02-16-2025 The Heart of the Matter

Thomas J Parlette
“The Heart of the Matter”
Jer. 17: 5-10
2/16/25
           “The heart wants what the heart wants.” I’m sure we’ve all heard that old adage at some time in our lives.
          Emily Dickinson is credited as the author of those words, although her full quote is: “The heart wants what the heart wants, or else it does not care.” She wrote those words in one of her letters in 1862.
         In 1992, Woody Allen gave Dickinson’s words new life of sorts when it came to light that he was having an affair with his step-daughter Soon-Yi Previn. Some people took it as a bit flippant when a reporter asked him about the appropriateness of the relationship and Allen responded – “The heart wants what the heart wants.” That didn’t set well with a lot of people.
          Analysis of Dickinson’s original quote seems to indicate that she was saying that our emotions and desires, represented by the “heart”, are often beyond our conscious control and can’t be easily reasoned with; we simply feel what we feel, and attempting to fight it is futile; it implies that love and attraction can be inexplicable and not always logical.
         Her last phrase – that often gets overlooked, “or else it does not care”, would seem to imply that resisting our hearts desires can be pointless, as our feelings will remain regardless of our attempts to change them.
          A romantic notion – but a bit fatalistic perhaps.
          An anonymous modern author built on Dickinson’s thoughts when they noted – “The heart wants what it wants, even that which is worst for it.”
          I would venture to say that the prophet Jeremiah might agree. In today’s reading Jeremiah puts it another way. “The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse – who can understand it?” Not quite as romantic as The Belle of Amherst put it – but there it is.
          The idea of a heart that is deceptive by nature is a controversial assertion. To begin to think about this, we need to ask what is meant by “heart.”
          We’re not talking so much about the physical organ, but the metaphorical organ. In the Bible, the heart is described as the center or seat of emotions and desires. It is where feelings such as love, joy, sorrow and anger reside.
          But the heart is also the nexus of all our thinking and will. Scripture views the heart as the center of a person’s thoughts, intentions and will. It is where decisions are made and intentions formed. When such a locus is deceitful, then even our reasoning and decisions can be flawed and self-serving.
         The Bible considers the heart to be even more. It is the moral and spiritual core of a person. It’s where one’s true character and motivations lie. Jesus seems to argue that both good and evil can flow from this spiritual core. In his “Sermon on the Plain” from Luke this morning, he says, “The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.”
          So, this is what the Bible means by “heart”: the center of our being that includes emotions, thinking will, a moral compass and our spiritual core.
          But is the heart deceptive? Jeremiah would have made a great Protestant, because he believed so. He believed that the heart was inherently flawed and prone to sin, just as John Calvin and other Reformers taught, making the heart a source of moral and spiritual corruption. The delusional nature of the heart can manifest itself in a variety of forms.
         The delusion might be self-deception. Our emotions and thought processes can deceive us by making us believe that our desires and actions are justified when they are clearly not to any dispassionate outward observer, and certainly not God, who knows the intentions of our hearts.
          The devious nature of the heart might also be seen in our susceptibility to sin. As the Apostle Paul famously noted, doing what is wrong is easier than doing what is right. To paraphrase Paul, “I do the things I know I shouldn’t, and I don’t do the things I know I should. I don’t understand. I’m at a total loss.” Even a spiritual giant like Paul is stumped by the complexity and deviousness of the human heart.
          Our continually lies to us. It tells us that we can ignore the laws of good health and abuse ourselves with unhealthy food and drink. It tells us that happiness can be bought. It tells us that we can use other people and ignore their concerns and needs. It tells us that the path to happiness is the path of least resistance. The heart is a subtle and devious thing.
          But Jeremiah has an answer, one that Paul agrees with as well. Jeremiah starts this passage today by encouraging us to trust in the Lord. Those who put their trust in the Lord shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out it’s roots by the stream. It shall not fear when the heat comes, and it’s leaves shall stay green; in the year of the drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.”.
          We hear a very similar message in Luke in which he presents his own shortened version of the beatitudes… “Blessed are you who are poor, hungry and hated – because yours is the Kingdom of God.”
         This, then is good news. Knowing that our emotions, thoughts, will and very spiritual core tend to be self-serving and devious – there are checks and balances to safeguard our moral center.
          Self-examination is a big one. The need for a periodic inspection is like a regular wellness check. It’s good advice concerning our physical bodies and it’s good advice for our spiritual being as well.
          Take it from of history’s greatest thinkers – Socrates, for example – is reputed to have said “the unexamined life is not worth living.” In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Polonius said to his son Laertes, “To thine own self be true and thou canst by no means be false to any man.” Aristotle wrote that “knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” The great transcendentalist thinker, Ralph Waldo Emerson, said, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
          Entering the world of religious thinkers, one of the earliest Christian theologians, Augustine, said, “Know yourself, that you may know God.” And our own John Calvin reminds us, “Without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God.” (1)
          Self-examination and reflection is a good practice. If we regularly examine our heart and motives, we will do ourselves a great service. This is also the season when we think about establishing some spiritual disciplines to strengthen our inner lives. In the coming Lenten season we’ll talk more about the classics, such as daily Bible reading, praying, Bible study, and meditation. Perhaps you need to carve out a daily quiet time, or find a place to do centering work, just as you would when setting up a regular schedule to get to the gym or workout at home.
          Accountability is another important part of self-examination. Surround yourself with a community of believers who can offer support, encouragement and accountability. Share your struggles and seek guidance from those who are also walking faithfully with the Lord.
          Seek contentment is another part, maybe even a goal of self-examination. We should learn to find contentment not only with our relationship with Christ, but with the material things we have.
          This past May, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, gave a commencement address to the graduates of the University of Colorado Boulder. He said that at the end of his life, he won’t measure his happiness by the size of Apple’s market cap or his personal net worth, but by the jokes he told and the laughter he shared with family and friends. He went on to cite the work of Harvard University professor Arthur C. Brooks, saying, “People often struggle to find happiness because they see it as a destination – if they get married of have kids or get a big promotion, they’ll finally be happy.”
 Brooks calls this the “arrival fallacy.”
“Happiness is not a destination, it’s a direction,” says Brooks. “The way that we get happier has somewhat to do with the things going on outside of us, but it has more to do with our inner lives.”
“Finding things to be grateful for in the midst of hardship – like your loved ones or good health – can shift your brain into a more optimistic mindset and help you overcome those challenges,” added Wozniak.
“So, stay honest, keep smiling and pay your own successes forward,” he said. (2)
As Luke put it: “Blessed are you who are poor, hungry, excluded and hated – for yours is the Kingdom of God.”
Or, as Jeremiah says: “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord – they shall be like a tree planted by the water… in years of drought – which we certainly understand these days – they shall not cease to bear fruit.”
That is the heart of the matter.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
 

1. Homileticsonline, retrieved 1/16/25.

2. Ibid…

02-09-2025 A Story You Can Trust

Thomas J Parlette
“A Story You Can Trust”
1st Corinthians 15: 1-11
2/9/25
          A Duke University professor was hospitalized with an injury. Then someone made a video of him in his hospital bed and posted it on the internet. That’s odd, for sure. Not usually what happens in the hospital with HIPPA regulations and all. But then things got even weirder.
          According to the professor, the video “described how my injury got me to hate healthy people, how that got me to join Bill Gates and the Illuminati in creating the COVID pandemic. It also caused me to attempt to try and kill as many healthy people as possible using the virus and the vaccines, to control people.”
          Every bit of it was false – It was all a lie. But some people believed it. An acquaintance of his even reached out via email and asked, “What happened to you?”
          The experience led that professor, a man named Dan Ariely, to write a book called Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things. The book is a very personal exploration of misinformation and conspiracy theories, and what causes people to fall into distrust.
          He talks about what he calls “The Funnel of Misbelief,” which explains our society’s loss of trust. People fall into the funnel when they are stressed and have a deep need for understanding. They go deeper when they lose their social attachments and begin to feel ostracized. The result is a group of rational people believing irrational things, such as the story of a professor creating the COVID pandemic to kill as many healthy people as possible. (1)
         Conspiracy theories are not a new phenomenon – they’ve been around for centuries, from witch trials and antisemitic campaigns to beliefs that Freemasons were trying to topple European monarchies. But the “golden age” of conspiracy theories, it seems, is now. Recent polls show that more than 50% of Americans believe in one conspiracy theory or another…
          According to a study conducted by the University of Chicago:
-         19% of Americans believe the government was behind the 9/11 attacks;
-         25% believe the 2008 recession was caused by a small cabal of Wall Street Bankers;
-         And 11% believe the government mandated a switch to compact fluorescent lightbulbs in government buildings because “they make people obedient and easier to control.” (2)
Much of the commentary on conspiracy theories presumes that followers simply have bad information, or not enough, and that they can be helped along with a better diet of facts.
But anyone who has talked with a conspiracy theorist knows that they’re never short on details… They have plenty of information, but they insist that it be interpreted in a particular way – usually the way that feels most exciting or scandalous.
So how does a conspiracy theory feel? First of all, it lets you feel like you’re smarter than everyone else. Political scientist Michael Barkun points out that conspiracy theory devotees love what he calls “stigmatized knowledge,” – sources that are obscure or even looked down upon.
In fact, the more obscure the source is, the more the true believers want to trust it…
One of the most exciting parts of a conspiracy theory is that it makes everything make sense. We all know the pleasure of solving a puzzle – the “click” of satisfaction when you complete a Wordle, a crossword or a Sudoku.
Conspiracy theories encourage their followers to see themselves as the only ones with their eyes open, and everyone else as sheep. But paradoxically, this fantasy leads to self-delusion – and helping the followers recognize that can be a first step. Unraveling their beliefs requires the patient work of persuading devotees that the world is just a more boring, more random, less interesting place that one might have hoped.
To make progress against conspiracy theories, we have to patiently prove what’s happening – to research, learn and find the most plausible interpretation of the evidence, not the one that’s the most fun and exciting. (3)
When Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians, he was addressing the citizens of a powerful city in the Roman Empire. Corinth was a wealthy center of commerce in Greece, and it was full of cultured and educated people who were stressed by politics and economic challenges. Much as we are today.
On top of that, many of these people were feeling spiritual emptiness. Some were joining groups called “mystery religions” that included secret ceremonies in which a person would be joined to a pagan god or goddess. Very popular in Corinth was a drama about the death of Adonis, a celebration of his resurrection, and an invitation to share in his triumph.
Paul knew that these secret ceremonies were irrational, and he worried that the Corinthians would fall into their own sort of 1st century Funnel of Misbelief, believing what he considered to be conspiracy theories of the day. Because they were stressed and had a deep need for understanding, they were vulnerable to these mystery religions. Paul wrote his letter to remind them of the power of Jesus to fill the empty places in their lives with new and unexpected life. He was offering them the truth, a story they could trust – not a myth.
“Now I want you to understand,” writes Paul, “the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which you are being saved.” Here, Paul reminds them of the good news of the resurrection of Jesus, which he had previously shared with them. He wants them to “hold firmly” to this message, and not be distracted by theories or popular myths, like the myth of Adonis.
Paul says, “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received – that the Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures…” Paul wants them to know that the story of Jesus is not a myth, but it is connected to something bigger than himself. Christ died for our sins “in accordance with the scriptures,” and he was raised from dead “in accordance with the scriptures.”
None of this is irrational, according to Paul. It is not crazy or out of left field like a conspiracy theory. No, the promise of forgiveness and new life fits what God has been doing all through history, as reported in the Scriptures.
This is good information, not misinformation. This is a story you can trust.
Being aware that people fall for conspiracy theories when they feel unattached and ostracized, Paul tries to strengthen their social cohesion. He writes that Jesus “appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve and then to more than five hundred brothers and sisters…” The resurrection is not some made-up internet meme or YouTube video – it is a real historical event, witnessed by a long list of men and women. You can check it out for yourselves, says Paul to the Corinthians, “most of them are still alive, though some have died.”
Our society relies a lot on trust,” says Dan Ariely. “It’s like fish in water. Fish don’t notice the water… because it’s all around them. Trust is the same. Trust is all around us. Because of that, we don’t often notice how big and important it effect is on our behavior… But the reality is that people who go down the Funnel of Misbelief lose trust, and they pay a price – and we, as a society, pay a price.” (4)
Paul knows how much the Christian community relies on trust. That is why he reminds the Corinthians that Jesus appeared to people that they knew about and trusted – from Cephas to five hundred brothers and sisters. Paul then says that Christ “appeared also to me” – reminding them of the time that the resurrected Jesus spoke to him personally on the road to Damascus, completely turning his life around.
It is by the grace of God – that Paul talks about so many times – that Paul is who and what he is. And because of this, the story he tells can be trusted.
At the end of the day, all Paul cares about is that the Corinthians accept the forgiveness and new life that Jesus offers. He knows there is nothing irrational about the resurrection, since it is God’s grace-filled plan to relieve the stress of sin and death. He reminds the Corinthians that the resurrection was witnessed by a wide community and proclaimed by a number of apostles. “Whether then it was I or they,” says Paul, “so we proclaim and so you believed.” He does not want the Corinthians to buy into conspiracies or fall into the Funnel of Misbelief.
We need to hear this message today – because we are very much like the people of Corinth. Many of us are stressed and spiritually empty, and we are losing our social attachments. A recent study has shown that one third of adults 45 and older feel lonely, and nearly one fourth of adults 65 and older are considered to be socially isolated. (5) Loss of social attachments can cause us to tumble into the Funnel of Misbelief and leave us vulnerable to conspiracy theories.
We need a message we can trust. We have a deep need for understanding, and we want to find the truth.
In a world of misinformation and conspiracy theories – ours is a trustworthy story. It leads us to life, not death. It is based on Scripture, not Internet speculation. It is grounded in the eyewitness accounts of a reliable community of Christians. And it comes from the grace of God, the One who loves us and wants us all to experience forgiveness and new life.
So, let us put our trust in Jesus, the One who died for our sins, was buried, and was raised on the third day. His truth comes through belief, not misbelief. The story of Jesus’ death and resurrection is a story we can trust.
May God be praised. Amen.
 

1. Dan Ariely, “Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things,” Next Big Idea Club, September 20, 2023.

2. Christina Georgacopoulos, “Why We Fall for Conspiracies,” LSU, February 2020.

3. Donovan Schaefer, “Buying into conspiracy theories can be exciting – that’s what makes them dangerous,” The Conversation, July 5, 2022.

4. Dan Ariely, ibid…

5. “Loneliness and Social Isolation Linked to Serious Health Conditions.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, April 29, 2021.

01-19-2025 A Preview in Cana

Thomas J Parlette
“A Preview in Cana”
John 2: 1-11
1/19/25

         Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. A well-known list of essential wedding ingredients. You could probably add one more to that list, if you’re being realistic – “Something to go wrong.” You could call it “Murphy’s Law: the Wedding Corollary.”
          No matter how well you plan a wedding, something is going to go wrong the day of. It just happens. I have seen brides put together three ring binders of schedules, lists and assignments for each wedding party member – yes, including the groomsmen – to try and make every little detail fall into place. It’s an admirable goal. But still, something always goes at least a little wrong. And that’s okay.
          “Don’t worry,” you assure them, “it won’t go to plan.” There is always something (or someone) forgotten, neglected backwards or late. There’s always a slip-up, mishap or stumbling over words, stairs or long dresses.
          “Don’t worry, something will go wrong – and it will very likely become the centerpiece of your favorite wedding story years from now!”
          Well, at this wedding ceremony in Cana, everything held true to form, and something did go wrong. In fact, it was a social disaster. The wine ran out!
          Midway through the feast, before any of the guests were remotely ready to go home, the final drop of wine dripped into a waiting guest’s cup. Not long after, the whispering began with the next wedding guest in line at the bar, left holding an empty cup in his hand.
          You could almost hear people quoting the Rabbi – “without wine, there is no joy.” This was a disaster. The bride started to cry, the groom turned red with embarrassment – this was an insult to your guests and a bad omen for the wedding.
          Even Mary, the mother of Jesus, is passing on that grim message. But when she turns to her son to tell him the bad news – he declines to pass the rumor on to the next person. In fact, he dismisses it. “Woman,” he says to his mother, “what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.”
          But Mary knew her son, she knew what her son was capable of, even though John tells us this was his first miracle, a mother knows. So Mary turns to one of the servants and whispers “Do whatever he tells you,” motioning towards her son.
          Jesus commands the servant to take the six stone jars lined up against the wall – jars typically used to hold the water used for washing hands and feet upon entering the house – and tells the servant to fill them with water. The servant does so, and when he pours some back out – wonder of wonders – it has turned to wine!
          And not just any wine – this is the good stuff, the finest vintage. This is the stuff you serve when you want to impress your guests. This is not wine out of a box – this is the one with a cork.
          The bride and groom look at each other with astonishment and relief. If it’s true that all six of the jars are filled with wine, there’s no chance they’ll run out again. Each jar held 20-30 gallons – that’s 120 gallons of wine! Jesus has taken their family’s shameful deficiency and transformed it into overflowing abundance!
          This miracle story of the wedding in Cana has always been something of an embarrassment to some Christians. I mean, when you set aside the healings Jesus did, the feeding of the hungry, the calming of the storm, the raising of the dead – refilling the wine supply at a party seems kind of underwhelming.
          Then there’s the fact that alcohol is at the center of the story. During the Prohibition years, tee-totaling Temperance preachers worked overtime trying to explain away this troublesome part of the story. Suddenly, conservative scholars discovered a so-called “forgotten fact” that generations of scholars before them had dismissed – that all the wine of Jesus’ day was really unfermented grape juice. Or, according to another theory, people habitually diluted their wine with water, so it had hardly any kick at all.
          If you’re a student of history, you know how hard it was to enforce Prohibition. Now think of the sunny Mediterranean culture of the Bible with an agricultural economy, vineyards everywhere you turn – do you really believe that people voluntarily diluted their favorite beverage with lots of water. Probably not. Besides, you can find lots of warnings in the Bible about drunkenness, so you know that over-indulgence was as much a thing in Jesus’ day as it is in ours.
          Bottom line – it was real wine that Jesus produced at Cana. He did so out of compassion for the bride and groom and their families – to spare them the social stigma of failing to extend the customary hospitality everyone expected.
          There is also ample evidence that Jesus loved a good party – he loved hanging out with people. So many times we see him and his disciples eating and drinking and having a grand old time. In fact, it was one of the things that the Scribes and Pharisees loved to criticize him for. They might have aspired to asceticism – They might have measured their lives by fasting and austere discipline. But this tradesman-rabbi from Nazareth was none of those things.
          Reflecting on this story, preacher Cosmo Gordon Lang had this to say more than a century ago: “There is a time to laugh as well as a time to weep, and the Son of Man, who shared our tears on the way to the grave of Lazarus and the cross of Calvary, shared our mirth at the feast of Cana. All the faculties of life are to be, not suspected, but redeemed from evil by the Christian; and one of the richest and happiest is the faculty of mirth. Our duty is not to check its brightness, but to keep its innocence; and surely in the laughter God is well pleased.” (1)
          Note what the writer reminds us of: that Jesus came into the world as Redeemer. He came not merely to purchase back human lives from slavery to sin, but to redeem the very earth itself. As Paul declares in Romans 8, Jesus came so “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
          Jesus does not come merely as a rule-giver, as the sort of austere and humorless leader for which the Pharisees hoped for. No, Jesus comes to celebrate all that’s good about this world and human life, and to teach us what needs to be done to make sure such goodness continues to abound. Naturally, he opposed sin. And Naturally, he would never have condoned the abuse of alcohol. But Jesus demonstrated such a love of laughter and such a zest for life that he was at times charged with being a “glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners.”
          By growing to maturity in a small Jewish village – and later in traveling with his disciples across the Galilee, Jesus took in human life in all its rich variety. He took it in – and he redeemed it. By taking on our human life, he made the experiences of birth, marriage, attending parties and playing with children and even death itself more sacred and meaningful. In this small, out of the way village of Cana, Jesus gives us a preview of how the whole of Creation will be redeemed. Jesus will step in and make what looks like a social disaster, into the event of the year.
          In the Bible, there are 35 recorded miracles of Jesus. Of these, Matthew talks about 20 of them, Mark – 18, and Luke also mentions 20. If you’re keeping score – yes, I know that’s more than 35, but there is some overlap in the first three Gospels.
          The Gospel of John though, is unique. It’s quite different from Matthew, Mark and Luke. John tells of only seven miracles – unique to his gospel. John is much less interested than the other three in presenting a straightforward historical narrative. John chooses and arranges his miracle stories carefully to make his point – which is more about Jesus’ identity than the things he did.
          So John is very intentional about choosing this miracle story at a wedding celebration and putting it right at the beginning of his story. This water into wine miracle results in the entire village laughing and dancing and enjoying themselves through the night – even though John is very aware of where Jesus story will end. Maybe John wants to show us something right from the beginning about Jesus as the Messiah.
          You may have noticed that those water jars that Jesus chose were usually used to fulfill ritual purification requirements. All the guests had purified themselves when they arrived so now they were standing empty. Perhaps with tongue-in-cheek Jesus singled out those containers to fill with wine. He could have pointed out some wine jugs or even wineskins – that’s what they were used for. But he doesn’t – he points out the water jars used to fulfill the law.
          Perhaps Jesus is giving us another kind of preview. Yes, Jesus is faithful to God’s law, but he has seen too many people burdened by the over-zealous application of it. He has seen the law, meant to free humanity from the burden of sin – transformed into an intricate machine for crushing the human spirit. Remember what Jesus told his disciples when they were hungry one Sabbath day? He sent them out into the fields to harvest some food to eat, saying “The Sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the Sabbath.”
          For John, the changing of water into wine is a sign. That’s what he calls it. John carefully avoids the Greek word for “miracle” – even though that’s the word most of us would use in retelling this story. People of our age look back on this event and focus on the suspension of natural laws happening here. But people of John’s time would have taken it for granted that supernatural wonders like this could take place. But what did it mean?
          For John, the most important feature of the water turning into wine is the greater reality to which it points – the reality of God’s redeeming love, already at work in the person of Jesus Christ. The wedding at Cana is a tantalizing glimpse, a sneak preview, of all that will one day come to pass – the redemption, the rescue of God’s creation from the forces of darkness – and the everlasting celebration that will follow.
          For the early church, that celebration found it’s focus in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper – and for this reason, it’s no accident that wine is the central feature of the event in Cana. At the center of many other religions of the Roman world was the acrid smoke of burning sacrificial meat, the whispered words of mysterious revelation, or the re-enactment of a cosmic drama. But the center of Christian worship is different. At the center of Christian worship is a feast, a meal of bread and wine – the first fruits of a greater celebration yet to come.
          Of this first sign Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, John says it revealed his glory. That’s the future dimension of this story, that’s the preview of what is to come that we’re so likely to miss if we allow ourselves to be dazzled by the miracle of 120 gallons of fine wine from water. For John, what’s most significant about this wedding in Cana is the way it points us to the future and the way it functions as a sign in the truest sense.
          For this preview of God’s coming kingdom, let us give thanks, and may God be praised. Amen.

