Westminster By The Sea Sermons - Daytona Beach FL

05-27-12 WHAT HAPPENED THAT WINDY DAY

2012-05-27T15:00:00Z

WHAT HAPPENED THAT WINDY DAY

Acts 2: 1-21

When the wonderful entertainer George Burns “was seven years old, he sang with three other Jewish kids from his neighborhood in ‘The PeeWee Quartet.’ A small Presbyterian Church in the neighborhood asked the quartet to represent the church in an amateur contest at a picnic for all the churches in New York City. The boys opened with ‘When Irish Eyes are Smiling,’ followed by ‘Mother Machree’ and won first prize—a purple velvet altar cloth for their church and an Ingersol watch for each of the kids. George was so excited he ran all the way home to tell his mother. She was on the roof hanging out the wash. He rushed up to her and said: ‘Mama, I don’t want to be a Jew any more.’ His mother looked at him calmly and said ‘Do you mind my asking why?’ and George said ‘Well, I’ve been a Jew for seven years and never got anything. I was a Presbyterian for 15 minutes today and I already got a watch!’ He held out his wrist and showed it to her. With perfect timing his mother looked for at his watch then at him and said: ‘First help me hang up the wash, then you can be a Presbyterian.’”

A gathering of Christians—and some Jews—can be a joyful event like that! Indeed, there was such a gathering of Jews and Christians ages ago, in Jerusalem, around the Temple, at Jewish feast called Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks. The Feast of Weeks is the second of the three major Jewish festivals (the other two are Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles). The festival was observed 7 weeks from the second day of Passover. The Festival is also known as Pentecost (Pentecost is Greek for 50 days) because it falls on the 50^th day (7 weeks is 49 days so the day after is the 50^th.) It was a time to thank God for the harvest, and to offer the first fruits of the harvest back to God. The Christian movement was so new that disciples still followed the Jewish festivals and Christianity had not yet spread to other nations, until that fateful day when the winds of change blew through the holy city, taking divide people and making them united in Christ. In our day, the political climate can even divide Christians by their political parties, and in these next few months the stand of red state and blue state Americans can pull people apart even further if we let it. In Jerusalem in the first century, there was also unrest about government—particularly about taxes—but it was a more united unrest. Yes, there were the haves and the have nots, there were divisions between the rights of men and of women; and the rights of widows and orphans. There were divisions then as now; but sometimes people let politics trump the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.

We are experiencing the first tropical depression of the season this week, and even though it was off the coast of North Carolina, it created some dangerous swimming conditions some wind outside. Years ago in Jerusalem we can’t say for sure that there was a change of weather in Jerusalem, but we can say that there was the sound as of wind. When the sound came, visually people looked different; they seemed to have a flame appear on them that did not consume them. Think back: when did faithful Jews first hear about a flame that did not consume something? Why it was when God came close to Moses, when Moses turned and looked at a bush, burning that was not consumed in Exodus 3. It was a theophany; a God thing; a message from the Almighty. On Pentecost, after the resurrection of Jesus, and the Ascension of Jesus, God was doing a new thing. God was giving a new message not just to Moses, but to all who were there for a holy event; and a holy event they would get, just not the one they thought. In our day some Christians misunderstand the power of tongues: it is meant to be a uniting event, not a dividing event; it is not meant to be about who speaks in tongues and who doesn’t: all Christians have different gifts as Paul preached in 1 Corinthians 12 and 13. But on that day of Pentecost, the gift of tongues helped people from all over the world understand each other, it was not a man-made gathering with limited success like the G-8 Summit or the United Nations—but a God event filled with God’s Holy Spirit, to create a paradigm shift. Instead of people from one country posturing against another country; or people from one political party posturing against another party; or angry protestors being held off by police in riot gear, there was a different wind blowing through the city: almost like the wind of catastrophe that has, for brief moments in the past, brought arch enemies together to realize that underneath their differences, they are neighbors. There are some brief moments when the climate in America has gotten united: sometimes it has been to defeat an enemy, but at other times it was to build up the broken hearted. Pentecost is not a man made thing; it is a God thing.

At the beginning of this service we sang “Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me; Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me. Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.” On that Pentecost day in Jerusalem so long ago, people who normally would not speak to each other understood each other; people with different points of view started to see the point of view of the others. Pentecost, was, and still can be, a God day; a day of new beginnings; of fresh starts; and of new understandings. As our election year ratchets up higher and higher, is it possible that people of different stripes who love Christ can be baptized with the Holy Spirit as they engage in dialogue? If so here are the characteristics we will be able to see in others, and they will be able to see in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Those are the fruits of the Spirit of the Living God according to Galatians 5. Could we, who are in the Spirit, start to change the world with God’s love and God’s message? It will take a concerted effort by spirit-filled Christians to curb the vitriolic messages that we are hearing each day. Let me offer you some examples of people who have done that years ago and recently.

Ages ago, St. Augustine’s own conversion to Christ was hastened by his knowledge that God was working not just in Bible times, but 300 years later. And today, on this Pentecost Sunday, I declare to you that God is alive and well today, more than 2000 years after Christ walked the earth. God’s Holy Spirit speaks to women and men, youth and children, democrats, republicans, independents, and people of every skin color. I have seen God work by representatives of every group, just as understanding took place in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 2. Television, websites, and radio personalities often run news that sensationalizes. But I have read the blogs of thoughtful people, and read the books written by others. I have heard the interviews of some faith-filled people and known personally some others. There are God-honoring, Spirit-filled, thoughtful, and well-spoken people around us. Look for them; listen to what God might teach you through them. And you may come to believe, as I have, that the Spirit of the Living God is alive among us. I’ll close with these examples: The late Henri Nouwen is one who, I think, was Spirit-filled and thoughtful. He taught at the University of Notre Dame, at Yale Divinity School, and at Harvard Divinity School, but he left the academic world to live at L’Arch Community of Daybreak in Toronto. In one of his reflections he says: “It strikes me again and again that, in our publicity-seeking world, a lot of discussions about God take it as their starting point that even God has to justify himself. People often say ‘If that God of yours really exists, then why doesn’t he make [himself] more visible in this chaotic world of ours?’ God is called to account, as it were and mockingly invited to prove, just for once, that he really does exist…. The bitterness and sarcasm evident in remarks of this sort show what’s expected: that God should at least be concerned about his own popularity. People often talk as though God has as great a need for recognition as we do.” [SHOW ME THE WAY, A Crossroad Book, 1992, p. 83-84.]

Another famous example would be Mother Teresa and how she devoted her life to the poor. But there are still other less known examples. 1944 Corrie Ten Boom, Author of THE HIDING PLACE and TRAMP FOR THE LORD, was imprisoned because her family had harbored persecuted Jews during World War II. For that she spent time in concentration camps. Years later she was approached by a concentration camp guard who asked for her forgiveness. She struggled with the request. She had deeply resented the guard’s actions against her and others, but she saw that, even as Christ forgave others from the cross, those who forgave others were best able to relieve their tormented souls. She forgave, for her sake and Christ’s sake. And she gained peace in her heart. One other example from recent times: On October 2, 2006, a number of Amish girls were murdered by a gunman at their school. It was a heinous and senseless act that brought great grief to the families. But as the Amish father of one of the girls who was murdered said about the gunman: “He had a mother and a wife and a soul, and now he’s standing before a just God.” Another Amish family comforted the family of the shooter. One Amish man held the shooter’s sobbing father for almost an hour. And more than 30 of them attended the funeral of the shooter; in turn the shooter’s mother was invited to attend the funeral of one of the Amish girls. As one person said, “The Amish willingness to forgo vengeance (and offer forgiveness instead) does not undo the tragedy or justify the wrongdoing, but rather represents the first step toward healing.”

God has given the world his Spirit: the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel, and might and comfort. If we do not receive and use that Spirit, can we honestly say we are following the Savior who lived the Sprit-filled life so humbly and lovingly? What can you do differently since you have prayed sincerely “Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me?” May people know you are a Christian by your love in the days and months ahead.

Jeffrey A. Sumner May 27, 2012

05-20-12 Sermon by Rev. Hills

2012-05-20T15:00:00Z

Sermon Text Not Available

05-13-12 PETER PREACHES ‘NO PARTIALITY’

2012-05-13T15:00:00Z

PETER PREACHES ‘NO PARTIALITY’

Acts 10: 34-48

Next January 20^th, as in past Januarys, this church will host one of our most well-attended services: The Kirkin’ O’ the Tartans. Tradition states that the Scottish minister who became the chaplain of the US Senate, the Rev. Peter Marshall, instituted the practice as a way of lifting up Christ and putting aside any former reasons for feuding among clans. Because of their love for Jesus Christ, persons who otherwise fight with or even despise another family make amends and connect. Some Scots can be stubborn indeed about their historic feuds with another family, not unlike the animosity and bad blood William Shakespeare included between the Capulets and the Montagues in Romeo and Juliet. Even the old Presbyterian John Knox was notoriously hateful toward Roman Catholic Christians. Sometimes such hate, or partiality occurs out of ignorance or believed right belief. For example, Southern Presbyterians, from the time of the War Between the States to the end of the 19^th century, owned slaves and thought that passages in the Bible sanctioned their actions. I was dismayed to read yet again about a group of white people this week that highjacked the Christian name in a misguided and evil attempt to declare war on people of color, arming their home as if it were an Armageddon last-stand compound. It is wrong to make it sound like Jesus would ever hate, or have nothing to do with, another person. The New Testament is chocked full of examples of Jesus, or people in his name, approaching and helping lepers, Samaritans, the woman accused of adultery, the Ethiopian Eunuch we studied last Sunday, and more. There is no room for such exclusivism in the name of Christ; Christ welcomes all: from the east from the west, from the north, and from the south, all are invited to the table of the kingdom of God. Yet we might back away with a morsel of permission for private organizations to be exclusive. Some golf clubs are exclusive by gender, and some were exclusive in other ways not long ago. There is the PGA and the LPGA of course. But professional baseball, basketball, and football among other sports have women compete against women and men against men. In NASCAR Danica Patrick is not the first female driver, but when one breaks into the field, it really makes news. Our country had some horrible times as integration was forced on those not ready to move in the direction of the mixing of the races. We have come a long way, but we are nowhere near the perfect love that God embodies and that our Savior Jesus exhibited so well. Even in the so called Holy Land, Israelis and Palestinians have a tense and sometimes hateful relationship. And in the growing Muslim world, there is not only intolerance for perceived infidels, there is intolerance for other branches of Islam; but lest we point out the splinter in our neighbor’s eye without noticing the log in our own eye, even Jews and Christians have the same kind intolerance for each other. All of that background—of how few things are new under the sun when it comes to some attitudes—lets us know that what happened with Peter in today’s text is nothing short of a born again experience. Let’s set the stage:

Acts is a wonderful book that helps us watch the halting first steps of the baby religion called “The Way,” those people are later called “followers of the Way” and only in chapter 11 are such followers first called “Christians.” Just two chapters earlier in chapter 9, Paul is a confirmed Jewish Christian- hater named Saul who supervised the carrying out the first murder of a Christian; he supervised the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Peter, on the other hand, has been preaching Christ, but he firmly believed that no one could become a Christian unless they first became a practicing Jew! These are two of the greatest Christians of all time! Churches all over the world are named after them, not because they are perfect; not because of who they were; they are famous because of who, by the grace of God and the powerful witness of Jesus Christ, they became. Paul, you might recall, had a spiritual meeting with the risen Christ one day on the road to Emmaus, and his life and attitude changed forever from that day forward. No one became a greater advocate for Christ than Paul who covered thousands of miles in his lifetime, sleeping in tents and in prisons, and traveling in the most primitive ways. To Paul we owe an exceeding debt.

