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.  

sermon: Mother's Day

Luke 2:41

Mother’s Day

“Jesus had a Mother”

Perhaps you have heard this story from Erma Bombeck before: 

“When God Created Mothers":  When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into His sixth day of "overtime" when the angel appeared and said. "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."   

And God said, "Have you read the specs on this order?" She has to be completely washable, but not plastic. Have 180 moveable parts...all replaceable. Run on black coffee and leftovers. Have a lap that disappears when she stands up. A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair. And six pairs of hands." 

The angel shook her head slowly and said. "Six pairs of hands.... no way." 
It's not the hands that are causing me problems," God remarked, "it's the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have." 

That's on the standard model?" asked the angel. God nodded. 
One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, 'What are you kids doing in there?'  when she already knows.   Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn't but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say. 'I understand and I love you' without so much as uttering a word." 

God," said the angel touching his sleeve gently, "Get some rest tomorrow...." 
I can't," said God, "I'm so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick...can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger...and can get a nine year old to stand under a shower." 

The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. "It's too soft," she sighed. 
But tough!" said God excitedly. "You can imagine what this mother can do or endure." 
Can it think?"   Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise," said the Creator. 

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek.   There's a leak," she pronounced. "I told You that You were trying to put too much into this model." 
It's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear."  

What's it for?" 
It's for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride." 
You are a genius, " said the angel. 
Somberly, God said, "I didn't put it there.” 
            Psalm 139 – For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Just take a minute to think about how we humans are made.  From our skin that covers us, to the bones that allow us to stand, to the muscles that let us move, to our heart, our lungs and our brain.  Breathe in, breathe in the air that travels to your lungs and connects to your blood and then travels throughout your body joining with the food that you have eaten as each and every cell in your body is fed, nurtured, given life.  We are fearfully and wonderfully made.  How we are knit together in our mother’s womb is a mystery, is a miracle, is God’s creative artistic work.  Most days I don’t even think about how my body works, I just take it for granted, get out of bed and get moving.  But on some days, when the muscles ache, or the head hurts, or the eyes just are not right, it stops me and I notice. 

            Our loving God is an artist, a designer, one that has created order out of chaos and has planned a beautiful world with an incredible design and we are blessed, truly blessed to be a part of that design.  And in that creation God created us male and female and gave us mothers and fathers.  On this day, we celebrate life, we celebrate the moms that carried us in their wombs where God fashioned and created us.  We celebrate the ways in which those moms provided life, nurture, guidance, and sacrifice to care for their children. 

Together, God joins with mothers in the act of creation.  And in Mary, God partners with creation to bring forth the gift of life, love, and mercy.  Jesus had a mother and her name was Mary.  Mary did not have six pair of hands or three sets of eyes, but she did have moveable parts, a lap that disappeared when she stood up, the ability to think, and eyes that shed tears.  She had to care for her family when she was not feeling well, she had to prepare meals, perhaps even stretching resources so that each received an equal share. 

We have very little information on Mary as she and Joseph raised Jesus, but we do have this one story of when Jesus was twelve and the went to Jerusalem for the Passover.  As they were returning home, it was a days journey that Mary realized Jesus was not with them.  The panic, the anxiety, the fear of losing a child in a crowd.  I have heard stories from church members who have lost children at the airport, at the mall, at the grocery store, and at recreation events.  As Mary and Joseph return to Jerusalem to search for their child, they spend three days in anguish.  These are real people with real feelings.  This is their child, not matter what they angels declared to them, no matter what God’s promise is for the future of this child.  This is their child and he is missing.  Even Mary was not except from the fears of this world.  I don’t think there is a mother that has walked this earth that has not had moments of heart-stopping fear, anxiety, or anguish. 

Jesus’ response to his mother seems rather fresh:  Why were you searching for me?  Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s House?  Why were you searching for me?  Surely Jesus could show his mother a little more compassion than that.  Was he so caught up in the teaching, in the learning, in spending time in conversation with the Rabbi’s that he lost all track of time?  Did four days go by and he didn’t realize he had not checked in with his parents?  Or is he being a typical teenager, setting his boundaries, starting the process of separating from mom and dad and beginning the process of growing into his own person?  He knows who he is, he is one called by God to serve this world and that is his focus, his priority, his true calling and his parents need to understand that they must share him with the world, that he is not truly theirs. 

