"Seek Ye First" June 25, 2017

Genesis 21: 8-21 Matthew 10: 11-39 Have you ever started a project, begun a meeting, come home to cook supper, and no matter how hard you try, things do not go right? Yet, when we begin, if first we pause, to see that we have everything we need, to check-in with one another, if we first center ourselves in prayer seeking to be right with God, somehow we accomplish a great deal more, in the same allotted time, because all impediments, all the distractions are removed. 6 times in the last 70 years, the Supreme Court has ruled that in Schools, at Football games, at Graduations, you cannot be prayed upon, but there is nothing preventing each of us, from acting on our own faith to “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” This morning Amelia is being Baptized and 9 Graduating! As much as we have hopes and dreams for you, to succeed, curing Cancer, making a fortune, having a highly respected reputation, with great love; our prayer is that you Seek God, Ask that the doors be open to you, and all the rest will happen. Know that wherever you go, whatever happens, we will love you and pray for you. A few weeks ago my eldest phoned one evening, he is now almost 31. I knew I was in trouble as he started off saying “Dad, I hope you won’t be mad. I know that you folks worked hard and made sacrifices, taking on debt to pay for my college education. But after working at that field for 10 years, I am no longer happy or satisfied. I know you will worry about where I will live, and how I will afford rent. I know you will worry about where I will get food. I know you will worry what I will do, but I have quit my job without having another to go to.” When I could get a word in, I responded, “I appreciate all that you have said, but I am not worried. Because in all that you have stated, you have not said, I am moving home for you to pay my bills!” I know that you will be okay, and we are proud of you for knowing you were unhappy and could do more and are doing what you need. There is tension in our Scriptures, this morning. Our Old Testament, before Christianity, existed as the Jewish Bible. We know well the Sacrifice of Isaac Chap 22, but the sacrifice of Ishmael is just as heart-rending and painful for Abraham. Genesis struggles, because this is the Sacred text for Israel, and appropriated by Christianity, yet Abraham had another child, a first-born, whom the Bible has to acknowledge. You recall from Confirmation that there was a Law of Progeniture, that the 1st-born inherits everything, and the younger nothing; yet time and again God’s Promise was fulfilled through the other child. This is especially sacred, because Ishmael the first-born had been the Child according to the Law; he was a child born out of precise manipulation, trying to get one’s way, whom God will love and provide for as being Child of the Law. Isaac is Child of the Promise, whose life is a gift of God’s grace. The story is that Abram and Sarai had been unable to conceive, so Sarai controlled fate by having Abram impregnate her Egypt Slave, Hagar, who was Sarai’s property. Then after Ishmael was born, Sarah was able to give birth to Isaac, and the laugh that was on Sarah was that her son, because of her actions, was not first-born. Not to be outwitted, Sarah demands her Slave Hagar and Hagar’s child be exiled. Just as your fathers will be when you leave home, Abraham is doing what he knows must be, but with a personal sense of loss, foreboding. Amazing that in Judaism’s Hebrew Bible, we have record what happened to Hagar and Ishmael, traveling off into the desert. Their water gone, Ishmael is dropped beneath a bush, as Hagar the Egyptian prays to God, and God hears Ishmael & Hagar, opening her eyes to see the waterhole a few meters away she had not witnessed. The Hebrew Bible affirms God cares and loves Ishmael; surprising because Ishmael is the ancestor of Islam; Ishmael the father of the Arab people; referenced again in Isaac’s son Esau, marrying a daughter of Ishmael: and Joseph being sold by his brothers to nomadic Ishmaelites who take Israel’s son to Egypt. Jesus commissioned his disciples to go out into the world in pairs, not to repeat what he had done, for a student can never surpass his teacher, but to follow your own prayer and calling. Imagine being paired with Judas, or with Thomas the doubter, or with Simon Peter. For the last year Hamilton has been the hot-ticket on Broadway. How many of you in the congregation were History Majors? How many of you would have thought that the Revolutionary War would have been the focus of Rapp and Jazz, Hip Hop and R&B Ballads for the 21st Century? Like Ishmael and Isaac, like the disciples being sent out in pairs, the musical follows two men, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Burr was the son of Rev. Aaron Burr the President of The College of New Jersey, later renamed Princeton University. His mother was the daughter of the Great Awakening Theologian Jonathan Edwards. But Aaron Burr was orphaned at age 3 and raised by his uncle. Burr and Hamilton grow up together. Burr had a distinguished military career, then went to Law School, and as an Attorney made great fortunes, becoming New York State’s Attorney General, then went into Politics as