Mar 22, 2020               Faith and Blindness                                                     

Our story from John this morning, continues his theme of using different ways to describe the difference between life in the Spirit and life lived according to the flesh. In Chapter three of John, we heard the story of Nicodemus being told that he had to be born of anew, not in the flesh but in the Spirit. In Chapter 5 we heard the story of Jesus speaking about the difference between the living water that satisfies thirst, versus the water of the well that people with thirst for again. This morning we hear the story of the man who was born blind from birth regaining his sight, and the Pharisees who have sight being blind.

Actually, it’s a pretty interesting story, because the Pharisees are bound and determined to deny that Jesus could be from God. First of all Jesus is a sinner because he heals on the Sabbath, second of all they deny the man was born blind in the first place, then they threaten to put the man’s parents out of the local synagogue if they say that Jesus healed him, and finally they threaten and expel the man from the synagogue for testifying to Jesus as the Messiah.

At the same time, we see the man who was born blind come to the realization that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus has healed him of his blindness and questions how a sinner could make this happen. He questions the Pharisees about why they don’t believe in Jesus. He asks them if they want to become disciples of Jesus. And finally, he comes to Jesus and receives Jesus words that he is the Messiah and becomes his disciple. This is the moment of the man’s salvation, the moment he is born from above, when he drinks from the living water that is Jesus Christ, and spiritually regains his sight.

At our local text study, one of my colleagues told me about Richard Rohr’s Three Boxes. Richard Rohr is a Franciscan priest who works at the Center for Action and Contemplation. Now this is just one of the ways I have heard this described since Seminary, but Richard Rohr states it quite simply. The first box is the box of order, where our view of reality fits what we experience. The second box is the box of disorder, where our view of reality does not fit our experience. The third box is the box of reordering, where we change our view of reality to coincide with the experiences that do not fit.

Actually the last two weeks has been kind of an example of how this three box theory works. For most Americans, including myself, we didn’t believe that the corona virus was much more than just another flu and didn’t understand what kind of danger it posed. This was box 1 – maintaining our order. The second box was the growing numbers in the US, the effects of the virus going unchecked in Italy, and the number of deaths world wide. This was box number two – the disorder of experience that contradicted our order. Finally, we investigated, learned more, listened to those on the front lines, and reordered our thinking in a way that has led us to change our behavior in order to deal with this threat to us. This is box number 3 – reordering our view of reality to fit the experience we were having.

Now in the case of the man born blind, we see this order, disorder and reorder take place quite plainly, but in the case of the Pharisees, we see them clinging to their order and refusing to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. This refusal results in false statements, threats against others, division, anger, confusion, and ultimately Jesus death. As John said previously in his gospel, only those born from above, can enter the kingdom of heaven, and the Pharisees are still living according to the flesh, or in this case, they are blind.

A few weeks ago, when we started our Lenten study of the ten commandments, I noted that the first commandment was that we shall have no other gods before God. I also noted that the God who spoke these words was a very specific God. A God who freed the Israelites from the household (excesses) of Egypt, and freed the Israelites from slavery. We then had a discussion of what some of those other gods were. Some the gods on that list included, money, power, politics, nationalism, and a list of pleasures that can be gods to us. Many people today worship these gods, and this worship of other gods leads to disorder and chaos in human life. In the case of the Pharisees, they worship the gods of their own personal morality, and the gods of their own religious traditions. They claim to worship the God of Israel, but what they really worship is themselves, their power, their interpretations of God’s law. They know that acknowledging Jesus as the Son of God, would end this, and thus their guilt and blindness remain.

When we do this today, we create human division, suffering, sin and death in the lives of others. When we worship money, there is poverty. When we worship power there is abuse. When we worship politics there is division. When we worship our nation there are persecutions of foreigners. When we worship a variety of pleasures, there is apathy towards the suffering of others.
But the good news is, that through faith in Jesus as the Messiah, our Lord and Savior, the Son of God, we can reorder the chaos of our lives, and realize the kingdom of God in our lives, our nation, and our world. All we need to do is be born from above, drink the living water, see with the eyes of faith. Believe that as disciples of Jesus Christ we can reorder our reality, and our lives, so that we know God’s presence and salvation among us. And that is the Good News of Jesus Christ! Amen.   

