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.

Feb 2, 2020          Wisdom/Foolishness                                         

This morning, I would like to tell you about a Scottish theologian named Pelagian. Pelagian believed that God had given us the church in order to perfect humankind. And Pelagian believed that by making men and women moral, that that would achieve God’s purpose. Now a group of Pelagian’s followers decided to put his theology into practice. First of all they got rid of their priests, who didn’t meet up with their standards, and then they encouraged all the parishes in their diocese to do the same. Finally, they got rid of their bishop, and found one that more lived up to their ideals. At this, the followers of Pelagian rejoiced, they announced themselves free of the Catholic church, and set about to make all the men and women in their parish more moral people.

Problem is, that within 40 years, all of the churches who had left the Catholic church at that time, had given up on Pelagianism and had returned to the Catholic church. Writing at the time, St. Augustine gave his reason why this happened, because the followers of Pelagian had replaced the crucified Christ as the head of the church, with an image of their own moral purity. Under these conditions, they no longer had any good news to preach to those who were broken, hurting, or lost. All they had was condemnation, division and death.

The reason I am bringing this up this week is because of our reading from 1 Corinthians this morning. A lot of the problem the Corinthians are having is about some members putting themselves above other members, and some members judging the worthiness of other members to participate in the life of the church. And to those members who are making these distinctions, Paul preaches Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Gentiles. What? What does that mean?

In case I haven’t said it before, Jesus Christ is a stumbling block to the Jews because he was denounced as a blashphemer and cursed for being hung on a tree – the cross. So, how could a righteous Jew, the keeper of God’s moral law, follow such a sinner. And Jesus Christ is foolishness to the Gentiles, because he was a loser – he stood up to Rome and got crucified for it – it would be foolishness to follow someone like him. In saying these things about Jesus, Paul is trying to tell the Corinthians that in playing these moral games, in playing the games of winners and losers, that they are sowing divisions among themselves, which in the light of Jesus Christ is true sin and true foolishness.

Now I have preached many times on our gospel lesson this morning, often going through each one of the beatitudes in order to understand them better, but in light of Paul’s speech to the Corinthians this morning, this time I will take a general approach to them. In general the beatitudes speak of the blessedness of suffering the broken condition of humankind. Blessedness, because in the coming of Jesus Christ, in the coming of God’s kingdom, these people who are sinners and losers in the world, will know forgiveness and grace. They will obtain mercy, they will be comforted, they will find peace, they will be satisfied, they will see God. This is the same reversal of fortune that we find in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, for those who believe in Jesus Christ.

And there are two very important things to remember about this. First that through faith in Jesus Christ, we shall receive God’s grace and mercy, and second, we are called to offer that grace and mercy to all who are sinners and losers in this world. For in the wisdom of God, that is the path to all human salvation, and that is the Good News of Jesus Christ! 

Jan 26, 2020            Discipleship                                                

Our gospel reading last week was from the gospel of John. In it, we heard about the beginning of Jesus ministry as John proclaimed him the “Lamb of God” and John’s disciples left John to follow Jesus. When John’s disciples asked Jesus, where he was staying, Jesus replied, “Come and you will see.”

As I thought about this passage from last week, I thought about what it was the disciples would come and see by staying with Jesus. They would come and see someone who ate and drank with sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes. They would come and see a Jewish rabbi who spoke with, and associated with gentiles - strangers, and foreigners. They would come and see someone who dared to touch lepers, who healed the sick, the lame, the blind. They would come and see someone who fed the hungry and gave water to the thirsty. They would come and see someone who cast out demons – healing those who suffered from mental and emotional diseases. They would come and see Jesus create a community of disciples whose lives were not built upon the flesh, but upon the spirit. In short, by following Jesus, they would come and see how God intended the world to be, how our lives should be, rather than the world as it was.

