10-03-2021 Once Upon a Time in the Land of Uz

Thomas J Parlette
“Once Upon a Time in the Land of Uz”
Job 1:1, 2:1-10
10/3/21, World Communion

        Have you ever gotten the cold shoulder from someone? You walk into a gathering or a meeting, or even your own home and a friend, a co-worker, perhaps a spouse or maybe your child won’t look you in the eye. They seem kind of distant, uninterested, or even downright mad. They seem to go out of their way to avoid you, or even make a point to stand up and leave the room when you sit down. If so – you’ve been given the cold shoulder.
        It’s an interesting expression, “cold shoulder.” There was a time when giving someone the cold shoulder meant more than simply snubbing them in public. During the Middle Ages, if your guests had overstayed their welcome, you served them a big shoulder of old beef rather than a nice hot roast. With any luck, they would get the message and leave.
        The English language has a lot of curious idioms like that. How about “bringing home the bacon”? It now means coming home with a paycheck, but it used to be understood more literally. In the 12th century, a church in Britain started to award cured bacon strips to newly married couples if they could pass a particular test- they had to swear, after one year of marriage, they had never once regretted the decision. If they passed, they could bring home the bacon. Not sure if that promoted happy marriages or encouraged lying – I wonder.
        Or how about the phrase “stewing in your own juices”? Today it means to suffer the consequences of your own actions – “you reap what you sow”, “you made your bed, now you have to lie in it” sort of thing. But in the 13th century, that phrase was a euphemism for being burned at the stake, a horrible fate in which you would quite literally simmer in your own bodily fluids – gross, I know.(1)
        All of this brings us to the idiom that arises from our text for today – the well- known phrase “the patience of Job.”
        The idea comes from the Old Testament story of Job, the tale of a poor soul from the land of Uz, described in today’s passage as a “man blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.” Despite his moral and spiritual virtue – or perhaps because of it – Job is subjected to a seemingly random and rather mean supernatural test in which he loses his property, his children and his health, and is challenged to retain his integrity and remain faithful to God. It seems that perhaps God is giving Job the cold shoulder – ignoring him in his suffering and callously letting these disasters come upon him.
        Virginia Woolf once wrote to a friend, “I read the Book of Job last night – I don’t think God comes well out of it.”(2) She has a point. God does seem cruel here at the beginning of Job – all these tragedies over a simple wager between God and Satan.
        The idea about Job’s patience actually comes to us from the letter of James in which the author says in the King James version, “Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” Oddly enough, the word patience doesn’t appear anywhere in the Book of Job itself. Modern translations like the NRSV and the NASB got away from that idea of patience and went with “endurance” instead, as did The Message paraphrase that went with “staying power.” Even the NIV chose to render James words as “perseverance.” All good choices. But the phrase, “the patience of Job” still lingers.
        Conventional wisdom argues that the patience of Job enabled him to endure suffering as he still kept his faith in God. Job took the long view in life, looking well beyond his considerable, heartbreaking losses – and because he was able to do this, eventually he experienced the compassion and mercy of God.
        All good to say at the end of the story. But what about at the beginning and middle of the story. Enduring and keeping his faith – being patient – is that really true about the story of Job. Does his virtue lie in the fact that he is patient and that he is able to endure so much?
        Not exactly. There are many adjectives that can be used to describe Job, but patient might not be the best choice. Blameless? - Ok. Upright? - yes, the text says so. Faithful? At the conclusion, yes. Long-suffering and steadfast? - true. Honest? - certainly. All those words work on some level.
        But does Job bear his affliction calmly, as a patient person would? No – instead he cries out, “I loathe my life; and I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.”
        Far from showing “cheerful endurance”, Job screams out, “My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.”
        The he moans, “God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!”
        Quite a list. But you have to hand it to Job – he is an honest man. But a patient man? Not so much.
        There are many life-changing lessons in the story of Job, but patience is not really one of them. It is more fruitful to focus on several other messages that are delivered with far greater clarity, messages about the nature of suffering and the importance of faithfulness to God. These are not clichés like the patience of Job, but are, instead, insights that leave us with something truly nourishing to chew on. A focus on suffering and faithfulness enables us to read Job and then- bring home the bacon, I suppose.
        First, Job teaches us about the nature of suffering. The book of Job makes it clear that not all human suffering is deserved – it is not necessarily a punishment for a life of debauchery and greed. Job is a righteous man, described by God as being “a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.”
        And yet he loses everything. He loses his property to raiding Sabeans and Chaldeans. He loses his sons and daughters in a natural disaster. And then he loses his health as he comes down with painful sores all over his body. Job is an absolute mess, leaving onlookers to wonder, “What did he do to deserve this?”
        The answer, of course, is – nothing. This intense suffering descends on Job through no fault of his own. Jesus himself knew this. Remembered how he once observed that God sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. We should never be too quick to conclude that anyone deserves the suffering they experience – anyone, including ourselves.
        Gerald Sittser was a history professor with a wonderful family. But one day, his wife, his 4-year-old daughter and his mother were all killed in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. Sittser’s life had been going very well, but then, in a horrible moment, he lost three of the most important people in his life.
        His suffering was compounded eight months later, when the driver of the other car was acquitted of vehicular manslaughter. The attorney was able to cast enough suspicion on the testimony of several witnesses that he was able to get his client off the hook.
        Sittser was enraged. But then he began to be bothered by his assumption that he had a right to complete fairness in life. He wrote in his book A Grace Disguised: “Granted, I did not deserve to lose three members of my family. But then again, I am not sure I deserved to have them in the first place.” His wife was a woman who loved him through some very hard times. His mother lived well and served people all her life. His daughter sparkled with enthusiasm and helped to fill his home with noise and excitement. “Perhaps I did not deserve their deaths,” says Sittser. “But I did not deserve their presence in my life either.(3) Instead, he was lucky and blessed to have them at all.
        We should never be too quick to conclude that people deserve the suffering they experience… but at the same time, we should never jump to the conclusion that people deserve their blessings, either. Job makes much the same point when he asks the question, “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?”
        The second clear message of Job is that faithfulness to God is of critical importance, in bad times as well as in good times. Gerald Sittser did not turn his back on God after his family was killed by a drunk driver, nor did Job abandon the Lord in his time of overwhelming loss. It is essential that we not give God the cold shoulder when we encounter a period of undeserved suffering.
        Can we scream and yell at God? Sure. “I will not restrain my mouth,” shouts Job, a little later in the story. “I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.” There is nothing wrong with offering up a passionate and honest complaint, as long as we direct our complaining to God. Job grabs hold of the Lord like a dog with a bone, and he won’t let go until responds – but more on that later. What saves Job is that he remains faithful to God always demanding that God hear him and take him seriously and respond to his concerns.
        As we approach the table on this world communion Sunday, let us remind ourselves of the good news of the gospel – God is good, all the time. God never abandons us. As John Greenleaf Whittier once wrote:
“Yet in the maddening maze of things,
And tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings:
I know that God is good…
I know not what the future hath
Of marvel or surprise,
Assured alone that life and death
His mercy underlies.”(4)
        Whittier was convinced that greater than the reality of evil and suffering in this world, is the reality of the goodness and mercy of an ever-present God that underlies our lives.
        In the end, I think Job would agree.
        May God be praised. Amen.

1.   Homileticsonline, retrieved 9/20/21.
2.   Barbara Brown Taylor, When God is Silent, Rowan and Littlefield Publishing Group, 1998, pg. 68.
3.   Homileticsonline, retrieved 9/21/21.
4.   Ibid.

09-26-2021 The Patron Saint of Whistleblowers

Thomas J. Parlette
“The Patron Saint of Whistleblowers”
Esther 7: 1-6, 9-10; 9: 20-22
9/26/21

        This morning we hear the story of the Patron Saint of Whistleblowers. Today we hear from the Book of Esther. It’s good to think about Esther and her story today – because this is the only time any passage from Esther comes up in our three-year cycle of lectionary texts.
        Our cut and paste passage for today acts sort of like a summary of the story as Queen Esther blows the whistle on the wicked Haman.
        Esther is actually a Jewish novel written for Jews living in Exile in Persia. It isn’t meant to be an historical record or a book of prophecy. It’s meant as a satirical novel poking fun at the Persian culture, where the Jewish people lived as outsiders. The King referred to, King Ahasuerus, never actually existed and there is no historical record of Queen Vashti either. King Ahasuerus is likely loosely based on King Xerxes, an actual King in Persia.
        Queen Vashti gets the story rolling when she disobeys the King’s order to join him at a lavish banquet. The King is unhappy about this and decides to hold basically a beauty pageant to find himself a new Queen. Esther wins this pageant and becomes the new Queen. Her older cousin Mordecai, who has basically raised her, sees the benefit to having a Jew in such a position of power and influence, and tells her to keep her Jewish heritage a secret – which she does.
        Sometime after Esther is made Queen, her cousin Mordecai overhears a plot to kill the King. He sends a warning to Esther, who, in the name of Mordecai, warned her husband. The plotters were executed and the King was saved.
        Now highly placed in the King’s court was a devious man named Haman, a sycophant with substantial wealth and power. Haman hated Mordecai, largely because Mordecai refused to bow before him, but really it was because Mordecai could see right through his pompousness. In a calculated response, Haman persuaded the King to issue a death edict against “certain people” living in the empire. Haman did not tell the King the targets were the Jews, and the King didn’t bother to ask.
        When Mordecai learned of this edict, he asked Esther to intervene with the King, producing the best known verse in the Book of Esther, “for such a time as this.” What followed was an intricate and carefully planned approach to the monarch, which was nonetheless quite risky for Esther. She was in effect functioning as a whistle blower and having to do so in the face of the King’s own edict.
        She was successful, however, and in the end, Haman was hanged on the very gallows on which he had planned to execute Mordecai. And though the original edict could not be withdrawn, the King issued a second edict that permitted the Jews to defend themselves – which they do.
        As a result, the Jews in Persia were saved. This whole story and the good outcome that came out of it are celebrated to this day in Judaism in an annual festival called Purim.
        Esther is unique in our Scripture because there is no mention of God. God moves behind the scenes and in people’s dreams, but is never expressly named, acknowledged or called upon. There are plenty of feasts and banquets and royal proclamations and edicts in Esther – but very little religious ceremony. The closest we get is when Esther asks other Jews to join her in a three-day fast before she goes to the King. Otherwise, God doesn’t seem to have a direct role in the Book of Esther. We may even wonder – why is Esther in the Bible then. It’s good story – sure, but plenty of good stories didn’t make it into the Bible. We don’t consider them scripture. Why Esther? What can we take from this story to inform our spiritual lives?
        I’m glad you asked …
        First, Esther shows us that goodness is courageous, but not in a superhuman type of way. Once Mordecai informed Esther of Haman’s plot against the Jews, the immediate problem was how to get an audience with the King. The Persian Empire operated on protocols, and by those protocols, the Queen was not supposed to ever approach the King unless he summoned her – and he had not done that for the last month or so. The King held Esther’s life in his hands. If she violated the protocols, and the King was so inclined, he could have her executed. By the way, Esther pointed all this out to Mordecai, but he urged her to proceed anyway; there was just too much at stake for Esther not to make the attempt. And so she finally agreed, saying, “I will go to the King, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” I will do the right thing to save my people, what will be, will be.
        That is how a whistleblower thinks. It is not a chest-thumping, “Only I can save the day” exclamation, but a quiet, perhaps even fear-filled resolve to do the right thing despite the potential cost.
        Second, Esther shows us that goodness is rooted in God, even though God is never directly named. God is still there, moving behind the curtain, just off stage. We see it when characters dream and have trouble sleeping, and especially when Esther resolves to act, and asks her fellow Jews to join her in a  three-day fast – a spiritual discipline, a means of seeking God’s help and blessing.
        Third, Esther shows us that goodness is “wise as serpents and innocent as doves,” to use Jesus’ phrase from Matthew. Goodness, far from being a weak, doormat attribute is a characteristic of the Divine. Thus it is both innocent and wise. After Esther took the huge risk of approaching the King on her own, he welcomed her. But then, instead of blurting out her request, she invited both her husband and Haman to a banquet. At that occasion, the King promised her anything she wanted, but all she asked was that the two men come back to a second banquet. Only at that one, when the time was right, did she make her request – that she and her people be spared. Even then, however, she was very careful how she worded the request, so that the King could act without accepting any blame himself for the situation. Esther never lost sight of her goal, and she wisely crafted a careful plan to get there.
        Esther also shows us that goodness is oriented toward others. Esther herself was in no immediate danger. If her goal had merely been to save herself, all she had to do was keep her mouth shut, as nobody in the court knew she was Jewish. Mordecai had told her that once the purge began, even she would not be safe, but when she chose to act, it wasn’t her own hide she was thinking of saving. Mordecai had painted the larger picture: “Who knows?” He had said, “Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” Mordecai was suggesting that God had strategically enabled Esther to become queen for the good of others, and that was her main goal.
        And finally, the story of Esther shows us that goodness does not seek martyrdom – it does not needlessly provoke the ungodly to violence. It does not throw life away when there is no other possibility. Wisely, when Esther told the King her request, she first mentioned the sparing of her own life, and then added the sparing of her people. She named herself first, not out of self-interest, but because she astutely knew that saving her would be more important to the King, and the rest of her people could ride to safety on the tails of her royal gown.
        Even Jesus himself didn’t set out to be martyred. He knew it was going to happen, but that wasn’t his intent. His intent was to be about God’s business. But goodness also does not conclude that keeping one’s own life safe above all else is the highest value.
        Goodness is a powerful force, but it often operates through those who seem to have little power, through ordinary people who seemingly are not in positions of great influence, people who see something they know will harm others, and they act or blow the whistle for the good of all. It can be a way of loving our neighbor.
        Writer Doug Bender shares a moving tribute he discovered while visiting Medellin, Colombia. In the middle of town, there was a park that contained numerous statues celebrating Medellin’s greatest leaders in art, politics, business, the military, and other fields. But the first statue in the park is of a relatively unknown judge. On the base of the statue is a plaque that says: “In a city full of corruption, this man did what was right.”
        As you probably know, Medellin is known for harboring dangerous drug cartels. The wealth and the violence of the international drug trade have also fostered corruption among the police and public officials. But this particular judge was so respected for his incorruptible character that the city of Medellin commissioned a statue to honor him. “In a city full of corruption, this man did what was right.”(1) That’s what Esther did in her time. That’s what all true whistleblowers try to do.
        We may never be in the position in which Esther, the Patron Saint of Whistleblowers, found herself. But God calls us to holiness, and doing good, doing what is best for everyone, in whatever circumstances we face, is a crucial part of both good and holy.
        Living in this time of division, where it’s difficult to agree on much, dealing with a pandemic which has probably changed us for good in ways we can’t even see yet – perhaps we have more in common with Esther and the Jewish people living in exile than we might have thought.
        If so, the Patron Saint of Whistleblowers can serve to remind us that perhaps faithful people doing what is right were made for such a time as this. May God be praised. Amen.

1.   Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 3, pg 5.

09-12-2021 People are Talking

Thomas J Parlette
“People Are Talking”
Mark 8: 27-38
9/12/21

        When people were talking about something in the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s, it’s pretty likely that Larry King was the one asking the questions. King died this past January after a long and distinguished career in broadcasting. He was probably the most well-known interviewer of his time, credited with over 50,000 interviews over the course of his career.
        Back when Larry King was celebrating the 40th anniversary of his broadcasting debut, the tables were turned. He became the interviewee instead of the interviewer. Bryant Gumbel had the honor of asking King some interesting questions about his life and career. Possibly the most interesting question came at the conclusion of the show when Gumbel asked, “What questions would you ask God, if God were a guest on your show?”
        Well, you could see Larry King’s eyes light up as the master interviewer’s mind was flooded with potential questions, but the first question out of his mouth was “Do you have a son?”
        Although Larry King claims to be an agnostic, he understands the importance of asking that question first. Establishing Jesus’ identity, asking “Who is this?” – that is the first question. And it’s a particularly good question to consider this morning as we begin a new program year here at church.
        That’s certainly the question that has people talking in this passage from Mark today. We are at the beginning of a section of Mark’s gospel that many scholars believe is the central section of Mark’s story. Leading up to today’s passage, Mark has used two chapters to tell us such stories as the feeding of the 4,000 and the feeding of the 5000. The reaction to these miracles was that the Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign. I wonder, what else did they need to see? What kind of sign did they want? Wasn’t it enough of a sign to feed 10,000 or so people? The Pharisees have eyes – but they can’t see. They are blind to who Jesus really is and why he has come.
        Then the disciples enter the picture. After Jesus feeds the multitudes, the disciples are in a boat with him and they only have one loaf of bread, and the disciples express concern about how they will all eat from one loaf.
        Now, they’ve just seen Jesus feed all those people – twice – and now they’re wondering how they will make it with one loaf for 12 guys.
        I can see Jesus sitting there, utterly amazed. “Come on guys! Are you kidding me!” Even his own disciples could not see. They just didn’t get it. Their eyes are still closed to the truth of who he is.
        So now we move into a new section of stories. You might call the theme of this section “on the way”- because Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem. And while he is on the way, Jesus is trying to open his disciples’ eyes. He is trying to show them who he is. On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus is slowly re-defining what the word “messiah” means. On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus literally opens people’s eyes.
        Mark makes this point by telling stories in which Jesus actually opens blind eyes. This section begins with a story about Jesus opening the eyes of a blind man in Bethsaida, and two chapters later it concludes with the healing of another blind man – Bartimaeus.
        “Seeing” and “Opening the eyes of the blind” are very important themes for Mark in this part of the story. He wants us to see something about Jesus. Jesus may be able to open the eyes of the physically blind in this section of Mark’s gospel, but he is unable to open the eyes of his own disciples to who he is and what it means to be the “Messiah.”
        And so we come to this story for today. Jesus and his disciples have come to the villages of Caesarea Phillipi – a beautiful little town with lovely green meadows and little streams running through the countryside, a perfect spot to spread out a blanket and have a picnic. Dominating the town of Caesarea Phillipi was an enormous shrine, carved out of the side of a mountain, dedicated to the Greek god, Pan. This shrine had dozens of little alcoves where many other gods were honored with small statues and other artifacts. As Jesus and his disciples arrive in Caesarea Phillipi, Jesus is aware that people are talking. And he is wondering what they are saying. So, in the shadow of this monument to all the gods of the day, Jesus asks them – “Who do people say that I am?”
        Some say you are John the Baptist – a rather outlandish idea since John the Baptist was dead.
        Some say you are Elijah – an even more outlandish answer since there was no bigger prophet than Elijah, only Moses shared that kind of status. Elijah was the one who was going to return and defeat the enemies of Israel and save God’s people. Quite a statement that people were saying Jesus was Elijah.
        Still others say you are one of the prophets – probably the safest answer of all, because that was a way of saying that people thought Jesus was simply a wise teacher, inspired by God.
        Ok. I imagine sitting there, nodding his head in response to their answers for a couple of seconds. Then Jesus poses another question – “But who do YOU say that I am?”
        Here is a spot in the gospels where I have always thought there was a long pause. The disciples stand there, awkwardly shuffling their feet and kicking at the ground, looking at each other and shrugging their shoulders. Peter finally offers the tentative reply – “You are the Messiah.”
        Yes! – finally, good answer Peter. It’s about time, the disciples just might be getting it. This is the first glimmer of hope that maybe their eyes were beginning to open and they were starting to realize who Jesus is.
        This is a turning point in Mark’s story. We are at the exact middle of the story here in Chapter 8, and from now on, everything moves quickly toward Jerusalem and the cross. Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Messiah is an important moment.
        But something is not quite right. After Peter makes his confession, Jesus orders them not to tell anyone – at least not yet. Because they don’t know the whole story. They don’t have all the facts. Not yet. Jesus goes on to tell them what’s going to happen in Jerusalem. That he will suffer, be rejected and killed and that he will rise again on the third day.
        Now all this was just too much for Peter. He took Jesus aside and “rebuked him.” In other words, Peter scolded Jesus for talking this way. If he was the Messiah, these things must not happen, indeed they could not happen – because if the Messiah were to suffer, be rejected and die – well, then – by definition, he would not be the Messiah. The Messiah would bring victory and glory – not suffering and defeat.
        But Jesus fires right back and rebukes Peter. In no uncertain terms he lets Peter know that he is wrong about what “Messiah” means. You see, Peter was right in principle – but he was wrong in context. He got the job title right – Jesus is the Messiah. But he got the job description wrong – the Messiah is not bringing glory and victory. The Messiah will bring sacrifice and service. Jesus is re-defining the picture of what a Messiah looks like, and what a Messiah will do. The Messiah will not come riding a white stallion and carrying a golden sword. No – the Messiah will come on a donkey carrying a basin of water and a towel. The Messiah will come, not to conquer, but to serve.
        Peter knows who Jesus is – that’s the first question. He’s the Messiah, he got that part right.
        But Peter doesn’t understand yet what the Messiah has come to do. He can’t accept the idea that the Messiah is coming to suffer, take up a cross and die.
        Peter is still caught up in “glory thinking.” He and the other disciples are still thinking about their place with Jesus in the coming Kingdom. They will be winners, enjoying the spoils of victory.
        But Jesus is talking about a different kind of thinking. Jesus is talking about “cross thinking” – the cross he is heading towards, and the cross that his followers must take up. If you’re going to follow me on this way, open your eyes and see what that means. The path to life is sacrifice – not glory.
        Jesus presents a completely new picture of what it means to be the Christ. The Messiah, the Christ, will be the one who suffers. God says in effect:

“I am God revealed in Jesus. I am a God who must suffer.
 I suffer in order to share in your sufferings.
 I identify with you when you suffer.
 I will walk with you when you suffer and raise you on the third day.
 I will walk with you in your trials and bring you to new life.
 I will die with you when you die and bring you with me to eternal life.”

