Yesterday the congregational meetings were held for the proposed merger of the Lewiston and Utica churches. It followed the worship service in which we celebrated the end of the Sunday School year. We have great kids and great teachers and so had much to celebrate. Although it was not planned this way (at least not by us) the lectionary Gospel reading was John 17.20-26 where Jesus prays that all his followers would be one. The message was that we should not let minor things become more important than the purpose of the church and we should remember that what we share is more important than the divisions we make. We are part of a smaller group and larger group at the same time. And we have a responsibility toward each other even when we differ. A symbol of that type of unity is our nation, many states forming one country.
I was glad for the way the meetings were conducted. People seemed to express what was on their minds openly and fairly. What we voted on was the “Plan for Union” that the two Sessions had developed and sent to the members. The two churches had separate votes. If either or both of the churches voted “no”, the merger would not proceed. We did not announce the results of the individual church votes, just the outcome. We chose that approach to try to minimize the emphasis on personalities. Now we move forward from the decision that was made.
We trust that a sound decision was made. It is hard to believe that you could go into a merger without energy, hope, or joy and think it would be successful (think marriage). If I might speak for some, however, there was some disappointment with the decision. The Sessions presented the Plan with a vision that the two churches could combine their energies and assets together to form one stronger church, and it is better to do that sooner than later. We do not know why people voted as they did, but if the vote was to try to keep both churches open to be their “special” places, that is looking inward, rather than looking outward. That usually leads to becoming smaller and smaller. If the vote was with the hope that resources would come from the outside to keep the churches open, that is a church on life-support and we know where that usually leads. If the vote was because of fear of change, change will happen whether we try to avoid it or not. And if the vote was to avoid having to take greater involvement in the new church, that, too, only leads to greater inactivity.
When Jesus prayed for his followers to be one, I think he still had their individuality in mind. We respect that. We have work ahead of us. We still have much to be thankful for and our churches still have a purpose—care for its members, being the place to hear God’s word and seek God in prayer, and a commitment to serving our communities and world.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
This Sunday (May 16) we will be holding congregational meetings to proceed with or bring to an end the plan for merging the Utica and Lewiston churches. The discussion that has led to this stage has been taking place between the two Sessions for over a year. The result is a plan which will be voted on. There is no doubt that this takes us into an uncertain future and requires sacrifice. All opportunity comes at a cost, but so does declining life’s opportunities. Please remember us in prayer as we consider this possibility for continuing mission and ministry in our community.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
A couple weeks ago we had one of those great events in the life of a small town. Every year, this is the 32nd year, the Fools Five Race takes place in Lewiston, Minnesota. It is held the first Sunday of April (hence the name), but this year April 4th was Easter, so it was postponed to April 11th (the race, that is, not the holiday). I run the one-mile instead of the five-mile course for three reasons: 1) often I have to get back to Chatfield or home to finish something since Sunday is a big day, 2) the route turns around at the church and, in fact, one year the “map” including the church was on the T-shirt and I like that, and 3) five miles is far beyond my usual workout and so it would be one mile of running and four miles of whining and nobody wants to see that. It was a gorgeous spring day and there were more people in the race than in the town. The race is one of many activities on this day. There are inspirational speakers and other fund-raising events. Those who help organize this day have a special kind of dedication.
It does a really great thing, this race, this weekend. It honors those in the community, with their families, who have struggled with cancer. It honors their courage, despite the outcome. It also brings us together to do something about it. The funds go to research and support for those whose lives have been and will be affected by the disease. It brings us together to give in many ways. There is courage in that, too.
It does a really great thing, this race, this weekend. It honors those in the community, with their families, who have struggled with cancer. It honors their courage, despite the outcome. It also brings us together to do something about it. The funds go to research and support for those whose lives have been and will be affected by the disease. It brings us together to give in many ways. There is courage in that, too.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
I have just gotten back from reading ordination exams. I might share a bit more on that process later, but here is the sermon for a couple weeks ago.
Text 1: Exod 34.29-35
Text 2: Luke 9.28-36
Transfiguration of the Lord, Year C
“SHINE, JESUS, SHINE”
What do you want out of church? That is a strange question to ask, especially of folks who have been attending church their whole lives. It seems for some to be a routine, and not a bad one at that. It can bring peace to a person’s life. It can guide and inspire. But it is not a bad question to ask. Because people can lose the reason they do things and then they become poor imitations of what they are supposed to be and ultimately have no power to do much of any good. There is this great joke about missing the point of something. An airplane was in trouble and the captain said to the passengers, “Folks our engines have failed and we’re going down into the ocean. Is there anyone aboard who can do something religious?” So they passed some plates for an offering. We need to remember why we do things so our purpose does not become lost. The question is whether people will find something meaningful in the church.
Today is the feast of the Transfiguration, the last Sunday after Epiphany and the one right before Lent. It is named for something that happens in the Gospel reading. It recalls the time Jesus went up the mountain to pray with Peter and James and John. His appearance changed. That is what transfigured means. Then they saw Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus and thought they were going to stay up there on the mountain and were ready to make huts for them to live in, but instead they heard a voice that told them to listen to him. They were terrified as they entered the cloud and then it was all over and they went back down from the mountain in silence.
This is an unusual feast and we have to pay attention to find what it means. It is not obvious like Christmas, celebrating Jesus’ birth, or Easter, his Resurrection. It is not recalling his death on Good Friday or the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. It is not about his baptism or his return. The key is in what happened to Jesus and the disciples and the meaning of the symbolism. On the mountain Jesus talked with Elijah and Moses and his appearance changed. This clearly shows the disciples that they were following someone who was not an ordinary man. This is someone, like Moses, to whom God speaks directly and who walks and talks with the great men of God of the past. This is just one of the ways light is a symbol of the divine. It talks about Jesus’ purpose for living as the way God is revealed, just like the sun shining over the world. It is that symbolism in the song, “Shine, Jesus, Shine”:
Lord the Light of Your Love is shining,
In the midst of the darkness shining,
Jesus light of the world shine upon us,
Set us free by the truth You now bring us,
Shine on me. Shine on me.
Shine Jesus shine
Fill this land with the Father's glory
Blaze, Spirit blaze,
Set our hearts on fire
Flow, river flow
Flood the nations with grace and mercy
Send forth Your word
Lord and let there be light.
There are other things for which light is a perfect symbol. It is a symbol for enlightenment, becoming aware of reality. It is a symbol for moral goodness, being and living in the light, as opposed to in the dark. It is a light that is to be shared. The disciples would eventually share the good news about Jesus with others. They saw it and would later tell others about it. The voice that told them to listen to Jesus would begin a pattern of life that they would teach to others.
Light spreads out and lightens the world around it. Last summer I was driving along in Wisconsin in the rain on the Interstate Highway when suddenly the sun came out. It was interesting to see all the cars were each surrounded with a cloud of light from the sunlight hitting the spray from their tires and being reflected all around. One big light was the source of all of the halos of light around our cars. Jesus’ transformation into glory is to be the beginning of our own. This is the idea of the last stanza of the song:
As we gaze on Your kindly brightness.
So our faces display Your likeness.
Ever changing from glory to glory,
Mirrored here may our lives tell Your story.
Shine on me. Shine on me.
