12.29.19 "The Story Goes On," El Monte Community Presbyterian Church

Psalm 148; Matthew 2.13-23

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Grace, mercy and peace.

Faith, hope and love.

All that is good.

All that is right.

All that is pure and ever so kind.

The story goes on.

Christmas is behind us.

But God is ahead of us.

Always another day, another moment in time.

Another chance to do it right.

To share some love.

To build up someone in need of encouragement.

Jesus is always ahead of us … on the road to hope.

Because the story goes on.

There is no end to the love of God.

I am with you always.

I will never leave you or forsake you.

I am your God and your are my people.

The Psalmist reminds us of the power of praise.

To give thanks for God’s goodness.

I know this for sure:

Praise cures a weary heart.

It’s easy to get bogged down.

It’s easy to let things bother us.

It’s easy to get lost in worries and cares.

And sometimes worry is ok.

Sometime care is important.

There’s a lot of stuff that needs doing.

Stuff that deserves our attention.

Yes, and our worry, too.

And all the care we can muster.

And that’s our reading from Matthew.

In the middle of the story.

When Christ is born.

Angels sing.

Shepherds appear.

Wisemen from afar.

And then the dream.

In the middle of the story.

In the middle of the night.

All is not well.

All is not right.

There is evil afoot.

There is Herod.

Jealous and mean-spirited.

A man puffed up with himself.

A man of lies and deceit.

Dressed in the robes of a king.

A vassal of Rome.

Filled with hatred.

Get outta here, says the angel in the dream.

Go to Egypt; stay there until I tell you otherwise.

Because Herod is out to kill the child.

And in the middle of the night.

In the middle of the story.

Mary and Joseph and the child run for their lives.

Refugees!

Fleeing an evil ruler.

Refugees!

Leaving everything behind.

In the middle of night.

Refugees!

Running to Egypt.

Can you imagine the terror in their hearts?

Can you see, in your mind’s eye, the fear in their faces?

I wonder what they said to one another.

More than 400 miles.

Did they have a donkey?

Or was it by foot.

More than 400 miles.

In the middle of the story.

Flight.

Fear.

Trembling.

Trouble.

Sorrow.

Sadness.

In the middle of the night.

In the middle of the story.

And the story goes on.

It always does.

It always will.

There came a time when Herod died.

And the angel paid them another visit.

You can return now.

The one seeking the child’s life is dead.

And so Mary and Joseph and the child leave Egypt behind.

To return home.

But even then, all is not well.

Herod’s son was on the throne.

Judea was his domain.

And they were afraid.

And with another dream.

God calls them to Galilee.

To Nazareth.

Far away from Herod.

But far away, too, from family and friends.

They’re still refugees.

Now trying to build a home for themselves.

Far away from Bethlehem.

And there they created a home for their child.

Joseph the carpenter.

And there in Nazareth the boy grew up.

To become whom we now know as our LORD and our Savior.

And the story goes on.

God still at work in our world.

The sun rises and shines.

The sun sets and the stars appear.

We love and we hope.

We live and we grow.

The story goes on.

There is always a Herod somewhere.

A man of lies and deceit.

A man full of vanity and violence.

Evil prowls the world with its wars and rumors of wars.

Evil still seeks to kill the Christ.

But angels still sing.

And shepherds still leave their flocks to find the child.

Wisemen still follow the star.

The story goes on.

And here we are today.

We’re a part of the story.

And the story is who we are.

Every hymn sung.

Every prayer offered.

Every kindly word and every helping hand.

In this place, right now.

With all that’s been.

And all that shall be.

Grace, mercy and peace.

Faith hope and love.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen!

October 20, 2019 "Big Ideas" - Palms Westminster Presbyterian Church

This sermon was given a few weeks back, but for today, tweaked, with some material deleted, and some added ... especially the material about Representative Elijah Cummings ...

If you're into reading sermons, you might compare the two and see how it evolved.

----------------------

Jeremiah 31.27-34; 2 Timothy 3.14-4,5

“The Culture of Remembrance,” he said … 

The Director of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer House in Berlin, Germany … “the Culture of Remembrance.”

I was there recently, and Jane Holslag, one of our missionaries, joined me for the tour … Jane had lived at Monte Vista Grove Homes for about year, and then some months ago, returned to Germany.

