10.2.22 "Christ" - the Third of three-part series: Creation, Covenant, and Christ

 Psalm 37.1-9; Luke 17.5-10

Today’s sermon is the third in a series called “The Three C’s” - Creation, Covenant, and Christ.

Creation is the beginning … God is the beginning …  

The second C - covenant … covenant is the focused energy of God’s love … the covenant of creation, the covenant with Noah and the earth, the covenant with Sarah and Abraham … and their descendants after them … the Wilderness People set free from slavery … the people of the Promised Land in quest of a home … Mary and Joseph, and the Bethlehem Child, with shepherds from the hills and wise men from the east.

Down through the ages … generation to generation … family to family … blessed to be a blessing … 

The mark of the covenant, circumcision … on the 8th day, the male child, circumcised … blood shed … a way of saying what we all know to be true … life is costly, life demands sacrifice … life requires all that we are, and then some.

When Christ comes, a shift … 

The baptism of Jesus, by John in the Jordan … 

Water used in ancient rituals, but now with Christ, water gains a new focus … it’s no longer blood given, but now, baptism received … 

The covenant remains in place … and grows larger … baptism for all children … baptism for all who hunger and thirst for righteousness … 

The word Christ means “anointed” … 

Upon Jesus rests the mantle of faith, hope, and love - in a dramatic and compelling way … Elijah’s mantle, the call of Moses … the 23rd Psalm, thou anointest my head with oil … 

Christ, the anointed one, the Son of God … Immanuel, God with us …

Christ, the anointed one, the Son of Mary … a human being in all regards, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone -  

Many years ago, I preached a sermon in which I said, “Jesus is the face of God” … 

If we want to see God, we look to Jesus - not a literal picture, for none exists … but to the words of Jesus … the Gospel stories … what he taught, what he did. 

His call to the disciples, his regard for the children, his care for the outcast … a gentle touch to open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf … a gentle word to give hope to the weary, and life to the lost …  

In our reading from Luke this morning, one of the great lessons of life …  comfort and encouragement.

The disciples ask of Jesus, “increase our faith!”

Who hasn’t asked that of God? - Increase my faith! … and that’s ok, but it can be misleading … as if we’re not up to the tasks at hand … we doubt ourselves, we doubt our gifts, we doubt our abilities … and, yes, there’s some humility in all of that … but we have to be careful, lest we overlook what God has already done in our lives, what gifts God has given to us, from the moment of our birth, throughout the years of lives … the gifts of God.

Jesus quickly corrects the disciples - you already have what you need … it may be the size of mustard seed, and if you wanna know the truth, that’s all you need … the gifts of God are just that … small to our eyes … small enough that we might overlook them.

History is filled with the stories of mustard-seed faith turning the world upside down … mustard-seed faith going to work and making a difference … mustard-seed faith brings us here … mustard-seed faith stops to pay attention to a child … mustard-seed faith refuses to take the back seat of the bus … mustard-seed faith offers a prayer for a friend.

Jesus says to us: you have what it takes … don’t worry about it … don’t ask for more, but ask for the eyes to see what you already have … the eyes to see the gifts of God that are uniquely yours, arranged with form and purpose that belongs uniquely to you … you have enough, more than enough, to make it through life … to weather the storms, face the challenges, endure the long hard roads that we must sometimes travel …  

Years ago, living in Michigan, I did a lot of bicycling  … we had access to great trails … state, county and city parks … good bicycling … but on many a day, I rode through two large Jewish cemeteries, just blocks away from our home … huge cemeteries … good roads, not much traffic … safe to bike …

And full of life, in a strange and fascinating way … 

Life engraved on thousands of headstones … words of thanksgiving and love … words of sorrow for children gone too soon … for youth cut short in the brightness of life … words of gratitude for fulness of life and many years … 

The human story … travail and treasure, sorrow and glory, achievement and setback … loss and gain … it’s all there, in a cemetery … and then, what I heard … yes, you heard me right, because in those cemeteries, I heard their voices … 

Don’t worry, not literally, but close … their voices, singing … quietly, “We did it, and so will you” … 

“We endured, we lived, we loved, we died … some of us were cut short in our time … some were endowed with many years; some did well, and some had a rough go of it … there were good times and there were bad times … but we did it … and so will you.”

