Tuesday, January 1, 2008
43 New Lives For Old
"New Lives For Old"
"When it was the right time, John the Baptizer began telling
people a message from God" - so says our Scripture lesson today.
John the Baptist (as we call him) is obviously known for baptizing people.
Actually, he should be remembered for his message - he should be "John
the Preacher" not "John the Baptizer" because it was his direct,
confrontational preaching that made people remember him. It was his
preaching mouth that got him in trouble, not his baptizing hands. His
message? Repent! He told Herod, the ruler of Galilee to repent for
taking his brother's wife, Herodias, as his own. Herodius plotted with her
dancing daughter to have John's head - literally - killed as if he were an
annoying gnat flying about in the royal box.
But Jesus said, "The truth is that John the Baptizer" is greater
than anyone who has ever come into this world."...(John 11:11)
"Before John came, the law of Moses and all the prophets told
about the things that would happen. And if you believe what they
said, then John is Elijah. He is the one they said would come. You
people who hear me, listen!" (John 11:14)
It was the right time for his message of repentance. Before we
can get new lives, we have to dump a lot of junk out of the old life. That's
a two step process - being sorry for what you have done and asking God
to forgive you for all of it.
There's a time of repentance built into every communion service,
where when we confess our sin, "God is faithful and just to forgive us
of our sin and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness."
No wonder John's message was also a welcome one - many people
wanted to hear it, and to hear it that had to expend a good deal of effort.
John planted himself in the middle of nowhere. He set up shop in the
wilderness and anyone who wanted to hear what he had to say had to go
to a lot of trouble to get there - borrowing the neighbor's donkey perhaps
or setting off on foot with enough water for the journey, and going down
lonely trails infested with bandits.
To hear John preach you had to trek way off into the blazing hot
desert, traverse relentless hills of thick sand and make you way down to
the Jordan River, far away from any city.
He was particularly hard on people in organized religion, the
Pharisees and Sadducees. They didn't go there to hear him except to
hear enough so they could find a way to do him in - after all, if he became
too popular their temples would be empty of people - worse yet their
offering plates would be empty.
"You bunch of snakes!" John said, "slithering down here to
the river. Do you think that a little water on your snake skins is
going to make any difference. It's your life that got to change, not
your skin! If your life is changed, people will be able to tell. You'll
bear fruit. And don't think you can pull rank because you are a
descendant of Abraham. Descendants of Abraham are a dime a
dozen. God can take these rocks and make them into descendants
of Abraham. What matters is your life. Is your life green? Is it
bearing fruit? Because if it is dead wood then it goes into the fire.
Repent! The Kingdom of Heaven is near!"
My advise to you is, "Live your life understanding that only
what's done for Christ will last."
What are these things? Acts of kindness, Works of charity, Visiting
the sick, comforting they who mourn, being more concerned about the
welfare of your wife or husband or significant other than your own.
Carrying about with you a spirit of good will and acceptance. Not being
judgemental, Not complaining.
At our last minister's meeting, one of the ministers came with a
band on his wrist. Each time you complain about something, you have to
move the band to the other wrist. The goal is to see how long you can go
without having to do that. How about YOU? Could you last only an
hour - a day - a week? The program's goal is to go 21 days. Are all of
your branches green - or just a few of them. (A Complaint Free World
by Will Bowen.)
I have a senna polifida tree that isn't doing well at all. I have five
of them in a row. They have exuberant, plentiful yellow blossoms. A few
weeks ago, they all began to bloom - well not all - the one at the end
looked sick - and I thought it was dying. I checked it for any pests that
might be destroying it, but nothing was to be seen. I hate to tell you this,
but I am one of those persons who believe that one species can talk to
another - should talk to each other. I spoke to the tree. I moved its
branches. I showered it with a little more water than the others. Now, it
is in bloom! - not riotously like the others, but a nice grouping of blossoms
on the branches that were not dead after all. Those that are - the
deadwood, I assume I will have to trim off.
This is then the place in the sermon where you need to decide
what deadwood you need to get rid of - repent of. Anything that keeps
you from your goal of Christlikeness has to go. Repent! "He will burn
the useless part with a fire that cannot be stopped."
God is speaking to us today - moving OUR branches, nourishing
us with His love - the God who can make our branches bloom with good
works. "He will separate the good grain from the straw, and he ill
put the good part into his barn."
All you have to do is make a conscious decision to give priority to
those things that will grow your spirit.
The Network of Spiritual Progressive is committed to fostering a
new consciousness so that we allow ourselves to know that the most
significant and rewarding part of our lives comes through:
*Acts of love and generosity
*Kindness to humans and animals
*Caring for and giving to other without expectation of reward or
a "return on the investment of our time and energy.
*Work that is fulfilling both in its process and in the sense it gives
us that we are contribution to the public good.
*Awe at the grandeur of creation
*The experience of being recognized on the deepest level of our
being and recognizing others in that way.
*Acknowledging our connection to something larger than ourselves
and seeing our lives in the context of service to the ultimate triumph of
love, goodness, justice and peace.
That's fine for us, but how are we doing as a nation, as a world?
Is it time for a call to repentance there? Is the world getting better or
worse? I always say that progress is backwards. Waiting the other day
for replies to several e-mails and needing one in particular, I had an
amazingly brilliant thought - Why not use the telephone?! That way I
would get an immediate answer, and it wouldn't be just words on a page
but hearing the vibrant, wonderful voice of the friend I was calling, and I
would be able to get a feeling of how he was doing - not just by the
words, but by the tone of voice.
And the internet - much as I love Google - I was appalled by the
cruel trick played by one teenager on another - the one, a girl, pretending
to be a handsome young man, communicating with her neighbor a few
doors down, getting her very attached to "him" then having him dump her
saying all kinds of cruel things to her. Only after she had hung herself, did
her parents learn that there was no such young man, only a girl down the
street playing tricks on an unsuspecting, sensitive soul. What is happening
in our world. Young people are getting more and more cruel to each other
and to the adults around them. The suicide incident was part of
a program depicting the growing cruelty and irresponsibility being manifested
in our young people including a college student who, driving drunk, killed
one girl and made an invalid of another. She fled back to her native Peru
where she continued to drink and drive and even wrote a song bragging
about her driving experiences. Where is John the Baptist when he's needed?
Who will call us to repentance - we all have things of which we need to
repent. Jesus will.
Jesus calls us to repentance, not to make us feel bad about
ourselves, but to free us from the darkness and deadness that drags us
down. Then he setts us on a pathway of service and fulfillment - heads us
for home - the eternal home He has prepared for us from the foundation
of the world.
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after;
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to
behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. For in
the time of trouble he shall hid me in his pavilion: in the secret of
his tabernacle shell he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round
about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy;
I will sing, yea I will sing praises unto the Lord.
Change your hearts! And show by the way you live that you have
changed. A good indicator of that is your checkbook which will show
among other things how much you give to yourself and how much to God.
I hope everybody got the pledge letter from our church Treasurer,
Edwin Scharlau - how anybody could resist it I just can't figure. Since
there are more of you here who haven't pledged than have, I assume
many of you didn't get it. He referred to all the special moments the
church provides you - your wedding, your child's baptism, a
granddaughters 1st birthday, delicious food, the incomparable karaokie
singing by church members, dancing the "chicken dance at the Octoberfest,
- sitting in your pew with some of the same people around you week after
week, being greeted at the church door as you walk in, the sermons for
children, the sermons for serious Christians. He says, "I'm sure you
have your own moments you look forward to on Sunday mornings a
the Miami Beach Community Church - from the spiritual to the
simple. " Then he suggests that we all bear the fruit of good stewardship,
that the Church can go forward in strength and its message heard. Bear
fruit. "Change your hearts and show by the way your live that you
have changed!" (Mt. 3:8)
Today's message is "Repent!". May we pray. Each of us Lord,
have things for which we repent, things we have done, things we have
failed to do, things for which others cannot forgive us, things for which we
cannot forgive ourselves. Even the remembrance of them grieves us
severely. In these moments, as we repent earnestly of our sins, "Forgive
us all that is past and grant that we may evermore serve thee in
newness of life to the honor and glory of Thy Holy name. Amen.
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)December 9, 2007 10:30 a, m. Matthew 3:1-122nd Sunday in Advent
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
"When it was the right time, John the Baptizer began telling
people a message from God" - so says our Scripture lesson today.
John the Baptist (as we call him) is obviously known for baptizing people.
Actually, he should be remembered for his message - he should be "John
the Preacher" not "John the Baptizer" because it was his direct,
confrontational preaching that made people remember him. It was his
preaching mouth that got him in trouble, not his baptizing hands. His
message? Repent! He told Herod, the ruler of Galilee to repent for
taking his brother's wife, Herodias, as his own. Herodius plotted with her
dancing daughter to have John's head - literally - killed as if he were an
annoying gnat flying about in the royal box.
But Jesus said, "The truth is that John the Baptizer" is greater
than anyone who has ever come into this world."...(John 11:11)
"Before John came, the law of Moses and all the prophets told
about the things that would happen. And if you believe what they
said, then John is Elijah. He is the one they said would come. You
people who hear me, listen!" (John 11:14)
It was the right time for his message of repentance. Before we
can get new lives, we have to dump a lot of junk out of the old life. That's
a two step process - being sorry for what you have done and asking God
to forgive you for all of it.
There's a time of repentance built into every communion service,
where when we confess our sin, "God is faithful and just to forgive us
of our sin and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness."
No wonder John's message was also a welcome one - many people
wanted to hear it, and to hear it that had to expend a good deal of effort.
John planted himself in the middle of nowhere. He set up shop in the
wilderness and anyone who wanted to hear what he had to say had to go
to a lot of trouble to get there - borrowing the neighbor's donkey perhaps
or setting off on foot with enough water for the journey, and going down
lonely trails infested with bandits.
To hear John preach you had to trek way off into the blazing hot
desert, traverse relentless hills of thick sand and make you way down to
the Jordan River, far away from any city.
He was particularly hard on people in organized religion, the
Pharisees and Sadducees. They didn't go there to hear him except to
hear enough so they could find a way to do him in - after all, if he became
too popular their temples would be empty of people - worse yet their
offering plates would be empty.
"You bunch of snakes!" John said, "slithering down here to
the river. Do you think that a little water on your snake skins is
going to make any difference. It's your life that got to change, not
your skin! If your life is changed, people will be able to tell. You'll
bear fruit. And don't think you can pull rank because you are a
descendant of Abraham. Descendants of Abraham are a dime a
dozen. God can take these rocks and make them into descendants
of Abraham. What matters is your life. Is your life green? Is it
bearing fruit? Because if it is dead wood then it goes into the fire.
Repent! The Kingdom of Heaven is near!"
My advise to you is, "Live your life understanding that only
what's done for Christ will last."
What are these things? Acts of kindness, Works of charity, Visiting
the sick, comforting they who mourn, being more concerned about the
welfare of your wife or husband or significant other than your own.
Carrying about with you a spirit of good will and acceptance. Not being
judgemental, Not complaining.
At our last minister's meeting, one of the ministers came with a
band on his wrist. Each time you complain about something, you have to
move the band to the other wrist. The goal is to see how long you can go
without having to do that. How about YOU? Could you last only an
hour - a day - a week? The program's goal is to go 21 days. Are all of
your branches green - or just a few of them. (A Complaint Free World
by Will Bowen.)
I have a senna polifida tree that isn't doing well at all. I have five
of them in a row. They have exuberant, plentiful yellow blossoms. A few
weeks ago, they all began to bloom - well not all - the one at the end
looked sick - and I thought it was dying. I checked it for any pests that
might be destroying it, but nothing was to be seen. I hate to tell you this,
but I am one of those persons who believe that one species can talk to
another - should talk to each other. I spoke to the tree. I moved its
branches. I showered it with a little more water than the others. Now, it
is in bloom! - not riotously like the others, but a nice grouping of blossoms
on the branches that were not dead after all. Those that are - the
deadwood, I assume I will have to trim off.
This is then the place in the sermon where you need to decide
what deadwood you need to get rid of - repent of. Anything that keeps
you from your goal of Christlikeness has to go. Repent! "He will burn
the useless part with a fire that cannot be stopped."
God is speaking to us today - moving OUR branches, nourishing
us with His love - the God who can make our branches bloom with good
works. "He will separate the good grain from the straw, and he ill
put the good part into his barn."
All you have to do is make a conscious decision to give priority to
those things that will grow your spirit.
