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I don’t know about you, but I found these to be very troublesome passages that were read today. Although they include references to times of success and blessings, they seem to be more of a warning of hard times, trials, and tribulations that not only have happened in the past, but will come again.

While I know the Old Testament is full of the failures of people and their lamenting over their woes, I usually count on finding the New Testament to be full of hope for better times in the future. Not only did I find it difficult to find the lessons to be learned in these readings, but I found that even after reading these passages several times, I was left with many unanswered questions and, in fact, even more questions concerning how they tied together and the message I could take from them.

Usually, after reading and studying scripture passages, I realize my own little epiphany when a clear understanding comes to me and I can tie things together into a coherent message. I did not find much consolation in the fact that the Bible Study group I attended also wrestled with trying to find answers, or at least optimism, in these passages. After all, I knew I still had to prepare for today’s service. I decided it might be better to look at each passage individually and to see what each one was saying. Let’s look at them, starting with Isaiah 5.

This passage is called “The Song of the Vineyard”. It talks about a vineyard owner who prepares, plants and protects a fertile land. Giving the land all the best opportunities, he expects an excellent crop for all his efforts.

But, instead of a grand harvest of tasty fruit, the result was bad, sour grapes. Faced with this disappointment, he vows to remove its protection, stop pruning and watering it, and allow it to become a wasteland, overrun with briers and thorns.

The metaphor here is simple and is even stated in verse 7; “The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.”

Verse 4 had asked, “What more could have been done for Israel”, for God’s own people? They were given everything necessary to thrive, and yet failed time and again to be faithful to God’s will and to grow into the people he envisioned and longed for. In spite of all God had done for them, they still turned from him, resulting finally in the loss of God’s nurturing and protection.

While the lesson here was what happened to those who displeased God and turned from him, there doesn’t seem much cause for hope. Although God's first impulse is to love, nurture, and provide for our well-being, even his patience has its limits.

God's last resort is to judge, but he will judge, and judge harshly with those he deems unrighteous. In fact, the rest of the chapter and beyond continues with a long list of woes and judgments. As I said, there’s not a lot of hope here. If this is what happened to God’s ‘chosen’ people, what could be expected to happen to us when we fail to obey God’s will? That being said, let’s go to Psalm 80.

This Psalm, unfortunately, has a tone much like the Isaiah passage. It speaks of the Shepard of Israel, who leads his flock and, as before, the vine that he brought out of Egypt. Again, the care and protection once offered had been removed, ending with similar results to Isaiah 5; being overrun, ravaged, and ultimately destroyed. Here, though, the people cry out in verse 19, “Restore us, O Lord God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.” Although there is no answer, at least they hope and pray for a return to God’s grace.

Next is Hebrews 11 and 12. This is the rest of the reading that we had last week and Pastor Beverly referred to in her sermon. The chapter starts with Cain and Able and basically lists all the relevant people of the Old Testament, up to the time of Moses, along with their acts of faith.

Today’s reading picks up from the days of Moses and Joshua, and continues through the years of Gideon, the judges and the prophets; men and women whose lives produced great deeds or acts of faith. This seems to be a history lesson of the Old Testament.

But looking a little deeper, I asked why were these people mentioned without the detailed story of their actions? Instead of recapping the events these people were noted for, the writer seems merely interested in listing the results of what came to pass. What lead these people to do the things they did and how they accomplished them is not the issue here. Rather, the focus is on the fact that what was done was done in faith. But more than that, I think these passages serve to illustrate a couple of main points.

The full and complete stories surrounding these people were well known to the recipients of this letter. After all, it was a letter to the Hebrews. The Hebrews grew up with the Old Testament stories as part of their heritage as well as their religion. The holidays they observed were based on the remembrance of many of the acts and deeds of the people listed in this passage. Not only were they well known to the Hebrews, they were heroes to generation after generation of Hebrew children and adults. Heroes are lifted up to remind us that great things are possible. Most heroes start out as ordinary people that, through commitment, perform an action that seems extraordinarily beyond expectations. Even today, whether it be sports heroes, life saving heroes, heroes from the bible or any other kind of hero, the thought or memory of them can serve to lift us up and give us hope when we feel hopeless.

That takes me to the second point of this reading. Whatever gain may have been realized by any of these heroes, it was short lived and incomplete in their lifetime.

We are reminded, starting with verse 36 that, “Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword.” These are certainly not uplifting words of encouragement. But then it goes, to verse 39, ”These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” Then chapter 12 starts by telling us that we are surrounded by this “great cloud of witnesses”, and that we should ‘run with perseverance’ and ‘fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith’.

This at last is where we can find some hope. Even though these heroes faced tremendous odds and many suffered greatly, they are our heavenly witnesses and encourage us in the races in our lives.

I am reminded by the Hebrews passages that the 2004 Olympics have already begun. Athletes from all over the world have gathered together in Athens, Greece. They are there for one reason -- to compete for a medal.

Several years ago when the Olympics were held in Barcelona, Spain, the world saw one of the greatest moments in Olympic history. Derek Redmond, a young man from Britain, had dreamed all his life of winning a gold medal in the 400 meter race. He had worked hard to get to the Olympics and his dream was now within his reach.

He was in the semi-finals and was running the race of his life. He could see the finish line just ahead as he rounded the final turn. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his leg and he fell to the track with a torn muscle in his right leg. As the medical attendants ran toward him, Derek struggled to his feet. He started to hop toward the finish line on one foot in an attempt to finish the race. Suddenly, a large man came out of the stands, pushed aside a security guard and ran to Derek's side. It was Jim Redmond, Derek's father. "You don't have to do this," he told his son. "Yes, I do," said Derek. "Well, then," said his father, "we're going to finish this together." And they did. They stayed in Derek's lane all the way to the end. At first, the crowd watched in silence. Then they rose to their feet and cheered -- and wept.

Derek Redmond didn't win the gold medal, but he walked away with the incredible memory of a loving father who, when he saw his son in pain, left his seat in the stands to help him finish the race. Perseverance, faith, and love overcame failure and disappointment.

That leads us to Luke 12. This was probably the most unexpected and troublesome reading for me. After the previous passages, I was looking forward to uplifting and encouraging words. Instead, Jesus says that he came to bring fire on the earth and division rather than peace. And that families will be divided against each other.

Jesus is supposed to be about peace, love, forgiveness and hope, but here he is talking about the opposites of those things. Is it his wish and mission, to bring us misery? Not at all. He is just warning of the things that are going to happen. He knew that division was, and is, inevitable. Jesus knew that his works, his words, and the way of life that he taught would inevitably cause division.

The division will be between believers and unbelievers, and yes this will occur in families and among friends, for not all members of the same families are believers and neither are all friends. The fire will he speaks of will cleanse the faithful and cause the unfaithful to perish. In verse 54, he admonishes the crowd for being able to interpret the signs of the weather and the skies but to remain ignorant to his teachings.

But strangely, rather than being troubled and upset by this seemingly unloving passage, I find myself being comforted and have my hope rekindled. If I am a believer and follower of Jesus, then I should be encouraged by his words. Whatever sorrow or failure or disappointment I experience will be short lived compared to the joy and happiness that is to be found in his kingdom.

So, after greater reflection, there is a lesson I have learned from these readings today. It teaches me that life is like a race that has been set before us. There are no promises or guarantees about how good our lives will be. We can’t count on riches or good health or long life. We may struggle and face many obstacles.

In fact, Jesus himself assures us that we will face division and distress if we choose to follow him. But we have a great crowd of witnesses who are cheering us on. We have a Heavenly Father who loves us and will help us when the pain is too great. We have a Savior, who left his place in heaven and came to earth to show us how to run the race, with all our heart. If we will keep our eyes fixed on him, we can be assured we can finish the race and find him waiting for us at the end. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

The story is told of a man who was the president and CEO of a large corporation here in America. He had read a book that impressed him greatly. It was entitled “Sons and Daughters of God.” The man was so inspired by the book that he decided to order three hundred and fifty copies to give to the executives of his company. He wrote the publisher in Chicago, ordering the books. A few days later there came a computer reply that read, “Sorry, but we can’t find three hundred and fifty “Sons and Daughters of God” in Chicago. Try Los Angeles!”[i]

In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews the writer presents his own list of Sons and Daughters of God, people who acted in faith in their lives. According to the writer of Hebrews, “Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see.” (CEV) The people mentioned in this list in Hebrews are people who could see living possibilities and who acted on that vision. They understood “Faith” as a verb - an action word. Because of their faith they were able to act in ways they would not have been able to act otherwise.

In the section of the chapter we read, we heard about Abraham who took his family, left his home and went to live in a strange place. If you read the rest of the chapter, you’ll find Noah who built a boat that saved him and his family, and Moses, who led God’s people out of Egypt. You’ll find one woman specifically mentioned - Rahab - who, by faith, aided and abetted Israelite spies. You’ll find many other examples, some of whom you might recognize and some you might not: Abel, Enoch, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samson, Gideon, Barak, David and Samuel.

Now before you dismiss them as superheroes who have nothing to do with most of us, we need to realize some important things about them. First of all, they did not make this list because they were perfect. They were not - and they were not always obedient to God. To be sure, they obeyed God a lot of the time, but when they disobeyed, it was ugly. I’m not going to go into a list of their escapades, but let me assure you that whatever you’ve ever done and want to keep secret can most likely be found among this group. They were ordinary people who had more than their share of failures.

Nevertheless, they were people who were willing to act on a vision even though they didn’t always understand it and didn’t always know where it was going to lead.

Those who live by faith may never understand why one person prospers and another doesn’t. Those who live by faith may never understand why one couple’s marriage blooms and flourishes while another wilts and dies. Those who live by faith may never understand why one person gets cancer while another lives a life free of illness. Those who live by faith may never understand why even though they are faithful, they suffer indignities and persecution.

Those who live by faith accept that life is mysterious and full of danger and temptation. And yet, those who live by faith carry on, still believing in the promises of God in spite of all appearances. The writer of Hebrews views faith as a way of life that is oriented to God’s promise and future. It is a way of life that says, “yes” to God’s vision, even when we cannot see it.

Like Abraham, and the others in this list of Sons and Daughters of God, we don’t see the end of many of the things we begin. We do them because we think they are worth doing, they are the right things for us to do. In other words, we do them in faith. Because we don’t expect to see justice established for all persons does not mean we don’t work for justice to the degree to which it is achievable. When a flunking student you helped now makes the honor roll, you shout hallelujah and look for another one to help. You keep on trucking, even though you know you will never run out of “flunking students.” When a hungry person is fed, you rejoice that one less person will go to bed hungry tonight, and then move on to feed someone else - knowing that while you are feeding these persons, there are still people around the world - and maybe even next door - dying of hunger. The examples are endless, but we keep going on in faith, knowing that we are on the right track, believing we make a difference. That’s faith.[ii]

Faith is a journey, ever changing and ever growing. It is not simply a response, but it is the road itself. It is being a vehicle for God in all times and in all places. Of course, being human, like those listed in Hebrews, we are not always perfectly responsive, or obedient. That’s the story that occurs over and over again in the scripture. The prophet Isaiah reminds us that the form or style of our worship is not what is most important to God. God doesn’t care whether we have a beautiful organ, or guitars, violins, horns, and drums. God doesn’t care whether we have many candles or none at all; traditional hymns, or contemporary praise choruses. God doesn’t care whether our worship includes a sermon or drama. What God does care about is whether or not our worship is linked to living lives of justice, rescuing the oppressed, and defending the most vulnerable among us. God does care that our worship and living are linked together - that like those Old Testament people praised in Hebrews we are acting on our faith - living it daily - even though we do so imperfectly.

The latest fad in television programming is the so-called “reality tv” – shows that involve normal people, are basically unscripted but involve all kinds of contrived situations that we, the viewer, are invited to observe. In a way our faith is like that. Our lives are lived in faith but in the midst of real life, not contrived situations. Although our lives are not being observed by millions watching on television, our lives are nevertheless being observed. People are noticing in what we place our faith. Our currency proclaims, “In God we trust” but do we really?

Where are you on your faith journey? Jesus taught that one way of gauging that is to look at where your treasure is. What are the things that you value most? When you go home it might be interesting to make a list of the things that you value the most. Then, if you are willing to risk some revelation, take your calendar, your check book and your credit card bills and make a list of the things on which you spend the most time and money.

How do the two lists compare? Many of us would be quick to say that we value family - but do our calendars verify that? We might say that we value seeking justice - but do our checkbooks support that? If not, then we, too, are acting in the same way as the people to whom the prophet Isaiah spoke. They were following the rituals of their faith but their hearts were not in it. Their actions were not consistent with the moral and ethical teachings of their faith.

The gospel reading invites reflection on what really matters and whether or not the way we spend our time, money, and attention matches our “in-church” answer. “Some years ago, Robert McNamara retired as head of the World Bank. In his closing address, he spoke of the difficulty of caring for the world’s poor. He said Americans spend more on houseplants than they do on international development. Then he cried.”[iii]

If McNamara cannot solve the world’s problems, we probably will not either. But if God fills our “spiritual purses,” then we can help transform lives.

The gospel exhorts us to “be dressed for action” – be prepared and ready, even though we may not know exactly where our faithful response will lead us. Abraham did not know where he was going, but he knew who was directing the journey.

The impala, the slightly-built African antelope that ranges from Kenya to South Africa, can jump to a height of over ten feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet. Yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a three-foot wall, because they will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will land. The faith that God calls us to is faith that trusts what we cannot see.[iv]

Faith is the foundation of our lives. The foundation is the most important part of a building and it is the most important part of our lives. When we baptize our children we are laying a foundation, which we pray will support the walls of life throughout the storms that come and through the ravages of time. It is important that we know what the foundation of our lives really is; that we know on what we really base the faith of our lives, our beliefs, our hope, and our actions.

The business executive looking for the Book Sons and Daughters of God might not be able to find 350 copies here in North Kingstown, but he could find many more than 350 actual Sons and Daughters of God. The question for each of us as individuals and as a congregation is how well are we living out that reality. May we take this opportunity to remember that our roots are in Christ and only by the diligent, intentional construction and maintenance of our foundations can we live life to the fullness God intended. May we seek to have our eyes, ears, and hearts open to the vision which God has for us, a vision which we can, in faith, live into and through. We walk together with the saints of old, seeking to be filled with faith and to act out of that faith.

Gracious gift-giving God, you call us to live out our faith in ways which honor you and bless our neighbors, and we recognize that worship is an essential part of our faith journey. We believe that what we do here in worship does shape our daily witness to Jesus whose disciples we profess to be. We know that our faith is most visible when we live by your kingdom values of love, justice and peace - yet it is increasingly hard to resist becoming absorbed with the values of the world, which are dominated by money, profit and production.

Our brother Jesus, you set your feet upon the way, and sometimes where you lead we do not like or understand. Bless us with courage where the way looks like it is filled with danger or dread. Bless us with graceful meetings where the way is lonely. Bless us with good companions where the way demands a common cause. Bless us with night vision where we travel in the dark, keen hearing where we have no sight, to hear the reassuring sounds of fellow travelers. Bless us with humor, we cannot travel lightly weighed down with gravity. Bless us with humility to learn from those around us. Bless us with decisiveness where we must move with speed. Bless us with lazy moments, to stretch and rest. Bless us with love, given and received, and bless us with your presence, even when we know it only through what seems to be your absence. .....

Go into this world, blessed with the assurance that you are treasured by God, valued by Jesus Christ, energized by the Holy Spirit.

[i] Moore, James W. The Top Ten List for Christians Dimensions for Living, Nashville , 1999, p.38

[ii] Some examples and thoughts from this paragraph come from AHA! 8/12/01 .

[iii] Mosser, David N. editor, Abingdon Preaching Annual 2004, Abingdon Press, Nashville , 2003, p.274.

[iv] AHA! – Aug. 8, 2004 , Tom Miller

I’ve been reading a lot about Tuvalu this week. I wonder how many of you know what Tuvalu is. I had never heard of it – or if I had, I hadn’t paid attention. Tuvalu is a small island nation in the South Pacific Ocean. The islands that make up Tuvalu are scattered over 500,000 square miles of equatorial ocean midway between Hawaii and Australia. Just ten square miles of land, Tuvalu, formerly called the Ellice islands, gained its independence from Britain in 1978 and is home to about 10,000 citizens. Many of the people of Tuvalu are concerned about terrorism.

In our country there are many who are also concerned about terrorism. We have a homeland security department. The 9/11 commission released its lengthy report this week filled with recommendations that they believe will make us safer from terrorism. Tuvalu is not concerned about terrorism from Al Qaida or other extremist groups. They are concerned about what some call a “slow and insidious form of terrorism” against them and they believe the primary perpetrators of this terrorism are Australia and the United States. You see, Tuvalu is considered ground zero in the debate about the consequences of burning fossil fuels. Fears are growing that Tuvalu will be uninhabitable or may vanish entirely within a few decades because of global warming and the resulting climate changes. In 2002 Tuvalu threatened to sue the United States and Australia for excessive carbon dioxide emissions and some Tuvaluans are getting ready to abandon their homeland.[i]

In today’s gospel we hear Jesus responding to a man who complained to him about the way the family inheritance had been divided. Jesus warned against all kinds of greed, declaring that one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. Then he told a parable about a rich man who decided to build more barns to store all of his crops. The man had far more than he needed and by Jewish standards he should have been sharing with those who had less. The man in the parable thought that all he had to do was take care of himself and he could then sit back and relax, eat, drink, and be merry. God called him a fool, reminding him that all of these possessions didn’t provide real security and were not real treasures. “This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”

I thought about that question a lot when I read in the Smithsonian magazine about Tuvalu. I thought about that question a lot when I listened to some of the speeches at the Democratic National Convention this week. I thought about that question a lot while we were involved in Vacation Bible School. I thought about that question a lot when I sat down to pay my bills this week and put the letter from the Finance and Stewardship Committee next to them – the letter that I signed. I thought about that question a lot this week – and I plan to think about it a lot more during the weeks to come.

The things we have prepared – a nation where the emphasis is often on material possessions – where we want the newest and the best – and yet, at what cost to ourselves, or more importantly at what cost to the rest of the world. The people of Tuvalu, a tiny nation that doesn’t even have a stoplight, are worried that their entire country will be destroyed by the wasteful use of the natural resources of the earth by nations like ours. Too many seniors in our country take less than the prescribed amount of their medications because they cannot afford to buy what they need, or they are forced to make choices between paying their rent, buying groceries, or buying their medications. Too many of our children are living in poverty and are being left behind. Is this what we have prepared? Unfortunately, we can begin to see whose it will be.

In Paul’s letter to the Colossians we are exhorted to “set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” I think Paul is reminding us that we are called to a different kind of life – a life that puts into practice all of the things that Jesus taught us, not just the things that seem convenient to us.

There are some political hot potatoes this year that various sections of religious groups are weighing in on heavily – you know what they are and just this week a veto was overridden in the Rhode Island Legislature that will put the question of a casino in West Warwick on the November ballot. As we prepare to make tough political decisions in the months ahead, I pray that we will look at all the things that Jesus taught, things like protecting the environment, being instruments of peace, helping the poor and so on. Let us as responsible and informed Christians set our minds on all of the things that concerned Christ and that should concern us, not just on a few.

“And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” I thought about that this week during Vacation Bible School. I thought about it as the children sang the songs they learned this week. It would be hard to determine which one was their favorite, but a very definite one was “Firm believers, standing strong on faith, firm believers, exercise is what it takes to build up those muscles of spirituality. Firm believers, that’s what we wanna be. Every day in every way we’re working it out; training to be more like Christ. I help you and you help me to follow His example so others will see Jesus in our lives.”[ii] Do you hear the wonderful theology in that song? I thought about the adults and youth who were giving freely and joyfully of their time so that our children could be learning. I thought of the adult class studying and sharing together. I thought of the children and adults who are not a part of this congregation but who were part of Vacation Bible School and I remembered Jesus’ words to go out into the world and share the good news with all people. “And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”

I thought about that as I paid my bills and prayed about my faithful response to the church’s financial need. I know that we are not spending money frivolously. I know that we have been working very hard to be good stewards. I also know that being good stewards does not necessarily mean that we have an absolute bare bones budget – or perhaps, what I really know is that there are different understandings of what a bare bones budget is. A bare bones budget might mean that we pay electricity, heat, insurance and those things necessary to keep the doors open. It might mean that we eliminate one worship service in order to save a little bit of money, or it might mean that we don’t have a Vacation Bible School because there are expenses involved in that, or that we eliminate Monday Bible studies or Sunday School. Perhaps it means we don’t buy music for the choir, or that we stop allowing outside groups to use our building because it costs money to heat the building and burn the lights.

If it means those things then we can be pretty sure that the answer to the question, “the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” will be nobody. Or perhaps it will be “everybody” because so many will be the recipients of us failing to be faithful disciples and sharing the good news. A bare bones budget in a church is not about spending as little money as we can possibly get away with, at the very least it is about being minimal stewards of God’s grace and just barely beginning to be disciples. Our budget is a theological document that tells us who and what is important to us. We have tried to be faithful stewards in making sure our budget is about providing meaningful ways to worship God, opportunities to study God’s word and learn about living God’s word, reaching out to God’s people in our community and beyond, taking the Good News outside of our doors and making our building a welcoming place for those who come seeking the good news, or seeking answers to life’s tough questions, or comfort in times of sorrow or strength in time of weakness and help in time of need. That’s why the ministries of this congregation include housing and working closely with the North Kingstown Food Pantry, providing safe places for those dealing with domestic violence, places for those who are trying to stay sober one day at a time, space for children and youth who are part of the scouting programs learning strong values, facilities for training parents in effective parenthood, Vacation Bible School and Sunday School to prepare our children, youth, and adults to continue to be faithful disciples and wise stewards of what we have received and pass on to them.

