Sermon: Easter Sunrise, April 24, 2011

In Darkness – Light!

Sunrise Service

Psalm 118: 14-24 and John 20: 1-18

Preached by Linda Jo Peters ~ April 24, 2011 – Easter with Celebration of Our Lord’s Supper

Service held outside in Unity Presbyterian Church's shelter

Introduction Scripture
Psalm 118: 14-24
In its ancient context, Psalm 118 was most likely an entrance liturgy to the Temple, used at the festival of Passover. It proclaimed God's deliverance from Egypt and, later on, from the Exile. There are phrases such “as stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” that Christians have claimed as their own affirmation of salvation.
As long ago, the priests and people processed into the Temple with this Psalm on their lips, let this Psalm lead us into Scripture with reverence and awe:

14The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.
15There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous: “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly;
16the right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.”
17I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.
18The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death.
19Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.
20This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.
21I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.
22The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
23This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
24This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

John 20: 1-18
John does remarkable things to the (synoptic) stories surrounding Easter. His emphasis certainly falls on the reality of the resurrection as much as it does in Luke, but the focus is not a resurrected Jesus who materializes to his disciples. The focus is on the purpose of Jesus’ coming to earth to bring light in the darkness, love instead of hate, truth instead of the lie and life instead of death. This is what Mary seeks to hold on to but it is meant to be shared.

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their homes.

11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Sermon
Many of you have gone spelunking or at least toured a cave. It is the darkest experience we can get next to blindness. In that darkness even the tiniest light is significant. The glow of a watch dial or a cell phone can guide your walking. Most of us would not travel more than a few feet into a cave without some source of light. Spelunkers recommend at least three sources for exploring. When that stone was rolled over Jesus’ tomb it was that kind of darkness in which no amount of straining the eyes will give light. Yet when we enter spiritual darkness we often expect our own abilities to be enough to explore where angels fear to tread.

There are four characters in this story: Mary Magdalene, Peter, an un-named disciple and of course – Jesus. We know little about Mary Magdalene from the Bible other than she was healed of seven demons and was one of the few disciples that followed Jesus to the Cross and the Tomb. Some early Christian writings call her "the apostle to the apostles." In apocryphal texts, she is portrayed as a visionary and leader of the early movement yet others have interpreted her healing as an indication that she was filled with sin. She is named as one of the women who helped fund Jesus’ ministry. There is very little doubt she would of known Jesus when she saw him. For just this day push aside all the excuses of: it was dark, she had been crying, she was distraught. Let’s face it Mary is back in that dark cave of despair. At some point we have all wandered into it. We get lost in its darkness without our faithful light, the light of Christ to illuminate our way. Our life journey will take us to dark and frightening places. When we just fumble our way around, we will get lost and hurt. You have seen friends heading toward a terrible fall and tried to warn them. Stay out of that dark place; we try to pull them back. But this is their journey and we could stand around in anguish or we can carry the light of Christ with them into the darkness. That means we are truly with them.

At the tomb all Jesus has to do is call Mary by name and she believes. Peter we know struggles a little longer. He is still suffering from the darkness of his own betrayal when he denied he knew Jesus at his arrest. The un-named disciple gets it right away. All he has to see is the empty tomb.

We need the light of Christ to face the darkness of our own hearts and with that light we can see the way, the path becomes clear. We are the light in the darkness. So this Easter, let there be light in the darkness, joy in the midst of despair, hope when fear grips our hearts and love lighting the way. Amen.

Sermon April 17, 2011

“They Are All God’s Children!”

Psalm 141 read responsively, Luke 18:15-17and John 1:9-12

Preached by Linda Jo Peters

April 17, 2011 Palm Sunday ~ Children’s Sabbath

Psalm 141 read responsively

1I call upon you, O Lord; come quickly to me; give ear to my voice when I call to you.

2Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.
3Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.
4Do not turn my heart to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with those who work iniquity; do not let me eat of their delicacies.
5Let the righteous strike me; let the faithful correct me. Never let the oil of the wicked anoint my head, for my prayer is continually against their wicked deeds.
6When they are given over to those who shall condemn them, then they shall learn that my words were pleasant.
7Like a rock that one breaks apart and shatters on the land, so shall their bones be strewn at the mouth of Sheol.
8But my eyes are turned toward you, O God, my Lord; in you I seek refuge; do not leave me defenseless.
9Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me, and from the snares of evildoers.
10Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I alone escape.