The Network of Spiritual Progressive is committed to fostering a
new consciousness so that we allow ourselves to know that the most
significant and rewarding part of our lives comes through:
*Acts of love and generosity
*Kindness to humans and animals
*Caring for and giving to other without expectation of reward or
a "return on the investment of our time and energy.
*Work that is fulfilling both in its process and in the sense it gives
us that we are contribution to the public good.
*Awe at the grandeur of creation
*The experience of being recognized on the deepest level of our
being and recognizing others in that way.
*Acknowledging our connection to something larger than ourselves
and seeing our lives in the context of service to the ultimate triumph of
love, goodness, justice and peace.
That's fine for us, but how are we doing as a nation, as a world?
Is it time for a call to repentance there? Is the world getting better or
worse? I always say that progress is backwards. Waiting the other day
for replies to several e-mails and needing one in particular, I had an
amazingly brilliant thought - Why not use the telephone?! That way I
would get an immediate answer, and it wouldn't be just words on a page
but hearing the vibrant, wonderful voice of the friend I was calling, and I
would be able to get a feeling of how he was doing - not just by the
words, but by the tone of voice.
And the internet - much as I love Google - I was appalled by the
cruel trick played by one teenager on another - the one, a girl, pretending
to be a handsome young man, communicating with her neighbor a few
doors down, getting her very attached to "him" then having him dump her
saying all kinds of cruel things to her. Only after she had hung herself, did
her parents learn that there was no such young man, only a girl down the
street playing tricks on an unsuspecting, sensitive soul. What is happening
in our world. Young people are getting more and more cruel to each other
and to the adults around them. The suicide incident was part of
a program depicting the growing cruelty and irresponsibility being manifested
in our young people including a college student who, driving drunk, killed
one girl and made an invalid of another. She fled back to her native Peru
where she continued to drink and drive and even wrote a song bragging
about her driving experiences. Where is John the Baptist when he's needed?
Who will call us to repentance - we all have things of which we need to
repent. Jesus will.
Jesus calls us to repentance, not to make us feel bad about
ourselves, but to free us from the darkness and deadness that drags us
down. Then he setts us on a pathway of service and fulfillment - heads us
for home - the eternal home He has prepared for us from the foundation
of the world.
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after;
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to
behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. For in
the time of trouble he shall hid me in his pavilion: in the secret of
his tabernacle shell he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round
about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy;
I will sing, yea I will sing praises unto the Lord.
Change your hearts! And show by the way you live that you have
changed. A good indicator of that is your checkbook which will show
among other things how much you give to yourself and how much to God.
I hope everybody got the pledge letter from our church Treasurer,
Edwin Scharlau - how anybody could resist it I just can't figure. Since
there are more of you here who haven't pledged than have, I assume
many of you didn't get it. He referred to all the special moments the
church provides you - your wedding, your child's baptism, a
granddaughters 1st birthday, delicious food, the incomparable karaokie
singing by church members, dancing the "chicken dance at the Octoberfest,
- sitting in your pew with some of the same people around you week after
week, being greeted at the church door as you walk in, the sermons for
children, the sermons for serious Christians. He says, "I'm sure you
have your own moments you look forward to on Sunday mornings a
the Miami Beach Community Church - from the spiritual to the
simple. " Then he suggests that we all bear the fruit of good stewardship,
that the Church can go forward in strength and its message heard. Bear
fruit. "Change your hearts and show by the way your live that you
have changed!" (Mt. 3:8)
Today's message is "Repent!". May we pray. Each of us Lord,
have things for which we repent, things we have done, things we have
failed to do, things for which others cannot forgive us, things for which we
cannot forgive ourselves. Even the remembrance of them grieves us
severely. In these moments, as we repent earnestly of our sins, "Forgive
us all that is past and grant that we may evermore serve thee in
newness of life to the honor and glory of Thy Holy name. Amen.
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)December 9, 2007 10:30 a, m. Matthew 3:1-122nd Sunday in Advent
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
42 What's New?
"What's New?!"
Happy New Year! This is the beginning of the church year -
which begins with the season of Advent - filled with the anticipation of the
arrival of Christ into the world. He came and He comes again - whenever
we invite Him. Even the saints like to have an invitation - a welcome.
But Jesus was rejected while still in the womb - the Inn was full
you remember - and his mother delivered him in the stable - among the
friendly animals. Animals know so much more than we give them credit
for - witness the animals who went to higher ground before the gigantic
tsunami. How does my god know to go which day to go the door to wait
for the maid to come - whom she loves dearly because Elsa stays home
and keeps her company all day, whereas I run off to church. How do the
swallows find Capistrano? How do pengins know where to march to?
In this world of ours, there's a miracle around every corner -
something new to be discovered - something different to understand.
Jesus was something new - something different - we've never
quite gotten used to him. That's because He was none other than God
walking among us - God with us - Emanuel! - which is what Emanual
means - God with us! Because we as mankind never got ourselves to
God, there was only one solution - God had to come to us.
We tried to be faithful. We tried our best to follow God's laws as
we understood them, but we failed.
We poured over the sacred books seeking a better understanding
of God, but things there seemed so strange and incomprehensible.
We built a grand temple in the hope of containing God, a house
grand enough for God to reside in, but following the rituals of the temple
was a pale substitute for the living God.
We listened to the prophets and nodded in assent to their demands.
But agreeing with them was one thing: obeying them was another.
So many of our attempts to get close to God, to walk with God,
to obey God only seemed to drive us further from God. What could we
do?
The answer is that we could do nothing. Something had to be
done for us. We could not come to God, so God came to us.
Advent means, that caught in our old ways, following our
accustomed scripts, going through the motions, God came to us. God
reached out to us, despite the futility of our groping toward him, God
embraced us, stood beside us, and became one with us.
It's that closeness that Communion accomplishes for us if we have
the eye to see the miracle in the common place.
Before His physical departure from the Earth, Jesus chose elements
by which we could remember him - two things that were at every meal -
bread and wine. He gave symbolic meaning to each - a symbol of his
Presence.
Shortly after my father died, I found my mother sitting sadly in a
chair, holding my father's shoes. They weren't his dress shoes - but his
work shoes which didn't smell all that great from years of sweaty use - but
still they were the perfect symbol of the dedicated, hardworking husband
and father he was - who was up before light and finishing after dark to
support a family of nine children.
What would symbolize you? What is the essence of who you are
that could be capsulized into a symbol?
And how does that essence relate to the fierce directions given us
in the Scripture today "We should prepare ourselves to fight evil with
the weapons that belong to the light."
The weapons that belong to the light are the principles of Jesus
that are the only things powerful enough make it possible for our world to
survive - for the earth to be preserved and for wars to cease that could
cause the end of civilization. God doesn't have to bring the end of time,
we're doing a very good job of heading for it entirely on our own.
When I was a kid, we were always crying wolf - saying there was
a crisis when there was none. Once such day, my next older brother
shouted out from the old swimmin' hole that he was drowning. His cries
of "Help - Help, I'm drowning" didn't fool any of us. He went under. We
waited eagerly for him to come back up. The only problem - He didn't!
He WAS drowning - whereupon a family member dived in, found him
below the surface, and dragged him to shore - where he coughed up a lot
of water, came to and continued on in the land of the living.
But he had been through quite an experience. Thinking he was
going to meet his Maker, he said that every mean and terrible thing that
he had ever done passed through his mind in an instant. God didn't have
to judge him, he had already judged himself.
God doesn't have to bring an end to things...we're doing a fine job
of that ourselves....thinking we can war our way to piece - totally opposite
to what Jesus said - totally foreign to the way He was in the world.
As we come to the communion table today, our task is simple, to
examine ourselves to see how like the Christ we have become or need to
become - to ask how concerned we are about His Church, His Kingdom,
His reign as King of Kings - how involved are we in the things of the
Spirit.
It is likely that instead, we have fallen prey to what our culture
calls us to become. A recent church of England report puts it this way:
"Where previous generations found their identity in what they
produced, we now find our identity in what we consume. "
Never at any funeral have I said, He consumed four luxury cars,
to luxury homes and half of the Forge's wine list. Spiritually, those things
won't get us anywhere - they certainly don't stop wars or produce peace.
Jesus gives us the bread and wine to remember him by, but for the
purpose of remembering that we are his hands and feet in the world to
accomplish His tasks. He walks beside us hoping to see us doing things
that will make a difference.
The Church just sent a thousand dollars from our Benevolence
Budget to help keep the Interfaith Worker Justice organization going -
giving them money to help others who earn very little to get a living wage
- pressuring Burger King, Taco Bell and others on behalf of the tomato
pickers who earn very little - or pressuring universities and housing
communities to pay their groundskeepers a living wage. They know in
their hearts to help these people is to make a difference where it counts
most - with whom it counts most.
So what is the symbol by which you will be remembered ? -
perhaps a sweaty shirt from the latest march for worker's wages: or from
serving on the food line at the church's luncheon for the homeless, or a
parking stub from one of the many committee meetings you have attended
to further the work of your church, your service club or arts organization.
"I say this because you know that we live in an important time,
Yes, it is now time for you to wake up from your sleep. Our salvation
is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost
finished." (Romans 13:11.)
Into the darkness, the Christ of Light appears - again this advent.
Showing us how Life is to be done and won. - to give us anothr chance.
He came not to consume but to give - to love - to share. That's why we're
here - to learn to walk in that light, to live in that light.
The animals in the stable intuitively understood that. So must we.
In closing, I'd like to share A Dog's Purpose, from a 4 year old.
Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten year-old
Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa,
and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were
hoping for a miracle.
I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the
family we couldn't do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the
euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.
As we made the arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought
it would be goof for four-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They
felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.
The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker's
family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the
last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on.
Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away. The little
boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion.
We sat together for a while after Belker's death, wondering aloud
about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.
Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, "I know why."
Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned
me. I'd never heard a more comforting explanation.
He said, "People are born so that they can learn how to live
a good life - like loving everybody all the time and being nice right?"
The four year old continued, "Well, dogs already know how to do
that, so they don't have to stay as long."
LIVE SIMPLY. LOVE GENEROUSLY. CARE DEEPLY.
SPEAK KINDLY. LEAVE THE REST TO GOD. MAKE YOUR LIFE
A SYMBOL OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. Now.....
Come, dance in delight because love has come
and the wine of celebration is being poured
Come, lift up your hearts
to receive the abundance that waits for us
for the Christ is present.
and we touch the life of God.
Come to this sacred table, not because you must, but because
you may..... .
Communion Meditation Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon (or meditation) is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)December 2, 2007 10:30 a, m.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
Happy New Year! This is the beginning of the church year -
which begins with the season of Advent - filled with the anticipation of the
arrival of Christ into the world. He came and He comes again - whenever
we invite Him. Even the saints like to have an invitation - a welcome.
But Jesus was rejected while still in the womb - the Inn was full
you remember - and his mother delivered him in the stable - among the
friendly animals. Animals know so much more than we give them credit
for - witness the animals who went to higher ground before the gigantic
tsunami. How does my god know to go which day to go the door to wait
for the maid to come - whom she loves dearly because Elsa stays home
and keeps her company all day, whereas I run off to church. How do the
swallows find Capistrano? How do pengins know where to march to?
In this world of ours, there's a miracle around every corner -
something new to be discovered - something different to understand.
Jesus was something new - something different - we've never
quite gotten used to him. That's because He was none other than God
walking among us - God with us - Emanuel! - which is what Emanual
means - God with us! Because we as mankind never got ourselves to
God, there was only one solution - God had to come to us.
We tried to be faithful. We tried our best to follow God's laws as
we understood them, but we failed.
We poured over the sacred books seeking a better understanding
of God, but things there seemed so strange and incomprehensible.
We built a grand temple in the hope of containing God, a house
grand enough for God to reside in, but following the rituals of the temple
was a pale substitute for the living God.
We listened to the prophets and nodded in assent to their demands.
But agreeing with them was one thing: obeying them was another.
So many of our attempts to get close to God, to walk with God,
to obey God only seemed to drive us further from God. What could we
do?
The answer is that we could do nothing. Something had to be
done for us. We could not come to God, so God came to us.
Advent means, that caught in our old ways, following our
accustomed scripts, going through the motions, God came to us. God
reached out to us, despite the futility of our groping toward him, God
embraced us, stood beside us, and became one with us.
It's that closeness that Communion accomplishes for us if we have
the eye to see the miracle in the common place.
Before His physical departure from the Earth, Jesus chose elements
by which we could remember him - two things that were at every meal -
bread and wine. He gave symbolic meaning to each - a symbol of his
Presence.
