Acts 2:1-4 and other Spirit texts
Pentecost
Elizabeth M. Deibert
It brings me great joy to speak about the birth of the early church on this first Sunday after Peace has been given a birth announcement by the presbytery. We are now an official church, a church ready to be chartered. I expect that twenty-five years from now, October 18, 2009, will be the date given as the birth of Peace Presbyterian, but those of us here now know how long the gestation period has been.
Let us give thanks to the folks who were here in 2005 and earlier, when Peace met around kitchen tables and on Sunday nights. Will you please stand. Let us give thanks for the people who came to help Peace launch a Sunday morning service at MCC in 2006 and those who joined in 2007 as Peace was developing its missional identity. Will you please stand? Let’s be grateful for those who came in time to celebrate the purchase of land in 2008 and those who are here now in 2009 to celebrate chartering. Will you please stand?
Though we had to wait for this day of delivery, we always knew a real, live church was developing and soon to be born. The presbytery, which has provided enormous support to us, and will continue to guide us, now celebrates with us that Peace is a viable and spirited church. Thanks be to the Spirit who has been with us all the way.
Today’s question is this: What does a spirited church look like?
100 people coming to receive the inspiring gifts of communion. Two people embracing in tears as they share the peace of Christ. Seven people listening intently to one who has a different perspective than theirs. Children joyfully giggling as they enjoy fellowship together. A mission team celebrating the generosity of others.
What adjectives might be used to describe the spirited church? Inspiring, authentic, nurturing, compassionate, responsive. These are Peace’s chief goals. Say them with me: Inspiring worship, authentic relationships, nurturing discipleship, compassionate outreach, responsive stewardship.
Today we read the birthday of the early church and we read the story of the first church birthing from Acts 2:1-4. If we read the rest of the story, we would hear people speculating that those crazy spirited people were drunk and Peter quoting from the prophet Joel that this is the coming of the day of the Lord’s salvation for all people, this inspiring day when the Spirit is poured out on all people, male and female, slave and free, so that all call on the name of the Lord.
When we read the whole book of Acts, we find a church inspired by the Spirit to worship God, bonded tightly in authentic relationships, forged by shared experiences. We see disciples sharing stories of what God has done, nurturing the faith of the young and the new Christians. We find the church reaching out with compassion toward those who are sick or in any need of good news. Not only that, but this early church shared their goods in common, so that no one had any need. That’s a responsive stewardship, I’d say. Inspiring Worship. Authentic Relationships, Nurturing Discipleship, Compassionate Outreach, and Responsive Stewardship. That’s the picture of the growing newly born church, empowered by the Spirit.
But let us always remember that while the Spirit is celebrated on Pentecost, the Spirit does not originate with Pentecost. The Spirit was there in the beginning, way back at Genesis. Read Genesis 1:2 (scripture on screen) The word for Spirit in the Old Testament is a feminine Hebrew word, ruah. By the power of the Spirit, prophets challenged God’s people to greater faithfulness or gave hope to the despairing. (Read Ezekiel 37,1,14) It was by the Spirit that our Lord Jesus Christ was conceived. (Read Luke 1:35). And by the Spirit and water that we are baptized. In the New Testament Greek pneuma is spirit, a neuter word, though in Aramaic, the common tongue of Jesus’ day, the word for Spirit was feminine. (Read Mark 1:8) And when Jesus was baptized, the Spirit descended like a dove. (Read Matthew 3:16)
I loved the way the Spirit was described by author William Young in The Shack. Sarayu, a Hindi name meaning Spirit, is the gardener, working in the messy gardens of our lives, tilling the soil and planting seeds, growing something beautiful from the hardened and weed-filled soil of our lives. With water and Spirit, we can become beautiful and healthy and strong.
The same Spirit who communicated how special Jesus was, “You are my beloved son. With you I am well-pleased.” That same Spirit took Jesus into the wilderness. (Luke 4:1) So many of the struggles of life are opportunities to hear the Spirit speaking. When he came out from the forty days of struggle, then Jesus began his preaching ministry. (Read Luke 4:18)
As he nurtures his disciples in faith and prepares them for his departure, he begins to speak a great deal about the Spirit (Read John 14:26) I believe the Spirit is the great reminder. One of the most significant ways I experience the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life is in remembering things. When a person is brought to my mind suddenly or when I remember something that I might have just as easily forgotten, I tell the Spirit “thank you for reminding me” I do not consider those things coincidental. In fact, I believe we can cultivate a sensitivity to the Spirit, such that we know to call someone when they need to be called, and we can reach out to someone when they most need contact with someone. I don’t pretend to have mastered this, but I pray to become more attuned to the Spirit in all my decision-making.
It is from the Gospel of John that the debate about whether the Spirit arises from the Godhead only or whether the Spirit also comes from the Christ. This debate is played out in the Nicene Creed. Does the Spirit proceed from the Father or from the Father and the Son?
But that debate does not excite me nearly as much as the promise that we too can receive power from the Holy Spirit, as was promised the early disciples. (Read Acts 1:8) It is the Spirit that empowers our sharing the Gospel. (Read Acts 2:38) The Holy Spirit is a gift given to all of us. Some people are more aware of the Spirit than others. The Spirit is the great Nudger, the conscience telling you what to do, guiding you when you are paying attention and filling you with energy and zest for life. (Read Act 4:31) Here again we see the Spirit providing that emotional, experiential piece of life, which is in the end what inspires us, makes us know we have encountered a Holy One beyond ourselves in worship or on retreats.
But this powerful force has through the years also led some people to create some division among themselves. So Paul reminds the Corinthians (read 1 Corinthians 12:4-7). The Spirit is for the common good.
Finally, we come to my favorite passage about the Holy Spirit in all of scripture. (Read Romans 8:26-27) The Spirit prays for you, groans with you when you have no words.
So you see, the Spirit is there with you in all times and all places, in periods of excitement and in depressed times.
The Spirited Church is the One full of people who are listening to the voice of the Spirit, being carefully guided by the Spirit, being inflamed and charged up by the Spirit, praying deeply in the Spirit. Let us pray for the Spirit to ignite our hearts and to illumine our minds, to unite with our spirits and bring greater love and self-discipline into our lives.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Remember, Rekindle, Guard
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Confirmation Sunday
Elizabeth & Richard Deibert
Today we celebrate the first confirmation of baptism in the life of Peace Presbyterian. It is Andrew’s moment to claim the Christian faith into which he was baptized, to become Christ’s disciple first and foremost, and the son of Elizabeth and Richard Deibert second. But as much as this is Andrew’s day to kneel before the Lord (screen) and turn his life over to Christ, it is also everyone’s day, a day to remember those who led you to faith, to rekindle the gift of God within you, and to commit yourselves again to guard the good treasure of grace which has been poured into your lives by the Holy Spirit.
Early in the life of the church, baptism was practiced for people of all ages. Adult converts and their entire households were baptized. In some of the earliest stories of adult conversions in Acts, baptism was followed by one or more of the Apostles going to speak to the new believers and lay hands on them and pass on the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-17) That’s the origin of confirmation.
In the time of Reformation, the Anabaptists began to promote a believer’s baptism, thinking that persons should be at an age of accountability when baptized because profession of faith was crucial. Only in recent years have Baptists added a baby dedication because it seemed something was missing. Eastern Orthodox Christians have always done baptism and confirmation together in infancy or whenever someone is baptized. They call it Chrismation because the sign of the cross is marked in oil all over the body, sealing the gift of the Holy Spirit. That baptized and confirmed infant is the first to receive the next Eucharist, and welcomed to the Lord’s Table from that day forward.
Meanwhile, Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists and Presbyterians and other Protestants have baptized infants and older and then celebrated confirmation when the persons were old enough to profess faith. In the churches with bishops, confirmation emphasized the presence of the Holy Spirit coming through the very reverend church leader. Many Protestants emphasized church membership, denominational understanding, and preparation for receiving the Sacrament of communion. In the 20th century, Presbyterians called confirmation, communicants class. In the 21st century, we are now focused on the sacred journey of faith, which prepares a person to be a Christian disciple.
