Sermon - Hebrews 12 "What is the Cloud?"

            For those of you that have an iphone, you may or may not know anything about the Cloud.  I honestly don’t know anything about it other than it exists.  I didn’t sign up for it, I don’t know how to put things there, but one day, on my iphone, a notice popped up that my cloud was full.  Really?  How did that happen.  I do know that pictures and my calendar seem to appear on both my ipad and my iphone without me doing anything to make it happen, so it seems the Cloud is definitely at work linking my items together.  And if my cloud is full, maybe there are things there that I don’t need.  So, what exactly is this cloud?  How does it work? 

            I decided to do a little investigating.  I mean, if the cloud is there, and I am using it, perhaps I should know a little more about it.  The icloud safely stores photos, videos, files, contacts, documents, calendars, and music, to name just a few items.  Just this last week, I had to replace my phone, and thankfully because of the Cloud’s existence, I was able to restore to the new phone all of my contacts, apps, and other items I needed.  For some reason my pictures did not restore, but perhaps that is because of the notice previously received that my Cloud was full.  I guess those pictures are just lost.

            One sight states the following:  Think of iCloud Drive as any other remote volume, external hard disk, network drive, or storage service. You can create new folders, drag and drop stuff into your iCloud Drive from your Mac or elsewhere, and you have the option to save files and data from apps into your iCloud Drive. This isn't rocket science, folks. It's a hard drive in the sky that you can access from all your devices.

            What exactly is the Cloud?  It is something out there, something that I cannot see or touch but I know it exists.  It seems to be all around me, since I can access it at just about any time.  It holds valuable information, or at least valuable information for me.  My cloud and your cloud are part of the same system, but are still somehow separate from each other. 

            What exactly is the Cloud?  On this All Saints Day Sunday, we hear a passage about being surrounded by a great Cloud of witnesses.  All of the people, lives, souls that have come before us are not gone, they are a part of a Cloud of witnesses.  Just like the icloud, they are all around us, invisible, untouchable, and yet accessible.  Present with us in particular moments of our lives when we remember them, celebrate them, miss them, grieve for them, continue learning from them.  When we pick up an item given to us by them, perhaps an image or voice, or smell returns to us.  Just a few weeks ago, I grabbed a towel out of the cabinet and when I smelled it I was instantaneously transported back to my grandmother’s house in Iowa.  Just like that, from the smell of a towel, there I was standing in her bathroom, remembering her.  The Great Cloud of Witnesses, we remember them on this All Saint’s day, we remember that just like our modern technology, their presence is here. 

            Sometimes it takes spending a little bit of time to learn about something.   Today, we spend a little bit of time learning more about the Great Cloud of Witnesses all around us.  In a sense, we can down load and store items there, through our prayers, through our memories of our loved ones, through the love that has been shared over a lifetime. 

            Just sitting here in this sanctuary, we are surrounded by the Great Cloud of Witnesses that came before us.  Through their stewardship, their love for God, their love for the community of faith, their calling to be in ministry here in this region of NJ, this church was built, cared for, and sustained throughout the generations providing us a place to gather.  If only these walls could talk, can you even begin to imagine the number of prayers said, baptisms and weddings celebrated, tears shed as funerals were given.

            The passage in Hebrews does the same thing, it names all of those faithful people that came before, and how through faith, they trusted in God and built an amazing foundation upon which both Judaism and Christianity are built.   

            Returning to the source I mentioned earlier:  Think of iCloud Drive as any other remote volume, external hard disk, network drive, or storage service. Think of the Great Cloud of Witnesses as a remote, external, network or storage service of God’s faithful people that came before us, paved the way, built a foundation of ministry for us to continue upon. 

You can create new folders, drag and drop stuff into your iCloud Drive from your Mac or elsewhere, and you have the option to save files and data from apps into your iCloud Drive.   We can create new ministries, continue faith traditions of the past, remember our story as a continuation of past, present, and future, as we pull from sources all around us.

This isn't rocket science, folks. It's a hard drive in the sky that you can access from all your devices.  This isn’t rocket science folks, it’s God’s love in the sky that we can access from all of our devices. 

            I kind of like it, this notion of the Cloud.  If apple can create it, why surely can’t God?  Why can’t we be surrounded by our loved ones, the faithful, the courageous?  If apple can create it, why can’t we believe that God already has?  When we stop and think about how our own lives have been so truly blessed by those that have come before us in the faith, and how we too, are blessing the lives coming along beside us and behind us, blessings, blessings all around us, through us, to us and from us. 

            One pastor shares this:  One can't help but be inspired by this text.  It is a clarion call for the church to continue to fight the good fight of the gospel.  The winning witness of our heroes stirs us to persevere.  Their stories remind us that we are not the first ones to run the race of faith.  Faithful saints before us have run the same race, fought fatigue, battled discouragement and won!  This text reaches out like a postcard from heaven and dares us to run the race to win.

They say, nothing can really ever be deleted from the internet.  Once it’s out there, it is out there.  Well, the same can be said about people’s lives that have lived the race of faith.  We can go outside and walk through the cemetery, and some of those gravestones can no longer be read.  But the lives lived are still a postcard from heaven, still a message of God’s love, still people that lived and shared their faith and their love that traveled from one generation to the next.  The great web of being that connects to another and to another, the ripple effect that generates outwards and never stops.  Can you even begin to imagine how your life just might influence someone else 200 years from now?  It will, it will be taken by this generation and passed along to the next, the name may be forgotten, washed away by time, but the examples of faith, the commitment to the church, living out faithful stewardship to God, will all become a part of the Great Cloud and will be present to the future as God’s presence of love, hope, determination, and perseverance.

