"What Is to Prevent Us?" April 29, 2018

John 15: 1-8 Acts 8:26-40 Years ago as Continuing Education, there was a Seminar offered for 10 Preachers, taught by three of the former pastors of Riverside Church in Manhattan: Ernie Campbell, William Sloan Coffin and Jim Forbes. Their first word of wisdom to us was that if there is a text, where the people in the pew know more about a subject than the preacher, you need to find another Scripture! Last week, we had the Good Shepherd, and I was reminded, several of our parishioners grew up on family farms, one raising sheep, and others who in in recent years raised goats. SO this morning, knowing we have landscapers and gardeners in the congregation, and the Skaneateles Garden Club plant, prune and harvest, far better blooms than I can ever hope; even more that we are in Finger Lakes Wine District and that I might surely offend someone by describing my knowledge of grapes, which has more to do with the wine than the vine! I chose to go with the passage from Acts. Not that I have any experience with Eunuchs, Ethiopians, High Priests of Candace, or Chariots! But that there was greater chance of your listening to something you knew less about! Phillip had been one of Jesus’ 12 Disciples with primary relationship with the Savior. We know from an earlier passage that in addition to being Jewish, and a disciple of Jesus, Phillip was Greek, trained and educated in philosophy and languages, as well. Following the Stoning of Stephen, Phillip was told by an Angel to go South from Jerusalem toward Gaza. There on a deserted road, Phillip encountered a stranger. Have you ever been on a long journey, perhaps a trip on a plane, a train or a cruise, and rather than ignore each other, you struck up a conversation with the stranger beside you? Having seen Ben Hur several times, with the Derby next Saturday, we know horses can sprint, but I have to believe that on this long journey, the horse drawn cart was just walking along, Phillip could walk beside to talk to the occupant. What Phillip can know from context, is that this man is coming from having been to the City of Jerusalem, the center of Judaism, now the new locus of Christianity, a mecca for those seeking God. He is by appearance not a Jew, and therefore clearly a stranger not only to Phillip, but to what he has encountered. From ancient drawings accompanying this text, different from the Egyptians who were drawn small and slender, the Rulers of Cush were often depicted with scars across their foreheads, and larger than anyone around them, a people familiar with fighting to win. Observing a stranger beside us reading, our first question might be: “What are you reading?” or “What is your book about?” But clearly, Phillip recognizes that this is the Book of Isaiah. Instead, in Good Socratic method Phillip asks “Do you understand what you are reading?” And the Ethiopian, seeking a guide asks: “How can I, unless someone guides me?” When traveling in a foreign land most often we would hire a tour guide, to explain what the Via Della Rosa is, or Herod’s Temple, or which of the many places is the Upper Room. Yet, we miss the point, that Christian faith cannot be discerned in solitude. Over and over again, I have heard from couples, “We want to wait until our child can decide for themselves what faith they desire before Baptizing them”; or individuals who have been struggling who tried reading the Bible from beginning to End, even just the New Testament from Matthew to The Revelation, but got lost. Our faith is communal, personal and real, this is not philosophical ideas, or scientific theory, a curriculum you can buy, a video to watch, faith requires a community of trust. This stranger read aloud from Isaiah: As a sheep led to the slaughter or a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so he too opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe this generation? For his life is taken from the earth.” He asked, “About whom does the prophet say this, about himself or someone else?” In the time of Isaiah the Prophet & Priest of Jerusalem watching the fall of Israel; in the time of Phillip watching the crucifixion of Jesus, knowing all had abandoned him; so also today, We have a hard time imagining that a person, not only a larger-than life individual like Martin Luther King or Gandhi, but someone like us, of faith and conviction, might care more about others than about themselves, being willing to lose everything, their life, career, home, friends, future, to have everything they love taken from them, rather than fighting win, with the costs of conflict. Then Phillip does something so simple, yet so profound. The only other place I recall this in Scripture is by Jesus on the Road to Emmaus, the day of Resurrection, “Phillip opened his mouth and beginning with the scriptures, he told the good news of Jesus Christ.” Somehow, perhaps by memorizing the stories of Jesus’ Birth and Easter’ Resurrection as facts, we have forgotten how to do this. I believe too often we have memorized Creeds, instead of questioning faith in our own lives. Recently, I have had a number of people tell me, they have no problem with God. That there could be one God, Creator, Supreme being, Judge over all time and space; they may have argued with God, and wrestled with God. The problem they have is knowing what to do with Jesus? So he lived and died, and rose from the dead, so what? As a preacher, that makes my heart break, because what we just named is God loving the world so much as to become perfectly one with us, accepting our struggle, AND different from anyone before in history, he remained true to the Covenant with God, to love God with all his heart, mind, soul and strength and to love neighbor as he loved his own life; that he suffered for all the sins of all the world, AND that not even death, nor any power, could stop him from acting in love and forgiveness. The first day, in Seminary, we were given a writing assignment, any of us here could do. The Early Church had been taught the Scriptures, they knew passages of the Old Testament; they also knew the life and teachings of Jesus, including his death and resurrection; Each of the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, as well as Phillip here, took their Understanding of the Scriptures, the Story of Jesus, and their own current struggles, and from these 3 wrote a Gospel story. Wrote the story of Jesus, the Lamb who being led to Slaughter did not protest, and through retelling Jesus’ told their own life story, as means of convincing others to believe. That is what we are each to do. The response of this stranger to Phillip, becomes “Here is water, what is to prevent my being baptized?”