Our gospel reading from Matthew takes a different tack. While it is still about Jesus calling disciples, Matthew drags up the image of the lives of those living in Zebulun and Naphtali. As I noted in my introduction to the gospel lesson, Zebulun and Naphtali, were two regions of Israel bordered by Assyria. These regions were repeatedly over run by conquerors who took their crops, and lives. They were treated as foreigners, strangers, and worthless by their oppressors. Being a citizen of Zebulun or Naphtali was as bad a human existence as you could get in the Old Testament. Matthew uses that image to suggest that under the rule of Rome, things had gotten that bad for the people of Israel. So bad, that when Jesus starts to call disciples, to fish for people, they are ready to drop their nets and follow him.

Now many of us may say, “What does this have to do with us? We live a wonderful life in the greatest nation on earth, we don’t have things near as bad as those people from Zebulun and Naphtali.” And perhaps you are right, but we still have our oppressors in the world today. We are oppressed by banks, mortgages, and credit card companies. We are oppressed by health insurance, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies.  We are oppressed by financial markets, oil speculators, and housing crises. We are oppressed by political leaders, who care very little for justice, and very much about power. We are oppressed by our fears of foreigners, immigrants, and strangers. We are oppressed by agism, sexism, racism, and all the other isms. We are oppressed by our fears, our angers, and our sense of human righteousness. Just like any other time in human history, we are oppressed by the powers of sin and death, whatever form they may take. And in the midst of that oppression, our attitudes, beliefs and behaviors can become twisted, and we become less than what we could be, who God made us to be.

And so, Jesus call to those disciples in the gospel to follow him, is a call to us as well. And Jesus call for us to come and see, is a call to us as well. We are called to come and see what life would be like if we followed Jesus. If we cared about the poor, fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, found shelter for the homeless, gave comfort to the sick, the orphan, and the widow or widower. We are called to come and be a part of a community of disciples who do not worship money, or power, or other human idols – but instead worship God. We are called to be a part of a community of people that welcome those who are strangers, who speak out on behalf of those treated unjustly, who care about what happens to immigrants, who are willing to walk with those who are struggling in life, and encourage them to get better. We are called to be a part of a community of people who live without fear or favor, who give of themselves freely, without thought of praise or reward, and we are called to invite people to come and see, to dwell with us, and discover how that could make a difference in their lives.

Now as in many of my sermons, people might get the idea that I am tone deaf to all that you are already doing for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am not. I see your discipleship in the way you are with one another. Imperfect as we all are, you indeed each have moments where your faith in Jesus Christ shines, where you function as disciples, and as the community of disciples that is the church of Jesus Christ. And lest you forget, there are thousands of churches throughout this great nation and beyond, that are all working for the same thing. You are not alone! So I encourage you to continue to grow in your faith in Jesus Christ, and grow in your service to bring God’s kingdom into the midst of the world and the lives of others.

That’s who we are called to be as disciples of Jesus Christ, that is who we are called to be as Christ’s church, and that is the Good News of Jesus Christ. Amen.  

Jan 12, 2020                   Like a Dove                                                 

If you were with us last week, you would have heard me talk about the ancestors of Jesus. Among those ancestors, some were good, some not so good, some bad, some very bad. At the conclusion of that sermon, I tried to note a couple of things. First, that despite the all the bad people in the world and throughout history, God still worked through them for Jesus to be born into the world. Good News! Second, that despite our bad moments, our mistakes, our failures, our sins, God still works through us, for Christ to be present in the world.  More Good News! And finally, I noted that there was a world of difference between those who live mostly for themselves, and those who choose to live a life in communion with God, in the spirit of God. Really Good News! And that is where we come to our gospel lesson this morning, because in our gospel lesson this morning, we are going to get a number of clues as to what that Spirit looks like.

This morning Jesus comes to John to be baptized, and in Matthew’s gospel, John objects, because John knows himself to be a sinner and recognizes Jesus to be without sin. But Jesus tells him, that Jesus needs to be baptized by John to fulfill all righteousness. Now some commentators talk about Jesus humility, but I would rather like to think that Jesus allows himself to be baptized by someone who is a sinner – because it reveals the power of God to work through those circumstances to  can send the Holy Spirit into the world.

