Rev. George Miller
1 Samuel 16:1-13
“Little Pebbles”
April 3, 2011
I have a question to ask. It’s not meant to put anyone on the spot, so you do not have to answer.
How many people read their Bible once a day? How many read it at least once a week?
I ask because sometimes you’ll hear someone make a statement or a decision which they think is biblically based, but is actually pretty far from it.
There are so many ways to see and experience things. There’s the way we think we see them, the way the world tries to make us see them, the way God sees them.
Often times, these realities are so completely different.
For example who we assume to be the right one to lead, to get the job done, or to change history.
The world has a pretty clear view: virile men, with money, from the right background, with the right education, with the right wife.
There are variations and there are the exceptions, but the world view of who is pretty straight forward, from president to CEO to senior pastor.
Yet, the biblical narrative, if you truly take time to read it and take it to heart, gives us a different view.
Yes, it is a view that is still very patriarchal, but it is a view that the one who God chooses to lead, get the job done or change history is not who we would immediately expect.
A close biblical reading shows that God does not always call forward mighty mountains of men and mighty mountains of women, but that often time God moves through little pebbles of people.
Those who you would pass by on the street, ignore or assume they wouldn’t amount to much.
As we soon discover, it’s not so much what they have done in the past, but what God will do through them in the future that will matter.
So let’s take a journey. First, Sarah. An older woman unable to produce an heir.
At a point of her life when she should be retired and playing golf, God calls her and Abraham to move cross country so that she could have a son.
As foolish as that may sound, that’s just what they do. And after 25 years of waiting, Sarah gives birth to a baby boy named Isaac, making her the grandmother to both Jews and Christians.
Gideon. When we first meet him in Judges 6, he is the furthest thing from a mighty warrior. Instead, he is under a tree, doing the work of a woman, the self-professed weakest member of the weakest family of the weakest tribe.
Yet it is he who God calls to lead the army, to blow his trumpet and to make the walls of Jericho come tumbling down.
Mary. An insignificant, unmarried girl engaged to an insignificant blue-collar worker in an insignificant little town who would carry a child so seemingly insignificant that no one minded that his bed was an animals’ feeding trough.
In today’s reading there is David, the eighth son of a nobody from Bethlehem. A boy stuck outside watching the sheep, whose own father thinks nothing of excluding him.
Yet it is he that God will call to become the greatest monarch the Israelites would ever know.
Each of these people, if you had met them face to face, would at first appear to be little pebbles of people. But through each of them God changed the world.
So let’s take a deeper look, and see what we can learn about the people God would call forward.
Today’s story begins during a dark moment of the people’s history: their current ruler, Saul, has become an embarrassing disappointment.
So God steps in and tells Samuel that now is the time to select a new King.
God is very specific and tells Samuel to go to a little known city called Bethlehem. There he is to find a man named Jesse. We don’t know much about Jesse; his wealth or his stature. But we do know his family had a questionable pedigree.
His ancestors included Rahab, a prostitute; Tamar, a well-known adulteress; and Ruth, an immigrant.
His was the kind of family that today’s media would have a field day tearing apart.
It was from this family that God would select the next King. Samuel invites Jesse and his sons to a sacrifice and one by one each son walks past him.
Apparently, Jesse was the Joe Kennedy of his day because he had some good looking sons. The first one goes past; Samuel sees his height, his stature; assumes he has to be the one God wants as king.
But God says “Na-ah. This isn’t a beauty pageant. I’m not judging these guys by their looks, but on the contents of their heart.”
Seven sons walk pass and none of them are pleasing to God. Seven sons.
Samuel asks if all the sons are present, and although the narrator does not state it, you can gather a sense that there is a hesitancy in Jesse’s voice “Well...there is the youngest. But he’s out taking care of the sheep.”
The boy comes in; the youngest of the eight, a son not even considered by his own father worthy of being part of the beauty parade.
What does God say? “By golly! That’s the one. Anoint him now.”
Now, there’s an irony here because after all this talk of not judging by appearances, you’d expect the boy to be a bit on the homely side, like a Richard Nixon.
But how he is described? Handsome, with beautiful eyes. Ruddy.
Ruddy is a nice way of saying that he looked like someone who worked in the sun and with his hands. So perhaps he’s a little more Tom Selleck or Hugh Jackman then JFK or Robert Patterson.
So, a bit of the story’s irony is that God will not choose a leader based on his looks, but God would not exclude a person for their looks either.
But the true weight of the story is this: that Israel’s history will be bound up in this boy.
A boy who is not an established royal figure or scholar or entrepreneur, but the 8th son of a man descended from immigrants and immoral women.
And it is this boy who is called by God to lead the people through unlikely trials and successes.
This underdog who triumphs, this outsider who makes good, this outcast who rises in power from the margins.
This boy, tucked away with the sheep will become the one whom all others will be measured against, the royal messiah until the true Messiah comes along.
This boy will bear great leadership traits of being charismatic, idealistic and fearless.
He will also have some very human flaws. He will at times be raw, pragmatic, self-serving and calculating. And in one story he will break half of the commandments.
Still, this biblical understanding of how David took the stage and how God directed the show is a story to remind us that what God sees is not always what we or the world sees.
God sees the heart, God sees the will, God sees the character.
God finds possibilities for grace in the most unexpected and unlikeliest of people.
God has the freedom to choose what appears foolish in this world to bring about wisdom, to use what some consider weakness to create strength.
God is free to choose what is low and what is despised to bring about change and transformation.
God did so with the disciples, God did so with the cross and God most certainly did so with the empty tomb.
In closing, today’s scripture reminds us that God does not always call forward mountains of men and mountains of women, but that often times God moves through little pebbles of people.
Those who you would pass by on the street, ignore or assume they wouldn’t amount to much.
It’s not so much what they have done in the past, but what God will do through them in the future that will matter.
Sarah, an elderly barren woman who gives birth to a nation.
Gideon, an unsure washer of wine presses who becomes a mighty military man.
David, a forgotten son who would become the greatest King the people would ever know.
Mary, yet another unwed mom-to-be who would give birth to the Messiah.
To the world’s eyes, little pebbles of people, but as time and history would show, mighty mountains of men and women.
And we, and the Kingdom of God, are all that much better because of it.
Amen and amen.
(Please note: Much of my words on page 6 are taken from the finely written commentary on Samuel written by Birch in the New Interpreter’s Bible, pages 1094-95. I thank him for so wonderfully creating a thematic blueprint on which to add my own touches.)
A UCC Pastor's walk through the spiritual waters of Scripture, pop culture and life.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Sermon from March 27, 2011; Exodus 17:1-7
Rev. George Miller
Exodus 17:1-7
“The Lord Among Us”
March 27, 2011
Coffee or tea? You can tell a lot about someone by which beverage they prefer.
What’s the difference between the two? Some will say the taste; I suggest it’s about time.
Coffee is very accessible, easy to make. Take out the coffee maker, put in a filter, add a few scoops of grounds, cold water, flip a switch, and soon you have a pot of hot, dark brew.
You can do whatever you want as it brews. Take a shower, clean the house, read the paper. Doesn’t matter if you come back to it 5 minutes or an hour later, there it will be, waiting for you.
You can even prepare coffee the night before by setting a timer so you can wake up to the smell and sound of it perking away.
Coffee is quick, it’s now, it’s very American.
