Baptized: Enlightened

Lenten Services

St. Matthew Lutheran Church & Piney Grove UMC

March 29, 2017

Genesis 1:1-5, 2 Corinthians 4:1-6

These Lenten services we have been focusing on baptism, being claimed, named, and clothed. Rather than jokes at the end derailing the sermon, I’m going to tell it at the beginning. Are y’all ready for my favorite baptism joke?[1]

There once was a church who had a terrible problem with bats, who had settled in the rafters. These bats were brave and would swoop down over people’s heads during services. When the bats first showed up, the pastor got a cat, which she let sleep in the church at night. But the bats remained. Then the next pastor hired a professional exterminator, who, at great expense, fumigated the entire building. But, to no avail; the bats would not be moved. Finally, a new pastor was installed, and in just a few weeks, the bats were gone. The parishioners were delighted. On Sunday, one of the congregants asked the new pastor how she’d gotten rid of them. “Oh, it was easy,” she said. “I baptized and confirmed all of them, and I knew I’d never see them again.” (It’s making fun of the kids who are raised in the church, baptized and confirmed, and then once they become young adults and church is optional, they’re never heard from again. It doesn’t happen to everyone, thankfully.) The joke is funny because it’s true for some. Not y’all, because y’all are the baptized who still keep coming to church!

Tonight we’re going to talk about how we are enlightened because of our baptism. To be enlightened means to be given knowledge, to be instructed. The time period in European history known as the Enlightenment, the 18^th century, is called that because it was a time when considerable emphasis and importance was placed on intellectual thought and philosophy. It was also called the Age of Reason because reason became the primary source of authority and legitimacy, and there was a focus on ideals like liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and the development of the scientific method.[2] With a focus on those ideals, it’s not a surprise that both the American Revolution and the French Revolution happened at the end of that century, at the end of the period of the Enlightenment. This was knowledge imparted not just in the university among the elite, but among the people. This was what changed government from an absolute monarchy and introduced the idea of the consent of the governed. The French Revolution was about getting rid of elitism and the nobility and feudalism and leveling the playing field. Everyone could be enlightened, because everyone has the faculty of reason. Is it really any wonder, at least to us Methodists, that this is the same century when John Wesley lived? Because of the societal reforms being made, partly as a result of Luther and the Protestant Reformation the previous two centuries, Wesley could then push for reform within the Church of England. Part of the Protestant Reformation was to make the faith more accessible. Worship in your own language, instead of in Latin. The printing press made the Bible more available, and literacy started to spread. This all fed into the Enlightenment, where you could learn and read and think for yourself.

So, to connect that to baptism, in baptism, we are enlightened by the Holy Spirit. We are instructed and given “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” to quote from our 2 Corinthians reading. Through the gift of baptism, we are enlightened by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enlightens us with all the gifts necessary for living our new life as baptized members of God’s family.[3] In baptism, this is symbolized by lighting a candle. Some churches have tall, extra-large Paschal candles that will be brought out for baptisms and then from there, light a smaller candle to give to the person being baptized. I still have mine, from my baptism. For years, on the anniversary of my baptism, my parents would take me and light my baptism candle and say a prayer with me. That baptism candle is a reminder that we have received Christ’s light in our baptism. We were baptized into new life, and into new light.

The use of a baptism candle started back in the early Church, which used to use Lent as a time of preparation for new converts who wanted to be baptized. They would take the 40 days of Lent to prepare them, to get them ready, to enlighten them and teach them about the faith. Their baptisms would then occur at the Easter Vigil service. Has anyone ever been to an Easter Vigil? I have once, with a friend who was Russian Orthodox. It was amazing, and unlike any other worship service. It started about 1 a.m., early, early Easter morning. The service went until about 3 a.m., when then everyone was invited into the fellowship hall for a big feast. And we ate and the mood was very festive and we didn’t go home until about sunrise. Here, on Miami Beach, at Easter sunrise, you get that new light, of the new day, and that’s how baptism is, too. It’s being born into a new life, which is why being baptized on Easter, or Easter Vigil, is so fitting, because it’s all about new life, leaving the old, entering the new, leaving the darkness of sin and entering the light of God.

Now, that’s the idea, that’s the goal. But sometimes we’re like those bats. Sometimes, we prefer darkness. Or, better the darkness we know than the light we don’t know. Or we’re afraid of what the light will expose, because we don’t want the truth to be known. We don’t want to change. We like living how we’ve always lived. We think nothing of making excuses for why we are the way we are. We don’t think anything will be expected of us. Perhaps this is why the Church used to take 40 days to prepare people for baptism and a new life! Sometimes, even when we know better, we act like being baptized and being part of God’s family isn’t important, it doesn’t make a difference. We ignore God’s Word. We exclude people from fellowship.[4] Our words and our actions don’t really line up. We talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. We may be baptized, but we refuse the gift of light, or we forget the gift of light, of enlightenment. We are afraid of what will happen if light is brought into the dark shadows of our lives. Beloved, God is already there. God is already in those dark shadows. God already knows all about them. You don’t have to be afraid. God already knows. And you don’t have to be afraid about your brothers and sisters finding out. You know why? Because in the United Methodist baptism liturgy, the congregation promises to the person being baptized to “surround that person with a community of love and forgiveness.”[5] A community of love and forgiveness. Every time we’re tempted to go back to the darkness, we can remember that not only are we part of God’s family, we’re part of a community of love and forgiveness. Yes, as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, we were once darkness. But now you are light in the Lord. Walk, live, as children of the light.[6] Just as God said back in Genesis 1, “Let there be light. Let light shine out of the darkness.” Out of the darkness, comes light.