Jesus presents a whole new picture of Messiah.
        Back in 1999, when everyone was thinking of ways to celebrate the new millennium, The National Catholic Reporter announced an interesting contest for artists. To celebrate the new millennium, they hosted a contest to discover a bold new image of Jesus. Everyone was welcome to enter any visual medium – computer art, stained glass, silk screen, photographs – whatever they wanted. The only criteria were “there ought to be something new that we haven’t seen before.” Michael Farrel, the editor of the magazine at the time, came up with the idea because he was frustrated that the year 2000 was being dominated by survivalists, doomsayers and the Y2K computer bug – remember that? He said, “Nobody is talking about Jesus right now. Until our time, Jesus was always the most popular subject for our artists. I hope this contest will be a step towards changing that. And thus, the Jesus 2000 contest was born.
        And the idea was a success. On the front cover of the December 24th, 1999, issue of the National Catholic Reporter was the winning image – submitted by Janet McKenzie, it was called “Jesus of the People.” It’s the picture in your bulletin today, or I invite you to take a closer look at a print I have set up in the Atrium. As you can see, it is not the more anglicized Jesus that most of us grew up with. This image of Jesus is decidedly more Middle Eastern, more African in its influences. It’s quite a different picture of Jesus than we are used to – and if we’re honest, it’s probably closer to the truth about what Jesus actually looked like. At the time, it sure got people talking about Jesus. It still generates discussion even 21 years later.
        Jesus once said to his disciples, “I know people are talking. What are they saying? Who do people say that I am?”
        John the Baptist… Elijah… One of the prophets.
        And who do YOU say that I am.
        You are the Messiah.
        Yes, you are right. Now let me paint you a new picture of Messiah that will keep people talking. So, take up your cross, and follow me.
        May God be Praised. Amen.

09-05-2021 Talkin' Back to Jesus

Thomas J Parlette
“Talkin’ Back to Jesus”
Mark 7: 24-37
9/5/21

         You may have heard the old joke about the pastor who was giving the children’s sermon on Sunday. He was talking about the beauty of the fall season and going back to school. Near the end of the children’s time he asked, “What is brown and furry and scampers around your yard gathering nuts for the winter?”
        After a short pause, one of the more talkative youngsters answered, “Well it sounds like a squirrel, but I know the answer has to be Jesus.”
        When we come to church, we expect the answer to be Jesus. And when we read the stories of the Bible, we expect a certain Jesus to emerge. We expect a Jesus who is kind and welcoming and generous with his time. We expect a Jesus who is anxious to serve others, ready and willing to heal our minds and our bodies and meet our every need. That’s what we expect. And that’s usually what we get. But not today.
        Today we meet a Jesus who is having a bad day. He is trying to get away for a bit, relax, regroup. Jesus wanted to find a place where he could be alone, a place where no one would know him, where no one would bother him, or ask anything of him. Jesus was looking for a vacation, a Sabbath, if you will.
        But of course, he couldn’t be hidden. Jesus has just come from another confrontation with the Pharisees and scribes, he is tired, perhaps maybe even a little irritable. And then in walks the first of two people who are in desperate need.
        Today we have two stories about people who talk back to Jesus.
        In the first story, we meet the Syro-phonecian woman whose daughter has a demon. After Jesus initially refuses to do anything, she talks back to Jesus, he changes his mind and she gets what she wants – her daughter is healed.
        In the second story, we hear about a deaf man who also cannot speak. His friends bring him to see Jesus, and because of their faith, Jesus heals him, and he gets what he wants – he is able for the first time in his life to actually talk back to Jesus, and it is a miracle.
        These stories are unusual for a variety of reasons. To start with, they take place in the north, along the Mediterranean Sea, in a predominantly Gentile area. This is the first time Jesus has ventured beyond his Jewish homeland. He is outside his usual territory. In his first encounter, with the Syro-phonecian woman, there are a number of unusual elements. First of all, there is the fact that she is a woman talking to a man – something that just wasn’t done in that time. And to top it off, she was a gentile woman, she wasn’t even Jewish. In fact, this is only the second time Jesus talks to anyone who isn’t a Jew, and it’s only the second time he talks with a woman. And then there’s what he says to her. First, he refuses to do much of anything, and then he calls her a “dog” – a very cutting insult. For years, scholars have tried to soften Jesus’ words here, saying that ‘dog’ was a commonly used expression, a term of endearment, so it wasn’t that offensive. Or that Jesus said it with a smile and just wanted to see the woman’s reaction, whether her faith was strong enough to offer a comeback. Whether that was the case or not, it is still a shocking thing to say, something we would never expect Jesus to say.
        The woman responds with a very cheeky reply – “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” This would have been an unexpected turn of events – women did not talk back to men. But this woman does. And it works. Jesus changes his mind and heals the woman’s daughter.
        And, take note that Jesus doesn’t go to see his patient. This is one of the few times when Jesus heals from a distance. Usually Jesus goes to the sick person’s house and lays hands on them, or at least meets them first. But not this time. This time he simply says, “The demon has left your daughter.” Very unusual.
        Moving to the second story, it’s very interesting that this is such a physical story. Jesus puts his fingers in the man’s ears, uses a bit of saliva, and even uses what sounds like an incantation in his healing. In fact, when Matthew and Luke tell the story of the Syro-phonecian woman, they actually leave out the story of the healing of the blind man completely. Scholars have guessed that perhaps they did so because this story is so different from Jesus’ other healings and it sounds so similar to the way so-called “magicians” healed people. So Matthew and Luke possibly skipped this story because they didn’t want people to get the impression that Jesus was just a magician, or some sort of magical healer.
        They are unusual stories indeed. But they do have some things in common. First, both stories drive home the idea that Jesus comes to break down barriers that divide us. Geographic boundaries, racial ethnic boundaries, gender boundaries – Jesus crosses them all in order to bring healing to these two desperate people. The Gospel cannot be contained by any kind of barrier that we try to impose upon it. As disciples of Christ, we are called to reach across dividing lines and offer healing to all God’s children. We are called to tear down the walls that divide us.
        Consider the story of a fourth grade teacher named Miss Thompson. One year, she taught a boy named Teddy Stallard. Teddy was a slow, unkempt student, kind of a loner, shunned by his classmates. The previous year, his mother had passed away, and what little motivation for school he might have had simply disappeared. Miss Thompson didn’t particularly care for Teddy either – he was sometimes a difficult student and hardly ever did his homework. But at Christmas time, he brought her a little gift. A gaudy rhinestone bracelet and a cheap bottle of perfume, wrapped in a brown paper bag. The other children snickered, but Miss Thompson saw the importance of the moment. She splashed on some perfume and made a big show of how much she liked the bracelet, pretending that Teddy had given her something very special.
        At the end of the day, Teddy worked up enough courage to say, “Miss Thompson, you smell just like my mother… and her bracelet looks real pretty on you too. I’m glad you like my presents.”
        Miss Thompson worked extra hard with Teddy, and the other kids that were a little slower than average, and by the end of the year, he had caught up with most of the other students.
        Miss Thompson didn’t hear from Teddy for a long time after that fourth grade year. But then one day, she received this note: “Dear Miss Thompson, I wanted you to be the first to know. I will be graduating this year second in my class. Love, Teddy Stallard.”
        Four years went by, and another note came in the mail: “Dear Miss Thompson, I just found out that I will be graduating first in my class from the University. I wanted you to be the first to know. It hasn’t always been easy, but I’ve learned a lot. Love, Teddy Stallard.”
        Four more years went by, and another note arrived: “Dear Miss Thompson, as of today, I am Theodore Stallard, M.D. How about that! I wanted you to be the first to know. I am getting married next month and I would like you to come and sit where my mother would have sat if she was still alive. You are the closest thing to family I have now. Dad passed away last year. Love, Teddy Stallard.”
        Miss Thompson went to the wedding and she sat where Teddy’s mother would have sat – all because she reached across the barriers and offered a word of love and healing to a struggling fourth grade boy. Jesus came to show us how to do the same thing – how to reach out and break down walls that divide us and offer healing to a broken world.
        Another important thing this text shows us is the communal nature of our faith. Notice in these two stories that other people intervene and bring the ones in need of healing to Jesus’ attention. The Syro-phonecian woman goes on her daughter’s behalf. Jesus never meets her daughter; it is by the mother’s faith that she is healed.
        What about the blind man who can’t speak? – his friends bring him to Jesus, just as the paralytic’s friends lowered him through a roof to get to Jesus. It is by the faith of his friends that the man is healed.
        Both these stories show us that faith is not strictly an individual thing. Sometimes we must rely on the faith of our community, the faith of our friends and family to bring us the healing we need.
        We don’t often think of faith that way. We tend to be rugged individuals in America. Faith is more of a private concern and there are many people out there who think that they really don’t need to go to church, they don’t need a community of faith, because they consider themselves to be spiritual and can read the Bible and pray at home just as well as at church.
        But I think these stories show us something different. Reading and praying on your own is a great discipline – but it doesn’t take the place of being a part of a faith community. Sometimes we all need to be carried, sometimes we all need someone to go to Jesus on our behalf and ask for the healing we desire.
        George Gallup, famous for conducting polls and public opinion research, is also a devout Christian and has done a great deal of research on the American spiritual life. In one poll, he found that the number one spiritual need that people had was to believe that life was meaningful and had purpose.
        The number two need was for a sense of community and relationship. From there, the next four spiritual needs were to be appreciated and respected; to be listened to and heard; to feel that one is growing in faith; and to receive practical help in developing a mature faith.
        Where else does all that happen, where else can that happen but in a community of faith. It is impossible to meet our spiritual needs in isolation. We can’t do it by ourselves. We’ve all felt that component missing throughout these pandemic days. We did our best to stay connected – but it wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t quite the same. But to truly be a disciple of Christ, you must be an active part of a community of faith. It is only by acknowledging the communal nature of our faith that real healing can take place.
        These stories about two desperate people in need of healing who end up talking back to Jesus – they are unusual. It’s not the same old story this morning. We don’t meet the Jesus we might expect. But we do meet a Jesus who shows us that there are no barriers, no limits to God’s love and blessing. We also see that sometimes we need a little help from our friends to bring about the healing we desire.
        May God be praised. Amen.

08-29-2021 Living Cathedrals

Thomas J Parlette
“Living Cathedrals”
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
8/29/21
 

        I have a riddle for you this morning. What is something that was declared illegal 100 years ago, but is perfectly legal today? I’ll give you a hint – it inspired the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. In what was termed the Noble Experiment, the United States government made it a crime to manufacture, transport or sell alcoholic beverages. From 1920 to 1933 – a period referred to today as the Prohibition Era – all the bars and saloons and liquor stores in the nation shut down – at least “officially.”
        What really happened was that the practice of drinking just went underground. For example, in the city of Los Angeles there were 11 miles of service tunnels that became secret passageways to hidden saloons and clubs. In fact, the mayor of Los Angeles at that time helped to supply illegal liquor to these hidden establishments. By 1927, seven years after the passage of the 18th Amendment, there were approximately 30,000 illegal bars or speakeasies in Los Angeles – twice the number of legal bars that had been operating before the law was passed.(1) Seems a bit hypocritical, don’t you think?
        Or consider this interesting story. Cecil T. Turner of Louisville Kentucky, a seemingly religious man, was arrested in 2003 for burglary and fraudulent use of a credit card. The sticky-fingered Mr. Turner had obtained the card and several other items by ransacking several women’s purses while they were attending a church meeting.
        The curious part of the story though, is the business where Mr. Turner chose to use the stolen credit card. The police traced it back to Christian bookstore in a nearby town, where he had used it to purchase ten copies of a Bible study called “Making Peace with your Past”, as well as a follow-up study called “Moving Beyond your Past.” Seems he was stocking up on resources for his bible study group. When they searched the suspects home, police found receipts for those purchases which clinched the indictment. Again – the hypocrisy of using stolen credit cards to support your bible study habit – hard to believe.(2)
        It’s easy to shake our heads in disbelief at these stories of hypocrisy, but to be honest, we all have problems with moral and ethical consistency. We all fail to meet our own standards sometimes. That’s not an excuse, it’s a reality. Somehow our hypocrisy radar fails us when we point it at ourselves. And it’s an especially difficult issue for church leaders. Realistically, if you call yourself a Christian, a Jesus-follower, then you are a leader. Other people will watch you and draw conclusions about the character of God and the authenticity of your faith by how well your words and your actions match up to God’s standards. It’s a tough position to be in.
        A few years ago, a young man named Tyler started a controversial Instagram account called PreachersNSneakers. It was controversial because Tyler began posting pictures of prominent, hip young pastors and worship leaders leading worship services while wearing expensive designer clothing and sneakers, worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. Now Tyler is a Christian, he wasn’t looking to cause controversy, but he was concerned about the message that was being sent by these “pastor influencers” who were preaching the message of a poor, humble carpenter while wearing ridiculously priced sneakers. He started questioning, “What is OK as far as optics… as far as pastors wearing pricey designer clothes?”(3)
        Our Bible passage for today revolves around a question of proper optics as well. The Pharisees and some teachers of the law noticed that Jesus and his disciples were not following the Jewish laws of ceremonial hand washing before they ate. The Pharisees were concerned about this – surely this invalidated Jesus’ authority as a religious leader! But instead of hanging his head in shame and slinking away, Jesus turned the tables on the Pharisees.
        Jesus says, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ You have let go of the command of God and are holding on to human traditions.”
        The great sin of the Pharisees was their hypocrisy. They loved the Law more than they loved the Lord. They cared more about keeping religious rules than knowing and honoring God. They said all the right things, but they weren’t motivated by the will of God. They set a standard for others that they didn’t live up to themselves. And the Pharisees’ hypocrisy was doubly dangerous because it was driving people away from God, as well as getting in the way of their own relationship with the Lord.
        Pastor Ron Dunn of Irving, Texas, had an unsettling experience a few years ago when he discovered that there was another man in his small rural town also named Ron Dunn. And this other Ron Dunn was well-known around town for passing bad checks.
        Imagine the embarrassment of Pastor Dunn and his wife when store clerks stared cynically at the name on their checks and then refused them service. In this small town, many stores didn’t take credit cards because of the fees, so the Dunn’s had to carry cash everywhere because no one in town would take their checks. Pastor’s Dunn’s wife began going into all the stores and announcing loudly, “We are not the Ron Dunn you are looking for!”
        Pastor Dunn wrote of this situation, “Now it’s okay for someone else to have my name; I do not have a copyright on it. But what really disturbed me was the fact that people were judging me by what someone else with my name was doing. I sometimes fear that the reason the world has such a distorted view of Jesus is that he has been judged by what others who carry his name “Christian” have done.”(4)
        As followers of Jesus, we carry his name, “Christian”, into the world. What we do reflects on that name. We can listen to a lifetime of sermons, give to charities, and memorize Bible verses, but we can still miss the joy of knowing God. Remember when the Pharisees asked Jesus to name the greatest commandment? Jesus didn’t point to a rule or a religious observance or a church tradition. Jesus pointed to a relationship. He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
        Jesus is saying, “God isn’t pointing you toward the Law. The Law is pointing you toward God. Once you understand God and live the way God wants you to, once you love God more than you love yourself, then you won’t need the Law. Instead, your goodness will be replaced by Godliness.”
        When some of the great medieval cathedrals were built, like Notre Dame in Paris, most of the population in Europe was illiterate. So architects, sculptors and artists created these amazing cathedrals full of carvings and statues and stained glass windows to tell the story of God through art. They assumed that the average citizen might never read a Bible – but they could “read” the story of God through the images in the church buildings.
        And that’s still the best way to spread the message of Jesus. Most people in our society will never read a Bible, or will only read parts of it. So it’s up to us to be “living cathedrals” in our society. Others will read the story of God in the way we live our lives. As James put it in our Epistle reading this morning, “Be doers of the Word, not merely hearers.”
        Author Brennan Manning wrote, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world finds simply unbelievable.”(5) I see his point.
        Many years ago, missionary E. Stanley Jones met Mahatma Gandhi. Jones asked Gandhi, “How can Christianity make a stronger impact on your country?”
        And Gandhi gave Jones three key insights. He said Christians need to live more like Jesus. Second, he said that Christians must present the message of Jesus without adulteration, or cultural baggage. And finally, Gandhi said, Christians should emphasize love, the core message of the faith.(6) Or, as James says, “Be doers of the word, not just hearers.”
        Will Campbell was a Baptist pastor and civil rights activist who passed away in 2013. Campbell was known for his love for the poor, and for putting his faith into action, even when it required great sacrifice. One Sunday, he was preaching at Duke University Chapel. An ice storm had blanketed the area the previous night, but plenty of people showed up to hear the prominent preacher and theologian speak.
        But instead of an inspiring and well-researched sermon, Campbell simply said, “Had an ice storm last night. Lots of trees are down. Lots of poor people in this town. Electricity is off, they got no heat. I got my pickup outside, my chain saw and my wood ax. I’m going out to cut some firewood from those trees to help people out. Who’s going with me?”
        And then he stepped out of the pulpit and walked out the back doors of the church. And he left a bunch of mystified people sitting in the pews.(7)
        Will Campbell didn’t just honor God with his lips. He honored God with his life. When it came time to preach a sermon that would honor God, he preached through his actions, not his words. He was a doer, not just a hearer.
        We are all hypocrites. Jesus knew we would be. But he loves us too much to leave us in our hypocrisy. Jesus knew that our half-hearted, insincere faith gets in the way of our relationship with God and drives other people away as well. The source of our hypocrisy is honoring God with our lips when our hearts are far away from God. The cure for our hypocrisy is loving God with all our heart, soul and mind, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Be doers of the word, not just hearers. Become Living Cathedrals of the Word of God. That’s the only way to move our testimony from our lips to our life.
        May that be so for us all. May God be praised. Amen.

