Summer Sermon Series: Witness

Micah 6

“Witnessing our Faith”

            In Christ, we are a new creation.  We have spent the summer discerning what it means to be a new creation in Christ.  What does it mean for our lives to be transformed through our faith?  Have felt moments of renewal in your own life, and if so, have you felt God’s presence within it?  Have you participated in moments of renewal within your greater community and felt God’s presence within it?        Transformations and renewals are happening all around us, all the time, and God calls us to pay attention to them.  To take the time to notice them, to take the time to participate within them.  Renewal and transformation happened yesterday as a group gathered together to help complete a Habitat for Humanity build.  Renewal occurred within our basement several years ago as people worked to clean-up after the flooding from the hurricane.  Renewal and transformation will be happening over the next year, as people in Texas rebuild their lives from Hurricane Harvey.      

 Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has a motto:  Out of Chaos, Hope.  This is the new creation.  This is participating in the work of God as people of faith, reaching out in times of need, in times of crisis, in times of chaos, and bringing hope.  Many of us are not physically able to muck out basements after floods, or help build a new home, but here, in this place, we offer many opportunities, for everyone to be a part of the new creation through donations.  We may not be able to take a group of people to Texas to help with flood recovery, but the school kits that we will be preparing in a few weeks, will be used for moments just like this.  We witness our faith, our part in the new creation, through simple ways of love and compassion by gathering school supplies. 

            How do we witness being a part of the new creation?  How do we witness lives that speak to love, that speak to hope, lives that proclaim there truly is more goodness in this world than bad?  We share our stories.  We share moments that reflect kindness, we tell of the love and goodness and hope that breaks into this world.  We say no to the negativity, we do not deny it, we cannot live in denial, but we say no to the violence, the brokenness, the barriers that separate, and we say yes to the ways in which we can create hope, create love, and create bridges that unite people. 

            The Kingdom of God can happen in simple acts of kindness.  This past week, I was so bummed out that I had not found eclipse glasses.  My parents were visiting, and it was a beautiful day, and I absolutely love the Turtle Back Zoo.  So, off we went to spend the day at the zoo, with the possible hope that maybe, just maybe the zoo had glasses for sale that day.  My mom suggested we bring some notecards just in case so we could at least make pinhole cameras.  Unfortunately, the zoo did not have glasses, and as the time came for the eclipse, we pulled out our notecards and tried to watch the eclipse through our makeshift cameras.  Our ingenuity was noticed by a father, and he came over and asked if we would like to use his glasses.  We thanked him, we each took a look, and gave him back the glasses, when he responded, no, just keep them.  We have another pair.  Now, we could have just said thank you and moved on through our day.  But, we noticed this as a moment of great blessing.  I said to both of my girls, please pay attention to this type of kindness.  The sharing, the participating in giving a blessing to others, this man was not just a kind person, but a true blessing.  Yes, the Kingdom of God can break in the world at the Turtle Back Zoo over something as simple as eclipse glasses.  So, we too, took the opportunity to share the glasses with another family.  Momentary community was created through that event.  And it could just come and go unless we share the story, unless we name it and embrace it and witness that this was not just another day at the zoo, but a moment where God’s presence broke into the ordinary and transformed the moment into a blessing.   

            Both of the passages I chose for today are about how we can witness our faith as a part of God’s new creation.  I love the passage from Micah:  what does God require of us?  Does God require sacrifice and great offerings?  People often think to be a Christian, to be a part of the church, one has to make great sacrifices and live a strict life of holiness.  People will say they are spiritual but not religious, because they don’t like the rules of the institution.  Micah is declaring, that the rules of the institution are not what God desires – but rather the way in which we witness our lives, the ways in which we live and bear fruit for God.  In very simple words, Micah proclaims: what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

            Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.  Do justice, what does that look like for you?  We may each have a different cause that we feel is seeking to bring justice into the world.  Our denomination and our presbytery have both been focused on the issue of Racism and at the end of Sept. our presbytery is offering intense anti-racism training.  If you have interest in this form of justice, all are invited to attend.  Others focus on ensuring that all are fed.  That the hunger in the world, and right here in our own community are issues of justice.  How do we ensure that every child has enough food to eat?  And so there is a movement of seeking a living wage rather than a minimum wage.  We have a huge population of what has been called the working poor.  People that have jobs, but still cannot pay rent and purchase groceries.  Do justice.  For some the calling is health care and for others it is housing.  Doing justice comes in many shapes and sizes, it can be political in nature, or just sharing with others.  Here in this place, we seek justice mostly through food and housing, with our relationships with Faith Kitchen, Roxbury Social Services, Family Promise, Homeless Solutions, and Habitat. 