Tea however, is done in stages. You can’t rush it.
You fill the kettle with cold water. You put it on the stove. Then you wait. Unlike coffee, you can’t walk away because there’s no telling when the water will be ready: 3 minutes, maybe 10.
You select whatever flavor tea you want, pour the hot water over it, let it steep. Another 3-5 minutes.
Even after you take the tea bag out you still can’t drink it just yet, because it’s too hot. So you wait, or gently blow on it, or take delicate sips.
Eventually the tea is just the right temperature and it is wonderful...but if you want another cup, you have to do it all over again!
There’s a reason why tea is called a civilized drink- it requires patience and time, encouraging thoughtful reflection if you’re alone or thoughtful conversation if you are with someone else.
To sum things up: coffee- quick; tea-stages.
Last week we talked about the call of Abraham and Sarah and how it took 25 years before they gave birth to their promised son. Genesis 12:9 tells us that they traveled in “stages.”
Today we are told that the Israelites traveled through the wilderness in stages. In other words, their journey took time and a lot of distance.
So, the people begin to get a bit cranky, they become impatient. They start complaining about their thirst, worrying that if they don’t reach water soon their children and livestock will die.
They want their journey to be like coffee, but God has decided it will be like tea.
One theologian said that they had only been in the wilderness for 2 ½ months. He stated it as if 2 ½ months is not a long time. But that’s 75 days.
75 days is a long time to be wandering around, especially if you’re not sure if your leader knows what he is doing.
I thought this particular theologian was a little snide. I’d like to see him go 3 days let alone 75 days without food, water and permanent shelter!
So of course the people quarrel with Moses, of course they wonder if the Lord is amongst them.
Wouldn’t you? I know I would...
...In some ways Emmanuel United Church of Christ is in the wilderness. Here we are in Sebring, FL, middle of the state, far below the rest of the country. Most of us are hundreds of miles away from family and life-long friends.
Sure, we got lakes, yes we got fruit trees, and yes we have a mall. But we also have this road called Hwy 27. Or 64. And 66.
Which means anywhere you want to go, guess what? It won’t be quick like coffee, but more like making tea: start here, stop there, repeat.
As a church we’ve had our share of stages, haven’t we?
For example, 5 years ago was the groundbreaking for our sanctuary. Five years ago! You know where I was five years ago? Freezing my patootie off in a place called Michigan!
And that groundbreaking didn’t happen quickly like coffee. No, it was more like a cup of tea.
First there were all the stages that led up to it. In 2000 there was the vision that people had of building a new sanctuary. (I wasn’t even in seminary then.)
Then the planning that went into it. The research. The blue prints that began in 2004. The fund-raising in 2005 with a consultant and a Capital Campaign Committee.
On March 26, 2006 there was the ground-breaking, which we have pictures of in our Narthex.
Then came even more stages of waiting. The building, construction, last minute problem solving.
Finally, the sanctuary was completed. In December ‘06 the first service was held here, then on Jan 14, ‘07 a Dedication Service, then an open house.
Stages upon stages, like a fine cup of tea.
And they continue to come; moving a table there, putting things here, taking down that, putting up this, rearranging those.
Stages upon stages of which we will never truly be done.
And why? Why have we done all these stages?
To let people know, in our hyper-caffeinated, uber-active, you-don’t-even-have-to-get-out-of-the-car-world that the Lord is indeed among us.
I invite you to repeat after me:
The Lord
is among us.
Again:
The Lord
is among us.
That is why we built this sanctuary, that is why 11 years ago there was a vision; that is why five years ago there was a groundbreaking.
Because, let’s be honest: sometimes it sure don’t feel like the Lord is among us, does it?
Grandmothers die before we get a proper chance to say goodbye.
People leave us with no explanation
We’re given a diagnosis that’s scarey as heck.
Our children get sick; our husbands die.
And we are left in the wilderness; to wander, and to wonder:
“Is God asleep?”
“Does God care?”
“Is the Lord among us or not?”
“Has God led us this far as a joke, a folly, a farce?”
And sometimes the answer comes quick, like fresh brewed coffee, awaking our senses and assuring us that a new day has come.
Sometimes the answer comes in stages, slowly, requiring our time and attention, like a steeping cup of tea.
Five years ago we broke new ground in order to build this sanctuary. We struck the earth with this shovel, we moved rocks and dirt, we moved sand and soil.
Why? So we could do mission. So we could share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We also did so to say “Yes: Yes the Lord is among us.”
“Yes the Lord is right by our side.”
“Yes the Lord knows just how you feel.”
“Yes the Lord knows you’re thirsty”
and
“Yes, the Lord hears your cries.”
From stage to stage we may cry out, we may test the Lord.
But God will never leave or forsake us.
God did not do it in the wilderness, nor will God do it now.
God may not always act like a Mr. Coffee machine, but God will indeed act and find a way to quench our thirst and to answer our cries.
Just like a civilized cup of hot tea, God just may take some time, but the outcome can still be wonderful.
Thanks be to Jesus who demonstrated to us how to wait upon the Lord, to the Spirit that acts as our guide and to our God, who is indeed, always among us.
Amen and amen.
Exodus 17:1-7
“The Lord Among Us”
March 27, 2011
Coffee or tea? You can tell a lot about someone by which beverage they prefer.
What’s the difference between the two? Some will say the taste; I suggest it’s about time.
Coffee is very accessible, easy to make. Take out the coffee maker, put in a filter, add a few scoops of grounds, cold water, flip a switch, and soon you have a pot of hot, dark brew.
You can do whatever you want as it brews. Take a shower, clean the house, read the paper. Doesn’t matter if you come back to it 5 minutes or an hour later, there it will be, waiting for you.
You can even prepare coffee the night before by setting a timer so you can wake up to the smell and sound of it perking away.
Coffee is quick, it’s now, it’s very American.
Tea however, is done in stages. You can’t rush it.
You fill the kettle with cold water. You put it on the stove. Then you wait. Unlike coffee, you can’t walk away because there’s no telling when the water will be ready: 3 minutes, maybe 10.
You select whatever flavor tea you want, pour the hot water over it, let it steep. Another 3-5 minutes.
Even after you take the tea bag out you still can’t drink it just yet, because it’s too hot. So you wait, or gently blow on it, or take delicate sips.
Eventually the tea is just the right temperature and it is wonderful...but if you want another cup, you have to do it all over again!
There’s a reason why tea is called a civilized drink- it requires patience and time, encouraging thoughtful reflection if you’re alone or thoughtful conversation if you are with someone else.
To sum things up: coffee- quick; tea-stages.
Last week we talked about the call of Abraham and Sarah and how it took 25 years before they gave birth to their promised son. Genesis 12:9 tells us that they traveled in “stages.”
Today we are told that the Israelites traveled through the wilderness in stages. In other words, their journey took time and a lot of distance.
So, the people begin to get a bit cranky, they become impatient. They start complaining about their thirst, worrying that if they don’t reach water soon their children and livestock will die.
They want their journey to be like coffee, but God has decided it will be like tea.
One theologian said that they had only been in the wilderness for 2 ½ months. He stated it as if 2 ½ months is not a long time. But that’s 75 days.
75 days is a long time to be wandering around, especially if you’re not sure if your leader knows what he is doing.
I thought this particular theologian was a little snide. I’d like to see him go 3 days let alone 75 days without food, water and permanent shelter!
