Sermon: One out of Ten Luke 17

            This fall, the scripture readings have revolved around being lost and being found.  From a lost sheep, a lost coin, to a lost brother, we had celebrating once the lost were found.  We also had stories of lost people, a rich man and a poor man, both of whom were lost in their own way.  Today, we have ten more people that are lost, lost to society due to leprosy.  As we have journeyed through these passages, I have viewed them through the lens of what it means to be self-focused versus being community focused, transitioning from population me to population all. 

            Ten lepers, completely lost to society, caste away, thrown away, outcastes.  They must live away from others, in this passage it describes the place as between Samaria and Galilee.  It’s a border region, and some commentators point out that this is a dangerous place.  Border regions were not protected in the same way as the fortified cities and towns.  Wars often took place on the borders, since these are weak places politically. 

            So, here Jesus is, in a weak place, in a dangerous place, in a place that is neither Galilee or Samaria and he is approached by those that no one wants.  People that due to their leprosy, no longer belong to Samaria or Galilee.  They know their place and don’t even approach Jesus.  Rather, they keep their distance and call out to him:  Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 

            As people caste away, stricken with a disease where they have no hope of recovering, they cry out for the possibility.  Maybe, just maybe, this one named Jesus, just might be able to help them.  And so Jesus tells them to go and show themselves to the priests.  This connects back to the laws and rituals of Moses, it is the priests that have the authority to offer cleansing to those that are unclean.  But along the way, the lepers are healed.  They are healed.  This is different than the rites and rituals associated with being made clean.  They are healed, their leprosy is gone, their isolation is over, they are no longer outcastes.  They can go home and return to their lives, and reconnect with their family, friends and community. 

            But one, one out of the ten, takes the time to return to Jesus to thank him.   He returns to say thank you, not because he was raised with good manners, not because he is obligated to do so, he returns because he completely knows to the core of his spirit, that he was lost and now he is found.  His healing touched him deeply, it is not something to be taken for granted, he cannot just go back to his normal life, he has to stay connected to the one that brought him this healing. 

            Every once in a while, we hear this heart touching stories of people that connect over time due to organ donations or bone marrow transplants.  Recently there was a story of a mom that had lost her son, but his heart was given to someone in need.  A few years later, the mom was connected to the person that received her son’s heart, and she was able to hear it beat.  These families were connected by tragic life events, and now they share a bond that out of death comes life.  The leper understood this, he knew that out of death, Jesus brought him new life and he had to express his gratitude. 

            The cleansing of the ten lepers is a story of healing, it is a story of transformation, it is a story of gratitude, it is a story of being lost and being found.  I love the hymn:  God of the Sparrow, How does the creature say Awe, How does the creature say Praise.  We turn around from what we are doing, we remember the one that has healed us, the one that meets us where we are and transforms us, we take a moment to be present to the awesome, the divine, the sacred, and we say thanks. 

            How do we do this in our ever so busy lives?  Is it setting aside Sunday morning as a time to gather in worship?  We could be on our way, we could be out and about instead of gathered here in this place, but we gather, we have stopped, we have come, and this is the time to give thanks.  We give thanks by singing praises to God, by offering ourselves in prayer, by seeking to connect our soul to the scripture and the sacred time that we set aside here in this place. 

            Ten lepers were healed but only one returned to give thanks.  Each of us have been touched by God in different ways.  Each of us may feel healed in different ways.  Perhaps we are still struggling with feeling healed, whether it be physically, emotionally, or spiritually.  We gather seeking that word from God that will meet us where we are, seeking something that will give us the spiritual connection that we need to make it through the next week.  The lepers came to Jesus, they did not say heal us of our leprosy, rather they cried out – have mercy upon us.  Jesus, Master, have mercy upon us.  And God’s mercy flows out, and still flows out today in a multitude of ways.  Can we name it?  Can we feel it in our own lives?  Answered prayers, a moment of much needed peace, laughter with a friend, hugs from a grandchild, an old grudge forgotten, an apology given, a moment of pain named allowing healing to begin.  And when that moment occurs, to we name it as a God moment?  Do we say a silent or even an out loud, Thank You?  How do we express our gratitude to God? 

            Ten lepers were healed but only one returned to say thank you, one out of ten, these do not seem like good odds do they?  One out of ten.  At another level, this story reinforces the Biblical tradition of the tithe.  The people that heard this story, would know that one tenth of their harvest, or one tenth of their livestock’s offspring, were to be given to the priests.  Since the days the people entered into the Promised Land, they were to set aside the first fruits of the land and ground and present them to the priests as a form of thanksgiving, as a form of praise to God as a way to remember to be thankful for what God had given them. 