The event on the mountain has that symbolism as well. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark describe the same event but use the word metemorphothe. That Greek word is the word behind our English word ‘metamorphosis’. It refers to a change in appearance, but what we have most in our minds when we hear that word is how the caterpillar changes form to emerge as a butterfly. It is a change for the better. It is a more glorified existence.
The reading from Exodus talks about the time Moses went up the mountain and saw God. When he came back down he was not aware that his face was shining. This was the result of his contact with God. It frightened the Israelites and they made him put a veil over his face. But when Moses spoke with God he took it off. What he carried away from his time with God would have been marvelous to see, but disturbing to some. But that is what we need if we want our lives to be part of the glory of God.
We need to remember the power of God. The world is full of things that promise and fail to deliver some great meaning in life. God is that ultimate meaning and the church is the place where we seek God together. The result of that is that we live better lives. Not just improved in what we get, but in who we are as people. Many want some kind of spiritual experience yet really don’t want to experience God in that full power. It, like it was for the Israelites and the disciples, can be bewildering, even frightening. It can challenge who we are and what we do. But not to seek that is to somehow make the church and our faith and even our lives into something very superficial. The possibility of seeing God is offered to us. How could you really see God and not be changed, not even be terrified? Sometimes we want too little, not too much. And sometimes we don’t want too much if it will disturb what we really want.
God’s purpose is that we see God’s glory and that we share that glory with others. When we see God we are not to be silent about it. We are to see the light proclaim the light and then become the light for others. That can take many forms as Elizabeth Sherrill found:
A gallery of saints in glowing stained glass filled the windows of the little church: Mary holding the [Christ] Child, St. Peter with his keys, St. John on [the island of] Patmos. Watching the figures transform ordinary daylight into radiance and glory, I remembered a definition I heard once: “Saints are people who let the light shine through.” And I thought, The words apply not just to revered individuals like the ones in the windows but to the unsung saints we honor today.
I’ve known a lot of them, as different from one another as an English teacher and a Paris street sweeper. Yet, through each one, God’s light shone on those around them.
I think of a book report that came back to me in my sixth-grade English class with a line at the top in Miss Cathcart’s green-ink script: “You’re capable of seeing more in this story.” And because she saw something better in me, I reread the book and I did see more.
When I was a student in Paris a few years later, my worn, much mended jacket was in shabby contrast to the elegant outfits of Parisian women. A man was sweeping a gutter with his straw broom as the daily rush of water carried debris into the sewers. As I started to cross the street, he held up his hand and halted traffic so my frayed old coat wouldn’t be sprayed by passing cars. The gesture said, You’re valued just as you are.
And there was the friend who paid a visit after our second child was born, when all I could see ahead was dirty diapers and a sink full of dishes. Margaret pointed out the sacredness of daily chores, and when she left, my untidy apartment looked like a shrine.
Through all these people and scores more, light shone.
Most people will never go to the mountaintop and see Jesus transformed. Yet they need to know that power. We might be the only light they see.
We hear about this time in Jesus’ life when he went up to the mountain. There some of the disciples saw a marvelous event. His appearance changed, his face and clothes became dazzling white. And, like Moses of old, God was present with him. Moses brought back the law, but the voice that spoke to the disciples told them to listen to Jesus. Those disciples came back with a new direction in life, but above that there was the light. They saw Jesus in a new way. They knew that he was not an ordinary man, but one who showed us God. And they took down that mountain the fact that they had seen the light. That is how God works. The purpose of the church is to see God’s glory and transforming power. The purpose of the church is also to share that with those around it. And so its prayer should be: Lord, shine on us. Shine in us.
Text 1: Exod 34.29-35
Text 2: Luke 9.28-36
Transfiguration of the Lord, Year C
“SHINE, JESUS, SHINE”
What do you want out of church? That is a strange question to ask, especially of folks who have been attending church their whole lives. It seems for some to be a routine, and not a bad one at that. It can bring peace to a person’s life. It can guide and inspire. But it is not a bad question to ask. Because people can lose the reason they do things and then they become poor imitations of what they are supposed to be and ultimately have no power to do much of any good. There is this great joke about missing the point of something. An airplane was in trouble and the captain said to the passengers, “Folks our engines have failed and we’re going down into the ocean. Is there anyone aboard who can do something religious?” So they passed some plates for an offering. We need to remember why we do things so our purpose does not become lost. The question is whether people will find something meaningful in the church.
Today is the feast of the Transfiguration, the last Sunday after Epiphany and the one right before Lent. It is named for something that happens in the Gospel reading. It recalls the time Jesus went up the mountain to pray with Peter and James and John. His appearance changed. That is what transfigured means. Then they saw Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus and thought they were going to stay up there on the mountain and were ready to make huts for them to live in, but instead they heard a voice that told them to listen to him. They were terrified as they entered the cloud and then it was all over and they went back down from the mountain in silence.
This is an unusual feast and we have to pay attention to find what it means. It is not obvious like Christmas, celebrating Jesus’ birth, or Easter, his Resurrection. It is not recalling his death on Good Friday or the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. It is not about his baptism or his return. The key is in what happened to Jesus and the disciples and the meaning of the symbolism. On the mountain Jesus talked with Elijah and Moses and his appearance changed. This clearly shows the disciples that they were following someone who was not an ordinary man. This is someone, like Moses, to whom God speaks directly and who walks and talks with the great men of God of the past. This is just one of the ways light is a symbol of the divine. It talks about Jesus’ purpose for living as the way God is revealed, just like the sun shining over the world. It is that symbolism in the song, “Shine, Jesus, Shine”:
Lord the Light of Your Love is shining,
In the midst of the darkness shining,
Jesus light of the world shine upon us,
Set us free by the truth You now bring us,
Shine on me. Shine on me.
Shine Jesus shine
Fill this land with the Father's glory
Blaze, Spirit blaze,
Set our hearts on fire
Flow, river flow
Flood the nations with grace and mercy
Send forth Your word
Lord and let there be light.
There are other things for which light is a perfect symbol. It is a symbol for enlightenment, becoming aware of reality. It is a symbol for moral goodness, being and living in the light, as opposed to in the dark. It is a light that is to be shared. The disciples would eventually share the good news about Jesus with others. They saw it and would later tell others about it. The voice that told them to listen to Jesus would begin a pattern of life that they would teach to others.
Light spreads out and lightens the world around it. Last summer I was driving along in Wisconsin in the rain on the Interstate Highway when suddenly the sun came out. It was interesting to see all the cars were each surrounded with a cloud of light from the sunlight hitting the spray from their tires and being reflected all around. One big light was the source of all of the halos of light around our cars. Jesus’ transformation into glory is to be the beginning of our own. This is the idea of the last stanza of the song:
As we gaze on Your kindly brightness.
So our faces display Your likeness.
Ever changing from glory to glory,
Mirrored here may our lives tell Your story.
Shine on me. Shine on me.
The event on the mountain has that symbolism as well. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark describe the same event but use the word metemorphothe. That Greek word is the word behind our English word ‘metamorphosis’. It refers to a change in appearance, but what we have most in our minds when we hear that word is how the caterpillar changes form to emerge as a butterfly. It is a change for the better. It is a more glorified existence.