Letting go of our children, letting them blossom into the people that they want to be is challenging, difficult, stressful.  Mary was not ready to let go of Jesus, and the story tells us that she and Joseph did not understand what he said to them.  As they gathered Jesus up and returned home to Nazareth, the story concludes with:  And Mary treasured all of these things in her heart.  Mothers know that there is no instruction manual in raising children, but as we hit the ups and downs, the joys and the sorrows, the unknowing and the anguish, we can hold and treasure the moments in our hearts. 

What part of this did Mary treasure?  Did she treasure that she had found him and he was safe?  Did she treasure his desire for Godly wisdom?  Or does she treasure that God has shared this gift with her, if only for the time that she is able to be with him?  Or perhaps the act of treasuring these things upon her heart is an act of prayer:  One commentator states:  “In her attentive pondering, Mary models a certain kind of Christian spirituality of presence…contemplation in the midst of chaos…Mary attends to God precisely within the confused, messiness of her life.”   Sometimes we just don’t understand things but we can ponder them and we can hold them upon our hearts and somewhere down the road, maybe in a year or ten years we gain clarity to the messiness.    

Mary is on this journey with God, just like we are.  And she and God are doing something wonderful together, even if she has no idea what it is at that particular moment in time.  Whether you are a mother or father, a sister or brother, a son or a daughter you are on a journey with God and God desires to do something wonderful within you, alongside you, in partnership with you.  We are all created to be participants and contributors to God’s artistry.  Mary embraced who she was in God’s plan; she responded to being the mother of Jesus by proclaiming:  Here I am.  Here we are, Here we are God, gathered as your people, seeking to lift our voices to you, praising you for we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  

Good Shepherd - sermon

John 10:11

“No One Left Behind”

Are you a leader or a follower?  It seems, in this world today, we want to raise our children to be leaders.  We want our children to get a good education, so we will have leaders for tomorrow.  I was raised to be a leader, starting back in elementary school with student government and then as captain of my soccer team.  The world needs strong leaders.  We need leaders in math and science.  We need our country to be the leader of the world, economically, socially, politically. 

 But over time, I learned, that some are leaders and some are followers.  Not everyone wants to be the leader, not everyone feels able to be the leader.  I use to really dislike having to do group assignments in school because not everyone would pitch in.  Just a few would end up doing the work and the rest just hung out, not doing much of anything but still getting credit.

Are you a leader or a follower? Sometimes it just depends on the setting.  I might be a strong leader in my school’s PTA but maybe not willing to be as involved as a leader for a sports team.  Don’t ask me to chair that committee but I am happy to serve on it.  Right, we all have strengths in different places and can shine as leaders in one setting and sit back comfortably and just follow in other settings. 

And then there is the question – are you a leader if no one is following?  This is sometimes called being a lone wolf, out there on your own. And then there are the lost, needing someone or something to follow and grabbing onto anything, anyone so that they will be able to find their way. 

What do people look for in leaders?  We don’t want dictators or tyrants or people that won’t’ follow through.  We seek leaders that help guide, that have clear visions, and that have skills and abilities for the tasks ahead.  

As Jesus speaks of himself as the good shepherd, he is identifying himself as a leader.  He is the one that has the skills and abilities to take care of the sheep.  It is his vocation, it is his responsibility, his desire to be in charge of the sheep.  He is the one willing to be present even in times of danger in order to lead the sheep.  He shares that others, the hired hands, will run away but not him.  He is willing to stand in the face of whatever comes before his flock, he will not run, he will not abandon, he will not desert those that he is called to lead.    

As he compares himself to the hired hand, he states that the hired hand does not really care for the sheep.  The hired hand puts his own interest, his own safety ahead of those that he has been called to care for.  In the face of danger, the hired hand will run and the sheep will be scattered.  But that is not what the Good Shepherd will do. 

As he emphasizes his care for the sheep, he states:  I know my own and they know me.  The shepherd is not just looking over the sheep, but knows them, has a connection with them, is in relationship with them.  And the sheep know the shepherd.  This is not a one direction relationship, but together, the shepherd and the flock are connected to each other.