"You Must Judge" April 22, 2018

John 10: 11-18 Acts 4: 5-12 How amazing! Day after day for the last many months the horizons have been gray, the winds bitter, our moods depressed, self-consumed, petty, dark and vindictive. But yesterday and today the skies have been crystal clear, the sun shining brilliant, and we have been lighter, happier, more hopeful as the flowers yearn to bloom! Following last week’s Memorial, several have complimented what a wonderful tribute to a great man of the community and leader of this Church. Honestly, I as Pastor, all I had to do was smile, say “Jack Howard” and get out of the way. Everyone had their own story / memory. He never met a woman he did not Kiss. We each can recall his laughter. For decades, as far back as 50 years ago, Jack was Superintendent of the Sunday School, Chair of Personnel, Pastor Nominating Committees, John Dau Foundation. However, I decided that Honoring this Good Shepherd, it was not appropriate at the Memorial to leave in people’s minds one of my favorite memories, from a Picnic at the Lake 20 years ago, where Jack at 73 came wearing his characteristic Red Suspenders, holding up a red Speedo! There are images and phrases, which hook us. That a Preacher only need say “Good Shepherd” and although the closest we have come to a Shepherd is a Christmas Pageant, we each know this reference. However, for the Gospel, there are here details of contrast, that Jesus described “The Good Shepherd” at the time of the annual Dedication of the Temple. This was when everyone had to sacrifice a Ram, a Goat or a Lamb, for the Priests and the Temple, consecrated for us to be able to atone for our sins; AND Jesus the Lamb of God, our High Priest, described his being our Good Shepherd. However, these details, and the 23rd Psalm, and the Lord’s Prayer, answer Worry. Not long ago, the National Institutes of Health conducted a longitudinal study, that The #1 Health Concern in America is Anxiety. We worry ourselves to death. This week, I got into my Mini Cooper to drive into the City Hospitals, when I saw something I had not noticed previously. Etched into the Mirrors were the words “Objects may be closer than they appear.” As I went to change lanes, I saw a Truck bearing down and I slowed to let him pass, worrying this may be closer than it appears. We live in such reactionary times. Death may be closer than it appears. Retirement may be closer. Creditors may be closer. Our psyche seems to have a WORRY Machine inside, going faster and faster and faster. Anxiety is thinking that has become cancerous. Worry is our Imaginations, ignoring everything else to focus on the worst. Worry at its core is atheistic, a denial of the first 4 of the 10 Commandments, a denial of God. Instead of Believing God, instead of faith in our Good Shepherd, we hide and cower in our fear and worry. While the 23rd Psalm was meaningful when we were a Farming society, today we need to hear “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not Worry. He makes me calm down. He stands between me / Doubt of Financial Disaster. He is the Antidote to Death. He protects me from Terrorists’ Fear Though we live in an Era of the Shadow of Death, We fear no evil for God is with us, For Ever.” There is a story of a contest to Paint an image of peace. There were two finalists. The first was a Grandma Moses’ serene image of a mother lovingly preparing a holiday meal, her husband walking the cattle in from the field, children running and playing in the yard together, flowers in the garden, kittens… The colors were warm, muted and subdued. You wanted to crawl right in and stay in that comforting place. The Second was terrifying, the image of chaos, the skies were black with storm, a deafening waterfall, murky with erosion, raging out of control. The raw destructive power touched something deep in the depths of your being, making you cower. But down at the bottom of the painting, in a place protected from the waterfall was a bank of rich soil, fed and nourished by the mist, an iridescent ray of the Sun’s light pierced through the darkness, where a lush tree had grown. On the end of a branch