4.28.24 "Circles" Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Psalm 22.25-31; Acts 8.26-40

Once upon a time,

A long time ago,

In a land far away,

A most wonderful day.

The Spirit said to Phillip: Get up and go … 

And not just anywhere, but head down south,

The road to Gaza … a road in the wilderness.

Prepare ye the way of the LORD … a voice crying in the wilderness …

In the wilderness, the children of Israel wander for 40 years … to get some things figured out …

In the wilderness, 40 days of fasting … Jesus discerns his purpose.

In the wilderness, the Ethiopian Eunuch, advisor to the Queen.

He’d been in Jerusalem to worship.

Conducted some business, I’m sure … purchased a few souvenirs for friends and family, and now he’s on his way home.

Reading a scroll … like any one of us picking up a book while on vacation …  

The Spirit says to Phillip - Go over to that chariot and join it.

 

The chariot - more than the Ben Hur kind … it’s luxurious … room for a driver or two, seats for several occupants, covered to provide shade … like a carriage. 

Phillip hears the man reading aloud, and asks: Do you understand what you’re reading?

The man replies: Who or what is Isaiah talking about?

Phillip tells him about Jesus …  

The man stops the chariot by some water … What is to prevent me from being baptized?

Phillip and the man step into the water … a deep pool? a small stream? a puddle? … water it is, in the wilderness … and there the man is baptized.

No muss, no fuss, no problem at all.

What’s the point of the story?

How large is the love of God?

A hotly debated question for the people of ancient Israel - who’s in, and who’s out? … who’s welcome, and who isn’t?

In the Bible, books like Nehemiah and Ezra draw a small circle - other books, like Jonah and Ruth, draw a large circle … the Prophet Isaiah draws the circle even larger.

The Bible has more than one voice on the question …

Who’s in, who’s out … 

The early church faced the same questions.

The earliest Christians were all Jews … 

Circumcised

The material center of their faith, The Temple.

They honored the Dietary Laws.

The three essential elements: circumcision, temple, diet.

Those elements remained in place for the first Christians … with the addition of a fourth element: Jesus, the anointed one - who fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah, the very words the Ethiopian Official was reading that day in the wilderness.

Ultimately, the three original elements were modified … 70 years after Jesus was born, the Temple was destroyed … Paul the Apostle said: Circumcision is no longer required … and the Apostle Peter revised the dietary laws.

How large is the circle?

The man from Ethiopia is part of that story … the incoming of Gentiles to the Christian Community … should they be circumcised? should they obey the dietary laws?

Throughout Christian History, the same questions … conflicts often bloody, wars fought, people imprisoned, tortured, and killed … all in the name of Jesus.

Christians fought with Muslims and killed Jews … after the Reformation, Protestants fought with Catholics, and later, Protestants fought with Protestants …  

I remember growing up … if a Catholic attended a Protestant Church, it was accounted a mortal sin … Protestants thought Catholics were all going to hell … within each group, bickering, debate, denunciation, and fistfights … Lutherans didn’t like Presbyterians, Presbyterians didn’t like Baptists, and everyone thought Episcopalians drank too much wine.

Who’s in? Who’s out?

In America, many a religious conflict along racial lines … 

And then immigrants … 

White Christians from Europe defined who was in and who wasn’t, who could be a Christian, and who could be an American.

Women paid a huge price: they couldn’t joining the inner circles of the church, forbidden to offer the sacraments, and never to preach …

Presbyterians had strict rules about communion, who could come to the Table and who couldn’t … we had our ways!

During the Civil War, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, divided over the question of slavery … within each group, further in-fighting … just recently, the Methodist Church split over gender-identity.

Presbyterians have split repeatedly in the last 150 years over women’s ordination, how to read the Bible, dancing, card playing, theater attendance, the specifics of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and gender. 

Baptists have split over all sorts of questions, too, questions about salvation, heaven and hell, and how to be saved.