Senator from NY, and became Thomas Jefferson’s Vice President. However, the point of the play is that with all his position, education, power and influence, Aaron Burr refused to take a stand, even for what he knows to be right. Not a matter of political correctness, Burr refused to lead until he knew the majority. Like Alexander Hamilton rallying Revolutionary Soldiers, Jesus spoke to his disciples to live with boldness. “What you have heard in the dark, tell in the light; what has been whispered, preach to the housetops.” In that spirit, I would speak out on four matters this morning. We live in extremely polarized times, arguing over whether there is Global Warming or we are experiencing Cyclical Changes... But I would tell you it’s getting hot. I would challenge you that we have more than an opportunity, we bear Responsibility and obligation to care for the Creation God has gifted us. We have known the pristine purity of this lake and unspoiled wilderness that need to be protected from spoil. Not as means of keeping things the way they once were, but because this cannot ever be replaced. I have a friend, whose church is entirely covered in solar panels, because the Church serves as a witness to the world. As your pastor these last twenty and more years, we have witnessed a great many events, this small part of God’s Creation has known great tragedy and loss. However, I have known two times in all these years where I have been embarrassed. In each, people bought land that was for sale. What I have been embarrassed by is that neighbors and friends in this community have insulted and denigrated one another. If you care about what happens to a parcel, then you buy it. If not, then trust that God knows every hair on your head, God cares even about a sparrow, so trust one another and trust God. This passage from Matthew has often been misinterpreted as if to say that if you cannot get your way, if you feel unwelcomed shake off your sandals at one another. I once heard of a pastor who became so fed up with their congregation that on their last day, threw his shoe at the congregation. That is not what this passage states. Rather , that when you have encountered difficulty, when there are hardships, do not carry that experience with you into the next, instead shake off the past experience and go forward without the dust on your feet, Seek the Kingdom of God and God’s Righteous, and all these things will be added unto you. I have but one last thing to say this morning… Wherever you go, whatever you do, you have a home here, and you are loved.

"Hospitality" June 18, 2017

Genesis 18: 1-15 Matthew 9:35-10:8 Last week, to emphasize Christ’s Great Commission, we began with illustration that annually Coach Vince Lombardi started practice by emphasizing The Fundamentals. Unfortunately, after the Worship service someone came up to me saying “Okay Coach, So our purpose is to Win! Our Goal is to do great things, to attract more members, to build up the Financial Reserves, Budget and Program, to do great acts of charity and mission locally and around the world.” And I cried out saying “NO we do not score points or touchdowns. We do not win!” Ever since the 1950s, we have adopted the Pop-Psychology: I’m Okay/You ‘re Okay; when the truth is: “I AM NOT OKAY! You are not Okay! BUT that is okay, God Cares! The World has diminished the humanity of people and the divinity in us... We have wasted the Gift that is God’s Creation, using everything up, in order to win. Instead of attempting to imitate the world, demanding Success as the world measures success, the Church, this Body of Christ, needs to be Counter-Cultural! We need to be weird! Instead of deferring maintenance, we need to boldly act. People come to Church because the goals and priorities and values of the world have not satisfied. Christian faith requires a reorientation of Self, because winning is so much a part of our life. This reorientation of Faith, is like the reorientation of Fatherhood, and like Hospitality. One minute, you are living life for yourself, taking everything as it is, striving only to get more; when suddenly, you are a Father. I would be the first to acknowledge the hardships on a woman’s psyche, body and spirit by laboring to give a child. But women have 9 months to acclimate to becoming a mother. When you become a Father, suddenly in a moment, you are changed to live life for others, Hosting another. One of the greatest tragedies of our culture, is that we no longer know how to be HOSPITABLE! Communicating through Social Media, we choose whether we want to accept one another or not. We choose whether to defend ourselves by only sending an emote, or 132 characters, or leaving a text message, or by talking to one another as if on a telephone, whether to see one another as we talk, but still this is nothing like hosting another in your home, being present with one another. I remember our parents having parties when we were in 6th and 7th grade, in order that we would learn to practice being social. Being HOSPITABLE is greeting each and every guest, sincerely saying “I am so delighted you are present here”, paying attention to their needs, and as they depart sincerely entreating that you wish they did not leave so soon. The vital importance