Shortly after my father died, I found my mother sitting sadly in a
chair, holding my father's shoes. They weren't his dress shoes - but his
work shoes which didn't smell all that great from years of sweaty use - but
still they were the perfect symbol of the dedicated, hardworking husband
and father he was - who was up before light and finishing after dark to
support a family of nine children.
What would symbolize you? What is the essence of who you are
that could be capsulized into a symbol?
And how does that essence relate to the fierce directions given us
in the Scripture today "We should prepare ourselves to fight evil with
the weapons that belong to the light."
The weapons that belong to the light are the principles of Jesus
that are the only things powerful enough make it possible for our world to
survive - for the earth to be preserved and for wars to cease that could
cause the end of civilization. God doesn't have to bring the end of time,
we're doing a very good job of heading for it entirely on our own.
When I was a kid, we were always crying wolf - saying there was
a crisis when there was none. Once such day, my next older brother
shouted out from the old swimmin' hole that he was drowning. His cries
of "Help - Help, I'm drowning" didn't fool any of us. He went under. We
waited eagerly for him to come back up. The only problem - He didn't!
He WAS drowning - whereupon a family member dived in, found him
below the surface, and dragged him to shore - where he coughed up a lot
of water, came to and continued on in the land of the living.
But he had been through quite an experience. Thinking he was
going to meet his Maker, he said that every mean and terrible thing that
he had ever done passed through his mind in an instant. God didn't have
to judge him, he had already judged himself.
God doesn't have to bring an end to things...we're doing a fine job
of that ourselves....thinking we can war our way to piece - totally opposite
to what Jesus said - totally foreign to the way He was in the world.
As we come to the communion table today, our task is simple, to
examine ourselves to see how like the Christ we have become or need to
become - to ask how concerned we are about His Church, His Kingdom,
His reign as King of Kings - how involved are we in the things of the
Spirit.
It is likely that instead, we have fallen prey to what our culture
calls us to become. A recent church of England report puts it this way:
"Where previous generations found their identity in what they
produced, we now find our identity in what we consume. "
Never at any funeral have I said, He consumed four luxury cars,
to luxury homes and half of the Forge's wine list. Spiritually, those things
won't get us anywhere - they certainly don't stop wars or produce peace.
Jesus gives us the bread and wine to remember him by, but for the
purpose of remembering that we are his hands and feet in the world to
accomplish His tasks. He walks beside us hoping to see us doing things
that will make a difference.
The Church just sent a thousand dollars from our Benevolence
Budget to help keep the Interfaith Worker Justice organization going -
giving them money to help others who earn very little to get a living wage
- pressuring Burger King, Taco Bell and others on behalf of the tomato
pickers who earn very little - or pressuring universities and housing
communities to pay their groundskeepers a living wage. They know in
their hearts to help these people is to make a difference where it counts
most - with whom it counts most.
So what is the symbol by which you will be remembered ? -
perhaps a sweaty shirt from the latest march for worker's wages: or from
serving on the food line at the church's luncheon for the homeless, or a
parking stub from one of the many committee meetings you have attended
to further the work of your church, your service club or arts organization.
"I say this because you know that we live in an important time,
Yes, it is now time for you to wake up from your sleep. Our salvation
is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost
finished." (Romans 13:11.)
Into the darkness, the Christ of Light appears - again this advent.
Showing us how Life is to be done and won. - to give us anothr chance.
He came not to consume but to give - to love - to share. That's why we're
here - to learn to walk in that light, to live in that light.
The animals in the stable intuitively understood that. So must we.
In closing, I'd like to share A Dog's Purpose, from a 4 year old.
Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten year-old
Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa,
and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were
hoping for a miracle.
I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the
family we couldn't do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the
euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.
As we made the arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought
it would be goof for four-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They
felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.
The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker's
family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the
last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on.
Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away. The little
boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion.
We sat together for a while after Belker's death, wondering aloud
about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.
Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, "I know why."
Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned
me. I'd never heard a more comforting explanation.
He said, "People are born so that they can learn how to live
a good life - like loving everybody all the time and being nice right?"
The four year old continued, "Well, dogs already know how to do
that, so they don't have to stay as long."
LIVE SIMPLY. LOVE GENEROUSLY. CARE DEEPLY.
SPEAK KINDLY. LEAVE THE REST TO GOD. MAKE YOUR LIFE
A SYMBOL OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. Now.....
Come, dance in delight because love has come
and the wine of celebration is being poured
Come, lift up your hearts
to receive the abundance that waits for us
for the Christ is present.
and we touch the life of God.
Come to this sacred table, not because you must, but because
you may..... .
Communion Meditation Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon (or meditation) is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)December 2, 2007 10:30 a, m.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
41 Musical Selection: I Will Sing New Songs
Musical Selection - Jonathan Burton performs "I Will Sing New Songs" by Dvorak
40 King Me
"KING ME!"
When I came to this community 33 years ago, Miami Beach was
on a downward spiral - which had a very negative effect on the church.
The congregation dwindled, the funds lessened. I realized that I would
have to be the glue to hold things together until the City itself turned around.
That came to my mind when I read this commentary on our
Scripture lesson from the first chapter of Colossians: "The historical
Jesus is here being proclaimed as that grand beginning point of a
whole new creation that will displace the old. In verse 17, the most
sweeping claim for this new king of creation is that "all things hold
together in him" Christ the King is the glue that keeps the cosmos
together."
I don't know about you, but I think we're hanging on by a thread
-as a result of the direction in which we're going ecologically and politically
- we could drown ourselves or blow ourselves up if we don't change.
The Apostle, Paul could pray the same prayer for us he prayed for the
Colossians: "This is what we pray - that you will know fully what
God wants; that with your knowledge you will also have great
wisdom and understanding in spiritual things; that this will help you live
in a way that brings honor to the Lord and pleases him in every
way, that your life will produce good works of every kind and that
you will grow in your knowledge of God, that God will strengthen
you with his own great power, and that you will be patient and not
give up when troubles come."
The basis for "understanding spiritual things" is to
understand who Jesus is.
Not everyone within the sound of my voice will agree with me as
to my understanding of who Jesus is. Despite my liberal stance on social
issues and my belief that God Is Still Speaking, thus setting aside some
things we have heard or read before - even in the Scriptures - I have a
very high Christology.
I personally believe that Jesus was present at the right hand of the
Heavenly Father when all that is was created. "Without him was not
made anything that was made" as John the gospel writer put it. I
believe what the same gospel writer proclaimed that Jesus was the
"expression of God" the "Word" of God - that He was with God and was
God or as our text today Colossians 1:15 puts it, "He is the image of
the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." I believe that when
Jesus was here on Earth, God was here on Earth - that to know what
Jesus is like is to know what God is like - that although He had the power
to wipe out and destroy any of His enemies or those of the Jews, or those
of mankind, - he chose to demonstrate the power of loving sacrifice -
the giving of Life rather than the taking of life.
If we as Christians were doing our job, our nation would be
spending as much on peace as they are on war. At a minimum, we
should be working as aggressively to bring peace as we are to bringwar.
Our Department of Peace should receive as much in finding as our
Department of War.
Our denomination, the United Church of Christ has the right idea
- currently collecting money to provide assistance to the over four million
people who have been displaced by the Iraq War - two million internally
and two million who have fled to Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
On a personal level, you miss a world of peace and tranquility by
not living daily in the context of Who Jesus Is - King of Kings and Lord of
Lords.
Who or what is Lord of your life? Constantine became a
"Christian" and made Christianity the official religion of the State and
Christianity has been going down hill ever since. Christianity was defined,
trimmed, smoothed and changed to fit imperial policy. It allowed
Constantine to continue to rob kill, burn, fight and execute. What is wrong
with that picture. What is wrong with our picture.
To bring "our picture" into focus and to take our first step on our
journey to "real" Christianity, we have to see that Jesus is the King of
Kings.
Knowing that Jesus is "King of Kings" means that YOU are "a
child of the King". As such you have some privileges. Because you're
"family" you are allowed into the Presence of the King of Kings. You live
in the mansion! A place in the Palace is yours!
When Jesus said, "In my Father's House are many
mansions", he wasn't talking about something that is going to be, but
already is. Once we set our foot on the discipleship trail, we are "in
eternal life." And here is precisely where we go wrong, because most
modern disciples give 99 % of their thought into the physical world and
hopefully, at least 1% on the realm of the Spirit in which they now live.
Most of us nod to God in the morning and hurry our devotions in
the evening, more to say we have done them than to get something from
them. I don't advocate giving up set times at the beginning and ending of
your day for giving attention to godly things - but additionally, I advocate
PRACTICING THE PRESENCE.
If we are indeed the King's Kid - and we do live in the palace, in
the Presence of the King - then we should bask in the Nearness of the
divinity.
For some reason we don't expect Divinity in the daily doings of
our lives - but if not there, then where? It's time for "Andy" to make his
appearance. The hymn, In the Garden took some hits because of the
words, And He walked with me, And He talked with me.....which became
paraphrased as "Andy walked with me - Andy talked with me." But
visualizing Jesus walking and talking with you is as good a way to Practice
the Presence as you can find. And Jesus is joined by others.
I'm a big believer in not going anywhere without being "in the
company of the saints." At communion, the liturgy says- "With angels
and archangels and with all the company of heaven we laud and magnify
Thy Glorious Name." Don't leave home without them.!"
Of course, you will be known by the company you keep! I
mentioned to a friend the other night that reincarnationists believe that to
develop our souls we have many sojourns on this earth - until we get it
right I would guess! AND that they believe we often interact with some of
the same people we have known in other incarnations, although the roles
often change - someone who is a good friend in one incarnation may be a
brother to you in the next. The husband may reincarnate as the wife and
the wife the husband - now THERE'S an interesting thought. Turn about
is fair play it would seem, but he thought I shouldn't mention such things as
reincarnation, lest the men in the little white coats come to get me... in
which case I'll be in good company - Jesus said that John the Baptist was
Elijah who had lived centuries before - and as you recall - they dressed
the same - and had the same mission in life - preaching - and lived on the
same foods. Coincidence? In the realm of the Spirit, there are no
coincidences!
In the realm of the Spirit, there are always interesting concepts to
discuss and consider. I DO believe that some people reincarnate. I
remember one of mine - I was a priest - and I remember only walking and
reading as I made my way around a cloister - which is an area within a
monastery or convent, a covered passage, having one side walled and the
other an open arcade often with a series of columns set at regular intervals
- a colonnade. On my vacation I saw a cloister something like the one of
my past.
Yes, I'm suspicious that so many people claim to have been
Cleopatra or Julius Caesar - or are told that they were by unscrupulous
money makers, but it cannot be dismissed out of hand - if it's good enough
for Jesus - it's good enough for me!
Another advantage in living in the Palace - in the realm of the King
of Kings is learning how God interacts with mankind. Beware, this will
cause you to put away any "Errand boy in the Sky" practice you may have
had. You can no longer have the "Gimme God Blues" - that's when God
won't gimmie what I want him to gimme - and I get the Gimmie God
Blues. ( I try not to go there!)
It is so much more fun to see what I can give because that's the
way people in God's Kingdom get turned on - by doing something for
someone else, by being of service - by being in ministry.
As Palace People we are in full time Christian service, although
the devil tries to get us to believe only paid employees of the church are in
full time Christian service - and that's the way the devil would like it - far
be it from us to please the devil - much nicer to give him a hard time by
taking our ministries seriously.
At the Thanksgiving Eve ecumenical service I told a story told by
The Rev. James Howell, pastor of the Myers Park United Methodist
Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was his own story of wondering
if he should even BE in the ministry: The reason I am still in the ministry
is because of the night I decided to leave the ministry. It was my
day off. The phone rang, and it was the chaplain at a nearby hospital.
Usually we would exchange pleasantries, but all she said was,
"Come to the hospital - now!" I trusted the urgency in her voice
and arrived in about ten minutes.
I found her with a young couple I knew and loved from our
church. I sensed shrieks and sobs lingering in the room, which was
eerily silent: the wife and the husband fell onto my shoulders. I
could hardly bear their weight as they gasped for words. Their
child, Caroline, whom I had baptized a couple of weeks earlier had
just been diagnosed with a malignant tumor intertwined with her
spinal cord at the base of the brain."
Another minister who knew the family materialized. His
demeanor startled me: smiling, confident, speaking many words,
assuring the parents with an utterly confident grin that "God will
save your child if you just pray."