Today, however, we are looking at the conversion of Peter, not from being something else to being a Christian, for he certainly was one of the inner three of the Twelve who was singled out by Jesus himself when Peter declared him to be the Christ.
”Upon this Rock I will build my church” he said to Peter regarding his declaration of his faith. But actually, Peter was like some Americans; like some Isaelis; like some Palestinians; and like some in every nation: he had his beliefs that had almost been set in stone; they were strong enough beliefs against another group of human beings that it could have been labeled as prejudice; he excluded Gentiles from Christianity unless they first became a Jew. Acts chapter 10, our chapter today, is the conversion chapter for Peter; it represents a paradigm shift for this premier disciple. First of all, Peter had a vision of a sheet descending from heaven holding every animal that Jews believed were unclean; a voice then came into Peter’s head that told him they were acceptable now. He could not believe his ears, but he gave respect and authority to the voice that he believed his risen Lord. Second, Peter objected strenuously: “No Lord, I have never eaten anything so wrong and unclean!” And the voice said: “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” Peter was still perplexed; no one changes life-long beliefs about a race of people in an instant; some never change. But angels spoke to a God-fearing Gentile (or non-Jew) named Cornelius, who received Peter with humility and said they were ready to hear what God had told him to preach to them. Finally, in that moment Peter could have returned to his cherished stance of hating, or not going near Gentiles; or Peter could have received the words of the heaven-sent voice and given a message of love and grace. Peter became a vessel of God’s grace as he first mounted the pulpit there in Joppa and said these words: “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality.” Jesus must have been overjoyed; his Father in Heaven might have had his heart gladdened; and his mother Mary, who had to adjust to enormous life changes, nodded her approval. Peter got the message that his Teacher and Lord had tried to teach him all his earthly days. But it took being born from above, having a new outlook on people: not an outlook that distinguished by categories or income or color or gender, but an outlook that saw others just as children of God. On that day in Joppa of all places, [a Gentile city,] Peter got it. The light went on in his head. Eager Gentiles lined up for baptisms and to be welcomed into the band of followers that others had labeled as Christians. That was a label they would keep.

Today there are some good reasons—and some poor reasons—why we are categorized by age, grade or gender; some are called white collar or blue collar; some are in the armed forces and some are civilian. Today, the Spirit of the Living God invites each of us to seek to lay down our cherished prejudices, especially the ones that have become imbedded. Some women are doctors and some men are nurses, and some women are ministers and some men work in day care centers; some people with disabilities hold down full time jobs while some physically capable persons scheme to stay on welfare roles. Paul at one point hated Christians; Peter at one point hated Gentiles; can we start to look at others through the enlightened eyes that Paul got, and that Peter got; to see others as ones that Jesus loved, and that Jesus still loves. One day we may see what Christ already hopes to see: what Kirkin’ O’ the Tartans and other ceremonies try to say: that we are all different, and each unique, but we are united by Christ. Christ is the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. And as the great Christian hymn proclaims it: “In Christ there is no east or west, in him no south or north, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth;” so may it be.

Jeffrey A. Sumner May 13, 2012

05-06-12 THE GOSPEL GOES FORTH

2012-05-06T15:00:00Z

THE GOSPEL GOES FORTH

Acts 8: 26-40

Witnessing to others about the gospel of Jesus Christ has not been a sacrificial venture for many of us in 21^st century America. Presbyterians often may take the “actions speak louder than words” approach to telling others about our faith. Few of us hand out religious tracts, or pamphlets, around neighborhoods and knock on doors; few of us stand on street corners with a sandwich board held high saying “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!” But there should be no mistake about it: just as the unofficial slogan among higher education professors is “publish or perish,” the unofficial slogan for Christians is “witness or perish.” The Great Commission from the lips of our Lord Jesus himself in Matthew 28 commands us to do so: “Go ye into all the world and make disciples of all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” That is what we are to spread around the globe: the Great Commission; it’s like Christ’s final words to his loved ones as he departed from the earth until he comes again. Jesus laid that work squarely in our laps. Sometimes that work can be pleasant—like telling a new neighbor where you go to church and inviting them to come with you; or sharing with a new friend about the time you decided to be Christian, or the day when God’s amazing grace saved a wretch like you. There are other times, however, when Christians have had to take a stand that cost them their lives. We call them martyrs. Even some of the original Twelve Apostles, or at least 11, were martyrs, and the word “martyr” itself means “witness,” but it is a witness to the point of death. In the 20^th Century Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Christian martyr in Germany during the Third Reich when he would not put the fuhrer Hitler ahead of Christ. Our apostles’ banner that hung in our sanctuary from Palm Sunday through Easter had the shields of the apostles on it, most of which depicted the traditional way they were martyred. Witnessing happens in various ways.

Some of you have followed my Doctor of Ministry progress carefully and I am glad to share the work I do. For my July class, I have arrive at class with research done and a 16 page paper written on the history of Christian Spirituality from the death and resurrection of Christ until the present day. The paper will break up the history of Christianity into eight sections and describe the qualities of each era over the last 2000 years! As I have begun the reading I have been studying Gerald Sittser’s book WATER FROM A DEEP WELL: Christian Spirituality from Early Martyrs to Modern Missionaries. He reminds readers that Christians in countries today such as Indonesia, Vietnam, India, and Nepal to name a few, all have people persecuted because they are Christians. Some of them are killed as martyrs, that is, they have refused to deny Christ when threatened with their very lives. “Much of the martyrdom we read about today”, says Sittser, “especially in the form of suicide bombing, is the complete opposite of the martyrdom that Christians suffered in the first few centuries. These modern [terrorists that are called martyrs]—if we dare even use the word to describe such horrific acts—bear witness to a God of vengeance, hate, and murder, not a God of love. The early Christians were victims of such hate, not persecutors. They absorbed violence; they did not inflict it. They were called to martyrdom; they did not force it on innocent people, which is what suicide bombers do today. In early Christianity martyrdom was only one way of many ways to bear witness to the truth of the gospel.” [Sittser, IVP Books, 2007, p 31.] In those early years of Christianity, the Roman Emperor Neron Caesar, among others, thought nothing of putting Christian men in the center of Rome’s Circus Maximus with a hungry lion for the sport of it, or setting tied up Christians on fire, attached to poles around the stadium, to light up the arena. Rome’s rulers demanded ultimate allegiance, some of them demanding to be addressed as “Lord and God.” The book of Revelation was written by John to address such horrible conditions of martyrdom. And from the first century on, the names of Christian martyrs, both men and women like Justin, Perpetua, and Polycarp, remind us that our faith was not forged in a field of flowers but in the blood of martyrs, those who would not deny Christ as Lord, just as our Lord Jesus shed his blood for us.

But not all witnessing, then and today, has such dreadful costs. Sometimes it is a joyful event when a friend has a great spiritual awakening and, in the language of some, “gets saved.” Sometimes it is the great joy of a church or a family gathering in a sanctuary, at a baptistry, a font, or at a river and baptizing a new follower “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes witnessing culminates with the waters of baptism rather than the blood of martyrs. Such was the case in Acts on one occasion. The Acts of the Apostles is a powerful account of the first halting steps of Jesus’ disciples, confronting others, proclaiming Christ to others, praying with others, or baptizing others. Today we have a baptism story. Today we heard this passage: Phillip, one of the twelve, heard an angel of the Lord instruct him to head in a certain direction. Have you ever had a very strong feeling to go somewhere, or call someone, or check on someone? Sometimes I think such urges, which often turn out to be timely, are heaven sent. “Arise and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” In his day and in our day, taking the road from Jerusalem to Gaza would give people pause. In Old Testament times the Philistines were in Gaza, the one who battled Israel in 1 Samuel and who put up the Giant Goliath against the only representative of the Israelite army: David. Gaza is the strip today where skirmishes break out, and it was, at its root, the antithesis of Godly faithfulness. That was not easy territory for an Apostle—on his own for the first time—to share Christ. But he answered the call of his Lord and started out. On his way he had the supreme test of Christian witnessing: he met a man of a completely different color, for Ethiopians were jet black; he was a man of high authority and training since he was what we might call the “Prime Minister” for his Queen of Ethiopia, and he was castrated too by custom to make him loyal to her. So he was loyal to the queen, and by his castration he was, by Jewish rules, prohibited from entering an assembly of the Lord according to Deuteronomy 23:1. What a test the angel had for Phillip! He was asking if he could be baptized! The Ethiopian clearly was curious about the faith because he was reading from the book of Isaiah, and he was wealthy enough to have obtained a copy! On that day, Philip passed the witnessing test, a test that Paul had to pass, and eventually, other disciples did too. They began inviting non-Jews to become Christians, and by that move, opened Christianity to the world, and eventually to you and to me! A man, a non-Jewish, exotic foreigner, asked if he could be baptized into Christ. And Phillip did so.

