Genesis 17.1-7, 15-16; Mark 9.2-9

Pipes … thousands of pipes run beneath our feet … beneath our cities and towns, across the deserts and through the mountains … underground, unseen, beneath our feet.

On the wall in front of me, a giant map - red lines, blue lines, orange lines … converging on Tulsa, OK - a map of the underground pipes and pumps moving tons of product across the nation - from gas and oil wells to the refineries, to the tank farms, to the tank trucks and the local gas station … and to the ships in Houston, taking gas and oil across the seas.

Underground, invisible, unknown … day in and day out, year after year …  underground pipelines … 

And the glory of God, underpinning our lives … 

The glory of God: large enough to hold the universe, 

small enough for Mary’s Womb, 

small enough to snuggle in her arms, 

wrapped in swaddling clothes … 

small enough to find a room in our heart. 

The glory of God:

All around us:

the birds of morning, the crickets at night … 

our laughter, our tears … 

the noise of the day, the quiet of the night … 

when hell appears, when heaven dawns …

When I’m listening to one of my favorite authors, Jacqueline Winspear and her Maisie Dobbs detective stories … she’s a gifted writer, and ever so often, a moment: Oh my Gosh, a splash of insight, a shooting star, a get-my-attention split-second - the glory of God.

It happens all the time … in a million different ways … God shows up, but always in a way suitable to us, mostly quiet and gentle … Isaiah the Prophet says it so beautifully:

God … will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed [God] will not break, and a dimly burning wick [God] will not quench.

Frederick Buechner, Presbyterian minister and novelist, says this about angels: 

An angel spreads its glittering wings over us, and we say things like  "It was one of those days that made you feel good just to be alive,"  or  "I had a hunch everything was going to turn out all right,"  or  "I don't know where I ever found the courage." 

The glory of God … in special places … thin places … where we can more easily encounter the sacred … 

The Church, and it’s Bible … a text, a book, a page and its words.

hymns and prayers, sermons and liturgy.

Baptism and the LORD’s Supper.

stained glass windows, well-worn pews … the sounds of a great organ.

the Holy Spirit blowing where it will!

Who knows where and when the glory of God reveals itself to us … but it will come our way … God is a God of great love … not to overpower us, but to walk beside us … 

The glory of God … beneath us, around us, deep within us … at work - 24/7 365 … 

Someone might ask, How can you talk about the glory of God when all hell is breaking lose, humankind has lost its way …suffering and sorrow at every turn - greed and malice everywhere?

Yes, caution is needed!

Life is no fairy tale …

And neither is the gospel … 

Jesus rightly says to us: take up your cross … faith demands a great deal of us, love requires everything … this is our calling … this is the Word of God that comes to each one of us, here and now, in this place, this moment of time … 

The story of Abram and Sarai begins where there is no hope … they’re old … too old to have a family.

That train left the station long ago, that door is closed …

But it’s never too late to be great …   

This is truth-story, not a true story.

Any more than Moby Dick or Lord of the Rings are true… 

These are truth stories, and it’s terribly important that we know the difference, lest we miss the point. 

We don’t argue about Bilbo Baggins, or the white whale, or whether or not God could reverse the aging process and give this old couple a child. 

This is not about weird miracles; some kind of a crazy “facts of life” for an old couple … but the facts of faith all of us.

It’s never too late to be great!

If one train has left the station, another one is coming … if one door is closed, there will be another door to open!

Centuries later … Jesus goes up to a high place with Peter, James, and John … Jesus is transfigured … his clothing shines … Elijah and Moses are there …  the disciples see the glory of God.

A cloud comes upon them … a voice is heard: This is my son, the beloved … listen to him.

Peter stammers and stutters … Let’s gather some branches, make a few huts, enjoy the mountain … 

In a moment, it’s all gone … the light, the glory, Moses and Elijah … what’s left is Jesus; the glory of God in tunic and sandals … down the mountain they go, to meet the world … 

At the foot of the mountain, sin and sorrow, sickness and poverty, want and hurt, craziness and meanness … it was a mountain-top experience, but life goes on at the foot of the mountain. 

The glory of God … the call to be great … the light of hope … Elijah and Moses … Jesus our LORD.

Our souls need a North Star … a point of reference to guide our footsteps … we need the glory!

If we don’t move toward the light, chances are, we’ll move in the opposite direction. 

God says to Abram and Sarai: I am God Almighty … and I make my covenant between me and you. 