1.   Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, pg84
2.   Ibid… pg84
3.   Ibid… pg84
4.   Ibid… pg85
5.   Ibid… pg86
6.   Ibid… pg86
7.   Ibid… pg86-87

08-22-2021 In All Circumstances

Jay Rowland

“In All Circumstances”

Ephesians 6:10-20

August 22, 2021

We’ve been walking along with Ephesians in recent weeks, and today we reach the conclusion. Today we just heard (most of) the closing words of the Apostle’s letter to the church in Ephesus. It is perhaps best remembered for the vivid imagery of the “armor of God” which the Apostle urges the faithful to recognize and employ. I’ve always been rather intrigued by this passage because of that, I suppose, but this time I find myself intrigued for other reasons.

First, I’m intrigued by the urgency on display in this passage. The imagery, the tone, the language, the terminology all add up to an intensity suggestive of being under attack or at war. There are unspecified threats to community and to individual well-being. The intensity is a reflection of the conviction that the people are under attack not by a particular army or country or leader, but by the invisible forces of spiritual darkness and evil (v12). The thing about evil is it never introduces itself to anyone as evil. Instead, what makes evil so evil is that it comes to us disguised as something very attractive and appealing to distract us from its deceptive, clever, and manipulative ways. And so we are all vulnerable to evil.

That’s intriguing. 

Because our modern society clearly sees such ideas as outdated.  It’s very easy to dismiss references to spiritual forces of evil as a relic of ancient society which is no longer relevant.  Modern society as well as our personal intellect have become so sophisticated, rational, and analytic-minded that such notions of spiritual darkness and evil forces aren’t taken seriously now compared to ancient times.  We’ve clearly evolved to a higher level of consciousness and understanding. 

Except for the stubborn fact of evil in the world.  Some things happen in life and in the world which certainly seems like evil forces at work behind the scenes. 

These ten verses in Ephesians 6 also make an urgent reference to another spiritual force or power at work in the world with its own unique sense of urgency and intensity. And that power at work in the world is the presence of Jesus. Jesus empowers his people to resist or recover from evil.

Jesus does not give us power over or against whatever circumstances or obstacles are creating havoc or harm in our lives. He did not use force or coercion against the forces that had him arrested, beaten and crucified.  So Jesus doesn’t offer us any sort of personal or individual power over our enemies or circumstances. The empowerment Jesus gives is located in Jesus himself, inhabited in him and exerted by him on our behalf. 

But empowerment for what exactly?

The intensity and urgency evident in Ephesians 6 speak directly to our life and circumstances today. For more than a year we’ve seen covid19 wreak havoc on human health, life and community. What’s worse, it has also triggered alarming rips/tears in the social fabric of our nation and world which once furnished some stability and order for previous generations during national and international crises. All of which renders the concurrent crises of climate change and racial disharmony all the more discouraging.

 As we have slowly come to accept that none of these crises will be resolved soon enough nor without more sacrifice and struggle we have somehow adjusted by necessity to the accompanying mental, spiritual and emotional exhaustion. And our faith and trust in the Lord and in our fellow human beings is in many ways under attack.

I’m not saying anything we don’t already know on some level. I find myself worrying about the cumulative toll all of this is taking on all of us. Day after day the everpresent intensity hums in the background, then suddenly flares up and captures our full attention, then settles into the background again.  This pattern has been going on for so long that it is straining our everyday decisions and efforts, interests and responsibilities and our relationships.

 I apologize for the reality bite.  But I’m convinced that the Good News of God’s commitment to us is only as real as the reality we are willing to acknowledge. I believe it’s important to say this stuff out loud to each other, in our prayers, and even to ourselves, and on a regular basis. … important to acknowledge the difficulty and the ongoing intensity of life at this moment in history in order to keep open the well of compassion for ourselves and each other that we are in danger of losing. It isn’t helpful to run from the truth or to sugar-coat our common distress. When we can stay present in the midst of all this difficulty, we are fastening the belt of truth around our waist, standing firm with Jesus Christ amid the raging forces of chaos or denial.

In my experience, acknowledging reality need not be discouraging, it can actually help relieve pressure--the invisible build-up of the cumulative pressure and strain. It’s important to our sanity and our energy and our faith in God that we understand that we are up against far more than we can handle on our own (v.13 MSG).  We are doing the best we can each day to live firmly grounded in reality while also living firmly with hope and trust in God and with compassion for one another.

I read an essay this week that offers some insight into this tension between reality and hope. It’s written by Rick Lawrence who credits another writer Jim Collins.  The essay is entitled “The Stockdale Paradox '' [1] The Stockdale Paradox is named after a man named Jim Stockdale, a naval fighter pilot in the Viet Nam war. In 1965, his fighter plane was hit by enemy fire... He parachuted into an enemy village where he was captured and severely beaten. Dragging a shattered leg from the beating, he was taken to the infamous "Hanoi Hilton," where he was imprisoned for nearly eight years. Stockdale was relentlessly and ruthlessly tortured. Eventually, he and nearly a dozen other prisoners were taken to a nearby holding facility dubbed "Alcatraz," where he lived in a 3-foot-by-9-foot cell with a light bulb that burned around the clock.

Somehow Stockdale survived. He was released in February 1973—his body so broken that he could barely walk. After a lengthy recovery he managed to live an active life … and a distinguished career in public service …  Collins asked Stockdale how he managed to not only make it out of the Hanoi Hilton but how he’d been able to live a vibrant, engaged, public life after experiencing so much trauma. Stockdale’s answers led Collins to coin the phrase "The Stockdale Paradox" which Collins distilled into the following phrase:

 "You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."

Collins also asked Stockdale what he thought was different about those who survived compared to those who didn’t.  Stockdale’s answer was startling, "Those who didn’t make it were optimists,” he said. “They were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We're going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart." 

To experience true empowerment while suffering life-shattering trauma, Stockdale discovered how to embrace both the brutal realities of his circumstances and a prevailing hope at the same time.

In a crisis situation, especially a long-term crisis, optimism is difficult if not impossible to sustain--and is perhaps even inappropriate.  Sooner or later in life, our capacity to help ourselves fails or is exhausted. But if we don’t accept our human limitations we don’t and won’t seek the empowerment Jesus offers. The amplified bible translation says when we learn to “draw our strength from [Jesus] we are empowered through our union with him” (Ephesians 6:10, AMP).  Put another way, “we’re empowered by our union with Jesus when our intimate attachment to him releases his core strength to flow into and through us.” (Rick Lawrence)

Most of us know very well how to muscle through hardships and make the most of what we have. And that’s fine. But it’s only a matter of time before we reach the bottom of our own well—when our personal determination to “hang in there” and “keep fighting” flounders.  Each of us has some natural ability to persevere through great challenges, but eventually, each person confronts or is confronted by circumstances that leave us in desperate need of a well with deeper resources than our “try harder” determination.

This reminds me of something Walter Brueggemann describes in one of his books.  Brueggemann identifies a pattern experienced by God’s people throughout scripture--which is also our experience too. Brueggemann applies the terms “orientation, disorientation, re-orientation” to this pattern. Most of the time we are humming along in life, able to deal with the normal ups and downs of life for the most part--that’s orientation. But there are times when we are overtaken by circumstances beyond our control--and that leads to disorientation. Don’t let that simple word fool you, disorientation is devastating. And when we’re thrown into disorientation it’s extremely difficult, even impossible to reorient by our own power. Whenever this happens to us (not if but when) only a power greater than ourselves can bring about reorientation.

Lawrence writes, “It’s not Christian principles or even the best qualities of Christian character that empower us, it’s the way we are captured by the heart of Jesus.  Relational intimacy with God generates the inner resolve and perseverance we cannot summon on our own power alone.”  Psychologist and spiritual director David Benner shared his experience with Lawrence,

“After decades of Bible reading, I realized that my relationship with God was based more on what I [understood] than on what I experienced. I had lots of information about God but longed to deepen my personal knowing. Getting to know Jesus better seemed like the right place to start. It was.”

Lawrence writes, when we learn to pursue the heart of Jesus, rather than try harder to apply everything he says and does to our life and experience, we find the “something higher” that leads us into reorientation to reality and a hope for the future.  Our journey from naked belief to “personal knowing” shows that reorientation comes about through our experience of Jesus’ heart, his presence, not simply the information we collect about him.

As we continue to plod our way through this time of extended disorientation, we are confronted by our limited capacity to persevere by our own strength alone. Sheer personal determination eventually wears out during long-term crises as we are discovering. Empowerment from Jesus provides us an orientation toward the Divine. The creative love of God that made the heavens and the earth, and which beats in the heart of Jesus, beats in our hearts too. When we discover the heart of Jesus beating in ours, we discover empowerment that surpasses our understanding and even our imagination. Ephesians 6 reminds us that we all have equal access to Jesus’ empowerment. We are called to pray in the spirit in all circumstances, by which we learn to face disorientation and discover the heart of Jesus empowering our reorientation in these circumstances and in all circumstances.

[1] Rick Lawrence, The Stockdale Paradox, in “Friday Thoughts” an on-line blog published/emailed weekly by vibrantfaith.org. Some of Lawrence’s essay is included verbatim.

08-15-2021 The Way of the Wise

Thomas J Parlette
“The Way of the Wise”
Ephesians 5: 15-20
8/15/21

        When you were a kid, did you ever fantasize about finding a magical being who would grant wishes for you? Kids see endless possibilities in the world, yet their power is fairly limited, so they get a lot of satisfaction from imagining magical beings, like a genie or a fairy or an angel, who can instantly give them whatever they want. But the movies and stories along these lines almost always come with a moral – Be careful what you wish for- because you just might get it!
        It reminds me of an old story known as “The Dean’s Dilemma.” An angel appears at a college faculty meeting and tells the dean, “In return for your unselfish and exemplary behavior, the Lord will reward you with your choice of infinite wealth, infinite wisdom, or infinite beauty. What is your choice?”
        Without hesitating, the Dean answers, “Give me infinite wisdom.”
        “Done,” says the Angel, before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
        All heads turn to the Dean, who sits surrounded by a faint halo of light. “Well,” says one of his colleagues, “say something brilliant.”
        The Dean stands, with a blank expression on his face, looks around the room, and confesses, “I should have taken the money.”(1)
        An interesting choice between wealth, wisdom or beauty. Which would you choose? Wealth and beauty are certainly highly valued in our society – and yet we know, wisdom is ultimately more valuable.
        In our Old Testament passage from 1st Kings, Solomon has the Dean’s Dilemma presented to him as well. He chooses wisdom, so that he might lead the people after his father David’s death. And the Lord is pleased with his choice.
        Our Epistle reading for today continues in Ephesians as Paul makes it clear that the way of the foolish person leads to emptiness and even death, while the way of a wise person leads to joy, peace and eternal life.
        Paul understood the Dean’s Dilemma better than most. Before he became a follower of Jesus, he had been a member of the Pharisees, an influential Jewish sect that practiced strict, legalistic observance of Jewish traditions and religious observances. As a Pharisee, Paul would have held a position of respect in his community. But when he became a Jesus-follower, he gave all that up. He gave up his influential, respected place in society. He gave up his former occupation. He gave up his community and home to travel all over the Roman Empire training early church leaders. He gave up his safety and security, and sometimes his freedom. For the remainder of his life, he faced persecution, beatings and imprisonment on account of his faith.
        In fact, the words we are reading today were written during Paul’s first stint in jail. He knew what his decision to follow Christ had cost him, and he knew what life with Jesus was really worth. And he spent the rest of his life serving Christ. So it was from the wisdom that only personal experience can bring that Paul wrote, “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and songs of the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God for everything, in the name of Jesus Christ.”
        The first thing Paul wants us to understand is that the foolish person lives as if there is no God. And if there is no God, life has no purpose. If there is no God, then it’s perfectly logical for everyone to simply do their own thing – like it says in the book of Judges, : “In those days there was no King in Israel; everyone did that which was right in their own eyes.” As you might imagine, chaos ensued.
        If there is no God there are no absolute values, no right or wrong. Like the Psalm says, “The fool says in their heart, ‘There is no God’.” And thus, the foolish person lives only for themselves and only for the moment. The foolish person doesn’t care about the consequences of their actions, or the legacy they leave behind.
        Warren Buffet, the self-made billionaire, is one of the richest people in the world. One time, Buffet was speaking at the University of Georgia. A student asked him for his definition of success. Part of what Warren Buffet answered went like this: “I know people who have a lot of money, and they get testimonial dinners, and they get hospital wings named after them. But the truth is that nobody in the world loves them. If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don’t care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster.”(2)
        Excellent advice from a man who has more money than most. Mothing matters more than being loved and respected and leaving a legacy of loving God and loving your neighbor.
        The second thing Paul wants us to know is that wise folks know that every moment of their life is an opportunity to know God and live in God’s will. James Merritt, in his book Friends, Fools and Foes, defines wisdom as “seeing life through the eyes of God, and living life in the will of God.”(3)
        Paul knew that every Christian is like a magnet. You have an opportunity to draw others to God. You have an opportunity to draw others to hope, to truth and to life. But magnets also have the power to repel. If you claim to be a Christian, but are living like a foolish person, then you will repel people away from God.
        Most younger people have heard of the artist, Chance the Rapper. Chance is one of the most successful artists in the music industry right now. He’s won a Grammy, his concerts sell out, he is an anti-violence activist in the city of Chicago and he has donated over $1 million dollars to Chicago’s public school system. Professionally, he is a tremendous success.
        He tells an interesting story of his grandmother’s reaction to his career. In his early days, when he was first starting to experience some success, his grandmother took him aside and told him that she didn’t like the way his lifestyle was changing. She told him that she was going to pray for him.
        In an interview with GQ magazine, Chance shared his grandmother’s prayer. She prayed out loud over him, “Lord, I pray that all things that are not like you, you take away from Chance. Make sure that he fails at everything not like you. Take it away. Turn it to dust.”
        Wow – I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a prayer like that before. But Chance the Rapper’s grandmother cared more about her grandson’s soul than his success. She cared more about him knowing God and living in God’s will than she cared about offending him.
        And it was that prayer that brought Chance the Rapper back into a relationship with God. Many of his lyrics reflect his faith. At his sold-out concerts, he speaks about God and his own spiritual journey. His success is now rooted in knowing God and living in God’s will.(4) Like most wise folks, Chance knows that every moment of his life is an opportunity to know God and live in God’s will.
        And finally, when you know God and live in God’s will, then you can’t help but be thankful. You see every moment of your life as a blessing, a God-given opportunity. An essential part of living in God’s will is living with an attitude of gratitude. Paul closes our passage for today by writing “sing and make melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Keep in mind, Paul is writing these joyful words while he is in a Roman prison. There is nothing comfortable or predictable or controllable about his life. He has lost everything that once defined him. And yet the joy and thanksgiving that flow from his letters are a powerful witness to the truth of God. This kind of thankfulness and joy can’t be found in any earthly possessions or power or success or status. This kind of thankfulness is clearly a gift that comes from knowing Jesus Christ and having his spirit live in you.
        Dr. Mark Jacobson graduated as valedictorian of his class at Harvard University. He earned top honors in medical school at Johns Hopkins University. He is the best of the best in his field. He could have chosen a job at any of the most prestigious and high-paying hospitals in the country.
        Instead, Dr. Jacobson headed to Arusha, Tanzania, to work among the impoverished people there. He helped found a clinic, then a hospital. He sees about 35,000 patients each year. When asked if he had ever thought about moving back to the States to practice in a more comfortable environment, he says he thinks about it at least once a day. But he’s not going anywhere. Dr. Jacobson has been working in Tanzania for 22 years. And he says that he knows that this is the place God wants him to be. Dr. Jacobson explains, “Early on in my faith life, I realized that I had been wonderfully blessed and that I had some responsibility and call to give some of that back to others.(5) He is living in God’s will, even though it requires sacrifices. He is walking in the way of the wise.
        So which life looks more attractive – the way of the wise, or the way of the fool? “Be very careful how you live – not as unwise, but as wise, make the most of the time because the days are evil.” Paul wasn’t being harsh. He knew what he was talking about. He was trying to save us from living as if there is no God and as if life has no purpose. To live like that is an empty, meaningless life. It’s a foolish way to live. But there is another life available to us. One that is centered on knowing God and living in God’s will, responding to those little nudges God gives us. That is a way of life marked by contagious joy and thankfulness. And the end result of this life is purposeful living now, and eternal life with God.
        Through Jesus Christ – the way of the wise has been opened for us.
        May God be praised. Amen.

1.   Dynamic Preaching, Vol XXXVII, No. 2, pg75.
2.   Ibid… pg76.
3.   Ibid… pg76.
4.   Ibid… pg76-77.
5.   Ibid…pg 77.       

08-08-2021 Walking and Talking Like a Christian

Thomas J Parlette
“Walking and Talking Like a Christian”
Ephesians 4:25-5.2
8/8/21

