Tail-end. If ever there was a term to define my genesis, it would be tail-end. The last, unlucky jet scheduled to deliver ordinance, allowing the opposed to accurately direct their fire. The slowest runner in gym class. The fourth of four children to be born to Bucky and Alice, my father and mother destined to die.
Bucky, my dad’s childhood nickname, was born and raised a good Lutheran in central Pennsylvania, signed up for the Navy after Pearl Harbor, and served horrific years as a medic, Pharmacist Mate, third class. A nineteen-year-old kid recovering the corpses of 19-year-old battlefield casualties, shipping them home to suffering and bereaved families. First to France, then to the South Pacific, the hand of God delayed his landing at Iwo Jima in the first wave. When kamikaze planes broke a nearby warship at Leyte Gulf taking all hands with it, Dad made a foxhole promise to God that he would give his life to ministry, if allowed to survive. Alcohol abuse suppressed his demons and lent excuses to his delaying tactics.
Alice was born to a large family, but never lived to see her father, who died of Typhus while working timber. My grandmother tried to make ends meet, selling bread to the people in Lewistown, PA, but when the great depression hit, like a rising tide, the family was swept away. Mom found herself a resident of Malta Home, operated by the Knights of Malta, an orphanage, self-sustaining farm, and old age home for the poor. Children worked. Mom scrubbed. She ran away at age 17, where my uncle Dick took her in. Uncle Dick stood firm in the doorway as two, PA State Troopers demanded Alice’s return. “Over my dead body.” It just wasn’t worth it.
Alice, meet Bucky. Bucky goes to war, returns broken, unenumerable memories of death, and fueled with alcohol. The story goes that Alice told Bucky that if he ever again landed a hand on her in anger, they were done. Done. Fine’. Nada a second chance. Mom would and could make it on her own. She could, too. Dad swore off the booze, or so we thought, the demons suppressed, and life became the Shangri la of the baby boomer generation.
Dad welded for a living, taking night classes to become an accountant. The Saint Louis Arch, Navy submarine hulls, and neighborhood porch railing were the achievements of his calloused hands. My siblings arrived by C-section, all three, the last with the obstetrician’s warning that a fourth pregnancy would lead to her death. Anger reared its head, and my older brothers paid the price. Bucky’s promise to mom diverted, his promise to God delayed.
My mother became pregnant with me, and prepared herself to die, willingly accepting her fate that I might live. Willing to die that I might live. Familiar? She cried throughout my entire pregnancy, I’m told. Despite the obstetrician’s willingness to abort the tail-end Charlie, and the obscure state lines (with all their legal complications) I was born of Caesarian section in June, 1961, riding the final wave of the Baby Boomers. Tubes tied. A tic-tack-toe board of abdominal scars, my mother lived to die another day.
I may be a tail-end Charlie, but I’m a walking, talking, breathing miracle to be alive.
Dad had gotten a hold of a Methodist Book of Discipline during his service years, liked what he read, and was willing to be swept into the ocean of God’s amazing grace as taught by John Wesley. I was made a disciple of Jesus as an infant upon the baptismal vows promise by mom and dad at the Stillwater Evangelical United Brethren church, outside of Jamestown, NY. The cold water induced audible farts, I’ve been told.
Our family attended the Camp Street Methodist Church in town, becoming the United Methodist Church in the great merger of 1968. Yeah, the same year the Tet Offensive turned society upside down, when MLKing and Bobby Kennedy were shot. Camp Street hosted a wonderful Vacation Bible School; songs taught to me then bring comfort to me today. The pastor was Harold K. Guiser.
As a toddler I recall walking down the hall past his study. I looked in to see him in his black robe preparing for worship. God-like. Vitalis slicked back hair. Black, winged-tipped dressed shoes. The real deal. He saw me standing there, eyes unblinking. “Would you like a Bible,” he asked, calling me by name. I still have that New Testament and Psalms right by my side.
Reverend Guiser towered in the pulpit. He caught my attention one Sunday, even as I squirmed in the pew. “We all face a fork in the road,” he stated to a complacent congregation sitting in silence. I thought of my mother’s sterling four prong forks. “Each of us must choose,” he said. I thought to myself, I want to be on the winning team! I chose Jesus.
Choices. Choices matter. My choice was to go with Jesus.
Last time I returned from a respite was due to a devastating automobile collision, thankfully not my fault. It took six weeks to return to this workspace and three months before I returned to work. September 18, 2023 forever changed my life and the way I take it all in.
I return after six weeks of crickets chirping because I am blessed and privilege to retire from 38 years of active parish ministry, serving churches in the Finger Lakes region and the suburbs of Rochester, New York. My new office is the lap pool at the Jewish Community Center, where my muscles are stretched, the mind relaxes, focus returns. It is work, dreading the swim before, thankful and refreshed when completed, smiling and saying “Good morning” to most who I meet. Jewish folk music fills the environs and fills me with thanks for God’s great diversity and hand of providence.
June 16, 2024 was my last Sunday preaching. July 1st was the moment of crossover from reader, writer, preacher, pastor, one arm paper hanger; to the other side of life, my third trimester. I became just plain me. Shed like a molting creature, painful relationships are left behind, freeing me to focus on the people who I choose to keep in my life and an intentional effort to invest in these precious relationships.
Change is hard, I heard this morning. A friend’s death and resulting mourning, unchecked boxes, and inevitable regrets fogged the path forward. Lap counts. Strokes. Breaths. Keep breathing, less the tingling returns between the shoulder blades. My mind is on afterburners. I crack my head on the wall because my attention was ten thousand miles away.
In my experience, change is the delta between past, present, and future. As a classically trained mathematician, delta represents change: change in the area under the curve, ddx dy dx, calculus 101.
The delta between the past and present is fixed. I can’t go back. Time can’t be rolled back like a stained shag carpet. There are no do overs. My choices in the present are defined with prayer. Thank you God, for the opportunities afforded me, the amazing grace shown to me, the limitless love given to me. Praise be to God, who created all there is, all that was, and all that ever will become. I confess my faults to you, O Lord. I’ve made mistakes and I seek your forgiveness. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
My calculus for decision right here, right now is actualizing God’s gift. Seize the day! Time for a nap. Curl up with a good book. Return some emails. Taste and see the beauty of a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich served up by a waitress with a smile. Her name? Remember her name.
The delta between this actual occasion and the promise of the next one is not fixed. I have choices. With the exception of my eventual mortal death, the world is my oyster, God’s gift to me, free to explore and develop according to my interpretation of God’s will. Death is involuntary. Living is voluntary, defined by the God of my experience, the choices I make, the faith I explore, the values of my journey throughout life.
Choices matter. They carve out a canyon of a well lived life.
Experience matters. Who might be interested in my experience? I think to myself while mapping out choices about future revelations. Perhaps to those considering a call by God to serve as a pastor. Others may be interested to take a peek behind the curtains of a pastor’s life. It isn’t as it seems. Nope. You are not even close.
The practice of pastoral ministry is mind-blowing, way more diverse than I anticipated 43 years ago as I went off to seminary, packing a brand new Brother electric typewriter. Value doesn’t come from the height of the steeple, the breadth of the compensation package, or the academic quality of Biblical exegesis preparing for Sunday’s sermon.
Value, I have found, comes from the people. The good. The bad. The ugly. The Spirit of God weaves its way through the living and dying of people that intersect with life. How beautiful my life has been to have been surrounded by saints, martyrs, colleagues, and friends? How wonderous my life has been to have been show the abyss of evil and the depravity of sin? The Spirit’s hand of providence has been steadfast by my side, my strength when my own strength was exhausted, my rudder steering me through the hurricane of life. Words fail.