When I learned that I would be visiting Berlin, I contacted Jane, and she was kind enough to be a tour guide for a few days, and one of the things we did was to visit the Bonhoeffer House.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the great theologians of the 20th Century … he was arrested in this very home, April 5, 1943.

After the failed bomb-plot to kill Hitler, the discovery of documents linked Bonhoeffer, along with other members of his family and high-ranking military officers.

Two years later, April 9, 1945, Bonhoeffer was hanged.

“The Culture of Remembrance,” said the director.

Germany has worked hard to remember what at first everyone wanted to forget … after the war, no one wanted to remember anything, but just to get on with life. 

Everyone wanted a culture of forgetfulness.

But who can forget the horrors of World War 2, the death of 6 million Jews, and millions of others throughout Europe and around the world.

In recent years, Germany has worked hard to remember, and not to forget … Germans have built memorials, monuments, and museums … 

To remember what happened, and to remember why … why a madman like Hitler should be able to come to power, and in a few short years, drag the nation and the whole world into war.

Some things deserve to be remembered … even when they’re painful.

The culture of remembrance …

 To be sure that history doesn’t repeat itself … that hatred and bigotry will never again win the day, that Anti-Semitism will be identified and condemned quickly and thoroughly, and all forms of hatred and discrimination.

“The Culture of Remembrance” …

And that’s why we gather here for worship, Sunday after Sunday … we gather to remember … 

To remember why we’re here this morning … and who we are, and what needs to be done … we remember the words of Christ, the stories of creation, the politics of the prophets, the courage of the early church … we remember great things, and God’s great purpose … we remember the Big Ideas of faith, hope and love; grace, mercy and peace … the Christian Story … the women and men of faith who have trod this earth long before we ever showed up … and, yes, those who will continue to hold high the banners of Christ long after we’re gone.

At the heart of it all, thanksgiving.

The way of gratitude.

To say Thank you.

Thank you to God for the gift of life, the mercies of Christ, the joys of creation, friends, and family … to give thanks to God Almighty that we belong to God … God’s claim upon us … from before the beginning of time … I don’t know how any of this works, but the gospel of our LORD Jesus Christ is the proclamation of God’s faithfulness to God’s creation, God’s faithfulness to every creature, great and small … that life has the last word, not death … that hope prevails over despair … that love will prove victorious over hatred … that knowledge and kindness will put an end to ignorance and malice. 

And in the end, God’s hand upon us … 

There is nothing than can separate us from the love of God … nothing in life, and nothing in death … nothing anywhere, or anyhow, that can break the bond of God’s covenant love for us, sealed upon our life by the waters of baptism, and confirmed for us in the bread and drink of the Lord’s Table.

“You belong to me,” says God.

You belong to me, and I will see you through all of life’s tumult and sorrow … I will be with you in the best of it, and in the worst of it …

I am with you always … I am the Alpha and the Omega … the beginning and end … I am your first breath, I’m your last breath … in time and eternity, in the frailty of the flesh and in the hope of the Spirit, I am there, says God, with you, for you and by you.

And to say thanks for those whom God has given to us, who set the pace for us, who bear witness to what a devoted life looks like … I think of Representative Elijah Cummings who took leave of us this week … 

It was Mr. Cummings who said: My life is based upon pain, passion and purpose.

Year-after-year, he made clear what a committed life looks like, and now, God rest his soul … his work is done; ours is just begun.

And, then, a bit more … of what we’re about:

We’re here to welcome one another … to love one another as Christ loves us … to put into practice here and now what a committed life looks like - what our pain and passion and purpose needs to be … to reflect the pain and passion and purpose of Christ himself.

To remember, not just words and ideas, but to remember what Jesus did: how he put off his robe, and put a towel around his waist, to wash the disciples’ feet …

In that moment, no longer the teacher, but a servant … no longer words of instruction, but deeds of kindness and humility … 

When Jesus washed their feet, it was the sign of welcome:

To welcome the disciples into the household of God … weary travelers they were, all of them, feet covered in dust and grime … the journey of faith is long and hard … and in such a kindly moment, the Son of God is the one who washes their feet.

Jesus sets an example for us … how to welcome others into the circle of our life.

It can be something as simple as eye contact and the nod of our head - “I see you, I acknowledge your presence, I will not pass you by, but I give you my eyes, and I acknowledge your life.”

It can be a handshake, an arm around a shoulder, and even a hug.