        I’ve got a pop quiz for you today – how many steps does it take to walk around the world? Since we aren’t Jesus and can’t walk on water, we are excluding oceans and major bodies of water. Well, there is a website that measures such achievements as walking around the world. According to their calculation, it takes the average person around 20 million steps to make that walk. Can your Fitbit measure 20 million steps? I don’t know – it might melt down at 10 million.
        Among the handful of people who have proof that they completed this walk is Steven Newman, the first person to walk solo around the world. It took him 4 years.
        The first woman to do it was named Rosie Swale-Pope, who at 57 jogged around the world to raise money for various charities. She wore out 50 pairs of running shoes by the time she finished.
        A man named George Meegan holds the record for the longest unbroken walk. He traveled 19,019 miles in 2,425 days. (1) My legs are tired just thinking about these walks.
        Did you know there is a travel company in England called WorldWalks? They specialize in setting up walking and hiking tours all over the world. They hire experienced world travelers and hikers to serve as guides. However, there a few walks that even their guides won’t attempt. On their blog, WorldWalks list 5 of the toughest walks in the world. These hikes are so challenging that you can’t even hire a guide for most of them. But you better not try to walk them alone – because there is a high risk of injury.
        One of these walks is called “The Snowman’s Pass” in Bhutan, a tiny nation near the Himalayan Mountains. The Snowman’s Pass takes at least 20 days to complete, and even the most experienced hikers say that only about half of the people who attempt actually finish it. I don’t know about you – but they lost me at Himalayan mountains. Nope, don’t walk to go on that hike, thank you very much.
        Another challenging walk is in the Kalalau Valley in Kauai, Hawaii. This trail winds through jungles and under waterfalls and through steep, narrow passageways that are so dangerous, no guide will accompany you on this trip. If you choose to tackle the Kalalau Valley trail, you’ll have to walk it alone.(2)
        We often speak of our faith as a journey, a walk with God – which can also be considered among the hardest walks you can do. Our Bible passage from Paul’s letter to Ephesus alludes to this walking in the way of love, walking in the footsteps of Christ, in the things we say and the way we live.
        Paul wrote this letter to the believers in Ephesus to teach them in practical terms how to be Christians, how to be the church. The early church was made up of all sorts of people – rich and poor, Gentiles and Jews, slaves and free, men and women. They were confronting centuries of prejudice and cultural differences. People who were completely divided by ethnicity, race, class, culture and gender were coming together to create a brand-new, never before seen movement.
        And imagine how these new believers felt when they understood Paul’s background. Before Paul became a Jesus-follower, he was a member of the prominent Jewish sect called the Pharisees. The name Pharisee actually means “the separated one.” Pharisees separated themselves from the people around them by their religious devotion. And Paul’s commitment to the Pharisees drove him to persecute those who followed Jesus, even participating in the stoning of a Christian named Stephen.
        So when Paul speaks about the life-changing, radical love of Jesus, people sit up and listen. Paul is making the point here that their commitment to Jesus doesn’t set them apart from others. In fact, Paul says, Jesus-followers will be known by how well they live in community with other people.
        Paul’s strategy for teaching these new Christians how to be followers of Christ, how to be the church was really quite simple. He pointed them to Jesus himself. Live like that. Be imitators of God. Live in love or as it says in some translations, walk in the way of love, just like Jesus did. Basically, Paul points out three kinds of ways that we show the love of Christ.
        First of all, walking in the way of love requires an active love. In Jesus’ life, love was a verb, not a noun. Love was an action, something you did, something you engaged in – not a feeling or an emotion.
        Almost 100 years ago, there was a Scottish pastor by the name of George Morrison who preached a sermon on the subject of “unconscious ministries.” He said that other people watch what we do more than what we say. Anyone with children knows this to be true. Our attitudes and actions have a tremendous influence on those around us, even if we don’t realize it. By remaining faithful in hard times, by choosing our words and attitudes carefully, by humbling ourselves in a culture that glorifies self-promotion, by choosing to walk in the way of love, we are exercising an “unconscious ministry” that causes others to experience the presence of God.(3) To accomplish this, it might take a radical transformation.
        The Gilman Greyhounds are a high school football team in Baltimore, Maryland. Back in the early 2000’s, they had a coach named Joe Ehrmann. Under Ehrmann’s leadership, the Gilman Greyhounds went undefeated for a number of seasons and were the top-ranked football in the Baltimore area.
        But Joe Ehrmann’s main purpose wasn’t leading a winning football team. Joe Ehrmann saw his main purpose as teaching his players a new definition of masculinity. According to a profile of Ehrmann in Parade Magazine, he believed that true masculinity is based on “loving relationships and living for a cause greater than yourself.”
        Ehrmann taught his players the ethic of servant-leadership, putting others’ needs before their own. He even created a rule that if any of his players saw a student sitting alone in the cafeteria, then that player was required to join the student and eat with him.
        Seniors on the Gilman football team were also required to present an essay at the end of the year with the theme, “How I Want to Be Remembered When I Die.”(5)
        Coach Ehrmann brought about a radical transformation in the culture of his football team because he encouraged his team to walk in the way of love.
        Quentin Hogg was a British educator in the late 1800’s in London, England. He felt such compassion for the poor street kids in London that Hogg disguised himself as a shoeshine man and worked alongside them so he could understand their needs. He realized that many of these children were in desperate need of an education, so he began teaching them to read by using Bible texts. Hogg founded a training school for the poorest children in London to provide education, job skills and religious training.
        Quentin Hogg once wrote to a former student, “We hear much talk about creeds, professions of faith and the like; but I want you to remember that when God started to write a creed for us, God did it, not in words that might change their meaning, but God set before us a life, as though to teach us that whereas theology was a science which could be argued about, religion was a life and could only be lived.”(5)
        When God started to write a creed for us, God didn’t do it in words. God did it through the life of Jesus. Jesus went out into the community, into the fields and marketplaces, the synagogues and the homes to meet people where they were. By some estimates, Jesus walked over 3,000 miles during his three years of ministry. He wasn’t waiting for people to come to him, he went to them. He was always going out to preach and teach and heal and spend time with people. He put his faith into action and walked and talked in the way of love. And that’s exactly what we are called to do today – to demonstrate an active love.
        Walking in the way of love also requires consistent love. In the Bible, this is referred to as “steadfast.” It refers to love that is reliable and unchanging. The Christian life would be so much easier if God would let us define love any way we wanted to. We want to define love in terms that are conditional, emotional or circumstantial.
        Conditional love says, “I love you if…” or “I love you when…” Conditional love says, “You’re not lovable yet. You’ve got to earn my love. Once you meet my standards, then I will love you.”
        Emotional love says, “I will love you until my feelings change. Until I no longer get that spark when I see you. Until you make me angry or disappointment me.”
        Circumstantial love says, “I will love you until our circumstances change. Forget about those old wedding vows of “for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.”
        But God’s love, as demonstrated through Jesus Christ, is consistent, it is steadfast, unconditional, everlasting love. People will experience the presence and love of God when they see us walk in the way of love consistently.
        There is an old story about 4 religious scholars who were debating about their favorite translation of the Bible. One of them liked the King James version. One of them liked the Good News version, and another stood by the Revised Standard version. Finally, the last scholar spoke up and said, “I personally prefer my mother’s translation.”
        The other scholars were amused by this statement until the man explained his choice. “My mother translated each page of the Bible into her life. It is the most convincing translation I’ve ever seen.”(6)
        Walking in the way of love requires an active love. Walking in the way of love requires a consistent love. And finally, walking in the way of love requires a sacrificial love – just as Paul notes that Jesus gave himself up as an offering for us all.
        There is a mission organization in Grass Valley, California, called Christian Encounter Ranch. It is a residential counseling program for young people who come from backgrounds of substance abuse, abandonment, neglect, and many other forms of abuse and trauma. Through outdoor activities, Bible studies, and counseling, many young people find healing from their traumas and a new life of hope and purpose.
        Almost 40 years ago the board and staff of Christian Encounter Ranch came up with a unique way to raise money for their ministry. They sponsor an annual 24-hour bike ride on the last weekend of July. It consists of 24 hours of riding through challenging nature trails in the hottest part of the summer months in California. It’s no surprise that this unique fundraiser is named the Agony Ride. Every year, the Agony Ride raises thousands of dollars for ministries at the Ranch.
        Mikenna Kossow is a former resident at the Ranch. Now she participates in the annual Agony Ride. She says, “I struggled with feeling loved, seen and important when I came to the Ranch as a student. During my first Agony Ride, I was amazed that complete strangers who didn’t even know me or the other students, would put themselves through complete agony for 24 hours to make sure we could experience the healing we needed and could feel the love of Christ from being in community. I ride now to show current students that they are not alone, that someone cares about their healing and that they are deeply loved.”
        The Executive Director at Christian Encounter Ministries, Nate Boyd, says, “Many of our residents have wrestled their whole lives with a haunting question – “does anyone actually care about me?” The Agony Ride answers this with physical, indisputable evidence. It stirs up hope that life may be worth living after all, and it provides the means to pursue that hope.”(7) You could say those people who ride the Agony Ride are actually riding in the way of love.
        In our passage for today, Paul invites us to walk and talk in the way of Christ. You can invite people to church, you can study the Bible, you can participate in community ministries, you can do all kinds of things to tell people that you are a follower of Jesus. But if you walk in the way of love and speak life-giving words to people, you won’t have to tell them. They will know your faith by your active, steadfast, sacrificial love.
        May that be so for us all.
        May God be praised. Amen.

1.   Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, pg71
2.   Ibid… pg71
3.   Ibid… pg72
4.   Ibid… pg72
5.   Ibid… pg72
6.   Ibid… pg73.
7.   Ibid… pg73-74

08-01-2021 Expectations

Thomas J Parlette
“Expectations”
John 6: 24-35
8/1/21

        So we are heading into the second half of 2021 – so it’s probably a good time to check in with our expectations for this year and see if anything needs to be re-adjusted. Some of us have had a better year than we expected; some of us, worse than we anticipated. All of us have certain plans and expectations for how the rest of the year will go. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the next 5 months? I’m trying to be optimistic – but I admit, some days it’s a challenge.
        Pastor Daniel Chambers learned an expression from a college professor: “Expectation is the mother of regret.”(1) I guess that professor could be called a pessimist. Evidently some of the things he expected didn’t turn out like he thought.
        There was once a man who had a nephew named Harvey, and throughout the man’s life, this nephew had, on every occasion they met, said to the man, “I hope you will remember me in your will.”
        So the man died, and the time came for the family to gather for the reading of the will. The lawyer came to a line which read like this, “And to my nephew Harvey., who has over and over again asked to be remembered in my will, I say…. “Hellooooo, Harvey.”(2) And that was it. Harvey didn’t inherit a thing – but he was remembered in the will. Expectation was the mother of regret.
        People also had their expectations when they came to Jesus. The crowds had seen Jesus perform miracles. He healed the sick, he fed thousands of people and he walked on the water. So, in today’s lesson, what did people expect when they came to Jesus? Did they expect a magic show? Did they expect a twenty-four hour, all –you- can- eat buffet? Maybe – I’m sure some did. But here is what they did not expect. They did not expect Jesus to confront them about their real motives for coming to him. Jesus says to them, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” Remember, in John’s Gospel, miracles are reported as signs that Jesus is who he says he is. That is the purpose of miracles. That was the real reason Jesus multiplied the fish and the loaves. But the crowd saw only the fact that they were bountifully fed. And Jesus knew they would come back for more.
        Don’t you hate it when someone makes you confront your true motives? Barbara Brown Taylor is a nationally known Episcopal priest and author. She is someone whose books I read often. She tells the story of a retreat she led one time in the Carolina Mountains. One evening she asked the retreat members to answer this question – “Who in your life reminds you of Jesus?”
        There were the usual answers: My grandfather… my mom… my best friend…” One woman didn’t jump right in though; she was giving the question some serious thought. Finally, she looked up and said, “I had to think hard about that one. I kept thinking, “Who is it that told me the truth about myself so clearly that I felt like I could kill him for it.”(3) Interesting she said “Him.” Think about that for a moment and apply it to your own faith journey. “Who is it that told me the truth about myself so clearly that I felt I could kill them for it.”
        If we listen, Jesus will tell us the truth about ourselves – and it might not be pretty. In the words of that woman at the retreat, “We might want to kill him for it.”
        The religious leaders of his day, did exactly that. They killed Jesus for telling the truth about God, and about their own true motives.
        When you look at the times that Jesus confronted people in the Bible, his motive was never to shame them or to prove his superiority over them. His motive was to bring them closer to God. Jesus uses truth-telling to make us aware of the gap between what we say we believe and what we actually believe.
        We say, for example, that God is love – pure love, everlasting love, agape love – the one who always has our best interest at heart. But, in truth, most of us don’t really trust God with our future, our family, or our finances, do we? We lie in our beds at night worrying about what the next day will bring, forgetting what is taught in Romans – all things work for good for those who love God. We say Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, but we don’t believe it enough to actually tell our friends and family about him. They might think we were religious zealots or something. We say we believe in God’s word, but we rarely open the Bible unless it’s in Sunday School or a bible study group.
        The crowds following Jesus said, “We’ll believe you, Rabbi.  Just give us a sign. Feed us bread every day, like Moses fed the people of Israel with bread from heaven.” Jesus knew their real motives. And he knew that they would never be satisfied if they didn’t confront their own lack of truthfulness. Our passage says, “Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Jesus is saying, “I didn’t come here to make your life more comfortable. If that’s what you’re looking for, you better keep looking. I came here to show you that I am the only one who can meet the deepest needs in your life – because I am life itself.”
        There seems to be a universal feeling in our society, the nagging question – “Is this all there is?” Somehow I expected more. Something seems to be missing. Something’s missing, and in its place, we substitute all sorts of things.
        In our society, we are fed a constant stream of “If only’s.” For example, “if only I had a little more money…” How many of us have thought that at some time in our lives? “If only I had more money,” we say, “my problems would be solved.” Maybe – but it might create more problems as well.
        Why do we continue to believe the secret to life can be found in accumulating great wealth? Because money can give us a sense of control. Because we can use it to keep score – to prove we are somebody. That’s why we continue to hunger for wealth or fame or power. But many of those who attain wealth and fame know them to be empty and unfulfilling.
        Every wise person who has ever lived knows what is missing in life – and it is not material possessions or recognition or power. What is missing is a sense of meaning to life. Why are we here? Where are we headed? What does it all mean? For many people there is no meaning.
        There is an author and philosopher named Roman Krznaric who encourages people to live more meaningful lives using a visualization exercise he calls, “The dinner party of the afterlife.”
        He says to imagine yourself at a dinner party in the afterlife. Who else is at the party? All the “yous” who you could have been if you had made different choices in life. All the good and bad paths you could have gone down if you had just changed one or two decisions. If you had chosen different friends, a different career, different principles or priorities to define your life. All the paths you might have taken if you had been more proactive, or less fearful, or more generous with others.
        Look around at these alternative “yous”, advises Krznaric. Which ones do you admire, even envy? Which ones do you want to avoid? After meeting all the possible yous that you can imagine, it’s time to make the decision: who do you aspire to become and why?(4)
        That’s a worthwhile exercise. Visualize who you would be if you gave your life entirely to the purposes and priorities of God. If you found your identity in becoming the person God made you to be. Who would you be if you put your whole trust in God and committed yourself to knowing God and aligned your life with God’s will?
        Anglican priest John Stott was a very influential leader in Christian circles. In 2005, he was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He talks about the moment when he finally realized that Jesus is the bread of life, the source of life. He wrote, “I was defeated. I knew the kind of person I was and the kind of person I longed to be. Between the reality and the ideal there was a great gulf. And what brought me to Christ was the sense of defeat and the astonishing news that the historic Christ offered to meet the very needs of which I was most conscious.”(5)
        When you sit in church and hear about the goodness of God and the joy of knowing God, do you sometimes feel empty and disconnected, like you’re missing something? Do you feel that great gulf that Stott wrote about?
        If so, there is good news. Jesus came to meet that need, to fill that emptiness. “I am the bread of life…” says Jesus. You can search all over the earth to find that thing that is missing, but until you feed on the bread I offer, you will never be satisfied.
        I appreciate the way pastor and author Frederick Buechner expressed this idea. He writes, “Part of the inner world of everyone is this sense of emptiness, unease, incompleteness, and I believe that this in itself is a word from God, that this is the sound that God’s voice makes in a world that has explained God away. In such a world, I suspect that maybe God speaks to us most clearly through silence and absence, so that we know God best through our missing God.”(6)
        Interesting. Maybe our sense of emptiness is God’s gift to us. Maybe it’s a sign that we are missing God, aching for God, needing God in our lives. And if that is the case, then God is more than happy to fill that sense of emptiness with the power and peace and joy of God’s presence. That’s what Jesus meant when he said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
        That’s what brings us to worship today – we want to fill the emptiness within. The more we focus on our own needs, the less satisfied and secure we are. But when we turn our focus to God – searching for God, enjoying God, serving God – the more joy and peace and hope and purpose we experience. We were made to worship God. Worship is giving God the honor and glory that God deserves. But worship is also a gift to us, because it is through worship that we experience the joy of knowing God.
        We all search for that one thing that will satisfy. Maybe it’s a status symbol or a title or an achievement of some sort that will make us feel complete. But none of them can supply what our soul is really hungry for. Bread from heaven – that is our greatest need. Christ is that bread. Jesus came into the world to love people to life. And you will only find your identity and purpose and your best life when you eat of the bread Jesus provides.
        So come to the table today, and be fed for the journey.
        May God be praised. Amen.

1.   Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, p66
2.   Ibid… p66
3.   Ibid… p66
4.   Ibid… p68
5.   Ibid… p68
6.   Ibid… p68

07-25-2021 Food in Due Season

Thomas J Parlette
“Food in Due Season”
John 6: 1-21
7/25/21

        What’s your favorite food? The food you could eat once a day for the rest of your life, if you had to? At this time of year, you can find food festivals all over the U.S. that celebrate just about any kind of food you might enjoy. There’s a Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California. Waikiki, Hawaii, hosts a Spam Festival every year. And in Atlanta, Georgia, there is a Chomp and Stomp Festival every year that features a chili cook-off and bluegrass concert and dance. I’m sure you can think of a few of your favorites. If not, google it–I bet you’ll find some interesting food festivals.
        For example, the town of Yamagata, Japan, holds a festival every year to celebrate a traditional soup called imoni. Thousands of people come from all over Japan, indeed, from all over the world to eat imoni and have a good time. So the folks in Yamagata built a massive soup pot, which they fill with 6 tons of water, 1 ½ tons of beef, 3500 onions, and lots of other ingredients, and let the soup cook for hours.
        As you might imagine, cooking that amount of soup can be a real challenge. And then you have to wonder – how do they serve it? Target doesn’t see 1- ton soup ladles, at least not the last time I checked. So a few years ago, a team in Yamagata found a creative way to solve this problem. They bought two brand new earth diggers with specially made and sanitized buckets. The baskets allowed them to dip out hundreds of servings of soup at once. In 8 hours’ time, this team of cooks fed 12,695 happy festival goers bowls of hot imoni soup. They even earned the title for “Most Soup Served in 8 Hours” in the Guiness Book of World Records.(1)
        Feeding thousands of people: that’s what brings us to the passage for this morning. When you think about this story from John, think about it through the eyes of Jesus’ disciples. They had traveled to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee hoping to get away for some rest. But the crowds of people, thousands of people, followed them to this remote area. They were hungry for a miracle or a message of hope. The tired disciples hoped Jesus would send them away, so they could all get some rest.
        The situation of these tired disciples is reminiscent of a study that the U.S. Army did a few years ago to determine the factors that contributed to the maximum level of output they could get out of their soldiers. How far could soldiers push themselves before their performance started to decrease? They determined that after seven consecutive days of hard work without any rest, the soldier’s performance level dropped. The interesting thing is, the soldiers weren’t aware of this. They thought they were fine. In their worn out state, they believed that they were still operating at peak performance levels.(2)
        Jesus’ disciples needed some rest–that is why we have a  thing called the Sabbath. They wanted Jesus to send the crowd away. Instead, Jesus asked Philip how they were going to feed this crowd of thousands of men, women and children. Philip was probably taken aback when Jesus asked this question about something so seemingly impossible. He answered, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread to feed all these people.”
        Fortunately, another disciple named Andrew at least tried to be helpful. “Um, Jesus–there’s a boy here who has 5 barley loaves and a couple of fish, if that helps.” But then he changes his tune–“But what is that when we have so many to feed.”
        I like to think Jesus had a wry little smile on his face as he said, “Make the people sit down.” And then. I’ve always loved this little detail of this story–“for there was a great deal of grass in the place, so they sat down.” It’s like they were all getting ready for a relaxing little picnic.
        The feeding of the five thousand is a marvelous story of God’s provision for our human need. The focus is on bread and fish, but the real lesson is about all of life. So, let’s break this story down a bit.
        First of all, we experience God’s blessings when we take time to sit down. I know, it sounds simple. But many of us say we’re too busy to read the Bible ar attend fellowship groups or just take a minute to meditate. We pray in our cars as we rush to and from work or class or running our kids around town. The idea that we should stop for a minute and sit down–well, its almost unthinkable. It’s like we’ve forgotten that we have a God who is just waiting to supply what we need–we’ve just got to slow down for a minute and listen.
        There was once a man who was waiting for a bus to Pasadena. In the bus station, he spotted a machine advertising: Your height, weight and your fortune only $1.00. So he decided to give it a try. So he popped in a dollar and stepped in front of the machine. Out popped a card that read: “You are 5’10”. You weigh 160 pounds. You are waiting for a bus to Pasadena.”
        The man was amazed–and intrigued. He wondered if he could somehow fool the machine. So he went to the men’s room and tried to change his appearance. He turned his cap around backwards, put on some sunglasses, turned his shirt inside out, pulled a jacket from his bag. Finally, he stuffed the jacket full of toilet paper so he’d look heavier. Then he went back out and stepped up to the machine again. Another dollar and another card popped out. “You are still 5’10”, you’re still 160 pounds. And while you were wasting time in the men’s room, you missed the bus to Pasadena.”(3)
        How many of us get so busy messing around with lesser priorities that we spend our whole life disconnected from God? Time with God is not a burden. It’s what we were made for. We find our identity, our purpose, our strength and our wisdom in spending time with God. But we get so caught up in doing, so caught up with the details of everyday life, so pressed for time, that we end up cutting out what gives us the strength we need to live richly. We need to do what this passage says and sit down in the presence of Jesus.
        Then, we need to receive what Christ has to offer us, just as the crowd received the loaves and fish. We have a generous God, a God that wishes to give us everything we need. When we shut God out of our lives–whether intentionally or unintentionally–we shut out the One who has everything we need and wants nothing more than to give it to us. Our God is a generous God.
        Famous dancer and choreographer Bob Fosse was known for being abundantly generous. When he went out with friends or colleagues, he always grabbed the check and paid for others. And when he died, Fosse set aside $25,000 in his will with instructions for 66 of his closest friends to use the money to go out to dinner together one more time. Even toward the end of his life, he was still thinking of ways to show his appreciation for his friends.(4)
        In the same way, God never stops thinking about us. God awaits the opportunity to meet our needs, but we are not accustomed to receiving from God’s loving hand. And it never occurs to us to pray. So we wander blindly from problem to problem.
        “Make people sit down,” said Jesus. Then he took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed both the loaves and the fish to all who were seated, as much as they wanted. So also do we receive God’s blessings when we sit and wait, and receive what God has to offer.
        Notice, finally, how John concludes this story: “When they had all had enough to eat, he said to the disciples, “Gather the pieces together that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.” There was more than enough to go around.
        When we receive what God has to offer us, we discover that God is a wondrous provider for our needs. One of the lessons Christ tried to teach us was the extravagance of God. Our God is the one who provides food in due season, as the Psalmist said–who sets before us a table in the midst of our enemies–who fills our cup to overflowing. The God who, when wine is needed for the wedding feast tells us to fill the water pots, and fill them to the brim–who when the prodigal returns home kills the fatted calf and throws a big party.
        Our God is the God who provides in abundance. A group of children was once asked to describe what abundance means to them:
* Alison, age 7, said “Abundance is an extra bowl of ice cream and getting to stay up late and laughing a lot.”
* Emily, age 9, said, “Abundance means I have as many books as I want to read and lots of warm clothes for the wintertime. And it means there’s always lots of love.”
* Brian, age 10, said, “Abundance means having everything we need even though we don’t have everything we want yet. It makes me feel safe.”(5)
        Abundance means we have everything we need even though we don’t have everything we want yet. It makes me feel safe. Every miracle Jesus ever performed, including this one, was meant to show us the priorities or the nature of God. The healings, turning wine into water, feeding the multitudes, calming the storms. All the miracles in the New Testament emphasize the priorities and nature of God. So what is the reason for God’s extravagance? I think maybe God wants to prepare us for the greater extravagance of Heaven.
        In Rome, right next door to the Vatican, is a beautiful 19th century palace, the Palazzo Migliore, that was recently available for sale. It’s size and beauty and location right off St. Peter’s Square made it worth a small fortune. And someone could have made a lot of money turning it into an exclusive hotel or something. Instead, the family who owned it chose to donate this gorgeous palace to the Roman Catholic Church.
        And Pope Francis made a decision that must have made God smile. He turned it into a homeless shelter. The palace, which has 16 bedrooms, houses 50 homeless men and women. Volunteers provide them with hot meals. Residents report that the palace feels more homelike than any of the crowded shelters that are usually open to them.
        Sharon Christner, a researcher working on a project involving homelessness commented, “ …what is special about this place is that it’s not about maximizing dollar signs, but giving people a really beautiful place to be, with the idea that beauty heals.”(6)
        The Palazzo Migliore is a vision of the abundant blessings God has prepared for those who love God. Homeless people in need of food and shelter are welcomed into a luxurious mansion and fed hot meals. Curious crowds of people following Jesus are invited to sit for a surprise picnic, and they all eat their fill. And there are still plenty of leftovers. This is a vision of the priorities and nature of a loving, generous God who desires to provide for our needs. This story illustrates what our Psalmist wrote about in Psalm 145: “The eyes of all look to the Lord, and you give them their food in due season.”
        And for that, may God be praised. Amen.