The letter Paul writes to Timothy is often called Paul’s “last will and testament” because it is written from prison. In today’s introduction, there three themes that help us understand our journey of faith. The first theme is relational. Paul charges Timothy to remember the people who have led him to faith – his mother, his grandmother, his mentor Paul. Secondly, Paul charges Timothy with the responsibility to keep the fire of his faith burning. Rekindle the gift of God within you. Thirdly, Paul charges Timothy to hold onto the gift of God’s grace. Guard the good treasure.
Andrew and Richard are especially close as father and son. (After all, they are out-numbered in a house with four women.) So the Rev Dr. Deibert, Pauline scholar and Hospice chaplain, loving dad will help me with this proclamation today. He will read the scripture from his seat and will come forward for the second half of the sermon.
2 Timothy 1
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,
2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3 I am grateful to God — whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did — when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. 6 For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; 7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. 8 Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11 For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher,12 and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. 13 Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Andrew was baptized by our companion and mentor in the ministry, Calvin Chesnutt on the same day that Immanuel Presbyterian Church dedicated a first sanctuary building. January 16, 1994. He was surrounded by family and congregation who loved and supported him, much as he was surrounded this past Thursday night at the Leadership Team meeting by wonderful people, representing all of you who have cared for him in these last four years. He has received letters of encouragement from other family members and by church family as he has prepared for this day.
All of you have people in your lives who have inspired your faith – a Sunday school teacher, a coach, a youth leader, a special grandmother. Some of you have mentors and friends like the Apostle Paul who showed you the way and some of you have had family members like Lois and Eunice who taught you the faith by word and deed. I’d like us to acknowledge these people right now by naming them aloud. Who are the people who have taught you faith? Say right now in full voice “Thank you God for _______ . Thank you God for ________. Thank you God for ________.
Now the question is this: Are you being that kind of mentor and friend to others, such that their faith will grow because of you? Are you being an encouragement to others to grow in Christian discipleship? When you are old, or when you have died, who will say that you helped them to become more like Christ?
Andrew, this is a big day. I know it may not seem like such a big day because we cannot see with our eyes exactly what is happening to you today. If we could see what is actually happening today, we would see the whole host of heaven — angels, cherubim, all the saints, including your grandfather Walter and grandmother Barbara — singing God’s praise as the life-giving Holy Spirit is sealed within you to live inside of you forever and ever and ever.
Now I want you and your sisters and the Peace Church to understand the gift of God that has been given you. When you were baptized 15 years ... and 18 weeks ..
and two days ago, in the Immanuel Presbyterian Church, in Montgomery, Alabama, you were joined to — united with — the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who had already given you the gift of grace. Look at the radical truth Paul shares with Timothy from prison, Andrew, in verse 9:
God saved you and called you with a holy calling ... before the ages began.
Not before you were born. Not before the earth was born. Not even before there was a creation. But in verse 9, “before the ages began” — literally, “before the time of the ages.” You were called by grace to trust your life to Jesus Christ before anything — anything! — existed. Andrew, I know this is impossible to understand, but when there was only God — no earth, no universe, no time, no thing — but only Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all the grace of the Trinity was entrusted to you. Think about that! You can’t think about that, it’s completely beyond thinking. To use a favorite word of your generation, that’s totally awesome!
Paul understands that this is beyond us, so to bring this totally awesome truth down to earth, Paul says it another way that we can understand. Paul says that for you, Andrew, death has been abolished and life and immortality have been given to you by Christ Jesus. Andrew, by God’s grace, you are immortal. Today, we are confirming your immortality, we are sacramentally sealing with oil the life-giving Spirit of Jesus Christ within you.
And this is why your mother and I are raising you to give your life in service to people in need. I need to explain to the congregation that I routinely say to our children that they may choose to do anything they wish with their life, so long as it is serving people in need. Yes — and all you child psychologists may now shudder — I will not be a happy father if any of my four children choose to do something with their lives that is not serving people in need. And I will tell them so.
Why? Because they have been given the gift of immortality and they are expected to live not with a spirit of cowardice or selfishness or uncontrolled desire, but with a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline! It’s not just me or Elizabeth or the Apostle Paul, but it is the Triune God who expects my children to live their lives as if death has been abolished and only life and immortality matter. So live your lives giving your selves to other people, because you are unafraid of dying.
The last thing I want to encourage you to do Andrew, and my other children, and all of you, is to guard this treasure of faith that has been given you. I hope you see a little more clearly what an awesome treasure it is to trust in Jesus Christ. Paul calls your faith, literally, the “good deposit” or the “deposit of goodness.” Paul emphasizes what a valuable treasure it is to be able to put your trust in Jesus Christ and he urges us to guard this good treasure entrusted to us before time began. Andrew, your faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is the most valuable gift you have. Your faith is not something to be ashamed of. Your faith is worth becoming a preacher or a teacher of. Your faith in Jesus Christ is worth going to prison for. Your faith is worth a life of suffering. My son, today I charge you to guard your faith in Jesus Christ with your life.
Andrew, Catherine, and Rebecca, almost every morning I stand before your bedroom door (Emily, I stand before your baby portrait), and I pray a prayer to
your Guardian Angel from the Eastern Orthodox Prayer Book. This prayer is a beautiful summary of Paul’s deepest desire for his “child” Timothy, and of my deepest desire for you:
Oh angel of God, Andrew’s holy guardian, keep his life in the fear of Christ God; strengthen his mind in the true way; and wound his soul with heavenly love, so that, guarded by you, Andrew may obtain of Christ God great mercy. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; now and ever and unto ages of ages. (1)
Amen.
(1)“Canon to the Guardian Angel” (Troparion, Sixth Tone). Prayer Book, Fourth Edition, Revised (Jordanville, New York: Holy Trinity Monastery, 2003), p. 250.
Confirmation Sunday
Elizabeth & Richard Deibert
Today we celebrate the first confirmation of baptism in the life of Peace Presbyterian. It is Andrew’s moment to claim the Christian faith into which he was baptized, to become Christ’s disciple first and foremost, and the son of Elizabeth and Richard Deibert second. But as much as this is Andrew’s day to kneel before the Lord (screen) and turn his life over to Christ, it is also everyone’s day, a day to remember those who led you to faith, to rekindle the gift of God within you, and to commit yourselves again to guard the good treasure of grace which has been poured into your lives by the Holy Spirit.
Early in the life of the church, baptism was practiced for people of all ages. Adult converts and their entire households were baptized. In some of the earliest stories of adult conversions in Acts, baptism was followed by one or more of the Apostles going to speak to the new believers and lay hands on them and pass on the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-17) That’s the origin of confirmation.
In the time of Reformation, the Anabaptists began to promote a believer’s baptism, thinking that persons should be at an age of accountability when baptized because profession of faith was crucial. Only in recent years have Baptists added a baby dedication because it seemed something was missing. Eastern Orthodox Christians have always done baptism and confirmation together in infancy or whenever someone is baptized. They call it Chrismation because the sign of the cross is marked in oil all over the body, sealing the gift of the Holy Spirit. That baptized and confirmed infant is the first to receive the next Eucharist, and welcomed to the Lord’s Table from that day forward.
Meanwhile, Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists and Presbyterians and other Protestants have baptized infants and older and then celebrated confirmation when the persons were old enough to profess faith. In the churches with bishops, confirmation emphasized the presence of the Holy Spirit coming through the very reverend church leader. Many Protestants emphasized church membership, denominational understanding, and preparation for receiving the Sacrament of communion. In the 20th century, Presbyterians called confirmation, communicants class. In the 21st century, we are now focused on the sacred journey of faith, which prepares a person to be a Christian disciple.
The letter Paul writes to Timothy is often called Paul’s “last will and testament” because it is written from prison. In today’s introduction, there three themes that help us understand our journey of faith. The first theme is relational. Paul charges Timothy to remember the people who have led him to faith – his mother, his grandmother, his mentor Paul. Secondly, Paul charges Timothy with the responsibility to keep the fire of his faith burning. Rekindle the gift of God within you. Thirdly, Paul charges Timothy to hold onto the gift of God’s grace. Guard the good treasure.
Andrew and Richard are especially close as father and son. (After all, they are out-numbered in a house with four women.) So the Rev Dr. Deibert, Pauline scholar and Hospice chaplain, loving dad will help me with this proclamation today. He will read the scripture from his seat and will come forward for the second half of the sermon.
