7.30.23, "Thoroughly Christian!" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 1 Kings 3.5-12; Matthew 13.31-33, 44-52

What time is it?

Not the clock kind of time, but the calendar kind of time … history, drama, dates and events, wars and rumors of war.

What time is it?

When we’re young, we’re rich with time …as the years pass, time becomes precious …

We play with time …in our imagination, what we remember, or think we remember, or choose to remember … or choose to forget.

when we’re young, it’s all about the future; as we age, it’s tempting to think of what we had … nostalgia is fun, but its also dangerous.

As for me, if I want to wax nostalgic, it’s always summertime: shouts of delight and skinned knees, a fistfight with Billy Gunther … my trusty Schwinn bike in the morning, heading out for the day, lunch at a friend’s house, baseball in the park, a tree house in the woods, a clubhouse behind the garage … a raft in the nearby swamp behind the old factory, on a meandering river running through town.

And so it was … there was more to my life, of course, but it’s easier to remember the happy moments. 

As for religion, there was a church on every corner … Sunday mornings, people put on their Sunday best and went to church … 

kids grew up with hymns, Bible stories: Samson and Delilah, Moses and Miriam, David and Goliath, Mary Magdalen and Mary, the Mother of Jesus … the parables, the wee little man, Zacchaeus … Jesus walking on the water, and turning water into wine … many a youth heard the call of God and became women and men of force and faith; who changed the world for the better.

These days:

The presence of the church has been greatly diminished … not that the church was always right and good … the church wasn’t always right and good, and sometimes the church was wrong, terribly wrong, tragically wrong, dead wrong … at many points, on many issues and questions. Not the first time the church has been wrong; nor the last.

Be that as it may:

The diminishment of the church is a serious loss ... 

The diminishment of the church has left a vacuum, a blackhole, and into that blackhole, self-interest has rushed in at full speed, and dragged along the whole dysfunctional family - fear, anxiety, paranoia, frustration, doubt and darkness, terrible ideas and behaviors: Neo-Nazism, Christian Nationalism, anti-Semitism, hate crimes, white supremacy, and from top to bottom, from sea to shining sea, a hideous materialism.

The church, in spite of its problems, was a force for good, much good - hospitals built, colleges and universities founded, missionaries sent out into the world - often with the sword of empire, but they also went out with love - with wisdom, mercy and compassion; tools for agriculture and health ... education and literacy.

The church was a force for good - beauty, art, cathedrals, music, poetry - the great ideas of creation and justice, sin and forgiveness; the promotion of science and reason, humanism and enlightenment, freedom and opportunity.

And always the message of Christ: a world to be loved, people to be helped … the maintenance of a conscience … to remind us of what’s important, what counts, and how we need to live:

to give of ourselves more than to take of others ... 

to be generous rather than greedy, 

self-sacrificing rather than self-centered … 

charitable to the needy rather than judgmental of their suffering ... 

to seek peace, 

practice forgiveness, 

be merciful and patient,

trust God in all things, and not give way to fear and frustration.

Pay attention, read well, learn much, laugh often, reach high, and love God.

The diminishment of the church is a serious loss to the intellectual, spiritual, cultural, wellbeing of the nation.

But God's purpose of love and salvation remain ... 

The present time is a gift, an opportunity … as the hymn puts it, “This is my Father’s world” …  

now is not the time to wring our hands, clutch our pearls, to lament what is lost, grump and groan.

now is the time to be pioneers of a new day, explorers on the unknown road … now is the time to use the maps of old, sure, and then draw our own maps for the new day … now is the time for patience, but not too much … now is the time to wait upon the LORD, but not to fall asleep.

It’s a time to be "thoroughly Christian" ... 

Jesus speaks of mustard seeds, yeast … and the pearl of great price …  

Metaphors - not of domination, but cooperation … not of power, but peace - the mustard seed grows, like a bush, a tree, slowly, gently, to take its place among the other bushes and trees, and the birds are happy … 

And yeast, just a small amount of yeast is needed,  just a dab will do ya’ … and the bread is delicious.

The pearl - hidden in a field - a pearl, not a bank vault, not Wall Street, but a pearl, small and precious … small, easily overlooked, yet of great value ... the pearl dealer sells everything to purchase the pearl.