This is the message of Christ to those disciples.

You have what it takes, and it will take what you have … but go for it … you will make it.

At the center of our faith, Christ … 

Other traditions of faith have their own centers … and God be praised for all of it …

For us here, it’s the Christian story that shapes us … but God uses all the other stories to give life to the world.

Some years back, a mother came to me distressed and fearful - her daughter had fallen in love with a man of the Islamic Faith … and she converted … her mother believed that her daughter was now lost, and would go to hell when she died.

The mother echoed many a Christian sermon - that we’re the only ones going to heaven, with everyone else going to hell.

But I say to you this day: Christ is more than that … the love of God is more than that … we need not fear another faith … but we would do well to look to our own faith, to live that faith as best we can.

I spent time with that mother, encouraging her to embrace the fullness of God’s love for the world … a love at work in all the great traditions of faith … that she and her daughter would always love one another … and never be afraid that one would be lost, and the other be saved … no, it doesn’t work that way … God is the Savor of the world … and what we see in Christ, God has done a thousand times over in every culture, time and place, long before any of us showed up, and long after we’re gone … because God is the God of creation …

God is the God of the covenant …  

And God is the God and Father of the Christ … believe me when I say, this Christ is everywhere … with different names, different images, different meanings … different music, different philosophies and theologies … and finally, and always, the same message.

You have what it takes.

Don’t be afraid.

You are loved.

Say “Yes” as often as you can.

Be kind in your ways.

Overlook the sins of others, and rejoice in goodness when you see it.

Work for justice, and seek peace.

Tell the truth, and bear the sorrows of the world.

Cry with those in distress.

Count your days … don’t get carried away with stuff.

Laugh often at yourself … laugh with others, too.

Have fun along the way.

Don’t overlook your mustard seed.

In the end, you will return to the earth, one way or the other.

In the end, there’s God … kind and loving, good and great.

In the end, your voice will be heard by others,

You will sing to the world, “I did it, and so will you.”

Creation, Covenant, and Christ.

Amen and Amen!

9.18.22 "Covenant: Keep It Going!" Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Genesis 17.9-13; 1 Corinthians 11.23-26

Creation, Covenant, and Christ.

Anchors of our faith … 

Strength for every-day living … 

The backbone of our hope …

Creation, Covenant, and Christ.

Guidance for the big questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? Am I just an accident of the universe, a happenstance conjunction of amino acids and protoplasm? 

And what’s my purpose? Do I have a purpose? How do I know? What’s right, what’s wrong? what’s good, and what’s bad?

It’s vital we ask big questions … because big questions keep us big.

Big questions push the boundaries, test the limits, keep us flexible …

Big questions are good for the mind, though big questions can give us a headache.

The anguish of Jeremiah … the struggle of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane … the distress of the Apostle Paul.

They all had headaches at different times … 

So did Martin Luther King, Jr. …

His medieval namesake, Martin Luther, had big headaches, and so did John Calvin, St. Teresa and Dorothy Day.

Here, at Westminster … we ask big questions, suffer our headaches … and search for new answers … NEW ANSWERS!

Because yesterday’s answers are no longer viable. 

That’s the mystery of time … or maybe it’s not such a mystery, as it is just plain irritating … 

Yesterday’s answers worked well yesterday … 

As a friend said, “If yesterday should ever come back again, I’m ready!”

The world that built Westminster is gone.

The world has changed … America has changed … people are different … some suggest that we’ve become godless … took prayer outta the schools, and such as that.

To those sorts of those complaints, I simply say, “Baloney!”

Truth be told, if we could step into a time machine and turn the clock back to 1950, and then ask people if the times were easy, we’d get a square answer - they’d tell us: “The times are hard, and we’re working at it. There’s war and rumors of war. We’re having issues with racism and anti-semitism. Jim Crow laws, and sundown communities. The war in Europe is over, and now we’re in a Cold War. We’ve got Joe McCarthy railing away in Congress, and we’ve got polio in the summertime. But we’re doing our best. People want to work … and we’re building the church.”