1. Cosmo Gordon Lang, “The Miracles of Jesus: Sunday Readings” in Good Words, vol 41, August 1900, 569.

01-12-2025 When You Pass Through the Waters

Thomas J Parlette
“When You Pass Through the Waters”
Isaiah 43: 1-7
1/12/25
          I wonder if anyone else has noticed that there seem to be a lot of commercials for cruises gracing the airways lately. Seems like every time I tune in to the Vikings game, or better yet, the Steelers game, there’s another ad for a Disney cruise vacation, or Carnival Cruise lines, or even Royal Caribbean. I guess it’s because we live in Minnesota and a tropical cruise sounds pretty good after the hustle and bustle of Christmas now that the temperatures are plunging below zero.
          In the constant race for bigger and better, Royal Caribbean has launched a new vessel called “Icon of the Seas.” It has 20 decks, 6 water slides, and 7 swimming pools. At more than 250,000 gross tone, it’s the biggest cruise ship ever built – until next year, I suppose.
          The “Icon of the Seas” can accommodate 7,600 guests. That’s like inviting the entire town of Pine Island, Oronoco and Hayfield to take a cruise together – and you’d still have room for another 600 guests. Wow, sounds like fun doesn’t it!
          Gary Shtenyngart was a passenger on the ship’s inaugural voyage and wrote about his experience in the May, 2024 issue of The Atlantic.  He says that the ship “looks like a hodgepodge of domes and minarets, tubes and canopies that make it look like a nightmarish version of Istanbul…” Clearly, not a fan.
          Maybe the food can save the day – how were the buffets?  Gary reports, “The buffet was groaning under the weight of what sounds like exotic and sophisticated dishes – marinated octopus, boiled egg with anchovy, chorizo, lobster claws – but every sea creature tasted tragically the same.” OK – Gary was less than impressed. Still, if you want a drink, you can visit the “Swim and Tonic.” Billed as the biggest swim-up bar on any cruise ship in the world. At the very least, I think I might want my picture taken under that sign.
          How about entertainment – cruise ships are known for their entertainment. Well, you can see an ice show, acrobatics in the AquaDome or a comedy show in the Manhattan Comedy Club. Or, stick to the water parks and ride something called “Storm Chasers,” that our friend Gary says “flops you down headfirst into a trough of water, a Royal Caribbean baptism.” (1)
          Not quite the sort of baptism we’re talking about today – but a baptism non-the-less.
          Our passage from Isaiah today has a nautical sort of feeling as well, as he reminds us that “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,” says God through the prophet, “and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.”
          If you’re a passenger on the “Icon of the Seas,” you are passing through the waters in luxury – but passing through the waters was a dangerous trip for the people of Israel. They remembered how Noah had been saved from the flood by his journey on the ark, and how tier ancestors had been delivered from captivity in Egypt by the parting of the Red Sea. For the Israelites, passage through water was no pleasure cruise. It was an escape from death and enslavement.
          Fortunately, the Israelites were delivered – not by the “Icon of the Seas”, but by the God of the Seas. The people of Israel were saved by the Lord, the one who created and formed them. The first seven verses of chapter 43 contain “the promise of Salvation,” writes Old Testament professor Brevard Childs. “God not only created Israel but redeemed her.” God called her by name and said, “you are mine. Israel is promised God’s special protection by the Holy One of Israel,” says Childs. God made promises to the people: “I will be with you,” said God; the waters “shall not overwhelm you.” (2)
          The God of the Seas doesn’t have 20 decks, swim-up bars, ice shows, stand-up comedians or water slides. But there is salvation, redemption and God’s protection. As we pass through the seas, we are promised that God will be with us, and that the waters of life will not overwhelm us.
          “I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” God is holy, more awe-inspiring than anything humans can create. God is our Savior, the one who delivers us from sin and death. God redeems us by paying a ransom for us, and says to us “you are precious in my sight and honored and I love you.”
          Now I know it might seem ridiculous to compare God to an enormous cruise ship – in the end even the “Icon of the Seas,” the biggest cruise ship afloat, is no match for God. But the Royal Cruise Line does have a feature to consider called the “Sea Pass Card.” This card, held by each guest, gives access to a cashless system used for all onboard purchases and services. A person with a SeaPass card can be connected to everything that the “Icon of the Seas” can offer.
          Interesting – God has a similar kind of offer. In this passage God says, “To everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made” – to all of God’s people is given a precious access card. God’s version of the SeaPass doesn’t give you access to drinks at the “Swim and Tonic” or poker chips at the onboard casino – but it does the carry the promise, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.” With this access card, the Lord will always be with us, and the waters will never overwhelm us.
          Now, don’t get me wrong - when we are traveling with God’s version of the SeaPass, we are not promised a luxurious cruising experience through life. But we are given something more valuable and long-lasting – salvation and divine help. We receive these gifts when we trust the Lord God of Israel, and when we put our faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
          For remember, Jesus was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy – “Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.” When Mary was pregnant, an angel said to Joseph, “She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. The angel also said, “Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, “God is with us.”
          Isaiah is the prophet that Jesus quoted the most often – eight times in all. And Jesus began his ministry by reading from the scroll of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed.”
          Salvation and Divine help. Both come from God, as promised by Isaiah. Both are found in Jesus. In fact, I’m sure you remember, Jesus’ name means “salvation.” In Matthew, the angel hints at this when he says that Joseph is to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” The Hebrew word for “salvation” is “yeshuah”, a noun derived from the verbal root that means “relief”, in the sense of being rescued from an enemy, trouble or illness. The name “Joshua” comes from this word, and it evolved over time into the name “Jesus.” Throughout its long history, the word “yeshua” has carried the sense of victory over danger, defeat or distress.
          Yes – Jesus means salvation. When we put our faith in Jesus, we are rescued from anything that can destroy us: Sin, enemies, troubles or illnesses. Jesus is our Redeemer, which means that he pays our debt and delivers us from destruction and death. As God says through Isaiah, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you… I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”
          Jesus is also given the name Immanuel – “God with us.” This is the gift of divine companionship and help, in the face of any threats or dangers. In Isaiah, God promises that “when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”
          The Rev. James Lawson Jr. was a leader in the civil rights movement, committed to nonviolence. At one point, he was confronted by a white man in a black leather motorcycle jacket. The man spit on Rev. Lawson, who calmly asked the man for a handkerchief. The man was stunned by the request – but he handed over a handkerchief just the same. Rev. Lawson calmly cleaned himself off, and then started asking the man about his motorcycle. When the man replied that he had customized his chopper himself, Rev. Lawson opened the door to a conversation, instead of a confrontation. (3)
          Rev. Lawson was walking through fire, he was passing through the dangerous waters, but God was with him. And since he was committed to the non-violent path of Jesus, he found a way to communicate with a man who had shown hatred toward him. In that moment of confrontation, Rev. Lawson defused the tension and established a human connection.
          The prophet Isaiah introduces us to God’s version of the SeaPass, which connects us to salvation and divine help, in the roughest of seas. This all-access pass is seen most clearly in Jesus, whose name reminds us that “God is with us.”
          And with God with us in Jesus Christ, we will not be overwhelmed, no matter what storms we face. We are given salvation, redemption and protection by the God of the Seas.
          And for that – may God be praised. Amen.

1. Gary Shteyngart, “A Meatball at Sea: Seven nights aboard the biggest cruise ship that ever sailed.” The Atlantic, May 2024, 52-65.

2. Brevard Childs, Isaiah (Louisville, Ky, Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), 334.

3. Paul W. Valentine, “James Lawson, an architect of civil rights nonviolence, dies at 95.” The Washington Post, June 10, 2024.

1-05-2025 Written into the Will

Thomas J Parlette
“Written Into the Will”
Ephesians 1: 3-14
1/5/25
          They didn’t legally adopt him – but they surely did raise him. And he was forever grateful.
          The young African American boy had been born into a poor family in New Orleans in 1900. He grew up in a neighborhood so rough it was known as The Battlefield. His grandmother raised him until he was 5, after which he went to be with his mother – but she barely had the means to care for herself, much less a 5 year old boy.
          What saved him was a Lithuanian Jewish family known as the Karnofskys. They took him into their home. They cared for him as if he were their known. He helped around the house and helped the Karnofskys’ sons, Morris and Alex, gather “rags and bone” and deliver coal. Years later, he recalled how the Karnofskys taught him a song known as the “Russian Lullaby.” They didn’t just teach him the words and the melody – they encouraged him to sing it “from the heart.”
          His first musical performance may have been at the side of the Karnofsky’ junk wagon. He played a tin horn to attract customers and distinguish their cart from those of the other people hawking the same sort of second-hand goods. Sensing his young friend’s interest in music, Morris Karnofsky gave the boy a salary advance so he could buy a cornet from a pawn shop.
          The boy would play the cornet – and its close musical cousin, the trumpet – for the rest of his life. He would also sing – always “from the heart,” as his adoptive family the Karnofskys had taught him.
          There were difficult days ahead. At the age of 12, he was arrested for shooting a gun into the air. Because, at that tender age, he was already what the newspaper called “an old offender,” he was sentenced to live at a Spartan reform school known as the Negro Waifs’ Home. Eventually he was released to the custody of family members and he bounced from one relative’s house to another.
          Eventually, his raw and prodigious musical talent led to jobs playing in dance halls and later in jazz bands on Mississippi riverboats. He ended up settling in Chicago and became one of the most famous musicians in America.
          His name was Louis Armstrong. He never forgot where he came from, nor the Karnofsky family who had taken him in and shown him such kindness. For the rest of his life, Armstrong wore a Star of David as a tribute to his adopted family and – to the astonishment of the Jewish musicians he played with – he spoke Yiddish fluently. (1)
         Our reading from Ephesians addresses this topic of adoption as it relates to our relationship with God. Adoption is really the beginning of a new type of relationship. The adoptee was once in a family relationship with this person, but now they are in a family relationship with someone else. From the moment of adoption, a child is placed into the arms or into the care of an adoptive parent, there is a new relationship – complete with fresh prospects, for good or for ill sometimes – for a different future, a different family, a different nurturing style, an alternative opportunity for education and enrichment, among other reasons.
          Here is what the Bible says: “God destined us for adoption as God’s children through Jesus Christ.” So Paul says OUR adoption into the family of God was a part of the Divine plan. “God destined us…” Paul says. Now, we may not understand what that means, but at the very least, we can be assured that the fact that we’re occupying space on this planet is not some cosmic accident. We’re here for a reason. Our adoption into God’s family is not an afterthought or even a back-up plan B – it was God’s intention and desire all along. Before the foundation of the world, we were always to be included as one of God’s children. That’s been God’s plan from the get-go.
          So, how is this possible? It’s possible “through Jesus Christ,” says Paul. This phrase is crucial because it highlights how our adoption is realized. Again, we may not understand the “how”, but we can still claim the “truth” of it.” Jesus’ sacrificial love on the cross paved the way for our reconciliation with God, breaking down the barriers of sin and separation. Our faith in Christ is one way of claiming the blessing of our adopted status as a child of God.
          But why would God do this? Why would God want to bring us into the family? Why would God want to write us into the will and leave us an inheritance?
          Paul says that our adoption is “according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” This underscores the fact that God’s decision to adopt us was not made out of obligation or necessity, but out of God’s sheer delight and sovereign choice. God takes pleasure in calling us God’s children, just like we take pleasure in introducing our children to friends.
          For instance, think about that friend who has just become a father, mother or grandparent for the first time. When you see them – what’s the first thing they do? Nowadays, they pull out their phones and start scrolling through a couple hundred baby pictures!
          Yes, we bring joy to God. We are a child upon whom, like an earthly parent, love can be bestowed. How great it is to know that we cherished and valued by God, who is often described as a heavenly parent. Think about it – God is showing your pictures right now to everyone up there in heaven, a proud parent or grandparent!
         Paul assures us today that we are adopted as God’s children through Jesus Christ. And since we are God’s children, we are written into the will – we receive a Divine inheritance. Our inheritance includes redemption, forgiveness and the riches of God’s grace. In return, we are called to live grateful lives, transformed by God’s grace, living in a way that brings glory and honor to God, who delights in us as adopted children.
          In July of 1939, a train filled with hundreds of Jewish children pulled into a London train station. It had traveled all the way from Czechoslovakia. The children had been rescued by Nicholas Winton, a British stockbroker who had cut short a ski vacation in Switzerland, journeyed to Prague and subsequently convinced the Nazi authorities to release 669 children onto eight separate evacuation trains, through a program known as Kindertransport, later earning him the nickname of the “British Schindler.”
          Those children were the lucky ones. Of about 15,000 Jewish children later interned in camps in Czechoslovakia, only about 100 survived the war.
          One of the Kindertransport children was Vera Diamantova, age 11. Years later she recalled how difficult it was for her parents to decide to release her and her two sisters to the Kindertransport program.
          Only one of her two sisters was able to make it out of the country with her. The other was scheduled to travel on a later train that the Nazis canceled at the last minute.
          The scene at the Prague station will be with me forever,” she told a Daily Telegraph reporter. “The forced cheerfulness of my parents – their last words of love, encouragement and advice. Until that moment, I felt more excited than afraid, but when the whistle blew and the train pulled slowly out of the station, my mother and father could no longer mask their anguish.”
          Her mother would die from typhoid a few days after being liberated from Bergen-Belsen. Vera credited her parents with the “moral courage” to give up their children so their lives could be saved.
          Young Vera would be taken in by the Rainfords, a Methodist family from the Liverpool area. The Rainfords had children of their own and couldn’t easily afford another – but they made do. She would later credit them with a different sort of moral courage.
          Years later, a grown-up Vera would ask her adoptive father why they had decided to make room in their family for her. He explained – “I knew I couldn’t save the world. I knew I couldn’t stop the war from coming, but I knew I could save one human life. And as Hitler broke – as Chamberlain broke his pledge to Czechoslovakia and Jews were in the direst danger, I decided it must be a Czech Jewish child.”
          Vera also recalled what happened after the train arrived in London, as she was the last in her group to be adopted. She was greeted by the British woman she would come to know as Mummy Rainford – “And as she saw me, she started laughing and smiling and crying at the same time and she ran toward me, flung her arms around me and spoke some words I didn’t understand then, but they were – ‘You shall be loved.” And loved I was.”
          “And you know,” Vera added, “those are the most important words any child in danger, and child in need, can hear.” (2)
          “You shall be loved” is what God whispers to us all as we are adopted as God’s children, and written into the will.
        So I invite you to begin this new year by taking your seat at the Table as we look forward to the feast of God’s coming Kingdom.
          May God be praised. Amen.