I'm ordained, he's ordained, but I felt no kinship with him.
I oscillated between wanting to strangle him and wanting to be more
like him. Why have I never been able to be pious? When did I
become the grim pastor who expects the worst? Sure, his style of
pastoring seemed trite, absurd - and yet, what good was I doing?
About that time, the pediatric oncologist came in - calm,
intelligent, well-trained, impressive. I remember him as being very
tall. He had a plan. As he unfolded his strategy, I remember those
smart grown-ups who had advised me to go to medical school, and
I wish I had, because as a minister, I had nothing - literally nothing
to offer to these people I loved so much. Had I gone to medical
school, I could do something...."
Then her parents asked me for a favor. "We are exhausted.
Caroline won't stop crying. Could you hold her for a little while so
we can step out and take a little break?" And so I took this child
in my arms and rocked her. She cried and I cried, and then having
expended all her energy, she drifted off to sleep. I kept rocking
her until her parents came back, a little bit rested, relieved to see
her more peaceful. We placed her gently in the crib, and then I left
them, took the elevator downstairs and stepped through the door
into the night.
As I felt the chill against my face, I knew I would not quit
the ministry. It was as if my whole life had been a preparation for
this dark evening. All the wrestling with what career to pursue,
counsel from professors, the books, papers, degrees, hurdles of
ordination: I had been in training for this day, so that on this day I
could drive to Durham and give two parents a little bit of rest - and
to rock a very sick child to sleep, just to hold this little one who
seemed to have as little hope as I did.
It was around midnight that I had to answer a question:
Why did I go into the ministry? To do something grand and
impressive? Or because I thought I might love somebody, some
family, some child, in God's name. Holding Caroline, I wondered:
isn't this what Mary did with Jesus when he was sick during the
night? Didn't she embrace him when he was taken down from the
cross? Isn't this what God Almighty had been doing we me all
these years? And on one night, I was able to help. I held a child.
I fulfilled my vocation, the small impotence of it all turning out to
be the beauty."
Your ministry is simply to be doing what God does with you
- to hold the hurting, to encourage the depressed, to support those
weakened by what life can do to the weary. In fact, if you didn't do
it, God couldn't get anything done, for you're the way He gets his
mission accomplished - as we emulate and follow the King of Kings.
When I was a kid, we played checkers, and I recall that if you got
your single checker across to the other side of the Board, you could yell
out KING ME! And another checker would be added to yours, which
deferred princely powers to the unit - you could do things now, you never
good before! That's the way God does things, as our mission makes a
difference - my mission makes a difference. " KING ME!"
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)November 25, 2007 10:30 a, m. Colossians 1:11-20
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
When I came to this community 33 years ago, Miami Beach was
on a downward spiral - which had a very negative effect on the church.
The congregation dwindled, the funds lessened. I realized that I would
have to be the glue to hold things together until the City itself turned around.
That came to my mind when I read this commentary on our
Scripture lesson from the first chapter of Colossians: "The historical
Jesus is here being proclaimed as that grand beginning point of a
whole new creation that will displace the old. In verse 17, the most
sweeping claim for this new king of creation is that "all things hold
together in him" Christ the King is the glue that keeps the cosmos
together."
I don't know about you, but I think we're hanging on by a thread
-as a result of the direction in which we're going ecologically and politically
- we could drown ourselves or blow ourselves up if we don't change.
The Apostle, Paul could pray the same prayer for us he prayed for the
Colossians: "This is what we pray - that you will know fully what
God wants; that with your knowledge you will also have great
wisdom and understanding in spiritual things; that this will help you live
in a way that brings honor to the Lord and pleases him in every
way, that your life will produce good works of every kind and that
you will grow in your knowledge of God, that God will strengthen
you with his own great power, and that you will be patient and not
give up when troubles come."
The basis for "understanding spiritual things" is to
understand who Jesus is.
Not everyone within the sound of my voice will agree with me as
to my understanding of who Jesus is. Despite my liberal stance on social
issues and my belief that God Is Still Speaking, thus setting aside some
things we have heard or read before - even in the Scriptures - I have a
very high Christology.
I personally believe that Jesus was present at the right hand of the
Heavenly Father when all that is was created. "Without him was not
made anything that was made" as John the gospel writer put it. I
believe what the same gospel writer proclaimed that Jesus was the
"expression of God" the "Word" of God - that He was with God and was
God or as our text today Colossians 1:15 puts it, "He is the image of
the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." I believe that when
Jesus was here on Earth, God was here on Earth - that to know what
Jesus is like is to know what God is like - that although He had the power
to wipe out and destroy any of His enemies or those of the Jews, or those
of mankind, - he chose to demonstrate the power of loving sacrifice -
the giving of Life rather than the taking of life.
If we as Christians were doing our job, our nation would be
spending as much on peace as they are on war. At a minimum, we
should be working as aggressively to bring peace as we are to bringwar.
Our Department of Peace should receive as much in finding as our
Department of War.
Our denomination, the United Church of Christ has the right idea
- currently collecting money to provide assistance to the over four million
people who have been displaced by the Iraq War - two million internally
and two million who have fled to Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
On a personal level, you miss a world of peace and tranquility by
not living daily in the context of Who Jesus Is - King of Kings and Lord of
Lords.
Who or what is Lord of your life? Constantine became a
"Christian" and made Christianity the official religion of the State and
Christianity has been going down hill ever since. Christianity was defined,
trimmed, smoothed and changed to fit imperial policy. It allowed
Constantine to continue to rob kill, burn, fight and execute. What is wrong
with that picture. What is wrong with our picture.
To bring "our picture" into focus and to take our first step on our
journey to "real" Christianity, we have to see that Jesus is the King of
Kings.
Knowing that Jesus is "King of Kings" means that YOU are "a
child of the King". As such you have some privileges. Because you're
"family" you are allowed into the Presence of the King of Kings. You live
in the mansion! A place in the Palace is yours!
When Jesus said, "In my Father's House are many
mansions", he wasn't talking about something that is going to be, but
already is. Once we set our foot on the discipleship trail, we are "in
eternal life." And here is precisely where we go wrong, because most
modern disciples give 99 % of their thought into the physical world and
hopefully, at least 1% on the realm of the Spirit in which they now live.
Most of us nod to God in the morning and hurry our devotions in
the evening, more to say we have done them than to get something from
them. I don't advocate giving up set times at the beginning and ending of
your day for giving attention to godly things - but additionally, I advocate
PRACTICING THE PRESENCE.
If we are indeed the King's Kid - and we do live in the palace, in
the Presence of the King - then we should bask in the Nearness of the
divinity.
For some reason we don't expect Divinity in the daily doings of
our lives - but if not there, then where? It's time for "Andy" to make his
appearance. The hymn, In the Garden took some hits because of the
words, And He walked with me, And He talked with me.....which became
paraphrased as "Andy walked with me - Andy talked with me." But
visualizing Jesus walking and talking with you is as good a way to Practice
the Presence as you can find. And Jesus is joined by others.
I'm a big believer in not going anywhere without being "in the
company of the saints." At communion, the liturgy says- "With angels
and archangels and with all the company of heaven we laud and magnify
Thy Glorious Name." Don't leave home without them.!"
Of course, you will be known by the company you keep! I
mentioned to a friend the other night that reincarnationists believe that to
develop our souls we have many sojourns on this earth - until we get it
right I would guess! AND that they believe we often interact with some of
the same people we have known in other incarnations, although the roles
often change - someone who is a good friend in one incarnation may be a
brother to you in the next. The husband may reincarnate as the wife and
the wife the husband - now THERE'S an interesting thought. Turn about
is fair play it would seem, but he thought I shouldn't mention such things as
reincarnation, lest the men in the little white coats come to get me... in
which case I'll be in good company - Jesus said that John the Baptist was
Elijah who had lived centuries before - and as you recall - they dressed
the same - and had the same mission in life - preaching - and lived on the
same foods. Coincidence? In the realm of the Spirit, there are no
coincidences!
In the realm of the Spirit, there are always interesting concepts to
discuss and consider. I DO believe that some people reincarnate. I
remember one of mine - I was a priest - and I remember only walking and
reading as I made my way around a cloister - which is an area within a
monastery or convent, a covered passage, having one side walled and the
other an open arcade often with a series of columns set at regular intervals
- a colonnade. On my vacation I saw a cloister something like the one of
my past.
Yes, I'm suspicious that so many people claim to have been
Cleopatra or Julius Caesar - or are told that they were by unscrupulous
money makers, but it cannot be dismissed out of hand - if it's good enough
for Jesus - it's good enough for me!
Another advantage in living in the Palace - in the realm of the King
of Kings is learning how God interacts with mankind. Beware, this will
cause you to put away any "Errand boy in the Sky" practice you may have
had. You can no longer have the "Gimme God Blues" - that's when God
won't gimmie what I want him to gimme - and I get the Gimmie God
Blues. ( I try not to go there!)
It is so much more fun to see what I can give because that's the
way people in God's Kingdom get turned on - by doing something for
someone else, by being of service - by being in ministry.
As Palace People we are in full time Christian service, although
the devil tries to get us to believe only paid employees of the church are in
full time Christian service - and that's the way the devil would like it - far
be it from us to please the devil - much nicer to give him a hard time by
taking our ministries seriously.
At the Thanksgiving Eve ecumenical service I told a story told by
The Rev. James Howell, pastor of the Myers Park United Methodist
Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was his own story of wondering
if he should even BE in the ministry: The reason I am still in the ministry
is because of the night I decided to leave the ministry. It was my
day off. The phone rang, and it was the chaplain at a nearby hospital.
Usually we would exchange pleasantries, but all she said was,
"Come to the hospital - now!" I trusted the urgency in her voice
and arrived in about ten minutes.
I found her with a young couple I knew and loved from our
church. I sensed shrieks and sobs lingering in the room, which was
eerily silent: the wife and the husband fell onto my shoulders. I
could hardly bear their weight as they gasped for words. Their
child, Caroline, whom I had baptized a couple of weeks earlier had
just been diagnosed with a malignant tumor intertwined with her
spinal cord at the base of the brain."
Another minister who knew the family materialized. His
demeanor startled me: smiling, confident, speaking many words,
assuring the parents with an utterly confident grin that "God will
save your child if you just pray."
I'm ordained, he's ordained, but I felt no kinship with him.
I oscillated between wanting to strangle him and wanting to be more
like him. Why have I never been able to be pious? When did I
become the grim pastor who expects the worst? Sure, his style of
pastoring seemed trite, absurd - and yet, what good was I doing?
About that time, the pediatric oncologist came in - calm,
intelligent, well-trained, impressive. I remember him as being very
tall. He had a plan. As he unfolded his strategy, I remember those
smart grown-ups who had advised me to go to medical school, and
I wish I had, because as a minister, I had nothing - literally nothing
to offer to these people I loved so much. Had I gone to medical
school, I could do something...."
Then her parents asked me for a favor. "We are exhausted.
Caroline won't stop crying. Could you hold her for a little while so
we can step out and take a little break?" And so I took this child
in my arms and rocked her. She cried and I cried, and then having
expended all her energy, she drifted off to sleep. I kept rocking
her until her parents came back, a little bit rested, relieved to see
her more peaceful. We placed her gently in the crib, and then I left
them, took the elevator downstairs and stepped through the door
into the night.
As I felt the chill against my face, I knew I would not quit
the ministry. It was as if my whole life had been a preparation for
this dark evening. All the wrestling with what career to pursue,
counsel from professors, the books, papers, degrees, hurdles of
ordination: I had been in training for this day, so that on this day I
could drive to Durham and give two parents a little bit of rest - and
to rock a very sick child to sleep, just to hold this little one who
seemed to have as little hope as I did.
It was around midnight that I had to answer a question:
Why did I go into the ministry? To do something grand and
impressive? Or because I thought I might love somebody, some
family, some child, in God's name. Holding Caroline, I wondered:
isn't this what Mary did with Jesus when he was sick during the
night? Didn't she embrace him when he was taken down from the
cross? Isn't this what God Almighty had been doing we me all
these years? And on one night, I was able to help. I held a child.
I fulfilled my vocation, the small impotence of it all turning out to
be the beauty."
Your ministry is simply to be doing what God does with you
- to hold the hurting, to encourage the depressed, to support those
weakened by what life can do to the weary. In fact, if you didn't do
it, God couldn't get anything done, for you're the way He gets his
mission accomplished - as we emulate and follow the King of Kings.
