7.21.24 "This I Know" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Ephesians 2.11-16; Ephesians 2.17-22

“When I leave church, I want to feel better than when I came in,” my friend said to me …  

Melodie Mariposa performing at
Westminster, 7.21.24

I keep that in mind when I write my sermons and prepare the liturgy … I think of my friends, I think of you … 

And, I think of myself … 

There are times when my spiritual energies are nil … 

the springs of hope and peace run dry … 

writer’s block, spiritual block, the doldrums, the down times … 

the sun dimmed by heavy clouds … 

sadness and weariness overtake my soul … 

lousy memories trigger a flood of regret … 

momentary setbacks - when things just go plumb wrong … knocked for a loop, knocked off balance … set back on my heels …

Old fears that have been with me my entire life … 

Good golly Miss Molly …

St John of the Cross called it “the dark night of the soul” ..

A whole book about it in the 16th Century … for young monks, who were at the top of their game when they entered the monastery … close to God, a deep sense of prayer, lots of joy, peace, happiness … the daily disciplines, the long hours of prayer and work, all of it good … the soul dances light upon the earth …

And, then, one day, it goes south … 

candles burn out, 

joy takes a hike, 

the days become laborious and unrewarding … 

prayers are hard, and go nowhere … 

the soul drags along, tired and weary … 

the young monk becomes discouraged … 

where’s the joy, what happened to my happiness, why now is prayer so hard, so unbearable, and these duties, why now so empty of meaning, where’s my energy, my hope, my peace? 

At just such a time, the young monk is tempted to leave the monastery … 

I’m unfit for this calling, I don’t belong here, I’m too sinful for all of this, I’m not up to it … maybe I was wrong about this, I don’t have what it takes, and what it takes is beyond me.

John of the Cross, tells the young monk: God is preparing a new day for you … 

no one can stay on top of the world all the time; 

there are times when we need to be in the valley of darkness … 

it’s called growing, and growing up, growing out, learning the hard lessons as well as the sweet lessons of life.

John of the Cross tells of a sculptor who throws a tarp over the work-in-progress … to shield the work from prying eyes.

If we watched what God was doing, we’d rush in with our own suggestions … we’d tell God, “Do it this way, do it that way.”

We’d muck it all up with our ideas … 

So God does us an enormous favor …

God conceals the critical work of soul-formation … in the critical moments of life.

When the time is right, God pulls back the tarpaulin to reveal something new … a new chapter in our life.

St. John of the Cross understands a lot of things; his counsel and wisdom comforts the guides the soul.

When all is dark, wait … 

wait for the revealing … 

wait for the light.

Don’t give up, don’t walk away, 

don’t doubt the original calling; 

don’t be too hard on yourself … 

be patient, wait upon the LORD … a new day is coming.

“When I leave church, I want to feel better than when I came in,” said my friend.

We have to be careful … 

The church has sometimes helped people feel better about all the wrong things … 

In the 19th century, across the southern tier of the nation, minsters were cautioned to never bring up the question of slavery …  

“Just preach Christ” … some even stepped into the pulpit to defend the practice:

Enslavement is perfectly fine, the whip is acceptable, treating the enslaved as cattle is all a part of God’s will … God is on our side.

Ministers who raised the question were ousted from their pulpits.

Folks wanted to leave church feeling better about all the wrong things.

In the north, in the midwest, far west, folks went to church to hear the “gospel” … 

it’s ok to hate the Indigenous, 

take their land, break the treaties, 

put their children into specialized schools where their hair is cut, 

their indigenous clothing taken away, 

punished if they speak their indigenous tongue … 

it’s ok; it’s God’s will … and the people leave church feeling better than when they came in.

In Nazi Germany, many churches turned themselves over to German Christianity … Germany First, make Germany great again, Germany over all … large Nazi flags and banners in the sanctuary … the upraised hand, once the sign of blessing, slightly tilted forward, becomes the Nazi salute … Jews deserved to be hated, war is necessary, God is on our side.  

They leave church feeling better - about all the wrong things.

I want to leave here feeling better than when I came, and I want the same for you … but we have to be clear, we have to be sure, that what we feel good about is something good, the real deal, the genuine article …  

Not the wrong things, but the right things … 

And why?

When we feel better about the right things, we change the wrong things … we are the salt of the earth, says Jesus, we are the light of the world.

Here are some things that I find helpful … rooted in Scripture, celebrated in our traditions, confirmed in daily life:

Remember: Joshua orders the trumpets to blow, and the walls tumble down ..

Remember: the Prodigal Son returns home …

Remember: the Lost Sheep is found.

Dear friends:

Be not afraid, though there is plenty in this life to scare the wits out of us.

You are loved, you are forgiven … all the way to eternity.

You will do it … you’ve come through so much already, you’ll come through whatever life throws at you … when you’re down, it’s only for a season … if you can’t see God, God sees you, and God is hard at work.

Remember, you have friends … here they are, sitting with you … you have Moses and the Prophets … you have the Apostle Paul and the Holy Spirit … in the center of it all, you have Christ.

You don’t have all the answers, but you don’t need all the answers … 

You have courage, you get up in the morning and face the day … one step at a time is maybe all you can do, but you’ll do it … you’ll face the day, you’ll make it through …  

You have faith in Christ … enough to move a few mountains and change the world.

Don’t expect too much of yourself …   

But expect enough of yourself to push yourself into new regions of life and work … take a few chances.

In your search for God, you will sometimes find God … and then, remember, God always finds you.

When you’re knocked down, God will lay down beside you … when it’s time to get up and try again, God will be at your side …  

You have love in your heart … remember that.

