Sweet or Sour?

15th Sunday after Pentecost

August 28, 2016

Jeremiah 2:4-13; Psalm 81:1, 10-16; Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16; Luke 14:1, 7-14

From last week: God: You must go where I send you and say what I tell you to say.
• The first thing God tells Jeremiah to say: My people have committed 2 crimes: they have forsaken me and they have dug broken wells that can’t hold water
• In other words: (1) My people have forgotten and ignored me (2) My people have chosen to worship worthless gods and spend their lives on activities that will not make them healthy and happy

Why do we choose muddy water (from broken wells) instead of clean water?
1. Because it’s ours
2. Because it’s familiar – “better the devil you know…”
3. Because we’re stubborn

But our stubbornness is making us disloyal to God
• Value pride or loyalty more?
• We know about both – pride in a job well done; loyal to Orioles, Ravens, Maryland, America
• Yet you can be modest and take pride in your work at the same time, you can be humble and loyal
• Stubbornness is perseverance taken to the extreme, persisting is good, stubbornness means you don’t acknowledge when to stop (Paul: all things in moderation)

God says, “Don’t forget how I acted in the past and all that I have done for you!”
• Don’t be disloyal to me. I am always faithful. I will not betray you.
• I saved you. I led you thru the wilderness.
• I love you. I want good things (abundant life) for you.

Why are we satisfied with muddy water when God offers us good, clean water?!
We drink vinegar when God offers us honey (Psalm)

Let’s get over our stubbornness, accept that God’s way is better than our way – ours may be good, but God’s is better

Let’s get over fear of unknown and change
• Hallmark store sign: Don’t be afraid of change; be afraid of not changing
• It would be a problem if our kids didn’t grow and change; adults have to grow and change, too, mentally and emotionally and spiritually

So, what does it look like to accept God’s honey and clean water?
Follow what we’re told in Hebrews & Luke: God invites us to mutual love
 
Hebrews:
• Keep loving each other like family
• Don’t neglect to show hospitality, because some of entertained angels unawares
• Remember prisoners and the mistreated
• Marriage must be honored
• Your way of life should be free from love of money – don’t love money
• Be content with what you have – don’t be jealous or consumer mindset of more
• Don’t forget to do good and to share – don’t be selfish or hoard

Luke:
• Release our need for honor, our desire for privilege
• We are more likely to exalt ourselves and mock the mistreated
• We choose to believe we are self-sufficient rather than trust in God’s strength
• We are to serve all people without regard to the outcome, devoting ourselves to God’s honor alone (not ours) - serve those who can't pay you back

Also, we must remember God and depend on him (Jeremiah)

Jesus is what stays same – building won’t, people around you won’t, old rugged cross might even get polished

Time to let go of whatever muddy water you’ve been holding onto. Yes, it will sustain you and you will survive, but you will not thrive. God wants abundant life for us. It’s time to live into it!

Why Would I Need Rescuing?!

14^th Sunday after Pentecost

August 21, 2016

Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; Hebrews 12:18-29

I.                   Jeremiah’s call story

a.     Everyone has one – Moses, Gideon, every pastor

b.     I met with our new DS this past week – first question, what’s your call story? Remember & be sure of your call for when times get tough

II.                Wait a minute, why am I going to need rescuing?!?!

a.     “Don’t give excuses or think that you’re not enough. Where I send you, you must go; what I tell you, you must say. Don’t be afraid of them, because I’m with you to rescue you.” (Jer. 1:7-8)

b.     Uh, God, why would I need rescuing?!?!

c.      Why is God sending me somewhere where he knows I’ll need rescuing?

                                                                i.      Rhetorical question?

                                                              ii.      My husband: Is God a jerk?

III.             Reality: tough times are part of life

a.     Sometimes life is hard; we were never promised smooth sailing

b.     Sometimes God does send us somewhere where he knows we’ll need his help to survive – leave your family, the familiar, security behind and go

                                                                i.      Ex: God called Abram to leave his land and go

                                                              ii.      Ex: God called me to leave lots behind to go to Nicaragua

c.      Sometimes we make the mess ourselves and need saving from our own mess – we need God’s help

                                                                i.      Shakespeare: “O what a tangled web we weave when we first practice to deceive.”

                                                              ii.      “The Cat in the Hat” by Dr. Seuss: “This mess is so big and so deep and so tall, we cannot pick it up, there is no way at all!”

d.     1 Corinthians 10:13 – “Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people. But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out.”

