Summer Road Trip – Salvaged Faith

Laboring for God

Posted on September 6, 2020Leave a comment

Well, friends, we made it.

We made it to the final stop on our Summer Road Trip through the national parks and monuments.

And today, we actually aren’t too far from home in St. Louis, Missouri at the Gateway Arch National Park.

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Today on Labor Day Sunday, I chose this location because Gateway Arch National Park is the ONLY national park in the middle of a city and the ONLY national park centered on a human-made structure instead of a natural feature of the landscape. Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty and even Effigy Mounds are labeled as monuments, rather than having the designations of national parks.

On this weekend in which we celebrate the labor of so many, it seemed appropriate to visit a national park that required the skills and talents and hard work of engineers and welders and workers.

This site, this project, this feat of imagination and engineering, is an ode to western settlement and expansion and the key role that St. Louis played as the launching off point for so many. It is a symbol of opportunity and the path to wide open spaces.

Our scripture for this morning speaks of another feat of human construction… the temple.

Last week, we touched on how King David rescued the ark of the covenant and returned it to Jerusalem and he was determined to build the house of God.

As he cries out in 2 Samuel 7: “Look, I am living in a palace made of cedar wood, but the Ark of God is in a tent!”

Unfortunately, God really didn’t care about living in a tent.

God moved among the people, tabernacled in their midst.

It was not God’s desire that we build a grand, permanent structure for the presence of the Lord to dwell.

It was ours.

And God saw that yearning, that impulse to settle down and give glory and praise to God through a magnificent structure.

God saw David’s desire to have a centralized place of worship and devotion.

And God relented.

So like Eero Saarinen pulled together teams of welders and craftsmen and laborers to construct the Gateway Arch, David began to stockpile supplies and stonecutters and carpenters and weavers and craftsmen. He carefully discerned by the Spirit all of the plans for the temple and the treasuries and the dedicated things and the people who would fill every task.

There was only one problem.

God didn’t want David to build the temple.

There was too much blood on his hands.

Too much violence and too many missteps.

David was still beloved in God’s eyes, but the temple was not his to build.

His son, Solomon, a man of peace and rest and prosperity… in Solomon’s time the temple would be built.

I’ve been to the Gateway Arch multiple times. I’ve seen it towering over the city as you drive in. I’ve stood beneath it’s glimmering structure and laid on the grass to try to capture the whole thing. I’ve take the ride up to the top in the carnival-like tram.

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But before this summer and this series did I realize that this National Park also contains the old St. Louis Courthouse. This is the historic location where the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford was heard twice. Dred and Harriet Scott were both born into slavery, later married, and eventually found themselves the property of John and Irene Emerson who moved them to Wisconsin and Iowa before returning to St. Louis.

Because they had been taken to free territory, they legally had a case for their own emancipation. Yet the Missouri Supreme Court and eventually the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against them.

In Scott v. Sanford, the highest court of our land declared that all people of African descent, free or enslaved, were NOT U.S. citizens. According to the majority opinion, our Constitution demonstrated a “perpetual and impassible barrier was intended to be erected between the white race and the one which they had reduced to slavery.”

The decision also nullified the Missouri Compromise, a congressional act which declared free all territories west and north of Missouri, because it violated the 5^th Amendment – denying slaveowners their property.

In this National Park we have an incredible juxtaposition.

Where 100 years earlier, freedom was denied for our African American siblings, people came together and selected a design for a new monument… a gateway, celebrating the spirit of western pioneers and the opportunity and freedom and persistence of creating a new future.

Though the past of this location, like King David’s own troubled past, was filled with missteps and harmful decisions that impacted the lives of people who were enslaved for decades to come… there was later a time of peace and rest, just like in the time of Solomon.

A time in which people could build different sort of reality for their community – one of revitalization and celebration of the spirit which leads us onward.

Skilled builders and artisans and welders and more all came together to create something that would outlast them all.

Something that would stand as a testament to who they were and where they had been and where they were headed.

On this Labor Day, the question that is at the back of my mind is: how are we using the gifts and the skills that we have been given today?

Is this a moment in which our gifts are being used to harm or divide or separate?

Will we look back upon this time and see the missteps and the failures?

Did we spend our time and talents sowing conflict?

Or is this a time we are invited to use everything we have been given in labor for the Lord?

Are we using God’s gifts to create hope and life and possibility?

Is the Spirit preparing us, equipping us, to build something new?

I’m not talking about a monument. Or a temple. Or even a church building.

This is a beautiful building.

Skilled artisans have crafted our gorgeous stained glass.

