July 28, 2013, "A Marriage Made in Heaven"

Hosea 1: 2-10 Luke 11: 1-13 To what shall we compare God's Love, not as an abstract but God's love for You and me? What we as a congregation know best are weddings, we celebrate more weddings than any church I have ever known, and where some churches have restrictions about only being married inside on Saturday afternoons we try to accommodate people's needs and desires wherever they are, as sacred. Imagine a wedding...As you come up to the Sanctuary the pastor is waiting outside beaming as this is a Marriage made in Heaven. There is space for every guest. You enter the wedding and the most beautiful music is playing. There are flowers and ribbons. Once everyone is gathered, the Bridegroom escorts his mother and father to their place and intently watches the door for the coming of the Bride. The Bridegroom has been transformed from that infant whose existence changed the lives of everyone, and that gawky teenaged boy asking questions beyond his years, to a man, robust and poised, exuberant and joyful. He stands at the Communion Table in full tuxedo and smiling from ear to ear at having found the partner for all time. This is a Marriage Made in Heaven for the Bridegroom is God the Creator, is Christ one with humanity, and the partner, the Bride was chosen by God, is the Creator's own creation. The command is given to rise, the trumpets fanfare, the doors burst open and the Bride enters. But something is amiss. Where the Bridegroom is in love, is captivated and committed with everything they have and are to this other... The Bride is distracted, appearing as though they would rather be anywhere else, with someone else. As the Statement of Intention is asked, the Bridegroom's voice quivers, he pauses to swallow and commit himself fully for ever saying “I AM and I DO”. When the Bride is asked whether she will love, honor and cherish her partner, she replies “Whatever, I Guess.” The problem named in Hosea is prostitution, in its most base sense: whoredom! But the problem of prostitution is not SEX, but that the common person sells themselves, sells their very soul for money to feed their addiction. Ironic, in that there are so many unnamed women in the Bible, that the bride of the prophet Hosea is personally remembered. Hosea's prophecy makes faith scandalous, shameful, intimate and personal and real. Something happens to us, something hard and calloused when we sell our intimacy, our emotions, our love, our soul for what can never satisfy. This week a 17 year old from this community died of heroine overdose. Not in Auburn, or Syracuse, but here in this, our Village, under our watch, a child is dead. I remember when a husband got passed security in the hospital and beat his wife to death, and the community was so outraged that hospital security was changed and there were community discussions about domestic violence and abuse. I remember when there were alcohol related deaths on the lake and the streets, and there was rage, who could have left a couple for dead, who could have provided liquor to those underage. Why then, when a 17 year old is dead from Heroine, are we ashamed to talk about it, to do something about it? The problem is not drugs, or alcohol, or prostitution, or all the things we often blame as evil, but that all this stuff represent addiction, addiction to escape, to avoidance, to what can never bring joy or satisfaction. Week after week at weddings, I watch as Father's escort their daughters down the aisle and kiss them goodbye. I watch as they dance at their weddings. We treat one another as precious, as sacred, as a gift to this one in love. None of us could imagine committing to a relationship of “Yeah, whatever, I Guess.” Recently, I was in conversation with a health care tech caring for people with active HIV AIDS, and with a Hospice Nurse caring for those who are terminal and actively dying, and with a spouse caring at home for their partner with Alzheimer's. The AIDS tech described the dangers of a stray needle stick, or a cut. They spoke of how normal and ordinary their patients were, a lawyer, an engineer, a mother, a son, not the GRID that was feared and ostracized a few decades ago. The Hospice Nurse described being called any hour day and night. Named cleaning wounds and bed sores, and trying to provide comfort, closure, dignity; but that the hardest thing of all was the accumulation of so many deaths that you fear becoming numb to mortality, to suffering, to humanity. The spouse caring at home, named that doing stuff was the easy part, the hard was when the one you love cannot figure out who you are. One who had gone with us described Sudan, where nothing is clean, where cattle are everywhere, and feces and flies and smoke. Where just to survive due to poverty and climate is miraculous, but there are diseases and war that make us fear anyone who is different. Each one in turn described “You could not pay me a Million Dollars to do that.” And each one in turn realized, they did not do the work for money. One had a father who had died alone in a hospital, where everything seemed sterile, scientific and cold. One had a sister, lost to the family, maybe by caring for people with AIDS she might find someone who knew someone who knew her, or if not at least she had cared for one like her sister. The spouse had committed to better and worse and sickness and health, and believed that somewhere beneath that vacant expression was the one who still loved them. “Hard” does not begin to describe the level of commitment. In relationships like these, like Hosea's love for Gomer, like God's love for us, there come times when you say to yourself, “No more, I Cannot” but you see them struggle, you see