As Jesus begins this teaching, he shares that he will lay down his life for his sheep.  In a sense, it seems like he will abandon them.  What good to the sheep is a dead shepherd?  This teaching seems more like a Lenten reading than an Eastertide, resurrection story.  But now that we are in the season of the resurrection - Is it possible that this is a story connected to the resurrection because the good shepherd has laid down his life for his sheep and even in death does not abandon them? 

Once the shepherd is gone, the sheep are left to fend for themselves.  They are vulnerable, susceptible to the dangers all around.  But not these sheep.  These sheep are not abandoned.  Even though the teaching does not explicitly state: I will lay down my life for them and will return to them and continue to speak my voice to them, the resurrection stories of John do say:  – the Good Shepherd does know his sheep and even though the worst of the world has taken hold of him, his sheep are too important to him.  In the power of God’s love, in the power of the Easter story, in the power of the resurrection, the good shepherd comes back to his sheep and continues to pour God’s love into them.   

This very day, the Good Shepherd continues to know his own and his own know him.  This very day, the love of God is showering this world in various ways and people are responding to that love through worship, through praise, through prayer, through fellowship, and through compassion for others.  This very day, our Triune God, our creator, redeeming, sustainer, is present with us in our stress, our anxiety, our grief, our joy, our gratitude, our praise and thanksgiving. 

This very day, God calls us into this relationship, this way of living where we are connected to our creator, where we listen to how our Shepherd is leading us.  We talked a little about this, this past week during the Bible Study conversation group, listening.  Listening to God, listening to each other.  Sometimes we listen but we don’t always hear.  Opening ourselves up to listen to God is a challenging thing in today’s world.  It seems, even in our own denomination, people are hearing God saying completely different things on controversial issues.  Some are saying – God is calling us this way, and others are saying – no God is calling us this way.  In our inability to listen, listen to God and listen to each other, congregations have chosen to leave our denomination. 

So, how do we listen?  How do we know we are truly connected to our Shepherd, that just as God knows us, we too know God?  We start, by finding intentional ways to listen.  We listen on our own, but we also listen as a group.  We pray, we read scripture, and we share what is on our hearts.  The faith time line set up in the fellowship hall is one way to listen.  As God’s sheep, people have felt connected to our loving creator through retreats, through church leadership, and through friendships.  As God has connected to us in various ways, God will continue to connect with us.  But we do need to listen to how God has already worked in our own lives.  Sometimes, in the practice of listening to our own lives, new insights open up to us.  We remember things in our past where God has been at work that we had completely forgotten, or we see, only in looking back, that God’s hand truly was present with us. 

I started this sermon off by asking: are you a leader of a follower?  With the metaphor of the Good Shepherd, Jesus depicts some strong leadership skills of one that will do anything for those that follow.  For those of us raised to be leaders, sometimes it is hard to acknowledge that we need to follow, that we aren’t always the one in control, that even in our leadership, we too need a spiritual guide.  Allow the leadership of the Good Shepherd to infuse your life, accept God’s love which is greater than anything this world can give, and celebrate that God’s story is one where no matter what life brings, the Shepherd returns to the sheep, never abandoning them, and continually gathering them for God’s purpose in this world. 

Earth Day - Sermon

“Until All are Fed”

Have you ever had really big dreams?  Have you ever imagined really making a significant change in the world?  When I was in the eighth grade, I remember sitting in the school cafeteria with a few of my good friends and talking about some of the world’s problems, most significantly world hunger.  There is nothing like seeing pictures of malnourished children to tug at your heart strings.  So, we sat there, all of thirteen or fourteen years of age, trying to solve the problem of world hunger.  I decided that I was going to join the Peace Corps.  I would go to Africa and figure out a way to help feed the people.  I held onto that dream of joining the Peace Corps all the way through college, when someone suggested that maybe I should look into VISTA, the domestic Peace Corps.  Sure, I could go to another country, but we have plenty of problems and issues right here in our own back yard. 

So, instead of journeying to Africa, I was sent to Bradenton, FL.  And instead of solving the world’s food shortage and the issue of hunger, I was assigned to teach English as a Second Language to Migrant Farmworkers.  God sent me in a whole new direction, and although I was not working directly with the world food crisis, I was exposed to American Farming in a whole new way. 

