With Eyes Uplifted

Genesis 22:1-14                                                                                                July 2, 2017

Today we continue with the second of several stories from the Book of Genesis as we settle into the summer lectionary readings.  We are exploring the saga of Abraham and Sarah and their descendents.  These are complex stories and ones that will, no doubt, make your eyebrows life, your face cringe at the very least and be utterly repulsed in every sense of the word. 

There is a part of me that asks, ‘What made me think this was a good idea to use these lectionary scripture readings?’  Good question.  But I tend to not shrink from challenges and so we continue because they are the stories of our faith and because they confront us with some unpleasant realities and push us to a greater level of thinking.  They invite us to go deeper into our relationship with God as we explore what it means to be a person of faith.

Today is about the binding or sacrifice of Isaac, Abraham’s son.  You’d think last week’s text would be enough.  That was a harsh moment in the life of Sarah and Abraham not to mention Hagar and Ishmael banishment to the desert and Ishmael’s brush with death.  And yet God saved, God sent a well for Hagar to draw from averting Ishmael’s death and giving him life.  So these are the things that the author refers to when we begin the passage for today.

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.

Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

Artists have depicted and theologians have written about the binding of Isaac.  There have been many images throughout years of this story.  There is a poignant Donatello statue sculpted in 1418 depicting Isaac at the mercy of his father, Rembrandt’s painting of the Sacrifice of Isaac in 1635 is equally as emotional with the ethereal angel’s light shining upon the face of Isaac and Abraham. Chagall’s image in red, blue and browns shows a strong image of deliverance with the crucifixion in the background.   

And George Segal, sculptor designed the memorial for Kent State killings in 1970 that equate the killings at Kent State to the sacrifice of Isaac pointing out the moral injury of such killings.  Rashi, a Jewish commentator from the 10^th century made comment, and theologian/philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote a book entitled ‘Fear and Trembling’, in which he sets forth the idea of the “theological suspension of the ethical” or the challenge of the moral system for the sake of a higher law.  All this to say, the sacrifice of Isaac has haunted us for thousands of years and it indeed asks us to suspend any ethical or moral fibers that are threaded within our psyche so that we can pull out meaning for our lives and I believe this too is that what God asks Abraham to do. 

Let’s put it in context.  Abraham has lost Ishmael, the son he fathered with Hagar the slave woman to Sarah. Now he is asked by God to sacrifice Isaac, his long awaited for son, the son promised to Abraham and Sarah while they were in their 90’s – the son that was supposed to be the progenitor of great nations.  Another test?

What is important here is that we have to remember that Abraham and Sarah are living in a time and place where there were many, many gods, with a small g.  Pearl S. Buck has an interesting interpretation on this scripture, she says, “God had one more test for Abraham and it was a difficult one.  The Lord taught his people that he required their complete faith and love, even their lives, and that they should be willing to offer anything to ‘him’ [sic]”.[i] So listening to or being persuaded by the surrounding polytheistic culture wasn’t going to cut it for God.

And also, the Lord said that they should not shed the blood of another that a burnt offering from the flock given freely is enough.  The sacrifice of a human and especially a beloved child was wrong in the eyes of God. Let’s get that straight.  God was not like the other gods.  God wanted to be sure that Abraham understood this while he proved his love and faith. So God asks for faith and love and to give of our lives but not in the sense of killing.  God wanted Abraham to be sure he got it, hence the test.  Abraham obeyed God but failed the test.  And yet God saves and God continued to love and bless Abraham.

The angel called to Abraham to which he answered, here I am.  The angel lets him know that God now knows that Abraham loves God above all of the other gods out there.  Then, Abraham ‘looks up’ or in the KJV ‘with eyes uplifted’ he sees the ram in the thicket and this is what he is to use to sacrifice. 

He hadn’t noticed it before, it was only at this moment that the ram became apparent to him in plain sight. If ever there was a time to use that platitudinous phrase, “God works in mysterious ways” this would be one of them.  Abraham had to redirect his hand and his thinking away from his son and the awful sacrifice and to undergo a change.  He had to lift up his eyes from what he was doing to see the ram.  You just wonder what went through his head at that moment.

Midrash of the rabbi’s  say that “it isn’t so much about this mountain ram as it is about our own potential to grow in understanding and insight and to find miracles to be grateful for even under the direst of circumstances.”  They suggest that the ram was always there in the sense that God never intended for Abraham to kill Isaac, but the ability to see the ram, to perceive a better choice can be understood as the everyday kind of miracle.[ii]

Miracles occur every day.  It is a matter of how we see and interpret those miracles particularly when we are in the ‘direst of circumstances’.  It’s often when we are in those dark places that it’s real difficult to see, I get that.  It’s hard to see from where any help or relief will come.  It’s tough to understand that there is goodness and hope and that you are not alone when things come crumbling down around you.  And yet there is this ram waiting to be seen.

