4.30.23 "Life: Devoted!" Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Life: Part 1

Psalm 23; Acts 2.42-47

Together: Beauty!

I’m glad you’re here this morning … 

within these sacred walls, 

with so many stories to tell … 

stories of faith and hope, crisis and sorrow … 

the joy of a wedding, 

the baptism of a child, 

welcoming new members into the fellowship of faith, 

the somber moments of a funeral, the quiet tears of love and loss.

It’s all here - in this sacred place.

Because God is here …

God is everywhere … 

God is in your heart, your mind.

Your feelings, your thoughts.

Your hands, your toes.

God is in your work, your play.

When you sleep, when you rise for the day.

When you can’t sleep - tossing and turning … it may well be some great sorrow, some deep fear that keeps you awake … or, it could be happiness, too - the next vacation … like a child waiting for Christmas morning.

God is everywhere, in everything, around the corner and in all the nooks and crannies of life … above and below, behind and in front … in whom we live and move and have our being.

The LORD is present … 

The LORD is our shepherd …

Green pastures … still waters … right paths.

Even in the dark and haunted places of life,

The darkest valley.

The valley of the Shadow of Death.

God at work … setting a table for us.

A cup overflowing,

Even when enemies are present.

And enemies there are.

Things that go bump in the middle of the night.

Monsters in the closet.

Wars and rumors of war.

As the poet Poe put it:

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

Sometimes - the enemy is us.

Who hasn’t been their own worst enemy a time or two?

Foolish behavior, crazy ideas.

Terrible things … in the basement of the mind.

Yes, even then, even then, God is with us.

The abiding presence of Christ.

The hope that will not let us go.

The eternal love of God works it out.

Prepares the way.

Smooths the road.

Opens some doors.

Calms the soul.

I’m glad you’re here, this morning!.

And I’m glad to be here, too,

In the presence of one another.

We find our best selves.

There’s a lot we can do alone, of course!

Prayer and meditation.

Reading and writing.

Sitting back, having a drink.

Moping around in a funk … 

But even then, we’re not alone - 

we have memories … books … paper and pencil, a computer, the internet … we have family, we have friends … maybe too few, maybe not enough … 

Are we ever really alone?

We’re always in the company of our own humanity … 

Our DNA is not our own …

We bear within our bones and blood the whole of humanity … our time is connected to the seasons of the year … the dirt of the earth, from whence we were fashioned by the hand of God.

A whole world of people - people who’ve hurt us, who’ve helped us …  the stranger who writes a piece of music that lifts our heart and makes us dance … the stranger who writes that one book forever imprinted on the mind … the young lady at the counter whose smile makes our day … 

And the animals - the morning songbird … the dog on the beach running like mad into the surf … squirrels, those clever creatures, outfoxing our best efforts to keep them off our bird feeders.

All along the way, an abundance of life and love, dancing all around us.

The task before us, here in this place, is to intentionally create and sustain community … where love can flow … hope abound … patience be practiced … gratitude given … in a way unique to sacred places … to what the church has always pointed to … what God always had in mind.

But, let’s be careful.

Being together doesn’t necessarily guarantee anything good … a mob in Berlin, 1934, crying out for the blood of Jews … a mob in Alabama, 1918, dragging an African-American to a lynching tree … the mob that smashed its way into the Capital, January 6 … or some fundamentalist church full of itself, mean and proud.

Being together is NOT an automatic guarantee of anything good.

But when good gets together, good things happen.

Here, in this place, we practice the good … and it’s good for the soul.

We sing the songs of Zion, say the prayers, hear the sermon, ponder the deep and glorious things of God …  

We’re devoted … life requires devotion … not just to anything, but to the things of God … the best things of life … faith, hope, and love; grace, mercy, and peace - to these things, and to the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ. Dedicated! Determined! Devoted!

I’m glad you’re here this morning!

And I’ll say it - loud and clear, for all the world to hear:

Westminster Presbyterian Church, on Lake Avenue, Pasadena, California - a safe and welcoming church … a place to find life … where life can find a place.

Where a woman’s right to choose her health care is affirmed.

Where trans-children and their families are welcomed.