I am only one generation removed from a farming family.  My mother grew up on a farm and my aunt and uncle still live on the family farm in Iowa.  I spent many a weeks in the summer playing with my cousins on the farm, learning about planting and harvesting, rotating the fields, the dangers of flooding versus droughts, and the cycle of life and death.  I can no longer snap beans then to be brought back to my aunts living room, sitting on sofa with my cousin, snapping bucket upon buckets of beans getting them ready for her to can.  When the whole Y2K thing happened, I said, what better place to be than the farm.  We have enough canned food down in the cellar to get is through whatever technological disaster they are predicting. 

The large corporate farms in Florida introduced me to irrigation systems and planes that flew overhead with pesticides.  I saw how migrant families worked long hours and were paid by the pound of what they picked.  I visited their homes in the migrant camps and saw that this was not how people helping to put food on my table should be living.   I’ve seen how farming and transporting food has a deep and negative impact on our environment. 

Food, from small farms to vast corporate entities, we buy it, we consume it, our very lives depend on it.  And I have learned, there truly is an abundance of food.  Once, when I was in the eighth grade, I had a very grand dream of being a part of ending world hunger.  Over the decades, I have learned that I am not alone in this dream and that there are numerous organizations and agencies out there doing their part to feed the world such as Heifer International, Save the Children, Unicef, and the Presbyterian Hunger Program, not to mentioned the countless soup kitchens and food banks scattered all over our country and the world.

This year, the Earth Day theme suggested by our denomination is:  Sustainable food.  Although the New Jersey farming season is rather short, we are blessed to live in an area that has farms not too far away.  My mouth just waters thinking about New Jersey corn in the summer.  And our local farms are doing their part to help us get in the habit of buying local through the numerous Farmers Markets that are located in our county.   

My grand dreams from the eighth grade are still with me, but I am much more committed to being involved with local agencies that are bringing food to the hungry, such as the Community Food bank, America’s Grow a row, and Faith Kitchen.  When I read the statistics that 40% of our food is actually thrown away, I know we can do better.  There are ways to mobilize resources to prevent food from being thrown out and to get it on the tables of people that need it. 

 A few years ago, I came across this song:  Until All Are Fed and it just really struck me.  I listen to it every so often as a prayer.  One of the versus is this: 

On the green, green grass they gathered long ago. To hear what the Master said. What they had they shared - some fishes and some loaves. And they served until all were fed.

Until all are fed we cry out. Until all on earth have bread. Like the One who loves us each & every one... We serve until all are fed.

It was there, on the green grass or on the rocky soil, or on the beach, that Jesus is teaching and his disciples are concerned that there are just too many people to feed and that the cost will just be too much for them to try and buy food for all the people that have gathered.  Jesus tells them to take what they have, which does not hardly seem to be enough, a few loaves of bread and fish, and what was once scarcity becomes abundance.  Until all are fed. 

Famine and scarcity to abundance, in our faith stories, God works through the fears that there is not going to be enough and brings abundance.  Pharaoh was greatly disturbed by his dreams, all is well during the good times, the times when the fields produce enough to go around, but what happens in times of scarcity?   When people don’t have food, the social systems that order life will break down.  Pharaoh’s very empire could be destroyed if there are seven years of no food.  Fear drives this story and rightly so.  But because God has shared that there will first be years of abundance before the famine, Joseph becomes the ears to hear God’s presence and mobilizes the empire to store food for the time of need. 

On the green, green grass they gathered long ago, they shared some fish and some loaves and they served until all were fed.  This time, they did not have the barns filled with stored grain, they only had a few loaves and a couple of fish, and yet, they served until all were fed.  Scarcity to abundance, echoes throughout our scriptures and continues into our world today.  How are we doing to feed the people of the world today?  We serve until all are fed.  We serve learning new ways to mobilize resources, such as modern day gleaning where we partner with grocery stores and convenience stores to repurpose food that would have been thrown out.  And yes, this is an incredible gift to our planet earth as well.  By seeking ways to keep that 40% of food out of landfills, all of the energy that was used to produce that food goes to its proper purpose, feeding people. 

Our God of creation has put natural systems into order that allow this precious planet that we live on produce an abundance of food so that all can be fed.  We, as a part of God’s creation, tend to get in the way.  In our own small way, we can seek to be less wasteful, we can buy local when the food is available, and we can begin to educate ourselves more on food and its impact on the environment.