So of course the people quarrel with Moses, of course they wonder if the Lord is amongst them.
Wouldn’t you? I know I would...
...In some ways Emmanuel United Church of Christ is in the wilderness. Here we are in Sebring, FL, middle of the state, far below the rest of the country. Most of us are hundreds of miles away from family and life-long friends.
Sure, we got lakes, yes we got fruit trees, and yes we have a mall. But we also have this road called Hwy 27. Or 64. And 66.
Which means anywhere you want to go, guess what? It won’t be quick like coffee, but more like making tea: start here, stop there, repeat.
As a church we’ve had our share of stages, haven’t we?
For example, 5 years ago was the groundbreaking for our sanctuary. Five years ago! You know where I was five years ago? Freezing my patootie off in a place called Michigan!
And that groundbreaking didn’t happen quickly like coffee. No, it was more like a cup of tea.
First there were all the stages that led up to it. In 2000 there was the vision that people had of building a new sanctuary. (I wasn’t even in seminary then.)
Then the planning that went into it. The research. The blue prints that began in 2004. The fund-raising in 2005 with a consultant and a Capital Campaign Committee.
On March 26, 2006 there was the ground-breaking, which we have pictures of in our Narthex.
Then came even more stages of waiting. The building, construction, last minute problem solving.
Finally, the sanctuary was completed. In December ‘06 the first service was held here, then on Jan 14, ‘07 a Dedication Service, then an open house.
Stages upon stages, like a fine cup of tea.
And they continue to come; moving a table there, putting things here, taking down that, putting up this, rearranging those.
Stages upon stages of which we will never truly be done.
And why? Why have we done all these stages?
To let people know, in our hyper-caffeinated, uber-active, you-don’t-even-have-to-get-out-of-the-car-world that the Lord is indeed among us.
I invite you to repeat after me:
The Lord
is among us.
Again:
The Lord
is among us.
That is why we built this sanctuary, that is why 11 years ago there was a vision; that is why five years ago there was a groundbreaking.
Because, let’s be honest: sometimes it sure don’t feel like the Lord is among us, does it?
Grandmothers die before we get a proper chance to say goodbye.
People leave us with no explanation
We’re given a diagnosis that’s scarey as heck.
Our children get sick; our husbands die.
And we are left in the wilderness; to wander, and to wonder:
“Is God asleep?”
“Does God care?”
“Is the Lord among us or not?”
“Has God led us this far as a joke, a folly, a farce?”
And sometimes the answer comes quick, like fresh brewed coffee, awaking our senses and assuring us that a new day has come.
Sometimes the answer comes in stages, slowly, requiring our time and attention, like a steeping cup of tea.
Five years ago we broke new ground in order to build this sanctuary. We struck the earth with this shovel, we moved rocks and dirt, we moved sand and soil.
Why? So we could do mission. So we could share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We also did so to say “Yes: Yes the Lord is among us.”
“Yes the Lord is right by our side.”
“Yes the Lord knows just how you feel.”
“Yes the Lord knows you’re thirsty”
and
“Yes, the Lord hears your cries.”
From stage to stage we may cry out, we may test the Lord.
But God will never leave or forsake us.
God did not do it in the wilderness, nor will God do it now.
God may not always act like a Mr. Coffee machine, but God will indeed act and find a way to quench our thirst and to answer our cries.
Just like a civilized cup of hot tea, God just may take some time, but the outcome can still be wonderful.
Thanks be to Jesus who demonstrated to us how to wait upon the Lord, to the Spirit that acts as our guide and to our God, who is indeed, always among us.
Amen and amen.
Sermon from March 20, 2011; Genesis 12:1-5
Rev. George Miller
Genesis 12:1-5
“Today...At Any Age”
March 20, 2011
Here we are: Genesis 12. What you’ve just heard has been called the most important part of Genesis, if not the entire Bible.
It is at this point of Scripture in which God’s plan of salvation for all enters into the story.
In the previous chapters things did not look so good. There was the banishment from Eden, the Flood and the Tower of Babel.
But if there’s any doubt that the God has a plan to bless humanity, this story dissolves it.
This is the story of a family. A family that had been uprooted once before, a family in which a brother dies, a wife in unable to have children and a nephew becomes an orphan.
But this is also the story of how God chooses this family; this broken, barren family and how God gives them a command to go and to do, and how they obey and how they will never be the same again.
It is also a story how about God will never be the same either, for in making a promise to bless this family, God is now committed to their future...
...I have had an affair with Abraham and Sarah for quite some time now. I can’t tell you exactly when it started, but I do recall a day about 15 years ago when I was in Minneapolis working with abused and neglected children.
Out of nowhere I heard one of the kids say “I’ve seen Abraham.” I had no idea who they were talking about, but immediately I had this vision of the Biblical Abraham wandering across the wilderness, dust falling from his feet.
Since then his story has fascinated me. Years later, a Search and Call committee asked me who would be the one person I’d most want to meet, and what question would I ask them.
The answer came quick- Abraham; and I would want to ask “How?” “How did you find the courage to leave everything behind and just go?”
The irony is that it was only about two years ago when I realized why I wanted to ask Abraham that question. It’s the very same thing I’ve been facing for nearly half of my life, having lived in 5 different states, leaving behind family, friends and the places I’ve come to know.
Of course I would want to meet Abraham because in a narcissistic way my subconscious had made him an extension of myself that I was not yet strong enough to come to terms with.
But there is so much more about this story.
This brief passage speaks about the ways of God: the ways in which God can be surprising; the ways in which God can be intrusive; the ways in which God asks us to leave behind...
...God speaks to Abraham and tells him to leave behind three things: the land that he has grown accustomed to, the family that he knows, and any claim he can make to an inheritance.
In a culture in which land and family meant everything, these were big things to forsake. But Abraham and Sarah step out on faith, and they embark on a journey.
And even though it is a journey instigated and watched over by God, it’s not an easy one. There will be turmoil.
Not soon after they leave there is a famine in the land. There is strife between the livestock herders. Lot is the kidnaped and rescued.
There is uncertainty of the promise being fulfilled. 25 years pass before Sarah gives birth to a son, and both she and Abraham die without seeing the birth of their grandbabies.
And, of course, neither one of them do a very good job at always acting faithfully or morally.
There’s the bit in which a very scared Abraham tries to pass his wife off as his sister and he pimps her out to the local king, not once but twice.
There’s the whole debacle in which Sarah gets impatient and tries to force God’s promise along by convincing her husband to sleep with her slave girl.
And of course there is the undeserved abuse that both Abraham and Sarah inflict upon that slave girl and the son she has with Abraham.
And yet, and yet God does not desert them, or go back on the promise or have a change of mind.
Although Abraham and Sarah are left wandering and waiting for 25 years for God’s promise to come true, even though they face dangerous situations, even though they make some major, major mistakes...
....there are also the wonderful moments that enter into their journey; the places they will go, the people they will meet.
For example, the time in which a local King stops by with some bread and wine to visit Abraham and gives him a blessing.
Or the night in which God invites Abraham to go stargazing and God says “I know you’re afraid, but look-up at the heavens. Count the stars- I will give you that many descendants and I will give you land...kings will come from your family and I will be their God.”
Or that one time during the heat of the day when under the oaks of Mamre God pays Abraham and Sarah a visit and after a meal, God reminds them that there is nothing too wonderful for the Lord.
