CovenantStuff

October 18, 2009 "The Source"

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:32:00 +0000

Hebrews 4:14 - 5:10

Welcome Maya!

Welcome to Covenant on the Corner.

Welcome to the heart of Jesus Christ.

I like the word “welcome.”

It’s a good word.

Strong and decent.

Big and bold.

Bright and Brash.

Welcome!

With an exclamation point!

Friend to friend.

Brother to brother; sister to sister.

Father to son; mother to daughter.

Welcome!

Here’s where you belong.

This is home.

Glad to see ya’.

Come on in.

Take your shoes off.

Kick back and relax.

Here are some chips and salsa.

What do ya’ want to drink?

Wanna watch TV?

Listen to music?

Sure glad you’re here.

Welcome!

Welcome Maya.

Welcome to Covenant on the Corner.

Welcome to the heart of Jesus Christ.

Have ya’ ever been in a place where you are not welcome?

Been there and done that a few times …

Doesn’t feel very good.

Ice in the room.

Tension in the air.

You’re not wanted.

You’re not welcome!

See ya’ later.

Or never again.

Don’t call me, I’ll call you.

Thanks, but no thanks.

You’re not welcome here.

Jesus says welcome!

Welcome to everyone!

No one turned away.

No one left behind.

No one denied a place at his Table!

Not that everyone liked what Jesus did.

The rich and the powerful weren’t too sure.

Hey, you can’t do that, they said to him.

And Jesus said right back at ‘em, Oh yes, I can; just watch me!

Jesus played the game with his own set of rules:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Love God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Some didn’t like it one bit.

The Pharisees didn’t like it; Jesus played fast and loose with their rules, about who was in and who was out, and how to keep the Sabbath.

The Sadducees didn’t like it; Jesus was way too serious about God, and this resurrection-from-the-dead thing - the Sadducees thought it was just too new an idea.

The Zealots didn’t like it; Jesus refused to take up the sword and join the rebellion against Rome.

The Romans didn’t like it; Jesus preached things that stirred ancient longings for freedom and subverted the cult of emperor worship.

Pilate didn’t like it; Jesus didn’t scrape and bow in Pilate’s presence; Jesus declined to answer Pilate’s question about truth.

The thieves didn’t like it; Jesus remained on the cross, and there he died.

Satan didn’t like it; Jesus died for the sins of the world and walked through hell’s gate to quench the fires of doom and set the prisoner free.

Jesus played the game with his own set of rules!

The book of Hebrews is all about Jesus …

He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being.

He made purification for sins.

He was faithful to the one who appointed him.

In the days of his flesh, he offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears.

He is the source of eternal salvation.

He is our apostle and the high priest of our confession.

Jesus knows us through and through.

He is not above us or beyond us.

He is with us.

He did it right.

He did it all.

And still does, for all of us.

For the whole world.

For everyone and forever!

He is our LORD and our Savior!

And to each of us, an unqualified, Welcome!

What does it mean to be the church OF Jesus Christ?

A church shaped and sharpened by Jesus.

A church following the patterns of welcome – welcome to everyone, no questions asked.

What does that mean for us?

A church that doesn’t buy Pilate’s values.

A church that DOESN’T buy all the nonsense of capitalism - spend and spend and spend some more … toys the children play with only once; stuff we’ll have to sell in next summer’s garage sale – basements filled, closets crammed, attics bulging, storage units rented to hold even more stuff our homes can no longer hold.

The church OF Jesus Christ - devoted to God and loving toward neighbor.

A church interested in people than in budgets and programs.

Willing to take risks for the kingdom of God – to throw caution to the wind sometimes … to stand tall for those who can’t!

To lift up the glory of justice and the power of kindness – to say NO to the negative, and Yes to the postive.

A church that forgets the past, no matter how bad it was!

A church that forgets the past, no matter how good it was!

A church that strains forward to the upward calling of Jesus … because the best days are ahead of us …

A church that prays deeply as Jesus prayed.

A church that knows the very Scriptures Jesus loved.

A church that knows how the cross feels.

A church that honors the deepest words of our faith: to follow Jesus where e’re he lead … whither thou goest, I shall go, too! Jesus my LORD!

What DOES it mean to be the church of Jesus Christ?

The church, you see, is you and me.

So the question really is this: What does it mean FOR US to be followers of Jesus?

What do you THINK?

What DOES it mean to follow Jesus?

Take a few moments right now … pause … what does it mean, FOR YOU, to follow Jesus? [pause]

By way of illustration:

What does it mean to be a Dodger fan?

What do teens do when they have a hero? An athlete they admire? A musician they’re crazy about?

A Dodger fan might wear a Dodger shirt!

A high school football player might learn everything he can about a great linebacker.

A young singer will try to sing like someone she admires.

What does it mean to follow Jesus?

Maybe we can ask, What does JESUS look like?

What does Jesus look like to Zacchaeus when Jesus stood beneath the tree and invited Zacchaeus to come on down, because Jesus wants to have dinner with him? No one else in town wants to have dinner with Zacchaeus, but Jesus does.

What does Jesus look like to the woman caught in adultery – brought to Jesus by a self-righteous mob eager to stone her. When Jesus bends down to write in the dirt, and then says to the mob, If any of you are without sin, go ahead; throw your stones. And he bends down again to write in the dust … and when the mob leaves, there’s only Jesus and the woman.

What does Jesus look like to the moneychangers and merchants in the temple courtyard when he overturns their tables and shouts at them because they turned a house of prayer into a den of thieves?

What does Jesus look like to the crowds telling the blind man to shut up and be quiet. And what does Jesus look like when he stops and turns, and asks the crowd to bring the blind man to him.

What does Jesus look like to the little children sitting on his lap, when fussbudget adults have no time for them?

What does Jesus look like to the lepers when he takes time to talk with them, touch them, heal them?

What does Jesus look like to the soldiers beating him? To the executioners nailing him to the cross? To the jeering crowd mocking him?

What DOES Jesus look like?

What do you and I look like?

If unchurched young people, ages 16-29, have any sense of it, you and I don’t look very good at all.

Unchurched young people were asked, When you hear the word ‘Christian,’ what do you think?

92% said “homophobic,” or “anti-gay” … that’s the first thing they think about … and that saddens me, because it means those who pull away the welcome mat, those who slam the door, of course, all in Jesus’ name, have won the PR campaign for the young … so, where’s our voice? Where’s the voice of welcome.

And the statistics drive home the point:

87% said “hypocritical” …

85% said “irrelevant” …

80% said “boring” …

19% said friendly … which translated means, “we may be boring bigots, but we’re really nice about it!” [Diana Butler Bass – retreat at St. Mark PC, Newport Beach, October 2-3, 2009].

What’s even more startling – these statistics change downward for young people raised IN the church by only 5%. Young people reared in the church don’t think very highly of their parents’ church.

Yet young people tell us they like Jesus.

Jesus is okay; it’s the church that troubles them.

Sure, I know …

It’s not as simple as that.

And we can’t be pushed around by opinion polls.

But I wonder – what would happen if we looked a little more like Jesus?

Can the church OF Jesus Christ look a little more like Jesus?

Can you and I look a little more like Jesus?

I think so.

And you do, too.

Are you with me on this?

I know that you are!

Glory to God.

And to our High Priest, Jesus - praise and honor, forever and ever.

Amen and Amen!

October 11, 2009 - More on Hebrews 1 ...

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:20:00 +0000

Last week, we spent some thoughtful time with the Text … we went home with a phrase that seemed to engage our spirit.

"He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being." Norm

"By the grace of God he might taste death for everyone" Shari

"What are human beings that you are mindful of them...?" Patty

“What are human beings that your mindful of them or mortals, that you care for them?” Nic

“Jesus is not ashamed.” Tom

Today, a little more time with the Text …

Prayer – then first reading …

Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.

He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.

When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But someone has testified somewhere,

“What are human beings that you are mindful of them,

or mortals, that you care for them?

You have made them, for a little while, lower than the angels;

you have crowned them with glory and honor,

subjecting all things under their feet.”

Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that, by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation, perfect, through sufferings.

For the one who sanctifies, and those who are sanctified, all have one Father. For this reason, Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying,

“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters,

in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”

********************

Second reading … in phrases repeated after Pastor Tom …

What catches your attention today?

Take some time now to meditate on the passage – begin by saying, “LORD Jesus Christ, son of the Living God, give me insight through your Word that I might be more faithful to you and to the world,” and then begin meditating …

A moment of prayer … Pastor Tom …

Groups of three or four – no more than five …

Work on the following pieces:

Hebrews 1:1-4 is all about Jesus … what words or phrases does the author use to describe who and what Jesus is?

Jesus is the reflection of God’s glory … so when we think about Jesus, we’re thinking about God. When you think about Jesus during the week, what are you likely to think about? When you think about Jesus, does it occur to you that you’re thinking also about God?

Vs. 6, a quotation from Psalm 8 – a celebration of God’s creation and how big it is, and how small we are.

But at the same time, God created us just a tad bit lower than the angels and given the world to us for our care, crowning us with honor and glory.

But the writer of Hebrews looks around her world and says: we have yet to see this worked out. Yet, what we CAN see is Jesus, who was made, like us, a little lower than the angels, but now is crowned with glory and honor, because of the road he traveled for us (and now is infinitely greater than all the angels).

What was your chosen phrase from last week?

Did you have a chance to use that phrase during the week? If so, what was that like?

Choose a phrase for the week ahead - the same phrase, or is there something else here you’ll choose?

Craft a newspaper headline from our Text this morning.

I’d like to have each group read their “headline” when we finish!

Unison reading of the Text.

For the Benediction - Remember the gospel:

1. You are loved more profoundly than you could ever imagine and more than you will ever know.

2. Though your sins be many, they are as if they never were, for when Jesus tasted death for our sake, our sins were wiped away!

3. Even now, the Holy Spirit is at work binding your life to Jesus, enabling you to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

4. When you die, you, and everyone you love, will be with Jesus forever!

October 4, 2009 - something different

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:05:00 +0000

Yup, something different.

Rather than a "regular" message, I led the congregation through the following with the text.

Praying Scripture

Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12

1. Text - read by reader – Bibles closed.

2. Open Bibles …

3. Text - read again, in phrases, which cong. repeats

4. Text read silently by cong.

5. Select a phrase for yourself …

6. Repeat the phrase silently for a few moments.

7. Share your phrase aloud with congregation.

8. Groups of three …

a. Share the phrase you chose …

b. Any idea why you chose this phrase?

9. Take it home with you … write it down on your bulletin, scrap of paper.

10. Text - read in unison.

11. Prayer …

September 27, 2009 - "Sorrow to Gladness"

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:19:00 +0000

Esther - chapter 8 & 9

The Bible celebrates the work of God:

God says, Let it be, and it is.

Creation and all of its creatures, sun, moon and stars …

The call of Sarah and Abraham …

The promise of a child …

Deliverance from Egypt …

Guidance in the wilderness: manna in the morning, water from the rock …

Through the sea to the Promised Land …

Jericho conquered and enemies defeated …

Judges and prophets, kings and queens …

God at work,

God at work.

But … Esther strikes a startling note …

God never shows up … not even once!

Just Esther and her Uncle Mordecia … and the people held captive in a faraway land.

Ahasuerus, the king of Persia … vain and powerful … proud and willful …

And Haman, a sniveling snot, hateful of the Jews.

Our story begins with a party … Ahasuerus, in all of his pomp and power, throws a wild party …

The Bible reads:

The army of Persia and Media and the nobles and governors of the provinces were present, while he displayed the great wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and pomp of his majesty for many days, one hundred eighty days in all.

When these days were completed, the king gave for all the people present in the citadel of Susa, both great and small, a banquet lasting for seven days, in the court of the garden of the king’s palace. There were white cotton curtains and blue hangings tied with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings ◙ and marble pillars. There were couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and colored stones. Drinks were served in golden goblets, goblets of different kinds, and the royal wine was lavished according to the bounty of the king. Drinking was by flagons, without restraint; for the king had given orders to all the officials of his palace to do as each one desired.

When the king is thoroughly potted, he calls for his queen, queen Vashti … the king wants to show off his eye-candy … but to everyone’s surprise, Vashti tells the king to take a hike.

The king is embarrassed.

The officials incensed.

The guests shocked.

The king and his officials huddle … this is a crisis of state.

If the women of the empire hear that Vashti refused the king, it’s going to go down bad for men everywhere.

So, Vasthi is dumped … never again to enter the king’s chambers … she’s history, because she refused the king … she’s lucky she didn’t lose her head.

Now what?

What’s a king to do without a queen?

A king needs a queen …

A little eye-candy to decorate the palace …

A pretty little thing hanging on his arm …

A trophy wife to show the boys at the country club …

Look, this is not a pretty picture …

It’s gross, sickening and silly.

Power without restraint.

Wealth without purpose.

Bloated egos and huge expense accounts.

Life at the top of the heap …

Everything big …

Big appetites, big egos, big parties, big homes, the bigger the better …

What’s a king to do when he needs a queen?

Well, of course … announce a beauty pageant …

All lovely young ladies apply here.

If accepted, you’ll be given an extreme makeover …

You’ll be coddled and doted upon …

You’ll be exercised, bathed and perfumed …

You’ll be taught how to walk and talk and think like a queen … ah, well, ah, excuse, me … you’ll be taught to walk like queen … but ease up on the talking – the king isn’t interested … and forget about thinking – the king couldn’t care less.

All the king wants is a little eye candy.

So the young ladies of the land send in their applications … sounds like reality TV, doesn’t it? With high hopes of being chosen by the king to be the next queen of Persia.

For a moment, the story shifts to Mordecai and his beautiful niece, Esther … her parents died early on, so Mordecai adopted Esther and raised her as his own daughter.

She’s an eye-full, that’s for sure.

And when the girls of the realm are gathered, Esther is among them.

For a whole year, the girls are preened and prepped:

Six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and cosmetics.

And then the moment … drum roll please …

The most eligible bachelor in the realm calls for the pageant to begin… everyone dressed fit to kill … the girls can wear anything they want from the finest wardrobes of the palace … they’ve prepared mincing and posing for 12 long months … now the moment is here:

Who’s going to be sent home?

Who’s going to get the red rose?

One by one, the girls pay a visit to the king.

One by one, they’re sent packing … whisked away in a cheap chariot … they can keep the perfume and the clothes.

Now it’s Esther’s turn.

She catches the king’s eye.

He’s smitten by her.

Esther gets the rose.

The little Jewish girl, an orphan and a captive in a strange land, becomes the queen of Persia.

In the meantime, Mordecai discovers an assassination plot to kill the king … Mordecai spills the beans and wins the king’s affection.

But Mordecai gets crossways with a top official in the palace … Mordecai refuses to bow and scrape before Haman … the sniveling snot … Haman is incensed … his pride wounded … his ego yelling for blood.

Haman manipulates the king into signing a death order for the Jews throughout the kingdom - every last one of them … Kill ‘em all!

Well, that’s one way of taking care of it …

Is anything here done reasonably?

It’s all over the top.

Power gone mad.

A party that lasts 180 days.

Thousands to die for one man’s pride.

The Jews hear of the order and are frightened out of their wits … what can they do? … their captors hold all the cards … the “Golden Rule” – you know what that means, don’t ya’? Those with all the gold, make all the rules!

Mordecai approaches Esther …

Esther, Esther, can you do something?

Esther replies, Mordecai, you know the deal … I’m the queen, and that and five bucks gets me a caramel latte at the local coffee shop … if anyone goes into the palace unbidden, they can die, just like that. Just like that! No one goes to the king unbidden.

But Mordecai says, Don’t think for a moment you’re going to be safe. When the hammer falls, you, too, will die. Help may yet come to the Jews from some other source, but it’ll be too late for you Esther, too late for you and your family.

Every time I read this story, I’m reminded of Pastor Martin Niemoller who lived through the Nazi Holocaust … Pastor Niemoller protested and paid a price for it, and when the war was finally over, he wrote a poem:

When the Nazis came for the communists,

I remained silent;

I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,

I remained silent;

I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,

I did not speak out;

I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,

I did not speak out;

I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,

there was no one left to speak out.

In my mind’s eye, I see Esther pacing the floor, brow furrowed, deep in anguished thought …

What shall I do?

Should I take a chance? Am I a fool to try, or a worse fool to remain silent?

Ever been there?

An ethical dilemma on your shoulders?

A young truck driver told by his boss to dump toxic waste in a nearby stream late at night …

An HR VP told by the higher-ups to fire 400 people, and do it now … and if she does it now, there’ll be a fat Christmas bonus for her …

An accountant who sees the books being cooked …

A scientist who knows the toxic compounds being used in food products …

A farmer trapped - between paying fruit pickers a decent wage and the giant buyer who pays pennies on the dollar …

Ever been in an ethical dilemma?

Tough, isn’t it?

Do I keep my mouth shut and do I what I’m told?

What about my family?

My future?

My children?

Hey, I need the job.

I’m glad to have a job.

I’ll close my eyes to what’s going on.

Or will I?

Is there something more important here than me?

More important than my family?

My security?

My world?

Big questions, aren’t they?

You pace the floor, your nights are troubled, your stomach churns … you can’t think of anything else … your turn it over in your mind a thousand different ways – you try to get on with your life, but you can’t … you try to forget it, but it snaps back at ya’ …

You have to decide …

Esther, Esther, what will you do?

I can hear her thoughts, can’t you?

The people … who are they?

Who do they think they are?

Maybe they don’t deserve it.

Look at ‘em … look at me.

I live in luxury; they live on the edge.

I’m beautiful; they’re not.

I’m on top of the heap, someone has to be on the bottom.

I’ve got it, and they don’t.

Good for me, and too bad for them.

Esther, Esther, what will you do?

I can see her, can’t you?

There she stands … in the middle of the room … alone.

Head down.

A deep, deep, breath taken.

Esther looks up …

Eyes determined …

Mouth set …

Resolve - written all over her face.

She’s made the decision - at last.

She walks to the window of her room … overlooking the palace courtyard … across from the gate, where Mordecai sits in sackcloth and ashes, mourning the fate of his people.

His people … my people.

Esther’s going to do it!

She’s going to do it, and she’s going to do it right!

For the people … the people, yes … the people.

Maybe I’m safe, but they’re not.

Maybe I’d make it, but they won’t.

It isn’t about me … it’s about the people … the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker … the kid flipping burgers at In n Out, the gal pushing the vacuum cleaner in the hallway of my hotel room … the bartender in the nightclub … the man on the corner hoping for a buck … folks on the bus and folks on the sidewalk … folks in Beverly Hills and folks in east LA … the haves and the have-nots … the rich and the poor … the most and the least …

Think of the world in which we live … the people, yes, the people …

Esther cannot separate herself from the people.

What she does, she does for them.

The courage of compassion … to see a need and fill it … to risk ourselves for the greater good …

The courage of Martin Luther in Germany defying Pope and Emperor, and Martin Luther King, Jr. in an Alabama jail.

The courage of Albert Schweitzer in Africa and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in a Nazi prison.

The courage of Carl Sandburg, to write for the people who worked in the horrible factories of Chicago … to make the steel, to butcher the meat and load the trucks … children, 12-hour days, seven days a week … women on the streets … men desperate for work …

Courage to see the world.

Your courage and my courage.

Now, let me get back to the earlier comment about the Book of Esther … God doesn’t show up in this little book … nary a mention of God … why?

Because there comes a when God says, You know what you need to do … you don’t need anything more from me; I’ve given you everything you need. You know what you have to do!

Esther had everything she needed from God … the rest is up to Esther … God will not decide for us; God will not kick us in the butt or grab us by the ear … God steps away, and we’re left on our own!

That incredible moment when we can’t defer any further to God – no more questions to ask, no more data to gather, no more Bible studies and no more prayers … all the grace we need has been given; all the love we desire is ours …

The rest is up to us!

With a deep breath and firm resolve, Esther puts on her royal robes and goes to the palace. The king sees her and says to her, Whatever you want, Esther, it’s yours.

Esther’s story ends well.

But not every story ends so well, does it?

We know that.

So does Esther.

It’s must never be the outcome that determines our action.

It’s the need.

It’s the moment.

It’s the people.

Today, tomorrow … the world out there.

You’ll meet it on the road.

You’ll read it on your computer.

You’ll hear it on the evening news …

You care, don’t you?

Of course you care.

Because you know Christ.

You ARE the people, and THEY are you.

Every man, woman and child is you.

And you are everyone!

That’s what it means to be alive!

To be a human being.

That’s what it means to be in Christ.

You care, don’t you?

Of course you do!

Now let’s put on our royal robes and go see the king!

Let’s take a chance … let’s go for the people … let’s see what happens … it may turn out better than we expect!

Amen and Amen!

Finding Wisdom Everywhere

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:16:00 +0000

Proverbs 1:20-33

Wisdom is found everywhere!

Over hill and dale, and all around the town:

A busy street.

A crowded intersection.

At the city gates.

Available to all …

Without price.

Without chage.

Wisdom cries out:

Be smart.

Be wise.

Don’t be a simpleton.

With a sharp reproof to scoffers …

Naysayers and complainers …

And to the fool who refuses to learn!

And a warning …

Ya’ better do it now, because there will come a crisis, and then it’ll be too late …

Simpletons and fools will suffer.

Scoffers will find no solace.

But the wise will be secure!

So we might well ask this morning, “What’s wisdom?”

There’s a ton of stuff out there that claims to be wisdom.

