7.7.24 "Learn to Lean on Others" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10; Mark 6.1-13

Minnesota Cornfield

In one of the most striking moments of the New Testament, it says of Jesus, he could do no deed of
power there … he was amazed at their unbelief.

Jesus relies on the faith and hope of others … time and again, Jesus says, Your faith has done you well … 

“Go; let it be done for you according to your faith.”

“Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.”

“According to your faith let it be done to you.”

“Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”

At this point, we wonder … 

How much faith does it take? 

How big is a mustard seed?

Says Jesus, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘move’ … and it will …”

A little faith goes a long way … 

So, let’s get back to the story.

A roadblock in his hometown … of all places.

Those closest to him, 

from childhood on … 

they know his family … 

they know him as a carpenter … 

he builds tables and chairs for them …  

wagons and carts, chariot wheels … doors and windows … storage buildings for grain, towers for defense and siege machines for the Roman Army.

Jesus is a busy man … and then, one day, he takes it upon himself to speak to the people, of things glorious and grand, turns the world in new directions … 

They’re amazed … they wonder how in the world he came to have all of this knowledge, this wisdom … 

In a moment, it all goes south … they take offense at him … Who does he think he is?

Jesus says:

Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometowns, and among their own kin, and in their own house.

They know Jesus too well … but truth be told, they don’t know him at all.

Every Sunday, we try to push through what we know about Jesus to what we don’t know … maybe we know too much … maybe some of what we know needs to be tossed aside … “Oh, I know all about Jesus …” but maybe we don’t … 

There is good news embedded in the story:

Jesus goes to his hometown … he wasn’t invited … he shows up by his own choice; he makes the first move … and that’s more than enough to excite my wee little Presbyterian heart … 

God shows up, first … 

God loves us, first …

God does what we cannot do.

God carries the cross for the whole broken world … God dies and goes to hell, into the far reaches of sorrow and death … My God, my God, says Jesus, why have you forsaken me?

On the third day, the powers of heaven roll away the stone of death … Jesus strides forth into life anew … and says to each one of us, Come along with me!

The hometown crowd is a rough one … they know so much … the know the drill … they’ve all been to Sunday School … they even read their Bibles … and haven’t learned a fresh idea in 25 years.

In the summer of 1967, my wife and I left after our wedding for a summer assignment in Florida … a church in Venice Gardens for 6 weeks, and a church in Miami for six weeks … in our light green ’63 VW bug.

In the Miami church, we lived in a large manse with the minister and his wife - and when they went on vacation, he said, “Be sure to use my office for your work.”

I did … as I looked at the shelves of books, and thumbed through some them, checking out the date of purchase if recorded … I noticed something odd … there were very few books purchased after seminary … I thought, “Here’s a man who stopped learning.” He was a good man, for sure … a little odd, or so I thought, but, then, who isn’t a little odd, now and then?

He rested on his laurels … content with what he knew … he closed the door to the future.

The hometown crowd does just that - they close the door to the future … they know too much, and they don’t know Jesus at all.

When Jesus commissions the disciples for their work, he reminds them: You need the faith and hope of others … in partnership with those to whom you proclaim the gospel, in partnership with people of all sorts and types, then the work of the Kingdom moves ahead.

Learn to lean on others, take nothing for your journey except a staff - we don’t want you stumbling and falling … take no bread, no bag, no money - when you’re hungry, knock on a few doors … wear sandals - we don’t want sore feet … and wear one tunic - if you get cold, you’ll have to lean on others for a blanket or two.

Jesus makes it clear: it doesn’t always work … 

trust is disappointed, 

kindness rebuffed, 

love trampled in the mud … 

Even the disciples will fail:

Judas betrays … 

Peter denies … 

the rest run away.

If it doesn’t work, don’t fret about it, says Jesus … shake the dust off and move on … it will work … some of the time, and when it works, it works very, very well. 

For all of us here today:

1. Keep on learning … whatever you know of Jesus is good, but there’s so much more to the story … 
2. Don’t fret about how much faith you have or don’t have - it doesn’t take much … whatever faith you have is more than enough for God.
3. God needs us … yes, God makes the first move … that’s the gospel, but somewhere along the line God says, Come along with me, because I need you … the next step, our step, your step, to follow Christ … because God, leans on us.
4. To the elders: lean on one another … don’t try to go it alone … you don’t know it all … you can’t do it all; none of us can … those who try to live out their life alone soon discover they haven’t sufficient strength to withstand the storms of life. 