Teams of carpenters from the church built this chancel area.

Craftsmen created and installed these pews and chairs just last year.

Over the course of the next week or two, some incredibly talented folks will come in and dismantle our organ, and send it off so that technicians can refurbish and refinish all sorts of little pieces and parts.

This is a building that much of your… our… blood, sweat, and tears has gone into.

But that isn’t the kind of building and craftsmanship I’m talking about.

You see, the future that God wants us to build, the church Jesus has in mind, has nothing to do with 2x4s or levels or hammers… or even pews or organs.

But it has everything to do with the people God has called together to build it.

If we go back to our scriptures and look at the word used for church in the original Greek – ecclesia – it literally means the “called out ones.”

Every one of us has been called out, called together, called into this place to BE the church Christ is building.

We are the 2x4s.

We are the nails.

We are the foundation.

We are the supporting structure and insulation and windows and doors.

We are the organ and we are the pews.

We are the church!

Jesus began the work and drew up the blueprints and started laying the foundation for the Kingdom of God with Simon Peter.

He gives him the nickname Peter, or petra in Greek, which literally means rock.

“On this rock, I will build my church.”

It’s as if he is telling his friend, YOU are going to be the foundation of this ecclesia, this called out community.

YOUR ministry, Jesus proclaims, will lay the groundwork for the Kingdom.

And then I remember that Simon Peter made countless mistakes in the gospels. He took missteps. He denied Jesus three times and seemed to fail in every way possible.

Kind of sounds like our carpenter was using shoddy materials and faulty labor, doesn’t it?

And yet, like King David, Simon Peter came to know God’s love and grace and forgiveness extend beyond our failures.

Peter Gomes, a professor at Harvard Divinity School, once said “the church will never be any better than we are.”

Let me say it again, because I think it’s important.

The church will never be any better than we are.

If we can’t offer up our failures to God, and let God transform them, then they will always be a part of us.

If we can’t offer our mistakes up to God and let God forgive them, those mistakes will always be carried through.

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If we can’t admit that we have had blood on our hands, like King David did, and create space for those who come behind us to lead in a different way, then that history will be embedded into the future we create.

In the only National Park that is contained within a city there is a gleaming arch that is a testament to human creativity and ingenuity and the persistence that drove us westward.

But there also sits a courthouse, that reminds us of the darker side of our past.

That history pushes us onward and we are invited to walk through it, transform it, redeem it, by how we build our future.

In the same way, the church will never be any better than we are and it is our responsibility to clearly examine who we are and who we have been so that we can embrace who God wants us to become.

The future of the church God wants us to build.

You see, Christ is the one with the blueprints… and he has the ability to take all of our mistakes and shortcomings and put us together with one another and strengthen us by the Holy Spirit.

It’s God’s design… not our own.

Our job is simply to do our part.

To listen.

To confess.

To repent.

To embrace our gifts.

To labor for God’s glory.

Every day.

In every way.

God is using us to build the kingdom. Amen.

Partially Rendered Heroes

Posted on August 2, 2020Leave a comment

Text: John 13: 12-17

Today, with the images of four of our nation’s greatest presidents before us, we turn in the gospels to a story of a biblical model of leadership.

Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, gets down on his hands and knees and washes the feet of his disciples.

As the words of Tom Colvin’s hymn, “Jesu, Jesu” remind us:

“Kneels at the feet of his friends, silently washes their feet, Master who acts as a slave to them.” (UMH #432)

Our Master humbles himself in service to others.

Our Master doesn’t demand praise and monuments and glory… but finds glory in loving and serving those who are lowly.

And calls us to do the same.

But even more than that… this act of love and hospitality and service was not just meant for those who were righteous and perfect and had it all together.

Simon Peter, who would soon deny Jesus three times was there.

Judas, who was about to betray Jesus was there.

Jesus knew them fully. Completely.

And Jesus loved them and asked them to do the same for the world.

What does it mean for us to live in this world not seeking our own glory, but seeking to humbly serve others?

What might it mean for us to know others fully, completely, and love them anyways?

Let’s pray: Gracious God, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts and minds be holy and pleasing to you, O Lord, our Strength and Redeemer.

At the end of this spring when I put Mount Rushmore on the list, the location evoked nothing but nostalgia for me. Summer, vacations, grand vistas, and playing games in the car.

Remember that photo from the start of summer where my brother and I were handcuffed together?

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Well, that same trip also included a stop at Mount Rushmore.

As we arrived, we noticed that my hair was a strange shade of green. Our campground the night before had a pool and my light blonde hair had turned green from the chlorine.

