Sermon - Mother's Day

1. My mother taught me to APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning."

2. My mother taught me about RELIGION.
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."

4. My mother taught me about LOGIC.
"Because I said so, that's why."

6. My mother taught me about IRONY.
"Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about."

7. My mother taught me about STAMINA.
"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."

9. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.
"If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!"

10. My mother taught me about the CIRCLE OF LIFE.
"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."

11. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION.
"Stop acting like your father!"

15. My mother taught me about MEDICAL SCIENCE.
"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way."

17. My mother taught me about HUMOR.
"When that lawnmower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."

19. My mother taught me about GENETICS.
"You're just like your father."

20. My mother taught me about WISDOM.
"When you get to be my age, you'll understand.

22. My mother taught me about FEAR.
"One day you'll have a child who'll do the same things to you."

            Happy Mother’s Day.  Today, we look at mothers in the Bible.  Our scriptures are filled with stories of people, of people learning what it means to trust God, to follow God, and to be God’s people.  We learn from these stories and are able to find ways to grow in our own faith through them.  These mothers that we are not biologically related to, these mothers that we will know really know, these mothers that sometimes don’t even have names, these mothers that had their own flaws such as jealousy, favoritism, distrust, and lack of faith.  And yet, and yet within their flaws God continued to work and bring forth God’s plan into the world.  And as we read these stories we can also see how even in disbelief and lack of trust, there are moments of strong faith, and an openness to being a part of God’s story. 

            I’ve always loved the story of the little boy Samuel, but before the little boy Samuel is born, his mother, Hannah, struggled with not being able to have children.  She prayed and prayed to God that she would be able to conceive.  Just as Hannah was barren, so were the people of Israel.  They were living in a time where people were not following the ways of God.  Even the priest Eli could not seem to raise God loving children.  Hannah came to the temple and prayed.  She brought her grief, her feelings of loss, her pain and prayed before God.  She brought her hopes and desires and prayed before God.  She models the ways in which we can be vulnerable before God, ways in which we can name both our human desires and our sacred hopes and she prays.  And then she makes a deal with God. If you give me a child, I will dedicate this child to you.  I will allow him to be raised for your purposes. 

People of faith do desire that their children will also grow up as people of faith, but to actually dedicate your child to God’s service seems a little extravagant.  But that is what Hannah does, after Samuel is born and is old enough, she brings him to Eli the priest to be raised in the temple for God’s service.  And Samuel becomes the first prophet that will serve alongside the first King of Israel.  Out of barrenness comes a new beginning, a new direction for the people of Israel.  They will finally have a king to unite them and to lead them and to form then into a nation and Samuel will be the prophet to keep the people holy, to remind them to worship the one true God and to leave the idols of the other cultures behind.  Out of Hannah’s faith, and her commitment to God, comes forth a spiritual leader that continues God’s work in the formation of God’s people. 

Can faith be passed down from generation to generation?  As a society that stresses independence and self-empowerment, we do seem to emphasize that we each come to faith on our own.  But, we don’t live in bubbles keeping our lives separate from each other, so as we engage relationships we learn from each other and our life choices are influenced by others.  As Paul begins his letter to Timothy, he lifts this up.  He names that the faith of Timothy has been influenced and nurtured through the faith of both his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice.  And so, Paul is celebrating that faith has come to Timothy through the faith of his family. 

And so as Timothy is struggling with his own faith, Paul is encouraging him to have strength, to reach back not within himself, but to reach back to the faith of his mother and grandmother.  Who are the people in our own lives that help to anchor us in our own faith?  It could be a grandmother, or mother, or Sunday school teacher, or good friend.  It could be a grandfather or father or a pastor.  But it seems we all need, at times, to lean into the faith of someone else.  I had a friend in seminary share with me – we are surrounded here in this place by absolutely brilliant people, and if they believe in God and have dedicated their lives to studying the Bible, that keeps me strong in times of doubt.  The priesthood of believers, the great cloud of saints, the body of Christ, we, just as Timothy did, can be nurtured and raised in the faith and made strong through the faith of others. 