The reading from Exodus talks about the time Moses went up the mountain and saw God. When he came back down he was not aware that his face was shining. This was the result of his contact with God. It frightened the Israelites and they made him put a veil over his face. But when Moses spoke with God he took it off. What he carried away from his time with God would have been marvelous to see, but disturbing to some. But that is what we need if we want our lives to be part of the glory of God.
We need to remember the power of God. The world is full of things that promise and fail to deliver some great meaning in life. God is that ultimate meaning and the church is the place where we seek God together. The result of that is that we live better lives. Not just improved in what we get, but in who we are as people. Many want some kind of spiritual experience yet really don’t want to experience God in that full power. It, like it was for the Israelites and the disciples, can be bewildering, even frightening. It can challenge who we are and what we do. But not to seek that is to somehow make the church and our faith and even our lives into something very superficial. The possibility of seeing God is offered to us. How could you really see God and not be changed, not even be terrified? Sometimes we want too little, not too much. And sometimes we don’t want too much if it will disturb what we really want.
God’s purpose is that we see God’s glory and that we share that glory with others. When we see God we are not to be silent about it. We are to see the light proclaim the light and then become the light for others. That can take many forms as Elizabeth Sherrill found:
A gallery of saints in glowing stained glass filled the windows of the little church: Mary holding the [Christ] Child, St. Peter with his keys, St. John on [the island of] Patmos. Watching the figures transform ordinary daylight into radiance and glory, I remembered a definition I heard once: “Saints are people who let the light shine through.” And I thought, The words apply not just to revered individuals like the ones in the windows but to the unsung saints we honor today.
I’ve known a lot of them, as different from one another as an English teacher and a Paris street sweeper. Yet, through each one, God’s light shone on those around them.
I think of a book report that came back to me in my sixth-grade English class with a line at the top in Miss Cathcart’s green-ink script: “You’re capable of seeing more in this story.” And because she saw something better in me, I reread the book and I did see more.
When I was a student in Paris a few years later, my worn, much mended jacket was in shabby contrast to the elegant outfits of Parisian women. A man was sweeping a gutter with his straw broom as the daily rush of water carried debris into the sewers. As I started to cross the street, he held up his hand and halted traffic so my frayed old coat wouldn’t be sprayed by passing cars. The gesture said, You’re valued just as you are.
And there was the friend who paid a visit after our second child was born, when all I could see ahead was dirty diapers and a sink full of dishes. Margaret pointed out the sacredness of daily chores, and when she left, my untidy apartment looked like a shrine.
Through all these people and scores more, light shone.
Most people will never go to the mountaintop and see Jesus transformed. Yet they need to know that power. We might be the only light they see.
We hear about this time in Jesus’ life when he went up to the mountain. There some of the disciples saw a marvelous event. His appearance changed, his face and clothes became dazzling white. And, like Moses of old, God was present with him. Moses brought back the law, but the voice that spoke to the disciples told them to listen to Jesus. Those disciples came back with a new direction in life, but above that there was the light. They saw Jesus in a new way. They knew that he was not an ordinary man, but one who showed us God. And they took down that mountain the fact that they had seen the light. That is how God works. The purpose of the church is to see God’s glory and transforming power. The purpose of the church is also to share that with those around it. And so its prayer should be: Lord, shine on us. Shine in us.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
This sermon was from a couple weeks ago. The Presbytery is focusing on becoming more missional. I think that is going to be important in the church. We are undergoing a huge sociological shift and the church needs to rediscover its roots and mission.
Text1: Isa 6.1-8
Text2: Luke 5.1-11
The 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
“ONCE A FISHERMAN …”
When a person has done something for a very long time it becomes part of them. It can be an outlook on life, or something they have studied for a long time, or the work that they do in life, but it affects how they see things and what they do. The biochemist and science fiction writer Isaac Asimov mentioned this in one of his books. Take this word (you might want to write it out on your bulletin if you can): U-N-I-O-N-I-Z-E-D. What is it? Most of us would say “union-ized”, that is, having a union made in something, as in, “the company plant became unionized”. But he says, if you were a real chemist you would see the word as “un-ionized”, that is atoms that have no gained or lost electrons and have not become ions. What you have in mind determines how you see things. How you see things determines what you have in mind.
The reading from Isaiah is of Isaiah’s vision of God. He saw the Lord in God’s full glory with angels above. This vision of the Lord’s holiness made Isaiah aware of how far he was from this holiness and he declares that he is not worthy. The Lord sends an angel with a live coal to touch his lips, and his sin is taken away. Then God asks who will go for him, that is, who will be God’s prophet, and Isaiah can now volunteer, now that his sin is taken away. He sees God in a new way because of what God has done to him that changes what he is going to do with his life. God sees the need of the people for a prophet to go to them, now Isaiah sees it too.
The Gospel reading is of the time Jesus called Peter to follow him. There was a crowd at the edge of the Lake of Gennesaret that was pressing in on Jesus to hear him. He got into Simon’s boat and asked him to go out a little ways. He taught the crowd from the boat. Then Jesus tells the fishermen to go out for a catch. They are skeptical; they had not had a good night of fishing. But they do as he says and caught so many fish that they had to call for help because the boat began to sink. Peter knows that this is not an ordinary man, and, like Isaiah, feels unworthy to be in his presence. But Jesus does something like God does with Isaiah. He tells him not to be afraid because he will be fishing from now on for people. He becomes part of God’s plan for the world. But first, he is touched by God’s power.
It is a marvelous story. The first thing to notice is that Peter, the fisherman has been caught. His feeling of sinfulness marked his life when he met Jesus. But his sin is forgotten. He needed to meet Jesus. And he listened to Jesus because of that need. He was caught by being freed. He was freed by being caught. The other thing to notice is that while he has a new purpose, there is something that has stayed the same. He has lived with fish his whole life. Fish are his way of life. He and his partners have a new calling but it is a calling that fit fishermen perfectly. Until this incident they had been working for themselves, but now they will be working for someone else. They fed bodies but after this they will be feeding souls. Some of his life is going to change. He has been catching things all his life. Now he will be catching people for God. He is still a fisherman, but no longer just for himself. God is going to fish by using a fisherman. God is going to use who Peter is for a special purpose.
One of the challenges to the church is that we live in a time in which fewer people are claiming that they are Christians. Perhaps 60 years ago we could assume that everyone who lived around us was one. And so we are reminded from time to time that we need to continue to spread the good news about Jesus to those around us. We need to think like Peter will think in the years to come. How does a fisherman catch fish? Look for hungry fish. What do fishermen do? Spread their nets. That is how Peter will go about the task God has given him. How do we share the good news with others? That depends on what their needs are and what skills and opportunities we have which come from who we are and what we have done. The question is: Where has God put us?
What Jesus did for Peter and his words will continue to tug at Peter, continue to lead him, all the rest of his life. But first the change had to take place in him, before he could share it with others. Kent Nerburn in his book The Hidden Beauty of Everyday Life, talks about how we change how we look at things:
The sky above the park is alive with kites. It is a breezy spring day, and the children are out.
This is a rare occurrence, for kites live best where the spaces are great and the sky looms larger than the land, beckoning the children to look upward and send their dreams flying toward the heavens. Ours is a place of lakes and woods and deep winter snows. Children keep their eyes close to the earth, and send their dreams racing down rivulets of melting waters, or sliding across drifts, or skipping on stones across the shimmering surfaces of lakes.
