North Kingstown United Methodist Church

Christmas 1 - December 29, 2002

Text: Isaiah 61:10-62:3

Galatians 4:4-7

Luke 2:22-40

Title: Keeping Christmas

A cartoon that appeared in the New Yorker magazine says it all. In the middle of the floor is a dried up, withered, Christmas tree. The calendar on the wall reads December 26. Dad is sitting in his chair with an ice pack on his head. Mom is in a bathrobe and her hair in rollers. The floor is a virtual mountain of torn wrappings, boxes, and bows. Junior is reaching in his stocking to be sure that there is no more candy. In the background we see a table with a thoroughly picked turkey still sitting there. The caption on the cartoon reads simply: The morning after.

Well, perhaps we feel a little that way. Perhaps we feel somewhat let down. If you feel that way it is quite understandable. Over the past weeks our emotions have been wound tighter than a compressed spring. Our festivities have led up to near fever pitch. And then, suddenly, it is all over. Is it any wonder that it is somewhat of a let down? Psychiatrist even have a word for it. They call it Christmas-slump.

A number of years ago, when Lou Holtz was at the University of Arkansas, he was taking his team to play a bowl game in Tempe, Arizona. The game was to be played on Christmas day. He was asked how he felt about playing a game on Christmas, rather than being with his family. The coach answered candidly: "I would rather be in Tempe. After all, once you have been to church, had Christmas dinner, and opened the presents, Christmas is the most boring day of the year."

Is it possible to lose the spirit of Christmas that quickly? Let us be
candid that as we take down the decorations for another year, there is a
sinking emptiness and an emotional let down." Long ago I gave up live Christmas trees in favor of artificial. I remember trying all the tricks to keep it alive. We put aspirin in the water, then we would try sugar, but regardless of the solutions the tree would always wither. Why? Because it had been cut off from its roots.

Maybe that is our problem this morning. Maybe we have trouble making
Christmas last because we have become cut off from our roots. Or, to put it
another way, maybe our celebration of Christmas is not deeply rooted enough.
How do we deeply root our celebration of Christmas so it will last?

I believe we need to be serious about our Tradition. Sometimes it's hard to be serious about Christmas. I mean our culture just doesn't allow it. Many of us drive ourselves crazy every year trying to have a Martha Stewart's Christmas? As hard as you try you're never able to achieve it. It always turns out to be an Erma Bombeck Christmas doesn't it? It is too easy for us to get cut off from our tradition.

In the Christian church there are two Sundays of the year when attendance is generally lower than at any other time. One is the Sunday after Christmas - which, by the way, liturgically is really Christmas Sunday. The other is the Sunday after Easter. In both cases, it seems we build up to a grand celebration and then collapse - and forget what the celebration was all about in the first place. Now, since you are here, you are probably the wrong people for me to be saying this to. However, I’m probably not too far off base with the observation that many of you are still feeling that sense of let down. Our hopes and expectations seem to fall short of the reality. If you are anything like me, you dread the thought of taking down all of those decorations. It feels like Christmas Day is the focus and the end of the celebration. But it’s not the end. It was - and is - only the beginning.

In his gospel, Luke firmly grounds the proclamation of Jesus’ life in the tradition of Judaism. Luke’s Gospel begins and ends in the temple. He is quick to point out to us that Jesus was raised in a home which meticulously observed the law of Moses. In today’s Gospel we hear about the trip that Joseph and Mary made to the temple forty days after Jesus’ birth. This was part of the ritual and tradition of their faith - the presentation and dedication of a first born son.

What happened in the temple that morning was extraordinary. Two different people saw Mary and Joseph and the infant Jesus and immediately recognized him as the Messiah, the Son of God. Two people filled with the Holy Spirit separately confirmed what Mary and Joseph had been told by the angels in the announcements to them, and which Mary’s relative Elizabeth and her unborn baby had also proclaimed when Mary early in her pregnancy went to visit her.

We often hear that Christmas is for the children. But Simeon and Anna were both elderly persons who spent many many hours in the temple worshipping and praying. It had been revealed to Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah - and the Holy Spirit led him to identify the baby Jesus as the long awaited one. Simeon had hoped for and expected this day for many years, as had the rest of the Jews. However, Simeon’s proclamation revealed expectations of the Messiah which were different than those of the Jewish nation. Simeon prays to God, speaking beautifully of the child’s future. "My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all the people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel." The Messiah has come not only for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles - for us!. Jesus will bring truth to light. However, as anyone who has ever turned on a light will realize, a light also creates shadows.

Jesus will bring truth to light, but will also create shadows. The light, the salvation will come but not without a great cost. This becomes clearer in Simeon’s remarks to Mary. "This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed - and a sword will pierce your own soul too."

There is a tendency and a desire among many of us to associate Jesus’ name only with what is positive, and satisfying, and blessed in life. We cherish the promises of Christ’s presence with us during times of difficulty. We embrace the promise of peace that Christ brings in times of sorrow. We grasp hold of the courage that Christ gives us in times of fear. Faced with indecision we seek guidance from the One who was, and is, and always will be - the One who brings light into darkness. When everything seems to be falling down around us and we aren’t even sure how to place one foot in front of the other, we have been known to wonder how people make it through such horrible times without knowing the presence of Christ with them.

We celebrate and relish the light which Christ brings, but we often try to overlook the shadows. As early as Jesus’ presentation in the temple, the shadows begin to appear. Luke weaves the dark threads into what has been a bright tapestry of hopes, inspired songs, and prophecy. Mary has already proclaimed some of the transformation that she knew would occur. She has sung about how God has chosen her, a lowly poor girl, for this incredible honor. She has proclaimed the powerful being brought down from their thrones and the lowly being lifted up; the hungry being filled with good things, and the rich being sent away empty. She has praised God’s great mercy and the promises that God made to our ancestors. But even she is probably not prepared for Simeon’s words, for his warning about the falling and rising of many in Israel, about the inner thoughts of many being revealed, and most of all, about a sword piercing her own soul too. In that reversal of nature which carries in it a pain unlike any other, the parent will bury the child.

The shadows come in the reminder that not all in Israel will accept the Messiah; not all in our world will believe him and accept him into their lives. An even greater shadow however, comes, I believe, to those of us who profess to believe, but then pick and choose what it is we wish to follow. There have been many horrible things done throughout history in the name of Christianity. There have also been many things not done because many of us who have believed have chosen to be comfortable and safe. We have thought that we were staying in the light, rather than venturing into the shadows, but in fact, we have lingered only on the edge of the light, reluctant or afraid to let all of our actions, and thoughts be exposed to the true light.

The child who comes in the silence of the Holy night, is also the one who hangs upon a cross and who comes forth from death leaving behind an empty tomb. He is the one who calls us to welcome the stranger in our midst, to honor the spirit of each of our sisters and brothers, to reach out in compassion and love to all of God’s children. He is the One who reminds us that there will come a day when we are called to account for our actions - when what we have done or not done for the least of God’s children will be treated as if we had done it or not done it for God.

When we celebrate Christmas we celebrate much more than a day of fancy food, decorations and gifts. In fact, if that were all we celebrated, I dare-say, it would not be worth the great effort we expend on it. We celebrate that God’s love came to us to bring peace - a peace that goes far beyond a lack of bombs and weapons. We proclaim that Christmas is a time of celebration not only for those who are happy but especially for those who are feeling crushed under life’s load, who toil along life’s path with steps that are painful and slow. For to all of us comes the message that this child is the Son of God, the one who is destined for the falling of many - but also for the rising of many - the one who will reveal to God - and also to ourselves, our inner thoughts. The One who comes seeking us in love and reaches out his nail-pierced hand to invite us to walk the path into a life of peace as only God can give.

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North Kingstown United Methodist Church

Advent 4 - December 22, 2002

Text: Luke 1:26-38

Luke 1:46b-55

Romans 16:25-27

Title: Blessed with the Impossible

Five years ago at this time I was recuperating from surgery. Surgery that almost didn’t happen because of an impossible pregnancy. Or at least that’s what the pre-admission tests showed. My response was to laugh when the doctor’s office called - I was convinced that someone was playing a joke on me. It never occurred to me that it could even be a possibility - because I knew it was impossible. So, I went back to the hospital for more tests that proved that the tumor which was scheduled to be removed had gotten itself confused and was sending the wrong signals to my body. There was no pregnancy - I had known that all along.

