Monday, August 26, 2024

8.25.24, "Where Else?" Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 1 Kings 8.22-26; John 6.63-69



Overhead wires on the C Line being replaced … 


Why?


Those wires are nearly 30 years old, near the end of their lifespan … 


The wire is being replaced.


I wonder how the wire feels?


Hey, what’s this replacement business all about? I’ve got some years left. Let’s not be in a hurry. I can still get the job done. Come on, gimme a break! I’m not ready for the junk yard!


It happens all the time.


A month ago, we heard President Biden pass the baton to Kamala Harris … 


A movie star retires … a top-notch athlete hangs up the cleats, puts the racket away, and goes fishing.


In July, I travelled to Michigan to do a memorial service in the church where I had served for 16 years … I hadn’t been back in nearly 20 years.


The strangest of things: I didn’t recognize anything … 


Everything was different … 

familiar landmarks torn down, 

replaced by drug stores and gas stations … 

it didn’t even seem “vaguely familiar” - 

I was a “stranger in a strange land.”


 The church is still there … a little long in the tooth, as they say … Anne Lamott puts it like this: the tide comes in, the tide goes out.


Or as the song says: They paved paradise and put up a parking lot … 


Or as Shakespeare put it: Hey nonny nonny … whatever, what the heck, why not!


Things shift, things change … time moves on, and here we go.


In our gospel reading this morning, we find Jesus in a time of transition - a good many folks thought he was the One to answer their questions and solve their problems, but now they leave, like a jr. high love affair.


Jesus asks those closest to him: Are you gonna leave me, too?


Where else can we go? asks Peter.


To whom else should we listen?You have the words of eternal life … you are the one, the holy one of God.


Where else can we go?


I have learned over the years:

God creates mountains of truth all over the world … because God is the God of love, 

love supreme, 

love eternal, 

love that can only love, and never walks away.


Every religion has it’s Christ-point … the mountain where God and humanity meet … 


A quiet moment in a quiet room … 

in the rush and hustle of a morning drive to work … 

sacred places, sacred stories … 

spiritual experiences and conversion … 

when God seems powerfully close, and love rises to the top.


Every religion, every philosophy, has it’s entry point into the heart of God … because the heart of God shows up everywhere.


The Muslim in Mecca, the Jew in Jerusalem, the Buddhist in Bangkok, the Hindu in Bombay …  


No one has a corner on the religion market … everyone gets it wrong … and everyone gets it right … 


Every tradition has its radical elements where hate is preached and violence admired.


Every tradition has its beauty and its glory, wherein love is given and love received.


For anyone, the call of life invites us to take the entry point given to us … to walk into the heart of God … to embrace the ways of love and life … to reach high, and reach far …


Jesus puts it this way: Take up your cross and follow me.


And some found it just too hard … too difficult … they wanted something easy, they wanted some thing simple … but love isn’t easy, nor is love simple … because life isn’t easy, and people aren’t easy, and we’re not easy, either.


So, folks, looking for something easy, decided to look for another.


Jesus asks his disciples: Are you gonna leave me, too?  … 


It’s a real question … 

people walk away from the truth all the time … 

I’ve done it, you’ve done it, and we’ll do it again … before the last curtain call.


Because God never violates our freedom:


Our freedom to explore, think for ourselves, make mistakes, even big mistakes, and lots of little ones, all along the way … 


Our freedom is God’s ultimate gift to us … created in God’s image as we are … to be free … 


Like Adam and Eve, we pluck the fruit of self-interest and desire, and go our merry way … 


Like the prodigal son who takes his money and runs to the land of dreams and nonsense.


And in our freedom, to make the good choices, take up our cross and follow Christ … forgive one another and love profoundly … we rise to the occasion … to be responsible, thoughtful, courageous and decent.


In our freedom …


Are you gonna leave me, too? asks Jesus!


For me, the closest entry point into the heart of God is Christ! 