1. . Homileticsonline, retrieved 12/10/24

2. Sam Roberts, “Vera Gissing, Who Was Rescued by Britain’s Schindler.” Dies at 93,” The New York Times, 3/25/22

12-22-2024 In the Sixth Month

Thomas J Parlette
“In the Sixth Month”
Luke 1: 39-55
12/22/24
          Nadia Bolz-Webber once shared an anonymous poem written by pastor from New York:
          “It seems everyone wants at 3-5 years’ experience.
          Except God, that is.
          God looks for the one willing to try something new.” (1)
          How true. Of all the people God could have chosen, God chose a teenage girl named Mary.
          Despite all the songs, all the stories and all the art work – we really don’t know that much about Mary. She was a common person, living a quiet life in a tiny village, just one of many millions of human beings over the centuries who have lived and died without a birth certificate, Social Security number or digital footprint of any kind.
          If it weren’t for the fact that she gave birth to Jesus, we would never know who she was. But her place in history is secured by what happened to her on one particular day, when out of nowhere, Mary had a visit from an angel.
          The scriptural account from Luke – taken from the verses just prior to today’s reading – is pretty bare bones.
          “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.”
          Pretty sparse – but still, packed with details. Did you notice how Luke begins this part of the story – “in the sixth month?” Luke is very intentional to specify the stage of the pregnancy of Mary’s cousin – Elizabeth, as he sets the stage for the annunciation. From this we learn that John the Baptist – Elizabeth’s son – was 3 months older than Jesus.
          Luke never reveals what Mary was doing when the angel appeared to her. Maybe she was doing household chores, or wandering the countryside, or lying peacefully in bed, just before nodding off to sleep. Nor does he tell us precisely how Mary experienced the angel. Was it a ghostly apparition glowing around the edges, or was it an angel like we see in the renaissance paintings with a flowing robe and big white wings, or was it an ordinary person with a heavenly gleam in the eye” We don’t know.
          But we do know what the angel says. “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
          What does Gabriel mean when he says this? What does he mean by “favored one”? Is he saying Mary has been chosen because, of all the young women on earth, she’s real standout, especially faithful and virtuous? Is he saying that she won some heaven lottery to see who was going to give birth to Jesus?
          There’s no reason to doubt that Mary was faithful and virtuous, a very nice young woman – but that’s probably not why Gabriel calls he “favored.” He calls her favored because of the remarkable role God has chosen for her to play. The initiative here is entirely God’s. It’s God who chooses – for some divine reasons – who is going to bear the holy child. For that reason alone – Mary is the favored one.
          But is she? It would hardly seem so to most people who lived in that very traditional society. They had strong and rigid beliefs about the ethics of pregnancy and childbirth. Women were typically married off as young as 12 or 13 – so it wasn’t Mary’s age that was the issue. Plenty of other young women were getting married and having babies at roughly the same age.
          God’s idea of “favor” and our own are radically different. When we hear the word “favor” today, our mind probably goes to party favors, or perhaps which sibling your parents liked more, or which pair of boots you’re more likely to wear in the cold. But “favor” here refers to God’s choice, not Mary’s benefit. The Greek word here is a variation of the word for “grace”, which of course is something bestowed upon us, not something we initiate.
           We don’t get much of an insight into Mary’s emotional state in the angelic encounter. She is probably afraid at some level. You could also expect that she was anxious, confused, and worried – probably a combination of all those emotions flooded over her. Luke does tell us she was perplexed by the angel’s words, pondering what sort of greeting this might be. So, Mary is clearly baffled by this extraordinary new – and no wonder!
          After the angel tells her what sort of child this is to be – the Son of the Most High, who will reign forever on the throne of David – Mary finally musters the courage to ask a question. But it’s not the question you might expect. “How can this be, since I am still a virgin?”
          A very reasonable question indeed. In light of the amazing announcement the angel has just made, it’s not surprising that she would ask “How?”
          What is surprising is the question that Mary doesn’t ask. She doesn’t ask “Why me?” It could be tempting when an angel brings you a message about this life-changing mission God wants you to undertake, to drop your feet a little. Many of the Old Testaments prophets did – Moses resisted God at first – he asked “Why Me? Can’t you send somebody more qualified?” Jonah did the same thing – he too asked “Why me? I don’t like those people in Ninevah, I don’t want to help them, just go ahead and punish the whole city for all I care.” But not Mary. She shows no self-pity at all. She doesn’t try to argue or change God’s mind, or tell the angel – “I don’t think so, tell God to find someone else.”
          No, her response seems to be, “Why not me?” She seems to be all in right from the beginning. She moves directly to the “How?” question. There never seems a chance Mary wouldn’t say yes. I think it may have taken longer for her to get to yes than we sometimes think – but even if she thought about it, she was always leaning to yes, I’ll do it. She is now curious to know HOW God is going to do this remarkable thing.
         That’s not the question most of us would ask if angel showed up and said God has chosen us to accomplish a very important but dangerous task – one likely to lead to being shunned and ridiculed by our community. It might even cost us our lives. No – most of us would probably move towards “Why me? Isn’t there someone else who is more qualified?”
          But Mary isn’t built that way. It’s not long before she graduates from “How can this be?” to “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
          Which is where we pick up the story this morning. Mary’s cousin Elizabeth was also informed by Gabriel that she was carrying a special child. So, in the manner of expectant mothers everywhere, Mary goes off to visit her cousin. Given the amount of time between their due dates, Mary was probably going to help her older cousin with the housework and daily chores. And Elizabeth has an opportunity to share her wisdom and knowledge about what to expect in the months ahead – sort of a face to face version of “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.”
          The greeting between them is touching – especially the way the infant John leaps in his mother’s womb when the unborn Jesus comes near. But Elizabeth’s words are significant, too – “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
          It’s here that we finally encounter the “Why me?” question. Only it’s not Mary who asks it. It’s Elizabeth – “Why me – I’m no one special- why am I so fortunate to have this woman, the God-bearer, the soon-to-be mother of our Savior, come visit me?”
          Elizabeth sums it up with the statement – “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
          And there you have it – that’s why Mary is favored, that’s why she is blessed. She is blessed because she believes. She believes all along that God’s promise will be fulfilled in her. She takes God at God’s word and never questions the truth of the promise – at least not that we read about in Luke. Her only question is “How?”
          That’s the reason Mary is so blessed, and why she sings the song she does. She never asks Why me? She never sings Woe is me to have to bear this burden. Her question is instead – “Why not me?”
          That’s a useful and important question to keep beside as we move through life – especially in the more challenging times. When something bad happens, we may be tempted at first to to ask – “Why me?” We’re only human, after all. But there’s a distinct downside to asking “Why me?” Wondering why me freezes us in place. We get stuck in self-pity and dwell on questions like – “Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this?” Questions like that guarantee, that as long as we keep asking them, we’ll never make any progress in learning to live with whatever situation we’re facing.
         That’s the remarkable thing about Mary – she moves so directly past the “Why me?” – right to the “Why not me? How will this happen – what’s the plan here God.” Mary, even at her young age, seems to know intuitively that life itself – any life – is a gift from God, and that God is good to us even amid the struggles we face.
          One of my favorite Beatles song has always been “Let it Be.” Paul McCartney has said that the song was inspired by a dream he had about his late mother, Mary Patricia McCartney, who died of cancer in 1956.
          Things with the Beatles were not going very smoothly, and Paul had been weighing his options, thinking about his future and whether he should leave the band. In a dr4eam one night, McCartney’s mother came to him and said – “It’s gonna be OK. Just let it be.” McCartney said he felt a sense of peace and felt reminded that things would eventually work out.
          So he wrote “Let it Be” and sang it as the last Beatles single before he left the group. Just let it be.
          People often wondered if he was making a biblical reference in the song with the line – “Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be.” And it does fit – but McCartney said he wrote it about his own mother, Mary. It still works.
          “Here am I, the servant of the Lord – let it be with me according to your word.” And that’s what she did. That’s what she always did. May we all be so blessed – through whatever ups and downs and struggles we face, through whatever trials and heartaches life might bring – may we follow Mary’s example, and respond – “Let it be…”
          May God be praised. Amen.
1. Anonymous prayer shared by Nadia Bolz-Weber, “Some questions for Mary – An Advent sermon,” Patheos.com, Dec. 24, 2014

12-08-2024 A Shout Out To Isaiah

Thomas J Parlette
“A Shout Out to Isaiah”
Luke 3: 1-6
12/8/24
 
          What if you could bring back a species of animal from the past? Such was the concept of Michael Crichton’s book “Jurassic Park,” in which various species of dinosaurs were brought back to life using DNA found in a mosquito preserved in amber. It certainly made for a great movie.
          Turns out, that is not as far-fetched as it seems. There is a company called Colossal Biosciences that is trying to bring back the wooly mammoth.
          The wooly mammoth was as big as an African elephant, but it was covered with long, scraggly fur. It lived during the last ice age – it’s ears and tail were short, to minimize heat loss in the cold environment. The wooly mammoth ate grass as it roamed northern Europe, Asia and North America. It provided food and clothing for early humans who hunted them for their meat, fur and it’s long, curved tusks, used for fighting and foraging.
          Then it disappeared, with the last survivors dying off about 4,00 years ago. The wooly mammoth became extinct.
          And now Colossal Biosciences wants to give the wooly mammoth a fresh start. It wants to revive the giant animal through modern genetics, and then repopulate the Arctic tundra. According to the Washington Post, Colossal Biosciences “has produced a line of Asian elephant stem cells that can be coaxed to transform into other types of cells needed to reconstruct the extinct giant.” Or, if this is not possible, the want to create “a mammoth-like elephant designed to thrive in the cold.”
          Researchers have sequenced enough of the genetic blueprint of the wooly mammoth to create a guide for remaking the animal. But to discover which genes control the animals curved tusks and thick fur, tissue samples must be grown in the lab. George Church, a Harvard geneticist, wants to use elephant stem cells to engineer mammoth DNA and grow these tissue samples. Sounds a bit like the plot of an upcoming “Jurassic Park – Part 7”
          So, why would a scientist do this? Bringing back a lost species is an attempt to reverse the toll that humans have played in the ongoing extinction crisis. About 800 extinctions have been documented in the last 400 years, although some scientists believe the number is far higher. Even if researchers cannot resurrect wooly mammoths, they want to make discoveries that will help save animals that are still with us from extinction - including endangered animals such as elephants. (1)
          At the beginning of the 1st century, the people of Israel believed that the prophets of God went the way of extinction. Elijah and Elisha had roamed the earth some 900 years earlier. Then came Jonah, Amos, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The last prophet was Malachi – about 400 years before the birth of Christ. And then…. Silence. In fact, some scholars refer to this period of time as “the silent years. Between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament, there were these 400 years of silence – no word from God, no major or minor prophetic activity. Nothing. The prophets seemed like the wooly mammoths of the Hebrew Scriptures – they appeared gone forever.
          But then, in “the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, When Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high Priest hood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”
          John “wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.” You might say he looked a wooly, but smaller than a mammoth.
          Luke tells us that John “went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

       John message was not new – he was actually giving a shout out to a prophet the people thought had gone extinct. Isaiah had said all this before – hundreds of years earlier – “Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”
          John’s version is certainly not a word for word translation – but John is clearly giving Isaiah a shout out, bringing back to life a prophet thought to have disappeared forever.
          Although the people of Israel thought the prophets were long gone, Suddenly John appeared and stated preparing them to see Jesus as “the salvation of God.” No stem cells needed to bring this prophet to life – all John needed was the inspiration of the word of God, a word that has had life-giving power throughout human history. Isaiah himself said, “The grass withers; the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever. Get you up to a high mountain… lift your voice with strength… say to the cities of Judah, ‘Here is your God!”
          That’s what John is saying – “Here is your God!” with his finger pointed straight at Jesus.
          The same challenge is placed before us today on this second Sunday of Advent – listen for the word of God, bring Isaiah back to prominence and prepare people for Jesus, the salvation of God.
          First, we listen for the word of God. In a world of competing messages, we need to open our ears, our hearts and our minds to what God wants to say to us. As we know, God’s word can be difficult to follow, but it is always designed to help us. Think of the words of the 10 commandments – “remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” Or the advice of Isaiah to “seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow.” And the command of Jesus to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
          All those words, advice and commands are meant to help us, not hurt us. Keeping the Sabbath gives us time for rest and renewal, what we call “self-care” these days. Caring for the poor makes our community a better place, and loving our enemies breaks the cycle of violence, retribution and revenge. God’s word may be challenging, and it is usually countercultural, but it is designed to maximize our health and happiness. If we are walking away from this word, we need to hear John’s call to repent, turn around, check out your spiritual GPS and get yourself re-routed, as Siri might say.
          Next, join John in giving a shout out to Isaiah by reviving his message. Isaiah lived in the 8th century before Christ, but he was no wooly mammoth. He insisted on the practice of social justice, commanding people to “loose the bonds of injustice… let the oppressed go free… and share bread with the hungry.” He wanted everyone in society to be treated fairly, especially the most vulnerable.
         At the same time, he preached a message of radical inclusion, saying that God’s house “shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” The Old Testament scholar Brevard Childs says that this verse “removes any doubt that God’s purpose for God’s house is directed to ALL people without restriction.” (2) This is a new vision of community, in which all people who honor the Lord in their actions are to be included, even those previously excluded, such as eunuchs and foreigners.
          What a radical shift – to be honest, it still is a radical shift. Suddenly, the community of faith was not limited to people of the same nationality, and being admitted to the congregation did not require being part of a traditional family. Through Isaiah, God called for barriers to fall, which began a movement of inclusiveness that only accelerated when Jesus began his ministry.
          A strong connection exists between Isaiah and Jesus, since Jesus is the fulfillment of many of Isaiah’s prophecies, and Isaiah is the prophet quoted by Jesus the most – eight times, in fact. Do you remember when Jesus cleansed the Temple? He said “My house shall be called a house of prayer,” bringing Isaiah back to life. We give Isaiah a shout out whenever we take action to make our church “a house of prayer for ALL peoples.”
          Finally, we are challenged to prepare people for Jesus, the salvation of God. This connection between Jesus and salvation is made by John, a messenger in the mold of Isaiah, one “who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation.” The Hebrew word for salvation is “yeshu’ah”, a noun derived from a verb that means “relief” in the sense of being rescued from an enemy, trouble or illness. The name “Joshua” comes from this word, and eventually it evolved into the name “Jesus.”
         No surprise there – Jesus means salvation.
          Throughout its long history, the word “yeshu’ah” has meant victory over danger, defeat or distress. I’m sure you remember what the angel said to Joseph – “Don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Salvation means rescue from every trouble and fear, including being saved from our sins. We prepare people for Jesus when we are messengers of Peace instead of conflict – Good News instead of bad, and Salvation instead of destruction, revenge and retribution. Jesus is the salvation of God proclaimed by John, and now, by us. When we gather to celebrate the birth of Christ, we always hear these words from Isaiah – “All this took place took fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: Look a virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, “God is with us.”
          Yes, God is with us – in every time and place. God speaks a word meant to help us, and God gathers us into congregations and fellowships that should include ALL people. And most importantly, Jesus is our salvation, saving us from anything that can hurt or destroy us.
          May God be praised. Amen.

1. Dino Grandino, “Scientists say they’re closer to reviving mammoths. What could go wrong? The Washington Post, March 6, 2024.

2. Brevard Childs, Isaiah, Westminster John Knox Press, 2001, p 459.

12-01-2024 Walking the Desire Path of Faith

Thomas J Parlette
“Walking the Desire Path of Faith”
1st Thessalonians 3: 9-13
12/1/24, First Advent
          I remember in my college days at Eastern Illinois University, there was some construction going on around the campus. They had just finished a new dorm building on the outskirts of campus the previous year, and that was where I had been assigned to live as a freshman. I remember there was a main walkway leading up to the front doors of the dorm, but there weren’t any other defined sidewalks – just the main walkway. But you could see where the students had started to make little pathways, depending on which building they were going to. They were a bunch a little dirt paths beginning to form that led to the library, or the other dormitory building, Old Main with all the administration offices, the student union or any of the other buildings that housed the business school or the social sciences – where I was usually going. It was kind of any interesting strategy, let the people decide the best route. The students were usually going to pick the most direct route, so let them show you the path and pave it later. And that’s exactly what happened – by the time I graduated, all the dirt paths had become sidewalks.
          I later found out that this process actually has a name – “desire paths.” Turns out architects and urban planners want pedestrians to enjoy their walk, so they used to spend a great deal of time trying to plot, guess and surmise how pedestrians would prefer to go from one corner of a campus or a park to another.
          So based on how the urban planners thought you might want to walk, they created paths and laid down gravel, or asphalt or concrete. On the CAD program it all looked great.
          But months later, if you walked those carefully laid out paths, you would start to notice little dirt paths veering off this way and that way. What the planners started to see was how people really wanted to get from one place to another. Rather than follow the traditional sidewalks, people would deviate on random angles to save a couple of seconds, and over time urban planners gave this process a name – “desire paths.” (1) Save some time and money and let the people show you how they want to go before you pour any concrete. A desire path usually represents the shortest or the most easily navigated route between an origin and a destination.
          The Bible is full of ideas about paths – both the good paths and the bad one. In the Book of Proverbs we read:
         Keep straight the path of your feet, and all your ways will be sure.
-         Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insights. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
-         I make in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice.
-         And of course, the words of John the Baptist, “Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.”
And that’s just a taste. Our scriptures have a lot to say about the importance of choosing – desiring, if you will – the right path. And it’s a good topic as we begin the season of Advent.
In today’s reading from Paul’s first letter to the church in Thessalonica, we get the ancient apostle’s ideas of what makes for good paths. What sort of path should we desire that gives us the best chance to get to the destination we want?
Paul writes, “But Timothy has just now come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith.” Later in the passage, he adds, “Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.”
What does it mean to walk on the path of faith? It could mean that we’re comfortable when walking by faith and not by sight, trusting in the promises of God even when circumstances seem uncertain and the path ahead appears unclear. The writer of Hebrews put it best with these words – “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” These words are perfectly captured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, when Indy must cross an enormous chasm to get to the Holy Grail. He sees no possible way to get across, and he finally concludes, “It’s a leap of faith,” and he steps out into the void, and an invisible bridge appears only after he takes the plunge. Step by step, he makes it across.
Getting comfortable with that sort of sightless walking takes time. That’s why walking on the path of faith might also mean we must learn perseverance. Faith enables us to keep going in the face of tough times, to find hope in the midst of despair, and to experience joy even in the midst of sorrow. We all get knocked down sometimes – but it’s getting up again that really matters.
Walking in the path of faith is easier when it is done in community. Faith is not meant to be lived in isolation, but in community with other believers. That’s why the Bible places such importance on living together in faith, answering to call to encourage, support and uplift one another, bearing each other’s burdens, and sharing in each other’s joys and sorrows.
The actor Martin Sheen spoke on this topic last year. He was giving an interview about the pandemic and was referencing a movie he made with his son Emilio Estevez. The movie was made in 2011, it was called The Way. Sheen played a bereaved father walking The Camino pilgrimage route in Spain, completing his deceased son’s journey. In the interview he said, “I think that people are looking for something that was sort of heightened during the pandemic, when people began to hear the birds again and smell clean air, despite the horrors of the pandemic and so many deaths, and so they were rejuvenated when the pandemic ended and they were permitted to go outside their homes, and then they wanted to go outside of themselves. They wanted to touch the sacred that exists in all of us. The wanted to find a way, as I often say, to unite the will of the spirit with the work of the flesh, and that what pilgrimage is all about. You know, the flesh is walking, the spirit is listening, and they come together and they form community with all the other pilgrims in front, behind, and right and left of you for the 500 miles from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela. But it’s a journey inside as well as a physical journey outside.” (2)
“To touch the sacred that exists in all of us… find a way to unite the will of the spirit with the work of the flesh.” That’s a pretty good definition of what we try to do in this season of Advent. We search once more for that path that will lead us to God.
We know there are pitfalls, they are dangers.
One of the biggest is that tension that exists between belief and doubt. No one who is walking by faith is going to be immune from doubt or fear. Just imagine that someone stopped by your house, a place you know well, and blindfolded you. And then challenged you to find your way to the kitchen, down to the basement, to the bathroom and finally to your bedroom. How confident would you be? You’ve navigated your house hundreds of times, maybe even in the dark, but you do it blindfolded – or would you have a little doubt, a little fear. Of course you would. It’s only natural. All the great heroes of the faith wrestled with fear and doubt – no one is immune.
Another challenge to walking the desire path is the temptation to prioritize materialistic pursuits and pleasures over what is best for us spiritually. We spend a lot of time in Advent, and then again in Lent, trying to avoid this particular temptation. Walking on the desire path of faith means that we’ll be called upon to make some difficult choices sometimes, we may have to make some sacrifices that run counter to societal norms or maybe even our own personal desires. The path of faith may call for forgiveness, standing up for justice and decency, persevering in the face of persecution, rejection and ridicule, and living a life of simplicity and humility. All of that can be tough at times.
But ultimately walking the desire path is rewarding. It is marked by moments of profound grace, divine intervention and spiritual growth.
In his book, The Sacred Journey, Frederick Buechner wrote: “To journey for the sake of saving our own lives is little by little to cease to live in any sense that really matters, even to ourselves, because it is only by journeying for the world’s sake – even when the world bores and sickens and scares you half to death – that little by little we start to come alive. This was not a conclusion that I came to in time. It was a conclusion from beyond time that came to me. God knows I have never been any good at following the road it pointed me to, but at least, by grace, I glimpsed the road and saw it is the only one worth traveling.” (3)
So, as we begin this season of Advent, we journey on the desire path for ourselves, but also for the sake of the world. That we may catch a glimpse of the only path worth following, that we may touch that sense of sacred that exists in all of us, and find a way to unite the will of the spirit with the work of the flesh.
Let us gather at the Table and be nourished for the journey.
May God be praised. Amen.1. Homileticsonline, retrieved 11/15/24
2. Ibid…
3. Ibid…

11-24-2024 "Let's Hear It For Someone Who Needs No Introduction"