I found this interpretation of the 2 Timothy passage:  “Fan into flame the gift of God that is in you,” wrote Saint Paul to his beloved co-worker, Timothy. In each of us God has placed a gift. But, like coals burning under the ashes, sometimes God’s gift remains hidden. The challenge is to reveal it.

By praying, we can begin to discern the gift God has placed in us. In the silence of our heart, we discover that all God asks us is to welcome the gift of his love.

But it is also true that others can awaken the gift of God in us. When we look at ourselves, it can happen that we only see what we lack. That leads to discouragement. When someone looks at us with trust, it can transform us. That is how Timothy discovered his vocation. He was young (1 Tim 4:12) and rather timid (2 Tim 1:8) when he began to work with Paul. In spite of that, because of Paul’s trust in him, Timothy was able to go further than he could imagine. He went so far that he became a real support for Paul when he was in prison (2 Tim 1:4-5).

God himself is the one who awakens God’s gift in us. God believes in our humanity. He trusts us for what we are. God himself has given us “a spirit of strength, love and self-control” (2 Tim 1:7). 

But each gift involves a call. Now Timothy is called to give his life for the Gospel. He will be able to do it if, together with those who went before him (cf. 2 Tim 1:5), he places his trust in God’s power (2 Tim 1:8). God’s power is the resurrection, which causes life to shine out in suffering and which gives us the inner strength to dare to give our life for others.  

Samuel was given a call, he was called by God to be a prophet.  Timothy has a call to be a disciple of the Good News.  We have a call, we have a call to be the Body of Christ here in our community, to be people that plant and nurture seeds of faith in others, we have a call to continue to share the story of God’s love and to name the ways in which God’s love is transforming this world, one life at a time.  Amen. 

            

Sermon - Trinity Sunday

Last week was the celebration of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  Today, we continue in the season of Pentecost with Trinity Sunday.  The Trinity:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; one God made known to us in three persons.  As I close the service each Sunday with the benediction, I say:  And now may the grace and peace of God, the Father, the reconciliation of Jesus Christ, his son, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit be upon you each and every day.  God the Father is often thought of as God the Creator, the one that creates the world and establishes covenants with God’s people.  To Jesus we attribute the gift of forgiveness and the one that brings us into God’s grace.   The Holy Spirit is the one that sustains us each and every day, guides us through this life, gives us spiritual gifts in which we are to use in our service to God.  This Triune God has kept theologians in business for generations as people seek to explain how exactly God can be one God but manifests God’s self in various ways. 

            We like to use teaching tools to help our finite minds grasp God’s infinite being.  So, we try and explain the Triune God with images such as water.  Water is always water, and yet it exists in various forms.  Water can be a liquid, a solid, and a gas, yet it is always water.  I tried to explain to my children the other day that there is actually water in the air all around us.  We don’t usually feel it, but when we spill water on the table, in an hour or so, the water is gone.  Where did it go?  It evaporates into the air.  This is really hard for a young child to comprehend, and yet, they understand that the water is gone. 

            One way that I try and grasp this concept is how in our own lives we wear various hats.  Today, I have my pastor hat on, you all know me as pastor Carie.  While, at the same time, my children know me as mommy.  And my high school friends still remember me as a soccer player.  Same me, but known in various ways to various people.  Now, I have not always been soccer player, mother, and pastor but the potential for it has always been within me. 

            God has made God’s self known to people throughout the generations in various ways, and yet, we as Christian proclaim that God has never changed so God has always been three in one, God has always been Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The early church was very deliberate in making sure that people understood that Jesus was not a new creation of God, but had existed with God from all time and only entered the world in human form in what we now call the Christmas birth story.  The same is true of the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit of God is not created or born at Pentecost, but rather has existed with God as God from the beginning of time. 