2 Timothy 1
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,
2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3 I am grateful to God — whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did — when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. 6 For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; 7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. 8 Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11 For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher,12 and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. 13 Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Andrew was baptized by our companion and mentor in the ministry, Calvin Chesnutt on the same day that Immanuel Presbyterian Church dedicated a first sanctuary building. January 16, 1994. He was surrounded by family and congregation who loved and supported him, much as he was surrounded this past Thursday night at the Leadership Team meeting by wonderful people, representing all of you who have cared for him in these last four years. He has received letters of encouragement from other family members and by church family as he has prepared for this day.
All of you have people in your lives who have inspired your faith – a Sunday school teacher, a coach, a youth leader, a special grandmother. Some of you have mentors and friends like the Apostle Paul who showed you the way and some of you have had family members like Lois and Eunice who taught you the faith by word and deed. I’d like us to acknowledge these people right now by naming them aloud. Who are the people who have taught you faith? Say right now in full voice “Thank you God for _______ . Thank you God for ________. Thank you God for ________.
Now the question is this: Are you being that kind of mentor and friend to others, such that their faith will grow because of you? Are you being an encouragement to others to grow in Christian discipleship? When you are old, or when you have died, who will say that you helped them to become more like Christ?
Andrew, this is a big day. I know it may not seem like such a big day because we cannot see with our eyes exactly what is happening to you today. If we could see what is actually happening today, we would see the whole host of heaven — angels, cherubim, all the saints, including your grandfather Walter and grandmother Barbara — singing God’s praise as the life-giving Holy Spirit is sealed within you to live inside of you forever and ever and ever.
Now I want you and your sisters and the Peace Church to understand the gift of God that has been given you. When you were baptized 15 years ... and 18 weeks ..
and two days ago, in the Immanuel Presbyterian Church, in Montgomery, Alabama, you were joined to — united with — the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who had already given you the gift of grace. Look at the radical truth Paul shares with Timothy from prison, Andrew, in verse 9:
God saved you and called you with a holy calling ... before the ages began.
Not before you were born. Not before the earth was born. Not even before there was a creation. But in verse 9, “before the ages began” — literally, “before the time of the ages.” You were called by grace to trust your life to Jesus Christ before anything — anything! — existed. Andrew, I know this is impossible to understand, but when there was only God — no earth, no universe, no time, no thing — but only Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all the grace of the Trinity was entrusted to you. Think about that! You can’t think about that, it’s completely beyond thinking. To use a favorite word of your generation, that’s totally awesome!
Paul understands that this is beyond us, so to bring this totally awesome truth down to earth, Paul says it another way that we can understand. Paul says that for you, Andrew, death has been abolished and life and immortality have been given to you by Christ Jesus. Andrew, by God’s grace, you are immortal. Today, we are confirming your immortality, we are sacramentally sealing with oil the life-giving Spirit of Jesus Christ within you.
And this is why your mother and I are raising you to give your life in service to people in need. I need to explain to the congregation that I routinely say to our children that they may choose to do anything they wish with their life, so long as it is serving people in need. Yes — and all you child psychologists may now shudder — I will not be a happy father if any of my four children choose to do something with their lives that is not serving people in need. And I will tell them so.
Why? Because they have been given the gift of immortality and they are expected to live not with a spirit of cowardice or selfishness or uncontrolled desire, but with a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline! It’s not just me or Elizabeth or the Apostle Paul, but it is the Triune God who expects my children to live their lives as if death has been abolished and only life and immortality matter. So live your lives giving your selves to other people, because you are unafraid of dying.
The last thing I want to encourage you to do Andrew, and my other children, and all of you, is to guard this treasure of faith that has been given you. I hope you see a little more clearly what an awesome treasure it is to trust in Jesus Christ. Paul calls your faith, literally, the “good deposit” or the “deposit of goodness.” Paul emphasizes what a valuable treasure it is to be able to put your trust in Jesus Christ and he urges us to guard this good treasure entrusted to us before time began. Andrew, your faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is the most valuable gift you have. Your faith is not something to be ashamed of. Your faith is worth becoming a preacher or a teacher of. Your faith in Jesus Christ is worth going to prison for. Your faith is worth a life of suffering. My son, today I charge you to guard your faith in Jesus Christ with your life.
Andrew, Catherine, and Rebecca, almost every morning I stand before your bedroom door (Emily, I stand before your baby portrait), and I pray a prayer to
your Guardian Angel from the Eastern Orthodox Prayer Book. This prayer is a beautiful summary of Paul’s deepest desire for his “child” Timothy, and of my deepest desire for you:
Oh angel of God, Andrew’s holy guardian, keep his life in the fear of Christ God; strengthen his mind in the true way; and wound his soul with heavenly love, so that, guarded by you, Andrew may obtain of Christ God great mercy. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; now and ever and unto ages of ages. (1)
Amen.
(1)“Canon to the Guardian Angel” (Troparion, Sixth Tone). Prayer Book, Fourth Edition, Revised (Jordanville, New York: Holy Trinity Monastery, 2003), p. 250.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Peace I Leave
John 14:25-31
Graduation Sunday
Tricia Dillon Thomas
So while we are most definitely here this morning to bring glory to our risen lord, Jesus Christ, today is also a celebration of our beloved sister, Catherine Deibert, as she graduates from high school and makes the transition to life in college. So I’d like to invite, not only Catherine, but all our Senior highs, to come down and sit here this morning.
Let us pray. Sing “Spirit Divine.” Amen.
My family and I call it Highs and Lows. The Sunday school class, thanks to Kim Adams, has aptly renamed it Blessings and Bummers. But the gist is the same. We each take turns sharing the joys and concerns of the past day or past week. And lately, well, always, but more so lately, I have become increasingly aware of how stressed our young people are… how many worries and anxieties they hold. Sometimes they skip blessings all together and just go straight to bummers. Holding their head in their hands, slouching over, and I hear words like stressed, tests, sucks, stressed, study, really sucks, stressed, homework, stressed.
One early morning last week, after I dropped Mason off at school, and waited with the other parents to pull back out into traffic, I sat back in my seat, flipped on NPR and listened as a columnist from Fort Meyers, began to read her piece, “Why I didn’t get to write this week’s column.” Or why I didn’t get to do last week’s homework.
I’ll paraphrase: I got up early that morning, sat and my desk to write, when my son pulled at my pants leg to join him outside. And after we had studied the yard, the dewy grass under my feet felt too good to leave just at that moment. And I knew I needed to get back to that desk, but I heard the horses calling to be fed, and I had to stop and stroke each of their noses. By the time I pulled into my driveway tears were falling from my eyes. She never did write her piece that day, but what she did do was enjoy God’s good creation. She finally put away the anxieties of the world, and lived in the very present reality of Christ’s peace.
So it is with these young people in mind, and in particular Catherine as she begins a new journey that we come to today’s scripture.
John 14:25-31
25 "I have said these things to you
while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate,
the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name, will teach
you everything, and remind you of all
that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave
with you; my peace I give to you. I do
not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled, and
do not let them be afraid. 28 You heard
me say to you, 'I am going away, and
I am coming to you.' If you loved me,
you would rejoice that I am going to
the Father, because the Father is
greater than I. 29 And now I have told
you this before it occurs, so that when
it does occur, you may believe. 30 I will
no longer talk much with you, for the
ruler of this world is coming. He has no
power over me; 31 but I do as the Father
has commanded me, so that the world
may know that I love the Father. Rise,
let us be on our way.
To truly get at what’s happening in this passage, I think we need to surround it in its context, talk about what was going on before and after this passage because I think it will make a difference to your understanding.
So we’re in John, and Jesus and his disciples have entered Jerusalem. Remember Palm Sunday, Jesus was on a donkey, people put down palms, everybody was excited, waving their arms, shouting Hosannas. I mean, people are pumped up!
And then we get to our scripture, where Jesus has washed his disciples’ feet, and they have shared what we now call the Last Supper. He has just said one of them at the table will betray him. And the disciples are all “not me” “not me” (sound familiar?). This passage takes place. And immediately after this conversation in the Upper Room, Jesus leads his disciples out to the garden, where Judas brings the delegation from the Pharisees to arrest him.
