Image – Page 24 – Salvaged Faith

God Prepares a Feast

Posted on January 1, 2017Leave a comment

How many of you ate too much this holiday season?

How many of you ate just enough?

You know, the thing about family gatherings, celebrations, and joyous events is that they are feast times in our lives.

We gather around tables.

We break bread.

We share stories.

And we experience life to its fullest.

As the prophet, Isaiah, envisions the day of salvation, he writes about “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines, of rich food with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear.” (Isaiah 25:6)

There will be joy on that morning.

There will be celebration on that day.

And the table will be full.

Now, this would have been a powerful image of hope in the midst of Isaiah’s day. Israel had been torn apart and God’s people had suffered violence and oppression. There is nothing left.

Heidi Haverkamp invites us to imagine refugees from a modern war finding a heavy banquet table in the middle of nowhere… an oasis in the midst of the desert of struggle and pain and fear.

The people and creatures of Narnia have known such struggle. They are survivors of a time of oppression and violence and loss.

But in the midst of their fear and anxiety, they also hung on to hope.

The Pevensie children, Edmund, Susan, Peter, and Lucy, are welcomed into the home of the Beavers who set out a feast of fish and potatoes, sticky marmalade rolls, bread and butter. They filled their bellies with food and their hearts with hope.

And then, Father Christmas arrived.

If you were with us last week, we talked about how the cold winter of the White Witch’s power was so strong that it was always winter and never Christmas.

But the world began to thaw.

The seasons began to turn with the promise that Aslan was near.

And Father Christmas came as a symbol of hope, that the winter would soon end, that a new day was coming.

And when he came across a group of Narnians in the woods, Father Christmas set out a feast of plum pudding and wine, delicious food, and decorations.

It was a scene right out of Isaiah.

The day of salvation was near.

And yet.

And yet, that day of salvation is still oh, so, far away.

As those grateful people of Narnia sat to enjoy their meal with laughter and merriment, the White Witch comes along and turns their joy into silence. She turns them into stone.

The promise has not yet been fulfilled.

As Haverkamp writes in her reflections for this season, “A special family meal isn’t a promise that nothing will every go wrong again. The people of Isaiah’s time would be torn apart by war and sent away into exile. In Narnia, the Christmas supper party would be turned to stone. But the people of Israel knew that God was with them, no matter what, and that God’s promises to them were eternal.”

Every time we gather around this table, we feast, too.

We feast on bread and wine.

We remember stories and laugh and cry.

We are re-connected by these offerings of live giving sustenance.

And we know that this meal is only a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.

One of most holy moments for me every Christmas Eve is to gather around this table and around the manger and break bread together.

In this one moment, the whole story of our faith is present.

Christ was born. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

While it might seem morbid to remember on that night that the child born in the manger was born to die, for me it is a reminder of just how fully God entered our human existence.

God took on our flesh and came into our lives in one of the most vulnerable ways one could imagine.

This child cried and was utterly dependent upon the milk from his mother and the care and protection from his earthly father. He learned to walk and scraped his knees. And every step of the way, as he grew into a man, he reached out and connected with the least, the last, and the lost…. And the rich and powerful.

Our God fully took on our flesh and reached out to welcome children and talked with women and taught men what it meant to truly be the people of God.

He was praised and he was ridiculed. He wept. He was angry. God became one of us.

And then our God died for us.

In the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, there is a moment when all hope appears lost. In order to save the life of one of the Pevensie children, Edmund, the one who betrayed the rest of his siblings, Aslan gives up his own life to the White Witch.

He willing hands himself over to her in a scene that brings to my mind memories of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

And he is killed.

The two girls, Lucy and Susan, weep over his body… like the women who went to the tomb early on Easter morning.

And as they walk to catch a glimpse of sunrise, they hear a loud crack. The stone on which Aslan had been killed cracked in two. He rose and stood behind them triumphant.

And then, Aslan shared that resurrected life with the creatures of Narnia. He flew to all those who had been turned to stone and breathed upon them, setting them free from the curse of the White Witch.

Today, we remember that in the very beginning our God breathed into us the breath of life.

We remember that our God took on human flesh and lived among us.

We remember that our God in Christ freely gave up his life so that we might have life and life abundant.

And today, we remember … every time we eat this bread and drink this cup, the promise of salvation.

Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell wrote in her reflection upon the Isaiah passage that the “prophet’s message of hope [is]for the day when God invites everyone to the banquet table, and death’s power is destroyed forever. The veil will be torn away and God will end our mourning by wiping away our tears. This is the God we have waited for. This is the moment we have waited for. This is the invitation we have waited for.”

This is the invitation we have waited for.

Come.

God has prepared a feast.

Can’t Keep Silent!

Posted on December 28, 20164 Comments

While the Advent journey takes us through an emotional rollercoaster of joy, fear, humility, and anticipation, there is no other emotion to guide the days after Christmas than pure celebration.

Each of the readings for this time of Christmas call us to take a deep breath of relief, to look around at the beauty of what God has done, and to simply enjoy it.

We have waited patiently for four weeks in this season of Advent and in these fast paced days, a month may seem like an eternity.