All along the way, and throughout the three years of his ministry, Jesus shows us how to treat one another … 

How to be the household of God … where all are welcomed, none are turned away … where the hungry are fed, the thirsty given drink, the stranger welcomed, the naked clothed, the sick cared for, those in prison visited …

Because we are all one in Christ, in whom there is no longer the great cultural divides of race and religion, economic status, and gender distinctions … 

Paul the Apostle says it well:

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

The household of God … 

A household without boundaries, without walls, no ditches … no families separated, no fuss and fuming about who’s in and who’s out …

This is the work of Christ, and it must be our work, too … to build bridges, and open doors, to speak with words of welcome and peace …

To God be the glory. Hallelujah and Amen!

October 6, 2019 "Great Things, Great Purpose" - El Monte Community Presbyterian Church

Lamentations 3.19-26; 2 Timothy 1.1-14 

“The Culture of Remembrance,” he said … 

The Director of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer House in Berlin, Germany … “the Culture of Remembrance.”

I was there recently, and Jane Holslag, one of our missionaries, joined me for the tour … Jane had lived at Monte Vista Grove Homes for about year, and then some months ago, returned to Germany.

When I learned that I would be visiting Berlin, I contacted Jane, and she was kind enough to be a tour guide for a few days, and one of the things we did was to visit the Bonhoeffer House.

“The Culture of Remembrance,” said the director.

Germany has worked hard to remember in the last 25 years… though at first, after the war, no one wanted to remember anything, but just to get on with life. 

Everyone wanted a culture of forgetfulness.

But who can forget the horrors of World War 2, the death of 6 million Jews, and millions of others throughout Europe and around the world.

In recent years, Germany has worked very hard to remember, and not to forget … Germans have built memorials and museums … 

To remember what happened, and to remember why … why a madman like Hitler should be able to come to power, and in a few short years, drag the nation and the whole world into war.

Some things deserve to be remembered …

The culture of remembrance …

 To be sure that history doesn’t repeat itself … that hatred and bigotry will never again win the day, that Anti-Semitism will be identified and condemned quickly and thoroughly, and all forms of hatred and discrimination, that especially the churches will remain vigilant, and speak out against the false gods of nationalism, militarism, and racial supremacy.

“The Culture of Remembrance” …

And that’s why we gather here for worship, Sunday after Sunday … we gather to remember … 

To remember why we’re here this morning … and who we are, and what needs to be done … we remember the words of Christ, the stories of creation, the politics of the prophets, the courage of the early church … we remember great things, and God’s great purpose.

First off, we’re here to say Thank You … the way of gratitude is the heart and soul of the Christian Life … it all begins and it all ends with these simple but profound words: Thank you!

Thank you to God for the gift of life, the mercies of Christ, the joys of creation, friends, and family … to give thanks to God Almighty that we belong to God … this is our first task when we gather together.

When we thank God, we have a chance to remember:

God’s promises … there is nothing than can separate us from the love of God … nothing in life, and nothing in death … nothing anywhere, or anyhow, that can break the bond of God’s covenant love for us, sealed upon our life by the waters of baptism, and confirmed for us in the bread and drink of the Lord’s Table …

“You belong to me,” says God.

You belong to me, and I will see you through all of life’s tumult and sorrow … I will be with you in the best of it, and in the worst of it …

I am with you always … I am the Alpha and the Omega … the beginning and end … I am your first breath, I’m your last breath … in time and eternity, in the frailty of the flesh and in the hope of the Spirit, I am there, says God, with you, for you and by you.

The culture of remembrance - that we not forget all the LORD’s blessings … but that we remember such things, so that we might live well before the world … and honor Christ with as much of life as we can.

And, then, a little bit more …

We’re here to welcome one another … to pay attention to each other … to listen to one another, to listen with care, to look upon one another with kindness and mercy …

We’re here to remember how to treat one another … to love one another as Christ loves us …

To remember, not just words and ideas, but to remember what Jesus did: how he put off his robes, and put on a simple towel around his waist, to wash the disciples’ feet …

In that moment, no longer the teacher, but a servant … no longer words of instruction, but deeds of kindness and humility … 

When Jesus washed their feet, it was the sign of welcome:

To welcome the disciples into the household of God … weary travelers they were, all of them, feet covered in dust and grime … the journey of faith is long and hard … and in such a kindly moment, the Son of God is the one who washes their feet.

And sets an example for us … 

It can be something as simple as eye contact and the nod of our head - “I see you, I acknowledge your presence, I will not pass you by, but I will give you my eyes, and I acknowledge your life.”

