Faithful Friend and Father

 

10th Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 11:1-13                       

28 July 2013

Elizabeth M. Deibert                   

(The Lord’s Prayer – dramatic form – precedes this sermon)

So often we say it.   We repeat the words and yes, there’s great value in repeating something so many times that you can recite it by heart – in two or three different versions.   Sometimes we are aware of the content our words and really mean what we say, but how often do we really stop to reflect on this magnificent prayer?   Thank you, Jane and Richard, for waking us up to the casual way in which we wear these words.   Martin Luther once said “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”  Jesus was praying, and his disciples wanted to learn how.  

Luke 11:1-13

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him,

"Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."

2 He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.   3 Give us each day our daily bread.  

4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

And do not bring us to the time of trial."

5 And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.'  7 And he answers from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.'  8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

9 "So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.  10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.  11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish?  12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?  13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

(New Revised Standard Version)  

Be persistent in prayer, trusting that God is good.   Begin all prayer by appreciating the wonder of being a child of God.   Glorifying God is our highest goal.   When we pray hallowed be your name, we are asking that we and others recognize God as God really is.   When we pray “your kingdom come” we are asking that God will rule in our hearts through faith, in our relationships through love, and in our institutional affairs through justice.   We are praying for the world to become that which God intends it to be – peaceable.

The third petition of the prayer, your will be done, on earth as in heaven, is missing from Luke’s version.   But I have a story to tell you about the will of God on earth as in heaven, or God’s kingdom coming to earth.   Jenny, Michelle, and I heard a Haitian pastor talk about the exciting church and community development work he is doing there.   A medical missionary from Duke Hospital was there, an OB-Gyn.    He was seeing patients in a makeshift room, which was really a tree with sheets hanging down.   Exasperated one day, he came to Pastor Leon and said, “I cannot do pelvic exams in this outdoor space.   You have to help me out, if you want me to keep coming.”   Pastor Leon gave him his office.   But it was small and very hot in there, so again this OB-Gyn doctor was complaining, “Pastor Leon.  This has to change.   You must do something about this problem.”   And Pastor Leon said, “I think God is telling you that YOU must do something about this problem.”   So the doctor went back to Duke, did some fund-raising, and eventually, a small medical center was built there in Haiti.  If we are praying for God’s will and kingdom we must be open to the ways God want to use us to bring his reign on the earth.  

The fourth petition in the Lord’s Prayer is “Give us this day or each day, our daily bread.”  Christ asks us to pray for what we need each day and no more, so that we will learn to completely rely on God.   Having more than enough tends to make us trust in our savings, in our own ability to provide for ourselves.  It also distances us from the poor, who live day-by-day.    Those who take mission trips to impoverished parts of the world are usually amazed at the spirit of people who live on far less than we have, and how generous and joyful they can be, under such circumstances.

And now for the line of the Lord’s Prayer that has divided the church since the 16th century when English translations became readily available.  Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.   Now the Gospel of Matthew uses the Greek word for “being indebted/owing someone something” in the prayer, but then goes on after the prayer to talk about how we must forgive the trespasses of others if we ourselves want to be forgiven our trespasses.  Luke uses two different words.  He says, “Forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”  You can read more about these words and the 1526 English translation by William Tyndale which set Presbyterians against nearly everyone else in the translation of debts and trespasses.  A couple of years ago Richard put a three-page history – The Lord’s Prayer:  Why the Differences.  Sadly the difference in three words may distract us from the more significant issue.  Our forgiveness by God is related to our forgiving others.   It is tied together with one little word “as” or “for.”  Whether the connecting word is “as” or “for” the implication is, as Matthew makes clear in his trespasses addendum to the prayer, is the same as what Paul also says in Colossians 3:  “Forgive one another, just as God has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”   I find it is a circular thing.   When I am humble enough to acknowledge how far short I fall of God’s glory, how much I need forgiveness, my gratitude for God’s bountiful mercy makes it easier for me to forgive others.   It is the arrogant/insecure spirit in me that clings to hurt because hurt feeds my need to prop myself up.   A person secured by God is humble, with no need for elevation.   Philippians 2:  “Christ, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself.”

