Let Us Pray

Luke 11: 1-13

This week we are back to Jesus once again.  That is, we departed the Gospel lectionary by way of Elijah the prophet but have now found ourselves back on the road to Jerusalem with Jesus and his followers.   And his followers are inquisitive and yearning to learn to pray just like the followers of John whom he taught to pray.

Hear now the Gospel of Luke at the eleventh chapter. 

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”  Amen.

Jesus teaches the disciples to pray and then with his follow up examples he asks them to trust that God will not let them down, or disappoint them, he asks them to trust that God is ever present and loving like a parent who will go out of his or her way to be in relationship with her child and who knows and anticipates her every human need.

The Church of the Pater Noster, or the Lord’s Prayer, is an open air basilica in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives that commemorates the place where it is thought that Jesus taught his disciples to pray.  Designated in the 4^th century CE by the Emperor Constantine under the direction of his mother Helena it has been a venerated sight for all these many years. 

Now whether it really WAS the site where Jesus uttered the Lord’s Prayer first, that’s an unknown for so many places were designated by Helena as the ‘official’ site almost, it seems, on her whim.  But that doesn’t matter because what I learned and witnessed when I lived there was that it was and is the pilgrims who visit these sites and offer their deepest prayers and souls that make a place sacred and holy, that make the place a place where you can visualize Jesus.  Such is the Church of the Pater Noster.

What also makes this such an extraordinary place is that there are  over 100 different plaques of Palestinian tile with the Lord’s Prayer each recorded in a different language.  There is even an English Braille plaque. 

You see the Lord’s Prayer is a prayer that all Christians hold in common from a myriad of backgrounds and paths.  It unifies us on the most basic level acknowledging that we all need, we all hurt, we all harm, we all are in need of forgiveness.  It acknowledges that when we talk with God we yearn to relate to God as a parent or at the very least one who cares profoundly, who listens, who forgives and provides, and who protects us.  You see we are diverse as the birds of the air and yet hold in common some of humanities deepest desires and needs.

It is no accident that when in a nursing home and the most despondent or mentally challenged, or perhaps someone who has suffered a stroke, when they hear the words, ‘Our Father’ they can conjure up from deep within them the rest of this prayer enough to pray it out loud slowly and intentionally.  It is written within the human Christian heart and soul.  It is our common love song to God.

This passage that acknowledges our commonalities teaches us about living and relationship. We are connected through this prayer of life, you and the person next to you, the one in the pew in back of you, the homebound person, the hospitalized, the youth off at a workcamp, even the one who might disagree with you.  The Lord’s Prayer binds us together to acknowledge that, we are all in the same boat!  It is a intensely human kind of prayer. [i] 

Although remembering that God is not a vending machine where you put in your quarter and out comes whatever you asked for,  remembering that God is not a fortune teller where you pay your fee and you receive a fortune and see into the future you can truly free yourself for a greater and a more profound relationship with God and a richer prayer life that brings inner healing. 

I don’t believe that prayer is about asking and receiving, it is so much more.  It is about living into an ongoing conversation with the divine source of creativity and love, realizing and accepting that we will receive what is necessary and beneficial to our living.  Trusting that God will provide can free your spirit for a clearer vision of the path ahead. 

Mahatma Gandhi, 20th century philosopher and peace maker said, "Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is a daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart."

When I first went into ministry my prayer life got all screwed up.  I was so intent on formulating beautifully poetic public prayers that when I tried to pray on my own privately I was getting tripped up.  I searched for picturesque and meaningful words and I fretted over my grammar. 

I got frustrated.  Then, somehow, I realized that God didn’t really care what words I used, that I could place myself, my tears, my needs and wants right before God and rest comfortably knowing that is all God wants of me and that becomes my prayer.  God doesn’t need to hear me yacking on, waxing poetically, and pontificating profusely.  God needs me to be attentive to myself as God’s creation and for me to live fully into God’s call upon my life at that very moment.   

Ministers are asked quite often, “Pastor, how do I pray”.  And as much as I would like to give someone a formula for ‘how to do it’, and I could, there are many, in my heart of hearts I cannot do that.  My best response is to place yourself fully and honestly before God.  Place all of those who are in need of healing, comfort, guidance and strength right there in front of God and let it be, words aren’t really necessary.

Meditate, concentrate, love and trust God fully in the moment.  And then, when you are ready say the words that Jesus taught us because it is a beautiful, beloved prayer and in that way you will have followed faithfully in the footsteps of the disciples who so long ago were also taught to pray.  It is our heritage, it is our common bond, and it is a reflection of Christ’s desire for us.

Amen.

---

[i] Douglas, John Hall. Feasting on the Word, p. 288, Proper 12, Year C Volume 3.

