OtisvillePres

Dreams Matter from Matthew 1:18-25 on December 20

2020-12-21T11:10:00.006-08:00

Have you ever had a really crazy dream?

I have had a couple, thousand, in which my entire recollection is about the desperate need I had to wake up, because something bad or scary was happening.

Some of them have been about going into a really small tight space. I’m a little bit claustrophobic, so when it comes to tight squeezes, I’m out, and I pop up awake!

I remember years ago going to Howe’s Caverns and being unable to go through a labyrinth of rocks, and backing away because I couldn’t see far enough ahead to see the way out. No, not happening! And dreaming about it is just as bad!

And I’ve also had a series of dreams where I would wake up, go back to sleep and end up at the same exact spot in the same dream and have to wake up again!

One night, after going through that three times I finally got up, went to the living room and sat in the recliner for a half hour to break the cycle.

The latest dream was a doozy.

I went to someone’s house to take them to a party, but they weren’t ready yet, so I decided to run to the store for some reason, which was in what appeared to be central Manhattan.

There I promptly got lost and was terrified I wouldn’t find my way back to my friend’s house in time to go to the party. Did I mention the friend was wearing what looked like a wedding dress?

Not that all dreams are bad.

Sometimes there are moments of remembering people and places you haven’t seen in a while. Sometimes dreams are all about what happened to you that particular day.

And other times they are a seeming mishmash of thoughts and experiences all randomly bundled together, as though in your sleep your brain found a box of memories on a shelf, and emptied the contents in a pile on the bed to sort through all before putting it all back in order.

Crazy dreams, I have had!

But I can’t ever remember a time when an angel of the Lord came to me in a dream and said like he did to Joseph, “marry the girl!” Not even with Sue!

Now the scripture doesn’t say that Joseph was sleeping, just that he was “thinking about these things” when in a dream an angel of the Lord came to him.

The language is consistent with the way Matthew presents these things throughout his gospel!

This dream, this vision is a fulfillment of the words of the prophet Joel 2:28, where he says, “Later, I will give my Spirit to everyone. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions”

While Luke speaks much more directly, saying “an angel appeared” to Mary, Matthew speaks more to Joseph’s being one who is “filled with the Spirit” and already prepared to serve the Lord when the call comes in a vision!

The bottom line is that this child is so important and the circumstances so unusual, that both Mary and Joseph needed to know who the child was and that indeed it was the Lord’s doing that he was being born in this way!

So, Joseph, hearing the call to faithful action goes and does what he is instructed to do: he marries Mary and names their son Jesus.

And it is not the only time that Joseph listens and then jumps into action.

Joseph is in fact a model of a disciple, a man or woman of faith who listens and then immediately starts looking for ways to put their faith into action.

Joseph, warned by an angel, takes his family safely to Egypt, even though that must have been wildly confusing, and then when the word comes from yet another angel to go home, bundles up the family and moves back to Nazareth.

Faith is never something that we pull out for a moment and then put back on the shelf. Rather, faith, is the medium that allows God’s call to us to become action.

In fact, it appears that Matthew would love for us to get something real clear in telling us about Joseph’s faith. Real disciples do not just listen and nod their heads in agreement with what they hear.

Real disciples get up and get going and start making a difference, just like Joseph.

So, what is it that God has been inviting you to do? What message has the Lord been sending? Isn’t it time to get up and get going!

And Joseph named Him Jesus! Amen.

What's in a Name from Luke 1:57-66 on December 13, 2020

2020-12-14T07:41:00.001-08:00

“His name is Yohannes.”

So, what’s in a name?

Trying to decide what to name a new child is an amazingly challenging task!

There are all kind of traditions, many which are visible in our own congregation. Like the tradition of naming at least one child of each gender after the parent of that gender.

So, Candy Burnett is actually named after her mother Elizabeth, hence the nickname Candy. And Horace Ketcham was named after his father, who was named after his father, and so Horace, Junior and Lucky Ketcham.

So too in the Miedema family, where Bud was named after his father Thomas (who was also nicknamed Bud, now I’m confused) and Penny who was named after her mother Janet. Yes, she is actually Janet Miedema Antona.

I for one am happy that not all parents follow that tradition. While my father’s name was Jack, and I could have lived with that name, I fear what nickname would have followed me.

And I am thrilled to have not been named after either of my grandfathers, Rufus Oscar or Percival Carrol.

I remember a few years ago that in the book Freakanomics they took up the traditions surrounding the naming of children. Written by an economist and an author, they explored the statistics of naming - and the explanations to come up with some fascinating insights.

One was that for many years in the United States, the current generation of children were given either the names of family members, or the names that were most popular among the wealthy in the generation before.

The authors conclusion was that some parents were giving their children names that they perceived as that of successful people in the hopes that the children would follow the pathway of upward mobility.

Different they noted than the tradition at the time of giving children unique names, so they would not be lost in the crowd, or what seems to be a new tradition, throwback names: Warren, Oliver, Greyson, Lilliana, Lucien, and Noah.

Naming a child in hopes that they will be a great person and do great things is like other traditions, where the child’s name comes from an idea about who the child will be.

“His name is Yohannes.”

Elizabeth knew what his name was to be and when the naming ceremony and circumcision time came on the eight day and the Rabbi came to do what was tradition, the men in the family wanted to name the child after his father.

After all, Zechariah was going to be able to say his name out loud as was tradition.

So, the men in the family took on the responsibility on his behalf and wanted to name his “Zechariah”! I mean, what a great name, the name of a man who had encountered an angel of the Lord in the Holy place!

What could be better! How could any child not have a blessed life with such a blessed name?

But Elizabeth said, “No, his name is Yohannes.”

And so, thinking her perhaps a bit befuddled and wondering perhaps if her husband would overrule her, something that actually happened back then, they asked Zechariah.

He wrote “His name is Yohannes.”

And in that moment of faith, believing with his whole heart now what the angel had said, his tongue was released and the praises of Almighty God flowed from his lips!

You know, sometimes we forget that we are reading a story originally written in Greek translated to English. We forget that Jesus name in Hebrew would have been Yeshua, Joshua, or transliterated into Greek as Jesus.

Yeshua is the Hebrew name meaning “he who saves his people”, just like Yohannes is the name meaning “God has been gracious”.

Names are important.

Not only do they identify us, but they connect us to a larger story than just our own. The connect us to generations that have gone before and they connect us to the possibilities that lie ahead.

Today, once again, as we will next Sunday, we baptize a child who is connected to a story of faith that comes through his parents and a story of faith that he will continue.

It is always a privilege and an honor to baptize such a child and to glimpse for a moment what it is that God might be doing in this story.

A moment of insight much like that at the naming and circumcision of John, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and one of the blessed sons of God.

Today, we pray for Matthew Joseph Terwilliger, his parents, his sponsors, his family and the whole church, that this sacramental moment will color and guide his life as he is connected to the amazing story of God’s grace given in Jesus.

And we pray, that as we think of John the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, we would see in him all that God was doing, as he prepared the way for the Lord who was to follow, Jesus.

“His name is John.” Amen.

Simple Faith from Luke 1:26-38 on December 6, 2020

2020-12-07T08:35:00.001-08:00

So, are you a Zechariah or a Mary?

One of the things I have always wanted to be is fearless. I am not, not at all. But it seems to me that being fearless is kind of amazing.

Think of all the opportunities in life you might have taken if you were fearless! If only the “do not be afraid” thing worked for us, think of where you might be right now.

Not that where we are is bad. God has a way of using not only our strengths but also our weaknesses to build his kingdom. And God is using us now in ways that are amazing. But just imagine how life would change if we gave up being afraid for Advent, and chose instead, fearlessness.

Now, I am not talking about recklessness. That is a whole different deal. Choosing to drive crazy fast, well over the speed limit, on a two-lane highway not knowing what is ahead seems to me is more foolhardy that fearless.

Fearlessness to me is the courage to do hard things, even though they are hard. To try cooking a crazy new main dish without knowing what it will taste like. Deciding to enter a marathon so that you will have to train and get ready.

Traveling to a country you’ve never been to, to see what it is like. Signing up for college classes after you have been out of school for a long time.

My wife Sue is fearless.

She decided to go to graduate school almost 15 years after finishing college. She decided that she wanted to try doing mini triathlons, while knowing that running would be a huge problem.

She has taught herself with friends help how to make quilts that are simply amazing, knowing full well that she would make mistakes and have to start over.

The great symbol of her fearlessness is her starting a crocheted prayer blanket, getting halfway done, realizing that it is coming out the wrong size, and tearing it all out and starting over. That in my book is just crazy! But for her the destination justifies the journey!

To do it, you have to be strong willed. You have to be confident in yourself, that even if you don’t know the way, you will get there!

You have to believe deep in your soul that you will figure it out. You have to be willing to trust the mission, the guide, and yourself.

Sound like anyone you know? Are you a Zechariah or a Mary?

You have to be willing to take a path that leads to an unknown outcome, even if that is frightening and might lead to some hurts or problems. Having a willingness to go where others might not see what the results will, but for some reason, you do.

While Zechariah last week wasn’t fearless and couldn’t see the outcome, Mary is made of stronger stuff. One of the most amazing things about Mary is her fearlessness.

Visited by an angel, this remarkably strong, wise, faithful, young woman says “yes” to God, because while the pathway is unclear, the problems, the setbacks, the dangers, the toil - she sees the outcome the angel envisions for her, and fearlessly says, yes!

How did Mary put it according to Luke, “I am the Lord’s servant! Let it happen as you have said.”

Now I don’t know about you, but I am much more a Zechariah than a Mary! I would probably be like, Bill Cosby in that old Noah sketch when God tells him to build an ark, and he says, “right”!

Zechariah, even though as faithful and righteous as Mary, sees only the problems, the challenges, the impossibility of it all. Zechariah is the “grinch” of the real Christmas story.

He is not fearless.

He is devoted, his heart is right with God, but he can’t see far enough down the road to see the possibilities and long for them.

I may have told you that our daughter Katie got a Peleton bike, and in order to encourage her I challenged her to a 30 day ride off. What was I thinking?!

I have a plain old stationary bike I use and it is not the same as the fancy schmancy Peleton bike, but we both are using the Peleton resources to ride, her on the bike with the huge fancy screen and me on the app on an old ipad

Let me be clear, riding almost every day is hard!

Everything hurts, arms, legs, back, posterior. I lost the first challenge. The bet was the winner had to buy the other a coffee and a bagel. I fully intend to lose all the challenges if I can.

But here is the thing. Both of us are putting in massive miles. I had almost 425 accumulated yesterday. And yes, Katie is still ahead of me, all because Katie is fearless.

While the family argues sometimes that she is more like me and Brian is more like Sue, in this Katie is just like her mother, fearless enough to see the possibility of amazing end results and then choosing to go way out on a limb to make those results possible.

Just like Mary did!

Choosing to say yes, because what was important was not the journey, but the destination.

Are you fearless like Mary? Or afraid like Zechariah?

Is there a task, an opportunity you get to get to, to take, but haven’t yet because your fear is holding you back?

Now is the time to listen to the angel and get going.

Mary was amazing. An example for all of time of a faithful follower listen to God and being fearless!

Be like Mary. Amen.

Not Prepared from Luke 1:5-20 on November 29

2020-11-30T07:34:00.002-08:00

So, have you ever been told something that you totally failed to process?

I love watching the TV shows like America’s Funniest Home Videos, where someone is hinting to another person about something really important and they just totally don’t get it.

Like the daughter who is trying to hint to her mom that she is pregnant, but mom is just not tuned in.

All of us have been there at one time or another! We are off in our own little worlds, thinking about something entirely different, without a clue about what is happening right before our eyes.

And then, of course, totally unprepared for what we are about to see and hear.

However, none of us ever had a case of it as bad as Zechariah!

Even though he is in the Holy Place, a place where Zechariah should have known God could and would visit and leave messages, Zechariah is clueless.

Because Zechariah was focused and prepared for what he thought he was supposed to do, not at all prepared for what God was going to do!

Kind of like some of us, who are so totally into Christmas preparations, that we are not prepared for the coming of the Christ!

Unintentionally, Zechariah becomes a striking example of what can go wrong when we take our responsibilities seriously, but don’t see the big picture.

We ought to be asking: What is God doing here? What does God really want? And, most importantly perhaps, what does God want me to be doing as his faithful follower.

Zechariah was a Levite, a descendent of one of the sons of Jacob, whom God made Israel. Levi’s progeny from the time of Moses were to see to the work of worship of Yahweh by the people of Israel.

They watched over the Tabernacle, the holy tent that traveled with Israel in the wilderness and then sat in Shiloh. And then after the Temple was built by Solomon in Jerusalem, were responsible for the sacrifices and the other regular daily rituals and worship activities that when on there.

Every male Levite who was physically able, went to Jerusalem for two weeks to serve in the Temple, with responsibilities both mundane and profound, including the responsibility morning and evening to offer a sacrifice of incense on the incense altar in the Holy part of the Temple, right outside the door to the Holy of Holies.

The incense was a visual and aromatic symbol of the prayers of the people rising up to heaven.

And this time when Zechariah went up to Jerusalem, he was chosen by a lottery to be the one who would burn the incense and then come out and bless all the people gathered.

He was focused, he was prepared, he was going to do his job exactly right. His mind was on the task, a task that most Levites would only perform once in a lifetime, if at all.

And then it all went off the rails. Because God had other plans!

Has that ever happened to you? Is it happening now?

No one expects an angel!

But the angel appeared anyway!

A son would be born to Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, a son God had chosen to be a special messenger to his people Israel.

Now no one knows for sure what Zechariah was thinking, but one has to be suspicious, that Zechariah was completely thrown off track.

He was focused on getting the tasks right, doing the job to the best of his ability, with no thought that in burning the incense, his most fervent prayers would be caught up in the smoke!

It never occurred to Zechariah, that the God he worshipped and longed to serve with his whole heart might right then and right there answer those prayers.

Have you ever been preparing so carefully for something that you end up being unprepared for what really happens?

