"A Time of Purification" December 31, 2017

Isaiah 62 Luke 2: 21-40 On New Year’s Eve, we stand on the precipice between the year ending and the new, literally where Past and the Future meet. I want to challenge us to live into the New Year boldly, with hope, optimism and confidence. We must chose whether to live as in A Time of Mourning over losses or a Time of Purification for what God may do? Either way, the past is over and done, we cannot go back and change things; the future is yet to be, and all we can be certain of, is that the future will be different. In preparation, do we grieve, do we wish with longing to return to our old lives, sad and great, when everybody pulled his weight… or do we look to live into the future, cognizant that doing so we must leave behind our dreams, wishes and expectations, for something different? As a parent, I recall snowy holiday weekends like this for reading to our children, one of my favorites was the Winnie the Pooh Series, in particular whether we want to be an Eeyore or a Tigger. Eeyore forever had his head down, looking back, certain only that the future would never be as bright as the setting sun. Tigger, well Tiggers bounce, bright and happy, hopeful and idealistic without a care to carry. December 31st 1999, the world was poised for technological catastrophe, all the computer systems everywhere had been established in the 20th Century, and no one knew if elevators and traffic lights, banks and telephones, weapons and satellites, could/would transition as we entered the new Century. I recall a Winter, when all the properties in our Township were re-assessed and everyone was in shock at what the Assessors believed our homes and properties could be worth, instead of what we knew about our homes. On September 11th 2001, all the world was shocked, because the isolation and dominance of the United States was attacked. Sixteen years and more have gone by, as our economy, and government, the World Order have been established anew. Growing up, I thought my family enjoyed playing games, but we were babes in the woods compared to my wife’s family. They not only played games, they developed strategies for how to win, and keep the other from winning. That is a lesson we learn playing TicTacToe, that there comes a balance of competitors where it is no longer about who is better or who wants to win, only chance; and yet while you cannot be assured of always winning, there is a strategy for playing to deny the other ever has the ability, and all either can do is stalemate. Nostalgically, it seems there once was a time of compromise, of competitors working together for a common good. We pick up the Gospel of Luke 40 days after the birth. There is much of Ancient Judaism we have forgotten and no longer comprehend. Many have suggested I have a love for History, which actually is not accurate, the truth is that I love Systems, and without knowing history we lack understanding of meaning, of core purposes and relationships. Part of the importance of a Time of Purification, is a time of reflection and cleansing apart from living the past, in order that we can chose our future wisely, with less mistakes. We celebrate Christmas from sunset on the 24th through sunset on the 25th, as Labor and Delivery for the Birth of the Savior; while the for Centuries the Church named TWELVE DAYS for Christmas. In Judaism a birth is a private family thing between husband and wife, the child does not even have a name, is not part of the community until brought out into the world for the Circumcision and Gifting of a Name, as in the Covenant of Abraham. The ending of private, intimate, family claiming, and the claiming by the whole Community, was this Time of Purification. According to the Law of Moses, all Creation Belongs to God. We belong to God as Creatures, and are given dominion only in relationship to our claiming: God as God… Do you believe this? When we receive a Gift from God, any Blessing in life, we owe a debt of First Fruits, demonstrating thanksgiving to God, making an offering of the first and best of what we have received, in hope that God will continue to be generous in the future. Judaism and Christianity never practiced child sacrifice, although other cultures in the Ancient World had done so. Instead, like a graduated Income Tax, there were expected offerings for the birth of the firstborn to a couple of substance and those in subsistence. A Heifer, a Lamb, or two Pigeons in the Carol Two Turtledoves. Only after the Sacrifice and Offering was made, only after the Community had claimed the child, could life begin. As much as we place emphasis on Mary and the Incarnation, on Shepherds and Strangers from the East, Anna and Simeon, two individuals at worship, bear the greatest similarity to our roles. Like each of us, Anna and Simeon are WITNESSES. These two do not passively ignore or tolerate the strangers who come before God. Anna and Simeon commend and encourage, offering blessings to the parents for this child, this gift. Would that instead of our critiquing others, we could be so bold as to offer them blessings and affirmations. As the year ends, we complete our Stewardship & Pledging Seasons. Through careful spending, we end the year $11,000 Under Budget on Expenses; and through your Generosity we received $10,000 more than anticipated! Eight years ago, our Session made a bold move, that instead of continuing as we had always been, we might Call an Associate Pastor. In this way to offer a youth program and technology, a solo pastor could not provide. After studying this, and prayer, our Session chose to intentionally enter into a time of spending from the Reserves we had accrued over the prior twelve years. Yet since that time, there have been grave concerns and dire fears of using Reserves HOWEVER, OVER HALF of those making a pledge did so with significant increases. Where churches across the Nation are closing, and cutting back; where the pundits are afraid because changes in the Tax Laws might reduce incentive for giving to NonProfits, we continue to have new believers take up the mantle of those who have laid this foundation. Like old stories, especially at the Holidays I enjoy old Movies. One recently described a parable of a couple in a Village who received the gift of a child. Everyone said “What a blessing!” and the Priest replied “We’ll see…” And the father gave his son a horse and Everyone said “What a blessing!” and the Priest replied “We’ll see…” Then the boy fell from the horse Everyone said “What a tragedy!” and the Priest replied “We’ll see…” And war came Everyone said “What a tragedy!” and the Priest replied “We’ll see…” Because of his bad leg, the boy could not fight and Everyone said “What a blessing!” and the Priest replied “We’ll see…” The reality is none of us know what the future will be. We live in a time of preparation a time of purification for what will be. May this be a time of hope, a time of purification, in order to embrace the future as new and exciting, filled with possibility.

December 24, 2017, Midnight "Christ Is Come"

Matthew 3: 1-3, 13-17 Luke 2: 1-20 The most beautiful and painful part of this night, is our giving over control to God. Advent was all about our preparations, our lighting the Candles, getting in the mood, our decorating the Tree, wrapping the gifts, cooking the feast, our singing the Carols. But to tell the Gospel truth, similar to being congratulated for having a Birthday, we had very little choice and little to do with Christmas happening. We began this night “Joy to the World”, the message from Heaven, the message to the world this night. We respond to the Scriptures and Sermon, by joining together singing “O Come All Ye Faithful”, sharing Communion, passing Christ’ light of “Silent Night, Holy Night.” Different from other Christmases, where we have read from Isaiah, this evening we also read a passage from Matthew, not of Jesus’ Genealogy or Joseph’s story of the birth. The Gospel at a different beginning time in Jesus’ life, also describing Jesus being announced to the world and a voice from Heaven. The point being, that while we can be filled with the warm glow of the Nativity story, as we have received it from the Evangelists Luke, Bing and Mariah Carey; Christmas, in both of these Gospels, Announces from Heaven and throughout the World that Jesus Christ is COME, the Immortal, Eternal, Incarnation of God present in Human History. As your Pastor, I have a Christological Pet-Peeve. In large part, Christianity in the 21st Century has forgotten all about the Trinity. We replaced Faith in God, with Worshipping Jesus, and the Holy Spirit does not enter into our imagination. If God cannot be God, then there is no reason for Jesus… The beauty of the Trinity, is the Spiritual Mysticism, the claims of Transcendence over what is tangible. God is still God, the Creator of reality, time and space, who chose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; who as Savior entered into the History of Egypt during the building of the Pyramids, becoming Law Giver to Moses. The Holy Spirit continues to brood over the face of the waters, blowing upon the Church, inspiring ideas we never would have imagined. No Where, in all of Scripture, does Jesus invite us to worship Him as God. Repeatedly, Jesus announced that his purpose is to bring people into covenant relationship with God. THAT itself is monumental! Philosophy, Science, Other Religions, never approach declaring an Incarnation. Judaism continues to await the coming of the Anointed Messiah sent from God. Islam claimed The Great Prophet Mohammed was transported to Heaven to return. Philosophy separated the mind and pure thought, from reality of life’s aches/ pains. Only Christianity describes God the Creator and Sustenance of Life, entering in to save us. Faith requires a kind of Quantum Physics, that God was/is and will be, and can be in all places and also in the particular life of Jesus of Nazareth born at Bethlehem to Mary and Joseph. In the early Church, there was a great division between the more Mystic emphasis of the Eastern world, and the more Rational of the Western. The Holy Roman Empire following Emperor Constantine looked to the Crucifixion, the Suffering and Death and Resurrection as being the Central Core of Christian Faith because Constantine’s Mother Helena was a Roman Christian. As the Protestant Church arising in the Enlightenment, we required understanding to be part of faith. While the Eastern Church, recognized a change in Reality, in Time and Space, in History. God Almighty, the Creator and Judge, had entered into our lives. For the Eastern Church, this emphasis is just as real, and just as much about the challenge of Christ to the world. as the Crucifixion and Resurrection of the Western Church, but Christ in the Eastern Church is not focused on understanding Jesus “Becoming” the Christ, he has been the Anointed one from the very beginning of time and space. Making the Angels’ message to Shepherds, the same as John the Baptist’s announcement, that we need to “Repent”, to stop and reflect upon who we are and what we are doing in life, whether God is in our lives or not. Whether we have any room for JOY and WONDER whether all that matters to us: is winning? Our Christmas story has been heavily influenced by our Western Europe Ancestors. At the time of the Crusades, in Europe they celebrated Madrigal plays, as we did my 2nd Christmas here years ago with a Boar’s Head Feast, with everyone dressed up as Lords and Ladies gathered, when a troupe of local people and children with a Burro and Lamb acted out the story of Joseph and Mary being told there was No room for them at the Inn. Ironically, as we read the story over this night, there was no Inn, and No Inn Keeper. The question is whether there is any room in Us, in imagination for God to be in us? The difficulty with our proving Christmas, is historically, during the era of Herod, there never was a Census during the era of Emperor Caesar Augustus. Had there been, women would not have been counted as persons, so there would have been no need for Mary to make the journey. Instead, where Augustus Caesar was acclaimed to be the Prince of Peace in the enforced Pax Romana, Jesus is recognized as being the True Prince of Peace for all the world. Having been to Israel this year, there are few trees, mainly Olive and Fig Trees and Myrtle, so the Manger would not have been made of Wood but of Rock. Joseph being a Carpenter meant he worked in both Wood and Stone. How much more stark an image, that instead of the infant sleeping on clean straw in a wooden trough, the Newborn is laid in a cold stone feed trough. A Feed Trough, representing both the humility of simple poverty; but also, the Manger is the first Communion Table, the Altar of God holding the Bread of Heaven for all to see. Christmas is our recognition that there is more to this life than the harsh brutality we so often focus upon. There is Divinity in our midst. What if, we realized we are The Missing Link! The link between Humanity and God? What if we looked at every person we met, our children Christmas morning, our Spouse, our Parents, Neighbors and Friends, Strangers, the guys at the Transfer Station and Fire Department, and Mail Delivery, as having God in them. How differently we might regard one another, if we saw the Divine in each person. If we believed God is God, Christ has Come for us to STOP our MerrygoRound, and that the Holy Spirit continues to inspire and blow our minds. But also, while Jesus is the Messiah Sent from God, the Perfect Union fully Divine and Fully Human, so also as Followers of Christ, are we.

