Sermon, January 1, 2023
Epiphany
Today, on this first Sunday of 2023, we celebrate the Sunday of Epiphany a little early. It is not quite January 6, but the lessons in the story of the wise men, or magi, or kings are as important to us today as they were 2000 years ago.
Why is this story in the Bible? Well, if you believe the Bible is a living document, then you accept the fact that stories in the bible lead you to truth, to hope, to faith, but most importantly of all, they can lead you to knowledge of yourself, which is the most important knowledge of all.
Briefly, the story tells us that once the baby Jesus was born, men from the east followed a star to the house where the baby Jesus was living with his mother. The story tell us they brought three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 21-2, 9-11) Look at the specifics: we are not told how many men came; we are not told from what country that journeyed from, we know only that they followed a star, found the baby, and gave gifts of gold (meaning wealth), frankincense (perfume), and myrrh (an embalming fluid.) Through the centuries, each gift began to have great significance to the Jesus story. Of course gold is wealth and in most historical cases wealth belonged to the kings, the leaders of a people. The story associated the gift of gold with Jesus as a king...of course he might and hopefully be king of your heart, but he was never earthly wealthy nor considered a king.
Frankincense was used by underling priests in the east to send smoke upward where God resides. Up, as in up in the sky. Some churches today such as high Anglican and some Catholics still use incense as part of their worship.
Myrrh was used in ancient times to consecrate priests and kings. It was also used in embalming. Embalming back then included some ideas that perhaps life would continue after death.
Again, through the ages, these three gifts were symbolized to help us see Jesus as our king, our priest, and our source for life after death.
The story never tells us where the men were from, but perhaps from Persia. The number of visitors is never mentioned; therefore people think because there were three gifts there were three men...plus the number three eventually led us to think of the Trinity in our Christian development.
Let’s see what this story can mean to us in the year 2023. Epiphany means “manifestation.” That is God showing up in our lives. That statement is vital to our existence. If we live to block God from our lives, we don’t really live they way we are inclined to do so. We all seek peace. We all want justice. We all need love. It is God and God’s way that ultimately provides all three. What is important to us as Christian believers is to ensure that God does manifest in us, that God does show up in our daily actions. How kind are we to people different from us? How giving are we to people in real need? How loving are we to people housed away in nursing homes or who live alone? How active are we in our community, our schools, our churches? God’s way brings light. And light is life giving in so many ways we can’t count them all.
Let’s look at the 3 men and 3 gifts in the story of the epiphany from a personal perspective. Are you a king? I hope and pray you are king of our own soul. No one else can ever be. You alone are responsible for the health and wealth of your soul. The health of your soul is your personal capacity to love, to forgive, and to care for others.
Are you a magi? That is an underling in Christian life? Do you say you love God, you want to follow and serve Jesus, but do you actually do so? Do you act on your love? Who do you love? How do you show this love you have, the compassion that keeps us growing in spiritual ways?
Or, are you a wise person….that is one who knows your national and religious history? We are not enlightened people until we understand from whence we have come...the joys and heartbreaks of the journey that has preceded us for thousands of years. Upon whose shoulders do you stand?
If you do write down New Year’s Resolutions, you might resolve to better understand who you are through better understanding of how you got here and why.
We can do that together in church, in conversations, in bible study, and in reading the bible then asking questions about what we read. Let’s work together to maintain and further the cause of Christian living. Otherwise, I dread to think of what might befall us due to lack of understanding and very little appreciation.
Together, as a church family, let’s put a hopeful attitude toward the New Year and do our part to fulfill its mission of making life better for more and more people.
Amen
Sermon, January 8, 2023
Importance of Our Spiritual History
Our Bible is unique in world literature because it is his-story...God’s story of us and our spiritual DNA. When Matthew, a devout Jewish man, wrote his gospel, he did so to make certain the history of Judaism through Jewish heroes would be remembered as forerunners to the new Messiah… Jesus, our Christ. Matthew recalled some of the most memorable Jewish historical people and put part of their story in the birth story of Jesus.
For example, Matthew used information about Noah, Moses, Joseph (one of Jacob’s 12 sons), Queen Esther, Daniel, and King Solomon. He used this information to assure us of the validity of Jesus and Jesus’ Jewishness.
Specifically, we read Jesus was laid in a manger. In the Hebrew language, the words basket, manger, and ark are all the same word. Noah and his ark saved the early races by surviving the flood. Noah is known as a savior. Moses, as a baby, was placed in a basket and was raised by the Pharaoh. He too grew up to be called a savior of the Jewish people because he rescued them from slavery and from the Egyptian army. Then Jesus was placed in a manger and he too became our savior because he taught us how to live with love, forgiveness, compassion...the three traits of faithful living.
By using a similar word for manger, basket, and ark, Matthew made Jesus to be like the heroes of the Jewish race.
Next, Matthew in his gospel, wrote in a story of magi visiting the baby Jesus by following a star. Here he used parts of the story of the Jewish Queen Esther to bring in a tale of visiting wise men. When Queen Esther’s husband was confused about how to save Esther’s Jewish people, he called in Wise Men to come help him solve the problem. The wise men brought with them gifts of wisdom. Through their gifts the Jewish people were saved from the plan to mass murder all of them.
Not stopping there, Matthew used the character of Daniel to promote the importance of Magi, and to involve a star to follow. Daniel had served as a slave to the empires of Babylon and Persia. He was known as Rab-Mag, meaning he was chief of all the magis. These magis studied the stars and prophesied about the future. Daniel told these magis that in the future a Messiah would be born and magis around the world would know when that happened because a strange star would appear at that time. Both of these are important aspects of the birth of Jesus, told by Matthew to assure us of Jesus’ Jewishness.
Then lastly, Matthew included a story about the Jewish king Solomon...David’s son. Solomon was known far and wide for his wisdom. The Queen of Sheba, from Ethiopia, came with many kings to visit Solomon. These kings came bearing gifts of gold, spices, and strange things and laid them at the feet of the King. The story continues that while Sheba stayed in the palace with Solomon, she became pregnant with a child by Solomon. When time came for her to return to her own country, Solomon sent hundreds of Jewish people with her to assist in raising his son as a Jewish man. To this day, there is a large Jewish population in Ethiopia.
These were all efforts on the part of Matthew to preserve the very foundations of Judaism through Biblical characters, proving Jesus is who they say he is, and asking Jews and Christians everywhere to keep the faith...because elements even today are trying to destroy our faith.
It’s important for us to understand the historical background of Jesus and our faith….because if we don’t know or don’t remember we may repeat the ills of it.
I urge each one of us to learn to enjoy reading the biblical stories of our own past history. This current generation of Christians, including you and me, must keep these stories alive and vibrant for the next generations...or there may not be Christianity beyond our own years. And when Christianity leaves so does law, order, human kindness, and hope for a better future for all of us. Each one of us must play a part in keeping our faith alive and pass it on.
Let’s not be part of the reason Christ dies again, permanently this time.
Amen
Sermon, January 15, 2023
The Joy of Serving
Let’s talk for a minute about a God-given joy that most of us seldom consider, and that is the joy of serving God and one another. We all know church, our Sunday and Tuesday gatherings, are not spectator sports! We don’t make the effort to come here to to watch, grab what little bits interest us, then leave. Just the opposite is true. We are called to come to be a part of the life of the church. Not watching from the sidelines or the back pew, or on Facebook, but being involved in supporting others who come, by praying and singing, and by just being yourself in the midst of other believers who may be having the same concerns that you have.
Our scripture today reminded us that Jesus asked his friends and acquaintances to help build the kingdom of God here, on earth. Jesus’s spirit is still doing that for us today.
All through scripture we find messages that tell us God has made us to serve our neighbors and our co-worshipers. There is absolute joy when we use the gifts God has given us to help encourage, motivate, and inspire those around us.
We show love when we serve one another. And to be clear, to serve, that is to provide a service to someone, is as simple as just showing up. Show up and call a friend you haven’t heard from lately. Show up and write a note to a shut in or someone who is ill. Show up at the grocery store by taking your cart back to where it belongs and not leaving it in the parking lot. Show up and hold a door open for someone behind you. Show up and smile at someone. Show up at church, or bible study, or in any related gathering because you care. It’s not always easy or convenient to show up at an event like for funerals, or weddings, or church services, but if it has to do with God or love, then nothing is more important...not business, not social activities, not even sports events should ever take the place of showing up for God and for those who are influenced by your presence. You as a believer carry in you the loving Spirit of Christ...our task is to share that love to as many people as we come in contact with in any given day.
When we serve others by showing up, we are witnessing to the goodness of our Christ spirit. We are actually sharing his love with others. We are providing a visible, real, and tangible display of God’s love for others. Centuries ago, St. Francis of Assisi taught “preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words.” That means actions, showing up, being where others gather. There is joy and peace when we use the Gifts God has given us to witness to and share his love with those who sit among us.
You might think, well if I show up at church what good does it do me?
Well, actually medical science teaches we humans are hard-wired to serve and to show up where we are needed. We feel good when we serve and that, too, has been proven by science. Volunteering, being involved in a charitable group, being active in a church, are ways to contribute to your own better health. The author Marta Zaraska has discovered that the conventional thinking of diet and exercise as keys to healthier life can often be replaced by kindness, involvement in engagements that encourage love of others, and serving others. In fact, through years of research, she avows that serving others, showing up for the basic important aspects of life, reduces mortality by 22 to 44 %. Serving others is a life-saving action. God believes in life and life confirming actions….therefore we can honestly say God made us to serve and we are free to eagerly accept the healthy consequences of being who God has designed us to be….lovers, friends, motivators, and care givers.
So next Sunday, if you would rather stay home alone in your pjs and drink your coffee while you watch our church service from home, if you are physically able or live somewhere fairly near, please reconsider the health aspect of yourself and others by showing up here. You might be surprised to know that some folks here look around to see if you are present. When you are your presence is a comfort to that someone. It happens more often than you can imagine. You can even come in your pjs and still be part of something absolutely essential in the life of Christians...to love and serve God by loving and serving one another. Show up, hug someone, shake hands with a stranger, smile...we will all benefit from each other’s decisions to be healthier and happier by doing God’s bidding.
This week lets focus on the spiritual fact that you are loved and are vitally important to God. Share the power and grace of service to others, for a true test of our Christianity, that is Christ in us, is characterized by service. Jesus always, in every case, modeled the heart of a servant, all the way to the cross.
We can do our part, so let’s encourage each other to be very present servants to each other.
Amen
Sermon, January 22, 2023
Wedding at Cana: Gospel of John 2: 1-12
Many of you who read and study the Bible realize the Gospel of John is primarily one of metaphor, or symbolism. A metaphor points to a truth through a story about an ordinary event. In today’s reading the story is about a wedding which has in it the first of Jesus’ miracles, or signs, as John calls them.
Centuries ago, in the time of Jesus, official weddings lasted 7 days and nights with feasting, dancing, parading and celebrating. It’s was the groom’s responsibility to house and feed the guests for all 7 days...a huge and costly responsibility. There were no hotels or restaurants so the groom and his family had to find housing, provide meals, and entertainment.
The story tells us Jesus, some of his disciples, and his mother attended the wedding in a small village called Cana. Interestingly, his mother is not named in the story. The reason is that in this story Jesus’ mother is Israel, the nation of the Jewish people. It was not uncommon for people in ancient times to refer to their nation, their mother-land, as their mother. The Jewish people knew they were God’s chosen, yet they were continually oppressed and mistreated...therefore, Israel was always on the minds of concerned Jewish people.
In the story we are told the wine is all used up. John’s meaning here is that the wine represents Judaism. We know the author is telling us the Jewish faith is fading and changing...a change is a third day experience...and one such change was occurring in this story. The phrase “on the third day” does not refer to the number 3...rather it is a phrase used 64 times in the Bible to denote a major change is happening or about to happen. Basically, on the third day means a new direction for life is coming or is happening now.
In this case, the third day experience means Judaism as Jesus knew was disappearing at a rapid rate. Rome had destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. The new direction that was happening was a new faith with Jesus at its head, and for some, as its God.
When Jesus’ mother...here meaning Israel… recognizes the wine is gone, that Judaism is gone, she goes to Jesus and says, “Do something.” His reply is, “Woman, I am (the new faith) not ready to be killed...the true mission has just begun.” Israel says to the attendees, “Do as he says...or follow him.”
The six stone jars hold the ceremonial washing waters, and cleansing was important to the Jewish people. The author of the story has Jesus saying, “Fill the jars up like always, then draw some out….meaning some Jews will be drawn out of Judaism to follow him. Jesus gives the water to the servants and the story tells us it turned into the best wine..meaning the new faith is best because it is open to all people and not just Jewish people. Gentiles and heathens are welcomed and loved.
We said earlier that in a wedding the groom is responsible for everything having to do with the wedding. In the story Jesus is acting as though he is the groom...but then who is the bride?
Well, to whom, did he give the new wine? He gave it to the people. The people are the bride and people make up the church...so here is the beginning of the concept that the church is the bride of Christ. This then is a love story about the birth of the Christian church.
We are inheritors of that same church Jesus called into being by his unconditional love for all people, his eagerness to forgive all sins, and his joy in living...even though it is fraught with pain.
The church is quite an abundant inheritance for each one of us...and we mush cherish it, guard it, and participate in its life.
Let us do so with energy and love.
Amen
Sermon, January 29, 2023
I want to start this morning with a question. Are any of you anxious about anything? Are you anxious or worried about your health? Your family? Are you overly concerned about the rise in crime and violence in our communities? How about the possibility of a distant war that might affect all of us. These issues are of concern to each of us, and they exist because we live in a world that is not perfect. Our world has never been perfect nor will it ever be, certainly not in the near future.
It is normal to feel anxiety at times. But if it becomes your predominant state of being then something needs to change. When anxiety or fear become prevalent then action is needed to keep our balance.
Most of us agree there is not anything we as individuals or families can do about the conflicts in our nation and world….except to live lives of love and consideration of others on a daily basis. We are told that is some thing we can do. But do we?
Psychologists tell us the less self respect and self worth we have the greater anxiety we feel about situations and challenges around us.
I found this to be true several years ago when I was asked to do a series of workshops for Girl Scout professionals and leaders, and then again for high school teachers. The topic was, “Self respect impacts how well you do your job.”
At these meetings, I began by handing out a sheet of paper with the numbers 1-10 on it. I asked the participants to list the 10 things they liked best about themselves and do so in 60 seconds...one minute. When they were ready I set the timer for a minute. At the end of the minute I said, “Put your pencils down. Now raise your hand if you wrote 10 things you like about yourself.” No one raised a hand. Not one person could in a minute list 10 things he or she liked about self.
I made no comment, but I handed out a second sheet with the numbers 1 through 10. Then I instructed, now I want you to write in one minute the 10 things you dislike about yourself. I set the timer, and at the end of the minute I said, put your pencils down. Now raise you hand if you wrote 10 things you dislike about yourself. Nearly everyone did so.
I repeated this particular workshop over the next six months with 10 different groups. That was about 200 people in very important jobs. And not one in 200 wrote ten likeable things about self. But nearly all could quickly point out what they did not like.
My point in this exercise was to encourage the participants to realize negative thoughts about self impact everything else they do in life. We seem to be far more in touch with negative rather than positive aspects of the lives we live every day.
The rest of the workshops we discussed why we are anxious and how to overcome anxiety. Most agreed they developed very early signs of “not measuring up” through the kind of words and discipline used at home and school. When they were made to feel insecure or not measuring up or unworthy their attitudes turned inward and they began to live more negatively themselves. That was quite an eye opening experience for most.
One of the participants told the group she almost daily has to ask God to help her change her attitudes about herself, her home, her job and nearly everything else she was involved in. I asked her what helps her the most and she quoted Philippians 4:4-8 ‘Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice! The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.’
We did use that verse in our discussions over the next few weeks. Most participants agreed to read, say, pray, and remember this verse several times a day while the workshops were going on. Many did so.
At the end of the workshop I again gave them a paper with numbers 1-10 and asked if they would in one minute write ten things they liked about themselves. Not surprising, many wrote 8, 9, or 10 things they liked about themselves. And they agreed change from anxiety and fear to faith and trust can make a difference in the worst of circumstances.
Even though we live in a world filled with anxiety we as believers can find a way to be together in harmony even amid divisive battles of emotion and relationships.
If you want to be part of changing the world you live in for the better, if you want to live an upbeat positive life, start today guarding what you put into your mind, and what words come out of your mouth. Positive, holy, gracious, loving self-talk must be how you live moment to moment to overcome the cloud of gloom that hovers over our secular world. By acting as the Christians we say we are we can and must make a difference for a Godly world...we follow the teachings of Jesus, and do not take as truth the poor excuse for news and wisdom that comes through our media.
We might consider turning off the tv and tuning into certain scriptures that give us hope always, because it is the loving Lord we hope in and not the worldly messages.
Cast all your worries and anxieties on God. God can handle them because God cares for you.
Amen
Sermon, February 5, 2023
Intro: In America, February is designated as Black History month. To know history and teach it, one must do research. Thankfully, more and more research is being done by Anthropologists, archaeologists, and professors, and theologians to better understand the various ways earlier people were designated...for Christians especially those people who lived in what is now the mid-east. Our Christian history begins in the Old Testament and focuses on people from Egypt, Ethiopia, Israel, Judah, Canaan, and many other geographic places. People back then were not so much identified by the color of their skin, but by the tribe of people they are associated with. And each tribe could have varying skin colors and tones as part of their ancestral lineage.
Recent research has opened the door to explore our ancestral and biblical heroes such as Moses, Samuel, and King David. If you read the words of the 69 Psalm you wonder, what in the world is wrong with King David. Well, David was a great grand son of Ruth who married Boaz. Ruth was a Moabite and she passed her Moabite lineage to David through David’s father and mother. Many scholars believe the Moabites were part of the Black Hebrew ethnic group. They were hated because they were the ones who did not provide Moses and the Israelites with food and water when they passed by on the way to the Promised Land.
David, having come to be known throughout that area, in spite of his being a king, was threatened and considered an outcast. Yet we know him today as, yes a sinner of great magnitude, yet one who was loved. He was brave, he was great, and he overcame those prejudices. In later years he was known as one of Israel’s greatest heroes. God said of David, “here is a man after my own heart.”
Dante Fortson has written a book entitled “King David, the Black Hebrew With Ruddy Skin.” Those who are interested by want to read it.
Sermon - Psalm 23
Psalm 23 is one of the best known and loved of all the Psalms. The assumption is that King David wrote the psalm late in his life. There is fullness of life experiences in the psalm...joys and peace, but also sin, sorrow, heartbreak, and pain. David speaks of a quiet confidence in his shepherd-God, the one who guides, guards, and gives what is needed. David tells us about his life...and how his heart has been mellowed trough the years by his encounters with his God. He talks of a faith made stronger trough the trials of his life.
In his memory, he recalls with peace the green valleys, so abundant where he and his sheep could rest and be cooled in the midst of the hot summers of the arid region in which he lived. He is thankful for the calm waters that nourished not only him but the sheep of his pasture. He realizes these comforts have restored his soul.
In thinking of that peaceful, calm time, I am reminded that today, with all the trauma and horror in the world, we all need to have our souls restored. We are a people somewhat bewildered about the chaos occurring in our nation and around the world. People harm others, act out in destructive ways, seemingly without consequences. We are concerned about our young people and what kind of nation or world they will face as they age. Perhaps the soul of our nation and our own souls need restoring, touching up, strengthened so that once again we feel at one with God...that is to know and experience his peace, his love, and a faith that heals and makes us whole.
In David’s 23rd Psalm he recalls the terrible fearful years when he was hunted down by King Saul who tried again and again to murder him. He remembers with pain and shame his own crime of having Bathsheba’s husband Uriah killed in war so he could marry the lovely Bathsheba. He regrets the hundreds or thousands of his enemies he killed. Admitting to these terrible sins, he expresses great relief that God gives him comfort not only when facing external enemies who want to conquer Israel but also when he confronts the enemies within himself...those enemies of arrogance, too much power, too many bloody battles, and to many wrong, hurtful decisions he made for self and others.
Against all odds, David lives to an old age. He acknowledges in spite of his sinful wrong doings, God has granted him goodness and mercy all the days of his life and beyond. That was his acknowledgment of faith, that ultimately all things work together for good for those who love the Lord.
David felt God’s presence when he was alone tending his sheep for months on end. Later, David knew God’s presence was with him as he struggled to be a competent leader for Judah and Israel. God’s presence was also experienced in table fellowship, preparing good things for David in the midst of his enemies...nourishing, encouraging, strengthening him. Many times, too often perhaps, when our lives turn tough, sad, and hurtful, we abandon God and think he no longer cares about us or is with us. However, this psalm assures us God never leaves us...God is at hand, within us. Even though God allows us to leave him, his love and comfort continue wooing us back into his loving embrace of oneness with him.
