All Saints’ Eve (a.k.a., Happy Halloween!)

20^th Sunday after Pentecost

October 27, 2019

Joel 2:23-32; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14

            Happy Halloween! Next Sunday is All Saints’ Sunday, and unlike other holy days, there isn’t much build up to it. Christmas has the four weeks of Advent and Christmas Eve. Easter has the 40 days of Lent and then the high holy days of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday. Pentecost gets the count of 50 days after Easter. Epiphany follows the 12 days of Christmas. But All Saints’ Sunday just kinda appears each year on the first Sunday of November. Well, knowing that All Saints is next week, when I first read our Scriptures for this morning, they made me think of a preparation for All Saints, or All Saints Eve, if you will, except we already have an All Saints Eve. It’s called Halloween, All Hallows Eve! Since our festivities on October 31 don’t involve coming to church, we’re going to celebrate this morning.

            The most obvious All Saints Eve text is the one from 2 Timothy. It’s debated whether Paul actually wrote the second letter to Timothy near the end of his life or whether another author wrote it in Paul’s name after his death. Either way, it describes Paul’s assessment of his life and mission as they draw to a close. We know that at the end he was imprisoned in Rome, which is where he died. Here in 2 Timothy, Paul seems quite aware that his death is near. Listen to what he says, “I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” Isn’t that all the more any of us want to be able to say at the end? I kept the faith. I finished the race. I lived a life worthy of the calling I received from God (that’s from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians).

            There are a couple ways Jesus puts it in Matthew 25. First, from the parable Jesus tells about the 8 bags of gold, there is the expectation that you will use wisely and invest in the talents that God entrusted to you. Are you being faithful with what’s been entrusted to you? The people God’s given you to love, the talents and abilities God gave you to develop and use for his glory, and the material things given to you take care of during your lifetime. Have you been faithful? Immediately after the story of the talents, Jesus says it will be the time for the shepherd to separate the sheep from the goats. I’m not sure why the goats get scapegoated, but the questions Jesus asks here are about whether or not you loved your neighbor.  Did you feed the hungry? Did you give something to drink to the thirsty? When you saw a stranger, did you invite them in? Or when you saw someone needing clothes, did you clothe them? Did you go visit those who are sick and in prison? Because by doing those things, by showing love to your neighbor in those concrete ways, you showed you love God. Jesus says, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

            At the end of his life, Paul was confident that he had faithfully completed his apostolic mission. He had gone to the places where God sent him. He had proclaimed God’s word and shared the good news of Jesus Christ. He had developed leaders, like Timothy, to come along after him. And he had done all this even when facing not just possible rejection but for doing the work God called him to he received beatings, whippings, imprisonment, at the end, is facing death as a result of staying true to the calling God placed on his life. We don’t all have the same calling. I don’t know that any of us here are called to go around Asia Minor as a church planter. We’re here in western Howard County. I’ve been called here, to serve with you. And as I look around and listen and pray, I think God’s calling us specifically to a mission of strengthening and nurturing families. How can we help the families in our community so that they have healthy relationships with each other, so that they are less overwhelmed, so that they have time to spend with each other, nurturing their faith and opportunities to serve God as well? We’re off to a good start. We’ve got wisdom and love in our pews and we’ve got some of us deep in the trenches of raising children. When you’re done, at the end of your life, will you also be able to say that you were faithful and you fulfilled the calling God placed on your life?

            Being faithful isn’t just actions but also in your words and attitude toward God and towards others. In our Gospel lesson this morning Jesus tells the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Jesus tells this story specifically to people who are confident of their own righteousness and goodness and looked down on everyone else, as in, people who think they’re better than others. Their moral compass points to true North. Actually, it’s really easy to judge the Pharisee in this story. He’s obviously the bad guy, the one with the bad attitude. When I preached on this passage three years ago, in my previous appointment, I pointed out the things that the Pharisees did right. They were very disciplined. They prayed regularly. They tithed, which means they gave ten percent of their income to the temple. And what the Pharisee seems to be missing is someone to listen to him. He prays loudly, front and center at the temple, to make sure not just God but other people hear him. Everyone needs someone to listen to them. And just listen to listen. Not listen to fix or listen to give advice or in one ear and out the other. No, a lot of people just need someone to listen to them. They need to know that they’re heard. They need to know that they matter. Maybe that’s the boat you’re in this week. If you don’t know who else to call, call me. That’s part of my calling as pastor is to listen. For all of us saints, however, are you listening to others? Are you faithful in your listening?

As for praying, the tax collector offers a model prayer, sometimes called the Jesus prayer. “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” We talked last month about the Greek phrase for it, “Kyrie Eleison,” Lord, have mercy. Are you praying that? Both for yourself and for others? Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. Lord, have mercy on my brother and sister who are hurting. If you find yourself at a loss for words when you’re praying, try those two sentences and stay faithful in your prayer life and in your listening, which are really the same thing.

