Advent - Week one - Candle of Hope

“Season of Hope”

            Today we light the first candle of Advent, the candle of Hope.  As we begin this journey to Christmas, we go back in our faith story, back to the day and age of the prophets.  Take yourself back to the year 720 B.C. plus or minus a few years.  In this time period you would have seen how over the generations, God had fulfilled God’s promises.  The descendants of Abraham have become numerous and have been given the Promised Land.  God has built up for them a mighty nation and has equipped them with kings to rule over them.  The day and age of King David has come and gone, the day and age of the mighty Kingdom has come and gone.  Now, now they are living on the other side of God’s promise, it has come and gone and their mighty kingdom has split into two.  There is the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. 

            You know that Bruce Springsteen Song:  Glory days?  It’s kind of like that.  Life moves on and when you look back the past looks so good.  Nothing like talking about those glory days – but as Springsteen declares:  Glory days well they'll pass you by - Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye.  But those glory days have come and gone and now there is deep concern of losing it all, of being conquered by the neighboring nation of Assyria.  One cannot live in the past, one cannot live focused on the Glory days, the people of God need to move forward and they need a new vision, a new message, a new promise to live into.    The people are going to face a national crisis, which will also bring about a spiritual crisis, and in order to remain faithful, they need hope. 

            And so, out of this message of despair, Isaiah brings forth a message that, yes, the Assyrians will come in and destroy us, but God is not done with us.  God will continue with a covenant, God will continue with a promise, God will continue to use the Israelites as a holy people.  Even though what seems to be a complete loss of all they had God will bring forth a new creation.  And so, out of the stump of Jesse, out of what was once a beautiful Nation, but will become nothing more than a stump, a new shoot will spring, a branch will grow out of its roots.  With God, there is always new life, there is always a new vision, there is always a new promise for those that are willing to be present to God’s messengers.  Isaiah provides them hope in the midst of destruction. 

            God will rebuild the people and he will bring forth a leader that has God’s spirit upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.  Sounds like a description of a good candidate.  Isaiah offers a rather descriptive image of this leader that will come forth from the lineage of King David and then there is this transition in verse 6.  It moves from a description of the gifts this king will have to an illustration of a completely transformed world.  It is one thing to have a gifted, talented, and God centered ruler, it is quite another thing for all of creation to change.   Suddenly, there is a description of animals of prey living alongside their next meal.  And a little child shall lead them.  It is a description of a better world and is often called the Peaceable Kingdom. 

            What a vision, what a promise, what a hope to live into.  Artists, writers, philosophers, theologians, ponder and wonder, what would a better world look like? Louis Armstrong has the song:  wonderful World - I see trees of green, red roses, too,
I see them bloom, for me and you  And I think to myself  What a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue, and clouds of white,  The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself   What a wonderful world.

What does a wonderful world look like to you?  Wars ended?  All of creation fed?  Diseases healed? 

            This past year, a movie came out called:  The Giver.  The book is required reading in many middle schools in our area.  It is about creating the perfect society and how, in order to do so, everything has to be made normal.  As the book unfolds, you learn that in a perfect world, there is no color, there are no choices, there are no memories of the past, there is no pain, and only the healthy are able to live.  But in order to remember why this is a perfect world, one person must remember, this person holds onto all of history, all of pain, all of the things society wanted to get rid of in order to be content.  But as this person, the Receiver, learns of color and other beautiful things about life, he cannot keep it a secret.  He wants everyone to enjoy these things even if it brings with it the cost of remembering painful events of history.   In a sense, they created the peaceable kingdom, but the message of the book is, there are so many blessings in life as it currently is -

            What does a Godly world look like to you?  And do we continue to hold onto hope as we journey forward to a day and age when we finally arrive to the holy mountain when all the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord?  Hope, hope begins the season of Advent, hope of our past, hope of our present, and hope of our future.  Are we willing to give into cynicism or fear?  Are we focused on the Glory Days, or are we moving into God’s new creation?  I find that we have so much in common with the people in the day and age of Isaiah.  We have lived into God’s promises and have professed that in Jesus Christ God brought forth the shoot out of the stump of Jesse.  We live on the other side of the coming of the Messiah and yet.  And yet we have not reached a sense of completion.  Just like the people on the other side of being a great nation, God was not done with them yet. 