But our scriptures from Luke for this Sunday tell us of two people who had been waiting their whole lifetimes for the birth of Christ and then who absolutely couldn’t keep silent when they encountered the Christ-child.

First of all, a little background about why Mary and Joseph and the newly born Jesus find themselves in Jerusalem in our gospel reading this morning.

This probably would have been the second trip that the trio would have made into the holy city – first in order to name their child and to have him circumcised eight days after his birth, and then this second trip – in order for Mary to be purified after the birth according to the law.

In the book of Leviticus, the law proclaims that any woman who has given birth would be ceremonially unclean – or unable to worship at the temple or to touch holy things, for 33 days if the child born was a boy, or 66 days if the newly born baby was a girl.

While this may seem to be strange – it was actually probably a welcome time of rest and a chance for the new mother and child to bond in peace and quiet.

But then after that time, the family would come to the temple to make the required offering.

Families who could afford to do so would bring a lamb, but there were allowances made for those who were less fortunate. Scripture tells us that Mary and Joseph were only able to bring a pair of small birds as their gift to God.

These trips back and forth, all of this pomp and ceremony, were actually very normal, really, expected parts of what it meant to have a baby. Mothers and fathers and infants would have been a common sight around the temple as they marked this important time of their lives in God’s presence.

But in the midst of other mothers and fathers and babies – Luke tells us that two wise old saints- Anna and Simeon – picked this particular trio out of the crowd and knew that they were something special.

Perhaps it was the fact that Anna and Simeon had been waiting for such a long time to see the Messiah.

Perhaps they were just more in tune with the power of the Holy Spirit after lifetimes of faithful service to God.

Or maybe they just allowed themselves to be overcome by the joy of the moment and couldn’t help but be silent.

In any case, both Anna and Simeon rushed to the new parents and their infant son, God-in-the-flesh, and gave praise to God.

Who are these people? And why does Luke record their reactions?

Simeon was a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit, and long ago a promise was made to him that he would not see death until the Messiah had come.

Most people were looking for a leader to rise above the people – a powerful and spiritual figure. But Simeon was led by God to see that this infant child that crossed his path was something more… and he knew that his promise had been fulfilled.

He understood that this child would grow to become not just a light of revelation to his Jewish brothers and sisters, but would be the light of salvation to the entire world. And the Holy Spirit helped him to understand that this path to salvation would be a heart-breaking journey for Mary and Joseph, but also for God.

Now that he had seen the Messiah, he could pass from this world in peace.

Anna was a prophetess, a woman of God who spent her life worshipping God through fasting and prayer in the temple.

It is likely that she had served God in this capacity for nearly sixty years of her lifetime!

In those sixty years, surely many babies had passed before her eyes.

And while we don’t know of anything particularly special about the way the infant Christ looked, something about this month old child caught Anna’s eye.

Her heart was filled with joy and Luke writes that she began to tell the story of this amazing child to everyone that was looking for redemption and hope in the city of Jerusalem.

Hope has come! Light has entered our midst! was likely her cry.

She may have been eighty-four years old, but she wasn’t going to let anything stop her from sharing what she had experienced.

Maybe she thought in the back of her mind of our text from Isaiah today: “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest.”

Her years of prayerful anticipation had been answered, and now she simply couldn’t keep her mouth shut.

My question for all of you this afternoon is simple. If an eighty-four year old woman and a dying old man can share the joy of this birth with all of those around her—why shouldn’t we?

I want to encourage each and every single one of you to go out from this time of worship and to share! To announce! To celebrate! How God has entered our midst in this Christmas season.

At dinner, tell a story of something that happened to you or your family this Christmas.

Find your neighbor later today and share the joy of Christmas with a hug or a word of encouragement.

Call your children and tell them about something you are thankful for.

Talk with the staff here at Wesley Acres and let them know you are still praying for them this Christmas season.

God has entered our midst!!! And as we continue to celebrate the birth of the Christ child, let each one of us continue to proclaim good tidings of great joy…

From Everywhere to Everywhere

Posted on November 10, 2016Leave a comment

My sermon from the Thanksgiving Ingathering on November 5

This quadrennium, I have the honor of serving on our General Board of Global Ministries:

Tell about opening worship – reading the names of the missionaries who have died. Very white, anglo sounding names.

But that evening, I met missionaries who reminded me that the focus of our global ministries has truly shifted. Katherine fits that traditional model and is from California. She has served through Global Ministries in a variety of far flung places including Japan, Iowa, and now Nepal.

But Alina is a native Bolivian and she is serving in Nicaragua on behalf of Global Ministries.

Luis is from Brazil and will be heading up the new regional Mission Center in Buenos Aires.

Another leader from Brazil will work with the new regional Mission Center in Africa focusing on Portuguese speaking countries.

I also heard there will be an African who speaks Japanese who will serve in the new Mission Center in Seoul, South Korea… although I didn’t get to meet him.

Mande Muyombo is from Katanga, DRC and is the executive Director of the new Global Ministries Connections.