            As we partner with our community, we are a part of the transformation and renewal that these various agencies are seeking to bring about.  Often, people mistake the word evangelism, as that negative action of going out into the community and trying to convert people to Christianity.  A few years ago I was at a street festival and sure enough, there was the street preacher with his megaphone, condemning people to eternal torment if they did not get their lives together and confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  It really made me sick to my stomach.  This is what pushes people away, instead of bringing them into God’s love.  Another church, in that same community, gathers under a large tree in a community park with art supplies and just allows people to gather, spend time doing art, and building relationships.  That church is growing, it is bringing people to God, not through threatening their eternal salvation, but through kindness, and goodness, and art.   The art allows a common ground to begin conversations, when people can then witness God’s love, sharing faith stories, not preaching on scripture, but giving real life stories of renewal and transformation.  Allowing a time where God’s light can shine through the darkness.  This is walking humbly with our God. 

            Perhaps we too can creatively think of ways to be a visual presence in our community in a non-threating way, that can allow us opportunities to share our faith with others, and witness to God’s love and goodness in the world.   It is through our own witnessing that disciples are made.  Amen.  

Summer Sermon Series: Let Us Build a House

Let Us Build a House

            In Christ, we are a new creation.  That is theme we have been exploring this summer.  What does it mean to be a new creation in Christ?  What does it mean that the old is gone and all has been made new?  Throughout his teachings, Jesus challenges people to think about who is their neighbor and who is their family.  In the new creation, our neighbor is anyone in need and our family is anyone in the faith.  Today, we explore building a house for God.  Traditionally, God’s house was the Temple, but God does not dwell in one particular place.  What does it mean, in the new creation, to be at home with God? 

            I never thought of the church that I grew up in as my home church, but once I moved away, I understood what that meant.  I constantly refer to this church as my home church.  It is the place where my faith began.  It is the place that nurtured me in my childhood and youth.  It is also the place I reconnected with when I decided to attend seminary.  It was and has been a special part of my life.  Yet, the last time I went to visit, there was a new sanctuary, and I hardly recognized anyone there.  My home church has drastically changed, and I realized what I hold in my heart, in my statement of calling it my home church, are the memories of my youth and the people that were a part of it. 

            What I remember as my home church is not a church building, but a collection of memories of people, Sunday School, worship, youth group, and mission trips.  It is not just one particular thing, but the way in God worked through all the pieces creating a whole.  Psalm 92 speaks to that experience:

The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
¹³ They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God.
¹⁴ In old age they still produce fruit;  they are always green and full of sap,
¹⁵ showing that the Lord is upright;  he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

            I was blessed to be planted in the house of the Lord, a place that engaged me and allowed me to flourish.  People that modeled their faith, even into their old age.  On our summer mission trips, people of all ages participated and I saw how faith produced fruit. 

            People love to find little slogan signs:  such as, Home is where the Cat is.  Or Home is where the heart is.  Psalm 127 states:  Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.  I have used this scripture passage on occasion when officiating weddings.  As a couple begins to build not just a house together, but a home, it is important that God is a part of it. 

            In creating a foundation for life, whether it is from being nurtured in the faith as a young person and entering into adult hood, or if it is starting a life together in marriage, we build upon what we have known.  We build upon our values, our priorities.  As Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, he reminds them, that as they build this new community, as they build this church, this fellowship of people, they must build upon a solid foundation.  He reminds them, that as Gentiles, they were at one time, strangers to God, but now, in this new creation, they too are a part of God’s people.   He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile both groups to God.  Both groups would be the Jews and Gentiles together.  Once there were two groups, but in Christ, Jesus, the dividing wall has been broken down.  He assures the community in Ephesus:  So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God. 