of HOSPITALITY is that you come to realize that all that we possess is here to be shared with others. For me, the greatest awareness of faith came in recognizing that while we labored, and worked for years, spending millions of dollars restoring this church, creating health care in East Africa, a home for elders in this community, NONE of this belongs to us. This is God’s House and God’s Table, and we are gifted with being in this temporary moment in time. Too often, we hear sermons preached on this passage from Matthew, that if others do not receive you as a welcome guest with a great treasure to share, you should shake the dust off your shoes at them. THAT IS NOT WHAT THIS IS ABOUT. Instead, that when not received, leave the dust of that place and experience behind you, because you are going to Holy Ground and who wants to carry that hate with them! In the heat of the day, Abraham has been sitting in a temporary place of comfort, a place of shade appreciating life. That is SABBATH. Abraham is a perfect HOST, leaping up when he sees strangers approach, and greeting strangers as loved ones. Offering to wash their feet, giving them bread made of the finest flour, literally killing the fatted calf. Faith is not bartered for or bought, as are possessions in our culture. You do for others, expecting nothing in return, because that is who you are. When in this story, after they have eaten, the three strangers reveal themselves to be Messengers of God, knowing what God knows, bestowing Blessings. This morning’s reading is not about Abram and Sarai. 24 years before they left home and family to follow where God would lead. But over this journey of 24 years, Abram was changed from a name that means “Exalted Elder”, to Abraham, a name that means “Father of Many Generations.” Sarai whose name meant “Princess” has been changed to Sarah which means Mother of Kings/Nations”. What they are promised was nothing new. It was the repeated Promise of the last 24 years. Early on, it hurt, having a promise unfulfilled, waiting without a light at the end of the tunnel, trying to believe against the reality of life. Their HURT turned to ANGER, and over time Anger mellowed to cold resignation, as a bit of them died. Sarah is no longer the “little princess” believing everything is going to be given to her. So when this Promise is given to a 90 year old Woman, she laughs at the Impossibility, literally the Inconceivable. Humor is difficult to quantify, everyone from Aristotle to Schopenhauer, to Freud have tried to understand and explain humor, much like explaining a joke. Reinhold Niebuhr described that HUMOR is the PRELUDE TO FAITH. What he meant was that confronting the incongruous, confronting the contradiction of the impossible being in reality, can lead us to trust God. When Charlie Chaplin slipped on a Banana Peel, when the Three Stooges twisted one another’s nose with a Wrench, we laughed at the absurdity, the slapstick, the indignity. That kind of humor allowed us permission to stand outside ourselves, to realize the roles and situations, all were pretense and sham and meaningless. This was a guard against taking ourselves too seriously. If you have ever had a really horrible day in a series of stressful days, and suddenly you are caught off guard to laugh until you cry, then you know what I mean. These are the moments, the tears and laughter that save marriages. However, there are incongruous moments when we see ourselves, when we do not laugh. What I find truly heart-breaking, is that Charlie Chaplin, and the Three Stooges were born out a time of the Great Depression between World Wars, when all the world was life and death, there was not food to eat, or a future for your children or grandchildren to believe in. Today, we live in greater prosperity and luxury than the world has ever known, and we insult one another, we refuse to laugh at ourselves. Human beings aspire to take on the Cosmos, to leave a lasting mark on all time and space, even more to conquer everything. Pascal described that “standing on Earth, looking up at the stars, we can feel pretty big.” The difficulty came with the Mercury and Apollo missions, when at the end of our universe, we were given glimpses of earth, all the lines of distinction between us as Humans, Nations and Continents were dwarfed to insignificance. Confronting the impossible, facing life and death, facing the contradiction of everything we tried to win being of little to no value, that is the Prelude to Faith. The difference is whether we stop there laughing in embarrassment, with Sarah, or whether we allow ourselves to be surprised. The Stranger responds to Sarah: “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” I love the Hebrew translation here, as the name of God in Hebrew is I AM, so “Is anything IMPOSSIBLE for I AM?” Years ago, between Brooklyn and Long Island, there was a Baptist Minister. A committed bachelor, he had devoted his time to study earning seven advanced degrees including two PhD’s one from Dartmouth, the other from Columbia, when suddenly at age 72 he faced mandatory retirement. He became depressed, laying in bed, saying: I pastored this church, but never really won souls to Christ, I will be gone and no one really cares. Seven days later, he met