text :: Psalm 104:24-35

theme verse :: “O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. (Ps 104:24)

Who’s caring for what and how is it to be cared for? The Psalmist names creation’s utter dependence of God to be the provider. But we are not off the hook. After creating humans, God charges them to tend and till the earth. How can we re-present the deep care of God for creation?

anthem :: 'The Majesty & Glory of Your Name' (H.Fettke) : Chancel Choir; Kelly Ford, director

reader :: Roy Peters
preaching :: Rev Courtney Richards

special music :: 'So Will I' (Hillsong) : The Rising Band; Andi Gross, lead vocal

offertory :: 'Idyll of Praise' (C.Courtney) : Kelly Ford, vocal; Susie Monger Daugherty, organ

Psalm 104: 24 – 35
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
    In wisdom you have made them all;
    the earth is full of your creatures.
25 Yonder is the sea, great and wide,
    creeping things innumerable are there,
    living things both small and great.
26 There go the ships,
    and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.

27 These all look to you
    to give them their food in due season;
28 when you give to them, they gather it up;
    when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
    when you take away their breath, they die
    and return to their dust.
30 When you send forth your spirit,[a] they are created;
    and you renew the face of the ground.

31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
    may the Lord rejoice in his works—
32 who looks on the earth and it trembles,
    who touches the mountains and they smoke.
33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
    I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
    for I rejoice in the Lord.
35 Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
    and let the wicked be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord!

It was a science story made for the headlines: a monster, more than a thousand years of mystery and maybe, finally, an answer.

Neil Gemmell had that potential for publicity in mind when he led a team of scientists to look for DNA from the elusive Loch Ness Monster — and again when that team announced Thursday that a large eel could be behind all the speculation. 

“I am unashamedly using the monster as a way to attract interest so I can talk about the science I want to talk about,” the geneticist and professor [said].

More than a thousand Loch Ness Monster encounters are recorded in an official “Sightings Register.” The reports go back as far as 565 A.D., when an Irish saint is said to have saved a man from being attacked by a river monster. …

In fact, after Gemmell’s announcement landed, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he “yearns to believe” in the Loch Ness Monster, according to PA Media, which reported Friday:

The Prime Minister said he had wanted the mythical creature to be real when he was child, adding “part of me still does.”…

Gemmell and his colleagues say they can use science to rule out some of the ideas after analyzing DNA in 250 water samples from Loch Ness. …

“The remaining theory that we cannot refute based on the environmental DNA data obtained is that what people are seeing is a very large eel,” the team wrote on its website explaining the findings.

It’s still unclear, the scientists said, whether the loch contains an eel big enough to account for descriptions of a monster. …

Gemmell is not sure he will be involved in any further investigation to back up the eel hypothesis. He said he’s achieved what he wanted with a project that’s captured the public imagination like no other study he’s published. Last year, he said, the scientists’ work at Loch Ness generated about 3,000 media stories within a few weeks — before they had made a single finding.

At first, Gemmell said, he worried that an exhaustive investigation into Loch Ness was silly.

But then he talked to his 9-year-old son, who told his friends, who thought the project sounded awesome. After seeing the children’s fascination, Gemmell realized that taking a serious scientific look at the famous loch could stir up public interest in techniques to track biodiversity.

Gemmell’s team took advantage of “environmental DNA,” the genetic material that creatures leave in their surroundings. This “eDNA” lets scientists learn about habitats without disrupting them and harming the animals they’re trying to study…

The strategy will “make a real difference in how we monitor and protect the world’s increasingly fragile ecosystems,” they write.

A Travel Channel documentary on the team’s work airing in Britain and the United States later this month will bring the project to an even broader audience.

“Loch Ness attracts people in a way that few other things ever could,” Gemmell said.[1]

We are almost comically eager to find proof of power and wonder in the world, aren’t we? We are ever so hopeful for something to see, something to hang onto. Especially as life feels more chaotic – though, truth be told, it always has been, just differently – we long for that which can settle us, calm us, give us rootedness and strength – in our spirits, in our families, in our communities, in the world.

News flash, says the psalmist: Look around. Look around! (And all the HamiltonHeads are singing ‘How lucky we are to be alive right now!’)(Which is true!)

Psalm 104 opens – and closes – blessing God for … being who God is. The psalmist looks around and simply recites what he sees as evidence of the wonder of God at work in the world:

• the heavens; the waters; the clouds; the winds; fire and flame
• water (again); mountains; valleys; springs
• wild animals; streams; birds; grass; cattle; plants
• food and wine, coming from those things; oil and bread; trees
• birds (again); mountains (again); goats; the moon; the sun
• seasons; darkness; lions; annnnnnd: people.

And then, just in our verses for today, we get to:

• manifold works; wise making; a creature-full earth; the great and wide sea
• innumerable creeping things; things small and great
• ships; Leviathan
• food in season; given and gathered; breath that fills all; spirit that creates and renews
• enduring glory; trembling earth; smoking mountains
• singing of praise; pleasing meditation; dissolving of opposition

and ending, as it began, with blessing the Lord.

The psalmist’s point is this: We need only to look at what’s right here around us to know that GOD is around us, in us, beside us: creating, filling, empowering, renewing.

We’re looking for evidence of who God is? We have it.

Present. Powerful. Absolutely steady. And yet still somehow always moving.

What we see of the natural created world – the power of wind, the persistence of water, the sustenance of roots, the vastness of sky, the color of wildflowers, the grandeur of mountains, the wideness of plains – is what we see in God: the power of forgiveness, the persistence of grace, the sustenance of compassion, the vastness of possibility, the color of diverse gifts, the grandeur of overcoming death, the wideness of mercy.

All we need to know of God, we see in the created order. And that includes the human part of the world. We are listed among the psalm’s elements within creation, that which reveals the Creator. But very intentionally, I think, AMONG it … not ahead of it, not over it, not set apart from it. Among creation is humanity.

What we see in each other can show us the face of God as well.

My dear friend Bill Stagg died Friday night. A life lived at greater speed, with more heart, and deeper love than any dozen people I know, the last few years of Bill’s life were in the mountains of Colorado.

I met Bill and Kim years ago when I lived in Indianapolis.  In a long chain of one friend who introduced a friend who brought another friend who found yet another for the circle, Bill and Kim – and it is always Bill-and-Kim – were hosting a house concert the night we met. Fans of live music, especially blues and guitar, Bill and Kim gathered friends, who gathered friends, who rolled up living room rugs and opened up back yards, who brought snacks and iced beverages and were all immediately the dearest of friends, and felt like family, because loving people well means doing everything you can to get them together and to help them do the things they love most and be the people they’re made to be. I met them that night and we had already been dearest friends for our entire lives.

Recently retired from a decades-long career in the national offices of the FFA, Bill and his beloved Kimberley found a beautiful place in Ridgway, with a porch for gathering, and a view for cherishing, and trails for wandering, all while music would play. The last year of Bill’s life, esophageal cancer wracked his body, but never his spirit. Even with surgeries and feeding tubes and fistulas and emergencies and uncertainties and setbacks and months in the hospital and few days at home and small improvements and returning troubles, Bill’s spirit remained strong, his friends remained close, music remained central, and love carried him til the last, and carries those of us who loved him, still.

Who is your Bill Stagg? Who sees you as theirs?

What we see of the natural created world is what we see in God. What we see in each other shows us the face of God as well.

How are we gathering people in?

What do we say, by what we do, about who God is, and who God loves?

How are we welcoming those who come to us? Are we making room, getting the music going, seeing that there’s enough to go around, making every effort to help folks meet each other, and rejoicing when they back the next time?

What do we say, by who we include, about who God is, and who God loves?

Do we show others what it means to be outspoken, courageous and hopeful?

What do we say, by what we say, about who God is, and what God loves?

As the natural created order does for us, are we – creatures ourselves, part of the created order – are we revealing the Creator to all who stop to look around? What do we say, how far do we go, to reveal the wideness, the wildness, and the wonder of who and how and what God is, and what God loves?

Scholar of the Hebrew Scriptures, and professor to generations of preachers, Walter Brueggemann points out that in this psalm, the name of God is almost entirely absent. The Holy One is addressed in the opening and closing lines, but aside from that, the weight of the text celebrates the “order, symmetry, and majesty of creation” – it reminds us of what we learn of the Creator when we experience the Creation.

In this poetic recitation, as the elements of nature are paired with the nature of God, we see that “the whole world is daily dependent on God’s sustenance, God’s face, God’s presence, God’s breath. The world is impressive and to be celebrated. But it has no independent existence. … All of that is daily gift.”

When we remember this – when we remember how well God has provided for us in the world, and how the promises of God’s provision are as full as the sea and as wide as the heavens – we, with the psalmist, are “moved to spontaneous wonder, gratitude, and praise.” This psalm reminds us that these gifts are daily, moment by moment, for us, from the gracious hand of the Holy. This psalm reminds us to take “a personal delight in God’s goodness.”[2]

The idea here isn’t to say that God is pulling every lever and turning every dial. Instead the intent is to root ourselves in knowledge of the Creator … not just knowing about the Creator, but everything that exists – including nature, including other people, including us – is our way of knowing, being in relationship with, caring about, being cared for by the One Who Creates and sets in motion everything in the world, from the smallest to the largest detail.

It is easy, in the busy-ness and strain of day to day life – waiting for test results, praying over strained relationships, making hard decisions about care-giving, or being in a position where someone else is making decisions for you, parenting young children, parenting adult children, choosing as best we can for health and finances and futures, and doing it all amid political chaos, social instability, and flat-out dangerous days – it is easy to retreat, to close our eyes, to harden our hearts, to numb our spirits … to see and feel and do less and less for fear that things are only going from bad to worse.

This psalm says otherwise. And this psalm says that the world shows us otherwise. IF WE WILL SEE IT.

The psalmist does! “The fundamental aim [of the psalm] to give thanks and praise is never lost because it is both the beginning and ending word (‘Bless the Lord, O my soul’).”[3] (41)

When we care for the earth with simple recycling, gardening, planting trees, and paying attention to how we spend and what we consume … we are honoring the Creator and saying that we know our place is among the created order, not on top of it.

When we take Kevin’s suggestion from last week and take a hike … or just simply go outside and look around, look up, look out, instead of always only staying in and looking down … when we take the advice of the National Park Service when they say that nature makes you smarter, stronger, healthier, happier, and more productive[4] … we are connecting one on one with the very earth that sustains us. When we take someone with us, the benefits more than double.

When we show our respect for a place, and for the people in it …

when we park farther away so that someone who needs the shorter walk can have the closer spot …

when we arrive a few minutes early and stay a few minutes late so we have a full experience and not just the bare minimum …

when we hold a tray to serve, instead of simply passing a tray to move it along …

when we make a pledge and bring an offering, and consider it an act of worship and not just a financial obligation …

when we ask ‘how are you’ and take a moment to really listen to an honest response …

we are adoring the Creator and tending to the very soul of the human creation.

“In [the middle of our text today] the Hebrew verbs are in what scholars call ‘the imperfect form’. This implies action that is not yet complete. … creation is not just an ‘event’ of the distant past. It is something that goes on even now. In the words of this psalm God continues to bring creation to fullness through sustaining it, providing for it and enjoying it. In our own life-building activities, our ‘mission’ in Christian terms, whether it be in creating opportunities for life-giving experiences or in opposing wickedness and evil where we find it, we participate in God’s ongoing creative activity.”[5]

When we hear the oceans crash, or stand in awe of surprising stillness, we remember God’s power.

When we make use of the gifts we’ve been given, we remember our own.

When we see the colors of a sunrise, we are in awe of God’s handiwork.

When we offer and receive the gentle gifts of listening and caring, we remember that we are artists too.

When we study the words of scripture and recall the stories of faith, we are reminded of God’s work in the world, and in people, in all times, toward God’s purpose.

When we not only welcome but encourage and celebrate the gifts, wonder, and full participation of young and old, women and men, gay and straight, able and challenged, like us and not like us, the questioning and the confident, we are doing the work of God in the world.

O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
The earth is full of your creatures.

These all look to you to give them their food in due season;
When you give to them, they gather it up;
When you open your hand, they are filled with good things.

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing my praise to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
For I rejoice in the Lord.

Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord!

[1] “The Loch Ness Monster is still a mystery. But scientists have some new evidence for a theory.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/09/06/loch-ness-monster-is-still-mystery-scientists-have-some-new-evidence-theory/
[2] Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary, p31-32
[3] Patrick D Miller Jr, Interpreting the Psalms, p41
[4] “Nature Makes You…” https://www.nps.gov/articles/naturesbenefits.htm?fbclid=IwAR3lqxbS77jtkmuVd66TwvVr1NPIKuibqFm3ln7BjNVH18U7z7Ofnbs0vYc
[5] Year C: Day of Pentecost, May 19, 2013, Psalm 104:24-34, 35b – http://hwallace.unitingchurch.org.au/WebOTcomments/EasterC/PentecostPsalm.html

text :: Luke 9: 10 - 17

theme verse :: “And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.” (Lk 9:16)

Our denomination’s General Minister and President, Rev Terri Hord Owens, recently said: "We can read our sacred text, we can pray our prayers, but unless we’re going to show up for humanity no one believes us." What would it look like – in Tulsa, in Oklahoma, in the nation and the world – if we really were to become who God has created and called and compels us to be? What might happen if we become the body of Christ?

anthem :: 'This Is The Day That The Lord Has Made' (M.Hayes) : Chancel Choir; Barry Epperley, guest director

reader :: Bill Queen
preaching :: Rev Courtney Richards

special music :: 'The Church' (Elevation Worship) : The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader

*NOTE* A brief video is shown toward the end of the sermon. You will hear the audio as you listen to the podcast here, but trust us: **you will want to watch it**. The video is embedded in the transcript below.

Luke 9: 10 – 17
On their return the apostles told Jesus^[c] all they had done. He took them with him and withdrew privately to a city called Bethsaida. ¹¹ When the crowds found out about it, they followed him; and he welcomed them, and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed to be cured.

¹² The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a deserted place.” ¹³ But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” ¹⁴ For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” ¹⁵ They did so and made them all sit down. ¹⁶ And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. ¹⁷ And all ate and were filled. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.

Tristram Stuart turns leftover bread into beer. Robert Egger ran nightclubs and restaurants. For the last decade in the UK, and for the last 5 years in the U.S., they have inspired a movement to do something about two problems that shouldn’t exist at the same time: Literal tons of food being thrown away by restaurants and stores nationwide, and literal thousands of people not having meals from one day to the next.

Called Feeding the 5,000, these events came out of Stuart’s organization, called Feedback. This British nonprofit “campaigns against food waste by presenting boisterous eat-ins sourced entirely from food that would otherwise have gone to waste.” On a Tuesday in New York City’s Union Square, guests enjoyed a lunch of ratatouille, fruit and vegetable salads, and a torte. A very very New York City lunch, wouldn’t you agree?

“As the local chefs who’d prepared the meals mingled among the crowd, a steady stream of businesspeople, neighborhood residents, students, and the homeless accepted pre-filled compostable bowls from volunteers. They ate, standing, as they listened to speakers and watched culinary demonstrations.”[1]

According to the Rockefeller Foundation, just in the United States, 63 million tons of food goes to waste each year. That’s $218 billion spent on growing, processing, transporting, and disposing of food that is never eaten…. [In developing countries,] food loss occurs primarily on farms and as produce travels to markets. In the US, 83 percent of all food waste occurs in homes or at consumer-facing businesses, such as grocery stores, hotels, and restaurants.”[2]

More than 1/3 of all food worldwide goes unused. Meanwhile, 805 million people are chronically undernourished.[3] So now, groups like Feedback, D.C. and L.A.’s Central Kitchens, and dozens more nationwide are asking, in servings of 10s and 100s and 1000s, ‘What if we gathered up the broken pieces and they became the feast?’

In one of the most widely told stories from the New Testament – known and used in ways reaching far beyond the Bible and the church itself – we find another group gathered, another feast, another collecting of leftovers.

The only miracle told in all four gospels – and told twice in Matthew and Mark, once with 5000 in the crowd, once with 4000 – the ‘Feeding of the 5000’ is a landmark on the gospel journey. It was for the disciples. It was for those around them. It should be for us.

How did we end up with such a miraculous dinner party? There had been a storm; Jesus calmed it, while the disciples went from terror to amazement. There was a man possessed with demons; Jesus drove this legion into a herd of swine and right off a cliff. A synagogue leader begged Jesus to come see his daughter who was dying … on the way, a woman was healed from a lifelong malady, simply by touching Jesus’ garment … and when Jesus arrived at the bedside of the girl, even having been told that she’d died, Jesus said she was not dead, only sleeping – and he was right!

And what does Jesus say next, to the disciples? “Alright. Over to you!”

Waaait a minute. What now?

You heard me, he says. Go. Take nothing for your journey – no tunic, no provisions, just go and do what there is to do. If you find you’re not welcomed somewhere, move along. But get going. Nope, go on. Everything will be provided. You’ll be taken care of. It’ll be fine. Go on. You’ll be fine.

And they did! ‘They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.’ (Lk 9:6) Just like Jesus said.

At which point Herod … has some questions. “Who is this about whom I hear such things?” (Lk 9:9)

That’s the question we still get about Jesus, isn’t it? Who IS this?

And Luke answers that question by telling of a miracle. You want to know who he is? Here: 5 loaves, 2 fish, 5000 fed, 12 baskets left over. That’s who he is. {mic drop}

So what exactly is the miracle?

• Is it a miracle of multiplication: that in Jesus’ hands, these meager few items become food well beyond what should have been possible?
• Is it a miracle of lovingkindness: that having heard Jesus preach love of neighbor and healing for the sick, people were inspired to share what they had?
• Is it all of that, some of that, none of that at all? Is ‘miracle’ something we can closely and specifically define, or something to leave more open-ended, more expansive in definition?

And what if, in our effort to peek behind the curtain and see how the miracle happens, we miss our cue entirely? When it’s our turn to play our part, do we even recognize it?

In the desert middle of nowhere, even in their effort to get away with their teacher for a little respite after their own teaching and healing moments, crowds have followed. Dinnertime comes and there they still are. The disciples suggest to the boss that he shut things down for the day, send folks home to find dinner; this meal isn’t in their travel budget. But Jesus is unphased here: YOU give them something to eat.

And like one of those crazy kitchen challenges on The Food Network, the disciples are pretty sure they’re out of luck – 5 loaves, 2 fish, 5000 men, not counting women and children. That seems like food math even the Iron Chefs are going to have trouble with.

But Jesus gives instruction: Have them sit down.

And Jesus gives an object lesson: He takes the loaves and fish, blesses them, breaks them, and gives them to the disciples, who give them to the crowds.

And they collect 12 baskets of what is left over.

And that is how we get from the storms, the healings, the sending of the disciples, and Herod’s “who the heck is this?” question … to the thing that happens just after this in Luke: Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah of God. We get there when we see Jesus as the one who makes a way where there seemed to be no way. We get there when we see Jesus see those who are in need of food, sustenance, healing. We get there when we see Jesus turn to those around him and send them to do work he knows they can do. We get there when we see Jesus bring a miracle into being by simply saying ‘Here it is. Here is what you need.’

To take those disciples, those who he’d just empowered to be teachers and healers, and to say, your job is also to SERVE, is important.

To take the things they came with – their bread, their fish, and their hands – gather them up, and send them back out, is important.

To see that ‘all ate and were filled’ AND that the remnants were gathered, is important.

Like the stories they had known from childhood, of how God brings miracles to deserted people and places:

• Like the manna in the wilderness – a story of identity as God’s beloved, and a moment of God’s great provision where need was seen, and met, and all ate and were filled …
• Like Elisha feeding a hundred – with far less bread on hand than would have been reasonable, by gathering it, naming God’s blessing over it, giving it to the people, who ate and were filled …
• Like the story that will come later in this gospel, where Jesus takes bread that’s there on the table, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them …
• Like the story that will come later still, where travelers on the road to Emmaus recognize the stranger who joins them because he accepts their invitation to dinner, and as they sit down he takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and shares it with them …

That is how we know who Jesus is.[4]
And it is how we know who he wants us to be.

It’s who he knows we can become.

We are sent as we are, with what we have.

This last month, in this first step of our inBEtween, we’ve rediscovered and recommitted to our core values, what it means to Be Loved, Believe, and Become at Harvard Avenue.

• In the inBEtween, we remember what does not change, who we still are, following the model of the earliest church: gather for the apostles’ teaching, for fellowship, for the breaking of bread, for prayer.
• In the inBEtween, we ask what it might look like to be who we say we are, what it looks like to love God, love our neighbors, as we love ourselves.
• In the inBEtween, we invest in, spend time with, and live in a way that says we don’t just believe the good news, we believe in it.
• And in the inBEtween, we are invited into the miracles Jesus can still do, the way he can still make, the needs he can still meet, and we claim our part in becoming who he needs us to be.

This miracle story – this event that is remembered in every gospel, and in two of them more than once! – is situated here in Luke between Herod’s question (who is this I’m hearing about?) and Peter’s confession (you are the Messiah). It answers the question, and leads to the confession: We know who we are when we are with Jesus. We know who we are when he takes what is there, invites everyone to gather around, and meets every need. We know who we are when we hear him say ‘YOU do it. YOU go.’, and we become more of who we are every time we are doing our part.

Robert Egger, our food recovery expert from earlier? Asked what his end game is, what his goal is in this Feeding the 5000 partnership, said: “I’d love for people to see that, as bad a food waste is, we shouldn’t be wasting people; in prison, on the streets, or locked out because they are old. I’d like to use the food we have to help people see that, if you look past that bruise, that blemish, those scars we all carry, then what might be revealed is a world in which all people have a role, a value, and something to contribute. In our kitchen all food has power and all people have potential. We just try to reveal both, to as many as possible, every single day.”[5]

Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King, and CEO of the The King Center honoring their legacy, said this week:
Another daughter, whose name I don’t know, but whose efforts this week preached a whole entire sermon in just under two minutes … well, you’ve just got to let her efforts speak for herself[6] …

So there is the gospel, yes?

• First of all, you have what you need. (And if what you need is a blue cape, then by all means…)
• Then, follow the teacher’s instructions. Sometimes very very closely. And sometimes you will need otra vez, another time, one more time, another try.
• Accept help. Ayuda, ayuda. Help will come.
• Surround yourself with people who will encourage you, love you, call you by name (mi vida!, he calls her. My life!), even picking you up and moving your closer to your goal.
• And when it comes down to it, do what you can, with what you have, to get to where you need to be.

Whether it’s loaves and fishes … or tae kwon do boards … or bruised produce and gathered leftovers … or watercolor name tags on a church prayer wall … or saying yes to important work of searching for, and waiting for, a new Lead Pastor … or bringing school supplies and giving high fives … or advocating for change … or working for justice … or giving careful eye to the details of church finance or building maintenance or welcome and hospitality or anything else in all the world …

When Jesus gathers it, and blesses it, miracles happen.

That’s who Jesus is.

That’s how those who follow him on the way are emboldened to become.

But … this is all we have, Jesus.
Okay then. ‘You give them something to eat.’

[1] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/05/160510-food-waste-new-york-feeding-5000-chefs/
[2] https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/blog/refed-the-roadmap-to-reduce-us-food-waste/
[3] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/05/160510-food-waste-new-york-feeding-5000-chefs/
[4] For the text analysis woven here, I am indebted to the exegetical work of : Amy-Jill Levine, Jewish Annotated New Testament p 119; Jane Schaberg, Women’s Bible Commentary p739-745; and R. Alan Culpepper, New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary p19
[5] https://civileats.com/2017/07/31/more-than-a-meal-how-feeding-the-5000-prompts-big-picture-change/
[6] https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1164218125740646402?s=20

text :: Matthew 22: 34 - 40

theme verse :: “’Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’” (Mt 22:36)

Jesus says that those who follow him will love God and love their neighbor. Frederick Buechner reminds us that ‘Jesus doesn’t mean loving as primarily a feeling. Instead, he seems to mean {it} whether or not any feeling is involved…’ How do we love? And who? And how? And why? And what if we don’t want to? Let’s see if we can start to figure it out by following the one teaching on which all others are based: Love.

special music :: 'Open Up' (The Brilliance) : The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader

anthem :: 'Precious Lord, Take My Hand' : Avenue a capella ensemble; Barry Epperley, director

reader :: Jamie Jones
preaching :: Rev Courtney Richards

offertory :: 'Love the Lord Your God' : Derek Marshall, vocal; Susie Monger-Daugherty, piano

Matthew 22: 34 – 40
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Earlier this year, it was named the readers’ choice best new attraction nationwide by USA Today. In a recent travel feature, National Geographic featured it as one of 12 ‘mind-bending playgrounds’ around the world. But for Tulsans, the Gathering Place is one of our new favorite places to hang out. For a preacher, it’s a great place to wander around and collect some thoughts, sit and people-watch, and maybe even curl up and write.

(Now, this preacher learned from another preacher that it’s probably wise to, you know, avoid the Slide Vale. So the Boathouse rocking chairs, a short walk, and the big soft seats on the dock of Peggy’s Pond, made for a great Friday afternoon.)

In just a couple of hours, I heard at least four languages spoken, saw humanity of countless colors of ‘flesh tone’, and several varieties of national and religious dress. From pretty brand new infants to octogenarians and more. Some folks were clearly there for the first time, including one woman who was walking around showing the park to someone else, and both of them exclaiming at its wideness and beauty – all via FaceTime call.

There was a group of kids who were very obviously not first-timers, nor did they care to wait for the parents who had the nerve to stroll, and to have conversations. Strollers, wheelchairs, running, walking, holding hands, weaving through crowds.

I watched the watercraft for a while. It was right in the sightline, and part of why I chose that corner perch. But there were people everywhere: at the boathouse and the bridge, in the lodge and the loungechairs, waiting for coffee and ice cream, unloading blankets and bags to stay for a while, and showing up in business clothes to meet a colleague or take a walk after work. There were folks like me, hanging out solo, and there was what appeared to be one family of about a dozen or so, divvied up into kayaks and canoes and paddleboats.

As I was heading up the stairs, this group, all obviously together, were heading down. I heard a girl’s voice say ‘Um. I don’t think this is a good idea, really. I don’t think I should be in a boat.’ Next thing I know, I see them! I assume dad with daughters, probably 8 and 10 or so, both with bright red hair. Dad at the back, paddle in hand; daughter at the front, also ready to paddle. Daughter in the middle? She had made it her job to wave and shout to the rest of the family who gathered on the bridge to wave and shout back as they passed … and then ran to the other side of the bridge to see them emerge. So, maybe she should be in a boat after all.

Just behind them, three boys – brothers? cousins? friends? – set out at a good clip. Apparently you can train for a race on this little stretch of enclosed channel. Or so it seemed. What you evidently cannot prepare for is getting that sucker back into the slip when you return … watching them heading back for the dock, not drifting in so as to control the turn, but comin’ in hot like they were being pursued by the Coast Guard, bang straight into the side, and then have to shimmy and scoot to get the thing angled and into the return channel was absolutely as hilarious as you’d think. They, however, weren’t laughing. I mean, they weren’t mad or anything. They were sort of … unphased. Apparently when you’re 14, that’s … how you park a canoe. What do I know.

Later, from a seat nearer the water, at the other end of the canoe/kayak/paddleboat zone, I watched two boys figure out that it works better if you’re both getting your paddle into the water at the same time. There was some clacking of crossed oars, and then some counting (1 … 2 … ) and then some progress! Another couple had either worked out a deal in advance or just had a natural rhythm in their division of labor … as they first passed, he was in back, keeping a nice steady row while she took pictures from the front of the boat. By the time they’d circled back around, she was rowing at the front, and he was, I kid you not, lounged all the way down, hands behind his head, a man of leisure.

And all the while, in the background are conversations. And laughter. And people walking by. And sounds of Mist Mountain water cannons pumping, and the percussion garden ringing out.

So why all this waxing idyllic about a multi-million-dollar, hundred-acre city park? It’s caused its share of grousing in the community, to be sure. And there are things to keep in mind about the land it’s built on – as there is for all of Tulsa, if we’re honest. I’m aware of all of that, and not so naïve as to ignore it.

At the same time, here’s what I’ve seen, the half-dozen or so times that I’ve been there in the last year: The best thing about the Gathering Place, the thing I love the most, is that it IS what it SAYS it is: it IS a gathering place.

And since part of the preacher’s task is to name the sacred in the ordinary, to point up the places where what we say we believe becomes what we’re actually called to do, here’s my question

What does it look like when the church … no, not when the church looks like The Gathering Place … but when the CHURCH is what it says it is. And if WE are the church, together … Well then:

Church, right here, on this first stop in this inBEtween sermon series, what would it look like if we said that when you come here, to Harvard Avenue, where we say our first core value is Be Loved … what does it look like when that really is the case? That the first thing that happens here is that you. are. loved.

What does it look like to be who we say we are?

In these few short verses we’ve heard today – included in various forms in Matthew, Mark, AND Luke – we get Jesus, answering what’s set out as a trick question, with the least tricky response he could give: He gives them an answer they already knew.

Here’s something that is entirely obvious when you look at it, but which I couldn’t have tied up this neatly until I saw it in my reading this week:

Earlier in the gospel of Matthew, when Jesus’s words are recorded in a series of teachings and instructions … the audience is the disciples, the crowds, those who’ve gathered.

Here, in these later chapters though, in this last week in Jerusalem, Jesus is teaching and instructing in answer to questions and challenges from those who would test him, to try to trip him up and bring him down.

So here they are, crafting what could be a real mind-bender. Knowing that all 613 points of ‘the law’ are held sacred, as a whole, in Jewish understanding, the question came: Which commandment in the law is the greatest?  Do you answer, ‘Well, all of them!’ and leave the faithful without a priority, a place to begin measuring faithfulness? Or do you say, ‘This one is most important.’, and leave it wide open to ignore the other ‘less important’ ones? A-ha! Gotcha Jesus!

But, you’ll not be surprised to know, Jesus is no fool.

He recites the Shema. Found in Deuteronomy, one of the books of law, of Torah, the word shema means ‘hear’ or ‘listen’. It is the verse from the Torah that every Jew would have known first, and best: Shema, Yisrael. / Hear O Israel. The Lord Your God is one. Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Recited by every faithful Jew of every age, to begin and to close every day, this is the verse, the commandment, that Jesus names as the greatest.[1]

And then he says another is like it: Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

And then he says that every other law, every other word from any prophet, is rooted there.

So, after that nice story about a day at the Gathering Place, and this clear instruction from Jesus about what’s most important: Why isn’t that the end of the sermon? Why is there more?

Well, Church … for that is who and what we are, right? … it would seem there’s something we’re missing. We are to love God, love our neighbors, love ourselves. Everything else flows from there.

How do we love God? We come to church, you say. We are the church, the preacher says. As a nine-year-old in my life has recently started to thoughtfully intone, with just the right tilt of her head: “True.”

Jesus says the greatest commandment is that we are to love God, in all the ways we can, to the absolute core of who we are. In the shema, this is with heart, soul, and strength. In Matthew’s telling, Jesus changes it to heart, soul, and mind. (In other versions, all four words are in there at once.) Whatever three, or four, words are there, the meaning is the same: All that we are comes from God, and all we are should be turned to God, turned into love.