It created some thoughtful moments though - here it was, a little over a week before Christmas. I was a Christian pastor who had just preached on the angel’s announcement to Mary about an impossible pregnancy. Of course there was a big difference - that was then, this was now. Mary had an angel come to tell her the news - I had a questionable lab report. Still, I thought if that were to happen again, who would ever believe it? I could see my ministry and life being destroyed - my life changed forever in ways that were not of my choosing or desiring. If it happened to someone I knew I’m reasonably certain I would not believe the story. But then again, being a Christian I believe that the Messiah has already come - I am not waiting for him to come - at least not in the way Jesus came over 2000 years ago.

We’ve heard Luke’s story of the angel’s announcement to Mary so many times that it’s easy for it to lose it’s mystery, it’s impact. It’s very difficult for us to imagine what it must have been like for Mary - a young girl to hear the words of the angel Gabriel. The Jewish people had been waiting for the Messiah - and waiting, and waiting. In fact, today, they still wait. In each time and place there is the hope that this will be the time when the Messiah will finally come. In the movie - and play - Fiddler on the Roof, there is a poignant scene near the end when all the families are being forced to leave their beloved village of Anatevka. Tevya almost prayerfully asks the Rabbi, "Rabbi, we have waited all our lives for the Messiah. Wouldn’t this be a good time for him to come?" The Rabbi replies, "We shall have to wait for him someplace else."

Mary and her family and friends lived with that same kind of yearning hope. But they had been waiting for a long time. It was a normal day and Mary was deep in the plans for her upcoming marriage to Joseph when everything changed. Here is God’s announcement that the Messiah is coming. It is an announcement complete with the angel to herald it - and not just any angel, but Gabriel! Announcements don’t usually call for a response. They are statements of immediate fact that concern everyone present. Yet, this announcement involves a conversation between Mary and Gabriel. It allows time for her to react, to question, to be answered, and assured. It allows for Mary’s response. She agrees to be part of things, to buy into the vision.

In Luke’s account, this appearance follows another announcement about another impossible or at least, highly improbable pregnancy. It is an announcement to Zechariah, the priest, that his wife Elizabeth, an old woman who has been childless will bear a child - a son - who will prepare the way for the Messiah.

In some ways, the two stories couldn’t be more different - an old couple, and an unmarried virgin. Yet, there are very close parallels. Both are stories of God’s initiative of grace and power. They are stories of God’s grace, that what is about to happen expresses God’s favor toward the world. They are about God’s power - God can work through the least likely of persons, in this case - an old couple and an unmarried girl. Elizabeth and Mary will have sons, not because of anything they have done, but because God is able and because God loves humanity.

Gabriel’s message to Mary - a message of the impossible - does not leave Mary to face this alone. "Think of the fear that must have gripped Mary. Her first reaction was, "You don't know what you are talking about. I am still a virgin." But Gabriel assured her that it was the work of the Holy Spirit. That God was with her. Her next thought must have been, "My father will kill me." It was hard enough to get a good girl married off but one that has lost her purity, that
will never do. But the Angel reassured her in a very special way. He said, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, is going to have a child as well. It was a miracle, unlike Mary's but a miracle nonetheless. That's wonderful isn't it? God did not leave Mary alone in this miraculous event. Someone else in her family was going to experience the unexpected work of heaven in the womb."

But Mary's heart must have skipped a beat when her thoughts turned to Joseph. Fear has a way of gripping us, telling us that what we are about to do is impossible. Mary must have felt that way, even with all of Gabriel's convincing words. Mary surely thought that her fiancé Joseph would not endure the public disgrace. But an Angel appeared to him as well and told him not to fear. What a great surprise is Christmas. Joseph, do not fear to take Mary as your wife. Mary, do not fear, you have found favor with God. Zechariah and Elizabeth do not fear; your prayers have been heard. Do not fear! It's the great surprise of Christmas. God's great light coming into the world this season banishes the darkness and drives the
fear from our heart. As a final word of assurance to Mary, "the angel recalls the creed behind all creeds, the very words spoken to Abraham and Sarah when they doubted the word that they were to have a child: `For with God nothing will be impossible.’"

Abraham and Sarah had been blessed with the impossible. Zechariah and Elizabeth were about to be blessed with the impossible. Mary and the world would soon be blessed with the impossible. The least, the most unlikely choice was the one to be gifted with the blessing of the impossible. But then that is God’s way.

God chose a young shepherd boy named David to be the king of Israel - and it is from his family that the Messiah was to come - so we hear that Mary was "engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David." (Luke 1:27) Through Jesus, God chose an impulsive stubborn almost pig-headed fisherman named Peter to be the rock upon which the church would be built. A man who set out to kill the followers of Jesus was chosen to be the greatest missionary of the early church. After a dramatic experience on the road to Damascus Saul the persecutor became Paul the missionary evangelist. A woman exhausted after a long day of work, too tired to get out of her seat on a bus and stand in the back became a household name, Rosa Parks - the spark of the civil rights movement in this country. A quiet nun in Calcutta spent most of her life caring for those who were the least among the least - Mother Theresa was given the impossible to do and was blessed in the doing.

We all know others who have faced the impossible, people who have labored tirelessly or in spite of their tiredness, people who have in their own quiet way made a difference in the lives of others and probably wouldn’t even believe it if you tried to tell them about it. We know people - people like us - who have been blessed with the impossible. Blessed, because when the impossible comes to us - whether it is something sent from God as a challenge or something imposed upon us by external circumstances of the world, we are never left alone to face it. We are blessed with the presence of the One who came to us as part of God’s initiative of love.

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North Kingstown United Methodist Church

Advent 1 - December 1, 2002

Text: Isaiah 64:1-9

I Corinthians 1:3-9

Mark 13:24-37

Title: Hope for the Future

During the four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I sometimes feel a bit schizophrenic, pulled in many different directions at the same time. There is a prayer that I use during this season that reminds me that this is a time when we worry if everything will get done, if relationships will blossom or break under the strain of all the pressures we place upon ourselves during this season.

While everyone is running around preparing for Christmas, we in the church call this the season of Advent which is a season of anticipation and preparation. As we lit the first candle in our Advent Wreath this morning we called it the candle of Hope. We all know what it means to hope for something - it always involves a period of waiting for the fulfillment of that for which we hope. The first definition in the dictionary says that to hope is "to desire with expectation of fulfillment." That is the quality of hope that we see in the Scriptures for today and the quality of hope with which we approach Advent. "Expectation of fulfillment."

During Advent we are certainly preparing for Christmas celebrations. So that our gifts may reach the children, teens and elderly connected with Project Outreach and with United Methodist Elder Care, we have our giving tree set up this morning. The children are practicing for the Christmas pageant and the choir is rehearsing Christmas music.

However, even while we are deep into our Christmas preparations, we remember that Advent is really a time of spiritual preparation for the indwelling of Christ in our lives in a new way. Father John Mack of SS Peter and Paul Antiochan Orthodox Church in Topeka Kansas warns, "Let us not become preoccupied with the external preparations so as to miss the preparation of the heart. Better a poorly trimmed tree than a poorly trimmed heart! Better an empty refrigerator than an empty soul!"

The prophet Isaiah hoped, yearned for God’s presence. "O that you would tear open the heavens and come down," he cries on behalf of everyone who yearns for God’s powerful presence - and in his case, particularly on behalf of the Israelites after their return from years of exile in Babylon. In his cry is also concern about whether or not the community of believers is ready for God to appear and for Jerusalem to be fully restored. We hear this in his plea, "we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand."

Clay has to be malleable in order to be worked. If it is too dry or too rigid it will crack or simply fall to pieces when the potter tries to work with it or change its shape. In the places of our life where we yearn for God’s presence, the question becomes are we willing to be changed? Are we willing to submit ourselves to God so that we can be changed? Are we willing to give our habits and our attitudes to God - willing to look at them and admit to where they are destructive to us or others? Are we willing to be molded by God’s life-giving and life-changing hands?

Each year I listen to people complain that Christmas has become too commercialized, that we spend far too much money on gifts for people who already have everything they need. By the time we get to Christmas Night we breathe a frustrated sigh and vow that next year will be different. But are we really willing to change - to be changed?