Talk radio and TV evangelists … pundits and politicians …

Far-right, far-left, and just plain far out …

How in the world do we sort it all out?

How do we decide?

What’s wisdom, and what’s foolishness?

The truth be told:

Not all that glitters is gold.

Not everything that purports to be wisdom is wise.

But sorting it out isn’t easy.

Proverbs reminds us:

Scoffers and fools are influential.

Their words carry weight.

Folks are taken in by the silver-tongued every day.

Paul the Apostle confronts this matter in 2 Corinthians … Paul speaks of the “super-apostle” – slick words and good shows impressed the Corinthians with a false gospel.

P.T. Barnum said it well: a sucker is born every minute.

And sometimes I get the feeling that American Christians can really be suckers … we fail to be discerning …

Too often the dross, and not the gold.

Too often the chaff, and not the wheat.

Sometimes I get the feeling that American Christianity lacks maturity – the capacity to think clearly and critically …

Dr. Harley Swiggum recognized this in the late fifties when he was called to Bethel Lutheran Church in Madison, Wisconsin for adult education.

Bethel Lutheran was a huge congregation – full of influential people, good people, strong people, who loved the LORD.

But “they were defenseless,” said Swiggum.

“Defenseless against the slick talker and the good show. Like sheep, they could easily be led astray.”

Swiggum said, “There’s only one sure way to sort it all out – know the Bible … know it through and through, how it works and what it says, and to study it well for one’s entire life.”

And so Dr. Swiggum developed the Bethel Bible Series, to help folks get wisdom … so they can sort it all out; sit in a pew on Sunday morning and listen responsibly to the reading of Scripture and to the preacher – so they can say the prayers and sing the hymns knowingly, intelligently … and listen to a TV preacher or a History Channel special about finding Noah’s Ark, and be able discern the tawdry from the truth; the real from the unreal; fact from fiction.

I’ve been paying attention to sermons for a long time.

In seminary, I worked in the library – I reshelved books returned by students and pastors … I decided to look at what pastors were reading, and even as a first-year student, I was shocked and disturbed – so much of it was just plain schlock … syrupy spirituality, mediocre moralisms, simpleton ideas and shallow commitments.

The writer to the Hebrews touches upon this very thing – simpleton thinking, always a danger for God’s people – to settle for the simple rather than the sublime … to shy away from the big stuff and go for the small ideas …

In the image of Hebrews, too many Christians are still drinking infant’s milk instead of eating solid food.

Get on with it, says the writer to the Hebrews.

Quit laying the same foundation over and over again – there’s more to this Christian life than conversion and theological ideas.

I get the uneasy feeling that the larger a congregation grows, the more likely it is to feed on milk rather than solid food.

Folks want to hear about heaven, but they don’t want to hear about earth.

I get the uneasy feeling, because I’ve been there, that in the larger congregations, there’s tremendous pressure on pastors to offer milk, and even that watered down, rather than solid food.

This is a problem for God’s people.

In the second letter to Timothy, the apostle writes:

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths [2 Timothy 4:1-4].

Maybe even in smaller congregations.

Maybe ever here at Covenant on the Corner.

Reluctance to tackle the big stuff and go for the small ideas.

Talk about Christ, but keep it spiritual.

Talk about faith, but keep it personal.

Talk about God, but keep it private.

The Southern Presbyterian Church formed in the heat of the days leading up to the Civil War – in the course of time, our Southern brothers and sisters developed an interesting doctrine: the spirituality of the church – that pastors should only preach spiritual things, whatever that really means?

In fact, what it means: leave me alone. Talk about heaven, but don’t talk about earth!

Can you see why the Southern Presbyterians developed such a doctrine?

Because their reality was so painful.

They lived in a world of slavery – life was good because life was bad for thousands of slaves working the in the hot cotton fields, lugging heavy bales onto paddle boats, and if you were a young slave girl, beckoned to the master’s bedroom.

It took the Southern Presbyterian Church a hundred years to work it all out … and to this very day, though North and South are now one church again, the doctrine of the spirituality of the church still holds sway in parts of our denomination, and for many conservatives, they want to keep it that way … preach doctrine, preach conversion, preach heaven, but don’t preach the world to us, don’t challenge the way we live, because life is good for us, and we don’t want to hear how bad it is for millions working in sweat shops around the world and just around the corner … the shirts we wear and the skirts we buy and the food we eat are cheap because someone, somewhere, pays the price with sweat, blood and tears.

Don’t preach the world to us preacher.

Just preach heaven.

How do we sort it all out?

The accurate from the inaccurate; the false from the true … the fabricated from the factual?

Here’s where Proverbs is helpful … more than helpful … vital …

To us who claim the name of Christ … we’re Christians … followers of the way …

It’s vital for us, don’t ya’ think, that we deal with truth?

Jesus said, I’m the way, the truth and the life …

Remember the courtroom scene when Jesus stands before Pilate?

Pilate asks: “What’s truth?” and Jesus remains silent.

Why? Why the silence?

Because truth IS Jesus.

Jesus standing there in front of Pilate.

Truth is not a maxim, a principle, or an idea.

Truth is flesh and blood, and love.

Truth takes up a cross.

Truth challenge the powers and the principalities.

Truth refuses to answer Pilate, because Pilate already has his own version of the truth – and for Pilate, it’s all about power and prestige … for Pilate, it’s the golden rule … those with all the gold make all the rules!

Get the picture?

Here’s Pilate, wearing expensive clothing, hair well-done, in a well-appointed palace, surrounded by Imperial Guards with shiny weapons, servants attending to Pilate’s every need, fine food and drink … the lap of luxury … and then Jesus, hands bound with tough leather straps, blood seeping through his tattered robe, hair tangled with spit and sweat … already half-way to death …

You’re standing there, in a shadowy corner – you’re a witness to this encounter – there you are, ten feet away: watching a Jewish prophet from Galilee hours away from death, and mighty Pilate in his palace … and you ask yourself, “Who’s telling the truth?”

How might you answer?

Come one now, tell yourself the truth.

Might you not be inclined to go with Pilate?

Rather than this beaten and tattered man swaying unsteadily on his bloody feet.

Pilate questions him with an imperious voice.

Jesus is horse from thirst, his mouth swollen from the fists that easily found their mark.

Who might you choose?

I posted this to Facebook the other day, and got some interesting replies …

One friend suggested that since we’re now on this side of it all, we can easily choose Jesus.

But I wonder …

I wonder if it’s all so easy.

Think of it as metaphor … Pilate’s pomp on the one hand … the scruffy figure in tattered robe on the other …

In the book of James, the question surfaces about church visitors – those who show up in fine dress are given the best pews in the church, and the man who shows up in shabby dress is told to stand in the lobby or take the folding chair off to the side.

The metaphor still functions ... to whom are we inclined to give the greater weight: a well-dressed CEO or a line-worker?

Perhaps if we were blind, it would be easier, but, then, I suppose, we'd go with the sound of the voice, or something like that.

I think the juxtaposition of Jesus and Pilate, and the well-dressed and the shabby in James 2, suggest that I'm still easily fooled by appearances ... or to put it more personally, to which pastor am I likely to give the greater credence - the pastor of a 15,000 member megachurch or the pastor of a rural parish in Oklahoma?

We’re easily seduced by the very things that mean so little to God …

Size never matters to God.

Listen to what God says to the people of Israel in the wilderness:

It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the LORD loved you [Deuteronomy 7:7].

Power and prestige are of no consequences to God.

Here’s what Paul writes to the Corinthians:

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” [1 Corinthians 1:26-33].

Gold is nothing more to God than street gravel.

Have you ever wondered why the streets of heaven are paved with gold?

What do we use here to pave our streets, but the cheapest materials we can find? Sand and gravel, because they’re plentiful – they’re everywhere, and that makes sand and gravel cheap.

Heaven’s streets are paved with gold because in God’s kingdom gold is as cheap as sand and gravel. What we use to decorate bathroom fixtures or wear upon our bodies will be nothing more than street material in God’s heaven.

When was the last time any of us wore a piece of gravel as a pendant? Or stored up sand for ourselves?

In heaven, gold will be nothing more than gravel and sand!

How do we sort it all out?

Look to Jesus.

Study the beatitudes.

Ponder the Book of Proverbs.

Feed your soul on good things.

Things that build you up and encourage you to a noble life.

Things that tell the truth and commend you to a life of service and sacrifice.

Pay attention:

Fear-mongers are working over time these days.

Fear mongers warning us about gays and lesbians who “want to destroy our nation and dismantle the family.”

“Muslims are going to take over the world and make us all bow the knee to Allah.”

Jesus Camps and fundamentalist churches harp upon a consistent theme: “nefarious plans are underway to take away our rights, take away our guns, tell us what to eat, and turn us into a socialist state.”

Peddling boogiemen and monsters under the bed and in the closet.

Turn on TV and pay attention to the fear-ads.

Illness is a big fear, “But don’t be afraid, we’ll sell you drugs; and if we have to read the fine print to you about side-effects, we’ll read real fast, even as we play beautiful music and show beautiful people prancing around with health and vigor.”

Home security is a big fear, “But don’t be afraid, we’ll sell you a home alarm system … and you’ll always be safe with us.”

Fear, fear, fear!

Dear Christian friends; pay attention to fear … when fears start to rise, hell draws near.

Fear is Satan’s chief weapon against us … fear is Satan’s medicine to make us sick … sick with trepidation and sick with anxiety.

Ward it off and walk away!

Because Jesus says: “Fear not!”

Don’t be afraid, says Jesus, because it is your Father’s will to give you the kingdom [Luke 12:32].

John writes to his little church:

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love [1 John 4:18].

How do we sort it all out?

Trust your own spirit, your own instincts.

What builds up is likely of God!

Even though God will challenge us to the core and push us to the limit, it will feel right.

God always feels right.

When something doesn’t feel right.

That’s a good sign that something is wrong.

That it’s not God, but Satan.

When something agitates without purpose.

When anxiety rises and suspicion grows.

When everyone who’s different begins to look like a threat … when other religions are condemned, when chasms grow deeper and fences grow taller,

A clear sign that we’re dealing with a script from hell.

I close with words from Proverbs:

How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?

How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing

and fools hate knowledge?

Give heed to my reproof;

I will pour out my thoughts to you;

I will make my words known to you [Proverbs 1:22-23].

Amen and Amen!

September 6, 2009 - Ancient Wisdom

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:36:00 +0000

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23

A board of directors, feeling it was time for a shake-up, hires a new CEO. This new boss is determined to rid the company of all slackers.

On a tour of the facilities, the CEO notices a guy leaning on a wall. The room is full of workers and he thinks this is his chance to show everyone he means business!

The CEO walks up to the guy and asks, "And how much money do you make a week?"

Undaunted, the young fellow looks at him and replies, "I make $200.00 a week. Why?"

The CEO then hands the guy $200 in cash and screams, "Here's a week's pay, now GET OUT and don't come back!"

Feeling pretty good about his first firing, the CEO looks around the room and asks, "Does anyone want to tell me what that slacker did here?"

With a sheepish grin, one of the other workers mutters.........

"He's the pizza delivery guy!"

We don’t always know the lay of the land, do we?

Sometimes we act before we think … as a friend of mine says: “Ready, fire, aim.”

Been there, done that a few times.

How about you?

The Book of Proverbs understands.

No highfalutin’ ideas here … just the basics!

What does it mean to live a good life?

It’s a question I’ve pondered for the last 40 years … not only for my own life, but what with all the funerals I’ve done – around 800 or so … so many families – all wonderfully different, and some distressed by tragedy and dysfunction.

I always ask the adult children: “What did you learn about life from you father, or your mother?”

I’ve heard it all, of course.

Good and bad, and mostly the good:

I’ve learned how to be compassionate.

I’ve learned courage and fortitude.

I’ve learned the power of forgiveness.

My dad taught me all about God.

My mother taught me how to work hard.

Sometimes it gets a little dark.

My mother hurt me.

My father didn’t love me.

They fought all the time.

I remember one poignant moment – three brothers, all in their mid-30s, preparing for their father’s funeral: I asked, “What did you learn about life from your dad?”

Silence … a heavy silence in the room.

Three young men … hunched over in their chairs, hands tightly folded in front of them … heads down … until the elder brother lifted his head and looked at me with steel in his eyes, with a deep sigh, shaking his head, “Not a damn thing Tom; not a damn thing.”

What does it mean to live a good life?

The Book of Proverbs goes to the heart of the matter – basic things …

God the creator… God the divine … the eternal realities … faith, hope and love … faith in God and faith in one another, and faith in ourselves, too.

Hope for a better day, and a better world.

Hope in the face of hardship and frustration.

Because hope doesn’t give up.

And love …

The hardcore kind of love - commitment and service.

Going the whole way and then some.

Taking up the cross and carrying it as far as you can.

Involvement and compassion.

Bravery and courage.

Kindness and mercy.

Restraint and control.

Long listening and careful speaking.

Speaking your convictions, but doing so with humility.

A tender regard for others, especially the down and the out: “There, but by the grace of God, go I.”

One of my all-time favorite poems by D.H. Lawrence says it well:

As we live, we are transmitters of life.

And when we fail to transmit life, life fails to flow through us.

….

And if, as we work, we can transmit life into our work,

Life, still more life, rushes into us to compensate, to be ready

And we ripple with life through the days.

Even if it is a woman making an apple dumpling, or a man a stool,

If life goes into the pudding, good is the pudding,

Good is the stool,

Content is the woman with fresh life rippling in to her,

Content is the man.

Give, and it shall be given unto you

Is still the truth about life.

But giving life is not so easy.

It doesn’t mean handing it out to some mean fool, or letting the living dead eat you up.

It means kindling the life-quality where it was not,

Even if it’s only in the whiteness of a washed pocket handkerchief.

Kindling the life-quality where it was not.

I’ve know some remarkable people – folks who kindle the life-quality …

I remember Jack Bollema from Grand Rapids Christian High School … I was a sophomore or junior in a history class, and Mr. Bollema, full of energy and faith, stepped to the chalk board and boldly wrote in big letters the word “History” … and then wrote again, in every bigger letters: “HIS Story” …

I’ve never forgotten that moment … the life-quality kindled … the secret of life, if you will: His Story - it’s all about God, everything … every bit of it … sweet and sour; weal and woe; light and dark; life and death … the good, the bad and the ugly … me, and everyone else!

Sure, it’s a hodgepodge, and who can figure it out?

But the Bible reminds us:

You can live in the hodgepodge; you can live it well.

Live with faith, hope and love, no matter what … even when we can’t figure it out!

A friend of mine writes:

… it isn't always the endgame we're after in our little worlds. It's the doing. It's the moments. It's that space between managing life and understanding that time is what it is, and that there is joy in knowing what needs to get done will, simply put, get done. [The Blankie Chronicles]

Faith, hope and love.

That’s what counts; not the storm around us, or even the storm inside of us, but the way we live in the midst of the storm … and along the way, giving shelter to others for whom the storm is too much.

“The Shelter of Each Other” as author Mary Pipher puts it … or as Jesus said it, “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Love is a powerful, ethical, word.

Love seeks the welfare of the other, as Dr. Scott Peck put it in the book, The Road Less Travelled.

Love rolls up its sleeves and gets its hands dirty.

Love refuses to roll over and play dead.

Love can’t be bought off.

Love can’t be shut off.

Love can’t be killed.

70 years ago, September 1, 1939, German tanks rolled across the frontier into Poland, and so began WW2 – six years later, 45 million people dead, and the horror of all horrors, “the final solution,” the Holocaust - the systematic killing of 6 million Jews, and millions more – Gypsies, gays and lesbians, the mentally and physically challenged … and anyone who dared to raise a question, anyone who followed Jesus rather than Hitler – the real Jesus; not the Jesus of Church and country, but the Jesus of Galilee and Calvary.

The Thousand Year Reich ended in the ashes of Berlin and the suicide of Hitler; the Empire of the Rising Sun ended in a mushroom cloud … the greatest war machine marched too far – the way of all empires, Roman, British, French, Belgian, Dutch, Soviet, or American … guns and bullets and marching soldiers, oh so thrilling, seduce us with a wicked song, until we crash and burn on the rocks of our own power.

This is the way of all empire.

Those who live by the sword die by the sword.

Such is the ancient wisdom.

The powers and principalities that would rule over us cannot win the day …

Justice will have its way …

Love will prevail.

As the hymn puts it: This is my father’s world!

A good and godly man or woman lives by the code of love.

No matter the storm howling around us, we live with an eye on God and a hand outstretched to others.

The Book of Proverbs pulls no punches.

It gets to the core of life.

The deepest values – the way we live.

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,

And favor is better than silver or gold.

The Hebrew word for “favor” is something like compassion or generous living … to be seen by as others as a person of compassion or generosity – to have the favor of others for the goodness and kindness we live.

If we read the whole of the Proverbs, Solomon celebrates and enjoys material success, too.

For Solomon, it’s not an either/or choice – either to have a good name, or to be wealthy, but to make the right beginning.

When we choose to make a good name for ourselves, the other issues get resolved …

Jesus said it well: Choose first the kingdom of God, and all the other things that you need will fall into place.

Putting it candidly, putting it straight,

What happened with Bernie Madoff?

I don’t know, but I do know that he single-handedly caused untold sorrow for thousands of investors who put their money into his hands.

Was he greedy?

Were the investors greedy?

I don’t know …

But could it have been different?

If he had remembered:

Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,

and the rod of anger will fail.

Those who are generous are blessed,

for they share their bread with the poor.

Do not rob the poor because they are poor,

or crush the afflicted at the gate;

for the LORD pleads their cause

What about us?

We’re not dealing in billions or millions (if you are, talk to me after the service, would ya’?)

Most of us deal in thousands, or tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, even a few million now and then … but whether it be 25 cents or 25 million, we begin with our name; that’s what counts, our name.

And the simple truth: we’re all in this together.

Many who are rich would like us to believe that they are different than everyone else, their problems, their challenges, bigger and greater and categorically unique – Not so! says Solomon, one of the wealthiest men to have ever lived.

Because we all have one thing in common, says Solomon – the LORD has made us all …

No one is self-made.

No one makes their own way through life … not one dime is ours by work – it’s all by grace, all by divine providence – God’s counsel and God’s decision, God’s will and God’s purpose.

That’s a humbling thought - because the ego wants to believe: “It’s mine, all mine; I’ve worked for it.”

Like a child screaming at a playmate about a toy truck, “It’s mine, and you can’t have it.”

Ever watch a child behave that way?

What do you think when you hear that?

Selfishness in a child is disgusting.

But what about an adult?

I wonder … when God looks in upon us, is this the way we’re behaving sometimes?

“It’s mine, and you can’t have it!”

Is anything really ours?

Is not everything given to us?

Given to us by the hand of God?

We’re all born without a dime, and we’ll all die penniless.

In between, we might be blessed, blessed bounteously by God, but we’re all in the same boat - agrand adventure called life … we are all brothers and sisters, and, yes, there are differences, but the point remains: to those to whom much has been given, much is required [Luke 12:48].

This is why faith in God is so vital.

Real faith … not the cheapened version, the cheapened feel-good, yippie-kai ai, cry-your-eyes-out-for Jesus style religion, but the real thing, empowered by compassion and high-ethics and a life-changing love for justice.

God has told you, O mortal, what is good;

and what does the LORD require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God? [Micah 6:8].

Faith in God saves us from putting our faith anywhere else.

Because nothing else will do.

We put our faith in God!

To keep us balanced and sane.

On the right track and doing the right things.

We’re not easily de-centered when we’re centered in God, though all hell should break loose.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,

though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;

though its waters roar and foam,

though the mountains tremble with its tumult [Psalm 46].

We may be afraid, but we won’t fear.

We may sweat a little, but we won’t cringe in the dark.

We may lose a lot of sleep, but we won’t lose our hope.

Because of our faith in God …

God, at work in all things, for OUR good …

Because God is good all the time, and

All the time God is good.

That’s the ancient wisdom.

Amen and Amen!

August 30, 2009 - Flowers, Figs and Foxes

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 22:00:00 +0000

Song of Solomon 2:8-15

It’s a love story … pure, plain and simple.

Nothing theological about it.
God doesn’t show up at all …
Folks wonder why it’s in the Bible.

The Song of Solomon has been celebrated and condemned … dismissed out of hand, or twisted into strange interpretations.

But interpreters these days shy away from anything but the obvious, and I quite agree … the Song of Solomon - a steamy love poem between two young people who are madly in love!
Flowers and figs, sweet and tasty, and those dadgum little foxes who spoil the vineyard. Such is love, in all of its wonder and all of its strangeness.

So, why is this love poem in the Bible?
And why would I bother preaching from it?

Well, first of all, it’s one of the lections … someone somewhere thought that we ought to include something written by King Solomon …

But more than that, the Song of Solomon, has a rightful place in the Bible.

Let’s begin in the beginning …

By the way, little Jackie came home one day from Sunday School and said, “Dad, did you know the Bible talks about baseball?”
“No, I didn’t know that,” says Dad.
“Sure,” says Jackie, “the Bible talks about the big inning!”

Let’s go to the big inning, shall we? … the first pitch! When God created the heavens and the earth.

God created you and me, male and female, God created us – with all our strange parts and amazing desires, and God said It is good.

Adam looked at Eve and said,
Whoopie!
Bone of my bones and
Flesh of my flesh.