And then this, the fisherman's net - the net gathers up all kinds of fish - people, ideas, behaviors, moments and time - some of great value, some of little value, some to be discarded ... but in the end, it's up to God and the angels - to do the sorting, only God and the angels know for sure ... 

Our task: to welcome all, to trust God, the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ - they and the angels will sort it all out, 

to make right what has been wronged, 

to welcome those whom others have turned away … 

to be the lunch counter where all are served, none are sent away, none are refused … 

can we be the church? Can we be thoroughly Christian? 

to know Christ in Scripture, 

by the work of the Holy Spirit ... 

Christ in our prayers and Christ in our thoughts, 

Christ in the morning, so that we can hear the news of the day, and see the world in its sorrow, through the eyes of Christ ... 

the love of Christ gives shape to our conscience, 

the cross in the center of our soul, our being, our purpose, our work and our homes ... and in our church.

The Christ who is and is to come … the Christ of every hope and all our dreams … 

To be thoroughly Christian is a life-time work, and then some … 

to be thoroughly Christian demands a lot from us, and gives us the pearl of great price ... 

to be thoroughly Christian requires everything we are, and gives us everything we hope to be.

Solomon's prayer is instructive ... rather than asking for a long life or riches, or the death of his enemies, Solomon asks for an understanding mind, the ability to discern between good and evil, what counts, and what doesn’t; what’s real, and what’s illusion and fantasy ... he ask for wisdom, so he can govern well.

His prayer has to be our prayer ... that we might govern well, govern ourselves, and make good choices for home and work, and for our nation.

to be thoroughly Christian … to give thanks for what was, to be patient in the present time, and hopeful for the future … God is still, and always, at work - seeds, yeast, pearls, and nets.

It’s all we have … it’s all we’ve ever had … it’s all we need.

For such a time as this.

To God be the glory.

And God’s Peace to all.

Hallelujah and Amen.

1.1.23 "A Twist of Time" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena

Numbers 6.22-27; Galatians 4.4-7

Time is a funny thing … and by funny, I don’t mean chuckle-funny, but odd-funny … strange and mystifying funny … weird, unnerving, impossible-to-define, kind of funny …

Time … when we’re children, we have all of it … it’s ours, to have and to hold, forever … the clock never runs down, the calendar always has another page, the rising of the sun is a constant … again and again … and once again … so it is, when we’re children. 

Time drags, when we’re children … Christmas never arrives … the 16th birthday never gets here … on a trip, we ask, “Are we there, yet?” … and Mom or Dad, slightly exasperated by it all, say, “Soon, every soon … just another hour or two” … and we flop back in our seat, and groan in our own little puddle, of a child’s indignant weariness.

Time, for a child, is a cheap commodity … not that a child disregards time … not at all … children know the miracles of time … time is never wasted for a child … all of time is time well-spent - every toy, a tool … every game, work at play … every friend, an experiment in social arrangements and emotional testing … to learn limits and boundaries … with a temper tantrum now and then … just to see how that works out … because life is a vast experiment, and children are really good at it … because they have the time to play with time, to see how it works.

And, then, one day, in our late 20s, or early 30s, we hear a tick,  and then a tock … we cock our ears and, like dog, twist our head a bit, trying a little harder to hear whatever it is we’re hearing … that little tick, a little tock … and then a few more … 

Nothing much to concern us … a strange sound to our ears, and we begin to think of things that have never occurred to us in the daily rounds of school and romance and job and dreams … that one day, it will end … we scratch our heads and we stare, for a few moments, into some unknown light, far ahead of us.

Well, here we are, at the turn of a calendar page, the turn of a year, a twist of time … 

In times past, it was all about the seasons … when to plow and when to plant, when to harvest …  

Sundials and obelisks - shadow clocks  … in the Bible, first watch and second watch, and so on … the monasteries kept track of time with the seven offices - matins and lauds, vespers and compline … for ships sailing the seven seas, hour glasses and mechanical devices.

With the industrial age, a new kind of time … the day shift, the night shift, the graveyard shift … days on, days off … sick days and vacation.