And the last petition in Luke’s version of the prayer, “Save us from the time of trial.”  We ask God to protect us from our own worst impulses and temptations, that we might not yield to the temptation to live as people without hope.  

We do have hope because we have a loving parent, who is not male or female, but is our loving, protector, who like a good parent, gives us freedom appropriate for our growth, so we are not puppets.  

But in that freedom is the opportunity to break covenant with God, to damage the earth, to wound one another, and to ignore God’s intentions.   In all ways, we believe God works for good, even through the consequences of our sin or the painful circumstances in which we often find ourselves.   More than any good mother or father, what God wants is for us to grow up and make good choices. 

 

That’s why most of this communication, this prayer is about aligning our will with God’s will.  God desires that we live with integrity – to be faithful and true, generous and forgiving, loving and kind.   What loving parent or friend would not want that?

Just Sit and Listen!

 

9th Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 10:38-42                      

21 July 2013

Elizabeth M. Deibert                

We live in a fast-paced world. People are rushing here and there with phones attached to their bodies.  We have any number of time-saving devices which for some reason keep us busy for hours. We thought computers would simplify our lives, and they do, but they have made us busier at all hours.  We thought Iphones and Ipads would make it easier to keep up with texts, calls, and even email, but they just keep us busier in more places.   We cannot even sit still and do nothing while waiting for an appointment or at a stoplight.   Every spare moment can be filled with some accomplishment or some entertainment.   

Stores used to close at 6:00, preserving quiet time for shoppers and employees.   Then they started keeping late hours, sometimes never closing, and now we can shop online for nearly anything from a car to a bottle of cleaner.   We can do anything almost any time. And so what do we do?   We busy ourselves

constantly.  We never stop. We’re working, we’re playing, we’re entertaining ourselves, we’re occupying ourselves, we doing, doing, doing and going, going, going.   We don’t know how to be still and quiet.

Any of you have finding enough time to manage all your time-saving devices? Any of you have trouble turning off the television or computer or music, so that there’s complete quiet in the house?  Any of you have trouble finding time to sit down and pray?   Too busy with screens to enjoy the great outdoors.  Hard to sit still and read your Bible, even your online one?  

In the U.S., 86 percent of males and 67 percent of females work more than 40 hours per week.   There’s just too much to get done, too many distractions to keep us from listening to Jesus.   Martha lived in a time when preparing a meal took a long time. She did not have the luxury of eating out or ordering take out.   She could not buy de-boned chicken or fish.   She couldn’t pick up a rotisserie chicken at Publix.  If bread were going to be on the table, it had to be kneaded, allowed to rise, and baked. Martha had a lot to accomplish when important company like Jesus Christ came for dinner. She didn’t have running water in her house. She had crude tools and she had a fire over which to cook, not an oven or a microwave.  

Hear the word of the Lord from Luke 10 but before you hear it, I want you to know that this story comes after the parable of the Good Samaritan, which tells us we should be busy doing good works. This is story which provides balance to those of us who would always want to be accomplishing something, helping someone. The Story of Mary and Martha.

Luke 10:38-42

38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village,

where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

39 She had a sister named Mary,

who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying.

40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked,

"Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?

Tell her then to help me."

41 But the Lord answered her,

"Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;

42 there is need of only one thing.

Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

(New Revised Standard Version)  

Don’t just sit there! Do something! Get up and be helpful. You know some of the

most irritating people are the people who will not do anything. Fortunately in this

church, everyone pitches in to help do something, to help out, to share the load, to make their contribution to the life of this church.  Good ole Martha. She was accomplishing something. If we had lots of Marys around we might never get anything done.

The church needs people who can accomplish things:  people who can teach the children, make the coffee, welcome the visitors, visit the sick, send notes to college students, orchestrate activities, help us get into a building, move tables and chairs, clean the bathrooms, count the money, write policies for the church, organize the storage rooms, encourage giving, plan missions, share good news.  

