sermon archives

As most of you know, in worship, I don’t generally pay a lot of attention to secular or civic holidays because first and foremost worship is about God and our relationship to God, but there seems to be a connection between today’s scriptures and Independence day that I felt called to explore, and I hope you are willing to explore it with me.

When I think back over the history of this country the first thing that comes to my mind is the famous line from the Declaration of Independence that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” I learned that early in my education, and I am young enough that I thought that included women. I am old enough that I knew that this wonderful phrase had not been intended to include Black men and women. So, gradually I learned that the Declaration of Independence really meant that the people who were created equal were men – white, land-owning men at that.

As imperfect or incomplete as it was, there was a vision; a vision that drove our ancestors to seek independence. That vision was expanded and challenged by another piece of history embodied, 87 years later, in Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” He went on to say, “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” Liberty here meant that one person should not be owned by another person – that black men, women and children should be free, not pieces of property. Liberty at that point still did not include the right to vote either for those who were black, or for women.

One hundred years later, Martin Luther King, Jr. pushed the dream further when he stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC and said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: `We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’” He went on to give many moving visions of what the fulfillment of that dream would look like. He was talking not only about voting, but also about living together in harmony, freedom to live where one chose, equal opportunity for education, employment, justice and a society in which a person was not judged or identified by his or her color or race.

I believed that the American experiment in democracy meant that we were growing toward a dream and that one of the supreme tenets of our great experiment was the freedom – and indeed, the responsibility, to challenge ourselves and our government when it looked like we were missing an important piece of that great dream. Many of the great heroes of this country were people who took that responsibility and freedom seriously.

Christian teachings were part of what formed those men who believed so strongly that their Creator had endowed them with certain rights and responsibilities.

Before that visionary dream statement in Martin Luther King, Jr’s speech, there is another that is of profound importance for us to hear today. Speaking of some white people who were present that day and active in the civil rights movement he said that they “have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.” This has become increasingly true as technology has increased, jobs have been outsourced around the world, and we are increasingly dependent upon other countries for many of our needs.

This is one of the messages in today’s scripture, and in many ways is, I believe, one of the foundational pieces of our faith. In the Corinthians passage, the church at Corinth is being urged to complete an important undertaking to help provide for the needs of the believers in Jerusalem. Paul urges them to give not out of a sense of obligation and requirement, but out of love and out of recognition and gratitude for the generous act of Jesus.

Eugene Peterson’s The Message puts it this way: Once the commitment is clear, you do what you can, not what you can’t. The heart regulates the hands. This isn’t so others can take it easy while you sweat it out. No, you’re shoulder to shoulder with them all the way, your surplus matching their deficit, their surplus matching your deficit. In the end you come out even.

Isn’t this the theory at the bottom of import and export arrangements, or barter agreements? One person, community, or country providing what another needs and in turn, receiving what is needed. Part of that vision is acted out in the Gospel today. This is the story of two healings – both involving women – one the daughter of a powerful temple authority. The other involved a woman who on the opposite end of the religious spectrum – a woman who had been sick for 12 years, who because of her illness was impure, an outcast, and poor.

“Interrupting his journey to see the dying child, Jesus takes time to speak with the woman directly, and confirms that `your faith has saved you.’ Jesus prioritizes the woman’s concerns, acknowledges her existence and her actions, and commends her, symbolically equalizing her status with that of the child. Mark … and Paul, make it clear that it is our faith in God alone that makes us equal and valued, regardless of our social status or religious purity.”[i]

If we truly believe that we are created equal, that all of us have the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness than we need to look carefully at how we live this out. If we truly believe that as Jesus said, we should love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and love our neighbor as ourself and that we should “do unto others as we would have them do to us” then we need to look carefully at our own actions as well as the actions of our government. This year as we celebrate the independence of our nation – it might be a good time for us to evaluate how far we have come in living into the dream of our ancestors – and at the same time, be honest about the changes we need to make in order to continue to grow into the bigger vision – that this nation or any nation founded on the principles of freedom, liberty and equality might continue to live and honor that vision.

Jim Wallis from Sojourners spoke recently in Washington saying, “We need a new moral logic that merges personal and social responsibility – a more honest assessment of both the individual decisions and social systems that trap people in poverty. … We covenant together here, before God and our neighbors, to work and pray for a new America:

An America where everyone able to work is working and able to support a family. An America where those who are unable to work are compassionately supported. An America where no child lives in poverty and goes to bed at night hungry. An America where every person has a roof over their head. And an America that opens its heart and its budget to our neighbors around the world. A new America – where all of God’s children have the life and dignity they deserve.” He went on to say that, “While the world fears American domination, it still looks for American leadership. And the very best defense against terrorism would be the example of the world’s strongest nation leading the world in the moral battle against poverty, disease, intolerance, and oppression.”[ii]

With all its imperfections, sins, blemishes, and warts, the Church of Jesus Christ is to be active in the healing of the world’s wounds. As we come to the Lord’s Table, let us come remembering that faith in Jesus Christ makes us equal with each other, and calls us to reach out to all those who are in need – not as those who are better, but as those who are eager to share what we have, so that the needs of all may be met.

The great Sequoia Redwood trees of California provide a good illustration of the way our lives are interconnected. These trees grow as tall as 300 feet above ground, but their roots are shallow spidering out just under the surface of the ground. Storms with heavy winds would almost always bring these giants crashing to the ground, but this rarely happens because the trees grow in clusters with their roots intertwining and supporting each other against the storms. As individuals, as churches, and as a nation, we are dependent upon the root system of others to keep all of us strong.

[i]Michaela Bruzzese was a freelance writer living in Chile when this article appeared in Sojourner’s Magazine. This article comes from Sojourner’s Sermon Helps for July 2, 2006.

[ii] Wallis, Jim. Excerpts from address at the Sojourners/Call to Renewal Pentecost 2006: Building a Covenant for a New America conference.

As a child, I remember hearing the story of David and Goliath. I pictured a little boy standing up to a giant. I didn’t have time to be afraid of the giant because God helped the little boy to get rid of the mean scary giant who scared all the grownups. As I got older, I started to think of the giant as symbolizing all of those big scary things in life and learned that God could help me overcome whatever the giant represented. Later, I decided that I didn’t like the story because it was too violent and I thought it inappropriate for young children.

One of the things that I really like about the Bible is the way something familiar can suddenly grab your attention in a new way. I believe that’s why the Bible is called the Living Word of God. Something jumped out at me this time around. King Saul gave David his armor to wear. The armor was much too heavy for David to wear, so he removed it. David faced Goliath with only his sling and five stones. David used the weapon that he knew how to use – not the one that was right for someone else. This got me thinking about the way we approach the enemies – or the giants – in our lives.

We live in a world in which we have believed that the one who had the most fearsome weapon would prevail against the enemy. We’ve become almost obsessed with which countries have nuclear capacity and how they might use it. We drew some comfort from the fact that nuclear power costs an enormous amount of money and resources to develop and deploy and consequently we could consider some poorer countries as less of a threat than others.

9-11 brought a paradigm shift that we, as a country, still haven’t quite figured out. Now we deal with the treat of terrorists who are able to transform our technology and science to use against us at far less expense. In many respects terrorism has become the modern day Goliath. Combine that with concerns about avian flu and increasingly severe hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes and Goliath is alive and well.