One of my colleagues at our Somonauk lectionary group picked up on that theme, and spoke about how Jesus intentionally chooses to come with the sinners to the Jordan river, which was a rather dirty river, and be baptized. The message he got was that the Spirit of God is not just found in temples, synagogues and churches, but can be found, indeed is most powerfully seen, in those unscrubbed places in the world, in the midst of sinners, in the midst of the world.

The biggest clue, of course to the Holy Spirit is the form that it takes when Jesus is baptized, and that form is a dove. For anyone who has read the bible, in the Old testament, God’s Holy Spirit comes in the form of fire. The burning bush, the pillar of flame, the fire on the mountain of Horeb, the anger of the Lord that causes the temple to smolder and smoke in Isaiah, the fire called down by Elijah to consume the prophets of Baal. John the Baptist himself speaks about the Holy Spirit coming as a fire to burn the chaff that are those who are set against God.

But of course, in the baptism of Jesus, that Spirit descends like a dove and alights upon him. Oh, I am not saying that the spirit of God does not consume with fire those who are set against God, their spirits are indeed anxious, fearful, and troubled, but in the gospels we see the good news of the spirit alighting on those who are faithful to God, and the peace and joy it can bring to their lives. It’s not a different God, but it’s a new way of looking at God, that we have been given in Jesus Christ. Roman’s 5:5, if you like proof texts, says it this way, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, which has been given to us,..” Anyway, I think that is what we should take away from the baptism of Jesus.

         Now this morning, in our children’s sermon, I told the story of the boy who moved to a new school and was asked to introduce himself. And when he came to the part about what his mother did for a living, he said she was a minister ordained, and the next kid introduced himself and said his father was a hardware clerk ordained, and the next and the next.

        The point of the story, as I told the kids was to think about what it would mean if all of us, were ordained not just to our jobs, but also in our faith. What would it mean if we all saw ourselves as ministers of the Christian faith? Because I think that’s the message of the gospel for all of us, sinners though we might be, we are called not to keep ourselves separate from sin and suffering, high above and far away, but ministering to those who are sinners, in the midst of the living of our lives.

        And I think most of you get this point. Not just through your attendance at church, you contributing to it’s support, but through your fellowship and work, through your missions, and mostly in your lives. You are minister’s ordained to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, offer you coat if you have two. You are minister’s ordained who realize that you are called to save lives, rather than condemn them. You are all minister’s ordained, on whom the Holy Spirit alights, and who know the peace and joy of your Baptism into Jesus Christ. And that is Good News!

Jan. 5, 2020                 God With Us                                               

On New Year’s this year, I spent the day talking on the phone with each of my four sisters, catching up on what has been going on in their lives, and sharing what is going on in mine. One of my sisters, Elizabeth, told me that she has been doing genetic research on our family history. Now that might sound impressive, but what that means is she got one of those 23 & me, kits from Target and sent in a saliva sample and they sent the results to her. And, since she is the keeper of our family history, she encouraged me to get one of those kits, because I am the boy in the family, and I carry the only y chromosome, etc. etc. etc.

Now I am kind of skeptical about this whole genetic testing stuff, not because I don’t believe in the science, but I am skeptical of the people who produce the results. They may send back to me results that tell me I am descended from Russian Czars, or German princes, Genghis Kahn, George Washington, or the first Dali lama. Of course, I will do the test for my sister, but I really don’t need to know who I was descended from. All I need is my faith that whoever my ancestors were, good or bad, God was at work in their lives.

And that’s where we come to our reading from the gospel this morning. In our gospel lesson, we read Matthew’s geneology of Jesus Christ. Now in Matthew’s day, geneologies were used by kings as propaganda to justify their own authority. So they were always a list of men, no women involved, and they were always these great men, who did nothing but good, and etc., etc., etc.

But Matthew’s geneology is a little different, and to illustrate this point, I thought it would be fun to reread Matthew’s geneology interactively. My first card says, “Hooray!” for the people who are spoken well of in the bible, “Booo!” for the people who did bad things, and “Who??” for the people we don’t know a lot about. So let’s get to it.   

