Sunday, March 31, 2019 Palms Westerminster

Joshua 5.9-12; Luke 15.11b-32

The Basic Stuff … 

The Gospel of our LORD Jesus Christ.

We are loved …

Here and now … then and there.

The whole story.

All of our life.

All of time.

From the beginning to the end.

The Alpha and the Omega.

By God we were created … by God, our days are determined, and in the end, it’s God.

God in the morning … God in the evening … and God in all the in-between places, the nooks and crannies of our lives … to God be the Glory.

We are loved.

We are loved:

Because the way of Christ requires love.

God hopes that in loving us, we might learn the ways of love … 

That we could be loving of one another.

Especially paying attention to the trinity of need, the Biblical image of those most vulnerable to abuse and hurt: the widow, the orphan and the alien.

To love is fulfill the law of God, all the law, all the requirements are summed up in the power and courage of love.

Paul the Apostle writes:

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Christ calls to us, beckons to us, commands us, pleads with us, to love one another as he has loved us.

To love the world in all of its diversity, as God created the heavens and the earth with all of its people, and all of its creatures, great and small.

The wind and the air, the earth and the water … 

The cattle of the field and the birds of the air.

The fish of the sea and all that lives and moves and has its being in the love and mercy of God.

To love like this requires maturity … maturity of soul and spirit.

For everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.

Our reading this morning from Joshua …

It’s a growing up story.

In the Wilderness:

Manna in the morning and water from a rock.

A pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire at night.

God is leading the people by the hand, as a parent holds a child’s hand while out and about … sometimes the child pulls away, annoyed with the hand, and eager to be on her own … but the child remains the child until the days of her maturity.

So it was for Israel

Now, in the land of promise, on their own.

To plow the ground and plant the seed.

To tend the vineyard and gather the harvest.

But there’s sadness in the story, if we pay attention to it.

The Promised Land didn’t come free of charge.

There were people living there.

Children and grandparents.

There was song and dance … art and literature.

People laughing and people playing.

Folks crying and folks mourning.

Going to work; paying the bills.

Life, every-day life.

In the land of Canaan.

Israel took the land.

At the time, it made sense, I guess.

Hard decisions have to be made, sometimes.

I wonder if God cried that day.

Did God cry when God saw the walls of Jericho Fall … and all the death that came that day … and all the death that was to come?

How did the story turn out?

Israel as a nation was mostly a failure … over the centuries, a few good kings, and lots of bad ones.

Some mighty fine prophets, and plenty of false prophets, too.

A story of repeated failure, greed, corruption, crime, spiritual pride, idolatry, shallow religion, war and victory, war and defeat, war and rumors of war … and always the mistreatment of the vulnerable, the widow, the orphan and the alien.

Read the Book of Kings … it’s a sad story … ending in the destruction of Israel and Judah … the destruction of Jerusalem … the end of it … Israel ceased to exist.

Which is why God got out of the land business. 

In Christ, a new day.

It’s the whole world that counts.

For God so loves the world … because that’s what love is like … love is all or nothing, which is why Jesus says, to love your enemy … that’s what it means to be like God, says Jesus … 

You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to your, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

Paul the Apostle writes:

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

And then Pauls says:

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.

Growing up is what it’s all about … it’s a long journey, and none of us ever finish it … I’m always growing, and sometimes not … I get stuck, I get lazy … I’m satisfied … and then Spirit comes along, maybe a book, something my wife says, or just some inner prompting … and maybe I grow a little bit more that day … always putting an end to childish ways, to be a little more mature in how I respond to people, to my own self … a little more mature in the ways of love.

Growing up …

I remember the first day our son got on a bus for kindergarten … Donna had made him a little green patterned jump suit, and there she was, kneeling down by him, to see that everything was shipshape, his lunch box in hand, and then he boarded the bus … he didn’t look back.

Donna stood up and looked at me, and I looked at her, and we both had tears in our eyes … 

We’ve had plenty of goodbye tears over the years … but this is what parenting comes down to … raising a child up, to take leave of Mom and Dad, and head out on their own, the road ahead.

We love our children, and would do anything for them … but we’ve given them life, and they’re on their own … 

Sometimes we lay awake at night, wondering …

We want only the best for them.

Their decisions wouldn’t necessarily be our decisions.

Or the chances they take.