Verse 27: Peace I leave
with you; my peace I give to you
You know how sometimes we greet one another with a peace. The Scott girls have it down. It’s a hit the chest and peace. That’s not what’s going on here. It’s not a “peace.”
It’s peace. It’s a prayer. In verse 30, Jesus tells his disciples, ‘hey, this is pretty much it. These are our last moments together, and what I leave you with is Peace.
It’s his peace. And it will come from him.
Jesus knows Judas is out there setting him up, Jesus knows Peter will deny him. Jesus knows his fellow Jewish brothers and sisters will shout “crucify.” He knows he will be beaten. He knows he will die. He knows he will descend into hell for 3 days…and yet his final words are do not be troubled, do not be bothered by things of this world, it is my peace I give to you.
I find it hard to live into the idea of this peace that Christ talks about. I think that’s why I cried when I listened to that story. Besides the craziness that is happening around the world daily with this crisis and that crisis, I also have to take the kids to school, cook dinner, take care of my mother, go to my chemotherapy appointment, bring dinner to my sick friend…I don’t have time for peace. It sounds like a luxury.
And Catherine, here you are embarking on a new path. But it’s not the final path, it’s a step you take to get to where you want to go next. And in this step you’ll be measured. You’ll have deadlines to meet. You’ll be graded on your performance. And you’ll have to graduate with a decent GPA, and then you’ll have to find a job…good luck with that one…oh and in the midst, make friends, go to campus ministry once a week, date, do your work study….
And you begin to wonder, perhaps, like me, when do I have time for peace? How can I live in peace when my life is about the next step and not living into the present?
What is peace? What is the peace of Christ?
I know I’ve felt “at peace.” And I imagine that each of you have too. I can sometimes recognize the peace of Christ in others too. Often it’s in the dying.” Like that elderly woman who recited the 23 Psalm that Richard filmed at hospice. With such faith, she recited. Or my grandmother, lying in her hospital bed, who confided in me as a pastor, “I’m not afraid.” I’m not afraid of death.
That story I listened to in the car, spoke of a peace that’s about living in the present. But I think the peace of Christ is more than this Zen like state. Remember again this was Jesus’ prayer to his disciples while filled with the knowledge of the present and future.
It’s more than the “don’t be troubled don’t be afraid” that Jesus announces at the beginning of the passage. We also have to listen to verse 31 but I do as the Father
has commanded me, so that the world
may know that I love the Father. Rise,
let us be on our way.
But the Greek, in this scripture’s original form doesn’t have that last verse, “Rise, let us be on our way,” as a separate statement.
It reads more like, “So the world knows that I love God, I do as God does, and you being roused by this, come and do the same.” Or ‘come let me lead you to do the same.’
The peace of Christ is confidence and comfort in our and God’s salvation, or as Jesus says, “to live our life without fear of death.” But it’s also a response. Living into the peace of Christ, knowing that Jesus defeated those powers that set us back that hold us captive, when he rose from the dead, those chains that hold us in fear were shattered. Because Christ’s death was not the final word, we are free us to live. Living into the peace of Christ, it frees us to serve, it frees us to be a witness to the world.
And when we let go of our fears, and live into the peace of Christ, I think we are able to then meet Christ, to recognize the Spirit in others, and in our world.
The peace of Christ is a gift. It happens through intentionality. It is habit and discipline. It is faith and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ.
And it doesn’t happen alone. We can’t forget that Pentecost is right around the corner. It doesn’t happen alone—we are called to be the church.
Every Sunday we pass the Peace of Christ.
The passing of the Peace of Christ isn’t about stretching our legs, or telling someone we like their outfit or new haircut. It’s not an opportunity provided in the middle of the service so you can give someone that message you weren’t able to do earlier in the week.
Have you ever received the peace of Christ from Elizabeth or Richard? Or Grant or Mickey? You are caught. You are embraced. Sometimes I don’t think you could get out of that hold if you tried. There is nothing but the moment, the present. The peace of Christ isn’t just announced at our service, it takes the whole body corporately to live into it. That’s why we all pass it.
It’s the time for us to say, may the peace of Christ, the parting prayer that Jesus gave to his disciples, the knowledge of Jesus’ death and the power of his resurrection, may all this be with you. May all of this be with you on your journey. May you find this peace that can only come from Christ.
Passing of the Peace
We have been washed in the water and born in the Spirit, May the peace or our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Affirmation of Faith
Graduation Sunday
Tricia Dillon Thomas
So while we are most definitely here this morning to bring glory to our risen lord, Jesus Christ, today is also a celebration of our beloved sister, Catherine Deibert, as she graduates from high school and makes the transition to life in college. So I’d like to invite, not only Catherine, but all our Senior highs, to come down and sit here this morning.
Let us pray. Sing “Spirit Divine.” Amen.
My family and I call it Highs and Lows. The Sunday school class, thanks to Kim Adams, has aptly renamed it Blessings and Bummers. But the gist is the same. We each take turns sharing the joys and concerns of the past day or past week. And lately, well, always, but more so lately, I have become increasingly aware of how stressed our young people are… how many worries and anxieties they hold. Sometimes they skip blessings all together and just go straight to bummers. Holding their head in their hands, slouching over, and I hear words like stressed, tests, sucks, stressed, study, really sucks, stressed, homework, stressed.
One early morning last week, after I dropped Mason off at school, and waited with the other parents to pull back out into traffic, I sat back in my seat, flipped on NPR and listened as a columnist from Fort Meyers, began to read her piece, “Why I didn’t get to write this week’s column.” Or why I didn’t get to do last week’s homework.
I’ll paraphrase: I got up early that morning, sat and my desk to write, when my son pulled at my pants leg to join him outside. And after we had studied the yard, the dewy grass under my feet felt too good to leave just at that moment. And I knew I needed to get back to that desk, but I heard the horses calling to be fed, and I had to stop and stroke each of their noses. By the time I pulled into my driveway tears were falling from my eyes. She never did write her piece that day, but what she did do was enjoy God’s good creation. She finally put away the anxieties of the world, and lived in the very present reality of Christ’s peace.
So it is with these young people in mind, and in particular Catherine as she begins a new journey that we come to today’s scripture.
John 14:25-31
25 "I have said these things to you
while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate,
the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name, will teach
you everything, and remind you of all
that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave
with you; my peace I give to you. I do
not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled, and
do not let them be afraid. 28 You heard
me say to you, 'I am going away, and
I am coming to you.' If you loved me,
you would rejoice that I am going to
the Father, because the Father is
greater than I. 29 And now I have told
you this before it occurs, so that when
it does occur, you may believe. 30 I will
no longer talk much with you, for the
ruler of this world is coming. He has no
power over me; 31 but I do as the Father
has commanded me, so that the world
may know that I love the Father. Rise,
let us be on our way.
To truly get at what’s happening in this passage, I think we need to surround it in its context, talk about what was going on before and after this passage because I think it will make a difference to your understanding.
So we’re in John, and Jesus and his disciples have entered Jerusalem. Remember Palm Sunday, Jesus was on a donkey, people put down palms, everybody was excited, waving their arms, shouting Hosannas. I mean, people are pumped up!
And then we get to our scripture, where Jesus has washed his disciples’ feet, and they have shared what we now call the Last Supper. He has just said one of them at the table will betray him. And the disciples are all “not me” “not me” (sound familiar?). This passage takes place. And immediately after this conversation in the Upper Room, Jesus leads his disciples out to the garden, where Judas brings the delegation from the Pharisees to arrest him.
Verse 27: Peace I leave
with you; my peace I give to you
You know how sometimes we greet one another with a peace. The Scott girls have it down. It’s a hit the chest and peace. That’s not what’s going on here. It’s not a “peace.”
It’s peace. It’s a prayer. In verse 30, Jesus tells his disciples, ‘hey, this is pretty much it. These are our last moments together, and what I leave you with is Peace.
It’s his peace. And it will come from him.
Jesus knows Judas is out there setting him up, Jesus knows Peter will deny him. Jesus knows his fellow Jewish brothers and sisters will shout “crucify.” He knows he will be beaten. He knows he will die. He knows he will descend into hell for 3 days…and yet his final words are do not be troubled, do not be bothered by things of this world, it is my peace I give to you.