"God With Us" December 24, 2017 9:30am

Isaiah 40 Luke 2: 1-14 Twenty-one years ago I brought my family to Skaneateles from Milwaukee. There were not a lot of accommodations for us to make. Wisconsin had lakes & cold temperatures, in those days CNY got more Snow… We could continue to root for the GB Packers, St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers, along w/ Syracuse Orange Basketball. Skaneateles and Onondaga were no more difficult than Oconomowoc, Winnebago, and Manitowoc. But there were nuances… In Wisconsin, a Drinking Fountain was a “Bubbler”; a Traffic Light was “the Stop & Go”; sentences could be made into questions by adding “Eh?” and instead of “May I go with You?” Accommodation to the Other was Assumed by saying “Can I Go with?” That assumption, that there is no accommodation on anyone’s part, is what I want to address this morning. Life, Change, is not simply about adding another experience. Every relationship, every commitment demands that we re-evaluate, acculturate to a different reality. The purpose of those ubiquitous Family Christmas Letters, was not bragging rights of how marvelous your life was compared to your siblings; but opportunity to name what circumstances have happened, have impacted and altered our lives this year. For the Tracy family the addition of Jacoby makes this Christmas an entirely new adventure that Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa have never before witnessed. The addition of Thomas to the Corsello-Morabito family, brings changes that the first born and first two did not initiate, because each of us is unique. In America in the 1920s, Women were finally granted the Vote as Equal Citizens. Prior to that time, while there were loving and affectionate relationships, women “could” be treated as second-class, without rights, given as property from Father to Husband. When finally those archaic laws were changed in America, it appeared as though the battle of the sexes was over. But throughout the last Century, America has continued to struggle with change and acceptance of races, sexes, boundaries, roles, relationships and what are appropriate and inappropriate Manners. The scandals of sexual abuse coming out of the shadows over the last many weeks are a realization that many of us have continued to act as if everyone else did not matter, and culturally there had been no adaptation to human equality in the last Century. Isaiah 40 is an incredible passage of Scripture, because “Comfort, comfort my people is not simply “And they lived happily ever after”… From the beginning, whether the Dawn of Humanity, the Exile from the Garden of Eden, or the Children of Noah, … Humanity had evolved in height and stature, migration and survival, we had advanced from the Stone Age to the Iron, to the Bronze…while at the same time, the history of the Bible is that we evolved further and further away from God, away from our Natural selves and trusting relationships. Abram and Sarah and their descendants had received the Covenant of God, but “election” did not mean God has to forgive you no matter what. You are a chosen people, who will be blessed. However, being “Elect” and chosen is a representation of all humanity, so when humanity separates from God, the children of God would feel that exile most of all. The Nation of Israel, which conquered the world under King David and King Solomon, itself fell to the Assyrians and Babylonians, who gave way to the Persians and the Medes and the Greeks. “Comfort, comfort, my people says your God” is the WORD of God through Prophecy that Atonement is more than Being Caught, or Serving your punishment. God recognizes that Israel exiled to Babylon 70 years, has served their sentence, but more, even though God put Israel away, God loves the people and wants the Children of God to be redeemed. YET, at this point, there has been so much broken trust, so many violations, how can we ever look to God and worship God as Good, Awesome and Loving. So God promises to enter into our reality, our relationships, our lives, anew differnt. This last year, in February, I was given the gift of going to the Holy Lands, and even in the locations most sacred to the Church, there is dispute whether this was the location of the Tomb and Crucifixion, or that was; whether this was Mary’s house or that one, because the Empire’s control of Christianity did not begin until 300 yrs after, when the Roman Emperor Constantine became Christian, and his mother went on a quest for the place of the Crucifixion and the Birth. Imagine Today, trying to find the House where Ben Franklin was born, and he had been revered? It is awesome and powerful to Celebrate Communion in The Upper Room above the Sarcophagus of King David; even with replaced knees to kneel and touch the place Jesus’ body laid, and the tomb of the resurrection… But the point of the story in Luke, is not about the details we focus on: the Stable, the Manger, the Magi… most of which has been shaped and changed by our Western European forbearers. There is something very earthy and raw to the reality. Maybe Joseph and Mary gave birth in a stable… but culturally, in Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, homes had beneath them an underground cellar hewn like a womb from the earth. Have you ever been in a severe storm, tornado or hurricane, and sought shelter in the basement. As scary and creepy as we often imagine, we feel safe going into the earth, into this stone womb. Customarily in the Middle East, this is where women went to give birth, away from the family, in the womb of the earth beneath the foundations of their family household. There are stark contrasts between the softness of a newborn and the stone floor, or a Manger carved from Rock. All the more powerful, when the Infant nestled in the earthen Rock Manger is the Divinity of God. And why a Manger, because that was the Food Trough of the Creatures, Just as Christ is the Bread of Heaven. Our Daily Blessings, the experiences and relationships of a lifetime, are not disposable throwaways. Our reality is composed of all these many points of light, like an immense mosaic or puzzle. Recognizing that as much as we take one day after another, one year lived, one life like every other, God loves us, each of us, and enters in to change and shape us by our experiences. Twenty-one years ago, in my first sermon that first Joy Sunday as your Pastor, I recall emphasizing that Jesus is both fully God and fully Human, and that as a culture we had at times over-emphasized God being separate from us in goodness and purity, more recently Jesus being one with us in suffering, emotion and compassion. But years ago, a trusted friend challenged me with: There Being The DIVINE in Us! As much as Human culture has searched for the Missing Link, the connection between Apes and Humans, the first Adam and Eve; quite possibly, we are the Missing Link, between Humanity and God, bringing our children, and grandchildren and neighbors, and strangers to God.

"One More Thing" December 17, 2017

Luke 1:45-55 Mark 1:1-8 There are EXPERTs for everything today. Librarians are Information Specialists. Sommeliers who have expert taste-buds. Medical Specialists. Roofing Specialists. Information Technology Specialists. Expert Heart Surgeons. Expert Fly Fishermen. What I had not realized was that there were even SPECIALIST Stringers of PEARLS. The Jeweler claimed that in addition to size & quality of the Pearls, the expertise of the Stringer threading and tying the knots could decrease or increase the value of a necklace. The Jeweler added the advice that a really good string of pearls should be restrung annually; if worn often, twice a year. Which got me to thinking that while there are Pearls from the Sea and Fresh Water as the irritation of Oysters; there are also Pearls we have grown, from the irritations in our lives working upon us. Pearls of Wisdom. Pearls of Belief and Ethics and Values. What we do at Advent is to worry those Pearls, not over their value or safety, but handling, rubbing and restringing our irritants, as being Pearls of Great value to us. This is one of the most stressful times of all the year! We have our normal routines of every day, our work, responsibilities, doctors’ appointments, maintenance of the house, car, stretching finances to cover bills, when suddenly, we are expected to have gifts, cookies for all the events, and the number of events goes from monthly/weekly to every group having a Holiday. And if we are willing to go there, the most stressful circumstance for each of us is the deaths, having the reminder of “their ornament”, “their recipes” for us to make, what to do with “their stocking”, “their empty place” at the table. Christmas feels like the JENGA game of a tower of stacked blocks, ever withdrawing one more foundation, and ADDING ONE MORE THING until we collapse. Advent questions “Who are we?” This morning, we have those who instead of seeing Christmas and faith in God, as one more thing added on, each recognize RELATIONSHIP TO GOD as their one thing, their core identity, and everything else develops from that faith. Instead of being a Virgin, betrothed to Wed who suddenly finds herself PREGNANT… MARY identifies as being The Handmaid of the God, God’s instrument of Incarnation, that her life, her whole existence, her purpose in being, is to magnify the Lord. JOHN the Baptist refuses to see himself as a Prophet, a religious professional, born into the family business, rejects all the world’s claims that he might be The MESSIAH … instead is devoted to Calling others to REPENT, to be Baptized, to start their lives over rejecting everything else and beginning with God. Funny, the Scriptures actually tell us Very Little about Mary. JOHN’s Gospel does not mention her. MARK begins at Jesus’ Baptism as an Adult so nothing about Mary. MATTHEW names her, but the whole Emphasis is on JOSEPH. Only LUKE provides this speech, called The MAGNIFICAT, both as Scripture, in Theology and in Music, not because it is magnificent, which it is… The LATIN word “MAGNIFICAT” means MAGNIFIES, because Mary’s opening words are “My Soul Magnifies the Lord.” Modern Translators have made this “My Soul PRAISES God” or “My Heart REJOICES” Instead MAGNIFIED to me, emphasizes that this is not about REVERING MARY, so much as about THIS GIFT OF GOD’s LOVE, solely and completely about God’s Love, and the relationship of Mary to God. As a MAN I dare to say, that there is something awesome and incredible in the choice of a couple to give birth. At one moment, you live your life for yourself, in the next and for the rest of your life, a part of you exists in the life of this other. You may never understand their feelings, their thoughts, their experiences, but they are a part of you and you are part of their life. So how much of a stretch is it for us to see GOD Our Father, as integral to our lives? The GOSPEL of LUKE actually begins before Mary with the birth of John to Elizabeth and Zechariah, as this High Priest praying in the Temple becomes HYSTERICAL… The DICTIONARY explains “HYSTERIA” as “an UNCONTROLLABLE EMOTIONAL OUTBURST AS FROM FEAR OR LAUGHTER”. Plato and Aristotle had reasoned that MEN are different from WOMEN because women possess a WOMB, in Greek “HYSTERA”, which is also why removal of the Womb is called an Hysterectomy. Greek Philosophy prized REASON at the expense of Emotion. They reasoned that a PERSON’s Soul was located in his CORE, and the perfecting of a MAN was moving his soul from his BOWELS to his BELLY. Where as a woman, Plato and Aristotle believed was governed by the Womb at her Core, so when a person was ruled by Emotion they were Hysterical. In the year 70 AD, as the Early Church was forming, immediately before the writing of the Four Gospels, the Temple was again destroyed by the Roman Empire, the only evidence existing today is the Wailing Wall. Imagine how revered and holy is The Wailing Wall by Jews and Christians throughout the Centuries, and that is the remainder of one wall of the Holy of Holies. We begin here, because Zechariah was chosen for a once in a lifetime experience, chosen to be the Priest to go into the Holy of Holies to present the Confessions, atonements, and prayers of the People to God, following which he was to come out to grant people assurance of the Forgiveness and Grace of God. But entering the Holy of Holies inside the Temple, atop the Mountain at Jerusalem, the Angel Gabriel was waiting for Zechariah. An Angel who told the Priest, you and your wife are to have a baby, who will announce the coming of the Savior. And instead of being true to the Scriptures of miraculous births for miraculous children, Zechariah became HYSTERICAL. Zechariah demanded a Sign. You are chosen to be the Priest, dressed in the Holiest of Robes, you are inside the Holy of Holies inside the Temple, confronted by an Angel, and you need A Sign? And the Angel says, I will give you a Sign, “You will not speak, you will not be able to offer complaint or question, or even to assure the people of their forgiveness and the Grace of God, until after the child is born, and you Zechariah name him John.” CD Meigs wrote a wonderful little poem descriptive of the faith conceived in Zechariah, the faith present in Elizabeth, and Mary and John who would be Baptizer: Lord, help me to live Day to Day, in such a self-forgetful way, That even when I kneel to pray, my prayers shall be for others. Others, Lord, yes, Others, let this my motto be Let me live for others, that I may live like Thee. Advent is both a time of repentance, and devotion of our lives to others. We were never Created to be OUR OWN, to Possess all we could Get. Instead, we were created to live our lives for others. That is what it means to be a Partner, a Spouse, a Parent, a Child, a Christian… John lived his entire life devoted to announcing the Coming of Another. CS LEWIS once wrote: “If we let God, for we can prevent God if we choose, but if we allow God in, God will make the feeblest and filthiest of us, DIVINE, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating throughout with such energy, joy, wisdom and love, as we cannot now imagine; a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly, God’s own boundless power, delight and grace. The process is long and painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less.” Recently someone told me, “These are supposed to be our Golden Years, they seem pretty tarnished to me.” I think our task, beginning in this season of Advent is to polish the tarnish to be a brighter more stainless mirror of God