The Mantle

2 Kings 2: 1-2, 6-15

 He Qi

 This is the final story that we will hear in the Elijah saga.  Although it’s been a rather disjointed series I hope that you get a picture of this important prophet.  A lot has happened since last week’s story of Elijah besting the prophets of Baal and then running for his life.  After Elijah ‘gets back to work’ out of the cave he runs across Elisha plowing his field.  Elijah puts his mantle on Elisha indicating that now Elisha has been called to duty.  Elisha says goodbye to his family and becomes Elijah’s assistant.  This is about nine centuries before Jesus.  Elisha’s got a lot to learn.

Not long before the LORD took Elijah up into heaven in a strong wind, Elijah and Elisha were leaving Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, "The LORD wants me to go to Bethel, but you must stay here."  Elisha replied, "I swear by the living LORD and by your own life that I will stay with you no matter what!" And he went with Elijah to Bethel.  Elijah then said to Elisha, "Now the LORD wants me to go to the Jordan River, but you must stay here.”   Elisha replied, "I swear by the living LORD and by your own life that I will never leave you!" So the two of them walked on together.

Fifty prophets followed Elijah and Elisha from Jericho, then stood at a distance and watched as the two men walked toward the river. When they got there, Elijah took off his mantle, then he rolled it up and struck the water with it. At once a path opened up through the river, and the two of them walked across on dry ground.

   

After they had reached the other side, Elijah said, "Elisha, the LORD will soon take me away. What can I do for you before that happens?"  Elisha answered, "Please give me twice as much of your power as you give the other prophets, so I can be the one who takes your place as their leader."

   

"It won't be easy," Elijah answered. "It can happen only if you see me as I am being taken away."

Elijah and Elisha were walking along and talking, when suddenly there appeared between them a flaming chariot pulled by fiery horses. Right away, a strong wind took Elijah up into heaven. Elisha saw this and shouted, "Israel's cavalry and chariots have taken my master away!" After Elijah had gone, Elisha tore his clothes in sorrow.

Elijah's mantle had fallen off, so Elisha picked it up and walked back to the Jordan River. He struck the water with the coat and wondered, "Will the LORD perform miracles for me as he did for Elijah?" As soon as Elisha did this, a dry path opened up through the water, and he walked across.

And so begins Elisha’s prophetic ministry. 

If you noticed Elijah tries his best to shake off Elisha but his devoted follower just wouldn’t get the hint.  Both Elijah and Elisha were active during a time when there were hundreds of other active prophets, ‘guilds’ you might call them.  If you were to align prophet activity with the geo-political world and the lifespan of Israel you would see high prophetic activity when the Ancient Near East was not at peace in the divided Kingdom of Israel and Judah.  And, overall, this was not a time of peace and Elisha didn’t want to leave Elijah because he was a novice and needed encouragement and mentoring. 

But endings must happen before beginnings can start and when it was time for Elijah to take his leave Elisha asks for the same powers that Elijah had.  Elisha was not being greedy.  He was really asking for the inheritance of a first born who always got a little more.  He wanted to be Elijah’s principle heir. But the request is difficult for a human to meet, this Elijah acknowledges.  He knows there is more at stake here than what he alone can provide, you see Elijah knew that God’s almighty hand was the progenitor of his abilities.  It was God alone who performed miracles through Elijah.

And as they walked Elijah was taken up, up and away in a flaming chariot to heaven.  The prophetic legacy of Elijah has been passed now to Elisha in this miraculous succession.  The mantle, which had become the symbol of authority and power was no longer Elijah’s but was in the hands of Elisha.  The proverbial torch had been passed, the baton handed off.  Elijah let go of his mantle and Elisha picked it up and continued the prophetic ministry forward.  This is quite a story of succession.  Of leadership preparing one to the other for the difficult tasks ahead that God will ask them to perform.

Soon enough, and we all know how quickly time passes, we will be passing the mantle of church on to the future generations, not just OCC but the larger church?  How do we want to do this? How will we prepare today so that when we pass the mantle to our children’s, children’s, children we will leave it better then when we found it?  If you were a boy scout or a girl scout you will be familiar with that concept.  Clean up your campsite, get things in order, leave no trace of trash but leave it a place of verdant growth and hope.  We need to get the church in tiptop shape so that it can be passed on.   

But what might that look like given the fact that ‘church is changing’?  No doubt the look and feel of church is really shifting.  Overall fewer people are finding it a place of renewal and strength but I don’t think this is because God’s message of transformation, forgiveness and hope are irrelevant and dead.  Right now this world is in dire need of transformation, we know that if we listen to the news and especially the events of this past week with the Treyvon Martin case.  Something much larger is happening and we have yet to figure out what that something is. 

Phyllis Tickle asserts in her book, “The Great Emergence”[i], that every 500 years the church goes through a major upheaval and shift.  Five hundred years ago the church witnessed the Great Reformation and the birth of Protestantism.  Five hundred years prior to that was the Great Schism where we know the Eastern church split and birthed Roman Catholicism, and yet another 500 years before that was Gregory the Great and the Fall of the Roman Empire where he did much to clean up after the fall and get it into shape.  So it looks like we have entered into another 500 year shift since the Reformation happened in and around 1517 CE.  So if you don’t know what’s going on, this may be it!