Mar 15, 2020               Discipleship                                  

Last week at the Prairie Association Committee on Ministry meeting, some of our members had a discussion about coaching. It seems the Illinois Conference got a large grant to become a coaching conference, and they were discussing how helpful of how unhelpful this was to them. Now I haven’t really heard much about this until last week, but as they talked about their coaches, I began to understand that what they were talking about were life coaches.

A life coach, in case you didn’t know, doesn’t come up with ideas for our lives, but instead asks us what ideas we have for living, and then helps us to implement them in our lives. This means coaching us to clear up the clutter of our lives that keeps us from achieving our goals, overcome the obstacles we or others put in our way, and encourages us to find ways to reach our goals.

Now I remembered this conversation, as I was reading the commentaries on our gospel lesson this morning. It seems Samaritan woman at the well, was in need of a life coach. She had been married 5 times, and it just hadn’t worked out for her. In fact, Jesus even says that the man she is married to now, isn’t really a husband to her. In a way it seems that she keeps trying to find happiness, but somehow it just isn’t working out for her, things keep getting messed up, and somehow fall apart.

And so this morning, Jesus offers her living water, a way for her to find peace and happiness in her life, through faith in Jesus Christ. Now I think that Jesus is a whole lot more than a life coach, but for those who believe in him, he can function in that way. Jesus teaches us to face the challenges of our lives, to suffer life’s hardships and bear the burdens of one another ways that lead us to overcome our divisions/problems, and find peace in our lives. But more than that, Jesus opens our eyes to God’s will and way for us, to the love and blessings that God daily rains down upon us, and helps us to become the people God made us to be. For in that, there is true peace and happiness for our lives. And that is the Good News of Jesus Christ.   

Mar 8, 2020                 Flesh and Spirit                                  

In his book, “Mere Christianity”, the evangelist C.S. Lewis writes a story about a man standing on the bank of a lake. There he sees a man  in the lake drowning. Now Lewis says that the man has three choices. The first is he can walk away and let the man drown. But for his example, Lewis says, what if that is not an option, maybe there are people watching from afar. What should the man do? The answer is to jump in and try to save the drowning man. But why should the man do this?

According to Lewis there might be two motivations. The first motivation may be a sense of empathy, compassion, self- sacrifice, a willingness for the man to risk himself to save the other. The second motivation may be to avoid the shame of being seen by others as not helping, as not making the effort, of being a coward. The first motivation comes from inside the person, about who he is, what his values are, how he will think of himself. The second motivation comes from outside himself, how others will see him, what they will think of him,

Lewis says that both motivations will move the men to jump in and try to save the man. But only one of these motivations is based on faith.

This morning, Nicodemus comes to Jesus under the cover of darkness, seeking to find out who Jesus is. And between them they have a very curious conversation about being born of the flesh, and being born of the spirit. In the light of our reading from Romans this morning about Abraham’s righteousness coming from his faith in the God who could bring forth life form his dying body, rather than from his adherence to the law, we can see that this conversation is not some much about flesh and spirit, and salvation according to the law, or salvation through the Spirit of God that comes to us through faith in Jesus Christ.

In the terms of my story from C. S. Lewis this morning. The Pharisees faith in the law, is like the man who is motivated by what others might think of him. He believes that if he fulfills the law in the sight of others, that he will be justified and saved. The person who is truly righteous is the man who acts not on a stage before others, but seeks to rescue the drowning man, simply because he or she cares, has compassion, and seeks to realize the sort of person that God made them to be, even if by the way, they don’t know who God is or never heard of Jesus Christ. But that is a discussion for another time.

Anyway, all of this came tumbling into my head this last Thursday, as we were discussing the gospel reading at the Committee on Ministry meeting at DeKalb. The secretary of the prairie association Julie Grendahl shared that she was an adult Sunday School teacher, and her concern about it, was that she wasn’t sure how she could know that she was born of the Spirit, or if others were born of the Spirit, or if she was just one of those people born of the law, or morality or human goodness. In short was she saved, and how could she know, or how could she describe it for her students.

And so, of course, I told her the story from C. S. Lewis, and we talked about how, through faith in Jesus Christ, we can discern what our motivations are. Do we act based on the law, and the condemnation of the world, or do we act based on a Spirit of compassion and genuine concern for others, a self-lessness that risks and suffers ourselves for others. These are the marks of faith in Jesus Christ, and life in the Spirit of God. And through this faith, there is salvation for our lives, and for the world. That is the Good News of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Mar 1, 2020                     Temptation                                

         In our gospel lesson this morning, we find the three temptations of Jesus. This lesson is most appropriate for the beginning of the season of lent. Lent is a season of discipline, of turning from our worldly ways, and seeking to grow in our relationship with God and one another. The lesson tells us that that was exactly what Jesus was doing, as he was wandering and fasting in the wilderness. And at the end of that time, when Jesus is at his weakest, that is when Satan comes to test him.