In the psalm, David states without hesitation that the Lord is his shepherd. David will not need nor want anything outside of what God provides. What freedom! No more wanting things that limit us, no more desiring things that are bad for us, no more wanting. There is peace in knowing God’s plenty. As the creator of the universe, God owes us nothing. But God chooses to give us everything: rest, food, guidance, fellowship, comfort, abiding love and a holy work to do.
In his life David probably broke all ten Commandments...yet he was forgiven because he asked to be forgiven. Therefore, he was a man after God’s own heart. God is so steadfast, so loving and accepting, that when we ask and are forgiven we are once again whole, without the stain of wrong doing blocking us from the fullness of life and the beyond.
As believers in a gracious, loving God, what more can we ask than to trust God enough to not want anything other than what we willingly and abundantly gives us...lives of love, joy, and peace? Lets all focus on continuing to build our lives based on the foundation of God’s grace and mercy.
Amen
Sermon, February 12, 2023
In this age in which we live, high tech, new inventions, lives centered on or focused on hand held gadgets, like telephones, constant news and opinions we are inundated with way too much information every single day. Some of what we received daily is useful, some is blah, but much of it can be destructive. In reading articles by scientists, social scientists, and experts in nearly every field, we could assume that powerful ideas and energy are what shapes the world in which we live.
However, according latest research from people on the cutting edge of scientific endeavors, there is one most powerful force in the universe recognized by scientists from many different fields of knowledge. That powerful force is human intelligence. Not computers, not yet Artificial intelligence, but human intelligence. Some of the phrases used in discussing human intelligence are: human intelligence can build complex tools and systems, solve problems, plan ahead, think abstractly, comprehend ideas, use language and learn. Human intelligence can also reflect on itself, predict outcomes and avoid danger.
Human intelligence is who we are. Do we have any idea of our appreciation for the power of or minds and brains? Think about it. If the above information is true, why do we as humans limit ourselves? We are often nearsighted about life and thereby we do not take in the wonder of every bit of life...and all kinds of life. Intelligence can provide hope when all else fails. You can think yourself into hope , caring, faith, and compassion, or you can think yourself into despair and depression. Inside our own skulls we have a complex, creative, and competent thinking mechanism. What do you do with yours?
We know from the beginning the God we choose to worship created all life. Our job while here on earth is to enhance life wherever we find it...enhance our own, our neighbors, our fellow planet dwellers across oceans, and people who are very different from ourselves. To do so we create relationships, we make and support institutions which provide for the education, health, and safety for all. We are to lift up people who are not as fortunate as we are...and the basis of all these endeavors is to replicate the love God has for us and share it with others.
Just think of this for a moment: God, or however you address the guide in your life, has created everything that exists...and he has give you a mind/brain that is like God’s in many, many ways. You and God are a winning, intelligent, caring powerhouse right here and now. Look at your day. Do you spend your thinking time watching tv, or any media, or using facebook or YouTube for hours at a time? Or do you use some of your thinking time about how you personally can enhance your neighborhood, your local government, or your church?
In some religious organizations, rules, rites, dogma, and doctrine seem to be more important than the people who are involved in those institutions. What is desirable is for all religious institutions to re-look at why they exist. Supposedly, they exist to encourage their congregants to have a relationship with their God that involves compassion, conscience and unconditional love. The God of all creation lives both universally and within you. That God lives first in your mind and brain because that is where ideas and concepts originate. Then the mind and brain spreads into your hearts, hands, voices, and actions to continue to create your life based on love and not fear.
We need to be amazed every day, overjoyed all the time, that you are one alive element of God, your are one face of God, you are one intricate and needed link in the circle of life. Rejoice, rejoice always, and recognize who you are right now as an essential ingredient in God’s plan for his and our dreams and creations.
Every morning, wake up, kiss your brain! Thank God for creating you to be a helpmate every day. By loving God and being involved in enhancing life all around you, you should rid yourself of feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, anger, fear, and or depression. You are vitally essential and important today and every day.
The news we hear can be frightening. The world is not behaving the way we want it to. And it really never has. But look at the good that has been done through the centuries...the amazing accomplishments in nearly every area and aspect of living.
Perhaps we need to adjust our thinking, be more positive, more helpful to self and others, more joyous in spite of what’s causing concern here and abroad. Your attitude, your thought process is something you do control no matter what is happening on the outside of you. Together, let’s remind each other, there is still much to rejoice, still hope available to each one of us. And don’t forget, how your world looks to you is up to you. God has given you that power. It’s up to you to use it.
Praise God for all love, for all good, and for the peace, faith and joy that is available to us every minute of every day. God is good.
Amen
Sermon, February 26, 2023
The Lord’s Prayer
This prayer we call the Lord’s Prayer is designed to take God and his earthly representative Jesus off the written pages and make them real...real enough to have a conversation that includes both speaking and listening. Jesus’ disciples were familiar with the Jewish Commandments, the Jewish Psalms and Proverbs, the Judges and the Prophets. But Jesus wanted his people to know him and his teachings to help them cope in a time of national chaos. Jesus loved his disciples. He understood them because he was one of them. He wanted them to live harmonious, faithful lives no matter what dreadful actions they encountered nearly every day.
The prayer came about in a certain context. A that time Israel was in great distress... the Jewish people were angry, fearful, and confused because their beloved nation Israel was in trouble again, oppressed again, as always, it seemed. There was no real freedom for anyone. To encourage his disciples, he taught them the complexity of their lives could be simpler if they stop the worry and live the faith. Rely on and trust their God in every challenging situation.
The prayer he taught his disciples begins with the words “Our father.” He didn’t say “my father” or “your father” rather he said our father meaning he was one of them, and all of them together were of one family of faith...the Jewish family worshiping the Jewish God Yahweh.
Next in the prayer are the words “who art in Heaven.” Heaven is where God lives...therefore heaven is any place God is. God was in them, in their families, their neighbors, their community and their faith. God was in the Red Sea, on top of Mount Sinai, was in the wilderness, in the Ark of the Covenant and in the Holy of Holies in the temple. Heaven became an energized spirit of living rather than a space or place. God was known everywhere he was asked to be. In the heart where God is, there is harmony and peace in spite of oppression. That was the message Jesus taught his disciples...God is with you, in you, and available to be shared no matter how oppressed, dangerous, and scary their world had become.
In the phrase “hallowed be thy name” Jewish people knew they were not allowed to speak the name God or Yahweh...God’s name was too sacred to be commonly spoken of. Therefore to honor their God Jewish people used the words Adonai or Elohim when speaking of or to God. In the 3rd of the 10 commandments by which the Jewish people lived, to speak God’s name in a secular fashion was a violation.
One of the key phrases in the prayer is the phrase “give us this day our daily bread.” Remember the Jewish common people were being persecuted by Roman soldiers. Even though every family had their own small garden or fields, the soldiers confiscated all their fields and gardens to feed the huge Roman army. The families had no traditional way to get the food they needed. So, in the middle of the nights, the women and children went out and quickly grabbed up a few pieces of wheat or barley that had been overlooked by the army. The Jewish women took those small bits home and made bread to sustain them. This plea then was asking God to help them find these bits of barley and wheat daily to keep them from starving even though they were violating the army’s rule of “don’t eat your own food, it belongs to the army.” That is why the very next phrase in the prayer is “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” They had no choice but to forgive the soldiers because if they spoke out against them they could be killed. At the same time they were asking for their own forgiveness for violating the Roman law which they had to obey to survive. Jesus taught them inner freedom comes from forgiving themselves and their enemies..that freedom helps them cope in any situation.
The next phrase in the prayer is “lead us not into temptation.” Of course the Jewish people were tempted to continue “stealing their own food.” They wanted to hurt the Roman soldiers and to be rid of this horrible army that abused every aspect of their lives. Nonetheless, they pleaded with God to keep them from doing vengeful acts of killing or harming the soldiers. They needed God’s strength to keep them and their families in check...perhaps as we all do.
The prayer ends as only it can...”for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever”. In that statement they were reiterating what they knew in their hearts, the only real power and strength is God. Not in the pages of sacred scripture but in what those pages teach about being real, about God and Jesus being real, having to live in the real, non-harmonious world, like we all do. Jesus hoped through this prayer and the wisdom it offered that his people would remain faithful and true to these teachings….for their own safety, their own salvation.
Perhaps a version of this prayer for Christian Americans could be helpful. Some Americans feel their freedoms are being curtailed. We do live in a non-harmonious country where divisiveness seems to be the norm. And the world seems un-peaceful and threatening. Our version of this prayer could well be like this:
To the God we have in common, we shall not take your name in vain for it is a holy name with power in it. We ask for your kingdom of peace to be here on earth today and guidance to know how we can help being that peace to our country. We are hungry for food, sustenance, but more so we are hungry for love to permeate this entire nation and for the divisiveness to go away. We need to be forgiven for being unkind in words and deeds to each other and our enemies. We also need to forgive those who hurt us because only then will we and they ever experience a better way to live. We ask to experience your presence, God, and your power to keep us from being tempted to do wrong to those who wrong us. May we learn to leave vengeance to you and not take it into our own hands. Help us recognize and acknowledge that you, yourself, are the kingdom of peace, you are the harmony and glory now and forever.
The Bible is a source of wisdom...wisdom that helps us live faithfully and lovingly at all times. May it be so.
Amen
Sermon, March 5, 2023
Verses from Genesis 22:1-19
This story I am going to tell you is not literal…that is, it is not factual. It was never meant to be. Its meant to be a story interesting enough to make us want to listen and learn.
People a long time ago told stories instead of facts. Stories fill in the blanks, are more colorful, and therefore more meaningful and more capable of being remembered.
This story is actually a teaching story. It is told to teach us a moral, a truth, or something important about the God we worship and about us..
So here is the story……………...Genesis 22:1-17
God called out to Abraham. Abraham answered, “Here I Am; I’m listening.” God said, “Take your son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice your son there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I’ll point out to you.” In deep dread and, Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants and his beloved son Isaac. Abraham had split the wood for the burnt offering. He set out for the place God directed him. On the third day he look up and saw the place in the distance. Abraham told his two young servants, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I are going over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” Abraham took the wood off the donkey and gave the wood for the burnt offering to Isaac his son to carry. Abraham carried the flint and the knife. The father and son went off together.” (Are you feeling dismay? Thinking this is terrible! God would not ask this!) Isaac said to Abraham, “Father, we have flint and wood but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “Son, God will see to it that there is a sheep for the burnt offering.” And they kept on walking.
They arrived at the place God had directed them him. Abraham built an altar. He laid out the wood. Then he tied up his son Isaac and laid him on the wood. Abraham took the knife to kill his son!. Just then he heard God say, “Abraham! Abraham! Abraham said, “Here I am. I’m listening.” God said don’t lay a hand on your son. Don’t touch the boy. I know how powerfully you serve your God. You didn’t hesitate to place your only son, your dear son, on the altar for me.”
Abraham looked up. He saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. Abraham took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. Abraham heard God say, “Because you have gone through with this and have not refused to give me your son, I will bless you. Oh, how I’ll bless you. Your children will flourish like stars in the sky. Like sand on the beaches. All nations on earth will be blessed through your descendants because you obeyed me.”
This story reads like a horror story! Abraham who worshiped his God and adored his son Isaac was asked to do what we regard as the unthinkable!
At first hearing this story is terrible, a horrible thing for God to ask Abraham to do. But, we are not to judge God ever. We are to trust God no matter what he asks us to do.
So in this story, we see how Abraham dealt with this absolutely awful task God gave him. When God first spoke to Abraham, Abraham’s response to God was “Here I am.” In fact that is how Abraham always responded to God, “Here I am” meaning, how can I serve you?
Even when God told Abraham to take his only son, the son he loved with all his heart, put him on a fire pit, kill him with a knife, then light the fire, Abraham obeyed God. Abraham trusted God with his own life and the life of his son.
At that time history, 4000 years ago, human sacrifice to gods or goddesses was a common practice...but the Jewish God never had asked for that sacrifice before. So Abraham was startled, confused, most have surely thought “do I have to obey?”….but then knew he had no choice. God was God and Abraham was his servant doing all that God asked, with holding nothing.
Abraham gathers sticks for the fire, takes Isaac by the hand and they walk for 3 days to the mountain God had selected. When they arrived Abraham spread out the wooden sticks, bound the hands and feet of Isaac, and then put Isaac on the wood. He pulled out his knife to kill Isaac when he heard God’s angel say “Do not lay your hand on the boy. “You have not with held even your son from me, therefore I know you respect and love me as your God.” Then Abraham saw a ram caught in the thicket and realized God had supplied another sacrifice instead of Isaac.”
Here we have a colorful story with lots of detail...it is full of emotion and questions and despair. Yet experiencing those piercing emotions, dreading every step of the way, Abraham proceeded to do as God asked and was blessed in enormous ways for his obedience, his faith, and his trust.
Now in today’s world, we don’t have to face human sacrifice in America….though it is still going on in some countries. Nonetheless, we all experience deep heartbreaks, great losses, bewildering circumstances...many times leaving us with the question, what should I do?
The first answer is always, check in with God. We don’t always understand God or his ways, yet each of us has to ask, “How much do I trust God?
As you go through life, all the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows, do you believe that no matter what happens to you or to those you love, God is God, always wiser and more caring than you are, and always available to give you the strength and the determination to face unhappy circumstances with grace, peace, and most of all love? That is the goal each follower of Christ must move toward...spiritual maturity. Then peace rather than fear or worry will be our blessing and gift.
Pray, believe in the goodness of God, live according to his teachings to love God, yourself, and others no matter what befalls you and you will have the correct path to take to resolve and cope with your deepest challenges. Praise God for building the space within us to love and believe and therefore have an abundant, faith-filled life.
As proverbs teaches us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to God and he will direct your paths. Proverbs 3: 5-6
As Christians lets encourage one another to trust more, live our faith more fully, and depend more completely on the gracious love God has for each and every one of us. Therein lies our blessings.
Amen
Sermon, March 12, 2023
The Transfiguration
Today’s scripture is a story about Jesus. It is a story to help us understand the difference in the older Jewish faith and the new faith of Jesus. This new faith is all about faithful living that produces the joy, peace, and love. By hearing the story of the change in Jesus helps us understand the changes we make when we choose to follow the teachings of Jesus. The story is about the transfiguration of Jesus and hopefully us. Just as Jesus was changed from a physical being to a spiritual one the mountain top, you and I change into spiritual beings when we live our lives like Jesus lived his...with love and forgiveness as the foundations for all other gifts.
In the story we recognize Jesus stood as the midpoint between our everyday world of the five senses and the elusive, mysterious world of the Spirit. Yet it is the spiritual world that energizes us, enlightens us, and makes our physical lives meaningful and vital.
In the story Jesus took Peter, James and John up to the mountaintop to pray with him. When they reached the top, his friends fell asleep. Jesus prayed. While was praying Jesus’ face changed and his clothing became dazzling white. Symbolically, Jesus became the bright light God calls us all to be.
Suddenly, Peter, James, and John awoke and they saw Jesus talking to Moses and Elijah. Moses represented the Old Testament Law by which all Jewish people were absolutely controlled...no freedom of choice. Elijah represented all the Prophets who were the conscience of the people. It was the prophets who encouraged the people to return to God and his way of being. This story is a confirmation that Jesus came to fulfill or replace both the Law and the Prophets. After their conversation, Moses and Elijah faded away, yet Jesus remained. The old way of living by dogmatic laws faded away, while Jesus introduced a new way of living where love for all people would guide our actions. Jesus gives us the freedom of choice. We can choose to live by love and reap the blessings of grace or we can choose not to which leads to darkness rather than light. In Jesus is new life and resurrected living.
What can we, Christians of the 21st century, learn from this story?
1. We can realize the bright lightness of holy living. God gave us a choice to live in darkness or the light of love. Whether we recognize it or not, nearly every moment of our daily lives we make choices between the two: love or apathy. Love offers joy, apathy brings fear and anxiety which in the bible is called darkness.
2. We recognize the wisdom of obeying the teachings of Jesus. His faith, his way of living, is true wisdom: Love your enemies, forgive 70 times 7, treat all people the way you want to be treated, get out of your comfort zone and risk loving the unlovable, feed the hungry, clothe the naked and offer freedom to the oppressed.
3. Sometimes when we experience a mountain top awakening, we want to stay there where life is clear and peaceful. Yet, we must come back down to act on the power of love to change ourselves and world into a kinder place.
4. Knowing Jesus is not a creed, not a formula, nor even just a belief...knowing Jesus is an experience of the holy and sacred.
5. Our tasks as followers of the Christ, are to rcommit to the practice of loving. We spend time developing our spiritual life...the life that pays homage to awe and wonder and the mystery we call God. We choose to see the divine in all people: the homeless, the poor, the oppressed, the imprisoned, the child who can not read, the mother who seems not to care...for each one is God in disguise waiting for us to show up and say “yes, we will love and serve you.”
All of us here, are servants of a loving creator. God created in each and every one of us a light that is God. We are not God but we are the body: the hands, feet, voice, and compassion of the Great God and Jesus the Christ. Today, we either make our spiritual selves relevant, more relevant than anything else, or we leave Jesus on the mountain with Moses and Elijah and he too will fade away.
Real life, God Life, is awaiting an opportunity to live through you every day. What is your answer?
Is it “yes, God” or maybe, God? Or no, not now, God? However you answer will either crucify Jesus in your life, or will keep him resurrected and relevant spreading peace and love abundantly.
God prays, for your own good and the good of your community, that your answer is yes God...now, and more so every day.
Amen
Sermon, March 19, 2023
Do you believe every person has a right to be loved? After Saul had an encounter with the risen Christ Spirit and became Paul, he did believe everyone had a right to love and be loved. That’s why Paul became a dynamic missionary spreading Christ love across the Mediterranean world.
As Paul was traveling, he looked for a place that could be a center of his missionary efforts. He chose the city of Ephesus...it was a vibrant, bustling sea port and trade center. Ephesus was located in Turkey directly across the Aegean Sea from Athens, Greece. In Ephesus there was a large Jewish population, however most of the people there worshiped pagan gods. Their primary idol was Artemis, a goddess of natural environment, the hunt, the moon, and virginity. Artemis had a tremendous following but she could not teach people to love. Paul could, through the power of the Jesus spirit. Paul had changed from an uncaring killer of Christians to a man who taught Christ love. If Christ could change him into a passionate, loving man, then anyone can change!
In Ephesus, every day Paul faced the Artemis worshipers. But he continually taught there is just one God who is more powerful than Artemis and all the other Roman and Greek gods and goddesses combined! The population in Ephesus listened to Paul. First in small groups then in larger and larger groups of curious people...some of whom, little by little, became very interested in this Jesus Paul talked so energetically about. How did Paul present Jesus to those Ephesians who did not know Jesus?
Paul stressed that Jesus was a poor man who shunned luxurious living. The lower classes of people in Ephesus could relate to this kind of man for they were poor, as well. Paul emphasized Jesus did not seek personal wealth, nor did he seek personal power, prestige, or fame. Rather, Jesus desired relationships with people of all races, religions, and ethnic groups. Jesus wanted people from all walks of life, all faiths, all socio/economic levels to not only know about the Jesus kind of love but to seek love and share it. Paul also taught that Jesus honored women and was an advocate for women to know, learn, and teach! Paul instructed people in the loving ways Jesus had for all people...and that inclusive idea was a powerful pull for people who often felt invisible, powerless, and hungry for respect.
Paul taught the Ephesians all people have a basic need to love and be loved, that an attitude of gratitude no matter what is a successful way to live, and Jesus does give sustaining support through his abiding spirit to those who ask for it. He told them Jesus provides inner peace even in the midst of chaos. Paul through the Christ spirit brought many people into the circle of love perhaps for the first time ever, and the people began to feel worthy.
If Paul could make headway by teaching about the light of Christ and his messages of love to a pagan world that worshiped false gods and goddesses, shouldn’t we be able to do the same thing in Gulfport? Many of our fellow neighbors and citizens do live in the dim light of despair. Maybe it is because they are not shown the love they have a right to experience. Maybe they encounter Christians who do not treat them lovingly and decide they want no part of that kind of faith. What do our words and actions tell the drug addicts, the gang members, the law-breakers, and the out-siders? Do we express compassion, do we offer love, or do we condemn them and ignore them and wish they would go away? These are the questions the inner voice in each of us is asking. What to do for and with those who choose to live in darkness rather than in the light of a loving community?
