Fear and Faith

Matthew 10: 24-39, Genesis 21: 8-21

Fear and faith.

I have found myself focused on these two topics so much these past few weeks. They may have planted themselves as themes in my head and my heart just from reading this gospel passage as I began thinking about this sermon, or it may be, once again, the way the Holy Spirit tends to work on me, by putting something in front of me and then proceeding to offer me example after example after example on how I ought to be thinking about it; how I ought to be proclaiming the Living Word to all of you about it. Often it’s not the way I’d like to say it, but it is always the way I feel compelled by God to proclaim it. So please pray with me as we begin.

Gracious and loving God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Our gospel text today is a very challenging one. In only 15 verses, we have these messages:

·      If Jesus has been accused of being Beelzebul (or Satan), how much worse can be expected of Jesus’ disciples?

·      If you are going to fear someone, don’t fear the one that can kill your body; instead, fear God, to whom you belong, both body and soul, and before whom you will face judgment one day for your actions.

·      But don’t be afraid for your life, because God’s will extends to the sparrows, and of course you are of greater value than them. Even the hairs of your head are all counted. God knows you completely, and your life will be ordered according to God’s will.

·      Here’s all you have to do, says the Lord: have complete faith in me; trust me completely. With everything you have. Put me above all other priorities. Acknowledge me before others. Choose me above all others. Center your life around me and not around any others or any thing. Let go of your life and I will take care of it for you, in the way I know best, in the way you can trust.

·      However. The converse is also true. If you put your own protection, your comfort, your family, your convenience, your safety, your possessions, your wealth, your idols, your ideologies, your life, if you put anything ahead of me, before me, says the Lord, then you do have cause to be afraid. If your fear of losing these things takes priority over me, then you have something else to be afraid of.

So with these messages in my mind and my prayers, I found them resonating everywhere I went.

·      In the Old Testament passage, where God told Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away, and then God intervened in Hagar’s fear and sorrow, providing for them, reassuring them, caring for them – certainly not in the way they had been cared for prior to this, but caring for them nevertheless. She just had to trust.

·      At Vacation Bible School, where the scripture texts ranged from the Beatitudes to the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr, but were all focused on the theme of centering our lives on God, and trusting that the rewards from that kind of life mean more than any rewards we might collect otherwise. Focus everything on glorifying God, give God the glory for everything, don’t keep any glory for ourselves. Live your faith, don’t be afraid. That was the message of VBS.

·      At the hospital with Calli, and with all the expressions of support on her FB page, Caring for Calli, I watched and waited with two parents who clearly had practice rolling with the punches of life. When I asked Heather about their ability to stay calm and present in the midst of this (now) 13 day crisis, she said that they both operate with this sort of focus: Could they have changed what happened? (no…) Can they influence the outcome?(no….)  and Can they see God in the day to day things going on? (yes!....); so therefore, they abide in Christ, continue to rely on the prayers of so many, and place their confidence and trust in the almighty One. This seems to overcome fear for them.

·      In the midst of observing that, I read an article about a breakfast that was held the first day of General Assembly. A well-known theologian, Stanley Hauerwas, was the speaker, and he was speaking about American Christianity. This quote caught me in particular. He said: “Ever since 9/11, ‘the self-proclaimed most powerful nation in the world has run on fear,’ he said – mostly the fear of dying, which he called ‘our desire to get out of life alive.’  Hospitals have become our cathedrals, he said, and doctors, our priests. Medical schools are now more interesting places than divinity schools, he said. Why? ‘Because people believe that inadequately-trained doctors can hurt them. What we fear is death, not God.’” I think this explains why so many of our prayers are about physical health, and why we go to such extremes to try to protect ourselves and our loved ones from anything bad that might happen to us.