But on rare days like this, when the sky is both gentle and playful, it calls to them and they take their kites to the open fields, the meadows, the parks, and the school yards and send them skyward to make a playmate of the winds.
Often they fail. These are not children practiced in the arts of the sky, and their kites too often spin out of control, whip crazily in the wind, and plummet heavily to the earth. Other times they never leave the earth at all, bounding fitfully on the ground behind as the children try to run them into the air on legs too short across fields too small.
But on this day, the winds are gentle and the sky is kind. The kites have risen, and the children stand at the ends of their strings, eyes skyward and attention rapt, mesmerized by this connection with the heavens that they can only dimly understand.
It reminds him of the words of Leonardo da Vinci: “Once you have flown, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward.” Peter has seen something new in his life. He has received something he needed and this has made the greatest difference in his life. That is what he sees from now on, that is what he wants to share.
God’s plan is two fold. It is to change individuals and then to use those individuals to help others change. It is to send people to bring the good news of the Kingdom to those who need it around them. How do we find our opportunities? JoJo Jensen sees faith as the roots of the tree supporting our lives but also in another way. Early in life she saw how people can become involved:
A tree’s roots spread out, intermingling with neighboring trees, shrubs, and plants, lending strength, kinship, and balance to all.
I grew up on a street that was the most direct route to the local hamburger joint. It was the place to hang out and be cool, much as the mall is today. Teenagers raced their hot rods at breakneck speed up the street, much to the alarm of the neighborhood parents. With so many little kids running around, they were afraid someone would get hit.
The parents united to find a solution. Each homeowner placed a 4 x 4 piece of lumber in front of his or her house. They created the first homegrown speed bumps.
At first, the teenagers tossed the logs aside. Then they drove over them very slowly, which doesn’t really work for drag racing. Ultimately, they simply found another route to the burger stand. Problem solved, thanks to the interwoven roots of the neighborhood.
Building strong, deep roots takes time and genuine effort.
You have almost limitless choices to spread your roots, if you’re willing to put yourself out into the world.
You can sign your children up at the local pool, YMCA or YWCA, to take swimming lessons, and meet other parents as you enjoy watching your kids together from the stands. If you feel like extending your roots in a creative way, audition for a local play, or you can offer to paint the sets or create the costumes for the next production. If your need-to-help roots are calling for expansion, volunteer at an animal shelter or become a mentor to a child who could really use your attention and wisdom. The stronger you make your ties to the community, the stronger both you and your community become.
In just a few examples, she shows how people can connect with other people to share a common goal. It can be for some way to improve the community. It can also be to touch the lives of others. We have a calling to create a new kind of community, to be a part of how God reaches out to the world. To do that we need to find those who need what he have to share. We need to cast our nets.
Jesus went out to teach one day from a boat and called Peter to serve the Lord. Peter wasn’t the only one who was fishing. It was a good catch. He will be bringing the gospel to others. He will help them hear and follow God’s word as he did. Our calling is not the wind, or the desire to enjoy the outdoors, or even only to the betterment of our lives, but the high purpose of helping others find and become a part of the Kingdom of God. It begins first in us, in what God has done for us. Then it continues as we see life in a new way. “Who will go for us?” God asked. Those who have found a new life and new purpose will go. “Follow me” Jesus said. We will follow once we have been set free and want to help others find that as well. “Who will go for us?” The best answer is “We will.”
Text1: Isa 6.1-8
Text2: Luke 5.1-11
The 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
“ONCE A FISHERMAN …”
When a person has done something for a very long time it becomes part of them. It can be an outlook on life, or something they have studied for a long time, or the work that they do in life, but it affects how they see things and what they do. The biochemist and science fiction writer Isaac Asimov mentioned this in one of his books. Take this word (you might want to write it out on your bulletin if you can): U-N-I-O-N-I-Z-E-D. What is it? Most of us would say “union-ized”, that is, having a union made in something, as in, “the company plant became unionized”. But he says, if you were a real chemist you would see the word as “un-ionized”, that is atoms that have no gained or lost electrons and have not become ions. What you have in mind determines how you see things. How you see things determines what you have in mind.
The reading from Isaiah is of Isaiah’s vision of God. He saw the Lord in God’s full glory with angels above. This vision of the Lord’s holiness made Isaiah aware of how far he was from this holiness and he declares that he is not worthy. The Lord sends an angel with a live coal to touch his lips, and his sin is taken away. Then God asks who will go for him, that is, who will be God’s prophet, and Isaiah can now volunteer, now that his sin is taken away. He sees God in a new way because of what God has done to him that changes what he is going to do with his life. God sees the need of the people for a prophet to go to them, now Isaiah sees it too.
The Gospel reading is of the time Jesus called Peter to follow him. There was a crowd at the edge of the Lake of Gennesaret that was pressing in on Jesus to hear him. He got into Simon’s boat and asked him to go out a little ways. He taught the crowd from the boat. Then Jesus tells the fishermen to go out for a catch. They are skeptical; they had not had a good night of fishing. But they do as he says and caught so many fish that they had to call for help because the boat began to sink. Peter knows that this is not an ordinary man, and, like Isaiah, feels unworthy to be in his presence. But Jesus does something like God does with Isaiah. He tells him not to be afraid because he will be fishing from now on for people. He becomes part of God’s plan for the world. But first, he is touched by God’s power.
It is a marvelous story. The first thing to notice is that Peter, the fisherman has been caught. His feeling of sinfulness marked his life when he met Jesus. But his sin is forgotten. He needed to meet Jesus. And he listened to Jesus because of that need. He was caught by being freed. He was freed by being caught. The other thing to notice is that while he has a new purpose, there is something that has stayed the same. He has lived with fish his whole life. Fish are his way of life. He and his partners have a new calling but it is a calling that fit fishermen perfectly. Until this incident they had been working for themselves, but now they will be working for someone else. They fed bodies but after this they will be feeding souls. Some of his life is going to change. He has been catching things all his life. Now he will be catching people for God. He is still a fisherman, but no longer just for himself. God is going to fish by using a fisherman. God is going to use who Peter is for a special purpose.
One of the challenges to the church is that we live in a time in which fewer people are claiming that they are Christians. Perhaps 60 years ago we could assume that everyone who lived around us was one. And so we are reminded from time to time that we need to continue to spread the good news about Jesus to those around us. We need to think like Peter will think in the years to come. How does a fisherman catch fish? Look for hungry fish. What do fishermen do? Spread their nets. That is how Peter will go about the task God has given him. How do we share the good news with others? That depends on what their needs are and what skills and opportunities we have which come from who we are and what we have done. The question is: Where has God put us?
What Jesus did for Peter and his words will continue to tug at Peter, continue to lead him, all the rest of his life. But first the change had to take place in him, before he could share it with others. Kent Nerburn in his book The Hidden Beauty of Everyday Life, talks about how we change how we look at things:
The sky above the park is alive with kites. It is a breezy spring day, and the children are out.