As he wrote earlier this year:

“The theology of our regional structure is based on our sense of mission “from everywhere to everywhere”—while recognizing the shift of Christianity’s center of gravity. Mission used to be thought of as coming from the center (churches in developed countries) and going to the peripheries (people in developing countries). But our sense today is that there isn’t a center anymore—that doing mission lies in mutuality, looking at each other as equal partners and learning from one another. Our heritage from the Wesleyan movement tells us that God’s grace is everywhere and everyone shares in it.” (http://um-insight.net/in-the-church/umc-global-nature/no-center-no-periphery-a-regional-approach-to-mission/)

From everywhere… to everywhere…

Fundamental to the shift in our global ministries is the recognition of prevenient grace.

The idea that God is moving in our lives long before we know who or what God is.

The idea that grace and truth, beauty and holiness, forgiveness and love are not gifts we enlightened people bring to the heathens, but that we can discover God’s work in the midst of people we meet… whether or not they know God, yet.

I think the shift we are experiencing in mission is paralleled in Paul’s ministry in Athens.

As we start the scripture reading today, he is preaching and sharing the good news of Jesus on the streets. And the people don’t get it and they don’t get him.

What is interesting is how the Common English Bible translates this passage… “they took him into custody” like they really don’t get him. Paul is trying to shove something foreign down their throats.

Some translations say they take him, or brought him, others that they asked him, but if you look to the original Greek the word is “epilambanomai” – to lay hold of or to seize. It’s the same word used when Simon the Cyrene was forced to carry Jesus’ cross… and the same word used twice as Jesus grabs hold of someone to rebuke or challenge and heal them.

There is a sense in which Paul is not taken to Mars Hill by choice.

He is taken to the council and he is placed in the middle of the people… (again, this can be translated as either a forceful or wilful act)… and I want you to imagine a light bulb going off above Paul’s head.

Because his language shifts.

He realizes that speaking of foreign things isn’t making and impact.

He starts to contextualize the good news of Jesus Christ.

He recalls an altar he saw, “To an unknown God” and uses that altar… in a city filled with idols… to begin explaining the God he has come to know.

“What you worship as unknown, I now proclaim to you… God made the nations so they would seek him, perhaps even reach out to him and find him. In fact, God isn’t far away from any of us. In God we live, move, and exist.”

In our Wesleyan heritage, the idea of prevenient grace is that it goes before us. God’s grace is all around us. In God, we live, move, and exist. Even if we don’t know it yet. And by grace, some of us reach out and find God.

But there is another side to prevenient grace… that God doesn’t just sit back and wait to be found, but actively seeks us.

We are about to enter the season of Advent… a time of dual purpose where we both remember the coming of Christ into this world as a child and look ahead to the second coming of Christ into our midst.

God seeks us.

God enters our lives and our stories.

God takes on our flesh.

God speaks our words and breathes our air and tells stories about our lives.

The incarnation is as much a part of the good news as the resurrection.

And so Paul, at Mars Hill, adopted an incarnational ministry and spoke the words of the people, pointed to their objects, entered their stories, and saw God.

Or as he writes in 1 Corinthians: “To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews… to the weak, I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” (1 Cor 9:20-22)

Alan Roxburgh and Scott Boren, in “Introducing the Missional Church,” claim this is the same type of ministry Jesus commissioned the disciples for – sending them out in pairs into communities, inviting them to live deeply in the midst of strangers… eating what they eat, relying upon their customs and hospitality. It was incarnational ministry.

It is the life so many of our United Methodist missionaries take on – going from everywhere to everywhere.

The only question is… why do we set it aside as the work of our missionaries?

Why are we not living out the gospel in our communities in the same way?

Because if our call is really from everywhere to everywhere, then we become aware of the reality that our neighborhood is a mission field, too.

Corey Fields writes, “today, in the attractional model, the church expects the opposite. We program and advertise and try to do just the right thing that will compel others to come to us as the stranger on our turf. It is the church that is to go, however, taking on the flesh of its local context. In the words of Lesslie Newbigin, “If the gospel is to be understood…it has to be communicated in the language of those to whom it is addressed.” (http://soapboxsuds.blogspot.com/2013/05/taking-on-flesh-incarnational-theology.html )

Our churches need to learn more than we teach.

We need to listen more than we speak.

We need to go out into our neighborhoods more than we sit back and wait.

Because only by being present with our communities will we ever see how God is already present and how the people of this place live, move, and exist in God.

In my work so far with Imagine No Malaria and now with Global Ministries I am so proud of the fact that we do not seek to impose our ways upon communities, but partner with people and seek mutuality.

We no longer fly into a community and drop off bed nets then leave… we work with local leaders and build community health workers who can help us explore best practices, learn about customs, and ultimately be that incarnational presence on the ground long after an initial distribution of nets has occurred.

Those same community health workers were also then in place when the Ebola epidemic struck so many Western African countries and we were positioned to make a difference because of the relationships we had already established.

These kits we have collected today… they don’t always represent Western ways of doing things, but connect with the real lived needs of women and children across this world who are eager to learn, seeking healthy births, and who need very concrete resources to maintain health.

Yet, as we go forward, we even must be willing to explore and Global Ministries is currently evaluating how kits like the ones we have collected today can be more contextually relevant… maybe even by purchasing and assembling the kit materials in the places where they are needed to boost their local economies.