            Returning to God a portion of what one has received was a part of the people’s faith practice, it was a part of life, it was what they did.  So, when one out of the ten lepers came back to give thanks, Jesus is showing that this rich tradition of his Jewish heritage is still an important piece of what it is to practice one’s faith.  Tithing is an extremely challenging spiritual practice.  When we see it as this story, one out of ten does not seem like very much, but when we translate it to our income, one out of every ten dollars starts to add up.  But when we think about how we give back to God, not because we were taught to, not because we are obligated to, but when we start giving purely from our heart, because we are able to name and explain and celebrate the ways in which God has touched our lives, perhaps it becomes less challenging. 

            As we enter into the Stewardship season of the church, I want to invite us to think about the ways in which we say thank you to God.  We offer ourselves in worship and study, we give of our time in service, we dedicate a portion of our treasure for God’s work in the world.  We often think of stewardship season as how are we going to pay the bills for next year.  This year, I want us to think about Stewardship season as how do we respond to the mercy of God in our lives by saying Thank You and then to ask the question – is this church through this congregation, living out God’s mercy either through our own spiritual growth or through our mission outreach to the greater community around us?  If we can say yes, then we can celebrate that our gifts to God’s ministry are indeed bringing forth God’s love in this world.  If we cannot name God’s mercy at work through us, then we must spend time discerning how, together, as the body of Christ, can live more fully into God’s purpose.    

               

                

sermon - What Does Require?

“What Does God Require?”

            Over the summer, we have journeyed through our Scriptures one covenant at a time.  Our God is a God that connects to humanity through a relationship.  With each of these covenants, God gives a promise to the people:  God will never again destroy the world through a flood, God will bless Abraham and his offspring to be a blessing to others and promises them a land, God gives the law to guide God’s people in living holy lives, God promises that David’s throne will be over an eternal kingdom, and in Jesus Christ, God promises to forgive our sins and love us with abundant grace.   

            In each generation, the people of God had to discern what it meant for them to be a people of the covenant.  Would they trust in God’s promise?  Would they choose to live holy lives?  Would they follow the law or worship the idols in the cultures around them?  A life of covenant was not easy for God’s people and again and again they fell away from how God called them to live. 

            In the first passage we heard today, the prophet Micah declares that God does not desire sacrifices that are being made with empty meaning.  The people have fallen into rote behavior, they do what they do because that is what they have been told to do.  The “why” behind it has been lost.  Why do we sacrifice to the Lord?  Do we do it because that is what God requires?  And so the prophet proclaims, that God desires this people of the covenant to do justice, love kindness and to walk humbly with their God.  This is the “Why” behind being a people of the covenant not sacrifices.  God connects to God’s people in order for God’s people to be compassionate, to be justice oriented, to be kind, and to walk in the ways of God. 

            What does God require of us?  The rich young ruler had the same question.  He came to Jesus and asks:  What must I do to have eternal life?  Basically he is asking:  What does require of me to be saved?  And Jesus responds to him with the Law, the covenant given through Moses.  And the rich man responds, yes, I have been doing these things since I was a child.  Then Jesus takes it a step further, and tells him to sell his possessions and give everything to the poor.  And the man goes away sad because he has great riches. 

            What does it mean to be a person of the covenant?  Does it just mean to have faith and trust in God?  In today’s world, that may sound like enough of a challenge.  Does it mean just be a good person and follow the rules?  Or does it require more of us?  We believe that in Jesus Christ, God’s promises have been fulfilled and we proclaim that in the sacrament of communion Jesus gave us the new covenant, the cup of salvation.  As a covenant people are we to just gather and break bread and share the cup together?  

            God works with God’s people through the gift of the covenant.  What does that mean for us in today’s world?  What would Jesus say to us if we were the rich young ruler that asked:  What must I do to inherit eternal salvation?  Would Jesus say:  Just believe in me?  Would Jesus say:  Go and sell your possession and give to the poor?  Would Jesus say:  love your neighbor?  What would be the response to us? 

            I came up with a huge list of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. 

·         We are to drop everything and follow

·         We are to abide in Jesus and bear fruit for God

·         We are to Go and make disciple

·         We are to Go into the harvest and labor

·         We are to deny self and take up the cross

·         We are to be like children

·         We are to feed, clothe, visit, and heal the least of these

·         We are to be a blessing

·         We are to forgive each other

·         We are to be obedient

·         We are to be peacemakers

·         We are to be salt

·         We are to be transformed

·         We are to be like the teacher

That is a rather large check-list. 

If I had to use one piece of scripture to summarize what it means to be a people of the covenant given to use through Jesus Christ, I would use 2 Corinthians 5

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹ that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,^[d] not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. ²⁰ So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

           

In Christ, God has given us eternal forgiveness, not just eternal salvation.  We are forgiven and we are to be a people that lives out forgiveness.  Loving one’s neighbor is to live in such a way that it exudes forgiveness.  To be a people of the covenant, we are to be agents of reconciliation in the world.  Just as God brings us into God’s presence through Jesus, we are to bring God’s love and grace to others.  We are not to judge others, but simply show them God’s love.  As a people of the covenant, God is working through us.  This is a holy and sacred task, one we should not take lightly. 