This is a rare occurrence, for kites live best where the spaces are great and the sky looms larger than the land, beckoning the children to look upward and send their dreams flying toward the heavens. Ours is a place of lakes and woods and deep winter snows. Children keep their eyes close to the earth, and send their dreams racing down rivulets of melting waters, or sliding across drifts, or skipping on stones across the shimmering surfaces of lakes.
But on rare days like this, when the sky is both gentle and playful, it calls to them and they take their kites to the open fields, the meadows, the parks, and the school yards and send them skyward to make a playmate of the winds.
Often they fail. These are not children practiced in the arts of the sky, and their kites too often spin out of control, whip crazily in the wind, and plummet heavily to the earth. Other times they never leave the earth at all, bounding fitfully on the ground behind as the children try to run them into the air on legs too short across fields too small.
But on this day, the winds are gentle and the sky is kind. The kites have risen, and the children stand at the ends of their strings, eyes skyward and attention rapt, mesmerized by this connection with the heavens that they can only dimly understand.
It reminds him of the words of Leonardo da Vinci: “Once you have flown, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward.” Peter has seen something new in his life. He has received something he needed and this has made the greatest difference in his life. That is what he sees from now on, that is what he wants to share.
God’s plan is two fold. It is to change individuals and then to use those individuals to help others change. It is to send people to bring the good news of the Kingdom to those who need it around them. How do we find our opportunities? JoJo Jensen sees faith as the roots of the tree supporting our lives but also in another way. Early in life she saw how people can become involved:
A tree’s roots spread out, intermingling with neighboring trees, shrubs, and plants, lending strength, kinship, and balance to all.
I grew up on a street that was the most direct route to the local hamburger joint. It was the place to hang out and be cool, much as the mall is today. Teenagers raced their hot rods at breakneck speed up the street, much to the alarm of the neighborhood parents. With so many little kids running around, they were afraid someone would get hit.
The parents united to find a solution. Each homeowner placed a 4 x 4 piece of lumber in front of his or her house. They created the first homegrown speed bumps.
At first, the teenagers tossed the logs aside. Then they drove over them very slowly, which doesn’t really work for drag racing. Ultimately, they simply found another route to the burger stand. Problem solved, thanks to the interwoven roots of the neighborhood.
Building strong, deep roots takes time and genuine effort.
You have almost limitless choices to spread your roots, if you’re willing to put yourself out into the world.
You can sign your children up at the local pool, YMCA or YWCA, to take swimming lessons, and meet other parents as you enjoy watching your kids together from the stands. If you feel like extending your roots in a creative way, audition for a local play, or you can offer to paint the sets or create the costumes for the next production. If your need-to-help roots are calling for expansion, volunteer at an animal shelter or become a mentor to a child who could really use your attention and wisdom. The stronger you make your ties to the community, the stronger both you and your community become.
In just a few examples, she shows how people can connect with other people to share a common goal. It can be for some way to improve the community. It can also be to touch the lives of others. We have a calling to create a new kind of community, to be a part of how God reaches out to the world. To do that we need to find those who need what he have to share. We need to cast our nets.
Jesus went out to teach one day from a boat and called Peter to serve the Lord. Peter wasn’t the only one who was fishing. It was a good catch. He will be bringing the gospel to others. He will help them hear and follow God’s word as he did. Our calling is not the wind, or the desire to enjoy the outdoors, or even only to the betterment of our lives, but the high purpose of helping others find and become a part of the Kingdom of God. It begins first in us, in what God has done for us. Then it continues as we see life in a new way. “Who will go for us?” God asked. Those who have found a new life and new purpose will go. “Follow me” Jesus said. We will follow once we have been set free and want to help others find that as well. “Who will go for us?” The best answer is “We will.”
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
I am falling a bit behind in this blog. Here is the sermon for January 31, 2010. The readings were Jeremiah 1.4-10 and Luke 4.21-30.
“THROWING JESUS OUT”
Nobody likes bad news. There are various forms of it, ranging from news of catastrophe or tragedy to the difficult things people tell us, and it may or may not come as a surprise. Take this case, for example:
John McKay coached the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their early, dismal days. They were so bad, when one reporter asked him about their execution, McKay responded, “I think it’s a good idea.”
Some take disappointing news better than others.
Jesus faced this problem of giving disappointing news early in his ministry. As you recall from last week, Jesus was in his hometown synagogue and read a passage from Isaiah that described his purpose—to bring good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, and declare the acceptable year of the Lord. He said that that word from the prophet had been fulfilled that day. The people in the synagogue were pleased with his words.
Today’s reading picks up at that point. They recognize that he is from there—“we know his parents”—and Jesus anticipates their next thought. He said that they will quote him the proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself,” that is, use your profession and skills to take care of business at home and not just at work, and they want him to do for them some mighty works like they heard he did at Capernaum, but his answer is that prophets are not taken seriously in their hometowns.
To clear up any possibility of misunderstanding he tells a story from the past. Remember the prophet Elijah? He came to the widow at Zarephath in Sidon during the drought. He gave her an endless supply of meal and oil. Of all the widows in Israel he came to her. You can almost hear it: “What made her special?” And remember Naaman the Syrian? He was healed of his leprosy. Of all the lepers in Israel he healed him. They were not Israelites; they were not among the chosen people. “How could these people come ahead of us?” The hard truth is that God will help foreigners who believe over the chosen people who ignore the prophets. Prophets talk to people who have faith, to people who are listening. Those in their hometowns might have stopped listening long ago. Their reaction to this is great anger and they drove Jesus out of their town to throw him off a cliff when he passed through their midst and left them. They think that it is better to get rid of Jesus than to listen to what they don’t want to hear.
The truth sometimes makes people mad. We like to think of the Gospels as a friendly Jesus meeting friendly people, kind of like the Good Shepherd. But the truth about the truth is, that in the Gospels there are times Jesus told people things and they didn’t like it. We all have heard things we didn’t like to hear. It seems to me there are two types of bad news. There are things that happen to us out of the blue. Like disease, like aging, like bad decisions by people on Wall Street that end up by taking away your job. These are things that are out of your control.
And there is another type of bad news. There are things you could have done something about but didn’t and now you face the consequences. A person might behave belligerently and then lose friends. A person might squander money and then be in need. A person might not grow in job skills and then be replaced by others. The results of actions or inactions have caught up to you and are bad news. But the truth is that it was in your power to do something about them but didn’t. Maybe for some people this is a harder form of hard truth. Maybe because something was in your grasp and you didn’t do it. Some people see these things as coming out of the blue but they are not.
The reading from Jeremiah is God’s words to him. God’s plan for him began before he was born. He will to what prophets do, tell others what God has told him. That word from God will have great power. It will pluck up and pull down, destroy and overthrow, build and plant. His task is to bring that word to people for them to hear it or reject it. People are divided into those who hear the truth and those who don’t. And sometimes those who will not hear it will listen to or blame or become obsessed with everything but the truth.
It is amazing how much information we have available to us. Much of it in the news is about the ills of our world, nation, and region. There was an interesting study recently. They compared the diets of people in the categories of the things that cause health problems—fat, salt, calories in places that list those things in the food items and in places that don’t. There was little difference in the diets of the people who ate at the two places. Somehow just having the information available is not enough. Something more is needed.
