June 27, 2010

A Tough Road to Follow

Scripture Psalm 77: 11-20 read responsively and Luke 9:51-62

Ordination and Installation of Elder Barbara Atkinson and Installation of Jane Kohr

Preached by Linda Jo Peters ~ June 27, 2010

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE
Psalm 77: 11-20 read responsively

Psalm 77 begins as it recalls the past out of a senses of abandonment and loss. It concludes with our reading for today which is an affirmation. The past not only recalls loss but it is also a source of promises fulfilled. It becomes a source of hope for the present because God’s eternal nature intersects with our past and present to shape our future.
11I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord; I will remember your wonders of old.
12I will meditate on all your work, and muse on your mighty deeds.
13Your way, O God, is holy. What god is so great as our God?
14You are the God who works wonders; you have displayed your might among the peoples.
15With your strong arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
16When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; the very deep trembled.
17The clouds poured out water; the skies thundered; your arrows flashed on every side.
18The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook.
19Your way was through the sea, your path, through the mighty waters; yet your footprints were unseen.
20You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron

Luke 9:51-62
We know Jesus grew up in Galilee. Most of his ministry has been in communities around his home base. Now he is heading toward the conflict his ministry will create in Jerusalem. Now following him takes on more troubling significance. He will become homeless, derided and finally killed for his passion to bring the Kingdom of the God to the people of God. What would you give up to serve the Lord?

51When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; 53but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55But he turned and rebuked them. 56Then they went on to another village.

57As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

SERMON
Today we will ordain Barbara Atkinson and with Jane Kohr install them into office to serve Christ’s church. Jane has been down this road before and Barbara has been attending Session meetings for the past several months. Neither one would be surprised by my sermon title that following Jesus is a tough road. Yet they also know the great joy that comes from following Jesus. There are many times of laughter and feelings of accomplishment, but there also times when someone corners you over an issue they have with the church and they pour out their anger and frustrations on you. Like James and John we may want to pour fire down on them,

Though James and John are "messengers," they get the message wrong. Elijah had indeed called down fire from heaven to destroy a military detachment from Samaria (2 Kings 1:10). They seem to suppose that fiery judgment might again be called for against the Samaritans, and they further suppose they are the ones to administer it.

Elijah is an important fore-runner of Christ. But Jesus is not Elijah, and his mission is not about judgment, but compassion and mercy.

As followers of Jesus our job is to listen to those hurting even in the church with patience and love. It is not easy but it is part of our road.

Following Jesus means we are sojourners in this world because our home is with the risen Christ. We may live in a five bedroom house or an efficiency apartment; we may live in a trailer or a cardboard box. We may have resided in our house for over sixty years or have just moved in yesterday. All are temporary. We are all resident aliens, but not homeless because wherever we are, as long as we are following Jesus, we are home. Hospitality is one of the great gifts of Christians everywhere. This week many of you opened your home for the Grove UMC Youth Choir and also prepared meals for over forty people. On Thursday Jan took over the Praise service for me so I could moderate the Clinton Session. Thursday they have a community meal for anyone who can come. They had feed 44 people that day. They also house the community food pantry. Sound familiar? Churches large and small are pouring out resource during yet another time of crisis, when their own budgets are hurting. Instead of withdrawing from our commitment to Jesus Christ, we continue to step out in faith. It is not easy to follow Jesus but it is the road we travel.

People want to be where the action is. It was just as true in Jesus’ day as today. Jesus was “where it was at!” So people gravitated to him and wanted to follow him and be his disciple. Jesus was warning these people that road he was on was fraught with danger and demanded high commitment. So I ask you again, “What would you give up to serve the Lord?” Perhaps you feel you have already sacrificed enough for Jesus. Maybe you’re tired and the kingdom of God seems so far away. Our world is full of trouble what more can we do about it? When we start looking back on what we have done, we lose our momentum. Our past life, our past home, our past relationships are all set aside to follow Jesus. Like mowing the lawn, if instead of watching where you are going you are always looking where you have been, your will wander all over the yard. You might run over a few flowers or into a tree on the way. Jesus wants our full attention. What we are called to do as disciples is too important to turn back or get tangled up in old commitments that are not life-giving.

Perhaps the question I should be asking is, “What do you need to give up to keep your commitment to Jesus Christ?”

I was watching a video of Berkley graduates, who were asked “What do you want the future to look like?” Over and over was the theme of acceptance of diversity as integral to their vision along with their own commitment to make that happen. Then I watch the commencement address at Barnard Women’s College by Meryl Streep. She said:

Never before in (our) history or country have most of the advanced degrees been awarded to women but now they are. ( ) It's hardly more than 100 years since we were even allowed into these buildings except to clean them but soon most of law and medical degrees will probably also go to women. Around the world, poor women now own property who used to be property and according to Economist magazine, for the last two decades, the increase of female employment in the rich world has been the main driving force of growth. Those women have contributed more to global GDP growth than have either new technology or the new giants India or China. Cracks in the ceiling, cracks in the door, cracks in the Court and on the Senate floor.

