“The Mystery of God”

Text: Ephesians 3: 1-5

This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— ² for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given me for you, ³ and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, ⁴ a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. ⁵ In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:

 

I’m not sure if anything like this has happened to you or not; it seems like with Heidi and I, as we get a little more distance between where we are and pop culture, it is happening more and more. What I’m talking about is this lost feeling you get when everyone else seems to know exactly what is going on and you find yourself clueless on the topic. To make matters worse, sometimes you can be told what it is that everyone is talking about and you still don’t know. It remains a mystery.

I’m reminded of that every once in a while when I’m driving along and I notice a billboard on the side of the road way. Often they are advertising something I know nothing about, the message makes no sense to me and I don’t even know what the product is or what it is supposed to do for me. I’m suspicious that often these ads for some feature on a new smart phone, but I can’t confirm that because I don’t really know what the ad is trying to sell me. I’ve had the same experience occasionally watching TV as well; if I watched as much TV as some researchers claim we do, I’m guessing it would happen a lot more.

Just the other night, it must have been Halloween, I’m flipping through Facebook on my phone. (which is actually quite an accomplishment in itself) I’m on my phone looking at all the posts when a picture of my eldest son and his wife comes up. They seemed to be sort of dressed in costume, but I’m not sure. Then I read the caption and it says something like “off to our Halloween party; guess who we’re going as”. I didn’t have any idea-that’s why I said they were sort of in costume. It didn’t seem like their normal attire, but it didn’t seem like a costume either. So I read few comments that had guesses in them – and almost all of the comments successfully identified this couple that my kids were dressed as. I still didn’t have a clue.

Normally when I’m clueless I have a secret weapon; so I asked Heidi who is such and so? I can’t even remember the real names any more, but she didn’t know either. So we Googled it!

Of course, Google knew exactly who we were talking about, Google identified them as a couple portrayed in some famous sitcom, I think, gave us their real names, how many seasons the sitcom has been on TV and a whole bunch of other information. After seeing the answer in comments and after being told who they were by Google, you would think we would have some idea as to what was going on and who we were talking about. Zero. Zip. Nada. We were not any closer than when we started. To this day I can’t tell you who my eldest sent went as to his Halloween party. That’s kind of sad. I remember when he was four or five he went as Annie from the musical, and Artoo Deetoo perhaps the year before that. He was a ninja for about 5 years running – those things I understood and knew a little something about.

You know there is a Paul Simon song that is a favorite of mine called Saint Judy’s Comet and in that song there is a line that is repeated several times about how this little baby can make his famous daddy look so dumb.

Like I said, I don’t know if these kinds of things happen to you yet, but they will. Sometimes I think they come as a no extra cost option with grandchildren, but that is just a theory.

I’m spelling this out with some degree of clarity in hopes that what I’m describing sounds at least a little familiar. I want you to be able to resonate with the feeling of being a little in the dark, not knowing exactly what is going on, or feeling a bit overwhelmed with new information all the time. In truth I think it happens to most of us quite often.

Also think this may be similar to what the Ephesians were experiencing when the Apostle Paul sent them his letter that is preserved in our New Testament. You may have noticed that Paul used the word mystery at least 3 times in the opening few sentences of the third chapter which I read a few minutes ago. I believe that Paul was trying to introduce the Ephesians to some new ideas, new ways of thinking about God and perhaps attempting to bridge some cultural barriers as well. It was all very strange, a lot of new information, and this new God did indeed seem mysterious. I think Paul was trying to make them feel comfortable with the idea of not knowing all the answers. By identifying God as a mystery, I think he could build some common experience and perhaps keep them from just giving up before they even got started.

Thing is, I think God remains a mystery. We still don’t really understand, we still struggle at times to make sense of things, we wrestle with God in our own minds on any number of topics. Why do such bad things happen to good people is a common one, why are all the people we consider to be less honest, less spiritual, less moral, less you can fill in the blank, why are all of those people so successful and I have to struggle? Yes, I think in many ways God continues to be a mystery and often we lack full understanding. Why are there accidents and natural disasters, why are some people so cruel to others, the questions can just go on and on. To be honest, most of the time, we don’t have very good answers. You hear things about God’s will, or some thin theological perspective about how things were meant to be. At least when someone tells you they don’t understand why you are suffering, or why someone died or why you were just diagnosed with some horrible disease; at least when they say they don’t know why, it is an honest answer. We don’t know why.

But I think there is an important point hidden away in our not knowing. I believe that the mystery of God extends into our natural world and when we look at our natural world, we see the end result of the creativity of God, without necessarily seeing the pain or suffering or fully understanding what is happening.

For example, we have a volunteer walnut tree in our front yard. I’m suspicious that a squirrel buried a walnut at some point in that spot and now we have a tree. How does the walnut know how to make a tree? How does the walnut know which direction to grow? How does it know what shape to make the leaves so that we know it is a walnut tree? What happened to the original walnut?

We only understand these things up to a certain point. A botanist may have a slightly more informed perspective, but there is still a good amount of mystery there as well.

My point is that even though we don’t understand, even though the walnut itself no longer exists in its original form, even though there is mystery, we can still see the miracle of a tree and enjoy the shade. We don’t necessarily need to understand, we only need to accept.

Acceptance of what is provides the greatest opportunity for peace and understanding available to us. Knowing what is and what we can change gives us the greatest hope available to us. Embrace the mystery, embrace the unknown and look around the natural world and as you do, you will discover the mystery of God displayed for you everywhere.

I also believe we can understand the mystery at a much deeper level than you may have thought possible. Stay tuned as we explore the mystery of God together.

Go in peace, Amen.

 

“To Save A Life”

Text: Mark 3:1-6

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. ² They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. ³ And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” ⁴ Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵ He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶ The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

I want to tell you a story. It is my story. I am that man that Jesus healed that day in the synagogue…

I was born with this stump of a hand. For a long time, I didn’t think anything about it, it seemed normal to me. I played with the other kids and we would run around in the streets and hide and wrestle and do all sorts of things. As I grew a little older I began to notice some of the kids would tease me and mock me. They would ball their hand up into a tight fist and then pretend to try to pick up a ball or a stick of wood. Some would even pretend to try to scratch their head or to shake hands like the grown-ups do-I guess it bothered me a little, but that was a long time ago. Kids can be cruel you know.

I grew up in my father’s workshop. He was a carpenter most of the time when there was work. He would build tables and chairs, bed frames and cabinets – he could build just about anything anyone needed. From the time I was 10 or 12 I pretty much hung out in my dad’s woodshop. I began to learn the trade, although I wasn’t much help.

They tell me I had an older sister who died when I was very young. I also have a brother, but somehow he ended up in Damascus and has a family over there. So for many years it was just me and my parents in the family woodshop. Then the flu came; it was about 3 or 4 years ago now. First my mother caught the fever. She laid in bed for about a week, she couldn’t cook or clean or do much of anything. At night I could hear her moan, I think from the fever. Then one night it was quiet and by morning she was gone. My dad caught it too; but he didn’t think it was a bad case. He kept working and tried to keep the house together even after mom died. I think he wore himself out and being weaker, the fever got him as well. That left me alone in the house and alone in my father’s shop.