their need and you have to care. It is scandalous, far beyond what any one imagines on their wedding day but that is the commitment of God to humanity, distracted. These passages this morning are about shameless relationships. Not only that Hosea loves Gomer with a love that cannot be returned, that God loves us wanting only love in return and we are instead distracted. We question the mechanics of love and marriage, like our questioning the mechanics of prayer. The disciples, as faithful students ask, “Teach us how, what, when to pray.” But prayer is not a magic incantation that if we do the right things and say the right words, will be guaranteed a desired outcome. The great pain of prayer is when our prayers go unanswered, was it that God did not care, that God was not able, or that we did not pray had enough, faithfully enough? What Jesus described to his disciples is that God loves us shamelessly, without any reserve, so we need to pray shamelessly without reserve! Prayer is not about following the right formula, or paying enough, or being more faithful than anyone else. Prayer establishes relationship. Not How, When, Where or What to Pray, but who are You and to whom do we pray? I am dismayed how often we get hung up on which is more correct “Forgive us our Debts, or Trespasses, or Sins” and whether to end “For Thine is the Kingdom, Glory and Power, Forever” or not. Luke is not worried about getting all the words right. First, who is God? Religions throughout time have identified God as Master, and identified with with different attributes, praying to a God of War versus God of Love. Judaism prayed to One God, Law-giver, Emancipator, who set us free in a Promised Land. But from Jesus we have an identity with God as being personal, even intimate. This God is not separate and objective, up on Mount Olympus, but messy, passionate and caring just as we are. God is to be honored and revered and Other, so Hallow God's Name. Recognize and claim from the outset that God's Will will be Done. We can plead and beg and shame, knowing that ultimately God's will will be done. That is our safety, like having a Moderator or Referee, we can try anything and everything available to us, confident God will keep us from going too far. Having recognized God as God, honoring and revering God's identity and that all life is God's will, WHAT DO YOU NEED? ...FOOD, FORGIVENESS, FIDELITY. Give us this day our Daily Bread. Forgive us our Wrongs. Although we may deserve it, Do not ever abandon us or lead us into temptation. The point of prayer is not whether we did it right or wrong, whether we prayed hard enough or enough times, whether we were worthy to pray. The point of prayer was without regard for Shame, did you pray sincerely for what you need and want to be in relationship with God. It is not about the needs, or the wants, or desires, but about being in relationship with God. From 1930s Sunday School Classes many of us have this iconic image of a Blonde Haired Blue Eyed Jesus in white robes smiling as he stands outside the door quietly waiting. THAT is not what Jesus himself described. In that culture even more than our own, demonstrating Hospitality was paramount. In an age before robo-calls and SPAM solicitations, before commercials selling us anything and everything, if someone was desperate enough to express need, we needed to be desperate to respond. Every person had obligation to respond when asked. If a neighbor appeared at your door at Midnight, asking even for a piece of bread for someone else, you needed to respond. We need to envision not Jesus gently tapping outside our door, but a neighbor, one who looks like us pounding on the door, and God in pajamas inviting us inside!

July 21, 2013, "One Thing Is Important"

Amos 7:7 – 8:7 Luke 10:38 – 42 I greatly appreciate the opportunity to have been away last weekend to have a Bus drivers' vacation by officiating at a family wedding, and understand that Elder Weiss preached on The Good Samaritan. One of the difficulties of our recalling that passage is that it has become so familiar to us that we all want to be Good Samaritans, instead of perceiving that the Samaritans were a feared and hated people. The shock and surprise of the Good Samaritan parable for Jesus' listeners can only be heard today, if the Samaritan were compared to a member of Al Qaida who stops to help a stranger. If instead of Trevon Martin and George Zimmerman each “standing their ground” with weapons, the Neighborhood Watch guard had protected and accompanied the other on his way to his parents' home. The point of Jesus' parable was not to choose to be a Samaritan, but rather that even one we have no expectations could act in faith, can act as neighbor in the way God intended for us. Some react to the hearing of that parable by interpreting, what the Samaritan did was to busily do stuff. Where the Priest and Levite walked by on the other side, the Samaritan got down, cleaned and bound his wounds, placed him upon the Samaritan's own beast, took him to an Inn and paid for his care. In response to which comes Luke's passage for this morning. Martha acted with compassion and hospitality by inviting Jesus to her home, but then realizing that the Messiah sent from God was coming to her home with 70 of his closest disciples, she anxiously frets and is distracted by many things. The verb Jesus used to describe Martha, was that she was being pulled in many different directions. The model for Martha's behavior is Abraham. Our Call to worship this morning Genesis 18, is readily used to describe acts of hospitality and hosting, the Chuppa in a Jewish Wedding is a dwelling like Abraham sat in, when it was over 90 degrees, open on all four sides so as