IV.            Good news that comes out of this: God is faithful

a.     When the times are tough, for whatever reason, God will rescue you

b.     Those of us who have been thru any ordeal have learned that God is faithful, we can depend on him, we can trust him – usually

c.      Story of friend who left church during divorce and had to get herself through process on own – I pointed out God gave her the strength to do so – sometimes we need others to point out to us when God was there

d.     Sanctification – To refine, purify, remove the dross, become more like Jesus – yet fire burns, even as it removes the impurities

e.      Hebrews 12:28 – “Let us be thankful, then, because we receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Let us be grateful and worship God in a way that will please him”

Remaking Lemonade

13^th Sunday after Pentecost

August 14, 2016

Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80; Hebrews 11:29-12:2

(Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bydp5FJ-pxE) 

            Our opening Scripture this morning describes a vineyard. The gardener dug out the land for it, cleared away the stones, and removed the weeds. He planted it with excellent vines and watered it and tended it. The gardener built a tower to guard it and waited for for it to produce good grapes, which was a reasonable expectation after all the hard work he put into it. But…he was sorely disappointed. The grapes weren’t any good at all; they were all rotten. It did not turn out at all how the gardener had planned and what he had expected.

            This year’s summer Olympics have seen a few upsets as well, where the games did not go as expected. For example, Canada’s men’s volleyball team, ranked #12, beat in three straight sets our American men’s volleyball team, who was ranked 5^th.[1] Every Olympics there are athletes who have trained and put in significant amounts of time and energy and money into becoming an Olympian, only to not qualify, or to be injured, or for something to happen that prevents their dreams from becoming reality.

            For these Olympians and for the gardener with the vineyard, it’s a bit like the saying of “when life gives you lemons.” I’ve been hearing from a few of you the sense that you’re not sure you can handle life giving you any more lemons. You’ve had enough plans upset and expectations unmet, you’re not sure you can deal with being given yet another lemon. Life has not turned out how you expected. Your family is not what you planned it to look like. Your health is not where you thought it would be. Our country is not what you expected it would be like in 2016. Our church is not what you thought it would be like. Life has handed you lemons, so, what are you going to do about it?

            Well, you know the rest of the saying, you make lemonade. The good news is that the other two ingredients for lemonade are not dependent on “the changes and chances of this life.”[2] So no matter how many lemons you have, the water and the sugar do not run out. It’s kind of like the prophet Elijah going to the widow of Zarephath during the drought.  While he stayed with her, the jar of flour and the jug of oil never ran out until the drought was over.[3] They always had enough to eat, even if there wasn’t any variety in their food! God provided food for them, and in the same way provides enough to sustain us.

            So, first, let’s add some water. Lemons by themselves are pretty sour and there’s not much juice.  To make it go further than a swallow or two, you need water.  From a biological standpoint, water is the essence of life.  Literally, you cannot have life without water.  That is why it was such a big deal to discover water on Mars.  From a Christian standpoint, water means baptism.  It means new life.  It means washing away the old and being made clean.  And the other thing that happens in baptism is that you get a new name: beloved child of God.  In the waters of baptism Christ claims you and names you his own.  Your primary identity is no longer Baltimorean or male or wife or anything else; it is child of God.  Christian.  And that doesn’t change no matter how many lemons you get, no matter the state of your health or the size of your family.  Your circumstances never make you give up this identity.  You stay who you are, even if you have a new haircut or move to a different house or find yourself unable to do things you used to do.  In your baptism God already claimed you as his, and that never changes, although you may decide to ignore it.

We hear some examples of the saints who never forgot their identity as God’s children in our reading from Hebrews. “By faith the Israelites crossed the Red Sea… By faith Jericho’s walls fell after the people marched around them for seven days… By faith Rahab wasn’t killed with the rest…”[4] And there’s a much, much longer list if you read the rest of chapter 11. By the end, the author says, “I’d run out of room if I told about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets.”[5] Through faith they conquered, they shut the mouths of lions, they quenched fires, they escaped, they found strength in weakness. Still others were tortured or publicly shamed or imprisoned or stoned to death. And the end of that chapter, after that long list, we are told that “All these people did not receive what was promised, although they were commended for their faith.” They kept their faith, even when life handed them lemons. They stayed faithful to God.

Did you catch the cry of the psalm we read? “Turn to us, Almighty God! Look down from heaven; come and save your people! Come and save this grapevine that you planted, this young vine you made grow so strong! Restore us, O Lord God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved!”[6] That’s a faithful response, and that’s part of what we’ve been talking about with all the horrendous news we’ve been hearing this summer. Turn to God with your lemons. Throw them at him if you want. It’ll be a game of catch, he’ll toss them right back at you, but he does invite us to come to him, we who “labor and are heavy-laden,” because he will give us rest for our souls.[7]

So whatever lemons you’re handed, make sure you don’t lose your faith and your identity as Christian.  Make sure you remember your baptism, your identity as a child of God, and be thankful that nothing can take that identity away.  That’s part of why we don’t re-baptize.  You may lose your way, you may get overwhelmed, you may reject God, but God does not reject you.  He knows that you are still his beloved child.  In the Christian world water means baptism, and baptism means becoming part of God’s family, regardless of the number of lemons you have.