After things settled down I tried to continue my father’s business. People would stop by and ask if I could build them this or that. I tried to please the customers, but everything took twice as long with only one hand. Keeping the right pressure on a plane, or holding a board secure while I sawed all became almost impossible. For years my father would clamp something down so I could work on it, we worked together, as a team. I could help him unload wood or deliver the finished pieces, but doing it myself was slow or impossible. After a while, the customers came around less and less. Even the long-time friends of the family and the reliable jobs we once had all slowly went away.

Eventually I closed the shop and sold the tools. I just couldn’t make it work with one hand. Then I sold the house and that money didn’t last very long. That’s how I ended up in the temple that day. I would sleep wherever I could find a place out of the wind and then during the day go to the temple in hopes of collecting a few donations. Most people walked right by; like I was invisible to them. They would turn their eyes so we wouldn’t make eye contact. Some would walk on the other side of the courtyard so they didn’t have to pass by me. No one ever spoke to me. Even those that would throw a mite or two into my cup did so without uttering a word. It was a lonely, meager existence. There was more than one day that I wished the flu had taken me as well.

Each week I looked forward to Sabbath. I hate to admit it, but I looked forward to Sabbath for all the wrong reasons. I never was allowed into the actual temple where I could hear the scriptures being read or watch any of the ceremony, but I looked forward to Sabbath because there were lots of people. Sabbath was always my best day. I usually tried to make the donations last for a couple of days after, and some would bring a piece of bread or fruit for me. I would eat the food first and save the money for later.

Then there was the Sabbath that Jesus came to the temple. It was early in the morning and preparations were still being made for the services that would be held later in the day. The priests were arranging things in the courtyard, and there were other robed men walking briskly back and forth. When Jesus entered the synagogue, all that activity stopped. Jesus seemed like a quiet man, but he walked with confidence and authority. He looked around the courtyard at all the priests and scribes and without anyone saying a word, they began to crowd around him. It was like he knew what they were thinking and he sought to answer their questions.

I was watching all this take place from the corner of the courtyard where I had made my plea for donations for the last several years. You can imagine how shocked I was when Jesus turned to me, he made eye contact, which never happened, and then he spoke. Jesus said to me; “come forward”.

I wasn’t certain I was understanding what Jesus intended so I hesitated. I pointed to myself and questioned whether or not Jesus meant me. Jesus nodded and then motioned for me to join him in the center of the courtyard. As I came forward the crowd that had started to form parted like the story of Moses and the Red Sea. Even though technically I wasn’t unclean by Jewish tradition, I still muttered a low “unclean, unclean” under my breath as I moved to the center of the area. There I stood with Jesus and the eyes of 20 or 30 holy men fixed upon us.

The sun was now high enough that the rays of light could clear the outside wall and the courtyard area began to be bathed in the morning light. The golden light formed into great streaks of light as the dust from the morning’s activity was still in the air. I could feel the warmth of the sunlight on my back as I made my way through the crowd, but as I turned to face them, I had to squint. I held my good hand up to shield my eyes from the glaring blast of light.

Then Jesus spoke again. Without explanation or introduction he simply asked the question; “is it lawful to do good or harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?” The voice of Jesus was clear and confident; it echoed a little bit among the walls and stones of the courtyard. The echo subsided and was replaced with silence. I have never witnessed such stillness. No one spoke, I’m not even sure anyone was even breathing. No one moved, no one spoke, everyone watched to see what Jesus would do next.

As the silence continued, it was clear that Jesus had expected some sort of response. His facial expression began to change from neutral to more solemn, and then from solemn to frustration and then to despair. He was obviously grieved at the lack of response; the unwillingness to engage or offer any hint of compassion.

Jesus turned to me and instructed me to stretch out my hand. I wasn’t sure what was happening or what was expected of me, so I reached forward with both hands. As I did, my withered hand began to tingle and move, the stumps of fingers that had been locked into a ball since birth began to open up like a flower in the sun. Soon I could open my hand all the way and I could see four full fingers and a thumb that had been tucked away and frozen in a knurled ball my entire life. There in the streaming morning light I stood with Jesus, for the first time in my life, with two hands, palms up, outstretched to receive the gifts of healing and compassion.

It was then I remembered what Jesus had actually said. He had asked was it lawful to save a life or to kill on the Sabbath. Yes, he healed my withered hand, but he also saved my life. To restore a man’s dignity to where he can work again is to save his life. To make a person whole again, to where he might provide for a wife or a family someday is to save a life. To erase the years of teasing from other children while growing up, to erase the shame and guilt from sitting in a corner and living off scraps is to save a life. Yes, it was just a hand. Yes, the frozen disfigured fingers were loosed and straightened, yes, the motor control returned and the hand became stronger over time. Yes, it was all those things, but so much more. It was more because Jesus gave me my life back. It was a new start, a fresh beginning; it was a second chance.

I left the temple that day restored. It was just a hand, but my entire life had been changed in an instant on that day. I will never be the same and I will never go back to who I was before. And all he said was stretch out your hand…

Amen.

“Who Is The Miracle Worker?”

Text: Luke 8: 42-48

As he went, the crowds pressed in on him. ⁴³ Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years; and though she had spent all she had on physicians,^[a] no one could cure her. ⁴⁴ She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his clothes, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. ⁴⁵ Then Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” When all denied it, Peter^[b] said, “Master, the crowds surround you and press in on you.” ⁴⁶ But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; for I noticed that power had gone out from me.” ⁴⁷ When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before him, she declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. ⁴⁸ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

 

There are a couple of observations I want to make about this text to get us started as we look closely at this story. The first of those observations is that this story appears in all three of the synoptic Gospels. That is it can be found in Mark, and Matthew as well as the text which I read from Luke. If you go and look up those stories, you will find the same basic thread and details of the story to be pretty much the same, with just a couple of exceptions. It is those exceptions that I find of particular interest.

Both stories in Mark and Matthew state that the woman had told herself that if she could just touch the hem of the garment that Jesus wore, she could be healed. Luke leaves that little bit of detail out of his story; as we move through our study of this text, we may make some guesses as to why that might be the case. But all we can do is guess. Another detail that has been omitted by Luke is the detail that even though the woman had been seen for the past 12 years by physicians, not only had she not gotten any better, but in fact had gotten worse. In Mark the text actually says that she had endured much under many physicians, she had spent all she had, and she was no better, but rather grew worse.

In Matthew, we find similar language about most of the details, but the part about physicians and spending lots of money on them even as she grew worse is not there.

I know we have covered some of this ground before, but just as a reminder, Mark was the first Gospel written. Bible scholars believe that the authors of both Matthew and Luke had copies of Mark that they worked from as they were writing their gospels. So the omissions in Luke are all present in Mark, so we can assume that Luke made some sort of a specific decision about leaving them out.