Flesh … these bodies of ours:
Amazing.
We run a mile and scramble eggs …
We hug and kiss and have babies …
We sneeze and get sick …
We cough and we blow our nose …
We eat too much and put on weight … and then we work like mad to take off the extra pounds …
We work and we sweat …
We wash and put on deodorant …
We look at ourselves in the mirror, and we wonder …
We watch ourselves breath … we smile, we frown … we pose, we crouch … we look at ourselves with wonderment … we look at ourselves with shame … we like what we see, or we quickly turn away …
We have hair on our heads, and sometimes we don’t …
We remove hair from where it is, and grow it where it isn’t …
We might get another nose … and make other adjustments along the way …
We’re thin and we’re not …
We’re tall and we’re short …
We’re blond and we’re brunette …
We’re all the colors of the human rainbow, and then some …

We are flesh … we are flesh, blood and bone.
We are conceived in the passionate union of a man and a woman …
We spend the first nine months of our life nurtured in our mother’s womb …
And then, in a few excruciating pulses, we’re pushed into this world, and take our first breath …
Heart pumping …
Organs working …
Brain thinking …
Stomach digesting …
Kidneys producing …

Flowers and figs and foxes!
Amazing, indeed!

The story goes on:
We fall in love …
I like the expression, “fall in love.”
Like tripping on a sidewalk, it just sort of happens one day …
We fall in love …
And it’s all we can think about …
Our mind dwells on the beloved …
We sit across the table and look intently into the beloved’s face– we notice everything.
We touch … hold hands … rub shoulders … get close …

God says: This IS my image …
Arms and legs and mouth and nose …
Tummies and tonsils, toes and bunions …
Sneezes and snorts and belly rumbles …

It’s good, says God, every bit of it is good!

When Jesus came to us, he was wearing skin!
The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory.

Barbara Brown Taylor, a guest preacher in an Alabama church… she arrived early, so she wandered around a bit … a beautiful Episcopal Church, it was, with Tiffany windows and a remarkable mural of Jesus emerging from the tomb behind the altar.
Taylor was all alone in the church, save a lovely lady in the sacristy polishing silver.
They greeted one another, and that was that.

The lady went on polishing the silver, and Ms. Taylor stepped behind the altar to get a better view of it … she writes:
Jesus stepping out of his tomb looking as limber as a ballet dancer with his arms raised in blessing. Roman soldiers slumped in sleep on either side of the tomb with Easter lilies blooming under their noses. Except for a white cloth swaddling his waist, Jesus was naked. His skin was the color of a pink rose. His limbs were flooded with light.

Taylor remarks:
I could not remember ever having seen so much of Jesus’s skin before, especially in church. …. But I could see the artist’s point. Even in Jesus’s most transcendent moment, the moment that set him apart from the rest of humankind, he remained recognizably one of us. He came back wearing skin. He did not leave his body behind [An Altar in the World, p.36].

Think of the Apostles’ Creed …
It ends with a roaring crescendo:
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the BODY, and the life everlasting.

We will not leave our body behind. Our skin goes with us!

Because that’s what we are - flesh, bone and blood.
Flowers, figs and foxes!

We’re not a spirit temporarily housed in a “prison house of clay” as some have said … waiting to flit off to some other world.
We are a human being … fully integrated - the soul needs the body; the body needs the soul!

We live and we die.
Mortal to the core.
But we belong to God - that’s the real story!
That’s the solution!
That’s the answer!
That’s our hope!
We belong to God!
Every last one of us, and every last bit of us - flowers, figs and foxes - and God is not in the habit of losing anything that belongs to God …
He who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies… [Romans 8:11].
It is a mystery … how God shall do this … but God did it with Jesus, and God will do it for us, too … God created the first heaven and the first earth out of nothing; the second creation won’t be a problem at all.
We shall all be changed: the perishable will put on imperishability; the mortal will put on immortality … and death will be no more.

Flesh is mighty important to God!
And mighty important to us, too.
We are our bodies, and our bodies are us!
Flowers, figs and foxes!

So, back to the Song of Solomon.
Read it this afternoon, if you will.
You’ll be surprised … maybe even slightly embarrassed.
It’s all about skin …

Just like the gospel stories!
Jesus, born of Mary, we say!

Born a baby from his mother’s womb.
Lived in his father’s house, with brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, cousins and friends.
Ate dates and bread and fish and drank wine.
Laughed and he cried.
Walked and he talked.
Bled when beaten,
Nailed to the cross, he took one last breath, and then he died and was buried.
And three days later …

For years, I wondered why Jesus stepped out of the tomb with his very own skin – different, to be sure, but skin nonetheless … his skin … full of scars, recognizable to those who knew him, touchable … why not a new body? Fresh and clean? Why still the scars?
Might God be saying to us: Everything counts, nothing is lost, because I am work in all things for good, even those things that hurt you and harm you and leave terrible scars?
I was at work in my son’s humiliation and shame, in his death and in his burial … I was there, says God. There’s no need to erase the past, for in time, it shall be revealed how I used the past to bring you into Christ, and to bring Christ into you!

When Jesus ascends into heaven, he takes skin with him …

And with his skin, goes our skin!
Flowers, figs and foxes.
Because Christ is in us, and we are in Christ.

When the final trumpet is sounded, bright and clear, on that great getting’ up mornin’, Christ shall come again.
The dead in Christ shall rise from their graves … molecules and atoms of flesh scattered in time recalled from the four corners of the world … and everything put back together again.

What happens when we die?
Our breath returns to God.
Our flesh to the earth.

But only for a time.
An interlude.
A pause.

The spirit in heaven waits for the final day.
The spirit, without the flesh, is incomplete.
Without skin, the soul is hardly itself.
Without soul, the flesh is dead.
The saints in heaven wait.
Believers on earth wait …
Creation waits …
For the final day, the last chapter … the redemption of our bodies, says the Bible!
The redemption of OUR BODIES!
Jesus says: I will raise them up on the last day [John 6:39].
Paul writes: We await a redeemer from heaven … who will transform our body that it may be conformed to glory of his body [Philippians 3:20-21].

Because we know where it’s all going, we do not give up.
Paul the Apostle writes at the end of 1 Corinthians 15: Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

We live, here and now, for the sake of Christ!
With flower, figs and foxes.

Steadfast and devoted to the gospel.
We keep the church alive and well.
We forgive one another, and we bear one another’s burdens.
We stand with the oppressed, and we work for justice.
We challenge the powers and defy the principalities.
We don’t buy the silliness and nonsense of a false materialism.
Because we believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting – the real materialism of God’s creation.
We believe in skin!

Someone asked Ted Kennedy why he devoted so much of his life to the underdog … and he replied, “Haven’t you read the New Testament?”

The New Testament IS all about skin.
The whole Bible is all about skin.

James says: Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father, Is this: To care for orphans and widows in their distress… [James 1:27].

What good is it, my brothers and sisters,
If you say you have faith but do not have works?
Can faith save you?
If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,
And one of you says to them,
‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’
And yet you do not supply their bodily needs,
What is the good of that?
So, faith by itself,
If it has no works,
Is dead [James 2:14-17].

John writes:
Those who say, ‘I love God’ and then reject their
Brothers and their sisters are liars; for those who do
Not love a brother or sister
Whom they have seen, cannot love God
Whom they have not seen.
The commandment we have from God is this:
Those who love God must love their
Brothers and sisters also.

Jesus says:
Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least
Of thes,e who are members of my family,
You did it to me.

You feed me when I was hungry.
You gave me water when I was thirsty.
You welcomed me when I was a stranger.
You clothed me when I was naked.
You visited me when I was sick and in prison.

You went to bat for me when I couldn’t even pick the bat up.
You defended me against the powers and principalities.
You fought for my safety and my well-being.
You took care of my when I was child.
You protected me in the workplace.
You cared for me in my old age.

The Song of Solomon invites us to love the real stuff of life.
Flowers, figs and foxes.

To live life well:
Bake chocolate chip cookies and fill the home with sweetness … take a big bite, with a sip of cold milk, and taste the wonder of it all …
Sail a boat on the high seas … smell the salt, feel the burning sun and the sting of wind on our face …
Hike the mountains and find a high place - sit there for awhile - the grandeur of mighty rocks and soaring trees … the wind rushing through a million pine needles … like the roar of a crowd in a distant stadium …
Hold someone’s hand and caress veins and knuckles and little bumps … rub their feet … wash their feet.
Help someone get across the room …
Work in a soup kitchen … sort groceries in a food pantry … dig water wells in Africa … go to Nicaragua … stand up for the fallen, defend the powerless …
Worship faithfully, pray deeply, live daringly.
Put our lives on the line for Jesus Christ and for the world: all the flowers, figs and foxes!

Love IS touching and hugging …
Sweat, blood and tears …
Love IS skin …
Love is real!

Keep it real, folks; keep your love real!
Flowers, figs and foxes!

Amen and Amen!

August 23, 2009 - "Solomon's Gratitude"

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:40:00 +0000

1 Kings 8 - selections

Three sisters, ages 92, 94, and 96 live in a house together.

One night the 96 year old draws a bath. She puts one foot in and pauses. She yells down the stairs, "Was I getting in or out of the bath?"

The 94 year old yells back, "I don't know. I'll come up and see." She starts up the stairs and pauses. Then, she yells, "Was I going up the stairs or down?"

The 92 year old is sitting at the kitchen table having tea, listening to her sisters. She shakes her head and says, "I sure hope I never get that forgetful."

She knocks on wood for good measure.

Then yells, "I'll come up and help both of you as soon as I see who's at the door."

Life can be mighty confusing!

For any of us.
What am I doing?
And why?

Where am I going?
And for what purpose?

The classic questions of life.
Good questions.
Who,
What,
Where and
Why …

I’m not sure we ever have closure on these questions.

There’ve been times in my life, when I thought I had it all figured out, and then Donna reminded me that I needed to put out the trash, mow the yard and pick up the kids from school.

So much for highfalutin’ ideas.

I remember when I turned forty.
Felt really good.
Sense of achievement.
Confident about what I knew and what I was doing.
For about six weeks.

Then on the seventh week, it said goodbye to me and took a hike, and it’s never again paid me a visit.

Life is a huge journey.
Does anyone ever arrive?

I remember calling in a nursing home 30 years ago in a tiny little town in northern Wisconsin … a tiny little lady in a tiny little bed … her physical strength gone; her mind yet agile and her memories clear … we visited a good many times together, and then one day, she said to me, her watery blue eyes looking straight at me:
I have something to tell you.
I’ve carried it within me since I was a little girl.
A great shame.
I have to tell you … I have to tell someone before I’m gone … I don’t want to take this with me.

With sighs and tears,
From her tiny little bed,
This tiny little lady told me,
A sad story about a tiny little girl
And a very bad man,
A family member,
An uncle.

You can fill in the blanks.

When she finished telling me her tale, she held my hand tightly,
Looked at me tearfully,
Said,
In a tiny little whisper,
Thank you.

Life is strange.
Enough twists and turns to break the back of snake.
Bad things, good things …
And everything in between …

That’s why grace is so important.
That’s why love is the only thing that really counts.
And the fruits of love:
Kindness.
Gratitude.
Forgiveness.
Compassion.
Courage.
Patience.
Vision.
Purpose.
Devotion.
Dedication.
Understanding.
Faith and hope.

The ability to rise above ourselves.
To be more today then we were yesterday.

To push the envelope - go the extra mile.

But keep our eyes on grace … grace for others, to be sure, but grace for ourselves, as well.
We can’t do everything.
We can’t solve every problem.
We can’t be everywhere and everything all at once.
We can’t always say it right.
We won’t always do it right.
We won’t always be on top of our game.

But if grace gives us latitude,
Grace also compels us to greatness.

We can do a lot, and we’ve already done a lot,
Grace encourages us to take a loving look at ourselves – That’s okay, says grace.
We solve problems all along the way.
We’re in many a place, and we do a ton of good things.
The world is better because of us, and it’s okay to know that, celebrate that, and believe that.

The problem is rarely that we try too much.
The problem is mostly that we don’t believe enough in ourselves to really try at all.

The original temptation still plays havoc with us.
The snake in the grass,
You’re not good enough as you are.
You can’t and you won’t and you never will.
Something is missing.
God cheated you.
There, on the tree … yeah, that’s the one; ya’ see that fruit?
Pretty, isn’t it?
Take it …
It’s yours.
It’ll fill your tummy and finish the work.
You’ll be better off than ya’ are right now.

The snake in the grass is alive and well.
Telling us the same old tired stories:

So we go shopping,
For this and that and everything else we can cram in our little carts.

That’s too bad.
We pay so little attention to who we really are:
Our gifts.
Abilities.
Character.
Goodness.

Because you and I are wondrously made.

Things in life will hurt us … and hurt us bad …
But nothing can take away our true character, nothing can change the fact that you and I are remarkable, even in our hurt.
We can love beyond the limit.
Forgive and get on with it.
Tackle huge problems and make a difference.
Change course in mid-stream.
Back up and turn around.
Start all over again, we really can!

One thing I’ve learned over the years …
When we look at God for a long time,
Slow and steady …
Something good happens to us.

It doesn’t happen over night.
It takes time!
As all good things do.

Carl Sandburg said to a young writer, If you want to be a writer, read, read and read.

Immerse yourself in what you want to be.

“Julie and Julia” – delightful film.
Julie Powell, a young lady from Texas, newly married, living in a tiny apartment in Queens, looking for a life, decides to cook her way through Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” – all 524 recipes in one year, 365 days.
A giant undertaking …
As she’s doing it, she says to a friend, I think I know Julia. It’s like she’s here, with me, in my kitchen, looking over my shoulder.

To be a Christian
Immerse ourselves in God.
Read, read, and read the Bible.

We are people of the book.
Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus.
Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Galatians and Ephesians.
Titus and Jude and the Book of Revelation.

And that’s how we get to know God.
Working our way through … cooking God’s recipes …
One day, we say, I’m getting to now God. God is with me, right here in my kitchen, looking over my shoulder, helping me.

And that’s where prayer begins.
Solomon’s kind of prayer.
For wisdom, a good mind, to know the difference between good and evil.
Between the imitation Gucci handbag and the real thing … between the cheap knockoff and the genuine article.

One of our Presbyterian Saints,
And we don’t have saints, as Presbyterians go,
But if we did,
I’d nominate William Sloane Coffin, Jr.
He’s one of MY saints, at least.
His stuff shapes my life.
His writing inspires my own.
His insights grip my soul and galvanize my energy.

He wrote about the real thing:
There is, says Coffin … a difference between having a friend and being a friend.
Between having success and being successful,
Between getting an education and becoming learned.
[Credo, p.122].

Julie Powell might have followed a recipe or two, or even three or four.
And that would have been just fine.
But working her way through the whole cookbook, every recipe, day-by-day, tempted to give up, she learned about the AUTHOR of the cookbook.

It’s one thing to know the recipe; it’s another to know the author!

Solomon knew the author … and here are some of the recipes:

v. 14, Solomon turns around and blesses the assembly … Solomon knows full well that he didn’t get there all by himself … the people stand with him, behind him, for him.
Solomon knows: we’re all in this together, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker.
Turn around sometimes – you’ll see a giant parade behind you … parents and grandparents, teachers and preachers … friends and family … folks you know, and folks you’ll never know … bankers and attorneys, doctors and nurses, firefighters and police officers, folks who make your cars and build your homes and fight your termites and clean your pools and change your oil and turn your bed down and serve your food and write your books and entertain you on TV.
Quite a parade, isn’t it?
Solomon turns around.
It’s a good thing to do now and then … we may be at the head of the parade, but we’re not alone, and it’s a parade, after all … there’s no such thing as a one-man parade, though some have thought so.
Turn around and bless your parade.

Vs. 22, while facing the crowd, Solomon spreads out his hands to heaven.
Wow.
Solomon knows that whatever the crowd needs, only heaven can give it.
Solomon knows that he’s the middleman.
Aren’t we all?
Heaven’s blessings flow through Solomon to the crowd that day.

The middleman,
Who stands between heaven and the people.
Hands open to heaven, ready to receive,
Ready to pass it on.
The church at its best.
The church of Jesus Christ.
Standing before the crowd,
Hands open wide to heaven,
Ready to share the blessings of God.

Vs. 27 – Solomon acknowledges that his great achievement isn’t big enough or good enough to hold all the glory of God!
Solomon remembers that God is always greater, always bigger, always better than any of our buildings, our theology, our history, our hymns and our missions – great at they are, God is greater still.
God didn’t stop inventing the day God created Presbyterians and Covenant on the Corner …
God didn’t stop inventing when God created Israel, and then the church.
We sometimes forget that.
Fundamentalists forget it much of the time.
Christians sometimes think the church holds ALL of God’s glory.
The whole truth, and nothing but the truth – as if we had it all … our story, our buildings, our traditions, our hymns, our faith, our take on things.
But Solomon wisely understands.
There’s more to God then we can hold in any one temple, building, book or tradition.
God is always greater.

But … and this is important: Solomon also knows that his temple is special.
As is the church.
As is our faith.
As is every religion on the face of the earth.

God is pleased to shed God’s glory in all it.

So we go with what we have.
There’s no need to put anyone else down.
No one has to be wrong in order for us to be right.

What we have is terrific.
It’s not all of God, that’s for sure.
But what we have of God in Christ is real and true and good.

I love how Solomon prays:
For this building, this temple.
When folks look at it, God will look at them.
I like that.
When they pray within it, or toward it, God will hear them.
When they have sinned, and all hell breaks loose, if they but turn back to God and remember the temple, forgiveness will flow and a fresh start be made.

When you pray this week,
Think of Covenant on the Corner …
In your mind, as you pray, roam around here.
The pews, the windows, the sounds of music …
Fellowship Hall, the Fireside Room, the courtyard.
Pray your prayers to God this week through Covenant on the Corner.

Amen and Amen.

August 16, 2009 - Solomon's Wisdom

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:37:00 +0000

1 Kings 2 & 3

All good things come to an end … the curtain is falling on David’s 40-year reign …

It’s been quite a journey … beginning with Samuel’s unannounced visit to Bethlehem and the surprise anointing of a young shepherd boy, David, as the next king of Israel.

We’ve traveled with David over hill and dale – through thick and thin, sick and sin … the worst of it and the best of it … David has done it all.

David’s reign spans forty tumultuous years – seven in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem …

Why have we spent so much time with David?

Because we’re a part of David’s house …

Jesus is the Son of David …

When Jesus makes his Passover visit to Jerusalem, he’s greeted with shouts of hope:

Hosanna to the Son of David.

We belong to the house of David through Jesus our LORD.

It’s important that we know these stories, and know them well … know them as adults … the adult version!

Far too many adults know only the Sunday School version …

Which was just fine for that 5^th grade boy who dreams about David and Goliath … or that bright-eyed 3^rd grade girl who memorized David’s greatest Psalm, the LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want …

What we learned in Sunday School is just the beginning …

Still unfolding …

As God continues to love the world back to life.

We’ve spent a lot of time with David, and now the scene shifts to David’s son, Solomon …

But nothing was ever easy for David …

In his 40^th year as king, David’s body and mind have paid the price … First Kings begins with an ominous hint: When David was old and well advanced in years, he could not keep warm even when they put covers over him.

Anyone here sympathetic with that?

Now some of you guys might be interested in the solution: David’s servants got together and said to him, ‘We’ve got the solution for your chills – we’ve found a beautiful young lady – her name is Abishag – she’ll be your nurse – she’ll take care of you and wait on you, and she can lie beside you and keep you warm.

Hey, fellas, what do you think of that for the night chills?

But the text goes one step further – even Abishag couldn’t light David’s fire …

David is old.

David is tired.

Weary in the flesh, and slow in heart and mind … he barely rules … bureaucrats manage things, and things are peaceful now, so it’s not too bad.

But who’s going to be the next king?

Who’s going to fill David’s shoes?

Which son will it be?

That’s the million dollar question.

Amnon and Absalom are dead.

Both were good looking, headstrong and aggressive …

So we can almost guess what happens next in this wild and wooly family …

Adonijah …

He’s good looking, headstrong and aggressive …

Adonijah puts himself forward and says, I’ll be king.

Like his older brother Absalom, Adonijah gets chariots and horses, and fifty men to run ahead of him – think 5 big black SUVS, with well-armed agents in dark suits and dark glasses … a show of power to get things rolling.

Adonijah consults with Joab, David’s field commander, and with Abiathar the priest [Think Colin Powell and Billy Graham] – both of them give Adonijah their support.

Adonijah then throws an inauguration party … and like any party in Washington, or Sacramento, when it’s party time, there’s nothing more important then the guest list – who’s invited says everything; who’s NOT invited says even more!

Adonijah invites all of his brothers and all kinds of officials.

But Nathan the prophet, David’s closest advisor, isn’t invited.

Zadok the priest, isn’t invited.

David’s special guard isn’t invited.

None of David’s closest advisers are invited.

It makes sense for Adonijah to be king … he’s the next in line, the oldest surviving son, but the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray …

Nathan the prophet wasn’t about to let Adonijah claim the throne.

Nathan goes to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, and asks, Did you know about this? Let me give you some advice; take the bull by the horns so you can save your life, and the life of your son, Solomon.

Go to king David and say to him … blah blah blah blah …

So, Bathsheba goes to David:

‘My LORD king, did you not swear to me that my son Solomon would inherit the throne?

Of course you did, and David, if YOU don’t remember saying it, I remember. And a mother never forgets such things. You said Solomon would succeed you.

So, why has Adonijah become king?

David, you didn’t even know that, did you?

A mistake has been made, hasn’t it?

My LORD king, all of Israel is looking to you for leadership right now, and if you don’t act now, as soon as you take your last breath, my son and I will be killed.

