August 18, 2013 - "God's Own Time"

Ecclesiastes 3.1-18; Galatians 4.4-6

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”

So begins the great novel, A Tale of Two Cities … by Charles Dickens … a story of the years leading up to the French Revolution, culminating in the Reign of Terror, where tens of thousands lost their lives to summary executions and to the guillotine … a story of sorrow and greatness … failure and noble sacrifice … 

The writer of Ecclesiastes says much the same thing … for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven … a time to be born, and a time to die … 

And in between those moments ...

Sorrow and greatness … 

Tragedy and glory … 

We do our worst, and we do our best …

We build a good world, and we tear it apart with war and greed … 

We are mercenary in spirit … and noble in character ...

We love one another, and we are careless with one another … 

We are faithless more often than not, and we are faithful when the chips are down …

Like it or not, we are sinner and saint … we are beast and we are angel … 

And it’s all mixed up together … 

There is time for everything … 

Wise is the woman who knows what time it is … and great is the man who understands himself … 

Wise is the woman who knows when to the praise the LORD and when to fall on her knees in repentance …

Great is the man who sings the glories of God and weeps the tears of a sinner … 

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

      a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A Christian honest and true understands both realities … to be happy in the LORD, and to grieve for the world …

To be happy in the LORD, for great things the LORD has done … and great is the name of the LORD … to worship the LORD with joy and gladness … all glory, laud and honor to the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

And to grieve for the world, and all its creatures … wise and good is the Christian who pays attention to the world and its tears … 

Wise is the Christians who cries for the whales and dolphins and the elephants and the lions … as humankind despoils the water and the air for its own greedy ends … 

A Christian who is “happy” all the time is no Christian at all, but only a clown … 

A preacher who preaches only joy is no preacher at all … but only a charlatan and a trickster …

Yet ...

A gospel full of sorrow is no gospel at all … because there is hope in God, and there is joy in Christ.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is both joy and sorrow … 

Joy in the LORD, for we are redeemed and being made new … and great sorrow, too, as we bear the cross of Christ … and face the realities of sin … 

There is happiness in Jesus the Christ, for we walk in his footsteps and carry his message of hope … and sorrow, too, as we grieve with him for the fate of Jerusalem which missed its opportunities for peace.

There is a time for everything … 

Wise is the woman and good is the man who knows what time it is …

Paul the Apostle understand times … the times of his life … his former life when he thought he knew everything … a time when he looked down on everyone else … a time of cruelty and pride … who’s in and who’s out … who’s right and who’s wrong … who’s been naughty and who’s been nice.

And Paul’s present life, that of an Apostle, late called, so to speak … for he knows Jesus, not in the flesh, as the other Apostles do, but only in the Spirit, on the Damascus Road, when his world came crashing down … and the times of his life were reset.

Paul knows what time it is … it is a time of grace.

In the fullness of time, Paul writes …

When the time was just right … the porridge neither too hot, nor too cold, but just right … 

And who could’ve know such things … but God’s time is God’s time … and when the times are right, God sends his son … not with splendor and glory, but with humility and commonness … born of a women, just like the rest of us … and under the law, as we all are … the laws of religion and and the laws of the state; physical laws of gravity and velocity and time … the laws are good, but they’re not good enough … the man who lives by law will never find the truth of life … the woman who lives only by dos and don’ts will live a narrow and unhappy life.

Laws are good, but not good enough … and Jesus comes to us, born under the law, to redeem us from the law, that we might know the spirit of the law, which is love … 

To learn the great truth of all law … the ultimate meaning of all things … the final purpose … to love one another as Jesus loves us … to love as God loves … to love all creatures, great small … the whale and the elephant, the bird above and worm beneath … and to love the strangest of all creatures, made of earth, wind and fire … flesh and spirit bound together by the hand of God … to love our sisters and our brothers - for those who claim to love God, but cannot, or will not, love another, live but a lie and abide in death.

What time is it?

Time for all kinds of things … things sad and terrible … things bright and good …

For us this morning, to lift our sights on high … to know more of Christ, to study his words and to ponder his life … to walk with him in the Land of Galilee … journey with him to Jerusalem … watch him cleanse the temple … stand before his cross on the day of agony, weep by his tomb, and stand in amazement in the Upper Room when he appears.

Like John the Baptist, as he put it, Christ must grow larger in our lives, and we can grow a little smaller, for no one is quite so silly as a man who thinks he’s the measure of all things … and no one is greater than the one who has made plenty of room for the love of Christ.

Amen and Amen!

May 5, 2013, "If It Is of God ..."