Then of course there is the day in which Isaac is born, and Sarah, with laughter in her soul, invites everyone else to laugh along with her.
Yes, God intruded into the lives of Abraham and Sarah and asked them to leave it all behind.
Was it an easy journey? No.
Did they make lots of mistakes along the way? Heck yes.
Were there moments of wonder and awe?...
...So why is this all important? Why should we care what happened to this one-time broken and barren family?
Because they are our spiritual ancestors. We are who we are because of them.
We were represented by the stars in that night sky oh so long ago.
Because of this, it is their faith that runs through our soul.
Their strength is our strength. Their flaws are our flaws.
Their journeys are our journeys because their God is our God too.
We are Abraham; we are Sarah.
We are called, and we are promised.
Like them, at some point, or at many points in our lives, we are told by God to make some kind of move from one thing towards something else.
For some people that call to will be geographical. For others it will be professional. For others it may be spiritual or emotional.
God intrudes into our life and God calls us to move:
-From disbelief to belief
-From sickness to wellness
-From brokeness to wholeness
-From anger to forgiveness
-From emptiness to feeling fulfilled
-From holding on to letting go
-From bigotry to tolerance
-From judgment to acceptance
-From the way it’s always been done to the way that it can be achieved
-From ‘because I said so’ to ‘tell me what God is saying to you.’
-From ‘I can do it on my own’ to ‘I can’t do it without your help’.
-From ‘we don’t have the funds’ to ‘let’s trust that God will provide’
-From ‘because the pastor says so’ to ‘never place a period where God has placed a comma, God is still speaking.’
-From ‘we don’t allow your kind’ to ‘no matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey you are welcome here!’
Each of these moves can be scary. It can be hard to leave behind what we know, especially if we are unsure where God is leading.
And sometimes the journey makes no sense at all, until we get to look back and we can see and we can say “Oh yeah...now I understand.”
Today, at any age, God has the ability to intrude into our lives, to surprise us and to say “Go.”
And just like Abraham, just like Sarah, we get to make the choice to respond, to play a role in God’s ultimate plan for salvation for all.
If we choose not to answer, who knows what blessings and possibilities we may block for others.
But if we do respond, who knows the places we will go, the people we will meet and the things we will experience?
Today, at any age, how is God calling us as an individual, as a church, and as a denomination to go from and to head to?
How can our obedience to God make possible the Creator’s cosmic plan?
Blessings be to the Spirit that moves us along the way, to Jesus who walks with us every step and to God who will not make a promise that can not be kept.
Amen and amen.
Genesis 12:1-5
“Today...At Any Age”
March 20, 2011
Here we are: Genesis 12. What you’ve just heard has been called the most important part of Genesis, if not the entire Bible.
It is at this point of Scripture in which God’s plan of salvation for all enters into the story.
In the previous chapters things did not look so good. There was the banishment from Eden, the Flood and the Tower of Babel.
But if there’s any doubt that the God has a plan to bless humanity, this story dissolves it.
This is the story of a family. A family that had been uprooted once before, a family in which a brother dies, a wife in unable to have children and a nephew becomes an orphan.
But this is also the story of how God chooses this family; this broken, barren family and how God gives them a command to go and to do, and how they obey and how they will never be the same again.
It is also a story how about God will never be the same either, for in making a promise to bless this family, God is now committed to their future...
...I have had an affair with Abraham and Sarah for quite some time now. I can’t tell you exactly when it started, but I do recall a day about 15 years ago when I was in Minneapolis working with abused and neglected children.
Out of nowhere I heard one of the kids say “I’ve seen Abraham.” I had no idea who they were talking about, but immediately I had this vision of the Biblical Abraham wandering across the wilderness, dust falling from his feet.
Since then his story has fascinated me. Years later, a Search and Call committee asked me who would be the one person I’d most want to meet, and what question would I ask them.
The answer came quick- Abraham; and I would want to ask “How?” “How did you find the courage to leave everything behind and just go?”
The irony is that it was only about two years ago when I realized why I wanted to ask Abraham that question. It’s the very same thing I’ve been facing for nearly half of my life, having lived in 5 different states, leaving behind family, friends and the places I’ve come to know.
Of course I would want to meet Abraham because in a narcissistic way my subconscious had made him an extension of myself that I was not yet strong enough to come to terms with.
But there is so much more about this story.
This brief passage speaks about the ways of God: the ways in which God can be surprising; the ways in which God can be intrusive; the ways in which God asks us to leave behind...
...God speaks to Abraham and tells him to leave behind three things: the land that he has grown accustomed to, the family that he knows, and any claim he can make to an inheritance.
In a culture in which land and family meant everything, these were big things to forsake. But Abraham and Sarah step out on faith, and they embark on a journey.
And even though it is a journey instigated and watched over by God, it’s not an easy one. There will be turmoil.
Not soon after they leave there is a famine in the land. There is strife between the livestock herders. Lot is the kidnaped and rescued.
There is uncertainty of the promise being fulfilled. 25 years pass before Sarah gives birth to a son, and both she and Abraham die without seeing the birth of their grandbabies.
And, of course, neither one of them do a very good job at always acting faithfully or morally.
There’s the bit in which a very scared Abraham tries to pass his wife off as his sister and he pimps her out to the local king, not once but twice.
There’s the whole debacle in which Sarah gets impatient and tries to force God’s promise along by convincing her husband to sleep with her slave girl.
And of course there is the undeserved abuse that both Abraham and Sarah inflict upon that slave girl and the son she has with Abraham.
And yet, and yet God does not desert them, or go back on the promise or have a change of mind.
Although Abraham and Sarah are left wandering and waiting for 25 years for God’s promise to come true, even though they face dangerous situations, even though they make some major, major mistakes...
....there are also the wonderful moments that enter into their journey; the places they will go, the people they will meet.
For example, the time in which a local King stops by with some bread and wine to visit Abraham and gives him a blessing.
Or the night in which God invites Abraham to go stargazing and God says “I know you’re afraid, but look-up at the heavens. Count the stars- I will give you that many descendants and I will give you land...kings will come from your family and I will be their God.”
Or that one time during the heat of the day when under the oaks of Mamre God pays Abraham and Sarah a visit and after a meal, God reminds them that there is nothing too wonderful for the Lord.
Then of course there is the day in which Isaac is born, and Sarah, with laughter in her soul, invites everyone else to laugh along with her.
Yes, God intruded into the lives of Abraham and Sarah and asked them to leave it all behind.
Was it an easy journey? No.
Did they make lots of mistakes along the way? Heck yes.
Were there moments of wonder and awe?...
...So why is this all important? Why should we care what happened to this one-time broken and barren family?
Because they are our spiritual ancestors. We are who we are because of them.
We were represented by the stars in that night sky oh so long ago.
Because of this, it is their faith that runs through our soul.
Their strength is our strength. Their flaws are our flaws.
Their journeys are our journeys because their God is our God too.
We are Abraham; we are Sarah.
We are called, and we are promised.
Like them, at some point, or at many points in our lives, we are told by God to make some kind of move from one thing towards something else.
For some people that call to will be geographical. For others it will be professional. For others it may be spiritual or emotional.
