The Lord’s Prayer: Thine is the Kingdom

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Text: 1 Chronicles 29:1, 5b-6, 9-13; Luke 19:28-40

In our confirmation lessons this month, we are exploring the vows that these young folks will make on May 15.

They will stand before this church and pledge to renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world and repent of their sin.

They will accept the freedom and power God gives them to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.

They will confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and promise to serve him in the church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races. 

And I can’t help but realize that they will be standing here, proclaiming:

For Thine is the Kingdom…

For Thine is the Power…

For Thine is the Glory… forever and ever. 

Today, we wrap up our exploration of the prayer that Jesus taught us. 

It is so familiar to us, and yet there is still so much to learn and discover about these few simple words. 

And one of the surprising things about the phrase of the prayer we are focusing on for today is that it is not included in the gospels of either Matthew or Luke. 

If you were to pull out your Bible, and looked at Matthew, it would, however, likely include the phrase in brackets or italics or even a footnote. 

And that is because other ancient sources did include this ending… most notably The Didache… and it was then included in some copies and translations of Matthew as time went on. 

Didache literally means teaching and this document is the oldest existing catechism of the Christian faith.

Basically, it is like a confirmation lesson guide for the first Christians! 

It teaches Christian ethics, and about the rituals of the church and how the church is organized.

And it includes the version of the Lord’s Prayer… with the ending… that we are all so familiar with today. 

In fact, it instructs those in the faith to pray this prayer three times every day… just as we have invited you to practice during this Lenten season. 

In the chapter for this week from our study book, Adam Hamilton notes that the language of this ending, this doxology, this praise for God, is inspired by our scripture from 1 Chronicles for today which recounts the words of King David. 

“Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our ancestor Israel, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might; and it is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all. And now, our God, we give thanks to you and praise your glorious name.”

Yours is the power.

Yours is the glory.

Yours is the kingdom. 

Forever and ever. 

Our scripture lesson for this morning is actually a sort of altar call or a request for the people of the land to give freely of their own resources to help build the temple of God. 

David himself wanted to build this home for God’s presence, but because of his own sin, God replied that it would have to be carried out by David’s son, Solomon.

I think often of the fact that David, this man after God’s own heart, made such terrible mistakes in his life. 

He harmed people who were in his care.

And there was probably a bit of pride that tempted him to make up for it by dedicating this temple to the glory of God… a temple that might come with his own name attached to it. 

But he let go of his own power and wealth and pride and glory. 

He remembers that this is not about him, but about God and David puts his full energy into setting his son up for success in this task. 

David begins to gather the materials that will be needed and makes an offering from his own resources and treasures.  Then, he invites the leaders among the people to give from their own hearts and treasures as well. 

Wealth and riches and raw materials and precious gems are all laid before the Lord.   

For as David rightly proclaims, it all comes from you God… we have only given you what already belongs to you. 

Which is the same message Paul shares with the Romans, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.” (11:36)

Paul goes on to write to the church:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what [God] wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12: 1-2, MSG)

Take your everyday, ordinary life and place it before God as an offering.

All of which is another way of saying:

Thine, not mine, is Kingdom.

Thine, not mine, is the power.

Thine, not mine, is the glory. 

I’m going to offer what I have up to you, O God, because it all already belongs to you anyways. 

I surrender to your will.

I will love and care for those people you put in my path.

I will confess the places I’ve strayed and turn my attention back to you so that you can forgive me.

I will let you lead me and guide me, rather than the forces of the world around me.

You will be my focus today and tomorrow and as long as I breathe. 

Today is not just the end of our series on the Lord’s Prayer, but the start of Holy Week. 

On this Palm Sunday, we recall the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. 

And I can’t help but think about the disciples and the crowds who gathered to line the streets.

They recognized in Jesus the power and the glory of God.

They were ready and willing to offer up their lives and their resources to follow Jesus and to work for God’s kingdom. 

They set aside their own safety and privilege and power in order to praise and worship God. 

And all of this because they caught a glimpse of what it truly meant to allow God to take hold of their lives. 

John Vest reflects upon the power of this moment and I want to close today by sharing some of his words:  

“Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem was more than a show, more than a simple provocation, more than the beginning of a cute celebration.

It was a signal that things are changing, an unmistakably potent message to the powers that be that the world as we know it is becoming the world as it should be.

It was a radical act of defiance directed against those in his day who wielded power through violence, oppression, and tyranny…

This simple ride reminds us – and tells the whole world – that you are indeed coming to make all things new. 

You are coming to release those who find themselves in all manners of bondage: chains of injustice… addiction… conformity and apathy.

You are coming to provide for the poor: food for the hungry and shelter for the homeless.

You are coming to assure the dignity and equality of all who are marginalized or oppressed.

You are coming to end violence and divisions, to provide safe communities and opportunities for education.