            Our last All Saints Eve passage is from Joel. The second chapter of Joel is really fascinating. The first part of it describes a plague of locusts, disastrous in any agricultural community. Then comes the passage we read on Ash Wednesday at the beginning of Lent, “‘Even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.’ Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” And then comes this promise that we read, a promise of abundance and of plenty and of being fully satisfied and never hungry again. God promises repayment for the years that the locusts have eaten and that we will know that “I am the Lord your God and there is no other.” Then, included in our passage this week, at the end of the chapter, is the description of the day when God will pour out the Holy Spirit on all people. It’s the section we read and claim on the day of Pentecost, with the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church. Ash Wednesday and Pentecost all in one chapter, and even echoes of Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John, when Jesus tells the woman at the well, “whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst,” and he says to the disciples, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Ash Wednesday and repentance, just like the “Lord, have mercy on me” prayer. The pouring out of the Holy Spirit on all people at Pentecost, and we’re celebrating their lives next Sunday on All Saints. And this promise of abundance and no more hunger, because a longed-for change is coming. Joel was written around the year 400 BC, while God’s people were in exile. They’re looking for the end. They’re looking for the promised land. And God promises that God will do it. You see, the people cannot bring it about. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot get ourselves out of exile on our own strength. But God can do it and will do it. What is our God calling us out of exile to do and be in a new promised land? (Because remember, we can’t go back. We covered that two weeks ago.) Moving forward, I believe God is calling us to strengthen families. Please join me in praying discernment both to affirm and then how to go about it. 

          So, finally, in view of the coming All Saints Sunday, remember Hebrews 11. It’s the role call of faith when all kinds of faithful saints are commended for their faith: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Rahab, and the list goes on. Yet, that chapter also says, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth… These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”

I was reminded this past week that what we do is so counter-cultural, and the saints who have gone before us knew it, and lived it. Life as a saint is counter-cultural because we give shelter to strangers and food to the hungry and we don’t do it because it’s a good thing to do or to make ourselves look good! We do it because this guy, Jesus, tells us to. We do it because we believe that loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves are the two greatest things we can do. We come here every week to worship God and not ourselves, which is quite countercultural in this egocentric day and age. Worship is about God, not about us. Worship reorients us back to God, just like on Ash Wednesday. We pray for God’s Spirit to be poured out on us again, just like on Pentecost. And we live in a very countercultural way of believing in and trusting God’s abundance and salvation. We don’t hold on tightly to our things. Rather we know that everything we have has been entrusted to us by God and we will be held accountable for being good stewards of them. Be encouraged to finish the race. Stay faithful. Live a life worthy of the calling you received from God. Amen.

Being Gentle on Yourself: A Reflection

October 17, 2019

"You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves."
from "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver, published in 1986

My husband and I had some miscommunication over what he meant when he said I'd been pushing myself hard (the opposite of being gentle on yourself). I thought he was referring to the past four months of working out and found myself wondering how supportive of it he really was. But no, he was only referring to the two fitness classes I took that each resulted in my being practically dead to the world for the next 48 hours and significantly fatigued for at least three days. Imagine. Using three days' worth of energy in one hour. Because I could get through the class ok, with modifications. But three days of recovery is excessive. It means that a one hour fitness class is not being gentle on myself. My 30 minute exercise videos, yes. I can still function and have normal days with them. I can't with that class.

It was frustrating hitting that wall, learning that boundary of my body that I didn't know was there. I'm in arguably the best shape of my life - muscle tone and definition, it's all there. And I can get through a class! And enjoyed it! But at a high price. Another betrayal of my body. Another boundary line in the exile country of rheumatoid arthritis.

My sermon on Sunday (Oct 15 - https://pastoraheather.blogspot.com/2019/10/no-going-back.html ) hit home for me, more than usual. There's no going back to life before RA, no matter how well I manage my symptoms, no matter how well I adapt to my limits, no matter how physically fit I am. There is only going forward. Settle down and build houses (Jeremiah 29:5). In the well-being of your place of exile, you will find your well-being (Jeremiah 29:7). Life is permanently changed. I knew this, I've known this for 13 years. I thought I could still do this one normal thing of an exercise class, with modifications. It turns out my exercising is far more irrevocably changed than I had realized.

A Minced Oath Is the Voice in Your Head

19^th Sunday after Pentecost

October 20, 2019

Jeremiah 31:27-34; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Luke 18:1-8

            We usually remember Jeremiah’s call story for the first part.[1] That’s the exchange between the Lord and Jeremiah when God says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” And Jeremiah replies, “Who, me? I’m no good at public speaking. I’m too young. They won’t listen to me.” Then the Lord tells Jeremiah, “Do not say, ‘I’m too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you.” And we often stop the call story right there with the reassurance of “Go where I send you. Do not be afraid. I am always with you and will rescue you.” While that seems like a nice stopping point, the conversation doesn’t end there. Next, “the Lord reached out his hand and touched Jeremiah’s mouth and said to him, ‘I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.’”[2] Those six verbs, four destructive: uproot, tear down, destroy, and overthrow; and the two constructive verbs: build and plant; show up again in today’s Jeremiah reading. Now in chapter 31, the Lord declares, “Just as I watched over [my people] to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant.” God watched over his people while they uprooted, tore down, destroyed, and overthrew. Now it is time for God’s people to build and to plant. God watched over them through the bad times; now God is going to watch over them during the good times.

In addition to watching over his people while they build and plant, God is going to make a new covenant with them. The Lord declares, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”[3] “In other words, this is to be a relationship guided by an internal voice,” not by external words and actions.[4] “God will relate to each person as an individual, not just to the community as a whole,” because each person will know God and have access to God. We don’t need to go through the priest as an intermediary. We will each have God’s laws written in our hearts and on our minds. That’s where the internal voice comes from.