"Demanding the Impossible" December 3, 2017

Isaiah 64:1-9 Mark 13:24-37 Your Joys are our joys, your laughter brings laughter to us, Your Sorrows are our Sorrows, your Fears and Nightmares we accept, we feel your Tears, because you have become Part of us, God is part of your life, that does not, cannot ever, go away. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was formless, a void, Shadows of Dark covered the face of the deep where light have never been, while the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters. God commanded “Let there be Light”; and there was light! And God saw that the light was Good; and God separated the light from the dark.” Having witnessed images of the Blackness of Space, having stared into the pitch of night, having awoken with nightmares, this image of hopelessness, black darkness, seems the appropriate beginning. What I love about the Bible, is that we can take a word-picture like this: “The earth was a formless void covered in shadows of deep darkness” at face value. We can also peel back the layers of time and space, to an image before Once upon a time, before the Big Bang, to suggest that that formless dark, deep shadows, where no light had ever yet been, an image before time and space, was WITHOUT GOD. Yet, when God established time and space, reality as we know it, God did so by bringing LIGHT into the world. The difficulty is that life requires balance, homeostasis, order, so God did not eliminate darkness with Light. God called Light into being, and part of the nature of Free Will is our natural selection of Light versus Darkness. There is a certain clandestine fun to darkness. A velvety blanket of Secrecy, where nothing escapes, nothing is certain, everything is hidden. The problem, we spend a life-time learning, is that DARK is a vacuum, SECRETS have power over us. The last several weeks, much like WIKI Leaks, secrets of powerful individuals in every arena, have Come-to-Light. People whom we did not know personally; but whom we felt we trusted and welcomed into our homes, every morning, evening, and before we closed our eyes, people whom we trusted with world power... The fact that these men succumbed to their own worst is not surprising… This week, the Hospital created to bring life in South Sudan, Our Staff dedicated to save Mothers and Children, was the scene of our own MASS SHOOTING. NO, the surprising fact, is how long and at what cost these men lived in their own Darkness, telling lies, revealing only half-truths when those were found out, rather than coming out into the light. These armed youth had been bred and nursed to kill their Enemy, believing no one in the outside knew, no one cared. The wonderful part about being a Church, is that as much as History describes us as Saints, In Church we each know we each are Sinners, who have also done wrong. The wonderful simplicity of Faith is that we move heaven and earth lying to others, trying to keep secrets by telling more lies, BUT when secrets are exposed to Light, the world does not end. Especially because we in the Church share in being the Body of Christ, that we will never abandon you, you are not alone. A few weeks ago a young child shared during the Concerns that his hair had been falling out, and he was having tests for his parents to learn why. We vowed, as we do now… Your Joys are our joys, your laughter brings laughter to us, Your Sorrows are our Sorrows, your Fears and Nightmares we accept, we feel your Tears, because you have become Part of us, God is part of your life, that does not, cannot ever, go away. We have many favorite verses from the Prophet and Priest, Isaiah: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord of Hosts: The whole earth full of God’s Glory! Comfort, Comfort my people… A Voice in the Wilderness says Cry… All flesh is grass… They will mount up with Wings like Eagles, they shall run and not grow weary… but this is different, this passage from Isaiah is a PRAYER OF LAMENT, somewhat of an accusation to God, that if you are God “Why not come down here and act like a God?” ADVENT is not simply the DICKENS Nostalgia of Roasted Chestnuts and Bing Crosby. Instead of sitting on Santa’s Lap, Wishing for what we believe we cannot have, ADVENT is DEMANDING THE IMPOSSIBLE: To no longer keep secrets. To approach others: strangers, neighbors, co-workers, family, that person in the mirror, not as those we take advantage of, but as if they are God in our reality! Let us DEMAND A DEATH TO KILLING! Let us DEMAND GOD ENTER OUR LIVES! We cannot have God on Sunday mornings for an hour, then put God away when we want to live secrets. For God to come, Once, for All people, God needs to RIP OPEN THE BARRIERS between us that there would be no power in SECRETS anymore. A problem with Hebrew translation into English comes in VERSE 5: “Behold, God was Angry and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?” None of us were made to Sin, because God was angry. In English we reversed the phrases… BEHOLD WE SINNED & GOD WAS ANGRY, making the emphasis of this verse whether because we have continued to sin a very long time, months, years, decades, generations, Can God still forgive us? ADVENT is a brief 4 Weeks, where we live Knowing God has Come into the World AND ALSO believing in God’s Coming into Each of our Lives. This is the time of “ALREADY/NOT YET”. There is a song about “You better watch out, You better not Cry, Better not Pout I am telling you Why…” Which fits with waiting for the Messiah. Rather than bi-furcating, living ignoring what we believe, saying we want God in our lives, but not when we are cheating, not when we are going to get caught. Instead, live as if Children waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive! Live with Hope and Excitement, rather than fear. Funny, this passage has been used by those believing in THE END TO THE WORLD as proof of a coming Apocalypse. This is not some NOSTRADOMUS Prediction… Here, Jesus describes Reality: The Temple at Jerusalem has been destroyed for ever. There have been and continue to be WARS and rumors of War. This is ASSURANCE… AFTER the Tribulation, the SUN will be DARKENED, the Moon will Not Give Light. Just when it seems DARKNESS and SECRECY have WON, the Messiah Comes Again. IT is NOT about WHEN; Jesus describes that even HE as the Son of God Does Not Know, Only God knows. Pay attention to the World around us… Have the Leaves lost their Trees? Have the Temperatures become Colder? So what is going to happen? For Months the days have been getting shorter and Darkness has been expanding, YET After Winter, what has ALWAYS come? With less time in darkness and greater light upon God’s world.

"Why Judgment", November 26, 2017

Ezekiel 34: 11-16, 20-24 Matthew 25: 31-46 Reading this passage from Matthew, someone in a Bible Study once declared: “I love this passage because it scares all the would-be-goats with the punishment to come.” Which surprised me because I had never before thought about the punishment. In fact in all four of the Gospels, this is the only place where the Greek word for “judgment” is used. The only other reference in ALL the New Testament is in the First Letter of John 4:18 which says that “Love casts out fear, because fear has to do with judgment, and he who fears is not perfected in love. We love because God first loved us.” The reward of God’s love always seemed enough motivation. All around the world this is Christ the King Sunday, established as such in the 1800s, when Princes and Presidents and Dictators were emphasizing their authority and power on the world stage. I think there is a wonderful story about Bishop Hugh Latimer, who was a very outspoken Bishop of London. One morning, seeing King Henry VIII seated in the Sanctuary, Bishop Latimer paused to pray before preaching. Rather than muttering in silence, in a stage whisper the Bishop prayed: “Latimer, be careful what you say this day, King Henry is here.” Following which, he prayed “and all should be careful, for so also The King of Kings is here.” Within the Church, Investigation for Church Discipline ONLY begins because someone is so violated that they bring Allegations which they make into formal Charges against their leader for an abuse of trust that can be proven. The Investigations are done with public knowledge that there is an investigation, but confidentiality about who and why, in the event the matter were not true. Decades ago, in another Presbytery, we had Seven Investigations taking place simultaneously. We reached a time, where every person looked round the Table asking Jesus, with the Disciples, “Is it I Lord, Is it I?” The linkage between Justice and Caring have been lost in our contemporary world. Due to all the litigation, “Justice” has become what the courts say Justice is, and doing harm or doing wrong only seems to matter when you get caught, and then, only if those accusing are willing to stand up to scrutiny and abuse. In the Church we seem to have cornered the market on “Caring”, we have Mission trips and Food Drives, Clothing Collections, Blanket Offerings, Thanksgiving Offerings, Christmas Offerings, One Great Hour Sharing … But Ezekiel holds Justice and Caring in tension together, both explicitly and implicitly. That seems an odd connection. Our regular linkage is Justice and Injustice, or Justice and Righteousness, Caring and Generosity, Caring and Soothing. But Ezekiel proclaims that God has union between Justice and Caring. Justice and Caring are united because the metaphor of the Shepherd is a political image. To be a king is to be surrounded with the Power of a God. To be a King is to shepherd the Nation. To be a King is to be concerned with the needs of the world. Hammurabi’s Law Code begins by explaining that those in Power are to use that power to promote the Welfare of the People, to cause Justice to prevail throughout the land, to destroy the wicked and evil in order that the strong not oppress the weak. Justice (the Power of Caring) is like a thumb on the scale, equalizing wealth, authority, dominance, strength, prestige, influence, race, education not out of a softness, or concern for the weak, but because Creation requires this balance. Ezekiel describes “Should not Shepherds Feed the Sheep? You eat the fat, clothe yourselves with the wool, slaughter the fatlings.” This exploitation not only depletes the economy of the herd, it scatters and makes vulnerable the flock among other nations. We have become so accustomed to Christ being one of us, Our Savior who suffered for us and died for us, we miss the point of Ezekiel, declaring that God has not only left the building, God left Heaven, Creator of the Entire Cosmos walked out to enter into Creation, searching for the lost, Jesus’ Parable of leaving the 99 to search for the 1 is simply Jesus quoting Ezekiel describing the Love of God. Justice is more than a Works-Righteousness of the Church having great Caring. After all the others, Matthew does not name this passage as a Parable, he does not introduce it as a Parable, or offer a moral. Instead, this seems to be the final answer to the question of the disciples exiting the Temple with Jesus, or as others followed him up the Mountain, to which Jesus declared “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, before him will be gathered all the nations, and the Son of Man will separate them. And the King will say, Come O Blessed of my father.” Throughout the Scriptures, the Greatest Blessing is to be welcomed into the love and body of God. The greatest Punishment was not inflicted by someone else, but is what we do to ourselves by isolating and separating ourselves in darkness. The problem here is selfishness. Not a selfishness as the world has known, no a far more subtle and seductive selfishness. I want to give gifts to my friends to make them happy. I do everything in my power to hide my sins from my family, not because I have sinned, but because I do want them to think less of me. I want to cheer a winning team. The ENDS justify the MEANS. I want to have a party for my friends and it does not register that this is all a façade, covering up, that to do so requires we violate others, we steal and lie, and protect ourselves. We commit to community-service projects because these make us look good, and our friends admire our doing for the less fortunate. We only see in a mirror dimly, where the world is a reflection of our desires, rather than witnessing what is. That is not true Caring, and there is no Justice. My agony with the Gospel this day, is knowing there is no joy is judgment. What the Son of Man yearns for is to have everyone be at the right-hand. When judgment comes, when some are separated to the left as Goats, there is heartache from the Judge, that these were unable to see beyond themselves. There is a sense of failure for the Judge, the Son of Man, that these chose to care for themselves, and the world of their creation, the Goats were threatened by sharing, being open to the glory of God.