Just to review, in Mark, the story tells us that the woman had thought to herself she could be healed if only she could just touch the garment of Jesus. This detail is absent in Luke.

In Mark, we can also find details that the woman had seen many physicians, had endured much under those physicians, had spent all of her money on the physicians, but was not any better, but rather grew worse. Luke mentions she had spent all she had on physicians, but none could cure her.

If you read the two accounts, that is the Mark version and the Luke version, it becomes immediately obvious that Luke takes a little softer position with regard to the physicians. He almost downplays it a little bit. I think this could be because Luke himself was a physician and he was casting the best light possible upon his profession in this particular case. In politics, they call that spin.

Not only was Luke a physician, but he was also a bit of a scientist and that could be part of the reason that the woman’s self-talk about just touching the garment of Jesus is left out. Perhaps Luke has no confidence in the power of self-talk. The self-talk can be found in both the Mark and Matthew versions of this story.

This is where I think things begin to get really interesting. It is clear from all three of these stories that Jesus was in the midst of a huge crowd and there were people crowding around him all the time. As a matter of fact, when Jesus asked the question; “who touched me?” the disciples were a little surprised, because he had been touched and bumped into and jostled around by the crowd. The disciples responded by pointing that out to Jesus, how can you even ask that question, the crowd has been pressing around you all day. Probably hundreds of people have touched you. They thought the question was a little crazy. But Jesus insisted that someone had touched him and he felt the power of the spirit, the actual healing energy, leave his body.  At that point, the woman comes forward and says it was her who had touched him.

What I think is so interesting is that it is the self-talk of the woman that makes her unique among the crowd. Think about this. A crowd of thousands, hundreds of people crowding around Jesus as he walks through the crowd. Hundreds of people touching him in a variety of ways. Everybody who turned out to see Jesus on that day probably had something on their mind. It could have been a physical infirmity of some kind, it could have been mental anxiety or stress about a situation or circumstance, others were just curious about who this Jesus was, but everyone there had a reason to be there. Of the hundreds that potentially touched Jesus that day, only one was healed?

If the power to heal actually resided in Jesus, and all that was required was a touch, should not hundreds have been healed by the touch and not just the one?

What made this one different and unique? What made this one eligible to be healed when others were not? Was this a decision that Jesus made? I don’t think so, I think it was a decision the woman made. I believe the woman had the power of intention working on her behalf, and in short, she was able to receive what she expected. Of course this isn’t very scientific, nor does it give all the credit to Jesus, but I think that is what happened. I also think that may be part of the reason that Luke left it out. For a physician it is often difficult for them to accept the power of the mind or the power of the spirit to overcome disease and infirmity.

I was asked recently about how I would define God. As I constructed an answer to this question, I realized that my answer sounded very familiar to what I remembered reading in a book several years earlier by Dr. Wayne Dyer. That book is actually titled “The Power of Intention” and in it Wayne Dyer explains how he believes there is a field of energy which he calls intention. I might call that field of energy God.

I think it is very possible that the woman in our story found Jesus to be the access point to this field of Divine energy. Once accessed, the healing was automatic. But how was the field of energy actually accessed and utilized? Was it Jesus, or was it the intention of the woman? This, of course, brings us full circle to the title of my sermon, “Who is the miracle worker?”

We of course will never know that answers to these questions as an absolute certainty. I believe that Jesus could be considered a super-conductor of sorts of this field of Divine energy. If one would approach Jesus knowing this to be the case, and come into contact with that energy, naturally, Divine healing could be the result. It is possible, even likely, that those who were touching Jesus on that day were unaware of his super-conductor status, and so they did not find what they were not looking for.

I believe we have much more control over our situations and circumstances than we would like to admit. When we admit it and recognize it, we no longer have handy scapegoats on which to lay the responsibility for our situation. I think this story gives us just a glimpse of the true power of intention, the power of self-talk and the power of connecting with that Divine energy.

It was the woman’s intention to touch the garment of Jesus that made her unique in the crowd that day, and it was her intention that put her in the position of connecting with the healing energy that is available to us all.

What is your intention? What is your self-talk? What are your connecting points to the Divine energy that flows through all of creation? If you are not connected in all the ways you desire, where does the responsibility for that rest?

This is of course food for thought. Go in peace and go with intention. Amen.

“Untied Methodist”

Text: Mark 11: 1-10

When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples ² and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. ³ If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” ⁴ They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, ⁵ some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” ⁶ They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. ⁷ Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. ⁸ Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. ⁹ Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,

“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
¹⁰     Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

 

I know what some of you are thinking…”I know it’s been awhile since I’ve been in church, but how did it get to be Palm Sunday?” You can relax, it is not Palm Sunday, even though the text I just read is a traditional one for that particular Sunday, I’m going in a little different direction with it today.

I think most of you would know what I’m talking about if I were to tell you that I take the Bible seriously, but not literally. I’ve said that before and I don’t believe it comes as any great surprise to any of you. As aa matter of fact, I would think that most of you also fall into that category; that is you also take the Bible seriously, but not literally. What I may not have told you is one of the major reasons why I prefer that approach to the Bible. You see, I believe this approach not only keeps you from painting yourself into a corner that you don’t want to be in – like having to support the idea that the earth is only 6,000 years old for example. But this approach is also a lot more creative and a lot more fun when you begin to study scripture in depth. I think the text I just read is a good example of this.

By taking the Bible seriously, but not literally it opens up for you the chance to ask the question why a certain scripture might be written the way it is. In the text that I just read, the colt that Jesus requested is tied up. If you check the other synoptic Gospels, that is the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, you will find that they too have the colt tied up. This is likely because both Matthew and Luke were using Mark as a source for their Gospels and they didn’t see any real reason to change it. But why would Mark have the colt tied up?

Of course, if you are a literalist, the colt was actually tied up, and this is the way it was and the Bible is just reporting what was. How boring! I actually think Mark made a decision to have the colt tied up in his story. But the question becomes why? Without this flexibility of understanding, you never get to ask the question why; and asking why is critical, I believe, to good basic Bible study.

So here’s the deal; in Zechariah 9:9 there is a prophecy that the Gospel writers wanted Jesus to fulfill. In that scripture, it says that the king will come riding on the foal of a donkey. Here is the actual text, so we can take a look at it:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

OK, our Gospel writers wanted Jesus to fulfill this portion of scripture, I get that. But the scripture doesn’t say anything about the donkey being tied up, it doesn’t say anything about how Jesus was to come into possession of that particular donkey it doesn’t really even say that Jesus was going to ride it into Jerusalem. So you can see that our Gospel writers had to fill in a few blanks. There may have been some oral tradition around this story; there may have been information in Q that we don’t know about; but what is most likely is that most of this story came out of the imagination of the author of Mark. I think that is exciting, because it allows us to ask questions and draw meaning and metaphor from the text that otherwise would not be there.

So I have given you a little background information with regard to this text, but we have not yet talked about why Mark may have had the colt tied up and the disciples were instructed to untie it.