Maybe what we’re missing is attention. Paying attention. When we come to worship, we may think we’re sitting and absorbing, but think about this … In various combinations, depending on the elements of worship and the capacities of the individual, all of who you are is eventually involved:

You come in and go out. You stand up and sit down. You talk and listen. You sing and hear others sing and play. You read and are read to. We pray together and you are prayed for. You see images, art, architecture, surroundings, other people. You come forward to take – to taste – bread and cup, or hold a tray to serve someone else. You add to a collection of prayers, tithes, and offerings.

And none of that even includes holding a door open, saying hello, pouring coffee, shaking a hand, studying a scripture, listening to a Sunday School teacher, asking a question, teaching a child, making a phone call, visiting a hospital, preparing a meal. Loving God with all we are. Maybe what we’ve let slide is that when we say at Harvard Avenue, when we say you will Be Loved, we mean that we will be here to do it. We will come to worship. We will be here. Not just in the room, but in the moment. We will not just attend worship, but attend to it.

Then Jesus immediately turns to say the 2^nd is ‘like’ the first: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. ‘LIKE’ means that it is of equal importance and inseparable from the first. … One cannot first love God and then, as a second task, love one’s neighbor. To love God is to love one’s neighbor, and vice versa.[2]

It is, as one of my colleagues pointed out this week in our bible study, really rude how scripture we know so well comes back around to get us at the most inconvenient times.

Here we are, in the midst of a ridiculously aggressive and divisive moment in social history, studying a text that says clearly and unequivocally that we are to love our neighbor. It does not say that we are to love those we like. Who agree with us politically. Who practice our religion, or practice it our way. Who express themselves in wardrobe or in sexuality or in relationship only in ways we’re comfortable with. Jesus does not say that we are to love those who have been fully vetted and screened and checked and approved and social media tested.

No. The second commandment, which is like the first – the second commandment, which is inseparable from the first one – is to just love our neighbor. That is soooo harrrd. It gets every single one of us, doesn’t it? Every one of us.

As writer, professor, and speaker Sarah Dylan Breuer has said,

In the first-century Mediterranean world, “love” was not a vague warm feeling toward someone, but a pattern of action — attachment to a person backed up with behavior. …

Despite the frequency with which people turn to Jesus to find out to whom they’re NOT obligated, which people under which circumstances are out of the reach of God’s love and therefore are beyond the call of God’s people to ministry, Jesus’ call will compel each one of his followers to take the fullest extent of God’s love to the furthest reach of that love, to every person whom God made.[3]

Though she’s been on the music scene for nearly a decade, in the last couple of years, the singer, rapper, classically trained flute player, and actress Lizzo has become a force to be reckoned with. As a plus-sized black woman in a society, and an industry, that is often incredibly hard on someone in any of those three groups, Lizzo sees her art, and her message of self-acceptance, body positivity, and empowerment deeply intertwined. (Preacher’s Note: Not all of her lyrics are family- or work-safe.)

I recently saw a quote from Lizzo that speaks right into the third part that we’re sometimes missing: what it means to love yourself.

I don’t think that loving yourself is a choice. I think that it’s a decision that has to be made for survival; it was in my case. Loving myself was the result of answering two things: Do you want to live? ‘cause this is who you’re gonna be for the rest of your life. Or are you gonna just have a life of emptiness, self-hatred and self-loathing? And I chose to live, so I had to accept myself.[4]

For Jesus to say Love your neighbor as you love yourself is to assume that we love ourselves. That we would not say things to or about ourselves that we would not allow another to say to or about someone we love. That we understand that when we say ‘For God so loved the world…’ that not only means everyone else – which it does mean, every. one. else. – but it also means US. And not that God us loves us MORE, but that God loves us ALL. And so we love ourselves.

We love God. We love our neighbor. As we love ourselves.
And, as Jesus says, everything else flows from there.

It is probably both the easiest and the hardest of the commandments, and of our Harvard Avenue core values: Be Loved.

Without knowing she was doing so, my Buddhist friend Kellie, an educator and writer who has been my teacher every day of the decades that she’s been my friend, wrote my entire sermon in two sentences the other day. (Two sentences?! Why didn’t we just skip to this part earlier?! Well, here you go: )

I work with words, so I think what we say matters. Still, it’s how we live, who we include, and what we do that tells the truth.

Well.                                                                Be loved, Church.                                           Amen.

[1] Leander Keck, The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary: Matthew (1995), p425.
[2] Keck.
[3] Sarah Dylan Breuer, 10-19-2015, https://www.sarahlaughed.net/lectionary/2005/10/proper_25_year_.html
[4] Lizzo, ‘Self Care Has to be rooted in self preservation’
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/self-care-has-be-rooted-self-preservation-not-just-mimosas-ncna993661

text :: Philippians 1: 3 - 11

theme verse :: “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil 1:6)

Barbara Brown Taylor says, “To pronounce a blessing on something, it is important to see it as it is.” How seldom, it seems, do we look upon what we’ve done, who we’ve done it with, and the gifts many have brought to the common table with simple appreciation for the moment, the season, the relationship and simply soaked in the gratitude. Or in the passing of a place, a tree, or even a stranger, could we pause to offer a blessing for what it is or who they are? Each is on its way somewhere, the same way you are. They are between places too, with no more certainty than you about what will happen at the other end. And yet, what gift in pronouncing blessing on that moment, that person, that community … trusting God to be present in each benediction, trusting that God will bless again as we serve as such a blessing in the world.

Traditional anthem :: 'To Love Our God' (M.Hayes) : Chancel Choir; Kelly Ford, director

The Rising communion :: 'Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing' : The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader

reader :: David Brock
preaching :: Rev Mark Briley

song of blessing, The Rising worship :: 'Live Forever' (Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors) : The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader

song of blessing, Traditional worship :: 'The Lord Bless You and Keep You' (P. Lutkin): Chancel Choir; Kelly Ford, director

Philippians 1:3-11
³ I thank my God every time I remember you, ⁴ constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, ⁵ because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. ⁶ I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. ⁷ It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. ⁸ For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. ⁹ And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight ¹⁰ to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, ¹¹ having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

NCIS, which stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is a television show recently renewed for its seventeenth season. The show revolves around a special agent team who conducts criminal investigations involving the US Navy and Marine Corps. It’s an interesting show. It resembles most of the other crime shows on television where crimes are overly dramatized and strategically resolved in fifty-five minutes with time for bathroom breaks built in along the way. I’m not pushing the show for any reason other than to credit the director and team for their signature move each episode. As the show begins, and after each commercial break, the first thing you see is a snap shot of a later scene in the show. That snap shot is a picture of the last scene before it goes to the next commercial break. It’s a clue about what is happening later – allowing you the chance to be in on solving the mystery. In essence, you see the end before you even begin. It’s genius, I think. I study that snap shot hard for the two seconds it remains on the screen to see if I can figure out what has happened. Turns out?  I’m a terrible investigator. I suppose that’s all part of their plan. After all, it would spoil the whole thing if you truly figured out the ending before the episode even begins.

It seems very much like something we’d like to do in real life. We’d love a snap shot of the end of our lives to see how it all turns out… it’s why the Face App is so popular – we’re more than a little curious about what we’ll look like down the road. For some of us, however, knowing the ending is too much to bear.  We might, however, be interested in seeing what happens at life’s commercial breaks… the chapters of our lives where we transition on to something new… new places, new relationships, new phases. If you snapped a shot of this moment and showed it to me ten years ago when my family started ministry with you, I would not have imagined this image. It’s a wonderful snap shot. I can see all of you in it. If I printed out a picture of this moment, I’d sit down with my kids in a quiet moment down the road and point you all out.

“That’s so and so,” I’d say. “We really laughed hard about that. That guy, there toward the back, with the funny haircut, we played some great games of basketball together. I always let him win, of course. He didn’t know it but letting others win was part of my pastoral contract. And there… do you see those youth? Weren’t they great? Remember when they duct taped me to the light pole? Good kids. We had some amazing times. Ooo… and that family, right there? Love them. We buried a loved one together… it was hard but we leaned on each other and found a way forward… and that couple, I married them in the new sanctuary on my birthday… and that guy right there – we bunked together at Camp Christian once. He told me the most amazing stories about his life deep into the wee hours of the morning and got stung by a wasp during closing worship of the retreat.  That young man there? We walked to Sunday School together every Sunday for years – my favorite part of Sunday morning week after week.”

And on and on as I pointed you out to my kids. It’s a wonderful snap shot of memories. But I wouldn’t have dreamed of it ten years ago as a thirty-year-old minister who had never served in a role like this. I had nothing but a passion for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a Bible, and hope in my heart that God was guiding this journey. But we never know how things are going to play out in the real world, you know?

We all make plans.  I was going to be a sports broadcaster.  I wrote little clever SportsCenter quips all the time and I would mute ESPN as a kid and offer up with my own commentary. I could have imagined that snap shot. Then I was going to be a forensic psychologist… a real life CSI’er, you know?  I could have seen that snap shot in this moment. Those were my plans. What were yours?

You’re in this picture I’m holding. How did you get here? Who invited you along the way? Who didn’t give up on you when you had given up on yourself? What have you gone through to make it to this moment in time? I am beyond grateful for the ways our paths have crossed. I’m not sure if you see it as part of God’s plan… but I’m so grateful to have journeyed with you. I’d like to think God pulled us together for one reason or another – maybe some reason we’ll not know until the end of the age. All the while, we’re making our own plans. I think our own plans sometimes get in the way. Joseph Campbell agrees with me (or I with him, I suppose).  He said, “We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

There is life waiting for us if we’ll just commit to living it to the fullest. I used to think it was the plan that was the most important.  It seemed like the responsible thing to do… to have the life flow chart all in place and check each item off the list when it was completed.  The plans were all check points of life… college, grad school, marriage, kids, career, travel, etc, etc, as if they were things to get done instead of life to be lived. You don’t enjoy them as you should when they are seen as tasks… and if you’ve got it on a checklist, you panic if they don’t come to pass. But when it’s life, not task, you drink it in a little differently. The book of James sees it this way.

James challenges those who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.  Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:13,15).  It’s not about the plan… it’s about the living.  The writer of Deuteronomy also agrees, “Choose life,” he says, “that you might live.”  I’m not saying you should have no plans.  Plans are responsible… you know, take care of your teeth, pay the light bill, put a nickel away for retirement. But it is more an attitude toward living that I’m wondering about with you today.  What is it I miss today because my plan of task completion gets in the way of relationships that God is putting before me?

I thought I had to have it all mapped out.  Have that snapshot of the end in hand and figure out how to get there. Instead, I realized God has created me to be a particular person that needs to be me wherever I am planted. It’s a calling to be a kind of person… not necessarily a destination. Being who God creates you to be means that you’ll be prepared to step into each moment with faith because that is who you are created to be. There is always risk involved. Imagine the disciples. A snap shot of them leading a new radical religious movement shown to them when they were still fishing for a living would have sent them to the floor of the boat laughing hysterically. But the opportunity came. They were living the kind of lives that made them ready to say “Yes!” when the call presented itself. Jesus found them… “Come, follow me,” he says.  And they did it! Greatest risk they ever took. Are you living that kind of life?  Is your head buried in tasks and plans or is your head up, ready for the life that is waiting for you?

Movers are showing up at our house in the morning.  I can hardly believe it. This move is a bit of risk of course. In part, the risk involved the number one question we’ve been asked about the move. “Does Columbia have a QuikTrip?” You can rest easy – Columbia has one, single, beautiful QT and we’ll drive across town to get there. That’s a serious question, yes.  But the greater risk is leaving this marvelous church family. We love you all so much. You have invested in us and we have in you. If you weren’t aware, you are a special group of God’s people. You risk. You love. You challenge yourselves and one another to step forward in faith. Our children have been raised under your care and we will forever be grateful that you have shown them what church can be. But the Call of God has come. We prayed, at times, that the Call might pass like a bad case of heart burn but God can be persistent, you know? We are anxious and excited and nervous and sad to go, but we are stepping forward to use the gifts we have… gifts that you have nurtured in us… that we might lead in this new way.

I look through the snapshot of this moment again and grieve what it means to miss you graduate from high school or see your babies born or your kids grow up with ours. We grieve what it means to miss the group studies, and the prayers, and the place to lean on shoulders when there is crisis as we know they come. But we know we grieve because we risked loving one another. Did you know this is how it works?  You can stay to yourself, not get involved, not show any vulnerability and go through this life pretty lonely. Or you can share your life with others. It means there will be sadness when transitions occur but life is so much richer for the journey. Now is the time for you. Get involved and share your life with this body of people. Don’t wait until it’s too late and wish you would have.  This is the day the Lord has made… will you rejoice and be glad in it?

This epistle of Paul’s to the church at Philippi is one of my favorites… and one of Paul’s too.  As someone once said, “It is a lovely thing when remembrance and gratitude are bound up together.” That’s this letter. It is pure, Christian joy.  As one great theologian summarized the whole point of this letter is simply: “I do rejoice. Do you rejoice?” There is a joy in praying for each other. There is a joy in Jesus Christ being proclaimed. There is a joy of sharing and growing in our faith. And Paul notes there is even joy in the suffering; in the challenges; in the growing edges; in the discovery of our ability to survive the toughest of times. I laughed at a post someone recently shared that said, “If your mom is between 36 and 44 years old, don’t try her. Tupac, Biggie and Dr. Dre raised her.” It was funny because I grew up in that era but what it made me think of is the way we sharpen each other’s faith – to learn from each other, to raise each other, to strengthen our resolve, to know we’ll be loved even through our adversity. I stand here, looking at this snapshot of our last Sunday grateful for what we pulled through together. It wasn’t always easy. And I didn’t always know how to proceed or if I should lead differently… if I should have pressed harder here or waited longer for God’s lead there. I’ve heard some of your voices over time who said, “That was the one sermon I just couldn’t get on board with…” Which if there was only one of the five hundred sermons I’ve preached in this place, I’ll take it.  But honestly, it may have been the one sermon that was most needed.

Saint Archbishop Oscar Romero, a priest in El Salvador who was murdered at the Communion Table while celebrating the mass said, “A church that doesn’t provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn’t unsettle, a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed – what gospel is that?”  As we’ve found our way together, we’ve loved our way through with respect, with welcome, with hope that the Gospel that has transformed the world wouldn’t leave us where we were either but transform our very souls as well. I pray that in today’s snapshot, if you could see yourself in it, you might be able to say that over this decade together or whenever you jumped in along the way, you’re not the same… that Christ has worked on your heart, expanded your soul, widened your compassion, challenged your assumptions, stretched your gratitude, deepened your joy. Author Steven Pressfield who wrote most famously, perhaps, The Legend of Baggar Vance, shared this sentiment: “In the end, it comes down to the [journey] itself. [Have you crept] closer to the wonder?”  Ultimately, he says, “You have to, or you can’t keep going.  Any other motivation will burn you out.” I pray you’ve crept closer to the wonder… the majesty and mystery of God. I know I have. And I pray we’ll never stop.

We had a meaningful week at the General Assembly of our denomination in Des Moines, Iowa this past week. I am grateful for your encouragement and support of me and my family as we had the honor of sharing in worship on Tuesday night. A lingering snap shot from the Assembly for me came at the closing worship service on Wednesday when the Rev. Dr. William Barber II preached an other-worldly message about how today’s rejected by the world, like Jesus was, can ultimately become cornerstones – building blocks of the Church. He led this passionate altar call at the end of his message, calling people of every diversity and beauty and struggle and identity and rejection to run up those steps and stand with him.  My, oh my, here they come… one after another… free in Christ, built up by the Spirit, treasured as a building block to the future… flooding the stage. Before any of us realized, my eleven-year-old son, Dane, has taken off from the near back of the arena, running with all his might to join Dr. Barber and the transformative Gospel moment on the stage.  Here he is on the far left… caught up in the wonder of it all.  Now he may not know the depths of what this moment held for the future of the Church and the very gospel of Jesus Christ but I knew (through the tears of his mother and some of my own) that one day, I’ll give that picture to him saying, “Son, you’re one of the building blocks of the church of Jesus Christ… you stand with and on the shoulders of giants… the likes of Dr. Barber, and the likes of each of you who took a moment to care, taught a class, offered a word of support, prayed a prayer, prepared communion, held a hand on the CROP Walk, sang a song.”  This is how we build the church, my friends. The snapshot that comes at the end is only the result of the daily choices we make to be faithful; to show up again for God and one another. Even if it’s hard in the moment, you won’t regret it when it’s time for the final snap shot.

I was reflecting a great deal this week on all that we’ve shared together.  Before I left the building last night, I passed through every row in this sanctuary, brushing my hand across each chair as I prayed for you who would sit in each chair today just as I did the night before the first service in this renovated space in these new pew chairs. They are nice chairs… and the building team sweat the choice of moving out the pews in exchange for these new, crazy, modern chairs, right?  They are nice chairs, but they’re just chairs.  The symbolism of that very sanctuary chair you’re sitting in now, however, as I once heard Fred Craddock say, is much deeper than that. What does that chair symbolize? It symbolizes

“You… sitting there in the presence of God. It’s an individual thing in this regard. If there is going to be any singing, you are going to have to sing. If there is going to be any offering, you are going to have to give it.  If there is going to be any Communion, you are going to have to participate in it.  If there is going to be any worship, you are going to have to do it.  You are before God, in God’s presence at the altar, God is here, and there you are in your chair.  But the other thing about these chairs is that they are called ‘pew chairs.’ They interlock, and you put several of them together to make a pew. A pew is truly a Christian piece of furniture because it’s where lots of people gather. You are not by yourself in your chair. You are with other people. Somebody is going to pass the tray for you to give your offering. Somebody is going to hand you the bread and say, “The body of Christ, given for you.” Somebody is going to be your minister and your friend and your fellow worker.  You are never alone.”  And as Craddock reminds us, “The grand resource of the church is each other.”[1]

There is no end to this togetherness. None.

We drove back to Tulsa from Des Moines on Wednesday night.  As the familiar skyline appeared as we headed into town on I-44, it was hard to imagine this moment even as it was a growing presence in my soul. I couldn’t quite make out the snap shot. What would we wear?  What songs would we sing?  Who would be here?  Underneath those more practical questions were so many things on my heart that I wanted to say and so much that I knew would have to go unsaid.  There simply isn’t enough time. “How do you start at the end,” I began to ask myself. But then of course, in the Christian faith, the end is always just the beginning. In fact, the ministry increases, the love grows for we know God is the glue that holds the Body of Christ together. The passion of your spirit we take with us and our hope is that our spirit remains alive in the even greater ministry that is yet to come at HACC. I look at this snap shot with incredible gratitude.

To my colleagues and our staff team – truly the best there is – thank you for your commitment to the cause, for picking me up, for following at times and leading the way at others – my very deepest gratitude. To our lay leaders – for your beautiful offering of yourselves to the work of Christ in this place – I am in awe.  To the many who carry the load behind the scenes and seldom are seen or desire to be seen – you undergird the Gospel and there is a special place for you in the glorious kin-dom. For the joys and sorrows shared, the laughs that spilled out of us freely and the stories that solidified the reality that we were made for more and made for each other in a season such as this – I cherish forever what it means to have been among you… the faithful Body of Christ stationed at 55^th and Harvard. That’s why I love Paul’s words so much…

I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. ⁷t is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

This is my heart for you.  There is good work being done among you and God will be faithful to complete it in you as you continue to make yourself available. Step boldly into your future and love every bit of it along the way. Thank you for holding us in your heart as we will always hold you in ours.

My dad once told me a sappy story about something he told my mother when they were dating and attending colleges miles and miles away from each other.  He said to her, “Whenever you step outside on a clear night, look up at the stars and know that I’ll be looking at the very same stars.” Pretty smooth, dad. As mushy as it sounds, I’ve grown to understand those words and will appreciate them differently now.

When the Brileys step out on a clear Missouri night, we’ll lay down with the kids and the dog in the back yard, look at the stars, and think of you… as we share the same stars, the same passion, the same love. May your love overflow more and more with knowledge and insight to help you determine what life is waiting for you now, so that you can share in the harvest; the harvest of ministry that carries on; the harvest of relationships that flourish when you take the time to share your life, the harvest of faith and hope and new souls finding a way to Christ because of you, and yes, the harvest of even the magical stars. That, my friends, is a beautiful snapshot.

[1] From Cherry Log Sermons.  Fred Craddock. Pgs. 114-115. 2001. John Knox Press.

text :: 1 Peter 5: 6 - 11

theme verse :: “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.” (1 Peter 5:10)

Few of us seek pain yet none of us are exempt from experiencing it. Job, named as a godly and upright man, is the one who ends up on the poster entitled simply, “Suffering.” He just wants to know, “Why me?” The very fact that the book of Job lands in our holy scriptures is testament to those who decided to include it – the recognition that an uncensored account of the depth of human pain and suffering is more to be valued than any correct doctrinal answer to it. We do know, however, that our God is one who restores, heals, and redeems – even the depths of our pain. Louis L’Amour said, “There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.” In the feeling of pain, we acknowledge its presence as the beginning of our way to the all-things-new hope that is promised by God.

offertory :: 'Why?' (M.Harris) :: Kelly Ford, tenor; Susie Monger Daugherty, piano

reader :: Jamie Jones
preaching :: Rev Mark Briley

special music :: 'Another in the Fire' (HillsongUnited) :: The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader

anthem :: 'Let Me Fly' (R.DeCormier) :: Avenue a capella ensemble; Barry Epperley, director

1 Peter 5: 6 – 11
⁶ Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. ⁸ Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. ¹⁰ And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. ¹¹ To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”  You’ve heard this before.  Maybe your dad offered the sentiment when you were sitting out on the porch after you made one of those mistakes we make when we’re learning about the consequences of the world. Maybe it was a coach trying to make you mentally tough when your legs couldn’t possibly run one more line drill.  Maybe you’ve uttered it to yourself under your own breath trying to convince yourself that things couldn’t get any worse. A friend posted just the other day this retort to the idea: “I don’t want to go through things that don’t kill me but make me stronger anymore!” Beyond survival, we offer other sentiments when we’re in pain.  Things like, “Well, that was a character-building experience; a real growth opportunity.” Plato once said that pain restores order to the soul.  Rumi said that it lops off the branches of indifference. “The throbbing vein will take you further than any thinking.”  There’s the mantra many have shouted over time, “No pain, no gain!”  My middle son, Dane, campaigned for president of his second-grade class a few years ago.  His slogan?  “No Dane. No gain.” He won. There is some honor in doing hard things – even if they feel painful at the time.  We admire the resiliency of people who struggle through the worst and come out on the other side with a conquering attitude. Bruised, yes. Battered, perhaps. Scarred, yep. But now?  Experience. Understanding. Wisdom. Strength.

Few of us seek pain yet none of us are exempt from experiencing it. Job, named as a godly and upright man, is the one who ends up on the poster entitled simply, Suffering. He just wants to know, “Why me?”  The very fact that the book of Job lands in our holy scriptures is testament to those who decided to include it – the recognition that an uncensored account of the depth of human pain and suffering is more to be valued than any correct doctrinal answer to it. We do know, however, as Peter writes in his letter we highlight today, that our God is one who restores, heals, and redeems – even the depths of our pain. Louis L’Amour said:In the feeling of pain, we acknowledge its presence as the beginning of our way to the all-things-new hope that is promised by God. And, with some distance, some hindsight, some growth, we may even be able to see some of our pain as an altar – a tribute to God who doesn’t cause the pain or suffering but deeply longs to redeem it for some meaningful purpose.

Barbara Brown Taylor’s work, An Altar in the World remains our companion during this series bearing the same name.[1] In her chapter, ‘The Practice of Feeling Pain,’ she notes that

“Pain is provocative.  Pain pushes people to the edge, causing them to ask fundamental questions such as ‘Why is this happening?’ and ‘How can this be fixed?’ Pain brings out the best in people along with the worst. Pain strips away all the illusions required to maintain the status quo.  Pain begs for change.”  Pain is not optional for humans.  “How can something as nonnegotiable as feeling pain serve as a spiritual practice?  Like anything,” Taylor says, “I can try to avoid pain. I can deny pain. I can numb it and I can fight it.  Or I can decide to engage pain when it comes to me, giving it my full attention so that it can teach me what I need to know about the Really Real.”

Really Real she offers in capital letters – representing God – what does pain teach us about God – the Really Real – the Ultimate Concern?

Peter’s first letter is our companion today – a word that he begins by saying, “I, Peter, am an apostle on assignment by Jesus, the Messiah, writing to exiles scattered to the four winds. Not one is missing, not one forgotten.”  I love that opening.  Just a man on assignment.  A man whose life has been fully upended by being a fisherman at a certain age and time, in proximity enough to this carpenter from Nazareth who stumbled into his life and saw endless potential in his leadership skills.  How many people knew Peter, passed by him at the docks day after day without seeing anything special about him?  But Jesus has a way of seeing.  Jesus drafts him for the cause and for as many rough edges as Peter had, Jesus trusted him, believed in him and gave him the freedom to lead.  Pete had no clue what he was getting into. But here he is, abandoning the fishing nets for this ministry – on assignment by Jesus writing to the exiles scattered to the four winds.  For what, for whom, are you on assignment?  Don’t blow past that question lightly.  As Peter says in our prayer today, something he knew all too well… “God will promote you at the right time.”  Everything you’ve been through and learned and struggled to understand will guide you into a moment of time when you’ll be called upon to step up, step in, and be the unique gift to the church, to the world, that you’ve been created to be.

It’s amazing how this works. We so often never know the hows or whys of things until a great time later.  I was talking with a dear mentor and friend this week whose total life direction that led to the shaping of some of the most significant realities of his life hinged on the way in which some trash bags were placed about behind the place he was living.  It was a remarkable tale but all he could essentially say was, “My life became what it became because of garbage.”  It would be a good spiritual practice for all of us to sit and make a graph of our lives – writing our birthdates on the far left and today’s date on the far right.  In between those dates, fill in the major events of your life – the moments that have made you who you are – and note how many of those moments seemed inconsequential at the time.  I imagine many of them may surround moments of pain as well.

How many of those painful moments bear significant relationship to leaps of your personal growth – in a relationship, in your career, in your faith? Maybe it was the move that bonded you in a new way to your family.  Maybe it was the call from the doctor about that spot on your lung that made you finally make up with your estranged sister.  Maybe your partner leaving made you discover some truth about yourself that had otherwise been shielded for years.  None of these are the ways we script our lives.  They are certainly not the ways we would have chosen to grow, shift, wise-up, become more than we were, but they did those very things.  Peter’s been through it… but has owned it… and he wouldn’t have been the leader he became had he not first said “Yes,” to following Jesus… had he not over-reacted when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, had he not denied even knowing Jesus in crunch time and later resolving to be a leader in the movement forward. These human moments made him real; grew his compassion for others who were also flawed; gave him a relatable spirit. Such made him resilient.  He didn’t roll over and quit.  He got stronger.  He learned. It’s like a guy I know who said, “I’ll never follow any leader who hasn’t failed.”  Even C.S. Lewis [2]  offered this interesting word:

Interesting.  Pain. Loss. Grief. Growth. What do you think?

Pain comes in many forms of course. This move our family is making comes with some pain. The big day we talked to the kids about the move, my youngest son, Hayes, had moved the coffee table in the living room and spread out every sleeping bag and pillow we owned in the house.  It seemed as good a place as any to have a family meeting – which every member of the family has power to call should they deem it necessary. We sat in a circle on the floor, my back against the couch. Hayes sat across from me, totally buried in the pile of blankets and pillows accept for his head that popped out of the pile like a turtle’s head out of his shell. As Carrie and I shared the word, my son’s turtle head withdrew bit by bit back into his shell. As the sharing continued, the questions were asked, the wonderings were full, he kept inching closer to my leg… another question, another few inches closer… until he was all but in my lap. When he finally looked up, our eyes connected and I said, “Do you want me to hold you, buddy?” And this rough and tumble, hard-shelled son of mine, buried his head in my chest and we cried some tears together.  My daughter said, “That’s the first time I’ve seen you cry, dad.”  Clearly, she’s never watched, “This is Us” with me.  That show knows how to pull the strings, you know?  Pain can come by no choosing of our own or even as the result of our own hard decisions.

Like the early church leaders and followers, the direction of Christ’s lead isn’t always the easy route – and we all know that is true. Richard Rohr said, “If you are not ready for change, don’t seek out God.”  The very quest for God will come with change, and therefore pain… or pain and therefore change.  But… a disciple is someone who has moved from being the recipient of the church’s mission to being responsible for the Church’s mission.  If we are faithful to the pursuit of Christ in our lives, we’re going to have to own the effort that comes with being Church. And this is the call of you, and me, of Peter, and the early recipients of his letter.

It is in such seasons of change that we need to rely on our disciplines of faith – prayer, scripture reading, listening more than talking, worship, serving.  Peter says, in those tough seasons, the devil, the adversary, the oppositional voice, will call to us to get us all worked up against one another, against the call of Christ, against the direction of Love. I caution us all in such a time to hold firm to these values of our faith.  This is the discipline Peter is speaking of and the reason to gather close to one another and allow for grace in transition.  I’ve been having lots of conversations with you… and I’m loving them. Such wisdom you have.  One dear friend whose faith I’ve always respected and admired said, “If we would have done all the things I wanted us to do along the way, we wouldn’t even be here.”  This is a voice of wisdom that cries for trust and patience and prayer.  In our pain, we may be quick to jump and say, “I have the answer! Follow me to freedom!”  But steady wins this race of faith. Steady perseveres through the pain. And this community is as grounded as any I have ever known.  And so we keep laughing and telling the stories of our faith.  We keep praying through the pain and trusting in the trials.  It’s the parental reality of being at the pool in the summer.  As someone shared with me, “93% of a parent’s time at the pool is spent “watching this” and adjusting goggles.”  So we keep watching this – the journey of the Body of Christ – and we adjust the goggles so we can see what God is seeing for us in this new season.

Peter is preaching this very thing and as he moves to the “Amen” of this prayer, he says what will come through our season of pain and wonder: “After a while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.”  The Greek word for restore is kartarizein which is most commonly the word used for setting a fracture. It means to supply that which is missing or heal the gap or fill the space. God’s restoration is a true healing; an overwhelming grace.  This work of restoration, of support, of strength, of establishment – a firm foundation – is already moving in us.  “God is the very one doing this work within us even now.”  Peter could not be more confident in this … and neither can I.  And I’m leaning into that truth now more than ever.

Maybe you’ve got some big stuff you’re sorting through right now.  Some painful stuff.  Maybe it is happening outside of your control or maybe it has mostly come about through your own hand. It is in such a time when we start to determine where our faith is holding us and where it is most fragile.  Whether it is a major loss or a bad case of food poisoning, we are susceptible to the doubt of God’s mercy. And we look to our poster of Job and we hear his voice asking, “Why?”  But God does not give Job a single answer to his question.  Instead, God asks Job forty-three questions in a row including, most famously, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”  Gulp. After another long and serious exchange, Job comes to get what others who have suffered before us have also accepted.  The question is not “Why did?” or “Why does” this happen but “When will…” it happen. And when it does, a deeper question may be “How can breakdown become break through?” And yes, I have to be real careful with this… as I would suggest for you… lest we sound like one of Job’s friends who were less than helpful when their friend was suffering.  Taylor reminds us, “No one who is not in pain is allowed to give advice to someone who is.”  And while our experience of loss and pain is always unique, it is true that there are many others who have been through the same sort of thing before.  But you have to live it this time. This time, it is yours. And you need to be kind to yourself along the way… just as we all need to be kind to others walking the same road.

Rituals help. Stay steady in your practice of worship… in studying with friends… in serving the meals and blessing the back packs and housing our neighbors without homes. The practices; the rhythms help us press through. Caring for another helps heal the soul too. A woman named Lucy was whittling away – she was not long for this world – but even as she lay in her bedroom near the front of her home, members from her house church gathered on her porch at night, singing hymns that she could hear through the windows. They covered her whole house with prayers. I trust that the hymns brought comfort to Lucy – I know it helped the people who sang them. (Taylor).

Barbara Brown Taylor tells the story of Earl, another man who was facing his second cancer surgery, uncertain how to prepare this time. He had been burned by church in the past and wasn’t much of a church goer. But the day before his surgery, his grown children came to his side as he sat in his office; a place he was day after day… a place where the light peered through the window just so every afternoon. They asked if they could lay hands on their dad. “Earl couldn’t think of a polite way to say “No,” so he let them, holding still as “one of them laid both hands on his hot, round head, and the other pressed down on both of his shoulders hard enough for him to know how heavy love could be. The three of them stayed that way for what was either a long time or no time at all.  In that posture, it was hard to tell.  Nothing was said, during or after. It was only years later that Earl would bring it up to his children, saying, “Remember that day you touched me in the sunlight? I still remember that day.”

These are the ways we find our way through pain, and can, like the scars they sometimes leave, serve as altars in the world – sign and symbol that God made us strong even in our weak moments or our weak places. God restored us, strengthened us, supported us, established us. And through it all, Christ leads on… always has, always will. Even when we are stifled or wounded or stunned still, the light of Christ keeps pressing and we trust the light. My office window offers me that grace-filled reminder every day.

My office chair swivels (which I absolutely love). And when I turn from my computer screen to remember that life is real and actual and not only lost in the virtual realities of Microsoft documents and email, I see the light.  Through the gift of architecture, the braces in my window form the shape of a cross… that just all day long reflect the sunlight onto my wall, onto my floor, all the way through me and beyond me… quietly, steadily, firmly and right on schedule. I turned one morning this week… a day when I was in the office as the sun was rising… and I simply swiveled and marveled at that cross on my wall   – draped across the shovel with which I turned dirt with the building team when we broke ground on this facility… through the art that graces the wall that is abstract but representative of the great many layers of life… light through a card board sign that I simply have been unable to recycle that says, “God says I bring something unique to the table.”  And there… right in the middle of it all… is the shadow of the cross that says, “Pain?  Yep. Suffering? Been through it.  Hope?  It’s coming.  Endurance?  Stick with it.” That light goes on and on… and you know what?  Whenever I forget it?  Whenever I get grumpy or lost in the pain or frustrated about change outside of my control, I can simply swivel my chair… and there it is again… the light of Christ as strong as ever. Peter knew that well. I say now what was all he had left to say as well:  “To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.”

[1] An Altar in the World. Barbara Brown Taylor. Harper One Publishing. 2009.  Any quotes from Taylor come from this work and each sermon in this series is inspired by different chapters of the book.  Her influence is scattered throughout this message and I am grateful for her insight and the vivid imagery of her writing.
[2] Letters of C.S. Lewis (April 29^th, 1959. Para 1, p. 285)

text :: Genesis 28: 10 - 22

theme verse :: "Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, 'Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it!'" (Gen28:16)

How can we possibly know a God so vast and mysterious as intimately as we know the gift of rocking an infant in our arms? For the most part, we’ve boxed God in, giving parameters of our own making so that we can contain God in our own manageable ways and systems. And yet, when we leave the familiar confines of the places we have done such boxing of the Spirit, we still seem to have a gnawing sensation that there’s got to be more to God than that. What might happen if we commit to wake up to the fullness of God each day, open and ready to receive the Spirit of God that is everywhere all the time? Perhaps, like Jacob, we’d discover that the Lord is in this place and that one and that space over there and we did not know it. What do you do, however, once you know? You build an altar.

special music :: 'Here' (K.Jobe) : The Rising Band; Andi Gross, lead vocal

reader :: Rev Courtney Richards
preaching :: Rev Mark Briley

special music :: 'Still, Still with Thee' (J.N.Beck/H.B.Stowe) : Susie Monger Daugherty, piano and vocal

Genesis 28: 10-22

Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. 11 He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. 12 And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; 14 and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. 15 Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” 17 And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

18 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel; but the name of the city was Luz at the first. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you.”

I’ve never been all that good at building things.  Handyman kind of stuff, especially. You know, fix it projects and the like. It’s in my genes, I think.  My dad and I have some epic tales of project failures together. Our idea of a tool box was the drawer in the china cabinet that kept our hammer and one flat head screwdriver.  In high school, I had an old school truck – a classic, sort of.  At least it was to me. It was a dual exhaust situation with a tail pipe sticking out the back on both sides of the truck. While the truck had been updated in a number of ways, those old rusty tailpipes sort of stuck out like two sore thumbs.  Never to fear, dad and I were on the project. We found our way to the little automotive parts store in our little town and went on the hunt for a couple of shiny chrome exhaust pipe extensions.  Found a couple and went back home. Of course, those chrome extensions were about twice as big around as the tail pipes themselves. Slight oversight on our part. Not to fear, we were resourceful.  We went shopping again and found a sheet of fire-retardant material that would do the trick.  We’d cut that material, wrap it around the tailpipe before putting on the chrome extensions that just fit snugly on there like a glove once wrapped. We stepped back to appreciate the toil of our labor and admire the shine before I jumped in the truck to go show it off around town.  Down the driveway, quick right on Gantz Street before a second right on the Business Loop.  I wasn’t but a quarter-mile down the road before I hear this loud “Zing!” and subsequent sound of those beautiful chrome tail-pipe extensions bouncing down the road behind me. Turns out flame-retardant doesn’t include the insulated heat produced by the tailpipes themselves.  Did I say that I’m not so good at building things?

When we moved to our home in Tulsa, Dad and I spent the best part of two days trying to get the washing machine hooked up. The pipe didn’t match up with the wall connection and we made four or seven or twelve trips to Lowes to get this piece and that thing and, to stay on theme, some pipe extenders to connect the machine to the source on the wall. Surely this would work. The connectors looked like your pencil trail trying to find its way through a paper maze – upward and downward and sideways and the like trying to make it all work. Feeling defeated now that the washer had to sit a foot out from the wall to give space for this contraption we developed without ultimate success, I made a humble call to Dave Crandall who graciously came over and spent about five minutes solving our near 48-hour fix-it project. I’ve never been all that good at fix-it projects (and I’m thankful my wife has yet to shout Amen! this morning).

While building things in such a spirit isn’t my forte, we are going to spend this series building a few things together – an altar in the world as it were. The good news is that no matter our skill levels, our shape or size or color or background or faith level, we’ve got all we need within us to build these altars. As author and theologian Barbara Brown Taylor, whose work An Altar in the World[1] inspires this series says, “Whoever you are, you are human. Wherever you are, you live in the world, which is just waiting for you to notice the holiness in it [and build some altars of your life for the glory of God].” And then she drops this reassuring line for any of us who feel we don’t have what we need, what it takes, the depth to handle it, the worthiness to offer anything of meaning. She says  And thanks be to God, I’m trusting that to be true.

There’s a mentor in my life who always has a way of stepping back from any current circumstance, struggle, reality, or even joy with some Jesus perspective. Even when he takes a deep breath – you believe him more than most… like he’s on to something of the holy without even saying a word. A group of us were circled up once sharing struggles and uncertainties and anxieties about the future.  Soaking it all in, this mentor sat back in the quiet space and he breathed out the question, “What is saving your life right now?”  We all just sat there for a bit, maybe even a little stunned by the question.  It was simple enough but who has time to think about what’s saving us when we’re so busy fretting about the present or the future now that we’re dealing with all of these things that make us so anxious. “What do you mean?” someone asked. “Nothing’s saving my life.  Everything’s falling apart.”  Some more silence.  Some more thought.  And then one by one, everyone mustered an answer: “Well, my dog still loves me,” someone offered. “I noticed the stars for the first time in a long time the other night and they took my breath for a minute.”  Another said, “A friend that I hadn’t heard from in a while sent me a text right in the middle of the muck of it all that simply said, “I miss you,” and that saved me in that very moment.” And the more we sat and the more we listened, we began to realize what Elizabeth Barrett Browning had whispered so emphatically years and years ago:

Perspective.  Whatever anxiety you’re carrying this morning. Whatever struggle or heartache or uncertainty fills your soul, at the very same moment when we’re still enough, there’s something just waiting with all its beauty and courage and stability to hold the answer to the question, “What is saving your life right now?”  This is why we’ve invited Jacob into the story of our lives this morning.  He’s sort of between a rock and hard place – literally as he uses a stone as a pillow when he finally feels he’s far enough away from trouble that he can rest. He’s still a young man, running away from home because his whole family system had finally imploded. His dad was dying. His twin brother Esau was seen as competition to the father’s blessing, not an ally. Cultural custom meant Esau would receive the blessing.  But Jacob’s ethics were sort of in the pot. He was living the downward spiral that Anne Lamott put this way: “By the end I was deteriorating faster than I could lower my standards.” In all the scheming, Jacob got his mom to help him deceive his dad and brother. While mom was quick to say, “No collusion,” oh she was in it deep with Jacob. They schemed, and it worked. Jacob stole the blessing and there was more than a wedgie from his brother at stake for this dirty, selfish play for the blessing. Without time to even pack a toothbrush or his eye contact solution, Jacob is running for his life which leads us to this exhausted moment where a stone is the best option for a pillow and he doesn’t even care. He sleeps. And here come the dreams.

As the story is told, this ladder appears stretching from the ground to the heavens with angels going up and down.  (And Huey Lewis and the News playing the background: “Step by step, one by one, higher and higher. Step by step, rung by rung, climbing Jacob’s ladder.”)  And in a moment, God is there at Jacob’s side saying, “Remember I am with you.  I won’t leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” How’s that for reassurance when your life feels like you’re constantly out of breath and the treadmill just keeps going faster?  And you know how awful it feels when you can’t keep up with the treadmill of your life.  Comedian Jim Gaffigan said, “Watching a 90-year-old on an elliptical really inspires me to die in my 70’s.” It can be so exhausting trying to keep up with life’s demands. No matter our age, when we’re weary and defeated, couldn’t we all use the word from God that Jacob received that night?  “Remember I am with you. I won’t leave you until I have done what I have promised.” And as Jacob awakens, just a fallen and exhausted soul trying to get through another night, he realizes something was happening in his very presence. “Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place and I didn’t even have a clue.” And at this point, he’s jumped up and he’s just sort of all giddy.  He keeps talking to himself – “That. was. awesome!”   And how could he explain it?  How do we explain it when we’ve been changed?  We don’t know exactly how. We can’t say exactly why.  But there’s not a single one of us, I’m guessing, that can’t recall some moment in time when we could say, “Everything changed. That was the turning point.  That was the moment I saw things for what they really were… and what they really could be.”  Whether Jacob rubbed his eyes in hopes of seeing that ladder standing in front of him or the hopes to discover an angel print or two in the sand, he couldn’t deny that God knows what happened even if he couldn’t explain it. Jacob knew he had to mark that moment somehow, some way.  He didn’t go to sleep seeking a spiritual encounter or a conversion of his spirit but once he recognized it, he couldn’t help but change the direction of his reflection.

Too often, the direction of our reflection is our disappointments.  But if you start with your disappointments, you tend to end with your disappointments.  If you start with God, you end with gratitude. This is the shift for Jacob and he marks that space by building an altar to God with that stone pillow that held his head through the night.  Now he knows there is more to this life than his troubles, than his past, than his disappointments and failures. From here on out, he would look at the world with a different gaze. Where is your gaze this morning?  Is it on your disappointments?  Your fears?  Your frustrations?  Or is it on that whisper of God that says to you and me, “Hey, I got you. I won’t leave you until I have done what I’ve promised.”  Now I know this is easy to say. And we may get pumped about that promise for a minute but the minute we walk back to our cars, we can start to feel that same old gnawing inside – we long for more.  “Where’s God’s promise in this?” we ask.  We lose sight of what’s saving our lives right now and see instead the ailment, the separation, the hurt, the confusion, the emptiness.

But what we cannot forget is that God can drop a ladder anywhere, any time with no regard for any of our controlling expectations. All the sudden, even the parking lot becomes holy ground, altar worthy if you will.  I sat in my car one morning this week. It has been a bit of a week you could say. I pulled into that little parking space out of the south entrance of the building as I have for years now. We’re not that kind of church that has pastor’s parking spaces or anything.  But there’s a space or two that I have mostly landed in over time.  I’ve often sat in that space after my drive from home or from wherever I’ve been and listened to the last few minutes of a podcast that wasn’t quite over. Sometimes I’ll allow a song to play out before I dare turn the key to end the glory of that moment. Nobody cuts Jodeci or Neil Diamond off until they’re through. I’ve sat in that space, staring through that windshield to the brick wall and stained glass of our sanctuary as I finished a phone call from one of you, or my mom, or a colleague … where countless times I’ve prayed, or we’ve prayed, and times where there have been tears of joy or concern or any number of other emotions in between.  I’ve spent a lot of time in that parking spot.  And this particular morning, as I pulled in, breathing deep sighs as prayers in the place of words… pondering the new realities of our upcoming move, I saw that space differently, and the brick wall, and the stained glass… and it was holy.  And I built an altar right there in my soul.  I didn’t want to miss the moment. Surely God was there… and had been all those previous times in that very space … I just did not know it.  And my how things change when you know it… when you know the presence of God is closer than your very breath.  I snapped this picture, having placed a chalice on my dash that one of our youth had crafted out of a gum wrapper. Not sure who but in honor of that young person’s acknowledgement of the holy in something as simple as a gum wrapper, I tapped into that spirit and said, “God, for the gift of this sacred parking space – where you have saved my life again and again – thank you. Never let me take for granted the gift of your presence.”

Maybe that space is there for you too.  Could you look for it this week?  Could you, like Jacob, realize that it may be that the whole world is an altar and the divine could erupt anywhere. God shows up in whirlwinds and starry skies, in burning bushes, parking spaces and perfect strangers named Barry or Jamison or Analise. And when people wanted to know more about God, Jesus told them to pay attention to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, to women kneading bread and workers lining up for their pay.

As we approach Independence Day, we sing some of the songs that remind us of where we live and certainly our longing for God’s presence to be among us in this land that is our home but what makes it Holy Ground is not any personal blessing we fight for individually but the way we treat the ground upon which we live and the people with whom we share the land. Teddy Roosevelt said, “It is not what we have that will make us a great nation; it is the way in which we use it.”  When we stop looking for God’s presence in the lives of those held in detention centers, or when we consider matters of healthcare, or when we don’t count the cost of war… we miss the call of God to see. We miss the heart of Christ that says, “See all of that through my eyes before you speak into that issue, that need, that concern, that person’s life. See it as I see and then respond as I would respond.”  And whenever I run that sentence past my own heart, I grieve my selfish desires that surely don’t align with that of Jesus as often as I’d like. But staying in that idle state of heart or mind doesn’t do me or anyone else any good; certainly not the case of Christ. Such is a place of perpetual angst and that only leads to bitterness. It’s like what Sara Buckley said, whose twitter handle is @nottheworstmom. She said, “I never buy chips because then I’ll eat them, so instead I look in my pantry every day and am disappointed that I don’t have any chips.” We have to shake this sense that there’s not heaven crammed all around us for it’s there and once we begin to recognize it, so much can change for the better.

This doesn’t mean the hardness of life goes away. It’s there and you don’t need me to remind you of that. Barbara Brown Taylor says, “Wisdom atrophies if it is not walked on a regular basis.”  Wisdom isn’t about information.  It’s what grows on us when we walk through the hard stuff. Taylor adds, “You need a body that gets hungry, feels pain, thrills to pleasure, craves rest.”  This is how we feel and learn and sense the presence of God. In this way, we can understand the Talmud wisdom that says No matter your current circumstance, may you hear that voice of God whispering into your life, “Grow, grow.”  And we do have some choice in that, you know. Like Jacob, most visions we’ll have in this life happen while we’re busy doing something else. It happens to us like a thunderstorm or catching a cold or like that moment you realize you’re falling in love. We may not control when those moments find you … BUT… our part is to decide how we respond. Much of the time, in those holy ground moments, we talk ourselves out of it. It wasn’t really a thing – it’s just the caffeine talking, or we can say, “Those God-moments aren’t real,” or “I’m too busy to give this any more pause.”  We’re all good at talking ourselves out of waking up to the presence of God.

The better option perhaps?  Taylor says, “I can set a little altar, in the world or in my heart. I can stop what I am doing long enough to see where I am, who I am there with, and how awesome the place is. I can set a stone or say a blessing before I move on to wherever I’m due next.”  Jacob’s family had imploded, his brother was out to kill him, and he had really been up to no good from day one but God showed up – right where he was to show him something he didn’t know.  Something he needed to learn.  Something that needed to ground his life moving forward. None of this was Jacob’s doing.  The only thing Jacob really did right was to see where he was… a holy space… and say so.  He turned up his pillow as an altar to say, “Yeah… in light of everything happening in my life, my weariness, my anxiety over change, my greatest fears holding me back from pressing forward…  God is here… always has been… always will be and I will praise that God who came to me where I was.”

I’ve never been that good at building things. But I’m going to build some altars this season. I’m finding heaven crammed all around me… often in the common spaces I mostly took for granted. My altars may be a little wonky… a little fragile at times… and may require a phone call to Dave Crandall to say, “I think I may need your help with this altar,” but I’ll do so with gratitude for it’s worth it. I’ve never built an altar that wasn’t worth the effort. It’s worth every investment of time and relationship, every gain and every loss and all that we’ve ever shared together… for it’s all an altar to the glory of God and it’s built with love. Will you build some with me?  The good news is… we’ve got everything we need to begin.

[1] An Altar in the World. Barbara Brown Taylor. Harper One Publishing. 2009.  Any quotes from Taylor come from this work and each sermon in this series is inspired by different chapters of the book.  Her influence is scattered throughout this message and I am grateful for her insight and the vivid imagery of her writing.

text :: Romans 5:1-5

theme verse :: “Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Rom 5:1)

The classic rock band, Boston, offers us a line in their 1976 hit song, Peace of Mind: “I understand about indecision. I don’t care if I get behind. People livin’ in competition; All I want is to have my peace of mind.” Of the many treasures we seek, peace of mind eventually becomes priority one. We often spend much of our time trying to manufacture peace for ourselves. If we just climb that ladder. If we just secure that home. If we just solidify that connection. If this, then peace. If that, then peace. That quest can be an endless one that can find us at the end of the road with no more peace than when we started. The Apostle Paul suggests we cannot manufacture peace ourselves. Peace comes in our relationship with God. When we can make peace with God, we discover the peace of God that we might then be a conduit of that peace to the world. In the process, we discover what Paul describes in another letter as the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

music :: Susie Monger-Daugherty, piano

opening :: 'It Is Well' (Bethel Music) : The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader; Andrea Gross, lead vocal

reader :: David Brock
preaching :: Rev Mark Briley

anthem :: 'When the Saints Go Marching In' (arr.J.Rutter) : Chancel Choir; Kelly Ford, director; Greta Metzer, soprano sax; Rod Clark, trombone

offertory :: 'How Great!' (arr.D.Ryan) : Dewey, Dillon, and Kelly Ford, vocals; Marilyn Rhodes, piano; Susie Monger-Daugherty, organ

Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³ And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.  

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers and father-figures in the house today. Statistically, you’re bucking the norm simply by being here. Father’s Day is notoriously a low attendance Sunday in most churches across the United States.  Mother’s Day worship attendance rivals Easter but on Dad’s day – many seem to be opting out of Sunday worship. That’s not a judgment… just a statistical observation. Some churches are gimmicking hard to get dads to church today. In the spirit of Paul who said, “I’ve become all things to all people that I might win some,” I heard about one church who is holding drawings in their worship service today for a .22 caliber rifle, a custom engraved pocket knife and holding a bacon buffet between services.  Maybe that will take.  Maybe a guy who wouldn’t otherwise step foot in a church will be pulled into the presence of Christ via the smell of bacon. Maybe. I’m not sure if this was Paul’s idea theologically speaking but… Who am I to say?  I do think there’s gotta be more, right? We may be drawn to and clap for the spectacle for a while but at some point, the emptiness is too painful if there’s nothing deeper that we’re longing for in the great quest for meaning in our lives.

I’m a dad myself.  I often have those moments of seeing one of my kids doing something… it may even be the most mundane of things… and I marvel that I have been called to play a formative role in their lives. That lump can find its way to my throat wondering what I’m not doing as well as I should, wondering if I’m striking the right balance of boundary-making and trusting them to learn on their own. We get caught up in matters of provision and ladder climbing and all the rest… and sometimes we do so in the name of – “Hey, I’m just taking care of my family.”  But… like everyone else on the planet – in the end, our souls long for something more.

Classic rock fans will remember the chorus from the band Boston’s 1976 hit, “Peace of Mind.”  It says, “I understand about indecision. I don’t care if I get behind. People livin’ in competition; All I want is to have my peace of mind.”  Even if you know that song, you may not know the story behind those lyrics.  The band’s founder and lead guitar player,  Tom Scholz was an MIT grad working as a senior engineer for Polaroid while he was getting the band together.  Plugging away at the day job, Scholz noticed that all around him, people were “climbing to the top of the company ladder” but didn’t realize, in his estimation, that they were propping that ladder against the wrong building.  Scholz was not inspired by the predictability of corporate life.  He wanted “peace of mind,” thus the song urging any who would listen to “take a look ahead” to something better. Peace of mind.  Do you have it?

Robert Mitchum, an actor known for his keen roles as a villain – back-in-the-day as it were – is listed as the 23^rd-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema.  When asked about his contribution to cinema, Mitchum famously downplayed his career saying, “Look, I have two kinds of acting. One on a horse and one off a horse.”  On his way to Hollywood stardom, Mitchum had all kinds of experiences in his life.  He grew up in New York’s gritty “Hell’s Kitchen” neighborhood, rode the rails as vagabond, spent time on a Georgia chain gang and even had a stint in the boxing ring.  Through all of that he came to a place of defining for himself what it meant to have peace of mind.  He defined peace of mind as “becoming the person I always wanted to be.”[1] No matter what he did in his life, he knew that peace of mind was the result of an internal orientation – not dependent on all of the external realities of his life. Peace of mind.  Do you have it?  Hmmm.

What about Mitchum’s idea of peace of mind – “becoming the person you always wanted to be.”  Do you buy it?  It’s a fascinating premise. And we try things on in the search for peace – a little more mindfulness; a new meditative practice; journaling thoughts and prayers.  Peace of mind.  Why the struggle?  Especially as a person of faith – we’re supposed to grow through life’s anxieties, uncertainties and fears, right?  But is there enough for us to make our way to peace?  Are we enough?  Paul’s sorting through these same questions himself when he writes this letter to the Roman church. He was a passionate thinker and having sold out to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus – he was constantly considering the implications for the world.  What is God up to?  What’s behind all of this and where is it going? As Eugene Peterson says,

“Paul takes logic and argument, poetry and imagination, Scripture and prayer, creation and history and experience and weaves them into this letter that has become the premier document of Christian theology.”

Remember Paul’s own journey – it’s sort of like Robert Mitchum’s – he’s been everywhere, man.  As a ladder-climbing, successful, Pharisee, Paul fought for his own peace of mind through achievement.  His encounter with Jesus changed his perspective – he knew peace was not an external quest but an internal depth. And so in this famed passage from Romans 5 – Paul lays out this path to peace that is not something we achieve, but a refining gift that comes in our connection with God. In fact, that’s what he names first.  “Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ – through whom we’ve found grace.”  Peace with God – the pathway to peace.  Seems easy enough but we know it’s more challenging than that.

H.G. Wells tells a story of a man who was stressed out to the max – his mind was so strained, and he was in serious danger of a total mental collapse and breakdown.  His doctor told him the only thing that could save him was to find the peace that fellowship with God can give.  “What?!?” the man says.  “To think of that, up there, having fellowship with me!?  I would as soon think of cooling my throat with the Milky Way or shaking hands with the stars!”[2]  To him – a connection with God was unfindable. Just impossible.  Making peace with God can be a challenge of course. There’s a piece of our spirit that is so independent.  We’re often raised this way, right?  Our culture says, “You go get yours.  You go earn your way. You control your own destiny.”  And I’m all for effort and giving it your best – that’s what partnership with the gifts God has implanted within you works.  But the hardest thing for many of us to do – and maybe those superhero dads especially – is accept that you are not God.  Having peace with God is the acceptance that we don’t have to be.

Bob Goff is one of the most animated speakers you’ll ever hear and a guy who’s sort of a real-life Forest Gump in the sense that he’s been everywhere and done everything. Bob tried out for the role of Peter Pan when his elementary school put on the production.  He didn’t get the part – turns out he couldn’t sing or dance or fly so…  He did land a role, however.  His official title was Tree #4.  He had no lines.  Didn’t even get a tree name like maple or birch or oak.  His role was just to stand there, hold out his arms and look like a tree.  His name didn’t make the program.  No bouquets or gifts showered on him opening or closing nights. As uneventful as the role may have seemed, Bob loved it.  He said, “I knew what was needed; my role was clear and it wasn’t too complicated. I knew what was mine to do.”

What Bob writes next brings this closer to home:

“Something changes for many of us after we leave elementary school.  We try to make ourselves the hero or the victim of every story.  Something goes wrong and we want to be the victim; something goes right and we want to make ourselves the hero. It doesn’t seem to matter which it is as long as we make it all about us.  But if we make everything about us, it’ll never be about Jesus.  What I’m coming to realize,” he writes, “is we’re not the heroes and we’re not the victims of all the stories happening around us. We’re just Tree #4.”[3]

This is what we mean when we say, “You’re not God and you don’t have to be.”  Peace with God is about discovering what you were made for… what is yours to do… and then doing it.

Making peace with God somehow opens us to know the peace of God. The peace of God is more mysterious than making peace with God.  It is a receiving and trusting that seldom makes obvious sense. Mother Teresa knew that peace.  Someone once asked her to pray that they would have clarity about a particular situation. Her response was humbling if not a tad shocking: “I will not do that,” she said. “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of. I have never had clarity,” she said. “What I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.”  Experiencing the peace of God must come through this sense of trust and trust isn’t often our strong suit.

Paul’s pushing this idea of trust of God that brings about the peace of God when he says quite bluntly, “It’s gonna be tough.”  He then has the audacity to push it further, “Boast in the toughness.”  Thanks but no thanks, Paul. I think I’ll pass.  He says, “No. Hear me out.”

“We boast in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope; and hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”

Oh. Okay then. We all want the results of making it through hard things. “Builds good character,” we say… and who doesn’t want to be known for their good character.  We want to be seen as resilient.  But the journey; the process… can often seem too much. “We don’t want to,” as my friend and colleague Erin Wathen says, “wait for the teaching moment.” We don’t have patience for the teaching moment to come. Wisdom only comes through such experience as hard as it can be. I’m not one who believes God forces such hardship on us to teach us lessons.  In this way, I’m not a “everything happens for a reason” guy.  I buy that first part – “Everything happens.”  What I believe next is about trust and peace and faith.  Now that this has happened – what can we learn?  What does Love say?  What is God’s promise still?  What can this transform?  Being resurrection people means we imagine redemption is there, around us, within us, ready to be released into the healing needs of the world.

Last Tuesday marked the anniversary of the death of our beloved Jim Rosenlieb. His life was taken brutally and unnecessarily. His last words to me still ring in my soul. I hear those words in my soul in his very voice.  I miss him. This passage from Romans was the lectionary reading assigned for today… of all the passages of scripture, this one was selected in a three-year rotation to be read this day.  It was the same passage that “dinged” Mark’s phone (Jim’s son) as he was in route to Tulsa to be with his mom that day.  I don’t know how it all works… but I know this passage, dinging Mark’s phone, on that day… meant something profound to him. And I trust that too.  I’m not grateful for what happened.  I’m not over what transpired to our brother Jim. But there’s a surpassing peace somewhere, somehow, that finds its way through the cracks of our shattered realities. Paul describes this elsewhere as “the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.” (Phil. 4:7).  This is not even a fake-it-‘til-you-make-it sort of deal for me… although I did hear someone call it “Faith it ‘til you make it.” which did give me reason to pause. This peace of God, however, is a gift… not some psychological discipline like marathon runners seem to have. It is a redemptive gift that we can’t create but we can come to know.

You’ve probably somewhat familiar with Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer.  It’s a favorite of the Twelve-Step recovery movement.  Typically, the first line is the one that gets quoted:

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

It gets put on bumper stickers and crocheted into wall hangings. The rest of Neibuhr’s prayer is seldom-quoted. Do you know it?  Here’s the rest of the prayer:

“Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as the pathway to peace; taking, as [Jesus] did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that he will make all things right if I surrender to his will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with him forever in the next.”

Peace with God opens us to the peace of God… but that’s not where peace finally lands.  Any peace we have gleaned comes to us on its way to someone else. When Jesus sent out his disciples, he told them to greet everyone with “Peace to this house.” And I think it was more than just a sales tactic to get their foot in the door to sell them a vacuum sweeper with a side of Gospel.  I think he meant it.  Paul… who was at odds with most everyone he met given his past, his present and his passion for the future… he included “Peace” as one the fruits of the Spirit and said, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” (Rom 12:18). This shared peace is really where redemption is found.  This is the peace that leads people who have been through hell to say, “I want my suffering and my response to that suffering to bring hope to somebody else.”  And what does Paul say about hope?  Hope does not disappoint.

I know a pastor who resigned from his church on Easter Sunday a number of years ago – not really how they script it in seminary.  But he was done.  His life was falling apart, his spirit was dry.  His marriage was disintegrating and everything that had been his identity – all he perceived to be the things that told him he mattered and he was special and he was important – were crumbling and he couldn’t do it anymore. He could have quoted this passage about all the boasting in the suffering and the endurance and character and hope stuff but he wouldn’t have meant it. But time and prayer and losing and finding and wonder and hope and trust do have a way of coming around.  As he wrote about his heart wrenching passage through these darkest trials of his life, he was also able to encourage others going through their own trials, saying, “As much as you may have felt like you lost yourself, your presence in this world is enough for somebody else to feel found.”

I know you’ve been through some stuff. I know you’re going through some stuff now.  I know the future is uncertain and there are days when it seems like the future is just rude for expecting you to enter into it.  But your presence in this world is enough for somebody else to feel found.  Kanakuk Counselors – your presence this week is enough to make a child know the love of Christ.  Dads – as Mother Teresa also said, “You want to change the world – go home and love your family.” Friends, your presence is hope.  Your presence, in this spirit, is the very peace of God. That’s no bacon buffet, I know. But we’re made for more than bacon. We’re made for the glory of God… with all of our struggles and pain and experiences and rejections and heartaches… we’re called to redeem it. Richard Rohr says it this way, “If we do not transform our pain, we will transmit it.”  The world has plenty of transmitters… let’s be transformers, shall we?  Amen.

[1] Story of Scholz and Mitchum as shared by Bob Kaylor, Senior Writer for Homiletics Online in his work, “Real Peace.” www.homileticsonline.com.
[2] As found in William Barclay’s commentary on “The Letter to the Romans.”  Westminster Press. 1975.
[3] Everybody Always. Bob Goff. Nelson Publishing. 2018.

text :: Revelation 22: 12 - 21

theme verse :: "Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift." (Revelation 22:17b)

A sermon from the book of Revelation. That should be plenty different. Is it a dream? vision? prophecy? something else? We've made ourselves afraid of this text ... when most of us have never even read it. We tend to do the same with our faith, somehow: Make assumptions. Go on rumor. Stay in the comfortable lane. Maybe this text - as poetic and beautiful as it is intriguing and mysterious - has something to say about the purpose and reality of faith. In a waterlogged city, can we still 'take the water of life as a gift'? Do we have ears to hear?

anthem :: 'I've Been In the Storm So Long' (J.L.Ames) :: Avenue a capella ensemble; Barry Epperley, director

reader :: Bill Queen
preaching :: Rev Courtney Richards

special music :: 'Revelation Song' (K.Jobe) :: The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader; Andi Gross, lead vocal

closing :: 'Marvelous Light' (C.Hall) :: The Rising Band

Revelation 22: 12 – 21
“See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. ¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

¹⁴ Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. ¹⁵ Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

¹⁶ “It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

¹⁷ The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.”
And let everyone who hears say, “Come.”
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

¹⁸ I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; ¹⁹ if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

²⁰ The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.”

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

²¹ The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.

In the early 1970s, an upstart troupe of British comedians was looking to break into the U.S. market. They had a couple of seasons of sketch comedy under their belt in the U.K., and an entrepreneur and producer convinced them that a feature film would be the way to go. The six men, drawing on the favorite sketches of their two seasons on the BBC, compiled 90 minutes of their quirky, entirely unique, and sometimes off-color humor. (insert disclaimer here: Your pastor is not endorsing, merely describing.) American audiences were at first less than convinced, but a second release of the film a few years later caught on in midnight movie showings on American television, and Monty Python – with their parrots, lumberjacks, and grannies – developed a cult following that’s only grown in the years since.

When you’re just stacking these scenes together, one after the other, there’s sometimes no obvious connection from one thought to the next. (The same could very well be said of many sermons. Maybe this one.) But if some words are good, more words are better, right? Need to move from a pub full of wink wink nudge nudge to a man shouting about an albatross? The Pythons took John Cleese, dressed in a plain suit and sitting at an empty desk … put the desk in a random setting like a cage in a zoo, or floating in the air held up by propellers … and then borrowed the catchphrase of a popular children’s program at the time: And now for something completely different.[1]

Reading the book of Revelation feels a little bit like that: a bunch of scenes stacked together, perhaps connected by a few seemingly random thoughts from odd locations. Is it a dream? Vision? Prophecy? Fever hallucination? Something else entirely? Understandings and opinions vary widely. And most of us have formed an opinion – we’re convinced it’s beyond us – we’ve made ourselves afraid of it – and in most cases? We’ve never even read it. And we don’t intend to.

And if we’re honest, we do that with a lot of our faith and life, don’t we?

Steven Crowder is a Canadian conservative talk show host, sort of a known loud-mouth, whose resume includes lots of ‘former contributor’, ‘former voice’, on the list. His podcast Louder with Crowder is pretty much what it sounds like: controversial opinions and topics, at top volume. A few years ago, he sat a table on the campus of Texas Christian University, and draped it with a banner stating an opinion he knew would get folks going, and said ‘Change my mind.’

Well, as you can imagine, he got some traffic. And some attention. And he became a meme. Because what good is a publicity stunt if it doesn’t actually generate publicity?

So now, through the magic of the internet, you can actually create your own banner. Put whatever you want in there:

• Pineapple belongs on pizza. Change my mind.
• Game of Thrones ended perfectly. Change my mind.
• Ratatouille could take Stuart Little in a fight. Change my mind. [2]

Crowder didn’t want conversation, he wanted attention. We don’t really WANT our mind changed on the things we think we know. We want to be where we are, enjoy what we have, and make it through the day in one piece.

But when was that ever what Jesus promised? What Jesus promised was something … completely different. And in the book of Revelation, that’s what John is trying to say.

Exiled to the island of Patmos, John receives inspiration in word and image, and gathers those to a page for safekeeping and sharing with others. The book of Revelation – and side note, it is singular: THE Revelation to John – is built much like other New Testament letters:

• a greeting and salutation;
• an address to the churches, to the faithful, offering observation, correction, and encouragement;
• and a closing benediction.

He begins:

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place; he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.

 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near. (1:1-3)

And then we panic, right there, when we read ‘the time is near’. But let’s not. Think how long ago this was written. And how much has happened since then. So ‘the time’ being ‘near’ is sort of a relative term, right? Let’s go on. He introduces himself to the readers and hearers, and greets them in the name of the Savior.

John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

 Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

 To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1:4-6)

And then he goes on, to say that he’s been given these words, that they took him by surprise too, that they were written to proclaim the one who was and is and is to come.

Yes, it gets strange. Yes, there is a lot of imagery and symbolism. Yes, there is still considerable discussion about what it refers to and what it means. Ironically, the very scripture which, in its name, suggests that things will be uncovered, opened, revealed … is the very scripture which we usually leave covered, closed, and assume we can find no meaning.

But think of this: It is the very scripture that closes the canon, that concludes our Bible. What if it’s meant to proclaim to us the very best ending there is? Not the end of the world, or the end of time, or even the end of us …

What if it isn’t even about US necessarily, but about God’s power to sway the whole world?

In our verses this morning, the very conclusion of the book itself – the benediction and blessing – we see three things:

• a gathering of all peoples, more than can be counted, only named and included
• a tree of life, in reach of all who choose to come
• gates of a city, with some gathered on one side and some on the other, but gates which remain open[3]

If this is what God promises in the end – if this is what John, in his revelation language, proclaims is ‘coming soon’ – if the promises of Christ are true to the Divine’s own word … what could this mean for us? Could this change us? Change our mind? As Princeton Professor Eric Barreto says,

Revelation can help us if we can but draw our eyes from the dazzling visions that dot this book for a moment and see that behind them all is a simple but life-altering hope in a God that calls us all. That hope resonated in the seven churches that received this powerful book. It can still be true for us today. 

As a style of writing, an apocalypse – which sounds like a terrifying word, but really just refers to a type of literature – is a way of talking back to a world that feels abandoned to evil powers. It offers a vision of something else. In the midst of voices that speak death and destruction, it speaks of a different option. In a world of oppression and challenge, it is something designed to change our mind. In a time of fear and hopelessness, it is something completely different.

On this Sunday when we come to worship in this nation, praying through national losses in yet another mass shooting, and in shootings that didn’t make the news … when we come to worship in this city, still waiting to see what the weather is going to do, what is under the water that just kept coming … when we come to worship in our own skin, knowing that in so many instances, who we are has been labeled as too much, or not enough, or unacceptable …

Maybe what we need is to read a text that flat-out says You cannot change what I have written. Maybe what we need is a scripture that begins “Grace to you and peace…” and ends “The grace of the Lord be with you.”

Maybe what we need … what our souls long for … is something completely different.

You’ll notice in this reading that even in these concluding verses, there are some pretty specific cautions. And these verses are actually eliminated from the suggested lectionary reading for today. I included them, though, because I think we need to see the whole thing; we need to work through the words that challenge us if we are to reap the rewards of the words that bless us.

The late Wendell Frerichs, professor at Lutheran Seminary, said of this book of Revelation:

John’s is not an escapist theology. He knew that his people might well face martyrdom. But their suffering and their faithfulness have meaning. They are a witness to the suffering love of the Lamb. It is this proclamation, this witness, which wins the victory. It may be that some of the most fascinating chapters—those which portray a beast rising up out of the sea or bowls of wrath being poured out—have been bypassed. But the good news of Revelation is well represented in the texts chosen.

 We are opposed to using the Apocalypse for scare-tactical purposes. Its basic message is one of comfort and assurance. Then people who have been assured of Christ’s power and love can be called to heroic faith. When they see the true character of the Lamb as contrasted with that of the dragon there is no choice between them. The empty promises of political and economic powers can be seen for what they are. Our seer lets us in on the inner workings of the demonic world as well as of the heavenly world. Without such help we just might get fooled, but no more. John’s scroll is very clear on this point. The Lamb who was slain is alive and victorious. The world’s empires and tyrants are on their way to oblivion.[4]

Seeing how the proclamations challenged the authority of the day, how these words spoke to the people of the time, helps us imagine the challenges we face and their outcomes and corrections.

• How do we deal with an epidemic of gun violence?
• What do we do about a climate that is erupting in storms unseen for centuries?
• How do we choose those who make our local, state, and national decisions?
• What do we have to say about not just economic uncertainty, but full-on injustice?
• Where do we address gender violence, mass incarceration, white supremacy, mental health?

If we are just going to hang a banner and say ‘change my mind,’ but not really be open to the work, the conversation, the listening, the prayer, the transformation that has to come … the new heaven and new earth that is promised in scripture, in THIS scripture … then why are we even here? As New Testament scholar Micah Kiel suggests, “If there is good news at the end of Revelation, it is that God does not seem yet to have closed the door to heaven, even as God knocks on the door of our world.”[5]

There is good news. This text that we’ve learned to fear – when we’ve never even learned to read it – is filled with good news for us. And it doesn’t take John Cleese at a desk on a beach to get us there.Here is the good news, without any imagery or symbolism or scare tactics or confusion:

*The last word in all of scripture is that grace is for everyone.*

Did you catch the part where the tree of life is within our reach, and where the water of life can be taken as a gift? We know a bit about water in northeastern Oklahoma these days, don’t we?

Mayor GT Bynum shared with us yesterday:

Just announced to a gathering of our emergency responders: the Arkansas River has officially moved out of flood stage and the Army Corps has confirmed the heavy water load is off the levees!

Riverside Drive is reopened and so is the Gathering Place.

Thinking back over the last couple weeks: our community experienced an earthquake, then we were hit by a tornado, then we began to flood, then we were hit by more tornados while we were flooding.

But the people in this community kept calm, kept putting one foot in front of the other every day, and kept our focus on what we could do to help our neighbors. It is when a community is tested that you see what it is really made of. In this historic test, our community stood tall – just like this symbol of the city we love.

We have to remain vigilant. The recovery is only beginning – and more rain is on the way. But we will handle that test when it comes, too.[6]

Yes, we need the rain to stop.

Yes, we need to keep watch.

And yes, maybe what we need is scripture that reminds us it can’t be changed. Maybe what we need is scripture that also reminds us that it begins and ends with grace.

Maybe what we need is to remember that it isn’t about us getting what we want.

Or avoiding the hard verses.

Or not having to change our mind.

Maybe what we need … what our souls long for … is something completely different.

Maybe we read the text and remember that it is, after all, about God’s power to sway the whole world. That the last word in all of scripture is that grace is for everyone.

And who are we to change that?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Now_for_Something_Completely_Different
[2] I knew of this story from general news when it first came about. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Crowder and the 3^rd DIY example came from an online meme generator.
[3] Eric Barreto 5/12/2013 http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1626
[4] http://wordandworld.luthersem.edu/content/pdfs/6-2_Way/6-2_Frerichs.pdf
[5] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2792
[6]https://www.facebook.com/gtbynumfortulsamayor/photos/a.1597023863959669/2246955162299866/

text :: Acts 8:26-40

theme verse :: “Philip commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.” (Acts 8:38)

Every time the waters of baptism are stirred, there is a stirring of the Spirit. It never fails. It’s just water and it’s a bit messy as each brave soul steps in one foot at a time until even the tips of their heads are dripping wet. They slog back out and the floor becomes slippery and creates a potential hazard but it’s worth every step. The Spirit moves. There’s just nothing like being in the water. As a number of our own stir those waters this day, may we all, like Philip, be willing to get in the water with them.

offertory :: 'On Eagle's Wings' (M.Joncas) : Kelly Ford & Barry Epperley, vocal; Susie Monger Daugherty, piano

reader :: Connie McFarland
preaching :: Rev Mark Briley

special music :: 'Christ is Risen' (P.Wickham) : The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader

Acts 8:26-40
²⁶ Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) ²⁷ So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” ³⁰ So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. ³² Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth.
³³ In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. ³⁶ As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” ³⁸ He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Have you ever been at the pool or the lake or something and had that feeling of “I don’t really want to get in the water.”  I’m not really talking shark phobias or fear of swimming or anything as much as that feeling of being poolside and simply not wanting to get in. You think the water’s too cold or you didn’t plan on getting wet or being wrapped in a beach towel is just preferred to the exposure of letting go of the towel.  I feel like that sometimes.  My kids generally won’t have any of that sentiment, however. Before long, they’re hollering, “Dad! Get in the water! Get in the water!”  I’ll offer my kind decline and they’ll just fire up all the more: “Just do it!  Jump in! The water’s great!”  And before long, I’ve barreled in the water again… mostly to be the human floating device as they hang all over me, or the human canon launching the boys into the sky before they land again with a big splash.  I know there won’t be many more seasons before they quit asking me so with a little coaxing, I generally get in the water with them again.

Water does have a certain draw to it. It’s Maycember as folks are saying these days – the end-of-school-year season which is as busy, if not more so, than Christmastime in December.  All the school awards assemblies and recitals and concerts and ball games and tournaments and school talent shows and field day and on and on.  We’ve been in and out and around all of these things most every night for a couple of weeks now.  And… as you know, there’s been enough rain that there are mud puddles everywhere.  Our boys can find every single one of them… even in moments when there’s one single puddle way off the beaten path. Somehow, it ends up right in their path to getting into wherever it is we’re going at the time.  There’s just a magnetism I guess.  I do remember. I saw this little clip this week of just such a little boy and his best friend as he couldn’t resist the draw to get in the water. Take a look…

Isn’t that the best?  Today is all about getting in the water.  Our buddy, Clint Briggs, has prepared the waters of baptism with great precision and care. Clint has been our go-to guy for this task in recent years and he has been faithful to do so.  I remember the first year that he filled it for us… and more memorably when he drained it after the baptisms just before our traditional service started. If you’ve ever heard that sucking noise that your bathtub makes when it’s draining, magnify that by the volume of a ZZ Top album of your choice and you can imagine the sucking noise that comes from a tub this size.  Of course, none of us thought anything about it beforehand.  He asked me about draining it and I said, “Sure! Of course!”  And there’s so much water that it takes a long while for much of the it to drain before you even hear any sound at all.  But a good quarter of the way through the traditional service, sure enough: suction city. I thought the whole choir was going to get sucked down the drain.  It’s one of my favorite worship memories.  But Clint is a gentleman as you all know and takes on this task as an honor for there’s something about this water.  It’s different. It’s holy. Eight of our students and one of our more seasoned members will be stirring these waters of faith today.

We re-join the book of Acts this week considering the draw of water for an unusual suspect. Philip has been on the preaching circuit.  Big crowds. Fog machines. John Crist as an opening act to loosen up the crowds.  He was living it and loving it in a big way.  But God puts it on his heart to take off down the road heading to Gaza. Parenthetically, the text says, “This was a wilderness road.”  Philip’s taking the back roads… the scenic route… the long way around.  The description may be less literal and more literary.  The wilderness road, in this case, may refer to the wild sprouting growth of the faith.  It was an out-there time for the movement.  Outsiders were finding their way inside the faith day after day and while this raised cultural and theological challenges for the Jesus movement, they were digging it.  It was beautiful and amazing and inclusive… nobody was out of the reach of grace. So Philip’s taking the back roads to Gaza.

On the way, Philip meets a man who scripture has named only by his home country and sexual differentiation. Wish we had a name but such we are not afforded.  I’m going to call him Earl if that’s alright with you.  I’d rather do that than call him by some label the rest of the sermon. Deal? The important point about this label was that Earl was not on the inside whatsoever. He was from Africa, considered unclean and yet Philip is compelled to engage him.  Now… we know some other things about our new friend, Earl. He’s the Finance Manager for the Ethiopian Queen… not a bad gig if you can get it.  He’s also literate which was a rarity for most at this time, indicating some education and status. Interesting enough, he was also returning home from having been in Jerusalem to worship so he’s already bought into the monotheistic, Judean God, at least he’s curious.

When Philip comes across Earl in his Chariot, he hears him reading a familiar passage from Isaiah. Presumably Earl’s alone in this chariot given the exchange he would soon have with Philip – save the Uber driver at the helm of the chariot.  First question – why is Earl reading out loud?  Seems a tad odd.  I may read something out loud to myself, I suppose, if I’m confused by what I’m reading (always try the slower and louder approach when we don’t understand).  But… generally I don’t read out loud to myself.  Turns out that reading out loud was a very common practice at the time so no big deal. Philip uses his when-outside-running-alongside-chariot voice: “Whatcha readin’?!” Surely a tad startled by the appearance of this strange man running alongside of his ride, Earl quips back, “The Memoir of Isaiah,” as he flips the back of the book in Philip’s direction, so he can see the cover art.  Philip knows it well of course… it was a bestseller. “Do you get it?” Philip calls back?  Still a little weirded out by his presence like a skeptical reader on an airplane confronted by the stranger sitting next to him, Earl is honest.  “Truthfully?  Nope. I don’t get it.” “Permission to board your chariot, sir!”  Earl lets him on and says, “I need a guide. Can you tell me the truth about this stuff?”

Now… this is not of subtle importance. This is a big deal. Two guys… vastly different and essentially prohibited from being in much relationship with each other and Earl says, “I’d like the real deal scoop about this.  What is he talking about?  Who is he talking about?”  We need to engage this sort of discipleship more as people of faith.  Mike Breen says, “If you make disciples, you always get the church.  But if you make a church, you rarely make disciples.”  When the church gets too focused on the institution, the rules of it all, the membership qualifications, the conformity clauses, the image over authenticity, we miss the heart work of becoming a disciple of the Way.  We’re quick with our answers because of the group or the politic or the radio talk show host we subscribe to but the Spirit works differently… and if this interaction doesn’t encourage our own openness to such a possibility, I’m not sure what will.  This takes vulnerability, honesty, and willingness to admit that sometimes we’re Philip and sometimes we’re Earl.

You may remember the story about thirty-three  Chilean miners who were buried underground a collapsed mine for sixty-nine days – trapped in complete darkness.[1]  Hector Tobar wrote a book about the experience entitled, “Deep Down Dark.”  The title alone says a lot. After a few days of being trapped in the dark, uncertain of the future, one of the miners most ardent in faith was asked by some of the others, “Would you pray for us?  Preach a word even?”  And so he did.  “Thank you, God,” he prayed, “for being among us in this dark place. Even though we are afraid, forgive us our sin.  Hector drinks to much,” he prayed. “Jose has been cruel to his family.”  Now… you’d think this would have upset the guys but it didn’t. United in darkness and fear; in confrontation of seeing themselves for who they really are, they received these prayers.  Every day they prayed like this. After a while, the men themselves began praying like this – confessing their sins to God and each other. Hector said to another man, “I’m sorry for the way I’ve treated you. I’ve been rude and arrogant.”  Back and forth like this for two months until the best day and worst day.  A hole was cut at the top, food and water were dropped down… rescue teams also sent down iPads so the men could see what was going on in the world and share messages back and forth with their loved ones.  That was sweet but there was a shadow side to this as well. They began to see they were famous… and dream about what fame could do for them. The money they would get. Potential opportunities to exploit their experience. All of the sudden, things changed.  The confession, the praying, the intimacy, the closeness they had experienced? It was gone.  What those men discovered in the dark was not the answers to all of their questions but a willingness to face themselves.  But it’s tough to stay in that place. Are we willing to face ourselves or are we too comfortable?  Do we already have all the answers?

With an open ear and open heart, Earl receives what Philip has to share about Jesus. We don’t hear the whole story but he clearly included baptism in his chariot sermon because Earl spots a mud puddle or perhaps a stream or larger body of water and points: “Hey, there’s water right there. What’s to stop you from baptizing me right now?”  He commands the Uber driver to stop and Earl and Philip find their way into the water together.  Philip doesn’t text the other disciples first for clearance.  He doesn’t take the request to the Board Meeting or make Earl read Strength Finders and discover his spiritual gifts.  None of those things are bad of course and can be important when we’re finding our way in faith but there are times when the moment matters.  When there is a need and you can meet it… you do it. A homeless man in a Portland laundry mat was quoted as saying, “When we reduce Christian spirituality to math, we defile the Holy.” The formula was less important than the Spirit. Earl and Philip get in the water together.  This is the beautiful thing of our faith history and our faith future.  We’re all coming along at different times and different speeds but every path in is a beautiful one.  Don’t compare your starting point with someone else’s finish line. 

I met individually with each of our pastor’s class students on the last day of our class to see where they were, what they were thinking, what questions they had and about their desire, or not, to be baptized at this time. Each of them processed the opportunity a little differently but in beautifully sweet and unique ways. One of the students, when I asked why they want to be baptized paused in a way you do when there’s so much passion you want to share but your not sure how to speak to it with any justice.  She finally said with deep sincerity, “I just know it will be all joy.”  And as she continued with this effusive pouring out of gratitude, I’m not gonna lie… I welled up a bit.  We can get bogged down in the minutia of it all and miss the joy, the gift of the moment, the stirring of heart that comes when you’re in the water with such a spirit.  I walked my buddy Jim through the motions this week as we prepared for his baptism today and he just grinned the whole time and said, “I’m really excited.”  I have a minister colleague who says it’s unfair that ministers get this chance to get in the water again and again and I know what she means. It’s not just the water but it’s something to be in that space with someone who’s saying, “I’m in.”  “I’m in for the mystery. I’m in for the struggle.  I’m in for the companionship.  I’m in for the service.  I’m in for the joy.”  It’s why we celebrate these days… not just for another who is making their way in the Way.  We celebrate because we’re in the water too… we’re in this together.  The joy is ours too.

After Philip baptizes Earl in the water they spotted, Philip disappears… he’s off spreading the word elsewhere but Earl wasn’t bothered by his absence.  The text says, “He went on his way rejoicing.”  It was all joy.  And none of this means that all of life’s troubles were gone. Being in the water doesn’t bring perfection or total comfort.  Earl got back in the chariot with soggy shoes and wet underwear… and I imagine that got a little uncomfortable.  But it’s a marked moment that matters.  It’s an invitation to see the world through a different lens.

One writer said, “When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are. And when you stop expecting material possessions to complete you, you’d be surprised at how much pleasure you get in material possessions. And when you stop expecting God to end all your troubles, you’d be surprised how much you like spending time with God.” [2]

Being baptized in the water is not a cure… it’s an invitation to a whole new way of seeing the world.

Maybe you’ve been in the water before and will remember your own baptism in the waters today.  Maybe you will someday; you’re not sure about the whole thing but ‘Never say never.’ Maybe you’re getting in today and, my, my, we will rejoice with you in such a moment.  We blow the rafters off this place in our celebration of you because, doggone it, people deserve to be celebrated and this moment should be all joy.  And in such joy and celebration and elation for another who makes this big “Yes!” in their lives, may you embody such a joyful spirit, smile and cheer and holler as if you are in the water with them. Because in this mystery and joy of faith… you are my friends.  You are.

[1] Hector Tobar. Deep Down Dark. Picador. New York. 2014.
[2] Donald Miller. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. Thomas Nelson Publishing. 2009. Pg. 206.

text :: John 21: 15 - 25

theme verse :: “Lord, what about him?” (John 21:21b)

‘Tis the season for transition. Jesus moved from death to life. The disciples moved from followers to leaders. Our seniors are moving from high school to… whatever comes next. Any transition to a new existence comes as a test to all we know and all we are. Real life shepherd, James Rebanks, writes, “You can always tell how alien someone is to our world [of shepherding] by how terrified of the muck they look.” Any threshold of promise also comes with a struggle. On this Senior Sunday, we consider the many transitions in our lives and what it means to shepherd one another forward in faith. If we’re doing it right, people may say of us, “They smell like sheep.”

anthem :: 'I'll Fly Away' (arr.C.Courtney) :: Chancel Choir; Kelly Ford, director; Susie Monger Daugherty & Marilyn Rhodes, piano

offertory :: 'Brother James' Air' (J.Bain) :: Benjamin Schwartz, vocal; Susie Monger Daugherty, piano

reader :: Cameron Gough
preaching :: Rev Mark Briley

closing :: 'Living Hope' (P.Wickham) :: The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader; Andi Gross, lead vocal

John 21:15-25
¹⁵ When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶ A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷ He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸ Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” ¹⁹ (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

²⁰ Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” ²¹ When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” ²² Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!” ²³ So the rumor spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”

²⁴ This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. ²⁵ But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

Get up and get out! I’ve heard of some parents who say this to their graduates after high school. Like a mother bird nudging her babies out of the nest … and surely before those babies feel like they are ready to fly… there is some parental instinct that says, “It’s time. You’re ready. Fly.”  It’s hard to believe, I can imagine, that the time has come.  Time flies, of course, and that ornery little booger now towers over you and clears your pantry daily of anything that looks and smells of food.

My parents were in town for a bit watching our kids as Carrie and I spent some time away.  Mom sent me a picture of our seven-year-old, Hayes, who had crawled up in a chair at some craft store they were in to find some supplies for a school project Dane was working on. (Nanny’s and Papa’s are the best, you know?)  Mom snapped a picture of Hayes  who was making a goofy face as he is oft to do.  It was only after I got home and mom blew up the picture for me that I noticed the artwork hanging next to him that read, “All of God’s grace in one tiny face.” Oh the grace, my friends; the grace required to love and raise a child well… and for them to allow you the grace of mistakes, missteps, and the gift of growing alongside of them.  I’ve learned from many of you that this grace never ends.

I was listening to Dr. Kara Powell, Executive Director of the Fuller Youth Institute, do an interview for some research she had done and her book, Growing With, that was coming out. She told a story about a friend of hers… a woman in her sixties… who had been concerned for her father, now in his mid-eighties and struggling with some serious medical issues.  There came a season, however, where her dad was strong enough that she wanted to share something with him that wasn’t just about getting his medical care sorted out.  She took her dad to the beach.  After a time of getting settled in some beach chairs and relaxing a bit, this sixty-plus year old woman decides to take a dip in the ocean. While she’s out in the water, frolicking a bit, she peers back to the beach where she notices her dad has gotten up and is frantically waving his arms and staggering toward the water from his chair.  She dives forward and swims with all she’s worth fearing that her father was suffering some kind of medical event… “This was a disastrous idea!” she was thinking as she swam.  “How stupid to do this!”  She was beating herself up; out of breath making her way to him. She finally gets close and she’s hollering, “Dad!  Dad!  Are you okay?”  And as she gets closer to him, her eighty-something dad hollers to his sixty-something daughter, “You were out too far!  Come in. It’s not safe!”  She’s now out of breath. He’s just fine. And all she can think is, “I’m a sixty year old woman and he’s still trying to parent me.”  Transitions are hard… and we don’t always know how best to move through them but none of us can escape the truth that transitions do come no matter how hard we might resist them.

The transition staring us in the face today is graduation. ‘Tis the season! Our high school seniors have reached one of the biggest moments in their lives where they will soon leave behind what they’ve known for something new, something bigger, something different. The great American architect, Louis Kahn, before beginning any design always asked, “What does this building want to be?” It’s not a bad question to ask of ourselves in times of transition. What does this soul long to be?  What is aching to come to life from within me in this time, this new season?  Parents of graduates transition themselves in this same season. We honor and pray for you all today as you navigate this time with all the feels that accompany it.  But transitions are constant and all around us.  Some are still transitioning through seasons of loss and grief. Others are transitioning from one job to the next or to no job at all.  Others are stepping up a relationship status or sorting through the transitions of fractured relationships. Transitions are essentially a piercing of monotony. From this to that… from there to here to somewhere else… the routine is shook. Monotonous days have been pierced. Each of us is in some state of transition and so I pray there is a meaningful word this morning for each of us as we continue in this season of Eastertide and the major transition the disciples find themselves in – leading the movement forward without the physical presence of Jesus who had navigated them this far.

John’s gospel really tells the best story in this regard… it has all the makings of an Oscar Award winning conclusion. Baffled as they were by the death and resurrection – the disciples just needed to do something familiar.  Do you know how that is?  After a loss or a change or even a time away, you have some longing for a familiar meal, or your go-to workout class at the gym or even your favorite couch that has learned the very contours of your body.  Peter makes the announcement:  “I’m going fishing!” and a handful of others follow along, tackle in hand.  What happens next is something we’re sliding through quickly this morning to get to the ending so pretend we are fast forwarding the show that we’ve DVR’d to see how it all ends.  Quickly…fishing is bad. All night like they cast the nets and come up empty.  Nothing like struggling at the very thing you went to do to bring back some familiar comfort.  Morning comes and a voice from the beach cries out, “I’m hungry! What’s for breakfast?”  Unamused, the fishermen respond sternly, “We ain’t caught nothin’!”  “Have you tried the other side of the boat?” the voice calls back.  “Uh, yeah, bro!”  but they cast the nets off the other side almost in mockery.  As the story goes, the nets bust at the seams with fish and John peers back at the shoreline with his binoculars: “It’s the Master!”  Peter bails off ship and swims to shore while the rest responsibly get the boat docked.  So they have a big fish breakfast with Jesus.  But then comes the piece we’re looking at this morning. DVR back into normal play mode.

This passing of the mantle moment between Jesus and Peter is such a beautiful scene.  Fresh on both of their minds was the three-fold betrayal of Peter telling the village folks that he had no clue who Jesus was.  Jesus had been arrested and people were saying to Peter, “Hey – you were with him, right?  You’re one of his guys, right?”  “Not me,” he said, “and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t ask me again.”  But here they stand on the beach – eye to eye; soul to soul.  No chit chat. No jokes.  Just Jesus asking Peter as he peered into his eyes, “Do you love me?”  Pete looks away, ashamed perhaps, but answers, “Of course I love you.”  “Feed my lambs,” Jesus says.  Peter looks back at his friend’s face and Jesus asks again, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  Peter has enough courage this time to look Jesus in the eye thinking, “Okay, he’s gonna make me say it again… I deserve that.”  “Jesus, yes. I love you… you know I love you.”  Jesus responds, “Okay. Take care of my sheep.”  And even nodding in agreement, Jesus says again, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  Now upset, Peter says, “Jesus. I don’t know how else to say it. You know me better than anyone. You know all there is to know about everything.  You know that I love you.”

Before we get to Jesus’ response, consider the drama of this moment.  Besides the strings playing in the background here as the climax of the scene is coming, isn’t it interesting that Jesus calls Peter, “Simon, son of John?”  He’d already renamed him Peter in a big scene earlier in the story.  Why the formality here?  “Simon, son of John.”  Very formal. Some have argued that this was Jesus being cold to Peter, harboring some feelings about the betrayal but that doesn’t seem much like Jesus to me.  Some have said, No… this formality is similar to the seriousness of a swearing-in ceremony; like when taking an oath.  Or maybe a graduation ceremony where your full name is read aloud … you walk up one side of the stage a student, your first, middle, and last name are read, and off the other side you go, a graduate. This is a baton passing moment.  Another says, by calling Peter, “Simon, son of John,” Jesus is speaking of knowing Peter and Peter’s people.  He knows where Peter comes from… who raised him, who nurtured him.  Jesus knows Peter fully in context, fully enough to entrust Peter to feed and shepherd the flock. Maybe, it’s most comforting to us to know, that in spite of knowing Peter and his context fully, he’s still calling him to feed and teach and lead and take care of his people. They’ve been through some stuff together… the ups and downs… and here is a monumental ask – “Take care of this.”

Graduates – anybody going through transition – it’s good to be known like this.  It’s good to have walked through some stuff with people you trust… family, church, teams, friends.  This is what it means to be grounded.  It’s important to be grounded because life on the other side of the transition can be challenging and trying and less smooth than it may be playing in your head right now.  And you may be determined – ready to tackle the world; take the reins of the kingdom, and that determination can carry you for a while.  Always some good people holding motivational signs when you’re running a race.  Saw one that said, “Run like someone just called you a jogger!” Runners will get this insult.  How dare you!  I’m no jogger. I’m a runner! And there’s a little added pep in your step. You’re pumped for the journey. But life on the other side of transition is hard work.

James Rebanks is a real life shepherd  … they do exist!… in the Lake District of England where his father and grandfather tended sheep before him as have generations for thousands of years. You sort of expect, given the advances in technology and modern tools, the sheep herding life has followed suit but it’s basically the same as it’s always been – it comes down to the sheep and the land and a get-up-and-get-out spirit.  Rebanks has written a book about his experience called The Shepherd’s Life.[1] He admits that not everyone is cut out for the work. There were some would-be-shepherds who rented a farm nearby to try their hand at the work and others who had made half-hearted attempts at shepherding.  Rebanks said, “The get-up and get-out voice in their heads isn’t strong enough and they just don’t care enough about the sheep and the land to sustain their initial enthusiasm once the going inevitably gets tough. Things fall apart, and they soon leave.”  The path is tough.  Jesus knew this too.  He was moving Peter and the gang from a fishing metaphor – which was all about catching to a shepherding metaphor which is all about tending.  Fishing is a momentary haul; Shepherding is a lifetime commitment. When Jesus accepts that Peter’s oath is heartfelt, he gives Peter a little more, “It’s going to be tough, man. Much harder than you can imagine. The work will take you places you never imagined going. And some days, you’ll be ready to quit… but that’s when your grit needs to kick in.  That’s when you need to hear my voice again and press forward.”

Sheep are tethered to the voice of their Shepherd. You may know this already. A guy watched three shepherds moving their flocks through a village together and when they found a clearing, one hollered “follow me,” in his language and his part of the flock parted from the rest. The second did the same and his sheep followed suit.  Before the third did the same, the man observing said, “Can I try?”  “Of course,” the shepherd said.  The man said the same words but not a single sheep moved as he was leading.  “Huh,” the man said, “Do they ever follow another voice?” Very poignantly the shepherd says, “Oh yes. Sometimes a sheep will get sick and then it will follow anyone.”  There are plenty of voices out there willing to tell you what you ought to do, what you should do, how you’ll want to navigate this new territory… but stay grounded. Know your Shepherd’s voice.

Graduates and fellow transitioners of all kinds, when you’re not sure how to navigate this new territory you find yourself in, sometimes you’ve got to just throw yourself into effort at hand. My buddy says it this way: “Kick the closest shark.” It’s easy to be overwhelmed and shut down. But pick one thing and dig into it and it’s not always about what feels easy.  Shepherd Rebanks’ first rule of shepherding makes this clear right out of the gate: “It’s not about you. It’s about the sheep and the land.”  For you it’s about the task at hand.  Shepherds have to sacrifice their own agenda at times to get up and work the field no matter the weather or the date. Rebanks says it’s easy to tell the difference between a dedicated shepherd and a poser:  “Everything and everyone is at times covered in [dung] and snot. You learn to accept that you will get spattered in [dung] at times, or slaver, or afterbirth, or snot. That you will smell of your animals. You can always tell how alien someone is to our world by how terrified of the muck they look.”  This is why it is said that shepherds smell like their sheep. They are daily in the mix. Jesus says, “That’s what I need from you all too.”  People will come to faith in a mess. Don’t be terrified of the muck.

And while Peter’s getting ready to step in deep and you’re trying to take that bold next step in school, or at work, or in relationship, or with a child, or in retirement, you also need to know Rebank’s second rule of shepherding: Sometimes you can’t win.  Despite your hard work and every possible effort, set backs will come.  Road blocks will be set so high you’ll wonder if you can ever get over them. I was on the turnpike heading to visit family in Missouri one time when I saw a turtle attempting to claw its way up the concrete barrier in the middle of the turnpike.  It’s miles and miles of concrete hurdle.  I thought about how hard that turtle fought to make it half-way across only to encounter this impossible barrier.  Been worried about that turtle ever since – it’s only been about six years. I’m starting to sleep at night again. This is what Jesus is telling Peter.  “Dude… you don’t even know.  This call will take you places you don’t want to go.”  And your life will put you through some things.  In fact, I wonder if it is the roadblocks in our lives that are the reason we aren’t able to see our future. I’ve sat with so many people who said, “If I’d only known I was going to go through this, I would have quit a long time ago. I’d never choose to go through this.”  And we wouldn’t.  And we don’t.

We have some friends we met on the ball fields a few years back – their son played on our son’s team at the time.  A young, vibrant, healthy family.  The mom was diagnosed with a tricky and difficult-to-treat cancer last year.  It was devastating of course.  She’s video-blogged much of her journey through treatment and it’s had all the set backs you can imagine … bad updates and great illness and surgeries and extra hospitalizations… and some needed moments of levity sprinkled in too.  But she said this week, “If I would have known now what we had to go through, I don’t think I could have done it.”  But of course, she could… and they did… and she was deemed cancer free this week.  She’s a person of strong faith and named a song called Prophesy your Promise that guided her in the toughest times.  The song says, “You [God] set a table in the middle of my war. You knew the outcome of it all. When what I faced looked like it would never end, You said, “Watch the giants fall.” When I only see in part, I will prophesy Your promise. I believe You, God, because You finish what you start. I will trust you in the process. I believe you God.”  Later the song says, “Fear can go to hell…and shame can go there too. I know Whose I am.  I belong to You.”  While our friend is ready to be done with this fight, she said, “I don’t want to go back to what normal was… to who I was… to who we were… before all of this.  We’re stronger now than we’ve ever been.”  Life isn’t the roadblock. True life is how you respond to the roadblocks. Which leads to Rebanks third rule of shepherding: “Be quiet and go do the work.”  Well… that’s a little harsh, perhaps…he says it even more direct than that.  But this is the get up and get out principle.

As Peter is soaking in what Jesus is asking of him, he looks back around the campfire where the team is still frying fish and he focuses on John. Peter looks back to Jesus and motions over at John:  “What’s gonna happen to him?”  And Jesus says, “What’s it to you?  Worry about yourself.”  I personally think that Peter is looking after his friends and teammates but at least in this interpretation, it is more like Jesus is saying, “Don’t compare yourself to what everybody else is doing.  You be you. You’re the only you we’ve got.”  In the era of Social Media, we’re quick to compare our lives to our classmates, peers, and even acquaintances who we tend to downplay our relationships with them by saying, “Well… we’re Facebook friends,” as if to say, “We’re not that close.”  And yet, we’ll compare our grades, our jobs, our families, our homes, our abs, to each and every one of them.  Not knowing yourself – the true, authentic, God-created, unique self – is among life’s greatest tragedies.  Prophesy your promise.  Imagine your goals.  But fall in love with the process. You’ll spend most of your life in-process so it’s good to come to love the day-to-day journey – not just the mountaintop moments.

Winning an Oscar for cinematography, the end of John’s Gospel does it up right. John, named here as the disciple Jesus loved, is our narrator.  You hear the closing lines in his voice as the camera pans away from the scene, Jesus and Peter, locked forehead to forehead in their reconciling pact to forgive, forget, and grow forward as the other guys lick the tarter sauce off of their fingers as they enjoy the feast of their big catch. John’s voice says: “There are so many other things Jesus did.  If they were all written down, each of them, one by one, I can’t imagine a world big enough to hold such a library of books.” And scene.  Isn’t that epic?  I love it. It leaves space for your story and mine and what Christ is, can, and will be doing in your life as you transition forward. So… smell like that which God has entrusted to your care… battle through the struggles believing in the promises yet to be fulfilled, and one and all – get up and get out there… you are made to fly.

[1] Rebanks, James. The Shepherd’s Life: A Tale of the Lake District. Penguin Books, 2015.  Rebanks three rules are found here and introduced to me by Allison Byerley who contributed these pieces via “The Hefted Shepherd” found via the resource, Homiletics.  The exegetical support concerning the Peter and Jesus encounter on the beach also found via Homiletics – Rev. Bob Kaylor, Senior Writer.

text :: Luke 24: 1 - 12

theme verse :: “Peter got up, ran to the tomb; stopping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.” (Luke 24:12)

Rhythm is simply defined as a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound. Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine’s “Conga” comes to mind. Rhythm denotes a repeatable pattern and, consistently experienced enough, forms a sustainable base upon which any great song can be built. The Christian song is one of resurrection upon which every other layer of music in our life is built. How is your life adding to this great resurrection song? Thomas Merton writes, “Ask me not where I live or what I like to eat... Ask me what I am living for and what I think is keeping me from living fully for that." Let every hindrance fall away. Be amazed. Clear your lungs. Breathe deeply. And SING! Christ is risen!

Rising prayer :: 'Living Hope' (Phil Wickham) : The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader; Andi Gross, lead vocal

Rising communion :: 'Christ is Risen' (Phil Wickham) : The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, lead vocal

reader :: Lisa Rhynes
preaching :: Rev Mark Briley

Traditional anthem :: 'Behold the Lamb' (D. Phelps) :: Chancel Choir; Kelly Ford, director

Traditional offertory :: 'Empty Now' (J.Martin) :: Chancel Choir; Marla Patterson, soloist

Luke 19:28-40
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. ² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they went in, they did not find the body. ⁴ While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. ⁵ The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.⁶ Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷ that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” ⁸ Then they remembered his words, ⁹ and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰ Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹ But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. ¹² But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened. 

The rhythm is gonna get you! Can’t avoid it today. The Easter jam is too exhilarating! Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine made that song, “The Rhythm is Going to Get You,” famous in 1987.  It was written, maybe not surprisingly at all, by the band’s drummer, Enrique Garcia. Who knows more about rhythm than the drummer of Miami’s Sound Machine?  Just last year, the song was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, and artistically significant.”[1] Touche. Rhythm is contagious for sure and Gloria Estefan’s voice can easily get stuck in your head. Rhythm is simply defined as a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound. It denotes a repeatable pattern and, consistently experienced enough, forms a sustainable base upon which any great song can be built. The rhythm often makes the song. It’s something we can feel. When we were teens, if there was a song that didn’t have the best message but we still liked listening to it, that was our excuse: “We just like the beat.” “We just like the rhythm.” And my grandma would say, “Don’t let that rhythm getcha Markie!” Grandma… I’ve. Been. Gotten.

We’ve been living in the Sacred Rhythms of the spiritual life the last forty days leading us to this Easter moment. Our song today is one of resurrection… a rhythm of our faith upon which every other layer of our life-song is built. Today, as we celebrate the rise of life over death, I ask a simple question for you to consider: How is your life adding to this great resurrection song?  We get all spiffy’d up to be here today… might as well see if we’ve got any Easter rhythm in us. Is there any punch to Easter still or is it mostly pomp and circumstance?  I resonated with a guy who once said, “I want to do great things for God.”  It was such a noble desire and Easter had him all pumped up. I thought, “I want to do great things for God too.”  Something flipped a switch for him, however, that helped me re-calibrate the rhythm of my life too.  He said, “That idea had too much to do with me.  ‘I’ was what was on stage… as if ‘I’ was doing God some big heroic favor.” He shifted the idea to “I want to simply do things for a great God.” God will take care of the greatness of anything.  I just have to do the next faithful thing. This was about finding true purpose in the little things every day… not some grandiose operation that makes a hero out of me.  Just things that point to a great God… that bring some healing to the world, that validate the worth of someone who’s been de-valued. It was steady and faithful; even doable.  It’s like the old spiritual sage Thomas Merton’s quote: “Ask me not where I live or what I like to eat… Ask me what I am living for and what I think is keeping me from living fully for that.” What are you living for? What’s getting in the way of that?  Where is your rhythm?

Easter is as good a time as any to ask these questions. The story is familiar. After the terrible mess of Friday’s crucifixion, all pretty much sat in ruins.  Someone recently said, “Nothing ruins your Friday like realizing its Wednesday.”  But this particular Friday we’ve come to call Good, sort of ruined a whole lot of things – killed a man who was armed with nothing but a basin, a towel, and grace; killed a movement; broke a mother’s heart. It was a dark deal no doubt about it. Most of us can relate to Good Friday. We’ve had the loss. We’ve had a dream or an idea or a life-direction murdered. Any grueling heartbreak will give you the feels of Good Friday.

Silent Saturday followed… sometimes more numbing the day after than the day of the great demise itself.  Have you sat in such a space?  You haven’t showered. Your teeth have sort of fuzzed over. Your gaze is glossy… maybe staring out the window in the front room… seeing life moving on for others when yours clearly halted abruptly the day before.  People try.  They’ll ask you something. Mumble a trying word about “your loss,” maybe even leave a frozen casserole with a note about pre-heating the oven to 350 degrees and baking for sixty minutes.  It’s all a blur really.

Sunday rolls around… nothing sacred there… unless you’re a group of committed Jewish women who have honored Saturday’s Sabbath and have taken first chance to head to the tomb of their beloved son, leader, friend. It’s the women who need to be thanked for giving us Easter. Jesus did his part, of course, but it was the women who ventured to the tomb in their grief and fear and uncertainty. The four Gospels in the Bible all tell the resurrection account a little differently but every one of them gets the women to the tomb first; a culturally stunning reality given the oppression of women in that time and even now.

I saw this all-too-true cartoon this week that demonstrated this very thing.

It said, “So ladies, thanks for being the first to witness and report the resurrection and… we’ll take it from here.”  It is the women who have long, and still, been the backbone of the movement; whose voices and visions and witness should also lead us forward. As Luke tells us, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary (Jesus’ mother) and ‘the other’ women find the tomb empty which mostly compounds the feelings they’re already sorting through.

Suddenly, a couple of guys in Easter pastels with night-running head lamps on show up and say, “Whatcha lookin’ for?”  They tell the women that Jesus has checked out of the tomb after enjoying the “free hot breakfast.” It’s just like he intended all along. There’s understandable confusion. The angels go on: “Remember that time when you were back in Galilee and Jesus was teaching and he told that funny story about he and his brother James getting locked out of the family station wagon after the Zeppelin concert?” They nod… it was an epic story.  “And do you remember, then, when he said how he was going to be handed over to sinners, killed on a cross, and in three days rise up?  You remember that?”  “Oh yeah,” they said. And while I’m sure this was an insanely crazy moment of profound amazement and wonder and skepticism yet optimism and a thousand questions and with all sorts of noise and spices being kicked over and the like, the text simply reports rather stoically, “Then they remembered Jesus’ words.”  Come on, Luke, we want the deets, man.

The details make a difference, right?  We love the details. That’s where we connect. That’s how we relate. That’s how we truly get to know each other and even know Jesus.  Religion is a thing that can get in the way.  We can see religion and touch it and try to master it… but it’s not the same.  Over a billion dollars has been raised to reconstruct the Cathedral of Notre Dame which is an amazing thing coming out of a very tragic event.  Lots of pictures of the gold cross still hanging amidst the rubble of the cathedral. It’s a powerful image. We’re drawn to it because we can touch it, feel it, smell the smoldering piles of pews beneath it. I’m for its inspiring beauty and symbol of hope and new life. But I also know it’s just a building.

There’s a series of comic strips called “Coffee with Jesus.”[2] Great stuff.  Always makes me smile, think a bit, convict my own motives sometimes. There was this one that shows Jesus having a coffee conversation with a man named Kevin. While it’s floating around again, it was originally from 2011 so the references are a little dated but I think you’ll get the point.

Man says, “It’s that time of year when we all make our top ten lists, Jesus.  So, let’s hear one from you.  Give us your top ten most important events of 2011.”  Jesus says, “Well, number ten would have to be when this little girl in the rural reaches of Jilin Province in China gave her last apple to a very hungry old woman.” Man responds, “Yeah, that’s not really how this works, Jesus.  You pick a world story or maybe a celebrity screw-up.  Like Iran or Charlie Sheen.”  Jesus says, “You’ve got your important events, Kevin, and I’ve got mine.  Number nine:  a single mother of three in Mexico adopted the daughter of her dying neighbor…”. 

Religion has its value… I’m down with it…I’m swimming in it, right? But I also recognize religion isn’t ultimately the thing we’re after.  We’re after the details we uncover in relationship.  It’s why you have that knowing look with your best friend, your spouse, or that person who’s been through it all with you. You know the details… the back story… the ups and downs.  That’s the rhythm – the bass line – that you’re building your life-song on.  While we get a little shorted on the details here, I’m so thankful for the details we do have that guide us into a deeper relationship with this risen Jesus.

Following the reaction, as dramatic or even keeled as it may have been, the women high tail it back to the makeshift ‘Jesus movement’ office where Peter and the other disciples were still in a fog.  Breathless, but in the best kind of way, the women told the other disciples what they had experienced.  Luke says, “they kept telling these things to the apostles” but the apostles didn’t believe a word. Before we dog the guys out too much here, let’s trust that all of us would find the whole thing a bit unfathomable. And… they were grieving and shocked and exhausted too.  Peter, who always acts before he thinks things through, does what many of us may have been inclined to do: lace ‘em up and get to running to the tomb ourselves.  The others stayed behind presumably. They probably huddled around a couple of different televisions – half the group were Fox News guys and the others MSNBC.  Surely there was some local coverage by now.  Pete’s running… man… the endorphins that bounce around your brain when you run are incredible.  His thoughts are flashing back through all of the highlights… when he first met Jesus, skeptical as any.  The time he walked on water to meet Jesus (more thrilling than bungy jumping). The guard’s ear Peter lopped off when he tried to arrest Jesus… and Jesus putting that ear right back in place. The first time Peter told Jesus, “I believe you’re the Messiah.” The time he told Jesus he’d never betray him… and the three times he came up short, betraying his best friend. The spiraling out of control events of Friday and now… this.

If you’ve given Jesus much time in your life, your story may have similar ups and downs. Seasons when you’ve been in-it-to-win-it, so deeply committed, faithful.  Times you served others in need, stood up for the oppressed, served on the tech team at the church.  But there were seasons when you let that relationship drift… you were doing you, building an empire or really got into that one hobby that seemed to sort of take over much of your time and, you know, hobbies aren’t a bad thing but they can cause a drift. Maybe you weren’t feeling churchy or your questions felt ignored or that one thing happened and it soured you to the religious stuff. Whatever the case, we may call Peter ‘Saint’ today but he was just a guy trying to figure it out… wanting to do something meaningful with his life… believing he had discovered something real and genuine in Jesus.  Someone once said, “The superheroes you have in your mind are nearly all walking flaws who’ve maximized one or two strengths.”

Peter gets there… the guys in the dazzling prom tuxedoes were now gone.  It’s just Peter and the tomb.  Never bashful, he barrels his way into the tomb… pulls out his smart phone and finally gets his thumb swiped just right to get his flashlight app to stay on so he can see. Nothing there.  Just some grave clothes. “Boss?” Pete whispers. “Jesus. You here?”  Nothing but the crickets out front and the fragrance of lilies… maybe a little muffled Lauren Daigle, “You’re Still Rolling Stones” in the earbuds that were dangling down the front of his shirt. “And Peter walks away puzzled, shaking his head in amazement.” It’s such an epic deal here, my friends. I don’t pretend to grasp it all myself.  But I, too, am stunned in amazement. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says,

“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement… get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”

That’s the Easter jam. That’s the sacred rhythm… built on resurrection amazement. But what’s the lasting impact? Someone said very bluntly one time and I’ve adjusted some language because people can get worked up about that sort of thing but he said, “If you see your glass as half-empty, pour it into a smaller glass and quit complaining.” This Easter thing… this invitation to new life in Christ… the grace that turns all that seems like loss and death to wins and life… sets the tone for the rest of our lives.  It’s beyond comprehensible description; an overflowing cup no matter the size of container we try to hold it in.

Last Sunday, David Brock, one of our elders stood at the Table to invite us to share our offerings for the day. He stood right there, looked over at me and said to all of you, “I wonder what would happen if Mark stood up in the pulpit and simply said, “I got nothin’!” We all laughed but I was thinking… “You don’t know how many times we’ve been that close, buddy.”  Sometimes I really just want to say, “Friends, if cauliflower can somehow become pizza crust, anything is possible.” Truth is, today is sort of a “I got nothin’” sort of Sunday.  I’m tempted to give you some theological discourse on the preposterous yet undisputable proof of the great Easter mystery. I’d love to think that something I would say today would push somebody over the edge of disbelief to faith; get that email that says, “You know, pastor, before Easter Sunday, I was not having any of it… but that thing you said, that proof you gave, that amazing illustration about the drummer of the Miami Sound Machine knowing so much about rhythm just set it off for me. I wasn’t in before but I’m in now.”  Rhythm is gonna get you!  Every minister’s dream, you know?  But the honest truth?  I got nothin’.

Renegade pastor and public theologian, Nadia Bolz-Weber tweeted out this week what she does every year saying,

“Clergy and church workers – here’s your yearly reminder: Jesus will rise from the dead even if you forgot to print out the right hymns, even if the lilies arrive already wilted, even if the whole choir gets food poisoning… [even if you get into the pulpit and you got nothin! we might add,] Nothing will keep the stone from rolling away.”

Thank God for that.  And the reality is, it’s up to you what you do with Easter from here.  Peter, peering into the tomb to see for himself what the women had already witnessed and proclaimed, simply “went home,” the text says, “amazed at what had happened.”  We may do some of that today. After the ham and the deviled eggs and jello molds and a nap and the Thunder playoff game, we may say, “How ‘bout that music?  Amazing.” Or “Did you see so and so there?  Nice to see the kids were home.”  Or… “Resurrection, huh.  That’s interesting.”  Going home amazed is part of the Easter story.  But what really matters is what happens the next day. Rhythm is a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement.  The sacred rhythm of Easter is strong… and when repeated in our daily lives… it changes the world.  That’s what’s truly amazing. So even when I’ve got nothin’… we’ve got all that ever really matters.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythm_Is_Gonna_Get_You
[2] http://www.coffeewithjesus.com/

text :: John 13:1-20

theme verse :: “For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” (John 13:15)

Any musician will tell you that honoring the ‘rests' are just as important as playing the ‘notes.’ Even so, we are culturally all about the notes and much less interested in the rests. The disciples, ready to party for the Passover and equally ready to act on Jesus’ next move to kingship were taken aback when Jesus essentially says, “Let’s start with the rest.” Amidst betrayal and greed and ignorance, Jesus chooses to serve and suggests we do the same.

reader :: Rev Courtney Richards

special music :: 'Song for Someone' (Bono/U2) : The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader

preaching :: Rev Mark Briley

reprise :: 'Song for Someone'

communion anthem :: 'Remember Me' (Taize) : Chancel Choir; Kelly Ford, director

John 13:1-20
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ² The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper ³ Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, ⁴ got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. ⁵ Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. ⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” ⁷ Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” ⁸ Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” ⁹ Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” ¹¹ For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

¹² After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³ You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶ Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷ If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. ¹⁸ I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But it is to fulfill the scripture, ‘The one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ ¹⁹ I tell you this now, before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he. ²⁰ Very truly, I tell you, whoever receives one whom I send receives me; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.”

And there is a light… don’t let it go out.  What an ending, eh?  That Bono knows how to leave you hanging.  This “Song for Someone” was released to the world in 2015.[1]  Bono’s little band called U2 gave us this gift.  He mentioned it was initially a song for his wife – childhood sweetheart named Ali whom he later married and has been married to ever since. What a world that opened before them?  Bono told Rolling Stone, “Before I even knew what commitment was, I ended up as a young man in the arms of this young woman, in a world somewhat hostile to the concept of the childhood sweetheart and a first love.”[2]  He went on to say, “This Song for Someone is about first journeys.” It became a song for anyone trying to find their way. For a lyric describing a childhood existence, there’s certainly some depth there.  Some pain… that perhaps he could only imagine from the distance of decades.  Did you hear it?  “You got a face not spoiled by beauty… I have some scars from where I’ve been. I don’t know how these cuts heal… but in you I found a rhyme.”  First journeys, it turns out, tend to happen over and over again in our lives.  Pain, especially, is something… even when we think we’re numb to it from bearing so much of it… comes back with a fury … almost like it’s new every time.

Listen… for a moment… to this excerpt from Rob Bell’s Drops Like Stars.  It’s a bit of a trip but see if you can’t hold the ups and downs of first journeys that are more repeatable than we might think.

“In 1941, in a village in Nazi-controlled Poland, a young man came home to discover that his father             had died while he was at work.  What made his father’s death exceedingly more unbearable was that several years earlier, both this young man’s sister and mother had died. As he held his father’s dead body in his arms, he lamented, “I’m all alone. At twenty, I’ve already lost all the people I’ve loved.” One writer described it like this: “Ripped out of the soil of his background, his life could no longer be what it used to be.  He now began a journey to deeper communion with God. But it didn’t come without tears, and it didn’t come without what seems to have been a certain existential horror.” Suffering can do that to us. We’re jolted, kicked, prodded, and shoved into new realities we never would have brought about on our own. We’re forced to imagine a new future because the one we were planning on is gone. The key word here is, of course, “imagine.” That young Polish man sitting on the floor with his dead father in his arms was having all of his boxes smashed to pieces. “His life could no longer be what it used to be.”

Rob then makes a seemingly random transition.  Play along…

Now for a multiple-choice question: If we went to a performing arts center on a Saturday night and as we walked in we noticed that everybody was dressed up and backstage there were various performers pacing back and forth in tights and slippers and they had Russian last names, we would know we were at:

1. The rodeo
2. An insurance convention
3. The grand opening of a new hair salon
4. The ballet

The location and time and clothes of this event are what art theorists call “insulators.” Insulators frame an event, providing context and helping determine the meaning of an experience for us. If we went to the ballet and everybody in the audience was wearing snorkels or the musicians were all red-haired banjo players with no teeth or instead of being handed a program we were handed a squirrel, we would immediately begin asking, “What is this?” But our real question would be, “Where is this? Where do we put this? How do we place it?” Because our standard reference points—the usual insulators – wouldn’t be there to guide us.  That’s often what happens when we suffer. We had things well planned out. We knew what meant what.  We had all of our boxes properly organized and labeled. But all of that was disrupted when we began to suffer. So there’s “out of the box,” which is often merely a variation of the same thing. And then there are those who think and feel and live and create from a different place. They’ve had their boxes smashed and their insulators dismantled until they had no other option but to imagine a totally new tomorrow.

We could call this the art of disruption. [a life defining shifter]

…  that young Polish man? His name was Karol Jozef Wojtyla, but later in life he was known as Pope John Paul II.

Things change. Insulators implode. Life shifts. Then Rob quotes Catherine of Aragon who said, “None get to God but through trouble.”[3]

Huh.  All the pain… the scrappy nature of the human journey.  The firsts, the middles, the repeat offenders, the endings.  This is a Song for Someone.  Maybe it’s a song for you tonight.  This Table stuff?  Maybe not your first time… but maybe worth coming as if for the first time again.  It is probably the first time today… maybe in a while.  Maybe since that new pain hit.  That new loss.  That new sense of darkness.  Something’s always happening to disrupt the rhythm. 

This was no doubt the case that first/last Passover gift of what we’ve come to know as sacred and standard.  John’s Gospel account gives us the disruption more than the meal. The gathering… the Passover… the meal and celebration… and yet the lingering knowing of Jesus that things were going to be different and more quickly than any of them had clue. He was about to hand his disciples a squirrel. The meal was presumably going as planned. The people were there. The food hit all the menu requirements. The respite from the road a welcomed pause. The energy of Jesus’ recent entry to Jerusalem still ripe with the flow of adrenaline. In it all, however, something wasn’t sitting right in Jesus’ own spirit. Luke’s gospel notes there’s a little dispute at this meal about “Who is the greatest among the disciples.”  Seven-year old’s ask this question sometimes: “Who do you think is the best player on our baseball team, dad?” John doesn’t mention this piece but perhaps it was hanging as a bit of a cloud over the gathering as far as Jesus was concerned.  And… the fact that Jesus gets up during dinner to wash the feet of his disciples suggests that the team may have all been too proud to set up the water basin and towel so that all could wash their feet when they entered the room.

Standard practice before dinner was the washing of the feet. The Palestinian roads were unsurfaced and uncleaned. In dry weather it was inches deep in dust and in wet weather it was liquid mud.[4] Feet are more purposeful than beautiful anyway so washing the dirty feet of your peers was kind of a chore.  Wealthy parties had servants for that job but this crew with Jesus likely couldn’t afford such a service. It probably fell among them as a task of taking turns. My kids like cuddling with our dog but they scatter quickly when it’s time to take her out to use the restroom. Given the rise of attention on Palm Sunday and these questions about greatness, the job of washing the feet before dinner may have seemed beneath them.

So, sitting at dinner with dirty feet, arguing about who is the greatest, and who knows what else, Jesus knows this is a moment that can’t be ignored. What transpires is perhaps the most profound leadership teaching that Jesus ever offers. What do you do when you realize you’re the most powerful person in the room? You serve. Jesus pushes back from the table while the rest are carrying on. He grabs a bucket, fills it with warm water and pulls the “Happy Passover” dish towel that was hanging on the stove handle. He rolls up his sleeves, gets down on his knees and starts washing feet without saying a word. The table gets quiet. There are confused faces. It gets a bit awkward to be honest. Jesus silently washes the muck off the feet of a couple of his disciples, dries between their toes and rubs their feet dry with the towel, squeezes them gently maybe offering a short blessing and moves on to the next.

Peter, as vocal and stubborn as any of the team, is about third in line. He ain’t comfortable with this at all. Jesus gets to him and Pete breaks the silence by asking Rob Bell’s question: “Whoa. Hold up there, Teach. What is this?”  Peter’s grabbed that “Happy Passover” towel out of Jesus’ hands to get Jesus to look at him. “This is silly, Jesus.  I’m sorry that we flaked out on the feet washing job tonight. That’s our bad. Andrew?  It was your turn, Bro.  Whatever the case, I’m sorry we didn’t get it done but you’re just being ridiculous now.” But Jesus, as if to say, “You miss this lesson and you miss the whole thing,” says, “Peter… you either let me do this or there’s no place for you in the future movement.” If you can’t learn to serve humbly like this, you’ll never fully grasp the thrust of the message.  Peter relents but he’s not happy about it.  And the pain of the silence as Jesus goes one by one… no sound in the room except the splash of the water and the pat of the towel.

This is it. The disruption of service. And when Jesus is done, sweat on his brow from the hard work, fingers wrinkled from soaking in too much dirty water, he stands and says, “Do you get it now? Do you see what I’ve done? This is a song for someone in this room who will never forget this moment.  This is a song for someone who’s too proud to serve like that. This is a song for someone who’s worried about being the greatest. Greatness is found only in this way. Get it wrong and everything else will start going to your head.  I’ve set the example. Go and do likewise.”

That’s one way to put a damper on an otherwise fun dinner party.  But such is the case of first journeys.  Every moment with Jesus was new… a renewal of an old practice… a shift of some tradition to turn it on its head.  The question moves from “What is this?” to “Where is this? Where do we put this? How do we place it?” It makes no sense.  And… we’re always trying to figure this out.  Paul was the one who gave us that vulnerable and all too honest line, “Why do I always do the very thing I don’t want to do.  I do the thing I hate and I can’t seem to do the very thing I want to do.”  And here we sit in such a similar state… repeat offenders wondering if we can journey again as if for the first time.

I have a high school classmate who I haven’t spoken to since high school, but we became Facebook friends a number of years ago. We hung out a few times in Middle School but not really after that.  Even so, went to a small school in a small town so you know everybody and I generally counted everyone a friend.  I’ll call him Rico… not his real name… but if you’re gonna make up a name, might as well be a cool name like Rico. Rico’s little brother died when we were in Middle School.  He went missing for a while and was later found in an abandoned well on their farm.  It was so sad.  Rico was a bit of a bully on into high school… maybe had a bit of a chip on his shoulder as I could understand. He was a little guy but talked big. He became a father as a teen himself and via his posts, I’ve learned he became a grandfather by his mid-30’s.  Rico posted recently a “Rest in Peace” message, naming his sister who apparently passed a few years ago – she was several years younger than us. Rico has had some trouble with the law and has maybe been a bit of an over-poster on social media but he puts it right out there:  issues he’s got with other people; job’s he’s started, lost, started again.  He’s ranted and asked for forgiveness.  He’s declared fresh starts and repeat attempts at giving up nicotine.  He’s been up and down with posts about faith… starting over… hoping anew … declaring trust in Jesus as Savior… “This time for real!” he’ll say.

He’s posted many scripture verses this week… longing for the truth of this week to settle in the world.  And I just long for his heart.  He’s been through a lot… many fits and restarts and mistakes… some beautiful; others with wounds that still gape wide open. I believe, in the depths of his soul, he’s good. He’s got a desire for God. And he’s been burned and rejected time and time again. This night is a song for Rico. It’s a song for someone here too. Bono says it this way: “I’m a long way from your hill of Calvary… and I’m a long way from where I was and where I need to be…”.  If that’s you tonight?  This is a song for you.  If you could journey again… as if this was your first communion experience… how would you approach it?  How would it feel?  How would it taste?  Would you pray?  What would you say to Jesus? If you felt him kneel, slide off your shoes and holy socks and washed your feet, how would it change your heart? …

Where have you been since you’ve last been at this Table?  What miles have you run? What struggle have you endured. What loss has you reeling? What sin has your gut churning?

We watched alongside the world, the Cathedral of Notre Dame go up in flames on Monday… that spire, with cross that pierced the sky, tumbled down on top of itself.  Rico posted about it… “a sign of the times,” he said.  What are we do to with this?  Where do we place this?  Another colleague posted this: “All who are saddened by Notre Dame should make a pilgrimage to their own house of worship… Please thank those who have cared for it, adorned it, left legacy in it.”  Then he quoted Fred Craddock, the humble preacher, who said, “A plain, cinder block two-room country church, with a concrete floor and hardwood benches, is a heavenly palace where angels reside when you bring and receive the love of Jesus every week.”

What are you bringing into this moment?  What are you willing to take out of this moment? There is suffering, yes.  There is sadness and grief, yes. There is trial and error and trial again, yes. And there is betrayal. But… the invitation Bono offers to his beloved in this song for someone may be one we offer Christ tonight: “You let me into a conversation; a conversation only we could make. You break and enter my imagination… whatever’s in there it’s yours to take. I was told I’d feel nothing the first time… but this could be the night.”

I want to tell you a secret. You’re in on something tonight that most are missing. They maybe don’t mean to miss out. Maybe they don’t care. Maybe they just don’t know. When you told them you were going to a Maundy Thursday service tonight, they responded, “Is that like Taco Tuesday?” Or maybe you didn’t tell anybody at all.  But since you came, I hope you know this song for someone?  It’s for you.  This could be the night. May you receive the grace of Christ as if for the very first time.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFjcd_d2PhY.  Song for Someone. U2.
[2] https://www.songfacts.com/facts/u2/song-for-someone
[3] Drops Like Stars. Rob Bell. Harper One Publishing. 2009. Pg 27-33.
[4] Exegetical background as shared in William Barclay’s commentary on the Gospel of John. Westminster Press. 1975.

text :: Psalm 139:1-18; 23-24

theme verse :: “See if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:24)

Some of us have been so shaped by shame-based family or church systems that we resist entering into deeper levels of self-awareness for fear of being debilitated even further. We counter that resistance with, “But God loves us unconditionally,” and indeed God does. However, we are still inclined to dodge ourselves to avoid the possible pain of shame or rejection. The famed Psalm 139 includes the paradox that we invite God to search and know us even as we acknowledge in the same breath that God already does. As Ruth Barton notes, “This may point to the fact that the real issue in self-examination is not that I am inviting God to know me (since God already does) but that I am inviting God to help me know me.” Becoming more aware of who we’ve been and who we are may be the very best indicator of who we can become yet.

offertory :: 'Precious Lord, Take My Hand' (M.Hayes) :: Marilyn Rhodes, piano

reader :: Dan Pease
preaching :: Rev Mark Briley

special music :: 'Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)' (HillsongUnited) :: The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader; Andi Gross, lead vocal

Psalm 139:1-18; 23-24
¹ O Lord, you have searched me and known me. ² You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. ³ You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. ⁴ Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.  ⁵ You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. ⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it. ⁷ Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? ⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. ⁹ If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, ¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. ¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,” ¹² even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. ¹³ For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. ¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. ¹⁵  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. ¹⁷ How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! ¹⁸ I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you. ²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. ²⁴ See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

September 22, 2007.  Less than two years before my family would move to Tulsa from Indianapolis to join you in ministry.  I was watching highlights from the college football happenings of the day and a fiery head coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboys lit up a press conference following a victory of all things over Texas Tech. Coach Mike Gundy didn’t comment on the game but went right after a published article about his benching of the starting quarterback.  He didn’t like the media picking on his young players. The line that lingers for all of history and follows this coach most everywhere he goes was of course, It has inspired many-a 40^th birthday cake ever since.  The press conference went viral… one of the very first viral videos in college football to do so as Social Media was a new medium. Mike Gundy’s offensive coordinator at the time, Larry Fedora, missed the blow up of his boss but knew something had gone down at the press conference.  That night, Fedora walked across the cul-de-sac where he lived to Gundy’s house, knocked on the door and said, “What the heck happened in your press conference?” Gundy invited him in and said, “I’ll show you.  It’s already on YouTube.”  Fedora said, “OK, but what the heck is a YouTube?”

I sent my wife a meme this weekend of Gundy’s famous quote as I hit the big 4-0 myself.  She’s been waiting all this time for me to grow up and finally, I’ve apparently crossed some threshold.  “I’m a man. I’m 40!”  The truth is, what became a satirical gaffe for most of the country was hard on many of the people involved. Reflecting ten years later, Gundy said, “That whole thing was harder than people remember, and honestly, it was harder for a lot of people than I realized at the time.”  While some saw his tirade positively, seeing a coach who would stand up for his players, others saw his tirade as bullying the media and less than helpful for some of the players, the quarterback, Bobby Reid, chief among them.  Reid transferred away from OSU to Texas Southern and said of the tirade: “It basically ended my life.” It’s been years of processing that three minute episode. After four years, Coach Gundy and the former quarterback made peace with the incident and each other. Two years after making peace, Reid joined the OSU staff working in quality control for a couple of years. Gundy also made peace with the journalist who wrote the article and continues to reflect on the evolution of his life.

Gundy said, “I see that guy on that video and I see a guy who was going to work every single day with his fists clenched, feeling like he’s gotta scrap for every single inch every single day.” He can’t recall the last time he watched the clip voluntarily, but he doesn’t have to. That stalking, shouting, pointing man is permanently embedded on the memory card of his mind. “Don’t misunderstand, we’re still fighting for everything we get around here. But if you could go back in time, I would want to put my arm around that guy and say, ‘Hey dude, it’s going to be OK.’  It’s all part of what Gundy described on the decade anniversary of the incident as “Ten years of realizing you aren’t right about everything all of the time.”[1]

Is there any among us who couldn’t benefit from some self-reflection of the stories of our lives?  We’ve all got these moments… maybe when we fell or stumbled or overreacted or chose poorly or caused harm or said that thing or whatever it may be that we’ve either allowed to remain an open wound or have done some spiritual work to let it scar … not forgotten… but healed over, learned from, stronger, more compassionate for facing it and growing through it.  This isn’t fully an age thing… though age brings some wisdom that only the passage of time allows.  This is an intentional thing, a vulnerable thing, a come-to-Jesus meeting with yourself – if not your circles of accountability.

We’re in deep today friends.  Not going to hide that.  We’re not playing in the shallow end of the pool today.  “We’re far from the shallow now…” to bring Gaga into the whole thing. It’s the poignant truth of the moment. Next Sunday, we’ll wave Palm Branches and recall the first gathering for communion on Maundy Thursday and look up at the cross on Good Friday where Jesus will stare back into our eyes.  That’s next week. Are you ready for that?  What clutter do you need to clear in your soul, in your conscience, in your heart, in your relationships?  This ain’t no joke. We’re in the deep end of this Sacred Rhythms series and we’ve got to look deep inside ourselves.  Ruth Haley Barton has been our companion in this series.  She calls this moment the practice of self-examination.  She quotes Andreas Ebert who said,

“Many avoid the path of self-knowledge because they are afraid of being swallowed up in their own abysses.  But Christians have confidence that Christ has lived through all the abysses of human life and that he goes with us when we dare to engage in sincere confrontation with ourselves.  Because God loves us unconditionally – along with our dark sides – we don’t need to dodge ourselves.  In the light of this love, the pain of self-knowledge can be at the same time the beginning of our healing.”

This so reminds me of the regular question Jesus asked of those approaching him with a want, a need, a desire: “Do you want to be made well?” Such a piercing question.  Well?  What about you?  What about me?  When it comes to addiction and trials and the damaging patterns we create in our lives, we know it is often said, “Until we want it… until we are willing to suffer the pain of acknowledging our out-of-control-realities and that the consequences of not healing are worse than the requirements of change (and even the loss of change), we can’t really heal.”  Do you want to be made well?

There comes a time in our spiritual walk where one of the main things God is up to is lovingly holding up a mirror before our souls that we might see ourselves more clearly.  It’s a sobering moment. It may be what Paul meant when he wrote to the Romans (12:3), “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather ‘think of yourself with sober judgment,’ in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” It’s time to take a closer look. Few of us may be excited about this exercise.  And our culture is quick to hold up a different mirror before God can get the true mirror to reflect who we are.  Some of us have been so shaped by shame-based family systems or religious experiences that we don’t want to examine the soul any deeper than we have to. We fear that we will forever tread water in a pool of shame or remorse.  Sometimes, our quest for perfection is so pronounced that we couldn’t bear facing the truth of our own shadow sides without becoming completely unraveled. “Just trying to hold life together by a thread, here,” we say. “Don’t clip the thread or it will all come undone.”  We all want to know that someone knows all there is to know about us and loves us anyway. We generally want this, however, without doing the hard spiritual, self-reflective work of being totally honest with ourselves.

King David – a significant Psalmist – gives us Psalm 139 which would be worth a daily read if you’re up for it.  It is a Psalm that is often read in poignant moments of life and death.  It’s the one about God knowing every bone in our body – even as we were being formed in our mother’s womb, God knows the number of our days.  It is often titled, “The Inescapable God.”  “Whether I walk in the thick of trouble or am flying high,” says David, “you are there.”  At times, I wonder if David is glad that he can’t escape God’s presence or if he’s really annoyed about the whole situation. “Can I not get a moment of privacy, God?”  It’s like a parent trying to use the restroom in peace with little toddlers running around the house. They. are. always. there. And while on a first reading, it seems David is asking God to investigate his life… see if there is any wickedness within him and, to quote another of his Psalms, “Create a clean and right spirit” within him. But, as Barton notes, this may point us beyond to a deeper soul level than simply, “God, look at me. What do you see?”  She says, “This may point to the fact that the real issue in self-examination is not that I am inviting God to know me (since God already does) but that I am inviting God to help me know me.”

Instead of inviting God to help me know me, we tend to invite social media platforms to tell us who we are.  We are dimly aware that everybody else can’t possibly be as successful, rich, attractive, relaxed, intellectual and joyous as they appear to be on Facebook. Yet we can’t help comparing our inner lives with the curated lives of our friends. Facebook works with an outside company to gather data (surprised?) on the cars people actually own.  They also have data on the cars people associate with by posting about them or liking them on Facebook.  Owners of luxury cars like BMWs and Mercedes are about two and a half times as likely to announce their affiliation on Facebook as are owners of ordinary makes and models. How ‘bout that?  What about musical tastes?  Spotify reports that twenty-nine of the forty musicians women listen to most frequently are also the artists most frequently listened to by men. Facebook tells another story. Men have underplayed their interest in artists like Katy Perry on Facebook but she was the tenth most listened to artist among men, beating out Bob Marley, Kendrick Lamar and Wiz Khalifa – all of whom have far more male “likes” on Facebook. We aren’t making honest reflections of ourselves. A frequent quote of Alcoholics Anonymous members is helpful here:
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz reported these findings after spending five years peeking into people’s insides.[2]  He studied aggregate Google search data noting how people tend to tell Google things they don’t reveal on Social Media. He found when wives spoke of their husbands on social media, the top five descriptors for, “My husband is… are “the best,” “my best friend,” “amazing,” “the greatest” and “so cute.”  On Google the only one of those five utilized to complete that phrase was “amazing.”  The other top responses?  “My husband is… “a jerk,” “annoying,” and “mean.”  Davidowitz’s research data of five years was surprisingly comforting to him.  He felt less alone in his insecurities, anxieties and struggles.  He trusts Google’s autocomplete far more than people’s Social Media posts. “Type in “I always…” he writes, “and see the Google suggestions that arise based on other people’s searches.  “I always feel tired” or “I always feel bloated…” are top searches which is a stark contrast to social media where everybody “always” seems to be on a Caribbean vacation.  Don’t let Social Media be the primary investigator of your life. Invite God to help you know you better.

If God truly knows us better than any human ever possibly can, then let’s open our lives fully in God’s presence.  Use Psalm 139 as a daily review. This self-examination is an ancient tradition known as the examen of consciousness.  This may take only a few minutes at the close of every day, asking ourselves, “How was God present with me today?” “What promptings did I notice?” “How did I respond or not respond?” This may be harder at first, but with a little consistency, the examen will begin to shift the way we encounter the world during the day. We’ll start looking at the world with new eyes and with more reflective vision.  The Psalm also helps us consider the goodness of our lives… celebrating it in all of our fearfully-and-wonderfully-made-ness. “How is my very being a blessing today?  My body? My soul? My relationships?” This self-examen then leads to our own awakening to the darkness within.  This is harder of course, and more vulnerable.  It’s hard to acknowledge that we have a shadow side. But David, confident that God has created him as deeply good, is also able to let the parts that are confusing even to himself come into the light of God’s presence so that God can show him how to confront his shadow side. “Search me, God, know me, check me on the wicked stuff, cleanse me and move me into the everlasting way.”  In part, this is David acknowledging as he does in this Psalm: “Even the darkness is not dark to you.”  God can deal… and God invites us to face it too… then, and only then, can we begin to imagine healing. Confession is the only impetus to forgiveness.  Can we get there?  Are we willing to go to those depths with God?  with ourselves?

Ram Das says,

This is what Richard Rohr calls essential to the classic “spiritual schedule” of our lives: “Some event, person, death, idea, or relationship will enter your life with which you simply cannot cope using your present skill set, acquired knowledge, or willpower.”[3]  He says this will lead us to the edge of our own private resources.  We must “lose” at something.  It’s the only way that the mysterious grace of God can get to us to change.  It is only there that we let go of our egocentric preoccupations and are willing to go deeper.  We’ve got to be out of the driver’s seat for a while or we never learn to relinquish control. The Gospels show us better than anything else that life is tragic but graciously shows us that we can not only survive but, more importantly, grow from the tragedy. Joseph Campbell says, “Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.”  Julian of Norwich says it even better: “First there is the fall, and then we recover from the fall – and both are the mercy of God.”  This is the journey we’re on.  “God, search me.  God, help me see me as you see me. Help me to know myself honestly so that I can become my best self for you, and my family and my community and the world.” This is what it means to bring our whole selves before God.  No matter your age or stage… 14, 40, 60, 80, 100… that number doesn’t make you who you are.  It doesn’t define your manhood or womanhood or personhood.  What matters is the willingness to examine what is real and true… about us… about God… and pray our lives forward into greater health, understanding, and wholeness.

I want to close this morning with what is called “The Prayer of Abandonment” by Brother Charles de Foucauld who wrestled with what it meant to bring the entirety of himself before God some 150 years ago. May you, with a spirit of openness, allow his prayer to be ours today…

God, I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you: I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me and in all your creatures — I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into your hands I commend my soul: I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands without reserve, and with boundless confidence, for you are my God. Amen.[4]

[1] http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/20285966/oklahoma-state-cowboys-mike-gundy-reflects-rant-10-years-later
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/06/opinion/sunday/dont-let-facebook-make-you-miserable.html
[3] From Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation:  Meditations@cac.org.  March 31, 2019.
[4] Charles de Foucauld: Writings, ed. Robert Ellsberg (Orbis Books: 1999), 104.

text :: Romans 8:26-27

theme verse :: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought...” (Romans 8:26)

Many of us have learned a “go-to” prayer over time –often a bedtime prayer as a child or The Lord’s Prayer as we prayed it each week in worship. But ask anyone without notice to say a prayer aloud or share about their prayer life and most get wide-eyed and tight lipped pretty quick. It seems, however, that as our spirit’s mature, we recognize that the gift of prayer shifts as well –often from a sense of communication to God to an experience of communion with God. How might we move from “What do I pray?” to “How is my life a prayer?”

special music :: 'Come As You Are' (Crowder) :: The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader

reader :: Hollie Hawkins
preaching :: Rev Mark Briley

anthem :: 'Lord, I Want To Be A Christian' (arr.Lantz) :: Chancel Choir; Kelly Ford, director; Christina Maxwell, soloist

Romans 8:26-28
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. ²⁷ And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. ²⁸ We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

I could be wrong.  No need to wait for the but, here. It’s not coming.  I could be wrong. Period.  I’ve got to say, I’m sort of relieved.  Sure, we want to be right.  We believe what we believe, we do what we do, we fight for the things we fight for because we believe we’re right.  But some of us never seem to get to that point of saying, “I could be wrong.”  It really is sort of refreshing.  Do you want to try?  Just say it: “I could be wrong.” Doesn’t it feel good?  Nah. We much prefer to be right.  So I won’t speak for you.  I’ll just speak for myself.  I could be wrong, you know.  I mean, I’m thinking specifically about prayer in this moment.  I’m sure there was a time when I once thought prayer was about getting what I want.  I’d heard all the quips: “God wants me to have the desires of my heart.”  Terrific. I want to date her, drive that, live there, go to that school and do that job. Done. Even Jesus said something that turned into a great worship tune I sang in college: “Ask, and it will be given to you.  Seek and you will find.  Knock and the door will be open to you… the door will be open to you.”  Boom. Prayer.  This stuff is easy.  Well… not everything turned out as I prayed so I was confronted with what that was all about. You’ve had this struggle too.

Think Bedlam. Oklahoma Sooners versus O-State Cowboys – always the biggest game of the year around these parts and half the crowd is praying for a Sooner victory and the other half for the Cowboys but we all know God prefers the _________, right? So you could be wrong.  Ah… so then what about those prayers?  And it gets more serious than football. I got a text last week from a friend whose mother was in the hospital… things weren’t looking good.  My friend texts me that his sister is praying for a miracle to heal their mom and my friend was praying for the suffering to end so their mom wouldn’t be in this terrible state any longer.  That’s a little deeper isn’t it?  What about those prayers?  Another friend comes to me with a great heartache in her spirit about something she’s been facing for decades and is weary and scared and uncertain and she simply says, “I don’t know what I want from you… I guess I just want your prayers.”  Of course. Another friend yet texts about a job interview – this would be a great career step for my friend and good for his family and he said, “Please pray me in…”. Absolutely.  But do I pray he gets the job, and my other friend’s heartache gets removed and for a miracle for my other friend’s mom or his request that her suffering ends and she joins the great saints of the resurrection?

Richard Rohr, a Franciscan Priest, wrote a great book called “Falling Upward,” addressing the two halves of our lives – which I highly recommend.  And I’m soon to be officially “Over the Hill” myself which I can’t believe.  I remember as a kid going to a family friend’s 40^th birthday surprise party and we hid a bunch of “Over the Hill” gags around the house and I thought that Don must have known Jesus personally he was so old. Well, now that’s almost me so… pray for me?  Anyway, Rohr quotes Paul in Romans 9 where Paul writes,

But Rohr says we only realize this is true in the second half of life. Rohr’s life halves are less numerical and more spiritually based. “We had to do the wanting and the trying and the achieving and the self-promoting and the accomplishing. The first half of life is all about some kind of performance principle. And it seems that it must be this way. We have to do it wrong before we know what right might be. In the second half of life, we start to understand that life is not only about doing; it’s about being.”  He then tells a story about going home to Kansas after his father had just retired at the age of sixty-five.

For thirty-six years, his dad had painted trains for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad.  He had grown up poor during the Depression and the dust storms of western Kansas. Generationally, jobs were something you valued deeply and once you got one, you weren’t going to lose it.  Never missed a single day of work in all those years. The company said, “He turned on the lights every morning.” Isn’t that something? And so here he is on Day One of retirement literally falling into his son’s arms in tears saying, “I don’t know who I am now. I don’t know who I am. … pray with me, pray with me.” Here is Richard Rohr, a grown man, a priest, supposed to be strong for his dad and he said, “I didn’t know how to do it.  I guess I said the appropriate priestly words, but I didn’t know how to guide him into the second half of life and he was begging for a guide.”[1]

Our prayer lives may reflect this same struggle of claiming our identity.  A church friend sent me an article[2] this week about the importance of community and it engaged this very idea.  The author said, “I spent my days focused on optimizing myself: Endlessly working and improving, on a permanent quest to do as much as possible in the unforgiving confines of twenty-four hours.  It was the only way I knew how to be. Compete. Excel. Win.  She then said, “I never considered there might be a cost to a life of high-octane, high-reward competition.”  Bill Gates reflected on aging and perspective, particularly regarding his work of the past year.  He said that as a young man in his twenties, he was consumed with making Microsoft a personal-computing giant. Today, his focus is on other people. “Did I devote enough time to my family?” he asks himself now. “Did I learn enough new things? Did I develop new friendships and deepen old ones?” These would have been laughable to me when I was 25, but as I get older, they are much more meaningful.”  Given this current season in your life, what is pulling your greatest reflective attention? And how do your prayers, if at all, reflect such a season?

The Apostle Paul brings a word for us today from his letter to the church at Rome. Rome!  Now there was a place that was hustling and bustling with amazing world-class art, exquisite poetry, finely crafted moral philosophy and imperial decrees.  People of great influence in this city.  And Paul writes this little letter to a church there that would have mostly gone unnoticed in such a place.  Its thirty years after the Jesus event – death, burial, resurrection – which had taken place in a remote corner of the Roman Empire.  Few of the elite in Rome were giving it much worry; nobody tweeted about the resurrection, you know?  Peter didn’t post a selfie of himself on Instagram with the abandoned linens in the empty tomb. The movement took some time to catch on.  But this letter of Paul’s – somehow, some way, in the midst of such deep and culturally important work – would soon leave all of those other writings in the dust; a world-altering word from a man whose life had been altered by an encounter with Jesus.

In the brief piece we look at this morning, Paul’s writing about the birth pangs of the world.  Change, difficulties, tension, conflict – externally, yes, but Paul says, “That same turmoil is going on inside of you.”  We’re yearning for deliverance from meaninglessness and we’re waiting and wondering and yes, even praying, for whatever that may look like for us. And when it all seems unanswered and growing in its complexities and our relationships get rocky and the job is uncertain and the desire isn’t coming to pass as easily as the praise song said it would, we get tired in the waiting. Paul says, “that’s exactly when God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along, making prayer out of our incoherent thoughts… even our deepest sighs that are beyond any words we could muster.  The Spirit is right there.”  The Spirit is right there?  And then it hit me… made a lot of sense to me… and I could be wrong, remember?  But this sounded a lot like keeping good company. Is that the true gift of prayer?  The Spirit gets us…at the very essence of our being… and holds company with us. “That’s prayer,” I thought, “Keeping company with God.”  There’s less a spirit of “fix-it” in this company and more a withness.  There’s a change in your prayer life if you consider such a possibility.

How often I’ve just prayed, “God, fix it!” and not, “God keep company with me through this.”  It doesn’t mean that we should never pray and plea for the desires of our hearts, for our needs, for great things that are needed in the world.  The Hebrew writer said, “Come boldly before the throne of God with our prayers,” so there’s space for that and I trust in the power of those prayers, yes. But think of any maturing relationship you’ve had in your lives. Like when you’re first in that dating phase with someone and it’s all about the words.  “We talked on the phone for like three hours last night.”  And then you do that every night for a month; maybe two or six or twelve. The words!  That’s how you connect at first but as the relationship matures, it’s not that you don’t still have things to say to each other – you should always ask new, inquisitive questions of the loves in your life – but there becomes a comfort in simply keeping company with that person. A knowing glance says what three hours of conversation once said. A reach for their hand speaks volumes without even uttering a word. Could our prayers grow in this withness with God too?

Think of some of the biggest moments in scripture.  23^rd Psalm – the most known of all the Psalms – what does it say as a prayer?  “I will fear no evil for you are with me.”  That’s not fixing, that’s keeping company.  The incarnation of Christ as we read in John’s gospel: “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God.  The word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood.”  Withness.  Or Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane – as human a moment of any as the text says that Jesus is sweating blood as he’s praying over what is about to happen – his pending arrest and subsequent crucifixion.  Jesus prays, “God if you can fix this, that would be my preference but if not, your will be done.” “God… if this doesn’t go the way I want it to go, then give me some new perspective on the matter at hand… help me see your take on this.” The interesting part here is my wondering if Jesus is projecting next onto the disciples what he wanted of his heavenly Father.  He just wanted his Abba, Daddy, to be with him and he wasn’t feeling much withness in the stress of the moment.  What does Jesus say to the disciples who had fallen asleep as he was praying blood out of his pores?  “Can’t you stay awake with me for even an hour?”  “Can’t you keep company with me?  I’m kind of dealing with some big stuff here.”  If you’ve ever wondered where God was in your time of need… maybe you know that feeling.

Life is tumultuous isn’t it?  It’s often harder than we thought it would be.  It’s more complex and things we assumed would be easy and a natural part of our lives – falling in love, having a child, raising a child, getting that job, retiring well, etc, etc, hasn’t panned out like we imagined.  Life feels more like wave crashing down on another wave and we’re just trying to stay afloat without losing our minds or blowing up the good things that are holding us steady while the waves are raging in other areas of our existence.  We may want a fix-it God in these moments, but we may only get some divine company who simply commits to guide us through it.  I was amazed this week to learn about life as a Columbia River Bar Pilot.[3] Do you know about these pilots?  Imagine a stretch of water so dangerous that even huge ships can’t cross it safely. It’s a place sailors call the “graveyard,” where hundreds of ships have sunk and thousands have lost their lives. But the global economy relies on navigating this place with shipping vessels every day to avoid economic collapse.  The Columbia River Bar in the Pacific Northwest, located at the intersection of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean is such a place.   It is considered one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the world.

Not just any ship captain can navigate these ships so there are expert Captains that are trained to do this – their only job is to get on these ships out in the ocean and navigate those ships through the passage; a real Jesus take the wheel sort of vocation. In the 1960’s, these special captains would get to the ships by rowboat – sometimes enduring 25 foot swells – just to get to the ships.  They’d scurry up those ships on a dropped rope ladder and then guide those ships through the rough waters.  Today, it’s much more MacGyver than that.  These expert captains get helicoptered onto these ships simply to guide them through the passage – some ten times a day – which ultimately moves $24 billion dollars in goods each year through this passage. Can you imagine a passage so treacherous that an expert withness is flown in to help you get through it?  I wonder if that is the kind of company God keeps with us when we’re in those most difficult or uncertain places. And I imagine not a lot is said … just focused company… just a hand held in the waiting room at the hospital… just a tear wiped when the pain was clear but no words could repair.  So many will say in times of tragedy or deepest challenge, “I just don’t know what to say.”  “Just be there,” I’ll offer back.  Just be good company. Silent presence is as powerful a prayer as you’ll ever pray. The Spirit already knows and recognizes the sigh.

Do you have these company keepers in your life?  There are some people in my life whose spirits are deep… they don’t need to offer words anymore to prove that… they just are a well of spiritually-deep-second-half-of-life wisdom — and when I’m in prayer with them… and they look at me or send me a three word text, “I’m with you…” or they simply exhale; sigh … I believe them… I believe their spirit. I believe their withness. I feel their prayers washing over me. And I feel the Spirit’s agreement in our two-or-three-are-gathered moment. That’s keeping good company.

Jesus, post-resurrection, was having one last moment with his assembled team, tasked (big gulp) with transforming the world with all he had shared with them, before he ascends to heaven. Do you remember what he says to them?  At the end of Matthew’s gospel he says to them, “Go into all the world, make disciples (people willing to learn the Way), and I will be with you.”  I will be your withness.  I will keep company with you all along the way…even to the end of the age.  That seems to be the promise.  I could be wrong.  I wonder, however, if that is truly the greatest gift of prayer… and worth our daily practice… simply to keep holy company with God and one another… and trust that such is enough. Surely that’s the pray without ceasing idea… keeping constant company. The Spirit already recognizes our sighs… knows the need; holds it with us. And there is enough power in the holding to transform the world.

A colleague of mine… just this fireball of a woman who is retired professionally but engaged in the work of world-wide compassion sharing as much as any I know.  She just spent time in Guatemala serving with partner communities and learned of a Mayan belief that suggests there is a fixed amount of suffering in the world. The idea is simply this: if you share your suffering with others, your burden is lightened. And if that person shares that suffering as well, the suffering diminishes yet again.  The Mayans could be wrong.  So could my friend.  But she wonders about it. And so do I… at least in the power of holding each others joys and pains… keeping company with God and one another.

So when you text me or email me or call me or pull me aside or sit with me over coffee or in my office or however we communicate – there’s something about the gift of prayer that turns that communication into communion.  There’s something in our withness that changes outcomes and strengthens weakness and brings hope to despair.  When we say, “I’m holding that with you,” we’re trusting the Spirit to be with us too; to transform us, heal us. I could be wrong.  Period.  God already knows. So I’ll trust God with that without really needing to say any words at all.

[1]  Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation From the Center for Action and Contemplation.  Week 12. Growing in Christ.  Tuesday, March 19, 2019.
[2]https://qz.com/1570179/how-to-make-friends-build-a-community-and-create-the-life-you-want/
[3] https://www.opb.org/artsandlife/article/columbia-river-bar-pilots-oregon-field-guide/

text : Mark 6:7-13 and 30-32

theme verse : “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” (Mk 6:31)

When is the last time you were quiet enough to hear your own heart beat? To feel it? Sense itsrhythm as if your very soul was trying to show itself to you in a marvelous and tangible way? Parker Palmer suggests “the soul is like a wild animal—tough, resilient, resourceful, savvy. But it is also shy.... if we will walk quietly into the woods, sit patiently by the base of the tree, and fade into our surroundings, the wild animal we seek might put in an appearance."To find a sacred way forward, we must first create a foundation, or baseline, for God to buildupon. Our starting point? Solitude.

opening : 'Beautiful Things' (Gungor) :: The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader

reading : Roy Peters
preaching : Rev Mark Briley

offertory : 'Revelation Song' (J.Riddle) :: Ashley Pease & Jenn Epperley, vocal; Susie Monger Daughterty, piano

Mark 6:7-13; 30-32
He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. ⁸ He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; ⁹ but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. ¹⁰ He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. ¹¹ If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” ¹² So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. ¹³ They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. ³⁰ The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. ³¹ He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. ³² And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.

Last Wednesday night, this sanctuary was full of young and old, babies with that new car smell (but human, you know?) and saintly journeyers who have seen and been through some stuff.  There were youth and middle aged, parents and singles and seekers and doubters.  There were some grieving and others wondering why their body has betrayed them while another bounces up the aisle taking each step for granted.  Many of you were there and so was I.  It was a beautiful night to mark the beginning of a beautiful and deeply spiritual season we call Lent – which is something far greater than the glob of fabric you might pull out of your pocket. After those who chose to receive the mark of the cross in ash on their foreheads, we sat together in this space, mindful of our mortality, wondering about our deepest longings to be loved and connected to the One who fashioned us from the dust of the earth.  Courtney invited us to put our hands over our hearts… to feel our hearts beat.  To breathe in deep enough to feel our lungs press against the cage designed to hold them in place.  It was a powerful moment to individually and collectively breathe deeply… asking the Spirit of God to fill us.  When is the last time you were quiet enough to hear your own heart beat?  To really feel it?  Sense its rhythm as if your very soul was trying to show itself to you in a marvelous and tangible way?  When have you slowed enough to focus on your very breath… one after another… each inhale and exhale holds almost an audible whispered word: “Gift. Gift. Gift.”

I once watched a doctor hold my newborn baby in the air by the ankles and give him a shake. I was alarmed.  “What are you doing to my kid?  Can you do that?”  As a new parent, you have this sense that babies are so fragile, and you’ve got to handle them like grandma’s fine china.  I remember driving home from the hospital with our first born going about five miles an hour with my hazards on the whole way.  Traffic is stacking up behind us and I’ve got my arm out the window waving for them to “Go around!”  I had precious cargo on board.  But doc picked up my newborn son like he was rubber.  But doc was doing all of this to help my son take his first breath.  And this was more than a first breath… it was the gift of life itself.  “Before anything else can be said about you, you have received a gift … God has given you life.  Are you breathing?  Gift. Gift. Gift.[1]  Isn’t that extraordinary?  We quickly forget this gift when we get on about our lives.  We bump up against failure and pain, heartache and abuse and loss.  While we grieve and feel and try to express all that is brewing within us, “a truth courses through the veins of all our bumps and bruises, and [that truth] is this: We have received.”  You are here.  You are breathing.  And this sacred season of Lent invites us to go back that far, that deep, to the very heart beat of God. It is the question of this first Sunday of Lent.  Do you remember the gift of your life? Your very breath?  How do you remind yourself that its there?  If you went on a hunt for your very soul, would you even know what you are hunting for?

Parker Palmer, an author and educator, says

“The soul is like a wild animal – tough, resilient, resourceful, savvy, self-sufficient.  It knows how to survive in hard places.  But it is also shy.  Just like a wild animal, it seeks safety in the dense underbrush.  If we want to see a wild animal, we know that the last thing we should do is go crashing through the woods yelling for it to come out.  But if we will walk quietly into the woods, sit patiently by the base of the tree, and fade into our surroundings, the wild animal we seek might put in an appearance.”

We’re on a quest this Lenten season to regain the sacred rhythm that launched us in this world and today, we start with the gift and discipline of solitude as an entry point to re-connect with God in our extra-noisy, cluttered lives. Call it a soul hunt perhaps.

Jesus says to the disciples who have been out and about sharing the Good News they have come to know, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” Do you make any space in your life for such a practice? We don’t tend to be creatures with great practices of solitude.  We like the noise. We prefer the energy of the crowd.  We don’t want to have to be alone with our own spirit… with God. However, we also have our limits with that noise, don’t we?  “She’s too much,” we say.  “I can’t deal with him today.”  It happens to all of us.

An elementary school teacher gave her students the assignment of writing what life will be like when they’re 100 years old.  One little girl named Emma offered up a very honest response.  See if you can relate. How many of you are ready to sign up for that life now?  Emma may be on to something. The truth is, we live in a society that values productivity, success, achievement, and all-star status. Imagining time of solitude… silent space to listen to your own heart beat and feel your soul and your very breath again… in and out… gift, gift, gift.  Forget about it.  But this is extremely critical to building a spiritual foundation that can hold the rest of your life. Even daily doses of solitude will save you from the crash and burn that often takes down too many of us when we just can’t keep up anymore.  

When we consider the three years of Jesus’ ministry (Three years!  That’s it.  Talk about getting a lot of work done in a short amount of time) … the primary work of his three years was to get ordinary people like you and me to remember their very life; their very breath… remember that life is a gift and they have what it takes to bring the kingdom of God to earth.  To be effective in an ongoing way, however, these disciples would have to learn to make space to be with God alone; not confusing activity, even Godly activity, with simply being with God… recharged, renewed.  When we are in “go” mode all the time, we start to think it is we who are creating the world again and again in seven days.  Now… Jesus had the disciples active, yes.  They had to get out there and start being the church if there was ever going to be something we could call church for the long haul.  And in our text from Mark’s gospel today (not a third person reference here), we see that very thing.

Jesus sends them out in pairs to teach and heal.  They were told to pack light and weren’t given any daily stipend.  No steak dinners. No luxury hotels. No lights and fog or cool skinny jeans like trendy worship leaders were starting to wear. “You are the equipment,” Jesus said.  Big gulp. They weren’t ready for this, right?  We never are.  Or we always are and we just don’t think we are.  But they’re out there, preaching and teaching and listening to stories and sharing stories and anointing bodies and eating meals with people and healing those they could and it. was. awesome!  But as so often is the case… when life is flying high and the spirit is soaring in powerful ways, something sweeps the leg. In this case, it’s the death of their spiritual partner John the Baptist.  He’s beheaded on the silliest of whims and it had been the disciple’s job to retrieve the body of their friend and bury him. So they’ve had this marvelous success and now this grief and, as the text says, “The disciples gathered around Jesus and told him all the things they had experienced on their journey.”

They surely had some one-up stories. “Man, this one spirit we exorcised was epic.”  “Yeah, well, Pete preached this one sermon that was the number one downloaded message of the week across the land and the whole community came to faith.” Another chimes in, “This one lady we met and sang for tried to pay us in meatballs.  She was all, “Hold out your hands!” just like that lady in the Wedding Singer.” The bigger issue, Jesus knows, is how these guys will sustain their spiritual life without being all consumed by outward successes. If they lose touch with the Spirit, they’ve got nothing. It is why Jesus insists on them doing what Jesus regularly demonstrated himself, “Go on to that deserted place and feel your heart beat again.”

Solitude is the longing for God… to experience God in an unmediated way.  We so often try to mediate this connection with our words or theological constructs or religious activity. Solitude, however, is really this deep longing to find ourselves… to be in touch with what is most real within us. But as Ruth Haley Barton writes in her book, “Sacred Rhythms[2],” this inspiration of this Lenten series,

“It’s tricky to get the soul to come out.  We are not very safe for ourselves because our internal experience involves continual critique and judgment and our tender soul does not want to risk it. And so, we settle for a noisy spirituality which oftentimes is just an organized group of people crashing through the woods together, making so much noise that there’s not a soul in sight.”

When we go and go and go exhaustion sets in … especially when we are accessible all the time. When our phones never get left on the dresser in the bedroom so we can be present to the humans we do life with, everyone loses.  Most of us are more tired than we know at the soul level.  “We are teetering on the brink of dangerous exhaustion, and we really cannot do anything else until we have gotten some rest.”  I had a colleague who was sharing with me about this struggle… Sabbath… a holy word we throw around but tend not to pay attention to… Sabbath being a holy day when we rest, break free from schedules and commitments and being the supposed boss of our lives to remember that we are not God and are not expected to be.  Sabbath.  My friend was saying how we think of rest or Sabbath as what happens when we’re exhausted… we collapse at the end of our break-neck-speed lives and call that collapse Sabbath.  But Sabbath is actually to come first.  We are to work from our rest not rest from our work.  Do you sense the difference?  The intentionality is different and, I’ll argue, that our productivity will be much better as well.

And I know what you’re thinking… “I don’t have time do nothing.  I don’t have time for solitude.  I am the god of my life and I ain’t got time to listen for some other God.”  We may be resistant in this way… or we may be a little softer while still hesitant.  “I see the value… I crave the solitude but is there really any hope for me?  I’m overcommitted and too far gone.”  My guess is your spirit is telling you it needs this. We’re an exhausted people. Several friends posted this meme this week:

I feel like I’m already tired tomorrow.

Does that resonate with you?  You’ve got private pain and disillusionment that you’ve been trying to shore up with inspirational pep talks that sound like somebody else’s rhetoric more than God’s word to you.  You’ve got heavy decisions looming and you’re exhausted to the point of not trusting your own judgment. Your ability to love and trust is wearing thin and you’re just simply on the brink of not being able to handle your life. What I want to say to you… if that’s what you’re feeling is this… “Don’t be torn down by such discouragement.  See your restlessness as an invitation to do something different.”  You need space to be with what is truly real in your life – to celebrate your joys, grieve the losses, shed the tears, sit with questions and feel your feelings.  This “being with what is” is not the same as problem solving or fixing… it is being in that place and waiting for God to meet you there. We get so busy trying to make stuff happen rather than simply waiting on God to heal us from the inside out. It’s why Moses encourages the Israelites who have been backed into a corner by the Egyptians to hang in there.  He says, “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.” (Exodus 14:13-14). Could you start there?

Choose a place that feels comfortable and safe… a favorite chair, a favorite tree.  Settle into a comfortable position in your body.  Feel your heart beat.  Breathe deeply.  Sit patiently until you begin to notice what is most true about you these days.  Don’t rush.  Don’t try to make anything happen.  Let your soul venture out to say something to you that perhaps you have had a hard time acknowledging.  Sit with what comes to you and become conscious of God’s presence with you in that awareness.  Don’t try to do anything with what you are knowing except be with it.  In other words, as Ruth Barton says, “Don’t scare it away.” Feel the difference between trying to fix it and just being with it. Barton says, “Feel the difference between doing something with it and resting with it.  Feel the difference between trying to fight it and letting God fight for you.  What does it mean for you to be still and let God fight or work for you in this particular area?”  Solitude.  It may feel strange at first but stick with it… regularly… the biggest changes in our lives come from the smallest adjustments, compounded over time.

I was on retreat with the leadership team of the Bethany Fellows in Arizona early last month.  It was such a powerful week in the desert.  I admit that my soul was parched. The noise was consuming. I was holding a lot with you and for you… along with my own spiritual and life noise.  I have been on this particular retreat five years running now… to the desert… a place I never imagined appreciating so much.  But it took my fifth return to feel God’s presence in a way that I have never before.  You’ve got to stick with this stuff, you know. This time, stepping out onto that desert soil, I almost verbalized out loud what I felt in my spirit: “This place knows my heart.  This desert has held my prayers before.” One of our disciplines is to spend the best part of two days in solitude… we practice silence… cut out the distractions… get your spirit knotted tighter with God’s.  On that second day, I climbed a familiar mountain and sat on this rock for a couple of hours. This was my view.  I thought of you… named you in my spirit… held your pains that I knew of and celebrated your joys. I sat with myself in a way I hadn’t for a long time. It’s sort of a big reflective year in my household.  My wife and I both turn forty.  We’ll also celebrate our twentieth wedding anniversary.  This will be our tenth year of living and serving among you. The church turns sixty in just a few short weeks.  And I just sat with my soul… and allowed it to feel what I hadn’t made time to feel.  It was hard and it was sweet.  There were tears and there was healing. There was uncertainty and there was hope. Now I stayed on that mountain for a good while… honestly part of it was I realized it was going to be a lot harder to get down than it was climbing up. There was no path… it was reaching, stretching and climbing rocks.  But I also felt so close to God. I came down the better for having made the climb.

Look… I get invited into a lot of stories… greatest privilege as a pastor is your trust to say, “This is my life… it’s hard… will you hold it with me.”  Of course I will.  I know your pains and your uncertainties and rejections and questions and breakdowns and breakthroughs.  I know you’re wondering if “just sitting in the presence of God” can really make any difference in your life.  And I know it may be the hardest discipline of all.  But if we want to have any foundation upon which we can build our faith, we’ve got to come away to a deserted place, a park bench, a hallway in your home, and rest in the presence of God.  Let that practice become the baseline to the song God is playing through your life.  It will put you in the flow of the sacred rhythm and ground you in a way that nothing else can.  Lent is an invitation to look at your life in a whole new way.

It was awesome last Thursday to have part of the Chebny crew come by the church to receive their ashes as they were out of town for our Ash Wednesday service.  That’s extra mile discipleship. “Ash Thursday” they lovingly called it. Pastor Courtney received them and made the mark of the cross on their foreheads… even Canaan in full Spiderman garb.  As they left, Giselle asked Canaan, “Can you tell me what the ashes mean?”  “I have dirt all over me,” he said.  His mom then asks, “and what does that have to do with Jesus?” Canaan says, “He washes the dirt off of me.” 

‘Tis the season for deepening our practice, friends. You’ve got to want it… give the extra time. Hold your heart. Feel your lungs breathe. I can’t wait to see what new life will find its way in our lives as gift… gift… gift…

[1] From Rob Bell’s “How to be Here.”  Harper Collins. 2016.  The quotes of these two paragraphs come from this work.
[2] Sacred Rhythms. Ruth Haley Barton.  IVP Books. 2006.  Her influence is evident in this message as well as in the formation of the entire series.

text :: Matthew 23:1-12

theme verse :: “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12)

In the Middle Ages, a common food eaten by those with little economic means included deer innards. It was made into a pie, of sorts, and became known as umble pie. If an uppity nobleman was every publicly humiliated, it was said that he had to eat umble pie. While thevernacular shifted some through the years, the phrase, “Eat your humble pie,” hung around and still gets used often today. Jesus explains that the humble will be exalted and the exalted will be eating humble pie. Humility is indeed a Christian virtue. However, as C.S. Lewis notes in his book, The Screwtape Letters, any of the virtues we possess become something of a spiritual problem once we become aware of them. It is possible to become proud of our humility. Can we possibly practice humility while keeping a level spirit?

anthem :: 'My Shepherd Will Supply My Need' (arr.Wilberg) :: Chancel Choir; Kelly Ford, director

reader :: David Brock
preaching :: Rev Mark Briley

closing :: 'Mercy Mercy' (HillsongUnited) :: The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader

Matthew 23: 1 – 12
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ² “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; ³ therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. ⁴ They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear,^[a] and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. ⁵ They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. ⁶ They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, ⁷ and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. ⁸ But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students.^[b] 9 And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven. ¹⁰ Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah.^[c] 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. ¹² All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

Who’s up for a slice of humble pie?[1]  We’ve all heard about this pie and maybe have sampled from it now and again.  The idea is really a slam on another person who couldn’t live up to the hype or their promise or was insistent on being right when, as all was soon revealed, they were wrong.  The etymology of this phrase is grounded in the word, “umble” which is the word humble minus the “h”.  Umble Pie was a real food in medieval times, particularly consumed by the poor. It was a pie filled with the least desirable animal parts like liver, heart, and innards.  In fact, it’s derivative in French literally means “deer innards.”  It was considered inferior food and often the only meat dish available to people of lower economic status. For someone of noble rank in the Middle Ages to be publicly humiliated would be akin to them having to sit down with a commoner and have a bowl of umble pie.  This is troubling on a number of fronts but it is the origin of this phrase we’ve heard for years. It also makes this link of humility to humiliation which I think is a poor pairing.  Humiliation whether self-induced or at the hands of another is not one that jives well with what God has to say about us. God says we are loved, crafted uniquely in a way that bears God’s very image.  There should be nothing humiliating about that.

C. S. Lewis said,

Do you sense the difference?  Pride draws a tight circle around myself – it points to me and what I’ve done. Humility draws a wider circle to include others acknowledging that none of us are self-made. Winston Churchill was once asked, “Doesn’t it thrill you that every time you speak, the hall is packed to overflowing?”  Churchill replied, “It is quite flattering, but whenever I feel this way, I always remember that, if, instead of making a speech, I were being hanged, the crowd would be twice as big.”  Humility helps keep things in perspective. 

We’re wrapping this series, (y)our WHOLE life, this morning with the consideration of humility.  I hope you have found this series to be meaningful.  This Wednesday is the launch of the season of Lent which we will mark with a special Ash Wednesday service at seven o’clock.  It is always one of the most meaningful services of the year.  I hope you’ll come.  I’ll launch our new Lenten sermon series, “Sacred Rhythms” that very night. I’m stoked for the season and trust that it will grow our spirits. That’s Wednesday. But today? Humility.

Creating a humble approach to our living will make us more faithful to Christ, more influential in the lives of those around us, and simply a more pleasant person to be around. Our word from Jesus this morning in Matthew’s account of the Good News follows this religious sparring match between some trained church folk and Jesus.  Jesus had just won the debate against the Sadducees as they proposed some question about a Seven-Brides-for-Seven-Brothers-situation except there would be only one bride. They were testing Jesus on the Mosaic law that says if a married man dies having not given his wife a child, the man’s brother was obligated to marry her and bear a child together. Their test to Jesus was passing through all seven brothers – none having a child with the woman.  The question at the end of this long mathematics word problem was this: “Who would her husband be in the resurrection since no one gave her a child?” Jesus gives them the look and says, “You guys are way off!”  He’s like, “You are drawing too small a circle around something that doesn’t matter.”  That’s a pride thing, remember. “Resurrection is beyond marriage,” he says.  “We’ll all be together and worshipping God and it will be extraordinary.”  Not what the Sadducees were looking for.  The Pharisees try to box him next.  “600+ laws and commands in the faith, Jesus.  Which one is most important?”  Jesus famously replies, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.  That’s the most important.”  And then he adds, “A second is like it:  Love others as you love yourself.”  Jesus then says, “Everything else – all of those other laws and the words of the prophets hinge on those two things.”  The Pharisees floored by his response, regroup and go after him again.  They were such literalists that they couldn’t handle what they perceived to be Jesus discounting what they had held so legalistically for their whole lives.

The church has done this forever.  We like to think we’ve claimed Jesus and are not in the rigid religious camp but then someone tries to draw a bigger circle to include someone new or someone tries to change something that we’ve always done before and we discover we’re not as Jesus-y as we thought we were.  All church fights, schisms and persecutions seem to center around two things:  1. Who is in and who is out and, 2. Who decides who is in and who is out.  Our Methodist brothers and sisters wrestled with that this week in a very public way though they’ve been wrestling for years.  And the rest of our churches wrestle too and we get our pride involved and our righteousness caught up in a  bunch and suggest that it’s about being right legalistically when Jesus seemed to be more concerned with being right relationally.  The Sadducees said, “Who will she be married to in heaven?” and Jesus said, “You’re going to be in heaven dude!”  The Pharisees, having passed the bar exam of religious fervor said, “Every law must be held!” and Jesus said, “You draw a wider circle of love for God and your neighbor and then we can talk about the rest.”

Even the early church, Acts 15, was dealing with another divisive church issue.  A circle had been drawn wide enough to include Paul, a Jesus hater, into the Jesus movement, and so Paul was working to draw a wide enough circle to include the Gentiles without asking them to conform to all of the laws of Judaism – in this instance, the practice of circumcision.  That’s sort of a downer at the Membership Inquiry Class, right?  “To join the church, we’re just going to ask you to make this profession of faith… oh… and be circumcised.” I imagine Paul taking his thought to Peter… who’s been drawing a wider circle himself for Gentiles who didn’t follow all the dietary laws and says, “Peter… help me out here.  These people believe in Jesus.  They want to follow him.  And I can see the Spirit at work in their lives already.”  Pete says, “I’ve seen it too, Paul.”  So they’re in.  Paul takes it to the General Conference in Jerusalem where James, the brother of Jesus presides as Bishop (so to speak).  To an angry crowd of church insider types who want everyone to conform to the same rules they play by, James says, “Nope.  No circumcision required.” (Huge sigh of relief from one side of the crowd).  And they compromise.  They widen the circle. And more people find relationship with Jesus and the church.  These people… all people… are the handiwork of God and when we begin to see one another this way… there is a growing humility and appreciation for the tapestry born of the creative hand of God.

Pastor and writer, Eugene Peterson, part of the resurrection now, learned this as a kid spending time at the Butcher shop run by his father.  He said, “Not so much by words but by example, I internalized a respect for the material at hand. The material can be a pork loin, or a mahogany plank, or a lump of clay, or the will of God, or a soul, but when the work is done well, there is a kind of submission of will to the conditions at hand, a cultivation of what I would later learn to call humility. It is a noticeable feature in all skilled workers — woodworkers, potters, poets, pray-ers and pastors. I learned [humility] in the butcher shop.”[2]  Where did you learn to appreciate life like that?  This is a spirit or attitude that says, “I can learn from this person who is not like me but is loved by God as much as me.”  It’s an appreciation for art or song or creation or talent or practical tool.  Humility invites a sense of awe that pride never allows.  I don’t know how, but the screensaver on my computer has some new setting in which every twenty-four hours it changes its image to some new, glorious, magnificent place in the world that has me saying   “Wow!” every time. Absolutely breathtaking. I look forward to it everyday.  It makes me so grateful.  Humility does this … it widens our sense of awe and gratitude and acceptance that God is so good that we should do everything in our power not to take that gift away from someone else.

So Jesus has just had it out with the faith leader types and turns to his disciples and the crowds surrounding them to give this gem of a word that we’ve heard today.  He says, “You’ve heard these religious scholars – they know their Bible for sure.  Talk the talk they’ve got down.  But walk the walk?  Not so much.  Lot of smoke and mirrors.”  And this is so convicting, right?  It is for me.  We know what Jesus says and we know what Jesus does but oh how I’ve come up short in following him.  I own that.  And I own that with no false humility… this is not about shrinking in the face of our shortcomings.  Author John Pavlovitz offers a helpful insight to humility noting we’ve often distorted the image of a humble person as some “mousy, apologetic nebbish” who possesses neither confidence nor courage nor backbone.

He says this is incorrect.  “Humility” he says, “is about balance: it means we neither dismiss nor exaggerate our value.  This place of equilibrium allows us to refrain from carrying unwarranted criticism and undeserved praise, to not be beholden to public opinion on either side. It is in that elusive sweet spot between self-righteousness and self-loathing that humility resides.  When we’re in this place, free from feeling like we have to prove our worth or jockey for position, and unencumbered by a pride that needs feeding or an ego that seeks validation, we can simply be present.”[3]  That’s all I’m after here as your pastor… to be present with you on this journey of faith we’re seeking together.  To interpret, as we all do, the ways of Jesus so that we may help earth resemble more closely the gift and nature of heaven.  Before we can pray, “Lord, Thy Kingdom come,” we must be willing to pray, “My Kingdom go.”  (Alan Redpath).

Jesus’ critique continues, “Instead [these religious leaders] bundle these rules into heavy packages and load you down like pack animals.”  The Message version reads this passage forward like this… it’s too crisp to pass up.  Listen… “These religious leaders seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help.  Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees and getting called “Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’  Ugh that hurts.

But Jesus digs deeper. He says, “Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that.  You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates.  Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do.  Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. … there’s only one Life-Leader for you and them – that’s Christ.”  And then the crux of it all.  “Do you want to stand out?  Then step down.  Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you.  But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.”  The humble will be exalted.  Be yourself.  Draw a wider circle.  Never stop learning.  That’s humility.  I would suggest that the proud miss out on some wonderful things because that circle of self is so small.

The Washington Post offered research that suggests that “true humility is when people have an accurate assessment of both their strengths and weaknesses, and they see all this in the context of the larger whole. They’re a part of something far greater than themselves. They know they aren’t the center of the universe. And they’re both grounded and liberated by this knowledge. Recognizing their abilities, they ask how they can contribute. Recognizing their flaws, they ask how they can grow.”[4]  Isn’t that powerful?  Stepping outside of our own circle of pride puts Jesus at the center and allows us to view everything, and everyone, through that central focus.  Your whole perspective changes.  Author Kurt Vonnegut said 

 I would say that the people on the edge are the first to see the Kingdom of God. Draw a wider circle.  Get to the edge of it and look back at the center where Jesus is.  See Jesus.  And what did Jesus say?  “You’ve seen me. You’ve seen the Father.”  “You see the least of these.  You’re looking at me.”  “You love your neighbor. You love me.”  You can’t help seeing other people as beloved when you are looking at the world this way. Everybody is going through something extraordinary… some giving every fiber of their being just to get through the day. Our pride may think, “Well just suck it up, buddy!” Humility opens a door to them instead and says, “How can I see Christ in them?”

Pavlovitz, who I named earlier, offers this reminder to “Go easy,” as “there are grieving people all around you.”  He said, “The day my father died, I was at the grocery store buying bananas. I remember thinking to myself, “This is insane. Your dad just died. Why the hell are you buying bananas?” But we needed bananas. We’d be waking up for breakfast tomorrow morning, and there wouldn’t be any bananas—so there I was.”  He goes on about all the motions he simply was going through always mere seconds away from losing it.  “I wanted to wear a sign that said, I JUST LOST MY DAD. PLEASE GO EASY.”  He goes on to name all the things we know are breaking hearts in the bodies that are stumbling around us every day … even sitting among us right this very second.  Parents whose children are terminally ill.  Couples in the middle of divorce.  People grieving loss of loved ones and relationships. Kids being bullied at school. Teenagers who want to end their lives.  People marking the anniversary of a death. Parents worried about their depressed teenager. Spouses whose partners are deployed in combat. Families with no idea how to keep the lights on. Single parents with little help and little sleep.[5]  We know these realities are true. They are our realities. We can’t fix it all. But we can start with drawing a wider circle. We can start with making room for one more. We can make a difference for one.  We can exalt one knowing that such brings glory to God.  When you begin to see the world from this humble edge, you begin to do things like Jesus would do.  And I still believe it is the way to the world’s transformation.

Something seemingly small and profound is happening along the banks of the Charles River in Newton, Massachusetts.  Glenda and Raphael Savitz moved into a quiet neighborhood in Newton to start their lives together after college.  The neighbors brought cookies when they moved in bearing promises of friendship.  It’s the kind of place where elderly neighbor’s driveways are shoveled without prompting and if you’re sick, expect a casserole. I’ve always thought casserole theology was some of the most sound theology of all. But life presses forward as it does for us all.

A few months after moving in, the Savitz’s welcomed their first child, Samantha, into the world. The neighborhood was excited to welcome a new baby to the street. It had been a while. Within a week of Sam’s birth, however, newborn screening tests showed that she was deaf.  Her mom said, “She was the first deaf person my husband and I had known.”  It was a surprise and unexpected but love does what love does and her parents knew of course that they would want to learn sign language so they could engage and enjoy their daughter.  They worked at it fervently the first couple years of Sam’s life. As Sam found her feet and began to bounce around the neighborhood, the neighbors were sad that they couldn’t engage Sam as they’d like. But… you can’t expect all of the neighbors to learn sign language can you?  Certainly, you cannot.  But, you sure can appreciate it when they do. Thus began the story of twenty neighbors who sit in silence to learn a new language so their littlest neighbor will know what their own kids raised in that neighborhood had always known:  community; friendship; and inclusion.

They didn’t ask the parents.  They just hired a teacher and they all committed to learn…  this is how love widens the circle.  Terry Nowak, one of the neighbors said, “We will all be participants in helping her as she grows. We do that with each other’s children. The community is already in place. This is just a new way to express it.’’ Sam parents were speechless and humbled in their gratitude. They’ve noted how much it has changed Sam’s demeanor already… and honestly… the demeanor of the ever-widening neighborhood as well.  That’s how American Sign Language has become the second tongue now spoken on one end of Islington Road. Why? Because that’s Samantha Savitz’s language. And there was no way her neighbors were going to let her practice it alone. That neighborly warm embrace is now there every time a neighbor leans down and signs with Sam.  Every chance encounter of inclusion in the local grocery store. Every time Sam points to the living room chairs where her neighbors meet to learn her language, she makes the sign for “friend.’’[6]

Who does this? Neighbors ready to humble themselves to learn something new if it means exalting another in need.  How might we draw a wider circle?  Whom might you seek to exalt this week because you’ve stepped to the edge instead of staying in the center?  There is room to learn.  There is room to grow.  Jesus said, “The greatest among you is the one who serves.” And the gift of humility will create a deeper sense of wholeness for your life and everyone around you.  We might call this the practice of humble piety.

[1] “Humble pie.” Wikipedia, wikipedia.org.  Rev. Bob Kaylor, senior editor for Homiletics inspired the humble pie/humble piety reference.
[2] Eugene Peterson, The Pastor: A Memoir (HarperCollins, 2011), Kindle Loc. 632-35.
[3] “Hope and Other Superpowers.” John Pavlovitz.  Simon & Schuster Publishing. 2018.
[4] Merryman, Ashley. “Leaders are more powerful when they’re humble, new research shows.” The Washington Post, December 8, 2016, washingtonpost.com.
[5] https://johnpavlovitz.com/2019/02/21/everyone-around-you-is-grieving-go-easy/
[6]https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/02/07/farragher/TEREscjAx7jPNA7RP1IQoI/story.html

text : Psalm 127:1-2; Romans 8:35-39

theme verse : “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, willbe able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:38-39)

What is your brightest hope for the future? Rebecca Solnit wrote a book called "Hope in the Dark" in which she offers one of the strongest definitions of hope one can hear: “We don’t know what is going to happen, or how, or when and that very uncertainty is the space of hope.” Our special guest, Rev. Kim Gage Ryan, Executive Director of the Bethany Fellows (www.bethanyfellows.org), offers a word about the hope she’s found in congregations, the Fellows, and a promise from the book of Romans.

opening :: 'Scandal of Grace' (HillsongUnited) :: The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader

reader (and intro of preacher) :: Rev Mark Briley
preaching :: Rev Kim Gage Ryan

closing :: 'I Want Jesus To Walk With Me' (spiritual) :: Chancel Choir; Kelly Ford, director

text : John 16:29-33

theme verse : “In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!” (John 16:33b)

Do you know courage when you see it? Some people possess the abilities to approach physical challenges with a sense of fearlessness. And yet the ability to override fear is not courage. It may be bold to speak one’s viewpoint openly, but speaking up, alone, is not necessarily courageous. Jesus says to his followers, “take courage,” and so it seems that some faithful reflection on matter is in order. Especially, because thatis precisely what willbe required if there is to be any measure of wholeness in (y)our life.

anthem : 'My Prayer' (D.Foster) :: Bet Wallace & Kelly Ford, vocals; Susie Monger Daugherty, piano

reader : Deborah Gist
preaching : Rev Kevin Howe

special music : 'You Make Me Brave' (Bethel Music) :: The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader

John 16: 29 – 33 (NRSV)
²⁹ His disciples said, “Yes, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure of speech! ³⁰ Now we know that you know all things, and do not need to have anyone question you; by this we believe that you came from God.” ³¹ Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? ³² The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. ³³ I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”
***

The inescapable truth to which the entire biblical story testifies is that our God deeply desires wholeness for creation. Which is really good news, because it seems that you and I are seldom far removed from brokenness. We find ourselves wrestling with the realities of aging bodies, strained relationships, worn out by the conflicting desires of our internal world. “Surely,” we say, “there is something more perfect, more beautiful, more…whole.”

This morning we enter into a new series where we will explore aspects of the wholeness to which God is calling us, examining a few of the spiritual tools that are important in seeking out—and living into—the sort of wholeness that we find in Christ. Today, we begin with the notion of courage. Who doesn’t love a good tale of courage? The shepherd-boy David stepping toe-to-toe Goliath. Cinderella’s resolve to show up to that ball. Harry Potter and his classmates making their stand against the dark wizardry of Voldemort. Stories of courage are lifted up throughout time and across cultures.

The kind of courage that is most widely celebrated is that of physical bravery, for which we offer our praise in the form of awards and honors. But courage takes many forms. It takes courage to express ideas that are not the majority opinion. You have to pluck up your courage to witness vulnerably to your personal experiences. One must have courage to face the hostilities or ridicule that accompany departing from social norms. And it most certainly requires courage to move into the wholeness to which God calls us.

You know, our society has handed us more than its fair share of lies about what wholeness looks like and how we are to achieve it. In our commodified culture, we’re sold a vision of wholeness that is associated with feelings of happiness and contentment, and we’re told that that it can be achieved through buying all the right stuff and consuming all of the right things. The theological equivalent of this notion of wholeness can be found in an article written in 1977, where author, Timothy Luk,e presented the concept of the “commodified God.”¹ He used this term to define the increasingly popular theology of the televangelism movement in marketing God as we might a car, or clothing, or a prescription medicine.

This commodified God is sold alongside the other things that promise us feelings of happiness. And like the best of all prescription drugs that we are pitched, the commodified God will remedy our ailments without any fundamental shifts or lifestyle changes on the part of the user. And given the inordinate number of prescription drug ads I’ve been exposed to this football season, I can almost generate the commercial spot in my mind: It opens with that grayscale shot of a middle-aged woman with a deeply troubled look on her face and the following voiceover: “Do you suffer from pain and discomfort?” Then we’re shown the image a dejected businessman. “Are you ready to escape adversity and conflict? Well, look no further! Introducing: God! That’s right, belief in God will have you feeling warm and fuzzy in no time. Say ‘goodbye’ to pain, dis-ease, discomfort, and say ‘hello’ to all those good feelings life affords.” It’ll sell, right!?

But try pitching the faith as one that exempts us from facing our fears of pain and discomfort, and as the late, great preacher, Fred Craddock, said, “Sooner or later…somebody is going to say to you, ‘Then what happened to Jesus?’ Then you have to tell the truth: he was sentenced to die and was executed. He was about thirty-five years old when he died. He was executed by the Roman government in order to maintain the peace of Rome.”² Now, tell me, where does that fit into a theology where God provides wholeness without movement through pain and discomfort?

In our scripture this morning from the Gospel of John, we heard the final remarks of Jesus to his disciples, before he is turned over to the Roman authorities to be crucified. And for all of the figures of speech he has used to teach his followers something about God’s impending reign, he has chosen to be very direct with them in these final hours. “At last!” they exclaim, “You’re talking straight with us, Jesus! And now that you’ve laid it out for us this way, we’re convinced you’ve come from God. We’re all in!” But little do the disciples know that things are about to get a lot worse before they get joyful. Little do they know how counter their actions will be to this profession when fear takes hold; about the fragility of their resolve when danger will present itself. And Jesus says to them, “You say you believe now, but before you know it, you’re going to be making a run for it. You’ll be cowering for your lives—terrified about how this whole gospel thing will play out.”

Fear, I’m sure you know, is a powerful adversary. And it comes in all shapes and sizes. Some fears, for example, are tied to our desires for control. This is why loss can be so traumatic, because we feel at the mercy of factors beyond our choosing, that loss of control can be panic producing. Other fears are associated with the risk of discomfort and suffering. You know these, as they are the ones that have you checking worse-case scenarios on WebMD in the middle of the night for that pain in your pinky toe. And as I eluded to earlier, our society—with its desire to avoid pain at all costs—has not done us any favors for building a resiliency to fears of dis-ease and discomfort. Then there is one that is so powerful I dare speak its name: fear of failure, which is predicated on the lie that we are somehow insufficient.

But all these fears—whether they are spawn from our external environment or our internal thinking—work in the same operative way: they all threaten to render us powerless. You’ve heard the saying that “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Well, I would like to propose that—in the case of our fears—the inverse is true: powerlessness tends to corrupt and absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely. That is what our fears seek to do to us; to make us believe that we have no power to stand against their oppressive ways. Author, John Pavlovitz writes “Fear wants us to believe that we’re outnumbered, alone, defenseless—that our demise is secured.”³ And so it is, that when our fears have us convinced that we have are powerless to stand against them, we retreat to the safety and security of old habits and thought patterns, even when those things are far from safe and secure. As one friend put it to me this week, “Sometimes we would rather be stuck in our harmful ways than to go through the process towards wholeness.” Because of fear, we take on a position of stuckness, spinning our wheels in a way of living that is far less than the fullness and wholeness of life to which God calls us. You see, the decision to do nothing can often be more dangerous than choosing to face our fears.

Enter courage. C.S. Lewis wrote that “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point…A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions.”⁴ In other words, courage is that which pushes our ability to love beyond a conditional love for our neighbors and ourselves (no less our enemies). Courage is that by which our hope can move beyond the pain of grief and immediate loss. Without courage, a world of fears will try to threaten you into believing that there is no wholeness to be found. The bottom line is this: If we want to live out our faith in an unconditional way, if we want to claim wholeness in our lives, then where do we find the courage to do so?

We are privileged as a people of faith that we have volumes of Scripture which tell story-upon-story about people who have acted courageously for their faith. But I will share one such story with you now: it takes place just a few chapters later in the Gospel of John, when the disciples are found together, reeling from the dreadful events of Jesus’ torture and subsequent death. They have sealed the doors of their meeting space in fear of what might become of them. Talk about fear and stuckness! But would you believe who managed to find his way into their self-made prison of fears? If it wasn’t the resurrected Christ. And that was a game-changer for the disciples. You see, they had feared the finality of death. But in the presence of their resurrected Lord, that was obviously not the case. They had been afraid that God’s reign of peace and justice had been snuffed out. But in the presence of the resurrection, they discovered that God’s work and mission in the world was not to be deterred by its violence. They had thought that their journey as disciples had come to its conclusion, but then the resurrected Jesus says to them “As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” and they realize that their discipleship has just begun.

The resurrection was a game-changer. There was power in his resurrection unlike any power they had known, including that of their fears. And emboldened by this Good News, those disciples unlocked the deadbolts, marched right back out into the midst of a cruel world, full of persecution, to love and serve in the name, and for the sake, of the Risen One. And the way that they carried themselves seemed to say it all: “Take courage! For He has conquered the world!”

And so, it goes that we are the heirs of a tradition that anchors its courage in the resurrected Christ. We lay claim to the power of his resurrection not just as the cognitive assent to an event that took place, but to the whole truth of what resurrection embodies: death has no power over life. I see and hear that message in all kinds of folks who do all kinds of courageous, death-defying, fear-dispersing, justice-building activities in their lives and even to the ends of the earth. That isn’t to say that these faithful followers have not suffered. Those systems and powers that benefit from our brokenness will continue to give fierce and powerful resistance. You’ll likely encounter many stories of these folks who have made sacrifices and took risks. Risked their name, their reputation, their fortune, their livelihood, their life. But in every case that one chooses courage for the sake of the gospel, Christ is present there, recalling the promise that He gave to those who followed first: “Take courage! For I have conquered the world.”

The inescapable truth to which the entire biblical story testifies is that our God deeply desires wholeness for creation. Question is: will we find the courage to play our role?

Prayer:

God, it is a tall order you have set before us—

to be courageous for the sake of the gospel.

But we follow your lead,

trusting that you are with us, in all that we endeavor,

To bring your vision of wholeness

into our lives, our community, and your world.

May we take courage in your name and for your sake.

Amen.

¹Tim Luke. “From Fundamentalism to Televangelism.” Telos, 58 (Winter 1983-1984), 204-210.
²Fred Craddock. “Why the Cross?” The Collected Sermons of Fred Craddock. Westminster/ John Knox Press, 2010 .p. 236.
³John Pavlovitz. Hope and Other Superpowers: A Life-Affirming, Love-Defending, Butt-Kicking, World-Saving Manifesto. Simon & Schuster. P. 87.
⁴ C.S. Lewis. The Screwtape Letters. HarperCollins, New York. P 161.

text : 1 Samuel 18:1-5

theme verse : “Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.” (1 Samuel 18:3)

An ancient philosopher said, “There are only two people who can tell you the truth about yourself—an enemy who has lost his temper and a friend who loves you dearly.”What does it mean to be a true friend? Not best, but true? A true friend is someone with whom you can strip your soul, and when the skeleton of the soul s is stripped bare, your friendwill not laugh or gasp at how ugly things may be. Jonathan was just such a friend to David. You need a Jonathan.

anthem : 'Joy Down in My Heart' (M.McDonald) :: Chancel Choir; Kelly Ford, director

special music : 'Here' (K.Jobe) :: The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader

reader : Doc Shannon
preaching : Rev Mark Briley

offertory : 'That's What Friends Are For' (B.Bacharach) :: Pastors (Mark Briley, Kevin Howe, Courtney Richards, Darlene Martinez) and Music Staff (Kelly Ford, Isaac Herbert, Susie Monger Daugherty)

closing : medley- 'Blest Be The Tie That Binds'/'Bridge Over Troubled Water' (arr. Daugherty) :: Susie Monger Daugherty, piano

Your friends determine the quality and direction of your life.  Your friends determine the quality and direction of your life.  Your friends determine the quality and direction of your life.  This mantra is one leadership guru and pastor Andy Stanley shared with his kids more times than they’d like to count.  If even to the point of annoyance, Stanley felt it was worth restating over and over again so that it was front of mind.  Your friends determine the quality and direction of your life. To whom, in this life, are you soul bound?  We are naturally designed to be soul bound to others.  If there is a part of God in each of us, if we are in fact made somehow in God’s very image, it makes natural sense that there would be a magnetism of our souls that is constantly yearning to be connected. It is why feeling disconnected is very hard and why loneliness hurts as it does. It’s why break ups and relationship fights and family drama have accompanying wounds… they can heal over, yes, they can scab and scar and, sometimes, become stronger in the broken places but what is undeniable is this deep longing we all have to be connected. Even more simply stated, this desired connection is why we do the wave at sporting events or have a moment of excited curiosity when we go to the curb to see what’s in the mailbox and why you check your phone every ninety seconds hoping to find more “likes” on your latest social media post.

I had this connective desire in a strong way last week. It was so strong that I couldn’t even explain it at the time but have processed it more thoroughly since.  I got three text messages almost all at once from my brother, my sister, and my folks saying, “The baby is coming!”  My brother and his wife, Ashley, were in route to the hospital to deliver their little girl.  Everyone in the family was scrambling to play their pre-determined roles when the moment came except for me… I was just on the other end of three text messages coming from Kansas City.  I could and did pray, of course.  That was something I could do but I had this family FOMO feeling that I was missing out on the big moment.  I was disconnected.  I immediately looked at our calendar – and Friday evening into Saturday was the only free twenty hours we would have for months.  That settled it.  When the kids got out of school that Friday, we were going to head to Kansas City to meet that baby.

Yes, the weather forecast called for dump loads of snow and the oft-feared wintry mix and yes, the baby and her parents would just be getting home from the hospital that day and my parents house, where we would be staying, was having some work done so it was “in a state” if you will.  Regardless, my desire to be connected to the sacred moment prevailed.  And well into the drive as darkness was winning and snow was heavy and multiple cars were ditched, I had my regrets.  “What are we doing?  What peril have I put our family in?”  But we inched along and finally pulled into my parents’ driveway later than anticipated of course.  I put the car in park and just sat there white knuckled for a bit. When I stepped outside, I was stunned still. There was no wind.  There was not a great chill.  Just snow falling in silence and among the most beautiful scenes I can recall in some time.  My son, Dane, who has been begging for snow for several years running now had already busted out the car door as fast as he could and made his way out into the middle of the silent cul-de-sac with his arms spread wide, his head tilted back, his smile wider than the boundaries his face naturally allows.  And watching his joy allowed the tension to slowly evaporate from my body. My friend sent me this quote that says My soul felt bound to his joy.

And then, we made our way through the neighborhood to my brothers’ home to hold baby Brookelynn for forty-five minutes or so before returning to my parents to sleep.  It snowed all night and I tossed and turned wondering how we’d get back home.  But we rose, packed up, and headed home to Tulsa.  Our waking connection to my family was only a few minutes while the time in the car was significant.  Why do we do things like this?

I asked that same question at our Staff Team Meeting this week and the team went on and on about friends who drove through the night to be there in a time of need or the recognition of an important time when friends were needed to hold the space for them in a difficult moment. There was talk of different kinds of friends – the ones who’ve walked with you since childhood, “who knew you when…”  There are friends who press the threshold of your nerves and friends who hold the line when you can’t seem to hold it yourself.  Your friends determine the quality and direction of your life.  To whom are you soul bound?

We’re three weeks into 2019 and three weeks into our Guiding Light series.  Week one was our quest to find guiding light in a word… I hope your Star Words are working on you already. Last week, we considered how even death can be a guiding light… how something must die in order to be resurrected.  We have to give up something, make some sacrifice, to grow spiritually.  So we’ve claimed a word, we’ve committed ourselves to spiritual discipline and today we’re looking for a guiding light in a friend.  This is the, “who are you doing life with” question.  Who are you going to take with you?  To whom are you soul bound?  An ancient philosopher said, “There are only two people who can tell you the truth about yourself—an enemy who has lost his temper and a friend who loves you dearly.” What does it mean to be a true friend?  Not best, but true?

A true friend is someone with whom you can strip your soul, and when the skeleton of the soul is stripped bare, your friend will not laugh or gasp at how ugly things may be. When we scan the biblical account for such soul-bound friendship, Jonathan and David always rise to the top.  If you’re not familiar with this friendship, you’re probably at least somewhat aware of David – who becomes King David of course.  Even if you’ve never stepped foot in a church, you likely have some cultural awareness of David because of the famed David and Goliath story. Little guy overcomes the big guy (or big obstacle) and inspirationally triumphs.  It was the story of Rudy Ruettiger before he ever made the Notre Dame football team.  It’s the story of Frodo in Lord of the Rings. We know that story. And of course, Rudy had his best friend, Pete, and Frodo had Samwise (who was coincidentally Rudy if anyone’s keeping track) … best friends who believed in them when no one else would. Jimmy Fallon has Justin Timberlake, Oprah has Gayle… and David had Jonathan.

David and Jonathan meet after David uses his Dollar General slingshot to slay the giant Philistine, Goliath.  Jonathan was the son of King Saul who had made a great GM move by drafting David from the farmland to take on the big Philistine.  This could have totally backfired on Saul but David was confident and he got the job done after countless others, proven Titans even, failed.  Jonathan, a bit in awe of David’s victory perhaps, is there for the big meeting between David and King Saul after Goliath goes down.  What does Jonathan do?  He starts gathering his stuff: his sword and armor; his bow and royal num-chuks and stretches them to David: “Here.”  And we wonder initially, is Jonathan offering these in a resigned sort of way like, “Dad will never be proud of me now… here… you might as well have this stuff, David.”  Was he relieved thinking, “With a guy like David around, I’ll never have to fight again.”  Or was he honoring David and saying, “You are a great warrior and I share what is royally mine with you” as a sign of solidarity.  Whatever the case, the two find themselves “soul-bound” as the text says almost instantly.

David’s victory over the giant made Saul look good at first but of course David was soon the name on everyone’s lips which would later become a threat to Saul’s sense of authority.  Jonathan would later find himself in a tough spot as his dad’s loyalty to David and vice versa waned.  How did their friendship prevail?  When time permits, you should dig into the 1^st Samuel account of their story as it weaves through the larger narrative.  What I think is fair to say is this: everyone needs a Jonathan.  A Jonathan believes in you when no one else does.  A Jonathan is loyal even when you make it hard to be loyal.   A Jonathan has seen you at your worst and loves you anyway.  A Jonathan gives and wants nothing in return.  A Jonathan keeps you in check when you want what you can’t have.  A Jonathan defends your life’s meaning, when your life seemingly has no meaning. A Jonathan lifts you even when you fail.

You may have seen the three-second clip going viral this week as the UCLA’s men’s basketball team showed the world what it means to be your brother’s keeper.[1]  There were two minutes left in the game and Bruins center, Moses Brown, made a bad pass that resulted in the loss of the ball. His team was down by two points and as the ball bounced out of bounds, Brown’s spirit dropped… visibly so.  Moving toward the defensive end of the court, his head and shoulders dropped in unison. Without missing a beat, Brown’s UCLA teammate, Jaylen Hands walked over to Brown,

@JHANDS08, this is undoubtedly my favorite moment of tonight’s overtime win! #keepyourheadup #thatshowweroll pic.twitter.com/u0NrXydJoG

— Dr. Ashanti Hands (@ahandsintheair) January 11, 2019

placed his hand under his chin and tilted his head back up where it belonged. It was simple, seamless, natural and just what the team needed.  The Bruins would rally to overcome a 9-point deficit to win the game.  We all should strive to be the kind of friend who will lift the chin of another!  We know it when we see it.  We feel it when we experience it.  Your friends determine the quality and direction of your life.

Why then, with this deep desire to be connected and soul-bound and a chin-lifter for others, do we struggle so deeply with this.  Columnist Laura Marcus claims the typical male idea of a best friend is “someone they haven’t seen for ten years.”  Interesting. Why do more Americans claim loneliness than any time in our history?  The New York Times[2] declared loneliness an “American Epidemic” just this past December.  They noted an article from 2009, ten years ago, called “The Lonely American,” where they shared the troubling news that American’s had fewer confidants than in the past, and almost 25 percent reported that they had not talked about matters of importance with anyone in the last six months.  Go back another ten years… in the year 2000… when Robert Putnam’s work, “Bowling Alone” was released.  It was a groundbreaking book based on vast data showing how we had become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and our democratic structures. Putnam said this growing isolation was impoverishing our lives and communities.  His evidence included nearly 500,000 interviews over the previous quarter century showing that we signed fewer petitions, belonged to fewer organizations that meet in person, knew our neighbors less, met with friends less frequently, and even socialized with our families less often.  The symbol he noted to encapsulate it all was this:  We were also bowling alone. More Americans were bowling than ever before, but they were not bowling in leagues. We were bowling alone. This was all prior to social media, of course, which many have said has cut into our face-to-face, deeper, stretching, authentic relationships with others.  The reality seems to be that we’re foregoing vulnerability and intimacy in exchange for surface relationships – and we might stretch that to include surface commitments.

Jonathans may be rare – and we may struggle to be a Jonathan to someone else – but the longing is there and we know, when life comes to an end, it’s not our money or trophies or cars that we want at our bedside. We want those who are soul-bound to us to see us through to the other side.  One leader said one of his goals was to “Know my eight.”  The number may be a bit arbitrary but for him, that number was to represent his pall bearers.  He was in the second half of his life and could only name a few.  He knew he needed to put himself out there and invest in more relationships.

Author Leonard Sweet actually writes about our need of a Jonathan in our life.[3]  He says the barriers to such a relationship are really tied up in three syndromes – ‘sin’dromes he even ventures to call them.  The first he calls the “What’s in it for Me?” syndrome.  He describes it as our egosystem – the system in which we are built to survive and get ahead – making it natural to want to associate with those who will help us get ahead.  We tend to call it networking – a drive for power and prestige found through who we know.  If these, “friends” can’t make the net “work” then we decide its time for a new set of friends.  This is not to say we shouldn’t help one another and certainly we often connect with circles of those who are often navigating similar challenges or dreams but if this is as deep as we go, we’ll not find, or become, a Jonathan.

In part, this is what Sweet says leads to the second sin-drome which he calls, No Down Elevator;” only looking to get ahead or go-up… no willingness to go deeper.  Clinical psychologist Dan Montgomery uses the image of taking the elevator down to explore what it means to get to the deep soul-bound connections of relationships.  Montgomery says the elevator starts at the façade level – a level of public appearances. This is where we relate through social custom:  small talk, weather, Kyler Murray’s draft status. It’s a necessary stage of getting acquainted which happens to be the next floor down – acquaintance level.  At this level, we reveal some of our opinions; maybe drop a line about the border wall and see how it is received; maybe you wait to order a drink until the other person does because you’re not sure what’s socially acceptable in the relationship just yet.  There’s some risk at this level but most don’t take exchanges at this level personally.  To reach the third floor down, the friendship level, we have to willingly experience emotional vulnerability.  We share a lot of feelings at this level but hold back on the deeper ones.  We look for compatibility, empathy, and mutual trust.  If there is solid mutual response at this level, we may choose to take the elevator down another floor – the intimacy level. We come clean with the dark side – the memories, wounds, and reflections that make us who we are but often feel too shameful to disclose.  We also share the heart’s desires.  To get past the going up syndrome, we have to be willing to take the elevator down.

The final sin-drome Sweet calls “What? Me, Sacrifice?”  This often includes the highest cost of true friendship – sharing our most precious commodity:  time. Sigmund Freud famously asked, “What does a woman want?”  Emotional Intelligence guru, Daniel Goleman later answered, “Simple. She wants a partner who cares what she wants.”  What are you willing to give of yourself to become soul-bound to another?  Jonathan and David had this connection.  And as we imagine “wholeness” as our congregational star word for the year – a quest of which we will journey this year – it seems that true friends may a go a long way in making this quest fruitful.  Why? Because… your friends determine the direction and quality of your life.

Nothing about this quest is easy.  I don’t pretend that to be true. People, even friends, let us down, and we can grow bitter.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr who’s ongoing quest for racial justice we celebrate this weekend said, “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” To find our way to the deepest and greatest sense of spiritual depth and meaning, we have to give up resentments and hatred and take on forgiveness and heal. Jonathan and David find their snags along the way and their connection costs them in some critical ways at different points.  But I can’t shake this sense that at soul-level – we know this need is true and God has created us with such design for the joy and enrichment, and perhaps even soul-survival, of our lives. Bottom line?  Join a bowling league. Just kidding. Sort of.  Putnam’s research states that “joining and participating in one group cuts in half your odds of dying next year.” Make a commitment to take some engagement in your life to the next level. Check out a small group or Sunday school class.  Get engaged with our youth or children’s program or join an outreach effort.  While it’s great that we gather here in rows on Sunday morning to praise God, it is the circles in your life that will take you down the elevator to deeper levels of intimacy.  It is in those places that you’ll find friends who will hold your chin up when you can’t do it yourself.  They’ll be there for you when your health has you sidelined.  They’ll be a guiding light for you when you’re blinded by the stars.  Everyone needs a Jonathan.  Sometimes, we can’t find one until we become a Jonathan ourselves.

[1] https://www.becauseofthemwecan.com/blogs/the-feels/ucla-teammate-lifted-the-chin-of-another
[2] These two articles helped shape the sharing of the included research. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/23/opinion/loneliness-political-polarization.html?module=inline.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/08/opinion/letters/loneliness-epidemic.html
[3] From Leonard Sweet’s book, “11 indispensable relationships you can’t be without.”  David C. Cook publishing. Colorado Springs. 2008.

text : Isaiah 60:1-6

theme verse : “Arise, shine; for your light has come...” (Isaiah 60:1)

“Glory is God’s style.” Christian writer Frederick Buechner offers this gem. When the Bible tells us that “the heavens are telling the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1), it is saying that the heavens are revealing God’s style: sunsets, starry nights, dust storms, rainforests, garter snakes, the human face —all, says Buechner, are “unmistakably the work of a single hand.” God’s style. On the Day of Epiphany, God’s style was revealed to the world when the Magi show up to meet Jesus in a make-shift delivery room. God’s glory made flesh; a savior come so that the world might come to know, in a word, “wholeness.”

NOTE: As a part of worship, each person will be invited to draw a word, at random, to be a focal word for the year. No single card will be duplicated. May each word, through Christ, be aguiding light.

anthem : 'Star of the East' (A.Kennedy) :: Barry Epperley, vocal; Marilyn Rhodes, piano

reader : Giselle Chebny
preaching : Rev Mark Briley

special music : 'Guiding Light' (Mumford&Sons) :: The Rising Band; Isaac Herbert, leader

offertory : 'Shine On Us' (M.W.Smith) :: Marla Patterson, Bet Wallace, Kelly Ford, vocal; Marilyn Rhodes, piano

Happy New Year! 2019!  It is a staggering number to me.  I remember a time when the Y2K approach was all anyone could fathom, and Prince had everyone elated to party like it was 1999.  2019?  Seemed like a lifetime away back then.  But… here we are, 2019, and Prince isn’t around to write a song about what it’s like to party this year.  And ‘party’ has a certain connotation with it but it really is just getting after what it means to be fully and truly alive.  So we’ve got some gearing up to do this morning.

I hope you had a good time over the holidays with friends or family or Netflix or whatever it was your spirit needed to find some peace and healing from a long and interesting year.  We made the usual rounds in Missouri visiting our families and it was just a lovely trip this year… dog in tow and all.  There was nothing overly spectacular about the whole thing.  In fact, it mostly reminded me of the Walt Whitman sentiment: 

I pray your time was grounding and that you’re psyched and ready now to tackle a new year.

It is really good to be with you.  There’s a new aura of hope that permeates the sanctuary on the first Sunday of the year.  Never fails. It’s Epiphany Sunday – the reminder of the magi following the great guiding light of the star over Bethlehem that led those wise astronomers to the feet of Jesus.  It is also “Star Word” Sunday – and all the sudden Star Wars fans have looked up from their phones thinking I’m finally going to say something of relevance. I’m sorry to disappoint. It is not Star Wars Sunday but rather, Star Words Sunday… a day when you all will be invited to draw your own unique word at random at the end of the service as a focal word to guide you into the New Year. It’s not a magic word.  It’s just a tool. It won’t do any work for you… it will demand of you some study, focused reflection, and experimentation.

But aren’t we ready for that?  Aren’t we ready to do something more?  To track our spirits toward a deeper level of understanding?  Aren’t we looking for something more than just okay?  You’ve probably seen the AT&T ads this season – Great ads! – many during all of the Bowl Games, that offer the line, “Ok is NOT ok.” One shows a mechanic assuring a customer who is looking for a brake job that their shop is just okay at fixing brakes. He adds, “If the brakes don’t stop the car, something will.”  Ok is not ok.  There’s another of a physician who walks into the room of an anxious patient awaiting surgery saying, “Guess who just got reinstated? … well, not officially.” The patient admits to being nervous.  The doc says, “Me too. We’ll figure it out.  See you in there!”  There’s a baby sitter who is “pretty okay with children,” and a tattoo artist who is just okay at inking tattoos.  Trust me, when you’re getting that picture of Jesus riding a unicorn inked on your back, “Ok is not Ok.”   A minister friend of mine posted a gag gift one of his parishioners got him for Christmas. At least, I assumed it was a gag gift.  It was a coffee mug that says in bold letters on the side 

I know it’s a gag.  He’s doing excellent ministry in Kentucky.

I know all of us get plenty of pressure from countless angles of our lives expecting us to perform and achieve and perfect our lives and I’m not here to add that kind of pressure to our spiritual lives.  But… I am here to challenge us to not be okay with okay this year. This mostly revolves around our intentionality. In a season where we tend to add more and more to our plate with a self-imposed pressure to perform, maybe it would be wise of us to resolve, not to do more things, but to do less things with greater intentionality.  This does require spiritual discipline and, as one of Carrie’s running friends often states is 

When it comes to your spiritual life, what do you want most?  Do you want truth?  Do you want relationship? Do you want accountability?  Do you want a community to ride with through life?  What do you want most?  And what are you going to give of yourself to find your way in such a quest?  Well, today, in this first sermon series of the new year, we’re calling this the search of a Guiding Light. Today’s guiding light is found in a word.

Isaiah, one of the great prophets, brings us the word today.  For Isaiah, words are watercolors and melodies and chisels to make truth and beauty and goodness… and sometimes hammers and swords and scalpels to unmake sin.  He doesn’t simply convey information, Isaiah creates visions and inspires belief.  He’s a poet – a maker, making God present and that presence urgent.  The most impressive art of Isaiah, according to the late Eugene Peterson,[1] involves taking the stuff of our ordinary and often disappointing human experience and showing us how it is the very stuff that God uses to create and save and give hope.  As this vast panorama opens up before us, it turns out that nothing is unusable by God.  God uses everything and everybody as material for his work, which is the remaking of the mess we have made of our lives into a beautiful, grace-laced symphony.  In a word, God’s hoping you’re up for the quest of finding what you want most in your life… and trusting that such a quest will lead you to him.

Isaiah 60 opens with some of the most familiar words of the prophet. 

Arise. Shine. Light. Glory. Since we are looking for that guiding light in a word today, consider with me four key words found in that line alone.

ARISE.  If there is ever a word that speaks for itself, it’s this one.  It’s the greatest hope of every morning.  At least one of you will say to me today when asked how you are, “I got out of bed this morning so I must be doing pretty well.”  One version of this verse says it as plainly as that: “Get out of bed, Jerusalem! Wake up and put your face in the sunlight!” Arise!  Never a better word to start a new year.

SHINE. This is taking ‘arise’ to the next level.  You’re up and that is the necessary start to whatever happens next.  But a commitment to shine will require something more of you.  It’s about getting your attitude straight before you leave the house.  It’s about being read up and prayed up and on the look out to be a good witness of the faith to whomever you may encounter in the day.  You’re attitude toward another may be the thing that draws them to Spirit or pushes them away from Spirit. We certainly want to shine the good stuff to the world in need, yes?  I saw someone post a while back the statement, “Do babies named Karen even exist or do they just appear one day with three kids and wanna speak to the manager?” Not sure why that person was picking on Karen’s.  I know some lovely Karen’s – including my little niece who couldn’t possibly shine a brighter light.  But plug your own name into that statement.  As a Christian, are you shining a different kind of light or can anyone really tell any difference?   Arise. Shine.

LIGHT. We all want light in our lives – never more evident than during these dark winter days.  January 1 gave us just 9 hours and 20 minutes of daylight. But the days are elongating and by the end of January we’ll have ten hours of light each day. Isaiah paints this picture of darkness that is essentially the reality of the world.  “The earth is wrapped in darkness” … but… he says, “A pinprick of light will rise on you.” This is the connection to the great guiding star that led the Magi to Jesu