Breaking Bread Together

Jeremiah 23: 1-6
Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56

Today is our Communion Sunday. This is the day we take the bread and wine and we remember the sacrifices of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the day we stop for just a moment in our worship to appreciate the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, filling us with warmth and love and acceptance, as we come to Christ’s table.

The scriptures in Mark show us how important it is for the disciples to take a moment to break bread with one another and how, even back before technology, there wasn’t always time to do so. When we read the words, “For many were coming and going, and they had no time even to eat” it sounds so much like what we go through daily.

We are too busy to pause for a real lunch, and so we munch on vending machine food while working at our desks. Our teens and children grab a pop-tart for breakfast as they walk out the door instead of sitting down at the table for a meal. Parents and children drive through the fast food restaurant on their way to soccer and dance practice. Those of us that commute sip on double lattes to get us through the day and we snack on unhealthy things while in the office before coming home with takeout for the night. Even our babies and toddlers graze on cereal pieces and other portable foods while we hurriedly shop at night after work.

We are a people that are besieged by activities and responsibilities that reshape even the most basic functions of life like our eating habits. Our busyness prevents us from gathering for family meals, and we may even forget that we like stopping for a moment to sit around the table with our loved ones. We forget the pleasure of sharing parts of our day with each other and as we forget these things, we do not realize what we lose with our busy schedules.

What would happen if we Christians became too busy to break bread together? Why does it matter so much to Jesus and consequently to us, that we take time to have communion? And if it is important for Christians to break bread, doesn’t that mean it is important for our families to do the same?

 When I think about my memories as a child, some of my favorite ones revolve around the dinner table. Those few precious times when my mother was able to be with us as we ate dinner. I can remember a lot of laughter as one of us did something silly that made the whole table laugh. I can remember having serious discussions with our mother about things that happened at school that day. And at church, some of my favorite memories were during the meals the church shared. It was fun eating spaghetti and garlic bread with people I didn’t see every day. I learned a lot in those times and it was wonderful to share something more than worship on Sunday with them.

Taking time out of our schedules to break bread is about more than remembering Jesus’ sacrifice for us. It reminds us that we are a family, one created through common beliefs and goals through Christ. When we commune together we share bits and pieces of our lives and we are better for it. The same thing is true for when we take time to break bread with our family. We need that time, we need that space. It is a holy time, even though most of us would never have imagined it that way.

But now we need to look at the fact that Jesus and his disciples could not get away to break bread together which is often the case for us as well. Jesus saw all of the crowds and he had compassion upon them. This is not the same thing as pity. Compassion literally means to suffer with a person. Jesus saw the people and their needs and he hurt for them and could not in good conscience, let them continue to suffer despite his own needs and desires in that moment. He put aside his own tiredness, hunger and pain to help them.

We, as a church, need to follow Jesus’ example. I know that we get tired of committees and meetings after a long day at work. Most of us have been consistory members and on every other committee at one time or another. We attend church every Sunday, a lot of you send your children and grandchildren to Sunday school too. These are all wonderful, good things to do. But they wear on us and eventually we become tired of doing these things.

Jesus and the disciples got tired too. They didn’t always want to go out and teach and preach to the people. Then, Jesus would see them. He’d see the pain on their wan faces, he’d see the hunger and tiredness they could not hide, and he suffered with them. He could not let them continue to be in pain. The church needs to be a place of healing and comfort. This needs to be a place where people come when they are hurting.

The fact that people do not think to come to church when they suffer is very telling. Shouldn’t the church be considered a place of rest and comfort to those that are lost? If people are finding more help from a book than they are their local church, we have our work cut out for us. Yes, sometimes we get tired and discouraged. Yes, there are going to be days of frustration and anger that more aren’t doing their share.

However, if as a church, we do nothing to help the people that are hurting, then we hurt ourselves too. That is the secret to this passage today. Jesus helped those people despite his own aches and needs because to leave them like they were not only hurt them, it hurt him too. Christians are supposed to love their brothers and sisters. If we truly love the people around us, we cannot blindly walk past them when they are in pain.

Sometimes that will mean putting aside going to the movies for the night or sitting down with a glass of wine after a long day. Yes, we deserve the break. Yes, we are tired and hurting ourselves. But the love we have for our fellow human beings requires sacrifice. If we only help when it is easy or when we have time and energy, then we are not proving anything. It is when we make time for others despite our own hurts that we show our love and compassion just as Jesus has done so many times.

It is then that people will see the church as a source of comfort and healing because there are people within the walls that will help no matter what. Loving others is about sacrifice. Jesus showed us that, and it is what we remember today as we break bread. Jesus died so that we may live, and he asks that we love people enough to help even when we are tired after a long day.

Amen.

