Sermon - Lent: money and love

            As I started working on today’s scripture, I just couldn’t help but think of the Beatles song – Can’t buy me Love – the lyrics go like this:

Can't buy me love

I'll buy you a diamond ring my friend if it makes you feel alright
I'll get you anything my friend if it makes you feel alright
Cos I don't care too much for money, and money can't buy me love

I'll give you all I got to give if you say you'll love me too
I may not have a lot to give but what I got I'll give to you
I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love

Can’t buy me love. 

Today’s story of Mary pouring costly ointment on Jesus’ feet is definitely a story of love.  And Judas’ response is definitely one of money.  Judas responds to this lavish gift of love from Mary to Jesus as a crime.  He tries to be the good disciple here, he tries to connect this action to the ministry that Jesus has called them to do.  They are supposed to care for others, pool their resources, make sure the widows and the orphans are fed.  This resource that Mary has just poured out upon Jesus’ feet is now wasted.  Think about all the people it could have helped if it had been sold.  Judas tries to be a good disciple. 

            I have found myself making such statements myself.  When I see money used, in what in my opinion, is not the best form of stewardship, I find myself thinking – wow, that could have fed a whole lot of people.  Churches all around the world are adorned with costly stained glass windows, gold objects, costly gems, ornate stone and wood workings, and the cost to maintain them is staggering.  Where do we draw the line?  Where do we lavish our love towards God on costly worship?  And when do we lavish our love for God on our care for others?  Judas tries to be the good disciple here although the text tells us he was stealing from the disciples treasure, so maybe he did only have self interest at hand, but he also shames Mary and her love for Jesus through his statement.

            Mary has been a faithful friend of Jesus throughout his ministry and just recently, he returned to their home when her brother Lazarus died.  Jesus calls out to Lazarus and Lazarus rises from the dead.  Mary has witnessed an amazing miracle in and through Jesus.  Her life has been deeply touched by Jesus.  Jesus is so much more than a friend to her, she has seen God’s very presence in him and Mary knows no other way to say Thank You – If Jesus had restored life to one of my family members, then I might want to lavish a gift upon him too.  How do we say thank you when someone donates an organ, or is able to give bone marrow, or serves as a surrogate?  How do we say thank you when someone changes our life for the better?  How do we say thank you when we see the very presence of God in our midst? 

I'll give you all I got to give if you say you'll love me too
I may not have a lot to give but what I got I'll give to you

Mary knows that money does not buy love, she knows that her actions are not buying Jesus’ love for her, she just has no other way to say thank you, she has no other way than to show her abundant love for him.  Sometimes the heart just swells so greatly with gratitude and love that we just act.  Maybe she thought about what she was going to do the next time she saw him, maybe she didn’t.  Maybe when he arrived she just acted and with what little she had to give, she gave what meant the most. 

So, the reason this is a Lenten text involves Jesus’ response to Judas, that she is preparing him for his burial.  As we know in the Easter morning scripture readings, the women go to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body with oils and spices for preparation for his burial.  He was just temporarily laid in the tomb until the time for his burial.  And so when Jesus visits the house of Mary and Martha, he knows he is moving closer and closer to his final days on earth.  He takes this outpouring of love to illustrate to those gathered with him that he will soon die.  Whether they understand this or not, he seeks to continue to prepare them.  Her action of love will soon be reflected by his action of love - I'll give you all I got to give if you say you'll love me too
I may not have a lot to give but what I got I'll give to you

And his response is yes, yes, I’ll love you too.  I’ll love you not in the earthly form of love, but I’ll love you with deep spiritual love, love that knows no bounds, love that will transcend this life and remain with you forever.  Just as the nard was a fragrant gift of love, Jesus too is referred to as a fragrant offering.  Not a sacrifice given out of guilt or shame or wrong doing, but a true offering of pure love. 

Sermon Lent: Barren fig tree

When Jeff and I first got married, the front yard had several azalea bushes.  Notice I said, had.  We got married in November, so when spring came around, I was looking forward to the azalea blooms.  As the neighborhood exploded in color, and other yards were filled with reds and purples our plants did nothing.  Not one of them.  So, we went to the local nursery and asked what we needed to do.  Its been so long ago, I can’t remember what we bought, maybe holly tone – but we did everything we were told to do to feed and nurture these bushes.  As spring came around the following year, once again I anxiously awaited to see what these plants would do, and once again the neighborhood exploded in color and our azaleas did nothing.  What a disappointment. 