One of my favorite poets is Ann Weems. In a poem called "The Christmas Spirit" she wrote:

The Christmas spirit

is that hope

which tenaciously clings

to the hearts of the faithful

and announces

in the face

of any Herod the world can produce

and all the inn doors slammed in our faces

and all the dark nights of our souls

that with God

all things still are possible,

that even now

unto us

a Child is born!

That is what we proclaim as we light the Advent Candle of Hope. As we wait in this season we feel hopeful. Hopeful that this year things will be different. Hopeful that this year we will slow down and pay attention. Hopeful that this year we will put first things first - keep our priorities in order - remember why we really celebrate this season.

The apostle Paul in writing to the church in Corinth urged them to be faithful and hopeful in waiting for Christ’s return. Listen to the way Eugene Peterson expresses it in The Message and as you listen, think about Christmas and the gift giving and receiving and the busyness. "May all the gifts and benefits that come from God our Father and the Master, Jesus Christ, be yours. Every time I think of you - and I think of you often! - I thank God for your lives of free and open access to God, given by Jesus. There’s no end to what has happened in you - it’s beyond speech, beyond knowledge. The evidence of Christ has been clearly verified in your lives.

"Just think - you don’t need a thing, you’ve got it all! All God’s gifts are right in front of you as you wait expectantly for our Master Jesus to arrive on the scene for the Finale. And not only that, but God himself is right alongside to keep you steady and on track until things are all wrapped up by Jesus. God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with us the life of his Son and our Master Jesus. He will never give up on you. Never forget that."

Isn’t that the best Christmas present any of us could ever hope for - the sure knowledge that God has given us everything we truly need - and will keep us steady and on track if we are willing to be the clay and let God be the potter. We have the confident assurance that God does not give up on us.

In the face of whatever Herod’s the world can produce - in the face of impeding war, in the face of terrorism, in the face of illness, unemployment, loneliness, we wait with hopeful anticipation for the fulfillment of God’s promise once again every day.

Ann Weems writes:

The night is still dark,

and a procession of Herods still terrorize the earth,

killing the children to stay in power.

The world still knows its Herods,

but it also still knows men and women

who pack their dreams safely in their hearts

and set off toward Bethlehem,

faithful against all odds,

undeterred by fatigue or rejection,

to kneel to a child.

During Advent prepare your heart and soul for the presence of Christ in your life each and every day.

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November 24, 2002

No sermon this week due to special worship service.

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North Kingstown United Methodist Church

November 17, 2002 - Consecration Sunday

Text: I Thessalonians 5:1-11

*Matthew 25:14-30

Title: "It’s Not About Money"

Robert Fulghum, who wrote All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, says that he placed alongside the mirror in his bathroom a picture of a woman who is not his wife. That's risky business! Every morning as he stood there shaving, he looked at the picture of that woman.

The picture? The picture is of a small humped-over woman wearing sandals and a blue eastern robe and head dress (sari). She is surrounded by important-looking people in tuxedos, evening gowns, and the regalia of royalty. It is the picture of Mother Teresa, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize!

Fulghum said he keeps that picture there to remind him that, more than a president of any nation, more than any pope, more than any chief executive officer of a major corporation, that woman has authority because she is a servant.

We know about Mother Teresa and the work that she did in Calcutta. We know how she worked on the streets with sick and poor people in a ghetto amid stench, filth, garbage, disease, and poverty that was just unbelievable. We also know about the deep, warm glow on Mother Teresa's face and the deep, warm love in her eyes.
Mother Teresa described this as her mission, the way that she loved and served God. It is something she did faithfully for over 45 years. She considered it a privilege to be with the people whom God had given her to love. Obviously, we can't all be Mother Teresa, but we can all live in that spirit.

The Gospel passage is called the Parable of the Talents and it certainly sounds like it’s about money so the finance committee is probably trying to figure out what I’m doing today. It’s a great passage for Consecration Sunday but I think that while it’s partly about money, it’s more about how we live in the kind of spirit that Mother Teresa embodied. But then again, that is what stewardship is really all about - how we live in the Spirit of Christ, how we live in relationship with God.

The servants in the story were entrusted with a great amount of money. Even the one who received only one talent received the equivalent of 15 years wages for an average day laborer, today somewhere around $400,000. This servant who got into so much trouble with his master guarded his master’s property very well. In fact, he actually guarded it better than the other two servants who must have taken some serious risks with what was entrusted to them. They could have lost everything.

Did you notice how the third servant described his master - that he was harsh in his judgment, that he reaped where he had not sown. He was afraid of his master so he guarded the money very well, burying it in the ground until he could safely return every last penny of it. He got in trouble precisely because he was a guard; he was not a steward. A steward is not the owner, but is the manager. A steward is entrusted with the master’s possessions, but is expected to act on the master’s behalf and for the benefit of the household as a whole. The owner could be trusted to renounce a bad steward who placed the household in jeopardy simply to protect his own claims. This servant was filled with fear. Fear and guilt create guards - not stewards. Grace and love, create stewards.

During a financial stewardship campaign we have to recognize some hard truths. While we have responsibilities as a church to meet certain obligations, and the finance committee and Administrative Council are charged with the responsibility to help us be fiscally responsible - our stewardship campaign is truly not about money. People who tithe out of a sense of fear, afraid that God will be angry if they do not do so, are guards, no matter how much they give. Those who love God and God’s world, who respond out of gratitude for the grace of God, those people are stewards. The steward takes risks, the guard does not.

The steward acts as he or she believes Christ would, if he were here, believing that faithful behavior will bring Christ’s blessing. Phyllis Faaborg Wolkenhauer who has served parishes in North Dakota and Iowa, wrote a series of sermons for this season. In one of them, she reminds us that when Jesus told this story he used images of masters and slaves, money and investments to make his point about what God expects of his disciples. Jesus used images that people would understand.

She retells the story using images and illustrations that we, as twenty-first century Christians, can understand. I think she did a wonderful job of it, so I want to share her retelling with you.

"Jesus was preparing his disciples for the time when he would have to leave this world. He told them that his departure would not be permanent - that he would return. Before he left, he wanted to entrust each of his followers with his special talents. To one he entrusted the talent to teach. To another, the gift of compassion. To another, the ability to faithfully interpret the scriptures.

He entrusted his servants with the abilities to listen attentively to others, to make music, to be hospitable, to do acts of kindness, and to be understanding to those who are often misunderstood. One follower received five talents, another received two and the third disciple received one talent. Jesus instructed them to use what he had given them. He asked them to use their talents as often as they could. He promised that as they used them, others would come to know him and be saved. Then Jesus departed from his followers, for a long time.

When he returned, he called his disciples to him, and asked each person, one at a time, what he or she had done with the talent he had entrusted to them. The first was excited about what had happened when she used the gifts Jesus had given her. She said, "I used my talents to teach as often as I could. I taught children, young adults and the elderly all about you, Jesus. I was able to get through to them. They seemed to understand. At first I was a little afraid that I didn't know enough about you and about the Bible, but the more I taught, the more I learned. The more I used my gifts to help others come to know you, the better I got at it. I must have taught hundreds of people about God's love." Jesus responded, "Well done, my trustworthy follower! Because you have been so faithful with these talents, I will give you more abilities that will enable you to become an even better teacher. You will be able to reach still more people with my love on an even deeper level."

The second disciple was excited, too. His gifts of compassion and empathy had allowed him to touch the lives of people in a way he had never experienced before. He told Jesus, "When you entrusted me with the gifts of compassion and empathy, I was a little shocked. As I was growing up, people would always tell me that it wasn't manly to hug, or share feelings, or cry. But after you gave me the gift of compassion, I found myself wanting to reach out to my son, at times, with a hug rather than a handshake. I began noticing what other people were feeling and sometimes I had to hold back tears when someone was crying in my presence. I resisted those instincts for quite a while.

"Then I remembered. Before you left, you entrusted me with the gifts of compassion and you told me to use them. It took a while, but it finally dawned on me that you said if I hugged and felt and cried with people, they would come to know you. So I began trying to do as my instincts guided. At first I was kind of clumsy at it, and it made me feel nervous. But the more I expressed my compassion to others, the easier it got, and the better I became at being with people wherever they were." Jesus responded, "Well done, good and trustworthy disciple. The more you use your gifts of compassion, the more effective you will become at showing my love to others. Because you have been faithful with these talents, I will give you more."