The church or Christianity as expressed in church changes but not without pain, not without controversy and not without disappointment and fear. This might just be our source of confusion as to why people don’t come to church.  Because something much larger is at play.

And it is in this discombobulated time that OCC must figure out who we are and how we would like to pass the mantle on.  Don’t despair, be of hope.  We have a great opportunity before us as we enter a time of evaluation and discernment as a church and we will do our best to understand how God wants us to be a worshipping and faithful community. 

Come September we will have the opportunity to do some visioning about our future.  About who we want to continue to be and who we want to grow into.  About how we want to carry out the mission of this church and the Gospel message while adapting to the change around us.   About when we pass the mantle what do we want it to look like for those who will undoubtedly think different than us and use different ways of communication.  I encourage you to begin to think about it now.  Our beloved church is really not ours to lay claim to, it is God’s beloved church.

This might seem like an onerous task but it is not.  Let’s vision out five years, maybe ten.  We all will have different ideas and yet with collaboration we can prayerfully cast a future that God intends for us, a future that will be spiritual and faithful, life giving and transformative.

Bidden or not, God is present. (anon)

Bidden or not, the mantle is in our hands.  Let us ready it or the future and those who will pick it up.

Amen and Amen.

---

[i] Tickle, Phyllis.  “The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why”.  2008. Baker Books, Michigan.

Listen Elijah, Get Back to Work!

I Kings 19: 1-19

A few years ago I remember seeing a clip where Steven Colbert of the Colbert Report was interviewing the iconic Father Guido Sarducci of Saturday Night Live fame.  Colbert, tongue and check, made the somewhat crude analogy of FOX commentator Glenn Beck to that of a prophet.  And of course, only Fr. Sarducci could put a spin on this.  He said, “Well, yes, he’sa talks a lot, he hear’sa voices and he’sa unstable.” 

 Probably this is a good description of a prophet, he talks a lot, he hears voices and he’s a bit unstable.  That seems to sum up Elijah the prophet of Israel in today’s story. He talks a lot, sometimes rather hyperbolic.  He hears voices, one voice in particular, and he is definitely unstable.  Elijah’s in a heap of trouble, that ‘troubler of Israel’ as King Ahab calls him.  For not only is Elijah in trouble with Jezebel because he killed of some 450 of her beloved Baal’s prophets, now she wants to kill him.  His faith and vocation are in trouble.  Elijah suffers a crisis of faith and if not a crisis of faith at the least a crisis of vocation.

Elijah’s troubles began on Mt. Carmel where he faces off against 450 prophets of the god Baal to determine which deity, YHWY or God or Baal is the god of Israel.  Two pyres, ready to be lit, were set up with a sacrificial piece of meat and Elijah challenges the prophets to have the ‘Baal’ consume the sacrifice with fire.  Nothing happens no matter how long and how hard the people cry out to Baal.  Elijah even mocks them, “Pray louder!” he says.  God on the other hand, tells Elijah to pour water on the pyre and the sacrifice and then it is consumed with flames. YHWY triumphs.  Baal fails.

Right now, at this point, Elijah does not have one shred of fear within him.  He's on top of the Ancient Near East world.  He leads the people gathered at this spectacle to kill those 450 prophets of Baal.  But as we will see beginning at chapter 19, Elijah becomes unraveled like the strands of a threadbare tablecloth and then unhinged like a pythons jaws spotting prey.  This is the unstable part that Fr. Sarducci talked about. 

Ahab told his wife Jezebel what Elijah had done and that he had killed the prophets. She sent a message to Elijah: "You killed my prophets. Now I'm going to kill you! I pray that the gods will punish me even more severely if I don't do it by this time tomorrow."

Elijah was afraid when he got her message, and he ran to the town of Beersheba in Judah. He left his servant there, then walked another whole day into the desert.

Finally, he came to a large bush and sat down in its shade. He begged the LORD, "I've had enough. Just let me die! I'm no better off than my ancestors." Then he lay down in the shade and fell asleep.  Suddenly an angel woke him up and said, "Get up and eat." Elijah looked around, and by his head was a jar of water and some baked bread. He sat up, ate and drank, then lay down and went back to sleep.   Soon the LORD's angel woke him again and said, "Get up and eat, or else you'll get too tired to travel." So Elijah sat up and ate and drank.  The food and water made him strong enough to walk forty more days. At last, he reached Mount Sinai, the mountain of God, and he spent the night there in a cave. 

While Elijah was on Mount Sinai, the LORD asked, "Elijah, why are you here?" He answered, "LORD God All-Powerful, I've always done my best to obey you. But your people have broken their solemn promise to you. They have torn down your altars and killed all your prophets, except me. And now they are even trying to kill me!"  "Go out and stand on the mountain," the LORD replied. "I want you to see me when I pass by." 

All at once, a strong wind shook the mountain and shattered the rocks. But the LORD was not in the wind. 