On a personal level we have our own Goliaths. Whether it is fierce storms, the uncontrollable actions of terrorists, mounting financial debt, or the diagnosis of a horrible illness, the feeling of being unable to defend oneself leads to a paralyzing sense of fear. That was what the disciples felt in the boat when a great windstorm arose and the waves beat into the boat. They woke Jesus up, and you can hear their accusing voice, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

That was the situation for King Saul and his men, none of whom was willing to stand up to Goliath. They would have been less frightened had they been able to go to war against the entire Philistine army using the weapons they knew. Goliath had set a new kind of challenge before them: a one on one battle – winner take all. “When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.”

When David, the young shepherd boy, was the one to come forward and volunteer to fight Goliath, King Saul had David put on the king’s armor – which we can be quite sure was the very best around. David’s response was, “I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them.” So David removed them. Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd’s bag, in the pouch. David went into this battle trusting in God’s protection and in the skills that he had learned.

The challenge for believers against any threat is to determine what the stones are that we have been given against such a threat. Traditionally the five “stones” that the church has been given are worship, education, fellowship, service, and evangelism.[i] While at first glance these may not seem to be effective weapons against terrorism or hurricanes or most of the other Goliaths of our world, they are the building stones of who we are as Christians and they are not only informative but also formative for our world view and our response to Goliath and to the unexpected storms that threaten to swamp us.

Worship and prayer center us on what is truly most important in the world and in our lives. When David became King he faced many more battles in his life and one of the most important things he carried with him was his faith in God. Worship was of great importance to him. Most of the Psalms in our Bible are songs of David – songs of praise, of prayer; songs that spoke of his fears, his frustration, the times when he felt alone and afraid and the times when he knew with absolute certainty that he was not alone, that God was with him. In our time of worship, we stop and in the words of a familiar hymn, “Come and find the quiet center in the crowded life we lead, find the room for hope to enter, find the frame where we are freed: Clear the chaos and the clutter, clear our eyes that we can see all the things that really matter, be at peace, and simply be.”[ii] In our prayer we should listen to God at least as much as we speak to God. We raise our concerns, our fears, and our questions. We bring all that we are to God and place our lives in God’s tender, strong, loving hands. How much more clearly we can see the issues around us when we are centered and quieted in God.

The second stone that we bring is education or study of the faith. We do that partly through worship but also in group or individual study. In our study we may focus on how Jesus modeled life for us reaching out to and including those whom society excluded. In our study we discover that we are the Gentiles who were originally excluded, but through Jesus have been included. Through our study we discover that Jesus sent his disciples and us out to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth and that he promised that he would still be with us. In the study of our faith, we discover that the Holy Spirit has been given to us as a constant companion, as the voice of God speaking in our lives, comforting us when we need comfort, and strengthening and empowering us to face the difficult times. When we study the faith we learn about those who have gone before us and how they struggled with the difficult questions presented to them.

We discover that when the leaders of the early church were faced with the question of how or whether to include Gentiles they met together in what might be called the first General Conference. You can find that in the 11^th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Peter recounted a vision and then the experience in the home of Cornelius – not only a Gentile, but an officer in the Roman army. He concluded by saying, “It is clear that God gave those Gentiles the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; who was I, then, to try to stop God!” When they heard this, they stopped their criticism and praised God. (Acts 11:17-18a) Perhaps the modern church needs to go back to seek that same kind of holy conferencing and guidance in the questions of inclusion that still threaten to tear churches apart today.

Worship and Prayer, and the study of the faith are two powerful stones given to us to help us face the storms and Goliaths of today. The third stone is fellowship or the support of the faithful community. Many times in the midst of the storm, or in the face of Goliath, it is the support of the faithful community that helps carry us through. Sometimes the greatest antidote to our focus on the fears trying to overwhelm us is the memory of how God has helped us in previously threatening situations. Frequently, as we look back we discover that it was the support of our brothers and sisters in Christ that helped us face each new day. During the times when we might have been unable to pray for ourselves, it has been the prayers and the presence of the community that have sustained us. When we recognize the support of the faithful community in our lives then we are more eager to provide that some kind of support for others both in and outside of the community.

The fourth stone that forms us and empowers us is service to those who are in need. In the Old Testament culture, hospitality was a more highly placed virtue than we can even begin to imagine. Those who were in need were to be taken care of – this was an absolutely basic tenet of life. There are so many needs around us that it is increasingly easy to become desensitized to the needs of others. As we study our faith – stone #2 – we also learn that Jesus consistently modeled and taught the need to give to those in need. There are two parts to this need –one is meeting the need of someone with less than we have, but the other equally important part is that it is in giving that we receive, it is in meeting the needs of others that our lives are fulfilled, it is in helping those who most need our help that we will be fulfilled. Just think of the implications this has for public policy.

The fifth stone that we have is evangelism, sharing the good news of God. By this I do not mean the judgmental preaching that has often passed for evangelism. I do not mean the bashing of others to try to get them to accept our viewpoint. I do not mean the frightening tactics used to try to get people to convert or the self-centered superior attitude that says that we are the only ones with the answers. True evangelism has been described as “one beggar telling another beggar where to find a crust of bread.”[iii] Evangelism is truly sharing the good news of what we have found and what we have experienced of the love of God, of the sustaining of the Holy Spirit, of the teaching, healing and life of Jesus. Evangelism is sharing with others that which gives us the strength and the power to face Goliath with the confidence that we are not alone.

All of these five smooth stones from the bedrock of the Christian faith give us a perspective that can help us face the Goliaths of today. Worship and Prayer, study of the faith, support of the faithful community, service to those in need, and sharing the good news of God help form us into the people God calls us to be, the people with a vision of a world where not only is there enough food for everyone, but everyone has the food that they need in order to live. A vision of a world where God’s children do not die for lack of the basic necessities of life including basic health care and sanitation. A vision of a community and a world where people are not hassled, bullied or excluded because they are “different” than those who are in the majority and consequently those who are in power. A vision where the lion and the lamb lie down together or where Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Agnostic and Atheist children play together and adults live together in harmony, respect, and peace.

When Jesus spoke to the wind and the sea, even they obeyed him and a calm came over them. The disciples were filled with awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Who then is this, that we worship, who seeks to guide our lives into a new vision and a new way of being.

God of graciousness, you lay the foundations of the universe, building a shelter for our battered souls, you create wonders which are priceless, yet do not forget the needy. When evening comes and our fears prowl the shadows, you whisper, “Peace! Be Still!” to our hammering hearts so that we may know you are with us in every moment. When our lives are swamped by doubts and fears, you calm us; when we struggle with the clamoring chaos of our world, you calm us, Spirit of Gentleness. Open our hearts to you, so that you might heal us. Open our ears to your voice so that we might hear words of peace. Open our spirits to you, so we might be filled with the trust and hope you offer to us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.[iv]

[i] McCutchen, Stephen www.sermonsuite.com The Immediate Word, June25, 2006

[ii] Murray, Shirley Erena, “Come and Find the Quiet Center” found in Faith We Sing, #2128

[iii] I think this is D.T. Niles, but I am unable to find the exact source.

