11.26.23 "Immeasurable!" Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Psalm 95.1-7a; Ephesians 1.15-23

It’s the end of the year, the last page of the calendar … Happy New Year!

And you’re wondering about my sanity?

Well, that’s a discussion for another day …

But it IS the end of the year … the church year, that is, the liturgical calendar … the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and the long season of Pentecost … 

We’ve gone through one whole year of the liturgical calendar … it began last year, November 27, 2022 … the first Sunday of Advent … today, it’s the last Sunday of the liturgical year.

Christ the King Sunday … the capstone of the year … 

Christ in the morning and Christ at night.

In all the in-between places, Christ is our light.

In this last year,  we walked the dusty roads of Palestine … set our hearts upon the hope of the Prophets, longing for the peace of God, celebrating Mary’s joy, and the power of love - that’s the season Advent… and then Christmas, the Birth of Jesus … angels sing, wise men journey … to lay their gifts before the child of God, Mary’s son … that’s Epiphany … and then Lent and then Easter, and the long season of Pentecost.

Today, Christ the King.

the Alpha and the Omega, 

the hope of the ages, 

the peace that passes all understanding … 

Christ, mild and meek …

Christ, strong and serious …

Christ blessing the children …

Christ overturning the tables …

That’s the story, morning glory.

And I’m sticking to the story.

We’re a part of that story … it’s our baptism, our calling, our purpose.

The moment of our conception, God was there.

Before our conception, before the foundation of the world, we were in the heart of God, forever and a day … we were in God’s mind, we were already a part of the work of Christ.

Call it Destiny, call it Providence, call it Love.

This is why worship is important … 

Here in person, or via YouTube … being together, to hear the story - and in that story, to know who we are, what must be done, and where’s we’re going.

We’re all a little forgetful. 

We are baptized but once … 

But faith requires constant attention!

Faith is like a garden - always in need of care - we pull the weeds, add nutrients to the soil, water it every few days, and guard it against pests and rot.

The cares of the world press in upon us.

The sins of the flesh distract.

Enormous pressure to make money, spend money, buy things, stack it up in the cupboards, stash it away in closets, rent storage space, all for our stuff, until there’s no more room for anything else …

Nothing wrong with our material life - as long as it’s held in check by the goodness of Christ, to save us from the madness of ill-advised consumption, mindless consumption, as if happiness were just “one purchase away.”

What good does it do to gain the whole world, asks Jesus, when the price of such gain is the loss of the soul.

This is precisely the struggle of Jesus in the wilderness!

Jesus went out into the wilderness, alone - to think it through, pray about it, figure it out, ask the deep questions … not only his questions, but our questions, too.

The Tempter came to him - offered the shortcuts, the easy roads, the promise of fame and fortune.

make some bread, feed the crowds … 

jump off a tall building and float to the earth.

“You can have it all,” said the Devil.

And the Devil was right! … 

Jesus could have it all, all the kingdoms of the world … but at what price? the death of his soul?

History is full of these tragic stories … the great captains of industry, cartel heads, drug kingpins … politicians driven by greed, religious leaders driven by the lust for power, and the power of lust …the stuff of great novels, the tragedies of history …  

Yes, we are material creatures! 

We eat and drink, and even make merry now and then.

But it has to be held in check, guarded, guided, grounded … because we’re also spiritual creatures, social creatures, creatures with heart and soul … we yearn for God … we search for love, peace, wholeness, meaning … we want more than a house full of things … we want to know who we are … we want to live a life worthwhile.

The very last commandment cut into the stone tablets given to Moses, the last word from God: You shall not covet!

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to  your neighbor.

It’s the last commandment of the Ten … God’s last word to Moses! The tenth commandment to protect the other nine.

God knows the power of material envy, I want, I need, I desire … it destroys the other nine commandments … 

The man who broke into Nancy Pelosi’s home and beat her husband with a hammer … the four high school students who looted the locker room at the Rose Bowl … and white collar crime galore - market manipulation, obscene salaries, outlandish perks … and on we go: wars of revenge and conquest … Hamas & Israel, Russia & Ukraine … the bloodshed in Sudan … the loss of rain forests and wetlands, climate change, carbon overload …  

From the back alleys of the poorest streets to the posh avenues of the gated communities, we see the deadly power of desire - the work of the Tempter, you can have it all, just bow down to me.

Here in this place: Christ the King … the way, the truth, and the life … it’s not easy to follow Christ, but it’s far easier than the hell of a consumer culture that robs us of life every day … a culture of desire pushing us downward - into fear and loathing … but it’s Christ who leads us upward - to faith and goodness.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, wounded multiple times in the Civil War, upon recovery, returned to the field. 

He said:

I owe the country three years service. It is a time when every man should stand by his guns. And I am not scared or hurt enough yet to be willing to face to the rear, when other men are marching to the front. . . . And I am so confident of the sincerity of my motives that I can trust my own life & the welfare of my family in the hands of Providence.

Great people … bow down to God, goodness, and grace … great people live for the sake of others, they march to the front … they are the heroes …

You are the heroes, the celebrities, the influencers … you march to the front, you do God, you love Christ.

Today, the end of the year … Christ the King Sunday … next week, Advent One!

Happy New Year.

Hallelujah and Amen.

11.19.23 "Therefore" Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Psalm 123; 1 Thessalonians 5.1-11

This coming week, we’ll celebrate Thanksgiving … 

I like Thanksgiving … it’s all about food … 

No last-minute gift shopping, no hurried wrapping of packages, and where’s that scotch tape, and those ribbons we been saving and repurposing for years?