            Jesus is sharing a parable with his followers about a fig tree that is barren.  For three years this tree has not produced fruit and the owner is fed up.  He is ready to have it torn down immediately, but the gardener asks for one more year, a year of intentional care, a year of adding nutrients into the soil, a year focused specifically on giving this tree everything it needs to bare fruit, and then, if in a year, it does not bare fruit, then it can be cut down. 

            As a parable, we can view the fig tree as God’s people.  Just as a fig tree is created to produce figs, the people of God are also created for a purpose – to produce sacred behavior.  On the bulletin cover I used the fruits of the Spirit, sacred behaviors that we are called to produce through our living.  So what happens when God’s people stop living out the purpose God has for them?  Do we believe God comes in, like the owner of that tree, and cuts us down?  No, we lean always into the grace of the gardener that seeks to provide the nutrients and care that the tree needs in order to produce. 

            Again, looking at this parable, if we, God’s people are the fig tree, the tree is still alive, it is just not producing fruit.  It is taking in water and sunlight, it is taking in nutrients, but for whatever reason, all of that is being used inwardly on the tree.  We too can take in life, we can take in our daily bread, we can take in the blessings around us, we can take in so much and just keep it for ourselves.  We can focus inwardly, nurturing our own soul or healing our own wounds, and there are seasons in our own lives that we just don’t have the energy to give anything back.  There are natural ebbs and flows in life, ups and downs, and this tree was given three years before the threat came to cut it down. 

            I see this tree as not just barren but also spiritually dead.  It is stuck.  It cannot do anything more on its own.  This tree is now dependent on the gardener, it is now in need of grace, it is now in need of an outside force to ensure its survival.  The times when we are in our low places, the valleys of our lives, we don’t want to get stuck there, we need to eventually get ourselves moving again.  Sometimes we may feel that we just can’t move forward, that we are out of energy, and it is here, in these places that we need to remember the gardener has come to care for us. 

            Is the true meaning of this parable that the fig tree is not producing figs?  Is it a parable of fear?  That if we don’t get our act together and start doing something productive God no longer needs us?  Or is this a parable of grace?  A parable that proclaims we can’t do it on our own, that left to ourselves we will get stagnant, but with the love of the gardener, with the spiritual nutrients that we all hunger and thirst for, our soil will be tilled and life can once again be born within us?  The gospel of Luke is a gospel of grace.  We have the parable of the prodigal son which illustrates God’s love going out to us even when we have turned our backs on God.  God is always there to welcome us home.   And God is always here to till the soil of our lives to feed our souls despite our best efforts to be independent and do things on our own. 

            When balancing our lives, no matter what season of life we are in, we always need God’s grace, as was shared last week:  Grace is what God does for us that we could not do for ourselves.  We might feel we are really good at tilling our own soil.  But it is just natural in life to get caught into routines, into patterns of behavior that can keep us in a holding pattern rather than moving us forward.  And then something might happen and we receive inspiration or new idea or new found energy.  Do we ever stop and reflect on that and perhaps name it for what it is:  grace?

            Or when we are producing fruit, when we are living out God’s purpose for our lives, do we ever stop and pay attention and name it for what it is?  Grace.  Galatians lists the fruits of the Spirit as: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  But these are not inward gifts.  You can isolate yourself from the rest of the world and live in peace but if you are not sharing peace out within the world, you are like the fig tree taking in water and sunlight only for inward needs. 

Fruit grows on the outside of the tree, we don’t have to cut the tree open to find it.  What we produce for God also needs to be on the outside, not just outside of our own beings, but outside of the church.  We can cut the church open and find a lot of really great people, but we are called to go into the world with our fruit.  And this is not works righteousness, a belief that we have to do good things in order to be saved.  It is perhaps grace righteousness – because of the tilling of our soil, because the gardener loves us and provides for us, we go out as healthy spiritual beings sharing God’s love, God’s joy, God’s peace, God’s patience – if we struggle with our own ability at patience just think about how much more so is God patient with us.  With God’s kindness, with God’s generosity, with God’s faithfulness, with God’s gentleness and with God’s self-control which might just be the gift of grace. 

