sermon - Christ is our Peace

Ephesians 2

“A World in need of Peace”

            I was recently at a birthday party for a four year old.  While the children played, a few of us parents were able to sit and talk.  There was definitely some anxiety in the conversation, anxiety for the way in which our children, even at the age of four are engaging technology.  There is great concern about how easy technology can be abused, cyber bullying, hacking, spying, etc.  One mom said, we hear all these issues now, I can’t even imagine what it will be like when our children will be in high school.  What will they be facing then?  She continued, I just want to build a wall and fence them in to keep them safe. 

            Keeping children safe.  It is by far a major concern in today’s world.  Last fall, when my daughter was playing soccer, it really struck me as to why organized sports have become so important in our culture today.  Not only are the kids outside getting some exercise, and not sitting inside watching tv or playing videos, they are interacting with each other face to face, not via social media.  But more than that, I personally, found the soccer field a safe place for my children to play.  I was able to watch them, but I also knew that there were other parents there also keeping eyes on them.  We were able to be together, find an hour or so for some socializing, some relaxation, and provide some good fresh air for our children.   I found this time out at the soccer field rather peaceful.

            We, as a people, desire moments of peace.  Peace, this one word can be packed with so many definitions.  Peace can be people getting along.  Peace can mean moments in history where there is no war.  Peace can be sitting at the beach and soaking up the sun.  In today’s passage in Ephesians, Jesus is described as our peace.  As Paul writes to this gentile community, he is reminding them that before they came to learn about God’s love made known in Jesus they were outsiders.  It is only through Jesus’ love for them, for this world, that they have been brought into God’s covenant.  Prior to Jesus there was a division, there was God’s chosen people, but God has now open wide the gate and invited all into the promise of being God’s people.  The dividing wall has been shattered and both groups have been made one.  In Christ, through his peace, through his desire to break down all that divides us, we are to think of ourselves as being brought into a new humanity, a new creation, one where we celebrate God’s love for us. 

            So how do we embrace this peace of Christ in a world that seems so chaotic, so in need of the end of the hostility between us?  Paul wrestled with bringing together the Jews and the Gentiles, he himself persecuted those that followed Jesus.  He was a part of the hostility, part of the dividing wall, but through his conversion, through the transformation of understanding God’s deeper meaning and purpose for people in this world, he let go of all that he knew, all that he understood about God and his faith, and embraced a new way to be a part of God’s community. 

            First, we have to name and address the hostility.  What is it that brings fear and concern into our lives today.  For some, it is the constant concern of terror threats and this movement of Isis.  For others, it is these off the wall mass shootings, whether they be at schools, or public places and now a church.  For others, it is cyber bullying, or the use of the internet to lure child.  For others there is hostility towards immigrates and the issues with people being here that are undocumented.  Paul names the hostility, that there is tension and discord between the Jews and Gentiles and that we need to know and understand that Jesus is our peace, Jesus is the one that brings the two together, that unites us as one. 

            Can Christ be our peace in today’s world?  He brings a spiritual peace, but Paul is talking about a relational peace.  Paul is discussing the way in which two groups of people need to be connected, united, and reconciled.  How do we bring the peace of Christ into our fears, concerns, anxieties of today’s world?  How do we begin to work on the walls of hostility between us when those walls seem mysterious and unseen to us?  One way is through education.  We can learn more about cyber bullying and how people use the internet to lure children.  Perhaps we can work with other congregations or the school system to develop a program for at risk youth to find a place where they feel safe, welcomed, and valued and combat the negativity that bullying presents. 

            Some churches have named themselves a peace site and hold vigils in times of chaos, lifting up prayer, and naming the evil of the world for what it is, and proclaiming that God’s love will overcome the darkness of people’s hate and anger.  In Rockaway, the clergy have created an interfaith group, bringing together people of various faiths into conversation with each other, educating each other, and learning that we all live in our community together and desire the best for our children and the community in which we live.  I was blessed a few years ago to be invited to an event at the mosque and gave one of the prayers.  In some communities, there are dividing walls between people of faith, in Rockaway, there is a movement to be a people of peace, a people that honor the differences between each other and focus on common goals, concerns, and are now seeking to develop a ministry together. 

            Going back to the conversation at the birthday party of this deep desire to keep our children safe in today’s world.  We need to know and understand that the Peace that Christ gives is not a magic shield that keeps us safe no matter what.  Even if we build walls to keep our children in, we cannot keep them safe for ever.  But we can provide the peace of Christ, a tool that should help us navigate this world, that should call us to seek ways in which the dividing walls can be shattered and the hostility between us broken.  This mom that was so concerned about the shootings throughout our country also commented that we need to do more in our country with mental health issues.  So many of these shooters seem to have mental health issues that if they were addressed, perhaps the outcomes would have been different.  Can we as a culture, do better at addressing issues of anger, isolation, and violence?  Let us turn to God in prayer, praying that Christ, who is our peace, will inspire us to be present to the walls of hostility in our world today and be those we seek to bring God’s love into those places so that we can all be a part of the household of God, beloved children, living in unity with each other.  Amen.    