to greet strangers. However, before these visitors could even introduce themselves, Abraham rushed to get water to bathe their feet, instructed his wife to bake bread, milked the cows, butchered and cooked a goat. Jesus' response to Martha is not “Well done good and faithful servant. Mary act more like your sister!” but instead “Martha, you are distracted by many things, one thing is important. Mary has chosen that thing and it shall not be taken from her.” Faith is not a problem to be solved, not a challenge of figuring out that one thing, but rather a lifelong journey in discerning and making applications to our lives. The Bible does not change, but every time we read a passage, we hear new elements based on who we are different from ever before. The Book of Amos is not one most pastors choose to model their lives upon. About a year ago, the Wednesday Bible Study challenged that someday they wanted me to preach a hellfire and brimstone sermon. I do so here, with fear and trepidation, because Amos well loved, is not caring and compassionate and forgiving, but if our faith is to have integrity we must hear the gospel both in words of challenge and rebuke as well as words of comfort. Even more, Francis of Assisi is credited with having said “Preach the Gospel everywhere and in all things, if you must use words!” Roger Shinn was professor of Ethics and Theology at Union Seminary, who was fond of asking “What is Theology?” Students would respond “God, Spiritual stuff, Teachings of the Church.” And he would say “NO, Theology is about everything!” There are religions of people's own manufacture blessing God for our comforts, prosperity and securities. But Judaism and Christianity emphasize that God cares about everything, everything in all Creation God uses for us to be in closer relationship. According to the Book of Amos, on the occasions where the prophet finds God, the Almighty is angry. Periodically, people will lift up the “moral decay” of our times, in reference to personal relationships, sex, family values and divorce. But according to the Book of Amos, God's anger is over Economic Injustice, over Systems created to protect and make safe those with excess while buying and selling the poor as if no longer people. First, God is fashioning a swarm of Locusts and Cicada to consume all food so people rich and poor will be equal in their suffering. And the Prophet says “No, Lord.” Next God is creating a heat and drought, not dis-similar to our last several weeks, a fire so hot as to burn the oceans, lakes and rivers. And the Prophet entreats God “No.” But God having relinquished twice, names to the Prophet that the People have not changed from their sin. God shows the Prophet a third vision. In the original Hebrew of the Old Testament, the vision is of “anak” which is translated as Plumb-line. The traditional interpretation of the vision, is that God is revealing just how corrupt and off-base the culture is. The only solution to a wall being out of plumb is to tear it down and build again. The difficulty is that “anak” in Hebrew does not mean “plumb-line.” In the Syro-Phonecian language, anak means plumb-line, but in Hebrew it means “tin”, which could refer to the weight at the bottom of the line, or that God was smelting tin to copper to form Bronze weapons to wage war against Israel. However, we need to remember that just as the Bible was not originally written in English but translated, neither was the Bible originally written using a printing press or computer, but a crude pen and ink on parchment or skin. The difference between anak and anah is simply the addition or subtraction of a dot inside the letter, but anah with a soft “h” did not mean “plumb-line” but rather “a sigh.” So what the Lord showed to Amos in the third vision was not a hard and fast line, but rather a sigh, that God is distressed by the inability to change us. The real vitality of this prophecy then becomes the verb of what God is promising to do because we refuse to listen to God's sighs. God vows to never again “abar” to never again pass by Israel. Recall that what identified Israel was not Circumcision, not eating a Kosher diet, what identified Israel for all time to all peoples was that God had “passed over” Israel bringing judgement on Egypt and the Canaanites. So for God to reveal that God will never again “pass-by” is that no more shall Israel have “passover!” No more shall Israel be protected by God's forgiveness, but the people of God shall suffer like everyone else in the world. Finally, God provides a pun. God asks the Prophet Amos what he sees, and Amos says “a bowl of ripe summer fruit” what the Prophet is supposed to recognize is summer is quickly vanishing, Fall is approaching, and with Fall comes “The Fall” of all of us. The point of which is not rush trying to hide everything in the closet because company is coming. The point is so recognize how important is sharing every moment with one another and with God. People are funny in our reactions. Amaziah was the King's own prophet, something like being the Chaplain at the United States Senate. If you were pastor and prophet to the Congress, would you speak truth to power, or bless those elected in everything they decide? Amaziah's response to Amos was “If you want to prophesy doom do not do so in the King's Temple. Who do you think you are?” As clergy, when asked “by whose authority” often respond with our pedigree, that my father and father-in-law were Presbyterian ministers, my father within the church, my father-in-law in alternative ministries; we list the schools and seminaries we attended; we bring out our resumes of serving on this committee or that; or when pressed we describe the nature of our Calling. Amos