On the Mt. of Transfiguration: this is my beloved son, listen to him!

Can you see the glory?

The glory of God - that all should live, and live in peace … that every child should be fed … the naked clothed, the lost be found, the gospel proclaimed … can you see the glory?

Consider the blue ceiling above the chancel … the color of the heavens … heaven and earth are not so far apart, after all … can you see the glory?

Above you … hundreds of crosses, no longer carried by the saints - their work is finished - the crosses they carried have been laid aside and exchanged for a crown … can you see the glory?

Mine eyes have the glory of the coming of the LORD …

I have seen him in the watchfires 

of a hundred circling camps,

He has sounded forth the trumpet 

that shall never call retreat;

In the beauty of the lilies 

Christ was born across the sea,

He is coming like the glory 

of the morning on the wave, 

he is wisdom to the mighty, 

he is honor to the brave;

Can you see the glory?

Hallelujah and Amen!

3.5.23 "A Lantern in the Wind" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Genesis 12.1-4; John 3.1-17

“A lantern in the wind" … 

A book title … the biography of Mary Ellen Chase, an American educator, teacher, scholar, and author. … one of the most important .. New England literary figures of the early twentieth century.

Mary Ellen Chase … a lantern in the wind.

I came across her name in a recent blog by Fr. Richard Rohr - and, by the way, if you want to engage with a first-rate writer of good thought and life, check out Fr. Richard Rohr, his blogs, his books … a gift for our times.

Fr. Rohr quoted May Ellen Chase in her summary of the Prophet Jeremiah … a man of intense passion, with a vision for what could be, with endless questions and challenges to the nation: “Why not?”

Jeremiah was my first real engagement with the Bible … Jeremiah caught my attention … his honesty, passion, impatience, reluctance, anger - anger at God for putting him up to this task, and just plain frustration with a nation bent on using God, but not loving God … and through it all, Jeremiah’s incredible connection to God.

God burns in his belly … a message for the nation, for the nations of the world …

But few are interested in what Jeremiah has to say.

Jeremiah … accused of treason, a troubler of kings and priests … arrested, imprisoned … tradition says he was stoned to death in Egypt by his own people.

On this, the Second Sunday of Lent, we do well to consider Jeremiah … this man of great intent and focus … 

He’s a man who believes God is right, love is the only way, truth has to be a part of the deal … 

And justice … always justice … 

Justice for those who are the first to suffer at the hands of the privileged and the powerful … 

Those who suffer the abuses of priest and king …

The poor of the land … the widow, the orphan, the stranger at the gate.

Jeremiah gives everything for the cause of God … this Lantern in the Wind … hanging from the highest heavens of hope, shining bright with the light of God, blowing in the wind … the winds of the Spirit, for sure, the fierce winds of hell … but the lantern is not loosened, the light shines … it dances across the land of Judah, and to this very day, it dances in the hearts and minds of God’s people, everywhere.

The light dances here, in the story and spirit of Westminster Presbyterian Church … literally, with all the light pouring through our windows … spiritually, the light of heaven falling upon our souls … the Spirit nudging us, calling us, challenging us …

To become lanterns in the wind …

But let’s step a bit - to the beginnings of our story … all the way back to Abram and Sarai … when God paid them a visit.

With an invitation … a command … a calling - to leave behind the usual and the commonplace … for all of us, in such times as ours, to set aside the familiar things, things we already know, what we trust, what we love, where we feel safe … go from your country, says God, your kindred, your father’s house … to a land I will show you! 

With a promise: I will make of you a great nation …   

Greatness … greatness is the possibility … greatness in love and faith, hope and goodness, peace and kindness, decency and mercy, courage and vision, imagination and invention … greatness to transcend the boundaries, greatness to heal the wounded, greatness to lift up the fallen, greatness, to restore the broken … greatness in our dreams and in our labors for a better world.

Not a day should run its course until we have wrestled with the angels of God, and what this greatness means … to question ourselves, search our souls, seek the kingdom of God … ask as Nicodemus does, How can this be?

Jesus says to Nicodemus: don’t pretend you don’t know … you know that you know … you have it all in your traditions and stories … you’ve got Moses and Jeremiah; you’ve got the law and the prophets - what you lack is courage … the courage to go a little deeper, a little higher  … this business of life requires some risk-taking … going further than you thought you could … 

Jesus says to Nicodemus: no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit …  

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity … the Psalmist writes: cleanse me from my sin … purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Ezekiel writes: I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness….