Have you ever prayed fervently, with your whole heart, never suspecting that God’s answer might come right as you were praying?

We hope for an answer. We long for an answer some day.

But none of us expect an angel!

But there he was, frightening as can be, and in the moment, all Zechariah could think was, “wait, what, not now, I have to get this task done, I have to go back out and bless the people!

Oh jeez, not now, I can’t have a son, a messenger like Elijah, a forerunner of the Messiah, because I have things to do.”

And in that moment, Zechariah, faithful Zechariah, ever so slightly pushes away God’s answer.

But God is not surprised, nor hurt, nor moved.

Instead he seals the deal with the reluctant Zechariah by sealing his lips, so that Zechariah, who for a moment forgot all about the power of prayer, would understand something new about prayer and the God to whom his prayers ascended.

Its as if God touched Zechariah’s lips with a burning coal, just like he did Isaiah’s, burning away the sin of Zechariah’s doubt, but leaving a mark that would remind Zechariah of his encounter with the angel.

Not another spoken prayer, until Zechariah, you understand its power!

Zechariah had prayed for like forever that he and Elizabeth have a child, and that God would fulfill his promise to Israel, but it had simply never occurred to Zechariah that God might be planning to answers his prayers!

How about you?

What are you praying for?

What are you praying about?

Do you really understand the power of prayer?

And, are you really prepared for the one who is coming?

Amen.

Give Thanks from 1 Thessalonians 5:12-24 on November 22

2020-11-23T11:56:00.001-08:00

So, are you ready for Thanksgiving? You have the turkey, the stuffing, the green bean casserole?

Ask my wife Sue about the green bean casserole. She says the only blessed thing about it is how good it feels when you stop eating it.

You see, she’s not a real vegetable lover, so generally, we don’t include squash or even candied yams on our table, or even candied carrots. Maybe some corn.

And this year like last year we will have roasted brussels sprouts, but those are for all the adults at the table, including Noah! Not Sue.

The wonder of Thanksgiving that feeling of being blessed when we gather with the folks we love and the folks that love us.

But with COVID cases once again growing, our celebration of being blessed is threatened, and our impatience with it is growing!

We want everyone to be safe! We want everyone to get through this unscathed! But we want everyone at the table too, and this virus is just making it all a mess.

And in a world of immediacies, we find the slow grind of more and more and more cases exhausting. We know we have to do what we can to stop the growth of the virus, because we have seen the potential devastation it can cause.

We don’t want our hospitals overflowing, even if they can treat the disease better now than they could in March and April.

We don’t want to lose loved ones, or have them sick now, and potentially sick for months and years after the virus has done its damage.

But we are tired and sad and strung out and we just want the world to go back to the way it was without Covid. But…

It’s not, and so we search, in our better moments, our thinking and praying moments, asking God to enlighten us, open our hearts and minds to the Spirit’s presence so we can be of one mind in facing these troubled days.

We want to know, as we the community of faith, how to face the challenges our world is now experiencing, what are we to do, how we are to think, and what is to be our approach to making a difference.

And it turns out that Paul answers that question in 1 Thessalonians 5, when he tells the folks in Thessalonica to “Always be joyful and never stop praying. Whatever happens, keep thanking God because of Jesus Christ. This is what God wants you to do.”

Rejoice, pray, and thank God!

You see, Paul is not telling you how to feel about what is happening around you.

You are welcome to be crabby if you need to, you are welcome to be a bit down about it all. You are even welcome to go on Facebook and whine to the world about how Covid is screwing up your plans for the Guinness book record turkey roast!

Well, actually, we would all appreciate if you didn’t. There is far too much whining on Facebook already!

But, you can feel bad about it all.

However, a better choice would be to rejoice, pray, and thank God!

Rejoice, because there are many things besides Covid that are happening in our lives. In some houses a new baby has, a new marriage has taken place, a new job has been started.

In other houses, there is a full table, someone has recovery from a scary illness, or someone has retired. In some a soldier has come home, in others a college student without cooties, and in some while life has been rough, a moment of peace as come.

Yes, there are troubles. And we could focus on them.

Instead, Paul reminds us that instead we can rejoice, most importantly because God has sent Jesus into our lives and the strengthening power of the Holy Spirit, and the appropriate response to that is always to bring the sacrifice of praise!

We are to be jubilant in all things. Even in the struggles. Because as the people of God we see beyond the struggles to an amazing God who even in the midst of the storm is steering the boat and guiding us safely home.

And, beyond rejoicing, we are also to pray.

Not wimpy little prayers, but big whopping prayers, asking for God’s love and care and presence and power to be revealed in the midst of the storm.

To raise up a lighthouse, or to open our eyes so we can see it. To steer us away from the rocks, or if we crash, to get out of the boat safely and onto shore.

God will be with us until the end of time, so let’s act like it, acknowledging in prayer, private and in community, that the God who loves us, is loving us in the midst of all we are struggling with.

That God has us, like the rescuer who has a grip on us that won’t let the floods sweep us away, guiding us to solid ground, where we will be able once again to stand and lift our hearts in prayer.

We are to pray with boldness, with joy, and with thanks, because we have seen our mighty God touch the lives of all kinds of folks, including you and I.

What an amazing experience it would be if every person who is listening to our worship online today, and everyone who is here in person, wrote out a list of all the things we are thankful for, and then we attached them all end to end just to see how the long the list was?

What do you think?

Would it be ten feet long? 20? 50? And even then, would it contain all the wonderful things that we have been blessed with, the people, the experiences, the material things, and most importantly, the relationships, with family and friends, with the community of faith and with God.

We have reason to give thanks! And when we add that to our joys and our prayers, is has the possibility of completely overwhelming our whining about all the stuff we whine about.

Yes, there are reasons to pout, feel sad, and wish it was different.

But there is also reason to rejoice, pray and give thanks.

The choice is ours!

But which one do you think will change our hearts and make us more like Jesus?

And having rejoiced, prayed and given thanks, God will bless us with the peace that passes all understanding, even in the midst of Covid.

May it be so! Amen.

Love Each Other, from 1 John 4:7-21 on November 15,2020

2020-11-16T09:27:00.005-08:00

So, how is the loving each other going?

Covid and politics have made that really hard! People we thought we knew, trusted and loved, acting in ways we just can’t wrap our heads around.

Folks who are even angry at each other.

Years ago, I took training in conflict resolution. And, they talked about levels of conflict.

Levels 1&2 were considered creative conflict, where people with different ideas and agendas and even passions talk about all their many solutions, and out of it often comes a great new plan that takes parts of everyone’s ideas and incorporates them.

Then everyone buys in and gets to work.

The unity of the whole is more important that the many individual pieces. The bigger mission of the team or the company or the family take precedence. Nobody is crowing that they are more important and so should be treated special.

Some of the most effective organizations show off this creative ability often. By being able to get good ideas from many sources, they shine, they keep the best talent, and they succeed in remarkable ways.

But there are also level 3&4 conflicts.

That’s like the football team where the big name running back complains publicly that they aren’t being given the ball, or the wide receiver complains publicly they are getting thrown the ball.

The conflict is no longer a matter of creative discussion in the team meetings that will result in consensus and buy in, but has now spilled out into the public arena.

And people start choosing sides both inside the organization and outside. And insidiously, some folks take to doing everything they can to widen the cracks that are now showing to the world.

Level 5 conflict is death. It is when everyone involved has chosen a side and now will not talk to each other, will not come to the table, are not interested in compromise. Where the only future is separation. Think Hatfields and McCoys!

But there is another way! The way of Christ, following Jesus.

John describes it here in 1 John 4. And he makes it clear, “God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him.” By the way, that includes folks who don’t agree with you, and whom you may in your worst moments think aren’t so bright.

God loves them, and wants you to love them too. Otherwise, perhaps, John suggests, you have never really known God. Perhaps, your life has never really been filled with God’s love.

After all, really loving others means being willing to go to a cross for them!

I have been reading a book, ever so slowly entitled, Herding Tigers, by Todd Henry.

You probably have heard the saying that somethings are as difficult as “herding cats”. Well this book takes that idea and suggests that working with strong, motivated teams of very creative individuals is like herding cats on steroids.

Herding Tigers makes the case that wildly creatives teams can do amazing things because they have such amazing energy and ability, but that the conflict can go from level 1 to level 4 in a flash.

So, for managers who work with creative teams, they need special skills, in order to allow for the creativity, but also build in high levels of unity and support.

Just because someone sees the world differently than you doesn’t mean they are a bad person you need to abandon.

Instead, assume that they are in fact a great person with a different perspective you need to see, that you need to understand, so that not only can you love the person, but also so you can take into account their unique perspective!

But in the world of Covid and politics, so many people are so busy taking what should be level 1&2 conflicts, creative opportunities, and joyfully and even gleefully making them into level 3&4 conflicts.

They are encouraging folks to argue and fight, disagree to the point of leaving, tearing open what could be wonderful caring and creative communities not just outside the church, but even inside it.

All, flying in the face of what the author John tells us our Lord wants.

“My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God’s children, and we know him.”

You know what happens when we love God and each other and the people God has entrusted to our care?

Miracles!

Downstairs, the Thanksgiving Baskets line the halls. Love made real in our giving!

Downstairs, the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes are stacked high. Love made real in our giving.

And right here, the pledge cards collected from God’s people are filled with a gesture of love, as people thought through and prayed through what they decided they could give this year! Love made real in our giving.

Because it is in what we give to others, our time, our energy, our openness, our thoughtfulness, that we revel God’s presence in us.

I was in an online seminar this past week about people’s first impressions of a church, and what we as God’s people can do to make new folks engagement with us, something that might move them to come and join with us.

And you know what was said? What it is that moves people from an initial look to engagement?

Our thoughtfulness.

That we obviously took the time to think about what it would be like to first encounter the crazy people at the Otisville Church, and what visitors would need online and in person to help them feel like they are loved, welcomed, wanted, and would forever be cared for here!

Because it is just like the culture has been telling us forever, people go where everyone knows your name, where they have friends, where no matter who you are you will be accepted.

Love one another.

Or as John says a bit later, “If we keep on loving others, we will stay one in our hearts with God, and he will stay one with us.”

May it be so, even in the days of Covid and politics. Amen.

On Fire: Tested from Acts 5:1-11 on November 8, 2020

2020-11-09T08:19:00.000-08:00

So,

Imagine yourself being at worship one Sunday, and someone comes into the service, puts a check in the offering plate and then drops over dead!

That would be just insane. Yet that is basically what happened in Acts 5:1-11

Welcome to one of the strangest stories in the New Testament!

Especially so, since it immediately follows the story of the faith community’s willingness to let go of property and things in order to take care of those who were in need.

The Christ followers in Jerusalem had come to understand at the deepest level that in order to see God’s blessings flow, then God’s blessing of them had to flow out into the community.

Once we stop blessing others, we stop being blessed, individually and as a faith community. Our open hands and open hearts are the conduit to God’s blessing for us and for others.

The transformation was amazing to see, because everyone, filled with the Spirit, did what they could do to make a difference. So, when the story of Ananias and Saphira opens, we are quickly confused and deeply uncomfortable!

And while for the us the juxtaposition seems very jarring and harsh, that clash seems to be essential to Luke’s story. It is his intention to help us see the power of the Holy Spirit when it is present in a faith community. We are to see here that, as Martin Luther once said, that security can become for us the “ultimate idol”.

And God doesn’t tolerate idols.

Luke wants us to see that the Christian Community being blessed is dependent on the community passing the blessings along! I can’t say that enough times!

Being blessed is dependent on us passing the blessings along!

Some of us studied this story in the Wednesday night bible study a few weeks back, and we really struggled with the deaths of Ananias and Saphira, partly because we were trying to see them in the light of God’s mercy and grace.

How could a loving God demand the lives of his servants simply because they lied?

It seemed just the opposite of what Jesus had been teaching about forgiveness and God’s love.

Why couldn’t Peter simply forgive them? Why couldn’t God?

And don’t get me wrong, those are excellent questions and ones I don’t pretend to have a good answer to.

I am aware, and I am quite willing to share with you what I do know, that our God is amazing, and while forgiveness and love are some of God greatest attributes, holiness, righteousness, and justice are others.

So, Ananias and Saphira’s plotting to lie to the Apostles about the money earned on the sale of a piece of property they didn’t have to sell, and money they didn’t have to donate, and for which there was no requirement that they give the whole amount was a really bad plan! Cheating on God is always a bad plan!

They had seen the power of the Holy Spirit.

They had seen the way it moved people to gratitude and generosity.

But for some reason, what it also did for them was to move them to try and act like everyone else, while keeping a secret about the amount of the sale, from God, from the faith community, and then going another step and lying about it!

What is at work here is not the Holy Spirit, but the spirit of pride.

They wanted to look good.

They wanted the praise of the people around them without any understanding that God and God’s servants would know all about their deceit.

It is a hard and harsh lesson, that while God loves us and forgives us, God is also willing to discipline us when we wander completely outside his grace. We are to be people filled with the Holy Spirit, growing, learning, listening.

And, plotting, lying, and giving into pride are not part of the plan.

Once we stop blessing others, using the gifts God has given us to bless others, we stop being blessed, individually and as a faith community.

We have an opportunity to open hands and open hearts so that we become the conduits of God’s love.

It matters. It is a really big deal!

We are God’s children, faithful, and ready to move heaven and earth on God’s behalf, to be a blessing every day.

May it be so, in Jesus name! Amen!

On Fire: Blessed from Acts 4:32-37 on November 1, 2020

2020-11-02T08:17:00.002-08:00

So, do you feel blessed?

In this season of Thanksgiving, in spite of the election, and in spite of COVID, do you sense that in some way that God has blessed you?

Are you planning to take time to gather with the ones you love and celebrate the grace God has surrounded you with, the blessings material and otherwise, the relationships with family and friends near and far, which have sustained you over the last year?

Some of you know that old hymn “Count your blessings”.

It goes like this:

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Refrain:
Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your blessings, see what God has done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will be singing as the days go by.