            Throughout our Gospels, there is proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah, that he is Emmanuel, God with us.  That he is God’s promise of rebuilding God’s kingdom.  Matthew begins his Gospel with a genealogy because Jesus needs to be of the lineage of King David.  He is the shoot, he is the new branch, he is the one that the spirit of the Lord rests upon.    And we sing:  My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.  Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness, and yet.  And yet, we live in a day and age when we need to remember the hope.  Perhaps we need an Isaiah for our day and age, a messenger of God letting us know that even when the world around us seems dark, there is always hope.  God is not done with us and we still have a purpose for God’s kingdom here in this world.  Advent is not just an age old tradition of the church.  It is still relevant to us today, we live on the other side of a fulfilled promise, and yet.  And yet we know that there is still such need for healing, reconciliation, and hope for this world.  Let us live into God’s hope as we continue this advent journey.  Amen.    

Thanksgiving sermon

Thanksgiving for the Sense of Taste and Smell

            I am the mother of two young children, so my life is saturated with Disney movies and children’s story books.  My girls have one particular Winnie the Pooh book about the senses that we read quite often.  It starts off with Rabbit needing help harvesting all of the apples in his orchard.  The whole crew pitches in and helps pick apples.  Once they are finished, they marvel at the different colors: there are red, and yellow, and green.  They then decide that they need to have a party to celebrate this great harvest, so Rabbit gives them permission to take whatever they need from his garden and off they go to make various items for their harvest celebration. 

            Eeyore takes his apples and makes apple cider.  Pooh bear takes his apples and dips them in honey.  Kanga takes her apples and makes pie.  Owl takes his apples and makes candles.  And Rabbit takes his and makes jam.  But poor Tigger, he has no idea what to make.  He is all confused and feeling rather inadequate.  As he visits each of his friends, learning about what they are making, he finally has an idea.  He will turn all of their creations into a game of the senses.  Some of the items smell good, others are sticky and gooey to the touch, others can be sampled and identified through taste.  And even little Roo  made maracas to join in the fun, so his creation connected to the sense of sound.  

            The Winnie the Pooh characters all participated in bringing in the harvest and they all contributed to the harvest festival.  Together, they took the same items, and yet they each contributed something unique and different.  No one item was better than another, and each character, whether young or old, skilled or not, had a way to share of themselves as they celebrated together.  Apple Cider, apple pie, apple candles, honey covered apples, apple jam, so many ways to take one fruit, one item of the harvest and enjoy its tastes, and smells. 

            This is just a children’s book, but it makes my mouth water.  I would really like to taste one of Pooh’s honey covered apples.  And apples, fresh off the tree are just so much better than buying them in the store.  Reading the book, conjures up memories of apple picking, fresh apple cider, and I can almost feel the juice running down my cheek. 

Our senses are powerful things.  They stir up our brain, they trigger emotions, they can even evoke memories.  Have you ever smelled something and suddenly you almost feel transported back in time to a specific place and time?  Our senses can trigger memories of things we haven’t thought of in forever, such as a meal at grandma’s house when you were a young child.   

            As we prepare for our upcoming Thanksgiving meal, are there any special dishes that you plan on having?  For so many, the foods have become a part of our heritage, a part of our psyche, a part of our memory engrained within us because of our senses. I could be wrong, but I don’t think they had stuffing or marshmellows on their sweet potatoes on that first Thanksgiving, but I can’t imagine a Thanksgiving without it.  Over time, meal after meal, we remember but we also add on, alter, change, and re-create.   As we prepare our meals, are there dishes at the table that are there because they have an ingrained memory within us, connecting us to our past, to our own heritage of a grandparent or great grandparent?  That when we eat it, we can’t help but think of Thanksgivings of our past, and how through food, we are able to bring our past into our present and on into our future? 