In the ancient world, water was precious … by water, Israel was saved from the fury of Pharaoh … by water, Noah’s ark rode out the storm … by water, Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River … at the wedding of Cana, water is turned into wine.

Of water and the Spirit … 

Jesus uses the image of wind to describe the work of the Spirit … something fresh and invigorating, a good wind blowing … wind, free and unpredictable, blowing here, blowing there … the Spirit of God is like the wind.

Wind is not ours to make or control … it is ours to receive.

By water and the Spirit … the material and the invisible … the daily routines of mindfulness and prayer … and the promise of God to be at work in all things for good.

By water and by the Spirit … 

Here we are, today, the second Sunday of Lent … with communion, the LORD’s Supper, the Eucharist … the bread, broken; the cup, poured … this is my body, this is my blood!

Just bread, just some juice … we say the words, and the living word of Christ is present … Christ is here, to make all things new.

A lantern in the wind … it’s light shines bright, the light of faith, hope, and love; grace, mercy, and peace … dancing all around us, in the corners of our mind, in the quiet places of our soul … places of hurt and fear, loneliness and insecurity … the wind is there, the lantern weaves and dances … there is light … we’re encouraged … called to the things of God … to walk with Abram and Sarai to a land only God can show us … to be born anew in the goodness of Christ … 

To become for the world, a lantern in the wind.

Amen and Amen!

April 7, 2013 - "Leaving and Going"

Genesis 12.1-9; Mark 1.16-20

A brave man, a brave woman.

To leave behind old ideas.

Old places and solid habits.

To set the face toward other places.

‘Tis only a fool who believes that 

Yesterday holds the answers.

And a greater fool who believes

That a new day is easy to achieve.

God said to Abram and Sarai:

May I have a few moments of your time?

They should have said, No!

They should have turned around.

And run away.

Like Jonah did a few years later.

But we all know how it turned out for Jonah.

Perhaps Abram and Sarai suspected the same.

Or maybe there were just too naive.

And what’s wrong with that?

Naiveté gets us into trouble, for sure.

But it also is the grease of greatness.

Too naive to see the trouble ahead.

The naive says, Let’s do it.

The heart and soul of our faith … getting up and leaving behind that which was … and striking out for that which is not yet.

Jesus called the disciples to follow him.

Never once did they settle down.

Never once did Jesus say, Here we are … no need for anything further …

But always pushing on … and even when the stone was rolled in place, it was pushed away three days later … Jesus still has places to go and people to see.

How, then, did the church ever come to be so settled, so staid, in its ways ...

All the answers laid out like neatly folded socks in drawer.

There to be worn when needed.

And washed when dirty.

And put back into the drawer, just as they were for another day.

Neat and Tidy, neat and clean.

The church of Jesus Christ … settled and staid.

What we do today, we did yesterday.

What we did yesterday, we did the day before.

And what we’ll do tomorrow, will look pretty much like what we did today.

And so it goes.

The great church of Jesus Christ.

Settled down mostly … 

Answers to all the questions …

Liturgies carefully planned.

Sermons predictable and comforting.

Big box churches with their bands and videos … preachers in tailored jeans and pressed shirts, always out and never tucked in, thank you … telling endless stories about little children and old aunts and dogs and cats and sometimes even a story about Jesus.

Tall steeple churches with their robed choirs and stately processions … preachers well dressed in collar and gowns … folks sitting in the pew they’ve sat in for years, and everyone knows they’re place … the music is solemn, the building impressive, all is good and all is right.

Come now, says Jesus, leave your nets and your boats and follow me …

It’s the way of my Father in heaven … we don’t settle down, but we keep pushing ahead … new ideas and faithful experimentation … 

William Faulkner, the noted American novelist once observed: “No man can cause more grief than that one clinging blindly to the vice of his ancestors.”

And sometimes the greatest vice of all is the certainty of being right … that nothing more is needed … 

Come now, says Jesus, leave your nets and your boats and follow me …

Years ago, three small churches in the resort area of the Wisconsin north woods … beautiful country and sturdy people who labored hard to make a living in a land that, despite it’s beauty, didn’t yield much to either the plow or the hand … with long-day summers and long-night winters.

One of the churches I served was the First Presbyterian Church of - Winter, Wisconsin … 

One of the Elders there was a good and decent man with a curious habit of speech … every time he spoke, he said, “My Daddy used to say …”

Many a time I so wanted to say to him, “Glad to know what you Daddy used to say, but how about you? What do you say?”

