"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.

"Yearning for the Unknown" May 21, 2017

John 14: 15-21 Acts 17: 14-32 This week our Associate Pastor came to me with a question from his readings “What is the difference between Pantheism and Panantheism?” Only Presbyterian Ministers would have a conversation like this, right?!! Pantheism was the Religion of the Greeks, who believed in another reality populated by gods. It is said that the streets of Athens were so filled with statues to different gods, that you had to constantly twist and turn to get around all the monuments. Pantheism is a plethora of different gods, with as many gods on Mt Olympus as earth is populated with people. Panantheism, was also Greek, but instead of anthropomorphizing gods, Panantheism believed that God is in all things, god is an ideal, a philosophical belief in beauty being in all things. But if God is in all things, then in nothing specific. Our Christian Faith has elements of Judaism, and Greek Philosophy, and Roman Religion, and Western European Ideals, and American Enlightenment, and our cultural norms. What is at stake in this is, What is the nature of God? What has set the Abrahamic faiths apart, from all the Pantheistic and Panatheistic religions of the world, has been Monotheism. Judaism, Christianity and Islam each believe that there is one God. The difference between the three, being that Judasim knows God to be named YHWH, Adonai, Jehovah or Elohim and the way to God is through the Law of Moses. Islam believes the name of God to be Allah, that Moses, Jesus and Mohammed were prophets, and the way to God is the Law of Koran. Our Scripture lessons today describe that defining Christianity is hard, because Jesus was fully human and fully divine, who himself described God as Father, of the same substance but separate; and while Jesus of Nazareth lived and died and rose again, providing a new Command, everything Jesus said or did fulfills God’s Law. Accordingly, Jesus was in Creation, and God in Christ. To love Christ is to keep Christ’s Command. All too often people try to make this into an if /then clause: If you love me, THEN You will keep my commandments. Meaning if you do not keep Jesus’ Commandments, you are not loving him. Horsepucky! Jesus here is giving them his Commandment, straight forward, without being watered down, Love God and Love One Another, which he then repeats again at the Great Commission. The Unity being that if you truly love God and one another you will fulfill all that is the Law in Jewish Torah and Islamic Koran. Except, Jesus is a realist! For thousands of years human beings have not been able to fulfill the Law. So even if we make it so simple as to replace the LAWs with LOVE, on our own, we still are not able to follow God, so Jesus promises he will not leave us “ORPHANOS.” This is the Greek word from which English gets “Orphaned” but which literally means “yearning for to most basic relationship of normalcy.” I do not think Jesus could have chosen a more ideal word, because when “orphaned” be it by the loss of a parent, or loss of a child, loss of a mentor, teacher, or dream, bereft yearning is what it feels like. You ache for: an intangible, a relationship, an unknown. When a nursing mother hears her infant cry, her body reacts, even among a hundred infants she knows her child’s cry. It is that searching look of a child for their father’s approval and pride, of a father for their child’s accomplishment, relationship, fulfillment. Being left Orphanos, is the Father standing at the end of the dock or the top of the drive willing their Prodigal to return home. Orphanos describes our feeling of in-completion, our need for God. What has been confused throughout centuries is we do not believe in Duality as God, we believe in a Trinity. We do not talk a great deal about the Third Person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is what connects God and Christ, so that Jesus can declare God is in him, and Jesus is in God, and can be in us. After the Ascension, Jesus returned to sit at the right hand of God, and the two are One. If God is identified as the Creator and Liberator; Jesus as the Redeemer who suffered and died and rose again; The Holy Spirit is “the Go-Between God” who when Jesus is with God, is the Divine connection with us. As wire is the link between power source and lightbulb; as pipe links the source of water with dry land; as the radar wave unites the transmitter to the receiver; as invisible electronic emissions link a wireless network to a laptop computer; so connects the Holy Spirit between God and us in order that you and I can be Christ’s presence in the world. When describing Christianity, people routinely identify the incarnation of John 3:16: “God so loved the world God gave God’s only begotten Son, not to condemn the world but to redeem the world.” Or, we describe the Crucifixion and Resurrection, in Romans that “No height nor depth, nor angels nor principalities, could keep us from the love of God.” What Jesus is saying here, is the giving of a New Commandment that fulfills all the rest: Love God and Love one another. But also, you will have the Holy Spirit, supporting and guiding, connecting you to God. Not only does Jesus say this in the Gospel of John, but Paul did so to the Greek Philosophers at Athens. The passage begins, that Paul was waiting for others