At that very moment, right on due, Nathan arrives at the palace … Nathan the fearless; he’s tackled David before, and he tackles David again.

Yes, David, everything she says is true.

You’ve been duped by another son.

Or is there something you said, that we don’t know about?

A clever piece of work.

Bathsheba and Nathan get David’s attention.

David rises from his bed and issues a statement – As I promised, Solomon is king.

But the text isn’t clear.

Did David make such a promise?

There is no such promise anywhere in the Bible.

Did Bathsheba and Nathan pull a fast one on David?

Take advantage of his declining abilities?

Create memories for him that never happened?

Do they know something beyond what the text tells us?

Does God know something?

Is God at work here?

The story unfolds as we might expect.

Pomp and circumstance … a public anointing for Solomon … party time.

When Adonijah and his guests hear the celebration, they’re confused, and just then a messenger arrives: Solomon is king.

All the guests get up and leave - I guess we’d call ‘em fair-weather friends.

It didn’t take long for the party to break up.

The next day, the guests told their friends:

Well, I wasn’t there.

My name was on the list, but I didn’t go.

No, no, no, I wasn’t there either.

Uh uh, Solomon’s the man, not Adonijah!

Does anything change? Is anything different? This is how nations and governments work – the powerful vie for power; the wealthy want a little more … ah, the games we all play as we jockey for position and influence.

A prestigious pulpit becomes vacant, and pastors around the country line up like beauty queens, hoping to be the chosen one.

In every corporate office around the nation, Billy and Susie hope to catch the boss’ attention – and get that next promotion.

Candidates for office throw big money around – parties here and parties there …

And everyone loves a winner …

And when the dust settles, no one even remembers the name of the loser. Adonijah who?

Oh well, so it goes.

But what’s the point of all of this?

We’re dealing here with sacred text.

The Bible … it’s message.

David’s story … our story.

God at work in the world, just as the world is.

Messy and full of schemes.

Silly and sad …

But God still at work, working with what we put in God’s hands … God making the best of it, even when we’re far from our best!

David takes Solomon aside and gives him some fatherly advice.

Like:

Kill Joab when you have chance – I never did like him; he caused your dear old dad a lot of sorrow, and he’ll hurt you, too – he bet on the wrong horse, now show him how wrong he was.

And the guy who cursed me, take care of him, too … I promised not to hurt him, but you’re not bound by that promise, so go get him – bring his gray head down to the grave in blood.

But please remember Barzillai and his family … they stood by us in our darkest hour … reward them for their loyalty.

Solomon consolidates his hold.

A bloody business, for sure.

Nothing neat and clean.

Folks who read the Bible for the first time are surprised at all of this … but what do folks expect?

Even Grimms’ fairy tales have plenty of wicked people and bloody death …

National Geographic says of Grimm’s fairy tales:

“Looking for a sweet, soothing tale to waft you toward dreamland? Look somewhere else. The stories collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the early 1800s serve up life as generations of central Europeans knew it—capricious and often cruel. The two brothers, patriots determined to preserve Germanic folktales, were only accidental entertainers” [http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/index2.html].

The Bible pulls no punches.

It’s a mirror held up to the human drama.

This is the way of the powerful and the wealthy.

This is the way of the world …

How we all live, rich and poor alike.

A couple of homeless men squabbling about who’s going to sleep where … and corporate giants squabbling over who controls the flow of oil.

Things settle down for Solomon.

He goes to Gibeon to offer sacrifice …

Solomon knows he sits on the throne of Israel by God’s grace, a strange and mysterious grace at work in the schemes and machinations of Jerusalem politics.

At Gibeon in the night, the LORD comes to Solomon in a dream – Ask what you want me to give you!

Wow, a blank check from God!

Anything you want.

Here’s where we see the evidence of Solomon’s wisdom.

The first words out of his mouth: YOU have made me king.

Solomon confesses his utter reliance upon the grace of God … he’s no self-made man; who he is and who he has become – it’s a gift from God, from A to Z, top to bottom.

Then Solomon says:

… and I haven’t a clue. I’m only a child; I don’t know how to go out, and I don’t know how to come in. And now I sit on the throne; I need your help! Give me, I pray, a discerning mind that I might know the difference between good and evil.

Like the Knight of the Grail says to Indiana Jones: Choose wisely, for while the true Grail will bring you life, the false Grail will take it from you.

Hundreds of grails to choose from – gorgeous and bejeweled – finely wrought works of art – glistening with gold and silver.

But Indiana Jones reasons wisely – the Last Supper - it was a humble carpenter, not a king in flowing robes, who lifted the Holy Grail.

Indiana Jones chooses humility – a simple carpenter’s cup.

And it’s the right choice.

The Knight of the Holy Grail says: You have chosen wisely.

Solomon chooses wisely.

What he asks for is important, but even more important, what Solomon DOESN’T ask for – long life, prosperity, defeat for the enemy.

Solomon asks but one thing: a mind – a mind to know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil … to govern wisely, to live a responsible life for the sake of others!

And God says to him that night: You have chosen wisely; I will give you discernment.

And then God says something surprising: Everything you DIDN’T ask for, I will give that to you, too, in measured doses … with this proviso, that you walk in my ways, keeping my commandments and my statutes …

Jesus said it well: Seek the kingdom of God first … and all the other things you might otherwise care about will be given to you as well.

When we pray … to pray as Solomon prayed –

A simple prayer …

A basic prayer …

O God, that I might know the difference between right and wrong.

Solomon’s wisdom, indeed!

Amen and Amen!

A Son's Rebellion

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:51:00 +0000

2 Samuel 18/19 - selections

If you’re on the Genesis Email List, you saw my note this week … to read 2 Samuel, chapters13-20 …

A sweeping saga …

And epic story …

Lust and love …

Victory and violence …

Murder and mayhem …

Loyalty and betrayal …

Treachery and tears …

A steamy drugstore novel …

An afternoon soap opera … and then some!

The heart of the story, the rebellion and death of Absalom,

And a father’s grief:

O Absalom, O Absalom, cries David.

Why does the Bible go into such detail on these tangled stories?

All of this blood and sadness …

These stories help us along the way in our own story.

And everyone has a story.

The good, the bad and the ugly.

You’ve heard me say a time or two, there is no pretending in the Bible … life is life is life, just as it as …

And if there is a God, we find God in the hints of grace that appear without fail …

But hints they are …

Hardly obvious, mostly hidden …

We see them only in hindsight …

Woven into the fabric of life like a golden thread …

The golden thread of God’s love.

Let’s back up a second … to where the story begins.

After Saul’s death, David gains the crown …

And God makes a promise to David.

An unconditional promise.

I will never leave you or forsake you.

Though you will sin, and though there will be consequences, I will stand by you.

I will build you a house, a dynasty.

I will give you a future.

Your throne will never lack a sovereign.

I am your God, and it’s with you that I cast my lot …

Lock, stock and barrel …

The whole nine yards.

You’re da man David.

I will never leave you or forsake you.

God was surely right about the sin business.

There was plenty of it in the land of milk and honey.

The immediate story begins with Amnon and Tamar.

Half brother, half sister …

Different mothers …

David the father.

Amnon fell in love, or so he thought, with his half-sister.

He fell into in a dark place …

Beside himself with desire … unable to sleep …

And then there’s Jonadab, a shrewd man, says the Bible, David’s brother.

What’s wrong with you Amnon?

You look terrible.

Tell me your troubles …

So Amnon unburdens himself to his uncle.

And what an uncle he is.

Jonadab lays out a scheme.

Pretend you’re ill Amnon.

And when your father comes by to inquire about you, tell him that you’d like your sister to come over and do a little baking for you.

Amnon thought, Good idea … I’ll do it.

And it came to pass.

Tamar came over and did some baking.

Send everyone out of here, said Amnon.

And bring this good food into my bedroom.

And when Tamar entered the bedroom, Amnon grabbed her … she begged him to stop, but Amnon forced her …

And when it was done,

He despised her.

Ordered her to leave.

But now Tamar refuses.

Uh uh, she says.

You did this to me; now I’m yours.

What you did was bad enough.

But sending me away in shame would be worse.

But Amnon would have none of it.

He forcibly removed Tamar from the house.

She tore her clothing and removed the signs of her virginity.

She went to live with Absalom, her brother.

Absalom told Tamar, Think no more of it.

But in his heart, he hated his brother.

He was bitter … and bitterness is a bad habit.

Two years later, in the spring of the year,

The sheering of the sheep,

Absalom invites Amnon, with all the king’s sons, to the party.

When everyone had plenty to drink,

Absalom gave the order to his men: Kill Amnon.

And that’s what they did.

Fearful of his father’s reprisal, Absalom flees the kingdom and finds refuge with the King of Geshur …

For three years, Absalom lives in exile.

But David’s heart yearns for Absalom.

Now enter Joab, David’s chief commander.

A man of fire and steel.

Likes things neat and clean …

If there’s a problem here, let’s solve it.

With a clever scheme, and the help of a wise woman, Joab convinces David to bring Absalom home.

But with one proviso from David … he’s not welcome in my house!

A strange moment.

David yearns for Absalom, but when the moment comes, David refuses to see him.

David brings his son back, then walls him off.

David forgives, and doesn’t forgive.

Forgiveness is hard, isn’t it?

Memory runs deep.

Memory plays hard and fast with us, as it did with David.

Absalom remains an exile in the Holy City.

For two years, two long years, Absalom lives within a stone’s throw of his father’s house, but not a word, not a touch, not a moment, from David.

Absalom, it says, is a handsome man with a fine head of hair.

He marries and has a family.

But David will have nothing to do with him.

Absalom contacts Joab, but Joab ignores him, too.

So Absalom orders his servants to burn Joab’s barley field.

Well, that got Joab’s attention.

Why did you burn my field?

Because I want to see my father, and you’re the only one who has enough influence to sway his decision.

Joab goes to David:

Absalom wants to see you.

If you want to kill him, kill him; he’s ready to die.

But he wants to see you, and you can do with him as you will.

David agrees:

Bring the boy to my house.

Absalom bows down to the ground.

And David kisses him.

Welcome home, my boy. Welcome home!

End of the story? A Hallmark Card ending?

Remember how Absalom nursed his hatred for Amnon?

Something dark and bitter grows darker still.

Bitterness is a bad habit.

Absalom hatches a plan.

He acquires a chariot and a horse, and fifty men to run ahead of him – what a show!

He makes himself available to the people; he charms them with his good looks and commanding personality.

The people like him.

All the while, a seething bitterness.

Four years pass … four years to think and plan … four years to nurse a grudge …

Then, one day, he asks his father’s permission to go to Hebron … a sacred city … to worship the LORD God.

Daddy, I wanna go to church in Hebron. Will you let me go?

What’s a father to do when the son asks to worship the LORD?

David gives him permission to leave Jerusalem for Hebron.

David gives him permission to leave Jerusalem for Hebron. Absalom uses Hebron as a base of operations, to declare himself king of Israel. His dark plans emerge. He wants his father’s throne. The word is suddenly given in Hebron: Absalom is king.

The rebellion grows.

David and his cohorts flee Jerusalem to prevent an attack.

Better for us to leave the city then Absalom lay siege to it.

David flees to another city … on his way there, a man from Saul’s clan confronts him, curses him and throws stones at him, shouting at him: You have come to ruin because you are a man of blood.

David’s men are ready to kill the man.

But David says, Leave him be. Perhaps this of God. Maybe God will see my distress and repay me with good.

David and his cohorts travel on, and the man walks beside the road, shouting and cursing the entire day.

David and his men finally arrive in their city of refuge, exhausted.

It looks like Absalom has won the day.

But spies remain in Jerusalem.

Intrigue and betrayal.

Double agents and double crosses.

Ahithophel offers Absalom good military advice to further the rebellion and finish David off, once and for all.

But David’s counter-agent, Hushai, offers another plan, and Absalom buys it.

The writer of the story interjects:

Chapter 17, verse14 -

For the LORD had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the LORD might bring ruin on Absalom.

In the end, all-out war.

Absalom’s soldiers are no match for Joab’s battle-hardened warriors.

Absalom’s army is routed and Absalom flees on donkey through the thick forest of Ephraim, only to have his head, maybe his thick, luxuriant hair, caught in the branches of a low-hanging oak tree … and there he’s trapped, dangling between heaven and earth, unable to escape.

Joab’s soldiers find him and report back to Joab.

Did you kill him? asks Joab.

We didn’t dare, because King David asked us to treat the boy gently.

But Joab would have none of it.

He’s a man of smoke and steel, with lots of blood on his hands.

Joab makes the decision – Absalom is a threat to the kingdom … as long as he lives, David’s hold on the throne is uncertain.

Joab finds Absalom, and drives three spears into his heart … and then, smelling blood, the soldiers join in for the kill.

When David hears of Absalom’s death, he’s crushed.

Devastated.

Broken.

Thrown into despair.

Paralyzed.

Unable to govern.

A portrait of deepest grief, captured in music and art over the centuries, a portrait of a father’s heart torn to shreds.

But what could David have done.

The dilemma of many a family with wayward children.

Every choice a bad choice.

Tough love, soft love?

Forgiveness or punishment?

What’s a parent to do?

Grief … raw and uncut …

A child torn from your heart.

The cruelty of life.

The untimely death of a child.

O Absalom, O Absalom, my son.

Joab, the man of smoke and steel, turns to David harshly.

There is yet a war to be finished.

This is no time for grieving.

You have insulted your soldiers.

They won a great victory for you, and all you do is groan and moan about Absalom.

You haven’t said a word of praise or thanks to your men.

You’ve made them feel like skunks.

You’ve made it clear to us all – you’d rather WE be dead and your son alive … now go out and encourage your men.

There is still much work to be done.

For crying out loud, be the king!

What a strange story.

But here’s what we can learn.

First and foremost, God is faithful.

God’s commitment to David and to David’s house will not fail, though David should fail a thousand times over.

And here’s an interesting question:

Are we not of David’s house, too?

Of course we are.

Because we are in Christ.

Christ Jesus our LORD.

Christ, the Son of David.

Christ, our brother.

We are of David’s house.

And God’s promise to David’s house never fails!

God’s promise to David, God’s promise to you and me, sealed with the blood of Christ, stands the test of time and eternity.

When we turn to the New Testament, the story continues to unfold for us.

God remains faithful and will save the day, though the world be faithless a millions times over,

Though sin abound, grace abounds all the more.

There is a generous forgiveness in the heart of God.

God still bends the course of time and history to fulfill God’s purpose for a new world and a better day.

What we learn next is simple: life is life is life!

I grieve when TV Christians tell impossible stories about a life in Christ that doesn’t exist except in their effort to sell Christ, as if Christ were nothing more than a new and improved version of self-advancement and personal happiness.

I watched a leading Christian on the Larry King Show the other night … this fine Christian man spoke about the release of the journalists from North Korea and the good work of Bill Clinton and President Obama … he urged negotiations on every front – talk to anyone, anywhere, anytime, he said …

I gave thanks for this witness, because he’s a man of influence in the Christian world.

But then something happened.

He launched into his “convert Larry King shtick” – what a life I’ve had since Jesus came into my heart … all victory and all sunshine; all goodness and all glory … and you can have this, too; just turn your life over to Jesus.

It was canned, scripted, and stale … like a bag of half-eaten Fritos discovered behind your couch.

I was crushed.

Why do some Christians do this to Jesus.

Why all the hype?

All the sugar-coating?

Because Americans are gullible?

Do we really believe in some kind of alternative “christian” universe, just around the corner, if we only try harder, believe a little more, read one more book, and buy the CDs of another TV preacher offering health, wealth and happiness, for just $29.95, plus shipping.

The biggest lies told on the face of the earth are told by TV Christians and fundamentalist preachers!

I’ve watched thousands of good and decent folk try to live the lie – how they pump up one another, convince one another, tell the story again and again, hoping to make it true, but they go to bed at night weeping the silent tears of sin and sorrow.

When the church over-sells Jesus , we set people up for heartache.

The church has to tell the truth.

We’re not selling beauty products.

Or five easy steps to wealth and happiness.

We offer Christ.

We offer real truth for real life.

Because the truth sets us free.

The truth of life,

The truth of God,

The faithfulness of God …

The Jesus story …

Come to me all you who are weary and overburdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Take up your cross and follow me.

Dear Christian friends, the promises of God ARE real.

Woven into the fabric of REAL life.

Sorrow and hurt.

Sin and death.

Love and laughter, too.

And good things and small blessings.

The love of God, like a golden thread, woven into the fabric of every-day life.

For God so loved the world.

Just as it is – just as we are …

To bring us to a better day.

Dear Christian friends,

You will make it, because CHRIST is real.

You will make it through, to the better day.

You will make it, because GOD is faithful.

That’s the news from the Holy City, “where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average."

Amen and Amen!

Rough Road Ahead

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:16:00 +0000

2 Samuel 11:26-12:15

Any Bette Davis fans here? (I’m dating myself!)
Her 1950 classic … “All About Eve” …
Won an Oscar for Best Picture …
In one memorable scene … a party; heading out of the room, she looks over her shoulder, as only Bette Davis could do, plants her feet, and says scathingly to the gathered snobs and social climbers, “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”

Turbulence.
A bumpy night.
Rough Road Ahead.

What do we do when we see a sign, “rough road ahead?”

We:
Slow down.
Hang on.
Stay the course.

A simple strategy for rough times.

Rough times were coming for David.
The affair with Bathsheba …
The murder of her husband …
Yes, he’s still king …
But Nathan the prophet tells the truth:
The die is cast.
No reset button.
No way to reboot.
It is what it is.
Rough road ahead David.
Fasten your seatbelt.

Sure, David did it to himself;
We all do, from time-time-time;
Sometimes, we ARE our own worst enemy.
And sometime things just go haywire.

How many of my Michigan friends have lost their jobs … is it their fault? Was it something they did?
Victims they are … victims of huge social and financial systems … board-room decisions made on the 40th floor of a Wall Street skyscraper … policies framed in government offices far away from the factory floor; political decisions made by big money and powerful people …

Things change …
Patterns break down …
Social upheaval …
Rough road ahead.

Slow down.
Hang on.
Stay the course.

Let’s talk about slowing down.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to slow down.
When there’s a problem, I wanna solve it.
Get it behind me.
Done and over with.

But slowing down is a faith issue.
God promises to be at work in all things for good.
ALL things …
So maybe we can slow down a little bit.
Sure, who wants to be in a tough place.
But God is there, in all tough places.
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.

We can only walk sometimes.
No running, no speeding, just a slow walk.
It’s dark;
It’s hard;
It’s scary.

Haste makes waste …
Slow down in the dark places.
God is there.
At work in all things for good.

In David’s psalm of repentance, David asks of God:
Teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Go deep LORD.
Go into my secret heart.

Like drilling an oil well in the Oklahoma panhandle … it takes time to drill deep … layers of ancient rock and primeval sediment

It takes time to learn.
Wisdom is a slow process … like cooking chili … simmering for hours … a little stirring; add a little more chili powder, some salt … more stirring, more simmering … a good pot of chili takes time …
And so does wisdom.

Slow down when the going gets rough.
Trust God.
Because God is there.

David writes:
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And put a new and right spirit within me.

St. John of the Cross, a 16th Century mystic, wrote a small book to young monks, entitled, “The Dark Night of the Soul.”
When the joy of the Lord wears off …
When spiritual delight becomes daily drudgery.
When God seems far away …
Prayers feel useless …

St. John counseled his young monks:
God is doing a might work in the dark night of the soul.

It has to be dark sometimes for God’s mighty work.
If it were all sunshine and light,
We’d rush in and muck it up.
We’d start advising God.
Telling God what to do.
“Here God, try this; work at that.”

So God veils his work from our eyes,
In the Dark Night of the Soul.
God disappears from sight.

Like an artist creating a sculpture for the town square,
The work is hidden from view by scaffolding and heavy tarps …
The public can hear a little bit of the work …
But no one can see the work underway …
Until the artist is ready to pull the tarps away …
And take down the scaffolding …

Then, and only then, can we see what been
Wrought by the artist.
Only then, can we say,
“Ah hah … so that’s what you were doing?”
“I had no idea.”

There are great promises in the Bible,
I am with you always.
I will never leave you or forsake you.
I am work in all things for good.

Rough road ahead.
Slow down.

There’s another part of the strategy here:
Hang on … don’t let go.
Hang on to your dreams.
Hang on to your love.
Hang on to God.

Don’t let go.
Don’t give up.

Here on the LORD's Table, one of my favorite Remington pieces – “Wicked Pony” – the rider has been thrown …
But the rider grabs the pony’s ear …
Hanging on with one hand …
That’s all he’s got … one hand, one ear … but he’s hanging on.
David hangs on …
To his faith, hope and love.
Chastened and wiser …
Battered and bruised.
But David hangs on.
David doesn’t let go.

Paul the Apostle says to his friends,
Pray without ceasing.
Don’t give up on God.
Don’t give up on yourself.
Don’t give up on your life.

And prayer doesn’t have to be eloquent or long-winded.
The shortest prayer in the Bible uttered by Peter sinking beneath the ways, LORD, save me.
Sometimes that’s all we can say.
But say it.
And say it again.
Again and again, if that’s all you can say, LORD, save me.

Maybe your dreams need revision.
Maybe your heart needs an adjustment.
Maybe the whole house needs to come down.
And something new be raised up.

But hang on to your heart.
Hang on to God.
Hang on to your faith, hope and love.