Are there barren fig trees in our own communities?  Are there issues or concerns right here in the greater Roxbury township that we are aware of?  And do we come in judging that perhaps that person is in that situation because of their own bad choices?  Are we like the owner, only seeing the barrenness?  Or do we see the barren fig tree as a place for potential life, as an issue that perhaps as the body of Christ we can go and till the soil and provide spiritual water and food that might just transform that barren place into a place that bares fruit? 

sermon - Transfiguration Sunday

For those of you that might not know, I am participating in a certification program for Community Organizing.  One aspect of this process that we have been working on, is to move a community from maintainance into transformation.  Community organizing can be applied to the greater community in which we live, such as Roxbury Township, or it can be applied in much smaller areas such as local church congregations.  I am interested in both, but for my certification program, I am focusing on us, as a local congregation.  What does it mean for us to do maintainance ministry and what does it mean for us to do transformational ministry?  I think these are great questions to ask on Transformation Sunday. 

            Maintainance ministry is what we do.  Our committees meet, we have weekly worship, we offer Sunday School and Bible Studies, we create a budget and set goals for the year in which we hope our finances will cover what we would like to accomplish.  Often times, with maintainance ministry, we look the same as we did last year, and the year before, and the year before that.  We celebrate Christmas and Easter, we sing our familiar hymns, and nothing much changes.  It is comfortable, peaceful, and trustworthy.  We have memories formed around these rituals that are meaningful to us.  We are, like Peter, people that have built alters around sacred moments to ensure that they continue to be there for us. 

            Jesus has brought these three disciples up to the mountain top, and is preparing them for the days ahead when he will enter into Jerusalem and will be betrayed by Judas, arrested, denied by Peter, and crucified.  These are not easy days ahead, and so first, before this struggle, this crisis, this horrific event take place, he appears with Moses and Elijah and is transfigured before the disciples into something divine, something sacred, a dazzling of the brightest white.  The disciples are so overcome with amazement, Peter just can’t help himself, and he desires to mark this moment for all history.  He wants to build something to commerate this moment.  And no sooner does he want to keep this moment as something that will last forever, then it is over.  We cannot capture divine moments, the holy presence, it is fleeting and changing and always moving forward. 

            But what does Jesus tell Peter in this story?  Peter, we have work to do, and we must go back down from this mountain and continue what God has asked us to do.  And so down the mountain they go, the once transformed Jesus looking just as he did before he went up the mountain but now, the three disciples are transformed, they have witnessed something unique, special, and holy.  Even the the future is going to be beyond unpleasant, they have this sacred moment to anchor them, a sacred moment that promises them God is present. 

            Jesus does not have time for maintainance ministry, he is on the go, teaching, challenging, calling for change, calling for transformaiton, very literally transforming himself to help illustrate the work that he is about.  In community organizing, transformation ministry is first about building relationships, learning about one another, listening to what the community is passionate about, what the community desires to see changed, to see transformed.  This is actually a perfect connect to our two goals this year:  Fellowship and Mission.  Fellowship is more than grabbing coffee and treats after worship, it is about the deep building of relationships with one another.  Fellowship, relationship building, can actually happen in those parts of our life together where we are involved in maintainance: Bilbe Study, Session and Deacons’ meetings, Sunday School, committee meetings, and fundraisers.   Jesus is always buildling relationships to people, not just with his disciples, but to the greater community as well.  How does he meet Mary, Martha, and Lazerous?  What about Nicodemus?  Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, just to name a few. 

            As we grow in the ways that we know each other, as we build stronger relationships with each other, as we learn what it is that we are truly passionate about, then we go into the world in ministry in that arena.  At one point in our denomination’s life, we were passionate about health care and education.  So, as the early church grew and created ministries in the United States the Presbyterian Church built hospitals and schools.  Over time, we seem to have lost our connection to many of these instututions as they have become businesses rather than ministries.  But we, at one time, transformed the landscape with these much needed community resources.  The church is still at work in places such as Africa, transforming communities with schools and medical clinics.  This last summer, we saw how Broad Street ministry was in partnership with other ministries that are seeking to bring transformation into the lives of people in the Philidelphia area.  Transformation for those diagnosed with Aids, transformation for those that live in food deserts, transformation for those that have always lived with the fear of scarcity.  Transformation even for an old church building that had closed and is now a health clinic, a soup kitchen, a clothing closet, and so much more. 