         The first temptation is this,…“If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” For those in the Jewish tradition, this temptation recalls the Israelites in the wilderness crying out for bread and God giving them the manna. Actually, they were crying out for more than bread, what they wanted was to return to Egypt where they had their boiling pots and all kinds of meat and food to eat.

         In the wilderness, God teaches the Israelites, that there is more to life than things, more to life than food, more to life than our experiences, more to life than satisfying our hungers, whatever they may be. This reminds me of the prophet Isaiah’s famous quote, “Why spend money on bread that does not satisfy? Trust in the Lord, and you shall be satisfied.” Or Matthew’s teaching later on in the gospel, “Why worry about what you will eat, or drink, or wear, trust in God to provide all these things.”

         As I have probably mentioned numerous times before, we are awash in a consumer society. Every radio station and television program has up to 20 minutes an hour of ads telling us how our lives will be better and more complete if we buy something. Lent is a season for us to recognize when we are living solely to consume the bread of this world, and seek instead a spiritual life, that trusts in and is devoted to God. For the promise is, we will have all these things, plus something better – life in the Spirit of God.

         The second temptation is this,  Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

         You have often heard me lament the way in which politicians and businesses take God’s name in vain for their own purposes. And even more than that, I regularly run into people who have confused their politics with their religious faith, and that’s the kind way of putting. The temptation in the garden of Eden, was to be like God, knowing Good and Evil. At least our own brand of Good and Evil. As fleshly creatures, we all want to be God - to have and to use God’s power for our own and to have others acknowledge that God is with us, God is on our side. It gives us power over one another. 

         But Jesus knew, that a faith based on a show of power was a corruption of faith. He knew that faith based on a spectacle would fail us. He knew that tempting God, would end in disaster. Lent is a season for us to observe the way in which Jesus went about his ministry, and to see how in weakness, he triumphed over evil, and was raised to life. In his life, we are shown the glory and the power of God, to overcome the powers of sin and death in our own lives. And despite our weakness, God will be there for us.  

         The third temptation was this,… Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.  “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written; Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only’”

         In college, I took a class in social movements. And one of the exercises divided us up into rulers, soldiers, and peasants. We were all given monopoly money, and the rulers told the soldiers to go collect taxes from the peasants.

As peasants we were told to change that dynamic. So we decided to not give taxes to the soldiers, and to revolt, but what we did not know, until we became the rulers, is that we had expenses that we had to pay for, so we sent the soldiers out to collect taxes. The point of the exercise was that nothing had changed except the players.

         And that is the what Satan is hoping that Jesus would do. He was hoping that Jesus would worship the system of power and exploitation of the world, and become just another king and kingdom under Satan’s power. The only way to break this endless cycle of violence is to recognize it, and we have been given a powerful symbol of how to do that in the life, death, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Who emptied himself and became a servant, and who in weakness, won the victory over the powers of sin and death. And that is the Good News of Jesus Christ! 

Feb 23, 2020                         Glory                                                   

Her name was Rev. Dr. Sheldon Culver. She was an intern at St. Paul UCC in Belleville, IL when I was in junior high. And one of her jobs at St. Paul’s was to organize and run the youth group. Of course, I was in the youth group, and as a pastor’s kid, I didn’t make her job easy. She went on to pastor a church in East St. Louis, Il, a tough place to do ministry. After 10 years she got her doctorate, and proceeded to work with the Missouri Conference, Illinois Conference, and Illinois South Conference as a mediator to resolve differences between churches and conferences. A number of times she was called to be an interim conference or association minister. Finally, she was called to be the Conference minister for the Illinois South Conference, and served in that role for the last 10 years of her ministry.

About three years ago, she retired, and to celebrate that, the conference had a wonderful celebration, recalling her years of service, inviting people from the churches and conferences she had served to come and speak about her, they had a lavish dinner, and a slide show. It was a glorious moment, and a wonderful evening for all. Bur for me, who knew her for 40 some years, this wasn’t the moment of her glory. That moment came on a Wednesday night, just three days before.