How diverse? you might ask. Strap in and hold on. I was taught the art of psychiatric assessment, which has served me well. Police chaplaincy. Been there, done that, drank the cold coffee after riding the night shift. Fire and EMS. Someone has to answer the call when a neighbor is in need. Mortality. I can write a book about funerals, families, and who put the the dys in dysfunction. Clergy. I helped make the sausage. I know where the bodies are buried. “And Are We Yet Alive” we sing each year in executive session. There’s a reason for that. Even the feet of a bishop stinks when shoes are removed.
Aging. Alzheimer’s disease. Disabilities, and the theology of disabilities. Addiction. Incarceration. Short term missionary experiences in Central America. Pilgrimages to the land of Jesus, Abraham, and Moses. Yes. I can write a book that brings meaning and adds value to life. Perhaps I will.
If, by God’s grace, I am so able, the sanctity of the confessional will be maintained, victims and perpetrators will be hidden behind masks as seen in Greek theatre, and context will be sufficiently obscure. No motives. No agenda. No regrets. Amends have been paid in full. Anonymity is a beautiful thing. Your secrets I will bear alone to my grave. The pathway to hell, the medieval mystic whispers, is paved with the skulls of priests.
He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”
He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
| Centering Prayer |
What is truth?
We live in an age where truth appears to be elusive.
Even facts are hard to come by.
Depending on your political leanings,
Either the election was stolen,
Or it wasn’t.
Either there is a deep state working
For the benefit of one or another,
Or there isn’t.
Either we are being manipulated by the Russians, Chinese, Iran, North Korea, or QAnon,
Or we aren’t.
Deep fakes, artificial intelligence, and machine learning
Make skeptics of us all.
What is truth? Plato inquired of his students.
“I’ll get that paperwork right over to you,” a less-than-reliable colleague promises.
“Yea, right,” I cynically whisper under my breath.
“When hell freezes over.”
We are told that our taxes will be cut while at the same time we are led to believe that more will be provided.
We are told that the newest and latest educational efforts will ensure every child will be prepared to enter the work force or attend college.
We are told that the way to riches is simply “a dollar and a dream.”
What is truth?
Plato taught that we could know truth if we could sublimate our minds to their original purity.[1]
It is my observation that the more we are subjected to the relativistic half-truths of the world the more cynical we become.
All politicians become liars.
All CEOs and members of corporate boards are on the take.
All clergy and church officials are predators.
All marketing people would surrender their first born to the devil if they could only land one more sale.
What is truth? Pilate asks his detained prisoner.
Cynicism breeds the whole grey area
of shifting sands, called relativism.
Truth is understood in terms of how it relates to other realities.
One person’s truth may or may not be another person’s truth.
Absolute truth,
the fact from which all other truths proceed and are judged,
become as dust in the wind.
We can all get along as long as we can tolerate other people’s world perspective.
But as soon as someone else’s understanding of truth collides head on with our sense of truth,
well, then, we have trouble.
The Survivor contestant
Makes an alliance one week
Only to betray their alliance the next.
The promising job appraisal one day
Is followed by layoffs the next.
The MRI is clean
Until it isn’t.
Israel says, “this is where the border is drawn.
It was established by David and
confirmed by the British in the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and
by the United Nations in 1948.”
To which the Palestinian replies, “who was here before Joshua?
An all-to-common reaction to the fluidity of relativism is fundamentalism.
Webster identifies fundamentalism as
a return to fundamental principles, by rigid adherence to those principles, and often by intolerance of other views and opposition to secularism.[3]
Christian fundamentalism can be summed up by the bumper sticker that reads
“The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it!”
Fundamentalism stems from natural fears that a person’s values, culture, belief, and faith are being threatened.
United Methodists are NOT fundamentalists.
But there is danger in dividing the world into two partisan camps – one being strict adherence according to my beliefs – and the other being “anything goes,” “live and let live,” amoral living.
Creativity is suffocated.
Honest inquiry searches for answers somewhere between these two poles.
Diversity has value – political diversity, ethnic diversity, gender diversity – and it is couched in the world between these two extremes.
God didn’t create us with the gift of free will and determination so that we could dismiss it, sit back, and allow ourselves to be spoon fed what others champion as Truth.
We aren’t mindless dolts, pre-programmed Lemmings set to work by some twisted cosmic manipulator.
No!
God gives a brain for a reason – to use it!
to reason with it!
to ask questions! and
to go about a quest for answers!
Stop.
Be still.
Think.
Think critically.
What is truth? Pilate asks Jesus right before he is sentenced to death.
This curious question comes as a response to Jesus saying
“For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”[4]
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to the voice of Jesus.
Faithful Christians have been contemplating these words of Jesus for centuries.
Catherine of Siena,
Teresa of Ávila,
Karl Barth,
Paul Tillich,
… all the great writers and thinkers of Christianity have attempted to wrap themselves around these words of Jesus.
The gold standard for knowing what is truthful for the Christian
is to replace our human will
with the eyes
and ears
and mind
and heart
of Jesus Christ.
Substitute the self for Jesus – and your eyes will be opened to see the truth in the world unlike you will have ever witnessed before.
Look through the eyes of Jesus and begin to see people as individuals.
I see a CEO who is generous, loving, and kind
– who practices good stewardship of time, talent and treasures
– who caries Jesus in her heart to every business meeting she attends.
I see pastors who love their people, politicians who serve their constituents, and bikers who motorcycle for Christ.
Place the heart of Christ within you, and experience the passion of Christian disciples
– coming from all walks of life
– with every possible skin color
– from every type of religious upbringing
– as we all work together for the completion of the Kingdom of God.
Experience the world as the hands, feet, eyes, ears, mind and heart of Christ, and your eyes will be opened to the half-truths and lies that abound:
Riches lead to happiness. NOT TRUE!
Pornography doesn’t hurt anyone. FALSE!
It’s ok to use drugs, so long as you don’t hurt others. LIES!
Hurt in a car?
Trust me! I’m from Rochester, not Buffalo. DAM LIARS.
Lies! Lies! And more Lies!
Not because that’s what I think.
I speak the truth because
Jesus tells us that we are to love others,
not take advantage of them or exploit them.
Jesus tells us to use our treasures to build up the eternal,
not to accumulate that which rusts and decays away.
Jesus tells us to place our trust and security in God,
and in God alone,
not in weapons
or power
or might.
What is the truth when it comes to matters of God’s kingdom?
Jesus tells us this morning,
“The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground.”
The seeds are nurtured
by rain, sun, and soil.
They grow to maturity and
produce abundantly, and then
they are harvested.
Now, if your mind doesn’t make sense of metaphors, I don’t know what I can tell you, because Jesus is teaching in metaphor. He does it to avoid premature arrest and death.
This is the truth regarding today’s lesson:
The kingdom of God is in a state of growth.
It is growing bigger and stronger all the time.
Take heart if you look around and feel discouraged about where it appears the world is headed.
The world is not headed straight to hell!
The world is headed straight to heaven
– it may just take a little bit of time
and a lot of hard work
for everyone to get there!
Focus instead on the Kingdom; where it’s been,
where it is at, and
anticipate where it is growing.
If you’re standing idly by,
step in and step up
to take your share of responsibility for advancing God’s kingdom – one step at a time.