when challenged by Amaziah responded “I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet. I am a herdsman and dresser of sycamore trees, whom God took.” Years ago, I recall John Dau asking for someone to go for the Sudanese refugees to S.Sudan. I turned to the person next and said “I do not want to presume, but I just had all my plans cancelled and I could go if it would be helpful.” Over the next six weeks I wrote letters to everyone in every position of authority for support and guidance, hearing back nothing. I got all the shots and bought everything I could think to carry. When I arrived at Kenya and was greeted by the Pastor of Duk who had been displaced by war, he asked “By whose authority are you here? This is my parish, I am the pastor and priest, who do you think you are ministering on my turf?” I responded that I had written letters to his Bishop and other leaders but got no response. He said “That's correct. By not responding to you, they were denying you permission. But now you are here, so we each must pray asking God what to do with you!” The following day, he volunteered to act as my companion if I would pay his way. The difficulty of being a Presbyterian pastor with a church, is there is no Bishop, not outside authority with abstract guidance for how things should be done. Instead a pastor and Session are installed, as human beings in relationship. We are a very human church, of very human people, who listen to one another, sometimes laughing, often “sighing” but in relationship with one another. Arriving in S.Sudan, one of the chiefs took his one year old child, stood him up on his own legs and steadied him by allowing the child to grasp the adult's finger. He said, this is who we are. “We do not need you to do for us, to give to us. We need you to stand along side and offer support while we learn how to stand and walk on our own.” How hard it is for us, when we see a need, or feel threatened to not act, but to be in relationship as true partners and companions.

"There IS A God" July 7, 2013

2nd Kings 5:1-14 Luke 10:1-20 Life exists on many different planes simultaneously. We begin with biological needs for survival, accompanied instantly thereafter by the need for love. This week, in addition to having been the celebration of our Nation's Independence was the birthday of our firstborn, whom I delivered. I recall that first cry, searching one another's eyes and face for recognition, the first bath, the smells and touch of that intimate moment of claiming. The great disappointment of the last Century has been an assumption that either there was Scientific explanation about reality, OR there was a Religious explanation, and we both had authority and need to choose. One might as easily differentiate between whether you believe in a Political Reality to life or a Communal, belief in Economic Competition versus Human Compassion. When Jesus sent out the seventy in pairs, which was the more powerful that they/we were given authority to tread on scorpions and snakes, to cast out demons and cure problems, OR that they took nothing accept one another and had to trust on each other and on those who welcomed them? Speaking with a family whose father had been their most significant relationship, they described talking about sports, relationships, careers, money, fears, dreams, but never about God. Speaking with a groups of “Millenials,” those between 20 and 30, they named that their peers do not go to church, do not talk about God, are not even certain there is a God. I have to believe there is a relationship between one generation speaking about everything except our faith, and the next not practicing, not believing. What I hope to make clear this morning, is that all realities are happening simultaneously. The world is political, our survival is based on economics and awareness of the biological impact of our actions, and the world is also personal and intimate, and we are motivated by compassion and caring, and while all of this is going on, THERE IS A GOD. The last several weeks, we have been reading the stories of Elijah and Elisha, dramatic tales demonstrating proof of the reality of God, yet throughout, these are very human stories and it is easy to believe Elijah had called upon fire to come down form heaven and it did. He called upon God to act and God did. He went to the cave where Moses had witnessed evidence of God, and he saw Fire and Wind and Flood. And we begin to question whether reality only exists (whether God only is manifest) in our own imagination, in our reality? Then there is the story of Naaman, A Great Man, a powerful Warrior, a Syrian Military Officer who has made his King great. But also, following all the descriptions of Naaman's personal power, reputation and authority, he was a leper. More than an Infection, a Virus, a Chronic condition unto death, Leprosy carried a social stigma. For many of us, while Leprosy is not common, social stigma is very real: fear of how others would treat us if they knew we had Cancer, had Parkinson's, had Depression or Alzheimer's, or had lost our job, or had an addiction, or an affair, or were getting a divorce. Naaman recognizes that this social stigma, this illness, is his one barrier to success, to acceptance. Syria under King Aram had won one victory after another over their enemies, over Israel; and Naaman had given those victories to the King of Syria (though the Biblical text explains to the reader that God had done so through him). Out of respect and obligation to Naaman, the King of Syria sends with Naaman a letter to the King of Israel commanding him to to heal Naaman. Often times I feel like this at weddings, baptisms and funerals. Peoples' expectations are that if the