world communion – Salvaged Faith

Take Our Bread: Imagine the Multitudes

Posted on October 6, 2019Leave a comment

Text | Isaiah 55:1-6, 12; Matthew 14:13-21
Focus Verse | Matthew 14:13

There’s hope for the hopeless
And all those who’ve strayed
Come sit at the table
Come taste the grace
There’s rest for the weary
Rest that endures
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can’t cure

Dave Crowder – “Come as You Are”

Come, sit at the table
Come to the water.
Come, buy food without money and eat.
Come taste the grace.
Come, be healed.
Come, be fed.
Come.

In our gospel story from Matthew for this morning, Jesus wasn’t issuing an invitation with words.
In fact, if we look closely at these verses, he was actually trying to get people to stay away.
He had just learned the devastating news that John the Baptist had been executed and he needed some time to grieve and process and pray.

But the very life and ministry of Jesus was an invitation.
It didn’t matter that he wasn’t saying the words himself, because everyone else was.
The leper who had been exiled from community was now healed and his very skin was a testimony to Jesus power of healing.
The centurion… a Roman soldier… an agent of empire… came to ask for healing for his beloved companion – and not only was the man healed, but the centurion was praised for his faith. Someone who might have been seen as an enemy or the oppressor found a place in the ministry of Christ
The demon possessed men living among the tombstones who were returned to community.
The chronically bleeding woman who was finally able to be touched again.
The blind men who were told to keep quiet about the miraculous healing but who couldn’t keep their mouths shut.

Everywhere Jesus went, stories of healing and forgiveness and restoration followed.
There was hope for the hopeless…
There was rest for the weary…
There was healing for the broken…
There was purpose for the forgotten…

And when you hear and see ordinary people who are transformed by an extraordinary grace and power, you can’t help but want to come and see for yourself.
And so crowds of people who had heard about this Jesus from their neighbors and family and friends flocked out to the countryside, to the wilderness, to catch just a glimpse for themselves.

There was a thought a decade or two ago that all churches needed to do in order to attract new people to Jesus was to provide all of the things that non-churched people needed.
A coffee station by the sanctuary.
A gym for the sports people.
The best musicians money could buy.
If you build it, they will come.

And sure some people flocked to see the gigantic megachurch with all the features.
And some people found real grace and community there.
But you know what really brings people into community?
Do you know what has always worked?
Ordinary people, who are transformed by an extraordinary grace and power, and who can’t keep their mouths shut about Jesus.
The leper who suddenly could move back home.
The bleeding woman whose grandkids could crawl up on her lap.
The broken man who was able to provide for his family again.
People just like you and me who tell others about what they have found.
People, just like you and me, who issue the invitation.
Come and see.
Come, taste the grace.
Come, be healed.
Come, sit at the table.

I believe that the church is the body of Christ.
It is where, today, we experience grace and hope and forgiveness and healing.
So, friends, I have a question for you…
Why do you keep coming back to Immanuel?
What have you found here that has changed your life?

This is not a rhetorical question.
I want to invite you to turn to your neighbor and share with them… what draws you over and over again back to this community of faith?
What have you found here that has made a difference in your life?
[2-3 minutes of sharing]
Are there any of you who want to share with the whole group what you shared with your neighbor?
[2-3 stories]
As followers of Jesus Christ, we have a story to tell.
We have a story of transformation and hope and healing.
We have a story that people out there in the world who are lonely and broken and hungry are longing to hear.
But so often, we hide our story, our witness, our LIGHT, under a bushel basket where no one can see it.
So here is your challenge for this week.
I want to invite you to tell at least ONE person outside of this building why you keep coming back to Immanuel.
And for those of you who use social media, it is even easier… I want to invite you to post your story.
Tell your friends something about why being here at Immanuel has made a difference in your life.
Share what you learned in your book study that has changed your perspective.
Talk about a relationship with your pew mate that has helped you to not feel so alone.
Tell the story of how someone was the hands and feet of Jesus in the midst of your difficult time.
Don’t be shy.
Tell your story.
Because people out there in the world… your kids and friends and neighbors… are longing to hear about how they might find hope or healing or a kind of deeper satisfaction than the things that this world is offering.