Isaiah 40.3-5; 2 Corinthians 3.4-6 

In one of the greatest confessions of reality ever written, Paul the Apostle,  says, Of ourselves and of our work, we are not competent to make any claims whatsoever …

Our competence is of God …

God has made it possible for us to be ministers, ministers of a new covenant …

Not of words written, but of the Spirit given … not by human decision or effort, but rather by the grace of God … 

By the Spirit, who gives life … 

In all of this, Paul does us an enormous favor … Paul shows us the way through the two most powerful temptations the Evil One brings our way … 

Two temptations that damage our soul, and can even destroy us ...

The first temptation is arrogance … spiritual arrogance … pride of place, seniority in the kingdom of God.

The Little Jack Horner Syndrome …

Little Jack Horner 

Sat in the corner,

Eating a Christmas pie;

He put in his thumb,

And pulled out a plum,

And said, “What a good boy am I.”

Paul does away with all such pretensions … of ourselves, we have no competence when it comes to the things of God … we can only be humble servants … doing the master’s bidding …available to God … with open hands awaiting our assignment, hearts open, waiting for the filling of the Spirit … disciples, one and all, waiting for our orders.

And all of that will come in various ways and times - our assignment is given, the Spirit fills our spirit, our marching orders are issued … such is the work of the Spirit … making us competent to be ministers … all of us … ministers of the new covenant, servants of the Most High God, friends of Jesus and friends with one another.

All of this is given to us, in due time, as needed … not of our own doing or competence, but of the Spirit of God.

 Here’s the key to Christian fellowship … we’re all in this together … we need one another … learn from one another … rely upon one another … the Spirit uses all of us to build the body of Christ … the fellowship of the church … no one of us has everything needed; we all have something needed, and when we share together in the household God, good things happen, because we enrich one another with the gifts of life the Spirit gives to each of us.

There can be no arrogance in God’s people, nary a thought of being better than anyone else … arrogance is deadly, it’s divisive, its disordering … no one is better than anyone else … besides, we cannot know the heart of the other, can we? … so we cannot judge the other … no one can say, 

I’m better.

I’m smarter.

I’m more spiritual.

I understand more of Christ.

I have a corner on the truth.

I’m closer to God.

I’m a better Christian than Joe or Jane.

Indeed, we may know a lot.

We may have tremendous experiences in the things of God.

Our lives can be exemplary.

But all of it is of God …

Of ourselves? 

We’re not competent in the things of God … it’s of the Spirit who we are, and what we do ... and of the Spirit, we have competence to be ministers of the new covenant. 

We can do all things … in Christ … not on our own, nor by our resolve or strength of character … but in Christ, and by Christ, by the Spirit … we are, one and all, ministers of the new covenant.

Herein Paul treats the second temptation - despair. If arrogance is the first temptation, despair is the second. If, in the first instance, we’re tempted to think too highly of ourselves, in the second, we debase ourselves and think ourselves unfit for the kingdom of God.

Despair about our spiritual state is the second great temptation … yes, sometimes our spiritual state is lousy.

Nothing new about that … tell the truth … be honest … our spiritual state is always marginal, fragmentary - our soul can be a tempest, and often is … a storm of dark clouds and harsh winds.

So the Evil One says to us: You see what a terrible person you are? You’re unfit for the kingdom of God. Why even bother showing up? Just go away; you’re no good, and you’ll never be any good.

Like Peter, after denying Jesus three times - Peter gives up and walks away; Peter returns to his nets and fish … overwhelmed by despair about his spiritual state.

Who am I to think that I could serve the LORD God Almighty?

That’s a good question, and Paul would approve. But it’s a question that demands a godly answer. 

Unless we hear the godly answer, we might well decide in our despair that have no place in the kingdom of God, that we have no right to be here … that God can’t use us because we’re so messed up.

But we DO have a place in the kingdom of God … all of us, each of us, everyone of us - we have a role to play in God’s mighty purpose, the new covenant, the reshaping of the world, to bring life where there’s death … hope where there has been too much defeat … peace where there is war and rumors of war … healing and health and goodness and mercy … 

All of us have a place in the kingdom of God ...

Because of the Spirit.

The Spirit gives us life …

The Spirit gives us competence …

The Spirit takes hold of our lives, and moves us along.

Like Saul on the Damascus Road …

Matthew at his toll booth …

Peter with his nets and fish …

The Spirit takes hold of our lives and moves us along …

Of ourselves, we’re not competent, yes, yes, yes … we must know that, lest arrogance take root in our soul … but of the Spirit, we have competence … of the Spirit, of God, and that we must know, too, lest despair take root in our soul.