It can be a handshake, an arm around a shoulder, and even a hug.

It can be all kinds of simple things … to treat one another with dignity and respect … to do unto others as we would hope others would do unto us … and always, like Christ, to be the servant of the household of God.

Jesus washes their feet … and later, hosts the Table … 

It’s Jesus who blesses and breaks the bread, who pours out the cup … and serves the household of God … here’s some bread, and here’s some drink … eat to your hearts content, and drink deeply of the mercies of God.

All along the way, and throughout the three years of his ministry with the disciples, and his ministry to the world, Jesus shows us all how to treat one another … 

How to be the household of God … where all are welcomed, and none are turned away … because we are all one in Christ, in whom there is no longer the great cultural divides of race and religion, economic status, and gender distinctions … Paul the Apostle says it well:

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

The household of God … 

Where there are no boundaries, no walls to be built, or ditches to be dug, no families to be separated, and no fuss and fuming about who’s in and who’s out …

 In the church, we build bridges, and open doors, with words of welcome … fresh water to wash dirty feet, and good bread and drink to refresh hungry bodies and weary souls.

With our love, we bear witness to the world, we challenge our politicians to rise above party interests to care for the nation and all its people … and we challenge our politicians to care for the nation in such a way that every nation benefits, not just the United States, but the whole wide world.

And day-by-day, we strive to grow in the grace of Christ, even as Christ comes to us in a thousand different ways … to help us grow up into the things of God, to even do some great things now and then, with great purpose, all for the love of God.

Such is what it means to remember the goodness of God.

To be, for the sake of Christ, a culture of remembrance.

To God be the glory. Hallelujah and Amen!

July 14, 2019 "Moved with Pity" - Palms Westminster Presbyterian Church

Deuteronomy 30.9-14; Luke 10.25-37

Good Morning Palms Westminster Presbyterian Church … and a good day it is … because we belong to God, and God belongs to us … we are in Christ, and Christ is in us … 

For the few years that are allowed to us, by the grace of God, we do God’s work as best we can … 

We love one another … we forgive the sins of the day … we greet the morning with hope … we pray for the Holy Spirit,  to guide our steps and guard our souls.

We pray that we might fulfill our calling, and finish the race well.

Recently, I came across this wee little poem by Donald Hall, entitled: Summer Kitchen …

In June's high light she stood at the sink

With a glass of wine,

And listened for the bobolink,

And crushed garlic in late sunshine.

I watched her cooking, from my chair.

She pressed her lips

Together, reached for kitchenware,

And tasted sauce from her fingertips.

"It's ready now. Come on," she said.

"You light the candle."

We ate, and talked, and went to bed,

And slept. It was a miracle.

To have the eyes of the poet …

To have the eyes to see, O LORD.

The daily miracles that come our way.

The many moments,

The little moments,

When life bubbles over.

And we can see the glory of it all.

But it’s not all glory, what we open our eyes.

When we look at life, we see sorrow, too.

Tragedy and terror.

Suffering and sadness.

We’re tempted to avert our eyes.

To look away.

Because when we see hurt, we hurt, too.

And we don’t always know what to do with our hurt.

When we hurt for someone else.

When we’re moved with pity.

But here’s a point for prayer:

To not turn away from the sorrow of the world.

To not avert our eyes from someone’s suffering.

To pay attention.

To see it all.

The good and the sweet.

And … the tears of a child, the anguish of a mother.

Jesus tells a story … 

A man on the road, beset by robbers.

Stripped and beaten, left for dead.

By chance, says Jesus, a priest comes along, and when the priest sees the man in the ditch, the priest made sure to step as far away as possible … and the same for a Levite, when he sees the beaten man, he steps to the other side of the road and goes on his way.

And then along comes the Samaritan, and when the Samaritan sees the man in the ditch, Jesus says, the Samaritan was moved with pity … the Samaritan went to the man in the ditch, poured oil and wine on his wounds and bandaged them … the Samaritan put the man on his own animal and took him to a nearby inn, paid for his lodging and care, with a promise to the innkeeper that he would return to cover whatever additional expenses were incurred.

Moved with pity … the human heart unlocked … love, like a river, begins to flow … and love requires the deeds of mercy.

