Christ's Maternal Concern

Luke 13:31-35                           
2nd Sunday of Lent
Elizabeth M. Deibert                       
24 February 2013

My new favorite TV channel is Nat Geo. I used to watch CNN but now I’m sick of the sensationalism that has taken over every news channel. What I saw this week on Nat Geo was a mother seal trying to protect her cubs from a polar bear attack, sacrificing her flesh to try to avoid the death of the baby seal.

Yesterday as a group of us were traveling to the orange groves in Nokomis, Jane Taylor told me the story of encountering a herd of deer many years ago, and that one of the does charged her as if to attack. Jane scooped up her young son, as the mother deer became a fierce protector of her own fawns -- two mothers with great maternal concern.

Today we read Jesus’ maternal lament over Jerusalem. Jesus compares himself to a hen trying to gather her chicks but they were not willing. Jesus was told by the Pharisees that Herod wants to kill him, but he is not threatened by that comment. No, he is concerned about Jerusalem, the city where prophets like him get killed.

Guide us, O Christ, by your Word and Spirit, that in your light we may see light,

in your truth find freedom, and in your will discover your peace; Amen.

Luke 13:31-35

31 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." 32 He said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me, 'Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. 33 Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.' 34 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
35 See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'" (NRSV)
It is hard to evaluate the motives of the Pharisees in the story. Ordinarily they are against Jesus and he against their attitudes and actions. But here it seems they are trying to warn him of impending danger. “Herod wants to kill you.” It seems to me this is a good example of why we should never type-cast anyone. After all, Pharisees can have their good moments. And even in their bad moments, they were just trying to follow the rules as they understood them. There are not bad guys who are always bad and good guys who are always good. No, there are good guys who get caught up in bad – and that includes all of us.

I love Jesus’ courage in this opening of the text. “Tell that fox that I’m doing good and powerful stuff.” Jesus does not shy away from speaking out against authorities, nor does he run from danger. He keeps moving toward Jerusalem, a journey that in Luke started in chapter 9. He set his face toward Jerusalem with a determination to press on toward the goal. This is one of those moments when we the reader see him walking bravely toward his destiny of death. He is not waving flags of defiance, but is simply acting out of a heart full of compassion, the kind of compassion that makes him lament this crucial city’s inability to love and to listen to the challenging words of change.

He shows us the heart of God in his fierce love and desire to protect, even at great cost. How often in the Biblical narrative do we see God desiring one thing for the people God loves, and how often do they, do we reject that one good thing. We eat the forbidden fruit. We break the covenant God established with us. We stubbornly go our own way, rather than seeking God’s will. That is the very heart of sin – recoiling from the desires of God. Failing to act in accord with God’s ways. We like to think of sin as awful, horrible illegal things, but the sin which overtakes us daily is more subtle than that. We simply want what we want instead of what God wants. We want to race out from under the protective wings of our mother Christ, and in doing so, we put ourselves at great risk.

Luke was writing at a time just a decade or two after the fall of Jerusalem, so it was easy for his readers to understand the critique of Jerusalem, as a sort of prophecy after the fact. They had seen it collapse at the hands of the Roman Empire. They were probably wondering why the temple had been destroyed, and Luke says, in essence, God Incarnate warned them of their fallen ways, but they did not listen. Early Christianity had been part of Judaism, but by this time, when Luke was compiling his Gospel, around 80 or 90 after the death of Christ, the division was increasing between the two religions. For generations, passages like this have stoked the attitude of anti-Semitism, but that is simply not a faithful reading of the text.

The theological point of this passage is that Christ’s maternal concern is one of compassion. Inasmuch as Christ’s shows us who God is, because he is God in the flesh, he proves that God’s response to a stubborn and misguided populace is not retribution, or punishment but rather lamentation and persistent love. God is not done with Jerusalem and its people. In fact, it is that very promise – that God in Jesus Christ will come to them yet again – with which this passage ends. 35 See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

This is no mere prelude to Palm Sunday; it is a promise from God to the people. God will once again engage and pursue the very city that kills God’s prophets and stones those whom God sends. It will serve not only as the final drum beat in Jesus’ journey to the cross, but also the setting of God’s greatest triumph. It is the people of Jerusalem who will see God’s own willingness to suffer and die for them face-to-face. It is an extraordinary statement on the grace of God, and also a compelling proclamation that no place and no people stands exempt from God’s tender compassion and persistent love. Those who seek to follow Jesus must learn to view the world with no less compassion, no less forgiveness, and no less love.