Jesus tells us that we can compare the Kingdom of God with a mustard seed,
the smallest of seeds
but one of the largest bushes.
Do not look upon God’s Kingdom and underestimate it.
That would be a foolish thing to do. The point isn’t the size.
The point is the potential within.
With the almighty power of God, the extravagant love of Jesus Christ, and the unlimited influence of the Holy Spirit,
there is nothing that can contain the Kingdom of God.
Its potential is without limits.
Potential and growth;
what else is necessary to discern the truth about the Kingdom of God?
And the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
| Centering Prayer |
Whoever does the will of God
Is my brother
And sister
And mother.
I was born into an ocean of grace
That has swept me as if in a riptide
To where and what and how
God has intended me to be.
It is as if
God’s will in my life
Has been a stream of living water
Carving a Grand Canyon
Sweeping me to where God wants me
To do what God wants me to do,
To be as God intended.
I’ve been surrounded by
Family living intentionally according to God’s will.
My mother, Alice, was God’s grace in the flesh,
A life filled with love, discipleship, and selfless sacrifice.
She took upon herself to scrub church floors on her hands and knees
And supply parishioners with a seemingly endless supply of apple pies.
My father, Charles,
Buckey to everyone else,
Led by the hand of Jesus
Through epoch naval battles
To the doorway of seminary
And eighteen years serving churches
As a pastoral servant in our annual conference.
Blood brothers and sister
All have led lives
Channeled by God’s grace,
According to God’s will.
Sobriety and service,
Teaching and study,
Volunteering in missions,
Raising Christian sons and daughters
Each according to their own call.
Steve, Cindy, and Bryan
I tip my hat and bow
That you have been responsive to God’s call and will in your lives.
The greatest blessing of my life
Is my wife, Cynthia,
God’s gift to me,
My center of gravity,
My confidant, my love;
Who’s life call has been to
Support mothers and babies,
Their health and wellness;
God’s will playing forth
By loving hands,
Kind words,
And a compassionate heart.
I pale in her shadow.
My sons have found God’s will for their lives
Through faithful worship,
Making family with people with physical and developmental disabilities,
Always supportive, strong, loving, and wise.
Their paths have been different,
Yet have converged upon the same,
Listening to the still, small, voice of God
And responding accordingly.
Whoever does the will of God
Is my brother
And sister
And mother.
I gaze in awe
At the families who have become
Part of my life and family,
Summer staff who have
Faithfully listened and answered God’s call for their lives,
Becoming local church leaders and pastors,
Teachers and captains of industry,
Scientists and clinicians,
Each, kindhearted,
Disciples of Jesus.
I am a brother to seminary kin,
Ordained and deployed across the globe,
Witnessing to the God of their experience,
Spirit filled leaders inviting people into a relationship with Jesus,
Serving in diverse locations and circumstances.
From Haiti to Nebraska to Israel,
Wow, I’m in awe,
Of the impact they have made
On behalf of Christ and His Church.
The ordained is to be granted the keys to God’s kingdom,
A responsibility I take seriously.
To be ordained is to have my call,
God’s will for my life,
Confirmed by concentric circles of discernment
That included the Pastor Parish Relations Committee of the Chemung United Methodist Church,
The Elmira District Committee on Ordained Ministry,
The Central New York, and later, the North Central New York Conferences Boards of Ordained Ministry.
My brothers and sister clergy
Form a holy sea,
Imperfect as we are,
Each traveling on the road to Christian perfection.
I am so blessed and privileged to dawn the stole of the ordained,
To take my place at the table of apostles,
Serving only the Lord, Jesus Christ,
His people,
His kingdom.
Family,
People dedicated to doing the will of God
Share a common baptism,
An invisible sign of God’s eternal grace.
The majority of my family
Are not blood relatives
Or clergy colleagues,
But the laity who lead local churches
Where I have been privileged to serve.
God’s will and call
Knows no bounds.
I’ve been holy collaborators with
Lay leaders throughout the Finger Lakes
And the greater Rochester region.
Oh, how I love you,
Your willingness to serve Christ and his kingdom,
Loving God,
Loving neighbors.
You are my mothers,
My sisters, and
My brothers.
My life and call to pastoral ministry
Has not been all mountain top experiences.
Our family has endured death, disease, and disappointment.
Some have wondered,
But, thankfully, have always returned home.
Through every trial, temptation, and sin
God never abandoned me.
I always experienced God’s sustaining grace
Through periods of despair, discouragement, suffering, and pain.
Life has not been always rosy,
But I’ve always been sustained by this beautiful ocean of grace,
Those of you gathered here,
And thousands surrounding us as a cloud of witnesses,
Strong, loving, present,
The Body of Christ,
Spirit filled,
Family.
Families don’t always get along.
Pride, arrogance, and stubbornness
Have led to hurt and harm.
Yet, … even yet,
Our common baptism,
Our common love of Jesus,
Our common desire to do the will of God
Unites us,
Warts and all.
Whoever does the will of God
Is my brother
And sister
And mother.
Beloved,
And I mean that in the fullness sense of the word,
You are loved,
By God and by me.
You are loved by your sisters, brothers, and mothers,
One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.” Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
| Centering Prayer |
The interpretation of scripture
Is a time-honored tradition.
I do it nearly every day
And proclaim my results nearly every Sunday.
Every occasion when the Word of God is proclaimed
The preacher is charged with the revered responsibility
Of interpretation.
It’s a sacred responsibility I take seriously.
If only scripture was simple, straight forward, and required no interpretation.
Biblical interpretation implies an objective Truth served up in the Gospel,
Coupled with a subjective experience and influence of the Holy Spirit.
This is why two different preachers will have
Two different interpretations of the same scripture lesson.
Each has an unique point of view, background experience, culture, gender, economic status, Biblical and theological education.
Each is subjectively, personally moved by the Holy Spirit of God.
My father,
A tenured ordained elder in the United Methodist Church,
And I had a difference of interpretation of the third commandment
As found in Deuteronomy 5:12
“Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.”
For my father,
That meant no work on Sundays:
You don’t mow the lawn.
No house cleaning.
You don’t catch up on odd jobs around the house.
You don’t even go golfing.
Sundays were reserved for going to church,
Having a large family meal after church,
And lounging around the house for the rest of the day.
What a waste of the afternoon, I’d often thought as a child.
His Sabbath world view
Was about the prohibition of work
And keeping the day holy by going to church.
These values are deeply instilled within me,
For which, I am eternally grateful.
Yet, I have come to discover,
Or, it has been revealed to me,
There is much more here,
Highlighted in the Gospel
For us to interpret and apply.
The Spirit moves.
The Lord gives
Essential truths that challenge and change
The way I had always understand Sabbath.
In the same tradition as my father
I draw different conclusions.
The Pharisees and Jesus came to completely different
Interpretations of the third commandment,
As recorded in two different locations:
In Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.
The worldview of Pharisees in context of ancient Israel
Is very different from ours today.
Pharisees saw the world
In the context of Roman occupation,
A complex Temple economy,
With an upstart, potentially destabilizing, self-proclaimed Messiah
From the rural north country of Galilee coming to Jerusalem.
The Pharisees viewed the world in crisis and political turmoil.
On the one hand,
The world was a place of opportunity;
Privilege, wealth, and status.
On the other hand,
The world was in great jeopardy during a dangerous time.
Thank goodness the Pharisee didn’t have Facebook!
Pharisees saw the Ten Commandments,
The Law,
As a list of prohibitions
Given by God to God’s chosen people,
To keep community stability.