Then the third disciple came to Jesus, head bowed low in reverence. He said, "All these years, I protected your talent to interpret the scriptures. I kept it to myself. I didn't discuss my insights with anyone, just in case I was wrong. I didn't want to upset you by leading people astray. I kept my mouth shut whenever there was a Bible study. I know that you wouldn't want people disagreeing, so even if I thought someone's interpretation of scriptures made your gift of salvation into something they could earn, I didn't say a word. I know that it makes you angry when people misuse the gifts that you give them, so I was careful not to use mine at all."

Jesus responded in anger, "I entrusted you with the talent of faithfully interpreting the scriptures so that you could help others learn more about me and my love. Just think how many people never heard my message of love and forgiveness because you wouldn't use your talent. All the people whom you encountered in your life who were questioning and wondering about me never experienced my presence because of you and your unwillingness to share your talent. You live your life as if I hadn't given you a thing. My work is too important to waste on such an unfaithful disciple. Because you have not been a good steward of the talent I have given you, I will take it away and give it to the teacher. She will use the ability to interpret the scriptures faithfully. She will use that talent to reach people with my love."

Notice the power of fear. The reason the servant didn’t risk was because he was afraid. Frequently we don’t respond to God, not because we don’t want to, not because we don’t have the gifts, but because we are afraid.

The more you use the talents that Jesus entrusts to you, the stronger those abilities will become. You will become better at what you do and more effective at proclaiming the Word of God. When you show faithfulness in the use of the gifts Jesus gives you, he will entrust you with still more. So go, good and trustworthy disciples. Use your abilities. Don’t hide your talents in the ground somewhere. Put them to work and be involved in proclaiming the love of Jesus!

Stewardship, discipleship is about being a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. It is not about measuring your ability. It’s about how much of your ability you are willing to use and how much of a risk you are willing to take when God calls you to faithful action whether it be in this church, or at home, at school, at work, or in the marketplace. It is about how you use all of the resources entrusted to you, in whatever measure you may have them, - your finances, your health, your brain, your sense of humor, your compassion, your ability to listen, and to speak. It is about how you use everything that makes you a child of God and a disciple of Jesus Christ.

May our prayer not be that of the Pew Potato who prayed, "Dear Lord, please leave me alone. Just let me sit here in my pew on Sunday, and Lord guard my seat. Please don't let anyone else try to sit here Lord... You know that's my seat and dear Lord please get me home quickly after the service on Sunday, before these church people try to recruit me to actually do something that I don't want to do. Lord make them understand that I'm happy and content just to show up on Sunday. Heavenly Father, thank you for hearing my prayer but I've got to Go! The Pastor was long-winded today and kickoff is only a minute away!! You understand. See you next Sunday Lord. Amen.

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North Kingstown United Methodist Church

November 10, 2002

Text: *Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-18

Psalm 78:1-7

*Matthew 25:1-13

Title: Choose This Day

Every time we turn around we are being asked to make choices. What to eat. What to wear. The cable company keeps adding new channels and more options. On the Internet there are millions of web-sites available to us. I went into Google - a search engine on the Internet to look for a piece of information the other day. For those who are not familiar with Google and search engines, it’s kind of like looking in the card catalogue at the library for a particular subject - but much more extensive. Anyway, Google came up with about 223,000 matches for my topic. My search might have been too broad because the first 20 or so didn’t even come close to giving me the information I needed. So I finally gave up. All of these options can be overwhelming.

It’s even true of religion. I understand that there are over ten thousand religious denominations in our country. If we wanted to, we could actually switch churches every two or three days.

In our country we’d like to have it all and we resent it when limitations are imposed upon us. However, the reality is that we have to make choices. We can’t say "yes" to everything that comes along. We have to choose where to focus our energy, time, and resources. Making a decision to do one thing closes out other possibilities.

This is especially true of our faith. Can we really say that we are Christians without giving up some contradictory behaviors? The story is told of a little boy at the beach. He walked up to a woman sitting on a blanket and asked her if she went to church every week. She said, "Yes". "Do you read the Bible?" asked the little boy. "Yes, I do," she replied. "Do you pray?" he asked. Again, she replied that yes, she prayed. Finally the little boy said, "Then would you please hold my quarter for me while I go swimming?" He expected certain kinds of behavior from someone who went to church, read the Bible and prayed on a regular basis. He expected that her faith would impact the way she acted.

Joshua knew that the most dangerous time for our faith is when we have many choices; when we are in a time of affluence and freedom. After slavery in Egypt the people of Israel had wandered in the desert for 40 years. They had finally crossed into the land where they would live. They had battled the inhabitants of the land and won. Things were going to get easier for them now. It is at that point that Joshua gathered them together and told them that they had to make a choice. They had to decide which God they were going to follow.

Would it be the God who had led them out of slavery? Would it be the idols - the gods - that the people around them were worshipping? Did they realize that this was a truly important decision? Joshua pressed them on it. Did they understand that they couldn’t have it both ways? Joshua goes on to tell them that the God they say they will worship is a jealous God and they had better be sure of their choice. We don’t like to hear about a jealous God - but we meet jealous gods all the time.

Do we understand that in a land of freedom and affluence it’s easy for us to become apathetic? Do we recognize that there are an abundance of gods for us to choose from? Money and possessions are jealous gods. When we worship them we want more and more of them until we might be willing to do anything for more money and more possessions. We all know the danger of worshipping the god of power. Nationalism is a jealous god. Even the god of being able to make choices won’t tolerate any situation in which we might give up some of our choices to someone else - for any reason.

Money, possessions, power, nationalism, the freedom to make choices, and the many other gods we might worship are not bad things. Much good can come from their proper use. But when they become our god, we are headed for trouble. Each year the major religious denominations report a decline in membership. When we have so many choices around us, when we have such freedom and affluence, it is easy to become lethargic about our faith. One of the basic commandments of our faith is, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and mind." A faith that demands our love, our heart and soul and mind cannot be just a hobby for the times when we have nothing else to do. A marriage or a true friendship cannot be strong if it comes after everything else. Our faith cannot be strong unless we make it the first priority in which and through which everything else has its meaning. It is so easy for us to relegate our faith to the margins of our lives instead of integrating it into the very core of our being. That was what Joshua was warning the Hebrew people about.

I think it’s also a big part of the message of the Gospel reading that we just heard from Matthew. This story of the ten bridesmaids is traditionally understood to be a story about the second coming of Jesus. But I think it’s also a story about our religious life. Sometimes our religious life begins with the thrill and joy of a party, with great enthusiasm. But then as time goes on, we face the challenges of what it means to be a Christian every day, day after day. There will come a time when we will be asked to give an account of our lives and at that time - if not long before - we will realize that the real question has been how have we lived on a daily basis. Our choices and decisions do make all the difference in the world.

The bridesmaids waiting by the side of the road made some decisions about the amount of oil they would bring with them. Some of them thought ahead and realized that they couldn’t count on everything going completely according to schedule - they had to be prepared for the unexpected. I think of that so often when I see people trying to make sense of life on the basis of a second grade faith. We would never send our children out into the world and expect them to be able to live a meaningful life based only on the skills they have learned through second grade.

Yet, so many of us do exactly that with our faith. And it might work, as long as everything goes according to schedule. It might work as long as life is just and fair. It might work if our spouse, children or we, ourselves, never get really sick. It might work if the love we give to others is returned in appropriate ways. It might work as long as we live in a fairy tale world. But in the real world where there are illnesses, unemployment, accidents, violence, discrimination, wars, limited resources and an abundance of need - in the real world, we need a faith that has grown beyond the second grade level.

We need a faith that is strong enough to light the way in the darkness. We need to use our faith and our resources to light the way of the coming Christ instead of making excuses. In this church, we work hard to light enough lamps so that we can glimpse what the coming celebration of God’s kingdom will be like. We work hard to light enough lamps so that at least some of God’s kingdom can be a reality in our world. We work hard to make sure that at least some people will not go to bed hungry tonight or have to rummage around trying to find a shelter.

We light our lamps and use our resources to provide some children in our town and around the world with bread, and our own children with a place where they know they are welcome, safe, loved, and accepted. We provide visits to persons who are alone and help to families going through difficult times. All of this takes resources. All of this involves making choices about what is most important in our lives.

