Lent – Page 4 – Salvaged Faith

Passion Sunday – a Reader’s Theater for Worship

Posted on April 4, 2009Leave a comment

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The Lord be with you!
And also with you.
Let us lift up our hearts!
We lift them up to the Lord!
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise!

It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth. In your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility. Mercifully grant that today and every day we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.

Sing Hymn #269 Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days

During this hymn – all readers move to their seats.

The Procession (Mark 1:1-11)

Children’s Message

Narrator: It was the time of the Passover, and Jesus and his disciples came to the village of Bethany, very close to Jerusalem and Jesus sent two of them ahead of the group with these instructions:

Jesus: Go to the village across from you. As soon as you enter, you’ll find a colt tethered, one that has never yet been ridden. Untie it and bring it. If anyone asks, ‘What are you doing?’ say, ‘The Master needs him, and will return him right away.'”

Disciple1: We went and found a colt tied to a door at the street corner and untied it. Some of the people standing there asked, “What are you doing untying that colt?” But we told them exactly what Jesus had instructed us, and the people left us alone. We brought the colt to Jesus, spread our coats on it, and he rode it.

Crowd: I was standing on the side of the road, heading into Jerusalem myself for the festival when I saw Jesus riding on the colt. People around me started throwing their coats on the street before him. I eagerly grabbed the palm branch someone handed me and we placed them at his feet also. The Passover is a festival about freedom and liberation – and as we saw him come in… we all felt like hope was in the air. Someone cried out “Hosanna!” “Save NOW!” and soon the crowd was filled with Hosannas…. Surely, Jesus was coming in God’s name.

Sing #279 Filled with Excitement {Jesus will lead the procession as the kids and everyone follow around with palm branches and we take the offering during this time.}

The Passover (Mark 14:1-2,10,12-17)

Narrator: (stand to read) Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem, then entered the Temple. He spent time just taking it all in. But by now it was late, so he went back to Bethany, just a short distance outside of Jerusalem, with his disciples to stay at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. (sit back down until next line)

Caiaphas: (stand) In only two days the eight-day Festival of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread would begin. As the Chief Priest, my job was not only to perform religious duties, but in a time of occupation by Rome, I found myself constantly torn between appeasing the governor Pilate and keeping the peace. The crowds spoke enthusiastically about Jesus… too enthusiastically. I don’t know what I feared more – an uprising of the people, or that the Romans would intervene and destroy both the temple and us as a nation. In many ways, I understood that he would have to be sacrificed for the good of the nation. It would be better for this one man to die, than for the whole nation to be destroyed. We began to look for a way that we could seize Jesus secretly and kill him. We couldn’t do it in the open during Passover Week. We don’t want the crowds up in arms, after all.

Judas: (move from disciple group to Lectern) Then, I, Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ disciples went to those religious leaders, determined to betray him. I’m not sure what came over me, but there were some things that I had witnessed that I just didn’t understand – like the woman who poured lavish and expensive oils over Jesus. Some things had just seemed to get out of hand. When I showed up before them, the priests couldn’t believe their ears and promised to pay me well. So I started looking for just the right moment to hand him over. (Caiaphas sits, Judas goes back to disciples)

Disciple2: It was the first of the Days of Unleavened Bread, when we always prepare the Passover sacrifice. We were mere visitors in Jerusalem, so we turned to Jesus and asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations so you can eat the Passover meal?”

Jesus: Go into the city. A man carrying a water jug will meet you. Follow him. Ask the owner of whichever house he enters, ‘The Teacher wants to know, Where is my guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’ He will show you a spacious second-story room, swept and ready. Prepare for us there.”

Narrator: The disciples left, came to the city, found everything just as he had told them, and prepared the Passover meal.

{during this response, the disciples/Jesus all move to the “table”}

#288 All: Were you there when he gathered with his friends (X2)
Oh sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble
Were you there when he gathered with his friends

The Last Supper (From Mark 14:18-31)

Narrator: (stand and use pulpit mic) Jesus and his disciples gathered round the supper table to eat. Then their teacher stood up among them and spoke.

Jesus: “I have something hard but important to say to you: One of you is going to hand me over to the conspirators, one who at this moment is eating with me.”

Disciple1: We were absolutely stunned and started asking one another, “It isn’t me, is it?”

Jesus: It’s one of the Twelve, one who eats with me out of this very bowl. In one sense, what will happen tonight is an act of treachery that has been foretold by the scriptures. But in another sense, the person who turns me in – who turns traitor to the Son of Man – well, better never to have been born than to do this!

Narrator: In the course of their meal, having taken and blessed the bread, he broke it and gave it to them.

Jesus & Pastor: Take, Eat. This is my body broken for you. Do this in Remembrance of Me.

Narrator: When they had finished eating, Jesus took the cup, he gave it to them, thanking God, and they all drank from it.

Jesus & Pastor: This is my blood, God’s new covenant, Poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of Me.

Jesus: You’re all going to feel that your world is falling apart and that it’s my fault. There’s a Scripture that says, I will strike the shepherd; The sheep will go helter-skelter. But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you, leading the way to Galilee.

Peter: Even if everyone else is ashamed of you when things fall to pieces, I am Peter. I am your rock. I won’t be.

Jesus: Don’t be so sure. Today, this very night in fact, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.

Peter: Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you.

Disciple2: All of the rest of us disciples said the same thing.