In a small church, what does it mean for us to be a people of God’s covenant?  Do we feel we are living into God’s purpose for us?  Is there a “Why” behind who we are?  If we are gathering to worship without a why, then we are empty.  If we gather to worship because we love God, desire to praise God, and desire to be a people of the covenant, then we start to answer our “Why”.   Through New Beginnings, you all named your why as:  Partnering with our community near and far to joyfully spread the message and love of Jesus.  As agents of God’s reconciliation, you all have a mission to partner with others, such as Roxbury Social Services, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Habitat for Humanity, the Rec department, Faith Kitchen, and Family Promise.  They cannot do what they do without the support of others, and we do what we do because:  We partner with our community near and far to joyfully spread the message and love of Jesus. 

I want us to let go of our financial concerns, committee responsibilities, and even our historical presence in this community and really think about what it means for us to be a people of the covenant.  What does God require of us?  A people called by God to be agents of reconciliation in the world, ambassadors for Christ.  In the book:  When the Saints go Marching out, Art Beals states:  pg. 3

            So good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal heaven?  What does God require of me?  Of us?  But to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.  What does God require of us?  To be a people of the covenant, to be agents of reconciliation, to be ambassadors for Christ.  Let us continue doing what we do, focused not on the doing, but on the “Why”.  We do what we do as Ambassadors for Christ, agents of reconciliation, people of the covenant.  Amen.  

Sermon: God is FUN

“God is FUN”

            So, most of you know, that three weeks ago I traveled with 200 plus high school youth and adults to Indiana to attend a youth conference called Triennium.  42 of us were from Newton Presbytery and over 4,000 of us gathered for five days of worship, play, prayer, conversation, and mission.  I am going to steal the theme of one of the sermon’s that we heard while there.  The pastor told us:  God is FUN.  Well, when you are gathered with over 4,000 youth, I expected her to take a few jabs at how boring church can be for our young people and how a life of faith with God does not mean being bored or being boring. 

God is FUN and when you worship with 4,000 young people, worship is FUN too.  There was liturgical dance, there was dramatic interpretation of scripture including a giant puppet type of figure of Moses.  There was praise music with guitars, drums, and a keyboard.  No hymnals, no Bibles, everything was up on the screens and the kids actually lined up early to get into worship.  One of the youth from Newton presbytery said: Pastor Carie, I know how to get young people to church, we need to buy these led lights.  Worship is bigger than life: lights, beach balls, kids dancing, Christian Rock music blasting, iphones used as flames in moments of sacred response.  Worship was FUN.

The direction I thought this pastor was going to take, is not the direction she took.  She did not take a jab at our current style of traditional worship, she did not push the button on how, yes, boring, young people find worship.  Instead, she shared three important statements about God.  God is FUN: F – God is Forgiving, no matter what we do, no matter how hard we fall, no matter what mistakes we make, God is forgiving.  She talked about King David and how he really messed up with Bathsheba and instead of dealing with his mistake he tried to cover it up and only made it worse.  David made a mess of things, but God is always forgiving, and God forgave David. 

The Sunday before I left, we examined the covenant God made with King David: that the throne of David will be an everlasting kingdom.   Because our God is a forgiving God, through David comes the Messiah, who we proclaim is Christ Jesus, and that his is the promised Kingdom, the Kingdom of God.  If God was not forgiving, if David had messed up so badly, then God would have had to have designed God’s plan for the Messiah to come to God’s people.  Our failures are not the end of God’s work in us and through us. 

God is FUN and F is for forgiving.  U is for Understanding.  God understanding.  I honestly can’t remember her example for this, but God understands us.  In Jesus Christ, God enters our world, and lives out our lives.  God understands us, God created us, God is present with us, in our joy and in our sadness, God understands us.  This ties right in with my Covenant Sermon series.  God understands us and that is why God creates these covenants, God wants to be a part of us and wants us to be a part of God’s beautiful plan on our we can live together in community.  God gives us covenants as a way to help us understand God and God gives us signs to these covenants because God understands us and knows we need reminders. 

Today, we celebrate the sacrament of Communion.  God understands us and God meets us in our humanity, giving us these reminders of bread and cup, reminding us that we need sustenance for our daily lives and sustenance for our spiritual lives.  People are so hungry: we are hungry for success, we are hungry for love, we are hungry for acceptance, we are hungry for things.  God wants us to be hungry for God, to be hungry for our spiritual growth, for our faith development, and God wants us to hunger for justice and peace in this world.  There is hunger everywhere and God understands us and provides us this holy meal to feed us, to sustain us, to remind us that we are to be fed upon God’s forgiveness and love and that we are to go and be God’s servants of justice and peace. 

We are fed to then go and feed others, we are feed to go and then love others, we are fed to go and then name the injustices that are caused because people are filling their hunger with the wrong things.  God is understanding, God understands us, and in the life of Jesus we are given the directions, the tools, to understand the hurts of the world around us. 