For the most part, I agree with their interpretation,
Just as my father did.
The Ten Commandments were finite, literally set in stone,
And needed another 613 commandments,
Called “mitzvoth”,
To fully interpret and expound upon these ten.
Jesus had a more expansive worldview.
Jesus was frying other fish.
He saw things differently.
His interpretation was so potentially destabilizing
The Pharisees and Herodians conspired against him,
“How to destroy him,” Mark recorded. (3:6)
Jesus didn’t see the third commandment
About observing the Sabbath day and keeping it holy
As a prohibition.
Unlike many of the other prohibitive commandments,
(Think “Thou shall not …”)
Jesus understands the Sabbath law as permissive.
Jesus sees Sabbath law as liberation,
A means of God’s mercy and grace,
Towards God’s chosen, adapted, and loved people.
Jesus interprets it differently
By reading the third commandment
In the context of God’s larger recorded words.
Let me explain.
Here is the whole third commandment in
Deuteronomy 5:12-15:
“Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.”
Here is same commandment as recorded in Exodus 20:8-11.
The difference is important.
“Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.”
Here’s the context:
The Lord’s Sabbath commandment
From Deuteronomy
Was delivered to newly freed slaves.
God hates slavery,
Always has, always will.
God hates everything about slavery,
Where one oppresses another with intimidation and violence,
Where one works another person hard,
Every daylight hour,
Seven days a week.
Think about it:
Our Hebrew ancestors
Held in Egyptian slavery
Worked seven days a week
Under the hot African sun.
Now, God is giving the newly freed Hebrews
A day off.
God created the weekend!
This was the first labor law in God’s kingdom.
This was a law every freed Hebrew would enthusiastically keep!
This wasn’t prohibition;
This was permission!
Some have observed that western culture
Has improved the Sabbath law with the creation of the two-day weekend.
I’m not certain we can improve upon the Lord’s work, but …
I believe God must be pleased with two days of rest.
From Exodus and Deuteronomy
It is important to recognize
The Sabbath’s permission to rest
Extends to sons and daughters,
To slaves (why weren’t they freed, too?) and livestock, and
To resident aliens (AKA … immigrants, green card holders, migrant workers, undocumented foreigners, illegal aliens).
(Exodus 20:10b, Deuteronomy 5:14)
Rest!
Rest! The Lord commands.
Everyone needs to rest,
Because rest is liberation;
Salvation from slavery and captivity.
A characteristic signature of God’s kingdom from the Gospel of Mark
Is liberation, freedom, and salvation.
The command to rest for Jesus
Is first, and foremost,
A line in the sand advocating for justice.
Everyone deserves rest.
Jesus observes before the Pharisees
“The Sabbath was made for humankind,
And not humankind for the Sabbath.” (2:27)
Let’s look at Exodus,
As if we are looking from Jesus’ point of view.
Exodus expands the context:
The Lord’s Sabbath commandment
Was delivered to newly freed slaves who were children of Abraham,
Living in covenant with the God of creation.
Rest!
For in resting
We are mirroring the creative behavior
Of our God that created the heavens and the earth in six days
And rested on the seventh.
(Exodus 20:11)
Furthermore,
The command to rest for Jesus
Is about connecting God’s people
With the God who created us,
Our Heavenly Father.
The relationship we have with God
Defines the deep roots of our faith
That anchors us throughout life.
Sabbath.
Rest.
Freedom.
Creation.
Life.
Living in relationship with God.
Keeping the Sabbath day holy
Is permission to reflect upon the sacredness of life:
What it means to live
As God’s child,
Chosen,
Called,
Sent,
Redeemed, and
Saved.
The Sabbath was made for life!
“The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” (2:27-28)
“The Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” (2:28)
Game on, Pharisees.
Good news for the world.
Not so much good news for the Pharisees.
The stage is set for the remainder of the Gospel of Mark.
Jesus has never been afraid to lean into privilege,
To speak truth to power,
To bring liberation and freedom,
To draw a line in the sand for social justice.
Jesus always invites his chosen to
embrace creation,
Celebrate life, live in righteousness,
With the same faithfulness God has shown towards us.
Dearly beloved,
Sabbath yourselves.
Jesus, lord of the Sabbath,
Invites us to imagine what the world would look like
If it were transformed into the Kingdom that God is planning.
Let us dream of a world that is just and fair,
Where all may find rest,
Where all may fall into love and relationship
With the God who created them.
Let us learn from Jesus.
Let us boldly follow his example.
Let us be the hands of Jesus to bring Sabbath to the world.
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
| Centering Prayer |
Our Gospel for this morning is one
that dives to the core of John’s evangelical character.
The Gospel of John is one that is all about
the nature of Christ,
the kingdom of God,
and the power of the Holy Spirit.
It is deeply theological in nature,
– Lots of God talk –
weaving these common threads
(unlike the other three Gospels)
throughout the text.
It seems that wherever you open the Gospel of John,
we see and experience Jesus,
his emerging kingdom,
and the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
…
Nicodemus,
a leader, back in the day, of organized religion,
a Jew,
comes to Jesus under darkness of night.
Outwardly, Nicodemus is an antagonist of Jesus.
Yet our text for this morning reveals that this may be a false front,
a façade that hides a deeper motive.
Does he come to uncover evidence to use against Jesus?
Does he come to learn more about him?
Or, …. Perhaps he comes with a longing desire to draw close to Jesus.
We can only wonder.
We will never know.
From this encounter emerges
awkward dialogue
on the part of Nicodemus.
Jesus, using his best non-anxious presence,
allows Nicodemus to stammer and stutter,
kick the dirt,
and begin to speak:
“Rabbi, we know what you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” (John 3:2)
This isn’t a question.
This is a statement …
acknowledging the fact that Jesus has been doing signs,
signs that are completely impossible without the assistance of God.
His observation is followed by a statement of belief.
What a surprise –
a holy man from headquarters who has some sense of belief and faith!
It is an opening.
It is all the invitation Jesus needs to begin to speak.
Jesus lays the foundation, the groundwork, upon which he builds his ministry.
I am most drawn to three of his points,
As found in verses 3, 5, and 8.
1. “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” (John 3:3)
Jesus feels the great desire that Nicodemus has burning in his heart.
Nicodemus, like all the rest of us, has a great need to see God’s kingdom
– not in the hereafter, mind you,
rather, in the here and now.
Our motives are good.
We seek to work for the betterment of society,
and to do it in the name of the Lord, well, that’s all the better.
The faithful Jew heeds the Law, honors the Covenant, and listens to the prophets.
The faithful Christian follows the life and lifestyle of Jesus,
reaching out to the poor, the disadvantaged, the outcast, the widow and the orphaned.
We would like to think that what we do,
in some small way,
is making a difference,
is making headway,
in establishing God’s kingdom
on earth as it is in heaven.
But, Jesus tells us
that the only way to see the kingdom is by being born from above.
We can work all day and all night to improve our world,
but without being born from above,
all our work will be limited,
all our efforts will be temporal,
with a lifespan, with a natural cycle of birth, life, and death.
What makes our efforts a part of God’s eternal plan, however,
is when we work in the life and Spirit from above.
When the Spirit is in us,
our eyes are opened,
we are given sight unlike we’ve ever seen before.
The Spirit allows us to see God’s kingdom as it really is;
love and grace cascading from the throne,
from the Lamb,
flowing through the highways and pathways of life,
ebbing into every area of our world.
Through the Spirit’s insight
we become like metal filings oriented by God’s magnet,
directed towards all good works and ministry that is God’s will.