          So, now you have lemons and water; the last ingredient you need for lemonade is sugar.  You have enough lemony water to go around, but it’s going to be awfully sour unless you add some sugar.  What makes life sweeter?  God’s grace.  God’s freely given unconditional love that loves you no matter what you do.  God’s love that chases you down when you run away, sometimes tapping you on the shoulder, sometimes hitting you over the head with a 2x4, saying, “Hey, you, I love you.  You are my beloved child.”

As United Methodists we talk specifically about three kinds of grace.  Prevenient grace is the grace that comes before we even know God.  It’s why we baptize infants, because we recognize that God’s grace is already at work in their lives, that God already loves them.  Justifying grace is the grace that saves us.  It’s the love that made Jesus willing to die for us on the cross.  It’s being made right with God through the atoning work of Jesus Christ.  Being justified, like the words on a paper, all lined up with God.  But God isn’t done with us there.  Accepting the love of Jesus Christ already at work in you through prevenient grace isn’t the end of the story, because then there is sanctifying grace, becoming more like Jesus.  And sometimes this is done through trials, through lemons. 

            And in God’s grace, we don’t do this alone. “Not one of these people” listed in that Hall of Faith in Hebrews, “even though their lives of faith were exemplary, [none of them] got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.”[8] The faith of all those who have gone before us along with our faith comes together. Their lives of faith and our lives of faith are not separate and individual, but part of a whole, all part of God’s kingdom, part of God’s family. Our lemons get combined with everyone else’s lemons, God provides the water and the sugar, and together we turn them all into lemonade. That’s God’s better plan. All those saints listed, all the saints that you can think of, “they were commended for their faith, [and yet] did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better, so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.”[9] We are all in this together. Your lemons are my lemons and my lemons are yours. We share each other’s burdens. And then we get to share the lemonade, too!

The end of that passage from Hebrews says, “As for us, we have this large crowd of witnesses around us. So then, let us rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way, and of the sin which holds on to us so tightly, and let us run with determination the race that lies before us. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross! On the contrary, because of the joy that was waiting for him, he thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and he is now seated at the right side of God's throne.”[10] Jesus got handed lemons, too. You may think, oh, Son of God, he’s got it made, he’ll slide right by. But no. His students abandon him. His friends betray him. He is innocent, and yet he gets the death penalty. Jesus knows about lemons. He knows about being overwhelmed and not sure you can handle any more. He knows about feeling abandoned by God. And what does he do on the cross? He offers grace. He turns to the thief crucified next him, who deserved to be there, and says, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”[11]

If you’re in a season of lemons, hold on, and remember that you’re in good company. It means you’re being made more like Christ, you’re being sanctified, by the grace of God.  And you may be thinking, like Mother Teresa, “I know God won't give me anything I can't handle. I just wish he didn't trust me so much.” Don’t forget, all those other saints in the Bible got handed a truckload of lemons, too. And none of them received what was promised, because God had a better plan.

Most of you know that I served with a mission agency in Nicaragua before seminary and that I loved it! It was a dream come true. Some of you are aware that I returned to the U.S. earlier than I was supposed to, partly because of the rheumatoid arthritis I developed.  To say I was disappointed would be an understatement; I went through a period of grieving the loss of a dream and the loss of normal health.  However, I returned to North Carolina at the perfect time to re-meet my husband.  A year earlier, he wouldn’t have been available, and who knows what would’ve happened by two years later. Romans 8:28 says “We know that all things work together for good, for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”  All things include lemons.  It’s not fun, no.  It’s not what we would have planned for our lives.  But God says, Make lemonade.  Take the sour lemons and your baptismal identity and God’s grace and God’s family, and work with God and let God make something good come out of it.

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[1] http://www.cheatsheet.com/sports/5-biggest-upsets-rio-olympics-far.html/?a=viewall

[2] The Book of Common Prayer, Compline, p. 133

[3] 1 Kings 17:14

[4] Hebrews 11:29-31

[5] Hebrews 11:32

[6] Psalm 80:14-15, 19

[7] Matthew 11:28-29

[8] Hebrews 11:39-40, MSG

[9] Ibid., CEB, emphasis mine

[10] Hebrews 12:1-2, GNT

[11] Luke 23:43

Friendship

11^th Sunday after Pentecost

July 31, 2016

Friendship Sunday

Cowenton UMC

Job 2:11-13; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; John 15:12-17

            In case you’re wondering if Friendship Sunday is one of those made-up Hallmark holidays, like Secretaries’ Day or Grandparents’ Day, well, it is, at least its early history in the United States. In 1930, Joyce Hall, the founder of Hallmark, wanted August 2 to be a day when people celebrated their friendships by sending cards.[1] However, in the 1930’s, people recognized this as a marketing and commercial gimmick and refused to participate in it, so that it largely died out by the 1940s. Yet other countries in Asia and South America had independently thought of the idea as well. And once I translated the day into Spanish, Día de la Amistad, I realized I was familiar with the holiday, because it’s celebrated in Central America. The year I lived in Nicaragua, on July 30, I was wished “Feliz Día de la Amistad” and I was even given a few cards, which reminded me the most of the Valentine cards that children exchange here in the U.S. A few years ago, the United Nations declared July 30 to be International Friendship Day. Many places celebrate it on July 30, like I did in Nicaragua; others move it to the first Sunday of August. A member of our church worship team noticed Friendship Sunday on their calendar, and we talked about celebrating it here in church, which is how we got to where we are today.