            Tucked away in various places of our scriptures we have a variety of creation stories.  Genesis is not the only Creation story as God makes the world in seven days and creates Adam and Eve.  Today, we have the passage from Proverbs of how Wisdom is with God in the establishing of the foundations of the world.  In Hebrew, the word for wisdom is hokma, and is in our Christian theology the Holy Spirit.  In this passage in Proverbs, God creates wisdom before God creates anything else, and then with the act of Creation, Wisdom is right there with God delighting in the work of creation.   

            In the Gospel of John we also get a creation story of how through the word God creates the world and the word is Jesus.  So, as we learn the whole of scripture, we see how God the Creator is also God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

            So, as we wrestle with how God is three in one,  why does it matter in today’s world?  Can we just proclaim faith in God and not get caught up in the details of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?  Personally, I grew up with mostly God language.  I still remember the day in high school when the teaching the Jesus was not just God’s son, but God’s self sunk in.  I’m sure I had heard it over and over but never really paid attention.  But I finally heard it, and I started paying attention a little more to the teachings of Jesus and how they applied to my life.  This can also be true of the Holy Spirit.  Sure, we can say we have faith in God, and seek to live our lives as God’s people, but as we grow in how God the Spirit calls us to live, we may hear ways in which to deepen our faith. 

Joan Chittister says it like this:

Clearly, wisdom is not a gift; wisdom is a task; wisdom costs. Wisdom calls us, the Scripture says, to know ourselves, to squeeze out of every moment in life whatever lessons it holds for us, whatever responses it demands at that time.  It is wisdom that calls each of us to be everything we have the capacity to be.  It is wisdom that is the internal force that drives us to become the fullness of ourselves.  It goes without saying then that wisdom is not life lived at its most docile. It is, instead, life lived at its most demanding.  Let those who seek wisdom, in others words, beware. Scripture maintains that wisdom—which it defines in another place as “fear of the lord”—means holy astonishment, complete wonder and awe at what God does in my life and the life of everyone around me. Wisdom is the first thing God created, “The first of God’s acts long ago,” Scripture says. It is important beyond all telling, in other words. It is basic to life, fundamental to holiness, and full of unrelenting challenge…The real point of the reading lies in the fact that wisdom, if we seek it, is that which simply does not let us alone. Wisdom doesn’t settle down nor does it allow us to settle down. Wisdom leads us from one point to another in life until we learn what we’re supposed to learn, until we do what we’re supposed to do, until we each become what we’re supposed to become. With who and what we are Wisdom leads, prods, and will pursue us to our graves. Life—wisdom—is pursuing each of us, indeed sinking its teeth and nails into every one us, calling us to what the world calls madness, forcing us to mix the wines of our life…

            As the Gospel of Matthew closes, God’s people are called to go out into the world and make disciples, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Each part of God has something unique to teach us and as disciples has something unique to give us as we live our lives.  If we only focus on one aspect of the Trinity, we may unknowingly not be listening to the other voices of God speaking to us.  The more we grow in our understanding of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the more aware we will grow of God’s presence with us each and every day. 

            Where was God present with you this past week?  Can we name the ways in which God was present in Creation?  Or perhaps a moment of forgiveness?  Or perhaps through prayer?  Was joy shared this week or letter or phone call made to connect with someone you have been thinking about?  These are all connections to God’s spiritual presence within us and within the world if we begin to listen.  

Pentecost - Mary Poppins

The season of Pentecost is upon us.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  The outpouring of the Holy Spirit comes to them like the wind.  Wind, especially violent wind, is usually something that is seen as destructive.  All we have to do is turn on the news and see what horrible damage tornados are doing in various parts of our country.  And yet, on Pentecost, the violent wind that comes from heaven is not destructive but rather it is unifying. 