Isn’t this an appropriate message for Lent? In this season of repentance and reflection, we are called to examine that many ways in which we fall short of the glory of God. So often we do not exhibit God’s grace to the world. It is unfortunately commonplace for Christians to be characterized as unforgiving, and less than persistent in our attitudes toward those who disappoint us. We could learn something from Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem. Through Christ we realize that God’s response to hostility and violence is deep maternal concern in the form of disappointment and persistent grace. So how might those of us who call ourselves Christian handle the violent and hostile places of our world? How might we respond to the love of God more faithfully when we realize that God is simply trying to protect us all in love, to gather us under wing and love us? Blessed are all who go through life in the name of this Lord of love.

Let me end with one final story of maternal protection. The forest fire had been brought under control, and the group of firefighters were working back through the devastation making sure all the hot spots had been extinguished. As they marched across the blackened landscape between the wisps of smoke still rising from the smoldering remains, a large lump on the trail caught a firefighter's eye.
As he got closer he noticed it was the charred remains of a large bird, that had burned nearly half way through. Since birds can so easily fly away from the approaching flames, the firefighter wondered what must have been wrong with this bird that it could not escape. Had it been sick or injured?

Arriving at the carcass, he decided to kick it off the trail with his boot. As soon as he did, however, he was shocked by a flurry of activity around his feet. Four little birds flailed in the dust and ash then scurried away down the hillside. The bulk of the mother's body had covered them from the searing flames. Though the heat was enough to consume her, it allowed her babies to find safety underneath. In the face of the rising flames, she had stayed with her young. She was their only hope for safety, and willing to risk her own life she gathered them under her body and covered them with herself. Even when the pain reached its most unbearable moment, when she could easily have flown away to start another family on another day, she stayed. Her dead carcass and her fleeing chicks told the story well enough--she gave the ultimate sacrifice to save her young.
So it is with our God who came as Christ to save us, to save Jerusalem, to save all people from fiery destruction we create with our sin. 

Compassionate, nurturing Christ, thank you for covering us with your sacrificial love. Soften our resistance to your embrace, in this season of Lent, and awaken us to the depth of our compassion that our lives might reflect your grace and mercy.

Bountiful Blessings

Deuteronomy 26:1-11                                                                
1^st Sunday of Lent

17 February 2013

 

Elizabeth M. Deibert                                                                   

I have not had the flu this year– stomach or respiratory – but what I remember about being sick with the flu is how thankful you feel when your fever and aches are gone and you feel like a human being again.   When you’ve been nauseated, and finally you feel like eating again, there is this rush of gratitude.   “Thank you God that I feel good again!"

We had new neighbors move in this summer from Wisconsin.   They have four girls and they were constantly in the pool.  The parents were always reveling in the wonderful weather.  But now that they’ve been here a while, they are just like the rest of us – rolling from one beautiful day to the next without giving thanks.    We take it for granted.   Sometimes we need some northern relative or friend to come visit to remind us what a blessing it is to live with such beautiful sunshine year-round.

Deuteronomy is like your northern relative or friend.   This book is all about remembering how cold and grey life was before God rescued you.    The passage we are reading today is set in the time before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, but it was probably written many hundreds of years later, when they could look back and rehearse the stories of how good life was in the Promised Land, before they forgot how good they had it, before they were taken away in Exile.

This passage is a challenge to remember your blessings and to be thankful, by giving back to God and by giving generously to our neighbor as well.   That’s what our opening hymn, quoting Hebrews 13:15 means by our sacrifice of praise.  The sacrifices we make to thank God for the blessings we have been given.