There’s hope for the hopeless
And all those who’ve strayed
Come sit at the table
Come taste the grace
There’s rest for the weary
Rest that endures
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can’t cure

The Sweetest Grapes are Closest to the Vine

Posted on October 2, 2016Leave a comment

This spring when I planted my garden, I included some pumpkins for my husband.

Typically, I try to avoid plants with vines, because they tend to take over the entire garden. I plant bush varieties of cucumbers and squash and beans to keep everything more compact.

But pumpkins don’t come in bush varieties 😉

I planted only four seeds… all together in one mound…

They were planted at the right depth, they were watered and weeded. And the vines grew.

As the summer went on, the vines took over the garden with their broad leaves and bright yellow flowers. Stretching the entire length of my garden were glorious vines and the beginning of fruits. The weather was perfect for vine production… maybe not so much for fruit… but definitely for vines.

But there were some scattered ugly brown vines here and there.

In the midst of all of the living, thriving vines, some were dying.

Now… the pumpkins really did take over much of my garden. And so I had to tread carefully through the chaos to trace those dying vines and find the source of the problem.

All of them were connected to a single branch… a single shoot off of the main stalk that had been severed from the vine. Perhaps it was a rabbit or a chipmunk. Maybe a bug. Maybe I stepped on it. No matter what had happened, every vine that branched off from that point was dying because it was no longer connected to the roots and stem that gave it life.

In our scripture this morning, we are reminded that we will die spiritually… that we are incapable of producing fruit when we are not attached to the vine, when we are not connected to the roots which nourish us.

And our true vine is Christ… the Christ we meet in worship… the Christ we meet in God’s Word… the Christ we meet in fellowship and in the face of the stranger.

As I studied this scripture, I set aside my paltry knowledge of pumpkins and turned to the world of grapes.

Did you know that the best and the sweetest grapes are found closest to the vine?

Nancy Blakely reflects that this is because they are closer to the source, “where the nutrients are the most concentrated.” In fact, this is why growers of grapes are so diligent about pruning their vines… because the farther away from the vine the grapes are, the bitterer and the smaller they will be.

But close in, close to the heart of the vine, abiding near the heart, they find the nourishment they need and produce bountifully.

As we have been exploring a life of discipleship, so far we have explored what it means to be people who worship and people who share in God’s hospitality towards others.

But we also need to be fed and nourished in our work. As Jesus reminds us in the gospel of John:

“A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me… without me, you can’t do anything.”

So today, we turn our attention towards our spiritual formation, or how we stay connected to the vine. What it means to abide in God and to remain in Jesus.

Take out the half sheet of paper that describes those various levels of spiritual formation.

Maybe you are a small bunch of grapes way out there on the edge of the vine. Many of us in worship today want to know more about God and Jesus and you are curious and getting started. And that is amazing.

We have third graders who will be learning today with their bible partners after worship… but even if you are older than a third grader, its not too late to start.

All of us should be reading the bible… it is the number one way that we stay connected with Jesus. And it is a whole lot easier when you are in a safe place where you can ask questions and learn together.

We have been trying to offer Sunday morning bible studies, and I, personally, have been disappointed that more of you have not signed up. Maybe it’s not the right time… but bible study itself is something that this church really needs in order for us to grow spiritually.

In fact, this is so important to me, that starting in November, I’m going to be leading a bible study every Wednesday night, and I’d love for you to join me.

Maybe you are a bunch of grapes that is a bit closer in to the vine. Growing a bit sweeter and bigger and fuller. Do you regularly spend time reading your bible? Are you finding other ways to connect with God through prayer or contemplation?