wedding takes place in the church, if an Ordained minister pronounces the blessing, the couple will live happily ever after; and as pastor I profess to you the secret that I do not have that power! Like the King of Israel, the response of many in our culture today is to say “So why get married at all?” or at least “Why get married by a minister in the church, why not go on the internet to be ordained and solve our own problems?” The King of Israel received and read this letter from the King of Syria as a Political issue, of one power commanding a lesser power to act, with the threat that if he personally could not fix it, he would be destroyed. The Prophet Elisha asks the King to send Naaman to him. Imagine that Naaman the greatest most powerful General of the army of Syria, with all of his horses and chariots and gifts of reward to offer comes riding up to the hut of Elisha, commanding that this prophet of Israel come out and fix him up. Naaman expects Elisha to come running out and bow down, to say the right words and wave his hands to magically fix him, that is how religion works is it not like magic. Naaman is a Syrian compared to this Israelite, Naaman is the greatest most powerful warrior, Naaman exudes pheromones, he is every inch a Man. This is Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Arnold Schwarzenegger, compared to a prophet from a beaten vassal kingdom, not even a legitimate pastor or priest or king, just a powerless person of God. But where Naaman has these expectations, Elisha does not even come out to acknowledge him. Naaman has traveled all this way, is surrounded by all this power, yet this Elisha does not even come out to look him in the eye or speak to him. But eventually Naaman does what Elisha had told him to do. I have to believe that it was not the chemical composition of the Jordan river that healed Naaman. But that in the act of vulnerability, accepting what another had told him to do, stripping down naked, and in essence being baptized, seven times doing so, that Naaman changed and instead of trusting only in his armor, his shield, his power, his Race, his Nationality, his reputation and influence, Naaman came face to face with whether or not THERE IS A GOD and was healed. According to Luke, Jesus had already sent out the Twelve to preach and teach and heal, casting out demons. Eventually, after the Resurrection, according to Luke, Jesus would give the Great Commission making his Disciples into Apostles “those who are sent”. But here, Jesus sends out 70 persons as Special Envoys of God. They are not sent out as individuals, but as pairs. They are not to take anything for security, for safety, for comfort, for any assistance, but simply to go where they are sent. They are sent to share with the world that the Harvest is ready. Not that they are able to create the Harvest. Not that they are to do the Harvesting. But rather, that as Special Envoys of God, we are sent out into the world in twos and threes to share with others that there is a Harvest, there is a God, and God's Harvest is ready! We are sent out, to also give evidence of that Harvest. When a crop is ready, a farmer goes into the field to pluck and carry back a few grains, several ears of corn, a handful of cherries, a ripe peach, so that others will know and will share in the harvest. Being sent out, we are not to gather corn or wheat, or peaches or apples, but stories of the presence of God in one another's lives. We are to recognize that going out in this way is dangerous, you are confronting your own fears and the evils of this world, by naming what we have witnessed. A year ago, a refugee from Civil war had come to America and had found a home, and wife and children, a new life. His brother who had remained was shot dead, and distraught, seeking compassion and to make sense out of life, this man had come before his church for prayer. A woman who feared ever having Cancer, was diagnosed with this. Fearing Radiation, she needed to have the Cancer killed, and to wear a monitor of her vitals. Wearing the monitor, those supporting her were able to see she was having problems with her heart, and to have these corrected. Had she not had the Cancer, not had the Radiation, she might never have known the other problem that could be repaired. Living next to the lake, our worst fears were realized when a child drowned. Yet the family was not alone to drown in their loss, they have been continually surrounded by family and friends and the church. Recently, I was speaking with the Catholic priest, who described that the ArchDiocese sees this Village and town as being a plum position, where a pastor can enjoy the lake, and the social life, and relax. The reality is that this Village has known more loss and pain and suffering than most places in the world. Oh, we complain about the heat, or the snow, but the reality is that we have known friends and family in Domestic Violence. The weekend does not go by when there is not a Rescue call about a drunk driver on the road or the lake. Drug abuse is normal and available to all our children. Rape. Mental Illness. Victimization. Economically having your home taken, are realities. But also, there is a God, a God who cares, and as we minister to one another, and hold each other up in prayer, lives are changed. Luke's telling of the Sending of the Seventy, Commissioning us to go out into the world in twos and threes, is different from the sending of the twelve, and the commissioning of the apostles. We are to live our lives, in all the other realities we know, witnessing and believing, and sharing with others that GOD IS REAL, the HARVEST IS READY, and to speak to one another about what is important, what we have witnessed.