You are coming to offer healing and wholeness, comfort, consolation, and hope.

You are coming to transform all that we know.

You are coming to save us.”  (https://re-worship.blogspot.com/search?q=palm+sunday+meditation)

God’s kingdom…

God’s power…

God’s glory…

It is all breaking into this world.

May we, like those first disciples… and like those faithful leaders… set aside our crowns and pledge allegiance to the only one who can truly save us. 

May it be so. Amen.

The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Us!

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Text:  Luke 4:18-19, Acts 1:8, 2:1-4, 38-39

One of the things that we have re-discovered and remembered this year is that church is not a building. 

We have a building, sure.

But the church is the people.

You and me.

The body of Christ. 

In the same way, the presence of God is not confined to this physical structure.

And, we don’t have to travel to the Holy Land to be in the presence of God.

It is right here.

Among us. 

Wherever two or three are gathered, there I am… Jesus said. (Matthew 18)

Well, that is exactly what happened on that Pentecost morning.

The disciples were gathered together, worshipping, praying, waiting for whatever was supposed to happen next.

Waiting for the power of the Holy Spirit. 

And then there was a sound…

Like the howling of a fierce wind…

The entire room was filled with an overwhelming presence…

Tongues of fire danced over their heads…

The Spirit of the Lord was upon them. 

The presence of God was right there, in their midst.

When the Spirit of the Lord first appeared to Moses in the burning bush, he heard the call to go back to Egypt and liberate the oppressed. 

That power and presence of God released the slaves and set them free for the promised land. 

Through a pillar of fire and smoke, the Spirit of the Lord was with the people as they journeyed.

God provided food for their hunger and water for their thirst.

God led them and healed them. 

God dwelt among them.

On the mountaintop, the power and presence of God was seen for miles around in wind and fire and Moses journeyed back down forever changed. 

He brought with him commandments that would allow them to live according to God’s will.

Laws to help them love God and to love their neighbor.

God wanted this people to bear God’s image to the world. 

Yet, as time went on, and the people became settled and rubbed shoulders with folks from lots of different places and cultures, it became harder and harder to stay connected to God’s presence and power.

While the spirit of God continued to call prophets and leaders to keep reminding the people, it was easy to forget about a God who dwelt somewhere else. 

So God decided to dwell among the people again. 

The Word became flesh. 

Jesus entered our lives.

And the Spirit of the Lord was upon him.

As Luke tells us, the Spirit of the Lord sent him forth to preach good news to the poor and heal the sick and to set people free. 

People experienced the presence of God through his touch and his words. 

And then Jesus promised this same power would be given to the people. 

That the Spirit of God would come upon them. 

That the presence and power of God would dwell in them.

And they, too, would be sent forth to preach, and to heal, and to change the world. 

God would turn the world upside down starting in Jerusalem… heading out to Samaria… and to the ends of the earth. 

This was not a promise just for the disciples.

Not just for the Jewish people.

God’s Spirit was pouring out on all people.

On that day of Pentecost, tongues of fire danced over their heads.

God’s presence filled their hearts. 

And people from every corner of the world experienced it.

They heard God speaking to them.

They felt God’s presence among them.

And they allowed the gift of the Spirit to fill their lives. 

Three thousand people were added to their community.

It is good to be in this space together with folks once again. 

But I have to be honest… It is not the space that makes this time of worship holy.

The psalmist may have cried out “How lovely is your dwelling place” and at the time they were talking about the temple.

But the miracle of Pentecost is that the spirit of God dwells in you. 

The very presence of God that set that shrub in the wilderness on fire…

And that led the people of Israel through…

That dwelt in the temple…

That filled the life of Jesus Christ…

The Spirit of God filled those first disciples… and then three thousand…

Through them, the presence and power of God moved from Jerusalem…

To Samaria…

To Rome…

And across the oceans…

And right now God’s spirit is upon you.

God’s power dwells in you.

Oh, and how lovely are your faces. 

God’s presence is right here in this very room because you are here. 

God is with you at home… on your couch… sitting around the kitchen table.

Because the gift of the Holy Spirit is yours. 

Right here in the greater Des Moines area, God is with us. 

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us right here in this city…

One of the unexpected miracles of Pentecost was the way that this presence of God brought people together.

In the time of exile, Jewish faithful were scattered the winds.

They made their homes in far away places and learned new cultures and languages.

But when able they made the pilgrimage back to Jerusalem to be in the presence of God.

Over these last fourteen months, we have felt a bit scattered to the winds.

We have felt like we were in exile.

Exiled from one another and familiar places.

But that exile is not just a result of quarantines and distancing.

This past year we have experienced political discord and division in our responses to racism and vaccinations and masks.

Although the official language we might speak is the same, the words we use have meanings that separate us. 

And so even when we gather in the same space, we are not unlike those pilgrims to Jerusalem who can’t understand one another. 