The lives of the people of God are filled with God’s word. We can read it for ourselves daily. We hear it week in and week out in worship. The Spirit speaks to us within. The church is not always a place of comfort. Sometimes it is where we hear the truth, where God’s plans are made real to us. And yet, there is much that seems incomplete in the church, in our lives. 1500 years ago some of God’s people went out into the desert to live together as Christian communities. There are stories from those times that illustrate to us what faith is. Often one learns most from the older leaders of the community, called abbas. Here is one such story from Daily Readings with the Desert Fathers:
They said that abba Sylvanus had a disciple in Scetis, named Mark, who possessed in great measure the virtue of obedience. He was a copyist of old manuscripts, and the old man loved him for his obedience. He had eleven other disciples who were aggrieved that he loved Mark more than them.
When the old men nearby heard that he loved Mark above the others, they took it ill. One day they visited him and abba Sylvanus took them with him and, going out of his cell [, his room], began to knock on the door of each of his disciples, saying, ‘Brother, come out, I have work for you.’ And not one of them appeared immediately.
Then he came to Mark’s cell and knocked, saying, ‘Mark’. And as soon as Mark heard the voice of the old man he came outside and the old man sent him on some errand.
So abba Sylvanus said to the old men, ‘Where are the other brothers?’, and he went into Mark’s cell and found the book in which he had been writing and he was making the letter O; and when he had heard the old man’s voice, he had not finished the line of the O. And the old men said, “Truly, abba, we also love the one whom you love; for God loves him, too.’
It is in obedience that what we hear becomes real, becomes faith. If we are honest, that is, if we know the truth, we know that we do this imperfectly. The good news is that there is hope, as Andrew Attaway found when his daughter was frustrated at learning to play the violin. He noted her perfectionism and his advice to her was to learn the piece a few measures at a time. It reminded him of all his own shortcomings. But the message that stayed in his mind was that we can grow in love and Christ’s grace is sufficient for our lives.
The Gospel reading this morning might surprise us. Not all the people of Jesus’ time welcomed him. Not everyone heard what he had to say. And when he pointed that out to them, they wanted to get rid of him. Sometimes the truth can sting. But to refuse to hear it means that we are stuck living in the lies we make up. Jesus is the prophet, who like the prophets of old, has been sent by God to tell us the truth. What will you hear today that will change your life? What will you do that will set you on the road to following the truth?
“THROWING JESUS OUT”
Nobody likes bad news. There are various forms of it, ranging from news of catastrophe or tragedy to the difficult things people tell us, and it may or may not come as a surprise. Take this case, for example:
John McKay coached the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their early, dismal days. They were so bad, when one reporter asked him about their execution, McKay responded, “I think it’s a good idea.”
Some take disappointing news better than others.
Jesus faced this problem of giving disappointing news early in his ministry. As you recall from last week, Jesus was in his hometown synagogue and read a passage from Isaiah that described his purpose—to bring good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, and declare the acceptable year of the Lord. He said that that word from the prophet had been fulfilled that day. The people in the synagogue were pleased with his words.
Today’s reading picks up at that point. They recognize that he is from there—“we know his parents”—and Jesus anticipates their next thought. He said that they will quote him the proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself,” that is, use your profession and skills to take care of business at home and not just at work, and they want him to do for them some mighty works like they heard he did at Capernaum, but his answer is that prophets are not taken seriously in their hometowns.
To clear up any possibility of misunderstanding he tells a story from the past. Remember the prophet Elijah? He came to the widow at Zarephath in Sidon during the drought. He gave her an endless supply of meal and oil. Of all the widows in Israel he came to her. You can almost hear it: “What made her special?” And remember Naaman the Syrian? He was healed of his leprosy. Of all the lepers in Israel he healed him. They were not Israelites; they were not among the chosen people. “How could these people come ahead of us?” The hard truth is that God will help foreigners who believe over the chosen people who ignore the prophets. Prophets talk to people who have faith, to people who are listening. Those in their hometowns might have stopped listening long ago. Their reaction to this is great anger and they drove Jesus out of their town to throw him off a cliff when he passed through their midst and left them. They think that it is better to get rid of Jesus than to listen to what they don’t want to hear.
The truth sometimes makes people mad. We like to think of the Gospels as a friendly Jesus meeting friendly people, kind of like the Good Shepherd. But the truth about the truth is, that in the Gospels there are times Jesus told people things and they didn’t like it. We all have heard things we didn’t like to hear. It seems to me there are two types of bad news. There are things that happen to us out of the blue. Like disease, like aging, like bad decisions by people on Wall Street that end up by taking away your job. These are things that are out of your control.
And there is another type of bad news. There are things you could have done something about but didn’t and now you face the consequences. A person might behave belligerently and then lose friends. A person might squander money and then be in need. A person might not grow in job skills and then be replaced by others. The results of actions or inactions have caught up to you and are bad news. But the truth is that it was in your power to do something about them but didn’t. Maybe for some people this is a harder form of hard truth. Maybe because something was in your grasp and you didn’t do it. Some people see these things as coming out of the blue but they are not.
The reading from Jeremiah is God’s words to him. God’s plan for him began before he was born. He will to what prophets do, tell others what God has told him. That word from God will have great power. It will pluck up and pull down, destroy and overthrow, build and plant. His task is to bring that word to people for them to hear it or reject it. People are divided into those who hear the truth and those who don’t. And sometimes those who will not hear it will listen to or blame or become obsessed with everything but the truth.
It is amazing how much information we have available to us. Much of it in the news is about the ills of our world, nation, and region. There was an interesting study recently. They compared the diets of people in the categories of the things that cause health problems—fat, salt, calories in places that list those things in the food items and in places that don’t. There was little difference in the diets of the people who ate at the two places. Somehow just having the information available is not enough. Something more is needed.
The lives of the people of God are filled with God’s word. We can read it for ourselves daily. We hear it week in and week out in worship. The Spirit speaks to us within. The church is not always a place of comfort. Sometimes it is where we hear the truth, where God’s plans are made real to us. And yet, there is much that seems incomplete in the church, in our lives. 1500 years ago some of God’s people went out into the desert to live together as Christian communities. There are stories from those times that illustrate to us what faith is. Often one learns most from the older leaders of the community, called abbas. Here is one such story from Daily Readings with the Desert Fathers:
They said that abba Sylvanus had a disciple in Scetis, named Mark, who possessed in great measure the virtue of obedience. He was a copyist of old manuscripts, and the old man loved him for his obedience. He had eleven other disciples who were aggrieved that he loved Mark more than them.
When the old men nearby heard that he loved Mark above the others, they took it ill. One day they visited him and abba Sylvanus took them with him and, going out of his cell [, his room], began to knock on the door of each of his disciples, saying, ‘Brother, come out, I have work for you.’ And not one of them appeared immediately.
Then he came to Mark’s cell and knocked, saying, ‘Mark’. And as soon as Mark heard the voice of the old man he came outside and the old man sent him on some errand.
So abba Sylvanus said to the old men, ‘Where are the other brothers?’, and he went into Mark’s cell and found the book in which he had been writing and he was making the letter O; and when he had heard the old man’s voice, he had not finished the line of the O. And the old men said, “Truly, abba, we also love the one whom you love; for God loves him, too.’
