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. 

           

             

Sabbath Sermon Series

Exodus 20

“Fast-Food Living”

            Last week, we started a summer sermon series on Sabbath.  In the creation story, God works for six days, creating this world in which we live and then on the seventh day, God rests.  God takes time to enjoy the creation, blessing time and creation.  God creates a rhythm for living, six days of work and one day of rest, one day to set aside to be present in God’s being, a sacred break from the toils of work. 

            We jump ahead today to the Ten Commandments, and again are reminded of Sabbath keeping.  The Hebrew people have been living in Egypt for around five hundred years.  They trace their arrival to Egypt back to Joseph who arrived as a slave and rose to privilege and power by interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams.  His eleven brothers arrive during a time of famine and the extended family settles in the land and prospers.  By the time of Moses and the Exodus, one estimate of the Hebrew population is as high as two million people.  The scripture states that there were six hundred thousand men which does not include the women or the children.  Together, this massive group of people, leave the oppression of slavery and follow Moses into the wilderness on their journey to the Promised Land. 

            It takes the people three months to reach Sinai where they camp at the base of the mountain and Moses climbs the Mt Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments.  Just prior to this, Moses goes to his father-in-law asking for advice as to how to be present for all of these people.  There are many complaints among them, and Jethro advises that Moses should call elders from the people to help handle complaints and be present to the people’s concerns.  Three months into the wilderness and these people that had only known a life of oppression under Pharaoh are now struggling with how to live as free people.  It is an incredible change, from a daily routine of work to this new life of journeying, a new life of not really knowing where they are heading, a new life of putting trust into Moses and this God that Moses proclaims is leading them into their future.  This was all new to them.  And so God gives them a code of living, a short list of laws in which they are to practice is they begin to form their lives as a new culture, a new people, a people set aside to be God’s people. 

            When many people think of the Ten Commandments today, they think, sure, these are easy enough to follow: I don’t steal and I won’t kill anyone, unless it is in self-defense.  Those are the two that seem to have risen to the top of how to summarize the Ten Commandments.  But what about commandment number four?  This one is not written as a Thou Shall Not, but rather as a positive:  Remember the Sabbath.  And unlike the others, it is given with an explanation.  Remember the Sabbath – because – because even God rested on the seventh day.  Again, this is all new to the people, they had been living in Egypt and living under Egyptian law, rituals and practices.  They knew Egyptian Gods and now, they are beginning the process of learning about this one God that is molding them into a Promised people.  As an oppressed people, a people forced to work, learning to set aside a day of rest is a gift. 

            Do we think of Sabbath keeping in our lives today as a gift?  I found a cartoon on-line that has two young people talking and it says this:  Our grandparents called this day Sabbath, our parents call it Sunday and we call it the weekend.  We ask each other, what you doing this weekend?  And the response of going to church or taking a Sabbath rest is rarely the answer.  The Ten Commandments were not meant to be a list of Laws forcing people into a strict way of living.  They were intended to be a way of life in which people lived with respect for each other and respect for God.  Where people worked, lived, and rested remembering that they did these actions because a loving God established a world in which this should be the way to live. 

            Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.  I asked last week, what would this look like for us in our lives today?  Other than attending church, do we keep Sunday just as another Saturday?  Perhaps we can look deeper into our culture and pay attention to who works on the Sabbath.  Some people, such as myself, do work on the Sabbath, but we have the gift of taking another day off.  Friday becomes my Sabbath, my day of rest, a gift given by God, commanded by God.  But what about the people all around us that don’t have a day of rest.  In this Fast-Food world we live in, there are many people that are working seven days a week, holding several jobs, just to try to make ends meet.  All we have to do is go across route 10 and walk through Kohls, or Walmart, or eat at McDonalds, or Wendys and we will encounter people that might be working multiple jobs, seven days a week.  If, we choose, in our freedom on this Sabbath day, to go to the grocery store, or have brunch at a local restaurant, let us lift up in prayer those that are working.  We often don’t know their stories, but everyone has a story.  Some are working because they don’t have the financial freedom to have a day of rest.  While others are given a day off on another day. 

            I came across a church that has taken this Fast Food Living as a ministry.  Believing that Sabbath is not a luxury, believing that Sabbath is not just for those that can afford it, this church felt called to providing Sabbath rest for those that are truly overworked.  It is a simple gift of a free meal, not the gift of a whole day, but a start.  A church saying, we know you are there, we know you are working hard, we know we benefit from your labor and we would like to give you the gift of rest.  Come and Eat and we will serve you.  First we start with prayer.  Let us pray for the overworked, for those that desire Sabbath rest but cannot.  Then let us pray for the greater church, for the ways in which our Presbytery might be able to work together as God’s people to name the Sabbath as a Commandment given by God with the same weight and importance as Thou shall not steal and thou shall not kill.  Remember the Sabbath, keep it holy, because God labored for six days and on the seventh day rested.  

sermon - Christ is our Peace

Ephesians 2

“A World in need of Peace”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                

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

Mark 4

“Words of Wisdom’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fruit of the Spirit - Children's Worship

Love – call to worship

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

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

Self-control – confession

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

Patience – forgiveness 

Hear these words from Psalm 103

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

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

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

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

Peace – passing of the Peace

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

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

 Faithfulness- scripture

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

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

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

Jesus says: 

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

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

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

Gentleness

The second scripture readings is from Galatians 5

The Fruit of the Spirit

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

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

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

Generosity – offering

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

Prayer after offering is collected:

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

Kindness – prayers of the people

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

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

Let us pray

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

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

Amen.

Joy – Benediction

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

Benediction:

Joy to the world:  Let earth receive her King

Joy to the world:  our Savior reigns

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

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