It seems to me, that one of the great blessings of the Thanksgiving season is our counting and recounting of the blessings. Seeing them. Naming them. Sharing them.

To see objectively what is happening in our lives, not from the point of view of our trials and troubles, misgivings and issues, but from the observatory of what God has done on our behalf. What God has done, not only blessing us with needs met, but also blessing us with opportunities – to be a blessing to others!

Someone said recently that the challenge in life is to see your glass as half full, not half empty. Someone else noted with a bit of irony, that perhaps we should also notice that we have a glass, and perhaps, something to put in it!

And that seems to be what is happening in the early church community in Jerusalem after Peter and John’s release from prison. The community is seeing God at work and feeling amazingly blessed.

It is as if they now understand that God can provide in all kinds of situations, and that they don’t need to worry about going without, because as fast as they are giving what God has given them away, God is busy refilling their cups.

I have shared this before but one of the great gratitude stories I have heard is the one Carolee Union shared at one of our church retreats. Carolee unfortunately has since passed away, going on to her great reward, but before she did, what a blessing she was for us.

She told us of her gratitude journal, a book she created to force herself to look and see what God was doing to bless her, even when she was not paying attention, or when she felt just overwhelmed by life.

She said that one morning she sat at her table and was just struggling with no idea what to write in the gratitude book. And then a beautiful cardinal came and sat on her window sill, and so she opened her Gratitude Journal and wrote: “Thank you today for the gift of that beautiful red blessing!”

And as her mind turned more and more towards gratitude, little blessings became more obvious and then were added to the book.

Do you feel blessed?

Sometimes when we are struggling with life, in a true wrestling match with illness or jobs or a lack of income or family issues or even addiction, we just don’t see what God is doing on our behalf!

We don’t see how God is suppling our needs, including our NEED to be generous.

You heard me, didn’t you?

We don’t see how God is supplying our needs, including that essential spiritual NEED to be generous.

We as God’s children, need, right down deep in the center of our souls, in the center of our spirit, in the center of the Holy Spirit’s presence in us, to be generous!

That’s what was happening in Jerusalem!

The children of God were mimicking their Lord and Savior, using all that God had given them, to take care of God’s people, just as God had been doing for them.

Mimicking is how children learn. We all know that.

Lately our grandson Noah has been taking sticks and plastic hangers and whatever he can find and making chainsaw noises, because he saw his father put on the chaps and goggles and ear protection and cut up logs up at the cottage at Loon Lake.

Noah even found a strap of some kind and hung it over his ears as ear protection as he cut up all those imaginary logs! As Rachel said on Friday, “I never thought I would tell my toddler, ‘let’s go upstairs to play with your chainsaws before bed!’”

Because he is mimicking what he has seen his father do, just as these folks in Jerusalem as now mimicking what they have seen their Heavenly Father do for them - use his resources to take care of the least of these.

Even Barnabus, the son of encouragement, jumps in to do what he can, and sells a piece of land so that the folks who need a blessing have a blessing, and becomes himself a conduit of God’s love.

It is often said that the Dead Sea is dead, because everything flows into it, but nothing flows out of it. So, if you are feeling a bit dead inside, consider all the ways you could take your many blessings and share them with others.

The opportunities are endless!

Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, Thanksgiving Baskets, and food for the backpacks we take to the Otisville Elementary School to help some children who need a breakfast and lunch on the weekend.

We can send a card to someone who we know needs a blessing, we could make that phone call, or stop by and visit with an old friend socially distanced.

Taking some of the Holy Spirit’s energy in us and volunteer at the food pantry or offer to come up to the church and organize some of the stuff we have accumulated and not used for 6 months.

You see, as our faith grows, our need to control our destiny through wealth slips away. Then it is replaced by first, a desire to relieve the suffering of others and second, a desire to grow the Christian community through the resources God has blessed us with!

So, do you feel blessed?

If so, what are you doing with your blessings?

Use them to bless others!

In Jesus name! Amen!

On Fire: Brave from Acts 4:23-31 on October 25, 2020

2020-10-26T07:35:00.001-07:00

So,

I suspect, since you are here in worship this morning, that you are a person who prays! Yes?

And, maybe you have made it into a regular discipline. If so, congratulations. Connecting yourself up regularly to God’s presence, Jesus’ passion, and the Spirit’s power is a really, really good idea!

Or perhaps you are the kind of person who prays when you remember, when things are going rough, or when you become aware of someone in need.

It’s not a bad thing. Every prayer counts and every prayer makes a difference, in you and in God’s plans.

Of course, we all know the idea is to pray early and often, but if you find that your prayers are perhaps a bit haphazard that’s okay too.

Almost all of us have had times of great enthusiasm, as well as times where life’s events have overwhelmed our schedules and left us at the end of the day, almost prayerless!

Instead of feeling bad, the best solution is the one most fitness expert’s give their charges that have fallen off the fitness plan!

Start again! Don’t feel bad. No guilt! Just do it!

The idea is to pray when you can, and then look for ways to add to your prayer times. Maybe instead of listening to the radio in the car on the way to work once in a while, take a few moments to pray first.

Or before you watch the evening news offer up a prayer, and certainly right after, please pray!

The bottom line is prayer matters!

And not only individual prayer, but also what is called corporate prayer! That is the prayers of the gathered, the body of Christ lifting up our words of thanks, as well as our words of supplication, that is asking God to work in our situations for healing and more, and intercession, that is asking God to work in the lives of others.

It's something we do on Sundays four times as the community of faith gathers and connects. We share both joys and concerns at 9:00am, 9:30am, 11:00am and at 5:30pm (until next Sunday when we will meet at 4:00pm after the Time Change).

In fact, as a church we are known for our praying, and often have people contact the church or church members to ask us to pray, to ask for prayer blankets, or connect with a worship gathering so they can add prayer concerns and joys.

And as an advertising aside, be sure to note that you can add prayer concerns to our Church App’s prayer wall (https://tithely.app.link/Otisville-Mt-Hope-Presbyterian-Church) or send a note to me to add you to our Facebook Group called “Prayer Concerns”, a private, hidden, Facebook group, just for joys and concerns.

And here is the golden ticket – we will pray! And we will see together what God has in mind to do when God asks us to gather and then promises to be in our midst!

We pray fearlessly, boldly, bravely, because we know with confidence that God will be moving in the lives of his people because of our prayers.

But today’s story about Peter and John and the healing of the lame man suggest another possibility for prayer. Prayer can move God. But prayer can also move us!

Sometimes I think we get it in our head that prayer is all about moving God. And I’m not sure that is mistaken. God desires that we pray and God is moved by our prayers, especially when the community prays with focus and determination.

But prayer is also about moving us, focusing our attention, reminding us of our calling, unifying the community so that when we are done praying, we are ready to head out into the world, knowing God is with us as we confront the issues we have just prayed about.

Just like what happened to the followers of Jesus who prayed after Peter and John’s return that God would make them brave to continue the very ministry that had gotten Peter and John in trouble.

Luke tells us “the meeting place shook. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and (they all) bravely spoke God’s message”.

They prayed and God answered! Whoo hoo! If only every prayer was like that!

But look at what they prayed for and what the answer was!

They prayed they would be empowered to do the very work God had called them to - without fear, and God’s answer was more Holy Spirit.

You see, it turns out prayer matters! But what you pray for also matters!

And sometimes, unlike these disciples in Jerusalem, I think we pray to be timid!

I suppose you might want to disagree with me, but I think it’s true. Being the answer to our own prayers - could, I’m just saying - be a lot of hard work.

We want healing, but are not always on board with becoming the healers.

We want people to find jobs, but are not necessarily offering to be come the ones offering jobs, or telling each about jobs. And on and on it goes!

We want our students and teachers to thrive, but are not necessarily ready - personally – to become the supports our students, parents, teachers and administrators need right now.

We want a little space perhaps to be able to have what a friend in state government work called “plausible deniability”.

Thinking, well, maybe God didn’t answer that prayer. Or someone got in God’s way.

When in fact the problem might actually be that we were willing to pray, but not willing to be part of the answer God sent!

You and I!

Peter and John came back and they prayed to be brave!

What are we praying for to happen to our church?

Are we ready to be brave?

May it be so, Lord Jesus. Amen!

On Fire: Over Forty from Acts 4:13-22 on October 18

2020-10-19T12:16:00.003-07:00

When the Spirit moves, we go!

And when we go with the Spirit, things happen!

People notice when people are healed and ask questions!

And sometimes they get upset!

But here is the best part! The man who was healed was more than 40 years old.

Now why Luke felt it was important that his readers of the Acts of the Apostles know this is anyone’s conjecture. Maybe because in those days 40 years old - was old! Maybe because his readers needed to have another reminder that he had been living lame since birth.

And we don’t know why the man was lame.

Sue and I have been watching a show on Hulu called “My feet are killing me” about two podiatrists and foot and ankle surgeons who tackle the most amazing foot and ankle issues.

So, because we now have our degrees in TV Doctorhood, we are curious, for the lame man, was it his feet that were the problem or his ankles or knees or hips, or his muscles or tendons?

We don’t know! What we do know is that God healed the man and now, the authorities are angry and confused, because Peter said Jesus did it!

The men who have been part of this healing (and note, the formerly lame man is with them – pretty remarkable evidence, since it is likely everyone in the room had seen him begging outside the Temple) are not typical problem people.

They aren’t villains, they aren’t rabble-rousers, they aren’t rioters and looters, they aren’t even heretics! They are plain old typical blue collars working stiffs, who don’t have an education, but now are chin deep in confronting the authorities with a problem.

The authorities, Peter reminds them, “you folks” let Jesus be killed! They sent him to Pilate! They accused him of blasphemy! And all because of what he was teaching and who he implied he was.

Now, they knew of the miracles and the stories of healings. But those events didn’t happen right in the middle of the Temple! And they didn’t happen with a man everyone had known for years and years was unable to walk.

But here he was, exhibit A - and they had no idea what to do!

Back to the foot doctors, Dr. Ebonie Vincent and Dr. Brad Schaffer sometimes are surprised too by the crazy stuff that happens to feet and ankles. But at least on the TV show, they know exactly what to do. Numb it up, cut it off, screw it together and off you go.

It’s all miraculous too, but not like this.

This healing has not only changed the lame man’s life; it has changed the relationship between the church and the Temple.

Now thousands want to know about Jesus, and while the church is overwhelmed trying to scale up to a worshipping community of 5-8000 people, the Temple authorities are scared that their influence, and therefore their cash flow is going down the tubes.

Imagine a church community that doesn’t need a big expensive building! That doesn’t need to heat and light up that building! That can shift its budget from wood and stone, to caring for and about people.

Every church in the world right now is facing that new challenge. Asking…

How do we care for the people God has entrusted to us?

How do we love these people Christ has touched through his healing power?

Especially when they don’t come here, when they don’t spend lots of time in our Sanctuary and Fellowship Hall and classrooms, when they don’t even live here, but live all over the world, but are part of our worshipping and rejoicing community because Jesus has touched their lives and healed them?

“What do we do”, the religious authorities of Jesus day wondered, “when these healed folks don’t throw every coin they have into the massive cornucopia’s at the front of the Temple”?

When instead, they use whatever resources they have, to instead grow the faith community’s ability to reach needy people? Because that is exactly what the church in Jerusalem was doing!

Now don’t misunderstand, they still needed the upper rooms, they still needed the Apostles to preach and teach, they still needed to take care of the folks around them who needed dinner because where they came from that night, nobody offered them any.

The community was safe and secure! But the institution was in danger!

And when the institution is in danger, what happens? It clamps down!

They said, “don’t talk about this Jesus!”

“Don’t tell them about the miracle you just saw!”

“Don’t be healing people!”

“Don’t use the internet to bring hope to the world!”

And then, they thought, the institution would be fine, unless…

This was God’s doing!

God at work in this. It has to make you wonder, doesn’t it?

Did you know that according to Facebook, our page “Otisville Presbyterian” has reached just short of 8,000 people?

You do understand we really can’t fit 8,000 people inside here?

But the church isn’t a building, it’s a community of faith, it’s a body made of many parts, parts that aren’t necessarily in the same zip code.

What matters is that we are bringing the healing grace of Jesus to the world, just like those Apostles did.

And God is using our faltering efforts to build his kingdom!

Because when we bring healing to this world… then the testimony of the church about the power of Jesus is redemptive!

Amen? And Amen!

On Fire: Speaking Truth from Acts 4:1-12 on October 11

2020-10-12T08:59:00.000-07:00

When the Spirit moves, we go!

And when we go with the Spirit, things happen!

Last week we were talking about the man born lame who was sitting at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, who was healed, and then went into the Temple walking, and leaping, and praising God.

And I said, “It turns out that if healing is not happening in our community because the church and its people are not in the community… then the testimony of the church about the power of Jesus is without evidence!”

This is huge! This matters! This is essential!

If there is NO evidence of Jesus’ healing power, then no one will be listening to the church’s testimony.

This is gospel truth right here, so pay attention!

If we are too busy, if we are too wrapped up in our own stuff, if we are too wrapped up in what is happening in our isolated little church building to make a difference in our communities on Jesus behalf…

Then no one will be listening to our testimony about Jesus!

So, maybe, just maybe, while I don’t think God sent this horrible virus, it may be that God is using it to get the church and its people out the door of our buildings, so that we can engage in healing this world and thereby bringing the testimony of God’s love and power to it.

But…

Be aware, when we go outside the building, there may be those who will oppose what we are doing and saying.

Because sometimes, when we go and do and tell, others get upset.

Why?

Because sometimes change is uncomfortable and scary!

Sometimes change upsets the establishment, and can make them fearing losing their power and authority.

Sometimes when God starts to shake the tree, not only does the ripe fruit fall, but so does some of the rotten apples.

As happened with Peter and John.

They were still in the Temple with the formerly lame man, and were explaining to the people what had just happened, who Jesus was, and why they should put their faith in him and join the growing community of followers of Jesus.

And then the authorities came to get them.