1.   Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, pg 62
2.   Ibid… pg 62
3.   Ibid… pg 63
4.   Ibid… pg 63
5.   Ibid… pg 64
6.   Ibid… pg 64-65

07-18-2021 Back Where We Belong

Rev. Jay Rowland

Back Where We Belong

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

July 18, 2021

“Come to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile…”

Jesus’ disciples have just returned from being “out there”. Jesus had sent them out in pairs with instructions to bring only the clothes on their backs. Off they went to live their faith in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

And as we catch up with them today they have returned. They gather around Jesus eager to tell him all about it. Because there is much to share.

And after hearing about their experience, Jesus says to them, “let’s get away from here and rest awhile”. It would seem that the hustle-bustle world has returned along with them.

As I’ve pondered this scene, it occurred to me that just like the disciples, you and I, we have also been “out there” for a while, out there living our faith in the hustle-bustle of everyday life … and an everyday pandemic, the best we can. And now here we are “gathered around Jesus to tell him all about it” all about these past 15/18months and counting since the pandemic changed everything.

I hear and I see Jesus listening to us, looking at us as he listens and I hear him saying to us, “come away with me to a deserted place and rest awhile”.

And here we are in church, we’ve come away to a place some might say qualifies as a deserted place, yet here to tell Jesus everything. And surely he already knows how hard this pandemic has been on you. And surely Jesus knows the toll it has had on our faith.

Just as I think the disciples learned from their going-out-there and returning, faith is inseparable from every facet of our life and experience. Faith, it turns out, is a living, breathing aspect of our human existence.

Yet it surprises us that the path of our faith isn’t linear or orderly—that actually it’s anything but linear and orderly. And that can leave us languishing.

But Jesus also knows that each and every Sunday, for as long as people have been coming to worship, people come to worship weighed down and beaten down by life … carrying heavy burdens weighing heavily on the heart and spirit. And yet in spite of that, or perhaps because of it, look around: people still come to worship. We show up here wanting, needing to tell Jesus everything.

When I stop and think about that, it’s astounding.

Given everything going on in your life, everything that’s happened in your life and in the world where you live, here you are.

Again!

Here WE are. Again.

If there were only two of you sitting here or watching out there on the internet, it would still be astounding. Here in this “modern era” … here at a time of increasingly intentional division and isolation, here you are. Here we are: Gathered around Jesus to tell him everything!

That’s astounding.

Here we again, as we are most every Sunday morning … because … why?

I mean, unlike other “choices” we have to consider,

nobody commands us or coerces or orders us to be here.

Nobody assigns us to be here. This is not a “project” or an assignment …

Being here gives us no competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Being here does not produce a financial benefit—on the contrary, many of you actually give away your money when you’re here or after you’ve been here.

What in the world?! Right?

Something is going on here. Something truly and deeply important happens when we gather to worship God. It happens whether the worship experience is “good” “bad” (or neutral). It happens whether we gather in person or remotely. And when we do, every time we gather, no matter how we gather, something happens. We cannot fully explain it, other than to say it has everything to do with the Lord and more than a little something to do with you.

Each one of you.

All of us.

Together.

And without worship, we just don’t feel like ourselves.

To me, intellectually perhaps, theologically speaking, I tend to think about worship as mystical communion with God and with God’s people which is deeply nourishing to our spirits and to our human being. Worship is communion with the Lord and with the people sitting with us in this sanctuary and with the people who are here via the internet and you know what? AND with the people in heaven. We are joined by our common love for the Lord, by our desire to worship the Lord together and by our shared experience of the community God creates through this activity of worship.

It’s not an accident. It isn’t a byproduct of something else.

It’s very much an intentional gift given to us by the God of Creation, practiced and enhanced by Jesus the Savior, and infused with the love and energy of the Holy Spirit. Worship is spiritually significant because … we keep coming back. And it’s important to say all this out loud and to think about this, right now, while we’re worshiping.

Something IS happening here. No matter what’s gone in your life up to this point, something happens when we’re here.

And God did we miss it when it was suddenly taken away.

So often in life, it occurs to me, we don’t feel like we belong. We don’t always feel comfortable or seen or known in the various gatherings which happen all through life. At its core and at its best, worship is that rare place and opportunity where we belong. This is the place where God conveys a message LOUD and CLEAR and also quietly and subtly to anyone with a heart and spirit to receive the message:

YOU

BELONG

HERE.

You belong!

Now that doesn’t mean there aren’t churches and worship services out there that send a contrary message. It’s out there. But even so, we cling to the Jesus we meet in the Gospels, and the Jesus witnessed to in the New Testament, like the God who appears all through the Bible repeatedly proclaims and invites all into community

You are part of this community.

You belong to the God community.

And not only that, you are vitally important to this community.

This is the refrain sung throughout the Bible.

It all began with two people in an abundant garden. And it continues to this very day. This community spans all eras and cultures and languages, and every step of the way it insists on including YOU. No matter what else happens. You belong. From your first breath to your last.

And then, not even death can take this away from you or take you away from this.

Meanwhile, however, this life we live and this world where we live features different “shepherds” along the way, as Jeremiah referred to, shepherds who mistreat us, who threaten us, who manipulate us, and shame us and bully us in order to prove to themselves that they are far more important than any one or any thing else in life.

Those shepherds make demands on us; they don’t care a whit about us but they make demands. AND they expect total conformity even though they have done NOTHING to earn our trust—actually they do so much to betray our trust. Those shepherds do serious damage while they’re in positions of trust and authority, but somehow, so far, we have survived in spite of them, we have survived the damage and harm they inflict. Because God is watching, God cares, and God is here too.

Meanwhile, Jesus, just like the God from whom he comes, stands before us and with us and looks upon us with compassion, because just like the God from whom Jesus comes, Jesus sees and knows that we are like sheep without a shepherd. But Jesus you’ll notice expends NO energy inflating his own importance. He neither threatens nor demands, nor does he manipulate. He does not coerce or inflict himself upon ANYONE. Not even upon those who intended to do him harm—worse than harm.

Like sheep with a good shepherd, his sheep know his voice and follow him because Jesus speaks and moves with compassion; Jesus’ every movement is to heal and restore and revive. Jesus endures injustice at the hands of earthly authority and even church authority rather than subverting it by force or guile. Jesus the Good Shepherd endured false arrest, torture, beatings, betrayal and excruciating death to show us that God’s kingdom of Love prevails.

Something is happening.

And that something is this: whenever we come together around Jesus and tell him everything about life “out there” we not only remind ourselves, we actually experience that He is our home.

He is our home even when we run away or lose our way, Jesus comes looking for us, like the Good Shepherd He is. Gently, always gently. Never forcefully. Never arrogantly. Never condemning us or condescending. But always returning to us—not because He went anywhere, but because we regularly do ...

Jesus returning to us.

Ever returning.

Whatever happens to us or in us out there, there is always a place for us. A good place. A safe place. A place of deep nourishment. A place Jesus creates for us.

What happens when we gather here around Jesus is, we glimpse that place we deeply need and to which we are destined. That place which never disappears and nothing can take away from us.

Because that place is God. And that place is Jesus. Home.

And though at times we deny it and we wander away from it and we get pushed and shoved and jostled and driven away from it at times, the Lord always always always leads us back around, again and again and again, and again, back where we belong.

07-11-2021 Chosen for an Inheritance

Thomas J Parlette
“Chosen for an Inheritance”
Ephesians 1: 3-14
7/11/21

        What would you do if tomorrow you found out that you had inherited an unexpected fortune? What problems would it solve for you? What problems would it create? How would a surprise inheritance affect your life?
        There was once a wealthy bachelor from Portugal named Luis Carlos de Noronha Cabral da Camara. I know, quite a name, isn’t it?  I had to practice it a few times – and I’m sure I still got something wrong in there. Luis had inherited a large amount of money which he spent on motorcycles, shooting, and drinking. The rest he wasted, as the old joke goes.
        Being a bachelor, he didn’t have anyone to leave his fortune to, so he picked the names of 70 random strangers from a Portuguese phonebook and left them each a share in his estate. After his premature death at the age of 42, many of his heirs thought they were being scammed when they received their unexpected inheritance.(1)
        Even more amazing is the story of a journalism in Moldova named Sergey Sudev. Sergey received a surprise inheritance totaling around $1 billion dollars from an uncle he hadn’t see in ten years. Yes, that’s billion with a “B!” The inheritance made him one of the wealthiest citizens in one of the poorest countries in Europe.(2)
        I once read about a company that specializes in locating missing heirs so they can claim their inheritance. Heir Hunters International employs teams of researchers to finds people who have an inheritance waiting for them. The company claims that they have “handled cases totaling well over $100 million.” That’s a huge amount of money, but it’s still a small percentage of the $47.1 billion dollars’ worth of unclaimed inheritances worldwide, according to the New York Times.(3)
        It’s hard to imagine that there could be that much wealth waiting around to be claimed by its rightful heirs. What a difference it would make in their lives if they knew that they had such riches waiting for them.
        That’s the message Paul is trying to share with us today. God has abundant gifts waiting for the children of God. Paul tells us that we are greatly blessed. He writes, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Note those words- “every spiritual blessing.” God doesn’t hold back any spiritual blessing from us. The power, the authority, the hope, the joy, the peace, the love of God are all available to God’s children. So why do so many Christians struggle with anxiety, envy, greed, fear and hopelessness? Perhaps we just don’t understand the truth and value of the spiritual blessings we’ve been given.
        Rev. Ian Brown tells a story of an old miser who buried all his gold in a hole in the ground. Once a week, the miser dug up the gold and stared at it. He savored it. He dreamed of what he could do with it. And then he put the gold back into the hole and covered it up again.
        One day a thief dug up his gold and stole it. When the miser came to stare at his gold, all he saw was an empty hole. He began to howl with grief and his neighbors came to see what the matter was.
        One of the neighbors asked, “Did you ever use any of the gold?”
        No, never. I only dug it up to look at it.”
        “Well then,” said the neighbor, “for all the good it did you, you may as well come every week and stare at this empty hole.”(4)
        Living in ignorance of our spiritual blessings is as useful as burying a bag of gold in the ground and never using it. We need to recognize our blessings, thank God for them, and claim these blessings as the foundation of our lives. That is the key to living without anxiety, fear, poor self0image, envy, greed and hopelessness.
        First of all, we are blessed that we have been chosen. Paul writes to the Ephesians, reminding them God has blessed them “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world”. We have been chosen for an inheritance of spiritual blessing.
        The words “in Christ” appears ten times in the book of Ephesians. Paul wants us to realize that Jesus did the work for us. We don’t have to earn it. We don’t have to be good enough to deserve it. Out of his love for us, Jesus sacrificed his own life to guarantee us all the spiritual blessings that flow from his own relationship with God. So when we read that “in Christ” we become children of God, it means that our identity and inheritance are sealed by the sacrificial, unconditional love of Jesus. As Paul put it, God “destined us for adoption as God’s children through Jesus Christ.”
        So what does it mean that we are chosen in Christ? If you are chosen, that means you are valued. You are loved. It means that God has a purpose for you. You don’t choose a painting unless you plan to display it and enjoy it. You don’t choose a pet unless you plan to nurture and protect it. You don’t choose a spouse unless you plan to cherish and love that person. Now consider that God chose you and destined you for adoption as God’s own child before the creation of the world. Once we understand that truth, how can we doubt God’s love for us.
        In November 1984, a young man named Patrick was doing his laundry in the dorm laundry room at San Francisco State University. It was late at night, and Patrick was spooked by a sound coming from a cardboard box in the corner of the room. He walked over and peeked inside and was shocked to see a baby. It was a new-born baby girl, abandoned in a college dorm laundry room. The baby’s body temperature was dropping, and she was turning blue. Patrick grabbed the first student he saw, a nursing student named Esther Raiger, and asked for help. Luckily, Esther had just completed a course on infant care, so she cared for the baby until paramedics arrived.
        The hospital staff named the newborn Baby Jane Doe. When the story hit the news outlets, numerous people around the country offered to adopt her. Among those who contacted Child Services were Sam and Helene Sobol. Helene says that the moment she saw Baby Jane’s picture in the papers, she said to herself, “This is our baby.”
        The Sobols adopted the little girl and changed her name to Jillian. Jillian Sobol. They never hid the fact that she was adopted but they didn’t tell her the circumstances of her birth until she turned 16. They were concerned that Jillian might be upset at her abandonment. But when Jillian recalls the conversation, she remembers the overwhelming feelings of being “special and loved.” It didn’t matter to her how her life started out. All that mattered was that she had been chosen and adopted. That’s what defined her life.
        More than 20 years later, Jillian Sobol entered San Francisco State University where she had been abandoned – but this time as a student. She graduated in 2015 with a degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management.(5)
        In God’s great realm there are no grandchildren, no stepchildren, there are illegitimate children, because each of us is a child of God “in Christ!” We are set free. We are chosen. Let that be the truth that defines you. There is great joy in a feeling of chosen-ness.
        Charles Spurgeon once said that when you are approaching heaven, you will read on the outside gates, “Whosoever will, may come.” But when you turn around, you’ll see written on the inside gates, “Chosen in Him from the foundation of the world.” We are blessed because we are chosen.
        We are also blessed when we realize that our sins are indeed forgiven. To encourage the Ephesians, Paul wrote, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that has been lavished on us.” In Christ, we are forgiven and given another chance.
        Someone once wrote into the Reader’s Digest to tell of a problem their mother was having. A medical billing service had just bought an 800 number that was identical to her mother’s number. Her mother started getting dozens of calls every day from people wanting to discuss their bills. She got fed with these calls, as you might imagine, so she called the medical billing service and asked them to change their number. They responded that she should change her number, even though she’d had that same phone number for 20 years.
        So the woman said, “Fine. From now on I’m going to tell everyone who calls that their bill is paid in full and their account has been forgiven.”   
That medical billing company got a new number the very next day.(6)
        Paul himself serves as a powerful example of the joy and freedom found in forgiveness. Paul wrote, “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church. But by the grace of God I am what I am.” Even though Paul once persecuted the church, through the grace of God, he was forgiven and given another chance. With his new life, Paul set forth proclaiming the message of salvation to Jews and Gentiles alike.
        True freedom and new life are possible if we live our lives in service to Jesus Christ. In him, we are set free. In him we are forgiven.
        And finally, we are blessed when we realize that we are not trapped by what has happened to us in the past. Many of us get stuck because we remember and relive old, painful memories.
        There’s an old story about a man who ran into a friend one day. He said, “Say, you look depressed. What are you thinking about?”
        “My future,” was the quick answer.
        “What makes your future look so hopeless?”
        Just as quickly the response was, “My past.”
If this Bible is true, then it is God who defines us, not ourselves, not our friends, not our families. Neither are we defined by our successes or failures, or our strengths and weaknesses. God alone defines our life. And when God looks at us, God doesn’t look at our past. God looks at our possibilities. God looks at our potential. God looks at who we could be.
For some of us, this past year has been the worst year ever. So many people lost jobs, many were laid off. Many found themselves having to cope with less income and more anxiety. Some have experienced death in their families that left them hurting and grieving.
Here’s what Christ says to us – regardless of our circumstances. New beginnings are possible. In fact, this very time is a time of new beginning. You may have spent your life living in anxiety and worry and disappointment. You may have let your family and perhaps your culture or your past define you. God wants you to know that you have nothing to fear. You have been chosen for an inheritance. You have been forgiven. You are longer trapped by what has happened to you in the past. You are of all peoples, blessed with all God’s spiritual gifts.
Let this be the day that you find your identity, your purpose, and your future in Christ.
May God be praised. Amen.

 1.   Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, p52.
2.   Ibid… p52.
3.   Ibid… p52.
4.   Ibid… p52-53.
5.   Ibid… p53.
6.   Ibid… p54.