Thomas J Parlette
“Let’s hear it for someone who needs no introduction.”
Rev. 1: 4b-8
11/24/24
          Some of you know that I am a certified Master Biblical Storyteller through the Network of Biblical Storytellers. It takes a couple of years to complete the training. It is something short of a Doctor of Ministry degree, but the training is very similar. We read books and wrote papers, videotaped ourselves telling stories and received feedback. The program culminated with a full evening story telling concert of about two hours and a project such as a teaching resource or a book of some kind. All in all, it’s a pretty rigorous program.
          One of the things we learned was the importance of introductions – how to give a good introduction and what you should suggest for your own introduction.
          We learned it was important to do some research, gather some information, establish the speaker’s credibility, build anticipation – and remember, keep it concise and engaging.
          You’ve heard these sort of introductions at conferences or classes or concerts. You’re familiar with expressions that usually get tacked on the end, such as…
         Please join me in welcoming…
          It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you the one and only…
          Please give it up for…
          Let’s have a round of applause for…
          Let’s hear it for a person who needs no introduction…
          An effective introduction takes a bit of thought, and a bit of homework. But if you do it well, it can launch your guest into a great lecture, lesson or performance right from the beginning.
          This morning, in our text from the Book of Revelation, John has the task of giving an introduction for Jesus, our Lord and Savior. An intimidating task, for sure. How would you go about introducing Jesus?
          Well, you might go online and see what one of the Artificial Intelligence apps might provide. For instance, here’s one example that came from Yoodli AI, imagining that the speaker is introducing Jesus to the Jewish Sanhedrin in A.D. 29:
“Honorable members of the Sanhedrin.
It is with great reverence and humility that I stand before you today to introduce a figure whose presence has captivated hearts and minds throughout the land of Judea and beyond- Jesus of Nazareth.
In the bustling streets and dusty villages of our land, Jesus has emerged as a teacher, a healer, and a beacon of hope for the masses. His words, spoken with authority and compassion, have stirred the hearts of the people, drawing crowds wherever he goes.
Yet, amidst the fervor and admiration that surrounds Jesus, there are also questions and concerns that weigh heavily upon the minds of many, including members of this esteemed council… Jesus’ ministry, marked by acts of healing and compassion, and inclusivity, has raised eyebrows among some members of our community. His willingness to associate with tax collectors, sinners and outcasts challenges our understanding of righteousness and purity according to the laws of Moses. Moreover, Jesus teachings have sparked debate and controversy among scholars and religious leaders. His interpretation of the Scriptures, particularly regarding matters of Sabbath observance and ritual purity, diverges from the traditions handed down to us. Therefore, I urge you, my esteemed colleagues, to approach this deliberation with open minds, guided by righteousness and compassion. Let us engage in thoughtful dialogue and prayerful reflection as we seek to discern the path forward in our interactions with Jesus and his followers. May the wisdom of our ancestors and the guidance of the Almighty be our companions in this sacred endeavor.
Thank you.
          Not bad for a computer. But John takes a bit of a different tack. Today’s text is John’s attempt to introduce Jesus to his readers scattered throughout the Roman empire, and subsequent readers from that time on. The intro is short, but powerful. It is all about Jesus Christ, fitting on a day like this when we celebrate Christ the King Sunday, or, as it is sometimes called, Reign of Christ Sunday – the last Sunday of the liturgical year. Next Sunday we start a new year with the First Sunday of Advent. This is when we inaugurate a new journey through the life of Christ, beginning with his birth. But today, we are at the end of our liturgical year, and we end with a celebration of Jesus as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the One and Only, the One seated on his throne as King of kings and Lord of lords.
          So, let’s take a closer look at how John introduces Jesus, our Lord and Savior, seated at the right hand of God. What does John have to say?
          John argues that the Jesus he is now introducing is and has always been eternal. This must be an important point because he begins and ends his introduction by stressing this concept. In verse four he says: “Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come.” Then in verse 8: “I am the Alpha and the omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” This declaration encapsulates the timeless nature and absolute sovereignty of Jesus Christ. He is the beginning and the end, the eternal and unchanging foundation upon which all creation rests.
          We’ve heard it so often we might need to remind ourselves why that is important. In a world marked by uncertainty and transience, the truth of Christ’s eternal nature provides a firm anchor for our faith. He is the unchanging constant in a world of flux, the source of hope amid the ebb and flow of human history.
          It is a pretty recent phenomenon that we have devoted so much time and energy into making sure we understand what is real and what is fake. That’s why in times of uncertainty, conflict and fear, it’s reassuring to remember that Jesus Christ is the one constant we can depend on and that his will is going to ultimately prevail.
          In practical terms, what does this mean? It means that we can trust God’s faithfulness. When we feel overwhelmed by the pace of life or the pressures of the moment, we know that God transcends time – which is why we can trust in God’s timing and plan for our lives.
          It means that we can find comfort in God’s constant presence. It’s no accident that the Angel told Joseph before Jesus was born that the child’s name would not only be Jesus, but Emmanuel, meaning “God with Us.” Remember, John’s audience were people suffering under the yoke of Roman oppression. They were lonely and full of fear. John’s Revelation paints a picture of the triumphant Christ, who is the Alpha and Omega, signifying that in moments of loneliness and fear, we can draw strength from the truth that God is always with us, and Christ will triumph over the powers of this world.
          It also means on this Christ the King Sunday, that we can tap into God’s unlimited power and resources. As we navigate a world filled with uncertainty and turmoil, we can find hope in God’s sovereignty. Knowing that God is God reassures us that nothing happens outside the will of God and that God is actively involved in our lives.
          John’s introduction continues as he calls Jesus the faithful witness. This doesn’t mean that Jesus was an eyewitness to some disputed event, but that he was a martyr who “loves us and frees us from our sins by his blood.” He voluntarily laid down his life for us. The Greek word “witness” in our reading is Martus. If you claim to believe in something, what is the ultimate test? You die for it. A martyr is someone who bears the ultimate witness. Jesus is the faithful witness or martyr of faith mentioned in v. 5. It is Jesus who loves us and died to save us from our sins by his blood.
          And here is the most amazing part – It isn’t just good people that Jesus died for. It was – according to Paul, for sinners like us that he died as a witness, a witness to God’s love and compassion. Imagine someone voluntarily giving up their life for a known rascal, criminal or just all-around bad person… a sinner. John’s introduction notes that Jesus was not only death defying – he conquered death completely.
          John also introduces Jesus as the first born of the dead, having been resurrected from the grave. We understand his resurrection as a complete validation of his divinity, proof that Jesus is the fulfillment of Scripture. We also know that the empty tomb represents total and absolute victory over death – humanity’s greatest enemy – and, finally, that it is the hope of our future resurrection. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we have the hope and assurance that we, too, will be raised to eternal life.
          John wraps up his introduction with the assurance that Jesus will return, to reign in glory – “Look, he is coming with the clouds…” The promise of Christ’s return fills us with anticipation and expectation. It is a reminder that our present struggles and sufferings are only temporary, and that a day is coming when all things will be made new. As the 19th century Scottish minister and writer Alexander MacLaren once wrote, “the early Christians were looking, not for a cleft in the grave called a grave, but for a cleavage in the sky called Glory.” And so should we. As we await Christ’s coming, let us live with hope and faithfulness, knowing that the one who promised to return is faithful, Jesus Christ is the One who is, was, and ever will be, the Alpha and the Omega, that he was born to die; but death could not hold him, and we await his return to rule in Glory.
         May God be praised. Amen.

11-17-2024 The Great Dechurching

Thomas J Parlette
“The Great Dechurching”
Mark 13: 1-8
11/17/24
           About 15% of Americans are “dechurched.”
          What does that mean exactly? Well, it doesn’t mean that they are not Christian – most would still say that they are. It does not mean that they’ve lost their faith – most would say they still believe in God. And it does not mean that they have been kicked out of church – because most have not been.
          Those that are “dechurched” are those who used to attend a service of worship at least once a month, and now they attend less than once a year.
          They are dechurched, and their number is huge – more than 40 million Americans.
          Seats are empty in churches across the country, in large part due this exodus. This trend transcends denominational boundaries – all churches seem some evidence of this movement, and we’ve been seeing for years. In fact, I would say that this has been a trend that I have seen since I first started in ministry some 35 years ago.

          Pastors Jim Davis and Michael Graham explore the trend in a book called The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back? They write, “More people have left the church in the last 25 years than all the new people who became Christians from the First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening and Billy Graham crusades combined. (1)
          Look around, and you can see it. The trend has impacted every congregation, hitting every category, from Evangelicals to Catholics to mainline Protestants. The median congregation in the United States now has 65 people – down from 137 people just two decades ago.
          One man left the church because of the pastor’s sermon.
          “What was the sermon about,” asked a friend.
          “Babylon.”
          The friend was confused, “The pastor preached on Babylon?”
          “No – I’m talking about the pastor’s delivery – Babble on and Babble on.” (2)
        I tell jokes to keep from crying. But I suppose change is inevitable.
          In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus predicted that change would come to the religious institutions of his day. As he came out of the Temple in Jerusalem during the last week of his earthly ministry, one of his disciples said, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
          That unnamed disciple was right to say, “what large stone.” The foundation stones of the Temple, which are still visible today in the Western Wall, are probably the largest building stones in the ancient world. The smallest stones are between two and five tons, and the largest is estimated to weigh 570 tons.
          And Jesus’ prediction came true – the stones above the foundation did indeed come down. In the year 70, the Romans attacked the city of Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple. Many people were killed or enslaved and the treasures of the Temple were stolen. The destruction of the Temple was one of the greatest tragedies of Jewish history, and it caused Jewish and Christian residents of the city to scatter.
          You might say that these people were “detempled.” But unlike today, their change in religious activity was forced upon them.
          After walking to the Mount of Olives, across from the Temple, a group of disciples asked Jesus privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?”
          And Jesus said, “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines.” Yes, many violent and upsetting events were going to come, and their lives would be threatened. But then Jesus ends on a hopeful note – “This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”
          Ah, yes – the birth pangs. Jesus knew that detempling would be painful, but there would also be hope for new birth. In fact, the Jewish faith was completely reshaped by the destruction of the Temple, forcing Jews to shift to worship in synagogues led by rabbis. Christianity also became more congregation-focused, because the followers of Jesus could no longer gather in the Temple as they had done in the early days of the church. The Book of Acts tells us that the first followers of Jesus “spent much time together in the Temple… broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all people” (Acts 2: 46-47)
          Without a Temple, both Judaism and Christianity had to focus on worship and fellowship in congregations outside of Jerusalem. And as painful as the destruction of Jerusalem was, it set the stage for both faiths to become global religions.
          So, what is going on in the American church? No Roman army has attacked us. But still, we are scattered. The COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating effect, keeping people away from church buildings for more than a year. We learned ways of being the church, and we are coming back, but many people fell out of the habit of attending worship and they developed new habits instead. Others left because of church scandals or arguments. Others left because they didn’t fit in, their friends were not there, or they didn’t feel much love at church.
          Kristen Fowler of Kentucky was raised going to church every Sunday. But she tells On Point radio that she no longer goes as an adult because, “the views of the church just don’t align with my views.”
          Bill Fowler of Oregon was also raised in a church, but had a falling out with the local church because the sermons were becoming too political.
          And Brigette Bishop of Massachusetts grew up going to church every week. She taught Sunday school, sang in the choir, and was even a church organist. She stopped going to church in her 30’s because they hurt her so deeply. “I got postpartum psychosis after the birth of my second child,” she says, “and the pastor of the church we were attending accused me of being possessed by a demon.” (3)
          The reasons for dechurching may vary, but the losses are consistent and real.
          Despite these departures, there is reason for hope. Today’s dechurching may be part of the “birth pangs” that will create the church of the future. According to The Washington Post, evangelicals are looking for friendship, while mainline Protestants and Catholics are looking for spiritual practices and outreach programs. (4) Many of the dechurched are seeking stable and healthy congregations that find a way to avoid the polarization affecting churches and other institutions.
          Davis and Graham write that, “The single best piece of good news to come from our study is that more than half of those who have left evangelical churches are willing to come back right now. That’s nearly 8 million dechurched Christians. The reasons why they’re willing to come back vary from group to group, but on the whole, people are looking for two things: healthy relationships and a local church that actively demonstrates how the gospel is true, good and beautiful. Those two factors are almost entirely within our control. Church leaders can grow in their ability to exercise relational wisdom and build healthy communities. Our local churches can grow institutionally to be bolder and clearer with our doctrine, religious affection and cultural engagement. (5)
          The bottom line is this: The church is not a building, constructed of large stones that can be thrown down. Instead, it is a stable and healthy community of faith. Davis and Graham say that congregations need to work on “relationship wisdom” and a “quiet calm and curious demeanor.” Church leaders – pastors, elders and deacons – need to be quick to listen and slow to speak. The path toward new life is not easy, but it is simple.
          Birth pangs are not easy. In fact, they are painful. But the path to life is quite simple, if the church is willing to listen to people, respect different points of view, work on developing friendships, and offer spiritual practices and outreach programs.
          In a radio interview, Graham offers a vision for ministry that could really help us in the future. He says that when we put the kingdom of Jesus first, “that allows us to love our neighbor as ourselves. It allows us to love our enemies, and it allows us to live in the sacrificial way that he did. In Jesus’ kingdom, the last is first, and the first is last, and this is the opposite of the American story. And so, we have an opportunity to be radically countercultural and really care for people, particularly the least of these people who have really fallen through the cracks and people who are suffering.” (6)
          He makes a good point. The church that needs to be born today is one in which we love our neighbors, even our enemies – the people across the political aisle perhaps, with radically different points of view. It is a church that focuses on living in the sacrificial way that Jesus did, with outreach programs that serve a world in need. Such a church will be made up of a group of Christians who develop friendships and show that they care for people, especially those who are suffering and in tremendous pain. This new church can be like the old church of the Book of Acts, in which Christians “broke bread at home… praising God and having the goodwill of all people.”
          A woman from Los Angeles called On Point radio once and said she still identifies as a Christian, but she left the church because it no longer seemed to reflect Jesus. Having heard too much in church about “going to hell” and “needing to repent,” she said, “I just don’t feel that is the Jesus I know, it’s not the God that I know, it’s not the Christianity that I have come to know and was raised in. But I would honestly love to go back to church.” (7)
          Can we help create a new church for people like that woman who has become dechurched? A stable and healthy community of faith? A congregation that reflects Jesus, loves people, and engages in sacrificial service? Over half the people who have left the church are willing to come back if they find a true expression of Christianity. At the beginning of this sermon, I invited you to look around to see the evidence of dechurching that is all around us. Well, now I invite you to take a second look around, and see all the evidence that we are stable and healthy congregation, loving people and reflecting Jesus as we engage in sacrificial service.
          The birth pangs that Jesus spoke about are still here – that is true. But here’s the thing about birth pangs. It hurts during delivery – but when the new creation arrives, the pain fades into distant memory, but the joy remains.
         For that, May God be praised. Amen.

1. Jim Davis and Michael Graham, The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back”, Zondervan, 2023.

2. Homileticsonline, retrieved 11/4/24.

3. Jonathan Chang and Chakrabarti Meghna, “The great dechurching: Why so many Americans are leaving their churches.” On Point, January 24, 2024, www.wbur.org.

4. Bob Smietana, “Pastors book crunches data on “dechurching”, posits how to fill pews again.” The Washington Post, Sept. 16th, 2023, B#.

5. Jim Davis and Michael Graham, “5 Misconceptions About Dechurching in America”, The Keller Center, Sept. 5th, 2023, www.thegospelcoalition.org.

6. Ibid…

7. Jonathan Chang and Chakrabartic Meghna, On Point, Jan. 24th, 2024, www.wbur.org.

11-10-2024 Survivor: A Biblical Edition

Thomas J Parlette
“Survivor: A Biblical Edition”
Ruth 1: 1-18
Ruth 3: 1-5, 4: 13-17
11/10/24

         One of the longest-running TV reality shows is the Survivor series. Renewed last May for its 48th season, the series continues to underequipped and scantily clad adventurers to desert islands and other remote places, challenging them to live off the land for more than a month. The contestants compete to see who avoids getting “voted off the island” – in hopes of claiming bragging rights as the “sole survivor.” But it’s not just bragging rights they win. A $1 million prize helps make up for the starvation rations, bug bites and sunburn.
          In 1997, when the first Survivor series premiered on Swedish TV under the name Expedition Robinson, few could imagine how successful the show, in all its various incarnations, would become. As tired as the concept may seem, audiences still love it nearly 30 years later. (1)
          You could say that the Bible has a number of survivor stories. Job, Jonah and David could be thrown in the mix, but one of the most enduringly popular survivor story is this story we consider today – the story of Ruth and Naomi. How does it happen that these two ordinary women end up so lost and desperate?
          Well, the short answer is – marriage happened to them, which in that day and age was not such a great deal for women. Not that they had any choice in the matter. Women back then were just one step up from property. They had no real rights to speak of. They were utterly and completely dependent on their husbands.
          It could work out alright, more or less, if the husband was kind, loving and caring. Yet, in one circumstance, it didn’t matter how good or righteous the husband may have been. That circumstance was widowhood.
          When a husband in that time died – especially if he died young – it was catastrophic for his wife. There was no pension, no Social Security, no economic “safety net” other than the kindness and pity of others.
          When such a thing happened, the woman turned to the only place of refuge available – her in-laws. The closest in-laws, according to the law of Moses, were her own grown sons, if she had any. She would go stay with them, and they’d have to take her in. If the widow was still young and her husband had a brother still alive, that brother, more likely than not, would marry her himself. He would do this even if he already had a wife. Remember, this was a polygamous society, strange as that might sound to our modern ears. To marry the wife of one’s dead brother was pretty much a social obligation, laid out in the law of Moses. It even as a name – “levirate marriage,” as the biblical scholars call it.
          In our story for today, an Israelite woman, Naomi, loses her husband, Elimelech. Naomi and Elimelech had moved, many years before, to a foreign land – Moab. The newly widowed Naomi is all right for now because she has two sons. Each of them have married local Moabite girls, and between them, the two sons take good care of their mother.
          That is until the two of them die in rapid succession. Now, Naomi really has a problem. Her situation is bleak. It’s just her and her two daughters-in-law – who aren’t even Israelites. The daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah are young. Because they’re so young, they have the option of returning to their father’s families, where someone will surely look after them. If they’re lucky, they may even find new husbands. But Naomi, she is truly on her own.
          Naomi tries to cut her two daughters-in-law loose, to send them away for their own good. After a tearful goodbye. Orpah goes – but Ruth stays. “Are you nuts?” asks Naomi – maybe not in so many words, but that’s what the Bible implies.
          “Well, I guess so,” says Ruth, “because I’m staying with you.”
          The Ruth utters perhaps the most famous words in the Book of Ruth, words we commonly hear in weddings:
          “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you!
          Where you go, I will go;
          Where you lodge, I will lodge;
          Your people shall be my people,
          And your God my God.
          Where you die, I will die – there will I be buried.
          May the Lord do thus and so to me,
          And more as well, if even death parts me from you!”
           The words of that solemn vow mark the beginning of Ruth and Naomi’s survivor story. Today’s second scripture passage marks the second episode.
 