The risks they meet.

The dreams they have.

Their sorrows are their own, course, but ours, too.

Such is love.

Love embraces, and love sends away.

Love makes the jumpsuit, and love waves goodbye.

Love rejoices and love weeps.

With love, Christ calls us to follow.

And with love, Christ sends us on our way.

To God be the glory.

Amen and Amen!

"They Saw the Child" - El Monte Community Presbyterian Church

Matthew 2.1-12

When you live in a city, like LA, it’s hard to see the stars. 

I used to live in Northern Wisconsin, in the middle of nowhere, but we could see stars … especially on cold winter nights, when the air is clear, really clear … things get clear when it’s 30 below … 

I remember driving out to make a pastoral call … they lived in a small, patchwork house, on a small peninsula, jutting out into one of the great northern lakes … all was ice and snow … and 20 below, maybe colder … but that never stopped anyone in that part of the world.

So, there I was, driving along, not a car on the road … surrounded by stars … sharp and clear, pinpoints of light in a vast velvet-black sky … so close to me, it seemed … I could have reached out and grabbed a handful of stars …

I’ve never forgotten that night …

Some years later, we were living in Detroit, when the lights when out … all over the North East, 2003, the Great Blackout … by the second night, we had neighbors over on our patio … I fired up the gas grill, and we did chicken and steak and pork chops, and everything we could, because we knew the electricity was going to be down for awhile, so grill up the meat, so it doesn’t spoil.

And there we sat, with flash lights, a few gas lamps … after eating, we turned off our lights … and there it was … the rich and beautiful night sky … velvet black, and full of stars … 

A sight never seen in cities …

We have to get out into the country, into the mountains, away from the city, to see the sky at night …

I wonder how many children in years past, laying on their backs in a field at night, scanning the sky, catching a shooting star now and then … dreaming of the universe, vast and mysterious … dreaming of space ships and far-away planets … maybe thinking about God … how big God must be, and how small we are … children laying on their backs in a field of summer grass… a warm night in August … to watch the stars and dream of faraway places.

We three kings of Orient are

Bearing gifts we traverse afar.

Field and fountain, moor and mountain,

Following yonder star.

Or maybe:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

How I wonder what you are

Up above the world so high

Like a diamond in the sky

Twinkle, twinkle little star

How I wonder what you are.

Or even:

When you wish upon a star

Makes no difference who you are

Anything your heart desires will come to you

And, then, again:

Star light, star bright,

First star I see tonight,

I wish I may, I wish I might,

Have this wish I wish tonight.

It’s Epiphany Sunday … 

The visit of the magi … wise men from the East … astrologers they are, fascinated by the heavens above, vast and beyond count … the stars at night, new moon, old moon … the rising of the sun and its setting … the turning of the seasons … a story to tell … 

The alignment of the stars, a star of peculiar brightness, a star dominating the western sky …  “What’s this?” they ask! … and with their charts unrolled and with their books opened wide, a discovery is made … the star, so bright and clear, the herald of a birth, and not just any birth, but the birth of a king …

So unusual was it all … their curiosity got the best of them, and so begins their quest, a journey, an adventure … weeks, maybe months … traveling afar … to see where the star would take them … and perhaps to find the king … 

Two thousands years later, here we are … telling and retelling the stories of our faith … each in our own way, wise men, wise women, wise children … paying attention to the world God created, the sky above, the earth beneath and the Holy Spirit within …

And still the star shines … the glories of the heavens declare the glory of God … 

Faith, hope and love … grace, mercy and peace … 

The star still shines, bright and clear …

And like those magi of old, we’re the magi now.

Still and always the journey, setting out to discover the king born in Bethlehem … with our gifts, whatever they are … we lay them down before the cradle and before the child it holds …

The Christian Life is always one of journey … 

We never fully arrive … never! … because God is infinite, and whatever we learn of God today, there’s still more to learn tomorrow … whatever good we manage, whatever we truth we tell, whatever deed of kindness we offer, whatever power we challenge, there’s always more to be done … the endless journey is what it means to be faithful to Christ.

Back in seminary, my Hebrew professor, a wise and learnèd man … he’d come bouncing into the classroom, a smile on his face from ear-to-ear … to announce that just that morning, he had learned something new … usually something small … in a footnote, or some obscure Hebrew dictionary … with joy and delight, he’d tell us all about it.