So, how do you develop your internal voice? Where does it come from? Whose voice is it? Does it sound like your mom or your dad? Is it a voice of criticism or one of encouragement? Maybe it’s a character like Jiminy Cricket who serves as Pinocchio’s conscience. 

You know what’s interesting about that is the origin of the phrase “jiminy cricket.” Anyone ever heard someone say it? You have if you’ve ever watched Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” One of the dwarves says it. Jiminy Cricket is a minced oath for Jesus Christ. You know, like when you stay gosh or darn instead of something stronger? That’s called a minced oath. The minced version of taking Jesus’ name in vain is jiminy cricket. It’s not one you hear anymore, perhaps because Disney took it and made it into a cartoon character, but isn’t that interesting to think about Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio’s conscience, as another name for Jesus Christ? It’s interesting because your internal voice should sound like Jesus. That’s what it means to have God’s laws written on your heart and mind. And the answer for how you develop your internal voice is found in our other Scripture readings this morning.

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul wrote that “Every scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for showing mistakes, for correcting, and for training character, so that everyone who belongs to God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”[5] In other words, Scripture is inspired by God and it’s helpful. These stories didn’t get written down just for the sake of writing them down or to make money publishing books. Scripture is helpful and effective at helping you grow in your faith and grow closer to God, and you shouldn’t let others read it for you. You need to read it for yourself, whether it’s a physical book on your lap or you download an app or you listen to it on audible. It’s important to spend time with Scripture not just on Sundays but every day, whether you following a reading program or you just pick a random passage. Read it and meditate on it; this is what our ancestors in the faith called lectio divina. Holy reading. You read the words, or listen to them, and you let the holy words of Scripture read you and influence you and affect you, not just cognitively but in your heart. That’s how God’s words get written on your heart. That’s how you develop your internal voice. And, in turn, this develops character, just as Paul said. Because it’s not the ethics case study of what are you going to do in a crisis; instead you are already formed as part of God’s people, you already know God’s Word, and in any scenario, you’re going to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said that was the second greatest commandment, after the first one, which is to love God. One way you love God is by reading scripture and letting those words be written on your heart and mind.

And maybe you’re not a reader and audible books put you to sleep, well, how about music? Many folks over the history of the Church have put Scripture to music. Another way to learn God’s Word and develop that internal voice is by learning and knowing the music that is inspired by Scripture. A lot of it is found in that red book (hymnal) next to your bible in your pew. At the bottom of many hymns, along with the author and composer’s names, is the scripture that inspired the author to write that song. For example, our last hymn today, “Here I Am, Lord,” was inspired by Isaiah 6:8, the part of Isaiah’s call story where Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And Isaiah said, “Here am I. Send me!” These hymn writers were inspired by God, some by how they saw God moving their life circumstances, some directly by Scripture. Our choir accompanist likes to say that there is a song for every mood, and there is, because there is Scripture for every mood. “There is nothing new under the sun,” as it says in Ecclesiastes 1:9, and if you look, you will find the word that you need to hear. Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”[6] Seek and you will find, but you’re not going to find if you don’t go looking. So read your Bible and your hymnal. If you don’t have one, we have extras here J Scripture will help form your internal voice in a healthy, life-giving way.

Our Gospel story this morning talked about persistence. Sometimes you have to keep looking and keep praying and not give up, even when it feels like it’s not making a difference. I mentioned last week that health and wellness take time and work. You can’t snap your fingers and you’ve got your Jiminy Cricket. I love the verse before Jesus told the story of the unjust judge and the persistent widow. Luke wrote that “Jesus told his disciples this parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Pray always and do not lose heart. Don’t become discouraged. After all, this widow had to keep coming to the judge, keeping her case ever before him, keep asking, demanding for justice. And for a time the judge refused. He didn’t care about God or the people. But eventually, the widow wore him down. The corrupt judge finally gave in, because she had pestered him to death. He said, “Even though I don't fear God or respect people, yet because of all the trouble this widow is giving me, I will see to it that she gets her rights. If I don't, she will keep on coming and finally wear me out!” And Jesus says, “So what makes you think God won’t provide justice to his people who cry out to him day and night? Will he be slow to help them? I tell you, he will give them justice quickly. But how much of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when he returns?” How persistent are you in your faith? If you don’t find a good Scripture the first time you go looking, do you close the book and stop looking? If you don’t hear a good song on the radio when you turn it on, do you turn off the radio? No, either you change the station or you wait out the bad song to see what comes on next! Don’t give up! In fact, I’m going to challenge you. From now until the end of the year, that’s 71 days, read your bible every day. I don’t care whether you sit down for an hour or you sign up for an email list that will send you a verse a day. Read at least one verse every day. This may already be your habit, in which case, great! You’re well on your way to developing your internal voice. If it’s not your custom, it’s time to start. See what you can do, whether it’s in the car or you set your alarm 5 minutes earlier or go to bed 5 minutes later. Every day. And ask me how I’m doing, too. I use a morning devotional, but probably only read it about 90% of the time. Hold me accountable as well, and let’s see if together we can’t get to 100%.