Marked and Sealed

Amos7: 7-15
Eph1: 3-14

It is passages like this one in Ephesians that make many regular Christians throw up their hands in frustration about reading the bible on their own. It’s a very wordy text, full of words that seem to have many possible meanings and it can leave even those of us that have studied the bible extensively, scratching our heads. This is a passage that has caused a lot of controversy and discussion over the years because of words like predestination, adoption, inheritance, and redemption.

There are some people, like John Calvin, who consider this passage to confirm that there are certain people who are predestined to be saved. The idea of predestination is that a person does not get saved through their own merits, but through God’s will. This opens up the idea that there are those who will be saved even if they never accept Jesus into their hearts, or someone that has done awful things could already be predestined for heaven. Then there is the question of how are we to know who is predestined and who is not?

There is another theory where people believe when the author writes that we are predestined to adoption to sonship in Christ, that every human being has been predestined to be saved. The idea of universal salvation (everyone in the world is saved no matter religion, creeds or deeds) is appealing to those of us that think about loved ones that have passed, but were not exactly faithful Christians. This idea that everyone in the world is saved no matter what they do or believe, seems to make our faith and our response to God, immaterial. Since Jesus makes a point of saying we should have faith and that we are to respond to God with love for others, it doesn’t seem like this could be the correct definition of predestination.

The other theory on predestination is slightly different. Through Jesus Christ, every person is given the ability to be saved. However, salvation is given to those who respond to their adoption with faith and love for Jesus, and they are the ones that are given eternal life. This definition includes free will. We choose to accept the gift God wants to give us or we may decline it. The way we conduct our lives, shows God who we are and who we want to be.

The word adoption and sonship are very important as well. Through Jesus Christ, we are no longer just human beings who believe in God. We are welcomed into the family of God. We become brothers and sisters not just IN Christ but TO Christ. Think about this.. if we are Christ’s brother and sister, then our parent is God. When we accepted Jesus into our hearts, we were dropped smack dab in the middle of the family relationship and dynamics.

There are those of you out there that have either been adopted or adopted a child into your family. So you know and understand this better than most. Adoption is not about superficially adding a person to the family. When we adopt a child, we accept them into our hearts, into our lives and they become such a vital part of us that we cannot imagine life without them. I had someone tell me not too long ago that when they adopted their son, she loved him so much that sometimes she forgot he was adopted because it just wasn’t what was important. The important part was this child was a part of her life and she was a part of his. The love between the two is what mattered most, DNA mattered very little.

God feels the same way about all of us. We are God’s children, and as such, we are privileged to the same wonders and benefits that are given to Jesus. That is amazing, and also brings us to the word inheritance.

What do we receive as children of God? What is our inheritance? It’s not just salvation, as if that wasn’t enough on its own! When we chose to believe in Jesus, we were marked as God’s own and we were given a wonderful gift – the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a beautiful gift because it means we do not go through life alone. There are many of us sitting in these pews today who have known loneliness. That deep, abiding ache that empties and drains us of life. The sorrow and pain we feel that no one will understand what we have gone through. No one truly understands the person we are and the mistakes we have made, the things we want to accomplish and those we have not been able to.

But the Holy Spirit is a gift unlike any other. God’s Spirit, given to us the moment we profess belief in Jesus Christ. Through that Spirit, we are promised that never again will we walk alone. Never again will we be misunderstood and left to fight our demons by ourselves. We have a champion, we have a Savior, we have one that will mediate our prayers and concerns to God for us. The Holy Spirit, if we allow her too, will fill those empty, aching voids with the love of Christ, with the acceptance of God the Father, and will guide us right into God’s waiting arms.

Think of the Holy Spirit as your personal guide to heaven, your personal guide to eternity spent with God who loves you more than you could ever comprehend. Now that, my friends, is an inheritance!

The final word in this passage we will look at is redemption. Sometimes we call Jesus our Redeemer. We are redeemed through Christ. What does that mean? Who is it that we need to be redeemed for?

Not many of us will argue that humanity is full of flaws. We are prideful, arrogant, disdainful of others, and we lack compassion. These are just some of the many sins we commit daily. With such flaws, it would seem impossible to get to heaven on our own. It is why we needed Jesus Christ. God tried to help us become better people, offering covenant after covenant with us and always, we broke them. When he sent Jesus, he made a new covenant that is unbreakable. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, when he died he accepted all of humanity’s flaws as his own, he took the punishment we were meant to have.

Thus, we were redeemed in God’s eyes. When God looks at each of us, he does not see a sinful human being, but he sees His Son. He sees the blood Jesus spilled for us, the compassion Jesus has, and the love for the Son, becomes love for all. This is what adoption and redemption are all about. We truly are now one of God’s own children because God sees in each of us His very own Son.

This passage may be filled with a lot of big words and confusing sentences, but it is one of the most important we will discuss. Here, we learn about how we are saved and we learn about our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. God loved his creation enough to send his Son, who loved us enough to take away our sins so that we would be given the chance to accept eternal life with the help and direction of the Holy Spirit. If you are ever again in doubt that God loves you, remember this passage, and remember what Jesus has done for you. You are not alone and you are not unloved. God is right by your side, now and always.