·      And as I continued preparing to write my sermon, I began to put together my current list – just for this week – of the things that I feel fearful about. This is probably a partial list, but I’ll share it with you:

1. 1.    Will Calli fully recover from this brain bleed that has the potential to change her life so significantly?
2. 2.    Will this congregation overcome its significant challenges – spiritual, financial, and communal, and be able to ever fully merge?
3. 3.    Will members of this congregation leave this church, leave the PCUSA over the marriage decisions of the General Assembly this week?
4. 4.    How will my American Jewish friends treat me when I see them in a month at our high school reunion, based on the divestiture vote at General Assembly?
5. 5.    Will the new member class after worship today go OK; will I be able to answer questions that arise, and will I do a good job preparing others to become members of this Presbyterian church?
6. 6.    Will I get to the pet supply store before my cats eat all the food left in the house this week?

Please take a moment, right where you are, and think about the top three specific things that are the cause of fear for you this day, this week. If you have a pen or pencil, make a note of them in your bulletin or on the scratch pads in the pews…

Now consider with me how those fears are addressed in the good news we hear from Jesus. For all of mine (except probably the one about the cat food), Matthew’s gospel tells me what to do. It tells me to let go of fear, and to trust, to have faith, in God’s providence. It tells me not to put fear of death, or loss, or conflict, ahead of seeking God’s will and sharing God’s love. And it tells me to tell all of you that you, too, are called to hand over your fears to God, and to trust that no matter what, God is in control. We can live in faith and in trust that we worship and serve an almighty God, who loves us and who wants what is best for us, and who actually knows what is best for us, better than we ever can know. And so, dear friends, let us hand over our fears to God, and focus with all our hearts and minds and strength on loving God and loving our neighbor, and trusting that God is in control and God will prevail. And that is good news. Amen.

With Us Always

Matthew 28: 16-20

The weeks since Easter have brought us a number of stories about Jesus’ time on earth after the resurrection, leading up to his ascension. During that time we have heard the various ways that Jesus prepared the disciples for the time to come, when he would no longer be on earth with them.

He told them about the work that lay ahead for them.

He told them that the Holy Spirit would come to help them. He reminded them over and over to not be afraid, to abide in God’s love, in his peace.

In our Gospel text today, this Sunday after Pentecost, this Trinity Sunday, we hear the closing words of the Gospel according to Matthew, where Jesus meets the disciples on a mountain in Galilee. We are told that they worship him, but that some doubted. We are reminded that “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus”, and then Jesus gives them what has come to be known as The Great Commission.

And his last words, according to Matthew’s gospel, are these: Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

On this Trinity Sunday, it’s good for us to consider together how it is that the Triune God is with us always. Because it is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit who is with us always, who has been with us from the beginning, who came to us in the flesh, and who abides with us always as our advocate, our comforter.

We heard the Genesis story of Creation as our Old Testament reading for today. You may not realize it, but this is a Trinitarian story. This creation story provides us with specific reassurance that from the beginning, God in three persons is with us. In the beginning God creates. The Spirit of God moves over the waters, even before there was heaven and earth, before there was light, before there was land to separate the waters from the sky. And God brings each creation into being by speaking it into being.

The Word of God.

The Logos, which is Jesus Christ, God the Son.

This is confirmed in the beginning of the Gospel of John – the New Testament counterpart to this Genesis beginning of the Old Testament. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Jesus the Word of God.

So in the beginning there is God, there is the Word of God, there is the Spirit of God. The trinity, the triune God. In the beginning.

Then when God became flesh and dwelled among us, the triune God was there. At Jesus’ baptism, God’s voice proclaimed pleasure with the beloved Son, as the Spirit of God descended upon Jesus. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

And now, since Jesus, God the Son, has ascended to heaven, he intercedes for us with God the Father. The ascended Christ is fully human, still, as much as he is fully divine.

And so he perfects our prayers for us to the Father, and he understands the sorrows and the pains as well as the joys of this world – he understands them first hand. He has experienced them.

And, as he promised, he has not left us orphaned or abandoned. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, has always been with us, and now gives us guidance, and comfort.

Just as the disciples could trust Jesus as they followed him, we can trust the Holy Spirit to always be with us, to be our guide and strength, because the Holy Spirit is God with us, just as Jesus is God with us. The triune God is with us – God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told the disciples, I am With You always. I AM – the Words God used in response to Moses when Moses said to God – tell me your name. God said – I AM. Jesus said – I AM With You Always. I AM is God. Emmanuel is God with us. Jesus promised – and delivered – on the Holy Spirit to be with us Always. The Triune God is with us always.