It’s the miracle of the ram when a sick friend realizes that your phone call to him was all he needed to get through the next hour of pain.  It’s the miracle of the ram when you don’t have enough to cover the rent and your neighbor pays back a debt owed to you.  It’s the miracle of the ram when someone is just there for you, could be a stranger or a friend but they are there compassionately listening to you and lifting you up. 

God is always providing for us, God is always there through miracles seen and unseen.  I once saw a sign that said, ‘Bidden or not, God is present’.  It is a reminder that God’s presence is never far away but only as close as we can see and understand.  While today’s story is one of the more difficult ones it is also one that stands as a stark reminder of this relationship between humans and God and the ways in which we feel tested by life’s troubles but also relieved and redeemed by God’s care. 

“The ram is always there, if we will but lift up our eyes.”[iii]  

Amen

---

[i] Buck, Pearl S.  The Story Bible.

[ii] KOLEL – The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning – Canada’s Reform movement.

[iii] IBID.

God Hears

June 25, 2017                                                                                    Genesis 21: 8-21

God Hears

There is something about summer and reading.  You go on vacation and choose a mystery thriller for the long flight or car ride to your favorite destination, or you pick a romance novel to take you away as you sit in your beach chair sipping iced tea with sunscreen slathered on your body listening to the waves lap up on the sandy shore. Or maybe you decide to read an autobiography or a biography about some influential person or movie star as you get home early from work and relax.

This is to point out that we have these fantasies about summer.  It implies that our days are less rushed, less programmed and far more relaxing so that we can loose ourselves in a ‘good and juicy book’.  So it is with summer preaching, or rather summer preaching from the lectionary.  Often the summer lectionary offers some sort of lengthy saga from the Old Testament such as the many stories of David or in the case of this summer the stories of the descendents of Abraham. 

And so this is what I am going to be preaching from this summer, the likes of Abraham and Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Esau, and Jacob and Rachel.  There are many good nuggets of inspiration for our lives from these stories.  They are not always easy stories to hear and comprehend but they are not to be missed.   No doubt these were the stories of the Hebrew faith that Jesus would have heard and loved growing up.  He probably asked Mary to tell him the story of David and the giant Goliath over and over again because it is a delightful and provocative story to the child’s imagination.

So let’s settle in now as we begin our summer reading from the Old Testament book of Genesis.  I just wish that I could offer you a glass of iced tea so that you could relax in the summer breeze!

A long time ago and in a place very far away a man named Abram was called by God to leave his country, his father’s house and to go to a land that God will show him eventually.  God tells Abram that a great nation will be made out of his descendents.  And so Abram leaves and takes his wife Sarai and they set off and take refuge in Egypt because of a famine.  Many things happen to them during that time, but most notably, Sarai was barren and she so badly wanted a child.  

Out of desperation she calls for her slave-girl Hagar to ‘be with’ Abram so that he may have a child.   Of course Hagar conceives and a son is born to them.  The boy child is named Ishmael.

When Abram was 99 years old God comes to him and makes a sign of a covenant with Abram.  God says, “I will make of you and your offspring a great nation and I will give you the land of Canaan for a perpetual holding.  Each male child shall bear the mark of my covenant by circumcision and your name now will be Abraham and Sarai shall be called Sarah.”  Important ‘God moments’ are marked by name changes in the Bible.

And the blessings continue.  God comes to Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre and tells him that he and Sarah will also have a son.  Sarah conceives and has a son and they name him Isaac.   So in the tent of Abraham now there are two boys who are half brothers, Ishmael and Isaac.  Now things in the tent begin to turn a bit sour.

Let us now pick up the story in Genesis, the 21^st chapter.

           

The child (Isaac) grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, ‘Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.’ The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son.

But God said to Abraham, ‘Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named after you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.’ So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, ‘Do not let me look on the death of the child.’ And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, ‘What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.’ Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.

God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Not one of Sarah’s better moments, what do you think? But God works with what God has – even us imperfect humans.  God works for a larger, divine purpose in the book of Genesis that we can be sure, these stories are not to be taken in isolation but within the context of God’s story of salvation.

We can figure that Isaac in this scripture reading is between 2and 3 years old because they have just had a festival to celebrate his weaning.  He’s off and running, as they say.  Now I would assume that Sarah was somewhat close to Hagar since Hagar was her ‘right hand’ slave-girl and especially since she lent Hagar to Abraham for a specific purpose.  Once that purpose was fulfilled Ishmael became part of the mishpaha, the family.  It seems that at the point when Isaac was old enough to play with Ishmael that her jealous streak reared its ugly head. 