This is a great metaphor; the very act of untying something is metaphorically very powerful. If you were going to begin a great journey at sea, just about the very last thing to happen before you cast off is that you would be untied. Even a huge cruise ship when it docks, gets tied up. The ship cannot leave the harbor until it is untied.

There are a lot of people who own small aircraft, private airplanes that seat maybe 2 or 4 sometimes as many as 6 people. Not everyone who owns a plane has indoor storage available for their plane. So they have to park their airplane outside on the tarmac somewhere. When an airplane is parked for any length of time, it is tied down. A strong wind can easily get under the wings and simply tip it over causing a great deal of damage to the plane; so they tie it down. Once again, if you are going to leave in your airplane, you would need to untie it first.

You get the point; or at least I hope you do. The act of untying is a metaphorical act of freeing Jesus to begin a new journey, to set sail, to soar the heavens-no longer held back by being tied to ancient Judaism. The adherence to the law, the ancient rituals, the overbearing tradition; all the things that Jesus sought to reform about ancient Judaism, the act of untying the colt could be considered metaphor as the actual release from those things.

I think it is possible that the authors of Matthew and Luke, when they read Mark’s version of this story, they may have made the decision to change a detail here and there, but they left the untying in. They left it in for a reason and I think the symbolism of being untied is a strong enough metaphor that it may be the reason they left it in. Of course we will never know.

But if you are a literalist, the colt was simply tied up, they untied him and that is the end of the story and the end of the interpretation. What fun is that?

I want to make one more quick point. How many of you when you first saw the title of this sermon actually thought that “untied” was a typo and it really should read A United Methodist? I kind of did that on purpose just to keep you on your toes. After considering all the things that being untied might have meant for Jesus in a metaphorical sense, I think it may be just as appropriate for us to think about the advantages of being untied Methodists as well.

What would it mean if we became untied Methodists? And that of course is food for thought.

Amen.

Texts: Psalm 51: 10

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.

Acts 17: 16, 22-25, 28-29

¹⁶ While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. ²² Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. ²³ For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, ²⁵ nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. ²⁸ For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,

‘For we too are his offspring.’

²⁹ Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.

If my math is right, I have just been through my fifth rummage sale here at the church. For many of you that is small potatoes, but five rummage sales is enough to be amazed at what happens each and every time. I am always amazed at the stuff that shows up; I’m even more amazed that each time the opportunity comes up we manage to find more stuff around our own house. One would think that eventually you would reach the bottom of the rummage pile, but it doesn’t seem to work that way. I guess we constantly add to it without fully realizing what we are doing. It could be that some of the stuff that was eligible this year wasn’t eligible a few years back. Sometimes we need to get used to the idea of letting something go before we actually let walk out the door.

You may have noticed that I used two different texts this morning. At first glance they may not seem to be related to each other, but I hope to be able to tie this together for you. The first text from the Psalms reminds us that we need to seek a clean heart before God. Most people would equate a clean heart to pure thoughts and actions, being a moral person and so forth. But what if a clean heart also means that we consciously clear out the stuff that is no longer relevant or useable or appealing. A little like we do with our garages and basements and storage sheds when it is rummage sale time again.

When we clean out the garage or the downstairs closet for the rummage sale, we don’t clear out the clutter because it is evil or bad or impure or immoral; we simply have no need for the items any longer. What we donate to the rummage sale generally has served its purpose for us and while it may still have some useful life left in it, and there isn’t anything really wrong with it, we just don’t use or need it any longer. What if we viewed the scripture about creating a clean heart in that context, that we create a clean heart by taking stock of what is no longer useful or relevant and making a concentrated effort to actual clean that stuff out? What would that look like? Do you think there might be anything in there that would qualify?

While you think about what it might look like to actually clean out your hearts, like we clean out a closet for a rummage sale, I wanted to give you just a little background history of the church and Christianity.

After the execution of Jesus, it took a couple hundred years for Christianity to get really organized. The Bible, as we know it, didn’t really come into existence until around the year 300. About 700-800 years after that, in round numbers, around the year 1054, there was a great schism. This divided Christianity into two different camps which some scholars identify simply as east and west. Our form of Christianity derives from the west camp.

The two camps went along for another 500 years until the year 1517, when most scholars date the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. This is probably familiar history to some of you, at least to a small degree, because it was in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the wooden door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany. In essence, Martin Luther was telling the Catholic Church at the time they needed to clean out their closets. He listed 95 items that needed to be updated, eliminated, reformed or simply gotten rid of. In a way, Martin Luther suggested to the Catholic Church they needed to have a rummage sale and clean out all of that stuff and begin again with a clean heart.

Now pay attention very closely. The first rummage sale was about 700 years in the making, which was the great schism. The second rummage sale took place about 500 years after that, which was the Protestant Reformation. Since that rummage sale, it has been 499 years. I’m wondering when the next rummage sale will take place and what we will seek to clean out of our closets and our hearts.

One of the items currently in the closet of Christianity which we will need to deal with somehow in the years to come is the inherent exclusive nature of the orthodox tradition. I think most of us have come to terms with some of this exclusivity, but the official Christian teaching is still very narrow and very exclusive. We don’t play well with others is another way of stating the obvious. In a world that grows smaller every day, Christianity simply cannot maintain a belief structure that it is the only true religion and the Christian God is the only true God.

I think it is safe to say that as Christians most of us believe that the earth and the universe and the people of the earth were all created by God. That means that the people of other faith traditions, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and all the others were also created by God. Who else would have created them? And if they are created by God, are they not perfect in the eyes of God, just as we are?

Do we currently have room in our closets for other faith traditions or do we need to clean them out a little first?

I happen to believe that it is inevitable that at some point in the future we will discover life on other planets. Mathematically, it is almost a certainty that life exists elsewhere in the universe. Actually the mathematical probabilities indicate that there are millions of planets that would have other forms of life on them. How will we handle that information when it comes along? Did God create that planet as well? What will that faith tradition look like? Will we have room in our closets for that new information?

I want to return now to the second text that I read at the beginning of this sermon. The Apostle Paul was visiting Athens and he noticed a lot of different idols around the city. When Paul addressed the Athenians about this, I think he was suggesting to them it was time for a rummage sale. There were a lot of things around the city, which to Paul, no longer had any relevance to a more recent and modern image of the Divine. Paul explained that this new Divine image was possibly what one altar had declared was the unknown God. But Paul went on; he said that we are all offspring of God, all of us, not just some of us and that God is the creator of all that is, the world, the universe and all the dwells in it. Paul goes on to explain that it is God that gives us life and breath; Paul poetically states that it is God in whom we live and move and have our being. Paul defines God as not being defined by objects of gold or silver, or an image formed by artists, but rather the very breath of life in all beings and all things.

Paul was saying to the Athenians, it is time to create a clean heart, it is time to make room for some new thoughts and new ideas about God, it is time to hold a rummage sale!

It’s been 2,000 years since Paul suggested that to the Athenians, and it has been 499 years since Martin Luther suggested that to the Roman Catholic Church. How much stuff can we collect in 500 years? I’m wondering if it is time again. And that is food for thought, Amen.