[iv] The Immediate Word. June 25, 2006

At the 10:00 service we will be celebrating the Christian Education ministry of this congregation and specifically the Sunday School. In preparation for the service I’ve had many conversations with Lisa Dallas the Sunday School Superintendent about what the various classes will be doing. A part of some of those conversations has led us down memory lane thinking about how these children have grown. The scriptures for today seem quite relevant to that recollection because they both have a focus on how little things become big things.

David was anointed as future king in a secret process that involved only his family and the prophet Samuel. It boils down to a wonderful story in which Samuel and Jesse, David’s father, learn that God doesn’t see as we see. Jesse presents his first son to Samuel and Samuel thinks that surely this must be the one whom God has chosen – the oldest son and one of fine outward appearance. Quickly Samuel gets the message that this is not the one chosen by God who looks not on the outward appearance but on the heart. Six more sons are presented to Samuel and in each case the answer is “not this one.” Finally Samuel asks if there is another son. There is one more but he is the youngest and is out in the field tending the sheep. This is the one whom God has chosen.

David became the King by whom all others were measured in Jewish history. In next week’s scripture is the amazing story of David and Goliath – the young boy taking on the fearsome large warrior. Something that started small – a secret anointing – became in time something big, the glory days of Israel. For centuries after, the Israelites would say their best times were King David’s time.

The parable in Mark’s gospel speaks of the Kingdom of God starting small as a grain of mustard seed and growing into a plant housing the birds of the air. This is illustrative of the way many things begin in our world. There are the obvious, all of us adults, started out as tiny babies. All of our flowers, vegetables, trees began as small seeds or cuttings from other plants. But it is also true that little things become big things in many other parts of our lives and the life of the world.

“If we had been a rider on the city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, we could hardly have predicted her act of courage would start one of the most massive social changes in our country’s history.”[i]

At Annual Conference this year we heard story after story of women who were called by God to preach in a church and an era that didn’t recognize women as preachers. Some of them were given licenses to preach in small rural churches that no man was willing to serve. The 1920’s and 30’s saw a few more women preaching, and being appointed to serve small out of the way churches. In 1956, 50 years ago women were given full rights of ordination and vote in the Methodist Church. It would be 13 years later that the first woman was ordained in any of the New England Conferences. This year that woman, Lynne Josselin preached the sermon at the ordination service. Today, the New England Conference has the highest percentage of ordained women of all the United Methodist Conferences – just over 35%. Little Things become Big Things.

Less than a year ago, Daniel and Dorcas Kamanda came back from the Nar Sarah Clinic, so dear to them, in Sierra Leone. They told us about a young girl who needed heart surgery. A little thing in the scheme of the world – a big thing in the life of that child and family. I included a mention of it in the benediction at the 10:00 service that Sunday. Samantha Dallas, a child in our church heard about it and started asking questions. By the next day Lisa was on the phone trying to find out the possibilities of bringing Saffiatu Bah to this country for surgery. We watched and participated as this took on a life of its own and now Saffiatu is back home in Sierra Leone – a Muslim child, who received life saving surgery in a Jewish hospital in Tel Aviv, through the efforts of Christians in the United States. Those initial small conversations were the seeds that became something very big that brought people in this church and others together in meeting a life saving need for a child halfway around the world. A resulting Eagle Scout project is expected to provide a vehicle and medical supplies and equipment for the clinic. Little things are big things.

When I read, watch, or listen to the news it is easy to become overwhelmed by everything that is happening in the world, and even in our town. As the cost of gasoline has increased and with it the resulting increases in electric and fuel bills, the number of phone calls I’m receiving in the church office looking for assistance is on the increase. The shelves of the food pantry are looking bare. Need has increased and donations have decreased. There is a real concern about not being able to meet the basic need for food for those who depend upon the food pantry. If this is true in North Kingstown imagine how much more true this is in Providence and other places without some of our resources.

Many of us know that feeling of helplessness in the face of the issues of the larger world. We know that we can’t all be out lobbying for affordable housing, livable wages, healthcare, environmental protection and the plethora of other crucial needs. There’s a tendency then to look at the big picture, feel overwhelmed and think that there is nothing that we can do that will make a difference, and the temptation then is to do nothing.

All that we know of Christ’s teachings and today’s Scripture passages in particular challenge us to plant the seeds that God can cultivate in a manner that evokes a kingdom-like response. We need to plant seeds and let God go to work. We need to trust God to nurture the seeds into a full-grown plant, helping wherever we can. Then we need to be ready to move into action when those efforts begin to produce positive results. When we excuse our inaction on the basis of a sense of helplessness, we are demonstrating a lack of faith in God and God’s ability to grow the seeds and produce fruit.

For those of you who may be thinking literally right now, there’s a garden in the back yard of the parsonage with tomato plants, beans, squash, cucumbers and a few other vegetables growing. With the help of people in this congregation taking responsibility to water, feed, and weed when necessary, we hope that this garden will meet a piece of that need. It’s a little thing but it will be a big thing to the people who eat the tomatoes, beans and squash.

That’s a very literal planting of seeds that will help meet an important need. I’ve mentioned other seeds that have borne fruit – Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement, this congregation and Saffiatu Bah, and the women who heard a call to preach and responded even when rebuffed by those in power. There are so many more ways of planting seeds.

We are all planting seeds every day and every where whether we realize it or not. The question is what kind of seeds are we planting? We are called to demonstrate grace and the love of God in all of our relationships. This demonstrates Christ like behavior and introduces the world to the kingdom of God. Are these the kind of seeds we are planting or are we planting seeds of anger, fear, apathy or judgment?

Soon we will be facing choices at the polls. Our challenge will be to look beyond the hoopla of political advertisements and the spin of those who attempt to interpret actions in the way that looks best for their candidate. With Samuel we will find ourselves standing and looking. I pray that we will also be asking to look in the same way that God does, to see the heart, to look for those traits that make a particular leader pleasing to God, those who will do justice, work for peace as not only the absence of war, but as a way of life.

God chose David – the least likely. In the Gospels we repeatedly see Jesus choosing the least likely, and reaching out to the last and the lost, to those who were excluded by society. Can we, in our lives and in our political choices, think about and reach out to those who are not able to advocate for themselves, those who most need our voice.

If you don’t think you’re ready to jump into all these things with both feet – don’t worry. Remember the small seed that grows into something much larger. We never know how God is going to use one small act. Growth always starts with a seed of some sort, and that is true of our lives as Christians. It is true throughout our lives. When we stop growing, we stop living. Start where you are; start small. If you don’t already have a regular devotional practice start with a small daily practice – something that you can manage. Pick up a devotional booklet and read a small section each day – preferably in the morning to start your day, perhaps in the evening to settle you in. If you already have devotional practices that suit you well and encourage your growth then continue with them. If your devotional practices are getting a little stale make a small change.

It is as the seeds of God’s love grow within us that we will find ourselves reaching out to others and planting those same seeds of love, compassion, and mercy. It is as the seeds of God’s love grow within us that we will have eyes that see the injustices around us and will begin to become part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

Little things are big things. We never know how God is going to use one small act. Let me remind you of one more little thing that became big. A baby born to a peasant couple grew not only physically but in wisdom and seeking God’s guidance. As a man he gathered around him 12 peasants – mostly uneducated, rough men. From that small beginning, Jesus and 12 disciples, God has grown the church as we know it today.