Being born from above allows
the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the challenged to stand.
Being born from above allows
us to take that first step into God’s eternal, earthly kingdom.
2. Jesus tells the wondering Nicodemus,
“No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” (John 3:5)
Birth is such a wonderful metaphor for entering life in the kingdom.
Birth is a water-born transition from the protection of the womb
into the big, bold, wonder-filled world.
It is an opportunity to step out of our former life,
molding our old skin and leaving it behind,
turning to the Light,
and making the first bold step into the kingdom.
Water marks the transition for Noah
from a world of sin to a world wiped cleaned and renewed.
Water became the sign and symbol of salvation
when the Red Sea parted and allowed Moses and our ancestors to pass.
The baptismal waters, of Jesus in the Jordan are the very same baptismal waters that touched you.
Our common baptism
welcomes each of us into the community of God’s chosen.
By your baptismal waters,
sealed by the same Spirit that descended upon Jesus,
you have already been given your entry into God’s kingdom.
You’ve already passed the bar,
done all that is necessary for living a life in the Spirit,
in a kingdom created and ruled by God,
a kingdom of grace and love.
Too many Christians spend far too much time
worrying over their final disposition.
“Are you saved?”
“Am I saved?”
“Say the name of Jesus and be saved.”
I’m sure you’ve heard it all before.
Salvation has become a tactic of fear,
instead of a means of grace – as it was meant to be.
Jesus tells us to stop planning for tomorrow.
Tomorrow has been accounted for.
We’ve already been given the keys to the kingdom.
The inheritance is already ours to claim.
Instead of worrying about tomorrow,
Jesus wants us to be focused on doing his mission and ministry today.
3. “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)
To be honest, this is one of my favorite passages from the Gospel of John.
For me and
From my experience living a life of faith as a disciple of Jesus Christ,
this verse has opened to me great insight and meaning.
“The wind blows where it chooses,” I often abbreviate
when engaging in conversation
with people testing the water of spiritual life.
What lies behind this statement are the primary attributes of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit is like the wind.
You don’t see it.
Evidence is only by indirect observation.
We see the trees wave.
We feel our hair being blown astray.
We know it is present.
It just is.
The Spirit, like the wind,
blows where it chooses.
It is absolutely impossible to anticipate or predict
The Spirit’s presence, action or direction.
There are times in my life
when the Spirit calls me to reevaluate
my direction,
my interactions,
my spiritual focus.
There are times in my experience that the Spirit supports and affirms my spiritual journey.
There are times in my experience when the Spirit calls me in a different direction.
There have been times in my past where I have felt that the Spirit was absent.
Intellectually, theologically, I don’t believe the Spirit has been absent;
for me, I experienced the perception that I was in a spiritual wilderness.
There are times when our motives are synchronized with the Spirit
and there are times when our motives butt heads.
Sometimes I find myself in conflict with the Spirit.
The goal, for me and from my experience,
is to wholly surrender –
– wholly surrender –
my will to the will of the Spirit,
to allow the Spirit to completely lead and guide me
through everything I think, say, and do.
You hear the sound of it.
What kind of noise does the Spirit make?
I hear the Spirit in many ways.
At annual conference, it may be through a great preacher, lively music, clapping and singing.
In a trout stream, it may come with the sound of the line being caste through the air.
When I walk through the church building
it may be the giggle of children,
running of water washing hands in the bathroom,
or the sound of singing coming from the adult class room or the choir rehearsing ….
– I hear the sound of the Spirit.
When someone shares with me a heartfelt concern
– either during prayers in worship or in the privacy of a confessional –
I hear the sound of the Spirit.
When seated at our family’s dinner table, we sing our grace,
hear the noise of sparks flying from knife and fork,
and talk about the day’s events,
that’s when I hear the sound of the Spirit.
“We do not know,” is a powerful statement.
Jesus tells us that being alive in the Spirit involves mystery.
If you’re not comfortable with living with mystery,
with living with the unknown,
then, well, until you become acclimated with the mystery of God,
you will experience a tension that sometimes can be uncomfortable.
Know this,
you are not alone in your discomfort.
In my life, it is all about process;
a continuum that gradually yields to greater ease,
greater comfort,
greater satisfaction living in harmony with God.
In today’s lesson we find ourselves in conversation with Jesus,
our Lord and Savior,
as he prepares his disciples for the time that would soon come,
when his Holy Spirit would descend upon them at Pentecost.
With God our heavenly Father,
we have all the constituent components for the Trinity,
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning. But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.
Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
| Centering Prayer |
Exactly as Jesus taught
The Messianic Age ended!
He flew up into the air, hallelujah!
Jesus was the last, final messiah.
No need to wait for another.
Turn the page.
Exactly as Jesus promised
A new chapter in God’s unfolding salvation history began.
With Pentecostal fire
The Holy Spirit came upon and overwhelmed the obedient disciples,
Waiting in the Upper Room.
Thus began the age in which we continue to live to this day:
Welcome to the Holy Spirit Age.
The author of Acts reported what happened:
The Holy Spirit came with sound and heat,
Filling the entire house.
Sound filled the house:
“like the rush of a violent wind.” (Acts 2:2)
People who live in tornado alley would describe this
“like the sound of a freight train bearing down on them.”
Shelter in place, auntie Em!
Heat filled the house:
“Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.” (Acts 2:3)
Talk about running around with your hair on fire!
It’s like the house got blown down and set on fire.
As a result,
All “were filled with the Holy Spirit
And began to speak in other languages,
As the Spirit gave them ability.” (Acts 2:4)
No, they had not been drinking, as some speculated.
Peter set the record straight.
They were witnessing,
Just as Joel prophesized hundreds of years earlier.
Their multi-lingual witness
Revealed the coming of the Lord,
The presence of the Holy Spirit.
It was the dawn of a brand-new age.
As God came to earth as Son of God and Son of Man,
In the form of Jesus Christ,
God returned to the world as the Spirit,
The Advocate, the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth.
The world had to know that God had returned to live among us;
Therefore, the message needed delivered in the languages of the world.
This explained what happened, on the day of Pentecost.
The question that begs to be asked is
“why?”
Why did Jesus leave his disciples and humanity behind?
Why did God return to humanity on Pentecost in the form of a Spirit?
Answering the “why?” question gives us insight
Into God’s motives;
God’s deep, longing desire
To love and save the world.
Scripture reveals three items that are essential for our understanding.
(It makes for a good three-point sermon, too!)
1. First, the Holy Spirit replaced Jesus
To transfer his power and authority to his Church.
“The Advocate will take what is mine and declare it to you,”
Jesus promises. (John 16:14)
The problem facing Jesus was
He was one man
Who could only be in one place
At one time.
His singularity
Limited his reach
And restricted his ability
To teach, heal, forgive and save
To only the individual directly before him.
God’s unfolding plan
Reveals the need for
The power and authority of Jesus Christ to scale
From the individual
To the global needs of humanity.
The transition from the Messianic Age to the Holy Spirit Age reveals
God’s deepest desire to spread his kingdom worldwide.
The power and authority of Jesus is available to all Spirit filled disciples.
When the Spirit fills us,
Starting with our baptism by water and Spirit,
We become the Body of Christ.
We assume the authority of Jesus.
And we are given the power of Jesus by the Holy Spirit,
With the responsibility to use it
According to God’s will.
2. Secondly, God’s work wasn’t completed in Jesus.
More needed done.
More needed taught.
Disciples need direction, guidance towards truth.