And so the twin temptations of the Evil One are defeated … arrogance and despair.

Rabbi Simcha Bunim taught that every person should carry two pieces of paper, one in each pocket: in one pocket "For me the world was created." and in the other pocket, "I am but dust and ashes." 

When we have moments of self loathing take out the first; in moments of grandiosity the second. 

Our souls are poised between greatness and nothingness; in knowing both are we blessed [1765–1827; one of the main leaders of Hasidic Judaism in Poland].

All of this by the Spirit …

And how does the Spirit come to us?

How do we know it’s of God?

The Spirit comes to us in the strangest of ways sometimes …

The Spirit can be a small, insistent voice calling us beyond ourselves to that which we don’t even fully know … You can do it; yes, you can; you really, really can do it!

The Spirit can be a desire to strive for something greater than the profanity of the average day … 

The Spirit can give to us the courage to say “yes” to life in spite of all the junk we’ve experienced … around us, and within us.

The Spirit can reveal to us that we’ve hurt someone … and then the Spirit helps us to find the right words that might restore the relationship …

The Spirit can give us a love that enables us to move a little more easily with someone we might not otherwise like … to look with a little more care at someone in whom we might otherwise have no interest …

The Spirit can conquer our sloth, when we cease striving for what we know to be the aim of our life … don’t give up … stay the course … be patient and endurance

[thanks to Paul Tillich for his thoughts about how the Spirit comes to us].

A thousand different ways and means … the Spirit comes to us us … 

To give us life.

To the glory of God.

Amen and Amen!

March 21, 2010, "Downsizing"

Philippians 3:1-14

We’ve heard a lot over the last few years about downsizing.

10 surefire signs your company is going to downsize:

10. Company Softball Team is converted to a Chess Club.

9. Dr. Kevorkian is hired as an “Outplacement Coordinator”.

8.   Folks in Marketing are suddenly very friendly with the Personnel Manager.

7. The beer supplied by the Company at picnics has been replaced with Kool-Aid.

6. Weekly bake sales at Corporate Headquarters.

5. Company president now driving a Ford Escort.

4. Annual Company Holiday Bash moved from the Sheraton to the park across the street from the LAX In n Out.

3. Employees are charged for their paper clips.

2. Dental plan now consists of a Company supplied kit (string, pliers and 2 aspirin).

1. Your CEO has installed a dartboard in his office marked with all existing departments in the Company.

Downsizing is no laughing matter … millions of hard-working Americans have been laid off … I have friends in Michigan who can’t find work, because there are no jobs, and it’s been rough here in California, too.

Downsizing is no laughing matter.

Some might say: “Well, it has to be done, now and then. The economy needs this kind of periodic readjustment.”

Perhaps they’re right, but it’s no laughing matter.

Yet American families have found strange blessings in such times … learning to live more frugally does a body good … spending more time together in family activities … less entertainment and more reading … a whole lot less shopping and a lot more playtime with the children.

Downsizing is painful, but American are learning some new values!

Downsizing is how Paul the Apostle describes his journey into Christ!

Paul declares: There was a whole of stuff I loved and was proud of, but when I met Jesus Christ and “saw the light,” I began to shed a lot of stuff, and you know what? It was junk.

It weighed my soul down and made me proud in all the wrong kinds of ways.

I was proud of my ancestry and looked down my nose at others.

I was proud of my religious heritage and thought I was the only one who was right.

I was proud of my hard work and my success.

I was proud of who I was and I was on top of the heap!

Nobody could hold a candle to me.

I knew what was right, and I knew what was wrong.

And I let the world know it!

Translating this into 2010, Paul might write:

I am an American and I am powerful.

I am white and I’m proud of it.

I am Presbyterian and that’s the end of it!

My Daddy is a banker, and my Momma, a neurosurgeon.

I’m a graduate of Temple University, Phi Beta Capa, and a Rhodes Scholar.

I live in New York City and I’ve got a bank account that’ll curl your toes.

I live right and I invest right.

I’m really hard on folks who don’t measure up.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m better than most.

And most can’t hold a candle to me.

I’m top-drawer.

I say my prayers.

I’m top of the heap!

And then one day, on the Damascus Road, Jesus came to Paul and bathed him in a bright light … a light so bright, it blinded Paul and left him lying in the dust of the road.

For three long days, Paul couldn’t see a thing.

The man who claimed to see it all was as a blind as a bat.

The man who led others away in chains now had to be led about by the hand.

The man so confident and so full of himself lost it all in a blaze of light.

There is no smaller package in all the world than a man all wrapped up in himself!

Paul had no room for Christ.