The children this week sang, “God’s in the body building business, and He’s building me a body that’s strong. God’s in the body building business, and He’s working in me all day long. He gives food to the hungry and power to the weak, rest to the weary and courage to the meek. When I read the Bible, He shows me what to do; and He’ll do the same for you!”[iii]

As we come to the Lord’s table this morning, let us come to the God who loves us with a strong maternal love “like those who lift infants to their cheeks” as we heard in Hosea. Let us come to the God who heard the people when their cried out and delivered them from their distress as we heard in the psalm. Let us come thanking the Lord for his steadfast love, wonderful works to humankind, for satisfying the thirsty and filling the hungry with good things, and for constantly urging us to grow in our understanding of God’s love and our responsibility in response to receiving that great love.

[i] Information about Tuvalu is taken from Smithsonian “Will Tuvalu Disappear Beneath the Sea?” August 2004, pp. 45-52

[ii] “Firm Believers” from Jesus Helps You Power Up, Vacation Bible School , Standard Publishing, Cincinatti , OH 2004.

[iii] “God’s In the Body Building Business” VBS

Praying is not easy for us sometimes. We may feel guilty because we don’t spend enough time praying. We may feel discouraged because our mind wanders and we are easily distracted. We may feel inadequate because we think we don’t know the right words to pray. We may be confused because we don’t really know how our prayers influence God – especially if God already knows what we need. If we can change the course of events by praying then why do some of our most urgent and persistent prayers seem not to be answered? Prayer is one of those things that all Christians know we should be doing, but which can be so confusing and any number of people are eager to help explain it all to us.

In one of the many books written about prayer, William A. Barry, describes a photograph called “School Prayer”. Clearly it is a dated photograph, but in it “one sees first graders in prayer. Their faces are very serious, most have their eyes closed, and most have strained, tense, even squinty looks. Their hands are tightly folded. It is a rather funny picture until you begin to think about what we might be teaching children about prayer and about God. Most of us adults have had the same kind of teaching. When you think of prayer, what comes to mind? Going to church...? Closing your eyes? Getting down on your knees? Thinking deep thoughts? Do you get a little nervous?”[i] Do you think about prayers you learned as a child?

Jesus’ disciples were curious about prayer too. As good Jewish men they knew many prayers which they recited at appropriate times and places. However, there was something about Jesus’ practice of going away by himself regularly to pray that captured their interest. On one occasion, when Jesus returned the disciples presented him with the request, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Jesus didn’t tell them to sit down and take out their notepads. He didn’t give a weekend course in Prayer 101. He didn’t give them a list of “do’s and don’ts”. He didn’t tell them whether to sit, stand, or kneel, whether to fold their hands or lift them up, whether to have their eyes open or closed, or even whether to say the words out loud or silently. He didn’t answer any of the questions I raised earlier. Instead he gave them an example, a model of how to pray, a model which we call “The Lord’s Prayer” and then he followed up with a couple of stories which would help them understand.

Many of us have memories of learning the Lord’s Prayer. One of mine involves my first grade classroom in public school. We started the morning by standing hand over heart, posture erect, facing the classroom flag and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. No sooner had the words “with liberty and justice for all” ceased its echo than we each bowed our head and recited the Lord’s Prayer in unison.

Or at least most of us did. I joined the class up to about “Give us this day our daily bread” then I dropped out of the unison recitation so that I can mumble the rest of the prayer more quickly than the others. As the only non-Catholic student in the class, I was the only one who included the words, “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever”. I could have continued the prayer out loud by myself, but I chose to pray quickly and silently rather than draw attention to my different way of praying.

That was the culture some of us grew up in - that was the way some of us encountered the Lord’s Prayer early on in our learning experience. It was something we memorized and recited on cue. We gave no thought as to its meaning, no reflection on its implication for our lives, we simply recited it. Its words were as familiar to all of us as those of the Pledge of Allegiance, but our understanding of both was quite limited. Sometimes I wonder whether or not it is really any different for us even as adults. Most of the time, we say this prayer set on full automatic. The words are so familiar that we can be on “cruise control” for the entire prayer.

Learning some of these things by heart can be the seed which will produce great fruit if it is nurtured. Memorizing allows them to come quickly to mind when we are unable to think of words of our own. I’ve worked with many nursing home residents who were unable to carry on a conversation, but who were often still able to join in the Lord’s Prayer. The look on their faces proclaimed the comfort and the importance of this prayer.

However, I think for many of us it is still true that we say the words without thinking of what they mean.

First, this is a prayer of community. All of the pronouns in this prayer are plural. “Our father.... Give us.... forgive us.... lead us .... deliver us...” It asks for God’s kingdom to come; a kingdom unlike any earthly kingdom with borders and boundaries. God’s kingdom knows no boundaries of nationality, ethnicity, language, skin color, political affiliation, economic status, gender, sexual orientation, theological position. If this prayer is to be believed, then we, Christians are bound by cords of grace to all of God’s children.

We pray for “our daily bread”. We who have so much, while so many die of starvation every day. Of what value is it to pray for bread for the breadless, if we are unwilling to contribute seriously to hunger relief or to advocate changes in politics, both locally and internationally, that keep people impoverished and hungry? In prayer we recognize God’s power and as we raise our petitions or concerns we are also suggesting our cooperation with God’s power.

On another level, we might realize that we are also praying about those other things that cause us anxiety. The daily bread we are praying for each day is really a proclamation of faith that God will meet our absolute needs as we need them, often one day at a time.

Our understanding of what it means for God’s kingdom to come on earth has an impact on the way we live and even on the way political decisions may be made. If we think of God’s kingdom as being a place of inclusion, equality, and justice we will be advocating or working for these to be a reality in the lives of all people. If we think of God’s kingdom in the literal coming again of Jesus and the ways that books like the Left Behind series approach it, then we may be aware of politicians and others who are trying to bring about specific results in Israel that they think will hasten the arrival of God’s kingdom.

If we mean what we say, when we pray this prayer, we are asking God to lead us down some risky and unfamiliar paths. Prayer is often risky because we are actively saying yes to the relationship which God delights in offering to us. As in any good relationship, some of our time is spent in talking and much of it should be spent in listening.

Jesus gave us a model of prayer which includes worship or adoration, and confession as well as petitions or asking God for what we need. Some of us have heard the acronym ACTS used to describe a method of prayer: Adoration of God first, followed by Confession of our sins. Then comes Thanksgiving to God for all that God has done. Then and only then come our prayers of Supplication or petition.

Others may be familiar with using the fingers of a hand to suggest ways to pray. Our thumb is the nearest to us and reminds us to pray for those closest to us. The second finger is used for pointing and stands for all those who have taught us or helped us. The third finger is the tallest and stands for the leaders in the world and in every sphere of life. The fourth finger is the weakest as any pianist knows and reminds us to pray for those who are in trouble or pain. The little finger is the smallest and reminds us to pray for ourselves.

Jesus told some stories to help his disciples understand the nature of prayer. In the first story someone goes to his neighbor in the middle of the night seeking bread for an unexpected visitor. We hear it as a story about persistence or perseverance, but I think we need to hear it not as trying to convince God to do something. I believe that the perseverance is an indication of a high priority. Prayer needs to be a high priority in our lives. We need to be persistent about intentionally being open to God. Persistence in prayer keeps us nourished and passionate to live and share the good news.

We are encouraged by Jesus to ask and we will receive, to search and we will find, to knock and the door will be opened for us. We do not need to beat around the bush with God. We can and should be honest and direct with God about what we need. No hinting around.

We are reminded that as much as we delight in giving good things to our children, God delights so much more in giving us the very best that we could ever imagine - the gift of the Holy Spirit - as a constant presence with us to guide us, to comfort us, to encourage us and even to pray for us when we just don’t know the words.

I read about a man who had experienced many problems in his life. At a particularly difficult point he wandered into a bookstore looking for a friend, hoping to find a book that would keep him company and speak to his hurting soul. He opened a book and read these words, "God, it's Saturday night and I feel like I'm bleeding to death on the inside. Ain't no way I'm gonna make it to church tomorrow. Do You make house calls?"[ii]

He remarked, "As soon as I read those words, I knew I was going to be all right, not because I felt better right then, but because I had been reminded that God does make house calls. I closed the book and walked straight to the cashier. I took the book home, got in bed with that book and a flashlight, and I covered my head with the blankets. I turned on that flashlight and read that entire book. As I read, God began to help me with my anger and resentment and disappointment. I became convinced that God would meet me in the midst of my failure and sorrow."[iii]

When we come to God in prayer, we do not need to come with fancy words. We come simply to be in the presence and have a conversation with the One who loves us more than we can ever imagine - the One we delights in our presence, forgives our sins, and knows what we need far better than we can even imagine. We come to the One who comforts us in our sorrows, encourages us when we are discouraged, and pushes us when we need to move beyond our comfort zone into the places and behavior to which God is calling us.

We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end war; for we know that You have made the world in a way that we must find our own path to peace within ourselves and with our neighbors. We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end starvation for you have given us the resources with which to feed the entire world if we would only use them wisely. We cannot pray to You, O God, to root out prejudice, for you have already given us eyes with which to see the good in all persons if we would only use them rightly. We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end despair, for you have already given us the power to clear away slums and to give hope if we would only use our power justly. We cannot merely pray to You, O Fod, to end disease, for you have already given us great minds with which to search out cure and healings, if we would only use them constructively. Therefore, we pray to You instead, O God, forstrength, determination, and willpower, to do, instead of just to pray, to become, instead of merely to wish. Amen.[iv]

[i] Barry S. J., William A. God and You, Paulist Press, Mahwah , NJ 1987, p.11

[ii] Jones, Ken, God Happened To Be In The Neighborhood Victor Books, Wheaton, Il, 1992 p.189.

[iii] Jones, p.190

[iv] Hewett, James S. editor. Illustrations Unlimited, Tyndale House, Wheaton , Il 1988, p.423, #31

So much of life revolves around planning, coordination, and preparedness. Walk down the street and see all the people using their cell phones. Notice the palm pilots that get pulled out when people want to set an appointment or make a note to remember something. Some telephones can connect to the web and even send e-mail. We have all the tools at our fingertips to help us organize, coordinate, plan and know exactly what we need to be doing. Martha didn’t have any trouble keeping track of what she needed to do either. With Jesus and his disciples coming for a visit, there was much to do. The house needed to be cleaned, an elegant meal prepared, everything needed to be just right. Martha loved Jesus and looked forward to his visits. She wanted things to be just right for him. This was her gift to him, her way of showing her love. But something happened. Somewhere between all of her good plans and the carrying out of them, she lost sight of why she was doing all of this. The meal became more important than the guest for whom she was preparing it. She became frazzled, distracted and overwhelmed. When that happened she became impatient and it all boiled over when she thought about her sister Mary who was sitting out there listening to Jesus instead of helping Martha produce the perfect example of a Jewish woman’s hospitality.

For Martha the outward form of what was happening had become more important than why it was happening. You’ve probably seen it happen even in church. A choir’s anthem becomes a performance rather than an offering to God. A dinner becomes a major production rather than an opportunity for fellowship. Church meetings become battle grounds rather than a forum for discerning and implementing the ministry to which the church is called. It happens all too easily among well meaning people who love the Lord, but who become distracted.

I remember with great regret one Sunday morning worship service quite a few years ago. It was at the church where I was just beginning as a student assistant pastor. My sons were 9 and 13 years old. The sanctuary was large and the boys were sitting by themselves way near the back. As boys of that age often do when unsupervised they were poking each other, whispering to each other and generally being a distraction to me. Probably no one else in the sanctuary noticed them - but I did. When it was time for the passing of the peace, amidst people greeting each other with hugs and handshakes I quickly made my way to the back of the church where I told them that if they didn’t settle down and behave themselves, they’d be in big trouble afterwards. I immediately returned to the front of the sanctuary and continued to lead the worship service. It didn’t take long for the irony to hit me, that during a time of sharing God’s peace, I had shared something very different with my children.

The people to whom the prophet Amos spoke were doing something similar. In the verses before what we read this morning, they were observing the religious rituals but not the reason for them. During the religious celebrations they closed their places of business as required by religious law. Rather than being focused on God during that time, however, they were thinking about how soon they would be able to open again. They were anxious to make exorbitant profits by using dishonest scales and mixing dust in with the grain they were selling. Instead of caring for the poor and needy as their religion taught, they were cheating the very people they were supposed to protect.

They desperately needed to hear a word of correction from the Lord - and the prophet Amos was sent to deliver it. However, the people wouldn’t listen and God’s word to them then was that eventually there would be a famine in the land. It wouldn’t be your traditional famine. There would still be food to eat and water to drink, but there would be a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord. I suspect that this would be not so much a silence on God’s part but rather an inability to hear on their part. I think that after spending so much time focusing only on themselves and getting what they wanted - anyway they wanted - that they would have reached a point where they could no longer hear what God was saying to them.

Maybe that’s what Jesus thought was beginning to happen to Martha. She was so focused on her need to be the perfect hostess that she was forgetting some of the things she had heard Jesus teach on other occasions. She wasn’t exactly experiencing a famine of the Word of the Lord, but in her desire and need to do what she thought was necessary, she was skipping a meal rich in God’s Life Giving Word.

The story of Martha and Mary is one that is difficult for many of us to hear. We feel that Martha is being chastised unfairly and that Mary should have been helping her sister. We look at sign up sheets for church projects that don’t have enough names and wonder how Jesus could affirm Mary’s actions over Martha’s. I think what we have here is Jesus’ word of love spoken to someone for whom he cared deeply.

Jesus recognized that it is easy to feel pulled in many directions, to be called to attend to many important needs. There are many accounts in the Gospels of Jesus being surrounded by crowds of people wanting to hear him preach or wanting him to heal someone. He could easily have done this 24/7 and still not be able to satisfy everyone’s expectations. Repeatedly, the Gospels tell us that in these situations, Jesus took time to go aside by himself, to spend time in prayer.

Jesus knew that if he were going to be able to respond with compassion to those in need, he needed to take care of himself and not become depleted. He knew that he was here to do God’s will, not the will of each person who called out to him. He knew that it was imperative for him to stay focused on God so that he could then focus on God’s children. This is what I think he is reminding Martha in this story.

Martha is a woman of faith. In John’s Gospel, we have the story of her brother Lazarus becoming ill and dying. When Jesus finally arrives several days after his death, Martha makes a profound declaration of faith. She proclaims, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” Jesus knew her heart and her faith - but on this occasion, he also knew that she needed to stop, take a break from what she was doing, and be renewed and refreshed by the Word of God.

If we find ourselves identifying with Martha in this story; if we find ourselves angry at Mary for not helping, and frustrated with Jesus for seeming not to recognize and honor Martha’s great amount of work, then perhaps we also need to hear the word that we need to sit at the feet of our Lord. If church activities feel like weighty obligations that we start to dread, we may need to stop and intentionally take 15 minute walks during which we focus only on praising God. As summer rains soak into dry soil, we need to be open to a down-pouring of God’s blessings and allow them to soak into the soil of our minds and hearts. As the prophet Amos proclaimed, fulfilling our obligations - religious or otherwise - is meaningless if we forget why we are doing them and for whom we are doing them.

Now, maybe, you don’t really identify with Martha. Maybe when you hear this story you feel a little smug and affirmed because like Mary you’ve gotten it right. If that’s the case, then you may need to do an inventory of your life and check to see whether you are “going and doing” as well as “sitting and listening.” “This episode from Jesus’ life cannot be turned into an apology for inactivity, a negation of indispensable Christian action. Jesus’ encounter with the two sisters does not provide a rationale for elevating contemplative spirituality to a position of religious superiority. The point is that life has a rhythm to it.”[i]

The story of Mary and Martha is the third in this chapter of Luke’s Gospel. In the first part of the chapter, Jesus sends out 72 people to prepare the way, to announce that the Kingdom of God has come near. In the middle of the chapter, is the story we heard last week of the lawyer who came to Jesus asking what he needed to do to have eternal life. Jesus told him the story of the Good Samaritan and told him to go and do likewise. Here Jesus is telling Martha to sit and listen.

Each of the parts of this chapter is about doing what is necessary and together they provide a balanced picture of our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. Our Bible and our calendar belong together, rather than in opposition to each other. An article I read reminds us that “rest is not a diversion from labor but an ingredient in life as essential to meaningful life as labor. A healthy relationship with God involves rest and labor, contemplation and action. Neither work nor rest should be exalted above the other..... Great wisdom resides in knowing when to work and when to rest, when to speak and when to listen, when to be active and when to be still.”[ii]

In our church, in our daily lives we do not need to choose between being Martha or Mary. Our tendency is probably to be more like one than the other and that is as it should be. However, in the rhythm of life, doing what is necessary means nurturing both our Martha and Mary characteristics. Sitting and listening so that we can go and do, and coming back again to sit and listen in preparation for going and doing. It means as we sang earlier, “Come and find the quiet center in the crowded life we lead .... clear the chaos and the clutter, clear our eyes that we can see all the things that really matter, be at peace and simple be.” It means as we also sang, “O Jesus, I have promised to serve thee to the end... I shall not fear the battle in thou art by my side, nor wander from the pathway if thou wilt be my guide.” It warns us as our last hymn proclaims, that when the church of Jesus shuts its outer door to drown out the roar of traffic then we are banishing the very world that we are called to care for as Christians. Life, as a Christian, is a fine balance between going and doing, and sitting and listening.

[i]Gaddy, C. Welton “Mary and Martha” found in “Doing the Necessary” from On Our Minds, Logos Productions. Vol. 7 #3, July 2001.

[ii] Gaddy, C. Welton

The story or the concept of the Good Samaritan has become part of our cultural history. We have hospitals, churches, institutions of mercy, and even legislation named in his honor. Even the war in Iraq has been justified to us as a “Good Samaritan” effort to free an oppressed people from an iron-handed dictator.

We have come to understand the “Good Samaritan” as someone showing kindness or compassion to another. We speak of the “Good Samaritan” who stops to help a stranded motorist or the “Good Samaritan” hero who runs into a burning house to save a child. However, there is much more to this story than a simple reminder about our ethical obligation to assist people in need.

When Jesus told a parable he expected people to identify with someone in the story. For the lawyer who had asked the question, “Who is my neighbor?” this is a difficult prospect. At first, he would have expected the priest to stop to help the injured man. But, the priest didn’t stop. So much for the priest as the hero. The lawyer is quite willing to see the priest as self-righteous, not willing to get involved, distracted by his own religious agenda, impressed with his sense of his own importance or just caught in a difficult situation.

So a second person needs to come along. This is the Levite – a temple assistant. Perhaps the Levite thought the man was a decoy, a robber acting injured so that an unsuspecting traveler would stop, allowing hidden accomplices to jump out and attack. For whatever reason, the Levite, like the priest passed by on the other side of the road.

In good story-telling tradition, it is time for the hero to show up. The lawyer and the disciples have a pretty good idea of who this will be. It will be an ordinary Jewish man. He will have compassion on the beaten victim and help him. The lawyer will quickly identify this man as the hero and feel good about the times that he has shown compassion to someone in need. Everyone will be happy.

There’s only one problem. Jesus doesn’t tell stories that way. His stories are not predictable. There’s always a twist that catches you off guard. There’s always a zinger that makes you stop and think; that makes you have to ask hard questions and confront your behavior.

Jesus introduced the hero of the story by saying, “A Samaritan traveling by ….” Listeners were shocked. A Samaritan can’t be the hero of the story! The rescuer should be a Jewish layperson, or possibly a Roman soldier, or even a repentant robber, but NEVER a Samaritan. What we may not realize is that the term “Good Samaritan” does not appear in the Bible and would be a totally foreign concept to biblical people. It would be like us referring to a “Kind Terrorist”. The people who heard Jesus’ story could not even begin to imagine that a Samaritan could be considered “Good”.

They knew that they were to choose the character in the story who best represented them – but how? Jesus’ choice of a hero had made that impossible! Now they had to choose between the half-dead man and the despised Samaritan.

The Samaritan tenderly cared for the injured man, pouring wine and oil on the victim’s wounds; wine to clean the wound, oil to keep the skin soft and promote healing. Wine and oil the holy elements of the sacrifice offered by the priest and the Levite in the temple. He bandaged the wounds – Jesus’ listeners knew God as the one who “binds up their wounds.”

Was Jesus intentionally comparing the compassionate and merciful Samaritan to a compassionate and merciful God? The Samaritan took him to an inn and paid for his care and promised to return to settle the bill.

Then Jesus turns the lawyer’s question back on him. “Which of these three, do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The question has shifted slightly. Now the question really became not, “Who is my neighbor?” but rather, “How am I to live as a neighbor?”

Jesus asserted that compassion is not dependent on the worthiness of the recipient. Jesus reminded people of that all the time. In this parable, the Christ figure may well be the injured man lying by the side of the road. In Matthew’s gospel Jesus declared that whatever we do for the least of God’s children we are doing for him, and whatever we fail to do, we fail to do for Christ.

What about the victim? More than likely he was a good Israelite layperson who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was walking down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, a twisting winding road through the desert hills, a dangerous road with many places for thieves to hide.

Don’t you wonder what happened to him? What happened to this good Jewish man lying by the side of the road who realized that it was a Samaritan who stopped to help him? Did he at first think that the Samaritan would take the opportunity to finish him off? Was he too injured to know who it was and only later discovered who his rescuer had been? How did he respond?

Did he spend the rest of his life being haunted by the horror of this experience? Was he afraid to take a risk, to live life, was he always looking over his shoulder? Or perhaps, was he so grateful for what the stranger did that he became more compassionate himself, more willing to stop and help others, less likely to judge others? Did his attitude toward Samaritans change after this encounter?