I like Thanksgiving … it’s all about a Table … 

We gather together, in times and places, diverse and sometimes troubled … with abundance, and sometimes not … with joy, and sometimes with tears … 

Some are missing from the Table … loved ones and friends, whom the winds of time have swept away from our embrace, our love, our delight, our joy.

Yet, the winds of time blow us kisses and bring us favor and faith … new members of the family, new chapters of life, unexpected pleasures … goodness is just around the corner.

I like Thanksgiving … it’s all about the kitchen … potatoes peeled, carrots boiled, brown butter sauce made with care … oh yeah, and the turkey … we used to stuff ‘em, but health rules dictate stuffing to be baked separately, and that’s ok with me - one way or the other, I really don’t care, but I’ll take some oysters in mine, if you please … but however it’s done, a scoop of stuffing, and some gravy, and we’ve got some serious eating to do.

Therefore:

I like Thanksgiving … it’s the heart and soul of a human being … thanks - giving … as far as I can tell, great people are those who give thanks … who understand life to be a matter of grace … life given … from the hand of a generous and kindly God … at work in all things for good.

Thanksgiving humanizes us … keeps us in touch with the deep mysteries of life, the needs of others … there are always those in need … 

Mostly through no fault of their own … life takes a lot of hard turns …

war … disease … drought … famine … 

markets driven by greed and corruption … 

changing times … a speeding car …

people left behind … jobs lost, hope destroyed.

Therefore, 

I grow tired of those who complain about freeloaders and the undeserving poor … 

I grow tired of those who send their thoughts and prayers rather than a check.

I grow tired of those who speak of Jesus, and then spew out their hatred.

I grow tired of those who want to hang the Ten Commandments on class room walls, but can’t give a hungry kid a free lunch.

I grow tired of those who say “thanks” … without the giving …

Therefore:

I like Thanksgiving … a reminder of things wonderful and deep, glorious and sweet …  

Maybe farm families a hundred years ago had a better chance of understanding something of the wonder of it all … their carrots came from the ground, and not in a shiny plastic bag … their butter came from Bessey the Cow and not in neat little sticks … their turkey was raised on the farm with care, the ham came from a pig with a name … the potatoes were dug, the corn was harvested, the dough was kneaded and baked to hot crusty perfection … the pumpkins in the backyard were turned into pies supreme and dolloped with hand-whipped cream.

Paul the Apostle gives thanks … all the time, everywhere … not because life is easy for Paul - it isn’t … but at the center of life, in the midst of the pain and distress that comes to us all, there stands Christ … Christ the cornerstone of all faith, hope, and love.

Christ who continues to transform us … 

Therefore:

be who you are, children of the day, 

children of light … 

children of the great covenant of God!

I recently read a fine biography by Ronald C. White, my neighbor and friend at the Grove.

Ron’s book, On Great Fields, centers on General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the Civil War hero of Little Round Top at Gettysburg, and other major battles … 

Chamberlain was wounded several times, and even once, on the Petersburg battlefield, he was not expected to live, but he did … with pain and discomfort, recurring infections and the need for multiple surgeries, for the remaining 50 years of his life … 

before and after the war, a professor, 

a college president, a writer, 

public speaker, governor of Maine, 

a husband, a father, and always the visionary.

Things were not easy for him … there were plenty of disappointments, setbacks, losses, and frustrations … 

He had to haul himself back to Christ many a time.

Jog his memory: who am I, what am I? What’s important?

The important things: what he learned as a child, from his mother and father, and good preachers who proclaimed the gospel with intelligence and passion … teachers and professors and good friends who embodied the best of human virtues and a godly sense.

I don’t do very well with difficult times … how about you?

I’m vulnerable, for lots of reasons … I can dive into dark places, and lay awake at night, tossing and turning,  my stomach churning, as horrible thoughts race through my mind, much of it focused on imagined futures, and the present distress of our times.

Things were not easy for Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain … but his life is a lesson in learning.

He was a student of the classics … ancient Greece, the Roman Empire … he studied the Bible with care and discipline … he read widely and learned much …

When the Civil War broke out, he watched his students volunteer, and finally, he could no longer stay in the safety of the college, he volunteered for duty …

He was commissioned to lead the Maine 20th, a thousand-man regiment, but he declined to lead it, and asked rather for another man more ably trained in military matters … Chamberlain said, I have always been interested in military matters, but of those things I do not know, I know how to learn.

The Apostle Paul was a man who knew how to learn … 

I’m looking right now at people who know how to learn … Westminster is in a learning curve, and that’s a powerful good thing … I see people learning of Christ, learning the faith, learning how to love … learning after covid and all the changes that have come our way.

We know how to learn … 

Therefore, says Paul, encourage one another and build up each other.

We do it every Sunday … we make our trek to church … like ancient pilgrims on the road … travelers from afar … we gather together.

We worship God: we turn ourselves inside out … for a few profound moments, we’re focused on something other than ourselves: hymns and readings, prayers and sermons, smiles and hugs … we’ve done it before … we’ll do it again; yet every Sunday is new.

Just like Thanksgiving … turkey and mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing … we’ve had them before … we’ll have them again, but every time we sit at the Table, it’s new … 

Therefore, says T.S. Eliot:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

On this week of Thanksgiving, we’ll love one another, miss those who have gone, rejoice for the newly arrived … we will count our blessings, we will face the day, we will pray and pass the potatoes … we’ve done it before, we’ll do it again, and know it all, for the first time.

Therefore … Happy Thanksgiving.

Hallelujah and Amen!