 

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, ² you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.   ³ You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us."   ⁴ When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, ⁵ you shall make this response before the LORD your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous.  ⁶ When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, ⁷ we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.  ⁸ The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders;   ⁹ and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me." You shall set it down before the LORD your God and bow down before the LORD your God. ¹¹ Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house.     (NRSV)

The writer of Deuteronomy makes it very clear that giving of our first fruits is the best way to say thanks to God.    The first fruit is the like the first thing you buy, the first check you write after payday.  The first fruit is not the leftovers.   The first is the best.    But it is not just giving, but rehearsing the story of God’s deliverance.  

Have you ever considered that how you rehearse your life’s story says a lot about your relationship with God?    There are many ways to recount history, your personal history, but how you choose to remember it, will shape your future attitudes.   You can tell your story from the perspective of a victim – all the bad stuff people have done to you, all the unfortunate things in your life, all the pain you’ve had to endure, all the things you cannot afford to buy.  

Or you can tell your story as a self-made person, remembering how you accomplished this or that, and how all your children are good-looking and above average in every way.   Or you can tell your story with more humility and gratitude to God, by pointing out how God has redeemed your mistakes, forgiven your sins, lavished you with gifts beyond your deserving, and blessed you with the gift of friends and family, with comforts like home, health, food and shelter, rather than taking those for granted.

At Peace we’ve been in a season of gratitude because we are anticipating the gift of a new home – our Promised Land.    Just a short time ago, we had no idea how we would move confidently into the future.    Our lease here was ending sooner than we wanted, we could not find another acceptable place to rent, nor could we afford to build on the five acres our presbytery purchased for us.    We were in a tight place.    But with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great mercy and compassion, tenderness and love, God came to our aid.   God rescued us from our distress.   God has blessed us with a land and a building.  

Even people beyond Peace can see that.   Peggy Donaldson told me yesterday that she had a friend at First Presbyterian who was praying for us when we were on the verge of homelessness as a church, and when she heard the good news of our contract and building purchase campaign, she exclaimed, “That’s God.”   I think we all can see the hand of God in the way this plan came together.   

So let’s recap what we are learning from Deuteronomy.   First, we learn that it is right to give thanks to God for our blessings.  Second, we learn to rehearse the story of God’s great work in our lives.  Third, we learn that giving thanks involves giving generously to God, not what’s leftover, but your first fruits, out of gratitude.   When you give your first fruits, whether it is a weekly pledge off the top or a gift from investments, you have to trust that God will help you make it on what’s left.   Stewardship, the act of managing your resources faithfully, requires two things – a heart of gratitude and a willful act of trust – a leap of faith.

But there’s another key point in our lesson from Deuteronomy:   Notice the last verse of the text.  ¹¹ Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house.   So after you set aside your thank offering to God, you invite the strangers, the weak, the alien, the strangers around you and you share with them the bounty that God has given.    So the bountiful blessing is not just for us.   We are blessed to be a blessing to others.

Several examples:   God has blessed some of you with resources to be very helpful in this purchase of land.    You could have claimed those blessings as yours to spend as you please, but instead, you realized that God gave you extra so that you might be a blessing to others through this church.  Others of you are stretching to give a little more each week or month, even though worried about how you will pay your bills.   Thank you for making your sacrifice of praise.

Another example:  This country of ours – the great USA – has welcomed aliens from day one.   We have been the land of opportunity, and we understood that we had been blessed so that others might also be blessed.   Many strangers have come to these states looking for a chance to earn a decent living, to rise above the poverty, danger, or religious restrictions of their former homeland.   Many of us are descendants of such aliens, so my hope is that we can find a way to continue to share the blessing of living in a land of opportunity.

Another example is this land Peace is purchasing.    We will soon have the privilege of space that belongs to us, that we can decide how it gets used.   I pray we will be generous with the bounty God has given.   I pray that we will always be looking beyond ourselves to the persons who might need peace – peace of mind, peace in Christ, peace and security, any kind of peace.    Compassionate Outreach has always been one of our goals.    We have aimed to care for the needs of others by serving the poor, the homeless, the hungry, and those without faith or without a loving church community.    I hope we will continue to look beyond ourselves and people like us to explore how God might want us to be a safe refuge, a sanctuary of welcome for all people – especially those who are rejected or misunderstood or forgotten or marginalized in any way.  