It all begins when the Good Samaritan allows himself to see the sorrow and pain of the beaten man … the Good Samaritan is moved with pity, and goes to the man and cares for him …

Lots of things come to mind here …

I think of man, a decent sort of a man, a Christian man, who rejects his nephew, because his nephew is gay … 

I don’t know the man well, but this much I’ve seen: to reject his nephew, he’s hardened his heart … he cannot see his nephew as a human being, but only as a “sinner.”

He tells himself that the Bible has a case against his nephew, but I tell you, dear friends, the man is wrong … I’m not here this morning to go through all the Bible verses, and how they’ve been translated and mistranslated, and misinterpreted, over the centuries, and how God is leading us to better days in the church, with more openness, more kindness, a better understand of these few verses that some have used to hurt and reject their own flesh and blood for being gay or lesbian.

I’m here to tell you that the man is wrong, and what a terrible price he pays for rejecting his nephew.

It takes a lot of work to reject someone … 

It takes a lot of work for the priest and the Levite to walk to the other side of the road … to avert their eyes, harden their hearts, forget about it, pretend that it does’t matter.

The priest and Levite betray the human story, they betray God, they betray all of their highfalutin words … they betray the man in the ditch …they betray themselves, and in their betrayal of all things good and right, they diminish themselves, they shrink their souls, they rob themselves of their own humanity … 

It is the Samaritan, who upon seeing the man in the ditch, is moved with pity …

Moved in spirit and soul, moved toward the man in distress, moved to help him … 

I think, too, these days, of the children and families on the border … the horrible conditions of the concentration camps … children in cages, babies yanked from their mothers arms … fathers separated from their families. 

Just like the priest and the Levite, so many in America avert their eyes, walk to the other side of the road, go on their way, hands over their ears, to muffle the cries of a child, and hands held up like blinders on a horse, to avoid seeing the a mother’s anguished face … hardening the heart, betraying the human story, killing the spirit of pity, citing laws and rules and regulations, as if that were ever a justification for cruelty and inhumanity.

Poisoning the soul, to feel nothing for the people at the border … to despise them, call them names, shame them, hurt them, cage them, beat them and then laugh at them.

This is doing great damage to our nation, and great damage to those who enforce the law … and great damage to those who prefer to ignore it all.

To betray the human story, to deny the instincts of pity, to walk away from the suffering … the soul is damaged, chaos grows, disorder and confusion abound … 

Not even religious behavior, not even the trappings of the church, our words of faith, our Bible reading, our prayers, our creeds and hymns - none of this can cover the failure to be human, none of that can make up for the loss of the soul, the betrayal of pity.

It takes a lot of work to be cruel … what a price is paid: every act of cruelty diminishes the soul … every act of rejection hurts us, every time we turn away, we lose something of ourselves … every time we betray love, the soul becomes smaller.

The man who rejects his nephew is bleeding away his soul, and  it shows … it shows on his face, it shows in his words - there is no peace within him, there is no joy, because the man is betraying his nephew, he’s betraying himself, he’s betraying God.

What we’re doing at the border right now is bleeding away the soul of our nation … it shows in the face of our leaders, it shows in their words, harsh and cruel, using the words of patriotism to hide their crimes, using fear to incite the public to hatred and violence.

When humanity is betrayed, the price is enormous … whether it be the man who rejects his nephew, or a nation that chooses cruelty over compassion

Our task as Christians is to honor the instincts of pity … the instincts created within us by our Creator, to feel pity for the outcast and the broken, to feel pity for those in need, the lonely and the lost.

To be moved by pity … moved to pay attention all the more … moved to action … without judgement, without question … to offer aid, acceptance, kindness and mercy … welcome and hospitality … to make it a better world.

I leave you with a question:

Who is the Good Samaritan? First and foremost?

Is it not Jesus, who is the Good Samaritan, first and foremost?

Is it not the Son of God, the lamb of God, who comes to this world, to bring good news to the poor … to proclaim release to the captives … and recovery of sight to the blind … to let the oppressed go free … to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor?

Dear friends, the LORD saw our need, our hurt, our sorrow, our pain … the LORD saw us in the ditch, and came to our aid.

The LORD poured the oil and wine of love upon our wounds and bandaged us with mercy … the LORD took us to the place of safety, and pledged himself to pay the price, for whatever it would take, no questions asked.

It is the LORD Jesus Christ who is the Good Samaritan, the first and the foremost.

And it is he who says to us: Go and do likewise.

Amen and Amen!