I want to remind each of us that the way you choose to live your life is a definite result of attitudes and choices you have made in the past. Your life tomorrow and ever after will be the result of the attitudes and choices you make today.
Your life is only partly yours...it mainly belongs to the God who created you and made it possible for you to exist. You are here in this time and place to live as a representative of your God to your family, your church, your neighborhood, and your community. We must all choose today to do what we must do tomorrow and that is we must practice love...the love of Christ to and for every other human being. And we must do so with commitment and joy which comes from loving your Lord and spending your life with and for him. To love another means to pray for them, bless them, sometimes offer a hand-up. No matter what kindness you offer one other human being, God will take that kindness and send more of it to people who need it at that moment. God is universal as is the love you offer to others.
Amen
Sermon, March 26, 2023
Matthew 14: 22-33
Can God calm a stormy sea? Yes, God certainly can. However, I don’t think that’s what this story is about. Remember, the Bible is not a history lesson or a compilation of facts. Rather, the Bible is a library of spiritual, moral, ethical lessons that enhance and enrich our personal lives. We are not to read a Bible story and ask, “is it true?” “Is it factual?” Those are history questions. Instead, we read a story and ask in what ways can this story or lesson add meaning and grace to my life? How does this story or lesson make me a more caring, loving person? Those are spiritual questions. Those are the questions we should ask as we read scripture.
Having said that, how does the story we read today add meaning and grace to your life?
One way is to acknowledge you migt be a bit like Peter. Impetuous. You want to trust but you worry about the problem instead of trusting God. You may pray about the problem at hand but you don’t really think God has time for your mundane existence so you try to solve the problem yourself. You might keep on praying that God will intervene instead of thanking him for the solution that already exists. When you, like Peter, take your eyes off of the available Christ Spirit for guidance and look only at the problem, then you sink, you fail. While you are flailing around in the midst of the storm of your problem, Jesus is walking on top of the problem, waiting for you to take his hand and solve it together. This story is literary allegory at its best, and one of the most profound spiritual lessons of all time. For every problem a human faces there is a divine solution. When you seek Godly answers, God responds.
Regarding today’s story, would you prefer your God through Christ to be a magician or a Spiritual Entity who uses ordinary people to do extra ordinary things?
In a subtle way, today’s story is asking you that question: Is Jesus a magician walking on top of the waves on a stormy night, or is he a holy man who has something amazing to teach us? How you answer that question may determine the very basis of your faith and your existence.
Today’s story brings to the forefront of our thinking the question of trust. We have assurance through scripture and life experiences that God is a God of grace we are to trust with our wants, our needs, our possessions, our actions...in effect, our entire lives, moment by moment. Yes, things may happen that disappoint us, devastate us, confuse or hurt us, but we are never alone. We do not have to face hardships on our own, because we have access to God’s power and goodness always and in all ways. We as believers know the truth. The truth. The Truth is that the ever present Godly, Christ spirit loves, cherishes, and guides each one of us. He is near at hand, he is within our minds and hearts, he can be, if we choose, to be in our hands, our decisions, and our solutions to every challenge.
My question to you this morning is: What will turn your life into a blissful existence of faith and trust, with less worry and more joy, no matter what is happening outside of you?
I think the answer to that question is to make trust in the grace of God, the goodness shown through Jesus, an action. Not a thought. Not a belief. Not a dogma nor an ism, but an action. Do live with God as your motivator, your protector, your main adviser. When you face a challenge, a problem, or a difficult situation, state aloud your problem; be specific. Then focus your mind and actions on the universal majesty of God’s holiness for your solution. Thank God as you seek the divine solution together. You are partners with God. He reaches out to you with his wisdom, his love, his encouragement...then you must depend on God’s grace and wisdom as if your life depends on it, because it does.
We often base our lives on our own wants, needs, and limitations rather than on the worthy God who created you. Without trust in God’s abundant care and love, then a peaceful, joyful life can become impossible.
But, if you choose trust rather than fear, then act on that trust. You would not exist if God had not called you to life. God is older and wiser than you are. God is more creative and powerful than you. God is certainly more loving and patient than you. So be wise enough to trust those traits that are available to you 24/7.
When a stormy sea begins to sink you, climb out of the boat and swim toward the divine solution. If you choose not to trust God and Godly wisdom, what do you lose?
You lose your life.
However, if you choose to listen to and act on Godly wisdom then whatever the outcome of your problem or challenge is, then that is exactly what needed to happen in your life. You can trust, fully trust, and stake your life on the outcome, because it is God’s offering to you. It may not be what you hoped for, but in the long-run you will realize it was best for you.
That can be the hard part of the Christ-filled life. We want to be in control always, but when we trust, when we have faith that God is always on our side, then whatever happens is what needs to happen. We can have peace in any situation, if we trust God and God’s wisdom.
Amen
Sermon, April 2, 2023
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday was the beginning of Holy Week when Jerusalem would swell from a population of 50,000 to over 200,000 or more. It was the celebration of Passover, the holiest of all celebrations for the Jewish people. Rome, the nation which ruled over Jerusalem and surrounding areas, was fearful of a revolution. So a parade of thousands of Roman soldiers riding steeds of war were ordered to go to Jerusalem to quash any anticipated rebellion. The Roman soldiers came with pageantry, pomp, polish, and protest. They had come to show the Jewish people who the real people of power and presence were...Rome, Rome, Rome. These soldiers with the colorful armor and plumed helmets wanted to show the Jewish people that they were nothing compared to Rome and its elegance and power. Rome’s show of force was meant to condemn and laugh at all the Judaism held sacred.
While the Roman soldiers came marching into Jerusalem, there was another parade across town. This smaller parade featured Jesus riding on a donkey, a symbol of humility and peace. His disciples put their cloaks on the ground and the people placed Palm branches there too so that Jesus on this small donkey could be welcomed as their leader, teacher, master, and king. But something was missing. There was no show of an armed force; there were no soldiers to support this king; there were no swords, no blood, no devastation, no burned cities, no mangled bodies...just a Prince of Peace riding toward his final destination, asking his friends and disciples to love one another, to share joy, and to live in peace.
That is still the message today that should ring loud and clear in each one of us...Christ the King wants you to love as he loves: love extended as grace to others. That is one major reason we participate in the Rite of Holy Communion. We as believers in Jesus, as the one who teaches us how to love, how to share, how to sacrifice for what is ultimately important, come together to eat a symbolic meal. Grapes made the wine Jesus drank as they make ours. The bread is symbolic of freedom from oppression. Jesus made the sacrifice that has given freedom to all of us: freedom from fear, guilt, anger. Let us live by the tenets of this freedom and be grateful!
Let’s join together in the responsive reading you have in hand.
Sermon, April 9, 2023
Easter Sunday
Today is Easter Sunday...the holiest day in our Christian calendar. It is the day we celebrate the rebirth of Christ, not as a human being, but as a living Spirit, available to us human beings every moment of our lives.
When we read the Bible stories about what’s called the resurrection, we realize no one, not one disciple, family member, or friend of Jesus went to the tomb to welcome Jesus back from the dead. No one.
We read that 3 women went to the tomb early in the morning, but their purpose was to anoint Jesus’ dead body, not to greet him as the Risen Lord. Not one of the people closest to Jesus were expecting him to come back to life after being killed. The Gospel of Mark makes a point of telling us of the unbelief of the disciples.
Most of us admit we do believe Jesus was raised from the dead. But, is that just an idea in our heads because we’ve been taught the story over and over? Or is the resurrection of Jesus’ spirit a conviction that lives in our hearts, but more importantly, lives in our actions!
If we continue reading the story of the resurrection, we realize the disciples slowly came to believe the fact Jesus’ spirit is alive in them. They came to that conclusion and conviction in stages.
And so do we. Belief is a journey...it grows from a seed of an idea or concept into full flowering, motivating reality. Belief at first stays in your mind and you ponder it. You really can’t describe it nor identify it. But somewhere along the way you arrive at belief, and you realize it came to you through experiences, one after another.
Everyone’s God is a bit different from everyone else’s God. Everyone’s concept of Jesus, especially the risen spirit of Jesus, is also a bit different from everyone else’s. Each person must experience that spiritual awakening. That spirit is real. It may be unseen, but it is always felt and known. From that moment, you build a relationship with the inner spirit...the spirit that impacts and influences most of what you think, the words you say, and the actions you put out into the world.
The word “spirit” is the same word as “breath.” Our breath, breathing in and out, keeps us physically alive. The spirit within us keeps us spiritually alive...it also makes us aware of ideas, thoughts, experiences beyond the physical, beyond our five physical senses. Concepts like love, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, and freedom all add meaning and purpose to our lives. Those are spiritual experiences. And we all have them!
Once Jesus died physically, he was no longer limited to one place and one time. His spirit rose and still lives everywhere at all times. He is not in a tomb. He is not just up in the air somewhre, like wherever you think God may be. So, where does that powerful, loving, life-changing spirit live? The spirit of Christ lives in us as believers. We, individually and as a church, are the temples where the spirit of Jesus resides...we are are the homes of the spirit of the living Christ. Do you keep him in a dark closet of your mind, or are you a partner with him in spreading love, hope, and faith to those around you?
With all the doubts, the questions, the realizations that some things told in the bible are not literal, we can put all our faith and hope in the fact that the very spirit that energized Jesus to live and be who he was also lives in us. To deny that is to deny life...your own life. To believe and live it is to enrich and energize your life to have a loving and lasting impact on those you love, and even on those you don’t love. The fact that the spirit of the living Christ lives in us is the greatest gift ever given and it is ours to nourish and share. Only love, the love our Creator has for each of us, could make this gift to us. It is love incarnate. It is love that changes lives for the better. It is love that gives us strength and hope and faith.
This love God gave us, the gift of Christ living through us, is the greatest force in the universe. That love is the heartbeat of all morality and all caring acts. Whoever loves is a participant in the being of God.
Where did Jesus go when his spirit came out from the dark tomb? That loving, energizing spirit came to live with you. That is Easter. It is not a one time event but an every day event for those who choose to accept his gift of love and who also choose to follow his way of living and loving. We have been chosen as believers to be bright lights in a dark world. We can be the lights if we too bring Jesus out of his dark tomb and allow him to live through us...we are his voice, his hands and feet, we are the way to share his love...so let it be true for each one of us.
Amen
Sermon, April 23, 2023
Most of us are at the age where we think we know all there is to know about ourselves. That may or may not be accurate. Let me ask a few questions to prove there is more to us than we might realize.
So, 1. How many times a minute do you blink your eyes? 20 times a minute or over ten million times a year.
2. How many taste buds are on you tongue? 8000
3. For every minute you are alive how many dead skin cells do you shed? 30,000. In fact, the entire surface of your skin is replaced every month, which put another way, means you have thousands of different skins in your life. These are just physical things about yourself you may not have learned in biology. So maybe you don’t know all there is to know about yourself.
Let’s look at some more. In just 60 seconds can you name five strengths you have? Of what are you ashamed? What are you key values? Fill in the blank: If I wasn’t afraid, I would _______. What do you do to show yourself compassion?
Maybe some of those you can answer quickly and some you can’t. But this is worth noting: You live with yourself 24 hours a day, 365 days a year which is 8,760 hours a year and if you are older than 40 your have lived at lease 351,000 hours. You must by now yourself very well indeed. Do you?
But just in case you don’t know yourself as well as you would like to, let scripture remind you that each one of you are wonderfully made. We human beings are the crowning glory of earth’s living creations for we have been given, by our creator, dominion over all the creatures on our planet. Dominion means being superior to. And here are some examples that we are more skilled, talented, and able than other creatures. Deer run and eat grass but can’t climb. Fish swim but can not fly. Birds don’t run as well as they fly. Squirrels can climb and run but they don’t swim well. These creatures are specialists, meaning they can only do one or two things well. But humans are made differently. We are generalists. Guided by our brain we can walk, run, jump, hop, climb, swim and design kites or planes to fly us because we have the ability to think cognitively, to imagine, to create, and to produce….we have the ability to change life for the better for all creatures on this earth. We are those people when we are a in relationship with God.
That knowledge is significant considering how marvelous, mysterious, and awesome our entire universe is. To be placed in a superior position on just one planet in our solar system is incredulous. As a human being you are the best, the brightest, the acme of all living creations. And yet, many of us don’t feel powerful nor majestic. Why not?
Perhaps it is because we don’t access our spiritual and soul power as we should. In order to enjoy life fully, we must live in balance...mind, body, and soul need to act harmoniously together. When we focus first or primarily on the material aspects of life and neglect the spiritual we feel empty, dissatisfied, depressed, and yearning.
Earlier I asked you how well you know yourself...we all have room for improvement in that area. However, perhaps the more pertinent question is: how well do you know your God? Do you know God put you here in this place and time for a specific reason? God chose you. Do you know God loves you to the same degree he loved and loves Jesus? God does not play favorites with love. We are all equal in his eyes. Equal...the same. Do you know that by having a worshipful friendship with God, which means you talk to him, you confess to him, you make requests to him, you grow spiritually. Then and only then, will you have the joy of living that can be found in both gladness and sorrow.
Not just the Bible, but medical and scientific research has proven that being aware of and nurturing your soul and spirituality lead to peace of mind, experiences of awe, gratitude, and feeling both accepted and acceptable...all of which brings a quality of life you do not want to miss!
To connect our souls, our ability to love one another, adds wonder to our lives and we feel sacred. To connect to the creator who gave you life to live abundantly with grace and love gives you a glow, a joy, a feeling of being special, wonderful, loved, full of meaning, and laughter you will find no other way.
My prayer for us this week is to find a friend or family member and ask the big questions. Get to know who you are in God and God in you. Who are you? Then get to know God on a personal level. Who is God to you? What does God give to you? What do you give to God?
Here in church we love each other. I love everyone of you and I pray for everyone of you. Get to know yourself and God better, expand your soul until that spiritual part of your becomes your first priority, it is well worth the time and effort. Grow and Glow.
Amen
Sermon, May 7, 2023
What shall we do? That is a question that moves back and forth across our brains nearly everyday. We either consciously or unconsciously ask what shall I do about my bills? My problem at work or home? What shall I do about the mistake I made? What shall I do about my car, it isn’t acting right? On and on. Those are pervasive questions which usually need to be answered. How we answer those daily questions determines the quality of our daily lives. If we accomplish the shall do’s we seem to cope well. If we fail to accomplish the shall do’s we often run into problems that can be more serious.
Those questions make up our daily physical lives including specific questions of home, health, family, work, friends, social activities, on and on. But as human beings, we are not just physical beings. We are spiritual beings.
In addition to questions regarding our physical lives, there are questions regarding our spiritual lives. The primary question is, “what does God want me to do? To answer that question we ask how may I show or live my faith? How helpful should my faith be to me and to others? And, what part of my life should involve religion, church, prayers, bible reading, or developing a relationship with my God?
One possible answer to those spiritual questions comes from our reading this morning: “Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, or the poor, and do not devise evil in your heart against one another.”
Let’s look a how we can use these statements for guidance. The term “render true judgments” means judge as God judges with love and forgiveness. Many of us humans harbor anger, hurt feelings, and a desire for revenge. Not one of these feelings is helpful in any way. They are destructive. No matter what someone has done to you, your task is to forgive that person and pray for the one who did harm to you. That may seem strange to some of you, but God is the wisest asset we have and God says forgiveness is freedom. When you don’t forgive another, you are taking in the poison you had hoped to give to the other. Forgiveness is the only way to peace of mind that brings joy along with it. Forgiveness may not be easy, but it is the right thing to do. Forgiveness is always, always worth doing.
Another phrase in our reading is “show kindness and mercy to one another.” What is kindness? Kindness is treating all other people the way you want to be treated by all others. It is another way of stating the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Think about others. Most people today have worrisome problems. A measure of sincerity, a nice word or two, a spirit of love, a word of hope, all of these actions can lead to more peace in a community. Be merciful. Be helpful, be loving, extend peace, pray for one another.
Another way to show us what we shall do is also in today’s reading. Do not oppress the widow, the orphan, or the poor. Many people in our community are poor. They need loving help...sometimes with food, clothing, household items, but most especially kind words, encouragement, and a helping hand. Our Giving Place is a place where people can have some of their needs met without having to tell anyone what their problems are, or made to feel inadequate for not already having what they need. We need more items in the Giving Place almost daily because it is being used by many people every day that it is open. Please contribute….canned goods, clothing of all kinds, helpful items for the home. By giving there you are helping 20 to 30 families a day. Praise God!
The last statement in our reading, “Do not devise evil in your heart against one another” leads us to good mental and emotional health. How many times a day do you think or say, ”I’d like to get rid of that so and so; or you call someone a mean, hurtful name; or in your mind you do something to someone that smacks of revenge. None of these thoughts are good or helpful.
To enhance your spiritual self and become more helpful to yourself and others, perhaps you could include these spiritual offerings into your daily, physical life.
What shall we do? As followers of the way of Christ, we shall do what God put us here to do...serve him with love by serving his people with love. Put caring into practice. Show compassion to all you encounter. Be kind to friends and strangers alike. Try to understand some of the problems facing others in our community and willingly help where you can. Seek and love truth and peace.
Spend some time this week thinking about your relationship with your God. Every day live in the way God means you to live: with hopeful attitudes, a spirit of love for all you encounter, faith in God’s prescribed way of living. Your faith is needed in this church, in this community, and in your own home. God is for you in every way...please be more FOR God today and tomorrow.
Amen
Sermon, May 14, 2023
Mother’s Day
Everyone here had a mother for at least one day...the day she gave birth to you. For that loving act we give mothers our thanks. Growing up, my mother was loving, kind, fun, talked of dreams and ideas while she mopped the floors or changed the beds. She sang hymns while she mowed the lawn. She taught school and brought papers home to grade and prayed for each child as she marked the papers. She hugged, nudged, encouraged, and loved me. I knew early on I could never be a mother like my mother.
I loved my children with great passion but I felt too responsible for them. Then one day, when my last baby was a year old, a friend brought me a book by Kahlil Gibran. In that little book was a poem that set me free to be me...warts and all...for my children. Here are his words of wisdom: Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow which you cannot visit not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness; for even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
Year after year I re-read those words and find deep comfort in them.
For a moment today, let’s think about family...our many families. Whatever kind of family you have, it arouses emotions within us. It is sad to think for some people guilt and anger are the emotions that power the workings of the family just a joy and gladness can be….and they probably provide more emotion but also hope and stability. Many scholars who spend lifetimes studying human behavior and families define a good, supportive, helpful family as one that is defined by just one thing...that one thing alone is love. Love that keeps you connected. Love that helps you forget the hurts we inflict upon one another. Love that motivates you to get up each morning and do what must be done. Love that holds you up when you think you are falling and failing.
As followers of the laws of love that Christ gave us, we all would like to live in a Christian family, a holy family. That kind of family is a Holy family where the love of Christ and love like Christ is shown. No matter the state or condition of your family and no matter the history you bear, a family of love is possible. It just takes one person to stand for the family and uphold that family with the power of Christ love. Each one of us can be that person, and our attitudes and hope can heal any situation.
Our scriptures tell us God created family. He did not want us to live lonely lives. He put within us the desire to be with others, to love self and others, and to have the courage to reach out to one another with a helping hand, a kind word, an understanding that each of us is important, and a willingness to treat all people as brothers and sisters...we are one in Christ.
Together we are that family that God has made...we are a church family. When we love each other, when we nurture and forgive each other, when we respect and honor each other and offer one another help with burdens, then we are living the way God asks us to live. Joy, gladness, and peace are our rewards. Perhaps just living in a family of love may be its own reward, but certainly a blessing.
In closing, let’s hope the families we are part of can be like this: In this house we are real, we make mistakes, we say I’m sorry, we give second chances, we laugh and have fun, we give hugs, we forgive, we do really loud stuff, we are patient, we love. Yes, we love.
Amen
Sermon, May 21, 2023
Life. Human Existence. Self awareness. What’s the point of living?
Many Americans report being disillusioned, disappointed, or depressed. Some claim they are no longer interested in much of anything. These responses have a common denominator. Discouraged people may realize organizations or institutions don’t live up to the values they proclaim. Or, they discover relationships that are supposedly trustworthy, secure and supportive don’t prove to be reliable, perhaps even when most needed. The basic institution of family is changing. It is no longer the expected norm for children to be raised by both a mother and father living in the same home. Economic activities where individual people work to earn money are failing too often in too many places. That leaves Americans even more divided. In America 51% of our people survive by transfer payments leaving 49% of our citizens to fully support the other half. Some schools and educational experiences are highly successful, some are less so. Job markets are not hiring people in areas that once were prominent. Faith and worship were standard ways of staying balanced. Those today seem less important than they once were. Churches across the country and across denominations are closing their doors and giving up.