Light shows forth each day in the way we live as God’s baptized children. These rings are what I gave out at children’s time last Sunday. 

The bottom line of the children’s message was that we light up the world by loving instead of hating and by caring for those who need help.[7] It’s a light-up heart, because our light shines through from our heart. A lot of times, it’s a choice every day to decide to live in the light. I’m reminded of another ring, the ring from DC Comics’ the Green Lantern. It gives him power and the ability to fly and it shines a bright green light, but it’s not magical. The Green Lantern has to plug the ring into a power battery, a lantern, to recharge. We have to recharge, too, in order to be able to shine our light without burning out. That’s part of what Lent is about. Recharging, remember who we are and whose we are, remembering we do have the light of Christ. We are enlightened. And while it’s a one-time baptism, it’s not a limited battery life. It’s more like a lantern we can plug back into. It’s a candle that keeps burning, even though the flame may grow dim. Your intellect and ability to learn is not set or fixed. You can grow, you can learn, you can retrain muscles. Old dogs can learn new tricks. You are enlightened because you have the light of Christ. You don’t ever permanently lose the ability to shine your light, even if you fly off with the bats.

 In baptism, we receive the light of Christ. We are now God’s children. We have been forgiven. We don’t have to stay in darkness, or return to it. Let past sins be past sins. Don’t worry about what the light will reveal, because, as Jesus said, the truth will set you free.[8] You are now in new life in Christ Jesus. Thanks be to God!

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[1] From Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life by James Martin, SJ

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

[3] Adapted from Baptized: Marked for Living! By Rev. John D. Hopper, our inspiration for our Lenten services’ focus on baptism.

[4] Much of these previous sentences are adapted from Baptized: Marked for Living! By Rev. John D. Hopper

[5] UMH 35

[6] Ephesians 5:8-9a

[7] http://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/4793/worship-for-kids-march-26-2017

[8] John 8:32

Lent, Vows, and Other Four-Letter Words: Work

4^th Sunday in Lent

March 26, 2017

1 Samuel 16:1-13; John 9:1-41

Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGror0aMkrE

            This Lenten season we are going through and exploring the vows we make when we join the church and that we reaffirm at a baptism. We promised to faithfully participate in the ministries of the church through our prayers, by praying for the church, for its ministries, for the congregation, and for each other. We promised to faithfully participate by our presence, by being here. Not every time the doors are open, but consistently and faithfully showing with our bodies that it is important to come worship together and be the body of Christ together. We promised to faithfully participate by our gifts, by giving our time, talent, treasure, and testimony to build up the church, to build up the body of Christ, so that the ministries of this church can happen and so that the good news and love of Jesus Christ is spread throughout our community and the world. By sharing our resources, we become more than the sum of our parts as we share the gifts God has given to us.

Today we are going to focus on the fourth vow, which is to faithfully participate in the ministries of the church by our service. The best four-letter word I could come up with for service is work. I even thought about just misspelling the word ‘serve’ by leaving off the silent e at the end! Serve and work are similar, yet slightly different. To serve is to work with a purpose and to work for someone. When we serve, we work for God. We serve each other, because by doing so we serve Jesus. We serve the church, the body of Christ, because that’s what God calls us to do. Deuteronomy 10 says, “What does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being.”[1] There is a lot in the Bible about serving God. A couple chapters later in Deuteronomy there’s the instruction that “The Lord your God you shall follow, him alone you shall fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.”[2] And Jesus references these verses when he tells Satan at the end of his forty days in the wilderness, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”[3] Serve only God. Serve God with all your heart and with all your soul.

What does it mean to to serve God? To serve means to be useful, to be helpful. Are we helpful to God? Do we allow ourselves to be used by God? Do we work for God? And is the work we do what we want to do or the work God wants us to do? If we’re true servants, then we do what we’re told. We go where we’re told, we do the work we’re told to do, we follow instructions and obey. We don’t get to decide what to do, we don’t get choose our work based on how interesting it is or how fun it is. We do the work we’re told to do. That’s what serving is. It’s washing dishes. It’s taking food to those without homes. It’s sweeping and mopping the floor. It’s bringing a glass of water to someone who's thirsty. It’s being focused on the other person and on what needs doing, regardless of whether it’s a task you like or not.

