Acts 2:1-21
Goooooood Morning Covenant Presbyterian Church.
Welcome to Pentecost!
Welcome to the deep work of God!
Creating the Church of Jesus Christ.
Welcome to the fire and the wind …
Welcome to Pentecost.
The fiftieth day after Passover … a harvest festival, a pilgrim festival, 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead …
Jesus told his disciples to go to Jerusalem … wait there … wait for the promise of the Father … wait for the Holy Spirit.
I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to wait.
Do you find it hard to wait, too?
We do a lot of waiting in our lifetime …
A child waiting for Christmas … a child in the back seat on the way to gramma’s house – “are we there yet?”
I remember waiting for my 10th birthday … finally reaching double-digits – that was significant to me.
I remember turning 13 – a teenager, at last.
Then 16, to get my license …
18, registering for the draft …
And 21, to drink …
And so on and so forth … lots of waiting …
The disciples are waiting … a spiritual waiting … a positive, powerful, kind of waiting …
Waiting for the promise of the Father, the promise of the Holy Spirit … a promise proclaimed by John the Baptist when he stood with Jesus in the Jordan River: He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire [Luke 3:16].
Waiting is a vital part of our spiritual work …
We wait for God.
We discipline ourselves … we take a deep breath … we pray and we ponder, we wait and we watch, we stop and we sit … we put our burdens down, and we set aside our plans!
We resist the temptation to plunge ahead.
We wait for the LORD!
Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the LORD [Psalm 31:24].
Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for him [Psalm 37:7].
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem Israel
from all its iniquities [Psalm 130:5-8].
What would it look like for us to wait upon the LORD?
Are we inclined to wait upon the Lord?
I think American Christians are terribly impatient.
American Christianity is bustling and busy …
Full of books and methods …
Strategies and designs …
Meetings and marketing plans …
I wonder sometimes …
American Christianity seems frantic these days.
Evangelicals snarl and snap at one another over points of faith …
Liberals moan and groan about most everything …
And everyone counts numbers … how many in the pew this morning? How much in the offering plate? How tall the steeple; how big the program.
From Shakespeare [Macbeth, V.v.]:
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
[wrote Shakespeare, Macbeth, V.v.]
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
I get the uneasy feeling sometimes that God is waiting for us to slow down … God is waiting for us to wait for God!
Does God say, Okay, you think it’s up to you? Your strategies and your designs, your plans and your power? Your dreams and your reputation? Okay. Go for it. I’ll wait! I’ll wait until you’re so tired, that you can’t think anymore. I’ll wait until you’ve read all the books and exhaust all the possibilities … I’ll wait until you learn … to wait for my promise.
In reality, some congregations never learn to wait upon the LORD.
A church in Redford, Michigan just announced its closing …
10 years ago, they had a chance to merge with another church and create a vital ministry; all the details had been worked out … but one of their stalwart members stood up and announced at a congregational meeting, “I’d rather take my church to my grave than see it change.”
Well, she got her wish, didn’t she?
She took her church to the grave.
I wonder what would have happened had she learned to wait upon the LORD rather than catering to her own comfort.
I wonder what a waiting church looks like?
A church waiting for the Father’s promise …
Waiting for the Holy Spirit?
It’s not that the disciples were waiting around aimlessly … twitting their thumbs … oh no … far from it … listen to the Text:
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.
Devoted to prayer … together with one another …
I wonder what THAT looks like?
Are we devoted to prayer at Covenant?
What do you think?
If we were devoted to prayer, what would that look like?
Would we have prayer gatherings in our homes?
Would we open our meetings with 20 minutes of prayer? 30 minutes of prayer?
Would we have a Wednesday evening prayer service?
Would we have:
Extended periods of holy silence, when we wait together for the LORD to speak to our hearts … calm our minds, center our energies, reveal God’s will and purpose?
Extended periods of time - reading the Psalms aloud to one another, because the Psalms are mostly prayers …
Reading from prayer books … writing our own prayers … and just praying, as the Spirit leads … some praying with ease, because they’re comfortable with words; others praying hesitantly, because words flow slowly.
Are we devoted to prayer?
We are a prayerful church, that I know.
But can we kick it up a notch?
Are we minimalists?
I think a lot of congregations are sort of minimalist …
We do it all, but we do it perfunctorily …
We’ve done it a thousands times; we settle into the rut and sink into routine …
Are we minimalists here?
I love how the story unfolds …
They were all together in one place …
And then came the fire.
Tongues of flame above everyone’s head …
The anointing of the Holy Spirit …
The breath of God all over again … like the creation story of Genesis 2, when God took a handful of dirt and blew life into it, so the dirt become a living being …
God breathed a fresh breath of air on Pentecost day …
So the church could become a living being …
And they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability.
This is the clue – language!
The ability to speak … to the world.
Crowds gathered at the sound of it all …
Curious crowds …
Bewildered crowds …
Crowds from all over the Mediterranean world – they heard the disciples speaking in their own languages – how can this be? They asked. We hear their accent – they a rough and tumble bunch from Galilee, and they’re talking about God in our own language. What does this mean?
Some sneered, of course; they’ve been hitting ye’ olde wine bottle a little too early!
Were they drunk?
Or was it just the Holy Spirit …
Barriers came down that day.
Bridges were built!
Folks from all around the world heard the gospel in their own tongue!
Los Angeles is a gathering place for peoples of the world …
We ate in a Himalayan restaurant the other night, next door to a Turkish café, just down the block from a Brazilian bistro …
Everywhere a veritable melting pot - in our streets and schools, workplaces and neighborhoods – a wonderful mélange of sights and sounds – full of energy and creativity …
Just like Jerusalem … that fabled day of Pentecost …
The world at our doorstep …
Several months ago, we had some guests …
One of them spoke Spanish … someone else translated …
As I read the story of Pentecost this week … I kept thinking of that moment.
This past week, I was at a union hall in Hawthorne … with a group of folks who had just lost their jobs at the LAX Hilton … folks who had worked there 20 and 25 years, and now they were laid off …
Most of the meeting was in Spanish …
A very sweet lady came over and sat next to me, and translated quietly.
I was deeply moved.
I was honored to be there.
They invited me to speak, and I did.
Most of them understood me.
They’re bilingual; I’m not.
Language …
God speaks in all the languages of the world …
To the lost and to the found …
To the blind and to the sighted …
The disciples spoke that day in everyone’s language:
Parthians, Medes, and Elamites;
Visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene;
Immigrants from Rome, both Jews and proselytes;
Even Cretans and Arabs!
No one left out.
The message of God’s love for everyone!
So, what does Pentecost mean for us, right here, right now, Covenant on the Corner?
What do we learn from the Text?
From the story itself?
Have we learned the spiritual art of waiting upon the LORD?
Or are we likely to plunge ahead with our plans?
Are we a little bit frantic these days, or are confident in God’s purpose?
Do we use prayer to open and close meetings, or are we exploring the larger dimensions of prayer?
Are we a Pentecost church filled with the sound of God’s breath? … a sound that intrigues the world, and draws folks to see what’s happening?
We are growing in all of this … and there’s always more ahead of us …
We are asking good questions and probing the future …
Learning to speak the languages of our time …
We are the church of Jesus Christ …
A Pentecost church …
Spirit-breathed and Spirit-led.
Filled with the fire of faith!
We are, Covenant on the Corner …
Amen and Amen.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
May 24, 2009 - "Eternal Life"
John 7:6-19; I John 5:9-13
After a long illness, a woman died and arrived at the Gates of Heaven. While she was waiting for Saint Peter to greet her, she peeked through the Gates and saw that it was very beautiful.
Saint Peter came by and nodded.
The woman said to him "This is such a wonderful place! How do I get in?"
"You have to spell a word", Saint Peter told her.
"Which word?" the woman asked.
"Love."
The woman correctly spelled "Love" and Saint Peter welcomed her into Heaven.
A year later, Saint Peter came to the woman and asked her to watch the Gates of Heaven for him that day. While the woman was guarding the Gates of Heaven, her husband arrived.
"I'm surprised to see you," the woman said. "How have you been?"
"Oh, I've been doing pretty well since you died," her husband told her. "I married the beautiful young nurse who took care of you while you were ill. And then I won the lottery. I sold the little house you and I lived in and bought a big mansion. And my wife and I traveled all around the world. We were on vacation and I went water skiing today. I fell, the ski hit my head, and here I am. How do I get in?"
"You have to spell a word", the woman told him.
"Which word?" her husband asked.
"Czechoslovakia."
**************
An 85-year-old couple, married 60 years, died in a car crash. They had been in good health over the years, mainly due to her interest in health food and exercise.
When they reached the pearly gates, St. Peter took them to their mansion, which was decked out with a beautiful kitchen and master bath suite and Jacuzzi. As they "ooohed and aaahed" the old man asked Peter how much all this was going to cost.
"It's free," Peter replied, "this is Heaven."
Next they went out back to see the championship golf course that the home backed up to. They would have golfing privileges everyday and each week the course changed to a new one representing the great golf courses on earth.
The old man asked, "What are the green fees?"
Peter's reply, "This is heaven, you play for free."
Next they went to the clubhouse and saw the lavish buffet lunch with the cuisines of the world laid out.
"How much to eat?" asked the old man.
"Don't you understand yet? This is heaven, it’s free!" Peter replied.