What does this mean for us? Does it place a shield around us from the troubles of the world? Certainly not.  Or, as the apostle Paul liked to say, “By no means!” The apostles and the early Christians went forward into terrible danger, torture, oppression, death. We are not promised a life free of troubles and pain, any more than they were. What we do know is that pain and suffering, sorrow, and even death do not have the last word – that Jesus has conquered them all.

Jesus said, “In the world you will have distress; you will face difficulties; you will be persecuted. But take heart – I have conquered the world!”

We are offered the peace that sustains us, the grace that redeems us, the love that never ends, from the triune God of mercy, of hope, of love.

I think I am speaking for most of us here today when I say that we often wish and perhaps would even prefer to have that protective shield around us, that magic wand that would make our troubles go away, that would make it all better.

We want to be able to touch the hem of Jesus and make pain go away, touch the hem of Jesus and mend broken relationships, touch the hem of Jesus and heal the sick, make the blind see, repair damaged backs and hips and brains and souls. We know that God’s power can heal, that Jesus healed all who came to him, and we want this healing for ourselves.

We pray for these miracles, don’t we?

We want God to fix what is broken in our selves, in those we love, in our world. Because we believe it is possible, we want to claim it for ourselves. We don’t want to settle for anything less, if we are honest with ourselves and with God.

Into the midst of this, here is the promise that we have been given: I am with you always. I love you, and you are mine. You are my beloved child. There is nothing that can happen to you, and there is nothing you can do, and there is nothing anyone else can ever do to you that can separate you from me, from my love. There is no sorrow you can bring to me, no sin you can hand to me, no worry you can turn over to me, that will ever change my love for you.

I have loved you from the beginning, I love you now, and I will love you to the end of days. My love and peace are not like anything else the world can give.

Abide in my love.

Trust in my Spirit.

Rest in my grace and peace.

These are the gifts of the Spirit that go beyond healing, that go beyond making our mortal lives easier or more comfortable. These are the gifts that give us true rest, true peace, true joy, the gifts that transcend the troubles of the world. These are the true gifts of God, freely given for you, for me, for all of us, for all time.

Even when we cannot see you God, even when your guiding hand can only be sensed with the faintest of touch, even when we cannot see the path ahead, when we do not know where we are going, still we will trust you, because you have told us, Do not be afraid. You have told us, peace be with you. You have told us, I will give you rest.  You have told us….

Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Amen.

Differing Voices, Differing Gifts; One Spirit, One Mission

Acts 2: 1-21, 1 Corinthians 12: 3b-13

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And they all spoke in different languages, and all the different people from different countries and different walks of life could understand them.

Different languages.

I was trying to think this week of how many different languages are spoken by people in this congregation.

If you can converse in another language, or read another language, would you raise your hand?

…..

I speak Engineer. Many people do agree that that is absolutely a unique language, right? Can I get an Amen for that?

But isn’t it true that, even if we don’t know the language of another nationality, that we each learn other languages based on our lives?

Life teaches us different languages.

Our different backgrounds

Our different geography

Our age

Our gender

Our family history

Our roles in life

Our gifts

All these give us different connection points with different people.

So, what other languages do you speak? Either raise your hand or just call them out, whatever makes you comfortable.

……

We all have our own multiple languages, whether we realize it or not. They are the basis of how we connect with one another. We seek common ground, a way of finding shared experience, shared understanding with one another.

All these different languages give us each a different connection point with the people around us.

The Word of the Lord, the Love of the Lord can be revealed to others by each of us differently, in different times, and places, and circumstances, based on the languages we have learned.

Our particular faith stories, the stories about how our lives have been changed by following Christ, these stories speak differently to different people at different times.

Paul wrote, “No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” And we know because of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit is here, is in each one of us, and is working differently in each one of us, through our different lives, through our different gifts.