Our denomination has a program called:  Presbytery Hunger program and it  is committed to the belief that life should be lived simply so that all can simply live. The everyday choices we make in our individual and family lives is a very personal matter, but they also have global implications. Understanding what causes hunger in the world is central to finding solutions. PHP encourages families, individuals, and church groups to evaluate their own needs and develop new ways of  caring and sharing of the world's resources in obedience to the gospel.

From this is a program called:  Earth Care Congregations – in which congregations seek to grow in their stewardship of God’s creation.  There is an inventory quiz to see how well your congregation is doing, and resources to guide a congregation into becoming more Green or better stewards of God’s creation.  If anyone is interested in this, I was thinking over the summer, we could have some conversation groups on Earth Care and how we can grow as a congregation in sustainable living. 

 

2nd Sunday of Easter - sermon

John 20:19

Breath of God

            Today we begin with the creation story of God creating Adam.  As God creates, it is not until God breathes into Adam that there is life.  God’s breath into humanity, into us, into this world to bring life.  This is a rather intimate way of remembering who we are in relationship to our Creating God.  Our life force, our very being exists because God has breathed life into us. 

            Breathing is one of those things that I don’t pay much attention to until I am out of breath.  Athletes and Musicians must pay attention to their breathing as they practice and train.  If you do yoga, the practice reminds you to breath and to feel your breath.  Breathe in, breathe in deep, and then breathe out.  The world all around us is breathing:  The trees, the birds, the squirrels, and each of us. 

            As we get busy in our lives, it is easy for us to forget that we are so connected to God, that all of creation is so connected to God.  Can our very breathing be a spiritual practice?  Can we find time in our daily living to just stop and focus on our breathing, saying a short prayer of gratitude to God for these created bodies in which we dwell?  As you find time to breathe in, remember where your breath goes, as it enters into your lungs and then from there is gathered up by your blood and brought to every last cell in your body in order that each part of your being receives the oxygen that it needs to live.  Your breath, finding its way to the tips of your toes. 

            Our God uses breath to bring forth creation, and our God uses breath to bring forth the new creation of God’s people in the resurrected Christ.  The Easter story is not over.  Easter is not just about God defeating death and overcoming the powers of sin in this world.  Easter is about engaging God believe that in the power of the resurrection, we are a new creation.  We are an Easter People. 

            As those disciples gathered together, full of fear, they were in a room and they had locked the door.  They had no idea what their future held.  They had just witnessed the death of their beloved friend, teacher, and leader.  What was going to happen to them? 

            Years ago, a church member gave me a Jade plant, they were downsizing and could not take this rather large plant with them.  Well, I rather quickly destroyed this plant, but instead of just throwing the whole thing away, I took cuttings off of it, and replanted the parts I thought would continue to grow.  That was over ten years ago, and I still have cuttings from this Jade plant.  A few weeks ago, my girls were playing together, and seemed a bit too quiet, so I went to see what they were up to – and they had stripped on of the Jade plants of all of its leaves, just leaving this bare stalk. 

            Symbolically, that is how I envision these disciples in that locked room.  They were stripped of everything, stripped of their hope, of their faith, of their expectations and assumptions.  All they had left were each other.  They had lost everything.  Everything that they had put aside for the past three years, their families, their livelihoods, all for nothing.  As they gathered in fear in that locked room, there must have been some deep grief and loss going on as well.   

There is just something so real about our scriptures.  The story of who we are, it tells it like it is.  We are a people that don’t always get it.  We are people that, when afraid, we gravitate towards those that help us feel safe.  We lock the doors to keep others out, whether it is the doors of our houses, our churches, or even our hearts.  We know how to protect ourselves.  And our God never gives up on us.  Jesus does not say, oh I wasted the past three years with these people.  Jesus meets them in their fear, he appears to them, entering into the locked room, and breathes upon them.  Sacred breath, sacred creation, sacred living.  No matter who we are, no matter what our past or what our present, God desires to encounter us in our locked places of our lives and breathe the life giving force of creation. 

I didn’t throw those stalks of my Jade plant away.  I decided I would continue to water it and see, if just by some chance, it would continue to grow.  And it is.  For a plant that I thought I had killed ten years ago, it continues to amaze me as cutting after cutting continue to grow. 

God’s people are the same, we continue on, we continue from a long faith history, we continue hearing the story and sharing the story.  And sometimes, hopefully more often than naught, we encounter the risen Christ in our lives and are refreshed with God’s living breath reminding us that we are indeed a part of God’s new Creation. 