            There is such a sacredness in doing this.  Many of our faith traditions use food as a way to continue a story.  There are both the Passover and the Lord’s Supper, that for time longer than any of us can really fathom, have been passed along from generation to generation reminding us to remember, remember what God has done.  I love how the Psalmist uses the sense of taste to symbolically call us to connect to God:  O taste, and know that the Lord is good.  This is not a literal taste, taste the pumpkin pie and know God is good, but spiritually taste God.  Taste your faith, engage in it, engage in the scriptures of your faith, engage in how our senses speak to our memories and the moments of life where we remember what God has done for us.  Our senses are more than just a part of the physical design of our bodies.  They are more than just our nerve endings telling our brain how to react.  They are a part of our spiritual design.  It is through food and our sense of taste, our sense of smell, and our sense of sight that creates the whole moment, that creates one whole memory.  Our senses connect us to every day living, but they also connect us to the sacred, when we pay attention, when we listen to those memories stirred up within us, when we remember that the pumpkin pie is not just grandma’s recipe, but we remember how grandma sought to live her life as faithfully as she could. 

            Our senses, our memories, our sacred stories and meals in our lives, are very Biblical.  In the passage read today from Deuteronomy, the people have been living in the wilderness for forty years.  Although God has provided for them, they have had a rather limited diet.  As they prepare to enter the Promised Land, they are given this command.  They are to take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket.  Can you image?  Take the first fruits of the ground and dedicate them to God.  I’m sorry, but I am I would be like the little child that takes a nibble before the food is served.  Did any of you ever get shooed out of the kitchen, I remember those hand smacks and the scolding, get your fingers off of that and wait until dinner is served.  But it smells so good, it looks amazing, can’t I just have a taste? 

            That would be me, once I arrived in the Promised Land, I would need to have a nibble, I am sure my mouth would be watering as these new foods connected with my senses and I would want to devour them.  But God asks first for the food to be dedicated before the priests.  No matter how strong our senses are, to touch, smell, and taste these foods, first we must remember. 

            The people are to remember, once they are in the Promised Land that life was not always so blessed.  They are to remember being a people in Egypt and they are to remember that God liberated them from their affliction.  They are to remember that God brought them into this land and they are to dedicate the first fruits before they celebrate the harvest. 

            Many years ago, my family started remembering.  We did not remember all the way back to our Biblical history, but we started remembering that the pilgrims did not always have an abundant harvest.  We began to remember that there was a time when there just was not enough.  We began to remember that Thanksgiving was not just about grandma’s apple pie, and turkey and stuffing.  But it was about a courageous people that came to a new land to live in a new way and that many of them did not survive.  We began to remember the importance of the friendship between the pilgrims and the Native Americans and we starting to give thanks in a new way.  Five kernels of corn were placed by each persons plate reminding us of hard times, of times when there is just not enough and we prayed for those in the world today that still do not have enough: for the homeless, for refugees, for the underemployed and unemployed, for those whose medical bills have drained them dry.  We remember not just the past but we remember the present and we give thanks for our abundance.  This Thanksgiving, spend time allowing your senses to invoke memories among you.  As you smell taste your food, celebrate those that have come before and give thanks for the ways in which God’s sacred story continues to live out in our lives, in new and creative ways.  O Taste and know the Lord is good.  Amen. 

             

Stewardship Sermon

1 Kings 17

Acts 4:32

            After Sunday worship, a young boy walked up to the pastor and handed him a dollar.  The pastor asked, what is this for?  I thought you might need it.  And the pastor responded, why is that son?  And the boy responded, every Sunday when we get home from church, my dad always says what a poor preacher you are. 

            As we gather on this Stewardship Sunday, we have these two passages before us.  One is of the prophet Elijah that encounters a widow that has absolutely nothing left to care for her son and herself.  The other is of a community of people that have come together to share of their resources so that there is no need among them.  One is a story of isolation, the other is a story of community.  The widow and her son are on their own.  Once their meager amount of food is gone that is it, there is nothing more and it seems there are no outside resources available to them.  No soup kitchen, no food pantry, no community of faith pooling their resources to get them through.  They are going to die. 