The week before last, I spoke about Pelagius, and how his followers replaced the crucified Christ with an image of their own moral perfection. Well, that heresy still happens today, and three years ago, it was happening at one our churches in the Illinois South Conference. As a member of the Church and Ministry Committee, I was there that evening to observe, and for an hour and a half, Rev. Dr. Culver answered questions from the church members, In that hour she listen to their concerns, she witnessed to her faith, and she proclaimed the gospel. She spoke the truth in love to a people who heard it, who rejected it, and some who even mocked her for speaking it.

This was the moment of her glory, not unlike that of Jesus glory on the cross.

This morning we see one of the moments of Jesus glory. There are actually four of them. The first three are Jesus Baptism, Jesus Transfiguration, and Jesus Resurrection, but the fourth is revealed to us in the gospel of John, Jesus passion and death on a cross. Good Friday is good, because it is the moment of Jesus victory over the powers of sin and death. Jesus words “It is finished” is a cry of victory to remind us that Jesus finished his task successfully. And after the disciples see the shining moment of glory on the mountain, of Jesus speaking with Elijah and Moses, they head down the mountain. Not to the glory they saw on the mountain, but to the glory of Jesus passion. From this moment on, Jesus is headed to the cross, and through the next six weeks of lent, we are headed towards Easter.

Now the reason I thought of Rev. Dr. Sheldon Culver’s glory, is because I believe all of us have moments of glory. Moments where we celebrate births, weddings, anniversaries, and funerals. Moments when we look back on our lives and remember the love, the life, the characteristics we admire of those we know and love. We live in a world where people are not just good or bad, we live in a world where we are all a little of both. Those moments where we rise above our fleshly lives and act in the Spirit of God, are the moments of our glory. The moments when we live not solely for ourselves but for others, are the moments of our glory. Now we don’t always win those moments, sometimes, we even know we are going to lose before them, but it doesn’t stop us from saying what we need to say, or doing what we need to do.

And I’ve noticed, that people remember those moments, appreciate them, and admire them. Those moments become the foundation of all those wonderful memories that are recalled at our celebrations, remembering who our loved ones were, and how they loved us and cared for others, above and beyond themselves. Every time I do a funeral, these are the moments I look for, that we can celebrate, and there are always there, all I have to do is let people talk about them. Those are the moments of Christian glory, where we are united with the Christ who allowed himself to be crucified, in order to fulfill God’s purpose, and save us from the powers of sin and death.  

Now I realize that our first inclination as human beings, is to live according to the flesh, and that our actions are almost always a mixture of self-interest and self-lessness. But I don’t think we always appreciate the importance of each and every act of self-lessness that we practice in human life. It is the glue that holds us all together, and the spirit that gives life to us in the face of death, and helps us to overcome the power of sin in human life. And so, Lent is a season in which we are to focus on the glory of those hard things that Jesus did for us, and to learn to do those hard things in our lives, so that we may overcome sin and death in our lives. That is the promise offered to those who believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that is the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Feb 16, 2020                  The Law and the Spirit                          

This past Valentine’s day, both Kris and I had to work, so when I got home Thursday night, I watched one of the great romance stories of all time, “The Princess Bride”. For those who have not seen the princess bride, it is the story of about a princess, princess Buttercup, and her servant, a stable boy named Wesley. Throughout the early part of the movie, the princess enjoys bossing around her servant Wesley, telling him to do all kinds of extra tasks, waiting to see if he will disobey her, but all Wesley will say is, “As you Wish”. In time, Buttercup comes to realize that what Wesley means by, “As you Wish”, is “I love you”.

In Matthew’s gospel lesson this morning, we continue to read from Jesus Sermon on the Mount. In this sermon, it seems that Jesus is asking us to do more than remember what God said, he seems to ask us to seek to understand what God meant.

Now I have preached on God’s commandment to keep the Sabbath day, and I have pointed out that while many believe this commandment is about taking a day off from work, it is really about taking a day off from all the things that consume our lives. Taking a day to love our neighbor as, or even more than ourselves.

I have also preached on God’s commandment to honor thy father and thy mother, so that your days in the land may be long. I have pointed out that this means more than doing whatever mother and father command, but instead calls us to honor their sacrifices for us, and listen to what they learned from life, their experiences, and the consequences of their actions – so that we may avoid them and live a long and prosperous life.