It is in obedience that what we hear becomes real, becomes faith. If we are honest, that is, if we know the truth, we know that we do this imperfectly. The good news is that there is hope, as Andrew Attaway found when his daughter was frustrated at learning to play the violin. He noted her perfectionism and his advice to her was to learn the piece a few measures at a time. It reminded him of all his own shortcomings. But the message that stayed in his mind was that we can grow in love and Christ’s grace is sufficient for our lives.
The Gospel reading this morning might surprise us. Not all the people of Jesus’ time welcomed him. Not everyone heard what he had to say. And when he pointed that out to them, they wanted to get rid of him. Sometimes the truth can sting. But to refuse to hear it means that we are stuck living in the lies we make up. Jesus is the prophet, who like the prophets of old, has been sent by God to tell us the truth. What will you hear today that will change your life? What will you do that will set you on the road to following the truth?
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
It has been a while since I wrote for this blog. Part of the reason is that things have gotten busier in the churches since we are in the season of annual congregational meetings. Another is that we have had some truly wintry weather. We have had to cancel a church service and a meeting, which we always regret, but do so for the safety of those who might venture out. We had one mild week in terms of temperatures, but it also brought with it freezing rain and rain. The roads in the rural areas are a mess. So, for those who missed the sermon last Sunday, here it is:
Luke 4:14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." (NRSV)
FOUNDERS’ DAYS”
Back before I moved to Minnesota, I lived in Iowa. Back there, I shopped at a chain of grocery stores which have now spread into this state, HyVee. They had what they called “Founders’ Days” in which they recalled the beginnings of the chain. It goes back to the early days when they were the “home town” grocery store in Iowa. But in doing so, they went back to the reason they were in business and those were quality goods at a low price with excellent service, at least according to them. Their jingle for their TV commercials tried to capture that goal, “Shop HyVee. Shop HyVee. Where there’s a helpful smile in every aisle.” That was how they started out in the business. That was their purpose and they wanted to communicate that to us. Those who run the business today want us to know the values of the founders and that they are still active.
The Gospel reading is of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. He had just been in the wilderness and successfully resisted the temptation by the devil. He returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and went to his home town, Nazareth, where he went to the synagogue. In worship, he was given the scroll with the writing of the prophet Isaiah. He found and read a portion of it and then said that it had been fulfilled that day. It is the description of Jesus’ life purpose: The Spirit of the Lord anointed me to preach good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And to make sure that Jesus’ ministry will begin, he has been anointed by the Spirit, has been given the presence and strength of the Holy Spirit.
People and organizations often go back to their beginning to define who they are and what they are about. One of the most famous is the U. S. Constitution which was established at the beginning of our country and states the purpose of this new nation in the preamble:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
That is a statement from the founding fathers of our nation of where we came from and where we are going (if we hold fast to it). Those who put it together were guiding the government of our country for centuries to come. Such statements of purpose help us. We can compare actions, decisions, and policies with to see if they continue to fulfill the intent of the founders and continue on the role and work of our government at home and in the world. With it we can test our deeds to see if they live up to the purpose.
A statement of purpose for an organization is valuable because it tells others what this thing is and what it does. It can also tell if a thing is living up to its purpose. The HyVee stores grew into a chain because they, like other stores, did well what stores do. If they had stopped doing that, the question could arise, as it would with any organization, as to whether it was needed.
We hear Jesus’ words because he is the founder of the church. With them he declares his purpose in life. As we follow him, his purposes become ours. The church sometimes is in doubt about its purpose and can use how Jesus took the passage from Isaiah to show why he came and what he was about to do.
The first purpose of the church is to preach good news to the poor. Sometimes it is obvious who they are and the church is called to help in people’s struggle for existence. Other times that struggle is less obvious, but the church is still to give a word of hope, good news in all its different forms. Liberation Community Church is such a place in one of the poorer parts of Memphis. The church has the motto—“Building a church without walls”, which means outreach into the neighborhoods, beyond the four walls of the church, beyond one hour on Sunday, and to go to where the people need good news in their lives. The pastors are J. Herbert Nelson II and his wife, Gail Porter Nelson. This is how she describes how they came to the church: “‘There was this one member,’ Gail Porter Nelson recalls, ‘who said, ‘We would love for you to come help us increase our faith.’ That struck me. I knew they needed to increase their numbers, but their faith? That really resonated with me.’”
The work of developing a ministry to the poor has had challenges. “‘We were struggling to keep this church alive,’ J. Herbert Nelson says. ‘There were times when I’d look at Gail and say, ‘Should we leave?’ And she’d throw the question back at me and say,’ ‘Are we still called to do this work? Then we need to go on and do what the Lord would want.’” One person describes the ministry to those who have become self-destructive by their alcohol and drug abuse this way:
Aaron Cross was one of those people. In 2000, while Cross was in an addiction recovery house, he was taken by a friend to a service at Liberation. He says it was one of the most important moments of his life.
“They came with open arms and have loved me ever since,” Cross says. “They hug you and get to you on a one-on-one level. They become friends. You’re not just a number. It feels like an extended family. I’ve had a few of my friends join also because of that.”
While Liberation will extend a hand, the church does not believe in hand-outs.
“We will assist you, particularly with work and legal struggles, things that are hurdles to you,” Nelson says. “But just to watch you sit and expect to get some money from everybody on Sunday, we don’t do that. We’re about empowering people to do for themselves what we know they have the ability to do.
Jesus proclaimed his mission while in the synagogue, but it was not just for the synagogue, it was for all God’s people wherever they are.
The church is to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. The church is to share the power of the Spirit. Part of the good news is that we are to proclaim to others the healing power of God in their lives. Sometimes we experience God’s healing power for the health of our bodies, but other times it is for our minds and our souls. Marilyn Morgan King tells this story of how she found God’s presence in her life:
Celtic Christians, while believing that all things are sacred, honor certain places as especially holy. These are called “thin spots,” where the line between eternity (heaven) and time (earth) is very thin. Standing in such a place allows one to experience, more fully, the presence of God. Wells are particularly honored as places of healing. While we were in Wales, we visited a number of holy wells. The one that felt most like a thin spot to me was St. Seriol’s Well.
In April, I’d had surgery on both my feet. It was now September and my feet were still very weak, to the point that fellow pilgrims often had to help me climb or pull me up after I’d fallen. Sitting at the edge of St. Seriol’s Well, I surprised myself by suddenly removing my shoes and putting my feet into the water. I’d like to be able to say that I was instantly healed, but it didn’t happen that way, and I admit I was disappointed.
Then a retired university professor who spoke to us that day called our attention to an interesting fact. The well water looked absolutely still and yet it was perfectly clear. How could it be so still without being stagnant? It was, in fact, coming from an underground spring. The water was actually moving, even though on the surface nothing seemed to be happening.
In the bus on our way back to the hotel, I realized that this was also true of healing. Even though on the surface, it may seem that nothing is happening, still the deep healing waters are truly moving according to the Creator’s timetable, not mine! I wanted to remember this next time I prayed for healing.
It’s October now, and even though my feet are still weak, they aren’t hurting anymore. I choose to believe that my healing began at St. Seriol’s.
Jesus’ purpose, which is also the church’s purpose, is to share the good news of liberation and healing and the power of the Spirit, to bring God’s movement to us, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. While we await the coming of this time, we are also reminded by Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth, that this is the beginning. The time is now.