            In the story of community, we have generous hearts, people taking what they have, selling what they don’t need, bringing together resources to make sure the entire group is being cared for.  Barnabas had a field, and he too sold it to bring the proceeds to the community.  We then have another couple, that decide they too will sell some property, but instead of being of one heart with the greater community, they proclaim that they are giving the proceeds of the sale to the group, but they withhold a portion of the prophets for themselves.  Ananias an Sapphira – have so much, and are generous in what they give, and yet.  And yet they cannot completely surrender what they have and the outcome is rather harsh.  They drop dead. 

            We have a widow with nothing that fears she and her son will die, and somehow, by giving the last of what they have to the prophet Elijah, their food does not run out.  Ananias and Sapphira had no fear of going hungry, no concern that their life might come to an end, but they also just can’t seem to fully trust in the community to which they are a part. 

            Throughout the generations, people have tried in various places to live out this type of Christian community.  Is it truly possible to come together as a people and share all of our resources?  And over and over again, people have learned that it just does not work.  The Amish are doing their best to model coming together as a community in times of need to help each other out, but even they do not pool all of their resources together. 

            So, as we ponder Stewardship, as we ponder what it means to be community here together, we each have our own possessions, homes, and cars, but we also have a shared resource and responsibility.  This church building, this sanctuary, this organ, these windows are collectively ours.  Generations of people have contributed from their own resources to come together and share, to share in creating a sacred place where people can gather in worship, prayer, song.  Where people can gather in Sunday School and Bible Study, where people can gather in fellowship and celebration.  This is how we pool together our resources in our modern world so that all have a church home. 

            But we also know we are more than a building, we are more than this sanctuary, this organ, and these windows.  We are to be like the prophet Elijah that goes to the widow and her son, we are to go to places of isolation, places that others have forgotten or don’t care about, we are to go and bring promise, bring hope, bring God’s promise of providing even in times when there seems to be nothing left.  For a small church, we do a lot.  We just gathered at least a dozen grocery bags full of food for the Roxbury Food Pantry’s Thanksgiving basket.  And now, today, we pack items for the military through Operation Shoe Box.  Studies show, that in our current society, people want to give to a cause, they want to give to something that is concrete, something that they can see, something tangible.  People want to give to charities that connect to their own lives such as: Breast Cancer, Alztimer’s research, or diabetes. 

            When we give to God, when we give to the church, it might not seem so concrete.  The work of God in this world, what we proclaim as the Kingdom of God is not always easy to name.  But it is there.  Your stewardship to this church building has allowed a scout troop to gather in this building for years.  Year after year, young men gain skills of leadership and are given the opportunity of becoming Eagle Scouts, and those are the tangible moments of the Kingdom of God breaking into our world.  Stewardship calls us to pool our resources, not always for ourselves, but for the greater community, for the support group that meets here on Monday nights, and for the yearly blood drives.

            Here are a few ways in which people within this congregation have shared why this church, why this community is important.  We can’t put a price tag on these things, but we can proclaim them as the work of God, the inbreaking of God’s kingdom here in this place, and within our hearts, and within our lives. 

            However it is that we are able to give, we, as a community here in this place will need to find ways to gather as a community that fits within our means.  We are fortunate that we are not the widow, preparing our last meal, but we must be good stewards with what we have and with what we receive.  Let us live into the Bible characters of Elijah and Barnabas, whether we are able to take a meager handful of resources and multiply it, or give generously of what we already have, together, we are God’s people and together we are making a difference in our own spiritual journeys as well as sharing love and compassion with the world around us.  Amen.    

All Saints Day - sermon: More than Heirlooms

Rev. 21

“More Than Heirlooms”

            This past week, I attended a pastor’s retreat at camp Johnsonburg.  The theme of the retreat was story telling.  We sat around a fire, with full length windows on either side, so the gorgeous fall foliage accented the beauty of the burning logs.  Our speaker shared his stories, each beginning with a scripture and each ending with a connection to how God is present in not just the stories of our scripture but in the story of our lives.  We were then invited to share stories of our own lives, stories from our ministry, stories of life, and stories of death. 