God is forgiving, God is understanding and God is N -never too busy.  We live in a world of business.  I’ve always said, I don’t want to be one of those pastors where people feel they cannot come to me to talk because they are afraid I am too busy.  Sorry, pastor, I don’t want to interrupt, I know how busy you are…  God is never too busy, and we should not be either.   Again, I can’t remember the preacher’s example she used on this, but if we, as a people of faith, use a spiritual lens in which we view the world, we can name all the ways in which God is at work in us, through us, and around us.  In Oct. the presbytery will be hosting a workshop on announcing the Kingdom of God.  This workshop will be giving us hands on ways to name where God is at work in our lives and in the world around us.  God is never too busy, and if we have the eyes to see, we can name all the ways in which God’s love is breaking into this world. 

I’ll share one of the many God moments that happened while at Triennium.  One of our youth had an injury and found it difficult to do all the walking that we needed to do.  I just happened upon her when it was time for our next event to start.    The golf carts that they had to transport people was not available, so she did not know what to do.  I stayed to sit and talk with her while Pastor Rebecca went on to the next activity.  As Rebecca was walking, she just happened upon a cart not transporting anyone – so she sent it to us.  When it arrived, they would not transport our youth unless an adult over 18 was with her.  If I had not stayed, and had walked on with Rebecca, the cart would have been sent but she still would not have had a ride.  God moment?  We can ask that, and I will respond, absolutely yes.  God is never too busy.  God moments are all around us if we are able to see them. 

So, the question I have to ask is, why are we too busy for God?  We do we just try to squeeze in church?  Why do we commit to other activities but not to the One that is never too busy for us?  And maybe it is that we don’t really understand how much FUN God really is.  Maybe we don’t really understand the covenant life we are supposed to be living in God’s embrace. 

I don’t think the answer is as simple as making worship more fun but rather, reconnecting to what the covenant really means for us and our modern lives.  For over four thousand years, God has been connecting to humanity through covenants.  God has been connecting to humanity through human leaders, kings, prophets, and a messiah.  God has been connecting to humanity through forgiveness, understanding, and never being too busy.  God hears us, God is present with us, God feeds us, God meets us in every one of our needs. 

But what does the covenant mean to us?  Is it enough to just be a people of faith, or do we need to be a people of the covenant, a covenant of love that God proclaims in Jeremiah will be written upon our hearts?  And if we are a people of the covenant, what is it we are agreeing to be a part of?  Are we willing to be more than just individuals that gather together but rather, a faith community, a people that worships together, learns together, and serves together?   The main theme of Triennium was:  Go.  We came to Triennium to learn about God and we were sent home to Go.  To go and serve the world in the places of injustice, hurt, loss, and oppression.  But we cannot Go alone, we must Go together, together with our congregations, together with other people of faith, together as people of the covenant.  So remember, God is FUN – forgiving, understanding and never too busy, and we are called to be fed through the sign of the covenant of communion and then we are to Go together and serve.  Amen. 

Sermon Series - Covenant - Abraham

“Blessing, Promise, and Covenant”

            Last week, we focused on the Covenant that God makes not just with Noah, but with all of creation.  After the flood, God covenants with all of creation never to destroy the earth again with a flood.  As we will see throughout the summer, God marks God’s covenants with a sign and with Noah, the sign is that of the rainbow.  As Noah, his family, and the animals depart the ark, they are God’s new creation.  The old is destroyed, the chaos is contained, and a new beginning occurs. 

            According to the Biblical genealogy, four generations separate Noah from today’s story of Abraham – making Noah, Abraham’s Great grandfather.  Now, Biblical time, at least in the book of Genesis, does not correlate with how we understand time.  Many of these people lived for hundreds of years, so four generations expands a whole lot more time than what we would define four generations to be in our day and age. 

            As God calls Abraham or Abram, the mood is definitely different from that of the day of Noah.  There is no sense of God being upset or disappointed at humanity.  Rather, God sees potential and is ready to lead Abram and Sarai into this new future.  As God asks Abram to leave his country and follow God to a new land, God proclaims two things:  that Abram will become a great nation and that God will bless him.  And then, just as God covenants with all of creation through the sign of the rainbow, God proclaims to Abram that all people on the earth will be blessed through him. 

            The word covenant has not yet been used in this story, but it opens with a promise, a promise of being a great nation, a promise of being blessed, and a promise of that blessing - blessing all of humanity.  What a task Abram undertakes, leaving behind everything he knows and understands.  The old is gone, and the new is ahead.  In order for God to shape Abram and Sarai into the people, into the nation, into the blessing that he wants them to become, he must separate them from all that they know, their culture, their routines, their habits, their rituals.  All of that must be left behind in order to be shaped into something new.  Just as Noah was God’s new creation, so too are Abram and Sarai.  God is staying faithful to the covenant with Noah by not destroying the earth, rather, God has found potential in Abram and Sarai and is moving alongside of them with a new approach. 