"Well, where are the low fat and low cholesterol foods?" the old man asked timidly. "That's the best part,” said St. Peter ...you can eat as much as you like of whatever you like and you never get fat and you never get sick. This is Heaven."
The old man looked at his wife and said, "You and your bran muffins - I could have been here ten years ago!
*********
Eternal life … life after death … life beyond the grave; the better place and the home in the sky …
Egyptians built pyramids and mummified their kings and queens … and stocked the burial chamber with food and drink.
Greek philosophers envisioned a perfect world, and when we shed the weakness of the flesh, our soul flies off to everlasting peace.
Revival preachers warn their audiences about hell with lurid descriptions of fire and brimstone, so you better get right with Jesus.
Islam and Buddhism, all have some version of life after death.
Not that everyone has been so happy with the idea – Karl Marx rightly described the doctrine of eternal life as an opiate for the people – just tell the poor and the oppressed, the enslaved and the imprisoned, that a better life awaits them in eternity, with mansions and pearly gates and golden streets – until then, obey the king, accept your place in the world, and do and believe what the priest tells you to do.
No wonder Marx reacted so bitterly to the doctrine of eternal life.
Some have said: when you’re dead, you’re dead! That’s all folks!
Nothing more.
Dust to dust, earth to earth, ashes to ashes.
A friend of mine says, “When you die, you rot!”
My friend as least gets an A for bluntness!
Yet the human spirit longs for something more than just the span of years we have here …
In song and story, art and drama, even jokes … life after death … something more, something greater than the span of our years here, something beyond the grave.
Wishful thinking?
Are we fooling ourselves?
Is death the final reality?
The final word?
The end of it all?
John Donne, the 16th Century poet, wrote powerfully about death …
Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me;
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die.
Paul the Apostle writes [1 Corinthians 15]:
Christ has been raised from the dead,
The first fruits of those who have died.
When this perishable body puts on imperishability,
And this mortal body puts on immortality,
Then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:
‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’
‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’
Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
Through our LORD Jesus Christ.
Therefore my beloved,
Be steadfast, immovable, always excelling
In the work of the LORD,
Because you know that in the LORD
Your labor is not vain.
The gift of eternal life.
A gift from the heart of God.
For all of God’s creation.
The promise of something new …
A new heaven and a new earth …
No one lost …
No one left behind …
For God so loved the world.
Eternal life - does it make a difference?
Paul writes to his friends: if for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
If with merely human hopes I fought with wild animals at Ephesus, what would I have gained by it?
If the dead are not raised.
‘Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.’
Without a sense of eternity,
Something goes very wrong inside of us.
Life becomes a desperate run … to eat and drink our fill, because it’s all going to go away.
If we don’t have it now, we’ll never have it.
We become consumers … mindless consumers of everything.
The latest this and the biggest that.
Seize life by the throat –
Buy it, own it, drive it, see it – do it now before you hit the ground!
Without eternity,
We come to expect too much of life.
More than life can deliver.
This is not heaven on earth.
This is earth, and it’s wonderful.
And God said, ‘It is good.’
But there are limits for all of us …
Severe limits for millions …
Death and disease, war and famine …
For us here, in the land of the free, we’ve come close to creating heaven on earth … it’s marvelous to behold what we have fashioned, but it’s done hard things to our soul …
We have come to expect way too much of life.
Preachers of health, wealth and happiness promise us the moon, if we would only buy their book and attend their seminar!
The gurus of finance and prosperity beguile us with images of wealth …
Teachers of “be all you can be” and “you’re number 1” …
Five steps to success … three secrets of happiness … how to lose weight and live longer … cosmetics to take the years off … surgery to fix the nose … science and medicine to cure our diseases and prolong our lives …
We expect so much of life, because we fear that life is all there is.
And Christianity hasn’t helped us …
If there was a time when Medieval Christianity was all ABOUT eternity, much of Christianity these days is mostly warmed over porridge.
Oh sure, we talk about eternal life, but we don’t integrate it into our thinking, our daily prayers, our sense of life and hope, and most importantly, our sense of justice!
If life here is all we have … then the fear of death, the end, the terminal point, becomes a shadow hovering over everything we do and think … we don’t talk about death very well, and, of course, no one dies, they just “pass away,” flitting off to some better place, or maybe they just go away, and with a little luck, we can get on with our busy lives again, and those who linger and cry for the loss of a loved one – we tell them to get on with their life and we hurry away to our next meeting and go out shopping.
If life here is all we have, we have a lot, but we don’t have enough!
Jesus asks us: To what end and for what purpose, you gain the whole world and then forfeit your life? [Matthew 16:26].
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven … for where you treasure is, there you will find your heart [Matthew 6:19-21].
The writer to Timothy notes: There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich, some have wondered away form the faith, and pierced themselves with many pains [2 Timothy 6:6-10].
As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life [2 Timothy 6:17-19].
Paul writes: I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what is to have to plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me [Philippians 4:11b-13a].
Life is good, but our hold on life is slim.
The last time I checked, the mortality rate was still 100 per cent – we’re all on a train called time.
Sooner or later, we draw our last breath here on earth, and take our first breath of the clean cool air of eternity.
Eternity on our mind, our minds are not so restless, our lives not so frantic … a little peaceable in our pace, living through each other rather than living against each other.
Eternity in our spirit, we’re a little more relaxed and a bit more thankful … food and drink taste better.
Eternal life embedded in our consciousness, we count our blessings rather than our wants, and we share a little more easily …
Eternity ahead of us, we face the end with a deeper sense of peace …
This is world is our home, that’s for sure; but it’s a temporary home.
We’re all travelers in time.
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die.
Amen and Amen!
Monday, May 11, 2009
May 10, 2009 - "Love" - Mother's Day
Audio - click HERE.
John 15:1-8 & 1 John 4:7-21
Happy Mother’s Day!
Blessings and Peace to our mothers …
They carried us close to their heart …
Some of us hold hurtful memories about our mother …
A mother who didn’t do it well …
Her love too distant …
Too controlling …
Words sometimes abusive …
Memories that still hurt …
Memories that mystify …
Defy understanding …
Some of us carry bright and beautiful memories …
Of a mother who did it well …
With a love that was just right …
Neither too hot, nor too cold …
Like porridge for Goldilocks, it was just right …
We celebrate a mot
her’s gifts today:
A good sense of humor …
Wise advice …
Patience and forgiveness …
Kindness and understanding …
And the power of love given away …
Love is a many-splendored thing ….
Full of surprises and full of challenges …
Love comes easy some of the time …
And sometimes, it’s the hardest thing in the world …
Sometimes I know what love is …
And sometimes I’m not sure …
Even God doesn’t know how to love all the time …
God cries out: What shall I do with you , O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
Like the dew that goes away early [Hosea 6:4].
Centuries later, the Apostle Paul writes:
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends [I Corinthians 13:4-7].
Love is a deeply ethical word …
To love someone is do right by them …
To honor them for their life …
To recognize them as a real human being …
The Greeks had four words for love … [C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves]:
Storge … simple affection … something we share with dogs and cats and whales, as well: touching, cuddling, nuzzling … cooing, purring and humming … simple, basic affection.
Another word, philia, brotherly love – Philadelphia, PA – city of brotherly love …
Another word, eros, from which we get the word erotic … the physical power of being in love, the power of desire and want …
And then agape … the word used most commonly in the Bible … agape – a deeply ethical love – commitment, loyalty, faithfulness, steadfastness, understanding and patience, tolerance in the face of difficulties … a giving love that seeks the wellbeing of the other … a love willing to lay down its life for the sake of the other …
Jesus said, No greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for another.
The Bible says a great deal about love …
Let’s take a look at our passages for the day …
John 15:1-8 …
1 John 4:7-21 …
What is love?
We do well to begin with God’s love …
For God so loved the world …
The love that takes up a cross and goes to Golgatha …
The love that lays down its life for you and me.
Paul writes of faith, hope and love … and dares to say: the greatest of these is love …greater than faith, greater than hope …
What is love?
Love is a deeply ethical word …
A decision to do right by the other …
Even when we hardly feel like doing it …
Jesus didn’t feel like going to the cross …
And there’s plenty of days when you and I don’t feel very loving at all …
But we love nonetheless …
We do what’s right … and sometimes the doing helps the feeling …
Sometimes we have to use our motions to lead our emotions … the doing of something right takes our emotions by the hand and leads them to a better place.
In other words, do right, even when you don’t feel right.
And in the doing, something good occurs …
There is no greater pleasure than knowing we’ve done something right, something good …
Above and beyond the call of duty …
The extra mile …
Beyond our self-interest …
Big examples like:
Mother Teresa in Calcutta …
My friend Ben Mathes on a jungle riverboat …
A store-front pastor negotiating with street gangs in east LA …
Most of us will never have the chance for such dramatic things …
Most of us live small moments …
No headlines …
Just the day-to-day things of life …
When our mental and spiritual capacities are stretched to the limit ….
So we go deeper, reach higher … travel further … then we ever thought we could …
After 55 years of marriage, Fred visits his wife every day in the nursing home – Alzheimer’s for the last three years … Ruby doesn’t recognize Fred anymore … she stares at a place far away, and then asks, “Who are you?”
Fred says, “I’m your husband, I’m Fred, and I love you.”