at Athens. However, this waiting is a heavily nuanced passage. If the translator is being negative, Paul was “Distressed because they were so superstitious.” If Positive, the translator describes Paul as “Intrigued because they were so very religious.” Neutral would be to say, Paul was “Keyed Up…” The passage could mean either one. But addressing this, Paul describes having witnessed a monument to an “Unknown God,” this, he claims to be the Holy Spirit, True God. Don Richardson was a Missionary who described that in the 6th Century BC Athens was being decimated by a horrible mysterious plague. After trying everything else, the culture assumed it must be that one of the Greek Gods was angry, but which one as Athens was “the God Capital of the World,” where new Ideas deserved hearing. When all efforts had failed, they hired an outside consultant from the Island of Cyprus, whose name was Epimenides. Epimenides discerned that it was none of the known gods of Athens that were offended. Setting out to find a remedy, Epimenides took a flock of choice sheep, of various colors, deprived of food until they were hungry. Then at the appointed morning, they released the hungry sheep atop Mars Hill, a succulent green pasture. For sheep to not eat, would have been beyond understanding. So Epimenides watched, and to his amazement, several of the sheep did not eat, but lay down in green pastures, beside still waters. Altars were erected where the sheep had lain, dedicated to an Unknown God, and the sheep who had laid there were sacrificed. Immediately the plague stopped. Over the Centuries, these altars and the plague were forgotten, but in a time of reformation one of these altars to an Unknown God was resurrected by Paul as identifying the True God we yearn to know.

"Reconciliation" May 14, 2017

John 21:1-11 Acts 7: 51-60 I hope you enjoy the numerous Resurrection appearances of the season of Easter as I do. I love this 21st Chapter of John for several reasons, not least of which is fishing. One of my earliest memories was of having a bamboo pole and worms, catching sunfish on Pleasant Lake. In 1965 my parents, who were from Central NY bought a home on an identical lake in Northern Michigan. That same year, Field and Stream magazine, described having stocked that lake with fingerlings of Muskellunge. While we never caught one, Muskies were supposed to be a game fish that grew to enormous proportions. In the last few weeks I have had several who have reached points in their lives, like Peter, where it appears there is no future, no hope. This passage of Scripture is assurance that although we may not see God, dwelling on the past, replaying what we wish we had not said, Christ will never abandons us. The quest of faith is a search for reconciliation, for gathering up all the frayed loose ends of life, for finding meaning especially in the darkest, most difficult relationships, and in death that seems the ultimate finality. The 21st Chapter, similar to the prologue of John 1: “In the beginning was the Word…he came to his own people and his own people received him not…but to all who did he gave eternal life” …summarizes the recurrent themes of John’s Gospel of Jesus Christ: At the Wedding at Cana in Galilee, we exhausted the wine/ here exhausted fishing; when Jesus comes creating a superabundance both in quantity and quality. Nicodemus, in the dark of night, knew Jesus to be the Messiah sent from God, but suffered confusion and lack of understanding AND Jesus the light of the world provided illumination and depth of perception. Nathaniel and the Samaritan Woman at the Well, by a simple declaration: I saw you under the tree/ you have 5 husbands and this not your husband/ or having caught nothing on that side of the boat, try the other side; and the lonely stranger becomes a witness declaring: You are the Lord the Son of God. We have reconciliation: Peter denied Jesus 3 times and now vows his love 3 times, both standing before charcoal fires smelling the smoke, feeling the warmth. Jesus told the disciples to go to Galilee, and they went to the Sea of Galilee. In the Hebrew Scriptures: the Name of God: YHWH is “I AM.” In John, Jesus identifies I Am the Good Shepherd; I Am the Vine you are the branches; I Am the Bread of Life, I AM the SheepGate no one comes to the Father except thru me. Pontius Pilate asked if Jesus was a King? Here there were 153 fish. Astrology, Astronomy, numerology were common at that time, in Aramaic 153 corresponds to the letters “I AM God.” However, a subtle and vitally important thing, is that in the Bible we have accounts of being there with God at Creation, with Prophets and Kings, throughout the Gospels we have stories of being with Jesus, listening to him, seeing him. In the Resurrection appearances, you have people who know Christ died for us, who like us are going about their ordinary lives, walking on the road; meeting together for conversation, prayer and a hymn; fishing in a familiar sacred place; going about daily work; being lonely, listless, doubting, unfulfilled, when Jesus came to them. I think one of the earliest crises of the Church, a crisis of faith we each go through, is doubting “Where is God?” “Who is God?” “Will I live through this time, will I ever be happy or challenged, fulfilled?” The resurrection appearances indicate that even in the most common routines, When we are having a