And it took a crisis for Paul to see the truth.

What he valued in his former life had to be discarded in order to gain Jesus Christ!

Someone said to me recently, “You can have it all. But just not at the same time.”

Is that really true?

We can have it all, if we’re patient?

But we can’t have it all … even if it’s parceled out over time.

There isn’t enough time to have it all, and is that what life is all about anyway? Having it all.

All is big word, isn’t it?

Do we even want it all, when we think about?

A life of endless getting?

Grabbing?

Wanting?

Taking?

The one who dies with the most toys wins?

All over the Bible, the great exchange … our stuff, surrendered and handed over, in order to gain the goodness of God!

God asks Abram to leave all the usual suspects behind …

Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house.

Boom, boom, boom: country, family, zip code.

And then, says God,

Go to the land that I will show you.

I will give you many descendents.

I will bless you and make your name great.

God rebuilds Abram’s life from scratch!

A new country.

A new family.

A new zip code.

Abram couldn’t have it all.

It’s this or it’s that.

Stay where you are, and remain who you are!

Or leave where you and be transformed!

Jesus invited the fishermen to follow him.

They had to leave their father behind, they had to leave behind their boats, their nets; they had to leave behind a future in the family business.

They couldn’t have it all.

They couldn’t remain on the boats and follow Jesus at the same time.

It was one or the other.

Joshua says to the people:

Choose this day whom you will serve … the LORD your God, or the gods your ancestors served in earlier times.

It has to be this, or it has to be that.

You can’t have it all.

Choose today whom you will serve.

Jesus says:

No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one or love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth [Matthew 6:24].

Paul was headed in one direction.

But the LORD gave Paul an opportunity.

A blinding light.

To knock some sense into Paul’s head and heart.

To cut a few lines and set Paul adrift.

To be lost in order to be found.

Paul realized what every follower of Jesus learns one way or the other – we can’t have it all – it has to be one way or the other … it’s self, or it’s Christ, and to try for both leads only to dysfunction and confusion.

Paul realized that he was clinging to nonsense.

The stuff he prized wasn’t worth the effort.

Don’t get me wrong.

Paul was no heathen.

He was deeply religious, profoundly moral, and unflinchingly committed … he was a good guy, and we’d want him for our neighbor – the lawn would be mowed, his kids would be well-behaved, and he’d be a model citizen.

But on the Damascus Road, Paul saw through it all … it was getting in the way, it was bogging him down, it had no life to it.

He had to give it all up, start all over again, in order to gain Christ!

In the Season of Lent, we have a chance to ask some pretty deep questions of ourselves.

Lent is a crisis of sorts.

A momentary derailment.

The death of Jesus for the sins of the world.

Our sins … large and small.

Our sins … secret and public.

Our sins … personal and national.

Our sins … dark and greedy.

Our sins … vanity and shallowness.

Our sins … religious and political.

Our sins …

When we stand before the cross of Christ, it should throw us for a loop.

Throw us into a crisis.

Drive us deep, and drive us into another world.

Drive us into the arms of God!

Lent should give us pause.

What are we holding on to?

What are the elements of our pride and puffery?

By what standards do we measure our worth?

How do we look at our future?

What is God asking us to let go of, so that we can grasp the golden ring of faith?

Lent is never easy.

But, then, what is?

Things of substance are always a challenge.

The soul is tested; the soul is tried!

God puts serious questions to us because of God’s great love.

Lent is a time to think big and look at Christ on the cross.

Lent is a time to dig deep and look at the things we value.

Lent is a time of surrender.

To let go of some things.

In order to gain Christ.

The surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ our LORD!

Amen and Amen!

Passion - August 3, 2008

Romans 9:1-5

I like the Apostle Paul.

He’s my middle name.

I’ve often joked that my parents gave me the perfect name … Thomas Paul … Thomas the Doubter; Paul the Believer … and I’m somewhere in between: “LORD, I believe; help my unbelief.”

Believing always includes pieces of unbelief … and unbelief always flirts with believing … Thomas Paul … the Doubter, the Believer … for me, it’s a good combination … and I’ve always been grateful.

I’ve always been glad to share Paul’s name, and I’m glad to share in Paul’s vocation.

He’s a pastor …
He’s a missionary …
He’s a teacher …

Utterly humbled by his Damascus Road experience …

Paul is patient …
Paul is a man of Good News …
A preacher of grace … passionate about grace.

Paul is real … he frets and fusses like we all do … he gets angry, has regrets; he defends himself and then apologizes for being defensive; he’s at a loss for words, and he’s eloquent; he’s tender and he’s testy … in other words, just like you and me, he’s a sinner saved by grace.