The church needs active do-ers of the word. Good hard working people like Martha are what we need. Male and female Marthas getting the jobs done, making the church proud, making the pastor happy. Jesus might not have even come over that night if Martha had not invited him. And it was Martha was at the door welcoming, offering hospitality. Martha is an active greeter, making sure everyone who comes in feels at home. Where would we be without Martha? She gets things done.

Martha’s problem is her many tasks have distracted her from the primary task of

loving. She has grown resentful of her sister. Can’t you hear her back in the kitchen with the dishes, getting noisier and nosier the more angry she is at having to work alone? She is pulled in so many different directions, she can no longer hold in her frustration. She is so busy doing things for Jesus that she has not stopped to listen to him. So she storms out and embarrasses Mary, makes Jesus uncomfortable, and shames herself. Martha is out of touch with the people in her midst because she is too focused on the tasks at hand.

Martha’s service has become disconnected to the primary aim of loving, of caring.

She is lost in her endless work. And she’s consumed by comparison. It’s not fair.  “I loaded the dishwasher last night!” or “she hasn’t done anything today.” I doubt Jesus would have corrected Martha if she had not come to complain to him about Mary.  

In fact, if Mary had complained to Jesus about Martha being too much of a busybody, never sitting down, then maybe Jesus would have said to Mary, “When have you been helpful to your sister? Are you going to sit there and let her do all the work?” “Go help your sister. Let her come sit with me” he might have said.

It is actually remarkable that Jesus thought it important for a woman to sit and

listen because in the 1 century, women were servants, not conversationalists. Martha was doing, you see, what was expected of women. It was particularly annoying in the 1st century for a woman to sit down to talk as if she were a man. He apparently didn’t think that a woman’s place was in the kitchen. He wanted to be in an authentic relationship with Mary and Martha.

And that is what Jesus wants with you – a genuine relationship. Yes, he appreciates all you do, especially if your busyness is in service to others and in some way furthers the love, peace, and justice Jesus came to bring to earth.  You might be doing very important work, but Christ wants YOU more than your work.  More than any accomplishment or service you can provide, Christ wants you sitting at his feet listening, adoring, worshiping.   As CS Lewis said, God doesn’t want something from us.   God wants US.

That’s why every time a ministry team gets together to do church work, we begin by meditating on a short passage of scripture – listening for the Spirit of Jesus speaking to us first.   With all the time-saving devices we have in this life, we are perhaps more worried and distracted than any generation before us. Some of us have a hard time even setting aside one full hour for worship each week, even though we call ourselves Christian.   How many teens cannot make it through a one hour worship service without texting a friend?  Most of us do not take enough time each day to meditate on the goodness of God, to just sit and listen. We too are worried and distracted by many things.   Our full schedules make us feel important or allow us to avoid serious self-examination.   Our endless options for entertainment numb us to our need to connect with Christ.   I’m not saying you cannot connect with Christ via technology but watch out for the distractions.   

Barry Schwartz has written a book, called “The Paradox of Choice: Why More is

Less.” In it he makes it clear that Americans place high value on having many options but that options have become a problem for us.   We have so many choices, we spend an enormous amount of time choosing and then are less happy with our selection.   Think about grocery shopping. In a typical grocery store, there are 85 varieties of crackers and 285 types of cookies, 230 different cans of soup, 120 pasta sauces and 175 kinds of salad dressing. If you send someone to the store for you, you cannot simply put “Tide” or “Cheerios” or  “Colgate” on the list because there are so many different varieties of Tide, Cheerios, and Colgate. We are distracted with many things. We have a hundred channels on TV to surf before we can decide that none of them are really worth watching. The truth is: we are bombarded with choices all day long and yet we are not satisfied with life.

We are miserable like Martha because we have not chosen the “better part” as

Jesus puts it. The better part is the part which as he says “can never be taken away.”