meeting discussing drainage… Running scales as a Choir… Celebrating a Wedding, Baptism, Memorial, Worship. Those are the times Christ comes to us, not to heal us of leprosy, not to replace our knees or hips, but to provide reconciliation of all the things that have troubled us; not simply to give us knowledge, but a limitless super-abundance, for everlasting. I imagine Jesus asked Peter three different times “Do you love me?” the importance of which being different. Whenever we have done wrong, let someone down, there is the feeling of being caught. There is also reflection on guilt that you wish you could have a do over. But the 3rd, I think is as a fresh affirmation of faith. As 8 and 10 year olds the imaginations of my brothers and I ran wild, because like Skaneateles we fished and swam in the same waters as Muskies. Although that lake was as pure and cold and clear as Skaneateles, swimming with a big fish with teeth, was frightening. Once, when I was about 35, I thought I saw that big fish swim passed me, Muskellunge, but my friends, family dismissed it as an idle big fish tale. In 2003 there was a movie titled “Big Fish” the main character of which is Eddie Bloom, who delights telling others fantastic mythic adventures about his life. His son’s favorite bedtime story, is about when Eddie and his friends were boys in this Village, and there was an old rundown house, overgrown with weeds, next to the swampy part of the Creek. Once when the boys were about 10, they went to this house at night, trying to get a look at the woman inside, whom they were certain was a witch. She has a glass-eye, that she keeps covered with a patch, and it is said that if you look into that dead eye you can witness your own death! The boys speculate whether they will die horrifically, or peacefully, whether alone or surrounded by loved ones? The other boys taunted Eddie to go look. Was he chicken, or would he march through her yard, walk up the front steps, knock on her door to look in the eye of death? Would you want to know? Maybe death is best left as a mystery. Knowing how, could mess you up, avoiding all the other occasions you faced the same circumstance, worrying about when, and why then. On the shore that morning, when three times over Jesus asked Simon Peter if he loves Jesus, and Peter responds with pledge of his commitment, Jesus does not say “I love you too” instead, as affirmation of Peter, who previously had feared confessing Jesus because he might be arrested and might be crucified beside him, Peter is told how he will die. All his life Simon Peter has been in control, and he will lose control of his life. He will become a prisoner for the Gospel and die for it. Rather than death the same as Jesus, he will ask to be crucified upside down, witnessing the world as all mixed up. On the night of Communion, the night of Jesus’ arrest, Peter had looked death in the eye and ran away in fear. Few things, even death, cause us the same fear as a loss of control. But witnessing his death for what he believed, Jesus says to Peter: Follow me. 10 year old Eddie Bloom nervously squeezed through the fence, and in the dark, crept through the overgrown weeds, then climbed the stairs and knocked at the door. He hears rustling inside, when suddenly the door swings open and the old patch-eyed woman is standing right there. Eddie says to her: “Maam, my name is Edward Bloom, and there are some folks out here who would like to look you in the eye.” He leads her back to where the other boys were hiding. Only two left are brothers, Zack and Don Price. Zack lifts the eye patch, and the film’s Director shows us what looks like a Black and White home movie where the 10 year old Zack now a grown man is standing on a ladder, when the ladder goes out from under and he lays on the pavement dead. Having fallen from a ladder, at that point, I was reaching for the remote. But Eddie turns to the woman, saying “I have been thinking about death. On the one hand seeing yourself die could really screw up your thinking. On the other hand, if you knew you would die in your bed, you would have no fear going to war, or driving a car, eating weird food, stopping a bank robber, because you know you would survive. So it could kind of help you to know.” The woman smiles crooked teeth at him, and lifts her patch. This time, the Director does not show us what Eddie sees, but we watch Eddie’s expression. When she replaces the patch, Eddie says “Huh, so that’s how I go.” Concluding the bedtime story to his son, Eddie says “From then on, I no longer feared death.” I have always trusted God with eternity, after I died, but now I am beginning to trust God with the ordinary things of my daily life. Ten years ago my brothers and I sold our parents’ lakefront home in Michigan. A year ago I saw on the internet, that the biggest fish in the State of Michigan had been caught, it had been caught in the water of that very lake, right in front of my parents’ home, living for years under the drift wood. They showed the photo of three adult men, standing side by side, with their arms outstretched, holding this 55 inch long, 50 lb 8 oz fish with rows and rows of teeth. But the best part is that Muskies were seeded in that lake 42 years ago. If this one had been found there and grown to this size, there were others…

"Abundant Life" May 7, 2017