Where might it end? What seeds are you called to plant and are they the ones that you really are planting? What seeds are we as a congregation planting in our community? What seeds are we being called to plant? Even the smallest acts of mercy and justice can become something big. When we live that way we discover what it means to be people of faith.

[i] Mosser, David N. The Abingdon Preaching Annual 2006, Abingdon, Nashville TN, 2005, p.163

Last week, when I was on Block Island, I got a phone call from the Block Island School office. I had bought several raffle tickets to support the school fair which I could not attend in person since I would be at my granddaughter’s graduation from Brown. The school secretary informed me that I was a winner and could come to the office and pick up my prize. Do you think I went up to the school to find out what I had won? Of course I did. It was only a golf shirt with the logo of a local hotel but I was pleased to find out that I was a winner. I hadn’t paid full price for it but it was mine!

How much more ought we to be excited about the unearned gift God has for us! Listen again to the words of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he GAVE his only Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life!!!”

What a gift! We didn’t earn it! We didn’t pay for it! As a matter of fact in Romans 5:8 we hear “God demonstrates His own love toward us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. We messed up, we distanced ourselves from God yet God reached out and gave us the sublime gift of his only Son, sacrificed on a cross, to show us how greatly He loves us!

No one of us can really comprehend this kind of love. We tend to measure things based on our own experiences, our own point of view. How then can we look at the passages which were read today and take away some learning which we can apply? How can we respond to this magnificent gift in a way which will make a difference in our lives and in the lives we touch?

Let’s think about this. When someone gives you a gift you have to open it and find out what it is, you have to accept it and say you will keep it, and you have to use it.

Not only do we inherit eternal life according to John but in Romans we hear that we “have received the spirit of sonship” “that we are children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ!”

Will we accept this gift? Each one of us has to make the choice to claim our inheritance as a child of God. It is there waiting for you and me but if it is left in the “To be picked up” file God’s work will not get done.

What does it mean to CLAIM YOUR INHERITANCE? How do you do it? You need to speak up and put it into words. The first sentence of my personal mission statement is this: “I am Ellen Jacke, Child of God!”

I have repeated that phrase to myself every time I reread my Mission Statement which is taped on my cupboard door. I speak it! I have owned it for myself. I have claimed it for myself.

Simple, wasn’t it? No hanging the head and saying” I’m not good enough”. No enumerating all your wrongdoings. Just stop, speak a few words out loud and then in awe and wonder realize the immensity of this gift! It inspires me to repeat the words of the familiar hymn, ”Oh how he loves you and me!!!”

When you go home today maybe you could write out those words affirming yourself as a child of God and post them somewhere where you can see them regularly to remind yourself of your inheritance.

If you or I inherited a million dollars it would do no good to anyone unless it was put to use. OK ,we have a million dollars. We could tithe to the church. Maybe we would invest a portion of it and receive interest or capital gains. Maybe we would give a portion to worthwhile organizations. What we wouldn’t do is hide it under a mattress.

Having claimed our inheritance as children of God and co-heirs with Christ how will we put it to work? and where?

Let me read from Eugene Peterson’s The Message, Romans 8, including some of the verses which precede this morning’s reading:

‘Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get to exercising it in real life. Those who trust in God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them – living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is dead end; attention to God leads us our into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased with being ignored.

But if God has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells – even though you still experience all the limitations of sin- you experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-‘ and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!

So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike, ”What’s next, Papa?’ God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us - an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!”

We have further instruction in Micah 6:8: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Or as The Message says it, “But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don’t take yourself too seriously – take God seriously!”

So expectantly we ask, “What’s next Papa?” God wants our hearts and our hands and our mouths to go outside the comfortable walls of this church and show the world how children of God act. In every interaction with our fellow workers, our neighbors, the store clerk, the person in the next car in that traffic jam let us act as if there were big name tags on our foreheads which identify us as members of North Kingstown United Methodist Church. Would that make a difference in the tone of your voice? In the words you would say?. “Will they know we are Christians by our love!” Will they know we are followers of Christ by the way we speak to one another, reach out to one another and respect one another?

Just as the clerk in Walmart becomes the impression a customer has of Walmart and just as the customer service representative of Verizon becomes Verizon the corporation to us so when we identify ourselves as a Christian or a Methodist and go out in the world each of us becomes what a Christian or a Methodist is to the people with whom we interact.

On of the concerns raised by The Learning Team was the lack of civility in the every day interactions and on Town Boards and Committees. One of the major complaints on Block Island in the summer is the rudeness and disregard of others’ rights and feelings on the part of the tourists. Talk to any taxi driver, retail salesperson or Post Office employee and you will hear the same story. I often wonder if the person being obnoxious to a clerk is a member of some back home church.

How many times have we been upset by those who purport to “speak for the Christian perspective” in ways which are the antithesis of what Jesus taught? How many times have we seen people ostracized and vilified when they stepped outside the “acceptable” ?

No wonder there is a bumper sticker out there ( seen on my grandson’s car, no less) which quotes Gandhi as saying” I like your Christ! I don’t necessarily like your Christians!”

The challenge for us then is to show Gandhi and others who have been turned off by the actions and behaviors of some church people what a “real” Christian who claims his or her inheritance looks like!

As individuals, if we are to be co-heirs with Jesus Christ, each one of us must take responsibility for our own behavior, our own words, our own actions as we go about our daily lives, at home, at work or at the Stop and Shop.

However, there is more to it if we are to be co-heirs with Jesus Christ! We are also called to minister to the “least, the lost and the lonely”. Who are they in our community? Where are they and what are their needs?

As a church we are in the process of identifying specific hands-on outreach opportunities such as Habitat, Project Outreach, the Food Bank, etc., where we can identify ourselves as members of NKUMC and show North Kingstown what “children of God” do. Maybe it’s to drive a car. Maybe it’s to drive a hammer. Maybe it’s to make a phone call. Maybe it’s to make a casserole.

Gary Shaw challenged us in the March Newsletter. And I quote,”… our relationship with Jesus…informs and nurtures us to be transformational agents to a hurting, lonely, aching family, neighborhood, community, country and world. We can take up special offerings each week (not a bad idea by the way) but until we are ready to offer ourselves, our actions will be like new medication without the relationship”

We need each of you to keep your eyes and ears open for places where our time and talent can make a difference in North Kingstown and share that information with the Mission Committee so we can expand our outreach. Then, as we identify places where help is needed, sign up to do your part.

In Luke 12 we read, ” For everyone to whom much is given, much will be required”

The path of the follower of Christ is not easy but it is rewarding. There is no rainbow without rain! If we are to gain the glory we have to slug through the briars and the thorns, the mud, the dirt and the heat. We have God’s promise of His presence with us on the journey and we have his promise of eternal life if we but claim our inheritance and celebrate working together as the family of God!

“Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you!” Matt. 25:34

A distinguished professor at the University of Chicago would often be visited by his preschool granddaughter. She loved to walk around the campus with her grandfather. “One day, the man was carrying his granddaughter around on his shoulders. They met a friend who had seen the little girl just the week before. The friend looked up at the little girl riding on her grandfather’s shoulders and, with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eyes, said to her, `My goodness! Look at you! Look at how much you’ve grown since I saw you last week!’