And then they’d tell us: we’re betting on the future … we don’t want to go back to the 20s or the 30s … we want to move ahead … and so should you. Don’t look back to us as if we had it easy … look ahead, and build the world for your grandchildren.”

History is the story of deep change … 

Folks wise in the things of God, see change as opportunity … to find new chapters in God’s great story … 

Every age has its own gifts, and if we’re stuck in one age, we’re cheating ourselves, and we’re cheating our children and grandchildren.

Every age is a gift .

In every change, there is promise.

Because God remains God.

The challenge for the church is to be faithful to Christ, as Paul the Apostle put it to his young protege, Timothy, “in season and out of season.” 

If we could ask Paul, What do you mean, he’d gone and tell us:

It will be hard; it will be easy. It will be joyful; it will be challenging. There will be laughter; there will be tears. There will be big questions, and the occasional headache. There will be success; there will be setbacks. There will always be Christ.

We don’t have all the answers, and no one every does.

Don’t for a moment look back as if it were easier for our grandparents and great grandparents. It wasn’t.

They found their answers … as best they could.

And that’s what we’re here at Westminster.

Not here to reclaim the past.

We’re here to forge the future.

And why is that important?

Well, it’s up to you to decide if that’s important or not … but let me at least offer some ideas to guide your thinking …

There are those who suggest that God created the heavens and the earth and then retired to Palm Springs. It’s called deism.

Some say there is no God at all, and the world as we know it is just an accident. It’s called atheism.

A friend of mine recently wed, and someone wrote on her fb page, “You’re betting on the future.” And she replied, “You bet I am.”

Everything God does is a bet on the future! 

All the covenants of the Bible are a bet on the future … from the moment of creation to the gift of Christ … everything God does is a bet on the future … and it’s true for us, too.

Getting married is a bet on the future … so is taking a job … reading a book on politics and history … planting a tree … writing a book, composing some music, joining a Scout Troop … going to church … saying a prayer … we’re betting on the future … we’re looking beyond today, reaching for tomorrow.

Call it faith, call it trust, call it love … love bets on the future … love doesn’t walk away … love hangs in there … love puts its hand to the plow and doesn’t look back … love says “Yes!”, and pulls ahead … love endures!

Love comes to us … 

Love abides with Adam and Eve …

Love pays a visit to Abraham and Sarah … 

Love walks with Israel out of the land of slavery, through the sea, into the wilderness … all the way to the Promised Land.

Love comes to us in Bethlehem’s cradle … 

Love calls the disciples to leave their nets … 

Love welcomes the woman dragged through the dirt … 

Love gives sight to the blind and wholeness to the lame … 

Love breaks bread, and pours out the cup of blessing .. and says, this is the new covenant, in my blood.

Love suffers under Pontius Pilate … Love dies that day, and slips into the deeps of hell … Love rises again from the dead … and ascends into heaven, to sit at the right hand of God … 

Love abides with us, Love keeps us close to God … Love at work in all things for good … love is God’s bet on the future.

Hallelujah and Amen!

9.11.22 "The Three C's! Part 1: Creation: A Good Start"

Genesis 1.1-5; John 1.1-5

A little boy came home from Sunday School one day, and proudly announced, “There’s baseball in the Bible.”

“Baseball in the Bible?” his Mom asked.

“You bet,” said the little boy.

“The Bible says, “In the Big Inning” … 

Well, it was the Big Inning, all right … and here’s the beginning of a new sermon series, “The Three C’s” … Creation, Covenant, and Christ.