Amen.

Delight in Weakness

Ezekiel 2: 1-15
2 Corinthians 12:2-10

The Apostle Paul wrote much of the New Testament and many of the things he wrote were both as encouraging as they are puzzling. This passage in 2 Corinthians is no different. Paul is writing to the Corinthians to remind them to pay attention to what a prophet says and does. He is reminding them that there is more to God’s servants than just what they say, but he also reminds us that weakness is not always something we must be ashamed about.

In most societies, weaknesses are not something we see many people boasting of to others. We don’t often walk into a dinner party to hear the host say, “Thank you all for coming even though you know I cannot cook and we will all have heartburn later.” When we interview for a job, most employers will ask us what our strengths are and we gladly tell them, but when they ask about our weaknesses, we usually downplay them. Not many are going to say, “I don’t take direction well and my children often call me at work and distract me, causing me to make a few mistakes.”

In ancient times, it was no different. Weaknesses can be exploited and no one wants someone to take advantage of them. What could Paul possibly be trying to tell us when he says, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses… for when I am weak, then I am strong.”?

When a person finds themselves lacking in an area, they have two choices. They can either figure out a way to be better or they can accept help. There are some weaknesses that can never be fully overcome. Paul suffered from one such weakness and he prayed and begged God for years to take this burden from him, and each time was refused. Each of us has what we would call a thorn in our flesh the same as Paul. Something that has burdened our lives and kept us from accomplishing all the things we wish we could.

Perhaps it is a long illness such as cancer or MS. Perhaps you suffer from depression or have a problem controlling your temper. Perhaps you have a tendency to pick the wrong friends or the wrong partner. Perhaps you have become addicted to alcohol or drugs or pornography. Perhaps you are the type of person that does not feel complete unless you are needed and so you surround yourself with needy people. Perhaps you have a weakness for causing trouble or drama in your own life and others. Perhaps you are excessively proud and refuse to ask for help no matter how badly you need it.

Every one of us has a weakness; Paul says there is no shame in being weak. The reason he says this is because in our weakness we are forced to look to God for our strength. If this weakness refuses to leave us, the only person who is strong enough to help us is Jesus Christ. Paul tells us that he will boast of his weakness so that Christ’s power may rest over him. We too should not be ashamed of our weaknesses, but instead we should ask that God be with us as we fight against them.

Every year my grandmother, mom and I go on a vacation to Pittsburgh. This year we are going at the end of July. Every year we go out on the Gateway Clipper for their hour ride down the three rivers. During this ride, the captain gives little bits of information about the various buildings and landmarks. One year, I remember him telling us about the US Steel Building. When it was first built, the company used a new steel product where the steel starts off as a rusty orange color and then darkens as the years go by. Apparently, the reason for it darkening is that as the building is exposed to the elements the steel resists the effects of the wind, rain, snow, ice and fog by forming a coating of dark brown oxidation over the metal. The result being that every year that building is exposed to the things that weaken most other buildings, the US Steel building becomes more resistant; it becomes stronger.

If we are to become stronger despite the various weaknesses that we battle against, we need something to help us through. Without thorns in our flesh, human beings have a tendency to become conceited and mean. It is through our weaknesses that we learn to sympathize with others, it is through our shared pains that we are able to have compassion upon the rest of the world.

It does not make our painful moments any less hurtful. It does not make our weaknesses any less than another’s. But what we learn is to be human and that life is short and bittersweet. Jesus is God and yet he never threw his weight around while he walked among us. Jesus is always compassionate, always careful of other’s feelings, and always willing to help heal and soothe our pains away. How can God be so empathetic?

It is because God has experienced pain and hurt as well. Throughout the bible we see many times where humanity has turned away from God; many times where God cries out about our wickedness and how ungrateful we are to all God has done. God feels sorrow. God feels anger and sadness and pain. Just as we do. A God that loves so deeply cannot help but also feel sorrow and pain just as deeply.

There is a song I heard the other day by a group called Thompson Square. The words are quite beautiful and remind me of this passage in Corinthians and what Paul is trying to tell all of us.  It begins, Trying to live and love, With a heart that can't be broken, Is like trying to see the light with eyes that can't be opened. We may shine, we may shatter, We may be picking up the pieces here on after, We are fragile, we are human, We are shaped by the light we let through us, We break fast, because we are glass.

Paul does not dispute that there are many things in this world that cause us pain. Paul just reminds us that we need those weaknesses to help us from becoming fools, and to stop us from becoming hardened to the life of others. When Paul writes that in his weaknesses, he becomes strong; the words of the song really hit home. We are shaped by the light we let through us. We are shaped by the light of Jesus Christ, but only if we are willing to open our hearts to him. We are shaped by the people we meet, and the compassion we have upon each other.