Finally, and you may have already figured this out, you don’t have to do it on your own on Sundays. On Sundays we come together to read Scripture, and sing, and pray. The morning bible study is reading a classic book on Christian community, “Life Together” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The first chapter was on community and the importance of the physical presence of other Christians. Last week’s chapter was on “The Day with Others,” and talking about worship. For Christians the day begins with dawn, when Christ rose in victory over the grave. So, therefore, the “morning does not belong to the individual, it belongs to the Church of the triune God, to the Christian family.”[7] We’ve already covered Scripture, so let me touch briefly on singing and prayer. First, when we sing together, “it is the voice of the Church that is heard in [our] singing together. It is not you, [individually], that sings, it is the Church that is singing, and you, as a member of the Church, may share in its song.”[8] This is something to remember. We’re singing for Jesus, not for each other. It does not matter how “good” your voice is or how well you know the song. The Church is singing, and you are invited to join in. And the same thing goes for prayer. First, during prayer, anyone’s prayer, do not be afraid to pray, do not be timid about having the right words, and do not be critical of another’s prayer.[9] Whenever a prayer is offered in the name of Jesus, Jesus receives it in the spirit it’s offered, regardless of stammering or word choice or eloquence. We are to receive and listen to and offer prayers in the same way and to do it regardless of our mood at the time.[10] I know there are times I’m a more eloquent pray-er than at other times. The point is you do it, anyway. This is part of being the Church together, of helping each other develop their internal voice, of reminding each other that God’s words are written in our hearts and on our minds. Who knows? Maybe the voice in your head does sound like Jiminy Cricket. Keep going. Be encouraged. We’re all in this together and we’re here for each other.

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[1] Jeremiah 1:4-8

[2] Jeremiah 1:9-10

[3] Jeremiah 31:33-34

[4] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3023

[5] 2 Timothy 3:16

[6] Matthew 7:7-8

[7] Page 41

[8] Page 61

[9] Page 62

[10] Page 64

No Going Back

18^th Sunday after Pentecost

October 13, 2019

Jeremiah 29:1-7; Luke 17:11-19

            The week before last, I went on two back-to-back trips. Back-to-back trips are tough, I tell you what. The second one was a surprise one planned by my husband to celebrate my 40^th birthday. The first one was for you all. We were invited last spring to participate in a program called the Financial Leadership Academy, or FLA for short. We debated at Ad Board whether or not to do it. Then, when we approved our new mission and vision statements, we realized that the FLA would help us achieve the goal we had just set for ourselves of financial stability. The FLA is a two year program; during the first year I go up to Lancaster four times for the clergy-only sessions. During year two, you all get involved and they will meet with us on four Saturdays at a location closer to us. The FLA is intense; when I arrived, there were six books waiting for me at my table. We had homework to do before the session, and I have even more reading to do before the next session, next month. The good news is I love to read and I already had two of those six books, although I hadn’t read them cover to cover.

The reading we had to do before the first session was from a book by Gil Rendle called “Quietly Courageous: Leading the Church in a Changing World.” It was on my Amazon wish list but I hadn’t ordered it yet. The opening paragraph in our reading began, “There is no going back. This may be the most difficult lesson for the aging leaders of established organizations and institutions, including congregations and denominations. Nonetheless, the first task of leadership is to paint an honest picture of the current reality. The current reality is so deeply changed that it challenges old ways of leadership and asks for quiet, purposeful courage.”[1] That was a theme throughout the reading. There is no going back to the time when “everyone” went to church. There is no going back to the time when all you had to do was open the church doors and people would show up. Yes, “the wish to recapture the old days remains strong. For many, not being able to recapture old memories produces confusion and guilt. However, there is no going back… [And] until leaders can accept that ours is not a turnaround situation, it cannot be addressed as a move-ahead situation. It takes courage to face a reality that is difficult and can’t be turned around to reclaim an earlier day that is remembered as strong and was certainly easier from a leadership perspective.”[2]

Times have changed. You all know that. Society is vastly different now than it was 50 years ago. It’s different even from 10 years ago. And there’s no going back. There’s only going forward. It reminds me of the phrase “you can’t step in the same river twice.” That quote is attributed to Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher born in 544 BC. The full sentence is, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” The world around us changes, and we change. And even while there are times when we wish we could do the things we could do when we were younger, even though there are places we wish we could return to, we know that we can’t. Not in our personal lives. Not in the church, either. There is no going back, however much we might wish it. There is only going forward.

            This is the hard truth Jeremiah speaks to the exiles in our scripture this morning. They have been carried off by King Nebuchadnezzar from Jerusalem to Babylon, and Jeremiah sends them a letter from Jerusalem, where he is still in captivity. What kind of news would you want from someone back home after you’ve been forced to leave? Good news? News that you’ll get to go back soon? News that your exile is temporary, maybe?  “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”[3] In other words, settle down. Put down roots. Bloom where you are planted, regardless of your feelings about where you’re planted. If we were to keep reading in Jeremiah, we’d learn that the Lord says to expect to be in Babylon about 70 years. 70 years! Do you expect to be around in 70 years? I don’t expect to be around in 70 years. My kids, yes; me, no. This means there is no going back for these adults. Their children can look forward to it, but the adult exiles need to adjust to and accept their new circumstances. There is no going back, so they’d better make the most of it. After all, God tells them, “your wellbeing is tied up in the wellbeing of this strange land.”