I fear that he was very much stuck in the past.

Come now, says Jesus, leave your nets and your boats and follow me …

Recently, we’ve noted the 45^th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., while in Memphis to help sanitation workers find a better arrangement.

Dr. King knew that his life was in danger … yet as one commentator put it:

“King went to the places of greatest pain to cry out against structures and systems that create the pain.”

Come now, says Jesus, leave your nets and your boats and follow me …

The Christian Century Magazine, a notable publication for many years now, carried a series entitled, “How I Changed My Mind” … by great theologians and church leaders … all of them, at one time or the other, found that the old ideas, which worked at the time, could no longer offer what was needed.

It was time to change … change the mind … change the ideas that shape life and make it work for a time … but nothing works forever … neither car nor plane nor idea.

There was a time when Christians believed the sun revolved around the earth … and imprisoned Galileo and threatened him with death, for saying that the earth revolved around the sun … That’s not what the Bible says, said the Church. The Bible says the suns rises and passes over head, and then sets in the evening … no sir, Mr. Galileo, you and your science are wrong, and if you speak out any further on the matter, we will kill you in Jesus’ name.

Today, it all seems silly to us, but it wasn’t silly at the time, and the greatest tragedy of all - the church was tied to the past, and afraid of the future, because the future is all about change, and change is unnerving - shall I say? - for all of us.

But we all know that life is change … and we can’t stop it from changing … and rather than stopping it, it’s best if we can join the parade of time, and go with the flow … and like so many greater leaders and writers and artists, change our minds from time-to-time.

It’s not easy … 

A new photo exhibit is opening today at the Fowler Museum at UCLA … photographer Ernest Cole documented the days of Apartheid in South Africa … with one telling photo that sticks in my mind … a white lady sitting by herself on a bus bench, stenciled with the warning: “Europeans Only.”

The tragedy of South Africa, tough enough, with pain and sorrow that remains … but for me, the greatest tragedy of all: The Church mostly supported Apartheid - thought it was a good idea to sanction the privilege of white people and declare people of color to be second-class citizens.

America had its own struggle on this one … and even fought a civil war over it … but what with Jim Crow laws and a thousand other devices, racial discrimination remains in this nation … and often supported by “good christian folks who sit in their churches nodding their heads to the gospel, and singing praise to God Almighty” and despising their neighbor … 

As in a little town in Georgia when, after desegregation, stopped having a high school prom … going with private proms instead, at country clubs and other venues …

But recently, a group of four young ladies - two blacks and two whites, put their case on Facebook, and tens of thousands of people rallied to their cause, helped them raise money, for a prom, a real prom, an all-school prom, where all the students, black and white, could attend … and have a fine time … together … these girls have turned the clock ahead 50 years for their little town in Georgia.

Come now, says Jesus, leave your nets and your boats and follow me …

For me, one of the biggest mind changes occurred in the early 70s … and you might guess what issue it is… when I was ordained in 1970, I believed the Bible had a clear and concise case against homosexuality … that’s just the way it is, I thought, and that’s how I was taught.

But I read some very fine studies by scholars of great reputation, known for their faith and their scholarship, who opened my mind to what the Bible really says … and revealed to me that not every translation of the Bible into English has been honest about what Paul the Apostle wrote, and the Greek words he used … sadly, I discovered, how politics have played a role in Bible translation … and how the things we don’t like, and the people we might hate, can shade the way we translate Paul … What did Paul mean? We might ask, and maybe we’re not sure … and, yes, we’re not always sure what Paul meant in some of the details, so we’ll just fill in some of the blanks with our stuff and have Paul say what we think Paul should have said, even if he didn’t.

Yes, that’s how some of this stuff was translated, and now we know better … thank God … now we know better.

Come now, says Jesus, leave your nets and your boats and follow me …

It’s all about growing … to follow Jesus.

To leave things behind … good things, important things.

To find the greater light, the better day.

The land that God alone can show to Abram and Sarai.

The life that Christ alone can give to the disciples.

The hope that Christ alone can give to any of us … 

If we but say to the LORD, Yes, we’re ready.

We’re not always sure, but we’re ready.

We’re ready for new ideas and new ways of doing things … we’re ready to leave in order to find a new land in which a better world can be made …

Come now, says Jesus, leave your nets and your boats and follow me …

Amen and Amen!