was a nest, standing on the edge of the nest was a mother bird singing her heart out, so real, so sharp, you could hear the pure birdsong over the droning waters. And the Judges declared “Peace is in contrast to the destructive powers that rage.” The words of Acts register an image like that, BUT only if we know the contrasts. Last Sunday, we described that in the weeks after Jesus’ Resurrection to Eternal Life, the Disciples stayed in Jerusalem. Simon Peter and John had come through the Gate where a Man Lame from birth asked pity, in the Name of Jesus they had asked that he be healed, and the man not only rose, but leapt and danced praising God! This attracted a great deal of attention, people were so moved by the healing of this man seeking pity, 5000 people were Baptized. The subtlety of the Bible, is that the word used here for “Healing” is also the word for “Salvation”. But remember “Peace is in contrast to the powers that rage”. This was Jerusalem under Pontius Pilate, shortly after the Sanhedrin, led by The High Priest Annas and his father-in-law Caiaphas had arrested Jesus for challenging their Authority, inciting the People to riot. They had had handed Jesus over as deserving Death on the Cross. Peter and John stood beside this man who was Leaping and Dancing, as they preached that this man’s Salvation, his Healing is from Jesus Christ. SO Peter and John, these uneducated common fishermen from Galilee were arrested, thrown into the dungeon over night. The next morning, they stood before the same authorities who had judged Jesus, who handed him over to Crucifixion. In all their power and authority as The High Priests of the Priestly Family of Levites, the religious go-betweens keeping the enforced peace for the Roman Guards, Caiaphas and Annas ordered that Peter and John never again speak the name Jesus. To which, Peter and John reply, “Whether it is right, in the sight of God, to listen to you rather than God, You must judge; for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

"WHAT WE POSSESS" April 15, 2018

Luke 24: 36-49 Acts 3: 1-14 Like the ancient Roman world of the 1st Century, we live a disposable society, where we throw people away, where we stop believing in our leaders, stop trusting friends and neighbors, where we give up on what seems too hard. But try to imagine, how it would feel, if after being wounded by life, after years of rejection, after a lifetime of pity and guilt from others and yourself, if Peter and John looked you EYE to EYE and declared absolute belief in You and in the power of Jesus to make a difference. There used to be an Ice-Breaker, for people to get to know one another by taking something out of your pocket, your wallet or purse, today we would have to include your Smartphone, something innocuous you possess with you all the time, which introduces and represents who you are. For many it was a photo of your child or grandchild, a Wedding band, a College Ring, Fraternity pin, a Cross. But this week’s readings from the Bible challenge us to claim and to affirm, that what we each possess, and take for granted that we have, is the name of Jesus. Something awesome and amazing took place 5 years ago. The most revolutionary act of The Church in 500 years, which received virtually no attention. As the final act of Pope Benedict XVI (the most conservative and scholarly of recent popes), prior to his announcement of his retirement, was that he declared the Lutheran Reformation resolved. That Martin Luther was Right in interpreting Paul, a person is not saved by their Works, but by their faith in Jesus Christ. The 95 Complaints of Martin Luther had now been addressed and reconciled between the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Reformed churches. More than an agreement that we would play nice together, or who was right and who was wrong, Pope Benedict 16th declared that as Reformed Protestants our Baptism and Confirmation is acceptable in the Catholic Church. In practicality, what that means is that, prior to 5 years ago, whenever a Reformed Protestant married a Catholic, the Catholic might be excommunicated from the Catholic