In the song we share together – We’ve a Story to Hear from the Nations” we hear these lyrics:

There’s a message we need in each nation,

That God, Creator of all

Is living in Christ among us

And breathing new life and hope.

From everywhere… to everywhere… God is present, God is living, God is breathing new life and hope.

Lots to Brag About

Posted on October 31, 2016Leave a comment

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy wrote this letter of encouragement to people who desperately needed some good news, and my prayer for today is that the word of God heard this morning might be encouragement for our troubled souls, too.

Let us pray:

Holy God, speak into our midst this morning. Fill us with hope, grace, and peace. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts and minds honor You this morning. May they be worthy of your calling and accomplish your faithful work in our midst. Amen.

I thank God for you.

I do. I really do.

I thank God for you, the people of Immanuel United Methodist.

I thank God for the way that the love you all have for each other and the world is increasing.

That love is born from a common struggle.

And as we gather today… not only in worship this morning, but also at our charge conference later this afternoon, we reflect upon another year of ministry.

This year, we did some hard things…

Some of them were challenges that we set before ourselves: like raising money for Joppa or purchasing brand new books for every student at Hillis Elementary.

Some of them were difficulties that arise out of the reality of earthly life: the illnesses, the injuries, the loss of treasured members of our community whom we will celebrate next week with all the Saints.

And some of the struggles we have faced together in the last year, like trying to discern and implement new times for worship, are born out of a reality that the world we live in is changing and we as a church are trying to adapt and provide opportunities for new generations and new people.

But we did these things together… and they helped to form and shape us as the people of God.

Robert Dunham wrote that “common struggle often forges an uncommon unity and love for one another. Like the peace that holds the community fast in turmoil, love for one another and congregational unity are best received and celebrated as gifts.”

The love we have for one another is a gift… the bonds formed in the midst of common struggle are a blessing… and they should be celebrated as such.

Thank you, God.

[the numbers represent images that were projected during the worship service]

[1] Thank you God for the deeper relationships we formed with our neighborhood elementary school, Hillis, as we brought books for so many children and we have more and more people taking just an hour a week to read with those who need some extra help.

[2] And Thank you for helping us to continue efforts like Donuts for Dudes and Muffins for Moms where we can be present in our neighborhood and share God’s love with breakfast.

[3] Thank you God for the ways that young people and their mentors here at the church bonded through hard work, study, and recreation through confirmation this year.

[4] Thank you God for the impact you had on children in our church and community as we worked to help them learn more about your powerful and never-ending love.

[5] Thank you God for the ways that members of our community show up to support the work of each other… even when their efforts aren’t related to Immanuel… like these runners did in supporting the Clover Dash organized by one of our youth.

[6] Thank you God, for calling our leadership to deeper faithfulness and helping us to have hard conversations about your calling for our church in this world.

[7] Thank you God, for bringing together men of all ages in fellowship and for new relationships formed over barbeque and basketball.

[8] Thank you for challenging us to stretch beyond our own teams and ministries to build new partnerships with others, like the Interfaith Green Team Coalition.

[9] Thank you God, for those who give so faithfully of their time and energy to create this amazing space for us all to worship and learn about you in.

[10] Thank you God for the faithfulness of our predecessors like Mrs. Simser and the bibles we give our children and the faithfulness of bible partners and teachers.

[11] Thank you God for a seven year partnership and relationship with Imani church

[12] and for blessing both us and them as they moved to a new location and continue their ministry there.

[13] Thank you God for the ministry of Joppa and the relationships we are creating with the homeless in our community as we go out to where they live and bring them items they need.

[14] and thank you for challenging us to expand our ministry to provide new resources… and in the process helping us to build new and deeper relationships with each other through the MASSIVE garage sale.

[15] Thank you God for sending our VIM team back to Milwaukee to build new relationships and work again in familiar places

[16] and for the deep connections that are created when we labor together for a common good.

[17] Thank you God for those who not only prepare meals for us every week, but who care for and minister to one another in good times and in bad.

[18] Thank you God for those who knit and purl and crochet and create blankets and shawls that we distribute to those who are experiencing transition or loss or health problems… extending the love of Immanuel to those who need it the most.

[19] Thank you God for life groups that push us to try new things, including leaping off of cliffs

[20] Thank you for our nursery and for Wendi and Pat, Gretchen and Zach.

[21] Thank you for our staff

[22] Thank you for the youth and volunteers and chaperones who go out and represent us so well in the community.

[23] Thank you, God.

Thank you.

You know, I started out just trying to find a few highlights of the amazing work God has been doing here among us and the list just kept going on and on and on.

As Paul and company write to the church in Thessalonica, there really is so much to brag about. There is so much to tell about. There is so much to give thanks to God for.

But I also don’t want to gloss over the challenge that is presented within this text.

I chose our passage for this morning because it is part of what we call the Revised Common Lectionary. And each week, four texts are assigned for Sunday morning worship – something from the Old Testament, something from the Epistles, something from Psalms, and a gospel reading.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be focusing on the Epistles… the letters to the early church… and looking for all of the ways that we are called to be grateful and to give thanks in this writings.

