September 24                        Lost and Found                                                 

         In the parking lot of Immanuel UCC in East St. Louis, a group of people meet each day, hoping to have the opportunity to work. Each day during the week, farmers come by with their pickups looking for farmhands to help them. Inside the church, there is a daycare for the workers children. It’s their mission to the community.

         As I read this weeks gospel lesson, I tried to imagine the worker’s experience in the reading, and I tried to think about what it would be to be one of those workers, waiting, hoping for work.

         It’s 5:30 am, and your standing in a parking lot with two dozen other workers, wondering if you there will be enough work for everyone, wondering if you will be one of the lucky one’s chosen. Lucky enough to earn a day’s pay, $80 to pay the rent, keep the electric on, buy food for your family, take care of your children. One farmer shows, then two, and another, one of them knows you, and signals for you to come to work. Today you will make earn money, you feel good, you feel grace.

         Around 10 am, you take your first break of the day, cool refreshing water a cinnamon roll in your lunch bag from the day before. The temperature is 85 degrees, it’s gonna be a hot day, but your making money. You see that the farmer has brought additional workers to the field. One of them in Juan, who hasn’t worked in two days, your happy for him, he just became a father again and needs the money. And you again have that feeling, of grace.

         At 1 pm, it’s time for a siesta, the work will start again at 4 pm. You sit under a tree beside the fields with your coworkers, some talk, others play cards, most eat the rest of what’s in their lunch bags. Sandwich, chips, veggies, packed by the church. It’s in the nineties, but in the shade it’s in the 80’s and there is just enough breeze to make you feel comfortable. Grace

          Work starts again at 4 pm, and you notice that the farmer has gone back one more time for workers, they must have been really desperate for work to hang around the church lot so long. But at least they will make something, maybe just enough for food the next day. There it is again, that feeling of Grace.

         It’s 7 pm, time to get paid, the farmer calls the workers up, starting with the last hired, they walk away with smiles on their faces, the next group, the one with juan in it, gets paid, he comes up the line and shows you $80 a full day’s pay! You wonder what you will get, $100 or more. You get to the front of the line, and the farmer hands you, $80, you walk away stunned. It’s unfair, you say, my work has been diminished, see if I work for that so and so again. As you walk away, you notice that you have lost something, something you had all day long, that sense of Grace.

         

         Now I have heard this gospel quoted as a justification for employers paying what they want. I have heard this gospel quoted by workers to point out the injustice of employers. I have heard this gospel quoted by people who say God is the farmer, but I wonder how God could be so unjust. And then, a few years ago, I read this story and noted, that Jesus doesn’t say that the parable is about God, Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like…   

          You see, in the kingdom of heaven, there are people who come early and people who come late, all are paid the same, all receive salvation. Those who come early, know God’s grace in their lives, and are given life an strength by it. They are the fortunate one’s who get to be a part of God’s plan their whole lives. Those who come later, have been lost and anxious for part of their lives, but now they have found their way. Those who come latest, God has had the least impact on their lives, perhaps they have come to God, because their mistakes have piled up so heavily upon them. But all receive God’s grace. And God is not fooled, only those who come to believe, who come to work, are paid.

          I often have people question me about death bed confessions, and salvation, just like this story, I wonder if that doesn’t say more about their faith, than about the faith of the person they are questioning. Like the worker from my story above, believe in God’s love for you, believe in God’s grace towards you, be happy for those who come later to work, and be happy for those who have struggled their whole lives, but at last found God’s grace in their lives. If you can do this, than you truly believe, and God’s grace will never be taken from you, and that’s the good news of Jesus Christ!

September 19, 2017     Forgive as You Have Been Forgiven                                                      

         Our gospel lesson this morning begins with Peter asking Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?”  

         I love how Peter offers an answer before Jesus has a chance to respond, it reminds me of the numerous times a church member where I served asked me how often they were supposed to forgive someone, sometimes they don’t really ask me as much as tell me – I only give someone one, or two, or three chances before I  give up on them – and then look out if they ever cross me again. That’s reasonable, isn’t it? Sound familiar?

         Jesus answer on the other hand, sounds quite unreasonable, not seven times, seventy times seven. Now I’ve read some sermons where preachers have said that Jesus gives such a ridiculous number to point out that we should always be forgiving, and that counting times we forgive others really isn’t forgiveness, cause when we reach our limit, it’s back to our good ole worldly vengeful ways.

         And while I would agree with that, I think Jesus is also pointing to something else with his answer, something that the rest of our lesson is about. You see, Jesus answer recalls the story of Lamech. After Cain killed Able, vengeance and violence grows among human beings. At one point, one of Cain’s descendants, Lamech brags about killing 7 men because someone struck him, and that if someone killed one of his own he would avenge himself 70 times upon them. So in his answer, I think Jesus is telling Peter, and his disciples, that through forgiving others, they are reversing the curse of violence and vengeance started by Cain’s murder, and Lamech’s retribution. And then, Jesus tells them a story, about only forgiving people so far.