{During this response, Judas goes to Caiaphas, Disciples & Jesus go to the “garden”.}

All (sung): Were you there when he gave them bread and wine? (X2)
Oh sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble
Were you there when he gave them bread and wine? (X2)

In the Garden of Gethsemane (Read Mark 14:32-50)

Narrator: (stand and use pulpit mic) Jesus took some of his disciples, Peter, James, and John, with him to a quiet place called Gethsemane.

Jesus: Sit here while I pray.

Narrator: He plunged into a sinkhole of dreadful agony.

Jesus: “I feel bad enough right now to die. Stay here and keep vigil with me.”

Narrator: Going a little ahead, he fell to the ground and prayed for a way out.

Jesus: Abba, Father, you can—can’t you?—get me out of this. Take this cup away from me. But please, not what I want—what do you want?

Narrator: He came back and found them sound asleep. Disappointed, he said to Peter,

Jesus: Simon, you went to sleep on me? Can’t you stick it out with me a single hour? Stay alert, be in prayer, so you don’t enter the danger zone without even knowing it. Don’t be naive. Part of you is eager, ready for anything in God; but another part is as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire.

Narrator: He then went back and prayed the same prayer. Returning, he again found them sound asleep. They simply couldn’t keep their eyes open, and they didn’t have a plausible excuse. He came back a third time.

Jesus: Are you going to sleep all night? No—you’ve slept long enough. Time’s up. The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up. Let’s get going. My betrayer has arrived.

Narrator: No sooner were the words out of his mouth when Judas, the one out of the Twelve, showed up, and with him a gang of ruffians, sent by the high priests and their counselors, brandishing swords and clubs.

Judas – Charlotte: (speak at lectern mic) I worked out a signal with them. “The one I kiss, that’s the one—seize him. Make sure he doesn’t get away.” I went straight up to Jesus and said, “Rabbi!” and kissed him. The others then grabbed him and roughed him up.

Disciple1: (use the mic by the plant ) One of us who were standing there pulled out a sword, swung, and came down on the Chief Priest’s servant, lopping off the man’s ear. And Jesus turned to scold us all!

Jesus: What is this, coming after me with swords and clubs as if I were a dangerous criminal? Day after day I’ve been sitting in the Temple teaching, and you never so much as lifted a hand against me. What you in fact have done is confirm what the scriptures have said all along.

Disciple2: (use the mic by the plant ) We were all so scared that all of us disciples turned and ran.

{Jesus moves to where the Caiaphas is sitting. Disciples/Judas sit down in the pews. Peter sits in the stool again)

All: Were you there when he knelt and prayed to God? (X2)
Oh sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble
Were you there when he knelt and prayed to God?

In the Courtyard (Mark 14:53-56,66-72.)

Narrator: (pulpit mic) Jesus was led to the house of the Chief Priest, where some of his council had gathered. In the cover of darkness, they held a secret meeting .

Peter: I followed at a safe distance until they got to the Chief Priest’s courtyard, where I hung back, and mingled with the servants and warmed himself at the fire.

Caiaphas: (lectern mic) We knew that we didn’t have enough evidence or time to try Jesus in the regular Sanhedrin Council , so we met secretly amongst ourselves and to look high and low for evidence against Jesus – anything that we could find that we could use to sentence him to death. But we found absolutely nothing. Lots of people came forward who were willing to lie, but none of the witnesses agreed with one another.

Peter: As I stood in the courtyard, one of the servant girls came in and looked at me.

Crowd:. (pulpit mic)You were with the Nazarene, Jesus.

Peter: I denied it “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I moved farther away from her and heard a rooster crow. But the girl spotted me again and began to talk with the others.

Crowd: He’s one of them.

Peter: Again I denied it. I was afraid of being arrested. I just wanted to watch and see what would happen so that I could go back and tell the others. I knew I was being a coward, but it took all of my courage in the world just to be there. I thought I was off the hook, but after a while, someone else came up to me.

Crowd: You’ve got to be one of them. You’ve got ‘Galilean’ written all over you.

Peter: It was then that I got really nervous and I swore, “I never laid eyes on this man you’re talking about.”

Narrator: Just then the rooster crowed a second time. Peter remembered how Jesus had said,

Jesus: Before a rooster crows twice, you’ll deny me three times.

Peter: I collapsed in tears.

All: Were you there when his friends betrayed and ran? (X2)
Oh sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble
Were you there when his friends betrayed and ran?

Jesus Is Tried by Pilate (Mark 15:1, 6-9)

Caiaphas: (lectern mic) After a whole night of meeting, when the sun began to rise, we arranged for a conference with the entire Jewish Council. We tied Jesus up and turned him over to Pilate. We thought if we were the ones who turned him over to the Romans, that the temple and the people would survive.

Narrator: It was a custom at the Feast to release a prisoner, anyone the people asked for. There was one prisoner called Barabbas, locked up with the insurrectionists who had committed murder during the uprising against Rome.

Pilate: (lectern mic) The crowd came up and began to present its petition to me, Pilate, to release for them a prisoner. I knew of the popularity of this Jesus figure, even though I knew little about him. But he was someone that seemed to be creating quite a following and under other circumstances that could be grounds for treason. And so I asked them – “Do you want me to release the King of the Jews to you?” (“crowd” holds up the cue card: Cue card #1: No)

Pilate: Noah: I thought it might be sheer spite that led the high priests to turn Jesus over to me. I hadn’t personally witnessed any insurrectionist spirit, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t capable of it. Better to squash a threat early than to let it lead to anything. But the religious leaders had by then worked up the crowd to ask for the release of Barabbas. And so I again asked the crowds “So what do I do with this man you call King of the Jews?” (Cue card #2: Crucify him!)