When I was a kid, we played checkers, and I recall that if you got
your single checker across to the other side of the Board, you could yell
out KING ME! And another checker would be added to yours, which
deferred princely powers to the unit - you could do things now, you never
good before! That's the way God does things, as our mission makes a
difference - my mission makes a difference. " KING ME!"
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)November 25, 2007 10:30 a, m. Colossians 1:11-20
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
39 Beginnings and Endings
Audio unavailable - We apologize for the inconvenience. Sermon text follows:
"BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS!"
Our combined texts today speak of endings and beginnings, of
judgement and joy. Our first passage from Isaiah 65 shows a wonderful
ending for the people of God. (We hope that's us!) In the second text,
Jesus tells the disciples all of the things they will have to go through - the
destruction of Jerusalem, families turning against them, authorities calling
them to come before them - not a great future to look forward to - yet
Jesus says to them, "None of these things can really harm you! Easy
for Him to say - you say! Not really. He suffered more than anyone - the
most agonizing death imaginable - but He's alive and well and living any
where in the world He wants - including in your heart and mine. Death
could not contain him or swallow him up. He assures us that nothing can
harm us if we continue strong in our faith while we're going through the
dark times. By your endurance you will gain your souls. (Luke 21:19)
our text for the day.
Are you in a time of beginning or ending? The fact is, you are
always experiencing both BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS.
I always get amused at myself at vacation time. I can't wait to get
away, and yet the time comes when I can't wait to get home! Both
beginnings and endings are good - we just LIKE one more than the other!
We don't like endings, yet some things must come to an end in
order that other things may start. In a very real sense we have many lifetimes
in one. Life consists of many journeys - that begin and end - and wisdom
is understanding the journey process which enables you to deal with all
that comes.
Have faith when something is in its beginning stages in your life or
the life of the world.
Have awareness when things are really going well for you,
stopping to savor the experience, and pausing - daily - to give God thanks
for this part of the journey, and to
Have strength when the going get tough - strength
that comes from knowing that all storms have BEGINNINGS AND
ENDINGS that BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS make up the fabric
of our very existence - rise and fall, ying and yang, slow and stop, begin
and speed up; have and have not. Let us review these three "haves."
Have faith when something is in its beginning stages in your
life or the life of the world:
I'm convinced that the world is at a turning point where what it
decides to do will determine whether it will even survive or not. As a
nation, we searched and searched for weapons of mass destruction where
there were none. We should have looked at home. And everywhere
else we look, we see nations trying to weapons of mass destruction - as if
they were something wonderful to have! That's because we in the world
have been taught by everyone (but Jesus) that having them will give us
security. Domination, we are told is how we get security. But others will
want to dominate - and there will always be wars to decide who's the
most dominate! It makes no practical sense.
What makes sense is that our security depends on the well-being
of everyone on the planet, and working on that well being is what we
should, as Christians, be about. The more caring we are about others'
well being the more secure we will become! Our job is drying up the
cesspools of desperation by our acts of generosity and concern for others
- the Jesus way.
There is a new network of spiritual progressives that feel this way
- would that people in all religions were to agree and to live accordingly.
And we have to have the belief that persons of faith reaching out in concern
can make a difference. What we as Americans have done with our
domination strategy is to increase persons hatred of us, playing directly
into the hands of the terrorists who then become more terrible - because
we have fueled their cause. How's that workin' for us. It's not! But how
are things going in YOUR life?
We need to talk about the times we're halfway between the
beginning and the end - when things are going well.
Have awareness when things are really going well for you,
stopping to savor the experience - and giving God thanks.
It is said that "an unexamined life is not worth living." That's true..
But I am concerned about how we forget to stop and savor where we are
now. I am concerned with how we focus instead on where we have been
or where we're going. THE thing that God wants more from us than
anything else is THANKS, and I am glad that it is THANKSGIVING
SUNDAY when I'm saying it. We need to sip and savor. Instead we
gulp down and go by that which should be riveting our attention - the
things for which we should be expressing gratitude.
Or when things are going well, some of us seem to be waiting for
the other shoe to drop - as if somehow we don't deserve calm waters.
On my cruise I got accustomed to calm waters - except one day! The
same day the tanker split apart off the Russian coast, our ship was hit with
high winds and rough seas. I had discovered that there were lots of
accessible Kawai grands on the ship and was playing one of them - just
for the fun of it when one gigantic wave hit the ship. There was a loud
crack. Is the ship breaking in two I wondered? It was the first time I was
ever afraid on board a cruise ship. Soon there was the voice of the captain
telling us that although it was rough and some of us would not be at dinner,
there was nothing to worry about - that in a few hours we would be out of
the storm. So I found another Kawai grand piano with people around it
and played soothing music - skillfully avoiding "Amazing Grace" - the
theme song of the Titanic - what the band was playing when the ship went
down. I was concerned about the well being of my fellow passengers.
More than anything else we need everyone in the world to be
concerned about everyone else in the world - recognizing that we
are all fellow passengers on the same space ship - where we will all
survive or not survive - together.
This is how God will accomplish His dream as outlined in Isaiah:
"I am creating a new heaven and a new earth. The troubled of the
past will be forgotten. No one will remember them. My people will
be happy and rejoice forever and ever because of what I will make."
Just remember, he will make it by using us to help. He will use
those who commit themselves to a new way of thinking and being - who
believe that what we think and do can make a difference - that we cannot
establish peace with bombs and barricades, but only with generosity and
concern for our fellow travelers on the journey, opening doors of
diplomacy, building relationships, tearing down the walls between us. That
will be a tough one, but Jesus is the one who calls us to do it, not by
forcing His religion or ours on anyone, but by becoming the epitome of
love and peace in our actions. Thus will God create His dream.
Although he could have phrased it more interestingly, the theologian,
John Calvin had it right: "It were cold and lifeless to represent God
as a momentary Creator, who completed his work once and for all,
and then left it. Here, especially, we must dissent from the profane,
and maintain that the presence of the divine power is conspicuous,
not less in the perpetual condition of the world than in its first
creation...After learning that there is a Creator, it must forthwith
infer that he is also a "governor" and "preserver" and that, not
by producing a kind of general motion in the machine of the globe
as well as in each of its parts, but by a special "providence"
sustaining, cherishing, superintending, all the things which he has
made to the very minutest, even to a sparrow. (Institute of Christian
Religion)
To put it in United Church of Christ language, God is still speaking,
teaching us new truth that may conflict with teachings of old, even as Jesus
said, "It HAS been said to you - thus and so, but I say to you, and
then he would tell us something new....even as God the Father is
asking us to see the new thing He is going to do - right now on the
Thanksgiving and Stewardship Sunday - through your committment
to what God can accomplish in this place.
I know from experience that when God get's busy, so do we.
We are the means by which His Will is accomplished in the world, no
matter how difficult the task or the storm we or the world might be going
through at any given time.
Have strength when the going gets tough.
I can't say that a young student I read about had a great deal of
strength when the going got tough for him.....He had planned his whole
future around getting accepted in a particular school of architecture. When
that didn't happen, he called the Dean of the school he was then attending
to say "My life has been destroyed!" The Dean thought otherwise.
He thought it was time for him to make other plans. As it worked out, he
did not study architecture anywhere. He went into the field of industrial
design. Today, he is one of the nation's great designers, having designed
many objects that grace your home.
His life was "destroyed", but he had the strength to see that God
was simply shifting things around in his life. Consider this possibility: "God
is going to shift things around for you today so that things will
work in your favor!"
Do you have the maturity when everything shifts to look for how
God is making things happen in your favor? I hope so. I pray so.
No matter where you are in your life's journey, Have faith.
Practice awareness and most of all, give God thanks. Now Thank We
All Our God!
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)November 18, 2007 10:30 a, m. Isaiah 65:17-25 Luke 21:5-19
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
"BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS!"
Our combined texts today speak of endings and beginnings, of
judgement and joy. Our first passage from Isaiah 65 shows a wonderful
ending for the people of God. (We hope that's us!) In the second text,
Jesus tells the disciples all of the things they will have to go through - the
destruction of Jerusalem, families turning against them, authorities calling
them to come before them - not a great future to look forward to - yet
Jesus says to them, "None of these things can really harm you! Easy
for Him to say - you say! Not really. He suffered more than anyone - the
most agonizing death imaginable - but He's alive and well and living any
where in the world He wants - including in your heart and mine. Death
could not contain him or swallow him up. He assures us that nothing can
harm us if we continue strong in our faith while we're going through the
dark times. By your endurance you will gain your souls. (Luke 21:19)
our text for the day.
Are you in a time of beginning or ending? The fact is, you are
always experiencing both BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS.
I always get amused at myself at vacation time. I can't wait to get
away, and yet the time comes when I can't wait to get home! Both
beginnings and endings are good - we just LIKE one more than the other!
We don't like endings, yet some things must come to an end in
order that other things may start. In a very real sense we have many lifetimes
in one. Life consists of many journeys - that begin and end - and wisdom
is understanding the journey process which enables you to deal with all
that comes.
Have faith when something is in its beginning stages in your life or
the life of the world.
Have awareness when things are really going well for you,
stopping to savor the experience, and pausing - daily - to give God thanks
for this part of the journey, and to
Have strength when the going get tough - strength
that comes from knowing that all storms have BEGINNINGS AND
ENDINGS that BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS make up the fabric
of our very existence - rise and fall, ying and yang, slow and stop, begin
and speed up; have and have not. Let us review these three "haves."
Have faith when something is in its beginning stages in your
life or the life of the world:
I'm convinced that the world is at a turning point where what it
decides to do will determine whether it will even survive or not. As a
nation, we searched and searched for weapons of mass destruction where
there were none. We should have looked at home. And everywhere
else we look, we see nations trying to weapons of mass destruction - as if
they were something wonderful to have! That's because we in the world
have been taught by everyone (but Jesus) that having them will give us
security. Domination, we are told is how we get security. But others will
want to dominate - and there will always be wars to decide who's the
most dominate! It makes no practical sense.
What makes sense is that our security depends on the well-being
of everyone on the planet, and working on that well being is what we
should, as Christians, be about. The more caring we are about others'
well being the more secure we will become! Our job is drying up the
cesspools of desperation by our acts of generosity and concern for others
- the Jesus way.
There is a new network of spiritual progressives that feel this way
- would that people in all religions were to agree and to live accordingly.
And we have to have the belief that persons of faith reaching out in concern
can make a difference. What we as Americans have done with our
domination strategy is to increase persons hatred of us, playing directly
into the hands of the terrorists who then become more terrible - because
we have fueled their cause. How's that workin' for us. It's not! But how
are things going in YOUR life?
We need to talk about the times we're halfway between the
beginning and the end - when things are going well.
Have awareness when things are really going well for you,
stopping to savor the experience - and giving God thanks.
It is said that "an unexamined life is not worth living." That's true..
But I am concerned about how we forget to stop and savor where we are
now. I am concerned with how we focus instead on where we have been
or where we're going. THE thing that God wants more from us than
anything else is THANKS, and I am glad that it is THANKSGIVING
SUNDAY when I'm saying it. We need to sip and savor. Instead we
gulp down and go by that which should be riveting our attention - the
things for which we should be expressing gratitude.
Or when things are going well, some of us seem to be waiting for
the other shoe to drop - as if somehow we don't deserve calm waters.
On my cruise I got accustomed to calm waters - except one day! The
same day the tanker split apart off the Russian coast, our ship was hit with
high winds and rough seas. I had discovered that there were lots of
accessible Kawai grands on the ship and was playing one of them - just
for the fun of it when one gigantic wave hit the ship. There was a loud
crack. Is the ship breaking in two I wondered? It was the first time I was
ever afraid on board a cruise ship. Soon there was the voice of the captain
telling us that although it was rough and some of us would not be at dinner,
there was nothing to worry about - that in a few hours we would be out of
the storm. So I found another Kawai grand piano with people around it
and played soothing music - skillfully avoiding "Amazing Grace" - the
theme song of the Titanic - what the band was playing when the ship went
down. I was concerned about the well being of my fellow passengers.
More than anything else we need everyone in the world to be
concerned about everyone else in the world - recognizing that we
are all fellow passengers on the same space ship - where we will all
survive or not survive - together.
This is how God will accomplish His dream as outlined in Isaiah:
"I am creating a new heaven and a new earth. The troubled of the
past will be forgotten. No one will remember them. My people will
be happy and rejoice forever and ever because of what I will make."