And what about God in the first part of this passage?  Well to understand why God would endorse her actions you need to understand that earlier God makes a clear distinction between Isaac and Ishmael’s covenants.   

They would both receive a blessing and someday, as Abraham’s sons, they each would become the father of a great nation.  It’s just that this Book of Genesis was written by and for the Hebrew people and Isaac would become the proGENitor of the Jews and ultimately us Christians.  Whereas Ishmael would become the forbearer of the Arab people.  Hence when we talk about the  “Abrahamic” faiths we are talking about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

And so back with the story - Abraham once again, in faith, follows God’s instructions.  Hagar is banished to the desert of Beer-Sheva with her son Ishmael carrying just a few rations.  This is where this passage, for me, becomes heart wrenching. 

Hagar wonders about with little Ishmael and just enough food and water to last them a very short time.  The desert is parching and the sun’s rays are relentless and they are alone.  Hagar separates herself from her child so that he would not hear her cry out of her pain and sorrow and so that she would not have to look upon her dying child.   It is in this deep and throbbing grief that God hears and listens to her cry.

And God asks Hagar in one of the most tender and compassionate moments in the Bible, ‘What troubles you Hagar, do not be afraid, I see you, I hear you and I will save you, take little Ishmael’s hand’.  And her eyes were opened to the well of water in front of them.  Not only did God send a drop of water but and entire well to Hagar so that she and Ishmael could be refreshed and live.  

You see God works through complex and very sad situations and that is why Hagar and Ishmael’s story needs to be told.  We learn that God hears and saves those who are cast out from home and hearth, from the swell of society’s mainstream.  The refugee, the migrant, the other, those of us who feel as if we have been all but forgotten, God sees and hears our cries and saves us.  

Today we know that persecution sadly still exists; it is reported that there are 21million refugees in the world.  These are people like Hagar and Ishmael that are persecuted because of race, religion, social class or group, nationality, political opinion, and are forced to leave their homeland.  Forced to leave everything that they know and love, perhaps other family members, their belongings their security, their very existence just so that they may live fully, freely and safely.  That is a tragic reality that has existed for millennia as we see back from the Israelites being forced to flee Egypt.

We, the US, invite 85,000 refugees – those seeking shelter and safe refuge to come here each year.  This is reported by IRIS (Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services).  Lest you think it is easy for them to get here, it’s not.  They must meet the UN’s definition of a refugee, there’s a background check, a medical examination and they must be sponsored by an authorized agency.  It’s not free ride for them, they take loans out to get here, are fully documented and come with skills but no command of the English language.  Between 500-800 come to CT seeking a safe harbor. 

God has heard their cry; and through resettlement they have been offered a well of water in a parched land.  We can absorb them faithfully, carefully and securely.  For it was Jesus who said, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matt 22: 31-46), “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone else who has none” (Luke 3: 11), and the apostle Paul who said, “It is a question of fair balance between your present abundance and their needs” (II Corinthians 8: 13-15).

Sometimes I think the only thing that stands between life and death for a refugee is our own prejudice and fear.  There are a lot of ‘reasoned’ arguments for rejecting refugees that discreetly hide biases and preconceptions.  And that is something that each one of us individually and honestly needs to examine.  But we are a people of hope and God will be with you if you chose to engage in this reflection.  God is not distant and aloof, just as God saw and heard Hagar and sent a well, someone or something that will redeem us from ourselves too.

How will you know?  Dawn follows a dark night, spring has always managed to appear after a snowy winter, a shower breaks a hot, hazy and unbearably humid summer’s day, the proof is around us that redemption exists and God’s ultimate redemptive act for our lives is just around the corner. 

Be of faith my friends.  Embody hope.  Live into Hagar’s story.  This is also the living gospel for our lives, that where we are, Christ is too. 

Amen!

Go Ahead, Laugh

June 17, 2017                                                                                                              Genesis 18:1-15

Super market tabloids are really something aren’t they?  From Elvis being about to fake his own death to surgeons cutting off someone’s head and then sewing it back on, they are really just unbelievable, and yet we read on.  Then there’s this one, “After visited by other worldly, ethereal like beings, woman pushing 100 years old gives birth”.  This one was reported by the Holy Bible, the 18^th  chapter of Genesis. You have to admit; today’s scripture could actually make a very nice, very impressive, very enticing tabloid headline for tomorrow.  Surely it would sell thousands of papers.