            While most of us do not live in physical exile today, we do sometimes find ourselves in a strange land. Instead of Babylon, it may be called widowhood or divorced or chronic disease or an accident or some way that life has irrevocably changed in a way that was not your choice. When you find yourself in that strange land, there is no going back but only forward. Seek the wellbeing of your new situation. You can’t alter your new circumstances to become like the old ones. So, where you find yourself now, look around. See who’s around you. Get to know your new circumstances. And then bloom in the place where you find yourself now planted. Seek the wellbeing of this new place.

            Many of you all know that the most obvious example for me is my rheumatoid arthritis. Would I like to go back to being 26 again, before the RA? Yes! It would be great to do whatever I wanted and not have to worry about how my physical actions affected my body. Instead, the rheumatoid arthritis affected pretty much everything in my life, from the shoes I wore, making sure they had enough support, to the car I drive, an SUV because on bad days it’s hard to get up out of a sedan. I’ve been exercising since the beginning of summer, but every exercise I have to evaluate to see how it affects my joints and I do a lot of modifications. But it’s better than not exercising at all! God says, work for the good of whatever situation where you find yourself. Pray to God for the good of that situation, because in its welfare, you will find your welfare. Or, to use a different word than welfare or good, seek the wellbeing, seek the health, seek the happiness of the situation you’re in, because in its wellbeing, in its health, in its happiness, you will find yours. This is how we move forward when there’s no going back.

And remember that when you find that health, or, rather, when you are made whole, remember to find Jesus and thank him. There was a sign on a bulletin board at my sending church to promote the wellness ministry and it said, “Wellness happens.” The sign drove my mom nuts, and she would try to hide it every time she saw it. My mom’s a nurse. She knows that health doesn’t just happen, like magic, or out of thin air. You have to work at health. You have to rehabilitate your knee. You have to take medicine. You have to go to therapy. You have to keep your relationship with God right. You have to work to stay healthy. It’s much easier to get or stay sick. You have to work to get healthy, you have to work to stay healthy. So, after you’ve been sick for a while, or after you’ve been hurting for a while, as you might if you find yourself somewhere you don’t want to be, be sure to thank Jesus when you’re restored to health.

            Today’s Gospel lesson is about the ten lepers who ask Jesus to have mercy on them. Jesus does, and he heals them. Except to be fully healed from leprosy, you have to be restored to your community again. Lepers were thought to be so contagious they were kicked out of town in order not to get others sick. That’s why Jesus tells them to show themselves to the priests to show that they are no longer leprous, that they are physically healed and are ready to be socially healed as well. The ten lepers do that, and then only one returns to Jesus to thank him. And Jesus says, “Get up and go. Your faith has healed you.” In other words, don’t turn back. Keep going forward. Your faith has healed you.

Faith puts trust in God alone. Faith works for the well-being of wherever you are. And faith remembers where healing and wholeness come from. Salvation does not come from anywhere else but from God alone. Healing and wholeness comes from God alone. It may be mediated through others, such as a doctor or a pastor or a friend or even a stranger. God can work through anyone. So make sure you give God thanks!

I remember a story that Corrie ten Boom tells in her memoir, “The Hiding Place.” Anyone familiar with Corrie’s story? Corrie and her family are Dutch and were in the Netherlands when the Nazis invaded in 1940. They felt compelled by their Christian faith to help their Jewish friends and they hid many in a secret room in their house. After a time, they were discovered and Corrie and her sister were sent to a concentration camp. In the camp the sisters used a hidden Bible to teach their fellow prisoners about Jesus. They were always in fear of being discovered, yet never were and eventually found out why. Their camp had a horrible rat infestation, and Corrie’s sister was always thanking God for the rats. Corrie had a strong faith, but never understood why her sister would thank God even for the rats in their camp. It turned out that the high rat population kept away the soldiers from inspecting their camp too closely, which is why their hidden Bible was never discovered. Corrie’s sister died in the camp; Corrie went back home to the Netherlands at the end of the war. Of course, “home” was not the same as it had been before the war, and instead of continuing her family’s 100 year history of watchmaking, she opened a rehabilitation center for survivors and went on to become an author and public speaker. There was no going back to life before the war.

            There’s a song you may know; it’s in the small, black “The Faith We Sing.” It’s called “I have decided to follow Jesus.” The refrain repeats, “no turning back, no turning back.”  It’s hard. It may not be what you want. But together, with quiet courage, like the title of that book, we can move forward. I invite you to sing with me, if you’d like. It’s #2129.

I have decided to follow Jesus,

I have decided to follow Jesus,

I have decided to follow Jesus -

no turning back, no turning back.

The world behind me, the cross before me,

the world behind me, the cross before me,

the world behind me, the cross before me -

no turning back, no turning back.

Though none go with me, I still will follow,

though none go with me, I still will follow,

though none go with me, I still will follow -

no turning back, no turning back.

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[1] Page 19

[2] Pages 20-21

[3] Jeremiah 29:4-7

#40isgonnalookgoodonme

September 24, 2019

Why would God care what I had for breakfast?
Because God cares that I take care of my body.
Because breakfast is the most important meal of the day. (I learned that on Sesame Street approximately 35 year ago!)