            He shared a story on Revelations 21 of the new heavens and the new earth.  His story was of one of the reality of the world, that sometimes really bad things do happen and how, as a people of faith, we live in this time knowing God’s promise that in the fullness of God’s time God’s love overcomes oppression, injustice, suffering, and even death.  We live in this imbetween time, this time of proclaiming God’s work in Jesus Christ, a season of resurrection, but still not the fullness of all knees bowing before God, and embracing God’s love in their lives. 

            But the thing is, we have stories, we have stories of when God’s fullness is present in our lives.  We have glimpses of God’s future glory if we open ourselves to interpreting our life stories through the lens of scripture. 

            As I began to think more deeply about my stories, and this particular day we call All Saints Day, I began to think about the people in my life that have gone before.  I remember visiting my grandmother and how she was so adamant that there be no fighting over her things after she died that she gave us all masking tape and a marker and we were suppose to go around and put our name on specific items.  Grandma wanted her stuff to be passed along.  There were some really special things that I wanted.  I was one of the last of the grandchildren not to have children, and Grandma had made all the other great grandchildren baby blankets.  Well, wouldn’t you know, she had a hope chest, and in the chest were a pile of baby blankets waiting, waiting for future babies, babies not yet born, but waiting for future possibility, future expectations, future love.  Maybe like God’s hope chest of the new heavens and the new earth, filled with God’s love for not just what has been but for what will be. 

            Sometimes, the things we receive from loved ones are family heirlooms, other times they are deep connections to our loved one’s life.  I have a few items passed along to me that have very little meaning to me. I keep them only because they belong to grandma or grandpa.  But there are other things that are more than heirlooms, they hold a reminder to stories, to memories, to moments where our lives connected and our stories intertwined.  From both of my grandmothers, I asked for one of their quilting books.  They were both avid quilters and this is an art form that I am deeply drawn to.  Although I have only done a few small quilts, I plan to embrace this art form more deeply as my girls get a little older. 

            Another item I claimed, was my grandmother’s Bible Quilt.  I only learned of this quilt on her 90^th birthday when my mother and aunt put together a book for all the grandchildren.  After grandma’s death, I used the Pastor card and said, I am the only pastor in the family, I get the quilt.  This quilt is by far more than just a heirloom, just as our scriptures are by far more than just an heirloom.  It is grandma’s faith story.  She picked the fabrics, she picked the stories to remember, she retold the stories by her art, and her love for God and her love of telling God’s story is infused through this quilt.   As I think about all Saints Day, I think about all the stories of faith that were embraced by the generations before us and how people sought to tell the story, sought to share the love of God with others, with their family and with the next generation.  Our stories are more than heirlooms, our stories when told through the lens of faith, illustrate to the world our trust in God, our understanding that is at work bringing wholeness and goodness into this world. 

            Our Bible, our scripture is more than an heirloom, it is a living story.  A story of people that did their best to understand God in their lives and how they were to live as a people connected to God.  All Saints day is more than just remember our loved ones, it is a time to embrace the stories of those that formed us, fashioned us, molded us into the people we are becoming.  We are, only because of the lives before us, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  It all is a part of who we are.  Communion is more than just a heirloom.  Here is a story that we tell over and over again, not just through words, but through action.  Because we believe in God’s promises, because we believe that God is at work in the world, because we believe we are called to be the yeast of God’s love that works within the dough, we break bread and share the cup living into God’s story.  We are not just retelling the story, we are not just connecting the story to a moral or ethical meaning, we are participating with in the story, we are participating within the great chain of saints, those that came before, and those that have not yet been born.  We are the now of God’s work, the now of God’s promise, the now of God’s story, and in the bread and in the cup we are united with the entire body of Christ.  This is God’s promise, this is the new heaven and the new earth, this is the time when knees will bow and people will praise God with one voice.  Embrace your story, embrace the moment, and be fed on God’s covenant of grace, reconciliation, and newness.  In Christ, we are a new creation, we are the not yet, but someday will fully be.  