Fred tears up, and Ruby looks at him curiously, and then a few tears leak from her eyes, too … for a moment, a connection … she knows him … and then, it’s gone … she says, “Who are you?”
Fred wouldn’t miss a day …
“She’s my wife. She stood by me so many times, and now it’s my turn to stand by her … to be faithful to her and patient … I wouldn’t miss a day here.”
Fred goes home bone-weary …
He cries himself to sleep …
He prays to God …
He’s lonely beyond description …
His children help as much as they can, but they’re busy with their lives …
Fred says, “For better, for worse; in sickness and in health, till death do us part.”
I remember Dale, a Presbyterian pastor – serving two small churches in rural Missouri, when I met him.
Dale wasn’t much a preacher … he didn’t have a way with words – he spoke haltingly and always seemed a little unsure of himself.
That’s why Dale never made it to a big city church.
Dale spent his whole life in small rural parishes … never wrote a book and never made the news …
Dale spent his days calling on widows and comforting the poor, in body and in spirit.
Every Sunday, Dale preached the gospel, as best he could … in season and out of season …
Always broke and a dollar short …
Never could afford a new car … only drove old beaters …
Shopped for clothing at secondhand stores …
Lived in church-owned housing … the carpet worn and the paint showing its age …
I met Dale at a workshop, near the end of his career… he was there on a scholarship … my heart was moved when I got to know him a little bit … I was struck by the character of his life … something right and something good …
I remember thinking: could I be so faithful?
Could I be so true to my calling?
I remember David …
One of the hardest working guys I’ve ever known …
His Daddy went to jail, but David stood by him and cared for his mother …
His wife divorced him for another man … and I remember him coming over early on Sunday morning to tell me … his knuckles were bleeding because he had hit the wall when his wife walked out on him … he sat our table and cried.
They got a divorce … it was done and over with …
But the affair of the heart came to end, as they always do … and by the grace of God, she came back … humiliated and heart-broken …
And I had the pleasure of officiating at their second marriage … and they’ve never looked back …
I’ve always been amazed at this man … and his wife, too … they both said, “I’m sorry” and love flourished again.
I think of Mary caring for a challenged child …
She had to quit work … and we all know what that means … living on the margin … sleepless nights … fretful days … but Mary does it.
She crashes and burns sometimes …
Family members come by and fill in some of the hours …
Neighbors help, too.
I think of the surgeons in Cleveland who did the world’s most complicated face transplant for Connie Culp.
Her husband shotgunned her and blew her face away …
And for five years, Connie lived a very hard life.
And then a miracle, if you will …
A face transplant … bone, muscles, nerves, vessels … for 24 hours, they operated …
The bandages are off … and a lot more work ahead …
But Connie can smile again and eat pizza for the first time in 5 years.
I’m amazed at her spunk and her humor …
And she didn’t do it alone …
She tells of all the people who’ve stood by her … who sustained her … who loved her … and the fantastic medical team, and the surgeon who said, “I think we can.”
Love is a Sunday School teacher …
Love is choir director …
Love is a deacon …
Love is an elder …
Love is writing a check and putting it into the offering plate …
Love is showing up here …
Love is being faithful to things and causes beyond ourselves …
Today, here and now …
Big things, small things …
There is a lot of love here at Covenant on the Corner …
Your love is a courageous love …
Decisions made and positions taken on behalf of love …
For a better world and a more just life for our fellow Angelinos …
Love endures, says Paul the Apostle …
Love never ends …
Every day, when we love,
More love comes our way …
Love grows when it’s spent.
Love comes back to us when it’s given away …
Because God is love … and God is forever …
So let’s love one another all the more …
Live large … live beyond ourselves …
No one excluded; everyone welcomed …
Let us abide in Christ all the more … and do what’s right …
And Christ abides in us …
And glorious is the day!
Happy Mother’s Day!
Amen and Amen!
John 15:1-8 & 1 John 4:7-21
Happy Mother’s Day!
Blessings and Peace to our mothers …
They carried us close to their heart …
Some of us hold hurtful memories about our mother …
A mother who didn’t do it well …
Her love too distant …
Too controlling …
Words sometimes abusive …
Memories that still hurt …
Memories that mystify …
Defy understanding …
Some of us carry bright and beautiful memories …
Of a mother who did it well …
With a love that was just right …
Neither too hot, nor too cold …
Like porridge for Goldilocks, it was just right …
We celebrate a mot
her’s gifts today:A good sense of humor …
Wise advice …
Patience and forgiveness …
Kindness and understanding …
And the power of love given away …
Love is a many-splendored thing ….
Full of surprises and full of challenges …
Love comes easy some of the time …
And sometimes, it’s the hardest thing in the world …
Sometimes I know what love is …
And sometimes I’m not sure …
Even God doesn’t know how to love all the time …
God cries out: What shall I do with you , O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
Like the dew that goes away early [Hosea 6:4].
Centuries later, the Apostle Paul writes:
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends [I Corinthians 13:4-7].
Love is a deeply ethical word …
To love someone is do right by them …
To honor them for their life …
To recognize them as a real human being …
The Greeks had four words for love … [C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves]:
Storge … simple affection … something we share with dogs and cats and whales, as well: touching, cuddling, nuzzling … cooing, purring and humming … simple, basic affection.
Another word, philia, brotherly love – Philadelphia, PA – city of brotherly love …
Another word, eros, from which we get the word erotic … the physical power of being in love, the power of desire and want …
And then agape … the word used most commonly in the Bible … agape – a deeply ethical love – commitment, loyalty, faithfulness, steadfastness, understanding and patience, tolerance in the face of difficulties … a giving love that seeks the wellbeing of the other … a love willing to lay down its life for the sake of the other …
Jesus said, No greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for another.
The Bible says a great deal about love …
Let’s take a look at our passages for the day …
John 15:1-8 …
1 John 4:7-21 …
What is love?
We do well to begin with God’s love …
For God so loved the world …
The love that takes up a cross and goes to Golgatha …
The love that lays down its life for you and me.
Paul writes of faith, hope and love … and dares to say: the greatest of these is love …greater than faith, greater than hope …
What is love?
Love is a deeply ethical word …
A decision to do right by the other …
Even when we hardly feel like doing it …
Jesus didn’t feel like going to the cross …
And there’s plenty of days when you and I don’t feel very loving at all …
But we love nonetheless …
We do what’s right … and sometimes the doing helps the feeling …
Sometimes we have to use our motions to lead our emotions … the doing of something right takes our emotions by the hand and leads them to a better place.
In other words, do right, even when you don’t feel right.
And in the doing, something good occurs …
There is no greater pleasure than knowing we’ve done something right, something good …
Above and beyond the call of duty …
The extra mile …
Beyond our self-interest …
Big examples like:
Mother Teresa in Calcutta …
My friend Ben Mathes on a jungle riverboat …
A store-front pastor negotiating with street gangs in east LA …
Most of us will never have the chance for such dramatic things …
Most of us live small moments …
No headlines …
Just the day-to-day things of life …
When our mental and spiritual capacities are stretched to the limit ….
So we go deeper, reach higher … travel further … then we ever thought we could …
After 55 years of marriage, Fred visits his wife every day in the nursing home – Alzheimer’s for the last three years … Ruby doesn’t recognize Fred anymore … she stares at a place far away, and then asks, “Who are you?”
Fred says, “I’m your husband, I’m Fred, and I love you.”
Fred tears up, and Ruby looks at him curiously, and then a few tears leak from her eyes, too … for a moment, a connection … she knows him … and then, it’s gone … she says, “Who are you?”
Fred wouldn’t miss a day …
“She’s my wife. She stood by me so many times, and now it’s my turn to stand by her … to be faithful to her and patient … I wouldn’t miss a day here.”
Fred goes home bone-weary …
He cries himself to sleep …
He prays to God …
He’s lonely beyond description …
His children help as much as they can, but they’re busy with their lives …
Fred says, “For better, for worse; in sickness and in health, till death do us part.”
I remember Dale, a Presbyterian pastor – serving two small churches in rural Missouri, when I met him.
Dale wasn’t much a preacher … he didn’t have a way with words – he spoke haltingly and always seemed a little unsure of himself.
That’s why Dale never made it to a big city church.
Dale spent his whole life in small rural parishes … never wrote a book and never made the news …
Dale spent his days calling on widows and comforting the poor, in body and in spirit.
Every Sunday, Dale preached the gospel, as best he could … in season and out of season …
Always broke and a dollar short …
Never could afford a new car … only drove old beaters …
Shopped for clothing at secondhand stores …
Lived in church-owned housing … the carpet worn and the paint showing its age …
I met Dale at a workshop, near the end of his career… he was there on a scholarship … my heart was moved when I got to know him a little bit … I was struck by the character of his life … something right and something good …
I remember thinking: could I be so faithful?
Could I be so true to my calling?
I remember David …
One of the hardest working guys I’ve ever known …
His Daddy went to jail, but David stood by him and cared for his mother …
His wife divorced him for another man … and I remember him coming over early on Sunday morning to tell me … his knuckles were bleeding because he had hit the wall when his wife walked out on him … he sat our table and cried.
They got a divorce … it was done and over with …
But the affair of the heart came to end, as they always do … and by the grace of God, she came back … humiliated and heart-broken …
And I had the pleasure of officiating at their second marriage … and they’ve never looked back …
I’ve always been amazed at this man … and his wife, too … they both said, “I’m sorry” and love flourished again.