And always, the Bible is quoted, papers written, pulpits pounded. 

Who’s in, who’s out?

Over the years of my life, my circle has grown larger … 

It’s a lotta work to keep people out … to keep drawing lines in the sand, building walls, digging ditches … manning the ramparts to fight off the enemies … it’s a lotta work to draw small circles.

Who’s in, Who’s out?

I guess we all have to make our own decisions … I’ve made mine, and it’s been in process of all my life … 

Given who I am, even as a small child, I had a deep and comforting sense of God’s presence … little Tommy Eggebeen always had a friend in Jesus.

As I grew, matured, experienced the good and the bad of life, the good and bad of my own soul … the LORD led me into ministry.

I continue to read the Bible, consult with theologians, historians, … women and men of color, who are doing some of the best theological work of the day … women called by God to become outstanding ministers … gay and lesbian friends who serve the LORD  … trans-gender friends who love Christ and give thanks every day for finding their identity in new ways of joy, freedom and faith … 

Who’s in, Who’s out?

Who’s a Christian, and who isn’t?

Who’s going to heaven, and who’s going to hell?

Who’s an American, and who isn’t?

How do you answer the questions?

How do you read the Bible?

How do you see your world?

What do you believe? … and why?

I believe, with all my heart:

The LORD Jesus Christ whom I know and serve, has saved me, guided me, loved me … forgives me again and again, sees me through, challenges me all along the way, comes to me in the midst of it all.

The LORD Jesus Christ has been my faithful companion from the day of my birth, 

Jesus witnessed my baptism, 

my confession of faith, 

my education and ordination, 

my marriage, my home, my work, my life and prayers … 

this LORD … this Jesus … this Christ, 

Draws a very, very, wide circle.

Hallelujah and Amen!

4.21.24 "A Promise Made ..." Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Zechariah 10.1-12; John 10.11-18 

Across the pages of the Bible, the ups and downs of life … sunrise, sunset … all is good, and then it isn’t … 

The Bible has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember …

My home had s large family Bibles, illustrated by Albrecht Durer … dramatic, violent, wonderful, images … Moses on the mountain smashing the Stone Tablets … David’s victory over Goliath … Jesus baptized in the Jordan … the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse …  

The Bible’s a remarkable book … a conversation of a entire culture, spanning 1800 years or so … people of faith, in different settings, bane and blessing, peace and war, victory and defeat … trying to figure it out … just like you, just like me.

The Bible has inspired greatness of soul and mind.

And driven some to madness.

Proclaimed by great orators, women and men of great faith … and used by grifters, shysters, and hucksters.

Families and nations have been divided by it.

Nations and families have been healed by it.

Wars have been fought over it.

And its words have brought peace.

Never let anyone tell you: “The Bible is a simple book” … it isn’t.  

Parts of the Bible are - wonderfully simple …  and beautiful.

Other parts of it, dense, strange, bewildering, weird, and unpleasant …

The Bible is a library!

A library of a thousand different voices - they argue with each other, they contradict one another … some clamor for law and order, some proclaim grace and peace … some are afraid of the stranger, and some cross boundaries and reach for the world.

It’s a complicated book, but it’s clear about a few things, crystal clear: God is truth … God is love … God is light … 

God can be trusted when everything else is upside down.

God remains faithful even when we our faith fails … 

we can run from God, but we can’t hide … 

in the end, God will get us … 

not to punish, but to redeem … 

not to hurt, but to heal.

I’ve gone through a lot of Bibles in my lifetime - when I went to seminary, my Dad gave me a Bible … I have no idea what happened to it.

Since then, more Bibles - some fell apart with use … I’ve switched translations … I left a Bible on top of the car when putting something away, then drove off, and so did the Bible - I retraced my route, never saw it again. I hope it flew off the car intact, and maybe somebody found it and read it.

In Confirmation last week Sunday, the question came up about “science and religion.” 