To this day
God’s will continues to be revealed,
Continues to adapt to the ground game,
Continues to adjust to the evolving needs of humanity.
As the world evolved, so too would God.
For scripture to be understood,
The Holy Spirit needs to flood the thoughts of the reader.
For the Gospel to be proclaimed,
The Holy Spirit needs to reveal its will to the preacher.
For the kingdom of God to be spread,
The Holy Spirit needs to empower advocates for
Justice,
Peacemaking,
And Social Holiness.
Jesus recognized the fact
That post-ascension apostles could not manage alone.
3. Lastly, in the final moments of Jesus’ instructions to his disciples,
He tells them that the Spirit must replace him,
To “prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment.” (John 16:8)
It would take the Spirit to do
That which Jesus was unable to do
In three key areas:
sin and belief,
righteousness in physical absence,
and judgment and condemnation.
For those who would be unmoved in believing or following Jesus,
Only the Holy Spirit would be able to bridge the gap,
And bring the unbeliever from the land of the lost
Into the kingdom of God.
For those who needed Christ’s physical presence
To prod their righteous behavior,
Only the Holy Spirit would be able to wheel them back into community.
Somehow, God still had to go after lost sheep.
For those whose self-judgment has opened the flood gates of self-condemnation,
Only the power of the Holy Spirit can save the condemned from drowning,
By extending forgiveness and the redemption of sins to the world.
…
Our Holy Spirit Age was a necessary transition
In our relationship with God,
And no one knew it,
Or could articulate it more accurately,
Than Jesus, himself.
The power and authority of Jesus
Had to be transferred to the Church
If Christianity was going to propagate the world.
Disciples then, and every generation moving forward,
Depend upon the guidance and support of the Holy Spirit.
You and I; we couldn’t survive, let alone thrive, without the presence of the Spirit.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.
| Centering Prayer |
Blessings to all mothers,
To all who had mothers,
Mothers who lived up to the best of their ability
All the qualities
And the highest ideals
of a loving and nurturing motherhood.
Thank you, God, for mothers.
My own mother cried throughout my entire pregnancy, I’m told.
She cried because her obstetrician warned her that
She had endured three c-sections, but
She would not survive a fourth.
Her decision to continue my pregnancy
And not terminate my life meant
That she was willing to give her life that I might live.
Sacrificing your life that others might live.
I know the source of that love.
Thank you, God for mothers, flaws and all.
Not every mother is perfect,
That would be asking too much.
For some, a relationship with mom is complicated.
Today is a gift,
An emotional and spiritual opportunity to be reconciled,
To let loose God’s forgiveness, and
To be healed by God’s grace.
Be sure to thank God for your mother
Before the sun sets this day.
—-
I have an announcement!
The Messianic Age is ended!
Hallelujah!
It’s done. Over. Long since gone.
Hallelujah!
With Christ’s ascension into heaven
The chapter of Jewish messianic expectation has been closed.
It was done.
All his disciples are told to stay in Jerusalem and wait
For the dawning of God’s next age to begin.
Sit tight.
Wait.
The new age is going to be awesome!
Our Jewish ancestors had plenty of reasons to watch and wait
For the messiah, the savior of the world, to come.
The promise of prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah
Echo back to Moses (see Deuteronomy 18:15-22);
That God was sending a savior to the world,
To redeem the world,
To fix the world of its original sin.
From scriptural authority,
Our ancestors anticipated
A human leader,
A blood line descendent from King David,
Sent by God with a plan
To reunify and gather together the tribes of Israel,
To remove foreign occupation,
To forgive sins and save the redeemed,
And to usher in an age of universal peace and God’s dominion.
The annunciation of Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple
Revealed Jesus as the much anticipated messiah,
Son of God, and descendent of David.
Of course, not everyone bought it,
Many still don’t.
But those of us who were his disciples,
And by our baptismal heritage his disciples today,
We know differently.
Jesus was the long-anticipated messiah;
That’s why we call him “the Christ,”
Literally meaning, Jesus the messiah.
Now, he had flown away,
Right out of their sight.
The wait must have been interminable,
Filled with anxiety and uncertainty.
Yet, Jesus had just opened their minds to the scriptures,
“that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” (24:46b-47)
They knew the mission.
They knew the will of Jesus:
Begin with proclamations
Of repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus
Starting right there in Jerusalem.
But, what’s next?
“Stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high,” Jesus commanded. (24:49b)
Stay and wait.
Close one chapter.
Wait for the next chapter to begin.
Luke reports they passed the time
Worshipping Jesus and blessing God in the Temple.
He also tells us they chose a replacement disciple:
Matthias. (Acts 1:12-14)
Finally, Christ’s disciples understood.
No more secrets.
No more bumbling misunderstandings.
They knew what they had to do.
They just had to wait
To be clothed with God’s power.
Our Lord’s band of brothers only had to sweat it out
Until Pentecost, for the coming of the Holy Spirit
(which we will celebrate next Sunday)
For the next chapter to begin.
The age of the Holy Spirit was about to begin.
Some might speculate that Jesus ascended to the Father
As some kind of reward for a job well done.
I see it differently.
I see the transition from one era to another
As a part of God’s unfolding, elegant plan
To love the world;
To set the table
For the Church to take root,
Experience explosive growth,
And spread throughout all nations.
When Christ dwelt among us,
He, and his small band of disciples, was the Church.
When Jesus became physically absent,
His body became the people who faithfully fulfilled his will
To witness to his death and resurrection.
His suffering and death had meaning;
Dying powerless,
At the same time, he took upon himself the sins of the world.
His resurrection had meaning;
Rising from the dead,
Eternal life given to all who believe.
Resurrection reveals cosmic power,
Divine power,
Power beyond human comprehension.
And now, in this new Holy Spirit age,
This divine power comes to all disciples.
We’ve become his body;
The Body of Christ,
Life drawn from the Holy Spirit,
Wielding God’s power and authority.
One of the first crisis to hit the early Church
Was the failure of Jesus to return as they believed he promised.
There are a few in every generation who believe they are exceptional.
That Christ will return in bodily form
During their lifetime.
Many still believe this today.
Many a street preacher
And many tall steeple pastors
Will preach this very narrow assumption
Of our Lord’s physical return.
What could be wrong with Jesus flying back to earth
In an Elijah-like fiery chariot,
Leading the faithful in a victorious final battle of Armageddon;
Armies of righteousness bringing defeat to the devil and his minions,
Of good winning out over evil?
Second coming apocryphal images
Keep the mojo flowing
And, in my humble opinion, instill an unnecessary fear among the faithful.
Allow me to make this challenge.
Faith that is based on fear
Is not faith in a graceful and loving God.
Fear is a lousy motivator.
After a while, fear drains out
Leaving behind
Tears of disappointment and
A feeling of unfulfilled expectations.
Many have died in the Lord disappointed
That Jesus didn’t physically return during their lifetime.
The ascension of Jesus may be asking us
To broaden our field of vision,
Challenge our narrow and deeply engrained assumptions.
Let us consider a new way to contemplate the second coming of Jesus
In light of his ascension.
Allow me to ask,
Hasn’t Christ already returned?
Isn’t Christ present in his Body,
The communion of Saints,
The members of the faithful today
Who live Holy Spirit filled and sustained lives today?
Isn’t the Holy Spirit in this house today?
I’m suggesting that
both may be true:
Christ has returned by the presence of the Holy Spirit, and,
Christ will also come again,
In bodily form and in glory.
Christ has come!
That’s my witness.