When we gather together to worship, we grow in understanding of the fullness of the Holy Spirit and what is intended for us as the church.

When we leave, we scatter to share the good news in the way each of us can show it and tell it best.

Gathering and scattering; learning and sharing; show and tell. This is the life of a disciple; this is the life of the church. Through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The parables, the lessons of the living Word have different meanings to us at different points in our lives, and so we can share them differently with others based on what they say to us and to them. We all become interpreters of the Word by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Henri Nouwen writes that the power of God, given to us through the Holy Spirit, is not power that controls, dictates, and commands. It is, instead, the power that heals, reconciles, and unites. That is the power of the

divine Spirit that Jesus wants to give us. The Spirit empowers us and allows us to be healing presences. When we are filled with that Spirit, we cannot be other than healers, reconcilers, and uniters. 

The different gifts, the different languages of the one Holy Spirit are in each one of us, encouraging and guiding us toward one common mission, one great commission, one church, serving one Lord and Savior.

Take a look at this video with me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmweXyEeoBw

The flame is in each one of us. It’s the desire, the burning in our hearts at those times we feel the need to say something to someone or do something for someone that will help heal them, that will bring reconciliation, that will unite rather than divide.

One of Eleanor’s languages is pies. Through her pies she warms the hearts of those who save lives by giving blood.

One of Janet’s languages is prayer shawls. She keeps making them, praying as she goes, and we take those gifts and share them with others who need to feel God’s presence wrapped around them.

One of Donna and Lynn and Francis’ languages is visiting those who are not able to be with us in worship. They are making the rounds behind the scenes, speaking their unique languages of the Holy Spirit to everyone they see.

One of Mike’s languages is the garden he is planting to provide good healthy food for people who would not otherwise get to enjoy a homegrown tomato in the middle of the summer.

And of course there are many others.

And we don’t need to know exactly what words to say – the Holy Spirit can be counted on to make them work, even when they feel lame or inadequate to us, if what is in our hearts is that desire to heal, to bring reconciliation, to unite.

Even our quiet presence with others brings to them the power of the Holy Spirit. We don’t have to do it right. We just need to keep our hearts open to the Holy Spirit, and we can warm the hearts of anyone with our reconciling, healing, uniting love – because that love comes from God, through the Holy Spirit.

Let’s keep finding ways to tell the story we have to tell, as individuals and as the church, in our words and in our work, always speaking and working out of love.

Thanks be to God for Pentecost!

Thanks be to God for the church!

Thanks be to God for love!

Amen.

Moving On

Acts 1: 1-11

This past Thursday is described on the church calendar as Ascension Day – 40 days past the Easter Resurrection, commemorating the day that Jesus was lifted up and taken out of sight, beyond the clouds.

And this past Thursday we learned that Dr. Maya Angelou had died. She was described by her family as a teacher, activist, artist and human being; a warrior for equality, tolerance and peace. In their statement, they described her passing as her ascension, interestingly enough.

One of Maya Angelou’s most well-known poems is called “Still I Rise”, and this weekend the Rev. Kathleen Sheets took excerpts from that poem, read by Dr. Angelou, and combined it with artwork depicting Christ’s life, death, resurrection and ascension. She then graciously offered it up for use by other clergy. I’d like to share it with you to begin today’s proclamation of the Word.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4ZzsoIOz0Y

Just when we’re getting used to life’s routines, it seems, something is bound to change. We finally get used to kindergarten, or high school, and boom! we graduate and on to the next unknown. We develop a stride in our career, or our home life, and something changes to make us learn how to live with a new normal.

Whether it’s a change we bring about ourselves, or a change that is imposed on us that we would rather not have happen – moving on is hard.

And even as we try to settle into a new normal, there are times that we wish things would just go back to the way they were – back to when the place was familiar, the faces were familiar, the expectations were familiar.

There is grieving associated with change. Because change means giving something up. There is a loss involved.

The disciples had settled into something of a routine as they followed Jesus. Even though their lives had changed dramatically the day they left their fishing boats and their families, it appears from the scriptures that the pattern of their lives were shaped by following Jesus, listening to Jesus, doing whatever tasks Jesus assigned to them.