Time … a twist of time … and then one day, we look back at a past considerably longer than our future … the endless days of youth evolve into a hastening rush of days, and then months, and then years, roaring on by … and we wonder where all the time has gone … 

The children grow up and leave home … and return home … and then leave again … and we get older … we wonder what it’s all about - who are we? … where did we come from? … where are going? … does life have meaning, other than what I make it to be? 

We have questions … sometimes peaceful about it all.

Time takes our hand and says, “Come and follow me,” and we have little choice in the matter … 

Time has its way with us … and we don’t even ask anymore, “Are we there yet?” … we’re not sure where “there” is, and we’re not sure how we’re getting there … and maybe we don’t even want to get there … 

But it’s God who whispers consolingly to us, “Just a few more hours. We’ll be there soon.”

Maybe there’s been enough love sewn into the warp and woof of life’s fabric … maybe enough laughter … enough success … enough travel …

I know, for a lot of folks, pleasures and joyful moments are few and far between … or maybe not all … 

But if we’ve been fortunate enough, we might be able to count our blessings, at least a few of them, and name them, one-by-one, as the hymn puts it … 

To make our resolutions anew … which is something we do when the calendar turns - we look at time, and give it significance … which is a good thing to do … sure, it’s a children’s game … the turning of the clock … time is time … so we give it names … 

The old year is running out of the house to wherever it goes … and the new year comes our way, knocking on the door, and it all seems fresh and kind and hopeful to us … and we resolve to do better … 

Nothing wrong with our resolutions … if, for no other reason, we can chuckle about them a few months from now, as one more effort among so many to quit smoking, lose some weight, read that book we bought two years ago, fix the hinge on the bedroom closet door, see the dentist, and check on some old friends, too long ignored, not because we wanted to ignore them, but time just got away from us.

Maybe we put off for another day what might be done today … the one good thing about putting off for tomorrow what should be done today is that when tomorrow comes, we’ll always have something to do … 

A twist of time … the end of a cycle, the end of a year … a twist of time, and the future unfolds … life goes on … Christ is born … there is love to be given, and love to be received … books to read, and books that’ll never be read, but that’s ok, we’ve given them shelter in our homes, on a coffee table in the living room, or on a shelf in a study … 

A twist of time .. a tick, a tock …  “What time is it? we ask … rubbing our eyes like a sleepy child, at the end of the day … or bouncing out of bed, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, on a fine Christmas morning. 

What time is it? we ask … 

May all of us find the time to love and be loved; to forgive and be forgiven, to even start over on a few things … or let some things slip away, because they’re not worth keeping … may the time we have be mostly well-spent … but then, time-wasted is ok, too. 

We can’t always be ever-wise and oh-so-thoughtful … we are what we are … and we hope to do a little better, and we will, and sometimes we won’t.

What time is it?

Let’s see what the day holds for us … a tick, a tock, a twist in time … a star above, some angels in the field, a Creator’s promise: Let there light.

Amen and Amen!

Onward and Upward

John 1.43-51    Palms Westminster Presbyterian Church

Welcome to a New Year.

Some might say, well, it’s just another year … it’s no different than any other day … which is true enough, but we humans have a sense of time … time past, present and future … 

Time for us is fateful … important … we don’t want to be late for an appointment … we don’t want to be too early for a social event … we want to arrive on time, or at least to be fashionably late.

Time marches on, we say, and so it does.

We’re all part of time … we’re born, we live, and then one day, we draw our last breath … and like the Bible puts it, we join our fathers and mothers, and here in this place, we are no more.

Time … the time we have is everything …

We make choices, decisions, commitments … we make our plans and do what we can to follow through …

We make promises to have and to hold …

We make promises to be faithful to Christ … to tell the truth, at least as best we can … and not just the truth, but the truth in love … because truth without love is hardly truth at all … as Paul the Apostle reminds us: without love, our highest endeavors and our finest words mean nothing …

Time is part and parcel of hope … and hope is our greatest strength, our greatest asset … hope in the LORD, and the LORD’s faithfulness, to be at work in all things for good.