I find it hard to live into the idea of this peace that Christ talks about. I think that’s why I cried when I listened to that story. Besides the craziness that is happening around the world daily with this crisis and that crisis, I also have to take the kids to school, cook dinner, take care of my mother, go to my chemotherapy appointment, bring dinner to my sick friend…I don’t have time for peace. It sounds like a luxury.
And Catherine, here you are embarking on a new path. But it’s not the final path, it’s a step you take to get to where you want to go next. And in this step you’ll be measured. You’ll have deadlines to meet. You’ll be graded on your performance. And you’ll have to graduate with a decent GPA, and then you’ll have to find a job…good luck with that one…oh and in the midst, make friends, go to campus ministry once a week, date, do your work study….
And you begin to wonder, perhaps, like me, when do I have time for peace? How can I live in peace when my life is about the next step and not living into the present?
What is peace? What is the peace of Christ?
I know I’ve felt “at peace.” And I imagine that each of you have too. I can sometimes recognize the peace of Christ in others too. Often it’s in the dying.” Like that elderly woman who recited the 23 Psalm that Richard filmed at hospice. With such faith, she recited. Or my grandmother, lying in her hospital bed, who confided in me as a pastor, “I’m not afraid.” I’m not afraid of death.
That story I listened to in the car, spoke of a peace that’s about living in the present. But I think the peace of Christ is more than this Zen like state. Remember again this was Jesus’ prayer to his disciples while filled with the knowledge of the present and future.
It’s more than the “don’t be troubled don’t be afraid” that Jesus announces at the beginning of the passage. We also have to listen to verse 31 but I do as the Father
has commanded me, so that the world
may know that I love the Father. Rise,
let us be on our way.
But the Greek, in this scripture’s original form doesn’t have that last verse, “Rise, let us be on our way,” as a separate statement.
It reads more like, “So the world knows that I love God, I do as God does, and you being roused by this, come and do the same.” Or ‘come let me lead you to do the same.’
The peace of Christ is confidence and comfort in our and God’s salvation, or as Jesus says, “to live our life without fear of death.” But it’s also a response. Living into the peace of Christ, knowing that Jesus defeated those powers that set us back that hold us captive, when he rose from the dead, those chains that hold us in fear were shattered. Because Christ’s death was not the final word, we are free us to live. Living into the peace of Christ, it frees us to serve, it frees us to be a witness to the world.
And when we let go of our fears, and live into the peace of Christ, I think we are able to then meet Christ, to recognize the Spirit in others, and in our world.
The peace of Christ is a gift. It happens through intentionality. It is habit and discipline. It is faith and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ.
And it doesn’t happen alone. We can’t forget that Pentecost is right around the corner. It doesn’t happen alone—we are called to be the church.
Every Sunday we pass the Peace of Christ.
The passing of the Peace of Christ isn’t about stretching our legs, or telling someone we like their outfit or new haircut. It’s not an opportunity provided in the middle of the service so you can give someone that message you weren’t able to do earlier in the week.
Have you ever received the peace of Christ from Elizabeth or Richard? Or Grant or Mickey? You are caught. You are embraced. Sometimes I don’t think you could get out of that hold if you tried. There is nothing but the moment, the present. The peace of Christ isn’t just announced at our service, it takes the whole body corporately to live into it. That’s why we all pass it.
It’s the time for us to say, may the peace of Christ, the parting prayer that Jesus gave to his disciples, the knowledge of Jesus’ death and the power of his resurrection, may all this be with you. May all of this be with you on your journey. May you find this peace that can only come from Christ.
Passing of the Peace
We have been washed in the water and born in the Spirit, May the peace or our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Affirmation of Faith
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Who is My Mother?
Matthew 12:46-50
5th Sunday of Easter
Elizabeth M. Deibert – Mother’s Day
Steuart Link, our friend and the pastor who preceded my at the Faison Presbyterian Church, does not remember his mother. But he remembers having a whole church full of mothers. Steuart’s father was a pastor and his mother was tragically killed in a car accident when and his three brothers were very young.
People come to Mother’s Day with mixed emotions. There are those who have lost a mother recently and those who have a difficult relationship with mother. There are those who wish they had children and those who wish they had handled the children they had with more grace. But let’s get clear on the history of the day: Mother’s Day is not on the liturgical calendar like Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. During the seventeenth century in England, the fourth Sunday of Lent in March became known as Mothering Sunday, a day when servants could return home to their mums. In the USA, Mother’s Day is attributed to two women, Julia Howe and Anna Jarvis. Howe started a Mother’s Day for Peace in 1872 in Boston. Anna Jarvis encouraged a national celebration of Mother’s Day in Sunday services. Today forty-six countries observe a special day for mothers.
Now I, having no desire to glorify mothers, knowing very well the sins of
motherhood, ask you today to focus with me on the responsibility we have as a church to mother one another, to be sisters and brothers in Christ, to put priority on our Christian family as Jesus suggests in Matthew. Hear now the word of the Lord.
(Read Matthew 12:46-50)
How rude! A Jewish son denouncing loyalty to his own mother! “Who are my mother and my brother?” Didn’t the blessed Mother Mary and Brother James do the will of God? Jesus’ family members had good reason to be concerned that he was stirring up too much trouble. Maybe they were trying to protect him against the onslaught of attacks from the Pharisees and scribes. But Jesus sure put his family in their place.
Now raising such a question “Who is my mother?” was more radical in the first century than our modern ears can appreciate. “To disavow literal family members was so repulsive that even using the image would have been culturally offensive.” (Craig Keener, IVP Bible Background Commentary) But Jesus crossed that sacred line to make an important point. He wanted to make it clear that family is not first, at least not the family we think is family. The things of God can never be second. They have to be first. That’s what the first two commandments tell us – worship God alone and have no idols. God takes first place, no other.
Now let me be clear: I am not saying that nurturing and providing for your own family is not a worthy goal. Chip Schaaff has been doing a wonderful job of teaching us in recent weeks about the Traits of a Healthy Family. He reminds us that we spend many hours with family and few hours at church, so it is at home that we get most of our values and patterns of living. But if we strive too hard for an ideal family life, to the neglect of our spiritual life, it can become idolatrous, distracting us from our primary purpose in life -loving God and caring for neighbor. If your family with its bottomless-pit need for time, energy, and money gets in the way of your Christian compassion, then you’ve got your priorities mixed up. Hear these words from our denomination’s 2004 study document called Transforming Families: “We envision a church and society in which persons freely devote themselves to building up one another within their families, and families freely devote themselves to the will of God and the welfare of others.” (Transforming Families, PC(USA) OGA, 2004, p.11)
A healthy single person, couple or family has God at the center of life. A healthy single person, couple, or family devotes itself to the welfare of others. The Christian community is our first family, whether we are single as Jesus was, whether we are coupled, whether we have children or not. The church is our primary family because we belong to God. We belong to God and to each other! As God’s grace-gifted children, we are sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers to one another. Jesus honored his family, but he also challenged deference to the nuclear family with harsh words: (Transforming Families, p. 2) “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37) Who are my family members, but those who do the will of God.
Those of you who are in couples or families, when you come to church do you come as a family or come to be family? It is an important distinction. We tend to sit in family clusters in worship? But we are all Abraham and Sarah’s offspring, (Gal. 3) so I would like to invite you now to move to a new seat. Please move away from your comfort zone from the people with whom you usually sit and find someone in your church family with whom you have never sat.
Our individualistic American culture tells us to huddle up in our own small households, and not to trust beyond that. Our culture tells us to build a haven at home where we can hide from all who are different from us. Our culture tells us to be successful in our work, to buy more than we can afford, and to find happiness in our personal and often private leisure activities. But we all know now more than ever that there is a great deal of emptiness and sometimes crushing debt in such living.
Stan Ott said, at a recent seminar attended by six or seven of us, that most people are closing themselves off to friendship. We are exhausted from our schedules, hiding in our houses, with our televisions, cell phones, and computers, and all the message checking and keeping up that they require of us. Thus we build smaller and smaller clusters of friends. We are so stressed out by the pace of life that we have few people we really trust. How many of you know by name more than three households of people in your street? How many of you would be comfortable with a close friend arriving unannounced?