            There are a handful of movies that use wind to bring about positive change.  There is the destructive tornado of the Wizard of Oz – and the wind of Mary Poppins.  The wind has changed directions on Cherry Street lane.  The Banks family is in need of a new nanny and there are at least twenty applicants waiting outside their house for an interview.  The children are looking out the window and are rather disappointed in what they see.  None of these nannies fit the description that the children had put together.  The wind blows stronger and suddenly all the nannies begin blowing away.  Then, descending from the clouds, gently riding the wind, arrives Mary Poppins.  The symbolism is pretty strong as the wind brings this nanny into the broken lives of the Banks family. 

            As soon as Mary Poppins enters the Banks’ house, there is a reversal of roles.  She seems to be the one that does the interviewing.  Mr. Banks, who is used to being in charge, is caught off guard and is speechless as Mary Poppins takes control.  Before he knows it, she has given herself a one week trial and off she goes to see the children. 

            When God enters our lives through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, life changes.  The people gathered on that first Pentecost were not found to be speechless, but rather, they could hear each other, each in their own language.  The events of the day got their attention.  This was not how their usual gatherings happened.  Something new and different was brewing. 

            The Banks family had problems.  Dad was all work and no play.  Mom was involved in community events, and the children were left with the nanny.  They were not a family.  They were four people living together in a house doing their thing.  They need healing and wholeness brought to them.  They need to be a family.  They need to experience love, not just the children, but the whole family.  And so the adventure begins. 

            The prophet Joel proclaims:  I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
    your old men will dream dreams.

Mary Poppins begins her work of healing through the children.  They are open to creativity, and adventure and fun.  Imagination is brought to life as the children go on outings with their new nanny.  They definitely see visions and dream dreams.  Whether it is Mary Poppins carpet bag that holds items way too big to fit in the bag such as a hat stand, a potted plant, and a lamp; or jumping into a chalk painting.  There is a line in the movie where Bert, a friend of Mary’s states:  When you are with Mary Poppins, suddenly you are in places you never dreamed of.”  This is the power of the Holy Spirit.  When we are with God, and the love of God blows into our lives and we respond with an openness and sense of child-like imagination, we too can participate in things we never dreamed of.  Perhaps we will not jump into a chalk painting, but perhaps we be inspired to use our own creativity to produce artwork that we can then use as a spiritual practice of prayer.  Several churches that I know of are gathering during the week for coloring, prayer, and relaxation. 

            It takes a while, but eventually even the no-nonsense father Mr. Banks can’t help but soften and realize that he too can have fun.  The movie seems to be about the children, but really, the one that is need of major transformation is the father.  He needs to be less the business man and more a father.  Transformation, changing from one way of being into a new way of being.  Thinking a little less about work and a little more about family.   

            Mary Poppins knows her work is done when Mr. Banks comes home and the entire family go outside into the neighborhood and fly kites.  As the family is transformed into a family, they are no longer in isolation.  There are others outside flying kites and together, as a family, they join the greater community in this activity.  The wind of the Holy Spirit is not just in their own lives, but alive in the community around them and out of their house they go and join others in the fun of kite flying.  Even the other bankers from Mr. Banks’ work are out there flying kites. It’s as if the transformation of Mr. Banks is contagious. 

            Just as the work of Mary Poppins brings the family together and out into the community, so too is the Holy Spirit calling us in today’s world.  In missional church we are called to prayerfully discern where the Holy Spirit is at work in our own community and how we, as God’s people, can join together in God’s work.  So, as God’s people here in this place, on this Pentecost Sunday, let us see vision, and dream dreams and go out into the world and fly a kite.  Amen.  

Maundy Thursday -

I am not a big fan of having to eat and run, but I seem to do it a lot.  I have several clergy friends that I try and catch up with once in awhile for a meal together, but often times, these meals are just a quick hello, how are things? So good to see you, we should do this more often, before we run off to the next meeting we have on our schedules.   We even eat and run for special occasions, we want to make an appearance but we can’t really stay.  I remember we had people that came to our wedding reception and apologized for having to eat and run.  We want to fit it all in, we might try and squeeze in a friend’s birthday lunch before having to run off to work or another commitment.   