Then, when we got out of the car at the national monument, we were suddenly surprised to discover just a few cars away my childhood friend, Matt, and his family!

I was so embarrassed.

But I got over it and we all enjoyed the grand majestic views of these spectacular presidents.

As the summer has gone on, I must admit that those iconic men carved into a mountainside have taken on a different tone in our national discourse.

Our country is grappling in new ways with the systemic racism that underlies every institution.

We are questioning practices that currently exist and looking at our history with new lenses.

And that has not only included the monuments of Confederate generals, but also the full legacy of great American heroes like Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Roosevelt and the land upon which this monument is built itself.

I have to admit… when President Trump scheduled a big celebration there for the Fourth of July, I thought nothing of it.

But all of a sudden there was controversy because someone from the DNC had tweeted that Mount Rushmore was connected with white supremacy.

What?! I thought.

That’s bonkers… it is divisive for the sake of being divisive…

It is a simple patriotic monument.

And then I took a breath.

I’ve made a commitment to myself that when I find myself outraged at something, I try to research instead of react.

My first impulse is not to repost it, but to google it.

Sometimes, the information is flat out wrong. Sometimes it is intentionally misleading.

But sometimes, there is truth to be discovered there.

Sometimes, my anger or outrage is a defense mechanism because the way I had always thought about something is being challenged.

Do you know what I learned early in July about Mount Rushmore?

It is a sacred site for our Lakota siblings.

This mountain is called Six Grandfathers, named for the Earth, Sky, and four directions that had been carved into the granite by the elements.

In 1868 this land was promised in a treaty to the Lakota people.

Yet the discovery of precious minerals like gold and tin brought miners and prospectors to the area in a breach of that treaty.

There was conflict and the U.S. sent in more calvary to defeat the Lakota and their allies. The Congressional Act of 1877 forced Native Americans onto reservations and our government took over the Black Hills.

In July of 1980, nearly 100 years later, the Supreme Court ruled that these lands were illegally taken from the Lakota people, but the land has still not been returned.

That rush of prospectors brought to the area a New York lawyer named Charles Rushmore.

In his own words, Mr. Rushmore explains how the land came to be named after him:

“I was deeply impressed with the Hills, and particularly with a mountain of granite rock that rose above the neighboring peaks. On one occasion while looking from near its base, with almost awe, at this majestic pile, I asked of the men who were with me for its name. They said it had no name, but one of them spoke up and said ‘We will name it now, and name it Rushmore Peak.’ That was the origin of the name it bears…” (https://www.nps.gov/moru/learn/historyculture/charles-e-rushmore.htm)

We ignored our treaties with indigenous people for the sake of our own prosperity.

We erased their legacy and names and stories from the land.

And then we gave this place our name and carved the faces of our leaders upon it.

It is a far cry from the humble service that Jesus calls us to embody with our neighbors.

But in the minds of those at the time, such acts could be justified because native people were seen as savages, less than, unequal to their white counterparts.

The only way our ancestors could rationalize genocide, enslavement, and colonization wasto believe that there are innate differences between the races and that non-white people were inferior.

That is white supremacy at its core.

The four men whose faces we now see carved upon this mountain were not perfect.

They were heroes and champions and they made our country what it is today, but they had faults as well and they lived and breathed and upheld systems that supported a belief that white people were somehow different and more worthy of this land than people of color.

George Washington led us to freedom from Great Britain, but that freedom was not extended to his own slaves. When his wife’s slave, Ona Judge escaped, Washington went to great effort to recover her, fearing she would inspire their other slaves to seek freedom as well.

Thomas Jefferson literally wrote our independence into existence and doubled the size of our nation. But, also, the sexual exploitation of his slaves is so well-known that there is an Ancestry.com spoof about it.

Abraham Lincoln helped to preserve our nation and abolished slavery. However, that freedom was not extended to Native peoples and during his administration, land was stolen and native people were executed and massacred.

Theodore Roosevelt was chosen for the monument to represent the growth and development of the United States through incredible social policies. Yet he also say Native people as an obstacle towards settlement and once said, “the only good Indians are dead Indians.”

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You know, when Borglum began to carve the faces of these men into the face of the cliff, the design included the figures from head to waist.

He intended for a fuller image of these great American heroes to be portrayed. Not the full story of their legacy, but at least a greater rendering of their persona.

Borglam died, the country was at war, and the project ran out of money so this full realization was never completed.

Only their faces were ever finished.

I’ve been thinking a lot in the midst of the national debate about whether monuments or statues and the like should stand not about these figures… but about Jesus… kneeling at the feet of the disciples.