The church is a place where we should recognize not only our strengths, but our weaknesses. It is a place where even though we all have hurts, even though all of us have done wrong, we are reminded that we are not here to judge. We each walk the road we’ve been given and here in this place, we have been brought together to do good works in Jesus’ name. In this church, our weaknesses are not failures, but become a way for us to grow stronger and closer to Jesus.

Amen.

The Goal is Equality

Lamentations 3
2 Corinthians 8

At this time of year we are often concerned with how hot the weather is and what picnics we will be attending. Our minds are on our vacations and our holidays. This is supposed to be the best time of our year when we can relax a little and let the weekends roll by in warm sunshine and laughter.

No one wants to hear about wildfires that have been brought on by this massive heat wave. No one wants to hear about the storms that have hit the East Coast and caused many to lose power for several days and even killed some people. No one wants to hear about an arsonist who might be a young teenager and has burned four homes, killing one person and ruining precious memories.

But these things still exist whether it is our time for summer vacation or not. These realities do not go away just because it is time for us to kick back and relax after a hard year of working. More than ever, the church needs to be vigilant in its work to make sure people like this are taken care of throughout the year, and not just when we have time for them.

That is what Paul is trying to tell the people in Corinth. Corinth could be considered Paul’s problem child. He founded the church and for the last year he has been trying to raise money to send to the church in Jerusalem that desperately needed it. There was a lot of persecution and suffering going on in that church, not unlike today.

At first, the Corinthian church was the first to give money, but then something happened. They lost interest with a church that was so far away from them and instead became more concerned with what was going on around them. Paul is writing this letter in the hopes of inspiring the people to remember that their commitment to God is not just about the things they can see, but the things they cannot.

Faith is about that. Jesus promises us that because we have not seen and yet we believe, our reward and help will be much more than what the disciples received because our faith will be richer. It takes a lot of faith and a lot of strength to continue to support a cause when we cannot see anything good coming from it.

It’s probably why we are so willing to give generously to help out things like Vacation Bible School, but sometimes find ourselves unwilling to give as generously to a mission that does not directly affect our lives and our children’s lives. But both Paul and Jesus are quite clear that God is asking something of us that requires more than a superficial faith.

God has asked us to feed his sheep. Jesus does not say which ones when he speaks to Peter. Jesus does not tell us anything about who the sheep are except to say that we are to love everyone and to treat everyone equally. Paul says the same thing when he tells the church in Corinth that the goal is equality. Some will reap a little and others will reap a lot. But those that reap a little will have just enough as will those that reap more.

Equality is a word that has special importance to Americans, especially on holidays like the one that is coming up this week. Independence Day, where we declare our freedom from tyranny and abuse. The day where we declare all men and women equal in the eyes of the government and in the eyes of the people. This is the day where we celebrate, remember, and recognize the gifted people that set up our democratic government and those that gave their lives not just to create it, but to keep it safe for the last 250 years.

However, there is a problem that has developed in last hundred years as we seek for more and more equality for everyone. People have become so enamored with equality for all, that they have forgot about the collective. Nowhere in the Bible does God talk about the people as individuals. God is always speaking of “My People” or “My sheep”. In the United States, we say we are one people, but the divisions are many and growing.

We are divided in our ideas on politics to such a degree that the two major parties have refused to work together to benefit the good of everyone. We are divided in our finances to such a degree that there is resentment between those who have a lot and those who have a little even when the money has been earned honestly and with hard work. We are divided in our religious ideals to such a degree that new denominations and churches pop up all over the place because no one can agree on things that should not matter as much as we have made them matter.

With such divides, it seems impossible that we can create equality among the masses. How do we breach such chasms? How do we go from being separated to being united after all that has passed to cause these divisions?

Paul tells us that we must take stock of what we have done and what we are still able to do. The church in Corinth began to do great things and then they got caught up in their individuality. Paul reminds them that churches that have a whole lot less than they have given much more to the cause in Jerusalem. He says this to them, not to cause resentment or envy, but to remind them that those who give, will surely receive God’s blessing and thanks.

It’s okay to be different from the rest of the world. It’s okay to have your own agenda and ideas. Differences help to bring out the best. That is why America has always been so proud to be called a Melting Pot – we proposed that our differences did not stop us from creating a great country and it did not stop us from working together.

Until recently. In the last quarter century we have seen the divides widen and we have seen differences that used to be celebrated become scorned. We see the same things happening in our churches and in our families. Why have our hearts become so hardened to others and their thoughts, ideas, and needs? What has created this painful break that is starting to feel inevitable and unstoppable?

Jesus reminds us that we are to love one another without restrictions. Jesus wanted equality for all of us. Paul reminds us that even in our financial dealings we should give without restriction because it will create equality. Throughout the Bible we are reminded that we are to open our hearts and our homes and our churches to everyone without restriction because it will create equality.