Where gender-diversity is celebrated …

Where all are welcomed … for who they are, and all they hope to be!

Where dreams are honored … 

Because “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

In this place, we learn the love of God - from the Sacred Text … our reading today says it well … the early Christians did some mighty important things that mark the way for us.

They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles - (there’s that word, devoted).

Those early Christians spent much time together - in the temple … they broke bread at home … ate their food with glad and generous hearts.

The learned together … they worshipped together … they were devoted … and the world has never been the same. 

There is strength - being together, being devoted to the things of God: the rituals of the past, the dreams of the future … everything is better said, and more fully lived, when done - in the company of others.

Dear friends, I’m glad you’re here this morning.

And I’m glad to be here, too.

Onward we go.

Upward we look.

Outward we move.

Devoted - to the things of God.

Hallelujah and Amen! 

4.23.23 Sermon of the Day, The Rev. Harlan Redmond

 Click HERE to see Harlan's sermon on YouTube.

4.16.23 "Peter Raised His Voice!" Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Psalm 16; Acts 2.14-21

Who hasn’t raised their voice, a time or two?

A child wandering toward the street, the parent cries out,“Stop!”  

The Costco parking lot, we spot a friend on the far side, and we raise our voice, “Hi Sally, how are you?” to catch our friend’s attention.

Some years back, a congregational meeting … a church riven by racial conflict … an older white congregation, Cameroonian immigrants … all of them Presbyterians, all of them wanting a church to call their own … each with their own cultural and religious traditions, not always fitting together too easily … 

As the meeting proceeded, conflict started … a white man, stood up, and began to criticize the Cameroonians for not fitting in … it was terribly uncomfortable for everyone, and knowing what I knew about the congregation, about this particular person, I raised my voice, and loudly I said, “Stop it! And sit down!”

It worked … the man stopped talking, and sat down … the meeting proceeded, with some distress, but we made it through the meeting, and on to another day

I raised my voice!

The parent cries out!

We hail a friend!

Peter raised his voice on Pentecost Day … in the midst of a noisy crowd, visitors to Jerusalem from all over the Roman world - for Pentecost Holiday, the 50th day after Passover … a harvest celebration, a festive time, a time to give thanks … the city was super-busy, jammed streets, stores doing a fine business, the Temple a place of celebration and joy.

Whatever happened that day remains beyond our purview … but something happened … strange and wonderful, bewildering and mysterious … the disciples were given the gift of language, tongue-speaking … 

It is not for us to ask what this was … we don’t know; we’ll never know … but the story makes clear - something wonderfully important … God enabled understanding … the means by which every resident and visitor in that fabled city, could hear the Good News - in their own language, their own idiom, their own tongue - Jesus the Christ is Risen!

The crowds were curious, wondering, everyone talking … 

In the midst of the clamoring crowd, Peter raises his voice … the disciples are all there, but it’s Peter who raises his voice … he steps out, he speaks … loudly, forcefully, to make himself heard.

Some accused the disciples of drunkenness … hitting the Pentecost wine early in the morning … but Peter says, It’s too darn early for that; it’s 9 in the morning … we’ve not been drinking. What is happening is a fulfillment of an ancient dream, a long-standing hope, when God would change the course of history, chart a new way for God’s People, open up doors long closed, bring about a new day in Israel’s life. This is what’s happening, says Peter.

Peter declares the universality of God’s purpose and love … what God makes clear in creation, God confirms with the covenant … what God makes clear throughout the ages, God confirms in Christ … 

Life prevails, love endures, 

The light cannot be quenched by the darkness of fear, hate, bigotry, or lies … 

The good overcomes the bad … though the bad always has its day… evil is real … terrible things happen to good people, good people perish, there is no good reason for any of it … it’s just that evil is evil … and the bad is bad.

And so is the good … the love and mercy of God … there is light … there is hope … there is goodness … there is beauty.

The new Netflix series, “Transatlantic,” tells the story of Varian Fry, who goes to Marseille, France when war breaks out in Europe … to save Jewish refugees from a sure and certain death.

When Hitler came to power in 1932, many could see what would happen … Jewish intellectuals, writers, artists, scientists, musicians, fled to Paris, and when Hitler’s armies crushed the French army, driving the British to Dunkirk, the refugees fled south, many of them to Marseille.