Of course, what she meant was, `I’m not really this tall. I’m not really this big. I’m riding on somebody else’s shoulders.’”[i]

This is a wonderful story, because it reminds us that throughout our lives we are riding on the shoulders of those who have gone before us, who have taught us, and all the great people of faith who have preceded us. We are carried through life on the shoulders of God and the Holy Spirit.

If we could go back in time to the day of Pentecost, we would marvel at what happened to Simon Peter. We would marvel that a man who had so recently denied even to a servant girl that he knew Jesus, would suddenly speak with such passion and conviction to a crowd of thousands. If we were to compliment Peter on his boldness and eloquence, he would, no doubt, respond, “[ii]Not all of this is me. Very little of it is me. It’s the work of God. I was merely the instrument of God’s Holy Spirit. I was riding on the shoulders of God’s Holy Spirit.”

This is the story of Pentecost; of the disciples being empowered and emboldened by the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is frequently called the birthday of the church. Following Peter’s impassioned speech, the Scripture tells us that more than 3,000 people came forward to be followers of Christ.

We are the church, empowered by the Holy Spirit, carried on the shoulders of the Holy Spirit. Whatever it is that we do as the church, or through the church, “not all of this is us.” Only the Holy Spirit can build a church. Only the Holy Spirit can empower the church. Only the Holy Spirit can sustain the church. A church without the Holy Spirit is no church at all.

Mr. Holland’s Opus is a movie about a dedicated music teacher named Glenn Holland. He became a teacher purely as a practical way to earn a living, while he waited to fulfill his dream of becoming a famous composer. Instead, he spends his entire career teaching music in a high school. He works tenderly with a red-haired girl with pigtails, who wants to play the clarinet. No one believes in her, no one helps her or encourages her except Mr. Holland. He works tirelessly with a student who wants to play the drums but can’t find the beat. He helps hundreds of students through the years acquire a love of music.

At the conclusion of the film, Mr. Holland retires. As he cleans out his music room, he tells his wife and son that he feels like a failure. He never accomplished his dream. With slumped shoulders he heads out of the school but hears a noise in the auditorium. When he opens the door he sees the auditorium filled with his former students. They give him a long, thunderous standing ovation. They have come back to express their love and appreciation to this wonderful man who gave so much of his life to them.

Then the little girl with the red pigtails goes to the microphone. She’s all grown up now and is, in fact, the governor of the state. She says, “Mr Holland, we know that you never got to become the famous composer you dreamed of being, but don’t you see? You greatest composition is what you did with us, your students. Mr Holland, look around you. We are your great opus! Mr. Holland, we are the music of your life!”[iv]

“Our calling as a church is to be God’s music to the world, singing the song of the church’s great faith. But we can’t do that alone. The good news of the Christian faith is that we don’t have to do it alone; God is with us. The Holy Spirit is our strength, our guide, our inspiration, our comfort, our teacher. The Holy Spirit empowers us to build the church, liberates us to be the church.

At the 10:00 service, 12 of our young people will be making the decision to be confirmed in the Christian faith and to become members of this particular congregation of the Christian Church. Two other adults will also be joining the church and a child will be baptized.

This is a good day to think about when and how we became a part of the church. It is a good day to reflect upon our faith journey – where we have been and where we have traveled. Perhaps we can learn from our youth.

We ask the youth in the confirmation class to write a letter explaining why they are ready to be confirmed. One of the themes that runs throughout the letters is that they are now old enough to make this decision for themselves. We always begin with the promise that the decision will be theirs – not their parents or mine or anyone else’s. This year one of our youth has chosen not to be confirmed at this point – I want to affirm the recognition that this is an important decision and that one youth decided that this was not the right time for him to make that commitment.

Some of our youth have been involved in this church since they were infants, some came from other churches; for others this was the first church that they attended on a regular basis and one of our youth has been attending church for just about one year. On Pentecost, I can see her as being one of the crowd to whom Peter spoke and hearing a message that touched her heart so that she is ready to make that decision.

She wrote, “I know I’ve only gone to church for a year … sure, I don’t know a lot about God, Jesus, and the Christian faith (I’ll admit that), but … I know that I want to do this. … To grow in my faith as a Christian, I will listen to God and Jesus more often. Never going to church in my life, has taught me that God and Jesus have some pretty good things to say.” The people listening to Peter on that Pentecost Day heard and recognized some of those “pretty good things”. Sometimes, those of us who have been around the church for a long time, get so used to what the Bible says that we need help to stop and hear again with a new perspective some of those “pretty good things”.

Along with several others, she identified the need for us to know what we believe as a church and to know our history. Another youth wrote, “What … I will do to grow in my faith as a Christian is to listen to stories of the past and learn from them to also learn to live a life as a Christian. An example is Jesus said the Wiseman builds his house on a solid rock (Matt. 7:24-25) and like the Wiseman, I will continue to grow in my faith as a Christian even more.”

It’s important for all of us to really know that while the Bible contains many stories from the past, those stories speak to us today. That solid rock on which we build our lives is important and especially so when the storms of life come crashing in around us. Another one of our youth drew on a phrase from the prophet Jeremiah and said, “I’ve got `soul fire’!”

One of our youth voiced a very honest struggle with the Bible. “I also believe in most of the stories of the Bible but I admit that some I’m not quite positive could have happened. Nonetheless, I do believe the Bible generally speaks truth.” I hear a willingness to wrestle with the faith questions and what I would consider a very healthy approach to the Bible. I would suggest that there is a fine distinction between a story being factual – i.e. really happened exactly that way – and being true. I do believe that the Bible speaks truth. Even in the stories that might not have happened exactly that way, there is a truth to be heard that can speak to our lives today. Marcus Borg wrote that “to be Christian means to be in a primary continuing conversation with the Bible as foundational for our identity and vision.”[v] How is your conversation with the Bible going? One youth recognizing the need for that ongoing conversation wrote, “I would like to know more about God and the Bible. I enjoy talking about what happened in Jesus’ time, and I hope to learn more when I am confirmed.”

One person wrote a statement of faith, that reminds me of the kind of statement the red pigtailed girl, now grown up, said, “I believe in God. I believe he’s helped me in my bad times and gave me a hand when I fell. In my good times, I believe he pushed me farther, so I could do my best. God has never doubted me, and that’s why I have never doubted him either.” Have you thought about the faith that God has in you – to live out your life as a Christian?

Our youth are ready to affirm their place within the church. One wrote, “I love this church and its people. I want to be of service to it.” Another wrote, “If I am asked for an opinion, I will give it and answer good for our church community.” Yet another said, “I have many ideas and thoughts about things that might be of some use to the congregation.” The challenge for those of us who are adults will be to listen to the wisdom and ideas of our young people.

An important part of our commitment is to live our lives outside of the walls of the church in a way that witnesses to our faith. One young lady wrote, “The responsibilities of Christians in the world are very important. They give kindness to friendless people; they give food to the starving; and hope to the hopeless. We accept everyone as they are, imperfections and all. I have seen things like this happen, and I know I can do it too.” We all can do it – with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Another wrote, “I will be there for people who need me for comfort and people who just need an extra pair of hands.” Still another wrote, “I have seen what Christians do. … Christians play a very important role in the world. They know that they were chosen by God to spread the word of Jesus and keep the world at a reasonable level of peace. Their job is to always do what is right and what feels like what Jesus would truly do.”

