reformation when he nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church. That document contained an attack on papal abuses and the sale of indulgences by church officials. (Here are but five of these):

42. Christians are to be taught that the pope does not intend that the buying of indulgences should in any way be compared with works of mercy.
43. Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better deed than he who buys indulgences.
44. Because love grows by works of love, man thereby becomes better. Man does not, however, become better by means of indulgences but is merely freed from penalties.
45. Christians are to be taught that he who sees a needy man and passes him by, yet gives his money for indulgences, does not buy papal indulgences but God's wrath.
46. Christians are to be taught that, unless they have more than they need, they must reserve enough for their family needs and by no means squander it on indulgences.

But Luther himself saw the Reformation as something far more important than a revolt against ecclesiastical abuses. He believed it was a fight for the gospel. Luther even stated that he would have happily yielded every point of dispute to the Pope, if only the Pope had affirmed the gospel. And at the heart of the gospel, in Luther's estimation, was the doctrine of justification by faith--the teaching that Christ's own righteousness is imputed to those who believe, and on that ground alone, they are accepted by God.”

And, at the heart of the Reformation is the hope that as the faithful are guided by scripture and the confessional standards of the church, they will be open to the work of the Spirit in their lives, individually and corporately. The church reformed, always reforming. What does that mean for us today here at First Presbyterian Church? In what ways can our lives be transformed, reformed or continue to be reforming? Martin Luther was reacting to an abuse of power. In Jesus’ teaching to the disciples and the crowd in our Gospel lesson today, he points out the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees. He states, ‘do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.’ Then, he continues with an explanation of their hypocritical actions.

I couldn’t help but wonder if Martin Luther was feeling the connection between the Papal See and the Pharisees as he was railing against the indulgences.

Reformation or transformation comes as we explore our minds, our hearts and our spirits. It comes as we prayerfully consider what God has given to each of us. It comes as we allow the Spirit to speak to us candidly about our faith journeys and our interaction with Christ, others, the church and all of God’s children. The art of giving is a gift from God. When we intentionally contemplate the abundance of God’s love for us, God’s creation, God’s children, we can only be moved to a greater appreciation of the needs of those who are less fortunate. The church, the individual reformed, always reforming. I can only speak to you as a servant, one who loves God, and follows the teaching of Christ when I encourage you to be mindful how God has lovingly supported you through times of trial, challenge, upheaval, and distress. I encourage you to be mindful as you remember little miracles in your lives and the lives of your neighbors and friends. Responding faithfully to what God has done in the lives of God’s children at heart is what I call you to do.

Next Sunday we consecrate our gifts to the church, many of us pledging to the general operating budget so that the ministry of Jesus Christ will continue to flourish here in the St. Lawrence Valley. Many of us will be sacrificing for the work of the church. Some can give more, some will not be able to do so for various reasons. I challenge you to re-examine your lives, your lifestyles, your frugalness and your indulgences (with apologies to Martin Luther) and see where you can let go of one pleasure a month. Could it be a meal out, a lunch or a dinner? With 72 giving units, a dinner costing a couple or a family $30, sacrificing one meal a month out could benefit the church $25920. I know this may seem impractical for many but a budget shortfall can become a memory if each of us strives to forfeit something that is a want instead of a need. Examples of sacrifice:

• One meal ($30) out x a month (12) x 72 (giving units): $25, 920
• One half gallon of ice cream ($3.50) every two weeks (26) x 72 (giving units): $6,552
• One movie and treats for two ($25) x a month (12) x 72 (giving units): $21,600
• One package of cookies ($3.50) per week x 52 (weeks) x 72 (giving units): $13,104
• One trip to mall ($13.50) x month (12) x 72(giving units): $11,664 . . . gas only.

“Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda,” The church reformed, is always reforming. It reforms by the actions of the faithful. It reforms that the faithful may continue to do God’s will, in God’s time, and in God’s place. The work of the church must continue to flourish and does so with the committed, dedicated servants who care. We are urged by Jesus to follow the actions of those who were willing to sacrifice, the saints gone before, the Reformers, the risk-takers. We are cautioned to be servants and not puffed up in our doing nor hypocritical in our saying.

We are cautioned by the Christ to walk humbly with our God, led by God’s Spirit, respond to God’s giving nature by giving of our time, our talent and our treasure in a sacrificial way, that God’s will may be done in our lives and the lives of those whom we encounter on our daily paths.

Sermon: "Faith Food" (October 16, 2005)

I Thessalonians 1: 1-10 (2-10) — We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.

“We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope—faith, work and hope are key ingredients of this effective early Christian church. With great affection and pride, Paul encourages them to continue this ministry, a ministry borne out of a disappointing and tumultuous time at Philippi. I’ve always wondered about these early churches, how they operated, what were the successes they had, the trials and tribulations, the struggles, but mostly what kinds of issues they had to face in proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. Did they have a system of caring for the elderly? Were they aware of and attentive to the needs of widows and orphans as Jesus taught? Did they care for the sick in their church, and more importantly, those in the community? Were there educational opportunities for the less fortunate? Was there a food bank? Paul clearly edifies this band of faithful followers in his letter, the earliest of communication that was recorded. By this delightful connection, he teaches us a lot about what it takes to reach out, not only with a message of hope that is the basis of Jesus’ ministry and beyond, but also some practical applications of that message.

I, as many in this special hard working congregation here at Potsdam, have never really been hungry. Of course there was a short period during a Thanksgiving weekend at Jamestown College my first year, when everyone went home for the holiday and I stayed on campus with only a small bit of change. I survived on one banana and a peanut butter sandwich for three days and then went to the Depot to eat a huge turkey dinner on the Sunday before everyone returned. And, there was a time when I got as far as the Doddridge County (W.VA) food stamp program after poverty limited my diet for a few weeks to raisins, peanut butter, and honey and all the wild berries I could find. Whatever it was, even though I was truly hungry and at the end of the proverbial rope, I turned away from the food stamp office. The point is clearly this: I have never experienced the hunger of the developing world or the poverty of the present world, here or abroad. I’m spoiled. As a board member of the Community Development Program here in St. Lawrence County (the largest and poorest of New York Counties), I am constantly reminded of those who struggle on a daily basis to secure a decent wage, a healthy meal, dignity and respect, proper shelter, or affordable health care. So, as I ponder what it means to help the poor and hungry on this World Food Day and Crop Walk Sunday, I do it with some pause to consider how blessed I am to be here, surrounded by faithful people, encouraged by the outpouring of support for causes such as these. I do it as well, with a sense of culpability, that I could be doing more.

If I were to be writing a letter to this church and all the members and friends who make a difference in the lives of countless individuals through dedicated service, I would echo Paul’s letter. I remember my Granny who, when I visited her every college break, would teach me about life and the appreciation of it. This one particular day, I noticed her advancing years a bit more closely, her back straining with osteoporosis, her gait a bit unsteady, but her big brown eyes twinkling behind a wonderful chuckle, embraced by that impish smile of wisdom.

She took me by the hand to the porch of her house on 1502 Lewis Blvd and looked across the street and said, “See, Richard (she always called me Richard), I could be over there, and have no one visit me, like most of them. I am so lucky to be here. I am so lucky to be able to live in my own home.” Across the street was a three-story nursing home, not known for the best of care. She did live to be ninety-one and spent her last days surrounded by her seven children, only the last six months were in a different, more positive nursing home. Faith, hard work, and hope were the watchwords of this wonderful teacher of life. Countless times, I sought refuge in her heart. Countless times, my burdens were hers. Steadfast in a faith that saw her in church, sitting in the back pew with her son, this woman of courage who survived years of abuse from an alcoholic husband (whom she loved deeply), fed me and all those who knew her, faith food.

When I consider Paul’s words to the church in Thessalonica, I wonder about the ministry these people had, how excited they were to reach out to others, to the community. I think about my Irish grandmother who was always giving of herself, I never left without something she made, or would even sneak in a $20 bill (an amount I knew she couldn’t afford) to my pocket. What made them effective? What made the church effective? What can we learn from them? Faith food to me is that which we learn from others. Faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope are the criteria for effective discipleship in one’s personal life and in the life of the church. I would like so share seven points made by Rev. John Jewell that reflect these criteria and speak to the highly effective church. I feel they bear witnessing to in the light of this Sunday emphasis on World Food Day and the addressing of hunger in the world:

• A highly effective church has a leadership that is thankful for and continually prays on behalf of their church.
• A highly effective church has a leadership that focuses on the strengths of the church.
• A highly effective church is a community of faith characterized by faith, love and hope.
• A highly effective church is a church where the preaching and teaching of the gospel are accompanied with power and conviction.
• A highly effective church is a church where there is a sense of joy in spite of obstacles and trials.
• A highly effective church is a church that naturally becomes a model of faith for other congregations.
• Finally, a highly effective church is a church that touches the world around it with the good news of Christ.

All these characteristics, by Paul’s hand, reflect the church in Thessalonica. Here, at First church, we can, without shame, boast these qualities as well. While pride is not the reason we exist as a church, we must acknowledge and edify where we are effective, where we are called to continue the vibrancy of our Christian witness, and strengthen those areas that need attention. Faith food comes to us as we contemplate our past, present and future leadership in a community and surroundings that continue to have increasing needs.

We are a praying church, for those here and beyond our doors—for health, well being, freedom from anxiety, countless efforts of prayer emanate from our hearts. We are grateful for all the talent, gifts, hard work and dedication of all. We are a community minded church that goes out of its way to be a beacon of hope and an available space for church groups and community organizations. We express our faith in many ways, not the least of which is reaching out to those in need, supporting organizations like Helping Hands, Neighborhood Centers, and other charitable organizations through our individual and corporate giving. We attempt in many ways to promote the gospel message through preaching and educational opportunities for all ages. My joy in serving comes largely in seeing the compassion and care given to those in need, those who are overcoming great obstacles in their personal lives.

The leadership of our church is seeking new and progressive means to reach those who have no church affiliation, thus becoming a strong model of faith for other congregations, hopefully utilizing new styles of worship. As we are reminded today and in the last few months and years, this church reaches out on a national and global level to touch the lives of countless families in need. We are a giving congregation, serving a giving God.

Faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope. Let these continue be our watchwords, our foundation in spreading the Good News to the poor, the hungry, the oppressed and the afflicted. Let this be the faith food that we share with the community and the world. “I could be over there, and have no one visit me, like most of them. I am so lucky to be here.” My Granny said. I say, “I am so lucky to be here.” I am certain that we can say as well, “We’re so lucky to be here and to be able to serve with joy, to lead, to model, to grow in steadfast faith.” I close with a poem about the Crop Walk, written by Janeal Turnbull Ravndal.

WARTHMORE CROP WALK
Blazing this fall day
We walk an embarrassment
Of elegant streets.
In this neighborhood
Not even a rosebush looks
To be neglected.
The gravest danger
On our six-mile way: one small
Square of wet cement.
At our first checkpoint:
Rich, chocolate cake is spread
With cream cheese icing.
On the world's other
Side and near, the poor have no
Cake, no crossing guards.
Do we, prosperous,
Momentarily hunger,
Craving righteousness?
Give us this day our
Daily forgiveness, O Thou
Extravagant Love.
Leaves fall, the color
Of pears, of pomegranates,
Of hot, buttered loaves.

AMEN

Sermon: "Joy Like a Fountain" (October 9, 2005)

Philippians 4: 1-9 (4-9) — Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Occasionally, I’ll hear from someone who expresses a concern about little joy in his/her life. After listening intently with an individual or a couple about this seeming lack, I reflect within my own mind and heart about what brings me joy. I offer no particular advice, but often I will point out to this person or persons that within the great scheme of things, amid much turmoil and challenges they face, there are available snippets of joy, no matter how difficult the situation. While I don’t mean to sound trite or patronizing, the suggestions made usually bring an “AHA” experience to their eyes and a lighter feeling within their hearts. Though no severe challenge or even a small difficulty is erased by a smattering of joy, joy can become a critical and vital component in the well being of a person in distress.