Next, there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. Then there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire.

Finally, there was a gentle breeze, and when Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his coat.  He went out and stood at the entrance to the cave.

The LORD asked, "Elijah, why are you here?" Elijah answered, "LORD God All-Powerful, I've always done my best to obey you. But your people have broken their solemn promise to you. They have torn down your altars and killed all your prophets, except me. And now they are even trying to kill me!"

The LORD said:  Elijah, you can go back to the desert near Damascus. And when you get there, appoint Hazael to be king of Syria. Then appoint Jehu son of Nimshi to be king of Israel, and Elisha son of Shaphat to take your place as my prophet.  Hazael will start killing the people who worship Baal.   Jehu will kill those who escape from Hazael, and Elisha will kill those who escape from Jehu. But seven thousand Israelites have refused to worship Baal, and they will live.   Here ends today’s reading.

Jezebel and her threats! She makes good on them as we saw three weeks ago now, so Elijah has reasonable evidence that she will kill him, her record so far has been good – remember Naboth’s vineyard and his demise?  So, Elijah is probably justified on some level to be afraid.  He runs.  Very far.  From Northern Israel and Mt. Carmel to Beersheba way down south in the deserts of the Negev.

Elijah ran away from Jezebel afraid and would rather just die than be sought and killed by this female antagonist.  But that was not to be the case.  God, in those divine and redemptive ways sends food and water twice so that Elijah could gain strength and courage.  

God had a plan in place for an ally, a king, a new prophet, and a way to get rid of those nagging Baal worshippers. Elijah, the prophet, was the one to carry God’s plan forward and eventually the mantle of prophecy would have to be passed on.  But for now where was Elijah??  He was in a cave, folks.  Hiding!  How convenient it must have been for him to just drop out of sight, to disappear from the scene, to take a break from the action, to disengage from responsibilities.  To hide. 

I've heard this cave that Elijah fled to referred to as the 'cave of avoidance'. Because it was in this cave that he thought he could hide and not be found.  It’s in this cave that Elijah could comfortably live with his fear or anger and not have to deal with anything.  He’s a man on the run trying to desperately avoid his murder, but also his work and vocation.  Fear leads to avoidance and Elijah is avoiding God.  But God won’t let Elijah hide.  God finds Elijah and says, Elijah what are you doing?  Get back to work.  I’ve got a few things for you to accomplish here, you’re not done just yet!

It’s at this very moment that our scripture ends and leaves us hanging asking the question; will Elijah be defined by his fear or his faith?  Will he stay or will he come out?  Will Elijah avoid the difficult tasks ahead of him or will he confront them with the confidence and knowledge that God is with him and won’t fail him?  Good questions, don’t you think?

The same is true of church and of you as a church right now.  Orange Congregational has taken a bold step; you have poked your head out of the cave of avoidance, the years of living with a deficit budget and stagnant growth.  I sincerely commend you for taking that very brave move into your future.  But now what?  How will we organize ourselves to live into a prosperous future?  I am not talking dollars and cents because we can do the math and restructure the budget to make it all work.   I am talking about a prosperous spiritual future because if we lose our spiritual center we will lose it all.

God has balled us out of the cave and into our faith and our future.  Many people have asked me, ‘how are you going to do it?’  Well I’ve got news for you, it’s not about me doing it all, it’s about you!  The church is the people doing for others living in love and kindness towards one another.  It’s about expressing your faith, maybe even without using words.  St. Francis of Assisi once said, “Preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary use words.”

Believe this and know that God will supply all that we need to become a beacon of hope for all people in Orange, know that God will sharpen the tools of witness that we have to go out and witness to others what we have here.  We are a place of caring individuals grounded in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We have a strong faith in God the one who heals, comforts, and sustains us.  How can we share that with one another and with others?

A new model for Church School is a great start. This isn’t the 1950’s and the other Sunday School model isn’t compatible with the way in which children learn any longer.  The workshop rotation model is. 

How about a lay care giving ministry?  I know that you care about one another, let’s do it in some formalized way.  Church Council brainstormed some exciting ways in which we could expand our ministry and it was wonderful to see the excitement that it generated.

Now we, like Elijah are out of the cave, just barely, but we are out.  God met us at the threshold and issued a plan that OCC will thrive in her ministries.  Let us proceed with faith that new things will emerge and that all will be fed and nourished.

Because, as Rabbi Hillel once said, “If not now, when?”

Amen.

A Sermon from the Mound

This past Sunday was Baseball Sunday!  I preached a sermon that I've preached before, 'A Sermon from the Mound'. CLICK HERE and you will find the sermon with some edits to reflect the 'ball territory' that I was in!  Have fun and play ball!!

The Tragedy of Power or the Power to Love?

  1 Kings 21:1-21

It was John Dalberg-Acton, or Lord Acton, English historian in the late 19^th century who said, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely”.  This now famous phrase was part of a dictum that he wrote denouncing Pope Pius (9^th) IX’s dissemination of the doctrine of the papal infallibility, or in other words very simply put, the pope is never wrong.  Lord Acton is saying that absolute power will never produce honest practices. 