Today’s assigned scripture skips a section of the text, however.

And the more I thought about what we have been learning over these past few weeks about discipleship and the more we lean into a life of gratitude over the next few weeks, I don’t think we have the luxury of skipping those passages.

This is the text in its fullness… without skipping the hard parts:

³Brothers and sisters, we must always thank God for you. This is only right because your faithfulness is growing by leaps and bounds, and the love that all of you have for each other is increasing. ⁴That’s why we ourselves are bragging about you in God’s churches. We tell about your endurance and faithfulness in all the harassments and trouble that you have put up with. ⁵This shows that God’s judgment is right, and that you will be considered worthy of God’s kingdom for which you are suffering. ⁶After all, it’s right for God to pay back the ones making trouble for you with trouble ⁷and to pay back you who are having trouble with relief along with us. This payback will come when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his powerful angels. ⁸He will give justice with blazing fire to those who don’t recognize God and don’t obey the good news of our Lord Jesus. ⁹They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the Lord’s presence and away from his mighty glory. ¹⁰This will happen when he comes on that day to receive honor from his holy people and to be admired by everyone who has believed—and our testimony to you was believed.

¹¹We are constantly praying for you for this: that our God will make you worthy of his calling and accomplish every good desire and faithful work by his power. ¹²Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored by you, and you will be honored by him, consistent with the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are reminded in this text that the journey of faith is not easy.

As Robert Dunham puts it, “the Christian calling is seldom to a vocation of ease and comfort, but to a unity with Christ in suffering.”

And this isn’t the suffering of aches and pains, of loss and difficulty that every person experiences… it is the suffering, the harassment, the struggle that comes because we claim to be people of God.

As people of faith, God is continually calling us to do hard things.

God is calling us to take unpopular stands on important issues.

God is calling us to stand with the poor and the marginalized.

God is calling us to leave our comfort zones go and be in ministry with the least and the last and the lost.

And maybe the hardest of them all… God is calling us to be honest and real about our own vulnerabilities, our own brokenness, struggle, and pain, so that this community can walk with us, can love us, can remind us over and over again about the love of God in Jesus Christ that can transform even our broken souls.

That’s what church is all about. Growing in love for each other and in love for God.

May we continue to do hard things.

May we continue to hear and be faithful to God’s call.

May we continue to be formed in love born of our common struggle to truly be disciples of Jesus Christ in this world.

Amen.

Salt and Light

Posted on October 16, 2016Leave a comment

Last week, I talked briefly about the root of the word, politics… how it refers to the city or the citizen… and how at its core, politics are the relations between people who live in a society. As Christians who live in this society, we have unique sympathies that guide our engagement in this society.

But there is another reason why Christians shouldn’t shy away from politics.
It is because our very faith is political.
We serve a leader who will never be in the White House.
We claim citizenship in a Kingdom that includes this country… but is far bigger than this world.
We pledge our allegiance… as we affirm in the vows of baptism … to Jesus Christ, our Savior and promise to serve him as our Lord.
Those are political statements.
Men and women through the ages have died for believing those things… and yet, we believe them anyways.
When we become disciples, we choose to serve the Kingdom of God.
As disciples, we serve… we follow… the risen Lord.

So, what does it mean to be a disciple in today’s world?
It doesn’t matter if they are man-made problems like Aleppo, or natural disasters like Hurricane Matthew… the chaos of our climate today is overwhelming and part of us wants to run inside the safety of our homes and ignore it. But as disciples, we are called to love and serve this world.
How can we, the church, serve the Kingdom today?

This morning, we find our answer in Matthew’s version of the Sermon on the Mount.
In “The Message” translation, Eugene Peterson, starts off these verses with these words:
“Let me tell you why you are here…”
You see, this whole sermon is full of instructions for the people of God. It reminds us of the attitudes we are supposed to carry with us into the world. And it tells us what we are supposed to do – how we are supposed to live. These words of Jesus are so important we are going to take the first part of next year, in January and February and dive in deep to this message.
Today, we focus on a few verses that describe our witness to the world.

Whenever we see the word “serve” or “service” we often think about the good works we perform or the ways we give and distribute goods. We think of projects like Ingathering and school kits, Joppa, CFUM, all of those ways we use our hands and feet to make a difference.
But “to serve” also means “to be of use” and points to a specific purpose for being and belonging.
“Let me tell you why you are here…” Jesus says.
Let me tell you how you can serve me, how you can serve my Kingdom…
“You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.”
We are the salt of the earth.

I know that some of us here can’t always have salt, because of dietary restrictions, and perhaps you know better than all the rest of us about how useful salt is!
When you sprinkle salt on watermelon or on tomatoes – the flavor of those fruits become brighter and more crisp! When salt is added to soup, it becomes rich and deep. When we sprinkle salt onto roasted vegetables, or French fries…. Mmmm…
Salt takes what is already there and it brings out the flavors. It helps us to taste what was hidden.
That is our job as disciples. We point to the hidden work of God in this world and bring it out. We are supposed to help the world see and taste and experience God – even though they can’t always see him.
And one of the ways that we can be the salt of the earth is by pointing to the good news and movement of God in the world… by lifting up stories of hope and life. Remembering those stories, pointing to those stories, telling those stories to our friends and our neighbors help us to remember that there is hope even in desperate situations. And they allows us to share the source of our hope – Jesus Christ.