Because of the blood of martyrs, and the good work of earlier witnesses, we have Christ to share with others today. But our children, and our children’s children, will not have Christ if we do not witness about him to others by our invitation, encouragement, our tireless work for others, and with our love. There may be a time when our children will need to take stands in the faith as well that are not easy or popular, so that there is no doubt that Jesus Christ is Lord of their lives. But today it is about you. Who will test you; an angel; a neighbor; a child with their unexpected questions? Where will you be sent; down a dusty road; into prison ministry; to care for those who others have forgotten; to another state or country; or into the dark of night? You and I each have our own ways to witness to our faith: be sure those around you know that Jesus is Lord of your life, as he is of mine.

Jeffrey A. Sumner May 6, 2012

04-29-12 THE GOOD SHEPHERD

2012-04-29T15:00:00Z

The Good Shepherd. That’s such a classic image, isn’t it? We have the Good shepherd in our lives. And because Jesus is the good shepherd we know that he would lay down his life for us. That he HAS laid down his life for us. Jesus will care for all of our hurts, all of our troubles, because he is a good shepherd, not just a hired hand.

After all, the sheep are not simply the Shepherd’s livelihood or responsibility. They are "his own"—like his own flesh and blood. "I know my own and my own know me." Unlike the corporate CEO, who sees the flock in terms of profits and expenses, the Shepherd cares deeply for the sheep. They are worth his life to him. We are not just a responsibility to Christ. We are his. While this is not the promise of a pain-free life, it is a powerful assurance that we count. We are not alone. Amid so much that is impersonal and profit-driven in the world, we have a God who sees, notices, and cares. God is with us. God will not turn from us.

We know that God loved us because of what Christ has done for us. God's love came to us before we had done anything to deserve it. This is joyous, wonderful news. Knowing that no matter how far we stray, Christ will come looking for us. No matter what trouble we get into, Jesus will be there for us through it. We should rejoice and find comfort in it. We don’t need to do anything to gain God’s love, because God already loves us!

Now, by calling ourselves Christians we agree to follow Christ. Do do as he did. How can we claim genuine faith without authenticating action, asks John in the first lesson? Words lead to deeds: "This is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us." We cannot believe in Jesus without believing in love, and we cannot have love without action. Because God loved us, we are supposed to help those in need. Because God loved us. Not in order to get God to love us. That's already happened, remember.

So we too are called to live lives of love and caring that stand in contradiction to all that debases and diminishes human life. We are, after all, not "our own" we are Christ’s.We are called to live as Christ in the world. We are not only sheep; we are also called to act as the risen Shepherd in the world. Jesus makes it clear as he draws near the cross that his motivation is love. He is choosing to make this sacrifice. He is choosing to be faithful to what God has put before him.

In the first letter of John we are challenged to love in that same manner. If he loved us enough to lay down his life for us, we should be willing to lay down our life for each other. But that sounds crazy in actual practice... doesn't it? There is a tale that in the first century a man came to Tertullian, a father in the early church. And in trying to justify some compromises the man had felt he had to make, commented, "I have to live, don't I?" to which Tertullian is reported to have said, "Do you?" The challenge is to focus away from self and to others, to ask where our real values are: Is what matters only survival? Or does the way we live matter more? Are there some things worth giving up our lives for? Can we love one another that much?

Jesus says yes. And turns, giving up his life for all of us. The shepherd laying down his life for the sheep, proving that we are truly his own. Alright, so we know that we have love by laying down our lives for another. But honestly... how often do we come across the situation where we lay down our lives for one another these days? Sure, we hear stories in the news of people who run into burning buildings or jump after drowning victims or foil robberies, but those aren’t the norm. Most of the time, that just isn't what we are asked to do. Most of us will never be in a position to do such things.

However, the call to risk, to sacrifice, is more than with just our deaths. We can sacrifice not only with our life but with the years and days that make up our lives. Have you ever seen the famous drawing called The Praying Hands by German artist Albrecht Durer? There is a legend behind the painting that tells of two struggling artists. One is a musician whose goal in life was to play and compose music to the glory of God. Durer, the other of the two, was a painter and engraver. They had flipped a coin to decide who would go on to become an artist and who would work in the goldmines to support them financially. Albrecht won the coin toss, and so he went on to Italy to work on his art, while his anonymous friend or brother worked in the mines. One day when Albrecht came back to his hometown he saw the gnarled, work-ruined hands of the man, too hardened to return to his career in music. The legend is that those hands have become the model for the famous praying hands. Whether or not the story is true, it is an example of the love John talks about here. The actions of a good shepherd. Laying down one's life is not always a matter of life or death, but at a time of postponing or canceling dreams and plans so that another might fulfill their dreams or plans.

We are called to such stories. And perhaps a bit intimidated by them. We aren’t sure if we are capable of such dramatic sacrifices. But these sacrifices exist on the small scale too. Every day there are small quiet sacrifices of love. A teacher takes money out of his or her own pocket to buy teaching resources that enhance her students’ learning. A neighbor delivers a casserole to a sick friend. A politician takes an unpopular and principled stand to see that benefits to the poor are not cut, even if it costs him or her votes. Maybe it’s as simple as taking time from a busy schedule to listen, maybe even give a hug, to someone who is feeling down and unlovely or unlovable.

Dave Simmons tells a story about his eight year old daughter making such a sacrifice. He came upon a petting zoo while out with her and her younger brother. Thinking to give them a chance to play while he shopped, he gave them each a quarter and headed off. He relates what happens next. “A few minutes later, I turned around and saw Helen walking along behind me. I was shocked to see she preferred the hardware department to the petting zoo. Recognizing my error, I bent down and asked her what was wrong.

She looked up at me with those giant limpid brown eyes and said sadly, ‘Well, Daddy, it cost fifty cents. So, I gave Brandon my quarter.’ Then she said the most beautiful thing I ever heard. She repeated the family motto. The family motto is ‘Love is Action!’

She had given Brandon her quarter, and no one loves cuddly furry creatures more than Helen. She had watched Sandy take my steak and say, ‘Love is Action!’ She had watched both of us do and say ‘Love is Action!’ for years around the house and Kings Arrow Ranch. She had heard and seen ‘Love is Action,’ and now she had incorporated it into her little lifestyle. It had become part of her.”

Even small sacrifices reveal immense love and caring. While they do not cost us our lives, they reveal the true depths of the love Jesus calls us towards.

Yes, but.. what about people we don’t like? What about those we don’t want to love? Surely Jesus didn’t want us to love them too.. Well, Frederick Buechner once said that “[Jesus] is telling us to love our neighbors in the sense of being willing to work for their well-being even if it means sacrificing our own well-being to that end, even if it means sometimes just leaving them alone. Thus in Jesus’ terms we can love our neighbors without necessarily liking them . . . This does not mean that liking may not be a part of loving, only that it does not have to be. Sometimes liking follows on the heels of loving. It is hard to work for people’s well-being very long without coming in the end to rather like them too.” We still make the sacrifices even when there isn’t like, because Jesus calls us to love.

That’s the kind of love to which we are called. Love that isn’t just for the good or the kind, but love for the saint and sinner alike. The mean and the caring. Jesus life, death, and resurrection have had many levels of theological interpretation wrapped around them over the years. All deep, logically developed, formulations aside, the simplest interpretation is that he came to show us what love is, and the power of love, seen in acts of self-giving, sometimes heroic and extreme, sometimes quiet and every day. And all of them for those who don’t deserve the immensity of such love. Jesus, the Logos, the Word of God, translated God's speeches of love and grace into incarnate action, and he calls us now to do the same. It is never easy, but it always brings life. He is the Good shepherd and we are to follow him.

How will you show your love in truth and action?

04-22-12 WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BEAUTIFUL GATE?

2012-04-22T15:00:00Z

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BEAUTIFUL GATE?

Acts 3:1-10

Perhaps you heard about the passengers on the cruise ship the Star Princess who spotted a small fishing boat waving to their ship for help. The cruise passengers were using binoculars and spotted them and they did the right thing: they quickly reported their find to a crew member, expecting the ship to respond. But the ship sailed on out of sight of the boat. One of the woman who spotted the boat even sent an email to the Coast Guard, or at least she thought she did, but apparently they did not get contacted either. Later the three survivors in the small boat, trying to cling to life, became just two, and finally just one who was finally rescued by the Ecuadorian Navy two weeks later. Two people died because a chain of command or communications failed to get the news to either the captain or the officer of the watch. At sea for centuries, the law, written or unwritten, has always been to help others in distress. On land it can be a different story. Circumstances often dictate which actions are appropriate. For example: some people who are alone may stop to help an apparently wounded man and get carjacked or kidnapped. Some willing swimmer might try to help a drowning man or woman and find himself dragged under the water by the desperate swimmer. There are even neighborhoods in America when neighbors might even witness a shooting and not come forward for fear of being the next victim. In fact good counseling has taught me how to appropriately care, with something called “self-differentiation,” that is caring, but knowing how to care appropriately instead of exhaustively. Let me describe it: when my children were young and we lived in Arkansas, I was the President of our local Ministerial Association. In that capacity I met strangers at truck stops to give them aid, or drove them to get food, or had them in my office with a stream of sad stories. I was a new young pastor trying to do what I thought Jesus would do: help everybody. Well two things happened: first, Mary Ann put her foot down about me going and meeting strangers late at night saying she did not want to end up being a widow; and second, I learned that word gets around like a burning wildfire once you try to help everybody. Soon every person who feels needy shows up. Still the opposite of caring too much, that is, not helping at all, has made our society much colder. Some may chat on Facebook or on cellphones, but our car windows are often rolled up at stoplights so we can’t speak to others. On buses or on sidewalks, and in airports or on airplanes, people of all ages have earphones in so that communication is difficult. Many people just try to keep to themselves, sometimes out of fear. Today we are going to look at the customs and responses of two Christian followers in the first century to learn how they helped others.