            The story of Abram and Sarai spans several chapters, as they enter the promised land only to leave it due to famine.  Over time, Abram begins to despair, he has trusted God and been faithful but he cannot comprehend how he will be a great nation if he still has no offspring.  Sarai is barren.  This is a story that illustrates God’s time versus our time and how, we as people, are impatient and when things don’t seem to be working out we take matters into our own hands.  So, Sarai gives Abram her maidservant Hagar to be the surrogate mother for Sarai.  This, of course, ends in disaster as the human emotions of jealousy play out.  But God does not seem to get angry with Abram and Sarai, for all of their mistakes, for all of their poor choices, God continues to work with them and reminds them that Abram will indeed have offspring and a great land. 

The word covenant first appears in the Abraham story in Chapter 15 while Abram is in a deep sleep.  God speaks to him in a dream, telling him about his descendants and how they will be enslaved for four hundred years before they return to this land that God is promising Abram.  In the covenant God makes with Abram he gives clear geographical lines to define the land Abram’s descendants shall have: from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates.      

God again gives the covenant to Abram at which time he also gives Abram a new name.  No longer will you be called Abram, your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.  In this reiteration of the covenant God proclaims that it will be an everlasting covenant between God and Abraham’s descendants.  In this covenant there is the promise of: land – the whole land of Canaan, the promise of being a great nation, and the promise of being a blessing.  And just as with Noah, once God gave the covenant, God marks it with a sign such as the rainbow, God marks this covenant with Abraham with circumcision.  Circumcision is to be the mark of the covenant.  My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. 

In the Biblical sense, a covenant is much more than a promise, it is much more than a contract between two parties, it marks a way of life in living with God.  God creates the covenant as a gift of hope, a source of identity, and a sign of belonging.  But covenants are not just to be given, they are to be lived.  So as God gives, the people receive and respond.  In the case of Abraham, the response and the action is being marked with circumcision. 

What makes the Abrahamic covenant different from the Noahite covenant is – the covenant given to Noah is immediate, it is God’s gift to all of creation from that point on.  Whereas with Abraham, the covenant is for the future.  Abraham will never dwell in the Promised Land, he will never see his descendants become a great nation, for Abraham it is a postponed blessing, promises to the future.  And with faith, Abraham accepts this.  He is willing to give of himself so that his children and grandchildren and great grandchildren will have a future with God.  As it was put in one of my resources:  he was willing to embrace the future with his present passion and was willing to take risks and make sacrifices for the benefit of those generations ahead of him. 

On this Fourth of July weekend, I can’t help but think about our nation’s early forefathers and the gift of the Constitution that they gave to future generations.  They lived out a passion for a new way of being society and blessed the future generations through their own courage, risks, and sacrifices. 

The story of Abraham does not end with Moses bringing the people out of Egypt into the Promised Land and the fruition of becoming a great nation in the time of King David and King Solomon.  Abraham is mentioned at least 72 times in the New Testament scriptures.  He is the father of the faith.  For Paul, in his letter to Rome, he focuses on the faithfulness of Abraham, that it is not through any of his works or through the law that earns him God’s love.  Paul’s intention in this letter is to illustrate that we too have received God’s promises through Abraham, not through the law, but through sharing the faith of Abraham.  

Sermon Series - Covenant - Moses and the Law

            God remembers.  At least four hundred years later and God remembers the covenant he made with Abraham and Isaac and Joseph.  God remembers that the cries of oppression that he hears are of a people that God is calling into a greater purpose.   People separated by centuries of time, are a people still connected through God’s sacred plan.  Abraham’s offspring have become a multitude and now is the time for them to leave Egypt   

            The story of Moses is well known in our modern culture.  There are numerous movies about the plight of the Hebrew people under the forced labor of Egypt, the plagues, and Moses leading the people out of the country with the parting of the Red Sea.  Moses leads tens of thousands of people out of Egypt and into the wilderness.  Three months into their journey they arrive to a place called Sinai and it is here that Moses receives a new Covenant, the Covenant of the law. 

            As God gives this third Covenant, Moses becomes the mediator between God and the people.  In the cases of Noah and Abraham, God gave the covenants directly to them, but now, there is a transition, instead of God speaking to all the people of Israel in the Wilderness, just Moses is called to receive the covenant. 

            Another major difference in the receiving of this Covenant is that it is no longer an eternal covenant but rather a conditional covenant.  God proclaims:  If you obey and keep these laws, then you will be a community consecrated to the service of God.  If / then.  God now has established some requirements for the community.  You are to be my people, a consecrated community, but in order to do that, you must live your life reflecting these laws.  And so the law is given.  We are rather familiar with the 10 commandments, but we are less familiar with the long list of other laws that follow. 