Church unless they could prove their fiancé was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. So regularly, I received calls and letters from priests asking if so-and-so had been baptized in the name of Jesus (and while I wanted to question if they are baptized, whom else would we baptize them in?), trying to avoid controversy I would respond in the name of God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. But now, there is no longer need to ask, because the Pope declared that our Baptism is in the same Jesus Christ; Catholic, Lutheran and Presbyterian all believe we have salvation through belief in Jesus Christ. Christianity offers something that no philosophy or religion had ever offered before, or since. Salvation cannot be taught. Faith is not a matter of understanding, or knowing, or following the Law, or transcending physical reality, or reincarnation, or living a Moral life. Salvation is through absolute faith in Jesus. But there is the rub. The world knows about a “Historical Jesus” as having lived and died 2,000 years ago. We have each been acculturated and taught to believe that Jesus was born in a stable, in Bethlehem, on December 25th, and died a Criminal’s Execution on the Cross of the Roman Empire on Good Friday, taught that Easter is the Resurrection. But the point of this morning’s Scriptures is that LIFE, and because of that Christianity and THE CHURCH, are very earthy, gritty, physical, tangible, human! Luke simply says “Jesus ate Fish”, but what that means is that the resurrected Jesus was not an idea, not a philosophical theory, not a belief, not a ghost, or a memory, “Jesus-After Death” was just as alive, “fleshy”, just as tangible and real as when laid in a manger, or healing lepers, or when preaching, or when nails were driven through his hands, or when his body was laid in the tomb. Second, what Jesus did after the Resurrection was to reveal how everything in the World, All human history, everything we know about God, everything we experience as reality, is united and explained through Jesus. That is a powerful claim! Jesus is the Rosetta Stone of Reality. Jesus is the answer to all life’s questions! Third, over and over throughout the history of the world, human cultures have responded to fear and conflict, matching and escalating force. Every disagreement, every war, every killing, bombing, and genocide, have been natural human reactions of meeting force with force. We try to compete, we try to win. We teach a lesson, we demonstrate our power, fight for control, attempting to ensure others will remember and never again question we are the greatest, most powerful in all the history of the world. But instead, Jesus demonstrated commitment to God, humble submission, request for forgiveness, that even death and killing would not undermine, change or prevent. Next time you are confronted with a challenge, next time you are faced with a conflict, or fear, instead of meeting the challenge, instead of submitting to our fear, if we responded with apology and request for forgiveness. What I am naming (funny I cannot say “What I am suggesting” or “Asking for”), this has to be a DEMAND, an absolute conviction, is what Peter and John believed, said and did, with the lame beggar at the pool. After a lifetime, this man had given up trying, had resorted to begging for pity, for people to respond out of guilt. Can you envision a beggar by the roadside, lying in the dirt on the ground, reaching with outstretched hand for whatever change you are willing to give, not wanting to look you in the eye? AND When he sees you have nothing to give, closing that hand in a fist perhaps cursing, and searching for somebody else to give to him. HOWEVER, Peter and john respond differently. “Gold and Silver have I none, but what I have, I share with you! Believing in the name of Jesus Christ, be healed!” What they do is not a magic incantation. This is not wish fulfillment or a trick of any kind. Peter and John look him EYE to EYE as a human being. They honestly have nothing, but Peter and John believe in the Man and believe in the power of God through Christ to heal him.