First some background: in John chapter 5 there is a record of a man who wanted to get into the pool of Bethesda but couldn’t; he would have needed help to get into the naturally bubbling pool that was not unlike a spa. Going into such a pool might have aided the invalid’s pain or mobility. But no one lifted him into the pool. Some believed in that day that healing would only happen for the first person in the pool, so once the first man entered the pool, other crestfallen invalids just gave up. It would have created some tension, it seems to me, and some quarreling each day among those who lay beside the pool day and night. Who might be the first to go in? Was their maneuvering to be first or some fake false moves? Like a crowd of three hundred persons trying to get one of twenty specially priced High Definition TVs at Christmas, there is often pushing, attempts at line breaking, and shouting. In the first century by the pool, however, it is unlikely that anyone would have been afraid of being liable if they had dropped a man trying to lift him as people would fear today; it is more likely that they would have realized what an imposition as it might have brought on: People might have thought: “If I put the man in the pool, I’ll probably have to stay around to lift him out of the pool later in the day. I don’t have time for that.” So invalids lay near the pools. One wonders how they even got that close. Jesus tells the man to simply take up his mat and walk, and a healing takes place. But today we are looking more at the caring hospitality of these stories more than the miraculous healing. Let’s fast-forward to a time after Jesus’ resurrection, when we encountered Peter and John in Acts 3 today. Even in Acts both Peter and John were still Jews who also believed in Jesus as Lord. In Acts 3:1 they were entering the Temple to pray at the 9^th hour. What hour is that? It is 3:00. Like with Muslims today, prayer was specified to happen at particular hours of the day. The Bible says that the man they encountered was “lame from birth.” It matters to know that. In that day it was believed that lame, blind, deaf, or diseased people were that way because of their own sins or the sins of their parents or grandparents. We are even aware of the disciples in John 9:2 asking Jesus about which of the blind man’s parents had sinned to cause him to be blind. Even in the first century the blame game was alive and well. “Whose fault is it?” they were asking! The religious men of the day were busy pointing fingers and assessing blame. Blaming, however, delays the start of fixing a problem, doesn’t it? Does it really matter how some became blind? In our day people would want to know that to know who to sue. It happens today in the insurance world as blame, or “cause” is assigned; and it happens in high profile murder cases when media grandstanders choose to assign blame for pain and suffering in front of cameras and mics. To their credit, medical doctors are almost never wrapped up in assigning blame, or making judgments against others, just in administering treatment. But in the first century their belief that the man’s own sins caused his blindness shades the reason why people did not help that man: in a matter of speaking they thought this: “he made his bed; now he’ll lie in it.” Or to put it another way, they’d think he caused his own problem and if he had put thing right with God and God had forgiven him, he would have been healed. Therefore, since God had not forgiven him, so they also had no need to help an unrepentant sinner. But fortunately Christians Peter and John were following the teachings of Jesus; they showed the man compassion and did not cast stones. There he was at the Beautiful Gate and they stopped to listen to and acknowledge him! That was the beginning of his healing. What was the other name of the Beautiful Gate; do you know? Why, it’s the Golden Gate, the one that faces the Mount of Olives, the one that opened almost into the Temple courtyard; and the one through which Jesus entered on a donkey surrounded by palms on that fateful Sunday. It was at the Beautiful Gate that Jesus once entered the city, and it was at the Beautiful Gate that the ministry of the risen Christ began to grow. Perfect! The man asked for alms, which were just monetary handouts as beggars often ask for even today. But Peter and John did not pass him by; they did not give him money, but they did stop and address him: Peter said clearly: “Look at us.” The lame man must have had his heart begin to sink as he heard the familiar words: “I don’t have any silver or gold.” But then the sentence continued and the man perhaps had his heart lifted up, and then his whole body! Peter said: “I give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Peter then took the man by his right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong!

The usual focus in this passage is that at the Beautiful Gate a healing took place. And then we either praise Jesus because we too know people who have been miraculously healed, or we are crestfallen because we know people who have not. But today I want you to see what this passage teaches us that you and I can do to carry out ministry to others; Peter and John did it at the Beautiful Gate, and Jesus did it all over Galilee, Judea, and in other territories: they noticed those who others failed to acknowledge. In my life one place I can clearly do this is nursing homes. Sometimes the residents are lined up in wheel chairs up or down hallways; it becomes a gauntlet I have to traverse in order to see my intended parishioner. My temptation, and perhaps that of others, is to walk quickly past them. But their gaze is penetrating, like they are so desperately hoping that I will notice and acknowledge them. So I greet them, and smile at them. If they ask for help, I’ll see if there is something I can do. If they say “Get me out of here!” I’ll remember my self-differentiation guidance from counselors and just walk on! But even in this Facebook world, we have people, sometimes children, sometimes older people, and sometimes those with disabilities, who desperately want to be noticed. As I showed the children today, sometimes grown ups can look right past them! Jesus noticed and acknowledged others as persons. I know there are times when people talk with me and I look right past them to someone waving hello over their shoulder. Everyone wants to be greeted, yet giving full attention to one person is what they deserve, and I am always working to do better to pay attention to everyone. Peter and John acknowledged a man who other clearly had passed by countless times. On our Holy Land trips I’ll confess that I found myself giving to no beggars that I encountered, but I noticed another man in our group who gave to almost every one of them. We all have room to grow, don’t we?

What is your growing edge? Where are the areas in your hospitality life that need attention? People look right past strangers in churches, schools, or in neighborhoods, as we overlook the new person among us to connect with those we already know. This week, think about Peter; and John; and Jesus. This week, think about noticing, and acknowledging those you might have looked past yesterday, or last week. This week, think about any time when you felt left out, and try to minister to someone else so they will feel connected. It is a Christ-like thing to do.

Jeffrey A. Sumner April 22, 2012

04-15-12 FIRST RESPONDERS IN THE FAITH

2012-04-15T15:00:00Z

FIRST RESPONDERS IN THE FAITH

Acts 4: 32-35

On April 1st, an Oscar Nominated Short Film, 37 minutes long, was released for purchase. It details a remarkable story. The storyteller is Dolores Hart, a gorgeous movie star of the fifties and sixties. She had roles in “Where the Boys Are,” “King Creole,” “Lonely Hearts,” “Loving You,” “Wild is the Wind” and “Francis of Assisi” among other films while she was in Hollywood. Her leading men included George Hamilton, Robert Wagner, Warren Beatty, and Marlon Brando. When she was on Broadway she starred in The Pleasure of His Company, with George Peppard. But her most memorable leading man was the young, slim, and wildly popular Elvis Presley. Her journey is quite unique because she stepped away from all of those roles, those leading men, and a contract offer of over one million dollars (which was staggering in the 1960s) because of a different kind of love: she felt a love for God, and a love for those that God loved. While she was on Broadway, she was starting to feel worn down, a little disillusioned with stardom, and perhaps a little burned out. She asked a wise friend if she knew any place where she could get away and have some peace for awhile. Her friend steered her to Bethlehem; no, not “the” Bethlehem, but Bethlehem Connecticut, where the Abbey of Regina Laudis, an enclosed Benedictine Monastery, is the only one if its kind in the United States. Dolores Hart had a life-altering visit to the Abbey. But unlike sister Maria in “The Sound of Music” who left an Abbey for love, Dolores Hart turned down a marriage proposal from a wonderful man in the early 1960s to enter the Abbey and offer her time and love the God. The amazingly understanding man, although disappointed, gave her the space she wanted, but he has stayed in touch with her to this day, for 45 years. Dolores is now the Reverend Mother Dolores Hart, and she tells her amazing story in the short film she cleverly calls “God is the Bigger Elvis.” Ironically, when she was a movie star she starred as St. Francis’s friend St. Clare, who also started a women’s cloister movement. When she met Pope John XXIII for the first time, she introduced herself not as a Reverend Mother, but as Dolores Hart who played St. Clare in the movie called “Francis of Assisi.” The Pope, who already knew of her work on screen and in the abbey, paid her a high compliment when he said to her, “No child, you are St. Clare.”

Dolores Hart is not the first or the last to turn from much means to modest means in their lives for the purpose of sharing with others. Another of them was St. Francis of Assisi, who we studied in our “Lives of Great Christians” series during Lent, and another was actually the woman who admired Francis and started his work among women: St. Clare. St. Francis was the eldest son of one of the richest men in Assisi: a cloth merchant. He gave Francis everything he needed in life, but Francis did not embrace the upper class life when people of other classes were in need. Francis was carefree, much too care free in his father’s eyes. He sang much of his day, and he adored nature. He also read and learned about the Lord Jesus Christ. He learned, as perhaps you have learned, that Jesus had “no place to lay his head,” that it is never recorded that he had a place of his own once he was grown, or that he had money. But what he had, Jesus gave to anyone who asked: he gave prayers, he gave blessings, and he gave healing. He gave everything that he had to show love for others. Francis read these words of Jesus in Matthew 25: “Whenever you give to the least of these my brothers or sisters, you have given unto me.” Like Dolores Hart and Clare after him, and many more, Francis stepped away from the lights that could dazzle and the fame that could come and go in a flash; like Jesus, he took the road less traveled: being with the poor, the needy, the hungry, and the ones society painted into the “sinners” corner. Jesus went there; so that’s where St. Francis went. He went to highways and byways, giving people the shirt off of his back, the coat off of his back, or the shoes off of his feet. At one point he was walking naked through town because he had radically given everything away as Jesus his Lord commanded him to do. Some thought he was mentally unbalanced at that point; but Francis found discipleship to be a radical life change.

Clare could not safely go through the highways and byways as a woman, but she could help and cloister women, giving to them until she too was poor. And she did. The communal life of sharing with one another was not something new with any of these people. The first Christians started such a radically different way of life. Things forced to be shared equitably with others often gets called “socialism.” But things willingly shared with others who have less gets another radical term: it’s called “Christianity.” Luke, in his writing that we call “The Acts of the Apostles,” captures one part of the radical nature of Christianity: it is caring for the poor in ways that society does not. After Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, we know that the disciples first got their number back up to 12 with the choosing of Matthias to replace Judas. They then experienced the Holy Spirit while in Jerusalem and soon after began to heal and baptize others while they “devoted themselves to teaching, fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers.” (Acts 2:43) Peter then spoke about Jesus in Solomon’s Portico after which Peter and John were brought to the Jewish Council to answer charges that they were evangelizing for Jesus on the Temple grounds. Undaunted, Peter, John and the other disciples prayed for boldness, and among the actions they chose to follow were these: Our text from Acts 4 puts it this way: “They were of one heart and soul.” In other words, they were spiritually in tune with one another and with God. That’s the first manifestation of the Spirit we witness from these first responders in the faith. The second thing we witness is that “No one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned they held in common.” Again these people were learning how to get beyond human wants and address human needs, a very Christ-like thing to do. By so doing, the Bible says “Great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them.” Can we say that in our own country? Even in areas of the heaviest Christian populations, is there no one in need? In any of the seats of Christianity around the world: Rome, Jerusalem, Latin America, can we truly say that need has been eradicated? What happened in those days after Christ rose from the dead was extraordinary. Do you remember what else our Bible text said? “Those who owned land or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid them at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.” Is that Camelot? Is it Heaven? Or is it just part of Christian living that witnesses to the poverty and the power of those around us? In the first century, like in our world today, the rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer. There are ways to address this disparity, one of which is Christian charity, charity from the Latin word “Caritas” which means selfless love. Jesus died for more than our Heavenly lives; he died so that we might have abundant life here too. Delores, Francis, and Clare found happiness in such a life. Could we find such happiness as well?

