St Matthew's: Come and See

Ash Wednesday

2012-02-24T07:40:00.001-06:00

Preached at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church on Ash Wednesday, 2012.

FOCUS: As we walk with Jesus though Lent, we look to see who else is on the road with us.

TAKE A WALK

As we begin this holy season of Lent, I invite you to take a walk. Let's walk with Jesus through these 40 days, find out where Jesus is going and look around to see who is going with us.

You may remember last week Jesus was up on a mountain, and he was transfigured, changed, into a radiant being in front of Peter, James and John. He spoke to Moses and Elijah and the disciples saw all that, but then it was over. Jesus started walking back down the mountain and they went with him, and he told them to tell no one until after the Son of Man was risen from the dead.

Jesus walked down the mountain and started the journey toward his death. Let us prepare to go with him.

WHERE ARE WE GOING?

During this season if we travel with Jesus we will walk with him as he is tempted much as we are, with power and greed and gluttony; we will walk with Jesus as some of his followers tell him how the Messiah needs to be and try to keep others away; we will walk with Jesus as he accuses the religious leaders of selling out, of using God as a means of gaining money and power, and we will walk with Jesus as he calls out the powers of this world – calls the powers out of darkness into light, calls out not to condemn...but to save.

WHO IS WITH US?

As we walk we may look around and see who is with us on the journey. We may see some of the 400, mostly children, who froze to death in Afghanistan this past week. We may see some of the 16,000 children who die from hunger-related causes every year; and we may see those who withheld food from them. We may see the victims of war and violence, and we may see the warlords and the criminals. We may see drug dealers who have broken out of prison and we may see addicts caught in their own hell. We may see those who are denied rights because of their gender of because of who they love, and we may see those people who deny those rights.

And we may see those people we love most in the world and we may see people we would move to the other side of the crowd to avoid. And those who hate us may see us and want to run.

But we are taking a walk with Jesus. Jesus is walking toward his death, and there are many deaths along the way. Death to what we thought was important; death to what we thought the future would be; death to a small understanding of love. Death to our own right to condemn. Death to our desire to use others instead of serve them.

We are walking with Jesus, who teaches us how to walk with others with dignity and with love, regardless of the cost.

I don't know the story of this poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, but he could have written it about Ash Wednesday.

Love me as I love thee. O double Sweet!
But if thou hate me who love thee, albeit
Even then I have the better of thee:
Thou canst not hate so much as I do love thee.

We are walking with Jesus, walking toward his death, his death to bring us to God. Our walk will be hard and sometimes it will seem impossible; but we will walk with Jesus, and the hate we see and the hate we feel and the injustice we see and the injustice we feel and the suffering we see and the suffering we feel we will own, and we will repent, and we will be forgiven if we but ask. And if we do, we may realize everyone around us is alike.

We are on a walk with Jesus.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Strength for Healing

2012-02-13T09:37:00.001-06:00

Preached at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church on February 5, 2012.

Isaiah 40:21-31
Mark 1: 29-39

FOCUS: Seeking the Lord brings us strength, encouragement and hope.

What do you do when you are tired?

Do you rest, or do you push on?

What do you do when you are tired?

Not just physically tired, but you know...weary.

Some of you are tired today. Some of you are tired of working so hard for what seems like little reward. Some of you are tired of being in bodies that seem to be giving up on you. Some of you are tired of news stories that tell of an increasingly colder world – colder in heart, more concerned with images or money or what other people think of us than anything God centered. In this past week a man in Afghanistan killed his wife – and his mother helped him! – because she had given birth to only daughters. And before we get too self-righteous here, in Pasadena – my home town – police arrested a woman for turning her underage daughter to prostitution. She betrayed her own flesh and blood for something like $20.

There's lots of things that can make us tired. And some of them can be a lot closer to home.
What do you do when you are tired?

Do Scriptures have anything to say about that?

STRENGTH
The word of the Lord came to the prophet Isaiah, and said this:
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is an everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary,the shall walk and not faint.

What do we do when we are tired?

Well, one thing we can do is admit we are tired and turn to the LORD and be refreshed. Time alone with God to prepare for the life we have in the world created and sustained by God.

Turning to God will give us strength, encouragement and hope. Scripture says that even the young will eventually grow weary. Now last week some of you may have seen that we had a couple of our grandchildren here, and I had multiple opportunities to take them to the park that's near the parsonage. Multiple opportunities. And I did, and it was a lot of fun and eventually they got tired.

Of course, I just heard about it, because by that time I was taking a nap.

But here, in one of my favorite Scriptures of the Bible, the LORD says through Isaiah that those who wait upon the LORD will have their strength renewed, restored...

Those that wait...

Now wait means to pause; but it also means to serve.

If any of you have ever waited tables – I have – you know one thing you do not do is to pause. You are on the move. You are serving others.

So waiting upon God means serving God, which we know means serving others, bringing the strength, encouragement and hope of God to others. Because when we move toward God we are offered strength, encouragement and hope – not only for us to have, but for us to give.

We talked about strength; let's talk about encouragement.

ENCOURAGEMENT

I want to offer you some words of encouragement – I don't know that you hear it enough. Not only have you opened your doors to have a new congregation form and grow here, but you voted to change your worship time to put service to the Kingdom of God ahead of selfish interests, and give Abiding Faith a chance to grow and form. And many of you give of your time each week to go to Durham Elementary School to read to kids and show Christ's love one child at a time. We make a difference in the lives of several of these kids over there. Troops overseas have received care packages to give them encouragement, to remind them that they are loved, packed by the Senior Adults and the Lydia Circle and lots of other folks. Our youth serve this community and communities around the state in Big House and UM Army, painting and scraping and doing repairs and building wheelchair ramps. Our Children's Ministries teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to kids here and in the community though our Children's Weekday Ministries, Children's Church, Vacation Bible School, the Community Pancake Breakfast and others. Some of these things are relatively new, but many have been going on for many years.

When we draw close to the LORD, we remember what God has done for us. We remember, and we are grateful.

Drawing close to God, waiting upon God, can bring us strength, encouragement, and hope.

Let's talk a little about hope.

HOPE

Our Gospel story has two movements I'm going to touch on, but they are part of themes we'll be talking about all year.

One is Jesus pulling away from everyone, getting up early in the morning and going away to a deserted place to pray. The disciples searched for him and when they found him they wanted him to go back to Simon Peter's house, because there had been a great crowd there the night before, and everyone was still looking for him.

Jesus said they would go on, not go back. He would go on to neighboring towns to preach, for that is what I came out to do.

How baffling that must have been for those who heard it.

Aren't there people who want to see you? Won't they be disappointed? Aren't there people back there who need healing? What about them?

What will people say about me if I don't bring you back?

But pulling away to God, waiting upon the LORD, can give you strength, encouragement and hope: and those things can lead to vision. Jesus knew what he was called to do – to go out and preach the Gospel of God's love and forgiveness to a world that served only idols, not unlike ours today. Jesus received and offered the strength, encouragement and hope of God's love, and it gave him a clear vision of what he was to do.

So what do you do when you're tired? Well, there's another option: you can dream.

THE GOD WHO DESIRES US

There is another part of today's reading from Mark that can be easily overlooked, but we talked about it in one of the Bible studies this week and I think it is key.

As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

Jesus came to her. He took her by the hand and lifted her up. She was strengthened, she was healed, and she began to serve.

Jesus came to her and healed her.

Many of you have heard me talk about Christianity not making sense. The idea that God, creator of the universe and all that is in it, comes to earth in the form of a helpless baby, and lives as one of us is just impossible to grasp. Some have heard me say that Buddhism makes more sense on the face of it. I'm not a Buddhist, but my understanding of the basics is that we are unhappy because we want things we don't have. Control and eliminate your desires for things you don't have, be grateful for what you do have, and you'll be content.

That makes sense.

But here we have this story, of Jesus coming to the woman with the fever, reaching out, lifting her up, healing her, loving her. We can have joy as Christians not because of what we want, but because God wants us, because Christ came for us, lived among us, died for our sins and rose again that we might come to God.

It's not about what we think we want. What we need to know is that God wants us, and we are reminded of that every time we turn to God for strength, encouragement, and hope.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Leaving Home

2012-01-27T10:48:00.000-06:00

Preached at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church
January 22, 2012

Third Sunday after Epiphany

Jonah 3:1-5, 9
Psalm 62: 5-12
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20

FOCUS: God's call compels us to move beyond our safety, and gives us a new understanding of rest and hope.

LEAVING HOME

I am glad to see you here today. For about 2 ½ years since we've been together here at St. Matthew's I've been so pleased that you came back, week after week. Sometimes you even invite friends to come with you. It's a great decision to leave home and hear about and sing and pray to a God who can be so wild and unusual and unpredictable and sometimes maddening. Beause it is so easy to just stay home. It can be so secure there.

I know there are lots of times that you just want to stay, but you get up and for some of you get the kids ready and come on down here when it would be so much simpler to not do that. I'm like that, too.
By nature I am more of an introvert, and I think that I need time alone to draw closer to God. Lots of time alone. Lots and lots of time alone.
One of the devotional books I'm using talked about that need to get away, to draw close to God in solitude, and the writer pointed out she grew in her spirituality by having to deal with her family, her kids, her boss, her parents – she grew through the stress and the trials and the joys of being together with others.
The last few weeks we've been talking about the Baptismal Covenant that binds us together in the faith, our vows of mutual accountability. We pledge to renounce the evil forces of this world, to fight injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves, and we vow that we accept Christ as our Savior, put our whole trust in the grace of God and will follow Jesus in the Church which is open to everyone. That's not something we can do from a couch in a dark room with a TV or a computer screen.

CALLED TO LEAVE

For those of us who like to stay home, there is a security there. And if we leave home to follow God, we might have to deal with people we don't like. I like the idea of God loving everybody, but you know...that's hard. We're supposed to love our enemies; we're supposed to pray for those who hurt and wound us. We're supposed to pray for everybody running for President – yes, even that one. (In case the idea of praying for one of them made you jolt.)

Jonah didn't want to do that. We talked about Jonah a few months ago, and so I'll just highlight the background here. Jonah was a prophet who lived approximately 800 years before the birth of Christ. The LORD called him to go and preach a warning to the capital city of his country's enemy, the city of Nineveh. Jonah refused, took a ship in the opposite direction of Nineveh, the ship was caught in a storm and it was determined the storm was God's anger at Jonah. When the crew threw him overboard, the storm stilled. Jonah was swallowed by a great fish and lived in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.

Jonah had some time to reflect on things while in the belly of the fish, and he turned back to God. Scripture says this: So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Here's where our reading comes in: The word of God came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”

This time Jonah went. It took three daysw to walk across Ninevah. He walked for one day only, proclaiming that God would destroy it soon and the city repented, much to Jonah's disappointment and anger.

Part of our security is knowing where we are safe, and part of that is knowing who our friends are and who our enemies are. In the rest of the story Jonah is infuriated to find out God would allow his enemies to repent. What does this say about God? And the Scripture says that God “changed his mind...” so does that mean you can't even count on God to take out our enemies? Well, then, what can we count on? Can we count on God? What does that even mean?

We've talked around Christmas time on how we define God. We often define God to be all the things we are not: steadfast love, unchanging, knows everything, has plans for you. And then we have some passages like this, with God's mind changing, with a planned calamity being called off. There are other passages about God changing his mind, like when God determines to destroy the world in the great flood, or when God regrets that he made Saul king. Or God being born in poverty to a girl who was not yet married.

SECURITY IN GOD

And our ideas of God are challenged when we look at this man Jesus presented in Mark's Gospel. Very few recognized him for who he was as he went about preaching and proclaiming the kingdom of God, as he called followers to abandon everything and follow him.

Jesus puts our ideas of security to the test. We think we will draw closer to God in the security of our homes; Jesus calls us out. We think we will be safe when we are among people who think like us, who act like us, who look like us; Jesus calls us out to the world. We think we are secure in our beliefs about God, about who God loves and who God hates and we can find comfort in knowing who we should love and who we should hate, and Jesus calls us out. And all too often we find that our vows to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves result in inward confession more than outside battle.

In the next few weeks we will be talking about the Kingdom of God Jesus announces in today's Gospel reading. The repentance Jesus calls for is as much a transformation as anything else, like Paul's call to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds in Romans 12. We are called to look at things in a different way. We find security in God alone, not in our ideas about God or our beliefs about God, but walking in the wobbly security that God loves us and we are special – everyone else is, too – and we are called to leave home and take our place.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Fearful Knowledge

2012-01-27T10:39:00.000-06:00

Preached at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church January 15, 2012.

1Samuel 5:1-10
1Corinthians 6:12-20
John 1:43-51

FOCUS: We are called by God, not only into service, but into community. This is fearful knowledge.

WE ARE CALLED

Last week we talked about the Baptismal Covenant. It is in our baptism that we answer the call to service for God and we are initiated by our baptism into a community, the community of the Body of Christ. When we are baptized, we are uniting with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit to the work of reconciliation into the world. This is God's gift, and it is a wonderful gift, and it is a fearful gift.

And we try to step around it.

When I was beginning this type of ministry in the church, serving as an associate pastor, I had the idea of getting some folk to come alongside our new members. We had a lot of new members who would come, who would join, who would drift away. I suggested we get some volunteers to come alongside our new members, be friends with them, ask to sit with them, go out for coffee, invite to a Sunday School class. (I'd like to do that here, too, and it can be formal, or it can be informal. Contact me if you'd like to be part of this, or find one of the new members and come alongside. It doesn't have to be hard.)

Though it doesn't have to be hard, it became really cumbersome in that other church. Restrictions started being put on who would be qualified to befriend the new members. They would have had to be members for a year or more; they would have to be members of a Sunday School class; they would have to have taken Disciple – the list went on. Finally, the business manager said there was no one on the Finance Team who would meet the qualifications and regulations and the idea was dropped.

I had just thought some folks could be friends, and the other folks – who were well-meaning – started thinking of the qualifications for such an important work.

It is typical of what we'd think, but it is not the Biblical witness.

CALL OF SAMUEL/CALL OF JESUS

We've got three types of call stories in today's readings, two of the call of individuals and one call to community. None of them would survive a planning committee.

First is the call of Samuel. If you've never read the story of Samuel, this would be a great time. The book of 1st Samuel starts with a woman named Hannah going to the Temple to pray for a child. She had never been able to bear children. The priest, Eli, sees her praying fervently, moving her lips as she prayed silently and he accused her of being drunk. She told him she was praying, and she told the Lord if she had a son she would dedicate him to the Lord. When she went home she conceived and she gave birth to Samuel. When Samuel was weaned, she left him at the temple, and Eli raised him.

Eli had two sons, and they were corrupt, stealing the offerings and being inappropriate with the women. The Lord determined their line of the priesthood should end, and this is where our story of the call of the boy Samuel comes in.
Samuel, from nowhere, is called to be the prophet of the Lord, and the priestly line of Eli is ended. It is a great story. Samuel is the man who anointed David king.

In our call story from John's Gospel, Jesus has begun his ministry and decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said, “Follow me”, and Philip brought Nathaniel. Philip told Nathanael: “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joesph from Nazareth.”

One of our members of the Bible study asked if all the gospels had the next line, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

I said, no, the rest of them say Jacinto City, or Pasadena, my home town.