A recent survey of people who have admitted to being disillusioned report they quit going to church or being involved in religious activities. They no longer believe in God nor the things having to do with the God. Likewise, these same disillusioned people report they are disappointed in American government, educational opportunities, the military, and society at large. What has happened to us, to our society, to our nation?
We might wonder what’s the point of existence. Why both struggling to survive?
One answer may be we do not take the time or energy to affirm our sacred selves. Homes, schools, churches or other organizations for many years kept our society more or less balanced. The entire universe in which we live should and could give us daily inspiration if we would take the time and pay attention to the natural world around us.
If, and it is a big if, each one of us would read or re-read some powerful scriptures, believe them and live into them...life might just get healthier and happier. Look at Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14. ‘Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter. Know God and keep his commandments for this is the purpose and duty of all human beings.” Or, go to Proverbs are read verse 19:21 “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Or go to the very end of our Bible are read Revelation 4:11 “Our Lord and God, you are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being”...and I might add we are part of His being.
Part of the problem many Americans face is there are too many distractions that are barriers to intentional attention to the health of our souls and sacred lives. Here in church, with beautiful music, time to sit quietly and worship God together, cars fly past on the street, some of you are on your telephones, folks come in late and distract your attention, on and on.
Many of us pay far more attention to news and movies on tv or I pads than make an effort to go to the beach any morning or evening to experience awe as we witness glorious, amazing sunrises or sunsets. Full moons that light the night sky, ancient oak trees, early morning singing birds are in themselves sacred gifts to us. But. How often do we pause to pay attention?
Watch any new born baby who has just been thrust out into a cool, strange place fight to exist, to experience what we call life.
Toddlers innately seek experiences and get lost in them. If you watch toddlers their curiosity is amazing. They want to see, touch, taste, smell, and hear. They are whirlwinds of activity consuming moments of sensory perceptions. Do they pause in eating a crumb they found on the floor to determine what it is? How did got there? No, they see, they touch, they smell, and taste and then move on to the next oddity, or object of interest.
All too often parents try to shape the child’s actions and responses way too soon. The first year or two of life is an act of perceiving. Tangible things are the first items of interest to a baby or child, and nouns are the first words they speak. Mama, ball, pillow, tree. They are in the process of identifying their existence. They cry, they laugh, they sleep, they eat, their joy and sorrow are just natural products of what they experience. No judgment. No complaint. If something doesn’t suit them, they let it go and look for something else more interesting to them.
However by the time humans reach adulthood the mystique, the wonder of life, seem to grow dimmer by the distractions we allow into our thoughts and space. When we take the intentional time to experience the moment with NO distractions we are truly living, experiencing, enjoying, laughing, loving, and being in touch with our spiritual selves. That is the point of living. Recognizing the God who created us and all else, wants to be known through our five senses and our intentional attention. In fact research demonstrates awe inducing experiences positively influence mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual benefits. By being mindful, and ignoring distractions, we can cultivate more awe and wonder in everyday living. In fact, cultivating more awe, wonder, amazement, and paying attention might just save us all.
Amen
Sermon, May 28, 2023
Tomorrow is Memorial Day. There are probably some here today who have only an inkling of what Memorial Day remembers….some think it is to celebrate the military, or veterans in particular. But actually it is not a celebration at all. Rather, it is a day to remember and contemplate the high cost of freedom. The cost of lives lost. The cost of towns and cities destroyed. The cost of the plague of evil on all human beings. Yes, the cost of freedom is high indeed.
Some people remember the past as the glory days. The 1920’s, the 1950s and 60s, for some are days we desire to re-capture, to re-live. When those memories are our focus rather than a reminder of what was, then our hope is in the past and not for the future. Other people consider the present day with all its rapid changes and technological advances as the best time...then our attention is only on the present and we fail to recognize and honor all that has occurred to help us arrive at this present time.
Memories are important. Nearly every family has stories about their own ancestors, their own family heroes, or despair about the family’s history and descent into mediocrity. Whatever memories you have of your family, seek the good parts, the parts that have helped you become the citizen you are, the caring person you have become.
Some memories are vital and well worth a day to remember. Our holy scriptures are filled with stories of memorials...Passover is still celebrated 4000 years after the event to remember the people of Israel were freed from being slaves in Egypt. The Lord’s Supper, or Communion, is a remembrance of the last night of Jesus’ life when he asked his friends to remember him every time they gathered for a common meal. Our Christian churches still remember and act on that memory even after 2000 years. Easter for Christians is a yearly memorial of the sacrifice of Jesus and hope of spiritual ascendancy for each and every one of us. All through the bible there are stories of remembering special times. One way these memories were recognized was to tell the stories over and over again to each generation, to write documents recalling the memory, build structures, and have specific times to remember and honor how we arrived here and what it might take to preserve our common values and history.
In our country today there seems to be fewer common memories or values held by most people in America. Diversity is good, always has been. But for a family or a nation to survive its citizens must be willing to at least know our common history and values and be willing to participate in them. When those things do not happen, when there is no common shared history or memory, our society and civilization breaks down. And when our civilization diminishes, we become a lost people unable to generate together the actions necessary for us to continue to live in freedom. Are we moving in that direction today?
Perhaps its time to seriously consider our options. It will take an effort by people who still live the values that have served us for generations to increase emphasis on recognizing what has gone before us and honoring it….like this Memorial Day. America was built on the concept of freedom. Through our history of nearly 400 years, men and women have been willing to serve our country to save freedom...and millions have died for that cause. Look at what our past wars to save us and freedom have cost. In WWI, 116,516 died and their families suffered. In WWII, 405,399 died, leaving families back home without sons, dads, brothers, husbands. In the Korean War 36,516 died and in Vietnam 58,209 died, again leaving families destroyed. These men and women are worthy of a moment or a day of saying “thank you!” We are here today because of you, your willingness to serve or die to allow us to live with the ideas of freedom and peace. Those concepts can rise again when more of us stand up for what is right, and good for all people...every race, every religion, every ethnic group who work together to share common values both again and for the first time. What are those common values? Respect for one another even in our differences; love and acceptance of individuals; a positive encouraging education for every child; being willing to serve one another even when it might cost us something; and the desire to be free people not in bondage to our government or a foreign one. These are values every person who lives within our borders must honor by the way we live every day.
We must be proactive and not re-active. I pray each one of us will take a moment today to thank our God and members of our military, past and present. We should be willing to pray to keep America safe and to have a hope for peace. We all must do our part, however small it might seem, for there is nothing small about desiring to pass the possibility of a future on to the next generation.
To this end, we must have days set apart of remember and offer gratitude to all who have worked and sacrificed for freedom. We must care enough, through prayers, military service, and civic participation to do what we can to help preserve our nation and what it stands for...peace, real justice for all, and a broader understanding of commonality even in the midst of differences.
Let’s give our best effort to promote the kind of love God created. Promote it through sharing love and respect to more people, more often, in more ways. We can do this. We must.
Amen
Sermon, June 4, 2023
Have you ever heard the phrase “what’s in it for me?” Sometimes we might think that is a selfish way to look at events, experiences, or actions. However, the truth is that most of us who want to live useful, meaningful lives do consider what our part we play in life for ourselves and others. Usually, life is lived in a give and take manner...and as Christians we are taught it is better to give than to take...as long as we have enough to support our families, our work, and our beliefs.
Often as Christians, we might find ourselves asking “What did Jesus do for me and what does Jesus continue to do for me? If you accept the substitutionary atonement, that is Jesus died for my sins so I will not have to do so, then you have been taught what most of us were when we were children our young people. Even if this is your primary belief, there are still other important ways to consider the life and death of Jesus.
One consideration may be that he died not for our sins but because of the sins of humans who chose power over love...such as the Roman government feeling threatened by any one who seemed to gain in popularity or power. The same for the Jewish religious leadership at the time. All of those in power did not want to change anything that would make them have to share power and decision making for the Jewish people.
There is another consideration, too. Perhaps Jesus’ life was a prime way to have humans evolve into higher levels of being. If you look at geological and archaeological histories we see that from one celled life we ave steadily gained in physical and mental acuity and strength. Periodically through the eons, one type of creature was the prime one at a given time. For example, dinosaurs had to die out so that mammals could have their day in the sun. Then their power was taken over by the hominids who later became us...homosapien, thinking human. But now we must do more than just think. Actions are needed. Sanity, grace, love, forgiveness, compassion...all the things that have through the centuries have helped us survive must be reinstated and grow into maturity.
One certain thing Jesus did and still does for us is to raise the bar in how to live effectively. He taught and he lived love in ways most of us would find impossible or offensive. He loved the outcasts in society such as the lepers, prostitutes, men doing evil for fun. When others ridiculed Jesus or threatened to kill him, he prayed for them and loved them. He always treated others as he wished to be treated….but seldom was. He went the extra way to give a helping hand, to forgive, to serve, and to encourage.
Today, if we could love like that and do so in practice, we would be free from internal strife and burdens. That kind of love is the ultimate freedom...for then we have no fear, no guilt, no insecurity...we would trust completely. Therefore, our minds and hearts would be free to pursue local and even global problems that can only be solved through harmonious relationships such as people to people, nation to nation.
I might hear you thinking, pie in the sky! Not possible! Could it be possible? If one man could do it with unshakable faith and a firm commitment to the God he knew, and that one man told us we can do it also, why can’t we? I am afraid we choose not to even try because we are so comfortable in our mediocre humanity. We simply can’t imagine the extraordinary lives available to us because we limit our thoughts, which limit our actions, which keep us mired in mediocrity. Don’t we want more? If we do, then we must decide to be serious about our lives as Jesus imagined them and commit to the concept of raising the bar of thought and behavior for humanity, beginning with each of us.
What would it take? What would it take for you to truly put priorities first? What would it take to do away with negative language you use nearly every day? What would it take to stop doing the things that are not healthy for you? What would it take to change your attitudes to see the potential in every opportunity and every relationship? What would it take to love yourself and others as Jesus did and does?
I think that’s what Jesus’ life and death did for us. He showed us how to be holy, healthy, happy people sharing those qualities with others...even our enemies.
Perhaps it is time for each of us to become positive thinkers and actors, extraordinary lovers, and fearless people in this thing we call life. If we believe in what Jesus taught us and fail to act on those loving laws, then who will? Or for a lack of trying, will we go the way of other great experiments that ultimately failed because of apathy, weakness, or a choice to NOT see the way life should and can be lived?
So the question I asked you earlier, “what did Jesus do for you and what does Jesus do for you now? I’ll ask again. Here may be the answer: He lived and loved in a way he imagined for us to have a future where love is the power, where forgiveness is the way, where compassion is the motivator, and where we absolutely become Christs to each other.
Through the life, death, and resurrection of the Christ Spirit, be all that God has ordained you to be, then reap the rewards of knowing you are appreciated and loved...which brings peace and joy.
Amen
Sermon, June 18, 2023 Father’s Day
How we image or visualize God is difficult because we really do not know for certain who or what that image of God is. Our best attempt is to visualize God in the only terms we currently can understand and express...and that is in human words and images. When the Bible was being written over quite a long period of time, the images of God changed according to who wrote about God at the time and who that person’s audience was. However, there seems to be agreement on one aspect of God….his power over us and his love for us is a universal concept.
From a tribal perspective, the tallest, or strongest among the tribe was usually selected to be the chief tribal member. And because the purpose of this chief was to protect the entire tribe and encourage caring for one another, the chief began to be called “father of all.” In some spiritual groups such as Christianity, God is called Father because our Father God does love and nurtures every one of us.
People of faith have referred to God as “Father” for over 4000 years. The first scripture where God presents himself as father of Israel is in Exodus 4: 22-23. It happened when God called Moses and commissioned him to deliver the Israelite people from slavery in Egypt. However, after that time the word “father” for God in the Old Testament is only used 15 other times.
When Christianity was born, God was addressed as Father because that was Jesus’ favorite term for God. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke Jesus refers to God as “Father” 65 times. In the Gospel of John Jesus refers to God as “Father” over 100 times. Often, Jesus used the word “Abba” which is the Aramaic word for “Father”. It is also helpful to remember God is referred to as “Father” because of his active interest in his world wide tribe of all people. God cares, protects, and guides us if we invite God to do so. Present day fathers either emulate or should emulate God’s behavior toward his family.
According to scripture, human beings were the last of the creatures to be called into being. God gave humans dominion over the earth and all the living creatures. God designed this hierarchy so humans hence forth wold take care of all life just like God did when he created the universe. Therefore, we are his chosen representatives on planet earth, the main component of the heart and mind of God. Our hearts and minds are where the Spirit of the Father God abides, urging us to act in loving, compassionate ways to one another.
If we carefully read or study our holy scriptures, we begin to see Jesus as the closest reflection of God we have available to us. Like Jesus who talked to his Father God often and intently, we too should be comfortable talking to and with God as father...for he does aim to guide and share life with us if we allow it. Many of us, even as we love and honor our God as Father, still commit sins that are harmful to us and others. Sometimes we feel battered, guilty, experience feelings of unworthiness...and yet God’s powerful love is available to rescue us and raise us up from the depths of our own created hell into an existence with the God of Love. That is always what we need, love and acceptance. Offering those gifts to us is what a caring father does. Our Father God is a caring one...always. Those of us fortunate enough to have or did have a caring father, we are blessed because we then see and understand God as Father even better. Those who had difficult or abusive relationships with a father might have a hard time calling God Father or Abba. But, guess what. Whatever you call God doesn’t matter, just talk to him and maybe you will find the kind of Father you always hoped to have.
As believers in our God we hear and sense the very heartbeat of him in our own bodies. His pulse is still in us from the beginning of time. Just touch your chest, feel the beat of your heart, experience the rise and fall of your breath, and you will be feeling the heart and breath of God in your own body. We are God’s offspring, and He is our Father.
Claim him as Father and it will be easier to see all human beings as your brothers and sisters, co-heirs with Jesus to the Kingdom of God.
May this family of Christians, acknowledging Jesus as brother and God as Father, grow in spirit and grace. And may we love each other more and more every day.
Today we pay tribute to and honor all good caring fathers, our earthly ones and certainly our Creator father who loves us most of all. Let’s make this day a special one as we reflect on what it means to have God as our Father.
Amen
Sermon, June 25,2023
As Christians, that is believers in the risen Christ Spirit, we gather together to worship our Lord. We honor and love him through caring for and serving others. We are to emulate the life of Jesus the Christ in the way we live each moment. Every day that you follow this path will add to the Kingdom of God in this place at this time. Toward that end, I want to start this morning with a few questions.
Please consider the questions, then answer to yourself as honestly as you can. Here is the first one: Have you ever thought or said “If I was God I would make our country have and support the same values I have.” Or have you ever said or thought, “If I was God I would get the person who irritates and angers me out of my life!” Or have you ever thought or said something like, “If I was God I would stop wars from happening?
Perhaps we have all said or thought similar things through the years, but I don’t think I have heard someone say aloud, “If I was God I would change me: my attitudes and behavior.”
The answers you gave to the questions I asked will tell you what are the causes of your frustrations and anxieties. We want other people, other relationships, other situations to change so we don’t have to alter our behavior. We want what we want when we want it and that makes us the center of our own universe. When we become the center of our universe, the results are more frustrations, more discontentment, more depression or despair, and possibly more guilt. If our God of love, compassion, and forgiveness is not the basis and foundation of our lives, then we are a bit unbalanced, fearful, and usually less happy than we have a right to be.
The questions I asked at the beginning were prefaced with the words, “If I was God.” Of course, we are not God but God is in us. The God within us offers each of us some of his power and wisdom. But, do we ever ask for those things? “Ask and ye shall receive” so says our scripture. How often have you prayed or asked for God’s power and wisdom to accept the person you are, the situation you are in, and how to effectively experience a more heightened sense of self in any situation?
Have you ever asked God something like this: “Lord, I want others to see you in me.” “I want others to know you live within me and you guide my decisions, help shape my behavior, and mold my words. Have you ever asked specifically for this reality?
It’s a matter of truth that God is in each of us depending on the room inside we offer God. We can be very like God in our behavior if we forget our egocentric selves and live for the purpose of loving and serving others. When we act in selfish ways our world shrinks into a tiny ball of stress where we are the center of our own self-oriented universe. In this case we matter more than anything or any other person. Within those tiny, shrunken walls, we must constantly seek affirmation in order to make ourselves seem normal and lovable. Yet, the real results are our becoming less content, less happy, and more stressful. When we seek to get our way no matter what, to focus only on ourselves, our needs and wants, we become more miserable people causing distress in those who we say we love.
God created a wide and broad universe for all of us. Too often we want to shrink that universe into a tiny sphere where we seem to have control. That little universe becomes toxic. Then, others do not really want to be with us. They don’t seek a relationship with us. To find the kind of exuberance, abundance, and joy that God says is available we need to make a swap with God...we need to give God our tiny self-centered world and accept his plan to work in and through us. When we accept God’s plan for us and live into them...which means to live to serve and to love self and others….then we blossom, we experience fuller more satisfactory, happy lives.
Sometimes we wonder why so many people are leaving churches, or churches are dying. Maybe one reason is that people who profess to follow Christ don’t act like the Christ image in which we are made. Maybe it is because we do not willingly put others first before ourselves. Maybe we are too indifferent to leave our comfort zones to serve those less fortunate than we are. Maybe Christians are too self serving, self-loving, or self-centered...all of which might turn others away.
I think Christianity has lost some of its power to attract because we either refuse to see or are afraid to see the very radical nature of our faith….which is to forget and forgo our self centered ways and to live abundantly in, for, and through God Almighty by spending our time in service to one another.
Let this day be one in which we commit to pray for God to exist in and through us to the extent that love is visible, knowable, and contagious! God is gracious. He daily gives us the opportunity to swap our little lives for his enormous life of love.
To close I will ask other questions. Will you choose to live for God or for yourself? Will you invite God and allow God to be visible in you, in your words and actions? And the last question: If you were God whose behavior would you change today?
Amen
Sermon, July 2, 2023
We are just a few days from our July 4th celebrations. It’s usually a holiday full of fun, picnics, long distance races, and family gatherings. News people and folks on social media spend time talking about our Independence, our founding fathers, and our freedoms. However, I think the idea of real freedom is forgotten in most of our July celebrations.
We often think of the freedoms we have been given in our Constitution and our Bill or Rights. We sometimes think we had to fight several wars to make certain Americans had these freedoms. And most of us are glad and delighted that we do have rights and freedoms our courts maintain for us.
However, most of the freedoms our legal system provides are human freedoms...freedoms we need and want to make our human existence more to our liking.
However, we are much more than just human beings. We are spiritual beings having a bodily experience...so says many of our current day thinkers. I believe that description of us is correct. I think so because even when our rights are violated, rights that are to ensure our safety and happiness, we don’t give up hope or faith. We stay strong because somewhere deep within us we know our true freedom comes from God. True freedom is a trust in the great spirit which provides love and confidence even in fearful times. As Peter Marshall once said, “Freedom is not the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right.”
Being right in our spirits and our freedom relies on the lifestyle Jesus the Christ lived for us. He showed us the way to freedom, to peace, to joy even when the world may not be any of these.
We are more like this little five year old boy who was in his church’s Easter Program. The boy was to state a verse from the gospel of Luke about the resurrection of Jesus when Jesus rose from the dead. The boy was to say “He is not here, he is risen.” Unfortunately, the little boy could not remember what to say. From behind the curtain his mother whispered the verse for him. Thinking he heard correctly, the boy triumphantly shouted, “He is not here, he is in prison.”
Do we keep Jesus in prison at the back of our minds? Maybe we bring him out and give him lip service only on Sundays. Interestingly, how we treat Jesus is exactly how we treat ourselves. Without the way of Jesus being our focus, our daily lives become more negative, more anger and guilt, and possibly a lack of personal esteem.
Humans, including us, seem to listen to the temper of the world, full of suffering, violence and illness. We do have an option. If we live the path Jesus showed us then we are mentally and spiritually healthier...which leads us to be more emotionally stable and physically well.
Many people have been warped by wrong teachings. Human beings are not fallen creatures. We are not sick, full of sin, or dying. There was no original sin, rather there was original blessings. The light of Jesus shines brightly within us, but all too often we choose to keep him in the dark cell of our hearts and minds. And then what follows is a diminished energy, loss of faith and love, and hope gets hidden in the dark recesses where we have placed the spirit of Jesus the Christ.
We were made for joy, We are empowered to live as loving, giving, compassionate people. We are holy expressions of our Great God as shown to us through Jesus.
So daily we have a choice. Bring Jesus into the light of our lives. Whatever challenge you face, face it first with trust in the Power of God’s love for us. Once you realize God is always on your side, then you can have hope, faith, joy, and peace. You will know your own spiritual life is actually the spiritual life of the Christ in you.