As you heard in our Scripture readings, friendship is a common theme in the bible, and there are many more passages I could have picked. I like the story of Job’s friends, because while most of the book of Job is speeches by these three friends, by Job, and by God, before his friends opened their big, fat mouths and said lots of unhelpful stuff, they sat with him. In silence. For seven days and seven nights. On the ground. And didn’t say a single word, “for they saw that his suffering was very great.”[2] These friends didn’t start by consoling him. They didn’t start by saying how unfair life is. They didn’t say a single word, but sat with Job in silence, and let him grieve. What a mark of friendship!  They know that “to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven,” to quote the refrain we sang earlier from The Byrds, who are actually quoting from Ecclesiastes 3. That litany includes “a time to keep silence and a time to speak,”[3] and that’s a mark of a good friend. To know when to speak, and when to keep silent takes a lot of discernment. And if you were to keep reading in Job, you’d see that the friends let Job break the silence first. Job speaks first, before any of his friends, and his friends just listen. They let him speak first, before they offer their own words of comfort and advice. They just sit with him. This one action they did better than any of their words, because once they speak, they encourage Job to curse God and they say he must have done something wrong to suffer so greatly. The problem is that Job knows that he did not deserve this ordeal, and he knows that cursing God is wrong. Job curses other things, to be sure, including the day of his birth, but he does not curse God, like his friends suggest. These friends’ words aren’t good, but this first action, sitting for a week on the ground in silence, speaks volumes.

In our Gospel this morning, we have another action taken by friends. Jesus is speaking here to his disciples, and he says, “The greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them. And you are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because servants do not know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from my Father.”[4] “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”[5] Are the friends you invited to church this morning ones for whom you would lay down your life? Would you give your life for your friends here at church? For your family? For your neighbors? Would you spend a week in silence with them, letting them grieve, if that’s what they needed from you? That’s the first action Jesus describes, giving our life for our friends.

The second one he says is that we are his friends if we do what he tells us. Jesus is explaining the relationship here, and it’s not king and servants, it’s not teacher and disciples, although those are all true, but Jesus and his disciples have become friends. Isn’t it nice when a hierarchical relationship levels out? Teacher and student becomes friends. Boss and employee become friends. Pastor and parishioner become friends. It doesn’t always happen, and we still serve King Jesus, yet the king calls us his friends. We are his friends if we do what he tells us. It doesn’t quite sound like true friendship with that condition on there, does it? And yet some friendships are conditional, or only for a season. Think of the school friend you lost touch with when the schoolyear ended. Or a friend from church you never heard from again when you moved away. Some friendships are only for a season, and it’s sad when the friendship dies, yet it’s also natural. There are some friends who are only in our lives for a season.  If everything has a season, like we read in Ecclesiastes, then that includes friendships, too. Most friendships end when “people no longer have the opportunity to be together in the same [place],” like at church or school or work.[6]   A study was done in the Netherlands that found that after seven years, 70% of a person’s friends had changed.[7]  Most of our friendships are only for a season.

However, some friendships do stand the test of time and last the rest of our lives, and that’s the kind of friendship Jesus is hoping we will have with him. How does our friendship with Jesus last? If we do what he commands us. And if you remember from a couple weeks ago, what does Jesus command us? He says that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. That’s how we are Jesus’ friends, by loving God, loving ourselves, and loving our neighbors. Now there are some people who are only seasonal friends of Jesus. They pray only when they’re in trouble. They come to church only when they don’t have something better to do on Sunday.  Or only when they like the pastor.  Or perhaps they’re “Chreaster’s”; they only come on Christmas and Easter.  Jesus is looking for friends, though, who are there through good times and bad, there on holidays and on ordinary days. Apparently 70% of your friendships are seasonal; your friendship with Jesus, however, should be in the other 30%.