Who is going to imagine the Savior of the world, written about by Moses and the prophets, coming out of some backwater small town? Wouldn't you imagine some royal city, some something that was extraordinary?

And of course the joke is that Nathanael would speak at all. Who is he? Who is Philip, called by the Lord, who came to him?

Philip didn't try to convince him, he said only, Come and see.

Hear this again, from John's Gospel:

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me? “Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered , “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

CALL TO COMMUNITY

Several years after this took place, after Jesus was crucified, buried, resurrected and ascended into heaven, the apostle Paul wrote to a church he had started in Corinth. Paul, you remember, was a Pharisee persecuting the early church and putting in prison all who believed in Jesus. He was on a mission to imprison more when he had a vision of Jesus that knocked him to the ground and made him temporarily blind. He heard the voice of Jesus calling him into ministry, too, and he went about proclaiming the work of God of salvation through Christ, that all we needed to do was believe in the grace of God, the work of Christ to redeem the world, and we were saved – set free from our own imprisonment to sin. He preached this freedom in Christ, a freedom that came from that faith and not in keeping a rigorous set of laws. God has done it. We are free, Paul said.

Do you remember in the Baptismal Covenant the vow accepting the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?

So Paul preached that freedom to resist evil, to resist sin to this new church in Corinth. And some in Corinth took that freedom to mean that anything goes.

Our reading is part of a larger section where Paul is calling the church to live in community with each other and in the Body of Christ. We are called to holiness. Elsewhere in the book he talks about the divisions among the members of the church, about the open practice of incest, about suing each other, about drunkenness, about the rich eating all the food set out at a feast before the poor where able to get off work and come to the table. And in today's reading he talks to the people in this port city with the practice of engaging prostitutes. As those called into community, called into work of God in the ministry of the reconciliation of the world through through Christ, we cannot be true to the calling if we use one another or oppress one another or steal from one another or demean one another or support people in abusing themselves.

Anyone who has been sexually abused will say that it is a pain that is different. This is not a text about prudishness or moralism; it is a text about living in community, about living in the Church, about living in the Body of Christ.

Christ calls us, as surely and improbably as Samuel was called, as surely as Philip and Nathaniel and the people of Corinth. We really are called to something bigger than our individual selves; we really are called to make a difference, to participate in the world around us. And knowing this call can be fearful, can be terrifying. And it can be freedom.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen

An Act of Faith -- the Baptism of Jesus

2012-01-09T08:10:00.001-06:00

This sermon was preached January 8, 2012 at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church in Houston.

An Act of Faith

Genesis 1:1-5
Mark 1:4-11

WHY ARE WE BAPTIZED?

Before Christmas I was in a store doing some shopping and the person waiting on me called over a lovely young woman to answer some more of my questions and assist me with my purchase. She did an exceptional job and as we were filling out the paperwork she asked me the usual questions: name, address, phone number, etc. She asked where I worked and I told her at St. Matthew's and she asked me what I did and I told her I was the pastor and she then asked me about the difference between Baptist and Methodist churches.

I talked to her about our understanding of God's grace, and how it played out in the Sacraments of Baptism and Communion.

Several times I have had parents who are not members or attenders here talk to me about baptizing their child, and I talk about our understanding of baptism.

I thought we'd take advantage of this Sunday, where we remember the Baptism of Jesus, to talk about our understanding of Baptism, what we believe and why. This will be a broad brush explanation, and we'll talk about through our practice of the Baptismal Covenant.

First of all, why are we baptized? What difference does it make?

Before we go too far, we are baptized because Jesus commands it. We'll talk more about it in a minute, but at the the of Matthew's Gospel the Lord instructs his followers to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

We are baptized into a community, the Body of Christ. We take vows together in the community through the Baptismal Covenant.

This Covenant, which can be found on page 33 of your hymnal, begins like this, with the pastor saying:
Brothers and sisters in Christ: Through the Sacrament of Baptism we are initiated into Christ's holy church. We are incorporated into God's might acts of salvation and given new birth through water and the Spirit. All this is God's gift, offered to us without price.

So when we come for baptism, we are joining that long line of believers from ancient times, joining in the God's mighty acts of salvation in restoring the world through the work of Christ on the cross and beginning a new life through the water and the Holy Spirit. And it is grace, a gift from God. It is God who does the baptizing.

It is God's gift, available to all. And we baptize children because Jesus loves little children, all the children in the world. And Jesus said that we let the children come to him.

However, we don't baptize children or anyone else without preparation.

When we baptize children, we bring them into a community of believers and we give those responsible for them the task of raising them in the community.

Before the baptism of children, the parents are asked to renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world and repent of their sin. They are asked to accept the freedom and power God gives them to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves, and they are asked to confess Jesus Christ as their savior, put their whole trust in his grace and promise to serve him as their Lord in union with the church which Christ has opened to the world.

The parents are then asked if they will raise the child in Christ's Church, and by teaching and example lead the children to accept the grace of God for themselves, to profess that faith openly and lead a Christian life.

After the parents take their vows, the pastor asks the congregation if they, too, will reaffirm their rejection of sin and their commitment to Christ, and if they will nurture this new family being brought before them.

And the congregation promises to do so.

We are baptized into a community of believers; we are baptized into the Body of Christ. When people from outside the church contact me about baptizing their child – I've even been asked how much we charge! – I tell them about this. Come and be part of the church, come and make your spiritual home among the people here,and then we can baptize your child among the people who will be promising to care for the child.

On Christmas Day Christopher Railsback and Trent Porterfield took their confirmation vows. Those same vows that years before their parents took for them – that day they make those vows for themselves, they confirmed the vows made on their behalf. Their parents raised them up in Christian households, by teaching and example taught them to lead a Christian life.

The parents fulfilled their vows, and you, the Church, did too. You offered nursery and Sunday School and Vacation Bible School and U.M. Army and District Camps; you provided opportunity for growth and mission and faith building.

And on that day those young men confirmed the vows made on their behalf with their own.
The same day Codi Cox and Phillip Stengler were baptized, taking the same vows for the first time for themselves, a believer's baptism. All these young people made a profession of faith in Christ, and became full members of the church.

Our brothers and sisters in the Baptist tradition practice “believer's baptism”, where a baptism is not done until the individual makes a profession of faith in Christ, like Codi and Phillip did. We will baptize babies bringing the children into the Body of Christ with the promise that their parents will raise them in Christian homes and in the Church. I mean no criticism of our brothers and sisters in Christ from other denominations – I was raised in and came to faith in another denomination, learned Scripture and the love of God –but I think we have a broader understanding of grace. This is why we have an open table at Communion, which can be another topic another day.

So that is a broad view of why we are baptized. And I want to say again we are baptized because Christ commands it at the end of Matthew. Jesus, crucified and risen from the dead, is about to be ascended to heaven and he tells his followers to go, and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (Mt. 28:19)

We are baptized into the Body of Christ and we are baptized because Jesus commands us.

But why was Jesus baptized?

SCANDAL OF BAPTISM/SELF-DENIAL

This was a huge question of the early church, and it is a great question for us now. And like so many of the great questions, most of you know my answer: I don't know. But Jesus wasn't baptized for repentance of sins – he didn't sin. His ministry began with the baptism by John in the Jordan river.

When we think about that, it is so absurd as to be considered scandalous. We know Jesus is God, but what kind of God would come to earth to live like this, to be so humble as to be baptized? To submit to baptism, to be a God who suffered, who practiced so much self-denial?

Maybe it is because our baptism needs to involve self-denial and suffering, too. I don't mean we need to seek out suffering; it will find us. And when it comes, we don't have to deny it; we don't have to pretend it isn't there; we can remember some the vows we made to one another. We can remember that we promised to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, to put our whole trust in his grace, and that we promised to serve him as our Lord.

Think of the two things that are troubling you the most right now. You know what they are: the things you are most worried about right now. What if you did indeed put your whole trust in the grace of Jesus? What if you did indeed serve Christ as your Lord?

What if you had a group of people you trusted with your life, people gathered around you to help you do that? People who lived in covenant with each other?

What if we lived out the Baptismal Covenant we made?

When Jesus came out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit of God swooping down on him. And he heard a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

What if we lived, with a trust in God and in God's grace, knowing the truth that we are the children of God; we are the Beloved. What if we trusted what God was saying to us: With you I am well pleased?

Would that make a difference?

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Fullness of Time

2012-01-04T09:48:00.000-06:00

Preached at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church in Houston on January 1, 2012.

Galatians 4:4-7

FOCUS: While most of us want to focus on what we want to accomplish in the New Year, Paul tells us the most important thing has already been done.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

So this is New Year's Day and it's time to start thinking about implementing all those pesky resolutions. This is the year you're going to lose weight. This is the year you are going to exercise more regularly. I'm going to go to the gym more often, I'm going to take more walks, I'm going to get to my ideal weight.

And I don't know about you, but I know just how to do that. I will eat more carefully, I will drink only water and I'll do all the things that I need to do to get to my idea of perfect health.

Some of us want to improve our relationships with our family. We'll first of all apologize for whatever that was that happened over Thanksgiving and Christmas that brought about that incident that nobody wants to talk about directly and we'll resolve that we'll be nicer in the future and more considerate. Or not so sensitive, depending on which side of whatever the incident was that you landed on...

And I hope all of us want to improve our relationship with God. We know just how to do that, and we've provided many tools. We have a through the Bible in a year reading guide available in the back; we have the When You Pray books that many of us are using for $10, also available in the back; we have church services and Bible studies and prayer meetings every week and lots of opportunities to serve others, and we have an offering plate that comes around every service that will enable you to help fund the mission and ministries of the church. There's lots of things to do.

But according to Paul, in our reading today from Galatians, you don't need to do any of that in order to get close to God.

The heavy lifting has already been done.

Jesus did it when he carried his cross to Calvary, giving us a gift we can only begin to imagine.

We only need to step into it and accept it.

FULLNESS OF TIME

You know that the very way we recognize time is divided by the birth of Jesus. The term B.C.E. is common now, but until a few years ago time was divided into “Before Christ” and “Anno Domini” , after death. It was understood from early on that something significant happened in that stable in Bethlehem that we talked about last week, something that changed the world and how we look at it.

Even now, the Church keeps a different time system than the rest of the world. This is the First Sunday after Christmas, regardless of whether it is New Year's Day. God was born in time, a baby in a stable, lived and grew and taught and died and was raised from the dead to show victory over death. These things have eternal significance, and in the Church we mark time along according to the life of Christ. Our new year began in November, with Advent. Christmas began on Christmas Day, not ended. This is the eighth day of Christmas, celebrating the birth of the child.

Paul understood this. The apostle Paul lived knowing full well the promises of God for a Messiah, the promised coming of God into the world for the restoration of the world. Paul thought he knew what he had to do to be ready and worthy of God: he kept the law, and he made sure other people did that, too. Other Jews, other people of the promise. Surely he heard of the rabbi Jesus during Jesus' lifetime, but there is no mention of that in Scripture. But we do know that Paul, who achieved the role of a Pharisee, a teacher and keeper of the law because of his great training, saw it as his duty to God to stamp out the followers of Jesus, especially as they began to show a God of love, of compassion, a God of relationship.

Paul knew you didn't get close to God; you served God. Don't be silly.

But then he had the famous experience on the road to Damascus, when he was carrying letters allowing him to seize and jail professing Christians. He saw a bright light, was knocked to his knees and heard the voice of Jesus telling him to stop persecuting the church and to start serving it. This is outlined in the 9th chapter of Acts.

The Lord appointed a man, Ananias, to go to Paul and pray over him. During the prayer, scales fell off his eyes and he could see.

And somewhere in there, Paul realized the truth that it was the grace of God, the free gift of the grace of God, that saved him, that brought him into relationship – not the endless keeping of the endless laws. For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast. ( Ephesians 2:8-9)

Paul had preached this Gospel to the people of Galatia, that no work needed but the repentance of sins – one of which is that we can manipulate God by our behavior – and accept the gift of the grace of God offered through Jesus Christ. Through Christ we are given the Holy Spirit, become adoptive children to God and cry out to God with the call of “Daddy!”.

Now here is a time to take a pause and say something. I know that some of you do not have a relationship with your fathers that you in any way want to reproduce in thinking about God. I know that, and in some ways I am there, too. One of my images of my father – who was a good man and who loved me – one of my images is a man with a stern face and folded arms, ready to point out where I had fallen short. And I know that I often hold God the Creator in the same way, that God is just waiting for me to screw up one more time.

But Paul says that's not God. That the kidnapping under the law; that's carrying the burden that we have to be perfect or God won't love us, that we have to do everything right in order for God to offer us salvation.

But brothers and sisters, that's not true.

PREACH FAITH

Of all the millions who have struggled with earning God's love, one of the most public was John Wesley. He considered leaving the church because he felt so unworthy. A mentor told him to preach faith in Christ until he had it, and after that preach faith because he had it.

Preach faith to yourself. Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

Reading the Bible through in a year is a good thing. Deepening your prayer life is a good thing. Stepping out in faith and giving of your time and treasure to the Lord is a good thing. But loving God, who first loved you, who sent his Son to live and die that you might have life – that's the only thing.

If you haven't already, this year, accept the gift. In the fullness of time, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son int our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

The arms of God are not folded, but stretched out. Toward you.

In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen

In the Beginning, for all Time

2011-12-29T15:32:00.000-06:00

Preached at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church Christmas Day, 2011

John 1:1-14

FOCUS: Through baptism, we take our part in the salvation story of God, we become part of the Body of Christ, the Word made flesh.

JUST THE BEGINNING

On this Christmas Day it is easy to think that this long season, beginning well before Thanksgiving with bells and sales and silly songs about grandmas and reindeer and other assaults upon our pride and our time and our pocketbook – it's easy to think that after today it is over.

But today is the first day of Christmas.

We are in a time of beginning, and we are taking our place in a movement of God that began before time.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

Today we celebrate the light of the world coming into the world, and we will witness the coming into our lives in a profound way. Today we have the wonderful privilege of watching and being part of a key moment in the life of our congregation and the lives of these young people who are here for baptism and confirmation. The darkness of a world at war, the darkness of sickness, death and disease, the darkness of loneliness and mental instability, of poverty and oppression, of hunger and homelessness...that darkness cannot overcome the light that has come into the world.

We hear today from the apostle John the story of John the Baptist:

He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

John came as a witness to testify to that light of the world, to testify to Jesus, to testify to the love of God. Today we come as that same witness, and we will strengthen our witness by hearing the words of the Baptismal Covenant taken by our candidates, and by renewing our own vows for the Church's mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world to the glory of God. We are witnesses, and on this first day of Christmas we remember, and we take our place in the salvation history of God.

TAKE OUR PLACE

Our Scripture goes on: He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.

By baptism we take our place into the salvation history, we take our place in the Body of Christ, we become part of the Word made flesh. Our life together in the Body is built upon the foundation of baptism, where we are marked as disciples (Matthew 28:19); where by our repentance we are forgiven sins and given the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38); where we become clothed with Christ, where all our distinctions melt away as we become one in Christ (Galatians 3:26-29 and Ephesians 4:4-6); and where we are baptized into the death of Christ as well as into the life. (Romans 6:3); and where we are indeed born of water and spirit (John 3:3-8).