Today, make a commitment to real freedom...the freedom only God and the path of Christ can give you. When you live with fear, anxiety, self-doubt, then you are like the little boy mentioned earlier. You are keeping Jesus in prison in your life and not as the strong beacon of light that he is and wants to be for you.
Trust in God and live with confident anticipation and hope. Please, today, set Jesus free so you also can be free from all that pulls you down. “Hope in the Lord and your strength will be renewed. You will rise and soar on wings like eagles. You will run and not grow weary, you will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:3) No better way to live than in the freedom that our God grants to you when you choose to honor and follow his godly ways.
Amen
Sermon, July 9, 2023 - Stories
Often people ask, “Is the Bible true? Or, “Is the Bible literal?” If not, why do we follow its teachings? There are many books written by biblical scholars that answer that question in great detail. However, what we talk about this morning is just a beginning, maybe a good start.
The 39 books in the Old Testament were written between 4000 and 1990 years ago. The 27 books of the New Testament were written between 50 AD and the beginning of the 2nd Century. That’s 4000 years of stories written primarily about one tribe of people who thought God had called them to be his special way of teaching the rest of humanity about being human and humane. Think about it. In 4000 years there were probably between 2500 to 3000 generations in the human population. People changed. Life happened quickly. Every generation wanted to tell the story to their people in their own way….so of course, the biblical stories have changed, been edited, translated, and re-edited many times. Nonetheless, the basic story remains fairly in tact.
Actually, what is a story? The definition of “story” is an account of real or imaginary people and events told for instruction or entertainment. Stories are part of human history from the beginning of time. Humans have always told stories. We have relied on stories to provide information about life...our own and life around us. We tell historical stories of where we have been and what people have done. We tell stories of heroes and heroines, inspiring us to be more than we think we can be.
We tell mythological stories to teach us to listen and learn beneath the facts of the story...to the why the story is being told, or why that story is important. We tell religious stories about the varied ways humans have visualized gods and goddesses and what divine beings mean to us. We, as Christians, tell our own story of our lives that are united with the divine life in each one of us. And toward that end we read the Bible.
The Bible is actually a library of 66 different books written at different times, by different authors, for different target audiences. These stories were first told as oral stories….it was centuries before the stories were put in manuscript form, reproduced by hand, then later by printing machines. Oral stories by nature change according to who is telling the story, why the story is being told, and who is listening to the story. If the stories are based on the Bible, the story may be filled with interpretations, basic truths, legends, exaggerations, laws and commands, poetry, songs, philosophy and theology regarding a theistic God who created all things and lives in and among us.
It has taken centuries to spread Christianity across the globe...and each part of the Bible is important to different groups. Some denominations base their entire existence and belief on one verse.. Others base their beliefs on just one of the Gospels. And when you have one universal holy roman Catholic Church but 47,000 Protestant denominations you are going to hear many many different aspects of the Bible….some good, some not so good. Yet, in this Christian faith there is something for every one who is searching for meaning, guidance, hope, and love.
Stories make our lives worth living. Shared stories unite us. Stories often elicit powerful emotional responses. Through stories we become aware of other people’s lives, worlds, interests, and beliefs. Also, stories move us forward. We are curious about what is coming next. What happens next is always a vital question. Stories usually make claim that some part of us has meaning, is important, and hopefully is on-going. Fredrick Beuchner says, “Stories tell us that life adds up somehow, that life itself is like a story, and this grips us and fascinates us because of the feeling it gives us that if there is meaning in any life, then there is meaning also in my own life.”
As people of faith, we gain insight, knowledge, wisdom, and even more balanced emotions by reading and relating to biblical stories...because so very many modern day stories we read, see in movies, or certainly in tv series are based, either loosely or tightly, on Bible Stories. As children we read or heard the Three Little Pigs where the first two built flimsy houses, blew and blew and destroyed their shaky homes. But once the house was built of bricks, all the huffing, puffing, and blowing couldn’t shake it. That is based on the Bible story in Matthew 7 where Jesus implores people to build their house on a sure foundation. meaning faith. Also Little Red Riding Hood is a story about Jesus, the savior. But it’s told in human like conditions. The grandmother and Red Riding Hood represented caring people in the village population. The big bad wolf was the evil in the village. The wolf broke into Grandma’s home, ate grandma, dressed up in her night clothes and bonnet, so he could fool Red Riding Hood when she came to visit grandma. Then he could devour her too. The woodsman heard the yells, went in the cabin, slayed the wolf and saved Red Riding Hood. That’s a savior story with the Woodsman representing Jesus. Shakespeare, Milton, Donne, George Herbert, John Bunyan and many others were influenced by the Bible in both content and expression. They read the Bible to engage their creativity and inspire their own stories. That’s true for many well known current authors as well. And this is important to remember: the stories about God are ultimately stories about you. Biblical stories show us that life, through God and your own understanding, is leading you not just anywhere, but somewhere...that in itself provides comfort, assurance, and hope...traits all of us need and want to live by.
Even knowing the Bible story changes through time, it still relates to us the very best way for humans to live in safety with one another. What is better and more powerful than love, forgiveness, and compassion?
This week, I hope you will take time to consider your own story and what it tells those you love, those you know, and those you don’t know but who watch your behavior and your words. Your story and how you live it is very telling. Today and every day you have opportunities to tell your story or edit it to increase your faith and your ability to love beyond boundaries.
Think on these things and be blessed.
Amen
Sermon, July 16, 2023
Why Christianity? How did it move around the globe so quickly. What did people see in the faith of Christianity that they did not find in others?
Well, there may be many different answers to that question. However, let’s look at an essential one.
A little over 2000 years ago, a young Jewish man in Israel become convinced that the religious people of his day had become so caught up in the demands of THE LAW, that their lives became heavey and frightening. The Laws that were enforced did very little to make their lives more loving, more forgiving, more compassionate for themselves and others. This one man knew something had to be done to set the people free from religious dogma. Instead, he wanted them to use faith to bring hope, love, and forgiveness to the forefront of all relationships.
He knew people needed freedom to express love, freedom to give and receive forgiveness, and freedom to express their faith according to what blessed them and not what made the ruling elite wealthy!
This man was Jesus, a compassionate and passionate man. He wanted the people in his country and abroad to experience authentic love that comes from knowing their one God. He walked from village to village telling people the power of love when it is practiced and not just spoken. He taught people the opposite of self-centeredness. He proclaimed all people are equally important in the eyes of their creator God.
At that time many people listened to what Jesus taught and they began to follow him, to learn more, to use more of what he taught in their own lives. His followers were called People of the Way, the way of love.
Through the centuries, Christian love has become institutionalized. We love God by going to church, going to mass, having revivals, taking up offerings, and singing hymns. All of those things are important to institutionalized religion….but if they come first, or take the place of shared love among the people, then these institutions are not as life-altering in as grand a way as they could be, and perhaps should be.
Today, some of us often elevate the institution of Christianity over the simple loving lives Jesus asked us to live and enjoy every day. Through the institutionalization of Jesus himself, we have sometimes become less personal, less committed to loving and serving each other. We have diminished the original meaning of Jesus’ faith. We have all the trimmings to make us like Jesus, our Lord, yet we continue to refuse to love people who do not love us and we justify with holding love and forgiveness. The simple and powerful faith of Jesus has been turned into a faith about Jesus which does not seem to be as effective in teaching faith, hope, and love as he intended. All the creeds, prayers, hymns that are to help us become more loving have not produced more love or forgiveness. Instead, under the umbrella of Christianity, as an institution, we are a people and a nation who say and do terrible, hurtful things to each other.
The Christianity Jesus lived and taught, is about putting kindness out into the world in every opportunity. It is about praying for our enemies so they too might learn about love and forgiveness. Its about giving ourselves away in service to one another instead of hoarding possessions and time. Jesus asked us to stop giving just lip service to God and act on what we know we are to do...that is forgive all, love in unselfish ways, and reach out to those in our community who most need love and compassion. Being an authentic Christian means emulating Jesus in the simple ways he cared for others. So today let each of us re-think our own Christianity. Be someone who allows the Christ Spirit within us to be active in our daily lives. Throw love and compassion around like nothing else matters, because in truth, that is the truth.
We can and must enjoy and relish the trimmings of our faith...our worship together, our singing, our bible studies and stories...but our first priority is to be and act as a real Jesus-type Christian then our churches might flourish as intended.
Hopefully, today is the day we decide to put the simple, caring faith of Jesus and his ethics as our personal priorities and actually do the word and work of our Lord. I pray so.
Amen
Sermon, July 23, 2023 - Inner Peace
I read a quote the other day that stirred my curiosity. Here is the quote: “Everyone desires inner peace, even if he or she is not aware of this desire.” I read it again then stopped and thought about it for a while. Had I been asked, I would have said, “Yes, everyone, every human, knows he or she needs or wants inner peace.” Evidently, that is not the case.’’ So, I began to do research on inner peace...what it is, why it is important, and what the benefits are, and is it a natural state or can it be learned?
The first thing I read stated, “All mentally able humans can gain, at least a certain measure of inner peace, enough to transform their lives.” Then there was a list of benefits one gains by having inner peace. Here are some of those benefits:
*Inner peace helps you feel grounded, centered and stable.
* Having inner peace eliminates anger, nervousness, and restlessness.
*Inner peace helps you fall asleep easy and have better sleep.
*This state of mind gives you the ability to eliminate stress, anxieties, and worries.
*Inner peace provides you the skill to be emotionally and mentally unaffected by what other people think or say about you.
*Inner peace helps you relax your body and nerves and releases the energies of the body work unhindered.
*Inner peace helps you solve problems and leads you toward a more positive attitude toward life.
*Inner peace opens the door to enlightenment and spiritual awakening.
Wow. Wish we could bottle that and drink it in every morning….oh, wait! We can! We can!
Psychology gives us several ways to attain inner peace. Here are a few: affirmations, visualization, yoga, meditation, calming the chatter of the mind, and emotional detachment. Those might be worth trying and I know some of us have done so.
But, how about the inner peace that Jesus offers us? The world tells us peace can be felt only when there isn’t any conflict. But that is not true! Jesus, through his life and teachings, provides us with an inner peace that surpasses the peace the world offers. It we seriously take Jesus and emulate his faith then we can feel peace in any circumstance. Jesus said to his disciples and to us: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives but as I give.
Unending inner peace comes through living like Jesus did: loving your people, praying for enemies, forgiving all hurts and harms, serving God by serving and caring compassionately for God’s people (which all people are), and obeying the commandments on which most other laws and rules are built, talking often to your God whose Spirit lives within you.
“In this world we will experience hard times, but we are blessed to know that we have someone we can turn to in any challenging circumstance. Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in my spirit you will have peace. In the world you shall have tribulations, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 Because the Spirit of Christ lives within each of our hearts and minds (when invited), and when we make serving him our first choice, then and only then, will peace be possible today and forever.
Let us live as though that is true always and we shall benefit from a peaceful way of living every day, all day long. In closing, I wish all of us would commit to memory these verses from Philippians 4: 4-7: “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Let your kindness be evident to all, for the Lord is within you. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and with thanksgiving, make your requests to God. Then the peace that passes all understanding will guard your minds and hearts.” Let us pray these verses morning and night. Our minds, hearts, and attitudes will grow in peaceful and positive ways. We will be healthier and happier in tune with our Creator.
Amen
Sermon, July 30, 2023
Question: What is the one part of you that is of utmost importance? There are probably many answers to this question. However, there is one answer we all should acknowledge as being of utmost importance and that is our breath. Because when we stop breathing, we are no longer alive.
According to our faith tradition, which is Christian, breath is spirit. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and in Greek. Both translations consider breath and spirit to be the same. In Job 33:4, we read, “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” The Hebrew word for Spirit is Ru’ach meaning breath or wind. The Greek word for Spirit is pneu’ma like pneumonia...a condition of our lungs, our breathing organs. In Psalm 104:29, we read “If you Jehovah take away their spirit, they die and return to the dust.” Also, the New Testament book of James 2:26 tells us a body without spirit is dead.” According to these scriptures and others, Spirit gives life to a body. Without spirit the body is dead. Spirit is considered the life force of a body. It is an invisible spark of life that animates all living creatures, including humans, animals, fish and insects. The body needs spirit to stay alive. Spirit keeps all living bodies alive...individual bodies and group bodies...like a church. Without the Spirit within us we die and return to dust. However, the Spirit lives on.
Ecclesiastes 12:7 states the dust of a body returns to the earth just as it was and where it came from, but the spirit returns to the true God who gave it. Only God, whoever or what ever that entity is, can maintain spirit, or life-force forever. All spirit returns to be part of the universal and eternal spirit we call God. Spirit is the God part of us.
Many times spirit and soul are considered the same. Our biblical scriptures say they are different. A clear definition of Soul is found in Genesis: “In Noah’s day eight souls were carried safely through the flood waters.” The eight souls were Noah, his wife, their 3 sons and their wives...eight people. A soul is a person. In Exodus 16:16, there is the story of manna coming from heaven to feed the Israelites. There were told to gather the mana “according to the number of souls that each of them had in his tent. The amount of manna gathered was based on the number of people in each family. Genesis also tells us animals are souls. One verse states, “God said ‘Let the waters swarm with living souls and let flying creatures fly above the earth across the expanse of heaven.”
We stated earlier that the scriptures were first written in Hebrew and Greek. When writing about soul, the Hebrew word was “Ne’phesh, ad the Greek word was psy-khe. These words wee used over 800 times in the Scriptures. Modern biblical scholars render theses two strange words as meaning “soul.” When we look carefully at the way soul or souls is used in the Bible, it is clear that the words refers to human beings or animals. Birds and animals are called sous in Leviticus and Numbers.
Sometimes the life of a person is also called soul. When Rachel was giving birth to Benjamin, the scripture tells us “her life, her soul, was slipping away...and Rachel died. We also read Jesus gave his soul, his life, in behalf of mankind. The word soul then can mean a person’s body or his life.
A serious study of scripture shows you that no where in the entire Bible are the words “immortal” or “ever lastings” linked with the word soul. Instead, the Bible states a soul is mortal, meaning it dies (Ezekiel 1: 4, 20). Therefore, the Bible calls someone who has died simply a dead soul. Our soul is our humanity, and it dies. It is our spirit that is immortal and forever.
In closing listen to what is written: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart (meaning your emotions), all your mind (meaning your thoughts), and all your soul (meaning your body.) When we sing, jump for joy, raise our hands in praise, when we kneel in prayer, that is our body worshiping our God. When we express our love, that is our hearts and emotions. When we meditate, pray, read, and learn that is our mind.
Our bodies, our souls, are temples where the living Christ spirit abides...therefore we must love our bodies and take care of them in every way, as well as our minds and hearts….the all of each of us is precious to our Creator and when we accept this as fact, our lives take on an attitude of gratitude which we extend to other through the way we think, speak and act.
Praise God for combing himself into us so that we too might live in the Kingdom of his and our making in the here an now.
Amen
Sermon, August 6, 2023 - Matthew 14:22-31
Today’s reading has meaning on several different levels. One, we can take the story as fact and take from it what we will, hopefully a message of the comfort Jesus offers us.
Two, we can read it as a re-telling of Psalm 107:25-29 and be ever more aware that most New Testament stories are indeed retelling of older religious Jewish stories.
A third way to read the story is as a metaphor. Christians in the year 80 AD when this story was written, were in trouble. They were having to hide to keep from being killed or punished by their devotion to Jesus, rather than to the Jewish laws. They were in deep trouble, yet they tried to keep their faith in Jesus.
The story tells us the disciples, who represented early Christian people, were in a small ship on a windy, wavy sea. A ship was a symbol for the early church which was also in trouble from the Roman and Jewish authorities who wanted to destroy it.
As the story goes along, Jesus stayed on one side of the lake while th disciples attempted to row to the other side. While they were rowing, the waves blew them off course...as trouble tries to blow all of us off course, away from faith and trust.
The disciples were afraid of the waves which seemed so much larger than they were. (All of our problems, challenges, hardships, and troubles do look and seem larger than we are because we focus on the problem not on the divine solution. In the story, when the disciples realized they were in trouble it was at that moment they thought they saw a ghost walking on the water toward them. The image frightened them eve more. At that moment, Jesus called to them, “Do not fear, it is I.”
When Peter, one of the disciples, realized it was Jesus he said, “If it is you, tell me to come to you.” When Peter said, “If it is you” he was expressing doubt. Jesus said to him anyway, “Yes, come.” Jesus always invites us to come to him, regardless of our fear or doubts. In the story Peter climbs out of the boat and steps onto the water. Suddenly, he takes his eyes off Jesus, looks at the waves, or the trouble, and he begins to sink. Peter reached out his hand and said, “Lord, save me!” Jesus said, “Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Then Jesus took his hand. They both climbed in the ship and the wind and waves ceased.
That is our story. Many of us are beset by problems that others create for us, or that we create for ourselves. We get angry, upset, and have our feelings hurt. But if those negatives become paramount to us, it means we have taken our eyes off Jesus, or off the divine solution, and we sink into despair, depression, or angst.
So, here are the lessons we take from this powerful story. Without Jesus as your focus you seldom get where you want and need to be with relationships or plans that God has for you. Without the guidance that faith offers you, you are at sea and in the dark. Without a working faith, you may put yourself in difficult situations because others may not have the same hope and faith you have, but Jesus says, “you come to me anyway.”
Jesus takes away fear. Jesus comes to you when you are in distress. Jesus stills the storms of your life, and makes all things good! All things!
Having heard the story through metaphorical ears, it might be interesting to note that the origin of the word “relation -ship” means people to people experiencing meaning and power as long as the people are in the ship...the church of loving people. Jesus acts through us to give one another hope, peace, joy and love.
Amen
Sermon, August 13, 2023 - Luke 9: 10-17
The story of Jesus and his disciples feeding 5000 men is found in all four gospels. Today, we read the story as it is found in the Gospel of Luke. Luke’s story is a little bit different from the other three gospels’ versions, but basically they are all similar. When reading the Bible stories we must remember the stories are told to help us grow spiritually,or and to awaken us up to a more remarkable way to live. Many biblical stories are not factual, not literal. Therefore, we understand that it is the meanings and teachings we find in bible stories that are important...not whether or not they are factual. For nearly 2000 years, priests, pastors, and church leaders have tried to explain the food expansion of 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. Some ministers in an effort to explain the phenomenon claimed Jesus was a magician. False teachings have surrounded this particular story. Those false teachings are still prevalent today. So, this morning let’s look carefully at the story as Luke tells it and see what we gain from it in terms of our own spirituality and knowledge of our loving God.
Upfront, I do not think this story is about food that we chew up, swallow, and fills our tummies. However, feeding, nurturing, nourishing are primary Biblical themes. The feeding or nourishing when mentioned in the bible does not come from milk, cheese, eggs and lamb cops, or from literal bread and fish. Nourishment comes when people learn about God’s love, his care and concern for every human being. People are fed when they receive hope and when they witness joyous life available through faith...sometimes people respond in life changing ways.
Reading today’s story, we are reminded that in early times fish was a symbol of Jesus and his unfailing faith...faith that healed, faith that created hope and trust. Jesus kept the fish image fresh by calling his disciples to be fishers of men. We know then, this story is about Jesus himself and his teachings about God’s love, about freedom that comes from trusting God.
At the gathering of the 5000, the disciples told Jesus the people were hungry. The disciples complained to Jesus that all they had were 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. Jesus said to them “then you have enough.”
Here is the heart of the story: The two fish were the identities of Jesus himself. He was a rabbi meaning wisdom teacher and he was a healer. The five loaves of bread were the five books of the Torah or Pentateuch where the laws that directed every aspect of Jewish faith and live were found, taught, and obeyed. ‘’’’both the fish and the bread were the earliest symbols of Christianity.
Luke tells us Jesus told his disciples to break up the crowed into groups of 50. Then he told each disciple go sit with a group and “you feed them.” In other words, Jesus told them to teach them, show them love, honor them, encourage them by feeding them words of the love of God for each of them.
Each disciple sat with a group of fifty to feed them the faith of Jesus, the love of God, the wisdom of following the teachings of this man Jesus. Actually, it was a hands-on training for the disciples to learn how to teach and reach crowds of people. The disciples must have done a good job because the people were satisfied.
The story ends when Luke tells us twelve baskets full of broken pieces were collected. That statement means the 12 disciples were the baskets of nourishment and spiritual food and they were not completely ready for their missionary jobs yet. They had more training to receive.
This story is powerful but it is not about Jesus being a magician. It is not about literal food expansion. It is not a factual story. Rather, it is an often repeated theme that all good things from from God, sometimes through the hands, words, and love, and actions of people like you.