John 10:1-10 With all the Sermons that have been preached over all the years about the Church being Sheep, about the Good Shepherd, and about whether we widen or make narrow the Gate, there is a terrible confusion about our passages this morning, because the 23rd Psalm and John 10 are not about these but about Abundant Life, life in communal relationship with God and one another! You belong. You are loved. When given a choice between life and death, we choose life. This is the goal of all the Vitamins and Exercise and Diet. A longer more Abundant Life is what every Advertisement promises. It is what Oprah and Ellen, and Joel Olsteen, all are selling. Human nature is so constructed, we do not need to consciously think in order to live to be able to breathe, to have our hearts beat, to swallow, to digest, to see or hear. There is Life, and Eternal Life, and resurrection, but this morning what we address is abundant life, the search we all undertake for purpose, meaning, fulfillment. How different life, if instead of stumbling out of bed, to all the appointments of a day then having a drink or taking a pill to sleep/ remember the times of life when we worked hard and played hard and slept soundly knowing we were making a difference for others. What the Vitamins and Exercises and Diets, and Talk Shows all promise, are secrets to possessing abundant life faster, through hidden ways others do not possess. The power of the Wizard of Oz, was in realizing that you already have the secret, that is a Heart, Courage, a Brain, or a Home, but you had to come to see that you did. You belong. You are loved. Remember weeks ago, we read of Jesus’ Disciples asking “Who was it that sinned, this blind man or his parents, that he was born with this affliction: Blindness?” and Jesus said “Neither, but that God might be revealed in him.” Which then raised questions whether the man, or the Pharisees, were the ones who were blind? This is a 99 verse passage in the Gospel of John revealing that Jesus is Sent from God, but Pharisees refused to see. That Jesus is the Light of the world but humanity preferred darkness, easy answers for survival, compared to following the way to Abundant Life. In total, this is a passage making reference to being included and excluded, about sin and purity; BUT the truth revealed back in John 3:17 is that Christ came not to condemn but to forgive. You belong. You are loved. While there are a few in our community who have raised sheep, a contemporary analogy to John’s metaphor of a Sheep-gate, would be those so computer-savy in ways I will never understand. We would call them “Nerds” of “Geeks” except instead of being the oddballs, our society now covets their skills. But what they enjoy most is “hacking”, finding back-doors and secret-passages into software. When Mario Brothers and Donkey Kong Videogames first came out, I recall my kids enjoying playing for the joy of play, the novelty of something new, until they were told that there are secret codes, that allow you to accumulate more prizes/ faster, and the game changed from the surprise of learning trying to win the game, to accumulation of rewards that were not even rewards but “virtual” points in a game, competing against others at having the highest score of all time. Perhaps as an example we can all identify, like many cars, my Mini Cooper has a computer chip imbedded within the key. Without even being next to the car, I can push a button and the doors lock, a different button and the lights flash and horn sounds, another and the windows roll down and sunroof opens, there are those with automatic ignition and heated seats. Because my car is about a dozen years old and the chip is wearing down, the radius for this to work has decreased, but if I put the key to my head, conducting through matter rather than through air, that invisible force has a greater range. However, there are thieves possessing gadgets, who can steal the computer chip code then walk up to your car and drive it away. So no longer can I be certain of locking out others. The Pharisees had become so embroiled in determining who was in and who was out, who sinned and who was righteous, that they were blind to God, blind to the light of the world. When you have backdoors or passwords, or secrets to abundant life, it is like driving to the top of a Mountain, versus hiking the trails one foot in front of the other. You get the product, to view the panorama, but without experiencing the awe of how to get there. Growing up in Michigan, near the border to Canada, we were taught French in Elementary School. While there were recitations, and vocabulary, what I remember most was when we were able to use our reading ability in French to read the adventures of The Little Prince. What most of us recall from the Readers’ Digest version was that the Narrator crashed his plane in a desert where he met a Little Prince from a tiny far off distant planet, and on this planet were 3 volcanoes and a single rose. The Little Prince devoted his life to the care and nurture of that rose. However, in one of the Prince’s Adventures, he met a Fox, and the Fox begged the Prince to tame him. The Prince learned that the process of taming is about spending time together, some might describe wasting time together, waiting for each other, being vulnerable to the other’s needs, which made each the Fox and the Prince unique to each other. While all the world has a