"Fragments and Whole" April 8, 2018

John 20: 19-31 Acts 4:32-35 The farce of this morning’s Call to Worship about “Teaching Sentence Fragments” is that every sentence is a fragment; yet, together those fragments paint a picture where we clearly identify ourselves in that classroom. We hear the music, we see the light, we know by name and can feel the other students in our midst, all the while knowing the assignment they are to do, and wrestling along with the teacher the mood of teaching. Taken together fragments can represent a whole, but fragments out of context may not portray the full story. When we hear the words Cancer, Divorce, Arrested, Killing, does FEAR take over us, or do we listen for the full story? This morning, after so many years together, I want to ask you about Starting points, our Assumptions. Are: Grace and Generosity and Compassion, only “Churchywords”, or the foundations of how we live and treat one another? Do we view one another as competitors in our way, or do we see one another as the presence of God in our midst? When you receive an email, do you expect frustration? When the phone rings do you answer as if a robo-call taped telemarketer, or surprise from family member? Do we approach life as experiences of the whole of life’s journey holding to what we believe, or as a series of crises? Our Gospel is such a well-known story, we know what it is to be a “Doubting Thomas” without hearing him speak. But Thomas doubted no more than any other, he simply was not present to witness, when the others each saw the resurrected Jesus that 1st Easter. Knowing that Thomas’ Doubting is coming, we gloss over and miss that Jesus gave them the Holy Spirit, John’s version of the Day of Pentecost, along with the first Three Commands of the Resurrected Jesus! “Peace I leave with us!” “As the Father has sent me, so I send you!” “If you refuse to forgive the sins of any they are retained forever, if you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven!” The first words of Jesus after the Crucifixion, are not from Fear but from Faith. He does not speak of riot or retribution, but of forgiveness and following God. Thomas represents all of us, who did not live in 1st Century Galilee, to be witnesses. We hear the Bible, we share experiences, and as much as we want proof, as much as we need certainty, this is a story of faith. Our lives are a story of faith or doubts. Doubting Thomas is one fragment of the whole Resurrection story, of the Life of Christ and what it means to be a Christian, to be the Church. Doubting Thomas is a piece of the whole, which makes sense when we also have the Last Supper, the Betrayal, the Arrest, the Crucifixion, the Burial, and all of the many other Resurrection appearances. This in contrast to Mark, last week, which simply ended that they ran away in fear, others doubted the resurrection as an idle tale; and in contrast to Luke where the Gift of the Holy Spirit will not come for 50 days. The point of this piece of the Resurrection is not that one of the disciples was named Thomas; not the naming of doubts, every disciple/all of us, have doubts. The point of this fragment within the whole is Jesus’ statement: “Have you believed because you have seen me, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe”. More than anything the disciples had experienced before, Jesus’ death and resurrection shifted their level of trust and commitment. How do you believe when confronted with the impossible? If I described to you that this week a 15 year stepped up to a Golf Tee and shot a hole-in-one, we would smile our congratulations for the boy. Yet if we add to that fragment, that the 15 year old was Jack Nicklaus’ own grandson at the US Open, and Grandpa Jack who himself had Six-times won the Grand Masters Tournament, described that this: being with his Grandson when he shot a Hole in One was the best moment of his whole life. Our present circumstances, this fragment we call today, calls each of us to question and to struggle with our full trust and commitment. Do we react in panic at crises, or persevere in faith? We remember the fragment, that the Racial Prejudice of the 1920-1960s was evil. We know Martin Luther King Jr. was remembered as a hero, but do you recall why he was in Memphis this week, 50 years ago? Garbage Workers were not Unionized, and were not given any benefits, not even breaks or lunch hours, working a 16 hour shift. In order to eat, one man would drive the truck, while others sat in the Garbage hopper to eat. It was against the rules, but it was cold and snowing just as it did this week, so three had been fully inside the Garbage hopper eating, when the compactor was accidentally activated, and these human beings were treated as garbage. Would that we could see one another as human beings, as equals, without anyone having to endure such tragedy. The passage from Acts, describes a fragment from the early Church. This is a utopian starting point for the Church, that everyone held all things in common, providing for each as they had need. But how much more complete an image if in addition to Barnabas selling his land to provide for others, we continue reading about a husband and wife Ananias and Sapphira! They too had a piece of land, but instead of keeping it (which was their right), or doing as Barnabas had done, they refused to trust, they conspired together against the community and against God, by selling the land for one price and saying they sold the land for a lesser value. When confronted about his lie, the husband dropped dead. When the wife was asked, she maintained the lie, and she too died. Fragments of life, a singular decision out of context, in reaction to crises, seems as nothing, but fragments join together as a lifetime, as representation of who we are and what we believe. So I ask again, as we did at the start: Are Grace, Generosity, Compassion only words, or the foundation of how we live & treat one another? Are our lives, Stories of Faith and Forgiveness, or of our Dou

"Forgiveness of April Fools" Easter 2018