I like Paul.

His credentials make him a voice worth listening to.
No armchair philosopher.
His faith is forged on the anvil of suffering.
Paul puts himself on the line again and again.
Paul knows the pain and humiliation of a Roman lash.
The filth of a prison in Philippi.
He’s been shipwrecked and robbed.
Beaten and belittled.
He’s been hungry and cold.

At one point, Paul asks, “Am I doing this for human approval?” If so, I must be nuts. But what I do I do for God [Galatians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:4].

Does Paul understanding everything there is to understand about the Gospel? … not at all, and he’d be the first to say so.
Should we take everything Paul writes with unquestioned literalness? … Paul would say like any good theologian – “Let’s talk about this. Let’s think deeply about Jesus. Let’s talk about grace.”

“I’m not the issue,” Paul would say.
“Jesus is the issue.”

Paul believes that God did something profound in Jesus …

For a moment, we have to put on our thinking caps … we have to remember that Paul is a Jew … when Paul talks about God, it’s the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob … the God who led the children of Israel out of slavery, through the wilderness to the Promised Land … the God of King David and the God of the Prophets … the God who sent His people into exile and then brought them home again …

Paul believes that the whole story was headed for the moment when Jesus was born … that all the hopes and fears of humankind are focused in that Bethlehem babe … Jesus of Nazareth, the man of sorrows.

Paul believes that Jesus is the fulcrum on which the whole world is balanced – Jew and Gentile, free and slave, male and female; past, present and future – the whole world, the universe …
In Jesus, God is at work, reconciling the world to Himself.
Doing for humankind what humankind could never do for itself … to shoulder the burden and pay the price … to lift up the weary and heal the sick … to give sight to the blind and set the oppressed free.

Paul’s letter to the Romans is often dense and difficult … Paul is writing to a community he’s never visited … but he knows a few of them … Paul hopes one day to visit Rome and then travel on to Spain.

Paul never stops thinking about the world.
Paul’s vision is large.
Paul cares about the spiritual wellbeing of people … because God loves the world … God’s grace and mercy are present and obvious everywhere … yet Paul sees the terrible confusion that fogs the mind and heart of humankind.
Paul is passionate about people.

Paul lives in the Roman Empire … he’s a Roman citizen … he’s no one’s fool … Paul has seen the world and he’s seen it all.

Roman says, “Caesar is lord” … Paul says, “Jesus is LORD.”
The world expects salvation from Rome … Paul says, “The hope of the world is Jesus.”
Folks called Caesar savior … Paul replies, “Jesus saves!”

The end of Paul’s life is not recorded … the last we hear of him, he’s in Rome, imprisoned … under house arrest of sorts, with a guard. He’s free to have visitors, free to write his letters …

Tradition is murky at this point … but everything suggests execution … this is what Rome did to anyone who challenged its authority, who created a disturbance, and Paul created lots of disturbance wherever he went.
Paul is passionate about truth.

Our reading today is a fascinating piece of a very large puzzle …

[read text …]

Putting it as simply as we can, folks wondered if something had gone terribly wrong with God’s plan of salvation.

If Jesus is from the Jews, by the Jews, for the Jews, then why have only a few Jews acknowledged Jesus as LORD and Savior?

And if something has gone wrong, could Paul be wrong?
And if Paul is wrong, is the gospel wrong?
Have we gotten it wrong?
Have we bet on the wrong horse?
Have we hung our hat on the wrong peg?

People were putting their lives on the line for the gospel … so folks wanted to know: Is Jesus the One?

Is Jesus is the long awaited Messiah?
If Jesus is the way, the truth and the life?
Is Jesus is everything you claim Him to be, Paul?
Then why have so few of His own welcomed Him?

Paul was caught between an expectation of how things might to work and how things were really working.

Who hasn’t been there a time or two? Caught between expectation and reality.

We’ve made our plans, figured it out, put pencil to paper – googled it and talked it out with friends and family, and everyone says, “Yup, that’s a good idea.”
Then life takes an unexpected turn – events unfold in their own chaotic way, and who would’ve guessed.
Monday morning quarterbacks tell us we should’ve done it differently.
We find ourselves saying, “If I knew then when I know now, I would have made different decisions. I would have gone in another direction.”

That’s the hard edge for Paul …
Paul is caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

Let’s step back for a moment … and think a bit more about Paul!

Paul is brilliant and well-trained.
He knows the story of Israel inside out and backwards.
He’s has spent a lifetime with God.

With a life-changing moment on the Damascus Road.