I love our second hymn that we will sing today. “I’ve Got Peace Like a River!” Peace like a river. Those who have experienced the mighty Mississippi or Colorado in their glory and sometimes fury, might question this particular metaphor. However, some of you may have taken an excursion on a lazy meandering stream where all you feel in its presence is bliss, a comforting feeling of well-being or relaxation. Psalm 23 speaks of being led by still waters (in the Hebrew the word is translated waters of rest. (meh-ee). Not difficult to wrap our minds and hearts around is the third verse of the hymn, “I’ve Got love like an ocean.” Any pollyannaish thinker can relate to this.

Remember when we cooed and cuddled our little children or the children of friends or relatives, and told them how much we loved them “THIIISSSS MUUUUCH!!” “SOOOO BIIIG” and stretched out our arms as wide as we could? The ocean is vast, truly so big beyond our comprehension—that is how big the love becomes to which the hymn writer alludes. Of course, we must infer that the love sung, the love received, the love shared is from God. Not too hard to appreciate that kind of picture. However, when we who have traveled on the ocean, and have encountered the rolling of a ship, ferry or small boat, we understand that the ocean can be rather raucous, uncertain, powerful, and fickle. Can love be like that perhaps?

But what about the middle verse? “Joy like a fountain?” We all know that fountains are not always conventional. They may work well one day, the second they may not. Even natural fountains can’t always be as predictable as the famous “Old Faithful” in Yellowstone National Park. Artesian wells certainly have a special quality about them. Remember, if you will, those reading these words from Paul in his letter to the church in Philippi are living in a major city in Macedonia and also a Roman settlement on an important trade route toward Italy. What most probably was in the center of the city was a city square replete with a magnificent fountain. In his exhortation to the faithful, Paul speaks liberally of joy. Could the hymn writer be thinking of this kind of rejoicing or joy? "Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say rejoice." "Joy like a fountain, I’ve joy like a fountain, ina my soul!"

Those who have benefited from Paul’s missionary zeal in Philippi have been experiencing significant opposition, though it’s not clear how much or from whom. Personal conflict seems to be festering between two of the women in the congregation, but Paul, addressing this conflict still remains upbeat, and follows admonition with rejoicing.

As always, at the center of this joyous refrain is the feeling of joy he has in his heart and soul emanating from his personal relationship with Jesus. Concomitant with this joy is the joy he feels as he witnesses the faithfulness and strength of the church members and their convictions to keep this ministry continuing and vibrant. Joy like a fountain can certainly be a watchword of Paul’s as he relates his love, concern, and excitement about what they are doing. Many of you have heard the acronym for JOY and what it stands for. J is for Jesus, O is for Others, and Y is for you. How powerful this becomes when we think of Paul’s joy coming from what he has done for others, what others have done for him and the ministry and all because of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Joy like a fountain. A steady, workable fountain is one that gushes from within. Joy within one’s soul is from the center of one’s being. Outside influences take a back seat. Selfish self-interest and absorption are set aside. Focusing on the Christ, being truly focused on a goal is the key for disciples of Christ. Maintaining that focus is what brings us a joy, joy gushing from within, like a fountain, refreshing and renewing our souls and hearts.

I can find no better illustration than our Youth of this congregation who returned last night from their ropes course adventure at Camp Overlook. Each individual, to a number, went out of his/her particular comfort zone, to stretch beyond what he/she thought he/she could do. What joy it brought to our hearts and souls, those of us who have watched them grow and mature, struggle with issues of adolescence, seek their place in this crazy world. What joy on the faces as they surmounted obstacles few of us have encountered. Joy like a fountain was there on that mountain top, joy like a fountain emerged from a hurting heart and an eager face. From nervous laughter, to honest to goodness fear and trembling, joy emerged like a fountain while 12 individuals merged their strengths together into a new bond of trust, respect and love.

On a zip line nearly sixty feet in the air, to the Burma crossing on a tightrope cable—individuals searched inside, gathered strength and courage and were rewarded with joy like a fountain.

Within the great scheme of things, amid much turmoil and challenges humans face, there are available snippets of joy, no matter how difficult the situation. Though no severe challenge or even a small difficulty is erased by a smattering of joy, joy can become a critical and vital component in the well being of a person in distress. Today joy is a critical and vital component in our worship and in the life of our congregation. We welcome into our fold here at First Presbyterian Church new members, friends who have graced our life with humor, talent, perseverance and love for several years. We welcome into our fold a little one, one who brings joy to our hearts every time we see her laughing, beautiful eyes. Joy like a fountain comes from a sense of belonging, a sense that others care for us, seek us out for comfort in our time of need. Joy like a fountain comes in the cry of a little one, hungry and wet, knowing that we can be a guide, a beacon of hope, compassion, care and nurture in a world where some experience little joy. Jesus—others—you. Joy like a fountain comes to all of us when we rearrange our priorities in that order. I know my joy came rushing in--in great and wonderful quantities this weekend. It had little to do with my own accomplishments. I know that I will feel a great fountain of joy when we agree to support our new members and the new life that God has given Martin and Amy, the new life entrusted to us as believers in the Christ, the fount of every joy and blessing.

AMEN

Sermon: "Cross Country Lanes" (October 2, 2005)

Philippians 3: 4b-14 (7-14) — Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

How do you get from point A to point B? As a former cross country runner, I learned very quickly about integrity, stamina, goals but for a long time, not prizes. My first practice was with the basketball team that was beginning its fall training. Some of you remember that I was the thirteenth member of a twelve member basketball team in college. Well, Dennis and I thought we would impress the coach by shortening our path on the cross country course and cut off about a half mile. It was easy to do, just head for the trees that obscured the view from the football field, duck down the valley a ways and meet up with the course toward the end of the three miles. Coach Cassell was certainly impressed, looking at both of us with incredulity and hopefulness. However, this excitement was short lived when checking his watch he realized that both of us had run close to four minute miles!! Thrown off the course, embarrassed, chastised, and humiliated was perhaps the first and best lesson I learned about integrity. While I did in each of the four years become a serious part and runner of the cross country team and trained for wrestling by doing this, I held and valued the teaching that fall afternoon. I had to let go of a willful pride, a disdain for certain conventions, but I did let go.

Why I share this story when considering how Paul speaks of his relationship with Christ, is that I think it important that we explore how to get from point A to point B. How do we get to the point of giving up all, in order to be in full embrace of Jesus Christ? Is it more than just acknowledging Him as our personal Lord and Savior? Is it more than going through the motions, trying to find short cuts in our lives, trying to escape the hard choices that we have to make? As a cross country runner, I learned about integrity, stamina, goals but for a long time, not prizes.

I earned very few medals in college. Some ten years later when for a period of twelve years or so in my twenties and thirties, I competed regularly in 10 Ks, half marathons and two marathons, I did win scores of valuable T-shirts, a few medals and a couple of trophies. Perseverance, diligent training and an eye on the prize so to speak allowed me to do that. But that was as hardly fulfilling as was my eventual relationship with Christ.

Paul, in this morning’s passage speaks of what he lost, or sacrificed in order to have a fulfilling relationship with Christ, and the importance of that relationship. The prize of which he speaks is the prize that all Christians yearn for, strive for, exercise their faith for, and that is the prize of eternal life. While Paul’s words to the church in Philippi indicate that he might yet be concerned whether or not he will attain that prize, he nevertheless urges others to do as he is doing in ‘pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.’ Getting from point A to point B for Paul means sacrifice, losing that which was prohibiting him from truly attaining relationship with Christ, and diligently striving forward without dwelling on his past. Barbara Essex, Minister and Community Life Director at Pacific School of Religion says it best, of Paul’s journey from point A to B and how it relates to our own journey:

“In other words, when it came to being a Jew, Paul was all that and a bag of chips! But all these things were useless to him; they were like rubbish, trash. His education, his bloodline, his family background, his social status, his zeal, his obedience to the law, his power count as nothing compared to the new life he had found in Christ!

The change in Paul was not something he did on his own or under his own power. It was the work of God! It took a radical event to move Paul from persecutor to preacher, from bigot to benefactor, from status to surrender. While a Pharisee, Paul drew a circle that enclosed him and kept others out. His style of goodness suited him and his kind just fine. They were prompted to ask: who is my neighbor? And, how many times should I forgive?

We are not exempt from this tendency:

• We dig in our heels rather than change.
• We hold on to security rather than take a leap of faith.
• We remain stubborn rather than risk.
• We cling to prejudices rather than love our neighbor.
• We defend and protect our self-interest rather than surrender to God's will.

We are often quite wrong because we think we are quite right! In his former life, Paul was sure he was right. His task was to protect his understanding of Judaism; anything that threatened his religion had to be destroyed. It was all about him and his kind. What if it's about God and what God wants to do in and through him? Whatever is done to us that changes our hearts and minds is always more than we can do ourselves. When we strive for inclusivity, we leave someone out. When we struggle for justice, we commit unjust acts. When we wrestle with ourselves, we let ourselves off easy. When we try to let go, we hold on to things that hinder our progress.”

So, it is more than just proclaiming our trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We must go beyond verbalizing and effect this relationship that we are developing. As we consider the church universal on this World Wide Communion Sunday, and as we consider the plight of the needy throughout the country and the world, we must be mindful of our role as disciples of Christ and how we too, like Paul, must stay the course, depend upon a God who not only promises salvation, but the strength, wisdom, stamina to maintain a steady path toward active and vibrant discipleship. How do we get from point A to Pont B? Tony Campolo, one of our speakers at our Pastor’s Retreat this past May, in a message given some years ago told a story about meeting Jesus. I quote:

“Where do you meet Jesus? Well, first of all I contend you meet Jesus in suffering people. If you look deeply into the eyes of suffering people, you will have this eerie awareness that the same Jesus that died on the cross is staring back at you. Mother Teresa learned that, and I’m learning that. I was walking down the street in Philadelphia and a bum came towards me. I mean a dirty, filthy guy. He was covered with soot from head to toe. You couldn’t believe how messed up he was. He had this huge beard and there was rotted food stuck in the beard. As he approached me, he held out a cup of McDonald’s coffee and said, "Hey mister, want some of my coffee?" I looked at his dirty, filthy personhood and said, "Thanks, but that’s okay," and I walked by him. The minute I passed him, I knew I was doing the wrong thing, so I turned around and said, "Excuse me. I would like some of your coffee." I took some of the coffee and sipped it and gave it back to him. I said, "You’re being generous. How come you’re being so generous today?" And this bum looked at me and he said, "Because the coffee was especially delicious today and I think that when God gives you something good, you ought to share it with people." I didn’t know how to handle that, so I said, "Can I give you anything?" I thought that he would hit me for five dollars. He said, "No." Then he said, "Yeah, yeah. I’ve changed my mind, there is something you can give me. You can give me a hug." As I looked at him, I was hoping for the five dollars! He put his arms around me and I put my arms around him. And as I in my establishment dress and he in his filthy garb hugged each other on the street, I had the strange awareness that I wasn’t hugging a bum, I was hugging Jesus. I found Jesus in that suffering man.

So first I find Him in those who are in need. Second, I find Him in silence. The third place you will find God is in the Scriptures.”

How do you get from point A to point B? There are no shortcuts. On the cross county lanes upon which many miles have been run, walked, and stumbled, we will meet the Christ. The empty cross is our prize, the salvation it represents. The countries throughout the world, including our own, provide the fertile field for our gifts of love and compassion, given to us by the Creator who promises that all things are possible.

The lane of the Spirit who guides, strengthens and helps us keep pressing toward the prize, invites us through the hills and valleys of life, where we may be the guides of generations to come. Blessed be the Lord Jesus Christ who shares the Spirit’s invitation to run the race and the invitation to this morning’s table with us.

AMEN

Sermon: "This is Not a Test" (September 25, 2005)

Matthew 21: 23-32 — When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, an who gave you this authority?” Jesus said to them, I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.”