When I read through these verses in Acts once again, I am reminded that this division and discord is not what God intends for us.

As Jana Childers writes in their commentary on this passage, “The human community… begins to be mended.  As the Spirit arrives… instead of widening confusion, there is dawning comprehension, incipient reunion.  What was divided is mended… The Spirit-baptized are drawn together, this time in the Spirit’s power, for the purposes of extending the realm of God.”  [1]

We are drawn together in the Spirit’s power to extend the realm of God. 

When Jesus stood up in the synagogue at the beginning of his ministry, he read from the scroll of Isaiah. 

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he said,

God has chosen me to preach good news to the poor.

To offer forgiveness and pardon to prisoners.

To be an agent of healing and ease the load of the burdened.

And when he finished reading he sat down and told the people, “Scripture came true just now in this place.”  

Right there in Nazareth, the realm of God, the Kingdom of God, was at hand. 

The as the disciples claimed the gift of the Holy Spirit and began to preach and teach and heal in Jesus’ name… the realm of God became a reality on the streets of Jerusalem.

People who had been divided began to hear and understand.

It didn’t matter their background or their language or their culture… the presence and power of God rested upon them as the Holy Spirit danced in their midst.

And over the course of this summer, we are going to explore just what it meant for those first disciples to be led by the Holy Spirit and how the realm of God expanded.

We’ll learn about what it means to be a community centered in God.

How to speak God’s truth in the face of opposition.

Along the way, we’ll meet sorcerers and centurions and kings. 

We’ll experience earthquakes and shipwrecks, tragedy and miracles. 

In the footsteps of Peter and Paul, Barnabas and Silas, Lydia and Tabitha, we will witness how the Spirit of God becomes known to the people of Antioch and Damascus, Lystra and Philippi.

And we will discover how we are “part of the widening circle begun in Acts – part of the growing momentum, building ripple by ripple…”[2] until the realm of God stretches to every corner of this world. 

As United Methodists, we see ourselves as part of that widening circle.  In our Book of Discipline, we claim that:

“Guided by the Holy Spirit, United Methodist churches throughout the world are called afresh into a covenant of mutual commitment based on shared mission, equity, and hospitality… we commit ourselves to crossing boundaries of language, culture, and social or economic status.  We commit ourselves to be in ministry with all people, as we, in faithfulness to the gospel, seek to grow in mutual love and trust.  We participate in God’s mission as partners in ministry, recognizing that our God-given gifts, experiences, and resources are of equal value… creating a new sense of community and joyously living out our worldwide connection in our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” [3]

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us right here in Des Moines.

We might have a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds and gifts, but there is one Spirit.

And right here in this city, God is calling us afresh to focus on our mission… to cherish what each person uniquely brings… and to reach out in love welcoming all.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us to bring good news and offer forgiveness and heal what is broken and divided.

May the winds of the spirit blow…

Amen. 


[1] Feasting on the Word, Year A, Volume 3, page 19.

[2] Ibid.

[3] 2016 Book of Discipline, ¶125, p. 95-96

Again & Again, God Shows the Way

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Text: John 2:13-22

From the beginning of time, God has been trying to show us the way.

The way to abundant life.

The way to shalom.

We catch a glimpse of how God wants us to live in the laws of Scripture, which Bible scholar, Walter Bruggemann describes as “God’s full intention for the life of creation.” 

But again and again, that intention is distorted in our lives.

Many years ago, our family visited Arnold’s Park at Lake Okoboji.

One of the highlights was the tilted house.  Walking sideways on crooked steps and the ceilings seem to shrink above you feels odd and disconcerting.

We all know what a house should look like and feel like, and this was not it.

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From there, my neice dragged me to the house of mirrors.

As we stood in front of skinny mirrors and fat mirrors and wavy mirrors, she giggled and pointed as we were transformed into creatures we didn’t recognize.

One minute I had mile-long legs and the next a neck as long as a giraffe. 

We laughed and told stories about what it would be like to live with really tall tummies and itty-bitty heads. 

I have to admit, I found the sight less amusing that she did. 

The distortions brought what I perceived to be my flaws into greater focus and blew them out of proportion… or reduced my favorite feature into something grotesque. 

We’ve been talking a lot about reality for the last few weeks… and how we come to know what is true about ourselves and our faith. 

Sometimes, we don’t realize that we have been looking at ourselves through funhouse mirrors.

We think we know what is true and real about ourselves and our communities. 

But perhaps, we have simply been living for too long in a tilted house full of funhouse mirrors.

We have grown familiar and comfortable with the distortion. 

So when God shows us a more excellent way, it can feel like our world gets turned upside down and inside out. 

So often, Jesus is portrayed as a gentle soul who walks alongside us and listens to our thoughts.

Yet how often does he do the unexpected?