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Hooray! Isaac the father of Jacob, Hooray! Jacob the father of Judah! Hooray!  Judah the father of Perez by Tamar. Booo!  Tamar was Judah’s daughter in law and when her husband died, Judah refused to give his other son to her in marriage, so she dressed up as a prostitute, and lured Judah into a brothel in order to blackmail him. Oh, to be clear we are booing Judah, not Tamar, who was in on throwing Joseph into a pit, and other assorted slaughters. Perez the father of Hezron, Hooray!  Hezron the father of Aram, Who??  Bible doesn’t say much about Aram son of Hezron. Aram the father of Aminadab, “Boo!! Aminadab was an earthly person who didn’t believe in God. Aminadab the father of Nahshon, Who??, Again, not much in the bible about Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, Hooray! and Salmon the father of Boaz Hooray! by Rahab, Who??  Rahab was the prostitute who hid the spies of Israel in Jericho. Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, Hooray! Boaz was a good guy, and we all know the story of Ruth, a foreigner who believed in God. I think of her as the female Abraham. So let’s get an extra Hooray for Ruth! Hooray! Obed the father of Jesse, Hooray!  Jesse the father of King David. Hooray!

David the father of Solomon, by Uriah’s wife.  Booo! Solomon was wise, but ultimately he enslaved his own people to build his kingdom. Oh and Uriah’s wife, Who?? was Bathsheba. We aren’t booing her, because we don’t really have all the info. Solomon the father of Rehoboam.  Hooray! He seemed to be a good king.  Rehoboam the father of Abijah. Hooray! Tried to reunite Israel and Judah. Abijah the father of Asaph. Who?? Not much known about Asaph. Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat. Hooray! Jehoshaphat instructed people in God’s law. Jehoshaphat the father of Joram. Booo!  He led Judah into idolatrous worship. Joram the father of Uzziah.  Hooray! By all accounts a good king who had leprosy by the way. Uzziah the father of Jotham. Hooray! Jotham ran the temple during his father’s reign, lepers not allowed in the temple. Jotham the father of Ahaz. Booo! A schemer who didn’t trust in God. Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Hooray! Close relationship with God. Hezekiah the father of Manassah. “Booo!” Manasseh turned from God to practice witchcraft and was a pretty evil king. Manasseh the father of Amos. Who? Not much said about Amos. Amos the father of Josiah. Hooray! Led Judah back to God. Josiah the father of Jechoniah. “Boo!” Jeconiah was cursed by the prophet Jeremiah for his return to evil ways. His kingdom was conquered by Babylon.

Jeconiah the father of Salatheil, Who?? Salatheil the father of Zerubabbel,  Hooray! Started rebuilding God’s temple.   Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Who?? Abiud the father of Eliakim, Who?? Eliakim the father of Azor, Who??   Azor the father of Zadok, Hooray! A priest in the temple. Zadok the father of Achim, Who?   Achim the father of Eliud, Who? Eliud the father of Eleazar,  Hooray, another temple priest  Eleazar the father of Matthan, who?? Matthan the father of Jacob, Who??     Jacob the father of Joseph, Hooray!  the husband of Mary of whom Jesus was born who is called the Messiah.

Whew! We got through it! Now a number of the who’s, who are not spoken of a great deal in the bible, are namesakes for other old testament figures. Many of the last section are names of priests from of old, that seems to be the theme from Babylon to Jesus. Also the names of the people are fascinating. Gives glory to God, lifts up the poor, God lends, etc. there’s a study in that as well. But this morning my focus in on the good, the bad, the ugly, and the unknown.

My point is this, throughout the bible the question has always been, how will God work through the good, the not so good, and the really bad people to bring about God’s plan for healing and salvation. Matthew’s geneology makes it very clear that God works through all of us, good or bad. For those who think that means we can all be bad, no that’s not the point. There’s a difference between working with God and not working with God. But the bottom line is, no matter who the ancestors of Jesus were, God’s plan could not be stopped.

In this new year, we are tempted to rejoice in the hope of a new year, and then lament that we have the same old people, and even worse on the way. But faith, the faith of Matthew is, God can’t be stopped, God’s Messiah has come, and the world is going to be saved! And that is the Good News of Jesus Christ. 