Maybe then your next step is to go deeper with others. Our life groups have been places where many have been formed and have grown in their faith as they connect with God or each other. They have made prayer beads, and explored topics like forgiveness and stewardship. Some of our in-depth scripture studies like Covenant or Disciple have really challenged people to take seriously the bible in a new way. If you are ready to go deeper… we have resources – either within the church or through retreats like Walk to Emmaus to help you connect more fully to the one true vine.

Maybe you are a strong bunch of grapes… ripe, sweet, and full… right up there tucked in close to the vine. Are you in a place where get up every day, ready to connect with God? Do you not simply wait for the church to offer something, but seek out opportunities to learn and to grow?

Maybe your next step is to turn your life-giving energy towards others. Whether it is a partner for our third graders, or a leader of a class or life group, or personally mentoring someone… in helping another person grow, you will grow in new ways yourself.

One limitation of our vine metaphor is that it makes us think we are fixed in and we are not.

You are not limited by wherever it is you are on the vine.

If you are a tiny, sour little bunch of grapes way out on the edge, you can take the next step and move a bit closer to God.

If you are a bunch of grapes that is not yet ripe, but growing… you can take the next step and move a bit closer to God.

And you can carry the vine itself with you wherever you might go. This vine is not meant to be stuck in the ground at 2900 49^th Street…. We are meant to move and be engaged in the world with Jesus.

Now, there is another category of people who are not listed on this sheet, but who come up in our scripture: The spiritually wilted and dying.

Maybe you were closely connected to the vine at some point, but that day has come and gone.

You know, none of us are perfect.

All of us let things besides God into the center of our lives at one time or another.

Just like my vines were cut off by critters or bugs or clumsy feet, maybe you were disconnected by work or family responsibility, disappointment or doubt.

The troubling part of this scripture for me is always the part about the pruning. It appears like God the vinedresser simply snips off those dead and wilted branches from the vine, throws them in the fire or compost pile, and forgets about them… just like I did with my pumpkin vines this summer.

So is there any hope for those of us who aren’t as connected as we would like?

No matter who you are or where you are in your relationship with God, there is always a chance to take a next step and be formed spiritually.

Even if you have broken away from the vine.

You see… the same God who talks about pruning also talks about grafting.

Grafting is a process where a branch can be attached to the trunk and roots of another tree – in many cases, different types of trees and plants are connected together for hybridization and for strength and growth.

In the scriptures, Paul talks not about vines, but about trees… the family tree of God. The gentiles were grafted on to that tree… brought into the family after some of the faithful branches broke off.

In Romans, chapter 11, he talks about those branches were broken off because of their own unbelief.

But if God could take us… gentiles who didn’t belong… and graft us on to the tree… then God has the power to reattach the broken branches, too.

Even the branches that appear to be dead and dying have the ability to be restored by God’s grace.

This morning, the bread and juice from this table will go to our homebound members who are not able to be physically present with us today, so too do we need to take the vine with us to those who are in danger of being cut off.

You are the hands and feet, the branches and leaves of Christ in this world. And maybe you are the reconnection point for someone you know. Maybe it is your own son or daughter. Or a friend. It might be a neighbor who hasn’t opened a bible or door to a church in a very long time.

With God’s grace and strength flowing through you, let the love of God that abides in you overflow into your love for them.

This World Communion Sunday reminds us that we don’t do faith all by ourselves. Every part of the Body of Christ across this globe is a branch of the one true vine. And parts of this world are broken and hurting, full of anger, pain, and grief.

But as Kate Huey puts it, “Here, up close to the vine, immersed in [God’s love and peace], we find not only nourishment but also hope and joy, and we let God’s word ‘find a home in us through faithful devotion… ‘ When we remain that close to Jesus, we attuned to him and he to us, the remarkable result is that what we want will be what God wants, and it will surely come to pass.”