         In the story, a man owes 10,000 talents, we all know talents are a gold measurement, and 10,000 of them might amount to 1 billion dollars today, the point is that there is no way the man could pay the king back, and so he begs for mercy, and the King, thinking about the pointlessness of putting the man in prison, forgives the debt.

         Now you might think that this would change a person, but of course you know the story the man goes out and runs into someone who owes him 100 denari, not a particularly large debt, but pretty much for the average person - say $4-5,000 today. He demands the money, and when he doesn’t get it, he has the man tossed in jail. Of course, the king finds out about it, and decides to pursue the original debt, which interestingly enough, involves torture. Eeeeeek!

         Two things strike me about this story. The first is that we could see in this story, God who has forgiven a multitude of our sins in Jesus Christ, and so we should show mercy to others as God has shown mercy to us. But that’s not how it happens, people who have been shown mercy, so often seem to forget mercy when it comes to others. Remember that 7 times comment by Peter…. Or that three chances thing I mentioned before.

Even those who believe themselves to be Christians, often put people off, and even their children off, by praising God’s forgiveness of us, and then not practicing it towards others. The usual excuse goes like this, you can only turn the other cheek so many times. But practicing forgiveness, doesn’t mean allowing yourself to be abused, and it doesn’t mean one cannot seek justice, it simply means not living by the worldly ways of vengeance and retribution. 

         And the other thing that strikes me, is that age old adage, What comes around, goes around. Meaning that if we continue in the never ending cycle of vengeance and retribution, it will eventually come back to torture us, and will do so unendingly. This warning Jesus gives us, reminds us, how desperately we need salvation from the endless torture of this world. Yes, I think Jesus story says there are very real consequences for our not practicing forgiveness in our lives. Real consequences for our lives if we do not actively model forgiveness for others in an unforgiving world.

      Vengeance and violence poison our hearts and our minds, it poisons our relationship with God and with others. It poison’s our world with hardship and suffering. Think of the many times in your life when you have faced a vengeful person, or indeed how your own vengeance upon another went to far, and hurt you or even someone you loved. I can think of two occasions, where parishoners allowed vengeance to poison their relationship with their church, where they accused others in the church of doing things, they never did, or were never present to do. Vengeance is indeed one of the most powerful spirits that destroy people’s lives.  But the Good News is, that forgiveness has the power to overcome vengeance, and to end the grip of sin and death it places upon our lives, and that is the Good News of Jesus Christ. Amen.

September 12, 2017          Church Order and Discipline                                                 

         Once upon a time there was an indian tribe living on a reservation in South Dakota. One day, some men from an oil company showed up and asked if they could do some tests and take some samples. A few weeks later they sent the tribe’s leader, a letter saying that they had found oil on the reservation and wanted to set up a meeting to negotiate a contract to take it out of the ground. The leader wrote back, that the oil company would have to meet with the tribal council in order to get permission to do this, then they could negotiate.

         On the day of the meeting, six lawyers from the oil company showed up to argue their case before the tribal council. They were welcomed and invited to a clearing where they found the tribe gathered in a large circle, with the tribe’s elderly and children gathered in the center. The spokesman for the lawyers turned to the tribal leader an asked, when will the tribal council arrive? And the tribal leader replied, they are already here – when it comes to making a decision that affects the whole tribe, we make up council of the weakest and the wisest among us, for when the rights of the least and last are secured than the decision will be in the best interests of the whole tribe.

         I thought of this story because of the readings in the 18^th Chapter of Matthew. The chapter begins with 14 verses about who are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and Jesus sets before them a child, and goes on to tell his followers that they are not to lead them astray, not to let them get lost, and certainly not to take advantage of them.

         Now in our modern day, where there is a fair amount of child worship. Where we are ready to spare any expense to see that our children and grandchildren have it all. Where some people allow their children to make immature decisions that are destructive to their lives. We have kind of a skewed vision of what Jesus is saying.

In fact, while Jesus sets before his disciples a child, he says, that the little ones who are the greatest are those who humble themselves like children. So he is not actually talking about children at all – but those without power in society, those who are the weakest, those who are the least and the last. It is the responsibility of the Christian community to be a place where these little ones are safeguarded against the worldly powers that would seek to exploit them. Hence, my story this morning of the Indian tribe and the Oil Company.

As for how Christians should conduct themselves when they have disagreements with one another, I have another story.