He shows up in places he shouldn’t, loves the unloveable, calls the unworthy and brings us life through his death. 

Instead of allowing us to stay comfortably where we are, the Christ we meet in the scriptures challenges everything we know.

In our reading this morning from John, Jesus is in Jerusalem for the annual Passover festival. 

Those making the long trip would not have brought the animals required for sacrifice with them, but the streets and Temple would have been packed with vendors offering animals for sale.

Others exchanged currency so that titles and offerings could be made in coinage that did not bear a human image, like the Greek and Roman coins did.

This was the normal, expected way of doing things.

This was routine life in the Temple, especially around the holy days.

Without these vendors, the system just didn’t work.

This structure, with its rules and order, vendors and priests, were all part of how an individual made a connection with the presence of God. 

You jumped through the hoops because that was the system. 

But as God reaches out to show us another way, some of those systems needed to change. 

God wanted to take up residence not within the curtains of the inner sanctuary of a building, but to lay aside glory and be born among us. 

This is the moment, for John, when the new understanding of the Temple is born. 

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inspired by john 2:13-22
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Jesus begins flipping over tables.

He disrupts the system.

He takes everything we knew and turned it upside down and inside out. 

It is chaos and disorder and it will take days for the Temple to get up and running again.

All eyes turn to Jesus and the religious leaders cry out, “By what authority are you doing these things?”

“Who on earth do you think you are?”

They need something to make sense of what has just happened and why everything is in disarray.

Jesus responds by pointing to his own body, the very dwelling place of God. 

This story is not about the moneychangers or the Temple… but about Jesus. 

It is a caution against any institutional systems and structures that have distorted and twisted our ability to see what God is doing in our midst. 

More than once in the history of faith, the Holy Spirit has moved in our churches and turned over some tables and the church failed to respond because of rules and traditions.

A new opportunity for ministry gets snuffed out by people who don’t catch the vision.

A church gets so wrapped up in what color their carpet is that they can’t see the neighbors in need outside their door.

Someone experiences a call to follow Jesus, but the book of rules says that it just can’t be possible. 

From the inclusion of women in ministry, to the welcoming of immigrant communities of faith, to the questions we are wrestling with today over whether we will embrace LGBTQ+ people in the life of the church… I have seen time and time again that our systems and our rules and our traditional ways of doing things can get in the way of the very presence of God in our midst.

I love the United Methodist Church… most days…

But as Jesus turns over the tables in the Temple this week, I can’t help but think about the systems that we have put in place that keep us from the real ministry of Christ in this world. 

This week, we announced the necessary postponement of our 2020 General Conference to the fall of 2022.  With it comes a virtual meeting in May, to approve suspending our rules, so that we can vote by mail on twelve items to keep the institution functioning.

A friend and colleague, Rev. Andy Bryan put it this way:

“I am part of a denomination that needs to set a meeting to suspend our rules so that we can create new rules to dictate what we are supposed to do when we cannot meet to create rules.”

From unnecessary paperwork, inflexible constitutions, timelines that are out of sync with the world, and standards for ministry that deny the way the Holy Spirit moves in the lives of people… if we could flip some tables and transform some systems to better support ministry, we all would benefit. 

A lot of us are asking hard questions about what it really means to be the church and do the ministry of Jesus.

For too long, we made a home in a system that felt comfortable… for us. 

But the walls were crooked and the mirrors have been distorting who we thought we were.

We are coming to terms with how our institution has supported racist policies and colonial attitudes and are seeing the Holy Spirit move from the margins and tear down walls and chains that have been keeping us from the way of Jesus.  

God, after all, does not dwell in the boxes we have created or the books we have written.

God desires more than rituals and rules.

And in our scripture for this morning, we see that lived out… for even with the Temple disrupted, people found a way to celebrate Passover.

They found ways to praise God and remember their history.

It wasn’t the building or the specific rituals that were important… but their relationship with the God who came and dwelt among them and led them out of oppression… the one who showed them what it means to truly live. 

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The Akan people of Ghana have a concept called Sankofa…

San… ko… fa…

In their language it means to go back and take what you need to go forward. 

They represent this idea with the image of a bird, reaching back to take an egg from its back. 

When we realize that we’ve been living in tilted houses and looking into funhouse mirrors, sometimes the best way to move forward is to go back and remember who we are.

To remember our call to love God and to love our neighbor.

To remember the plan for God’s shalom and the foundation of our life together in the commandments.

To remember that God has already shown us what is good: to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. 

This year, our lives have been turned upside down and inside out. 

But in so many ways, we, too, have had the opportunity to embrace the idea of Sankofa.

We’ve returned to the basics of our family life.

We’ve spent time reaching out in love and care to one another.

We’ve remembered that God doesn’t just live inside the sanctuary here at Immanuel, but is present in our homes and our work, too. 