They arrested them and took them to jail, because they were upsetting the carefully laid plans of the religious authorities, and were preaching that there was a resurrection of the dead.

This sounds crazy!

Because to our ears it seems like such an odd thing to be worried about, especially since there were some other sects in Israel that believed in resurrection.

But the Sadducees did not, as well as some others, and some felt that only the “official theology” should be spoken of in the Temple.

According to Luke some 5000 people had started following Jesus and become part of the faith community that was meeting with the Apostles because of what had happened to the lame man.

And some authorities felt that something needed to be done to squash this movement immediately and get things back under official control.

Imagine if the church in this generation, in this community, unafraid of the consequences, was bringing healing to so many lives that the officials nearby were worried that folks were no longer sick and struggling, and the church was growing too fast!

Too much traffic, people parking all over in weird ways, no food left at the stores in town as everyone went to get an egg sandwich after church.

Except that with COVID, that’s not what is happening in the building. Instead it’s happening online. Right now, that is where our impact in transformed lives is happening just as much as in person.

Where people on Sunday at 11:00am are hearing God’s word and being challenged to live transformed lives right where they are.

So, what if we decided that what we need to do, is not be shy, and careful, and just hope things go back to the way they were, but instead decided to go and bring God’s presence with power to the online community.

What if we decided transform our sanctuary into a studio with space for all the folks we need to help us be online?

Where instead of just poor John and Elizabeth squeezed into a corner, and Wendy at home doing the tasks of 6 or 7 people, that all seven tech people we need were able to make sure that every person who joins us online is invited in, greeted, connected, loved and given an opportunity to let us know what they need right now from God, so that we can pray and care and bring the Holy spirit’s power to bare in their lives!

So that we had room for an internet director, screen producer, in house sound person, internet sound person, camera operator, online hosts for Facebook, and online hosts for the Website and app.

Bringing God’s healing power to every person we meet so that we have an opportunity to share with them the amazing good news that Jesus of Nazareth is the only begotten son of God in whom you can place your faith and know that for all eternity you will be in his care.

Not just on the streets of Otisville, but to this whole broken world. So amazing that while the streets of Otisville are quiet and empty, the world is meeting Jesus because of this small unassuming sanctuary at the corner of Main and Orchard streets.

Because when the Spirit moves, we go! And when we go with the Spirit, things happen! And we have decided to go, no matter what stands in our way, just like Peter and John.

And all God’s people said, Amen!

On Fire Healing from Acts 3:1-10 on October 4

2020-10-05T06:54:00.000-07:00

So,

When the Spirit moves, we go!

At least that is what the Book of the Acts of the Apostles seems to make clear. By the way, that is the full name of the book.

This book of the bible is not the story of the apostles hanging out, eating good food, making good worship music, and caring about just themselves!

Rather the story is all about the acts, the deeds, the ministries, the transformational power applied, as the church goes about fulfilling the Great Commission, preaching in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the world; while also fulfill the Great Commandment to Love God and neighbors.

It’s a chronological account of what happened when the Apostles left the upper room and did what they were supposed to do.

Folks, we need to listen carefully to this, because that commission and that commandment are for us too!

What matters in God’s kingdom is not what we do in here, in this lovely church building!

Don’t get me wrong, God loves our worship and our fellowship!

But what God rejoices in, is jubilant about, is what we do out there beyond the walls of the church, when we love our neighbors in the same way Jesus did.

Healing them, introducing them to Jesus, using our resources to build the community, and then doing it all over again and again!

Now centuries ago, when I took my preaching classes in seminary, they told us the best approach to sharing God’s word with folks is to make one point and make it clear and concise. And that has been my practice for all these years.

But that last week I made four points and I need to do it again, well, just three, because I want you to see this story from Acts 3 as an amazing example of what happens when God’s people go!

It’s all about when Peter and John one day went to the Temple.

This day, they not only worshipped there, but they also brought the transformational power of Jesus Christ to a man in need of a Savior and did it by loving healing him!

How did that happen?

Well a man born lame was laid by the Temple gates each day so he could beg to support himself. Understand, this was a normal and acceptable thing to do when you had no possible way of supporting yourself.

The people passing by who offer him alms, and he would take them to provide for his own food and shelter.

But when Peter and John saw him, they knew there was something else that needed to be done. So they decided to go and make a difference, one two, three!

First, they were unafraid!

What an amazing transformation for Peter, from the one who denied Jesus, to the one who goes boldly to the Temple with John and then shakes up everything by bringing the healing presence of Jesus to a man in need!

Yes, this is the Peter that preached on Pentecost. Yes, this is the Peter who was told by Jesus to “feed his sheep!” Yes, this is the Peter who so many of us identify with because he is such a bundle of contradictions.

But here, he is bold, and God honors boldness in caring for others!

Second, even though they had given all their money to the church community to enable it to do amazing things back in that upper room, they were unafraid to offer what they did have to the man in need: the power and presence of the Holy Spirit!

So often, we feel like we have nothing to offer when the needs are so big!

But that’s not the truth!

The truth is that we travel with God’s presence and so, even if we can’t, God can.

We just need to do what we can at the moment!

Simply offering to pray for another person can be the very bit of hope they need to get through another day. Don’t minimize what you bring to the table! Ever!

Third, they transformed the life of this man born lame.

Now he can walk! Now he can run! Now, he can jump for joy!

And most importantly, now he has met Jesus and the community of faith and can tell everyone about it!

The community of faith is to go!

Not hide in the church buildings, not be so focused on our own little world over here that we fail to see and then to go where the places of need are!

We have to be out and about bringing God’s presence in whatever way we can, with food, with a prayer blanket, with a moment to talk, a pat on the back, a word of praise, or of comfort, or of encouragement!

Our presence matters! Our presence matters!

Write it down: our presence matters! God is using us to reach this world, and so we have to be prepared to go!

And here is the biggest thing of all!

It turns out that if healing is not happening in our community because the church and its people are not in the community… then the testimony of the church about the power of Jesus is without evidence!

Did you hear that?

It turns out that if healing is not happening in our community because the church and its people are not in the community… then the testimony of the church about the power of Jesus is without evidence!

It is only when we bring transformational power to the people of this world that they begin to listen to the testimony about God’s love and the wonder of Jesus grace and the power of the Holy Spirit!

So, we need to be just like those followers of Jesus, Peter and John and all the rest!

We need to go, and we need to bring the healing power of Jesus to this world.

Amen!

On Fire: Community from Acts 2:36-47 on September 27

2020-09-28T09:42:00.003-07:00

When the Spirit moves, we go!

And when the Spirit moves, folks decide to get involved.

And that’s exactly what happened with the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. The Spirit came and they got going. And then it got crazy!

Think about it!

Peter preaches and 3,000 new followers of Jesus decide to join the church! Just imagine 3,000 baptisms! 3,000 more people to get into small groups! 3,000 more folks who need those little communion cups with the Styrofoam wafers attached!

It’s nuts!

And yet, when the Holy Spirit shows up the church is to go! And then, the church is rocked by the transformational power of the gospel.

So, what if the Holy Spirit showed up here, at this church? What would we do?

The story goes that a man who had suddenly grown in his faith went to a church he hadn’t been to in a while and as the preacher got preaching, he heard some good news. So, the man shouted, “Amen”!

That unnerved the pastor a bit but he kept going. Then, a few minutes later the man heard another good tidbit of gospel news and shouted, “Hallelujah”!

The pastor was getting rattled, but forged on. Then the man heard some really good news and enthusiastically yelled, “praise the Lord”! The preacher stopped and said, “Sir, what are you doing? Please stop!”

And the man said, “But I’ve got the Holy Spirit!” And the preacher said, “well you didn’t get it here!”

When the Spirit comes, God’s people go, and start making a difference all over the place, and then folks who are being touched by the Spirit through the acts of God’s people, start to gather with the believers.

First there is one or two, then ten, then twenty. And the church has to be prepared to respond. It can’t sit back on its heels and wait and see if they will stay, if their lives have been transformed, if they will become members.

What the church has to do is what the disciples did!

They created a community of followers of Jesus’ people that did four things and did them very well.

One, they devoted themselves to the Apostle’s Teaching!

That is, they intentionally began to share all that Jesus had taught the Twelve and the others, with both the new folks as well as all those who had already been involved.

Everyone, listened. Everyone learned or were reminded as to what Jesus had taught was essential. They learned that the faith was not something to keep under a bushel basket, but shared like the light from a lamp. They learned that it wasn’t just for Jews, but for the world. They learned that healing and miracles and open hearts that cared for anyone who wanted to follow Jesus was essential.

Two, they learned that sharing is caring!

That loving others as we love ourselves means that when we see a brother or sister struggling, we open our hearts, as well as our wallets, to do something practical to show God’s love.

We don’t worry if there will be enough to go around, because when God’s people care, God keeps filling up the pantry with all that we need.

Fellowship is not about ethereal warm fuzzies, but love made real, like when a group of God’s people arrive at the house of a family struggling to get food, and fill their refrigerator, freezer and cupboards from top to bottom.

Three, they broke bread together!

Which means one of our favorite activities is biblically based. Eating together! They sat around table and laughed and cried and told stories about all that was happening in community and in the lives of the people there.

They brought what they had at home, little or plenty, and everybody ate all they needed. And…

They celebrated the Lord’s death and resurrection by having one of the group who was there remind them of that night in the upper room, where Jesus broke the bread and raised the cup, the symbols of his broken body and shed blood, the sacrifice made for all of them.

Yeah, in the days of COVID we can’t do that the same way, but we can do it in different and new ways! We can meet in small family groups or in safe practicing house fellowships.

We can meet by phone or online.

Did you know that often on Sunday at 11:00am online we have folks worshipping with us from Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Florida, California and even London, England? Borderless fellowship enabled by the Holy Spirit to be sure!

And four, they prayed!

They prayed for each other.

They paid that their witness might please God.

That prayed that they would be bold.

They prayed that they would be united.

They prayed for those who had not yet decided to follow Jesus.

They prayed that God would be glorified.

And we need to do all of those things too!

Listening to the Apostle’s teaching, being in the kind of fellowship that changes the lives of those who are struggling, gathering at table with each other, breaking bread, and remembering the sacrifice of Jesus our Lord, and praying that God’s power and presence will rock us out of our complacency even during COVID-19, so that God can touch all those whom he seeks to call into His presence!

Are you ready? Are you willing? Can you do this? Will you? Will we?

Not sit on our hands, but go all in to bring Jesus to the world outside our doors, now!

The Spirit is waiting. All we need to do is go!

If you are willing, say, “Amen! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!”

Because you got the Spirit here!

Amen!

On Fire: Drunk from Acts 2:1-13 sermon for September 20

2020-09-21T07:32:00.000-07:00

So,

What does Pentecost mean to you?

Have you ever felt so full of the Holy Spirit that you decided it was completely okay to go and do something for God that was completely crazy?

One of my personal calls to mission and ministry is funerals. Yes, I know a call to mission to do funerals is a strange call. And yes, I know they are part of my job as pastor.

But what you may not know is that many pastors during the time of COVID have been unwilling to provide leadership at funerals, or they are unwilling to do a funeral service for a person who is not a member.

But God made clear to me that every person who wants a funeral that celebrates the resurrection, even if they were not a traditional church person, ought to have one, and that I had been uniquely gifted to be one who in willing service of behalf of Jesus Christ, could provide that service for them.

It's not much, but I can share with you that many families are deeply moved that someone would come and honor their loved one. And I have met some wonderful, amazing people of faith because of that willingness to open up the door and go!

What is your calling?

Remember, these disciples have been for the most part been pretty well separated from the larger Jerusalem community. They had been listening to Jesus teach about the meaning of the resurrection for forty days, and then had been on their own after Jesus’ ascension, waiting on the Holy Spirit’s power.

Now the Spirit came, and the question of what to do next was moot! They immediately got going!

Last week John Goldsmith and I were talking about our online worship and how we are always searching for ways to make ours better and at the same time more authentic.

One of the things we both do is look online to see what other churches are doing, to see if perhaps we can see something that makes sense for our situation.

One of the challenges though it that often we are finding churches that are very large, do worship in a very different style, and really are set up as video stages rather than a church sanctuary like ours.

And to be sure, they are doing a great job in their setting. But that doesn’t help us see new ways to do better what we could do in our setting. So, if you are scrolling around and see a church like ours that is streaming worship, send us a link so we can go and see if we find some good ideas there!

But keep in mind, the evidence for the Holy Spirit’s presence in a church is never how good the worship is, how good the gatherings are, how tasty the food is, if they have any, or how deep the fellowship. Those may all help the church in doing what they have been called to do.

But the evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the faith community, is it witness outside its doors!

Any church can do worship. Some do it better than others, I suppose.

One person on Social media recently asked cynically if it was really worship if you didn’t have a lighting director and a hazer going in a pitch-black worship center?

But a hazer and lights doesn’t tell you how dynamic the Spirit’s presence is in the church any more than how big the baptismal font is. Because what the Spirit does is simply to empower what Jesus has already told us to do…

Go!

We have marching orders, as it were, to go into all the world and share the gospel, beginning in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and then to the world.

That is, we are to start in our own backyards!

Not stopping there, of course, but for sure starting there - just as the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem did.

Filled with the Spirit, they opened up the doors and began to share with the people just outside of them the amazing good news that Jesus was alive! They talked to them in languages they understood best. They shared their experiences, the Lord and Master they had followed, told the story of his death and resurrection and invited them to come and follow too.

They told them that Jesus had reconciled them to God!

They told them that they were now accounted as God’s own beloved children!

Even if they had been notorious sinners! Even if they were women! Even if they were orphans or slaves! Even if they were foreigners! Or their skin was a different color than theirs! Or even if they were gay or straight, or single or married, or working or unemployed.

Or they were sick, or demon possessed, or they were Samaritans or Romans or Pharisees or Priests, or Republicans or Democrats or even if they were prisoners!

What mattered was that they were outside the door, and the call to God’s people now and then always is…

Go!