And Christ will come again!
Scripture and the Christian journey lead me to believe
Christ has returned in the form of the Holy Spirit
That is present, powerful, and sustaining.
It is by the Spirit’s power
That we are able to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins,
That we are able to witness to the world the resurrection of Jesus.
We remain children of the Heavenly Father,
But now, we are God’s children living in the Holy Spirit age.
We have been given the mission to witness,
To proclaim in the name of Jesus
The repentance and forgiveness of sins.
We’ve been given the Pentecostal power and the authority
To witness to the world.
For we now, are the Body of Christ,
Redeemed by his blood.
Yes, Christ will come again.
He will come to greet each and everyone of us
With an outstretched hand
Welcoming each of us home into eternal life.
Christ coming again is our Lord’s most elegant fulfillment
Of his promise of eternal life.
In many ways,
The message and meaning of Christ’s ascension into heaven
Is more about us than it is about Jesus.
The ascension means
The messianic age has ended.
Jesus is gone.
He left.
But he left an open door.
The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost
Ushering in a new age.
It’s now all on us
It’s up to us.
Where we are now the Body of Christ.
God gives us the power and authority,
But with it comes the responsibility to use it according to God’s will.
Dearly beloved,
Accept the responsibility.
Receive it with joy and thanksgiving!
Live faithfully according to Jesus’s commands and God’s will.
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
| Centering Prayer |
I’d like to express my sincere thanks to Pastor Paddy
For covering for me the last two Sundays.
Paddy has been a friend and colleague for many years
And I’m always delighted when we can work together for God’s greater kingdom.
Thank you, Paddy.
Thank you to everyone who have showered me with prayers, cards, rides, and kindness.
Rehabilitation teaches me humility and gratitude.
Dependence upon others teaches me about my relationship with God.
Every thought.
Every prayer.
Every act of kindness is so appreciated.
Thank you.
…
Our Gospel for this morning is a continuation
Of last Sunday’s passage from John:
“I am the vine, you are the branches.”
(John 15:5)
Jesus is the vine.
You and I are the branches.
And our Heavenly Father is the Divine,
vine-growing Gardner.
This is a straightforward metaphor
With deep seeded implications.
When we make our soulful home in Jesus Christ,
– when we “abide” in Christ –
And since we keep His commandments,
To Love God and Love Neighbors,
Then we have joy,
– complete joy –
In our life.
Live in Christ.
Love God and Love Neighbors.
Be flooded with love and live in joy.
It’s that simple.
…
In my childhood
I attended vacation Bible school every summer.
Held at the Camp Street United Methodist Church in Jamestown, NY,
I can recall a hot, packed sanctuary
Filled with sweaty kids singing with gusto:
I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy,
down in my heart, down in my heart, down in my heart.
I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart to stay.
R: And I’m so happy! I’m so very happy!
I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart!
And I’m so happy! I’m so very happy!
I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart!
I’ve got the peace that passes understanding,
down in my heart, down in my heart, down in my heart.
I’ve got the peace that passes understanding, down in my heart to stay.
R: And I’m so happy! I’m so very happy!
I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart!
And I’m so happy! I’m so very happy!
I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart!
I’ve got the love of Jesus, love of Jesus,
down in my heart, down in my heart, down in my heart.
I’ve got the love of Jesus, love of Jesus, down in my heart to stay.
R: And I’m so happy! I’m so very happy!
I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart!
And I’m so happy! I’m so very happy!
I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart!
…
If the essence of John 15, “I am the vine, you are the branches,”
Can be summed up in this simple children’s song,
Then, certainly, we should understand
The concept of Christ’s love and joy today.
Or, do we?
Many people are searching for love and joy these days,
Both inside and outside the Church.
Over the years,
I’ve taken notice of three different groups of people.
These different groups are not all inclusive of everyone in society.
I’ve just taking a keen interest in these three:
1) those who search for love and joy without a foundation of faith,
2) those searching with a life of casual or waning faith, and
3) those searching for love and joy with abiding faith.
…
One.
Sadly, there are some people raised with no exposure to a life of faith, or
Worse, yet, a negative exposure to faith.
When I used to conduct psychiatric assessments
for Clifton Springs Hospital,
I grew convinced that,
From my observations and experience,
Four basic things make people crazy:
Bad genes,
Abuse or violence in the house,
Substance abuse,
A traumatic exposure to religion,
Or, some combination of these four events.
People without a foundation of faith
Or who have been driven away from faith
Never learn of the generous and benevolent
Covenants God has made with us.
They have never experience the elegant design
balancing law and grace.
They have never come to know
The promise and hope of redemption and salvation.
They have never felt the love of Christ and His Church.
Where then do people turn who’ve never learned the Biblical story,
Or who’ve had the Biblical story warped and misrepresented?
Sadly, many turn to self-reliance, to self-gratification, to self-promotion.
Others become cauldrons of pride, ego, and grandiose delusions.
When the self isn’t strong, it breaks.
When the self doesn’t get it’s own way, it angers.
When the self has no answers, it despairs.
When the self runs out of everything else, the self
Ceases to be.
Fatalism has no joy, no hope, no promise.
Fatalism may be sufficient for some,
But it is does not sustain me.
Love may be found with people without faith.
But it is transient and mortal.
It is elusive and fleeting.
Love that never becomes larger
than something shared between one or two
Can hardly be expected to become the source of joy that many seek.
…
Two.
If you are a child of American culture in the past six decades,
Then you, as have I,
Have been exposed to a tragic deflation of Christianity.
I recall my father serving local churches in the 1960s and 70s,
Coming out of his office in despair,
Complaining about how difficult it was trying to
Motivate a congregation full of less-than-willing, apathetic volunteers.
Casual Christians are those, I’ve noticed,
Who seek
The benefits of the love and joy of Christ
But on a part time basis,
According to their terms,
Not according to God’s terms.
“Church is okay, so long as it doesn’t interfere with my life.”
The stories of faith may have been taught as a child or youth
But faith development was abruptly stunted by
A bad preacher,
A church fight,
Or a divided family.
The attitude of “Oh well, not much I can do about it”
Grows and proliferates like a thistle in a lawn
And has led to declining worship attendance.
I’ve even noticed a
Dwindling numbers of Christmas and Easter Christians.
Nothing closes churches as fast as apathy;
The attitude
Of “I don’t care,”
Or the believe that there is something more important than
A relationship with Jesus Christ and His Body.
Please do not give me excuses or justification.
I’ve heard them all, anyway.
None of us answer to clergy.
Each of us answers to God.
Rush,
You may feel that you are stronger than this,
That we can continue to go on
Without any attention to slowly declining worship attendance
Or shrinking membership.
Yet, as I scan the landscape of Christianity and culture
In Upstate New York right now,
You know as well as I
The land is filled with closed churches.
Two former church buildings in our hamlet
Have “For Sale” signs hanging in their front yards.
Closed, boarded up, and repurposed church buildings
Serve as an ominous symbol
Of a life of faith built on terms
Other than God’s terms.
I do not mean to frighten or judge anyone.
I do mean to shed light on riding this old horse into the ground.
The goal isn’t about keeping churches open and clergy employed.
The goal should be
About living in the love of Christ
And experiencing His joy.
…
Three.
I’ve noticed there are a group of people
Happier than mothers on Mother’s Day;
People who don’t have to search for the love and joy of Christ,
Because they are already abiding in it.
Some in this group are rich with money, others,
not so much.
Some are youth, some middle aged, others are elders.