"Reluctant Servants" November 19, 2017

Numbers 22: 7-12, 21-35 Matthew 25: 14-30 This morning I entreat you to recall a time when you did wrong. More than a simple mistake, in particular when you wronged someone else. Possibly you gave instruction to another to do wrong, perhaps you chose to not act when you knew and believed it would have helped, or you committed an act by which you caused harm to others. Years ago, I was driving with my Father-in-law, as we approached a Green traffic light, the truck ahead of us was turning left so we passed on the right. But the driver of the Truck, having recognized the driver of a car perpendicular had directed her to cross the intersection against the traffic light. After her car flipped over, the driver was dead, our car totaled and the Truck drove away. On a particular Sunday, someone saw the lights on and came in. Dressed in a white uniform, forlorn and distraught I did not know them, then recognized an Elder on Session who was also an ER nurse who had just gotten off from working all night. I learned that a family had come into the Emergency Room with a very sick young child. The doctor had prescribed Codeine, but going to the pharmacy the nurse had done wrong. Instead of C-O-D-E-I-N-E she had picked up a dose of C-O-C-A-I-N-E. When the child began convulsions she recognized she had done wrong, and the doctor administered NARCAN. Once she told me her story, we prayed and I assured her she was not alone that whatever happened God, her church and pastor would be with her. She left, and about 10 minutes later, the 30 year old son of our Clerk of Session came in with his wife, describing the horrible night they had taking their child to the ER and receiving COCAINE instead of CODEINE. Neither had known or recognized the other as belonging to the same Church, until the Sunday the couple came up the aisle to receive The Sacrament of Communion from the Nurse. There are stories to which we develop a certain kinship, for me it has been Balaam. When I was 8 yrs old, my father began a sermon on Balaam stating that his son’s favorite television show was about a talking horse. I was proud to have a shout-out in his sermon! When I was 23 and he re-used that same story, I was far less pleased. When I was 40 with children of my own, and heard him again naming that my favorite television show was Mr. Ed, I prayed he find a different illustration. Balaam was a Wizard with Great Power and abilities, who knew what was right and wrong, what was moral and ethical; but for what seemed valid reasons at the time, Balaam ignored what he knew to be right, and intentionally went to do wrong. When the Hebrews came through the wilderness into the Promised Land, the Canaanites were filled with fear. The Hebrews were a population so large and so different that the Egyptians had feared them, so also the Elders of Moab and Midian, King Balak sent his sons as messengers to The Wizard Balaam, paying him to Curse Israel. Balaam first went to God, and God told him not to do this thing, as these were a chosen people of God. But the sons of Balak came back with greater reward and incentive. So Balaam set out on his donkey. But the donkey turned and would not go where Balaam prodded. Then, the donkey pinned Balaam’s leg against a rock wall. Finally the Donkey lay down unwilling to rise. Balaam cursed and struck the donkey! When suddenly the donkey spoke, describing the Angel of God with a sword in their path, who would have struck them both dead had the donkey not laid down. Learning that the donkey had greater wisdom than he, Balaam repented, and instead of continuing the wrong by cursing the Hebrews, offered them a Blessing. Reading the Parables, they sometimes seem like “Bible stories” rather than real-life. You know what I mean, like Aesop’s Fables, or Greek Mythology. While there is often a moral, it just does not make sense that half of the Bridesmaids in a wedding party would ever be locked out of a wedding! It makes no sense that laborers would have been laying around all day without laboring, when suddenly at the 11th hour, not only were they hired, but paid a full day’s wage. Like Samson losing his strength because Delila cut his hair, or Jonah being swallowed by a fish, or 80 year olds conceiving, or a virgin giving birth, these seem like miracle-stories that could not really happen, which is why they are miracles. EXCEPT… In April 2005, I went to South Sudan to re-unite families with their lost sons. Reflecting on this now a dozen years later, through donations and grants we were responsible for giving $350,000/year for the first 10 years, and $3,000,000 these last two, so almost $10 Million to give sight to the blind; to Feed 3 million starving people; to assist another 3 million Women and children with life where who would have died. I personally gave $3,000 to a Deacon of the Church to buy Plows and Oxen for food. And I gave $1,000 to a family, set free a man from Prison. And a woman whom I gave $5 buried it in the ground until I came again and she could return it. This Parable really did happen in our lives. What does not make sense is description of the Man as a Harsh Taskmaster, who reaped where he did not sow, and gathered where he had not worked. Because typically in parables a King represents God or Jesus. So this must be about someone other, like us, or at least perceptions about those who give expecting return. I was the man who came from and went to a Foreign Country, returning two years later, and if ever we are able to return to doing Eye Surgeries, or some other task where I could be useful, it would be awesome to visit again. The added surprise for me, was that there was never a question why one received so much more than another. They each received what they needed and desired for their lives. What we think we know from archaeology is that a day’s wage for a laborer was a Denarius, 1 Talent was worth the equivalent of 5 Years Full-Time Employment. 3 or 5 Talents meant an astronomical sum, more than we can imagine, yet they were responsible and this was doubled for each. And when the man returned, doubling of these enormous sums was but an example of what they were given. But the one who had treated the Man wrong, wronged themselves by being cut off.

"Witnesses Against Ourselves" November 12, 2017

Joshua 24: 1-25 Matthew 25:1-13 With Only so few opportunities for worship in a given year, last week we began describing Joshua’s continuing Moses’ leadership; and this morning we pick up 30 years later, decades filled with fighting battles against the Canaanites, internal struggles of a new Nation as Joshua aged. This passage began: “God had given rest from all their enemies”, meaning this was a time of peace and prosperity. These words provide transition from the completion of the Torah and Joshua (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua) of the Hebrew Scriptures of the Law of Moses // to the start of the histories of The Judges, when the Old Testament’s Great heroes would be called upon: Gideon and Samson, Deborah, Jotham, Ebimelech, Jephthah, Boaz, Ruth, Eli and Samuel who would anoint the King. A time in history, when each person did what they thought right in their own mind; 350 years when people routinely pledged to be faithful then turned away from God. In this time of Peace and Thanksgiving before Joshua should pass, Joshua acts as a mouthpiece for God, recounting all that God has done for the people of faith. Joshua bore a unique role as much Witness as prophet. Joshua was present beside Moses at the 1st Passover, and again at the Red Sea, when God provided Manna in the wilderness, when God brought victory so long as Moses lifted up his arms to the Lord. Joshua was at Mount Sinai when God gave Moses the 10 Commandments. And after Moses’ burial, Joshua led the people through Circumcision, and across the Jordan; Joshua was among the Spies sent into Jericho, and throughout the many battles taking possession of the land, until each tribe had their own territory. Joshua had witnessed all the many Commitments of the people to serve God; AND Joshua had witnessed each time the people followed their fears instead of God. When the Nation crossed the Jordan, God instructed that the wars to come were Holy Wars between God Almighty versus the Canaanite Idols and a sinful people, therefore the Hebrews were instruments of God, and were to take nothing for themselves. They would have the land flowing with Milk and Honey, which was promised them and it would be for their salvation, they did not need Canaanite trophies. We do not often speak of the conquest at the City of Ai, because one of the Soldiers found a cup from the Canaanites and put it in his bag, for which the people of Israel were sent back into the wilderness another 40 days and nights to purify themselves, being reminded of their dependence upon God before coming to Jericho. In this time of rest and peace and prosperity, when all the tribes were settled in the land, Joshua invites the people to “Reconsider Covenant.” This is different from all the other Covenants; as the Covenant with Adam, with Noah, with Abraham, with Isaac and Jacob, as well as the Covenant with Moses at the Burning Bush and on Sinai with the 10 Commandments, had all been Covenants offered by God to singular individuals representing humanity, Israel. HOWEVER, here the Covenant in a time of Thanksgiving, asks all the people to consider if they can and will be a People of God? Having recounted all that God has done, in thanksgiving, the people chant “We Do.” But Joshua challenges them, knowing their fickle nature, their lack of commitment and follow through. To be a people of God is not only to be born into it, to be circumcised, and to worship God, but to care for the poor, the orphaned and widowed, those in need, to treat everyone equitably and fairly, not in fear of strangers, but with trust and humbly repenting when others feel wronged. At times, I think we go about pledging our stewardship and nominating Elders and Deacons in the wrong way. You know what I mean, we often promise: “It’s not a big deal. Only one meeting a month. Making a pledge we will send you a statement, but it is not a bill.” Instead, Joshua challenges “Revere and Fear the Lord! Serve God with sincerity and faithfulness. Put away all other gods. You cannot serve the Lord, for God is Holy and jealous, unwilling to forgive transgressed sins.” You are not chosen because of your family, or your character, the great things you personally accomplished. Instead, you are chosen to set aside your desires, and to compromise your will to that of the Lord. As Joshua prepares to die, he challenges the people that he will no longer be there, so they need to plan to be Witnesses Against Themselves. Jesus’ parable this morning strikes me as odd. Is this really how we want to identify ourselves? “You know those Presbyterians always HOARDING and Stockpiling. PLANNERS anticipating they will never have enough.” Jesus has just warned about Authorities taking advantage for their own egos & gain. In this same chapter he is going to tell the Parable of the Last Judgment, immediately after which is the Last Supper, then Jesus goes to pray and P, James, John fall asleep. All meaning that this parable of the Bridegroom Coming is the Day of Judgment, but while 5 are described as Wise and 5 Foolish, all 10 fell asleep waiting, so the Judgment can not be as simple as forfalling asleepwaiting for the Lord. The Boy Scout motto of “Always Be Prepared” by carrying a flask of OIL but not sharing suggests Selfishness and Hoarding as Virtues, which fly in the face of the other parables about a Mustard seed of faith being enough, and 5 fish and 2 loaves being enough. So I do not think it is about possessing quantities of stored oil. Instead, when I was in Israel, I purchased this Lamp which is over 1700 years old. An OIL LAMP only stays lit with oil in the reservoir, otherwise the wick lights and goes out. You cannot be a Light set on a hill, if there is no LOVE left in you. I believe Jesus is naming that at times, we all risk spiritual dryness. Where do you find faith, when you have been giving and giving, without allowing yourself to be fed? If the only conversations you have had with the person you love, have been about bills and doctors’ appointments, there is nothing filling your tank. If the arrow on the gas tank points to E, you are running out of gas. If the 2 year old does not get a nap, they are going to have a melt-down. It is possible to work 80 hour workweeks indefinitely, but your relationships, your intelligence and your imagination are all going to suffer. The unwillingness of the Wise Bridesmaids to share is the lesson learned by every student, you can borrow somebody else’s notes, they can write a paper for you, but “Graduating” you did not get anything out of it. You cannot go up to someone who seems to have a great marriage to borrow a cup. Replenishing your tank requires work, daily work, just as choosing to Re-Covenant, we are witnesses against ourselves, and we know when we have been feeding our ego, rather than feeding the poor; worrying about appearances rather than clothing the naked. Dark times come in every life, but do we sit in the darkness nursing our sores, or shall we minister to others, getting outside ourselves?

