1.19.25 "The Common Good" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Isaiah 62.1-5; 1 Corinthians 12.4-11

One of the comforts of my life is the Word of God, as we sometimes call it … the Bible … Holy Writ … sacred text … the Scriptures.

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want …

Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.

Love never ends.

Everyone who loves is born of God.

I am with you always, to the end of the age.

I will never leave you or forsake you.

The Bible is a remarkable document spanning 2500 years of life and hope, disappointment and defeat … victory and better days … the ups and downs of life … the cruelties and vagaries of time, the joy and delight of love … the spring time of life, and the winters of our discontent.

The Bible knows all about hard times … 

There is no fluff in this book, no cheap promises, no over-bloated claims … 

Every word of Scripture, refined by turmoil and trial, by the sting of death … by the blood, sweat, and tears of God’s People … this book, when read with care, and some understanding of how it works, remains a treasury of faith, hope, and love … a means by which a human being can reach upward to God, and the means by which the Great God Almighty reaches downward to hold us in God’s good hands.

It is no accident that the center of our Christian Faith is the Cross of Christ … My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?

God belongs to the human story … born in Bethlehem, wrapped in simple blankets, laid in a manger, with sheep and oxen looking on.

King Herod rages … Mary and Joseph flee for their lives … refugees on the road to Egypt … to find a temporary home … 

Herod dies … Mary and Joseph return to Nazareth … and there the boy grows up … when he’s about 30, he goes to John the Baptist … 

Jesus stands in the river … John says to Jesus, You need to baptize me! … true enough …

But Jesus adds another dimension, It is right that I do this now … to be with you - in the human journey … 

to stand with you - in the ruins and wrecks of time … 

to stand with you - in days of joy and victory … 

the human story is now my story, says Jesus, 

so that my story can be your story … 

I stand with you, so you can stand with me … 

The prophet Isaiah promises a new day … a fresh beginning, a new name for everything …

Isaiah’s words, forged in the fires of defeat and sorrow … all has been lost … cities destroyed … families taken away … death at every turn … the Babylonian Captivity … when the enemy wins the day …

Nothing cheap about Isaiah’s words to the People … and by the power of the Spirit, these words are addressed to us, too … in the hour of our need, in the stress and strain of loss and sorrow … 

You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, 

and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

Our reading from the New Testament speaks of God’s gifts to humankind … gifts of the Spirit … all kinds of gifts, different and unique … for the common good …

The common good … the common wealth  … that which belongs to all of us, rich and poor alike … no matter who we are, or what our status in life may be.

Ahead of us, a long road …

But we’ll do it … and we’ll do it together …

God in our midst … 

The gifts of God in everyone’s life … gifts of organization, music, poetry and dance, engineering and research, practical gifts to make things work, gifts of art to help the soul sing a new song … gifts of praise and prayer … gifts to wield a hammer, and gifts to cook some food.

My heart is overwhelmed by the stories … harrowing stories … stories of loss and lament … stories of love … homes opened up … community shelters for people and for animals … and all the donations … mountains of clothing, food and water, household items, from things great to small … and all the hugs and kisses … and all the prayers.

We learn anew what every generation has to learn … and learn multiple times …  together we can manage anything … together, working for the common good … no matter who we are, or where we live … no matter the color of our skin … no matter how we pray … no matter our gender relationship … no matter our political party … the common good …

We’re all in this together …   

Everyone counts … everyone is important … everyone deserves the blessings of life.

It will be done …

Thy will be done …

On earth as it is in heaven.

Our Christian task is to help the world remember these things … to live them as well as we can …

Someone came by the office to make arrangements for a meeting and said, “It’s hard to be a receiver. We do so much when it comes to giving, but it’s hard to receive.”

We’re all givers, that’s for sure … we give to those we love, we give to strangers, we give to the church …

We’re all receivers, too … the fire fighters who come to our rescue, the police officers who protect us, the people who work at night to keep our utilities going … the nurse, the doctor, the social worker … the Amazon delivery person … the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker …

We all have gifts, and all the gifts are important …  

A gift given grows large … a gift received brings comfort.