Luke 18:15-17
The story of the children being brought to Jesus for a blessing has been our theme scripture throughout this series on children. The devotional resource has ended most of the prayers with the phrase “We are all children of God.” It is why we were brought to Jesus as children or why we have brought our own children to him: For we are all children of God.

15People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered them not to do it. 16But Jesus called for them and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 17Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

John 1:9-12
This passage from the great hymn of praise that opens John’s gospel reminds us how we become children of God. “…not of blood nor of the will of the flesh… but of God.” Listen to the Word, children of God.

9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,

Sermon
Here it is Palm Sunday and we should be reading passages about parades and preparations for the Last Supper. But today we culminate our journey in a Children’s Sabbath. Like the children on that first Palm Sunday we here the children sing Hosanna to the King for the little child will lead us into the Kingdom of God. They lead us with their enthusiasm for life and their trust that we can make a difference for them. We can kiss the owies of life away. We are the children of the light born of the will of God. Yet every so often I feel less precious and I seem lost in my struggle against not just evil but life itself.

Rev. Mark Bozzuti-Jones writes: …our whole human experience is something of an ongoing struggle: we struggle with our moral and ethical decisions, we struggle to make the right choices in life, we struggle to discipline our lives, and we struggle to achieve justice and a better world. We struggle to give love and peace the upper hand, we struggle to preserve the works of mercy, and we even struggle to remain Christian. Perhaps without realizing it as such, we struggle daily to ensure that our children are safe, protected, loved, educated, and/prepared to live out their dreams.

That is a tall order, because sometimes we seem to win that struggle and other times we seem to fail miserably. No matter how much we love someone we cannot protect them, we can only work for good and trust that we are making a difference for our children in our families and around the world.

In 2006, an American traveler Blake Mycoskie befriended children in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. (Sounds very familiar to our own William Seo when he was deployed to Afghanistan. ) Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes made possible by TOMS customers. At a presentation for his employees, Blake reports meeting a customer in an airport:

"He notice a girl wearing a red pair of shoes -- the shoes you make. Except for that girl they're not just a pair of shoes, they're a story. One she's ready to tell a stranger while he's trying to get a boarding pass.

He pretended he knew nothing about the brand and asked the girl what the shoes were. She related his story back to him enthusiastically. “She knew my whole story,” he said to the packed auditorium. After hearing such passion in her telling, he could not resist and revealed his identity to the girl. She opened her eyes very wide and exclaimed: “Why did you cut your hair?”

People remember. And when a message is a mission, they will tell your story to anyone who will hear it -- even a stranger at an airport, and by doing that, they become your strongest advocates in marketing your product."

What is our mission? Can you tell Christ’s story with the same enthusiasm as this girl did with her red shoes? Can you call out your Hosanna?

These past two weeks I was helping a friend recover from major surgery. I had the ability and time to make a difference in her recovery. But through the week I became more and more frantic as Vincent’s condition worsened and Diyo was hospitalized. I needed to be in two places or maybe three places at once. I grieved with Frank and Gwendolyn and I worried with Valentine. But I was too far away to touch them and hold them except in prayer, to kiss their “owies” away.

One of my friend’s pastors was able to join us at the hospital. How ironic I was being pastured while my congregation was not. In our getting to know one another Pastor Tim revealed that his wife was on her way to Haiti. To a small congregation she has been involved with since she was in college. It has become a mission for their whole congregation to rebuild the church’s school destroyed last year by the earthquake and to provide lunches for the children for whom this lunch may be the only meal they get that day.

When my friend came out of recovery she was shared that the assisting surgeon had sat by her side as she went under anesthesia and held her hand. This simple contact gave her a wonderful image of being cared for by the grace of God.

I can’t do heart or brain surgery. I cannot run into a burning building a rescue a family.
But I am still a child of the light born of the will of God and so are you. I have an important mission to witness to the love of God found in Jesus Christ. It is your mission too. You see the children of God are everywhere. They need their hands held. They need wells dug and medicine sent and schools built and food provided. And when you feel you have been a failure and less than precious, remember maybe all you can do to make a difference in this world is to buy a pair of red shoes so that somewhere in this world another child of God has a pair of shoes. Amen.

RESOURCES
“Persistence, Struggle, Advocacy, Hope: Allowing the Children to Come to Jesus” By the Reverend Mark Bozzuti-Jones, Priest for Pastoral Care at Trinity Church Wall Street, and former Specialist for Children’s Ministries, The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts

www.helpafghanistan.net/915/
www.toms.com/our-movement?icid=us032011_06

Sermon April 3, 2011

“Are Children the Least of These?”