I think the day we stopped doing these things is the day the chasm began to grow deeper. When we stopped thinking as an US and started thinking as I. It is not just the government that does this, but the church does it as well. It happened two thousand years ago and it happens today. The only way to stop it is to go back to what Jesus and Paul tell us to do. We are to love others, to give generously and to accept others so that there might be equality among us. So that there might be unity and faith and joy for all people.

I pray it is not too late for this country or for God’s church to reconcile. Instead of celebrating our differences this Independence day, let us celebrate how so many different people could create one beautiful and successful country. Instead of being concerned with what happens only in this church or our denomination, let us celebrate how the many churches lift up their voices on Sunday to sing praises to God, to love the one that loved us first by giving His life for our own. Jesus is the one that made us all equal before God, it is up to us to create equality among all people.

Amen.

Rejected

1 Samuel 8: 4-11
Mark 3: 20-35

Every one of us has experienced rejection in some form or another. That is what makes these two passages we read today so powerful. We can really relate to what is happening to each person and we can feel their pain and confusion like it was our own. The Mark text is particularly interesting because we see both an extreme acceptance as well as rejection and how Jesus deals with both are important.

Jesus enters a home with his disciples to sit down and eat a meal after a long day. They had walked many miles and helped many people. So many people, in fact, that now a large crowd has gathered outside of this home. Close your eyes and picture this.

It’s dusk and you’re sweaty and dirty and hungry. You’ve been up since dawn and you have not had a moment of rest or alone time all day long. People have clamored to be healed and to be taught, wanting more from you even as you try to give them more. You walk into this home, hoping for a moments respite to eat and wash the dust of the day from your person. Instead, as you sit down to eat this meal you hear the people gathering outside. Their voices are loud, jarring; preventing conversation from occurring inside the house. Then you hear a knock on the door and you try to ignore it, but it just gets louder as does the talking and cries for help.

Jesus’ family hears about the commotion his actions have caused in the town and they are angry and scared. They’re angry because they are worried about what Jesus’ actions will cause to happen to not just him, but to them. They are scared that the crowds will turn on Jesus and turn on them if he does not live up to their expectations. They do not understand what is driving Jesus. They do not understand what possesses him to make such a spectacle of himself in their tiny town. Talking to each other, his family decided that Jesus must not be thinking straight and so they go to tell him what he should be doing.

Mark, in two sentences, puts Jesus in an awkward position. Here in the first sentence we see a crowd of people that adore Jesus and what he has done for them, so much that he cannot even eat a meal in peace. In the very next sentence we see Jesus and his mission rejected by his own family. We have obsession from strangers and dismissal from loved ones. Jesus is in the middle of a battle and neither side offers him rest and comfort.

Jesus walks outside, ignoring the dinner he had wanted to enjoy just moments before and greets the crowd. Inside of the crowd are a group of Pharisees who believe Jesus to be casting demons out using Satan’s name. Another rejection by the very people who should recognize him as the Messiah, but are too wrapped up in their own lives and jealousy to understand the truth.

At this point, what would you have done? We all have days like this, where it appears as if the world is coming down upon our shoulders and all we want to do is take a moment to relax and instead, more is heaped upon us. If you were Jesus, would you have walked away or would you have stayed to help?

Jesus stayed. He began to teach the people in an effort to get them to see how ridiculous their argument against him truly was. He says, “How can Satan drive out Satan?” We can almost see the Pharisees thinking frantically, “If you’re possessed by a demon, you can probably get other demons to listen to you and that’s how you heal the people.” But what Jesus is saying in modern terms is if you have an infection, and you go to the doctor to be healed; does the doctor give you another infection to drive out the first one? No. The doctor gives you an antibiotic to rid your body of the poison infecting you.

But Jesus is making another point as well. If Satan drives out his own demons from people, then he is dividing his resources and therefore he will lose. Also, if Jesus is not possessed by a demon then he has truly healed the person. Jesus has neatly trapped the Pharisees in their own web of jealousy because with what Jesus says here he clearly points out that no matter if Jesus is possessed by a demon or not, Satan cannot possibly win since he would be hurting his own cause.

At this point, Jesus’ mother and brothers arrive and when someone tells him that they are there, he says that here in this crowd are his mother and brothers and sisters. He says all who do God’s will are his family. This, now, is Jesus appearing to reject his blood family and accepting his spiritual family. On the surface it seems as if Jesus rejects those who would reject him and he accepts those who accept him.

Could Jesus really reject his own family in favor of strangers who won’t even let him eat a meal in peace? How are we as Christians supposed to understand this, should we too reject our family in support of strangers?

Jesus is making a point to everyone. The ones in the story that are doing God’s will are Jesus, the disciples, and the crowd that are so hungry for God’s word that they cannot even let Jesus rest for a moment. The ones who are opposing God’s will are the Pharisees who are telling lies out of jealousy and his own family who refuse to understand what Jesus is here to do. Jesus was not rejecting their caring and concern; he was rejecting what would happen if he gave into those cares and concerns. If he listened to his family and went with them back to their home, God’s will would not be done.