"Sanctify Yourselves for Humble Service" November 5, 2017

Joshua 1-17 Matthew 23:1-12 Be STRONG, Be of GOOD COURAGE, HUMBLE in SERVICE, SANCTIFY YOURSELVES all of this refers to instruction to “Experience Life with Authentically.” Tourists for hundreds of miles around, come to the Finger Lakes for Leaf Peeping, to see lakes and witness the Glory of The Finger Prints of God, which we go passed. Different from what I have seen in the Northeast, along the roadside in Midwestern States there were immense Stone Cairns, some with the names of every county in the State, others with identification of every City in the County. As children, our parents would pull the car off the road at these rest-stops and we would finger all the names inscribed into the stones, never understanding why these stone cairns had been established. Year ago hiking the Adirondacks, the trails were marked with similar stone markers, that you depended upon to find your way. When you started out in the morning, due to the fog, you often could not see up ahead, you could see from this marker to the next, and that experience was enough. You did not have to worry about the future or the past, you had to live in the moment, confident you knew who you were and where you were. What Joshua here instructs the tribes to do, is to gather boulders together, to build a stone Cairn, to mark the spot where they “crossed over Jordan” for salvation. Last Sunday, we read of Moses looking over the Promised Land and Moses’ burial. In the first two Chapters of Joshua, over and over Joshua is told to be strong of courage, here he instructs the leaders to tell the people “Sanctify Yourselves”. Literally, everything that had ever been promised to Abraham, to Isaac & Jacob, as well as throughout the 40 years with Moses escaping Egypt, was being fulfilled. What an awesome responsibility, one that was not given to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob or Moses, but is given to you, so be Strong, Be of Courage! Sanctify Yourselves in Glory! This is a holy thing, do Not miss it. THE PREDICAMENT OF THE PROSPEROUS, is that faith is wholly reasonable when you are believing in and working at a promise, but different, once you possess everything you need and desire. Faith for Joshua is less about fulfillment “someday”, than about being thankful to have survived, thankful to have God’s blessings. As we approach Veteran’s Day, it is not as other Countries have done displaying our Military Weaponry, but a time of GIVING THANKS for having been brought through! The point of this passage is that entering this land was a moment in world history, to be remembered for all time. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIVER, was a place none of their generation had been before, so crossing over was no ordinary act. Imagine one of life’s many changes, Senior Year in High School, Graduation from College, Getting Married, having a Child, Retirement, Receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award… we make plans, send invitations, purchase everything we need. BUT do we stop to sanctify ourselves, realizing we are crossing over and will never be the same, that we are going into an alien reality different than we have ever known, AND Not as Conquerors, not Prideful, but Sanctified for Holy Service? Last week, discussing Martin Luther, we described that the Church used to require before you could receive Communion, you had to go to Confession and be absolved of your sins. While we do not need to go into a Confessional Booth, in the Sacrament of Communion we are opening our souls, we are opening ourselves totally and completely to one another, so what ever you thought was hidden, what you were harboring, is now shared with God, and also a burden shared by all of us. For Israel, this Crossing Over calls up memory of crossing the Red Sea, as their ancestors left slavery crossing the De-Militarized zone of the dry Sea-bed into the wilderness. In that first crossing, they were pursued by Pharaoh and his armies. When they reached the other side, their prayer and celebration was that their enemy had been destroyed. But with the Jordan River, crossing over is leaving the wilderness where we were nomads, Entering INTO God’s Promise, into the Sacred. How they did so is unknown, perhaps a miracle of God similar to the Red Sea, perhaps the engineering miracle of a dam, or other means of diverting the river. Symbolically for Israel: Water being Chaos at Creation, if Israel could control the Jordan, Damming up or diverting Water, to bring life to the desert, they could control their destiny. Geographically: What we know is that it was Flood Season, so the waters were broader and deeper than normal, the water colder and faster, coming down from Mt. Hermon’s snowcaps 9000 feet ABOVE sea-level, dropping to the Dead Sea at 1400 ft BELOW sea-level, so one of the fastest rivers of its size dropping OVER 10,000 feet! When you are flying, the Pilot announces when you have reached OVER 10,000 ft, because over 10,000 feet is different, You are physically between HEAVEN & EARTH you have perspective, everything is witnessed and seen in big picture from outside; but when you are living sanctified humbly experiencing, when you are crossing over the river where stone cairns were set up by Joshua and the ancestor of each tribe, life is very much in the here and now. So this passage begins “This is the Day!” The Gospel according to Matthew attempts to do at least two things simultaneously, First to share the Good News of the Life, Death and Resurrection of the Messiah! This is not history of a Rabbi, or President, this is Sacred of God’s love of God’s Son. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus has authority because everything he says comes from Old Testament Scripture, he fulfills everything a Messiah was supposed to do and to be… But this story was written down, in this way, at this time, for a purpose. 36 years after the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, three years after his Baptism at Jordan, so about the year 70AD the Temple at Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman Empire through the Roman Legion. That act, that Crossing Over, ended Worship as it had been practiced since the time of Abraham, ritually since Moses. There no longer were Sacrifices. There no longer were Priests. There no longer was a Temple to go to for Worship. There was a level of Spiritual Chaos, as everyone struggled with what is FAKE and what is REAL, searched for what is “Authoritative,” who speaks with Authority. For decades, scholars dismissed Matthew as clumsy and jumbled. Jesus challenges Chief Priests, the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Saducees… Is everybody the enemy? Instead, I think what Matthew was trying to do was to compare Jesus to each of the other authorities: Jesus compared to the Chief Priests. Jesus compared to the Phariees, Jesus compared to the Saducees, Jesus compared to the Sanhedrin, to King Herod, to Pontius Pilate and Caesar? and he is More Authentic, Undercutting as more to be Trusted than any other. Although they may have POWER over life and death, death could not prevent his love, which is for everlasting life. Power does strange things to us. 3 psychologists Keltner, Gruenfeld and Anderson shared the results of what has become a famous study. In this experiment, they worked with clusters of three people, all of the same sex, having a conversation. They designated one of the three, as being the Judge, who could assign points as they saw fit to the other two. They then had a discussion of political issues and business policies, what is fake and real, with the Judge assigning points to each. After 30 minutes, the researchers brought in a plate of 5 cookies. Now the problem is somebody is not going to get two. Everytime, the judge awarded themself at least two cookies, and often, ate with their mouth open! Power in one arena, leads to demonstrations of power in other arenas. One of the best stories of humility I have ever heard, took place in Chicago in 1953, as a Train pulled into the Railroad station. All the Dignitaries, Officials, Reporters and Crowds were there to see the person who had been named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Suddenly a tall slender man, with bushy white hair and mustache stepped off the platform. He said “excuse me”, and discretely made his way through the crowd to walk up beside an elderly Black woman struggling with two immense cases. He offered to help her, and carried her bags to the bus she was going to ride. Then Albert Schweitzer turned back to the crowd and apologized for having kept them all waiting. Someone described that they had never seen a Sermon Lived Out. Years ago in another congregation, a man who had left the area decades before returned for his wife’s burial. He then contacted the Church because he wanted to make a Gift of Upholstered Cushions for the Pews, which were solid Oak. Not simply new cushions, these oak benches had never been padded. For 9 months the Session debated whether to receive the gift or not, ultimately deciding to do so, saying: “We have been uncertain if we should be this comfortable in the worship of God, but we are certain that the Preacher ought never to get comfortable.” So they did not upholster the Preacher’s bench.