Lee Runnalls and I were talking about the 165th Anniversary of the First Presbyterian Church of Otisville and Lee was noting some of the things we have done as a church family since the 150th anniversary in 2005.

Over those fifteen years it has been a lot!

And Lee is looking for some pictures, one or two, of each of those events so we can record them in an organized fashion for posterity, and then we marveled how many of the things we have done were for those outside our doors.

The Deacons 5K, trips in mission to Haiti and Texas and North Carolina. The Food Pantry and Thanksgiving Baskets. Flood Buckets. And so much more.

When the Holy Spirit comes in power, you will go.

Even in the days of COVID-19.

Because we are On Fire with the Holy Spirit!

And all God’s people said, Amen!

On Fire: New Mission

2020-09-14T11:29:00.001-07:00

When was the last time you shared the good news of Jesus Christ with someone?

When was the last time you went out of your way to make a difference in someone else’s life and when presented with the opportunity to say why you did what you have done, have said, it’s because of God’s love shown to me in Jesus?

One of the great things about gathering for worship or bible study or in a ministry team or to hand out food to some folks who really need a hand, is the time we spend checking in with each other and telling the stories of what God is doing in our lives.

So, here’s my story of praise!

Some of you know I had quadruple bypass surgery last October. I had been struggling to walk a long distance with out feel short of breath and felt some tightness in my chest that immediately stopped when I stopped exercising.

So, I took a stress/echo test at Crystal Run and failed it. Then had a heart catheterization at ORMC, now Garnet Healthcare, and failed and ended up at Einstein Hospital/Montefiore Medical Center, where I had the bypass surgery.

Then in February I started cardiac rehab at Garnet, which ended quickly because of COVID, as all local hospitals stopped doing admissions and outpatient care.

Then, in August came the call we could start again. So now with my 3 fellow heart patients we are rehabbing. Got on EKG leads and walk around packs, masks, hand sanitizer, blood pressure cuffs, and we are exercising under supervision.

Thursday, I started on the recumbent bike, and then the seated stepper, and then the folks in charge put me on the treadmill and boosted me to 2 miles an hour and 5 on the incline. And my heart stepped up.

So, then the Director asked, “Jeff, do you want to do the wall pulley (cable weights) or…

How about, dum, dum, dum, dum… the elliptical?

One guy in my class had one stent put in. Another guy had two stents, is younger and fitter. The third guy had one bypass. I had four, and I am the first guy in the class invited to step up to the elliptical.

And I rocked it!

Well, actually, I went slow and had to move my hands from the moving arms part to the handles because my heart rate got too high, but I was there.

They told another guy maybe, maybe next time he could use the elliptical.

Praise God.

Not so much for the silly competition. But for the peace of mind. I can do the treadmill. I can do the elliptical. My heart is beating right and good. And I can thank God, my wife, my family, and my church for their help and hope and support.

And I said, “I can’t wait to tell the folks at church about this!”

When two or three of us gather in Jesus Name, he is in our midst. And when we gather, we tell the wonder of God’s grace!

But what about when we are separated? When we are worshiping at home? Is God still with us, still powerful for us, still hearing us as we pray?

Yes, indeed, although the physical closeness of a gathered worship service has some great reinforcing qualities as we see each other’s face, as well as tell each other stories about God working in us and through us, as we remind each other to keep the faith in these trying times.

As I will share tonight, there is a place and a time when the church can’t meet together. It has happened again and again in church history. All kinds of impediments have made it impossibly for the church to meet the way it would like, not only pandemics like the Black Plague, but natural disasters, war, and even just too much physical distance. Imagine homesteading in the Great Plains!

Remember, part of the reason this church building was built was because traveling to the First Presbyterian Church of Mount Hope was no small walk in a snow storm.

Still there is power when God’s people gather, in small groups and house churches, as well as large worship gatherings like in this sanctuary on a normal Sunday, and in that upper room where the disciples met, 120 of them.

And while there, doing as we do, sharing the amazing works of God in each other’s lives and in the lives in the community, the questions about what to do about Judas came up.

Matthew’s gospel tells us that Judas hung himself after realizing that his betrayal of Jesus had not resulted in what some speculate was Judas’ ultimate mission, to get Jesus to become King. He threw the 30 gold coins back at the Jewish leaders and then committed suicide.

Luke tells a different story about Judas’ death, that he fell headlong into a field he had bought and all his insides spilled out. It is possible that both are true, that Judas’ body after death by hanging, rotted in a field.

But the way he died didn’t matter to the disciples nearly as much as the fact that he was gone, and now they felt a replacement was needed. Someone who saw it all. Someone who could testify to it all.

From the point of the view of the Apostles what mattered was witness!

It still does.

What God is looking for in us, what the Holy Spirit is empowering in us is witness; the willingness, the desire, the courage, the tenacity to be living, breathing witnesses to the power of God in Jesus Christ and in our own lives.

We can do this, here in this cute little sanctuary, or out there wherever we are, and wherever we find ourselves. You and I can be a witness. We can make a difference. We can be apostles, sent ones! All that is needed is our open hearts and our willingness to serve the King of Kings and Lord or Lords.

Are you willing?

Then go! And be sure to tell us all about your adventures being a witness to the love and mercy of Jesus Christ.

And all God’s people said, Amen!

On Fire: Witnesses from Acts 1:1-11 on September 6

2020-09-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

I love the disciples, I really do, and I respect them. They were great men of faith, much better men then I will ever be, grown in the spirit by Jesus, prepared by mission after mission to do God’s work, used by Jesus to create the visible presence of the kingdom of God, the church, in this world.

But they were also sometimes goof balls, or as Noah, our grandson says, golf balls!

Now I mean goof balls in the best sense of the word, because I have no intention of disparaging them. But, let’s be real, they were much too much like us! They were a big bowl of granola, fruits, flakes and nuts altogether! Peter was impetuous! Thomas was incredulous! John was a lover, not a fighter! And don’t get me started on Matthew.

Each of them was unique, gifted, flawed, wonderful, and nuttier than fruitcakes.

And right here again in this conversation with Jesus after the resurrection they prove it again.

Because they now, according to Luke, ask Jesus if after all that has gone on, whether he, Jesus, who they have figured out finally is God present in human form, if he is going to give Israel a king.

Understand, in many ways it was a perfectly reasonable question.

It fits the narrative of most folks in their land who were hoping for the Roman occupation forces to be overthrown, and for the weasels who were in control of the religious establishment to be ousted from their positions of authority.

They wanted a King like David, grand and glorious, a man after God’s own heart, generous, kind, compassionate, loving, graceful, yet powerful both in the spirit and in presence so that Israel would no longer be the Middle East’s most conquered nation.

But… Their thinking was off! It was foggy.

Somehow, after all Jesus had taught them, they were still thinking in nationalistic terms, even after Jesus had made clear the Kingdom of God was for the whole world.

And so, Jesus kind of points that out in his response. He says:

“You don’t need to know the time of those events that only the Father controls. But the Holy Spirit will come upon you and give you power. Then you will tell everyone about me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and everywhere in the world.”

So, first of all, you don’t need to know. That information is above your pay grade, and in fact mine too, and …

You have other work to do until then.

You see, it’s not about Israel.

Yes, preach in Jerusalem. Yes, preach and heal in Judea. Yes, preach and heal and cast out demons in Samaria.

Wait, what? Samaria? The land of heretics? Well, it used to be the Northern Kingdom of Israel, so I supposed we could try to get them onboard and come back and be a united nation.

Yes, preach and heal and cast out demons and make visible the Kingdom of God…

Everywhere in the world!

It’s not just about wonderful little Israel!

It’s about the Kingdom of God becoming present everywhere, here and now, through the work of the church, preaching, healing, inviting, encouraging, loving, growing, and making disciples, and then baptizing them, and then sending them on to do the same as you are doing.

It is not about a nation. It is not about an ethnicity. It is not about a gender. It is not about a geographic region. Its not about what so many of us want to make it.

It is about God’s Kingdom!

And until you and I have done the work of the Kingdom to its fullest capacity, as long as there is work to be done, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords will not be back, to gather his whole church and reign forever and ever.

So… You need to get to it.

And, just so you understand, you disciples and all my followers, will be filled with the Holy Spirit - so you can build God’s Kingdom!

Yeah, keep that in mind. We, God’s people, receive the Spirit, so we can build God’s Kingdom! We are on fire

And then Jesus kind of dropped the mic and walked out of the room!

Through the glory he went, into the cloud of God’s eternal presence. And he was gone.

And all God’s people said, “whoa”?

And Luke tells us that two angels were standing next to them as Jesus left and as they stared in wonder, they said:

“Why are you men from Galilee standing here and looking up into the sky? Jesus has been taken to heaven. But he will come back in the same way that you have seen him go.”

So, go! And all God’s people said, Amen!

Strange Faith: Samaritan on August 30 from Luke 10:25-37

2020-08-31T07:42:00.001-07:00

Just in case there is a possibility that some of you have the incorrect impression that I am a scoundrel, I want to immediately clear that idea up.

In fact, I am a wonderful, amazing, talented, handsome, and generous man! And did I mention humble? Just saying!

I don’t think of myself as a bad guy, and I suspect neither do most of you, of me, or of yourselves.

Which is why reading some of Jesus stories can be perilous. Why, because while Jesus’ intention in his stories is to put us on edge, we often decide that the character in the story we most identify with is the very person Jesus is suggesting we are not.

So, for example, the story in John’s gospel where the adulteress (not you noticed the adulterer) is brought before Jesus along with a religious crowd, we often identify with the woman, not those who wanted to see the woman stoned to death because of her sins.

She is a contagion that must be eliminated from their community. We don’t want bad people as our neighbors, because they make us look bad, feel bad, and evidently, some of us assume, do bad. They are like a virus. If your next-door neighbor has an affair with someone they are not married to, evident you will too!

The assumption seems to be that if your neighbor jumps off the Mid-Hudson bridge, you will to! So in order to fend off temptation, we eliminate it! But, then since Jesus seems to suggest that these good townspeople are bad, we choose to identify, if a bit reluctantly, with the woman.

We are not adulterers; we aren’t fooling around on the sides of our marriages. But the alternative in the story is to identify with the guys with the stones.

And while we don’t often consider ourselves to be sinners worthy of punishment, we don’t want to be those guys surrounding Jesus just waiting to lob the first rock either.

We don’t want to be thought badly of by Jesus!

So, the thinking goes, we aren’t like those guys, judgmental, biased, sexist, although judging by many folk’s Facebook posts, it seems we have become perfectly willing to cast the first stone online, or at least the second or third if someone goes first.
We don’t want to be like those men, angry and self-righteous who are willing to kill a woman in cold blood, searching for and finding the right heft of stone to cave in her sinful skull.

Yet, Jesus thinks we are. Oh, how well he knows us.

Jesus seems to think we are much more like the scribe and the priest and the Levite, all who wish to justify themselves or at least not get ceremonially unclean, or perhaps, just not willing to be mugged by the same gang of robbers that got to the guy laying still on the side of the road.

We are afraid to care, afraid to act, afraid to speak up because it might cost us our righteousness, or perhaps our standing in the community, or even our lives, even though Jesus suggests that by not loving our neighbor, no matter what they look like, or act like, or even smell like, we have pushed away not only a man beaten and robbed, but also pushed away God.

We worry about ourselves and in doing so, miss the opportunity to care about what God cares about.

Remember the man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.

He was a fellow Jew. He was a man of his times like you or I, but who had fallen on the worst of life’s mishaps.

And the priest and the Levite, were fellow Jews too like the man beaten and left for dead. They were neighbors and friends who too were like you or I.

They were, the elders in their church, or deacons perhaps, Sunday School teachers or youth leaders, all good solid citizens, but who out of fear didn’t want to make the necessary sacrifices.

So instead, they left him behind to die. And in doing so, did not care for God present in the man.

And then, imagine this, a heretic made the sacrifice.

Jesus made his point clear! We are the ones who fail the kingdom time and time again, not because we couldn’t succeed, but because we are unwilling to. We have been given the Holy Spirit. We have the power to heal, to cast out demons, even, if we listen to the Book of Acts, the power to raise the dead.

But because we give into fear that somehow God won’t protect us, God won’t provide for us, God won’t be with us when we choose to care for others that life has forced into poverty and illness, that have lives made more difficult by our unwillingness to share and care, we in fact leave them to die.

The Samaritan, however, instead of living in fear, lived with generosity, and hope, and a willingness to go out of his comfort zone and care for somebody not like him at all.

He went to help him, he bound up his wound, he administered appropriate antibiotics, wine and olive oil, and then he loaded the man on his four-legged ambulance and took him to a place where the man could rest and recover, and get this, the Samaritan paid for it all and offered the caregivers even more!

He saved the life of a heretic, of an enemy, of a person who had no reason to trust him or like him and one for whom the Samaritan had no reason to trust and like and care for. But he did.

Because deep in him was the unshakable belief that other people, even heretics, were worthy of being cared for.

Even if they cost you money!

Even if they rode on your four-legged ambulance!

Even if they used up your wine.

Even if they made you somehow unclean.

Because he knew deep in his soul it was the right thing to do.

And he refused to let fear control him.

The lawyer asked who is my neighbor?

Jesus asked who is it that acted like the neighbor.

The Samaritan. Now go, and be like him!

And all God’s people said, Amen!

Rejoice: from the Sunday Evening Outdoor service Philippians 4:1-9

2020-08-24T08:24:00.000-07:00

Hey, it is great to be with you all tonight on this test run of an outdoor service. We know there are all kinds of challenges to any kind of gathering of people in these days of COVID-19, but particularly for churches.

Just last weekend four Syracuse area churches had to contact their members after a church service to tell them they had been in contact with a person who tested positive for COVID-19 and needed to quarantine for 14 days.

It’s not that churches are necessarily doing badly handling COVID. It’s just that we have communities that are more susceptible (we can be older and have more medical issues) and we have practices in our worship experiences that lend themselves to the spread of germs!