Starting at the beginning, at least for me:

I was born and baptized a Presbyterian, at the First Presbyterian Church of Sheboygan, Wisconsin … I grew up in the Dutch Reformed Church … attended public elementary schools, and then a Christian high school in Grand Rapids, Michigan … and then on to Calvin University, where I met the love of my life, a sweet lady from Minnesota … and then on to Western Theological Seminary in Holland, MI …  I was ordained January 27, 1970, in the First Presbyterian Church of Holland, by Grand River Presbytery … Donna and I moved to West Virginia, the West Virginia Mountain Project, where I served two small churches in the midst of coal country, Boone County, the poorest county in West Virginia … and from there to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and back to Michigan, and now, here I am, retired, and, by the grace of God, still working … grateful for most of it, bewildered by some it … some of it painful … all of it valuable … blessed with two marvelous children along the way, a lovely granddaughter on whom we dote … we live now in a Presbyterian retirement community, Monte Vista Grove Homes, here in Pasadena …  

And where did it all begin?

I mean, really begin? The Big Inning?

It’s a question for all of us … how we answer the question makes all the difference in the world.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself …

Behind this series of sermons are some of my deepest commitments to the church of Jesus Christ …

I believe, with all my heart: our purpose is to know something of God, head knowledge, heart knowledge, soul knowledge …  

To think about God is to think about life.

When we raise our theological questions, we’re also raising existential questions: Who are we? Where did we come from? Why are here? Where are we going? What’s important?

The Presbyterian tradition is a tradition of education … we train our ministers well … no guarantees - a seminary education will not automatically produce intelligence, wisdom, or ability … any more than a medical education will automatically produce a good doctor … or law school, a good attorney. 

Yet who of us would visit a doctor or hire an attorney who had no education? Yet, millions of Americans gather in churches led by men, and some women, of little or no training; mostly self-appointed … often given to outlandish ideas and bad theology.

That Americans are susceptible to this ought not to surprise us. Americans are practical in their thinking, and often deeply self-centered. Too many of us prefer not think about God, or life, but want to be told what to think about God and life. 

We’re easily tempted by snake-oil entrepreneurs … easily lured away from the gospel by high-powered religious entertainment … often confusing sentiments of the heart with spirituality … substituting a rousing worship service with devotion to God’s purpose.

We Presbyterians hold our ministers to high standards … we have good seminaries, well-trained professors … we require skill in the biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek … we require knowledge of doctrine and polity … before ordination, the ordination exams … they’re rigorous … all along the way, the Presbytery-of-care monitors the student, helps the student evaluate their sense of calling, supports them with counsel and prayer … helps the student better understand what it means to be a minister.

It all begins in the Beginning … the Big Inning … Creation!

God’s mandate to us: Care for the earth … care. for. the earth!

So, here we are … 2022 … what’s the greatest issue?

What do you think? For you, what’s the greatest issue?

If you ask a conservative Christian, the answer might well be “abortion” - “abortion is the issue, and we have to rid the land of its practice, and those who support it.”

A conservative Christian a few years back would have said, “Winning souls to Christ, that’s the issue … so when people die, they can go to heaven and live with Jesus for ever.”

A conservative politician might say: “It’s taxes … the need to cut taxes … limit the role of government … build a wall … keep America White!”

A liberal politician, these days, would likely talk about climate change, voting rights, a woman’s right to choose … universal health care.

If you ask a liberal Christian minister, it’s most likely to be climate change … care of the earth … things that pose a threat to God’s creation.

The poet Robert Service writes:

The waves have a story to tell me,

As I lie on the lonely beach;

Chanting aloft in the pine-tops,

The wind has a lesson to teach.

The Psalmist writes:

The heavens are telling the glory of God;

and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork.

Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.

Jesus said: Look at the birds of the air … consider the lilies of the field …

The earth speaks to us … can we not hear?

The fires of summer … drought transforming the West … the Amazon forests … Greenland’s melting glaciers … oceans, filled with our debris … the extinction of species as human beings continue to extract and exploit the generosity of the earth …  

There are those who say “climate change is cyclical” … and it is … the geological record makes that clear … for millions of years, earth’s climate has been in flux, but since the Industrial Revolution, beginning in the 18th century, coal and steam, iron and steel, changed the world … human beings have become a dominant factor in the ebb and flow of the environment … 

I have a granddaughter … what kind of world do I want her to have? She has no choice right now; children never have a choice. But we have choices to make; evidence to consider; scientists and politicians who beg us to pay attention … we have the power to make a difference, to address the challenge of climate change and global warming.