"500 Years of Reformation" October 29, 2017

Deuteronomy 34 Matthew 16:1-20 Romans 1:8 Velcro-ing six computer printed pages to the doors of the Skaneateles Presbyterian Church, does not have the same sound or impact as Martin Luther’s nailing his 95 Theses to the Doors of the Cathedral at Wittenberg as invitations to Debate! The Sunday prior to All Saints’ Day 1517, at All Saints’ Cathedral in Wittenberg, Germany, Rev. Martin Luther was committing a bold act of defiance, challenging the Orthodoxy of the Holy Roman Empire, challenging the authority of Church Law, challenging the Infallibility of the Pope, challenging a very lucrative money-making scheme, challenges for which others had recently been burned at the stake! 500 years later, that we remember what he did, that the Catholic Church has undergone radical reformation, that Evangelical Lutheran, Missouri Lutheran, Wisconsin Lutheran, Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregational Churches all exist spread throughout the whole world, is like Moses looking out over the plains of Moab, witnessing the fulfillment of all that God had promised, and yet in his human existence Martin Luther, like Moses, did not have opportunity to enter into it. The actions and ideas of Martin Luther inspired: Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, William Penn, Thomas Jefferson, Women’s Suffrage, Civil Rights, use and expansion of the Printing Press, our having Bibles in every Pew and for every Believer, our being able as Christians to worship God in our native Languages; HOWEVER, none of this was what Rev. Martin Luther set out to do. A moment ago, we read Matthew’s account of Simon Peter’s Confession, that” the Son of Man in Jesus, who is the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” We read accounts of this in each of the Gospels, emphasizing the leap of faith Affirming Jesus as being the Christ which sets Jesus on the road to the Crucifixion… but the early Church grabbed hold of two different elements of this story. The Disciple Simon, Andrew’s brother, was renamed Peter, Petrified, meaning The Rock foundation of the Church, identifying Peter as the First Pope. And Jesus gave to Peter “The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.” We hear the next part of Matthew as explanation of what those Keys might be: “That what you bind on earth is bound in Heaven, whatever you loose is loosed in heaven” meaning that the Keys to Heaven are about Forgiveness. As human beings we have awesome power and responsibility, that we choose to Not forgive, we prevent others from being forgiven, and we possess the power to Free ourselves and one another in forgiveness. Instead, as the Holy Roman Empire developed, the Church developed a Caste system that Human Beings fall short of the glory of God. People are not perfect, are Sinners. In the Old Testament, Judaism had practiced that forgiveness required atonement, paying the debt for the sin committed, which was done by making an offering. The passing of time = grain offering, the birth of a first-born two doves, Passover a Lamb. However 36 years after Jesus Crucifixion and Resurrection, the Temple of Solomon, the Temple at Jerusalem, was the most holy place where Offerings could be made, built on the site where Abraham offered his own Son to God as an Offering, that Temple was destroyed. So how do you repent, how can you be forgiven? The Church created 4 Laws: First, the Church is the only authority that can forgive, possessing The Keys; Second, that Church Teaching was the Rule of Life, Holy, like the Bible and Worship were in Latin, as Illiterate Sinners you could not understand God’s Wisdom; Third, that Repentance happened by Confession of your sins to your Priest, recalling the Caste System that Priests by being Ordained were over people yet less that God; Fourth, as a means of Atonement, believers could reduce the time and severity of a loved ones’ experience in Purgatory, by ownership of sacred relics/indulgences. Go on a pilgrimage to the Jordan River and get Holy Water, go to the Sea and pick up a shell used by Andrew in Baptism, purchase a Cross made from Olivewood of Bethlehem, a Hair from John the Baptist’s Head, the Robe of Jesus, find the Holy Grail. All of which became the issues Luther Protested, for Reform of the Church. Two historic events undermined the authority of the Church: At the Wed Bible Study, I described the Church fighting for authority on 3 Fronts, that is because for 70 years instead of the Center of the Church being at Jerusalem or at Rome, the home of the Pope was at Avignon, France. Pope Gregory XI finally succeeded in moving the Vatican to Rome, then died. Many of the Bishops were afraid that a French Pope would be elected. However, the Cardinals elected an Italian Pope, named Urban VI whom the Bishops then feared and others questioned his sanity. In retaliation, the French kidnapped the new Pope! Assuming the Pope to be dead, the Cardinals elected a new Pope, named Clement VII, at which time the French sent the first Pope back alive! Then to make matters even more complicated, a Third Pope was elected! The Great Western Schism made people question who actually spoke with authority. Finally the Council of Constance, was one of the largest attended and most brief Councils of the Church. At the Council of Constance all three Popes were repudiated, and a new Pope Martin V was elected as the one true Pope. The Council of Constance was brief because, The Black Plague was sweeping across Europe, killing 25 Million people in 4 years and continuing throughout that Century. So the Cardinals gathered, and almost immediately left for their homes. The Church was powerless, sin/death/purgatory seemed to dominate peoples’ fears. Martin Luther was not attempting to challenge that authority, or to inspire growth of denominations. As a pastor Luther sought an authority greater than the Pope, greater than Church Teaching, so politicized and divisive during the Dark Ages. Reading the Letter to the Romans, he came upon the phrase from today’s Assurance of Pardon: “In the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith.” Luther recognized that each of us are on a lifelong journey of repentance. Luther preached that we do not need Church Law to interpret the Bible, we need to be able to read Scripture ourselves and let Scripture and only Scripture speak to us. We do not need a Priest as your intermediary with God, Christ already is that. The Choir sang “Let All Mortal Flesh” this morning, which is about the vital importance of the Incarnation of Christ, as opposed to the Crucifixion. This is not about Suffering, but about God being ONE WITH Humanity. What I love is that Martin Luther was not a Theologian off in a Monastery, he was a Pastor of a local Church with real people. His 95 Theses were not an attack on the Pope as derogatory, he demonstrated respect, but did not violate the Commandment by making the Pope into a God, or the Church into an Idol. Because of this, just prior to Pope Benedict’s Announcement of his Retirement as Pope, he declared that for the Catholic Church the Lutheran Reformation is over, all the Theses of Luther calling for reform have been addressed and have reformed the Church. For which, the Baptism of those of us in churches of the Lutheran Tradition, are acceptable in the Catholic Church.

"Re-Assurance" October 22, 2017

Exodus 33: 12-23 Matthew 11: 1-19 Recently I had a wedding, where the couple wrote their own vows, and the Groom began by saying to his Bride: “Thank you for coming. I really don’t know what I would have done if you had not come here today.” I am very thankful YOU are here. There are times I wish that preachers were prophets knowing the needs and circumstance of the congregation so well as to choose passages for their context. But for a hundred years, preachers developed a barrel of their favorite sermons and recycled like old curriculum. Instead following the Lectionary, at times we receive blessings even when we need challenge, and at times we receive condemnation when we desire comfort. Although I am routinely in awe of how well the three year rotation of passages does apply to world events and our particular circumstance. Two weeks ago, we had Jesus’ Parable of the Vineyard, where the Gardener kills all those laborers who rejected the Messengers and the Son. Last week, we read the Worship of the Golden Calf, in response to which Moses instructed the Levites to each kill their brothers, neighbors and neighbors kin. Like Shakespeare’s Tragedy, I searched your faces, seeing those who looked beaten, without the joy and affirmation customary in our worship and sermon conversations together. Then the Lectionary directed we read Matthew’s Parable of the Wedding Feast, where those who do not attend are put to death, and one who does come is thrown into the dark! First today, I am glad you came back… Also, I have a confession to make... This Gospel passage is not the one appointed for today... Instead as I read Moses’ asking for assurance to see the Glory of God, and I was reminded of Jesus asking the people “What did you go out to see?” “What do you seek?” As a preacher, I wish I could get away with perpetually telling you “No Bad News”, but that would not be honest, and faith needs to be both real and honest, as a sign of what is to come. There has become a regular plot device in Action Movies. Building to a climax, the Bad Guys always hide in a warehouse, and do not know that the Good Guys are right outside, meanwhile, if it is a Western: behind the barn, if it is Modern day: behind a stack of wood pallets, the Hero says “Wait for a sign.” The others, and the audience are left waiting and wondering “What sign?” When suddenly there is an explosion as the Hero drives a truck through the front wall. I have been searching a long time, and thankfully there has yet to be an explosion of a truck driving through the Chancel wall. More often, our lives are actually like Moses’ experience. In childhood, when all the children of Egypt were killed, Moses was saved. When Moses acted in anger, somebody died & Moses started over as a Shepherd. Witnessing The Burning Bush, Moses’ take away was God’s commissioning, not that he had witnessed a miracle. Moses was the instrument of God 10 times, in plagues of God’s power over Pharaoh. Raising his arms Moses parted the Red Sea saving Israel and destroying their enemy. The people thirsted, the people hungered, the people were attacked, and over and over again God provided miracles as proof of God’s power, majesty and love. The entire Nation were afraid to go near God, but Moses spent for 40 Nights alone with God, receiving the 10 Commandments, secret wisdom of the fashioning of the Tent of Meeting, the Tabernacle, and all the elements of Ordained worship. God was angered at being shamed by people, and Moses CHANGED the mind of God! Through all of this, Moses never said “Wow!” Instead, after everything, Moses says “I need proof.” Not proof of the existence of God, but ASSURANCE God can be trusted, a sign: God will continue ahead of us. While there are a plethora of different religions, if asked “Do you believe in God?” more today will answer Yes than ever before. We do not want or need proof of the existence of God… we believe… But we long for signs that God can be trusted. With all the miracles in our lives, we look for a sign that God will go ahead of us. There is a wonderful simplicity and irony in that sign. We are not able to see God face to face, or as humans to know where God is going, or what God intends. But we are able/blessed to witness miracles, to be part of a great company celebrating miracles in ordinary life, …and yet still we seek proof of trust. Routinely, we are comfortable with living life, but when crises arise, when we are filled with anxiety, that is when we seek ASSURANCE from God. John the Baptist had been a powerful Prophet, truly a Man of God. Like Elijah and Moses, he had called people to believe, and the world had responded! John the Baptist called people to Repent Be Baptized: ALL JUDEA came to the Jordan. John stood up to Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, stood up to the religious authorities, soldiers and guards, calling them a Brood of Vipers, an Incestuous Nest of Blood Suckers, and his faith was not shaken. John the Baptist saw Heaven ripped open at John’s Baptism of Jesus, saw a Dove descend upon Jesus, and heard the voice: My Beloved Son: I AM Well pleased! John the Baptist had the faith, and the chutzpah to call out King Herod, the same Herod who would condemn Jesus to Pilate… John the Baptist attacked King Herod, as having lusted after his own sister-in-law, murdering his own brother, taking his dead brother’s wife as his mistress, then lusting after her daughter/his niece. None of what the Late-Night Comedians have said about Harvey Weinstein is as risky as what John did. For which John was arrested. Being put into a dungeon, was not a minimum security prison. Dungeons were carved out of solid rock, without windows, without light or fresh air, prisoners chained to the walls, beaten, starved, and afterward being dropped 20 feet through a hole into a pit. Knowing how fragile his life has become, knowing the end of life will come soon, John sends a message to Jesus: “Are you he who is to come, Messiah sent by God, or should we seek another?” As RE-ASSURANCE, Jesus sends reply: The Lame Walk, Blind See, The Deaf Hear, Captives are Set Free, the Dead Rise. Jesus does not describe worlds ending, or Nations going to War, He does not invoke Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Fires, or Violence. Instead Jesus describes very intimate, personal ASSURANCES of people. I never set out to be a pastor who was in one location so long, but one of the things I have learned by doing so, is that all of us seek little things as RE-ASSURANCES. When those who have gone in mission service to South Sudan return, we make a point of being at the airport to welcome them home. This summer, when Choir members went to Scotland, we drove up to the airport, as a simple and personal welcome, that You are expected, others are here to greet you. In my first year with you, I introduced you to StuBear, who spent a week with each family or individual, going everywhere as a reminder of our “stewardship”. StuBear has been to Northern NY, to South Sudan, to General Assembly, to Puerto Rico and Scotland. At every celebration of worship, after we have confessed our sins and confessed our faith, and had anxious moments of silent prayer, we have an Assurance of Pardon. Long before you were born, long before you were a gleam in your grandfather’s eye, Jesus Christ came as the incarnation of God’s love, and died and was resurrected, as ASSURANCE of our forgiveness by God. That RE-ASSURANCE is as simple as this: “Brothers and Sisters, In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.”