Jesus refused to meet with them not because he didn’t love them, not because he didn’t appreciate their love for him; he refused because to do so would be to go against God. What Jesus is telling all of us is that he did not come to bring peace, but a sword. He did not come to live an easy and peaceful life; he came to cause strife and discord. If the people were stirred up and anxious, that meant they were thinking and feeling and living. Jesus was not after a meek and passive group of followers. He wanted people who had a passion for God’s word and a drive to hear it no matter the time or place.

The church is a place where we can either choose to be active participants and eagerly listen and watch for God’s word, or we can be passive and restrained in the way we worship and love God. Jesus may understand why his family is so upset with him, he may understand why they do not want him to do the things he is doing, but he does not let that stop him. If he let them stop him, he would be going against God. Sometimes we must choose to do the radical and crazy thing instead of the calm and rational because it is the RIGHT thing to do. Sometimes we must choose to do God’s will over humanity’s even if they think we are ‘out of our minds’ like Jesus’ family considered him to be.

As we look at our lives and at our church, which group are we in the story? There are some that would be in the group that could not leave Jesus to eat a meal in peace, but I have a feeling more of us would have been nodding and approving of his family coming to take “Jesus in hand” because that boy was out of line. I could see many of us thinking that Jesus was causing unnecessary trouble.

Christianity has evolved over the many centuries since Jesus was teaching the disciples. Religion should evolve and change and adapt to the new circumstances otherwise it would grow stale. However, I have to wonder if we have tamed and watered down our faith to such an extent that Jesus would have rejected it as he rejected his family’s good intentions. After all, many of the things we do are done with good intentions, but Jesus seems to care more about God’s will. Shouldn’t we as well?

Amen.

Made Clean

Isaiah 6: 1-8
Romans 8:12-17

The passage in Isaiah is a very well known text to most Christians. The song of Holy, Holy, Holy is used by many denominations during Communion and the hymn, “Here I am, Lord” comes from this text. It is a scripture passage that speaks of glorious things, Isaiah sees God and the Seraphim and he is so overcome with God’s holiness that he becomes completely awakened to his own uncleanly state.

There is so much raw emotion in this vision of Isaiah’s that it can be overwhelming to us readers. Here we see the need to acknowledge our sins, and we find that God has an answer to our unworthiness. We read about how Isaiah is cleansed and as soon as he is, God begins to call him to new and glorious things. With his heart now pure, Isaiah can say without subterfuge, “Here I am, send me”.

Isaiah shows us all the need to realize our guilt and sinfulness. When he has his vision of God who is so big that only the hem of his robe fills the temple, he is besieged by God’s glory. There are winged creatures flying everywhere, singing praises to God and Isaiah for the first time sees himself clearly.

 Isaiah probably considered himself to be a good person. He probably thought he was a good Jewish man who loved God and was willing to do what God commanded him. He may have even prided himself on keeping the commandments and knowing a lot about the Old Testament.  At the moment of this vision, everything Isaiah knew about himself was flipped on its head.

 Face to face with God, Isaiah knew he was not a good person. He understood for the first time that the things he had always prided himself on, were not relevant. If we are created in God’s image, Isaiah was seeing a very distorted view of who he was and who he should be. It made him cry out in pain and despair, “Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips!”

There is a seminary professor who often told his classes that he compared people to the two brothers in the Prodigal Son, the good son being the one that stayed to help his father with the farm and the bad son being the one who leaves the farm in search of adventure. At the end of the story, the prodigal comes back and is welcomed with open arms by the father, and it is the good son that stayed that watches on the periphery as the bad son is given such a warm welcome. The professor stated that it is not the people who know they are sinners that he worries about, it is people like the brother in the story who consider themselves good people and yet are not in the Father’s embrace.

There are many people who consider themselves Christians and to be fairly decent folk. They are the ones that fulfill their responsibilities, they go to work and come to church and they help others. The danger in being a person that is relatively good, is that sometimes we forget to depend on God. We forget that a sin is a sin and so even if we are not out stealing or killing people, that holding grudges, lying, and spreading gossip are also sins. Compared to what some people have done, they may seem minor and insignificant.

It is Isaiah that reminds us during this vision that he is just like us sitting in these pews. He was a good person; he was like the older brother in the story who fulfilled his responsibilities. And yet, when face to face with God, Isaiah could recognize that he was still unclean.  He is a sinner. We may not like acknowledging it and we certainly try to pretend to others that it isn’t true, but we are all sinners in this room. We have all done things that when we come face to face with God, we too will cry out, “I am a person of unclean lips!”