It was Ms. Edie’s idea to use the refrain from The Byrds’ “Turn, Turn, Turn” for the musical response to our responsive reading this morning. We read from chapter 4 of Ecclesiastes; that song from the 1960s is based on chapter 3, yet is still applicable to talking about friendship.  “To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.” Then in chapter 4 we read this beautiful description of friendship. “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their hard work. If either should fall, one can pick up the other. But how miserable are those who fall and don’t have a companion to help them up!  Also, if two lie down together, they can stay warm. But how can anyone stay warm alone?  Also, one can be overpowered, but two together can put up resistance. A rope made of three cords is hard to break.” A lot of that is common sense, and yet on our own, we don’t put it all together and apply it to friendship. Yes, the thicker a rope is, the harder it is to break it. When my husband’s out of town, I add more blankets to the bed to keep warm. Yet I also remember a spring break mission trip in college when we spent one night just across the U.S. border in Ciudad Juarez. We each only had one thin blanket and it got really cold that night. I stayed warm by curling up in a ball and tucking my blanket in on all sides, but partway through the night another girl crawled into my bunk so that we could share warmth and have a double layer of blankets on top of us. There are times when you fall and you need help getting up, whether from a chair next to you or another person. And working with someone on a project to share the workload always makes it more bearable as you share the responsibility and then get to share in the enjoyment of a job well done, like Ms. Shirley and Ms. Edie with yesterday’s picnic. The two of them did the vast majority of the work to make it happen, because neither one wanted to let the other one do it alone. And it was a great success! We had more people come than we did on a couple weeks ago at church! The kids ran around and had fun before going home for naps. The adults got to sit and eat and chat and enjoy each other’s company. And it took teamwork to make it happen.

            The implication that was stated in that article about making lasting friendships was that “if a friendship is meaningful, it needs to be nurtured.”[8] If you want your friendship to stand the test of time, then you have to invest time in it. In order to have a friend who will come sit with you while you grieve, you have to develop and nurture that friendship. As I mentioned last week, simply having a relationship with Jesus is not enough; you have to nurture that relationship. Do things together. Talk together. And listen. Enjoy each other’s company. It’s part of the importance of date night for married couples, to make sure you continue to invest in and care for your relationship. No one will do it for you. Most of our friendships are seasonal, so make sure you put time and effort into the ones that you want to last. I trust that your friendship with God is one of them, so as we get closer to the fall, be on the lookout for new ways we’ll offer that opportunity here.

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_Day

[2] Job 2:13

[3] Ecclesiastes 3:7b

[4] John 15:13-15, GNB

[5] John 15:13, NRSV

[6] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/irene-s-levine/the-seven-year-expiration_b_208468.html

[7] Ibid., I couldn’t find the original study; just lots of articles citing the same study by Gerald Mollenhorst

[8] Ibid.

“Squirrel!”

10^th Sunday after Pentecost

July 24, 2016

Luke 10:38-42

(Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEfCJBj8emE)

            The Oscar for the best animated movie of 2009 went to the Pixar movie, “Up.” Up is the story of 78 year old Carl Fredricksen, who is recently widowed, and decides to take the trip he and his wife had always dreamed of, to Paradise Falls, somewhere in South America.  Developers are encroaching on his house, the rest of his neighbors have already sold out and moved away, and so he blows up enough helium balloons to lift his house up off its foundation and flies in it to South America.  The only problem is that he inadvertently takes along a young stowaway, 8 year old Russell, who had come knocking on his door to see if he could help Carl. In their adventures in South America seeking Paradise Falls, they meet a talking dog who Russell names Dug. Dug belongs to a pack of dogs who all have special collars that translate the dog’s thoughts into speech. As you might imagine from a dog, one of Dug’s first lines is: “My name is Dug. I have just met you, and I love you.” Then he explains how he can talk: “My master made me this collar. He is a good and smart master and he made me this collar so that I may speak. Squirrel!” [Looks to distance for a few seconds] “My master is good and smart.”[1] 

The distraction of a squirrel becomes a running joke throughout the rest of the movie as the dogs are periodically distracted by a squirrel sighting.

            Part of why this is funny is because that’s how dogs are. Our dog will calmly lie in our yard enjoying the sunbeam until she suddenly sees or smells a squirrel, or a rabbit, or the neighbor's dogs come out, and then she will bound up and run faster than you’d think an old dog could run to that animal. Squirrel! The other reason it’s funny is because it’s become how we human beings are, too. For better or worse, we have become a very distracted people, and anything can be a distraction – a noise, a phone call, news, TV, something else catches our attention other than what we were paying attention to to start with. There is even a name for this now, “continuous partial attention,” which was coined in 1998 by author and computer consultant, Linda Stone. She says it is “the process of paying simultaneous attention to a number of sources of incoming information, but at a superficial level.”[2] We live in a time of such continuous change, that we’ve started watching and waiting for the next thing to come along and only partly paying attention to what’s here now. It’s like we’re living on edge, constantly.