I had a pumpkin spice shakeology and pumpkin purée shake for breakfast today. Ever since I started exercising in late June, I’ve been drinking protein shakes on days I work out. For 9 weeks I worked out 6 days/week. On 2 weeks I traveled, to Indy and to OK, and worked out less - not at all on the week in Indy and for 3 days in OK I only did stretches in my hotel room. Then the better part of a 3rd week I was sick - with what turned out to be allergies. But I felt so bad I thought it was a cold the first 4 days, and slept most of 2 of those 4 days. I lost 4 days of work-outs to that, too. Last week I only worked out 5 days, because on the 5th day I took a fitness class in person and it was an hour long, twice as long as my usual work-outs, so I took the next day off. This week will only be 4 days, because of the fitness class again and an early meeting Thursday morning. Next week - Lancaster for 2 days and then Puerto Rico!!!!!! Yay!!!! I had marked my 40th birthday (on Oct 3) as the goal/end mark of all this. Except, I will still have protein shake mix left. And I don’t want to lose the muscle tone I’ve developed. That’s really been the point of it this time - not weight loss (although I’ve lost 10 pounds), but getting stronger. Now, I want to maintain my strength. I’m still working on figuring out how...

Waiting... and Counting...

15^th Sunday after Pentecost

September 22, 2019

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1; Psalm 56; Luke 16:1-13

            I don’t know about your week, but my week was one of those where by Friday, I started counting. By Friday morning, I was up to 5 doctor visits between me and the kids, 4 church meetings, 2 pastoral visits, 2 community visits, 1 community member helped by the Samaritan Fund, and, most excitedly, TWO new ministries in the works here at Lisbon. On Tuesday I ate lunch with SEVEN pastors who serve churches here in the area of western Howard County and southern Carroll County. We are working on forming a coalition among us so that we can share our resources and ideas and together better serve our community. For our next gathering, we even listed 8 more pastors to invite to join us! Then, on Wednesday I met with Ms. A., the principal at Lisbon Elementary to discuss how the church and the school can partner together, since we’re next door neighbors. We talked about a couple obvious ways, like sponsoring a needy family over the holidays to provide a special meal and gifts for them. But then as the conversation continued, Ms. A. realized that what would really be a huge help would be for us to offer childcare during one-time special school events when they really don’t want parents to bring younger siblings, like when the kindergarteners and 5^th graders make candy houses in December and during 5^th grade graduation in June. We looked into it Thursday morning, and all we have to do is hold a training for our church members who are interested in helping, run background checks on anyone working directly with the children, and have the parents sign a waiver. So, we’re moving forward with it! It’s been a very full week, although a good week, which is why by Friday morning, I found myself counting the different things I’d done during the week.

            Counting is a theme in our Scriptures this week as well and we’re going to start with the dishonest counting we just read in Luke. Jesus told his disciples the parable of the dishonest manager, or sometimes called the shrewd manager. The truth is he was both dishonest and shrewd; it’s really strange. He was about to get fired because of his dishonesty, and so he became shrewd so that when he lost his job, he’d still have some place to go and friends who would take him in. The manager met with each person who owed his master money and had them alter their bills so that they didn’t owe as much. In other words, he forgave their debts. The master heard about it and commended his manager! “Why? Because he knew how to look after himself.” Jesus in effect says here that “Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior.”[1] Here’s the parallel with us: what we have doesn’t really belong to us, either. We are stewards, or managers, of our wealth and our property. They belong to God, and are entrusted to us while we are on this earth. Our stewardship in this life must be faithful, as in we must use those things rightly and according to God’s will. Otherwise, why would we be trusted with true riches, which is eternal life? “If you’re honest in small things, you’ll be honest in big things. If you’re a crook in small things, you’ll be a crook in big things. If you’re not honest in small jobs, who will put you in charge of the store?”[2] The answer is no one. And wealth is not neutral. Either you use what you have for God’s purposes or you don’t. We can either serve God, or we can serve money. “The way we live now has consequences for how we experience God’s future. The way we live, the values we hold, the relationships we form today are vitally related to God’s future.”[3] How you count matters. Make sure you do it honestly and faithfully, always remembering that “all things come of thee, O Lord,” and we are just the temporary caretakers.

            Now, in Jeremiah, the people have been counting honestly, but not counting money. They’ve been counting the seasons: the springtime harvest, the dog days of summer, and now it’s fall, but the people are still hurting. They’ve had a long wait and things have only gotten worse instead of better. They’re counting until healing comes, and are still counting. It’s interesting, the verse in Jeremiah is in the form of a question, “Is there no balm in Gilead?” and the song we just sang answers that question in the affirmative, “There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole.” In Jeremiah’s time, there was literally a balm from Gilead; it was resin from the Styrax tree, for which Gilead was famous. It was used medicinally and was exported widely. Yet there are times when it feels like there isn’t a balm, when you’re waiting for things to get better and they don’t. That’s what’s going on here in Jeremiah. The people are waiting for salvation… and still waiting. And Jeremiah is hurting with the people. He’s not happy to be proven right about his prophecy; this prophet loves his people and would have loved to be wrong, because then it would mean the people would not be suffering. Instead they suffered through springtime, they suffered through summer, and now it’s fall and they’re still looking for a healing balm and restored health. And the prophet weeps with the people. Is there any balm that might help? They’re still waiting, and counting. “How long, O Lord?”