We’ve embraced generosity towards our neighbors. 

As the tables of our lives… and our church… have been turned over this year… I’m grateful for how God’s love has shown the way. 

In just a few minutes, we are going to gather around the table and share in communion. 

Before we do, we want to share with you the theme song for this Lenten series… “Again and Again” by the Many. 

As you watch and listen and pray, we also invite you to gather whatever elements you have at home and bring to them to your table… or coffee table… or set them in front of you.    

Pour yourself a glass of juice. 

Break apart your roll or donut or slice of bread and make sure each person in your home has a piece.

Let your hearts and minds and bodies prepare for the invitation to meet God right where you are. 

Laboring for God

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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 5th 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.   

A Way Forward? Fixed And Free

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The United Methodist Church is at a crossroads.

On the one hand, we do incredible work together because of our connection across the globe.  Missionaries go from everywhere to everywhere.  We are present amid disaster and crisis providing relief.  New faith communities have been formed in West Des Moines, Camaroon, and Russia. And these things happen because we pool our resources to do the most good.

On the other hand, we are a diverse, expansive, global denomination working in many different contexts from many different backgrounds.  Within that diversity is blessing and also conflict – including conflict about the role of LGBTQ+ persons in the life of the church – particularly whether they can be married in the church or ordained/consecrated by the church.

Next week, we’ll turn our attention to scripture and dive deeper into how they relate to what it means to be Lesbian, Gay, or Queer today.

But for today, we wanted to start with the big picture of how we got to this place as a denomination.   Behind any particular verse is the tension between flexibility and permanence.

What is written in stone?

What is subject to change in time and context?

How do we know the difference?

In February, our denomination will hold a special session of General Conference and how we answer these questions will determine our identity for the future.

 

How did we get here?

As people of faith, we are heirs of both the tabernacle and the temple.

That is the premise that the pastors of Lovers Lane United Methodist Church shared with their congregation when they addressed our current dilemma at the beginning of this year.  (https://soundcloud.com/llumc/sets/fixed-and-free)

As we heard in our scriptures for the day (Exodus 25:1-9 and 1 Kings 6:11-13), as the context and the people of the Bible changed, God had different ways that the people could come to know and worship God.

 

In the midst of the wilderness, the people had no home.  They were always on the move, never setting down roots, everything was always changing and uncertain.

And so God sends them instructions to build a tent – a tabernacle – a movable place of worship that would go with them wherever they were.

Every person within the community was called upon to contribute something – richly colored yarns, gold, silver, wood, leather, precious stones – all of them used to create a moveable place for God to dwell among them on the journey.  Wherever they traveled – God was with them.   (Exodus 25:1-9)

 

Generations later, the people stopped moving.  They had established themselves in the land and they wanted permanence.  They wanted a king like the nations around them. And they wanted to build God a temple.

King David himself looked around at the palace he was living in while the Ark of the Covenant was still residing within the tabernacle.  But it wasn’t until his son, Solomon, was established on the throne, that the temple in Jerusalem was constructed.

This temple, this permanent dwelling place for God, was important for the people in the time of the Kingdoms.  No longer did the people all travel together with God in their midst.  Now they were settled in far off places.  The temple represented something stable and unchanging, the home base to which they could return.  God now dwelt somewhere a part from the vast majority of the people – but if you followed the rules and went to the temple, you could be with God.  (1 Kings 6:11-13)

 

That tension between what is fixed and free, an institution and a movement, is at the core of our struggle and our identity.

Are we focused on the God of the tabernacle – who hears the cries of the oppressed and marginalized and who makes a home among the people wherever they might be?

Or are we focused on the God of the temple – who has made a covenant and established laws and who calls us to repent and return home so we might experience life abundant?

It is both… a tension we must hold… but sometimes it becomes a tug of war that threatens to tear apart the church.

Even when we focus on the Word – both the one who walked among us and the living word we discover in this text – we see this tension.

As the gospel of John reminds us, “In the beginning was the Word…  the Word became flesh and made his home among us.”  (John 1: 1, 14) The roots of this passage are that the Word tabernacled among us.

But Jesus also said that upon the rock of Peter, he would build his church.  Solid, foundational, able to withstand time and changing winds. (Matthew 16:18)

Too often, what we find reflected within the words of scripture are our own predispositions towards temple or tabernacle.

And, we must be aware that there is also a shadow side to either of these inclinations.  If we lean too heavily upon viewing God through the lens of the tabernacle, we might be tempted to believe that wherever we are, whatever we believe, must be okay because God is right there with us.    On the other hand, if we lean too heavily upon viewing God through the lens of the temple, we might be tempted to believe that faith means being rigid, legalistic, unmoveable.   The tabernacle needs to be balanced with accountability.  The temple needs to be balanced with grace.