This past week we went to the polls and cast our ballots for government leadership. When I was leaving the polls, I was asked to participate in the Channel 10 Exit Poll. After filling out the form, I was told to put it inside an envelope so that no one would know who I had voted for. I wondered what it means when we are so concerned with keeping our choice a secret.

If you look at your checkbook, you will also see a record of your choices. Will your check book show that you spent more on tickets to sporting events or entertainment than for the work of God? When you put your cash or check in the offering plate or in your envelope the only one who really pays attention to the amount is God - but that seems to me like someone of great significance.

I’ve never had this experience, but the story is told of a pastor who made an appeal in church for a great and worthy cause. A certain woman, "a member of the church, came to him and handed him a check for $50, asking at the same time if her gift was satisfactory. The pastor immediately replied, `If it represents you.’

"There was a moment of soul-searching thought and she asked to have the check returned to her. She left with it and a day or two later she returned handing the pastor a check for $5,000 and again asked the same question. `Is my gift satisfactory?’ The pastor gave the same answer as before, `If it represents you.’ As before, a truth seemed to be driving deeply. After a few moments of hesitation she took back the check and left.

"Later in the week she came again with a check. That time it was for $50,000. As she placed it in the pastor’s hand, she said, `After earnest, prayerful thought, I have come to the conclusion that this gift does represent me and I am happy to give it.’"

That is a question which each of us is asked to answer. Joshua places it before the people of Israel, "Choose this day whom you will serve." We answer it each day in the way we make choices, the way we use our resources of time, energy, talents, and money. We answer it each day in our behavior - does our faith make a difference in the way we act toward each other, in the way we reach out to our brothers and sisters? May Joshua’s response be ours: As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

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North Kingstown United Methodist Church

November 3, 2002

Title: Lessons Learned from the Geese

Text: *Joshua 3:7-17

I Thessalonians 2:9-13

*Matthew 23:1-12

In a couple of days we will go to the polls to cast our ballots for those who will lead our state & town government for the next few years. We have heard debates and advertisements. We have heard what each candidate promises and doesn’t promise and what the opposing candidate thinks about him or her. If we don’t have any major glitches in the electoral process, if we mark our ballots correctly, and the machines read them correctly, we will know shortly after the polls close who the winners and losers in the election will be. Based on the results, we may have varying opinions about whether we, the voters, are winners or losers. It’s all part of the political process that we Americans have come to know and for which we feel varying degrees of support.

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus has a lot to say about leaders and authority. It sounds to us as if he is blasting those scribes and Pharisees - and in some sense he is. He readily affirms that they are good teachers. He says, "Do whatever they teach you and follow it." However, as a Jew and a follower of Judaism - an insider, rather than an outsider - he critiques their value as role models. "But do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach."

Jesus is big on let your actions truly reflect the words you speak. He has no patience with several practices of the Pharisees which he identifies. Eugene Peterson in The Message puts it this way: "The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hears and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer.

"Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help.,,, They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees......"

I often wonder how Jesus would critique our political system. Or, an even more pertinent question for us might be, "How would he critique the leadership within the church?" It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently as we prepare for our annual meeting and the nominating committee has been preparing their recommendations for next year. It’s something I’ve been thinking about as we begin our annual stewardship effort. As I’ve been thinking about it, I noticed the birds on the flyer that I hope many of you received this week. They remind me of the flocks of geese that we sometimes see flying overhead during the fall. I’m reminded that geese flying in formation is sometimes viewed as an image of the church - and when I think about it, I can understand why.

There are several lessons we can learn from the geese - lessons that are consistent with what Jesus is teaching about leadership. First, you have noticed that geese generally fly in a v-formation. Flying in formation this way helps geese fly an estimated 71% further than any one of them might fly alone. Air, moving from the flapping wings of the front goose, provides the goose behind with uplift. That says to me that we can do more together than any of us can do on our own. That’s a theme that we find in some of Paul’s letters to the early churches. He talks about a collection for the people in Jerusalem. He reminds the people in the churches that at times they have needed help and that now they are able to help someone else. That is a model for me of the connectional system which is part of the United Methodist Church. Many of us have come to dread the word apportionments. That term has been recently renamed so that it is now called "mission shares." It is a reminder that together we are able to do more than any of us can do on our own. Together we can support mission projects throughout the world. Together we can provide training opportunities that we could not afford alone. Together we can sponsor hospitals, retirement centers, schools of theology.

In the local church the value of being in a formation of some sort means that we can pool our ideas, a little work on the part of many people can produce wonderful results. Together we provide a Christian Education program available for everyone. Together we support a building where we gather for worship, for celebrations of new life, for the beginning of new families, for the times of grief at the death of a loved one, for study, for the celebration of the sacraments, for fellowship, for a base from which to go out into the community and world in mission.

Geese continually honk while flying in formation. Researchers believe this encourages the lead goose to maintain its speed. Sometimes we honk too. The question is are we honking words of encouragement or criticism? I’ve seen some wonderful examples of our honking encouragement. When a new ministry is proposed, I see people getting on board and supporting it. The Advent and Lenten Devotional booklets which many of us have come to look forward to have only been a part of our congregation for a few years. The Harvest Stew coming up next week is a great time of gathering, encouraging, and it’s also only a couple of years old. Big Cookie Cafe has provided us with some wonderful music and great fellowship - as well as delicious big cookies. That too is a new outreach and fellowship opportunity. These are not times of people seeking the place of honor as Jesus criticized the Pharisees of doing. They are times of companionship and inclusiveness. I’m pleased to say that I hear much more honking of encouragement here than I do of criticism.

When an individual goose is sick or injured and drops out of formation, two other geese will also drop out of formation and stay with the impaired goose until it regains its strength or dies. Only then will the other two geese rejoin their formation. When I think of this church, this is one attribute of the geese that I can easily identify. I’ve seen this congregation come together to raise money when one of our children faced a liver transplant. I’ve watched people pray week after week for a little boy known only to us as the nephew of one of our members and then saw spontaneous applause the week the baby was finally allowed to go home from the hospital. This congregation rallied around a family in need of multiple kinds of support during the last weeks of a terrible illness. Many times meals have gone to people who were ill. Prayer requests filled out by individuals here are prayed for by others. Cards are sent to people we know and people we do not know personally. I think this church does a really good job of supporting one another during times of illness or difficulty.

Jesus criticized the Pharisees for tying up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and laying them on the shoulders of others, and being unwilling to lift a finger to move them. We are not the ones laying burdens upon the shoulders of others, but we are tying to help lift them or help others while they carry them.

Finally, no goose leads the formation for the entire time it is flying. Each goose leads until it tires, then it falls back into the formation and another goose takes the lead. This is the piece I’ve thought about the most as the nominating committee has prepared its recommendations for next year. It is a big part of any stewardship effort. Stewardship involves much more than our financial resources - it includes the wise use of our time and abilities as well. In that area, there will be many changes in official positions of leadership. This church, as much as is practical, follows a three year rotation for many committees. That means that each year 1/3 of a committee is new to that area, the other 2/3 have 1 to 2 years experience in that specific ministry. In addition several others have requested to leave the positions they have held for varying lengths of time. In almost all cases though the person also said that he or she would like to do something different. In a few cases people are needing to take some time off and rest or focus on other concerns in their lives. This is a healthy way for leaders to be and we can be grateful that we have enough geese in the formation to take the lead while others are able to receive the benefit of the uplift from the air of other flapping wings.

As we begin our financial stewardship effort, this lesson from the geese is also true. Our financial situations change throughout our lives. There may be times when our jobs are secure and income is good, health is good and the demands upon us are quite manageable. At those times we are able to contribute more toward the ministry and mission of our congregation and the larger church. At other times, our job may be shaky, or non-existent, health problems consume a large amount of money, or the furnace breaks down the same day the car dies and the washer quits. When that happens we may need to cut back on the level of financial support which we can provide. We may be able to give back to God in other ways - through our time, or knowledge, or it may be a time when we need to simply stay in the formation and honk our encouragement.

In the Bible Jesus talked about a lot of common things to help people understand what he was trying to teach them. He talked about sheep, seeds, servants and vineyards to name a few. As far as I know, he didn’t talk about geese - and quite frankly I don’t really know if there are geese in Israel - but if he were talking with us about how we should be together as a church, I think he might well use geese as an example for us to follow. 