Finally, our psalm today is not the assigned psalm, but one that fits in with counting, especially when you’re waiting to be healed. It is a psalm of lament. “Have mercy on me, O God,” that kyrie eleison from last week, Lord, have mercy. Why? Because people are hounding me, pursuing me, and oppressing me all day long. All day, they hurt my cause and plan evil against me. And you know what? It says people or enemies or flesh, but sometimes what’s hounding us may be a disease, or genetics, or our past. It may be a mental illness or a mental block of something. I’ve met a couple women whose mothers died while middle-aged, one at 46 and the other at 63, and for both of those women, it was a huge deal when they reached that age and lived past it. I have three chronic conditions myself, one that started in my teens, one in my 20s, and one in my 30s, such that I find myself wondering what’s going to happen in my 40s, and I turn 40 in about ten days. But here’s the other thing about this psalm: if you count, there are more lines focusing on trust in God than on cries for help. And the turning point in this psalm is the verse I focused on with the children. “You have kept count of my restless nights. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. Are they not recorded in your book?” 

Tear drops in a bottle, from www.lovedoesthat.etsy.com

This isn’t about us counting; this is about God counting. We’re used to the verse where Jesus says he knows the number of hairs on our head.[4] This is Jesus saying he knows the number of tears you’ve cried, and hasn’t just counted them and let them fall where they may, but collected them, and recorded them. Wow.

Contemporary Christian group Point of Grace released a song in 1996 called “Keep the Candle Burning.” The first verse says, “You think you're alone there in your silent storm/ But I've seen the tears you've cried falling down and trying to drown/ The flame of hope inside.” The reason those tears aren’t actually drowning out the flame of hope and extinguishing it is because God’s catching them. And not just wiping them on his pants or a tissue, but putting them in his bottle and recording each one in his book. That’s how that candle keeps burning. That’s why a psalm of lament talks more about trust in God than about anything else. The tears are not lost. Nor do you cry in vain. The thing about psalms of lament is that they often move us from a past way of being through a profound disorientation where you don’t know which way is up, and land us on the other side not the same as before but with a new orientation, a new testimony, a deeper understanding of God and faith. We are transformed in a way only made possible by God, who causes new life where none seems possible, who keeps that candle of hope burning, who counts our tears and waits with us as we count the time until we are transformed.

“Is there no balm in Gilead?” Yes, there is a balm in Gilead. His name is Jesus. “How long, O Lord?” Uh, well, time works differently with the Lord. Psalm 90:4 says, “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.” Yet that same psalm also says, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” One commentary I read said that “number our days” does not refer to the whole span of one’s life, but to a specific preset period of time. Moreover, we need to accurately, honestly count the number of days of that time period so that we might understand that there is indeed an end to it.[5] Whatever days you are counting, whatever season you’re in that you’re waiting and waiting and waiting for it to end, keep counting. Count faithfully, as in accurately and with faith and hope. There is an end to it. When? I don’t know. I don’t know how long. What I do know is that the Lord is collecting your tears and recording them. They are not in vain. Your struggles are not in vain. “In God I trust and am not afraid,” no matter what may be hounding me or knocking at the door. No matter what season I’m in, whether it’s a fruitful one or a season of drought. I will be faithful with what has been entrusted to me.

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[1] Luke 16:8-9, MSG

[2] Luke 16:10-12, MSG

[3] Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, p. 48

[4] Matthew 10:30

[5] The Book of Psalms, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament, p. 695

A Hot Wind Is Blowing

14^th Sunday after Pentecost

September 15, 2019

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; 1Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10

            There are two themes tying together our Scripture readings this morning. The first one is sin. In Jeremiah, God’s people are about to be on the receiving end of divine judgment because of their sin. Jesus is charged with welcoming sinners and eating with them. (How dare he! He’s supposed to be eating with the good people, with us.) And then Timothy says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am chief.”[1] We know what Paul wrote to the Romans, that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”[2] None of us is perfect, no matter how we appear to the outside world or how much we cultivate our social media profiles. We all sin. We all are in need of a Savior. We are all in need of gathering in, like we just sang, at some point in our lives or another. We all need seeking out, just as the shepherd went after the one lost sheep and the woman went after her one lost coin. We all need to know that we matter and are loved, even when we’ve gone astray, even when we’re lost, even when we’ve sinned and completely made a mess of things. We need to know that someone will look for us, someone will welcome us, someone will still make room for us to sit with them at their table. We need to know we’re not beyond redemption, not beyond hope. And God does that, but not before first God sends a wind.

            In Jeremiah, God sends a hot wind, kinda like the one we had on Thursday. I could feel it standing at the afternoon bus stop – 90 degrees, full sun, and a hot wind was blowing. Through Jeremiah, God says, “A scorching wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward my people, but not to winnow [as in to separate the wheat from the chaff] or cleanse [a refreshing wind; no] a wind too strong for that comes from me.”[3] A wind that is too strong to winnow or to cleanse or to refresh leaves, what? A wind that scatters? A wind that pushes?

 I remember one Sunday afternoon in Nicaragua, I was at the home of an American missionary family, when the sky in one direction turned brown. We all went inside, which in those houses means the bedrooms. All the other rooms are open air; the bedrooms are the only ones with all four walls and a ceiling. And this huge dust storm blew through. The air turned windy and much cooler. Within 20 minutes, maybe half an hour, everything was covered with a half inch of dust that then took hours to clean up off the floors and everything that had been exposed to it. I’ve never seen anything like it, not even a hurricane, because there was no rain, just dust.