            Martha, in our Gospel lesson, isn’t on edge because she’s waiting for the next thing to come. Jesus is already there, sitting in her living room. She’s on edge and can’t pay attention to him because she’s working on all the preparations for having guests. Everything’s not ready! The food’s not ready, the beds don’t have clean sheets on them yet, the table hasn’t been set, the bread hasn’t gone in the oven to bake, there’s still sweeping and dusting and vacuuming that needs to happen. Martha is so overwhelmed by all this that she’s even rude to her guest. “Jesus, I know you just got here, but can’t you make my sister help me? I want this all to be great for you, Jesus, so make Mary help me!” And Jesus says, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things.”[3] To be distracted means to be “unable to concentrate because one's mind is preoccupied.”[4] Martha cannot focus on her guest, on the main event, because she is so preoccupied by the preparations. How many times has that happened to us? So overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done for vacation that we don’t enjoy the vacation? So worried that we want everything to be just right for a special visitor that we have a hard time stopping being worried in order to enjoy that visitor’s company? And if we are distracted as people, if our attention spans are dwindling and we’re having more trouble concentrating on one thing because we’re preoccupied, what are we preoccupied by? Why are we preoccupied? Gadgets, technology, bad news, declining health. If our attention is not fully here, then where else is it? In the doctor’s office? With your family? In the past? Daydreaming? Y’all know that if I’m distracted, it’s most likely because of my kids. When you’re distracted, where else is your attention? I find that I’m also distracted more when I’m more tired. When I am more worn out, then I am more likely to get distracted because I’m having trouble focusing in the first place because I just need rest. When we don’t get enough sleep and when we deal with chronic pain we are more irritable, more grouchy, and more distracted.

            So, how do we move past our squirrels, I mean, our distractions? First, if you are preoccupied with something, then deal with it. Occupy yourself with whatever you’re dealing with and take care of it so that you can move on. Being occupied is good. Work is good. Martha’s problem isn’t that she’s busy; her problem is that she’s preoccupied by her busyness to the point of being overwhelmed and lashing out at others, like her sister and Jesus, her guest![5] Martha’s at the point where she needs to decide just how much more absolutely has to get done, do it, and then sit down and join Mary at Jesus’ feet. You’ve been thinking about calling the doctor about something? Like the Nike slogan, just do it, and quit thinking about it. If you don’t wake up feeling refreshed, figure out how to sleep better. Your chronic pain is making you angry with the world? Call your doctor and get better pain management. You’re worried about your family? Call them, visit them, do something nice for them, pray for them, and then decide you’re going to quit worrying. Once you’ve done all you can do, let it go. That song from the movie “Frozen” is actually about Elsa turning her back on her family and friends and letting her ice powers run wild. I’m not talking about turning away from and ignoring your family or your health or anything like that. I’m talking about ignoring your worries, once you’ve dealt with them. If you have your grocery list going thru your head during church, by all means, please write it down on your bulletin so that you can stop thinking about it and then refocus your attention on God. Deal with your worries, so that you’re occupied by them now and not preoccupied by them later.

            Second, occupying yourself with something means that you are focusing your attention and not being distracted. It means you’re present in the moment. You’re not thinking about the past or the future, but being present now. For most of us, this has to be a conscious choice, especially when we’re by ourselves. The easiest, quickest way for me to make myself be present is to get down on the floor and play with the kids. However, that’s not always an option for all of us, and so we have to figure out sometimes how to make ourselves focus on what’s before us. Put away or minimize your distractions, whether that means turning off the TV, intentionally not reaching for another screen or book or other item, and focusing your eyes on one particular object only, or focus your ears on one particular sound, or touch one particular object to bring your attention to just one thing. I’m a visual person and during worship, when I can, I like to focus on the flame on the candle. Being present is a conscious choice. Contrary to the media and the internet and New York City, the city that never sleeps, we don’t have to be available 24/7. I put my cell phone on silent or on vibrate overnight, starting when the kids go to bed, and I don’t turn the volume back up until everyone is awake in the morning. I still try to check it from time to time before I go to bed, and when it’s on vibrate it still sometimes wakes me up. But we don’t actually have to be available to the world 24/7. If you’re having trouble and are easily distracted, then intentionally limit your distractions and figure out how to intentionally make yourself present where you are.

            Finally, Jesus tells Martha that “only one thing is needed.”  Only one thing, out of all your preoccupations and distractions and worries, only one thing is needed. And what is that one thing? The one thing we need, the only thing we need, is Jesus. Martha had him right there in her house, and she wasn’t paying any attention to him. She knew he was there, but she thought all those preparations were what was needed, when really all she needed was to come and sit at his feet. The one thing needed wasn’t cooking or cleaning or doing good works; the one thing needed is nurturing your relationship with God. Not just having a relationship with Jesus, but spending time with him, listening to him, making him your first priority and first in your life, before anything or anyone else. In other words, worship comes before work. Time with Jesus is more important than anyone else you can spend time with. If you need to start scheduling time, which is often how it happens, I’d suggest when you first wake up and make it part of your morning routine. If every day is too often to start, come to our weekly prayer time,

Cowenton – Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m.

Piney Grove – Tuesday afternoons at 3 p.m.

We meet here in the sanctuary, usually with the lights off and there’s enough sunlight coming through the windows to just sit and be still and calm our souls and know that God is God.