Just remember, he will make it by using us to help. He will use
those who commit themselves to a new way of thinking and being - who
believe that what we think and do can make a difference - that we cannot
establish peace with bombs and barricades, but only with generosity and
concern for our fellow travelers on the journey, opening doors of
diplomacy, building relationships, tearing down the walls between us. That
will be a tough one, but Jesus is the one who calls us to do it, not by
forcing His religion or ours on anyone, but by becoming the epitome of
love and peace in our actions. Thus will God create His dream.
Although he could have phrased it more interestingly, the theologian,
John Calvin had it right: "It were cold and lifeless to represent God
as a momentary Creator, who completed his work once and for all,
and then left it. Here, especially, we must dissent from the profane,
and maintain that the presence of the divine power is conspicuous,
not less in the perpetual condition of the world than in its first
creation...After learning that there is a Creator, it must forthwith
infer that he is also a "governor" and "preserver" and that, not
by producing a kind of general motion in the machine of the globe
as well as in each of its parts, but by a special "providence"
sustaining, cherishing, superintending, all the things which he has
made to the very minutest, even to a sparrow. (Institute of Christian
Religion)
To put it in United Church of Christ language, God is still speaking,
teaching us new truth that may conflict with teachings of old, even as Jesus
said, "It HAS been said to you - thus and so, but I say to you, and
then he would tell us something new....even as God the Father is
asking us to see the new thing He is going to do - right now on the
Thanksgiving and Stewardship Sunday - through your committment
to what God can accomplish in this place.
I know from experience that when God get's busy, so do we.
We are the means by which His Will is accomplished in the world, no
matter how difficult the task or the storm we or the world might be going
through at any given time.
Have strength when the going gets tough.
I can't say that a young student I read about had a great deal of
strength when the going got tough for him.....He had planned his whole
future around getting accepted in a particular school of architecture. When
that didn't happen, he called the Dean of the school he was then attending
to say "My life has been destroyed!" The Dean thought otherwise.
He thought it was time for him to make other plans. As it worked out, he
did not study architecture anywhere. He went into the field of industrial
design. Today, he is one of the nation's great designers, having designed
many objects that grace your home.
His life was "destroyed", but he had the strength to see that God
was simply shifting things around in his life. Consider this possibility: "God
is going to shift things around for you today so that things will
work in your favor!"
Do you have the maturity when everything shifts to look for how
God is making things happen in your favor? I hope so. I pray so.
No matter where you are in your life's journey, Have faith.
Practice awareness and most of all, give God thanks. Now Thank We
All Our God!
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)November 18, 2007 10:30 a, m. Isaiah 65:17-25 Luke 21:5-19
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
38 Who's the Good Guy?
"WHO'S THE GOOD GUY?!"
If I were to choose a hymn to go with the Scripture today - Luke
18:9-14. in which the hated tax collector is shown mercy and the self
righteousness religious leader is sent away without any, I would choose
Amazing Grace.
Growing up as we do in a tit for tat world, where the good should
be rewarded and the bad should be condemned, we just don't understand
the way God does things. God saves those we would damn, and sets
free those we would capture. God restores those whom we might leave
broken. While we set about to be righteous and look down upon those
who have not climbed to our heights, God is busy blessing the unrighteous,
and calling our self righteousness into question. God's Grace IS amazing
and downright disgusting - depending upon where we placed
ourselves in the Scripture. God's Mercy is unfathomable except
perhaps to those who need it most.
The wretched tax collector who collected from his fellow Jews
what taxes Rome required and a lot more that he could get away with to
keep for himself, finally had his guilt catch up with him, confessed that he
was a wretched sinner - in contrast to a former member of our church
who would not come to church if we sang Amazing Grace. "I am
NOT a wretch!" He would vehemently declare - and he wasn't, he was
a very good guy, but his name did rhyme with Warlock - which I believe is
a male witch! (I threw that in, just so you'd know how seasonally relevant
I am!) "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a
WRETCH like me!"
God seems a little prejudiced toward the sinner if the truth be
told! In so many of the parables, the supposed "bad guy" is the good guy
and the bad guy - the good - thus the sermon title, WHO'S THE GOOD
GUY?!
Today's Scripture Lesson from the Lectionary usually results in us
looking down our noses (we Christians are VERY good at that!) - looking
down our noses at the self-righteous Pharisee which puts us in the exact
category we seek to disavow! Oh, ow!
Is it possible only to be deemed "good" by being bad? Are we
missing a real opportunity here to live it up? What IS going on with this
Scripture?
We're not the only ones to wonder. The early disciples who first
heard the words couldn't believe what they were hearing. For them, it is
utterly unseemly, almost laughable to think someone who does what the
tax collector does would even dare to PRAY for mercy. They found it
scandalous that grace is offered to such a scoundrel so easily. Where
were the works of absolution? Where were the terrible nights of anguish
that prove his remorse is not short-lived? Where were the years of going
about righting wrongs, returning the extra fees collected that made him
rich while he watched his neighbors struggle to survive?
What we have to come to is the truth that mercy is at God's
discretion, forgiveness is available to all who ask for it and righteousness
is a gift, not an accomplishment.
We are imbued with what the theologians call work righteousness.
The Apostle Paul tried to warn us to clue us in: "For by grace are we
saved though faith, not works, lest any person should boast." And,
he asks a good question, "Shall we sin that grace may abound?!"
Now THERE'S an idea! But we won't be practicing THAT any time soon.
Essentially, this parable is about judging - or rather, not judging.
Let's not cast aspersions on what God wants to do in the forgiving business.
We may need some of that blanket forgiveness ourselves at some future
date.
But in the meantime, our job as Christians is not to judge but to
join those who are recipients of God's Grace - to invite them to join us.
They don't need our judgement - they don't need to see us looking down
our noses at them - as all the "righteous" people of Jesus time looked at
the tax collector.
A few years ago, I decided to be in my office five days a week,
not six as I had done for thirty years. Still, I wanted to be of service on
that extra day I now had off - so I went to a Rotary Club - in Ft. Lauderdale,
near my home. The president was very welcoming, but I can't say the
club was. They had some get togethers, but no projects where you could
do what Rotarians do - not in the weeks that I was there. It was a pretty
ritzy club, meeting in a ritzy environment and I didn't see why I should be
excluded..I had a ritzy house and a ritzy car and I could afford the ritzy
priced breakfast. . The fact was it was not about me at all. They were
having such a good time with the people they already knew and liked, that
although I was there, I was there and not there. They didn't see me and
find me wanting, they didn't find me at all - they didn't see me at all. I was
not a member of their club. I continued to attend for several weeks
when that fact became painfully obvious.
I went to the district meeting of Rotary which members of Rotary
clubs all over the district attended. Unfortunately, no one from my Rotary
Club of Miami Beach was there so I sat down with my Rotary friends
from my "extra day" club. "Sorry," one of them said, "this area is
reserved from members of our Club." I went to another table, but I
never went back to THEIR club.
Years ago, this church made a decision not to be a Club. It decided
to be welcoming to everyone despite the fact that some of the members
wanted the leadership and membership to be essentially white, anglosaxon,
country club people. Those same members, di not want Blacks,
Latins, gays or children in the church - i.e. children not white and anglo
saxon.
The Chairman of the Board, a young man, Doug Bischoff was
adamant that the church should be open and welcoming to all. I remember
him saying, "It's o.k. for my country club to be a country club, but
it's not o.k. for my church to be a country club."
Up until that effort began, people in the community believed that
this church was for the rich only. In fact an outstandingly talented flautist
who played here with the Symphony of the Americas lived in Miami Beach
as a child, told of playing jacks on the front steps of the church, wondering
if she would "ever be rich enough to be allowed to go in."
It was a club and a clique-y one at that. The problem is, and what
we are being asked to see is that without meaning to be, we are still The
Club in our own way - we are the Pharisee judging anyone who is different
from ourselves.
Years ago I read this in the Saturday Review. It shows the danger
in insisting that everyone be just like ourselves.
In cobra country, a mongoose was born one day who didn't
want to fight cobras or anything else. The word spread from
mongoose to mongoose that there was a mongoose who didn't want
to fight cobras. If he didn't want to fight anything else, it was his
own business, but it was the duty of every mongoose to kill cobras
or be killed by cobras.
"Why?" asked the peacelike mongoose, and the word went
around that the strange new mongoose was not only pro-cobra and
anti-mongoose but intellectually curious and against the ideals and
traditions of mongooism. "He is crazy" cried the young
mongoose's father. "He is sick," said his mother. He is a coward,
"shouted his brothers. "He is a mongoosexual, whispered his
sisters.
Strangers who had never laid eyes on the peacelike
mongoose remembered that they had seen him crawling on his
stomach, or trying on cobra hoods, or plotting the violent overthrow
of Mongoosia. "I am trying to use reason and intelligence," said
the strange new mongoose. "Reason is sex-sevenths of treason,
said one of his neighbors. "Intelligence is what the enemy uses, "
said another.
Finally, the rumor spread that the mongoose had venom in
his sting, like a cobra, and he was tried, convicted by a show of
paws and condemned to banishment.
Moral, Ashes to ashes and clay to clay. If the enemy doesn't
get you your own folks may - those in "The Club" that seek to keep
everyone else out.
So here we are on a Sunday - confident in our spirituality, enjoying
the fellowship of the church - meaning enjoying all the people we already
know and love - and, unfortunately - not seeing, not welcoming the
newcomer, the stranger, the person not yet a part of that fellowship, the
person who is different from us - not like us - but hurting for a word of
welcome.
When we hear about the Pharisee, let us be totally aware of how
very much in danger we are of becoming the very thing we look down our
nose at, because of the subtleties by which we can get into that reality
before we even realize it.
It isn't that we're bad or mean, we're simply caught up in the
enjoyment of being together with people we know and love. Yet the
church exists not for the people in it, but for the people not in it yet. That's
where our focus should be on Saturday morning when we have the
opportunity to invite people to come with us on Sunday, and Sunday after
church where we can seek out the stranger and the guest.
Every member and friend of the church - every regular attender
should be what we call in church growth parlance - a new person spotter
- who then becomes a new-person welcomer - otherwise we have heard
the parable but missed the very point that Jesus wanted to make by telling
it.
We are not the important, VIP, "Country Club" people - we are
the servants of God intent upon widening the circle of God's House to
include others than ourselves.
We are not to be the Pharissee, who felt that he was better than
others, nor do we want to be. He went home not right with God. "People
who make themselves important will be made humble, but those
who make themselves humble will be made important."
"There were some people who thought they were very good
and looked down on everyone else. Jesus used this story to teach
them." Once to every man and nations comes the moment to decide, if
we will learn the lesson or not. WHO'S THE GOOD GUY?!
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)October 28, 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 18:9-14
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
If I were to choose a hymn to go with the Scripture today - Luke
18:9-14. in which the hated tax collector is shown mercy and the self
righteousness religious leader is sent away without any, I would choose
Amazing Grace.
Growing up as we do in a tit for tat world, where the good should
be rewarded and the bad should be condemned, we just don't understand
the way God does things. God saves those we would damn, and sets
free those we would capture. God restores those whom we might leave
broken. While we set about to be righteous and look down upon those
who have not climbed to our heights, God is busy blessing the unrighteous,
and calling our self righteousness into question. God's Grace IS amazing
and downright disgusting - depending upon where we placed
ourselves in the Scripture. God's Mercy is unfathomable except
perhaps to those who need it most.
The wretched tax collector who collected from his fellow Jews
what taxes Rome required and a lot more that he could get away with to
keep for himself, finally had his guilt catch up with him, confessed that he
was a wretched sinner - in contrast to a former member of our church
who would not come to church if we sang Amazing Grace. "I am
NOT a wretch!" He would vehemently declare - and he wasn't, he was
a very good guy, but his name did rhyme with Warlock - which I believe is
a male witch! (I threw that in, just so you'd know how seasonally relevant
I am!) "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a
WRETCH like me!"
God seems a little prejudiced toward the sinner if the truth be
told! In so many of the parables, the supposed "bad guy" is the good guy
and the bad guy - the good - thus the sermon title, WHO'S THE GOOD
GUY?!
Today's Scripture Lesson from the Lectionary usually results in us
looking down our noses (we Christians are VERY good at that!) - looking
down our noses at the self-righteous Pharisee which puts us in the exact
category we seek to disavow! Oh, ow!
Is it possible only to be deemed "good" by being bad? Are we
missing a real opportunity here to live it up? What IS going on with this
Scripture?