Not many of us know the pain of being an alien, the fear of hiding who you really are, so that people will not reject you – because you are without legal documents or because you are gay or because of whatever it is you hide about you – your past, your present.  Jesus challenged the attitudes of the religious authorities by spending time with the people they rejected, the people they considered unclean, unfit.   He scandalized the powerful and the super religious by showing them the boundless nature of God’s love. 

To really understand God’s grace, we have to first understand that not one of us deserves it.   It is by the mercy of God that we wake up every morning.   What?  Did you think it was a given that you should be alive today?   Did you deserve more time on earth than the dead children of Sandy Hook, or the dead villagers in Pakistan, struck by a bomb yesterday?   No.  While we cannot rationalize those tragedies, we know it is only by the grace of God that we are alive and that we live in comfort, and are surrounded by such beauty and bountiful resources.   Why do we take it for granted, as if we earned what we have, as if it were not a gift to be born into a reasonably safe country, to have clean water, a good education, freedom of religion and freedom of speech, excellent medical care, wonderful opportunities?   

You see, when we stop rehearsing the truth that it is God who blesses us, then we become ungrateful, self-serving, spoiled brats.   So don’t forget every day to give thanks to God for all the gifts of your life and every week or month giving back your first fruits.   Especially in the season of Lent, give thanks for the life that Christ gives you by his sacrifice on the cross, and let that thanksgiving overflow into spiritual disciplines of sacrificial love toward others.   The Mission Team is offering you multiple ways to show sacrificial love during Lent.   Please choose at least one and make a commitment to it today.

God has richly blessed us beyond our deserving.   People who are grateful for God’s bountiful blessings cannot help but share generously with others, the first fruits, not the last, our sacrifice of praise.

Imagine That!

February 10, 2013     

Transfigured Sunday

2 Cor. 3:12-4:7                                                                              

Elizabeth M. Deibert                                                                    

Transfiguration Sunday.    Just the day you’ve been waiting for, right?    When I mention it, many people in the church say, “Huh?”   Talk about Easter or Christmas or even Pentecost, the day we celebrate the birth of the Church and the power of the Holy Spirit, but don’t talk to me about Transfiguration.   It’s just a weird story about Moses and Elijah coming down to chat with Jesus, and his face shining, and the disciples who were there being confused by the whole matter, and thinking that they needed to do something, when probably Jesus just wanted them to sit and reflect on the meaning of human life.  Imagine that!

Well, we’re not reading the unusual story of the Transfiguration today, but we are reflecting on what it means to be human – of all creation, we humans the ones who are created in the image of God.   Further, God was not satisfied because we tarnished that image badly with our sin, so God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to forever change our image back to its original beauty.   Imagine that!   God was willing to die to love us back into being who we were created to be – beautiful, wonderful people.   But here’s the thing:   God cannot transform us, apart from our cooperation with God.   God is sovereign (able to do all things) but God doesn’t turn us into puppets with no ability to choose, because to do so would make us less than human – not in the image of God.    

So what I have come to appreciate about Transfiguration Sunday is that it invites us to consider the mystery of Christ dwelling in us.   That we have been created in the image of God twice.   Once in the creation, and again, in the Incarnation.  Galatians 3:27 says “as many of you as were baptized into Christ are therefore clothed with Christ.”   Colossians 3:10 says we have clothed ourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.    

And our text today tells us that we, as clay jars, broken, leaky, imperfect earthen vessels are being transformed into the same image as Christ – from one degree of glory into another.   Before we hear the scripture, let us ask God to dwell richly in us by praying through song.   (Sing Sanctuary)

2 Corinthians 3:12-13;18-4:7

 

¹² Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, ¹³ not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside…

 ¹⁸ And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

4:1 Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.   ² We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God's word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.

³ And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.  ⁴ In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 

⁵ For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake.   ⁶ For it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷ But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.