Sometimes we discover that we are the wounded person. We are beaten down by disappointments, responsibilities, depression. We are robbed of our childhood dreams. Our futures are stolen by cancer, Alzheimer’s, pink slips, unfairness. We are abandoned by those we thought would stand by us. We are bruised by life’s harsh realities. We need a hand of mercy to lift us from the road and carry us to clean sheets of hope.[i] At those times we might be surprised by who shows up to help us. Like the man by the side of the road, we have a decision to make about how we will live our lives after these experiences and how open or closed we will be to accepting compassion and help from others.

Like the travelers on the road, we have the decision to make about when, where, how, and why we will be neighbors, how we will live as neighbors.

When Jesus told the lawyer to “Go and do likewise” he seemed to be saying, “It’s not about you. It’s bigger than that.”

Issues of good and evil, right and wrong, are always larger than one person. They are larger than kings and even larger than nations.

The prophet Amos said that God sets before us a plumb line – a standard for life based on reliance on God and God’s desires in all matters. When Amos brought that message to Israel, the king was not pleased. Consequently the king’s priest sent Amos packing. But that did not change the truth of God’s message that Amos delivered. Amos seemed to say, “It’s not about the king. It’s bigger than that.”[ii]

The apostle Paul prayed for the people at the church in Colossae that they would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, that they would lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to God, and being fruit in every good work as they grew in the knowledge of God.

In order for our lives to be good and meaningful and a blessing, in order for our lives to benefit the kingdom of God, Jesus says we must build our lives around the plumb line that God gives us. If we build our lives against something that isn’t plumb then we are going to have a problem. And Jesus says that the plumb line is how we treat those we meet every day. The lawyer begins by asking, “Who is my neighbor?” and with a wink and a smile, Jesus prods us to consider the real question, “Who is not my neighbor?”

[i] Chaffee, Janice If the Prodigal Were a Daughter, Harvest House Publications, Eugene , OR 2003, pp.55-56.

[ii] Lambert, Dale in AHA!, July 11, 2004

This Sunday in close to 60 United Methodist Churches across New England, congregations and pastors are saying good-by to each other. Next Sunday most of those same congregations will be saying hello to new pastors. I would imagine that there are very mixed feelings in many of those churches and among many of the pastors as they say good-by to what has been familiar and prepare to begin the process of getting to know new people and some different ideas.

To some extent, I imagine that this was part of what Elisha was experiencing in our reading today from 2 Kings. Now, right off the bat this gets confusing because we have two prophets and their names are very similar – Elijah and Elisha. Elijah has been the well-known prophet and Elisha has essentially been his student. But now, it is time for Elijah to leave and Elisha doesn’t want to acknowledge that this is going to happen. We know that feeling, don’t we? Within the next couple of months at least three households in this church will be moving away from this area. Those who are particularly close to them wish them well, but don’t want to see that day come when they will say good-by.

Churches wonder if the new pastor will be a good preacher, easy to work with, accepting of what they have been doing, politically or socially active, conservative or liberal and so forth. Pastors wonder if the new congregation will be faithful in worship, easy to work with, willing to consider new ideas, politically or socially active, conservative or liberal and so forth. The people who are moving wonder if they’ll find a church in their new location that meets their expectations. We wonder who will take the place of the people who are leaving.

About 5 years ago, we went through a period of a couple of months where about five families all moved away at the same time. At that point I heard some people express concern about who would take their places, who would do what they had been doing, was this going to be a problem for the church? That kind of anxiety is normal.

It was interesting to watch what happened though. The very Sunday that one of the most active families moved away, another family showed up in church, announced that they were United Methodists and had just moved into the area. They have been here since that Sunday and although they didn’t step in and take over the positions left vacant they stepped up and became active participants in their own way, sharing their own gifts and graces. They were soon followed by other families and individuals who also brought their own gifts and abilities. (One of them even volunteered to teach Junior High Sunday School.) Some of those families and individuals are still here and still actively involved, others have since moved to other locations.

I find interest in all sorts of strange little details, and one that really catches my attention in this church is the fact that one half of the people who are members of this church have been members for 8 years or less. Yet we also have people who have members of this church since the first day that the doors were opened for worship. In some churches or communities of New England, you are considered a newcomer if you’ve only been around for 20 years – in this church, that concept just doesn’t make sense. I see that as very healthy but also extremely challenging because it means that picking up the mantle of leadership in this congregation has more of the characteristics of a relay race than a marathon. It means we share the leadership among many of us, readily and eagerly welcoming others into the race rather than running alone to the goal and staggering in exhausted.

Elijah asked Elisha what he could do for him before he left. Elisha asked for a double portion of the spirit of the older man. To our modern ears that might sound like a greedy request, but it was not. Ancient peoples believed that God-given charismatic gifts could be apportioned out and transferred to others. The inheritance laws of early Judaism provided for the property of the father to be divided among the sons with the eldest son inheriting a double portion. Elisha is asking to be Elijah’s successor and to have the same gifts for leadership that Elijah had.

At the end of the passage, after Elijah has been taken up into heaven, Elisha tore his clothes as a sign of his grief at Elijah’s departure. Then he picked up Elijah’s mantle. The mantle was a loose-fitting, knee-length cloak commonly worn by prophets and was a symbol of the prophet’s power. Elisha picked up Elijah’s mantle and struck the water with it. This act represented evidence that he was Elijah’s successor.

Within the church, picking up the mantle is essential for the on-going life of Christianity. Christianity has been around for about 2,000 years, but have you ever stopped to realize that our Christian faith is always no more than a generation away from extinction. The gifts that we have inherited must be passed on.

At one point Elijah believed that his ministry would die with him. You may remember last week’s reading where Elijah was off in the wilderness. He was totally burned out, lamenting that the Israelites were not worshiping God and not listening to him. He moaned that he was the only faithful follower left and that they were trying to kill even him. It is at the end of that passage that Elijah was reminded that he was not alone and told to go and anoint Elisha to follow in his footsteps. Elijah went and found Elisha out in the field plowing. Elijah went over and put his coat or his mantle on Elisha. This was a sign that Elijah wanted Elisha to follow him and become a prophet. And now this cloak, or mantle, is once again part of the sign that Elisha has taken his place, has become, if you will, the “prophet in charge.”

Now he could leave the world with joy in his heart because he had Elisha to pick up the mantle of prophetic leadership.

Somewhere 35 to 40 years ago a group of Methodists got together and asked, “Do you think we need a Methodist church in North Kingstown?” They gathered some others together and they started visiting people in the area to find out if there was a need for a Methodist church here. One of the people who did some of that visiting was my father. When the decision was made that yes, indeed a Methodist church should be built in North Kingstown, I’m sure my father had no idea that one day his daughter would have the joy of pasturing that church. Those people were helping to pass on the mantle; they were encouraging others to reach still others in this area.

It is up to each of us to be like Elisha and pick up the mantle and pass on the faith. Many of us remember sitting in Sunday School classes with teachers who patiently and faithfully taught us about Jesus and made a difference in our lives. Many of us have memories of pastors or other adults in churches who showed us how important it was to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Did they know, did they hope, did they pray that someday we might be doing the same thing for other children and adults?

Elijah put his coat or his mantle around Elisha so that he would know that he was to follow Elijah and become a prophet like him. We, too, put our coat or our mantle around our children so that they will know that they are to become Christians and follow Jesus, like we do. We call it baptism. Every time we baptize a baby we remember Jesus’ baptism. We remember our baptism, and we proclaim that God has chosen this child. We promise that we will surround and nurture the child and parents, and that we will help the child come to the day of making the decision to follow Christ. A few weeks ago five of our youth made that commitment and we celebrated with them as they promised to take up the mantle.

When our children have finished third grade we give them a Bible of their very own - a precious gift of the Living Word of God. In a very real way it is like giving them their own mantle. We haven’t given up ours, and they still need our teaching and our guidance, but we are saying to them, “we expect you to start to learn on your own too. You don’t need to wait for us to read to you, or tell you the stories. We’ll keep doing that, but now you can start to take some responsibility for what you know. You can start to do some of the exploring that can be so much fun when you get into studying the Bible.”

Whenever we gather together to worship we have made a decision that coming to worship is more important than any of the many other things we could have been doing during this hour. We are deciding that it is more important to worship God than to catch a little extra sleep, or sit outside with a second cup of coffee and read the Sunday paper, or to stay home in the comfortable air conditioning. There is something that calls you to get out of your beds, to leave your comfortable homes, and to come into a hot sanctuary and sit on uncomfortable pews. I believe that it is the expectation that you will meet the Living God; that during our worship time you will encounter the God who gives meaning to our lives, and who calls us to go out and share that with others.

In our Gospel reading today, several people talk about following Jesus, but they all have excuses for why they can’t do it just then. At first reading, they are good excuses and we shouldn’t get too hung up on them. I think the point that Jesus is making is that being his disciple is not a matter of choosing something that is good over something bad or even mediocre. Rather making the commitment to follow Christ is choosing the very best out of many many very good things, many honorable things. It means exercising wisdom and discernment in balancing the many priorities of our lives and seeking constantly to do the thing that brings glory to God at that very moment.

In order to do that we need to learn from Jesus, our friend and teacher just as Elisha learned from Elijah. We need to learn from others who have walked before us, and who walk with us. To follow Christ we need to keep our eyes on the one who leads us and not be distracted by the flaming chariots and fiery horses that try to get in our way. We are called to be in ministry to and with each other as God’s people in God’s world. We are called to pick up the mantle, to go out and baptize and teach. We are sent to go and divide the waters that act as obstacles to the life that God wants for all of God’s children.

The apostle Paul was very concerned about the things that acted as obstacles to following Christ. In his letter to the Galatians, a portion of which we heard this morning, he has been responding to Jewish-Christian missionaries who argued that being Christian required following the Jewish law. Paul contends that through their experience of Jesus and the guidance of the Spirit they would live in grace and community with each other.

This community which had picked up the mantle and was carrying on the ministry of Christ could be identified by certain characteristics. This community being led by the Hold Spirit would be marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. If these characteristics describe our congregation or any other body within the Christian church then we can know that we are following the leading of the Holy Spirit. We are indeed picking up the mantle and doing the work of Christ. If, instead, we are known for our strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissentions, factions, and envy or any other behavior that breaks down community and harms individuals then we can be sure that we are not following in the footsteps of Christ.

Picking up the mantle is a daily decision that involves each one of us. It is far more than holding a specific office within the church – those things are certainly necessary, but even our administrative activities must be guided by the Holy Spirit; they must be evidence of our picking up the mantle of Christ. Unlike Elisha who became the “prophet in charge”, that is not the role for any of us. We are to be companions on the journey, we are to be brothers and sisters walking together, we are to be a community that has picked up the mantle and at the same time shares the mantle of spiritual leadership with one another. We are to be a community that manifests the presence of the Holy Spirit through our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Each of us is called to pick up the mantle in the place and the way that God has called us.

In 1988, Jill Briscoe wrote a study book titled, Running on Empty. If I had remembered her book when I needed a sermon title for today, that might have been the title. Let me share with you the second stanza of a poem she has at the beginning of her book:

I think she had Elijah in mind when she wrote those words, but then again she might have been thinking of you or me or herself or just about anyone because there are times when most of us have felt that way. It’s too much effort to keep going, or maybe we do keep going, we keep running, but we are only going through the motions.

James W. Moore, a United Methodist pastor in Houston, Texas has written a book called, Some Folks Feel the Rain … Others Just Get Wet. He means that some folks are vividly aware of what’s going on around them; they are tuned in, sensitive, receptive, responsive. They lead with their hearts, they feel the joy, and the triumph over the pain. But many people just cope, they don’t enjoy; they just endure. They don’t embrace life, they just idle through it.[ii]

Both of these sound all too familiar from time to time. Both of them sound just like Elijah when we meet him in today’s scripture passage. First, a little history. Elijah was a prophet of God during the reign of King Ahab in Israel from about 874 to 853 B.C. According to the book of I Kings in the Bible, “Ahab did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him.” Ahab and his Canaanite wife, Queen Jezebel, became legendary for breaking God’s laws and worshipping the Canaanite god Baal. Elijah was a real thorn in their side. Even his name proclaimed who he was and who he served: El, meaning “Creator, the omnipotent God,” and jah, meaning “coming from Jehovah”, the Lord’s personal name.[iii]

Three years before, at the urging of the Lord, Elijah had announced a drought as punishment on the nation of Israel for its idolatry and worship of the Baals. A contest was arranged on Mount Carmel between Elijah and the prophets of Baal to determine once and for all just who was the real God of Israel. Each would build an altar for their god and then a sacrifice would be made. The god who answered by fire, consuming the sacrifice, would be the winner. All day long the prophets of Baal danced and prayed, sang and prayed, whined and prayed, all without result. Finally, at the end of the day, Elijah prayed his relatively short prayer and God answered by fire! BIG time! Yahweh wins! Eli jah wins! Yes![iv]

The rains had come, Elijah should have been feeling elated and on top of the world – but no, he was in a blue funk. Queen Jezebel had threatened to kill him and that seemed like the last straw for Elijah. We find him in the desert under a broom tree bemoaning his fate and pleading with God to kill him. Interestingly, God doesn’t seem to answer Elijah right then.

Elijah was hungry, alone, lonely and tired – four words, warning signs, if you will, whose first letters spell HALT, reminding us to stop and pay attention to the signals from our body. Sometimes when we are feeling deep in the depths of despair, when we are feeling separated from God, we may pray, or look to the Bible for a word to help fill us and soothe us. That can be most helpful if our problem is only spiritual but sometimes there is more to it. If we are physically or emotionally exhausted, as Elijah was after everything that had happened, we may not be able to see, hear, or respond to God’s word until our exhaustion is alleviated. Elijah slept – God’s first response to Elijah’s prayer, I believe.

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” Elijah looked around and found a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. Angel food, God’s second response to Elijah’s prayer. Think of the times when you have been the recipient of angel food in one form or another. Elijah had gone off by himself, he had left behind his companion and had gone into the desert alone. Sometimes we just don’t want to be with other people, do we? And yet, often that is the time when we most need to have someone around to help us. If we could only learn not to isolate ourselves during times of deep trouble, we would receive ministry to our wounded spirits that would not only bless us, but also bless the person who ministers to us. Sadly, many of us are so much better at giving than at receiving. Elijah had gone off by himself, so an angel came to minister to him. Elijah ate and lay down again.

A second time the angel came and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” Elijah is being fed again, but this time, he is also to understand that he is not going to spend the rest of his time lying under the broom tree feeling sorry for himself. He must get up and resume his life, resume his work.

Think of how disappointed God must have been at Elijah’s response following the great experience on Mount Carmel. Through Elijah, God had shown who was in charge and the people might have been ready to turn back to God. Even King Ahab might have been influenced. But Elijah didn’t stay around long enough to find out, he ran. I imagine that God must have been greatly disappointed, just as God may be disappointed when we fail to follow through on the work God has given us to do. Yet, God did not abandon Elijah. In the desert, waiting for Elijah was a broom tree and an angel ready to take care of him.

“It hardly comes as a surprise that proper nutrition and rest are critical to a decent mental attitude. Overstressed, underpaid workaholics will inevitably have trouble. Elijah’s body and mind were an integrated whole. His body needed to be right before his mind could be right.”[v] Rrenewed by sleep and food, Elijah was once again physically able to carry on, but his spirit was still not any better. Another step was necessary.

Elijah went to Mount Horeb. This was not another running away. It was not a grand vacation. It was a returning to his spiritual roots. Mount Horeb was the place where Moses first met God in the burning bush. It was also known as Sinai, the place where God gave the Law. For Elijah, a trip to that holy mountain was a pilgrimage to his spiritual roots, a place to rekindle memories, to recall all God had done throughout history. The mountain was a setting that would force Elijah to think about something other than himself.[vi]

How very important it is to return to the place of our spiritual roots. That may not always be possible physically, but it is possible and essential to return to the place that proclaims those roots and helps us be in community with others.

“There’s a great story about Stuart Henry, Professor Emeritus at Duke University. He taught American Christianity there for many years. Dr. Henry was walking across the Duke campus one Sunday morning, and the bells in the chapel tower were ringing loudly up ahead. He was dressed up in his Sunday best, and he was walking briskly…. A student saw him and said `Hi, there, Dr. Henry. Did you decide that you would go to church this morning?’ Stuart Henry kept walking and said, `No, I didn’t decide to do that this morning.’ The student looked puzzled, `Oh, I’m sorry,’ he said. `I could have sworn you were going to chapel.’ `I am,’ Dr. Henry said, `but I didn’t decide to go this morning.’

“The student, somewhat baffled, said, `Oh, I don’t guess I understand,’ And Dr. Henry said in reply, `Look, son, I didn’t make the decision to go to church this morning. I made that decision more than fifty years ago when I first became a Christian. So, it is never a decision whether I’ll go to church, but only a decision where I’ll go to church,’”[vii]

Faithful participation in the corporate worship of a church body is an integral component of a life style that helps to prevent or treat spiritual burnout. There is a great difference, however, between coming to church and coming to worship. Coming to church may be a physical action, it can be a going through the motions. We can come as consumers or an audience expecting to be entertained, to have someone say or do something that will make a difference. Coming to worship is different, it means coming to be a participant, to enter into prayers and songs and even entering into the sermon through mental and emotional engagement rather than passive listening.

For Elijah that took place on the mountain. Remember that Elijah still wasn’t in a good place spiritually. He went into a cave and spent the night. But now it was time for God to initiate the conversation. “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah was ready with his litany of woe. “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

Our litany may sound a little different but it usually has some of the same components. How tempting to think that we are the ones who have been wronged. How we lick our wounds by ignoring our own actions and focusing only on someone else’s. How soothing to our ego to think we are the only one who has been faithful, who has done all the work – everyone else has shirked responsibility except us. We are all alone.

Like Elijah, it is easy to ignore the facts. Elijah knew that he was not the only one left. He knew that Obadiah, another faithful follower, had hidden 100 prophets in two caves (50 in each) and had been faithfully bringing food to them while the king’s soldiers hunted them down to try and kill them. We, too, can be assured, that even if we don’t know who they are, there are many others who are faithfully obeying God and fulfilling their duties.

In the book of Exodus we hear Moses asking to see God’s presence, but here God tells Elijah to go and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. There is a powerful wind, strong enough to shatter rocks, but the Lord was not in the wind. Then there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, came a fire, but the Lord who had sent fire on Mount Carmel was not in the fire. Although God had been known in wind, earthquake and fire, this time that was not how God would be revealed to Elijah. After the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it he recognized the presence of God and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. When we look for God only in something big we may miss God’s presence in the gentle whispering of a humble heart.

Once again, Elijah is asked, “What are you doing here?” God knew the answer, but God asks the questions because they require an answer from us – and answers require reasons for our actions or lack thereof. Elijah had a bee in his bonnet and he couldn’t get rid of it, so he gave God the same answer again, insisting that he was the only one left and that God had essentially abandoned him.

Now that Elijah was no longer hungry or tired, now that he recognized God’s presence and knew he was no longer alone, God could confront him in love with the errors of his thinking. In the verses that follow today’s reading, God reminds him that there are 7,000 Israelites just like him, people who have not bowed down to Baal. Then God made it clear to Elijah that it was not time for Elijah to hide away in a holy hill of retirement! There was still work to be done that only Elijah could do. How important it is for us to remember that there is always work to be done that will never get done if we retreat and lick our real or imaginary wounds.

God didn’t ask Elijah what the others were doing. God asked Elijah what he was doing. That is the question God asks us. God doesn’t ask us about what Mary or Joe or Susan or David are doing. God doesn’t ask us if George or Tom or Alice or Lisa are being faithful. God asks only if we are being faithful. The message is to focus on our own calling from God and leave God to judge our brothers and sisters.

Now Elijah is ready for his marching orders. “Go back the way you came.” And Elijah went.

God calls us to come – to come to God. If we are feeling troubled or tired or weary, God calls us to “Come.” If we are feeling lonely, burdened or rejected, God says, “Come to me, all you who are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

God calls us to wait. Wait and pray. Wait and watch. Wait. In worship, God hugs us to life. Jesus told his disciples, “Wait, wait here and worship, and you will clothed with power from on high.”

God tells us to come, and to wait and then to Go. “Come to life – wait and worship – then go to serve!”[viii] When any one of those pieces are missing, we become more susceptible to spiritual burnout. We are more likely to find ourselves in the words of Jill Brisco, “running on empty.”

[i] Briscoe, Jill. Running on Empty, Refilling Your Spirit at the Low Points of Life. Word Publishing, Dallas, 1988, p.11

[ii] Moore, James W. Some Folks Feel the Rain… Others Just Get Wet, Dimensions, Nashville , 1999, back cover.

[iii] Briscoe, p.16

[iv] The Immediate Word, June 20, 2004

[v] The Immediate Word

[vi] The Immediate Word

[vii] From a sermon by Norman neaves, “Settle It Once and for All” October 30, 1994 . Cited in Moore, James W. pp. 65-66.

[viii] Moore, James W. p. 155

Garrison Keillor, modern American prophet from the radio show “A Prairie Home Companion,” said of love, “We should not think that we have figured this out, because it is not a problem, it’s a mystery and always will be.”

“It is not a problem, it’s a mystery, and always will be.” Doesn’t that offend you just a little — the suggestion that there are those things in life we have not, and furthermore, will not ever, figure out? Cell phones are more than telephones; they can take pictures and send them to someone else, connect to the internet and check on the latest news or check your e-mail. For some that last sentence, in itself, sounds like a mystery. Technology has increased so rapidly that any gadget we buy is obsolete before we get it out the door of the store. We assume that our only limitations are time and energy, and given enough of the two, there is really nothing we can’t ultimately know.

So when we come to a doctrinal matter like the Trinity, the temptation is to want one neat analogy that will make it all clear, one concise statement on the Trinity that will settle it for us and allow us to move on to the next problem. Well, I hate to disappoint you so early in my sermon today, but if that is what you are expecting, you will be disappointed, because it’s just not all that easy.