 

There is an awful lot of history between the time of Christ and our denominational roots in the 18th century.  The church spread and conquered and fractured and reformed.  The bible itself was put in the hands of everyday people.  The Holy Spirit moved, and institutions grew.

One of our beginning points lies with John Wesley, a priest in the Church of England.  The institutional church around him was very removed from the people of the day.  And so, he felt a call to leave the cathedral and John Wesley went out into the fields, where the people were.

He preached in homes, and from the top of tombstones in the graveyard, and his brother, Charles, took old drinking songs and turned them into hymns.  They gathered people into small groups for accountability and care and formation, but always encouraged them to remain connected to the established church.

Now, something that is important here is that Wesley never wanted to start a new church – he simply wanted to reform his church and help the people reconnect and experience the power of God in their lives.  From England to Scotland to the American colonies – wherever the church was, small groups of Methodists were growing.

 

If you ever have trouble placing our history as a church, remember this – the Methodist movement grew up alongside the American Revolution.  And when England lost and the Church of England left the colonies – all of those in the Methodist movement were left without churches and leadership.  And so reluctantly, John Wesley ordained Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury as superintendents or bishops and sent them to lead the people called Methodist in the new country.

And because we were established around the same time as this nation, our governance matches the governance of the United States.   Our church is a democratic based structure with three branches – a Judicial Branch, an Executive Branch, and a Legislative Branch.

 

When the people wandered in the wilderness, God dwelt among them in a tent that was free to move.

When the people were established in a kingdom, God dwelt among them from an established temple in the capitol.

And when the people were forming a new nation, our church came to look like the new democracy with a book of laws and rules at the center of who we are.

 

I know we’d like to think that book is the bible, and… well, it is… but there is another book that holds us together as a denomination: The Book of Discipline.

In many ways, this has been our attempt to hold the tension between the fixed and the free, the movement and the institution.

This book provides stability in the sense that it is our reference point and foundational document of our identity.  It contains the Articles of Religion that have been handed down through generations and a constitution describing who we are and how we function, and which is very difficult to change.

But it also provides flexibility in the sense that everything else within this book can be changed every four years by a simple majority of delegates to the General Conference.

 

Like the United States Government, we have a judicial branch – a Judicial Council of 9 persons who are elected to rule on matters of disagreement.  We also have an executive branch, our Bishops, who are tasked with upholding the Discipline and caring for the ministry of the church.

Lastly, the General Conference is our legislative body. It is our version of Congress, only our gathering time is much shorter – for a couple of weeks every four years.  It is where we gather to discern God’s will for the future of our church in the world.  It is the place from which we boldly proclaim where God is and sometimes we have gotten it wrong and sometimes we have gotten it right.

 

37814071_10155608720195866_3274315691594874880_nIf you look at the history of our church, it has not been one continuous solid history.

If you trace the line from the Church of England, the lighter brown set of roots, (and the side of our history that I know better), we can see that our lack of welcome and inclusion for African American siblings led to the formation of not one, but three new denominations.

Conflict over slavery and the authority of the bishops split the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844 – years before the Civil War.

Sometimes splits were the result of contextual differences.  Sometimes because there was greater freedom needed that the more established church couldn’t hold within itself.

But the church has also merged and reconnected and joined with others for missional reasons.  In 1939, previous splintering was repaired as we became the Methodist Church.

And in 1968, we merged and formed a union with the Evangelical United Brethren Church.

One of our own – Rev. Harold Varce was a pastor in the EUB at that time and he was there at the founding of the United Methodist Church.  In fact, thanks to Harold, that “United” from the EUB tradition made its way into our name.

 

What would be the witness of this new denomination?

How would we hold in tension the call to find God at the margins with the oppressed and to boldly proclaim the established truth of God?

One of the first things that we undertook was to write our Social Principles.  While not church law, they are “the prayerful and thoughtful effort on part of the General Conference to speak to the human issues in the contemporary world from a sound biblical and theological foundation as historically demonstrated in United Methodist traditions.” (Preface)

And so in 1972 – with the denomination only four years old, much of the attention was focused on our section regarding human sexuality.  It was a time of great experimentation and misconduct in society at large and this was our first opportunity as a church to speak.

In the midst of our larger statement was a phrase “persons of homosexual orientation are persons of sacred worth.”  An amendment was made and approved which said, “We do not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider it incompatible with Christian teaching.”

In many ways – right there in the midst of that statement which says two very different things – is that tension between tabernacle and temple.  God’s presence dwells in the life of LGBTQ+ persons – they are of sacred worth… and the practice of their orientation is sinful to God and requires repentance.

Since 1972 – we have experienced a back and forth, push and pull, tug of war over whether we will fully embrace and include gays and lesbians in the life of the church or if we will stand firmly against the tides of culture upon the traditions of our established church.

That tension has reached such a point in the life of our denomination that it has overtaken much of our witness and work.