Mark 16:1-8 Acts 10:34-43 The Calendar played a wonderful trick on us this year, not only that Ash Wednesday came on Valentines, but that Easter comes on April Fools! Yet, instead of a celebration of love and sacrifice, the 14th of February became the day of the Parkland High School killings. Would that every day beginning from this 1st of April on, could be a living out of the Resurrection and forgiveness! April Fools is a marvelous description for Easter morning. The Disciples, Followers and Crowds, Everyone had placed their hopes and dreams on Jesus. Oppressed by the Empire, everywhere they looked there was corruption and abuse of power in Government and Religion. Jesus had described an ESCHATALOGICAL HOPE, that this Empire would end and a new time would dawn. Jesus had healed the Blind, given voice and hearing to the Deaf and those unable to Speak, he had healed Lepers, he overturned the Tables of the Moneychangers, and Taught with Authority. He preached and told stories of a new world order, no longer based on power, but forgiveness! But the Empire could not tolerate that, they Arrested him, Scourged, Whipped and Beat him, Tried him as a Criminal and Executed him with the Death Penalty. A Death of intentional Suffering, Degradation, Shame. When he had breathed his last, they took his lifeless body down, placed it in a stone tomb in the earth, and sealed him DEAD. But the great joke was yet to come: on April Fools Day, when at Sunrise, the 3rd Day, Death had not been THE END for God. What could it mean in our world, if our greatest fears, our greatest intimidations, the acts of Terrorists, Scarcity, the revealing of all our secrets, the end of everything we know and imagine, were undercut by a new reality, making the past as nonsense? I mentioned a few weeks ago, we are heavily influenced by the experience of the Enlightenment. We believe in the power of knowledge, the power of thought, as Rene Descartes described, “I have being, I exist, I can know that I AM because I think, I think, therefore I AM”. The Biblical world was not like that. 1500 years before the Enlightenment, Plato’s Philosophy Aristotelian Reasoning were brand new, and the people based their Truth on their Senses, what they could feel and prove in their own experience. So, go back to begin with the Crucifixion, in the heat of the day, the smell of sweat, the sounds of suffering. Then death. Some imagine Death as Bright Light, some as Darkness. What does death sound like? Is death deafeningly loud, or silent? Pain and Suffering end. Is death absence? Can we hear people outside our bodies? Then three days later: Resurrection! Smell is one of our strongest senses, What would Resurrection Smell like? Is it flowers? Is it Grandma’s Baking? Jelly beans? What is the sound of Resurrection like? Trumpet blasts? Is resurrection the sound of birds? The sound of children? The stone was rolled away, so shafts of sunlight pierced the dark shadows of the grave. Fresh air wafted in. Particles of dust danced in the sunlight. Movement to muscles and sinews that had been stretched beyond capacity, bearing the weight of flesh had rested & relaxed, now reaching, stretching. There are experiences in this life which so surpass what we had to do to get there, that the former becomes meaningless. Resurrection makes death meaningless. Terrorist’s Fear and intimidation and suffering all become meaningless. The impossible suddenly becomes possible, unforseen alternatives. What an amazing April Fools’ Joke! The women who had gone to the tomb and were the first witnesses to Christ’s resurrection, could not trust themselves, could not believe what they saw and heard. Death was not The END? They ran away in fear and doubt telling no one... Over and over again, before the resurrection, there had been discussion of telling no one, I think what that means is that they did not publicly preach and profess it, but instead spoke to one another sharing a most trusted secret as something precious and vital. In our instantaneous culture, we have come to imagine that Death is a door, on one side is Life, and on the other heaven. Because of the Scriptures, I am not so certain about Time. Personally I think Resurrection may best be understood by Forgiveness. There are circumstance where we can immediately forgive, someone cuts in front of you in line at the grocery, someone inadvertently sends you a text they did not intend, and we forgive… But there are relationships and wounds that have come over a lifetime, hatreds and fears that we inherited from those before us, when Forgiveness takes time to cure. Weeks after the Resurrection, Simon Peter was visiting Simon the Tanner at Joppa, the City where Jonah had boarded the ship for Tarshish instead of where God intended he go to be a prophet from Israel to Babylon. Jonah is a reminder of the power of God to forgive even the most outcast, especially the enemies of Israel. A Tanner took skins and pelts of animals and dried them over open fires, cleaned and cured the animal skins with chemicals for leather and furs. Peter was sleeping on the roof, when he had this dream of a great clean white sheet being lowered from heaven. In it were every kind of animal for him to eat. But three times, Peter said, “No, I am one of the Elect, I follow the Covenant of Abraham, I am Kosher”. When suddenly there was a knock at the door and Cornelius a Roman Gentile came seeking Simon Peter. And Peter opened his mouth and said “I now truly understand that God shows no partiality!” What will it take for all the people of the world to come to that realization? That we have been the ones showing partiality and prejudice, not God. For the terrorists to stop trying to kill infidels, for the bullying of a lifetime to stop, and would be shooters would have no reason to hate. Easter is more than Jesus’ return from death to life 2000 years ago; Easter is God’s act of forgiveness of all the sin of the world. What an incredible April Fools Joke, to realize what fools we have been to hate, recognizing that God shows no partiality!