On our “next step discipleship” handout for today… you’ll notice that the very first step, our exploring step… is that we simply notice, we are aware of, the salty people in the world. We start to see that God is moving through in our midst and we, too, want to join in.

And once we become aware… once our eyes are opened, then we can go out and serve.

The thing about salt is that it does no good sitting on the shelf. You have to use it! Just as salt has to make contact with food to be effective, so as people of faith, we need to be out in the world, helping folks, praying with them, listening to their stories.

And the next step you can take as a disciple is to go out there and try it out. Hear that call to serve and try seasoning something!

This church has so many different ways that you can dip your toes in to a world of service. You can prepare casseroles for Under-The-Bridge. You can go to CFUM and dish out supper one night. You can join with others and package meals. You can bring in canned food items for DMARC. Next week, you can give towards the Ingathering kits which will be sent across this world to help those in need…
But your salty life isn’t confined to the church… It also happens in your own backyard.

Every time you attend a youth sporting event or concert…
Every time you mow your neighbor’s lawn…
Every time you sit down and have coffee with someone, you can be, bringing out the God-flavor in this community.

You can let people know they are important, that they matter, and that you – and God – are there.

Jesus continues by putting this message another way – you are here in this world to be light – to help the world see God.
This faith of ours is not a secret to be kept locked up – it’s meant to be made public – it’s meant to shine out wide and far.
And friends, we all shine in different ways.
Some of us are a strand of Christmas lights twinkling in the cold darkness.
Some of us are campfires that provide warmth and light and food.
Some of us are flashlights – portable, willing to go anywhere to be of service at any time.
And as we think about the next steps in our discipleship, part of what we need to do as we serve God is figure out what kind of servant we are called to be. What are the unique gifts that God has placed in my life? What are the things I can offer to this world?
Do you have a passion for food? Or art? Are you able to teach? Or called to lead? Are you an encourager? Or do you have a knack for understanding technology?
Our Lord and Savior does not want or need people who all fit the same mold. We are each here, called into community, because it is our unique gifts, fitting together, that create a light that shines far beyond what any one of us could do.

And that light is meant not for the church… but for the world.
We can’t keep the good news hidden away. We can’t keep the transforming power of God under a basket. We have to let it shine.
As disciples, we are ambassadors for God everywhere we go. The clothes you wear, the place you choose to visit and live in, the work you do, the protests you join, the types of people you eat with in public… all of these things can tell the world something about you… AND the God who you claim to follow.

The question is… what message is your light sending to the world?

“Let me tell you why you are here…”
Every day you are a living witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ… whether you want to be or not!
So, disciples… citizens of the Kingdom of God… choose today to serve Jesus.
Choose this week to go into the world loving, praying, and serving.
Choose this week to be the salt and light that will open the eyes and the heart of someone to God for the first time.
Be that salty, light-filled person that will cause someone else to say, “wow… I want to know more about why they do that.”
May we be salt. May we be light.
Amen.

Fruit that Won’t Spoil

Posted on October 9, 2016Leave a comment

Since we are continuing this morning with the gospel of John this week and Jesus’ imagery of the vine, I thought I’d share with you another story about my own garden.

It has been a very busy couple of weeks, and although I have had time to glance at the pumpkins, I pretty much have ignored the rest of the garden.

I gathered all of the tomatoes I could weeks ago and I have jars of marinara and frozen stewed tomatoes packed away in the freezer. The peppers never really grew and the lettuce was chewed away by the rabbits before we got to eat it.

This weekend however, I had the chance to do some yard work and clear out the garden, plant some perennials, and prepare for the changing seasons.

And I discovered tomatoes on the vines again!

There are probably 100 little cherry tomatoes currently ripening on the vines, and a few romas as well.

But here is the thing. Some of those tomatoes have been there a while. I reached out to grab one that looked red and juicy and… well… it was juicy all right. And rotten to the core. As soon as I touched it, the tomato burst open with a foul smelling mess.

Sometimes, fruit stays on the vine too long.

The entire purpose of being a part of the vine… being a branch connected to the source is to bear fruit. And as we learned last week, the closer to the core of the vine you are, the sweeter and more abundant the fruit will be.

But that fruit is meant for a purpose!

The grapes on the vine are meant for eating and juice making, sustenance and community. They are meant to be dried into raisins or pickled and preserved. The fruit is not for the sake of the vine. The fruit is for the sake of the world!

As Jesus says in verse 16 – I chose you… YOU… and I appointed you so that you could GO and produce fruit and so that your fruit would last. Or as the Message translation puts it… “I put you in the world to bear fruit… that won’t spoil.”

If we take a step back from these few verses, we find that the vine and the branches are part of a larger speech Jesus is sharing with the disciples at the last supper. They have broken bread together, and share the cup, and Judas has left the table to betray him.

As Jesus looks around at each of the disciples… those people who have been with him, learning from him, walking in his footsteps, closely connected to God in thought, word, and deed, he wants to prepare them for what comes next.