As Jesus breathes into his beloved friends, he does not allow them to stay in the locked room.  He calls them to go forth.  They have a role to play in God’s plan.  They have a role to play in continuing God’s story.  They have a role to play in sharing the message that God has overcome the oppressive powers of the world.  This is a daunting role, and they do not go out alone, but they go out with the breath of God within them. 

Maundy Thursday

I had no idea there was a whole world of Historical re-enactments that goes on.  Over the past few years, I have met more and more people that participate in Civil War re-enactments.  I even have a pastor friend that was asked to do a Renaissance wedding, with the Knight in armor and his fair maiden, complete with noble stead.  The more people I met, connected with some sort of re-enactment group, the more I realized this was greater than just Historical Williamsburg.  Just a quick google search will show you that there are Historical Re-enactment groups for Vikings, for Ancient Rome, and for the Scottish Highlands. 

            When I ask people why they are involved in such groups, there are a variety of responses such as: I find it interested, it is fun, this is a part of history that fascinates me, I want to connect to my history and my heritage in a meaningful way. 

            Tonight, is, shall we say, a historical re-enactment.  This night, this gathering, this Holy feast takes us back to the life of Jesus as he gathers in the upper room with his disciples.  Just as we do a historical re-enactment of that meal, they too were doing a historical re-enactment of a Holy Meal – the Passover feast, remembering their own history, their own heritage of a God that liberated their people and brought them out of Egypt. 

            Why do we, as people, engage in re-enactments?  And why these stories?  Why is it so important to remember something through our actual participation?  Our scriptures are filled with lots of stories, lots of events.  God is continually connecting to God’s people, creating covenants, extending love, but we choose just a few, just a handful to re-enact.  And through these – hands on – experiences, through bringing our scriptural stories out of the past and into the present, we are given a deep spiritual connection to our ancestors, to our heritage, to our connectedness in God’s work in this world. 

            Part of why we re-enact these particular stories is because God calls us to remember.  As the Passover occurred, God marked this moment in the people’s history as a Holy meal, a time of remembrance, to remember always.  The people are told to tell their children, and their children’s children what God has done, how God heard their suffering in Egypt and brought them to freedom and wholeness.  It is a story to tell the next generation to remind them to be compassionate about others, once you were slaves, once you were aliens in the land, now you are free, now you are God’s holy people. 

            Although the Exodus from Egypt comes at a horrible cost, the Hebrew people are now free to leave their oppression. 

            As Jesus participates in this spiritual memory, it is still a significant practice for him and his disciples to remember that they are God’s people.  That God works to liberate people from oppression and calls God’s people to be compassionate care givers to others. 

            And Jesus brings this into their present day situation as he humbles himself and washes their feet.  He shows love and compassion to them.  He breaks bread with them, participating in this Holy feast together and then he gives them a new commandment:  To love each other as he has loved them.  He has loved each disciple as well as the mass crowds who gathered around him.  He heard their suffering and lifted them out of their oppression as he loved the leper, the sinner, the tax colletector, and the outcaste.  He loved them all.

            In all of this, he proclaims, by this – everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.  Discipleship.  They have already been his disciples, but now they are being prepared for a new stage, a time of public witness, a time of living out everything they have learned and seen and participated in as they followed Jesus.  What  a task, to let the world know they are his disciples. 

            This calling to discipleship is ever bit as important to us today as it was on that night of the last Supper.  We remember this meal, we re-enact this meal, we seek to embrace the new covenant n our lives, and we must then take it out into the world.  We cannot be afraid to let everyone know that we are disciples of Jesus Christ, as we proclaim God’s love for each and every person. 

            But discipleship takes work, and we need ot be comfortable in our beliefs, we need to be able to name our spiritual gifts and our spiritual calling, and we need to understand what our Holy passion is for this world.  Jesus spent time preparing his diciples and they still struggled but he did not give up on them and continued to teach and model and exemplified God’s love for this world.

            Passover, a Holy Feast of God’s liberation to a people once suffering under great oppression.  Communion, the continued story of God’s love as God continues to shine the light of love into the world’s darkest places.  And now it is our calling as disciples to bring forth that Holy story, not just re-enact it, but live it out as we share God’s love that knows no boundaries, but is extended to all.  Amen.