“This is not a test—it is the real thing.” So said C. Ray Nagin, Mayor of the soon to be ravaged city of New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina barreled toward the gulf coast of Louisiana. Again, the residents of this devastated area are reeling, having not even returned to what were once their homes. Hurricane Rita has now inundated Texas and Louisiana, the western part of the state the hardest hit but as well, major portions of New Orleans back under water. This is not a test. While many harried souls are wondering out loud, “Is not God testing us? Where can the compassionate God be? How much more can we take? I’m not sure we can endure any more hardship, death, destruction!” we pray that God’s infinite mercy will envelop all who are questioning, hurting, grieving. The questions are indicative of the human predicament, a tragedy beyond our comprehension, devastation of colossal proportion, and hardly fit into our thinking. But it did happen, it is happening and the lives of millions of people will be affected for years to come. And in many ways, these kinds of natural disasters do test the human spirit, the will to survive, individual and communities’ will to persevere and do what is right in the sight of their constituents and the human community in general. As part of that human community, our will to assist, to go beyond what we think we can do, is tested as well.

We are invited to witness and explore a different kind of testing this morning. Matthew’s account of the second of Jesus’ entries into the temple (the first is when he is lauded as king with great praise and hosannas) where his teaching is interrupted by the chief priests and elders of the people who are questioning his authority. By now, they have to be seething! He has questioned their status quo practices of usury (the charging of interest on the exchange of currency and the buying of animals for sacrifice) by overturning the tables, in effect calling them a den of robbers (quoting Jeremiah). During the first entry, they witnessed his popularity and held back on any criticism for fear of the great crowds. But in this instance (the overturning of the change tables) he blatantly humiliated their practices, and caused them great concern which fueled their courage to confront him. What they had established over the years, was a neat package of laws and rules that would coincide with an unfair tax system by the Romans that essentially robbed the poor to fill the coffers of the rich. The leaders in the temple surely would not want this beneficial apple cart to be overturned. Yet, that is what Jesus did.

Jesus is following a long line of prophets who had criticized the complacency and complicity of the Jewish leaders in their acquiescing and cow-towing to the Roman rule of tyranny. As didprophets of old, like Jeremiah, Jesus faces special scrutiny, not only from these leaders but others on the periphery who benefited from Roman rule. Rev. William L. Mangrum, theologian and pastor of the Mendocino Presbyterian Church in California, tells us,

“Jesus didn’t play by the establishment’s rules. Jesus was not a separatist—he did not retreat into a world of privacy and personal religion. He was not willing to go along in order to get along. He would not barter justice for state permission to practice religious quietism. Jesus’ mission took him straight to the heart of Israel, the Temple. By overturning the stalls, Jesus acted against the established powers. The Temple stood, and sacrifices continued, but it cost people’s liberty and well-being. If you can imagine this, you may well grasp the boiling cauldron of politics, religion, and economics in which our gospel reading simmers.”

What this must remind us of is that we too live in a world that clambers against the teachings of Jesus, where his teachings are revolutionary still. When the chief priests and elders of the people (Temple leaders) question his authority, we who are believers must call attention to that within our own society which questions the authority and commandments of Jesus. When we see and hear of the tragedies of the past month, our hearts go out to those who suffer. When we witness ineptness of government to plan for the poorest of our society we must call for accountability in those structures that are called to serve and not be served. Is this a test for us?

There is a second kind of testing that is going on and it is conducted by Jesus himself. He will not answer the questions posed by the leaders. He does this because he knows their methods and motives. They use the technique commonly used in theological debates (that of answering questions with questions) and Jesus puts it right back on their plates. The motive to their questioning is to trip him up so they can accuse him of blasphemy (the reason they ultimately give the Roman authorities for his execution). But Jesus, knowing their thoughts and hearts, will not allow them to put the answer they seek on his own lips. Instead, he gives them, as Sarah Dylan Breuer (PhD candidate in early Christianity at UCLA) says:

“….a two-part answer. It’s where Jesus turns the tables on his questioners by asking them a difficult question: who do you think gave John the Baptizer the authority to do what he did (which, after all, included promising forgiveness of sin to those who were baptized—in other words, John claimed that his own ministry apart from the Temple could do for people what Temple sacrifices were supposed to do). The chief priests and the elders can’t say that John’s authority came from God without undermining the Temple system they serve, and they can’t say that John’s ministry wasn’t of God without losing the support of the people, so they shut up.”

The second part of the answer comes in his testing the leaders through a parable of two sons, one who is rebellious but eventually obedient and the other who seems obedient but ultimately lies to his father. Of course, when Jesus openly challenges the chief priests’ practice of self-indulgence, self-righteousness, and exclusivity (regarding the prostitutes and tax collectors that Jesus places ahead of them) one can imagine their anger rising to a boiling point. Jesus’ teaching’ has unmasked their rigidity and self-righteousness and further challenges their authority and established practices.

“This is not a test—it is the real thing.” While we cannot wrap our minds and hearts around the extent of the tragedy that has affected God’s children in the Gulf Coast region, we are called to pray, to act upon the tuggings of the Holy Spirit that call us to serve. It is the real thing when we accept Jesus’ revolutionary call to go against the tide of self-serving self righteousness and self-aggrandizement that exists in our society today and consider the plight of the poor, the homeless, the grieving and the dispossessed. Jesus has tested the authorities for us. Our call and urgent responsibility is real, vibrant and necessary: to believe the truth of his prophesy of inclusiveness, to do justice, love kindness and to walk humbly with our God.

AMEN

Sermon: "The Right to Grumble" (September 18, 2005)

Matthew 20: 1-16 (8-16) — When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
Exodus 16: 2-15 (9-12) — Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, ‘Draw near to the LORD, for he has heard your complaining.’” And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. The LORD spoke to Moses and said, “I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’”

Whether you are on the desert floor, wallowing in self-pity in the wilderness, or sweating under the hot sun while you are cutting the clumps of grapes, you have the right to grumble. It’s human nature. We all complain. I like to get things right out in the open before we do any in- depth pondering about life and all the inequities it throws at us. We all complain. Sometimes we call it complaining, sometimes grumbling, maybe whining or even irritating crabbiness. We all complain. The bible, in some of the versions, call what the Israelites do when they complain to Moses, downright grumbling. Grumbling that they would be better off back in Egypt as slaves, letting God destroy them as they are eating meat around the fires of Pharaoh; grumbling that Moses is not taking care of them, grumbling that they are starving. Matthew’s laborers in the parable this morning grumbled!! And most of us, in our first look at the words, would say, “Right On!! It’s not fair!!” Those who worked the hardest deserve more pay!! It’s the American way!! They have a right to grumble.

How dare the landowner treat those who worked only a few minutes (or hours), most of the time spent when it was cooler, and even the hardest of the work was done before they started, in such a generous way? How dare he?? Well, let’s look and see who we have to blame. Let’s see if they (the Israelites/workers) have it right.

First of all, the Israelites blame Moses and Aaron. We know the story, Moses worked on Pharaoh to “Let My People Go!” several times until Pharaoh gives in to the plagues sent by the LORD to help change his mind. And last week, we heard how God was generous to the Israelites in destroying all the horses and riders of the chariots. (Some of us cringed at such a vengeful God!) So God led by cloud and pillar the hungry band of former slaves into the wilderness, giving Moses and Aaron explicit directions. So, it looks like God is to blame. Essentially, the people are murmuring (grumbling) against God through God’s servants. I think if I were hungry, I would have a tendency to grumble.

In Matthew’s story of the workers in the vineyard, there are two principals beyond the workers themselves: the landowner and the manager. The landowner himself has called (hired) the workers, and did this not just once in the morning, but 5 times: 6, 9, 12, 3, and 5 o’clock. The manager has a secondary role—that of paying the wages. He is told to bring in the last of those hired, pay them and pay the rest in reverse order of their hire. I can only imagine that the workers grumbled to the manager about the seemingly unjust way they were treated (those who worked all day to receive the same as the last hired!). But according to the writer of the parable, it is the landowner who takes the brunt of the complaint, and it appears he addresses it immediately.

Taken at face value, and putting our competitive business thinking caps on, this kind of action would deserve a strong grumble at the least. We as Americans believe in the concept of a fair wage for an honest hour/day’s work. What you put in, is what you get out! Right? I remember working in the county office at Silver Bow Department of Social Services as a Child Protective Investigative Worker. There was this one worker who spent most of her day in the office reading novels and working on crossword puzzles. Boy, did that irk me!! How dare she get the same wage as I did and I worked twice as hard and three times as long in the field, taking in sights that would curl your hair, situations of abuse that caused nightmares instead of dreams? I’m certain many of us here today have known or seen someone who got something for nothing, and it burned us up! Darn right, we have the right to grumble when we see inequities, injustices, unfairness!! And doesn’t complaining make us feel good? Doesn’t it make the situation better? Doesn’t the good and righteous person prevail in the end?

Well, a closer look at both situations may give us pause at the irony and paradox of the teaching. “It is human nature,” C. Thomas Hilton (author, Be My Guest; Ripe Life) says,

“to resent the good fortune of others. The message of this parable is that we have a God who really loves us and wants the best for us, all of us. God’s love is greater than our love and shows itself in wonderful ways that are different from what we would expect. We are astounded by the amazing generosity of the landowner to those who work, no matter how long they have worked.”

Hilton suggests, and I agree, that often we as human beings, put God into certain parameters that fit our concept and our understanding, thus limiting our ability to conceptualize the wonder and majesty of a God so full of grace who would give in such unfathomable ways. He uses the illustration of the fisherman, sitting on the dock, and when he caught a fish, and it was larger than 10 inches, he would throw it back. He kept those that were 10inches or smaller.

When asked why he did such a stupid thing, he replied, “Why, because my frying pan is only 10 inches across.”

Jesus, in this parable, is asking us to stretch our understanding of God’s love, giving, generosity and grace. He is also asking us to allow God to be in control, to be sovereign over our lives. God, in the Exodus story, is asking the Israelites to be patient, that they will be fed in due time, that those whom God has called to lead, will lead with God’s direction and wisdom. Through this story, we, as modern day believers, are taught that God will provide, that the sun shines (beats down) on us all, the rain falls on us all, that God will provide our needs, not necessarily our wants. But we still grumble. The workers grumble because it’s not fair that those who worked less get the same wage. The exiles grumble because they are afraid that they have been abandoned and will starve to death. Do they/we have the right to grumble? Of course we/they do!! We have free will to complain, murmur, grumble, and whine. But there is more to it. I have a delightful little story to share, written by the poet Maya Angelou (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings) that speaks to grumbling, or in this case complaining. She tells:

When my grandmother was raising me in Stamps, Arkansas, she had a particular routine when people who were known to be whiners entered her store. My grandmother would ask the customer, "How are you doing today, Brother Thomas?" And the person would reply, "Not so good today, Sister Henderson. You see, it's this summer heat. I just hate it. It just frazzles me up and frazzles me down. It's almost killing me." Then my grandmother would stand stoically, her arms folded, and mumble, "Uh-huh, uh-huh." And she would cut her eyes at me to make certain that I had heard the lamentation.
As soon as the complainer was out of the store, my grandmother would call me to stand in front of her. And then she would say the same thing she had said at least a thousand times, it seemed to me. "Sister, did you hear what Brother So-and-So or Sister Much-to-Do complained about?" And I would nod. Mamma would continue, "Sister, there are people who went to sleep all over the world last night, poor and rich and white and black, but they will never wake again. And those dead folks would give anything, anything at all for just five minutes of this weather that person was grumbling about. So you watch yourself about complaining, Sister. What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain." It is said that persons have few teachable moments in their lives. Mamma seemed to have caught me at each one I had. Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood.

What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. God’s grace and giving is unchangeable. What God gives to one is given to another, regardless of whose timing one subscribes to. We need not bargain with God. God is the decision maker. “In God’s kingdom,” says a commentator on this parable, “we can all have a mansion over the hilltop; there is no need for spiritual competition, because our reward is a good as it can get. When Jesus offers eternal life to the less deserving, he takes nothing out of the mouths of the more deserving.”

Let us be beacons of generosity, without competing, without grumbling but with an eye for fairness and justice, the kind of gracious giving exemplified by our Lord’s love. Rev. Dr. Luke Bowman, Pastor of the Tree of Life Lutheran Church in Conroe, Texas, speaks of an invitation to relationship in the light of the parable, and I close with this:

“Just as those workers who were hired last can expect further days in the relationship with their new patron, so also there will be another day for those who are sent on their way. They will be on the street corner the very next day, trying to earn a day’s wages to feed their families. But so, I imagine, will the owner of the vineyard be back. He will come again looking for more workers, and perhaps, generous as he is, he might even hire some of those same cast offs again. But that’s the way of things with a good and generous God. His forgiveness trumps all other concerns, unfair as that may be. All I can say about that is, thank God! For I often react the wrong way to my gracious savior. I often find myself on the outside looking in at what God is doing in the world because I cannot seem to grasp and live this grace fully in the here and now. But just when I am out on the street corner again, there comes the Holy Spirit, looking for me again, and inviting me back into relationship with this extraordinary God.