Some are new Christians,
others have been walking this journey all their life.
Some speak Spanish, some speak English, others speak something I’ll never understand.
They are easy to pick out in a crowd.
They are the ones loving God
And loving their neighbors.
Indeed, they are known as Christians
Simply by their love.
Those who love God
Make praise and thanksgiving of God their highest priority.
Period.
Nothing is more important in this earthly life.
Praising and glorifying God is done in worship,
What we’re doing right now,
With the Word of God lifted up with one hand
And our Prayers and Sacraments with God lifted up with the other.
…
On this Cinco de Mayo Sunday,
I am led to give thanks to God for my five opportunities
To travel to Nicaragua and Guatemala
On short-term mission trips.
There
I found an environment of fear and despair,
Generations of poverty and malnutrition,
Crime, and violence,
People with disabilities and their families, forgotten and thrown away,
Single mothers struggling to survive one day at a time.
At the same time
I discovered Church,
Part of the same Body of Christ to which we belong,
That is vibrant,
anchored in love,
overflowing with joy.
I discovered Church,
The same capital “C” Church
That our own Erma is experiencing this morning in South Africa,
That so abides in Christ
That is transformed into Christ’s pure and abundant love.
While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
| Centering Prayer |
A number of years ago
The Gallup Organization
surveyed a large sampling of Americans and discovered
94% said that it is important to forgive,
85% said they needed some outside help to be able to forgive,
Yet, only 48% said that they usually try to forgive.
Help often comes from organized religion.
Indeed, forgiveness is central to
Judaism, Islam, BahaI, Buddhism, Hinduism, and many others.
And forgiveness is one of the highest ideals of following Jesus.
Jesus practiced forgiveness.
Jesus taught forgiveness.
Jesus continues to be the example that guides our attempts at forgiveness today.
When the risen Jesus tells his disciples,
And by extension, Jesus tells us today,
That we are to proclaim repentance and forgiveness
In the name of Jesus to all nations,
I’m thinking to myself,
“This, O Lord, is a mountain
I’m going to need help moving.”
“I need your help, O Lord,
For me to forgive
All those who have wronged me”
Throughout my life.
According to Gallup
I am an eighty-five percenter.
I can understand why less than half of us are even willing to try.
I need outside help.
I need God’s help.
I suspect many of you need help with forgiveness, too.
We need the Lord’s help because the list is long
And, the older we get,
The longer it grows.
My list begins with Mark Tober
Who punched me when I was in the 7th grade while I was walking my dog past his house.
He punched and bloodied me
Simply because he could.
It includes people who’ve
Rejected me,
Lied to me,
Misled me,
Laughed at me,
Betrayed me,
And people who have left me when I’ve fallen or failed.
We need our Lord’s help because the list includes
Some people who have cut deep;
Who’ve cut long,
Who have so traumatized by their words and behavior
That it has become nearly impossible to let go of them.
We obsess.
Our thoughts continue to hit the replay button in our memory.
We toss and turn at night.
Thoughts throughout the day are highjacked without our permission.
Time scabs over the old wound, but it never heals it.
Our thoughts exaggerate some circumstances and diminish others.
We allow ourselves to attach judgment
with words like shameful, sinful, and evil.
We justify ourselves,
While at the same time,
We condemn those who we feel
Have sinned against us.
You think I don’t know the baggage you are carrying?
Yeah, right.
I’m carrying the same backpack full of bricks, too.
This is why we – you and I – need the help of Christ.
Without Jesus
We sit and stew.
Without Jesus
We boil until we burn.
We burn and become the hell that everyone of us fears.
The fire and brimstone of hell
To be feared isn’t only found in the afterlife,
It breeds and grows in the unrepentant, unforgiving
Stubbornness that we refuse to give up
Right here in this life.
“Thus it is written,” Jesus says,
“that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day,
and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name
to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.”
(Luke 24:45b-48)
For Jesus,
repentance and forgiveness go hand in hand.
They mark the beginning and end of his earthly ministry.
Even though he was sinless,
Jesus received a baptism of repentance.
Jesus spoke forgiveness on the cross:
“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
(Luke 23:34)
And in his resurrection, Jesus speaks repentance and forgiveness to us today.
Repentance stops sin dead in its tracks.
Repentance requires making a complete change
FROM pursuing our will,
TO surrendering our will;
FROM living a self-centered life,
TO pursuing God’s will.
Repentance demands that we don’t forget.
We don’t repeat the mistakes of our past.
Repentance breaks the dam of resistance
Allowing the grace of forgiveness to flow:
Between one another
And with our God.
Sometimes forgiveness is for
what others have done to us;
Sometimes it is for
what we’ve done to others.
For Jesus, he doesn’t appear to distinguish between the two.
“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
(Matthew 6:12)
The point is, forgiving others
Helps in obtaining forgiveness from others.
The world’s need for forgiveness
May appear to be overwhelming
To everyone except for God,
Yet, Jesus makes the point
That forgiveness begins when
you and I decide to take
that courageous first step.
Forgiveness for our sins includes
Intentional self-awareness.
It might take working with a professional,
or simply a friend,
To crack open the inner soul
and make a thorough assessment
Of how, when, where, and to whom
Transgressions have occurred.
Forgiveness for the harm that we have done includes
Humility; a willingness to subject ourselves
To the consequences of the pain we have caused.
We are being called to create the world of forgiveness;
Where forgiveness practiced is a core value,
Such that forgiveness permeates every place we travel
And every chapter we are privileged to live.
Forgiveness flows
When we follow the example of Christ,
And, before you know it,
becomes contagious.
It returns to us
Spreading across our network of family and friends.
The life of Jesus was lived oozing forgiveness,
And so should ours today.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son
Is core to the teaching of Jesus:
It is all about forgiveness.
A forgiving father receives his repentant son home
And serves as an example to a spiteful older brother still working in the fields.
Collective forgiveness is the heart of the Lord’s Prayer.
“My Father” is replace by “Our Father”,
Indicating the depth and breadth required
Of effort and resources
To correct for past sins.
When questioned about quantity
Jesus responded to Peter’s question about forgiveness
By telling him to multiply it by 70 fold;
Seven times seventy times.
Jesus teaches about forgiveness with the
Parable of the Unforgiving servant.
(Matthew 18:21-35)
From Jordan River
To the Mount of Beatitudes,
From the cross on Calvary
To our third resurrection appearance experienced this morning:
Jesus taught forgiveness
By word and deed.
Jesus talked the talk
And walked the walk,
Teaching and modeling how his disciples
Are to create the world were forgiveness
Becomes the new normal;
Where hatred, grudges, and vengeance
Cease to exist and comes to an end.
Isn’t this what Christ really wants?
An end to all that separates us
One from the other?
Doesn’t Christ really want us
To end all that drives us apart from
The love and grace of our Heavenly Father?
…
Lastly, allow me to dispel the myth
That forgiveness is a sign of weakness,
As Machiavelli (and others) would suggest.
It is not.
Many will taunt us with the mistaken and misguided belief
that only the vanquished can forgive.
Jesus teaches us otherwise.
Forgiveness is great power to the powerless.
It becomes a preferred, selfless approach to servanthood.
Those who have power, lose it.
Those who have nothing
will be given the whole world.
Anyone can hold a grudge.
It takes a bigger man or woman
To forgive,
To heal,
And to move on.
Jesus is the beginning of forgiveness;
But it doesn’t end there.
Forgiveness is God’s grace
That is entrusted to the stewardship of every disciple of Christ.
Breaking Yokes 