Our daily jobs as followers of Jesus the Christ is to be willing and ready to serve as the hands of God. We can only manifest his love if we ourselves believe it, live it, and share it. All of us are disciples of Jesus, all of us have a lot to learn...and we too are trained daily in how to effectively show love...that is to treat all people in the same way you want to be treated. Then know, that how you treat other people is how you treat your God.
We must be aware of our own actions. We must be willing to allow the Christ spirit to teach us more about love, compassion, and forgiveness….for it is those actions that produce faith and hope….something our community and the world need in great measure.
So, the fact you are here in church, singing, praying, and praising God tells me you are already on that sacred journey of living for Christ, through Christ and by Christ love. Please know how essential your are to our way of life, the way of love. Use the bit you have and see it grow and grow and grow.
May God continue to bless you on this sacred journey we all share.
Amen
Sermon, August 20, 2023
Many times I have been asked the question, “Are you saved?” I once replied,”save from what? But now I know what I’m saved from. If I consistently follow the teachings of Jesus then I am saved from a life of fear and anxiety when I learn to Trust the way of Jesus; I’m saved from loneliness and insecurity when I learn to trust the Holy one; I’m saved from worry about the future when I learn to practice faith, and I am saved from concern over death and dying when I learn to hope without barriers. Having said that, I’ve often wanted to answer with another question which is for what are you saved? To me, that means why are you alive today? That question might stay with us a lifetime and the answers might change often.
I think Benjamin Franklin answered that question when he developed a standard way of approaching people he met. He asked each of them “what have you done today to make our world a better place?”
Do you ever ask that question of yourself? Perhaps its time for self-reflection. Find a quiet place and a bit of time. Then ask yourself “why am I alive today in this particular place at this particular time?” That question leads to the age-old one of “who am I?”
I don’t think we can answer that question without asking, “who am I in relationship with God?
Or, Who am I in my family? Who am I in my neighborhood? my church, job, my circle of friends? Who am I to the homeless people in my community? Whom am I to people in war torn Ukraine, or the hungry thousands in parts of Africa, or to the immigrants changing our world day by day?
I believe the only way we can truthfully answer those questions is to ask “what does the world today need the most of, here in America and abroad? My answer might be the world and all of us in it need more love, less anger, more peace, less fear, and more kindness, less hatred, and certainly more personal responsibility and honesty. So how do we choose the good that is needed and lessen the hurt that waves over us day in and day out? Perhaps one way is for each one of us here today to share love more often than we criticize; to offer peace to all we meet on a daily basis, to offer more kindness to everyone. In other words, we must stop being part of the problem and become a solution. It’s up to each one of us to make this difference in our own lives. Simply put if every believer in the way of Christ would daily practice those teachings, then hopefully others might follow our lead. Even if no one does we rest assuredly that we have done our part in creating a more loving society.
You might be thinking that’s too simple and it will never work. Well, Jesus told us it would work. He said change only needs one person to start and others might follow. And I believe Jesus. There was no one poorer, more downtrodden, misunderstood, abused, laughed at, ridiculed and beleaguered than Jesus himself. But look what this one man’s faith and love has done...they have created the world’s largest religion, a religion based on love, compassion, and forgiveness. But...How far removed is our “current day religion” from that simple faith of Jesus? We have become doubters...we doubt the truth Jesus taught. We doubt the teachings on which he based his life. And yet, time and time again through the ages, it has been shown that the golden rule has solved more challenges and problems than any other dictate or law….every day, all the time, just do to others as you would have them do to you. Many problems might be solved if each of us lived by these words. Really lived by these words.
If we look closely at ourselves we might realize that on occasion we might be he ones causing strife rather than offering peace. We might sometimes be the ones who let words fly out of our our mouths that are hurtful, critical, or complaining. In these instances we take away from our situation and the world the very things we and the world need most. If we ever behave with hostility, indifference, disdain to another person, then we are robbing the world of what it is desperately calling for. Your actions go on eternally in the great unknown...yet still able to impact people for good or ill. Perhaps introspection and maybe some transformation might be needed in our own lives.
What I’m saying to all of us today is this: We are saved (that is we are still alive, energized, breathing the breath of God). We are saved for a special particular reason. We are here to be Christ to one another...and to those who are in greater need than we are. So, what is your role in making our community and world a safe, healthier, better place?
Maybe you think there is nothing you can do. But there is. It costs nothing except a bit of time and intention. You can pray. You can talk to your God and the Christ spirit within you and tell your God you care. Tell your God you wish for every other human on the planet the same safety, peace, and love you wish for yourself and your family. If we all did this, if each and every one of us prayed this prayer every day, we just might be surprised at the changes we see in our neighborhoods. We can do this. We must do this. But the question remains, will we do this? Will we take a few minutes each day to sincerely ask for us to be the way of love for others?
We are saved for special tasks, to love, to serve, and to act on what we know to be true..God’s love available for us to share here, now, everyday. It is essential that we do so.
The next time someone might ask you “Are you saved?” Then respond, “Yes, I am. I am saved to do God’s work and spread his love.”
Amen
Sermon, August 27, 2023 - Matthew 7:24-29
Christianity, the faith tradition that we follow, is not just a religion...not just a series of laws, beliefs, or commandments. Christianity is more than these...it is a way of life.
In the time of Jesus people who followed him were not called Christians...rather they were known as people of the way...the way of Jesus.
During his life on earth, Jesus did not seek personal wealth, nor personal power, prestige, or fame. He desired relationships with people from all walks of life, all faiths, all economic levels. He was especially interested in the poor, the oppressed, and marginalized because he was one of them. He personally experienced the basic need to be loved and accepted. Yet he seldom was.
However, in spite of being considered an outcast, Jesus did what his God asked him to do...be a teacher (rabbi) and a healer. He became extraordinary in both of these areas. Jesus understood that all people need to be loved and saved from themselves and their bad choices. He taught people how to be faithful, how to give and receive love, how to live in hope, and how to have the courage to act rightly regardless of the consequences. He encouraged his followers by assuring them his abiding Spirit would be with them always to give guidance and support.
He taught his people that all of them and us are responsible to build their lives with honesty, with skill, and with a firm foundation of faith.
I once read a story about a carpenter who was ready to retire. He told his boss of his plans to leave the building business and live a more leisurely life with his family. He would miss his monthly pay, but he thought he could get by. The man’s boss was sorry to see his good worker leave, and the boss asked the carpenter if he would build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter agreed, but his heart was not in his work. He did build the house for his boss, but he did shoddy work..it was an unfortunate way to end his career. However, when he finished the house, the boss came to inspect it. Rather than inspecting the house, the boss handed the front door key to the carpenter and said, “This is your house...my gift to you for years of good work.”
What a shock and shame. If the carpenter had only known he was building his own house he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built...the one with a poor foundation and inferior walls.
And so it is with us. We build our lives in distracted ways...we react to events and happenings rather than acting on what God has placed inside of us. At some points in our lives we do not give it our best efforts, then with dismay we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house… the life, we have built. We could have done it differently, but we did not.
Your life is not your own...it was given to you by the God who created the universe, yet he allows you to build your life for him. Your life is to be built to glorify God and at the same time to give you peace and joy.
If God came to inspect your house/your life this morning, what would he say to you? Would he say “well done, my faithful friend.” Or would he say, “this inspection shows me shoddy work, no real lasting foundation made of the bricks of faith.”
Answer this question: is your life so built that God wants to live in it with you? Or, might it need some remodeling?
Amen
Sermon, September 3, 2023
Often when we consider an institution, whether it is a family, a business, a school, or a church, we seem to think the leadership is invested in one person...the dad, the boss, the principal, or the preacher. We are programmed to think those who participate in those institutions are just that...participants, not leaders, not game changers, maybe even not really important.
How very wrong is that! A family is only strong if it is unified, loving, caring about and for each other.
A school is strong only when the students begin to learn, to question to complete assignment and be ready participants both in and out of the classroom.
A business is only as strong as its committed employees. The manager may be fantastic, but if employees fail to do their part, the business fails. No one person can be the complete success of a business.
So too a church. A church is only as strong as its congregation. The Board of Directors, the preacher, the pianist, the cooks, the cleaners, all must be prepared and present...but the church is the people who sit in the pews, who pray and sing, who support one another, who take the lessons learned in worship and apply them to life in the family and community. A true Christ-centered church grows when its people grow spiritually and act lovingly to one another...always and in all ways.
Today marks the anniversary of being in this new sanctuary for 6 years. It is God’s church and it is your church. We exist because you in the congregation attend worship, some attend Bible Study, some share breakfast with others, some sing for and with us, but all of you have contributed something to make this sanctuary a reality. A dime or a dollar bill in the dove each Sunday can be just as powerful as a check for $100 or more. We are blessed here because each one of you contribute something to the project known as building God’s Kingdom on Earth.
All of us here are God’s fellow-builders in building a Christ centered church whose mission is primarily love and service. There is a verse in 1st Corinthians 3:9 that states, “You are God’s fellow worker. You are God’s field, you are God’s building!” Each one of us is a temple where God’s Spirit abides and guides. Every day we have opportunities to work side by side with our Creator doing his works in our area where we live. Our mission is to build up one another through love, compassion, and forgiveness. We must use our spiritual gifts to help make God’s kingdom a reality here and now. Never ever feel as if you are not important. You are essential. The result of knowing how important you are to God, enhances your life.
So what makes this church work? You do. Your prayers for the church and its work are essential. Your donations make a difference in many different ways. Your thoughtfulness toward others in this congregation is needed. We need to understand that Christ Spirit is in each and every one of us….it is that spirit that makes the church an important part of this community.
I thank each one of you for being here. For being part of The Nourishing Place and for nourishing others as often as possible. You are needed here. You are loved here. You are important here...and I hope and pray you receive God’s blessings for being part of this church which is co-owned and operated by God and you. You as a believer are essential. It is within you to help create something that is eternal… the church of God. Just remember, you are a temple where the power and grace of all that is good resides. Yes, you, you are essential to the Living Lord who loves and cares and blesses. Let’s look forward to another great 6 or more years of serving and loving.
Amen
Sermon, September 10, 2023 - Forgiveness
One of the key aspects of Christian life is to “forgive.” The definition of forgiveness is the act of pardoning an offender. In the Bible the Greek word translated as forgiveness literally means “to let go” as when a person does not demand payment for a debt. Forgiveness also means to give up power over another. It is a form of healing. Lift up the person who tried to tear you down.
Forgiveness is specific. Grace is all encompassing.
In Colossians 3 the apostle Paul lists the graces of our new nature in Christ and forgiving others is included. Jesus teaches us to emulate his grace by his own demonstrations. Forgiving others should not be some lofty ideal, but a practical reality used often whenever needed. The need to forgive should not be ignored. There is no spiritual healing without forgiveness. Non-forgiveness is a state of spiritual isolation.
Forgiveness can heal almost any relationship, Forgiveness, when we all give it, can heal the world. What within us is so important that we feel we will lose it if we forgive...our pride? Our inner strength? Our self respect? Just the opposite. When we truly forgive someone who has harmed or hurt us, we are set free. When we refuse to forgive we wallow internally. Every thought we have is like living through mud and slush...no clarity, so inner joy, no experience of real peace.
God gave us grace….we live in the ambiance of God’s grace. And that strength should help us forgive 70 x 7 and find freedom from the harm we have lived with for far too long.
Several years ago the amazing older minister Charles Swindoll told a story about forgiveness that saved a man’s life. Even though this happened several years ago, it is a football story...so it has relevance today. Tom Landry was a well respected award winning coach of the Dallas Cowboys. There was also another well known coach named Woody Hayes who coached the Ohio State football team for 28 winning years. Hayes had a reputation for being a fierce competitor and did not like for his team to fail! During a Gator Bowl game in which Ohio was to win easily, an opposing team player intercepted an Ohio State pass and the one who caught the pass landed in front of Woody Hayes. Hayes was so angry he slugged the boy knocking off his helmet...all on national television.
Of course, Hayes was fired. For many weeks the media condemned him, badgered him, judged him as an unfit man. Other coaches said Hayes gave them a bad name. His previous friends shunned him. Hayes hid in his house behind locked doors.
Not long after that, coach Tom Landry the Dallas coach, was to attend a prestigious banquet in New York. He could invite one guest. He invited Woody Hayes. Tom Landry’s act of forgiveness and grace lifted Hayes out of his shame. The tormentors around the country were silenced.
When Landry was asked by reporters why he invited Hayes to the banquet, Landry said, “Well, everyone else was beating up on him and ridiculing him. He needed somebody to put an arm around him and tell him he was still loved.”
When Hayes was as low as a person can get, Landry bent down and raised him up. Landry embraced this broken man and give him forgiveness and grace.
We need examples like that story to remind us that our jobs are to raise others up, not tear them down.
So, I have some questions. Do you offer forgiveness to all the others who have hurt you? Do you offer grace to people who don’t act lovingly toward you? Do you seek out the person who is embarrassed or hurt and offer comfort? If you know someone who is low, shamed, forlorn, lonely, feels unforgiven then stoop down and raise them up. Kindness is what the world needs now... each of us must be kind.
God in his infinite love does not look at you and say, “Ok, when you get your act together and show me a little interest, then I will grant you grace.” No, rather God says to each one of us, “Come as you are; I love you as you are. But for you to be my follower, a Christian, then accept and love yourself and others in spite of wrong doings, misbehavior and unworthy acts.
Today, God is not asking you what you believe, or what creed or prayer you have memorized. He is asking you, “will you today raise up a friend or neighbor in need? And likewise, will you also forgive those who have hurt you? You will find peace by so doing?
I pray we all spend more time doing forgiveness than criticizing or complaining. We can do this.
Amen
Sermon, September 17, 2023
One of the most profound statement I have ever read came from A.W. Tozer, a minister in the mid-1900’s. He wrote, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” (Tozer)
Tozer did a study of the history of God in relationship to nations around the world. Here is what he found: “The history of mankind shows that no people or nation has ever risen above the values of its religion. The history of humanity’s spiritual history demonstrates that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship by a nation’s people is either pure and loving or dark and negative based on the nation’s citizens’ thoughts of God, high thoughts or low ones.
For this reason, the most essential question before the Church and our nation is always God. And the most portentous fact about any person is not what he or she may say or do, but what the person in his or her mind and heart conceive God to be like.
We all, each one of us, tend to move and grow toward our mental image of God. This fact is true not only of individual Christians but of groups of Christians who are the church. The most revealing thing about a church is its idea of God: is God loving? Merciful? Or condemning and punitive? Who is God to you?
If you view God as revengeful and unforgiving that is how you will be in your thoughts, words, and actions. If you see God as loving and forgiving, you will tend to be those things...and it is those positive ideas that help heal families, communities, the church and the world.
Sometimes it is difficult to think about our spiritual selves, primarily we can’t physically see our spirit. It only becomes visible when we act on the ideals that a spiritual self offers. Here are a few questions you could ask and answer in an attempt to determine what are your key spiritual aspects?
The first question to ask yourself is this: What do you want or desire most in your life? Power, money, respect, or faith, love, kindness? Be as specific as possible as you consider your answer.
A second question is: What do you think about most often? Yourself? Your loved ones? How you can be helpful in your community or how you can get more and have more of whatever you want?
A third question is? What person do you admire most? A family member? A local hero? A national figure? A movie star or sports figure? Or a friend or leader with values, divine inspiration, and an ever present sense of caring about you?
A fourth question is a more practical one: what do you do with your leisure time and what resources or money you have? Do you plan on how to use your money or resources to make yourself more prosperous, or do you try to find ways to be helpful to those in need in your local community?
These are all leading questions and the answers may change from time to time as you do grow spiritually and in ways more akin to godly ways? None the less, please take time to ask yourself these questions, then find someone you trust and talk about them, share some of your answers, and listen to the answers that others offer. We are in this life together for a reason…
We each must choose to live by the laws of love and sharing IF we want humanity to survive and prosper.
So here is the spiritual truth that God put within us when we breathed our first God-given breath….and will be with us until we transition into an eternal life: Everything we are and own and have belong to God our creator. 100% of everything we possess is God’s first and foremost. However, we have a gracious, generous God who trusts us enough to allow us to spend 90 percent of who we are and what we own in any way we choose. But, he does teach us if you want peace, joy, love and blessings in your life than you must, you must, willingly give away at least the other 10%… give away or share especially with those most in need love, attention, and support.
This way of living, 90 percent for us 10 percent for God, is called the spiritual path of effective living. Don’t we all want to live meaningful lives...lives that are eventually eternal ones? I think we do, and here is the way to assure that outcome.
This coming week, please take some time and think about what you want most and see if those priorities need to be changed a bit. Then identify what you think about most often. Is their a desire to possibly consider living more like Christ himself lived? If so you would be doing what God asks us to do and that is to be Christ to one another. Then if you truly want more blessings rather than more challenges, learn to let go and let God have his way. In other words agree to share your time and resources more willingly and more often.
May each of us choose to give back to God all God asks which in reality is very little considering what God gives you and us collectively.
Back to the beginning, let me remind us all that what you think about God is the most important thing about you because it is the foundation and base on which everything else in your life is built.
I pray you rejoice this week by what you discover about yourself and your willingness to be partners and co-creators with the God who made you.
Amen
Sermon, September 24, 2023
Let’s talk about the God we worship here each Sunday and learn more about during bible study. Most of us grew up being taught that God was some large man who lived up in the sky and who bestowed favors on those who obeyed that God and punished those who did not obey. Well, let me take a deep breath and have the courage to tell you that image of God has damaged most of us intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. None of us, not even he most brilliant of scientists, can describe God for us. Through the years of trying to live by the morals and ethics taught through biblical stories, I have come to agree somewhat to the concept in which the greatest theologians of our age have put out for us to consider. Here is a consensus of their belief: “God is not a noun(not a person, place, or thing) that demands to be defined. God is a verb that invites us to live, to love and to be.”
Through a sort of understanding of that God, we can acknowledge the presence of the God of love action in every breath each one of us takes. When you breathe you breathe in the Spirit of the God of who is omnipresent because that God is every where at any time any human takes a breath. God’s presence is eternal, which does not mean later, it means timeless...always has been, always will be. So, let’s talk about being aware of and responsible for acknowledging the Presence of the God of loving creative action within you.
First of all, most of us humans have difficulty with intellectualizing morality and goodness. About 2000 years ago a man was born who as far as we know exemplified as much as possible the characteristics of a loving, creative God of Action...that of course, was and is Jesus. A personal guide for those of us who need examples of holiness, goodness, kindness, and unselfishness….that is Jesus for us.
If you acknowledge a holy presence is within you, then some kind of response to this gift of life is needed. That response should be that you act on the fact that you are one part of that God of all beings...and what you say and do influences people and situations far, far more than you realize.
You are a reflection of the God of action within you and your actions. We say it often because it is true: How you treat other people, all other people, is how you treat God as shown to us by Jesus. And if you treat God with respect and love, then that is how you treat yourself and others. That is our required response to that God of love within us.
When you acknowledge human existence is a gift that exists within you, then you are DONE with selfish, self-centered, it’s all about me, behavior. You are Done, Over, Changed, you are new in attitude and action. That new attitude helps you see all other human beings, no matter who different from you they appear, are just as loved by creation as you are. All other people are worthy of care and compassion, and of course unconditional love. Wow. That is radical but it is what will change our social, academic and political environment when more people agree to participate.
It’s kind of like taking your favorite coat to the cleaner. It has crumbs on it, it has gotten dusty hanging in a closet all summer. You take it to the cleaner and the cleaners do something to the coat...they put a fluid on it that will take away the dirt that is on and in the coat. That is symbolic of us. We too need to be cleaned. We take ourselves to a quiet spot, talk to the creative God about the dirt and crumbs in and on us, and we ask to be cleaned. The love of God reminds us that he has already handled that through the life of Jesus our Christ. Jesus lived and died to show us the powerful, kindly, life altering act of love our God has for each one of us….but it is our response to that love that is required of us. We dust ourselves off, we put a healthier attitude in our minds and in our mouths, we replace self-centeredness with random acts of kindness to people we meet at the store, on the highway, in church and in our social lives. We illustrate the Jesus kind of love no matter what! We re-evaluate what we think and say we want...new cars, new homes, new clothes, new hairdo’s, new entertainment, on and on. But wait. What about your neighbor whose car has broken down and he can’t get to work. What is your response to the God within him? But wait. What about the child in a school near your who needs eyeglasses, or new shoes, or a coat for winter. How do you treat the God within that child? But wait. What about the homeless man that comes to church and sits near you who needs a bus pass to look for a job. How do you treat the God within that man? And, What about your friend who has just lost a loved one. How do you treat the sorrow of God in that friend?