We came to call him, “The Student” … the one always learning, and delighted to learn … encouraging us to learn, and keep on learning … to be students always of God’s Word, always exploring, always going to new places, never afraid to cross a boundary, into unexplored land … never, ever, afraid of making a mistake … in the Kingdom of God, in the quest of truth, there are no mistakes, only lessons to be learned … 

God is a God of great mercy, and above all else, God is the Teacher … God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit … to teach of us life, to teach us love … to teach us how to care for the world God made …

Like any good teacher anywhere, it’s not about the answers, but the learning, the questions, the pondering, the musing … among all the confessions of faith any of us can make, there is one confession that cuts to the core of our journey, that says it well, with humility, honesty and hope: LORD, I believe, help my unbelief.

God takes pleasure in those who want to learn about God’s world … the heavens above, the oceans upon the face of the earth, the creatures, great and small … times long before we were here …

As for creation, it’s just plain silly to suggest that the earth was created 8000 thousand years ago or something like … no, it was created billions of years ago … long before any of us showed up: dinosaurs roamed the earth, for millions of years … until something emerged out of a pool of muck, rich with life … and it grew, and it grew … tens of thousands of years … and here we are today, from the earth we have come, by the hand of God, and still the creation goes on … it never stops … always changing … and now we have to pay attention to something brand new in our story: the impact we’re having on the earth … global warming, climate change, pollution, filth, driven by the blind greed of those who always want more for themselves, and will take it from everyone else … who are always drawing boundaries, and building walls … who love to say some, “you don’t belong here,” “we don’t want you,” “go back to where you came from.”

For those who follow Christ, it must be different: no boundaries, never a wall, and no exclusion … we all belong to one another because we’re all created by God … and to one another we owe the debt of love … to be kind and merciful, to make room for the lonely, heal the broken, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, provide for the homeless, visit those in prison.

What might the magi say to us?

Pay attention to the stars … the world God created, the birds and the bees … flowers and field … the sun above and the earth beneath … all of its creatures, great and small. As Jesus said: Consider the birds of the air … and the lilies of the field!

What might the magi say to us?

If you follow the star, you’ll have to travel afar … the journey never ends … keep on keepin’ on.

And don’t be fooled by Herod, they’d say to us …

Herod welcomed the wise men; sent them on their way with a task, to find the child, and then let Herod know where the child is, so that Herod could go and “worship him”, too. 

It was a lie, fake news, nonsense … 

Beware of Herod, they’d say to us:

Herod the fox, Herod the liar, Herod the con-man, loud and reckless, Herod the man of violence …

When the magi found the child, and laid their gifts before him, the Spirit warned them: go home by another route … 

I like that image: another route … we never cover the same ground again … time does that to us … so the journey goes on.

What might the magi say to us?

“Pay Attention” to places like Bethlehem … small places, out-of-the-way places … people of low-account … a young pregnant girl, a father doing his best … pawns in the power-plays of the nations … late at night, alone and frightened … a kindly inn keeper, with no room in the inn, finds a little room for them outback … with the animals, warm and safe … where God is born … born into the world, then … and born into the world today … the Bethlehems of our world … little places, places of no-account … the least of all places … but that’s where God is born!

Though I’m not a magi, this much I can say:

God is born right here … maybe in the corner over there, or in the kitchen … in our hearts, for sure …  small places, out-of-the-way places … God likes places just like this … and God loves people just like you.

Amen and Amen!

December 16, 2018 - Palms Westminster - "Do Not Let Your Hands Grow Weak"

Zephaniah 3.14-20; Luke 3.7-18

My granddaughter and her parents live in Amsterdam, and during the winter months, it’s cold and damp.

Her folks picked her up from school the other day, on a cold and blustery day, and asked if she had played outside. “Yes,” said said. 

And, then, they asked: “Were you cold?

She replied, “No! Now I’m hardy!”

Well, she’s learning to be Dutch, learning to be hardy, because the Dutch have battled the waters to make a land … 

With dikes and dams and the latest in engineering, they’ve learned to work together; they’ve learned to be hardy.

As the Dutch put it: “God created the world, but the Dutch created Holland.”

So, here we are, the Third Sunday of Advent.

Zephaniah says:

Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!