Let us now hear the story of Sarah and Abraham as they hear the news of her pregnancy.

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.

Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”

Sarah’s story is a very unbelievable story like most of the tabloid headlines.  They make you stop and think, could this really be, can this really have happened?  Naaaah! Who are they trying to kid?  And yet, we read on!  What’s different about this story of Sarah’s impending motherhood is that it is true.  Unlike the splashy, exploitive headlines of the National Inquirer or the Weekly World News, where stories take advantage of our emotions and nurture our ability to dabble into the extremely inquisitive and strangely eccentric and definitely weird side of human nature, Sarah’s predicament, or rather prayers finally answered were divinely orchestrated.

But we know in life that unbelievable and far-fetched things happen if you are attuned to them, they happen all of the time.  Particularly, and especially, if you are a believer and a follower of God.  I think that we are open to a mirage of possibilities that might defy human understanding.  For as we know, all things are possible with the Creator no matter how weird and unfathomable it may seem at times.  Yet there are still those times that are WOW moments.

We are beginning for the summer a sermon ‘series’ in Genesis as we explore the ancestral stories or sagas of Abraham and his descendents so we begin and the very beginning.  Imagine if you were Sarah.  Well into the crone years of your life, your youthful beauty now only a shade of your former self, has experienced the cessation of her menses, and way beyond the energy level of a young expectant mother, she finds out that she, and her beloved husband Abraham, are going to parent a child together.  Unbelievable!  Incredulous!  And so tabloid-esque.

Sarah, an aged woman, advanced greatly in years, stooped over maybe with osteoporosis is going to give birth.  Imagine being Sarah, and at 102 or 103 you will be taking care of an energetic, determined and strong willed, well meaning and loveable two year old?  Oh those terrible two’s.  Or even more taxing yet being a 117 year old parent to a 16 year old?  Talk about generation gap, this is a generations gap.

And yet Sarah and Abraham, I’m sure after getting over the shock of it all, are elated and happy beyond belief.  It is a dream come true for them.  Finally after all these barren years, after all these years of wishin’ and hopin’ and dreamin’ and prayin’, they are going to have a baby. And they believe.  They trust that everything will be all right, because they have proof that, with God, everything does turn out ok.  They have proof and a past with God.

God told Abraham to leave his home in Ur and begin anew, and Abraham obeyed.  God told Abraham that he would inherit the land of Canaan, and it was so. God and Abraham are in a covenantal relationship that becomes the hallmark of their association and life together.  Abraham was not perfect and yet God tells Abraham that he will be the father of many nations.  As many stars in the sky, that’s how many children that Sarah and Abraham will beget.  This is God’s everlasting covenant and prayer.    God enters into an abiding relationship with Abraham.

Where there is covenant there is relationship.  It cannot be any other way.  When you are in covenant you are in covenant with someone else.  God’s covenant is not necessarily reciprocal like the kind that we make with one another.  I am your pastor and we covenant to walk together as the God’s faithful people as Orange Congregational Church.  We covenant with other Churches to do the work together of the United Church of Christ.  The UCC remains committed to being in relationship with other Church body denominations and to be the gathered Christian community. And in fact just yesterday the CT Conference, the MA Conference and the RI conference voted to work towards being in covenant together as one conference, the Southern New England Conference.  These covenants are built upon shared interest, a deep and abiding love for God, mutual admiration, respect, and human trust.

A covenant with God is different than other covenants because it is made by human hearts in harmony with divine wisdom and love that we call God.  God is the sovereign one and we are not.  Now God will never go back or turn away from the promises that are made no matter how irresponsible we may be.  No matter how many times we may forget our end of the covenant, or somehow blow it to pieces, God doesn’t renege or retract a promise made. I find that so reassuring that God will always be my partner in life and walk with me through those narrow and dark passages of life, when I’m at odds with the world.  And for our part, all God asks for is a little obedience.  Not too difficult, right?

Wrong!  Obedience goes against every self-evolved, self-reliant, self-sufficient, independent muscle in our body.  God lays out the command, love me and love your neighbor as yourself and in return all God asks for is obedience to the command.  We often falter.  But that’s ok.  That’s what redemption is all about.  A covenant made, a covenant breached by the error of our human ways, a covenant renewed.  It is an ongoing, circuitous movement of relationship.  That is God’s love.

Obedience to God is to get out of the way of ourselves and to trust that God will get you to where you need to be.  Abraham was called out of his homeland to parts unknown and he obeyed.  It wasn’t easy, he faltered yet he obeyed and God blessed him.  God will bless us too just like Sarah whose prayers were answered, in time, ours will be too.