Part of the challenge is our fondness for big gatherings in small rooms because of the intimacy and energy. Part of the challenge is our love of music, praise and worship songs and hymns and musical groups, singing of all kind at the top of our lungs because we are happy to be together, all of which has the potential to spread aerosol droplets that may contain viruses.

Part of the challenge is that we like to talk and visit and hang around even after the pastor has pushed us out of the worship spaced and locked the door. Some of us even hug folks that we may know well (or not) but don’t live with. We pass the peace with handshakes.

And we love to eat! Well, yes, and talk, but it all means we are hanging around in an environment that is in some ways ideal for the spread of a virus, not as bad as a hospital, nursing home, or jail, but just a notch lower.

And then there is the challenge with this illness, that like few others, it is possible that the carrier of the virus may have no idea they have it.

They are not sick, but they are unwittingly sharing the virus at every contact, and potentially making others sick.

So, what do we do?

We, instead of meeting inside, have an outdoor service! Lots of fresh moving air in a place where there is no ceiling, and where we can still practice social distancing while also checking up on and checking in with all our brothers and sisters in the faith.

And gathering in this way we can what we always do best, we can rejoice!

Not that we can’t at home, because we could and we have! I for one have heard all the singing and shouting right through Facebook Live and Youtube Live and now the church app and the church webpage.

But today, we rejoice because we are able to see the joy in each other’s eyes (our masks cover the smiles) and it is really good news for our weary hearts and souls!

We have felt disconnected, and increasingly so as the time has gone on. We need each other’s energy. Some of it can come through the online worship experience and the emails and phone calls. But the reality is, we don’t really feel it until we are in each other’s presence.

I’ve told the story before about the Presbyterian minister who went to see the old Scotsman who hadn’t been to the church in a while. The man invited the pastor in and they both sat warming themselves before the fire and basically saying nothing.

Eventually, the pastor got up and taking the tongs, pulled a red-hot coal from the fire and set it on the hearth and sat down. Slowly the coal turned cold, ashen, and gray. After a moment the pastor got up and set the coal back in the fire where it returned to its previous red-hot state.

The pastor then got ready to leave, at which point the old man said, “I be in worship this Sunday!”

The gathering of God’s people for worship is certainly not impossible online. It works, sometimes very well, because you can mute the pastor, go and get a cup of coffee during the long prayer, and even wear your jammies to church.

But gathering together, even six feet apart, even outside, even with our really cool masks, has the great potential of rekindling some of that fire in us that we love to warm up to. We need to be shoved back into the red-hot coals, because we need to keep going and growing!

And we rejoice!

Paul’s letter to the Philippians contains a great deal of joy. And here is chapter 4 he makes it plain as day when he tells his readers, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

He is not making a suggestion! He is telling the Philippians and through them us, to rejoice. It is an imperative, a command, it is clear marching orders. We are to be jubilant!

We are not to miss the blessing that comes to God’s people when we choose, no matter the circumstances, to rejoice.

Because we are not defeated, we are not oppressed, we are not without a clear mission and a clear blessing. We are the Lord’s own people and as such, remembering who we are and what we are called to do and be starts our hearts to bubble with the joy of the Lord!

Now the challenge is to make this kind of experience available to all our church people safely. It won’t be easy. Some of our folks won’t come out until there is a vaccine that works, and even then, they will be nervous.

Others will come out to a service like this, if they see that it is safe, that the people running it are doing all they can to make it safe, and that the folks participating are doing everything safely too!

Soon the weather will make outdoor services unlikely. I’ve scheduled them through October 25, but, the reality is, it’s going to get cold and dark. Very soon, 7:00pm will be too late, then 6:00pm will be too.

At that point we will have to decide how to do services safely inside if we can, possibly several services. And that only if COVID doesn’t go crazy again.

But in spite of all this, we have a choice to make that can make a difference. We can fret, and worry and be upset. Or we can rejoice, because the truth is, the Holy Spirit is at work in all of this. We just need to look and see what it is the Spirit is doing, and what the Spirit wants us to learn and to do.

God’s word never comes back empty handed, so as we share God’s word with folks in these strange times, we can be sure that God is in this too!

So, rejoice, as Paul reminds us, and then rejoice somemore!

And all God’s people said, Amen!

Strange Faith: Failure on August 23 from Luke 10:1-12

2020-08-23T12:58:00.001-07:00

One of the things I am very good at is failure. I have failed more times than you can shake a stick at, whatever that means, certainly several dozen times and probably many more than that.

And let’s be honest, so have some of you! Failure is ubiquitous and more than that failure is also one of the most powerful experiences of our lives.

It can make you stronger, wiser, and more resilient, or it can make you unwilling to experiment, angry, and even bitter.

Failure can show us where we are in the learning process, how quickly we can adapt, and how flexible we are; or it can be a rude awakening to our inabilities and incompetence, something that we may feel we must hide or bluster by.

Failure can be as simple as forgetting our lunch bag on the way to the car on the way to work, or leaving that coffee cup or briefcase or cell phone on the car roof as we drive off.

Or it can be as devastating as a bankruptcy or a divorce or even a death.

How we understand failure, what we do about it, and how we choose to feel about it can make us the most amazingly flexible and growing people on the planet, or it can give us a case of rigor mortis, stiff, unyielding, and dead.

When I was in the process of preparing for ministry one psychologist, I met with had me, and all the ministry candidates, make a list of all the major failures in our life we could remember up to that point. Typing Class, yes, I am that old. Getting cut from the High School football team. And asking that girl to the prom!

In a conversation about the list, the psychologist admitted as not the failures themselves, but rather was a pattern as to how we handled failure.

Did we immediately quit whatever thing we were working on, unable to handle the grief, or did we, possible not in all instances, come back and start again, and perhaps see that failure was actually an opportunity to do what we had set out to do differently, better, maybe even with a new open attitude that would take in some helpful criticism.

In the world of business there is a mantra that business should “fail fast” at the new things they are doing. The idea is that if a business tries something new, they should go all out and crash early, so they can stop, learn important lessons, recalibrate, and then head out again, and … not waste money on a plan or program that doesn’t work.

I read yesterday that Taco Bell is thinking of putting two drive in lanes at their restaurants, admitting that drive in business is the future. Doesn’t MacDonald’s already have two lanes?

And there is even a school of thought that suggests that we should teach kids how to fail fast? Why. Because often children are taught that failure is bad, so if you fail you should stop trying.

Lots of us know students who having bombed the first test in a class and instead of thinking, “wow, that’s great, now I know what I need to learn better or more about,” instead throw their hands up in the air and guit. Embarrassed or frustrated by their perception of what failure means, they decide it is just not worth it.

The mission is aborted.

Yet entrepreneurs all over the world tell of how they failed at a dozen businesses before they found, as it were, the “secret sauce”. They didn’t and then did, they couldn’t and then could. And the most important ingredient was not giving up. Learn from your mistakes and try again in a new way!

Failure is not the end, it is the beginning of something new. Just like with COVID. Yes, some things will stop and they may not come back. But that doesn’t mean that new things can’t begin. We need to learn from what has happened and get started again in a new way.

I heard this week that dozens of churches are already planning their online Christmas services. They don’t believe we will be meeting in person, so they are planning to have the most amazing online Christmas services ever recorded! Failure is not an option!

Which is exactly what Jesus tells his followers! Aborting the mission is a no go. You must persist!

So Jesus sends out 72 of them (symbolic in Luke’s gospel or the whole known world’s nations) to all over Israel to tell about the Kingdom of God being present and then healing folks.

It would be exciting and scary!

And there would be great stories to tell of what had happened as they went from village to village, with people healed, new communities of faith starting all over the place, and faith renewed and re-energized.

But… there would also be failure!

They would bring their “A” game and still be rejected. They would bring the stories of Jesus the Messiah and folks would still say, “not for me”!

Have you ever failed?

What did you do? Brush yourself off, get back up and get back at it? Or give up?

I remember in 6th grade being promoted to the highest-level English class out of six in my school, because I was so good at reading and writing and taking the tests. The class was studying grammar, ugh. I took the first test and failed. I went home and convinced my parents that the class was too tough and I need to go back to the level five class.

I can happily recount many times that I have failed and then dropped out. But even in spite of that, I have learned something.

Like when I dropped Hebrew 2 before I failed it, and took it again with a different teacher, teaching a very different way, and ended the semester with a B+. Fail fast, so you can start again.

One of our church values is: “you can try anything once. If it works keep doing it. If it doesn’t stop and we’ll try something else!”

Jesus tells his disciples before they even head out the door on their preaching and healing mission that failure is likely! And then he proscribes a remedy. One friend even calls it a sacrament instituted by Jesus like baptism and the Lord’s supper.

The sacrament of failure.

Jesus says, “If the folks you go to don’t want to listen, shake the dust of your shoes as a sign to them of their failure to jump into the kingdom of God, and walk away to a village that wants what you are offering!

“Don’t fret, don’t worry, don’t keep trying to fix it. Walk away. Either that village will hear the good news on another day or they won’t, but they are no longer yours to worry about.

“Don’t consider it a failure so much as an opportunity to find a community that is ready to meet the Savior and Lord of all.”

And think about this, what an incredible gift he gives them! He tells them that if on their mission things go bad (and they will, he assures them) don’t give up; instead, learn and move on.

Shake off the dust and move on. Learn the lessons and move on. See the problems, the mistakes, the bad assumptions, change the plan and move on!

Don’t mourn! Don’t lose sleep! Don’t keep going back and hitting your head against a brick wall, move on! Remember, that God has got this, and you aren’t God!

You are an apostle, one sent to bring good news. Do that, and leave the failures back in the dust where they belong, because God has amazing things for you to do just ahead.

Failure?

It is always possible.

But never ever let it define you, because you my friend are a child of the King!

And all God’s people said, Amen!

Strange Faith: Frustration from Luke 9:37-42 on August 16, 2020

2020-08-17T06:50:00.000-07:00

One of the absolute truths about life in our contemporary world is that frustration is rampant. Everything is nuts! And, if you listen closely, so is everyone you know!

Part of the problem, of course, is the massive uncertainty.

We humans like for things to be predictable and plannable. We want to know that things are going to be just like the last time we did them, but perhaps with a few flourishes thrown in.

Like school shopping. Do you really need a new backpack for junior or don’t you?

Most of us can deal with some uncertainty. We may not love it, but we can struggle through. And a few of us are wildly creativity and so enjoy the change, but even then, within certain limits. But very few of us are dealing well with the world we live in today!

Struggling with uncertainty takes a toll. It depletes our energy. It makes us wish for a different time when things seemed simpler, even if the reality wasn’t that simple.

Sue and I used to laugh at our neighbor DiDi Reynolds who lived across the street who seemed to repaint the whole interior of her house each year.

But she didn’t take the whole house apart. That would have been too much to handle, just like the “too much to handle” we are dealing with right now as we try to negotiate the massive scale of changes that are upending life.

COVID, race relations, politics, fake news, schools reopening or not, unemployment, people unable to pay rent and mortgages (individuals and businesses) stores going out of business, and travel restrictions, and so much more, all while the normal everyday challenges of life continue.

It’s too much all at the same time, and it has left us grasping for comfort as we search for answers. We are frustrated, and angry, and scared. Fear is at an all-time high, and because of it, we see people treating each other in ways that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago.

The hope is that somehow it is all going to go back to normal.

But, of course, it isn’t. Yes, somethings will. Just like after every national crisis, somethings go back. But they don’t go back all the way because some things have changed forever. And thought that leaves us breathless.

Some people will work from home from now on. Some people will order online because the stores they once bought from aren’t there.

And relationships?

Yes, they will go back, but only if we stop now and look around and make sure that our frustration doesn’t cut off friendships with people we care about because we have decided to take out our confusion and anger on them.

We need to deal positively with our frustration. And we need to see the frustration of others for what it is, a reaction to a crazy, dysfunctional world.

We need to listen to others with grace and love, we need to share as best we can what we have including our emotional energy, and we need to be very careful we don’t push others out of our lives right now, because we may need them and their energy, intelligence, imagination and love farther down the road.

Now, to be clear, frustration and anger are part of the human experience. We all feel both of them, yes all of us! Even Jesus!

Yes, Jesus got frustrated, today’s scripture is a great example. And he got angry. Check out the story of the flying tables in the Temple Courtyard or that poor fig tree that forgot to have figs.

In those stories we are reminded that Jesus understands our frustration and anger, our fears and our troubles too! But Jesus also invites us to do something about them that is meaningful and constructive so that those emotions don’t take over our lives and instead, peace, and joy, and grace, can take root.

Last week you may remember we left the disciples Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration. Now further in Luke’s gospel we are off the hill and back with the twelve. And Jesus is confronted with a crowd and some real frustration!

A man yells to Jesus about his son who is demon processed and then adds “I begged your disciples to force out the demon, but they couldn’t do it.”

Remember, these are the same disciples who went out on a mission trip for Jesus and healed people and cast out demons! But now, these disciples seem to have forgotten who they are and what they are supposed to be doing while Jesus was away!

Unlike us.

No, we who are angry, scared and frustrated have not forgotten that we are the children of the Most High God, empowered with the Holy Spirit, fearless in the face of whatever we face because we know God has us here and now for a reason!

Well maybe we have forgotten a little!

And Jesus said to them, “You people are stubborn and don’t have any faith! How much longer must I be with you? Why do I have to put up with you?”

Now you can read this as Jesus being frustrated at his disciples and that’s okay! Or you can think that he is frosted at the people gathered too. Jesus was certainly capable of being completely human, and feel our human emotions.

But I suspect it was more a response like what happens when I say to my grandson Noah, “Why are you eating sand! We’ve talked about this. Sand is not for Noah to eat! Don’t eat sand. Sometimes little guy, you make me crazy!”

As in Jesus saying, “Yo disciples! We talked about this. You have the power over demons! But for some reason you still don’t have the kind of faith that can move mountains. I’m not going to be here much longer. Y’all need to get it together!”

Yes, Jesus was frustrated! The disciples were growing in faith, but so slowly. They advanced one day and retreated another and time was running short.

Because you know when we really need our faith to be fully formed? Do you?