In some of my worst mothering moments when our children were young in Alabama, I was rescued...no my children were rescued by sisters in the faith whom I could call and say, “I’m going crazy with these kids.”
I challenge you to dedicate your life to the health of your most important family, not your family of origin nor your nuclear family, but the family of God. Into that family we all are born as adopted and adored children. Now being God’s beloved child is no guarantee of safety, any more than being mommy’s baby keeps older brother from biting when mom’s not looking. God’s house is not a safe or easy place to be, but it is where we belong. It is where all those neighbors of yours (who claim belief in God but have trouble walking through church doors) belong. And belonging requires trust, daring trust because the church is no perfect family, any more than your own family of origin was perfect but we are held together in the perfect love of Christ.
So being family means wading through a lot of dirty laundry, and helping to wash it. Being family means taking your turn with the dishes. Being family means knowing the skeletons in the closet and not walking away. Being family means diving into relationships, not as a test but as a commitment. It means sitting at the table together even when someone is sick, weak, or mentally ill. Being family means struggling openly and respectfully with differences of opinion, tolerating irritations, knowing that family is family. Church is not choosing your friends. It is loving your family, whom you did not choose. It means taking risks, for the sake of another’s benefit, at sacrifice to self.
Children and adults in this age desperately need to learn to trust beyond nuclear family boundaries. If you are a parent, the best gift you can give your child is not your own acceptance and love, which is infected with self-interest, even if you’ve seen a great therapist and read copious literature on how to have a healthy family. The most valuable gift you can give your child or grandchild is the opportunity to know the Faithful One whose acceptance and love makes our own feeble attempts at love look pitiful by comparison.
We are the family of God, not merely a cluster of families with common goals. We are single and partnered; we are divorced, widowed, coupled and married; we are blended families and single-parent families. We are children, youth, and adults in many seasons and storms of life. But most importantly, we are brothers and sisters of Jesus, the Christ, members together of one family — the motley household of God.
Now is the time, Peace, for a new vision of God’s family, in which all persons are truly one in Christ. Now is the time for all gates to be open and all walls to come down – rich and poor; male and female; races and classes, young and old, gay and straight, educated and uneducated, single and married, conservative and liberal – all Christians together committed to unity with diversity, held together by the steadfast love of God which never ends. Now is the time for baptismal vows to be taken seriously or not uttered at all.
When we Presbyterians promise in baptism to nurture a child or adolescent or adult in Christian faith, we are making a monumental commitment, not a sweet sentiment. And nurturing happens in the context of significant relationships. And significant relationships are messy. They take time and energy and patience. Let me close with an example from the new church development we served in Montgomery:
A divorced mother with two difficult adolescent sons was an active member of the church. The elder son, had landed in a group home, after numerous angry episodes which frightened his mother. After returning home, he and mom continued to battle with no resolve. By age eighteen he was on the street with no where to go, having abused the privilege of living at home.
Richard and I began to notice things were moving around in the Christian education building. You see, this young man had found a way to sneak into the church to sleep each night, leaving his mess behind every morning when he slipped out. Blanket in the classroom, dishes in the kitchen. The session had a couple of options: they could politely tell him that living at church was not acceptable or they could choose a more radical approach.
They were courageous enough to take the more daring approach. This volatile young man was given permission to live at church provided he would get a job, keep the classroom/bedroom clean, bring no drugs, alcohol or friends into the church, and be respectful to all. Two elders began to offering parental supervision, giving him that second chance. Now more than a decade later, he is working, in a second marriage, and involved in a church and in his own children’s lives. When we spoke with his mother a few years ago, she reflected that the church family’s love turned Greg’s life around. At a dangerous moment when the church could have said “shape up or ship out” they said bravely, we still love you and even when you cannot live in your mother’s house, you can find a mother and father, a sister and brother here.
God never gives up on anybody, so how can we? How can we? “It is our job to mother the crying babies in the nursery, to teach Bible stories to children who cannot sit still, and to offer tough but abiding love to teenagers in trouble. It is our job to take care of our aging brothers and sisters in the church, to hold their hands and hear their histories. It is our responsibility to welcome home all prodigal sons and daughters – to embrace them with the forgiving love of God. We are the family of God, not just a gathering of people who spend an hour in worship together when it fits our schedule. We are children of the living God, struggling together to be the people the Lord created us to be. Who are my brothers and sisters and mother? Everyone who loves the Lord.”
5th Sunday of Easter
Elizabeth M. Deibert – Mother’s Day
Steuart Link, our friend and the pastor who preceded my at the Faison Presbyterian Church, does not remember his mother. But he remembers having a whole church full of mothers. Steuart’s father was a pastor and his mother was tragically killed in a car accident when and his three brothers were very young.
People come to Mother’s Day with mixed emotions. There are those who have lost a mother recently and those who have a difficult relationship with mother. There are those who wish they had children and those who wish they had handled the children they had with more grace. But let’s get clear on the history of the day: Mother’s Day is not on the liturgical calendar like Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. During the seventeenth century in England, the fourth Sunday of Lent in March became known as Mothering Sunday, a day when servants could return home to their mums. In the USA, Mother’s Day is attributed to two women, Julia Howe and Anna Jarvis. Howe started a Mother’s Day for Peace in 1872 in Boston. Anna Jarvis encouraged a national celebration of Mother’s Day in Sunday services. Today forty-six countries observe a special day for mothers.
Now I, having no desire to glorify mothers, knowing very well the sins of
motherhood, ask you today to focus with me on the responsibility we have as a church to mother one another, to be sisters and brothers in Christ, to put priority on our Christian family as Jesus suggests in Matthew. Hear now the word of the Lord.
(Read Matthew 12:46-50)
How rude! A Jewish son denouncing loyalty to his own mother! “Who are my mother and my brother?” Didn’t the blessed Mother Mary and Brother James do the will of God? Jesus’ family members had good reason to be concerned that he was stirring up too much trouble. Maybe they were trying to protect him against the onslaught of attacks from the Pharisees and scribes. But Jesus sure put his family in their place.
Now raising such a question “Who is my mother?” was more radical in the first century than our modern ears can appreciate. “To disavow literal family members was so repulsive that even using the image would have been culturally offensive.” (Craig Keener, IVP Bible Background Commentary) But Jesus crossed that sacred line to make an important point. He wanted to make it clear that family is not first, at least not the family we think is family. The things of God can never be second. They have to be first. That’s what the first two commandments tell us – worship God alone and have no idols. God takes first place, no other.
Now let me be clear: I am not saying that nurturing and providing for your own family is not a worthy goal. Chip Schaaff has been doing a wonderful job of teaching us in recent weeks about the Traits of a Healthy Family. He reminds us that we spend many hours with family and few hours at church, so it is at home that we get most of our values and patterns of living. But if we strive too hard for an ideal family life, to the neglect of our spiritual life, it can become idolatrous, distracting us from our primary purpose in life -loving God and caring for neighbor. If your family with its bottomless-pit need for time, energy, and money gets in the way of your Christian compassion, then you’ve got your priorities mixed up. Hear these words from our denomination’s 2004 study document called Transforming Families: “We envision a church and society in which persons freely devote themselves to building up one another within their families, and families freely devote themselves to the will of God and the welfare of others.” (Transforming Families, PC(USA) OGA, 2004, p.11)
A healthy single person, couple or family has God at the center of life. A healthy single person, couple, or family devotes itself to the welfare of others. The Christian community is our first family, whether we are single as Jesus was, whether we are coupled, whether we have children or not. The church is our primary family because we belong to God. We belong to God and to each other! As God’s grace-gifted children, we are sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers to one another. Jesus honored his family, but he also challenged deference to the nuclear family with harsh words: (Transforming Families, p. 2) “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37) Who are my family members, but those who do the will of God.
Those of you who are in couples or families, when you come to church do you come as a family or come to be family? It is an important distinction. We tend to sit in family clusters in worship? But we are all Abraham and Sarah’s offspring, (Gal. 3) so I would like to invite you now to move to a new seat. Please move away from your comfort zone from the people with whom you usually sit and find someone in your church family with whom you have never sat.