And it will take all of us, living together in love, growing deeper in our love and knowledge of God, to truly transform this world into what God desires. But we aren’t alone.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rules for a Global Church

Posted on October 5, 2014Leave a comment

For the past five weeks, we have used the visual reminder of small rocks like this one to help us live into our scriptures.

We have seen them lined up as a dividing line between us and them, and as a recreation of the body of Christ.

We felt their weight as they added up one by one in the way we keep track of wrongs.

We wrestled with what is fair and unfair.

We have talked about family and forgiveness.

Today, our rocks are piled up here on the communion railing. All together, they have created a sort of barrier or fence in the space.

If they were larger, the rocks piled up in this way would remind me of the ocean walls that break up the waves in front of the beach, or the stone fences that keep sheep and cattle from wondering off the property in some idyllic pasture.

As I began thinking about the ten commandments this week, I remembered that one of my favorite authors, Wayne Mueller, once described them as a fence, just like this.

He had learned the hard way the benefits of a fence when he was gardening. He could plant lots of good things, but the rabbits kept getting in and eating all that would grow. It was only when the fence was erected that the tulips and daffodils he had planted finally bloomed.

Mueller writes, “The fence was a simple prohibition against harmful activity.” Instead of thinking about all the shall nots contained in the 10 commandments from exodus, what if we saw them as a garden fence? What if we came to see them as “a useful boundary that keeps out those things that would bring us harm?” What if the 10 commandments actually create a safe space in our lives, a holy space, that allows us to live together with one another in love?

In our final week of this series on difficult relationships and our need for forgiveness, we back up just a step and remember who we are.

As Genesis 1:27 reminds us, “God created humanity in God’s own image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them.”

And as the first people of God built relationships and multiplied and moved, they found themselves living in new places and among people who no longer looked or thought like them.

And so as God worked to cultivate God’s people, to create space for them to grow and flourish and mature, God put a kind of fence around their lives.

God gave them, and us, these commandments to help us live the best and most fruitful lives possible.

When God commands us not to steal, God is setting us free to live generous lives.

When God commands us to honor our parents, God is caring for the aging.

When God commands us not to lie, God is helping us live lives of honesty.

Each command helps us turn our energy and our love toward one another and toward God. Each command creates the conditions for our best possible life, not as individuals, but as a community and as a world.

I believe that if each of us truly lived within the protective fence of these commands, there might be no need for forgiveness at all.

Can you imagine a world without slander and murder? A world where people worshipped only God and not their borders or their pocketbooks?

Can you picture how our planet might be different if we were not constantly striving for what someone else possesses, or hoarding our own belongings, but made sure that each of our brothers and sisters had enough?

Today, we celebrate World Communion Sunday. On this day, Christians across the world break bread in remembrance of Jesus Christ. We celebrate the entire body of Christ on this day, gathered in countries near and far. The gifts that we offer in the special envelopes in your bulletin help to train students from many backgrounds and cultures so that we can discover unity even in the midst of our diversity.

And I think the primary thing that unites us is the love of Jesus Christ.

The love of Christ reminds us we are all sinners in need of God’s grace.

The love of Christ shows us what grace and mercy are all about.

The love of Christ is sacrificial and bends down in service to others.

The love of Christ gives life to others.

Love seeks the good of others, no matter who they are, even if it is at our own expense.

We are not all the same. Across this great wide world we worship in different languages and eat different types of bread. We sing different types of music. We live in various political and social and economic realities. But as the people of God and followers of Jesus Christ, we are all have the same calling: to love.

When Jesus summarized all of the law and the prophets, he basically took the ten commandments and boiled them down to five words:

Love God. Love your neighbor.

That’s it.

These laws are all about the relationships we have been talking about these past few weeks.

Love is the fence that guards us from harmful activity. Love is the standard for how we are to behave. Love defines who we are.

Does that mean that we will always perfectly follow these commands? Does it mean that we will always be safe from others who would seek to harm us?

No, of course not.