07-04-2021 Power Made Perfect in Weakness

Thomas J Parlette
“Power Made Perfect in Weakness”
2nd Corinthians 12: 2-10
7/4/21

        Today our nation celebrates Independence Day which commemorates the day that the 13 original colonies joined together to declare their independence from Great Britain. In fact, the first time we were ever referred to as the “United States of America” was in the Declaration of Independence, which was accepted by the leadership of the 13 colonies on July 4th, 1776. July 3rd, we were a collection of colonies, subject to rule from Great Britain. July 4th, we were the United States of America. That’s why we call July 4th the birthday of our nation. So I hope you take some time today to recognize and give God thanks for the blessings we enjoy as a nation.
        Of course, no holiday would be as much fun without a blooper somewhere along the way. Like the young fellow who was asked to lead the Pledge of Allegiance at his school’s assembly, and he got all flustered and blurted out, “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one naked individual with liberty and justice for all.” – instead of one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Unfortunate in front of an assembly of grade school children. Well, one naked individual may be too much liberty for some of us, but I’m sure the young fella’s heart was in the right place, even though his tongue let him down.(1)
        I hope we can all take some time today to consider what virtues make our nation strong, and what obstacles make us weak, and what part each of us can play in building a nation that will last another 245 years.
        Of course, there are some well-meaning people who believe that pointing out any weakness in our republic is unpatriotic. They are like the business owner who would not allow his wife or any of his employees to point out any of his shortcomings. And so, he went to a formal company banquet where he was asked to say a few words. There he stood before a large group of his employees and their spouses for 30 minutes with a large piece of lettuce stuck firmly between his two front teeth. Everyone saw it, but none of them had the courage to draw it to his attention. Sometimes the person who points out our weaknesses to us is our most valuable friend.
        And that’s what todays passage from 2nd Corinthians is all about – weaknesses, personal weaknesses. We all have them. It doesn’t matter what image we present to the world. It doesn’t matter how much money we have in our bank account. It doesn’t matter what degree or title we have at work. We all have weaknesses. The problem is that we live in a prosperous, image driven society. Nobody puts their weaknesses on Facebook, or Instagram or Snapchat. We only put our best, most airbrushed image out there. The last thing we want our friends to see is our flaws.
        Some of our weaknesses are physical, some are mental, some are moral. Some of those weaknesses have to do with our work, some with our family life, some with our relationship with God. Some of us have short tempers, others of us struggle with depression or anxiety. Some of us are too proud, others of us lack a back bone – we give in too quickly. But all of us are weak in some area of our life.
        Paul was no exception, he certainly had his weaknesses. One in particular caused him much heartache. We don’t know for certain what it was. He called it his “thorn in the flesh.” Some scholars have suggested that Paul may have suffered from epileptic seizures. Maybe – if so, he was in good company. Two of the most powerful men who ever lived – Julius Caesar and Napoleon – were epileptics, as have been many other great individuals though history. In Paul’s day there was no medication to control seizures. You just had to deal with them. And that may have been Paul’s thorn.
        So Paul prayed that God would deliver him from his affliction. Three times he beseeched God about this matter, but God’s answer was, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Let me say that again. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” In other words, God seemed to be saying to Paul, “Trust me, I will take care of you. And I can use your weakness to demonstrate my power.”
        We can all learn from Paul’s experience. Paul not only learned to accept his thorn in the flesh, he even began to boast about his weakness in order to show the power of Christ. Our weakness, whatever it may be, can become our strength if we commit it to God.
        Our weakness can become a strength, first of all, if it causes us to grow. When we can grow beyond fear, beyond self-centeredness, beyond immaturity – then we can reflect God’s glory. God’s glory may shimmer in our strengths, but it shines in our weaknesses. When others see us grow in patience, wisdom, courage and faith through our heartaches, that’s when God’s glory shines a light into the hearts and minds of others around us. That’s what causes them to say, “I see God in you, I want what you have.”
        Some of you probably remember the tennis superstar Arthur Ashe. A much-respected man, Ashe – while still at the height of his career – contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion during heart surgery. Fellow athletes admired Ashe for his skill and class on the court. But the world came to admire him even more for his courage in facing this tragic illness which led to his untimely death.
        In an interview, Ashe once commented, “If I asked, “Why me?” about my troubles, I would have to ask “Why me?” about my blessings. Why me winning Wimbledon? Why me marrying a beautiful, gifted woman and having a wonderful child. Why me?”(2)
        Arthur Ashe understood that God uses both our joys and our sorrows to grow us into people that reflect God’s glory, character and priorities. As someone has said, our disappointments are God’s appointments. By God’s grace, painful experiences or situations can help us grow.
        Our weaknesses can also become our strengths if they make us more determined to give our best in all circumstances. Remember, your life is not just about you. If you believe in God as your Creator, then you know that God has made you for a greater purpose than your own happiness and comfort. When people look at you, at your character and your choices and your priorities and your actions, they should see the power and truth and love and wisdom of God. Other people should feel some impact from your life. They should be inspired or comforted or challenged or changed because of their contact with you. So how you choose to respond to your weakness matters.
        Bethany Noel Murray is an artist from Boston, Massachusetts. Her paintings look like fantasies of magical forests filled with light and color and strange shapes. Fans of her work describe it as like looking at a beautiful landscape through a kaleidoscope.
        The secret to Murray’s unique and beautiful paintings lies in the pain that she suffers. Bethany Noel Murray has suffered from chronic migraines for over 20 years. In addition to the intense pain of the headaches, she also experiences sensitivity to light and sound, and distortions in her vision during a migraine. Rather than give up her art and hide in bed, Murray turns her pain into beauty. As she says, “My paintings have been proof to me of what I experience during an attack, and despite the pain, I’ve made the choice to see the good, the weird and the beautiful.”(3)
        God may shimmer in our strengths, but God shines in our weakness – if we let our weakness lead us to grow and if it causes us to give our best effort in all circumstances.
        Our weakness can also become a strength if it helps us change our life’s course. Sometimes what seems a weakness is only a signal that we are pursuing the wrong path.
        One of the most revealing lines in literature appears in the opening paragraph of A.A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh.” Milne writes: “Here is Edward Bear coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way… if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it.”
        If you keep bumping your head coming down the stairs, maybe it’s time you stop for a moment and think if there is another way it might be done. Sometimes our so-called weaknesses are simply warning signs to us that we are on the wrong path.
        Since today is the day we celebrate our Independence, I thought I might tell a story about one of the best-known figures in the battle for Independence. He was a man who needed to begin again. His name was Patrick Henry. I’ve always had a soft spot for Patrick Henry since I once made a diorama of him in 6th grade  . Ahh… Diaroma’s- remember those.
        Even though Patrick Henry has been revered for most of our history as a patriot and orator, for years of his life, Patrick Henry was a failure. He and his brother opened a store, but it failed. Next Patrick’s father-in-law set him up in farming, gave him 300 acres, a house and 6 slaves. Yes, that’s right, Patrick Henry was a slave owner. He is best known for saying “Give me liberty or give me death”, but he also owned 6 individuals. I guess the liberty of which he spoke didn’t apply to them. Some of our ancestors had this blind spot – and we are still paying for those sins today, 245 years later.
        In spite of his Father-in-law’s efforts, however, Patrick Henry also failed as a farmer. Finally, on the advice of some friends, Patrick turned to the law. He was a natural persuader and a captivating speaker. As a lawyer, Patrick was an instant success. Furthermore, his was exactly the voice that was needed to launch the colonies toward a break with England. “Give me liberty or give me death”, became the rallying cry for the American Revolution. Though he shared a glaring and regrettable weakness with many of our ancestors, Patrick Henry was not a failure. He was simply in the wrong field for much of his life.(4)
        Finally, and most important of all, our weaknesses may become strengths if they remind us of our dependence on God. Paul says, “Look at me. I once persecuted the church. Look at me, a man who has to battle this humiliating affliction – this thorn in the flesh. Yet Christ has used me to plant churches all over the known world.” Paul was a man of tremendous intellect. He was also a man of unquestionable persuasive powers. Perhaps if it had not been for his thorn in the flesh, he would have leaned on his own ability rather than the power of God working through him. And you and I would never have heard the name of Paul. His weakness became his strength. His scar became a star. His hurt became a halo. And the same thing can happen to us – if our weakness helps us to grow, if our weakness makes us more determined to succeed, if our weakness causes us to try new things, and if our weakness causes us to rely on God.
        God has the power, authority and mercy to answer our every prayer and take away our every weakness. God could make our life as smooth and comfy as a velvet blanket. So why doesn’t God do that? Because our life is meant to be a reflection of God’s love and power. And God’s power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, let us boast of our weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on us. For when we are weak, then we are strong. For as Paul says, “God’s power is made perfect in weakness.”
        May God be praised. Amen.

1.   Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, pg47.
2.   Ibid… p48.
3.   Ibid… p49.
4.   Ibid… p49.

06-27-2021 Paul's Oxymoron

Thomas J Parlette
“Paul’s Oxymoron”
2nd Corinthians 8: 7-15
6/27/21

        I’m sure most of you have heard of an oxymoron. It’s a Greek word that means “pointedly foolish.” You make an oxymoron when you put two words together that are complete opposites. They contradict each other. Some classic oxymorons include; “clearly confused,” “act naturally,” “open secret,” “jumbo shrimp.”(1)
        What’s even better than on oxymoron phrase is an oxymoron statement. Artist Andy Warhol was famous for the statement, “I am a deeply superficial person.” Samuel Goldwyn, the famous movie producer, was also famous for his totally contradictory statements. He would say things like, “Give me a smart idiot over a stupid genius any day,” or “Gentlemen, I want you to know that I am not always right, but I am never wrong.” And one of my favorite oxymoron statements comes from the singer Dolly Parton, who once said, “You’d be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap.”(2)
        I wonder if Paul chuckled a little bit when he wrote these words to the Corinthians in this passage for today. He wants to tell the believers in Corinth about the incredible work God was doing in the Macedonian church. So Paul starts this chapter by saying “for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity.” Sounds a bit like an oxymoron. The Macedonian believers were undergoing a severe trial yet experiencing overflowing joy. And even though they lived in extreme poverty, their joy resulted in rich generosity toward other believers who were in need. How often do severe trials and extreme poverty go hand in hand with overflowing joy and rich generosity? Sounds a bit like Paul is creating his own oxymoron statement here.
        Let’s put it in the form of a word problem: Severe trials + extreme poverty = what? It equals overflowing joy and rich generosity. Still, kind hard to swallow. What did the Macedonian believers know that we don’t?
        Rev. Gary Waddingham, former rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Billings, Montana, tells of serving years ago in a rural community. One Christmas, the church had a lot of food left over after they had packed their annual Christmas baskets. Rev. Waddingham thought he would deliver the extra food to a poor family nearby. But as he drove to their house, he began thinking about how to preserve the dignity of the family to whom he would offer the food.
        He arrived at the family’s house, and the mother opened the door. Her children were gathered all around her. Rev. Waddingham explained the situation and asked, “Do you know anyone who could use some extra food? – fully expecting her to accept the offer herself.
        But to his surprise, the woman said, “You bet”, and she grabbed her coat and headed to the Rev’s. car. “Come on, I’ll take you there.” And off they went to deliver food to another needy family in town. She didn’t hesitate to help out. In spite of her own poverty, she had a generous spirit and found joy in giving to a family with an even greater need.(3)
        In 1847, during the Great Famine in Ireland, the Choctaw tribe here in the U.S. raised $147 (which would be equivalent to $5,000 today) and sent it to Ireland. The Choctaw tribe certainly wasn’t rich back then – but they were generous anyway. They saw others in need, and they sacrificed what they could to help.
        In 2020, in response to COVID-19 deaths in the Navajo Nation, the Choctaw and Hopi tribes set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for clean water and medical supplies for Native Americans. Donations to the fund “flooded in” from the people of Ireland. One Irish donor wrote on the GoFundMe page, “Returning your kindness 170 years and 4,000 miles later.”(4)
        So, if generosity doesn’t depend on resources, what does it depend on? And why do we keep using the excuse that once we have more money, then we will give more to the work of God?
        In our scripture passage from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, Paul praises the generosity of the church in Macedonia. He uses their giving as an example to challenge the church at Corinth. It’s a pretty slick and subtle move by Paul. He says gently to the Corinthians, “But since you excel in everything- in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you – see that you also excel in this grace of giving.” You all are so good at everything – I’m sure you will excel at this too. Pretty sneaky, Paul.
        Then Paul adds, “I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it to the earnestness of other.” I’m not ordering you to do this, Paul says. But he is hoping that they will see that giving is a natural extension of Christian devotion. Giving is an expression of our love for God. In Paul’s terms, it is a test of the sincerity of our love for God. There are a few reasons why generous giving is critical to the devotional life of a Christian.
        One reason is the seductive nature of wealth. There is something a bit dangerous about money – the more you have, the harder it is to share.
        A Gallup poll sometime back confirmed what many of us have observed for years. Donations to charity decrease as income increases. The survey found that low- and moderate-income Americans, especially churchgoers, are more generous than upper-income Americans.
        It’s not true for everyone, though. Pastor Brian Kluth tells about a friend of his named Don. Don is a wealthy businessman who gives generously to those in need. When Brian asked Don about his giving, Don responded, “It helps me slay the dragon.” He went on to explain that our greatest temptation is to believe that our happiness or identity can be found in buying newer, better stuff. He pictures materialism as a dragon that he has to fight against every day. And the only way to fight the dragon is to be a “faithful and generous giver.” Every time he wrote a check to fund the work of the church, it was like wielding a sword to slay the dragon.(5)
        Country music star Ricky Skaggs and his wife believe strongly in tithing 10% of their income to the church and charities. As he says, “If I believe anything about the Bible, I have to know that God wants my money because God knows my money wants me. God doesn’t need my money, but God wants whatever I want more than God.”(6)
        God doesn’t need the money, but God wants whatever we want more than God. Giving generously helps us to slay the dragon of materialism, of pride, of greed, or self-centeredness that stands between us and finding our true happiness and identity in God.
        John Wesley, the preacher who created the framework of the Methodist church, used four criteria for measuring any purchase. Before spending any money, he would ask himself:
-        “Am I acting as a steward of the Lord’s goods?
-        Am I making this purchase in obedience to the Word of God?
-        Can I offer up this expense as a sacrifice to God through Jesus Christ?
-        Do I have reason to believe that this purchase will bring me a reward at the resurrection of the just?”(7)
        Pretty tough questions. I admit, I can’t pass all those on most of my purchases. When I buy gas and some corn muffins at Kwik-Trip, I’m not sure I can offer that up as a sacrifice to God through Jesus Christ. I need gas to go places, and I like to have a corn muffin with chili sometimes. But Wesley’s questions are a good reminder that the dragon of Materialism is getting larger and larger in our society’s value system. It’s not easy to live by God’s value system in a society that values image and appearance and status symbols. It should work the other way around. It should get easier to give as our wealth increases, but it usually doesn’t. There is something about money that hardens us. No wonder Jesus talked more about money than any other topic.
        So you see, giving is a spiritual question.  Another reason generous giving is critical to the devotional life of a Christian has to do with the wonderful things that money can do. Regardless of our circumstances, we have to admit that there are some things that only money can buy. Like braces for you children’s teeth and a good education. Like quality healthcare and a worry-free retirement. Like dependable transportation and a warm house on a cold night. In a society such as ours, money is a very valuable commodity.
        British pastor Charles Spurgeon was one of the most famous and influential preachers of the late 1800’s. In addition to his church ministry, Spurgeon founded an orphanage in London. He preached a special service once each year to raise money for the orphans. One year at this special service, a man approached Spurgeon and accusingly, “Why, Mr. Spurgeon, I thought you preached for souls and not for money!”
        To which Spurgeon replied, “Normally I do preach for souls and not for money. But my orphans can’t eat souls and if they did, my brother, it would take at least four the size of yours to give one of them a square meal!”(8)
        Our giving is a spiritual matter simply because there are some things in this world only money can do. It takes money to help the homeless and feed the hungry. It takes money to provide clean water and warm blankets. It takes money to provide counselors to young people in runaway shelters. It takes money to provide a place of worship to draw our eyes and hearts up to experience God.
        Giving is a spiritual matter because of the seductive nature of wealth. It is a spiritual matter because there are some things only money can do. And finally, giving is a spiritual matter be we worship a giving God. Paul says, “For we know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” Jesus gave up everything he had and took on human form to show us the unlimited, overwhelming riches of God’s love for us. We worship a giving God and our God says to us there is only one way that we can become truly rich. That is by giving – all we have and all we are.
        Christian author Randy Alcorn writes, “Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive, but he never says why. Here is my own why behind his statement. When you give, two people are blessed by ‘your’ money – you and the recipient. Keeping blesses one – giving blesses two. People never discover the second blessing until they actually do it, and I have learned the more they do it, the more addictive giving becomes.”(9)
        God is love, and out of that overflowing love, God is continually giving good gifts – blessings – to us. And God wants us to share in the joy of giving by giving generously to others. Love is the true sword that slays the dragons of materialism, greed, pride and self-centeredness. Love sets us free to be a blessing to others. We think more money will set us free, but that is rarely the answer. Love for God and trust in God’s blessings set us free to be a blessing to the world. That’s the answer to our word problem from the beginning of this meditation – Severe trials + Extreme poverty + Love for God + Overflowing joy and rich generosity. It’s sounds like an oxymoron – but it is the truth.
        Paul said to the Corinthians that they were doing great in every area except one. If they really wanted to excel – if they wanted to know what rich really is – they would need to learn to give.
        When you keep what you have, only you experience a blessing. When you give what you have, the blessing is multiplied and the joy overflows. Do want to experience the richness of life? Generous giving to the work of God is the best way to experience how rich life can be.
        May God, the giver of all good gifts, be praised.
        Amen.

1.   Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, p43.
2.   Ibid… p43,
3.   Ibid…. p43.
4.   Ibid… p43-44.
5.   Ibid… p44.
6.   Ibid… p44.
7.   Ibid… p44.
8.   Ibid… p45.
9.   Ibid… p45.