Our individualistic American culture tells us to huddle up in our own small households, and not to trust beyond that. Our culture tells us to build a haven at home where we can hide from all who are different from us. Our culture tells us to be successful in our work, to buy more than we can afford, and to find happiness in our personal and often private leisure activities. But we all know now more than ever that there is a great deal of emptiness and sometimes crushing debt in such living.
Stan Ott said, at a recent seminar attended by six or seven of us, that most people are closing themselves off to friendship. We are exhausted from our schedules, hiding in our houses, with our televisions, cell phones, and computers, and all the message checking and keeping up that they require of us. Thus we build smaller and smaller clusters of friends. We are so stressed out by the pace of life that we have few people we really trust. How many of you know by name more than three households of people in your street? How many of you would be comfortable with a close friend arriving unannounced?
In some of my worst mothering moments when our children were young in Alabama, I was rescued...no my children were rescued by sisters in the faith whom I could call and say, “I’m going crazy with these kids.”
I challenge you to dedicate your life to the health of your most important family, not your family of origin nor your nuclear family, but the family of God. Into that family we all are born as adopted and adored children. Now being God’s beloved child is no guarantee of safety, any more than being mommy’s baby keeps older brother from biting when mom’s not looking. God’s house is not a safe or easy place to be, but it is where we belong. It is where all those neighbors of yours (who claim belief in God but have trouble walking through church doors) belong. And belonging requires trust, daring trust because the church is no perfect family, any more than your own family of origin was perfect but we are held together in the perfect love of Christ.
So being family means wading through a lot of dirty laundry, and helping to wash it. Being family means taking your turn with the dishes. Being family means knowing the skeletons in the closet and not walking away. Being family means diving into relationships, not as a test but as a commitment. It means sitting at the table together even when someone is sick, weak, or mentally ill. Being family means struggling openly and respectfully with differences of opinion, tolerating irritations, knowing that family is family. Church is not choosing your friends. It is loving your family, whom you did not choose. It means taking risks, for the sake of another’s benefit, at sacrifice to self.
Children and adults in this age desperately need to learn to trust beyond nuclear family boundaries. If you are a parent, the best gift you can give your child is not your own acceptance and love, which is infected with self-interest, even if you’ve seen a great therapist and read copious literature on how to have a healthy family. The most valuable gift you can give your child or grandchild is the opportunity to know the Faithful One whose acceptance and love makes our own feeble attempts at love look pitiful by comparison.
We are the family of God, not merely a cluster of families with common goals. We are single and partnered; we are divorced, widowed, coupled and married; we are blended families and single-parent families. We are children, youth, and adults in many seasons and storms of life. But most importantly, we are brothers and sisters of Jesus, the Christ, members together of one family — the motley household of God.
Now is the time, Peace, for a new vision of God’s family, in which all persons are truly one in Christ. Now is the time for all gates to be open and all walls to come down – rich and poor; male and female; races and classes, young and old, gay and straight, educated and uneducated, single and married, conservative and liberal – all Christians together committed to unity with diversity, held together by the steadfast love of God which never ends. Now is the time for baptismal vows to be taken seriously or not uttered at all.
When we Presbyterians promise in baptism to nurture a child or adolescent or adult in Christian faith, we are making a monumental commitment, not a sweet sentiment. And nurturing happens in the context of significant relationships. And significant relationships are messy. They take time and energy and patience. Let me close with an example from the new church development we served in Montgomery:
A divorced mother with two difficult adolescent sons was an active member of the church. The elder son, had landed in a group home, after numerous angry episodes which frightened his mother. After returning home, he and mom continued to battle with no resolve. By age eighteen he was on the street with no where to go, having abused the privilege of living at home.
Richard and I began to notice things were moving around in the Christian education building. You see, this young man had found a way to sneak into the church to sleep each night, leaving his mess behind every morning when he slipped out. Blanket in the classroom, dishes in the kitchen. The session had a couple of options: they could politely tell him that living at church was not acceptable or they could choose a more radical approach.
They were courageous enough to take the more daring approach. This volatile young man was given permission to live at church provided he would get a job, keep the classroom/bedroom clean, bring no drugs, alcohol or friends into the church, and be respectful to all. Two elders began to offering parental supervision, giving him that second chance. Now more than a decade later, he is working, in a second marriage, and involved in a church and in his own children’s lives. When we spoke with his mother a few years ago, she reflected that the church family’s love turned Greg’s life around. At a dangerous moment when the church could have said “shape up or ship out” they said bravely, we still love you and even when you cannot live in your mother’s house, you can find a mother and father, a sister and brother here.
God never gives up on anybody, so how can we? How can we? “It is our job to mother the crying babies in the nursery, to teach Bible stories to children who cannot sit still, and to offer tough but abiding love to teenagers in trouble. It is our job to take care of our aging brothers and sisters in the church, to hold their hands and hear their histories. It is our responsibility to welcome home all prodigal sons and daughters – to embrace them with the forgiving love of God. We are the family of God, not just a gathering of people who spend an hour in worship together when it fits our schedule. We are children of the living God, struggling together to be the people the Lord created us to be. Who are my brothers and sisters and mother? Everyone who loves the Lord.”
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Loved and Protected
John 10:11-16 & 1 John 3:14-18 & Psalm 23
4th Sunday of Easter
Elizabeth M. Deibert
Sheep and shepherds show up in all the important places in the Bible. Moses was tending a flock of sheep when God called to him out of the burning bush. King David was called while serving as a shepherd. Jesus’ birth was first announced to shepherds tending their flocks in the field. Jesus is called both the shepherd and the sacrificial lamb. The last thing Jesus says to Peter in the resurrection according to John’s Gospel , is “Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep.” There are about sixty references in the Bible to the Lord being our shepherd or to the Lord calling leaders to be good shepherds or to the flock being as one without a shepherd.
What is it about that relationship of dependency that resonates with us? We could compare it to “I am the good business manager. I care for my employees.” But there’s something in the image of the Good Shepherd that captures our imaginations. Is the loving care of a more sophisticated human being for a more dependent animal? Perhaps it is the power of that unbalanced relationship between human and animal, which helps us appreciate the beauty of the relationship between Creator and creature.
We will now read both the Gospel lesson and the epistle for Good Shepherd Sunday. The Gospel of John encourages us with the promise that Jesus is our loving, protecting shepherd, much as Psalm 23 does. The first letter of John challenges us to be loving, compassionate shepherds of others.
Read John 10:11-16, followed by 1 John 3:14-18.
When Jesus in the Gospel lesson tells us the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, we all get this image of the wolf coming and devouring the shepherd while the sheep run free. But the word there for life is sukane the Greek word from which we get psyche or soul, which means the shepherd sets aside the inner self, not so much the body, which is what we typically think of when we give up life.. The psyche is the self, the character, the heart and soul of the person. So the Good Shepherd lays down his own desires and wishes in order to be fully attentive to the sheep.
This is like the parent of a 18 month old child, who cannot complete a personal task like checking email or reading an article or doing the dishes because of the pre-eminent need to keep the curiously climbing toddler out of trouble or danger. That is not giving up life, as in dying, but it is giving up life, as in one’s own psyche, for the good of another. Jesus did relinquish his life for us, having given us his soul. We are called to relinquish our psyches for the good of another. Not for the whims or the selfish demands of another. This is not a call to unhealthy co-dependency. This is a call to a life of loving.
“Anyone who does not love is as good as dead,” Eugene Petersen translates it in The Message. And then comes the real zinger – if you hate a brother or sister, seems like he’s talking about fellow believers more than nuclear family, then you are a murderer. And murder and living the eternal life of God do not fit together.
This is a difficult word for all of us. I bet there is not one person in this room who has not at some angry moment said, “I hate ___________”
David Thomas, who corresponds with me weekly over the lectionary texts, (something I’d welcome from anyone else who wants to do some study during the week), made me think about whether hate is the opposite of love or whether indifference is. What do you think? Maybe we could agree that indifference is the absence of love, while hate is the underside, the opposite side of the coin of love. I wonder if indifference is actually a helpful tool in moving us away from hate, while compassion is helpful in moving us from indifference back to love. So, in the end, I would put indifference and compassion as opposites and love and hate as opposites.