The customer service industry has taken off lately, with old sayings like “the customer’s always right” and new sayings like “service with a smile.” Now, we know the customer is not always right, and we know it can be taxing to forced to smile. Yet these are business models designed around the consumer. Give them what they think they want, regardless of whether it’s the best for them. Make it the most positive experience it can be. My sister’s degree is in hospitality leadership. That didn’t even used to be a thing! Now you can formally study leadership in the food and beverage, lodging, and convention and special events industries. There is training in how to serve the customer. I remember a deacon at my sending church, years ago, and hearing her call to ministry. She was second career and previously had worked high up in management for Pepsi. She said her personal slogan was “Service with a smile.” And then one day after she said, “Service with a smile,” she heard God whisper back, “But know whom you serve.” Know whom you serve. When you work in the service industry, you may think you’re serving the customer, right? My sister at her hotel serves the guests. My husband, a field engineer, goes out to different customer sites each day and serve his company’s clients. And both their employers want happy customers. They want returning customers; they want customers who won’t be calling them with complaints. Yet who do we really serve? As you go up the chain, at the top is God. Know whom you serve. You serve God.

God calls all of us into service. And no two people serve God the exact same way. Because of our baptism, because we belong to God, we promise to serve him and him alone. In our baptism is an anointing, just like Samuel anointed David to be the next king over Israel. We are set aside for a specific task as well. It may be Sunday school teacher or to set up communion or to feed the hungry. The ministry may change over time. God called me to teach in Nicaragua, and then to seminary at Duke, and now to serve him here, as a pastor in Maryland. God calls each of us, individually, into service, and he calls our church into service, too, as the body of Christ. I may be the only one, but my favorite part of the baptism liturgy isn’t the part that the parents or the person being baptized say; it’s the part the congregation says and the promise the congregation makes. At a baptism, the congregation pledges to “surround the person with a community of love and forgiveness, that they may grow in their trust of God, and be found faithful in their service to others.”[4] We promise a community of love and forgiveness, so that each of us might grow in our trust of God and be found faithful in our service to others. Enabling and encouraging faithfulness is important, because what we do for the least of these, our brothers and sisters, we do for God.[5] In serving others, we serve God.

The training we get in how to serve God we learn here at church and in our family. It’s an ongoing course of study. We do what needs doing, we offer to help out and then do what we’re told. Our leaders are servant leaders; they lead by serving and they do a lot of behind the scenes work and a lot of grunt work and spend a lot of time in prayer carrying their worries to God. My previous appointment fixed and served dinner once a month at the local homeless shelter. Maybe a week or two after I started that appointment it was our turn and so I went to the church kitchen that evening and asked how I could help. I was told I could wash the dishes, so I did. The church was large enough and I was *only* the associate pastor, that I was not immediately recognized. It wasn’t until after I was washing dishes I overheard one church member whisper to her husband, “I think that’s our new associate.” I came in and offered to help; it meant washing dishes. Not my favorite task, but it needed doing. So I did it. That was how they needed me to serve, so I did.

Too often we get caught up in qualifying our service. It may be that we put limits on ourselves, like I’m only willing to serve in this way at this time or I won’t serve at all. Sometimes we put conditions on our service. Sometimes that’s reasonable, some of us have health conditions which mean we shouldn’t do heavy lifting or stand for long periods of time. Those of us with young children do need to make sure we spend the time and energy our children need us to have for and with them. Other times, though, we put conditions on how we’re willing to serve, without any good reason other than that I don’t like washing dishes, so I refuse to serve that way. Period. We limit our availability according to our preferences, rather than our need. Or, we pass judgment on those whom we are serving, forgetting that everyone we serve is a beloved child of God, everyone we serve is service done to God. 

The first international mission trip I went on was with a medical team to Honduras, where we traveled to different villages who didn’t have any access to medical care and set up a clinic for the day. We saw very poor people. 

The second trip was in college and with fellow students to a Methodist church in Mexico. Our job was to paint the church and the parsonage. It felt significantly less meaningful. 

The people of Camargo, Mexico, were not as poor as the people who lived in the Santa Barbara mountains of Honduras. Yet on both trips we were there to serve God. We were there to serve. It was not our place to judge who needed it more.

Judging is the same problem the Pharisees got caught up in in our Gospel reading this morning. It was another long one, about the man born blind and so, therefore, it’s assumed that someone must have sinned or else he would have been born normal. Beloved, there are many reasons for diseases; sin is only one of them. There’s a book I can recommend you if you want to read about more reasons. Anyway, the Pharisees wanted to judge. Who sinned? Who’s at fault here? And then because Jesus healed him, the Pharisees judged Jesus. Jesus obviously isn’t from God because he broke the Sabbath law and worked on the Sabbath; he healed this man on the Sabbath![6] We have a tendency to be like the Pharisees and judge those whom we serve. We sometimes even judge God. Yet God says that Jesus came into this world to save it, not to condemn it.[7] And Jesus even says, “Judge not, lest you be judged.”[8] That is not our place. Our place is to serve, not judge whether the person we’re serving is worthy of it or whether it’s how we like to serve. I’m reminded of what Jesus says in Luke 17:7-10:

“Suppose one of you has a servant who is plowing or looking after the sheep. When he comes in from the field, do you tell him to hurry along and eat his meal? Of course not! Instead, you say to him, ‘Get my supper ready, then put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may have your meal.’ The servant does not deserve thanks for obeying orders, does he? It is the same with you; when you have done all you have been told to do, say, ‘We are ordinary servants; we have only done our duty.’”