One more piece of the strategy: stay the course.

David slows down.
He hangs on tight.
And he stays the course.

David says of his life before God:
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
A broken and contrite heart.

Not money.
Not power.
Not influence.
Not achievement or glory.

But a broken spirit.
A contrite heart.
A place for God.

Sometimes we’re just so full of ourselves.
So full of everything.
We have to be empty to make room for God.

Life will empty us out now and then.
Hard knocks and swift kicks …
Sometimes of our own making …
And sometimes just the way it is …

Stay the course with God!

John the Baptist said it, and said it well:
He must increase; I must decrease.

Something has gotta give in the spiritual equation …
Full of ourselves, there’s no room for God.

Tough times: a time to pull the plug and drain the junk away … so that God can grow larger in our lives.

This is what life is all about.
To make room for God.

And the rest will fall into place.
It always does.
It always will.

Jesus said it well:
Seek first the kingdom of God, and all the other things that can otherwise occupy our thoughts and distract from the reality of life, will come our way as well.

Stay the course with God.
Trust God.
Trust yourself.
Because there’s a lot of God and a lot of good in you.

More than enough to carry the day.
More than enough to get you through the rough times!

David made it.
So will you.

Amen and Amen

Nasty

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 20:53:00 +0000

2 Samuel 11:1-15

One of my all-time favorite films, “Rain” – from Somerset Maugham’s story of the same title, starring Joan Crawford as a women of questionable reputation – and her fellow passengers stuck on a dumpy island in the Pacific because of cholera.
With all the usual suspects.
In the bar, one evening, some unpleasant conversation about the woman … but the bartender says, “We’ve all crossed thresholds we’re not proud of.”

Who hasn’t?
Who doesn’t have a closet full of junk; a shoebox full of shame?

Maybe that’s why Jesus said to the mob with stones in their hands, Let the one without sin cast the first stone.
How we love the feel of the stone in our hand; eager to throw it, hard and fast, at someone caught, relieved that it’s them, not us!
But the Bible cautions us … and tells us stories about the great and the not so great, and the travails of life … no one has it easy … we can all stand against one another (that’s the easy choice), or we can stand with one another in the fellowship of grace.

Teaching an adult Bible one Sunday morning, I told the story of David and Bathsheba.
Before I finished, a class member slapped her hand hard onto the table and shouted, “Where did you get that filthy story about David?”

This is the kind of stuff we don’t learn in 5th grade Sunday School.
And that’s okay for 5th graders …
There’s plenty of stuff for children to learn … but what we learn in Sunday School is only a small part of the biggest story every told … stretching all the way from creation to the new heaven and the new earth … a story of greatness and sadness … the best and the brightest; the worst and the ugliest … all the thresholds we’ve crossed … and then some.

We all love little Davy defeating Goliath; but we need to pay attention to the whole story – even the nasty stuff.

The text begins simply enough, though with a clear wink of humor – it’s spring time – hehe …
When kings flex their muscles and set their eyes on fields of battle.
David is no different.
After a long drizzly winter, as the sun stretches broader on the horizon, the smell of wild flowers in the air, David says, Let’s go to war.

Does this make sense?
Of course not.
It’s not supposed to make any sense.

So off to war they go.
Not David, of course.
He’s too much of a king now.
He only gives the orders.
His generals go to war.
And the young men who do the fighting.
Does it ever change?

And late one afternoon – I love the image … when the sun is setting … everything golden … the magic hour if you have a camera in hand – every color brighter, richer … the end of the day … a stroll on the roof of the palace – a mighty man surveying his mighty city …

I wonder how often David strolled the ramparts.

I wonder, how often Bathsheba noticed the king … this powerful man … and what did Kissenger say, “power is an aphrodisiac”?

So David surveys his kingdom.
Maybe a little bored.
After all, his men are out looting and pillaging, ravaging the land … having all the fun, and David is stuck at home.

Lethargic, board … daydreaming …
Dozing all afternoon.
What’s a great and powerful king to do with so much time on his hands?
But lay around.
Take a nap.
A man of leisure.
Finally he rises …

I have this image … stretching, yawning, rubbing his eyes … What’s next? Solitaire? Maybe some dancers? Eat a little goat stew?

I know what I’ll do.
I’ll go to the roof …
Always something to see … who knows what I’ll see today.

In that fateful moment, in that rooftop stroll, he sees a woman bathing … leisurely, languorously, here an arm, there a leg … ah, look at the marvelous hair …
Anything more needed?
And maybe it could have ended there.
This man, after God’s own heart, might have just turned away.
But he’s a powerful man.
He sees what he wants, and he wants what he sees.
Who is she? He wonders.
Might she be available?

David sends someone to find out.
Powerful people do that.
Hey, servant-boy, run over to that neighboring house will ya? Find out who owns those arms and legs.

So the report comes back.
It’s Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam,
Wife of Uriah the Hittite.

It might have ended then and there.
But it didn’t.
Things like this rarely end when they should.

David doesn’t waste any time.
He sends for her.

And what’s a loyal subject to do, but accept the king’s invitation?
And it might have ended then and there.
But it didn’t.

The text gives the impression of royal prerogative.
No pleasantries.
Not courting.
No jokes.
Not even a drink.

The text is otherwise full of rich detail in the rest of the story, but not here.
No conversation, no caring, not a shred of tenderness.
No love … just desire.
Right into bed.
And when it’s done, it’s done.
She leaves.

Well, that’s that.
Or so we would hope.

But things like this are never neat and clean.
The word comes to David, I’m pregnant.

Those fateful words have changed human history a few times, haven’t they?

Now what?
Even a powerful king like David wants to cover things up.

So David sends orders to his commander, Send Uriah to me.

Uriah comes home from the front.
He and David engage in a little manly-man talk – about soldiering and looting and who was winning.

Uriah, you’re a good man.
Loyal soldier that you are.
Why don’t ya’ head on home for a little R & R with your wife, why don’t you wash your feet … wink, wink.
A couple of guys … some barroom banter …
“Wash your feet” – I think all of you can figure that one out – a euphemism for something a bit more … and maybe no one will raise the question of paternity.

But Uriah the Hittite, the foreigner, the mercenary, refuses.
How can I go home to enjoy the pleasures of life,
When my buddies are out in the field, taking risks,
Terrible risks …
For a war they didn’t make,
For a king they dearly love.
I can’t do that.

So Uriah camps out by David’s front door.

The next day, David invites Uriah in for a drink.
Just a couple of guys.
Just a few beers.
A little more banter, some bawdy jokes.
A few more beers.
Losen things up.
A few more beers.
Let’s get drunk.

But Uriah refuses to go home.
This guy can’t be bought for love or money!

The next morning, David writes a letter to his commander in the field – no words minced:
Put Uriah on point.
When the fighting gets rough,
Pull back; beat a hasty retreat.
Leave Uriah there; alone.
And he’ll be struck down and die.

This is a mean and nasty story about a powerful man who uses his power to get what he wants, destroying those who could blow his cover.
The kind of story we might well see on the evening news.

The kind of story we know all too well.

So what’s it doing in the Bible?
What’s the point?

Should we just shake our heads, cluck our tongues at such outrageous behavior.
Look down our nose and congratulate ourselves for “never having done anything like that”?
Or maybe we’re just glad we were never caught, or if we were, we breath a sigh of relief that we scraped through it like David did.

What’s the point? Why this wretched story about King David?

It’s life … life pure, plain and simple … when life isn’t pure, and never plain and hardly simple.
Who can choose life in bits and pieces?
Who can choose only the sunny side of the street?
Sometimes we walk on the dark side of things.
Ply our trade in the dark materials.
Sometimes we’re leading the way.
Sometimes we’re caught up in someone else’s maelstrom, like Uriah was …

The Bible tells us that life is life.
There are thresholds we’ve crossed we’re not proud of.
Stories we’d just as soon forget.
There’s no picking and choosing the chapters.

It’s just life.
In all of its glory and all of its grittiness.
Thick and thin.
Sick and sin.

The Bible reminds us:
No need to pretend.
And pretending has long been a part of the Christian story … from the tales of the saints to all of those glorious conversion stories told by TV evangelists.

But we all know it’s not true.
It’s just hard to wade through the hype.
The church in America is particularly susceptible to pretending.
Pews are full of people who could never tell their story, for fear of being thrown out on their ear, and they’re right. They’d be thrown out.
Conversionist Christianity has been particularly cruel at this point – “now that I have Jesus, it’s all sunshine and roses. I used to do and I used to be” … fill in the blanks with all the dirt and grime of life, the sin of the month, “but Jesus came into my life, and now my bad complexion cleared up, I got a million-dollar job, and I live in a fine home. All because of Jesus.”
Sure, I’m exaggerating.
But the point is this: American Christianity loves success and victory and power and overcoming and all things made new.
There is something to all of that, God be praised.
The Holy Spirit is real.
The love of Christ makes a difference.
A life soaked in the love of Christ, a life devoted to things of God, a life filled with faith, hope and love is a life categorically different than a life live in anger and greed, fear and lust, the relentless self-interest that only the Spirit of God can challenge and defeat in our lives.
But sin never goes away.
Life has its roses, but the bloom can quickly fad.
Life has its sunshine, but the night is just a stroke of the clock away.
Like the sea in Holland – the dikes and canals keep the water at bay, but the threat is always there.

Scripture reminds us:
God has saved us.
Again and again.
God builds all kinds of dikes and canals to keep the deluge away …
But everyone in Holland knows that a 100-year storm might do it … that a failure in all the complicated controls might do it … that the angry waters of the cold Atlantic might one day breech the defenses.

They know that.
So they’re prepared.
They’re vigilant.
They’re ready.
They’re on guard.

Maybe that’s the point.
Be mindful of your own soul.
Be careful and prayerful.

Jesus said it well:
Pay attention to the log in your own eye before you mess around with the speck in your neighbor’s eye.

Be kind to one another.
Because some of us are not running too swiftly.
Some of us are just limping along right now.

Maybe we’re the man beset by robbers and left for dead beside the road.
Maybe we’re the priest or Levite – good and decent folk, but unsure of getting involved …
And maybe we’re the good Samaritan today – our heart is full of kindness, and we do the right thing.

Maybe we’re David.
Maybe we’re Bathsheba.
Maybe we’re Uriah.
Maybe we’re the messenger.
Maybe we’re the commander.
Maybe all of them, and then some.

Good and bad, bad and good.
Moment by moment.

And through it all, grace.
God’s grace, twisting and turning the story for a better ending … like clay in a potter’s hand.
A remarkable God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
God never gives up on the human project.

And if God doesn’t give up,
Why should we?

Don’t give up hope.
Don’t stop trying.

Forgive big time – seven times seventy.
And for heaven’s sake, forgive yourself.

Don’t get caught up in pretending.
Life is tough enough.

Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another.
And you’ll be healed, says James.
Maybe he’s talking about honesty.
Plain old honesty.
Because honesty heals.

The Bible says:
Tell the truth.
And if the truth hurts, tell it carefully.
Maybe no one needs to know, but you … and God.
But tell the truth to yourself, for sure.
And let others tell the truth, too.
Life is tough enough for everyone.

Love welcomes the truth, even when the truth is sad!
That’s the heart of the story.
Love bears all things … Love never fails.

Amen and Amen.

"Politics and Religion" - July 19, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:44:00 +0000

2 Samuel 7:1-17

Did ya’ hear about the man who planted a light bulb in his garden?
He was hoping to grow a power plant!

Power … as Spock would say, “Fascinating.”
Power of all kinds fascinates us …
Thunder storms and lightening …
Crashing waves …
An F-16 roaring off the deck of an aircraft carrier …
The mushroom cloud …
And the power of powerful women and men …

Power is a strange thing …
In the right place, the right hands, power works miracles …
Power is a dangerous thing …
There is no soul more damaged than a soul damaged by power.

It was Lord Acton who said:
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

It was Henry Kissenger who noted: power is an aphrodisiac.

Power seduces the powerful and beguiles them with the illusion of invincibility … powerful people are tempted to think more highly of themselves, and to value their opinions over others, simply because they have power.
Power is easily translated into moral confirmation and political privilege.
A friend of mine was pastor a very wealthy congregation – he constantly noted how difficult it was – the captains of industry rarely learned; what they were good at was giving orders!
Sure, these are simple human sins – we all play one-upsmanship, and “my ideas are bigger and better than your ideas” …
But power and wealth have a way of magnifying the sins.

Which is why Jesus offers a chilling reminder: It’s easier for a camel to slip through the eye of a needle than a person of wealth to enter the kingdom of heaven.

King David is a powerful man …
A string of victories as long as your arm …
Troubadours sing of his valor …

David is the quintessential philosopher king …
A visionary and a leader …
A warrior and a poet …

Power gravitates to people like David.
Power flows all the more to powerful people.
Sort of like the rich get richer.
The powerful accrue more power.
Power goes to people like David …

Maybe you know powerful people …
Maybe you’re powerful …

We’re all powerful with someone …
But with David, we’re dealing with power of another kind …
The power of kings and queens, popes and potentates …
Boardroom power …
Vested power …
The power of wealth and influence …
Power exponential …
Power of the highest kind …

Power from God …
All power comes from God …
Pilate says to Jesus: Do you not know that I have power … power to release you, and power to crucify you?
Jesus says: You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above [John 19:10-11]
All power comes from God!

David wants to build a palace for God.
David has a fine palace, so now it’s time for God to have one.
The crowning touch for David’s rise to power.

A city conquered.
A nation consolidated.
The Ark of the Covenant safe and secure.
David has it all.
David’s the king.

And now, to finish the deal, a palace for God.
A temple.
A fitting touch to an amazing journey.
To God be the glory.

David’s spiritual advisor says, Go for it.”
It’s a good idea.
A fine thing.
Just do it.

Ever notice how powerful people like to have spiritual advisors?
David and Nathan.
Nixon and Graham.
President Bush and Rick Warren.
Powerful people recognize the need for spiritual advice.

But it’s tough being a Nathan.
Did you notice Nathan’s first response?
Sure, go ahead. Do what you think best!
The LORD is with you.

But God has another idea.
That very night, God speaks to Nathan.
It’s not what David can do for me.
It’s what I will do for David.
God will David a house …

Verse 17 says it all: In accordance with all these words and with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

I wonder if it was hard for Nathan to say No! to David.
I suspect it was.
Power is not easily challenged!
But powerful people need powerful people to challenge their power …
Without challenge, power becomes madness.
Without restraint, power, like a fire without a fireplace, burns the house down.
Power challenged is power chastened …
Power challenged is power cleansed …
We learn from Billy Graham, and from others who’ve been Nathans to the powerful:
Spiritual advisors are tempted to be toadies.
Perks and privileges.
Country clubs and yachts.
You bet, Mr. King, it’s a good idea! You’re da man!

But God had something else in mind.
God wanted David to sit back for a moment.
To consider the whole story, the rest of the story.
David, relax.
I don’t need a palace, I don’t need a temple.
I’m content with a tent!

This says a whole lot about God.
A humble God!
Modest and gracious.
Every Christmas, we celebrate the humility of God.
Born of Mary, in a stable, not a palace.
Born of Mary, in Bethlehem, neither in Rome nor in Jerusalem.
Born of Mary, not in the company of kings and queens, but in the company of shepherds and wise men.
Not power, but peace.
Not glory, but grace.
Modest and gracious is the LORD God Almighty.

God says to David:
I have been with you wherever you went!
In thick and thin,
In sick and sin.
I have been with you.

David, you’ve done a lot.
But it’s been my power at work in all things for good.
I took you from the pasture …
From following the sheep …
To be the prince over my people.
I cut off your enemies.
And I will make your name great.
And I will make you a house.

The greatest lesson powerful people can learn:
It’s God’s power.
When I was an associate pastor at Fox Chapel in Pittsburgh, Donna and I got to know Jim and Kathy Lee – Jim was head of Gulf Oil, then headquartered in Pittsburgh – Jim and Kathy were amazing Christians – they had learned well the lessons of godly power – they had given their lives to Christ, and practiced a Christ-centered life.
Godly power - power received from God and given back to god.
With godly power, God does even more!

There will be a temple, David.
But it’ll be built by someone else.

Another lesson the powerful need to learn: mortality.
Who can finish all the work that needs to be done?
David’s accomplishments were awesome.
But not even David could or should do it all.

It was Paul the Apostle who wrote:
I planted,
Apollos watered
But God gave the growth.
So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
[1 Corinthians 3:6-7].

Even the greatest of us is but a link in the long chain of history.
No one can do it all.
No one should even try.
We do our share, and then pass it on.

And God be praised, there will be others …
To take up the dream …
To gather the reigns as they slip from our hands.
Men and women of vision
Who will carry on, and finish the work.

In this remarkable story, God challenges a powerful man.
To teach David some powerful lessons:
God give us power.
God gives great power to some.
Great power is always a great temptation.
As if the power were ours.
As if the power were mine, to do as I please.

Like the rich man in the parable …
Rich indeed … powerful … everything he puts his hand to becomes gold …

He had more than he knew how to spend.
He says to himself,
I know what I’ll do, I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my good. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry’.

But God has another idea.
God says:
You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?
Jesus says: So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.

David was on the verge of becoming poor toward God.
This is the temptation of wealth and power.

The blessing of God can go to our heads.
We assume we’re in charge.
And before we know it, we’re rich in the things of the world, and poor in the things of God, and we have lost our soul. What good does it do, asks Jesus, to gain the whole world if we lose our soul?

I learned a little mantra many years ago:
Power is from God.
Power becomes arrogant.
God brings power down.

David had to be challenged to hear the full promise of God!
Nathan had to say No! to David, so David could hear the Yes! of God!

I will build you a house.
Your family.
Your destiny.
Forever.

God blesses.
God challenges, chastens and cleanses.
God adds to the blessing all the more.

In the story that follows,
David accepts the challenge of God,
With humility and grace.
David comes and sits before the LORD.
Neither falling on his face,
Nor standing up.
Just sits.
Friend-to-friend …

David responds with humility …
Who am I, O LORD God? asks David,
And what is my house that you have brought me thus far?

David is a man after God’s own heart …

The simple realities of the story:
Religion and politics.

Religion at its worst: intimidated by power, religion is tempted to give its imprimatur to the plans of the powerful.

But God helps Nathan.
So Nathan can help David.
Because God loves David.
And God wants David’s power to remain clean and good.

David is politics; Nathan is religion.
David is the state; Nathan is the church.

Nathan couldn’t have figured this one out on his own.
But with God’s word, Nathan gains insight.
Religion at its best.
Guided by God’s word.
Willing to say no to even the biggest of dreams.
Powerful people need to be saved from the power God gives to them … to learn anew the lessons of humility …

God be praised.
In the nick of time, Nathan speaks to David.
Religion speaks truth to power!
And God be praised, all the more,
David learns the lessons of power.
All power is from God.
All power is for God.
And to God be the glory.

Amen and Amen.

July 5, 2009 - "Power"

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:49:00 +0000

2 Samuel 5:1-10

I love to read biography … to peer into the soul of another human being …
The times in which they lived;
Families they came from;
Schools they attended;
Teachers and preachers who shaped their spirit;
Struggles of conscience and soul;
Failures and sorrows;
Love given and love received.
Everything that makes a person tick …

I’m reading a biography of Carl Sandburg poet, journalist, social activist, a dreamer and a doer.

When I read the life of another human being, I learn about grace …
Everyone struggles, who doesn’t?
Everyone hopes and dreams, and fails and falls, and succeeds and wins … a grand mix of joy and tears.

A strange mix, aren’t we?
Self-absorbed on Tuesday, and on
Wednesday, we’re giving ourselves away to great causes.
We have greatness in our bones,
And we have sin in our sinews.

When I read of others, I learn how important everyone is … for everyone to be all that they can be … to strive for fullness of life and maturity of character … to give yourself a break now and then, and to give others the same generous tolerance …
We rise about our failures – we forgive, and we’re forgiven … we live and we learn …

I love to read biography.
And that’s what we’ve been doing the last few weeks here at Covenant … David’s biography.
The shepherd boy … the court musician …
The poet and the warrior.
A man after God’s own heart, says the Bible.
But still a man …

Our chapter today in David’s life – he takes the city of Jerusalem – in the highlands of southern Canaan … a wise political move.
A king needs a capital.
Jerusalem had little strategic or economic value.
Isolated in the highlands.
Trade and commerce went around it.
But David needed a clean start!
David needed a city.
Something brand new for a brand new time.

Sort of like our own Washington, D.C.
A new capital city.
Neither New York nor Philadelphia.
Neither Charleston nor Richmond.
Neither North nor South.
A new capital for a new nation for a new day.

That’s what David did.
David used his power to create a new chapter in Israel’s story.

But … and there’s always a “but,” isn’t there?
A “but” to every story.
As much as we would like to eliminate the “but’s” from our stories, we can’t, and never will.
Not as long as there’s sin in the story … and there’s plenty of sin to go around for everyone.
Everyone has a few “but’s” thrown into the mix.
David has his “but’s” …
And David’s biographer doesn’t shy away from it.
This great man.
This man after God’s own heart,
Can be mean-spirited and intemperate.

That’s the way life is, isn’t it?
Like a home, we have a living room, bright and cheery, and when guests arrive, to the living room we go – we’re proud of it, and we’re glad to welcome folks to our living room.
“Here, sit down. Want a drink? I’ll get it for you.”

But with … there’s a “but” here … we have other rooms, don’t we?
Closets and attics and basements.
Crammed with junk … dirty and unkempt …
And we’d never show them to our guests.
Our family knows.
Maybe a few close friends.
And maybe only you and I know.
The dark places of the soul.