         The scene now shifts back to Israel, where Naomi and Ruth have journeyed. Remember, Israel is a foreign country to Ruth, one she has never seen before. As for Naomi, it has been years since she left home as young woman. She has no way of knowing if any of her late husband’s family or relatives are still alive.
          Lucky for her, they are. “Can this be Naomi?” her relatives ask, in wonderment.
          Naomi’s reply is bleak indeed. “Don’t call me Naomi,” she groans. “Call me Mara” – a word that means “bitter.”
          “Call me bitter, for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me.
          I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.”
          Not only that, but the Lord has brought her back with a widowed daughter-in-law in tow, a young woman she loves dearly, but who – in harsh economic terms – is just another mouth to feed.
          Now, there’s a man in Bethlehem named Boaz, a relative of Naomi’s late husband. So, the two women head for his farm, hoping he’ll be able to help them.
          The story notes that it’s the time of the harvest, with lots of workers out in the fields, bringing in the crops. Ruth and Naomi follow behind the harvesters, picking up the grain that has been left behind. This is a time-honored custom known as “gleaning.” The law of Moses commanded Israelite farmers to leave a little grain behind in the fields, so poor people could have something to eat.
          Boaz notices the young woman, Ruth, following behind his hired laborers. By now, he has heard her tale – the story of his kinsman’s widow Naomi, and the extraordinary loyalty of her daughter-in-law. Boaz places the two women under his protection. He assures them they will always have enough food to eat, as long as they are on his land.
          And there, the story might have ended. It’s a pretty happy ending. Ruth and Naomi had run out of options and had found a kind-hearted soul in Boaz. It looked like they were going to be okay – they were survivors.
         But Naomi had bigger things in mind for her daughter-in-law.
          Now we move to the third episode of our story. It’s one that sounds strange to our modern ears. But to fully understand what’s going on, you must put aside everything you know about contemporary, modern marriage and family life.
          An essential part of the harvest was threshing the grain. Farmers would take the newly harvested stalks of grain to a pavilion with a hard-packed dirt floor. There, they would beat the grain on the ground, separating the edible portions from the chaff, which blows away in the wind. During a busy harvest season, it was not uncommon for the workers to labor from sun up to sun down, rolling out their bedrolls right on the threshing floor.
          This is the harvest, the season of fertility. It’s a time when men and women entertain thoughts of love. Late at night on the threshing floor, things happen that aren’t mentioned in polite company.
          Boaz is asleep, wrapped up in his bedroll. Naomi taps Ruth on the shoulder – “Go to him. He’s a good man. He has already noticed you. He admires your beauty. Lift up the corner of his bedroll and crawl in beside him.”
          Wow – that sounds a little promiscuous to our ears. Are you sure this a bible story preacher? Yet, there you have it, right in the Bible.
          Now, remember, this is a polygamous society. There are wives, and there are also concubines – female slaves who have physical relationships with their master. From our standpoint, this is completely unacceptable – this is a horrible, oppressive system. But it was a different place, a different time, and a different set of social ethics. Recall that even Abraham and Jacob, patriarchs of Israel, fathered children by so-called “handmaidens” of their wives. In no way can we endorse such a practice in our day and time, but we can acknowledge it in biblical times as a historical fact.
          Ruth and Naomi are in desperate straits. They have no means of financial support. There’s nothing ahead of them but slavery – and, among all the forms of slavery or near-slavery, to be the concubine of a good and kind man such as Boaz was about as good as a homeless Moabite refugee like Ruth could expect. Both she and Naomi are fully aware of this. Ruth has resigned herself to her fate and seems content. She welcomes the prospect of three square meals a day and a roof over her head.
          Yet, on this night, nature does not take its course. Boaz is a man of principle. He thinks to highly of Ruth to have her as his concubine. Early the next morning, before anyone else is awake, he quietly sends her away. The he goes about the necessary steps to marry Ruth, legally.
          This is far more than Ruth or Naomi could have ever expected. Remember how, upon arriving in Bethlehem, Naomi had moaned, “Call me Bitter, for the Lord has dealt bitterly with me?”
          Now, hearing the glad news that Ruth is about to become Boaz’s wife – her dirge of despair has become a joyous hymn of praise.
          It’s a happy tale, this survivor story of Ruth and Naomi – which is probably why so many people have come to love it. We all experience losses in life, and sometimes those losses seem catastrophic. Yet, there is always hope. A loving God is always working silently behind the scenes to bring triumph out of tragedy.
          The real reason we remember this survivor story though, is found in the post script. Ruth and Boaz have a son, whose name is Obed. This child will grow up to father a son of his own, named Jesse – who will in turn, father a boy named David, who will one day become King over Israel. Remember what the gospels say about Jesus – he is of the house of David. This makes that strange, late-night encounter on the threshing floor between Boaz and Ruth, an essential link in the chain of events leading to the birth of another baby in Bethlehem – Jesus Christ, Savior of the World.
          And for that – May God be praised. Amen.

1. Wikipedia, retrieved 10/28/24.

11-03-2024 The Central Pillars of our Faith

Thomas J Parlette
“The Central Pillars of our Faith”
Deuteronomy 6: 1-9
11/03/24
          I’m sure you remember seeing the video footage from March 26th, 2024. A massive ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, and the bridge tumbled into the river.
          The disaster occurred when the enormous container ship MV Dali lost power and crashed into one of the bridges central pillars, sending people and cars and trucks plummeting into the cold, dark Patapsco River in the middle of the night. Six members of a road construction crew working the night shift were killed in the accident.
          The chilling video showed the bridge quickly collapsing moments after impact. Keep in mind that the MV Dali was 984 feet long – approximately the length of 3 football fields.
          Lights on the ship flashed off and on before the accident, suggesting that an electrical problem caused the crew to lose control of the vessel. The FBI quickly opened an investigation into the whether the crew departed from the port knowing that the ship had serious systems problems, and the U.S. attorney for Maryland was quick to release a statement that “we will seek accountability for anyone who may be responsible.”
          According to CNN, the bridge was 1.6 miles long and was a critical link in the Baltimore Beltway, a travel route for 30,000 commuters a day. In addition, it soared over a channel that gave ships access to Baltimore – the 9th largest port in the country for international cargo. The collapse deposited tons and steel and concrete into the water, suspending commercial shipping for weeks. (1)
          Without its central pillars, the Francis Scott Key Bridge could not stand.
          In the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses describes God as the strongest pillar of our faith: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.” Moses is calling us to trust in the one true God, the almighty power who loves us and desires that we experience fullness of life. Moses predicts that if the Israelites observe the commandments, the laws of God, it will go well with them, and they will multiply in the land that has been promised to them.
          The same is true for us. The good news of this passage is that Almighty God desires to work for good in our lives, just as the pillars of the Francis Scott Key Bridge supported 30,000 commuters every day. Decrees, commandments and laws are given for our benefit, to structure our lives in life-giving ways. Just as driving over a bridge would be dangerous without guardrails and lane markers – our lives would become chaotic without the ordering of God’s laws. Commandments are meant to be helpful to us, not oppressive.
          Notice that Moses says, “Hear, O Israel.” Particularly important is the verb “hear,” or in Hebrew “Shema.” Hearing is critical to the life of faith, even more important than seeing, as Paul noted in Romans, “faith comes from what is heard.”
          Tim Mackie, writing for BibleProject.com, says, “Hear, O Israel,” does not simply mean to let sound waves enter your ears. Here, the word “Shema” means to allow the words to sink in, provide understanding, and generate a response – it’s about action. In Hebrew, hearing and doing are the same thing.”
         “Much like listening, biblical love is about action. You “ahavah”, love, someone when you act in loyalty and faithfulness. For Israel, loving means faithful obedience to the terms of their covenant relationship with Yahweh.” (2) Loving means following the law.
          We are challenged to hear that the “Lord is our God, the Lord alone.” When the word “LORD” is written in all caps, it is code for the personal name for Israel’s God: YHWH. Since this name is regarded by many Jews as being too sacred to be pronounced, the word “LORD” is said whenever YHWH appears. It is YHWH, the personal God of Israel, who forms the pillar of our faith.
          As Moses says, the LORD is our God, the LORD alone.” Nothing could be stronger.
          Unfortunately, there are many other so-called gods who present themselves as pillars. All of them are counterfeit gods, but still, we fall in love with them. Timothy Keller, a Presbyterian minister and author of the book Counterfeit Gods, defines an idol as “anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God.” (3)
          Pastor Henry Brinton writes that “In Washington DC, the idol of power draws politicians and their supporters away from compromise. On Wall Street, success tempts brokers and investors to value profits over people. In Hollywood, the focus on beauty creates a standard of physical perfection that is impossible for most people to achieve.” (4)
          These are attractive pillars, no doubt about it. All of them, in their own way, promise us great rewards. But they do not provide the eternal support of the Lord our God. When the pillars of power, success, and beauty get knocked over, our lives can fall apart in tragic ways.
         Next, Moses gives the commandment to love the Lord. This is a bold new approach, one that goes on to become central to both Judaism and Christianity. “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might,” says Moses. Jesus later referenced this verse as the first part of his great commandment that we heard in Mark today. With this commandment comes the challenge of giving priority to God, much in the way that we give priority to the people we love – spouses, children, relatives, friends and neighbors. Love is a much stronger bond and obligation than respect, duty or affection.
          Love is how we protect the pillar and build our lives around it. It is “the first and greatest commandment,” says the Bible professor Elizabeth Achtemeier. “It forms the central requirement given in Deuteronomy’s sermons to the people of God.” (5) If our love for God is undermined, our relationship with God quickly collapses, leaving enormous pain and destruction behind.
          Perhaps you’ve seen the show Breaking Bad. The central character is a chemistry teacher named Walter White, who always claimed he loved his family. After being diagnosed with cancer, he built a drug empire on the belief that he needed to provide for his wife and children. But even a noble thing such as love for family can cause death and destruction if it replaces love for God. At one point, Walter’s wife says, “Someone has to protect this family from the man who protects this family.” (6)
          Moses reminds us that the “LORD is our God, the LORD alone,” and he challenges us to “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” If we allow counterfeit gods to take the place of the one LORD God, we will find ourselves without the strong support we need for life. And if we allow ourselves to love anything more than God, we will find ourselves failing in tragic fashion.
          In Deuteronomy, Moses urges the people to keep his words in their hearts, recite them to your children, and talk about them both inside and outside their homes. “Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house.”
          This is where the tradition of wearing phylacteries – small leather containers that contain biblical texts, and the nailing of a mezuzah to doorway come from. By doing this, God’s law is remembered in every aspect of life.
         Very few Christians wear phylacteries or nail mezuzahs to their doorways – but we still teach our children the Ten Commandments, as well as Jesus Great Commandment. In Mark, we hear Jesus say, “The first commandment is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this – Love your neighbor as yourself.” That is the law of the Lord.
 
         “The law is king,” wrote American Patriot Thomas Paine in Common Sense, He was saying that, in a truly free country, the law itself – not any human being – is sovereign.
          President Dwight D. Eisenhower likewise sang the praises of the rule of law: “The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law.”
          He should know. Before he was President, Eisenhower commended the Allied forces in Europe during World War II. He had the personal experience of visiting concentration camps not long after they’d been liberated. Gazing into the hollow eyes of those desperate, emaciated survivors, Eisenhower witnessed the result of Fascist rule that valued the personal power of its authoritarian leaders over the law’s benevolently restraining force.
          He later wrote, “The same day, April 12th, 1945, I saw my first horror camp. It was near the town of Gotha. I have never felt able to describe my emotional reactions when I first came face to face with indisputable evidence of Nazi brutality and ruthless disregard of every shred of decency. Up to that time I had known about it generally or through secondary sources. I am certain, however, that I have never at any other time experienced an equal sense of shock… Some members of the visiting party were unable to go through the ordeal. I not only did so but as soon as I returned to Patton’s headquarters that evening I sent communications to both Washington and London, urging the two governments to send instantly to Germany a random group of newspapers editors and groups from national Legislatures. I felt that the evidence should be immediately placed before the American and British publics in a fashion that would leave no room for doubt.” (7)
 Love for God. Love for neighbor. According to Jesus, there is no other law greater than these. That is God’s law. And the law is king.
Although we do not have phylacteries and mezuzahs, we can keep these words in our hearts, share them with our children and put them into action inside and outside our homes. When tempted to make an idol out of power or success, focus on your love for God. When your children become focused on the latest toy or gadget, teach them about loving their neighbor.
By keeping our central pillars strong – love for God, Love for neighbor – we can avoid a catastrophic collapse.
This morning we remember and celebrate some other Pillars that are important to us – our faithful friends, family and fellow Christians who have been Pillars of Faith for 1st Presbyterian over the years.
So let us remember and give thanks for those of our community who have joined the Great Cloud of Witnesses this year. Will you join me in the litany printed in your bulletin….
 

1. CNN Staff, “Here’s what you should know about the historic Francis Scott Key Bridge,” CNN, March 26th, 2024, www.cnn.com.

2. Tim Mackie, “What’s the meaning of the Jewish Shema Prayer in the Bible,” BibleProject, may 26, 2017, bibleproject.com.

3. Henry Brinton, “False idols come in many guises,” USA Today, Sept. 1st, 2014, www.usatoday.com.

4. Ibid…

5. Elizabeth Achtemeier, “Plumbing the Riches: Deuteronomy for the Preacher,” Interpretation, July 1987, p 274.

6. Homileticsonline, retrieved 10/25/24.

7. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe: A Personal Account of World War II, Doubleday, 1948, p 408-409.

10-27-2024 Taste and See

Thomas J Parlette
“Taste and See”
Psalm 34: 1-8, 19-22
10/27/24, Reformation Sunday
 
          There was once a pastor who was greeting people after the service at the back doors of the sanctuary. This one parishioner waited his turn and then said, “Pastor, I want to show you what the Lord saved me from this week,” and he held up his phone with a picture on it.
          This particular parishioner was a landscaper who regularly worked with heavy equipment. He had recently been hauling a Bobcat on a trailer behind his truck. As he was travelling about 40 miles an hour, the fork attachments on the front of the Bobcat began to vibrate, and one of them came loose. The fork fell off the Bobcat, off the trailer, and the tip of the fork hit the pavement. The force of the impact transformed the fork into a boomerang, and the fork propelled itself back toward the truck.
          As this landscaper was driving along, the 75-pound fork pierced through the back window of his truck, and ended up over the passenger seats in the cab. A few feet either way or with passengers in the vehicle, someone could have died. A close call indeed. (1)
          What do you say in a moment like that? How do you react when you feel the Lord stepped in and saved you from tragedy? Well, you pray a little different afterwards, don’t you? You sing with a little more enthusiasm. Food tastes better and the sun seems to shine brighter when the Lord intervenes to save you.
          Psalm 34 was written as a result of just the same sort of close call situation. This Psalm is attributed to David and is a reference to a story that we find in 1st Samuel, chapter 21.
          David has gone to see Abimelech, the Priest – seeking his help. His first request – food.
          Abimelech only has holy bread, which he offers if David can assure him that his men have been abstaining from sex, which is something David and his men always do when they are on a mission like this.
          But one of Saul’s officials was there at the Temple and David panics, because Saul is trying to kill him. So David asks Abimelech for a spear or a sword – anything.
          Abimelech responds, “The only thing I have is the sword of Goliath, the Philistine you killed. It’s hidden over there. If you want it, take it.”
          Then David took off running for his life. He went to Achish, king of Gath, but he is recognized as the legendary David, the warrior. But quick-thinking David starts pretending to be crazy – pounding his head on the city gate and foaming at the mouth, with spit dripping from his beard.
          King Achish is disgusted and says to his servants – “Can’t you see he’s crazy? Why did you let him in here? I’ve got enough crazies to deal with. Get him out of here!”
          So David got away and escaped to the Cave of Adullam.
          This Psalm could have been written in that cave, but we don’t know for sure. It could be that David wrote this psalm as he looked back over his life, as well. Or it may have been written by someone who was familiar with the story of David’s escape and felt like this is what David would have said.
          Throughout the book of Psalms, we are instructed to praise God for unsurpassable glory, to trust God for unquenchable love and to rely on God for unfailing nurture and grace (2)
          It would not surprise me at all to find Job, sitting on his front porch in his old age, sipping an ice tea and reading this psalm, nodding his head in agreement – because that is the way the story of Job ends, with restoration and grace before Job died, old and full of days.
          The spiritual writer Sundar Singh was walking in the mountains. “I came upon an outcropping of rocks, and as I sat on the highest rock to rest and look out over the valley, I saw a nest in the branches of a tree. The young birds in the nest were crying noisily. Then I saw the mother bird return with food for her young ones. When they heard the sound of her wings and felt her presence nearby, they cried all the more loudly and opened their beaks wide. But after the mother bird fed them and flew again, they were quiet. Climbing down to look more closely, I saw that the newly hatched birds had not yet opened their eyes. Without being able to see their mother, they opened their beaks and begged for nourishment whenever she approached.
          These tiny birds did not say: “We will not open our beaks until we see our mother clearly and also see what kind of food she offers. Perhaps it is not our mother at all, but instead, some dangerous enemy. And who know if it is proper nourishment or some kind of poison that is being fed to us.” If they had reasoned thus, they would never have discovered the truth. Before they were even strong enough to open their eyes, they would have starved to death. But they held no such doubts about the presence and love of their mother, and so after a few days, they opened their eyes and rejoiced to see her with them. Day by day they grew stronger and developed into the form and likeness of the mother, and soon they were able to soar up into the freedom of the skies.
          We humans often think of ourselves as the greatest living beings, but do we not have something to learn from these common birds? We often question the reality and the loving nature of God. But Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Whenever we open our hearts to God, we receive spiritual nourishment and grow more and more into the likeness of God, until we reach spiritual maturity. And once we open our spiritual eyes and see God’s presence, we find indescribable and unending bliss.” (3)
          This seems to be the point the Psalmist is making when he says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are all who find refuge in him,” words most familiar to us as an invitation to the Lord’s Supper, where we receive the spiritual nourishment we need.
          The biblical scholar James Mays suggests that the word “taste” is used here in the sense of “finding out by experience.” (4) So you could render this verse as “Find out from experience that God is good; happy are all who find refuge in God.” That would certainly be true in David’s experience, and for Job as well. They both learned from experience that God is indeed good. The psalmist draws this conclusion from a tangible experience of salvation… “I sought the Lord, and the Lord answered… and delivered me.” The psalmist teaches us that amid the challenges over the course of our lives, God will answer our prayers, God will dwell with us in our fears and loneliness, and give to the faithful every good thing.
          In his book Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud, Philip Yancey writes that “Human beings grow by striving, working, stretching; and in a sense, human nature needs problems more than solutions. Why aren’t all prayers answered magically and instantly? Why must every new Christian travel the tedious path of spiritual discipline? Because persistent prayer, and fasting, and study, and meditation are designed primarily for our sakes, not for God’s. Kierkegaard said that Christians reminded him of school boys who want to look up the answers to the math problems in the back of the book rather than work them through. I confess to such school boy sentiments, and I doubt that I am alone. We yearn for shortcuts. But shortcuts usually lead away from growth not toward it. Apply that principle to anyone who has had their faith shaken, whether that be David or Job. As Rabbi Abraham Heschel observed, “Faith like Job’s (or David’s, in this case) cannot be shaken because it is the result of having been shaken. (5)
          Psalm 34 is a survival story. It seeks to encourage those who are debilitated with fear. This psalm asserts that God has been faithful in the past and will continue to act in character during times of danger. The psalm culminates in the verse, “Taste and see that God is good”- a claim that approximates the character of God and echoes a fundamental reason for praise in the Psalter as well.
          Much of the Psalter revolves around the ideas that God is both great and good. Psalm 34 focuses on the goodness of God. When the people follow the advice “taste and see that God is good,” they discover first hand that God is a sure refuge in time of crisis. And survival will in turn lead to the road of gratitude. (6)
          Somewhere between 1527 and 1529, the great reformer Martin Luther wrote perhaps the flagship hymn of the Reformation – “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Luther drew upon Psalm 46 as the inspiration for the lyrics of the hymn, but Psalm 34 can be heard in places:
         “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
          Our helper He and the flood of mortal ills prevailing.”
          Luther returned to those themes in his hymn “Dear Christian, One and All, Rejoice,” when he writes;
          “Proclaim the wonders God has done,
Proclaim the victory God has won…
O God, you saw my deep distress
Before the world’s foundation
And with your mercy measureless,
you planned for my salvation.
You said to your Beloved Son
Tis time to have compassion,
Bring to all salvation;
from sin and sorrow set them free.”
          Very similar in tone to Psalm 34, here is how Eugene Peterson puts it in the Message:
          “God met me more than halfway,
he freed me from anxious fears…
          When I was desperate, I called out,
and God got me out of a tough spot.
God’s angel sets up a circle
 of protection around us while we pray.”
Different words, and less concentration on the “devils of this world”- but the central theme of God’s protection, of God as bulwark and helper, that’s the same in both Psalm 46 and Psalm 34.
          So, on this Reformation Sunday, let us celebrate that God is both great, and good. Let’s take the psalmist up on his invitation to “Taste and See that the Lord is good.”
          May God be praised. Amen.
 

1. Mark Vroegop, “A Song for Every Season (Part 4 of 10) Taste and See: The Lord is Good.” Sermons.com.

2. Michael Morgan, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 4, Westminster John Knox Press, 2009, p 200.

3. Sundar Singh, Wisdom of the Sudhu, (Plough, 2014), p 3-4

4. James May, Psalms, John Knox Press, 1994, p 153.

5. Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud, (Zondervan, 1997) p 247-248.