Sarah and Abraham’s baby is born and they name him Isaac.  It wasn’t some tabloid headline but a real promise and delivery by God.  They trusted and God fulfilled God’s part of the promise. 

In time God made another additional covenant for us Gentiles, who is Jesus Christ.  “Trust me”, God says, “my son is for you.  Jesus will show you the way in which you must go in your life.  He can help you chart out the path that you must take.  He can help you with that obedience ‘thing’.  He will show you a more perfect love, forgiveness and redemption.  Trust me”, God says, ‘follow him’.  God’s covenant of love continues for our taking.  So, like Sarah, go ahead and laugh if you must but also believe that God will renew love and remain steadfast in our covenantal relationship with God almighty.

Amen.

Go, Teach, Baptize

Matthew 28: 16-20

It is Trinity Sunday and the earliest ‘formula’ for even thinking about the Trinity is in the Gospel of Matthew.  But rather than focusing on what or how the Trinity really works – that’s waaay too doctrinal for a sunny Sunday morning after a busy and very strawberry infested Saturday so I want to focus on what is called the ‘Great Commission’ which is also part of this morning’s scripture reading.  The Trinity is of course important to our faith because that’s what makes us uniquely Christian as opposed to being Unitarian, Buddhist or Jews.  But the great commission is why Christianity is still alive today as one of the world’s faith traditions.

Today’s scripture comes from the end of the Gospel of Matthew. The women who followed Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, have come to the empty tomb looking for Jesus.  After much rumbling of an earthquake they come to find an angel parked at the tomb instead.  The angel tells them to run and tell the disciples that Jesus has been raised to life and that he would meet them up in Galilee.  And so following celestial orders they run back and are met by Jesus who also lets them know that they should meet him up in the Galilee region.  Galilee was home to these fisher men. I find it reassuring that Jesus wanted to meet them up in their old familiar place. So let’s pick up the Gospel of Matthew, the 28^th chapter.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This is not a lot of passage but it packs a punch for its buck.  After the disciples get themselves back home in the Galilee and to the mountain Jesus directed them to…Godly things always happen on mountains in the Bible….they finally saw Jesus and they worshipped him.  This was the first time that they had seen their risen Lord and they were happy to see him and probably fell to their knees and prayed. But also scripture says, some doubted.  Funny how Matthew sticks this little bit of information in there.  Some weren’t sure of all this and some had reservations as to how this could be.  Jesus was dead and now he is alive.

There are probably a few of us who have some uncertainty to as to this resurrection story or any part of Jesus’ story.  Right after college I went to talk with my pastor because I thought that I was sensing a call to missionary work.  Well after much soul searching I realized that I had some doubts of my own about this whole Jesus thing and really didn’t want to tell that ‘old, old story’, or be a witness in the world.  Obviously that has changed, God brought me down few notches right to where God needed me to be and now I love to talk about, to preach and to live that ‘old, old story of Jesus and his love’ because the truths that lie within and the hope for my life and my living are all contained in them. 

So doubt is ok, we can still tell our stories of faith, it may not be as overt as a preacher but any way you manage to live out Christ’s story and then tell about it works.  That is effective witness.  The key is living it out, not keeping it in which is what Jesus says next to his disciples in this passage.  Go. Teach. Baptize. Remember.  These are pretty basic instructions. He commissions them for service in the world. If ever you wondered what God wants from you, remember this.  Go. Teach. Baptize.  It is the ‘great commission’ for the disciples and for us too.  

But let’s admit it, fulfilling this great commission go, teach baptize, might seem like just one more thing to do doesn’t it?  Or if not that, it might just make some of us downright uncomfortable to talk about our faith with others or even with those inside of our four walls.  Do we really even know how to begin to share our faith?  And what part of our faith do we share?  The command is to go and immerse the world in the Christian story and your faith.

‘Go’ seems to be the operative word here.  Simply go. Do not stay put and get comfy in your cushioned pews, do not stay within these beautiful sanctuary walls and contemplate the deep meaning of life, you can only do that for so long.   

Jesus didn’t say ‘If you build it, they will come.”  Remember that line?  It was spoken by the character Ray Kinsella played by Kevin Costner in the movie “Field of Dreams” way back in 1989.  He saw a vision and heard a voice urging him to build a baseball diamond in his cornfield in Iowa. He follows that dream and Shoeless Joe Jackson appears as do others for the windup and the pitch.  Hundreds of people stream to the cornfield baseball diamond all because of the voice he heard, “If you build it, they will come”.  But that is the movies where anything can happen and usually does. Well we do not live on a movie set and ‘Jesus didn’t say, if you build it they will come’[i], not even close.