He knew them fully.

He knew them completely.

He knew their faults and their triumphs.

And he loved and had compassion and offered forgiveness to them anyways.

Here is the thing about not only Jesus, but the entire biblical witness.

Our scriptures don’t shy away from telling the full story of our leaders.

We know that Moses led the people out of Egypt, but we also know that he was a murderer and we know that his own grumbling with God prevented him from seeing the promised land.

We know that David was a man after God’s own heart and his line was chosen for the redemption of all of Israel, but we also know that David was a rapist and murderer and stood idly by while assault and division happened with his own family.

We know that before he was Paul, Saul persecuted Christians and oversaw their executions and that even later in life in the midst of his ministry, there was a thorn in his side, a temptation that never quite eluded him.

For so much of our national history, we have focused only on the parts of the story that we like. The parts that hold us up in a good light. The parts that demonstrate our worth and our glory and invite others to follow in our footsteps.

Just like Mount Rushmore remains unfinished… a partially completed rendering… the story we tell ourselves about our own history and these figures is incomplete. It is not the full picture.

And it has ignored and diminished other voices and stories and hurts for too long.

What we are experiencing in our nation right now is a lot of pain, and conflict, and tension… but in the midst of that woundedness, perhaps there is for the first time in a really long time we also have the possibility for healing and new steps forward.

When Jesus knelt at the feet of the disciples, he knew they would harm him and washed their feet anyways.

I think about how a wound often has to be cleaned out and debrided before it can properly heal.

That is what we are experiencing right now.

Systemic racism and white supremacy have wounded our nation and our people and our relationships with one another.

And there is a lot we have to clean away and bring to the surface, so that the wound can properly heal.

It is painful.

It is ugly.

But it is the only way healing can ever be possible.

Because you see, only when we allow God to see us fully – with all of our faults and all of our sins and all of our mistake and all of our faithful attempts to do the right thing – can we truly accept God’s grace and mercy into our lives and share it with others.

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In 2004, Gerard Baker became the first Native American superintendent of Mount Rushmore and has worked to establish the Heritage Village there to share the history and customs of the land before Custer and Borglum left a mark on the area. Baker said:

“it’s not just a teepee here. We’re promoting all cultures of America. That’s what this place is. This is Mount Rushmore! It’s America! Everybody’s something different here; we’re all different. And just maybe that gets us talking again as human beings, as Americans.” (https://blog.nativehope.org/six-grandfathers-before-it-was-known-as-mount-rushmore)

Mount Rushmore is the story of America.

With all the things we have done right, and all the ways we have gotten it so wrong.

As we think back upon our history, our story, if we find a way to tell it in all of its fullness, with all of its diversity and triumph and tribulation, maybe… just maybe we can remember that we are all human beings.

That none of us are greater than our Master.

And that God calls us all to another way, a better way, of being in this world.

As we sang together in our opening hymn:

“Cure thy children’s warring madness, bend our pride to thy control; shame our wanton, selfish gladness, rich in things and poor in soul. Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, lest we miss thy kingdom’s goal.” (Harry Emerson Fosdick, UMH #577)

As we engage in these tough national conversations, help us to be humble. Remind us of your call to serve our neighbors rather than promote ourselves. Give us wisdom and grace to speak the full story. And bless us with courage to do the right thing.

Aloha!

Posted on July 26, 2020Leave a comment

Text: Isaiah 43:1-2, 18-19; Psalm 139:7-10

Friends, I’m so excited to travel with all of you, virtually, to Hawaii this morning.
As many of you know, these islands hold a special place in my heart because my family has been blessed with the opportunity to visit and spend time not only enjoying the sunshine… but also spending time with one another.
I was in first grade during my first trip to Oahu and have some incredible memories of playing cribbage, boogie boarding, luaus, building sandcastles, and dancing with my grandpa at the Chinese restaurant down the street…

It was always a long trek to get there, but it was always worth it and we never considered going anywhere else, because Hawaii is paradise… right?
It is always 78 degrees, the sun shines every day, and after every rainfall there is a rainbow.
You can hike in the mountains or lay on the beaches.
You can trek through rain forests and eat seafood until your belly is full.
It is full of abundant vegetation and life and culture.
Maybe not unlike the garden…

You know the one I’m talking about.
The paradise we find in the second chapter of Genesis, full of trees with edible fruit and flowing waters, and creatures of all kinds.
The paradise we got kicked out of.
Adam and Eve taste of the fruit from the forbidden tree and suddenly become aware of their nakedness and their shame.
And in the midst of that beautiful paradise, with everything they could ever need or want at their fingertips, they hide.
They hide from one another, by putting on clothing.
And, they hide from God…

Well, at least they try.
There in that place, where the Lord God walked in their very midst, they hoped the trees might conceal their bodies, their actions, their guilt.
But it couldn’t.
God was there.
And God knew them.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence? the psalmist asks.
If we run to the highest heavens and find ourselves in paradise, God is there.
If we escape to sheol, the depths of death, hell itself, God is there, too.