 

When one person has that much power in his or her hands it is quite possible that eventually they will fall into corrupt ways of business, of life, of relating to people.  Perhaps if I mention Watergate, Enron, BP, Bernie Madoff, even fabled King Midas you begin to get the type of power that Lord Acton was referring to.  History is full of these kinds of sad and unfortunate stories where power ultimately goes to someone’s head and the use of a legal system is used to harm others who are expendable to the person who has and who wants more power.  Ethics, morals and principles are thrown out of the window.  But this is nothing new.

 

Two weeks ago I started a sermon series on the prophet Elijah from the first and second book of Kings.  As you remember God called him to prophecy during the reign of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel around 860 BCE, two very selfish, disturbing and Baal-worshipping people who ruled the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  Elijah didn’t have it so easy but prophets never do.  One of my Old Testament professors began his lecture on prophets by saying, ‘be glad your daddy wasn’t a prophet!’

 

Let me reintroduce you to King Ahab and his co-conspirator Jezebel!  Today’s story of this royal couple will send a chill up your spine and if it doesn’t well, then….see me later.  It is an ancient illustration of a powerful person and his tragic failure to use his power for good.

 

The title of this particular passage from 1 Kings is ‘Naboth’s Vineyard’.  Ahab lives in Samaria, the capital of Northern Kingdom and he has a winter palace up north in the Jezreel Valley where it tends to be a bit warmer. That’s where Naboth lived.  Here now 1 Kings Chapter 21 beginning at the first verse….

 

Later the following events took place: Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. And Ahab said to Naboth, ‘Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house; I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.’ But Naboth said to Ahab, ‘The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance.’ 

 

Ahab went home resentful and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him; for he had said, ‘I will not give you my ancestral inheritance.’ He lay down on his bed, turned away his face, and would not eat.

 

 His wife Jezebel came to him and said, ‘Why are you so depressed that you will not eat?’ He said to her, ‘Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, “Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard for it”; but he answered, “I will not give you my vineyard.” ’ His wife Jezebel said to him, ‘Do you now govern Israel? Get up, eat some food, and be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.’

 

So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal; she sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who lived with Naboth in his city. She wrote in the letters, ‘Proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth at the head of the assembly; seat two scoundrels opposite him, and have them bring a charge against him, saying, “You have cursed God and the king.” Then take him out, and stone him to death.’ The men of his city, the elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to them.

 

Just as it was written in the letters that she had sent to them, they proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth at the head of the assembly. The two scoundrels came in and sat opposite him; and the scoundrels brought a charge against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, ‘Naboth cursed God and the king.’ So they took him outside the city, and stoned him to death. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, ‘Naboth has been stoned; he is dead.’

 

As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, ‘Go, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.’ As soon as Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab set out to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.

 

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: Go down to meet King Ahab of Israel, who rules in Samaria; he is now in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession.

 

You shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: Have you killed, and also taken possession?’ You shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your blood.’

 

Ahab said to Elijah, ‘Have you found me, O my enemy?’  He answered, ‘I have found you. Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, I will bring disaster on you; I will consume you, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel.’

That’s some story.  You see Naboth was a good citizen, he tended his vineyard that had been passed down to him from his ancestors. He was not just being stubborn or obstinate when he refused to hand over his vineyard to Ahab.  Israelites tried to prevent inherited property from passing out of the family, it’s more detailed than that but for now, Naboth had very valid reasons for not wanting to sell his property to Ahab.

  

And Ahab, what a baby!  I mean, come on, he went to bed and wouldn’t eat because he didn’t get his way?  He sounds like some sullen and pouty two year olds I’ve known!  But his beloved Jezebel, his ‘caretaker’, seeks him out, she just doesn’t let him pout.

 

Now knowing conniving Jezebel’s devotion to the Baal’s, her addiction to power, and her devious nature, this is story takes a nose dive that is not good.  She very underhandedly hires two hit men to take Naboth out.  Scoundrels!  Jezebel!  And a very great injustice!  Naboth loses his life in this convoluted set up and Ahab as we see takes the land.

 

Jezebel, in this story, is the embodiment of a certified sociopath; she’s without any conscience, scruples or ethics.  Sadly we know there are people like that in this world.  But along comes Eliahu, Elijah.  Remember him?  This is a sermon series on the prophet Elijah.  Elijah is sent to Ahab who by now is in his ‘new’ field and Elijah is sent to let Ahab know that what he did has some very grave consequences.

 

And here ends the story…but we are left hanging.  Why? Because it’s not an ending that we want or clamor for.  The t’s haven’t been crossed nor the i’s dotted.  No one looks good or I should say innocent except for Naboth who was the victim in all of this.