Today we will witness the miracle of God's love as we hear Codi, Phillip, Christopher and Trent take the baptismal vows of renouncing the evil powers of this world, of accepting the freedom and power God gives us to resist evil, injustice and oppression and confess Christ as their Savior, putting their whole trust in his grace and promise to serve him as their Lord, in union with the Church.

Codi and Phillip will take the baptismal vows for the first time, and Trent and Christopher will confirm with their voices the vows made for them when they were baptized here in this church when they were infants. Today the vows become their own.

REMEMBER

And today, all of us will reaffirm our vows to reject sin and our commitment to Christ and we will vow to include these people in our care.

Brothers and sisters, the sacrament of baptism is not just something that we do here in the church. Baptism shows us, reminds us, challenges us to remember who we are. We are the Body of Christ, we are the light of the world, the light that darkness cannot overcome. And in those times when the darkness comes back, remember this time and this promise a promise make in the beginning, and for all time.

This is the first day of Christmas. This is a day of new beginning.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Good Tidings of Great Joy

2011-12-29T15:07:00.001-06:00

Preached at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church Christmas Eve, 2011

Luke 2:1-20

FOCUS: The birth of Jesus is both an announcement of hope and a call to humility.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF HOPE

This announcement of hope we remember on this great night begins in the most ordinary way; a baby is born. So ordinary, but it is an unusual story. The mother and father are an engaged couple, and traveling together to take part in a census, so everyone could be counted, and everyone could be taxed. Joseph went to Bethlehem, his own town as the Scriptures said, because he was from the line of King David from of old. Mary, his finance, traveled with him. We know from earlier in the story that she is pregnant not by Joseph, but by the Holy Spirit. This child is God, come to save and restore the world, and the child is born on the road. There are no special arrangements for this child, there are no special arrangements for the mother, there is no reserved birthing room or team of specialists or even an arranged place to sleep. The birth of the child, a birth announced by the angel Gabriel along with the promise that the child would be the Son on the Most High, of his kingdom there would be no end – that birth is given in one sentence: And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
We have this simple story and we have these romantic pictures in our heads and it's clean and neat and maybe sanitized, but the reality would have been much different. The birth was like any birth, we would imagine – hard. A manger is a feeding trough, so the sanitized conditions so many of us are used to wouldn't be there. Those of us who use hand sanitizer after someone nearby sneezes really should be horrified that the one promised to be Savior of the world is born in a stable.
But there were a lot of children born in poverty in fields and barns then, and there are a lot of children born in poverty now.
Even at his birth, Jesus did not come to bring an example to the rich of how to live, but came to bring good news to the poor, healing to the brokenhearted, deliverance to captives, sight to the blind and freedom to captives. But it must have seemed to Mary and Joseph like something else that night, as they were far from home with no place to stay, perhaps lonely and wondering what would happen next. I don't know what Mary or Joseph thought, but if it were me, I would have wondered why it wasn't going any smoother.

A GREAT LIGHT

While they are in the dark in the stable, getting settled in, there are shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

Unto you is born this day in the city of David – unto you. Why them? There were lots of people in the area; the place was packed; there was no room in the inn. Why go out to the countryside to find the shepherds who were abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night?

Maybe because it was the good news to the poor. The shepherds were poor; few were poorer. There were few more despised than shepherds. Shepherds were restless, they had reputations as thieves. Why would they be given the good news? It would be like having the great message of the world given to roaming roofers who come in after a hurricane.

Maybe there were like the coal miners in Wesley's day – people who had no idea that there was a God who loved them, who even knew about them. Maybe they had even been told by the religious leaders of the time that there was no place for them in the Temple, that there was no place for them in God's family.

But David had been a shepherd, when the prophet Samuel told him he would be king. And David had been promised that someone from his line would rule forever. The kingdom had been conquered and Rome now ruled where David had been king.

The angels came to shepherds with good news, good news for them, that a child had been born, a Saviour, Christ the Lord. And they would find him lovingly wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angels a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

And then it was over, and the sky was dark or lit once more with the stars and the moon, but not alight with that vision. And the shepherds had a choice: stay where they are, or act on what they heard?

They decided to act. They decided to go to Bethlehem and see if this was true, and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby, lying in a manger.

The shepherds told everyone what had happened out in the dark field, of seeing the angels and what the angel said. Mary pondered these things in her heart, and the shepherds went back to where they were, rejoicing and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

They were still shepherds, they were still abiding in the field, but it wasn't so dark anymore; there was the dawn of the new day.

SCANDAL/A CALL TO HUMILITY

With our romantic notions of the story it is easy to skip over its scandalous nature. The Lord of all creation entered the world like everyone else. The Lord of all creation was born. The creator of the world became a helpless child, God almighty helpless and having to have all his needs cared for. The Savior of the world couldn't talk, couldn't walk, couldn't care for any of his own needs.

We all have these images and we sing these wonderful hymns about the sweet little baby Jesus, but we have a hard time grasping what is going on here. Think of how you define God. We generally have descriptions of God with words like All-powerful, all-knowing, majestic – Wonderful, Counselor, Prince of Peace, Lord of All Creation and here is God, looking like none of these things. Looking like a helpless baby. A God who wants to be with us so badly, wants to restore relationship so desperately that God became one of us in love and trust. It is a love that culminates in death on a cross, bearing our sins to buy us freedom. The manger gives way to the cross, and the empty tomb of the Resurrection showing the victory of God.

This story of the angels coming to the shepherds is a story of hope indeed. Messengers have come to us to bring us good tidings of great joy, for unto us is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

But this good news is a call to humility, not to power as we think of it. For the One who came to save us came as good news to the poor, came as a servant to all, and came that we might have and know the meaning of life. God came down at Christmas: helpless as a baby, powerful as the universe itself.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Be Not Afraid

2011-12-21T07:36:00.001-06:00

Preached on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, 2011, at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church.

FOCUS: Christ was born in Mary; Christ is alive in us.

Be Not Afraid

How could she not be afraid? She was only a young girl, some think about 14 or so.
The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
The danger of familiar stories is that we may not hear them anymore. A prayer that comes up in my devotional readings asks for protection from presuming I already know the meaning of the Scriptures I am about to read, and thereby lose their power to open my heart and mind, and change my life.
Hear this story.
The angel Gabriel, who had already appeared earlier in this story to the old man Zechariah, to tell him his wife would have a child in her old age, appeared to this young girl in a small town to tell her she was highly favored of God.
Often Scriptures have such a modesty of words, such an economy – well, it seems like such an understatement: but she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
I can be reserved, but I'd sure want to just blurt out, “What are you talking about? Who are you?”

What Will Happen

And Gabriel went on to say,
“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
That must have been just one of her questions. Not only could she have no idea of how she conceive a child – she was engaged, but not married – but how could it be that this person Gabriel described, the Son of the Most High, to have the throne of David, to have an eternal reign – how could it be that such a son would come from her?
Mary was from nowhere.
Mary was poor, and engaged to a poor man.
Mary was not royalty. The legends of her mother and father come from old sources not part of our Scriptures. How could it be that such a one would be born through her?
The Holy Spirit will come over you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.
The Angel Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, came to her to tell her this news. She would bear the Son of God. The creator of the world would be growing in her womb, all that is holy would be moving and kicking and keeping her up at night and causing morning sickness until finally she would deliver the Savior of the World.
The Savior of the World, Jesus, helpless as an infant, the one who lives forever so vulnerable, so fragile...and Mary would watch him sleep and marvel that these things had come true.
Out of love for the creation, the Creator became one of us. In order that we might have life, Jesus was born, lived and crucified for our sins. In the ultimate mystery, the author of Life was born, born of God's own creation, in the words of the great hymn, born that we no more may die.
Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected that we might live forever.

It is a great, great mystery, and this is the beginning of it, with an angel coming to a young girl to tell her something wonderful was about to happen, and the world would never be the same.

Here I Am

Perhaps Mary understood everything the angel said. There is no record of any more questions. She hears him, and then she says this:
“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.

And the mystery continues. We believe if we accept the free gift of grace of God, confess our sins and accept Christ as our Savior, Christ comes and lives in us, so that we become bearers of Christ as well.
Why was Mary chosen? We don't know. Scripture says she was highly favored.
Was she more highly favored than you? Than me?

Or can it be that this time of Advent, this time of waiting, is also a reminder than Christ is coming, coming to dwell in our hearts through faith, coming to change and engage our lives as surely as that of a young girl 2,000 years ago.
Charles Wesley, the brother of John Wesley, pondered this coming of the Lord in the third verse of “And Can It Be, that I Should Gain”, one of the great hymns of the church:

He left his Father's throne above
(So free, so infinite his grace!)
Emptied himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam's helpless race.
'Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my god, it found out me!

The great story of Christianity is not that we find God, but that God found us. The Angel Gabriel suddenly appeared to a young woman in a town in Galilee called Nazareth. Her name was Mary. She was highly favored.

What's your name?
Because, sisters and brothers, you, too, are highly favored...and the Lord is waiting to be born in you.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Garments of Salvation

2011-12-21T07:27:00.000-06:00

Preached the third Sunday of Advent at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church, December 11, 2011.

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
John 1:6-8, 19-28

FOCUS: The story of God is not over with Jesus; salvation is as much about living with God now as it is with the promise of the future.

JESUS IN THE TEMPLE

Today I want to talk about three things: God calls us to repentance; God calls us to salvation; and that call is for everyone.

One of my favorite images in the Bible is in the fourth chapter of Luke. Jesus is a grown man and has begun his ministry, and he has come home to Nazareth where he grew up. He entered the Temple, was given a scroll and asked to read the Scripture. His text came from Isaiah 61, our reading for today.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor...
Luke says he then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Can you imagine this? The story is so vivid, and it puts you right there in the room! Everyone spoke well of Jesus, Scripture says...at first. Then he kept talking, and he was preaching that salvation was open beyond the people of Israel, that God's mercy extended to foreigners even when there were needs at home. He reminded them of the prophet Elijah who was sent to a widow in a foreign land during a time of drought and famine, when there were many widows in Israel who also were in need. He reminded the people that there were many lepers in Israel in need of healing when the prophet Elisha told Naaman the Syrian how to be cleansed.
The crowd turned on Jesus, as he talked about God's mercy and salvation open to all – including foreigners – and tried to throw him off a cliff.
It is such a wonderful story.
We like the idea of God being merciful, of God's saving love, but we become a little uncomfortable when that mercy and love is applied to people we don't like.

SALVATION OPEN TO ALL

Isaiah talks about proclaiming liberty to captives, release to the prisoners, proclaiming the year of the Lord's favor – he's talking about the concept of the Year of Jubilee, outlined in the 25th Chapter of Leviticus and the 15th Chapter of Deuteronomy. In the Year of Jubilee, every 50th year. It is a year of restoration. And listen to how this was to work. We know the concept of the Sabbath – we work six days and rest on the 7th. The Lord called for this to be further applied to letting the land rest: you planted and harvested and pruned for six years, then the 7th year was to be a year of rest for the land. So that was a seven year cycle. After seven of these seven-year cycles, after the 49th year, there was the Year of Jubilee. The land rested; people ate only what they had previously harvested or grew wild from the vines. In the Year of Jubilee debts were forgiven, slaves were set free, lands were returned to the original owners. It was a holy year of restoration and wholeness.
There is no Scriptural record of this holy year being carried out, and one of the reasons given for the conquering of Jerusalem and for the captivity of the people for 70 years was that the land would have a rest, to fulfill the Sabbaths. Even then, the idea of forgiving of debts, of setting free the captives, of making it all a level playing field of people being equal before God and each other – well, that's just hard to take. We like to maintain control. I am as bad as anyone.
We want to control salvation. I saw a recent movie on John Wesley and it showed in wonderful detail how this controlling man tried by every means he could to control those around him and control God by his acts of piety and prayer and his works – all the while doubting his own faith, and secretly wondering if the salvation of God was his, too. I'll admit I became emotional in the scene at Alders gate where he realized that God's love was a gift for him, too, and that he didn't and couldn't earn it, but that salvation came from God as a free gift through the work of Christ.
After that experience, he preached the faith that salvation was open to all, and the message swept across England and there was a revival that changed that part of the world.
And like the story of Jesus in the Temple, Wesley and his preachers were forbidden to speak in many churches and mobs came against them, stoning them and beating them and at least one Methodist preacher was beaten to death. The message that the Lord sent someone to preach good news to the poor was not received well by those who were not poor. The people who had been told that God had no place for them all their lives were being told there was a God who loved them, who sent his Son for them to restore them to relationship, that they were to be given a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning...
Now for us, when we give this message, this good news, it is not to take pity, but to uplift. When we realize ourselves that salvation is as much about living the life we have now among others as it is about a life after death, when we realize the emptiness of our own ideas about what will bring us salvation – things and idolatrous relationships – when we turn to Christ for our hope, then, brothers and sisters, we are in the process to build.
They will be called the oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory. They shall rebuild the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
When we realize the power of God to transform our lives here and now, we can be the ones to repair and rebuild. Generations of abuse can be stopped and healed with this generation, ancient rivalries can be turned to partnerships, truth can take the place of promotion.

MISSION AS IDENTITY

We are in Advent, the third week. We are waiting for the Lord, waiting for the Lord's return and waiting to celebrate in just two weeks the coming of the Savior 2,000 years ago to a young girl engaged to a man who was not the father of her child. We are waiting.
And while we are waiting for the return of God, we have a chance to serve. Serve not out of a sense of obligation, or hope of reward, but out of gratitude that we are the ones set free by the demands of sin: demands of behavior, demands of class, demands of popularity, demands of place.
God's story of salvation is not over with Jesus. But through Jesus, we are offered the garments of salvation, the assurance that for those who turn to God, we have a part in the story, we can make a difference in our own lives and play a part in the transformation of the world. We can be healed, and we can offer healing. We can be planted as oaks of righteousness, and we can help plant. We can play a part in what the Lord is doing:
For as the earth brings forth is shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Comfort is Near

2011-12-21T07:14:00.001-06:00

Preached on the second Sunday of Advent, 2011, at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church.

December 4, 2011

Isaiah 40:1-11

Mark 1:1-8

FOCUS: The comfort we seek is found in Christ, in the proclamation of the Church, and is always near at hand.

HOPE ON THE MARGINS

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As we hear these first words of Mark's Gospel, we might have a couple of questions to ask, right here at the start. What's the good news? What does he mean by “the beginning?

Mark goes on to quote the prophet Malachi – he gives credit to Isaiah, who has similar language, but this quote is from Malachi's third chapter – that a messenger is being sent ahead of you, preparing your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'

Mark then tells us of John the Baptist, who suddenly appeared in the desert, on the fringes of town, on the margins of the culture there, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Mark doesn't waste any time. We don't have any genealogies of Jesus like we do in Matthew, or birth stories with shepherds and angels and no room in the inn like we do in Luke and no framing of a new sense of time like we do in John – we have the simple words that this is the beginning of the good news, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And we go to the prophets proclaiming the word of God, telling of someone coming.

Elsewhere in Malachi it is written that Elijah will come first, and John the Baptist is like Elijah, wild and hairy, dressed in skins and living off the land with a diet of locusts and honey.

He proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. There is no record of such a thing have been done before. The Old Testament has stories of healing that involve water – Naaman the leper, for instance – and stories of ritual purification that involved water, but there is not a tradition of baptism as a sign of repentance, as a sign of a new beginning.

And crowds flocked to John. Surely it is an exaggeration to say that people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, being baptized and confessing their sins, but there was something going on that made the people go out to a river in the desert to see and hear and respond to this calling for a baptism of repentance.

John addressed a longing.

John addressed a need.

They came out seeking hope.

They came out seeking cleansing.

They came out seeking restoration.

They came out seeking the Lord.

MESSAGE OF VICTORY

The beginning of the good news...the word “gospel” was first used to proclaim the good news of a military victory. Runners would be sent out to proclaim the victory in battle to those back at home. Now we are hearing about the victory of Jesus, the beginning that is rooted not just in John the Baptist, but in the ancient prophets and the work of God in the world. This is the victory of God, the victory over sin, the victory of having a safe place to leave your sins behind, the victory of restoration.

And people from all over the countryside responded.

John said there was one coming after him more powerful: The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

So John is just the beginning. And John is rooted in the past. Mark's Gospel has a mysterious and indefinite ending, too, with women running fearfully from the tomb where the body of Jesus was supposed to be. (The other endings were added later.)

People were waiting, expectantly waiting.

During Advent, we are waiting for Jesus, too.

PREPARATION

Last week we talked about this season of Advent, how much it differs from the Christmas buying season outside. I love this time of year – I love seeing the lights go up on the houses in our neighborhoods and seeing the tree hearing the great hymns. With everything, there is a spirit of expectancy.

The good news, the gospel, the victory of God, is proclaimed in Jesus Christ. Christ came to offer forgiveness of sins, Christ came as God into the world, to offer hope and reconciliation, the comfort that a redeemer is near.

This hope is rooted in ancient times. We have the lectionary reading from Isaiah 40, where the people in captivity hear they have served their term, they have paid their penalty, and God will restore them, will make and prepare a way. God will send a shepherd to guide the people home.

And for those of us who are waiting, waiting for some restoration, waiting for a word of comfort in a time of year that can be difficult for some, that hope is here for us today. Outside, in the lonely margins of our lives, away from the clamor of the season, there is a voice crying out in that wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord; repent and believe in the good news. Confess sin and be free, be restored, be made whole.

That good news is that Jesus came to save, came to restore, came to offer that comfort, that assurance, of God's love.

Don't hold back.

Comfort is near; the Good News....

is here.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

We are Waiting -- 1st Sunday of Advent

2011-11-27T20:38:00.000-06:00

Preached at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church on the first Sunday of Advent, November 27, 2011.

Isaiah 64:1-9

Mark 13:24-37

We are Waiting

FOCUS: While we are here, Jesus calls us to keep awake, to keep alert, to wait for the Lord.

WAITING/DISTRACTIONS

I am not good at waiting.

My problem with waiting is that I have to pay attention to where I am right at the moment, and not the next step. In traffic, in the checkout lane at the grocery store, in line at the post office or the bank...I'm impatient, wanting to get through, wanting to get on with it...

Then I am impatient with whatever the next “it” is, wanting to get through with it and move on to the next thing...

Because I am not good at waiting, because I want to move on to something else rather than pay attention, I am tempted by distractions. I read of someone who had gone to an inspiring seminar, and said she was leaving ready to change the world, “and then I saw something shiny.”

We grow more and more impatient, and in the month ahead it will get worse. Lines and traffic and parties and things to do and things to buy and messages of urgency will keep coming at us as the festivities draw near.

We will become more and more impatient. We will become less and less aware.

I heard a speaker on National Public Radio recently talking about the “rebranding” of Christmas, that Christmas had now gotten away from it's origins and had become something much bigger.

I could see his point, at least from his point of view. Christmas is an incredible opportunity for marketing and sales. We look for the economy to turn around with Christmas sales, for all to be right again by consumers buying more, a sort of salvation by PayPal.

And from a certain angle, he's right.

But in a bigger sense, he's wrong. There is nothing more important than a time of waiting for God to come into the world, for God to come into our hearts, for God to come alongside us, loving us, bringing us to a sense of repentance, forgiving us. We are waiting for the salvation not of the economy, but of the world. And we are remembering the time God came to us before, and lived among us.

Let's look at these texts today from Isaiah and from Mark as we begin the new Church year.

OPEN THE HEAVENS AND COME DOWN

Our passage from Isaiah picks up in the middle of a prayer of penitence that begins in the previous chapter. The prophet is pleading with God to show up, to become known. They are a people in trouble, in exile, feeling abandoned by God. In chapter 63, at verse 15, we read:

Look down from heaven and see, from your holy and glorious habitation. Where are your zeal and your might? The yearning of your heart and your compassion? They are withheld from me.

In verse 17:

Why, O LORD, do you make us stray from your ways and harden our heart, so that we do not fear you? Turn back for the sake of your servants, for the sake of the tribes that are your heritage.

Isaiah is calling upon God to intervene, to do something, to make the LORD known among the people. Because the people are not seeing God intervene in mighty ways like in the old stories, Isaiah is saying that God is making them stray from God's ways and harden their heart.

That's like a kid telling a parent, “I wouldn't have gotten into all this trouble if you hadn't let me alone.”

So our passage today opens with a plea for God to intervene. O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence...

The prophet goes on to speak of the majesty of God, more powerful than any other, and how God's people had all become unclean, have turned away from God because God has hidden from them.

Yet in verse 8 of chapter 64, Isaiah says, Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand...we are all your people.

So, in those times when you feel God is not with you, when you feel like God has hidden from you, that you feel apart from God and act like there is no God – well, you are not alone.

And you never have been.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in one of his last letters from prison before he was executed by the Nazis that we look for God not in the power of promise of immediate intervention but in the God who is with us in times of suffering, the suffering servant Isaiah wrote about, the dying God of Golgotha. We cannot as Christians stray too far from the cross, the cross where we were not with Jesus, but Jesus was with us.

KEEP AWAKE

So in this time of waiting, we can know that God is with us. We open the Church year, the season of Advent, not with something bold and joyous, but with something somber and meditative, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence. It is a time of waiting for God.

In our passage from Mark, Jesus tells us we will wait for the coming again of God into the world, the coming of the end of the present age. We don't know when that will be, but we are to be awake, we are to be alert.

Jesus is talking about waiting with a sense of presence. Not looking for distractions, but waiting and being alert.

What are we to look out for?

For God to come into the world?

Why would we want that?

For most of us, our life is pretty good, but it could be better if God came along. But for much of the world the promises of Advent, the coming of God in a time of restoration, is a blessed hope. In their poverty and hunger they may feel abandoned by God, looking for a sign that God still loves them, that God is trustworthy in God's promises.

And for the rest of us, we'll get caught up in the food, and the parties and the gifts as we move through December, but let's do this: when we come in here, let this place be a place of sanctuary for us, when we remember that we are awaiting salvation not by economy, but salvation by the love of God. We come here to worship, to repent, to accept and then offer forgiveness, and to remember that while we are waiting, while we are waiting, while we are waiting...

God is with us.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Christ the King

2011-11-22T16:38:00.000-06:00

Preached at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church on Christ the King Sunday, November 20, 2011

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Ephesians 1:15-23

Matthew 25:31-46

FOCUS: We will answer for our actions, but what we are called to do is not burdensome.

Christ the King

Today is Christ the King Sunday, today is the last Sunday of the Church Year, and today there are people who have no place to stay, there are people who have no food, there are people who do not have adequate clothing and there are people whose lives are unstable in so many ways. How do we celebrate a kingdom which we can't see, with marching orders from a book that tells us we fight against powers and principalities – against systems – and people who are caught up in a vortex of action that ends up hurting someone.

We know that is true, but that is not all to the story. We know there are people whose lives are being changed today, who have hope restored today, who have a chance to reach out to someone today to make a difference in lives today.

And we know that God is at work, and often we can't see it. So that's two things I want to talk about, and then the third is that we answer for what we do – but what we are called to do is not impossible.

We're going to look at the three main passages today.

God will intervene (Ezekiel)

Ezekiel was a prophet in the hope business. He was called to speak the word of the Lord to a people who were in exile, carried away from their homeland to a foreign land, a people who had lost all their identity with the land where they worshiped the LORD, and where they believed the LORD dwelled.

Ezekiel speaks words of hope to these people, these folk who have lost hope in a God who saves. In Ezekiel, God does it all. In the passage read this morning, the most repeated word is “I”. I will search for the sheep, I will gather them, I will find the lost, I will bring them into their land, I will bring back the strayed, I will strengthen the weak....

but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice the LORD says.

In Ezekiel the LORD routs out the leaders who have not been doing their job. The priests who have led the people astray, let them get lost and wander away from God, kicking them out rather than serving them. Here and in other places in this prophecy the LORD says God will appoint the shepherd, David will lead the people. The LORD is taking over and will be leading from this point.

So, just like in the story in Ezekiel 37 of the bone yard coming to life, the LORD is in the resurrection business, a resurrection of life and a resurrection of hope.

It will happen without us knowing (Ephesians)

Our Ephesians passage shows us that it happens without us knowing. The writer uses this wonderful poetic language of prayer that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of the his glorious inheritance among the saints....

The apostle Paul, credited with this letter, prays that we might know what has already been done for us, that we might wake up to the gift we already have, that we may see with the eyes of our heart...

God is at work, and always has been....

We are called to act (Matthew)

In this passage from Matthew, a passage with no parallel in the other Gospels, Jesus tells a story about what the end of the age will be like, what it will be like at the final judgment. And this is a difficult passage, no doubt about it. Is it a judgment on the nations? Is that supposed to be only Christian nations?

Actually, it is only difficult because we make it difficult, not because we don't understand it, but because we understand it perfectly well.

The sheep and the goats will be separated on either side. The first will be rewarded, because when Jesus came to them in need of clothing, food, drink, sick and needed care, needing a visit in prison, a stranger in need of welcome – they responded. Jesus said when you did that to the “least of these”, he said, You did it to me.

The other group were sent away. When the stranger came to them needing welcoming, food, drink, medical care, a friend –the stranger was ignored. And Jesus told them when they showed kindness to the least of these, “you did it to me.”

One group was rewarded, and one group was punished.

What can be a little terrifying – if something can be only a “little terrifying”! – is that beliefs aren't mentioned. Where's the pledge card? Where's the affirmation of faith? Where's the pledge about taking Jesus as my Lord and Savior? What about being saved by faith? Isn't this salvation by works?

These are great questions, and we don't find the answers we're looking for here. And sometimes God leaves us hanging...

Our confirmation class has met several times, and we have several more sessions to go. There are some churches that make prospective new members take classes before they can join. Other churches put other burdens on people before they can be a part. They have to memorize doctrine, be able to explain the Trinity, proclaim an unwavering faith in Christ.

For groups like that, this passage – well, we're just glad it's not the only one. Because according to Jesus here, it doesn't seem to matter what your belief is, it matters what you do. You can have the wrong belief, but if you have the right action you are rewarded. You can have the right belief, but if you have the wrong action you are not.

Belief doesn't enter into it. Showing compassion to the least of these does.

I believe learning about the faith is important and all the rest. But it is all too often we put a focus on knowledge rather than kindness.

Soren Kiekegaard, Danish theologian and philosopher, reportedly said Christian theologal study existed to take the power away from the Gospel. It is not what we don't understand that gives us the most trouble; it is the things we understand perfectly well. And we are to be kind and compassionate.

For those of us who have spent a lot of time and a lot of money learning about the faith, knowing that here the simple message of the Gospel is to show compassion to those who need it – well, that can be daunting. But it can be freeing, too.

Because we can do that.

We can show compassion. We can offer food, drink, clothing, attention, friendship.

And as we do that, we can offer a gift of life.

Early Saturday morning we were standing in the hallway outside the delivery waiting room on the second floor of St. David's Hospital South on Ben White in Austin. Our daughter and sister had gone into labor, fast. Too fast to have the epidural. We heard some painful sounds. We were praying, praying. We heard the voice of our son-in-law and brother-in-law too, encouraging and cheering on. And we prayed, and prayed. And watched, and waited.

And then it was quiet.

A little nursery song started playing over the intercom.

After a while our son-in-law and brother-in-law came out, pale and shaken and stunned. He was telling us of the 21 inch, 7 and a half pound baby his wife delivered, and we watched the awe start to come over him of what had happened, and it came over all of us. And after a while we were able to go in and see the most precious sight you can see.

We had a new birth. The most ordinary event in the world. Happens all the time. In the midst of suffering, there is the potential for new life coming.

And we can take part in it, step into the kingdom created from before time, by showing compassion to others. Not from doctrines we know, but for what we do.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

All Saints Sunday -- The Hope of the World

2011-11-10T07:56:00.000-06:00

Preached at St. Matthew's UMC on November 6, 2011.

Rev. 7:9-17

1 Jn 3:1-13

Mt. 5:1-12

FOCUS: Christ is the hope of the world, not only in the life now but in the world to come.

Old Friends

A few weeks ago I sent became reacquainted with an old friend from high school and college. We were part of a group that ran together and shared a lot of adventures during those years and I was her friend and she was mine and during the triumphs and heartbreaks of those days. The last time I remember seeing her was our 20th high school reunion. I saw her on Facebook and sent her a friend request and we did a little on-line catching up. We both have grand kids now, and she was a little surprised to find out what I was doing for a living, but pleased, I think. It has been so rewarding to be back in touch with her, maybe like a sense of fullness where I didn't know something was missing. She wrote how good it was to hear from me, and to know that we survived. So far. We have survived. We have gone through the ordeal.

The Ordeal

Last week we talked about the lies we tell ourselves and the lies we are told about God and how God works in the world. We continued the conversation at both the Bible studies this week, and someone brought up that one of the lies we are told is that our life here on earth should be like heaven.

Well, it's not.

We have tragedy.

We have pain.

We have suffering.

In some ways, perhaps it is.

We have love.

We have community.

We have opportunity to love God and be with others in a profound and meaningful way. Our reading from 1 John says, Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this; when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Well, I don't know all that means, but I suspect purifying ourselves would involve forgiveness, and a hope for the future.

Gettysburg/Hope in Forgiveness

Let's look again at this passage from Revelation: Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, ”These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb...”

They have come out of the great ordeal...

I thought of my old friend I am back in touch with, our joy that each other has survived. I expect if I go to my 40th reunion it will be a time of joy. The hurts that once seemed so important and vital will have disappeared in the distance and we will rejoice that we have come out of the great ordeal, at least come out so far, and it's been good. Over the years, Christ has shown me what is important.

On this All Saints Day, this wonderful day of honoring those who have gone before us, remembering the lives of loved ones and realizing our own part in the great cloud of witnesses, I want to give a story about coming through the ordeal.

This story comes from The Civil War, An Illustrated History, by Geoffrey C. Ward with Ric Burns and Ken Burns. It is the accompaniment book to the documentary on the Civil War.

In July, 1863, at the Battle of Gettysburg, 51,000 lives were lost over a period of three days. The North lost 23,000 and the South 28,000. It was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War – a war known for bloody battles.

On July 3, the third day of the battle a direct assault was brought about against the Union lines by the South. General George Mead commanded the Union troops behind a stone wall on Cemetery Hill. General George Pickett commanded one of the divisions that marched out across a field.