The God who formed us, shaped us, molded us, breathed life into us…
Well, as we talked about last week, that God is faithful.
That God is constant.
That God doesn’t leave our side.

When we are overwhelmed by the ocean depths, God is with us and keeps us from drowning.
When the fires of this world threaten, God is with us and we will not be destroyed.

You know, on the surface level of Isaiah’s words here, it sounds like nothing can touch us.
We could literally walk through fire and not be burned, because God is on our side.
But I have to admit, I don’t think that is what God intends here.
On the Big Island of Hawaii there are plenty of places where the lava has flowed over the roads and anyone or anything caught in its path has been destroyed.
This isn’t a promise of divine protection or an invitation to test God.
Bad things happen.
People we know and love have been impacted by flooding and wildfires and some have lost their lives to drowning and severe burns.
Illness and disease and economic downturns come our way, too.
It doesn’t mean God has abandoned us.

In fact, if we look at the overall message of Isaiah 43, what we actually see is a promise that no matter what kinds of consequences or tragedies or punishments or terrors befall us, God is with us and God can redeem it all.
From the Message translation:
“Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you… when you’re between a rock and a hard place, it won’t be a dead end – because I am God, your personal God…. I’d sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you.”
God loves us so much and promises to make a way through the destruction.
Even the destructive tendencies of our own sin and rebellion.
God will make a way for life, new life, abundant life to spring forth.
We get a glimpse of this
And if we ever start to doubt that… maybe Hawaii is precisely what we need.
Every inch of this paradise is possible only because fiery destruction has come before it.
As Lyons and Barkhauer describe it:

Here, along the Pacific coast, you can see earth just a few years young, or, when lava flows freely from Kilauea, only hours old. As molten ground meets the shore and slowly cools, you can watch the ‘Big Island’ grow. Creating new earth is a smelly and surprisingly loud process with all manner of hissing, popping, and low rumbling of bass shaking the earth, assaulting the nose with the smell of sulfer and hot metals… steam screaming to the surface is a toxic cocktail of noxious gases to be avoided for your own safety…
yet, in the midst of a lava field, a single green plant takes hold and defiantly clings to life. Look above the crater’s rim and see the verdant vegetation of the tropics. This brutal, inhospitable landscape is the prelude to paradise.

One of my favorite things to do on the island of Oahu is to hike up the outer rim of the long inactive Koko Head volcano.
The hike is possible because of an old lookout at the top which was used by the military in the early 20th century. Each step up the old supply line takes you closer to an incredible view.
At the top, you can look out and see Diamond Head, the remains of the crater that now forms Hanauma Bay, and into the lush green preserve and arboretum inside Koko Head itself.

And yet none of this lush paradise is possible without the volcanic eruption that came before.
There was a time when this vibrant landscape was nothing but a monochromatic hellscape.

From the flaming crucible of the earth’s core, life has formed and taken hold… the distance between heaven and hell may not be as great as we suppose. And here, the cycle of life begins in death where the power to create overcomes the power to destroy.

So what do we learn from this paradox?
There are times in our own lives when we will stand in barren, inhospitable, and difficult places.
We will experience loss and grief.
Illnesses and disease will come our way.
Relationships falter.
The economy is out of our control.
Systemic injustices like sexism and racism and homophobia and lack of access for people with disabilities are real.
Heck, this entire year has been described by some as a dumpster fire.
One thing after another, piling up on top of each other.

But here is the thing.
Adam and Eve couldn’t hide from God in paradise.
God was there.
Right by their side.
And God is right here with us in the midst of this, too.

But more than that…
God is calling us to pay attention.
“Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.”

We are people of resurrection!
We are people who believe that the worst thing is never the last thing.
We are people who believe that the forces of life are stronger than the forces of death.
And there are signs of life and abundance springing forth from this mess.

Just this week, I read about how nearly half a million people have quit smoking in England as a direct result of the pandemic.
Doctors in Ireland and Denmark began to notice that premature births in their countries were falling dramatically… 75% decline in Ireland and 90% fewer preterm births in Denmark!
In both of these instances, more research is being done to learn more about the causal relationships and how what we are learning through this time could be used to save lives and improve our overall public health in the future.