Preached by Linda Jo Peters ~ April 3, 2011

With Celebration of our Lord’s Supper by Intinction

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE

Matthew 25:33-40
Jesus has been teaching his disciple with stories bout the return of a master to discover his stewards have wasted what they were put in charge of and then he tells of the final judgment as a parable of a shepherd separating sheep from goats. But here it is not just the unrighteous that are surprised by the judgment but also the righteous.

33and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

SERMON
It is spring break this week, so some of our children are traveling. May they all have travel mercies and come home with great stories to share. That gives us a chance to consider that children are often seen as the “least of these” in our plans, investments or public policy.

A child going to bed hungry and no hope of food for the next day is unconscionable. As long as children are hungry and undernourished the righteous must continue to work diligently to find them food. A child whose only source of water is running sewers and animal water holes is an unacceptable evil. We constantly are searching ways to give them clean water. A child who is alone, with no caring adult is a cry the righteous have been given ears to hear. We respond in a variety of ways that open our homes and hearts and churches to the lost children of the world. The child who is dressed in summer clothing on a winter day causes the righteous to give the shirt of their backs, and even more to start a clothing drive for local schools. The child who is sick causes the righteous come to them with prayer and anointing oils, they bring food, games and toys to pass the time and offer of rides to the doctor. The child who is in prison causes the righteous not only to visit but to provide good legal assistance, and help keep the child’s family connected.

God’s children are hungry, thirsty, lonely, naked, ill and even incarcerated. They each represent the Christ Child. Jesus said, “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” In this final parable about Judgment, we rediscover the theme that has been running throughout Matthew's Gospel−the theme of discipleship. A disciple of Jesus is part of his family, his brother and sisters and they seek out the lost as he does. This is a call to an obedience that is not prescription or law or sacrifice but joyful living in mercy without calculation. Dick Lange writes:
"This joyful living takes believers to an unexpected place. It takes them to the cross; it takes them to the cross in human lives, to the cross in the life of family, community, society, nation, and world. It takes them to the place of God's suffering in the world."

When the children of God enter the long awaited Kingdom, they enter singing and dancing and the great feast awaits them. Jesus put a meal for all of God’s children in the middle of worship. This sacred meal recalls what Jesus was willing to do because his brothers and sisters were suffering in a broken world, where death and sin seemed to have all the power. His sacrifice can seem such a waste from the perspective of fear and limited possibilities. But death could not contain the Author of Life. Jesus rose from death and the power of evil was vanquished. Every Sunday is a little Easter celebration of his resurrection and every time we celebrate this sacred meal we remember how much he loved us and loves us still and all children are invited to the great feast that awaits our union in the Kingdom of the Lord. Every one of us has been made worthy because of His love. As you take him into you this day, let the Spirit of God empower you to be the righteous of God, who hear and see the needs of every child and act as God has called you to act for the very least among them is precious to God. Amen.


RESOURCE
Dirk G. Lange, Associate Professor of Worship at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN.  See: WorkingPreacher.org for Nov.23,’ 08.

March 27, 2011

Suffer the Little Children: Sermon Series on Children

Psalm 95 and Matthew 15:21-28 (Syrophenician woman’s request)

Preached by Linda Jo Peters ~ March 27, 2011

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE
Psalm 95:1-7: Jerome Creach writes in his commentary that:
…the central theological message of Psalm 95 is that "the Lord is a great King." To recognize God's kingship is to recognize that God created us and sustains us. For that reason God is worthy of our praise. The psalm also suggests that our praise is more than words lifted heavenward. It is an expression of faith and it should be lived out in faithfulness and trust... To connect praise and obedience is our calling.

1O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
5The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
6O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!

Matthew 15:21-28
The Canaanites were seen as unsavory folk. Their ancestors had worshiped Baal whose rites had included child sacrifices. But the dialogue between this worried mother and Jesus is brutal.
Standing up to men of power, even good men, as a voice for justice for all children is one way we can follow Jesus who knows the suffering of all the children of God.

21Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” 23But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” 24He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 27She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

SERMON: Have you ever noticed that Jesus will not fit into that lovely little box that’s labeled: “Sweetness and Life.” Instead we have stores about a preteen that is uppity with his parents, a young man that talks back to his mother in front of wedding guests, an angry parishioner who chases people out of the place of worship, a teacher who asks more questions than he answers and a healer that refuses to heal. Lord, that is just so unhelpful when we are trying to win people over for you! Let’s just bury these passage away and ignore how they rub us the wrong way. But isn’t that what they tried to do to Jesus? He rubbed them the wrong way and they arrested him, tortured him, executed him and buried him. But thank God neither they nor we have the last word. God’s word both comforts and challenges us. So as we consider the suffering of children today, let us face how challenging it is to our faith when children suffer.

We have had three of our church family’s children in crisis this week. Vincent Pugh late last Sunday collapsed from another cardiac arrest with swelling of the brain. He is in Riley’s Children’s Hospital. Garrett Thomas battled pneumonia this past week and was hospitalized. Lilly, Norma our bookkeeper’s great-granddaughter developed a rare form of arthritis and that hits quickly and leaves just as rapidly. Fear is what eats away at the parents and family of each of these children. They would do anything to help their children. The hardest job is to remain faithful in the midst of the crisis.

This desperate mother comes to Jesus. Has she heard about his healings maybe even seen him in action? We do not know. We do know that she is determined for him to heal her daughter. She takes Jesus’ insults and even kneels before him in a position of worship. Because of her quick wit, and vulnerability, we naturally focus on the woman who is seen by the Jews as other, an outsider who is unwanted because of her ancestry. But in scripture you have to watch what God is doing to get the message. Jesus did much of his teaching by telling stories that often began with “The Kingdom of God is like…” We call them parables because they help us step back from the crisis and hear God’s will. I think this encounter with a gentile woman is like a living parable. Professor Salmon writes:

We see ourselves mirrored in Jesus' attitude toward the Canaanite woman, but not our best selves. We know very well the tendency to define and fear an "other" on the basis of skin color, nationality, class, or creed, deeply ingrained stereotypes that go back generations or even centuries. We resent being bothered by the concerns of those people. We have our own children to care for. When they persist, insisting on equal treatment and justice for their children, we resort to racial slurs and insults. And we are very good at justifying our actions rather than admitting the prejudice that persist.

Now what is God doing? God steps into our prejudice and acts like us and then we are unnerved by our actions toward others. Jesus is the mirror for his disciple but also for us. What children are we willing to ignore and persecute because they are different or enemies or just plain difficult? The woman is kneeling at our feet; she is pounding at our door. Will we ignore her send her away empty handed or will we work to see her child and all children made whole?

What would that look like at Unity? Our devotional resource was created by Rev. Dawn Curlee Carlson, pastor or First Congregational Church here in Terre Haute. She used information from the Children’s Defense Fund. They state:

We are committed to reclaiming our country, our core values and spiritual foundation for our children and families. Too many children live in poverty and suffer from preventable illness, neglect, abuse, inadequate education and violence. These problems are solvable if we each do our part. Right now, our nation has the ability to:

• End child poverty;

• Guarantee every child and pregnant woman comprehensive health and mental health coverage and services;

• Protect every child from abuse and neglect and connect them to caring permanent families;

• Provide high quality early childhood care and development programs for all children;

• Ensure every child can read at grade level by fourth grade and guarantee quality education through high school graduation; and

• Stop the criminalization of children at increasingly younger ages and invest in prevention and early intervention.

The list would require a lot of investment in the political process. But I was struck by the goal to “Protect every child from abuse and neglect and connect them to caring permanent families.” Right here in our congregation we have people who have opened their homes to foster care, adopted children and volunteer with Big Brothers and Big Sisters. We could have an even broader impact on protecting children just as we make a difference with our food pantry. Why would we bother? Just as better stewards of our national resources did you know the annual total direct and indirect costs of child maltreatment are estimated to be nearly $104 billion. Children left with no permanent family connections or a connection with a caring adult have no one to whom they can turn for social, emotional or financial support and face numerous barriers as they struggle to become self-sufficient adults.

The children are suffering right here in Vigo County. We can make a difference. May we hear Jesus say, “Unity, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And our children were made whole. Amen.

Resources
Assistant Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University, Atlanta, GA, published on WorkingPreacher.org for March 27, 2011.
Marilyn Salmon, Professor of New Testament, United Theological Seminary, St. Paul, MN, see: Working Preacher.org, August 17, 2008
See: http://www.childrensdefense.org/policy-priorities/