God intrudes into our life and God calls us to move:
-From disbelief to belief
-From sickness to wellness
-From brokeness to wholeness
-From anger to forgiveness
-From emptiness to feeling fulfilled
-From holding on to letting go
-From bigotry to tolerance
-From judgment to acceptance
-From the way it’s always been done to the way that it can be achieved
-From ‘because I said so’ to ‘tell me what God is saying to you.’
-From ‘I can do it on my own’ to ‘I can’t do it without your help’.
-From ‘we don’t have the funds’ to ‘let’s trust that God will provide’
-From ‘because the pastor says so’ to ‘never place a period where God has placed a comma, God is still speaking.’
-From ‘we don’t allow your kind’ to ‘no matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey you are welcome here!’
Each of these moves can be scary. It can be hard to leave behind what we know, especially if we are unsure where God is leading.
And sometimes the journey makes no sense at all, until we get to look back and we can see and we can say “Oh yeah...now I understand.”
Today, at any age, God has the ability to intrude into our lives, to surprise us and to say “Go.”
And just like Abraham, just like Sarah, we get to make the choice to respond, to play a role in God’s ultimate plan for salvation for all.
If we choose not to answer, who knows what blessings and possibilities we may block for others.
But if we do respond, who knows the places we will go, the people we will meet and the things we will experience?
Today, at any age, how is God calling us as an individual, as a church, and as a denomination to go from and to head to?
How can our obedience to God make possible the Creator’s cosmic plan?
Blessings be to the Spirit that moves us along the way, to Jesus who walks with us every step and to God who will not make a promise that can not be kept.
Amen and amen.
Sermon from March 13, 2011 Matthew 4:1-11
Rev. George Miller
Matthew 4:1-11
“Angels in Waiting”
March 13, 2011
Loneliness. Isolation. Depression. We have all felt these emotions. Until someone has, they have not truly experienced the human condition.
Too often we are taught that our emotions should be limited to “be happy”and “stay positive.” If you can’t: well there’s a drug we can prescribe.
Trouble is, since doctors have begun relying on psychotropic drugs, there has been a marked increase in mental illness and health problems.
That’s the message given at last week’s Clergy Cluster. Our guest presenter, neuropychologist Dr. Susan Crum, gave a presentation in regards to mental illness.
According to her, people living with mental illness overseas are faring much better than those living in America.
One theory is that those in America live a highly individualistic life; those living elsewhere are in cultures in which collective societies still exist and extended families are important.
Europe has been using a form of therapy called Milieu Community. Instead of relying on medication, patients live in a structured community environment that features trained personnel and puts an emphasis on social interaction.
In this environment people discover they are not alone. In other words, they are not made to feel as though they are in the wilderness, famished and tormented by demons.
If you recall, back in January I shared the fact that each pastor only has about 4 sermons in them that they dress up differently each week.
One of my sermons is about water in the Bible and how it can be used to represent chaos and destruction. Certainly the recent events in Japan have demonstrated that. One of my other messages is about the wilderness.
The wilderness is that place, be it physical, emotional, spiritual, in which we feel lonely, isolated, depressed.
It is where we feel lost, unsure, without.
The wilderness can be anywhere, anytime and is different for each person. It is a place in which there is danger, trials and no seemingly way out.
When you are in the wilderness it feels like the most horrific place to be. And yet...if you make it out alive and fairly intact, you find that the wilderness is the place in which you discover who you truly are, what you are made of and what matters the most.
We also discover just how many ways God is with us.
The Bible is full of wilderness stories. Four of the first five books of the Bible takes place in the wilderness, as God’s chosen people wander towards the Promised Land.
It was also in the wilderness that the people experienced how God fought for and fed them, they received the Law and Commandments and they discovered that as a community they were stronger then if they were each on their own.
The wilderness. Wandering. Achingly woeful.
We all experience wilderness moments filled with loneliness, isolation and depression.
I think of my own wilderness, between 1994 and 1999. I was living in MN. It was where I went to undergrad, where I came out, where my favorite musicians lived. I thought Minneapolis was going to be my Promised Land.
Well, reality took care of that illusion. I was far away from family and home. I worked two, three jobs at a time, barely making ends meet.
The winters were colder then cold. I hung out with the wrong friends. My father developed cancer and died.
I saw no way out and thought I was destined for a life of nothingness.
Have you ever had a time in your life when you felt that way; as if there was no way out?
And yet, I can look back and see all the ways in which God was working, and present and preparing me for what I do now.
One way was through the church I attended, called Grace Temple Deliverance Church. A black, Pentecostal church led by Dr. Willa Grant Battle, a woman with a strong passion for God, and Doris Akers, the composer of the Gospel classic “There’s a Sweet, Sweet Spirit In this Place.”
It was there that I learned how everyone has problems, but through God we can overcome them. I learned that you can laugh and be reverent during service, that tithing is a way of honoring God, that a shared meal unites people, and the importance of human touch.
If you’ve ever been to a black church, you know the role touch plays. The men great you with solid, strong handshakes. The laying of hands during the altar call. The loving women who hug you to their bosom.
There is something comforting about being enveloped in the arms of a church mother.
When my father died, I recall how one woman discreetly slid money into my hand, they way people prayed for me, how the soloist walked right down the aisle, took my hand and sung “His Eye Is On the Sparrow” directly to me.
They were angels, living angels who used money, touch, prayer, food and song to keep me strong while I was in a wilderness that I could barely navigate on my own.
We all have wilderness moments. If you’ve lived a long life, you will most certainly have more then one. As we see in today’s reading, Jesus had his own.
After Jesus is baptized, he is led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasts for forty days and nights, and he is famished.
Famished. A strong, strong word that opens up so many possibilities.
Besides food and water, Jesus could have also been famished for family, for friends, to be back in community, to hear the latest town gossip, to hear the voice of someone else besides his own.
This part of the story is so important, because it is documenting the humanness of Jesus.
Like us, like the Israelites before him, Jesus has a time in which he struggles in the wilderness, a time of great vulnerability and humanness.
It’s a shame that Matthew did not devote more space on what those forty days were like. Perhaps he felt it was too painful of a topic to explore; what dark thoughts the seclusion would have caused.
How this wilderness time could create feelings of doubt, misdirection, even faithless choices for Jesus. (See Thomas Long’s commentary)
Just how famished is famished? Apparently enough for Satan to swoop in and try to drive a wedge between Jesus and God.
Famished enough that apparently good things like creation, the Temple and worship could be used in a negative context.
And yet Jesus does not waiver. He stays true to who he is and the path he is on. The result is that angels come and wait on him.
I love the last line of today’s reading, the idea that heavenly beings would come and take care of the one who would eventually touch the broken and heal the wounded.
I imagine it in such a way that for each thing Jesus is famished for, there is an angel.
Food? An angel brings him bread; homemade, hot and crusty.
Thirsty? An angel brings him a cup filled with red wine, perhaps a nice Merlot from Barefoot vineyards.
A hot bathe? An angel warms the water and pours it into a copper tub with Calgon bubbles and cocoa butter.
Conversation? An angel sits and shares the latest news about John the Baptist, the problems the Pharisees are causing and how his mother Mary has been doing.
Sleep? The angels gather like on the night of his birth and illuminate the night, singing a lullaby befitting a holy king.
In the wilderness, Jesus experiences an angelic community in which he is not alone, but cared for by God...