AMEN

Sermon: "Beyond Teaching Tolerance" (September 11, 2005)

Matthew 18: 21-35 (21-22, 32-35) — Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.
Romans 14: 1-12 (1-6, 10-12) — Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand. Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God. Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” So then, each of us will be accountable to God.

What lessons will we learn today? Tomorrow? Ten years from now? There is an organization that sends out envelope labels to various folks (including churches) that are rather attractive, the purpose of which is to encourage individuals and groups to raise awareness about the evils of racism. One of these labels has four hands, white, yellow, black and brown intersected, symbolizing tolerance and understanding. While the organization, Southern Poverty Law Center, has its distracters, it has made a significant impact on groups like the KKK and other white supremacist entities.

As we enter this year’s educational program, we are made mindful of the need for children at heart to be models for our little ones, our youth, models of Christ’s plea for love of neighbor and of forgiveness. What lessons will we learn today? Tomorrow? Ten years from now? With the anniversary of 9-11, the aftermath of the devastation in the gulf coast, the ongoing war in Iraq, there is the real possibility for seeds of divisiveness to continue to flourish, alienation to be a watchword, prejudice and racism to be the norm instead of the exception.

We as Christian women and men are responsible to see that those seeds will not get the nourishment they need to come to fruition. Teaching through example is the most effective way that lessons of tolerance, understanding, mutual love and acceptance will become benchmarks, set by those we love and nurture, that our grandchildren and seven generations beyond, will emulate.

Four years ago on this date, I was on my way to a session meeting in Verona, NY. One of the members asked if I had been watching television. I had not. But for the next numbing 48 hours, I, like millions of others, was glued to the television, the printed page, and National Public Radio. A most blatant and horrific act was committed, the result of anger, hatred, religious zeal, and yes, intolerance of another’s way of life. While it is not necessary for us to return to the ugly facts of this tragic day, we must not forget the sacrifice made, the sorrow and agony of families, the heroic acts and the coming together of a nation, grieving and consoling, much like what we have seen over the last two weeks. Yet, we must not forget the culpability of leaders on both sides, with arrogance as a touchstone, the unwillingness to try to understand the cultures and ways of life, the subtle and not-so-subtle nuances of history and religious fervor engendered by self-imposed blinders on the mind/heart eye. To overcome this kind of arrogance, people of the Christian faith, need to be about not only teaching tolerance, but going beyond teaching tolerance.

Only ten days ago, I witnessed another kind of social intolerance, that in the realm of the haves and the have nots. Fiscal classism. Observers mentioned the inequities in property boundaries and neighborhoods that fell below the poverty line, these neighborhoods located in the worst of the flood plains in New Orleans. This concept is not limited to the recent tragedy.

Countless examples abound of the poor being forced to exist in locations in cities where toxic chemicals are dumped, where borderline housing or crowded tenements exists, or where natural disasters can wreak the most devastation.

William McKinney, President and Professor of American Religion at Pacific School of Religion in Berkley greeted a new class of seminary students in 1999 with these words:

“So much of the theological work of the twentieth century has been shaped by a meta-narrative of alienation. Alienation: nation from nation, tribe from tribe, mind from body, men from women, human beings from God. A profound sense of alienation has characterized our century. Unaddressed and unchecked, it leads to conflict and, ultimately, to despair. To recognize that alienation is an important feature of our life together is an important, indeed a crucial first step toward reconciliation. Illness, death, oppression, injustice, cruelty, hopelessness, defeat, boredom, conflict, sin are living examples of alienation, each on a high speed road that leads to despair. They are present in the wider culture and they are present in our faith communities. And they threaten our very souls.”

While Paul’s exhortations for us today, and Jesus’ admonition for forgiveness were for those of the same faith (the early Christian community) and individuals in the same faith fellowship, they must cause us to awaken to our (my) own tendencies to judge, resist forgiveness, continue to harbor prejudicial thoughts and actions, and be intolerant of others’ views, beliefs, convictions and our self-imposed alienation from others. Specifically, Paul reminds us that alienation continues to happen right here and now, and can continue to happen if we do not act. We must go beyond teaching tolerance and seek to reduce the alienation that occurs with our daily actions and behaviors.

Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Helen H. P. Manson Professor of New Testament Literature and Exegesis at Princeton Theological Seminary, explains Paul’s attempt as follows:

"What Paul advocates here goes well beyond the flaccid tolerance that merely endures differences as a necessary evil while waiting for the final vindication of one's own position. To 'welcome one another' is to seek actively and to know and to understand another's reasoning and another's judgments, based on the theological assumption that all people belong to God and that God may be served in a number of ways."

Professor Gaventa further speaks to Paul’s passage:

"This passage, in its historical context, concerns conflicting religious practices that apparently stemmed from varying ethnic groups. Its significance for women and men today may go well beyond that context, to include the bewildering array of conflicts among women and between women and men. Reconciliation begins when all are able to acknowledge with Paul that 'whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.'"

“Paul’s word to us today is a reminder that the cure for alienation and despair is the audacity to proclaim that neither they nor we have the final word.”

AMEN

Sermon: "Who is My Neighbor?" (September 4, 2005)

Romans 13: 8-14 - Owe no one anything except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The Commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

First of all, we are all grieving with the nation as the gulf coast states of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama continue to reel and begin recovery efforts needed due to the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina. We grieve first for the families who have lost loved ones, we grieve over and over again as we have the imprints indelibly inked on our minds and hearts of the flooding, the stricken faces of young and old, deprived of their homes, food and social order. Now is not the time to put blame or point fingers. Now is not the time to focus on the corruptibility, opportunism, and insensitivity of certain individuals during tragic circumstances. Now is not the time to bury our own heads in the sand and pretend that we are not affected by the misfortunes of others. Now is the time for prayer, for intentional sharing, for support, for comfort and consolation.

While few of us have or will ever experience what is happening in New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulfport and other cities, we must attend to the whispers and shouts of the Spirit who asks, “Can you do anything for anyone at this time? What does your heart tell you? Who is your neighbor? I find it rather ironic that our passage for this particular Sunday speaks of the last question. Paul, in his exhortations to the faithful in Rome regarding the law, speaks within the paradigm of being subject to governing authorities while remaining faithful to the teachings of Christ. Especially in the early years of the church, the tension of following Jesus, who had a very revolutionary message, and being obedient to the Roman rule which often spoke contrary to Jesus’ teaching, was palpable and an area where Paul’s awareness was keen and helpful. Primary to his discussion in this and the passages prior to and following today’s, was a lesson in tolerance, both toward those of the Jewish faith, and those in a position of social power. Jesus’ revolutionary message of tolerance, “Love your neighbor as yourself; love those who persecute you; if your neighbor wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well;” was harder to manifest than the commandments of Moses. It was a break from the old, a move to the new—and we can be so bold as to say from the old covenant to the new covenant.

Getting back to the irony or coincidence or divine providence (as some might suggest) of having this particular passage in the wake of last week’s natural disaster and subsequent death, destruction, trauma, displacement, anxiety and fear that set in, let us ask the important question. “Who Is My Neighbor?” Along with this question, other questions must arise. How do we love our neighbor? What is the appropriate response to our neighbor in need? To answer these questions we need to ask others. First of all, what would you have happen to you if you were in the shoes (or lack of) of a person going through this recent tragedy? How would you like to be treated? What would your response be if you were able to help in any way? Even though it may be difficult, we are asked to put ourselves in the sandals of our neighbor, whether she be 1000 miles away or in our backyard. Loving ourselves enough to love another might be difficult for some. Through the words and teachings of Jesus, Paul tells us that love does no wrong to a neighbor. Without a doubt, many of us were horrified at the behavior of some individuals who took advantage of the storm. Who is my neighbor? Is it the homeowner who cut a hole in his roof so he might keep safe on top until the helicopter arrived? Is it the 80-year-old woman, dehydrated and near death in the Superdome? Is it the sick child who died in the arms of her mother? It is the young mother who took looted pharmaceuticals so that her diabetic father would live? Is it the boy who took twenty T-shirts, seven pairs of pants, a TV set and a boom box from a downtown store, broken into by his friends? Who is my neighbor? Paul says, “the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”

There are no clear guidelines as to the nature, character, shape, size, color, DNA profile of a neighbor. There is, however, clear guidelines as to the way we are to treat others. Agape love, the kind of love that we spoke of last week, agape love, is the love of which Paul speaks.

In his first letter to the church in Corinth, chapter 13, he spells out specifically what that entails. I encourage you to dust off your new revised version or King James Version and read it, this week and often. But implied in Paul’s exhortations that have love, reconciliation, tolerance and understanding woven throughout, is that a neighbor is someone like you. Someone like me. Human, but hopefully with a divine spark of God’s love resting, abiding in our hearts that drives us to do good, to love those who are going through difficult times, those whose lives are turned upside down by tragic circumstances. My neighbor is the paranoid, who feels everyone is against him. My neighbor is the alcoholic/drug addict who is sick and tired of being sick and tired and wants a way out. My neighbor is the Muslim from Morocco seeking neighbors who care. My neighbor is the elderly woman across the street who is a recluse, eschewing visitors except a very few. My neighbor needs me. My neighbor needs you.

Jesus’ command to ‘love your neighbor as yourself,’ has within it, the possibility, the opportunity, the life-changing experience of relationship. When you see someone you would not ordinarily engage in conversation this week, someone whose appearance offends you, someone who has angered or hurt you in the past, reach out in friendship. Treat that person as you would be treated. When you have the opportunity and means to help beyond your charitable giving, please do so, that the love of God may genuinely change the life of another of God’s children. Consider that person or persons your neighbor, consider them worthy of God’s care and compassion shown in your actions and giving.

Sen. Robert Byrd, West Virginia shares the following:

Seldom have I observed a stronger sense of neighborliness than among the coal miners in the West Virginia communities where I spent my boyhood years. Fred Mooney, a leading figure in organizing the West Virginia coal miners in the early Twentieth Century, in his autobiography, Struggle in the Coal Fields, recalled how his coal-mining neighbors, although themselves quite poor, sacrificed to help him and his family with food and clothes after he had been fired from his job and blacklisted for his union activities. Mooney explained, "This is the spirit of fellowship, love, and devotion that permeates the life of a union coal miner. He will give until it hurts and then divide the rest."

That is loving thy neighbor: "giv[ing] until it hurts" and expecting nothing in return.

I have observed this sense of neighborliness following mine explosions, floods, and other disasters that have befallen on my state over the years. I will never forget how the people of Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, came together following a disastrous flood in that community. How they worked together and shared together while caring for and comforting each other, thus enabling themselves and their neighbors to survive that horrible tragedy.

Being a good neighbor most often involves small, simple acts of kindness. The former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tip O’Neill, liked to point out that "all politics is local." Being a good neighbor is also local. It begins right over the backyard fence. It involves small, simple acts of kindness, as well as dramatic gestures during catastrophic events.

A good neighbor is the friendly face who shows up with a cake or a pie at the house of a family who has a member who is ill. A good neighbor is a person who mows the lawn of the widow down the street. He may be the handyman who is quick to pull out his tool belt when a neighbor has a busted pipe, or a mechanic who starts his neighbor’s car on a cold winter morning so he can get to work. He is a neighbor who will cheerfully shovel your sidewalk when it snows, or rake leaves, just to make life easier for you.

Such simple acts of kindness are part of the social fabric that makes for a better community, a better country, and a better world.