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North Kingstown United Methodist Church

October 27, 2002

Text: Deuteronomy 34:1-12,

Psalm 90:1-6, 16-17

I Thessalonians 2:1-8

Matthew 22:34-46

Title: A Law to Balance Life

Some years ago, an older friend told me about her son’s interview for admission to medical school. In the middle of the interview, with all of the standard questions that one might have anticipated, came the totally unexpected. One of the interviewers said, "Sing a song for us." Without missing a beat, he sang, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." As he explained later, he was totally caught off guard and responded with the first thought that came into his head - a song that he had learned almost before he could speak.

In today’s Gospel reading the Pharisees questioned Jesus, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" In Mathew’s gospel this is to be seen as a test and comes in a series of challenges issued by various groups, each hoping to trick Jesus and to discredit him. Among some first century Jews it was believed that since all laws came from God they should all carry equal weight, and so it was considered sinful to argue that one commandment was more important than others. In other circles it might have been a standard and frequent debate - just as we might discuss what are the truly essential things to believe if you are to consider yourself a Christian.

Jesus’ answer was the equivalent of my friend’s son singing "Jesus Loves Me." Jesus quoted the Sh’ma, which means "hear or listen" from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. "Hear O Israel! The Lord our God the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." That passage continues, "Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." (6:6-9) Jewish people did exactly that, it was - and still is - the first sentence to open Jewish worship. It was the first Scripture memorized by children. It was prayed many times during the day.

Then Jesus quoted another law found in Leviticus 19:18 "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love of God. Love of Neighbor. Love of Self. Three points of commitment - of action - of life. In Matthew we read, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Jesus had said that he did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill the Law - and this was the Law which he lived.

"The law of love is the law that governs Jesus’ life. It is the law that has him break Sabbath rules and heal on the holy day. The law of love causes him to touch the untouchables, eat with sinners, befriend prostitutes, and restore all of these to community and into relationship with God. This law of love is also our calling and is the heart and soul of our faith."

Loving God, loving neighbor and loving ourselves might not be too difficult - at least in theory - particularly if we can decide who we call our neighbor. It might be easy to be nice to the person who is nice to us. However, if we ask, "who is my neighbor?" we might not like the answer. A lawyer asked Jesus that question in the 10th chapter of Luke’s gospel. Jesus responded with a story, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead." This is the well known story of the Good Samaritan where it turns out that the man who is neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers was the one who showed him mercy. The catch was that this man was a Samaritan - a despised group of people.

The commandment to love your neighbor as yourself becomes much more difficult if our neighbor is someone whom we despise. Does our neighbor include John Allen Muhammed and John Lee Malvo, the men who have been arrested and charged with murder in the Washington Area sniper case? Does our neighbor include the terrorists who flew airplanes into the towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? Does our neighbor include Saddam Hussein? I believe that yes, these people are our neighbors. In that case, what does it mean to "love your neighbor"?

It’s important, I believe, to understand what Biblical love is - and what it is not. In English we use the word "love" to mean many degrees of attachment - everything from a parent’s love, to romantic passion, to a fondness for chocolate. In Greek there are different words for different kinds of love - and the kind of love here is not a warm fuzzy feeling. It is agape - not a feeling of affection, but a commitment - a stubborn, unwavering commitment. To love our neighbor - including our enemies - does not mean that we must feel affection for them. To love the neighbor is to imitate God by taking their needs seriously.

These two commandments involving loving God, loving neighbor and loving self are interconnected and, as I understand them, interconnected to a point where they cannot be separated. They are like the three legs of a tripod. When any one leg is longer - or shorter - than the others it is out of balance. Let’s think about that for a few minutes.

There are some people who seem to love themselves so much that we might say that they are full of themselves. They think that everything they have is because they deserve it. If others are lacking financial resources it must be because they are lazy or careless. They do not see any reason to help those who are less fortunate - and often do not even acknowledge their existence. Such people seem to think that they are the center of the universe - that everything that happens relates to them. If there is an accident on the highway the only concern is about how it will make them late. They are like this conversation overheard between a 6 year old who asked a 5 year old, "Are you in Linda’s room at school?" The other child replied, "No, I’m not. But she’s in my room!" Love of self without love of God or love of neighbor makes life unstable or at best lop-sided.

There are people who love God - or think that they do. They may read the Bible faithfully and prayer fervently. They may attend worship regularly and keep all the commandments. Actually, that was what the Pharisees were doing. They were experts in understanding and following the law of God. What Jesus wanted them to understand was that loving God meant much more than eating the right kinds of food and observing the Sabbath rules

When we love God, we love the things that God loves. We love the people whom God loves. We are committed to doing what is best for all involved - what would be consistent with the will of God. When we look at Jesus we discover that this includes not only the ones we want to love - but also those whom we consider unlovable. In Jesus’ day this included the Samaritans, the tax collectors, the prostitutes and even a Roman Centurion and his family. Loving our neighbor involves thinking of them as people who are also valued by God - not just as people somewhere "out there."

In Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians he described this kind of love. He wrote, "So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us." Paul makes a distinction that loving our neighbor in this way doesn’t necessarily mean doing what they want - it means doing what God wants. He wrote, "we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts."

We can readily identify that there have been times when we have said or done something that another person didn’t like, but that we knew we had to do out of our love for that person and our love for God. Those who are parents will be quick to recognize that there have been times when we have prevented our children from doing something that they wanted to do because we loved them enough to know that it was dangerous or not in their best interest. Loving one’s neighbor - whether individually or corporately - does not mean we let our neighbor do whatever they want or that we give them anything they want. Even more it does not mean that we sacrifice our own well-being out of a misplaced sense of self-sacrifice or even worse out of a lack of love for ourselves - thinking the other more important and more valuable in the eyes of God than we are. This is a trap that all too many of us have fallen into. In many ways it is something that has been taught to us as a false sense of humility - something that Good Christians do because we are supposed to care about other people. In many societies - and often in ours - women especially, have been taught openly and subtly that their primary purpose is to make others happy. Judith Duerk in her book Circle of Stones writes about women, but I suspect that what she says could be applied to many men as well. "Woman has learned to ignore her own feeling needs, learned to be a `good sport’ hurrying along in a pressure-filled production-oriented life. She has learned to brush her feelings aside as she pushes ahead for university honours, to pack them out of her briefcase as she heads, in a three-piece suit, into the professional and political realm. "

Then she asks, "What if a woman trusted her own tears enough to listen to them, to make real changes in her individual schedule, and to see if those changes spread to her office, her committee, her religious group?"

I would ask, what if women and men were to truly understand how much we are loved by God and then to love ourselves. Wouldn’t that make a difference in the way we relate to other people and the way we love other people? Wouldn’t that make a difference in the way we love our neighbor?

Love God. Love neighbor. Love yourself. These are the three legs of a law that can balance our lives - a law which calls out the best in us and helps us to walk in the way Christ calls.

On my desk at home is a small rock with the word "Balance" on it. That has become a kind of watch word for me through the years and something that helps to keep me from running off too quickly in any one direction - or calls me back to the center when my life gets out of balance. Jesus response to the Pharisees question, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest" is one which when lived and acted upon can balance our lives. "`You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’" This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Let us pray:

O God, you teach us to love you with all our heart, and soul and mind, and love our neighbors as ourselves. Because you have loved us so perfectly, we can do no less than obey this, the greatest of your commands.

Plant your Spirit in our hearts so that: we provide a fresh chance to those whose hope is gone; we accept people on the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin; and we release old hurts, forgiving those who have wronged us.

Let your love grow within us so that: we recognize our neighbor’s burden, and lend our strength to their need; we have compassion on those drowning in sin, no longer treating them as filth to be swept away; we meet violence with peace and anger with patience.

You are love, O God, and everyone who loves is born to you and knows you. Each morning brings a new day for writing your message of love to the world. May we be faithful scribes, accurately translating your hold essence, O Author of Perfect Love. Amen.

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Sunday October 20, 2002 is not available online

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North Kingstown United Methodist Church

October 13, 2002

Text: *Exodus 21:1-14

*Matthew 22:1-14

Title: Who Will Be Your God?

When life gets difficult where do you turn? Where do you go to make sense out of confusing situations? For those of us who take our faith seriously there often comes a time when we find ourselves asking, "Where is God?"