One of the Union soldiers who saw the the Southern troops coming forward, their line extending half a mile with waving flags and glittering guns and bayonets, in perfect order, “grim and irresistible”, said it was “the most beautiful thing I ever saw.”

The South believed the Northern guns were destroyed. They were wrong.

When the North opened fire, it was massive death and destruction. The tightly formatted troops fell in masses and there was horrible death and destruction.

Robert E. Lee ordered the charge, and Picket never forgave him. He watched over 6,500 of him men fall that afternoon.

Fifty years later, in 1913, the Federal Government held a fiftieth anniversary reunion at Gettysburg. Thousands of survivors came and camped on the former battlefield. They met and exchanged stories and told of their lives. The highlight was a reenactment of Pickett's Charge.

There were thousands of spectators and they gathered to watch the old Union soldiers take their place behind Cemetery Ridge.

They watched as their former enemies came out of the woods toward them, now canes and crutches instead of rifles and bayonets. A witness said they “could distinguish the more agile ones aiding those less able to maintain their places in the ranks.”

As the old Rebels came closer, they gave a final Rebel yell. Here's what happened, according to Phillip Meyers, an 18-year old photographer at the time.

At the sound, “after half a century of silence, a moan, a sigh, a gigantic gasp of unbelief” rose from the Union men on Cemetery Ridge.
“It was then, wrote Meyers, “that the Yankees, unable to restrain themselves longer, burst from behind the stone wall, and flung themselves upon their former enemies...not in mortal combat, but re-united in brotherly love and affection.” (p.412)

I can't tell you what heaven will be like, but I think it will be like that. We will see our friends and enemies, and the old coils of hatred will drop away and the old resentments and grudges will be left behind as we run to embrace the ones who have been through the ordeal, who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, living under the care of the Hope of the World, now and in the world to come.

But here's something to remember, as we honor those we have lost for a while: we don't have to wait until them.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Lies We Are Told, Lies We Tell Ourselves

2011-11-10T07:49:00.000-06:00

Preached at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church on October 30, 2011

Micah 3:5-12

Psalm 43

Matthew 23:1-12

FOCUS: We need our own reformation, from the lies we've been told and the lies we tell ourselves to be free to worship our God.

Recently I watched Ken Burn's new documentary on Prohibition, and it was good. It began with a printed quotation from Mark Twain that read something like this:

Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.

So I thought this was a good quote to start with today, as we talk about all the hypocrites in church. I want to give you an advance that I think we will get to an agreeable ending, but it may be a little rocky for a few minutes.

Today is celebrated in the Church as Reformation Sunday, in memory of Martin Luther who, in 1517, posted his 95 Theses questioning specific teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther was a monk who had long struggled to live a holy life, continually convicted by his own thoughts and desires and convinced that he was not worthy of God.

Luther one day had an understanding of grace that changed his life and changed our world. He realized he was saved by grace – by the work of God – and not by his own holiness, by his own work, by his own anything. We are all saved by the grace of God. John Wesley had the same experience nearly 200 years later.

This understanding led to a break with the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformation. (Of course, this is a highly simplified history!)

So on this day I want to talk about some of the theologies we may have that need reforming, and give us some things to think about. What brings about regular charges of hypocrites in the church? Micah talks about it and Jesus talks about it in our readings today, so this question is thousands of years old. Of course, I don't know the answer, but I want to think about with you in two categories: lies we are told and lies we tell ourselves.

The Lies We are Told

Here are some of the lies we are told:

When you accept Christ as you savior, your life will become easier; or

God wants you to be rich; or

God wants your life to be smooth and without complications; or

Christian families should have no problems; or

If God were a loving God, then there wouldn't be wars. (or murder, or child abuse, or pornography addictions, or crack babies...); or

Tragedies are so sad, but they are all part of the will of God; or

The Lord must have wanted another angel, and that's why God took your loved one; or

God is a Republican; or

God is a Democrat; or

When you accept Christ you sholuld never be angry again; or

When you accept Christ love should fill your heart. All the time; or

When you accept Christ you are automatically right-wing conservative, with all that agenda; or

When you accept Christ you are automatically left-wing liberal, with all that agenda; pr

It doesn't matter what I do, if the cause is right.

(You can add your own...)

The Lies We Tell Ourselves

Here's some of the lies we tell ourselves:

I ought to love more...I ought to trust more...I shouldn't be so angry...I shouldn't be so sad...if these people really knew me...

If I were really a Christian, I wouldn't feel this way, and I'd be able to love more.

If I were really a Christian, we wouldn't have gotten into this mess. (I once was rebaptized, believing the first one “must not have taken” – a clear misunderstanding of God's grace!)

If God really loved me, I would not have gotten cancer.

I don't know why God is testing me like this, I've always been faithful.

I shouldn't have these doubts....

The Truth (Grace) that Sets Us Free

So, you know these things. And it is the lies that bind us.

If recovery meetings, we hear lots of little sayings. One of them is that we are only as sick as our secrets. That makes a lot of sense, and a corollary here is that we are only as sick as our costumes, the masks we wear. Both are based out of fear, fear of the truth.

Our lives are the way they are. We might pretend something else, but we're just pretending.

We want God to work like a magician, and take away our pain, our anger, our lust, our conceit, our unhappiness – and if God doesn't do that, then there must not be a God.

But it is easy to have a resentment of God based on the idea that your life ought to be different.

Or in the areas of the lies we tell ourselves we want God to take away our self-doubt, our fears, our numbness, our feelings of inadequacy, our resentments, our hurt...

And we have resentments toward ourselves because we doubt the faith we profess...

And in our hurt and our anger we do what makes the most sense – we blame other people.

If we're religious leaders, we blame other people for not following God the right way, for having the wrong beliefs, the wrong actions, the wrong dress, the wrong loved ones, the wrong religious practices – well, they're just wrong.

And secretly, we blame ourselves for not being the kind of person God can love.

Micah and Jesus both denounced those who put on a show of their religion, but did not live it out.

What do we do? How do we get out of it?

The antidote for hypocrisy is grace.

It's our own beliefs that need reforming.

The answer for the longing heart is grace. The grace that freed Luther, that freed Wesley, that is available to free even us.

The grace of God that compels us to give up, to give in and give out for the sake of the world.

Give up the idea that God has to be a certain way and has to work a certain way in the world. Give up in thinking you are in charge of God.

Give in to the idea that God knows you, loves you and calls you – just like you are. Really.

Give out in service to the world.

A key to freedom is prayer.

We can learn to pray with the Psalmist: Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause! Why have you cast me off? Why must I walk about mournfully?

Or, I remember you, Babylon, in the midst of my sorrow...

We pray honestly of our fears, of our confusion, of our lives...and for the world.

As we learn to pray, we learn to follow the God who calls us, and to lead others to that God.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

You Shall Be Holy

2011-10-24T17:53:00.002-05:00

Preached at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church on October 23, 2011.

You Shall Be Holy

Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18

Matthew 22:34-46

FOCUS: How do we become holy? We love the things God loves.

HOPE

This past week I was able to do something I've never done, which was go on an intensive prayer retreat. For the last nine years I've been a member of the Order of St. Luke, a group of all sorts of people from around the world who share the common interest in prayer and the sacraments of the church, and in leading a certain type of life. It was my first time to go on the annual retreat, and I didn't sleep as much as I thought I would, and I didn't read as much as I thought I would, but I spent more time in community prayer than any other time in my life. In the Pastor's Sunday School class we've been talking about the ancient practice of the Daily Office, moving through the day marked by times of prayer, and the group did that for four days. Before the retreat began, I was looking for different reasons not to go – we are so busy at church, there are so many things we need to do, it's expensive – any of the excuses we can always use. But I did go, and the reason I wanted to to tell you about it this morning is because I came away with a renewed sense of hope.

And hope is what we all need.

My friend Jack, who preached here a while back, started a new church aimed primarily at people in recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction. Hope Community Church has a vision of offering real hope to real people, and of course, we do too. All of us in the Christian community offer the hope and healing of Jesus Christ to the world, and we know we are all recovering from something. And all too often, we are recovering from the lack of hope.

Today's readings from Leviticus and Matthew may give us an insight into something which we may never have thought possible.

Let's look at the first part of the reading from Leviticus:

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy...

YOU SHALL BE HOLY

You shall be holy. Well, to steal a line from a TV show I saw recently, that's got to go in the “You gotta be kiddin'” file. Many of us would think, if you are waiting on me to be holy, well, it's going to be a long wait...especially if we have a view of ourselves as a sinner saved by grace, more focused on being a sinner than a saint. Can we change that focus?

Part of our heritage as Wesleyans is the belief that we can actually get better. Wesley preached a doctrine of Christian Perfection – which is rarely spoken of now, but should be – a doctrine that we actually get better as we are formed into the image of Christ.

One of the striking features of Wesleyan theology is this:

All need to be saved; all can be saved; all can know they are saved; all can be saved completely. By saved Wesley meant the rescue from the present and future consequence of sin. Our lives can be changed, both now and in the future.

This completely opposed the prevailing theology of the time, which determined that some were predestined to heaven, chosen by God from before time, and those who were not chosen had no chance. And some believed there was no way to know which group was yours until after death.

So it didn't matter what kind of life you lived. There were some that even believed if you sought holiness you were being arrogant. You were either in or you were out, and there was nothing you could do about it.

Wesley said that all needed to be saved, and that all could be saved, that all could know, and that all could be saved to the uttermost.

By saying that God loved everyone, that Christ came and died for everyone, Wesley and his group of preachers were kicked out of some of the largest pulpits in England.

Wesley believed we could be saved, and we could be changed, and one of his key verses for this is before us today.

You shall be holy...

God gives the command to Moses in Leviticus. In 1st Peter it is repeated. We are to be holy. If it were not possible, then that would mean God has just set us up for failure.

We're all recovering from something, and for some of us it's a belief that we're set up for failure.

But we're not.

We're to be holy.

How are we to do that?

The Scripture goes on to say...

You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great; with justice you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the LORD.

You shall not hate...you shall not take vengeance...but you shall love your neighbor as yourself...

To be holy, we are to love the things God loves...

LOVE THE THINGS GOD LOVES

Our Gospel lesson has the religious authorities setting one more trap for Jesus. What is the greatest commandment? And Jesus answers to love God with all your heart, your mind, soul and strength. Jesus added a second one, to love your neighbor as yourself, saying that everything else hinged on these.

So how do we be holy? We love God, and we love the things God loves. God loves God's creation.

That's us.

That's the earth, the sky and the sea.

We're to be kind. Don't take vengeance. Don't hold grudges.

Trust God. Don't worry.

Hard to do...but it is transformative work.

BARRIERS

It's hard because we put up barriers. Jesus questioned the Pharisees on the identity of the Messiah, was he David's son or not? If the Messiah was David's son, why does David refer to him as “Lord” in Psalm 110?

I don't know why this is there, or what it means for us, except that it could be a sign of barriers we put up between us and God. The more barriers we have between us, the less responsibility we may have.

When God tells us to be holy, because God is holy, it is a command, and a responsibility.

This life of holiness, of loving what God loves, of being responsive to the call of God in the world and in our lives, is the work of all the baptized, all of us called into the service of God.

Love the things God loves...

It is the means of grace.

It is the hope of glory.

What are the barriers we put up to keep from leading holy lives? I believe it is a barriers of identity. We forget we are created by God, loved by God, called by God into God's service.

Love the things God loves...

It is the means of grace.

It is the hope of glory.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

World Communion Sunday

2011-10-05T17:59:00.001-05:00

Preached at St. Matthew's UMC in Houston on October 2, 2011.

World Communion Sunday

FOCUS: The earth is the Lord's, and all that is in it; when we take Communion we renounce everything but Christ and the call upon our lives.

THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S, AND EVERYTHING IN IT

The last two weeks in the Pastor's Sunday School class we've talked about prayer, specifically about praying the Psalms. Last Saturday I drove out to see our four-year old grandson's first flag football game. The game is sponsored by their church, and at halftime one of the coaches came over to the parents and grandparents and offered a devotional from Psalm 24: The earth is the Lord's and everything in it.

Then he asked us: how many of you own cell phones and cars here today?

Lots of us raised our hands.

The earth is the Lord's and everything in it.

Let me ask again: how many of you own cell phones and cars here today?

A few people laughed, and a few of us still raised our hands.

The earth is the Lord's, and all that is in it.

Okay, let me ask again: how many of you own cell phones and cars here today?

We finally understood. The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it. We don't own anything. Everything is the Lord's.

When we think like that, it opens us new possibilities for us.

The Psalms are great for expanding and broadening your mind. Most of us think in concrete terms; I want to know the answer to my questions, I want to know the simple answer and I want to know the true answer and one I can understand. And when we get into the world of the Bible we enter into a world described as entering into poetry, imagery, in a prose world. The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it.

Look at today's Psalm, 19, one of my favorites.

The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to today pours forth speech,and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

I love imagery like that; I don't understand it fully, but in some ways we understand beyond what we can say. The glory of God is in this gift of creation, this world that songwriter Rich Mullins said “we're partly made of and the world that is partly of our own making.” The heavens are telling the glory of God...

We will pray in a few minutes that the bread and the juice become for us the body and blood of Christ, and that as we take these elements we are being strengthened by Christ's real presence with us. I don't know how that works, but I do know it is more real than my fears, more real than my worries, more real than my understanding.

WHAT IS THE VINEYARD AND WHO OWNS IT?

We've got two stories of vineyards in today's readings, one in Isaiah and one in the Gospel reading from Matthew. Isaiah tells a sad love song of the landowner who cared for the vineyard, worked hard and the grapes were rotten.

(The New Revised Standard Version translation of “wild” is not adequate: the sense is that the grapes are not wild and free, but ruined, rotten.) There was nothing to do but to rip them up and start over.

The vineyard in the Gospel story seems to be producing well. When the landowner sends his people to collect from the produce, well, that's when the problems start. The folks he sends are beaten and killed.

And then he sends his son.

And his son comes in without an army. This seems so foolish, with the record of how these tenants treat visitors.

This is not a welcoming vineyard.

But it does seem to produce.

When the son comes, the tenants think they should kill the son, and then they will own the land. They have an understanding of the law, but they are not really thinking things through.

This parable is the second of three back to back parables Jesus tells the religious leaders in the Temple the day after he entered Jerusalem on a donkey with a great crowd calling for him, and the day after he entered the Temple and overturned the tables and threw all the merchants out of the temple. We talked about the first one last week and next week we'll talk about the third.

But right here, he traps the religious leaders by asking them what should happen to the tenants who have killed the slaves and the son of the landowner.

They told Jesus the tenants should be put to a miserable death and then the land given to other tenants.

Jesus set them up, and sprung on them: he was talking about them. The vineyard is Israel, the first slaves were the prophets killed by the religious leaders for demanding they go back to a worship of God and the son was Jesus.

“Have you never read in the scriptures: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes.' Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

Now some have interpreted this parable as saying the kingdom of God has been taken away from the Jews and given to those who believe in Christ, but I think you can run into a lot of trouble with that interpretation. Anytime we try to determine what God is doing, and think we know what it is, we start limiting God.