6. Louis Stulman, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 4, Westminster John Knox Press, 2009, p 205.

10-20-2024 A Life of Service

Thomas J Parlette
“A Life of Service”
Mark 10: 35-45
10/20/24
           The very first job I ever had was as a gas station attendant at a Mobil station not very far from where I lived in Downingtown, PA.  The station was owned by a guy who went to our little country church. His son worked there, along with a couple of other guys. I was by far the youngest, I think I was about 14 or 15 at the time – right around when the original Star Wars movie came out. I remember reading the reviews in the Philadelphia Inquirer. My job was basically pumping gas.
          Whenever a car pulled up to get gas, I would hustle out and ask would I could get them – usually they said filler-up – and then they’d sit in the car and watch me do my thing.
          I would get the gas flowing, and while they waited, I would check their oil, check the air in the tires and wash their windows. It was a race to get it all done before the tank was filled. It was a great first job.
          In the mid to late seventies, that was the norm. No one pumped their own. All gas stations were full service. Highly trained professionals, like me, would take of everything for you.
          Now, of course, my old job doesn’t exist. Everyone pumps their own gas -  unless you are passing through New Jersey, where it remains illegal to pump your own gas. Now, everything is self-serve.
          That’s the way it is in our modern world. It used to be that you could walk into a full-service bank, any branch you wanted, and make a deposit, take out some cash, start the loan process for a house or new car, get something notarized, or simply get your coins exchanged to paper money. But in recent years, banks have been closing branches more and more. Between 2009 and 2020, the number of branches has fallen 12%. (1)
          It’s not that people don’t need banks anymore – it’s because more and more people turn to online banking for assistance. When they need cash – they go to the ATM. When they want to exchange their pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters – they have to go to a grocery store or a Target and pay a fee to convert their money to bills.
          In addition, people are dining less and less at full-service restaurants, with hostesses who seat you and waiters and waiters serve you and bussers clean up the dishes. As costs rise, people are choosing quick-service restaurants, where they mostly serve themselves and clean-up their own dishes.
          Full-service gas stations, banks and restaurants are dwindling in recent years. They offer a variety of necessary or expected services, and their workers do their best to satisfy their customers. As a consumer, when you enter such an establishment, you expect your needs to be met – you expect a certain level of service.
          So, is that the key to happiness? Is full service, having all your needs met to key to a fulfilling life?
          Not exactly says Jesus.
         In this morning’s passage, Jesus is walking with the disciples on the road heading up to Jerusalem. Two disciples, the sons of Zebedee named James and John, come forward and say to Jesus, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
          Wow! – quite the request! They want Jesus to be a full-service teacher, meeting their needs and satisfying their desires.
          I once saw a Far Side style cartoon that showed Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden. From a dark cloud overhead, a huge arm – presumably belonging to God – extended down from the sky. The index finger of the hand was directing the first couple toward the exit. But as this was happening, Adam spoke to God and said, “Can I have a doggie bag for the rest of the apple?” The caption below the cartoon read, “Adam really, really missed the point.” (2)
          That’s pretty much what is happening in this story. James and John had really missed the point. For the third time in the days preceding this event, Jesus had plainly told his disciples what was going to happen in Jerusalem. He was going to suffer and die. It seems that these two brothers had not heard a word that Jesus has said – it went right over their heads.
          At first, Jesus plays along. He asks them, “What is it you want me to do for you.” In other words – “How can I help you? What can I get you?”
          And James and John say, “Appoint us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” So, they want the most coveted seats in the house, what restaurants sometimes call the “display tables.” These are the seats that are reserved for the celebrities and A-listers that might stop by. These are the seats which, quite literally, put you on display. You are immediately visible to everyone entering. You see everyone, and everyone see you.” That’s the point of display tables – see and be seen.
          James and John want to be seated with Jesus at the “display table” in the Kingdom of God. Maybe they even slipped him a couple of shekels to grease the wheels a bit.
          Noted preaching professor Tom Long once portrayed this story in one of his books. He imagines it as though it were a scene from an old World War I movie. Jesus, as he imagines the scene, is the tough, battle-hardened sergeant, about to order his men into deadly combat. They’re hunkered down in the trenches and the bullets are whizzing overhead,
          But the soldiers in his squad happen to be named, Larry, Curly and Moe. Just as their valiant leader cries “OK boys, over the top!” and begins to climb out of the trench, Curly pulls on the hem of his sergeant’s uniform, and with a goofy grin says – “Look, we have matching ties and blazers, can we sit on either side of you?” (3)
          If you recall the truth Jesus has just revealed to them – that he will suffer and die, their demand is ridiculous to the point of being absurd.
          But how different really, is their request, compared to so many of the prayers we’re inclined to offer up in our less reflective moments?
          Fame and glory. They do sound appealing, don’t they? Are we entitled to such prizes, because we’ve chosen to follow Jesus? The Bible says the other 10 disciples were angry with James and John for asking such a thing. But is that because they think the request is out of line? Or is it because they’re upset they didn’t think of it first? Hard to say.
         Whatever the case may be, Jesus says to the brothers, “You don’t know what you’re asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
          “Sure,” they say – “that sounds good. We are able.”
          “You will drink the cup and you will receive the baptism, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to appoint – it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
          Jesus predicts that they will suffer just as he will suffer, drinking the same cup and receiving the same baptism. But he goes on to say that he is not the one who will be assigning seats at the tables in the Kingdom of God. Only God prepares the final seating chart. Jesus makes it clear that the Kingdom of God is not a full-service restaurant. You don’t get to make a reservation at the best tables, then have a server meet your needs and satisfy all your requests. Money, power and status do not put you at a display table, where you can see and be seen.
          No, Jesus attaches a very different meaning to full-service. And his meaning is the exact opposite of what most of us expect.
          The 10 other disciples become angry with James and John, probably because they feel that the two of them are pushing ahead of them in line to the Kingdom of God. Jesus calls the disciples together to straighten them out. He says, “You know that among the gentiles those whom they recognize as rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”
          In the kingdoms of the world, power-people are tyrants. They throw their money, status and power around, and put themselves on display. But in the Kingdom of God, power-people are servants. Those who wish to be great must devote themselves to serving the people around them.
          Jesus turns our idea of full-service completely on its head. Full service does not mean that your needs are met and your every request is filled. No – full-service means that you serve others fully.
          Author Anne Lamott admires a friend who picks up litter as they walk together. The woman is 84, short and sturdy, and she puts the small items in a little bag attached to her belt. Her friend says, “I’m just picking up micro litter, little stuff, like bottle caps and bits of wrappers. But I try to help where I can.” (4)
          Once upon a time, there was a great and powerful war horse that came upon a tiny sparrow, lying on its back with its feet in the air, eyes squinched tightly shut with effort. The horse asks, “What are you doing?”
          “I’m trying to hold back the darkness.”
          The horse roars with laughter. “That is so pathetic. What do you weigh, about an ounce?”
          And the sparrow replies, “You do what you can.” (5)
          Trying to help, in ways big and small, is part of living a full-service life. You do what you can.
          Lamott also remembers the love and service shown by her mother. When Anne was growing up, her mother showed love and service by “taking modest bouquets and baked goods to friends in decline. Some had sunk into cranky dementia, alcoholism or depression,” says Lamott. “But my mom showed up for them. She taught me that service makes me happy.” (6)
          Good point – service does make us happy. We think that being served will make us happy, but such happiness is short-lived. We have a great meal, leave a tip for excellent service, and then… the next day we are hungry again. Only serving others gives us a satisfaction that lasts.
          Lamott says, “We know by a certain age the great palace lies of the culture.” Interesting phrase – “the great palace lies.” What she means is the lies that possessions, achievements and positions will make us happy. The “palace lies” are what motivate the rulers of the gentiles to lord it over the people of the land. But Lamott knows that it is a lie to believe that if you buy, do or achieve certain things, you will be happy, rich and fulfilled.
          “Nope,” she concludes. “Love and service make us rich.” (7)
          I think Jesus would agree. A full-service life is an existence devoted completely to service. Happiness and greatness come not from achievement and wealth or sitting at the right or left hand of Jesus. No – true happiness and greatness comes from helping others and making the world a better place. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr once said in one of his last sermons, “The Drum Major Instinct” – “Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve.” (8)
          Full-service banks, restaurants and gas stations might be going out of style. But not full-service people, not people who are willing to follow the example of Jesus. He said that “he came not to be served but to serve.” And that kind of life of service will never go out of style.
          May God be praised. Amen.

1. Jan Kiel and Steven Ongena, “The demise of branch banking – Technology, consolidation and bank fragility,” Journal of Banking and Finance, Jan. 2024, www.sciencedirect.com.

2. Stan Purdum, Sermons on Gospel Readings Cycle B, “The Strange Economy of the Kingdom of God,” CSS Publishing Inc. 2005, p337.

3. Homileticsonline, retrieved 10/1/24.

4. Anne Lamott, “A short guide to a full-service life,” The Washington Post, Dec, 24, 2023, A19.

5. Ibid…

6. Ibid…

7. Ibid…

8. Martin Luther King Jr. “The Drum Major Instinct,” preached at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Feb. 4th, 1968.

10-13-2024 Times of Darkness

Thomas J Parlette
“Times of Darkness”
Job 23: 1-9, 16-17.
10/13/24
          A couple of years ago, I was really struggling with my vision. I first noticed it during our COVID shutdown time, when we were filming our services in the Atrium on Thursdays and posting them online. I was starting to have trouble seeing my sermon text.
          Then I noticed that driving at night was becoming more of a challenge. The glare from oncoming traffic bothered me more than it had before. And if it was raining at night – well, I started to get downright afraid to drive.
          So I bought some of those yellow tinted night driving glasses, hoping that would help. They reduced the glare a little bit, but they really didn’t work. I wish had seen the study that recently appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association – the data suggested that “wearing yellow-lens glasses when driving at night does not improve performance. Particularly in the most critical task: detection of pedestrians.” (1)
          So I went to the eye doctor and discovered that I had cataracts starting to form in both my eyes. I wore some prescription glasses for awhile, but my doctor advised me to think about cataract surgery sometime in the near future. I was a few years early for cataract surgery, but I got it done. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, and afterwards I had 20/20 vision. Finally, when I play golf, I can see where the ball lands – and it’s much easier to drive in darkness.
          In today’s passage, Job is experiencing some problems with darkness as well. Job couldn’t see what was going on in his life at that moment. He couldn’t understand – he had no clarity. All the horrible things that had happened to him were unreasonable and absurd, and definitely unfair. He tried in vain to see through the murkiness – he peered into the darkness and could see nothing. Perhaps he would have been tempted to try some yellow-tinted glasses – but they wouldn’t have helped. So, He crys out to God, “My complaint is bitter!” We can certainly understand that.
          In his darkness, Job wanders in search of answers. He is interested in where God is while he suffers from his afflictions. He goes looking for God – “O that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling! I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.”
          But Job has a problem. He can’t find God: “If I go forward, he is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him; on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him.”
          In the 1500’s, St. John of the Cross, coined a phrase, “the dark night of the soul” that has become familiar to many. St. John was a Spanish mystic and Carmelite friar who wrote extensively about his own spiritual journey. He used that phrase, “dark night of the soul”, to describe how he felt when his faith was at a low point, when he struggled with intense periods of doubt and despair – just like Job experienced.
          St. John of the Cross and Job are hardly alone in this struggle with times of darkness.
          The Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh struggled with mental illness throughout his life, which manifested in startling episodes of depression, anxiety and emotional turmoil.
          Fyodor Dostoevsky, the great Russian novelist, best known for works such as Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, also suffered periods of intense doubt and despair, which are reflected in his characters’ inner struggles.
         But of all the figures who have struggled to hang on to their faith in times of darkness, doubt and despair, Job is the poster child for those who wrestle with the complexity of the human experience and the paradoxes of life and darkness that we sometimes have to struggle through.
          Barbra Brown Taylor has long been fascinated by darkness. Indeed, she wrote a book about it. Near the beginning of her book Learning to Walk in the Dark, Taylor writes, “Since I have spent at least half of my life in churches, I am especially aware of how many old-time Christians are looking into the dark right now. Attendance is down, debt is up. Plenty of smaller churches are closing, or at least putting their buildings up for sale. All the divine energy seems to be going to the southern hemisphere, leaving the old-timers up north with a bad case of solar affective disorder. Learning to walk in the dark is an especially valuable skill in times like these – or maybe I should say, remembering how to walk in the dark, since people of faith have deep pockets of wisdom about how to live through long nights in the wilderness. We just forgot, most of us, once we got where we were going and the glory days began.”
          “The remembering takes time, like straightening a bent leg and waiting for the feeling to return. This cannot be rushed, no matter how badly you want to get where you are going. Step 1 of learning to walk in the dark is to give up running the show. Next, you sign the waiver that allows you to bump into some things that may frighten you at first. Finally, you ask darkness to teach you what you need to know…”
          “Meanwhile, here is some good news you can use: even when light fades and darkness falls – as it does every single day, and every single life – God does not turn the world over to some other deity. Even when you cannot see where you are going, and no one answers when you call, this is not sufficient proof that you are alone. There is a divine presence, that transcends all your ideas about it, along with all your language for calling it to your aid, which is not above using darkness as the wrecking ball that brings all your false gods down… Darkness is not dark to God; the night is as bright as the day.” (2)
          Yet, all those people who deal with times of darkness are rarely above picking a fight with God. Job was certainly not afraid to do so. After all, when you’ve lost everything, what do you have to lose if you shake your fist in the face of the Almighty? You’ve lost a child to cancer, your spouse dies, you lose your job or your house, your whole future. You’re down and out, at the end of your rope – you have nothing to lose.
          That is Job here. Listen to how Eugene Peterson puts it in The Message: “I’m not letting up – I’m standing my ground. My complaint is legitimate. God has no right to treat me like this – it isn’t fair. If I knew where on earth to find him, I’d go straight to him. I’d lay my case before him face-to-face, give him all my arguments firsthand. I’d find out exactly what’s going on in his head. Do you think he’d dismiss me or bully me? No, he’d take me seriously.”
          That is what you call giving God the business. Job was so mad he’d make a hornet look cuddly. He wanted to get God’s attention, not realizing that sometimes you should be careful what you ask for. God was indeed listening, and God responds to Job – but that’s a story for another day.
          For now, Job is not happy with how God is running the show, and he wasn’t timid about letting God know about it.
        Former President Ronald Reagan once told a story about an American and a Russian talking about their countries. The American starts to brag – “In my country, I can walk into the Oval Office, slam my fist on the President’s desk and say, “Mr. President, I don’t like the way you’re running this country!”
         The Russian appears unimpressed and says, “We can do that in my country, too.”
          The American says, “Really?”
          “Yes,” says the Russian. “I can walk right into the Kremlin, slam my fist on Gorbachev’s desk and say, “Sir, I don’t like the way President Reagan is running his country.” (3)
          The point to remember when we’re pounding on God’s desk and yelling about how the universe is being run is that God is not without answers. Perhaps, God will be merciful and not put us in our place as God does later with Job.
          We may not be able to find God on our own, but God will always find us – indeed, we discover that God has not lost us. Job admits as much in verse 10 – “But he knows the way that I take, he knows where I am and what I’ve done.” God knows – but do we?
          The story is told that on the eve of the conclave that would elect him as the next Pope, then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, later known as Pope Francis, urged his fellow cardinals to remember that Christians should live by the light of the moon rather than of the sun. Followers of Christ should reflect the source of light rather than acting as if they are the source. With regard to the hierarchy of the religious structure he would soon be elected to lead, he said that the church exists to reflect Christ – as soon as it believes itself to be the light, disaster occurs, and the church becomes an idol.
          Commenting on the story, Vance Morgan wrote on Patheos.com, “While there may be many reasons to fear the dark, times of darkness are part of being human, and spiritual darkness is central to a search for the Divine. The way many people of faith talk about darkness, you would think that it came from a whole different deity, but as Barbara Brown Taylor reminds us, “to be human is to live by sunlight and moonlight, with anxiety and delight, admitting limits and transcending them, falling down and rising up.” (4)
          In the end, for Job, it was all about God. God knows the way. God knows the way for all of us. True, healing is a gradual and nonlinear process, which is why we need to be patient and gentle with ourselves as we go through the ordeal. But success requires something more – faith.
          It took a ton of faith for Job to admit this, but deep in his heart, he knew it was true. God knows the way we take. God knows us. God can track us as though we have a GPS chip implanted in our hearts. As Isaiah puts it, “As a mother comforts her child, God will comfort you.”
          In Jeremiah, there’s an image of a God who is actually anxious to be discovered. In Chapter 29, verses 12-14, we read, “When you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will LET you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes…”
          “I will LET you find me.” What an amazing promise.
         That is precisely what Job, the beleaguered character of text, is looking for. It’s often what we’re looking for as well. We might want some night vision glasses for those dark night of the soul when we cannot see God. But darkness is not dark to God – the night is as bright as the day in the eyes of the God. And God will always let us find him – even in our times of darkness.
          And for that – May God be praised. Amen.
 

1. Hwang, Alex D., Merve Tuccar-Burak and Eli Peli, “Comparison of pedestrian detection with and without yellow-lens glasses during simulated night driving with and without headlight glare.” Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMAnetwork.com, August 1st, 2019.

2. Barbara Brown Taylor, Learning to Walk in the Dark (HarperOne, 2015) p15-16.

3. Homileticsonline, retrieved Oct. 1st, 2024.

4. Vance Morgan, “Let There Be Light (Or Not)”, Patheos.com, March 7th, 2024

10-06-2024 The Original N.I.L.