...What about the angels who are amongst us today? Living angels. People who make EUCC a safe, nurturing environment in which we discover that no matter what, we are not alone.
That is one of the gifts we have as a church (and as far as I’m concerned, one of the responsibilities of any church): a collective community in which we reach out to and care for one another.
As we enter into the Lenten journey and continue our Stewardship season, this notion of living angels is something that is good to lift up.
After all, it is something we are known for; people notice it and comment on it when they first walk in through the door. The immediate sense of welcome and calm; the friendly, honest way in which they are greeted; the Spirit that is in the air.
The world out there may be a wilderness, but in here, there is peace and there is God and there are living angels.
Another way that living angels have made themselves known? The cards that are sent out. I can not tell you how many times I hear from people who are sick or hospitalized and just how touched and spiritually fed they are by the correspondence they receive.
The prayer shawl ministry. Amazing how a handcrafted item can have such an affect on the individuals who have received them.
But it has. Again and again, we hear from family members and individuals about how much the received prayer shawl has meant, given them comfort, fed their soul.
Finally, being present. That is perhaps the greatest gift a living angel can give to another person.
Not having to do, not having to fix, not having to solve, just simply being there, for a visit, a meal, a joke, a touch.
These are just a few examples of how we have angels in our midst. How else can we be angels to those feeling lonely and depressed? Those feeling scared and unsure? Those who are sick or dying?
Those who feel lost and unable to see a way out?
Angels may not solve our problems, but they help to ease the pain. They help to keep away the demons. And they sure do make the healing presence of God known.
And if Christ himself needed angels to wait on him, how much more do we need it?
In conclusion, when the kingdoms of the world try to put a wedge between us and our God, it is the angels in our midst who help to keep us from wavering.
Be it a strong handshake, a phone call or friendly visit, there are many ways that help us know that we belong to a community, that we belong to God.
Thanks be to the Holy Spirit that leads us to unimagined places, to Jesus who did not waiver, and for God who places living angels in our lives, even when we feel like we are in a wilderness.
Amen and amen.
Matthew 4:1-11
“Angels in Waiting”
March 13, 2011
Loneliness. Isolation. Depression. We have all felt these emotions. Until someone has, they have not truly experienced the human condition.
Too often we are taught that our emotions should be limited to “be happy”and “stay positive.” If you can’t: well there’s a drug we can prescribe.
Trouble is, since doctors have begun relying on psychotropic drugs, there has been a marked increase in mental illness and health problems.
That’s the message given at last week’s Clergy Cluster. Our guest presenter, neuropychologist Dr. Susan Crum, gave a presentation in regards to mental illness.
According to her, people living with mental illness overseas are faring much better than those living in America.
One theory is that those in America live a highly individualistic life; those living elsewhere are in cultures in which collective societies still exist and extended families are important.
Europe has been using a form of therapy called Milieu Community. Instead of relying on medication, patients live in a structured community environment that features trained personnel and puts an emphasis on social interaction.
In this environment people discover they are not alone. In other words, they are not made to feel as though they are in the wilderness, famished and tormented by demons.
If you recall, back in January I shared the fact that each pastor only has about 4 sermons in them that they dress up differently each week.
One of my sermons is about water in the Bible and how it can be used to represent chaos and destruction. Certainly the recent events in Japan have demonstrated that. One of my other messages is about the wilderness.
The wilderness is that place, be it physical, emotional, spiritual, in which we feel lonely, isolated, depressed.
It is where we feel lost, unsure, without.
The wilderness can be anywhere, anytime and is different for each person. It is a place in which there is danger, trials and no seemingly way out.
When you are in the wilderness it feels like the most horrific place to be. And yet...if you make it out alive and fairly intact, you find that the wilderness is the place in which you discover who you truly are, what you are made of and what matters the most.
We also discover just how many ways God is with us.
The Bible is full of wilderness stories. Four of the first five books of the Bible takes place in the wilderness, as God’s chosen people wander towards the Promised Land.
It was also in the wilderness that the people experienced how God fought for and fed them, they received the Law and Commandments and they discovered that as a community they were stronger then if they were each on their own.
The wilderness. Wandering. Achingly woeful.
We all experience wilderness moments filled with loneliness, isolation and depression.
I think of my own wilderness, between 1994 and 1999. I was living in MN. It was where I went to undergrad, where I came out, where my favorite musicians lived. I thought Minneapolis was going to be my Promised Land.
Well, reality took care of that illusion. I was far away from family and home. I worked two, three jobs at a time, barely making ends meet.
The winters were colder then cold. I hung out with the wrong friends. My father developed cancer and died.
I saw no way out and thought I was destined for a life of nothingness.
Have you ever had a time in your life when you felt that way; as if there was no way out?
And yet, I can look back and see all the ways in which God was working, and present and preparing me for what I do now.
One way was through the church I attended, called Grace Temple Deliverance Church. A black, Pentecostal church led by Dr. Willa Grant Battle, a woman with a strong passion for God, and Doris Akers, the composer of the Gospel classic “There’s a Sweet, Sweet Spirit In this Place.”
It was there that I learned how everyone has problems, but through God we can overcome them. I learned that you can laugh and be reverent during service, that tithing is a way of honoring God, that a shared meal unites people, and the importance of human touch.
If you’ve ever been to a black church, you know the role touch plays. The men great you with solid, strong handshakes. The laying of hands during the altar call. The loving women who hug you to their bosom.
There is something comforting about being enveloped in the arms of a church mother.
When my father died, I recall how one woman discreetly slid money into my hand, they way people prayed for me, how the soloist walked right down the aisle, took my hand and sung “His Eye Is On the Sparrow” directly to me.
They were angels, living angels who used money, touch, prayer, food and song to keep me strong while I was in a wilderness that I could barely navigate on my own.
We all have wilderness moments. If you’ve lived a long life, you will most certainly have more then one. As we see in today’s reading, Jesus had his own.
After Jesus is baptized, he is led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasts for forty days and nights, and he is famished.
Famished. A strong, strong word that opens up so many possibilities.
Besides food and water, Jesus could have also been famished for family, for friends, to be back in community, to hear the latest town gossip, to hear the voice of someone else besides his own.
This part of the story is so important, because it is documenting the humanness of Jesus.
Like us, like the Israelites before him, Jesus has a time in which he struggles in the wilderness, a time of great vulnerability and humanness.
It’s a shame that Matthew did not devote more space on what those forty days were like. Perhaps he felt it was too painful of a topic to explore; what dark thoughts the seclusion would have caused.
How this wilderness time could create feelings of doubt, misdirection, even faithless choices for Jesus. (See Thomas Long’s commentary)
Just how famished is famished? Apparently enough for Satan to swoop in and try to drive a wedge between Jesus and God.
Famished enough that apparently good things like creation, the Temple and worship could be used in a negative context.
And yet Jesus does not waiver. He stays true to who he is and the path he is on. The result is that angels come and wait on him.
I love the last line of today’s reading, the idea that heavenly beings would come and take care of the one who would eventually touch the broken and heal the wounded.
I imagine it in such a way that for each thing Jesus is famished for, there is an angel.
Food? An angel brings him bread; homemade, hot and crusty.
Thirsty? An angel brings him a cup filled with red wine, perhaps a nice Merlot from Barefoot vineyards.
A hot bathe? An angel warms the water and pours it into a copper tub with Calgon bubbles and cocoa butter.