In the gifts of God’s love, in the gifts of the Spirit, in the gifts we each and all possess, there is:

More than enough for the needs of the day, and the wild thoughts of the night …

There is:

Healing and hope.

Peace and prosperity.

Kindness and mercy.

Faith, family, and friends.

And the Tower still stands …

Amen and Amen!

3.26.23 "Suddenly, a Noise!" Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

Ezekiel 37.1-14; Romans 8.6-11

Whatever else can be said about the Christian Faith, this much is clear, at least to me:

The heart of the Christian Faith is hope … 

And hope means courage … the courage to face whatever - may come our way, however it shakes out for us … 

Life can be downright miserable … things go south in a heartbeat … we screw up badly, behave in the worst of ways … friends desert us, colleagues betray us … our car breaks down.

We all know the downside of life … we’ve been there … maybe we’re there right now, we’ll be there again … it’s just the way it is.

The Bible knows full well the crummy side of life … if it isn’t one thing, it’s another.

And so it shall be, to the end of the age …

But this much can be said … this much has to be said … there is hope, a focused, profound, hope, that transcends all other hopes … there is goodness at work in the universe … there is grace, there is mercy, there is love … from death to life, from bondage to freedom, from a valley of dry, dry, bones, to a new day rising.

Ezekiel knows hard times … he’s been with the people, in the long hike to Babylon … a trail of tears.

Let’s be honest … 

In the down side of life, we can lose our bearings … sadness overwhelms the soul … bitterness, resentment, about how things turn out, because sometimes, things turn out really crummy … 

And it’s not even our doing … the shifting sands of time and culture can throw us to the side of the road and leave us stranded … economic powers, political shifts, far beyond our control … time and tide wait for no man.

I keep thinking about the folks in Syria and Turkey … 50,000 dead and counting … so much lost … so much gone … it’ll take years to rebuild those cities and towns …  

The people in Ukraine - day in, day out, the threat of death … sorrow and fear at every turn of the corner … 

Ezekiel’s people in Babylon, lost … forlorn … broken:

Psalm 137 says it well …

By the rivers of Babylon— there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?

The Psalm ends with some of the bitterest words every uttered by any human being, anywhere … a scream of rage, hurt, revenge - against the Babylonians, for what they’ve done …

Some read Psalm 137, and ask, “Why is this even in the Bible?” 

This hideous outburst, dripping with bitterness … it’s in the Bible, because the Bible is all about the human journey, the human story, our story … hopes and setback, defeat and victory, finding a way through, and finding our way blocked, the good … the bad … and the ugly.

The Bible is thoroughly honest; the Bible doesn’t pull its punches, it’s doesn’t shy away from the wretched things of life  … 

And still, always and forever, the singular, beautiful, message of hope and courage … don’t be afraid, I am with you always, to the end … I will never leave you or forsake you … there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God, neither in this life, or the life to come, neither trial nor travail, neither heartache nor loss … 

With caution, with patience, and kindness, never scolding anyone for feeling bad … never wagging a finger at anyone who’s discouraged … or blame anyone, for being in the Valley of the Shadow of Death … 

Preachers and priests can scold … but not so the Bible.

Not so the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ.

God walks with the wounded.

God rests with the weary.

God takes the hand of the lonely.

God waits for those who cannot go another step.

God is present within all the bleak and dreary corners of life.

On that day in Babylon, a vision: God takes Ezekiel to a valley, bleak and dreary, full of dry, dry, bones …

Can these bones live again? asks God.

What can Ezekiel say?

I imagine his face, a face drawn down by fatigue, a soul broken and bleeding … 

With a shrug of the shoulders, Ezekiel mumbles, Only you know, LORD … only you know!

Is this a statement of faith?

Or resignation?