Thomas J Parlette
“The Original N.I.L.”
Hebrews 1:1-4, 2: 5-12
10/6/24, World Communion
          It has recently become quite profitable to go to college for some student athletes.
          It used to be that collegiate athletes were amateurs, which by definition meant that they couldn’t make any money from anything they did on the football field or the basketball court. They played for the love of the game, basically working for free. Indeed, you could expect the NCAA to come down hard with sanctions if a booster bought a player as much as a hamburger as a gesture of appreciation.
          But all this has changed. Consider the basketball superstar Caitlin Clark. She broke the all-time NCAA scoring record last season at the University of Iowa, and after a run in the NCAA tournament, she announced that she was entering the WNBA draft, and recently joined the Indiana Fever, where she just won Rookie of the Year.
          The irony is that she probably could have made more money had she opted to stay at Iowa for another year. According to some analysts, she’ll make less in the WNBA than she could have made in college. (1) Just consider some of the numbers:
          The average salary for a player in the WNBA is $102,000.
          For a player with 0-2 years of experience, the minimum salary is just over $64,000.
          For a player with 3 or more years of experience, the minimum is $76,500.
         The supermax salary for 2024 – almost $242,000
          And the very highest earners in the WNBA get a salary of around $252,000
          Granted, Caitlin Clark probably makes a lot more than that in sponsorships and endorsements – but analysts think she could have made millions if she had stayed in college another year.
          How is this possible? Three Letters – N. I. L. It stands for Name, Image and Likeness.
          The new NCAA rules that allow student athletes to be compensated for their name, image and likeness is turning a lot of college kids into instant millionaires.
          The Name part of the equation is pretty straightforward – Your name is your name. No one can use it without your consent. Athletes can now sign contracts or endorsements to get paid for companies to use their names
          Image is pretty easy to understand as well. Your image is your photo. A photograph of your face or body cannot be used without permission, and athletes can now sell their image for profit without penalties.
          Likeness is a little trickier. How is “likeness” different from “image.” The easiest way to understand it is with an example. Think of the silhouette of Michael Jordan leaping through the air on the Nike Air Jordan brand clothing and sneakers. Or Arnold Palmer’s signature on Arizona Iced Tea, or even the logo for the PGA that depicts a golfer in the middle of their backswing. The PGA says it’s based on no one in particular, but most golf historians think it’s based on Johnny Miller, although some say Tom Weiskopf, or Jack Nicklaus or maybe even Ben Hogan or Byron Nelson. We’ll never really know. “Likeness” is you – but not really you exactly, it’s a representation. It’s an important distinction in this virtual reality world, because avatars are becoming more and more common. Think of all the popular videogames based on the NFL, NBA and College football and basketball. The players in the games are representations of real players. For the Collegiate videogames, the NCAA profited, but not the athletes being represented – well, not anymore. Now, the athletes will get paid for their “Likeness.”
          In our passage from Hebrews for today, the writer refers to Jesus’ name, image and likeness as our best way of knowing God.
          We know that Jesus has many names in the Bible. When the name “Jesus” as a transliteration of the Hebrew word “Yeshua,” meaning “Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh is salvation.” But we also refer to Jesus as the “Christ”, which comes from the Greek “Christos,” meaning “anointed one”, or “Messiah.” Jesus often referred to himself as the “The Son of Man,”a title found in the Old Testament book of Daniel. Coming up in the season of Advent, we will refer to Jesus as “Emmanuel,” meaning God with us.
          John the Baptist referred to Jesus as “the Lamb of God.” We also know Jesus as the “Savior” of the world. And according to Revelation, Jesus describes himself as the “Alpha and Omega” – the beginning and the end of all things.
          Lots of names. But the reading for today doesn’t refer to Jesus by any of those names – not even Jesus. No, here at the beginning of Hebrews, he is identified as “a Son.” But this is a Son with an extraordinary resume. This Son is:
The heir of all things,
The Creator of the World,
The reflection of God’s glory,
The sustainer of all things
Superior to the angels,
Crowned with glory,
Tasted death for everyone,
And was made perfect through sufferings.
A pretty impressive list. In our modern society, so many people are looking to cash in on their name, their celebrity status. For the writer of Hebrews – this Son has the most powerful name out there.
This brings us to image, this Son known by the name of Jesus is “the exact imprint of God’s very being.” This isn’t the only allusion to this idea that we have in the scriptures – Paul famously wrote that Jesus “is the image of the invisible God.” So, when we see Jesus, we see God - when we know Jesus, we come to know the divine nature in human form.
Writing in his commentary, Hebrews for Everyone, biblical scholar N.T. Wright reminds us that though the ancient world didn’t have printing presses per say, they did have early equivalents that were used, particularly for making coins. The emperor would employ an engraver who carved the royal portrait, and suitable words or abbreviations, on a stamp, or die, made of hard metal. The engraver used the stamp to make a coin, so that the coin gave the exact impression of what was on the stamp.
The word “character” in ancient Greek was widely used to mean just that: the accurate impression left by the stamp on a coin. From there it came to mean both the individual letters that could be produced by this method – the characters of a language – and the “character” in a broader sense of a person or thing. This is what the author of Hebrews is saying about Jesus. It is as though the exact imprint of God’s very nature and glory has been precisely reproduced in the soft metal of the Son’s human nature. And now – there it is for the whole world to see. The image of God in the person of Jesus. (2)
Which then brings us to likeness. Jesus is the image, the exact imprint of God. We see Jesus – we see God. But what is God like?
Again, it’s helpful to turn to Paul, who offers us the wonderful words found in Philippians – “Christ Jesus was in the form of God, but did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.”
So what is God like? God is like a servant, filled with humility, and cares so deeply for us that He would become like one of us – even to the point of tasting death for everyone.
In the life and ministry of Jesus, we see many other examples of what God is like.
In the sermon on the mount, Jesus revealed the heart of God by teaching about love, forgiveness, mercy and righteousness.
In the miracles of healing the sick and raising the dead, changing water into wine and multiplying loaves and fish, Jesus showed us that God loves us, cares for us and wants to provide for our needs. God is concerned for our well-being. This is who God is, that is the likeness of God.
In Jesus’ interactions with people, he shows himself as the “imprint of God’s very being.” For instance, in the story of the prodigal son, Jesus reminds us that God loves us unconditionally and is never happier than when we turn back to God.
On this World Communion Sunday, the writer of Hebrews celebrates God’s Son, the one known as Jesus, “the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being.” It is Jesus’ Name, Image and Likeness that gathers us here to today, to be united with Christians all over the world, and be nourished on our path of discipleship
May God be praised. Amen.

 1. Weston Blasi, “Caitlin Clark is turning pro. Why she could make more money staying in college one more year.” Marketwatch.com, March 4, 2024.

2. N.T. Wright, Hebrews for Everyone (SPCK, 2004) p.2.

09-29-24 The Biblical Wonder Woman

Thomas J Parlette
“The Biblical Wonder Woman”
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22
9/29/24
          In 2017, the world was re-introduced to the character of Wonder Woman. She started out as a comic book hero in the 1940’s, making the leap to the small screen as a television series in 1975. Some of you might remember that show starred Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman alongside Lyle Waggoner.
          From there, Wonder Woman became an animated superhero for the Saturday morning cartoon show The Justice League. She teamed up with Batman, Superman and Aquaman to keep the world safe. Wonder Woman had some of the coolest super-hero gadgets as well – no one had more toys that Batman, but Wonder Woman had some memorable crime-fighting tools of her own.
          She had the Lasso of Truth, those magic bracelets to deflect bullets and her royal tiara that became kid of a lethal boomerang when she needed it. And who can forget her invisible plane. As a kid, hopped up on Captain Crunch on Saturday mornings, I always wondered – was she invisible when she was inside her invisible plane, or did people see her just sitting there in mid-air flying around. I don’t have the answer, but I’m sure it’s a hotly debated question in Comic Book stores to this day.
          In 2017, Wonder Woman got a very successful re-boot as Gal Gadot took over the role. Wonder Woman: Rise of the Warrior would go on to become the highest grossing superhero origin film to that date. (1) The follow-up, Wonder Woman 1984, didn’t do nearly as well, but it did come out in December 2020, right during COVID, so that probably had an effect.
         Today, we visit the story of another female action hero figure – a biblical version of Wonder Woman, if you will. And her name is Esther.
          This is the only time that anything from the Book of Esther shows up in our 3-year lectionary cycle, so it’s a good time to consider her story. Unfortunately, the chapter and verses we hear from today leave out one very important character – the character of Vashti.
          I would be willing to bet that not many of you know much about Vashti – Esther’s predecessor in the role of Queen. Vashti was the brave woman who said “no” to her husband, the King, in a time when that just wasn’t done. The King was partying with some of his friends, and commanded his wife, Queen Vashti to come entertain his friends with her beauty. The Queen was entertaining guests of her own and said “No”. This infuriated the King, and he basically banned her from the Court, effectively banishing her.
          This is where Esther enters the story. Esther wins a beauty pageant, if you want to call it that, and she gets the honor of becoming the new Queen. Now, everyone knew what happened to the last Queen, so Esther knew she was treading and thin ice. Perhaps Esther was inspired by Vashti’s example to stand up to the King and his court, but in a more subtle way.
          Esther can be thought of as a Wonder Woman, because she finds a way to save her people, the Jewish people, from destruction. Never did so much depend for so many upon one woman. Of all the female biblical heroes, Deborah might also be in the Wonder Woman conversation, but the scope of the salvation brought about by the daring Esther is unmatched in Hebrew canonical literature. So that’s one of the first things to note about Esther – she is a female hero in an era of hard-core, overwhelmingly male, patriarchal, testosterone-driven good-ole boys.
          The second thing to note about the Book of Esther is that God is not mentioned in Esther. There are only two books in the Bible where the name of God is not to be found – Song of Songs, Song of Solomon, and Esther. So, where is God in all this. Many scholars down through time have argued that is reason enough not to include Esther in Holy Scripture – God isn’t even mentioned. But here it is in our Bibles.
          The third thing to note about the Book of Esther is the total absence of any Jewish religious practices in this story. There is an argument to made that the mention of fasting in chapter 4, verse 16, is the exception, but the fasting there seems to come more as a request from Esther before she appears before the King. It is more of a “wish me good luck” gesture that a reference to a Jewish religious practice.
          So, why include Esther in the Bible at all? It’s an exciting story, to be sure. In 1960, it was even made into a Hollywood movie starring Joan Collins and Richard Egan. But without a single reference to Yahweh or any mention of religious practice, shouldn’t we move Esther to the Jewish extra-canonical, apocryphal literature alongside similar stories like Judith, for example, who uses her beauty and her flirty personality to save Israel from destruction by decapitating the Assyrian General Holofernes?
          Here’s one possible reason that Esther was included in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. When Esther was written, Jews were not living in their homeland. They were dispersed and living in exile. So, Esther is what scholars call a diaspora story, right alongside Daniel, for instance.
          So the question for the exiled Jew becomes – How do I live as a Jew away from the Temple, my homeland and my people?
          Esther offers some insight, and that’s probably why it has remained in the Bible. The purpose of Esther is to remind post-exilic Jews that one can prosper in a foreign land as an exile without giving up one’s identity as a Jew.
         In other words – if Esther can do it – so can you. After all, there were many forces positioned against her. She was a woman, and as such, essentially powerless and marginalized. As a female, you couldn’t just seek power in a male-dominated culture – you had to find a work-around.
          In this respect, Esther was like all Jewish people of her time. They were marginalized, disenfranchised and without power. But Esther, by winning that beauty contest, and using her smarts and relying on her guts, saves her people and in doing so demonstrates to the Jewish exiles that they, too, can not only survive but thrive if they play their cards right.
          The exiles also learn from Esther that they don’t need to be conspicuously religious to survive in a foreign country. God is not mentioned in this story. Religious practices are also absent. So, Jewish identity is essentially ethnic, not primarily religious. Dr. Sidnie Crawford, President of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archeological Research in Jerusalem, notes, “It is who Esther is that makes her Jewish, rather than that what she practices or believes.” (2)
          The message to the exiles who cannot worship in the Temple and therefore cannot be religious Jews is that they can certainly retain their ethnicity and avoid assimilation into the “melting pot of the ancient Near East.”
          As I mentioned earlier, Esther is a diaspora story – a story told to the Jewish people who have been scattered after the destruction of Jerusalem. It is in the Bible, not because it is overtly religious, as Daniel is, another diaspora story. Esther is in the Bible because the title character and the story itself serve as reminders that God’s people could live and survive without a Temple, and without a homeland.
          If there is any book in the Bible – with the possible exception of Jude – that elicits the question, “So What?” it’s Esther. It’s a great story, sure – a riveting plot, fascinating characters, but really, what’s in it for me? – what’s in it for us? What is the takeaway from Esther? Most sermons about Esther insert God where God is absent, or talk about the importance of taking a well-timed risk, or that God, even when absent, has a plan for us. But perhaps it makes more sense, and maybe it’s truer to the text itself, to discuss the relevance of Esther to our lives without bringing God into the picture.
          In that case, here is Takeaway #1 from Esther:
         Esther is a reality check when it comes to our relationship with the world. As Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon reminded us some 25 years ago, we are “resident aliens.” (3) We are like immigrants in this world. The biblical idea is that as Christians, we are passing through this land, en route “to the city that has its foundations in God,” as Augustine talked about. Esther is a reminder of that idea. We can’t forget where we came from, or where we are ultimately going.
          Takeaway #2:
         Esther reminds us that it is possible to live as a Christian in times that are unfavorable, even hostile to us as believers and followers of Jesus. Just think about our recent history.
          Like Esther, we were unable to gather for worship for 15 months during the COVID pandemic. But the closing of church doors did not spell the end of the church, as many thought it would. We are different now, but we’re still here. We found our own work-arounds as we moved online – and now we have almost 360 subscribers to our church YouTube Channel and right around 30 people join us each week live from their homes.
          Many others thought that the scandals of sexual misconduct or financial impropriety would bring down the church – but it hasn’t. We’re still here.
          Even though they are many more unchurched people than ever before – we hold to our mission of binding up the broken hearted, proclaiming liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.
          Like Esther, we are encouraged to challenge authorities, speak truth to power and take risks.
          Esther was truly a wonder woman in her own time – going up against the most powerful authorities in her world. She dared to stand before the King and speak truth to power. She didn’t have access to the cool tools that comic book Wonder Woman had – but she used what she had to save her people.
          Like Esther, we can find a way to adapt to whatever situation we face, whether it’s a health crisis, an economic crisis, or the challenge of a divided nation. Even when God appears to be hidden, we can be confident that God is watching from the wings, just offstage, to protect and guide us.
          And for that – May God be praised. Amen.
1. Mark Hughes, “Wonder Woman” is officially the highest-grossing superhero origin film,” Forbes.com, Nov. 2nd, 2017.

2. Homileticsonline, retrieved 9/2/24.

3. Stanley Hauerwas, William Willimon, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony, Abingdon Press, 2014.

09-22-2024 Trees Planted by Streams of Water

Thomas J Parlette
“Trees Planted by Streams of Water”
Psalm 1
9/22/24

         One of the great Christian storytellers of the 20th century was a Jesuit priest from India named Anthony de Mello. One of de Mello’s may parables is about a woman in coma, slowly dying. She’s barely aware of her surroundings as she lies on her sickbed. But she suddenly has the impression she’s been taken up to heaven and is standing before the judgment seat of God.

          She sees nothing but clouds of dark smoke. Out of the ponderous silence comes a voice. “Who are you”, asks the voice.
          Not knowing what to say, she turns to the answer she has used most often in life – “I’m the wife of the mayor.”
          “I did not ask whose wife you are, but who you are.”
          “I’m the mother of four children.”
          She hears a similar response – “I did not ask whose mother you are, but who you are.”
          “I’m a schoolteacher,” she says.
          “I did not ask what your profession is, but who you are.”
          And so it goes, over and over – but no matter what the woman says, her answer is unacceptable.
          Finally she tries another answer. “I’m a Christian.”
          “I did not ask what your religion is, but who you are.”
          “I’m the one who went to church every week, and always helped the poor and needy,” she says.
          “I did not ask what you did, but who you are.”

          De Mello concludes his parable by observing that the woman evidently fails the examination, because she is sent back to Earth. Soon after, she awakens from her coma and resumes her life. But something is different. Something has changed about her. From that day forward, this woman resolved to discover who she was. And that, the storyteller concludes, has made all the difference. (1)

          So, who are you – really? Strip away all those layers you have spent your life carefully building up – all the labels, titles, degrees, certifications – and what’s left? What is the essential core of You?
          That was the question behind one of the most well-known songs from the rock band The Who. Pete Townsend, the lead guitarist, wrote the lyrics that repeated over and over – “who are you, I’d really like to know, who are you…” It’s song really addressed to himself. Townsend had just had an 11 hour, highly contentious meeting with a record producer about his royalties. When all was said and done, the walked away with a big paycheck, but he also had a nagging feeling that he and the band had sold out. They weren’t the rebellious rock stars anymore, he wondered to himself, am I just a member of the corporate music industry now. So the song “Who are you”, is really Pete Townsend asking himself if he is a hypocrite, a sell-out.
          Or consider the story of Alex Haley. He was retired from the military, safe and secure after 20-plus years in the service, living on a comfortable pension. He’d achieved a standard of living higher than his parent’s wildest dreams. By all accounts, he should have been quite happy. But he was not. He felt like something was missing.
          Alex Haley longed to know where he had come from. So, he set out to discover his roots.
          Everyone he told about his quest said he was crazy. How could an African/American, a descendant of slaves, trace his family back across the ocean? There were few written records of black people in America’s courthouses. For many years, the official line had been that slaves were not people – they were property. Most of them had no last name, and if they did, it was the name of the master.
          But Haley had listened well to the stories of his family, the lore passed down from generation to generation. He’d heard about a man from an earlier generation who did not have his own name – Kunta Kinte, who was captured by slave traders and torn away from his homeland in West Africa. Inspired by the power of that name, and by the conviction that there had been a living, breathing human being behind all those stories – Haley managed to do what everyone thought was impossible. He traced his family roots back, generation by generation, all the way to Africa. The book he wrote, Roots, tells his family’s story (2) It became a bestseller that spawned several television miniseries. It also sparked a genealogy craze that hasn’t died down since.
          Although Haley was criticized for some errors he made in his research and for plagiarizing some details of the African portion of his story from another novelist – no one doubts that his book is a triumph of imagination that captures the experience of an entire people. Alex Haley’s Roots has helped countless Americans of African heritage remember who they are.
          There is a rich tradition in the Hebrew Scriptures that specializes in helping people uncover who they are. It is known as Wisdom Literature. The heart of Wisdom literature is the Book of Psalms, the hymnbook of ancient Israel. There’s a lovely song in the very beginning that looks at human life and what it means. Psalm 1 has long been a favorite of Rabbis, who like to use it with their very youngest students, the children just starting to study the Scriptures. Psalm 1 provides a road map of what’s ahead, frames the picture, and defines the boundaries of the spiritual life.
          It starts out on a positive note – “Happy are those…” Lots of word would fit here, “fortunate, blessed, rich” would also work, but happy is a good choice. “Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked.” That would seem pretty obvious. Who wants to be on the wrong side – to be one of the villian’s henchmen or henchwomen? I don’t know many people who watch Star Wars and yearn to be an Imperial Storm Trooper. Who watches The Wizard of Oz and thinks, “I”d sure like to be one of those flying monkeys.” Most people who watch the Harry Potter movies want to be a Gryffindor, not a Slytherin.
          The advice of the wicked is easy to shun when it comes from movie villians dressed in black, rubbing their hands together and hissing when they speak. The problem is that real-world wickedness rarely wears black. Most of the time it is attractive, appealing, even comfortable.
          The advice of the wicked refers to the prevailing value system promoted by our secular culture. It’s sort of message we hear every day, especially in big-budget advertising. We’ve all heard the tempting songs:
         Acquire more stuff, be more successful, look younger and sexier, pursue personal happiness as the highest value, use other people to get what you want, get ahead at all costs.
         These are the sorts of things that the Psalmist means by “the advice of the wicked.”

