Summer Sermon Series - living water

“God’s Living Water”

            As we continue in our summer sermon series on being a new creation in Christ, today we focus on water.  As seeds germinate and begin the process of growth, they need the soil, light, and water.  Last week we focused on how we need to be present to God’s light in order to grow into the God’s new creation.  God also provides us with the image of the living water throughout our scripture stories. 

            Our first reading comes from the prophet Ezekiel.  Ezekiel has various visions and one is of God’s Holy Temple.  Flowing throughout the temple is water.  This water has life giving qualities.  We are told that there is stagnant water but as this water flows through it, the water becomes fresh.  Wherever the river goes,^[b] every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these waters reach there. It will become fresh; and everything will live where the river goes. 

            Water is essential to life.  All living things need it, but water can become tainted, poisoned, dirty, polluted, and its life giving qualities can be drained away from it.  In various parts of the world, the water temperature has changed enough that the coral reefs are dying.  As an avid scuba diver, this has saddened me deeply as the once incredibly bright color underwater world is starting to turn white, called bleaching. 

            Our lives can be like this as well.  We can be so exposed to the pollution of the world around us that we become stagnant or bleached out.  Where our true and natural colors of God given passion and love has begun to fade away.   Sometimes we call it burn out. 

            Keeping ourselves immersed in God’s water, rather than the water of the world is essential to being a part of the new creation.  I just had this conversation with someone the other day, on how we often start our day by turning on the news and it can really just bring us down.  What if we immersed ourselves in something different?  What if we started our mornings with music, or something positive and life giving rather than the negative we are so accustomed to doing? 

            As many of you know, this past week was VBS.  Talk about a dose of living water.  For five days, fifty young people gathered next door for three hours of positive living.  For music, crafts, snacks, games, and story of God’s love for them.  And during this time, they were surrounded by loving adults that wanted to share God’s living water with them. 

            God’s super heroes have:  heart, courage, wisdom, hope and power.  So, even though we did not do the passage of Jesus at the well with the woman who he offers living water we lived out this passage all week.  To be God’s new creation is to receive God’s living water and then live it out through: having heart, having courage, having wisdom, having hope, and having power.  And throughout the week, the children also learned a scripture verse which was:  Do good, seek peace, and Go after it.  If we are to be a new creation in God, we should always be trying to:  do good, seek peace, and finding ways to go after it. 

            As Jesus comes to the woman at the well, and asks her for a drink, she is not sure how to do good, since she is a woman and Jesus is a man, she is a Samaritan and he is a Jew.  There are numerous boundaries getting in her way.  And as they talk, Jesus breaks those boundaries down and helps her understand that it does not matter that she is a woman or a Samaritan, that he comes to offer living water. 

            At first she does not get it, she wants to know where his bucket is and makes an excuse that the well is deep, but she does want to know where this living water is.  Jesus tries to explain to her that there are two types of water.  There is the water that we drink and there is the spiritual water of God that will fill our souls with God’s love making us whole.  The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 

            In many ways, Jesus is the temple of God that the prophet Ezekiel was talking about through his vision.  From the life and teachings of Jesus the living water of God flows forth.  It flows out of him into the spiritually stagnant places of our lives and of the world.  It flows out and brings life to the places that it touches, where it is soaked in where it is absorbed.  And as the Samaritan woman at the well begins to understand, she is transformed, she is renewed, she becomes a new creation in God.  She goes back to her village and proclaims that she has met a man who knows everything about her and she asks:  Can he possibly be the Messiah? 

            Life changing moments, moments where we feel something holy in our presence and we just are not sure if it is possibly of God or just a moment.  Life changing moments are happening this summer, they are happening in places like Camp Johnsonburg, VBS at various churches throughout the area, and mission trips to places like Appalachia.  How are you being exposed to the living water?  Are you at the well not sure what to do because there seems to be too many boundaries, challenges, concerns in the way?  Are you wading in the water soaking it up, open to its possibilities but not sure where it will take you?  Are you passionate about how God has called you to be a part of a certain mission opportunity and fully embracing it, seeking to make a difference not just in your own life but in the world as well. 

            One example I used through the week of being God’s super hero, is that of one of our families here at the church.  Having a mission does not have to be overwhelming, it can be something that connects to your family.  One of our families fosters puppies.  They take in dogs, sometimes for a few weeks, maybe longer until they are able to be placed in a forever home.  This is such a beautiful way to show young children how to be God’s super hero.  It involved having heart, and courage, and wisdom, and hope, and power.  It might be very difficult to let those puppies go to another home, because we may fall into love with them very quickly, but when we view it as a mission, as a calling of God, we release them to the next family knowing we have done our part in providing a temporary home for them.  