            We are only doing our duty, serving the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul. We serve. We are not the master; we are not God. We go where God sends us and we serve God in that place. May God grant us the grace and the love to continue doing so, all the days of our life, in all the places God leads us to, with all the people God brings alongside us as co-laborers in his vineyard. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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[1] Deuteronomy 10:12-13, emphasis mine

[2] Deuteronomy 13:4, emphasis mine

[3] Matthew 4:10

[4] UMH 35

[5] Matthew 25:40

[6] John 9:16

[7] John 3:17

[8] Matthew 7:1

Lent, Vows, and Other Four-Letter Words: Give

3^rd Sunday in Lent

March 19, 2017

Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; John 4:5-42

Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RLB4cFT-tc

            I learned a couple new jokes this week. Y’all ready? What kind of lights did Noah put on the ark? Flood lights. And Pastor Jorge shared that when at a pastors’ meeting in his native Cuba, whoever prayed for the meeting would be told, “Don’t pray like God’s mercy.” Why? Because God’s mercy is never-ending. God’s mercy is abundant and eternal. Their prayer should not be eternal! This morning is now our third week transforming our membership vows into four-letter words. We did ‘pray’ and ‘here,’ for faithfully participating in the ministries of this church through our prayers and our presence. This morning we are looking at our promise to participate faithfully through our gifts. Gifts makes a very easy four-letter word, give. You know, you can’t have a gift unless you give it away, or it was given to you. There has to be some sort of transfer in order for a gift to be a gift. We talk at least once a week at church about gifts, when we offer our gifts to God through our offering. We also give thanks on a regular basis, thanks for our food, thanks for our blessings, thanks for everything God has given to us.

            In the church, we often talk about giving in terms of the three T’s: our time, talent, and treasure. We give our time: volunteering with Streets of Hope and participating in ministries, like coming to eat breakfast [midweek Lenten service]. Our leaders give their time to see to the administration of our church. Our choir gives their time to practice and singing. Our Sunday school teachers give their time to plan their lessons and gather their materials. Everyone gives their time to do the first two membership vows of praying and being here. We also give our talent, our God-given abilities, whether they are musical or organizational or a passion to work with children or to work with numbers and finances. Some of these seem like natural abilities, things we’ve enjoyed or been good at our whole life; others of these are skills we’ve learned, sometimes in order to use them in the church, or things we’re interested in and so we’ve learned more about them. Finally, we give our treasure. We give financially to support the ministries of this church. It might seem like we give in order to keep the lights on and the doors open, but the truth is that we can’t do any ministries without those basics. We can’t have Sunday school if we don’t have heat and electricity. We can’t do breakfasts (Lenten foods) if we don’t keep up with the kitchen. So, if you ever get stuck feeling like you’re just keeping the lights on, remember the ministries that won’t happen if we don’t have power. You support those ministries with your giving. I once surmised that if everyone gave ten percent of their time, talent, and treasure, if everyone tithed in all the ways they give, then we’d definitely have enough. The truth is that it can be hard to give, especially if it’s not a habit. And it can be hard to give more, if you’re used to giving at a certain level.

I challenge you this week, if you’re not giving ten percent in one of those areas, to increase it for one month, and see what happens. If you’re not giving ten percent, try it for one month. If you’re not spending the time with God and involved in the life of the church, ten percent of the day is 2 ½ hours; or ten percent of your time awake, because sleep is important, is 1 ½ hours, try giving more time. Or, if you’ve been holding back and not sharing a certain talent or ability or interest, try giving more in that area, and see what happens. The thing is, we will always have enough. God always provides enough. It’s not a zero-sum budget. Remember that joke? God’s mercy is never-ending, and so is his goodness and his love and his faithfulness. The life God offers is abundant, it’s overflowing, it’s extravagant, it’s generous. There will be enough.

Let’s take a look at how God provided and gave to his people in the Scriptures we read this morning. In Exodus, God’s people are wandering in the wilderness, following Moses, who is following God. And the people start complaining. We’re hungry. We’re thirsty. We have to go potty. Are we there yet? The sun hurts my eyes. We don’t have enough. We don’t have water to drink. Water is a basic need; you need water to live. Moses, give us water. They argue with Moses, they grumble and whine and complain. When we are missing one of our basic needs, when we’re hungry, when we’re thirsty, when we’re sleep-deprived, we do not act our best. I know I don’t. And so the people test God and even question their deliverance. God brought them out of slavery, and now they’re grumbling that maybe life was better back in Egypt, back when they were enslaved. God brought them out of that, and in their thirst, they forget their salvation. They forget God saved them. They forget God loves them. They forget what God has done for them. And they start saying “Gimme.” And they start a Back-to-Egypt committee. So, God does give them water, because they need it. God gives us what we need to provide for our basic needs. God knows, and you’ve gotta trust, rather than argue. God has freely given us our salvation; don’t forget that. You belong to God and God loves you abundantly and extravagantly.