"OUR SHAMING GOD" October 15, 2017

Exodus 32: 1-14 Matthew 22:1-14 We begin this morning challenging our most basic assumption leading to ANXIETY. That is that our World is finite. Humanity has been in existence for millions of years, Progressing through Manifest Destiny, so we assume EVERYTHING is THE BEST that can be,… COMPLETE… having survived… having surpassed the Enlightenment… having gotten beyond the 20th Century, it seems as though all that is left is Destruction and Judgment. September 11th ‘s attack over 15 years ago; the collapse of the Stock Market a dozen years ago, the collapse of the Housing Bubble a decade ago, Antiques Roadshow demonstrating all of our stuff is worthless, all seem to validate our anxiety over the future. The Prophet Isaiah seems to speak to this Circumstance: All flesh is grass, the Grass withers the flower fades. When in fact that is a passage about the GRACE of God, Comfort, Comfort My People says your God! Faith undercuts the limitations of Shame and anxiety with limitless Grace of God. This morning’s are the most intricately written stories in the Bible. I invite us to unpack each, considering: Maybe there were stories behind these stories, that do not mean what we have come to possess. Because these same passages have become ugly awful stories used to justify anti-Semitism, persecution and Fear of God. Assuming this is about THE GOLDEN CALF, we know Exodus 32 to be about judgment of Israel, not only for SIN, but getting caught, worshipping idols. Following the passages we read, With righteous Anger Moses commands retribution by the Sons of Levi: Neighbor kill neighbor, brother kill brother, fight to the last Man. Part of our shock at this passage is that the last thing we read of 10 Commandments, we interpreted was NOT about Law & Sin and Judgment, but about God extending through Moses through Israel: Our being in Relationship with God! The 10 Commandments we said are description of a trusting relationship with God! So, what if we recast this passage, instead of The SIN OF THE GOLDEN CALF; naming this OUR ANXIETY SHAMING GOD. The escaped slaves had been left by Moses at the base of Mt. Sinai, as the mountain was engulfed in cloud, with Lightning, thunder, trumpet blasts, earthquakes,… left in the wilderness for 40 days... When else have you heard about 40 days in wilderness? This like Jesus’, is a story of TEMPTATION. Even before receiving the Commandments, Israel violates the 1st Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods, then demand that Aaron violate the second by making for them AN IDOL to worship. There is no record here that they coveted other’s belongings, or lied or murdered. In Anxiety, they assumed the worst, and SHAMED GOD. In response to their actions, just as in Genesis, God promises to start anew: God will make of Moses a new Noah, another Abraham, to eliminate those who Shamed God and have a Genesis a New Beginning with a Righteous Son of Man. But the point of this story is two things, present in the text, we overlook. 1. Moses was able to change the mind of God! On the first day of Seminary, in a Preaching class with James Forbes, he had us read this passage, and remember, that the role of every believer is not only to pray for others, BUT ALSO to be able to plead your case and challenge God to reveal a new and different revelation. The meaning behind our Stained glass Window, is that YES, there is Predestination, God Does Have a Plan…but we each have a Free Will, Challenging God to act revealing a new different part of God’s plan. 2. AND Even when God has been SHAMED… Even when God has been rejected… Even when we chose to bow down to our own golden idols… God FORGIVES! Forgiveness is not a New Testament idea. God’s Forgiveness is as basic to our understanding of God, as the Ten Commandments on the Tablets of Stone. But remember that the first Tablets of Stone, just like the Golden Calf, were fragile, easily broken, where as the GRACE OF GOD’S FORGIVENESS is Flexible & Adaptable. Matthew combined at least three of Jesus’ Parables into “This Wedding Feast”, which while about Judgment Day, too appropriately also describes fighting at Weddings, within family, over who is Accepted, Welcome, and Shaming one another. Having performed as many as 30 wedding as year for 33 years, I have been repeatedly shocked here in this little Village, how often the Families have hired Off-Duty Police Officers to be present, because we feared, family at the Wedding could not be civil. The first, oldest Parable is similar to last week in the immediately preceding verses: God is the Landowner seeking fruits from sharecroppers. A Day of Judgment. Here, God is the Father of the Bridegroom sending out invitations to the Wedding Feast. But when people reject God’s messengers, and kill them, just as we would expect in Sodom and Gomorrah: God destroys them. Horribly, this parable has over time been used as justification for killing our enemies, Crusades, persecution of Judaism, when All of us, ALL Humanity have at times Rejected God, Shamed God. This is old Calvinist’ Pre-Destination. Evil and Sin are real, and it is hard for us to Forgive, harder for us to forgive ourselves than it is for God, as proven by the Second Parable. The Second Parable, is that after Judgment, God then seeks out those who were exiled and excluded. God acts with Grace, Compassion and Forgiveness for the Marginalized, so the First are last, and the Last are first. But, as few of us today know many Pharisees, Lepers, Prostitutes, Tax Collectors, perhaps we should apply this to the DEPRESSED, those who have Felt REJECTED, Broken. See John Calvin described that while Humanity will turn away from God, God continues to offer Grace for us. The Third Parable, is unique to Matthew, and for us today, probably the hardest. When those who were marginalized, do come to the Feast, God sees one who has not put on a Wedding Garment, and casts this one out of the Feast. I say, “the hardest for us today”, because I have repeatedly found myself and heard others beat themselves up about MULTITASKING, trying to attend a Funeral knowing I have to be leading an activity in two hours, and the Funeral runs long. You cannot serve both. You cannot be in two places at the same time Instead of the “Wedding Feast” or “The Wedding Garment” which seem to have little reference for people today, I suggest we refer to this as: “The PARABLE OF HAVING EVERYTHING, RESPONSIBLE FOR NOTHING.” Even when, especially when, Grace and Forgiveness have been extended by God, those who receive, Cannot continue to SHAME GOD, because we make Grace Worthless, shaming God all the more. This is Calvin’s DOUBLE PRE-DESTINATION.

"RESPECTING GOD" October 8, 2017

Exodus 20:1-20 Matthew 21:33-46 Monday morning, we awoke to reports of mass shootings at a festival in Las Vegas, and hour after hour, day after day, the circumstances of every person involved have been narrated to us. This was to have been an End of Summer Festival, a Concert of good feelings, which instead became a shooting gallery, literally of fish in a barrel. Over 500 wounded, 58 murdered for having been listening to music at a concert. Quietly, I have heard people say: “Why doesn’t God do something?” “Where is God?” Thursday, many of us joined together at a Memorial at the Catholic Church, where the readings were Psalm 23’s “Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want” and Ist Corinthians 13 “Faith, Hope and Love abide, but the greatest of these is Love…” Those are the passages I long to preach this morning, those are the comforting words we want to hear, instead, Lectionary requires reading The 10 Commandments and Parable of the Wicked Tenants, which ARE NOT COMFORTING these are Commandments to Respect God, living as Tenants in God’s Garden. The Gospel has been narrating this story of a Festival, told with increasing intensity. Growing up, my Grandparents had an old fashioned “Victrola” that as you cranked the handle, winding up the spring, the Victrola played faster and faster and faster, louder and louder, building to a crescendo. Like the Siren at the Fire Station… With CD players and Computers, I do not have anything to compare to that sound like the building intensity of the Gospel… The Festival Season was building in Jerusalem, thousands of thousands of strangers compacting inside the concentric stonewalls of the City, the City of David, Jerusalem, in Israel, at Passover, in the time of King Herod, under the occupation of Pontius Pilate of the Roman Empire of Caesar Augustus. There had been Anonymous Letters to the Editor in the Paper about Traffic, Congestion, and Parking. The Chamber of Commerce and property owners were anxious about rioting, trying to keep a lid on things, to quiet people, avoiding chaos. Jesus had become a Celebrity Superstar, surrounded by his Disciples, followed by crowds of fans, as he healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, cured the lame. The more he told people to “Tell no one” the more interested crowds grew. The more the elite and powerful were outraged, telling Jesus to stop his followers, the louder and more intense the crowds became. It was Passover, in Jerusalem, the Festival of God overthrowing the oppressors, and this was the time of Pilate and the Roman Legion, after John the Baptist had been beheaded by Herod to satisfy his lust. Only the day before Jesus had had a Triumphal Arrival, a parade accompanied by children singing, peasants waving palm branches, everyone shouting “Have Mercy!” Last night, Jesus and his posse had slept outside the City on the Mount of Olives. The morning of the Passover Festival Jesus found a Fig Tree, but the tree was barren, and Jesus cursed the tree for going against its nature, providing No Fruit. Jesus went through the gates, into the City of Jerusalem, up the hillside toward the Temple Mount, and there atop the plateau, inside the walls of the temple Courtyard, outside the Temple were the Moneychangers, hawking their trinkets and stuff. Jesus cried out that this was Pure Commercialism, No Sacrifice to God for atonement of sins! There was a crash of tables, people running, Rams, Goats, Sheep and Lambs bolting, a flutter of escaping pigeons and doves. Different from his Parables, this one was really an analogy. A Parable leaves open correlations and meanings; an Analogy has direct application for these characters. Isaiah 5: 1-7 is an extremely well-known ancient love song, describing God as The Landowner who created a Garden. Sounds not unlike Genesis… This garden had a winepress and watchtower, surrounded by protective concentric walls, not unlike Jerusalem. For generations the Vines in the Landowner’s Garden produced the most abundant, most lush and beautiful grapes, dates, figs and wine. The goats the sweetest cheese. But here Jesus’ Analogy shifts… Isaiah prophesied that the Garden is corrupted becoming overgrown with weeds, the vines trodden by armies… With the Chamber of Commerce and the elected officials and property owners standing in front of Jesus with their arms crossed, Jesus makes the story about the Tenants, the Sharecroppers who refuse to respect the rights and relationship they have to the Landowner. At Harvest Festival they have no food to pay to the Landowner, and they beat and abuse those sent by the Landowner, finally the Landowner sends his own Son, and they decide to kill the Son rather than acknowledging what they owe the Owner. We said this took place at Passover Festival, going back the original Passover… The Hebrew people were slaves of the King of Egypt, suffering the genocide of their children. After 10 Plagues, God rescued the people from Pharaoh, holding back the chaos of the Red Sea for them to Pass Over, while the Angel of Death Passed-over Egypt. The people were anxious about food and water and enemies, because although Set Free from Pharaoh, for hundreds of years they had been slaves. Over time, heavily influenced by the Apostle Paul’s description that once there was LAW, there was knowledge of Sin, we have come to envision the 10 Commandments as a LAW CODE, and just like Speed Limits and Tax Codes, we look for how to get around Law Codes as not really applying to us. When Judy and I first married, we went to Grad School, for me Seminary. As newlyweds, we would come home and my father’s first question was invariably: “What are they teaching about the 10 Commandments?” What was never said at Seminary, and took me years to discern, is that the 10 Commandments had nothing to do with LAWS… Instead, the 10 Commandments is what it means to Respect God, how to live in covenant relationship with God rather than under the slavery of a King, a Pharaoh or Rome’s Caesars. Respecting God, living in relationship, is actually pretty straight forward: Love the Lord your God, having no other Gods. Worship no Idols. Do not take the name of the Lord God in vain. Honor the Rhythms of life, taking time for Sabbath every day, every week, throughout life. Honor your Father and Mother. Do not Lie. Do not Steal. Do not Murder. Do not commit Adultery. Do not Covet. Perhaps instead of seeking to be consoled and comforted this week, instead of our going to Festivals to celebrate all the stuff we possess, we need to recognize the blessing of our relationships, to re-order our lives respecting God.