Strong, resilient, prepared, dynamic faith ready to hit the ground running? When do we need it? In the midst of the storm!

In the midst of this storm! Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not next year. Not on our death bed. Today.

So that as we meet friends and relatives, and folks at work or in the neighborhood or even online we can be the ones who bring the loving, calming, healing presence of Jesus to folks who are scared, and frustrated, and angry, in the midst of all this craziness!

It turns out that we too are disciples, learning the ways of Jesus.

But make no mistake, we are also apostles, everyone of us, sent to bring the good news of Jesus, the peace that passes understanding, to this frustrated world.

Go, in Jesus name!

Amen.

Strange Faith: Revealed from Luke 9:28-36 on August 9

2020-08-11T11:25:00.004-07:00

One of the great mysteries of life is how some people we think of as being just plain old people like us, goofballs as it were, granola, fruits, flakes and nuts, can be so remarkable, capable and successful in parts of their lives that we are unfamiliar with.

Sue and I have often remarked about people we grew up with who seemed fairly odd at the time, but who now are responsible human beings.

I hung out with a bunch of friends, several of whom are now medical doctors! I often wonder who forgot to call me and ask what I thought of their High School shenanigans.

And we’ve marveled at Sue’s brother Pete, who in his younger years seemed unlikely to be a grand success in life, who when we visited him on a U. S. Navy base a few years ago was a big shot of sorts.

Here we are with high security planes all around us and he seems right at home.

I even asked him, “how come we can wander around with you and nobody asks any questions?” He looked at me and kind of laughed and said, “that’s because they can see what my security badge says!”

As Sue said later, “who forgot to call me and ask about him?”

And the stories could go on forever about people we have known and hung out with, kids from the Youth Groups here at church, folks we thought were a little special, who later in life turn out to be wiser and smarter and more capable than we ever knew.

Obviously, our estimates of their capabilities were way off! As were the disciples of Jesus!

These disciples have figured out that Jesus is amazing.

They have figured out that he is capable of miracles.

They have figured out that he teaches like he’s the author of the book.

And they have figured out that he has this amazing gift for taking people where they are and elevating them to a new level.

Some of them even figured out that he was the Messiah.

In Luke 9:18-20 just a few verses before this story, Jesus says, “What do people say about me?” They answered, “Some say that you are John the Baptist or Elijah or a prophet from long ago who has come back to life.” Jesus then asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah sent from God.”

It's all good!

But they can’t see the forest for the trees. They can’t see that this Jesus who they have hung out with, learned from, eaten with, even gone out on mission trips for, is God present right there, right now.

What they see is what they know, just like Sue and I seeing Brian and Katie as the little children they were and the crazy teenagers they became and not the highly capable and highly respected specialists in Emergency Management and Forensic Auditing that they have become.

They are just Katie and Brian.

And he was just Jesus, you know special, but just Jesus.

And then, just before the passion begins, before that final trip to Jerusalem, just like before Jesus beginning his ministry after rising up out of the baptismal waters of the Jordan, there is a reminder that he is not just Jesus, he is God present!

A couple of months back, Brian took me in for a few minutes to see where he works in an underground bomb shelter with a two-foot-thick steel door.

Back then he showed me a copy machine he had bought for work that was at least twelve feet long. It made books. In comparison with the church computer it was like comparing my kayak with an aircraft carrier.

His responsibilities have changed since then. Most recently he put together a mission dollar order for vehicles for his department since someone made him in change of the department’s fleet.

No one asked me or his mother whether he was allowed to do that!

And Katie, who would have imagined her journey from working at group homes to where she is today, doing things as a professional that makes Sue and I so proud of her, even as we shake our heads in disbelief!

We know them as Brian and as Katie, the kids from Otisville.

And they knew him as Jesus, the guy from Bethlehem.

But at both the water’s edge and here on the mountain top, everyone who was paying attention was reminded, that this Jesus was God’s beloved son!

They needed to hear that! They needed to see that! Not because when they went down off the mountain it would all become clear, because, let’s face it, it wasn’t!

But because what was about to take place needed to be set in context for them!

And to be honest, it needed to be reminded to Jesus as well, that all that was ahead was God’s plan, that it was all going to matter, that his suffering would change everything, and that it was worth it.

Moses, the representative, the symbol of the Old Testament law and Elijah, the representative and symbol of the prophets, even the Shekinah, the glory cloud covering God’s presence, stood in agreement that the death and resurrection of God’s son would change everything.

Now Peter, James, and John saw the truth, even if they didn’t understand it, that the Jesus they knew and loved was God incarnate. He was so much more than anything they could have imagined of their friend from Galilee, now who they saw in the transformed light of the glory cloud!

It is a revelation that should transform our thinking too, not only about Jesus, but about each other.

Because we are not who so many of the folks around us think we are. We are so much more!

We are even more than we often think ourselves to be. We are the daughters and sons of the Most High God, and are always capable of much more than we imagine.

We, through Christ can change the world, as Jesus did, going and sharing and caring, making a difference, touching lives, raising folks up, healing, feeding and loving others in Jesus name.

We are all gloriously and wonderfully made in God image.

Now we just need to live like it.

Jesus did! And his life, and death, and resurrection makes everything possible.

So, go and make a difference in Jesus’ name!

Amen.

Strange Faith: Feeding others from August 2 and Luke 9:1-17

2020-08-03T06:23:00.002-07:00

So,

In case you were unaware, I like food!

I like all kinds of food! I like meat, I like vegetables, I like fruit, I like dairy, and based on a book being read to Noah, it is possible I may even like Green Eggs and Ham.

The idea that Jesus would be so concerned about the hungry crowd around him moves me! Not just because I think eating is a great idea! No, it moves me because of the amazing compassion Jesus shows when he feeds those hungry folks.

Feeding the hungry is also why I am so excited by our food pantry program and am so thankful for Kathy Card’s leadership along with all our Deacons and volunteers!

Feeding hungry people is the essence of the gospel I think, whether that be physical or spiritual hunger.

Now there is a wrinkle or two in the story.

Jesus, faced with the reality that these people he was initially trying to get away from so that he could teach his disciples in some peace and quiet, now need to be fed is one.

And here he once again proves he is some much better than I!

He’s not frustrated, angry, disturbed; I would be going crazy!

Nope he is moved with compassion. And so, he teaches them, he heals them, and then, at the suggestion of his astute disciples, who have seen that it is the end of the day and people need to eat, now feeds them.

Kind of. Sort of.

Because while at first glance this story just seems to be just about Jesus miraculous power to feed people, it has occurred to me that there is another important and subtle lesson here.

At least as the story is told in Luke.

If you listened carefully to the beginning of the Scripture lesson today, you heard another story about Jesus disciples. Then, in between the two some intrigue about Herod that will matter later in the gospel.

But what I really need you to notice is the first story about the sent disciples, and then the second story about the sent disciples.

Yes, they are sent in ministry twice. Sometimes, in order to learn a lesson we have to do it more than once.

In September, I’m going to begin a series of sermons on the Acts of the Apostles. There is some amazing stuff in Luke’s recording of what the Apostles did after Jesus ascension and then Pentecost. But Luke’s story actually starts here.

Did you know that the word apostle, means “sent one”? That an apostle is one who is sent to do something. It has a very different meaning than a disciple, who is basically a student learning from a master.

The Twelve, were disciples.

But you see here in these two stories Jesus in the process of taking his disciples and making apostles out of them, the very thing he is doing to us! In story one, sent. In story two sent!

Now the difference between the two is I think ironic. In the first story, the disciples are sent out, go all over the place, staying at people’s houses, rely on the hospitality of others, teaching about Jesus, and then healing people.

When was the last time you went out into your neighborhood, stayed at other people’s houses, ate their food, taught them about Jesus, and healed them?

Is it possible, just asking, that it is because you are still a disciple and not yet an apostle? Not yet a sent one? Not ready ready, willing and empowered?

Why not?

According to the other gospels telling of this adventure and of the disciples and other followers going in ministry, they saw on this adventure amazing things happen! They were brave and bold and driven and focused and they made the kingdom of God come alive.

Jesus said go, and they went!

But, for some reason faced with this hungry crowd, they got nothing! They are completely set back on their heels, stymied, lost, powerless. No longer out on their own, safely back in Jesus presence, they fold.

To their credit, they noticed that the people were hungry. It was either that or Peter’s stomach that keep growling. In either case they noticed.

And that is not a bad thing. Noticing the needs of others is always the first step to dynamic ministry, noticing what is wrong, what is needed and then looking for a solution.

The church would do well to always be thinking about what is needed in our community and looking for ways to help provide or enable a solution. If, this fall, parents need to go back to work, but also need to help their kids learn, is there anything we can do?

Even in the time of COVID, what can we do about what needs to be done? How can we use what we have? Maybe we can’t solve the whole problem, but how can we make sure that those who are in need get help?

And seeing the problem, that they are hungry, is a first step.

But they missed the second step. Yes, they went to Jesus, which would normally have been the best idea.

But Jesus has already commissioned and sent them to make a difference so…

Jesus tells them “you feed them”!

Actually the pew bibles say, “you give them something to eat”, but the point was clear! You all just came back from a mission trip where you ate at other people’s houses and saw miracles. “you feed them!”

What the disciples see is what they don’t have, or what little they have. What they don’t see is what they do have! They are missing the point! They ate at other people’s houses so they didn’t have any food. But…

They also saw miracles. They healed folks! “You feed them!”

So often, we focus on limitations, instead of seeing God’s wonderful provision!

Jesus was hoping for a quiet time to teach them. Instead it was going to be a noisy time to teach them right in the midst of a famished crowd.

Jesus showed them how to use what they did have, five loaves of bread and two fish (why they had that – who knows) and to rely on God to do whatever miracle God had in mind.

Jesus seems to say, “You went in ministry with nothing and God provided. Why now do you doubt that God will do the same?”

We need to open our minds and our hearts to the presence of God and God’s amazing kingdom and doing what we can let God use our faithfulness to do miracles!

Feeding others, like caring for others at any time and in any way, is a privilege and an honor and clear evidence of the Kingdom of God’s presence among us.

Hospitality is what God expects us to offer to others because it is what God offers us!

Grace and love, made real in Jesus, in bread & fish, and at the Lord Table in bread & wine, the active presence of the God in the lives of people in need!

Come to the table of mercy
Prepared with the wine and the bread
All who are hungry and thirsty
Come and your soul will be fed.

Come at the Lord’s invitation
Receive from His nail-scarred hand
Eat of the bread of salvation
Drink of the blood of the Lamb.

Amen.

The Monster on July 26 a Sermon by Edgar Hat=yes

2020-07-28T08:22:00.002-07:00

Other than comic books, I hadn’t read many personal books growing up. I had an explosion of reading at the end of HS/beginning of college. I took a liking to Steven King’s writings. I got so engrossed in a character while I was riding on the subway train. After exiting the train, as I approached the turnstile, I felt as if I couldn’t talk. The character I was reading about was mute. I quickly came to my senses but oh the joy of a good book. There was a lull in my reading frenzy followed by another explosion when JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series hit the stands. I couldn’t wait to get to the next one but was always sad to get to the end, because I didn’t want the book to end. When our children were born, we made sure we read to them every day. They loved books and one in particular is The monster at the end of this book.

This book and my up and down book reading reminded me of how I read the Bible. A lot of people read, know, and love the beginning story of creation. In the beginning God created (that was my sad attempt at James Earl Jones impersonation (Star Wars fans will know who he is)...the seventh day He rested...God walked and talked with Adam in the cool of day...the setting was picturesque, pure, and pleasing to the senses...throw in vegetarian eating (an awesome start to a book)...enter the serpent...the apple...the fall and exile...birth and murder...a created people...the flood...a rainbow and a new beginning.

Genesis provides all the makings of a movie blockbuster... intrigue, death, conniving, love, action. It’s a good read that captivates you to keep going. But by the time Leviticus and Numbers rolls around, the rollercoaster rides on a downhill swing. It picks up again around Deuteronomy, coast for a little bit before making upward and downward swings again. And if you are like me, I never wanted to read the end of the Bible because there was a monster, quite a few actually, at the end of the book. I dabbled but relatively stayed away from the book of Revelations way into my adult years. Many folks are scared to read Revelations because of God’s judgement on His people.

Many people are scared because it involves the devil, spiritual warfare in real life, is characterized with dragons, death, plagues, scorpion like creatures...Because of my fear, I never knew the very end of the Bible that Isaiah foretold chapters and centuries before.

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days...my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. In other words, our swords, our weapons of war are beaten into plowshares, because no more will there be war over each other’s land and possessions. The old things, the old ways gone, never to return. Yet because of my fear, I never really knew this.”

Nor my favorite part of the whole bible, which happens to be in Revelations, where it says:

“The angel showed me a river that was crystal clear, and its waters gave life. The river came from the throne where God and the Lamb were seated. Then it flowed down the middle of the city’s main street. On each side of the river are trees that grow a different kind of fruit each month of the year. The fruit gives life, and the leaves are used as medicine to heal the nations.” -Revelation 22:1-2

The Bible as a whole is a story of God’s love and a strong desire to be with, closely work in and through the lives of His creation. We can see this theme happening throughout the book. As we change lenses to get a closer perspective (Star Wars fans will know what I’m referencing), today’s reading comes from the gospel book of Matthew.

He wrote to a specific audience around 85-90 AD.

Jewish Christians were living in a period of post-temple destruction, which occurred in 70 AD. Temple worship was no longer central for Jews who followed the old faith traditions and Rome still occupied the nation. Jews and Jewish Christians faced high taxes, exile, persecution from Rome, and many were killed during the war years or fled to other nations around the world.

Jewish Christians were also harassed by Jews because of their new faith. Matthew’s main purpose in writing the gospel was to show his audience that Jesus was the promised Messiah. He was the one talked about in the stories and written about in the “Old” scriptures, and that God’s promises had been, were being, and will continue to be fulfilled.