We might learn something from the story of the Hebrew people in our reading from Exodus this morning. They had been slaves in Egypt but God had rescued them and brought them out of slavery. They were learning how to be a people on their own and the road was often bumpy. They complained frequently to their leader Moses about lack of food or water - and each time, God met their need.

But in today’s reading, they have become frustrated yet again. They have been camped in one place for a long time and Moses isn’t with them. He went up the mountain to talk with God and he hasn’t come back. It seems to them that even God may be gone - they no longer see the thick cloud that has gone before them during the day or the pillar of fire that went ahead of them at night signifying God’s presence. Of course, the daily provision of manna continued - the seed or grain they gathered off the ground each morning and made into bread - but apparently they have become so accustomed to it that they no longer remember that this is a gift from God, a sign of God’s presence and provision for them.

They were experiencing probably the greatest of all human fears - the fear of being abandoned - of being left totally alone to find their way. They wanted a god who would be with them - a god they could count on - a god they could see.

So they went to the second in command, Moses’ brother Aaron, and demanded that he build them a god that would always be with them - a god they could count on - a god they could see. Aaron had them bring all the gold they had taken from the Egyptians. He melted it down and built them a god - a golden calf.

It may sound ridiculous to us to substitute a golden calf for God, but we need to ask ourselves who, or what do we make our god? When towers came crashing down - where did you turn? When the doctor says the word "cancer" where do you run? When our congress authorizes military action against Iraq, and a sniper kills people in what appear to be random attacks, where do you place your trust? How do you make sense of what’s happening?

The life of faith is a lot like this episode. "If you are serious about your faith in God and your understanding of who you are - and who God is, eventually you will experience this crisis in your own journey. The question is will you seek something less, something easier than a relationship with God, and set up for yourself a system that is concrete, a golden calf? Or will you let God be God and let the ambiguity remain, fighting off the desire for everything to make sense and be easily understood?"

I often think of a professor I had in Seminary. Jerry Handspicker is a brilliant man who, among other things, did a lot of work relating to the effects of gambling. He told us that one day a woman came to him and asked him a question about evil in the world. Now, quite frankly, as you well know, you can’t put the answer to that question on a bumper sticker. Jerry responded, "I don’t know." The woman became quite agitated and said, "You have to know. You’re a Seminary professor. You should know the answer." Jerry simply responded, "Yes, I am a Seminary professor. I have struggled with that question for many years, and I have earned the right to say, `I don’t know.’" Jerry knew that there are some things that we, humans, simply cannot explain. There are some unknowns with which we simply have to live.

We can try turning to the golden calf of possessions, social status, financial security, military might, diplomacy, patriotism or any thing else. But there will come a time when we will have to recognize that they are only golden calves. They do not provide the manna - the nourishment for every day. They do not give us the answers to the really tough questions of life. When Cibby decorated our altar for today, she took several golden calves and placed them in a garbage can to show that there comes a time when we must discard the golden calves and turn to the One True God - the Creator of Heaven and Earth.

While Aaron and the Hebrew people were making a golden calf, they apparently forgot that their very freedom from Egyptian slavery and the food they were eating each day came to them from God.

The story as we have it in Exodus tells us that God saw what the people were doing and became very angry - so angry that God threatened to destroy them. There’s one of the pieces of the story that we don’t like - one of the pieces that doesn’t make sense to us. Yet, how quickly some people have used this to explain what happens in our lives. I’ve heard people say that the reason they have contracted a terrible disease is because it is a punishment from God. You probably remember after September 11th, that certain well known preachers claiming to speak for God, said that the events of that horrible day were God’s punishment on us as a nation for turning away from God, for allowing abortions, accepting homosexuality, and a variety of other activities. One of the important things that I believe they overlooked, was that God did not destroy the Hebrew people . There was a turning from divine justice to divine mercy. God’s action is compassion rather than judgment.

Are there consequences for us when we turn away from God, when we build golden calves? Absolutely! But the consequences are not a result of God’s wrathful judgment or desire to get even or hurt us, but rather the effects of putting our trust in something that will let us down, that cannot truly be counted on in times of trouble.

Moses stands as an example of an appropriate way to handle the difficult times in a relationship - and especially in our relationship with God. According to the story, God told Moses that He would destroy the people and build a new nation from Moses. Moses had been through the ringer with these people. He had been frustrated more than once. There were times when he pleaded with God to act because we was afraid the people would kill him. It might have seemed attractive to say, "yes, let’s get rid of them and start all over again." but Moses didn’t do that.

Moses argued with God. The Psalm says that Moses "stood in the breach". In ancient times most cities had walls built around them to protect them from invaders. When a hole was finally made in a wall, when a crack or opening appeared wide enough for men to get through there would be those who would run from inside to fill the hole, to fight to protect the hole so that the enemy could not get through. It was a dangerous place to be but an absolutely necessary one if the city were to be saved. Moses stood in the breach, he took the risk of facing God and arguing with God. He refused to throw up his hands and walk away. He refused to take the easy way out. Moses had the courage to stay in the tension and confront God.

The Psalms have many passages of people questioning or arguing with God. Most of the prophets argued with God from time to time. The readings of the early church mothers and fathers are full of people questioning, arguing, struggling to stay in the tension. It is such an important thing to be able to question God, to talk to God, that I suspect our ancestors had some of this in mind, when they insisted that this nation be based on the right of all citizens to have freedom of speech.

There have been times in the history of the church and in branches of Christianity where we have acted as if it were a sin to question God. There have also been times in our country when we have challenged those who dare to speak out. I was struck by a statement that Bob Edgar the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches made on a show with Bill Moyer Friday night. He said, "It is very loyal in the United States to speak your mind, to voice objections. That’s not Un-American, it’s very American." We might remember that it is also not Un-Christian to question God, to express our frustration and our concerns - it is very Christian. Indeed, we remember that hanging on the cross, at one point, Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me." These are also the words of Psalm 22. Questioning God is often an important part of honest prayer and Moses gives us a great example.

If we were to read on further in Exodus we would discover that one of the results of Moses debate here with God is a deepening of their relationship, not a fracturing of it. When we encounter God, when we engage in debate with God we discover that our relationship with God becomes stronger, deeper, something we can depend upon even more than before. To my way of thinking, this is preferable to choosing the easier way out as the Israelites did, by choosing a lesser level of intimacy, choosing a different god, We are changed by any encounter with God.

I think that’s an important clue to understanding the last part of today’s Gospel - the story of the wedding banquet - another piece of Scripture that can be very confusing, very tempting to leave alone. In fact, it’s precisely because it can be so easily misunderstood that I dare not skip over it today. In the story Jesus told, everyone is invited to the banquet - just as everyone is invited into a relationship with God. Some could not be bothered. Some had made their own golden calves that were more important to them. Many came - and they all donned the wedding garment - all except one person.

Some of the commentaries tell me that when a king threw a banquet, he would provide the guests with the appropriate wedding garment. In that case, there are only two reasons why the guest in Jesus story would not have been wearing a garment. The most obvious one is that he refused to put it on. This was a concern that Matthew had about the people to whom he wrote the gospel. Some of them were claiming to believe in Christ but were living immoral lives, breaking all of the rules, treating others unfairly, and in general failing to make any changes in the way they lived. As Matthew records Jesus’ story, those people who rebel, who refuse to live their lives according to God’s directions will find themselves on the outside looking in.

The only other reason I can think of for the guest to not wear the wedding robe provided by the king was that perhaps he didn’t see it when he came in, or didn’t understand the importance of wearing it - or in our language, the importance of being clothed in Christ’s attitude of grace, mercy, and love.

Maybe he didn’t know about the robe - just as many people do not know about God’s grace. I wonder whether any of the other guests cared enough about him to tell him about the robe, to show him how a wedding guest was expected to behave.

When I was little I remember adults in the congregation who taught me how to worship. My grandmother used to help me find the page in the hymnal and showed me the words, even when I couldn't read them well enough to keep up. My mother taught me to fold my hands when it was time to pray. There were Sunday School teachers who taught me how to live on Monday through Saturday and my parents reinforced those lessons at home. They were all teaching me how a young Christian was supposed to live.