We need to learn to sit.   Deep thinker Winnie the Pooh once said, “Sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits.” We need to stop all our running from one thing to the next, flipping from one channel to the next, from one activity to another until we collapse in our beds.   We need Sabbath time – time to stop and let God be God. We need to sit, talk a walk, talk to one another. We need to pray and worship. We need some quiet space in our lives. Our highest goal, our chief purpose in life is to glorify and enjoy God forever – not to impress God or anyone else with how much we can accomplish.   Sabbath is stopping.   Stopping all our regular routines to inhabit a different realm, a spiritual pace of resting, trusting, listening, and wasting time with God.   It is looking for and valuing the goodness of God in everything, not just numbing ourselves with entertainment, as Tilden Edwards explains in his book Sabbath Time.

Our ability to accomplish things will inevitably diminish if we live long enough.

We will be forced by physical limitation to stop our feverish busyness. The better part is the relational part – the listening to Jesus, praying and worshiping – that can never be taken away from us.

How much different it might have been for Trayvon Martin and for George Zimmerman, if they had been quiet, reflective, and aware of the peace of Christ and the dignity of human life?   Instead of being fearful, reactive, and angry, they might have taken time to listen to one another, instead of pre-judging.   

Don’t just do something. Sit there. Sit there long enough to love God and love one another deeply, quietly, reverently, peacefully.   Be like Mary today. Stop and listen.

Growing in God’s Graces

 

8th Sunday after Pentecost

Colossians 1:3-14                       

14 July 2013

Elizabeth M. Deibert                   

Guide us, O God, by your Word, and Holy Spirit, that in your light we may see light, in your truth find freedom, and in your will discover peace; through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Many of you met Catherine’s new puppy last Sunday.   Marty is 12 weeks old, the equivalent to a 20 month old child, if you use the 1-7 year dog to human ratio.   It is fun to watch him grow and learn.   His desire to bite us is so intense in this teething period, much as he is reminded regularly that biting is not pleasing to his alpha or any other humans, for that matter.   While he struggles to live appropriately in that area, he is doing great with housebreaking.   If given the right and frequent opportunities, he will nearly always succeed in doing his business outside.   

The point I am making is about the God-given potential this puppy has to grow in God’s graces.   You all know that a dog, not trained, can be a real pain in the patooty.   But with proper guidance, a dog can be a wonderful, loyal, loving companion.   Same is true to an infinitely greater degree with us humans – even us old dogs, who can still learn new tricks.   We have great potential to grow in God’s graces, but it doesn’t just happen without some work.   Left to chance, we poop in someone’s house, figuratively speaking and we will bark at people for no good reason, and we sometimes even bite with our words.   

Today’s scripture, the opening of the letter to the Colossians, written in the name of Paul by some close follower of Paul to honor his wisdom, is an affirmation of the human potential to grow, to lead lives worthy of the God who made and calls us.    Colossians chapter one, verses 3 to 14.   Listen for the Spirit speaking to you:

Colossians 1:3-14

In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God.  7 This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit. 9 For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will

in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

(New Revised Standard Version)

For what is the writer thankful?   That the Colossians are living the great commandment:   they are putting faith in Jesus Christ and loving the saints.   When the New Testament refers to the saints, it is not speaking about a select few of super-heroes in the faith, but the whole collection of those who love God.   Love God.   Love People.   It all comes down to that.   And Jesus in our Gospel lesson, the parable of the Good Samaritan, tells us what it looks like to love the neighbor.   The lawyer wants Jesus to specify which particular neighbors we must love, but Jesus uses the story to say who is a good neighbor – the one who shows mercy.

Verse four tells us our hope is in the Gospel, which is bearing fruit in the world and in us, when we truly comprehend the grace of God.    You know I always like to use the Beginner’s Catechism to define grace.   

Anybody remember that definition?   What makes you a child of God?   Grace – God’s free gift of love that I do not deserve and cannot earn.

Do you truly comprehend that grace?   That grace, outside which, we cannot stand.   How many of you have seen Les Miserables?   It was an injustice that Jean Valjean had spent 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread to feed a family member.   After his release, he couldn’t find a place to stay until a bishop graciously offered him lodging. But then Valjean, with a heart full of bitterness and desperation, stole some silver from the bishop and fled. Captured the next day, he was brought back to the bishop.  In this great moment of grace, the bishop said to the police that he had given Valjean the silver, and then he also gave Valjean two silver candlesticks to convince the police of his innocence. Overwhelmed with the extravagance of this turn of grace, Valjean’s priorities changed. He surrendered his life to God and worked to help others, extending the same grace to them.