            In life we create homes for ourselves, our own place where we dwell.  We seek a church home as we find a place where we can gather with people, build community and worship God.  In the new creation, we are to be the temple of God, we are to be the church.  The dwelling place of God is not to be a physical location, but should move with us as we traverse our daily lives.  

            After last weekend’s racial conflict, I found this statement that I have posted to my facebook page:  Be the Church:  BE THE CHURCH. Protect the environment. Care for the poor. Embrace diversity. Reject racism. Forgive often. Love God. Fight for the powerless. Share earthly and spiritual resources. Enjoy this life. God is still speaking. UNITED CHURCH of CHRIST."

            We are the church, we, God’s people.  Not the building, not our hour of worship, but us.  In the new creation, we are called to leave the building and go out into the world, being what God calls us to be.  We are to go out and share unconditional love to others, we are to go out and be active participants in our community, we are to go out, being the home in which we seek to build for God.  Amen.  

Summer Sermon Series: Fences and Gates

John 10

Gates and Fences

           

As we continue our journey of what it means to be a part of God’s New Creation, we continue with the metaphor of a seedling sprouting roots, growing in rich fertile soil, plenty of sunshine and receiving living water as it grows to produce fruit.  Now, if you have tried to grow a simple container garden or a larger garden or even flowers, you know in this part of NJ that between the rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and deer, the fruit of our labor is in high demand of often the wildlife beats us to it.  So, the serious gardener puts up a fence and creates some sort of gate in which to enter the garden. 

            In gardening, we want to protect our new creation, we want to ensure that it is allowed to grow and produce the tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and green beans for our enjoyment, not for an afternoon snack for the neighborhood rabbits.  I did see a sign in someone’s flower bed that said:  Bambi’s salad.  I’m pretty sure in my yard, it is the rabbits that have done the most damage to my flowers, but one year, we had a wood chuck that ate both of our Halloween pumpkins before we even got them carved. 

            Some things we can put a fence around, some things we don’t.   Why have Halloween pumpkins out if I put a fence around them?  Although, I have learned that by putting my flowers up high in an elevated flower display on my front deck has kept the rabbits out. 

            Fences, they are all around us.  Whether they are used to protect our gardens, to be a barrier around a swimming pool, or if they are used to mark the boundaries of our property.  They are everywhere.  As are gates or doors.  Often times these gates or doors are locked or have a safety system, such as on a baby gate, to keep children safe.  Gates near swimming pools are often difficult to open so young children cannot wander in.  Fences and gates are often good things. 

            Throughout history, especially Biblical history, gates have had more meaning than just the way in and out of a fenced in area.  The town or city gate was the place where people met to discuss important items.  It could be a place of hospitality as travelers sought to enter into the town, would the town leaders allow them in or send them away?  Did they come in peace or with bad intentions? 

            I just started to read the book:  I am Malala, about a young girl from Pakastan that is shot by the Taliban for attending school.  As it turns out, Malala’s father owns and runs the school created just for girls.  As he developed the school it grew from one school into several more.  The high school had classes for both boys and girls and Malala’s father is questioned about the fact that he allows both boys and girls to enter the school through the same gate. 

            Gates hold power, gates mark status, gates are the entryway into cities, towns, gardens, pools, and schools.  Fences protect and keep people and animals in or out, gates are the way to enter or exit.  It seems that gates are pretty universal, I googled famous gates and in India there is one called The Gateway of India, in France there is the Arc de Triomphe, the arch of Titus, and on and on.  We have them scattered around our own communities as well.  Over in Mountain lakes there are two pillars marking in the entrance into the community, and in Montreat, NC there are these arches that people sing a traditional song as they drive through to enter into this community. 

            So, when Jesus says, I am the gate, his statement has a lot of meaning.  He is not just a way to enter into God’s garden, but his statement has meaning related to the importance of gates in his culture and his specific place in history.  To enter through the gate, there is often conversation, gathering of people together, deals made, commodities traded, families reunited.  People learn from each other at the gate, people negotiate at the gate, people might have to make some form of pledge of allegiance at the gate. 