All the talk about spirituality, faith, hope, love boils down to this...the quality of your existence depends on the very simple acts of kindness you willingly show to others, perhaps especially those in need. Jesus repeatedly asked us to feed his sheep, heal his people, be kind to the God within every human being. When you do act lovingly to those around you then you are a responsible person involved in re-creating your world into the world our God of love and action desires for us all.
Just think about it….
Amen
Sermon, October 1, 2023
Today’s reading is called a parable. A parable is a fiction story which teaches an important truth. We know this is not a literal story. But because it is in the Bible and we know Jesus told the story, then we know to listen and conclude the truth in the story.
The rich people Jesus is talking about in the story are the ruling class of Jewish men, primarily the Pharisees. These Pharisees, supposedly the holiest people in the Jewish nation, were to reach out to Gentiles and treat them with respect and grace. Of course, the Pharisees did not treat the common people with any regard at all. In fact, they called them “dogs.” The Pharisees used their power and authority to comfort themselves, to enrich their own lives. In this story, Jesus finds them so unholy he does not even give the rich man in the story a name. However, the other man does have a name...it is Lazarus which means “favored one.” In the story Lazarus symbolizes all the people who are in spiritual poverty because they worship false gods and did not know the One True God.
Through many biblical stories we discover the Jewish leaders did not share their spiritual or material wealth with the Gentiles at all. These Gentile people (anyone who is not Jewish) had to be satisfied with the spiritual crumbs that fell from their master’s hands.
In the story Lazarus was a beggar...he died and “went to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. He burned in hell which means he was in darkness through his separation from God. In his persona torment the rich man called out to Abraham for mercy. But he was still so consumed with his own power and wealth that he asked for Lazarus to come to where he was to comfort him forever. Even after death the rich man still felt he was more important and more worthy than the poor Lazarus.
This parable has a moral and it is not that Jesus was trying to explain the physical realities of the afterlife. Rather he was pointing out the faithless-ness of the Jews regarding their assigned responsibility….to care for and offer God’s love to all people. The Jewish rich society refused to share the good news with the Gentiles who were eager to hear the good news of God and love. The ultimate balance between the two men came when Lazarus inherited the kingdom of heaven while the rich who refused to share entered darkness.
This story is not really about wealth or money...it is about how eager you are to share the good news of Jesus...his truth, his love, his forgiveness, and his power to transform each of us into the people God designed us to be….Christ to one another.
My question today is “how are we doing?” Who in our community are we ignoring? Do you truly seek to live a life of generosity...sharing your time, attention, energy, and sometimes your resources with people who are less fortunate than you? Just how do you use your blessings from God to bless others in your neighborhood or community?
A truth gained from this story is that happiness is not found at the expense of others. The story is also a warning to those who are not paying any attention to the needs of others. That attitude has no place in God’s kingdom.
Ultimately, this story of the rich man and Lazarus should lead each of us to the question: are we like the rich man who has no time or thought of lifting up one who has less then we have? Pray about it.
Amen
Sermon, October 8, 2023
Today’s scripture has been misinterpreted over and over again when teachers try to label people as either good or bad, right or wrong, strong or weak. That is not what this parable is about. What is true about this scripture is that people are different. The story is about the hearts and minds of the followers of Jesus. Some people have a heart for the vulnerable and some just don’t seem to care. This story emphasizes “sheep hear my voice” and they respond to the path of Jesus. Those who choose not to hear the voice and call of Jesus and choose not to follow Jesus, will have consequences, which scripture calls darkness.
We must not try to determine the difference in living sheep and real goats. Rather the truth of the matter is that those who live according to the way of Jesus inherit the Kingdom of God today...those who do not follow the way are no part of the Kingdom...and that is their choice. Back in the day of Jesus and now people chose differently. There was and is a marked difference in the people who choose Jesus and those who do not. This is why we are told Jesus looked down on Jerusalem and cried because the people rejected him and his way to glory. People then and now choose to reject the Jesus way. That rejection is made clear by how people respond to the vulnerable in their society.
What we do does matter. It matters because what we do, our words and actions, are reflections of what we truly believe. When we choose to follow Jesus, caring about others, especially the vulnerable, those in real need, we learn to do so almost by instinct because at the base it is a reflection of our own love for Jesus, the Christ, who loves, forgives, cares, and redeems….that’s why he asks us to be Christ to each other.
Another way to see this story is to realize it is not about dogma, doctrine, creeds, rites, or rituals...it is about how to live your daily life of meaning and joy...a life that honors your God.
So from the very beginning of humanity, God placed in us humans an ability to choose….for good or ill. The in-bred desire to offer compassion is in each of us...however, we often cover it up with excuses, distractions, and disbelief.
Years ago, I was in graduate school studying Anthropology. We studied the works of Margaret Mead...a world class anthropologist who intently analyzed what happened in the earliest cultures of a growing mass of humans. One story about Dr. Mead might tell us more about who we are. One of her students who was in Africa with her doing research asked Dr. Mead this question: “What is the very first sign of civilization you have ever found?”
The student expected an answer such as cave drawing, or fire building, or stone axes. However, Dr. Mead answered the question by saying, “The first sign of civilization I have found was a healed leg bone.”
The student was amazed and asked why?
Dr. Mead answered that no healed leg bones are found where the law of jungle, survival of the fittest, is the norm. A healed leg bone showed someone cared. Someone had to do that hurt person’s hunting and gathering until the leg healed. So the first sign of civilization is compassion. Love for others put into action and practice!
However we describe it, compassion is essentially a life well lived. When we consider our own level of compassion we might realize it needs to be nurtured and practiced for even this basic love response will grow dull and might eventually die. We already see that all too often in our secular society. It saddens me that we as a nation and a community might be losing our willingness to be compassionate. We must not allow this to happen.
You and I who are believers in the way of Jesus, must do our part today, and tomorrow, and every day after...even if we are the only ones doing so. I pray that each of us here today will re-kindle our conviction to love always and be compassionate. Sheep living into the light. Not goats who live in darkness.
Amen
Sermon, October 15, 2023
God’s earth is a garden. It is a place of growth. The first garden mentioned in the Bible is the Garden of Eden...the word “Eden” means “delight”. So the earth was created as a place of delight.
When humans came along we were placed in a garden, a place of beauty, growth. At that time, God gave us a job. He told the first inhabitants, we call them Adam and Eve, to cultivate the garden and teach all other people who came along to also cultivate the garden and each other.
The sad part of this command is that many of us stopped cultivating ourselves a long time ago. We don’t grow spiritually as God asked us to do. We don’t tend to and cultivate our spirituality. Some folks say, “Well, I pray and go to church on Sunday, isn’t that enough?” We each must answer that for ourselves. However, when we stop growing spiritually we often become depressed, hopeless, fearful, and lose the spark of energy that keeps us interested and interesting. Maybe we need to re-think our earthly garden and our place in it.
I attempted to do this re-connecting to the earth when my children were young teen agers, My family of 8 lived in a large rambling house in downtown Starkville. The children had spacious rooms, could walk to school and even to the university’s library and gym. But I felt they were missing out on the foundations of a life of deep meaning. So, I had this bright idea that I would sell our house and move my family out to a horse farm in the country. There was no house on the horse farm, so I bought a double-wide mobile home and set it up near the barn and moved us in.
There was a bit of trouble when I realized the ceilings in the mobile home were 7 feet high and three of our sons were over 6 feet tall. When two of them had to share a tiny room I bought bunk beds. However, whichever one slept on the top bunk could never sit up, nor roll over...they had to ease full bodied into the top bunk, lay still all night long, then roll out again. They took turns complaining and sleeping in what they called the “heights of hell.”
The good part was all the children enjoy riding the horses, but that was play, fun time. I wanted them to get to know the earth...the soil, how things grow. I wanted them to understand we are people of the earth, but also people of spirit. I decided we would work the ground and grow our own vegetables. The problem was, I was raised in a town and knew nothing of gardening or growing anything. In fact, I used to put artificial flowers in my home in vases full of water so they would look real. But, with some enthusiasm, my children and I planted a huge garden of vegetables: lettuce, egg plants, beans, and yellow squash. We planted seeds, occasionally watered them, and once or twice the older boys decided to fertilize the plants but each effort ended up in a fertilizer fight. We did have 26 horses so there was plenty of home-made fertilizer. In spite of what we considered efforts, only the yellow squash grew. We had row after row of yellow squash. Each evening, I would send the children out to pick the squash and bring it in for supper. Over the ensuing days, we had boiled squash, sauteed squash, squash casseroles, squash soup. The family choked down these dishes accompanied by gags! But the night I cooked barbecued squash there was a rebellion. In unison I heard “No more squash! You have ruined our lives. We want to move back to town. I will never eat squash again. We aren’t gonna live here any more!”
I replied, “Ok, what is the solution?” The older boys simultaneously screamed, “Go to the grocery store!” Then my tenderhearted son Harry said, “Mama, why don’t you just water, feed and cultivate us, your children. We will blossom.” And Liz, our only daughter, added, “Yes, let us be your garden.” I took their advice. We remained on the farm, rode horses, and each day after work I went to the grocery store to buy vegetables...but no squash. We had a blossoming, happy household.
What is the moral of this garden experience? Biblically speaking, there are two main gardens in our faith: the Garden of Eden where humans came forth from God, and the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was arrested. In the Garden of Eden Adam took a fall. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus took a stand. In Eden, God looked for Adam. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus looked for God. In Eden, Adam hid from God. In Gethsemane, Jesus emerged from the darkness of a tomb to bring light and open-ness to us all.
We are to do what Jesus did: Nurture what is at hand. Take a stand for goodness and grace, love and mercy. We must seek God at all times as we cultivate his earth garden, ourselves and each other. We must bring his light to bear in the way we live each day.
There is a magnificent order to our universe. There should be the same order in our daily lives: Love and serve God. Love and respect yourself. Reach out in love and compassion to others. If you live this order you will blossom and you will bring light to the lives of others.
Think about this: each one of us is a gardener and we do reap what we sow.
Amen
Sermon, October 22, 2023
Have any of you looked at the photos the Hubble and other telescopes are sending about our universe? The colors, the motions, the wonder of it all shows creation is still evolving, energy is on the move in ways we can’t yet comprehend.
Recently I read the Hubble telescope captured an image of colliding galaxies. They were spinning and sliding into each other creating new and larger galaxies. What kind of force is so powerful that life continues to change, grow, and become more spectacular with every passing minute. Seeing that on my small I Phone made me realize anew what an awesome, creative, brilliant Creator we serve. It reminded me that we humans are miniature galaxies being renewed and kept vibrantly alive through the power of this creative, energizing, loving Creator we call God. That creative energy, that loving God is within each one of us. When we choose to join our little energy with God’s massive energy we shine brighter, we grow more aware, we become more loving, patient, and kind...because we are in relationship with our God.
Our relationship to God, God’s to Christ, and both of them to us through the power of the Holy Spirit makes us very special entities, loved people. The gospel of John shares the words of Jesus with us: “I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you.”
What a stunning revelation! When we accept we are part of this creative God and the creation itself we might want to broaden our horizons and recognize our oneness with the universe, with all living things, and certainly with all other human beings. To grow in ways necessary to enhance all of life, we must acknowledge our oneness with God, with Jesus the Christ, and the Spirit of life-changing love. Then, we too become creators sculpting our lives to make a positive difference to other people, our families, our communities,and our churches, or our faith traditions. We have come to know the universe and everything in it is made up of atoms..a t o m s. That little word means indivisible, not able to be separated. We, made up of atoms, are not separated from God or from each other...we are part of the entire universe and our energy in action helps to shape the universe just as surely as colliding galaxies do.
With that awareness of who we are, beings that are part of the Creative God, we must stop being trivial people, concerned with things that do not really matter. We must stop judging others and bless them...for they too have the same power and relationship with God that we do...although, some people choose not to acknowledge that close relationship and their choice brings them pain, despair, depression, and sometimes illness. We can not escape that knowledge. Nor can we escape the clear call to be on the side of goodness. If each one of us would accept this oneness, this unity with one another, the earth, and nature, there would be less condemnation of self and others. There would be less strife, less hostility, less stress, less war, fewer burdens, more joy, greater peace. Isn’t that what we all want and need?
Then, why do we choose other paths? As Einstein taught us, “we are made of stardust, we are one with all.” Isn’t it time we use the gifts of love to make our lives more meaningful? More loving? More God-like? We have the power to choose just how brightly we will shine, or how much darkness we spread.
Light and love are always the answer...so let it be.
Amen
Sermon, October 29, 2023
If you were the only face of God, experience of God, that others might see, who would God be for them? How would they see the way God acts? In a chaotic world, God is the face and experience of peace. Do you exhibit his peace?
We all want peace in our lives. We want to experience calm and serenity. And we want to experience peace all the time, especially in fearful, dangerous, or unsettling times. But if you truly want a peace that lasts, a peace that is free from fear, anxiety and stress, then you must be still and make a trade with God. Give your desires and wants to God in exchange for his desires, wants and assurances.
In God’s creative wisdom he made your life exciting for he made you reflect his love and forgiveness, his peace and joy. God knows what is good for us, for you and me. Yet, stubbornly we cling to doing life our own way, living for the externals...those things outside of us. By now, we should know better.
All of us need a break from worry. We all desire no wars. We all want to avoid conflicts. However, war will always exist no mater how hard some people try to prevent it. Conflicts will continue to arise in our lives no matter how hard we try to avoid them. We all want to lessen our stress, get rid of anxiety, and seek peace that is real, that lasts, that will protect us from the external pressures of living on this planet in this day and age.
There is a solution, an answer. For every human challenge there is a divine solution. Are we ready or eager to hear what that divine solution is?
We as humans, made in God’s image, have access to peace that is greater than anything the world can offer us. Peace is a fruit of living in the Spirit. As we abide in the Christ spirit we will experience peace that comes only from our Creator.
We need to remember and use often the words o Philippians 4:4. “Rejoice in the Lord, always. Again I say, rejoice. Let your kindness be evident to all for the Lord is within us. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and with thanksgiving, make your requests to God. And the peace that passes all understanding will guard your minds and hearts.”
What do we learn from this verse? Peace comes from the Spirit of God that is within you. It comes as a result of prayer and trusting your God. It is the opposite of anxiousness. It is trusting God’s wisdom and his love for you.
People everywhere search for peace. They sing songs about it and travel on pilgrimages to find it. The even sometimes wage war to protect it. Many wealthy, famous, and powerful people would trade anything for one moment of peace. What they often find, however, is the world’s false peace which is different from the peace offered by the living Spirit of the Christ.”Hear Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John 14:27. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. So, do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. I am with you.”
And another key message. This one from 2nd Timothy 1:7. “ God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” We have those. Do we use those gifts to bring peace, assurance, and wisdom to ourselves? To our families? To our community and church?
Think and pray about it. We have been assured God offers us peace in the midst of chaos. His peace does not change with circumstances. It is secure in spite of any circumstance. “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you and my covenant of peace shall not be removed” says the Lord who has compassion on you. Isiah 54:10
If you want peace, you know where and how to find it. It is here, it is now, it is in you. But, it is up to you to decide to trust your Creator God and live by his ways...then peace is inevitable. I pray each of us seeks to live by these holy, sacred, and healing words.
Amen
Sermon, November 5, 2023 - The Beatitudes
The last book in the Old Testament is Malachi...the last of the prophets the Hebrew people heard from prior to the life of Jesus. After Malachi, there were 400 years of silence from God. Nothing. No rescuer like Moses, no Judge like the ones who rule Israel for centuries, no prophet, no king. When God once again did speak he did so through Jesus, his representative one earth...aka his son, chief apostle, greatest teacher, most miraculous healer and Messiah, meaning the anointed one, anointed to bring the message of God not just to the Jewish people, but to all people. Jesus proclaimed a New Covenant, a new promise, and a new way to relate to God...a way independent of temple, Jerusalem priesthood, and of no bloody animal sacrifice.
The New Promise brought with it a major change. As long as it was done decently and in good spirit, God could be horsewhipped at any time, any where by those who were seeking him and his Holy Spirit. God intended for his people to worship him through every avenue of life.
Many years after the death of Jesus, people began to tell his story and to try to explain who he was, what he did, what he believed, and how he wanted his followers to live. The Beatitudes, which are part of the Sermon on the Mount, answer most of those questions.
The Beatitudes are the attitudes which should be in your life. They mark the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount which outlines over 5 chapters the entire philosophy and teachings of Jesus. The Beatitudes are a list of characteristics of God’s followers, because they are a blue print for happiness in a world that is unhappy. Together they express the Mind of Christ to the disciples back then and now. They help us empty ourselves so we can be filled with the Spirit of love, hope, and faith.
Each Beatitude has two parts: the first describes the situation in the present, and the second part points to the glory to come. Therefore, they sketch a way of life for true Christians and simultaneously they offer hope for the future.
Probably, most important, the beatitudes can be seen as a description of Jesus himself. He was poor in spirit, lowly, hungry for holiness, merciful, single-hearted,a peacemaker and was persecuted for the sake of love.
Most of the Beatitudes are self-explanatory. However, some peole have a problem understanding what it means to be meek. Meek does not mean weak or lacking courage. Rather it means power under control, such as refusing to inflate our own self-estee, and reticence to assert ourselves FOR ourselves. Both Moses and Jesus were were described as “meek and lowly.” They were both brave, courageous and risk-takers and they knew the Lord would provide the Spirit to see them through their appointed tasks.
The phrase “poor in spirit” is another phrase that causes confusion. What does it mean to be poor in spirit? There are many interpretations, but the one used here means that we as humans are spiritually poor until we surrender to God and his way of life...which is better for all of us. However, again because we are human and want to rule ourselves, we often feel we donot need God...therefore, we are spiritually bankrupt. The antidote to being spiritually poor is to seek to be as God has asked us to be in all that we say, think, and do. That pleases God ad us. Sooner or later we must recognize our utter dependence on God for our spiritual wholeness. There is no other way in our faith tradition to be an essential part in bringing God’s kingdom here on earth in the now, the present time.
Through the Beatitudes we find positive reasons for emulating the Christ in our own walk of life...there is no judgment here, rather a sense of peace and reward for lives well lived
Every day gives each of us an opportunity to grow in spirit which in itself will help bring God’s kingdom to wherever you are. Think about that gift and power that has been given freely and lovingly to you.
Then put that gift into action. For love is what we do!
Amen
Sermon, November 12, 2023
Today I want us to look at what the kind of mental health God created us to have and to live by. God placed within us the ability to see clearly, to ascertain what is beneficial to us and what is not. By the time we were 3 or 4 years old we had a good idea what was considered “good” or “bad.” And at home, school, and church we were led to put good above bad, or right above wrong.
However, just by listening to our world today, some of that keen awareness is missing. In homes across this community, in news headlines, in media we see and hear people who promote a deception….that is people tend to blame others for their life situations, they have perpetually negative attitudes, and then in spite of all the wonderful aspects of life, some folks want to think everything is about them. They are their own center of the universe to the detriment of their families, their jobs, their relationships, and their future.
Some people enjoy blaming others...everything that happens is someone else’s fault. People refuse to take responsibility for themselves, their actions, and their life situations. We see it every day. I talk to teenagers wno drop out of school, start using drugs or alcohol, become homeless then blame society...school was boring, I deserve some fun, I don’t want anybody to tell me how to live and what to do. So with those revealing attitudes, there is not a promising future.
Let’s look at just one area of concern we all should have...that is our young people. The newest stats tell us a sad story: Even though our public schools are free, that is no charge of money to go, young people are dropping out of school. They drop out because of poor grades, family who does not promote study and learning, they would rather do a sporadic pickup job like mowing a lawn just long enough to buy booze or a bit of entertainment. Here are some figures we need to look at and address: 59% of high school drop outs smoke cigarettes...where do they get the money? 41 % drink alcohol, where do they get the money? 32% binge on alcohol, 31% use marijuana, and 10% admit to non medical use of prescription type drugs. What kind of future do these young people have. And where is the work ethic America was founded on.
This is not just an economic and social problem...it is a spiritual one. Our Christian heritage deals with mental health issues...and from the very beginning of time God put humans here to work...tend to the soil, the animals, the plants and trees, work the daylight hours, and rest well at night. Many of us through the years do this work, provide for our families, help make our communities better and stronger. Yet some choose to drop out of work, out of life. The Bible, especially in the book of Colassians, teaches us that adhering to false teachings is dangerous. When Paul wrote this letter he was letting his people know that certain ways of thinking are hollow and will deceive you. In chapter 2:8 he says, “see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principoes of the world, rather than according to Jesus the Christ.”