Amen

Sermon: "Uncommon Charity " (August 28, 2005)

Romans 12: 9-21 (9-13, 21) - Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

This week, on the news program Dateline there was a fascinating story about a Vietnam War Veteran who served two tours of combat duty, asked to be considered for a third tour and was told to go home to the US instead. He was given forty-five days to return to his wife and two children in Indiana and was scheduled to arrive on May 23, 1969. However, for multiple reasons, many of which he only could explain, George Waschler deserted from the Army, was declared dead to his family and went to Australia and New Zealand to begin a new life, eventually as David Mitchell. The story is unique, not only because it told of the incredible horror that soldiers experience in war but especially how those experiences can affect them and take hold of their lives, create situations that devastate families. The reason I gravitated toward this particular story is because I was a Vietnam Era Veteran, not having served over there but once offered ten thousand dollars to re-up in the Navy if I would agree to go over there in 1968. The more the story unfolded, the more I thought about a number of individuals I had known in the service, those especially who had served over there and I had worked side by side with them in my position as intelligence analyst. One of my students to whom I taught Morse code was one of the casualties in 1968, and one of the returning Marines, a seasoned veteran of the war succumbed to the internal demons with whom he wrestled, and committed suicide.

Getting back to George/David. The story is one of desertion, fear, escape, war trauma and the ravages of war itself to the human psyche and the human family as a whole. It is also a story of love, forgiveness, return and reconciliation.

For over thirty years, George Waschler disappeared from both the world he knew prior to entering the war, and the world of armed combat and desertion. Yet, this story told of how his family never gave up hope of his being alive, and how eventually they would find their hopes realized. However, the decision that George made as a twenty-two-year-old would continue to accompany him and haunt him with remorse and guilt. The interviews of George and his family were captivating. While it would take considerable time to talk about the emotion generated from this program, I would like to share a few of the special moments that I feel reflect the kind of love and charity Paul discusses in our passage this morning from his letter to the church in Rome.

One of his children George abandoned was less than two years old when he left for Vietnam. In her interviews, there was a magnanimity that was incredible. Even though she admitted she could not completely understand her father’s actions, she came to generate a genuine love for him once they had made connections long sought. She came to realize that her father, even though he had volunteered for combat, was caught in a situation that was untenable, a situation that embraced the insanity of humans killing humans and realized that there was something terribly wrong in it. To save his life, after witnessing dear fellow soldiers die around him, he began down a road of alcohol and drug abuse. But of course, this action created a situation even more difficult to handle. George’s daughter, after thirty years, welcomed him into her life, as did his son, got to know him as he is today, invited incredible forgiveness into their relationship and began a new life together (albeit long distance for the most part).

The interview on Dateline also pointed out the evil of war, the devastation that it wreaks on the human spirit. When Paul is exhorting the faithful in Rome about love, the genuine love (agape), he juxtaposes hate as a positive tool: hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good. What this interview and news program told me was what I began to feel nearing the end of my tour in the service and to this day I can without hesitation say, and remains my belief today: we are to proclaim our despising of that which is evil. War is evil no matter how we try to justify it, make it glamorous, encourage our service men and women to glorify it and to promote it at all costs. How can we hold fast to what is good when we minimize other children of God who are different from us? How can we claim to belong to Christ’s flock when we do not love one another with mutual affection, respect and honor? How can we claim to serve the Lord when we say we will stay the course until others adopt our way of life, even at the point of a gun, a bomber, a threat of sanction? Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Martin Luther King, in a sermon called “A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart” wrote:

A tough mind is characterized by incisive thinking, realistic appraisal and decisive judgment. The tough mind is sharp and penetrating, breaking through the crusts of legends and myths and sifting the true from the false. The tough-minded individual is astute and discerning. He (sic) has a strong austere quality that makes for firmness of purpose and solidness of commitment.

Paul speaks in tough terms when he says, hate what is evil. Our purpose as Christians is not to wait for situations to happen to us, we are to make situations happen, so that the mercy and love of God is made apparent through our genuine love, our patient forbearance in suffering, and our perseverance in prayer. We are called to be tough-minded individuals who manifest compassion in our actions, in our decision making, in our choices that affect not only those we love, but our neighbors beyond our neighborhoods.

Arthur Cribbs, Pastor of the Christian Fellowship Congregational Church in San Diego, CA and President of Pacific Media Ministry, speaks of the Christian community and a call for well-disciplined followers to be active and intentional in their prayers and ministry:

“I tell you in order for us to do any of these things (repeating Paul’s words), we need a well disciplined life and practice of prayer. The condition of the world is too severe to limit our prayers only to ourselves and our own desires. We need prayer to make significant changes in attitude and conditions. We need prayer to give us courage to be faithful and obedient to God, to follow the teachings of Jesus, to live in ways that encourage others. Throughout the world people are looking for the faith community to take a stand for peace and justice. People are suffering. Flames of war and violence are being fanned and we need the cooling presence of prayer to douse the anger. Only prayer is the way toward new understanding and compassion.”

Uncommon charity, or uncommon love is expressed by Paul when he concludes our passage this morning with: do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. George Waschler’s family did not have to forgive his thirty plus year absence, his not contacting them, his escaping from a life that was uncompromisingly difficult for him. Even though the path to forgiveness and reconciliation was difficult to effect, face to face meetings long in time coming and fear and trepidation on George’s part real and anxiety provoking, the evil of war began to be overcome with good, with love, understanding and compassion. These kinds of situations do not always turn out as this one did, even though the process seemed long, tedious, and often insurmountable. However, the genuine love that emanated from the progression of events showed mutual affection, honor of the human spirit, patience in suffering, both on the part of the family and on George’s part was because the potential for evil was overcome by good, by the goodness of his family, his friends and even the US government.

We are reminded by Paul to be strong and courageous in our stand against that which is evil, to overcome evil with good. Much of the time, no, all of the time it takes uncommon charity towards others, uncommon love to overcome the cancers of hate, prejudice, bigotry, selfishness, greed and subsequent war that arises from these cancers. Let us be effective instruments of peace and justice in a world where messages of divisiveness are camouflaged as messages of hope.

Amen

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Sermon: "Ouch! That Hurt!" (August 21, 2005)

Matthew 16: 13-20 - Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

You are a disciple, walking along the dusty road, looking up at the massive rock face out of which flows a stream that eventually will reach the Jordan River. With the others in the band, you marvel at the surroundings, somewhat different from others you have already traveled. You remember your family telling you about the original name of the area, now called Caesarea Philippi (named after Philip, the son of Herod the Great), then called Panias (after the pagan god Pan). It was here where the Greeks worshiped Pan during a period of Greek control, and at this particular spot where the cave is visible, and the spring gushes forth in rhythmic splashes and singing, you can almost hear the stories about the nymphs and Pan cavorting around the site from which one could see the great temple dedicated to the Emperor Augustus. Your reverie of remembrance is only broken by a few raised voices among your fellow travelers

One of the disciples comes up to you and asks, “Where are you, in your thoughts, that is? You seem to be far away?” You pause, and think, ‘I must have been daydreaming, such thoughts must not be visible from the outside, but I’m afraid others must think I am unfaithful. But I am remembering some of the history that was taught me by my teachers.’ But you answer, “Isn’t this such a magnificent place, so refreshing, and just look back and see Mount Hermon 2800 meters high! And this wonderful bluff, that is straight up. Do you know how tall it is?” The curious disciple nods in assent, but casts a doubtful eye your way.

You try to help him to focus on the beauty of the place, but when that does not work, you try another tack: you ask if he knows the history of the area, “Do you know of the temple that was built here while the Romans took control of the area, the temple built by Herod the Great?” He doesn’t, so you explain it to him. You talk quietly about the pagan worshiping of Pan when the Greeks were in power for a brief time, about the Egyptians and Ptolemy’s before them, then the Romans and Herod dividing the area among his three sons. But he still wonders where you are in your mind. You fear that he might tell the other disciples that you know too much. But you try to reassure him that you are interested in history, in how the area became the center of Roman-Greek culture, a thriving Gentile population. Though you are Jew, you explain, you feel it is important that you understand the history and culture of other peoples, because it seems that Jesus wants us to tell about a new way of living and being. The curious disciple seems taken aback, and wonders if you have information that others do not have.

Suddenly, you notice the rest of the disciples gathering around Jesus, who has his face lifted up toward the sky as he pauses with them at the sheer cliff of rock. All of you now gaze upward as well, the glistening water rests on the face of the bluff, certain rivulets moving swiftly, others seeming to pause, then jump down. The droplets and seeping water reflect the evening sun, rosy in color in one instant, pale yellow and purple the next. The stream below surges forth, some of the rays of descending sunshine flicker and repeat a cascade of light onto your faces. There is a disquieting peace on the face of the Lord as his eyes move from the cliff face to the disciples. There is a furrow in his brow that seems to mingle with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. He speaks, almost in concert with the rushing water adjacent to your feet. “Who do the people of this area say that I am?” You are taken aback, but two of the more vocal of the group immediately answer, “The prophets! Jeremiah! Elijah!”

You remember the story and horrible time when John the Baptist lost his life because of Herodias, Herod’s sister in law, and how distraught Jesus was upon hearing this news. You gather courage from another encounter with a number of people in the market place in Gennesaret, who said, that Jesus was John the Baptist, resurrected from the dead, and say quietly, “Some say John the Baptist!”

You look upon the face of Jesus and realize that he is testing us, as he has in the past, seemingly because of our slowness to believe. He pauses, his eyes piercing through us, your heart is trembling as you attempt to look away, but can’t. His eyebrows rise as he puts forth another question. “But, who do you say that I am?” Dead silence. You think to yourself, ‘Is this a trick question? You are our Lord, our Master, our Teacher, our Friend’ you murmur to yourself, but to no one else. Then, again your thoughts are interrupted by an energetic voice, like an over-eager schoolboy, cracking with excitement, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” You don’t even have to look, you know it is Peter. Always Peter, the one who asks, and asks, and asks; the one who always seems to have an answer too, whether right or wrong. And now he has an answer. It is an answer that you have had on your mind and in your heart. It is an answer that seemed to come to you in a dream. But you were afraid to say anything for fear of being thought foolish or even stupid.

But Jesus, as he seems to always do, reacts in a way you don’t expect. He praises Peter, and tells him that he is blessed. Some of the other disciples, you fear, might not take too kindly to this. There often is an impression that Jesus likes Peter, James and John, because they were chosen first. Though you have not felt this, you realize that there is some jealousy at times. And now, with the others, you listen to Jesus pronounce words that are foreign, words that are both exciting and worrisome.

“And I tell you, you are Petros, and on this petra I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” Peter, the Rock, you know that Petra is Greek for Rock. You marvel again at the wonderful way Jesus uses his surroundings to use a metaphor to teach, this time with the rock face that has forced its way to the sky. Yet, you are stunned by this announcement, knowing that much work will have to be done if a church is to be built. You remember again the temple, built by Herod, and thousands of questions scream into your head. ‘A church? How big? What will my work be? What will happen to the rest of us? What will we have to do to get people to believe? If Jesus builds the church on Peter’s skills, character, work ethic, where will Jesus be after it is built?’ Too many questions, and once more your thoughts are interrupted. Jesus says Peter will have the keys to the kingdom, a kingdom Jesus has been relating to us in so many ways. You feel your mind and heart are about to burst. You are trying to get a grasp on these words, especially the connection Jesus has made between Peter and heaven: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

The disciples around you look to Jesus in amazement. Peter is silent for the first time in a long time. Jesus looks around, in apparent relief, in adoration of the Father’s creation and lovingly at your compatriots. But his face turns solemn, almost dark and he looks each of them, including you, in the eyes. As you observe, most turn their eyes fleetingly away from his, but furtively return the gaze, wondering, hoping for just one more crumb of wisdom from him. But the words come as a hammer on an anvil, as if without pity for those whose ears, minds, and hearts that reverberate from the crashing blows. “I warn you, do not tell a soul what you have heard here this night, do not tell a soul that I am the Christ, the Messiah!”