I think of Mary caring for a challenged child …
She had to quit work … and we all know what that means … living on the margin … sleepless nights … fretful days … but Mary does it.
She crashes and burns sometimes …
Family members come by and fill in some of the hours …
Neighbors help, too.
I think of the surgeons in Cleveland who did the world’s most complicated face transplant for Connie Culp.
Her husband shotgunned her and blew her face away …
And for five years, Connie lived a very hard life.
And then a miracle, if you will …
A face transplant … bone, muscles, nerves, vessels … for 24 hours, they operated …
The bandages are off … and a lot more work ahead …
But Connie can smile again and eat pizza for the first time in 5 years.
I’m amazed at her spunk and her humor …
And she didn’t do it alone …
She tells of all the people who’ve stood by her … who sustained her … who loved her … and the fantastic medical team, and the surgeon who said, “I think we can.”
Love is a Sunday School teacher …
Love is choir director …
Love is a deacon …
Love is an elder …
Love is writing a check and putting it into the offering plate …
Love is showing up here …
Love is being faithful to things and causes beyond ourselves …
Today, here and now …
Big things, small things …
There is a lot of love here at Covenant on the Corner …
Your love is a courageous love …
Decisions made and positions taken on behalf of love …
For a better world and a more just life for our fellow Angelinos …
Love endures, says Paul the Apostle …
Love never ends …
Every day, when we love,
More love comes our way …
Love grows when it’s spent.
Love comes back to us when it’s given away …
Because God is love … and God is forever …
So let’s love one another all the more …
Live large … live beyond ourselves …
No one excluded; everyone welcomed …
Let us abide in Christ all the more … and do what’s right …
And Christ abides in us …
And glorious is the day!
Happy Mother’s Day!
Amen and Amen!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
May 3, 2009 - "Living into the Story of the Midwives"
By the Rev. Dr. David Fleer
Audio Version HERE.
Living Into the Story of the Midwives: Strength and Courage for these Days
Exodus 1: 7 - 22
I
A nine month old child sits on his Grandma’s lap with a book opened before them. As Grandma reads he is attentive to her voice, stares at the pictures, absorbs the colors, and leans forward to kiss the lambs and babies and hear the sounds uttered by the cows and horses. Grandma closes the book but he is hungry for more. This baby already loves books, which means he is discovering the worlds and treasures they contain.
One day he will hear Scripture’s most essential stories, the paradigmatic tales of the Hebrews and their beginnings, their enslavement and God’s studied concern for them.
One day he’ll come to know the story of Shiprah and Puah, the Midwives, who protected the Hebrew babies from infanticide. He’ll learn the heroic role of two women who “refused imperial fear” to protect the innocent and helpless. He will learn to say their names, honor their work and understand that they acted with the same moral goodness that motivates his mother and grandmother who will become his models, these women who devote their lives to children.
II
“There Arose a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph” is how our story begins, with an ominous and foreboding tone, which also recalls a time when Pharaoh knew Joseph. When Joseph was known ~ we had entrée’. We had a seat at the table and permission and privileges.
“So, you’re Joseph’s son? Not a finer man in this country than your father.”
“You’re part of Joseph’s family? We have a position at the firm that may be of interest to someone with your pedigree.”
“You say Joseph was your Grandfather? When I first came to work here I remember people speaking with great respect about your Grandfather. We have some photographs in the archives I think you’ll appreciate. Good man. Now what can I do for you?”
When Pharaoh knew Joseph, when our Joseph was known by Pharaoh, they invited us in:
“It’s on the house,” they said.
“We own an exclusive private school appropriate for your family.”
That’s how it went when Pharaoh knew Joseph. Opportunities would just appear: scholarships! Business deals! Board positions!
Things go your way when Pharaoh knows Joseph. “They were 70 in number and they were fruitful and multiplied and became exceedingly mighty and the land was full of them” ~ when Pharaoh knew Joseph.
III
“But there Arose a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph.” With the passage of time the connections with power and privilege dried up.
“We’re not hiring,” they told us.
“We’re not selling,” they said.
“Nothing available.”
“You’ll have to wait.”
Clerks and colleagues came to ask, “Where’re you from? What’s that red cloth around your neck? What are those dangly things?”
“Just a scarf.”
“Doesn’t look like a normal scarf. Why are you wearing that? You talk funny.” Where’d you say you’re from?”
We were distanced from society, ostracized, alienated, outsiders. When the nation’s headlines read: “plummeting stocks,” we didn’t have stocks. When the city’s “unemployment lines grew,” we didn’t have jobs to lose. When folks cried about the “bubble bursting” and threats of “foreclosure,” we hadn’t invested in real estate, we didn’t own a house.
We began to write new music appropriate for the times. Tunes appeared with lines like these:
‘Tis the song, the sigh of the weary.
Hard times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered all around my cabin door.
Oh, hard times, come again no more.
Depression and oppression appear early in the Exodus narrative when “there Arose a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph.”
IV
This hard part of our story will be difficult to tell our grandchildren. How we fell out of favor and lived on the margins of society. Because our grandchildren are being schooled and acculturated to gain a secure footing and rise in business and occupation, to marry and contribute to the prosperity of the nation. It will be hard for them to hear
. . . and just as hard for us to tell . . . stories that challenge the culture: stories of those who courageously resist oppressive powers and refuse authorities who ignore the hopeless and marginalized.
It will be hard for them to hear because in the culture where Pharaoh reigns a certain logic dominates, a “common sense” which controls society’s thinking and action. Pharaoh’s logic works like this:
Given: although the Hebrews have become numerous, they’ve done nothing to harm us.
However, the Hebrews could multiply more and in the event of war, they could team with our enemies or runaway and reduce our free labor market.
Therefore, we should make a pre-emptive strike against the innocent because there is a possibility they may become guilty.
That’s the logic of Pharaoh. That’s the rationale of oppression and the genius of fear.
That is why it will be difficult, but essential, to tell our grandchildren this hard part of our history and the challenge of our future.
V
Ours is a story even more difficult to tell because everyone thinks alike. No one challenges Pharaoh’s common sense.
Pharaoh commands the Egyptians to “deal shrewdly with the Hebrews,” to obtain the greatest possible benefit from this ethnic minority, while at the same time exhausting, reducing, and controlling . . . them.
So Pharaoh appoints task masters to carry out his orders. He appoints lieutenants who salute Pharaoh and inflict hard labor,
and stand guard, like at the work camp at Dachau,
and crack the whip, like a plantation overlord,
and demand unreasonable hours, like foremen in a sweatshop.
This is the climate of the system, where if something goes wrong the lieutenants excuse their behavior:
“I was only following orders”
“I was doing as commanded”
Like Abu Ghraib, taught in the schoolyard and enacted by playground bullies. “I did as I was told, or I would have been victimized.”
The strategy was effective on the one hand. The Hebrew work force built storage cities Pithom and Raamses which helped secure Egypt’s homeland security.
But as shrewd as Pharaoh’s plan, his motive is foiled. Although Egyptian strategic sites are enhanced: the Hebrew population increases. Although task masters inflict hard labor and make Hebrew lives bitter from the strain of work, grinding out bricks, plodding in the fields, lifting and pulling, straining and pushing: the Hebrews multiply.
And Pharaoh’s logic multiplies to the masses. And now all the Egyptians are in dread of the potential threat of the Hebrews.
VI
When Plan ‘A’ does not work, Pharaoh’s fear explodes into violence and he concocts Plan ‘B,’ the Final Solution, and calls the Midwives before him.
The Midwives’ profession demands a toughness and gentleness to assist new mothers in the delivery of babies, time the contractions, prepare the water, cut the cloths, and initiate life into the world.
Pharaoh orders the women, “kill the Hebrew’s baby boys.”
The prison guards and police, the plantation overlords, the shop foremen, and the task masters all did as they were told. They obeyed the oppressor’s command.
Into this landscape step Shiprah and Puah ~ and stand before Pharaoh who instructs them, “Accelerate the oppression.”
But, unlike the task masters, the Midwives don’t do as they’ve been told.
They don’t fall back on Romans 13:1 “Be in subjection to the governing authorities.”
They don’t recall I Peter 2, “Submit yourselves to every human institution.”
They don’t recite Titus 3, “Be subject to authorities and to rulers. Obey.”
There is no submission to the state from these women. No obedience to Pharaoh and the governing authorities here. “The Midwives fear God and do not do as Pharaoh commanded. They let the boys live” (1:17)
They violate orders. They risk their lives to save the helpless.
Pharaoh orders, “Kill the babies.” Shiprah and Puah refuse.
VII
Which does not get past Pharaoh who confronts them and demands an account, “What have you done?”
The midwives look Pharaoh in the eye and tell him a big fat lie. A whopper! “The Hebrew women are so vigorous . . . we can’t get there in time. We can’t outrun them, these pregnant women are just too fast.”
To speak in the face of the oppressor with such calm resolve is like plucking a hair from Hitler’s mustache or bonking Bull Connor on the head with his billy club. They pull a fast one on Pharaoh.
The wit of the oppressed, preserved through the ages, begins with the Midwives, who when out muscled and with no resource but their integrity and wit, out fox the Pharaoh.
Like when Br’er Bear and Br’er Fox capture Br’er Rabbit. The two argue between themselves, “I say we skin ‘m and then eat ‘m.”