            But Jesus is not a locked gate, he is not a secret gate, he is not a gate only available for boys at the school to enter through, this gate is there for all to enter through.  At this gate there is an amazing gift of hospitality, a welcoming from God like no other people had experienced before.  A God that says all are welcome, whether you are rich or poor, educated or not, male or female, slave or free.  This is the place to enter, come through the gate and be a part of God’s amazing garden. 

            Over the last two thousand years, we people have done our best to put locks on that gate.  We have tried to convince ourselves and others that not all are really welcome.  We have created false fences and false gates pushing others away.  Come to the garden if you are like us.  Come to the garden if you believe exactly this.  We have put up locked gates around the sacraments of communion and baptism.  Thankfully we are reformed and always reforming.  We have found ways to name those human locks on God’s love and are seeking to remove them.  God cannot be locked, God will continue to find ways to open the gate of God’s love so that all may find a way to learn compassion, and care for each other, and so that we may bear fruit fully for God’s purpose. 

Jesus proclaims:  I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.  We enter the gate not to be brainwashed, not to feel guilty, not to push others away.  We enter the gate so that we may live these lives more fully and abundantly as we embrace a way of life that reflects God’s calling for us. 

From the internet, I found the following poem about God's garden:  

Plant three rows of peas:
Peace of mind Peace of heart Peace of soul

Plant four rows of squash:
Squash gossip  Squash indifference  Squash grumbling  Squash selfishness

Plant four rows of lettuce:
Lettuce be faithful  Lettuce be kind  Lettuce be obedient  Lettuce really love one another

No garden should be without turnips:
Turnip for meetings  Turnip for service   Turnip to help one another

Water freely with patience and cultivate love

There is much fruit for your garden  Because you reap what you sow.

To conclude our garden
We must have thyme:  Thyme for God  Thyme for study  Thyme for prayer
Thyme for each other  Thyme for friends

Summer Series: Compost Luke 14:15-24

Compost:  Creating nutritious soil

            Back in April, for Earth Day, I decided it was time to really get serious about composting.  This was going to be a spiritual practice for me, a way in which to be a good steward of God’s Creation.  As we have journeyed through the summer, learning more about what it means to be a New Creation in Christ, this was for me, a practice of being a part of the New Creation. 

            Compost can be seen as a parable or metaphor for the new creation, for the old is gone and is made new.  Jesus used every day images as he taught people more about God and the Kingdom of Heaven.  Being a part of the New Creation in Christ is like compost.  As you use your summer produce, take the scraps, take the parts that you don’t want to eat, take the wilted leaves and the used coffee grinds, take the bread that has started to mold, and place it together in a compost bin.  Allow it to rest, allow nature to do its part, allow it to be stirred once in a while, allow it to decompose and out of something that was seen as unusable, comes an incredibly rich soil. 

            I found this quotation that I felt connected to being a New Creation in Christ, where the old is gone and all is made new - "If a healthy soil is full of death, it is also full of life:  worms, fungi, microorganisms of all kinds ...  Given only the health of the soil, nothing that dies is dead for very long."
-  Wendell Berry,  The Unsettling of America, 1977

            In Christ, the old is gone and all is made new.  Nothing that dies is dead for very long.  We allow the parts of us that pull us away from God to die, but that does not mean that we die.  In letting go of what pulls us down, what causes stress, what might even cause hurt and pain to ourselves, we will find new life.  Compost is such an amazing example of this.  No longer can I see the tomatoes that I just didn’t get to eat or the cucumber skins or the strawberry stems, they are no longer detectable, but instead, together, they have become transformed into incredibly rich nutrients for new life to grow. 

            I’ve never thought about the parable of the dinner as related to compost until now.  But if you think about it, when read, it seems as if the right people were invited to the banquet.  It would be like making a yummy summer salad with all kinds of fresh produce right out of the garden.  But something goes awry and it seems that all the right people are too busy with other activities to be able to attend.  So the master asks his servants to go out and invite in what seems to be the least of these:  the poor and lame.  It seems like the things I would throw into the compost, the cucumber skins, the strawberry stems, the coffee grinds and the molded bread are what are being served.  Ugh, who would want to be a part of that banquet?   