This world is full of broken promises and imperfect people. We will make mistakes. We will sometimes forget the imperative to love. And we are surrounded by people who simply don’t care about our laws and our faith.

But our response to those who have harmed us or who challenge us should always and everywhere come from the same love that defines us as people of faith. Our response should always be love.

And loving our enemies and strangers means forgiving them and seeking peace and reconciliation.

During these past few weeks, one of the songs we have heard in both services is called “Forgiveness” by Matthew West. West wrote this song based on the story of a woman whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver. The young man who killed her was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his crime, but the mother wrote that she felt like the one who was a prisoner because of the anger and hatred she had towards the young man.

So she decided to forgive him. She built a relationship with this young man and asked God to help her show him love and grace and mercy. And today, they are both free because she chose to love.

This fence of God’s love frees us to be in relationships with other people, no matter how different we are, how broken we might seem, how challenging that might be.

Today, as we celebrate our unity, may we also celebrate the love that guides us every step of the way, the love that surrounds us and frees us to love others in return.

Hewbrews Part 1: Disposable People

Posted on October 4, 20091 Comment

The strange and frustrating thing about the lectionary – the three year cycle of readings that is used in many churches in the world – including ours… the strange and frustrating thing about the lectionary is that sometimes it just doesn’t make sense.

Each week we have a reading from the Old Testament, the New Testament, a Psalm, and a Gospel reading. And while most of the time they go together – with the same message and purpose, sometimes they just don’t seem to fit.

Take today for instance. Worldwide, we are celebrating the fact that as Christians we all partake of communion with one another. It is a day to remember that a Christian across the globe is our brother or sister in Christ – that we all partake of the one loaf and we all drink from the one cup.

In the lectionary cycle – today is also the day that we start exploring the books of Job in the Old Testament and Hebrews in the New. Until Thanksgiving, in fact, we will be going slowly through the book of Hebrews as we worship on Sunday mornings. But those readings have very little to do with the Old Testament reading from Job where Satan begins testing the faithful man by raining destruction into his life. It has very little to do with the passage from the gospels about divorce.

In fact, I couldn’t figure out how any of these things hung together – what we were supposed to make of them until I remembered a conversation I had with a patient of mine from Nashville

This patient, Adam, was struggling – deeply struggling with his worthiness before God. You see, Adam had cancer. And on this afternoon he was in a particularly deep hole of doubt and self-pity. On this day, the illness had gotten the best of him. And as I entered the room to visit with him he wanted to know why he couldn’t just die.

As we got to talking, I wondered what kind of comfort I could bring him. I couldn’t take the pain away. I asked him if he wanted to pray with me and he barely lifted his head as he spoke.

“I’ve asked Jesus over and over again to help me and he hasn’t,” Adam cried out, “how can he just let me suffer like this?”

As we talked more I began to realize that Adam was expressing a deep feeling of being forsaken by God. Forgotten. Thrown away. He felt like no matter how much he cried out, God wouldn’t listen.

Instead he was being punished. In his eyes, the suffering he was experiencing was God knocking on the door saying “see, I told you so,” and Adam was going to withstand that suffering. Whether it was sheer pride, or self-loathing, or the medications, he felt like he was being punished and he was going to take it like a man.

I remember asking him at one point: What if God’s just waiting for you to let go? What if God is just waiting for you to stop fighting him so that he can actually heal you? What if who you are fighting is yourself?

And then, I’ll never forget what he said. “Even if I do let go, even if I do admit he’s really there, I don’t deserve it.”

I have no idea what Adam’s past was. I don’t know where he thought that he failed.

I do know that I wanted to shake him and tell him that no matter how unworthy he thought he was, God wasn’t done with him.

God didn’t see him, and God doesn’t see us, as some disposable thing – made and then broken and easily thrown away. God saw him in the words of Psalm 8 as the one who was made just a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor. It didn’t matter what he had done – God’s grace and forgiveness was bigger and stronger than his mistakes.