            Why a covenant of law?  Just as the other two covenants marked God bringing forth a new creation, so too is this.   The movement of people out of slavery into freedom is a new creation and in order for these people to transition, transform themselves, become a part of God’s new creation, they need to understand how to live together as community and as God’s people. 

            Thousands of years later, there are still people within our greater community that are living out this covenant of the law.  By keeping Kosher, and other forms of rigorous religious living, a people are maintaining this covenant as a consecrated people to God.  When I see people walking to temple on Saturday morning it seems completely outdated and yet, the dedication and commitment amazes me.  In such changing times, to hold so firmly to one’s tradition, one’s religious practices, one’s purpose within God’s community is a powerful witness.  

            Covenant Law, the people needed guidelines in how to live together as a new community, as a people leaving behind the security of the everyday routine into the future of the unknown.  And so as God gives Moses the tablets of the law, the covenant is marked with a sign.  Noah had the rainbow, Abraham has circumcision, Moses receives the tablets and seals this covenant with a sacrifice of animals, and scatters the blood binding the agreement between God and people. 

            And then Moses has the people make an Ark.  This will be a sacred box in which the tablets will be place and it will be carried with the people throughout their journey towards the Promised Land.  They are not just given this covenant verbally, it is now a sacred symbol journeying with them, a constant reminder that God is with them, God is leading them, God is calling them to live within the structure of these laws. 

            As the people learned to live as a people of God rather than has slaves under Pharaoh there were a lot of growing pains, but eventually the do make it to the Promised Land, or at least their children do.  And the law continued to guide them as their spiritual leadership changed over time.  They remained a people called by God to be a kingdom of Priests, a Holy Nation, a people with a divine purpose. 

            Jump forward thousands of years into the day and age of Jesus, Jesus is able to take a step back from his religion, from the laws in which he too has lived his life.  He sees how strict they have become, how they are no longer giving people the freedom to live as God’s people, but rather have become a burden to the people.  The law was to be a boundary, a way of illustrating right and wrong, but rather, they became too constrictive keeping people from God rather than binding them to their Creator. 

            Jesus uses Sabbath keeping as an example.  No work on the Sabbath become so burdensome, no work included not helping a person that needed help.  As Jesus heals on the Sabbath, he makes his point that it is better to give life on the Sabbath than to neglect the needs of another.  And so we have this passage of Woes against the scribes and Pharisees that sit on Moses’ seat.  They are the keepers of the law.  They are the keepers of the Covenant given to Moses and the people so many generations ago.  They are the keepers of this Holy Nation and they have placed such a burden on the people that they are keeping people out of God’s purpose. 

            Jesus goes as far as to say – Woe to you scribes and Pharisees for you lock people out of the Kingdom of heaven.  These are strong words.  The very people that are suppose to be bringing people to God Jesus accuses of keeping people out.  Jesus had a heart to see those that were left out, the poor, the disabled, the outcastes, and yes, even the sinners.  God did not call a select group within the Israelite people to be God’s people, God created the entire nation to be a Holy Nation.  Every person should feel valued by God, not thrown away, not on the fringes, not unclean.  But that is how so many people felt, they had no hope of being made whole spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially. 

            Jesus proclaims, I did not come to nullify the law, but rather fulfill the law.  Under the teachings of Jesus, there is still the law, there is still: Love God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself.  All of the law can be hung on these two commandments.  Thou Shall Not does not sound anything like love, but if you think about it – if you love God, then thou shall not take God’s name in vain.  If you have love for neighbor, thou shall not kill.  Reversing the way these laws are heard seems to be more inclusive for us in today’s world. 

            The covenant of the law, given to Moses so long ago, is still a strong hold for us today.  Most everyone knows of the 10 Commandments, although we might not be able to list them all.  We know the main ones:  Thou shalt not kill, or steal, or covet.  These seem to make sense for community living whether we are a people living in the wilderness or a people living in our modern world.  And yet, and yet we still can’t seem to get it right.  Our world is hurting, people are grieving, lives are not valued, and there is great tension in many communities.  There is so much anger and that anger needs to be used for positive transforming results instead of more violence.  Years ago, I gave sermon called:  be angry but do not sin.  Anger is okay, in fact, we should be angry.  But what we do with that anger is essential. 

            God gave Moses the covenant of the law and the scriptures make this a very personal connection.  God wrote the covenant with God’s very own finger.  By the finger of God the law was given.  I believe that for us today, we must reconnect with the personnel connection God has with us.  Where is the finger of God touching the world?  God remembered God’s people in the days of Egypt, and God remembered God’s people in the days of Jesus, and God remembers God’s people in the age of technological greatness, and God is present in our pain at senseless violence.  We may not live our lives by the code of the rigorous laws of our scripture, but let us at least live into love of God and love of neighbor.   

                

Sermon - Covenant with Noah

Noah

“A New Creation”

            The story of Noah’s Ark is one that most people know, whether they attend Sunday School or not.  It is a story that has found its way into our childhood, whether through the cute ways in which we design a baby’s nursery, or the toys our toddlers play with.  Noah’s Ark is cute and fun because it is filled with animals and a rainbow and children love animals and rainbows.  But that might be the level of understanding we have for this story.  God instructed Noah to build an ark, he does.  God tells Noah to gather two of each animal, he does.  And it rains and rains and rains for forty days.  Noah and these animals are all safe from the flood waters until the water recedes and God sends a rainbow and promises never to flood the world again.  Cute story. 

            But there is so much more to this story.  This is a story of God’s grief, of God’s loss, of God wiping the slate clean and trying once again to create.  God creates the world, and sees that it is good, but over time, God sees less and less that is good.  People seem to be doing whatever they please and there is a loss of goodness, except for Noah and his family.  And so, instead of just wiping the world clean of all living things, this is a story of second chances.  Noah and his family and a boat full of animals are given a second chance to be what God intends them to be: good. 

            And so, just like in the first creation story, the world becomes a chaotic void of water until God is ready to separate the water from the land.  Water cleanses, water brings new life, water is used by God to mark the end of one way of living and bring God’s people into a new way of living.  In the Noah story, water wipes away a world that had forgotten God and had forgotten their purpose. 

            This is a story of what it means to be faithful to God.  What must it have been like for Noah?  For his family?  In their day to day living, not conforming to the influences of everyone else’s behavior?  What did Noah do differently that gained God’s attention?  That God realized that there still was a person of faith in the world?  In the book of Hebrews, the writer names Noah in the list of those that were faithful to God and states:  By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. 

            He condemned the world, Noah seemed to be able to see what was right and what was wrong and chose to live his life focused on righteousness. 

            Just in this much of the story there is so much we can learn and apply to our lives today.  Noah was part of a new creation, we too are a part of a new creation.  Our scriptures tell us that in Christ, we are a new creation, the old is gone.  We use water in baptism to represent the washing away of the old, and how the church is called to nurtures us in the new.  But do we live with the faith of Noah?  Are we able to see the rights and wrongs of this world and discern what faithful living is?  Or are we so blended into our culture that we have a hard time deciphering through the grey and where we should draw a line? 

            Noah was protected by God, was able to float through the chaos that consumed the rest of the world.  The ark was a protective shell that kept this family from harm.  Although I do not believe we should isolate ourselves from the world, we do, at times, need to enter into God’s protective ark and allow ourselves to be safely carried from one chaotic moment into God’s peace.  Do we have those places in our lives?  Places that allow us to leave the wrongs of the world behind and find a moment to embrace God’s presence in our lives?  Do we have those places that remind us that in Christ we are a new creation, that the old is gone? 

            God gives us the Sabbath as a weekly ark, as a weekly reminder that the chaos of the world does not have to overwhelm us but that we can be in a place of sacred presence and holy peace, and as a weekly reminder that in God there is a new creation, a weekly reminder that there is still good in the world despite the negative we hear.  \

            Noah was not just faithful in listening to God and building an ark, but God places the future of God’s creation in Noah.  Talk about a big responsibility.  The future of God’s creation rests in the life of Noah.  After the waters recede and Noah and his family are able to walk on solid ground once again, God makes a promise.  God gives a covenant.  First God blesses Noah and his family and tells them to be fruitful and multiply, an echo from the creation story.  Then God gives God’s covenant:  I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you ¹⁰ and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. ¹¹ I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”  And with the covenant comes a sign. 

Covenants and signs go hand and hand.  God’s covenant to Noah is marked with the sign of the rainbow.  And all these years later, a rainbow manages to stop the crowd.  Time after time, I have seen people busy doing whatever it is they are about just stop and look up into the sky at the beauty of a rainbow.  Covenants and signs.  When we see a rainbow God calls us to remember the covenant with Noah, the promise to never destroy the world again with a flood, but do we also remember that this is a covenant given to all creation?  This covenant involves the animals too.  Some view this covenant with Noah as a call to sacred stewardship in today’s world.  That we must find better ways to care for our world, for our planet, for all living things.  God did not just create us people to be a part of God’s plan, but God created all living things and we have a responsibility to ensure that all living things have a viable future. 

The covenant God establishes with Noah is an eternal covenant and is one sided.  Some covenants, as we will see over the summer, are agreements between two parties, but this one is from God, with no clause with how we humans can nullify it.  Because we hold it as an eternal covenant, we should spend time discerning what it means to us today, how we can be faithful like Noah and how, just possibly, the future of God’s creation rests in us.  

sermon - The Body of Christ

1 Corinthians 12

“Community in a culture of Independence”

            I was once told that God has provided every congregation with the Spiritual gifts that it needs to serve its purpose for God.  God equips God’s people.  Paul is helping the early church understand this as well.  These early congregations are just learning what it means to nurture their children in the faith, or to go out and make sure others are fed.  They don’t have CE or mission committees, they don’t have curriculum to choose from, and there are no non-profit agencies for them to volunteer with.  But they know they are called to be a part of something.  So, as they struggle with how they are to be a part of this new thing which Paul calls the body of Christ, he uses a simple illustration to help explain it. 