Conversation? An angel sits and shares the latest news about John the Baptist, the problems the Pharisees are causing and how his mother Mary has been doing.
Sleep? The angels gather like on the night of his birth and illuminate the night, singing a lullaby befitting a holy king.
In the wilderness, Jesus experiences an angelic community in which he is not alone, but cared for by God...
...What about the angels who are amongst us today? Living angels. People who make EUCC a safe, nurturing environment in which we discover that no matter what, we are not alone.
That is one of the gifts we have as a church (and as far as I’m concerned, one of the responsibilities of any church): a collective community in which we reach out to and care for one another.
As we enter into the Lenten journey and continue our Stewardship season, this notion of living angels is something that is good to lift up.
After all, it is something we are known for; people notice it and comment on it when they first walk in through the door. The immediate sense of welcome and calm; the friendly, honest way in which they are greeted; the Spirit that is in the air.
The world out there may be a wilderness, but in here, there is peace and there is God and there are living angels.
Another way that living angels have made themselves known? The cards that are sent out. I can not tell you how many times I hear from people who are sick or hospitalized and just how touched and spiritually fed they are by the correspondence they receive.
The prayer shawl ministry. Amazing how a handcrafted item can have such an affect on the individuals who have received them.
But it has. Again and again, we hear from family members and individuals about how much the received prayer shawl has meant, given them comfort, fed their soul.
Finally, being present. That is perhaps the greatest gift a living angel can give to another person.
Not having to do, not having to fix, not having to solve, just simply being there, for a visit, a meal, a joke, a touch.
These are just a few examples of how we have angels in our midst. How else can we be angels to those feeling lonely and depressed? Those feeling scared and unsure? Those who are sick or dying?
Those who feel lost and unable to see a way out?
Angels may not solve our problems, but they help to ease the pain. They help to keep away the demons. And they sure do make the healing presence of God known.
And if Christ himself needed angels to wait on him, how much more do we need it?
In conclusion, when the kingdoms of the world try to put a wedge between us and our God, it is the angels in our midst who help to keep us from wavering.
Be it a strong handshake, a phone call or friendly visit, there are many ways that help us know that we belong to a community, that we belong to God.
Thanks be to the Holy Spirit that leads us to unimagined places, to Jesus who did not waiver, and for God who places living angels in our lives, even when we feel like we are in a wilderness.
Amen and amen.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Sermon from Jan 30, 2011 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Rev. George Miller Jan 30, 2011
1 Corinthians 1:18-31 “Folly of Our Faith”
Have you noticed that lately there seems to be a lot of good shows on TV? One series I like to watch is “The Middle”, a sitcom about a family in Indiana.
In last week’s episode, the father decided it was time for their youngest son to start doing household chores. The son, whose name is Brick, is assigned the responsibility of raking the leaves.
His Dad tries to show him the right way to do it, but Brick, who is a unique child who sees the world differently, does it his way.
First, he picks up one leaf at a time. Then he divides the leaves by colors. When he finds a leaf from a neighbor’s tree, he returns it to them
Finally, he is finished. “Good job son,” says the father, “It took you 11 days to do what should have only taken an hour.”
Brick asks what will happen to the leaves and is told they will be picked up by and incinerated by the city.
This shocks Brick. He begs to save the leaves, offering to keep them in his room or to take them into the woods where they can be set free amongst all the other leaves.
At first his father says no before eventually giving in. In the last scene of the episode, he and Brick go into the forest, grabbing handfuls of red and orange leaves and tossing them into the air, creating a special Father/Son moment.
Brick’s approach to raking was full of folly and foolishness, causing his father lots of aggravation. But in the end, it created a magical moment of love and bonding, a way in which heaven could break in.
Foolishness and folly are themes in today’s scripture. 1 Corinthians is believed to be the second letter Paul had written to this particular church around 54 CE.
Corinth was located between 2 seas, making it a natural seaport and place of commerce and government. Because sailors and soldiers liked to party and play there, it became known as a “city of sin.”
One social commentator of the day said the rich citizens were disgusting and coarse with no charm and class who chastised the poor.
Those very same behaviors filtered into the local congregation. Wealthy members held extravagant feasts that made the poorer members feel less welcome.
People openly stated that they were better, wiser, smarter, and holier then others.
Quarrels broke out. So called religious leaders came in, trying to question Paul’s leadership and guidance.
In short, the Corinthian congregation had become a cantankerous bunch that had developed fissures and fractures.
So when Paul receives a letter asking for help he writes back and tries to redirect them and create a sense of unity.
Paul does so in the most unexpected way: instead of motivational mumbo-jumbo, he directed their attention to the very thing that had become a stumbling block for so many there- the cross.
The cross, as Paul admits, is foolish to outsiders looking in, and though the world sees it as a folly, the cross is the very thing in which God’s limitless love is revealed.
As Paul would have us believe, when we focus on the cross we will find divisions and mindless squabbles fading away.
2,000 years later, Paul’s message is still mind blowing.
Think of how the world works. Some say faith is all about miracles; amazing things happening that makes all of life’s problems disappear.
There are those who place all their faith on wisdom and knowledge. If you read the right book, subscribe to the right creed, follow the exact formula, memorize the appropriate scriptures, then you are saved and everything will be A-OK.
What does the wisdom of the world tells us? American culture tells us that we should be happy at all times. We should never feel disappointment, sadness or grief.
We should avoid all kinds of pain; always look on the bright side of life, floating about with smiles on our face.
When things get tough we are to buck it up, keep it to ourselves and try harder, pray harder, think more positively.
Happiness is to be pursued at all costs and if that doesn’t work? Lie about it or stuff your emotions down and numb your pain with food, drugs, shopping sprees and hours in front of the TV.
That, my friends, is the wisdom of our present day American culture, regardless if we realize it or not.
But that’s not what Paul writes in this letter. Paul says to look towards the cross, the ultimate sign of pain and hurt, foolishness and shame.
Embrace the cross, and God’s wisdom and spiritual gifts will enter into your community.
To borrow the imagery of Isaiah, the cross shows God’s love and ability to do new things, making a way in the wilderness and rivers in the dessert. (Isaiah 43:19)
If you’ve ever experienced the pain of being stuck in a spiritual wilderness or parched in an emotional dessert, let me hear you say “Amen.”
And if you ever experienced God leading you out of that wilderness or quenching your thirst, let me hear you say “Hallelujah.”
The cross, my friends, is the folly of our faith. We can not hide from it, we can not run from or deny it, no matter how much we smile, how loud we sing or say that everything is fine.
The cross is the means through which Jesus Christ demonstrated to us just how free God is.
The cross is where Jesus, with outstretched hands, showed for all time how the love of God embraces everyone (even those who would nail that love to a plank of wood).
The cross is the means in which we face the very reality of pain and injustice that takes place in this world, forcing us to look upon our own suffering, the suffering of others and the suffering that we, ourselves, can cause.
But the cross does something else, for it connects us to heaven and earth, to one another and to God’s wisdom and strength.
The folly of the cross set the stage for the way in which God made a way through the wilderness and streams in the dessert.
In other words, it was by going through the painful betrayal of the cross on Friday that God was able to bring about the resurrection good news on Sunday, in which we discover that justice prevails, we receive the gift of eternal salvation and the promise to always be there has come to fruition.