Pilate: “But for what crime?” (Repeat Cue card #2.)

Pilate: So I gave the crowd what it wanted. I set Barabbas free and turned Jesus over to be whipped and crucified. One less peasant for me to worry about. One less revolt to have to put down.

Narrator: The soldiers took Jesus into the palace and called together the entire brigade. They dressed him up in purple and put a crown braided from thorns on his head. Then they began mocking him: “Long live the King of the Jews!” They banged on his head with a club, spit on him, and knelt down in mock worship. After they had had their fun, they took off the purple cape and put his own clothes back on him. Then they marched out to nail him to the cross.

(everyone sits down here, except Narrator. Jesus can speak line from the audience, and then turn off mic)

All: Were you there when they sentenced him to death? (X2)
Oh sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they sentenced him to death?

The Crucifixion {Mark 15:23-43.}

Narrator: As we hear this next part of our story, I invite you to close your eyes and listen with a prayerful spirit.

Jesus was nailed to a wooden cross between 2 robbers. Being crucified was a horrible death normally reserved for criminals. His enemies laughed and hurled insults. As Jesus hung there in great pain the whole world grew very dark. It was as though the sun could not bear to watch what was happening. The crowd was hushed. Jesus repeated one of the psalms to himself.

Jesus: “My God, my God, Why have you abandoned me? I have cried desperately for help. But still it does not come.”

Narrator: After 3 agonizing hours he took one last deep breath. And then he died. It was toward evening when Joseph of Arimathea arrived to ask Pilate if he could take Jesus’ body for burial.

All: Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Oh sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?

Holy Communion

Silent Confession

Pastor: We have heard throughout worship this morning the story of what Christ has done in our lives. We have given thanks to our God through words and deeds. And now we are invited to come to the table of our Lord, to share in the meal that began so long ago.

Gracious God, Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we maybe for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.

By your spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Sprit in your holy church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty God, now and forever. Amen.

And now with the confidence of children of God, let us pray: Lord’s Prayer.

Sharing the Bread and the Cup

Closing Benediction

Special thanks to liturgies by Maria Hoshaw and James Love that formed the backbone of this worship service.

Broken Open, Filled With Love

Posted on March 29, 20091 Comment

Sermon Text: Jeremiah 31:31-34; John 12:20-33; Psalm 51

It takes a long time for any of us to learn something new. At Christmas time, I was absolutely set on learning how to play the guitar. I headed to the Guitar Center in Cedar Rapids and found the perfect guitar for me and bought it on the spot. My brother-in-law gives lessons, and so we worked out an arrangement that I would have a lesson each week when we came over for dinner. So far, so good.

For the first few weeks, I practiced nearly every night. It was exciting to hold this instrument in my hands and to hear the intonation of the strings. I learned a few new chords each week, but I think the more I learned, the more I realized how little I in fact knew. Every new lesson opened up a whole world of possibility and questions and soon it was almost overwhelming.

And then, I got busy. Or rather, other things in my life started creeping in and taking importance once more. My practicing suffered. I began to dread my Friday night lesson and on more than one occasion conveniently “forgot” my guitar at home. I know, it’s pathetic really, but eventually I just stopped playing.

For a few weeks now, my guitar has sat in its case in the corner of my office waiting to be played. Waiting for me to pick it up once again. And I think the thing that makes it so hard to do, is that I know I’m going to have to start all over again. I’m going to have to go back to the basics.

As I glanced over at my guitar this week, I realized that many of us could easily substitute the words “faith” or “church” or “prayer life” for my experience learning how to play. When we begin this journey and this relationship with Christ, we are so full of energy and excitement and we dive in head first, eager to learn.

But life creeps back in. Or at least, life as it was before, and if we do not give our relationship with God the care and attention it needs, before too long we find that our faith is sitting in the corner, gathering dust, rather than an active and vital part of our lives.

In many ways, I don’t know that we are necessarily to blame for this phenomenon. Maybe it’s because we are lazy, or too easily swayed by the ways of this world. Maybe it’s because we are weak. But it seems like each of us has built into our nature this inability to fully follow God the way that we want to. Call it what you want – the consequences of free-will, original sin, or the brokenness of humanity – but there is just something that seems to prevent us from truly accepting and embodying the will of God in our lives.

In Romans, Paul talks about this struggle in his own life, saying “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am!”

This problem of will, this problem of sin isn’t something that just plagues us. It isn’t something that just plagued Paul… it has plagued us as a people of God from the very beginning.

There is a bible study group in our church that meets on Wednesday mornings. And in the past few months, they have been working through the first books of our Bible. We have listened in as the Hebrew people hear God’s call and say that they are willing to follow God’s law… but then time and time again grumble, and try to do things their own way, and fall by the wayside. Over and over again, God reminds them that they are a chosen people, reminds them that they have been brought out of slavery and bondage – that they have been freed to live a new life in relationship with God. And over and over again, they fail.

In the midst of a time of failure, one of those moments in the life of Israel when they were the farthest from God and seemed irredeemable – God sent a prophet named Jeremiah into their midst.