a Pastor from India, and invited him to preach. After the worship service, the Indian Pastor returned the favor, inviting this Minister to India to preach. The Minister described the mandatory age of retirement, and that he was going to Florida to live out his days. The Indian described that in his home people respected a man after his hair turned white. The Minister prayed about this and decided to go. His congregation asked “What if you die in India?” The Minister replied “India is just as close to heaven as it is from here.” So he sold his home, books and furniture, placed his possessions in a trunk and booked One-Way passage. Arriving in Bombay, his trunk had been lost, and on the streetcar his passport and wallet were stolen. He arrived at the Monastery, where they welcomed him, but stated that his friend had stayed in America and they had nothing for him to do. The Minister decided he would make an appointment to see the Mayor of Bombay. The Missionaries replied, they had tried for years but never been received. However, the next day, appearing at the Mayor’s offices, as an American with White Hair, he presented his Business Card with 7 academic degrees, and assuming he must have some great important business, not only did the Mayor grant him audience, but a High Tea for the Nation’s dignitaries in his honor. The Minister wound up sharing his faith for three hours. Among the guests was the Director of India’s version of West Point, who invited the Minister to become Chaplain. So at age 72 he began a 16 year ministry, traveling the world. There is a thriving Church at Calcutta, and a Christian body at Hong Kong because of this faith. He died one afternoon in Bombay, believing he was just as close to Heaven in India as he had ever been in America.

June 11, 2017 "The Trinity of the Church"

Genesis 1:1-19 Matthew 28: 16-20 This morning is not about a Parable, or Historic Event, Healing, or Miracle. The great Coach of the Green Bay Packers Vince Lombardi is remembered for having begun every training season, by teaching the basics, going back to the fundamentals: “Gentlemen, This is a football. Your purpose in life, all our training, your way of life, your reputation, your family and happiness, your future, all depend upon your taking this from the line of Scrimmage and getting it over the Goal-line.” According to Matthew, that is what Jesus is doing here, going back to teach the basics. Mark describes Jesus was gone. Luke Acts describes he was carried up into heaven on a cloud. John describes he appeared to the disciples over and over. Matthew this morning is not describing The Great Parable, or our Commander’s Hope, or The Great Suggestion… Jesus’ instruction is not For us to find a comfortable church with potluck suppers and great music… Jesus never said “Try to do one nice thing every day.” NO, this is the Great Commission, the final words of the Messiah, giving direction to the Church as to what we are to be and do. Creation in Genesis, was not intended to be scientific evidence compared with Charles Darwin 8000 years in the future, for the origins of the universe. NO, In contrast to all the Cultures of History, and peoples of the Earth, who believed in worshipping Idols, gods they had formed with their own hands, or conception of different gods for different purposes: a god of love, a god of war, a god of fertility,etc. Abraham, and following from Abraham: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all hold to belief in there being only, One, true God. Our first problem, with this is that the same God responsible for beauty, love, joy, is the same God responsible for plague, suffering, poverty and death. If God is all knowing and powerful: “Why did the Holocaust occur?” Did God not know? Is God not all Powerful? Why have we been given ability to destroy Creation? Did God make this happen? Does God cause suffering and death? Second and related to this, is the Christian dilemma… Judaism received the Law and has waited for thousands of years for a Messiah to call all the world to come to God. Islam believes their holiest ancestor is the prophet Mohammed, but he was a man, not God. Mohammed went to Heaven to receive the Koran and returned, as a man. Christianity affirms that we believe in The Trinity, One God known through three personages, or three ways of knowing about and understanding the One God. A few moments ago we stood forth and affirmed what we believe with the Nicene Creed. Almost 300 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus and The Day of Pentecost, The Emperor of the Roman Empire: Constantine became Christian, and in good Christian fashion he called for a meeting to debate and come to resolution on what we believe. That 2nd Council (The first was at Jerusalem regarding whether Christianity should remain within Judaism) was held at Nicaea, a location in Turkey which today is under water. Like any Theological Statement of Church Doctrine drafted by 318 Bishops, along with 2 priests and 3 deacons each, so 1800 believers, it is complicated and nuanced. So much so, that the Creed was revised again and again over the next 56 years until the form we have adopted in 381, and today even the most learned, and the most devout among us cannot explain God. Instead, what