 

 9/11 Residual Fear

Text: John 10: 14-16

¹⁴ I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

Before we dive too far into this particular text, I want to offer a little background information about the text itself. When we read things in our New Testaments I think it is important for us to recognize a few things about the time it was written, who the author might have been and who the intended audience was. Only by considering these circumstances can you begin to grasp a clear picture of the context of a scripture and then you can consider an interpretation within that context. At least that is my approach.

Of the collection of writings that make up the New Testament, the letters of Paul are considered to be the oldest writings we have. These letters could have been written as recently as 20 or 25 years after the execution of Jesus. The letters are not arranged in our New Testament chronologically, they are actually arrange according to length – I’m not sure who made that decision or why, but that’s the way it is. Of the letters of Paul, if I remember correctly, First and Second Thessalonians may be the earliest of all the writings we have in the New Testament. If you go back and read those letters, I think you will find a very high eschatology-which is a fancy word that describes what people sometimes refer to as the second coming of Jesus.  In the very early days of Christianity, like 25 years after the execution of Jesus, people still felt like the return of Jesus could happen at any moment. This attitude is reflected in many of the letters of Paul.

Of the four Gospels in our New Testament, the earliest one is the Gospel of Mark-it was written sometime just before 70CE (common era) used to be AD, but someone decided that “After Death” and “Before Christ” were politically incorrect because they were uniquely Christian, so BC was changed to BCE, before the common era, and AD was changed to CE, which is common era.

But I digress. Mark was written around 70 CE, most Bible scholars date this Gospel at that time because Jerusalem is mentioned, but the destruction of Jerusalem is not. It is fairly well-known and accepted history that Rome destroyed Jerusalem in 70 CE.

Two of the other Gospels, Matthew and Luke, seem to have been written around the same time, which scholars believe to be around 90CE. There are a number of reasons for this date, but generally this is the accepted time frame for these two Gospels.

Then comes the Gospel of John, written perhaps as late as 125CE. I mention this because by the time John was writing his Gospel, the idea that Jesus would return at any moment had fallen out of vogue just a little bit. After all, three generations of Christians would have come and gone all expecting to see Jesus return and all had been a little disappointed. This is one of the things which gives the Gospel of John its unique perspective. The Gospel of John has no parables in it; rather it is a collection of narratives and dialogue that paint a very different picture of Jesus than what we see in the other three Gospels.  One other major difference is that John is no longer looking for a physical return of Jesus, but rather, at least I believe, takes the position that the return of Jesus, or the kingdom of God, has already taken place. Thus Jesus’ return is in a truly spiritual sense, and the major obstacle in our recognition of this return is our own blindness in spiritual matters.

I’m taking some time here for a lot of background information about John’s Gospel because I think it is important for us to know these things prior to thinking about this text. Because John’s Gospel is spiritual in nature, it is also very metaphorical. This demands that we look beyond any literal interpretation of a text in John and seek an underlying metaphorical or allegorical intention behind the words that were written.

That being said, I want to look again at this text because it is so interesting. There are two key ingredients in this tiny text that I think are very important for us to recognize. The first, which is the more obvious, is that Jesus is saying that his ministry and his accompanying spiritual presence has a broader target market than originally thought. In a historical context, that usually means the ministry is expanded to include Gentiles as well as Jews. But if we attempt to move this text into the 21^st century, it can take on a much greater meaning. In fact, it can include the whole world.

The second key ingredient that I think is significant is the part of the text where Jesus says that the other sheep will listen to his voice. There is an implication here that implies the sheep of Jesus’ home pasture did not listen to his voice. Of course, that can be taken any number of ways, but the historical context would indicate that often those closest to Jesus in terms of religious tradition were the hardest of hearing and those more removed from Jesus were more likely to listen to his voice.

Again, if you take the metaphor and bring it forward into the 21^st century, who would be the home sheep of Jesus’ pasture and who would be the other? In my mind, the home pasture is no longer ancient Judaism, but rather Christianity. This begs the question; are we responding to the voice of the shepherd? In a 21^st century reading, the other sheep may be people of other faith traditions, immigrants, or persons that we classify as other for any variety of reasons. Is it possible that the others among us are actually listening to the voice of Jesus with greater clarity than the home sheep Christians? In many cases, I’m sad to say, I believe that is the case.

15 years ago today this country awoke to the news of a terrible act of violence and terrorism on an unprecedented scale. We spent the day watching TV coverage of an unfolding drama that defied belief; it seemed our entire world was unraveling right before our eyes. 15 years ago we had a unique opportunity to hear and listen to the voice of Jesus. With the eyes of the entire world fixed upon us, we had the choice to listen or not to listen; we had the choice of how to respond and what example we would set for decades to come.

It doesn’t take a Bible scholar to know that the voice of the good shepherd, the voice of Jesus, tells us to love our neighbors, to pray for our enemies and to bless those who persecute you. It doesn’t take a Bible scholar to understand what “blessed are the peacemakers” means, or that the entire message and ministry of Jesus was summed up by Jesus with two simple commands; love God and love your neighbor.

Not just the neighbor that looks like you. Not just the neighbor that believes all the same things you do. Not just the neighbor that is the same color as you or goes to the same church as you. No. We are to love our neighbor universally; we are to love the neighbor that inhabits the same planet we do, or perhaps even the same universe. Love your neighbor.

Love your neighbor with the kind of love that brings freedom and not oppression.

Love your neighbor with the kind of love that brings peace and not war.

Love your neighbor with a love that brings hope to the hopeless, comfort to the anguished and transformation to a world filled with hate. Love your neighbor with a love that breaks down walls of oppression, with a love that reaches across barriers of race or tradition. Love your neighbor without regard to who your neighbor is, for to listen to the voice of Jesus, to hear the good shepherd, means simply to love unconditionally.

15 years ago we had the opportunity to listen to the voice of the good shepherd; but we did not hear. We heard only hate and fear of the other; we heard only about retaliation and revenge. We invaded and waged war.  And in many ways, we still are. Fear of the other still casts a long shadow over how we choose to react and respond. The residual fear of 9/11 I think grows stronger as we feed it.

Let me leave you with just one other thought. A little known text found in First John, 4:18 says that perfect love casts out all fear.  Can we strive for perfect love? Can we cast out all fear? Can we hear the voice of the Good Shepherd?

I’m not sure, but we can try. Real change begins with just one person and that one person could be you. And that is food for thought. Amen.

“Labor Day Reflections”

Text: Luke 4: 16-19

 

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

 

I don’t know how many of you have ever had the experience of having a job where your job description is held over you like a ton of bricks. I know I have been in situations where the review process involves a re-reading of the job description and then a following evaluation of all the points that you have either forgotten about or have not had the time to get to. In my opinion, job descriptions, although often necessary, can also be a real drag-and they can be easily abused or misused. But of all the job descriptions that have been written over the ages, how would you like to have this

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s

Not only is it a little ambiguous, but it is also a bit of a tall order. Proclaim release to the captives? Really? What does that look like exactly? Recovery of sight to the blind? Good luck with that one. You get the picture.