The amazing thing about the book of Hebrews is that while it is a text that portrays very vividly what Christ has done – it is humans who are the focus. Hebrews is about who God is yes, but about what God has done for us – how God acts because of us.

In chapter 1, we are reminded that while God has always been speaking to us – in various times and places – God chose finally to speak by his Son. This Son is the Word of God that is God and was God and spoke all things into being in the creation. Jesus, the Son of God, the Word of God, is God and is fully of all glory and honor.

But then in chapter two we compare this glory and majesty with what was created. This world, that we live in, was not given to angels or to demons, but to humans. Compared with the moon and the stars we are nothing – and yet God has made us a little lower than the angels and God has placed this world in our hands.

Here, the author of Hebrews turns our eyes back towards Psalm 8. We are reminded that Adam and Eve were made caretakers over the garden – over the animals and the birds and the fish and the land and the seas. This is our world – a gift, given to us by God for safekeeping.

And while chapter 2 verse 8 says that we are supposed to be in control, when we are sick. When natural disasters like earthquakes and tornados and floods ravage. When a brother or a sister harms us – the feeling of control slips between our fingertips. The reality that we experience however is that we feel completely out of control.

That is what my friend Adam in the hospital was experiencing. Completely out of control.

Hebrews tells us that while this world appears to be spinning out of control, we catch a glimpse of Jesus and we are reminded of how he poured himself out, became human – became one of us, and took the sins of the world with him through the cross. That becomes our reference point. That becomes our hope.

We are not disposable in God’s eyes, we are redeemable. As John 3:16 reminds us, For God so loved the world. God doesn’t abandon his creation – he loves it and he redeems it.

And through Christ, we become children of God. Or as verse 11 puts it – we all have one Father, one source – and Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters.

What I told my friend Adam is that it doesn’t matter if you feel unworthy or not. It doesn’t matter if you think you deserve help or not. Heck, we probably are unworthy and we are undeserving. There is nothing that we can do to earn God’s love. But God loves you anyways. You are not a disposable part of God’s creation.

Christ invites us each to the table because it is more complete when we are all here. And when we sit at this table, we look across and see our brothers and our sisters. And just as you are not a disposable part of God’s creation – neither are they.

Gathering at the table means that we speak the truth about those we have hurt. It means that we acknowledge that there are people in the world that we have treated as if they can be used up and easily tossed aside. They may be people we never see like sweatshop workers in Vietnam, or coffee farmers in Columbia, or diamond miners in Africa.

But they might also be people who are close to us, people whose lives we share on a daily basis.

In our gospel reading today, Jesus makes a plea with his disciples not to separate the bonds of marriage and to honor the lives of children. And in both of these instances, he is speaking against cultural practices that allowed spouses and children to be considered disposable people.

If your wife burnt your dinner, you could write her a certificate of divorce. If you didn’t like the way she wore her hair, you could write her a certificate of divorce. While this had been in part Jewish custom, Greco-Roman culture also allowed by this time that women could divorce their husbands in a similar manner.

The same was true for children. They were seen as not fully human. Until they reached a certain age they had no voice and no standing. They were non-persons who could be sold and traded.

But just as Christ doesn’t give up on us – doesn’t throw us out with the slightest irritation, so too are we supposed to love one another. The relationship between two partners in marriage does not entitle either one to see the other as disposable. The relationship between parent and child means that the parent should care for the child and the child should honor the parent.

That doesn’t mean that there won’t be brokenness in the body of Christ. We all know situations where divorce has divided a family. We all know situations in which divorce was the only way out of an unhealthy situation. We can all think of instances in which children were not cared for by their community.

And we bring that to the table. And we speak the truth about the ways we have failed one another through confession. And here we receive forgiveness. In this bread and in this cup, we are restored. Whether we deserve it or not. Whether we think we are worthy or not. You are not disposable in God’s eyes and this table is set just for you.