White clabbered sanctuaries didn’t even cross his mind as a carpenter in the first century!  It’s the real unusual person who will just come on a Sunday morning because we have a pretty bucolic footprint here on the Green in Orange.  No, we need to go out and tell the story of our lives and how that intersects with our faith.  And you can do it without going all doctrinal on people who might roll their eyes at the hint of doctrine.  Tertullian and Athanasius wanted doctrine.  We do not.  And yet our faith and the tenets of it are very important to our lives.  And so is witnessing, Go. Teach. Baptize.

So here’s one way to witness your faith in public.

Let’s say we had a strawberry festival recently. And after the sweet aroma of strawberry pies wears off from your clothing, after you’ve had a chance to soak your feet, massage your lower back, that realization hits you like a brick on the head that you have to go back to work, or your normal routine.  Monday happens.  And people will inevitably ask about your weekend. 

What will you say?  A generic response, “Oh it was fine, busy but fine”.  Or might you say with all of the enthusiasm that you can possibly muster, “It was fabulous.  MY CHURCH, the Orange Congregational Church (note the commercial here) had a strawberry festival and I worked it.  It was great, I got to see old friends and work right along side someone that I hadn’t see in ages.  And it was so wonderful to see everyone of all ages working so hard together.  But honestly, it wasn’t work, it’s just something we do as a community of faith so that we can help others in the area”!!!  

That’s witness!  This is Go. Teach. Baptize.  This is where your life’s story interests with Christ’s life story and we must tell it.  If you are not excited about your faith and what your faith community does then chances are others will not be interested either and so why bother?  To make money for our coffers?  Nope, that’s not it, if that’s all we do then we will fail as Christ followers.  Everything we do at Orange Congregational whether it is to make jam, polish our red cars, hull strawberries ad nauseum, flip burgers is for Christ and others, not ourselves.

When looked at that way it becomes a powerful witness to the miraculous power of God’s love.  All I can say is go and tell.  Be assured.  Be confident that God is with you every step of the way creating opportunity and growth for you, that Jesus the Christ will redeem you from every ill that will consume your life, and that the Holy Spirit will sustain you in God’s love, God’s grace and God’s abiding energy and affirmation of your life.

Amen.

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[i] Idea from Jennifer Copeland, The Living Word from the Christian Century Magazine.  p 20 June 11, 2014 issue.

End. Of. Footnotes.

1 Corinthians 12: 3b-13

The confirmation class, Renee my co-teacher, and I have an inside joke that we will share with you today.  When we first began our journey together last September we would read the 23^rd Psalm at the beginning of class in hopes of memorizing it.  So what I had done was to copy and paste a particular version from ‘Bible Gateway’ an online source to make a handout, but what I had inadvertently copied as well was something at after the last line, ‘and I shall dwell in the house forever’ which said, “End of Footnotes”.  Well I didn’t realize that until we read it together the first time and one, outspoken confirmand continued with, ‘and I shall dwell in the house forever. End of Footnotes’.

As you can imagine, that took on a life of it’s own.  Whenever we prayed the Psalm it always, ALWAYS concluded with “End of Footnotes” rather than Amen.  It’s their signature ending to this most beloved Psalm. Well as you know a footnote is placed at the bottom of a page of a book and it comments or cites a reference for part of the text or story.  Ultimately I think that a footnote is apropos for today; for the confirmation of these seven talented, committed and spirited youth of our church. 

You see each of our lives is a story. And there are unique and memorable events in our life stories that mark the passages of time.  One might call these events footnotes because they call out, above all the rest for the reader to understand, that this moment is special.  This moment in time was transformational to the story of this person’s life.

And so it is with confirmation.  Confirmands, confirmation is a footnote in your personal journey of faith.  It is a time called out that you will remember for the rest of your life.  Whether you remember the Killam’s point retreat, or ‘Be, Be, Be, Be Be’, or the drudgery of six plus 300 word essays that you wrote, or visiting Life Haven, or being in the Prayer Walk, or having an ‘aha’ moment about God.  Confirmation marks a very holy time in your life and in the development of your spiritual life.  You embraced it, you engaged in it to make it meaningful for yourselves and that’s exactly how it should be.  Renee and I both thank you for that.  But what I can unequivocally tell you is that this is NOT the ‘End of Footnotes’ for you. 

You have got a lot ahead of you.  There are going to be many footnotes in your journey of faith, many significant ones that might be filled with joy and also with sorrow.  But they will no doubt be a time of transformation and growth and I hope experienced within a community of faith.