The vineyard is the Lord's. The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it. When we say that we know the workings of God, that we know who Jesus is or what the work of Christ is in its entirety, we are as limited as we as when we count the stars that we can see, and believe we have seen them all.

Elsewhere, the apostle Paul tells us the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. I don't know if this is what Jesus means in this passage, but it seems like it could be...

WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY

Today is World Communion Sunday, and the offering we will leave at the Communion rail this morning will be used for scholarships here in the United States and around the world. It is part of the recognition that our little world is not all there is.

On October 25 we will have our annual Church Conference here at St. Matthew's. All are invited to attend, and you'll hear more about it later. Instead of talking only about what the church has done in the past year, we will have a time of creating a vision for the future. Demographic studies of our neighborhood have been done and we'll hear some projections for what this area could look like in the next few years. How will we be faithful to that call of God on our lives, to the call of ministry here at this corner of Crosstimbers and Shepherd?

The heavens are telling the glory of God....how do we listen, and what do we do?

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

God at Work in You

2011-10-05T17:50:00.002-05:00

Preached at St. Matthew's UMC in Houston on September 25, 2011.

God at Work in You

Matthew 21:23-32

FOCUS: Jesus brings us inside the kingdom of God, to send us outside for mission.

DO WE WANT TO MEET JESUS?

Charles Campbell, who is a preaching professor at Duke University, said he was flipping through channels one day and he came across an interview with Dr. Phil, the TV therapist.

“Who would you most like to meet, Dr. Phil?” the questioner asked.

“I'd like to have dinner with Jesus Christ and sit and talk with him about the meaning of life.”

Charles Campbell started talking to his screen:

"No you don't! You don't know what you're talking about! Jesus will turn you upside down and sideways. You won't be just visiting over a nice meal! Before you know it, he'll convince you to sell everything you own, give it all to the poor and come follow him. You don't know what you're in for!"

WHOSE AUTHORITY?

Who knows how to deal with Jesus? The chief priests and the elders surely didn't have any idea. In our reading today, which I invite you to turn to and follow along, the chief priests and the elders of the people – the leaders of the church – came to Jesus and tried to trap him...again.

By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?

It's a great question, and there's more going on than we know about just from this reading. Just the day before, Jesus had ridden into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey, and a very large crowd greeted him, and laid their cloaks on the ground in front of him, giving it the appearance of a royal procession... but it was just a poor man riding a donkey, surrounded by a group of mainly homeless and poor people.

The first thing he did – remember, it is just the day before today's story – is to go into the temple and drive off those who were making money off the required sacrifices of the time. He turned the tables over of the folks who who took advantage of the poor for profit, and said quoted Scripture, saying: My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you are making it a den of thieves.

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them, the children started singing “Hosanna, Son of David”, naming Jesus as the Messiah. The religious leaders became angry and Jesus quoted Scripture to them again about the truth coming out of the mouths of infants and children.

And then he left.

When he came back the next morning they approached him with the question about authority. Where did you get it and who gave it to you?

If Jesus had said, “From God”, what would they have done?

If Jesus had said, “My own authority?” what would they have done?

But Jesus asked them a question: where did John the Baptist get his authority? Answer that and I'll answer you.

The rulers did not expect that. They tried to think their way out. If we say from humans, people will turn against us. If we say from heaven, he'll ask why didn't we believe him.

So they told Jesus they couldn't answer, and he told them he wouldn't answer them.

John had come preaching repentance, and many people turned to God and reformed their ways under his teaching. John was fearless. He spoke the truth to those in power and was killed for it. He didn't rationalize away what people would think of his answers, and he didn't take polls to see what was the most popular position to take. He told the truth as he saw it, and it cost him his life.

Then Jesus told what seems to be this simple story of a man with two sons. The first is outwardly defiant, but inwardly compliant. He says he won't go work in the vineyard, but then goes and does it. The second son is outwardly compliant, but inwardly defiant. He says he will go, but does not.

The first one, the outwardly defiant one, is the one who does the will of the the father.

Then Jesus drops the bombshell on them: the religious leaders are like the second son, the one who talks a good game, but doesn't do the work. They make a show, but they're empty suits.

And Jesus tells the religious leaders that the prostitutes and the tax collectors will get into the kingdom of heaven ahead of these guys. These are the folks John reached, those who had no interest in following empty rituals, but who heard and heeded the call to repentance and made a real difference in their lives and in the way they treated others.

BRINGS US INSIDE TO SEND US OUTSIDE (VISION)

This could bring us up short, if we were sensitive to this kind of thing. Jesus is telling these religious folk that it is the outsiders who are coming into the kingdom first. Here's this man who kicked the moneychangers out of the temple, who calls the leaders back to the true worship of the God who created all, and telling them that the nobodies are getting in there first.

So what does that say for us today, here in the church? We're insiders, right?

I think that God works in you to bring you inside and then moves you outside. We talk often of being transformed by the renewing of our minds as we are shaped into the image of God. The first part of that verse in Romans 12 calls us to be a living sacrifice. Why is living the Christian life so hard sometimes? Because we are called to be a living sacrifice.

We are called to be insiders, then sent to those outside. We are sent to the world to tell the good news that there is another way to live, there is a life more significant than the ones we think, there is a God who shows us how to forgive and live a life of significance.

And you see signs of it here. You see signs of it when folks gather groceries and food and money for MANNA. You see signs of it when folks give up their time and their time in worship to plan and organize Children's Church. You see signs of it when new Sunday School classes are started. You see signs of it when we have volunteers going into prisons with the Prison Entrepreneurship Program. You see signs of it when kids are being tutored and mentored by volunteers going into neighborhood schools. You see signs of it when people are welcomed here in worship at St. Matthew's.

I see such great things here, and I see a future where we will continue to call people inside, to be part of the kingdom of heaven, and send them outside so that the least and the lost will know there is a God who loves them, and that no matter what has happened that God is there, reaching out, ready to listen, ready to heal.

We preach Christ, crucified for our sins, resurrected for our lives and proclaimed for the hope of the world.

We may not always want to go, but we are going to work around here. And there's more work to do, and plenty of room for more workers.

We've done some wacky things here, and we'll do more...because we've met Jesus, and that changes everything.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Justice Upside Down

2011-09-18T19:52:00.000-05:00

Preached at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church in Houston, TX, on September 18, 2011.

Jonah 3:10-4:11

Matthew 20:1-16

FOCUS: Our sense of fairness is often offended by the grace of God, particularly when applied to others.

Matthew, briefly....(Life Isn't Fair!)

This story from Matthew is a wonderful example of one of the great Biblical truths: it is not what we don't understand about the Bible that bothers us; it is what we understand perfectly well. Most of us, when hearing the story of the laborers in the vineyard, will hear it from the point of view of the ones who were hired early in the morning, and we, with them, resent that the folks hired at the end of the day were paid the same. We understand that the landowner didn't break his word to the first group, but we further understand that it just isn't fair. It isn't right, and it isn't just.

We all have an understanding of fairness, from the time we are small children. Bishop N.T. Wright in his book, Simply Christian – really a good one, by the way – says that we are all born with a desire for justice, for fairness, and from the time we are little we know what's fair and what's not. (Our sense of fairness is often slanted toward ourselves, but that's beside the point!) Wright has this wonderful image of a dream we all share, with the echo of a voice we remember, we recognize, calling for justice, for fairness, and a promise that all will be right one day...

We hear an imitation of that voice behind the explosive and often juvenile rhetoric or our politicians and news commentators – underneath all the posturing is a desire for justice, for fairness.

And in this story Jesus tells us, we know it's just not right that the folks who worked hard all day would get paid the same as those who barely worked at all.

And since we understand that it's not fair, I'm just going to leave it and we'll talk about something else. We'll talk about Jonah.
Jonah

For those of you who only know the story of Jonah and the big fish or have seen the Veggie Tales movie about Jonah, well, you might enjoy hearing the background to the text you heard this morning.

Jonah is a short book, only four chapters, and we heard the end of the book read today. The beginning starts with the word of the Lord coming to the prophet Jonah, telling him to go to Ninevah, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before me, the Lord says.

Ninevah is the capital of Assyria, one of the strongest and fiercest enemies of ancient Israel. Jonah is being asked to preach the word of God to his country's enemies, the ones who kill and destroy all who are in their way.

Jonah refuses. Ninevah is to the east, and Jonah heads west, to Tarshish.

Jonah took passage on a ship bound in the opposite direction of Ninevah, trying to get away from God. But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a mighty storm came upon the sea that the ship threatened to break up, our Scripture says.

The storm is breaking all around them, the cargo had been thrown overboard and Jonah slept in the bottom of the boat. The captain came to Jonah, woke him and begged him to pray to his God as they were praying to their gods. They rolled dice – cast lots – to see who brought this upon them, and Jonah was chosen.

He told them what happened, he told them he was running away from God, that all that was happening to them was his fault, and told them they should throw him overboard.

That crew did not want to do that, but they did, crying out to the Lord not to hold it against them and further punish them. They threw him overboard, and the sea calmed.

And Jonah went down into the water.

But the Lord provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

While Jonah was in the belly of the great fish he reconsidered his options.

Suddenly going to Ninevah did not seem so objectionable.

And after three days and three nights and a beautiful prayer recorded in the book, the fish spit Jonah out upon dry land.

Jonah arrived at Ninevah, and walked across it preaching destructin. Ninevah was a large city, and it took three days to walk across it, all the while crying out, Forty days more, and Ninevah shall be overthrown.

Now our Scripture says that the people of Ninevah believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth – harsh, rough clothing that meant penance. Even the king removed his robe and put on sackcloth and sat in ashes and declared a fast for all living beings and declared that everyone should cry out to the Lord.

Who knows? (the king said) God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, that that we do not perish.

Scripture says this: When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

How did Jonah respond to the conversion of an entire city?

Jonah became angry. He was greatly displeased.

He prayed – by the way, for those of us who think we need to pray in certain ways, pay attention to this one:

O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.

(See, Jonah knew the Lord. Jonah knew about the character and attributes of the Lord. There are eight similar passages in the Old Testament about characteristics of the Lord – slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, ready to relent from punishing – and Jonah was a prophet of the Lord. And he did not want the Lord to give another chance to the people of Ninevah.)

We need to get the picture here: Jonah preached for three days, nothing but gloom and destruction, and the city converted. Rather than rejoice, he became angry, and he stalked out of the city, went to a hilltop, made a tent for himself and sat down to watch, hoping God would destroy his enemies in front of him.

Scripture goes on to say that the LORD appointed a bush to grow quickly and offer shade, and then the next day the LORD appointed a worm to attack the bush and it died. And there was a warm east wind and a bright sun and Jonah asked again that he would die.

But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush? And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” then the LORD said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than and hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”

And the book ends.

Laughter at our own recognition – who benefitted from the mercy of God?

We laugh at this story, but maybe we recognize something, too. The grace and mercy of God offends us.

It's not fair.

It's not just.

Jonah knew that, and he did not want to go and proclaim the God of mercy, slow to anger and abounding in love, to the enemies of his people. He tried to run from God and couldn't.

He was infuriated, and wanted to die, when God relented from destroying his enemies.

He was offended by God's grace, just as we can be offended by the laborers in the vineyard who worked an hour getting paid the same.

We want and demand justice, and we want and demand it on our terms. But we don't see that God's idea of justice is upside down from ours.

And something else....

Jonah did not see that the relentless love of God chased him down as he tried to flee, showed him mercy again and again as he ran from God's calling.

God's grace offends

Jonah was a prophet, one who spoke the word of God, and he was offended by God's grace. Jesus told the story of the laborers in the vineyard, with the idea that God's grace is open to all and not a matter of earning it, but of a matter of being willing to respond to that call.

And Jesus was shortly killed by the combination of religious and civil authorities. Jesus forgave his killers, and by his resurrection showed that there is no limits or boundaries to God's power.

We get into dangerous territory when we think there is someone or some group that is beyond the reach of God.

And all too often, we forget how far God has gone to reach us.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Forgiveness and the Future

2011-09-11T19:25:00.000-05:00

Preached at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church on September 11, 2011.

Forgiveness and the Future

Matthew 18:21-35

FOCUS: When we forgive, the ones we set free are ourselves.

BINDING/LOOSING

...forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us...

Over the last few weeks we have been talking a lot about what it means to be a Christian, the demands of obedience to follow Christ. We've been talking about Jesus telling his followers about the kingdom of heaven, about binding and loosing. You may remember the scene when Jesus asked his followers who people thought he was, then asked his followers who they thought he was. Peter

said, “You are the Messiah, the Son of God!” Then Jesus gave Peter the keys to the kingdom: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven, he said.

And we've talked about resentment. The resentments we hold that bind us. The cherished resentments we have that seem to make things right in the world. Someone wronged me, we aren't in contact any more, we never talked about it, and that's the way it should be.

We all know about that, right?

A few weeks ago I learned of the death of a friend of mine from high school. Richard and I had some ups and downs, and when I thought about him I often remembered some of the hurts and the old anger came back. Now that he's gone, who's bound by those hurts? B by that anger? And who can be set free if they are loosed?

We all know about holding grudges. Churches aren't immune, as you know. And families are certainly not immune. We know about holding grudges. And we know about it in the workplace, too.

And we know about it on a national level.

Today's Gospel text is a tough story about the need of forgiveness. It's a hard story, and it starts again with Peter asking Jesus how many times he should forgive a member of the church. This isn't just anyone, this is someone he is close to, a brother or a sister. This is part of Jesus' redefinition of family. How many times should I forgive my brother? Seven times? No, Jesus says, you just don't stop. You always forgive.

And then Jesus tells this unbelievable story, saying the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. One slave owed 10,000 talents. A single talent was worth more than 15 years wages for a laborer, so this amount of $10,000 talents is – well, it's a lot. It's hard to believe someone could run up that kind of debt in any capacity, much less as a slave.

The king is about to sell the slave, and sell his wife and children, too, to cover the debt. The slave begged to be given a chance to pay it back, and the king forgave the entire debt, an incredible act of generosity.

The newly forgiven slave found someone who owed him about three month's wages, and he put his hands on him, and threw him into prison in spite of the man's pleadings.

The king heard about it, and put the first slave into prison for the rest of his life.

And this is what happens to us if we don't forgive, Jesus says. From the heart.

Okay, so that's a brutal story. Matthew often tells stories with a judgment at the end. If Luke was telling this story, like the story of the Prodigal Son, we'd have a party at the end of it. Here, no party. Here, there is massive debt, massive forgiveness, and massive judgment. Here, there is a huge point to be made.

And I think the point is that forgiveness is the key to the kingdom of heaven.

WHAT FORGIVENESS IS NOT

Let's talk about what forgiveness is not: forgiveness is not justice. That can be a problem for us, because we want justice. We want things to be set right. And we think that if we forgive someone, it somehow makes the deed okay, it somehow gives our approval. If we forgive, it releases the perpetrator.

A man leaves his wife and children for another woman. If the wife eventually forgives the husband, does that mean she approves of what he did?

There are terrible stories of those who abuse their authority – priests, pastors, bosses – and do terrible things to members of their congregation or those who are dependent upon them for their work. If someone in authority abuses you and you forgive, does that mean what happened to you was not important?

