May 19, 2019 "Presbyterian Heritage Sunday"

El Monte Presbyterian Church

Psalm 23; Luke 18.31-34

Good morning and God’s peace to all of you.

It’s good to be here … 

Today is Presbyterian Heritage Sunday … 

We celebrate our corporate story, and quite a story it is … it’s a good story, and sometimes a sad story … we’ve done it all … 

From the best of it, to the worst of it … but this much I can say, and say to you with confidence: our Presbyterian story is mostly a good story … a story of faithful people doing their best, relying upon Christ, seeking to make the world better …

We’ve opposed war and sought peace … we’ve struggled for civil rights and these days, we work for environmental justice. 

We’ve built hospitals and schools around the world … we’ve blessed the world with our medical missionaries, educators, preachers and teachers … we’ve done much to touch the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We’ve done good.

But to every story, a story with many chapters … we’ve had our struggles.

The Presbyterian Church split over the issue of slavery … some of our Presbyterian brothers and sisters thought slavery was a good thing, something to defend … even as the  whole nation was torn apart by Civil War.

And it took us a long time to figure out that gays and lesbians are Christians, too … and have a place at the Table … one of the great joys of my life is that I can now officiate for all weddings, gay or straight.

I remember my first gay wedding … during the ceremony, there was a moment of revelation … “this is just another wedding” …  two people who love one another … who will face all the challenges of marriage and enjoy all of its blessings.

I’m grateful that we Presbyterians finally figured this out … it took us a long time, virtually of all of my career, too long I think, but we did it … we’ve done good on this one.

We’re doing good on immigration issues, too …

Because we Presbyterians recognize the great truth of God’s love for the world.

We are first of all Christians, and then we’re citizens of a nation.

Because we’re Christians first, we see people first, people, real people, mothers and fathers and their children, young people, old people … people, people hoping to find a better life for their children.

Is there anyone here who wouldn’t sacrifice everything for the sake of their children?

When we’re Christians first, before we’re anything else, then our eyes clear, we see people!

We see their hearts, their needs … we don’t worry about borders and boundaries … and for heaven’s sake, we don’t fret and fuss about legal and illegal … those are categories that have no place in the kingdom of God!

When we’re Presbyterians at our best, we rise above the usual ways that people and nations think … we think as Christ thought, as the great prophets thought … we think on a higher plane … we think and live the Kingdom of God.

And that means constant learning … throughout the centuries, we’ve learned a lot about the ways of God, and we are still learning, still growing … still discovering how deep and wide and broad is the love of God in Christ Jesus our LORD.

One of the sayings that come out of our story is this: The church reformed, the church always reforming.

Because God is infinite, Jesus is always out there, ahead of us.

Jesus never said: Come and sit down here - no way … Jesus said, Come and follow me.

Always the road ahead, more to the story.

Our challenge in Christ: to keep on following, following Jesus, toward the Kingdom of God … thy kingdom come, we pray … seeking that which is yet to be … never satisfied with what is, but long for, working for, praying for, the better world.

The Presbyterian Story.

We begin in Geneva, Switzerland, with John Calvin … in the 1530s … and then with John Knox from Scotland … and throughout the British Isles … by the boatload, Presbyterians came to America, with bag pipes and energy … Presbyterians moved around the globe, from Asia to Africa, and throughout the Americas … we are a strong and resilient tradition … we’ve made our mistakes, and we’ve done right and good.

One of the key pieces of our story is a theological idea: the sovereignty of God … 

Whatever the task might be, God does the work, the heavy lifting … all along the way, God saves, God forgives, God paves the way, God opens doors, God gives new life … God at work in all things for good.

When the women came to the tomb on Easter Morn, they wondered who would roll away the stone … but fear not dear ladies, fear not dear people, God rolls away the stone.

I was privileged to attend a Christian High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan … a school of the Reformed/Presbyterian tradition, and one day, in a Bible class, a student from an evangelical church was arguing with the teacher about how salvation comes about … as most evangelicals believe, the student made it clear that he believed salvation is up to the believer … you hear the gospel, it’s up to you receive it, it’s up to you make Christ your savior.

The teacher then added something I’ve never forgotten, something that became a part of my life … the teacher said, Salvation is too important a thing to be left in our hands.

To even think for a moment that we had a hand in our salvation is an insult to the glory of God … never in my life have I ever said to anyone: Let me tell you how I accepted Christ. Because I never have accepted Christ. It was Christ who accepted me, embraced me, loved me, forgave me, and made me a part of God’s work … it was Christ who saved me, then and now, and forever, and it’s Christ still saving me unto to the finishing of God’s work of creation.

Because Christ alone brings about the great work of salvation … though it’s a mystery, it’s a mystery made clear in the love of God … God is trustworthy unto salvation … not only my salvation, but the salvation of the whole world, and our children, and our children’s children … we must never fear for their souls … because God is faithful to us, to them … faithful to creation, every bit of it.

Our hands are not strong enough, good enough, clean enough, to craft the wonder and the glory of our salvation. None of us could ever hang on a cross for the sake of the world … we could only hang on a cross, as did the thieves, as those deserving death; Christ alone hangs on a cross as the redeemer of the world, not deserving death, but giving life.

To God be the glory.

That’s why we practice infant baptism … when we bring a baby or a child to the water of baptism, we offer to the world the clearest picture of grace, a priori grace … the prior grace, the grace that comes before … before anything of our own being or doing … before we know anything about God, before we can do anything for God, before we believe in Jesus, God is already at work … faithfully at work, believing in us with a sovereign mercy … throughout the ages … forever and ever … 

And it’s true for a believer’s baptism … they didn’t decide to become a follower of Christ … that work was done in them already, a priori grace, the prior grace, before they even gave a thought. They didn’t decide to go forward; it was the Spirit that brought to Christ, and it’s Christ who’s brings us to the Father … and in the name the Father, the Son and the Holy, we baptize of any age, but particularly, infants and children, as a perpetual reminder that it is by grace, and grace alone, that we are saved, lest anyone should boast.

The Heidelberg Catechism says it best of all

That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful savior Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil.

He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation.

Therefore, by his Holy Spirit he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him.

Dear friends in Christ.

Dear Presbyterian sisters and brothers.

With you this day, I give thanks to God for the Presbyterian Story … 

The sovereignty of God … the power of Infant Baptism.

To God be the glory. Amen and Amen!

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!