The great theologian Augustine, while puzzling over the doctrine of the Trinity, was walking along the beach one day when he observed a young boy with a bucket, running back and forth to pour water into a little hole. Augustine asked, "What are you doing?" The boy replied, "I'm trying to put the ocean into this hole." Then Augustine realized that he had been trying to put an infinite God into his finite mind.[i]

That’s what happens when we try to wrap the concept of the Trinity up into a neat little package and tie it with a bow. So rather than trying to describe and explain the Trinity, let’s look instead at some of what the Trinity is saying to us about God.

I think we can learn a lot about the Trinity from our Scripture readings this morning. If you are one of those people who feel your head start to ache as soon as you try to think about the Trinity, then these passages are important ones to look at because they just might help your headache to go away.

If we look at the Psalm we enter into the wonder and majesty of creation. We realize that the creator of this incredibly magnificent universe has for some unknown reason entrusted us to be the caregivers of something so much greater than we are. Care givers, rather than care takers. We are to give to the earth rather than to take from it. The way we use the resources of this world says a great deal about how we think about God. Even that statement has a consumer mentality to it, rather than a care giving approach. I could go on about this but for now, let it suffice to say that this psalm reminds us “O Lord, our God, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

This God of great majesty is the same God who showed such great love for us that God chose to become human and live among us to teach us, to heal, to show in words and actions the love of God. Yet, Jesus knew that all that he had done was still not enough for us to understand all that we needed to know. That is why on the night he was betrayed, he said to his disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them know.”

We can understand that can’t we? We know that there are some things that we just cannot adequately explain to another person at a particular time in their lives. As parents, we try to explain to our children the importance of an education, but we know that they are not really able to grasp all that we say because they simply do not have the life experience necessary. As friends, we console one another when something difficult happens, but we also know that in the time of sorrow, it is pointless to say that things will get better. The person knows that in their head, but at that moment their heart may not believe it and it may only seem insensitive for us to point that out.

Jesus told his disciples, that the Spirit of truth would come and would guide them into all the truth. Sometimes it is hard to recognize the truth. In 1997, Nathan Zohner, a 14 year old student in Idaho Falls urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical “Dihydrogen monoxide” because:

He won first prize in the Greater Idaho Science Fair with this project as he demonstrated how conditioned we have become to alarmists spreading fear of everything in our environment. By the way, only one person knew that “Dihydrogen monoxide” is ….. water.[ii]

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit that would come to the disciples and to us, would lead us into all truth – help us sort out what is truth, and what are facts or opinions interpreted in ways that lead us away from the truth that gives life.

Paul, in the passage to the Romans, says that “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” The Holy Spirit would be our comforter, our guide, our strength and our help. The Holy Spirit would help the disciples understand later what they could not bear to hear at that point in their lives and consequently were not able to understand. The Holy Spirit does the same for us.

Many traditional translations of the Bible use the phrase, “we are justified by faith.” This can be a confusing phrase – but essentially it means, that through faith we have acknowledged the gift that Jesus gave us in his death on the cross; that we have accepted the love of God which through Jesus’ death and then resurrection, made it “just-as-if” we had never sinned.

Other translations put it this way, “We have been set right with God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Because of this, we have three wonderful promises – promises that we can count upon. We have the promise of peace. We know that peace in the world is a goal that we proclaim but seem unable to attain. However, through the love of God, through the gift of Jesus Christ, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, each one of us can be at peace with God.

The second promise is access to God’s grace, direct access to God. In the Old Testament the Jew was kept from God’s presence by the veil in the temple. Gentiles were forbidden to go beyond a certain wall. When Jesus died on the cross, the Bible teaches that the veil was torn from top to bottom. Now, through Jesus Christ and by faith, any person has access into the very presence of God.

The third promise or gift is the foundation of hope. We have confidence in our hope for the future. But perhaps more importantly for many in this culture of instant gratification is the promise that we can maintain that hope even in the face of adversity. God’s grace is so powerful that even things that would normally work against such confidence and hope only serve to strengthen it. Those who know God’s grace also know that such adversity eventually brings out patience and that such patience shows we can meet the test of adversity. Meeting the test simply reinforces our hope. It’s a wonderful life-giving spiral. The reason such hope is able to meet the test of adversity lies in the fact that the hope is founded in God’s love which has filled our lives, a love that comes to us through the Holy Spirit.

The doctrine of the Trinity shows us that we have a God who created an incredible universe and has invited us to live in it and help care for it. The doctrine of the Trinity tells us that this same majestic God loves us so much that God became human to be among us, to walk with us, comfort us, teach us, challenge us, and show us perfect love in the life of a human. The doctrine of the Trinity tells us that even when Jesus left us, we were not left alone – that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth came to be with us always, to comfort us, guide us, teach us, empower us, lead us into truth, and walk with us through this journey we call life. The doctrine of the Trinity shows us through all this that God is love, that God has loved us, continues to love us, and always will love us. Our response is to live in God’s love and to respond to this love by loving God and showing it in love to others.

[i]Michael Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, Baker Book House, 1993, p. 389.

[ii] E-sermons, 6/4/04

One of the first sermons I preached was on Pentecost. Our pastor was to be away and I was asked to prepare the message for that morning. “ Anytime other than Pentecost”, was my response, but God’s timing is different than my timing, and I found myself with a Pentecost sermon to prepare. The one thing I knew about Pentecost was that I knew practically nothing about Pentecost and understood even less. I felt like the little boy on vacation with his family at the Grand Canyon. He stood for a long time looking out over the vista and the color and the sheer magnitude of it all. Finally he said quietly, “Something happened here.”[i] Almost twenty years later, I stand here in awe, looking at the Pentecost experience and his words still sum it up, “Something happened here.”

There are so many things that we could look at; there are so many questions raised by the experience; there are so many mysteries involved that we can only remember that it is absurd to apologize for mystery. Rather than stepping backwards in awe or confusion, we can step forward in faith and embrace the new and exciting thing that happened that day and that continues to happen today.

When we think of the disciples and especially of Peter, it is tempting to think of all the great things that they did and the way that they spread the word of God. It is tempting to think of their wonderful sermons, their powerful words when arrested, their never wavering faith. Oh, but we may long to be like Peter. We may take some consolation from a line in the spiritual, “There is a Balm in Gilead” that proclaims, “If you can’t preach like Peter, if you can’t pray like Paul, just tell the love of Jesus, and say he died for all.” When we think about the great abilities of Peter and Paul that way, we get ahead of ourselves and forget as another song, “Walk with Me” proclaims, “Now Peter was a most unlikely man to lead the flock; but Jesus knew his holiness and he became the Rock.”

On that Pentecost morning, Peter and the other disciples were anything but radiant believers faithfully singing God’s praises and proclaiming God’s word. The believers numbered about 120 men and women half-heartedly clinging to each other. Surely they were still scared and frightened and grieving. Good Friday and Easter and even all the post-Resurrection appearances had happened too fast. And then Pentecost came to them in Jerusalem.

Roger Lovette, a preacher wrote, “We don’t know exactly what happened except they left that room to form a church that has lasted for 2,000 years. Even the gates of hell could not dismantle it, and God knows the church in every age has tried. The old betrayer Simon (Peter) would stand and preach with such a power that 3,000 would come to believe.”

We too, can look out over the vista and history of the years and ponder the mystery, “Something happened here.” The theme that “something happened here” has found a home in some of the reality television shows that have become so popular. “Clean Sweep” takes several rooms that have become almost non-functional because of the clutter that fills them and transforms them into beautiful creative inviting spaces. “Merge” brings together the belongings of newly weds and transforms the home of one of them into a place that brings together the best of both of them. Shows like “Extreme Makeover” through the magic of cosmetology, a tummy-tuck here, liposuction and lasik surgery and a new hair-do transform men and women into the “beautiful people”. These shows can be fascinating to watch and in some cases may motivate us to make some changes. Still, they perpetuate the hope that we can have the quick fix for our lives, but do they really change anything? Six months later, I’d like to go back to the homes where Clean Sweep has taken place and see whether or not the rooms are still neatly and beautifully organized, or whether the clutter demon has taken up residence once again. These shows provide the quick fix of the symptoms only.

At Pentecost it seems as Peter and the other believers have undergone an Extreme Makeover – and they have. However, theirs is a makeover of the inside. God’s Spirit is life altering and something truly happened there that changed their entire approach to life.

The crowd was amazed because each of them heard the believers speaking in his or her own language. What happened that day? Communication happened.

The story of Pentecost stands in sharp contrast to the story from Genesis of the tower of Babel. The people decided to build a tower all the way to heaven. “God said no to their overconfidence. God always does. The work of our hands is never enough.”[ii] The tower of Babel was the brainstorm of humans. It was not the plan of God. It ended in the confusion of languages, the inability to communicate. On Pentecost, however, we have people from different parts of the known world able to hear the message of the Galilean apostles in their own languages. In an important way a splintered human race is reunited. On Pentecost communication happens. There is speaking without confusion and hearing with understanding.

The contrast between Babel and Pentecost is, at its heart, the difference between our plans and God’s plans. Something happened at Pentecost that was God’s plan. Timid men became bold speakers. People from all parts of the world heard and understood the message. Three thousand believers were baptized that day.

Later, Paul would write to other believers that they had not received a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. (Rom. 8:14) He knew that as believers were being persecuted the temptation was to go back into hiding and live in fear. Eugene Peterson in The Message put it this way, “This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a child-like “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are.”

Pentecost reminds us that our plans are not always God’s plans – but they could be. In today’s Gospel we hear Jesus telling his disciples, “I tell you for certain that if you have faith in me, you will do the same things that I am doing. You will do even greater things, now that I am going back to the Father.” (John 14:12) What greater things could the believers do? How about speaking to a crowd of people from all different places in the known world? How about speaking in a way that people would hear and understand in their own language? How about witnessing to Jesus in such a way that 3,000 people would come to believe in one day? How about doing all of this, when only minutes before they had been still afraid of government reprisals?

Bill Wylie-Kellermann, a United Methodist Pastor in Detroit Michigan when his article appeared in Sojourners Magazine in May 1985, wrote the disciples had good reason to be afraid. There was a political agenda in Jesus’ death. “Caiaphas, (the high priest,) had said that it would be better for one man to die than for the whole thing to get out of hand bringing the Roman heel down upon them all. There is a fragile framework, a tenuous political arrangement that can’t afford to be upset. They do away with Jesus to crush a budding movement. Strike the shepherd and the sheep will run for cover. The question is this: Will the movement be ruled by fear? Will the followers be contained and confined? Rendered timid and silent? Pentecost comes with a bold answer: No.”[iii]

The disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit, take the resurrection to the streets; they go public. On earlier occasions they had seen Christ, but now they experienced the concrete and practical freedom of the resurrection. No political authority any place or any time can shut them down. What greater things than Jesus could the believers do? Through the power of the Holy Spirit, they could speak the truth regardless of the intimidation of the powers that be. Through the years, bold speaking followers of Christ have continued to do the same thing – sometimes supporting the governments of their countries, other times challenging them, and always remembering that our allegiance to God comes first.

Pentecost forces the church to look at itself, its past, present and future. On that day there were people from most of the known world present – and they heard and understood. Pentecost spans the globe, breaking down the barriers that we have erected, reminding us that at some level we are all the same. In our divisions, we forget that on the day that our towers fell, people from eighty countries lost their lives. And for just a little while we gathered together as one, we grievers, we frightened ones, - but it passed and we returned to Babel as usual.[iv]

Pentecost is our story – personally and as a community. It is about God’s plans and being willing to make our plans the same as God’s plans. This is a constant challenge in our lives. As individuals and as congregations, there is a temptation to go along making our own plans and then asking God to bless our plans, to help us succeed at them. When we do this, we are likely to find ourselves in the same situation as the people trying to build the tower of Babel. We are likely to discover that we are not able to communicate with each other. Our plans are more likely to lead to separation and confusion.

Rather, Pentecost teaches us that God has a vision, a plan, a hope, a dream and when we are seeking to do what God blesses, rather than asking God to bless what we do, we will find ourselves empowered by the Holy Spirit. We will find ourselves able to do the things we never imagined we could do.

Peter would never have believed that he could have stood before so many people and spoken so clearly in witness to Jesus – but filled with the Holy Spirit he did it. Those with Peter on that day, certainly would have preferred staying inside whispering the good news, but they found themselves moved , filled, and empowered by the Holy Spirit and took the resurrection power and freedom to the streets. There are many among us who have found themselves surprised to discover that the Holy Spirit would empower them to teach a class, lead a Bible study, chair a committee, speak up for those who are oppressed, challenge an injustice, or do something else they wouldn’t have chosen by themselves.

Pentecost is our story. Let us be open to the breathing of the Holy Spirit in our lives leading us in new and exciting ways, challenging us to step out of our comfort zone, uniting us with our brothers and sisters, calling us to make God’s plans our plans. May we live and worship and work together so that those who see us will observe in awe and wonder, “Something happened here.”

Let our prayer be: Spirit of the Living God, breathe afresh on us, Spirit of the Living God, breathe afresh on us. Melt us, mold us, ill us, use us. Spirit of the Living God, breathe afresh on us. I invite you to respond throughout the prayer with those words.

Creator God, who came to us as Jesus the Christ, and who fills us with the Holy Spirit, breathe in us anew this day.

One: Living God, as we celebrate the birthing of the church on this Pentecost Sunday, we remember the faithful ministry of our forebears who toiled to establish our congregation as a beacon of hope in this community. Breathe your Spirit in us as we seek to keep their legacy of faith alive in this new day and age.

One: Loving God, as we rededicate our commitment to minister in the name of Christ, we give thanks for your life-sustaining presence that renews our calling to be the hands and feet of mission. Breathe your Spirit in us as we strive to bring the gospel alive in this new day and age.

One: Gracious God, empower us as a congregation to speak boldly and to act courageously on the journey of ministry that lies before us, affirming our heritage and proclaiming our hope. Breathe your Spirit in us as we strive to bring the gospel alive in this new day and age.

Cliff and Jan Aerie prepared this material. Cliff is Special Events Producer for Proclamation, Identity, and Communication, and Jan, Executive for Mission Education and Interpretation for Wider Church Ministries. For more information, contact Wider Church Ministries: A Covenanted Ministry of the UCC at <www.ucc.org>.

Copyright 2003, Wider Church Ministries, UCC, Cleveland. Permission is granted to reproduce or adapt for use in services of worship or church education. All publishing rights reserved. Designed and printed by Resource Design and Production Services, Local Church Ministries.

[i] Lovette, Roger in “The Immediate Word for May 30, 2004 ” www.csspub.com

[ii] Lovette, Roger

[iii] Wylie-Kellermann, Bill, “In the Boldness of the Spirit” Sojourners Magazine, May 1985. taken from “Preaching the Word” online resource by Sojourners.

[iv] Lovette, Roger

Max Lucado, tells the following story with wit and style: Some time ago I came upon a fellow on a trip who was carrying a Bible. "Are you a believer?" I asked him. "Yes," he said excitedly. I've learned you can't be too careful. "Virgin birth?" I asked. "I accept it." "Deity of Jesus?" "No doubt." "Death of Christ on the cross?" "He died for all people." Could it be that I was face to face with a Christian? Perhaps. Nonetheless, I continued my checklist. "Status of man." "Sinner in need of grace." "Definition of grace." "God doing for man what man can't do." "Return of Christ?" "Imminent." "Bible?" "Inspired." "The Church?" "The Body of Christ." I started getting excited. "Conservative or liberal?" He was getting interested too. "Conservative." My heart began to beat faster. "Heritage?" "Southern Congregationalist Holy Son of God Dispensationalist Triune Convention." That was mine! "Branch?" "Pre-millennial, post-trib, non-charismatic, King James, one-cup communion." My eyes misted. I had only one other question. "Is your pulpit wooden or fiberglass?" "Fiberglass," he responded. I withdrew my hand and stiffened my neck. "Heretic!" I said and walked away.[i]

This sounds extreme, especially in light of Jesus prayer in the Gospel that “The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind” (MSG) We know all too well that sometimes there seems to be more that separates various Christian groups than unites them. Two years ago when I went to the Holy Land one of the things that amazed me was the multiple church groups that own the churches over some of the sacred sights. The Church of the Nativity, for instance, is owned by the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Franciscan Catholics. This might sound like a good step toward cooperation and unity until you realize that each church is responsible for caring for different parts of the building. Certain pillars, sections of the floor, parts of the ceiling, windows etc. are under control of the different churches and unfortunately they do not always work together in organizing their care and maintenance of the building.

And yet, Jesus’ prayer was that his believers “may become completely one, so that the world may know that” God sent Jesus, and that God loved us. In our confirmation class yesterday, we discussed whether it was better for people to tell us what to believe or whether it is better to teach people how to evaluate various ideas and discern God’s will and teaching on the many subjects and issues we face every day.

Jesus’ prayer was not only for his disciples who were present with him that night in the upper room, but his prayer was also on behalf of all those who would come to believe in him because of their witness. In other words, Jesus’ prayer was for us.

Agreement or disagreement within the church and the various bodies that make up the Christian church is not anything new. In the Bible we find letters written by Paul to the church at Corinth and in other places to specifically deal with some of the disagreements and bones of contention they had with each other. The entire Protestant Reformation came out of disagreements about various church practices.

I’ve always liked the approach followed by John Wesley, the man who is considered the father of the Methodist Church. He recognized that there were many things that thinking people are going to disagree about, yet at the same time, he knew that there were many things that we hold in common. He followed a time tested approach of “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.” Wesley recognized that there are some things that are essential to our belief if we are to call ourselves Christians – a faith in Jesus Christ, “the belief in God’s redemptive love realized in human life by the activity of the Holy Spirit both in personal experience and in the community of believers.”[ii] In these essential things there must be unity.

Wesley recognized that there were many practices about which we might not be in agreement. The method of baptism and the ways we celebrate communion come to mind immediately, as well as forms of worship and structures of church government. Wesley believed that these things should not “break the bond of fellowship that ties Christians together in Jesus Christ. Wesley’s familiar dictum was, `As to all opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let think.’”[iii] In other words, “in non-essentials liberty”.

The spirit of charity that he urged “takes into consideration the limits of human understanding. `To be ignorant of many things and to be mistaken in some,’ Wesley observed, `is the necessary condition of humanity.’”[iv]

I don’t think that Jesus expected us to agree with each other about everything, but I do believe that he expected, hoped and prayed that we would keep the main thing, the main thing and that we would have a spirit of unity – be one with each other, even while we disagreed about some particulars.

Jim Jackson, a United Methodist pastor in Houston Texas, says that he learned an important principle from a crop duster. Any crop duster who consistently tried to spray more than 80 percent of the field, he contracted to dust, would sooner or later get this plane caught up in a power line and die. From him, Mr. Jackson adopted what he calls the 80% rule. He writes, “If I can go along with 80% of what is being said or done, whether it is in my home, at church, or in my neighborhood, I’m okay. I can live and let live. It is only when I start to agree with less than 80% of what is being said or done that I begin to have problems. I commend to you the 80% rule.” He goes on to point out that our agreement with fellow believers from any branch of Christianity runs well over 80% when it comes to the essentials of Christianity.[v]

One of the major points of Jesus’ prayer was his prayer for other people – the people who would come to believe because of the witness of the disciples – and the witness of others down through the years. Most people come to know Christ and come to believe through the actions of other people. In our reading from the Book of Acts today, we heard about Paul and Silas who were in prison. During the night they sang praises and prayed to God. An earthquake during the night caused the doors to open and the chains to fall off the prisoners. The jailer woke up and saw the prison doors open. He drew his sword to kill himself because that is the fate he would have suffered at the hands of his superiors for letting the prisoners escape. Paul called out, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”

The actions of Paul and Silas and the other prisoners awakened in this man an awareness that he was not dealing with some crackpots but with something that he wanted and needed to be part of. “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” He asked. Paul’s answer was simple, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” That simple! An answer that is the very root of Christianity – the very essence of who we are.

Ben Kingsley starred as the main character in the motion picture GANDHI. He spent months preparing for the role, visiting the various Indian locales Gandhi had frequented. He even learned to spin cotton thread on a wooden wheel while holding conversations as Gandhi did. The physical resemblance between Gandhi and Kingsley was almost startling. After filming a scene in a village south of Delhi, Kingsley stepped out of a car, and an elderly peasant knelt to touch his feet. Embarrassed, Kingsley explained that he was merely an actor playing Gandhi. "We know," replied the villager, "but through you he will surely live again."[vi]

You see, that’s also part of Jesus’ prayer for us: That the world will see Christ in us; through our unity and through our love.

In a society of rapid changes there are some things that never change – the presence and love of Christ is a constant. Today we face many questions that early Christians could not even imagine. The Bible does not provide us with clear answers on all of these issues. We are left to seek discernment. Within the Methodist church we follow an approach that has come to be known as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. It means that we look to Scripture as illuminated by Tradition, Reason and Experience to help us seek discernment and understanding in those areas.

Let me give you a simple example of how this works. In the Bible we read, “Slaves be submissive to your masters.” If we look only to that line of Scripture we might think that slavery is an acceptable practice. The Quakers were among the earliest Christians in this country to point out that this view was inconsistent with scripture taken as a whole. Today, tradition, reason and experience would also reinforce to us that slavery of any kind is unacceptable and through the years we have been coming to understand that the same applies to unsafe working conditions, to unfair labor practices and to wages that do not permit one to live with dignity.

It is my prayer that in the days, weeks and months ahead as we face a national election and as we continue to deal with issues that raise high levels of passion among all people, we may be true to who we are as Christians, that we may prayerfully seek God’s guidance.