            Transformation Sunday happens the week prior to Lent for a reason.  Jesus literally faces Jerusalem and begins the journey to his final week.  But Lent is also about growth and moving forward in the faith.  Lent was used as the season of time to teach new converts about the faith and then on Easter Sunday these new followers would be baptized and enter into the formal membership of the faith.  Lent means a spiritual spring, a time for renewal, a time to be transformed.  Any time God sends God’s people into a season of 40 – God desires renewal and transformation at the end.  So, this Lenten season, we are going to focus on transformational ministry, on ways in which we have already begun the process.  We will review the New Beginnings assesement that many of you were involved with over six years ago, and continue to live into God’s calling for us. 

               

Sermon: Love Your Enemy

Love, Bless, Pray, and be Merciful

            Love your enemies, bless those that curse you, pray for those that abuse you.  There is a lot packed into these three statements.  Love, bless, and pray, just those three words can be challenging enough, but to love, bless, and pray for those that aren’t our friends, that don’t seem to be treating us correctly, that perhaps are even causing us harm.  Does Jesus really expect us to live into this?  These are things that we aren’t even sure we want Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit to do.  We want God on our side, why would we want God to extend love to those that oppose us, that want to harm us, that are greedy or violent or cruel?  Aren’t there teachings against these things?  So why would we extend love, and blessings, and prayers for those that seem to be living outside of God’s teachings?  Isn’t there even a teaching about separating the goats from the sheep?  I truly think, this is one of the hardest teachings of Christian discipleship. 

            And so, in order to love your enemy, you first have to identify the break in relationship that has caused this division.  Were you once friends?  Do you have values that are on the extremes of the other?  Did the person break your trust, disappoint you, or betray you?  Or is your enemy someone you have never even met, such as the terrorist group Isis? 

            After 9/11 there were so many hate crimes committed against Muslims, mass stereotyping was happening, and suddenly anyone that had any kind of connections to those terrorists must also be the enemy.  Trauma and fear created this incredible sense of distrust of the other and many innocent people were targeted.  And so churches began to reach out to Mosques in their community, they began to create relationships and build trust with one another and fight against the hatred and stereotypes and negativity that had formed over this horrific event.  In so doing, we put into practice the concept of loving our enemy, or at least loving our presumed enemy, extending love to neighbors in our communities instead of buying into the fear. 

            Apparently, our nation is extremely polarized right now.  I don’t know if our division with one another has created enemies amongst each other.  Every once in awhile I will read a post that a relative shares and I have to say to myself, okay, you completely disagree with this, but she is your aunt, or he is your cousin, let it go. 

            Often times, in order to love or to forgive, one first has to overcome anger, anger at a person, or an event, or some deep hurt that has not healed.    I’ve been working through a book on spiritual disciple and one of the activities was to name 50 things that you are angry about.  I was shocked at how easily I was able to name 50 things that either have angered me in the past or make me angry right now.  Some of them our personal, but some are for the hurts of the world, such as homelessness, human trafficking, and hungry children.  Anger can harm us, but it can also motivate us to make changes in the world.  In order to move yourself out of destructive anger into transformational anger, God reminds us that we have the tools of love, blessing, and prayer. 

Anger is often a response that comes out of fear.  If someone cuts you off while driving, you might become angry at that person, perhaps even honking your horn or flashing your lights at them.  But the anger is driven from the response of fear, fear that that person could have caused an accident, could have harmed you, could have even killed you.  The fear is also driven from the loss of control.  I try to be a defensive driver, always looking around me, always doing my best to be in control of the situation, but someone else’s negligence can wipe out everything I have done to keep myself safe, I am no longer in control and that creates fear. 