In Jerseyville, a local dentist, and leader of his political party, came to the local clergy group, wanting us to bless his political opinion over a local judge. In short, he wanted us to endorse his plan to call the April county holiday, the Good Friday holiday. Now, Good Friday is Good Friday, whether the state says so or not. But that really wasn’t his agenda. The dentist had been going to a number of groups trying to smear his opponent as un-christian.

So we asked this dentist, had he gone and talked to his opponent. Why no! he replied, we aren’t on speaking terms!  “Well, the leader of our clergy group said, Jesus gives us some pretty specific directions on how we are to conduct ourselves in disagreements. And the first step is to go to each other and discuss our differences.  To which the dentist replied, Well this isn’t about Jesus, it’s about politics! You can probably guess that we didn’t give him what he wanted.

My point is, that when we have disagreements in our lives, many of us play politics. We go around to involve people in our arguments, to get them on our side, and to force our opinions on others. Jesus tells us to first go to the person, who has sinned against us, and discuss it with them. If we disagree, only then are we told to go find someone who both persons respect and invite them to sit down with them and listen to our disagreement. And only when this does not resolve the matter, it goes to the church – and by church, Jesus does not mean the general public – but the leadership of the church. Who will keep the matter confidential, so that it does not divide or destroy the community of faith, or give the church a black eye in the community. You see, in the Christian community, it’s not about power, or winning or losing, it’s about what is in the best interest of the people involved and the community of faith!

Our gospel lesson concludes with Jesus talking about where two or three are gathered in my name. And in our Epistle lesson, Paul talks about putting on the LORD Jesus. After 25 years of serving congregations, I can tell that there is a huge difference between people who believe Jesus is their LORD, and people who believe they are their own LORD. Churches where individuals believe they are LORD are full of politics, bully, and strife. They are losing members, and everyone in town knows not to go to them. Churches were Jesus is LORD are filled with peace, they are places of healing, when members have disagreements there is a process for reconciliation, and they do not allow individual to tear them apart from one another.  

Now in the 4 months that I have been at Union Congregational, I have observed that the members of this church believe that Jesus is LORD! And that is a wonderful thing! And it is the Good News of Jesus Christ. 

September 5, 2017                       I Am, Who I Am

       Once upon a time there was a young woman who went to see a woman friend play soccer in a big tournament being held at her university. When the game was over, as she waited for her friend to get dressed, so they could go out for dinner with some friends, she noticed something beside a trash can at the refreshment stand. She bent down to look and there was a wallet. When she opened the wallet, she found that there were hundreds of dollars in it. Without thinking, she took the wallet to the soccer field office and turned it in.

       Afterwards, at a restaurant, she told her friend and the rest of the group about finding the wallet and turning it in. To her great surprise, they all told her she should have taken the money, and left the wallet behind. “No one would know” they said, and then she would have all that money. But all the young woman could say to them, was that she would know, and that to do something like that is not who I am. Well as you might imagine, they all gave her a rough time about that, and by the end of the night, she seriously questioned her choice in friends.

       As you know, most places that receive money in lost an found wait a week before giving the money to a person who turned it in. About 2 days before the week was up, the young woman received a phone call from the field office, telling her that someone had claimed the wallet, but would like to meet the person who had turned it in. It seemed that the couple who lost the wallet had come down for the weekend to see their child play in the tournament. They had not been able to come to any of their daughter’s games, and this was the only time in four years that they had enough money to come and see her. The couple was so grateful that the money had been returned, that they left $100 for the young woman. Just because of who she was, and she felt good about that.  

       I know that was a very simple story. But for many people, who we are is very important to us. It’s important that we are good mothers, fathers, partners, parents, friends, and citizens. It is important that we are honest, just, faithful, forgiving, loving, understanding, and compassionate. Who we are is the foundation of our sense of self, and who we are informs the ways in which we act and live our lives.

       The reason I bring this up this morning is because of our reading of the Old testament lesson this morning. There on the mountain Moses stands before the bush and asks God’ name. God’s answer is that is name is  “I am who I am”  in short, the Israelites used the letters from this statement to name God Yahweh. With this statement God tells Moses that God is not bound by the human ideas that result in idol worship. God is God’s own self, and is free from human interpretations.

       Yet at the same time, through the history of Israel, we are given a very good outline of who God is. God is faithful to those who believe in God. God is a blessing to the lives who trust in God. God cares about the weak and powerless. God brings down the greedy and the unjust. God shows mercy and forgiveness to those who are repentant. God is concerned with his chosen people, but is always ready to reach out to others and invite them into the fold. God does not operate through the force of arms, but by the power of the spirit. God is ready to bring back sinners, and nothing can separate us from God’s love.