            The Spirit gives us each gifts to be used for the common good: these gifts include:  wisdom, knowledge, healing, prophecy, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, miraculous powers, and faith.  Now, these early Christians were not college educated, and most did not even have the equivalent of a high school education.  Many could not read.  And yet, and yet they gathered, created community, and sought how they could worship and serve God. 

            In today’s world, we have all kinds of books on Spiritual gifts and if you go on-line, you can find numerous Spiritual Gift inventories.  The last time I did a comprehensive study of these inventories, I was disappointed that the Presbyterians don’t have one, but the Evangelical Lutheran one is very good.  The list of Spiritual gifts has grown to include compassion, prayer, teaching, hospitality, generosity, to name a few.

            Each of us should spend time discerning what our gift or gifts are.  Am I called to teach or maybe I am called to sing in the choir.  Am I called to be on the prayer chain, or maybe to serve on the mission committee.  As you discern your gift or gifts, consider what your interests are, what your passions are, and how those might intersect with serving God.  Maybe you have used your gift for years and you are ready to do something different.  Perhaps it is a time to refuel yourself with a season of learning or faith conversation with others.  Our Bible Study groups are a perfect way to come together and ask faith questions, share prayer concerns, and seek to gain some insight through study. 

            Together, we are the body of Christ.  We are all part of the same body and yet each of us has a different gift that can be viewed as a different part of the body.  Some are hands, some are feet, some are eyes others ears, and some are the heart.  Together, we work for the common good. 

            Growing up, I was encouraged to play team sports.  I was told that in playing a team sport I would learn to work well with others and gain leadership skills.  Being a soccer player, each of us on the team had different skills and abilities.  I had speed but not endurance, others had endurance but not speed.  I had a strong kick and could clear the ball while others had precision and were skilled at scoring.  Together, our team worked together to make it to the State finals all four years of high school.  Now, although we worked amazingly well as a team, there were a few that stood out as the stars of the team.  It was hard not to be envious.  It was hard not to desire getting the same publicity and news coverage.  We were a team, we worked together, but yes, we had a star that put us up and beyond just the usual team. 

            Soccer, team sports, they are all a part of culture.  And we live in a culture that seeks out stars, that despite our best efforts to try and work together as a team, still lifts up the individual within.  In no other time in history has culture become so individualized as ours seems to be.  I was raised to be a strong and independent person, to learn to take care of myself and not depend on anyone else.  But the church is not to be confused with our culture.  Unfortunately, we bring our culture into church instead of bringing the church out into culture.  Within the church, we are not to seek out self-gain, we are to work for the common good.  We are to be a team, we are to work together for no one else but to serve God.  We need to leave the concept of impendence and individual strengths at the door, and share with one another our struggles, our concerns, our joys, and our dreams. 

            Yesterday, Habitat had their Hammer for Heroes event.  To me, this is a perfect example of coming together to be the body of Christ in the greater community.  All people were invited to come together and frame a house.  Young, old, experienced, and unexperienced, we were all welcomed and given a chance to help.  Do I know how to frame a house?  Absolutely not.  But to each is given a skill, and the experts had everything prepared, and showed us where to place the nails, and together, group by group, person by person, nail by nail, the framed walls of a house began to appear.  No one group built the house.  No one person framed a whole section, but those that took twenty hammer hits to get a nail in or those that took three hits, together, we built the frame for this house.  That’s the body of Christ.  That is how the church should work.  We should walk patiently alongside each other, encouraging and building community.  Yes, we do need leaders, but our first focus should be building community and sharing our Spiritual gifts for the common good.  In using our gifts, in building community as the body of Christ, we are participating in worship.  In using our gifts we are praising God, we are responding to what God has given to us, and we understand that it is to be used within the body of Christ. 

            Within our presbytery, we are seeking ways to partner our churches together.  We are a connectional church.  We often think of ourselves as individual churches, but in reality, we are one church with many locations.  I heard one person refer to our congregations as mission outposts for God.  Once again, our culture influences how we perceive ourselves.  We are not an individual congregation, congregation upon congregation are also a part of the body of Christ.  And each congregation is a part of that body. 

            Just as we would like people to live out their faith within the church, within a faith community, so too would the presbytery like our congregations to live out our calling within the greater community of the Presbytery.  Habitat could never have framed a whole house in one day if many individuals had not come together for the common good.  Imagine what we could do for God’s service if we brought numerous congregations together to serve God.  So many positive things happen in the world around when people work together for the common good, such as Souper Bowl of Caring, Faith Kitchen, Family Promise, and, next week, you will learn more about Heifer International through the voices of our children and youth.