There have been brutal crimes committed somewhere in the world since this service began. If the victims of the crime forgive the offenders, does that mean they should escape punishment?

Let's look at the story another way.

Peter comes to Jesus and says, “Teacher, my brother has come to me again and asked me for some money. Every time I give him money he gambles it away or spends it on drugs. Then he needs a place to stay, and he comes to me crying, telling me he's sorry, it will never happen again, and this time it will be different.

How many times must this go on?”

Or a woman comes to a pastor, and says, “Pastor, he hit me again. I'm afraid if I don't get out and take the kids, it will get worse. He might really hurt me, and he might really hurt one of the kids. How much of this am I supposed to take?”

What do we do? How do you forgive in situations like that?

On this day, the 10^th anniversary of the attacks, there are some of you who are going through depths I cannot imagine. Some of you have lost loved ones on that day, and some of you have fought in the wars before or since, or had children or grandchildren, husbands, wives or parents who have fought in wars defending our country. Every war has its horrors and atrocities. I don't know the burdens you carry. I do know something of forgiveness, and I have much more to learn, but what I've learned I've been taught by Jesus, the one who teaches us all.

But I do know this:

Forgiveness is not for the offender. Forgiveness is for the one holding the burden. Forgiveness sets us free.

SET FREE

In his book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis said he thought forgiveness was the most difficult of the commands. We are much more comfortable with hatred. When there is a huge offense, hatred feels right, and it makes things seem right in our worlds. In the years just after World War II, Lewis was asked if he could forgive the Gestapo if he were a Pole or Jew. If you don't know those historical references, I urge you to look them up, but this is like asking you to forgive someone who tortured you and killed your family.

It seems impossible.

It seems ridiculous.

And it is what Jesus tells us to do.

True forgiveness takes courage. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. That passage is in a different context, but I want to show how truth and forgiveness work together.

If the examples I gave earlier with Peter and his brother, the cheating husband, the abusive pastor or the violent husband, it is the truth that will set you free. If someone is a drunk or a gambler, forgiveness does not mean giving money to help on their way to death; if someone leaves his wife and family, forgiveness does not mean that you condone the action, or worse, say it was all part of God's plan; if someone abuses a church member, forgiveness does not mean that person shouldn't go to jail or should ever be entrusted again; and in the case of an abusive spouse, forgiveness does not mean that she should go back with the kids and be put in danger. When we first arrived in Texarkana we went to the trial of a man who killed his wife after her pastor told her she had to go back to him after he hit her.

All too often forgiveness is confused with sentimentality. Sentimentality is an indulgence in a superficial emotion. It's like the difference between a candy bar and cotton candy. One of them is mainly air.

Some things seem past forgiveness. If someone killed my family, I don't know how I could do it. But Jesus offers us no exceptions.

If we don't, we know what will happen. Resentment leads to hatred, and hatred leads to fear, and fear leads to violence.

We tell the truth about a situation, and with God's help we forgive as we have been forgiven.

I know the things I have done. You know the things you have done. I've confessed it, and Christ has given me a clean slate.

In AA one of the steps is to write a full accounting, a “fearless and thorough moral inventory” and to confess it to yourself, to God and to another human being. I did that years ago, and I can only hope to describe what it felt like when my friend took those pieces of paper I had just read and set them on fire. I felt a freedom, I felt a burden lifted as I watched all that turn to ash.

The things we carry weigh us down.

We forgive to set ourselves free. We forgive because Christ calls us to do it. We forgive as we have been forgiven.

On this Sunday, we wanted to honor the educators, and we'll do that again at the end of the school year. Our teachers and all those who work with our children are helping to shape the future. Our world is increasingly run by resentment and hatred, and it is increasingly violent. The more we foster hatred, the worse it gets.

We are called to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Forgiveness. There is nothing more challenging, more difficult.

But there is nothing we can do that will have a greater impact on our lives, and on our future.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

If Not the Church -- Then WHO?

2011-09-06T19:44:00.003-05:00

Preached at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas on September 4, 2011.

Matthew 18: 15-20

FOCUS: If we, the church, do not forgive and heal, who on earth is going to do it?

The Gospel

Before we get into today's Scripture from Matthew, I want to give again a broad overview of the Gospel message. God created us as part of a wonderful and magnificent creation, and it was good. We were to take part in it, but we decided we may as well run the show, and come out in rebellion against God. That's not so good, and this rebellion against God, this separation from God, is sin. God came to earth as one of us, Jesus of Nazareth, over 2,000 years ago as an offer and force of reconciliation. Our sin, our rebellion against God, will always lead to death. Christ, who was killed by the civil and religious authorities of the time, was resurrected from the dead and conquered the final enemy: death. This act of death and resurrection reconciled us to God, and is the beginning and the end of the God's reconciling of the earth, a reclamation of that good creation. As Christians we believe the world is being reconciled to God, that we are being shaped into the image of Christ. But most of the time it doesn't look like it, does it?

Our passage today from Matthew is a tough one. Most of us don't like it at a first reading, or even a prolonged surface reading. We don't like it because we don't like someone telling us what to do. We are Americans, and we have the right to do what we want. We choose our church, and if we don't like it, we choose another one. And if that church doesn't measure up, well, we'll just go on to another one.

The philosopher John Locke, from the 1600s, described the church as a voluntary organization of autonomous individuals. We are all here, independent and separate.

The apostle Paul wrote that the Church was the body of Christ, dependent upon each other. Each with a role to play. Jesus, in this passage talking about church management – there are only two times the word for church, ecclesia, is used in the Gospels – tells us how to maintain unity.

At a first reading it seems to be a way of dealing with a disruptive influence. Maybe it should be called, “Jesus' rules for getting rid of the troublemaker.” Some have used this passage for an excuse to get rid of someone, for kicking someone who causes trouble out of the church.

But that's not what this is about. This is a passage about reconciliation, and I have rarely seen this practice done in a church, and I wish it were done more. If the church handled problems and issues in a manner like is described, we would be a better witness to what we proclaim. Because we do not, we are known too often to the outside as hypocrites, because we have a proclamation of love and forgiveness, but a practice of gossip and exclusion.

Now before we get too far into this, I want to freely admit to the hypocrite label. There are many of us who don't reach what we grasp for – we're not who we want to be – but at least I think most of us are giving it a try. Jesus is calling us to live together as a community – not a group of autonomous individuals – but as a group dependent upon one another.

Jesus doesn't pretend we won't have conflict in the church because we're Christians. Jesus gives us a way to deal with conflict. That way is reconciliation.

In order for it to work, we have to have some profound qualities: integrity, humility, forgiveness and persistence.

Integrity, Humilty, Forgiveness, Persistence

We are called to have integrity. If a brother or sister sins against you – by the way, “brother or sister” is a better translation than member, and it conveys the radical aspect of family Jesus was giving – if a brother or sister sins against you, first you go to that person to try to reconcile.

So you admit there is a problem, and you go to the person and you try to work it out. You don't just stew about it or talk behind that person's back, you take steps that show respect for yourself and the other person. If that works, then you have done well.

If it does not, you take others with you, so that there can be more witnesses. This will require courage and humility. If that still doesn't bring reconciliation, you bring it to the larger body. And if that doesn't bring reconciliation, Jesus says let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

So a simple reading would mean that this gives us the chance and the reason to kick someone out of the church. And we've got the authority of Jesus to do it.

But if we look a little deeper, if we treat someone like a Gentile or a tax collector – both despised if this community – well, then, how are we to treat them?

Jesus himself – an outsider, a despised one – was despised by the religious authorities in Matthew 11:19 as a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

So we are to treat the brother or sister with kindness and humility and a constant offering and asking for forgiveness. Next week we'll read about Peter asking how many times he should forgive, and Jesus told him he never should stop.

Jesus does not pretend we won't have dust-ups in the church, but gives us a method of dealing with it.

Reconciliation is much more difficult than what we normally do. Normally we just get mad and leave. And those of us who remain let them go. And we give up on them.

Jesus tells us we are never to let go. Christ who comes to reconcile the world to God tells us that we not give up on someone. Like God who continually longs for us, like the image of the Father looking down the road for the son who left him, waiting to run to him at the first sign of his return, we are not to give up on each other.

The Church is to model this for the world, we are to be the pre-figuring of the reconciliation of the whole creation. But we too often are not.

If you hear nothing else this morning, I want you to hear this: It is a question from a marvelous pastor in Connecticut:

If we, the church do not forgive and heal, who on earth is going to do it?

In a few minutes, we are going to come again to the Table of the Lord, where all are welcome. I invite you to pray as you come forward, and to pray for those around you, and pray for those whom God brings to your heart. Do you need to be reconciled with someone?
Make a step today.

Do you need to be reconciled with God?
Make a step today.

Because when we do, even with a couple of us, Jesus is there with us.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Lives Saved, Lives Gained

2011-08-29T09:40:00.004-05:00

Preached at St. Matthew's UMC in Houston on August 28, 2011.

Lives Saved, Lives Gained

Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 16:21-28

FOCUS: Paul calls us to a radical life of a community transformed by the renewal of the Holy Spirit.

HOW ARE WE TO LIVE?

Last week we read about Paul's call to the transformed life (you remember: transformed by the renewing of our minds) and this week Jesus tells his disciples, which should include us, how save, how to gain, our own lives by taking up our cross and following him.

And for many of us who want to follow Jesus that seems like a good idea, but I'm reminded of one of my teachers who used to talk about self-help books that would give you such good advice as to free yourself from worry, dream big dreams, achieve the life you were meant to achieve; he'd write off to the side, YBH! Yes, but How?

Paul gives us the plea to live the life of transformation by the renewing of our minds, and then he tells us steps to take.

He lists over 20 character traits, 20 decisions, for the transformed life.

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Well, are we graded on a curve? Do we get points for good intent? How do we go about this? Are these character traits we can develop?

I think so.

John Wesley had a rigorous set of questions he used daily to examine his conduct. The first question of the review of the day is this:

Was God my last thought before sleeping and my first thought upon waking?

After answering “No” for every day for about a week, I started to think about God before I went to sleep, and when I woke up. I was trained. We can be trained.

Paul goes on, with words echoing the Sermon on the Mount:

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.

(Isn't this good? Do you see that if you rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep you don't have to try to fix someone? If someone is sad, you be sad with them. You don't have to try to tell them they're not really sad, or to tell them to look on the bright side of things, or buy them a puppy or take them to a butterfly museum. You can weep with those who weep, and be alongside, and live in harmony. This is, for many of us, a relief.)

Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

In a world like ours, centered on personal rights and vengeance, this is a a revolutionary thought. Paul's world was no different. We have wanted to take revenge on others since Cain killed his brother Abel because the Lord liked Abel's gift more. We've got a movie coming out that advertises that revenge is beautiful, and one of my favorite television shows focuses on a man seeking vengeance for the death of his wife and child. Not to repay evil for evil, to look for the good, to live peaceably with everyone as much as it depends on us – this seems impossible. And to the extent that it is possible, I fail at it, time and time again.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals upon their head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

There is a wonderful story in the Old Testament, in 2nd Kings Chapter 6. Elijah the prophet is surrounded by the armies of the enemy Arameans. His servant is terrified.

What shall we do?

So Elijah prayed to the Lord, and the Lord struck them all blind. And Elijah told the king he would lead them where they needed to go. He led them into the stronghold of the king of Israel. The king of Israel had his enemy's king and army delivered to him.

The king asked Elijah:

What shall we do? Should we kill them now that they have been delivered into our hands?

No, don't kill them. Elijah told the king to set food and water in front of them, and then let them go. So there was a great feast, and and they went on their way. And the Arameans no came raiding upon the armies of Israel.

The relationship between the warring nations was transformed by kindness and compassion, by not returning evil for evil.

Maybe taking up our cross is a willingness to renew our minds, a willingness to trust God with ourselves and others. Leaving vengeance to God is a matter of trust, isn't it?

Over the next two weeks we are going to talk a lot about forgiveness, as part of what we've been talking about on how to live the Christian life.

I think it is hard to be a Christian. It's hard to do what Paul asks. It's hard not to be conformed to the world. In our Gospel reading, which takes place right after Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, Jesus tells his followers he is about to suffer and die all at the hands of the religious authorities, and then be raised from the dead.

Peter took him aside, and said something like: Weren't you listening to me? You're the Messiah! If anyone is going to do any suffering, it's going to be them!

Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block, thinking of human things rather than divine things.

So Peter, the leader of the church, went from being the rock to a stumbling block in just a matter of minutes.

WHO IS OUR MODEL?

We all fall. We all misunderstand. Who is our role model for being a Christian, for being a follower of God? Peter? Lots of faults. David? Adulterous, murderous? Moses? Abraham?
A couple of weeks ago we visited the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. Jesus changed his mind, went from a place of calling her a dog to healing her daughter, and eventually expanding his ministry to the world. It seems from that story that even Jesus was transformed. Jesus modelled for us a willingness to be changed.
********
I received emails from folk right after the terrible killings in Norway. The person accused of the crime claims to be a Christian, and people were worried that such a claim would keep others from coming to Christ as savior. We've already done a lot to hurt the “brand”, but I would think that any reader of the Gospels or of the letters of Paul would find little resemblance to what we are called to do, who we are called to be, in these actions of terrorism and murder.
What I wonder, though, is if these same standards were applied to me, how would I do? How would you do?
We are called by Christ to live in a renewed community, separate from the world, transformed by the renewing of our minds. Such a life calls for something I challenged us all with the first Sunday I was here: a radical trust in God.

TAKE UP OUR CROSS/JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Don't worry that you fall short; we all do. Don't think you don't belong, because you do. Don't think you have to wait until you are ready, until you are better. Christ doesn't reclaim our lives based on our merit, but on God's free grace, given to all. I don't know if Anders Breivik is a Christian; if he is, he's missed the mark. I do know about missing the mark. I'm not a Christian because of my good choices, but because someone reached out to me once and offered me a drink of water to quenched a parched, dry soul. And I took a drink, and have been going back to that well of living water ever since.

I wonder if taking up our own cross is the daily willingness to die to our old way of thinking, to love with genuine love and to have a changed relationship with those who are our enemies, and to show affection for those who are nothing like us except they are creations of the same God. Such a willingness is not just a mental exercise. Such a stance of telling the truth can and has led to actual death. It is hard to follow Christ. But for those of us who have tasted it, and been given a glimpse of a true life saved and gained, it is harder to turn away.

There is no one beyond the reach of the love of God in Christ Jesus. And there is no one who cannot step forward, and be further changed by that love.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

A Kingdom Transformed

2011-08-21T19:27:00.002-05:00

Preached at St. Matthew's on August 21, 2011

Matthew 16:13-20

FOCUS: It is a challenge to believe in Jesus, but perhaps the greater challenge is what Jesus believes about us.

KINGDOM

It's a challenge to believe in Jesus. It is a challenge to believe in something or someone that we can't see, can't feel, can't hear like we see, touch and hear like we do other things.

We also know, or at least we suspect, that if we believe in this Jesus we could be expected to do something different, to be something different.

Especially is belief leads to action.

Should belief in Jesus evoke a response from us?

Our mission statement is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world to the glory of God.

Let's talk about that. Is a disciple someone who signs a pledge card and then goes on about life just like before? Doesn't becoming a disciple of Christ mean a re-ordering of your life? Doesn't being a follower of Jesus mean that all other affiliations are secondary?