Sermon - Luke 18 - Wrong side of the Tracks

The Wrong Side of the Tracks

            Shortly after college, I taught middle school for a few years down in Fl.  My school was on the other side of the tracks, it was on the wrong side of the tracks.  It really shocked me, that indeed, just crossing railroad tracks can take you into a whole different world.  These tracks happen to be for the Tropicana Orange Juice Company.  The town was pretty much divided into two, the middle class families and retirees that could afford to live near the beach and those that were laborers, factory workers, perhaps the housekeepers for the numerous beach resorts, or the landscapers for the fancy beach homes.  But the type of homes drastically changed as you crossed over the tracks. 

            The school where I taught had a full time police officer trained in gang intervention, there was a heavy gang presence, and incredible diversity.  I was actually pretty impressed how my students seem to get together no matter what color of their skin.  But, there was still one insult, if you really wanted to hit below the belt, you would call someone a Haitian.  Even on the wrong side of the tracks, there was a wrong side of the tracks. 

            I attended a church on the right side of the tracks, with families that sought to nurture and encourage their children to grow into strong and healthy adults.  These were two different worlds.  As I walked back and forth between these two worlds, I knew I had a lot to be thankful for.  But then, I hear this passage today, and I wonder if my thankfulness is appropriate.   My thankfulness was based on my good fortune against someone else’s bad fortune. 

            There was a Pharisee and a Tax Collector, both go to the temple to pray.  The Pharisee begins by giving thanks to God that he is not like other people.  That he is not like: thieves, rogues, so far that sounds like something I can identify with.  I thank you God that I am not involved in some sort of embezzlement, or white collar crime.  But then he compares himself to another person present at the temple also in prayer.  Yes, being a tax collector was not a good occupation,  Being a tax collector was to be in relationship with Rome, often taking a little bit of extra money from the people for themselves.  They were not well liked.  For the Pharisee, the tax collector was on the wrong side of the tracks, a different world than himself, and he was thankful that he was not like him. 

            Last week, we had a story of Jesus healing 10 lepers and one out of the 10 comes back to say Thank You.  The story focused on thankfulness.  Today’s parable also involves giving God thanksgiving, but this type of thankfulness seems to be rejected by Jesus.  How is it that we can say thank you to God?  The leper was thankful that he was healed, that God had heard his cry for mercy and had responded.  The tax collector is thankful because of his good standing in life.  He is thankful because of who he is, in comparison to who others are.  His sense of security in God’s presence is about his lifestyle, his religious choices, his actions, while the tax collector stands and asks for mercy. 

            What is it that really separates the Pharisee from the tax collector?  They both gather in the same place to offer prayer to the same God?  And yet, they are separated, they are a world apart.  The Pharisee does not want to engage the tax collector, his only acknowledgement of his existence is that he is glad he is not like him.  Behind his words, is there something deeper?  Is there fear of the other?  Is there a lack of understanding that God could also love the tax collector? 

            We often separate ourselves from the other out of fear.  And sometimes that fear is well warranted.  Sometimes being on the wrong side of the tracks can be life threatening.  The way we separate people can be based on economics, skin color, language, cultural practices, and behavior.  What if, instead of separating ourselves from the other we begin to find ways to begin to build relationships?  What if we take intentional steps to safely cross to the imaginary other side of the tracks and instead of comparing ourselves from another as different, we see both selves as children of God?  What if we ask God to give us the courage to build bridges of understanding instead of just being thankful we are not like the other. 

            We are in the season of Thanksgiving, we come to God and we are thankful.  I asked earlier, is there a right and a wrong way to be thankful?  And I guess, it all depends on how we frame our thankfulness.  As a person of faith, we give thanks to God for everything, for the blessings that we have received, but we also are called into discipleship, into service, into the presence of others.  What I learned from teaching on the wrong side of the tracks is that I am truly thankful that I was not born as a crack baby, but by having such a child in my class, I learned not to judge this child because he had no control of the choices his parents made.  I learned that I could be present to these children and seek to provide them a safe place at least within my classroom because that might have been the only safe place they had in their lives.  I learned that life is not fair, and even education cannot bridge the gap of inequality. 

            There is a ministry in Camden, NJ that was not afraid to go to the wrong side of the tracks and connect with these young people that their only future was to be involved in gangs, and drugs, and stealing.  The founder of Urban Promise could have stood at a distance and said:  Lord, I am thankful that I am not a youth in Camden, NJ but instead he said, Lord, bring me to Camden and guide me as I bring hope to this place of hopelessness.  Urban Promise has grown over the years and now has its only school where the youth of Camden are actually graduating from high school and going on to college.   A future they never would have had if someone had stood and said, I am thankful I am not like them. 

            Next time we find ourselves a little afraid of another, or glad we are not like another, perhaps God is calling us into a ministry with that person, not a ministry to that person, but a ministry with that person.  We will never know, unless we cross the bridge and begin building the relationships. 

            What if that Pharisee had embraced the tax collector?  What if, like Jesus, they went and had a meal together?  Jesus is not afraid of the other, he is not afraid of the outcaste, he is not afraid of the sick, he is not afraid of the wrong side of the tracks.  Rather, it seems those are the places he goes, and it is there that he finds people hungering for God’s love, hungering to be seen, to be noticed, to be made whole.  Jesus was blessed by God to bring that blessing to others.  There really was no one that he would keep away or deny.  As we continue into this season of thankfulness, let us too seek to be welcoming and loving, extending ourselves as agents of hope to the world around us.  Amen.    

           

            

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.