(NRSV)

We have this treasure in clay jars.    The treasure is the light of Christ, the fullness of God which inhabits our humanity now through Jesus Christ.   Imagine that – the fullness of God, shining through you!   Yet that reflection of the glory of God can be hidden by the veil of our sin, by the masks, the personas we wear that are not the true person God created to be good and holy and faithful.  

What is so surprising is that the treasure (this light of Christ, this glory of God) is held in these imperfect vessels – our human persons.  We with our broken selves – body, soul, and spirit, are called to carry the treasure of Christ.   Through our weakness, God’s glory can be made visible.  But when we live in an authentic relationship with Christ and one another, God’s glory can beam – can shine brightly to illumine our community and our world.    God has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.   Jesus Christ is trying to shine brightly from your heart, the heart that God is transforming with your participation.   But that shining/that reflection happens best with our co-operation.

It is like the Faith Church Property we are purchasing.    God clearly was ready to give us a gift, but the gift could not be given apart from some very hard work on the part of the Building Vision Team.   The gift could not be given apart from some very generous giving on the part of the congregation.   Thank you.  Christ’s Peace will grow in Faith.  We are counting on every single person participating, as a symbol of our complete commitment as a church body to glorify God in the building we purchase.   It doesn’t matter how much you give, but it does matter that you give.   It is a joyful thing to participate in leaving a legacy – to do it together.

And another analogy related to the Faith Church property.   Notice that after a year of total neglect, the building/the vessel is not a shining light for Jesus Christ.   It looks tired and worn and unkempt.  The same thing is true of a Christian life not nurtured in faith.   See how much more energy and time it will take to get a church building that has been neglected for a year to shine with God’s glory.    Same with you.   If you neglect your faith, your life will not shine.  

Growing in Faith full of Peace will take some time and energy and discipline.   I hope you are gearing up for that.

God is responsible for the growth but we participate in our own and one another’s growth in faith.   The word is sanctification (becoming holy and true and faithful.)   You take an active part in unveiling yourself for the light of Christ to shine brightly.   You take off the mask of sin, of fear, of pride, of self-hatred.   Imagine that.   Real Christians are real.  They admit their struggles, and turn to God and one another for support.   They do not dwell obsessively on their own problems, to the neglect of others, but they do not cover up.    We have this treasure in clay jars – not fancy porcelain, not silver or gold.   Ordinary clay jars – so it will be clear that the power comes from God – not us.

Great example of someone growing in faith, being transformed by God right here among us is Glenn Kiplinger.   Glenn gave me permission to share his story.   Glenn has been dreading the second anniversary of Martha’s death, February 13, but he had a revelation from God about a week ago that he is holding with confidence.  The Spirit of God reminded Glenn of the tremendous blessing of his long, happy marriage to Martha, of all the good times they had together and of the blessing she was to him.    Glenn’s profound gratitude has overcome his profound grief.   Glenn was listening when God spoke to him.  

Some people ask if there is life after death, but wiser people also ask if there is life before death.   There is no life before death unless we are living in the glory of God, giving off a refection of that glory.  "The Glory of God is a human being who is fully alive." - Saint Irenaeus    Glenn has chosen life!

We are called to something greater than ourselves.    As St Benedict put it, way back in the 6^th century, “In God’s goodness, we are already counted as God’s own, and therefore, we should never grieve the Holy One…”  For disregarding the glory of God that has been given to us, for refusing to use the resources that God has given us to bring to reality the reign of God here and now, we lose what is ours.   The price is high.   We miss out on the life that we are meant to have.  

In failing to respond to God everywhere God is around us, we may lose the power of God that is in us.  Imagine that!   What a waste.   Benedict challenges us to listen today, to start now, to begin immediately to direct our lives to following God’s way, shining Christ’s light.   The spiritual life is not something gained by just wishing for it or even praying occasionally for it.  The spiritual life is a life of discipline.   It is something to be learned and internalized in the day-to-day life of Christian community.   It is a way of life, an attitude of mind, and an orientation of soul, a way of seeing.   It’s like the man in the hospital with his bed by the window, describing for his very sick roommate all the beautiful things God had placed outside their window.   He keeps his roommate alive by describing in great detail all wonders of God’s creation.  When the man by the window suddenly dies, the roommate asks to be put by the window, only to realize the window looked out just to a blank wall – the other tower of the hospital.   He had been blessed by a roommate with a faithful imagination and a joyful spirit.   People who see the glory of God are able to transform lives, no matter their circumstances.