sameness to it, they were each unique to each other by being responsible for each other. The line I recall is: “You see clearly only with the heart, all that is essential is invisible to the eyes.” The difficulty of the search for Abundant Life is not only the work that is involved, but just as with taming the fox, we have to be willing and able to be vulnerable. You belong. You are loved. So much of our lives, particularly since 9/11 is about protecting ourselves, guarding ourselves so we appear to have everything all together. There is a balance between security in order to guard against being abused/ and /vulnerability that allows us to feel, to experience, to love, to believe without proof. And yet, while this is a balance, in protecting ourselves from disappointment, from hurt, in locking out all others, we numb ourselves and cut ourselves off from feeling. The difficulty is we cannot choose what to numb, when. We hide secrets and tell half-truths about ourselves to steel ourselves with emotional armor. You belong. You are loved. Judaism and Islam never fathomed Christianity. Because according to both, God is God, and Humans are Creaturely. The Law as difficult as it is to adhere to, was to identify sin, to guard us from sin, from falling away from those identities and that relationship as mortal creatures with God. In the same way, the Jewish hope of a Messiah was to bring us to God, not to be a God for us, let alone to be both God and Creature. Islam cannot conceive of the Divine so profaning God’s-Divine nature as to conceive a child with a human. Even Muhammed was only a prophet bringing believers to God, and carrying the Law to the people. The primary claim of the Christian Reformation, has been that Jesus is both Fully Human and Fully Divine. MaryLou Osborne left a note in her Bible: We long to be human beings on a Spiritual quest, But in reality we are Spiritual beings living human life’s journey. We yearn to be Divine, to be invincible, to be superhuman and untouchable, but doing so we blind ourselves to our humanity, our vulnerability our spiritual nature. You belong. You are loved. There are no shortcuts, there are not ways to steal in the backdoor for abundant life, because Abundant Life is not a Possession to be Acquired! Abundant Life is a Promise, the Promise of a Gift from God, a gift of God giving God’s self to us. That promise is that we are loved, we are accepted, we can be human and open ourselves to one another, even naming our broken nature and need for forgiveness. You belong. You are loved.

"Journeying Together" April 30, 2017

Acts 2: 36-41 Luke 24: 13-35 Funny, the settings and times in these Easter stories… Mary went to the tomb early before the rising of the sun hearing her own name spoke by a voice she recognized… The evening of that day, the first day of the week, the disciples were in the upper room locked, behind closed doors, for fear, when Jesus breathed saying Peace… Seven days later, they had fished all night catching nothing, when Jesus asked Peter a third time, “Do you love me?”… Our reflection on the resurrection today, comes from Luke not John, and starts out mid-afternoon, of that first day, on the Road to Emmaus John’s Gospel is chocked full of miracle stories, reaching pen-ultimate crescendo at the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and then the crucifixion. But Luke, is different, for Luke the focus is less on the miracles, signs and symbols, than on who is healed, the poor, the blind, the children, a Gentile from Gerasene filled with a Legion of demons, a Samaritan woman, a woman bleeding for 12 years. Why they were going to Emmaus is not stated, except that the reason they had gone to Jerusalem was now over. They went to see the Messiah. They went to witness something life changing, world altering, revolutionary. All the hopes and dreams of a thousand generations hung on the head of that Rabbi from Galilee. Dreams broken, destroyed as he was judged, whipped, hung out on a cross to die. 3 days after the crucifixion, all that was left was to go home. Reweaving fishing nets, counting other peoples’ money at Tax Offices, returning from being AWOL, picking up the pieces of missed appointments, relationships, debts, merciful routine. Instead of Jesus’ Crucifixion insert “When diagnosed with an incurable disease, when downsized through no fault of your own, when the investments you made over a lifetime are swallowed up in the market, when the person you loved no longer recognizes you as important, when our baby our only child overdoses, when at death we do part.” Confrontations with normalcy, the in-breaking of reality, are hard to take because more than disrupting reality, they destroy the illusions and hopes and dreams we lived for. Confronting the realities of life remind us that there is an end to dreams, to relationships, endings over which we have no control, and under which we feel as captured prisoners to a cruel conqueror. After disappointment in our lives, there is return to routine,… except life is different, it can never be the same. What difference is there in miracles, sermons of a Savior, if death still has ultimate power and dominion over us? When Simon Peter preached this sermon in Acts, every person was cut to the heart, responding “What can we do?” and while John the Baptist and Jesus each had come preaching Repentance, on that day 