Summer Sermon Series - Photosynthesis

“Photosynthesis”

Last week, we started a sermon series on the Bible Passage – If you are in Christ, you are a new Creation.  You are a new creation.  What do you think of that?  Did you think of that?  What impact has your faith in God had on your life?  Has it made you more generous or more loving?  Has it pushed you out of your comfort zone to do things that you might not have done otherwise, such as volunteer at the Soup Kitchen or help out at a homeless shelter?  What seeds of faith have landed within your inner most being that through time have grown into outward expressions of who you are?  The seeds are there, waiting for the right conditions to begin to germinate. 

Today’s theme is photosynthesis, yes a little science lesson.  As that small little seed takes root and begins to sprout, it is able to take nutrients from the soil, but as soon as that first leaf breaks forth, a new process begins within it.  The leaf unfolds and soaks in the sunshine, absorbs the light, and then the relationship between the plant and the sun begins to produce food.  A relationship between the sun and the plant.  I still remember in second grade, I was in Mrs. Clupper’s class and we did an experiment with bean sprouts.  One jar of beans was placed in a dark closet, and the other jar was placed in a sunny location.  After a week, we checked in on those beans.  The beans in the closet had grown, but they were strangely white, while those in the sun where bright and green.  That memory has just really stayed with me. 

Something happens because of the relationship between the plant and the sun.  The plant is has something called Chlorophyll which absorbs the blue and red in the light and reflects back out the green.  So, plants that are in the sunlight are green because they are able to absorb light and reflect light back out.  Plants grown in the dark have no light to absorb and therefore no light to reflect back out, hence they are white. 

Now, think of us, think of our seed of the New Creation, as being the plant.  Perhaps we feel something growing within us, something life changing, something of faith that is calling is to live differently, such as the example I shared last week of being more environmentally aware.  Now, I can be more environmentally aware and not be a person of faith, but when I allow that seedling of the New Creation to be in relationship with the sun or the Son, it will absorb God’s love, God’s strength, God’s nurture, and reflect back out into the world a newness of great beauty. 

We are the garden of God, and as our leaves begin to unfold and we find ourselves in relationship to God, photosynthesis happens.  We are able to transform God’s teachings into life tangible ways of living.  We take words off of a page and they are infused into our being, feeding us, and calling us into the New Creation.   Each day a plant is involved in transformation, transforming sunlight into food, each day, we too should be involved in transformation, absorbing God’s presence into our being and doing the best we can to produce a fruitful life for God.  

If you pay attention, you notice that some plants grow quickly while others take a very long time.  I have an orchid that I am trying to have re-flower – and it has been months and months of these small little leaves just beginning to grow forth.  While we have plants in our yard that seem to grow several inches over night.  The same happens with us as God’s New Creation.  There are things within us that will just grow quickly, while there are other parts of us that seem to take forever.  For example. as a new creation in Christ, I am going to try to be more forgiving or I am going to try to be more open minded, or I am going to find healthy ways to destress.  These may take a longer time to develop within ourselves then donating canned food to Roxbury social services.

The only way we can let our light shine, is photosynthesis.  We must first find ways to absorb God’s light, God’s word, God’s love, God’s message for us, God’s gift of grace and reconciliation and then, and only then, can we reflect the love of God back into the world.  Jesus says:  “You are the light of the world”.  You.  His message has been a message for people for 2,000 years.  “You, are the light of the world.  Let your light shine before others.’  We are not called to just go out and do good for others, but we are called to absorb the light of God and transform it back into the world in ways that others will give glory to God.  That’s a mighty task, so how do we do this?  We begin by making sure we are exposed to as much light as possible.  Perhaps that means finding a daily devotional, or starting a prayer journal, or discerning where God is calling you to serve within the life of the church or greater world. 

Over the 4^th of July weekend, we had the opportunity to visit Mt Vernon and learn more about George Washington.  The entire time, I kept thinking how this man was, in so many ways, responsible for this amazing country in which we live.  He truly bent history as he devoted himself to a new form of government rather than serving as a king. Yes, he had flaws, such as owning slaves, but he also made provisions for their freedom in his will.  He was faced with so many decisions and could have taken this country in numerous directions.  He chose to try a new way of people a society, a new way of being a country, a new way of running a government.   Images of the New Creation abound if we have eyes to see them.   

I googled:  People who have transformed the world, and I got an interesting list of people:  Bill Gates, Martin Luther King, Jr.  Nelson Mandela, Ghandi, Einstein, Karl Marx, Hitler, Darwin, and Christopher Columbus, were just a few.  Each of these people had seeds of greatness within them, and some used those seeds of greatness for the greater good, while others used the seeds of greatness for what they thought was the greater good, but retrospection has allowed us to see tragic outcomes.   I found another site that names ordinary people that changed the world, such as Rosa Parks, JK Rowling, Susan B Anthony, Mother Theresa, and Malala Yousafzia.  This young girl has an amazing story, true courage, and shows how living in the light can truly make a difference in this world. When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. 