If you remember one of the activities that we did at the retreat was to talk about the body of Christ and our place in it.  We put together a jigsaw puzzle of a body with Christ as it’s head and we identified the gifts that we each possess as a part of the body of Christ.  That little exercise speaks to the message that the Bible has for us today which is the Feast of Pentecost.

The Apostle Paul writes his letter to the people at Corinth, a bustling urban community that was ethnically, culturally, and religiously diverse. Corinth was the heart of Roman Imperial culture in Greece and it is more than likely that this small fledgling church population mirrored the larger community.  So you can imagine that there were clashes because of this diversity.

So Paul writes as a mediator between the members.  Hear the words of the Apostle Paul in the 12^th chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians.

Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. ⁴Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; ⁶and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. ⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

¹²For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

As only Paul can do, he illustrates his point in many ways.  In fact he just hammers that point in over and over again like a jackhammer on stone. The church body at Corinth was not working out so well, they were a fractured church community and Paul tries very hard to bolster their confidence and remind them what being the body of Christ is all about.

So he uses the metaphor of the body to illustrate how the body of Christ should work. Each foot, each hand, each eye, each ear is essential.  Not one part is superfluous.  One body, one spirit.  They all work in harmony with one another yet each maintains its special function within the body.  Every member is significant and every member has a gift that will uniquely benefit the church.  Every member has the responsibility to tell his or her story of God’s love in their life with many footnotes!

And what binds this conglomeration of people together is baptism in Christ.  It is our shared story of love and pain, joy and sorrow, laughter and tears that we hold in common.  And yet we are free to express our unique and diverse gifts for the good of the common weal.  I don’t think it gets any better than that.  Unity and diversity are not incompatible; they are interdependent on one another[i].   

Baptism is where this journey for you began Confirmands and Confirmation is one of many footnotes that will punctuate it but will not end it.  This has been a remarkable year in your faith life. You have affirmed today, the promises made long ago by your parents on your behalf. You have made a good decision - a life altering decision – one worthy of a footnote.  Because you are God's own, God has chosen you and you have chosen God.  Continue to speak and express God's love, continue to follow the ways of Christ in your own unique manner because you are the body of Christ.  Grow into your fullest knowing that God formed you in your mother's womb and that God has called you thus far and that God will abide with you and grow with you, today and always.  

And remember that we are here for you, loving you, supporting you and accepting you because you are beloved children of God.

Amen.

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[i] Rethinking Interim Ministry

On Being Prepared

John 14: 1-14

I have stayed in some pretty classy five-star hotels in my travels throughout the years.  I can say that they are prepared for me!  From the crisp white clean sheets and towels to the fruit basket with local fresh fruit that’s so delicious you know you are welcome.  And then, when you return from your day’s adventures to the museums or local café’s your bed is turned down and there is a luscious little chocolate mint waiting for you on your pillow.   One hotel in Costa Rica was really creative in that the chamber maid folded very cute little animals out of clean hand towels and left them on your bed to greet you.

And then I have stayed in some questionable hotels and motels where the veneer is peeling off of the furniture, the lampshades were askew and there is some mold in the crevices of the tile in the shower making you want to run to Target first to get a supply of antiseptic wipes.  One place, as I was getting ready to go to sleep, I laid in bed and watched a gecko scurry across the ceiling only to pounce on a spider that had been unknowingly resting on the far side of the ceiling.  I prayed that night as I finally drifted very slowly and cautiously off to sleep that whatever makes a spider and a gecko stick to the ceiling would not unhinge that particular night.  It was creepy.  Places like there are not as prepared to greet their guests with a fine welcome that makes you want to leisure in the hotel room.

I’m sure you have all had experiences with great accommodations and some that are less than stellar.  It’s deceiving when choosing your lodging because what you see on the internet is not always what you get.   In the hotel business being prepared for your customers is of utmost importance.  It says we care about you and your comfort and want to make your stay the most comfortable and pleasant as it can be.

In the grand scheme of the Gospel of John our scripture reading today falls just after Jesus washes his disciples feet and foretells his betrayal, so it is actually a pre Easter passage.  The disciples have questions, they have fears, they have doubts about their own mortality and in this farewell discourse Jesus attempts to show them how to live once he is gone and to convince them that, in the words of Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.”  He also let’s them know that he is preparing a place for them too in the very same place that he is going.  Let us hear those comforting words in the Gospel….

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.

Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

The disciple’s hearts are very sad and perplexed.  They have come to the realization that their time on earth with Jesus is limited now. Thomas asks, ‘Lord, we just don’t understand where you are going, how can we know this?’  And then Philip also questions Jesus, ‘Lord, just show us the [father] meaning, God.  Just show us and then we can understand and be satisfied.  Their hearts were truly unsettled and troubled.  They know he is leaving but they don’t understand to where he is going nor what is happening next.