“I say we boil ‘m first.”
To which Br’er Rabbit interjects, “Boil me, skin me, I don’t care. But whatever you do, don’t throw me in the briar patch.”
Outwitted, the Fox and Bear attempt to torture the rabbit and throw him in the briar patch.
Once safe in the confines of the patch Br’er Rabbit raises his head and taunts his oppressors, “Born and raised in the briar patch, yes indeed. I told you not to throw me here.”
And God witnesses the exchange and God sees the Midwives’ faith and courage and God blessed the Midwives.
IIX
How do we tell this story to our grandchildren? The narrative by itself will entice, engage, and satisfy in so many literary ways:
Our grandchildren will be taken by the quick and ingenious transition from power to slavery, this essential and radical move beautifully told with an economy of words. They’ll enjoy the story’s rapid plot reversals and engaging ironies: Slavery benefits the state with buildings erected and land farmed: good for Egypt. Yet Pharaoh wants his workers eliminated? Midwives represent the source of life, yet they are being ordered to become the bearers of death?
This story nearly tells itself.
Even so, when you read the narrative to your grandchildren, you must work to capture the characters’ voices. Pharaoh is not the voice of Yule Brenner. Jack Nicholson can’t touch this villain. Pharaoh has a even more sinister voice that embodies evil and reveals the fear that envelops him, “Kill them! Kill them all.”
But most important, practice the voice of the Midwives. Their tone is intelligent: they calculate their civil disobedience. They resonate with moral depth: they are loyal to God and their own integrity. Their voice is full of courage: they stand before the powerful and deified Pharaoh, who can crush them or torture them to death.
And in this setting their words shield the innocent.
Practice that voice before you read this story to your grandchildren.
And then, show the story in its recent enactments. Take them to the Ford Museum and sit in Rosa Park’s Montgomery bus, where she defied a system of oppression. Make the Lorraine Motel an essential visit when passing through Memphis and Ebenezer Church a stop in Atlanta where civil disobedience gave voice to the marginalized.
Grandparents trace out the moral code of faith so that grandchildren will know how it means to live in this family. “It is the work of grandparents to transform the remembered past into the present tense” which means that when we tell this paradigmatic story, we live into it ourselves, identifying current systems of oppression remembering God always sides with the poor and abused. Always.
IX
And our grandchildren will watch us and listen to us, even as we pray, with this text as our script: “God of justice and compassion, we give you thanks for turning the world up-side down by uplifting the poor and powerless and turning out the powerful. Forgive us when we lust for power or acquiesce to schemes of the oppressor. Forgive us for participating in this world’s systems of domination. Give us strength and courage for the living of these days, for our children and grandchildren and for ourselves. Amen. “
Audio Version HERE.
Living Into the Story of the Midwives: Strength and Courage for these Days
Exodus 1: 7 - 22
I
A nine month old child sits on his Grandma’s lap with a book opened before them. As Grandma reads he is attentive to her voice, stares at the pictures, absorbs the colors, and leans forward to kiss the lambs and babies and hear the sounds uttered by the cows and horses. Grandma closes the book but he is hungry for more. This baby already loves books, which means he is discovering the worlds and treasures they contain.
One day he will hear Scripture’s most essential stories, the paradigmatic tales of the Hebrews and their beginnings, their enslavement and God’s studied concern for them.
One day he’ll come to know the story of Shiprah and Puah, the Midwives, who protected the Hebrew babies from infanticide. He’ll learn the heroic role of two women who “refused imperial fear” to protect the innocent and helpless. He will learn to say their names, honor their work and understand that they acted with the same moral goodness that motivates his mother and grandmother who will become his models, these women who devote their lives to children.
II
“There Arose a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph” is how our story begins, with an ominous and foreboding tone, which also recalls a time when Pharaoh knew Joseph. When Joseph was known ~ we had entrée’. We had a seat at the table and permission and privileges.
“So, you’re Joseph’s son? Not a finer man in this country than your father.”
“You’re part of Joseph’s family? We have a position at the firm that may be of interest to someone with your pedigree.”
“You say Joseph was your Grandfather? When I first came to work here I remember people speaking with great respect about your Grandfather. We have some photographs in the archives I think you’ll appreciate. Good man. Now what can I do for you?”
When Pharaoh knew Joseph, when our Joseph was known by Pharaoh, they invited us in:
“It’s on the house,” they said.
“We own an exclusive private school appropriate for your family.”
That’s how it went when Pharaoh knew Joseph. Opportunities would just appear: scholarships! Business deals! Board positions!
Things go your way when Pharaoh knows Joseph. “They were 70 in number and they were fruitful and multiplied and became exceedingly mighty and the land was full of them” ~ when Pharaoh knew Joseph.
III
“But there Arose a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph.” With the passage of time the connections with power and privilege dried up.
“We’re not hiring,” they told us.
“We’re not selling,” they said.
“Nothing available.”
“You’ll have to wait.”
Clerks and colleagues came to ask, “Where’re you from? What’s that red cloth around your neck? What are those dangly things?”
“Just a scarf.”
“Doesn’t look like a normal scarf. Why are you wearing that? You talk funny.” Where’d you say you’re from?”
We were distanced from society, ostracized, alienated, outsiders. When the nation’s headlines read: “plummeting stocks,” we didn’t have stocks. When the city’s “unemployment lines grew,” we didn’t have jobs to lose. When folks cried about the “bubble bursting” and threats of “foreclosure,” we hadn’t invested in real estate, we didn’t own a house.
We began to write new music appropriate for the times. Tunes appeared with lines like these:
‘Tis the song, the sigh of the weary.
Hard times, hard times, come again no more.
Many days you have lingered all around my cabin door.
Oh, hard times, come again no more.
Depression and oppression appear early in the Exodus narrative when “there Arose a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph.”
IV
This hard part of our story will be difficult to tell our grandchildren. How we fell out of favor and lived on the margins of society. Because our grandchildren are being schooled and acculturated to gain a secure footing and rise in business and occupation, to marry and contribute to the prosperity of the nation. It will be hard for them to hear
. . . and just as hard for us to tell . . . stories that challenge the culture: stories of those who courageously resist oppressive powers and refuse authorities who ignore the hopeless and marginalized.
It will be hard for them to hear because in the culture where Pharaoh reigns a certain logic dominates, a “common sense” which controls society’s thinking and action. Pharaoh’s logic works like this:
Given: although the Hebrews have become numerous, they’ve done nothing to harm us.
However, the Hebrews could multiply more and in the event of war, they could team with our enemies or runaway and reduce our free labor market.
Therefore, we should make a pre-emptive strike against the innocent because there is a possibility they may become guilty.
That’s the logic of Pharaoh. That’s the rationale of oppression and the genius of fear.
That is why it will be difficult, but essential, to tell our grandchildren this hard part of our history and the challenge of our future.
V
Ours is a story even more difficult to tell because everyone thinks alike. No one challenges Pharaoh’s common sense.
Pharaoh commands the Egyptians to “deal shrewdly with the Hebrews,” to obtain the greatest possible benefit from this ethnic minority, while at the same time exhausting, reducing, and controlling . . . them.
So Pharaoh appoints task masters to carry out his orders. He appoints lieutenants who salute Pharaoh and inflict hard labor,
and stand guard, like at the work camp at Dachau,
and crack the whip, like a plantation overlord,
and demand unreasonable hours, like foremen in a sweatshop.
This is the climate of the system, where if something goes wrong the lieutenants excuse their behavior:
“I was only following orders”
“I was doing as commanded”
Like Abu Ghraib, taught in the schoolyard and enacted by playground bullies. “I did as I was told, or I would have been victimized.”
The strategy was effective on the one hand. The Hebrew work force built storage cities Pithom and Raamses which helped secure Egypt’s homeland security.
But as shrewd as Pharaoh’s plan, his motive is foiled. Although Egyptian strategic sites are enhanced: the Hebrew population increases. Although task masters inflict hard labor and make Hebrew lives bitter from the strain of work, grinding out bricks, plodding in the fields, lifting and pulling, straining and pushing: the Hebrews multiply.
And Pharaoh’s logic multiplies to the masses. And now all the Egyptians are in dread of the potential threat of the Hebrews.
VI
When Plan ‘A’ does not work, Pharaoh’s fear explodes into violence and he concocts Plan ‘B,’ the Final Solution, and calls the Midwives before him.
The Midwives’ profession demands a toughness and gentleness to assist new mothers in the delivery of babies, time the contractions, prepare the water, cut the cloths, and initiate life into the world.
Pharaoh orders the women, “kill the Hebrew’s baby boys.”
The prison guards and police, the plantation overlords, the shop foremen, and the task masters all did as they were told. They obeyed the oppressor’s command.
Into this landscape step Shiprah and Puah ~ and stand before Pharaoh who instructs them, “Accelerate the oppression.”
But, unlike the task masters, the Midwives don’t do as they’ve been told.
They don’t fall back on Romans 13:1 “Be in subjection to the governing authorities.”
They don’t recall I Peter 2, “Submit yourselves to every human institution.”
They don’t recite Titus 3, “Be subject to authorities and to rulers. Obey.”
There is no submission to the state from these women. No obedience to Pharaoh and the governing authorities here. “The Midwives fear God and do not do as Pharaoh commanded. They let the boys live” (1:17)
They violate orders. They risk their lives to save the helpless.