Illustration from a middle school encounter, where emotions are usually worn on sleeves. Eighth grade Abi HATES classmate Evan because he makes fun of what she’s wearing everyday. If Abi could become indifferent (not care) what Evan thinks or says, then she might be able to be compassionate toward Evan who picks on her because he is insecure himself and wants attention. If she felt compassion for Evan in his insecurity, she might even begin to love Evan, not in the romantic sense of love, but just in the I care about you kind of agape love. I say, if Abi can learn at home and at church that the Lord is her loving and protecting Shepherd, and by learn, I mean, experience that love in her home and church relationships, then Abi is in a better position to hear Evan’s comments and say, “I don’t care what he thinks. I don’t hate him.” Likewise, Evan, if he is learning that he has a loving and protecting Shepherd, will not need to make fun of others to gain attention for himself. And if more of that happened, middle school would not be such a difficult stage of life for so, so many young people.
The indifference and compassion tension is raised by the tough question of the epistle text, “How can God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in needs and refuses to help? The choices we make with our worldly goods and our use and ab-use of global resources are affecting others. Our indifference to the suffering of the very poor will not go away quickly, but we can chip away at it, by adding compassionate practices into our lives, by stretching ourselves to give more generously, even as we feel recession’s squeeze.
Two tough calls – one to love over hate. The other to compassion over indifference. What’s true for the middle schoolers is true for the middle-agers and everybody else. To know deeply the love of one who accepts you as you are and wants you to be all you can be is to be secure enough to reach out in compassion and love toward others. That love begins with Christ and ends with Christ, but that love is learned by the way the Christians live together with their Lord and with one another.
Loving others is a complicated matter because it often means giving them space to graze, to be their own psyche, while also offering support and care. I have not yet seen it, but I understand the movie, “The Soloist” explores the intricacies of friendship, and the barriers we put up in our lives, and the misconceptions about love and compassion that even the most well-meaning of us experience.
I pray Peace people will continue to be models of love and compassion, letting go of hate and indifference by securing ourselves, not in our wealth or our success or popularity or gifts and abilities or anything else, but in the love and compassion of the Good Shepherd, who laid down his soul for us, calls us to lay down our soul, our psyches for others.
I’d like to end with a video of 100 year old Jean, reciting the 23rd Psalm, with a little help from her Hospice chaplain, Richard. Jean is blind and almost totally bed bound, but her soul is full of joy, as you will see.
Let us pray as the choir comes forward: Lord, when our bodies fail us, as they surely will one day, enable us, by your Holy Spirit to continue singing your of your goodness and mercy, relying on you, our Good Shepherd for all our needs to be supplied. Hear us now Lord, as we pray in the silence of our souls for your love and protection to secure us so we might better love one another and have compassion for all people......
4th Sunday of Easter
Elizabeth M. Deibert
Sheep and shepherds show up in all the important places in the Bible. Moses was tending a flock of sheep when God called to him out of the burning bush. King David was called while serving as a shepherd. Jesus’ birth was first announced to shepherds tending their flocks in the field. Jesus is called both the shepherd and the sacrificial lamb. The last thing Jesus says to Peter in the resurrection according to John’s Gospel , is “Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep.” There are about sixty references in the Bible to the Lord being our shepherd or to the Lord calling leaders to be good shepherds or to the flock being as one without a shepherd.
What is it about that relationship of dependency that resonates with us? We could compare it to “I am the good business manager. I care for my employees.” But there’s something in the image of the Good Shepherd that captures our imaginations. Is the loving care of a more sophisticated human being for a more dependent animal? Perhaps it is the power of that unbalanced relationship between human and animal, which helps us appreciate the beauty of the relationship between Creator and creature.
We will now read both the Gospel lesson and the epistle for Good Shepherd Sunday. The Gospel of John encourages us with the promise that Jesus is our loving, protecting shepherd, much as Psalm 23 does. The first letter of John challenges us to be loving, compassionate shepherds of others.
Read John 10:11-16, followed by 1 John 3:14-18.
When Jesus in the Gospel lesson tells us the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, we all get this image of the wolf coming and devouring the shepherd while the sheep run free. But the word there for life is sukane the Greek word from which we get psyche or soul, which means the shepherd sets aside the inner self, not so much the body, which is what we typically think of when we give up life.. The psyche is the self, the character, the heart and soul of the person. So the Good Shepherd lays down his own desires and wishes in order to be fully attentive to the sheep.
This is like the parent of a 18 month old child, who cannot complete a personal task like checking email or reading an article or doing the dishes because of the pre-eminent need to keep the curiously climbing toddler out of trouble or danger. That is not giving up life, as in dying, but it is giving up life, as in one’s own psyche, for the good of another. Jesus did relinquish his life for us, having given us his soul. We are called to relinquish our psyches for the good of another. Not for the whims or the selfish demands of another. This is not a call to unhealthy co-dependency. This is a call to a life of loving.
“Anyone who does not love is as good as dead,” Eugene Petersen translates it in The Message. And then comes the real zinger – if you hate a brother or sister, seems like he’s talking about fellow believers more than nuclear family, then you are a murderer. And murder and living the eternal life of God do not fit together.
This is a difficult word for all of us. I bet there is not one person in this room who has not at some angry moment said, “I hate ___________”
David Thomas, who corresponds with me weekly over the lectionary texts, (something I’d welcome from anyone else who wants to do some study during the week), made me think about whether hate is the opposite of love or whether indifference is. What do you think? Maybe we could agree that indifference is the absence of love, while hate is the underside, the opposite side of the coin of love. I wonder if indifference is actually a helpful tool in moving us away from hate, while compassion is helpful in moving us from indifference back to love. So, in the end, I would put indifference and compassion as opposites and love and hate as opposites.
Illustration from a middle school encounter, where emotions are usually worn on sleeves. Eighth grade Abi HATES classmate Evan because he makes fun of what she’s wearing everyday. If Abi could become indifferent (not care) what Evan thinks or says, then she might be able to be compassionate toward Evan who picks on her because he is insecure himself and wants attention. If she felt compassion for Evan in his insecurity, she might even begin to love Evan, not in the romantic sense of love, but just in the I care about you kind of agape love. I say, if Abi can learn at home and at church that the Lord is her loving and protecting Shepherd, and by learn, I mean, experience that love in her home and church relationships, then Abi is in a better position to hear Evan’s comments and say, “I don’t care what he thinks. I don’t hate him.” Likewise, Evan, if he is learning that he has a loving and protecting Shepherd, will not need to make fun of others to gain attention for himself. And if more of that happened, middle school would not be such a difficult stage of life for so, so many young people.
The indifference and compassion tension is raised by the tough question of the epistle text, “How can God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in needs and refuses to help? The choices we make with our worldly goods and our use and ab-use of global resources are affecting others. Our indifference to the suffering of the very poor will not go away quickly, but we can chip away at it, by adding compassionate practices into our lives, by stretching ourselves to give more generously, even as we feel recession’s squeeze.
Two tough calls – one to love over hate. The other to compassion over indifference. What’s true for the middle schoolers is true for the middle-agers and everybody else. To know deeply the love of one who accepts you as you are and wants you to be all you can be is to be secure enough to reach out in compassion and love toward others. That love begins with Christ and ends with Christ, but that love is learned by the way the Christians live together with their Lord and with one another.
Loving others is a complicated matter because it often means giving them space to graze, to be their own psyche, while also offering support and care. I have not yet seen it, but I understand the movie, “The Soloist” explores the intricacies of friendship, and the barriers we put up in our lives, and the misconceptions about love and compassion that even the most well-meaning of us experience.
I pray Peace people will continue to be models of love and compassion, letting go of hate and indifference by securing ourselves, not in our wealth or our success or popularity or gifts and abilities or anything else, but in the love and compassion of the Good Shepherd, who laid down his soul for us, calls us to lay down our soul, our psyches for others.
I’d like to end with a video of 100 year old Jean, reciting the 23rd Psalm, with a little help from her Hospice chaplain, Richard. Jean is blind and almost totally bed bound, but her soul is full of joy, as you will see.
Let us pray as the choir comes forward: Lord, when our bodies fail us, as they surely will one day, enable us, by your Holy Spirit to continue singing your of your goodness and mercy, relying on you, our Good Shepherd for all our needs to be supplied. Hear us now Lord, as we pray in the silence of our souls for your love and protection to secure us so we might better love one another and have compassion for all people......
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