To go back to our opening illustration, by going through the cross God is able to lead us, as a family, into a beautiful forest in which we can be united, happily tossing red and orange leaves into the air.
According to Paul, Christ crucified is the heart of the Gospel. Though it’s a shock to hear, it’s the way through which God brought redemption into the world.
Not through money, or smiley faces or politics, but two planks of wood against a foreboding sky.
It is the cross that showed God as free and distinct from the world, not bound by human categories or expectations.
In conclusion, by admitting that everyone hurts, everyone feels pain and shame, we can become united, not pitted against one another.
Through the cross we come together and see how God creates ways through our wildernesses, streams through our desserts and resurrection through the very things we have felt shame and pain about.
The folly of our faith is that the resurrected Christ can never be separated from the Christ who was crucified. Because of this, the Holy Spirit can lead us to unexpected places.
Blessings be to God who calls to us saying, “See how I am about to do something new.”
Blessings be to the Crucified Son who says “I know what you are going through and I will never leave your side.”
Blessings be to the Spirit who shakes us up, saying “Come and be a part of our holy community.”
The cross may not make sense or follow the rules as we know them, but it is the means through which we join the Holy Trinity in throwing colorful leaves into the winds and woods of our lives.
Amen and amen.
1 Corinthians 1:18-31 “Folly of Our Faith”
Have you noticed that lately there seems to be a lot of good shows on TV? One series I like to watch is “The Middle”, a sitcom about a family in Indiana.
In last week’s episode, the father decided it was time for their youngest son to start doing household chores. The son, whose name is Brick, is assigned the responsibility of raking the leaves.
His Dad tries to show him the right way to do it, but Brick, who is a unique child who sees the world differently, does it his way.
First, he picks up one leaf at a time. Then he divides the leaves by colors. When he finds a leaf from a neighbor’s tree, he returns it to them
Finally, he is finished. “Good job son,” says the father, “It took you 11 days to do what should have only taken an hour.”
Brick asks what will happen to the leaves and is told they will be picked up by and incinerated by the city.
This shocks Brick. He begs to save the leaves, offering to keep them in his room or to take them into the woods where they can be set free amongst all the other leaves.
At first his father says no before eventually giving in. In the last scene of the episode, he and Brick go into the forest, grabbing handfuls of red and orange leaves and tossing them into the air, creating a special Father/Son moment.
Brick’s approach to raking was full of folly and foolishness, causing his father lots of aggravation. But in the end, it created a magical moment of love and bonding, a way in which heaven could break in.
Foolishness and folly are themes in today’s scripture. 1 Corinthians is believed to be the second letter Paul had written to this particular church around 54 CE.
Corinth was located between 2 seas, making it a natural seaport and place of commerce and government. Because sailors and soldiers liked to party and play there, it became known as a “city of sin.”
One social commentator of the day said the rich citizens were disgusting and coarse with no charm and class who chastised the poor.
Those very same behaviors filtered into the local congregation. Wealthy members held extravagant feasts that made the poorer members feel less welcome.
People openly stated that they were better, wiser, smarter, and holier then others.
Quarrels broke out. So called religious leaders came in, trying to question Paul’s leadership and guidance.
In short, the Corinthian congregation had become a cantankerous bunch that had developed fissures and fractures.
So when Paul receives a letter asking for help he writes back and tries to redirect them and create a sense of unity.
Paul does so in the most unexpected way: instead of motivational mumbo-jumbo, he directed their attention to the very thing that had become a stumbling block for so many there- the cross.
The cross, as Paul admits, is foolish to outsiders looking in, and though the world sees it as a folly, the cross is the very thing in which God’s limitless love is revealed.
As Paul would have us believe, when we focus on the cross we will find divisions and mindless squabbles fading away.
2,000 years later, Paul’s message is still mind blowing.
Think of how the world works. Some say faith is all about miracles; amazing things happening that makes all of life’s problems disappear.
There are those who place all their faith on wisdom and knowledge. If you read the right book, subscribe to the right creed, follow the exact formula, memorize the appropriate scriptures, then you are saved and everything will be A-OK.
What does the wisdom of the world tells us? American culture tells us that we should be happy at all times. We should never feel disappointment, sadness or grief.
We should avoid all kinds of pain; always look on the bright side of life, floating about with smiles on our face.
When things get tough we are to buck it up, keep it to ourselves and try harder, pray harder, think more positively.
Happiness is to be pursued at all costs and if that doesn’t work? Lie about it or stuff your emotions down and numb your pain with food, drugs, shopping sprees and hours in front of the TV.
That, my friends, is the wisdom of our present day American culture, regardless if we realize it or not.
But that’s not what Paul writes in this letter. Paul says to look towards the cross, the ultimate sign of pain and hurt, foolishness and shame.
Embrace the cross, and God’s wisdom and spiritual gifts will enter into your community.
To borrow the imagery of Isaiah, the cross shows God’s love and ability to do new things, making a way in the wilderness and rivers in the dessert. (Isaiah 43:19)
If you’ve ever experienced the pain of being stuck in a spiritual wilderness or parched in an emotional dessert, let me hear you say “Amen.”
And if you ever experienced God leading you out of that wilderness or quenching your thirst, let me hear you say “Hallelujah.”
The cross, my friends, is the folly of our faith. We can not hide from it, we can not run from or deny it, no matter how much we smile, how loud we sing or say that everything is fine.
The cross is the means through which Jesus Christ demonstrated to us just how free God is.
The cross is where Jesus, with outstretched hands, showed for all time how the love of God embraces everyone (even those who would nail that love to a plank of wood).
The cross is the means in which we face the very reality of pain and injustice that takes place in this world, forcing us to look upon our own suffering, the suffering of others and the suffering that we, ourselves, can cause.
But the cross does something else, for it connects us to heaven and earth, to one another and to God’s wisdom and strength.
The folly of the cross set the stage for the way in which God made a way through the wilderness and streams in the dessert.
In other words, it was by going through the painful betrayal of the cross on Friday that God was able to bring about the resurrection good news on Sunday, in which we discover that justice prevails, we receive the gift of eternal salvation and the promise to always be there has come to fruition.
To go back to our opening illustration, by going through the cross God is able to lead us, as a family, into a beautiful forest in which we can be united, happily tossing red and orange leaves into the air.
According to Paul, Christ crucified is the heart of the Gospel. Though it’s a shock to hear, it’s the way through which God brought redemption into the world.
Not through money, or smiley faces or politics, but two planks of wood against a foreboding sky.
It is the cross that showed God as free and distinct from the world, not bound by human categories or expectations.
In conclusion, by admitting that everyone hurts, everyone feels pain and shame, we can become united, not pitted against one another.
Through the cross we come together and see how God creates ways through our wildernesses, streams through our desserts and resurrection through the very things we have felt shame and pain about.
The folly of our faith is that the resurrected Christ can never be separated from the Christ who was crucified. Because of this, the Holy Spirit can lead us to unexpected places.
Blessings be to God who calls to us saying, “See how I am about to do something new.”
Blessings be to the Crucified Son who says “I know what you are going through and I will never leave your side.”
Blessings be to the Spirit who shakes us up, saying “Come and be a part of our holy community.”
The cross may not make sense or follow the rules as we know them, but it is the means through which we join the Holy Trinity in throwing colorful leaves into the winds and woods of our lives.
Amen and amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)