We cannot flee from God and God has not abandoned us.
All around, the seeds of new life are blowing in and taking root.
We simply need to pay attention.

New Every Morning

Posted on July 19, 2020Leave a comment

Text: Lamentations 3:19-33

When I was in high school, my youth group took a summer mission trip to the northwest part of our country.
I went to a larger church in Cedar Rapids, so we filled an entire bus with our students and chaperones.
Our ultimate destination was Seattle, but along the way we stopped and sang at churches in Wyoming and Idaho and we spent some time at Yellowstone National Park.
We took time to hike and walked through a part of the forest that had experienced a forest fire and saw the beginnings of the new forest already beginning to emerge with soft green baby trees.
We worshipped and remembered the indigenous people who once lived upon this land… like the Blackfeet, Crow, Sioux and Cheyenne.
We strolled along the pathways to see the hot springs and of course, visit Old Faithful.
And we rolled up our sleeves and got to work.
I remember one of the projects my group was assigned to was helping to secure rolls of grass seed to the side of a hill so that we could help prevent erosion along the road way.

But one of the things that has stuck with me the most from that particular trip was not the sights or the service… but a prayer.
A prayer that we said together every morning… often while we were rolling down the road on our bus.
A prayer that rose us up out of slumber and helped us to center ourselves before the day began.
A prayer that I still think of in the mornings.

We actually have this prayer in the back of all of our hymnals as part of the Orders for Daily Praise and Prayer:

New every morning is your love, great God of light,
And all day long you are working for good in the world.
Stir up in us desire to serve you,
To live peacefully with our neighbors,
And to devote each day to your Son,
Our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord.

New every morning is your love.
Every morning.
Every. Single. Day.
Over and over again.

To be faithful is to be constant… steadfast… reliable…
And those words could certainly be used to describe one of the most striking features of Yellowstone National Park – Old Faithful.

Just beneath those gorgeous mountains and rivers and forests is an active volcano somewhere between thirty and fifty miles across.
As it simmers and brews underground, water from above seeps in and begins to boil, creating these amazing geothermic features throughout the park.

From mud pots to hot springs, you find incredible colors and textures as various gasses and bacteria and algae that thrive at different temperatures come alive.
And then there are the geysers, superheated water rockets that burst unpredictably out of the ground.

Well… most of them are unpredictable.
Not Old Faithful.
Roughly every ninety minutes, this geyser erupts.
In every kind of weather, in any part of the year, at any time of day.
Over and over and over again.
Consistently.
Constantly.
Faithfully.

As the Mills family found out just this week on their own family road trip in Yellowstone… here is Scott’s video!

Something you can count on.
Something you depend on just as sure as the sun will rise in the east.

Now… we can’t always see the sun rise.
Sometimes the rain is pouring on our heads or the storm clouds are raging.
But the sun still rises.

And as the author of Lamentations reminds us, the faithful and compassionate love of God is renewed every morning, too.
Even if we can’t see it.
Even if it seems like God is far away.
Even if we are swimming in distress.

The eruption of Old Faithful happens not in spite of the simmering energy and destructive forces just beneath the surface… but because of them.
And so it is with God.
It is in the midst of our lament…
In the midst of our conflict…
In the midst of our grief…
In the midst of our suffering…
It is because of all of those powers that could destroy and overwhelm that we witness the faithfulness of God’s love.

Now, what is interesting about what is happening to the lamenter is that they are talking about their own punishment by the hand of the Lord.
They were experiencing the consequences of a life where they had rejected peace…
Where they had forgotten what is good…
Like so many of the prophets, he is writing about the direct result of turning away from God’s ways…
of failing to look out for our neighbors,
of taking advantage of rather than caring for creation…
It is chaos.
It is destruction.
And while we can point to God as the cause, the truth is, we are simply harvesting what we have sown.

There is a lot happening in the world today…
A lot of the turmoil we are experiencing…
That are simply the consequences of choices and decisions we have made in the past.
The anger that is erupting on the streets about racial injustice is not simply about the racist actions of a few individuals.
It is confronting the cultural, historic, and structural systems that we all participate in and have not challenged in the past.
The rise in Covid-19 cases across the country, but also right here in Iowa… they are directly related to choices that we are making about whether or not to wear a mask, where we go, and who we interact with.
And now we are facing the consequences of increasing the burdens upon our families and our teachers because we have not done our part to create a safer environment and reduce the spread.