So if you, or anyone you know, tends to be a life dropout, if they show a victim mentality, if they blame others for their own condition and situation, if they focus on woes and self-pity, if they refuse to take responsibility for themselves, if they are more often negative rather than positive, and if they see themselves as the center of their universe then they exhibit a victim mentality. And from our Christian perspective, a victim mentality goes against the very truths found in our holy scriptures. If you yourself, or if you know someone caught in the trap of a victim mentality, here are three things you can do to live better, more productive, kinder lives:
1. Take responsibility for your actions. No matter what has happened in your life, no matter what another person does to you, you are responsible for your response. And you will answer to your God for how you respond. Respond with love and forgiveness, not bitterness and revenge.
2. Accept the fact that our world is not perfect and all humans sin. Our world and community are full of difficulty, suffering, and injustice. That is a reality. As believers, we must do all we can to live in ways that are just and loving. We can and must promote in our own lives that which is right and just.
3. Be passionate about your belief in a loving and gracious God which will allow you to endure impatience while you await the goodness that will surely come. Put faith into practice. Put love into your daily actions. Put hope at the forefront of planning for each day. Trust the God who created you for just this time and this place. God is still waiting for you to respond by the way you think, speak, and act. Godliness is your heritage...being a victim is not.
So if we want to live in a safer, more informed, healthier, better educated community we have work to do. Use the thoughts and talents you have to encourage people in your family, your social gatherings, and even in your church, to stop victimhood and move forward as a well, sane, and productive person who adds to the richness of goodness wherever you are.
To sum up the teaching of Jesus about who we truly are, heed these words.
Take responsibility for yourself, your choices, and your actions...and may God bless your strivings.
Amen
Sermon, November 19, 2023 - Acts 20: 7-12
Last week our sermon focused on sorrowful existences in our community… systems and actions that might be more effective if changed to be more people focused, not government focused. So today I wanted us to lighten up and have some fun. Because laughter is healing. Humor is necessary. God created both to keep us sane. In fact, much of the bible is humorous. The Old Testament was written by Jewish people and Jewish humor is sophisticated and funny, often pointing out the absurdities the ridiculous in life.
The first book of the Bible, Genesis, is full of Jewish humor. It begins with Adam and Eve. In fact, one Jewish rabbi in writing his own interpretation of Genesis pointed out that when God completed his work of designing Adam and Eve, God sent them into the Garden of Eden to produce human beings to populate the earth. Adam and Eve went off to do what God had commanded. A few days later Adam came back to God and asked, “What’s a headache?”
Look a few generations further back and find Abraham and Sarah in a dilemma. God ha promised them a son. He sent Melchizedek to reaffirm this promise. Sarah said, “I can’t have a baby, I’m 90 years old.” So she laughed at God’s promise. Later and older, Sarah did have a son. She named him Isaac which means “laughter.” That son Isaac later became the father of Jacob. This might be considered an Old Testament trinity: Abraham literally means the father of many with many wives; Isaac means laughter of the absurd, and Jacob means supplanter, or taking the place of another through trickery and falsehoods. Our very first ancestors were an adulterer, a comic, and a liar. Not a particularly high level of confidence for the human race. Of course, that is the point! Left to our own we are lacking; filled with the Spirit of God we are marvelous.
There are other biblical stories that are absurd and funny. In telling the story of Jonah being swallowed by a big fish, the Jewish writer attempted to describe absolute darkness. In other words, just how far away can a person get from God’s light? Being in the belly of a big fish, at the bottom of the ocean, is about ask dark as it gets...very dark indeed. That is a funny story, especially about the big fish vomiting Jonah out onto dry land. That story was interesting enough for people to listen to. His point was you don’t want to stay in the dark! Do as God asks and the dark will force you out into the light! Without the burden of sin you will be lighter and enlightened.
And what about Samson killing a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass. That is ridiculous. The Jewish writers were being sarcastic...Samson with his arrogance and threats acted like a “jawbone” of an ass, or as the readers would ascertain, his mouth made him sound and act stupid like a donkey, an ass. It is an absurd story, but again, one interesting enough for people to hear, remember, and share. Don’t threaten your enemies...treat them the way God tells you do to do.
Then we come to today’s reading. Paul has been preaching for hours and hours. A young man named Eutychus was sitting in the window of the third floor of someone’s home. He had listened to Paul drone on and on for so long the boy got sleepy. He fell out o the window and was dead. Paul interrupted his preaching just ong enough to run down to the boy, hug him and then announce “He’s alive.” Then Paul ran back upstairs to continue preaching until dawn. We might ask, why did the boy fall asleep and fall out the window? Probably because Paul or his sermon was boring. Preachers and sermons can be very boring. This is a funny story. Luke is using the story to illustrate the difference between religion and the spirit of love. Religion is often boring, long winded and often overdone. Where Spirit is light, interesting and joyful.
As a young child I was always bored in church. So I kicked the pew in front or scribbled on my Sunday School book, and I talked. I remember sitting in our usual pew in the First Baptist Church when I was about 4 or 5 years old and I was talking during the sermon. Mhy daddy leaned over and whispered “Hush! You must be quiet in church!” I loudly asked why do I have to be quiet in church?” My older sister answered also in a loud voice and said, “Be quiet, people are sleeping!” That happens.
So the point of our reading from the book of Acts this morning is to let those of us who follow Jesus realize we will not win people over to the love of Christ by being boring people ourselves. We must not be solemn, grumpy, irritable or otherwise uninteresting. We help bring people to the love of Christ by being fun, joyful, respectful of others. We need to show others that Christians have positive attitudes and joy! Church should be fun, uplifting. It’s ok to tell jokes in church. Laughter should be shared. We are healed through laughter, and where better to be healed than in church?
I pray these illustrations today will encourage you to read the bible with more interest, seek out what is funny or absurd or absolutely ridiculous. Laugh with those early writers who were comics in their own way, and used the absurd to get people to listen to their holy message.
We as followers of Christ are to be the light of the world, the joy of the world, and we can not be those things with bad attitudes, with putting ourselves and our needs and wants above all else. No, we become joyful, pleasant, and interesting when we walk and talk the walk and talk of Christ himself.
Amen
November 26, 2023
The Gospel of John is the only gospel that records this story...John, more than the other gospel writers, uses symbolism and allegory to teach his lessons.
The story of the Samaritan woman, who has no name, provides a powerful truth for us today. In this story we see Jesus having a conversation with a woman who has come to get water from the well..which is located about a half mile from the city center of Sychar in Samaria. The woman was a Samaritan...Samaritans were a group of people the Jewish people utterly despised every Samaritan. Samaritans were considered unclean...that is they did not honor the Jewish God.
In today’s story, this woman was an outcast from her own people. We know this because she came to the well alone. During biblical times, drawing water and chatting at the well was the social high point of a woman’s day. However, this woman was ostracized and marked as immoral, an unmarried woman living in sin. She was alone and lonely.
Jesus was waiting for this woman at the well. He had come in person, waiting to ask her for a drink of water and wanting her to ask him for the gift of living water that would cleanse her from sin, quench her deepest thirst and unite her to him through love.
You might ask “what is meant by living water?” Living water is the active, energized, loving holy spirit that resides within each of us when we invite that spirit to share our lives.
If we think beyond the borders of this story, we realize the Samaritan woman is every one of us...men and women. She is every human being who has ever made a bad choice, a choice that caused hurt and harm to self or others. In some way, all of us have chased after other gods, trying to get other people or happenings to give us what only our Creator God can give.
This woman at the well is every person who has ever made a mess of their lives. She is everyone who has a past they would rather not talk about. She is everyone who has dug a deep dark hole for themselves and can’t see a way out.
So what does this story tell us that can help heal us and make us whole? It teaches Jesus, his a biding spirit is the well of love that never runs dry. His love is always available for he is always waiting for us to come to him in prayer and confession to be made whole and holy.
God loves each of us as a special creation made by him for him. He values each of us enough to actively seek and woo us to him because it is what is in our own best interest. Surely, at some point in our lives we have felt alone, misunderstood, ostracized or ignored just as the Samaritan woman felt. So, like her, what a thrill it is to finally understand each of us is wanted, cared for, and is seen as a person of value. That is God’s grace at its best!
The gift of God to us is the gift of life...a life that can be meaningful beyond measure, a life that can be more exciting than anything else on earth, a life more abundant than we can imagine...because when we seek Christ and ask him to lead our lives, we are trading our mundane existence for a life of holy joy, eternal peace and a love that sustains us no matter what happens outside of us.
In closing, remember living water, the holy spirit, can be enjoined only by those who recognize they are spiritually thirsty and want to be nourished in a sacred and loving way. That recognition can lead to our prayerfully asking, “Come, Christ, live in me, with me, through me that I may know the joy you have for those who seek your friendship and your abiding, energizing love.
That request from us to the creator of love is the most healing, helpful act we will ever take...it changes life, for when we unite with the Christ Spirit we are being the people God intended for us to be...it is right, it is loving, it is wholesome, it is healing, and it is one great expression of love here and now, and love eternal.
Amen
Sermon, December 10, 2023
We all need comfort. Our world, our nation, our community, our homes, schools and our churches need comfort.
Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?
Life is like that. When things are going well for us we are happy and we feel God is blessing us. When things go bad we often get discouraged and sometimes feel God has let us down, abandoned us. We end up being tossed around by the situations and circumstances of our lives.
These feelings are not new to humanity as we can see from our reading today. Isaiah wrote these words 700 years before Jesus was born. It was a time when the nation of Israel was overrun and involved in the un-easy world of international politics. Babylon had conquered Israel and sent her people into exile. Some of them, maybe most, felt God had deserted them, His chosen people! They were accustomed to God giving good things and keeping the bad away. But that is not life.
They needed a wake up call! They needed to know that God is ever present, in the good and the bad, the creative and the destructive, in the valleys and on the mountaintops. So Isaiah writes an awesome message of hope. Good news for bewildered people. Today, we are those bewildered people. Where is the world going? What has happened to our values that have served us well for hundreds of years? Why do young people seem so secular rather than spiritual? Today there many more pertinent questions than answers.
We Americans of the 21st century need comfort. Where do we get this comfort? Not from our current leaders, not from the media, and all too often not from one another. So, where can we find comfort? The answer is God is a comforting God, and he comforts us with a promise. A promise that God will act, in his own wise time, and then there is hope. We need comfort rooted in the authenticity and reality of our God who created the universes and each one of us.
In today’s reading Isaiah proclaimed that God is a God of Comfort. We must believe this and rely on it as fact.
He also proclaims God is a God of power. We trivialize God, we limit God, we think he either won’t or can’t help us. And that, my precious friends, is blasphemous! God will and does act on our behalf when we ask him to and trust him to do so! Trust him! Nothing is too difficult for God. I believe if it is in his will he will “make straight in the wilderness a highway for us! Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low, the rough ground shall become level and the rugged places a plain”. Do you believe that? Can God do that for you? Will you allow him to do so?
Isaiah also proclaims that the glory of our God will be revealed and all mankind together will see it. Can you trust that promise in spite of the way our world is behaving? Can you honor God enough to hang on through the rough and tough times knowing it will all be better in his time and through his wisdom?
In our hardship we will be comforted. We are forgiven every wrong doing. We have the power to overcome our challenges and through it all the glory of God is revealed. We are blessed.
This Advent as we prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus let us give thanks for the comfort of God Almighty. Let us remember the power of God that saves us. And let us experience and share the joy and the glory of God…that shine far above us, yet all around us. Let us be witnesses to the wonder and awe and love and comfort of the Holy One, our God and our Lord.
Amen
Sermon, December 17, 2023 3rd Sunday of Advent
Today we focus on John the Baptist while he is in prison. He is depressed and very down...sad, afraid, doubtful. To some degree, aren’t we all? Advent and Christmas are intended to be joyous occasions, waiting for something wonderful to happen. Yet during Advent and Christmas more depression and suicides occur than any other time of the year. Why is that? Could it be that anticipation is never as exciting as the real thing? Could it be some people know or think they know the best has already been and there is nothing left to hope for?
This holiday season there may be a friend or neighbor of ours who may be thinking the same things John in prison thought. That friend might be saying or praying “Jesus, can you speak to me while I am in prison? Can you save me even though I have done wrong? Are you the one who can bring me peace, or should I look for another?”
There are many lonely people in our community today. There are people who think no one really cares about them. We might ask a stranger “How are you?” But we seldom wait for an answer. In people’s loneliness it is easy to wonder if even God cares. They might ask, “Is Jesus the one who can heal my loneliness, or should I look for another?”
Because our world situation and our economic one, many people are afraid. They are afraid for their future, afraid for their health and well being. Think about the fear families have when the major wage earner has been out of work. Many families will not have money for Christmas gifts or celebrations. So, they too might be asking, “Jesus, are you the one to help me overcome my fear, or should I look for someone else?”
There are others in our community who are full of grief...the loss of a friend, a parent, a child, or family member, or they may suffer from a debilitating illness. They might ask, is it Jesus who can bring light back into my life and help me overcome this darkness I feel? Or, should I look for another?”
How about that great mystery we call physical death? Is Jesus really the one who will provide the eternal peace? Will the messages Jesus gave us help us have life abundant now and forever, or should we look for another?
All of these are major issues. However, I think when we ask, “Jesus, are you the one?” Jesus is asking another question of equal importance. Jesus is asking each one of us “Are you the one?”
He tells us “I live in you. You are my body in today’s world. It is through you I touch people’s hearts, bring healing to their brokenness, and set them free to love. It is through your hands I reach out to the lonely. It is through your words and presence I can comfort the grieving. It is through your compassion that the poor will be fed and clothed and comforted. It is with your voice I can proclaim the good news of love.
Jesus is asking each one of us this morning, “Are you the one I can count on, or should I look for another?’
What is your response to Jesus?
Amen
Sermon, December 24, 2023 - Christmas Eve Morning
I heard a story I want to share with you. A young girl was watching her mother wrap Christmas gifts. The girl said, “Can I ask you something?
“Yes,” said the mother. “What is it you want to ask?”
The girl replied: Santa Claus is fat. I don’t think he can even get in our chimney. He sure couldn’t slide down it. And I don’t think reindeer can fly. I know how long it takes for us to go across town to visit my friend Beth, so I figured out that one old fat man could never take toys and gifts to every child in the whole world in one night. So, Mom, is Santa Claus a real person?”
The mother thought for a moment then replied, “The facts of the story are not real, but the meaning of the story is real. It’s about loving your family and friends. It’s about sharing what you have with others. It’s about offering kindness and friendship to people everywhere even if they are quite different from you. So Christmas is a love story. A love story about loving yourself and your family. About loving the God you know, and about sharing the love you have. Does that answer your question?
The young girl was quiet for a minute then said, “But, Mama” that’s the same story our Sunday School teacher tells us. But it’s not about Santa, it’s about Jesus. Jesus loves and wants us to love.”
The mom replied, “That’s correct. The Santa story and the Jesus story are very similar ones.
Then the girl asked, “Then why do we need Santa Claus? Isn’t Jesus enough?
Maybe that is the question each of us should ask ourselves. Isn’t Jesus enough? Cant Jesus and his teachings be the main reason for us to be loving, moral people?
Isn’t knowing Jesus enough to encourage us when we doubt, or save us when we fall?
Isn’t Jesus enough to carry us through the tough times and move us safely into eternity?
Isn’t Jesus enough? Or do we need tylenol to help us sleep, aspirin when we are tired, drugs when we are defeated, beer when we feel incomplete.
Isn’t Jesus enough to help us love and honor ourselves? Or do we misbehave when we think we have to be like everyone else?
Think about as we approach this new year of 2024. Most of us have lived long enough to know what is good for us and what harms us and others. Maybe its time to parent ourselves, go back to obeying the laws where we can all be safer, go forward with plans we made and let God lead us to and through them.
Do we really want to be fearful? Worry all the time? Maybe, just maybe, Jesus and his way are after all enough. Because the original creator of all life and all that is good and healthy made Jesus and the laws of love by which we are to live.
Let’s do so more often and more effectively from this day on.
I truly believe Jesus, what he was and how he treated all others, is enough. I hope you do too. 2024 could be a banner year if we all stood by our faith and lived it willingly,,thoroughly, and joyfully every day. Through the grace of God let us try.
Amen
Sermon, December 24, 2023 - Christmas Eve Evening Service
As we ponder and wonder at the miracle of the birth of Jesus, it would bring a brightness to our lives if we understand that Jesus asks us to be thankful for his birth, his life, and his enduring message of love, grace, and gratitude.
So on this Christmas eve I would like us to think about gratitude... thankfulness. First among things to be thankful for is a thankful spirit that resides with us day and night, always. It seems in today’s society thankfulness is not emphasized except on Thanksgiving day once a year! And then some folks are just thankful for the turkey and dressing and not the marvelous gift of life itself.
Some people choose not to be thankful. In fact, some might even complain about the accommodations in Heaven if they ever got there. And others are naturally despondent, drained of energy...they see the sky as dark with clouds as though something or someone creates problems for them to dwell on. And still others have a constant sense of doom, fear, uneasiness, always looking for the worst that can happen. People who seem to be not so thankful live with anxiety, waiting for the next shoe to fall. That attitude not only affects them but also negatiavely impacts those who live or work with them. That is a state of sorrow and sadness.
But then there are people who have an on-going thankful spirit, a glad heart. What a gift it is to choose thankfulness, to look at the bright side of things. These people have within them a renewed heart, an optimism that makes them attractive and attentive even during the worst of times, because they seek a better day, a kinder hour, a more loving relationship or home life.. and they themselves instigate those moments of grace.
It is much more comfortable and rational to see what we have to be thankful for and to rejoice accordingly than to have our vision always filled with we think we lack.
Happy are the folks who posses a grateful attitude...it is a gift to those who live within their reach. We acknowledge that blessings may fail and fortunes may very, but the thankful heart remains secure.
My question to you on this Christmas eve is, are you a thankful person or one who doesn’t think about being thankful much at all? If you want to be a brighter light among a human population, learn to be thankful...express it, live it, and share it. You will add to your life the joy, peace, and love we all desire.
So be secure. Be blessed. Be joyful.
Be thankful. You know which attitude is the best one but..the choice is yours. Choose to live the love, grace, gratitude that Jesus taught and you will find life to be much lighter and brighter. That might be the best Christmas gift you can ever give or receive.
Amen
Sermon, December 31, 2023
Most of us are here today because we feel we have a relationship with our God...however we visualize that entity. We also believe we sometimes receive messages from God from a variety of means. When we observe nature we see the need for diversity of plants, flowers, and animals...we humans need them all in some way or another. We also receive messages from the risings of the sun and moon...they are always on time, never varying. We also learn from weather...every storm is followed by calm...always. We get messages from written words like philosophies, holy scriptures, and from each other. Most messages have deeper meanings than we often give them. When we think spiritually, that is when we think in terms of something larger and more lasting than ourselves, we usually know the messages we receive are godly ones...leading us to make decisions, to change a behavior, or to grow in truth and harmony with self and others. And more scientifically speaking, to live is to change! If we don’t grow and change we die spiritually, emotionally, mentally and often physically.
This coming week we face a new year, another opportunity to appreciate where we are as a base from which to grow and change. We want to grow and change in positive ways so there are some things we must do. We must rid ourselves of some old ideas and habits to gain some new ones.
Let’s start with ridding ourselves of negative ways of speaking about one another. Let’s do away with rumors, gossip, untruths and replace those with kindness and compassion. Let’s rid ourselves of limiting ideas about faith and spirituality, and be open to greater truths...life-altering truths, eternal truths. Why don’t we make the world a better, healthier, safer place by being healthier and safer ourselves...being more forgiving, more patient, more loving, less demanding, less self-centered.
An amazing thing about our God is that in whatever way we make ourselves more in line with God’s wants, then God in mysterious ways takes that energized consciousness and spreads it around the planet and beyond. We are held accountable to do what is right in our own lives, but praise God, for he is responsible for spreading our obedient faith around where it may be most needed. That is the mystique of God’s power.
Sometimes we as human beings are a bit lazy. There are times when we need to be contemplative, prayerful, and quiet...but those moments should inspire us to have an increased appetite for service to God and one another. We were created to be laborers in the field of life and there are plenty of fields around here in which to labor. So, like the scripture tells us, if we love and serve the Lord and one another, we will not get weary or faint...instead we will soar on wings like eagles and our strength will be renewed.
Together in spiritual and emotional fellowship, let us make the year 2024 enriched in all the ways that enhance our humanity. That might require making some changes in our thoughts, words, actions, ideas and plans...molding them to be in line with what pleases our gracious and ever present creator God and and therefore will ultimately please us.
This year, be blessed and pass on those blessings to others on and on and on. Happy New Year. May you decide to make the right choices which will indeed make your happier and healthier...thereby blessing the rest of us.
Amen and Amen
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