And then there is actually eating on the run.  At one point, I told myself, no more grabbing fast food and eating in the car.  But there are some days that I am just so hungry and I seem to have run out of time, and I tell myself no – but I stop anyway because I can.   I’m not sure I could even count the number of drive through fast food restaurants I pass between here and Parsippany, but it is a lot.  There are a lot of opportunities to eat on the run. 

Tonight is about taking our time in a eating on the run world.  Do we even know how to slow down anymore?  Jesus knew that life was just about to spin out of control but he slows everything down and takes time to eat with his friends. And not only does he take time to eat with his friends, he takes time to wash their feet, to give them yet one more lesson about their relationship with God, and to enjoy a meal that was prepared for that evening. 

We don’t know who labored behind the scenes preparing this Passover feast.  We don’t know who baked the bread or whether the wine was purchased or if someone within the group had made it and brought it to be shared.  We don’t know who set the table.  We just know that Jesus arrived and others had gone ahead and prepared everything for him.    Just like most of our holidays, time was taken to prepare the meal, and those invited came and gathered together and life slowed down for the time being. 

Can you imagine, if a telemarketer called right in the middle of the Last Supper?  Hold on Jesus, before you wash Peter’s feet, can you take this call?  Can you imagine, if James was sending John text messages about Simon’s choice of robes?  Can you imagine if they gathered together for a selfie and posted it on facebook?  Hold on Jesus, before you break the bread, let’s all get a picture together.  Well, instead of that selfie – we have Leonardo di Vinci’s portrayal of the Last Supper imprinted in our minds, or at least I do, my grandmother had it hanging on the wall for as long as I can remember.  Can you imagine, if Andrew and Philip were arguing over which sporting game to have on the TV?  Hey Jesus, can you perform another miracle for us and put both games on at the same time, something like a picture within a picture?  Can you imagine, Thomas shouting out, hey, this is my favorite song, crank it up, right as Jesus is about to tell them to love one another.  Are we not distracted?!  There is always so much going on all around us.  TV, Music, Computers, Phones, Pictures, texting: even when we put the phone on vibrate, we are listening, we are always aware that it is there, or we watch the time, we need to finish dinner by 8:00 so we can watch – insert your favorite show here.  Or even Thanksgiving, we might just plan our meal around the football game, so we can sit long enough to enjoy, but not so long that we miss the kick off. 

Jesus and his disciples did not have these kind of distractions, but they had distractions.  Judas was surely a ball of nervous energy sitting there, trying to make light hearted conversations with his friends, knowing that he was about to turn Jesus over to the authorities.  Peter was distracted by Jesus trying to wash his feet.  And then there is Jesus taking the bread and telling them that this his body, broken for them, I am pretty sure they became distracted.  Why was Jesus changing the story?  Why was he not proclaiming that the bread was the bread of affliction as was the custom of the Passover? 

There is so much going on – on this Holy evening, but Jesus takes the time to slow everything down.  This moment matters.  This meal matters.  These friends matter.  And so the time is taken, the time is taken to be together as a community of people, the time is taken for Jesus to show his humbleness and a to take one last opportunity to model for them what it means to serve others.  How long did it take him to wash each disciples feet?  And did they sit in awkward silence or did they chat amongst themselves about their day and about the Passover celebration?  They surely had no further plans for the evening, and so they were present in the moment, present with each other, and present with God.   

And we too are called to slow things down.  Slow down and remember.  Remember that as they gathered they were remembering a Holy meal, and in that time of remembering a new tradition was born, a new Holy meal was given.  That moment mattered, this moment matters.  That community mattered, and this community matters.  This night is Holy because Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment, one based purely on love.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  A calling for us to remember on a daily basis.  On that night, only one person ate and ran.  Only one person missed this last teaching, only one person missed hearing the words of how much Jesus loved them.  And that person’s heart was hardened and he cut himself off from his community and he moved forward in his own direction, a path of death and destruction. 

If only we could slow this world down.  If only the cycle of violence could be broken and people look at each other and say to each other – you matter.  This moment with you in my presence matters.