You know the story:
A blinding light hurls him into the dust of the road …
A voice addresses him, using his Jewish name, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

Who are you, LORD? Paul replies.
I’m not persecuting you.
I’m defending you.
I’m on your side.
I’m doing what’s right.
I’m living my faith.
And I’m persecuting you?

In a blinding moment of realization, Paul’s certainty is shaken to the core.
The world, as he knows it, is suddenly turned upside down.
Everything up for grabs.
The story Paul knew so well suddenly grows strange.
This is an unexpected twist.
A turn he didn’t see.

Who are you, LORD?

I am Jesus!

But you’re not the one!
We tried you in our courts and found you wanting.
The Roman Empire charged you with sedition and executed you.
You’re dead and buried.
We put you away.
We’re done with all of this.
And I’m doing what I can to stamp out the remnants of this distorted movement.

Who are you, LORD?
I am Jesus!

There are some sidebars to this story.

The voice asks, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
Ring any bells?
Of course … King Saul … Israel’s first king … from the tribe of Benjamin, just like Paul is from the tribe of Benjamin – like two folks discovering they’re both from Westchester.
Saul, Saul.

Echoes here of King Saul’s intent to kill David … the young shepherd boy, David, is hired to play the harp to soothe Saul’s depression, but in a fit of rage, Saul hurls a spear at David hoping to pin him to the wall.

David escapes … and the inevitable begins to unfold … David’s popularity eclipses that of Saul … time and again, Saul fails; David succeeds … Saul fusses and fumes and embarks upon a campaign to kill David, chasing David through the wilderness, persecuting David.

Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

In this remarkable moment on the Damascus Road, Paul sees his murderous rage for what is - misdirected and ill-conceived … it’s all wrong.
Paul suddenly sees through fog of his own convictions and traditions – Jesus is the LORD God of Israel.
Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus of the Cross … Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph … the LORD God of Israel.

The man on the road thought he knew so much, but now asks the simplest of questions: Who are you, LORD?

There’s a second element here … remember the call of Moses?
Moses the shepherd in Midian.
When off to the side, one day, Moses sees a burning bush … in the middle of nowhere.
I’d better check this out, thinks Moses.
And when he’s near to the bush, God calls him, Moses, Moses.

Twice named … just to be sure.
Saul, Saul, why do your persecute me?

When God commissions Moses to return to Egypt and lead the people to the Promised Land, Moses asks, Who are you, LORD? Do you have a name?

God replies, I Am Who I Am – Yahweh – I Am Who I Am.
When the people ask you, tell them “I Am has sent me.”

God’s name, I Am, Yahweh …
The sacred name … so sacred, Israel didn’t say it – they said, Adonai instead, and Adonai means LORD.

The LORD God Almighty … Yahweh … creator of the heavens and the earth … the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob … the God of the Prophets …

On the Damascus Road, Paul realizes that Jesus is the LORD God Almighty … that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is Jesus of Nazareth.

Who are you, LORD?
I am Jesus!

And with that, Jesus says to Paul, Now get up and get on your way; I’ve got work for you to do.

And work Paul did.
To tell the story … now with a twist.
To tell the old, old story, with a new chapter.

What God started in Abraham has come to pass in Jesus.
Yes, we killed Him.
But God the raised Him from the dead and crowned Him LORD of lords and King of kings.

This is not what I expected, says Paul.
But who can guess the mind of God?
The ways of love are beyond our grasp.

A story to tell to the nations … a story of goodness and hope … a story to set nations free and liberate the soul from superstition and idolatry … to break the chains of sin and sorrow.

But it wasn’t long before Paul realized that others didn’t see it as he did.
Have you ever been convinced of something, tried to explain it to someone else, only to have them scratch their head and say “huh?”

The question plagues Paul:
If I have seen this, why can’t my brothers and sisters see it?

Could I be wrong?
Again?
I was wrong before.
Might I be wrong again?

Our text today has to be read in the light of the whole book.
Paul remains clear – all things work together for good, all things for the glory of God and welfare of creation.

Though my heart breaks for my own people, I know that God’s love for them remains intact … there will be a day when the barriers come down.

Paul is passionate.
He would trade his salvation for the sake of his own people.

Like a parent at a child’s hospital bedside, “I’d take my child’s place if I could.”
“I would suffer in their stead.”

So says Paul about his own people.
If I could, I’d change places with them.

But Paul doesn’t lose his confidence in the goodness of God … Paul knows that it will end well.

All things work together for good.
God is faithful.
The covenant God made with Abraham and Sarah remains … if there’s a strange twist to the story, so be it.