I close the sermon with an image - a Minnesota cornfield … if you know anything about corn, you know that the individual stalk has a shallow root system … with the simplest push, a stalk of corn falls over … but when you at look at a cornfield, you see the power of leaning on one another … acres of corn can withstand tremendous storms … each stalk leans on the other … together, they’re strong … together, they beat the odds, together, they withstand the onslaught of the storm.

Ben Franklin said it well: “We must all hang together or most assuredly we will all hang separately.”

Lean on one another. Build the fellowship of faith … link arms when you can, hold hands when you’re afraid … learn from one another … what we do best is what we do in the company of others.

It doesn’t always work, but when it does, it works well … and in those moments, strange and wonderful,   when God leans on us and comes to our homes, our workplaces, our schools, let us be strong and let us stand tall - “Yes, God, you can lean on me!”

I give you my faith, my hope, my love!

Hallelujah and Amen!

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!

Baloney - Oct 7, 2007

Luke 17:5-10

A fly was buzzing along one morning when he saw a lawn mower someone had left out in their front yard. He flew over and sat on the handle, watching the children on their way to school.

One little boy tripped and fell, spilling his lunch on the sidewalk. He picked himself up, put his lunch back in the bag and went on. But he missed a piece of baloney.

The fly real was hungry. So he flew down and started eating the baloney. He ate so much he couldn’t fly, so he waddled across the sidewalk, across the lawn, up the wheel of the lawn mower, up the handle, and sat there resting and watching the children.

There was still some baloney on the sidewalk. The fly was stuffed, but that baloney sure looked good.

So he jumped off the handle of the lawn mower to fly over to the baloney. But alas he was too full to fly and fell straight to the ground... splat!

The moral of this story is simple... don't fly off the handle when you are full of baloney.

Baloney … who likes it? … I do … I love a good baloney sandwich – white bread, Velveeta Cheese, mayonnaise and lettuce … in Oklahoma, you can go to a barbeque place and get it smoked … umm good, but don’t ever ask what’s in it.

“Baloney,” says Jesus … when the disciples say, “Increase our faith.”

Well, he didn’t exactly say “baloney,” but that’s how I read it … when Jesus says, “Faith, the size of a mustard seed, can uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the sea.”

It’s not about having more faith, it’s about using what faith you have!
And it doesn’t take much faith at all … even faith the size of a mustard seed … a tiny, tiny, itty bitty bit of faith – more than enough to do great things.

The immediate context for this episode is forgiveness … how many times? As often as it takes … as often as the offender repents, and then some!

There is no other way to survive life – without forgiveness, we imprison ourselves behind heavy bars … bars of resentment and bars of dependence, debilitating dependence on what others say or do, or fail to say or do.

Forgiveness is our freedom …

Jesus makes it clear … go ahead and let someone know if they’ve hurt you … it happens, and it happens a lot … things said poorly, the flick of an eyebrow, the tone of voice, a misunderstanding, a miscommunication, a forgotten promise, or just a bad day, and we’re hurt by someone else’s behavior.

We all have a large book, many chapters, wherein is recorded a lot of difficult memories … parents berating us, teachers scolding us … our own personal faults and failings, and the various and sundry versions of unkindness that flow through our lives.

At the end of teaching for several days, Jesus ends with piece on forgiveness … what else is there, to set us free from the attitudes and behaviors of others.

Go ahead, and let someone know they’ve hurt you, and if they repent, forgive them … and if the sin occurs again, and again, and they repent, forgive them – as often as it takes. The name of the game is NOT the other person’s behavior, but our freedom to live and get on our with life.

But there’s more to this then meets the eye … think about Jesus … the ultimate moment of His suffering and humiliation – dying on the cross – bloody and beaten, stipped naked for all the world to see – those discreetly placed loin cloths we see in artistic recreations are not a part of the Roman crucifixion – criminals were hung on the cross, naked.

So there our LORD hangs, death approaching … in words so utterly profound they still leave us breathless, Jesus says, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Radical forgiveness … the Lamb of God dying for the sins of the world … not waiting for an apology, no waiting here for repentance … God goes way beyond our behavior.

Remember several weeks ago when the Words of Assurance came before our confession of sin? Remember when I said, “Confession doesn’t trigger forgiveness; forgiveness triggers confession.”

God acts before we do … because God is free … free to love and get on with it, to set us free, too.

Both God and humankind free from an endless cycle of hurt and recrimination … to close the book rather than writing new chapters – set free for higher and better things.

For this, the disciples say, “Increase our faith.” We need more faith to do this!

“Baloney,” says Jesus!