Various agencies seek to transform the world, everything from World Wildlife Federation to Save the Children, to Community Food Banks, to the Red Cross, environmental groups, to Disaster relief groups.  You name the area of interest and there is an advocacy group involved.  And then there are other groups, such as drug gangs, and hate groups, and organized crime that bring people together to prey upon others.  We all have the potential for good, just like plants, we are designed for photosynthesis, we have the choice of what we are going to absorb and what we are going to release back out into the world.  Amen. 

summer Sermon Series - New Creation

Plant with Care:

Today, we are starting a summer sermon series based on 2 Corinthians 5:17 – called Tending the New Creation.  This is the passage:  So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! What does it mean for us to be made new in Christ?  For many of us, it is the assurance that in and through Christ we are forgiven, that we are loved, that we are children of the covenant, included in God’s gift of salvation. 

            In the time that Paul was writing this, there were some significant ways in which people were made new.  As small communities of people gathered to live out the teachings of Jesus Christ, they had to learn to let go of some of the cultural norms that existed.  In Galatians Paul writes:  There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 

            What does it mean for us to be made new in Christ?  Some people have dramatic stories of how a life of faith has had a major impact on them and they have left behind destructive choices and are seeking wholeness in life  But for many others, we may not have put much thought into how being followers of the teachings of Jesus have actually called us into God’s new creation.  Just prior to this passage, Paul explains a little more about what it means to be a new creation in Christ, he proclaims: that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.

            What if we were to live for Christ? Many of us live for others, but what if we live for Christ?  What would this look like for us?  As we think about this, as we take time to ponder within our own lives and how we live and what we live for, we are going to allow the summer to be a time to let that New Creation within us grow.

            Maybe you clearly know what the New Creation is within yourself.   Or perhaps you are sensing an area of your life that you would like to change, God is always calling us into transformation.  Throughout our scriptures there are multiple suggestions as to how people of faith should live, how they should reflect being a part of God’s New Creation:  we should feed the hungry, clothe the naked – we do many of these things by volunteering, or what we like to call it in the church – mission outreach.  The scriptures also call us to be good stewards, whether that is of our treasures, our talent, our time, and the resources of our planet.  In today’s day and age, being a part of God’s New Creation might be calling us to consider the food we eat, do we buy organic or locally?  Do we compost?  Do we think about our shopping patterns?  Or perhaps being a part of the new creation needs to begin with some self-care, such as exercise, learning more about the scriptures, spending time writing, or studying. 

            The new creation calls us to embrace God’s love, love for ourselves, love for others, love for God, and love for the world in which we live.  For the summer, I have chosen for my spiritual practice of being a part of God’s new creation to be composting and eating healthy. Each of these can be seen as seedlings within God’s garden.  And seedlings need care and attention.  I started off with a worm compost, and it was an epic fail.  Somehow, I managed to kill two pounds of worms, even with very intentional nurture.  So, I decided to purchase a compost tumbler and my compost is doing great. 

            The eating healthier part of my self-care in God’s new creation is a bigger struggle.  We are buying farm fresh vegetables for the summer, but there are still a ton of snacks around the house with the children being home.  So, this is where I am going to have to work on nurturing the seedling within me. 

            Seeds, seedlings, new growth, new creation, we all know the question – which came first the chicken or the egg?  So I ask:  Which came first:  the flower of the seed?  Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.  Now, I am an evolutionist, but I do very much believe God created this world, so which ever came first, God designed it and I am lost in awe and wonder at how something so small as a seed can be transformed into anything at all. 

            If something as small as a mustard seed can become a great plant, why do we doubt that we can be something amazing?  If God designed a seed to grow into something amazing, a tree, a flower, a plant, a bush, can we not see how God designed us to be transformed into a glorious garden filled with a glorious harvest?  But first, we have to plant with care.  A mustard seed will stay a mustard seed unless it is planted. Marcia Mcfee writes:  Germinated seeds must be planted in order for roots to begin to dig deep in the soil. Is the soil in which we plant our hopes fertile? Inherent in the action of planting is an action of belief that something will come of our effort. Can we imagine what will be? This is a work of the people for the sake of those who will come. What are we planting for future generations? 

 I see the church as God’s garden.  We are all the seeds, and now we must plant with care.  We plant the mustard seed of faith within us, we patiently wait as the seed germinates, and we believe that in Christ, we are made new, that we are a new creation, that God is alive within this community and within ourselves to bring forth the Kingdom.    We also believe that our actions, when done as a part of God’s love, as a part of God’s New Creation, have a ripple effect that spread out into the greater world in ways we may never know or see.  On our bulletin cover, I used words from Mother Teresa that state?  I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters and create many ripples.  Is that now what we are called to do as a part of God’s New Creation, create ripples?  Let us be the positive ripples of change, ripples of love, ripples of forgiveness, ripples of God’s new creation. 

Our call to worship – was:

You are a seed of the word, O people,

               Bring forth the kingdom of God!

Seeds of mercy and seeds of justice,

               Grow in the kingdom of God!

Bring forth the kingdom of mercy,

               Bring forth the kingdom of peace.

Bring forth the kingdom of justice,

               Bring forth the kingdom of God!