David used his power to build a kingdom.
David abused his power to satisfy his anger and pride.

In one of the strangest twists of the story, the Jebusites thought their city to be safe – We’re so safe, they said, even the blind and the lame could defeat David.
When the dust settles, David takes it out on the blind and the lame … in some bizarre symbolic gesture, he says, There will never be a place here for you … never! For as long as I’m king, the blind and the lame will never enter the palace.

This part of the story hits me hard … this abuse of power … the power to shut the door.
The story of the church in too many instances:
The Medieval Church excommunicated folks left and right, and if you were excommunicated from the church, barred from the Sacraments, you were going to hell when you died.
And how about the Inquisition? Anyone who dared to think out of the box was tried and tortured … all in the name of Jesus.
Even our good friend John Calvin used the power of the church to imprison and punish Anabaptists, and, sadly, he gave approval to the burning of Servetus, a theologian who had questions about the Trinity.
In 17th century Scotland, you were barred from communion if you couldn’t produce a communion token received the week before at a preparatory service.
You were barred from white churches in America if you were a person of color.
Women were barred from the pulpt.
And who else are we barring?

Roman Catholics keep the door closed to Protestants.
Pentecostals exclude those who don’t speak in tongues.
Fundamentalists lift their noses at those who’ve not had a dramatic late-night conversion in the parking lot of a seedy bar.
Evangelicals of various sorts turn away from those who fail to pass a theological test on the atonement.
Hardcore fundamentalists bar those who are soft on abortion and are open to civil rights for gays and lesbians.
Conservative Presbyterians exclude me from the kingdom of God – I’m a servant of Satan, deluded in my vanities; I’ve abandoned Scripture and the hallowed traditions of the church, they say … and when they can’t get rid of the likes of me, they go off and form their own denomination, because they’re better and purer than we are.

Why do we do this to one another?
Because we can.
It feels good, doesn’t it, to exclude.
Oh come on now, we all do it.
It’s a function of power.
Power gone bad.

Just like David.
The power to create a kingdom.
And the power to bar the door to the blind and to the lame.

It’s all about power …
I’m the king and I’m the crown.
I’m the priest, I’m the pastor.
I’m the pope, I’m the bishop.
I’m powerful … I can do this, if I want.

But it’s more than just a big story about kings and popes … it’s a small story, too.

I knew a family whose son married a young lady from Japan, and Mom and Dad were so displeased, they stopped talking with them – when I got to know the family, they and their son hadn’t talked in years – They’ve seen the grandchildren only twice in ten years.
When we bar the door to someone, who becomes the prisoner?

I know a retired pastor who has a gay son.
He never ever talks about what that means for the family.
And to this day, he remains opposed to the ordination of gays and lesbians.
He calls himself an evangelical.
I call him a prisoner!

When we bar the door to someone, who becomes the prisoner?

I’ve counseled with families over the years …
I’ve learned something mighty important:
Never sacrifice a person for a principle … never burn a bridge that you might have to cross someday… never bar the door, because you alone will be the prisoner.

The mother and father who disowned their son denied themselves much pleasure - the son and his family felt a sadness, but they lived their lives just fine; it was Mom and Dad who paid the greater price.

The evangelical pastor has denied himself the fullness of life that a father and a son could enjoy.
The pastor puts principle over the personhood of his son.
The son lives a good and productive life … it’s the father who pays the greater price, because he has to say one thing to his evangelical audience, and then try to say to his son, “I love you, because you’re my son.”

When we bar the door to someone, who becomes the prisoner?
But let’s move on.
There’s more to the story.

David used his power to build a kingdom.
David abused his power when he barred the door.
But here’s another “but” …
David fused his power with God as David learned more about grace and leaned on God’s mercy! It was David who wrote, The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want …

To use power is one thing …
To abuse power is common …
To fuse power with God, now that’s a Christian life.

I turn to the New Testament, to another hero of mine, the Apostle Paul.
A powerful man.
Who used and abused his power.
And then, on the Damascus Road, Paul fused his power with the love and mercy of God.

I can do all things in Christ, who strengthens me, writes Paul.

I’ve worked harder than anyone else, he writes, but it wasn’t me, it was grace.

Paul’s power fused with God’s love.

To fuse our power with the love of God … so that we can be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, as Jesus said.

I end with some reflections on our nation’s power.
The power of America.
With our power, we’ve built a kingdom.
But let’s ask the “but” question: Has our power ever gone wrong?
Whom have we excluded?

As Christians within a powerful nation, we have to be careful … careful that we’re not mesmerized by power …
I thrill at a flight of F-18s overhead.
I get emotional when I see the Stars and Stripes held high.
I get choked up when I sing, “America the Beautiful.”

But as a Christian, I have to be careful, just because I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus …
To look at Christ, tunnel vision disappears.
I see the nations of the world … all the peoples.
I have a dual citizenship – I’m a citizen of America, and I am a citizen of the kingdom of God … for America, I have a passport; for the kingdom of God, I have a certificate of baptism … and the love of Christ sealed on my heart by the Holy Spirit … and so do you!

Too many Christians fuse their power with the power of the nation rather than the love of Christ.
Too many Christians wrap the cross of Christ in patriotic bunting … too many Christians fuse their hopes and dreams with America’s destiny.
Too many Christians fuse their pride with the strength of our military forces and too many Christians support the dreams of some politicians to dominate the world and consume earth’s natural resources.

Power is mesmerizing.
Power, said Henry Kissenger, is a great aphrodisiac …
Beguiling and seducing …

When Christians fuse their power too closely to a nation, bad things happen …
Nazi Germany, where millions of Christians – pastor, priest and parishioner - pledged loyalty to the Fatherland, to Der Fuehrer and to Germany’s national aspirations for expansion and racial purity.
As witnessed with Japan and its emperor – religion and state fused together …
In radical Islamic states … nation and faith are one …
A dangerous mix – the fusion of religion and state.

As Christians in a powerful nation, we must be careful.
Alert and aware.
Above all else, global in our thoughts and prayers:
For God so loved the world, and for that world, so large and grand, so strange and fierce, God gave the only beloved son, to reconcile the world to God, to welcome the blind and the lame into the place, to bring release to the captives and hope to all of God’s creation – including dogs and whales and cows and pigs and you and me!
For God so loved the world …

Christians can never simply say of their nation, “America First” or “Germany First, or “Britain First”
When we sing, “God Bless America” we must also sing, “God Bless All the Nations of the World,” and all creatures, great and small.
As Christians in a powerful nation, we have to be careful.

To fuse our power with the love of Jesus Christ.
Then we will be the best citizens of our land.
To serve our nation best of all, when we serve Christ first of all!

Christ first in all things.
Christ above all the other powers.
Christ on the cross and Christ in the tomb,
Christ raised on the third day …
And ascended into heaven …
Christ coming again to finish the work …

To fuse our power with the love of Christ.
And use our power to build God’s kingdom on earth … thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Amen and Amen!

June 28, 2009 - "Sadness"

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:48:00 +0000

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

A lot of folks feel sad this week … with the death of three celebrities … Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson … there’s a public for sadness for their fans, and a deep sadness for their families and friends.

When was the last time you felt sad?

Sadness is very much a part of the human condition.

Sadness is found on almost every page of the Bible.

God feels sadness …
And we’re created in God’s image …
So we feel sadness, too.

And, I hope, by the time I finish this message, we’ll know that it’s okay to be sad. More than okay. It’s important that we embrace this part of life!

We begin with our story today …
King Saul is dead …
Jonathan the beloved son is dead …
Defeated at the hands of the Philistines …
Who now will be king?

Word is brought to David.
A mercenary brings Saul’s crown and armlet to David … and tells the tale of how Saul died.
When others might have expected David to rub his hands and smile with relief, David is anything but happy.
While the mercenary expected a reward, he’s summarily executed.
This is a dirty business, and David wants nothing to do with it.
David tears his clothing in a sign of grief.
He weeps and he fasts for the day.
There is no joy for David in the death of Saul.
No dancing over the grave of his enemy.
No glee in David’s camp.

David loved Saul, and utterly respected Saul’s position as the king of Israel.
Though Saul tried to kill David several times, David refrained from retaliation.
Twice, David had Saul in his sights.
Twice, God delivered Saul into David’s hands.
Twice, David could have killed Saul.
Twice, David refused.
This move was up to God.
Somewhere, somehow,
At a point in time determined by God, and not by David.

It is said in the Scriptures that David is a man after God’s own heart [1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22]!
David loves deeply.
David practices loyalty.
Deep opens his heart to sadness.
David is a man after God’s own heart!

Upon hearing the news …
David is cast down with grief.
David pens a poem, a eulogy … forgetting the broken parts of Saul’s life – remembering only the best, the highest of Israel’s once and former king.
David’s heart is heavy.
Heavy with
Despair.
Sorrow.
Sadness.

Sadness is found on nearly page of the Bible.

God is filled with sadness when humankind chooses the dark road [Genesis 6:6].
Abraham and Sarah lament when they have no children.
Jacob and Esau fight, and their father is heartbroken.
Moses is saddened by the plight of his people in Egypt.
And throughout the long journey, Moses would feel sadness time and again as God’s people prove unworthy of their newfound freedom …
The prophets were filled with sorrow … read Jeremiah, Isaiah and Amos – their hearts are crushed; their spirits brought low – their tears flow profusely for what might have been, but for the loss of vision and a cowardly heart, God’s people fail the mission.
The Psalmist writes again and again about defeat and setback, disappointment and failure.
Jesus comes over the brow of the hill and there before him spreads the City of David, Jerusalem the Golden, and Jesus weeps for the city … Jesus knows what’s coming … Jesus knows he cannot stop it … for the ways of the powerful are powerful indeed, and they’re not about to listen to an itinerant preacher from Galilee.
When confronted with hardness of heart in his own people, Jesus is grieved [Mark 3:5].
Jesus says to the disciples, Now my soul is troubled [John 12:27].
When Jesus arrives in Bethany, and sees Mary’s sorrow for her brother’s death, Jesus weeps.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, as the night closes in upon him, Jesus says, I am deeply grieved [Mark 14:34].

What did Isaiah say of him?
He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him of no account.
Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed [Isaiah 53:3-5].

The man of sorrows …
Who weeps for the world …

Because he cares deeply.
And loves profoundly.

To care and to love …
We open our lives to sadness.

A child loves a dog,
And they grow up together,
But faster is the clock for the dog.
Even as the child is still young,
The dog grows old.
It’s lush black coat speckled with grey.
It’s eyes droop and the walk slows.
And then a day in time
When the beloved dog lies down,
One last wag of the tail … one final breath … the eyes turn to another world.
The child weeps inconsolably.
And so Mom and Dad.
How we love them,
These marvelous critters of God.

Children learn early on that life,
With all of its joys and pleasures, has
Sadness, too …
And important lesson to learn.
For sadness is a part of our human dignity.
Though we’re not the only species to grieve.
Elephants weep.
Dogs mourn.
A duck stands on the roadside,
Nudging the body of its bloodied mate,
Just killed by a passing car.

To live is to love.
To love is to risk our soul.
To care, is to put ourselves at the mercy of life and death.
To care, is to open the soul to disappointment.

We cannot and we must not bury this part of our life.
Though we Americans give it our best shot.

We are a happy, clappy, sappy people, and sorrow and grief are not our cup of tea.

All of my ministry, I have given people permission to be sad.
Sadness is a part of our journey.
Folks come to me six weeks after the death of a spouse and say to me, “I should be doing better by now. What’s wrong with me?”
My response: “Don’t underestimate the severity of your loss.”
Sadness is not a clinical condition needing therapy or medication.
Sadness is holy.
Sadness is found in God.
Sadness is critical to our humanity.

Some societies recognize an official period of mourning for as long as seven years.
Those of you who’ve lost a child, or a spouse, know the duration of sadness.
It never really goes away, does it?
It recedes in time,
But a smell, a sound, the face of stranger,
And it all comes rushing back …
Our soul is overwhelmed …
There are still more tears to be shed.

It’s okay to be sad. It doesn’t feel very good, but it’s not a bad thing. Sadness is the counterpart of love.
To have loved anything, a blanket, a bike, a bowling ball – when it’s gone, something of our own soul goes with it.

To deny sadness is to rip huge chapters out of the book of our life.
To repress sadness damages our soul.

Remember, Jesus was a man of sorrows.
And he’s the Son of God.
And David was a man of sadness.
And he was a man after God’s own heart.

All great people are people of sadness.
The folks who change our world …
Who confront and change the way we think …
Who challenge the human condition, and do something about it.

Abraham Lincoln was a man of great sadness, and out of that profound sadness, Lincoln led us through the darkest hour.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man of sadness – when he looked at the human condition … the villainy of racism, the awful legacy of lynchings … the denial of basic rights and opportunity … and how both the oppressed and the oppressor suffer.

His namesake, the great Reformer, Martin Luther, was a man of sadness.
A monk teaching other monks with Paul’s letter to the Romans, and when Luther looked through the words of Scripture at the Medieval Church, Luther was overwhelmed with sadness – Luther saw clearly what might have been, and wasn’t … and the terrible price people were paying because the church had failed the very Christ it claimed to love.

William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, was a man of sadness when he saw London’s poor and how they and their children suffered.

Gandhi was a man of sadness when he looked at his people in India under the iron fist of British rule.

Mother Teresa was a woman of great sadness when she looked at the dying lying in the gutters of Calcutta, their bodies stacked like cordwood in the morning.

Every missionary I’ve ever known is filled with sadness.

I sometimes wonder if our capacity for sadness is diminished, being the happy, clappy people we are.
We don’t like sadness.
We treat it as a medical condition.
We call it depression.
There is such a thing as depression, but we’re way too afraid of it, and we misdiagnose sadness all the time.
People who are depressives are depressed all the more by the pretended happiness of our culture.
People in grief hide their sorrow from co-workers and friends.
Those of you who’ve lost a spouse know how quickly old friends stop calling, and how rare is the invitation to dinner.
We don’t deal well with grief.

And I wonder … what do we lose when we deny our sorrows?
At what price do we chase the chimera of happiness?

We drug ourselves to be happy and then drug ourselves to sleep.
We drug our children so they can get along in school.
And then we wonder why substance abuse is so high.

At what price do we chase the phantom of happiness?

Religion in America has deteriorated into a feel-good, happy, clappy, therapy session.

Jesus said, I came to set a fire.
We’re turned his fire into a warm feeling.

Preachers preach endlessly about happiness …
How to find it,
How to manage it,
How to keep it,
How to get more of it.

There was a movement some years ago – laughing Christians … well, I like to laugh just like anyone else does, but I wonder – how sincere can the laughter be without the gift of tears?
How real can our joy be, if we turn our backs on sorrow?
How deep can our love go, if we refuse to be sad?

Instead of laughing Christians, it might be good to have weeping Christians … seems that Jesus wept a fair amount … and maybe he’s on to something – something powerful and something soul-cleansing, something godly and something good.

I think of David …
Folks around him might have said, “David, kick up your heels; the wicked witch of the north is dead.”
But no dancing for David.
David was a man after God’s own heart.
David was a man who let the waves of sadness wash over him.

There is much to grieve in this old world of ours.
And if we have a heart for God, we will be women and men of sorrow – divine sorrow, godly sorrow, the sorrow of a deep compassion and a deep love.
In every dimension of life.
We will not hide our tears:
For the child we can no longer touch,
The spouse we can no longer kiss,
The friend with whom we can no longer play cards.

A man began to weep for a wife who had died 15 years earlier; he said to me, “Pardon me; I didn’t mean to break down.”
And what I said next came from heaven.
I said, “John, you’re not breaking down, you’re breaking open.”

To be sad is to be open.
And maybe we American are afraid of that.
Afraid of being open.

But God would say:
“Fear not.”

“I am a God of many sorrows.”
“My son is a Savior of many sorrows.”
David, a man after God’s own heart knew the travails of sadness.

It’s okay to be sad.

Sad about many things:
I’m often say about the church of Jesus Christ and its failure to really make a difference in this land of ours.
I’m sad about all those Christians who cry and fuss about so-called “family values,” and shout and scream about abortion and homosexuals – I’m sad, because in my eyes, it’s a sham, a cover up, a clever smoke screen, while the real values of our faith – love and compassion, justice and mercy, openness and welcome, are ignored …
I’m saddened by corporate greed and the transfer of wealth from the pockets of the many to the pockets of the few.
I’m sad that war and the rumors of war have fueled our imagination and national character far too long.
I’m sad that we tolerate the suffering of our nation’s children, workplace discrimination and injustice.
I’m sad that 62% of our bankruptcies are caused by medical bills, and 78% of those families have coverage, but the coverage isn’t good enough.
I grieve for things like this.

I grieve for the Presbyterian Church – that after more than 30 years of debate, a good deal of it vicious and mean-spirited, we still can’t open the doors to gays and lesbians.

I am sad that we have lost our voice.
The convicted voice of a Martin Luther or a John Calvin.
The soaring voice of a William Sloan Coffin.

That in place of Christ, we substitute a pale version of life defined by simple prescriptions and easy slogans.
We fixate ourselves on happy music, happy preaching, happy games and happy fellowship, and we put on a happy face.
Are we fiddling while Rome burns?

People of God, servants of Christ,
it’s okay to be sad.
Sad for the sin in our lives.
Sad for the sin of our world.

If we’re not sad about such things,
We have to ask ourselves some serious questions:
What is Christ to us if we’re not moved and saddened by the things that moved and saddened Christ?
Christ said, “Take up your cross and follow me!”
He didn’t say, “Sit back in your easy chair and curl up with a happy pillow.”
Sadness is a vital component of a living, loving faith.
Sadness is our dignity.
Sadness is a partner to love!
And only in sadness, faithful and true, can we find the joy of Christ!

A great man like David … knew when to tear his clothes and weep …
For he was a man after God’s own heart!

Be not afraid of tears.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted!

Amen and Amen!

June 21, 2009 - "Take It Off"

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:26:00 +0000

1 Samuel 17:32-49

Are you wearing someone else’s armor?
And if you are, we’ve got a problem!
Wearing someone else’s armor never works.

At the heart of every psychological theory: we’ve all been given lots of armor - given to us by parents, grandparents, teachers and preachers … culture and country.
It’s nice armor … bright and shiny, mostly … maybe a few dents here and there, a little tarnished perhaps, but it’s wearable … and it’s given to us in good faith … mostly …
But only one problem with someone else’s armor …
It doesn’t fit us.
It’s not our armor …
It’s not our life.
It trips us up.
Like David, we can’t walk in it!

A lot of people are stumbling through life, because they’re wearing someone else’s armor.
Deep-seated attitudes – behavior patterns … handed down to us by our parents, teachers, and preachers, history and culture … who knows where it all comes from, but it doesn’t fit.
It trips us up!
Maybe it fit them all right.
And maybe it didn’t!

Maybe the armor given to us by our parents was given to them, too … who knows how many generations have worn it, passing it on to their children and great-grandchildren … like DNA.

Every Easter, the Watkins family ate a wonderful meal that featured a baked ham. One Easter, as Marge was preparing the ham in the traditional way by cutting off the end before she put it in the baking pan, her young daughter asked, "Mom, why do you always cut off the end of the ham?"
Marge replied, "Well, I don't really know. My mother always did it that way, let's go ask her why."
So into the living room they went where the family was gathering for Easter.
When they asked Grandma, she said, "I did it that way because my mother always did it that way".
Fortunately Great Grandma was still with them and she was there, too. So they asked her, and she said, "Well, my mother always did it that way......... but come to think about it, I think she did it because her pan was so small."

Here, says Saul, wear my armor.

David gives it a good try.
He puts on Saul’s armor … but Saul was a big man.
David stumbled around in Saul’s heavy armor.

I can only imagine what David looked like:
A child playing dress up …
Putting on dad’s shirt … or mom’s shoes … way too big …

Saul’s armor was way too big …
It wasn’t David.
And that’s point.
No one else is you.
And you are no one else.
You are unique.
Every one of us – utterly unique.
We have to find our own armor.

And for David, it wasn’t even a matter of armor.
David was a shepherd boy!

David’s skills were more than enough to meet the demands of the day …
Skills acquired in the field … protecting the flock against lions and bears …
The tools of his trade – a sturdy staff, and a sling …

David was able to meet Goliath on the field of battle, and with one quick fling of the sling, the stone sailed true and fast and hit Goliath hard, a killing blow to the forehead.
In a moment, it was over.
Goliath was dead.
David victorious.

Not with Saul’s armor.
But with the skills and tools David had grown up with.

All of us are like David.
We have skills and abilities utterly unique to who we are and our own personal history.
But there are plenty Saul’s around who tell us:
“Not good enough.”
“You need my armor.”
“Here, try it on.”

And we give it good try.
But we stumble around in someone else’s armor.

In the new film, “The Proposal,” the young man has a rich and powerful family in Alaska, and a father who wants him to wear the father’s armor.
But the young man goes to New York – he wants to be a writer.
What a struggle for the father who can’t see it that way.
What a struggle for the son who has to say no to his father’s armor.
I’ll not tell you how it turns out, but the point of the story is right on the money: we can’t wear anyone else’s armor.