 

This is not an easy text to sit with because we want justice and there isn’t any.  We want a new day, a new regime but for now it appears that Ahab (or Jezebel) is victorious.  Ultimately we want a God of love but for now God exacts punishment.  And please do remember what I said about an ‘Old Testament angry God’.  We look at this scripture in the context from which it was written and how people in the 8^th century BCE. 

 

Elijah is sent by God to condemn Ahab.  Elijah had a choice, he could have run away from God but didn’t.  He was called.  He believed.  He did what God asked him to do even though he didn’t like God’s message or what he had to do.  This message is harsh….although we do know that God has told us not to covet, and not to kill, and not to worship false gods.  It’s spelled out pretty clearly in the 10 Commandments. This is the tragedy of power, when the actions and intent of a person like Ahab are materialistic, self-aggrandizing and with so little regard for life itself. We must not be complicit in the evil perpetuated by the Jezebel’s and Ahab’s of this world.

 

All of our actions have consequences.  From the clothes on our back, to the food we eat, the way in which we conduct our lives – our actions effect others. We know sweatshops thrive.  We can buy fair trade.  We can be wasters of energy.  We can be consumers of clean and efficient energy. We can hoard our resources.  We can share with others what God has given us.  The choices we make have the potential to induce a tragedy of power or the power to love.   

 

Discerning between the two is the demanding work of faith. 

 

Today we will be performing the exacting work of faith as we conduct business at our Semi-Annual meeting.  There are no “those people who are trying to” (you fill in the blank).  We are not divided into factions or camps because to look at it that way has already divided the church which is your greatest fear.

 

Rather it is all of us, together with differing opinions that can be expressed openly, with the greatest integrity, without anger or malice.  It is not ‘they are trying to do this, or they are trying to do that’, it is how are we going to come to consensus in the spirit of collaboration to proceed into our future as a fiscally responsible, Holy Spirit infused church.  We are the body of Christ and we will seek to find the face and heart of Christ in all that we do.

 

My role as your Interim Senior Pastor is to hold up a mirror so that you can see more clearly.  Some of you will walk away today content and some discontent, that’s the nature of consensus.  However remembering that we all love this church, we all want to right in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ hopefully will give us the strength to persevere through this challenge and envision a stronger church for the future. 

 

Just as we have been given the power to hate, we have also been given the power to love.  The power to see. The power to hope. The power to dream that God’s justice will flourish.   The choice is up to you.

 

May God grant to us the strength and power to love more often, to love deeply, to love through challenging times as well as through times of abundance and grace.

Amen.

 

A Touch of Faith, A Touch of Healing

Mark 5: 21-43

 You might think that in the Gospel of Mark all Jesus does is to get into that old wooden fishing boat with his disciples, catch a cool breeze and cruise to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, not a very long distance really.  He does that a lot but not because he was an avid sailor!  It was because throughout the Gospel Jesus is on the move; here, there and everywhere taking his message, miracles and ministry wherever it needed to go and to whomever needed or wanted to hear it, and, honestly, every so often he needed some ‘down’ time which the sanctuary of that maritime vessel provided him.

Today’s float over the sea was specific.   Jesus leaves the country of the Gerasenes which was Gentile territory and crosses over to the Jewish side of the country.  He’s now back among ‘his people’, fellow Jews, which makes a difference in this story in whom, by Jewish purity laws, Jesus could touch and not touch, who was clean and unclean. 

Hear now the fifth chapter of Mark beginning at the twenty-first verse:

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.”

So he went with him. And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.”

Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?’” He looked all around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. When he had entered, he said to them, “Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.”

And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!” And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.  Amen.

Jesus embarks from the boat and immediately is surrounded, even crowded in by people.  Jairus falls at Jesus’ feet and out of sheer desperation begs Jesus to come to his house and heal his daughter.  His poor twelve year old daughter was at death’s door, she hardly had a start in life and now she was so sick, in fact, she was dying.    I think we have all been in that same place as Jairus, that is at the point of desperation when one of our loved ones or perhaps ourselves have been gravely ill.  How fervent and impassioned, perhaps even pleading our prayers become for a miracle of healing.  We hope.  We trust.  We pray.  Maybe we even fall to our knees like Jairus. Jesus takes note and follows Jairus to his home.

But the crowds.  How hot and humid it was, the rays of the Galilean sun were relentless.  And the people pushed and pressed in on Jesus as he slowly tried to make his way to Jairus’ home.  They weren’t making much progress when Jesus felt the power serge from him.  He turned around and said, “Who touched the hem of my robe?”  The crowd halted, a hush gripped the air.

Unbelievable!  Unbelievable the disciples thought, here we are in the middle of all these people and Jesus could isolate and feel one little touch?  Unbelievable.  What about Jairus’ daughter?  We thought we were on the way to his house.  You see by now Jesus was used to interruptions.  We can appreciate that right?  You think you’ve got your entire day planned and boom, something happens and your agenda goes right out of the window.  In ministry we call it, the Ministry of Interruptions because interruptions happen at the most inopportune times and it’s usually in those distracted moments that God’s incredible grace pops up and asks us to pay attention and give of ourselves.