At the same time, God also gives the people a consequence for testing him, which we read at the end of our psalm. The psalmist tells us, “Don’t harden your hearts, like you did at Meribah and Massa, in the wilderness, when your ancestors tested me and scrutinized me, even though they had already seen my acts.” And so God says, “They will never enter my place of rest.” Because of their grumbling and testing God, that generation is not allowed to enter the promised land. That’s part of why the Israelites wander in the desert for forty years, because God has said that everyone who complained doesn’t get to go into the promised land. They had to wait forty years, a generation, for everyone to die off. There are consequences for our sin. When your hearts are hardened, you focus only on yourself. You forget what God has done for you. You forget that you belong to God. You forget God’s extravagant love, and it’s hard to give that love and forgiveness to others. It’s hard to be generous when your heart is hard. God knows your need, God sees your need. Don’t think he doesn’t. That’s what the Israelites thought. God doesn’t know we’re thirsty; God doesn’t know we need water. God knows. God is going to provide. It will be what you need when you need it, if you have faith and trust in him. God gives freely and lavishly and abundantly. Sometimes, though, not on our schedule. Sometimes we get thirsty first. Sometimes God makes sure we know we’re thirsty before giving us water so that we appreciate it all the more.

Giving water is also the theme in our Gospel reading. Jesus is passing through Samaria and stops at Jacob’s well to rest. A woman comes to draw water and Jesus asks her to give him some water. It’s quite odd that that’s Jesus’ first question and how he begins this whole conversation, and the woman calls him on it. Why are you, a Jewish man, asking me, a Samaritan woman, to give you something to drink? Jews and Samaritan did not associate with each other; they didn’t talk to each other, and Jesus is asking something from her. Second, note that it’s the middle of the day. Noon is not when most people went to the well to get water. The woman was trying to avoid everyone, and here’s Jesus, ignoring social convention, asking her for water. Bizarre. And so is Jesus’ response. Count how many times you hear a variation of the word give. “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ‘The gift of God,’ and if you knew, then you would ask him to give you living water. Well, the woman catches on quick and asks, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will never be thirsty and will never need to come back to this well for water.” Jesus tells her to ask, and she does.

Except, of course, Jesus isn’t talking about literal water that you ingest with your body; he’s talking about the Word of God. Remember what he told the devil in our reading two weeks ago? “People shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from God.” Jesus is the Word of God; the Gospel writer, John, makes that clear in his very first chapter. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus is the Word of God. Another description of the Word of God is in the book of Hebrews, “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing …; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” That’s what Jesus is doing here in this conversation, because then he asks the Samaritan woman to go get her husband, and she admits she doesn’t have one. Jesus says, “You’re right. You’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re living with now is not your husband.” Because Jesus told her who she was, they could then have a conversation about worship and salvation and the Messiah. Because Jesus gave her living water, she could then be freed from this past to move forward and use her past as part of her testimony that she gave to others. She could tell what God had done for her and give that story to others, so that they, too, might come and see. That was her gift. “Come and see this man who has told me everything I ever did. I think he’s the Messiah, the Savior, of the world.” And many did believe because of her testimony and others went accepted her invitation and went to see Jesus in person to see for themselves.

You have something to give as well. You have a story to tell as well. Each one of us has a story of how God has acted in our lives, how God has saved us, how God has transformed our past, how God brought us out of Egypt, out of a dark place. You may have sat there thinking, no, Pastor Heather, I can’t give anymore; I can’t do your challenge to increase my giving in some way for a month. I already tithe, I already give a significant amount of my time to the church, I don’t have any hidden talents to share. Sorry, Pastor Heather, can’t do it. If you were thinking that it is completely impossible to give any more of your time, talent, and treasure, then two things. One is that Scripture says “nothing is impossible with God.” Two, let’s add one more T to that list, your testimony. Tell people what God has done for you. Give your witness. And if you’re really unsure or hesitant about that, then I have good news. Witness is our fifth membership vow, so you’ll hear more about it in two weeks! Time, talent, treasure, testimony; you always have something to give. Think of “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein; even when all that was left of the tree was a stump, the tree still offered the stump as a place to sit. If you are feeling like you have nothing more to give, first, sit, and rest. Then, know that that feeling actually isn’t accurate. Be encouraged, be comforted, you do have more to give. I know because God loves us lavishly and extravagantly and abundantly and so there is always more to draw on for those with eyes to see and ears to listen. God’s mercy isn’t a zero-sum; his love is not like pie that gets divided up. It is never-ending, it is new every morning, that’s the thing about living water. It’s a well that will never dry up. Thanks be to God.         

Lent, Vows, and Other Four-Letter Words: Here

2^nd Sunday in Lent

March 12, 2017

Genesis 12:1-4a; Psalm 121; John 3:1-17

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUo85kovF6M

            The second membership vow we’re going to look at this week is a four-letter word that begins with an H… Any takers? Here. As in “Come here,” like you might tell a child or a dog. The word “come” was also suggested for today’s four-letter word, and it would work, too. When you joined the church, and at every baptism, and every time someone else joins the church, you promised “faithfully to participate in the ministries of the church by your … presence.” By your presence. By being here. Now, this does not mean you should be here every single time the doors are open. That is going to wear you out. It means you come and are here and involved in the ministries of the church. It means you make Sunday morning worship a priority. It means you come when you can to other events, like this Saturday’s Country Breakfast (PG: Wednesday night Lenten services). There are some things you’re not going to make because of your schedule, and we all know that. There are some things you’re not going to make because it really doesn’t appeal to you. A country breakfast (PG: midweek evening worship service) may be exactly the opposite of your cup of tea, and that’s okay. There are other ways you can participate in those ministries, like by your prayers, or offering if you can get anything for the meal even if you can’t make it. But the ones you can make, the ones that don’t turn you off, you pledged to be here. You pledged your presence in the ministries of the church. They’re not all glamorous ministries, sometimes it’s a church clean-up day. Sometimes it’s setting up for a special service; sometimes it’s cleaning up after donuts. You promised to faithfully be present. You promised to be here.