Keep in mind those who love you … they’re not wrong … even when you’re not so lovable, you’re still worthy of love, you always have gifts, you’re a person of importance … you are someone’s link to life.

To leave here, and feel better, than when you got here.

Hallelujah and Amen

7.7.24 "Learn to Lean on Others" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10; Mark 6.1-13

Minnesota Cornfield

In one of the most striking moments of the New Testament, it says of Jesus, he could do no deed of
power there … he was amazed at their unbelief.

Jesus relies on the faith and hope of others … time and again, Jesus says, Your faith has done you well … 

“Go; let it be done for you according to your faith.”

“Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.”

“According to your faith let it be done to you.”

“Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”

At this point, we wonder … 

How much faith does it take? 

How big is a mustard seed?

Says Jesus, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘move’ … and it will …”

A little faith goes a long way … 

So, let’s get back to the story.

A roadblock in his hometown … of all places.

Those closest to him, 

from childhood on … 

they know his family … 

they know him as a carpenter … 

he builds tables and chairs for them …  

wagons and carts, chariot wheels … doors and windows … storage buildings for grain, towers for defense and siege machines for the Roman Army.

Jesus is a busy man … and then, one day, he takes it upon himself to speak to the people, of things glorious and grand, turns the world in new directions … 

They’re amazed … they wonder how in the world he came to have all of this knowledge, this wisdom … 

In a moment, it all goes south … they take offense at him … Who does he think he is?

Jesus says:

Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometowns, and among their own kin, and in their own house.

They know Jesus too well … but truth be told, they don’t know him at all.

Every Sunday, we try to push through what we know about Jesus to what we don’t know … maybe we know too much … maybe some of what we know needs to be tossed aside … “Oh, I know all about Jesus …” but maybe we don’t … 

There is good news embedded in the story:

Jesus goes to his hometown … he wasn’t invited … he shows up by his own choice; he makes the first move … and that’s more than enough to excite my wee little Presbyterian heart … 

God shows up, first … 

God loves us, first …

God does what we cannot do.

God carries the cross for the whole broken world … God dies and goes to hell, into the far reaches of sorrow and death … My God, my God, says Jesus, why have you forsaken me?

On the third day, the powers of heaven roll away the stone of death … Jesus strides forth into life anew … and says to each one of us, Come along with me!

The hometown crowd is a rough one … they know so much … the know the drill … they’ve all been to Sunday School … they even read their Bibles … and haven’t learned a fresh idea in 25 years.

In the summer of 1967, my wife and I left after our wedding for a summer assignment in Florida … a church in Venice Gardens for 6 weeks, and a church in Miami for six weeks … in our light green ’63 VW bug.

In the Miami church, we lived in a large manse with the minister and his wife - and when they went on vacation, he said, “Be sure to use my office for your work.”

I did … as I looked at the shelves of books, and thumbed through some them, checking out the date of purchase if recorded … I noticed something odd … there were very few books purchased after seminary … I thought, “Here’s a man who stopped learning.” He was a good man, for sure … a little odd, or so I thought, but, then, who isn’t a little odd, now and then?

He rested on his laurels … content with what he knew … he closed the door to the future.

The hometown crowd does just that - they close the door to the future … they know too much, and they don’t know Jesus at all.

When Jesus commissions the disciples for their work, he reminds them: You need the faith and hope of others … in partnership with those to whom you proclaim the gospel, in partnership with people of all sorts and types, then the work of the Kingdom moves ahead.

Learn to lean on others, take nothing for your journey except a staff - we don’t want you stumbling and falling … take no bread, no bag, no money - when you’re hungry, knock on a few doors … wear sandals - we don’t want sore feet … and wear one tunic - if you get cold, you’ll have to lean on others for a blanket or two.

Jesus makes it clear: it doesn’t always work … 

trust is disappointed, 

kindness rebuffed, 

love trampled in the mud … 

Even the disciples will fail:

Judas betrays … 

Peter denies … 

the rest run away.

If it doesn’t work, don’t fret about it, says Jesus … shake the dust off and move on … it will work … some of the time, and when it works, it works very, very well. 

For all of us here today:

1. Keep on learning … whatever you know of Jesus is good, but there’s so much more to the story … 
2. Don’t fret about how much faith you have or don’t have - it doesn’t take much … whatever faith you have is more than enough for God.
3. God needs us … yes, God makes the first move … that’s the gospel, but somewhere along the line God says, Come along with me, because I need you … the next step, our step, your step, to follow Christ … because God, leans on us.
4. To the elders: lean on one another … don’t try to go it alone … you don’t know it all … you can’t do it all; none of us can … those who try to live out their life alone soon discover they haven’t sufficient strength to withstand the storms of life. 

I close the sermon with an image - a Minnesota cornfield … if you know anything about corn, you know that the individual stalk has a shallow root system … with the simplest push, a stalk of corn falls over … but when you at look at a cornfield, you see the power of leaning on one another … acres of corn can withstand tremendous storms … each stalk leans on the other … together, they’re strong … together, they beat the odds, together, they withstand the onslaught of the storm.

Ben Franklin said it well: “We must all hang together or most assuredly we will all hang separately.”

Lean on one another. Build the fellowship of faith … link arms when you can, hold hands when you’re afraid … learn from one another … what we do best is what we do in the company of others.

It doesn’t always work, but when it does, it works well … and in those moments, strange and wonderful,   when God leans on us and comes to our homes, our workplaces, our schools, let us be strong and let us stand tall - “Yes, God, you can lean on me!”

I give you my faith, my hope, my love!

Hallelujah and Amen!