‘Ouch! That hurt,’ your pained heart tells you. You look around, the other disciples are again stunned by this incredible loving individual who instructs all of you to remain silent about his connection with God, his connection with you and all those who have been affected by his work over nearly three years. It doesn’t make sense to you and it seems like you are in the valley of despair after being on the mountaintop of excitement. But you think to yourself, ‘I have gone through a lot these many months, I have seen what he has done, I have listened to his words, witnessed his works, his healings, his casting out demons, his stories of the kingdom to come, his teaching of love and forgiveness.’ And all of a sudden, over you comes a wave of calm, a groundswell of hope that seems to come from within, but also from without. You sense a greater presence, much like the presence of Jesus himself, when addressing you and the rest of the twelve, a presence that tells you to be calm, to be receptive to what is to come. It is a presence that tells you that there will be wonderful opportunities to share Jesus with others, to be a witness to his glory and honor to others beyond this day, beyond this time, beyond this place. You look up to the face of Jesus and see it calm, full of peace and compassion, a face that looks to the rock cliff and back to the group who mill around whispering to each other and to you. Upon your mind and heart you gather this moment, cherish this moment, readying yourself to greater and greater experiences, challenges, and hard work to be done in the name of the Christ. The initial pain of Jesus’ words are molded into a resolute pledge of hope to yourself and to your God to share Him, what he means to you, what he has done for you and what he can do for others. You are drawn from your reverie as the rest of the disciples have turned, following the stream toward Mount Hermon, following Jesus, the Christ, Jesus, the Messiah.

Amen

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Sermon: “Hung by the Tongue" (August 14, 2005)

Matthew 15: 10-28 (10-11; 16-20; 24-28) - Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

Such a simple concept….why is it so blamed hard to understand and manifest it?? We’ve all been hung by the tongue. We’ve all said something we wish we could take back. Once it is out of our mouths, we figuratively kick ourselves for what was something inane, inappropriate, hurtful, slanderous, potentially dangerous or just plain stupid!! Take for example Marjorie Winslow, a rather attractive, but retiring classmate of mine. Our last names began with “W” so in our school most of the classes were seated according to the alphabet, and Marjorie sat in back of me in most of mine. There was a place in East Grand Forks called the Creamery. It was where all the refrigerated fruits and vegetables came in to be stored before they went to the grocery stores. It was also the local hang out for the high school kids where we would go to get an ice cream cone, float or soda. The main store employee was a woman who seemed to take a liking to me for some reason, so I would go there, just to visit with her. She told me one day about Marjorie, who was one of the student workers there. She was unhappy with Marjorie’s work ethic and was going to let her go. Of course, this was a juicy tidbit of gossip and I held it in and told no one. However, the next week in school, I turned around to Marjorie and asked, “What did you do to get yourself fired??!!” Huge mistake (but I didn’t know it at the time). The next time I went into the Creamery, the lady was behind the counter, and she gave me a look that made my blood run cold and said, “Boy, I’ve got a bone to pick with you!!!” She then proceeded to give me a tongue-lashing I will never forget. I certainly was hung by my tongue. The lesson that I thought I learned years ago, is one I continue to learn over and over again.

Jesus’ interaction with the crowd and his disciples is yet another reminder to me that words do have an incredible impact on others. There are a couple of dynamics in our reading from Matthew that take place that deserve our attention and consideration.

There are two separate passages, the first deals with Jesus answering the question of honoring the Jewish law of cleanliness while eating. Apparently a question had arisen by one of the church leaders about food, eating, cleanliness and following the sacred law. Jesus, as he is wont to do, turns the tables on the Pharisees by quoting the prophet Isaiah and speaks clearly about the primacy of God’s word over whatever is written by the hand of human beings. He uses the metaphor of ingesting food into the body and compares and contrasts it with what is in the heart and mind of a human being and what ever comes out is what tells of the character of that person. It is a lot of common sense, but he needs to explain it to his disciples, of course.

The second passage deals with a very caustic exchange between Jesus and the Canaanite woman. But it certainly relates to the other passage in a very important way. Briefly, the Canaanite woman first of all is not Jewish, but she is a Gentile from the Roman province of Syria. The disciples are more concerned about interacting with her than they are of the ruckus she is making about her demon-possessed daughter. Jesus clearly shows his annoyance by first ignoring her, then berating her. Being called a dog in this part of the world is a considerable insult. It is hard to imagine Jesus as someone who would do this. However, one could almost hear him sigh, even mutter to himself, perhaps even sneering. But, there it is, Jesus says, “It is not right to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” Most of us consider Jesus to be someone who includes everyone. As we invite people to the people, the invitation is for everyone. I hardly picture a Jesus who would exclude anyone. But out of his mouth, comes this exclusion clause: “You are not worthy to receive the healing of God.” Ouch! But the rest of the story is the part that is the most important. Jesus speaks, the woman listens. Does she go away? Does she take this lying down? Absolutely not. Here is a woman, at her wits end, knowing that Jesus has the power to cure her daughter (she calls him Lord, Son of David—the equivalent of the Messiah). And she retorts in a clever and somewhat sardonic way, with a powerful statement: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Ouch again! Can you believe that Jesus has been one-upped? Jesus, is apparently hung by his own tongue. The rest of the story is one of divine grace rising above the differences, Jesus healing through the woman’s word and incredible faith, reflecting his own purpose and power here on earth.

So, you have two passages: one about the defilement of the human being by what comes out of one’s mouth, the other about Jesus speaking in a way one might not expect, but the results of a conversation creating understanding and healing. What does that tell us? First we must think about what we say, and the impact what we say has on others. Mark Eppler, author of the “Wright Way” and business consultant, writes about 10 leadership musts to maximize potential. Among these ten things, he states the following:

Whenever the president of the United States makes a statement, people worldwide parse the words to see if there's another, perhaps hidden, meaning. Why? Because they understand that words have power and that serious leaders choose them carefully. Leaders who speak without first considering the impact of their words risk sending a blurred or misleading message. A leader's words have the power to clarify or confuse, encourage or frustrate, inspire or discourage. Failure to understand this is a fundamental failure in leadership skill. TIP: Avoid being "hung by the tongue," by choosing words with care.

One does not have to be the president of the United States to benefit from this advice. In an article in “Sheepfold Gleanings” contributed by Carl and Julie Parker, comes this quotation from Francis P. Martin’s book, “Hung by the Tongue”:

“What you say is what you get. (Mark 11:23). What comes out of your mouth will determine your future. God knows the future because He spoke the future into existence. He also put your future into your hands, so that YOU CAN SPEAK your salvation or your future. You actually speak your own future. That is why I am training myself to control my words, to control my future. Your words are spirit and life – once you speak them, they become life. What you say is what you get. You cannot rise above what you allow yourself to think or say. You can think back and as you think about your past life, the life you have been leading, ask yourself this question: “What has been happening to me?” Then stop and think about what you have been saying or thinking all your life. You will find that you have been speaking your life into existence. A spiritual principle such as the law of sowing and reaping can never be broken. This spiritual principle always works. Luke 6:37-38 tells us that whatever we give out, we will have it multiplied back to us. If you criticize people, you will reap criticism. If you judge people, you will be judged. If you bless people, you will receive blessing in return.”

Gary Eby, an International Trainer and Sales Strategist has been given a dynamic gift to teach, train, motivate, and inspire. Gary Eby is a leader. He has a God-given ability to communicate deep truths in a clear and easily understandable style. Some people just have a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. He tells this story:

Gene and Carolyn were entertaining for the first time since the birth of their baby. Everything ran smoothly until one of Gene’s buddies arrived with his new girlfriend—a woman whom Carolyn did not particularly care for. She beckoned her husband upstairs with the excuse that they had to check on the baby. In the privacy of the nursery, she spoke freely of her disdain for the new guest. When they went downstairs to rejoin the party, they were greeted with an awkward silence—except for the occasional murmuring of the sleeping baby that came from the infant monitor sitting on the table. Hung By the Tongue!

He adds these tidbits of advice:

If you are continually being "hung by your tongue", you can be "loosed from the noose" if you would just learn to engage your mind a little bit before you speak! Here's the process... think... then speak! I believe that we need to make our words sweet... just in case we have to eat them! The words of your mouth are a creative force. They play a big part in predestining your future. Your words are the architects of your life. The tongue is like a tool. We need to use our tools of the present to build our future we desire. You see, your future will someday be your present. Your present will someday be your past. You can chart the course of your future by your compass... your tongue. It will guide you like a rudder... into either troubled waters or a calm sea. But, don't be misled... it WILL guide you. If you can change what you think about, you can change what comes out of your mouth. What comes out of your mouth will someday be in your future. The words you speak create an atmosphere. If you are going to have a meeting and you really pump it up and build it, what happens? People come with expectancy! They come excited. Your words have set the stage for success! One of the foundational revelations of a wise leader is to learn to control his or her words! Remember, Samson slew 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. Way too many businesses, lives, and relationships are destroyed with the same weapon...’’ Be loosed from the Noose! Refuse to be... Hung By the Tongue!

Jesus was acting in accordance to the mores of the age, of the region in which he ministered. Even though he understood the principle of how words from one’s mouth (emanating from the heart) could defile other human beings, even God, when it came to dealing with a custom so thoroughly imbedding in tradition and history, he could not escape the prejudice that that tradition and history engendered. It was only when he saw the incredible faith of the woman, her ability to withstand his caustic insult, and her understanding of God’s power through him and his ministry, only then, did he realize his own words, their potential to prejudge and dismiss. And only then, was he released from those traditions to effect the healing that was to take place.

Even Jesus, his vulnerability, his humanity, in full view, can relinquish the noose, and adjust so he would not be hung by the tongue. In our vulnerability and humanity, we have a long way to go. In ministering to others, we are to search our hearts as we interact with them, attend to their needs. While we do this we must be attentive to the words that emanate from our hearts, examine them for compassion, love, justice seeking and peace. We must be attentive to those words that hurt, offend, slander, defile others, ourselves, and/or God through Christ or the Spirit. Remember, what we say has or may have a tremendous impact on another human being, whether it be a child or child at heart. You have heard me talk about gossip before. I have gossiped in the past, I have asked God to help me not gossip in the future. I have been hung by my tongue many times in my life, perhaps you have too. We can, through our faithful witness to the power of healing through Christ, amend our hearts, minds, and our tongues. May the voice that others hear from our lips be the one that proclaims “My Faith Looks Up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior Divine. Now hear me while I pray, take all my guilt away. O let me from this day be wholly thine!” May we follow His example of humility and grace, love and compassion for all who are in need of transformation and healing.

AMEN

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Sermon: "Rocking the Boat" (August 7, 2005)

Matthew 14: 22-33 — Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

As a child, I had a deathly fear of going over bridges. The bridge between East Grand Forks and Grand Forks was the only way to get to Granny’s and was a formidable distance—it seemed like miles. Out of many times I specifically remember when I had been to the doctor’s to get my ears cleaned out (my mother always thought I couldn’t hear, when I look back it was selective hearing) and had to walk back to the ‘East Side.’ It took several back and forth steps to even approach the bridge, then with great trepidation (it seemed a lifetime) I clutched at the edge of the railing the whole way across. It was years later that that kind of fear dissipated, but even today, bringing up this fear and remembering is no difficult task. Was I taught this fear? Did I have little faith? Who is to say, but it was real, very real. While water has always intrigued me, and I have been on all sorts of watercraft, including huge ferry boats, the thought of being on the water never seemed to bother me. Yet, if put in the position of the possibility of a capsizing boat, I’m certain my anxiety level would be considerable. What kind of faith would I exhibit? What kind of criterion would I need to reduce my fear? Many of these kinds of questions arose when I read Matthew’s account of Jesus walking on the water and his subsequent interaction with Peter.

We are presented today a vivid picture of a storm, frightened disciples (almost Cecil B. DeMille like), a boat with no description, and an encounter with the Christ in an eerie scenario. One primary lesson comes to us in the reaction of Peter and Jesus’ response to him. It is a lesson of faith; or, a lesson on the degrees of faith. It is not necessarily a lesson on how to walk on water or how to reduce one’s fear when crossing a bridge.

It is, however, a lesson on the responses one might make when beckoned by the Christ, the obstacles that must be overcome when responding, and reactions that are necessary to move beyond fear.

First, Peter demands a sign that Jesus is really who he appears to be. Once convinced of that fact, he immediately (blustering as he always was) jumps out of the boat, rocking in the waves, and walks toward Jesus without care or concern (and without immediate fear, it seems) for his safety. He had faith that Jesus was indeed there to save him and the others. Yet, we are well aware, that the primary faith was inadequate to keep him from succumbing to the waves. Jesus had to save him from his impulsivity and his little faith. It was demanded of Peter, that he focus completely on Jesus, and obey his command. Focusing on the Christ is hard for all who are called to follow and serve. We are surrounded by things, people, ideas, concepts, and temptations that draw us away from God and the One whom God sent to save us.