            What’s interesting is pairing this vow with today’s readings, which are all about journeys. In Genesis, God tells Abram to go from his home, to leave everything he’s ever known, and go to an unknown, unnamed place that God will show him later. And Abram goes, and leaves on this uncertain journey. He obeys. Our psalm this morning, Psalm 121, with that famous first verse, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help?” This psalm is thought to be a psalm that was sung by pilgrims going to Jerusalem. Another journey. And in our Gospel we have Nicodemus, who snuck away to see Jesus under the cover of night, and they talk about being born anew, of water and the Spirit. The journey of birth, and the journey of how you get to God’s kingdom. None of these journeys, not Abram’s, not the pilgrims, and not the journey to God’s kingdom are journeys that you do by yourself. Abram went with his nephew, Lot, his wife, Sarai, and the enslaved persons in their household. Pilgrims always traveled in groups; you couldn’t make the journey by yourself back in those days, and doing so just wasn’t an idea even thought of. Individualism is a much more modern concept. And being born never happens in isolation, either. Either it requires at least your mother to be present, or being born of the Spirit means that the community of faith is present. The community of faith is here. Being born of the Spirit, being baptized, is joining God’s family, which is why we do it in worship. God’s family needs to be present, God’s family is here, and so here is where baptism happens.

            I was tapped by our District to join a clergy cohort this spring. There are six of us who meet every two weeks and the theme is that we are pastoring churches who are in transition. The book we are reading together is called “Canoeing the Mountains,” an idea which comes from the Lewis and Clark Expedition. If you remember from your history classes, there was the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, when we bought almost a third of our country from France. Then President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark and their team, the Corps of Discovery, to go explore that land and keep going all the way until they hit water. They went from the Mississippi River to the Missouri River and followed that all the way up to its starting point, at the far western end of the Louisiana Purchase. Then, they expected to have some small rivers to navigate their way over to the Pacific Ocean; they had even packed canoes and oars on their trip for just such a purpose. But when they reached the headwaters of the Missouri River, in what is today Montana, they didn’t see the ocean. They didn’t even see streams running toward the ocean. Instead, they saw the Rocky Mountains, which were unlike anything they had ever seen before, and they probably said a few of their own choice four-letter words. Who has seen the Rockies? How are they different from the Appalachians? Bigger, taller, pointier; not rounded slopes like the ones we know here in the East. That’s where the title of the book comes from, Canoeing the Mountains. Lewis and Clark and their team had brought canoes for that part of their journey; they thought they knew what to expect. But instead it was something wholly unknown and unexpected and they were not prepared for it. Now, the Corps of Discovery succeeded in that vast unknown, in spite of not having the right equipment for it. They succeeded because of how well the team worked together and bonded during the first part of the trip.

            Here’s how that ties in to being here, being present in the life of the church. There's an author and consultant named Margaret Wheatley who studies organizational behavior, leadership, chaos theory, things like that. In 2003, she wrote an essay called “When Change Is Out of Control.”[1] Does it ever feel like change is out of control? Okay, well, in that article she wrote that “It is possible to prepare for the future without knowing what it will be. The primary way to prepare for the unknown is to attend to the quality of our relationships, to how well we know and trust one another.” “To attend to the quality of our relationships…” Did you know that the first synonym that comes up when you look up ‘attend’ in the thesaurus is “to be present at”? Be present at our relationships. Care for our relationships. Is it really any surprise that being present is one of the vows we take when joining the church and when promising to help care for a newly baptized person? Knowing and trusting one another, being present, intentionally making our relationships with each other quality relationships, that’s how we get through change and the unknown. We do it together. We are present to and with each other. We are God’s family together. Families spend time together and do things together and weather the storms of life together. They journey together, like Abram’s family, moving from where their family had always lived and farmed to a completely unknown place. They achieve dreams together, like pilgrimages, which today we might call bucket list items. Families are present together.

            I remember back when we lived in Maryland when I was a kid growing up and there was a snowstorm. The front page of the newspaper was a story about a family who had dinner together for the first time in a long time because of that snowstorm. That family had not been present with each other; each member had been off doing their own thing: work, meetings, sports practices, lessons, school, maybe even throw in some church activities in there. They’d been so busy and so divided each doing their own thing that they didn’t spend time together, until they were snowed in together.