It’s not about having more faith; it’s using what faith you have!” Use it, and you will do great things with it.

The last part of Jesus’ teaching goes after a bad attitude … the attitude of entitlement … “Ill scratch your back, and you’ll scratch mine” – where things are done in order to gain something else.

Life in terms of reward and recognition … a crippling sense of entitlement.

Where good deeds and worthy efforts are undercut by our desire to be patted on the back and rewarded.

Talk about dependence … and we’ve all been there:

We invite Bill and Susie over for dinner, and six months later, no reciprocal invitation … we’re bummed – “That’s the last time we invite them over.” But Jesus asks, “Why did you invite them over in the first place?

We do something nice for Sam and Sally, and they don’t even bother sending an email, and we’re irritated. Jesus asks, “Why did you do the good deed in the first place?”

We work ourselves silly in our job, and no promotion. We grow resentful and jealous. Jesus suggests, “Let the quality of your work stand as it is – work for the sake of doing good work; don’t work for the sake of reward.”

We do a great deed, and there’s no recognition … or worse, our name is misspelled in the bulletin.

Speaking of bulletins – the following announcements actually occurred:

∑ "The cost for attending the Fasting and Prayer conference includes meals."

∑ The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water.” The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."

∑ "Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands."

∑ The peacemaking group scheduled for today has been cancelled due to a conflict.

∑ Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.

∑ Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again", giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

∑ For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

∑ During the absence of our Pastor, we enjoyed the rare privilege of hearing a good sermon when J.F. Stubbs supplied our pulpit.

∑ The Rector will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing "Break Forth into Joy."

∑ At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.

∑ Eight new choir robes are currently needed, due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

∑ Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.

∑ Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 pm - prayer and medication to follow.

Well, who doesn’t need a little prayer and medication now and then? … and good prayer and medication is what our LORD is offering to us today. To set ourselves free – from what others have done or failed to do, to see ourselves free the crippling attitude of entitlement.

“LORD, increase our faith so we can do this!”

“Baloney,” says Jesus … “It isn’t about having more faith, but using the faith you already have.” Trust God, trust those around you, and trust yourself.

Let’s think a moment about self-trust … I use something inspired by Joel Osteen … a little mantra of sorts to pull myself back to center … “I am who God says I am. I have what God says I have. I can do what God says I can do.”

Self-trust … God created us, our gifts are good, abilities are more than sufficient … we don’t need more of anything; we already have all that’s needed.

We have to be clear how debilitating is this “increase my faith” thing … strangely shifting the blame to God … “God, I can’t do this, because YOU haven’t given me what I need.”

“I’ve asked for more faith, LORD, but you didn’t do it. It’s your fault, LORD, because I asked, and you didn’t follow through.”

The great “If only I had … (fill in the blank – more money, more brains, better parents, better looks, better children, a better boss, better employees, a better education, more faith … ) … if only I had, then I would … (fill in the blank – then I would be happy, satisfied, content, successful, joyful, be more available, go on that mission trip, teach Sunday School, share Christ and study the Bible … if only.

“LORD, increase our faith.”

“Baloney” says Jesus.

It’s not about having more faith. It’s using the faith you have.”

This week, a good conversation with Marj Miller … responding to my Genesis comments about today’s message …

Is self-trust a form of pride?

What about humility?

Self-trust is a form of gratitude – that our Heavenly Father did a good and decent job creating us …

Self-trust, a form of gratitude along the whole stream of life: our parents, though not perfect, did a reasonably good job raising us … all kinds of folks have helped us … life is good and we’re glad to be here.
Self-trust – a form of gratitude – a way of saying “Thanks.”

If one of our children constantly berated themselves, put themselves down, doubted their abilities, questioned their character, we’d finally say: “That’s not true. You’re capable, you’re gifted, you’re strong – you can do it, you can handle it, you’ll make it. Trust yourself,” we’d say.

On the flip-side of self-trust – humility - plain and simple recognition that life is a web of relationships – all the way from the butcher who helps us pick out a good cut of meat to our Father in heaven.

Thanks Mom and Dad, thanks teachers … thanks to all the world that made it possible for me to be who I am. And thanks to God: I have what it takes, and whatever it takes, I have..


Tomorrow, we’ll face all the usual challenges, and then some.

Jesus said it well, “occasions for stumbling are bound to come.”

But you’ve got what it takes … you already have the faith that can move mountains and transplant mulberry trees.

It’s not about having more faith; it’s about using the faith you already have.

I am who God says I am.
I have what God says I have.
I can do what God says I can do.

And that’s no baloney.

Amen!