Perhaps you’ve never felt so desperate as Valjean did in that moment, with his life and freedom hanging in the balance, but have you ever realized just how much God has lavished you with grace you did not deserve?   Have you realized just how far short we all fall of God’s glory and how much we need God’s grace?   It is so much easier to spot other people’s sins.   Richard’s most often quoted line from a sermon when we co-pastored in Alabama:  God loves the pediphile as much as the pediatrician.   God abhors what the pediphile does, but God wants salvation for that one hurts children as much as for the one that heals children.   To recognize that I am loved no more and no less than the pediphile and the pediatrician helps me to know grace.  We are all in a humble position of need before God.

Now Paul and Epaphras are so inspired by the Colossians faith, hope, and love, that they have not ceased praying for them – that they would be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that  they would lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work.   

You know that you are prayed for by name by the congregational care team members – each person taking a day each week.   Con Care team, I challenge you to make your prayer like Paul and Epaphras’ prayer.   Sometimes we pray for people to be comforted, for their lives to be easier, but really, what most of us need is to grow in God’s graces – to be filled with spiritual wisdom so that no matter what happens to us, bad or good, that we might lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him.   

Read this verse with me slowly, this prayer of blessing:   11 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father.  That’s not asking for an easy life, but for a good life, a rich life, a meaningful life of growth.   You have heard that for a tree to develop any strength as it grows, it needs some storms – without some fierce winds, a tree will never be strong enough to endure anything.

Think about how a little child learns patience.   It is certainly not by getting everything asked for at the moment of asking.    Oh, how I remember trying to talk on the phone with four young children in the house, and how many times I had to say, “Wait, please.   Do not try to talk to me, or ask me for things while I am on the phone.”   Of course, I am sure I probably tied some shoes and poured some drink while talking, but many other things had to wait.   The child by waiting learns to be patient, by not having everything, learns to be grateful for the things she or he has.

This lesson of learning to endure all things with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to God is a lifelong lesson.   Nearly all of us learn to be patient.   We do not scream or cry when we are thirsty and must wait for drink.   We learn to be patient while waiting for someone to finish what they are doing so we can have a turn or so we can leave to go somewhere.   But then, some of us need to work at patience.   My mother told me last month that she is still working to teach patience to my brother who shares her home.  (He is turning sixty this year.   She has not given up.)  

If he is driving her somewhere and she is not ready to leave at the exact time she said she wanted to go, he turns into an ornery child.   It is easy for me to laugh at my brother, but the real question is this:  In what ways am I a toddler with God, my loving parent, unwilling to wait, unable to endure discomfort?

We are so much more sophisticated than Catherine’s puppy, Marty.   Our hearts, minds, and souls can be so filled with gratitude for grace, so immersed with spiritual wisdom, that we actually bear fruit.   By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can actually become like Christ, the One who saves us from our selfishness by forgiving us and empowering us to live meaningful lives.    Is your life fruitful and pleasing to God?   

Let’s take a few moments to prayerfully consider the following questions:

Do you know God loves you without condition and are you overflowing with gratitude for that gift?  Or Are you worried that you might fall from God’s grace, thinking that IF you are  good enough, God will accept you?

Do you have faith enough to trust God in uncertain times and hope enough to trust that all will be well no matter how it appears?  Or Are you always anxious and afraid to take risks, or frustrated about all things that are out of your control?

Do you put God and others first? Or  Are you so busy taking care of yourself that you help others only when it serves your own need?

Do your endure hardship with patience and humility, seeking to grow in spiritual wisdom and courage?   Or  Do you resent hard times and complain to God constantly when life is not going your way?

Our God of Grace and God of Glory has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.   So let our lives be armored with all Christ-like graces that we and others may be set free to love and serve you gladly.