Dec. 29, 2019                       Two Kingdoms                              

On Christmas Eve, I spoke about the movie, “It’s a Wonderful life”. I talked about the difference between the world that was Bedford Falls with George Bailey in it, and the world that would have been, Pottersville without George Bailey. I talked about how Jesus Christ was born into the world, so that rather than the world becoming a Pottersville, it would become for us Bedford Falls. And finally, I spoke about how we were called to follow in the way of our Savior, Jesus Christ, to continue to bring into being God’s kingdom in our lives.

This morning, I would like to continue this theme. Bedford Falls is a place where people have a conscience, where they do the right thing, where they help the young and the old, where they take care of those in need, where they provide opportunities to live a reasonable life to those who are weak and struggling to make ends meet. The end of the picture, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, doesn’t tell us that the Potters of the world are gone, or that things will be rosy from then on. There will still be plenty of trials and troubles. But the good news of the movie, and the good news of the Gospel are, that the powers of darkness can be overcome, by the Spirit of God in human life.

That is where our gospel lesson in Matthew picks up this morning. A lot of commentators and sermons I read this week speak about how it would be nice to continue living in the Christmas moment. Jesus is born, God is with us, all is calm, all is bright, peace on earth and goodwill toward all humankind. But that’s not the story we get this morning.

Jesus is born into the world where a despot rules. Herod has been appointed by Rome to rule Israel, and he does so with an iron fist, and by murdering members of his own family to do so. Herod is so fearful that someone will do the same to him, that when he hears that a king has been born who will someday rule his kingdom, that he orders the slaughter of children. You want a sure sign that a ruler is unfit, they always go after the children. Pharoah had them thrown into the Nile, Herod had them slaughtered. You want another sure sign, they don’t care about foreigners or refugees. Pharoah made the Israelites living in Egypt slaves, Herod with his slaughter drove them out of Israel back to Egypt. That’s what happened to Joseph and Mary, they became refugees, fleeing from Herod.

How does the world get like this? Matthew has a theory, and that is that the world gets like this, when people forget who they are, children of God. People who are called not to take life, but to give life. You know, I never really understood that stuff about Rachel crying for her children till this week. Rachel is the first woman to die in childbirth in the bible. She suffered death in order to give life to her child. That’s the kind of people the Israelites were supposed to become, but they didn’t. So Rachel’s tears were for her children, which were no more.

Christmas has come to us, we have celebrated the birth of Christ, and we have been comforted by the idea of peace and hope, and joy and love. But the reality is, the world still is as it is, and there are despots out there going after children, and foreigners, and refugees. There are plenty of people out there in the world, beyond the walls of our church, who have forgotten who they are, sometimes we forget ourselves. We forget that we are called to be Children of God, called to give life to others. But through our faith in Jesus Christ, we are reminded again who we are called to be, a people who give life to others.

We are called to be a people who protect the young and the old. A people who care for the weak and powerless. A people who welcome and work with the stranger and the foreigner, so that we may grow together and become one people. A people called to suffer one another in love, so that the world may become a better place for all. And the good news is, like the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, despite our failures, we will have wonderous moments when we overcome the forces of darkness in our lives, and we know God’s peace and joy and presence among us.

Dec. 25, 2019                    It’s a Wonderful Life                              

The title of this sermon is, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, because that was the inspiration for my sermon this evening. You all know the story of George Bailey, how he saved his kid brother from drowning, saved Mr. Gower from losing his pharmacy business, saved the Saving’s and Loan from Mr. Potter, saved Mary from being an old maid, moved all those people out of Potter’s slums and into Bailey park, and was ready to take his own life, to pay off a lost bank deposit.

Perhaps the most important part of this movie is the contrast between what was, and what could have been. Or more accurately, what could have been Pottersville, verses what was Bedford Falls. The idea, that you could take the same people, the same town, the same world, and it could be made different by one person, someone who always thought of others, someone who did the right thing, someone who suffered himself in order to give life to others. The idea that it makes all the difference in the world, is a pretty wonderful idea.