That is the one thing needed. Spend time with God. Listen to him. That’s part of the thing about prayer, is that it’s a conversation, it’s a two-way street. It’s not just us talking to God, but also listening to what God has to say to us. All those other distractions and worries, it’s time to put them in their place and say no more, no more are they going to keep me from God, going to keep me from church, going to keep me from listening to my maker. Deal with the worries that are serious and need dealing with. Focus on one thing at a time. You know, there are slowly studies coming out saying that multitasking is not usually a good thing. We get more done, but we don’t do it as well as if we just did one thing at a time. Make your first thing time with God, and then the rest of your day you can present in each activity, not distracted, not always keeping one eye out for squirrels. Put all your attention, where you are. And where we are now is worship. You are distracted and preoccupied by many things. Write down your grocery list, trust you will see the squirrel when it is important to do so, and come, let us worship our Lord.

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[1] http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0143885/quotes

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_partial_attention

[3] Luke 10:41, CEB

[4] https://www.google.com/search?q=distracted&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

[5] http://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship/lectionary-calendar/ninth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-c-2016

Who’s My Neighbor? That’s Not Jesus’ Question

9^th Sunday after Pentecost

July 17, 2016

Luke 10:25:37

(Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOrI6LkPi6E )

            I don’t know about you, but I am not a great off-the-cuff speaker. I speak much better after I’ve had time to think for a while and I’m not one of those people who can come up with a witty remark in a matter of seconds. When I’m struck speechless in a conversation, it’s often long after that conversation is over that I think of what I could have said. Anyone else like that? The events of two weeks ago left me pretty speechless, and so I kept quiet. I was glad we had already planned for me not to preach last Sunday! Not so that I didn’t have to say anything, but because I didn’t know what to say. Last Sunday in worship, some ideas slowly started forming, finally.

The other thing I learned about myself the past couple weeks is that I’m not a very good pastor when I’m angry. I’ve known that I’m not a good parent when I’m angry, and it’s best not to parent in the heat of the moment, but to wait a minute, or longer, until I’ve calmed down. Otherwise, if I speak from anger, I am likely to be mean and say something I will regret. And the same is true for pastoring. I cannot be a good pastor when I act from anger. I don’t know about you, but I was pretty angry two weeks ago. Two more African-American men shot unnecessarily by police. Five police officers shot unnecessarily. And when I finally could name that I was angry, because it’s not an emotion I experience a lot, then I could finally start addressing it and exploring it. Anger comes from fear. A parent may speak extra harshly, angrily, to a child about to touch a hot stove. Why? Because the parent is afraid the child will hurt herself.

What am I afraid of, with the deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, five members of Dallas’ finest, the 84 persons who died in Nice, and the hostile takeover of the airport in Turkey? Am I afraid that the violence will come near me? We already had some last year, after Freddy Gray’s death. Am I afraid that justice will not be served? That is not in my hands. Am I afraid that darkness will blot out the sun? That evil will win? That there is something so big and so bad in this world that God cannot overcome it? In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “take heart, because I have overcome the world.”[1] As long as there is at least one person keeping the candle burning, the darkness cannot overtake us. Just like in that poem about footsteps in the sand, when our courage fails, or our strength fails, then Jesus will carry us and be the light for us. That’s the promise. He has already defeated death; we don’t need to be afraid of it. He has already defeated evil; we don’t need to fear that, either.

What is evil, anyway? I had to write on that for my papers for the District Committee on Ordained Ministry.  I wrote that evil is “everything that stands against God and [God’s] intentions for the well-being and transformation of human beings and God’s creation.”^[2] Evil is anything that draws people away from God. Suffering is not necessarily evil. If it leads to a crisis of faith, and causes someone to turn away from God, then it is evil. If, instead, that person turns toward God, then God has used that pain for good. It is more helpful to look at evil not as a problem to be solved, but instead as a situation that offers us the opportunity to respond faithfully. The best response isn’t to explain why there is evil, which we can’t ultimately answer, anyway, but to figure out ways we can resist and transform evil and suffering. This is why it’s important to be part of a Christian community that can help “absorb evil and enable faithful living even in the midst of evil.”^[3] We can respond faithfully in the presence of evil and we can help others to do so as well solely by God’s grace.

Because we are sinful, we allow evil to exist and sometimes even flourish in the world.  Sin and evil are not a part of how God initially made creation.  A fallen world was not God’s intention, yet God knew it was a possibility and allowed then for our redemption. We cannot fix it by ourselves; we need God’s help. Thankfully, God can use all things, even things intended for evil, for good.[4] God is continually at work redeeming and restoring God’s creation. In addition, God enables us to respond faithfully to evil whenever we come across it. We may be overwhelmed by it at first, we may be struck speechless at first. Once that temporary paralysis is over, however, then it’s time to respond, and to respond faithfully, as God’s people. We might name the evil and point it out, because sometimes we don’t always see what’s right in front of us.  We might describe the environment that allowed the evil to flourish, so that we know what to do differently as we move forward, and ask God for the strength to actually do differently. Then there is always the hard work of forgiveness and moving toward God’s vision of what creation is meant to become. Evil and death do not have the last say over this world. We already know the end, which is that love wins. God will triumph over evil. Our job is to live faithfully, and help others to live faithfully, until that time.