That’s how people in the day and age of Jesus would have responded to this parable – this request to invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.  Ugh, who would want to attend that kind of banquet.  These are unclean people and not to be associated with.  And yet, that is who is invited.  And just like my scraps in my compost, when mixed together, when allowed to do what nature does, those scraps are transformed into something incredibly nutritious.  God’s people too, no matter what we think of others or ourselves, when brought together into God’s family, into God’s banquet, become this rich soil.  The old is gone and all is made new. 

Is there something in your own life that you might need to symbolically compost?  Something that you might be able to allow to let fallow, and from it new life be given?  Compost takes time, it takes both rest and movement.  I purchased a tumbler, so that I can mix it up once in awhile, but I can’t just put my scraps in the bin and pull out soil in a few days, it takes months.  We too in our spiritual lives need time to rest, need time to fallow, need time to rejuvenate.  Today, I chose two passages about Sabbath rest.  God knows how important rest is for this created world.  Humans need sleep, but we also need Sabbath, we need time to rest spiritually, to focus on the various ingredients of being this new creation.  To dig ourselves into the rich soil, bask in the sun, and drink the living water.  Without these ingredients, and without the time to rest, the fruit we bare will not be the spiritual fruit that God calls us to produce. 

In the ancient laws of the Israelite people, there was great wisdom in the practice of Sabbath.  It did not just pertain to people, but also to the soil, to the fields, to understanding that in order to gain a great harvest, the ground too needed time to rest.  Plant your field for six years, but on the seventh, let it rest.  We know this to be true, it is important to rotate crops and not drain the soil of the nutrients, but why don’t we believe it is true with our own spiritual beings?   Sabbath keeping is essential to keeping our inner souls, our spiritual selves vibrant in God, and God continues to mix nutrients into our symbolic soil by calling us together to worship and to celebrate the sacrament of communion.  As we break bread today, we understand that nothing that dies stays dead for very long.  The gift of communion is not just Jesus sharing of his death, but that he will not stay dead for very long.  Out of death comes new life, it is the gift of Easter, it is the gift of creation, it is the gift of God seeking to permeate every corner of our lives and our souls.  Amen 

             

Summer Sermon Series - living water

“God’s Living Water”

            As we continue in our summer sermon series on being a new creation in Christ, today we focus on water.  As seeds germinate and begin the process of growth, they need the soil, light, and water.  Last week we focused on how we need to be present to God’s light in order to grow into the God’s new creation.  God also provides us with the image of the living water throughout our scripture stories. 

            Our first reading comes from the prophet Ezekiel.  Ezekiel has various visions and one is of God’s Holy Temple.  Flowing throughout the temple is water.  This water has life giving qualities.  We are told that there is stagnant water but as this water flows through it, the water becomes fresh.  Wherever the river goes,^[b] every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these waters reach there. It will become fresh; and everything will live where the river goes. 

            Water is essential to life.  All living things need it, but water can become tainted, poisoned, dirty, polluted, and its life giving qualities can be drained away from it.  In various parts of the world, the water temperature has changed enough that the coral reefs are dying.  As an avid scuba diver, this has saddened me deeply as the once incredibly bright color underwater world is starting to turn white, called bleaching. 

            Our lives can be like this as well.  We can be so exposed to the pollution of the world around us that we become stagnant or bleached out.  Where our true and natural colors of God given passion and love has begun to fade away.   Sometimes we call it burn out. 

            Keeping ourselves immersed in God’s water, rather than the water of the world is essential to being a part of the new creation.  I just had this conversation with someone the other day, on how we often start our day by turning on the news and it can really just bring us down.  What if we immersed ourselves in something different?  What if we started our mornings with music, or something positive and life giving rather than the negative we are so accustomed to doing? 

            As many of you know, this past week was VBS.  Talk about a dose of living water.  For five days, fifty young people gathered next door for three hours of positive living.  For music, crafts, snacks, games, and story of God’s love for them.  And during this time, they were surrounded by loving adults that wanted to share God’s living water with them. 

            God’s super heroes have:  heart, courage, wisdom, hope and power.  So, even though we did not do the passage of Jesus at the well with the woman who he offers living water we lived out this passage all week.  To be God’s new creation is to receive God’s living water and then live it out through: having heart, having courage, having wisdom, having hope, and having power.  And throughout the week, the children also learned a scripture verse which was:  Do good, seek peace, and Go after it.  If we are to be a new creation in God, we should always be trying to:  do good, seek peace, and finding ways to go after it. 

