"Every Time We Open Our Doors" - August 28, 2106, First Congregational Church of Los Angeles

Matthew 11.28-30

Every time …

Every time we open our doors,

Something good happens … 

Every time we open our doors,

The world - a little bit better … 

The community around us … the city of Los Angeles … the nation and the world … 

Sound preaching.

Vibrant music.

A building, to lift the spirit and inspire our love … our love of God, and our love of the world.

For God so loves the world, the Bible says.

The whole wide world … all its creatures, great and small.

All its forms, and every shape:

From the snows of Mt. Everest to the evergreens of Oregon.

From the Salton Sea to the Bearing Straits.

You and me, brother.

You and me, sister.

And don’t forget:

The tadpole and the panda bear … 

The polar bear and the penguin.

The honey bee and the hummingbird …

The flowers of the field and the fish of the sea.

We’re all in this together … we belong to one another … a vast network of life … 

When I think of First Church, special words come to mind: big words, powerful words … words like purpose, mission, opportunity, responsibility … 

Words like:

Grace, mercy and peace.

Faith, hope and love.

Our banners out front … progressive, joyful, inclusive, creative …

All summed up in the highest of ideals - to be the church of Jesus Christ … the church consecrated … made new every day … by the power of the Holy Spirit … 

To be of God, so thoroughly, we can be of this world comfortably … to be of Christ, so completely, we can be of one another lovingly.

The holy fellowship of faith … 

At the very center of it all - one big question …

What is God like? 

It’s the only question worth our time as those who gather in places like this … it’s the central question, upon which all else depends … 

And it’s not easy to answer … 

Look at Christianity around the world and down the street, and you’ll find hundreds of answers, thousands of answers … a smorgasbord of answers … not to mention all the other religions and expressions of faith found in every land across the vast expanse of this good earth.

Can they all be right?

Are some of them wrong?

Right or wrong, or somewhere in between … it’s up to us to answer the question for ourselves … in this place and in this time … right here, right now … “What is God like?”

This is what churches do … for good or for ill … and sometimes it’s for ill … churches don’t always end up in good places … sometimes the answer to the question about the character of God leads to terrible places with tragic consequences.

The churches of Germany that signed on with National Socialism and Herr Hitler made horrible and hideous mistakes …  

For centuries, the Western Church thought slavery was a part of God’s natural order, that women, naturally weak and unstable, had no place other than in the home, that the landed gentry were God’s anointed, entitled to their elevated status … kings and queens ruled by divine right … there is heaven for people who toe the line, and hell for those who don’t.

The church doesn’t always end up in good places … but fear not, say the angels to us … 

Listen, pay attention, consider this and consider that …

Weigh everything against Christ ... always the Christ, from cradle to cross, from cross to resurrection  …

Jesus asked the disciples: What are folks saying about me? That’s the listening task - what do others say of God?

And when the disciples offered what they were hearing, Jesus then asks, What do YOU say about me? 

That’s our central task … here and now, the task of the church … someone else’s answer won’t do; it has to be our answer, our commitment, our decision.

Which reminds me … if you ask a Roman Catholic a question, they’re likely to answer, “Well, the Pope says….”

If you ask a Baptist, they might answer, “Well, the Bible says….”

If you ask a Congregationalist, they might say, “Well, in my opinion….”

Tradition, Scripture and “my opinion” … it’s all three … working together,  to shape our faith, ground our lives, empower our ethics, and point us, beyond ourselves, to the larger realms of love and peace.

What is God like?

Here’s some of my answer … is it the only answer, the right answer?

I’ve been working at it for a long time … it began in my childhood … sitting in church, going to Sunday School, laying in bed at night … a deep and abiding sense of God … never frightening, always there … a good and kindly presence.

Over the years of ministry … the coal fields of West Virginia, the rail yards of Altoona, the corporate offices of Pittsburgh, the lumber trade of northern Wisconsin, the Oil Patch of Oklahoma, the Auto Industry of Detroit, and now the sunshine of California … 

I’ve done my homework; I’ve had good teachers … yet, the question remains: how much do I know? 

I know enough to know how little I know.

But I cannot evade the question: What is God like? 