How proud Saul must have been to give David his armor.
Many a parent falls prey to the temptation to live their lives all over again through their children … I think every parent does it, a little bit, and maybe a whole lot, now and then.
Here, wear my armor.
David tried, and I bet some of you have tried for a long time to wear the armor given to you by your family, by a good professor, or some deep seated emotion that told you, “This is who you are, and if you’re not, you better get with it.”
But whatever the source: someone else’s armor never fits.
David had the courage to take it off. To take it all off.
I wonder if Saul was humiliated when David shed the armor and said, “Thanks but no thanks. I’m a shepherd boy, and God has been preparing me for this moment since I was born.”

In my first year of seminary, Dr. John Piet, a brilliant man, two Ph.D’s from Columbia, 25 years on the mission field in India – a man who knew more Bible than I’ll ever know – taught an introductory course to all first-year students.

In one lecture, a moment that remains with me to this very day:
He said, “God has been preparing you for this calling from the moment of your conception. Look into your heart – what are the things you love, the things that light your fire and excite your imagination? What do you love to do and what do you love to talk about?”
“Here are the clues,” he said, “to your calling.”

Dr. Piet was well aware of a certain tendency … called “self-denial.”
Now, there’s plenty in the Bible about self-denial.
Putting God and others first.
But self-denial has been poorly handled much of the time.

If a young seminarian wanted to do rural ministry, self-denial meant that she ought to do inner-city work.
And if young seminarian wanted to go to the mission field, self-denial meant that he ought to take a pastorate here in the states.
And be miserable!

Dr. Piet helped us all learn how defective that kind of thinking is … he helped us learn the real meaning of self-denial –
Denying the false selves that others create for us.
Denying the false selves that come to us from our culture … from our religion … from sin.
You see, Satan doesn’t want us to discover who we really are.
Satan wants us to live someone else’s dream,
Someone else’s values …
Satan wants us to wear someone else’s armor, because then we keep tripping over it, we’re off balance; nothing every quite fits; nothing ever really works.
If Satan can get us to put on someone else’s armor, Satan wins – not that we become hideous and horrible people – not at all.
Lots of folks go through life wearing someone else’s armor.
The girl who wanted to be a philosopher, but family and culture said: “On no. You’re a woman. You have to be mother and homemaker.”
The boy who wanted to write poetry, but family and culture said, “Oh no, you have to go out and make a living; you have to be successful – big house, fast car.”
And the girl and boy do it all.
But I wonder:
Could that young woman have been an Einstein?
Could that young man have been a Sandburg?

Folks who wear Saul’s armor can be successful.
But the soul is lost.
Something never quite right about it all.
A sadness about their life.
Because no one ever said to them, “It’s okay - take it off. Take it all off.”
“You don’t have to wear your father’s armor.”
“You don’t have to live your mother’s ideas.”
“You don’t have to be anyone else, but you!”
“Find who you are, and you will find God.”

American culture is filled with Saul’s armor.
Walk into a bookstore – what do you find, but a thousand books written by Saul – “Here’s my armor. You have to wear it if you want to defeat Goliath.”
Self-help books.
Leadership books.
Books about money and investing.
A million books – “Here’s my armor.”

We buy the book.
Attend the seminar.
Try on the armor.
Some of it fits, sort of okay, so we think, “Okay, this will be the new me.”
We walk around in it.
We look at ourselves in the mirror.
Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?

Who knows?
The boss may like it, and we’ll get that promotion.
The professor might give you an A.
Dad would be proud.
Mom delighted.

But you’re stumbling.
Because it doesn’t fit.
It’s not you!

Religion can be a terrible Saul.
Religion has rooms full of Saul’s armor, all bright and shiny.
Just waiting for you.
We’ll tell you how to do it.
What to say.
What to think.
How to live.
We’ll shove you into Saul’s armor.
And everyone will cheer.
Hugs and hallelujahs.
And it’ll feel good for awhile.
But in the end, it doesn’t fit.
It doesn’t work.

David gives it a try.
How many here have tried to wear Saul’s armor?
Someone else’s ideas?
Expectations?

How many here this morning still have Saul’s armor on?
Hot and clumsy.
Hard and heavy.

But David takes it off. Takes it all off.
And so can we.
We can do it here and now!
I’ll be me.
What God made me to be.

More than anything, God wants us to discover the good work of who you are – God wants you to discover you.
You are just right for the tasks at hand.
Your life fits perfectly the world around you.
You are you, and that’s more than enough!

David doesn’t need Saul’s armor.

With the skills of his youth, and the tools of his trade, David runs toward Goliath … shouting, You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This very day the LORD will deliver you into my hand.

Dear friends, I’ve tried to wear Saul’s armor a time or two.
So have you.
But let’s take it off today. Let’s take it all off.
It’s never too late!
Find who you are, and you will find God!

Amen and Amen!

June 14, 2009 - "Looks"

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:53:00 +0000

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13

The LORD said to Samuel, How long will you grieve over Saul?
There’s work to be done.
Let’s get on with it!
Don’t get stuck in regret.
Move on to the future!

Is there anyone in this room who doesn’t have regret?
Is there anyone here who doesn’t make a trip back to some moment in time, and you think to yourself, “If only I had made another choice.”

Gone to another school.
Taken another job.
Married someone else.
If only I had done differently …
If only, if only, if only …

But things happen, don’t they?
We make the wrong choice.
Or maybe we fail to act.

God’s choice didn’t work out with Saul.
Sometimes the people God chooses fail badly.

Ever put your trust in someone!
You say to yourself, “I’ll trust Susie to do this.”
She’ll get it done.
But Susie doesn’t get it done.
It never gets done.
Or it’s done poorly, and now you look bad.
And maybe Susie even went behind your back …
Gossip …
Betrayal …
Who knows what else …

And now you could kick yourself around the block a few times, “Why did I trust Susie?”
“If only I had chosen Sally, instead.”
“But, noooo, I had to pick Susie … was I dumb or what?”

Ever been there?
Of course …

And sometimes even in darker ways …
Our own behavior …
A moment of irresponsibility …
Too much to drink …
A couple of joints …
A snort or two at the party …

Or a shady deal …

A friend of mine, a good and decent man …
Went to jail for a few years …
Fraudulent deal …
He said to me, “I knew it at the time. Why I did it, I don’t know. I just did it.”
He lost a fortune, but his family stood by him.
His wife waited for him while he paid his debt to society.
He children loved him even in his failure and shame.

They’ve since put life back together again.
But there’s no undoing the facts.
We can only get on with the future.

And that’s the point.
Who hasn’t messed up a time or two?
Who hasn’t been messed up by someone else’s bad behavior?

Life isn’t very neat.
Life isn’t very clean.

We all make errors.
Sometimes really stupid ones.
We all sin.
We all mess up.
We hurt one another.

But last week, we celebrated Communion.
When you came forward to receive the bread and drink, the servers said to you, “You guilt has departed, and your sin is blotted out.

That’s what the angel said to Isaiah.
That’s what the angel says to us, too:
Your guilt has departed, and your sin is blotted out.

Let the past be the past.
Press on from here.
There’s work to be done.
And you can still do it.
Don’t get stuck in regret.
Move on to the future.

That’s what my friend did.
Because there’s always a future, no matter the past.
No matter what you did.
Or someone else did to you.

Don’t get stuck in regret.
Move on to the future.

Samuel is told by God to Bethlehem, to the House of Jesse, and there Samuel will find the next king of Israel.

Samuel says to God, How can I do this?
If Saul finds out, he’ll be furious.
I’ll be toast.

It’s hard to move on, isn’t it?

A million reasons for staying the course, and most of the time it’s good to stay the course, but we have to know when to “hold our cards, and we have to know when to fold “em.”

It’s good to stay the course.
Who likes a quitter?
But sometimes we just need to move on.

We need to make that fateful decision.
It’s been rolling around inside of us for months, maybe even for years.
We’ve prayed about it, thought about it, talked about it.

Time to move.
Time to get on with our life.
Time to let some things go.
Sell ‘em on eBay …
Give ‘em to Good Will …
It’s time to move on.

“But pastor,” you say, “what if I’m making a mistake? What happens then? I may not like where I am right now, but at least I know where I am.”

Well, we all know the truth about life:
There are no guarantees, are there?

The Bible says of God:
The LORD was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel.

Wow.
No guarantees
Not even for God.

But don’t get stuck in regret.
Move on to the future.

God says to Samuel, Throw a party. You don’t have to tell anyone what you’re doing. Just go there and have a good time, and I’ll show you the one who will be the future king.

When Samuel arrives, the town is abuzz with rumor.
No one was happy about his visit.
This whole political thing with Saul and Samuel was more than they bargained for.
This tiny little town just wanted to be left alone.
But here comes Samuel, one of the big guns.
And Saul may likely follow him.
And who knows what kind of trouble they’ll cause us.
Do you come peaceably? They ask.
I come in peace, says Samuel. Let’s have a party.
A sacred party.
Sanctify yourselves and come with me.

Samuel made a special effort to invite Jesse and his boys.
And now the party begins.

Samuel thinks to himself,
Wow, a look at all the fine men here … surely one of them is the next king of Israel.
But God kept saying, Nope, not yet.
One by one, seven sons of Jesse, on parade.
Sort of like a Ms. California beauty pageant!
Only it’s a bunch of guys: Look at those muscles. Goodness, he’s tall. What a hunk! He’d make a good king … Surely one of them.
But God said, Nope, not yet.

Come on LORD.
These are all good men … they’ll be just fine.
Can’t be any worse that your first choice.
Maybe a whole lot better.
I wonder if Samuel said to God, “Look God, you don’t have the best track record here.”

But the LORD said, I see things differently.

Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”

Samuel asks Jesse, Any more sons?

Well, now that you ask, there IS one more, the youngest …
Oh, he’s not much.
He’s out tending the sheep … out in left field.
Someone needed to stay home and keep an eye on things.

Samuel says, Send for him. I want to see him, too. We can’t have the party until HE’S here.

I like this part story …
Sort of like the lost sheep story told by Jesus.
99 sheep – all good.
But one is missing … and that’s the one I’ll go and find.
Jesus always paid special attention to the folks out in left field.
The woman at the well.
Zacchaeus up a tree.
Blind Bartimaeus by the side of the road.
The thief on the cross.
No one left out.
No one overlooked.
Especially, the least of these.
The one least likely to succeed.
The one who doesn’t have it all.

Not the prom queen, nor the captain of the football team.
Not even the valedictorian …
Yup, there’s one more son – he’s out in left field.

I have a friend.
She’s a prayer warrior.
When she prays, she really prays, and God is there.
Her prayers rise out of the deep places of her heart.
She talks to God!

When I first met her, oh my – she was a left-field kind of person:
The usual markers were missing.
That’s what my eyes saw.
But my eyes deceived me.

Sort of like Susan Boyle and her appearance on “Britain Has Talent.”

Not one of the judges had any confidence when they saw Susan Boyle step out on to the stage – “she’s just a frumpy spinster from nowhere. Who does she think she is anyhow? She doesn’t have a chance. Who let her on the show?”
All the beautiful people said, “I don’t think so.”

Well, we know the rest of the story.
The music began …
Susan Boyle opened her mouth …
And she began to sing.

In a heartbeat, the judges were blown away.
The audience was cheering.
Tears in many an eye.

Everyone was caught in the same trap.
The trap of the eye.
The eye was deceived.
Everyone prayed a little prayer of repentance:
Oh LORD, I’m sorry.
I’m sorry I judged Susan Boyle by her looks.
I’m sorry, LORD. It’ll not happen again.

Several things for us this morning …

Don’t get stuck in regret … move on to the future.
There are a millions reasons not to move, but move on any way.
Be careful of your eyes … they don’t tell the whole story.
Be sure to include the guy or the gal out in left field.

Amen and Amen!

June 7, 2009 - "Crisis"

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:54:00 +0000

Isaiah 6:1-8

The unexpected sorrow …
The change of course that no one wanted …
The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray …

Crisis comes a-calling … everything we’d planned on has to change …

These days, financial crisis … mortgage melt down … CEO’s going to jail for all kinds of schemes and scams … credit card companies jacking up interest rates, and banks closing …

Someone said to me the other day, “I’m worried about my bank closing.”
I said, “Don’t worry. If your bank is closed, just use the ATM!”

Speaking of banks, you know how a banker defines optimism? Ironing five white shirts on Sunday!

Crisis … our passage this morning from Isaiah is a series of crises … filled with spiritual guidance …

There are four crises here … maybe more, but I count four …

The first is a political crisis … in the year that King Uzziah died … and a good king he was … guided Judah through thick and thin for 52 years – that’s a long time; a couple of generations – King Uzziah is all they knew … but nothing lasts forever, does it? … not even a good king.
But as Judah mourns, wondering what to do, Isaiah sees a vision of God, sitting on a throne, high and lofty … the eternal king!

The first spiritual lesson – to see God above when things are dicey below …

“But pastor,” you say, “how do we do that? How do we see God above when things are dicey?”

Good question … how did Isaiah do it?
I think Isaiah was used to looking for God … Isaiah did it regularly … Isaiah trained his heart and mind; conditioned his soul – to look for God, and the promise of God is clear – “Look for me, and you will find me” [Proverbs 8:17; Jeremiah 29:13].

When I lived in northern Michigan, a springtime rite – the search for Morel mushrooms … slice it, dice it, cook and bake it – an incredible culinary adventure … but you had to find them first!

I went out with an experienced Morel hunter – tromping through the woods, looking here, looking there … he knew what to look for, and his eye was trained – he saw the Morels long before I did … he had trained himself over the years to find them.

Seeing God is a matter of practice and persistence … and like a good Morel hunter, coming home empty handed now and then – there are times, when we try with all our might, and we still can’t see God … but don’t give up; disappointment is part of the process.
In time, the Morel hunter learns how to do it, and they come home most of the time with a bag full of Morels.

Learning how to see God … a skill acquired over the years … learned from others, and practiced when times are good, and when times are hard.

Isaiah trained himself to see God above when things below were a dicey.

We can do the same … it takes times, persistence, a willingness to come home now and then empty-handed … a basic devotion to the great spiritual disciplines of faith: Bible reading and study, prayer and reflection, good reading and diligence in the life of the church - in time, we learn how to see God above when things below are dicey.

This is one of our gifts to the world … to see God high and lifted up when things are low-down and dirty.
We train ourselves to do this … and we help others do it … just like good Morel hunters in Northern Michigan!

The second crisis: a spiritual crisis – because God is really big!
So big, that only the hem of God’s robe can fit into the temple, which was pretty big; it was a big temple, but miniscule compared to God!

Isaiah says, What with all the singing of the seraphim, creatures of flame, the whole place was shaking … and the temple was filled with smoke.

How big is God?
How big is your God?

J. B. Phillips wrote a book some years ago, “You’re God is Too Small” – and he’s right … most of the time, our god is too small, way too small …
I like a god all packaged up – neat and clean!
Don’t you?
I think we Christians do this a lot to God.

We put God in a box.
We write our creeds and publish our theologies, and we’ve got it all figured out.
Believe this, and you’ll be saved.
Do this, and you will live.

One of my heroes of the faith, Harry Emerson Fosdick, wrote this piece of wisdom: I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.

I think we waste a lot of time with small ideas.
A candle when we could have the sun.
Pictures of Big Bear when we could be there in two hours.
A can of hash when we could have a steak instead.

Humankind is shaped by big ideas.
Big ideas that demand big things of us …
And the church is shaped best of all by a big God!
A God who shakes things up now and then.

A God so big we have to be big.
Bigger than we were yesterday!
Not always fun when the thresholds shake and the place is filled with smoke … sounds like a bad earthquake.
Religion needs a good earthquake now then; knock a few things off the shelves – smash a few things; move the furniture – turn a few tables!
A good shaking up now and then, from a really big God, a God too big for the commonplace … too big for our creeds and our confessions; too big for our conventional wisdom and bigger than our habits … bigger than our ideas and bigger than what we usually expect … a God so big that even the Crystal Cathedral could hold only the hem of God’s robe.
That’s the kind of God we need … that’s the kind of God we have … and THAT God will give us a good shaking now then …

The third crisis: an emotional crisis.
Woe is me! says Isaiah. I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.

When Isaiah sees God, Isaiah sees the stains on his own soul.
When Isaiah sees purity and goodness, faithfulness and love, Isaiah recognizes his own sad state … Woe is me.

I think of Peter in the New Testament, when he and the other fishermen are told by Jesus to put out into deep water and let down the nets … Peter objects – “We just came in from a long night of fishing, without a fish to show for it, and you want us to go out again, in daylight, when no one goes fishing?”
So they put out into deep water and let down the nets, and they catch such a huge number of fish, the nets were breaking; they call for their partners in the other boat, and both boats are soon filled with so many fish, the boats are in danger of sinking.
When Peter sees this display of grace, he falls at the feet of Jesus and says, Go away from me, LORD, for I am a sinful man.

There’s some powerful stuff going on here …
Both Isaiah and Peter meet their match and then some in the glory and grace of God.
Isaiah and Peter – powerful men who need to be tamed by the power of God.
Proud men who need to spend time on their knees, humbled by the goodness of God.
Good men, who need to see the stains on their souls, the grip of sin in their lives … lest they become puffed up with themselves!

There’s something important here for us …
A lesson to be learned …
We live in a culture where folks are mighty puffed up with themselves.
“Everyone else has issues, but I don’t.”
“If only folks would get outta my way so I could be happy.”
We are culture that deflects responsibility … and loves to blame someone else!

No, not me; oh no; never me!
It’s my boss, my spouse, my parents, my children, my teachers, my co-workers, my neighbors – but it’s not me, LORD.
It’s circumstances beyond my control … my DNA … a bad time in the womb … and my Irish ancestry … but it’s not me, LORD.
It’s the color of my hair, the shape of my nose – my dog ate my homework, and apparently Martians are in charge of my bank account, but it’s not me, LORD … no, never me.

I think we might do well to spend some time with Isaiah and his woe is me … I am a man of unclean lips.
Please note - Isaiah beings with himself first: I am a man of unclean lips.
And only then does he speak of others who share the same malady.
Isaiah doesn’t shift the blame.
Isaiah begins with himself measured in the grace of God, and that’s always a good place to begin. Not easy; but good!

Sure, I’d rather begin with others …
Let’s see, how can I fix Donna?
Or my children?
Or the folks I work with?
If they’d only listen to me.

But that’s not how it goes, if we really want to make a difference!
We start with ourselves!
We stay with ourselves, and we stay on our case.
Because it takes a lifetime and then some to work out the kinks and fulfill our destiny.
We don’t have time to work on others.
There’s plenty of work to be done on our own lives.
And if we have any hope of changing the world, we do it by changing ourselves …

And with that, one of the seraphim, one of the burning creatures of God, flies to the altar and grabs a burning coal with a pair of tongs … the fire of God – and touches Isaiah’s lips – and with that, the declaration needed by every human being: Your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out!

The gift of life from God above.
The healing of the soul.
The sad darkness within dispelled with light.
That’s what we just did in the LORD's Supper – the love of Christ touched our hearts – the burning coals of God’s grace … your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out!

The last crisis – a vocational crisis.
God asks, Whom shall I send?”
Unfair question!

But there’s always one more piece to the puzzle …
Yes, I’m forgiven, but now what?
What comes next?

Whom shall I send?

I’ve got a good idea God.
Send Willie.
Send Shari.
Or how about Leslie, or Stafford?

Yeah, send them, LORD.
They’ll do a good job for you.
I know they will.
Send them.

Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?

Isaiah looks around, and there’s no one around.
Willie isn’t there, or Shari.
Neither Leslie nor Safford.
Just Isaiah.
Just you.
Just me.

This is a personal calling from God.
We can’t deflect it.
We can’t nominate anyone else.

It’s a call that comes to each of us.
Yes, to each of us! No one in this place is exempt!
To Abraham and Sarah in Haran.
To Moses in Egypt.
To Isaiah in Judah.
To the fishermen in their boats.
And Paul on the Damascus Road.

To everyone who even comes close to God.
God is a calling God.
A God who says, Whom shall I send?

And there’s no one there but you and me to answer.

God does it that way.
Just you and me … puts us on the spot.

Isaiah echoes the faithful words of a real giant – a man on his way – growing in the love of God – Here I am; send me.”

The word “vocation” - from the Latin - from which we get the word “vocal” – voice – a vocation is the voice of God calling us, and everyone in this place hears this call.
Many of us heard it in Sunday School when we were children.
Maybe you heard it ten years ago, or just last week.
Maybe you’re hearing it right, for the first time in your life, or maybe for the umpteenth time …

Here I am; send me!

Well, there ya’ have it: four crises: four lessons.

To see God above when things are dicey below.
A big God always shakes things up, and it’s okay.
The love of God reveals things we’re not proud of, but with the burning coals of God’s love, our guilt is sent packing and our sin is no more.
The call of God comes to us … personal and deep … and there’s only one answer to satisfy the soul: Here I am; send me.

Amen and Amen!

May 31, 2009 - "Pentecost"

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:44:00 +0000

Acts 2:1-21

Goooooood Morning Covenant Presbyterian Church.

Welcome to Pentecost!

Welcome to the deep work of God!
Creating the Church of Jesus Christ.
Welcome to the fire and the wind …

Welcome to Pentecost.

The fiftieth day after Passover … a harvest festival, a pilgrim festival, 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead …

Jesus told his disciples to go to Jerusalem … wait there … wait for the promise of the Father … wait for the Holy Spirit.

I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to wait.
Do you find it hard to wait, too?

We do a lot of waiting in our lifetime …
A child waiting for Christmas … a child in the back seat on the way to gramma’s house – “are we there yet?”