3,000 repented & were baptized. What are the conversations when on the way to nowhere? What can be important, what is worth saying, when there is only tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow… These two were part of the extended disciples, who were not looking for a proleptic in-breaking of the End Time, a Resurrection in the midst of life, but only a contrast to that mythic Genesis “In the Beginning” as if here were “The Day of the Lord“ or Resurrection After our individual Deaths. They spoke as if Fate rather than Destiny were their rule, as if what had been killed was not only Jesus, but their Faith in God. Although Luke spends only the clause of a sentence on their having been in conversation before the stranger joined them, we each know “the conversations of meaninglessness” that last a lifetime. I thank God, that on Easter morning, Bill did recover. I thank God for each of you who responded and acted in concern. But I also Thank God this reality happened on Easter morning, that on Easter, we would be horrified by the shock of reality. As the shadows lengthen and the evening comes, the fever of life is over, and the busy-ness of the world is hushed, the couple on the road recognize the presence and shadow of another on the road beside them. A stranger who asks a strange question “What is the conversation you are holding with each other as you walk?” In anxiety and fear, our options become limited. It is hard for us to break the cycle of depression, until we reach bottom and dwell there. These two had been caught having kept the conversation going in only one direction, down. When the stranger interrupted, they stopped still. Hope is recognizing, suddenly realizing there are other options, to witness a Crossroads, where our circumstance with the world// intersects with eternity and God… I think that what the stranger did was to challenge that “Faith is not the Opposite of Doubt and Fear…That is Certainty!” Faith, is by definition “Trust despite a lack of evidence.” Faith is more tension-filled and therefore more exciting than knowledge, or facts or proof. Faith is living AS IF all of the promises of God are True!” It is acceptable to doubt, it is even required in order to truly believe. Doubt is sort of like the porches on our houses, thresholds you have to get over, in order to get inside, or go out into the world! But many of us make ourselves comfortable on that threshold, the threshold of doubts instead of risking. What always shocks me about this Easter season, is that Jesus holds no grudge. Part of me expects Jesus to walk up behind these two on the road, and smack them upside the head. “What do you mean abandoning me in a tomb?” “Why did you betray me?” “How dare you leave me on a cross to die!” “Some-kind of believers!” But Jesus did not. There is no accusation in any of the stories of Jesus’ resurrection, no condemnation, only forgiveness. When it comes to being wrong, most of us have a hard time admitting it. Even when caught, we see ourselves as justified, we never raped, robbed, pillaged or murdered! But pretty good people, okay-lives, was not what Jesus sought in disciples. He found bad guys, people who knew they had been wrong, and offered them forgiveness. The Catholic Theologian James Alison wrote a book on The Joy of Being Wrong, his point being that only those who have been wrong can ever hope of being forgiven. But the real Gospel, the Good News that inspires repentance is that while Jesus never smacked anybody for being wrong, he also refused to leave us there. EVEN after death, he began patiently painstakingly explaining : Creation as a Resurrection story, because death is a piece of the fertility of life. Seeds must fall, be buried and decompose, in order for abundance to come. The Flood demonstrated how out of total devastation, still there was a remnant. Abraham and Sarah are two who were as Good as Dead, yet their lives were not over, they still had laughter. The Law is dying and rising with new interpretations, not letters carved in stone. The rise and fall of Empires and Superpowers, the suffering and return of refugees, the despair of the suffering servant, expectation of the return of Elijah, are witnesses to God’s promises. Resurrection changes the Scriptures from stories about the past, to miracles in our midst, because God lives. What if we embrace death not as the ultimate reality, but as the penultimate? What if endings, walls, only become obstacles to us, inspiring us to volunteer? The point is not to see death as a passageway from a lower to higher reality, because that diminishes the importance of life; but that this life, relationships, love and faith are vitally important to the meaning of Life! And yet, even that is not all, because God has more to be revealed. If anything, I believe we in the church have done a disservice to Christian faith, by emphasizing the brokenness of the bread. Yes, in recognizing our sins/ in the breaking of the bread, they recognized him; but he also gifted us with: Life in a new Covenant, life in hope of reconciliation. Our Faith is not in the suffering on the cross, but in the resurrection that his death was not meaningless, his death was not the end. We live with the reality of life all around us. There is death, hopes and dreams are routinely destroyed by reality, but still we trust and believe as if God’s Promises are True.