So Jesus endeavors to prepare them as best as he could.  But first he consoles them, don’t let your hearts be heavy or burdened, don’t let them be troubled, I’ll tell you where I’m going and where you’ll eventually wind up too.  So while Jesus is talking about where he is going he is talking about their mortality too.  Just believe, Jesus says, just believe.

Then as we look deeper into this passage we see he lays it all out before them, the destination, the travel agent, the accommodations, the directions and who will be greeting them when they get there! This is much better than the Lonely Planet or a Rick Steves travel guild can ever foretell.

The destination is his ‘father’s house’ or in other words, he’s going home to God.  He is saying that we are going to live and dwell in the eternal presence of God for that is home.  If you have ever travelled with little ones on board you know they ask a lot of questions like are we there yet, and where are going?  It’s important to know where you are headed.  Jesus ultimately goes back ‘home’ and there he will wait and prepare for their arrival too.  God’s eternal presence is our inheritance too, it is our ultimate destination.

Jesus tries to make it as pastorally compassionate and direct as possible for them.  Clearly he’s the travel agent!  Jesus is handling this, he’s got their backs.  ‘Believe me, you believe in God so believe in me.  Live in my ways that is to live into each day as a gift and blessing from God and to live into the truth of who we are as God’s beloved and named children.  When it comes to our eternal destination we must trust in God that we will get to that divine presence.

Jesus was preparing not only a home with many rooms, one for each of them.  The accommodations!  No matter what that might look like, our room will be prepared for us probably without those little mints and also without the geckos but it will be grand.  This eternal dwelling place will meet and go way far beyond our expectations, how can it not?  I’ve know many people who have gone there and have not returned, so it’s gotta be great!  Our hearts need not be troubled any longer. 

And the directions.  Well the disciples may not have known what Jesus was talking about but it’s clear that they are to follow Jesus because he knows the way.  It’s like finding a good tour guide that will show you how to get into the museum’s or who will help you trek off the beaten path only to receive a grand view that you might never have seen if you had stuck with the ‘tourist map’.  You follow because Jesus knows already the way.  Could there be other ways, certainly but Jesus for our purposes and our Christian belief is the way.  He is our guide, our model, our GPS system that never drops in poorly receptive areas.

And of course, God and Christ Jesus will be waiting for us.  Much like the prodigal son whose life was lived in questionable ways, and who returns home after being gone for so long, he is greeted lavishly by his father with the fatted calf of forgiveness and love.  God awaits and we have that promise through the forgiving work of Jesus Christ. 

This entire passage for today is our assurance of what is ahead of each one of us as we live in the present reality knowing that living and dying are intrinsically bound together.

Death has got to be the saddest reality of our living.  It makes me sad to think of losing my parents so very long ago, it horrifies and saddens me to think that I could loose one of my children and it saddens me to think about my own mortality because, you know what? I love life! I love my life and what I choose to do with it.  So it is in sad and distressing moments, when I think about the reality of life and death, that the words of Jesus become powerful words of hope, “Let not your heart be troubled”. 

Let not your heart be troubled, you will make it through the night, you will be able to face the day, you are loved and redeemed from your sorrow, God’s ceaseless presence is prepared for you.

These words also encourage me to live boldly today and be grateful for the gift that today really is and for the wonderful blessings that are before me.  In the words of departed Pauline Blaney when I would see her coming in to church, “today is a bonus day!” meaning she knew that she was living with the end in sight and she was going to make the absolute best out of each day.  She was prepared to die into the eternal presence of God and God, was waiting with open arms to greet her.  Christ’s room that he prepared for her was ready.

The only time that we have is right before us so it bids us to live, to cherish and appreciate, to be content and to be grateful in the moment, and to love deeply, dearly, and compassionately.  To enjoy the people around us as other children of God.  To make this world a better place through compassion and justice.

I want to share some reflections of Henri Nouwen, Catholic priest and author,

“The love with which we lived our lives is the life of God within us.  It is the divine, indestructible core of our being.  This love not only will remain but will also bear fruit from generation to generation…..

How we leave others depends largely on how we prepare ourselves for death.  When we can die with grateful hearts, grateful to God and our families and friends, our deaths can become sources of life for others.

And so it is.  Our living can be a source of life for others just by living today as an abundant blessing of God’s love.  Now don’t let you heart be troubled, there is way too much living to be had for today.  Let us be grateful for our very lives and live them as a blessing to others.

Amen.