06-20-2021 Asleep in the Back of the Boat

Thomas J Parlette
“Asleep in the Back of the Boat”
Mark 4: 35-41
6/20/21

        Good morning, and Happy Father’s Day to all our fathers and father figures here today or watching at home this morning. Thank you for all you do to shape our lives, and for the example you provide us in managing the ups and downs in life.
        One of my favorite comedians, Jim Gaffigan, posted on twitter, “My 4 yr old gave me a handmade card for Father’s day. It was very cute. Maybe for Christmas I’ll draw him a picture of some toys.” A man named Mike Primavera tweeted, “Get your dad what he really wants this Father’s Day by turning off the lights when you leave a room.” And then there’s a tweet from username Dad and Buried, who writes, “Called my dad to wish him a happy Father’s Day and we spent the whole time discussing back pain and ibuprofen. The circle is now complete.”(1)
        Today we celebrate Fathers. And both of our biblical passages for today say something about not just fathers, but all good parents. Good parents have a natural impulse to step in and protect their children, serving as an example in tough times and guiding them to learn from the challenges and storms that are a part of life.
        First, we hear the well-known story of David and Goliath. The giant Goliath is chosen by the Philistines to fight any warrior from Israel that would care to step forward. Of course, no one does. So David volunteers. Even though he is just a boy, probably half the size of Goliath, with no experience as a warrior at all. Yet David is confident, because the Lord is with him. With the Lord’s support, he has fought off wild animals to protect his flock. David has confidence that the Lord will be with him to fight Goliath. King Saul reluctantly agrees and sends David off to fight saying, “may the Lord be with you.”
        And we all know how that turned out. The Lord was with David in the face of this enormous challenge, and David killed Goliath with a single smooth stone.
        Our Gospel story from Mark begins at the end of a typical day for Jesus and his disciples. Jesus has been teaching huge crowds of people by the Sea of Galilee. But the crowds have finally gone home, and it’s time to pack up and head to their next ministry spot in the region of the Gerasenes, in modern day Jordan. It must have been a tiring day. Jesus went to back of the boat to catch a quick nap. And suddenly a storm swept in. “A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
        These guys were professional fisherman. They had been on these waters their whole lives. They had been through these kinds of storms before. They knew how to ride one of them out. So this must have been a really furious storm to make these guys think they were going to die. “Jesus… don’t you care?”
        It’s a question that is familiar to anyone who faces an insurmountable foe – like David, or a ferocious storm that threatens death – like the disciples on the sea.
        Why doesn’t Jesus intervene immediately?
Why is he asleep in the back of the boat?
        Where is God in my distress?
        Don’t do you care?
        Reynolds Price, in his book Letter to a Man on Fire, tells of getting a letter from a young man named Jim who had just been diagnosed with cancer. Price had survived his own bout with cancer a few years earlier, and Jim was writing to him because he knew Price would understand his fear and his questions. Jim wrote, “I want to believe in a God who cares… because I mat meet him sooner than I had expected. I think I am at a point where I can accept the existence of God… but I can’t yet believe God cares about me.”(2)
        “I want to believe in a God who cares…” That’s a question we all wrestle with sometime in our lives. And if God does care about us, why does God let storms happen? Why do we have to face giant foes like Goliath?
        This story in Mark’s Gospel is an affirmation that, yes, God cares, as evidenced by Jesus’ actions. When the storms of life are raging, Jesus does care. When it seems you cannot hold on a moment longer, Jesus does care. When the waters threaten to engulf you. Jesus does care. Jesus cares because he knows what life is like. He became flesh and blood, just like us. He has already placed himself in the middle of the storms we face.
        Author Glenn Scrivener says that a few years ago he prayed to God that he would get to know God better. Within a week of that prayer, Glenn’s employers deported him from England back to Australia, his long-time girlfriend broke up with him, and his parents announced they were getting a divorce.
        In the midst of all these events, Glenn had a revelation: God was using these storms to answer Glenn’s prayer. He realized that following Jesus often leads us into challenging pathways. Jesus may very well lead us directly into a storm. But it’s not because he doesn’t love us. It’s not because he wasn’t prepared for it. It’s because we can’t understand the power and the peace of God unless we encounter it in the middle of a storm. The best way to get to know God is to be caught in a storm with God.(3)
        And that’s a lesson the disciples needed to learn, and they couldn’t learn it any other way. David had already learned it as he fought off wild animals to protect his flock. Now it’s the disciples turn. So the disciples rouse Jesus from his sleep, and he speaks to the wind and the waves, “Peace1 Be still!” And the wind ceases and there is a great calm. Then he turns to the disciples and asks, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?”
        Notice that Jesus does not say “There’s nothing to be afraid of.” He says, “Why are you afraid?”
        That’s because there are many things in life to be rightly afraid of. Isolation, pain, illness, meaninglessness, rejection, losing your job, money problems, failure and death – they are all fearsome things.
        But our faith assures us that none of these things have the last word. Jesus shows here that he has power over all the forces that would threaten to undo us.
        The novelist Emily Bronte lived and wrote in a rectory set in the bleak moors of Yorkshire. She lived a grim tragedy with her half-demented father and alcoholic brother. Nevertheless, she was able to write words like these: “No coward soul is mine, no trembler in the world’s storm-troubled sphere. I see Heaven’s glories shine, and faith shines equal, arming me from fear.”(4)
        The deep truth is that even though there are real and fearsome things in this life, they need not paralyze us; they need not have power over us; they need not own us, because we are not alone in the boat.
        A scene near the end of John Bunyan’s classic allegorical novel The Pilgrim’s Progress finds the chief character, Christian, the archetype of a person struggling to lead a life of faith, nearing the end of his symbolic journey. This journey requires him to cross a great and fearsome river. He is desperately afraid. Together with his friend Hopeful, they wade into the waters with trepidation. Bunyan has Christian cry out, “I sink in deep Waters; the Billows go over my head, all His waves go over me.” Hopeful replies with what may be among the most grace-filled words in all of literature; “Be of good cheer, my Brother, I feel the bottom, and it is good…”(5)
        Or, in Jesus’ own words – “Peace, be still. Don’t be afraid.”
        May God be praised. Amen.

1.   Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, p39.
2.   Ibid… p40.
3.   Ibid… p41.
4.   Michael Lindvall, Feasting on the Word, Westminster John Knox Press, 2009, p168.
5.   Ibid… p168

06-13-2021 Confident Hope

Confident Hope

Rev. Jay Rowland

2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17

Sun June 13, 2021

6 (NRSV) So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— 7 GNB for our life is a matter of faith, not of sight. 8 So, yes, we do have confidence [that] we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please [The Lord]. 10(MSG) Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing, and that’s what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions. Sooner or later we’ll all have to face God, regardless of our conditions. We will appear before Christ and take what’s coming to us as a result of our actions, [both] good & bad.

14 (GNB) We are ruled by the love of Christ, now that we recognize that one man died for everyone, which means that [we] all share in his death. 15-17 (MSG) Jesus included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life--a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. Because of this ... we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges!

NRSV = New Revised Standard Version

GNB = Good News Bible

MSG = The Message Bible

**************************

I come into this day and this moment with Hope in my heart and in my spirit. I chose to focus on this passage from 2 Corinthians today because of the clear message of hope it proclaims.

I don’t know about you, but I would be utterly lost without hope. On any given day, any given moment or circumstance I have to have some amount of HOPE in me. When it comes to hope, hey, I’m all ears. And so I pray that the hope declared by Paul in this passage will resonate deeply in your mind, in your spirit, and in your life through the Holy Spirit far beyond my interpretation of it now.

As all preachers always do, I rely on the Holy Spirit again today, trusting that God’s intent for this preaching moment prevails the words and the images I speak into the air in the coming moments or in spite of them. I love this passage from 2 Cor 5 for the way it breathes life into the idea of spiritual hope--that is, hope distinguished from general optimism, Hope that is ours through the Love of God revealed in the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

It seems to me that Paul invokes a particular kind of (spiritual) hope, which Paul actually refers to as a distinct form of CONFIDENCE--the Greek word is tharreo which appears elsewhere in the NT translated as either “bold” or “confident” .

Now I’m not a particularly confident person by nature. I’m actually insecure by nature which in my experience is the exact opposite of confidence, right? So Paul’s word choice here jumps off the page at me as I ponder this hope available to us in Jesus Christ.

Again, not just any ol’ hope, but what I see as supernatural confidence comes to us through Jesus rather than anything you or I are capable of producing for ourselves in any given moment. Other Bible translations offer the word “courage” for tharreo ... which is helpful in some ways, and unhelpful in others. Unhelpful in that, to me, courage is something I may or may not have when I need it the most. I am always inspired by the courage of others, and ultimately Jesus of course, but apart from seeing it in action in others, I wonder whether I will meet any moment with “courage” especially moments when it may be needed the most.

And for me that’s what faith comes down to, not courage necessarily, but instead having hope/confidence beyond my own capability when I need it the most. Right? I mean, hope and confidence are typically attainable when life is going well--when our kids are doing well, when our loved ones are healthy--spiritually, mentally/emotionally and physically. But when such is not the case for whatever reason, that’s when hope/confidence--moreover our hope/confidence and trust in God--can evaporate or be missing in action.

So, spoiler alert: dissonance is woven into the Good News of God’s powerful Love displayed in Jesus Christ, dissonance which can spoil our willingness or ability to grasp God’s astounding and otherworldly Love. Doubts creep in and feast upon our insecurities whenever life becomes difficult, uncertain, even cruel to us, our loved ones, friends & neighbors. And it’s all the more excruciating when/if we realize we have ZERO control over life and death, zero control over all the dangers and accidents and happenstance that happens in between birth and death, as COVID has painfully demonstrated for the past 15 months.

So what are we to do?

How do we have any confidence in the midst of all the uncertainties and hardships of life?

Even if we accept that we have only the illusion of control at any given time, what are we to DO? We can’t just sit around and wait on God all the time.

How shall we live, and move and have our being without crumpling under the weight of our anxieties, our fears and all the uncertainties of life?

That’s where verse 10 comes in. The Message Bible translation expresses it well:

Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing, and that’s what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions.

In other words, Paul suggests we find out what seems pleasing to God in any given moment, regardless of our conditions, and let that be the operative question to lead and guide our focus, our energy, and our direction. Then sit back and watch, see if perhaps this focus might also distract us from our anxieties and fears.

But what exactly is pleasing to God, you ask?

Well, that’s really between you and God.

That' sounds like a dodge I know, but I can’t prescribe any stock answer; that wouldn’t be right. It truly is between you, God and the Holy Spirit working in you, through your personality, your interests, your passion, your LIFE in Christ. 

But Paul does offer us spiritual guidance--starting at v14 where he encourages us to live our lives ...

ruled by the love of Christ, now that we recognize that [Jesus] died for everyone, which means that [we] all share in his death. (MSG) Jesus included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life--a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. Because of this ... we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at [Jesus] that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges!

Paul offers us a way to be all about pleasing the Lord, which also--I think--opens to us new doorways of hope ... hope we need for all that ails us … new life unleashing joy within us. Paul points us toward a life of confident hope: hope arising from moments which may have previously left us cowering in fear--moments when we fear our own mortality; the mortality of those we love; or the seemingly intractable problems of global warming, gun violence, police brutality, anything and everything which otherwise chip away at confident hope in The Lord.

“by saying that Christ “died for all,” Paul simply means that … “in Christ God did something radically new for the whole world” (CEP/Bratt/LenVanderZee). But clearly the “whole world” as it were, is free to make up its own mind about that. What I mean by that is “God didn’t let people kill Jesus before raising him from the dead just to offer people some kind of religious deal .… God doesn’t offer Jesus as one choice among many in the so-called religious marketplace … God’s work in Christ actually changes the world. In Christ God initiates a new creation (CEP/Bratt/Vander Zee)

We don’t have to do the initiating. God is already at work, indeed it has already begun. For the seed that is God’s transforming “work” to blossom in our lives requires only God’s grace working with our growing faith and spiritual development. And so as Paul explains, it seems that God’s plan is for people to respond to Christ’s death and resurrection by faithfully reconciling ourselves to God and each other. (CEP/Bratt)

That reconciliation, in turn, shapes the way we view the people around us. Instead of viewing people from “worldly” perspectives, we begin to see people, flawed and fearful people as we all can be, as people whom God wants to set free from the chains of fear…. From “now on,” that is, ever since the death and resurrection of Christ completed his saving work, we have the potential--make that the responsibility--to see and care for all people as being those for whom Jesus may well have died. (CEP/Bratt)

(So) To be “in Christ” means that we actually become participants in the “New Age” God created through the Life, Death and Resurrection of Christ. Experiencing death and resurrection with Christ as we endure painful endings and new beginnings, we discover how to live into “newness of life” (Rom.6:4) before, during and after our own actual death. Over time we become participants with God in bringing about unprecedented reconciliation and peace.* This does not require us to actually be (or worse to fake) “self-confidence” nor even to act confident as the world views confidence, but rather supernatural confidence, supernatural hope, meaning, again hope/confidence that doesn’t depend upon self-confidence or any lack thereof, but which is already given to us through the Life, Death, and the Resurrection of Jesus and in the Love that sustains all Life from cradle to grave and beyond.

**************************************************************

Source indicated by parentheses:

• CEP/Bratt/Vander Zee = Len Vander Zee quoted in commentary by Doug Bratt, Center for Excellence in Preaching, http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/ 2021

*Carl R. Holladay, in Preaching Through the Christian Year (B), A Comprehensive Commentary on the Lectionary, p.309-10 (1993)

06-06-2021 Good Things Come to Those Who Wait-Hope

Thomas J Parlette
“Good Things Come to Those Who Wait-Hope”
2nd Corinthians 4:13-5:1
6/6/21

          What is your favorite toy of all time? Evert Christmas, toy companies push out their latest and greatest toy, but most of those toys prove to be only fads. They sell well one year, then disappear the next. But some toys remain popular year after year, or even decade after decade. Journalist Allie Townsend published an article in Time Magazine on the most influential toys from the 1920’s to the 2000’s See if you remember any of these:
          The Radio Flyer wagon was the most influential toy of the 1920’s – anybody remember those? Anybody still have one?
          The Etch-A-Sketch and the Slip-N-Slide were popular in the 1960’s, and remain popular even today.
          The 1970’s brought us the Nerf Ball, the Weebles, and Paddington Bear – all staples in the household where I grew up.
          Cabbage Patch Kids were the craze of the 1980’s. The 90’s brought us the Super-Soaker water gun. And the 2000’s brought us the Bratz Dolls, the Mindflex headset, and Zhu Zhu robotic hamsters.(1)
          I’m sure it’s hard for toy designers to know which toy is going to be a one hit wonder, and which one will be played with, passed down to younger siblings, remembered with fondness, or even coveted by antiques collectors someday.
          I would bet the inventor of the Weebles never expected his little egg-shaped dolls would be as popular as they are. One reason they sold so well was their advertising song, “Weebles wobble, but they won’t fall down.” Remember that little jingle? Don’t worry, it will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day.
          My youngest sister had lots of Weebles and all the accessories that went with them. She was about 5 or 6 at the time, and I was 11 or 12. So, being the typical older brother that I am, I did my best to test the veracity of that advertising jingle. I did my best to get my sisters Weebles to go down and stay down – but it was true, they would wobble, but they wouldn’t fall down. They always popped back up again. They had weights in the bottom that made sure they would never really fall down. At least not permanently.
          After hearing what Paul says today, you might even say that Weebles actually have a Biblical basis. Paul writes: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” To paraphrase – we may wobble, but we don’t fall down.
          We usually hear this passage at funeral services, I know I often turn to this piece of scripture. Paul’s contrast of our outer nature and inner nature and focus on things eternal that cannot be seen is valuable and I think comforting to hear at memorials. But this passage is not exclusive to funerals. Paul’s words are valuable in the course of our daily lives as well.
          Paul knew what it was like to have status and success – before he was a follower of Jesus, he had certainly had his fair share. But Paul also knew what it was like to suffer hardships, physical abuse and even prison. Life can knock you down sometimes. But like the good old weebles, if you depend on the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, you may wobble, but you won’t fall down.
          So, first, Paul says don’t allow discouragement to defeat you when hardships and troubles come – “we do not lose heart…” Don’t give up, hang in there and give God a chance to help you through. Wait on the Lord, as Psalm 130 said.
          David Langerfeld in “The Daily Encourager” devotional suggests a mental exercise that helps us see even dire situations in a new light. He says, “Imagine that I dump 10,000 plastic eggs in your back yard. I assure you that inside one of those hollow eggs is a check for $1 million dollars with your name on it. Would you get discouraged if you opened the first 100 eggs without finding the check? How about the first 1000 eggs? Of course not! You would just keep opening those eggs, just waiting for that moment when you find the check.”
          Think about Paul’s life. He was beaten, stoned, imprisoned, shipwrecked, starved, and rejected. And yet Paul said that his sufferings were nothing compared to the glory that would come. As he says in today’s lesson: Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen in temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
          “In other words,” says Langerfeld, “Paul had opened a lot of empty eggs, but he never gave up or got discouraged. He believed that something great was in his future – God’s glory revealed in him. Perhaps it feels to you as if your life has been nothing but empty eggs. You’ve already opened 9,000 of them and you’re not sure you’ve got the will to go on. Let me encourage you today. Don’t give up.”(2) Listen to Paul – we do not lose heart.
          The second piece of advice from Paul is to focus on the tasks at hand. Wise people learn to let go of both their regrets about the past and their anxieties about the future, and to concentrate on those necessary things that must be done today.
          It’s too late to do anything about the past. And who knows what tomorrow will bring? Besides, tomorrow will be determined at least in part by what we do today. So, shut the door on the past and leave the future to God, and make today a purposeful and productive one. Do not lose heart. Focus on the tasks at hand.
          Author Patsy Clairmont tells of a conversation she had once with a young Marine. He was returning from serving a year and a half in Operation Desert Storm in Kuwait. Clairmont commented that it must have been difficult to serve overseas while missing his family back home.
          The young Marine said, “Oh no Ma’am. We were taught never to think of what might never be, but to be fully available right where we are.”(3)
          Do not lose heart and focus at the tasks at hand – be fully available in the here and now, where ever you are.
          The final point from Paul is to wait and trust in God. Here, the words of the Psalmist help to make Paul’s point. The over-arching theme of Psalm 130 is waiting…
          “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
          and in his word I hope:
          My soul waits for the Lord.”
Walter Brueggeman points out that the word translated in Psalm 130 as “wait” is often translated elsewhere as “hope” – as in the expectant waiting of a child at Christmas time. Psalm 130 is about wait-hope. It is an act of patience to be on the receiving end of gifts that we are sure to be given.(4) That is the reason Paul says, “We do not lose heart.” Both Paul and the Psalmist know that good things come to those who wait-hope.
          I remember when I was a kid, our family used to take long car trips. And of course, my sisters and I would inevitably ask that age old backseat question – “Are we there yet?”
          Now, in my family there was a distinct three- part progression to this exchange. The first answer we’d hear was “20 minutes.” Didn’t matter where we were going or how far it was. The first answer to “Are we there yet” was always “20 minutes.”
          Well after a few more rounds of “Are we there yet” – we’d get the idea that the answer wasn’t changing – so we changed the question. “How much longer? Or How much farther?”
          The second answer we’d get was always, “Every turn of the wheel brings us closer.”
          Our backseat patience would quickly deteriorate from there into some frustrated version of “When are we going to get there?” Which would prompt the third and final response from my parents – who seemed to enjoy these exchanges much more than my sisters and I – the classic, “Good things come to those who wait.”
          That’s as far as we ever took it – we knew the backseat had been defeated once again. Press any further and there would be yelling, then threats and finally no ice cream for a month. It seems Paul and the Psalmist would agree with my parents Front Seat strategy – do not lose heart, focus on the present and wait-hope for the Lord to act.
          That’s what we do when we gather at the table. We gather to receive the gifts that God would give. It is freely given, there is enough for all. Good things come to those who wait-hope.
          May God be praised. Amen.

1.     Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, p30.
2.     Ibid… p31.
3.     Ibid… p32
4.     Walter Brueggemann, “The Collected Sermons of Walter Brueggemann, Vol. 3”, Westminster John Knox Press, 2020, p166.

05-30-2021 The Puzzle of the Trinity

Thomas J Parlette
“The Puzzle of the Trinity”
John 3: 1-17
5/30/21
 

        In the late 1980’s, artist Jim Sanborn was hired to create a piece of art to be displayed at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. So Sanborn thought he might have a little fun with this project and create something a little out of the ordinary. He contacted a man named Edward Scheidt, the retired chairman of the CIA’s Cryptographic Center. Scheidt is an expert in encryption and cryptology. Sanborn wanted Scheidt to help him create a message in code for his CIA art piece.

        On November 3, 1990, Jim Sanborn’s piece of art was unveiled at CIA headquarters. It’s called Kryptos – which is the Greek word for “hidden.” It’s a giant copper screen that looks like a wavy, unrolled scroll. On this giant screen, there is a word puzzle. To the untrained eye, it looks like a mass of random letters. But Sanborn and Scheidt say there are four encrypted, or hidden messages within that mass of letters. And those four messages make up a riddle.

        Jim Sanborn thought the folks at the CIA would figure out the puzzle in a matter of weeks. But he was wrong. Over the past 30 years, three of the four messages have been decoded, but the fourth remains a mystery. And even if someone were to correctly decode the fourth message, they’d still have to put the four messages together and solve the riddle. Code experts and amateurs all over the world are still working on cracking the code and revealing the message of Kryptos.(1) Quite a puzzle.

        An even more fascinating form of hidden message comes from the year 499 BC. There was a Greek ruler named Histiaeus who tried to stir up a revolt against the Persian King Darius the 1st. There is an old legend that he sent the plans for the revolt to his nephew by shaving the head of his servant and tattooing a message about the revolt on the servant’s scalp. Then he let the servant’s hair grow back over the tattoo, and sent the servant to visit his nephew, with instructions to shave the servant’s head once he arrived.(2)

        What an ingenious way to hide a message in plain sight. Turn the messenger into the message. When you think about it, that’s what God did with Jesus. God sent Jesus to be both the messenger and the message. As John put it in his famous Prologue, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”

        Today is Trinity Sunday – the day we celebrate the mysterious puzzle of God in three persons, one in three, three in one. Indivisible yet everywhere. Beyond time. Without gender.