Now, Jeremiah had some tough words for the people of God. He spoke harshly against their worship of other gods and their mistreatment of the poor and told them very clearly that God was about to let Babylon come in and carry the people off into exile.

And before too long – the things Jeremiah spoke of began to happen. The king was taken away, the army collapsed, the temple was ransacked.

But then, in the midst of their despair, Jeremiah laid aside the words of judgment and condemnation and began to speak a word of hope.

“A new day is dawning” God spoke through Jeremiah, “ A new day is dawning where I will put my law within you… I will write it on your hearts. It will not be like the promises we made in the past – promises that you could never live up to – even though you love me, and even though I was faithful. This law, this new way I will write on your hearts and I will be your God and you will be my people. I will forgive you, I will restore you, and I will remember the ways that you failed in the past no more.”

The law – the beautiful words of God that are meant to guide our actions and to help us to live in love with one another – is a good and holy thing. But try as hard as we might – I’m not convinced that we can do it alone. Left with just good intentions and our own hearts and minds and wills – the law is an unattainable goal that will always show us as wanting. None of us is perfect enough. None of us is good enough. None of us, no matter how much we love God, can do it on our own.

But something changes in these words from Jeremiah. The law is transformed from some external measure that we must live up to – to a relationship, a way of being, that God writes on our very hearts.

The Psalmist cries out – give me a clean heart, O God, put a new and right spirit within me. Take that old self of mine that never seems to get it right, and fill me up with your will. Because I can’t do it alone. Only you can sustain me. Only you can help me to do it right.

In our United Methodist tradition, when we talk about grace, we talk about it in three ways. First, there is the grace that comes to us before we even know or understand who God is – prevenient grace. Then, there is the grace that helps us to see clearly what God desires of our lives. Through justifying grace, we begin to understand just how much we have failed according to the law, and just how much God loves us anyways. And when we accept that love of God – a third kind of grace pours into our lives… sanctifying grace. The grace that will sustain us and help us to grow more into the likeness of God each and every day.

It’s easy to describe those three types of grace. It’s a lot harder to accept them in our lives. Doing so means letting go of our former lives so that the love of God can live within us. We can only receive a new spirit within, if we are willing to let our old spirit go.

There is an old Hasidic tale that relates to this struggle.

A disciples asks the rebbe, ‘Why does the Torah tell us to “place these words upon your hearts”? Why does it not tell us to place these holy words in our hearts?’ The rebbe answers, ‘It is because as we are, our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay, until, one day, the heart breaks and the words fall in.’

Only when our hearts break open, only when we truly let go of our old ways, does the perfect, loving, powerful word of God fully rest in our being.

This is the message that Jesus tells his disciples over and over again – using the simple image of a grain of wheat.

Unless a seed falls into the earth and dies, it is simply a seed. But when it is planted – when the earth and water go to work on that tiny seed, it is broken open. And before long it stops being a seed and it becomes a sprout, a glimmer of new life that peeks above the soil and will grow and bear fruit.

Our lives without God are a lot like that seed. Without help – a seed will simply remain a seed. And without help, we cannot transform ourselves into what we were meant to be. But through the warm soil of community and the refreshing waters of the holy spirit, we too, can be broken open; we too can die to our old selves; we too, can find new life and bear fruit.

On my own – just me and my guitar won’t go very far. I need instruction. I need encouragement from my teacher. I need people around me who know just how much I want to play and who are willing to hold me accountable. But perhaps even more than those things, I need to go back to that first desire I had to play. And I need to let the love of music and song rest within me, place the notes upon my heart until one day my closed heart breaks and the music falls in.

Double-Dog Dare

Posted on March 9, 2009Leave a comment

Sermon Text: Genesis 17, Romans 4:13-25, Mark 8:31-38

How many of you have ever accepted a dare in your life?

Growing up, one of the most dreaded games to play at a sleepover was “Truth or Dare.” My friends weren’t really crazy people, but I was always afraid to choose “dare.” I would take any embarrassing or difficult question over having to do something silly, or dangerous, or oftentimes stupid.

I’ll be honest. I’m not an extremely adventurous person. I’ll roll up my sleeves in an instant to help someone, but putting my life on the line is not something that comes naturally to me!

How many of you are adventurers? Raise your hands if you have ever been sky diving? Or bungee jumping? I have NEVER been interested in things like that and I’ve always had this kind of secret admiration for people who did. I remember at Christmas one year, we were looking at photos of a cruise my grandparents went on and we came to this picture of my grandma bungee jumping! And she was like 65 years old! I couldn’t believe it!

I did however let my in-laws talk me into white water rafting.

Last summer, we got away for a week and headed up to the Menominee River on the border of Wisconsin and Michigan. There are rapids there that are really nice and at certain parts of the year are even class five – which means no one is allowed to be on them.

In July, when we went, the rapids were about at a class 3 – which our guide informed us was dangerous enough to have fun.

I actually brought some of the pictures with me of the rafting. When we got to the rapids, because they are pretty short, we actually get the opportunity to go on it twice. The first time, our raft made it through – I’m up here in the front….

It was a lot of fun, even though I knew it was kind of risky and a little bit dangerous. But I never thought that one of us could actually fall out… that is, until the second raft came down.

We were in a spot where we couldn’t see this happening, although we heard about it.

Now call me crazy – but even after hearing about that guy fall out – I still got in the boat and went a second time! I’m not entirely sure that if I had seen these pictures that I would have – although I did know that the guy was perfectly safe.