None of us can, and none of us should … and to remember, that every answer given is a provisional answer … I answered this question 50 years ago … and 30 years ago … and I’m trying to answer it right now … and it’s all slightly different … I’ve grown, I’ve learned, backtracked and turned, and moved ahead a wee bit I hope … a journey that never ends, and should I live another ten years, my answers will be different even then …

Here and now, in this good place, my answer, for what it’s worth, goes something like this:

God is good and gracious … bright and beautiful … big enough to hold the world in her hands, strong enough to take up the sins of the world … 

Tiny enough to fit into Mary’s womb, small enough to fit into Bethlehem’s cradle … just right to hang on a Roman Cross and then be tucked into a borrowed tomb … 

And best of all, sized just right to fit my heart … and I would dare say, sized just right to fit your heart, too.

When Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan, the Spirit came upon him in the form of a dove … not a Roman Eagle of power, but a dove - the dove released by Noah, the dove that returned to the ark, with an olive leaf in its beak, to let Noah know that the worst of it was over … a new day dawning … creation anew … a world born, fresh from the flood.

When Jesus stepped out of the Jordan, a voice from heaven, This is my beloved son, listen to him.

And when I listen, this is what I hear … Come unto me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

This is God … God with us … the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God of Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel … the God of Exodus and Sinai … a pillar of cloud by day to provide shade from the burning sun; a pillar of fire by night to bring warmth to weary bones … and all along the way, water from a rock, and manna in the morning … the long journey, the long haul … from death to life, from darkness to light, from bondage to freedom … 

God, the Good Shepherd … God, the open door … God, the living water … the bread of life … the light of the world … the love that makes the world go round …

First Congregational Church, in a great city, be big … big-minded, big-hearted … big in faith and big in kindness …

Big like our city … big like God … big like love … 

And keep the doors open … wide open to all the world … and there’ll always be enough love left for even more … 

And in all of it, God … God in the morning, God in the evening and God all day long … the Great God Almighty who is everlasting, the fount of life, and the hope of the world.

Dear Friends … 

What a joy it’s been for me to walk and talk with you in the journey of faith … side by side with our pastors, Scott and Laura … our remarkable musicians, Jonathan and Christoph, and Stephen and our amazing singers … a staff second to none … Deacons and Trustees who know what they’re doing … a joyous Women’s Association … and all of you, talented and visionary … daring to walk through these doors, to keep them open to the world … to be sure that good things happen.

I’ll be on the road in September, but come October, I’ll be in the Eggebeen Pew, just over there, with Donna and our family … and don’t forget it, that’s the Eggebeen Pew!

I’ll continue doing weddings here … hanging around … because, as they say, old ministers never retire, they just misplace their sermon notes … 

And with prayer and love, I’ll encourage you, to keep on keepin’ on … to be the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, with doors wide open.

Because every time we open our doors, something good happens!

Pause a beat or two as musicians take their place …

And, now, if I may …

A gift to the church …

From my heart to yours …

Rainbows … bluebirds … and a most wonderful world …

October 7, 2012, "Forgive Us Our Debts"

Psalm 51 & Matthew 6.1-15

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

On every page of the Bible, we see the power of forgiveness … the grace of God in the midst of human folly and tragedy … we fall of a cliff, and God comes to our rescue.

Adam and Eve pluck the fruit, plunge the world into spiritual calamity … Adam and Eve have to leave the Garden for a strange new world; there is no going back; they can only forge ahead.

Before they leave the Garden, God becomes a tailor … 

The fig leaves didn’t work … no human device, or effort, can cover over the sadness of sin … we ourselves cannot make up for the deficit of disobedience … this alone belongs to God.

Why forgiveness?

Forgiveness allows every one to get up and get going in the right direction. Forgiveness breaks the shackles of the past so we can set our sights on the future.

Forgiveness begins with God … God is the source of forgiveness.

Because all sin - whatever it is - is sin against God.

The Psalmist writes: Against you, you alone, have I sinned,

      and done what is evil in your sight.

Sin against a human being, we sin against God! 

Sin against God’s creation, we sin against God.

All sin is against God.

Only God can forgive!

God has to forgive!