Yesterday, CNN reported that Bishop Michael Sheridan, a Catholic Bishop in Colorado Springs said that communion should be denied to people who vote for candidates supporting such issues as abortion rights, gay marriage, euthanasia and stem cell research. In a letter to 125,000 parishioners he said that Catholic politicians taking these stands place themselves outside the full communion of the church and so jeopardize their salvation and that any Catholic who votes for candidates who take these stands suffer the same fateful consequences.[vii]

Let me urge you as strongly as I possibly can, to be informed Christians, to prayerfully seek God’s guidance, to study Scripture and the scholarship that helps us understand the Scripture. Look to the tradition of the church throughout the centuries, use the reasoning abilities that God has given you, learn about the experiences of those who are affected by all of these issues and be wise and faithful not only in casting votes, but also – and especially – in daily living.

Please do not allow me, or any other church official to tell you how you must believe or how you should vote on any of these issues. “In the midst of new dimensions, in the face of changing ways,” we seek guidance from God. We are God’s people. It is for us that Jesus prayed that we may be one in heart and spirit. In all things let us remember that we will not always agree about everything and that we should in essentials practice unity, in non-essentials liberty and in all things charity. Let us remember that it is the nature of humans that we should be ignorant of some things and mistaken in others and therefore we should and must live in charity, love, and unity with each other.

[i] Max Lucado, A GENTLE THUNDER, p. 139, 140 cited in e-sermons.

[ii] Book of Discipline, par. 60, “Basic Christian Affirmations”

[iii] par. 61, Section 2 – Our Doctrinal History

[iv] par 61, Section 2 – Our Doctrinal History

[v] Mosser, David N. editor, The Abingdon Preaching Annual 2004, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2003 p.189

[vi]Rev. Billy D. Strayhorn, Sermon: “One In Christ” cited in e-sermons.

[vii] CNN.com 5/22/04

Many of us are familiar with the times when we have left our children with other people – with babysitters or with other relatives. Often there are objections, tears, and questions, “Where are you going? Can I come? When will you be back? I don’t want you to go!” Usually our response was to tell the children where we were going, explain that they couldn’t come, that the baby-sitter would take good care of them, and that we would come back soon. Our final words were usually something like, “Be good! Play nicely with each other.”

In today’s gospel reading, we find the disciples in a somewhat similar situation. Jesus is preparing to leave this earthly life and is giving them some instructions – “You cannot go where I am going. And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples.”

These were Jesus’ instructions to his children, to us, before he left them. He went on to promise that he would return and that in the meantime the Holy Spirit would be present with us, guiding and directing us, helping us, taking care of us. Our work is to practice real love for each other now, the kind of love Jesus showed in his life, and the kind of love he poured out for us on the cross.

The early disciples tried to follow Jesus’ commandment. They tried to be loving. They tried to remember what Jesus had taught them, not only through his words, but especially through his actions. They struggled to make sense of what it meant to live as Jesus’ followers in a world where Jesus no longer walked beside them everyday – at least, not in the way that he had for those three years. They had to rely upon their memory, their understanding, and the presence of the holy spirit.

Peter was one of the disciples who struggled with making those decisions and in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles he was being challenged for the decisions he had made. He had not only visited in the home of a gentile, but had also baptized him and his family. The believers in Jerusalem were shocked at Peter’s behavior; however, after hearing the whole story they praised God. Their reactions can teach us how to handle disagreements with other Christians. Before judging the behavior of fellow believers, it is important to hear them out. The Holy Spirit may have something important to teach us through them.

They knew about loving their neighbor – Jesus had taught them about this – and had even given them the story we cherish of the Good Samaritan. They knew about loving their enemy – Jesus had taught them about this too. However, loving in the abstract can be much easier than loving in the concrete – and here they were challenged to love Peter enough to hear him out, to listen to what he had to say, rather than to judge his actions and to condemn him.

This is a great story because it is the beginning of a major change in the early church. This story is the beginning of Gentiles becoming followers of Jesus without having to become Jews first. This is our inclusion story - it’s the one that opened the way for us to become Christians.

It’s hard for us to completely comprehend how really radical the behaviors involved in this story are. I can’t think of any group of people we have been taught to avoid as much as the Jews were taught to avoid the Gentiles. The closest I can come to it, would be to go back into our history 50 or 60 years and imagine a leader of the Ku Klux Klan inviting a black man into his home and serving him a meal or maybe Hitler inviting a Jewish family to come home with him for dinner. What Peter did was equally radical - and yet, when he explained it to those who listened, instead of arguing with him, instead of debating it, instead of calling an executive session, or appointing a committee to investigate more, they praised God. They praised God for the new understanding that God had welcomed even the Gentiles and given them life. And they rejoiced that what they had was now to be shared by even more people - even if they were people whom they had once rejected. Perhaps they remembered the love that Jesus had shown to tax collectors and prostitutes and other people considered to be sinners and outsiders.

I read this scripture with new ears as the General Conference of the United Methodist Church met in Pittsburgh during the past two weeks. General Conference meets every four years and includes an equal number of clergy and lay delegates from United Methodist Conferences throughout the world. This is the body that has legislative power over matters that affect the entire United Methodist denomination. I think this reading from Acts probably describes the first General Conference of the infant Christian church and their major decision at this meeting was one made by acclamation and praise as they realized that God had welcomed even the Gentiles.

Ultimately, they made their decision based on what they understood to be the evidence of the Holy Spirit working among them and among the Gentiles. They recognized the thing that connected them - the thing that was more important than any of the other questions - they recognized that together they shared a belief in Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah. They celebrated that God was doing a new thing and that they were able to be part of this new activity of God’s. They learned how to love one another and to show others that they were disciples of Jesus Christ.

Local churches and General Conferences haven’t changed much through the years. We are still faced with the challenge of how to love each other and how to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. Throughout the past two weeks, many things have happened at General Conference. Enough potatoes were shipped from Maine and distributed in Pittsburgh food pantries to feed 120,000 people. There has been work done around Aid for Victims in the Sudan, Ministry with young people and with older adults, Africa University, an AIDS fund proposal, and on and on. In all of these I found evidence of the fulfillment of Jesus’ command, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

A search of major newspapers tells me a different or partial story. It tells of controversy over the subject of homosexuality and indeed, would lead one to believe that it was the only subject discussed during the two weeks. That’s not true, but it was certainly a major subject and the source once again of much heartache and concerns about division within the denomination. In the discussion and debate there, I wondered if delegates were really listening to each other as those in Jerusalem listened to Peter when he told them about the vision and why he had baptized the gentile family.

I looked for signs of God’s love in the midst of the frustration, debate, and protests. I found it in the actions of Bishop Donald Ott of Wisconsin. A delegate from Illinois who had agonized over the stern voices including one man who angrily declared that gay people are bound for hell, kept thinking about a close relative back home who is gay. He felt the verbal assaults on homosexuality as attacks on his family. Near the end of a communion service, he felt a powerful impulse to step toward the altar, raise an empty ceramic chalice high above his head and then let it fall to the floor where it shattered.

David Crumm a columnist for the Detroit Free Press wrote, “What happened after the gut-wrenching crash, however, turned this act of desperation into one of the few symbols of hope. …Bishop Ott witnessed the act and transformed it with a simple response: The bishop silently stooped and gathered up some of the broken pieces, which had shot off in a hundred directions. `I was shocked,’ said Ott, `but I thought: How true this was to what we all were experiencing. The body of Christ was broken. I felt a strong instinct to pick up those pieces, to place them back on the altar and even to save one piece to remember this.’

“Soon others followed. … (another pastor from Illinois) now carries with him a tiny chip from the rim of the cup. `What’s happened here is so painful,’ he said, `This small piece is such a perfect symbol of that. I’ll keep it and reflect on it, I’m sure, for the rest of my life.’ A seminarian was shocked, but then said that there was a profound truth in the broken chalice, “This was a symbol of our failure to live up to Christ’s call to love everyone. And, I knelt down, too. I plan to carry a piece with me as a reminder that God calls everyone to come to the table.”[i]

The debate about homosexuality is not the point here – the point is how we love one another – or how we fail to love one another and what that says about us as disciples of Jesus Christ. We are not going to agree about everything – it’s important for us to recognize that up front – but it is important that when we disagree, we do so in love.

It is a strange paradox of life that when we are most open to the leading of the one who comforts us in our fears and sorrows and gives us peace in our grief, when we are most open to God’s presence we discover not a warm fuzzy blanket to wrap around ourselves but an open window or door which beckons us to go out and experience God’s comfort in the middle of the fears of change, God’s peace in the midst of what may seem like turmoil.

In the midst of serious illness when we would like to just be wrapped up in God’s warm fuzzy blanket and sip tea on our comfortable couch, we are called to make decisions about treatments, decisions about how and when to involve other persons in the discussions and support. We are called to things that require great courage and we face many uncertainties. Then we discover that while God is present in the fuzzy blanket God is also present in the difficult decisions and God’s embracing love begins to look like our brothers and sisters in Christ.

When we realize the large number of families needing to make use of food pantries and soup kitchens and homeless shelters we discover that the plentiful food on our tables is less enjoyable unless we are remembering and acting on Jesus’ words that whenever we do something for any of God’s people, no matter how unimportant they may seem, we are doing it for God.

When we want to ignore the increasing domestic violence and sexual abuse and assault around us we discover that God’s comfort comes not in looking the other way, but in getting involved, in speaking out, in walking with God in places that we would not have chosen on our own, in caring for those who are most vulnerable in our society and world.

When we seek to draw up a list of invitations of those with whom we want to associate and work, and worship we discover that God has a different list, one that requires us to “love one another as Christ has loved us.” As Jesus told his disciples, “If you love each other, everyone will know that you are my disciples.”

It is our task to be in prayer so that we are seeking to be open to God, just as Peter was, so that we can see the new thing that God is doing in our lives and in our world. It is our joy to participate in the miracle of moving past what is comfortable for us and rejoicing in the spreading of God’s word and the sharing of God’s love.

Generally we hear the 23^rd Psalm read at funerals or in hospital rooms. It is usually read and heard in the midst of death and dying. “It may be more important, however, that this psalm be read and heard as a psalm about living, for it puts daily activities, such as eating, drinking, and seeking security in a radically God-centered perspective that challenges our usual way of thinking. Furthermore, it calls us not simply to claim individual assurance but also to take our place with others in the household of God.[i]

As I was preparing this sermon I received an e-mail telling me that one of our members who was leaving to go on a vacation for a few days, was instead flying to a different part of the country to be with her father who suffered a massive stroke. In the midst of the best plans we make for our lives, in the midst of celebrations our lives sometimes get rocked by the unexpected crisis that has the potential to throw our lives into turmoil. At those times where do we turn to seek security? In a country that was shaken by 9-11 where did we look to find comfort? Now we are engaged in a war that has taken the lives of too many people. Not a day goes by that we don’t hear of suicide bombings and attacks not only in Iraq but also in Israel/Palestine. All around us, we find ourselves, and others, seeking security, looking for comfort and strength and courage to face the unknown.

Sheep place great trust in their shepherd. Jesus, in today’s Gospel, says that, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.”

Sheep hear the voice of the shepherd and will respond only to the shepherd. An American tourist was traveling in the Mid East. He came upon several shepherds whose flocks were intermingled while drinking from a brook. After an exchange of greetings, one of the shepherds turned toward the sheep and called out, "Manah. Manah. Manah." (Manah means, "follow me" in Arabic.) Immediately his sheep separated themselves from the rest and followed him.

Then one of the two remaining shepherds called out, "Manah. Manah." and his sheep left the common flock to follow him. The traveler then said to the third shepherd, "I would like to try that. Let me put on your cloak and turban and see if I can get the rest of the sheep to follow me."

The shepherd smiled knowingly as the traveler wrapped himself in the cloak, put the turban on his head and called out, "Manah. Manah." The sheep did not respond to the stranger's voice. Not one of them moved toward him.[ii]

The call of our Lord is "hidden" in a whole chorus of worldly voices which beckon us. Other would-be shepherds seek to tempt us away from the Good Shepherd, the joy of his forgiveness and the security of his love.

The American tourist asked the shepherd, “Will the sheep ever follow someone other than you?” The shepherd replied, “Oh yes, sometimes a sheep gets sick, and then it will follow anyone.”

We have seen it, haven't we? People, young and old, who are battered by the storms of life and distracted by voices urging them to go this way and that; they have lost their bearings and they don't know where they are or where they are going. That can be more than a little frightening; it leads to despair, to hopelessness. And when that happens they will follow anyone who will promise a moment of happiness, a brief feeling of peace or forgetfulness, a sense that they are someone.[iii]

In the 23^rd Psalm we hear, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff – they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” The Good Shepherd who leads us does not take us around the dark valleys – sometimes we just have to go through them – but we do go through – that is not where we make our home. Even when we go through those dark valleys, the places that are frightening, the places that are unknown, we do not go alone. A good shepherd has always traveled the land ahead of the sheep. He knows where the poisonous plants are and where to find the best sources of good clean water.

Sheep are timid animals. If left to themselves they will work their way into a frenzy making it impossible for them to eat or rest properly. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, is able to calm our fears. The rod and the staff which the shepherd used were great tools for driving off predators and rescuing sheep that were caught in the brambles of a bush. They truly were a source of comfort for the herd. In the midst of our daily lives there are many things which can cause concern or fear for us. When we dwell on these issues it may only cause us to become more frightened or uneasy. It is then that we can be comforted by the Good Shepherd who has already walked this path.

For sheep there was constant danger, there were predators – enemies - just waiting for them and the shepherd was the one who kept them safe enough and calmed their fears enough that they were able to eat. Because Jesus is our Shepherd, we do not need to be afraid of the future. When we come to the communion table today, we come in the presence of the risen Christ who prepares the meal and invites us to be present. We come in the presence of the shepherd who calms our fears and strengthens us so that we do not need to be afraid of the enemies, distractions or problems that may come into our lives.

Many years ago the great preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick told of a teenage girl stricken with polio. As he visited with her, she told him about a conversation she'd had with one of her friends, who told her, "Affliction does so color life." To which this courageous young girl agreed, but said that she would choose which color. At her young age she had already discovered one of life's great secrets: It's not what happens to you that matters as much as what happens in you. For faith in God does not so much shield us from danger and death as it gives us the power to overcome it.[iv]

A man who grew up on a sheep farm in the mid-west said that sheep are not really the dumb animals that many of us think they are – that, he said, is a rumor perpetuated by cattle ranchers because sheep behave very differently tan cattle. “Cattle are herded from the rear by yelling cowboys and horses pushing them in one direction, but that won’t work with sheep. If you make loud noises from behind the sheep, all they will do is run around behind you, because they prefer to be led. You push cows but you lead sheep, and they will not go anywhere that someone else does not go first - namely their shepherd - who goes ahead of them to show them that everything is all right.

Sheep seem to consider their shepherd to be part of the family, and the relationship that grows up between the sheep and their shepherd is really quite exclusive. They know to whom they belong, they know their shepherd’s voice, and it is the only one they will follow. They develop a language of their own that outsiders are not privy to. A good shepherd learns to distinguish a bleat of pain from one of pleasure, much as a mother learns to distinguish an infant’s cry of hunger from one of exhaustion. Sheep learn that a cluck of the tongue means food, or a two-note song means that it is time to go home.

The man who offered this perspective said it never ceased to amaze him growing up, that he could walk right through a sleeping flock without disturbing a single one of them, while a stranger could not step foot in the fold without causing pandemonium.

Worship, Bible study, prayer, fellowship with other Christians all help us stay tuned to the voice of the shepherd in the midst of the noises around us. Come to the table that the Lord, our Good Shepherd has prepared for us. Celebrate the promise of the book of Revelation, “the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Draw strength from the Shepherd and from the proclamation of the Psalm, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

[i] The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume IV, p. 767

[ii] John M. Braaten, The Greatest Wonder of All, C.S.S Publishing

[iii] Braaten,

[iv] Lee Griess, Taking The Risk Out Of Dying, CSS Publishing Company, 1997

The Scriptures for today contain two amazing stories; stories which bear witness to the way God is always being revealed to us, the way God is seeking to reconcile and restore our relationship with God, and the risks which we are called to accept in following God’s way. Come with me as we walk back and forth between these two stories.

Story #1 They didn’t expect to see him. It had all been so very confusing. Nothing made any real sense anymore - and we all yearn for things to make sense, to “be normal”. So Peter decided to go fishing. Without any clear sense of what else to do, he turned to what was familiar - normal - fishing. He didn’t know how to live with the confusion of Jesus dead and then alive, yet still not with them - except for those two times when he showed up in a room with doors that were locked. Peter was impetuous, energetic, always on the move - he couldn’t just sit around any longer trying to make sense of this - so, fishing, it was.

Except that it wasn’t a productive night. They had fished all night but hadn’t caught a thing. By early morning light he saw a man on the shore who inquired about their catch. When they replied that they hadn’t caught anything, this stranger told them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat. After doing so and catching so many fish that they could not drag the net into the boat, John realized and told Peter that the man on the shore was none other than Jesus. Impetuous Peter left the other disciples and the huge catch of fish, jumped into the water and headed for shore to see Jesus. Jesus had revealed himself to Peter, John, and the other disciples in the midst of a normal activity - in the middle of the very thing that they thought would help life make sense at least for awhile.

Story #2 Saul never expected to see him. Jesus was dead and that was that. Unfortunately, his influence had not died with him. There were people who claimed that he was alive. There were people who had been good faithful Jews but because of this man they had forsaken the ways of their ancestors and were preaching and teaching something new and radical, something totally unacceptable - something heretical. They had to be stopped! People couldn’t be allowed to make a mockery of the faith by following this man who had caused so much trouble - and continued to cause trouble, even though he was dead.

Saul knew what to do. He had warrants for the arrest of these people. He would make sure that the orthodoxy and purity of the faith were not violated. He had been responsible for arresting many in Jerusalem, and had been present when Stephen, one of Jesus’ followers had been stoned to death. Now he was on his way to Damascus to catch more of those people, people who followed what they called “The Way”. He never expected to see Jesus.

Suddenly, he was blinded by a bright light and heard a voice asking him, “Why do you persecute me?” The next thing he knew he was being told, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Jesus revealed himself to Saul while he was about his daily work.

Let’s return to Story 1 for a few minutes: When Peter reached the shore he found Jesus with a charcoal fire, some fish and some bread. Peter brought some more fish, fish from the huge catch they had just made. Peter may have remembered the time when they had been in a field with many people listening to Jesus - people who were hungry for his words, but who soon became hungry for physical food also. On that day, Jesus had fed over 5,000 people with only 5 small loaves and 2 fish. Now there was an overabundance of fish, but only because Jesus had provided the guidance needed for the catch. In a meal that must have reminded them of the last meal they had shared together, Jesus took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish.

“Jesus is always on the beaches of our lives. We may not realize it; we may not recognize him; and we may not hear him when he calls out to us. But count on it. He is there. And when we are ready - when we despair and are frustrated after catching nothing, though we have been fishing all night long - we will hear the instruction to cast our nets on the other side of the boat. And when our nets are full and we realize it was Christ who got us to move to the other side of the boat, Jesus is on the beach waiting with a fire, ready to cook breakfast, ready to celebrate!”[1]

When they had finished eating, Jesus and Peter walked along the beach together. I wonder if Peter was waiting for a scolding from Jesus – a rebuke for having denied knowing Jesus that night in the courtyard – that night when Jesus was arrested. I can imagine Peter trying to get the courage to bring up the subject – to try to explain, to somehow get Jesus to understand. But Jesus wasn’t about recrimination. He wasn’t looking for excuses or explanations.

The question Jesus asked Peter must have surprised him a little, “Simon son of John do you truly love me more than these?” Most of our translations, indicate that Jesus used the word “agape” meaning sacrificial, unconditional love. Peter replied, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” or more accurately, “Yes, Lord, you know that I am your friend, you know that I like you, you know that I love you like a brother.” Peter did not use the word “agape” in his response, but rather “philio” - a less committed term. Jesus replied, “Feed my lambs.”

Twice more the question; twice more the answer. The third time it appears that Jesus changed his question, being willing at that particular time in Peter’s life to settle for the lesser kind of love. Jesus’ plan here was to restore Peter’s relationship with him. He and Peter both knew that Peter had denied him three times and it had to be dealt with. Peter had to be given the opportunity to examine his relationship with Christ and his commitment to him. Three times Peter is told to care for Christ’s people, “feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.”

As Jesus had called Peter to leave his nets and follow him, so now again, he calls him from fishing for fish to fishing and caring for people, he calls him again, forgiven, reconciled, to “follow me.”

Moving back to Damascus and Story #2, we find Ananias, a follower of Jesus going about his daily business when God spoke to him. Ananias wasn’t really surprised to hear God speaking to him, and he responded immediately, “Yes, Lord.” What happened next was a little more confusing. “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.” This was all about restoring - reconciling Saul to Christ and Ananias was to be the agent for this to happen. Meanwhile Saul waited - unable to see, and engaging in prayer and fasting, trying to understand what had happened. Wondering what would happen to him, how God would punish him for his actions. God’s plan wasn’t for punishment, it was for reconciliation - and Ananias would be a big part of that.

In those times when we have done something we regret, God doesn’t rush to punish us, but rather reaches out to offer us reconciliation. When our actions have been un-Christlike, when we have done something that separates us from God, God seeks to end the separation and restore our relationship with God.

Having restored Peter, Jesus gives him a glimpse of what it will cost Peter to continue to follow Jesus. This will be risky business. Peter should already know this, but Jesus wants to be sure that Peter understands what it will cost him to be a disciple, to accept the ministry to which Jesus called him. While Peter’s commitment on the beach seems to have extended only to loving Jesus as a brother, the life he lived went far beyond that. Peter would be imprisoned on more than one occasion. He would be called to stretch his mind and his beliefs. He would be called out of his comfort zone and into places he could never have imagined. Yet, he would go willingly, lovingly, always committed to following Christ and doing the work to which God called him. In our Scripture last week, we saw Peter and other disciples before the High Priest after being told not to speak in Jesus’ name. His response was that “we must obey God, not man.” That little episode earned them a flogging.