And so we reached a point in 2016 where we could not move forward without discerning a new way forward.  Over these past two years folks have gathered to pray, discern, converse, pour over scriptures, wrestle, and finally we are at a point where their recommendations of various possibilities will come to a special General Conference, focused solely on this topic in February.

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll back up and look at the scriptures behind our conversation.  We’ll look at the landscape of our current dilemma.  And in the final week, we’ll explore together the implications of the various proposals.

 

Here is what I want us to remember today.

When we were in the wilderness AND when established as a powerful nation – God dwelt among us.

When the temple was in ruins AND when the church was being persecuted – God was with us.

God has been leading, calling, pushing, prodding, rebuilding, connecting, pruning, and forming God’s people from the very beginning.

Not once has God left our side… although sometimes we have turned our backs upon God.

 

In some ways, I think God gives us what we need as far as a structure for whatever moment we might find ourselves in history.  Anything that will help us grasp onto the very simple fact that God love us and calls us to be God’s people.

Through the ups and downs of churches that have split and reconnected and reimagined their existence, what is constant is the Lord and Savior of us all.

So whatever comes, whatever changes, whatever new possibilities lie before us, I pray that we would trust that God is present in the midst of it all.

Amen.

 

Build the Church Again

It is the last Sunday of the fair.

The final Sunday of the Olympics.

The last Sunday before the school year starts for our children.

And the final Sunday of our Summer of the Prophets.

 

It might be hard to believe it, but this summer we’ve covered about 400 years of biblical history.  We’ve talked about, in one way or another, fifteen different prophets and their messages from God.  We have journeyed through Judah and Israel, Edom, Assyria, and Babylon.  We have watched the aftermath of a kingdom divided, watched their downfall and destruction.  We have wept with the exiles in Babylon and as they tried to make themselves at home in a foreign land.

 

Today, we get to celebrate that they finally returned home.

 

The Babylonians, you see, that great and mighty kingdom that conquered the world… well, if we remember from our  time in the book of Daniel, they aren’t the be all and end all of the story.  They, too, are conquered… by the Persians.  And the Persians dramatically re-write the story of the people of God.

Unlike many other kingdoms which forced their religion and perspectives on the peoples they defeated, Cyrus the Great of Persia greatly respected the diversity of all of the peoples of the kingdom.  Including their religions.  And so when the Babylonians were conquered, all of the kingdoms they had brought into their fold had the opportunity to return home, and rebuild their own cultures.

Cyrus, king of Persia, is the Messiah in Isaiah’s song of praise. 

Cyrus is the one in 2 Chronicles… a history of the people… that decrees “God, the God of the heavens, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has also assigned me to build him a Temple of worship at Jerusalem in Judah. All who belong to God’s people are urged to return—and may your God be with you! Move forward!” (36:23)

And so the people return home.  If you are curious about their journey and what they experienced as they finally arrived… the process and details of the rebuilding of the temple, I encourage you to check out the books of Ezra and Nehemiah in our scriptures.  Rather than being prophecies, these books are included with the books of Chronicles as a history and testimony of that time. 

 

Haggai, for his part, was called to speak God’s word in Jerusalem after the exiles all returned home.  Darius was the third king of the Persian empire… coming to power after Cyrus’s son failed in a complicated game of thrones.    What is important for our story, is that Darius continued the policies of the previous rules and allowed the people he ruled to practice their own religions and cultures – even giving grants from the royal treasury for this work. 

In fact, the temple in Jerusalem was funded by the Persian kingdom.   Cyrus sent the Judeans back home to begin building it, but the work didn’t begin quickly. 

The people were preoccupied by their own households.  They were worried about a drought.  They focused on themselves instead of on God.

And so, once again, God’s word comes to the people through a prophet… Haggai.  In this short, two chapter book, Haggai helps the people understand the urgency of the need to rebuild the temple. 

Then the Lord’s word came, “Is it time for you to dwell in your own paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? … rebuild the temple so that I may enjoy it and that I may be honored.” (1: 4, 8b)

The people heard…. and in September of 521 BCE the rebuilding of the temple began.

 

In the passage that we are focusing on today, God provides words of encouragement to the people in this process. 

Generations had come and gone in exile.  Not many… if any… were alive during the time of the Judean kingdom or who had seen the previous temple.  They were in uncharted waters, unsure of what came next.

And these words were a reminder that God was in control. 

Be strong! 

Work, for I am with you!

My spirit stands in your midst!

Don’t fear!

I make the heavens and the earth quake and I will fill this house with glory. 

 

When I think about church today and the rebuilding of the temple, I for one am incredibly grateful to all of those who have maintained and planned and cared for this church building that we worship in.  Just yesterday, people gave their time to help renovated and rejuvenate this space in preparation for fall. 