What other choice does God have?

Destroy the world?

God tried that once upon a time - it would have worked - if God hadn’t saved Noah and his family … there was something in Noah that caught God’s eye, and God, “in a moment of weakness,” decided to save Noah and his family from the flood.

But it was too late!

Noah and his family carried within them the seed of sin.

From the moment Noah and his family left the ark, sin picked up where it had left off … and it only grew worse.

If God had destroyed all of humanity, what then?

We wouldn’t be here.

And God would have to live with the memory that sin was greater than God … that God couldn’t do anything about sin … that all was truly lost.

It was God who learned the big lesson during the flood … I have to forgive them … I have no choice … in order to get on with the work of creation … I have to forgive them.

God was willing to stick with it; make the best of it … I am greater than sin … with the power of forgiveness, I will make it possible for humankind to survive … and more than survive … to have life, life abundant.

I have no choice, says God.

Whatever the price.

I’ll pay it.

Whatever it takes.

I’ll do it.

Jesus reminds us that we have no choice either.

Forgive us our debts AS we forgive our debtors.

If not forgiveness, then what?

Hate and fume?

Fret and fuss?

Rehearse the crimes committed against us?

Remember and remember again what was said to us?

Stay in the trenches of memory?

Go nowhere!

Stuck in the mud.

If we want to get on with our life, we have no choice; we have to forgive!

Forgive as God forgives … 

Did Adam and Eve ask to be forgiven?

No!

The Prodigal Son on his way home rehearses his confession, but the Waiting Father hushes the son and calls for a party instead … the Father knew that forgiveness begins in his own heart rather than in the words of the son.

Our words never prompt God’s forgiveness; it’s the nature of God to forgive … the love of God to forgive … God is the God of forgiveness.

“God’s forgiveness is always will be the last word.”

But let us always remember:

Forgiveness is costly!

Remember the clothing God made for Adam and Eve?

From animal skins.

The first sacrifice … life given for life!

The whole Book of Leviticus … two realities:

1. There is forgiveness.
2. It’s costly.

The writer to the Hebrews puts it this way: Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

Thanks to Jesus Christ, you who were once so from away have been brought near the blood of Christ.

Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

Is it easy for God?

God says to us: It’s a price worth paying.

I will go to the cross for them … and with my blood, the world will be cleansed.

When Jesus asks us to take up our cross and follow him, he’s asking us to participate in the power of cleansing the world … whatever it takes, to undo the damages of sin and set the world right.

At the end of our days … we lay our head down for the last time, we will say with God, It wasn’t easy, but the price was worth it. 

We work at it.

We pray about it.

We cry about it.

It happens … the Holy Spirit comes to us, prays within us with mighty groans

 … minds transformed … the impossible becomes possible.

Time and again, I’ve watched people wrestle with forgiveness … and wrestling it is … to shed the shackles of time and memory … it begins with the raw words: I forgive … and say the person’s name … and if the name isn’t known, then only the memory … forgive the memory … 

Saying the name and the words, I forgive, starts something rolling … a locked door has to be unlocked, and then we begin to walk into the next room … a pulled shade has to be pulled up, and then the light fills the room … 

There is power in the words … I forgive!

And now we have to be careful … I’ve heard folks say, I forgive you, and those words dripped with spiritual pride … it’s not a matter of forgiving someone … it’s a matter of being a person of forgiveness … our very nature, transformed and transforming by the love of Christ, becomes a godly nature, like unto God, and we begin to forgive, not because the other person asks for it, but rather because it’s our nature to forgive!

Don’t be conformed to this world, writes Paul the Apostle, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds … 

Forgiveness begins with the words in our inner life … there may be other other steps to be taken; outward steps … a phone call, a card, maybe a visit … who knows … take a chance … it doesn’t always work, but it’s up to us to do what’s right … and leave the rest to God.

There’s more here to consider … we’ll look further at forgiveness in the next couple of weeks.

And always remember:

God helps us along the way … because God is the God of forgiveness!

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Amen … and Amen!

October 30, 2011 - "And Why?"

John 3.16

Today, Consecration Sunday … to put before the LORD a financial promise for 2012.