Oh yes, this was not an easy life. It was filled with hard work, faith, and integrity. You could see in the movie that George was often tempted to think only of himself, and each time he chose to think of others. It seems to me, that George knew the kind of person he wanted to be, and each conflict was an opportunity to define himself, and despite the consequences of missing his overseas trip, missing college, getting married, spending his life helping others, he wasn’t about to become a kind of man like that miserable Mr. Potter. He wanted to be alive, not dead to the world like “old man Potter”.

And I think that many people wrestle with that to some degree, those who haven’t given up their conscience, seek to live a life of which they can be proud, a life they believe has meaning and purpose, a life that makes a difference in the world, and in the lives of others. In contrast to this, there are many who have just given up, slogging through the days of their life, with no other meaning or purpose than survival or pleasure.  While they might be alive, that is not life. At least, not the life that is offered to us in Jesus Christ!

     And that is where we run into the Gospel of John this evening! The gospel reading says in referring to Jesus. “What has come into being through him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and darkness did not overcome it.”

As I mentioned in a sermon a couple weeks ago, both Judaism and Christianity believe that there are two kinds of lives that people can live. One in which people are physically and spiritually alive, and one in which people are physically alive and spiritually dead. In the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” George Bailey represents those who are physically and spiritually alive. They are people of integrity, who care about who they are, and about how their actions affect others. They live their lives in the struggle to make the lives of those around them better, to make the world a better place. They live a life that gives light to others, and overcomes the darkness of the world to build a new creation.

Now I could go into the darkness of those who are spiritually dead, and talk about the Potter’s of this world, and how they have given up, or they think they are better or smarter than those “suckers” who care about others. They live in darkness, and the world they create is darkness, darkness for themselves and darkness for others.  

But into this darkness is born a child, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And through his Words, through his life, through his suffering and death and resurrection, the world has been forever changed. Formerly it was on the path to Pottersville, and now it is on the path to Bedford Falls. And for two thousand years, people who believed in Jesus Christ have been taking that path.

In the midst of the darkness of the world, and the darkness of the lives around them, they have chosen a life that is a light to others.   They have chosen a life, believing that life will be a light that overcomes the darkness. They believe that despite their sufferings, that their lives will be redeemed, that the purpose and meaning of their lives will be rewarded, and the world will continue to move forward towards the day of God’s salvation. And for many, they have found this belief to be true, and have experienced the blessing of faith in Jesus Christ in their lives.

And that is the Good News of Jesus Christ that we celebrate every Christmas, as we celebrate Christ’s birth! 

Dec. 22, 2019                     A Sign                                                            

I would like to talk about all three of our readings from the lectionary this morning. The first of these readings is from Isaiah, and in it King Ahaz is confronted with a difficult situation. He is the king of Judah, and at that time, Judah is at war with Israel and Assyria. Now behind the scenes, Ahaz is negotiating with both Israel and Assyria, promising both that he will be on their side in order to spare Judah. In short, he is playing both sides.

Now instead of that, Isaiah asks Ahaz to trust in God, and allow God to show him a sign, that God will stand by Judah and help them to overcome Judah’s adversaries. And while Ahaz’s pious response, that he will not put God to the test, seems correct, it is really a reflection of his lack of faith in God, and his faith in his own political calculations. Isaiah on the other hand speaks of a sign, the sign of a young woman having a child, and before the child reaches 2 years old, the age at which they can distinguish good and evil, Judah will be delivered from it’s enemies.

In short, without faith in God, Isaiah is saying Ahaz doesn’t know right from wrong.

Our second reading, which we skipped this morning is from the book of Romans, in it Paul is speaking to a Roman Empire in decline. In Rome, they worship the Emperor as the Son of God, and that worship has worked for the powerful elites, the winners in life, but has reduced the majority of the citizens to poverty, the losers in life. To the Romans, Paul proclaims Jesus Christ as the Son of God. A foreigner, who practiced a foreign religion, who was crucified by the roman army for insurrection. In short, a loser.

Our Gospel reading tells the story of a young woman, Mary, who becomes pregnant out of wedlock, and a man, Joseph, who thinks he is doing the righteous thing, by divorcing her quietly, when in fact, God has other plans. The righteous thing in this circumstance ends up being the unrighteous thing in the eyes of humankind. It is to stay with the young woman, Mary, and raise the boy Jesus as his own.

