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.