What the Lamenter also wants to remind us, however, is that in spite of all of our failures.
In spite of all of the consequences we are experiencing.
God has not walked out on us.
God’s faithful love has not disappeared.
God’s compassion doesn’t dry up.

No, every morning, it is renewed.
Every morning we experience just how great is God’s faithfulness.
Every time the sun comes up, we have a chance to turn away from our selfishness and our destructive tendencies and instead turn towards God.

And so when we feel like we are standing on the edge of the volcano…
When we feel like everything is falling apart…
When we feel like the consequences of our failures have become too great to bear…
That’s when we need to stop.
And wait.
And sit.

You know, the forces that lead to the eruption of Old Faithful rely upon two things.
First, the ever simmering force of the volcano.
Like our sin and our selfishness and our tendency towards destruction, it is a constant reality.

But it also depends upon the renewing and refreshing waters above the ground.
The melting of the snow in the mountains.
The rain that falls from the sky.
The ground water that seeps deep into the earth.
Without them, the geyser simply wouldn’t gush.
In the same way, God’s faithfulness and mercy are constantly pouring into our lives,
constantly rushing over us,
new every morning,
new every day.
As the Message translation puts it – God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out.
God’s merciful love couldn’t have dried up…
It is ever-flowing.
It will not end.

And when life is heavy and too hard to take, the lamenter reminds us that God is still there.
Waiting for us.
Waiting for us to set down our load.
Waiting for us to turn around.
Waiting for us to stop harming one another.
Waiting for us to face the music and get real and honest about where we went wrong.

If we keep going a bit farther in the text, the lamenter tells us that we must search and examine our ways.
We should lift our hearts and our hands to God.
We were the ones who did wrong.
And when we call out for another way…
God comes to our side.
Always.
Consistently.
Faithfully.

New every morning is your love, great God of light,
And all day long you are working for good in the world.
Stir up in us desire to serve you,
To live peacefully with our neighbors,
And to devote each day to your Son,
Our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord.

A Resilient Foundation

Posted on June 21, 2020Leave a comment

Text: Matthew 7:24-25; Ephesians 3:14-19

Who holds you up?
What keeps you from toppling?
In the midst of storms and fire and viruses and racism and accusation and conflict, how do you not fall apart?
When you are juggling kids and work and zoom meetings and the dog and the lawn needs mowed what are you supposed to do?

Consider the lilies, Jesus says just a handful of verses before our scripture from Matthew today… or maybe in our case, consider the trees.
How does a giant sequoia remain standing for not years, not centuries, but for thousands of years?

General Sherman is the world’s largest known tree and can be found in the midst of Sequoia National Park. As Lyons and Barkhauer remind us, it is:
“…not the tallest, nor the widest, nor the oldest, but don’t let the lack of superlatives lower your expectations. General Sherman is the largest by volume and by weight. A sign at the tree’s base states it could hold enough water to fill almost ten thousand bathtubs, and that it weighs about 1,385 tons. Estimated at 2,200 years old [my note – that’s older than Jesus!] – the tree is more than 36 feet across at the base and towers 274 feet above you.” (America’s Holy Ground, p. 201-202)

Think about what that single tree has withstood…
Earthquakes.
Wildfires.
Drought.
High Winds.
Humans.
And still it remains standing.

What can we learn from trees like this?
What lessons do they have to teach us?

I think the first lesson is that you have to have strong roots and a firm foundation upon which to stand.
Imagine the depth and the breadth of the structure that is required to support such an immense tree.
For millennia those roots have sunk deep into the rocky soil, pushing water and nutrients up the trunk to provide growth.
Without a strong foundation, it would topple over and collapse.

And we are the same way.
Without the foundations in our lives that give us support and structure, we, too, would collapse.
These verses from the gospel of Matthew come at the end of three chapters filled with instruction and encouragement about how we should live in the world.
The “Sermon on the Mount” teaches us what it means to be truly blessed…
That the Kingdom belongs to the hungry, the hopeless, and the grieving…
the humble, the harassed, and the peacemakers
Jesus tells us how to share God’s love with others…
And he stretches our understanding of the law so that it is fulfilled not by adhering to the letter, but the spirit…
He reminds us that it is not enough not to kill, we should not even be angry at one another…
That we should not simply refrain from adultery, we should not objectify others…
Turn the other cheek…
Love your enemies…
Stop showing off your faith for others and actually turn to God…
Don’t worry about yourself, but seek God’s kingdom…
Don’t judge others, but pay attention to the fruit you are producing in the world…

And then Jesus concludes this amazing teaching by saying:
“These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life… improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on.” (7:24 MSG).
These are not adornments or afterthoughts.
These are the roots.
This is the foundation.
This is the solid rock upon which everything else rests.
If these principles have not already formed the basis for our faith, for our lives, for our souls… then when the winds and rain and conflict and turmoil come our way… of course it will all fall apart.
Without a deep commitment towards others, a deep well of mercy and forgiveness, a deep sense that God is with us in the midst of anything we face, we will “become disoriented, unsteady, and unsure.” (p.203)
We will become angry and reactive and defensive when the winds of change or turmoil or conflict begin to blow.