Second, even then Peter was distracted by the wind, noticed he was walking on the water, and cried out once again for Jesus to save him. Jesus seems to admonish Peter for his lack of faith. Yet, when read correctly, Jesus tells Peter something of which Peter is yet to be convinced: his faith is not sufficient—not that he has none—of course he had enough to get out of the boat in the first place—it just wasn’t enough to guarantee his saving. What distracts us from applying the faith that we have? Like Peter, we already have faith—we believe in God, are witnesses to God’s grace and mercy, enjoy the fruits of the spirit. However, we live in a world that continually challenges those beliefs. We are bombarded by easy solutions in thirty second sound bites, or our life problems are solved in thirty minute or hour segments. And, like the other disciples in the boat, we are unwilling to take the risk, leave the boat (whether it be calm or stormy seas) to reach out when the Christ beckons.

Third, Peter’s reaction to the Christ came at the instant his hand touched the Lord’s. It took a physical presence and interaction between the two to make Peter’s lesson real. It was necessary for Peter to follow the direction of Jesus, an act of reaching out that eventually convinced him of Jesus’ reality and intention. The disciples as well, when they watched the scenario being played out, there was still doubt, but when Jesus entered the boat, with the sopping wet Peter, and the wind subsided at his stepping onto the deck of the boat, they too believed. The faith they had, while perhaps even less than Peter’s at that first moment, was bolstered by Jesus’ way into their lives.

Jesus’ presence, the disciples’ reaction. A necessary part of the equation of a relationship with the Christ. Sara Dylan Breuer, Anglican theologian, preacher and teacher speaks of the faith within this morning’s lesson,

“In other words, faith is about doing. A faithful person eventually gets to the point at which s/he can say to God, "I don't know where you're going, but I know that wherever it is, I'd rather be drowning with you than be crowned by somebody else." That kind of trust in Jesus, in my experience, comes from experience with the person of Jesus. The kind of trust I have in Jesus has come as I've experienced Jesus' generosity and mercy, so much that I'm pretty sure that if Jesus is involved, then following Jesus is where I'm going to experience the most of the goodness and mercy God has to offer. That process of building confidence, of getting to know Jesus such that I'm understanding more deeply just how much I can trust Jesus is a major ingredient in what I call the journey of faith. ……, what I mean is that faith starts with action, with taking a step, with taking a risk. The best intentions in the world don't do much without action, but taking that step, even with the worst of intentions, just might give you the experience of meeting God on the road, on (or in) the sea. Faith is willingness to risk. It's willingness to take that step out of the boat, whether you think you'll sink or skate. It proceeds from the kind of love that, despite all of the butterflies in one's stomach, makes a person willing to be the first to say "I love you" in a relationship -- not because of a certain expectation of a particular reply, but because of the possibilities that saying "I love you" opens.”

Each of us has taken risks in our lives. Each of us has taken a step we thought we never would dare to take. In our lives, in the lives of our loved ones there are countless times as well, that we tried to take that first step but for reasons of fear, doubt, lack of self confidence or little faith, we would not do so. In our lives as followers of Jesus Christ, most of us realize that it is often risky to speak out against injustice, to claim the Christ as our own, to listen to the Spirit of God prompting us to serve, or to help us include those whom others feel are unworthy of God’s grace and mercy. Yet, the hope in today’s lesson lies in taking that first step, even if we don’t totally understand God’s will and purpose in our lives. Even in our reluctance, the possibility exists that someone observing our faltering, clumsy, steps in attempting to follow faithfully, might be spurred on to take risks beyond ours. As a church community, we continue to have opportunities to reach out to the hand of the Christ. Jesus is always calling us to get out of the boat, to cross the bridge over stormy or unsettled waters and take his hand in caring for all of God’s children. Even when the winds of change are rocking the boat, Jesus is calling to get up, get out, and follow. Todd Weir, UCC pastor working in an organization called Hillcrest House, a transitional housing program for Homeless in Poughkeepsie, NY speaks of fear and faith in these words:

“Fear comes in many forms, private and public. It knows no ideological boundaries and none of us are ever completely free of it in making decisions. Letting go of fear and facing ourselves is as frightening as the thought of stepping out of our safe boats and walking across the water as if it were dry land. I’m not sure Jesus really expected Peter to walk on water and I certainly don’t expect to walk on water any time soon. I struggle to have faith and to honestly face my fears. But I’m willing to believe that there is life outside the boat, constantly rowing into the wind. I trust in faith that Jesus points the way to the shore. With Jesus near me, the rising seas of my fears will not have me.”

May we embrace the rocking of the boat in our lives, be willing to hear the Christ above the roar and chaos, respond to his beckoning, and risk getting out of the boat. May we see the bridges before us, be firm in our resolve to cross them, allow a strengthened faith to deny the fears that course through our hearts and minds as we take the hand of Jesus on our journey.

Amen

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Sermon: "Deep Sighs and Inward Growths" (July 24, 2005)

Romans 8: 22, 23 - We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8:26-27 - Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

The website that describes one of the most spectacular natural phenomena in California reads like this: “Only a few miles north of San Francisco, in an isolated canyon grows the ancient coast redwood forest known the world over as Muir Woods. The park offers solitude, interpretive displays and programs, and numerous hiking trails. Come stroll through 1000 year old giant trees towering 260 feet high and find out why famed naturalist John Muir called this, "...the best tree-lovers monument that could possibly be found in all the forests of the world." Fortunate enough to live within 15 miles of Muir Woods, I experienced more than several times the beauty and splendor of these magnificent redwoods and other trees that grew among them. The incredible plethora of flora and fauna is a nature lover’s dream. Beyond the fact that this is the last remaining primordial redwood forest, are the sights and sounds that emanate from it. I remember many times just pausing alone in the forest, listening to the symphony of rustling winds close to the tops of the trees, gathering alongside a harmony of insects, scurrying chipmunks, squirrels and other creatures often heard but not seen. Of course, there were the songs of many birds, those up high, some in the brush below, but always a wonderful addition to the silence that would often break through. But the most memorable sounds were the deep groaning of the branches of the leviathan trees as they were guided by the winds of the bay. It was as if they were moved to and fro by the gentle but firm hand of God. It was as if one could hear the deep sighs of the Creator, who wished to tell all mortals that “Here is my creation, it is good, care for it!”

I could not leave Paul’s lesson this morning as it was. I had to return to the previous part of chapter eight that spoke of inward groaning that took place and continues to take place in God’s creation. I could not profess to understand the inward groaning that occurs in the Christian’s heart without first acknowledging the creative genius of God and how we as mere mortals are entrusted to care for a creation that shows undeniable adverse effects due to human exploitation and devastation because of blatant greed and corrupt governmental insensitivity to the future of the planet. While Paul specifically does not appear to be a champion of environmental issues, he seems to have a grasp of the human condition and the conditions that connect humanity with God’s creation. In order for humans to come to grips with their own dire condition, they must concede that they are a part of the whole of creation and the connectedness is real and palpable. This may seem a given for most of us. Why, then do we continue, as individuals, corporations, governments, continue to ignore the signs of groaning that continue unabated?

I don’t feel I am taking liberties with Paul’s writing, when I claim a viable connection between his urging about creation groaning and the inward groaning that takes place in the hearts of Christian faithful who face adversity, trials and tribulations. It is through faithful following of the Christ and His mandates that come the challenges of working toward the perfection that eventually comes beyond our earthly existence. Within those challenges comes the inward groaning, the struggles of both heart and spirit. Each of us has struggled with our faith journeys. We question the existence of a loving God when we are in pain, physical, emotional, psychological or spiritual. We wonder out loud, “Why Me?” We experience doubt when we see a loved one suffer a devastating illness, and healing never comes. We fear the unknown and close our minds and hearts to the possibilities that exist in reducing that fear.

We narrow our concept of God to the point where God can do nothing but follow our rigid perception and ideas. But God is greater than that. God’s power and presence is far greater than our imagination. Paul suggests that while there is hope through redemption, and even though we are faithful in our following of the Christ, there will not be all sweetness and light, but there will be challenges, struggles, persecution, pain and suffering. Inward groans. What we are encouraged this day, is to be in touch with those inward groans, not only of the Creation that reminds us of our call to care for the earth, but also the inward groans of our hearts and spirits as we struggle to understand God’s will for us. We are encouraged this day as well, to acknowledge our complicity in the effects of our human consumptive practices on this wonderful creation for which we are held responsible.

Where is the hope in all this? So what? We might ask. The hope lies in Paul’s lesson for us in the first two verses of our Epistle reading this morning. As I mentioned before, there is a connection between the groaning of the Creation and the groaning of God’s children in the struggle to be obedient servants of the Christ. As well, there is a connection between God and God’s Creation and God’s children. This is the Spirit. A beneficent, unpredictable, comforting, challenging Spirit. It is through our weakness as God’s children, that we can benefit from the presence of the Spirit. Just as the wind blows through the Redwood forests of Muir woods, causing deep groaning though the branches, the Spirit of God comes to us in deep sighs. One of the most memorable moments I recall fondly was the stillness that was afforded me one day on a late evening visit to the woods. For a brief moment, perhaps it was the calm before a storm, I really don’t recall exactly, but the stillness was so loud and present, that every thought and thing seemed to come to a sudden stop.

Without really pausing to catch my breath, I sensed a great sigh through the woods, as if God was taking God’s own breath and stilling it with great thought and profundity. I liken this to the Spirit of which Paul speaks, when he says the Spirit sighs too deep for words. Words, for me, at that very moment, were inadequate to explain what was happening. Words were not sufficient to relay the deep and penetrating movement of my own spirit as I was touched by the breath of God, even though it seemed that stillness was the primary essence of that instant.

Gentle, majestic, all embracing, all encircling Spirit of God, descend upon our hearts. A Spirit that intercedes for us in our struggles, in our pain, in our time of doubt in our very weakness, in our sins of commission and omission. Deep sighs and inward groans. We have been given a spirit from the God who loves us beyond measure, that we might have comfort in our brokenness. While we are encouraged to pray, it is the Spirit who relays to our God the depth of our despair, the deep crevasses of our fear and doubt, the very need for redemption that we seek, often unwittingly. As the wind blows through the tops of a generous and magnificent Redwood forest, so too does the Spirit’s healing power enter into our minds and hearts. We must be open to this Spirit, guided by this spirit, lifting our praise of thanksgiving to a God who is merciful and kind in giving us the Spirit that heals our brokenness, allays our fears, edifies that which is good, kind and faithful in our actions as servants of the Christ. Deep sighs and inward groans are not incompatible. They exist in each of us. May we be diligent in opening our hearts to the expanse of that Spirit and the greatness of God who gives that Spirit to us all.

AMEN

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Sermon: "Purple Loosestrife and Yellow Mustard" (July 17, 2005)

Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43 — He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, the, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn. Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen.”

I can never read about weeds and wheat without thinking of the incredible weed population my brother and I had to pull on an annual basis. Outside our chicken coop and barn were these huge what we called pigweeds. They easily reached twenty feet (this might be an exaggeration) and provided great hiding places and protection from the heat (summers were deadly in Minnesota) from the sun and/or our mother. They weren’t too hard to extract from the ground by two boys, but, we certainly didn’t enjoy the drudgery of pulling and stacking, but we really enjoyed the burning when they dried out. (our father would build and monitor the huge bonfire that consumed the nasty poles left) What our parents didn’t know (or perhaps they did, and never let on) was that when most of the moisture was dried out of the weeds, my brother and I would cut some of the stocks to cigar size and light up!! Yuck and ugh, but we thought we were cool and were getting away with something. Pigweeds were not the only other kind of weeds for which we were responsible to extract. Weeding in the garden, weeding in the sugar beet fields was just as natural as taking a walk for us boys. Here is where I can understand Jesus’ instruction through parable—it is very difficult to remove certain weeds without taking up some of the good, the vegetables or field plants. This is why most farmers when I was growing up and to the present day, spray their fields. In our fields, of course were different kinds of weeds, but he most prevalent was mustard. We’ve all seen the fields around us, the ones inundated with waving yellow, majestically mingling with the green fields until very little green can been seen.