Jeffrey A. Sumner April 15, 2012

04-08-12 PTSD: Post Traumatic Sabbath Disorder

2012-04-08T15:00:00Z

PTSD: Post Traumatic Sabbath Disorder

Mark 16: 1-8

Monday morning quarterbacking is nothing like having to think and act in a matter of seconds in the midst of a game; viewing a surgery through a glass is nothing like having instruments in your hand having to decide what and how much to cut. One hundred years ago next Sunday the Titanic sank in frigid waters, far from land; even those aboard the Costa Concordia were traumatized three months ago and they were just a few yards from land. Ten and a half years ago we may have watched the Trade Center Towers fall on a television, but that certainly had a fraction of the impact as seeing jumpers, experiencing the pungent smells, and the acrid dust of an eyewitness. And nothing in civilian life equals the sounds, feelings, smells, and anxiety of a man or woman in a war zone. Such events that I’ve described, when things go wrong or happen unexpectedly, can cause traumatic stress. The Mayo Clinic staff says that PTSD, that is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is triggered by a terrible event; its effect can last for hours, weeks, months, or a lifetime. Symptoms may include upsetting dreams or flashbacks; feeling emotionally numb, memory problems, irritability or anger, overwhelming guilt or shame, and seeing or hearing things. For the first responders, and the eyewitnesses of traumatic times, such symptoms are a menu of possibilities. For those of us who were not on the Titanic, or in the World Trade Centers, or in an operating room during a trauma, we have a buffer, some distance between us and the traumatic events. That is something like the experience we all have today with our faces pressed against the glass of a Biblical crisis 2000 years ago. We are not sinking, we are not hearing the sound of a surgical saw, and we’re not hearing the terrifying screams of trapped victims in a skyscraper. We are, however, looking on at a situation that was, in ways, every bit as traumatic. Let’s consider what led to Easter.

If you read your Bible carefully, as I said last week, you find out what hugely grueling days Jesus and his disciples faced. These were mostly men from Galilee, a rural area of tradesmen. Once a year those Jews who were able would have made the trip to Jerusalem for Passover. It was not an easy trip, likely one they did not relish. This journey was more about religious responsibility. Those who took the trip knew they were heading into Bike Week like crowds, where lodging prices were raised, places to get food were crowded, and more people packed the city than could comfortably be handled. In addition there were scam artists, pick pockets, and thieves looking for unsuspecting targets. The city was intimidating, and as massive as the Temple was, it’s controllers, the Sadducees, could be just as difficult to deal with. And then there were the Romans; their security team was on high alert, always trying to keep the peace. In one gathering of travelers there might be laughter and reunions; in another gathering there might be arguments and conflicts: all par for the Passover course. That was the destination for Jesus and his followers. Their days were long, going often beyond sundown. Have you noted, for example, how many of the last scenes in Jesus’ life happened at night? Most work happened in the day; there were no lights burning in the city and torches were costly to burn all the time. No; something was up; Jewish leaders were trying to take down one who challenged and angered them; and they knew the right persons to contact to make it happen. It was their city and they knew whose cage to rattle, whose peace needed to be disturbed from late at night to early in the morning. The Roman guards that go to find Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane were doing so late into the night, perhaps 10, 11 O’clock or later. The guards were on overtime because of Jesus; they were not happy about it and Jesus had kicked a hornet’s nest. It’s in the middle of the night that Jesus is led to the house of the high priest; the middle of the night when the rushed trial took place; it was under the cover of darkness when the light of the world did not seem to be able to shine any light into the darkness. Even followers may have started to doubt, and in their state of tension and little sleep, desperate people began to act out. One betrays when he might not have done so had he the chance to do it over; another perhaps began to doubt that Jesus was Messiah, for Messiah, according to the First Testament prophets, would come and liberate the people from their captors, in this case the Romans. It seemed like Jesus was doing none of that. All of the interrogation of Jesus happened in the middle of the night. And Peter, the so called rock, stood by, paralyzed by fear, anxiety, or exhaustion. He had lost his nerve; the entire night he not only did not defend Jesus, he denied knowing him. How do we know it went all night? Because on his last denial, a rooster crowed, and roosters don’t crow at night; they crow at daybreak. A new day was dawning and Peter was an exhausted and humiliated man. Chapter 15 says “as soon as it was morning” which means it was a sunrise meeting when Jesus was brought to a just awakening Pilate. It was the dawn of the Friday only in hindsight we call “good.” Friday was the fateful day when exhausted followers got further traumatized: their leader was accused of treason; his stand as a teacher and even messiah has now been turned into a capital offense against the Romans. Did all the other followers sign up for such agony? Would they be next? Some went into hiding while others crumbled when accusations were leveled at them. They watched, even from a distance, as Jesus is tried, tortured, and crucified. Certainly watching a crucifixion, any crucifixion, could have brought on PTSD. But to watch the one who you thought was messiah be crucified would shake witnesses for the rest of their lives. Could it have seemed like a terrible dream that it happened or a terrible mistake that they followed him? It wasn’t even disciples who asked for Jesus’ body from the cross to give him a decent burial it was Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the Jewish council, who gave up his family tomb for Jesus. It was an enormous gift. Mary the mother of Jesus, and another Mary accompanied him to the tomb so they would know how to find it at dawn on Sunday. They could not do such work on their Sabbath.

At this point, to these distressed, afraid, and sleep-deprived band of followers, Jesus was dead. No one could remember, or believe, what he had said about rising on the third day. They were under extreme stress. So as numb and saddened women, going to do their religious and loving act, they were going to anoint the body of their dead friend. They absolutely did not expect what we are all here to celebrate. They were certainly dumbfounded women, who returned and told dumbfounded men, all of whom wanted to see for themselves. Many people think the writer of Mark’s gospel originally ended it with verse 8: “And the women went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” Doesn’t trauma cause us to act differently, see differently, and think differently? Even Luke tells a story of Jesus himself later joining disciples on the road to Emmaus and they don’t recognize him!

Today let us honor the early followers of Jesus who perhaps had a form of PTSD, who from Friday night until sunup on Sunday had perhaps the most traumatic Sabbath of their lives: on this first day of the week, a man had died and rose from the dead; not a ghost, not a vision, but a bodily resurrection! It was extraordinary to them; it is life-saving to us! He appeared in one place and certainly almost made them faint when he showed them the nail holes in his hands. He appeared in another place to eat something in their presence to prove he was not ghost. He was dealing with people in a state of shock who looked on in disbelief. Over time we have come to not be shocked that Jesus arose from the dead. But it is huge news; it is good news! And it changes our destiny forever. Their trauma tells us that they were eyewitnesses; they saw what we have come to believe by faith and by reading about it. It is extraordinary news! A man rose from the dead! His name is Jesus; and he is the Savior of the world! Hallelujah! Amen!

Jeffrey Sumner April 8, 2012

04-01-12 THAT FATEFUL DAY

2012-04-01T15:00:00Z

THAT FATEFUL DAY
Mark 11: 1-10

Around this time of the year, some networks show the great films of the faith like the epic, “Jesus of Nazareth,” “The Robe,” or even perhaps the gut-wrenching “Passion of the Christ” which shows up on premium channels Some channels, like Discovery and the History Channel show documentaries about the life of Christ and in particular about his final week: his entry into Jerusalem, the cleansing of the temple, his teachings, his time in the Garden, his capture, his questioning before Pilate, and finally his crucifixion. That is the week we are facing. It does the salvation story of the Bible a complete disservice to jump over the gore to the glory of Easter. Few take lightly the price Christ paid for us once they encounter those passages.

For almost all of 2012 I have dealt with Mark’s gospel; Mark is generally considered to be the oldest gospel and to be extremely reliable historically; Mark never seems to add unnecessary information. If you have come to our Maundy Thursday service you’ve seen that I always choose Mark to read for that fateful night. Today for a few minutes I hope to help bridge the knowledge gap about Palm Sunday and to fill in some details. What is my source? Of course, it is the Bible itself; we will not trust another commentator when we can glean information for ourselves.

This fateful day—Palm Sunday—did not start with Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. So many people assume that Jesus got up one day, made the preparations, and entered Jerusalem one fateful morning. Let’s see if that’s the case. According to Mark 10:1 Jesus and his disciples left their adopted hometown of Capernaum in Galilee and headed toward Judea and beyond the Jordan. That means he would have encountered many Jews also going to Jerusalem for the Passover, and that there may have also been Gentile travelers as well. As they journeyed, Jesus was already known by some of them and crowd members constantly questioned him. He knew he was going to Jerusalem to die, but he still had to face Pharisees asking him questions about divorce in verses 2-12! What a topic as he faces his own death! Feeling for our Savior’s reserve of strength, we still see that people are relentless about approaching him. Some want him to hold or touch their children in verses 13-16 while the disciples fruitlessly tried to act as Jesus’ bodyguards. Jesus overruled them and said what we know so well: “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them.” He then has a man ask him what he needs to do to inherit eternal life, in verses 17-22. Even when the man heard Jesus’ answer, he went away because he could not part with his possessions as Jesus told him to do. Jesus’ then uses the examples of the conversations of the day to teach his disciples in verses 23-31. This man Jesus, already peppered with questions, must have gotten his second wind around Mark 10:32, for Mark says: “They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them, and they were amazed.” He then tells them again what he himself already knew: this trip has a purpose; he himself will be killed. There was more that he said, but surely his disciples were most troubled by that part. James and John noted his impending death and then did what some children have rudely done to their parents: they start to maneuver for positions of favoritism, asking about inheritance, and wondering if they are the favorite in the sight of the dying one. It is not pretty when I’ve seen it in families. And here, not just two people but two disciples ask Jesus to grant them a special status before he is thrown to his death: they ask that one be on his right hand in glory and one on his left. According to verse 41, the other 10 disciples were indignant that those two asked such an insensitive question of their “Teacher.” From verses 42-45 Jesus says they don’t know what they are asking. As I read it, this is all one day.