Yes, Jesus will be handed over to the authorities. Yes, Jesus will die. Jesus will be resurrected, but will no longer be physically present with this rag tag bunch of followers in the same way.

What are they supposed to do then? What are WE supposed to do… those of us today who have never met Jesus, never seen his face or heard his voice?

We are to love.

A new command I give to you, Jesus says, Love one another.

Remain in my love. Abide in my love. Live in my love.

Love each other just as I have loved you.

Last week, we talked about many of the ways we can stay connected to Jesus and remain part of the vine. We can read the scriptures, we can pray, we can study and learn from others on the journey.

But at some point, we have to take what we read and put it into practice.

If we simply learn the words of Jesus… if we spend all of our time reading the bible or in prayer and we don’t go out into the world to share the fruit that has been formed in us… then we are just like those tomatoes on my vines. We are going to rot in place.

Every time we pray…

Every time we read the scriptures…

Every time we gather in a small group to learn from each other…

Every time you sit in this sanctuary and listen to a sermon here is what I want you to do…

Something!

Do something!

And friends, there are two questions that will get you started:

First, how does this apply to my life?

Second, what am I being asked to do?

At some point, we have to take what we read and put it into practice.

At some point, being connected to the vine means we have to bear fruit… and that fruit has to go out into the world.

At some point, God’s love in us needs to spill out into love for others.

“I give you these commandments so that you can love each other.”

And that means that what we read in the bible about how we should treat strangers and refugees we need to put into practice.

It means that when we read in the bible that the church should visit the sick and pray with them, we need to do it.

When we read in the bible the call to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God, we need to ask – how does this apply to my life? What should I do?

“I chose you and appointed you so that you could go and produce fruit and so that your fruit could last.”

You and I are called to bear fruit… fruit of love, grace, and mercy… fruit that will transform this world.

This fruit is not meant for us to hoard… it is meant for the widow and orphan. It is meant for the rich and the powerful. It is meant for the stubborn and addicted. It is meant for people of every color and ability. It is meant for friend and for foe. It is meant for all.

I’ve been thinking a lot about our responsibility as Christians to bear fruit that will last during this election cycle.

Politics might seem like a dirty word, but the truth is that it comes from the Greek words that mean the citizen or the city. Politics at is core are simply the relations between people who live in a society. Politics are the political opinions or sympathies of a person. (Mirriam-Webster)

And as Christians who live in this society, as people who follow in the footsteps of Jesus and bear the fruit of the gospel to the world, we have political opinions and sympathies.

I cannot, and will not every tell you who to vote for or which party, if any, to align yourselves.

But I do firmly believe that as citizens of a nation in which every person has a voice and a vote that one of the ways we bear fruit that lasts… fruit that doesn’t spoil… is by participating in the democratic process. And I believe the votes you cast should be a reflection of the faith that has been formed by these scriptures.

Every vote matters, and every race, from city council to the highest office in the land matters.

The people we elect will influence the economic lives of our neighbors, the institutions of education that form our children, the health care systems that care for the least among us. They will uphold or create laws that govern life and death. They will impact if we have sidewalks next to our streets, whether or not mental health care is provided, and our relationship with other nations.

One of the realities is that our faith does not fit neatly into one political party or platform over and above others. And so the hard work for people of faith this time of year is to spend time in prayer and discernment before casting our votes.

But perhaps as our scripture reminds us today there is really only one word that we need to remember… only one command that Jesus says will shape every facet of our life together.

Love.

We are called to love.

Not to hoard love, but to share it.

May this world reflect the love of Christ because we have been fruit bearers.

Amen.

Everyday, Ordinary Worship

Posted on September 18, 2016Leave a comment

It’s Sunday morning.

According to the Pew Research Center, even though 77% of adults in Iowa claim the Christian faith, only 36% of those people commit to going to church worship at least once a week.

Another 33% attend anywhere between twice a month to a few times a year.

If we are generous with our numbers, maybe half of Des Moines is not participating in a religious worship service this morning.

So what are your friends and neighbors doing?

They’re sleeping in. Or at softball games. They are relaxing on the porch with the newspaper. Or at brunch at one of the many amazing restaurants in the city. They are traveling back home after being away tailgating at a game yesterday.

I see your wheels turning. Those things sound amazing! Why didn’t I do those things? Why didn’t we stay home today?

I’m going to share with you a confession.

When I stepped away from congregational ministry to lead Imagine No Malaria, I didn’t go to church every single Sunday.

I traveled, preached, and led worship in churches on Sundays all across the state, but when I actually had the chance to be home, the temptation to actually be home and not go to worship was real.

And here is something I discovered. The more I stayed away, the easier it was to stay away.

I felt less guilty about it, not more. Honestly, I didn’t really even think about it.

But on those Sundays a couple times a month when I was back in a church, I realized how disconnected from God I had been.

Why do we worship?

Is it out of habit? Obligation?

Do we come on Sunday mornings to be fed and renewed?

Are we here to gain God’s favor? Or to hang out with those people who have the same beliefs as us?

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he addresses the divisions in the community and how focusing our attention on God transforms every aspect of our life.