Sermon - Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Hebrews

“Standing on the Shoulders of Giants”

            Most mornings, as I get up, I turn off my alarm on my smart phone, turn on the hall lights, go downstairs and turn on my coffee pot, turn on the TV, and use my laptop to check my email.  On a daily basis I depend on inventions of others.  None of these inventions came into being over night.  The phone has taken its time to develop and adapt.  Growing up, we had one of those old fashioned phones in our kitchen.  It was my mom’s when she was growing up.  It was rather large and looked so funny.  I remember asking her how it worked and thinking how strange it was to have to share a phone line with others.  Way back before cell phones, we had rotary dial then push dial then finally, a cordless phone.  And as various companies and inventors seek to make a newer and more advanced phone, they only are where they are today, because of the work of others before them. 

            I was trying to explain to my children the other day that when nana and grandpa were children, TV was in black and white.  Andi asked if the world was in black and white.  And I had to explain that the world has always been in color, but it took time to develop TV to show color. 

            In my daily routine, especially my morning routine, I rarely take the time to think about the people that have come before me, creating things that are now just a standard part of my life.  I don’t stop to think about how it took one person’s idea, and then another to build upon it, and then another to build upon that, to get to where we are today.  There are times that I wonder what my children will have when they grow up, what will phones or TV or computers be like?  Will there be some new invention that will be the next must have device like the ipad or tablet. 

            Standing on the shoulders of giants.  Each and every day, driving our cars, using electricity, indoor plumbing, it all has happened because of those that have come before us.  We too, sit here today, because of those that came before us.  For over 250 years, God’s people have gathered here, sharing their faith, growing together, crying together, worshiping together, learning together, and transitioning through life together.  Just as we benefit from the technological advances of people building upon those that came before them, we too benefit from the faith of God’s people that came before us. 

            Today, we are celebrating those that have been members of this congregation for fifty years and longer.  As I thought about this celebration, the passage of Hebrews 12 came to mind.  Today, we are award and pay attention to the cloud of witnesses that are all around us.  Whether you have been a member fifty years or three months, you are a part of this cloud of witnesses, a part of this era of being God’s people, of being the ones that are building upon those that came before us and developing and preparing the sharing of faith to the next generation that is rising up before us. 

            Our first passage from Hebrews shares this celebration of how God calls people through time to be a people of faith.  God called Abraham and it was through faith that Abraham and Sara followed God.  God called Moses and it was with self-doubt but also with faith, that Moses liberated the Hebrew people.  These stories were collected and passed along and used over and over and over again as the foundation for guiding people in their own faith journeys.  None of us come to church this day without the influence of someone else in our lives.  Someone else exhibited faith, modeled a love for God, that either planted a seed within us, or nourished that seed to grow.  When we really stop and think about it, we are, each and every day, surrounded by a cloud of witnesses in our lives.  Each of us can go into the passage of Hebrews and rewrite the names of Abraham and Moses to Aunt June or Uncle John.   And then write your own name into the scripture story, for you too are a part of God’s story, a part of this passing along of faith from one generation to the next.  We may question whether our faith is strong enough, or mature enough, we may think we have too many unresolved questions or doubts, but so did Moses, so did King David, so did the Disciples, and yet, they built their lives upon the shoulders of those that came before them. And others built their live of faith upon their shoulders.  Just as Abraham had to take a leap of faith to follow God, we too, are called into this faith journey, trusting that God is calling us, and has a purpose for us.  We have a gift to pass along to the next generation, a gift of sharing God’s love for us and for this world in which we live.  Amen.            

sermon - Dr. Suess

John 5:1-18

“Oh, the Places Jesus Goes”

            Congratulations!  Today is your day.  These are the opening words of Dr. Sues’ book:  Oh, the Places You’ll Go!  I was given a special copy of this book when I graduated from high school from my aunt, uncle, and cousins.  Each one of them wrote me a note of encouragement for my future as I began my journey to college.  Oh, the places you will go, looking back, now 25 years later, these words ring true.  Oh, the places I have been. 

            Through the book, Dr. Sues shares that there are choices in this future journey that we are all taking.  There are places that we choose we just don’t want to go.  And we can choose to steer ourselves in a completely different way.  The book then hits on the reality of life, not everything will go our way.  We will hit times where we feel like we have been left behind or times when we just don’t know which direction to go.  The message continues that with perseverance we will succeed as long as we keep trying there will be places to go. 