Stories have a way of taking a strange twist.
But God’s love remains.
The hope is right.
The vision secure.

I like Paul.
He’s a man of passion.

He met Jesus and followed Him to the end of his days.

I’m glad to share Paul’s name.

And with all of you, to know the Damascus LORD, our LORD Jesus Christ.

Amen and Amen!

Identity - July 20, 2008

Romans 8:12-25

Remarkable time this past week … Week Two of interim training … incredible setting: the Presbyterian Conference Center at Lake Tahoe.

My first week – 4 years ago – Pittsburgh Theo. Seminary … great faculty then, and a great faculty this last week … including Charles Svendsen, interim at Brentwood - 70 of us, but only 16 in Week Two training.

We divided into small groups of five or six – our group jelled quickly, and we grew rather close to one another … four Presbyterians and a Lutheran … two pastors from northern California, one from Phoenix, one from Corpus Christi, Texas … and then me from LA.

Part of our prep time: prepare and give a message to the group – nothing more challenging than preaching to preachers – as the expression goes: a preacher will go a thousands mile to preach, but not walk across the street to hear another preacher.
And prepare and present an ILE – Integrated Learning Experience – a verbatim, a snapshot, of some portion of our ministry.
To share with the group a chunk of our life:
Here’s who I am.
Here’s I operate.
Here’s what I value.

Which is exactly what Interim Pastors seek to do with their congregations … this remarkable interim time … an in between time … valuable and vital … a time to put our life up for review:
Who are we?
How do we operate?
What do we value?

Several pastors suggested, rightly I believe, that all pastors are interims … no matter how long a pastor stays, it’s always between times … something came before; something comes afterward … I guess that’s true for life, isn’t it? – we’re all interims; we’re only here for the time being … between what was, and what shall be.

We can all stand to do interim work:
Who are we?
How do we operate?
What do we value?

Lily Tomlin said: “I've always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific” (Jane Wagner, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe).

Not a bad idea for each of us … to be specific:
Who are we?
How do we operate?
What do we value?

Christians ponder these questions with a special tool.
Investors use the Wall Street Journal.
Sports fans read Sports Illustrated.
News buffs read the New York Times.
Christians use the Bible.
To get a handle on things … to get specific:
Who are we?
How do we operate?
What do we value?

Take a look at our Bible Text for the day – Romans 8:12-25 … Paul’s letter to the Roman church … and not a church as we might think … likely 30 or 40 house churches scattered throughout the city of Rome …

[read text]

The church in the city of Rome – a cosmopolitan church in the middle of a vast city.
Every nationality, tongue and creed – every religious expression imaginable - from the sublime to the hideous … rich and poor, slave and free – the powerful and the oppressed … all roads lead to Rome.
As Rome determined, so went the Mediterranean world … and the church in the midst of this mixing bowl …

Not a whole lot different than our time and place.

Think of it … Los Angeles … a world-class city … a trend-setter … our movies touch the world … every imaginable religious expression – from the sublime to the hideous … super-rich and profoundly poor … a destination city … a dreamland for millions of people around the world … Hollywood … Universal City … the Academy Awards and the Beach Boys … I wish they all could be California girls.

So here we are …

In this mixing bowl … Covenant Presbyterian Church – Covenant on the Corner.

Who are we?
How do we operate?
What do we value?

The first point Paul makes: we’re God’s people.
That’s the universal piece of the puzzle – the biggest picture … we’re God’s people … we share a common identity with 25 folks singing hymns beneath a palm frond roof in Haiti … or 10,000 souls gathered at a Chicago Megachurch using the latest technology … and everything in between … we’re all God’s people, and Jesus is our LORD.

Here’s where Paul introduces a fascinating idea … we’re adopted …

We were once a child of the streets … lost and frightened … and Abba God, our Father in Heaven, creates a family … Jesus is the first born of the clan …
Brothers and sisters added every day.
For reasons known but to God, we’re the ones, here and now, to worship the LORD, to engage in prayer – to be servants of the Most High God.

It’s a slow process … one-by-one … a little here, and a little there …

Like cooking chili … low heat, stir it now and then … give it a taste … a little more chili powder; a couple more hours … now add the beans

It’s a slow process … starting with Abraham and Sarah … right down to this very moment.
God adopts us …

Once I was not, now I am.
Once I was blind, but now I see.
Once I was lost, but now I’m found.

One of the great anchor passages of the Bible – from 1 Peter 2 … Morrey’s favorite …

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, _ in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.

Now we cry Abba, Father.
Abba … not just a music group.

It has the feel of “Dad” to it …
My children call me Dad.
I love them … they love me.
We’re close … we enjoy being together.
We’re a family.