One of our youth is sharing the news, “I have talked seriously about Christianity to some of my friends who don’t regularly attend a church – I’ve told them all about my church experience and asked them to consider maybe thinking about coming to a service once in awhile.” When was the last time you talked seriously about Christianity to someone who doesn’t attend a church? When was the last time you invited someone to come to church with you?

One of the things that I hope and pray that our youth and all of us really get is that faith is a life-long journey. One youth wrote, “My faith will help guide me as I grow up.” Yes, that’s the point. One last word from a youth, “I will show others how great it feels being a Christian.”

[i] Moore, James W. Attitude is Your Paintbrush, Dimensions for Living, Nashville, TN, 1998, pp. 53-54.

[ii] Moore, p.54

[iii] Weems, Ann Reaching for Rainbows, “The Church Year”, Westminster Press, Philadelphia, PA 1980, p.81

[iv] Moore, p.59

[v] Borg, Marcus, The Heart of Christianity, Harper Collins, San Francisco, CA 2003, p.47

As you know, today is “ASCENTION SUNDAY” – While trying to prepare for this week’s service I felt a lot like the people of Galilee the day Christ rose up into the sky…..because I too spent lots of time gazing upwards to God My reason wasn’t in awe or bewilderment but because I was hoping He’d tell me what to write for a sermon. Doing this sermon started out as a challenge…. I didn’t fully grasp the Ascension and its meaning or how it would relate to us today. And so I began my preparation by praying, then reading the scriptures, looking up different articles etc. about the Ascension on line and in books and found that in doing so, I not only gained biblical knowledge, but was given a boost of personal confidence, purpose and growth in my Christian walk.

Hopefully, prayerfully, I can relay to you some of what I have come to understand about the meaning of the words: “and He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the father” These words are familiar from the Nicene Creed found in our hymnals, and repeated in unison by most Christian denomination as an affirmation of our core beliefs. Maybe together as the church, and individually as people we can become bolder in our witnessing as we revisit Jesus’ message to us through his Ascension.

Little fanfare is given to ASCENTION SUNDAY in the Christian church compared to the fun holidays like Christmas, Palm Sunday, Easter, or even Pentecost Sunday is like a birthday party ……there are no catchy Ascension Hymns or colorful pageants with costumes etc.. There are no beautifully wrapped gifts ……even though the message is clearly about receiving gifts…the gift of the Holy Spirit that Jesus gives to all of us. Over the past few weeks I have become excited about the meaning of this celebration …and am humbled to be sharing the message with you.

I’d like to begin by asking all of you who are able or would like to, to stand….. and…now, look toward the heavens. You can raise your arms if you’d like – do whatever you would do when looking upward to find God. Get into it! Maybe think or say out loud: “Jesus – where are you??!!” or “I want just a glimpse of you…”… “Help me please…” or. “I believe in you!..”…whatever you’d like to say aloud or to yourself.

OK – thanks……you may sit down. Isn’t this why we come to church? To find Jesus? We figure He must be here someplace, if we only look hard enough. He can be hard to see on a sleepy Sunday morning….a holiday weekend at that. When many people are away and some of us are waiting for summertime to begin. Perhaps many of you have done something like this alone when you’re looking for Jesus. We look up, and we say “Help”! Sometimes it’s over something small and not very serious and other times, it’s with utter despair - whatever it is - we do look to the heavens with our appeal and in our search of our Lord.. I know I’ve done it. It’s natural and it’s OK, because in our minds Jesus is “up there” in heaven sitting right next to God, and it is to both Jesus and God that we look to and from whom we seek help. Like Bruce/Paula read to us from ACTS, the disciples actually saw Jesus vanish up into the clouds. I began to wonder what they must have been thinking. For the people in the first century AD, this wouldn’t seem odd or supernatural…after all, back then, heaven was believed to literally be above the earth, which to them was the center of the universe. If a person could go high enough, they’d find heaven. So naturally they would look upwards after witnessing such a happening! They were transfixed. You can imagine the bewilderment created by this Ascension! The disciples could not take their eyes off the skies. They strained their eyes for one more glimpse of Him. And then two angels appeared and said to them “People of Galilee, why are you gazing up into the skies? Jesus is gone, but He will return some day.”

Let’s back track a minute: The disciples had spent 3 years with Jesus. He’d turned their world upside down…they probably couldn’t remember the life they had before He came into their lives. When they watched Him die on the cross and then saw the empty tomb they must have thought….”that’s it. It was a great gig while He was with us. He’s gone back to heaven as He said He would” and then WHAM….He returns again in human form and stays with them for 40 more days! Can you imagine having an extra 40 days with someone you loved that you thought had left forever? And now, here He was. ….once again leaving them and once again they were to be left alone. Remember after the crucifixion how they locked themselves in the room, afraid of what would happen to them? That was only a few weeks ago. They were at such a loss they didn’t know what to do. Now, Jesus was leaving them again. What would they do? Lock themselves up in the room again? Try to get their old jobs back? Become depressed? Turns out they did none of those things. Like the writer of Psalm 47 they sang praises to God! They worshipped Him with great joy!! They went to the temple and worshipped Him continuously. They didn’t panic or become fearful…they gave thanks to God, they were filled with joy, they rejoiced, they blessed God’s name.

Before Jesus returned to heaven; they had asked Him if He was going to establish the promised earthly Kingdom. He told them He would return but that no one would know when, and for them to concentrate on their mission. He said: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the father has set by His own authority. Here are your instructions. Wait for the Spirit I promised. Then you will be a witness to Jerusalem and everywhere that people gather, to Judea, and every nation will call you home, to Samaria, and to every despised and rejected group of people and to the uttermost ends of the earth, everyone, everywhere, always. This is your job and I will help you do it. I’ll be right beside you always, all the way, whenever you are doing your witness work in the world.” He promised them that He would send a Helper to each believer so they could continue His work when He physically left them. This gift of the Spirit would give them the power to continue doing His work here on earth. The two angels were reminding them of what Jesus had already told them: that their mission was not to gaze upwards, but to go out and do His work and spread His word, The Good News. To paraphrase them: “Why are you standing around looking up to the sky? Don’t you have work to do? Jesus will be back one day, but in the meantime didn’t He give you something to do? You’d better get going!” In effect they are reminding the followers that: Jesus is gone. He is back in His (and our) Heavenly dwelling place with His (and our) heavenly Father. Meanwhile, until He comes again, His work is now our work, His life is now our life. His hour had come. Now it is our hour. We should stop gazing upward to see Jesus and start looking forward to sharing Jesus.

I’d like to interject a personal note here…………….being Memorial Weekend and all and talking about a Heavenly dwelling place………the past few months our church family has lost many beloved members…..one being my Mother and another, one of my closest friends, Sue Sams. It’s been a sad, lonely and sometimes confusing time for me. Many of you also know that feeling. A loved one dies, a friend moves away, relatives become ill, we become ill, the old familiar way gets lost and we start to feel alone and abandoned and we look up to God for help. We all need to gaze upward to heaven every now and then. We all get sad, we all run out of gas. I know the past few months I’ve often needed to lift my tear stained face up to God and realize that He is bigger than all my sorrows or problems….and even though He’s not with me physically, He is with me. I am not alone. Today, Christ is enthroned at The Right Hand of God, the Father, and scriptures tells us He is the Living Christ – alive and with us here on earth also.