I’m not sure what it is … I suspect it’s a shred of faith, a remnant of former days … what was earlier formed in Ezekiel’s childhood, the liturgies of the Temple … the songs of Zion … at his mother’s knee, at his fathers’s side.

But now? … what’s left?

A shrug of the shoulders, a bit of a mumble, Only you know, LORD … only you know.

And God says, Let me show you what I can do.

And with that, suddenly, a noise … bones and sinews, flesh and blood, come into being … 

Creation, all over again … when God, like a child playing with dirt, took a fistful and shaped it into a little figure.

God took that little figure and held it close to God’s face, and with a puff of breath, God breathed life into that little lump of dirt … and that day, God said, 

I created a remarkable being of dirt and divinity … 

for the dirt, mortal … 

mortal to the core, 

subject to all the infirmities and limits of flesh and bone … 

but driven by divinity, by impossible dreams, 

incredible hope, 

infinite reach for the stars above 

and the courts of heaven beyond … 

this creature of dirt and divinity 

will carry great burdens, 

experience untold joys and great pleasure, 

and will learn how to weep … 

this creature of dirt and divinity will do horrible things, and great things … 

this creature of dirt and divinity will harm and hurt … and heal and help …

 it will pray, it will curse; 

it will build, it will destroy; 

it will celebrate the truth, and tell big lies … 

it will be great, it will be terrible … it will be beautiful, it will be frightening; 

it will be a human being, a creature of dirt and divinity.

Can the bones, the dry, dry, bones, live again?

It’s the question of the ages …

Will Syria and Turkey rebuild?

Will the war in Ukraine come to an end?

Will our sadness find a way through?

Will our dreams come true?

It may take years … it may take ages … maybe only in eternity … 

It’s all held together … in Christ our LORD.

the dirt and the divinity … 

the visible and the invisible … 

all of time, all of eternity … 

the smallest elements of creation, and the distant of stars … 

the next moment, and billions and billions and billions of light years …

As I was putting all of this together … thinking, reading, writing … pondering the stories of Lent, thinking about all of you … my own life, my family, my stories …

This came to mind:

You can do it.

I believe in you.

You have the ability to make your world.

You will recover.

You will find your way.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

In the name of the Mother, the Daughter, and their Divine Presence.

In the name of all that’s good and beautiful and true.

In the name of every child’s hope, every child’s dream, every child’s love …

Yes, Yes, and Yes!

Hallelujah and Amen!

10.9.22 "Truth & Lies" Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

Jeremiah 29.1, 4-9; 2 Timothy 2.8-15

A good friend cancelled his cable network … he said: “too much propaganda, everywhere!”

Another friend told me, “I’ve cut way back on my reading … too disturbing, too frightening.”

Someone else said, “I don’t wanna hear anymore about climate change, stolen elections, or whatever. I don’t know what to think.”

None of it’s easy … all of it demanding … confusion is real … who knows how to sort it all out!

Like looking in your cupboard late at night, when all you want is a bowl of cereal, and there isn’t any, so you decide to make a late-night run to your all-night grocery store, to get a box of cereal … and there you are, in the cereal aisle … hundreds of brands, hundreds of boxes … fruit or no fruit, sweet or not-so-sweet, gluten-free, organic, extra vitamins … and all you want is a late-night snack.

The times in which we live … floods of information … claims and counter-claims …

What’s the truth, what are the lies?

Is there anyway of sorting it out?

Important questions come our way every day … 

Big questions - what does it mean to be a Christian? What kind of nation shall we be? Who ya’ gonna vote for? Who do you believe? Who do you trust?

Is there anyway of working our way through it all?  

I believe there is … some basic elements help me … and maybe can help you, too … and for that, our reading this morning from Jeremiah.

The book of Jeremiah has always meant a great deal to me!

Jeremiah was my “first love” in seminary.

I was attracted to Jeremiah’s honesty - he doesn’t sugarcoat the situation … he tells the truth, and it’s a hard truth now and then.