What is it like for us as a people to be constantly living in a state of fear and anger?  Well, it pushes us to stress which can then wreck havoc on our physical, emotional, and spiritual selves.  So, if we find ourselves continuously stressed out, or angry, or just feeling out of control, God reminds us, God calls to us, God offers us a better way.  And yes, that way involves loving your enemy, bless those that curse you, and pray for those that oppress you.  More than anything, it is going to push yourself into spiritual practices of growth and perhaps even transformation, it is going to push you into positive ways to deal with fear and anger rather than harmful negative behaviors. 

From the Book:  The Way of Forgiveness, Flora Slosson Wuellner is quoted as saying:  “Acts of cruelty and evil cannot be condoned or forgiven…When we are the victims of radical evil, we are not asked to forgive the evil act  We are asked to remember that the perpetrator, even though trapped for now in the evil, is nonetheless a child of God.”  If you have seen the movie:  The Shack, there is a scene where the father and the Holy Spirit are in deep conversation about this.  The Holy Spirit pushes the father into trying to understand judgement, it can seem so easy to judge on our part.  Murder is wrong and a murdered is an evil person.  But what kind of brokenness is going on in that person’s life, what caused the murderer to become the person he has become?  And to God, are we able to accept that that person is still a child of God?  We want to control God, we want to be the judge, we know how wrong some actions are, and yet, God calls us to love, to bless, and to pray. 

There is such a powerful scene in the movie:  Deadman Walking.  A nun becomes a spiritual guide to a man on death row.  He has committed horrible acts including murder.  The family of the deceased cannot understand why the nun is offering God’s love to this person.  In a standoff between the family and the nun, the grieving father shouts: don’t you think we could use some of God’s love as well?  His anger at her was so complicated, but it seemed he grieved so deeply that the criminal had the attention of the nun and no one came to them.  Perhaps they too needed saving. 

Again, from the book: the way of forgiveness, the reader is encouraged to start with small steps, we can’t be expected to love the worst offender of our lives right away, we need to build into the spiritual practice, we need to begin with smaller areas of disconnect and begin to grow from there. 

I also can’t help wondering, is Jesus preparing his followers for the new community of faith that will grow?  A community that crosses boundaries of culture?  A community that will include both Jew and Gentile, both masters and slaves, both women and men?  In this teaching, he is preparing where people that were once separated by rigid boundaries and social construct can now gather together as one.  How hard would it be to gather with someone you once considered your enemy but is now a part of your faith community?  In the Kingdom of God, there is no space for this, Jesus breaks down the dividing walls, he calls into question who belongs and who does not, and infuses the conversation with Love, Blessing, Prayer, and Mercy.  Let us live into being a community of faith that is welcoming to all, filled with love, generous with blessings, infused with prayer, and always erring on the side of mercy and grace.  Amen. 

sermon: Sabbath

Keeping Sabbath

In college, we had a t-shirt that said:  If God was a Davidson student, he would have played for six days and pulled an all nighter.  The creation story shares that in six days God created the world, and set aside one more day to rest, to see that all is good, to delight in the creation that was made.  God rested, and should we. 

            It has been a long time since Sunday has been held as a day of rest.  Some might remember a time when stores were closed and families would go to church and then often gather for a meal together.  Our lives are so different then the day and age of when Jesus walked this earth.  The rules governing life, society, faith cultures have softened greatly.  We still get a glimpse of it every once in awhile.  I am always amazed in this modern world when I see Orthodox Jews walking to the synagogue or when I hear stories of the rules around whether you can turn on the oven on the Sabbath. 

            Rules around Sabbath keeping exist to help us understand, to help us set aside this time as sacred and holy.  How do we differentiate one day from the next, one day from the normal work that we do, from a day that is set aside as rest, as sacred, as a gift from God?  We act differently, we follow religious guidelines, we give our time and attention to God.  I am pretty sure in the day and age of Jesus, they did not have weekends.  Having one day a week as a day of rest, as a day of no work, was a gift.  For us, it is often just assumed.  Everyone has the weekend, we all get two days off from work, well that is if you have a mainstream vocation, or don’t have to work two jobs to pay the bills.  There are millions of people that have to work all week long, that don’t get the weekend, that don’t have the luxury of slowing down and finding time to be intentionally present with God with a faith community. 