Jesus went to his home synagogue and there told the people what he was going to do. It was there that he laid out his vision for his ministry. It is a ministry which gives good news to people, meets their needs. It is a ministry which brings the power of the Holy Spirit among us. It is a presence that heals. This is the vision of the church, too. It gives us a vision which we can carry out into the world to share with our neighbors. It is a vision that can guide our lives of faith. This message by Jesus becomes our purpose, too. This proclamation, this statement, perfectly describes who Jesus is, God with us, God for us. To be shared with the world.
Peace, Tim
Luke 4:14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." (NRSV)
FOUNDERS’ DAYS”
Back before I moved to Minnesota, I lived in Iowa. Back there, I shopped at a chain of grocery stores which have now spread into this state, HyVee. They had what they called “Founders’ Days” in which they recalled the beginnings of the chain. It goes back to the early days when they were the “home town” grocery store in Iowa. But in doing so, they went back to the reason they were in business and those were quality goods at a low price with excellent service, at least according to them. Their jingle for their TV commercials tried to capture that goal, “Shop HyVee. Shop HyVee. Where there’s a helpful smile in every aisle.” That was how they started out in the business. That was their purpose and they wanted to communicate that to us. Those who run the business today want us to know the values of the founders and that they are still active.
The Gospel reading is of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. He had just been in the wilderness and successfully resisted the temptation by the devil. He returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and went to his home town, Nazareth, where he went to the synagogue. In worship, he was given the scroll with the writing of the prophet Isaiah. He found and read a portion of it and then said that it had been fulfilled that day. It is the description of Jesus’ life purpose: The Spirit of the Lord anointed me to preach good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And to make sure that Jesus’ ministry will begin, he has been anointed by the Spirit, has been given the presence and strength of the Holy Spirit.
People and organizations often go back to their beginning to define who they are and what they are about. One of the most famous is the U. S. Constitution which was established at the beginning of our country and states the purpose of this new nation in the preamble:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
That is a statement from the founding fathers of our nation of where we came from and where we are going (if we hold fast to it). Those who put it together were guiding the government of our country for centuries to come. Such statements of purpose help us. We can compare actions, decisions, and policies with to see if they continue to fulfill the intent of the founders and continue on the role and work of our government at home and in the world. With it we can test our deeds to see if they live up to the purpose.
A statement of purpose for an organization is valuable because it tells others what this thing is and what it does. It can also tell if a thing is living up to its purpose. The HyVee stores grew into a chain because they, like other stores, did well what stores do. If they had stopped doing that, the question could arise, as it would with any organization, as to whether it was needed.
We hear Jesus’ words because he is the founder of the church. With them he declares his purpose in life. As we follow him, his purposes become ours. The church sometimes is in doubt about its purpose and can use how Jesus took the passage from Isaiah to show why he came and what he was about to do.
The first purpose of the church is to preach good news to the poor. Sometimes it is obvious who they are and the church is called to help in people’s struggle for existence. Other times that struggle is less obvious, but the church is still to give a word of hope, good news in all its different forms. Liberation Community Church is such a place in one of the poorer parts of Memphis. The church has the motto—“Building a church without walls”, which means outreach into the neighborhoods, beyond the four walls of the church, beyond one hour on Sunday, and to go to where the people need good news in their lives. The pastors are J. Herbert Nelson II and his wife, Gail Porter Nelson. This is how she describes how they came to the church: “‘There was this one member,’ Gail Porter Nelson recalls, ‘who said, ‘We would love for you to come help us increase our faith.’ That struck me. I knew they needed to increase their numbers, but their faith? That really resonated with me.’”
The work of developing a ministry to the poor has had challenges. “‘We were struggling to keep this church alive,’ J. Herbert Nelson says. ‘There were times when I’d look at Gail and say, ‘Should we leave?’ And she’d throw the question back at me and say,’ ‘Are we still called to do this work? Then we need to go on and do what the Lord would want.’” One person describes the ministry to those who have become self-destructive by their alcohol and drug abuse this way:
Aaron Cross was one of those people. In 2000, while Cross was in an addiction recovery house, he was taken by a friend to a service at Liberation. He says it was one of the most important moments of his life.
“They came with open arms and have loved me ever since,” Cross says. “They hug you and get to you on a one-on-one level. They become friends. You’re not just a number. It feels like an extended family. I’ve had a few of my friends join also because of that.”
While Liberation will extend a hand, the church does not believe in hand-outs.
“We will assist you, particularly with work and legal struggles, things that are hurdles to you,” Nelson says. “But just to watch you sit and expect to get some money from everybody on Sunday, we don’t do that. We’re about empowering people to do for themselves what we know they have the ability to do.
Jesus proclaimed his mission while in the synagogue, but it was not just for the synagogue, it was for all God’s people wherever they are.
The church is to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. The church is to share the power of the Spirit. Part of the good news is that we are to proclaim to others the healing power of God in their lives. Sometimes we experience God’s healing power for the health of our bodies, but other times it is for our minds and our souls. Marilyn Morgan King tells this story of how she found God’s presence in her life:
Celtic Christians, while believing that all things are sacred, honor certain places as especially holy. These are called “thin spots,” where the line between eternity (heaven) and time (earth) is very thin. Standing in such a place allows one to experience, more fully, the presence of God. Wells are particularly honored as places of healing. While we were in Wales, we visited a number of holy wells. The one that felt most like a thin spot to me was St. Seriol’s Well.
In April, I’d had surgery on both my feet. It was now September and my feet were still very weak, to the point that fellow pilgrims often had to help me climb or pull me up after I’d fallen. Sitting at the edge of St. Seriol’s Well, I surprised myself by suddenly removing my shoes and putting my feet into the water. I’d like to be able to say that I was instantly healed, but it didn’t happen that way, and I admit I was disappointed.
Then a retired university professor who spoke to us that day called our attention to an interesting fact. The well water looked absolutely still and yet it was perfectly clear. How could it be so still without being stagnant? It was, in fact, coming from an underground spring. The water was actually moving, even though on the surface nothing seemed to be happening.
In the bus on our way back to the hotel, I realized that this was also true of healing. Even though on the surface, it may seem that nothing is happening, still the deep healing waters are truly moving according to the Creator’s timetable, not mine! I wanted to remember this next time I prayed for healing.
It’s October now, and even though my feet are still weak, they aren’t hurting anymore. I choose to believe that my healing began at St. Seriol’s.
Jesus’ purpose, which is also the church’s purpose, is to share the good news of liberation and healing and the power of the Spirit, to bring God’s movement to us, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. While we await the coming of this time, we are also reminded by Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth, that this is the beginning. The time is now.
Jesus went to his home synagogue and there told the people what he was going to do. It was there that he laid out his vision for his ministry. It is a ministry which gives good news to people, meets their needs. It is a ministry which brings the power of the Holy Spirit among us. It is a presence that heals. This is the vision of the church, too. It gives us a vision which we can carry out into the world to share with our neighbors. It is a vision that can guide our lives of faith. This message by Jesus becomes our purpose, too. This proclamation, this statement, perfectly describes who Jesus is, God with us, God for us. To be shared with the world.
Peace, Tim
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