Nor does he sugarcoat his own confusion and discouragement … Jeremiah has no pleasure in telling the truth … no pleasure in confronting those who tell the big lies … no pleasure at all … Jeremiah finally gets angry at God, angry for calling  him to these tasks … he’d rather be left alone, cancel his cable subscription, and he doesn’t wanna go to the cereal aisle anymore.

Jeremiah is honest to the core, serious about life … reluctantly, Jeremiah takes up the task to offer counsel to God’s people in a time of distress and dislocation.

It’s the Babylonian Captivity, the great upheaval … Judah has been defeated … crushed by the superior power of Babylon … farmers and merchants allowed to stay in the land, but leaders and teachers removed, bankers and politicians, kings and queens, taken to Babylon in chains … a brilliant strategy, to smash resistance, to keep an eye on the troublemakers … it was a terrible defeat for Judah.

Psalm 137 was written in those terrible days:

By the rivers of Babylon - there we sat down and there we wept, when we remembered Zion.

On the willows there we hung up our harps … how could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?

The Psalm ends with some of the most bitter words imaginable:

O daughter Babylon, you devastator. Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!

No wonder the captives in Babylon were ready to believe a lie!

“A lie?” you ask.

Yes, desperate times create spiritual and emotional vulnerability; people are ready to believe just about anything that offers some form of escape … and there are always folks ready and able to tell a lie or two, charlatans, flimflam artists, hungry politicians; irresponsible preachers.

The false prophets went to work, and said to the people - “It won’t be long; God will come to our rescue and take us all back home.” They all chanted, “Make Judah Great Again! Make Judah Great Again!”

God said to Jeremiah, “Confront the false prophets. Call them out for what they are. They are liars. They are misleading my people. There is no going back. My people have to face the truth; they’ll be in Babylon for awhile. But tell them: they can still make a life for themselves. I am with them, in their exile. I am with them in the hardest part of life. I have not abandoned my people. I will see them through the terror.

Jeremiah and the false prophets both speak of God … but who’s telling the truth?

If I support a woman’s right to choose, and someone else calls me a baby-killer, is there anyway of sorting it out? 

If I support the separation of church and state, and someone says God never intended it that way; God intended Christians to rule, how do we work our way through that? 

When I affirm marriage rites for gays and lesbians, and someone else calls them an abomination, and tells me that I’m a heretic, bound for hell, how do we figure it out? 

Here are some thoughts that help me sort things out.

Lies often revolve around God, country, and family … lies talk about tightening the borders, writing new laws, preserving morality, fighting sin … 

Meanwhile, truth crosses borders … truth says, God so loved the world … truth reminds us to be careful in our judgments and mindful of God’s tremendous grace. 

Lies are quick to pick up the stones, but it’s Jesus who points to something better, and sets the woman free.

Lies tell people to look to the past … truth looks to the future. Jesus says, If you put your hand to the plow, don’t look back.

Lies build on fear and suspicion; truth builds on trust and confidence.

Lies frequently have to do with wealth … who has it, who gets it, who keeps it … truth is generous in nature … truth shares rather than takes … truth is the cup of cold water, rather than the coin of betrayal.

Lies need enemies; truth finds allies and friends.

Lies offer “easy answers" … truth knows, life is complicated.

Lies rattle the saber … truth tells Peter to put his sword away.

Lies have a Golden Calf; truth has The Ten Commandments.

Lies need folks to live in a bubble - one issue, one focus, one purpose … truth welcomes diversity … truth is a like a diamond, with many facets … lies eliminate the need to think; truth demands that we think, and think hard. 

Lies multiply … today’s lie requires another lie tomorrow … truth is steady, truth is consistent. Lies promise the moon; truth reminds us, God never promises us a rose garden.

Why is this important?

Because we’re Christians - followers of Christ, the way, the truth, and the life … it is our task, our responsibility, to know the truth, defend the truth, speak the truth, do the truth. 

Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. 

Amen and Amen!