As the end of chapter 11 states in the Message translation:

Is there anyone around who can explain God?

Anyone smart enough to tell [God] what to do?

Anyone who has done [God] such a huge favor that God has to ask their advice?

Everything comes from [God];

Everything happens through [God];

Everything ends up in [God];

Always glory! Always praise!

Yes. Yes. Yes.

If that is God… the beginning and end of everything… what does it mean to worship?

It means, according to Paul, that we honor and praise God by putting our very lives into God’s hands… by discovering who God has created me to be and then by responding out of love.

Hear again our scripture for this morning from the Message translation

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.

The time we spend in worship is about honoring God by being in relationship with God.

And you know what… relationships take work. They take time and energy. It is hard to be in a relationship with someone you don’t spend any time with.

When we gather to worship, we are saying that God is the focus of our attention, our energy, our time, our life.

It is about living out the commandment to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

In worship, we encounter the living God and allow that encounter to shape everything else.

Worship has nothing to do with you. Worship isn’t about the songs you sing or the money you put in the offering plate. It isn’t about your preferences or desires. Worship reminds us that all of it… our time, our energy, our money, our voices… they aren’t ours to begin with. Everything begins with God… everything ends with God… It all belongs to God already.

And the more time we spend with God in worship, the more we realize that worship is not about what we do for God: an obligation, a responsibility, a duty… but worship is about what God does for us.

As Paul writes in this chapter of Romans, “the only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and what God does for us… Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of [the body of Christ].”

Lisa Gungor, the singer/songwriter says – “It’s hard to truly worship and not be changed. When we are connected with our Maker, we are pulled outside of our self; we begin to live for something more. Love is the reaction to [encountering God in worship]” (http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/worship/features/25684-whats-the-point-of-worship)

And the opposite is true, too… when we are disconnected from God… when we don’t worship, then we start to turn inward on ourselves and our world becomes much smaller.

When I chose not to spend time in worship, I found myself distracted by the world’s values and temptations. There was even a time when I doubted my call… when I started to think that I could get a job doing something outside the church and just walk away and never look back.

I was forgetting what God had done for me.

How could I just walk away from that? How on earth was that part of the great commandment to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength?

I wasn’t part of a community, a part of a worship experience that reminded me of who God was and who God created me to be.

That’s what those people sitting next to you in the pew are for… to remind you. To tell you the story again and again. To hold that truth sacred, even if you forget it.

That’s what worship is about… It is rediscovering, over and over again, who God is and who God created us to be and responding to the good news of God’s love by being those people.

Worship in its fullest sense is about far more than simply showing up for an hour on a particular day of the week.

Worship is about taking those everyday, ordinary parts of our life… the sleeping, eating, going-to-work, walking- around life, and letting God have control of them. Letting God’s power fill them. Letting God’s love shape them. Every moment. Of every day.

All throughout this series on discipleship, we are recognizing that this journey of following of Jesus isn’t easy.

We all start in different places… like the servants in the parable who each had a different set of talents.

And the same is true of our worship experiences.

I know this room has people who fall in that category of the 33% of Iowans who only come to worship once a month or a few times a year. And I am so glad you are here today.

I know this room has people has people who show up faithfully for church every Sunday, but who are simply going through the motions and don’t ever expect to really encounter God here.

And there are people who not only show up, but bring with them the willingness to be transformed and changed through this time.

There are people in this room who not only worship on Sundays, but take time to be with God through worship and devotions in your homes and families.

I’m so glad that all of you are here.

Wherever you are… whatever has brought you to this place… you have a chance to take the next step.

You don’t have to go from attending church once a month to doing a daily devotion tomorrow. God doesn’t expect that of you. But God does invite you to take one more step. To take one step closer. To grow in your ability to love God, to serve God, to open your heart in prayer to God.

And God would love for you to take just one more step deeper in your faith life. To take the next step from wherever you are. To let go of just a little bit more… because it’s all God’s anyways…

When strangers meet in the woods..

Posted on September 16, 2016Leave a comment

I was run/walking today on a wooded path alone. Three guys were heading towards me, drinking beers, joking around. My heart rate increased. I did that mental calculus, wondering if something happened, and I screamed, would anyone hear.

As they got closer, one of the guys said: good morning, ma’am!

So I said good morning back.
Are you having fun? He asked.
Trying! I said back.
Keep at it! He responded.

Earlier in my walk, I came across a deer in the middle of the path. While I was far off, it simply watched, waited, did it’s own mental calculus. I was actually astonished at how close we came.

But them my ear buds beeped, signalling the next run interval and as I changed pace, the deer was startled and took off through the woods.

I hate that we live in a world where my first instinct was to be cautious. I wasn’t afraid, but alert and anxious… just like I’ve been conditioned to be by the friends, family, and strangers who have had their vulnerability taken advantage of. Just like that deer that turned an ran when it percieved me as a threat.

Even if I didn’t feel physically threatened, I have been cat-called enough that I was dreading the moment I came to the three guys.

I was wrong.

Today, I’m grateful for people who remind me that most people really are decent, that kind souls exist, and who appreciate a beautiful stroll on a path in the woods on a gorgeous day as much as I do.