This is just a stock photo showing a dust storm. I did not take a picture of the one I experienced in Nicaragua.

In the Mediterranean they have a wind called the sirocco. (This is your vocabulary word for the day.) It is a hot, devastating wind that can reach hurricane speeds and brings dry and dusty conditions, much like what I experienced in Nicaragua. The sirocco starts in the Sahara desert in the middle of Africa and blows north into Northern Africa and across the Mediterranean Sea into Southern Europe.

These are the hot, scorching winds from the desert that God sends to God’s people. It’s not refreshing. It’s not cooling. It’s not blowing away the pollen. It’s blowing in dirt and sand. When I went home for the first time after nine months in Nicaragua, it felt like it took me the whole two weeks to scrub all the dirt and dust off me and out of the creases in my elbows and out of my ears and every other crevice. When I returned to Nicaragua you know what the top comment I received was? “Heather, your feet are so clean!” They hadn’t been exposed to this dust and dirt of the ages for two weeks!

There is a Greek phrase that some churches use during their communion liturgy, it’s “kyrie eleison.” Sound familiar to anyone? It means “Lord, have mercy.” The 1980s rock band, Mr. Mister, released a song by that title in 1985.  The first verse begin, “The wind blows hard against this mountain side/ Across the sea into my soul/ It reaches into where I cannot hide/ Setting my feet upon the road…” This is a strong wind. It blows hard; it’s not refreshing or soothing. It goes across the sea and gets into your crevices, deep into your soul, where you cannot hide. Kyrie eleison, Lord, have mercy, indeed. This is a wind that seeks you out, that will not let you go until it has found you and puts you on the road you must travel. “Kyrie eleison, down the road that I must travel/ Kyrie eleison, through the darkness of the night.” In those parables that Jesus tells about the lost sheep and the lost coin, we’re not the shepherd or the coin collector. We are what has been lost and is in need of finding. And God sends this hot wind, that is not going to feel good, to come find you and bring you back.

Because, don’t forget, the Hebrew word for wind is the same word for breath and the same word for God’s Spirit. This is the Holy Spirit moving. Not in ways that are comforting, but in ways that are discomforting. This is the Spirit moving over the waters at the beginning of creation, yet this is not a time of creating, or even a time of separating the crop from the weed, or a time of refreshing and renewal.  You may not want to be found. You may like the dark cave you found, or stumbled upon, on your own. But God’s Spirit seeks you out. And there’s comfort in being found and the reminder you are loved. And you also have to clean up afterward, ‘cuz you’re filthy from whatever hole you fell into like the sheep or the dust you accumulated hiding under the furniture like the coin. You have to take stock of where you are now, because you are not the same as you were before.

And here’s the second theme word found in all three of these Scriptures: grace. Even in Jeremiah pronouncing this divine judgment, God says, “I will not make a full end.” And you are still my people. You are still my child. I will not destroy completely. There is still hope. Timothy phrases it as “I received mercy,” the answer to that prayer of kyrie eleison. “I was shown mercy and… the grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly.” Grace overflowed. Amazing grace. Jesus came to save sinners, which includes you and me. We want to think we’re exempt. We want to think we have our lives all together. Look at your neighbor. They don’t have everything in their lives all together, either.

You might think the shepherd’s got 99 sheep, surely one more doesn’t matter. It might even seem foolish to leave 99 to go looking for the one. 1 Corinthians 1:18 says, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” To those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

I got involved in international missions through my mom. When I was in 6^th grade she, as a nurse, joined a medical/dental team out of Maryland that made yearly trips to Honduras and Guatemala. They had team shirts every year, with whatever design on the front. On the back, the shirts always said, “Dios te ama,” Spanish for “God loves you,” and a starfish. Do you know the story of the starfish?

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?” The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.” “Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!”After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said…” I made a difference for that one.”

            We can’t do everything. We can’t help all people. But God’s not asking us to. God’s asking us to love the people given to us to love. God’s asking you to love your neighbor as yourself. When you find yourself blown with a hot wind onto another road that you did not choose, it’s not a problem to solve, because there is no going back to where you were. The only way to go is forward. Adjust to your new surroundings. Learn about this new road. Pray kyrie eleison, Lord, have mercy. And when things are different, when you’re in the wilderness, the key questions to ask are: “How will we now be with God? How will we now be with one another? Who are we now? What does God want us to do now? Who is our neighbor now?”[4] There may not be easy answers. The answers may be not what you want to hear. But this is the time when the questions are more important than the answers. Winds have blown through this church, many kinds of winds including a hot, devastating wind. The wind blew the couple joining our church today here to us, just as it blew each of us here. The good news is that this wind, even in this form, is still God’s Spirit at work, moving, moving us, blowing through our church and our community, not leaving us the same yet not leaving us alone or forsaken or abandoned, either. This is God’s Spirit in the form of a 2x4, saying, “Get moving!” Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy.

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[1] 1 Timothy 1:15

[2] Romans 3:23

[3] Jeremiah 4:11-12a

[4] Gil Rendle, Quietly Courageous, p. 28