Varian Fry ultimately helps 2000 refugees escape to freedom, including the likes of Hannah Arendt, Marc Chagall, and Heinrich Mann.

In the midst of turmoil and hate, life emerges, goodness prevails … love endures … 

This is Peter’s message … God gives to the world those who keep alive the finest ambitions of the human soul … God pours out the Holy Spirit … the imagery is rich … like a jug of wine, a pitcher of cold water, poured out generously … upon all flesh … your sons and daughters … young men see visions … old men dream dreams.

In every time and place … God creates those who see the times and know what’s happening … they know a lie when they hear it, a deception when they see it … they go into action, they put themselves on the line … they raise their voice.

Like Varian Fry who saw what was happening, and went to work … 

And millions like him around the world, in this very day, bearing witness to the hopes and dreams of humanity … the hopes and dreams of God.

In our own time and place, we, too, here, at Westminster, benefit from Peter’s raised voice … he declares to the world that Jesus is risen from the dead … 

Peter encourages the crowds with hope: Save yourselves, save yourselves from this corrupt generation … repent … and you will be forgiven … you will receive the Holy Spirit.

I have no doubt about God’s universal work … in lands far from us, and in our homes and cities … God at work, in all religions … in every heart that hungers and thirsts for righteousness …

Religion is what it is … good and bad, sweet and cruel, wise and foolish … no religion can escape the burden of reality … no more than any of us can escape the burden of reality … the good that we do, and the harm that we’ve done … the deeds of faith and love, the misdeeds of selfish instincts … the best of our moments, and the worst …

No religion, anywhere, has a corner on the truth … no religion, anywhere, can claim superiority … to claim superiority is already on the road to perdition … in all the religions of the world, where superiority is claimed, we see the results all too clearly - the Taliban in Afghanistan, Christian Nationalism here in the States … horrors visited upon children and women throughout the religions of the world … the narrow-mindedness of those who keep the law, while rejecting the spirit of the law … who, as Jesus said, strain out the gnat, but swallow the camel …

No religion can free itself from the burden of reality … but all religion is a reflection of the soul, the love of God, the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Yes, the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit of Creation … the Holy Spirit that hovered over Mary to conceive within her the Anointed One of God … the Holy Spirit here and now … moving in our hearts and minds, the Spirit tugging at us, convicting us, pushing us, drawing us, lifting us up, and holding us close to Christ.

Our task is to be the best kind of Christian we can be … informed by the best of our Presbyterian Tradition … the great and sovereign love of God, love that will not turn anyone away, love that doesn’t judge, but redeems … love that welcomes the children, all the children, children of need, trans children and their families … all of God’s children, gay and straight, male and female … every color of the rainbow … every race and ethnicity, all the forms of gender and life.

There are those in our world who proclaim a god of judgment, wrath, punishment … a god who loves some, but not all … a God who rejects and abandons, a god who hates, a god who is violent and loves guns … a god who can’t stand gays and lesbians, a god who considers trans children and their families to be “an abomination”…  a people to despise, to hate, people to reject, criminalize, imprison, and even execute.

Is this the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ?

I don’t believe it is.

So I raise my voice to proclaim the Gospel of love.

I invite you to raise your voice, too … to combat the lies that fill the air we breath … to challenge the distortions that twist the church into hideous shapes and forms … to call out those who lust after power and control … those who deny the rights and freedoms of the many, in order to enhance the wealth and privilege of the few.

Is this the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ?

I don’t believe it is …

So I raise my voice, and I invite you to raise your voice, too - to sing the glories of Christ our LORD, risen from the dead, to give life to the Dry Bones, life to the children beside him, the women with him, the first disciples, and all the disciples ever since.

The LORD gives life and courage to a Varian Fry, to all who go into the smoke to rescue the perishing, save a few souls, make this a better world. 

Christ raised his voice and cried out, It is finished!

Peter raised his voice and proclaimed, He is risen!

Varian Fry raised his voice, and saved the many!

With them, for all of humanity, I raise my voice, and I invite you, to raise your voice, too.

Hallelujah and Amen!