And why exult? … because:

The LORD has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies. The king of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more.

On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands grow weak.

Because we have work to do!

The love of God is never a call to lay down and snooze … to blow off the problems of our world and simply say: “God will take care of us” … no, we’re called to put our hand to the plow and not look back … we’re called to take up our cross and go to work … Jesus says, Come, and follow me … go where I go, do what I do, be as I am … love as your Father in heaven loves … let your light shine before others, so they can see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven … you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

When God created the heavens and the earth, and created you and me, and put us into the garden - it wasn’t to lay around and dream sweet dreams …

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.

And when it became obvious that help was needed, God created the woman, to be a partner in the work.

Everyone is called, everyone given a task … everyone has to work.

How many of you have ever kept a garden?

It’s a lot of work.

We prepare the earth … we buy the best seed … we plant with care … we pull the weeds and put on the fertilizer … we water and then we watch the miracle of growth occur … 

When God created us, it wasn’t just for a wee bit of a plot to manage, but the whole wide world … the fish of the sea … the birds of the air … every living thing that moves upon the earth.

God gives the world to us … and gives us the responsibility to care for it.

The whole wide world … that’s why God created us to work together … that’s why gives us the ability to form communities, to build nations … to care for one another … to provide for the weakest of the community … so that no one is left behind, no one abandoned … 

We do this together … 

Yesterday at a wedding, I read 1 Corinthians 13, and thinking about today’s sermon, these words hit me hard:

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. 

Whether it be a preacher in a pulpit, a parent with children, or the president of a nation: life requires truth …

To work together, we have to tell the truth … lies disrupt, lies distort, lies destroy … truth builds up, truth encourages us to work well with one another, even if the truth is hard.

Truth builds bridges, not ditches.

Truth builds highways, not walls.

Notice how the Apostle Paul put it?

Love takes no pleasure in wrongdoing … and, then, rather than saying “love rejoices in doing right,” Paul says, Love rejoices in the truth.

Ought we not in this place to be concerned about the truth? 

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life …  

Of all the places on the face of the earth where truth has to be central, it has to be in the church of Jesus Christ … 

Where truth counts all the time, where lies of any kind have no place: the lies we tell ourselves about ourselves, the lies we tell about others, lies about science and creation and immigrants … religious lies, spiritual lies, lies about who’s damned and who’s saved … who’s naughty and who’s nice.

Of all the many lies being told these days, none larger, and none more threatening to God’s creation, than the lies revolving around climate change …  

Our best scientists all agree, thousands and thousands of scientists all around the world, agree, that climate change is real, and it’s related to human activity … 

And it’s all about God’s good earth … 

Many years ago, an elder said to me, and this was in the day when nuclear war seemed so close, “So what,” said the elder; “If we all die, don’t we just go to heaven?”

His question caught me off guard; I don’t know what I said, but his question made me think … and one day, I put it in the form of a story.

A man stood at the pearly gates, and said to St. Peter, “Well, here I am?” 

And St. Peter said, “I have to turn you away?”

The man blustered: “I went to church, I prayed, I read my Bible, I witnessed to others.”

But St. Peter said: “You didn’t care about God’s good earth. What makes you think you’ll care about God’s good heaven.” And St. Peter turned him away.

God created the heavens AND the earth … the earth is precious to God … and it must precious to us, too.

We didn’t know better when it all began … we burned coal and chopped down the trees … we ripped up the soil and dumped our waste into lakes and streams.

But we know better now … God has been good to us: giving us women and men who are called, by the Spirit of God, to study God’s world … 

And they’re telling us, some of the them are shouting at us …

The release of carbon into the atmosphere along with the loss of forests is creating a change in our climate, and the outcome is already evident, all around the world, and it’s going to get worse if we fail to join hands and join efforts to make the needed changes … to keep on caring for God’s good earth.

Zephaniah said: Do not fear, O Zion, do not let your hands grow weak

Like the Dutch: it’s time to be hardy.

Build the dikes and the dams.

Learn new ways of taking care of God’s good earth.

Pay attention to those who tell the truth.

Think carefully, think critically, pray a lot.

Be informed by the truth, and formed by the Spirit of God.

Today, here, at Palms Westminster, the Third Sunday of Advent: shout aloud for joy and never for a moment let your hands grow weary … 

Hallelujah and Amen!