I was born into a Christian Family … Sheboygan, Wisconsin … the land of the Green Bay Packers and cheese curds … churches on every corner.


Christ is my entry point …


Had I been born in the Middle East, China, India, South Africa … if my family had been Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, even atheist … there would be other pathways, other entryway points, into the heart of God … 


because God is love, 

God is universal, 

God is everywhere … 

at work, to make all things new, and all things good.


Some years ago, a Christian mother came to me - deeply distressed - her daughter had married a Muslim and she was converting. 

I raised my daughter in the church, she said, tears streaming down her face. 

As we talked, she expressed here deepest fear, that when her daughter dies, she’ll go hell, and I’ll never see her again …she sobbed deeply … I will never see her again.


What’s her husband like?  I asked! 

He’s a good man, she said.

They love each other … and I love them, too.


I encouraged her to walk with her daughter … to learn and grow … ask questions … and not to fear … God at work everywhere … 


In this place, Christ is our entry point … we are Christians, and for that we can be grateful, 


Christ, our entry point, will never disappoint us!


The grand stories of scripture, the hymns we sing, the prayers we say … the waters of our baptism, the bread of the Table, the cup of blessing … we find God, and God most surely finds us.


If Christ is our entry point, then let us walk with Christ into the heart of God.


Let us follow Christ to the ends of the earth.

Let us cheer those who find God in other entry points. 


Where there is love, let us rejoice … 

where there is truth, let us dance … 

where we find goodness, let us praise God.


Let us build bridges of understanding … 

communication, respect, gratitude … 

learn from others, learn of God’s glory in their traditions, their practices, their stories, their faith.

And learn of our own entry point … if we’re Christians, then, for heaven’s sake, let us be Christians all the more.


Let God be God … and then love Christ.

In the love of Christ, let God be God the creator of the heavens and the earth …

God, for all the world.


Amen and Amen!

8.18.24 "Miracles" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 1 Kings 3.9-15; Ephesians 5.15-20


Have you seen any miracles lately?


There are those who trade in miracles … 


the supernatural, the paranormal, seances of the 19th century … mediums, psychics, seers and spiritualists, and various sorts of faith healers … 

some of it has merit … 

I don’t discount any experience if it builds love,  confidence, and kindness … 

but the commercial trade in miracles, the hoopla and the noise, all for a few dollars … 

a trade built on the hopes and fears we all have … there is within much of this, something unsavory, something disagreeable … bunk and hokum … hogwash and horsefeathers.


Let me tell you about miracles.


I got up this morning … that’s a miracle …


I flip a wall switch, and there’s light.


I open the tap … clean, safe, drinkable, water.


I make coffee … I slice a banana on some cereal … pour a generous amount of oat drink … 


I hold in my hand more computing power in this little device than the computers used to launch the first astronauts to the moon.


I hop into my car, start it up, and off I go … I go to work, I open my laptop, I search the internet, I talk to the Google Gods, and they tell me everything … the algorithms know me better than I know myself.


Ten years ago, I went to the hospital in an ambulance … could hardly breath … blood clots filled my lungs … for 16 hours, on my back, chemicals going into my system … at the foot of the bed, a Christmas Tree they called it … 6 bags of drugs, three for either side of my body … and when the treatment was done, the clots were gone … they all said to me, Mr. Eggebeen, you’re one lucky man.


A hundred years ago, 20 years ago, I would have died … the death certificate would have stated, “pulmonary embolism.”


Huntington Hospital, Keck hospital, City of Hope … USC, UCLA … 


Every day, people walk out of such places with life restored, life given back to them … 


Sure, it’s technology, it’s science, it’s doctors and nurses … but is that not of God? 

Of course it is! … 

As much of God as anything can be, 

God gives to us a mind to think, a mind to pose big questions, and find real answers … 

minds to create drugs to dissolve blood clots, drugs to fight cancer, treatments to correct physical abnormalities.


And let’s think for a moment - someone sings a hymn, tears begin to flow!