            Congratulations!  Today is your day.  These are not the words Jesus speaks to the man at the pool, but they might as well have been.  He asks: Do you want to be made well?  And the man explains that he has waited and waited and waited to be made well, but others push ahead of him and there is no one will help him.  For thirty-eight years he has waited to be made well.  His only option in life is to wait, wait until a day and time come when indeed, he will be made well.  Not really much of a life is it?  The living conditions must have been horrid.  The scriptures share that there are all kinds of invalid people gathered here.  This place has a reputation for healing, when the waters are stirred, and the people enter the water, it was believed that they would be healed.  But from this man’s account, it sounds like it was extremely difficult to even get to the water. 

            Congratulations!  Today is your day.  Stand up, take your mat, and walk.  And the man has been made well.  Jesus does not pick him up and place him in the water, but speaks and the man stands up and walks away.  He does not even know Jesus’ name.  He just knows that someone has finally noticed him, someone has honored him as a person, someone has shown enough compassion to him and not pushed him away one more time.  He wants to be made well, and perhaps he felt something happening within his body as Jesus spoke, but he did not insist that he needed to be placed in the water, rather he just stood up and walked away. 

            Oh, the places Jesus goes.  Why does he choose to go to the places that he goes?  As he entered into Jerusalem, he could have gone to any number of places, but he chose to go to this place, a place of human suffering and desperation, yet a place with potential hope as people waited to be healed.  Perhaps that is why Jesus chose to go to this specific place, the underlying potential hope that each of the invalid person had within him or herself as they waited, waited for the opportunity to enter the waters of the pool.  They had not yet given up on life.  They still had enough within themselves to expect life to be different, to expect life to be better.  And so they waited.  And Jesus comes to them.  He comes to a suffering and miserable place and ignites the small spark of hope within one man who has waited thirty eight years to be given a different life.  Thirty eight years in those days was a complete life time.  Amazing that he even lived that long, but he did, and Jesus chose to go to that place, and offered him a fuller life. 

            Oh, the places Jesus goes.  And he goes on the Sabbath.  Once again, we have a healing story on the Sabbath and Jesus is getting the attention of his opponents.  And Jesus’ explanation for his actions on the Sabbath are this:  My Father is still working and I also am working. 

            In engaging scripture, we can always ask the question, what does this story share about who God is, who people are, and the relationship between the two?  This story shares that God is a God of love and compassion and desires to be present to people no matter what their life journey is.  God goes to the places of human suffering, of human desperation, and seeks to bring wholeness.  This passage shares that people often are out for their own best interest and leave the weakest behind.  This passage again illustrates that the religious leaders of the time desired obedience to the law over the gift of lives changed.  And this story shares that Jesus is willing to go to places others fear.  He is willing to go to places that are ritually unclean, that are most likely pretty smelly, and he goes to these places because God is alive in this world.  There are no religious leaders at the pool trying to help this man enter into the waters.  There is no one willing to help this man.  There is only God present in the life of Jesus. 

            Oh, the places Jesus goes.  How do we engage this day with the words:  Congratulations!  Today is your day!  As we first have to accept it as our own and then bring this message of God’s hope into the world?     

sermon - Full Armor of God

Joshua

Ephesians

“Embraced in God’s Love”

            In our house, it is always: Safety First.  My children know that they are not allowed to ride their bikes or scooters without the proper equipment, they must wear their helmet and they must have on sneakers.  No ands, ifs, or buts.  The rules are the rules because for us, it is always, Safety First.   In today’s world, our children are used to wearing a bike helmet, or shin guards, or shoulder pads when playing football, soccer or lacrosse.  Perhaps that would be a more suitable metaphor for us in today’s world.  The whole sports equipment of God.  Football, Hockey or Lacrosse probably work best for this metaphor, since those players tend to wear the most equipment. 

            Whether we are donning armor, or a bike helmet, or soccer shin guards, or football shoulder pads, or a mouth guard, as we put on these items, they embrace our body, they cover us, they protect us.  Sports equipment embraces our bodies in order to keep us safe.  Helmets protect us against concussions, mouth guards protect our teeth, and so on. 