We’re part of the problem, that’s for sure … which means, we’re also part of the solution …

I like that … part of the solution … that’s what it means to say, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth … 

And in the LORD’s prayer, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.

With our great power over the earth, comes the great task to care for the earth …

For the beauty of the earth, 

for the glory of the skies, 

for the love which from our birth 

over and around us lies. 

Dear friends in Christ, when we have left this mortal vale, when we are no more, our duties done: May it be said of us … They honored the earth, they gave ear to its cry, they strove with all their might to care all God’s creatures, great and small … may it be said of us: they followed Christ!

Amen and Amen!

"Trinity Sunday" - Palms Westminster Presbyterian Church

Proverbs 8.1-8; John 16.12-15

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory.

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

Grace, mercy and peace.

Faith, hope and love.

Guilt, grace, and gratitude.

The widow, the orphan, the alien.

Morning, noon and night.

Past, present and future.

Height, width and depth.

On your mark, get set, go.

Three coins in the fountain.

The Three Stooges and the Three Musketeers.

And a three-point sermon.

Huey, Dewey and Louie.

The three little pigs.

Goldie Locks and the Three Bears.

Porridge, too hot, too cold, and just right.

Month, day, year.

Three temptations in the wilderness.

Three crosses on a hill …

Jesus with Elijah and Moses.

Peter, James and John.

The lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost boy.

Noah had three sons.

And then there were Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego

And we three kings of orient are.

A priest, a rabbi and a minister, too.

Lots of things come in threes, it seems.

Today is Trinity Sunday … a celebration of the majesty and goodness of God … 

The Three-in-One God, God in Three Persons.

The God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ, who both send to us the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, the Advocate, the Teacher, the Holy Spirit, 

It’s Trinity Sunday, dear People of God.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Creator, Redeemer and Giver of Life.

What does the Trinity give to us?

I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

We live in a God-hallowed world, a world created by the loving word of God, declared good by the word of God … all the creatures of this earth … great and small … the very life of every human being … all of it, good, all of it, sacred, all of it, from the hand and heart of God.

The God of Creation … who gives to us this world as our world, and commands us to care for it, to tend the garden, to oversee and guard its life.

The whole of the Creation Story is our mandate to pay attention to the earth … to love it as a precious gift from God, something to be cherished and preserved, guarded and maintained, honored and loved … God created us to be stewards, caretakers, of sea and sky, earth and air, and all the creatures, great and small.

Let there be no doubt that the God of Creation calls us to pay attention to what’s going on these days … human pride and greed fill the air with carbon dioxide … the oceans with plastics and pesticides … threatening the wellbeing of animals and humans all across the globe … even as Wall Street cheers its obscene profits and wallows in its wealth … at the price of destroying God’s good earth.

Some would say: “We can’t destroy God’s earth.”

Oh, yes, we can … we have that kind of power, because it’s the power God gives to us, to use, for good, or for ill. 

Don’t be fooled by the false prophets who proclaim peace when there is no peace.

Some would say: “God will never allow that.”

Well, that’s what the folks of Jerusalem said even as Nebuchadnezzar pounded down the city gates and hauled the people off to captivity. 

Again, false prophets … false prophets proclaim false security, lulling the people into irresponsibility, believing in their own privilege rather than taking up their responsibilities.

Whatever God’s ways are, we are fools to think that God will never allow the consequences of our foolish behavior to come to pass … 

Whatever God’s purposes may be, they include this earth … and woe to those who would so casually use the earth for their own advantage, their own momentary gain, at the expense of the polar bear and the elephant.

I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our LORD, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.

The God of Creation is also the God of Covenant … the God who comes close to us, who takes up our cause, walks with us, talks with us … and bears our burdens.