            As Jesus comes to the woman at the well, and asks her for a drink, she is not sure how to do good, since she is a woman and Jesus is a man, she is a Samaritan and he is a Jew.  There are numerous boundaries getting in her way.  And as they talk, Jesus breaks those boundaries down and helps her understand that it does not matter that she is a woman or a Samaritan, that he comes to offer living water. 

            At first she does not get it, she wants to know where his bucket is and makes an excuse that the well is deep, but she does want to know where this living water is.  Jesus tries to explain to her that there are two types of water.  There is the water that we drink and there is the spiritual water of God that will fill our souls with God’s love making us whole.  The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 

            In many ways, Jesus is the temple of God that the prophet Ezekiel was talking about through his vision.  From the life and teachings of Jesus the living water of God flows forth.  It flows out of him into the spiritually stagnant places of our lives and of the world.  It flows out and brings life to the places that it touches, where it is soaked in where it is absorbed.  And as the Samaritan woman at the well begins to understand, she is transformed, she is renewed, she becomes a new creation in God.  She goes back to her village and proclaims that she has met a man who knows everything about her and she asks:  Can he possibly be the Messiah? 

            Life changing moments, moments where we feel something holy in our presence and we just are not sure if it is possibly of God or just a moment.  Life changing moments are happening this summer, they are happening in places like Camp Johnsonburg, VBS at various churches throughout the area, and mission trips to places like Appalachia.  How are you being exposed to the living water?  Are you at the well not sure what to do because there seems to be too many boundaries, challenges, concerns in the way?  Are you wading in the water soaking it up, open to its possibilities but not sure where it will take you?  Are you passionate about how God has called you to be a part of a certain mission opportunity and fully embracing it, seeking to make a difference not just in your own life but in the world as well. 

            One example I used through the week of being God’s super hero, is that of one of our families here at the church.  Having a mission does not have to be overwhelming, it can be something that connects to your family.  One of our families fosters puppies.  They take in dogs, sometimes for a few weeks, maybe longer until they are able to be placed in a forever home.  This is such a beautiful way to show young children how to be God’s super hero.  It involved having heart, and courage, and wisdom, and hope, and power.  It might be very difficult to let those puppies go to another home, because we may fall into love with them very quickly, but when we view it as a mission, as a calling of God, we release them to the next family knowing we have done our part in providing a temporary home for them.  

Summer Sermon Series - Photosynthesis

“Photosynthesis”

Last week, we started a sermon series on the Bible Passage – If you are in Christ, you are a new Creation.  You are a new creation.  What do you think of that?  Did you think of that?  What impact has your faith in God had on your life?  Has it made you more generous or more loving?  Has it pushed you out of your comfort zone to do things that you might not have done otherwise, such as volunteer at the Soup Kitchen or help out at a homeless shelter?  What seeds of faith have landed within your inner most being that through time have grown into outward expressions of who you are?  The seeds are there, waiting for the right conditions to begin to germinate. 

Today’s theme is photosynthesis, yes a little science lesson.  As that small little seed takes root and begins to sprout, it is able to take nutrients from the soil, but as soon as that first leaf breaks forth, a new process begins within it.  The leaf unfolds and soaks in the sunshine, absorbs the light, and then the relationship between the plant and the sun begins to produce food.  A relationship between the sun and the plant.  I still remember in second grade, I was in Mrs. Clupper’s class and we did an experiment with bean sprouts.  One jar of beans was placed in a dark closet, and the other jar was placed in a sunny location.  After a week, we checked in on those beans.  The beans in the closet had grown, but they were strangely white, while those in the sun where bright and green.  That memory has just really stayed with me. 

Something happens because of the relationship between the plant and the sun.  The plant is has something called Chlorophyll which absorbs the blue and red in the light and reflects back out the green.  So, plants that are in the sunlight are green because they are able to absorb light and reflect light back out.  Plants grown in the dark have no light to absorb and therefore no light to reflect back out, hence they are white. 