            Every once in a while, we still lament the loss of some of these rules that protected the Sabbath.  We lament that there are sports and practices and so many other activities that happen on Sunday morning.  But we have also not adapted to the changing culture.  We have set ourselves rigidly as a group that gathers on Sunday morning.  This is our time, this is the time we set aside for worship, for gathering as God’s people, for our Sabbath keeping.  But what does this do to us a as a greater community of faith, as a people called together to be in fellowship with each other?  We end up forcing families to make a choice, sports or worship. 

            I wonder how Jesus would negotiate our Sabbath struggle in today’s world.  Because Jesus pushes against the rules of Sabbath keeping that exist in his own day and age.  The two stories we have today involve Jesus doing work on the Sabbath.  He and his disciples are walking through a field and they pluck some grain and eat it.  Seems like something we might do, go out to the garden in summer and pick a few tomatoes and enjoy them fresh off the vine.  But the rules were so rigid that this was considered work, they were involved with harvesting unprepared food, and they had to separate the grain from the chaff.  They were processing their food.  Eating is allowed on the Sabbath, but not picking and processing your food.  You eat something that has already been prepared.  Jesus then points back to King David, that when he was hungry on the Sabbath, he ate, even if it was food he was not suppose to eat.  Here he says, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.  He has not yet defined himself as the Son of Man, and so those that head this were left wondering what he meant, who is the Son of Man?  And what does this have to do with what Jesus is doing? 

            Luke has placed two Sabbath stories together here, this next one happens on another Sabbath when Jesus is teaching in the synagogue.  It seems as if the scribes and Pharisees have caught onto him, since it says they were watching him to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.  And sure enough, he does.  There is a man with a withered hand and Jesus calls out to him.  As the man comes to Jesus, Jesus speaks to the thoughts of the scribes and Pharisees and asks:  I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?  And Jesus heals the man’s hand. 

            Eating and healing, responding to hunger and brokenness, these are two things that Jesus lifts up as viable practices on the Sabbath.  He is pushing back against the rigid rules of his faith tradition that prohibited these actions.  Yes, we need a day of rest, yes, we need a time of holiness, but we also cannot ignore human need just because it happens to be the Sabbath. 

            And so, in a day and age where we seem to have no rules protecting the Sabbath, Jesus just might come to us and ask about our fellowship, our time together as a faith community.  Jesus might challenge us to creatively find ways to keep the Sabbath, creative ways to gather as a faith community, ways in which we are fed and healed not just physically, but spiritually, since that is worship is intended to do for us.  How are we meeting people in their hunger and brokenness?  Are there ways to create sacred space throughout the week, rather than just the few hours set aside on Sunday morning?  Sabbath keeping is about rest, but it is also about sacred connections, about seeing God at work in the world, about connecting to the sacred and finding the good. 

Stewardship - Legacy

Legacy Giving

            The Wednesday night and Thursday morning Bible Studies have spent this past fall studying Elijah.  We have this beautiful Elijah stain glass window here in the sanctuary, so we wanted to learn more about this ancient prophet.  The last chapter of our study was called Legacy.  Elijah, through his faithfulness to God, through his work proclaiming people to return to God, he left a legacy to future generations, including us, here in this place.  The legacy of Elijah connects to the role and purpose of John the Baptist, but his legacy is also passed along through people naming their children Elijah, and it just so happened that we had a pastor named Elijah Stoddard and that this particular window was dedicated to him, so in a sense, it is a double legacy.  A legacy of Elijah the prophet and a legacy of the ministry of Elijah Stoddard.  A physical reminder to us of those who came before us to share their faith through ministry. 

            Our church building is filled with legacies.  We could take a tour and learn about those that came before us through the gifts that have been left in their names.  Today, I specifically chose Miss Grob as someone that has left us a legacy.  I reached out to Sue Anderson to see if she knew Miss Grob or had any history on her and this is what Sue has to share:

Miss Clara Grob was a first grade teacher in Roxbury.  She was my first grade teacher in the Franklin school on Meeker St. in Succasunna.  She lived on N. Hillside Avenue in Succasunna in a brick home that backyard was along our Cemetery fence.  She had lots of bird feeders in her backyard.  She would talk about the many birds in her classes.  She would give books about birds to her students for example for Christmas.  I still have mine. I remember finding it and bringing it to church to show Miss Grob.  She was shocked that I still had it like 25 years later.

