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!

1.14.24 "Samuel" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 First reading: 1 Samuel 3.1-10;Second reading: 1 Samuel 3.11-20

You’ve heard me say it before,

and I say it again …

The Bible holds infinite value for at least two reasons …

1. it’s grounded in sorrow and loss … 
2. it holds fast to the ideals …

As for the sorrow and loss, the Bible is the real McCoy … 

the real deal … 

nothing artificial about it … 

no one is pretending anything …

the stories, prayers, and hymns of the Bible are forged in the fires of loss and death …

the reality of the human condition.

As for holding fast to the ideals - you bet … 

a God of mercy and love, a creator who calls this world into being … life abundant … a world brimming over with energy and hope … and a creature to care for it all … a strange creature, part dirt, part divinity, feet on the ground; head in the heavens … aka - you and me.

The Bible takes seriously the human condition … but nowhere does the Bible give up hope.

When all seems lost, 

God creates a way through the sea … 

In the wilderness, God is present … 

a pillar of cloud by day to shield us from the sun and lead the way … 

a column of fire at night to warm our hearts and ward off the demons … 

when we’re hungry, manna in the morning … 

when we’re thirsty, water from a rock … 

and always ahead of us, somewhere out there, the Promised Land … we’ll get there, we’ll make it … when war is no more, and the tears are gone, and all of creation made new.

The story of Samuel is just such a story …

It begins so simply, with a family, and a woman’s heartache:

There was a man, Elkanah … from the hill country of Ephraim … he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

Every year, this family journeyed to the shrine at Shiloh to offer sacrifices to the LORD of hosts … after the reasonable portions were offered to the priests, and consumed in the fires of the altar, the rest was divided up between Peninnah and her children, each with a share, and a double share for Hannah, because, as the story goes, Elkanah loves Hannah.

Hannah grieves for the children she doesn’t have … and to make matters worse: Peninnah provoked her, to irritate her … to add insult to injury.

The Bible says: Hannah was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly. She made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.”

Hannah bargains with God … which opens up a can of worms for us …

If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

If you invite me to your home, I’ll invite you to mine.

If you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you.

More to the point … can we bargain with God?

If you heal me, I’ll become a missionary or a minister.

If you give me riches and power, I’ll use them only to make this a better world.

How many soldiers in how many foxholes have promised God the moon if only God would save them from the jaws of death.

Yes, we all bargain with God, we bargain with life, we bargain with the world.

I can’t tell you that it’s wrong to make a bargain with God … nor can I tell you bargaining is how it works …

This much I can say: God hears our prayers, our laments … God feels our losses and our sorrows … God knows our heartache!

The Psalmist writes: You have kept count of my tossing; put my tears in your bottle.

Every prayer is answered … 

God says Yes - more often than not …

God says No - from time-to-time …

God says Maybe - we’ll see how it plays out …

None of us know fully the mind of God … but this we know for sure: God is trustworthy … 

I am with you always … to deliver and defend … 

I am with you in your joys and pleasures; 

I am with you in your despair and loss … 

I am with you when your faith is strong; 

I am with you when your faith falters and fails … 

I am with you when you love me; 

I am with you when you deny me … 

I am with you when you make your vows; 

I am with you when you break them … 

I am with you in your conception and birth … 

I am with you in the days of your life, as the world turns … 

I am with you at the end … when the last mortal breath is taken, there I am.

In due course, Hannah conceives and bears a son … Samuel … which means: “God heard” … or … “I have asked/borrowed him from the LORD” … 

Hannah stands by her vow … 

She brings Samuel to the Shrine of Shiloh … there to learn, work and grow, in the things of God, under the tutelage of Eli, a good and decent man, with two lousy sons who are priests in the shrine … they’re guilty of crimes against God and the people - they skim the coffers, fleece the flock, fatten themselves …  

But Samuel is there as well …

He grows in wisdom and stature … his mother stands by him!

As the story goes, so poignantly,

His mother used to make for him a little robe 

and take it to him each year, 

when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

Then, one evening, three times the call, a voice  … at first Samuel thinks Eli has called him … after the third time, Eli says: Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’

So Samuel went and lay down in his place, and the voice called him again … with a commission, a purpose, a plan:

No longer to serve the LORD in Shiloh, but to be a prophet to the people … to the nation, to the world.

Who would have known, at the time, what was afoot in the heart of God? 

Throughout history, those rare and gifted persons who actually turn the wheels of government and church, who make a lasting difference …

Who would have known?

February 12, 1809, a log cabin, rural Kentucky … a boy is born to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln, and they name him Abe.

April 10, 1880, Boston, Massachusetts, Francis Perkins, who would play a pivotal role in the Roosevelt administration, shaping post-Depression policy, including Social Security and minimum wage laws.

January 15, 1929, Atlanta Georgia … the son of a preacher man, Martin Luther King, Jr. whose birthday we celebrate tomorrow.

Who would have known?

And who knows where and how the future is already being shaped by God … a child is born … here in Altadena, Lisbon, Mexico City, Tokyo, London … who can see the future?

Samuel grows up to become a major player in Israel’s story … and one day, born of Mary, in Bethlehem, another little boy, who grows up to become the Savior of the world.

To God be the glory. Amen and Amen!