So as we read and try to understand scripture, it is imperative that we see it from the lens of the people, time, culture, and setting, for which it was written. The trouble occurs when we replace our own time, culture, language, and understanding with the setting of the writer. We will miss out on a lot of what God has to offer if we fail to recognize who the book was it written to, when was it written, what was going on at the time, and what was God’s active, sovereign work over creation in that particular setting.

So that’s Matthew as a whole. Now we can change the lens again (Star Wars fans) to go deeper into today’s scripture. What was Matthew talking about when he mentions so many times the kingdom of heaven. If we compare Matthews gospel to the other two Synoptics, we see that they use kingdom of God instead. Matthew is not referring to God’s dwelling place heaven. Some scholars believe it was just a way to circumvent the use of saying the name for God.

The phrase, kingdom of heaven/God, was never really defined but rather used as a simile or metaphor by Jesus in His parables to describe God’s ever present, ever working in and through, sovereign reign over His creation. The Christian readers of Matthew’s time knew this language and discussed what it meant for them in their time. How can we Christians today make sense of the language? Parables are confusing in themselves let alone try to figure out what the kingdom of heaven is. So let’s take a closer look at what the scripture is saying. The kingdom of heaven is like:

· What happens when a farmer plants a mustard seed in a field? What happens when a woman adds a little yeast to a large amount of flour?

· These two speaks of the abundance of God’s kingdom

· What happens when someone finds treasure hidden? What happens when a shop owner is looking for fine pearls?

· These two speaks of giving up all you have for the one treasure - eternal life.

· What happens when a net is thrown into a lake?

· This one talks about the time of judgment. The end of the age. The monster at the end of the book. It also speaks to the beauty of God’s grace and love for those who choose Him.

Matthew uses many other parables in reference to God’s kingdom. Who will and will not get in, people keeping others from entering, inheriting the kingdom, being childlike, the least in the kingdom, people from everywhere enjoying the feast in the kingdom with the patriarchs, and with Jesus. The kingdom of heaven is near. The kingdom of God is here. The kingdom of heaven is future looking. The kingdom of God is never static or central but always moving yet ever present with time and outside of time.

It is also revealed through the Holy Spirit to those who are willing to see and hear God’s truth. Jesus spoke about the kingdom in parables to the people, but explained their meaning only to the disciples. He told them- the prophets of old longed to see and hear what you witnessed. The mysteries of the kingdom were being revealed to them when most were “seeing but could not see and hearing but could not hear”.

So, I ask you Christian, if the Holy Spirit is allowing you to see while others are blind and hear while others are deaf, what are you doing today with the knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom. What are you doing today in the face of racism in America?

I shared yesterday in a zoom meeting how white women clutch their purse when they see me walking down the street towards them. When they do that subconsciously or consciously, they are not seeing Edgar the preacher, fireman, teacher, farmer, father, husband, human being and child of God. What they see is the stereotypical image of a black man as thief.

What are you doing today Christian as the 1st and second wave of Corona virus cases are increasing? Are you recognizing the harvest in the fields? Are you continuing to do the work of God, safely, while not allowing fear and/or isolation govern your life? Jesus says the “harvest is plenty, but the workers are few.” So what are you doing today Christian in the face of hunger, mental illness, understanding systemic racism in all its forms , opioid addiction, jobless rate increase, health crisis, depression, homelessness, misogyny, or human trafficking? More and more people are in need of help these days.

What are you doing today, Christian?

If we were to write up a parable for our time today, it could be: The kingdom of heaven is like when a Christian allowed the Holy Spirit to open their eyes and open their ears. People were not seen as objects or lesser than and everyone fought together against the spiritual forces waging war against the soul. Lord we pray that your kingdom come soon in order for your Will to be done on this earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Strange Faith: Healing from Luke 8 on July 12

2020-07-13T07:09:00.001-07:00

What is it that you love most about worship? And what is it that you miss the most?

Les Kirby’s sister stopped by on Wednesday and was telling me about her church.

Like us haven’t met in person, but they have figured out that when they do, they won’t be able to sing, and they won’t be able to hug. She said, “so what’s the point, we can get the rest watching the service on the computer!”

I think that is a pretty understandable expression of what we want and need in our worship experiences, not just the transcendence of God with us, but the fellowship of us being together.

The faith community gathered has its own power for us! In being together we feel healed, redirected, encouraged to go back into the world and be like Christ.

So, while online worship is good and helpful especially when we just can’t safely gather, being together feels better. It is a visible expression of the body of Christ, and in the gathered crowd our faith grows.

Sheila Moore said the other day that she hurried back from shopping so she could be at home for the Friday Zoom Prayer meeting, because in that space the power flows and we all feel energized.

So, it’s not that God can’t move over the wires connecting us by Zoom or Facebook or Youtube, just like this morning. It’s just that we yearn for more!

And in these two stories from Luke’s gospel, we see the power of the gathered faith community for what it is in that context, then and now. In community, God does miracles!

Now you may be surprised by that idea, that this crowd on the shore of Lake Galilee is a faith community!

Sometimes I think we a bit arrogantly assume that the Jewish communities and even some of the Gentile communities Jesus encountered were without faith, but clearly that isn’t true.

Sometimes, like us, there was more faith or less faith, but often, Jesus saw faith and called on that faith to strengthen it and invite it to step up to a new level!

Unlike the story before it on the other shore of Galilee with the man possessed by a demon, and the pig farmers, this community is not only is excited to see Jesus, but they want to see God’s power at work through Jesus.

But as is often the case, they were not necessarily ready for how that power was going to play out, just as I suspect we aren’t ready for God’s power today.

We want God to come among us. We want God to touch our lives. But there is always some trepidation when God’s power is unleashed in that it will change things, and well, we don’t like change very much!

We’re nervous about what God will do and how God will change things and change us. And what God does may challenge us to live in bold ways like we never have before!

So, it’s into this faith community gathered on Galilee’s shores that the President of the Synagogue comes and kneels at Jesus’ feet.

It turns out that his only daughter, just 12, is gravely sick.

He comes full of faith and hope to ask Jesus to come to his house and heal the child. He hopes that Jesus will come quickly and that the healing process will come quickly as well.

This is a big moment for Jesus, because if the healing takes place, the Synagogue’s president is in a position to make Jesus even more famous and renown than he already is! And the crowd heads to the leader’s house!

But, we know a bit more about Jesus than perhaps the President of the Synagogue or the crowd did. Perhaps even more than the disciples, because we know that while meeting the President of the Synagogue may have been nice, Jesus had no interest in fame, or renown.

His interest was only in doing the work God had called him to, a gentle reminder that Jesus has little interest in many of the things we often worry about, focused instead on calling us to great faith, often the opposite of fame and power and money!

Our calling, like Jesus’, is to be focused on the kingdom, focused on God’s work in this world, and focused on growing disciples.

And then Jesus stops dead to ask who touched him!

If it wasn’t such an important moment one could almost see this as written for a Monty Python sketch, as the disciples look around hopelessly and in absolute disbelief that Jesus wants to know who of the hundreds of people around him touched him.

It could have been the synagogue guy. It could have been one of them. Everyone is in close, jostling for a place near the master and he wants to know who!

Because it matters! The who!

Because in the next moment he takes a lowly terrified woman, who by ritual standards because of her bleeding should never have been allowed anywhere near Jesus, in fact anywhere near the crowd, because she was unclean…

And Jesus, caring not a whit about her ritual uncleanness, restores her not only to health, but almost more importantly, to her community, so that no one can ever question if she belongs as part of them.

Though the scripture makes it sound as if she only touched the hem of his garment, Jesus makes clear she has touched him, that healing power has moved and has healed her, and that he now wants to meet the person of faith who simply believing, has been set free.

She bows at his feet in abject fear.

The penalty for her audacity could be permanent, painful and swift. Instead, Jesus raises her up publicly to full communion in the house of faith, as a person who is whole, holy, restored, and an example of what faith is all about!

“You are now well because of your faith. May God give you peace!”

The child of the man of renown waits while the outcast women is healed. In the kingdom of God, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

God does not care about fame or power or money. What God cares about is your faith.

And in a quiet room, with only a child, her faithful parents, and just three of the disciples, he raises the dead girl to life, telling the parents to say nothing.

Because faith brings no fame or power or money.

What it brings is restoration.

A woman to her community. A child to her parents. And you and I to God and each other.

And every person of faith, be they black or white, Canadian or Swede, gay or straight, young or old, handsome or rugged, working or unemployed, healthy or ill, restored to full communion in the Kingdom of God!

You and I have been restored!

And now we are invited to go and find others to invite back home! Amen

The Struggle is Real from July 5

2020-07-07T08:25:00.001-07:00

The Struggle is Real by Elizabeth Orengo

Today’s passage shows us the very human side of the Apostle Paul. He is considered one of the most influential leaders of the early Christian church. He was crucial in spreading the gospel to the gentiles during the first century through is missionary journeys. And he started dozens of churches. That’s not a bad resume. Some would say, he’s someone we should look up to as an example of a good Christian, right?

Let’s see – he was influential, he could preach the gospel so good speaker, he was a self-starter or entrepreneur, definitely a leader, so yeah, by those qualifications, he’s pretty good.

But let’s not forget before he met Jesus, he was Saul of Tarsus and his primary occupation was persecuting Christians. Hey, nobody’s perfect.

That’s why today’s passage always strikes home with me. Because it’s REAL! I see myself in this passage. I know the sermon title is cliché but it’s true – the struggle is real! What struggle? Well, life!

As I’ve mentioned before, I was born and raised in the church. I’ve never really strayed or rebelled against the church. I may have gone a few months over the course of my [ahem] years of not attending because I was “in between” churches but I never considered myself “unchurched”. So when I read this passage and see that someone like Paul who commands with such authority, who starts churches, who calls people out, who is bold and confident to preach the gospel anywhere his feet takes him actually STRUGGLES with SIN then I think to myself – WOW, if this guy who in some religions is known as a Saint can have issues, then I‘m not in bad company!

That’s why this passage in Romans is often referred to as the Christian Experience because it talks about the Christian life. It talks about the struggle only Christians have – that push and pull between wanting to do what is good (following God) and doing what is bad (sin). You see, non-believers don’t have this struggle. Because of sin (through Adam), we were already at odds with God – so sin is not the non-believers problem. Once we are converted, once we change and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, that’s when our struggle with sin begins. We are now fighting between doing what we know we should do as followers of Christ and fighting against what our flesh wants us to do. This is what Paul is talking about in chapter 7.

What I like is that he’s not talking about it from a lofty, pulpit, preachy place – he’s talking in the first-person. He’s speaking of his experience as a Christian in verses 14-25. Paul is describing his own personal struggle with sin. What?? Paul struggles with sin? The Apostle Paul?? That can’t be right!? Me, yes? I can’t speak for you, but ask yourself, do you struggle with sin?

Now you may think, “I’m a good person. I may make little mistakes, tell the occasional white lie, but I don’t SIN.” Well, look at this way. The fact that you categorize them as “mistakes” and “lies” already means you know they are wrong – you are already struggling with yourself. That means the Holy Spirit is working in you, course correcting you to stay on the right path. That inner voice – that’s the struggle. If you weren’t a believer, that inner voice wouldn’t be there, that struggle wouldn’t be there.

Let’s go to the text. Verses 14-17:

14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. 15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

Like all good leaders, Paul is trying to problem solve. Is the law (the Law of Moses) the problem or is it me? Let’s get to the root of the problem. Well, it can’t be the Law – that’s holy, righteous and good. It came directly from God! So, I have to be the problem! Then we see his frustration with himself! And this is where I see myself so often! I know what I’m supposed to do and yet I don’t do it!!

It’s like exercising. We all know we should exercise daily. And we may start off with good intentions on January 1. We get our gym memberships or buy some home equipment and new workout clothes and we’re excited and motivated. Week one we’re feeling good, the endorphins are in high gear. Week two we skipped a few days because we worked late, we went out, we wanted pizza for dinner, or [insert your own excuse here]. Week three we find more excuses and our struggle continues.

That’s how I see this inner struggle we have with sin. But Paul does something in this text that adds a new element and kind of takes the guilt off our shoulders.

Our desire as Christians is to want to do that which God’s Law defines as good. We don’t want to do what the Law calls sin. I picture this like a tennis match where I’m the ball bouncing from one side of the court to the other – I want to do the right thing (whack), but I don’t (return), but I want to do right (whack), but I mess up again (return)…how do we stop the insanity?!

Paul describes this as being weak in the flesh which is why we are overpowered by our sinful nature! Verses 18-20:

18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

If Paul struggled with his sinful nature, what hope do the rest of us have of conquering it? This problem is serious! So much so that Paul refers to himself as “a miserable person” or in some translations “wretched.” He even likens his struggles to being a slave to sin. This nature is so powerful, he’s being controlled by it! Have you ever felt controlled by your sins? Verses 21-24:

21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

Let’s step back for a minute. Have you noticed a theme throughout the text? There’s a whole lot of “I” going on in here!

“I want to do”

“but I don’t”

“I do what I really”

“I, I, I, I, I”!

Where is God in all this struggling?

Where is there some Proverbs 3:5 trust & understanding?

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

I do this a lot, too. I try to solve my issues on my own. I think too often that God has bigger things to deal with that I should be able to deal with my own issues. Since I know I’m doing wrong, I should be able to course correct on my own. I know that causes a lot of the struggles I face and it’s not necessary.

The desperate struggle in our life as Christians to do what is right under our own power – I’ll say that again – under our own power – leads to complete frustration and failure – even the Apostle Paul says this is his experience! So, I ask again, is there hope? Are we meant to keep struggling endlessly? No, we are not; there is HOPE! That hope can be found in Jesus Christ!

Verse 25:

25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

My friends, until Christ comes again and we are transformed, we are going to struggle between doing what is right because we have become children of God and what is wrong because of sin. But don’t despair. Look to the Cross. This is where we will find forgiveness and strength and healing. Remember, when you struggle and fail – not if, but when – you’ll be in good company. His name is the Apostle Paul and he didn’t do so badly. Amen.