This morning Jesus reminds us what God said about murder, and then calls us to understand what God meant. God didn’t just mean the act of murder, but also murderous intent. When we act towards other as if we wish they were dead, seeking vengeance against them, rejoicing in their failures and problems, or even just not caring for them when they are in need. In addition to this, when we do have enemies, we are called to quickly seek peace with them, lest our division escalate and the people and judges of this world, rule against us.

Part of the gospel lesson this morning that I did not read, was about divorce. Jesus reminds the people that Moses allowed for men to write certificates of divorce. And Jesus makes it clear that this was entirely about male lust, lust for other women, and lust for divorced women. The reason I didn’t read the passage is that so many divorced people blame themselves for spousal abuse, infidelity, and betrayal. That misses the point of Jesus teaching. Jesus calls us not to be doormats, or to be abused, but for our motivation to be about living in a relationship of mutual respect and trust, and working through our disagreements with love. I don’t know of any marriage that lives up to that ideal, but I know many where people keep trying, and some where it would be better for them to separate. Not advocating divorce, advocating a healthy marriage.

Finally, Jesus speaks about the commandment against taking the Lord’s name in vain. It is about more than honoring the vows we have made in God’s name. Indeed, we often see people using God’s name to further their own interests or agenda. The purpose of a vow in God’s name, is supposed to be that we are telling the truth. So Jesus basically says, you don’t need to make a vow, just tell the truth. Yes if Yes, and No if No. Anything else is trying to use God’s name for our own purposes.

In short, the Pharisees have made the law a means of power and control. We have Pharisees today who try to do the same thing. But the goal of the Law is to point out sin in the world, so that we may steer clear of it, or as Paul says, as a guide. The law does not save, only through the Spirit of Jesus Christ, is the law fulfilled, through Jesus grace, forgiveness, and steadfast love in our lives. And that is the Good News of Jesus Christ. Amen.  

Feb 9,2020                     Salt and Light                                   

It was the same old argument, the same one I’ve heard dozens of times, and this time it was about churches in the Illinois Conference. I was at a meeting for the Illinois Conference, and one of the members of the group thought it would be nice to share some Good News. For the first time in years, there was actually an increase, not only in the number of churches that gave to OCWM, but in the amount of OCWM for the whole conference. And instead of rejoicing in this Good News, what followed was a number of comments about churches that hadn’t contributed. How they should be given some kind of secondary status, or admonished for not contributing, after all, the rest of us were carrying them. Aaaaaarrrrgghh!

As I was driving home for the meeting, I was thinking about the knot in my stomach and about our gospel lesson for this morning. And I thought hey folks! We are supposed to be salt and light! Complaining about others, punishing other for their sins, saying they are worthless, or that we should treat them as second class citizens is the way of the world, the way of sin and death. That way is the way of the Pharisees, and unless our righteous exceeds that of the Pharisees, than we shall surely die as a conference, and God’s kingdom will not be established among us.

Our gospel lesson this morning continues Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. Last week, Jesus gave us the beatitudes, in which he spoke about the reversal of fortune for those who believed in the kingdom of God. And in this week’s lesson, he encourages his followers to be salt and light, in order that this kingdom might come into being among us.

Now for the Jewish people, to whom Jesus was preaching, there were many who wondered if Jesus wasn’t preaching some new religion. The Jewish religion believed that in following the law, they would bring about God’s kingdom among them. Jesus statement that he has not come to abolish the law or prophets, but to fulfill them, makes it very clear that Jesus is not preaching a new religion. But Jesus is saying, that something is missing, and that something is the Spirit of God.

Jesus concludes this section of his sermon by saying that unless the righteousness of his followers exceeds that of the Pharisees, that the kingdom of God will not come into being. As I am sure you have heard many times, the Pharisees were a political group that advocated keeping the law as the path to God’s salvation. The problem was, as Justo pointed out, that path left them plenty of room to look down upon those sinners around them, and justify their not helping, not caring, not loving those who had gone astray.

I guess what I want to say this morning, is that God’s law is not the problem. As the psalmist says, it is perfection, guiding us in the living of our lives, and will indeed lead us to God’s kingdom. But there is something missing, the Holy Spirit. That a worldly spirit turns into something as a judgement over others. Jesus proclaims instead the Spirit of God, which calls us to waste our time, to challenge ourselves, to love not the sin, but the sinner. To hope and believe that with God’s love, all things are possible. After all, while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Or to better personalize it, while we were sinners, Christ died for me. How could we do any less for those sinners we meet in our lives. For that is the path to salvation, and the Good News of Jesus Christ. Amen.