Before they arrive in Jerusalem they would naturally, on the path they were taking, go through Jericho, the oldest city on the planet, and a most resort-like city. But instead of finding respite there, Jesus encounters a blind man in verse 46—a blind man mind you, who is able to see in Jesus what sighted persons cannot. Somehow he not only knows who Jesus is and what he is reported to be able to do, he also senses when Jesus gets in close proximity- it’s astounding. Jesus might have been tempted to keep going- what time is it by now? Two O’clock? Three o’clock? Later? Instead he says “Call him.” After finding out that the blind man, named Bartimaeus, wanted to see, Jesus granted his request. Then Bartimaeus also left Jericho and followed Jesus. The newly sighted man was likely in the Palm Sunday crowd! On the outskirts of Jerusalem there are two small villages where the Bible records that Jesus stopped at differenc times, but today was not going to be one of those times. Our Lord presses on. This time Jesus has a purpose to be carried out, lateness of the day or not. So the assumption that I raised a few minutes ago—that Jesus entered the city one bright morning, gets tested now. Read your Bible and you may conclude, as I have, that Jesus entered Jerusalem late in the day. Likely prior arrangements allowed Jesus’ request for a colt on which to ride to be accomplished with some haste. It was not a fine white horse, a steed. Instead it was a small one, a colt; some other gospels say donkey. Nevertheless it was a small animal. The disciples and other travelers put some garments on it for his comfort and Jesus began riding into town on it. Certainly down from the Mount of Olives through the Golden Gate of the city there was an air of festivity! Passover already had made the city streets and inns jammed with people, with a celebration in one corner and an argument in another. As Jesus made us way, they strew branches along the road Mark’s gospel says in chapter 11, verse 8. John’s gospel says they are palm branches, and there is good reason to believe that. The palm was the national symbol of a free Judea, and the Jews hoped to be out from under the thumb of the powerful Romans. They were reading a human agenda of revolt into Jesus’ heavenly agenda of intended peace and salvation. They even quoted the prophet Zechariah and the Psalmist David who said when the Messiah comes it will be to the cry: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Into the city Jesus came among happy children, cautious disciples, and suspicious security officials. The security officials perhaps had Jesus entrance pegged: no sooner did he get inside the city wall through the entrance called the Golden Gate that Mark’s gospel says he went straight to the Temple, according to verse 11. He went to look everything over and perhaps offer a brief prayer. It is likely Jesus saw much that he did not like, but, the Bible says:
“And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went back to Bethany with the Twelve.” As far as I can tell, that is the end of the very long day that Jesus had; his entry into the city was they culmination of his day, not the beginning. We know from verse 15 that it was the next day when he returned and overturned the tables of the moneychangers at the Temple. Before that day he had traveled many miles, been asked many questions, had healed and blessed several people, and arrived at the place that would be his death city. What an exhausting, dreadful day, he had had, and now he starts a new day with the confrontation at the Temple. Jesus of Nazareth was not only filling his role as Rabbi, now he would claim the crown of the King, albeit a painful crown. He was not only a shepherd of people, he was the Lamb of God, and lamb selection day was facing him. The Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world, would be crucified on the day the Jews called “Lamb selection day. How perfectly terrible; and God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.

As we face this week, we will be sharing one Holy Communion today; but Thursday, if you are here, you will have a reminder of the Last Supper. May your soul be girded for this week with your Lord, and may it not waver with denial, doubt, or betrayal.
Let us pray: O God: prepare us now to realize the magnitude of our participation in this sacrament. Our choice shows Jesus whether or not we choose to be his disciples, even with the costs. Amen.

Jeffrey A. Sumner April 1, 2012

03-25-12 CONSIDERING SIN

2012-03-25T15:00:00Z

CONSIDERING SIN

Jeremiah 31: 31-34

This is the weekend when the first film of the thrilling trilogy of stories, THE HUNGER GAMES, is hitting the theatres, an event that has created some record-breaking box office numbers. Set in the future of a broken North America, it shows the horrors of where a depraved and savage society will go. In short, the film and the book both show the outcome of a terrible war and of brutality that brings sinfulness and survival to new heights. One movie reviewer encapsulates the story this way: “Young people, selected by lottery, slaughter one another with kill-or-be-killed desperation …. The savagery is a yearly ritual mandated by the tyrannical regime of Panem, a broken nation built, after a terrible war, on the futurist ruins of North America. It is also broadcast live on TV, a national media event….” [Lisa Schwarzbaum, “Entertainment Weekly, March 30, 2012, p. 56] The heroine is 16 year old Katniss Everdeen who shows almost superhero type heroism, volunteering to fight in place of her sister. Her weapon of choice is the bow and arrow, with her skills honed by hunting for food to help feed her family in this Orwellian future world. Since the books have been sold and the film has been announced, the sale of bows and arrows has increased by 20% in America. The practice with bows and arrows, to gain accuracy, usually involves a target; in most cases a series of concentric circles with a red circle in the middle called a bull’s-eye. In the film, the world slipped into its sinful state through the methodical taking of human lives. Accuracy with a bow and arrow saved one life over another. And it is a target such as that which is the original meaning of sin found in the Old Testament.

Danish Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard in his volume called EITHER/OR, said he preferred the men and women of the Old Testament to others because “they know how to sin!” He is not condoning sin; he sees Old Testament person feeling the weight of sin, acknowledging sin, and repenting of sin. The rest of us, he lamented, lack enough moral vitality to achieve real sinfulness! What an interesting observation! In the film, Katniss sharpens her archery skills so that she and her family can survive. Yet in places in our world today, desperation leads some to act out of desperation or even out of cowardice instead of heroism. The ones who do not think through the consequences of owning a firearm and pulling the trigger may have to re-visit the “Thou shalt not kill” commandment. The one who holds up a convenience store for the funds in the drawer may need to revisit the “Thou shalt not steal” commandment; and the ones who kidnap a young child in a horrible decision to extort ransom from parents not only break civil and moral laws, they break hearts and hopes as well. But sometimes in our world today, sin runs amok; it is accepted and not even named. The sharing of certain music files in our day is accepted and costs the copyright owners millions in lost revenue; the youths who think that a store or corporation makes enough money that they will not miss the food, the electronics, or the clothes they shoplift- those young people may be lifted up as heroes by peers, but they are not. They are an example of an ethical choice where the tempter won at an age when moral boundaries are being formed in their souls. Law abiding shoppers pay many cents and often many dollars more for products, not because of gas prices, but because of the cost of security and the cost of loss. The expense gets spread to us. And there are adults with an arrogant sense of pride when they are able to cheat on or finagle the taxes owed to the country they profess to love every time they join in the singing or listening to “God Bless America land that I love.” Those sins don’t often make the front pages, or the arrest record column, unless you are caught. Sin tries to go under the radar of 21^st century America. It always has. And that’s just the way that Satan likes it. If we have a moving target about acceptable behaviors; if we lean on the term “relativity” too much, then naming actions as sins gets turned over to our courts where attorneys often parse words and issues to protect their clients, not to call a sin a sin.

My text today from Jeremiah is deliberate; in the First (or the Old) Testament, sin is named not only in the commandments, but in the Covenant Code that went with it. Sin had gravity; weight, and consequences which is what seems to have fallen through the cracks of our permission-driven, enabling world. Professor and Rabbi Leonard S. Kravitz once said: “The notion of sin contains a paradox: there can be no sin without some sense of the Divine and there can be no sin without a denial of that sense. We become lawbreakers if we contravene civil or criminal law, but we become sinners only if we do that which God commands us not to do. Sin is possible only if we sense what God demands of us.” [“The Living Pulpit, Vol. 8, No. 1, p.28.] Is that the problem today: that right from wrong is no longer black and white but many shades of gray? Is it that neither children, nor their parents, can name the commandments that, if broken constitute, sin? The Rabbis remind us that the root word for sin means “to miss the mark.” Like the best archer, God asks us to aim for the center of the target, not to miss the target, broaden the target, or do without a target. It is God’s clear command; aiming for the bulls-eye is always not only pleasing to God, it is also better for our souls now and later. Sin almost always becomes like the children’s game “Mousetrap,” where one seemingly innocent {but in fact sinful} action leads to a series of reactions that bring about destructive or hurtful results. Sin must be back on the table for the lives of Christians, instead of having the off-handed thought that since our sins are nailed to the cross with Christ, we no longer have to worry about their consequences. Wrong. Yes through Jesus we get forgiveness, but we also get it through remorse expressed to the ones we have wronged. That’s why God’s words in Jeremiah carried so much weight. The Lord said that in the New Covenant, he would forgive the iniquity of His people, “and remember their sin no more.” (31:34). Sin had the weight of bricks in the hearts of Moses and Jeremiah and others, not the weight of Styrofoam as it is so often treated by sinners. I’ve told this story to my children and have told it to adults. If you haven’t heard this example, it’s the best one I know about the consequences of sin:

A father had a boy with an exceptionally bad temper. When he was angry, he did destructive things like break windows or furniture, say hateful things to his sister or his friends, or become disrespectful and defiant to adults who tried to guide him. The father said to him after he had cooled down, “Son, I want you to take this hammer and these nails and put them out in the back shed. When you do something to hurt someone or break something, I want you to take a nail and drive it part way into our white back fence. It will remind you of the things you did wrong. When you truly make amends by fixing what was broken, or by truly apologizing for your actions, you can then pull one nail out of the fence. But I want you to see that even when you think things are fixed, there is still a scar in the fence that will not fade. All your destructive actions have consequences.”

I am glad that Jesus died for your sins and mine. But it does not abdicate us from acknowledging the heavy weight of our sins and their consequences. We cannot believe that our sins magically get whisked from our souls and nailed to the cross of Christ just because we are Christian! We still have responsibility for our sins! Today, let’s put sin back into our modern vocabulary and our thoughts. In so doing, it says you know God, honor God, and you honor the God-given guidance that we should always try to hit the mark of right living. This week, it has taken a girl with a bow and arrow to picture a horrendous future that could be possible if we do not reign in sin and its power. But if we take sin and its consequences seriously, our future will look less like “The Hunger Games,” and more like a man praying over five loaves and two fish, then distributing them to feed 5000 people. The direction we take today will change our destiny tomorrow.