        “Happy are those who do not take the path that sinners tread.” This phrase is just slightly different from the previous admonition, in that it’s not about who you listen to, but who you emulate – who you actually follow.
          The Hebrew word for “sinner” used here by the Psalmist doesn’t refer to a person who is bad to the core. It literally means a person who has missed the mark, like an archer who aimed for the target, but sent to arrow flying off into the woods.
          We don’t have to look far to see plenty of people who are missing the mark these days. They’re shooting at the wrong targets and pursuing the wrong goals. They’re caught up in the rat race of material achievement – of seeking pleasure and power for themselves, no matter what it may cost those other people around them. The impulse to follow the crowd can be powerful. If we sit on the sidelines or take another path, it might feel like we’re falling behind. So we do what everyone else does. That’s what it means to take the path that sinners tread.
          There’s a third step in the slow, downward spiral laid out by the Psalmist – “to sit in the seat of scoffers.” Scoffers are cynics, those who, in the words of Oscar Wilde, “know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
          Few things are easier in life than sitting back and mocking things that have true value. There are some among our society who mock what we do, see no value in worship, and are quick to question the motives of those who seek to do good for others. Boldly they proclaim that they avoid church because there are too many hypocrites in it. When they hear Christians speak publicly of their faith, scoffers deride them as holier-than-thou. Eagerly they pounce on every social media story of a religious leader who falls into sin, imagining that this somehow discredits the whole Christian faith – forgetting that Christianity has always proclaimed that sin is, by its very nature, seductive and dangerous – and no one is immune to its effects.
          The cynic’s mocking song can be so appealing that we may even find ourselves humming right along. It’s an appealing little ditty, even if it is utterly wrong.
          It’s an easy, gently sloping road from heeding the advice of the wicked to following the path that sinners tread and sitting in the seat of the scoffers. But one good thing about that road is that’s a two-way street. It is always possible to repent, turn around and head back in the opposite direction.
          The rest of Psalm 1 is mostly about how to take the opposite direction – to act positively to strengthen our spiritual lives. The people that are truly happy or blessed are those “whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and on that law they meditate, day and night.”
          The Psalmist provides a beautiful, deeply poetic image in verse 3 that captures what it means to be a person of God:
          “They are like trees planted by streams of water,
          Which yield their fruit in its season,
          And their leaves do not whither.
          In all that they do, they prosper.”
          Do you know the most important part of a tree? Ask any landscaper, and they will tell you – it’s the roots. Landscapers go to great lengths to make sure the root-ball stays tightly packed and moist, and that it gets planted in the right kind of soil at the right depth, at the right time. All kinds of damage can occur to the trunk, branches or leaves, but as long as the roots are intact, there’s hope for recovery and growth. But if the roots are destroyed, the tree will probably
die.
          The Psalmist sings of a tree planted by streams of water. Its roots are sunk in the best possible place. They drink up the life-giving water, and even if a drought comes along, this tree will survive and flourish.
          It’s a clear, and beautiful metaphor for the spiritual life. Ancient Rabbi’s understood this well, and they turned to Psalm number 1 as the starting place for teaching their youngest students. The Psalmist says to meditate upon it. The Hebrew word for “meditate” is derived from the word “murmur.” It refers to the practice of repeating a biblical text over and over to oneself, to commit it to memory – as Orthodox Jews do in their worship even today.
          What kinds of meditations fill your mind each day? Is it your shopping list? Your To-Do list? The test coming up next week? The memo your boss sent around? When was the last time most of us truly pondered and reflected on God’s word, and made meditation and reflection a major part of our daily life.
          That is the goal of worship – to meditate on God’s word together – to plant ourselves by streams of God’s life-giving water so we can be nourished. No single worship service is going to fix everything in your spiritual life – it’s the cumulative effect of a healthy root system, nourished by streams of water that gives our faith staying power. With a  good root system, there is always hope for recovery, renewal and growth.
          So happens if we ignore our roots, neglect God’s word and forgo the discipline of worship and meditation?
         Well, as the Psalmist notes, there are consequences. “The wicked” – the ones who neglect God’s word- “are like chaff that the wind drives away.”
          Chaff is an interesting word here. Unless you grew up on a wheat farm, you probably not too familiar with chaff. But for the ancient Israelites, chaff was a part of everyday life. When wheat was harvested, it was threshed. The sheaves of wheat were dumped out on a stone slab called a threshing floor, where the villagers would beat it with sticks. Then, someone threw it up in the air with a pitchfork. As it hung in the air, the wind would carry away a fine dust, called chaff – indigestible stuff that was no good to eat.
          Here’s how one fellow preacher described the contemporary threshing process:
          “I don’t think city folks understand chaff. In Montana, every fall we had harvesters who came around with a threshing rig. The bundles of wheat would be thrown into this machine. The straw would be blown out into the stack and the wheat would come dribbling out to be poured into trucks or wagons and taken away to the granary. But floating around in the air everywhere was chaff. It was the worst stuff you ever saw. It stuck to the skin wherever you sweat, on the back of your neck and down your shirt. It created frightful itching. It was universally regarded as the most worthless stuff there ever was.” (3)
          That, says the Psalmist, is the result of a life that never focuses consistently on God’s word. It may look like a great life – following the crowd towards success and luxury, but ultimately that life is barren and empty, like chaff blown away by the wind.
          But if we live our lives like trees planted by streams of water, our spiritual roots will grow strong, we will bear fruit in due time, and we will prosper in everything we do.
         And for that, may God be praised. Amen.

1.  Anthony de Mello, The Prayer of the Frog, Prakash Publishing, 1988.

2. Alex Haley, Roots: The Story of an American Family, DeCapo Press, 2016.

3. Ray Stedman, “A Song of Foundations”, www.raystedman.org.

09-15-2024 The Power and Peril of Words

Thomas J Parlette
“The Power and Peril of Words”
James 3: 1-12
9/15/24

       “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” A simple childhood rhyme that we all know, designed to get us through those bouts of teasing and name-calling that inevitably happen as we grow up. You get teased at school and when you get home, mom says, “Don’t worry honey, sticks and stones… now sit down and have some cookies.”
          And yet, as well-meaning as that rhyme is – we all know it’s entirely true.
          Words are not harmless. Words have power.
          They have the power to hurt, but also the power to heal.
          Words have the power to build up, but also the power to tear down.
          As the Chinese proverb says: “A bad word whispered will echo a hundred miles.” (1)
 
          There’s an old story about the famous nineteenth-century preacher, Henry Ward Beecher. One Sunday, he climbed into the imposing pulpit of Boston’s Plymouth Congregational Church, and there he found a note waiting for him. Beecher glanced at the note, and then announced, “I received a letter from one of you this morning. It states quite simply, “Fool.” Beecher paused, then grinned and said, “I often receive letters from people who forget to sign their names, but this is the first time someone has signed their name and forgotten to write the letter.” (2)
          Beecher, quick on his feet, found a snappy comeback, but even or him, the criticism must have stung. Even though the word missed it’s mark, it was still meant to wound.
          But words also have the power to heal us and save us. Consider the story of Georgie Fletcher and Beth Legler. Georgie, from West Virginia, and Beth, from Australia were playing an online game where you could text message back and forth while you played. During their game, Georgie’s husband in West Virginia began experiencing weird sensations in his chest and left arm. Georgie mentioned this in passing to her gaming partner thousands of miles away in Australia – who in turn mentioned the symptoms to her husband, who just happened to be a doctor. Beth’s husband recognized that Georgie’s husband was experiencing symptoms of a heart attack, and insisted through text messages that he go to the hospital immediately. Which he did, as it turned out, just in time. He had a 99% blockage near his heart.
          After this incident, Beth said, “Had we not gotten that message, I don’t think my husband would have gone to the doctor that day.
          Today, Beth’s husband us alive and well, because of a few words over a text message. (3)
          It has been said that “a bad word whispered will echo a hundred miles.” But perhaps we could also say, “good word whispered can save a life.”
          There is an elementary school teacher in Minneapolis named Natalie Ringold, who has gone viral with a lesson that she teaches her 4th grade students. She teaches her students that kindness matters, their words matter. As she says, “If somebody can’t change something about themselves in 30 seconds or less, then you shouldn’t be mentioning it to them. It’s okay to tell someone that their shoe is untied, or they have a little something on their shirt, they can change those things in 30 seconds or less. But if you comment on someone’s hair color or hair texture or something about their body, they cannot change that very quickly. Your words have power. If you say something that someone can’t change in 30 seconds or less, you don’t say those things.” (4)
          The power and peril of words is the subject of our passage from James today. At the beginning of his letter, a letter that some scholars call “the New Testament version of Proverbs,” James lays out an overview of what true wisdom looks like:
1. taking care in how we speak,
2. giving care to those in distress,
3. and being careful about what we let into our lives.
 
          The rest of the letter, or perhaps we should think of it more like a sermon or a piece of wisdom literature, elaborates on what becoming wise looks like. Last week, we considered James’ direction about giving care to those in need as we read his well-known statement that “faith, if it has no works, is dead.” Today, we deal with one of the other bits of wisdom the Book of James is built on – “take care in how you speak.” Or, as James so eloquently puts it, “… the tongue is a small thing, yet it boasts of great exploits.” I love that phrase.
          Barbara Brown Taylor notes that wisdom writers typically look to the natural world for demonstrations of divine truth. James certainly does that. He has a bag full of metaphors to help him make his case.
          He points to the need to bridle the tongue, so it remains under control, as you would a donkey or a camel.
          He uses the example of a small rudder controlling the direction of a large ship.
          He talks about small fires growing into raging infernos, springs bringing forth two kinds of water, fig trees producing olives instead of figs.
          All these metaphors are used to show that our words have great power, and come with great peril. The tongue can be used for blessings and curses. This should not be true. The truly wise must learn to hold their tongue.
          As Mark Twain once said: “The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.” (5)
          The truly wise know that. Words have power. A bad word whispered can echo a hundred miles.
          There is an old story from Eastern Europe that tells about a woman whose tongue was sharp and unkind. She was known in her village for being the source of many hurtful rumors. One day, she was brought before the village Rabbi for judgment.
          She defended herself by saying, “The things I say are only in jest. I don’t mean any harm. Other people go off and spread the rumors. Blame them, not me.”
          But her victims cried out for justice, “You’ve ruined our reputations! You must be punished.”
          “Wait, wait – I can make it up to you,” said the woman. “I will take back my words and everything will be fine.”
          The Rabbi listened to what the woman had to say and sadly shook his head. “You don’t understand what you’ve done.” Then the Rabbi called out, “Bring my feather pillow to the market square.”
          Someone ran to the Rabbi’s house and brought back his pillow. Standing in the bustling town square, the Rabbi cut open his pillow and cast the feathers to the wind. He said to the woman, “Your careless words can not be forgiven until you bring me back my fathers – every last one.”
          The woman reluctantly agreed, but thought to herself, “the wise old Rabbi is out of his mind!”
          But to humor him, she dashed off to chase down every last feather. She ran to every corner of town. She weaved down every city street. She leaped and grabbed and snatched feathers out of mid-air – even took one right out of a dog’s mouth. But at the end of the day, she had only a small part of the pillow filled. (6)
          She went back to the Rabbi with a new awareness of the power, and the peril of her words. Words are like feathers in the wind. Once they are released, we can never get them back. A bad word whispered can echo a hundred miles.
          But the opposite is also true. A good word whispered can echo in your heart for a lifetime.
          Twenty-seven years ago, a man named Bob Greene wrote a piece that appeared in the Chicago Tribune. He wrote how he once overheard a mother say to her little boy, in a moment of exasperation – “Are you too stupid to do anything right?” Those words got him thinking:
          “A few words spoken in the heat of the moment – words that seem to mean little at the time to the people responsible for them – can have enormous power. Words like that can echo.”
          But so can words of the other kind.
          That experience makes me think of a story I heard once from a man named Malcolm Dalkoff. He’s 48 years old, and for the last 24 years he has been a professional writer, mostly in the advertising industry. Here is what he told me:
          “As a boy in Rock Island, Illinois, he was terribly insecure and shy. He was quiet, he was scared, he mostly stayed to himself. He had few friends, and so sense of self-confidence.
          In October of 1965, his English teacher at Rock Island High School, Mrs. Brauch, gave the class an assignment. The students had been reading To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. The assignment was to write a chapter that would follow the last chapter of the novel. Their own chapter.
          Malcolm wrote his last chapter and turned it in. Today, he cannot recall feeling anything about the act of writing that chapter, or the grade that he got.
          What he does remember – what he will never forget – are the four words his teacher wrote in the margins of the paper: “This is good writing.”
          Four words – and they changed his life.
          Up until those words, I had no idea of who I was or what I was going to be, he said. “But after reading those words, I went home and I wrote a short story – something I had always dreamed of doing but never really believed I could do.”
          Over the rest of the school year, he wrote many short stories, always bringing them to school for Mrs. Brauch to look at and evaluate. She was encouraging, but she was also tough and honest. “She was just what I needed,” says Dalkoff.
          Later in his high school career, Dalkoff was named co-editor of the school newspaper. His confidence grew, his horizons broadened, he started off on a successful and fulfilling life. And he is convinced that none of that would have happened had his English teacher not written those four words in the margin of his paper.” (7)
          Just a few words.
          “Are you too stupid to do anything right,” as opposed to
          “This is good writing.”
          Just a few words, but they can last forever. They can change everything. As James reminds us this morning – the wise know the power and peril of their words. The wise understand that a bad word whispered can echo a hundred miles. They are like feathers in the wind – you can never get them back.
          But those who are wise also know that a good word whispered can echo in your heart for a lifetime. So, I ask you – what words will you write in the margins of the people you meet?
          May God be praised. Amen.
1. Dynamic Preaching, Vol XXVIII, No. 4.
2. Ibid…

3. Ibid…

4. retrieved from online newsletter “Nice News” Sept. 9th, 2024.

5. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXVIII, No.4.

6. Ibid…

7. Ibid…

09-08-2024 Can't Have One Without the Other

Thomas J Parlette
“Can’t Have One Without the Other”
James 2: 1-17
9/8/24
          It is said that in Hollywood there is an exclusive school attended by the children of movie stars, directors and film producers. One day a teacher in that school asked her very privileged students to write a story on the subject of poverty. One little girl started her story like this: Once there was a poor little girl. Her father was poor, her mother was poor, her nanny was poor, her chauffer was poor, and her butler was poor. In fact, everyone in the house was very, very poor.” (1)
          Somehow I don’t think that little girl had ever been around anyone who was truly poor. If she did meet someone who was really poor, I’m not sure she would even know what to do. In all likelihood, she would have been right at home in the assembly that James describes this morning.
          James begins chapter two of his epistle with the story of an usher in a Christian assembly. If someone with gold rings and fine clothes shows up for church, this usher shows him to the best seats in the house, right in the center where the light is good and everybody takes notice. It’s not too hot, it’s not too cold and the cushions are comfortable. But when a poor person comes in with ragged clothes, smelling like yesterday’s socks, this usher shows him to a corner seat, way in the back, dark and out of the way, where the only seats are on the cold, hard floor. Like that little girl in Hollywood, this usher doesn’t know how to treat the poor person, and clearly gives preferential treatment to the rich worshipper.
          But listen, says James, God has chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith – don’t dishonor the poor. You would do well to live by the royal, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If you favor one over another like this, you’re breaking that law. Show mercy – mercy triumphs over judgment.
          And James goes on to write some of his most well-known words: And about this faith you say you have, what good is it if you have no works. Can faith save you? Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. For James – faith and works go together, you can’t have one without the other.
          The folk theologian, Charles Schulz, captured the spirit of James in a nutshell in his Peanuts comic strip. Snoopy is shivering out in a snowstorm beside his empty food dish. He looks longingly toward the house, from whence his food doth come. Lucy comes out, and instead of putting anything in Snoopy’s dish, Lucy says – “Go in peace, be warmed and filled.” And then she turns, goes back into the house and slams the door. In the last frame, there’s Snoopy looking toward the house, shivering and hungry and utterly baffled (2) That’s James in a nutshell. Faith, by itself, if it has no works, is dead. You can’t have one without the other.
          That theme is probably why the Epistle of James is a favorite for so many. If you are at all interested in mission, you probably like what James has to say. If you call yourself a Christian, then do something about it. Faith without works is dead. You can’t have one without the other.
          I imagine that none of us would argue with that. That makes perfect sense.
          And yet, the great reformer Martin Luther himself, really did not like James at all. He didn’t think it should be in the Bible. He famously dismissed it as “an epistle of straw.”
          You Pauline scholars out there probably know why Luther felt that way. Luther was very influenced by Paul’s letter to the Romans. It was there that Martin Luther found the core of his teaching – we are saved by our faith, not by our works. There is nothing we can do to earn our way into heaven – salvation is a gift from God. We are saved by our faith. That is one of the cornerstones of our Reformed faith.
          So when James asks his rhetorical question, “Can faith save you” – Martin Luther may have stood up and shouted “Are you kidding me! Yes! We are saved by our faith.” This apparent theological contradiction is why Luther had very little use for the Epistle of James.
          And yet, I don’t think James and Paul are really at odds. Faith is still important for James. We are saved by our faith, but for James, what good is it to say we have faith, but do nothing about it. What good is it to show up for worship, say all the right things, but then continue to live in ways contrary to the gospel. For James, talk is cheap. Saying you have faith is not enough. You need to act on your faith. You need to provide for the needs you see all around you, in the best way you can. Love your neighbor as yourself. Show compassion. Show mercy. Then your faith means something.
          I prefer to believe that James actually builds on what Paul has to say. We are saved by our faith – true – but we are still called to do good. The question is WHY do we do the good deeds. It’s a question of motivation. Do we care for the needs we see around us so we can earn a place in heaven? Or, do we care for the needs we see around us because we are grateful to God that we already have a placed reserved for us in heaven through our faith in Jesus Christ.
          Paul deals with the question of HOW we receive salvation. We receive salvation through our faith, as a gift from God.
         James builds on that and tackles the question of WHAT do we DO once we have this salvation. Do we keep our faith to ourselves and keep quiet about it? No – for James, once you have faith, it is only useful if you do something with it. Faith, by itself, with no works, is dead. It means nothing. You need both faith and works – you can’t have without the other. James calls us to risk doing the things we say we believe.
          For instance, here’s how one family answered that call. Kevin Salwen was driving home with his daughter Hannah, who was 14 at the time, and they came to a stoplight where Hannah noticed a homeless man panhandling while nearby, just a few feet away, an expensive Mercedes was idling, waiting for the light to turn green. She wondered aloud why the guy in the big, fancy car didn’t sell it and use the money to provide meals for the poor.
           At home that night and for many subsequent nights, a discussion ensued and then a debate emerged. Finally, Hannah’s mother Joan had had enough and she blurted out, “What do you want us to do? Sell the house?” Their house was worth 1.5 million dollars.
          Long story short, that’s exactly what the Selwen family did. They sold their 1.5 million dollar house and downsized to a house half that price. Then they donated 800,000 dollars to The Hunger Project to help a village in Ghana. Later, the entire family went to Ghana to visit the village and it was a life changing experience. You can read the whole story in the book The Power of Half: One Family’s Decision to Stop Taking and Start Giving Back. (3)
          I admit that’s a pretty daring thing to do – and clearly not something that everyone is in a position to do. But that story can challenge us to think creatively about other possibilities that might be within our reach. How can you put your faith into action? How can you love your neighbors and show mercy and compassion?
          There is a Pulitzer Prize-winning sociologist at Princeton University, named Matthew Desmond. He has been exploring the subject of poverty in America. His latest book, released just last year is called Poverty, by America. It lays out why there is so much poverty in the United States, and it offers suggestions about how we can eliminate it. The numbers he has compiled are staggering:
         3 million children are homeless.
-         5% of the population lives in poverty.
-         3 million people get by on $4 a day.
Desmond says, “If America’s poor founded a country, that country would have a population bigger than Australia or Venezuela.”
So, what can we do about it? Desmond says that if we decided, as a country to invest in ending poverty, the price tag would be $177 billion dollars. This would ensure that every American had a safe and affordable place to live, hunger would be eliminated, and every child would have a good shot at security and success.
I know $177 billion dollars sounds like a lot of money – because it is a lot of money. But the United States could find the funds if it wanted to, according to Matthew Desmond. Eliminating tax cheats alone would generate $1 trillion dollars. Not $1 billion, but $1 trillion. Enough to cover the bill.
But here’s the problem. Desmond points out that many Americans are opposed to the expansion of public services. Half the population believes that social benefits from the government make people lazy. They feel that aid to the poor is does more harm than good. (4)
But then we run into James today.  “What good is it to say you have faith, but have no works. If you do nothing for those in need, what good is your faith? Faith without works is dead.” You need both – you can’t have one without the other.
Once upon a time, there was a wealthy and devout business who decided to take a walk and enjoy his lunch outside. He strolled through a park, bought a hot dog and a soda, and enjoyed the day. As he walked. Two different people approached him with the same request – “Can you help me out, I’m hungry?”
Both times, the businessman waved them away and kept walking. On his way back to his office, he decided to stop into a bakery and get a chocolate éclair for dessert. But just as he was about to take the first bite, a young man on a skateboard zoomed by and accidentally knocked the éclair to the ground. The business tried to clean the dirt of, you know, five second rule and all, but it was no use – the éclair was just too dirty.
Just then, he saw one of the men who approached him before, asking for help. The businessman handed over the éclair, and said, “Here you go, my friend, enjoy.” And the businessman walked back to his office proud of himself for his good deed.
But that night, the man had a dream. He was sitting in a large and crowded café. Waiters were busy serving all manner of food and treats but no one took notice of the businessman, despite him waving his arms and asking for service.
Finally, one waiter took notice and came over to take the businessman’s order – “just bring me whatever you have on special, I’m very hungry.”
A few minutes later, the waiter returned with a dirty, gross-looking piece of something resembling a pastry
The businessman was livid – “How dare you serve me this. You can’t treat me this way. I expect good service and good food for my money. What kind of a café is this this?”
The waiter responded – “Sir, you don’t seem to understand. You can’t buy anything here, we don’t accept money. You have arrived in heaven and all you can order here is what you sent ahead while you were on earth. I checked our records and the only thing we have for you is his dirty éclair.”
He learned the hard way about the truth of James’ words – “Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” Faith and good deeds go together – you can’t have one without the other.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXVIII, No. 3, p 53.

2. Ibid… p 53.

3. Homiletics, Vol. 24, No 5, p 20-21.

4. Matthew Desmond, Poverty, by America (New York, Crown, 2023). P 18, 85-86, 124-125.