As my theological perspective has evolved over the years many things have been modified, but one thing has remained fairly consistent and that is I have always considered this text to be a rather concise and accurate description of the ministry of Jesus. This was his job description; and from most accounts, he did it fairly well. But that was Jesus, not us; and that was then and not now.

Even though there is actually only one scriptural reference to Jesus being a carpenter, the accepted tradition is that Jesus was employed as a carpenter prior to beginning his ministry. I have often wondered what that transition was like. Did he lay down his tools after that day in the temple and decide he was starting something new? Did he just walk away? Was the transition a slow, painful process where Jesus had trouble letting go of his identity as a carpenter? I wonder how he decided that his teaching ministry held more weight than his career as a carpenter?

As we celebrate Labor Day tomorrow and honor the American worker, it occurs to me how complex this topic really is. What we do is so intricately woven into who we think we are that I believe it is worth thinking about. There are positive aspects of this and not so positive aspects. It can inspire us but also bring us down. Clarity of thought around this particular topic I think is imperative to a healthy self image and a healthy outlook on life. But it can be challenging.

Many of you know there was a time not that long ago that for a variety of reasons I found myself in-between churches. This was a tough time. I was unemployed for a time and then seriously under-employed, at least that is how I thought of it at the time. Because of the circumstances, we had moved back to the Denver area and even had to live with one of the kids for a time until we became a little more self-sufficient. If you remember, the economy had tanked and jobs were scarce. It took a long time for me to find a position with JCPenney where I went around to people’s homes and installed drapes and blinds. I suppose it could have been fun in different circumstances, but the management style and a number of other things made the job less than stellar. But I needed a job, so that’s what I did.

I knew that during those few months when I was working as an installer for Penney’s that wasn’t who I was. In spite of that knowledge, it was still hard for me to maintain my same level of positive outlook and enthusiasm for life that I had prior to the economic crash. During this time there was another installer who had been with the company, doing essentially the same kind of work for 20 years and he was happy as a clam. This experience taught me that external circumstances, while very real, still do not have the power to make you happy or unhappy, external circumstances do not have the power to make you feel good or bad, motivated or unmotivated, worthwhile or worthless. All of those feelings are up to you; it’s just easier to blame the circumstances.

Now this story has a bit of an ironic and humorous ending. If you fast forward about another year, we have pretty much given up on Denver and had moved back to the northwest, but I was still looking for meaningful employment. It was at that time I landed the job with Habitat for Humanity that actually brought Heidi and I to the LC Valley. As part of my orientation for this new position with Habitat one of the experiences they thought would be useful is for me to spend a day volunteering at a job site. So my third day on the job, I am at a job site in Clarkston, but the house is almost finished. The work to be done is mostly finish details; touch-up painting, cleaning up the exterior, putting finishing touches on light fixtures or plumbing fixtures, you get the idea. So I show up, with my tool belt, ready to have a volunteer experience and gain some insight about my new position.

I find the construction coordinator and ask the question; what would you like me to do? He then asks me if I thought I could put up the blinds in the bedrooms, because everybody hates that job and often it isn’t done very well. I told him I would be happy to do that and not to worry, they would be installed correctly.

So there I am, third day in a new job that I was sooo excited about, hanging blinds. I couldn’t believe it. I started to laugh at myself because I found the entire episode simply hilarious. Once again, I was taught in another interesting way, how external circumstances really don’t control your disposition. How you choose to look at things actually controls your disposition.

I wanted to share with you an excerpt from a poem by Robert Frost that has always been a favorite of mine. The poem is called “Two Tramps in Mud Time” and it has many layers of meaning around the ideas of meaningful and fulfilling work. But it is the last stanza that really sparks a fire within me; the words resonate with me because for a long time I felt the same way. Here are those words:

 

My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future’s sakes.

How wonderful it is when you love what you do and you find it to be meaningful and fulfilling work. But I also know from experience that often it is not the work, it is the mental awareness around the work that makes the difference. I love photography, but when photography became work, like it did at times when I worked for an advertising agency, it lost its appeal. As Robert Frost said, the work was no longer play.

Frederick Buencher also has an interesting perspective as he has written in his book “Wishful Thinking, A Theological ABC”: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

I believe this may be a better description of that serendipity when it feels like everything just comes together; that is the melding of your personal gladness, that thing that you love is combined with a deep need or hunger in the world. But this statement is not necessarily tied to occupation, the place where God calls you can be a place of personal reflection, a place of volunteerism, a place of relationship or a place of leadership – but it doesn’t necessarily have to be what you do to make a living.

As we reflect upon our own lives and careers and livelihoods, I think it is important for us to recognize how what we do can become intricately woven with who we are. This can be a good thing, but it can also be a dangerous thing; it can be good because sometimes what we do impacts the world and helps other people. It can be dangerous in the sense that often what we do is temporary and it can easily go away. If we secure our identities in the temporary, ultimately we will be disappointed. If we secure our identities in the relationships and the needs of the world we help meet, we can experience a long lasting sense of meaningful and fulfilling contributions regardless of how we choose to pay the bills.

And that, of course, is food for thought. Go in peace.

Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

“Finding Peace – Part 5″

Text: 2 Corinthians 5: 17-18

¹⁷ So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

Today is our fifth and final Sunday in our sermon series about peace. We have visited about a number of different perspectives and interpretations around the idea of peace. Today, I’m hoping to bring together some of the diverse concepts we have been thinking about with regard to peace and perhaps construct a single idea or understanding that encompasses all we have talked about over the past four weeks.

Last week in particular we began to explore what it meant to live into the concept of becoming the peace we seek. We watched a movie clip that I think demonstrated in dramatic fashion what it means to become peace; and I defined that further for you as putting yourself in the path of someone else’s pain. But I also think it is important for us to realize that peace means making peace with what is, without necessarily changing the external circumstances which created the non-peace. We must seek peace internally first, and then bring our internal peace to the external world.

The text which I read a few minutes ago speaks of a ministry of reconciliation. I believe that may be our highest calling-to bring peace and reconciliation to our world. This is where the synthesis of ideas begins to come together; because our own personal internal peace eventually can translate into a world peace which encompasses the entire planet. But it has to happen in the right order; in other words, I don’t think we can accomplish world peace without first establishing personal peace within the hearts and minds of individuals. It is difficult to engage in a ministry of reconciliation if your internal world is still in chaos. So I believe we must seek peace on a personal level first and then allow that peace to spread to the entire world through what Paul called the ministry of reconciliation, or what we could identify as simply the ministry of peace.

I happen to think this is really easier than most of us realize; but we have to be willing to actually do it. We can accomplish world peace in a relatively brief span of time; but only if we experience peace internally on a personal level first, and then share that peace with others. It is the sharing that is the key ingredient as we work for world peace, but it is also the key ingredient in what Paul calls the ministry of reconciliation. We must share the peace.