Now, think of us, think of our seed of the New Creation, as being the plant.  Perhaps we feel something growing within us, something life changing, something of faith that is calling is to live differently, such as the example I shared last week of being more environmentally aware.  Now, I can be more environmentally aware and not be a person of faith, but when I allow that seedling of the New Creation to be in relationship with the sun or the Son, it will absorb God’s love, God’s strength, God’s nurture, and reflect back out into the world a newness of great beauty. 

We are the garden of God, and as our leaves begin to unfold and we find ourselves in relationship to God, photosynthesis happens.  We are able to transform God’s teachings into life tangible ways of living.  We take words off of a page and they are infused into our being, feeding us, and calling us into the New Creation.   Each day a plant is involved in transformation, transforming sunlight into food, each day, we too should be involved in transformation, absorbing God’s presence into our being and doing the best we can to produce a fruitful life for God.  

If you pay attention, you notice that some plants grow quickly while others take a very long time.  I have an orchid that I am trying to have re-flower – and it has been months and months of these small little leaves just beginning to grow forth.  While we have plants in our yard that seem to grow several inches over night.  The same happens with us as God’s New Creation.  There are things within us that will just grow quickly, while there are other parts of us that seem to take forever.  For example. as a new creation in Christ, I am going to try to be more forgiving or I am going to try to be more open minded, or I am going to find healthy ways to destress.  These may take a longer time to develop within ourselves then donating canned food to Roxbury social services.

The only way we can let our light shine, is photosynthesis.  We must first find ways to absorb God’s light, God’s word, God’s love, God’s message for us, God’s gift of grace and reconciliation and then, and only then, can we reflect the love of God back into the world.  Jesus says:  “You are the light of the world”.  You.  His message has been a message for people for 2,000 years.  “You, are the light of the world.  Let your light shine before others.’  We are not called to just go out and do good for others, but we are called to absorb the light of God and transform it back into the world in ways that others will give glory to God.  That’s a mighty task, so how do we do this?  We begin by making sure we are exposed to as much light as possible.  Perhaps that means finding a daily devotional, or starting a prayer journal, or discerning where God is calling you to serve within the life of the church or greater world. 

Over the 4^th of July weekend, we had the opportunity to visit Mt Vernon and learn more about George Washington.  The entire time, I kept thinking how this man was, in so many ways, responsible for this amazing country in which we live.  He truly bent history as he devoted himself to a new form of government rather than serving as a king. Yes, he had flaws, such as owning slaves, but he also made provisions for their freedom in his will.  He was faced with so many decisions and could have taken this country in numerous directions.  He chose to try a new way of people a society, a new way of being a country, a new way of running a government.   Images of the New Creation abound if we have eyes to see them.   

I googled:  People who have transformed the world, and I got an interesting list of people:  Bill Gates, Martin Luther King, Jr.  Nelson Mandela, Ghandi, Einstein, Karl Marx, Hitler, Darwin, and Christopher Columbus, were just a few.  Each of these people had seeds of greatness within them, and some used those seeds of greatness for the greater good, while others used the seeds of greatness for what they thought was the greater good, but retrospection has allowed us to see tragic outcomes.   I found another site that names ordinary people that changed the world, such as Rosa Parks, JK Rowling, Susan B Anthony, Mother Theresa, and Malala Yousafzia.  This young girl has an amazing story, true courage, and shows how living in the light can truly make a difference in this world. When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. 

Various agencies seek to transform the world, everything from World Wildlife Federation to Save the Children, to Community Food Banks, to the Red Cross, environmental groups, to Disaster relief groups.  You name the area of interest and there is an advocacy group involved.  And then there are other groups, such as drug gangs, and hate groups, and organized crime that bring people together to prey upon others.  We all have the potential for good, just like plants, we are designed for photosynthesis, we have the choice of what we are going to absorb and what we are going to release back out into the world.  Amen. 

summer Sermon Series - New Creation

Plant with Care:

Today, we are starting a summer sermon series based on 2 Corinthians 5:17 – called Tending the New Creation.  This is the passage:  So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! What does it mean for us to be made new in Christ?  For many of us, it is the assurance that in and through Christ we are forgiven, that we are loved, that we are children of the covenant, included in God’s gift of salvation. 