This morning, I’m talking about dares and risky adventures, because that is exactly what we find in our scriptures for today. Throughout history – in many ways and to many people, God dares us to follow. And unlike the dares and the crazy adventures that we undertake in this world – dares that are sometimes dangerous and often stupid, there are things we do every day that put our lives on the line…. But you know what? The dare that God calls us to undertake is the only thing that can lead us into new life.

First, we have the dare given to Abraham. We can read about it in Genesis, although Paul reminds us of this great dare in our passage from Romans this morning.

Abraham was a very old man – ninety nine years old the scriptures tell us – when this great dare comes to him. God called out and said, “I am God! Walk before me and be blameless!”

Now, at 99 years old – some of us would find that command just to get up and walk to be pretty difficult! But God also dares Abraham to be blameless – to be without fault. That is a dare that I don’t think any of us today could legitimately say we have taken up and been successful with.

But there is more to this crazy dare… God says that for his part, God will make Abraham the father of many nations.

God dares Abraham AND Sarah, who is well past childbearing age, to trust him. To take the leap of faith and become the oldest couple ever to have children together.

And Paul tells us – that “Hoping against hope, Abraham believed what God told him. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his body, which was already as good as dead, or when we considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”

Now… my first response when I hear this passage from Romans is that Paul is a big fat liar! Because if we go back to the Genesis version of the story – you know – the original version that Paul would have known very well – it tells us that Abraham and Sarah DON’T fully trust God’s promise. They take the dare, but try to follow in their own way. Sarah doesn’t think that she can bear children, so she gives her servant Hagar to Abraham and gets them to conceive a child for her.

That doesn’t sound like being blameless, or completely trusting to me. But perhaps why Paul can say those things is because in hindsight – he knows that eventually Abraham and Sarah did trust completely. Eventually they took on the dare and did it God’s way. No matter how many bumps in the road they hit before they got to the final destination, they still got there. They still made it to the end of their own white water rapids. So Paul conveniently forgets the bumps in the road because in the end, it was their faith that brought them life.

Which leads me to the second dare in our scriptures today. In spite of Peter’s confusion and his inability to fully understand what the call of Jesus entails, Jesus dares him and dares us to follow him. “Deny yourself – take up your cross and follow me!” Jesus calls out to the crowd.

In many, many ways – I think we are like Abraham and Sarah here. We hear the call of Jesus, but we aren’t quite sure if we can trust in God’s promise. Or rather, maybe it’s not that we don’t trust in God’s part of the equation, but we don’t trust enough in ourselves. We try to spin the dare into something that is much easier to manage, we know what the end result is supposed to be, so in the spirit of that great Sinatra song, I try to do it my way.

The problem is, it just doesn’t work like that!

Twice in this passage from Mark, the word “must” is used. The Son of Man must undergo great suffering. And if you want to follow Christ you must deny yourself. The only way to really follow Jesus is to let go of our ways, the ways of the world, and to accept the way of God.

Jesus dares us to follow him. Jesus dares us to do what is necessary – even though it might not be the easiest thing in the world.

I got to thinking about that difference between what is easy and what is necessary two weeks ago. I was at home one night watching “The Daily Show” a daily news program on Comedy Central hosted by Jon Stewart. He had a whole segment on President Obama’s address to the congress and in particular one line from that speech. As he was talking about the challenges that lie ahead, Obama had said that “This is America. We don’t do what’s easy. We do what’s necessary.”

Here is where Stewart jumped in with his response. “Have you MET Americans? We’re the people who invented the Roomba, because the other automatic machine we invented to clean the floor made you do this…(movement) THIS was too much.”

Now, the entrepreneurial spirit in our country does encourage us to come up with better and easier ways of doing things. We want things to be simple and convenient and to fit into our busy schedules.

The problem is that we treat our faith the same way. We try to fit our relationship with God into a box of our own making. We try to find a few minutes here and there between club meetings and basketball practice and our jobs and getting dinner on the table to follow Christ.

But Jesus is calling out to us – if you want to follow me, you have to deny yourself, you have to take up your cross. That is the only way. I will not conform to the world you have built for yourself.

I dare you to trust me. I dare you to make the hard but necessary decision to let go of all of that stuff you think you need, to let go of those relationships that only drag you down, to let go of the things you do to get ahead, and just trust that my way is better and that my way is the only one that truly leads to life!

The piece of the dare that gets a bit lost in translation and through time is the bit about taking up our crosses. Today, we wear beautiful crosses around our necks, we put them in our churches and we have transformed the challenging dare of the cross into this rather romantic idea of the burdens we must bear. I have read countless books and heard countless people talk about the crosses in their lives being an illness, or a family member who is difficult, or a bad patch they are going through. And too many times, I have heard people think that they need to stay in an unhealthy or dangerous situation with someone like an abusive spouse because that is their cross to bear.

But if we go back to this text and the world of Jesus, this dare to take up the cross would best be translated today as: I dare you to put the hangman’s noose around your neck – or I dare you to sit in the electric chair. Jesus was talking about cross – but in his world, the cross didn’t have all of the symbolic meaning it carries today. It was an instrument of capital punishment for the criminals of the Roman Empire.

When Jesus dares us to take up our crosses, he is daring us to take on the consequences of what a life following him will entail. Our crosses are the things that happen to us as a direct result of our decision to follow Christ, as a result of the things we do in Jesus name.