        She was very tall and slender, but hunched over later in life.  She wore a hat and dress and walked to church from her home.  She always sat in the front on the left in front of the pulpit.  She left a pillow to sit on, on her pew. .She had no children or relatives.  Her students were her children.  She was very generous and left her home to our church. She was a wonderful teacher.  

            I chose Miss Grob to share today, because more and more, her name is becoming just a name on a fund.  A fund that has been our endowment fund, a fund that has been our life raft to help us through difficult years of continuing our ministry despite limited financial resources.  When she left her house, she had no idea how her gift would further enhance the work of God’s people, here in this place.  Gifts can have a ripple effect, they might be intended for one thing, such as housing an associate pastor, but through prayer and discernment and trusting in God, they can be transformed into other resources for God’s ministry. 

            Our scriptures are filled with stories of people of faith leaving a legacy to the next generation and these legacy gifts come in all different shapes and sizes.  In the story of Hannah, she is barren and she wants a child more than anything else in life.  So, as she prays in the temple, she asks God to give her a child, and in response, she will give the child back to God.  Her legacy, her way of giving to God for God’s goodness in her life, is to return what she has received, her child.  I love the story of Samuel.  Samuel, while living in the temple with the priest Eli is called by God to be the first in the line of prophets.  Hannah’s gift, her dedicating her son to be a part of the priestly class, specifically a Nazarene, is transformed by God and Samuel’s legacy is even more than his mother’s expectations, he becomes a prophet. 

            And then we have the story of the woman with the costly nard or perfume.  Those gathered together are shocked and surprised when she takes this ointment and pours it out upon Jesus.  What could she be thinking?  This perfume should have been sold so they could use the money to help the poor.  I know I have had those very same thoughts when I wrestle with stewardship decisions.  When I was in Kenya, the church I was visiting on Sunday was raising money for a church bus.  My thoughts were, you are raising how much money for a bus when there are street children right outside your doors.  Couldn’t that money be used to make a difference in the life of these children?  We can always make judgements on how we think money should be used rather than how it is being used.  So Jesus responds: “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. ⁷ For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. ⁸ She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. ⁹ Truly I tell you, wherever the good news^[d] is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”  Jesus transforms her action into a legacy.  Others cannot understand her actions, but Jesus does.  Jesus understands that this is what the woman has and out of complete love and compassion and dedication to him, she literally pours out what she has upon him.  And as others scold her, Jesus says that she should be remembered always. 

            How do we pour out our lives for God?  How do we dedicate the next generation to knowing our faith?  How are we leaving a legacy for the future?  And are we willing to leave a legacy that just might look different in the future than what we are expecting?  We have legacy gifts left for specific ministries, which is wonderful, but we also need legacy gifts left to be used how the Holy Spirit is calling us to become.  In this season of Thanksgiving and Stewardship, how might you prayerfully give to the work and ministry of this church for today and tomorrow, but how might you also give for the future?  Miss Grob loved to teach, she loved children, she loved birds, and she must of deeply loved this church and her God.  She could have given her estate to Audubon for the protection of birds for the future, she could have given her estate to the school for the continuation of education, but she chose the church.  The church must have meant something very personal for her, it must have impacted her life very deeply, and my hope is that we can be that ministry to those gathered here today and for those that will gather in this place fifty years from now.  Whether you knew Miss Grob or not, here legacy is making a difference in your life today, as her gift continues to ripple out into this ministry.  Amen. 

Steeple Dedication

Steeple:  Faith can move Mountains

            Do you have faith to move a mountain?  Well, I know how to turn a mole hill into a mountain, but faith to move a mountain?  This summer, as the carpenters and painters worked in extreme heat, to restore our historic steeple, this passage kept coming to mind.  Faith to move mountains.  And then I would add in my head, or faith to restore a steeple.  For this is so much more than repairing and painting a steeple.  This is a story of years and years of conversations, time invested, and careful discernment as to the priorities in the ministries of the congregation. 