His commitment to Christ eventually brought him to the same kind of death Jesus had experienced, death on a cross. In fact tradition holds, that even then he proclaimed that he was not worthy to die the same way that Jesus had, and he pleaded to be crucified upside down. But none of this happened until long after Peter had reached many people with the news of Jesus - including many Gentiles. It was Peter who, under God’s direction, pushed the boundaries out so that they included people who had been excluded and rejected. In this he faithfully followed the example of his Lord who had welcomed and eaten with “sinners and tax collectors“.

Story #2 continued: Ananias too, was called to take a risk when sent to Saul. He went, but not before he questioned God about this. “Are you sure you have the right man? Do you realize that this is the man who has been persecuting your followers? Are you sure that this is the man you want me to go to see?”

How often do we ask this same question? “Lord, are you sure you really want me to reach out to that person? He doesn’t seem like the kind of person you’d want following you.” Isn’t it amazing that we presume to tell God what kind of people God might want in the church?

Ananias accepted God’s answer, took the risk and went to Saul. We should thank God for faithful people like Ananias. Saul turned out to be the greatest missionary of the early church. As zealous as he had been to stop the followers of The Way, he was now as passionate to reach people with the Word. We know him better as Paul, the faithful evangelist who established churches all through the area, the prolific writer of letters to churches and individuals, a man who committed every day of the rest of his life to following the one whom he had at first persecuted.

We can imagine what would have happened if Peter had walked away from Jesus that day on the beach or if Ananias had said no when told to go to Saul, or if Saul had stubbornly refused to change his ways. We can imagine what that would mean for the church today - which might not have existed. But can you also think about what it would have meant in their individual lives? Think how it would have affected their relationship, their walk, with the Lord.

Sometimes we in the church are reluctant to reach out, to go beyond our normal boundaries, to take a risk, whether it is to use a different kind of music, to teach a Sunday School or Vacation Bible School class, to start or attend a Bible study or to reach out to someone with whom we don’t feel comfortable. At those times, we might ask ourselves, what will happen in the lives of those to whom God sends us if we stay in our comfort zone. If we will not take the risk for the ministry to which God calls us, we must also ask what the effect will be on our relationship with God and our faith journey.

Jesus was revealed to Peter and to Saul in unexpected circumstances. He brought healing into their lives and restored their relationship with God (even though Saul didn’t know his relationship needed healing and restoration). The living Christ called both of them to take the risks necessary to share the good news about Jesus Christ. We, too, meet Jesus sometimes in unexpected places. He brings healing and restoration into our lives and our relationship with God and asks us to go out, to take risks, in sharing with others the good news of our experience with Christ.

[1] Fraser, Nancy AHA! April 29, 2001, p. 24

Check out the church ads on a Saturday in a large metropolitan newspaper and you find some impressive sounding places of worship. With fancy graphics and Madison Avenue catch phrases you find churches boasting of their assets – their choirs, their friendliness, their youth ministries or education programs, their singles ministries, ample parking, family life centers, sensitive child care, multiple worship services and styles, and compassionate spirit. It seems that some churches have it all.

Other churches, however, seem to have little or nothing. How would you respond to a description of a church with locked doors, secret entrances, sweaty palms and a timid spirit? I daresay, none of us would want to be part of that church. However, it is a description of the church in its earliest days – and all in all, it’s not a very pretty picture.

Near the end of his life, Jesus had prepared his disciples to be a devoted and confident fellowship of faith. They were to be a community of profound love with the gates wide open and the welcome mat always out but in today’s gospel we find them barricaded in a house with the doors bolted shut. They were supposed to be the kind of people who stride boldly into the world to bear fruit in Jesus’ name, a people full of the Holy Spirit, but here we find them cowering in fear, hoping nobody will find out where they are. In short, we see the church at its worst – scared, disheartened and defensive.

John’s gospel gives us a snapshot of a church with nothing – no plan, no promise, no program, no perky youth ministry, no powerful preaching, no parking lot, nothing. This terrified little band huddled in the corner of a room with the door locked has only one thing going for it: the risen Christ. And that seems to be the main point of this story. In the final analysis, this is a story about how the risen Christ pushed open the bolted door of a church with nothing, how the risen Christ enters the fearful chambers of every church and fills the place with his own life.[i]

When the risen Christ comes into their midst he meets them at their point of deepest need. “Peace be with you.” The peace that Jesus gives is far different than the peace that the world gives and takes away all too easily. “Since 1919 the nations of Europe have signed more than 200 treaties of peace. From the year 1500 BCE to 1860, more than 8,000 treaties of peace were concluded. The average time they remained in force was two years. Jesus’ peace, however, is a lasting one, and does not need a piece of paper, which can be ripped up as easily as it was constructed.”[ii]

Jesus’ peace is a peace that goes beyond human understanding. It is a peace that we experience in the presence of God. It is not dependent upon the circumstances of our lives but gives a confident assurance in any circumstance; with Christ’s peace we have no need to fear the present or the future.

Jesus also offered them the gift of a purpose in life – they were being sent out to be Christ’s representatives in the world. Knowing that the disciples were afraid and that they would need courage for the future, Jesus also gave them the gift of power – of God’s Spirit.

They rejoiced when they saw Jesus. Seeing Jesus alive again began the process of turning these timid disciples into the fearless witnesses of the Resurrection that we find later in the book of Acts. It wasn’t something that happened overnight. In fact, a week later when Jesus appeared to them again – this time when Thomas was present – they still had the doors locked.

Jesus met the disciples at the point of their need and Jesus meets us at the point of our need. When he first appeared to Mary Magdalene in the garden on the morning of the resurrection, he told her not to hold on to him, but a week later, he invites Thomas to touch the wound in his side. Perhaps Mary needed to be weaned away from being dependent upon the physical presence of Jesus while Thomas needed to touch in order to believe. Once Thomas saw and believed in the presence of the risen Christ, he made a resounding declaration of faith: My Lord and my God! Jesus will meet us at our point of need, wherever that may be.

Convinced of the presence of the risen Christ, filled with the peace of God’s presence, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, the early church was on its way. No longer were they locked behind closed doors. It was not long before the event that we heard about in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Although Peter and the other apostles had been imprisoned for preaching about Jesus, they didn’t stop. When brought before the Sanhedrin again, and warned, “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” they replied, “We must obey God rather than men!” What a long way they had come from the days when they were locked behind closed doors with sweaty palms and a faint spirit.

Now they were convinced of the presence of the risen Christ. They were sent out by Christ to be his representatives, and they were empowered by the Holy Spirit. Their response to the authorities of the Sanhedrin shows that they were clearly focused on what they were called to do and be and they were not going to be sidetracked. They knew what they were about and the church was growing through their faithful witness.

In the late 1800s, no business matched the financial and political dominance of the railroad. Trains dominated the transportation industry of the United States, moving both people and goods throughout the country. Then a new discovery came along – the car – and incredibly the leaders of the railroad industry did not take advantage of their unique position to participate in this transportation development. The automotive revolution was happening all around them, and they did not use their industry dominance to take hold of the opportunity. In his video-tape, “The Search for Excellence,” Tom Peters points out the reason: The railroad barons didn’t understand what business they were in. Peters observes that "they thought they were in the train business. But, they were, in fact, in the transportation business. Time passed them by, as did opportunity. They couldn’t see what their real purpose was."[iii]

Gathered in the room behind locked doors, the apostles didn’t remember what their real purpose was, but having received the peace of Christ, been empowered by the Spirit, and sent out they were faithful to their real purpose. They became devoted and confident in their faith. They became a community of profound love and they learned how to open the gates wide and keep the welcome mat out. They became the kind of people who stride boldly into the world to bear fruit in Jesus’ name; a people full of the Holy Spirit.

That is who we are also called to be and what we are called to do. The decision to be Christian is our choice. Once we make that decision it determines our primary vocation. As Christians we are sent out and called to do many things in the name of Christ. Like the churches that I mentioned at the beginning with the impressive credentials we are called to provide a variety of ministries to reach out to people. We are called to be missional to help meet the needs of others. In Matthew’s Gospel we are reminded that whenever we feed another person, or provide clothing, or shelter or care, it is as if we are doing those things for Christ. We are called to educate children and to help adults grow in their discipleship.

In all things that we do we are to remember why we are doing these things – we are to remember what our business is, what our real purpose is. The railroad industry thought they were in the train business rather than the transportation business. The church is to be in the mission and ministry of being disciples of Christ and it is essential that we remember that. This is what makes us different from social agencies, service clubs, and fellowship organizations. We may do many of the same things, and we may be involved in many of the same advocacies. That is part of what we are called to be and to do as Christians. We enjoy each other’s company and opportunities for fellowship – that is also an important part of our faith. However, the bottom line is that all of our fellowship, all of our work for justice, all of our advocacy for the needs or rights of people is about being the people of Christ – the people called to be filled with the peace of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and sent out as representatives of Christ. We can do all of this because like the early Christians we have the risen Christ with us.

Jesus could have appeared to anyone he wanted after his resurrection. He could have shown up at the temple and appeared to Caiaphas to let him and the other religious authorities know that they hadn’t been successful. He could have appeared to Pilate or Herod and let them know who had the real power. He could have appeared to the soldiers who mocked him and whipped him – imagine their surprise and their fear if he had. But he didn’t. Jesus appeared only to people who were already his followers. He met them at the point of their need. The purpose of each appearance was to strengthen their faith so that they would be able to re-engage in ministry.

The first time Jesus appeared to his disciples Thomas wasn’t with them and he almost missed out on seeing the risen Lord. But Jesus came to him again the next week. Following Thomas’ great proclamation of faith, “My Lord and my God” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

We have not seen the Risen Christ in the way that Peter and Thomas and Mary and the others did but we experience the presence of the Living Christ in many other ways. Often we can experience Christ’s presence in the community of believers we call the church. When we separate ourselves from the church we take a chance on missing his unique presence. There’s a wonderful song that asks, “Have you Seen Jesus My Lord?” It mentions several places where we can encounter Christ, but my favorite verse is the one that says, “Have you ever stood in the family, with the Lord there in your midst? Seen the face of Christ on each other, then I say, you’ve seen Jesus my Lord.”

For me, one of the places I encounter the risen Christ is on the faces of many of you as you worship on Sunday mornings. When I see eyes closed in meditation, or souls transported by the words and melody of a song, or a smile on someone’s face I know I’ve seen Jesus my Lord. When I see one person helping another with a hymnal, or eyes aglow with love, or the innocent look on a child’s face I know I’ve seen Jesus my Lord. When the choir sings, or voices soar in praise I know I am in the presence of the Risen Christ.

We’ve heard the message so many times, that it can become easy to take it for granted – to focus on the things we know about Jesus. But if we believe that Jesus really is alive then we can do far more than learn about him – instead, we can learn from him. We can see the new things that God has done and is doing. We can be awakened with a faith that empowers us to go out into the world and be witnesses and disciples of the Risen Christ.

It was Saturday, the day before Easter, and Joanne Hinch was sitting at the kitchen table coloring eggs with her three-year-old son Dan and her two-year-old daughter Debbie. She told her kids about the meaning of Easter and taught them the traditional Easter morning greeting and response, "He is risen...He is risen indeed!" The children planned to surprise their Dad, a Presbyterian minister, with that greeting as soon as he awoke the next morning. Easter arrived, little Dan heard his father stirring about in his bedroom, so the boy got up quickly, dashed down the hall and shouted the good news: "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, God's back!"[iv]

Our loving God, we can proclaim with Danny that you are back, but we know and would rather proclaim that you have never left us. We thank you for your presence with us always, for the peace that only you can give and for the way you empower us with the Holy Spirit. Help us to stay focused on our real purpose in life to be your disciples and to have that be the motivation and guide to all that we do. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.

[i] Long, Thomas G. Whispering the Lyrics, CSS Publishing 1995, cited in e-sermons.

[ii] Seasons of the Spirit, Congregational Life, 4/18/2004 p.86

[iii] White, James Emery, Rethinking the Church , Baker Books, 1997, p.23 cited in e-sermons.

[iv] Rev. Dr. David E. Leininger, Sermon: "Laugh, Thomas, Laugh!" cited in e-sermons.

One of the big debates in the news recently has been whether or not the Current National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice should publicly testify before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Someone wrote an article explaining that based on brain chemistry and a variety of other components, she and former terrorism advisor Richard Clark would not even be able to remember things the same way. When she did testify a fairly local relative of one of those killed in the 9-11 attacks said that her testimony as he expected required her to protect her boss the president.

I would imagine that our political persuasion would be one of many pieces that would affect how we heard the testimonies given and the credibility we would give to the various witnesses. That is part of human nature.

It was part of human nature when the disciples heard the witness of the women who had gone to the tomb early that morning. They had gone to the tomb carrying spices for anointing Jesus’ dead body. What they found was an empty tomb. A dark sorrowful morning became even more painful, if possible. Then a light began to break through their darkness as two men (or angels) in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. The darkness began to lift a little more although there was still a fog of confusion as they heard the words, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!” Bright sunlight and clarity came as the angels reminded them of Jesus’ words, “The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.”

Bursting with abundant joy, the women rushed to tell the disciples and the others. They were witnesses testifying of the great good news, but their testimony was dismissed because it sounded like nonsense. I guess we can’t really be too hard on the disciples. Would we have believed such a preposterous story? Could we have even imagined that the person we know had died a horrible torturous death was now alive? As much as they would have loved to believe it, the possibility flew in the face of all that they had known – dead men did not rise from the dead. Oh yes, there had been a couple of occasions, but Jesus had been the one who had brought them back to life – and it was Jesus, himself, who was now dead. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves. Unlike the women he did not return to tell the other disciples. He went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

Soon they would know. Soon they would understand. That very night, Jesus would stand in their midst and they would know the truth. Jesus who had spent three years teaching, healing, preaching and challenging their understanding was alive again! It made no sense, but it was true! They would remember how many times they had been confused by things he had taught them and now some of that would start to make sense. They would remember how their assumptions about how to live their lives had been challenged and changed – and this was only the beginning.

Those assumptions would continue to be challenged. They would continue to learn that doing the same thing for the same reason all the time is not very different than looking for the living among the dead. They would learn that a vibrant alive faith required them to be open to the new thing that God was doing in their midst. A new thing that God had been doing while Jesus was with them; a new thing that God did on that Easter morning, and a new thing that God would do in their lives and ours each day.

Peter would soon experience one of the greatest challenges he could imagine. After a lifetime of associating only with Jews, of following strict dietary laws and religious rules, he would experience a vision that struck at the very heart of his understanding. Try to imagine this: He saw what appeared to be a sheet descending from heaven and on the sheet were animals of the kinds that he was not permitted to eat. A voice as if from heaven spoke, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat.” He answered at once, “No, Lord, no, for I have never eaten anything unlawful or unclean.” The voice spoke again, “What God has made clean, you must not call unclean.” This happened not once, but three times.

While Peter was wondering what this meant, servants arrived from the home of Cornelius – a Roman centurion. They came looking for Peter, because Cornelius, in a vision, had been told to send for Peter. Peter went with them, and in violation of Jewish law, entered into Cornelius’ home.

In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear the words that witness to Peter’s new understanding after his vision, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” Peter goes on to explain that after God raised Jesus, he appeared to those who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. Peter was one of those witnesses. He was one of those commissioned and charged to go out and preach the good news to tell others.

Peter was one witness who was open to learning that his way was not necessarily God’s way. He was not looking for the living among the dead, but was willing to find new life wherever God showed it to him. Peter and Cornelius were very different people. Cornelius was wealthy, a Gentile and a military man. Peter was a Jewish fisherman turned preacher. But God’s plan included both of them. In Cornelius’ house that day a new chapter in Christian history was written as a Jewish Christian leader and a Gentile Christian convert each discovered something significant about God at work in the other person. Cornelius needed Peter for his gospel to know the way to salvation. Peter needed Cornelius and his salvation experience to know that Gentiles were included in God’s plan.

Very soon Peter would baptize Cornelius and his household and then he and his friends would stay with Cornelius for several days partaking of their hospitality, sleeping in his house and eating his food. People who under normal circumstances would not even have spoken to each other on the street were now worshipping, fellowshipping, and communing together. This too is one of the miracles that came from Easter.

Cornelius needed Peter. Peter needed Cornelius. We need each other to help us understand how God works!

God is still breaking down barriers that separate people. God is still bringing new life out of the places that seem dead. God is still calling us to be witnesses of what we have seen and heard and especially of what we have experienced and know.

“Cornelius made a decision to believe in Christ and to obey him. Peter made a decision; Cornelius had been accepted by God so he must accept Cornelius. You and I, all of us in God’s church, have made the decision to belong to God through Jesus Christ. Yet you and I also have decisions to make each day, several times a day. At each fork of the road, we make a decision to follow the way of Christ or some other way. At each transaction in the marketplace, each meeting with a friend, we make a decision based on our commitment to Christ or a decision that backs away from that commitment. [i]

Each day in many ways, we are asked to decide whether we are looking for the living among the dead places in our lives. Each day we face the possibility of new experiences of resurrection as God brings new life out of the dead places in our lives, new hope out of the places of despair, peace and joy out of the places of sorrow. Each day we are asked to decide what difference Easter makes in our lives as we make those decisions and take those actions that either bring us closer to Christ or take us further away.

God grant that we may be faithful witnesses ever open to the new things that God is doing among us. May God grant that each of our decisions shall show the love of God embodied in Christ our Lord. Amen.”

“A few years ago there was a true story about a man in New York City who was kidnapped. His kidnappers called his wife and asked for $100,000 ransom. She talked them down to $30,000.

“The story had a happy ending: the man returned home unharmed, the money was recovered, and the kidnappers were caught and sent to jail. But, don't you wonder what happened when the man got home and found that his wife got him back for a discount?” Calvin Trillin was the writer of this story. He imagined out loud what the negotiations must have been like: "$100,000 for that old guy? You have got to be crazy. Just look at him! …You've got to be kidding. Give me a break here. $30,000 is my top offer."

Mark Trotter concluded his rendition of the story with this thoughtful comment: "I suppose there are some here this morning who can identify with the wife in that story, but for some reason I find myself identifying with the husband. I'd like to think if I were in a similar situation, there would be people who would spare no expense to get me back. They wouldn't haggle over the price. They wouldn't say, 'Well, let me think about it.' I like to think that they would say, 'We'll do anything for you.'"[i]

The point of that story is this: sometimes it's O.K. to be extravagant! Now, that has a lot to do with what the story in John’s Gospel is about. It’s just before Passover and Jesus knows that his death is very close. The temple authorities are plotting against him; Judas is about ready to betray Him. On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples stop in Bethany. Many people on their way to Jerusalem for the Passover would find lodging in Bethany since it is on the outskirts of Jerusalem. For many of us it would be a difficult 2-3 mile uphill walk, but that was quite common in Jesus’ day.

Bethany was a familiar place to Jesus. He had been here before. This was where his friend Lazarus lived with his sisters Mary and Martha. Just a short time earlier, Jesus had come to Bethany after receiving word that Lazarus was very ill. He had arrived after Lazarus’ death, 4 days after to be exact, and he had brought Lazarus back to life. Jesus had broken barriers before in his teaching and healing, but this was a big one. Jesus was a life-bringer but now he was facing the sentence of death himself. Lazarus, the one who was recently raised from the dead sits next to the one who is about to lay down his life and who during this meal is about to be anointed as if for burial.

John tells us that during the meal Lazarus’ sister Mary approached Jesus. She had a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard – a fragrant plant. This was no dime store perfume. It was worth almost as much as a year’s wages for a laborer. Mary knelt at Jesus’ feet and poured the perfume on his feet, and wiped his feet with her hair.

Why did she do that? Some say it was an act of gratitude in which she was thanking Jesus for raising her brother from the dead. Some say she was performing an act of consecration in which she was encouraging Jesus to claim his place as the long-awaited Messiah and move ahead into Jerusalem to overthrow the Roman government. Matthew and Mark’s Gospels fit more closely with this view, because in those Gospels, the woman anointing Jesus pours the perfume on his head, an act befitting a king.

Jesus says that the perfume is meant to prepare him for burial. Indeed, later in John’s gospel, when Jesus is buried, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus came bringing a great quantity of a mixture of myrrh and aloes. “Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.” (John 19:40)

Everyone agrees that Mary’s action was an act of love and kindness. Her act of love and service and tender caring seem to foreshadow Jesus’ action just a few days later when he would take off his robe and kneel like a servant to wash the feet of his disciples. What Mary has done unbidden for him, he will do for his friends, drawing them into an intimate relationship with him. Peter will protest, but Jesus will insist. The intimacy of foot washing removes the distance between Jesus and his follower, even as he humbles himself in the act, foreshadowing the humiliation of his coming death. As it draws them into closer relationship with him, it also draws them closer into an intimate relationship with God.

I could never have imagined how humbling and how intimate it can feel to have someone kneel at your feet – not in an act of a formal ritual, but in an act of love and compassion. Many years ago I had surgery on one of my big toes. One night as I struggled to remove the bandage that had become caked with blood, a woman whom I knew called. As we talked I found it difficult to concentrate on our conversation and told her what I was trying to do. Half an hour later, she showed up at my door. She and another woman – a nurse – whom I had only met a few times traveled from Providence area to Glocester. For three hours Celia sat on the floor at my feet, gently soaking my foot and carefully and lovingly working to remove the bandage. It was an experience that I will never forget. It was an extravagant gift of their time and of Celia’s energy and love.

What Judy and Celia did for me that night will stay with me forever. What Mary did for Jesus will stay with all of us forever. Yet, Judas said it was a waste. His argument sounded good when he said that the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor. However, John lets us in on the secret that Judas’ concern is not with the poor, but with lining his own pockets. In Matthew’s and Mark’s Gospels we are not told exactly who objected to this extravagant waste of such valuable perfume.