I know that in the Adult Sunday School class, one of their lessons recently was on taking risks. We live out our faith very timidly in this world. We treat our faith as if it were a private thing that is just between us and God and maybe those few people in our lives that we choose to share it with. Instead of doing what is necessary – speaking and demonstrating our faith loudly and boldly in the streets, we do what is easy – we go to church on Sundays and read our daily devotions at home and hope that that is enough.

At the community forum on suicide and depression recently, someone stood up and talked about the faith of a girl she works with. She said that this teenage girl is ridiculed and made fun of by her peers because she goes to youth group. She said that this girl is being torn apart inside, and that’s because as a young person, belonging is everything. That is an example of a cross to bear – facing that ridicule is a direct result of following Christ.

In this town and this place as adults, we might not face persecution if we go to church. We probably won’t be arrested like Paul was for speaking our faith openly. We probably won’t be dragged in front of a firing squad like Christians are in some parts of this world for simply being a follower of Christ.

But that doesn’t mean that we can sit back and relax. We can stand with people like that young girl and help her to carry the cross that she bears. We can continue to follow Christ and his message to the public square and speak out on national and world issues that harm life, rather than restore it. The United Methodist Church has a whole book full of our stances on issues like the death penalty, war and torture, the environment – all stances that as a church we feel are faithful to how Jesus has called us to live with one another. Writing a letter to your Senator or Representative, attending a protest, boycotting certain goods, even getting arrested during an act of civil disobedience, like people did during the sit-in movement during the civil rights movement – all of these things are ways that Christ calls us to follow him, and there may be crosses that we have to bear as a result.

You might draw out the hatred of a colleague. You might be fired from your job. You might even be arrested. But we have to remember the dare. It is easy to stay on the paths we are on, to take the safe road, but if we want to truly save our lives, we MUST take up our crosses, we must accept the dare, we must dive in feet first to the life of Christ.

That first step is the scariest. It’s like coming to the edge of the drop on a white water trip. You can see how far you have to go, and you can see the danger that lies ahead. But once you go over the edge, once you are willing to let go – then the ride takes over. You dig in with your paddles and row with all of your might. You hear the calls and commands of your guide and you’re willing to go whatever direction they need you to go. And no matter how scary it gets, no matter what trouble is in your way, you know that the guide has been on these waters before, that the guide knows the way through, and that even if you stumble and make a mistake and fall out of the boat – the guide will get you back in.

That guide is Christ. And if we let ourselves take the dare, if we take that first step and let go of our ways – Christ will be there. He will lead us in his paths. He will help us carry the crosses we may have to bear. And he will make sure that we get through this rocky ride to the smooth water on the other side.

Just take the first step. Put yourself out there… I dare you!

Blessed

Posted on March 2, 2009Leave a comment

Texts: Genesis 9, Mark 1

This week, we enter the holy and sacred time of Lent. This time of Lent is really a time of blessing – a gift from God that pulls us out of our normal, everyday lives and thrusts us into God’s life.

The very idea of being blessed means being set apart and declared holy, sacred, and worthy. Now, our first scripture from today – the story of Noah and his family certainly fits this bill. Noah found favor with God, and his family was blessed through the calling to build an arc. Now, if you will remember, the story goes that the world was full of sin and wickedness, immorality and violence. And God was fed up with the whole thing.

So our Creator went to Noah and asked him to build a boat – a ship large enough to hold his family and one of every kind of animal. And when the boat was completed, the skies opened up and it began to rain.

God blessed and saved Noah and his family through the flood, but every other person on the earth – all of them sinners – were swept away in the waters. For forty days and forty nights, the rains fell and Noah and his wife and children were absolutely alone in the world.

And then one day, the waters began to recede. Eventually, the boat settled on dry ground and Noah and his family came out of the boat and the scriptures tell us that God looked around and realized what he had done.

We often forget when we come to this part of the story that the entire earth’s population had perished. We forget when we come to this part of the story that the animals and the plants and every living thing on earth that was NOT on Noah’s Arc were now dead. We forget of the devastating force of flood waters, until we go through them ourselves.

God looked around at all the destruction and God made a promise – right there and then. “Never again will I send a flood to destroy the earth and everything that lives on it. No, I’m going to put my rainbow in the clouds, so that whenever the storm clouds start to gather and you see that bow – I will remember the promise that I have made to you today.”

This part of the story – where God changes God’s mind is really hard for some people to understand. We don’t like the idea that God acts one way and then turns around and feels bad about it. We like to think of our God as unchanging and dependable!

But I want to tell you that I don’t think this is story is about God changing his mind at all. As I have studied this story in Genesis, I learned that many other cultures and religions in the world have had a flood story. American Indians, the Ancient Greeks, Sumerian and Babylonian traditions, among many others, tell of waters being sent by the gods to flood the earth. Many of these also have a hero who is warned of the coming waters and who preserves the heritage of the people.

So it’s not surprising that the Hebrew tradition, our tradition, has a flood story, too. What is surprising is that when it is all said and done – our scriptures tell us that God is merciful, that destruction is NOT how God is going to save the creation.

It’s almost as if our Hebrew ancestors took all of the familiar stories of the people around them about the flood and they retold it with a new ending. Our God, the God that we follow has made a covenant – a promise – with us. It’s almost as if they were saying that the God we follow never would have sent a flood in the first place.

And the only reason I say that is because from the very first chapter of Genesis to the very last chapter in Revelation, the message that is conveyed in the Bible is that God loves us and wants us to be redeemed.