 

The woman, already feeling life flow back in her just from touching Jesus robe, cowered because she knows she did the unthinkable.  She, a hemorrhaging, ritually unclean woman touched Jesus and in that touch told him the whole story and truth of her life.  It was a remarkable witness to her faith.  “What faith!” Jesus says. “Go be about your business in peace, you’ve been healed.”  If only healing were that simple, right?

The crowd was stunned, and confused and Jesus was still speaking and…. I wonder if he had forgotten about Jairus’ daughter?  Word filters through the crowd that the daughter had died, no need for Jesus to come.  Jesus overhears. And, as theologian and preacher, Barbara Brown Taylor says, “Jesus preaches his shortest sermon ever: Do not fear, only believe”.  He hadn’t forgotten after all. 

“This daughter of Jairus is only sleeping, she’s not dead like you say” Jesus says.  Jesus risks ostracism once again from his own people as he crosses the threshold of her room and goes to her death bed. 

He reaches out and takes her young, limp hand and says quietly, “Talitha cum!”.  “Little girl, get up”.  And she does.  And, as typical 12 year olds would do she probably rubbed her eyes, giggled and chowed down what she was given to eat and asked if she could go to tell her girlfriends.  

 These two miracle stories hold so much for us to reflect upon.  A story within a story wherein both stories have several parallels which would have deepened the interest for first century readers.  Back in the day, miracle workers were a dime a dozen.  Jesus, of course, was not some two bit magician but gave all of the credit to God for his work.  His powers and ability to work miracles came from above.  The synagogue authorities were very concerned with the religious laws that Jesus seemed always to be defying.  Jesus was not so concerned that he was ‘breaking’ the law.  Rather he believed that he was expanding, recasting, amending, and revisioning the law for a more just world for everyone.  So in addition to the miraculous healing there were all sorts of nuanced meanings embedded in the stories.

Jairus’ daughter and the hemorraghing woman’s stories have fairytale endings.  They are lucky enough to receive full and total healing direct from the source.   But we know that full and total even dramatic physical healings such as these rarely occur like that.   So what happens when our expectation for healing doesn’t happen or our healing turns out to be much different then what we were hoping for?  That question begs a more profound question and that is, what does it mean to be healed?

All of us are in need of healing from time to time in our lives.  From a physical healing of a devastating illness to an emotional healing from the stinging effect of a lost relationship.  From a scarred healing of a traumatic incident to the mental healing and health from prolonged years of abuse perhaps even we are in need of healing from division’s and disarray due to a lack of clarity.  None of us will escape life without some sort of hurt or sickness in it but with God’s attentive touch we will heal.

It just may not be in the way that we have been hoping and praying for.  It’s those doggone expectations once again that will trip us up every time.  Sometimes we may have to look for the way in which God heals us in the less obvious corners of our lives with a touch of faith bolstering us so that we can open ourselves up to other possibilities for living.

Franklin, a man with diabetes, I met him when I did some chaplaincy work at an area hospital.  He was on and off, mostly off about controlling his diabetes.  He said he prayed hard and even promised God with ALL of his heart that he would change and do what he needed to do to get the diabetes under control.  He was hurt, angry and bitter and felt let down by God when he found out his foot need to be amputated.  He thought God had no listened to him or just didn’t care about him. 

Well, the weeks and months of rehabilitation proved to be a physical and spiritual healing however.  He realized that even without a foot or ‘complete’ body that his life was whole and filled with blessing.  Now he participates in walks for diabetes and even does some education for others.  Healing came to Franklin, just not in the way that he wanted…but he got so much more.  He witnessed to others of the healing power of Jesus Christ.  He was, in fact, inspirational. 

John Pilch a Scripture professor at Georgetown University has done a lot of writing on healing and particular, healing in the New Testament.  He says, “Healing is the restoration of meaning to people’s lives no matter what their physical condition might be.” 

After something devastating happens to us, after recovering from serious disease, after we have been lifted out of the depths of depression something changes.  After the woman stopped hemorrhaging and the blood flow was restored, after the girl was raised from the dead, their lives were changed.   Healing does occur and life is not the same.  We are changed.  We see differently.  We hear differently.  Things that never mattered before now do and things that mattered before we find out are really not that important.  Life takes on a different meaning and it’s something that only God can provide.  Be open to the many ways in which God heals and makes better our lives.  Therein lies the miracle of healing for our lives.

Amen.

Photos of the Sea of Galilee taken by Suzanne Wagner

Eliahu ha-Navi

1 Kings 17:8-24

Who has picked out your summertime reading?  There is nothing like having a good and juicy book to read while you sit comfortably in an Adirondack chair or laying in a hammock.  Well there is nothing better than summertime preaching because you can sit back and hear about the sagas found in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) or you can focus on the Jesus stories up in the Galilee. 