Before I moved to West Virginia back in the early seventies, I had never seen purple loosestrife. It was beautiful, absolutely breathtaking! I thought to myself—this is so nice that the state of West Virginia has seen fit to plant these beautiful flowers alongside all the roads. However, this excitement was short lived. A good friend enlightened me as to the invasiveness of this plant. A government study done in the late ‘90’s gives this brief description of purple loosestrife:

Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria L.) is an erect, herbaceous perennial of Eurasian origin that became established in the estuaries of northeastern North America by the early 1800's. By the late 1800's it had spread throughout the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, reaching as far north and west as Manitoba. L. salicaria caused few problems until the 1930's when it became aggressive in the floodplain pastures of the St. Lawrence River. Since then, it has steadily expanded its local distribution and now poses a serious threat to native emergent vegetation in shallow water marshes throughout the northeastern and north central regions. Recent records indicate that purple loosestrife is also tolerant of soils and climates beyond these regions and threatens to become a serious problem in wetlands and irrigation systems in the Great Plains and the Far West.

What irony that as a child or young adult, I never noticed this plant where I was reared. But, this is not a lesson in biology or environmental protection. However, there is one factor I want to share as we consider Jesus’ parable of the weeds and the wheat and its meaning for us today. Each of these species (yellow mustard and purple loosestrife) are for me, at least quite pretty, they attract birds and bees, and are useful in different ways. Some mustards, wild or not, can be grown for oil, seed or as a cover crop. Yellow mustard, in a wheat or grain field, when not checked, can be very damaging and can lessen the yield at the harvest. But, they, as well as loosestrife are considered for the most part, invasive, and weeds. The key in Jesus’ parable is that both wheat and weeds must be allowed to grow together prior to the harvest, for fear that pulling the weeds would remove the grain crop as well.

This parable is explained to the disciples in a very precise way. The lesson tells us that the good seed (wheat) are the children of Jesus’ kingdom and the weeds are the children of the devil, planted there by the devil himself. The harvest is aided by the angels and there will be separation of the weeds and good seed at the end. Now the end of which Jesus speaks bothers a lot of folks. The end in this case and in a lot of Jesus’ teachings come to us in an apocalyptic direction (apocalyptic—generally a prophetic visioning for the end times—usually with a thought of destruction or doom). Indeed, Jesus is pre-warning the disciples of his ultimate death, and the changes that will happen following his crucifixion. The writer of Matthew has the advantage of hindsight and attempts to warn his readers of what the consequences of not following the Christ can be. During this era, widespread oppression was taking place.

In effect, the weeds of Matthew’s time were both the religious authorities persecuting the followers of the Way, and the Roman government, which, while tolerating religious groups, was significantly attempting to quell this new ‘faction’ of the Jewish people. So, the object lesson of letting the weeds grow with the good seeds indicates to modern day readers that there was a noticeable message of tolerance of those with differing views, but only to a point. The disturbing news at the end of the passage is what is disquieting for many faithful in our generation. One might question, “Where is the grace?” Or, “Is the message of Christ only for a few, the righteous, the do-gooders?”

The comforting part of this passage has to come out of identifying the one who sows the seed. On the one hand, the sower of the good seed is Christ himself. He is the connection with the Creator, the LORD God Almighty. Knowledge of the Holy comes from an intimate relationship with the Christ. The benefits of that relationship are seeds that are to be sown by those who interact with him and obey God’s will. On the other hand, we are told that the weeds are the children of the evil one. He is the one who provides the incipient instructions to disobey God, he is the one who casts doubt within the human heart, he is the one who attempts to discredit the work of the Christ, the movement of the Holy Spirit among the faithful.

So the questions that arose during my contemplation of this parable kept hounding me: how do we recognize the good seeds? The Weeds? When sometimes both are similar, both have beauty, both might provide some benefit, at least in the beginning (or even at the end)? We are told that the righteous will shine like the sun, and the unrighteous will be burned in the weed heap bonfire. Pigweeds are discernable from garden vegetables. Ragweed is distinguishable from peony bushes. Roses have thorns, but so do thistles. Purple loosestrife is invasive and so is mustard. Which have value in human standards?

Dr. Robert Brow, Anglican priest and New Testament Scholar from Kingston, Ontario, Canada, cautions about the self-righteous removal of weeds:

The first reaction of the servants of God is to root out the bad guys who are causing trouble. Seven hundred years ago they asked for permission to begin the Inquisition. The Pope should have read this parable and let things be, but a few weeds and a huge amount of good plants were purged from our churches. Three centuries ago Protestants were obsessed with witches, and hundreds of innocent women were terrorized and killed. These days we don’t kill those who bother us, but there are other ways to keep weeds from our churches. In Ireland the Protestants and Roman Catholics are still excluded from each others’ communities. Jesus said "the field is the world" and we can see the same rooting out mentality at work in just about every other country of the world.

In Ruanda the Hutus massacred a million Tutsis. In what was once Tito's Yugoslavia the Serbs and Muslims, Croatians, and Kosovos are all intent on saving their country by driving out the bad guys. "If only we could get all the Jews out of our country, all would be well." And the feeling is mutual.

In Canada some zealots think eradication would be the solution for the French, aboriginal Indians on reserves, Feminists, and Gays. "Just get rid of the bad apples, and the rest of us would be perfect."

In our hearts we hope and pray that we are the good seeds. In our hearts, we trust that God will remind us when we veer from the path of righteousness. In our hearts we try to be the best followers of the Christ we can be. The good news of the Gospel today can be a life changing experience for those of us who feel less than perfect. For those of us who are afraid that we are not worthy of God’s love or the love of another of God’s children, there is hope in the redeeming grace that comes to us through obedience to God’s direction. We are reminded not to judge, but know that we are judged by a merciful God who created us in God’s image to love, honor and obey the LORD God almighty. It is God through Christ who sows the good seed. Where evil takes over, it is the work of the evil one. No matter how much evil has been sown, no matter how well it grows, no matter the size of the crop, the harvest promised us by Jesus himself will be the proving ground, where evil will be removed. We don’t have to worry about the harvest that Jesus has in store for us, but we must be vigilant in our faith journeys, strengthen our hearts and resolve to fight oppression, bigotry, hate, passivity, violence, wherever and whenever it occurs. That will scare the tail off the Evil One. I’d like to share one other comment by Dr. Brow that I trust will be of encouragement to us all:

The Lord of the harvest takes great delight in changing weeds to flowers. Mary Magdalene must have been as bad a weed as they get, but Jesus loved her, and she became a saint. Saul of Tarsus was a virulent weed who persecuted and killed off all the good wheat he could find. Then suddenly he was converted on the Damascus road and became the great apostle. Even during the delay before judgment came down on Jerusalem, many of the people who had demanded the Messiah's crucifixion had a change of heart. That is good news for us all. We don't have to fuss about identifying the bad guys, and trying to root them out. And every day when we feel we are not good enough to flower in the Lord's garden, we can trust him to make us beautiful in our own way.

Pigweeds, ragweeds, yellow mustard or purple loosestrife—all have been used, admired, vilified, dreaded, and/or condemned. Beauty is much more than in the eye of the beholder. Let us not prejudge another of God’s children. But, let us not be passive if the evil one seems to be gaining the upper hand. The harvest is the Lord’s and it will be bountiful to say the least. Let us be true children of God’s realm, in God’s image, being the creation God intended, caring for the Creation for which we are responsible, nurturing, sustaining, standing up for what is right in God’s sight.

AMEN

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Sermon: "Breath of Peace" (May 15, 2005, Pentecost)

Acts 2: 1-21 (1-4) - When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

John 20: 19-23-When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

He walks in through the atoms of the door, and says to them, "Peace be with you." They are the cowering, frightened eleven who spent their days praying that all these things that had transpired in the previous days were not bad dreams, but a hope for the future. They are the ones that, without their understanding, would become the harbingers of the good news to the world. They are the ones who would transmit via camel and sheep teletype and world-wide-web, that the Christ was alive and would continue to be with them through thin and thick, to the ends of the earth and to the edge of time itself. And He walks in through the electrons and protons of the cedar doors and says, "Peace be with you." The dynamics of fright and excitement, mix as the ingredients of the supper at which he proclaimed his body to be theirs to eat, his blood shed for their salvation. Then the disciples rejoiced.

But as if that was not enough, John takes the story to a new level. He has Jesus repeating, once again, the calming, reassuring, phrase (and when a phrase is part of the early writings of the church and repeated, we must surmise it is important!), "Peace be with you." However, the reassurance doesn't stop there. With a brush stroke that brings Easter and Pentecost to resounding harmony, the writer of the Gospel has Jesus bringing the breath of life to them, the awaited Holy Spirit. The actual phrase is one of simplicity, but also one of curious hope. "Receive the Holy Spirit." Is this the breath of peace? Elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus has told the disciples that he was not sent by his Heavenly Father to bring peace to the world, but the sword, a sword of separation.

Without taking anything out of context, I feel we must understand that Jesus, in this time and place was about bringing peace to his disciples, exhorting them to be attentive to his example. The breath of peace in this venue was the instruction, the inspiration as it were, to propel the disciples on their missionary journeys throughout the area and eventually was the vehicle that would transform the world for millennia to come.

Even beyond the two phrases, "Peace be with you" and "Receive the Holy Spirit," Jesus is teaching that peace for the disciples must take on a new meaning, both within their own personal lives, but in the life of the church to come. Interwoven through these two concepts is the concept of forgiveness. While an awkward phrase at best, these closing remarks do provide a hope that challenges the reader and hearer of the words. True peace does not occur within the hearts of the believer, nor within groups interacting amongst themselves without a conscious effort to reconcile or to effect forgiveness. The breath of peace provides that opportunity for those who listen and are moved by the Holy Spirit to engage in a dialogue that promotes such reconciliation. As we celebrate the birth of the Church at Pentecost this day and this week, we are reminded of the exciting energy that is produced when the Spirit is alive and active within individuals and communities of faith. Rev. Dr. John Killinger, author, former Presbyterian pastor and Professor at Vanderbilt University, speaks of the possibilities that still exist:

"I will tell you one thing. If the past is any guide, the Spirit of God will manifest itself in such creative ways that we'll be totally surprised. It will be something we probably never guessed or expected. This frightening time we are in is a great creative opportunity, and the inspiration breathed into the apostles all those centuries ago is still alive today, and it will respond to the opportunity by forging a new Christianity for a new age. It will produce new understandings of the world, new theologies and ethics, and new forms of worship and devotion, and new societies for advancing all of these.

Can we see the Holy Spirit as God' breath of peace, as a new understanding of God's purpose for us? Those of us whose journeys took us through the era of peace walks, protests, earth days, anti-war demonstrations remember the urging of the youth, the pacifists to "Give Peace a Chance." Jesus walks into our lives, through the atoms of our heart doors, sometimes unseen, unfelt, we being unaware, but indeed Jesus is there.

The Holy Spirit he breathed into his disciples those years ago is still the breath he took and shared with them. It is the same Holy Spirit that inspires us as well, if we would just slow down enough to listen, hear, obey, and effect the peace that Jesus brings to us.

That is the hope that must propel us into greater service, greater compassion, greater understanding of what is needed to be true and faithful witnesses to that Spirit. The hope in the gospel lesson today is that Jesus still walks in, unannounced, in our broken lives and says, "Peace be with you." Jesus still walks in, without fanfare, with seeming nonchalance, and says to us, "Receive the Holy Spirit." The breath of peace: the Holy Spirit that will inspire us to newness, transformation and positive changes in our individual and corporate lives. And yes, this same Spirit will be the inspiration to move us to a sense of calling to be peacemakers, to be people of the Table, people of the Spirit.

Let's celebrate this breath of peace today, and carry the message to the world that begs for peace. I close with a wonderful poem by Judyth Hill, written following September 11, 2001 that speaks poignantly to individual peacemaking, yet in a universal way:

Wage Peace
Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.
Breathe in terrorists
and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields.
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.
Make soup.
Play music, memorize the words for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief
as the outbreath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.

Wage peace.
Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious:
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Celebrate today.

AMEN