How do we live faithfully? How do we inherit the eternal life that means that death in this life is not the end? Did you hear what Jesus told the legal expert? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and [love] your neighbor as yourself.”[5] Elsewhere, Jesus has referred to these as the greatest commandments.[6] Love God. Love your neighbor. Love yourself. It seems pretty simple, and yet we all know that faithful living can get tricky, it can get hard. How do we respond faithfully when we’re angry? How do we love God when there is evil in the world? How do we love ourselves when we’re angry with ourselves for not doing the good we want to do, but instead doing the evil we don’t want to do?[7] And, for crying out loud, how do we love our neighbor when our neighbor seems hell-bent on destroying us?!

Well, sometimes, we try to play dumb and say that they’re not actually our neighbor. We don’t have to actually love everyone, right? Well… there’s that pesky Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel when Jesus says “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”[8] And in this case, in Luke’s Gospel, the legal expert asks Jesus, “who is my neighbor?” You know, in case there’s some middle ground between neighbors and enemies, and there actually are some people we don’t have to love. Wouldn’t that be nice?

So the legal expert knows those first two commandments to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. But this guy, sometimes translated as a lawyer or as a teacher of law, comes across as legalistic, too. You know, dot every I, cross every T, follow the letter of the law exactly. This guy wants to justify himself, he wants to prove that he’s right, that he is upholding the law exactly as written. This is our human tendency. It’s like the child asking just how many green beans she has to eat to get dessert. Or the teenager asking how many good grades he has to get, and what counts as a good grade, before he can borrow the car. And in these scenarios, it becomes what do you have to do to get a reward. What do we have to do to receive eternal life? What laws do we have to keep to live faithfully? And what’s the answer? How many laws? Which ones? [Make buzzer sound.] That was a trick question, because the answer is none of them. We do not have to do anything to receive eternal life, except believe in Jesus. “God so loved the world that he sent his only beloved son, that…[pause] whosoever believes in Jesus will receive eternal life.”[9] Whoever believes in Jesus gets eternal life. Period. Now, if we really do believe in Jesus, then we will act on that belief and love God, love ourselves, and love our neighbor. But there’s no two-inch thick book of rules that we have to keep to do those three things.

The legal expert wants to know, “who’s my neighbor?” and sometimes that’s our question, too. Tell us just who we have to love and who we don’t have to. Make life easier for us, Jesus. Who are our neighbors and who are not? But, if you’ll notice, that’s not Jesus’ question. Jesus answers the question with a story that is well-known to many of us. A man goes traveling down a dangerous road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Along the way, he’s mugged and left for dead. A pastor comes by and ignores him. Another church leader goes by and ignores him. (This is not a story that makes us church leaders look good.) Then, along comes someone you really don’t like. I don’t know whether for you that would be a drunk or an addict or someone who’s homeless or someone who’s political views are polar opposite of yours or maybe someone who doesn’t believe in Jesus. Anyway, that’s who comes along and helps the man. The person we least want to accept help from. And Jesus’ question is who was a neighbor to the one who was attacked and suffering?

Brothers and sisters, there are a lot of suffering people out there. Some of them look like us, some of them don’t. Some of them speak other languages. Some of them have other customs, other beliefs, other religions. Jesus did not specify any of that. Instead of asking “who is my neighbor?” he asks “who is a neighbor?” and you’ll notice that the definition of neighbor is the one who shows mercy, the one who treats kindly those who are suffering. Yes, some of us are suffering, we’ve had quite a few people in and out of the hospital the last couple weeks. And there are others who are suffering, too, in St. Paul, in Baton Rouge, in Dallas, in Nice, in Turkey, in Baltimore. Jesus says that we are to go and show mercy, too. Mercy to the suffering, mercy to the oppressed, mercy to the victims, mercy to those without a voice or a vote, mercy to the unemployed, mercy to the undocumented, mercy to the homeless, mercy to the hopeless, mercy to those who were not born with the advantages that we were born with.

In our baptismal covenant there are three questions that we ask all persons who are about to be baptized. I invite you to pull out hymnal, turn to page 34, and join me in pledging ourselves again to renounce sin, resist evil, and confess Jesus Christ as Savior.

Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of your sin? I do.

Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves? I do.

Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior, put your whole trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as your Lord, in union with the Church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races? I do.

            (p. 39) The God of all grace, who has called us to eternal glory in Christ, establish you and strengthen you by the power of the Holy Spirit, that you may live in grace and peace. Amen.

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[1] John 16:33, NLT

[2] John Swinton, Raging with Compassion: Pastoral Responses to the Problem of Evil (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007), 55.

[3] Ibid., 4.

[4] Romans 8:28

[5] Luke 10:27

[6] Matthew 22:38

[7] Romans 7:19

[8] Matthew 5:44

[9] John 3:16b