The whole of the Judeo-Christian Story is centered in a God who addresses us with compassion and mercy … who pays a visit to Abram and Sarai, to create a new family upon the face of the earth … and when things go awry, and the family ends up in Egypt, enslaved by the proud and the powerful, God hears their cry and set’s the captive free.

We celebrate the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ our LORD, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary … the God who becomes a human being; the human being who is God …

To seal the bond of love … to show us the way of life.

He is our Savior … doing what we couldn’t do, and doing it for all of humanity, because God’s love is for all the world.

He is our Teacher … revealing to us the ways of life … three years of eloquent teaching and three years of courage … challenging the proud and the powerful, overturning their tables and confounding their expectations … those rich and powerful people expected Jesus to be on their side, and when Jesus choose the side of the poor and the oppressed, the powerful people of Jerusalem got angry, roused a mob, arrested Jesus, took him to Pilate, forced Pilate’s hand for the death sentence … that’s how the rich and the powerful dealt with Jesus.

But in all of that, the work of God … what it means to live life, the life of God … sometimes full of danger … not always easy, choosing the right and resisting lies and deceptions.

Throughout the ages, women and men have heeded the call of Christ, the call to courage, to withstand the onslaught of lies and bigotry … many Christians have suffered and died as their LORD did … it doesn’t always end easily, but it always ends well … for no matter what, in life and in death, ’tis better to have served Christ and lost the world, than to gain one’s life and lose one’s soul

To believe in Jesus Christ is to follow in his footsteps … and no time has ever been more important than now for the church of Jesus Christ to give ear to his teaching, and to embrace his way of life … to set before the world an example of grace, mercy and peace; faith, hope and love; kindness, care and compassion.

In Christ, we belong to God, and in Christ, God gives to us life … life enduring, life always … life incorruptible … life everlasting …

I believe in Jesus Christ …

And I believe in the Holy Spirit … the deep and powerful presence of the Father and the Son … in the life of the church, in your life and in mine, here and now, in this place, and forever … the life of God - in a flower blooming, a bird singing, a whale breaching … the life of God in a child crying, a mother weeping, a father in despair … the life of God in a politician who tells the truth, a minister who preaches the whole counsel of God, a teacher who inspires a child to reach for the stars … the life of God in a kindly hand upon your shoulder, a gentle word to bring comfort, a smile to brighten someone’s day … all of it, and more, the life of God, the Holy Spirit.

The same Spirit that hovered over the dark waters of a formless void … the Spirit of wisdom … the Spirit of Mary’s Womb, the Spirit of Pentecost, tongues of flame, and the miracle of language … oh, how I love that story … everyone’s tongue, everyone’s language, honored by God … they didn’t have to learn another language to hear the Gospel, because God speaks their tongue, and the Spirit enabled those disciples of the Upper Room to speak the languages of the world.

We live in a city of many languages, and here in Palms Westminster, many tongues … and sometimes, for White People, it’s frustrating, and some folks demand that everyone should speak English … “if ya wanna be an American, speak American, and if you don’t, go back to where ya’ came from.”

Maybe some of you have heard that.

Well, thank God for Pentecost and the Holy Spirit … the Spirit of many languages, the Spirit of every tongue, because God is the God of every tongue, and God honors all the languages of the earth.

Our schools need to be multilingual.

We need to honor every language.

We need to be patient with one another.

And we need to learn some other languages, too.

Whatever the language, God be praised.

Whatever the tongue, Glory to God.

My little granddaughter now lives in Amsterdam, and she’s learning Dutch … and who knows how many other languages to follow … she’ll be multicultural, multilingual, and she’s multiracial, too.

I love how that represents the magnificence of God’s world … a large and glorious world full of diversity and color, tongues and ways of life, a world full of food and music, dress and design … all of it celebrated by God.

Because God is a family, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God is neighborhood, a community, a town.

God is diversity.

God is female and God is male; God is young and God is old.

God is every color and every shape.

And everything in between.

God is light, God is love, God is hope.

I believe in God the Father.

I believe in Jesus Christ the Son.

I believe in the Holy Spirit.

Hallelujah and Amen