Because I know that Jesus ascended into the clouds, (there were too many witnesses to that account to not believe it ) I also know that my Mother and Sue and all those who believed, are also in heaven with Him. This is a great comfort and I Thank God for it. We can also be encouraged if we can remember the times when we did feel God’s closeness and be boosted by that memory. I’m not saying we should let our faith be in the past and become so sentimental and nostalgic that we don’t allow the winds of the spirit to revive us. Our memories should comfort us with hope, not lead us into despair. On this Memorial Day Weekend, what good does it do to remember those that sacrificed themselves for our country if we don’t let their memory lead us to making it a better country? And what better way to do that then by witnessing God’s love and power to others. As witnessed earlier when the children walked out to you all, age is no barrier to sharing the Good News.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit given to all of us, Christ is alive in each of us today here on earth. We need to use that power to share with others…not keep it inside. We need to branch out! Let me read to you a story I found that’s fitting to what I’m talking about.

Once upon a time there was a man who wanted to see Niagara Falls. He lived back when people didn't travel much and most travel was done on horseback or on foot. But he had heard how beautiful and magnificent the Falls were, so he set out on the long journey to see them for himself. When he was getting close, less than a day's journey away, he could hear a very faint roar. He stopped that night at an inn and was speaking with the owner. He discovered that the innkeeper had lived there his whole life. So he asked the innkeeper, "Is that roar I heard the sound of Niagara Falls from a day's journey away?” The innkeeper replied, "That is what I have been told." And to the man's amazement he discovered that the innkeeper, who had lived only a day’s journey form Niagara Falls his whole life, had never gone to see it. Yet the traveler had gone a long way to witness its power.

We Christians are sometimes like the innkeeper. We live in the same neighborhood with the power of God almighty Himself, yet rarely go out of our way, or out of our comfort zone to seek and use that power. We believe it’s there, that we’re close to the roar, but we don’t experience it or go near to it.

We can know the power and the love and the grace of Jesus from within, from each other, without Him physically being here. He is sitting at God’s right hand as supreme ruler over us, yet He is also alive in each and every one of us through His Spirit. Open your hearts to be energized by this Spirit! LOVE, JOY, PEACE, LONG-SUFFERING, (otherwise known as patience J) KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITH, MEEKNESS, and SELF-CONTROL are the fruits of the spirit which can be awakened in every one of us. Each time we display them we are witnessing Christ’s love to others. He becomes alive through us for others to know and to also receive Him as their Savior.

When I was in Atlanta a few years ago visiting a friend, we went on Sunday to The Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King once preached. What a wonderful, lively service it was! I loved how the people in the congregation would participate in the service with pure joy. When the preacher would say “Can I get an a-men?” The people would shout “A-men”. When he asked for an “Hallelujah” they’d all wave their hands and shout “Hallelujah”. He’d say “Can I get a Thank You Jesus” and they’d all holler “Thank You Jesus”. The request that amazed me the most was when he asked “Can I get a witness?” and so many responded with their own words…..words like “Amen” or “Yes Sir” or “I believe” or “That’s right”. They all openly and joyously showed their love for Jesus. They were preaching right along with their Pastor and giving witness to the presence of the Risen Christ in their own lives. It was a joy filled, spirit filled service and one I will long remember and yearn for. It was so liberating to be so free in my love for Jesus.

Are we energizing the divine power given us??? It’s there…Christ gave us the power and told us clearly to use it to continue His work on earth. It is only through His spirit that we keep Him alive for others. It is what we have been called to do. The first commandment Jesus gave us was “Follow me,” The greatest commandment He gave us was “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as you love yourself.” The last commandment He gave us before He was taken from our sight was “Be my witness. Watch what I am doing among you and then tell it! Tell it! Tell it! Let your voice be heard above all the other voices that cry evil, above all the other voices that cry out in despair, above all the other voices that take my name in vain. Testify to the world that Jesus Christ has risen and God is love. And I will be with you.”

So, how do we do this? We can witness to what Jesus has done for ourselves personally. We can tell others to look around them and see all the people that God sees, especially those that society tries to keep invisible. We can give people reason to hope when they feel sad, lonely or in despair. We can show them that there is more to this world than material things and wealth and that evil doesn’t have to be the last word. We can tell them that a loving God is in control and that a risen Christ is still with us today. Even when those we love have to leave us, we are promised a blessing of eternal life…and we can tell people that His final act was one of love and caring…. Luke Chapter 24 verse 51 says:

“While Jesus was blessing His friends, He withdrew from them and was taken up into the clouds…..”

At the end of today’s Gospel reading we are left poised on the edge of a new, exciting chapter in the lives of the disciples. They weren’t sure what was going to happen, but they knew they wouldn’t be alone, that God promised them He would be with them in spirit. This was all the assurance they needed to be able to continue to live in hope even after Jesus returned to heaven.

Isn’t that the story of God’s people through all the generations? He gives to us what we need at the right time. The timing may not always seem right, but looking back, we can see more clearly and realize that God was and will always be faithfully guiding us. There is a wonderful piece of theology in the Methodist tradition called Prevenient Grace…which simply means that God is at work in our lives long before we even realize it.

What ever we call it, it is that God is in control, in a good way. He asked the disciples and us to go out into the world and tell everyone we see about The Good News. He promises that we won’t be alone…He will be with us in the form of the Holy Spirit. What a powerful and reassuring feeling to know that we can do anything with God’s help.

Why should we be excited? ..Because we don’t have to do it alone! He is alive within us! He works through us. Harnessing His power is definitely exciting. Will you be a traveler or an innkeeper?

In the readings from Luke we see the disciples worshipping and being genuinely joyful and blessing God. They’re joyful, despite the path that lays before them….joyful because of Christ’s presence in their lives, joyful because of the promise of the Helper or Spirit that will be coming, joyful because they are eager to do God’s call of witnessing to the world. We too are called to share this joy and to share the task of discipleship.

God keeps His promises. He asks very little of us. He loves us no matter what. He gave us His son as our Savior. His son gave us the Holy Spirit, and in return asked only that we keep Him alive on earth until His return. In the meanwhile He is ruling with God in the Heavens. Today as we celebrate His ASCENTION into Heaven, let us also be reminded that He left us not only with a gift, but with a request to use that gift.

Prayer: Oh God, make us your witnesses. Give us the courage to stand up with you. Give us the power to know the words to say, Give us the vision to not just witness about the events and miracles that happened 2000 years ago but also about our own personal encounters with you. Make us your witnesses by the power of your Spirit for Jesus’ sake. Amen

We’ve heard a lot about love in our scriptures and prayers this morning. We like to talk about love. Right now, love is on the hearts and minds of people in my family as we prepare for my son’s wedding next week. Love is the theme of so many songs, books, and movies. You might remember the song, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love. No not just for some but for everyone.” It is almost a prayer or a plea to the Lord to send love.