Pharaoh orders, “Kill the babies.” Shiprah and Puah refuse.
VII
Which does not get past Pharaoh who confronts them and demands an account, “What have you done?”
The midwives look Pharaoh in the eye and tell him a big fat lie. A whopper! “The Hebrew women are so vigorous . . . we can’t get there in time. We can’t outrun them, these pregnant women are just too fast.”
To speak in the face of the oppressor with such calm resolve is like plucking a hair from Hitler’s mustache or bonking Bull Connor on the head with his billy club. They pull a fast one on Pharaoh.
The wit of the oppressed, preserved through the ages, begins with the Midwives, who when out muscled and with no resource but their integrity and wit, out fox the Pharaoh.
Like when Br’er Bear and Br’er Fox capture Br’er Rabbit. The two argue between themselves, “I say we skin ‘m and then eat ‘m.”
“I say we boil ‘m first.”
To which Br’er Rabbit interjects, “Boil me, skin me, I don’t care. But whatever you do, don’t throw me in the briar patch.”
Outwitted, the Fox and Bear attempt to torture the rabbit and throw him in the briar patch.
Once safe in the confines of the patch Br’er Rabbit raises his head and taunts his oppressors, “Born and raised in the briar patch, yes indeed. I told you not to throw me here.”
And God witnesses the exchange and God sees the Midwives’ faith and courage and God blessed the Midwives.
IIX
How do we tell this story to our grandchildren? The narrative by itself will entice, engage, and satisfy in so many literary ways:
Our grandchildren will be taken by the quick and ingenious transition from power to slavery, this essential and radical move beautifully told with an economy of words. They’ll enjoy the story’s rapid plot reversals and engaging ironies: Slavery benefits the state with buildings erected and land farmed: good for Egypt. Yet Pharaoh wants his workers eliminated? Midwives represent the source of life, yet they are being ordered to become the bearers of death?
This story nearly tells itself.
Even so, when you read the narrative to your grandchildren, you must work to capture the characters’ voices. Pharaoh is not the voice of Yule Brenner. Jack Nicholson can’t touch this villain. Pharaoh has a even more sinister voice that embodies evil and reveals the fear that envelops him, “Kill them! Kill them all.”
But most important, practice the voice of the Midwives. Their tone is intelligent: they calculate their civil disobedience. They resonate with moral depth: they are loyal to God and their own integrity. Their voice is full of courage: they stand before the powerful and deified Pharaoh, who can crush them or torture them to death.
And in this setting their words shield the innocent.
Practice that voice before you read this story to your grandchildren.
And then, show the story in its recent enactments. Take them to the Ford Museum and sit in Rosa Park’s Montgomery bus, where she defied a system of oppression. Make the Lorraine Motel an essential visit when passing through Memphis and Ebenezer Church a stop in Atlanta where civil disobedience gave voice to the marginalized.
Grandparents trace out the moral code of faith so that grandchildren will know how it means to live in this family. “It is the work of grandparents to transform the remembered past into the present tense” which means that when we tell this paradigmatic story, we live into it ourselves, identifying current systems of oppression remembering God always sides with the poor and abused. Always.
IX
And our grandchildren will watch us and listen to us, even as we pray, with this text as our script: “God of justice and compassion, we give you thanks for turning the world up-side down by uplifting the poor and powerless and turning out the powerful. Forgive us when we lust for power or acquiesce to schemes of the oppressor. Forgive us for participating in this world’s systems of domination. Give us strength and courage for the living of these days, for our children and grandchildren and for ourselves. Amen. “
Sunday, April 26, 2009
April 26, 2009 - "Big"
1 Corinthians 13
Christianity is a big religion … all around the world millions claim the name of Christ – in thousands of flavors and still counting … stone cathedrals in great cities and thatched-roof sheds in Haiti … high-toned sermons and street-corner preachers … charlatans fleecing the faithful and chaplains visiting the sick … Presbyterians and Quakers, Methodists and Catholics, evangelicals and liberals; progressives and conservatives … mainline, old-line and non-denominational … all rolled into an amazing conglomerate called the church of Jesus Christ.
Christianity is a big religion … with a big savior … big ideas … big dreams … and a very big love at the heart and center of it all.
For God so loved the world …
A world-sized love … and when it gets inside of us, it pushes things around, rearranges the furniture, adds a few more rooms … makes us bigger then we were yesterday.
Christianity is a big religion …
From Abraham to Anselm …
From Moses to Mother Teresa …
From Sinai to Cincinnati and all around the world …
Read the Bible – every book a voice, a voice clamoring for our attention – God is this and God is that … big ideas and big challenges …
Christ is so large it will take the rest of our life and then some to work it all out …
Time isn’t enough to serve the LORD … we’ll need eternity as well.
Christianity is big … really big.
A big Savior …
And a very big love …
Paul the Apostle writes an amazing essay on big love …
The love of God in Christ Jesus our LORD …
God’s love for us …
And our love for one another.
Please open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 13 (p.175) …
We’ll take a look at Paul’s essay in three movements … the first movement – [read vs. 1-3] …
Everything we tend to value …
Oratory …
Passion …
Faith …
Intelligence …
Sacrifice …
The great human virtues … Paul dares to suggest that all of these great and wondrous virtues can be done without love … but without love, they’re only vanity, self-serving and self-glorifying … without love, these virtues are sawdust and cobwebs.
What is love?
Here’s what love looks like … the second movement …
[read vs. 4-6] … … …
These are not easy words to read.
These verses take me to task.
They get inside of me and poke around in sensitive places.
I’d like to think I’m a loving person.
And maybe I am.
Some of the time.
But is my love big enough?
I think of the ancient Chinese practice of wrapping a little girl’s foot, deforming the foot painfully, so that it could fit into tiny little shoes … someone once said, “small feet are beautiful.” So for centuries, little girl’s feet were bound and forced to grow in upon themselves – so the woman could wear tiny shoes.
Do we do that to our soul?
Do we wrap our soul in ideas too small, too confining?
Do we totter around on small thoughts and small commitments?
I wonder about my faith … my hope … my love …
Too small?
My vision of the church?
My sense of Christ?
My willingness to go the extra mile?
Is it all too small?
Do you ever wonder about your faith, hope and love?
Are you tottering around on ideas too small?
Like J.B.Phillips asked, “Is Your God Too Small?”
Let’s read on …
Verses 8-13 …
What does it mean to love?
In my Bible study this past year, I’ve reminded my students nearly every session – love is an ethical word – not a sentiment, but a commitment … not a feeling, but a decision; an ethical word filled with action and involvement – concern and care – to do unto others as we would have them do unto us!
What does it mean to love?
We learn the ways of love from Jesus …
Love gives …
Love surrenders and serves …
Love shoulders a burden we couldn’t carry …
And when we pick up our cross, we always do it for someone else, just like Jesus did.
“God is love,” says the writer of 1 John,
“And those who abide in love
Abide in God,
And God abides in them” [1 John 4:16].
What is love?
We see it in Jesus Christ.
Jesus welcomes the children and touches the leper.
He engages people openly and honestly …
He walks away from needless conflict, but isn’t afraid of conflict when its needed.
He teaches … again and again, he teachers,
To open folks up …
A larger version of faith, hope and love.
You can be bigger than you are today.
There’s always more to faith than what you know and what you have of it today.
Don’t believe everything you think … and learn to think in new ways.
There’s no end to growing …
In this life, and for the next.
When the stone was rolled away Easter morning …
We all learned a primal truth:
Love cannot be beaten …
Nothing stands in the way of love … love bears all things, endures all things, believes all things … love never ends.
Though darkness descend and all be lost, nothing stands in the way of love.
Love always has its getting’ up morning …
We learn love in Christ …
Love rolls up it’s sleeves and goes to work …
Love collects luggage for foster children.
Love is our Board of Deacons looking after our congregation.
Love is my good friend, Ben Mathes, who goes to some of the most dangerous places in the world to bring medicine and schoolbooks and a little bit of Jesus.
Love stands behind LAX hotel workers.
Love serves tuna casserole in a soup kitchen …
Love helps hungry families at our Food Pantry …
Love fills up a cardboard fish bank for the One Great Hour of Sharing …
Love takes a neighbor to the doctor’s office …
Love reads the Bible carefully to discern the voice of Christ …
Love prays for peace in our world …
Love goes on a mission trip to Nicaragua …
Love digs water wells for thirsty people …
Love plants trees on Earth Day …
Love frees a whale trapped in fishing nets …
Love fights for clean water and clean air …
Love welcomes and affirms –
Clothed in Christ, we are one in Christ – “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female” [Galatians 3:28] …
In Christ, the usual distinctions are erased.
In Christ, there is no longer believer or non-believer, Republican or Democrat, gay or straight, rich or poor, friend or foe, legal or illegal immigrant, beautiful and not-so-beautiful.
The usual distinctions fad away in the bright light of Christ:
That’s why the world was so taken by Susan Boyle – I’m sure by now you’ve all seen her performance either on TV or on YouTube – when she stepped onto the stage, in all of her Welsh frumpiness, 47 years old and never been kissed, the judges rolled their eyes and the audience snickered … but there she was, and when she opened her mouth to sing, it was glorious … in heartbeat, the audience was overwhelmed with shame – how quickly, how easily, the book was judged by its cover – tears flowed, mouths dropped open, and when she sang the last notes of “I Dreamed a Dream,” it was a standing ovation for her.