This week, some of us gathered together for Ash Wednesday services and as we put the mark of the cross on our foreheads, we were admitting our sin, our mortality and our finite natures. We are all sinners. We are all made of the dust of the earth. And there is nothing that any of us can do to crawl up from the ground and make ourselves righteous.

If we had lived in the days of Noah, it would have been all of us who were destroyed by those flood waters. If we followed the gods of the Babylonians, or the Greeks, or the gods of this world who demand performance and success – we would all be worthy of nothing less than destruction.

But you know what? We don’t follow the gods of this world… we follow the God of the Universe.

And that great, amazing and powerful God looks down upon us, specks of dust though we are, sinners one and all, and God loves us. Scriptures tell us that our God reached down to the earth and took a lump of clay and formed us in his image. Our God breathed his very life into humanity. Our God is a merciful God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Our God made a covenant with Noah that never again would all flesh be destroyed by the waters of a flood because Our God desires not the death of a sinner but a repentant heart.

Our God choses to restore creation not by wiping the slate clean, but by taking on human flesh and being born among us.

Yes we are all dust, we are all human and mortal and full of failings. But Christ came into our midst to show us a better way.

Our gospel for today tells us that the way of Christ begins with a repentant heart. Through the waters of baptism, the sins of our past are washed away and we are filled with the Holy Spirit that strengthens us for the future. Our lives of dust are filled with the blessing of new life. God speaks to each one of us – You are my child, and I love you.

And then, God refuses to let us return to our old lives. Immediately after Jesus comes up from the waters of his own baptism, Mark tells us that the Spirit drove him to the wilderness.

God doesn’t want us to go back to our old ways, but wants to teach us how to really live. And so God blesses us with times like these, times set apart.

When we remember the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness, we read in Mark that he was not there alone. There may have been wild animals surrounding him, and yes there was temptation by the Satan, but Mark spends as much time telling us about the angels as he does anything else. Jesus went into the wilderness and angels waited on him.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I sure could use some angels in my life right now. I sure could use just a few hours where I really feel God’s presence and know that no matter what happens in the world that surrounds me that God loves me and that my hope rests in him.

This season of Lent – with all of the struggles in the world that we face, I want us to all experience God’s blessing. It is my prayer that during this one hour of the week in worship, you know that you can come here to this place and rest in the arms of God. It is my prayer that the Spirit of God will enter our sanctuary and that angels will wait upon us and refresh our souls.

And this morning, that is where the promise of the rainbow comes back into our lives. Even in the midst of the storm clouds that threaten to destroy everything we have built up, the rainbow shines as a promise that God is with us and will never let us go

Hear these words from Bruce Pewter:

Rejoice in the rainbow. It is the sign of God’s steadfast love which promises not destruction but hope and reconstruction. It is on the basis of God’s covenant love that we dare to confront evil; it enables us to laugh in the face of the evil one, taking initiative and daring to be pro-active.

Against all the evil you see in the world, against all the injustice and corruption you observe in our nation, against all the perverse evil you see raising its sneaky head within yourself, dare to paint a rainbow!

Paint a rainbow over your frustrating failings and wilful sins, and over your irksome doubts and ignorance.

Over your sins within family life, or the ugly compromises you may have had to make in the sphere of your daily work, set that rainbow.

Project a rainbow over the motley fellowship which is the church, with its flawed ministers, stumbling leaders and its sometimes passive congregations.

In your mind paint a rainbow wherever flawed and lost humanity struggles to find a way of its own mess.

The rainbow is a permanent sign of God’s faithful love. A love which not only creates, but constantly recreates and redeems.

This is our promise. For God so loved the world, God promised never again to destroy the world, but to redeem it. That’s the kind of love we see in the life of Christ. He took what was broken and made it whole. He found in the poor, riches and in the blind, sight. He saw God in the lives of sinners. Jesus lived in the light of the rainbow promise – and showed that new and abundant life is what heals us. He died on the cross, so that the love of God might transform even death itself.

In the light of those promises, may you find the courage and boldness to face the pain and evil of this world, and respond out of Christ’s love. May you paint rainbows and remind the world and yourselves of how blessed we are. Amen.

rainbows.

Posted on March 1, 2009Leave a comment

Today in church, we painted a rainbow. As we remembered God’s promise to Noah after the flood – we affirmed, as a congregation, that we are blessed by God.

We follow a God who desires not the death of a sinner, but that we all repent and live.

We follow a God who promises to be, and has been, with us through the storms of our lives.

We follow a God who reached down into the dust of the earth to breath life into humanity – and then, even when we turned away, came down and became the dust of the earth to redeem us.

I found this writing by Bruce Pewer a few years ago in one of his sermons on this text and it continues to stay with me:

Rejoice in the rainbow. It is the sign of God’s steadfast love which promises not destruction but hope and reconstruction. It is on the basis of God’s covenant love that we dare to confront evil; it enables us to laugh in the face of the evil one, taking initiative and daring to be pro-active.

Against all the evil you see in the world, against all the injustice and corruption you observe in our nation, against all the perverse evil you see raising its sneaky head within yourself, dare to paint a rainbow!

Paint a rainbow over your frustrating failings and wilful sins, and over your irksome doubts and ignorance.

Over your sins within family life, or the ugly compromises you may have had to make in the sphere of your daily work, set that rainbow.