I hope we can claim is that we believe in the TRINITY of THE CHURCH. While we have a diversity of politics, and polarization of ideals, I am suggesting that instead of describing God, and the three ways God has come to us; THAT we begin with WE ARE CALLED, BAPTIZED, CONFIRMED and SENT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT; WE ARE TO WITNESS TO THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST FOR SALVATION; FOR THE SAKE OF GOD, AND THE CREATION GOD CREATED & LOVES SO MUCH. This passage begins with identification of the 11, identification that these leaders already failed him, and doubted and denied, and one betrayed him. Matthew’s Gospel harkens back to Creation that God put God’s self, God’s Divinity into everything created; however according to what follows, the only way for us to truly love God was to have a freedom of Will to choose to love, and SIN is that we did not choose God, we turned our back on God believing only in ourselves and our control. Matthew remember was the Gospel describing the coming Incarnation of the Christ as IMMANUEL, God with us. Here, the resurrected Jesus describes to the 11 that NOW he has all Authority. It is one thing to have Knowledge, to have power, and another to have ALL AUTHORITY in Heaven and Earth. What Jesus did by death on the cross and resurrection and gifting us with the Holy Spirit, is not only to heal the brokenness of Creation, but for God to develop All Authority because although separate from us God entered in, although we doubted and denied God suffered by our hands for our sins, and not even that could keep God from loving us. Our Goal as the Church in this time and place, is not to do great things, not to attract more members, not to build up the financial reserves or Budget and Program, not even to do great acts of charity and mission locally and around the world. We do not score points or make touchdowns! People come to Church because the goals and priorities and values of the world have not satisfied. The World has diminished our humanity. We have wasted the Gift that is God’s Creation. Instead of attempting to imitate the world, demanding the success of the world as the world measures success, the Church, this Body of Christ needs to be Counter-Cultural! We need to be weird! We need to do whatever it takes to love. Over and over again, I am stopped on the street, and have people walk up to me saying: “When my daughter wanted to get married, you not only opened the doors of the church to her, you went out to where she wanted to celebrate her marriage!” “When my husband was suffering depression, was abusive, out of his mind, you went to our home, you went to the hospital to see him, NOT to pray for him, or to give him last rights, BUT to demonstrate LOVE to us, and in that way redeemed us.” On Mother’s Day, someone from another church came up to me at the flower sale saying, “This community is full of scandals. Every time a new scandal hits, I see you, or this church walking along beside the guilty.” Guilt and Doubt and Faith are inseparable. Years ago, there was a cartoon, of the Church Business Administrator/Treasurer shouting to the pastor: “Someone is on the phone from Ripley’s Believe It or Not, wanting a Picture of someone on fire with Love for the LORD. Do we have one?” New Testament Scholar AW Tozer used to say the difference between the Modern Church and the Early Church of the New Testament is that “If God, Christ and the Holy Spirit were taken out of the Modern Church 95% of what we do, would go on, nobody would ever know the difference. In the Early Church, if the Holy Spirit were removed 95% of what they did, of who they were, would stop, and everyone would know. Years ago, we had a vision, of being open to others, locally and around the world, to demonstrate love. We rebuilt our resources, here in the building and in the community for use by others. We were the only Church in the area, where anyone could get married in the Church, if they believed in God, wanted to be married to one another all their lives, met with the pastor for marriage planning and counseling, had a NYS License and paid $100 to the Church. We rebuilt Presbyterian Manor with our own sweat and money, because we listened to the vision of the one who had gifted us with this, and we listened to the needs of the people who lived there. We recognized we could not prevent teenagers from having sex or drinking, we educated, we shared concerns, but no matter what we stood beside one another. In 2007 we opened a Health Care Facility in South Sudan. In 2014 when war broke out and the resources were destroyed by war, it broke our hearts. So much so, that the one who had created scale models of the clinic created this one with a Dark Cloud over it. But the believers involved persevered, without buildings, without equipment, in refugee camps, in Cholera and Famine. Finally it hit us, that the world was not a neutral place, this was a war-zone, which is why we were needed to act in faith. My challenge to you is dream dreams, to share ideas, to bring to the Council of our Church counter-cultural ways of our responding to the Call of the Holy Spirit, to demonstrate (Witness to) the love of Jesus Christ, which brings people into relationship to love God.