God did send Love. Perfect love – embodied, incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ. Today we hear that Jesus farewell command to his disciples is, “love one another as I have loved you.” It all sounds so wonderful, so comforting, so soft and pleasant. On this 6^th Sunday in the Easter season, the Gospel and the Epistle reading give us love as one more resource for the formation and the maintenance of the Christian community. “Love one another as I have loved you.” It is both the most simple and the most difficult instruction of the entire Bible.

Love as defined by Christ is so much more than the romantic love that brings a couple together in marriage. True love is so much more difficult than any starry eyed young couple can imagine when they make that commitment to each other. We have only to look at the divorce statistics to get a glimpse of how difficult it is to maintain that love through all of the changes and difficulties of life.

Love is so much more than a feeling. Love is a verb. Love is an action. Love is a decision made everyday of our lives. Loving is a commandment given to us by God. So what is this love? How does it manifest itself?

James Killen in his book What Does the Lord Require? writes, “Love is that force that is committed to pulling things together and building things up and making life truly good for everyone.”[i] By contrast, he says that, “Hate is that force that pulls things apart. It sets people and groups and races and nations against each other in destructive conflict.” He also identifies another path that is all too common for many of us: indifference. “Indifference,” he writes, “is basically a selfish way of life. We go happily along thinking of ourselves, pursuing our own dreams, and evaluating everyone and everything in terms of how it affects our personal interest.”

If we are honest with ourselves, we fall into the trap of indifference all too easily. This week I was reading the reports and recommendations that will be coming up at Annual Conference in a few weeks. As I read the recommendation from the Bishops Financial Task Force, my immediate question was whether this radical proposal would cost this church more money or save us money. It’s a normal reaction, isn’t it?

The good news – and the bad news – is that this is not an option for us as Christians. Jesus told us to abide in his love and that we will do so by keeping his commandments. To make sure we get the point, he says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” There’s an interesting subtle meaning here. We are to love one another, not because Christ loved us, although that is true. But it is the way that we are to love. We are to love “as Christ loved us’, in the same or similar way. We are to see Christ as the example of what love looks like and how it acts. Then again, he says, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Here’s where it gets sticky. There’s more to this love than just having a warm fuzzy feeling about someone else. Christ’s kind of love calls for sacrifice. It calls for commitment. He reminds us, “You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. … I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

Clearly this is a topic that is much too big to be dealt with in just one sermon; that’s why we gather every week, so that overtime we can be formed and grow in the way that God chose for us. 1 John says that God’s commandments are not burdensome, but when you hear this command to love one another sometimes it can feel burdensome. And it is if we take it by itself. However, through repeated attention to worship, to prayer, to our relationship with God, we will gradually discover that this kind of love grows and becomes an integral part of who we are and who we can be. The challenge is to know God’s love for us so profoundly that we can also love one another. The light of a candle is not diminished by sharing its light with another candle, nor is God’s love for us diminished when we share it with another. In fact, what we discover is that the more we share God’s love the more love there is to share. It multiplies, not divides.

For the early church, a very practical question or dilemma for them was to try to figure out who it is that God loves. It’s much easier to love if we can pick and choose who we will love. It’s much easier to think of ourselves as the Body of Christ if we can choose who will be part of that body. What we discover in the Bible is that love has no limitations. Love has no boundaries.

Peter discovered that in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles this morning. Prior to what we heard, Peter experienced a profound vision in which he confronted his ideas of what was not acceptable to God and what was. The vision involved a sheet being lowered from the sky and containing all kinds of animals which were forbidden foods in the dietary codes. Three times Peter was told to get up and eat and three times he refused. Each time he heard the message, “Do not consider anything unclean that God has declared clean.”

While he was trying to understand this vision, visitors showed up at his house. They had come from the home of Cornelius, a captain in the Roman army – an enemy. Peter learned that God was using him to respond to Cornelius’ honest desire to know more about God. At the end of the reading today, the Holy Spirit came upon all those in Cornelius’ home – Gentiles – and Peter understood that God’s plan included even those whom he, Peter, wanted to exclude.

The sheet in Peter’s vision contains a variety of creatures that we will meet in our lives: people we may not like, people with whom we would rather not associate, people with different ideas and different viewpoints, people who irritate us just by being themselves. The sheet in the vision tells us that God loves them and wants them to be part of the church on an equal par with us. God chose them just as God chose us.

Love is deeply honest. Love is willing to discuss difficulties and problems, not sweep them under the carpet. Love is willing to face hurt and pain without running away. Love does not call us to be a doormat – to be abused, and nothing I am saying should in anyway be construed to mean that a person should stay around in a dangerous situation. That is not loving ourselves – and we are called to love our neighbor in the same way that we love ourselves. We are not to allow another to abuse or hurt just as we are not to abuse or hurt another. But when one of our companions on life’s journey is going through a tough time, love calls us to stay around even when the going is rough, to hang in there and be a model of God’s love. This is one of the places where Christ’s command to love gets so difficult. We are only able to do this to the extent that we are ourselves connected with and abiding in Christ. “Jesus came to show us God’s love, to teach us how to love, to love us into loving, and to send us out into the world as agents of love. That is what it is all about.”[ii]

Christianity has never been a “sit back and feel comfortable” faith. Yes, it provides comfort to us in pain, sorrow, illness, death, and tragedies of life, but it also calls us to continue to reach out, spread out, go to the outcasts.

The United Methodist Book of Discipline in describing the present challenges to Theology in the Church reminds us that “in the name of Jesus Christ we are called to work within our diversity while exercising patience and forbearance with one another. Such patience stems neither from indifference toward truth nor from an indulgent tolerance of error but from an awareness that we know only in part and that none of us is able to search the mysteries of God except by the Sprit of God.”[iii]

There is no doubt in my mind that Annual Conference this year will be anything but dull. We will be celebrating the 50^th anniversary of full rights of ordination being granted to women. As we celebrate, we will also be aware that there are Christian churches that do not believe that women should be ordained or serve in positions of leadership. At this same conference we will be presented with several resolutions to be sent to the 2008 meeting of General Conference, the overall governing body of the United Methodist Church.

Those resolutions begin with expressing the belief that a United Methodist pastor in another conference was wrong in refusing membership in the local church he served to a homosexual. From there the resolutions progress to dealing with many of the parts of the Book of Discipline that deal with homosexuality. I am confident from previous experience that the discussion and debate around this topic will produce much frustration and many hurt feelings. I know that within this congregation, as in annual conference, we are not all of one mind on this topic. I pray that both the annual conference and those of us in this location may remember that we know only in part and that none of us can speak the absolute Word of God on this subject.

This is one area where we are constantly being asked to stretch and to recognize that however we understand scripture and God’s will, we are still being commanded by Christ to love one another as he loved us. We have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit that will last not produce noxious weeds. We are to continue to love one another.

Again, our Book of Discipline reminds us that, “Our aim is not to reduce doctrinal differences to some lowest common denominator of religious agreement, but to raise all such relationships to the highest possible level of human fellowship and understanding. We labor together with the help of God toward the salvation, health, and peace of all people. In respectful conversations and in practical cooperation, we confess our Christian faith and strive to display the manner in which Jesus Christ is the life and hope of the world.”[iv]