            In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Paul is reaching out to a fledgling congregation of people that need encouragement.  They are living in challenging times and their faith is being challenged and questioned.  So, Paul uses an everyday image as a metaphor for the people:  Armor.  Now, when I think of armor, I immediately think of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and the medieval exhibit hall that is filled with armor including horses in armor.  For me, the image of armor is a bit outdated.  Just as the Ephesians were facing challenges by others, the church of today is also facing numerous challenges.  We too need the encouragement of Paul in order to stand strong as a people of faith in the diverse culture of our day.  And so it is, Paul desires this small group of people in Ephesus to know, that in challenging times, they too have the equipment of God to keep them safe.  The full armor of God, to me, embraces what our faith is all about.  As we think about who we are as a people of faith, do we think about the ways in which God is embracing us, protecting us, calling us to stand strong in challenging and questioning times? 

            Paul is giving them a step by step simplistic way of defining their faith and understanding who they are as a people of God.  First, they must define what the truth is for them.  It is the foundation, it is the building block of what they believe.  Do they believe in the God’s of the Roman Empire or do they believe in the one true God of the Jewish faith?  Do they accept the teachings Paul brought to them of Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, or do they believe in other ideologies of their culture?  Whatever it is that we believe, we wrap that truth around our core, around our inner being.  What we name as Truth impacts how we live our lives.  If, for me, truth is: an important education and career, then that is how one seeks to equip themselves as they journey through life.     

            Naming one’s truth is the central meaning in the passage today from the book of Joshua.  Joshua is asking them to name their truth.  What is it that they believe?  Will they worship the God’s of their ancestors or will they move forward into the Promised Land believing in the one true God?  Joshua asks them to take a solemn vow:  Who on this day will you serve?  And he names for himself:  As for me and my family, we will serve the one true God.  The belt of truth.  Stand strong in what you believe and know that God wraps that truth around the core of your being. 

            Throughout our faith journey within the life of the church, we come to these moments where we need to come back to our foundations, to what we consider the truth, whether it be as individuals or as an entire congregation.  And we have sacraments and other rituals within our time of worship to name those truths: such as in baptism and communion, such as in ordination and installation of leadership, and in the litany of membership.  We engage in these lifelong patterns of faith, reminding ourselves and each other, that in God we have the belt of truth.   

            I spent several hours this past week at a meeting at the presbytery office where we were discerning what faith and discipleship means in today’s world and what resources the churches in our presbytery might need in equipping our congregations in faith formation and discipleship growth.  In a way, it is the same question Paul has before him as he reaches out to this fledgling congregation in Ephesus.  He wants them to be a people of faith, a people that believe in God and in Jesus and in salvation and righteousness, not because they are told to believe it, but because they truly do believe.  In order for one to begin a journey of faith formation, there must be a truth to build upon. 

            We can see on a daily basis on how people seek to name a truth, and then convince others to be a part of their truth.  Scientists gather data, politicians give speeches, the media present stories, and sometimes it is all just so cluttered we can throw up our hands and shout – I just don’t know who or what to believe. 

            At least in the church, we can begin through Paul’s metaphor: the belt of truth and then the breastplate of righteousness, or the shoulder pads of right living within the community.  If we believe a truth of being a people of God involves love for our neighbor, then as we adorn our shoulder pads, we should find ways in which we express love for our neighbor.  We live out the truths we have named.  As we grow in our faith formation, we can learn from our actions or from the actions of others.  If you see a person of faith always being compassionate and caring for others, you may begin to seek to model that behavior yourself.  Again, in the world in which we live, we have challenges with what right living within our faith community may be.  We have temptations all around, they may look different from the day and age of Paul, but they are still there.  And since God understands that they are there and that we stumble and struggle with them, we can stand strong because God places upon us the breastplate of righteousness.  We do not do this one on our own, we seek right living but we do not believe in works righteousness.  This was a hard one for me when I was younger, and probably the biggest area of growth in my own faith formation when I truly understand that it is God’s grace that places the shoulder pads upon each and everyone of us.