"A Paradox" Maundy Thursday 2018

John 13: 1-17, 31-35 So much of Religion seems to be about ritual and tradition. Our every worship service begins with a Call, a Confession of sin, Assurance of Pardon, before hearing the Bible. But, all of this is counter-cultural! The world says “I am okay, you’re okay”, and everything is measured by our wants and values and price, but faith requires that we confess we are not okay, we are broken and wounded, needing healing. We have to maintain the context of each part of Today in relationship to the whole. Holy Week must begin with the Crowds crying “Hosanna, Have Mercy” 4 days ago, overcast tomorrow by the Shadow of the Cross with the same people “Crucify Him”; and if there is a shadow, we know there will be a rising of The Son. But, this is only ritual of bread and cup, without betrayal, abandonment, isolation, death for others. When Jesus names an11th Commandment this adds to/compliments Moses’ Commandments, but also undercuts and provides a new foundation for the 10. This is the reason we gather this night, “Maundy” comes from the Latin word MANDATUM meaning A NEW COMMAND. Our purpose tonight is not to celebrate Communion, not to prepare for Easter, but to receive and think through Jesus’ COMMAND to LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS JESUS LOVED. When Jesus instructs that we love one another, this is not a Hallmark-type of love, but sitting across the Table with those whom you have devoted your life to serve, those whom you trust, those you love, all the while knowing one will hand you over and everyone else at the table will abandon you, as cut-off, to die, in shame, alone. This is preparation of Passover, where we remember Moses who gave us the 10 Commandments, leading the people to freedom and new relationship with God. But was Moses: Our Savior, Prophet, Law Giver, High Priest, or was he A Servant of God? The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper can only be fully appreciated as a paradox. “A Paradox” is what the translators of the Revised Standard Version of the Holy Bible described here as “GLORIFIED”. How different the verse feels… “Now is the Son of Man a Paradox, and in Him God is a Paradox; and if God is a Paradox, God will also resolve the Paradox in God’s self, for you, at once.” This Paradox begins with Jesus washing the feet of the Disciples as a Servant. Jesus whom we know is the Christ, whom the Disciples knew as a Holy Man, a Rabbi their Teacher, whom Simon Peter had declared is the Messiah, took off his Robes. In the Temple at Jerusalem, the Robes of the High Priest were His uniform of Authority and Office. But under the Roman occupation of Pontius Pilate, those robes were locked away in the garrison of the Roman soldiers, only taken out with the permission of Pilate, for Passover. And instead of acting as Priestly Authority making a sacrifice in blood by the killing of an animal to atone for sins, Jesus stripped down, and washed the feet if all, by pouring water. This at the start of the meal, when Peter and Judas were there. This is like our every worship service, an out-pouring of everything that has clung to the soles of our feet, clung to our souls, kneeling in submission, letting go control of all the hurts and wounds and sins, dirt of life. This night, I begin, by confessing to you my wrong, that this week, I broke the blue glass bowl we have used since 2004, so replaced it myself with a less breakable bowl made of hardwood. There is a tradition I started many years ago, that someone requested for tonight of a Reverse Offering. A reverse offering is instead of our contributing, we each receive. I hope you will each take one of these square cut nails and hold it in your palm, the point of our faith is not to relive Jesus’ suffering, but to be reminded of the depths of his love, even for us. For God so loved the world, that God gave God’s only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish but have everlasting life. Personally, what I love about celebrating the Sacrament this way this night, is not only sitting in the form of the Cross; not only making a time out of our routine to prepare for the resurrection of Easter; not only describing the Sacrament as Love; BUT each of us serving the other. Such a simple act, to pass the bread, to hold the cup for another, and yet in this sacramental act of love we serve as Christ to one another.