The world learned an important lesson – those things that divide us, one from the other – the boundaries we draw, and the big deals we make of them, must be managed better … we’ve got to have better eyes and warmer hearts … and we’ve got to make sure that everyone is welcomed!
Think of our LORD's Table here … and the fuss so many churches make about who can and who can’t partake.
Why do we do that? Why a food fight at the LORD's Table, of all places?
Jesus had table fellowship with all sorts of questionable people – the down-and-outer, the irreligious and the outcast – Jesus welcomes everyone!
We are one in Christ!
Can the church of Jesus Christ be any less?
We learn love in Christ!
Now that Easter is behind us, we have some work to do.
To listen to Christ!
“This is my son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him,” says the Father to us …
Listen to him we must, and listen to him we will.
Or might I ask, to whom else are we listening, if not listening to Christ?
What are the voices and values that shape our soul?
If not Christ, who then?
If not faith, hope and love, what then?
Now that Easter is behind us,
Is Christ ahead of us?
In the light of Easter, we have to ask probing questions.
Is Christ the heart and soul of Covenant Presbyterian Church?
Is Christ my heart?
Is Christ your heart?
Now that Easter is behind us,
What’s ahead of us?
Where are we headed?
And what’s in store for us?
This much I know:
Everyone of us in this room …
Can make a fresh start of it with Christ.
Today … here and now!
Everyone of us in this room can bow our head and start all over again with Christ our LORD.
Everyone of us in this room can let a little more of Christ into our lives.
“LORD Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, I give myself to you in faith and obedience.”
We will change.
We will grow.
That’s how love goes … a very big love, indeed!
Now … take a few moments with me please …
Bow you heads …
Quiet your thoughts …
Silence your soul …
… … … … … … receive Christ!
A very big love, indeed!
Amen and Amen!
Monday, April 6, 2009
April 5, 2009 - Journey - Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday ~ Mark 11:1-11
Audio version HERE.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth with only a few words, “Let it be” and it is … one, two, three, and it’s done; with the snap of a finger, as easy as pie …
But the great God Almighty is no absentee landlord … God is going to have a hand in things from the get-go … up close and personal.
God fashions us from the dirt of the earth … and takes this little lump of dirt in hand and gets close enough to puff air into our lungs – an image of tenderness … as a mother might hold her child close and blow gentle air into the child’s face – sweetness and delight …
But more than this, the very first breath humankind takes is the breath of God … we are not our own, nor are we merely creatures of the dirt – we are children of God, and endowed with God’s Spirit.
God, up close and personal …
I love the stories of Genesis … after things get going a bit, God decides to pay Adam and Eve a visit … in the cool of the day, it says, at the time of the evening breeze – when folks come out after a hot day to sip some tea or enjoy a mint julep.
God drops in to say Hi!
A friendly visit …
But Adam and Eve are nowhere to be found.
They’re hiding … they’re afraid … they’re ashamed.
We might have expected Adam and Eve to be sitting on the porch looking for company, but now they’re hiding in the bushes …
God knocks on the door, but no answer.
Adam and Eve shush one another!
Ever done that?
Uncle Fred comes to the door, and he’s the last person you wanna see, because he’ll talk your ears off for two hours, and you’ve got work to do, so you get real quite … Uncle Fred knocks on the door, and you put your finger to your lips and shush everyone … Uncle Fred knocks again, “Anyone home?”
Uncle Fred goes away after knocking a few times …
But God calls out, “Adam, Eve, where are you?”
And frightened as they are, they can’t resist the gracious voice of God … love is calling them, as love calls us, “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
Adam and Eve emerge from their hiding place trembling … “We were afraid,” they said.
“What happened?” asks God.
You know the rest of the story … but for me today, the heart of the story is God paying us a visit … not just an occasional visit, but many a visit …
God drops by Abraham and Sarah one day by the oaks of Mamre – a shade tree visit …
God pays Moses a visit in a burning bush in the land of Midian.
God calls the young boy Samuel in the deep of the night … it seems that God likes to stop by now and then, just like a good friend.
Not too often as to wear out a welcome.
But always at the right moment.
God is never late.
In a prayer, our heart is moved.
In a book, something awakens our spirit.
We read the Bible, and a great truth grips our soul.
God pays us a visit!
And then one day, the Angel Gabriel visits a young girl in a little town in Palestine and says to her, “Mary, God’s favor is upon you, and you will become pregnant, and the child in your womb will be Israel’s Messiah” … and so it came to pass, the child war born … the Son of God in the flesh, God with us, paying us another visit.
The child grew in wisdom and strength, and one day, about the age 30, he travels south to where the Jordan enters the Dead Sea … a harsh and unyielding wilderness, there to be baptized.
Jesus of Nazareth, this man of sorrows, and great love, walks the length and breadth of the land … pays a visit to some fishermen, Peter and Andrew, James and John … and then drops by a tax collectors’ booth to chat with a man named Matthew … and then stops beneath a tree in Jericho and invites himself to dinner with Zacchaeus …
God, up close and personal … who enjoys dropping in on us, to see how things are going.
It’s not easy for God.
I wouldn’t want to be God for all the tea in China, and you wouldn’t either.
Heaven is plagued with terrible questions:
How to love us?
How to help us?
How to entice us out of the bushes, and out of the boats and away from the tax booth … how to get us out of our tree so that God can break bread with us?
A long and difficult journey for God …
From heaven to earth …
From Galilee to Jerusalem …
From Bethlehem’s cradle to Calvary’s cross.
From life to death, and to life again.
Today … we call it Palm Sunday …
We recall the fateful events that brought Jesus to the fabled city, the Holy City of David, the city on a hill – Jerusalem the Golden.
The little story recalled in Mark is full of hints and hopes …
This man of many travels …
He’s now a pilgrim to the Holy City …
Everyone walks, but in the last mile, he rides …
On a young donkey not yet ridden … a colt for only one purpose –
Not a horse reserved for war, but a donkey, a beast of holy burden, not fast, but slow; to bring a king to the royal city.
Mark spends a lot of time detailing the arrangements … for Mark, this moment is terribly important, full of portent – meaning and hope: beneath the ebb and flow of time there is a plan … God at work in all things …
A young donkey is tethered beside a home.
The disciples are instructed where to find it, and what to say if anyone should question they’re taking it.
The simple word: “It’ll be returned soon” speaks a whole world of meaning – God never takes anything, but only asks for our help.
This is no ordinary king.
Mark would have understood the power of the Roman soldier who could press into service anyone they needed, and commandeer a beast of burden.
But this king will only borrow the donkey, and return it promptly.
Cloaks are thrown on it for a makeshift saddle …
Those with him shout for joy … the ancient cry of the pilgrim.
“Hosanna” … “Save us God.”
“Blessed are all who come to this city in the name of the LORD.”
“Blessed is the coming kingdom of David our father.”
“Hosanna in the highest” … “Save us, O God.”
Branches and leaves are waved and strewn about on the road – things green and living … this is a procession unto life.
The jubilant pilgrims are eager to enter the city … they press in upon Jesus – a boisterous crowd – some of them, his friends, have a hint of who he might be, but today, Jesus is just one of the thousands of pilgrims pushing in to the fabled city.
The crowd passes through the northern gate and quickly disperses …
Jesus and the twelve are alone.
Jesus goes to the temple …
To see his Father’s home away from home …
“A house of prayer for all nations,” said Isaiah …
A safe place for all the world.
Tomorrow, Jesus will challenge the authorities.
Tomorrow, Jesus will turn the tables.
Tomorrow, Jesus will say, “You’ve turned this house of prayer into a den of thieves.”
The hour is late.
Jesus returns to Bethany.
For the next three days, he’ll work in the city during the day, but at night, he withdraws to Bethany … he has friends there, on the east slope of the Mount of Olives … … at night, even the son of God needs a place to lay his head, some friends to cheer him, and food prepared by loving hands.
As the story unfolds, things go south in a hurry.
Jesus doesn’t play the game very well.
He says troubling things.
He breaks with convention.
He upsets the apple cart.
And turns the tables on them.
The powers that be grow resentful.
Plans are laid.
Midnight plots are hatched.
The ball begins to roll.
Judas decides to cast his lot with the powers that be.
He can see the handwriting on the wall.
This isn’t going to end well.
Like all of us, Judas wants to be on the winning side.
And money talks …
30 pieces of silver …
Not a bad wage for a mean night’s work.
And dear old Peter.
Bold and brash.
But now he’s frightened, and Peter will lose his courage.
Who hasn’t lost their courage a time or two?
Who hasn’t echoed Peter’s sentiment beside the fire on a chilly night, “I really don’t know the man.”
And I suppose, in some ironic way, Peter was absolutely right … he didn’t know Jesus very well at all … but, then, who does?
That fateful night as the weeks draws to a close,
Jesus will stand alone in the court of Pilate.
What needs to be done, only he can do.
This work belongs to God, and to God alone.
There would be work for us down the road.
“Come and follow me, and take up your own cross.”
Plenty of work,
Back-breaking work …
Blood, sweat and tears kind of work …
But not yet …
Not in Pilate’s court …
Not on Friday at Golgatha …
Nor in the tomb …
Only the Son of God can do this mighty work.