If we were to follow their mind-set completely, however, we would have no stained glass windows in a church, no flowers on the altar, no organ, no beautiful weddings. We would tell our children to elope because it would be wasteful to spend money on a wedding. I will be the first one to agree and to argue that we need to get our priorities in place when it comes to the way we often spend our money. Jesus was not being callous when he said, “You always have the poor with you.” He was reminding us that caring for others should be a way of life, not just a convenient argument when we think someone is being extravagant.

Mary’s mind-set says that sometimes it’s okay to be extravagant. God’s love is extravagant beyond imagination. That comes across in all of the Scripture readings for today. There is an extravagance in God’s actions that unlocks doors that have been locked, breaks down barriers that have been built through the years and offers a new and exciting way of life.

In the Psalm there is a celebration of the extravagant deliverance that turns mourning into laughter. We hear “It seemed like a dream, too good to be true, when God returned Zion’s exiles. We laughed, we sang, we couldn’t believe our good fortune.” (The Message 126:1-2a)

In the prophet Isaiah there is the extravagant promise of a “new thing” that God is about to do for them. People who have been in exile are reminded about the time when God led their ancestors out of slavery in Egypt. Then almost immediately, they are told not to dwell on those things, because God is about to do something so much incredibly better for them. “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:19) With these words the prophet pointed to the certainty of God’s imminent action in history. It would be like the Exodus, but so much grander and more wonderful that the Exodus event would be eclipsed in their memory.

In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he proclaims the extravagant new thing that God has done. Paul was a man who had all the religious credentials you could imagine, but had come to consider them to be worth nothing when compared to what Jesus had done for him and for all of us. He urged those who heard his message, and us, to press on, to forget what was important before and to grasp on to the extravagant love and mercy of God who invites and calls us into a close intimate relationship with him. Paul proclaims the extravagant riches of knowing Christ something far more valuable than anything else we can imagine.

There is a place for extravagance. God has shown us that over and over again. As we draw near the end of the Lenten season, the question for us becomes are we willing to risk extravagant love? Are we willing to be extravagant in our response to God? There is room for us to be extravagant in generosity toward others and toward God’s children. We can be extravagant in providing food and clothing and many of the obvious things that people need. But we can also be extravagantly generous in giving our time, our abilities, our energy to the things to which God is calling us.

We can be extravagant in gratitude. That was what Mary was doing, when she poured out on Jesus perfume worth one year’s wages. The gift of having her brother Lazarus back was worth more than anything that could be counted. The gift of knowing Jesus, of having been able to sit at his feet and listen to him, and be touched by his love and his life and his teaching was something that could not have a price tag attached to it. There could be no price tag attached to her gratitude and to her extravagant expression of that gratitude.

We can be extravagant in graciousness. Jesus told several stories of people who were forgiven small debts or large ones. His hearers always concluded that those who had been forgiven the greatest debts would be the most grateful. In one story, however, the one who had been forgiven much, refused to forgive a fellow servant a very small debt. When we become aware of the debt of gratitude we owe to God, how can we not be gracious in making allowances, in forgiving others? Are not we also called to be extravagantly gracious?

It is a risk, but then again, Jesus took the greatest risk of all. Because of his great risk, we have the extravagant promises of deliverance, freedom, and new life. Now it is up to us to take the risk of reaching out in extravagant love.

When I returned home last Saturday from the special session of conference in Maine I was tired and hungry. It had been a long frustrating day followed by a three hour drive home. Hanging on my door knob was a plastic bag and inside was some home made soup. To me the soup said, “Welcome home.” Being welcomed is a good feeling, it soothes tiredness and makes things seem a little brighter.

Our Gospel is a story about being welcomed home. We have come to know it as the story of the Prodigal Son or sometimes as the Story of a Loving Father. At various times I have found myself focusing on different people in the story or different parts of it. In fact this year our confirmation retreat at Camp Aldersgate focused on this story for the entire weekend. But today, I find myself focusing on the idea of being welcomed home, and on the journey involved in coming home. There is something about the predicament of both sons in this story that is so familiar to us. We have all felt as exiled and lost as they did – sometimes far from God, far from home, far from something else important to us, or even from our true selves.

The younger son made some decisions in his life that had destructive consequences for him. He physically removed himself from his home. He went far away. He spent his money foolishly and discovered that it disappeared quickly. Soon he found himself destitute and desperate. It can be easy to judge the younger son for his carelessness. It’s easy to think that he got what he deserved being reduced to slopping pigs. But then Luke tells us that he came to himself. He returns to the self that the lost and almost destroyed. What happens when he returns home is amazing. He expects to go home and plead with his father to let him come back, to treat him as one of his servants. Apparently, his father didn’t know about tough love. The son assumes he will return to some kind of punishment. What meets him is beyond what he could imagine and certainly beyond what he deserved.

It would be fair to expect the father to let him come home but with some reserve, requiring his son to prove himself, to prove that he has changed. Instead the father runs to meet him. Incredible! Men of wealth and position never ran in public and certainly never to meet someone in a less honorable position than himself. He dressed him in a fine robe, which by custom was given only to distinguished guests of honor. He gave him a ring to signify his place of honor in the family. He put sandals on his feet – something fit for a son, not a barefoot servant. He killed the fatted calf – a sign of a special feast to celebrate his return. The lavish treatment extended to the younger son was intended as a sign to the village that he was to be treated as the man’s son again – not as a servant, not as an outcast, not even as a guest.

Since this is a story told by Jesus, we know that it is really a story about God and our relationship with God. When the younger son was with the pigs he heard God’s voice inside him saying, “Come home.” In religious circles we call this “prevenient grace”. It is God reaching out to us before we recognize it calling us to come to be in a relationship with God, to come home.

All has been forgiven. The younger son is home. The father’s great love reaches out and enfolds the son and we get the sense that it is as if he has never left. We call this “justifying grace” the time when we come home. The time when it is “just as if” we have never sinned.

The key to understanding the power of this story is to get a sense and feel for God’s grace. A constant theme in the gospel is that those who should be the dispensers of God’s grace are often those who withhold it. We see that most clearly when we remember to whom Jesus was telling the story. The Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So Jesus told them three stories. In the church we have called these three stories the story of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost or prodigal son. Focusing on the lost misses the point.

This whole chapter focused on life on finding the lost, and loving the unlovable. This parable must be about the love of the father who will stop at nothing in his love for his son. At the heart of this story is the grace of a loving father. Frederick Buechner in Wishful Thinking describes this grace when he says, “Grace si something you can never get but only be given. There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth.”[i]

The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were complaining that the people who were coming to Jesus didn’t deserve his interest or his time. They would have thought the younger son got what he deserved and they probably didn’t like the response of the father. They were very much like the older son who resented the attention paid to the younger son, whom he even refused to acknowledge as his brother.

What they didn’t recognize, and what we sometimes fail to realize is that the older brother was just as separated from his father as the younger son. Oh, yes, he had stayed at home and done everything right. He, too, has been self-centered - but in a more socially acceptable way. He refuses to go into the party, and once again, the father, does what we might understand, but which no dignified Jewish father of Jesus’ day would have done. The father goes out to his older son and pleads with him. Did you hear the older son’s response? “For years I have worked for you like a slave and have always obeyed you.” His self-rightousness is not attractive. “You have never even given me a little goat, so that I could give a dinner party for my friends.” His self-pity is not appealing. Jealousy, meanness, self-righteousness, and self-pity all coming from the perspective of how what is happening is going to affect me. It is selfishness masquerading as piety.

The elder brother has many descendants in American society. He may be a leader, a church officer, a highly visible volunteer, a key citizen who lets us know what he or she has sacrificed on behalf of the group. They are always around doing many good things so we are always surprised when this narrow and self-centered vision slips out. There is no patience for others, for their faults or failings, real or imagined. Suddenly we discover all the right behaviors for all the wrong reasons. “For years I have worked for you like a slave.”

From his perspective, his brother is no longer even his brother, but rather “this other son of yours who has wasted your money on prostitutes.” Jesus never said a word about prostitutes. The older brother is assigning the sins he wants to assign to the younger brother. When “older brothers” want to keep a group of people out of the family, we still assign characteristics to them; things that will scare others and help us to keep them out of the family. He, and we, miss what is really important. “Your brother was dead, but he is now alive. He was lost and has now been found.”

One of the pastors with whom I correspond told of preparing to preach a sermon about Matthew, the detested tax collector, Mary, the ex-prostitute, and David, a murderer who became king. In what he thought was a very creative moment he came up with a sermon title, “Murderers, Criminals, Prostitutes Welcome” and, as was his custom, put it out on the sign board for all to see. Almost immediately people started calling him and complaining. Others called the members of the church board and demanded that something be done about that pastor and that the sign be taken down immediately. He wrote, “I very much doubt that I would have gotten any murderers, criminals or prostitutes that Sunday, but had they come, I doubt if they would have been welcome.”

Jesus doesn’t tell us how his story ends because the ending is up to those who are listening. The ending is to be written by the older brothers who are listening. We know that in one of the endings, the older brothers decided to put to death the one who welcomed the murderers, criminals and prostitutes. Jesus was killed for his behavior.

The story still has no ending; that ending is being written every day by those of us who are older brothers, who have stayed at home and done all the right things, but for all the wrong reasons. The ending to the story is still being written by all those who have stayed at home, but are as far away from the father as the younger son was, but just haven’t realized it yet. The ending is still being written by those who would exclude their brothers and sisters from the family.

When I hear the story, I jump to the conclusion that the older brother came to his senses and went inside with his father and welcomed his brother who once was dead, but is now alive, who was lost but now is found. Maybe that’s why I titled this sermon, “Welcome home” because I want to believe that everyone lived happily ever after - and in this case that means for eternity. But Jesus doesn’t say that. The story is left hanging, waiting, indeed, crying out for reconciliation between the older son and his father, and between the older son and his brother.

The father rejoiced at the return of his younger son. However, the celebration was not complete without the presence and joyful participation of the older son. The Christian feast and celebration cannot be complete while some of our brothers and sisters are still in the pig pens of the world. The party is subdued if we older brothers are standing around outside refusing to celebrate their inclusion.

In years gone by, I have preached about the younger son. I have preached about the older son, and I have even preached a sermon entitled the “Prodigal Father.” But there is one group of people in this story that I have always overlooked - the servants.

John Brittain who is the Chaplain at the University of Evansville, in Evansville, Indiana wrote a series of sermons called Living Vertically. They are sermons on the Gospel lessons for the Lent/Easter season. When I read what he wrote about this story - he caught my attention by talking about the servants. They are specifically mentioned in three places in the story and they have an important role. First, it is the son’s memory of how they were treated in his father’s house that helped him “come to his senses.” They had plenty to eat and their day to day life was greatly preferable to his life in the pigpens. The second time they are mentioned is when they follow the father’s instructions to prepare the celebration for the returned son. Then it is one of the servants who explains to the elder brother what is happening. “Your brother has come home safe and sound, and your father ordered us to kill the best calf.”

We are so oriented to the individual that we easily miss the important role of these servants. How many times have we heard of people who have “come to their senses” by the simple, inconspicuous often unconscious witness of the people of God, by the individual whose life of quiet faith was observed from a distance and recognized as better than the pigs slop that was being accepted as the way of life.

As Christians, our role is always to be like that of the servants of facilitating the return of the prodigal by faithfully going about our tasks without resentment or special recognition: doing God’s will, making ready the celebration. We affirm that every time we baptize a child or an adult when we say that “we will surround these persons with a community of love and forgiveness, that they may grow in their trust of God and be found faithful in their service of others.” We remind ourselves of that each time we welcome new members when we “renew our covenant faithfully to participate in the ministries of the church by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service.” We even proclaim our motivation for this, “that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”

Our role is to be the ones who are making ready the feast to welcome back the penitent and forgiven. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, which we heard this morning, he writes, “We are careful not to judge people by what they seem to be.... anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new.” (CEV) “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; .... so we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us, we entreat you (we plead with you) on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (NRSV)

It is a servant who tells the older brother what the feasting is about. One of the inescapable teachings of Scripture is that we believers are called upon to tell what God is doing, to tell the story of grace and freedom, of forgiveness, acceptance and reconciliation, even when those who are wrapped up in a cloak of self-righteousness don’t want to hear it. It is these inconspicuous servants at each point in the story who allow the action to proceed by faithful living, by faithful obedience, and by faithful proclamation.

There is much in this story to remember. It has a lot to say about human emotions and human dynamics. There is certainly the folly and repentance of the younger son, but there is far more. There is also the generosity, the love, and the hope of the father; the resentment and selfishness of the older brother; and the quiet but crucial lives of the servants. This can give us much to ponder during Lent as we consider our motivations and emotions. Have we really come to terms with who we are and our relationship with God? Are we lost, settling for some hog slop rather than the good things God wants us to enjoy. Are we playing the role of the older brother, doing right things for the wrong reasons, full of suspicion and resentment? Or are we playing the role of faithful servants of God; inconspicuous perhaps, but having an influence far beyond what we may realize. Are we fulfilling our role of being ambassadors of Christ? Are we actively working at this ministry of reconciliation which has been entrusted to us? Are we actively putting out the welcome mat to receive those who come home? Are we actively running out to meet them on the road to clothe them in the robe of welcome, and the ring and sandals of belonging? In this family where God our parent seeks earnestly for all of us to be reconciled to God and to each other, these are good questions for the middle of Lent.

The camera pans across a room filled with children of all ages eagerly learning about Jesus. The words scrolling across the screen read, “One month’s curriculum: $125.” The screen flashes to a sanctuary filled with men, women, children and youth and focuses upon the flowers on the altar. “Flowers to beautify the sanctuary: $20.” The sound of music fills the comfortable sanctuary. “Oil for warmth: $150.” Prayers are offered to God. “Knowing God’s love in your life: Priceless. For everything else there’s MasterCard.”

Yes, of course, that’s a take-off on one of the current advertising campaigns, but it is so very true. Many of the things that are necessary in order for us to be in the ministry and mission to which we are called do require actual money. We know that all too well. That’s why every year we seek your pledge to financially support the work of this church. That’s why there are meetings to discuss the financial condition of the church and that’s why we have a planned spending program to anticipate what we will need to spend on curriculum, utilities, salaries, and many other items. However, the big difference between the church and any other “business” or “organization” is that our bottom line is not about finances. Our product is not for sale, it is a free gift – and even if it were for sale, it would be impossible to buy because it is priceless.

“The prophet Isaiah summons all the scattered people to hear and believe the good news that he has been sent to proclaim. It is an invitation to the abundant life that God is once again offering to all those who will be the people of God.”[i] This invitation is offered to everyone and it is free! “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk, without money and without cost.”

The prophet offers commentary on our culture of consumerism and commercialism. “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” Could there be truer words for us today? Our MasterCard, Visa, Discover, American Express etc. all allow us to have what we think is our hearts desire often without giving any serious thought to how we are actually going to pay for it. The latest gadget can be ours instantly but as the MasterCard commercials at least begin to acknowledge the things that matter the most are not really the things that we are able to purchase.

It seems strange during Lent to read about rich feasts and unearned delights.” Traditionally Lent has been a season of sacrifice. In more recent years it has almost become like a second time for New Year’s resolutions – a time to start over with a new diet. This misses the concept of Lent as a time to fast or break away from the world’s measures of success and focus instead on learning to live by God’s gifts and God’s grace. In the liturgical practice of the church, however, Sunday’s of Lent don’t count. Traditionally that would be the day when you could have chocolate or whatever it was you had “given up” for Lent. That’s one reason why our Lenten devotional booklets are so important, why it is so crucial to observe Lent during the week. Sundays are not part of the forty days of Lent. Sundays are always resurrection days, “little Easters” if you will, reminders that God’s blessings continue to be poured out on us even in the deserts and the temptations of daily life. “God does not let our hunger go unfed. God will not let our thirst dry us back to the dust. God’s love is steadfast and sure, and God’s people will not be forever forsaken.

“These moments when the dawn breaks through the darkness are truly signs of God’s blessing – where the wine and milk are bought without price in a culture that continues to remind us `we get what we pay for.’ This food metaphor in Isaiah is a perfect way of conveying how God, who is beyond our comprehension, can touch us even in our daily lives, through our daily bread. Food touches all of our senses: sight, smell, taste, feel, and – because food is the perfect excuse for getting together with other people – we even hear what Grandma used to tell us as she stood next to the stove mashing potatoes. Family covenants are written through our eating habits, and as Jesus’ own brothers and sisters, the bread of life and the cup of salvation promise new hope as we share the meal we have inherited as welcome guests at Jesus’ own family table.”[ii] Priceless!

The psalmist understands the dry thirstiness that the Israelites were experiencing. “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1) He goes on to proclaim, “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.” (63:3-5)

The psalmist and the Israelites were not alone in feeling dry and thirsty. How often in our lives do we feel the same way! How often do we long to be close to God and yet feel somehow separated! God’s grace abounds even in the dryness, even in the barrenness, even in the times we are without money, or are spending our money and labor for that which does not satisfy. God breaks through our hunger and thirst and fills us with good things. How many people do not even know the experience of having a close relationship with the God of love!

The prophet told the people that they would be filled, and that they would also have a mission of universal scope. They would be witnesses to all the peoples of the earth. That’s particularly good news for us because we are the ones who have been the recipients of that witness – and now we also have the same opportunity and responsibility – to be witnesses to all the peoples of the earth.

Some of us get nervous when we think about being witnesses to others. We may be afraid that we won’t say the right words or know the right answers to the questions that are asked. Many people would rather leave the witnessing to the professional – to the pastor. I know more than a couple of pastors who have served in churches where they have been told that the church expects them to be out meeting new people and bringing new people into the church. If the church grows then the pastor has done a good job and if the church fails to grow then the pastor has failed. When you stop to think about it you know it’s not that simple. Some people come to a church because they have moved into an area and they were active in a church where they lived and now want to find a new church. However, many people come to a church because they have heard about the church through a friend or through a program of the church or through some way in which the church has been visible in the community.

When people come to a church, I’m sure that one of the thing they look for and listen for is the quality of the sermon, the message that is proclaimed and how the worship service flows together. But people are also looking to see if they will be welcomed by others. Will strangers speak to them or ignore them? Will someone smile at them and help them feel at home? Will someone show them where the nursery is or where the restrooms are or the coffee? Will someone say they are glad they have come and invite them to come again? Do they sense the spirit of God present among the people in the church or do they hear and feel coldness, bickering or anger? Can they tell by the way people act toward them and toward each other that they have come into a room of Christians rather than into some other gathering?

These are the ways that most people are called to witness – witness by the fruit of their lives. That’s why the parable that Jesus tells about the fig tree in today’s gospel is so important. People had asked about a terrible disaster that had happened in the temple when Pilate had had some worshippers put to death. We don’t really know what their purpose was in mentioning this – perhaps it was to inflame Jesus and to get him to condemn Pilate’s actions. Perhaps it was to push him a little closer to declaring himself as the messiah, as the one who would liberate them from the Romans. At the very least, he would have been expected to prove his loyalty to the group by joining in the rage.

Whatever their purpose, Jesus didn’t buy into it. He spoke rather about the relationship of guilt and suffering. He turned the discussion in a different direction getting them to focus not on Pilate’s actions but rather on theirs. They couldn’t do anything about what Pilate had done but they could look at their own lives. They could repent of the things they were doing wrong and take a new direction with their own lives. They needed to turn away from their self-righteous anger toward the Romans who were all demonic in their minds, whereas they say themselves only as innocent, oppressed victims.

Then he told them the parable of the fig tree that was living on borrowed time. The owner upset that the fig tree had not borne fruit for three years ordered the tree to be put down. The gardener, however, pleaded for the fig tree, promising to fertilize it and nourish it and pay special attention to it and then if it did not produce fruit it could be cut down.

This was a reminder to them, and to us that we are not expected to simply sit around looking nice but we are to produce fruit. Sometimes we may need some special nourishment in order to be able to produce fruit. Sometimes we need the encouragement of the gardener or the fertilizer of studying the Bible, reading daily devotionals, meeting with other Christians, or praying. The message is clear, however, that we are, indeed, expected to produce fruit – to be the witnesses to others.

Now, we would not expect to see apples growing on a fig tree, or figs on an apple tree, or oranges on a banana tree or bananas on a pineapple tree. God expects us to produce the fruit that fits with who we are and who God calls us to be – not the fruit that belongs to another person.

Our observation of Lent is met with pain and joy intermingled with one another. Jesus died so that we might live, and live not just from heartache to heartache, but live by knowing God’s true abundance and bearing fruit worthy of the people of God. God’s word accomplishes its purposes and succeeds in its mission. Sometimes it takes our hands and our hearts to fulfill the intent, but the briars and thorns of life dare not have the final word. The final culmination of the Lenten season is not the hopelessness of Good Friday, but the ecstasy of Easter morning. And that is priceless, for everything else there is MasterCard.

[i] Hargis, John Lent 2004 The Way of the Cross Abingdon Press 2003, p.26

[ii] Zink-Sawyer, Beverly A. The Abingdon Women’s Preaching Annual Series 3, Year C Abingdon Press, 2003, p.66-7

Monday morning I heard part of a report on NPR about the Academy Award show the night before. It caught my attention when I heard the question, “Who are you wearing?” At first I thought I had misunderstood, until I heard the question a couple more times. I was struck by the shallowness of the question – I couldn’t imagine being identified by what brand clothing I was wearing. I have since discovered that what I was hearing was apparently part of the red carpet promenade of stars; the official show before the show when stars flaunt their designer outfits and million-dollar jewels. These are outfits designed specifically for the stars for this one appearance made by names like Vera Wang, Giorgio Armani, Liz Mitchell, Catelle, and more than a couple by Tom Ford for Gucci. (Incidentally, I had to go on-line to come up with these names; they are not names that you would find hanging in my closet – or yours either, I imagine.) Throughout the week, however, the question took on a different significance for me. Essentially, they were being asked, “Who is your designer?” I wondered, how we would answer that question, “Who is our designer? Who are we wearing?” Now obviously, I’m not asking this as a fashion question, but rather as a lifestyle or theological question. Who are we wearing? Are we wearing the consumerism of our society? Are we wearing the patriotic cloak of our country or the mantle of our political system? Are we wearing the traipsing of our membership in an economic class, or the privilege of our race, gender, or status in society? Perhaps we are wearing that old familiar shawl of victim, disenfranchised, deprived, disabled or any one of thousands of categories that we use to define who we are, or that others come to identify when they see us or get to know us.