So you can think of the next few weeks as a sermon series and I’ll be sharing with you the saga of  the Prophet Elijah.  At the close of a Passover Seder, Jews open a door entreating the prophet Elijah to return soon with the Messiah.  When they do this they usually sing a song about Elijah:

Eliahu ha-Navi,

Eliahu ha-Tishbi

Eliahu ha-Gi’ladi

Bim’hera yavoh aylenu

Im Mashiach ben David,

Bim’hera yavoh aylenu

Im Mashiach ben David,

Elijah the Prophet, Elijah the Tishbite, Elijah the Giladite, may he soon come to us with the Messiah, son of David.

Eliahu, or Elijah is one of the great prophets of Israel in the Hebrew Bible.  He is known as a healer, a miracle worker, and a hero who stood up against evil kings and the false prophets of the Canaanite god, Baal.  The next few weeks we will focus on some of the stories about Elijah, King Ahab and his wife Jezebel until finally we hear the story of how Elijah passes his mantel on to Elisha who takes up the reigns as Yahweh or God’s prophet.

I do want to issue a word of warning – often the ‘God of the Old Testament’ is viewed as an angry God.  Don’t go there.  We need to understand these texts in the time in which they were written which is to say, it was a time when ethical monotheism was taking hold amidst a plethora of many other pantheistic religions each believing in many gods, with a small g and it was common belief that the actions of the people moved a god to do all sorts of things to them because of their behavior. 

The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament who is a God of salvation throughout time.

 Chapter 17 in the book of 1 Kings begins with Elijah’s announcement to King Ahab of a drought.  Ahab ruled the Northern Kingdom of Israel from 869-850 BCE.  He was not a nice king; none of them really were in the Northern Kingdom.  Ahab was the worst though.  In fact in 1 Kings 16 it says, “Ahab did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than had all the kings of Israel who were before him.”  You see Ahab married Jezebel from Sidon. (Which is today, Lebanon) She was an outsider to Israel and brought with her the many gods of Baal.  She was bad news all the way around!!! 

The announcement of a drought was clearly a challenge to Ahab’s poor judgment and the Baal’s power. So, as you might imagine Elijah had to ‘get out of Dodge’ quickly after he issued the bad news.  God sent him first to Wadi Cherith where ravens brought him bread and he drank from the wadi, but then that dried up so Plan B had to be put into effect.  So here we begin today’s scripture….

“Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.’ So he set out and went to Zarephath.”

“When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, ‘Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.’ As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, ‘Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.’ But she said, ‘As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.’”

“Elijah said to her, ‘Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.’”

“She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.” 

“After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. She then said to Elijah, ‘What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!’”

“But he (Elijah) said to her, ‘Give me your son.’ He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. He cried out to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?’ Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.’

The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, ‘See, your son is alive.’ So the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.’”  Amen, here ends our scripture.

It’s curious that Elijah was sent out of Israel and into Sidon itself the very place where Jezebel hailed from, heartland of the Baal cult.  And this woman had no means of economic support because she was a widow and her gods, the gods of Baal, weren’t protecting her. That’s a real bad place to be in.  So she takes what’s left of her meal and oil and is going to make a final meal for her and her son.  There was nothing left for them, they were facing a drought of their own and soon their lives would dry up too.

What Elijah did took a lot of chutzpah, but then again he believed in the God of Israel and what he did by asking the widow  to make him some food with her very last morsels exhibited a lot of faith.  We can be certain that she did not believe in Elijah’s God, but we can surmise that she was hanging on to a thread of hope that Elijah’s God wouldn’t fail.   When you are faced with serious problems you will hang on to just about anything for hope.  This time she clung to the right thing. 

Elijah was a prophet whose job was to relay to the people within the borders of Israel and outside her borders the great and awesome power of the Lord God of Israel and to set them straight once again.  He prophesied a drought in Israel, and God showed compassion upon Elijah not only once but a second time and it is in that second act of God’s compassion that we see Elijah, through God, bring life back from death.  As Kate Huey, a UCC pastor says, “God rains mercy on a parched earth and dried-up lives.”  Indeed hope is restored.  

When we read stories like this, and there are so many others in the Bible and in everyday life, how can we ever doubt that God isn’t capable of restoring hope and life to us when we feel as if our lives have dried up mercilessly like the parched and cracked riverbed of a wadi?  Like the widow at Zeraphath we too can cling on to a thread of hope.

There ARE times when we doubt, I know.  Questions creep into our heads: When will this economic recession end?  When will my pain go away?  When will my depression cease? When, how long God, how long?  But we must never give up hope that God is not raining mercy upon us at this very moment of our lives.  When we look around there is abundant evidence that God is not far away but up close and very personal and active in our lives.  God presence is through us and through others in compassionate acts of kindness from a simple hello, to a phone call, or a visit or maybe even a miracle of extraordinary measures. 

This is a beautiful story of compassion and hope. It is in the miraculous resurrection that we evidence hope.  Hope for a better day, hope for new life, and hope in all things to come.

Amen.