Jeffrey A. Sumner March 25, 2012

03-18-12 IF YOU ONLY BELIEVED ONE THING

2012-03-18T15:00:00Z

IF YOU ONLY BELIEVED ONE THING

John 3: 14-21

It was reported this week that Encyclopedia Britannica will stop publishing its volumes of encyclopedias for the first time in 244 years. Information in the 21st century changes too rapidly for print. This year I finally took Mary Ann’s advice from a couple of years ago and gave away our family set of World Book encyclopedias, we bought in 1990 for our whole family to use. What is the culprit for the enormous decline in the purchase of encyclopedia sets? Of course it’s the internet. Technology has brought us Google and Yahoo and other search engines to find most anything we want to find. And the new go-to source is Wikipedia: the free online, constantly being updated encyclopedia. The downside is that anyone can go on and update Wikipedia, sometimes with wrong information; consequently as I do my research for my doctoral degree, Wikipedia is never an acceptable reference source! In this age of technology I often send text messages back and forth to staff, elders, and family to get a message to them quickly. Many of you may do that too! Perhaps you also use abbreviations in your texts, and if you read texts enough you can read abbreviations as if they were the full word. People also abbreviate in their Tweets. A Tweet, as many of you know, is a communication invention created by Jack Dorsey who came up with the name, meaning: “a short burst of inconsequential information” and “chirps from birds.” Dorsey sent his first Twitter message on March 21, 2006, just 6 years ago this Wednesday! We love to have messages sent in brief ways in this technical age; and men’s brains, I learned two years ago, are wired for that kind of “bottom line” information. Women typically, researchers tell us, notice things more, explain things more, and can describe things better. Men’s brains go for the “gist” of information. Many men, and even woman, love to just know what “the bottom line” is. When negotiating for a car the buyer says, “So what’s the bottom line.” When getting an estimate on a repair we ask “So what’s the bottom line.” I have tiny little Bibles that were given to me to share with boys and girls years ago but most of the passages listed in those tiny Bibles seemed harsh to me and the King James wording was hard for a child to follow. If, however, any of you would like your own brief version of Bible passages in a tiny little Bible, you may take one from one of the baskets in the back as you leave. There is one verse that is included in those little Bibles that I think is wonderful. And guess what? This most important of verses in the Bible, this crux of New Testament theology, has exactly 140 characters in it, the maximum number of characters in a Tweet! The most perfect Tweet is the message that I gave the children on a card.

If you only believed one thing in the Bible it is this message that fits in that Tweet and is found on posters at ball games. The posters that you may have seen in person or on television say “John 3:16.” You heard it in the anthem today and here it is; exactly 140 characters: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That’s a Tweet for the ages; that’s the message for the ages; that’s something to memorize and to teach your children and your children’s children. That’s a passage that is learned in the King James Version most profitably. That one line has been historically called “The Gospel in Miniature.” It is at the heart of all the books and letters that we call the “New Testament.” It is the Good News! Believing that is what makes you a Christian, and those who do not believe that are not Christians in the classical sense. It is found in the Gospel of John. After almost three months of preaching from the Gospel of Mark, we are shifting for a few weeks now to the Gospel of John. The author of this gospel could very well be the Disciple we know as John, the one who referred to himself as “The disciple whom Jesus loved.” He is not John the Baptist. John, the writer of this Gospel, seems to have known Jesus exceedingly well, and Jesus, in turn, trusted John so well that at the cross he entrusted his mother to his care. So we are hearing from someone who not only tells what happened to Jesus, John wants his readers to know who Jesus is. It is John who calls Jesus “The Word,” and says not only that the Word was with God in the beginning, but also that the Word was God. It is John who calls Jesus the “Lamb of God,” recalling both the precious and sacrificial references Jews attributed to unblemished lambs. And it is John who is a master of words, mysteries, and double entendre. John is the one who records the conversation between Jesus and the learned man Nicodemus, who thinks like a 5th grader when he interprets Jesus’ imperative, “Ye must be born again” as an invitation to re-enter his mother’s womb. No; Jesus was talking about being born from above; having a spiritual rebirth. So John is brilliant, but sometimes cryptic, with what he has written down. Jesus was a little like that too, wasn’t he? That’s part of the brilliance of this first century theologian: he turns the phrase of an Old Testament story or phrase that is instantly recognizable, and then he looks at the event through the lens of Christ. Soon many events in the Old Testament start to point to our Lord.

While studying in my room at Columbia Seminary for two intensive weeks twice a year, I have the luxury of digging into texts with more depth than a normal week in my life often permits. My professors encourage us to read, think about, and be still for at least 30 minutes or longer in considering a verse such as John 3:16. Certainly when asked to spend time on a passage like that, some minds begin to wander after 10 seconds! Our human programming in the 21st century is to see as many shows or films, read as many books or blogs, or do as many things in a lifetime that time permits. Many in the last five years have even created “Bucket Lists” a creation of the Jack Nicholson/ Morgan Freeman film of a few years ago. Who has time to spend 30 minutes or more on one Bible verse? In our text-driven, cell phone-filled frantic world, I tend to read a sentence and stamp “Done!” on it when I finish it, then go on to my next task. A practice called “Lectio Divina” invites Biblical readers to ruminate over a text for an hour, or a day, or more. What would it be like to spend an hour, or a day with just the 140 characters of John 3:16? In my Wednesday night Lent class, called “The Lives of Great Christians,” we are learning that some of the great Christians were those who studied, prayed over, and copied manuscripts of Scripture all their days. We would not have Bibles that are so accurate without people, as we say today, who “Spent time in The Word.” To spend days in the Word—the Bible—is not just to see how fast you can read; it is drinking it in, and pondering it at times so that in a lifetime you may read it deeply once, or twice, or perhaps more. I am being reminded of that in my studies, but like many of you, I tend to read quickly to accomplish my work. This week, perhaps you too will join me in stopping to consider the Gospel in Miniature. In his commentary on the Gospel of John, Presbyterian founder John Calvin spends 10 full pages on just verses 14-21 of our lesson today. Words to ponder include these: God; God loved; God so loved the world. And so on. You may wonder what kind of love it is that God gave his only Son. Who does that? Why not give God’s own life to show love? John says, in fact, that he did. God was in Christ; and this death was rich in power for the listeners. The first born son for Jews in the Bible had the most power, the most to inherit, and more prestige than any later born children. He was precious. Jesus died as a human it is true, but also as the only begotten Son of God, rising as the triumphant Christ. It is not easy, nor appropriate, to think about God in human terms on this one, condemning God for not stopping the death of his own Son. This was a masterful plan of redemption! Remember, John speaks in metaphors and Jesus does too; we see through a glass darkly as we hear words like father, and son, and everlasting life. What we can count on is love that does not withhold; love that does not become conditional; and love that does not end. That is the love that God offers.

A point to ponder: “If God loved you as much as you love [God,] what would the state of your soul be today?” Sometimes people treat God with conditional love, only being delighted with God when their prayers are answered the way they ask. But God in Christ loves unconditionally. If God loved us, like some in our world choose to love God—in fickle ways—we would be in eternal peril.

Finally, a story: The land of Persia was once ruled by a wise and beloved Shah who cared greatly for his people and wanted only what was best for them. (Hard to believe these days, isn’t it?) One day he disguised himself as a poor man and went over to the public baths. They were heated by a furnace in the cellar so he went deep into the cellar and decided to visit the man with the thankless job of keeping the fire stoked. He returned on subsequent days, brightening the long hours of the lonely man with the hot and dark job. The man told others about the man who “came to visit him where he was.” He was touched that someone would come down to the level where he worked and stay with him. He never forgot it. When it was finally revealed to him that the man was actually the Shah, the man said to the Shah with great love: “You left your palace and your glory to sit with me in this dark place, to eat my coarse food, and to care about what happened to me. What wondrous love you show!”

God came to us from glory, to eat with us, to care about us, and to sit with us where we are. God came in Jesus Christ. The Gospel of John contains the wondrous story about how God chose to be with us, and to show great love.

Thanks be to God!

Jeffrey A. Sumner March 18, 2012

03-11-12 SHAKING THE FOUNDATIONS

2012-03-11T15:00:00Z

SHAKING THE FOUNDATIONS

Mark 2: 13-22

Since the beginning of time it has been happening: new ideas, sinful actions, wonder, curiosity, and willfulness have, in different ways, stretched, challenged, or cracked the foundations of the earth’s norms and truths we treasure. Today I want to consider the religious history of the shaking of the foundations and what has come about as a result. Let’s begin in the beginning: Creation. God created the first human beings who we know as Adam and Eve. Even though God created, God also gave the mortals free will so that they could choose between, life and death, blessing and curse, always hoping, of course, that humans would choose life. The humans were given an idyllic world in which to live; the foundation was firm; and God was pleased. Then came the entrance of sin, in the form of a serpent, and the foundations shook. Original sin was born. From those two sinful people, two brothers were born: Cain and Abel, and sin continued with fratricide: Cain slew Abel. The world’s story had some very flawed characters. God, it is said, wanted to start over and did. All the earth was flooded except for a faithful man and his family; it’s the story of Noah. Talk about shaking the foundations; drowning them was more like it! God started again ages later with a man named Abraham, surely a descendent of faithful Noah. The Lord God established a firm foundation with Abraham; it was firm because it was an everlasting covenant, not one that could be broken by human sin; it was kept by holy sovereignty. On that man’s faith a new covenant flourished. Later God tried again to offer a covenant to his people through Moses, but his people sorely disappointed him, breaking the commandments time and time again. God adjusted to the foundation-shaking sins that his people were exhibiting. So God sent prophets: people who spoke for God. Among them were young ones like Jeremiah, and older ones like Isaiah. Jeremiah still saw what we see today: the shaking of the foundations. His world, and ours, had issues of respect, corruption of political leaders, children who did not adequately learn the faith and the importance of tradition, and families sometimes fighting families. There were even natural disasters then as there are now. Young Jeremiah proclaimed these words when he looked around him: “I look out on the earth … and lo, all is chaos; I look at the heavens … its light is gone. I look out on the mountains … they are trembling; and the hills are swaying!” [Jeremiah 4] Could the foundations haven been shaking because the Lord himself was shaking them, trying to get his people to turn back from sinful ways? The prophets saw it that way. The prophet Isaiah said to the cities of Judah: “The foundations of the earth shake: earth breaks to pieces, earth is split in pieces, earth shakes to pieces …lift up your eyes to heaven and look upon the earth beneath.” [Isaiah 24.] When the earth shook figuratively or actually, was it sin that shook it? Is it sin that shakes our world over the ages?