I remember waiting for my 10th birthday … finally reaching double-digits – that was significant to me.

I remember turning 13 – a teenager, at last.
Then 16, to get my license …
18, registering for the draft …
And 21, to drink …

And so on and so forth … lots of waiting …

The disciples are waiting … a spiritual waiting … a positive, powerful, kind of waiting …
Waiting for the promise of the Father, the promise of the Holy Spirit … a promise proclaimed by John the Baptist when he stood with Jesus in the Jordan River: He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire [Luke 3:16].

Waiting is a vital part of our spiritual work …
We wait for God.
We discipline ourselves … we take a deep breath … we pray and we ponder, we wait and we watch, we stop and we sit … we put our burdens down, and we set aside our plans!
We resist the temptation to plunge ahead.
We wait for the LORD!

Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the LORD [Psalm 31:24].
Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for him [Psalm 37:7].
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem Israel
from all its iniquities [Psalm 130:5-8].

What would it look like for us to wait upon the LORD?
Are we inclined to wait upon the Lord?
I think American Christians are terribly impatient.
American Christianity is bustling and busy …
Full of books and methods …
Strategies and designs …
Meetings and marketing plans …

I wonder sometimes …
American Christianity seems frantic these days.
Evangelicals snarl and snap at one another over points of faith …
Liberals moan and groan about most everything …
And everyone counts numbers … how many in the pew this morning? How much in the offering plate? How tall the steeple; how big the program.

From Shakespeare [Macbeth, V.v.]:
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
[wrote Shakespeare, Macbeth, V.v.]
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

I get the uneasy feeling sometimes that God is waiting for us to slow down … God is waiting for us to wait for God!

Does God say, Okay, you think it’s up to you? Your strategies and your designs, your plans and your power? Your dreams and your reputation? Okay. Go for it. I’ll wait! I’ll wait until you’re so tired, that you can’t think anymore. I’ll wait until you’ve read all the books and exhaust all the possibilities … I’ll wait until you learn … to wait for my promise.

In reality, some congregations never learn to wait upon the LORD.
A church in Redford, Michigan just announced its closing …
10 years ago, they had a chance to merge with another church and create a vital ministry; all the details had been worked out … but one of their stalwart members stood up and announced at a congregational meeting, “I’d rather take my church to my grave than see it change.”
Well, she got her wish, didn’t she?
She took her church to the grave.
I wonder what would have happened had she learned to wait upon the LORD rather than catering to her own comfort.

I wonder what a waiting church looks like?
A church waiting for the Father’s promise …
Waiting for the Holy Spirit?

It’s not that the disciples were waiting around aimlessly … twitting their thumbs … oh no … far from it … listen to the Text:

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.

Devoted to prayer … together with one another …
I wonder what THAT looks like?

Are we devoted to prayer at Covenant?
What do you think?

If we were devoted to prayer, what would that look like?
Would we have prayer gatherings in our homes?
Would we open our meetings with 20 minutes of prayer? 30 minutes of prayer?
Would we have a Wednesday evening prayer service?

Would we have:
Extended periods of holy silence, when we wait together for the LORD to speak to our hearts … calm our minds, center our energies, reveal God’s will and purpose?
Extended periods of time - reading the Psalms aloud to one another, because the Psalms are mostly prayers …
Reading from prayer books … writing our own prayers … and just praying, as the Spirit leads … some praying with ease, because they’re comfortable with words; others praying hesitantly, because words flow slowly.
Are we devoted to prayer?

We are a prayerful church, that I know.
But can we kick it up a notch?
Are we minimalists?
I think a lot of congregations are sort of minimalist …
We do it all, but we do it perfunctorily …
We’ve done it a thousands times; we settle into the rut and sink into routine …
Are we minimalists here?

I love how the story unfolds …
They were all together in one place …
And then came the fire.
Tongues of flame above everyone’s head …
The anointing of the Holy Spirit …

The breath of God all over again … like the creation story of Genesis 2, when God took a handful of dirt and blew life into it, so the dirt become a living being …
God breathed a fresh breath of air on Pentecost day …
So the church could become a living being …

And they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability.

This is the clue – language!
The ability to speak … to the world.

Crowds gathered at the sound of it all …
Curious crowds …
Bewildered crowds …
Crowds from all over the Mediterranean world – they heard the disciples speaking in their own languages – how can this be? They asked. We hear their accent – they a rough and tumble bunch from Galilee, and they’re talking about God in our own language. What does this mean?
Some sneered, of course; they’ve been hitting ye’ olde wine bottle a little too early!

Were they drunk?
Or was it just the Holy Spirit …

Barriers came down that day.
Bridges were built!
Folks from all around the world heard the gospel in their own tongue!

Los Angeles is a gathering place for peoples of the world …
We ate in a Himalayan restaurant the other night, next door to a Turkish café, just down the block from a Brazilian bistro …
Everywhere a veritable melting pot - in our streets and schools, workplaces and neighborhoods – a wonderful mélange of sights and sounds – full of energy and creativity …
Just like Jerusalem … that fabled day of Pentecost …
The world at our doorstep …

Several months ago, we had some guests …
One of them spoke Spanish … someone else translated …
As I read the story of Pentecost this week … I kept thinking of that moment.

This past week, I was at a union hall in Hawthorne … with a group of folks who had just lost their jobs at the LAX Hilton … folks who had worked there 20 and 25 years, and now they were laid off …
Most of the meeting was in Spanish …
A very sweet lady came over and sat next to me, and translated quietly.
I was deeply moved.
I was honored to be there.

They invited me to speak, and I did.
Most of them understood me.
They’re bilingual; I’m not.

Language …
God speaks in all the languages of the world …
To the lost and to the found …
To the blind and to the sighted …

The disciples spoke that day in everyone’s language:
Parthians, Medes, and Elamites;
Visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene;
Immigrants from Rome, both Jews and proselytes;
Even Cretans and Arabs!
No one left out.
The message of God’s love for everyone!

So, what does Pentecost mean for us, right here, right now, Covenant on the Corner?

What do we learn from the Text?
From the story itself?

Have we learned the spiritual art of waiting upon the LORD?
Or are we likely to plunge ahead with our plans?
Are we a little bit frantic these days, or are confident in God’s purpose?
Do we use prayer to open and close meetings, or are we exploring the larger dimensions of prayer?
Are we a Pentecost church filled with the sound of God’s breath? … a sound that intrigues the world, and draws folks to see what’s happening?

We are growing in all of this … and there’s always more ahead of us …
We are asking good questions and probing the future …
Learning to speak the languages of our time …
We are the church of Jesus Christ …
A Pentecost church …
Spirit-breathed and Spirit-led.
Filled with the fire of faith!
We are, Covenant on the Corner …

Amen and Amen.

May 24, 2009 - "Eternal Life"

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:39:00 +0000

Check HERE for audio.

John 7:6-19; I John 5:9-13

After a long illness, a woman died and arrived at the Gates of Heaven. While she was waiting for Saint Peter to greet her, she peeked through the Gates and saw that it was very beautiful.
Saint Peter came by and nodded.
The woman said to him "This is such a wonderful place! How do I get in?"

"You have to spell a word", Saint Peter told her.
"Which word?" the woman asked.
"Love."

The woman correctly spelled "Love" and Saint Peter welcomed her into Heaven.

A year later, Saint Peter came to the woman and asked her to watch the Gates of Heaven for him that day. While the woman was guarding the Gates of Heaven, her husband arrived.

"I'm surprised to see you," the woman said. "How have you been?"

"Oh, I've been doing pretty well since you died," her husband told her. "I married the beautiful young nurse who took care of you while you were ill. And then I won the lottery. I sold the little house you and I lived in and bought a big mansion. And my wife and I traveled all around the world. We were on vacation and I went water skiing today. I fell, the ski hit my head, and here I am. How do I get in?"

"You have to spell a word", the woman told him.
"Which word?" her husband asked.
"Czechoslovakia."

**************

An 85-year-old couple, married 60 years, died in a car crash. They had been in good health over the years, mainly due to her interest in health food and exercise.

When they reached the pearly gates, St. Peter took them to their mansion, which was decked out with a beautiful kitchen and master bath suite and Jacuzzi. As they "ooohed and aaahed" the old man asked Peter how much all this was going to cost.

"It's free," Peter replied, "this is Heaven."

Next they went out back to see the championship golf course that the home backed up to. They would have golfing privileges everyday and each week the course changed to a new one representing the great golf courses on earth.

The old man asked, "What are the green fees?"

Peter's reply, "This is heaven, you play for free."

Next they went to the clubhouse and saw the lavish buffet lunch with the cuisines of the world laid out.

"How much to eat?" asked the old man.

"Don't you understand yet? This is heaven, it’s free!" Peter replied.

"Well, where are the low fat and low cholesterol foods?" the old man asked timidly. "That's the best part,” said St. Peter ...you can eat as much as you like of whatever you like and you never get fat and you never get sick. This is Heaven."

The old man looked at his wife and said, "You and your bran muffins - I could have been here ten years ago!

*********

Eternal life … life after death … life beyond the grave; the better place and the home in the sky …
Egyptians built pyramids and mummified their kings and queens … and stocked the burial chamber with food and drink.
Greek philosophers envisioned a perfect world, and when we shed the weakness of the flesh, our soul flies off to everlasting peace.
Revival preachers warn their audiences about hell with lurid descriptions of fire and brimstone, so you better get right with Jesus.
Islam and Buddhism, all have some version of life after death.
Not that everyone has been so happy with the idea – Karl Marx rightly described the doctrine of eternal life as an opiate for the people – just tell the poor and the oppressed, the enslaved and the imprisoned, that a better life awaits them in eternity, with mansions and pearly gates and golden streets – until then, obey the king, accept your place in the world, and do and believe what the priest tells you to do.
No wonder Marx reacted so bitterly to the doctrine of eternal life.

Some have said: when you’re dead, you’re dead! That’s all folks!
Nothing more.
Dust to dust, earth to earth, ashes to ashes.
A friend of mine says, “When you die, you rot!”
My friend as least gets an A for bluntness!

Yet the human spirit longs for something more than just the span of years we have here …

In song and story, art and drama, even jokes … life after death … something more, something greater than the span of our years here, something beyond the grave.

Wishful thinking?
Are we fooling ourselves?
Is death the final reality?
The final word?
The end of it all?

John Donne, the 16th Century poet, wrote powerfully about death …

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me;
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die.

Paul the Apostle writes [1 Corinthians 15]:

Christ has been raised from the dead,
The first fruits of those who have died.

When this perishable body puts on imperishability,
And this mortal body puts on immortality,
Then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:
‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’
‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’

Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
Through our LORD Jesus Christ.

Therefore my beloved,
Be steadfast, immovable, always excelling
In the work of the LORD,
Because you know that in the LORD
Your labor is not vain.

The gift of eternal life.
A gift from the heart of God.
For all of God’s creation.
The promise of something new …
A new heaven and a new earth …
No one lost …
No one left behind …
For God so loved the world.

Eternal life - does it make a difference?

Paul writes to his friends: if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

If with merely human hopes I fought with wild animals at Ephesus, what would I have gained by it?
If the dead are not raised.
‘Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.’

Without a sense of eternity,
Something goes very wrong inside of us.

Life becomes a desperate run … to eat and drink our fill, because it’s all going to go away.
If we don’t have it now, we’ll never have it.

We become consumers … mindless consumers of everything.
The latest this and the biggest that.
Seize life by the throat –
Buy it, own it, drive it, see it – do it now before you hit the ground!

Without eternity,
We come to expect too much of life.
More than life can deliver.

This is not heaven on earth.
This is earth, and it’s wonderful.
And God said, ‘It is good.’
But there are limits for all of us …
Severe limits for millions …
Death and disease, war and famine …

For us here, in the land of the free, we’ve come close to creating heaven on earth … it’s marvelous to behold what we have fashioned, but it’s done hard things to our soul …

We have come to expect way too much of life.
Preachers of health, wealth and happiness promise us the moon, if we would only buy their book and attend their seminar!
The gurus of finance and prosperity beguile us with images of wealth …
Teachers of “be all you can be” and “you’re number 1” …
Five steps to success … three secrets of happiness … how to lose weight and live longer … cosmetics to take the years off … surgery to fix the nose … science and medicine to cure our diseases and prolong our lives …
We expect so much of life, because we fear that life is all there is.

And Christianity hasn’t helped us …
If there was a time when Medieval Christianity was all ABOUT eternity, much of Christianity these days is mostly warmed over porridge.
Oh sure, we talk about eternal life, but we don’t integrate it into our thinking, our daily prayers, our sense of life and hope, and most importantly, our sense of justice!

If life here is all we have … then the fear of death, the end, the terminal point, becomes a shadow hovering over everything we do and think … we don’t talk about death very well, and, of course, no one dies, they just “pass away,” flitting off to some better place, or maybe they just go away, and with a little luck, we can get on with our busy lives again, and those who linger and cry for the loss of a loved one – we tell them to get on with their life and we hurry away to our next meeting and go out shopping.
If life here is all we have, we have a lot, but we don’t have enough!

Jesus asks us: To what end and for what purpose, you gain the whole world and then forfeit your life? [Matthew 16:26].

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven … for where you treasure is, there you will find your heart [Matthew 6:19-21].

The writer to Timothy notes: There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich, some have wondered away form the faith, and pierced themselves with many pains [2 Timothy 6:6-10].

As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life [2 Timothy 6:17-19].

Paul writes: I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what is to have to plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me [Philippians 4:11b-13a].

Life is good, but our hold on life is slim.
The last time I checked, the mortality rate was still 100 per cent – we’re all on a train called time.

Sooner or later, we draw our last breath here on earth, and take our first breath of the clean cool air of eternity.

Eternity on our mind, our minds are not so restless, our lives not so frantic … a little peaceable in our pace, living through each other rather than living against each other.

Eternity in our spirit, we’re a little more relaxed and a bit more thankful … food and drink taste better.
Eternal life embedded in our consciousness, we count our blessings rather than our wants, and we share a little more easily …
Eternity ahead of us, we face the end with a deeper sense of peace …

This is world is our home, that’s for sure; but it’s a temporary home.

We’re all travelers in time.

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die.

Amen and Amen!

May 10, 2009 - "Love" - Mother's Day

noreply@blogger.com (castaway) — Tue, 12 May 2009 03:48:00 +0000

Audio - click HERE.

John 15:1-8 & 1 John 4:7-21

Happy Mother’s Day!

Blessings and Peace to our mothers …
They carried us close to their heart …

Some of us hold hurtful memories about our mother …
A mother who didn’t do it well …
Her love too distant …
Too controlling …
Words sometimes abusive …
Memories that still hurt …
Memories that mystify …
Defy understanding …

Some of us carry bright and beautiful memories …
Of a mother who did it well …
With a love that was just right …
Neither too hot, nor too cold …
Like porridge for Goldilocks, it was just right …

We celebrate a mother’s gifts today:
A good sense of humor …
Wise advice …
Patience and forgiveness …
Kindness and understanding …
And the power of love given away …

Love is a many-splendored thing ….
Full of surprises and full of challenges …

Love comes easy some of the time …
And sometimes, it’s the hardest thing in the world …

Sometimes I know what love is …
And sometimes I’m not sure …

Even God doesn’t know how to love all the time …

God cries out: What shall I do with you , O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
Like the dew that goes away early [Hosea 6:4].

Centuries later, the Apostle Paul writes:

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends [I Corinthians 13:4-7].

Love is a deeply ethical word …
To love someone is do right by them …
To honor them for their life …
To recognize them as a real human being …

The Greeks had four words for love … [C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves]:

Storge … simple affection … something we share with dogs and cats and whales, as well: touching, cuddling, nuzzling … cooing, purring and humming … simple, basic affection.
Another word, philia, brotherly love – Philadelphia, PA – city of brotherly love …
Another word, eros, from which we get the word erotic … the physical power of being in love, the power of desire and want …
And then agape … the word used most commonly in the Bible … agape – a deeply ethical love – commitment, loyalty, faithfulness, steadfastness, understanding and patience, tolerance in the face of difficulties … a giving love that seeks the wellbeing of the other … a love willing to lay down its life for the sake of the other …

Jesus said, No greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for another.

The Bible says a great deal about love …

Let’s take a look at our passages for the day …
John 15:1-8 …
1 John 4:7-21 …

What is love?

We do well to begin with God’s love …
For God so loved the world …

The love that takes up a cross and goes to Golgatha …
The love that lays down its life for you and me.

Paul writes of faith, hope and love … and dares to say: the greatest of these is love …greater than faith, greater than hope …

What is love?

Love is a deeply ethical word …
A decision to do right by the other …
Even when we hardly feel like doing it …

Jesus didn’t feel like going to the cross …
And there’s plenty of days when you and I don’t feel very loving at all …
But we love nonetheless …
We do what’s right … and sometimes the doing helps the feeling …

Sometimes we have to use our motions to lead our emotions … the doing of something right takes our emotions by the hand and leads them to a better place.

In other words, do right, even when you don’t feel right.
And in the doing, something good occurs …

There is no greater pleasure than knowing we’ve done something right, something good …
Above and beyond the call of duty …
The extra mile …
Beyond our self-interest …

Big examples like:
Mother Teresa in Calcutta …
My friend Ben Mathes on a jungle riverboat …
A store-front pastor negotiating with street gangs in east LA …

Most of us will never have the chance for such dramatic things …
Most of us live small moments …
No headlines …
Just the day-to-day things of life …
When our mental and spiritual capacities are stretched to the limit ….
So we go deeper, reach higher … travel further … then we ever thought we could …

After 55 years of marriage, Fred visits his wife every day in the nursing home – Alzheimer’s for the last three years … Ruby doesn’t recognize Fred anymore … she stares at a place far away, and then asks, “Who are you?”
Fred says, “I’m your husband, I’m Fred, and I love you.”
Fred tears up, and Ruby looks at him curiously, and then a few tears leak from her eyes, too … for a moment, a connection … she knows him … and then, it’s gone … she says, “Who are you?”
Fred wouldn’t miss a day …
“She’s my wife. She stood by me so many times, and now it’s my turn to stand by her … to be faithful to her and patient … I wouldn’t miss a day here.”
Fred goes home bone-weary …
He cries himself to sleep …
He prays to God …
He’s lonely beyond description …
His children help as much as they can, but they’re busy with their lives …
Fred says, “For better, for worse; in sickness and in health, till death do us part.”

I remember Dale, a Presbyterian pastor – serving two small churches in rural Missouri, when I met him.
Dale wasn’t much a preacher … he didn’t have a way with words – he spoke haltingly and always seemed a little unsure of himself.
That’s why Dale never made it to a big city church.
Dale spent his whole life in small rural parishes … never wrote a book and never made the news …
Dale spent his days calling on widows and comforting the poor, in body and in spirit.
Every Sunday, Dale preached the gospel, as best he could … in season and out of season …
Always broke and a dollar short …
Never could afford a new car … only drove old beaters …
Shopped for clothing at secondhand stores …
Lived in church-owned housing … the carpet worn and the paint showing its age …
I met Dale at a workshop, near the end of his career… he was there on a scholarship … my heart was moved when I got to know him a little bit … I was struck by the character of his life … something right and something good …
I remember thinking: could I be so faithful?
Could I be so true to my calling?

I remember David …
One of the hardest working guys I’ve ever known …
His Daddy went to jail, but David stood by him and cared for his mother …
His wife divorced him for another man … and I remember him coming over early on Sunday morning to tell me … his knuckles were bleeding because he had hit the wall when his wife walked out on him … he sat our table and cried.
They got a divorce … it was done and over with …
But the affair of the heart came to end, as they always do … and by the grace of God, she came back … humiliated and heart-broken …
And I had the pleasure of officiating at their second marriage … and they’ve never looked back …
I’ve always been amazed at this man … and his wife, too … they both said, “I’m sorry” and love flourished again.

I think of Mary caring for a challenged child …
She had to quit work … and we all know what that means … living on the margin … sleepless nights … fretful days … but Mary does it.
She crashes and burns sometimes …
Family members come by and fill in some of the hours …
Neighbors help, too.

I think of the surgeons in Cleveland who did the world’s most complicated face transplant for Connie Culp.
Her husband shotgunned her and blew her face away …
And for five years, Connie lived a very hard life.
And then a miracle, if you will …
A face transplant … bone, muscles, nerves, vessels … for 24 hours, they operated …

The bandages are off … and a lot more work ahead …

But Connie can smile again and eat pizza for the first time in 5 years.
I’m amazed at her spunk and her humor …
And she didn’t do it alone …
She tells of all the people who’ve stood by her … who sustained her … who loved her … and the fantastic medical team, and the surgeon who said, “I think we can.”

Love is a Sunday School teacher …
Love is choir director …
Love is a deacon …
Love is an elder …
Love is writing a check and putting it into the offering plate …
Love is showing up here …
Love is being faithful to things and causes beyond ourselves …

Today, here and now …
Big things, small things …

There is a lot of love here at Covenant on the Corner …
Your love is a courageous love …
Decisions made and positions taken on behalf of love …
For a better world and a more just life for our fellow Angelinos …

Love endures, says Paul the Apostle …
Love never ends …
Every day, when we love,
More love comes our way …

Love grows when it’s spent.
Love comes back to us when it’s given away …

Because God is love … and God is forever …

So let’s love one another all the more …
Live large … live beyond ourselves …
No one excluded; everyone welcomed …

Let us abide in Christ all the more … and do what’s right …
And Christ abides in us …
And glorious is the day!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Amen and Amen!