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!

1.12.25 "Wind and Fire" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Jeremiah 8.20 - 9.1; 1 Corinthians 13

This past week, a good friend of mine said, “I had a sermon ready to go, but I’ve decided to scrap it and write something appropriate to the fires,” and then he added, “Tom, what are you going to do?”

Music interlude … 

“There is a balm in Gilead” says the gospel song … 

… a balm in Gilead

To make the wounded whole

There is a balm in Gilead

To heal the wounded soul

Music ends …

The prophet Jeremiah wrote:

“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored? 

O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!

Music interlude … 

The first note of the moment: it’s ok to be sad.

When the heart is broken,

when life is lost,

when dreams are shattered,

in the dark night of the soul.

We’re sad …

Jesus weeps for the city of Jerusalem … he weeps at the tomb of his friend Lazarus … Jesus feels deeply the burdens of life, the sorrows of the day …

Some years back, I was involved in a nasty auto accident … I was t-boned, the car rolled several times … I remember three thoughts:my first, “Oh, I’m gonna get hit.” The second: “I’m rolling.” The third: “I’m glad I have my seatbelt on.”

I went to see my doctor afterward, for bruising … and such … for a check up … he asked how I was doing. I said, “I’m kinda emotional.”

“You’ll be that way for awhile,” the doctor said … “not only was your body shocked, so was your mind. Your emotions are much closer to the surface now.”

In crisis and turmoil, our emotions move closer to the surface … tears come more easily … out of nowhere, like a rogue wave.

Bewilderment, anxiety, fear, and anger, confusion … it’s all there, rolling around inside of us, like a pair of dice thrown onto a board game … today, it’s fear, tomorrow, it’s anger … and other feelings, too - love, joy, and gratitude … but for now, these days, what we feel is what we feel … however roll the dice.

It’s ok to be sad … 

Second thought: this is not a punishment from God.

I’ll never forget what some preachers said about New Orleans when that great city was inundated by Hurricane Katrina …

They said, it was God’s punishment - punishment for a city and its sins … they threw in abortion and homosexuality, and all the things they fear and hate …  

We like to chalk things up to something … if there’s no clear reason, we’re likely to create one …

When Jesus encounters a blind man, the first question asked by his disciples, Who sinned? This man or his parents?

Jesus makes it clear: no one sinned … but here’s a chance to do something good … Jesus heals the man …

A chance to do something good … no matter what, there’s always a chance to do something good …

As for the reasons … are there any?

Sure, we build cities … and they can burn … the Great Fire of London, 1666 … Mrs. O’Leary’s cow and the Chicago fire of 1871 … the San Francisco fire after the earthquake, 1906 … the Maui wildfires of 2023 … most recently, the fires of Manilla … natural calamities and war … accident and madness … carelessness and greed.

Some suggest climate change plays a roll … how we interact with the environment is always a question … and these days, more urgent than ever.

Is there someone to blame?

The Genesis story … God pays a visit, and asks, “What happened?” … Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the snake, and the snake crawls away happy with a good day’s work. 

The wedge of blame - driven into the human story.

Truth is one thing … blame is another.

Will we learn from this? 

Of course we will!

Will we make corrections?

Certainly!

Will we recover?

Absolutely … but it’ll take time … lots of time … frustrating time, and all along the way, plenty of tears … there will be setbacks, delays, mountains of paperwork, endless computer time.

Things will never be the same … but something new will take its place.

Most importantly, it’s chance to do something good for one another … to see those little moments that can make a big difference.

The first rule of doing good??? … listen … we will listen to one another for a long time to come; stories of loss need to be told, again and again … there is healing for the soul when we tell our stories … we help others when we listen to their stories.

Third point: we know what we’ve always known - we’re fragile creatures … things are fragile … life is fragile … nothing is absolutely safe … moments like this give us pause …  

Be mindful of the scammers …

Folks eager to play upon our vulnerability, who will gladly fool us, and make some money off of our sorrow … where there’s tragedy, there are scam artists, religious or otherwise, eager to take advantage of the moment.

Jesus said: Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

Yes, we’re vulnerable …

The Bible puts it well:

The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.

The Psalmist writes: 

Teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.

Faith, hope, and love abide, but the greatest of these is love … love never ends.

Fourth point: human beings are resourceful, resilient, inventive, courageous, strong, and beautiful … we find our way through the worst of it … around it, under it … or we squeeze the lemon with all our might, and add a little sugar to make a glass of lemonade.

We are all of these marvelous things, and more, because we’re created in the image of God …

You will make it … it won’t be easy, but you’ll do it … 

God is present … I cannot tell you how God is present, or what God is doing … but God is present, and God is at work … 

Jesus stands with John in the Jordan River, and John says, You need to baptize me! … Jesus replies, It is right for me to do this!

Jesus stands with God’s creation, Jesus stands beside each one of us, in our days of joy, and in the dark night of the soul … Jesus in our hearts and minds, even when we cannot fathom one bit of it … Jesus is the love of God for the world! A love that will not let us go.

God is love … love endures, love never ends … love is always the way forward.

Love, you see, isn’t afraid to weep, love isn’t afraid to be sad.

Love looks for a way to make things work again.

Love is patient and kind …

Love can be trusted.

Forever and a day, we belong to God.

We are not alone in our journey.

Life can be hard, and it mostly is.

But life is good and full of delight.

We are not alone.

We belong to God.

In the morning of our joy.

In the mid-day of our toil.

In the dark night of sorrow.

We belong to God.

Now, and forever more.

Amen and Amen!