Even though the three years brought many strange and unimaginable experiences, the pattern of their days was not all that different than the life of any student who apprenticed to a rabbi. They didn’t have to make many decisions for themselves; they followed Jesus.

As the time drew near, and Jesus knew his days on earth were numbered, his words of instruction were still so confusing that they didn’t really sink in. What was happening was not clear. And so his arrest, trial and death were a terrible crisis for them. And so it’s not surprising that they responded first with fear, and then with disbelief, as they tried to imagine life without him, and then tried to comprehend the fact that there he was, alive again.

So for the next 40 days, even though he was saying to them, “I will rise; I’m not staying long; the Holy Spirit is coming and you will learn a new way of following”, who could blame them for falling into the old routine; listening to him, following him as much as they could in this new way of experiencing him, and hoping that things would stay as close to the same-old, same-old as possible. As long as Jesus was there, they could all safely play second fiddle; none of them really dared to step out on their own, to move on.

And then one day, without any real warning, Jesus rises up, up, and away, and he’s gone. It’s not hard to imagine the disciples standing there, looking up, their mouths hanging open with astonishment. Until the angels on the ground say, come on now, it’s time to move on. You have work to do; kingdom work. Jesus will be coming back again, don’t forget. And he left you specific instructions until then. Which did not include going back to the way things were; that is no longer an option. Don’t look back; we’re not going that way.

My friend, Jenee Woodard, lives in Jackson, Michigan. She graduated from a Methodist college, and married Bob, who is a special ed teacher. Jenee worked in a variety of ministry capacities, and planned to attend graduate school and pursue an academic career. Her interests were the Bible, early Christianity and commentary on Biblical texts.  

She gave birth to her daughter Jaie, who is now 25 and a biophysicist pursuing her Ph.D. at Harvard. Several years later her son Phil was born. He is now 22, and at age two he was diagnosed with severe autism. And that is when Jenee’s life took a hard left turn.

For Jenee, that change in her life’s reality meant dropping plans for the doctorate, dealing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with Phil’s autism, and figuring out how she could still develop a ministry. And so in 1998, with the internet still in its infancy, Jenee imagined how cool it would be if a pastor preparing a sermon could read all of the different commentators right next to each other.

So she began to collect all the online commentaries, liturgies, articles, and other sermon supporting materials she could get her hands on, and she organized them online according to their related scripture texts.

And she named it The Text this Week. It’s now internationally known as textweek.com, and it gets over 2 million “hits” (or people clicking on its links) each month – 4 million around Easter!

In an article written last year about Jenee in Faith and Leadership Journal, the Rev. Peter Wallace, the president and executive producer of the Alliance for Christian Media and on-air host of the Day1 program, said, “Her influence on the Christian church today is unbelievable. If you think of all the preachers who use her resources and preach sermons from all those resources, she probably has more influence on mainline churches than any resource today.” 

Jenee lives just down the road in Jackson, Michigan, and still is a one person show handling textweek.com. It never would have come to be if Jenee hadn’t landed in the midst of a life changing situation that caused her to change her life reality, and to move on from the initial plans she had made for herself and her family. 

As she says now, “A ministry, to me, means giving myself away – not for what it gets me or God or the church – but for the act itself. To me, this is probably the essence of faith.”

The disciples had to move on without Jesus in their daily midst – without him being visible and follow-able. Their challenge was to continue following him, feeling his love, hearing his voice, all through the power of the Holy Spirit, and finding new ways to be his hands and feet and body and ministry in the world, to share his love so others would experience him and want to follow him too.

And this is our challenge as well. In order to follow Jesus we have got to be ready and willing to move on when the time comes to change. We cannot turn around and fold our arms and say we want it the way it used to be, the way it always was. Christ makes all things new.

Christ calls us to follow, including following in new directions when it is time to move on. 

And so, despite grief and loss and fear, still we rise, and still we go forward, in the words of Maya Angelou, in the path of Jesus Christ our Savior, in hope, in trust, and in faith.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.