Beloved, if that is the case in your family, or the case of our church family, then it is a good things it's supposed to snow this week. We need to stop doing so many things and stop doing so many things separately. The ministries of our church are joint ministries, they are church ministries, they are not Trustee ministries or prayer ministries or any individual’s ministries. Let’s not get spread thin. We cannot be all things to all people nor is that what God wants. We are to be this local church, in this place at this time. I forget the name attached to it, but I remember a leader talking about ministry where you take someone along with you. Paul was the example, and how he took Barnabas with him throughout much of the book of Acts. There is no ministry you should be doing by yourself. It’s why when someone asks about one of our shut-ins or sick, I often invite them to come with me the next time I go visit. It’s not just that I love company or that makes the drive around 695 go faster; it’s because it’s the family of Christ spending time together, being present together.

            And why is this important? Why is the vow to be present included in that list? Why do we need to be here?

Cowenton: Again, so that we can be rooted in Christ so that we can nurture the community.

Both: The mission of The United Methodist Church is to make disciples for the transformation of the world. You can’t make disciples with people you don’t know. You can’t be in ministry with people you’re not in relationship with. Like I’ve said before, it’s not about us. We are not here for each other. I mean, we are. We have each other’s backs. We are that kind of here for each other. But we are not present in church for our own sake; we are present for the sake of the world. After all, as Jesus told Nicodemus, “For God so loved the whole world, that he sent his only Son.” God loves the whole world and wants to see the whole world transformed, wants to see his kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. That’s why we’re here. That’s why it’s important to be here.

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[1] http://www.margaretwheatley.com/articles/whenchangeisoutofcontrol.html

Vows and Other Four-Letter Words: Pray

1^st Sunday in Lent

March 5, 2017

Matthew 4:1-11

Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpT6bSwqCdo

I trust everything went well while I was gone. It was a wonderful time of rest and renewal, and time apart for my husband and myself. Now I feel a bit more ready for Lent, which can be a difficult season. In fact, before I left, I went to the Bishop’s Pre-Lent Day Apart and the title of the day was “Lent and Other Four Letter Words.” I don’t know about you, but there are times Lent feels like a four letter word. Now, I’d already been planning to go through our membership vows for the first five Sundays in Lent. I’ve now reworded each vow into a four-letter word. To refresh your minds, those vows you made are “to faithfully participate in the ministries of the church by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness.”[1] Every time someone else joins the church, every time there’s a baptism, and most recently two months ago when we remembered Jesus’ baptism, we promise again. We frequently renew our vows, not just on special anniversaries that are decades apart.

The first vow is that you will participate in the ministries of the church through your prayers. When you joined this church, no matter how long ago or how recently it was, you promised to pray. That’s the first vow, and that’s what we are focusing on today, in case you didn’t get all the clues from the songs and sermon title. You vowed to faithfully participate by your prayers. Turn prayer into a four letter word: PRAY. Have you noticed it’s easy to talk about prayer? And it’s harder to actually get on your knees and pray? And if you have arthritic knees like me, harder to sit still and pray, or focus your thoughts and pray, or just be still and pray. There’s something about turning prayer into a four-letter word, about turning it into a verb, and then intentionally doing it.

Of course, we have different ideas about what it looks like to pray. Do you usually put your hands physically like this, like the statue I showed the kids? Some of us do; I don’t. I’ll hold my hands, I’ll keep them still. But even before my wrists became arthritic, I still didn’t hold them palm to palm. I remember groaning out loud when one of the kids on the TV show, “Seventh Heaven,” knelt next to his bed and folding his hands just so to pray. It just felt so cliché and there are so many other ways to pray!! You can walk, stand, kneel, sit, lie down, drive, play, sing, be silent, sit in the back pew, sit in the front pew, sit on a bar stool, stand at Camden Yards! Praying can happen anywhere, and with just about anything! You can pray with your Orioles’ jersey, pray with prayer beads, pray wearing a prayer shawl, pray while reading the Bible, pray while talking with your family, pray while preaching on prayer! (Oh Lord, don’t let me mess up!)

Now, what’s this have to do with our lectionary reading this morning? Take another look at that Gospel of Matthew we read. It comes at the end of Jesus 40 days in the wilderness. 40 days being the same length as the season of Lent, which we began on Ash Wednesday. The first verse says, “The Spirit led Jesus up into the wilderness so that the devil might tempt him. After Jesus had fasted for forty days and forty nights, he was starving. The tempter came to him…” I don’t know about you, but when I get tempted, either I give in immediately and unwrap that chocolate bar, or, I tell myself “no.” Yet sometimes that chocolate bar can look pretty good, and then I’ve got to do something a little more drastic, like hide it in a cabinet, or walk out of the kitchen and go find something else to do so that I’ll forget about it. It works sometimes, right? But sometimes it takes hold in your mind and you can’t forget it. What do you do then? Throw it away? Give it away?

Look at what Jesus does. Satan tempts him with food, and Jesus responds with Scripture, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Satan tempts him again, and this time quotes Scripture, from Psalm 91, “For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways.” And Jesus responds with an even older Scripture, from Deuteronomy, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” Finally, Satan tempts Jesus with power, and Jesus says, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” Would Jesus have been ready to answer the tempter if he had not spent time praying in God’s Word? Seeking to find a way through? When temptation comes, when you’re in the wilderness, when you don’t know which way is up, when you’re overwhelmed, when you don’t know what to pray, go spend time in the Bible. Pick a favorite verse or just open it randomly and start reading. All praying is, is talking with God.  And when you don’t know what to say, let God go first. Prayer should be a conversation, which means both people get to talk and both get to listen.