More years ago than I care to actually mention, I wanted to earn some spending money so I suggested to my dad that I could wash the car. I thought one dollar sounded about right for the job, so that is what I suggested. If I remember right, I was maybe 11 or 12 years old at this time. My dad, being the physics professor and mathematician that he was, saw a teaching opportunity and wanted to take advantage of it. My dad suggested that I plan on washing the car on a regular basis, say for example, every week of the coming summer and into the fall, for perhaps a total of 20 washings. Then he made the following offer; my dad suggested that I get paid one cent for the first washing, and then he would double the amount paid for each subsequent washing. Of course, I was only 11 or 12 and knew nothing of geometric progressions or logarithmic equations. I stopped to think about the offer and tried to calculate in my head what he was actually talking about. My mind went something like one cent, two cents, four cents, 8 cents, 16 cents…forget this, I’ll take a dollar per wash. My dad agreed, but then told me I might want to actually figure that out someday.

I think I was a senior in high school when the subject came up again; someone said something about if you double a penny every day for just a month you have millions of dollars. I didn’t believe it, so I figured it out one night at the kitchen table with a bowl of popcorn. Wow, it is pretty amazing. Take a look at what happens-many of you have probably heard this before, but it is worth reviewing again.

As you can see in this first slide, the first nine days not much happens – and this is about as far as my 12-year old brain could see into the future. The next nine days things begin to get interesting, because on the 18^th day the doubling has already turned into over $1300. But hold on to your hats…

In just four days, the number jumps from a little over $2600, to almost $21,000. The next four days are even more incredible. We jump from about $42,000 on day 23, to $335,000 by day 26. The next two days take us over the one million dollar mark, with 1.3 million on day 26, and then to 5.3 million by day 28, and we get all the way to almost 21.5 million dollars by day 30.

I mention this simply because what works with pennies also works with people. If one person adopts the ministry of reconciliation, and passes it on to another, and then those two get two more, and so on, pretty soon millions of people are living a life of peace. We could accomplish world peace in short order, if we are willing to adopt the ministry of reconciliation for ourselves and then share our peace with others.

But most of us don’t do that, do we? It really is a choice and it is often a hard choice.

Last week I spent some time down in the Boise area and noticed the speed limit on the Interstate highway going towards Twin Falls was 80 MPH. That just seemed odd to me; to see those signs with the 80MPH posted on the sign post. For me, 80MPH was always taboo, it was what you said when you wanted to exaggerate something. You would be describing a reckless driver and exclaim; “he must have been doing about 80 when he came around the corner.” 80 was kind of the default exaggerated position of the extreme – and it felt odd to see it as the accepted law of the land.  I told Heidi that there should be signs underneath the speed limit signs that say something like; “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

I think that is something good for us to remember almost all the time; just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. Have you ever heard anyone describe a situation where they were justifiably angry, perhaps bad service in a restaurant or a hotel, and then say rather proudly that they gave that manager a piece of their mind? Have you heard these comments? I really unloaded on that guy, or I told them in no uncertain terms what I thought about that…

We all have the opportunity to get angry. Often we can justify the anger because of the situation. But just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. It is still a choice. I guess I have come almost full circle since our first sermon in this series where I asked the question; “do you want to win or do you want peace?” To live a life of peace, to accept the responsibility of the ministry of reconciliation, may mean for us that we choose peace over a justifiable anger, it may mean we choose peace over being right and it may mean that we choose peace over winning.

Some of you may have noticed our Peace Pole on your way in this morning. The International Peace Pole is part of an international organization dedicated to the idea of peace and dedicated to actively praying for peace. The headquarters of this organization is located in upstate New York, and they have placed so many peace poles, they claim to have lost count. Estimates are in excess of 200,000 peace poles have been erected by individuals, corporations and organizations all dedicated to the ideal of peace. There are peace poles in almost every country all over the planet.

I thought as a conclusion to our series on peace, it would be appropriate for us to commit to praying for peace and living into the ideal of peace; at least to the greatest extent that we can, as difficult as it is. After our closing hymn we will gather outside at our International Peace Pole for a brief dedication ceremony.

 

“Finding Peace” – part 4

Text: Romans 15: 5 – May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus.

As you are probably aware, we have been involved for the last few weeks on a sermon series around the idea of peace. I have introduced to you some thoughts and ideas about this topic, asking an important question, for example, “do you want to win, or do you want peace?” We have talked about the text where Jesus claims to offer us peace, but then reminds us that he gives us peace, not as the world gives – and we have explored some ideas around that concept as well. In general, I think it is safe to say that we have discovered that often the world gives an illusion of peace and Jesus offers the real deal. Last week I spoke some about our own egos and how the ego can create a constant feeling of insecurity or lack that creates a gap in our thinking between what is and what we think we want. This constant feeling of lack creates anxiety and frustration which is the lack of peace.

Today, I want to get a little more proactive. It’s one thing to talk about finding peace and to theorize about some of the ways we might find peace, but it is another thing altogether to actually go do it. Today I want to offer some ideas on concrete, tangible things we can do to find peace.

A few months ago, as you might remember, I had total knee replacement surgery. Before the surgery I met with the surgeon and his assistant and they showed me an actual model of the kind of new knee I was going to receive. They explained how it worked, let me play with it for a few minutes and then they even gave me a brochure that extolled all the wonderful virtues of this new knee. I may still have that brochure somewhere, but I’m not sure.

Shortly after surgery and I mean very shortly, I began physical therapy. There were a couple of exercises designed to maintain and increase the flexibility of my new knee. Some of these exercises were not my favorite thing; as a matter of fact it hurt like crazy. I remember thinking during one of my physical therapy appointments that “this wasn’t in the brochure”!

When we begin to think about peace, sometimes the specifics are not necessarily in the brochure. Even when they are, the meaning can be ambiguous and we need to unpack the meaning at times to gain a clear picture of what that really looks like for us today in the 21^st century. For example, the brochure tells us in the text I read a few minutes ago, to live in harmony with one another. That sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Live in harmony why should that be

It’s not difficult until we are challenged at a personal level. That is we are given a choice to choose harmony over our own personal preference. Let me say that again; it is not difficult until we have to choose harmony over our own personal

Let me see if I can explain this idea in greater detail. For some reason I am not a very adventuresome eater; truth be told, there are some foods that actually scare me. I don’t like special sauces, or strong spices, I don’t like ketchup or mustard or relish or onions or pretty much anything like that on my hamburger for example. I like the meat and the cheese and the bun – and that’s it. When I order a burger in a restaurant or a fast food place, I have to be very specific about how I want my burger. Even though I have been very specific, quite often, the burger shows up with something unexpected on it. This frustration has been with me my entire

It would be very easy to get really upset at the wait staff, for example, when my burger arrives at the table with the chef’s surprise sauce all over it. Even though I want it corrected, I still have a choice to choose harmony over my preference at that time. My preference may be to let all the years of frustration out on one poor server and come completely unglued; but generally, I don’t do that. Rather, I choose to remain calm and explain as nicely as I can that I really need a new