A prayer, quite time, a deep wound in the soul is healed.

A child is held in loving arms and presented for baptism.

Bread is broken, the cup is poured, someone decides in just such a moment that God is love, and they give themselves another chance to live, to hope, to make it.


All of this from God … 


Solomon accedes to the throne of Israel … he goes to Gibeon to worship … one night, he has dream. God appears to him and says: Ask what you want!


Solomon says to God:


You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David …


What better place to begin - to say Thanks!

Thanks for this moment in time, 

life, work, family, friends … 

the long story 

all the way back to the beginning of time … 

all the way forward to the end of our days … and beyond.


The wonders and glory of God’s goodness … all along the way.


A man and woman a thousand years ago fall in love, get married, have children … in the Netherlands on my father’s side … in Germany, on my mother’s side …


By then, Christianity has spread across northern Europe … 

my ancestors know something of Christ, 

they pray, 

they take their children to the church for baptism, 

a priest dips his hand into the water, and says, In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!


Their descendants come to this land … and here I am … in this place, this pulpit, with their DNA …  


And here you are … all of your ancestors in your blood … you know some of the story, but not all of it … a whole world in your DNA.


Your own story to tell … 

the love and goodness of God … 

in the toughest of times, in the best of places … 

in sick and sin, thick and thin … 


in season and out season … 

in the midst of war and rumors of war, 

in the midst of strife and sorrow … 

when the sun shines bright, and when its raining torrents … 

when all is good, when all is broken … 

when love abounds, when it’s gone.

The tide comes in, the tide goes out.


I speak of miracles … here we are, in this time and place … graced with opportunity and challenge … 

a time to love, 


Though the world may take little note of who we are, we are all the product of great miracles … 


miracles of time and space, 

miracles of science and technology … 

 

The primal miracle, the first miracle, the miracle of creation - let there be light … God’s love at work, to bring about the better day.


More good than we can name … more wonderful than we can imaging … miracles of life and love piled up high to the sky … 


Solomon asks God for, A mind to discern between good and evil.


There is good, there is evil - we all know that.

Hindsight makes clear - what isn’t so easy to see in the moment.


People are misled all the time.


Tricked and conned by flimflammery, windbaggery, lies and deceit …  

Forgeries sell for millions of dollars

Ponzi schemes, promises of fabulous wealth …


Folks pretend to be doctors and nurses, attorney’s and faith-healers …


Universities have been taken in by fake diplomas.


Scholars plagiarize … 

Students use AI to write their papers …


Everyone lies a little bit, to puff the truth - into a more comfortable arrangement … some even tell big lies to win power for themselves.


Solomon knows what’s at stake … a kingdom teeters on the edge … will it be a day of good, or a day of evil? 


The story makes one point wonderfully clear: God is pleased with Solomon's request.


Maybe even surprised?


Let’s surprise God today … tomorrow, too … and all week long:


Pray for wisdom, discernment, insight, understanding.


No matter how good the idea might be, there’s a better idea out there waiting for us to find it.


Pray for a positive attitude … an outlook that says “all will be well” … “we’ll get it done!” 


Pray for the ability to focus on what counts … what matters, the big picture, the realities of life: faith, hope, and love.


Pray for energy to stay the course … pay the price … walk the walk and talk the talk …


Pray for a generous spirit, ready to defend the welfare of all …  


Pray for spiritual eyes - to see the good things of life … the miracles that surround us morning, noon and night … 


To see a World in a Grain of Sand 

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower 

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 

And Eternity in an hour


And pray for a heart that can say Thank You!

Thank you to a friend who helps …

The bird who cheers you on in the morning …

Loved ones who make you better than you could ever be by yourself …

To God, whose love floods the universe … with a flood of light and hope.


Such prayers are answered in the affirmative … God says to Solomon, I now do according to your word … I give you a wise and discerning mind.


The miracle of miracles.


Amen and Amen!