Right and Wrong. Ahab didn’t know it. Winners and Losers. The Romans didn’t see it. Righteous and Unrighteous. Joseph had to be told what God’s righteousness was. Can we tell the difference?

One of my collegues at text study this week suggested that maybe we can’t. Many people, he suggested, see God as All powerful, All knowing, all Controlling. They envision the coming of Jesus on the clouds to defeat the immoral and unrighteous in battle. They believe in the gospel where if we are good enough, pray enough and do enough good to others, we will be blessed with wealth and health and long life. These are the god’s of politics, power, and human righteousness. These are the god’s of winners, and we all hope and pray that they will be our god’s, but for most of us, this just isn’t so.  

But the gospel revealed in Jesus Christ presents another God to us. This is a God born in weakness, this is a God afflicted by our sin, this is a God who knows our trials and troubles, and gives us strength for living. This is a God who gives meaning to our suffering, and offers us redemption. This is a God who asks us to give of ourselves to others, without receiving in return. This is a God who calls us to welcome the outsider, to seek the lost, to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is a God condemned as a blasphemer and crucified as a traitor. This isn’t the God many people pray to,….. but it is the God who meets us in our moments of brokenness, death, and despair, and offer us new life.

So how do we come to know this God. Well this morning, God offers us a sign. A young woman “shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” The sign is a sign of weakness, a sign of our need for God to save us from our sins, a sign of where we can find this God. We can find this God in how we care for the weak, the lost, the suffering, the stranger, the foreigner. We find this God in how we treat the most vulnerable in our society, not in how we honor and glorify the powerful and the winners in life. For both Jews and Christians, in both Isaiah and in Matthew, that is what the sign means. That is what God’s justice and righteousness are all about. When we do that, Emmanuel will be born among us, God will be with us, and that is the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Dec. 15, 2019                        Jesus is Coming!                                                  

This week, I attended the monthly meeting of the committee on ministry for the prairie association of the Illinois Conference, UCC. In addition to meeting with our in care students, who are seeking ordination. We met with one student who presented his ordination paper, and who then preached a sermon for us.

His sermon was about the Word. And he preached about the Word of humankind, and the Word of God. The Word of humankind he said, was a Word of Anger, a Word of Criticism, a Word of Blame, a Word of fear, and a Word of Complaint. The Word of humankind can be found everyday all around us. It is found on our news broadcasts, where almost all we get is the bad news of what is going on around us, which feeds our fears, and gets the highest ratings. It is found in our politics, where partisans on both sides of the aisle spend their time accusing one another of wrongdoing, and blaming them for all the problems of our nation and world. It is found in our daily lives, where we have been taught to think critically about the world, which evolves from there into of one another, and endless complaining about one another. This the Word of humankind, and it makes for a fog in our lives, that is as thick as soup, and clings to us, and permeates our lives. This Word of humankind leads us to be a broken people in the living of our daily lives. It leads to prejudice and apathy to the suffering of others, it leads to think only of ourselves or of our families, it leads to greed and impatience with one another, it leads to unfaithfulness and an unwillingness to commit to each other, it leads to gossip and backstabbing, cheating and stealing, hate and violence.  

In contrast to this Word of humankind, he spoke about the Word of God. The Word of God came into the world to proclaim to us Good News! The Word of God came into the world to point out the promises God has made and the blessing that are given to us by God. The Word of God came into the world so that we might stop blaming one another, and take responsibility for who we are, and what we need to do to make the world a better place. The Word of God came into the world to heal a broken world and heal broken lives, to overcome prejudice and apathy, to help us to see one another as brothers and sisters rather than enemies, and to overcome those human behaviors that lead to sin, suffering, violence and death.

I thought about this student’s sermon, because it reminded me of the passage from James that we read earlier. Jesus is coming, the Word of God, so stop complaining…. Stop spreading, stop allowing the Word of Complaint, the Word of humankind from dominating your lives. Prepare the Way of the Lord into your lives, start walking on the highway that is called the Holy Way, watch out, pay attention, to the opportunities given to you to speak the Word of God, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ!