Project a rainbow over the motley fellowship which is the church, with its flawed ministers, stumbling leaders and its sometimes passive congregations.

In your mind paint a rainbow wherever flawed and lost humanity struggles to find a way of its own mess.

The rainbow is a permanent sign of God’s faithful love. A love which not only creates, but constantly recreates and redeems.

So today, we literally painted a rainbow to remember God’s promises. We painted a rainbow to remember how God has blessed us in the past. And we painted a rainbow to be a sign to us – even in these dark days – that God is with us, and that even in the wilderness of Lent, God will send angels to care for us.

In some ways – personally – with all of the excitement and joy that I wanted this response to hold, as a congregation we had heavy hearts this morning. Right before the service, we learned of the sudden death of one of our own. In more ways than one, this message about the rainbow in the midst of storm clouds really served as comfort and hope, even in the midst of our grief and sadness.

While there of course have been deaths in the congregation prior to this point, none have hit me quite so close as this one. We have said goodbye to many dear sweet older folks this past year, and in some ways, because I was new, and because many of them were in the nursing home and not actively present in the church, it has been easier to be the comforting pastor. This particular passing is the husband of someone I have gotten to know quite well in the past year. And I pray with all of my heart for God’s strength to help me minister to her and her family in these coming days.

accountable.

Posted on February 26, 20092 Comments

So. I’m going back and forth over whether or not to post what my lenten discipline will be. I was all for it, and then I got to thinking about the whole “do it in secret” call of Matthew’s gospel… the appointed reading for Ash Wednesday.

At the same time however, discipline needs accountability. With no one else to check in on me, or watch over my shoulder and gently nudge… “hey katie…” will I keep with it?

Also… I’m only like 75% about what my actual lenten discipline will be. I like to abstain from one thing and take on one thing – and I can’t figure out what I’m going to take on. (which is kind of important, since, um, Lent started today)

So. I need the push to make a decision and having to post it and then follow through before heading to bed for the evening is important.

1) I will be abstaining from meat for Lent. This is something that I have done in the past, and now is a good time for my body to also be abstaining from the extra fats due to my upcoming surgery. Meat is a really tough thing for me because my families are such big meat eaters. Even in meals at home with Brandon, meat is always center stage. So having to think about other cooking options for myself, or eating less at a meal really is not a natural step for me. Everytime that I eat, I will be recalling this commitment to God I have made. And I love to eat. Meals now become this prayerful time of communion, rather than a hurry up and cook up some boring chicken and rice-a-roni. Not to mention the benefits on the planet (which God calls us to take care of) that a vegetarian diet entails.

2) My prayer life has been suffering lately. I’m just going to be honest. I have really struggled with what I need to boost that prayer life. Do I need to keep a prayer journal before bedtime? Maybe use art as an expression of prayer (like Jan Richardson) to try something new? I have a beautiful handmade paper journal that I haven’t used yet (thanks Jill!) and I’m going to bust it out this Lenten season. I’ll have it beside my bed with some colored pencils and chalk… and then maybe I can do both!

life breathed into dust

Posted on February 25, 2009Leave a comment

today as we come forward to have the ashes placed upon our foreheads, as we remember what it means to be made of the dust of the earth, we tell the truth about our mortality and our sin.

we are nothing but dust – and to dust we shall return.

yet there is something profoundly missing in that story. because even in the beginning, as God formed us from the dust of the earth, from the clay of the ground, as God got down on hands and knees and got dirty… molding us and forming us… we were touched with the maker’s hands. and then the God of the universe breathed into Adam the breath of life.

as dust – we cannot escape from our mortality or our sin. as dust – there is no end possible but to return to the ground.

but we are not merely dust. God desires not the death of a sinner but a broken and contrite heart. God wants to bring life into our midst.

this time of lenten discipline is a time to open ourselves up to God’s grace. That may come through spiritual disciplines like fasting and prayer. it may come from denial of temptations (coffee and soda, anyone?). it may come from an attentive awareness to God’s movement in everyday things. But none of these practices in and of themselves earn God’s love – will bring us salvation… we do them simply to spend time with God, we do them for the sake of God, practicing these disciplines focus our lives on God and that in and of itself brings its own reward.

senseful worship

Posted on February 23, 2009Leave a comment

I am a strong believer in using all of our minds, bodies and souls in worship. And one of the primary ways that I try to encourage people to reach that place is by thinking of all of our five senses and the worship experience. What are the things we hear? What kinds of smells do the scriptures bring to mind? What does grace taste like? What does the gospel feel like? How can we use color and images to see God?

Now – all of that is much easier said than done. It takes so much work to craft worship experiences and to be honest, for the most part I stick to a basic liturgy and try to throw one of the senses we neglect in worship (taste, touch, smell) in every now and then.

I have been thinking a lot about wanting to pick this practice back up again for Lent – even if I focus on just one sense each week. The scriptures for Lent 1B include the promise of God to Noah in the rainbow, and two years ago, we used that scripture in our emerging worship service in Nashville to literally paint a rainbow among the congregation. We had six canvases set up around the worship space and people were invited to travel among them and write/paint images, words, colors that expressed their understanding of promise and covenant.

I would LOVE to do that with my congregation. It would incorporate touch, color, movement, engage our minds etc.

I’m having more troubles thinking of what to do with the next week and the Lent 2B scriptures. Our theme is “Challenge” and the focus is on taking the leap of faith to trust in God’s promises – using Romans 4:20-22 and Mark 8:34-35