If diversity can inspire so much hope for our shared future, what do we as followers of Jesus want the future to look like? I want it to look like the kingdom of God. A reign of peace and joy, were all have a place at the table. Where the gifts of everyone are valued and used to serve the greater good. I see a future where it is not about accumulation of wealth and stuff, but sacrifice and love.

Meryl told those young women, “This is your time and it feels normal to you but really there is no normal. There's only change, and resistance to it and then more change.” A tough road to follow? You bet! But so worth it! Amen.

Resources: The Old Testament Readings: Weekly Comments on the Revised Common Lectionary, Theological Hall of the Uniting Church, Howard Wallace, Melbourne, Australia. John Petty, Progressive Involvement, 2010.See:http://e.iciba.com/space-4457699-do-blog-id-1202609.html

June 20, 2010

One In Christ Jesus

June 20, 2010 ~ Father’s Day

and the Celebration of the Gifts of Men

Psalm 43 read responsively and Galatians 3:23-29

Preached by Linda Jo Peters

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE
Psalm 43 read responsively
We all have yearned to know God, to be intimate with the divine. Much seems to separate us from a close relationship with God. The psalmist knew this yearning and the desire that God would guide us clearly and definitively.

1Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people; from those who are deceitful and unjust deliver me!
2For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you cast me off? Why must I walk about mournfully because of the oppression of the enemy?
3O send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.
4Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.
5Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.

Galatians 3:23-29
Our passage begins with Paul's assertion that the Law functioned to enslave us and expose our weaknesses. It functioned like the slave who was responsible for disciplining children for their education (frequently very harshly!). People who see in the Biblical Law something with ongoing relevance as an expression of God's guidance will be appalled by Paul's descriptions. In the next chapter, Paul will speak of Gentiles who were once enslaved to false gods! You can almost hear the affront that he would associate commitment to scripture with enslavement to pagan gods! Paul made such claims because some of the Galatian Christians had turned the Law into a set of demands which became almost a set of qualifications one had to meet before one was acceptable to God. Does this sound like some Christians today for whom biblical laws have become not a source of generous guidance but an instrument of oppression? We have been given something much more wonderful than the Law, we have been given Christ Jesus!

23Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

SERMON

Today we celebrate and give thanks for the gifts of men, in particular fathers and grandfathers, who provide safe havens for children, in their homes as well as in their hearts. But also for men who are disciples of Jesus Christ and lead others to know and serve him. I want us to move away from the great macrocosms of my last two sermons that exposed what breeds slavery, pollution and greed to the microcosm of intimate relationships between family, friends and church. The power to grow healthy relationships and make effective changes in our society comes from being open to the Holy Spirit.

For me the best image of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit is that of fire as the church has used for many years. When the Holy Spirit is present there are no laws that can contain our love and it shoots across rivers of distrust and hate and jumps barriers erected by prejudice. It consumes us and reforms us in the body of Christ. No wonder the Galatians wanted the Law back. They had actively participated in the fire of the Holy Spirit and they were afraid of the glorious uncontrolled freedom it brings! Are we not just as afraid?
We write law after law in an effort to change human behavior. But without changing the human heart, no significant change can last. What turns a self center, egotistical man into a loving and devoted father? A change of heart! If a child can do that, think what being open to the Holy Spirit can do for a man. Men are sometimes derided for being so task oriented. But that is how God designed them to be. Here is a story that affirms the movement of the Holy Spirit using men’s gifts to set a goal and accomplish a task.

Water in the Presbytery of the Mid-South didn’t flow — it froze. Inches of ice built up until the weight began snapping trees and power lines throughout east Arkansas, the boot heel of Missouri, and northwest Tennessee. “All we could do was shake our heads. We didn’t know where to start,” related the Rev. Warren Wilkewitz, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Blytheville, Arkansas. A week later, in February 2009, the first Disaster Assistance Relief Teams (DART) arrived in Blytheville with chainsaws, water, and batteries.

The Spirit started moving through the presbytery a couple of years before the ice storm. One man’s ministry was organizing disaster relief groups. Then a group of folks gathered to discern a call to “do something” and DART was born. After just one announcement, many churches offered people power and equipment to the team. Then the ice storm hit. Largely unprepared but willing and able, DART answered the call.

“We didn’t know who would respond — sandwich makers, counselors?” said Jayn Lando, elder at Advent Church and DART leader. “It quickly became clear that we’re a chainsaw team first and whatever else is needed after that. They just brought their equipment and sleeping bags and were ready to help.”

“Do something” ultimately meant restore hope, bring order, listen to the stories, hold a hand, pray. With friendships forged, the team members share more than chainsaw oil: they share the willingness to listen for the next call and answer together, being blessed by becoming the hands of Christ.

Even their prayer is simple and to the point:

"Tell us what to do, O God, and give us hearts to respond. Amen."

The good news is that God has a plan for each of us and for all of us working together. We have different gifts and passions but bound together with the power of the Holy Spirit, we can make a huge difference. Together we are all “heirs according to the promise.” Men and woman, fathers and grandfathers, single and married, with children and without, we are all one in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Resource: Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study The Presbytery of the Mid-South for June 14, 2010