            So, although it was not a burning bush with God’s voice speaking to us, we did have a sign from the steeple that it was time to really prioritize its restoration.  A few years ago, a board fell from it.  Yikes, what if it had hit someone?  Are there more loose boards?  From that point forward, small steps starting moving us to today.  The session approved a capital campaign fund to restore the Steeple.  A small group of members were elected at a Congregational Meeting to begin the process of receiving estimates.  Deeper conversations were held with our session and deacons discerning the ways we could use our treasure could be used to offset the costs for the steeple’s restoration.  Then, a group formed that decided to apply for a historic grant.  This dedicated group, became the Steeple committee, and pulled information from a previous grant application, updated information, sought estimates, and submitted the grant to the county.  Only to find out that a lawsuit against the county made religious organizations ineligible to receive these grants.  Defeat! 

            Except, this is a story of faith moving mountains, or in this case, restoring a steeple.  Back to the drawing board.  We had not yet officially started a campaign for the steeple, although we had already received significant gifts towards it restoration.  The energy seemed to be here, could we really do this without the grant money to help us?  The steeple committee decided to take that leap of faith.  There were no guarantees of future grants, and we had received an amazing gift from the estate of a church member towards the building.  Maybe God was talking to us.   

            The Steeple committee set a budget without really knowing what would be found once the carpenters got up to the bell tower, although we did borrow a drone with a nice camera to get some areal views of the steeple.  Again, taking a step out on faith, we moved forward.  As pledges came in, the energy increased and the reality of not only restoring the Steeple but being able to pay for this project all seemed to be in alignment.  A report was brought back to the Steeple committee and the session that there was significant wood damage, a lot of water damage, and that there was going to be a lot more carpentry work than originally thought.  Move forward, let’s do this, and do it right.  Faith moving mountains. 

            Our original two week time frame turned into three and the rain pushed us to four.  The heat caused the lift to basically melt the driveway over on the kitchen side of the building, the rain caused it to sink into the mud, and a tow was needed.  Obstacles, hurdles, but no roadblocks, but would it be finished within the month lease of the lift?   More conversations on additional costs of the lift.  And a wee bit of fear entered in as we wondered how much extra costs would begin to accumulate.  Without fail, the last day of the lift lease, work was finished!  It seemed impossible, but faith truly did move this mountain or in this case, restored a steeple. 

            So, what is so important about a steeple?  I think I said on more than one occasion, let’s just remove it.  Everything right now seems to be about finding your why. What was our why?  Well, it’s historic, it’s been a part of this church building for over two hundred years.  It’s part of our identity here in this community.  There is nothing Biblical about steeples, but they did serve two significant purposes in the past.  Before people had watches, the church bells, located in the steeple, were used to call the community together, not just for worship, but for meetings and other community affairs.   The bells needed to be up high enough for the sound to carry across the region.  Now, our steeple does not have a clock, but some church steeples, also have a clock that was used by the community and again, it needed to be up high enough so people had greater access to see it.  But we don’t need a town clock or bells calling us together, we all have watches or phones that we use for telling time. 

            So, other than its historical meaning, what does a steeple mean in this modern world?  Why not just remove it?  Well, as a people of faith, we often use symbols to signify deep spiritual meaning.  We mark our worship space with the symbol of the cross, the baptism font, the communion table, but we are people that are not just to gather inside a building for worship, but a people called to go out into the world.  The steeple is outside, it is out in the world, our bell rings out and whether you are someone that attends church or not, it is a reminder, a reminder that faithful people do gather, that people in this community do trust in God, that hope moves us forward to ensure that we have a strong and healthy community to live and raise our families.  For some, a steeple might just be a reminder of past days, but for others, it can be a symbol of hope, a symbol reaching up towards heaven, reminding us to pray, reminding us that God is at work, not just a thing of the past, but is currently present in our lives.  Some people might just drive by the church and say, finally, they have painted that thing, they won’t know the faith it took to make this day a reality.  But we know, we now we have a story to share.  The steeple I once said, let’s just remove it, now is a symbol to move of faith, a symbol of faith moving a mountain, a story of faith overcoming defeat and rising up with determination that together, we can make miracles happen.  Amen.