When we come into the family of God … something good happens; we get an elder brother who fights for us … who stands up for us … who carries a cross for us.
And we get a Father.
We get a Dad … Abba … our Father who art in heaven … hallowed be your name.
And our Mother – the Holy Spirit and the Church.
And sisters and brothers across the world.

Suddenly, we have a family …
A story …
An identity …

And a future!

Heirs of the family fortune, says Paul.
Joint heirs with Christ.

What belongs to Jesus belongs to us, too.
What God gives to the Son, God gives to the family.

When we stand by a beloved’s grave, when we weep bitterly in the valley of the shadow of death, the Spirit of God speaks tenderly to us … your beloved is with Christ and all is well … what God gives to the Son, God gives to the family.

But with the glory goes the grunt work …
Take up your cross and follow me, says Jesus.
Carry the burden of justice.
Hold high the flame of faith, hope and love.
Engage the powers.
Battle the giants.
Just like Jesus.

And just like Jesus, the giants are tough and dangerous.
Countless times, Jesus warns the disciples:
They will seek to extinguish the light … they will intimidate you and try to buy you off … they will threaten and try to seduce … they want your silence; they want your blessing, but they don’t want the word of God.

I think of Billy Graham … a giant of man … a man of Christ; a servant of God.
In his later-years of reflection, Dr. Graham acknowledges that he got too cozy with the powers that be – powers that wanted to use him for their own special interests, gain and greed.
Partisan politics and narrow religion.
Now I believe that religion and politics belong together, but only at a distance … too close, and the picture grows fuzzy … and dangerous.
Billy Graham enjoyed the privilege and prestige that comes with power … but it’s pleasure lasted but for a time … it wasn’t long before Billy Graham found himself embroiled and embattled, saying things he didn’t mean.
Only the grace of God enabled Mr. Graham to extricate himself from the tentacles pulling him under the waves … the grace of God enabled him to reclaim his identity … a preacher of the gospel … a friend to all, a pawn of no earthly power … just a servant of Jesus Christ.

When we sign on with Jesus, we sign on with His program, and it isn’t always easy:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Paul speaks of suffering.
If we were Christians in Latin America or parts of Asia or Africa, we’d know the suffering of an underground church … a church persecuted … the threat of death and imprisonment for the name of Jesus.

But even here, from sea to shining sea, we have our own kind of suffering:

We stand with the poor and defend their cause.
We uphold the rights of the excluded and the forgotten.
We welcome everyone who wants to know God.
We care about the environment.
We pray for peace.
We seek justice.
We walk a picket line with LAX hotel workers.
We read the newspaper with the eyes of Jesus.
We hear the cry of a single mom trying to raise three children on a minimum-wage salary.
We weep with the family who’s just lost a daughter in Iraq, or a son in Afghanistan.

The world doesn’t come after us with guns or machetes.

The world comes after us with doodads and gimmicks.
Promises it can never deliver.
Frightening us endlessly until we’re dizzy from all of it.
The world:
Works us to the bone.
Entertains us when we’re bored.
Leave us too weary to worship … too lethargic to love … too frightened to be faithful …

That’s the world for ya’ … it’s always been the same … for Paul in the first century, or you and me today … it’s always a challenge to take up the cross and follow Jesus … but oh the glory, the goodness, the joy and the peace …. I wouldn’t have it any other way, and I know that you wouldn’t either … following Jesus is the best thing we’ve got!

I like how Paul ends the passage … we’re folks who wait with patience … we know how it’s going to end, and we work toward that day one deed at a time … every prayer, every kindly thought … every time we catch ourselves and choose the high road … every good intention … every time we worship and gather together for Bible study, or plan a mission trip, eat together; enjoy one another’s company … we make this a better world.
We wait … with patience.

When it will work out?
When will peace come?
When will we cease killing one another?
When will hatred pass away?
When will God’s kingdom come?
And God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven?

It’s not easy following Jesus.
But then it’s a whole easier than being lost.

It’s not easy following Jesus.
But it’s a whole lot easier than being homeless in the universe.

It’s not easy following Jesus.
But it’s a whole lot easier than being all alone.

So we labor on.
We pray.
We love.

We rejoice in our LORD and Savior.
We give thanks for grace and mercy.
We forgive and are forgiven.

We are the people of God, here and now – in this amazing city called Los Angeles.
We’re Covenant on the Corner.
We follow Jesus.
And we know how it’s going to end, and it’s going to end well.

That’s who we are.
That’s how we live.
That’s what we value … Jesus my LORD. Amen!