                

Dad's and Grad's sermon: "Words of Wisdom"

Mark 4

“Words of Wisdom’

            We are a people of stories.  Whether those stories are: history, literature, folk tales, or gossip, we tell stories, share stories, and hear stories.  Our lives are shaped by stories.  The stories of our own life memories, the stories of other people’s memories, and stories that are created out of various peoples’ lives.  Some stories can be painful and destructive, while other stories can be inspirational and compassionate.   Every once in awhile, a special nugget of wisdom falls upon us and makes a deep impact upon our lives.  In the book:  Walking the Bible, the writer shares that the stories of faith are stories that give life.  God is creating, God is forming, God is calling a people into being and then encouraging to grow in ways that reflect God’s story of life. 

In today’s parable, seed is being thrown and lands all over the place.  It almost seems a little reckless of the farmer to not sow the seed just in the field.  Seed, a metaphor for the word of God, or in our lives today: stories.  Stories of God, stories of people, stories of lives that celebrate the love and goodness of being God’s people.  But, we don’t all hear these stories the same way, we don’t all celebrate these stories the same way, we don’t all remember these stories the same way.  For some, we challenge them and push them away, for others we tuck them away as a part of our childhood, and for others, they land deep within ourselves, guiding our daily living.

I always find it interesting when you sit down with a group of people and ask them their favorite Bible story, or passage of scripture.  Very rarely, do people share the same story.  Each seed, each story, has fallen into the soil of our lives in different ways.  Each of us has the hard path, the rocky soil, the weeds, and the good soil within us.  When something falls within the good soil of our being, it impacts us, it stays with us, it grows within us and it becomes wisdom. 

            Wisdom, a special gift of words or actions that can give life meaning and purpose, it can inspire us to pursue a certain area of study and find a job in a specific field of interest.  Wisdom, it can get deep down inside of us and pull us in a direction we never thought we would head towards.             On this special day, where we honor our Fathers and our graduates, both pertain to wisdom.  As parents, fathers desire to provide for their children.  They work hard so that the family has a home, meals, clothes, and can participate in extra curricular activities.  As they nurture, stories are told and stories are made and along the way, children pick up insights from their fathers in how to navigate this world in which we live.  It could be a strong work ethic, it could be that of faith, it could be focused on being a good student or athlete, it could be on giving what you are doing your all. 

            As students, a  plethora of teachings has been bestowed upon you.  Some is remembered just for the test, some is not remembered at all, and some connects deeply into your being staying with you for the long hall.  Perhaps it was a science teacher that inspired you to be involved with environmental issues, or perhaps it was an English teacher that bestowed upon you the love of writing, or the math teaching that open up the world of numbers and equations that will focus you towards accounting.  Or a coach that has encouraged you to continue with a sport.  Throughout our lives, we are exposed to so much, so many stories, so much learning, so much knowledge, and each of us absorbs these nuggets of wisdom differently.  What inspires one student or child, bounces off the other and withers away. 

            There is a farmer or a father or a teacher that has seeds to sow.  And the Farmer or the Father or the teacher throws the seed out into the soil, upon the children or the students.  Some falls on the hard soil and is eaten by the birds.  Sometimes there is just too much information being given that you cannot absorb it all.  Or sometimes we are just not ready to a level of learning.  I’ve gone back over some old notes from classes and what made no sense to me at all when I was 18 now makes sense.  Or I’ll re-read a book that I just could not get through a few years ago and wonder why I didn’t like it the first time through.  Our inner hard paths can soften and change over time.  What seems like a reckless farmer might not be so reckless after all.  What might seem like a hard path in one point in our lives just might be fertile soil in years to come. 

Some of the seed falls on the rocky path and finds just enough soil to begin to grow but quickly dries out.  How many times does that happen?  We quickly get excited about something but we just fizzle out almost as quickly as we start.  “Hey dad, will you teach me to throw a football, or hit a baseball, or ride my bike?”  And then five minutes later, “let’s do something else.”  Attention spans are hard to navigate in life. 

Other seed falls upon the thorns and gets chocked.  Maybe we just have too much going on right now and other things get in the way.  We are good at overscheduling ourselves, how do I fit dance, and soccer, and theater and my studies and friends all into the mix?  We get way out of balance and often times something we love gets chocked because we just can’t do it all.  When I first started college I was overwhelmed with my schedule and trying to make friends and study. 