And if that is how you are feeling in your own life… then we can start by shoring up those foundations.

We have to care for our own bodies and minds.
Just recently, we sent home to our families a “Guide to Self-Care” in the midst of this pandemic.
It contains very simple reminders of things we can do like get enough sleep, take time for friends, leave room for our feelings, and breathing.
There can be so much pressure and stress blowing in our lives right now and these simple things ground us in the moment.

We also can turn to and remember our own history and the people who have come before us.
Today, on Father’s Day, we are invited to remember the wisdom of our fathers and grandfathers and generations past who have taught us how to get through difficult moments.
From simple things like how they helped us to get back on the bike when we fell off…
To their own experiences with the civil rights movement, or how they responded to the polio epidemic, or how they kept going in the midst of a loss in their life…

Our forefathers, our ancestors, those roots of our family tree… they are a source of love and hope and strength during these tough times.

And then, we need to strength our faith foundations.
Turn to scripture.
Spend time in prayer.
Join a small group to re-center your faith.
Nurture the roots, the foundation, the ground in which you live and move and have your being.
That was Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus.
He was seeking to strengthen their faith and help them withstand whatever controversies or oppression they might face and so he prayed that God might give them strong roots in love.
He prayed that they would open their hearts and allow Christ to make a home there.
He believed that this would create a firm foundation of rooted and grounded faith. That it would build deep sustained roots would allow them to be able to grasp the width and length and height and dept of God’s love.
And he believed with these strong foundations, these amazing roots, that God could do amazing, miraculous, holy and wonderful things through the church.
That is my prayer for you, too.
That our own foundation and roots might be strengthen by one another and by God so that no matter what comes our way, our faith and our community will not topple.

But the other lesson that I think we have to learn from these trees is that what can appear to adversity can actually be the source of new life. We are learning that strong roots and solid foundations provide resiliency in the midst of storms that creates new opportunities.

I learned this week that giant sequoias need wildfires in order to continue as a species.
They are remarkably fire-resistant… some with bark up to thirty inches thick.
But more than that – without the intense heat of the fire, the sequoia cones cannot open to release their seeds.
Fire also clears away any of the clutter and overgrowth on the forest floor, creating space for seedlings to germinate and survive.

I think some of what we are seeing in our world today feels like that dangerous wildfire coming at us faster than we can run.
There is a lot of anger and frustration spilling out and we don’t know how to put it out or stop it or what to do with it.
But maybe it is a question of reframing.

First – where have I become afraid or anxious or reactive when I am actually more protected and safer than I thought?
Adam Hamilton reminds us in his book, “Afraid” that facts are more important than fear.
Taking the time to get the facts, to understand another perspective, to prepare yourself and create a plan… all of these are ways we can build up that think bark of protection that allows us to stand resilient in the midst of the turmoil.

Second – What is being revealed that we couldn’t see before with all of the clutter? As we notice things related to the coronavirus, or racism, or institutional and systemic practices… sometimes we get frustrated that they were not brought up or handled before.
But some things can only be seen in moments of chaos and conflict when everything else is cleared out of the way.
This moment has helped families to find respite from their busy schedules.
It has helped us to recognize the lonely and vulnerable who are our neighbors.
It has uncovered some of the problems with how we interact with one another we were too busy or distracted to see.

Third – we are seeing the seeds of this time and changes and new life and opportunities springing up all around.
Common sense reforms that make communities and police officers safer.
Real conversations about our history of racism.
We are building new ways of reaching out to one another like our caring connections groups.
Even online worship opportunities are impacting more people than we ever would have done had we remained within our walls.

God does not promise that wind and fire and turmoil and conflict will not come our way.
They most certainly will.
But God has invited us to claim a faith, to be grounded in love, to build our lives upon a firm foundation that can weather the woes of the world.
And with God’s help… with Christ living in our heart… with the Spirit providing strength… we lives we have built will not fall apart.
As Paul writes:
Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Forever and always.
Amen.