Hope for a better day … for new love … for another chance … 

I’ve been thinking of the Pete Seeger song: I Can See a New Day …

I can see a new day

A new day soon to be

When the storm clouds are all passed

And the sun shines on a world that is free.

I can see a new world 

A new world coming fast

When all men are brothers

And hatred forgotten at last

I can see a new man

A new man standing tall

With his head high and his heart proud

And afraid of nothing at all

I can see a new day

A new day soon to be

When the storm clouds are all passed

And the sun shines on a world that is free.

From our gospel this morning …

Jesus said to Nathaniel, Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these. Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

I’m thinking of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,  … I have a dream, he said.

That my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will be not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream …

I find myself thinking of Isaiah:

In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah said, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:

      “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;

      the whole earth is full of his glory.”

I think of those who came to Phillip and said, Sir, we would see Jesus.

Can we be hopeful today?

Can we we face the harsh winds of life and be brave?

Can we speak truth to power, because we believe in the truth, the truth of Christ, the truth that really sets people free?

Can we look at the homeless on our streets and demand that the organs of government get their act together and do a better job for the needy and the downcast?

Can we look at our schools and demand that as a nation we stand by our children, we fund our schools, we keep them in repair, and see to it that our children are safe and secure?

Can we look at the elderly in our land and celebrate what Social Security has meant to millions of Americans, hard working Americans, decent and good Americans who need Social Security to avoid the abyss of poverty?

Can we celebrate the goodness of Medicare … for millions of Americans who need decent health care… 

Can we truly be patriots, and care for one another … 

Can we be Christian enough to know that we owe a debt of love to one another … and that God desires good government … God is the god of kings and queens and prime ministers and parliaments, and Senators and Legislators and Presidents, too … and all who hold the reigns of power will be held accountable before the LORD of heaven and earth, not for how much money they saved, but for how much money they spent, to make life better for children, for women and young mothers, for all who have needs, for all who are in want … God will not ask our leaders about walls built to keep people out, but bridges built to welcome the world! Not about war, but about peace. Not about exclusion, but welcome. Not about punishment, but forgiveness … and how we all cared for God’s good earth.

In the early 80s, I showed to my Session a film about nuclear war, and what we can do to prevent it.

Afterward, an elder asked me, “If we all die in a nuclear war, and we go to heaven, what’s wrong with that?”

At the time, I didn’t have answer, and it saddened me. And for a long time, I thought about it.

And came up with this … not a heavy answer, but just little parable of sorts …

A man stood by the gates of heaven, hoping to enter, but St. Peter said to him, “In your life time, you didn’t care about God’s earth. What makes you think you’ll care about God’s heaven?” And the man was turned he away.

The man objected: I have faith, I believe in Jesus … and St. Peter will say, Yes, but you didn’t have love. You didn’t love my green earth, my clean water, my bright air. You didn’t care about children dying. Oh, you did your charity; you gave, but you didn’t put away the tools of destruction and the greed that creates poverty. You sang hymns about Christ, but you failed to follow him.

Without love, faith is nothing.

Without love, charity means nothing.

I so like what Oprah Winfrey said at the Golden Globes:

In my career, she said, what I've always tried my best to do, whether on television or through film, is to say something about how men and women really behave. 

To say how we experience shame, how we love and how we rage, how we fail, how we retreat, persevere and how we overcome. 

I've interviewed and portrayed people who've withstood some of the ugliest things life can throw at you, but the one quality all of them seem to share is an ability to maintain hope for a brighter morning, even during our darkest nights. 

So I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon! 

And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say "Me too" again.

2017 has been a pretty rough year for me … and for our nation, as I see it … and the world around us … but I believe the LORD above yet has a hand upon the engines of history … evil will fail and love will prevail …

And that we here in this place will make a difference when we choose Christ, anew and again.

Something new on the horizon … a new day coming … the fresh winds of faith, hope and love … the sunshine of grace, mercy and peace … the love of Christ … and people, people all around the world, taking a deep breath, rolling up their sleeves, going to work, and working hard, to make this a better world …

In the end, God will look upon us and say Thanks. You cared for my earth, and that means you’ll love heaven. 

In life and in death, now and forever, we belong to a most faithful Savior.

I can see a new day.

Amen and Amen!