A long and bitter night it will be …
Betrayal and arrest …
Denial and trumped-up charges …
Beating and spitting …
The crown of thorns and the purple robe …
The laughter and the scorn …
This work belongs to God …
All alone …
To pay a debt he didn’t owe,
For a price I couldn’t pay.
Palm Sunday …
Did they really have any idea what was happening?
Not likely … but, then, do we?
When I think about salvation, I’m amazed …
When I ponder the story of the Great God Almighty shaping a little lump of dirt and bringing it close to his face, to blow the breath of life into us.
When I wonder what it was like for Moses to take off his shoes and talk with God, warmed by a burning bush that never burned at all …
God with us, God near to us; a gracious presence that leaves the bush untouched … a fire that doesn’t consume; a flame that doesn’t harm … a love, pure and clean!
Paul the Apostle writes to the Philippians, “I pray that your love will overflow more and more with knowledge and insight.”
Psalm 23, “my cup runneth over” – full of God’s love …
Paul’s prayer is my prayer for you.
And not a bad prayer for any of us to pray for one another.
That your love overflow …
Because there can never be enough love …
Sometimes love is a little puny …
Christians don’t have a spotless record … sometimes our love is stingy and miserly.
May our love overflow more and more with knowledge and insight.
It’s a spiritual thing … a vast mystery, to be sure.
The love of God.
Paul writes elsewhere to the Corinthians: “desire the greater gifts.”
Go for it.
Exceed the limits.
Reach high and reach far.
Pursue God with all of your might …
Pray for the greater gifts …
An overflowing love …
The great love of God …
The love that blew the breath of life into this little lump of dirt …
The love that flamed bright in a burning bush …
The love that came down, small enough to fit into Mary’s womb …
The love that journeyed from heaven to earth …
From Galilee to Jerusalem …
To pay a debt he didn’t owe,
A price you and I couldn’t pay.
Amen and Amen.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
March 29, 2009 - Marriage - Part 2
Audio Links: prayers, anthem and message HERE.
Ephesians 5:21-33; Matthew 22:23-33
Marriage … to stand with one another for the duration:
In plenty and in want; in joy and in sorrow; in sickness and in health; as long as we both shall live.
A sizeable commitment!
On the simplest level of life: we all want to love someone, and to have someone love us!
And we only have so much love to give.
In heaven, as Jesus notes, there will be no marriage.
In heaven, love will have blossomed full and complete.
We will love one another as Jesus loves us.
Without limit, without need, without sin!
But here and now,
Love is limited, and sin is real.
We do our best.
And we hope for love.
We fall in love, they say.
It just sort of “happens.”
We see someone – something clicks deep inside of us – a doorway is opened … and love begins to flow.
Scientists study our glands and follow the neurons; poets write of flowers and springtime … philosophers wax eloquent and profound … but whatever falling in love is, it’s powerful stuff.
But falling in love is only the preface.
Staying in love is our hope.
But love is tested and tried …
Who doesn’t wake up in the morning and take a look at the person sleeping next to you, and ask, “Who are you? And why are you here? Was I crazy? If only I had listened to my mother.”
Love is tested by the vagaries of life … by the reality of the person we love – no one ever totally conforms to our expectations and needs … neither our lovers nor our children.
The other day, I saw a child dash toward the street; the mother ran and caught it quickly, and gave it a couple of firm swats and said, “Don’t ever run to the street again!”
In that little moment of panic, fear erupted – and fear always generates anger – in that little moment of time, the mother was furious.
The child was humiliated – that was obvious – with a kick of the foot and throwing down a school paper, the child was disgusted with Mom’s behavior.
The mother quickly recovered.
She picked her child up into her arms, glanced at me walking nearby, mustered all of her motherly reserves, and said to her boy, “Are you having a bad day?”
Love … we have just so much of it to give away.
Last week, we reviewed an important passage from the Bible, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, wherein Paul establishes a spiritual foundation for marriage.
Now, at the outset, I want to be clear:
Statistics are not favorable for Christians.
In other words, Christians have as much difficulty with marriage as “other” folks do.
Because marriage is difficult!
But this much I know –
Our spirituality does and will make a difference, but spirituality has to be deep – our connection to Christ has to be greater than the power of sin, the power of the ego, the power of our past, and the power of the other person to hurt us.
Some folks are mile wide in their sentiments, but only an inch deep in their spirituality.
Now is the time to reach for Christ.
Now is the time to deepen the reservoirs.
Because drought will come. The harsh light of sin and sorrow dries up the shallow pools quickly; only deep reservoirs survive a drought.
Being a Christian is a grand and glorious business, and I wouldn’t trade my walk with Christ for anything in this world.
His love has kept me intact.
His love has seen me through some seriously bad times.
I think I’ve seen miracles.
Donna and I have been blessed to share a common heritage of faith … our family histories and our daily commitments - Christ runs deep in our veins.
Have we always done it right?
Of course not.
Have we always been true to Christ?
Hardly.
But the reality of Christ is greater than our faults and our failings.
In Christ, our true relationship to one another is revealed … out of reverence for Christ, says Paul, be subject to one another.
Love is mutual … no one’s in charge; no one’s the boss.
Giving and receiving … this is the way it is in our walk with Christ.
The rules of love never change … or shall I say, “the governance of love” …
Because love is the one rule that trumps all other rules …
Love is patient … love is kind.
Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
Love does not insist on its own way.
It is not irritable or resentful.
It take no pleasure in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
Love is strong – it bears all things.
Love is trusting – it believes all things.
Love is forward looking – it hopes all things.
Love is strong – it endures all things.
The one law greater than all other laws.
The governance of love – to love one another as Christ loves us …
The love of Christ for us … within us, and all around us.
And our love for Christ … and one another.
The governance of love.
The spiritual foundation of marriage … the three laws of love:
Christ in the morning; Christ at noon, and Christ at night.
Loyal …
Faithful …
Forgiving …
Patient …
Profoundly centered in others.
To combat the power of the ego … the spoiled self … the “I want it, and I want it now” attitude … the “screaming child within” that wants the candy bar, and when denied, shouts, “I hate you.”
Look, there’s a little of that, maybe a lot of that, in all of us, and it never goes away entirely.
So we manage it, as best we can.
And the best of this life is Christ!
To fulfill the Golden Rule – to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Not to wait, but to act.
Conditioned by the character of Christ.
To give and not to measure what’s received in return.
To love, even when it’s unrequited.
To forgive deeply.
To not count our hurts, but count on Christ.
Whenever a pastor speaks about marriage, there’s a quiet question in most everyone’s mind: What about divorce?
When I begin marriage counseling, I always make two things clear: I am absolutely committed to exploring every avenue of reconciliation, every possibility of hope – every device, every strategy, for making marriage work.
But I advise divorce if a threshold is crossed … a threshold of harm that sometimes a couple reaches … the point of no-return:
Drugs and alcohol …
Verbal and physical abuse …
And sometimes just the bent of character – oil and water, or something like that.
Though some would say, “God can work miracles,” and I quite agree, because I’ve seen miracles, but sometimes life just doesn’t work as we might hope and pray.
Divorce always hurts, and that’s why I work hard to heal a marriage, but divorce happens, and like anything else, we can make the best of it, and Christ is there.
God knows we’re not in heaven yet.
And until that time when we stand in the light of glory, we live in the shadows and shades of time, doing our best.
We get married with the expectation that it will last.
Every marriage begins with faith, hope and love.
But time and tide take us places we don’t plan on.
And sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
And rather than forcing folks to live down what they cannot live up to, I believe there is a time when folks need to call it quits and go their separate ways … find healing, and chart a new course.
Divorce is serious, but marriage must never be a prison.
Sometimes one of the partners has to make the decision.
It’s painful and sad,
Humiliating and embarrassing,
But this much I know.
There is always a future.
God’s love for us remains intact.
There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our LORD.
To folks who’ve had a tough time of it, I remind them:
God is always more concerned about tomorrow than yesterday.
God’s grace is all about a new day.
A new way, a new path, a new life.
God doesn’t live in the past.
God forgives it.
It’s all about tomorrow!
To make the best of it …
Expect a lot from ourselves, and a little less from one another.
We all only have so much love to give – and there ain’t no one perfect.
To those who are married, work hard at it.
Enjoy your love and celebrate the day – be patient with one another and keep on laughing.
To those divorced, don’t despair.
You will find a way through it; you will find life and love again, in some form or fashion.
To those who are married again …
Let the past go, but don’t try to kill the past.
The past is always there … for better or for worse.
As one woman said to a friend, “I know there are perfect people in the world.”
The friend asked, “Perfect? How do you know?”
The woman says: “According to my husband, his first wife was perfect, and so was his mother’s apple pie.”
Pathways for love:
Work hard on the spiritual foundations of life.
Believe in God, and pray to God for help to believe all the more.
Go as deep as you can, and then some.
Seek first the kingdom of God, and all other things will be added unto it.
Love God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Forgive often, and forgive deeply.
Remove bitterness from your heart – confront it and confess it.
Pray often and read your Bible.
Worship regularly – have a Sabbath, and do it with others.
Be involved in good things.
Practice the fine art of apology.
Keep on learning.
Keep on growing.
Love is the desire of every heart.
Love is what life is all about.
Love one another as Christ loves us.
Amen and Amen!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)