It is the practice of all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, and being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.   And since it is by God’s mercy that we are involved in this ministry (not passive but involved), we do not lose heart.

Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross, author of Death and Dying said, people are like stained-glass windows.  They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.  

The light within is the glory of God, I tell you.   Imagine that.  Imagine glory, seek to uncover, unveil that glory of God until the whole world is illumined by it.

Our Rock of Refuge

                                                         
Psalm 71                                                                             

Elizabeth M. Deibert                                                      

3 February 2013

What I love about the Psalms is the way life is always seen in relationship to God.   If life is a struggle, if trials, hardships and adversaries are all around, the psalmist pleads with God about it, lamenting to God, expecting God to do something about it.   If life is good, the psalmist is full of praise for God.   And many of the psalms combine the joys and the pains of life, which is the way it for us most of the time.    There is struggle and there is triumph.    Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann classifies all the psalms as being prayers of orientation – all is right with the world, disorientation – when in crisis mode, and re-orientation – the adjustment to trusting in God again after trouble.   While the psalms do not neatly fall into categories always, this psalm is generally thought to be one of disorientation.   But notice that even when struggling, the psalmist keeps remembering that God is a rock of refuge, a mighty fortress, the one in whom we hope, we trust, the One whom we always praise and count on for our deliverance.

Let us pray again, as we did last week, using the song, Sanctuary, to invite God to dwell in us.

Psalm 71:1-24 

In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.

² In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me.

³ Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

⁴ Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.

⁵ For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth.

⁶ Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother's womb.

My praise is continually of you.

⁷ I have been like a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge.

⁸ My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all day long.

⁹ Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent.

¹⁰ For my enemies speak concerning me, and those who watch for my life consult together.

¹¹ They say, "Pursue and seize that person whom God has forsaken,

for there is no one to deliver."

¹² O God, do not be far from me; O my God, make haste to help me!

¹³ Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed;

 let those who seek to hurt me be covered with scorn and disgrace.

¹⁴ But I will hope continually, and will praise you yet more and more.

¹⁵ My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all day long,

though their number is past my knowledge.

¹⁶ I will come praising the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD,

will praise your righteousness, yours alone.

¹⁷ O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.

¹⁸ So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me,

until I proclaim your might to all the generations to come.

Your power¹⁹ and your righteousness, O God, reach the high heavens.

You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?

²⁰ You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again;

from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.

²¹ You will increase my honor, and comfort me once again.

²² I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God;

 I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.

²³ My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have rescued.

²⁴ All day long my tongue will talk of your righteous help,

for those who tried to do me harm have been put to shame, and disgraced.

(NRSV)

I don’t know how people get through life without leaning on God for help.   I thought about this when Richard’s father was dying – how hard it would be if we were not reassured that Irv had faith in Jesus Christ, that we knew beyond a  shadow of doubt, he would rest in God’s peace in the end, and we all would find comfort in the Lord our Shepherd as we walked through the valley of the shadow of death with him.   

I don’t know how people get through the stresses and anxieties of life without turning to God.   I am so thankful for the God who has brought Peace through hardships and doubts these last seven years, the God who has given us much joy and comfort and peace.

There have been times when we have had a few adversarial relationships.   The psalmist calls them enemies, but that language is a little too harsh for these examples:  Some of you will remember a certain security guard at State College of Florida, who would absolutely not unlock the door for us to bring in and set up until the last minute, who wrote up complaints about Peace because (surprise, surprise) sometimes our children would run from the sanctuary door to the snack table.   Thank you, God, for delivering us from the watch of over-zealous security guards.

Some of you know that we have battled SMR, developer of Lakewood Ranch, for years regarding more permanent signage, so people could actually find our church, during the week, as well as on Sundays.    Thank you, God, for the gift of a property that is not controlled by SMR where we can have a sign out front all week long.