We're not the only ones to wonder. The early disciples who first
heard the words couldn't believe what they were hearing. For them, it is
utterly unseemly, almost laughable to think someone who does what the
tax collector does would even dare to PRAY for mercy. They found it
scandalous that grace is offered to such a scoundrel so easily. Where
were the works of absolution? Where were the terrible nights of anguish
that prove his remorse is not short-lived? Where were the years of going
about righting wrongs, returning the extra fees collected that made him
rich while he watched his neighbors struggle to survive?
What we have to come to is the truth that mercy is at God's
discretion, forgiveness is available to all who ask for it and righteousness
is a gift, not an accomplishment.
We are imbued with what the theologians call work righteousness.
The Apostle Paul tried to warn us to clue us in: "For by grace are we
saved though faith, not works, lest any person should boast." And,
he asks a good question, "Shall we sin that grace may abound?!"
Now THERE'S an idea! But we won't be practicing THAT any time soon.
Essentially, this parable is about judging - or rather, not judging.
Let's not cast aspersions on what God wants to do in the forgiving business.
We may need some of that blanket forgiveness ourselves at some future
date.
But in the meantime, our job as Christians is not to judge but to
join those who are recipients of God's Grace - to invite them to join us.
They don't need our judgement - they don't need to see us looking down
our noses at them - as all the "righteous" people of Jesus time looked at
the tax collector.
A few years ago, I decided to be in my office five days a week,
not six as I had done for thirty years. Still, I wanted to be of service on
that extra day I now had off - so I went to a Rotary Club - in Ft. Lauderdale,
near my home. The president was very welcoming, but I can't say the
club was. They had some get togethers, but no projects where you could
do what Rotarians do - not in the weeks that I was there. It was a pretty
ritzy club, meeting in a ritzy environment and I didn't see why I should be
excluded..I had a ritzy house and a ritzy car and I could afford the ritzy
priced breakfast. . The fact was it was not about me at all. They were
having such a good time with the people they already knew and liked, that
although I was there, I was there and not there. They didn't see me and
find me wanting, they didn't find me at all - they didn't see me at all. I was
not a member of their club. I continued to attend for several weeks
when that fact became painfully obvious.
I went to the district meeting of Rotary which members of Rotary
clubs all over the district attended. Unfortunately, no one from my Rotary
Club of Miami Beach was there so I sat down with my Rotary friends
from my "extra day" club. "Sorry," one of them said, "this area is
reserved from members of our Club." I went to another table, but I
never went back to THEIR club.
Years ago, this church made a decision not to be a Club. It decided
to be welcoming to everyone despite the fact that some of the members
wanted the leadership and membership to be essentially white, anglosaxon,
country club people. Those same members, di not want Blacks,
Latins, gays or children in the church - i.e. children not white and anglo
saxon.
The Chairman of the Board, a young man, Doug Bischoff was
adamant that the church should be open and welcoming to all. I remember
him saying, "It's o.k. for my country club to be a country club, but
it's not o.k. for my church to be a country club."
Up until that effort began, people in the community believed that
this church was for the rich only. In fact an outstandingly talented flautist
who played here with the Symphony of the Americas lived in Miami Beach
as a child, told of playing jacks on the front steps of the church, wondering
if she would "ever be rich enough to be allowed to go in."
It was a club and a clique-y one at that. The problem is, and what
we are being asked to see is that without meaning to be, we are still The
Club in our own way - we are the Pharisee judging anyone who is different
from ourselves.
Years ago I read this in the Saturday Review. It shows the danger
in insisting that everyone be just like ourselves.
In cobra country, a mongoose was born one day who didn't
want to fight cobras or anything else. The word spread from
mongoose to mongoose that there was a mongoose who didn't want
to fight cobras. If he didn't want to fight anything else, it was his
own business, but it was the duty of every mongoose to kill cobras
or be killed by cobras.
"Why?" asked the peacelike mongoose, and the word went
around that the strange new mongoose was not only pro-cobra and
anti-mongoose but intellectually curious and against the ideals and
traditions of mongooism. "He is crazy" cried the young
mongoose's father. "He is sick," said his mother. He is a coward,
"shouted his brothers. "He is a mongoosexual, whispered his
sisters.
Strangers who had never laid eyes on the peacelike
mongoose remembered that they had seen him crawling on his
stomach, or trying on cobra hoods, or plotting the violent overthrow
of Mongoosia. "I am trying to use reason and intelligence," said
the strange new mongoose. "Reason is sex-sevenths of treason,
said one of his neighbors. "Intelligence is what the enemy uses, "
said another.
Finally, the rumor spread that the mongoose had venom in
his sting, like a cobra, and he was tried, convicted by a show of
paws and condemned to banishment.
Moral, Ashes to ashes and clay to clay. If the enemy doesn't
get you your own folks may - those in "The Club" that seek to keep
everyone else out.
So here we are on a Sunday - confident in our spirituality, enjoying
the fellowship of the church - meaning enjoying all the people we already
know and love - and, unfortunately - not seeing, not welcoming the
newcomer, the stranger, the person not yet a part of that fellowship, the
person who is different from us - not like us - but hurting for a word of
welcome.
When we hear about the Pharisee, let us be totally aware of how
very much in danger we are of becoming the very thing we look down our
nose at, because of the subtleties by which we can get into that reality
before we even realize it.
It isn't that we're bad or mean, we're simply caught up in the
enjoyment of being together with people we know and love. Yet the
church exists not for the people in it, but for the people not in it yet. That's
where our focus should be on Saturday morning when we have the
opportunity to invite people to come with us on Sunday, and Sunday after
church where we can seek out the stranger and the guest.
Every member and friend of the church - every regular attender
should be what we call in church growth parlance - a new person spotter
- who then becomes a new-person welcomer - otherwise we have heard
the parable but missed the very point that Jesus wanted to make by telling
it.
We are not the important, VIP, "Country Club" people - we are
the servants of God intent upon widening the circle of God's House to
include others than ourselves.
We are not to be the Pharissee, who felt that he was better than
others, nor do we want to be. He went home not right with God. "People
who make themselves important will be made humble, but those
who make themselves humble will be made important."
"There were some people who thought they were very good
and looked down on everyone else. Jesus used this story to teach
them." Once to every man and nations comes the moment to decide, if
we will learn the lesson or not. WHO'S THE GOOD GUY?!
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)October 28, 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 18:9-14
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
37 The Seeking Society
Audio unavailable - We apologize for the inconvenience. Sermon text follows:
"THE SEEKING SOCIETY"
The head of our denomination, John Thomas was arrested this
week. He delivered 64,000 signatures - some of them yours and mine to
Washington - signatures on the Pastoral Letter requesting an end to the
Iraq war. The heavy boxes of petitions were taken to and received by
the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid, and House Minority Leader David Boehner.
The Rev. John Thomas and The Rev. Linda Jarmillo were not as
well received at the Whitehouse where they were refused a face-to-face
meeting with the public liaison office, so they stood in the "No Protest"
zone, refusing to move even though asked three times to do so by police
officers. As a result they were arrested and taken away. Later they were
released, each $100 poorer
Not everyone might agree with petitioning to end the war, but
everyone should agree their right to protest it - and that justice never rolls
down like the waters unless someone makes it roll - referring to the
passage in Amos 5:24: "But let justice roll down like waters And
righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."
The persistent widow in our parable today knew just how to keep
on pestering the judge for justice until she got it. She is our example.
But it's not easy to follow that example. A lot goes through your mind
when the police are telling you to move and the protest group you are with
is refusing to move and some are being rather strident with the officers.
Visions of just how much your life could be compromised if this ends up
with your getting a police record come into your mind! And yet it must
be done. And if you don't do it, then who?
The widow realized that there was no one other than herself to
turn to. As William F. Malambri, III describes our parable: "There was
this widow who had been treated unjustly. We might presume that
she had not received the proper support due her from her deceased
husband's estate since she could not inherit the estate outright.
Doubtless her brothers-in-law were not living up to the understood
arrangements. God, you see, had commanded that of all people,
widows, orphans and strangers were to be looked after.
So the widow puts her case before the judge, but not just
any judge. It turns out this judge does not fear God or respect
people. He's one of those judges who is more attuned to the dollar
than the divine. If you want justice from him, you had better be the
higher bidder. Or, you had better be persistent.
Having no advocate or nothing with which to bid, our widow
just keeps coming back. Like a boxer who does not know when to
throw in the towel, she continues round after round to stand up to
the judge and swing. Finally, he concedes. That's all we know - in
this one instance, for this one accuser, the judge gives in. We are
not told that he has a lasting change of heart, a new outlook on life,
some redemption story to tell his grandchildren. All we know is
that in the case of the widow versus whomever, the judge gives in
and rules justly." (William F. MalambriIII)
We're supposed to pray with the poor widow's kind of
persistence. Barbara Brown Taylor says that perhaps Jesus did not know
too many people with "the faith to stay at anything forever. Then as
now, most people prayed like they brushed their teeth - once in the
morning and once at night, as part of their spiritual hygiene
program." Barbara Brown Taylor
The Gospel writer, Luke, says that Jesus gave us this parable so
that we would understand that we should always pray and never lose
hope. We should indeed become, "THE SEEKING SOCIETY." That,
I believe should be based on the understanding that with God, all things
are possible. By that I mean that God is so great that even the smallest
details of our lives are important to Him. But like you yourself may think,
I often think that God is too great to be bothered with the little things that
I need help with.
How about you. Do you see prayer as a last resort. Is God a
First Resort or Last Resort God..
In the last issue of our newsletter, The Word, I asked: "Have
you ever rescued a damsel in distress? I tried to do that recently
when a lovely young woman who had been at church approached
me to say that her boyfriend had inadvertently left with the keys to
her car. (They had driven separately to church.) Her cell phone
was in her locked car. His was on "silent mode" in deference to
not disturbing the church service. Using my cell phone, we left
messages for him. She went to wait by her car, hoping that he
would remember to check his phone for messages. She had given
him my cellphone number as a contact. Not too much later, he
called and said he was on his way to give her the keys. I thought I
would be a nice guy and let her know that he would be there in
about 15 minutes. He had told me that her car was in the municipal
lot just down from the church. None of the parking attendants had
heard of anyone locked out of their car. I looked and looked. Not
wanting to give up, I FINALLY asked God to help me.
IMMEDIATELY, I saw her and IMMEDIATELY the thought came
into my mind as if from God's: 'Why didn't you ask ME in the first
place. Point well taken. Next time I will"
I didn't. On Tuesday I went to do the accounting for the Octoberfest
dinner. I had put the money in an envelope and put it in my mailbox in the
church office. On Tuesday mnorning, I took everything from my box -
everything that was there from Sunday and everything that came in from
Monday (I am not here on Mondays), and went through all the papers,
but there was no envelope. We looked everywhere, finally assuming that
the envelope of money had been stolen - which would have been the first
time in my 33 years here that any money had come up missing. We're
good with money, and locking doors and in securing the buildings and the
property. FINALLY, I resorted to prayer - and in one moment the lost
was found when the idea came into my mind to look under the portable
file I have on my desk. There it was. Again, I made God into a Person
of Last Resort. When will I learn? When will you learn.
I have a book from Guideposts called the Hidden Hand of God
(Remarkable Answered Prayers). They vary from the sublime to the
ridiculous and from the slime to the remarkable. Let me explain! One of
the true stories was from persons just like all the rest of us - this one from
Tina Coligan-Holt who had moved from a big city to a small town in Texas
where she decided to keep up with the neighbors by having a beautiful
garden. One of her neighbors suggested using compost so went to the
city dump where they gave it away free. When she opened the car door,
she was hit by a gust of wind that caused one of her contacts to fly out of
her eye. (Would one event WANT to find it in a pile of compost?) She
did want to, but she couldn't find it.
That night her son said, "Mama, do you believe in miracles?"
"I sure do!" she responded. "Then why don't we pray for a miracle
- to find your contact lens.: Needing his strength she said, "Will you
pray with me? So we did. He led us in a wonderful prayer straight
from a child's innocent heart. Right afterward he turned to me and
said, "Mama, did you check your purse. It was at the bottom of her
purse which had been open when she opened the door and her contact
blew away - right into her purse. How did her son know to ask that. It
was a miracle! Tine said, I was deeply touched by this very simple
event that proved to me the power of a child's faith....While we are
teaching them how to be adults, they are teaching us how to be
children. And the longer I live, the more I realize the strength of
that quality - "to become as a little child" which Jesus said is the
only way we will see the Kingdom of God.