Now I recognize that this isn’t really a big deal. It is just a hamburger after all. If I had to get through the evening without eating anything, I would still survive and perhaps even be better off for the experience. But I bring this up in this way because it represents something that I do think is important. What is important is the idea that if we can learn to choose harmony in the trivial matters, it becomes easier to choose harmony when the stakes are higher. In other words, if we can learn to choose harmony when someone steals our parking place or when the person in front of us at the express check-out lane obviously can’t count to 10 or the person at the DMV couldn’t possibly take any longer-if we can learn to choose harmony in those situations, then when it really matters, it becomes

A few years ago there was a movie released called “We Were Soldiers” and it was about the Vietnam War, you may remember seeing it advertised. At one point in the movie something happens which I think is a powerful example of what I am talking about. At the risk of needing to offer a spoiler alert, I want to tell you about what I see happening in this scene before we actually watch it. That way, you can watch for it as well and recognize it when it takes

The first thing I want you to watch for is the choice that is made. Our main character in this scene chooses harmony, even though her first reaction was to be upset. The second thing I want you to watch for is how her actions bring peace. I believe it is Gandhi that is credited with saying you must become the change you want to see in the world; and I believe the same thing is true about peace. You must become the peace you seek in the world. The third thing I want you to watch for is the peace which is offered, doesn’t fix the situation, it only helps to make peace with what is. That relates directly to what we were exploring last week; the concept of making peace with what

Let’s watch the clip from the movie “We Were

I think this is a powerful example of what it looks like to become the peace you seek in the world. I think this is a powerful example of the proactive nature of the prayer of St. Francis, where the prayer speaks of sowing love and understanding and asking God to make us an instrument of God’s peace. These women were instruments of God’s peace. I think it is also critical for us to understand that the brave actions of the two women in our movie clip were not trying to fix anything; they could not bring the fallen husbands back to life. Rather, their ministry was around trying to make peace with what

I wanted to close today with just one more look at the Prayer of St. Francis. I think you may experience this prayer a little differently and look at it through new eyes and find new meaning in the words. Will you join me now in the Prayer of St. Francis?

“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

 

 

“Finding Peace – Part 3”

Text: Romans 12: 9-18

 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰ love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. ¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. ¹⁷ Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

 

There is a lot of good stuff in this text, but the one part of this text that I want to pay particular attention to is the part that says for us to not claim to be wiser than we are.

While Heidi and I were raising our three boys we were always grateful that they seemed to almost always get along-and that continues to this day; all three of them are very close. I do remember one brief squabble that didn’t amount to anything, but I wanted to tell the story.

It was a Saturday morning and often in the relaxed schedule of a week-end morning, I would take the time to make pancakes for breakfast. I wasn’t very good at flipping pancakes with precision, so I normally fried them one at a time in our largest frying pan. This usually meant that the pancakes were consumed one at a time as well.

While I was preparing the first pancake a little bit of a squabble broke out between Matthew, our oldest and Jacob our middle son. Zachary, the youngest, was there, but in a high chair and fairly unaware of what was going on. The squabble seemed to be about who was going to get the first pancake and there was a difference in memory as to who received the first pancake last time.

Seeing an opportunity for a lesson, I stepped in and told the boys that if Jesus were here he would simply say; “let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.” To which Matthew immediately replied; “OK, Jacob, you be Jesus!”

I think of this story every once in awhile when I start feeling like I handled a situation smartly or showed wisdom in some way. The text which I read a few minutes ago reminded me of it again; “do not claim to be wiser than you are.”

We all know people who claim to be wiser than they are. I think we all know people who like to think of themselves as good Christians, but seem to ignore much of this advice in Romans as well. One of the things that I think makes this so difficult for us is that many of us do not understand and we underestimate the power of our own ego. The ego which dwells in each of us is a powerful and crafty force. It shows up in ways that we would never consider being ego, until it is pointed out to us in some way.

One of the best teachers on our egoic minds, I think, is Eckhart Tolle. He has written two books that help us deal with the subject, the first one is called “The Power of Now” and his follow-up book is “A New Earth”. I would recommend both books as being foundational reading if you want to begin to understand your own ego.

So why am I talking so much about ego in a sermon that is supposed to be about peace?

You may not realize this yet, but your lack of peace can almost always be traced back to your ego. If you can learn to overcome your ego, then the prospects for personal peace become much greater. But what I’m talking about here is not a grand “I am the greatest” kind of ego. The ego which creates anxiety or worry or the lack of peace is much craftier than what many of us realize. This also fits with the theme of our last two weeks, because the ego tells us one thing, which his of the world and Jesus offers an example of peace that is given not as the world gives.

I can’t possibly summarize all the information that is contained in these two books about our egos in a 15 or 20 minute sermon. I have been studying these two books for nearly a decade and have not yet absorbed all they have to offer. But I can get you started.

Our egos will tend to create a feeling of lack within us; often it is our ego that points out there is a gap between what we want and what actually is. It is this constant gap, this constant state of never enough, or not quite right, or things could be better that create within us an almost constant stream of anguish, anxiety, upset and pain. Almost everything we do in life, most of our activities, are ultimately designed to help alleviate these anxieties, to alleviate the fears created by the ego which constantly create feelings of insecurity.

The only way to experience peace in the sense of what Jesus was talking about is to awaken to the truth of who you are. You are not what you do, you are not the degrees you hold, you are not your possessions, and you are not how much money you have in the bank or what talents you may have; you are not any of those things. You are a child of God. As a child of God, your worth never changes based on your outside circumstances. Your ego always wants you to focus on the outside circumstances and when you do, anxiety is the result.

Let me put this another way. The world offers us the illusion of peace when we cover up our ego based insecurities with a new possession or a new relationship or a new job or a new “you” because we lost the weight or finally got in shape at the gym. But all of these things are temporary and it won’t be long before anything new becomes old and the sense of non-peace returns.

I have several favorite subjects that I love to photograph. One such subject is the many old barns you see as you travel across the country. Heidi and I found this one on our way to Elk River a few weeks ago. It may be one of the reasons I like to photograph old barns is that it reminds me of how temporary everything is. Can you imagine this barn as a new structure? Can you see the pride of ownership in the farmer’s face? Can you hear the farmer’s ego telling the farmer that now that he has a new barn, all his troubles are over? Can you hear the ego saying that it is the best barn in the county?

The new barn almost certainly provided some temporary peace for the farmer who built it. We can’t know all the reasons he felt he had to have this new barn, but we can know that this structure no matter how grand, eventually falls. All things of this world eventually fail; so why do we spend our entire lives in pursuit of such things? Because our egos tell us that we need it to change what is. If we would simply make peace with what is, then our peace would be lasting and not fleeting. Once you realize that all worldly pursuits are ultimately unstable, there is a peace that arises within you. This is the peace which Jesus gives, this is the peace which the world cannot give.

The barn will come down. But that doesn’t change who you are. The recognition that your sense of self can be linked to something higher than what your ego tells you is the beginning of enlightenment and the beginning of peace.

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid.

Amen.