But God knows that. God knows us better than we know ourselves. God sees you. God knows you. There is no hiding the truth from Him. And so when we cry out our guilt and shame and remorse, when we confess our sinfulness, in that moment we are freed from it. Isaiah confessed his guilt and his people’s guilt and the Seraphim flew to him with a live coal and placed it upon his lips, making him clean.

All it takes is a confession, an acknowledgement that we are far from the perfection of God and that is when God takes mercy upon us. This is why we confess our sins within the first ten minutes of church. Once we have confessed our guilt, we are given the freedom to worship God in peace. We are free to open ourselves up to the Spirit of God so that our souls may be refreshed. We are reminded of the gift Jesus gave to us when he died for us so that our sins would be forever washed away. In those moments of confession and pardon, we go from being outside the Father’s arms to being held securely in His embrace.

For Isaiah, after his confession and cleansing he is then able to hear God clearly. Now, in that moment of righteousness, he hears God say, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Isaiah lives among a people of unclean lips, he has been cleansed but they have not. God has given a gift to Isaiah by making him righteous, and now God has called Isaiah to help the rest of his people to also be righteous.

It is not enough for just one person to be saved. God wants us all to be saved. This is the reason for all the prophets and why Jesus was constantly sending his disciples out to spread the Good News. This is why his last command before ascending to heaven was to tell the disciples to spread the Gospel to all four corners of the earth. Jesus did not sacrifice himself for just the Jews. God did not send his son for just those of us sitting in church today.

Every person is worthy of being saved. Every person has the ability to receive eternal life. Every person deserves the chance to choose God or to walk away. That means for every person saved, that is another person God will ask, “Whom shall I send? Who will go?” God tries to send us all out, but how many of us are willing to go?

Not everyone is given the task Isaiah has been given. God is not asking everyone in here to become pastors or missionaries. God is asking each of us to not hide our light, the light of the Spirit given to us on the day we said, “I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.” God is asking us to not be afraid to be different from the crowd. God is asking us to think for ourselves and to pray to Him for guidance instead of the world. God is asking us to not be meek but instead to own who we are in Christ. God is asking us to be willing to step out of our comfort zones and to stand by Him.

God wants us to love Him as he loves us. God is asking us to not be ashamed of Him or to be ashamed of being a Christian. If we are to change the way the world looks at Christianity and Christians, then it has to be through what we say and do. If we stand idly by while others call themselves Christians and then do ungodly things, we are letting God down.

I’m a Christian and I don’t hate Muslims. I’m a Christian and I don’t judge others. I’m a Christian and I try to always love others. I’m a Christian and I have gay and lesbian friends. I’m a Christian and I believe in pro-choice. I’m a Christian and I try not to be a hypocrite.

The world is tired of Christians saying they follow the bible and Jesus, and then they do the complete opposite. People are angry at our inability to see our own sinfulness. People are angry that the bible shows Jesus as loving and accepting, and yet his followers are often the most judgmental and hardheaded of people.

The only way to change the world’s perception of us is to make sure we acknowledge our sins. The only way to be different is to admit that sometimes we don’t have all the answers and that God needs to lead the way. The world will not accept us or Jesus if we cannot say, “Woe is me! I am a person of unclean lips!” because they will see we are liars. We are lying to ourselves, to them, and to God when we pretend we are better than them. God wants us to admit our faults and then move ON so that we can help others as we have been helped.

God’s calling to us all now, “Whom shall I send? Who will go?” Are you willing to give as you have received? Are you willing to bless as you have been blessed, or will you forever be a hypocrite?

Amen.

Breathing Life into Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37: 1-14
Romans 8: 22-27

Ezekiel was a prophet who had many visions given to him by the Lord. The vision we read about today is one of the more famous visions he had. There is something so eloquent and poignant about seeing a valley full of dried bones. The image speaks of death, vast devastation of a people, and it is heartbreaking.

But the vision does not end there. Suddenly, Ezekiel hears God’s voice speaking to him, asking him, “Son of man, can these bones live?” After I hear this question, my instinct is to answer it with a yes or a no. However, Ezekiel is a much wiser person and responds, “Sovereign Lord, only you alone know.”

This is humanity’s fatal flaw. We think we have the answers to life’s questions. We think we know what is coming next and so we prepare ourselves and we do things in a certain way, because we are positive in what we know. Look at how we live our lives. If we eat healthy and exercise, we are told we will live longer. If we buy the latest cars with the newest safety technology, even if we crash, we will be okay. If we get hurt in the crash, we have health insurance so that the doctor can make us better. But if the doctor doesn’t make us better we have disability insurance so that we won’t have to worry about starving on the street. If we do die, we have life insurance to help support our family when we’re gone.

For every eventuality, for every possible outcome of life, humanity has tried to find an answer. We have tried to fix the world so that it is a safer, kinder place where there is less stress and worry. That is what all these insurances and safety features and alarm systems and internet websites are all about. Information and help at the click of a button or the exchange of money. It is our attempt to answer the questions that God poses to us. “Son of man, can these dry bones live?” But Ezekiel is not like that. Ezekiel acknowledges that even though he is looking at a valley of death that he cannot stop or fix, that if God wills these bones to live, then they will live.

What God has Ezekiel do next is nothing short of silliness. God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to these dead, dry bones. There is no point to prophesy to something dead – it is long gone from this world. There are no ears to hear, there are no eyes to see, there is no brain to understand the prophesying. It is completely ridiculous for Ezekiel to go out there and begin to preach the Word of God to these dry bones.  It is a waste of time, resources, and effort.

Wait. I’ve heard these words before. I’ve said them and had them said to me. When a church wants to shoot down an idea these are the first words out of our mouths. “There is no point” “It’s a waste of time” “They won’t listen anyway” “People will hate us and ignore us or worse.” “We can’t help them without using up a lot of valuable resources.”

Since when has God ever asked a person to do something that made sense or didn’t seem like a waste of time, money, and resources? God never makes sense. God is always asking people in the bible to do crazy things and it is only when they DON’T listen that things go wrong. It is people like Jonah who thinks he knows the right answer, who thinks the people of Nineveh deserve to go to hell and so he runs from his duty and ends up in the belly of a whale. It’s people like Abraham who tells the Pharaoh that Sarah is his sister and not his wife because he’s afraid to be killed and then ends up bringing a plague on the Pharaoh’s house when God becomes angry.

Every time we ignore God’s commands, we make matters worse. This is a nice building we have here, but it is only a building. What we do inside of it, what we do outside of it is what makes it a church. We carry the Spirit of God with us and when we all walk into this church - that is when it becomes a holy place. We forget that. We forget too much about what Jesus has taught us in our effort to keep up a building when what we need to be keeping up is the world around us.

Ezekiel does not question God’s command. He begins to prophesy to those dry, dead bones. Then he watches in amazement as they begin to take on life and form. The bones connect with other bones and then muscles and sinew appear, and then flesh to cover them. But still, Ezekiel notices that there is no breath in these bones that now have flesh upon them. There is still something missing.

Most churches today are like these flesh covered bones. They have some sort of life and substance to them, but there is something missing. Why are so many churches failing? Why, when I look around at this church do I see an obvious generation gap? For as many answers as we have come up with to solve life’s problems, there is still misery in this world. There is still heartache and pain and loss. In previous generations the place to go to be relieved of that burden, even for a little while, was church. Why has that changed? Why have we allowed that to change?

Our church is luckier than a lot of other churches. I use the word luck on purpose. Our most faithful members are getting older, our most dedicated committee members are getting older and are ready to put down the reigns. In the last fifty years we have been lucky enough to have someone to step up and take those reigns when it was needed. But as I look around this church, I wonder how long that can last without new people. How long can a church go on without new blood, new life to make this building into a sacred place?

Ezekiel noticed something was missing from those flesh covered bones. He looks to the Lord and the Lord tells him to prophesy again, this time to the wind that will breathe on these bones and bring them back to full life. And so he does and sure enough, there stood a vast army of people, no longer dry and dusty bones.

Often in the Old Testament, the Spirit of God is referred to as wind, breath, or wisdom. What was missing from those bones was the Spirit of God, the very breath that God breathed into Adam when he created him at the beginning. And so God tells Ezekiel to prophesy and God would bring life and spirit back into those dry bones.

Then God explains exactly what this vision is all about to Ezekiel. These dry bones are the people of Israel who have long been dead because they are without God’s Spirit, but God is about to change all of that. He is about to bring them back to life, to save them and give them what they have been missing.

I think what is missing from the churches of today is God’s Spirit. We talk about the Holy Spirit, we mention her briefly here and there but we do not take much notice of what the Spirit is doing. We do not look around at the church and wonder where new possibilities could be created. We do not look at the people around us in church and ask, “How has their week gone?” We do not open our eyes to the problems that exist outside of these walls, problems we could help alleviate. Instead, we have made church all about us.

Jesus never intended Christianity to revolve around individuals or a building. This is a manmade invention. God has been generous enough to bless many of the things we attempt to do, but obviously the church is failing. The worldwide church has faltered in Western cities and towns. People do not care about going to worship. They do not care about God on Sunday or any other day of the week. People do not know what Jesus has done for them.

Whose fault is that? We tend to place all the blame for big things on God, but it is not that simple and never has been. It is time we step up to the plate; it is time to take responsibility for our actions, or rather our non-action. We have let society down as we became too involved in finding answers instead of asking questions. We need to be more like Ezekiel who looks to God and says, “Lord God, only you know.” And then when God gives him a task – Ezekiel does it. He does it without searching for another answer. He does it without wondering about time, money, and resources. He listens, he hears, he obeys.

This is something the church has long failed at. It is time to change.

Amen.