This house is not lying in ruins.  We have been faithful stewards of this physical space and honor God through our care of this space. 

 

But, as we have heard in so many of the prophets recently, the temple, the church, is about far more than the building. 

Giving honor and glory to God far more about about creating room for God to dwell in your heart and your life than about bricks and mortar. 

And it is a lot more difficult as well. 

It is far easier to focus on our professional development than our faith development.

We are often preoccupied with our recreational life and don’t take time for our spiritual life.

We experience droughts in the form of finances or stress or illness and they become excuses that keep us from doing the hard work of building a relationship with God.

And so Haggai speaks to us, too.

Only we don’t need to build a structure for God to live in… we need to build on our commitment to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

 

And just as God spoke to the Judeans, God speaks to us:

Be strong! 

Work, for I am with you!

My spirit stands in your midst!

Don’t fear!

I make the heavens and the earth quake and I will fill this house… I will fill your life… with glory. 

 

 

Just as we are coming to the close of the summer and so many exciting things we have done and seen and shared, so, too, are we coming to the start of something new.  

A new school year.

A new Sunday morning schedule.

A new focus on discipleship in our church and what it means to live out our faith and follow Jesus. 

And we are going to challenge you to step up and step out in faith.

We are going to wrestle with what it means to put God first in our lives.

We are going to ask one another if we are really living lives of love, service, and prayer.

 

You see, God is doing a new thing in our midst.   

God wants to build this church again.  Build our faith again.  Build our hearts again.   

 

Maybe your relationship with God is like a house that has been neglected for too long.

Maybe your faith life is in shambles.

Maybe the windows have been boarded over or the roof is caving in.

Maybe structurally you don’t know where to start picking up the pieces and starting over.

Maybe you are like the Judeans who are heading to a home that was never really theirs to begin with and you have no idea what this is supposed to look like.

You are not alone.

We all have to start somewhere and as a church, this fall, we are going to explore our faith life one piece at a time.

We are going to celebrate where we are, and then lay out a plan and help each other grow. 

One step at a time. 

One choice at a time.

One day at a time.

 

The God who can shake the heavens and the earth can shake up our church and our hearts, too.  God will do this work in our lives, if we just give the spirit room to move… 

Because as God reminds us at the end of the book of Haggai…. I have chosen you. 

 

We didn’t chose God.  God chose us. 

God chose you.  And God wants to build this church with you and you and you.  Thanks be to God. Amen.

Following Jesus isn't easy…

This morning in my devotion time I read from Matthew 21… the cleansing of the temple. I have been using the daily reading book from The Message and there are always good questions that pull you into the stories and make me think.

This morning, I realized that following Jesus can give a person whiplash. I imagined myself in the midst of the temple, trying to resolve my own guilt and sin, working ou my own salvation, scraping together coins to pay for the doves or goat or whatever I needed for atonement… redemption. I remember this sickening feeling that others were profiting from my mistakes.

And in walks Jesus. I’ve heard about him… seen him once… and before I realize whats happening, the table where my doves were sitting in a cage has been overturned and the birds fly free… the guy who was charging me an arm and a leg for my ticket to redemption is on his heels looking for an exit. I feel so free in that moment… like the birds.

My sin ever present, I need healing as much as the disabled and ill who crowd around him. I press in closer and realize how fortunate I was to have been “in” the system already… I was struggling… but I was not a beggar. I had opportunities many of these never had to be here and connect with God and worship in this temple… and so I fall back and let others move ahead of me.

I want to be close and I want to give others a chance… I want salvation and in a way I feel like simply in the presence of Christ it is already mine.  I feel joyful and free and giddy…

And then the priests come running out. I notice the commotion… birds flying free, goats crapping in a corner, kids running through the building, the wall of people around Jesus.

I… well, ‘m going to say it. I feel a bit ashamed. I’m not entirely sure why, but perhaps it is because these are figures of authority in my life. These have been he agents of God in my life. These are the people who always told me what salvation was. And I feel like I have betrayed them, like we are all doing something wrong.

There is a confrontation between them and Jesus and he turns his face against them and leaves as quickly as he came. And the shame and anxiety and yet residual joy and hope I felt co-mingle and I run after him. I wan to hear what he is saying. I am a flutter of so many emotions and yet I know the truest ones I felt were at his side.

Sometimes as we follow Christ we get a glimpse of possibility… only to have that hope squelched by the world, or parents, or our church… sometimes the people we have loved so dearly and who have loved us so dearly disappoint when it comes to sharing our new hopes. I’ve heard some of those stories recently and as my work… following Jesus… leads me deeper INTO the structure and the “insiders” my prayer is that I never forget that whiplash… never fail to hear Christ’s voice… never overlook those who are thoughtful and hungry and full of ideas and hopes and dreams right next to me for the sake of what I think I’m supposed to be doing.