I went to a workshop on learning to create a healthy balance in my life.  We made a circle and divided it into sections.  I can’t remember the exact sections, but as many stories of our lives change a bit, this is how I remember it:  spiritual, emotional/social, physical, and intellectual.  We were then asked to divide the circle up in how we felt our lives currently were.  Mine was almost completely divided in half with physical and intellectual.  I was either in class, studying or on the soccer field.  We were then asked to divide a circle up with how we would like it to look.  My spiritual, and emotional/social part of my life was being chocked up.  Maybe not by weeds, but by my other activities.  We were then encourage to think about how to create new space in our lives for the other parts of our whole being.  Could we do that?  Maybe we were going to have to let go of something in order to let something else thrive.  Although I still have not mastered this, it was a nugget of wisdom that has stayed with me and I continually go back to it to try and keep myself as whole as I can. 

And other seed fell upon the good soil were it could grow and yield a healthy harvest.  This is the area that just brings results.  When children are inspired by a father’s teaching, a teacher’s subject matter, or hopefully, God’s scripture calling us to live a faithful life of compassion and purpose as we embrace stories of life and allow them to produce a full harvest of fruit within us.  Sometimes the teachings, the guidance, the advice, the way in which we want our children to embrace this life doesn’t seem to take root.  And that is part of why we need to create positive habits and rituals in our lives.  We need to till the soil, till the hard path, pull at the weeds, and continually throw out the seeds.  God understands the messiness of life.  God understands that we are not always ready to hear God’s teachings, stories of faith, or embrace words of wisdom.  But that does not stop God from tossing out the seed.  The seed is always being thrown, recklessly into the world, recklessly into our lives, because God is hopeful, God is abundant, and God does not give up on us, ever.  And there are some really special teachers, and coaches and parents out there that do the same thing.  They keep sowing love into their families, into their communities, and into the greater world.  And we thank them for their work, for it does make a difference and sometimes it takes years before the seed germinates in the soil.  

Fruit of the Spirit - Children's Worship

Love – call to worship

As we gather today in worship, each part of our service will reflect the nine Fruits of the Spirit.  Our first fruit is that of Love.  Without love, there would be no reason to even gather together as a family of faith.  Worship is our way to say Thank you to God.  Thank you God for loving us.  Thank you God for giving us the gift of love.  In worship, we can learn more about how this fruit can grow in our lives and how we can share it with others.  We show the fruit of Love by volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, by donating to the Roxbury Food Pantry, and through our time of being together as a church family. 

 Because God first loved us – let us join together with our call to worship: 

Self-control – confession

In the Dr. Seuss Book – The Lorax, the Oncler has no self control.  He finds a tree that is perfect for his Thneed and so he cuts down tree after tree after tree in order to make more and more Thneeds.  He has no self-control over his factory and creates pollution.  All he cares about is himself and making more Thneeds so he can make more money.  His loss of self-control leads to ruin, ruin not just for himself, but for all the animals that once lived where the trees grew.  God calls us to live in harmony with the world around us which can only happen if we produce the fruit of self-control.  Let us ask God to strengthen us in our self-control through our unison prayer of confession. 

Patience – forgiveness 

Hear these words from Psalm 103

The Lord is merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
⁹ He will not always accuse,
    nor will he keep his anger forever.
¹⁰ He does not deal with us according to our sins,
    nor repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as the heavens are high above the earth,
    so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west,
    so far he removes our transgressions from us.
¹³ As a father has compassion for his children,
    so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.

One of the fruits God asks us to bear is patience.  Thankfully, our God is a patient God.  God calls us to learn from him.  Part of being patient involves forgiving others and forgiving ourselves.  Because our God is patient, we can rest assure that forgives us when we lose our self-control and provides us the nurture we need as we bear the fruit of patience within ourselves. 

Hear the Good News of God’s forgiving patience for us:

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. ¹³ Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord^[b]has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Peace – passing of the Peace

As we abide in God, we are called to bare the spiritual fruit of peace.  In the Beatitudes, Jesus says:  Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.  As peacemakers, we proclaim this church to be a bully free zone.  In our schools we seek ways to be kind to each other, to treat each other with respect and not to be mean.  Wherever we are: in church, in school, at work, hanging out with our friends, we can bear the fruit of Peace.  When we are kind, when we are gentle, when we are loving, when we are filled with self-control, there will be peace. 

We traditionally share the peace of Christ with each other after we have confessed our sins and heard the Good News of our forgiveness.   Once we are forgiven by God, we show our forgiveness of each other through the passing of the peace.  To truly bare the fruit of peace, we must be reconciled not just to God but to one another.  Throughout our lives, we will have struggles and challenges.  There will be times when we will be angry, when we will not want to listen to others, when we will be so hurt that we will not want to forgive.  Remind us of the fruit of Peace, that we need to nurture this fruit as it ripens on the vine of our lives.  Remind us that this is a fruit that grows in community and that we are all responsible for its care.  As a community that is called to be Peacemakers, let us now share the peace of Christ with one another. 