            One of the funnier points the presenter at the Bishop’s Day Apart made was a gentle reminder that we are the children of God. God is our parent. God is not our child and we the parent of God. We are not even the teenager of God. You are a child of God. And as children, our conversation with God, our prayers, are going to reflect that. Sometimes, like stereotypical teenagers, we do ask things from God, like God, can I have some money? Other times, though, it’s simply bringing situations to God. Telling God about your day. The ancient prayer of examen is done at the end of the day, looking back over the day, and looking to see where God was in each thing that went on. Or you could be a child asking God about something, you know, tell me about sunsets, tell me about how the world works, just like children do. Now, I suspect God gets as tired of all the why’s as any parent. But not all conversations are asking for something, and not all prayers should be asking for something, either.

            I once heard the types of prayers put into the acronym, ACTS. You know, like the book in the Bible, A-C-T-S. A is for prayers of Adoration, times when we praise God. Look at that beautiful sunrise! God, how great thou art! I often choose a praise hymn to begin our worship service, because it sets the tone and the reminder that this time of worship is about God. Let’s praise God! C is for Confession, which we do at least once a month when we have communion. I hope you do it more often and can own up to when you’ve messed up and need to make something right. Since Lent is a time of repentance, we’re going to have a prayer of confession in worship each week during this season. T is for Thanksgiving, and this is probably one of the more common prayers we give. Thank you, Jesus, for this food. Thank you, God, for healing. Thank you, Lord, for a phone call from a good friend. Thank you, Jesus, for a close parking space! Or any parking space at all in December! Finally, S is for Supplication, which is a fancy word for ask, and something we do a lot, too. I remember a bible study I was in a while ago when the teacher said, “God is not a vending machine.” You don’t get to put your quarter in, or your dollar bill in, and receive exactly what you want. God doesn’t work that way. We ask, and God tells us to ask, to the point of even saying in the book of James, “You do not have because you do not ask!” We are supposed to ask God for those things which we need, those things which our heart most desires. But don’t be a teenager about it. Rather than asking for things, perhaps ask God to show you more, to help you understand, to gain in intangible things, like love and grace and understanding and patience and peace. Those prayers become more conversations with God, rather than a yes/no question.

            So that prayer is more of a conversation and less talking in your head, pull out your Bible. See what God has said in the past and what God is saying now. Pray. Talk with God. You promised to do it, and you promised by your prayers to faithfully participate in the ministries of this church. The ministries are not the same as they’ve been before, and that’s good. If we’re going to be around for another generation, then we have to focus on that next generation. We’re not here for ourselves.

Cowenton: Remember our mission. Rooted in Christ, that’s what we’re doing here in worship, that’s what we do in bible study, that’s what we do when we read the Bible, that’s what we do when we pray, so that we can nurture the community. So that we can share God’s love through ministries like Streets of Hope and EIO. So that we continue our original mission of providing Sunday school to children. The whole reason this church came to be, right? The kids needed Sunday school. Support that through your prayers and your other vows, which we’re going to talk about over the next four weeks. You promised to be faithful, and the eleven kids we now have in our children’s Sunday School need you to be faithful, and need you to pray for them. And pray for their teachers and their parents, while you’re at it.

Both: The future is going to look different than the past, and that’s ok. One of the places I went last week in Zurich was to an old Roman viaduct. As the Roman Empire spread throughout Europe 2,000 years ago, they built infrastructure, like roads and viaducts, which were to transport water. Well, there are still some remains of that 2,000 year old viaduct in Zurich, and the Swiss have transformed it and used it and are still doing so. About a hundred years ago, when they put their train system in, they put train tracks right over top of the viaduct. Saved them from having to build a bridge, and used an old thing in a new way. Recently, a few years ago, they starting filling in the arches of the viaduct and the ground level is now full of stores and cafes. Something old being repurposed. The original structure of the viaduct is still there, you can’t miss it. Yet it has been transformed into a way that it can be used now and not just remain as ruins. 

(I'm standing on top of the first row of arches, so that the stores are beneath me, as you can see in the distance, and the train tracks are on top of the second row of arches.)

It’s something to be in prayer about with God. Excuse me, it’s something to pray about and talk about with God. Even on some of the oldest buildings in Zurich, which go back to the 1200’s, there are cranes and renovations as they preserve what’s good about the structure and the unique designs and the cobblestone streets, and yet they are renovating so that something new can happen. It’s pretty cool.

            So, this week, your four-letter word is PRAY and your challenge is to intentionally do it every day. If you already do that, make it three times a day. If you need help, give me a call. Or if you need a Bible, give me a call. There are lots of free versions you can download onto a tablet or smartphone if you have one of those. Talk to God, listen to what God has to say to you. And, it might help to write it down, or highlight it, or something to remind you. Or write a bible verse out on an index card and tape it to your mirror or your coffee pot or somewhere you’ll see it and remember.

            Let us pray together…

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[1] UMH 38