Or consider little Rachel who moved from a school where she
had a friend, Kristin, and prayed that she would have a friend named
Kristin in her ne school. Her mother wondered, "How do I tell my
child she shouldn't be so specific with God." Then her daughter told
her something - She announced that Jesus was going to give her a new
best friend,, Kristin and she would have brown hair, just like her friend
Kristin from her former school. That's exactly the way it happened! Who
is teaching whom? Maybe we should be more specific with God - maybe
you should be more specific in your prayers! How does God know what
is important to you unless you make it known!
Whatever the collective group of us - those who live on the planet
earth - put out there into the universe is what will come back to us. How
many persons of peace are there - how many who enjoy the strife of war
and the spoils of war. How many are interested in justice for all?
We need some persistant prayers for the things that are far more
important than OUR specific wants - I think that's why we shy away from
asking a Big God for Small Favors, we cringe at suggesting that our God
is One Big Errand Boy in the sky - and well we should, but we should also
remember, as Jesus taught us that our God is a loving Heavenly Father
desirous of giving good gifts to His children.
His children, in turn should, according to our parable, pray without
ceasing - for important things - peace, justice, health, well being,
contentment. Our lives should be consistent in their sharing and their
giving, in their hoping and in their praying - never losing heart. "Will not
God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?"
Luke 18:7
In fact, you can put your "praying without ceasing" to good use
for the church. Most of you know that in the past 11 years we have put
on our to do list all of the things we put on our list to accomplish in 25
years. And things were going really smoothly - good support from the
members of the church - over a million and a half dollars raised and put to
us in the last eleven years - some of us are still paying on our pledges. I
am.
But we have run into a challenge. The last piece of work was to
take the paint off the front of the sanctuary, patch up the facade where
necessary and repaint it. We budgeted, $40,000. Unfortunately when it
was uncovered, it was immediately obvious that major restoration work
needed to be done - to have the three dimensional columns on either side
of the main door - the pilasters - and the area in between around the
stained glass window restored to their original state to last at least for
another 100 years. The cost - perhaps as low as $400,000, or perhaps
as high as $600,000.
Not wanting to go back to people still paying on what we have
done, the trustees made a proposal to the Historic Preservation Board of
the State of Florida asking for $350,000. There were 132 applications.
We were ranked 55th. According to the letter I got yesterday, the Division
of Historical Resources is recommending that the State Legislature approve
60 of the projects - that would include us - to the tune of 16 million.
Last year, only 3 million was allocated. The year before that 11 million
and forty some projects. Needless to say, I will be writing our legislative
representatives and encouraging them to vote for the recommended sum
for the 2009 State budget. I have the names and addresses available for
others of you who would like to lobby for the same. You won't be
arrested for it. You will be blessed for it, and you can begin to pray as
persistently as the poor widow who won her case simply by keeping on
keeping on.
We are called to be prayer warriors - for what the world needs, -
healing for the sick; money for the poor, courage for the downhearted,
energy for the exhausted. We are to be THE SEEKING SOCIETY in
and for our world. - prayer soldiers, winning the war against the world's
ills. So may it be.
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)October 21, 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 18:1-8
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
"THE SEEKING SOCIETY"
The head of our denomination, John Thomas was arrested this
week. He delivered 64,000 signatures - some of them yours and mine to
Washington - signatures on the Pastoral Letter requesting an end to the
Iraq war. The heavy boxes of petitions were taken to and received by
the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid, and House Minority Leader David Boehner.
The Rev. John Thomas and The Rev. Linda Jarmillo were not as
well received at the Whitehouse where they were refused a face-to-face
meeting with the public liaison office, so they stood in the "No Protest"
zone, refusing to move even though asked three times to do so by police
officers. As a result they were arrested and taken away. Later they were
released, each $100 poorer
Not everyone might agree with petitioning to end the war, but
everyone should agree their right to protest it - and that justice never rolls
down like the waters unless someone makes it roll - referring to the
passage in Amos 5:24: "But let justice roll down like waters And
righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."
The persistent widow in our parable today knew just how to keep
on pestering the judge for justice until she got it. She is our example.
But it's not easy to follow that example. A lot goes through your mind
when the police are telling you to move and the protest group you are with
is refusing to move and some are being rather strident with the officers.
Visions of just how much your life could be compromised if this ends up
with your getting a police record come into your mind! And yet it must
be done. And if you don't do it, then who?
The widow realized that there was no one other than herself to
turn to. As William F. Malambri, III describes our parable: "There was
this widow who had been treated unjustly. We might presume that
she had not received the proper support due her from her deceased
husband's estate since she could not inherit the estate outright.
Doubtless her brothers-in-law were not living up to the understood
arrangements. God, you see, had commanded that of all people,
widows, orphans and strangers were to be looked after.
So the widow puts her case before the judge, but not just
any judge. It turns out this judge does not fear God or respect
people. He's one of those judges who is more attuned to the dollar
than the divine. If you want justice from him, you had better be the
higher bidder. Or, you had better be persistent.
Having no advocate or nothing with which to bid, our widow
just keeps coming back. Like a boxer who does not know when to
throw in the towel, she continues round after round to stand up to
the judge and swing. Finally, he concedes. That's all we know - in
this one instance, for this one accuser, the judge gives in. We are
not told that he has a lasting change of heart, a new outlook on life,
some redemption story to tell his grandchildren. All we know is
that in the case of the widow versus whomever, the judge gives in
and rules justly." (William F. MalambriIII)
We're supposed to pray with the poor widow's kind of
persistence. Barbara Brown Taylor says that perhaps Jesus did not know
too many people with "the faith to stay at anything forever. Then as
now, most people prayed like they brushed their teeth - once in the
morning and once at night, as part of their spiritual hygiene
program." Barbara Brown Taylor
The Gospel writer, Luke, says that Jesus gave us this parable so
that we would understand that we should always pray and never lose
hope. We should indeed become, "THE SEEKING SOCIETY." That,
I believe should be based on the understanding that with God, all things
are possible. By that I mean that God is so great that even the smallest
details of our lives are important to Him. But like you yourself may think,
I often think that God is too great to be bothered with the little things that
I need help with.
How about you. Do you see prayer as a last resort. Is God a
First Resort or Last Resort God..
In the last issue of our newsletter, The Word, I asked: "Have
you ever rescued a damsel in distress? I tried to do that recently
when a lovely young woman who had been at church approached
me to say that her boyfriend had inadvertently left with the keys to
her car. (They had driven separately to church.) Her cell phone
was in her locked car. His was on "silent mode" in deference to
not disturbing the church service. Using my cell phone, we left
messages for him. She went to wait by her car, hoping that he
would remember to check his phone for messages. She had given
him my cellphone number as a contact. Not too much later, he
called and said he was on his way to give her the keys. I thought I
would be a nice guy and let her know that he would be there in
about 15 minutes. He had told me that her car was in the municipal
lot just down from the church. None of the parking attendants had
heard of anyone locked out of their car. I looked and looked. Not
wanting to give up, I FINALLY asked God to help me.
IMMEDIATELY, I saw her and IMMEDIATELY the thought came
into my mind as if from God's: 'Why didn't you ask ME in the first
place. Point well taken. Next time I will"
I didn't. On Tuesday I went to do the accounting for the Octoberfest
dinner. I had put the money in an envelope and put it in my mailbox in the
church office. On Tuesday mnorning, I took everything from my box -
everything that was there from Sunday and everything that came in from
Monday (I am not here on Mondays), and went through all the papers,
but there was no envelope. We looked everywhere, finally assuming that
the envelope of money had been stolen - which would have been the first
time in my 33 years here that any money had come up missing. We're
good with money, and locking doors and in securing the buildings and the
property. FINALLY, I resorted to prayer - and in one moment the lost
was found when the idea came into my mind to look under the portable
file I have on my desk. There it was. Again, I made God into a Person
of Last Resort. When will I learn? When will you learn.
I have a book from Guideposts called the Hidden Hand of God
(Remarkable Answered Prayers). They vary from the sublime to the
ridiculous and from the slime to the remarkable. Let me explain! One of
the true stories was from persons just like all the rest of us - this one from
Tina Coligan-Holt who had moved from a big city to a small town in Texas
where she decided to keep up with the neighbors by having a beautiful
garden. One of her neighbors suggested using compost so went to the
city dump where they gave it away free. When she opened the car door,
she was hit by a gust of wind that caused one of her contacts to fly out of
her eye. (Would one event WANT to find it in a pile of compost?) She
did want to, but she couldn't find it.
That night her son said, "Mama, do you believe in miracles?"
"I sure do!" she responded. "Then why don't we pray for a miracle
- to find your contact lens.: Needing his strength she said, "Will you
pray with me? So we did. He led us in a wonderful prayer straight
from a child's innocent heart. Right afterward he turned to me and
said, "Mama, did you check your purse. It was at the bottom of her
purse which had been open when she opened the door and her contact
blew away - right into her purse. How did her son know to ask that. It
was a miracle! Tine said, I was deeply touched by this very simple
event that proved to me the power of a child's faith....While we are
teaching them how to be adults, they are teaching us how to be
children. And the longer I live, the more I realize the strength of
that quality - "to become as a little child" which Jesus said is the
only way we will see the Kingdom of God.
Or consider little Rachel who moved from a school where she
had a friend, Kristin, and prayed that she would have a friend named
Kristin in her ne school. Her mother wondered, "How do I tell my
child she shouldn't be so specific with God." Then her daughter told
her something - She announced that Jesus was going to give her a new
best friend,, Kristin and she would have brown hair, just like her friend
Kristin from her former school. That's exactly the way it happened! Who
is teaching whom? Maybe we should be more specific with God - maybe
you should be more specific in your prayers! How does God know what
is important to you unless you make it known!
Whatever the collective group of us - those who live on the planet
earth - put out there into the universe is what will come back to us. How
many persons of peace are there - how many who enjoy the strife of war
and the spoils of war. How many are interested in justice for all?
We need some persistant prayers for the things that are far more
important than OUR specific wants - I think that's why we shy away from
asking a Big God for Small Favors, we cringe at suggesting that our God
is One Big Errand Boy in the sky - and well we should, but we should also
remember, as Jesus taught us that our God is a loving Heavenly Father
desirous of giving good gifts to His children.
His children, in turn should, according to our parable, pray without
ceasing - for important things - peace, justice, health, well being,
contentment. Our lives should be consistent in their sharing and their
giving, in their hoping and in their praying - never losing heart. "Will not
God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?"
Luke 18:7
In fact, you can put your "praying without ceasing" to good use
for the church. Most of you know that in the past 11 years we have put
on our to do list all of the things we put on our list to accomplish in 25
years. And things were going really smoothly - good support from the
members of the church - over a million and a half dollars raised and put to
us in the last eleven years - some of us are still paying on our pledges. I
am.
But we have run into a challenge. The last piece of work was to
take the paint off the front of the sanctuary, patch up the facade where
necessary and repaint it. We budgeted, $40,000. Unfortunately when it
was uncovered, it was immediately obvious that major restoration work
needed to be done - to have the three dimensional columns on either side
of the main door - the pilasters - and the area in between around the
stained glass window restored to their original state to last at least for
another 100 years. The cost - perhaps as low as $400,000, or perhaps
as high as $600,000.
Not wanting to go back to people still paying on what we have
done, the trustees made a proposal to the Historic Preservation Board of
the State of Florida asking for $350,000. There were 132 applications.
We were ranked 55th. According to the letter I got yesterday, the Division
of Historical Resources is recommending that the State Legislature approve
60 of the projects - that would include us - to the tune of 16 million.
Last year, only 3 million was allocated. The year before that 11 million
and forty some projects. Needless to say, I will be writing our legislative
representatives and encouraging them to vote for the recommended sum
for the 2009 State budget. I have the names and addresses available for
others of you who would like to lobby for the same. You won't be
arrested for it. You will be blessed for it, and you can begin to pray as
persistently as the poor widow who won her case simply by keeping on
keeping on.
We are called to be prayer warriors - for what the world needs, -
healing for the sick; money for the poor, courage for the downhearted,
energy for the exhausted. We are to be THE SEEKING SOCIETY in
and for our world. - prayer soldiers, winning the war against the world's
ills. So may it be.
Sermon Notes(Not edited nor proofed)The Rev. Dr. Garth R. Thompson Pastor, M.B. Community ChurchA sermon is a simple truth told by someone whobelieves it to people he knows and loves (Phillips Brooks)October 21, 2007 10:30 a, m. Luke 18:1-8
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heartsbe acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.
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