I imagine that those people who are really in the know about fashion designers may be able to identify the work of a designer by a familiarity with other creations of theirs. From previous experience or assumptions or knowledge, who or what would others identify us as wearing?

Who is our designer? Who are we wearing? Let’s look at today’s Scriptures for some possible clues.

In the Genesis reading we have a discussion or debate between Abram and God. Abram, once again, is lamenting the lack of a male child who will be his heir. In our culture, we can’t even begin to imagine how very very important this was to people in Abram’s world. God had promised Abram an heir, but so far, the one who would inherit Abram’s wealth was his slave Eliezer.

As the reading continues we hear of a covenant ceremony that has parallels in ancient Near Eastern culture. The covenant was usually between an inferior party the vassal and a superior party the suzerain. Primarily, the suzerain provided protection for the vassal, while the vassal supported the suzerain with taxes and was loyal in time of war. In this covenant, however, only God is making the promise and bearing the responsibility for the covenant. Abram is not asked to do anything. In a covenant between a vassal and a suzerain, it was usually the vassal who cut the animals in two parts and walked between them. The ritual symbolically demonstrated what would happen to the vassal if the covenant was broken. In this ceremony, the “burning torch” passing between the halves obviously represented God. The symbolism is profound. According to the understanding of this covenant, God was saying that God would die before allowing the covenant with Abram to fail.

This would have been an absolutely incredible assurance to Abram, an assurance that would have allowed him to answer, “Who are you wearing?” by replying, “I am wearing the God of faithfulness, the God of the covenant, the God who is my shield any my great reward.”

Throughout the Old Testament, we see example after example of people turning their backs on God, and God continuing to seek them out, to send prophets to warn them of the dangers of their ways, to call them back to a faithfulness with the God who made this covenant with Abram.

In the Psalm we heard of the Lord who is the stronghold of our lives, and so who or what should we fear. The psalmist prays, “One thing I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after; to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent.” (Psalm 27:4-5)

Once again, this is something for which we have no modern parallel in our society. We generally hear these words as a desire to spend time in worship and in a close relationship with God, but the prayer here is for so much more. “In the nomadic culture of the Bedouin, one of the most sacred laws, related to the laws of hospitality, is the `law of the tent’. According to this custom, a host is bound to protect any guest who enters his dwelling. The host’s personal honor is turned to shame if he is unable to secure his guests from harm, even under extreme circumstances. The psalmist finds similar protection in God’s house.”[i]

The psalmist can answer, “Who are you wearing?” “I am wearing the Lord who is my light and my salvation, the stronghold of my life, the one who hides me in his shelter in the day of trouble, and conceals me under the cover of his tent, the God of my salvation, the one who will take me up if even my father and mother forsake me.” The psalmist recognizes that along with all of this, he must also seek God’s help to teach him God’s way, to lead him on a level path. In the times when he is surrounded by his enemies he proclaims, “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” (NKJV v.13)

Who are we wearing? Do we like the psalmist look for and expect to see the goodness of the Lord around us?

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry the gospels tell us that Jesus spent a time in the wilderness during which he was tempted – tempted in the various ways he would be in ministry and the ways he would live. He was tempted to take the easy way out by making bread for himself from stones. In today’s Gospel a similar temptation presents itself. Some Pharisees came to tell him that Herod wanted to kill him and he should get away while he had time. Jesus was so grounded in who he was, and who he was wearing, that this was not even a temptation for him. He could not just slip away and go into hiding – that was not who he was. His response was that he would continue to cast out demons and perform cures, that he would continue to bring life and liberation into the lives of people, and then a time, all too soon, would come when his earthly work would be finished, because of the actions of those who could not or would not hear.

He gives a wonderful illustration of his love, and of God’s love, one that is as profound as the psalmists use of the law of the tent. Jesus wanted to gather people together like a hen gathers her brood under her wing, but alas, they did not understand. “Have you ever seen a chicken hawk go after it's prey? The old mother hen is often aware of the presence of the hawk in time to gather her chicks under her wing. With a furious fuss she squawks till her brood is safe by her side. She fluffs out her wings and protects them with her own body. The chicken hawk dives and the old hen turns her body toward him and cocks a wary eye without moving from her children. The predator comes in again for the kill and the mother spreads her wings even wider. A third time he dives only to be thwarted by the determined self-sacrifice of the mother hen. She is too big to be a target and the chicks are too safe to be seized so he flies away.”[ii]

Who are you wearing? Are you wearing the Christ who doesn’t take the easy way out; who doesn’t run away because of danger? Are you wearing the Christ who wants to gather us lovingly and sacrificially as a hen gathers her brood under her wings?

Are you wearing the cloak of a citizen of heaven as Paul reminds us in the letter to the Philippians. Hear the way The Message puts it: “But there’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthly bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He’ll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.”

Who are we wearing? Can others identify who we are wearing by observing us and being with us? As we come to the Lord’s table today, as we go forth onto the red carpet of our lives and into our community when we leave this place, as we engage in self-reflection during this Lenten season, let us examine who we are wearing.

[i] So That’s Why Bible, Nelson Publisher, p.486

[ii]Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com, March 2001.

Luke 4:1-13

In his book, Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths, author Bruce Feiler asks a Catholic priest, “How do we know when God is speaking to us?” Father John Lyons replies, “… If you want to understand what God is saying to you, you need to be quiet and focus on your life.” He continues, “Most of us are not comfortable with silence. We come into the house, we click on the stereo, we wake up to the TV, we fall asleep to the TV, we’re always bombarded with music and words. … the only way you’ll find peace with God---is in silence. If you never hear the Call in the first place, you’ll never know which way to go. Jesus, Abraham, they went out in the desert. They got away from distractions.”[1]

Two thousand years ago, the Middle East desert was quiet. It was also a vast, lonely and harsh place – barren, dry, desolate; perhaps, even too harsh for one of those episodes of Survivor that we see on television.

It was into this quiet and desolate place Jesus, alone, was led by the Holy Spirit for 40 days.

Remember the timeline from previous accounts in the scriptures. Jesus has been baptized. The Holy Spirit descends upon him in the bodily form of a dove and a voice from heaven proclaims, “You are my Son.”

Think about the extreme contrasts in Luke’s gospel. From the fullness of the Holy Spirit and his baptism, Jesus is led to the emptiness of the wilderness where he is alone, no human companionship, no food –- only the temptations and taunts of the devil.

Luke’s gospel mentions three temptations. The temptation to turn ‘stones to bread’ often is interpreted to represent the temptation that comes to many of us to be selfish or self-serving. The temptation to bow down to Satan in order to rule all the kingdoms of the world is thought to highlight the human lust for power and or a failure to obey God. The temptation to make a spectacular jump from the pinnacle of the temple could highlight the human need to be noticed, valued or feel self-important. For us, the presence of Satan can represent either external or internal forces that tempt us.

Satan would have preferred that Jesus forsake His Father and the ministry that would lead to the cross. He used all his guile and trickery in trying to stop Jesus from changing a world with His love and sacrifice. Luke’s account tells us when the devil had failed with all this tempting, he left Jesus until another ‘opportune time.’ Jesus would face more times of temptation and loneliness -- as we will also.

It is interesting to me that when tempted by the devil, Jesus chooses not to respond with miracles. His answers are more than clever. He simply quotes the scriptures, demonstrating his own personal faith and obedience to God the father. He answers with scripture that could just as easily serve all of us today when we are confronted by temptation.

The fullness of the Holy Spirit and the emptiness of the wilderness, strength and temptation, sacrifice and selfishness. The contrasts sound a lot like everyday life for all of us. When we are baptized, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, but there are times during our lives when we too will be carried into the wilderness. Often we need those quiet times to figure things out.

Now let’s be clear, we’re not talking about the wilderness experience of all of us who are Red Sox fans searching for a World Series. Although, it has been a long time.

No, we are talking about perhaps the most important question we’ll ever ask ourselves: What is God’s purpose for my life? We need those quiet times alone in the wilderness, nudged by the Holy Spirit, to get back on the right path, to forge a real relationship with God and discover a life of service and sacrifice that truly reflects what Christ wants for each us. From the emptiness of a life without Christ, we can use the wilderness adventure to reach the fullness of a life with Christ. This is what Lent is all about.

The forty days in the desert were a time of empowerment for Jesus as he started his ministry. The wilderness story is traditional for Lent, a season for soul-searching and sacrifice. It is a season for reflection and repentance. A time for review, a time for renewal. Lent originated in the very earliest days of the Church as a preparatory time for Easter, when the faithful rededicated themselves and when converts were instructed in the faith, and prepared for baptism. By observing Lent, we as Christians imitate Jesus’ withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days.

Lent has been observed in Christian churches since apostolic times. Now it might be more comfortable to avoid Lent and Holy Week because it isn’t a happy and uplifting time without knowing – as Paul Harvey says, the “rest of the story” -- the whole story of Easter and the Resurrection. And if we are honest with ourselves, a good deal of life is not always happy and uplifting either. These are the times we face our own wilderness of crises. The times we face temptation or hardship.

But to avoid Lent is to skip over that whole wonderful purpose of the incarnation. God became flesh in Jesus Christ. Jesus faced temptation, suffered hunger and thirst, and the agony of the crucifixion. And he faced all these sufferings not that we would be spared suffering on this earth, but that we might learn grace and dignity in facing that suffering.

We as Christians can endure hunger and pain, loneliness and suffering, sickness and mourning -- and even death -- because Jesus experienced them all. And He taught us grace and dignity and He will even share his own Resurrection with us on that final day. From today’s reading in Romans 10, verse 9: “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Lent is a time for serious reflection. It’s not about you or about me. It’s about Christ In our lives --- living for Christ and discovering the purpose He has for each of us.

The Holy Spirit that filled us at the time of baptism is still with us --- through good times and difficult times. Whether we are rejoicing in happiness on the highest hill or succumbing to sadness on the stormiest sea, Christ and the Holy Spirit go with us, helping us confront temptation and tough times and encouraging us to get back on the path God calls us to live.

While these Lenten retreats for soul-searching are good for us, we also must remember that there are wilderness journeys of another kind. These are the journeys we do not welcome, but have to accept – sad and difficult journeys arranged by life’s unexpected turns -- unemployment, divorce, a serious illness, the death of a loved one. But when these life-altering changes happen, we as Christians can call upon our faith, the grace that Christ gives us and the comfort of fellow Christians.

Part and parcel of attending to our own soul is also having a concern for the souls of others. Albert Einstein, accepted as one of the greatest minds of Western Civilization, once said, “Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he senses it. But (even) without (any) deeper reflection, one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.” This is also Christ’s way. By following His teachings, and putting Christ at the center of our lives, it naturally follows that we exist for God’s purpose. And part of that purpose is to help other people.

This Lenten season, we need to ‘exist for other people,’ remembering those who are suffering – God’s people in mourning, those who face serious illness and struggle courageously every day against their fear; those who are hungry … those who are searching for employment or housing when meaningful jobs and affordable housing are all too scarce in a nation that is also filled with so much affluence.

How do we exist for other people? This month, we marked one year since that tragic Rhode Island fire that killed 100 people. You’ll remember Pastor Beverly had spent that weekend last year with many of the families touched by that tragedy, offering whatever comfort she could. It’s called a ‘Ministry of Presence.’

In her sermon that Sunday in February just over a year ago, Pastor Beverly reflected on that ministry of presence. She said very eloquently, “We are called to do what Christ would do, sharing His compassion and love. It is a ministry to which each of us is called. There are times when we do not know the words to say – and sometimes that is good. Sometimes the best thing we can do is to be quiet and present.” She went on to say, “A ministry of presence takes place anytime you sit with someone in a doctor’s office or hospital waiting room, anytime you write a note to let someone know you are thinking about them and praying for them, anytime you leave a phone message or send an email, anytime you smile or lift another in prayer. Whenever we do any of these things, we are helping to carry the other person into the presence of Christ.”[2]

In this Lenten season, remember those heart-felt words from our pastor. We would do well to look inward and search our very souls to make sure we are following Christ’s example in the life we lead. Let us have the wisdom to know that we all face a journey into a wilderness at some time in our lives, but let us have the compassion to know that we should never leave another in the wilderness -- forever alone.

The temptation for us is to take the easy path. Worship today’s idols: money, greed, selfishness. Author C. S. Lewis wrote, "No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.” Jesus teaches us to try very hard to be good. He resisted the temptations and was without sin. For us, it is much harder. He knows how hard it is for us, and He is always there to help. In our darkest days, whether it be temptation or life-threatening hardship, He helps shoulder our burdens and comfort us. He walks with us.

A few years ago I was finishing a business call on a Chief Executive Officer who manages a large company. It had been a very friendly, but business-like meeting. As I was leaving, I noticed a strange looking metallic gadget decorating a table in his office. I couldn’t help but ask about it since it was something I had never seen before.

He told me there was a long story behind it and he would tell me about it sometime. I guess my inquisitive look and pause gave him second thoughts so he began to explain it.

Years ago he had taken a bad fall from a horse, seriously injuring himself. The device was a medical contraption that had been used to hold his broken pelvis together and forge his body back into one piece. It was a medical option he had chosen because it gave him the best odds for a full recovery, but at a painful price. Every few weeks, he told me, the device would be tightened to mend his body. Just looking at it, you could tell it must have been very extremely painful.

A colleague, who was with me on the visit, recalled actor Christopher Reeve’s paralyzing fall from a horse and asked “Do you think about his accident and what might have been? ”

The business executive looked up with tears in his eyes and said, “I have a son who is a paraplegic.” He went on to tell us about his involvement with former football player Nick Bouniconti’s Miami Project which raises funds for spinal cord research. The former linebacker for the Dolphins started the foundation when his own son was disabled. Both the CEO and the former football player had known each other since their own college football days together -- their lives now entwined by the common hardship of their sons.

The CEO then walked us over to a book shelf where he proudly displayed a picture of his handsome son sitting in a wheelchair. Standing behind him was his beautiful wife and in his arms he was holding a precious young child.

The executive proudly pointed out his grandchild. He said “We never expected my son would be able to conceive a child, but miraculously he had. The grandfather, his face beaming brightly, exclaimed, “The Lord works in many wondrous ways.”

Beyond a wilderness of pain and hurt, God’s wondrous ways working in behalf of another believer, two thousand years after Christ walked on our earth. The miracle felt by that CEO filled me with a sense of joy that I will never forget. To think, he might not have told me the story. The message I would have missed. Out of adversity and loss, there is always God’s hope and grace.

Remember today’s words from the 91^st Psalm: “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

In his popular book, The Purpose Driven Life, pastor and author Rick Warren writes about giving your life to God. He says, “Surrendering to God is not passive resignation, fatalism or an excuse for laziness. Surrendering is not for cowards or doormats. Likewise, it does not mean giving up rational thinking. God would not waste the mind he gave you! God does not want robots to serve him. Surrendering is not repressing your personality. God wants to use your unique personality. Rather than its being diminished, surrendering enhances it.”[3]

This 40-day wilderness adventure called Lent is our chance to surrender our lives to God and let him use our unique personality to serve. In this Survivor episode, there is no food challenge to be won, no immunity challenge to stay in the game. It is a time when we are preparing for Christ’s free and generous gift, the Resurrection message that will be carried throughout the world. It is a time in which we decide how best to spend our time and energy to serve the one God who made us all.

Whether you find the quiet center, or give up some of life’s necessities; whether you read a daily Lenten devotional, or immerse yourself in the scriptures; whether you forge a new mission for Christ, or faithfully return to Sunday School to teach another class; whether you sit with a sick friend, or witness to God’s glory --- however we spend our time --- let us take time to be holy. Let us learn from Christ’s example, whether alone in our own wilderness or gathered together here as a congregation, surrounded by Christ’s love. Let us always remember the passion: Christ suffered for us.

Before He began His ministry – a ministry that would spread to the ends of the earth – Jesus spent time alone. He became empowered by his faith, setting his course to the cross. He affirmed the purpose of God’s plan. Lent for us can also be a time to discover Christ’s purpose for each of us. It’s not about what we want to do with our lives. It’s all about what Christ wants to do with our lives.

Just as surely as Easter and springtime will bring renewal, we can fill the emptiness of the Lenten wilderness with fullness and a wonderful willingness to serve Christ. And as we go, know that the Holy Spirit will be with us –- comforting us when we need it, and, yes --- kicking us in the behind, to do the right thing, when the devil is nipping at our heals.

Let us pray. Dear and gracious Lord, we thank you for the strength you give us each and every day. We thank you for the gift of your son, our savior and redeemer Jesus Christ. During our time in the wilderness we pray you will lead us and shape us to stay the course and resist those who would coax us out of the wilderness too soon -- toward an easier and sinful way. Help us take this time to reflect and become better disciples and choose the narrower path that Jesus teaches us. Let us complete our journey and arrive in the midst of your love. Lord, we ask that you help us discover your purpose for our lives. We ask that you give us comfort, encouragement and direction. Teach us to serve and to give in the example of Christ. We ask all this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ.

Let us respond to God’s Word with our closing hymn, From The Faith We Sing, hymn 2202, Come Away with Me.

And now as you go forth in your Lenten journey, may the light of the Lord shine upon you. May He bless you and keep you. And in this Lenten season, may we follow the example of Christ and take time to be holy. Amen.

[1] Feiler, Bruce, Abraham—A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths, pages 49-50

[2] Sermon by Beverly Stenmark, Feb 2003, NKUMC sermon archives, www.nkumc.8m.com

[3]Rick Warren, The Purpose Drive Life, page 80

Audrey Brown, a UCC pastor in Ontario, in writing about this week’s Scriptures wrote, “I love laundry.” Well, that had my attention right away, because it is definitely not a feeling I share with her. She went on to say, “There is something about it that is good for my soul. … I find that on the days that I am feeling overwhelmed by the busyness of my life, it is a soul soother. I remind myself, as I put my clothes in my automatic washer and dryer, how hard my long line of farming women ancestors had to work to simply survive. In contrast, I have the whole thing accomplished in a little over an hour and meanwhile I’ve gone on to other projects. Suddenly I feel like my life is easy and my spirit is renewed by the pace of God walking with me through everyday life.”[i]

Oh, how I wish I could feel as she does about laundry – and since I was trying to work on a sermon for today, my real question was, “What does laundry have to do with the Transfiguration?” The Transfiguration is perhaps one of the least understood Sundays in the church year. The experience is probably one of the least discussed experiences of Jesus. However, many of us are familiar with the phrase, “Mountaintop experience”. We think of something so wonderful, so profound, so renewing, that we want to hold on to it and never have to let go.

Actually, we try to do that in many areas of our lives. The joy of a Super Bowl win is great, but it doesn’t stay with us for long. Doing a great job on a paper or a project, or getting that really frustrating closet cleaned gives a good feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction – but all too soon there’s another paper to work on, another project to accomplish, another whatever that demands our attention and soon that great feeling is but a memory. The joy and wonder of looking into the face of a newborn soon gets pushed aside in the constant feeding, washing, diapering, burping and daily care. The exciting days of courtship and romantic love can get buried under car repairs, bills to be paid, cleaning, working, relationships with others and 1001 unexpected twists in life.

Oh, how we long for that mountaintop! Like Peter, we want to build a dwelling up there and stay apart from all the distractions of life. Unlike, Audrey Brown, we don’t think about laundry as being good for our souls.

In the scriptures, the mountain usually represents nearness to God. The cloud represents the presence of God. So in our Gospel today Jesus went up onto the mountain with his disciples, nearer to God. The cloud that appeared quickly reminded the disciples of God’s presence, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” In the reading from Exodus, Moses too went up on the mountain, nearer to God. Earlier in the chapter, we find the words, “Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there” - The presence of God. The light represents the truth of God.

In the Gospel account, there are two others present: Moses and Elijah. We heard in Exodus about Moses coming down from the mountain after receiving the law from God. We heard about how his face shone so much that people were afraid of him. Moses represents the Law, he was the supreme lawgiver. Elijah represents the prophets. Scripture and tradition held that Elijah would return when it was time for the Messiah.

“So what the Transfiguration experience says to us is this: All the biblical faith that has gone before now is summed up in Jesus and his message of love. … The law and the prophets come together in Jesus. The law and the prophets are fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus goes up on the mountain to think through his trip to Jerusalem, to think through his journey to the cross and there in the presence of God the Father, Moses the lawgiver, and Elijah the prophet, the message resounds … `Go for it!’”[ii]

Isn’t that what we are looking for in our mountaintop experiences? We are looking for the Word of God to speak clearly to us, to give us direction, to encourage us, to tell us what we should do and to give us the power to do it. Mountaintop experiences are great. But the mountaintop is not where we live.

Do you know what Jesus did when he came down from the mountain? The very first thing he did was to heal a little boy who had epilepsy. He went up on the mountain, and then empowered by that spiritual experience, he immediately went down into the valley and healed a little boy who was very sick.

You may have heard the story of the man who came to church late one Sunday morning. He rushed to the door of the sanctuary where he saw the head usher and asked him, “Is the service over?” The usher wisely answered, “Well, the worship is over, but the service has just begun.”

There are some people who would like religion or faith to be all about heartwarming experiences. They want to prolong the times of feeling close to God an