I said, “there is no conflict whatsoever!”

if I want to know something about the universe, I’ll check with my friends at JPL … 

if I want to know why I am here and for what purpose, I’ll read the Bible. 

Science tells me what and how! 

The Bible tells me who and why! 

Science tells me about my body …  

The Bible tells me about my soul …  

They’re good partners … they dance well together.

Both are complicated, but they get along well together.

You don’t need a theological degree to read the Bible … 

You don’t need a driver’s license to drive a car … 

but a license to drive requires knowledge and passing a test; it’s the law … to keep the roads as safe as possible … no absolute safety, of course, so we carry insurance.

 

The Presbyterian Church has always required a “licensed” ministry - knowledge and tests  … like a driver’s license, it’s pretty good, and keeps things safe, but if a driver’s license doesn’t guarantee good driving, a theological degree doesn’t guarantee a trustworthy interpreter of the Bible.

Our tradition has also encouraged YOU, the laity, to read and study the Bible … to engage the ideas of faith from your own perspective of prayer, and reflection.

I encourage you to read your Bible.

It’s a slow process … folks try to read through the Bible in a timely manner, and some succeed at that, but I recommend random reading, at least for much of the time … 

just pick it up, 

let the pages fall where they may, 

thumb through it, and read … 

read often … 

not a lot at any one time, but often.

Don’t worry about understanding … just read.

A pen is helpful - draw symbols in the column … 

a heart beside a verse that speaks to your heart … 

a question mark for something that seems odd, or strange … 

an exclamation point for something that seems important … and little faces, a sad face for things that are sad … 

and a smiley face for humor - 

there’s humor in the Bible - some of it dry, some of it dark, but who can talk about life without a joke now and then?

and always underline … 

make THE Bible YOUR Bible … 

It’s good to rely on a minister to interpret the Bible … but it’s better for everyone if you’re working at it, too.

Don’t be afraid to use Google or Wikipedia … not everything on the internet is reliable. But it all helps.

The point is: keep on reading … become familiar with it … don’t hurry … it’ll take a lifetime, and then some … and the Holy Spirit helps us all along the way.

With all of this, I’m trying to be a good shepherd … that’s the thrust of today’s readings … in Zechariah, God says, I’ve got a problem with the shepherds! They’ve neglected my people.

Jesus applies the image of Shepherd to his own work - I am the good shepherd, says Jesus.

I’m trying to be a good shepherd … have I failed? Yeah, sure … let me count the ways.

But I’ve tried to be faithful … I’ve tried all my career to honor the Bible, treat it well, study it thoroughly, learn from it, grow in my life, and invite folks, just like you  to enter into its pages, ponder its words, and open your hearts to the love of God!

When I wrote this sermon, a parade of people came to mind … people whom I was privileged to shepherd along the way, and people who were shepherds to me.

Toots Adkins … 5’2” - not a tooth in his mouth, lousy health, shoes too big, lived all by himself in a tarpaper shack at the head of Camp Creek … taught himself to read by reading the Bible … prayed with the voice of angels - Camp Creek Presbyterian Church, Camp Creek, West Virginia.

Marge Bennet, organist and choir director … her husband, David - piano player, drama producer … Third Presbyterian Church, Altoona, Pennsylvania

James Lee, president of Gulf Oil Company … travelled across the world to get back for an important Session meeting … Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh.

Ray Madson, volunteer fire fighter, contractor, a man who got things done … Radisson Presbyterian Church, Radisson, WI

Carol McMasters and her husband Clyde, First Presbyterian Church, Sapulpa, OK.

Bob Seymour, an architect, who heard the call of God, went to seminary, became a chaplain … St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Livonia, MI.

Don Battjes, high school classmate, puppeteer, museum administrator, and a faithful member of First Congregational Church, LA.

Sharleen Piereson, George Coulter, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena. 

They’re gone now … they did the needed work … they were good shepherds, in their time and place.

God bless them, one and all … and now it’s your turn: God bless each of you … 

Amen and Amen!