        One of the great things about Trinity Sunday are the hymns.
“Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty” – the first hymn in our last two PCUSA hymnals.
        “Come, Thou Almighty King,”
        “Sing Glory to the Name of God,” to name just a few.

        In many ways our theology shines through in these hymns, and our personal faith is formed by the music we sing. When we consider the mystery of the Trinity, it’s nice to have these songs to sing to make the mystery make a little more sense.

        Our first hymn draws inspiration from the passage in Isaiah prescribed for this Sunday. Isaiah describes God’s throne room, crowded with many-winged creatures, shaken by earthquake and filled with smoke. The creatures’ song ricochets from the walls, endlessly repeating a single mantra – “Holy, Holy, Holy!”

        Then we hear from Paul, who invites the church in Rome to imagine a different image, to offer a different song. Paul chooses language, not of royalty, but of family: “Abba.” This God who is attended by angels, whose hem brushes the corners of the universe, is our parent, and we are children who confidently sing “Abba.”

        Which brings us to Nicodemus. His song is full of questions – “How can this be?” Something about Jesus and his words intrigues Nicodemus. Jesus has just tossed both tables and tradition out the Temple door. Nicodemus is shocked – and also a bit intrigued. So he creeps toward Jesus under cover of darkness. By the flickering light of an oil lamp, Nicodemus sings – “How can this be? How can we be born again? How can we read the wind? How can we understand the signs? How are we to address you? How can any of this be?”

        After a slight pause, perhaps a smile crept across Jesus’ face as the light flickered in his eye. Then Jesus offered his own song. A song that turns the messenger into the message – “For God so loved the world that God gave the only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

        Martin Luther famously called this verse “the Gospel in miniature.” If all the Bibles in the world suddenly vanished and we could hold only to this one verse, we would know everything that we really need to know. The puzzle of God in Three Persons is answered in this one verse – the Gospel in miniature.

        I once heard one of my storytelling friends tell about this big conference she attended where speaker after speaker lined up to speak on various topics. Finally, the last speaker of the evening stepped up to the mic. He said, “I have only 10 minutes, I barely know where to start.”

        And from the back of the room, someone shouted, “Start at the 9th minute!”

        If pressed on how to understand the Trinity, or explain the nature of God’s character, God’s love and God’s desire for humanity – you really couldn’t go wrong if you jumped to the 9th minute and simply said – “For God so loved the world that God gave the only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

        Pastor Adrian Rogers makes the point that a lot of people reject the message of God’s love in the life and death of Jesus because it’s too amazing to understand and too simple to accept.

        Rogers met a lawyer one day, and they were talking about the books they read. Rogers said the primary book he reads is the Bible. The lawyer thought this was a little short-sighted of Rogers. “If you don’t read any further than that,” said the lawyer, “how do you know what to talk about when you speak to people?”

        Rogers responded that all people everywhere have only three problems – sin, sorrow and death. And he found the wisdom to address those problems in the Bible.

        The lawyer disagreed. There are so many more problems in the world. But Rogers suggested he take some time to think about it and get back to him. The lawyer took some time to ponder their conversation. And when he saw Rogers again, he said, “I think you’re right – Humanity has only three problems – sin, sorrow and death.”

        And Rogers responded, “And Jesus Christ is the only answer to all three problems. You can give me all the wisdom of this world… but there is no other answer apart from the cross.”(4)

        Sin is what separates us from God.

        Sin is what causes our sorrow and death.

        But God so loved the world that God couldn’t leave us separated and broken. God sent Jesus to restore our relationship to God.

        The famous theologian, Karl Barth, was once asked what he thought was the most important word in the New Testament. You would think the answer might be “Jesus” or faith, or love or grace – there are lots of options. But Barth answered none of those. Instead he said the most important word in the New Testament was “huper.” Huper is a Greek preposition that means “on behalf of” or “in place of.” So when Barth called huper the most important word, he meant the most important of all truths is that we are significant because Jesus took our place on the cross that we might be saved.(5)

        The mystery, the puzzle of the Trinity and the nature of God can be answered with one verse – “For God so loved the world that God gave the only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

        And for that, may God, the Great Three in One, be praised.

        Amen.

 1.   Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, p26.
2.   Ibid… p26.
3.   JoAnn A. Post, Christian Century, May 19th, 2021, p20.
4.   Dynamic Preaching, Vol, XXXVII, No. 2, p27-28.
5.   Ibid… p28.

05-23-2021 A Long Wait

Thomas J Parlette
“A Long Wait”
Acts 2: 1-21
5/23/21, Pentecost

        There are things in life that are universally annoying…
-        The pen that runs out of ink in the middle of your signature.
-        The driver who cuts you off and doesn’t even bother to wave.
-        And of course – waiting in line.
Universally annoying. But we still have to deal with it at times. There is a woman who tells of trying to get a table at a very popular and very busy restaurant. She approached the hostess and asked quite brusquely, “Will it be long?” The hostess never even looked up, she just kept writing in her hostess book. So the woman leaned in closer and asked again, a little more firmly, “Will it be long?”
Without acknowledging her, the hostess said, “About ten minutes.”
A few minutes later, the woman heard an announcement over the speaker. “Willette B. Long, your table is ready. Ms. Long, your table is ready.”(1)
This morning we find Jesus’ friends and disciples waiting, perhaps thinking, “Will it be long?” Jesus promised a gift of some sort. How long will we have to wait?
        I came across an interesting study recently that took place in Holland about awkward pauses in conversations. Have you ever been in a conversation, and then the person you’re chatting with suddenly goes silent? It’s kinda’ disconcerting, isn’t it?
        Researchers in Holland ran a study to measure how long a conversational gap has to last before it creates negative emotions in the people involved. They discovered that all it takes is four seconds of silence in a conversation to inspire feelings of anxiety, exclusion, incompatibility and awkwardness. Just four seconds of silence makes us feel insecure and uncomfortable.
        A member of the research team summarized the study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: “Conversational flow is associated with positive emotions and a heightened sense of belonging, self-esteem, social validation and consensus. Disrupting the flow by a brief silence produces feelings of rejection and negative emotions.”(2)
        Our passage doesn’t really say what the followers of Jesus were thinking as they waited, but it does note that they were joyful together as they waited and prayed. They had spent 40 days with the resurrected Jesus. They finally understood that Jesus truly was God in the flesh. And they finally believed that his plans were trustworthy, and his promises were true. They had no idea what was coming their way, but they went to Jerusalem and they gathered together in prayer and they waited, just as Christ had told them to. They waited for that gift that Jesus promised them.
        It reminds me a bit of an incident that occurred on January 1, 2002. Two young men got in line at a Seattle movie theater to see the movie, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. That’s all well and good – but the movie wasn’t being released until May 16, 2002. So those young men waited outside the theater for 4-1/2 months to see the latest installment of the Star Wars franchise.(3) That’s a very long wait!
        Jesus friends had a long wait as well … fifty days had passed after Christ’s Ascension. And then the gift that had been promised shows up. Our passage describes the moment the Holy Spirit came upon them like this: “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
        On the Day of Pentecost, the disciples of Jesus were gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem. All the original twelve were there, save one. Judas’ place had been taken by Matthias. Jesus brothers were there. They weren’t always fans of their brother’s ministry – but there they were. His mother was there, too, still pondering things in her heart, just as she had when Jesus was born. “The women” were there as well. We don’t know their names, but we know they were there – sometimes more courageous than the rest of the disciples whose names we recognize.
        There they were – this motley band of earnest believers – still shaken by the events of the past 50 days – saddened by the departure of their leader – but willing to trust that Jesus would fulfill his promise and grant them the power to go on.
        In a recent study in the International Journal of Financial Research, experts estimate that it costs major organizations an average of $136 million dollars to suddenly lose a CEO to illness or death if they don’t have some other leadership plan in place. If the CEO is fired due to some scandal or controversy, the costs may be even higher. The study makes it clear that every major organization needs to create a strong bench of trained leaders ready to step in and guide an organization in case of an unexpected change.(4)
        The disciples of Jesus were confronted with the task of replacing their CEO, so to speak. Jesus had been crucified, resurrected and now had ascended to be with God. Jesus had spent three years training his disciples to carry on his message and ministry after his departure. But how do you replace the Messiah, the Son of God? Well, you don’t – not really, not without some help. And that’s what Pentecost is all about. Help arrives in the form of the Holy Spirit, which supplies us with three things we need in order to move forward with Jesus plan to save the world with God’s forgiveness and mercy.
        The first is power. Jesus, in his final instructions to his disciples, told them to wait in Jerusalem “until you are clothed with power from on high.” That power would be the Holy Spirit at work in their lives.
        For example, on the Day of Pentecost, Peter preached and 3,000 people were added to the church. Pretty impressive, but that’s not all. In a relatively brief period of time, the tiny Christian community swept across the entire Roman Empire. Power was promised and power was delivered.
        If you’ve ever seen lightning strike a tree, it is a powerful sight. I’ve never seen it in person, but I’ve seen video. To us, it looks like a bolt of lightning comes sizzling down from the sky and hits the tree. But in reality, there is a natural amount of electric energy stored in the underground. When a “leader bolt” of electricity comes down from the clouds, it meets up with the stored electricity in the ground and creates the illusion of an explosion of power and light. The tree is just the vessel to connect the heavens and the earth.
        That’s what happened on Pentecost, and that’s what happens today when believers pray to receive God’s power to go and do ministry, to be God’s witnesses, to be the Body of Christ in their communities and in the world.
        The second thing we get from the Spirit is purpose. There is no power without a great purpose calling us to accomplish great things. God once declared to the prophet Joel, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams…” And now that Spirit is here. What vision has God given to the people but a vision of the entire world joined into one family – the family of God.
        A man named Roy Lloyd interviewed the late Mother Teresa multiple times over the years and her answer to one of his questions jumps to the forefront in this context. He asked her, “What’s the biggest problem in the world today?”
        And without hesitation, Mother Teresa answered, “The biggest problem in the world today is that we draw the circle of our family too small. We need to draw it larger every day.”(5)
        Yes, we do. We need to draw our circle large enough to encompass every man, woman and child of every race and nation on this planet.
        On this Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit gave the disciples the vision and the power to reach every person on earth with the message and ministry of Jesus. It’s why people from every nation and language and culture and color gather in churches all over the world to worship and work in the name of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit was drawing the circle of our family as large as possible to include the whole world.
        So, a church called by the Holy Spirit to take the Gospel of Christ to the world has power, it has purpose – and it has one more thing. It has God’s presence. Jesus had ascended to be with God. What would his disciples do now? Jesus was the Way, the Truth, and the Life for them. What would happen to the sheep without a shepherd. But Jesus had assured them, “I will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever…” That counselor came like a mighty wind, like tongues of fire. The Holy Spirit is Christ’s presence in the hearts of his followers.
        Many of you know the story of Florence Nightingale. Nightingale was a social reformer and the founder of modern nursing. She led a team of women who provided medical care to British soldiers in the Crimean War in the 1850’s. The improvements she instituted in medical care and cleanliness in the medical tents saved countless lives.
        She was known for her tireless care for her patients. At night, she made the rounds of all the medical tents. The soldiers knew from the light of her lamp that she was working through the night, ensuring that she was aware of everyone’s needs. They even nicknamed her “Lady of the Lamp.”
        Nightingale once said, “If I could give you information of my life it would show how a woman of very ordinary ability has been led by God in strange and unaccustomed paths to do in His service what He has done in her. And if I could tell you all, you would see how God has done all, and I nothing. I have worked hard, very hard, that is all; and I have never refused God anything.”(6)
        … I have never refused God anything…
        Now imagine one more time that group of believers gathered together in that upper room in Jerusalem. They were men and women of “very ordinary ability.” Just like you and me and even Florence Nightingale. They weren’t chosen because they had any particular skill or charisma or courage. God chose them to bless them with God’s power, purpose and presence through the Holy Spirit. And through them, God chose to bless the whole world with the message and ministry of Jesus.
        That is who we are even today. We are not alone. God is with us. God has not left us comfortless, or powerless or without purpose. A mighty wind has roared. God has sent flames of power and purpose and presence on us. The long wait is over. Now it is time for us to go and preach the Kingdom of God and do acts of mercy and justice and healing that show the world the love of God, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
        May God be praised. Amen.

1.   Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 2, p21.
2.   Ibid… p21.
3.   Ibid… p21.
4.   Ibid… p22.
5.   Ibid… p23.
6.   Ibid… p24.

05-16-2021 Ascension Rising

Ascension Rising

Jay Rowland

Luke 24:44-53 and Acts 1:1-11

This sermon utilizes published material written by Ann Dieterle, Blair Monie, Bruce Epperly as indicated below.

Garrison Keillor once said that the Easter season is the time when Christians ask themselves two questions: “Do I really believe all this stuff? And if so, why do I live this way?” His point I suppose is that it’s easy to think about “all this stuff” during church, speak the words and pray the prayers, then after church resume life as functional atheists. (Keillor quoted in Ann Dieterle, in Modern Metanoia--Encountering the Good News with Renewed Minds)

As we come to the end of this season of Eastertide I chose to explore the Ascension of Jesus today (which happened on Thursday) rather than the Sunday lectionary texts for this 7th Sunday of Easter. My sense is that most of us don’t think much about the Ascension--other than the phrases we recite during worship from either the Apostles’ or the Nicene Creed. So I wanted to take time to explore the Ascension of Jesus today, inviting the Holy Spirit as usual to ignite our imaginations and show us what we might be missing.

But first, a bit of context and background.

In Luke's gospel, the Ascension is where the story of Jesus’ direct, earthly presence comes to an end. It’s clearly a goodbye. In Acts, also written by Luke, this same scene is less of a goodbye and more of the beginning of another story—the story of the church. In Acts, the emphasis is on what to do now. In both scenes, Jesus "opens the scriptures" just as he had done for the two followers on the road to Emmaus, giving final instructions.

Curiously, the chronology Luke presents is different in his Gospel than it is in his account in Acts. In Luke the ascension takes place on Easter afternoon, just after the encounter on the road to Emmaus. But in the first chapter of Acts, it takes place forty days after Easter. Perhaps this is Luke’s way of telling us something important about Jesus' departure: that it is both an ending and a beginning.

Perhaps the gospel of Luke presents the Ascension as labor pains preceding the birthing of a very worldly church as described in the beginning of the book of Acts. Worldly in that this is to be a church called not to simply stand still, looking up at the sky in search of answers, but to get on with the work Jesus started. Thus, the Spirit-empowered church is to be the continuing presence of the Christ in the world. [“Why Are You Looking Up?” Reflection on the lectionary, May 23, 2014, by Rev. Dr. Blair R. Monie, blog post in Edgy Exegesis, Progressive Christian, Patheos.com ]

As these moments unfold in Acts 1 the disciples quiz Jesus about the restoration of Israel. Jesus' response is purposely vague, and remains good counsel for those who seek a precise date for judgment day, "It is not for you to know the times or periods." Rather, we are to await the coming of God's Spirit and the missional power that comes from encountering the Holy, whether in the 1st or 21st centuries.

At that point, Jesus ascends … while mysterious robed beings last seen at the tomb in Luke now appear again here in Acts to declare that Jesus will ultimately return, which is significant for obvious reasons, but is not the main point. Their objective seems to be making sure that the disciples’ attention is focused on the here and now--the present time and place here on this planet, not some distant far-off sphere, as they adjust. [Bruce Epperly, Going Up? Reflections for Ascension, blog, Patheos.com, 2011]

The Ascension of Jesus is interesting also for the tension it reveals at work in the church from the very beginning. The creative tension between the church’s mystical, spiritual side on the one hand and on the other hand, its mission firmly anchored in the present reality, whether it’s the 1st or the 21st century.

This mystical, spiritual side of the church helps foster a broader perspective—humanity and creation itself--rather than individualistic images of salvation and personal well-being. In this way, Jesus’ Ascension challenges us to bring heaven to earth, that is, to live Jesus' values in our world, as the Lord's Prayer proclaims, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." When our perspective widens, we can transcend our own self-interest to embrace the well-being of the whole earth and every creature, including strangers, enemies, and even non-humans. [Epperly, op cit]

Meanwhile, lest we become preoccupied by the spiritual, mystical side, Jesus’ Ascension also has an element of particularity, in that when Jesus is being lifted into heaven in Luke, this happens while Jesus is blessing the disciples. Thus Jesus has chosen to entrust the disciples with continuing his work. The same ones who, as Ann Dieterle notes, “were capable in one breath of inspired declarations of faith and in the next breath bumbling it so badly that Jesus calls one of them Satan. Jesus chose to trust his mission to these disciples—just as he chooses us: This church that is capable of great acts of faith in one moment and then bumbling it badly in the next. Jesus trusts us with his mission.” (Dieterle, op cit)

Two thousand years later, we haven’t destroyed the church yet. And we won’t. Because God is God and we are not. We are trusted with a part of the mission but it is God who gives us God’s blessing and power from on high. It is enough for us to bless God in return through the way we live our lives. (Dieterle, op cit)

Luke’s gospel declares that Jesus was carried into heaven. This isn’t an action that Jesus does to himself. Rather, it’s something that God did--to Jesus and for Jesus. And yet Jesus is not a completely passive participant. For the text says, He withdrew from them (v51). It is this combination of action and surrender that -- essentially Jesus invites the disciples to do. They are to stay and wait to be clothed with power from on high. Power translated from the Greek word du-na-mis, from which we get our word for dynamite. ... this is the type of power we can expect to receive from the Holy Spirit. It is not something inside of us, like super willpower. It is something outside of us that works on us in such a way that it transforms us. Perhaps we might imagine the power of Jesus more like dynamite than lamb-like … (Dieterle, op cit)

Let the Ascension of Jesus teach us and remind us of that transformational power of Jesus. As Dr. Peter Kreeft writes:

“Christ changed every human being He ever met…. If anyone claims to have met (Jesus) without being changed, he (one) has not met Him at all. When you touch Him, you touch lightning…. The Greek word used to describe everyone’s reaction to (Jesus) in the gospels is ‘thauma’—wonder. This was true of His enemies, who killed Him. Of his disciples, who worshiped Him. And even of agnostics, who went away shaking their heads and muttering ‘No man ever spoke like this man’ and knowing that if (Jesus) didn’t stop being what He was and saying what He said that eventually they would have to side with either His killers or His worshippers. For ‘Jesus shock’ breaks your heart in two and forces you to choose which half of your heart you will follow….”

(Quoted in “Jacques Ellul & the Importance of Attachment,” By Rick Lawrence, blog entry on VibrantFaith.org, 5/14/2021)

The Ascension gives way to the Day of Pentecost next Sunday, vividly described in Acts 2. On that day the Spirit Jesus promised and for which the disciples await arrives, and when it does, it embraces all of creation not just particular sorts of people. The Spirit comes promising wholeness and salvation for all people, not just a select few. This revelation is global and all-inclusive, not parochial and limited, in contrast to individualistic and limited visions of God’s favor.

Jesus’ Ascension calls us to "go up"—to find higher ground—not to escape Earth's crises, but to gain a vision and mission that is larger than ourselves or even our (churches). We don't need to look to the heavens to find inspiration. The ever-present God is right here, giving us all the guidance and inspiration we need, if we but look beyond ourselves. Our mission is here—to heal, to embrace, to welcome, and to love. Right now. Today. Every day. We don't need to wait for a far off day of perfection and rapture. God is always with us, and so right here and now can be the day of transformation and fulfillment we all seek. (Epperly, op cit)