Isn't this the one who said his family were those who did the will of God? And so said that those who loved mother, father more than him didn't deserve to follow him? The one in this Gospel who said to pray for enemies, to do good to those who hurt you....who said not to judge.

If we want to be a disciple, and make other disciples, doesn't that mean we are called to be different?

Does belief lead to action?

Not always.

Sometimes action leads to belief. You've probably heard this one: “Act enthusiastic and you'll be enthusiastic.” And maybe you've heard this: “It's easier to act yourself into right thinking than to think yourself into right acting.”

So if we believe in Jesus, and it leads to some kind of action, what happens? If you believe in Jesus, believe Jesus is the promised Messiah of God, sent to earth to reclaim God's people, shows us a way of living completely contrary to our selfish nature, died a death somehow that brings us in reconciliation with God and was resurrected from the dead to show a final victory – well if you believe all that, what difference does it make?

How does it change your life?
How does it change the way you spend your time?
How does it change your relationship with others?
How does it change your conversation?
How does it change the way you spend your money?

Because if these things aren't changed, then you may have a belief that makes no difference in your life.

We are called to make disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world to the glory of God.

THE GATES OF HADES

In today's Gospel reading Simon Peter proclaims Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. And Jesus confers on him a new name, Peter – which means “rock” – and Jesus said “Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”

Peter is made the head of the church here, before there is a church, and Jesus says that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the church. Hades here means death. The gates of death shall not prevail against the church. Now we know that kingdoms go to war, and in this analogy the kingdom of heaven is going to war with death, and those imprisoned behind the gates of death will be set free. The gates of death will not prevail against the dynamic kingdom of heaven.

KEYS TO THE KINGDOM

And here are the keys, given to Peter and the disciples (the word “you” here is plural) : whatsoever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatsoever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

There are lots of ideas about what this means, but I don't think it means that Peter is outside the Pearly Gates with a set of keys and acts like a border guard letting people into heaven. We all know lots of jokes, lots of stories like that.

What it could mean is that Peter and the disciples, and therefore the church, are responsible for proclaiming the freedom available in Christ, the freedom of the love of God, a love stronger than death according to one of the Proverbs.

It could mean a freedom from binding restrictions. Jesus paid little attention to laws that had been held as sacred. Jesus paid little attention to the laws of keeping the Sabbath, saying that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Jesus paid little attention to dietary laws, saying it was what came out of the mouth that defiled, and not what went in.

And Jesus paid little attention – eventually – to the laws about who he was supposed to associate with – he associated with the poor, the marginalized, the lepers and other outcasts.

He loosed those bindings and set many free.

Jesus kept a tight grip the laws of how to treat a neighbor, and went further by saying we were to pray for our enemies, to do good to those who hurt you, to pray for those who did you harm.

We are not to judge.

The more resentments we hold, the less we experience the gift of life in its fullness.

The keys to the kingdom of heaven are forgiveness. Experience it and proclaim it. And it's hard. I know it's hard. I still deal with resentments I'm not ready to let go of, and you do, too. And those resentments keep us from experiencing the love of God here on earth, right here and right now, as fully as we are intended.

Jesus gave these keys to Peter and the disciples, putting his faith in them to build the church with the proclamation of forgiveness of sin, the proclamation of a new life in God, the proclamation of a kingdom of heaven, a kingdom of transformed minds and hearts, transformed by the renewing of their minds.

And that brings it down to us, the church today.

Jesus believed the world would be transformed by the work of God in the world through people – through us.

We are called to make disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world to the glory of God.

So it is hard to believe in Jesus. But there is something much more difficult. And for most of us, the ways we spend our time, our conversations, our money are not all that different from anyone else, in spite of our belief in Jesus.
Because there is something much more difficult.

It is a greater challenge to accept what Jesus believes about us.

Jesus believes we can do it. Jesus believes we, those of us here this morning, right here, right now, can be disciples. Jesus believes we can be transformed, and that we can transform the world to the glory of God.

What about you?

In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Blind Guides, or Taking Jesus to School

2011-08-16T11:04:00.003-05:00

Frank Richard Coats
St. Matthew’s United Methodist Church
August 14, 2010

Preached at St. Matthew's UMC on August 14, 2011
Matthew 15:10-28

FOCUS: The welcoming grace of God can astound all of us.

Who Qualifies?

Twice during the last few months, after a communion service, I’ve had people come to me and tell me that it was their first time to participate. It was the first time they were able to take the bread, to take the juice, to take the body and blood of the Lord Jesus. Before, they were not able to take part in the sacrament, because they didn’t qualify. They didn’t meet the qualifications of the particular church or the particular denomination.

One of those who came to me was in tears. She felt a love and acceptance she had not felt in a church – and she felt a love and acceptance she had not felt from the Lord. Or, perhaps she felt a love and acceptance in a church that matched the love she felt from God. But here, she felt welcome.

About a year ago we discontinued the early service here, and it was a right decision. Attendance had fallen off so dramatically because of the changing of the worship service time for the later service, this service, to give Abiding Faith a chance at creating a new church. And while it was a good decision, we offered communion every week at that early service, and I miss that. I love the communion service, and there is no better way for us to show the love of God than the open table, a place where all are welcome. It is a place where everyone qualifies to come to the Lord.

This week’s Gospel text is about who can qualify for God’s love. It seems that God’s grace can astound everyone – maybe even Jesus.

We don’t know what’s going on with this text, but we do know it’s a hard one, and it’s hard to hear Jesus be so rude, so seemingly uncaring, to someone. Just because she’s from a different race, a different culture, someone he’s not supposed to talk to…it’s hard to fit this text into our picture of Jesus. And we’ll talk about that some more in a minute, but first I want to talk about high school. Bear with me.

Blind Guides

We have two stories in our Gospel passage today. In the first, Jesus is teaching to a crowd and saying, Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.

Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when you heard what they said?”
Okay. So here’s the part about high school. In two years, God willing, we will have our 40th high school reunion. I didn’t go to the 30th. After the 20th reunion, one guy called me and told me somebody was upset with me because I didn’t spend enough time with them. Someone else told me someone thought I was still angry with them over something I didn’t remember. Communications in my life used to run like that, people carrying trouble from one person to another, stirring something up. When the disciples come to Jesus and carry a message like that – hey, the Pharisees didn’t like what you said – Jesus did not go into a panic, didn’t try to get the Pharisees to come around and like him again, didn’t seem all that concerned.

Jesus said this: Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.

Leaders cannot lead beyond where they’ve been. If you don’t understand the nature of God’s grace, if you haven’t experienced that grace for yourself, you cannot teach anyone else about it. Jesus was talking about the Pharisees, who were the religious rulers of the time. They knew the law, they knew who was qualified to come into the Temple, and they knew what people were supposed to eat and what they were not supposed to eat. But they didn’t know about God’s grace.

Jesus was walking through their world, tearing their understanding apart. He was offering healing to foreigners – even the enemy! -- like the Centurion’s servant in Chapter 8. He was healing lepers, and the lame – people who by their illness and deformity were not be part of the Temple worship. And here he is saying that what comes out of a person reveals the heart. It’s your mouth, not your diet.

If you talk of evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander – that reveals your heart much more so than a correct diet or whether or not you washed your hands. Jesus is calling for what John Wesley later termed integrity of heart and life. We are called to have integrity of heart and life.

This is a slap in the face to the Pharisees. And it is a slap in the face, too often, for us.

All Are Welcome

Now we move into the second part of our story today, the story of the Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman. You remember the Canaanites were the original occupants of the land before the Israelites came in and destroyed most of them and took over their land. One of Jesus’ ancestors, Rahab, was a Canaanite woman. She’s part of the lineage of Jesus that’s described in the first chapter of Matthew. Jesus is not supposed to speak with her – she’s a woman, and she’s a foreigner. He has said earlier that his mission is to the lost sheep of Israel, and that group is his focus for much of this Gospel. But this woman has a sick daughter, and she comes to Jesus, seeks him out, and shouts:

Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.

This woman calls Jesus Lord, and calls him the Son of David, acknowledging him as Messiah. No one else has done this yet.

Jesus ignored her.

Jesus’ disciples urged him to send her away.

It was a woman. It was a foreigner. Get rid of her. She doesn’t qualify. And she won’t be quiet. Send her away.

Jesus answered (her or the disciples?): I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

She kept coming. She didn’t argue. Her daughter was sick. Those of you with children understand.

She knelt before him. She had already called him Lord, acknowledged him as the Son of David, the Messiah, and now she knelt before him. No one from the house of Israel had done this.

Lord, help me, she said.

Jesus answered: It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.

“Dog” was a common way to refer to the Gentiles, the non-Jews. Maybe some of you can think of some names that have been common for other races, other cultures. It’s like that…

She kept coming. She didn’t argue. Her daughter was sick. Those of you with children understand.

She answered, Yes Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.

Some of the commentators argue that Jesus was testing her, wanting to test the strength of her faith. But it seems cruel. We don’t want to acknowledge that Jesus was fully human, that he could behave like we do – cruel and insensitive, with defiling words coming out of his mouth. We want to tap-dance our way around the text -- and that may say more about us than Jesus.

Whatever it is, this is the only exchange where someone gets the better of Jesus – every other time he has the final word of wisdom that destroys the argument of the other. This time this Canaanite woman has the last word.

Others have suggested that the woman reminded Jesus of his own teaching, and brought it to a new meaning. The words he said to her were hard words. But the next words he said were not: Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.

And her daughter was healed instantly.

Maybe the grace and love of God even surprises God sometimes. I don’t presume to tell you with final authority what this passage means, but I can tell you by the end of this Gospel – the Gospel where Jesus says he was sent only the lost sheep of Israel – the Jesus who had been crucified, died and resurrected instructed his followers to go into all the world, teaching and baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The grace and love of God became open to all, in fulfillment of the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12, as witnessed by those followers who witnessed Jesus and the Canaanite woman, and as experienced by many of us here – especially those who came to the communion table for the first time.

There’s no record of this, but I can imagine Jesus pulling the disciples aside after the woman left, her daughter healed, and saying, “What do you think the Pharisees will think of that?”

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen

The Big Switch

2011-07-27T10:01:00.001-05:00

Preached at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church July 24, 2011

Romans 8:26-39
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

FOCUS: God teaches us how to pray, and how to pray for the kingdom.

Bear and the Best

Two men were out hiking. As they strode across a mountain trail, suddenly they heard the roar and turned to see a large bear coming after them. One of them started running.

“You're never going to outrun a bear!” his friend cried out.

“I don't have to outrun the bear,” the runner said. “I only have to outrun you.”

I thought about this story I heard years ago last week at camp. We had some breakout sessions every day, with the men and the boys meeting in one room for an hour and the women and girls meeting in another room, with presentations geared to each one.

Every day had a focus, and the focus one day was integrity. In the group with the men we talked about having integrity meant doing our work well and on time, being prepared, and telling the truth and doing our best.

One of the adult leaders shared in the group that he always was driven to be better than everybody else, to be the absolute best at whatever he did. He gave a stirring talk about this drive to excel, and that we should all strive to be the best, to be better than those around us. When he finished, several in the room applauded.

I didn't. I thought about raising my hand, but I didn't, and that may have been cowardly of me. I didn't know a lot of these people. I didn't agree with what the man said, and I was angry about it.

As Christians we are not called to strive to be better than anyone else. We are called to serve.

We follow the one who gave up everything heaven has to offer, and did it to model service. In Matthew 20:28 we hear this about Jesus: just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

I don't want to be overly simplistic here, but I don't want to be overly complicated, either. We aren't called to be better than everyone else. We are called to follow God, to seek holiness, to serve others. These are not three separate issues; they are the same.

But it is not how we are taught. In the last couple of weeks we talked about the parables Jesus tells of planting seeds, and the weeds that come up in the midst of the harvest trying to choke off the wheat. The seeds planted by the evil one, the accuser, the seeds that teach us we're not enough, the seeds that teach us there is something wrong with us that we aren't smart enough, attractive enough, rich enough, have enough stuff – all those seeds of lies that we believe is truth...but are lies.

We don't have to work to water those seeds. We do plenty well with those just going about our life.

But the other seeds, the ones we heard Jesus talking about that are planted by the Son of Man, those we need to tend. Those seeds of affirmation, those truths that God loves you, that you are all right, that you are made in the image of God and that if you allow it God will claim your life right now – those seeds we need to tend.
And how do we do it?

There are several things, but the first is to pray. And read Scripture, and be accountable to other believers...

And mostly, we just don't know how to pray.

How Do We Pray?

Paul tells us in our reading from Romans that we don't know how to pray. He says the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness, because we don't know how to pray as we ought to: that very spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

Paul doesn't often say we don't know how to do something. He's got ideas for just about everything from how you set up your church to how to handle behavioral issues in the church.

But he says we don't know how we ought to pray.

How is it that we pray? When we call for prayer requests, they most often are about troubles. Health issues of our own or our loved ones, people who are going through tough times – we generally pray prayers of intercession.

The disciples of Jesus had the same problem. They saw Jesus perform miraculous healings, they saw Jesus multiply loaves and fish to feed thousands of men, women and children, they saw Jesus make water into wine and they saw Jesus raise the dead. What did they ask?

“Lord, teach us to pray.”

Jesus gave the outline of prayer we call the Lord's Prayer, the one we just prayed. We are to pray for the coming of the kingdom of God, for God's will to be done on earth as it is on heaven. We are to pray for our daily needs and for God's protection for the kingdom and the power and the glory are the Lord's forever and ever.

So maybe we don't know how to pray. We are to use prayers for the sick, to be sure, but we are to pray for the kingdom, pray for an understanding of what God is doing and has done for us. The passage from Romans goes on to say that God can make anything turn to good for those who love God and are called according to the Lord's purpose. If God calls us, we are called indeed, and there is nothing to stand in the way of God doing what God will do.

If God is for us, who can be against us? And this passage goes on to outline all the ways that we cannot be taken from God, ending with that inspiring benediction that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Stories about the Kingdom

We pray for a greater understanding of, and the coming of, the kingdom of God. The kingdom that is already here, and is to come. The miracles that happen among us, the changed lives we see as a result of the Gospel being lived and preached among us, is a sign of the kingdom.

And it is everywhere. Jesus told the parable of the mustard seed, growing into the greatest of all shrubs. What Jesus' listeners knew at the time was the mustard bushes grew everywhere, grew wild. The kingdom is something invasive, coming in where you don't expect it, suddenly coming into your life.

When we finally discover the love of God, the kingdom that is awaiting us, there is nothing more important than claiming our place. There is nothing more important than claiming God's love, and finding the safety to tell the truth among God's people.

There were young women at camp who told terrible stories of abuse, and some told them for the first time. Through testimony at worship services, they saw others who had been set free from keeping long-held secrets, and they were able to let go, and were able to break the power of their own shame over what had happened to them, those seeds that said you can't tell anyone.

The coming of the kingdom means a coming of freedom – freedom from shame, freedom from terror, freedom from sin, from bondage.

My friend who spoke at the camp meeting was on a right track: we are to be the best we can be. But we don't measure our success by how much better we are than others – we don't measure our worth by comparison with others – but we come to claim our place in the kingdom of God, a place of service to others, a place of service and truth.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen