Fishing - January 25, 2009

Mark 1:14-20

Christians, we have a task!
Let’s go fishing!

The first disciples … professional fishermen …
Boats and winds,
Ropes and nets …
Sails and storms.

They knew what every fisherman knows …
To get fish, you have to fish …
Sometimes ya’ get skunked …
Sometimes a boat-load.

My brother and I, Raystown Lake, Pennsylvania …
18-foot, white fiberglass, Lincoln Canoe …

In a cove …
Fishing with jigs …
And suddenly a strike …
Pulled in a big Crappie …
Then another, and soon we were hauling ‘em in on every cast … by the time the school passed by, we had 20 or 30 fat Crappie …
Went home happy that evening … a terrific fish fry …

What does it mean to fish for people?


A simple recognition – life without God is a diminished life.
And lots of folks live with little or nothing of God.

Life without God - like a compromised immune system – without God, we’re vulnerable to all sorts of infections.
Victims of the latest fad …
Every promise that comes our way looks good, and off we go …
Longing, looking, searching, seeking … never quite landing anywhere, never finding, always disappointed, and then on to the next effort, until we just grow tired, weary, jaded, cynical … and we sink all the deeper into the quagmire of ourselves.
Lots of folks live with little or nothing of God in their lives, and it’s for their sake we go fishing!

Frederick Buechner writes of a time when a friend asked him for help … Buechner didn’t want to step out, didn’t want to get involved, but then makes a discovery:

To journey for the sake of saving our own lives is little by little to cease to live in any sense that really matters, even to ourselves, because it is only by journeying for the world’s sake – even when the world bores and sickens and scares you half to death – that little by little we come alive. It was not a conclusion I came to in time. It was a conclusion from beyond time that came to me. God knows I have never been any good at following the road it pointed me to, but at least, by grace, I glimpsed the road and saw that it is the only one worth traveling [Jan. 25 devotional].

Why do we fish?

Because there are fish to be caught … people who desperately need to hear the Good News … who need the hope and peace that comes through Jesus our LORD.

Let’s see what we can learn today about fishing …

The Text says, They left their nets.
In order to go anywhere, we have to leave some things behind …

Over the years, I’ve watched Christians struggle to juggle all the loyalties and interests of life … there’s a lot of pressure on us to do everything, see everything, be everything before we take our final breath …

Like children setting out on a trip –
Mom and Dad, can I take along my toys?
You can take just one.
Can I take my favorite books?
Just a few.
How about my iPod?
Sure, but we’re going to disconnect ourselves for a while.

The disciples left their nets … but more than just leaving something behind, they followed him.

The one-two punch, if you will … leave AND follow!

It’s not just about leaving things behind; it’s all about following something … or someone … a reason, a purpose!

Remember the 2007 film, Into the Wild?
The young man left everything behind to live in the wilds of Alaska – he left everything, but he followed nothing, except some vague inner dream to get away from it all!
He left everything … but followed nothing!

Here in this place, we follow Jesus …
Others follow other paths … and God is their companion, too. I’m not concerned about faith different than mine.
I’m concerned about those who struggle through life without faith … with a north star to guide them through the night … without a sense of eternity … without a standard by which to measure their life … a life with little or nothing of God – that’s what I’m concerned about.
People who have nothing to follow, and haven’t a clue what to leave behind!

Here in this place, we follow Jesus.
That’s why we do what we do.
He call us to go fishing!

But it’s the next piece of the story that really intrigues me.
Those early disciples left their nets to follow Jesus … and then did nothing …
They did nothing for a long time!

Sometimes we Christians are way too busy …
Over the years, I’ve heard Christians say, I’m burned out and burned up. I’ve been a deacon and an elder, I’ve served on the Stewardship Committee, the Evangelism Committee, the Building and Grounds Committee – I’ve sung in the choir and I’ve taught Sunday School - I’ve done it all, and now I don’t want to do it anymore.
Maybe some of you’ve said that.

Sometimes we Christians are way too busy.

What did those first disciples do?
They watched!
Jesus didn’t ask them to do anything.
Just watch me, he said.

I wish that we Christians could learn to do that a little better.
To settle down and not be so busy …
To watch Jesus … and watch him a lot.

But preacher, you say, how do we watch him? How can we do that?

Several things:
First, there’s no substitute for the Bible.
In it’s pages, we see Jesus …
And then something from beyond time, if you will, takes hold of us …
The Holy Spirit …
The Holy Spirit takes these words and applies them to our heart …
The words we read begin to read us …
We move from information to formation …
Religion becomes relationship …
The heart is warmed at the fires of God’s grace …
“O God” ceases to be an expression of surprise and becomes the cry of adoration …
Just a closer walk with thee, as the hymn puts it …

How do we watch Jesus?

By watching others who follow him.
Who are your Christian heroes?
Give thought to their life … watch how they do it.
Flesh and blood heroes … like Buechner says of himself, never very good at it, but my heroes work hard at it.
Long ago I learned – it’s not how well anyone does; it’s the love of trying, and trying to love.

Another source: good books.
Reliable Christian authors … pay a visit to Cokesbury in Pasadena now and then …
Check with me …
Frederick Buechner, Thomas Merton, John Ortberg, William Sloane Coffin, Jr.; writer Ann LaMott, or Jan Karon and her Mittford Series, featuring Fr. Tim – one of the best series ever written capturing the life of a pastor amid the joys and sorrows of a small congregation.
Find some heroes and watch how they live.

More than anything, I’ve long to see Christians well-connected to one another in fellowship … not just socializing together, but linked together with Bible reading and prayer.
Maybe it’s just one friend you have in Christ.
Maybe it’s a small group.
But when you’re together, Christ is there, too.
Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, says Jesus, I am there.
 
Christians sometimes mistakenly substitute socializing for fellowship – socializing is good; I’m all in favor of it – running clubs, card clubs, bowling together, eating together, painting projects, mission trips, but all of that is not yet fellowship.
Fellowship begins when we gather around the Bible, or a spiritual book, and when we pray for one another and lift up the name of Jesus – that’s fellowship!
Watching Jesus with one another … learning about our LORD.

The first disciples spent a lot of time learning …

That’s a lesson for all of us …

Not just at the beginning of our walk with Jesus … but throughout our life … to keep our eyes upon him … to learn more and more about him!

To learn of him who is our LORD.
Take my yoke upon you, says Jesus, and learn from me.

To know Jesus well …
And you know what?
The world will see it in us.
Let your light so shine, says Jesus, so that the world will see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Dear Christian friends, it’s time to go fishing.
Throw out the net … love, faith and prayer.
Honest, humble living.
We’ll catch a few folks for the kingdom of heaven.

Billy Graham had his millions, but you and I will only have a few … but God has his eye on the sparrow and can number the hairs on our head - God is a God of small numbers.
If we catch only a few in our lifetime, we will go to our rest having honored Jesus with our best!

And we won’t even know we’re doing it!
Spend enough time with Jesus, and it just happens.
Like a glass filled to the brim, we overflow …
Christ within us, through us, to the world.

A friend has been seeing a doctor.
Much to his surprise, the doctor wrote a note, thanking him for sharing his faith. It triggered something in the doctor’s life - some re-thinking about faith and the doctor’s walk with God.
But my friend said, I didn’t share my faith. I just talked about how important God was to me.
My friend went fishing, and didn’t even know it.

That’s the best kind of fishing we can do.
Just living … plain old living, telling folks how important God is to us in the course of simple conversation … we won’t even know we’re doing it.
And maybe, just maybe, as Paul says, We’ll heap coals on someone’s head – we’ll light a fire … stir the conscience; the Holy Spirit will go to work, and a lonely traveler will find her way back home to God!

As we look to the future here at Covenant,
Covenant on the Corner,
I challenge you … I invite you:
Get to know Jesus … and get to know him well.

There’s a lot of fishing to be done. Amen!

Follow - January 18, 2009

John 1:43-51

How did any of us come to this point in time?
Here we are, in church.

I’m a pastor.
You’re parishioners.
We’re baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit …
We’re followers of Jesus …

How in the world did that happen?

In today’s passage from John,
So many simple things, little things …
And before you know it, something has happened …
A claim has been made upon the soul …
Just a moment ago, life moving in one direction.
Now, a change of pace …
To follow him – a new direction.

Frederick Buechner, the Presbyterian minister/writer …
Tells of his own beginnings …

After great success with his first novel – his picture appearing in Time, Newsweek and Life, Buechner moves to New York City to pursue fame and fortune … only to find the least expected!
 Not yet a believer of any sorts, he nonetheless pays a visit to Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, less than a block from his apartment.
A small thing, to live less than a block from such a church … wonder if God had a hand in that one …

Madison Avenue – with George Buttrick preaching – Beuchner becomes a believer, and then one day, a simple phrase from Buttrick seals the deal for Buechner – a simple phrase …

Buttrick said: Jesus was crowned in the hearts of people who believe in him, a coronation that takes place "among confession, and tears, and great laughter."

The phrase “great laughter” touched Buechner and nudged him into the kingdom.
He writes: I was moved to wonderful tears from the deepest part of who I was.

In his autobiography, The Sacred Journey , Buechener describes the moment as one of finding Christ … and being found by him, in a profoundly transforming way.

How did any of us come to this point in time?
That we should be followers of Jesus.

Our reading today from John triggers all sort of thoughts for me …
It says so simply, Jesus finds Phillip.

I like the word “find” …
It’s good to find things …
To find my glasses … or the book I was reading last week, and where in the world did I put it?
It’s a good to find a good restaurant … or a good job.

It’s good to find our way …
Which way we shall we go?
Right, left?
North, south?


It’s a good thing to be found …
Amazing grace …
One I was lost, but now am found …

Jesus finds Phillip …

I suspect that’s a big part of it for most of us …
That’s why we’re here …
Jesus finds us …
Somehow, somewhere, somehow …
Amid the tangle of time and events …

Jesus found me when I was a child …
Before I had any conscious will … it was God; it was not yet Jesus … he would come later in my life, much later …

Some of us have childhood memories of God.
A presence …
A love …

For some of us, the journey began later in life … maybe a high school youth group … maybe a friend in college … or even later – a crisis drives us to our knees and we cry out in despair …
Something …
Someone …
Somewhere …
Somehow …

Jesus finds us …

Then Phillip finds Nathaniel …
Nathaniel isn’t too sure about any of this …
Can anything good come out of Nazareth? he asks.

Phillip says, Give it a try … what’s to lose?

I’ve had a good many Phillips in my life …
I bet you have, too.
The inviters!
Folks who help us leave behind the comfort and safety of our fig tree … that little place in life where we’ve made a home for ourselves … but something comes along and invites us to get up and get going … to a new place …
Like Nathaniel, we grumble a bit … what’s all the to-do about? What’s the fuss?
We think: Leave me alone; can’t you see I’m doing just fine as I am? My fig tree is fine tree; come and sit with me.
But thank God for the Phillips in our life …
The inviters.

Let’s stop a moment …
I want you to think about your inviters … the Phillips in your life …
Folks who invited you to the adventure of faith …

Let’s take a few moments … recall some names … folks who invited you to God …
…. …. ….

Now …
Form some small groups … 4 or 5 folks …
Yup, ya’ gotta get up and leave your fig tree … … …

Okay?
Now share with each other your Phillips …
Who invited you to God?

[sharing] … … … …

For me, the Rev. Jerome DeJong, Immanuel Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Dr. DeJong is now with the LORD.
25 years ago, I wrote to him … told him of my life and work, and how much he meant to me.
He wrote back – a simple note of thanks … saying what most pastors say: “It’s great to know that my words and work made some difference in someone’s life.”

The second, my friend and colleague, the Rev. Bob Orr, my parish associate in Detroit – Bob is a man of adventure – time and again, Bob said to me, “Let’s do such and so,” and off we’d go.
Because of him, we paid a visit to Willow Creek Church in Chicago, what would become a powerful chapter in my life
And then he introduced me to the Abbey of Gethsemane in the hills of Kentucky … once a year, we’d go for a long weekend – burning into my heart and mind images that will never be forgotten – the sounds and smells of monastery … monks chanting, the pungent odor of incense … the clink and clank of dishes and silverware in silent dining …
Bob is still inviting me … sends me books … and fascinating emails …
He’s been great at getting me to leave behind my comfy fig tree.

How in the world did any of us get here?
That we should be followers of Jesus.

It’s extraordinary thing when I think about it …

That any of us should be there today …

Amen and Amen!

Watermark - January 11, 2009

By the Rev. Hiedi Worthen Gamble, Mission Advocate, Presbytery of the Pacific.

Audio version available HERE.

It is a gift to be here today with you, thank you for welcoming me to your pulpit. Since I work here at Covenant in the presbytery offices I feel connected to you all throughout the week and get to say a quick hello to many of you. I am the Mission Advocate for Hunger, Poverty & Peacemaking and I have been on staff for over four years. We have a lot going on at the Presbytery of the Pacific; I have been co-coordinating a New Orleans trip in February, and will be coordinating a Big Sunday volunteer weekend and Habitat Youth Event in the spring. I’m also promoting and practicing the Presbyterian Hunger Program’s monthly weekend fast for 2009, in response to the Global Hunger Crisis, as well as promoting fair trade products and a Palm Sunday eco-justice project. And soon we will begin planning for another trip to Nicaragua, and have been so blessed to work with Leslie Evans and Lee Gardner. I am happy to share with you all that is going on, so please talk with me after church if you have any questions, and if you have an idea or a project you would like to see implemented presbytery-wide, let us know and we’ll do what we can to make it happen!

Today we remember the baptism of Jesus, and for those of you here today who have been baptized, I would like to begin by taking a poll: how many of you can remember or recall the moment you were baptized? Would anyone be willing to share that memory?

I will confess that I don’t remember my own baptism, but there is a family story about my baptism. My father is a Presbyterian pastor as well, and he tells the story that out of all of his almost-40 years of ministry, the only time he baptized infants who were screaming at the top of their lungs was the time when he baptized me and my two sisters. At the ripe old age of 10 months I knew I absolutely did NOT want to be baptized. But baptized I was—an unforgettable moment in the life of that little church, no doubt.

For our first call out of seminary, my husband Jason and I served as co-pastors in Alaska, on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, which was a mere 40 miles from the far NW corner of Sibera. There we had the great privilege of meeting with a leader of a Christian house church in Siberia. The church in Siberia among the Inuit is still very new, and when we met with her, she described how they did adult baptisms: and yes indeed, to my wide-eyed amazement, they baptized in the cold, frigid waters of an Arctic stream, during the summer months when the ice melted long enough for water to flow. Now that’s a baptism no one would forget!

One would be hard pressed to forget a baptism in a Christian church in third century Rome as well. Early Christian baptisms were often life-altering experiences. In the early centuries of the church, when you came to be presented for baptism after a time of preparation, study, and fasting, you were sent down into the catacombs without clothing, and were asked to renounce evil and death. Then you were asked if you believed in Jesus Christ. Upon confessing your faith, you were immersed in the murky dark waters of the catacombs three times, after which you would emerge and receive new white clothing from a deacon. Once you were clothed you would then walk up into the light and be fully embraced by the community of believers, receiving the kiss of peace.

We know that the confession of faith that happened at baptism for early Christians was very clearly about entering into a new reality, a new way of life. After being baptized in the early centuries as a Christian you had truly been risen from death to life with Christ, had been washed clean, marked as Christ’s own. You were reborn, not from a mother’s womb but from the womb of the Spirit, from God. You were spiritually rebirthed, you were born again. You had become a son or a daughter of God, a follower of Jesus, a new creation.

Whether you recall the moment of your baptism or not, my word to you this day, on the day we celebrate Jesus’ baptism, is to remember your baptism—remember who you are and whose you are. Like watermarks, or imprints put into valuable paper while still wet in order to identify them, so too are our baptisms; a mark of the Holy Spirit through water that, though not visible to us at times, remains imprinted in us throughout our lives.

John’s baptisms in the river Jordan were baptisms of repentance that had a specific, concrete act of justice for each person who was baptized: for the one with two coats, it was to share with someone who had no coat; for the one with food, it was to share with those who had none; for the tax collector, it was to collect taxes justly; for the soldier, it was to rob no one, and cease violence and accusing people falsely. It was a baptism of conversion into a more righteous and just way of living that has an undeniable economic ethic to it; the rich were called to share so that the poor had enough. In the gospel of Luke, after Jesus was baptized he went into the desert where he was tempted by the devil to claim all authority and power for himself and power over the kingdoms of the world. Jesus refuses, and instead goes to the Temple where he claims his baptism from John in the Jordan, saying: “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because God has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Jesus’ baptism was his initiation—his ordination--into his ministry of compassion, healing, grace and good news for the poor.

This too is the meaning of our baptisms. At our baptisms we too are baptized into the life of Christ and into his ministry. Our initiation into the Christian faith through our baptisms marks us as God’s beloved children, bathes us in the endless grace of God, and sends us out. Our baptisms claim the powerful love of God in Christ that we are radically loved and forgiven, and that in response to this grace, we are called to love and serve the world. We are engrafted into Christ—we put on Christ--and then participate in his ministry of good news that the hungry are fed, the lame walk, the blind see, the rich share, the outcasts are loved. We are baptized into Christ’s way—into his death, as Paul says in Romans—so that we will more and more fully come alive in him. So on this day, remember your baptism.

Imagine with me for a moment what the words of repentance John the Baptist would call us to today: Do you have enough food to eat in this economy? Then give to the LAX food pantry. Do you have a home in this time of skyrocketing foreclosure rates? Then build a home for Habitat, or pray about how you can use your home for others. Do you have extra coats in your closet? Give them to goodwill, or hand it out in person to someone on the streets. Do you have a job that provides for you and your family during this time when unemployment is at its highest percentage since 1945? Then offer assistance to those who are unemployed and march with the hotel workers at the LAX Hilton who are trying to secure a liveable wage. Remember who you are and whose you are: remember your baptism.

And what if you have experienced the hardship of job loss, or a foreclosure, or you have had to start going to food banks to put dinner on the table for your children? Then remember your baptism; remember you are forever sealed in God’s grace and God will not abandon you.
(up to the font) Whenever you see water, think of it as God’s reminder to you that you are loved beyond measure. When you do the dishes, take a shower, drink a cup of water, gaze upon the magnificence of the ocean, remember your baptism; remember who you are and whose you are. Remember that you are loved.

This summer my family and I traveled to Niagara Falls, Canada, to visit family and see the amazing falls. I have young children who aren’t much for spending long moments reflecting on the grandeur of those waters, so theological reflection for me was at a minimum. We did get on the infamous Maids of the Mist boat ride under the falls however, where we went to the base of the falls and got drenched by them, and I just imagined myself for a moment receiving a pounding of grace-filled baptismal waters by a God who loves me. Wow.

Our baptisms are a precious gift—a gift to celebrate, to share, to remember, to live into. We are a new creation, a people who have the watermark of Christ in our lives, a people bathed in grace and sent out in love to serve others. This day, may we remember our baptisms, and be thankful. Alleluia. Amen.

The Installation of the Rev. Paula Mann

Palms Westminster Presbyterian Church

"On the Road: Jerusalem to Jordan"

Mark 1:4-11

Goooooood Morning Palms Westminster …
An auspicious day …
A good day …
Time to celebrate …
Kick up our heels …
Give thanks and rejoice …

It’s always a great day when a church installs a new pastor … like opening a new book in a series of books by a good writer …
Like the Harry Potter series …
Or the Mitford series by Jan Karon …
Same author, same style …
But a whole new story …

God is still God, and God is still writing your history …
Same basic themes:
Love one another as I have loved you …
Forgive one another so that you can be forgiven …
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you …

And the same promises:
I am with always to the end of the age …
I will never leave you or forsake you …
Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there!

But it’s a new book today …
A new story …
The Rev. Paula Mann … lately of the Mid-West … but now, having seen the light, a resident of Los Angeles, and soon-to-be, Palms Westminster pastor … in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer … through thick and thin … sick and sin … for the glory of God, and the wellbeing of the neighborhood …

I can’t think of a better story for the day, than the story of our LORD's baptism …
The beginning of his rabbinic ministry …
If a man wanted to be a rabbi, he trained, and trained hard … memorizing the Text … passing through a series a qualification steps, and all things being equal, at age 30, a man could be a rabbi …
Just like Joseph, who entered the service of Pharaoh at age 30 … it’s a good age … and Jesus was 30 when he went down to the Jordan, the southern stretches of Palestine, where John was proclaiming a message of renewal … get into this water, and God will wash you clean … start all over again; repent and get serious about your life with God … and if you do this, you will be forgiven.

So what’s the big deal?

Well, let’s do some work here …

There are some early rabbinic writings that expressly forbid ceremonial washings in the Jordan River … interesting … why?

By the time of Jesus and John, there was a place where it all happened … forgiveness available … and the place was Jerusalem – not Jordan … Jerusalem - with its temple, its priest and scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees … musicians and singers … folks who swept the floors and keep the oil lamps a-burning … thousands worked there … and tens of thousands of rams and bulls and goats and sheep and doves and sparrows – blood sprinkled on the alter, and your sins are no more – gone, vanished, never to heard from again!

Stop by the temple … buy your sacrifice … quickly dispatched with a swift knife or a twist of the neck … it’s blood sprinkled, its fatty parts burned, the smoke reaching all the way to heaven, and God is pleased with the aroma … sins forgiven … absolute and final … sins no more …

Jerusalem the Golden …

We can do it for you.
We’ve done it this way for a long time …
Tried and true …
If it works, don’t mess with it.
If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.
Come one, come all …
Jerusalem is the place …
David’s Holy City …
A temple to knock your socks off …
A wonder of the ancient world …
The blood of a thousand bulls …
Ten thousand sheep …
Forgiveness …
New life …
Peace with God …
It’s right here, friends, right in Jerusalem!

Jerusalem - a powerful place …
And powerful places don’t like competition.

Herod doesn’t like the idea of a king born in Bethlehem … so he sends in the troops … kills every child two years and under …
Rome doesn’t like competition … you’ll be hoisted on a cross before you can say Judas Priest …
Power doesn’t like competition …
Jerusalem doesn’t like competition …
Jerusalem doesn’t like John …
And neither did Herod when John got a little uppity about sexual shenanigans in the royal court …
And you know what happened to John – he lost his head.
And you know what happened to Jesus – they crossed him out … just like that …

Power doesn’t like competition …

And John was competition.
John offered an alternative …
Jordan water …
Not Jerusalem with all its traditions …
Just Jordan … simple and clean …
Anyone … easy … step into the water …
Repent … that’s it … a new chapter in your life with God.

A voice crying in the wilderness …
Jesus heard the voice in Nazareth …
He makes the trek south …
By-passing Jerusalem … he’d go there later … but now, to start off, he goes to a simple place … he goes to Jordan.

Where’s your Jordan?
Where’s the new place you’ve been visiting lately?
The new idea?
The change of pace?
Something different?

Let’s face it; we’re all creatures of habit …
We settle in and we settle down …
We eat in the same restaurants, drive the same way to work, have lunch with the same people, read the same kind of books, watch the same kind of TV …

Do me a favor – turn to your neighbor, tell them what brand of toothpaste you use … and how long have you used it?
…. …. …. ….

Okay, anyone want to share?
Brand and time used?

Sure, we’re creatures of habit …
We sit in the same pew …
We sing the same hymns … 
We want our preachers to say pretty much the same thing …
We’re likely to repeat last year’s program … because last year’s program was a repeat of the year before, and the year before that … and it was pretty good then, and it’s pretty good now!
We do things like that …
We’re creatures of habit …
We live in Jerusalem …
Steady as she goes …
No surprises …
We’re comfortable with what we know …
And what we know is good … it really is!
Our home is Jerusalem … makes sense, and it works!

But Jesus bypasses Jerusalem …
He makes the trip down to the Jordan wilderness …
Down into a place most folks didn’t go …
A wild place … fierce heat and Santa Anna winds - rough gullies and deep canyons … lions and bears … the Dead Sea …
And a wild man …
Dressed in rough clothing …
Desert food … roasted locusts … hands sticky with honey …

Elijah … Elisha … Isaiah and Jeremiah … Micah and Obadiah … Daniel and Malachi …
The prophets of old …
Who spoke truth to power …
The kings didn’t like them …
The religious establishment didn’t trust them …
The power brokers despised them …
They were trouble-makers and disturbers of the peace …
They put a different twist on things …
When folks thought they knew what God was all about, the prophets said, “think again!”

Jesus went to Jordan to start his ministry.
He didn’t go to Jerusalem!

But when all is said and done, Jesus knows where it’s headed … headed to Jerusalem.
God’s paramount act of salvation would occur in that fabled city on a hill … not in Nazareth, not in Jordan, but in Jerusalem!

Jerusalem and Jordan belong together …
Like a fire and a fireplace …

A fireplace without a fire, may be lovely to look at, but nobody gets warm by a fireplace without a fire.
And fire, without a fireplace, is dangerous … might burn the whole house down …
Fire needs a fireplace … and a fireplace needs a fire.

Jerusalem and Jordan … they need each other …
But it’s an uneasy relationship …

Tradition on the one hand; innovation on the other …
The tried and the true … the new and the inventive.
Yesterday’s wisdom … today’s experiment.

The old hymns … and clap-your-hands praise music …
The church with pews and the church with folding chairs …
A church with bulletins … and a church with screens …
First Presbyterian Church downtown and a start-up church on a college campus …
Clergy in robes … and clergy in sport-shirts …
Jerusalem and Jordan.

We have both in our souls …
We live much of the time in Jerusalem … as we should … safe, predictable, dependable …
We get up when we should, shower and dress, get into the car and go to work.
How many times have we done that?
A thousand? ten thousand …?

We live in Jerusalem much of the time.

But who doesn’t have a day-dream?
An island in the Pacific …
Paris in the springtime …
Pack it all in and head for the hills … a place that exists in our imagination … to start all over again; adventure and risk – new people and places … and who knows what!

Jerusalem needs Jordan … to stay fresh and flexible.
We need Jordan …
We need to visit Jordan now and then.
Try a new brand of toothpaste … check out a new restaurant … think again about the way we do church!

Step down to Jordan now and then … get into the water.

Pay attention to the rare birds who actually live there … the Baptizers who stand outside the walls of the city … prophets who speak truth to power … folks who make us feel uneasy …

We need that …
Soccrates said, “The unexamined life isn’t worth living.”
I say to you: “A life unchallenged isn’t worth living.”
“A thought unchallenged isn’t worth thinking.”
“A faith unchallenged isn’t worth believing.”

When was the last time you were uneasy?
Challenged by a new idea …
A new way of doing things …
Years ago, a man said to me, “I’m too old to change.”
Balderdash …
Abraham and Sarah were over the hill and all washed up, and God called them to a new day.
Moses was ready to retire in the land of Midian, and God said, “Uh uh – you’re headed back Egypt way to set my people free.”
No, we’re never too old to change.
Maybe lazy … but not too old.
Maybe afraid … but not too old.
Never too old for the things of God!

So, here we are, Palms Westminster … the Rev. Paula Mann … the Presbytery of the Pacific … followers of Jesus our LORD …
An auspicious day …
A Jerusalem Day, for sure … decently and in order …
But a Jordan Day, too … fresh, new and unexpected …

Thank God for Jerusalem …
Thank God for Jordan …
Thank God for this day …
Thank God for Paula Mann …
Thank God for Palms Westminster …
Thank God for our Presbytery …
Thank God for all of it, and then some …
Thanks be to God!

Amen and Amen!

Wise Men: Where Can We Find Him - January 4, 2008

Matthew 2:1-12

Questions!

Good questions … good faith!

The wise men ask a very good question.

Where can we find him?

I’d like to spend some time with you this morning on that very question … where can we find Jesus?

Let’s get right to it:

We begin with the Bible.
We read it every Sunday, we preach from it, and preach about it …

We read and study it during the week … enough books have been written about the Bible to fill ten thousand shelves, and then some.
Seminaries train preachers to proclaim it … whole publishing houses are devoted to it …

A strange book full of odd people and mind-teasing ideas … a book that has been loved and attacked … torn apart a thousand different ways … an object of study for scholars and pastors … an object of disdain for the cynical … a book of comfort for millions.

Where can we find Jesus?

The Bible is a good place to begin …
The primary source …
The gospel stories …
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John …

Each with their own story, their own unique take on things; their own point of view …
Think of the gospels as long sermons written for specific congregations at a specific point in time …

No one sermon says it all, and no one gospel says it all.

As time evolved in the first 100 years of the church’s life, there were many writings …

The Gospel of Thomas …
The Gospel of Peter …
The Gospel of Judas …
And a host of smaller documents …

But as the churches worshipped and studied, four gospels emerged and claimed priority … folks read them, heard them, preached and taught them … these four gospels worked well … in spite of differences, there’s an essential coherence – after awhile, the four gospels were added to the Bible … along with Paul’s letters and other writings, including a very strange book we call Revelation.

It didn’t take long for this to happen … the four gospels and most of the New Testament as we have it today was settled by the mid-part of the second century … tried and tested by the early church in the worst of times … the earliest Christians found these materials to be reliable and worthy of our reading … above all else, these documents give us Jesus.

I’m glad that four gospels emerged … one wouldn’t have been enough; ten or twelve would have been too much.

Like good cooking – not just one spice; nor too many – in good cooking, spices work together to make the food the best it can be … these four gospels, like fine spices, work together, to give us a tantalizing portrait of Jesus … never quite settled, always just beyond our reach … as it should be.

We cannot put Jesus into a box … though many have tried.
He cannot be held by one single idea, or one single book … though some have written so.

The gospel picture of Jesus is fluid, moving …
Like a great painting … stand 10 feet away, and you can see the whole picture – the people, the buildings, ships sailing on the seas, storm clouds and lightening … but move closer, to get a more detail, and what happens?
The picture disappears into a swirl of color and brush strokes …

Up close, we can see the work of the artist … but step back, and we can see the picture.

Up close, we can see the handiwork of Luke and Matthew … but step back, we will see Jesus.

We find Jesus in the Bible … a good place to begin, and no matter where or how we do it, sooner or later, we have to deal with the Bible.

Folks can say, “Aw, that Bible makes no sense to me,” and they’re right about some of it … it’s a strange book.

Others can say, “It gives me comfort,” and they’re right, too.

We find Jesus in the Bible … it’s the Bible that leads us to Bethlehem … the stable, the town, the shepherds and the angels …

But that’s only the beginning …
Jesus is more than a memory …
More than just a famous person …
Jesus is Spirit … Jesus is love … the love of God up close and personal … here and now!
Jesus is risen from the dead … ascended into heaven … and there, by the Father’s side, Jesus continues to reconcile the world and bring peace to creation.

It’s an on-going work, the work of Jesus.
There is yet no reconciliation in any final sense.
Peace remains elusive …
So the work goes on …

By the power of the Holy Spirit …
A gentle power … a subtle influence … a steady pressure …
In and through the church …

And that’s the next part of our journey … The church …
Tall steeples in crowded cities …
A storefront in a tough part of town …
A thatched roof in Haiti …
Someone’s living room …
A mega-complex in Orange County …
Organ music and rock ‘n roll hymns …
Clergy decked out in all the robes …
Or wearing slacks and a sport shirt …
The church …
Presbyterian and Reformed …
Roman Catholic and Orthodox …
Holy Rollers and Episcopalians …
Southern Baptists and Unitarian Universalists …

The quietness of a Quaker meeting …
The shouting of a Pentecostal prayer gathering …
The staid singing of ancient hymns …
The clap-your-hands energy of praise songs …

The church in all of its splendor and confusion …
The church wherein the name of Jesus is lifted up and singled out …
Jesus the teacher …
Jesus the prophet …
Jesus the example …
Jesus the Savior … who died for our sins …
And gives us the Father …
Opens wide the doors of heaven …
Teaches us compassion and mercy …
Reveals the dark contours of our soul …
Loves us and leads us …
Stills the storm and heals the soul …
Talks to the lonely woman at the well …
Calls Zacchaeus down from the tree …
Heals the blind man …
Welcomes the children …
Sends the angry mob away after writing in the dust …

We sing about Jesus …
We surrender our lives to him …
We pray to him, through him and with him …

We wonder what he meant …
We study his words …
We like most of them … we’re confused by some of them, and not too sure about a few of them …

We’re the church, or at least one part of it … we’re part of the story, but we’re not the whole story …

A man died and went to heaven … St. Peter met him at the gate, welcomed him, and then took him on a tour, along the golden streets … to a very large home … into the hallway and along the corridors … On various doors, signs … Methodists in this room … Catholics across the hallway … Quakers upstairs … Presbyterians over there … As they were walking through the mansion, Peter suddenly put his finger to his lips and hushed the man … and started to tip toe past one of the rooms … Peter turned and said, “Quiet now – we’re walking by the Baptists; they think they’re the only ones here.”

We’re the church, or at least just one part of it … but our part is real … and it’s reliable!

Here is where we can find Jesus … because Jesus promised to be with us … wherever two or three are gathered in his name … the church in Corinth … the church in Philippi … a church in the Cameroon, or Covenant on the Corner … Jesus is with us … never to leave us or forsake us … at our side, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The church is a place where we find Jesus.

But there’s still more to the story …

Jesus is the Word of God, and by the power of the Word, God created the heavens and the earth …
John’s gospel says it well:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

We find Jesus in the world …
In the brilliant red and yellows of a rose garden …
In the buzz of a hummingbird’s wing …
In the crash of a wave and the cry of a gull …
The marvelous flight of a pelican …
The march of ants across our kitchen floor on their endless quest for food …
In the love of a dog …
And the smell of fresh baked bread …

We see Jesus in our friends and family …
The laughter of children …
A box Crayolas …
And a bag of fresh popcorn shared with a lover …

We find Jesus in the passion of political commitment and the quest for justice …
The sacrifice of an Albert Schweitzer who gives up multiple careers to build a hospital in Africa …
Mother Teresa in the streets of Calcutta …
Dag Hammerskjold leading the United Nations …
Martin Luther King, Jr, marching in Selma …

We see Jesus in a scientist deep into cancer research …
A teacher with a passion for inner-city children …
A surgeon removing a tumor …
An artist with a brush …
A singer with a song …
An athlete on a diving board …

We see Jesus in a man who gets up every morning to go to work …
A woman who pursues an acting career …
A child who dreams of big things …

A wife who cares for her ailing husband …
A family who cares for a special-needs child …

And on and on it goes …
We find Jesus all over the world …
In every prayer and every kindly deed …
In every moment of grace …
In every act of forgiveness …
In every deed of courage …

We find Jesus in the human struggle to love and be loved …
We find Jesus hidden in the human heart …
In poetry and music …
In pottery and dance …

We find Jesus all around us …

And in a very special way, Jesus himself reminds us – we find him in the face of the poor … in the tears of the sorrowing … in the least of the least …

Elie Weisel, a survivor of Buchenwald, tells the story of a gruesome hanging … forced to watch … as the hanged men writhed in their agony, and one in particular, a boy – not heavy enough to strangle himself … struggling at the end of a rope …
A man cries out, “Where’s God?”
And someone says, “There, on that gallows, that’s God.”

Where do we find Jesus?
In the light and in the dark …
In the sweet and in the bitter …
In the garden and on the gallows …

I am with you always, says Jesus.

So, where do we find Jesus?

Like the wise men, we find him in Bethlehem …
We find him in the gospel stories …
We find Jesus in the church …
We find Jesus in the world all around us …
We find Jesus in the hard places …

Jesus is everywhere …
All the time …
And forever faithful …

Struggling with us to make a good world …
Healing and helping …
Dying on a thousand crosses every day … on a thousand Calvaries around the world …
Moving stones away and defeating death …

Where do we find Jesus?
Everywhere …

And finally, in our heart …
The heart Jesus made …
The heart Jesus fills and floods with love …
The heart of faith …
The heart of kindness …
The heart that loves …

Your heart and mine.
That’s where we find Jesus!

Amen and Amen!