This week I had two interactions that related to our reading this morning. The first was with a kitchen manager, who was unhappy with a member of the kitchen staff. It seems the worker had not been getting her work done, and the manager was stomping around the kitchen complaining and talking about writing her up and getting her fired. After 20 minutes of this,  I got tired of the complaining, I took the manager aside and  gently suggested that she could find a more positive way to encourage the worker, maybe something was going on in this person’s life that had changed her behavior. Sure enough, the manager found out that the worker had been homeless the previous week, and it had affected her work. The manager encouraged her to hold onto her job, and to be part of our team, and asked if there was something she could do to help out. With this new tack, things changed, and the young woman was back to being the hard working team member that she had been in the past.

The second interaction was with my wife on our anniversary. Over thirty years we have had our ups and downs, our successes, our failures, and our complaints about one another. And as I thought about these, in the light of our scripture passage this morning, I realized that I’m tired of the complaints, those words only lead to death, I would rather focus on the blessings of our life together, and on working together to realize the best that God has to offer us in our life together. Really hope this works out!

Finally, I thought about the members of our congregation, and I wondered what I had to offer you this morning that would be helpful. You see, most of you already know what I have been talking about. You have been a most wonderful people, I don’t often hear complaints come out of your mouth. Perhaps it’s because most of you are older and wiser, and you passed through this stage of life, and you already made this decision. Perhaps it is simply because you are here, and already know the power of the Word of God to heal and strengthen and give your life. Life in a fellowship of those who love and care for you. Whatever the reason, I hope my reflections on this journey have at least reminded you of the Word of God that is ours in Jesus Christ, and will help you to prepare for our celebrating Christ’s coming into the world on this Christmas! Amen.    

Dec 8, 2019              What will Peace Look Like?                         

The picture I have for you this morning is from a mural in the great hall of the Department of Justice in Washington DC. The title of the mural is Contemporary Justice and Child, and the artist’s name is Symeon Shimin.

The mural seems to have three parts to it, the mother and daughter in the center, the mother looks slightly downward, perhaps filled with concern for her child, knowing what the world is like and worried about her future. The child looks straight ahead towards her future, but with a look of uncertainty.

To the left half of the mural we see some of the injustices of the past, smokestacks filling the air with pollution, slaves building railroads, immigrants being exploited, homelessness, disease and death. And in the right half of the mural we see a vision of the path to a more just society, hands grasp a compass and protractor, people gather around a set of building plans for the future, students work on science in schools, children playing joyfully in a field, and there is even a scene of a baptism, perhaps as a comment on the practice of the freedom of religion, as a part of what will lead to a better, more just world.   

Surely the artist has tried to convey, the injustices of the past, with the opportunities that are offered to us in the future. And the key figures in the mural, seem to indicate the idea that it is our responsibility to provide that future for our children, and not just our children, but for all the children of our nation, and world.

I came across this painting, as I was reading a number of commentaries on Isaiah 11 this week. Now the part of the passage we read this morning, when we lit our advent candle focused upon the idea of how the world might change, if the Spirit of the LORD would come upon us. How we would see the injustices of the world, and work to correct them, work to build a future, very much like the one described in our mural this morning. A world in which all might share in the blessings of creation, where we might build a new future, founded upon the counsel and wisdom and even fear of the LORD, which will lead to a just and peaceful future for all.  

Now I would like to take a moment to speak about that phrase “fear of the LORD. Fear of the LORD, from the Jewish understanding, is not so much that God will punish us all, as much as that God will leave us to our own devices, will let our injustices grow until they consume us, and I think that Symeon Shimin, realizes the need for us to turn to God and  for God to be a part of what creates a just and peaceful future for us all, which is why he included that baptism scene in his mural.

Anyway, the rest of the passage from Isaiah speaks of lion’s laying down with lambs, and bears and cows living together, and children safely playing with poisonous snakes, mostly this is hyperbole, meant to say to us, that when we give our lives to God, wondrous things can happen, that the future is wide open, not only for us, but escpecially for our children. And that is the Good News of Jesus Christ. Amen.