In God’s own time, Jesus was born, and lived on the earth. During his ministry, events happened that were described in our text today, Mark 2. He was born a Jew and was taught as a Jew, yet he did things that faithful Jews would not do: he ate with sinners. To do that would have made a Jew ritually unclean. Jesus shook religious foundations. Jews fasted at certain times when Jesus did not; the serious business of keeping Torah did not seem to be the focus of Jesus’ life. It was nearly scandalous and was a source of religious upheaval. Jesus was shaking the foundations of his faith, and he explains why with his words about the bridegroom. Just as some rituals are abandoned when a loved one has a terminal illness, Jesus’ time on earth was terminal and he knew it. He had more pressing things to teach than ritual procedures. It was upsetting to others. His new emphasis he called “new wine.” He was so different that Jews who followed him separated from other Jews. History would call them “Christians.” His crucifixion shook the foundations of the world, darkened the skies, tore the curtain of the Temple, and caused cataclysmic reactions. The foundations of the earth have never been the same since God came to earth in human flesh. People who followed him were not just Jews or Gentiles; they became known as Christians and they still are. Over the ages there have been fractures even in the human gatherings of Christians. Monks fought other monks; believers fought those who they called “heretics” (wrong believers); and doctrines were won over blood. If the Lord Jesus died for them, our forebears believed, then he was worth dying for as well. And they did. Sometimes it is painful to read our history. But thoughtful persons kept trying to move closer to the truth when they believed others were moving farther away. It happened with early leaders like St. Benedict who went to Rome for education and left immediately for Sabiaco and Montecassino because he found Rome to be too corrupt. It happened with a priest named Martin Luther who took issue with the Church of Rome. His stand grew into a movement that became the Protestant Reformation. And the foundations shook, and they still shake, over that.

We still have things that seem to shake the foundations of Christianity. In 1837 in our part of the Christian family, even the Presbyterians split in half into two groups called “Old School” and “New School”: two groups who still loved Jesus, but differently. The Old School later spit into the Northern and Southern Presbyterians in 1861, and reunion with one another took an embarrassing 122 years later in 1983. But even then, there was another branch, and now there is still another branch, with still another forming now: the painful observation is that everyone thinks their version of the church is closer to the truth. But the good news ought to be that they all love the Jesus, but differently. It shakes the foundations of denominations, but does it trouble our Lord? Does he just shake his head as he did weeping over the fate of Jerusalem, or does he look at our infighting and say “This isn’t at all what I envisioned my church to be”? Today across the globe there are churches that are purely Biblical and others that interpret the Bible with creeds; there are churches that call themselves fundamentalist, and others say they are progressive. There are those who have a free liturgy of worship and others with a stated or strict liturgy. There are even churches today that have done away with a cross in their facility, have no communion table and baptize more than once. Such practices shake the foundations of Presbyterians. But does it shake the Lord of the cross and the Lord of the dance? Some Christians see heaven and hell differently from others, often to the point that some denominations call the others “heretics”; but does it shake the one who stilled the waters, calmed the sea, ate with sinners, and did not obey the orders for fasting? What does Jesus think? How does the man who created a whole new following respond to giant new gatherings of people who praise him, but not the way we do it? Jesus certainly shook the foundations of his day; but it is God who “laid the foundations of the world”, which he thundered to Job. It is Jesus we will follow, and it is God who loves us so much that we can even do so in denominational or even non-denominational ways. It might rattle my theology or your sense of tradition. But thanks be to God that love is the true measure of whether or not we have been fully transformed by Jesus Christ as Lord. How are we doing?

Back in 1948 Theologian Paul Tillich preached to a different world than ours, but he too addressed what “The Shaking of the Foundations” meant for him and for his world. He said this: “In the language of the prophets, it is the Lord who shakes the mountains and melts the rocks. This is a language that modern man cannot understand. And so God, who is not bound by any special language, not even to that of the prophets, spoke to the men of today through the mouths of our greatest scientists, and this is what he said: ‘You yourselves can bring about the end upon yourselves. [The end of the world, that is] I give the power to shake the foundations of your earth into your hands. You can use this power for creation, or destruction. How will you use it?’ [Charles Scribner and Sons, 1948, p.4] So now let us step back for a final moment. There are three levels of the shaking of the foundations, aren’t there? The first is the level thundered by prophets at the behest of God, telling people to turn back from their sins that were leading their souls to destruction. A second level was demonstrated by our Lord Jesus in moving from a focus on the minutia of rituals to loving and caring for others. Finally, we know the foundations of the world can shake when we, as God’s stewards (or managers), destroy or hasten the destruction of land, seas, and nations. It happens by the rise of avarice, greed, and the rise of evil in all areas of the world. It even can happen in the name of progress and profit. God is watching us; God empowers us. And God wonders: What my people do with what I have given them? The next steps are up to us.

Jeffrey A. Sumner March 11, 2012

03-04-12 WHY WOULD YOU FOLLOW THIS TEACHING

2012-03-04T15:00:00Z

WHY WOULD YOU FOLLOW THIS TEACHING?

Mark 8:31-38

In the story of Tom Sawyer, a bored boy uses his head to get other boys to line up and whitewash 30 yards of fence for him rather than playin’; they could have been goin’ fishin’, playing marbles, or any of a dozen other things a boy would rather do in a sleepy town near the banks of the Missouri River. How is it that Tom Sawyer talks a string of boys into doing his job and paint the fence he was responsible for painting? He not only talks them into it, they beg him to let them! Mark Twain says Tom figured it this way: “He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it—namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.” [TOM SAWYER, Grosset & Dunlap, 1946, p.20] Tom learned at a young age what good motivational speakers and teachers of salesmanship have known for years: in order to make someone want something, you have to make it hard to obtain. Tom Sawyer got people to listen to him and to his story because of his coy approach to a job that was a chore. Later on we learn that his friend Huck Finn had every adult in town disapprove of his lifestyle, and partly for that reason, every boy, especially Tom, wanted to be around Huck! Why do people follow other people? Why did some people, smart people, even religious people, follow demented and destructive leaders like Adolph Hitler, like Osama Bin Laden, or like the cult leader Jim Jones? Was it charisma, or persuasiveness; was it because of intimidation or threats? Sometimes people follow others because they seem to have a Midas touch and they fill needs for people: the late Steve Jobs did that and Oprah Winfrey still does. Sometimes people follow others because they are employed to follow them; at other times they follow of their own free will. Is it the teaching, or is it the teacher? Sometimes it is helpful to check out the human race to see what motivates us and what, at times, allows us to be manipulated.

As we read the Old Testament, we are privileged to be in the armchair (so to speak), watching prophets deliver words of judgment to the people of Israel. Even before the prophets of the Bible speak to us from the pages of Scripture, they speak to those in their own time, and we get to listen in! Why did people listen to prophets? One reason is their belief that prophets were the mouthpiece for God; that if they said it, God was the original source. Revering God is one reason that prophets of God carried a big verbal stick with their listeners. But notice also how often the prophet’s words fall on deaf ears; how the prophet’s warnings and calls for repentance brought slow responses. When do people make changes in their life? Is it when they are first told to change? In the Bible I can think of only one case when a prophet told people that God said “repent!” and they repented on the first try. Do you remember it? It was when Jonah told the Ninevites to repent and they did. They were sinners and they repented! But in most cases in the Bible, people are rather slothful about changing their ways except: 1) If they have made such a mess of their life that they’re ready to try a new way; or 2) if the new way is intelligently and persuasively presented as benefiting them (especially financially); or 3) if they respect the one asking them to change. But even a respected prophet had scant success in moving people from their ruts, their ways, or their customs, except when the people believed that they needed rescue or when they thought change would benefit them.

That brings us to a perplexing text to ponder today: “Jesus called the crowd with his disciples and said this: ‘If any want to follow me, let them deny themselves, and take up their cross, and follow me. For those who want to save their own life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.’” Denying ourselves is not in our nature. From the day we enter the world, we continue to be the center of our own universe unless we decide to show devotion to God, or to a spouse, or a boss, a job, a friend, or a child. Denying ourselves is something we might choose to do, but not readily. More often we deny ourselves in times of war or national crisis, or because we are abused or confined and forced to do so. We have to have a good reason to voluntarily deny ourselves. Even in Jesus argument, both paths led to death at first glance: his listeners had seen the crosses on which people were crucified as rulers tried to force people to conform; Jesus was not the first or the last man that the Roman emperors crucified. But the other choice, besides submitting to crucifixion was also bad: “those who want to save their life will lose it.” Most believe that Jesus was talking about losing eternal life in that phrase. For years people greatly feared not having eternal life; today I wonder if you give your eternal destiny much thought, or do you just assume that God grades on a curve? Certainly Jesus saw the big picture; a resurrected life, Heavenly glory and the like; but those in his day hardly had an inkling of that life beyond life. So why did some decide to follow this teaching; to stick with the man who was taunted, and mocked, and flogged, and crucified? Why would they not fall away with self-satisfaction, thinking to themselves that they were too smart to be hoodwinked by the man from Nazareth? In all I have read, there was only one good reason why those people of Jesus’ day chose his path instead of the easy one: it was the incredible authority they gave his words after being convinced by his deeds. This was the man who got blind people to see; he got lame men to walk; he fed four thousand people at one lunch hour and five thousand at another lunch hours from supplies that would barely have fed the Twelve; he had also walked on water. Some certainly decided that they were going to listen to him. They followed Jesus because his actions made them believe his words. Notice, however, that those who were well off financially or well-connected politically walked away from his teaching or were threatened by it. But those who were poor, or spiritually poor, found faith, and hope, and love in the teachings and person of Jesus.

Today you will have to decide if everything is just fine in your life; if there is no good reason to shake up your world because you have enough money, enough health, and enough contentment. Do you take pleasure in your and in your family? And most importantly, if you have full confidence in your afterlife, then following Jesus may not be compelling for you, even less compelling than a boy who talks other boys into painting a fence. But if there are parts of your life that need love, forgiveness, hope, and especially correction, than you are more likely to follow his teaching, even if it means a cross. Some choose to die meaningfully rather than die miserably and emotionally. The former persons choose to follow Jesus and his challenging teaching. Whether you choose the life of just being a church attender, or whether you decide to be a Christian disciple instead, is a personal choice. You may not want to paint a fence; but Jesus does not respect anyone who just sits on the fence either. Choose him; or you may be choosing doubt, or even darkness.

Jeffrey A. Sumner March 4, 2012