Today is also Reformation Sunday … when we remember the work of the Reformers - Luther in Germany, and the Swiss Reformers, Calvin in Geneva and Zwingli in Zurich … from Calvin comes theological currents in which we still swim today - the sovereignty of God, the covenant, a high regard for science and the arts, and a just society.

From Calvin’s Geneva to Scotland’s John Knox … and from Scotland through the British Isles … and from the British Isles, to the New World … 

Today, Reformation Sunday … we celebrate the Reformed/Presbyterian Tradition … just the other day, off of El Segundo, to the east of Hawthorne Blvd., a Hungarian Reformed Church … 

Churches in Europe that adhered to the vision of John Calvin came to be called Reformed … and they came to the States here - German Reformed, French Reformed, Dutch Reformed, and Hungarian Reformed.

From those churches, here and in Europe, missionaries spread out across the globe … that’s why we find Presbyterian Churches all over the world … Presbyterians are never content to simply enjoy God; it is our spiritual DNA to share God … to move into the world, build churches, hospitals and schools - spread the gospel … to make this a better world.

In the British Isles, the Reformed Churches came to be called Presbyterian - because of our form of government - we are governed by Presbyters - from a Greek word that means “elder” - an older one, literally, and figuratively, one charged with the task of oversight, caring for the community of faith.

I’m a teaching elder … Ann Marie is a ruling elder … and together, we form the Board of Elders - responsible for the spiritual and material welfare of Calvary Presbyterian Church, Calvary on the Boulevard.

A part of our care for the welfare of Calvary is the teaching of stewardship - to manage the affairs of our lives, to the honor and glory of God, in such a way, that we can be good and faithful givers.

Two weeks ago, we turned our attention to the question, “To Whom do we give?” 

Last week, the question, “How much?”

And today’s question, “Why?”

Why do we give?

There are several good answers.

Number one, we give because God gives … created in the image of God, it’s our nature to give.

We give to our parents.

We give to our children and grandchildren.

We give to worthy causes and we give to the glory of God.

We are, by nature, givers.

Sure, there can be selfish streak in all of us, but our deepest nature, our truest character - we are givers, because we are created in the image of God.

Number two, we give to support the work of Christ through the local church, and through the local church, to the church around the world.

Let me underscore something very important - the efficiency of the church - dollars given are carefully used and guarded for the work of Christ.

The church is primarily volunteers … and even at national headquarters, and with our missionaries, no one is making a big salary, no one gets rich with our money.

Monies given to the church are monies well-given … and because our overhead is small, better than 90% of our monies go for the actual work of mission. That’s about as high as it gets, and better than most charities. If we want to fund a cause that uses money well, there is no better cause than the church of Jesus Christ.

When we pay our per capita, we’re underwriting the administrative costs of the church - with per capita, we pay for paper clips and pencils.

So that our mission money all goes to mission.

The church is a very efficient steward of our monies.

Number Three - we give to free ourselves from the power of money.

Money’s a big deal - always has been, and will remain so until the end of the age.

Money can take us by surprise, and before we know it, money takes center stage … like the Bible says, it’s the LOVE of money that’s the root of all evil … and if we’re not careful, we lose control of our money, and our money gains control of us.

Every time we give, we declare our freedom from the power of money.

Every time we give, we celebrate our trust in God - that God will provide … like seed scattered in good soil, an abundant harvest is promised.

Giving declares our freedom from the power of money.

At most, God asks only for the Tithe … only in the rarest instances does God ask for more.

Jesus asks the wealthy young man to sell everything, give the proceeds to the poor, and then follow him. Such a radical demand is the exception, not the rule.

Yet for all us, God invites us to be good stewards.

Paul says, set aside a reasonable amount every week … the tithe can be our guide, the half-tithe our goal … whatever we do, choose a percentage, and then put pencil to paper, and calculate the amount.

God ask a few important things, one of which is faithful giving of time, talent and treasure.

We can do it.

It’s in our nature to give.

All we need sometimes is a gentle reminder … or maybe a firm reminder - giving cleanses the soul and frees the mind … a person who gives is healthier, happier and stronger.

Good giving is good living.

Amen and Amen!