 Faithfulness- scripture

Our Bible is a collection of stories about faithfulness.  It is about God’s faithfulness to us and how people learn to be faithful to God.  We cannot bear the fruit of faithfulness without reading the stories of the Bible.  These stories are our stories. 

When we read the Bible, we learn about how we should care for the earth, how we should care for each other, and how we should love God.  Faithfulness is believing that God is Who the Bible says God is.  It is trusting God is at  work in the world restoring  everything for good.  Faithfulness is trusting that God is at work in each of us.  As we read the stories of the Bible and connect our lives to these stories, we begin to have a clearer picture of how God is working in our own lives and in the world around us. 

The following Scripture readings is form the Gospel of John and shows how important it is to be connected to God in order to bear fruit. 

Jesus says: 

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. ² He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes^[a] to make it bear more fruit. ³ You have already been cleansed^[b] by the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ 

. ⁸ My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become^[c] my disciples.⁹ As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹ I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

¹² “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.¹³ No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ I do not call you servants^[d] any longer, because the servant^[e] does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶ You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. ¹⁷ I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

Gentleness

The second scripture readings is from Galatians 5

The Fruit of the Spirit

²² By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. ²

As a young person, there are a lot of choices for activities.  Some young people like to play soccer and football while others like to play musical instruments or do art.  I like to dance.  In dancing, there are gentle movements and it is graceful.  Football and soccer can be rough, people get tackled and knocked over and sometimes even hurt.  Dancing embraces the gentle spirit, the spirit of grace and respect for each other.  Other forms of gentleness might be holding a kitten or a puppy.  We are gentle so as not to hurt something else.  At Christmas, when we are decorating the Christmas tree, we might need to be gentle with fragile ornaments, since we do not want them to break. 

God invites us to bear the fruit of gentleness, in doing this, we need to think about things that might hurt others, whether it is someone’s feelings or something someone might own.  Being gentle also means we don’t brag about ourselves.  Being a great athlete is a wonderful thing, but if all we do is go around telling people how great we are, we are not filled with the spirit of gentleness.  We may also bear the fruit of gentleness by giving thanks to God that we are created with bodies that allow us to be great athletes, or great artists, or great musicians.  By being a gentle person, we will embrace the fruit of love, peace, and kindness. 

Generosity – offering

What does it mean to be generous?  Learning to share with others, such as sharing toys with my sister or with a friend.  It might mean letting someone else have the last piece of pizza or the bigger piece of cake.  We can be generous with our time, with our money, with our love, and with the stuff we own.  Here at the church, we can be generous by bringing in canned food items for the Roxbury food pantry or by donating summer items to Family Promise for homeless families in our community.  We can be generous with our time by volunteering in our community.  We can be generous with our love by giving a friend a hug when they seem sad.  God asks us to be a generous people.  As we give our offering, we are sharing something that is ours and asking God to bless it so that it can be used in God’s work with other people. 

Prayer after offering is collected:

Loving God, bless these gifts so that they be used in your ministry both, here in this church and out in the greater world.  Amen.    

Kindness – prayers of the people

Each Sunday in church, we have a time where we pray for one another.  This is the spiritual fruit of Kindness.  We spend time thinking about others, about their struggles and we ask God to bring healing into their lives.  Sometimes we pray for people we know, and sometimes we pray for people that we do not know, this is an act of kindness, to give of ourselves for others.   In Sunday School, we showed kindness by making cards for our homebound members.  We wanted to let them know we are thinking of them.  

Each day God asks us to be kind.  Kind to our parents, kind to our brothers and sisters, kind to our friends.  Sometimes people can be mean to us and hurt our feelings.  As we learn more about the fruit of kindness, we try not to be mean back.  We do not always have to be friends with everyone, but we do need to be kind.  As we pray for our families, our community and the greater world, we pray that there will be more kindness. 

Let us pray

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

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

Amen.

Joy – Benediction

We gather to worship as a way to say thank you to God for the way in which God loves us.  Now, as we go out into the world, back to our homes, to school, to work, to the week ahead, we go out with the Spiritual Fruit of Joy.  This fruit is one that is centered not in human feelings, but is how we respond to God’s presence in our life.  The fruit of joy is something that grows deep within our souls and gives us strength.  At Christmas, we sing:  Joy to the World.  We are happy about the birth of baby Jesus, we are rejoicing that God has given us our Savior.  As we leave worship, we go out rejoicing, rejoicing that God is always present with us, for the world has received her King, we ask him to rule in our hearts, and we will sing God’s praise. 

Benediction:

Joy to the world:  Let earth receive her King

Joy to the world:  our Savior reigns

Joy to the world:  He comes to make his blessings flow

May the Fruit of Joy be upon each and everyone, this and every day.  Amen.