When we first come into the banquet, the wedding garments may not fit very well. They may seem uncomfortable. But as time goes on, we discover that we grow into them and they begin to feel more like garments we want to wear all the time.

We discover that like Moses we are changed by our encounter with God. Like the Hebrews we may forget all that God has done for us, and start looking for, or creating other gods to be with us. There are many good things in our lives, and we should celebrate them. However, they are not God, and they should not come before God. When God comes first in our life, then the other pieces will fall into place. When God is first then we will give our families, our health, our jobs, and all the other good things, the respect and the priority which they deserve - but we will not let them become our god.

When we come to the Lord's banquet, when we come to worship the God who gives us life, let us take the time to clothe our hearts and minds in the garments of hope, humility, faith and reverence as we approach God. If Christians gathered here and everywhere were to really prepare ourselves for worship with prayer, self-examination, and an openness to the Holy Spirit, then worship would be worship indeed - the kind of worship in which and through which things happen in our souls and in the life of the Church and in the affairs of the world.

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North Kingstown United Methodist Church

October 6, 2002 - World Communion Sunday

Text: Exodus 20 selected verses

Philippians 3:4b-14

Matthew 21:33-46

Title: "One Day of Unity - A World of Hope"

"When we return to the source, what do we find? A table of welcome; bread and wine.

"Here is the place of our returning, where we live our deepest hope, the image of God that we give birth to: a table of welcome and joy. Here is where the lowly gather, a place where the last are first. The humble rejoice and are glad. Our God is present in our midst....

"When we return to the source, what do we find? A table of welcome; bread and wine."

These are the words of a song by the Monks of Weston Priory in Vermont. In profound, yet simple words, they express a foundational truth of our faith. The Source from which we draw strength, and to which we need to keep returning, is this table, a table of bread and wine, a table where all are welcome, a table where we remember and celebrate what Christ did for us.

Today, as you know, is World Communion Sunday. It is a day when Christians all around the world celebrate Holy Communion. This particular day of celebration came out of one of the darkest times in our history. "World Communion Sunday was born out of the misery and deprivation of the Great Depression. In the winter of 1935, a group of Presbyterian ministers met to discuss the church's response to the tragedy. The result was the first World Communion Sunday, celebrated Nov. 1, 1936. The offering that day was dedicated to the relief of the suffering of the dispossessed. In the early 1940s, the observance of World Communion Sunday crossed denominational lines, and the stewardship generated by the special day helped to alleviate the deprivations resulting from a world gone mad with war."

In some ways, the conditions don’t sound very different than we find them today. When our newpaper headlines remind us that weapon inspections, ultimatums, and threats of violence on an international scale, we need more than ever to return to our source.

This is one day, when we Chrisitans throughout the world unite. Within our own churches and our own denominations, for this day at least, we return to the source, we proclaim our unity as the Body of Christ. We remember that we worship the God who has always provided for God’s people. The Israelites learned this in the desert when God provided them with manna (the food which they were to gather and eat each day) as they journeyed through the desert.

Despite God’s provision for them, they constantly complained and grumbled. Eventually, God called Moses up to a mountaintop where Moses was given instructions or laws to help the people live together in harmony with God and with each other.

The Ten Commandments, which we heard today, were not a set of abstract regulations thundered down from the mist-shrouded heights of Mount Sinai by some tyrant of a God. On the contrary, they came from the same God who heard the Hebrews crying out in their captivity, who reached down with merciful hands so that these people could be lifted up, and who lovingly bestowed the gift of life on those struggling to find any meaning in their own. The Commandments are direct and intensely personal.

They were not intended to be reference material for people to go to when life became complicated. They were intended to be remembered, to be repeated, to be taught to the children and to be lived. They are not about a set of rules to follow, but about a relationship. A relationship which is both vertical, between God and us, and also horizontal, between each of us. They are theological and social. They tell us about God and about how we should live, because God has created us, brought us out of slavery, and desires a relationship with us. They offer us an opportunity for life, both with God and with each other. As the Psalmist proclaims, the laws of God are more desirable than the finest gold and sweeter than the purest honey.

These are the commandments from the God who gives us life. but as we well know humanity has not always accepted that life. We have not always lived in a relationship with God, and through the years, people have responded to God’s commands not with love and unity but often with division or violence. Fortunately for us, God did not give up!

God continued to send authorized representatives despite the hostility and opposition of humanity. Throughout the Old Testament we read of the prophets sent by God to remind people about the God who created them, who rescued them from slavery, brought them to freedom and wants a continuing relationship with them.

Like the servants in today’s Gospel, the prophets sent by God were often seized, killed, stoned, ostracized, and in some cases simply ignored. Still God didn’t give up.

Finally God sent his son with the hope that humankind would recognize the rightful authority of God in the presence and person of God’s Son. There were some who listened, just as there have always been some who listened to the prophets before him. But still, our ancestors acted most disrespectfully toward God by rejecting and killing Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God.

You'd think that would be the last straw. Who could blame God for responding by sending fire and disaster upon the earth? Who could blame God for destroying the earth and all of its people and starting over again? Jesus told this story because he knew that he had already been rejected and would soon be killed. Jesus wanted us to know, that even this action would not be enough to cause God to turn away from us.

Hear his strange words, "The stone that the builders tossed aside is now the most important stone of all. This is something the Lord has done, and it is amazing to us." (Matthew 21:42) God does not get reasonable revenge; God's ways are not our ways. Humans may reject God's son, even killing him, but God is not bound by human actions. Indeed, God took the very one rejected by humanity and exalted him in a most amazing way.

God reached beyond the people who were then called God's people, and reached out in love and grace to all of humankind. God caught all of us in a wonderful grip of grace, in a way that we can't fall beyond God's love - although we still have trouble hearing that message and living in that grace.

Francis Dorff told a story of a large monastery which had fallen on hard times. "In years past, the abbey had housed many young monks eager to follow God; the sanctuary had resounded with choral anthems and Gregorian chant; and each Sunday a steady stream of villagers traveled from the surrounding countryside to be nourished in prayer and praise. Now only a handful of monks remained, shuffling aimlessly through the cloistered hallways, weary and discouraged. The sanctuary - once filled with worshippers - echoed only an eerie silence.... And those few visitors who ventured to the abbey on Sunday mornings came more out of curiosity than conviction.

"On the edge of the monastery woods, an old rabbi had built a small hut. From time to time, he would go there to fast and study Scripture. No one ever talked to him, but whenever he appeared, the word quickly passed from monk to monk: `The rabbi walks again in the woods.' For as long as he resided there, they would feel sustained by his presence.

"One day the abbot decided to visit the rabbi and open his heart to him, As he approached the tiny hut, the abbot was surprised to see the old man already standing in the doorway, his arms outstretched in welcome. Although the two of them had never met before, they seemed to share a special kinship, and soon were conversing like long-lost brothers.

"`I wanted to express my gratitude,' the abbot confided. `We have felt the strength of your prayers at the monastery.' The old rabbi nodded, `I know that your ministry has not been an easy one.' The abbot stared at the ground in silence. For awhile neither of them spoke. `You have come seeking my advice?' the rabbi finally asked. `Yes,' the abbot admitted.

"`Then I will give you a teaching that has been revealed to me,' he said cautiously, `but you can only repeat it once. After that, no one must mention it aloud again.' The abbot looked intently at the old man. Taking a deep breath, the rabbi moved closer - almost as if the weight of his message demanded leaning forward. With a low voice, he whispered, `The Messiah lives among you.'

"`What do you mean?' the abbot started to ask. But the rabbi shook his head, `That's all I can tell you. You must go now.' Still puzzled by the statement, the abbot reluctantly got up and left without a word.

"The next morning he gathered the monks together. `I have received a teaching from the rabbi who walks in the woods.' the abbot explained, `but you must promise never to speak of it again.' Everyone agreed. `The rabbi told me that one of us is the Messiah!'

"A startled hush fell over the room, as the monks looked questioningly at one another. The could scarcely believe what they were hearing. In accordance with the rabbi's wishes, though, nothing more was said concerning the strange message, and they quickly dispatched to their work. But secretly, the monks wondered to themselves: `Can it possibly be true? The Messiah is one of us? Who might it be? Is it Brother John? or maybe Thomas?'

"Nobody really knew for sure. However, as time went on, the monks began to treat each other with a very special reverence. There was a gentle, warmhear