"Asking the Right Question" October 1st, 2017

Exodus 17:1-7 Matthew 21: 23-32 How many of us this morning, worry about the future? How many of us are filled with anxiety about what kind of world will be left to our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren? With the threats of Nuclear powered North Korea and Iran… With the reality of ocean temperatures increasing, spawning hurricanes, we are up to what Marie, so there have been 13 so far this year… With the melting of the polar ice caps… With proposed revisions to the Tax Laws… With nothing having been resolved about Health Care… If I was not worried before I began this morning, I am now. When the Hebrew people crossed over the Red Sea from Egypt into the Wilderness, the Wilderness was not a Land of Milk and Honey! The people of God were filled with Anxiety. We recall these Exodus stories as Miracles: How God provided Manna: Bread from Heaven, and Water from Rock, but more than miraculous circumstances, we need to listen for the underlying Real Question... The people complained: In Egypt we sat beside boiling pots of meat, Moses, have you brought us here to die? The people argued and complained with Moses over their thirst, as if he could make Lakes and Rivers to SATISFY, which Moses took as an affront to his leadership. BUT Exodus is telling a different (far older) story than Numbers and Deuteronomy. In those the Books of Numbers and Deuteronomy, there is a second occurrence where Moses strikes Rock this time without being told to by God, and there are snakes sent to bite the people on the ankles. Here, in Exodus, the story is simply that the people sought satisfaction and did not trust God. The people of God complained (Masah) and found fault (Meribah), so God used Moses as a divine-ing rod to bring water from rock, and immediately afterward the Hebrew Nation was again filled with fear, now of the Amalekites. There is this wonderful vignette of how when Moses raised his arms in the position of Jesus on the Cross, a Pastor Blessing the people, AND God was victorious, but when Moses grew tired, and his arms drooped, the Hebrews lost to the Amalekites. Hur and Moses’ brother Aaron found a stone for Moses to sit upon, and they held his arms up for him. The question of Exodus, is not: Did Israel have it better in Egypt than the wilderness, or Did God provide Food and Water in the Wilderness? But instead the question the people asked was: WHETHER GOD IS WITH US OR NOT? In Egypt, Greece and Rome, there were Statues in every Community, the Currency also had the profile of the Pharaoh, King, Caesar, because having the image of the Ruler in that place demonstrated the Authority of that Ruler over those people. This why the toppling of the Statue of Sadam Hussein was such a powerful image. HOWEVER the people of God were given Commandment Never to make an Image of God, because we each already bear God’s living image on each of our faces. With food, with water, with the Canaanite tribe of King Amalek, the people doubted. This is the very human question John Dau asked in the film about the S Sudanese: Did God grow tired of us? Has God forgotten us? I would candidly admit my own failings to you, that last Sunday when I shared that a beloved good friend a 93 year old leader of our church had had a stroke, and though he could move his fingers and toes, he was not coherent, and I FEARED that the end might be near. But whether it is the fact that Jack Howard has never been stopped by any obstacle, or demonstration that God is with us… Jack bounced back. Three years ago, we had a parishioner, whose father-in-law called me during vacation to say that their son-in-law whom I had married, had been diagnosed with three months to live… and recently the inoperable tumors have shrunk by 45%. For the last decade, a life-long member of this church has been tethered through their home by an Oxygen tank, who recently received a transplant of lungs and now is living a new life. Are these images of the Miraculous? Amen! Are we guaranteed survival from every disease… No. We are Mortal after all. But what greater proof do we need that God is with us? God has never tired of us? We are not alone? Probably you have been as frustrated as I, this week, because Puerto Rico does not just represent some Island in the Caribbean, or a Mission Trip some from our church took last summer. These are friends. Pastor Edwin’s wife and I have worked together on a Committee for the last several years. There are countless reports of the lack of Bread and Clean Water, of Medicine, Electricity, Gasoline, because ships could not unload at port. But we have been naming these people of God, lifting them up before God, and no one on earth seems to know that we pray, that we care. The difference between the people of God doubting, complaining and arguing, versus the reality of God’s Love, is what Matthew is all about. According to the Text, on Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem HUMBLE on an ASS with a Colt = The Symbol of The Righteousness of God, as people cried out Not from Liturgy, Not reading the Bible, but from real human Need: HAVE MERCY ON US SON OF DAVID! Jesus healed the Blind and Lame. Jesus drove out those making profit off of others’ sacrifices. And the Chief Priests and Elders challenged Jesus, BY WHAT AUTHORITY are you doing this? Jesus responded By What Authority did John the Baptist BAPTIZE? See there is a Guilty Secret, those of us who are Religious Leaders bear, John the Baptist and Jesus were not recognized by the Church, by the Religious authorities in their own time. The Presbyterian Church is part of The REFORMED PROTESTANT CHRISTIAN CHURCH, as such, we broke away from Orthodoxy, Protesting against Religion, demanding REFORM not because we did not like the way it was, but because we need to listen for GOD BEING WITH US. All too often, Religion has been used for power and politics, and pacifying people. The REAL QUESTION OF THE AUTHORITY OF GOD, is the very human question of whether we have Tired of God, whether we are so human, so caught up in protecting our 401Ks and Jobs and Reputation as being rational, that we have forgotten God? Or whether we can turn over all our anxiety and human frustration, to God. Especially when trusting God with our grandchildren’s future in the shadow of Nuclear Weapons, and Hurricanes, and Strokes and Tumors? The point of Jesus’ parable of the Two Sons, is not whether you were Baptized, not whether you said all the right things, but regardless of what we have said whether we have lived in relationship with God, trusting God who is the only one that can make a difference. Whenever, the Bible says a Man had two sons, we need to run through the list, because these are not independent isolated stories. Cain and Able, Jacob and Esau, Pharaoh and Moses, The Prodigal and the Elder Son, while there is struggle, while they often did wrong initially, God never gave up!

September 24, 2017 "The Importance of Murmuring"

Exodus 16:2-15 Matthew 20: 1-16 My father had a favorite joke about the ministry. “Do not let people into the, they will ruin all your plans.” Which I found far funnier, when I learned every profession tells the same story, Lesson plans at School are changed because of students; Medicine is changed because of patients… HOWEVER I would tell you that I believe the Murmuring of people is the most important part! Is it important to us that God is the Almighty Prime Creator of Heaven and Earth? Is it important that God hears people in their suffering and enters in for salvation? Is it important God cares so much about us, that Almighty God abandons all power and humbly enters into Creation, with God becoming One with us? Is it important God suffered and died at our hands for our salvation? Is it important that Death and what we have done in the past could not stop God from loving us? BUT all that is meaningless historic fact without our wrestling with what these facts mean for us. Our Murmuring together allows us to consider other realities outside what we have known. Murmuring is not gossip. Murmuring is not retelling the same stories over and over again, nursing our wounds and our anger as if righteous. Murmuring is not counting how many times we have been wronged, refusal to let go the past to live the present. Murmuring is our trying to come to a new understanding, together, when our constructs of reality, our Laws of the way things are no longer work. Murmuring is our retelling stories in order to understand meanings we never understood before. I recall in this Village when a husband beat his wife to death, and people questioned “I always believed in the Death Penalty, but this was a boy from our school system, he played hockey with my kids, I was at their wedding, I don’t know what to think.” I recall when Sept11 happened and people murmured about whether we could trust the sky was not falling, that the world was not ending, that planes were safe to fly in and we had to go through metal detectors and scanners. It is in the murmuring that we try to make sense out the facts of life. AND I am convinced that part of our human problem with forgiveness is when it comes to forgiving ourselves we do not listen to anyone else. We convince ourselves that we are hopeless, we convince ourselves of the reality of darkness and our lack of forgiveness of ourselves and we fail to listen to any voices of love, of hope, of grace. A friend describes these passages as being about our having to choose between Justice and Love. The people complained, according to the Law they should have been punished, but God acted out of relationship out of love. The Laborers who were hired first deserved to be paid more, yet God chose to pay the others for having worked. I do not believe that goes far enough, I think these are passages about EQUALITY and GRACE. That throughout civilization we have created Reality based on Laws of EQUALITY, on our Control of Fairness of RIGHT & WRONG, but miraculously God operates on LIMITLESS GRACE that is not deserved. We have a naïve way of collapsing history. Between the time of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph at the conclusion of Genesis and the birth of Moses in Exodus 700 years transpired! Try to imagine all the cultural changes, all the societal adaptations that have occurred from the time of the Revolutionary War and today, now Triple that! The people who Moses led across the Red Sea into the Wilderness, had been slaves as long as history could remember. The people had been treated as wild beasts, caged, chained, beaten, killed, bought and sold as property without identity, relationship, without feelings, as things. But slaves were given water and food. When you take away that reality, when you set an animal free, how is it going to survive? Throughout the last generation, America has been about Nation Building, but it is not enough to Cease Fighting and Stop Wars in order to create a new Nation. I recall learning Hebrew in Seminary, having to look up and translate each word. Coming to this passage, we read: And the people murmured against God and Moses, saying Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us? And God rained upon them… and our minds jumped to Sodom and Gomorrah with raining Fire and Brimstone, jumping to Massah and Maribah where the people complained and God sent snakes, but here we were surprised that God rained “Bread from Heaven.” Imagine the conversation of people, and how the murmuring changed, when God provided for them, every day, every week, for the next two generations in the wilderness. Years ago I wrote a Vacation Church School Curriculum about Moses and the Wilderness, and on a week such as this, when the temperatures exceeded 80 degrees, we scattered silver foiled Hershey Kisses over a field for the children to gather. Just as with the Manna, it sparkled in the sunlight. If you gathered too much, in the heat it would melt and be a great mess. If you ate too much it would make you sick. But there was enough for everyone. The children murmured about the joy of fields of limitless chocolate; but having to limit yourself, and sharing with others. Probably no Parable upsets people’s sense of right and wrong as this Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. Recognize Jesus does not say this is the way things should be in Rome or Jerusalem or Galilee. This is what the Kingdom of God is, a Bizarro World, a different reality, calling attention to what is different from the reality of our control! This story could have been told with the Workers who worked all day being paid first, and everyone would go away happy. BUT the point is that the people MURMUR, the point is this is different from our sense of control of what is right and Just. Notice, the Landowner does not hire workers because the Landowner Needs, but negotiates with those who came first for what is Daily Bread, a minimum wage for the day and sends them to labor. I love the fact that in the Parable, what the Landowner and laborers agree is a Day’s Wage is a DENARIUS, because we have no exact monetary value for a DENARIUS, only hat it was worth a Day Laborer’s Wages. When the Laborer finds others, it is not that the Landowner needed more, but that Workers needed Work, so agrees to pay “WHAT IS FAIR”. To the last, “Go and work.” There is no pretense that Jesus is teaching Economic Theory or Fair Hiring Practices, or Management, the Rabbi is teaching what the Kingdom of God is. To God, everyone is needed and wanted. Everyone is of Value. Everyone has something to contribute. This Reality is not based on Payment for Services. This Reality is not based on our Control. The Kingdom of God is solely based on our being loved by God and loving God. There is no one who is beyond God’s love or forgiveness. In this reality, there is no one who is unloveable or unforgiveable…the difference is whether we can give up control, to forgive God, to forgive others, to forgive ourse