Some of you know that we thought the bank would require us to have individual sister churches, in addition to our presbytery, serving as guarantors of our loan.  The trouble was, even among the five wealthiest churches in Sarasota and Manatee Counties, we were finding it difficult to find enough churches willing to stick their neck out for us.   Thank you, God, for providing for us so generously with gifts from Peace members that Sabal Palm Bank doesn’t need other churches guaranteeing the loan.

God has truly been our rock of refuge.    Many of you know the insecurity we felt when, despite a three year lease of this property, the Manatee Association of Realtors felt a need to list the building, making it impossible for us to stay here for the two one-year options, making us nervous we might not stay even to the end of our three year lease.    What a joy it was Friday when the Realtors showed the building to an interested buyer.   This time  Gia and I were all smiles, as we said, “Come on in, and look around.”  And quietly to ourselves, we said, “We don’t care.   Sell the place.  We have other plans.  We don’t need you anymore.”    All day long our tongues were singing God’s praise, because what can they do to us.   Nothing.   Not one thing, because God has so marvelously provided for us.

God has placed in a signed contract in our hands for 25 acres plus a functional building for our worship, education, fellowship, and mission.   So we will come praising the might deeds of the Lord.  We will tell the coming generation about all God has done for us.     

You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?   You who have made [us] see many troubles with endless setting up and breaking down, trying to please our master.   You, God, who have seen us struggle with broken table wheels, alarms accidently set off, walls gashed, doors broken, wax spills on carpet, sound systems left on (oops), and so many fears of the potentially homeless tenant.   Now you are reviving us again.   You are providing the comfort of a home that is ours.    Now you are providing a place where all our energy can be spent serving you, one another, and our community without fear, without restriction.  

God, your power and your righteousness reach the highest heaven, because apart from you we would not exist as a congregation.   Apart from you, we would have never had the strength to endure when some friends from various reasons needed to peel off.   Apart from you, we would have never been so gifted with blessings that we could give generously our time, our talent, our energy, our courage, our faith, and our financial support to keep this church reaching out with the good news of Christ’s love, growing strong in the service of God and neighbor, and sending one another out with the joy of the Holy Spirit.  

What a joy it is to tell all of you, whether you have been with us through several moves, or whether you have recently joined the family of Peace, what a joy it is to tell you that we have a signed contract and on Easter week-end the property should be ours!   We have a verbal agreement on a loan, to be sealed by the board of Sabal Palm Bank on Feb 18.   We have assurance from the Realtors, to be confirmed on Thursday, that we can be out of this building when the time is right, without penalty or fee!

And this is why we, like the Psalmist, can say that God is to be trusted – from the moment God takes us from our mother’s womb, through the challenges and temptations of our youth, and even to the struggles and griefs of grey hairs, God will never let us down.   God is our rock, and we know that very well, because we have been carrying gratitude rocks in our pockets for more than four years to remind us to give thanks to God in all times and all ways. 

Remember that God is your rock,  whatever struggle you may be having with a troubling and chronic disease, a persistent fear or difficult relationship, an exhausting trial which makes you wonder if you’ll have the energy to get through.   Join the psalmist in reminding God (and yourself) that you are trusting, that you are tired and anxious, and that you need some help for the storms of life.  Cling to the rock in your storm.

God is our refuge, our safe place.   In these seven years of moving the tabernacle in and out, God has taught us that Christian sanctuary is what we give one another by the peaceful, nurturing way we relate to one another.   But now God is also gifting us with a home.   We can now celebrate the joy of being faithful stewards/good managers of a physical building, which by our Christian existence in it, becomes a sanctuary, a refuge for all people searching for Peace.  

That’s why I am so glad to call our building a sanctuary of Peace.   Sanctuary doesn’t mean chandeliers and stained glass windows and white or wooden pews.   Sanctuary means a safe place, a refuge for people seeking peace by the worship of God.  And we know that the peace that passes all understanding comes from our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives among us as Holy Spirit, the One who has journeyed with us, and will go before us always.   O for a thousand tongues to sing our great redeemer’s praise, the glories of our God and King, the triumphs of God’s grace.