            In the time that Paul was writing this, there were some significant ways in which people were made new.  As small communities of people gathered to live out the teachings of Jesus Christ, they had to learn to let go of some of the cultural norms that existed.  In Galatians Paul writes:  There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 

            What does it mean for us to be made new in Christ?  Some people have dramatic stories of how a life of faith has had a major impact on them and they have left behind destructive choices and are seeking wholeness in life  But for many others, we may not have put much thought into how being followers of the teachings of Jesus have actually called us into God’s new creation.  Just prior to this passage, Paul explains a little more about what it means to be a new creation in Christ, he proclaims: that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.

            What if we were to live for Christ? Many of us live for others, but what if we live for Christ?  What would this look like for us?  As we think about this, as we take time to ponder within our own lives and how we live and what we live for, we are going to allow the summer to be a time to let that New Creation within us grow.

            Maybe you clearly know what the New Creation is within yourself.   Or perhaps you are sensing an area of your life that you would like to change, God is always calling us into transformation.  Throughout our scriptures there are multiple suggestions as to how people of faith should live, how they should reflect being a part of God’s New Creation:  we should feed the hungry, clothe the naked – we do many of these things by volunteering, or what we like to call it in the church – mission outreach.  The scriptures also call us to be good stewards, whether that is of our treasures, our talent, our time, and the resources of our planet.  In today’s day and age, being a part of God’s New Creation might be calling us to consider the food we eat, do we buy organic or locally?  Do we compost?  Do we think about our shopping patterns?  Or perhaps being a part of the new creation needs to begin with some self-care, such as exercise, learning more about the scriptures, spending time writing, or studying. 

            The new creation calls us to embrace God’s love, love for ourselves, love for others, love for God, and love for the world in which we live.  For the summer, I have chosen for my spiritual practice of being a part of God’s new creation to be composting and eating healthy. Each of these can be seen as seedlings within God’s garden.  And seedlings need care and attention.  I started off with a worm compost, and it was an epic fail.  Somehow, I managed to kill two pounds of worms, even with very intentional nurture.  So, I decided to purchase a compost tumbler and my compost is doing great. 

            The eating healthier part of my self-care in God’s new creation is a bigger struggle.  We are buying farm fresh vegetables for the summer, but there are still a ton of snacks around the house with the children being home.  So, this is where I am going to have to work on nurturing the seedling within me. 

            Seeds, seedlings, new growth, new creation, we all know the question – which came first the chicken or the egg?  So I ask:  Which came first:  the flower of the seed?  Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.  Now, I am an evolutionist, but I do very much believe God created this world, so which ever came first, God designed it and I am lost in awe and wonder at how something so small as a seed can be transformed into anything at all. 

            If something as small as a mustard seed can become a great plant, why do we doubt that we can be something amazing?  If God designed a seed to grow into something amazing, a tree, a flower, a plant, a bush, can we not see how God designed us to be transformed into a glorious garden filled with a glorious harvest?  But first, we have to plant with care.  A mustard seed will stay a mustard seed unless it is planted. Marcia Mcfee writes:  Germinated seeds must be planted in order for roots to begin to dig deep in the soil. Is the soil in which we plant our hopes fertile? Inherent in the action of planting is an action of belief that something will come of our effort. Can we imagine what will be? This is a work of the people for the sake of those who will come. What are we planting for future generations? 

 I see the church as God’s garden.  We are all the seeds, and now we must plant with care.  We plant the mustard seed of faith within us, we patiently wait as the seed germinates, and we believe that in Christ, we are made new, that we are a new creation, that God is alive within this community and within ourselves to bring forth the Kingdom.    We also believe that our actions, when done as a part of God’s love, as a part of God’s New Creation, have a ripple effect that spread out into the greater world in ways we may never know or see.  On our bulletin cover, I used words from Mother Teresa that state?  I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters and create many ripples.  Is that now what we are called to do as a part of God’s New Creation, create ripples?  Let us be the positive ripples of change, ripples of love, ripples of forgiveness, ripples of God’s new creation. 

Our call to worship – was:

You are a seed of the word, O people,

               Bring forth the kingdom of God!

Seeds of mercy and seeds of justice,

               Grow in the kingdom of God!

Bring forth the kingdom of mercy,

               Bring forth the kingdom of peace.

Bring forth the kingdom of justice,

               Bring forth the kingdom of God!