        And the same is true for those who believe in God. Both Abraham and Jesus us I am statements. Whatever happened around them, whatever hardships or cruelty they faced, these events did not force them to be someone or something different than who they were. The image of faithfulness, love, light and life, that was the image of God shining in them. Even when Peter, tried to make Jesus afraid to go to Jerusalem, to face the cross, and to do God’s will. Jesus stopped him – get behind me satan. Jesus would not allow fear, or anything else to keep him from who he was, and from doing the will of the Great I Am.

       Which brings me to my final thought. We live in a world swirling with fear, confusion, anger, temptations, and trials. Some people give in to these spirits in their lives, and then often blame others for having made them do whatever it is they have done wrong. But as Christians, followers of the God Yahweh – I am who I am. We do not have the luxury of blaming others, we are who we are, it’s up to each of us. But the Good news is, that when we are who we are, and who we are is the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ, then the spirits of this world will no longer control us, and we will have the peace of life in God’s presence forever. In this life, and in the next. And that’s the good news of Jesus Christ. 

August 20, 2017                   Merciful to All
                                                                                                     

         Every once in a while, when I am introduced to someone, they look at me and say, “So you’re a pastor?!” When they say that, I get the definite perception that they are the kind of people who hold clergy in rather low regard. So I answer, “Yes, I am a pastor, but not that kind of pastor.” Which of course, prompts the question, “What do you mean by that?” And my answer is, “that I am not a pastor who preaches judgment and punishment, I am a pastor who preaches grace and mercy.”

         And then I tell them the story of a young woman who approached me in a bar. She worked there as a cocktail waitress, and overheard my conversation with a parishioner who had taken me out to lunch. After he left, she came up to me and asked if I was a minister. And so I told her, yes, but not that kind of minister. And after explained what I meant, she told me that she was a single mother who had been addicted to drugs. She told me that she had done a number of things in her life that she was ashamed of, and wondered if my church would be willing to accept someone like herself.

Of course, I told her yes, my church would be more than willing to accept someone who had been through all of her troubles, and be willing to support and encourage her to continue to walk in faith. And she smiled and told me that in two other churches she had attended, they had found out about her past, and she had been shunned and felt pushed out of the church.

         This woman came to our church, and found welcome and acceptance in the congregation, and eventually became a much loved member of our congregation for her work to start a young women’s group, singing with the choir, and work on the Christian Education board.

         I thought of Marcie, that was the name of the young woman, because of our story about the Canaanite woman in our gospel lesson this morning. Canaanites were another group that were considered enemies of the Jews. They did not live by the law of Moses, they ate unclean foods, they practice idolatrous customs. In fact, the reason this story is included by Matthew in this chapter, is that Jesus has just got done, saying that how well you follow the law, what you eat, and what you have done in the past is not what God judges you on. It is what you are willing to do in your life based on faith in Jesus Christ.

         Like the Canaanite woman, Marcie knew the God of grace that Jesus proclaimed, she asked once, twice, three times. She did not give up, because she believed that this God of grace would do something for her. And so, when she appealed to what Jesus had just said, that it was the faith that a person had, rather than what they ate or what they had done that made them acceptable to God, Jesus recognized her faith, and did what she most wanted, healed her child.

         Now in 25 years of preaching, I have found many people in the communities I have served, who believe in this God of Grace.  Many of them, when they went to some other churches, heard a message of judgement and condemnation.  In the congregations I have served, I have also noticed that there are people who struggle with the God of judgment in the Old Testament, and the God of Grace revealed in Jesus Christ. In this struggle they find themselves unable to receive God’s forgiveness, and so they hold onto the past, and the sins of the past that control them.  Now some might say I am preaching two different God’s, but that is not true. The God of the Old Testament is a God of justice, gracious, mercy and forgiveness. However, the stiff necked Israelites, because of their sin, only perceived God’s wrath. While the Patriarchs, Psalmists, and Prophets, all recognized God’s goodness, graciousness and blessings. The God of Grace has been there in both testaments, and for all who are willing to acknowledge that grace, there is forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting.  

         One final note, this events of this past week in Charlotesville Virginia were very disturbing for many people. What most disturbed me was a young man, who  was part of the white supremacist group, who was talking about being a Christian. It is difficult to believe, but I have heard a number of White supremacists use their Christian faith to justify their beliefs. They think of other races as mud people, or less than human. This belief about other peoples, cultures and races, is inferred by them from Israel’s being a chosen people, and by their worship of the God on the mountain, full of fire, fury, and wrath. But in Jesus Christ, the God of Israel is revealed to be the God of compassion and grace. This is the God who suffered death on the mountain of Calvary, so that all our human divisions might be overcome. And in this chapter of Matthew, and in this story of the Canaanite woman, Jesus makes it clear that faith in God’s love and grace is what makes us children of God, and that faith brings God’s blessing in our lives. A blessing of peace not violence, of unity not division, of life not death. And that’s the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen.