1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26; Colossians 3:12-17; Luke 2:41-62
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Well, it’s finally over. Another Christmas is over, and we survived. All that’s left is the clean up. All the used wrapping paper is in the fireplace or out in the trash barrel; the Christmas tree’s days in a place of honor are numbered because all the pretty ornaments and twinkling lights are going back in their boxes. The boxes will be returned to their storage places in the attic, the cellar or the garage.
I do hope, friends, you had the kind of Christmas experience you wanted or hoped for: the family, the friends, the gifts, and the food; the quiet of the silent night, the blessing of a holy night. All of it.
This next week many of us will make mention of the ways we are going to improve, enhance or change the way we live in 2010. Many of us will predictably seek to live in the land of Overachievement. After every Christmas the approach of a new year inspires folks to accept the challenge of living not just a better life; we want to live a Great Life.
We have the morning news shows, Dr Phil, Oprah—though not for long; Martha Stewart, Jay Leno, Judge Judy, Fox News and countless others to help us improve our lives in 2010. They are all overachievers. Overachievement is a value in our society, but there are some who are positing a different theory.
In my research I discovered that there is one Ray Bennett, MD, who offers us a new resolution quest: Underachievement. Hear what he has to say:
“Underachievers are the best, most dependable workers. This may seem counter-intuitive but the key here is that while some achievement is necessary and good for productivity, a lot of it is dangerous to you and everyone around you. And if you have a wide enough perspective, you’ll see it’s also an exercise in futility.”
Here are his principles that support underachievement:
· Life’s too short.
· Control is an illusion.
· Expectations lead to misery.
· Great expectations lead to great misery.
· Achievement creates expectations.
· The law of diminishing returns applies everywhere.
· Perfect is the enemy of good.
· The tallest blade of grass is the surest to be cut.
· Accomplishment is in the eye of the beholder.
I’m not endorsing Dr Bennett’s thesis; I just use it to offer a different perspective. Actually, I believe that there is even another—an even better—way besides overachievement or underachievement to embrace a new life on January 1, 2010. And it’s not a new discovery. We’ve always had access to the secret because it’s right in the bible. All three of our texts describe this new way of life in one way or another.
What am I talking about? I’m talking about making a new year’s resolution to commit ourselves, our congregation, to the divine life in 2010. Believe it or not, the divine life is possible for all of us—one does not have to be divine to do so. One only has to put on the clothes of divinity. Divine clothing is nothing like anything we might have unwrapped on Christmas morning.
Look at I Samuel 2:18. We find Samuel about 12 years old wearing the priestly robe (apron, actually) that his mother Hannah has made for him. Yet, it is not the robe that is divine and allows Samuel to pursue the divine life—it is the faithful commitment of the tear-filled resolution Hannah, his mother, made to God before the boy was even conceived to promise and deliver the boy to God for God’s purpose.
Looking at another12-year-old boy at the Temple, we do not see Jesus wearing already woven priestly robes but we witness the weaving of the ephod of wisdom, another quality in the divine wardrobe. We might think that Jesus was born knowing it all because he was, after all, God’s son. Yet, the text is clear that Jesus did not “know it all”; he was sitting (not standing) among the teachers, listening to them, and asking questions. The ephod of his wisdom became visible as he demonstrated his understanding and answered their questions.
Paul in his letter to the Colossians talks a lot about the divine life and how the believers are to put on the clothes of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience and, above all, love.
A faith that is worn on the inside, secreted underneath the costume of human “niceness” is not only underachievement, it is an empty package; it’s coal in your stocking; it’s a Christmas tree without ornaments; it’s an angel without good news, it’s a heaven without the glory of God.
We cannot imagine such things. Without seeking to dress in the clothing of the divine life, we are as naked and forlorn as Adam and Eve in the Garden.
Resolve this year with me to dress our congregation in the raiment of divinity. Dressed appropriately we then may take on the true ministry God has purposed for us. It’s a divine life that our Lord desires for us; and its dress code applies 24/7: “…whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
December 27, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
December 31, 2009
December 19, 2009
IS THERE A VITAMIN FOR THAT?
Micah 5:2-5a; Luke 1:39-55; Hebrews 10:5-10
“My soul magnifies the Lord...”
We received new members today; it's always a great day when that happens. Those of us who have attended here for a long time feel encouraged by the presence of new members for a variety of reasons:
· affirmation of the hope that we are a church worth joining
· new friends; people like us
· it means the church is growing
· we have more people to work on committees & suppers
· we will see an increase in our stewardship income
· the sanctuary will look fuller
· the pastor will meet her quota of attracting new members
Whatever the reason, we rejoice...for ourselves and for our newest members. Yet, what has happened here this morning is not about us. Contrary to the reasons listed above, the fact that we have 7 new members today is not because of something we do or do not do; it's only about what God is doing.
God sends these people to us for God's purposes, not ours. It's true, their gifts, as they share them, may be just what we need at the time, but these folks are not here to fulfill our hopes, solve our problems, or relieve our weariness. These seven are here first because God has sent them, and second because we wanted them to come. Learn not to mix up those two things, even though we put them through our paces the last several weeks in our new Exploring Membership class.
One of the questions that came out of this class was, “What do you do about Mary?” I have not been able to get that question out of my mind; and the timing is perfect because lo and behold, we're in the season of Advent, looking at Christmas just five days away, and it's traditionally our time to look for Mary, great with child, appearing stage left, right on cue.
We reformed Protestants don't give Mary all that much attention. She's only the Mother of God, after all. Mostly what we do is take Mary out of the box in December and set her in her rightful place next to the baby Jesus, who is lying in a manger while cattle are lowing and the star in the sky looks down where he lays.
Yet, the question from our friends who grew up Catholic is an important one for us to answer if we are to honor the journey that has led them here today. It's time for her to be delivered. It's time to take Mary out of the box, hold her in our hands, study her face, and listen intently to her song before we obligingly place her in the manger as usual because there is by design no room for her in the “inn.”
In this process, my hope is that we will take off our Protestant or Catholic ears and listen closely as Christians, because it is our faith in Jesus Christ that makes us one.
All that other stuff, like Catholic and Protestant, United Methodist and United Church of Christ, dogma and doctrine, only seems to breed debate, division and dissension, hardly the tone we're after at Christmas time
The challenge today is to make room for Mary in the inn, our inn-er selves, for she was the favored one of God; she was blessed among women and blessed was the fruit of her womb; she was the handmaiden of the Lord, a servant, untouched by the world, a believer in the God of Israel, the vessel between God and God's incarnation ...and a woman with 'tude, Attitude, with a capital A.
Don't be fooled by tradition and think that Mary was meek and mild, an inexperienced girl frightened by angel visitations in the middle of the day. Mary is far more sophisticated, far more courageous than many Christians, no matter the flavor, give her credit for.
Before we can understand Mary's attitude of magnificent joy, we must be acutely aware of the desperate times they lived in.
In those days of Caesar Augustus, an unmarried woman who was expecting could expect to be stoned to death in the streets.
Why does Mary sing of joy?
Those were the days of Herod the Great—great terror and great taxation, that is. Herod was deeply depressed and increasingly paranoid. Herod “had assassinated members of his own family for anything that even smelled of treachery” (Scot McKnight, “The Mary We Never Knew” in Christianity Today, Dec 2006), and he taxed Israel far beyond her means in part to fund the expansion of the Temple… to be called the Temple of Herod and to keep the Jews in abject poverty. He was an ugly so and so; too bad there wasn't a vitamin for that! We all probably know someone who could use such a vitamin!
Why? Why does Mary sing of joy?
I think Mary sings of joy because she has an attitude, an attitude of the greatness of God. God is great in trustworthiness; God is great in righteousness; and God is great in steadfastness.
I think Mary sings of joy because her place in the world, her God-given purpose in life, has been revealed to her and she believes God's word is true.
Mary did not seek the blessings of all generations so that she could be put on display once a year nor was it her idea to be kept in a garden grotto in the yards of the faithful.
I think that Mary sings of joy because the incarnation of God, the Word made Flesh, is the beginning of the end for the powerful and murderous, and it is also the beginning of the end of the suffering for the people of Israel.
They will be saved; God will pay the ransom with his Son, Christ our Lord. So, in the context of those horrific days in 5/6 BC, I now ask you,
How can Mary not sing of a great joy that is for all people?
Her attitude allows for the vision of a new day that God is bringing to pass. If we read the Magnificat, the Canticle of Mary, and identify the great reversals that God has planned for the powerful and the lowly, how can we not hear and see that hers is a song of subversion...subversion against ruthless, heartless kings; the powerful; the proud and all their brutal injustices:
“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly” (Luke 1:52). Just imagine if King Herod, Great in Paranoia, had heard Mary's song! [Would it interest you to know that Herod died a few years later of kidney disease, gangrene and scabies?] There isn't any vitamin for that! His was a miserable death. Seems fitting.
What doesn't seem fitting is the death of God's son, on the cross. Yet, we know it to be another of God's great reversals. One innocent man, the blessed fruit of Mary's womb, dies for the sins of all humankind. The writer of Hebrews reminds us of Jesus' only mission, “See, I have come to do your will, O God.”
Have we come to this church to do God's will? Let it be done.
Can we sing, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” Let it be sung.
Do our spirits rejoice in God, our Savior? Then let us rejoice, for a visible faith in the Word of God made flesh is the best vitamin of all. Magnify! Get an attitude! Sing the courageous song of faith. Blessed are you! Amen.
December 20, 2009
1st Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
“My soul magnifies the Lord...”
We received new members today; it's always a great day when that happens. Those of us who have attended here for a long time feel encouraged by the presence of new members for a variety of reasons:
· affirmation of the hope that we are a church worth joining
· new friends; people like us
· it means the church is growing
· we have more people to work on committees & suppers
· we will see an increase in our stewardship income
· the sanctuary will look fuller
· the pastor will meet her quota of attracting new members
Whatever the reason, we rejoice...for ourselves and for our newest members. Yet, what has happened here this morning is not about us. Contrary to the reasons listed above, the fact that we have 7 new members today is not because of something we do or do not do; it's only about what God is doing.
God sends these people to us for God's purposes, not ours. It's true, their gifts, as they share them, may be just what we need at the time, but these folks are not here to fulfill our hopes, solve our problems, or relieve our weariness. These seven are here first because God has sent them, and second because we wanted them to come. Learn not to mix up those two things, even though we put them through our paces the last several weeks in our new Exploring Membership class.
One of the questions that came out of this class was, “What do you do about Mary?” I have not been able to get that question out of my mind; and the timing is perfect because lo and behold, we're in the season of Advent, looking at Christmas just five days away, and it's traditionally our time to look for Mary, great with child, appearing stage left, right on cue.
We reformed Protestants don't give Mary all that much attention. She's only the Mother of God, after all. Mostly what we do is take Mary out of the box in December and set her in her rightful place next to the baby Jesus, who is lying in a manger while cattle are lowing and the star in the sky looks down where he lays.
Yet, the question from our friends who grew up Catholic is an important one for us to answer if we are to honor the journey that has led them here today. It's time for her to be delivered. It's time to take Mary out of the box, hold her in our hands, study her face, and listen intently to her song before we obligingly place her in the manger as usual because there is by design no room for her in the “inn.”
In this process, my hope is that we will take off our Protestant or Catholic ears and listen closely as Christians, because it is our faith in Jesus Christ that makes us one.
All that other stuff, like Catholic and Protestant, United Methodist and United Church of Christ, dogma and doctrine, only seems to breed debate, division and dissension, hardly the tone we're after at Christmas time
The challenge today is to make room for Mary in the inn, our inn-er selves, for she was the favored one of God; she was blessed among women and blessed was the fruit of her womb; she was the handmaiden of the Lord, a servant, untouched by the world, a believer in the God of Israel, the vessel between God and God's incarnation ...and a woman with 'tude, Attitude, with a capital A.
Don't be fooled by tradition and think that Mary was meek and mild, an inexperienced girl frightened by angel visitations in the middle of the day. Mary is far more sophisticated, far more courageous than many Christians, no matter the flavor, give her credit for.
Before we can understand Mary's attitude of magnificent joy, we must be acutely aware of the desperate times they lived in.
In those days of Caesar Augustus, an unmarried woman who was expecting could expect to be stoned to death in the streets.
Why does Mary sing of joy?
Those were the days of Herod the Great—great terror and great taxation, that is. Herod was deeply depressed and increasingly paranoid. Herod “had assassinated members of his own family for anything that even smelled of treachery” (Scot McKnight, “The Mary We Never Knew” in Christianity Today, Dec 2006), and he taxed Israel far beyond her means in part to fund the expansion of the Temple… to be called the Temple of Herod and to keep the Jews in abject poverty. He was an ugly so and so; too bad there wasn't a vitamin for that! We all probably know someone who could use such a vitamin!
Why? Why does Mary sing of joy?
I think Mary sings of joy because she has an attitude, an attitude of the greatness of God. God is great in trustworthiness; God is great in righteousness; and God is great in steadfastness.
I think Mary sings of joy because her place in the world, her God-given purpose in life, has been revealed to her and she believes God's word is true.
Mary did not seek the blessings of all generations so that she could be put on display once a year nor was it her idea to be kept in a garden grotto in the yards of the faithful.
I think that Mary sings of joy because the incarnation of God, the Word made Flesh, is the beginning of the end for the powerful and murderous, and it is also the beginning of the end of the suffering for the people of Israel.
They will be saved; God will pay the ransom with his Son, Christ our Lord. So, in the context of those horrific days in 5/6 BC, I now ask you,
How can Mary not sing of a great joy that is for all people?
Her attitude allows for the vision of a new day that God is bringing to pass. If we read the Magnificat, the Canticle of Mary, and identify the great reversals that God has planned for the powerful and the lowly, how can we not hear and see that hers is a song of subversion...subversion against ruthless, heartless kings; the powerful; the proud and all their brutal injustices:
“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly” (Luke 1:52). Just imagine if King Herod, Great in Paranoia, had heard Mary's song! [Would it interest you to know that Herod died a few years later of kidney disease, gangrene and scabies?] There isn't any vitamin for that! His was a miserable death. Seems fitting.
What doesn't seem fitting is the death of God's son, on the cross. Yet, we know it to be another of God's great reversals. One innocent man, the blessed fruit of Mary's womb, dies for the sins of all humankind. The writer of Hebrews reminds us of Jesus' only mission, “See, I have come to do your will, O God.”
Have we come to this church to do God's will? Let it be done.
Can we sing, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” Let it be sung.
Do our spirits rejoice in God, our Savior? Then let us rejoice, for a visible faith in the Word of God made flesh is the best vitamin of all. Magnify! Get an attitude! Sing the courageous song of faith. Blessed are you! Amen.
December 20, 2009
1st Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
November 25, 2009
The Omega Point
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; Revelation 1:4b-8; John 18:33-37
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord, God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Today, we celebrate “Christ the King,” aka, “Reign of Christ” Sunday, the last Sunday of the Church's year of seasons. In secular terms, it's the New Year's Eve of the Christian Church calendar.
Scripture on Reign of Christ Sunday teaches us that Christ was and is and is to be. It's called a tripartite formula. In other words, Jesus was with God in the beginning, and he is with God today, and he will reign with God forevermore. Jesus reigns over all because he was born a king, lived on earth as king—though his kingdom was not of this world—and he reigns as King forevermore, seated at the throne of God: God's formula, God's design. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega Point of Truth. Jesus not only reveals truth; he is truth. All others are suspect.
On Friday, I heard a tripartite formula used in secular circumstances. With my mother and my brother, and four others, I spent four hours in the “holding tank” outside a courtroom in the Essex County Family Court Building in Salem, MA. We saw a lot of people coming and going: some arguing, some rejoicing. Lawyers were making corrections to settlements and negotiating terms between clients. There was lots of walking going on all the time—judges, attorneys, court officers, clients. All this was happening outside the courtrooms.
One woman stood out to me. She was trying to hold back her frustration and tears. She wore a black dress, too dressy for her shoes and the windbreaker she put on waiting for the elevator. A well-dressed, older man with briefcase in one hand and an umbrella in the other approached her. Despite the great echo, I heard him say to her, “Are you okay?” Then, he smiled and said, “That went pretty well.”
“No. I'm not okay” She wiped tears angrily from her cheeks, pushing back her stringy long hair. “Don't you see? He wins. I give up. He'll never change. He always was an xxxxx; he is an xxxxx; and always will be an xxxxx.” That is also a tripartite formula. She turned and walked down the grand stairs, weeping, disheveled and worst of all, broken. The smile faded from his face as he turned, stepped onto the elevator and the doors closed.
I had a long time to think that morning. It's a very old courthouse—marble and granite and cast iron railings and window panes on the inside; gargoyles, scrolling stonework and grand columns on the outside. I could not help but think about the history of Salem—church and state; witches and gallows. The former live in a lie, the latter dying in the truth. The irony of it all was as thick as the granite walls.
The long and the short of it was that my brother was on the losing end of a custody battle for his twin daughters. Nothing went his way, and he was told, by his attorney, that he was to say “Yes,” when the judge asked him if he agreed with the “agreement.” The new agreement had removed several of the previous arrangements he had for spending time with his daughters and ultimately gave sole custody to their mother. “You must say, Yes,” the attorney said.
The real travesty or dis-carriage of justice for me was when they were both sworn in. “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” I felt the rising of a bewitching cackle in my throat. There was no truth here. The court made my brother lie so that nothing worse would happen to him and the twins. Then the judge asked him if he agreed with the “agreement.” And again, he had to lie. He had such courage, I thought, when I wanted to stand up and shout, “No! It's not the truth; you're making him lie in a court of law!”
And I just cannot get that absurdity out of my head. I feel broken and disillusioned with the court system. I hope it will get better someday. I am grateful for the experience, however, in that I realize now that the courts have power like Pilate had power; it's a power that comes from a fallen world, so it's really no power at all. Jesus, however, has the real power, and his power is the truth.
Think about the interchange between Jesus and Pilate in the 18th chapter of John. Pilate's so uncomfortable, he keeps leaving the courtroom and walking the halls of his palace, time after time coming back to continue the “trial.” Why is he so uncomfortable? What about fear?
Look again at John 18:33. “Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you king of the Jews?” Pilate is nervous; definitely nervous. He's got Rome breathing down one side of his neck, and the Jerusalem crowds breathing down the other. It's almost as if Pilate is the one on trial, not Jesus.
In our vernacular, Jesus answered Pilate with a bit of sarcasm. In effect, Jesus said, “Are you personally interested or are you simply repeating gossip?” Jesus had no fear of Pilate; he did not have to tell Pilate only the things he wanted to hear so that everything could be packaged up nicely and sent away. That's the motive of this world.
However, “on Christ the King Sunday, we have to ask how the “not-of-this-world” reign of Jesus Christ relates to the “very-much-of-this-world situation in which we live.” Walter Brueggemann says quite succinctly, “The gospel narrative...makes a claim... that in Jesus of Nazareth the things of the world are settled on God's terms” (Sermon Seeds, UCC.org).
God's truth revealed in Jesus Christ brings me comfort today. I am so thankful for Jesus in my life. I sat on those uncomfortable wooden benches trying to figure out what God's terms are for this situation. I realize today that this truth is not mine to have and to hold right now. What is mine is faith in Jesus the Christ, the one who is truth. When I see him, I will understand the Omega Point of all of this suffering.
For now, let us find consolation in Jesus' words to Pilate. “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37b).
Long before John, Daniel witnessed to the same vision: “To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed” (Dan v 7:14).
For this we were born and shall ever be destroyed no matter what happens, my dear friends; for this we were brought into the world, to testify to God's truth, Jesus Christ. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever” (Rev 1:5b-6).
This world does not belong to us; any power we have comes from far beyond, in a higher court. We belong to Jesus, whose kingdom is not of this world. Jesus is the one in whom Alpha and Omega meet, and we are in his midst; we can gather around him by the thousands and ten thousands of thousands to worship him and call upon his holy name: O come, O come, Emmanuel; O Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus, O Come, brothers and sisters, let us adore him, Christ our Lord, the one who is and who was and who is to come” (Rev 1:8b). Amen.
November 22, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of S Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
I
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord, God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Today, we celebrate “Christ the King,” aka, “Reign of Christ” Sunday, the last Sunday of the Church's year of seasons. In secular terms, it's the New Year's Eve of the Christian Church calendar.
Scripture on Reign of Christ Sunday teaches us that Christ was and is and is to be. It's called a tripartite formula. In other words, Jesus was with God in the beginning, and he is with God today, and he will reign with God forevermore. Jesus reigns over all because he was born a king, lived on earth as king—though his kingdom was not of this world—and he reigns as King forevermore, seated at the throne of God: God's formula, God's design. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega Point of Truth. Jesus not only reveals truth; he is truth. All others are suspect.
On Friday, I heard a tripartite formula used in secular circumstances. With my mother and my brother, and four others, I spent four hours in the “holding tank” outside a courtroom in the Essex County Family Court Building in Salem, MA. We saw a lot of people coming and going: some arguing, some rejoicing. Lawyers were making corrections to settlements and negotiating terms between clients. There was lots of walking going on all the time—judges, attorneys, court officers, clients. All this was happening outside the courtrooms.
One woman stood out to me. She was trying to hold back her frustration and tears. She wore a black dress, too dressy for her shoes and the windbreaker she put on waiting for the elevator. A well-dressed, older man with briefcase in one hand and an umbrella in the other approached her. Despite the great echo, I heard him say to her, “Are you okay?” Then, he smiled and said, “That went pretty well.”
“No. I'm not okay” She wiped tears angrily from her cheeks, pushing back her stringy long hair. “Don't you see? He wins. I give up. He'll never change. He always was an xxxxx; he is an xxxxx; and always will be an xxxxx.” That is also a tripartite formula. She turned and walked down the grand stairs, weeping, disheveled and worst of all, broken. The smile faded from his face as he turned, stepped onto the elevator and the doors closed.
I had a long time to think that morning. It's a very old courthouse—marble and granite and cast iron railings and window panes on the inside; gargoyles, scrolling stonework and grand columns on the outside. I could not help but think about the history of Salem—church and state; witches and gallows. The former live in a lie, the latter dying in the truth. The irony of it all was as thick as the granite walls.
The long and the short of it was that my brother was on the losing end of a custody battle for his twin daughters. Nothing went his way, and he was told, by his attorney, that he was to say “Yes,” when the judge asked him if he agreed with the “agreement.” The new agreement had removed several of the previous arrangements he had for spending time with his daughters and ultimately gave sole custody to their mother. “You must say, Yes,” the attorney said.
The real travesty or dis-carriage of justice for me was when they were both sworn in. “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” I felt the rising of a bewitching cackle in my throat. There was no truth here. The court made my brother lie so that nothing worse would happen to him and the twins. Then the judge asked him if he agreed with the “agreement.” And again, he had to lie. He had such courage, I thought, when I wanted to stand up and shout, “No! It's not the truth; you're making him lie in a court of law!”
And I just cannot get that absurdity out of my head. I feel broken and disillusioned with the court system. I hope it will get better someday. I am grateful for the experience, however, in that I realize now that the courts have power like Pilate had power; it's a power that comes from a fallen world, so it's really no power at all. Jesus, however, has the real power, and his power is the truth.
Think about the interchange between Jesus and Pilate in the 18th chapter of John. Pilate's so uncomfortable, he keeps leaving the courtroom and walking the halls of his palace, time after time coming back to continue the “trial.” Why is he so uncomfortable? What about fear?
Look again at John 18:33. “Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you king of the Jews?” Pilate is nervous; definitely nervous. He's got Rome breathing down one side of his neck, and the Jerusalem crowds breathing down the other. It's almost as if Pilate is the one on trial, not Jesus.
In our vernacular, Jesus answered Pilate with a bit of sarcasm. In effect, Jesus said, “Are you personally interested or are you simply repeating gossip?” Jesus had no fear of Pilate; he did not have to tell Pilate only the things he wanted to hear so that everything could be packaged up nicely and sent away. That's the motive of this world.
However, “on Christ the King Sunday, we have to ask how the “not-of-this-world” reign of Jesus Christ relates to the “very-much-of-this-world situation in which we live.” Walter Brueggemann says quite succinctly, “The gospel narrative...makes a claim... that in Jesus of Nazareth the things of the world are settled on God's terms” (Sermon Seeds, UCC.org).
God's truth revealed in Jesus Christ brings me comfort today. I am so thankful for Jesus in my life. I sat on those uncomfortable wooden benches trying to figure out what God's terms are for this situation. I realize today that this truth is not mine to have and to hold right now. What is mine is faith in Jesus the Christ, the one who is truth. When I see him, I will understand the Omega Point of all of this suffering.
For now, let us find consolation in Jesus' words to Pilate. “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37b).
Long before John, Daniel witnessed to the same vision: “To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed” (Dan v 7:14).
For this we were born and shall ever be destroyed no matter what happens, my dear friends; for this we were brought into the world, to testify to God's truth, Jesus Christ. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever” (Rev 1:5b-6).
This world does not belong to us; any power we have comes from far beyond, in a higher court. We belong to Jesus, whose kingdom is not of this world. Jesus is the one in whom Alpha and Omega meet, and we are in his midst; we can gather around him by the thousands and ten thousands of thousands to worship him and call upon his holy name: O come, O come, Emmanuel; O Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus, O Come, brothers and sisters, let us adore him, Christ our Lord, the one who is and who was and who is to come” (Rev 1:8b). Amen.
November 22, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of S Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
I
October 04, 2009
Leaving Home
Genesis 2:18-24; Hebrews 1:1-4; Mark 10:2-16
· Two weeks ago, I preached a good news message about God's wanting us to have not just a good life but a great life. The great life constituted protecting the vulnerable of society, not just the cherub-faced ones, but the deeply marginalized members of society (widows, orphans, poverty stricken, mentally ill, homeless, etc.).
· Last week the good news was about the immense power we have within us because we belong to Jesus Christ. This power, when used for good, allows us to accomplish great things for God in terms of serving the least of our brothers and sisters and improving the lives of the powerless among us.
· Today we have scripture that lends itself to discussing the foundation and sanctity of marriage. How does this follow along with the previous messages—that is our task for today; and somewhere in here lies the Good News.
· And what might this scripture say to Christians faced with the legal (Pharisaic) question regarding same-sex marriage?
· Pharisees are really good at bringing up the Law to trick and trap Jesus. They've never been able to do it, but we have to give them and A for effort.
· Please notice that their question is not about marriage but about divorce. Yet, when Jesus answers them, HE talks about relationship and God's true intention for marriage.
· In ancient days, marriage was primarily a means of ensuring families' economic stability and social privileges. A woman's sexuality—important for creating offspring and inter-family alliances—was essentially the property of her father, then of her husband.
· Divorce was an offense against the property owner, not against the woman, lawfully speaking. There was no such thing as “marriage equality,” any way one might want to understand that terminology.
· Jesus redirects the question about divorce because God's design was for marriage: a covenant between two people that grew by mutual commitment and accountability to each partner; it was never about cows and land and virgins. Those things are of human construct.
· Marriage in our industrialized day is not usually about property and blood lines and virginity; it is much more about people seeking mutual fulfillment—where two people commit to be there for better, for worse; for richer for poorer; in sickness and in health; in plenty and in want; til death they doth part. The problem is, of course, we all happen to be human.
· When I marry a couple, I believe that they believe they have every intention of fulfilling their vows. But there's something I say to them, (I look right in their eyes when I say it, too) just after I pronounce them husband and wife: “And above all else, never forget to be thankful for what God has done for you.”
·
· All jokes aside about the downside of marriage. I know it's hard work; I know it's not easy; I know that sometimes divorce is necessary. On the other hand, I know that marriage is a great blessing. It accomplishes great things for society: security, commitment, fulfillment, etc.
· Yet, from where I stand, I wonder how many married people perceive that marriage is treated as a privilege in our society when it really should be a right—fits right in there with the inalienables: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
· Whether you vote Yes on One or No on One is your right; I just want to ask you to know what you're voting on and why you vote the way you do. Avoid the tendencies to put our own opinions in God's mouth.
· This vote on November 3 on this question of legalizing same-sex marriage is just that: a legal question. And the legality is about granting the rights and the privileges of marriage to people who find mutual fulfillment with each other, are committed to each other for life, whether they stand before a legal representative of the state and pledge these things or not.
· However, when one is legally married, one has privileges that are not available to others in committed, covenant relationships: health insurance, purchasing power, visitation and end-of-life decision making for or by the loved one.
· And that is what this vote is about. The vote has nothing to do with God. It has to do with extending legal rights to people in the margins of society—just like the widowed, the orphaned and the leprous ones in Jesus' day.
· It's about allowing, legally in the eyes of the state, two persons who are in a committed, covenantal, mutually fulfilling and satisfying relationship with each other, who desire to be responsible to and for each other.
· We are called to lead a great life and we have the power to lead a great life—a life that watches out for the poor and marginalized, the oppressed and ostracized—because we belong to the one who came to save us ALL from poverty and oppression, sin and death.
· My job here today is not to convince you or instruct you or demand that you or judge you in how to vote on November 3. I will love you no matter which way you vote.
· I do not know what it is like to be married, both the good stuff and the hard stuff and the bad stuff if it all goes wrong. I do not know a lot of things about life, but what I DO know is this:
·
· to love as I have been loved;
· to heal as I have been healed;
· to forgive as I have been forgiven;
· to feed as I have been fed;
· to care for all others as I have been cared for;
· to speak for those who have been silenced;
· to remember those who have been forgotten;
· to suffer not the little children to come unto Christ for such is the kingdom of heaven;
· and above all else, to never forget to be thankful for what God has done for you, for me, for the whole wide world through the gift of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, so that we would never have to be alone. Amen.
· Two weeks ago, I preached a good news message about God's wanting us to have not just a good life but a great life. The great life constituted protecting the vulnerable of society, not just the cherub-faced ones, but the deeply marginalized members of society (widows, orphans, poverty stricken, mentally ill, homeless, etc.).
· Last week the good news was about the immense power we have within us because we belong to Jesus Christ. This power, when used for good, allows us to accomplish great things for God in terms of serving the least of our brothers and sisters and improving the lives of the powerless among us.
· Today we have scripture that lends itself to discussing the foundation and sanctity of marriage. How does this follow along with the previous messages—that is our task for today; and somewhere in here lies the Good News.
· And what might this scripture say to Christians faced with the legal (Pharisaic) question regarding same-sex marriage?
· Pharisees are really good at bringing up the Law to trick and trap Jesus. They've never been able to do it, but we have to give them and A for effort.
· Please notice that their question is not about marriage but about divorce. Yet, when Jesus answers them, HE talks about relationship and God's true intention for marriage.
· In ancient days, marriage was primarily a means of ensuring families' economic stability and social privileges. A woman's sexuality—important for creating offspring and inter-family alliances—was essentially the property of her father, then of her husband.
· Divorce was an offense against the property owner, not against the woman, lawfully speaking. There was no such thing as “marriage equality,” any way one might want to understand that terminology.
· Jesus redirects the question about divorce because God's design was for marriage: a covenant between two people that grew by mutual commitment and accountability to each partner; it was never about cows and land and virgins. Those things are of human construct.
· Marriage in our industrialized day is not usually about property and blood lines and virginity; it is much more about people seeking mutual fulfillment—where two people commit to be there for better, for worse; for richer for poorer; in sickness and in health; in plenty and in want; til death they doth part. The problem is, of course, we all happen to be human.
· When I marry a couple, I believe that they believe they have every intention of fulfilling their vows. But there's something I say to them, (I look right in their eyes when I say it, too) just after I pronounce them husband and wife: “And above all else, never forget to be thankful for what God has done for you.”
·
· All jokes aside about the downside of marriage. I know it's hard work; I know it's not easy; I know that sometimes divorce is necessary. On the other hand, I know that marriage is a great blessing. It accomplishes great things for society: security, commitment, fulfillment, etc.
· Yet, from where I stand, I wonder how many married people perceive that marriage is treated as a privilege in our society when it really should be a right—fits right in there with the inalienables: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
· Whether you vote Yes on One or No on One is your right; I just want to ask you to know what you're voting on and why you vote the way you do. Avoid the tendencies to put our own opinions in God's mouth.
· This vote on November 3 on this question of legalizing same-sex marriage is just that: a legal question. And the legality is about granting the rights and the privileges of marriage to people who find mutual fulfillment with each other, are committed to each other for life, whether they stand before a legal representative of the state and pledge these things or not.
· However, when one is legally married, one has privileges that are not available to others in committed, covenant relationships: health insurance, purchasing power, visitation and end-of-life decision making for or by the loved one.
· And that is what this vote is about. The vote has nothing to do with God. It has to do with extending legal rights to people in the margins of society—just like the widowed, the orphaned and the leprous ones in Jesus' day.
· It's about allowing, legally in the eyes of the state, two persons who are in a committed, covenantal, mutually fulfilling and satisfying relationship with each other, who desire to be responsible to and for each other.
· We are called to lead a great life and we have the power to lead a great life—a life that watches out for the poor and marginalized, the oppressed and ostracized—because we belong to the one who came to save us ALL from poverty and oppression, sin and death.
· My job here today is not to convince you or instruct you or demand that you or judge you in how to vote on November 3. I will love you no matter which way you vote.
· I do not know what it is like to be married, both the good stuff and the hard stuff and the bad stuff if it all goes wrong. I do not know a lot of things about life, but what I DO know is this:
·
· to love as I have been loved;
· to heal as I have been healed;
· to forgive as I have been forgiven;
· to feed as I have been fed;
· to care for all others as I have been cared for;
· to speak for those who have been silenced;
· to remember those who have been forgotten;
· to suffer not the little children to come unto Christ for such is the kingdom of heaven;
· and above all else, to never forget to be thankful for what God has done for you, for me, for the whole wide world through the gift of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, so that we would never have to be alone. Amen.
September 19, 2009
The Great Life
Mark 9:30-37; James 3:16-4:6
Most people want to live a good life, wouldn't you say? A good life might be described by what we have and what we do. We value a well-kept home and nice car, a fulfilling job and a close family; we desire to take care of our health and our minds; we volunteer at our churches and schools, donate to charities, save for our children's education, and help our neighbors. We obey the rules, pay our taxes, provide for our families, pick up after ourselves, and purpose to be productive citizens. We put a good deal of effort into having and doing these things. We live a good life.
Living the good life is a good thing, so relax. We are not about to be upbraided for having what we have and doing what we do. The purpose of scripture, I believe, is not to beat us to a pulp; the purpose of the scripture is to tell us good news, and the good news from scripture today is that God wants us to live more than a good life: God wants us to live a GREAT life.
The quibbling point is, what we consider the “great life” to be and what God defines the “great life” to be lead to two very different destinies.
In this passage from Mark, Jesus does not rebuke the disciples for their debate about greatness; he teaches the disciples what true greatness is. If you want to be great, he says, then become like one of these [children]. Embrace them.
We love stories about Jesus and the children. Many a Christian has heard many a sermon and sung many a hymn about the little children coming to Jesus: “Little ones to him belong; they are weak but he is strong...” We become very sentimental when we think of Jesus with the children; we love to sing “Jesus Loves Me,” one of the most beloved hymns in all of Christendom. By the way, did you know that...
In 1943 in the Solomon Islands, John F. Kennedy's PT-109 was rammed and sunk. Islanders Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, who found Kennedy and the survivors, remember that when they rode on PT boats to retrieve the survivors, the Marines sang this song with the natives, who learned it from missionaries.
This hymn was titled "China" in some hymnals of the 19th century, and it was the inspiration for the name of the town of China, Maine.1
When Jesus called the child to him and told his disciples that they must become like “one of these” if they wanted to be great, what was he really saying? Nothing sweet and sentimental, that's for sure.
First-century children were extraordinarily vulnerable, not only physically but also culturally, due to
their low status in family and society. Most first-century children were not even expected to survive until adulthood, so it was only when they grew up that they became “real people.” Children had nothing to give and the only things they “took” were orders from adults. They really were WEAK.
So imagine disciples' confusion when they wanted to know who was the greatest, and Jesus showed them the weakest: “26 inches tall, limited in vocabulary, unemployed, zero net worth, [a] nobody.”2
In our present economical circumstances in this country, there are many adults who are now unemployed, have a low or zero net worth, and often feel like nobodies. The good life is disappearing for so many with no good news in sight. Once confident, productive and strong adults now feel powerless, weak, because the good life has been stolen from them. As one man said to me this week, “Where's my bailout?” He used to have a good life: he had a good job, a good apartment, a good car. Then he lost his job and now he's living in his van and he is hungry everyday. Even if he had food, it's very difficult to cook food in a van.
Imagine how excruciatingly difficult it is to ask for help in the first place when one is used to being self-sufficient and sheltered, strong and satisfied. Grown men have come here and wept for the sense of failure and devaluation they experience under the economical circumstances we face today. They feel defenseless, and they are powerless (weak) in contention with our culture.
Is Jesus teaching us that we must become powerless and weak? Yes. And so we find ourselves much as the disciples must have been, perplexed, disconcerted and disconnected, and certainly provoked. As I said, however, this is not a sermon to chastise us. In God's kingdom, if we want to find our “way to the top, we must lay claim to the last and lowest place.”3
You see, what Jesus is saying is that God's kingdom belongs to those to whom the world says nothing belongs. Does this mean we all give up our jobs, our 401ks, and live in our cars? Absolutely not. No one would choose to do such things. What Jesus wants us to choose is the lifestyle not of greatness but of gratitude; to have a heart for God's righteousness, not a mind for self-righteousness.
To be great in God's economy, we evaluate every system, every power, every choice based on what it will do for the most vulnerable, not those closest to us.”4 We are called to be “great” for those who experience prejudice, intolerance, and discrimination simply for desiring to have the same rights and privileges we all expect. We will be voting in November on this very thing. How will each of us vote, out of the good life or out of the great life?
Why does God want us to live this great life? So that those who are considered least in our society may be encouraged, empowered, and most of all, embraced. Jesus calls us to reflect God's extravagant welcome; hear it with your own ears; say it with me, with your own lips: “No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here” ...and not only welcomed, but embraced.
Jesus taught his disciples, and so he teaches us. Let there be no confusion. The message for us today is to live not just a good life, but the greatest life by welcoming the least, for when we welcome the least, we welcome Jesus, and not [just] Jesus, but the One who sent Jesus. Let's begin our new year with this call to greatness...and await what the Lord has in store for us, this Church, and the community God has placed us here to serve and to embrace. Amen.
September 20, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise
Most people want to live a good life, wouldn't you say? A good life might be described by what we have and what we do. We value a well-kept home and nice car, a fulfilling job and a close family; we desire to take care of our health and our minds; we volunteer at our churches and schools, donate to charities, save for our children's education, and help our neighbors. We obey the rules, pay our taxes, provide for our families, pick up after ourselves, and purpose to be productive citizens. We put a good deal of effort into having and doing these things. We live a good life.
Living the good life is a good thing, so relax. We are not about to be upbraided for having what we have and doing what we do. The purpose of scripture, I believe, is not to beat us to a pulp; the purpose of the scripture is to tell us good news, and the good news from scripture today is that God wants us to live more than a good life: God wants us to live a GREAT life.
The quibbling point is, what we consider the “great life” to be and what God defines the “great life” to be lead to two very different destinies.
In this passage from Mark, Jesus does not rebuke the disciples for their debate about greatness; he teaches the disciples what true greatness is. If you want to be great, he says, then become like one of these [children]. Embrace them.
We love stories about Jesus and the children. Many a Christian has heard many a sermon and sung many a hymn about the little children coming to Jesus: “Little ones to him belong; they are weak but he is strong...” We become very sentimental when we think of Jesus with the children; we love to sing “Jesus Loves Me,” one of the most beloved hymns in all of Christendom. By the way, did you know that...
In 1943 in the Solomon Islands, John F. Kennedy's PT-109 was rammed and sunk. Islanders Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, who found Kennedy and the survivors, remember that when they rode on PT boats to retrieve the survivors, the Marines sang this song with the natives, who learned it from missionaries.
This hymn was titled "China" in some hymnals of the 19th century, and it was the inspiration for the name of the town of China, Maine.1
When Jesus called the child to him and told his disciples that they must become like “one of these” if they wanted to be great, what was he really saying? Nothing sweet and sentimental, that's for sure.
First-century children were extraordinarily vulnerable, not only physically but also culturally, due to
their low status in family and society. Most first-century children were not even expected to survive until adulthood, so it was only when they grew up that they became “real people.” Children had nothing to give and the only things they “took” were orders from adults. They really were WEAK.
So imagine disciples' confusion when they wanted to know who was the greatest, and Jesus showed them the weakest: “26 inches tall, limited in vocabulary, unemployed, zero net worth, [a] nobody.”2
In our present economical circumstances in this country, there are many adults who are now unemployed, have a low or zero net worth, and often feel like nobodies. The good life is disappearing for so many with no good news in sight. Once confident, productive and strong adults now feel powerless, weak, because the good life has been stolen from them. As one man said to me this week, “Where's my bailout?” He used to have a good life: he had a good job, a good apartment, a good car. Then he lost his job and now he's living in his van and he is hungry everyday. Even if he had food, it's very difficult to cook food in a van.
Imagine how excruciatingly difficult it is to ask for help in the first place when one is used to being self-sufficient and sheltered, strong and satisfied. Grown men have come here and wept for the sense of failure and devaluation they experience under the economical circumstances we face today. They feel defenseless, and they are powerless (weak) in contention with our culture.
Is Jesus teaching us that we must become powerless and weak? Yes. And so we find ourselves much as the disciples must have been, perplexed, disconcerted and disconnected, and certainly provoked. As I said, however, this is not a sermon to chastise us. In God's kingdom, if we want to find our “way to the top, we must lay claim to the last and lowest place.”3
You see, what Jesus is saying is that God's kingdom belongs to those to whom the world says nothing belongs. Does this mean we all give up our jobs, our 401ks, and live in our cars? Absolutely not. No one would choose to do such things. What Jesus wants us to choose is the lifestyle not of greatness but of gratitude; to have a heart for God's righteousness, not a mind for self-righteousness.
To be great in God's economy, we evaluate every system, every power, every choice based on what it will do for the most vulnerable, not those closest to us.”4 We are called to be “great” for those who experience prejudice, intolerance, and discrimination simply for desiring to have the same rights and privileges we all expect. We will be voting in November on this very thing. How will each of us vote, out of the good life or out of the great life?
Why does God want us to live this great life? So that those who are considered least in our society may be encouraged, empowered, and most of all, embraced. Jesus calls us to reflect God's extravagant welcome; hear it with your own ears; say it with me, with your own lips: “No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here” ...and not only welcomed, but embraced.
Jesus taught his disciples, and so he teaches us. Let there be no confusion. The message for us today is to live not just a good life, but the greatest life by welcoming the least, for when we welcome the least, we welcome Jesus, and not [just] Jesus, but the One who sent Jesus. Let's begin our new year with this call to greatness...and await what the Lord has in store for us, this Church, and the community God has placed us here to serve and to embrace. Amen.
September 20, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise
September 06, 2009
CRUMBS
Isaiah 35;4-7a; James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17; Mark 7:24-37
“Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.”
Today we are going to spend a little time under the table before we gather “at the table.” Under the table one can find such treasures as food scraps, spilled milk, dropped shoes or silverware, used paper napkins, toys, dogs, cats, maybe ants and who knows what else. If you look at the floor around the table after dinner, you can always tell where the youngest children were sitting—you can tell what was on the menu just by looking under there. You should see what's on the floor after a church supper!
Yet, the real jaw dropper in today's message is the under-the-table zinger exchange between Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician woman. Lots of folks have a hard time swallowing the idea that Jesus could say something so rude, especially to a despondent parent who has come to him looking for compassion and healing. His calling the woman a dog just doesn't compute. That's not the Jesus we know and love!
The desperate woman who has come out to find Jesus who is just as desperately trying not to be found.
Haven't we all been in that position now and again, when we just want some alone time? Time to think a complete thought; remember our names, retreat from the pressures of everyday life and experience a little quiet? Jesus needed that kind of time, too. Leaving Galilee and Capernaum behind and traveling into Gentile territory of Tyre and Sidon was a little like Jesus crawling under the table to get away from it all and stay out of sight of all the people who wanted to get something from him.
But...the syro-phoenician woman must have heard about the power of this Jesus; and rumor had it that the healer was in town. For the sake of her daughter, she went out looking for him, not particularly because she believed that he was Messiah, the Son of God, or anything like that. She was a woman desperate to save the life of her child. She would have done anything, gone anywhere, promised everything to anyone who could exorcise the demon that possessed her daughter.
She did not know, nor did she really care at the time, that the man whom she sought was not only able to set her daughter free from a demon, but that he was also the one who had come to set all people free from the demons of sin and death. She was focused on one thing only. All the woman wanted was a few crumbs of his time; she wasn't looking for a complementary ticket to the banquet. And when she catches up with Jesus, what does she get for her trouble?
“Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.”
The Syro-Phoenician woman, however, does not miss a beat in the exchange. Nothing can dissuade her from her appointed errand—her child's life is at stake. “Yes, Lord," she replies, "yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” What does that mean? How about, “I may be a 'dog' but even dogs need to eat.” Why does Jesus seem to change his mind and grant her daughter's healing?
Notice: the woman does not slink away; she doesn't give up on Jesus. She hangs on as long as there is even just one crumb of hope, and it is her tenacity and quick comeback that endears her to Jesus. “For saying this you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” Compassion at last.
When the woman returned home, she found her daughter healed. Jesus had not come near the girl. He did not touch her, put spittle on her, say a magic word or anything else. The daughter was healed from a distance because her mother had the courage to come near to the Lord, stay near the Lord and put her complEte trust--her whole self--in him.
You see, just like in our passage from Isaiah, the Lord's presence turns the tables upside down, everything goes through a great reversal--deserts bloom, roads are made straight, hearts change, the blind are made to see, the deaf to hear and the lame to leap like deer.
And the mastery of this whole episode teaches us a few lessons.
1. Tenacity in faith is essential.
2. God is merciful.
3. The Lord loves a good debate.
4. And most of all--
Even the “crumbs” are enough to bring healing and wholeness, miracles and mysteries, to each one of us. We don't need the whole loaf to get the big benefit. A single crumb will do
When we come out from under the table of thinking we might not deserve what God has to give, we find ourselves standing AT the table. The complete banquet of love and salvation is before us.Have you ever wondered why everybody gets just a small piece of the loaf? We don't need to eat the whole loaf, we don't have to grab a fistful to get all the Christ we need; we simply take is one small piece. Even the crumbs that fall from the loaf as we pull one piece carries within it the entire promise of God to each of his children—wayward or demon- possessed, obedient or rebellious, passive or aggressive, astute or simple or any other combination you can think of--the great sacrifice made for the salvation of all God's children.
The Good News is that there's enough love and healing, mercy and hope in one little crumb from the loaf to feed the whole world with Christ's love. So he calls us to come out from "under our table" where our hurts and failings, disappointments and demons hide, and stand before his table: take and eat for this bread is Christ's body broken for us; take and drink for this is his cup of blessing poured out for us. Christ feeds us with his love, so eat your fill and "Be opened." Let Christ open our ears, release our tongues and speak plainly of the most amazing love the world has ever known. "Ephphatha!" Amen.
September 6, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
“Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.”
Today we are going to spend a little time under the table before we gather “at the table.” Under the table one can find such treasures as food scraps, spilled milk, dropped shoes or silverware, used paper napkins, toys, dogs, cats, maybe ants and who knows what else. If you look at the floor around the table after dinner, you can always tell where the youngest children were sitting—you can tell what was on the menu just by looking under there. You should see what's on the floor after a church supper!
Yet, the real jaw dropper in today's message is the under-the-table zinger exchange between Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician woman. Lots of folks have a hard time swallowing the idea that Jesus could say something so rude, especially to a despondent parent who has come to him looking for compassion and healing. His calling the woman a dog just doesn't compute. That's not the Jesus we know and love!
The desperate woman who has come out to find Jesus who is just as desperately trying not to be found.
Haven't we all been in that position now and again, when we just want some alone time? Time to think a complete thought; remember our names, retreat from the pressures of everyday life and experience a little quiet? Jesus needed that kind of time, too. Leaving Galilee and Capernaum behind and traveling into Gentile territory of Tyre and Sidon was a little like Jesus crawling under the table to get away from it all and stay out of sight of all the people who wanted to get something from him.
But...the syro-phoenician woman must have heard about the power of this Jesus; and rumor had it that the healer was in town. For the sake of her daughter, she went out looking for him, not particularly because she believed that he was Messiah, the Son of God, or anything like that. She was a woman desperate to save the life of her child. She would have done anything, gone anywhere, promised everything to anyone who could exorcise the demon that possessed her daughter.
She did not know, nor did she really care at the time, that the man whom she sought was not only able to set her daughter free from a demon, but that he was also the one who had come to set all people free from the demons of sin and death. She was focused on one thing only. All the woman wanted was a few crumbs of his time; she wasn't looking for a complementary ticket to the banquet. And when she catches up with Jesus, what does she get for her trouble?
“Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.”
The Syro-Phoenician woman, however, does not miss a beat in the exchange. Nothing can dissuade her from her appointed errand—her child's life is at stake. “Yes, Lord," she replies, "yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” What does that mean? How about, “I may be a 'dog' but even dogs need to eat.” Why does Jesus seem to change his mind and grant her daughter's healing?
Notice: the woman does not slink away; she doesn't give up on Jesus. She hangs on as long as there is even just one crumb of hope, and it is her tenacity and quick comeback that endears her to Jesus. “For saying this you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” Compassion at last.
When the woman returned home, she found her daughter healed. Jesus had not come near the girl. He did not touch her, put spittle on her, say a magic word or anything else. The daughter was healed from a distance because her mother had the courage to come near to the Lord, stay near the Lord and put her complEte trust--her whole self--in him.
You see, just like in our passage from Isaiah, the Lord's presence turns the tables upside down, everything goes through a great reversal--deserts bloom, roads are made straight, hearts change, the blind are made to see, the deaf to hear and the lame to leap like deer.
And the mastery of this whole episode teaches us a few lessons.
1. Tenacity in faith is essential.
2. God is merciful.
3. The Lord loves a good debate.
4. And most of all--
Even the “crumbs” are enough to bring healing and wholeness, miracles and mysteries, to each one of us. We don't need the whole loaf to get the big benefit. A single crumb will do
When we come out from under the table of thinking we might not deserve what God has to give, we find ourselves standing AT the table. The complete banquet of love and salvation is before us.Have you ever wondered why everybody gets just a small piece of the loaf? We don't need to eat the whole loaf, we don't have to grab a fistful to get all the Christ we need; we simply take is one small piece. Even the crumbs that fall from the loaf as we pull one piece carries within it the entire promise of God to each of his children—wayward or demon- possessed, obedient or rebellious, passive or aggressive, astute or simple or any other combination you can think of--the great sacrifice made for the salvation of all God's children.
The Good News is that there's enough love and healing, mercy and hope in one little crumb from the loaf to feed the whole world with Christ's love. So he calls us to come out from "under our table" where our hurts and failings, disappointments and demons hide, and stand before his table: take and eat for this bread is Christ's body broken for us; take and drink for this is his cup of blessing poured out for us. Christ feeds us with his love, so eat your fill and "Be opened." Let Christ open our ears, release our tongues and speak plainly of the most amazing love the world has ever known. "Ephphatha!" Amen.
September 6, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
August 31, 2009
Contagious Purity
Song of Solomon 2:8-13; James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
“But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”
We like to keep ourselves looking good on the outside, don’t we? We put a lot of effort into it. Yet, today’s word of scripture is about improving how we look on the inside. We are warned by James to avoid being “Like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like” (1:23-24).
The Pharisees were big on looking good, that is, clean, on the outside. they believed that their religious rituals led to their personal perfection, which made them better than everybody else. It was as if being perfect in God’s law made them as perfect as God.
The Pharisees tried so very hard to protect themselves from defilement that they must have met themselves coming and going from one dirty washroom to the next. The problem was that the ways they went about being pure were contaminated with self-designed rules and regulations.
In the midst of all that ceremonial washing, When did they have time for God?
It is so easy to be distracted from God when higher honor is given to human traditions and religious rituals. In their efforts to prove themselves pure, the Pharisees actually poisoned others around them by spreading their own impurity upon the innocent and vulnerable.
James speaks to this truth: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (1:27). The Pharisees would never be in the same room with widows and orphans and the vulnerable for fear of being defiled by them. Every time they chose to wash their own feet instead of the feet of the marginalized of society, they defiled themselves. They defeated themselves.
Never one to miss a teachable moment, Jesus answered the Pharisees’ defilement challenge by naming true defilement. “There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile…For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come” (Mark 7:15, 21a).
God did not design us to be hopelessly impure. Neither are we designed for perfection. Who wants a world filled with perfect people? God does not care if our hands and faces are dirty. What God cares about is the condition of our hearts. The one thing, above all else, that our God desires, is our hearts, clean and pure, ready to receive and then to share God’s abundant and perfect love for all people. So, how is it possible to share this good news.
We easily understand physical contamination, defilement, impurity in scientific, biological terms. Germs are bad; disinfectant is good. No one would prepare dinner in the bathroom, even though statistics show that the bathroom is often the cleanest room in the house. There is just a huge “ick factor” in the very idea. We all have standards of physical purity.
What, then, are the standards of spiritual purity? What if we felt as much of the “ick factor” about dishing out wounding remarks as we do about the proper ways to prepare our food? “Jesus is proposing that we intentionally build a culture that worries about whether our behavior is feeding grudges or a spiral of violence in the same way—but with considerably more intensity—that most of us were brought up to worry about food practices feeding bacteria” (Dylan’s Lectionary Blog: Proper 17, Year B).
Let’s take this even a step further. Most of us consider that if one impure thing touches a pure thing, then the whole thing is rendered impure. By the way, the five-second rule is really bad for you. I heard it on The Doctors. Let that assumption about purity carry over into how we treat people. Don’t we get caught, like the Pharisees did, in judging others as “less than?”
We are not called to live in such a way. I share with you these words written by Sarah Dylan who has such a brilliant insight to Jesus and his teachings that I dare not paraphrase and risk losing the clarity and truth of which she speaks.
It is possible to live in such a way, to display in our relationships a quality and consistency of love, that something the world writes off as irredeemable is transformed into something bearing witness to God’s power to redeem. If it’s what goes in that makes someone impure, then people need to guard carefully against coming into contact with the wrong sort of person, lest they come into contact with the wrong sort of things. But if what flows out of people in loving relationship with one another radiates purity, then we are freed to live making decisions based on love and not in fear. That I s an incredibly radical, liberating transformative insight—one I’m always trying to take in more deeply.
And there’s one further insight from Jesus’ view of purity that might be more radical still. If purity is something radiated out by how we are in relationships, then we actually NEED other people for a life of holiness. For example, If true purity is about exercising forgiveness, then we NEED to take the risk of staying in relationship with people the world thinks are hopeless to experience God’s holiness. If true purity involves exercising compassion, then suffering in the world isn’t proof that God doesn’t care, but is an opportunity to experience and proclaim just how much and in what ways God does care. If true purity is about relationship, then the challenges facing us as a church of flawed and bickering people are an opportunity to understand God’s grace more deeply and proclaim it more powerfully by insisting that reconciliation be the first, middle and final word. ..That’s Jesus’ teaching in this Sunday’s gospel; that’s the example we have in Jesus’ manner of life, which posed a profound challenge to his Pharisaic brothers much as it challenges the church today.
When we look in the mirror, I pray we do not walk away unaffected by what we see. I pray that we see the full potential of whom God creates us to be. I pray that we become carriers of contagious purity from this moment out, visiting one another with the only goal of how to build up one another in love.
In our God is the strength and power we need to meet every challenge that life presents us. Avoid the “ick factor.” Every time we look in the mirror, let’s strive to spend the rest of the day being as good-looking on the inside as we are on the outside, for God created us beautiful. Amen.
August 30, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
“But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”
We like to keep ourselves looking good on the outside, don’t we? We put a lot of effort into it. Yet, today’s word of scripture is about improving how we look on the inside. We are warned by James to avoid being “Like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like” (1:23-24).
The Pharisees were big on looking good, that is, clean, on the outside. they believed that their religious rituals led to their personal perfection, which made them better than everybody else. It was as if being perfect in God’s law made them as perfect as God.
The Pharisees tried so very hard to protect themselves from defilement that they must have met themselves coming and going from one dirty washroom to the next. The problem was that the ways they went about being pure were contaminated with self-designed rules and regulations.
In the midst of all that ceremonial washing, When did they have time for God?
It is so easy to be distracted from God when higher honor is given to human traditions and religious rituals. In their efforts to prove themselves pure, the Pharisees actually poisoned others around them by spreading their own impurity upon the innocent and vulnerable.
James speaks to this truth: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (1:27). The Pharisees would never be in the same room with widows and orphans and the vulnerable for fear of being defiled by them. Every time they chose to wash their own feet instead of the feet of the marginalized of society, they defiled themselves. They defeated themselves.
Never one to miss a teachable moment, Jesus answered the Pharisees’ defilement challenge by naming true defilement. “There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile…For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come” (Mark 7:15, 21a).
God did not design us to be hopelessly impure. Neither are we designed for perfection. Who wants a world filled with perfect people? God does not care if our hands and faces are dirty. What God cares about is the condition of our hearts. The one thing, above all else, that our God desires, is our hearts, clean and pure, ready to receive and then to share God’s abundant and perfect love for all people. So, how is it possible to share this good news.
We easily understand physical contamination, defilement, impurity in scientific, biological terms. Germs are bad; disinfectant is good. No one would prepare dinner in the bathroom, even though statistics show that the bathroom is often the cleanest room in the house. There is just a huge “ick factor” in the very idea. We all have standards of physical purity.
What, then, are the standards of spiritual purity? What if we felt as much of the “ick factor” about dishing out wounding remarks as we do about the proper ways to prepare our food? “Jesus is proposing that we intentionally build a culture that worries about whether our behavior is feeding grudges or a spiral of violence in the same way—but with considerably more intensity—that most of us were brought up to worry about food practices feeding bacteria” (Dylan’s Lectionary Blog: Proper 17, Year B).
Let’s take this even a step further. Most of us consider that if one impure thing touches a pure thing, then the whole thing is rendered impure. By the way, the five-second rule is really bad for you. I heard it on The Doctors. Let that assumption about purity carry over into how we treat people. Don’t we get caught, like the Pharisees did, in judging others as “less than?”
We are not called to live in such a way. I share with you these words written by Sarah Dylan who has such a brilliant insight to Jesus and his teachings that I dare not paraphrase and risk losing the clarity and truth of which she speaks.
It is possible to live in such a way, to display in our relationships a quality and consistency of love, that something the world writes off as irredeemable is transformed into something bearing witness to God’s power to redeem. If it’s what goes in that makes someone impure, then people need to guard carefully against coming into contact with the wrong sort of person, lest they come into contact with the wrong sort of things. But if what flows out of people in loving relationship with one another radiates purity, then we are freed to live making decisions based on love and not in fear. That I s an incredibly radical, liberating transformative insight—one I’m always trying to take in more deeply.
And there’s one further insight from Jesus’ view of purity that might be more radical still. If purity is something radiated out by how we are in relationships, then we actually NEED other people for a life of holiness. For example, If true purity is about exercising forgiveness, then we NEED to take the risk of staying in relationship with people the world thinks are hopeless to experience God’s holiness. If true purity involves exercising compassion, then suffering in the world isn’t proof that God doesn’t care, but is an opportunity to experience and proclaim just how much and in what ways God does care. If true purity is about relationship, then the challenges facing us as a church of flawed and bickering people are an opportunity to understand God’s grace more deeply and proclaim it more powerfully by insisting that reconciliation be the first, middle and final word. ..That’s Jesus’ teaching in this Sunday’s gospel; that’s the example we have in Jesus’ manner of life, which posed a profound challenge to his Pharisaic brothers much as it challenges the church today.
When we look in the mirror, I pray we do not walk away unaffected by what we see. I pray that we see the full potential of whom God creates us to be. I pray that we become carriers of contagious purity from this moment out, visiting one another with the only goal of how to build up one another in love.
In our God is the strength and power we need to meet every challenge that life presents us. Avoid the “ick factor.” Every time we look in the mirror, let’s strive to spend the rest of the day being as good-looking on the inside as we are on the outside, for God created us beautiful. Amen.
August 30, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
Suiting Up For Christ
Joshua 24:14-28; John 6:60-71; Ephesians 6:10-20
In Matthew 16, there is a simple exchange between Jesus and Peter, which ends with Jesus asking, “But who do you say that I am?” and Peter answering, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Yet, at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, in the hands of the ancient church fathers, Peter’s answer is slightly adapted to help us understand who Jesus is and his position in the Trinity.
Jesus said, “Who do men say that I am?” And his disciples answered, “Some say you are John the Baptist returned from the dead; others say Elijah, or others say of the old prophets.”
Jesus asked, "But who do you say that I am?"
Peter answered, "Thou art the Logos, existing in the Father as His rationality and then, by an act of His will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation, but only on the fact that Scripture speaks of a Father, and a Son, and a Holy Spirit, each member of the Trinity being coequal with every other member, and each acting inseparably with and interpenetrating every other member, with only an economic subordination within God, but causing no division which would make the substance no longer simple."
And to that answer, Jesus said, "Huh?"
So now that we understand how the three members of the Trinity relate to each other, let’s look at today’s three passages of scripture and examine how they relate to each other. I will focus on these three things: choices, witnessing, and faith.
The tribes make their emphatic choice to worship and serve Yahweh, even though Joshua defiantly goads their proclamation over and over again. “You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God” (v 19). In the repartee, what happens? The people become louder and more emphatic in their witness to the covenant with Yahweh, “YES! WE WILL SERVE THE LORD! Then they confidently departed each tribe to their own land.
The crowds of disciples who have followed Jesus from the feeding of five thousand on the mount, across the sea of Galilee and then back again, the ones who begged Jesus to “give them this bread always” have been brought to the peak of faithfulness only to fall off the edge, trading faith’s fervor for great grumbling. “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” (v 60). They had a choice to make.
Most chose to leave; they departed, each back to their own land, their regular life. Only the twelve remained with the Holy One of God—and one of them would deny him three times, another would betray him with a kiss into the “sworded” (and sordid) hands of Roman soldiers.
· The fledgling churches to which Paul wrote were persecuted
relentlessly. They lived in the midst of people who hated them and a government that hunted them. They were shunned for
choosing to follow that radical blasphemer, Jesus Christ; for their rejection of the letter of the law for the spirit of the law; for their strange (cannibalistic!) practices and offensive teachings. They must have been afraid at times, insecure and vulnerable at times, so Paul reminds them that the strength of the Lord God is with them at all times. Easier said than done, many would say, but Paul knows what he is talking about.
We do not need complicated dogma when we are in crisis; Paul tells us simply, with imagery we can understand, what we need to do: “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (vv 10-11).
I wanted to talk to you this morning about the shield and the helmet and breastplate, etc, probably because that would have been easier to do. However, I feel that God wants me to share with you instead how the armor of God makes us strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. How it makes us able to stand in the face of what would destroy us and brings us triumphantly through to the other side.
In June, in one day, I received two envelopes in the mail, and the contents of each caught me with my armor down. One letter was from the IRS and the other was from the Pheasant Hill Property Board. One said that I still owed them several hundred dollars after the several thousand I already paid them; the other said the condo owners were each being assessed $4000--$1000 each year for this year and the next three years and the first $500 was due July 1, just a few weeks away.
I didn’t have on my armor, I hadn’t suited up for Christ before I opened my mail, so I was not prepared to fight the good fight, physical, spiritual or otherwise. I began to cry and pace around my house. I was ready to give up. I began to succumb; I began repeating words I seemed to be hearing in my head, “You can’t do this; just give up. It’s impossible! Give up, give up, give up.” Over and over again, I heard the words—and I hated them but I was almost ready to believe them.
Then I heard a new voice, some new words, “He’s trying to trick you.” And I stopped in my tracks. Something came over me—was it the armor of God, the spirit of truth, the light of Jesus, the word of God, shining in my present darkness? Just when I was about to succumb to the wiles of evil, God spoke a stronger word to me. “Don’t believe it.” The Lord became strong in me.
I stood up straight, stretched out my arms toward the ceiling, the bad-news papers still clenched in my fist, and out loud I proclaimed (I even think I was gritting my teeth), “OK, God, then you do this!” And a sense of calm came over me. I stopped crying; I put the papers down; and I took a nap. Fighting the devil wears you out, you know!
You see, what I realized was that voice in my head, the one that was so cunning and devious, was trying to get me to believe that I was lost and alone, weak and vulnerable. I believe that voice, that deceitful cunning, is what Paul is warning all believers about when he speaks of the wiles of the devil. Only the whole armor of God can protect us when it comes to spiritual warfare.
All those bills have been paid now, God provided for me and God will provide for you, too. God provides because God loves. When clothed in the armor of God, no devil shall be able to prevail against us. Neither shall it overcome Christ’s church. True light will shine blindingly bright in this present darkness.
This is the good news today, God provides and God prevails. Why? Because the Lord our God is a jealous God and he never lets go of those who belong to him. God is so possessive of us that he sent his only son not because Jesus art the Logos, existing in the Father as His rationality and then, by an act of His will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation,” but because he loves us beyond this world into the next.
So when Jesus asks you, “Do you also wish to go away?” give him not long laundry list of excuses, simply confess, as Peter did, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” The only answer left then is to follow him when we hear him call our names. Amen.
August 23, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of south Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
In Matthew 16, there is a simple exchange between Jesus and Peter, which ends with Jesus asking, “But who do you say that I am?” and Peter answering, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Yet, at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, in the hands of the ancient church fathers, Peter’s answer is slightly adapted to help us understand who Jesus is and his position in the Trinity.
Jesus said, “Who do men say that I am?” And his disciples answered, “Some say you are John the Baptist returned from the dead; others say Elijah, or others say of the old prophets.”
Jesus asked, "But who do you say that I am?"
Peter answered, "Thou art the Logos, existing in the Father as His rationality and then, by an act of His will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation, but only on the fact that Scripture speaks of a Father, and a Son, and a Holy Spirit, each member of the Trinity being coequal with every other member, and each acting inseparably with and interpenetrating every other member, with only an economic subordination within God, but causing no division which would make the substance no longer simple."
And to that answer, Jesus said, "Huh?"
So now that we understand how the three members of the Trinity relate to each other, let’s look at today’s three passages of scripture and examine how they relate to each other. I will focus on these three things: choices, witnessing, and faith.
The tribes make their emphatic choice to worship and serve Yahweh, even though Joshua defiantly goads their proclamation over and over again. “You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God” (v 19). In the repartee, what happens? The people become louder and more emphatic in their witness to the covenant with Yahweh, “YES! WE WILL SERVE THE LORD! Then they confidently departed each tribe to their own land.
The crowds of disciples who have followed Jesus from the feeding of five thousand on the mount, across the sea of Galilee and then back again, the ones who begged Jesus to “give them this bread always” have been brought to the peak of faithfulness only to fall off the edge, trading faith’s fervor for great grumbling. “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” (v 60). They had a choice to make.
Most chose to leave; they departed, each back to their own land, their regular life. Only the twelve remained with the Holy One of God—and one of them would deny him three times, another would betray him with a kiss into the “sworded” (and sordid) hands of Roman soldiers.
· The fledgling churches to which Paul wrote were persecuted
relentlessly. They lived in the midst of people who hated them and a government that hunted them. They were shunned for
choosing to follow that radical blasphemer, Jesus Christ; for their rejection of the letter of the law for the spirit of the law; for their strange (cannibalistic!) practices and offensive teachings. They must have been afraid at times, insecure and vulnerable at times, so Paul reminds them that the strength of the Lord God is with them at all times. Easier said than done, many would say, but Paul knows what he is talking about.
We do not need complicated dogma when we are in crisis; Paul tells us simply, with imagery we can understand, what we need to do: “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (vv 10-11).
I wanted to talk to you this morning about the shield and the helmet and breastplate, etc, probably because that would have been easier to do. However, I feel that God wants me to share with you instead how the armor of God makes us strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. How it makes us able to stand in the face of what would destroy us and brings us triumphantly through to the other side.
In June, in one day, I received two envelopes in the mail, and the contents of each caught me with my armor down. One letter was from the IRS and the other was from the Pheasant Hill Property Board. One said that I still owed them several hundred dollars after the several thousand I already paid them; the other said the condo owners were each being assessed $4000--$1000 each year for this year and the next three years and the first $500 was due July 1, just a few weeks away.
I didn’t have on my armor, I hadn’t suited up for Christ before I opened my mail, so I was not prepared to fight the good fight, physical, spiritual or otherwise. I began to cry and pace around my house. I was ready to give up. I began to succumb; I began repeating words I seemed to be hearing in my head, “You can’t do this; just give up. It’s impossible! Give up, give up, give up.” Over and over again, I heard the words—and I hated them but I was almost ready to believe them.
Then I heard a new voice, some new words, “He’s trying to trick you.” And I stopped in my tracks. Something came over me—was it the armor of God, the spirit of truth, the light of Jesus, the word of God, shining in my present darkness? Just when I was about to succumb to the wiles of evil, God spoke a stronger word to me. “Don’t believe it.” The Lord became strong in me.
I stood up straight, stretched out my arms toward the ceiling, the bad-news papers still clenched in my fist, and out loud I proclaimed (I even think I was gritting my teeth), “OK, God, then you do this!” And a sense of calm came over me. I stopped crying; I put the papers down; and I took a nap. Fighting the devil wears you out, you know!
You see, what I realized was that voice in my head, the one that was so cunning and devious, was trying to get me to believe that I was lost and alone, weak and vulnerable. I believe that voice, that deceitful cunning, is what Paul is warning all believers about when he speaks of the wiles of the devil. Only the whole armor of God can protect us when it comes to spiritual warfare.
All those bills have been paid now, God provided for me and God will provide for you, too. God provides because God loves. When clothed in the armor of God, no devil shall be able to prevail against us. Neither shall it overcome Christ’s church. True light will shine blindingly bright in this present darkness.
This is the good news today, God provides and God prevails. Why? Because the Lord our God is a jealous God and he never lets go of those who belong to him. God is so possessive of us that he sent his only son not because Jesus art the Logos, existing in the Father as His rationality and then, by an act of His will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation,” but because he loves us beyond this world into the next.
So when Jesus asks you, “Do you also wish to go away?” give him not long laundry list of excuses, simply confess, as Peter did, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” The only answer left then is to follow him when we hear him call our names. Amen.
August 23, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of south Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
August 11, 2009
DRAWN BY GOD
I Kings 19:4-8; John 6:35, 41-51
No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me;
and I will raise that person up on the last day.
I want to tell you a story of a real man named Sadhu Sundar Singh, who was born in India in 1889. At the age of 15, he converted to Christianity after having a vision of Jesus. His father threw him a farewell party and then kicked him out of the family. It was Sundar's life work to travel around distributing gospels to people. He came upon some non-Christians on the train and offered a man a copy of John's gospel. The man took it, tore it into pieces in anger and threw the pieces out of the window. That seemed the end. But it so happened, in the provident of God, there was a man anxiously seeking the truth walking along the train tracks that very day, and he picked up as he walked along, a little bit of paper. In his own language it read, “The Bread of Life.” He did not know what it meant so he began to ask of his friends.
One of them said, “I can tell you; it is out of the Christian Book. You must not read it or you will be defiled.“ The man thought for a moment and said, “I want to read a copy of the book that contains that beautiful phrase!” and he bought a copy of the New Testament. He was shown where the sentence occurred—our Lord's words “I am the Bread of Life”; and as he studied the Gospel, the light flooded into his heart. He came to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and he became a preacher of the gospel. That little bit of paper through God's Spirit was indeed the Bread of Life to him, satisfying his deepest need (Adapted from Stephen Olford. Basics for Believers, 2003, pp 112-13).
Sundar Singh, it seems to me, was drawn by God for a very special purpose in spreading Truth. A holy encounter with God, God's angels, or Jesus himself happens over and over again in the bible and behind all the action is God drawing his people closer to him all the time.
Elijah was drawn by God to eat the bread of life even as the hunted prophet prayed for his own death. Under the shady, shaggy broom tree he fell asleep and either had a dream or awoke to the touch of an angel instructing him to, “Get up and eat.” His daily bread is provided near his head. He eats and falls back to sleep. Once more the words, “Get up and eat or the journey will be too much for you.” Elijah does as he is told. We don't know if Elijah is still worried that Jezebel was in pursuit of his life or not. What we do know is that after the meal of bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water, he got up and went in the strength of that food for forty days and nights Horeb, the mount of God.
Long before Jesus, you see, God was in the business of providing bread for the journey and food for the soul. God could draw the hearts of even those who though they were once zealous for the Lord but later, at the end of the day, would rather die than face another day. God, our Father and Creator, draws his children closer through life-giving bread—quite unlike Sundar's father who sent the boy packing when he gave his life to the Lord.
Food has always been a big draw for people. In ancient times just about every decision, every business transaction, and every religious ritual was centered around food. How many stories in the bible can you name that have food as one of its central characters? You can only get as far as Chapter 3 in Genesis before food—a certain fruit—leads the world's first eviction notice. Food is intended to be for our good, yet when we look around today, many people in our country have turned our daily bread for sustenance into an hourly bread, an addiction. Obesity is epidemic among children and adults alike. The weight-loss industry is a $40 billion business in this country.
In 2004, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ranked obesity as the number one health threat facing America. Obesity currently results in an estimated 400,000 deaths annually1 and costs nearly $122.9 billion.2
These statistics lead me to ask, What is it that we are so hungry for? What do we hear ourselves and others saying? “I'm so hungry; I can't seem to get enough to eat.”
It's pretty common knowledge that many people are overweight because they eat the wrong foods—and lots of it. Others eat to swallow their pain; some find their weight as a way to protect themselves from anyone or anything that might get too close to them.
We're a hungry people; we stay hungry because we do not feast on the right food. Yes, we need to make deposits in our bodies of the seven food groups for our physical health, but I think that we are still starving and foraging for food because we do not eat the Bread of Life.
I was thinking about the food chart and I began to convert it into a spiritual food chart. Try to imagine with me as I describe this spiritual food pyramid.
At the base of the pyramid are three blocks. One is “bread of life”; the next is “living water”; and the third is “new birth.” In the second tier there are two blocks. One is filled with “The Word” and the other is filled with “Prayer.” At the top of the pyramid is “Worship.” As with the food pyramid, I have assigned suggested servings of each block in the spiritual pyramid.
Worship=1 large serving on Sundays; mini servings on weekdays in the midst of other moments or specially set aside. (Psalm 100:4; Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.)
The Word: I recommend at least two servings per day, one in the morning and one in the evening so as to begin and end the day with God filling your soul. (Matthew 4:4—a man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.)
Prayer = all day long—at least once before every meal and at bedtime, and any time in between (I Thessalonians 5:17).
Born Anew= first thing every morning. (John 3) Remember that Jesus taught Nicodemus that if he wanted see the kingdom of God he would have to be born from above.
Living Water=8 times a day. (John 4) Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that if she knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to her, 'Give me a drink,' she would have asked him and he would have given her living water.)
Bread of Life=all day long; repeat as often as necessary. “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.” (John 6:50).
Unlike the temporary bread and water, when we eat a balanced spiritual food diet, we cannot overeat. We will grow, that is true, not around our middles but in the middle of our being—the heart and soul of who God creates and calls us to be.
Many things in our world draw us in, but they are not always the right things or good things. It is a test of will for humanity has a tendency to resist the holy things. But it's all very logical, you know. If we want to have a healthy body, we have to feed it the good things, the right things so that it can function well and allow us the strength and freedom to be all that we can be.
So if we extend the metaphor, if we want to have a healthy spirit, we must also feed our spirits with the right and good things. Jesus is the one thing, the holy thing that can fill all our spiritual needs. He is the bread of life that God provides for the whole of our lives, both on temporal and eternal.
The Good News today my friends is that God provides the true Bread of Life—all that we need to survive and thrive in today's famished world. In II Peter 3 Peter writes, the Lord does not want any of us to perish...EVER.
We have been given this Bread of Life so that we may have eternal life, drawn by God's love for us through those beautiful gates we are supposed to enter with thanksgiving. When we eat of this bread we will be spiritually filled up. Gone is the desire to eat more manna that still leaves us hungering for who knows what, and come to us is the Way to take a 40-day journey through any wilderness to the mount of God. We will survive it because God is drawing us closer with each new day—it matters not how many Jezebels seek our demise; it's like the wind and the waves, no matter how wild a ride it gets to be, cast your Jesus bread upon the waters and just see what happens.
The journey will not be too much for us when we eat the True bread of Life that God has sent directly from heaven to feed us. Forget about eating pounds of fruitless fear; stop drinking gallons of worry, anger, vengeance or apathy. We must get up and eat this Bread of Life, otherwise the journey will be too much for us. And do not worry about having enough for the journey. We've already seen what Jesus can do with five loaves and two fishes.
Eat well of the Lord today and every day, my friends, for God is drawing us nearer by the hour. Amen.
August 9, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise
I Kings 19:4-8; John 6:35, 41-51
No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me;
and I will raise that person up on the last day.
I want to tell you a story of a real man named Sadhu Sundar Singh, who was born in India in 1889. At the age of 15, he converted to Christianity after having a vision of Jesus. His father threw him a farewell party and then kicked him out of the family. It was Sundar's life work to travel around distributing gospels to people. He came upon some non-Christians on the train and offered a man a copy of John's gospel. The man took it, tore it into pieces in anger and threw the pieces out of the window. That seemed the end. But it so happened, in the provident of God, there was a man anxiously seeking the truth walking along the train tracks that very day, and he picked up as he walked along, a little bit of paper. In his own language it read, “The Bread of Life.” He did not know what it meant so he began to ask of his friends.
One of them said, “I can tell you; it is out of the Christian Book. You must not read it or you will be defiled.“ The man thought for a moment and said, “I want to read a copy of the book that contains that beautiful phrase!” and he bought a copy of the New Testament. He was shown where the sentence occurred—our Lord's words “I am the Bread of Life”; and as he studied the Gospel, the light flooded into his heart. He came to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and he became a preacher of the gospel. That little bit of paper through God's Spirit was indeed the Bread of Life to him, satisfying his deepest need (Adapted from Stephen Olford. Basics for Believers, 2003, pp 112-13).
Sundar Singh, it seems to me, was drawn by God for a very special purpose in spreading Truth. A holy encounter with God, God's angels, or Jesus himself happens over and over again in the bible and behind all the action is God drawing his people closer to him all the time.
Elijah was drawn by God to eat the bread of life even as the hunted prophet prayed for his own death. Under the shady, shaggy broom tree he fell asleep and either had a dream or awoke to the touch of an angel instructing him to, “Get up and eat.” His daily bread is provided near his head. He eats and falls back to sleep. Once more the words, “Get up and eat or the journey will be too much for you.” Elijah does as he is told. We don't know if Elijah is still worried that Jezebel was in pursuit of his life or not. What we do know is that after the meal of bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water, he got up and went in the strength of that food for forty days and nights Horeb, the mount of God.
Long before Jesus, you see, God was in the business of providing bread for the journey and food for the soul. God could draw the hearts of even those who though they were once zealous for the Lord but later, at the end of the day, would rather die than face another day. God, our Father and Creator, draws his children closer through life-giving bread—quite unlike Sundar's father who sent the boy packing when he gave his life to the Lord.
Food has always been a big draw for people. In ancient times just about every decision, every business transaction, and every religious ritual was centered around food. How many stories in the bible can you name that have food as one of its central characters? You can only get as far as Chapter 3 in Genesis before food—a certain fruit—leads the world's first eviction notice. Food is intended to be for our good, yet when we look around today, many people in our country have turned our daily bread for sustenance into an hourly bread, an addiction. Obesity is epidemic among children and adults alike. The weight-loss industry is a $40 billion business in this country.
In 2004, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ranked obesity as the number one health threat facing America. Obesity currently results in an estimated 400,000 deaths annually1 and costs nearly $122.9 billion.2
These statistics lead me to ask, What is it that we are so hungry for? What do we hear ourselves and others saying? “I'm so hungry; I can't seem to get enough to eat.”
It's pretty common knowledge that many people are overweight because they eat the wrong foods—and lots of it. Others eat to swallow their pain; some find their weight as a way to protect themselves from anyone or anything that might get too close to them.
We're a hungry people; we stay hungry because we do not feast on the right food. Yes, we need to make deposits in our bodies of the seven food groups for our physical health, but I think that we are still starving and foraging for food because we do not eat the Bread of Life.
I was thinking about the food chart and I began to convert it into a spiritual food chart. Try to imagine with me as I describe this spiritual food pyramid.
At the base of the pyramid are three blocks. One is “bread of life”; the next is “living water”; and the third is “new birth.” In the second tier there are two blocks. One is filled with “The Word” and the other is filled with “Prayer.” At the top of the pyramid is “Worship.” As with the food pyramid, I have assigned suggested servings of each block in the spiritual pyramid.
Worship=1 large serving on Sundays; mini servings on weekdays in the midst of other moments or specially set aside. (Psalm 100:4; Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.)
The Word: I recommend at least two servings per day, one in the morning and one in the evening so as to begin and end the day with God filling your soul. (Matthew 4:4—a man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.)
Prayer = all day long—at least once before every meal and at bedtime, and any time in between (I Thessalonians 5:17).
Born Anew= first thing every morning. (John 3) Remember that Jesus taught Nicodemus that if he wanted see the kingdom of God he would have to be born from above.
Living Water=8 times a day. (John 4) Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that if she knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to her, 'Give me a drink,' she would have asked him and he would have given her living water.)
Bread of Life=all day long; repeat as often as necessary. “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.” (John 6:50).
Unlike the temporary bread and water, when we eat a balanced spiritual food diet, we cannot overeat. We will grow, that is true, not around our middles but in the middle of our being—the heart and soul of who God creates and calls us to be.
Many things in our world draw us in, but they are not always the right things or good things. It is a test of will for humanity has a tendency to resist the holy things. But it's all very logical, you know. If we want to have a healthy body, we have to feed it the good things, the right things so that it can function well and allow us the strength and freedom to be all that we can be.
So if we extend the metaphor, if we want to have a healthy spirit, we must also feed our spirits with the right and good things. Jesus is the one thing, the holy thing that can fill all our spiritual needs. He is the bread of life that God provides for the whole of our lives, both on temporal and eternal.
The Good News today my friends is that God provides the true Bread of Life—all that we need to survive and thrive in today's famished world. In II Peter 3 Peter writes, the Lord does not want any of us to perish...EVER.
We have been given this Bread of Life so that we may have eternal life, drawn by God's love for us through those beautiful gates we are supposed to enter with thanksgiving. When we eat of this bread we will be spiritually filled up. Gone is the desire to eat more manna that still leaves us hungering for who knows what, and come to us is the Way to take a 40-day journey through any wilderness to the mount of God. We will survive it because God is drawing us closer with each new day—it matters not how many Jezebels seek our demise; it's like the wind and the waves, no matter how wild a ride it gets to be, cast your Jesus bread upon the waters and just see what happens.
The journey will not be too much for us when we eat the True bread of Life that God has sent directly from heaven to feed us. Forget about eating pounds of fruitless fear; stop drinking gallons of worry, anger, vengeance or apathy. We must get up and eat this Bread of Life, otherwise the journey will be too much for us. And do not worry about having enough for the journey. We've already seen what Jesus can do with five loaves and two fishes.
Eat well of the Lord today and every day, my friends, for God is drawing us nearer by the hour. Amen.
August 9, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise
August 07, 2009
MANNA ON THEIR MINDS
Exodus 16:2-4; 9-15; John 6:24-35
“I am the bread of life.”
Humanity hungers for many things—food, shelter and clothing, of course. Yet, we have other hungers as well; we have emotional, intellectual, cultural, visceral needs all blistering for a salve.
Money will not soothe the burn. In an economy as wounded as ours is, something richer is needed. We have been taught where sustenance is to be found, yet it is often the last pantry we search for that seemingly elusive spiritual satisfaction.
There is a spiritual famine in our land, even right in our own community. People today are starving for God. How is it that they have not recognized the Bread of Life moving among them? Why is it so many remain as wilderness people—wandering and wondering—with only the next crop of manna on their minds?
People walk up and down the sidewalks on either side of our sanctuary every Sunday (I can see them when the windows are open in the summer.) Even though I am speaking with you, my mind wanders out there. I shoot off a little prayer for them—and even the dogs they might be walking with—praying that some day they may walk in here rather than right past here. I want them to have what we have. I hunger for them to feast with us upon the Bread of Life.
Jesus said to the crowds, “You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”
That’s how it is with miracles, you know. We often miss them in their ordinariness.
Barbara Brown Taylor wrote a sermon titled, “Bread of Angels” on these two passages from Exodus and John. She, too, cautions folks about missing the point of manna and miracles. Listen to her words:
If your manna has to drop straight out of heaven looking like a perfect loaf of butter-crust bread, then chances are you are going to go hungry a lot.
When you do not get the miracle you are praying for, you are going to think that God is ignoring you or punishing you or—worse yet—that God is not there. You are going to start comparing yourself to other people and wondering why they seem to have more to eat than you do, and you may start complaining to heaven about that.
Meanwhile, you are going to miss a lot of other things God is doing for you because they are too ordinary…If on the other hand you are willing to look at everything that comes to you as coming to you from God, then there will be no end to the manna in your life…Nothing will be too ordinary or too transitory to remind you of God.
Take something as ordinary and transitory as a yard sale. FPFC has the yard sale of yard sales.
Yesterday, all over the Ouellette’s lawn you could see customers on their cell phones. “You should get down here!” They were saying. “It’s unbelievable!”
While I was there for several hours on Friday and Saturday, what I witnessed among people in our church was nothing short of miraculous.
Perhaps it seemed like we were raising money to benefit our ministries here at the church, but I also know that we were releasing miracles to benefit anyone who crossed our path. What I saw was people doing the work of God by believing in the one whom God sent.
I saw such faith as I witnessed the camaraderie of your working side by side, emptying the barn stocking the tables, laying out the furniture. We were red-faced and back bent; we were sweating yet smiling; we were determined and delighted and depleted. We are exhausted yet we are replete. How good this feels!
I could feel how much you love each other, and it doesn’t get much better than that for any pastor who leads a congregation.
I witnessed as you worked at the grill, under the canopies—sorting, folding, lugging, selling, assisting customers with their purchases—making their eyes light up with the price of a bargain, and sharing invitations to join with us at church.
You could ask any of the workers yesterday to testify to the encounters they shared with people and you would understand that miracles happen, even at yard sales.
You see, the Good News today is that God is always sending us something to eat.
Day by day, God is made known to us in the simple things that sustain our lives—some bread, some love, some breath, some wine—all those absolutely essential things that are here today and gone tomorrow. (BBT, p 11.)
On the surface it appeared as if we were “doing it for the church” or “to meet our budget.”
Yet, very truly I tell you, we were able to work so very diligently and devotionally for God because we are growing in our belief in the one whom God sent: Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life—and we want to work for this Bread always.
Because of our hunger for the Lord, it matters a little less what the difficult economy is doing. It matters more that people are being fed by the one who supports, sustains and satisfies spiritual life.
The world hungers for this food—always. Serve the people the same bread we taste today: the Bread of Life, sent by the one who created it all. Amen.
Taylor, Barbara Brown. Bread of Angels, p 10.
FIRST PARISH FEDERATED CHURCH OF S BERWICK, ME
August 2, 2009
Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
Exodus 16:2-4; 9-15; John 6:24-35
“I am the bread of life.”
Humanity hungers for many things—food, shelter and clothing, of course. Yet, we have other hungers as well; we have emotional, intellectual, cultural, visceral needs all blistering for a salve.
Money will not soothe the burn. In an economy as wounded as ours is, something richer is needed. We have been taught where sustenance is to be found, yet it is often the last pantry we search for that seemingly elusive spiritual satisfaction.
There is a spiritual famine in our land, even right in our own community. People today are starving for God. How is it that they have not recognized the Bread of Life moving among them? Why is it so many remain as wilderness people—wandering and wondering—with only the next crop of manna on their minds?
People walk up and down the sidewalks on either side of our sanctuary every Sunday (I can see them when the windows are open in the summer.) Even though I am speaking with you, my mind wanders out there. I shoot off a little prayer for them—and even the dogs they might be walking with—praying that some day they may walk in here rather than right past here. I want them to have what we have. I hunger for them to feast with us upon the Bread of Life.
Jesus said to the crowds, “You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”
That’s how it is with miracles, you know. We often miss them in their ordinariness.
Barbara Brown Taylor wrote a sermon titled, “Bread of Angels” on these two passages from Exodus and John. She, too, cautions folks about missing the point of manna and miracles. Listen to her words:
If your manna has to drop straight out of heaven looking like a perfect loaf of butter-crust bread, then chances are you are going to go hungry a lot.
When you do not get the miracle you are praying for, you are going to think that God is ignoring you or punishing you or—worse yet—that God is not there. You are going to start comparing yourself to other people and wondering why they seem to have more to eat than you do, and you may start complaining to heaven about that.
Meanwhile, you are going to miss a lot of other things God is doing for you because they are too ordinary…If on the other hand you are willing to look at everything that comes to you as coming to you from God, then there will be no end to the manna in your life…Nothing will be too ordinary or too transitory to remind you of God.
Take something as ordinary and transitory as a yard sale. FPFC has the yard sale of yard sales.
Yesterday, all over the Ouellette’s lawn you could see customers on their cell phones. “You should get down here!” They were saying. “It’s unbelievable!”
While I was there for several hours on Friday and Saturday, what I witnessed among people in our church was nothing short of miraculous.
Perhaps it seemed like we were raising money to benefit our ministries here at the church, but I also know that we were releasing miracles to benefit anyone who crossed our path. What I saw was people doing the work of God by believing in the one whom God sent.
I saw such faith as I witnessed the camaraderie of your working side by side, emptying the barn stocking the tables, laying out the furniture. We were red-faced and back bent; we were sweating yet smiling; we were determined and delighted and depleted. We are exhausted yet we are replete. How good this feels!
I could feel how much you love each other, and it doesn’t get much better than that for any pastor who leads a congregation.
I witnessed as you worked at the grill, under the canopies—sorting, folding, lugging, selling, assisting customers with their purchases—making their eyes light up with the price of a bargain, and sharing invitations to join with us at church.
You could ask any of the workers yesterday to testify to the encounters they shared with people and you would understand that miracles happen, even at yard sales.
You see, the Good News today is that God is always sending us something to eat.
Day by day, God is made known to us in the simple things that sustain our lives—some bread, some love, some breath, some wine—all those absolutely essential things that are here today and gone tomorrow. (BBT, p 11.)
On the surface it appeared as if we were “doing it for the church” or “to meet our budget.”
Yet, very truly I tell you, we were able to work so very diligently and devotionally for God because we are growing in our belief in the one whom God sent: Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life—and we want to work for this Bread always.
Because of our hunger for the Lord, it matters a little less what the difficult economy is doing. It matters more that people are being fed by the one who supports, sustains and satisfies spiritual life.
The world hungers for this food—always. Serve the people the same bread we taste today: the Bread of Life, sent by the one who created it all. Amen.
Taylor, Barbara Brown. Bread of Angels, p 10.
FIRST PARISH FEDERATED CHURCH OF S BERWICK, ME
August 2, 2009
Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
July 06, 2009
A Tale of Two Kings
II Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10; Mark 6:1-13
“He ordered them to take nothing for their journey…”
On July 4, 1776, King George III of Great Britain made an entry in his daily journal: “Nothing of importance happened today.”
What people of the king’s time thought of him sometimes mattered which side of the “pond” they were on. The patriots in the Revolutionary War would make effigies of him and burn them. They would throw rocks at pictures of the monarch and burn down the houses of known loyalists in the colonies. To all those people in the colonies, he was not a hero, but an evil tyrant.
The Loyalists in the Revolutionary War loved the King. They would hang pictures of him on their walls and would salute the flag of Great Britain every day. They would hold tea parties for King George III. For most Loyalists, he was a hero, almost a god.
So which kind of king was he? An evil tyrant or an idolized hero? I think he was probably both, depending upon which side of the “pond” one swam in. Most of us have had the experience of perceiving someone one way and then hearing someone else describe that same person as the exact opposite. Who is right? Is anybody wrong? Humanity is complex; we can be both depending on which side of the relationship we’re on.
Two of today’s lessons focus on kings. As I studied the passages this week, I began to sense similarities and differences, so I lined up qualities of King David in one column and Jesus in another, each as inferred or stated in just the scripture we read today.
First, I wrote down general knowledge or background information that we know about them.
They were both related (remember the lineage chart at the beginning of Matthew); they were 30 years old at the beginning their official work; they were both identified as shepherds—David of sheep and Jesus of people; and they were both kings. Yet, the kind of kings they were, were quite different, depending on which side of the Galilean Lake one lived.
Let’s look at the two passages again for noting dissimilarities. What do you see in David’s story that is oppositional to what happens in the story about Jesus?
In David’s story, the 12 tribes come to David at Mount Hebron, the fourth holiest place in Judea (Abraham Isaac, Jacob, Rebecca, etc all buried in a cave there), and proclaim, “Look, we are your bone and flesh” (v 1b). David’s reputation of being a great warrior was known far and wide. His flesh and bone wanted to be in covenant with him.
In Jesus’ story, Jesus returned to Nazareth, where he grew up and where a lot of his relatives still lived, and they said, “Is not this the carpenter, the Son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas (Jude) and Simon and are not his sisters here with us?”
His flesh and bone rejected this hometown boy; he was no hero to them. Instead, they thought he was either crazy or arrogant or both and they took offense at him (v 3c).
The tribes made a covenant with David. “So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel.
When Nazareth rejected Jesus, he was heard to say, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house” (v 4).
David built a city for himself and named it, “City of David.”
Jesus, on the other hand, was chased out of more cities and towns than one could count; people were always plotting against him, trying to kill him, to get rid of him. His rejection in his own hometown made it impossible for him to reach and teach the people about the kingdom of God coming near. He was too familiar to them.
What he was teaching and claiming just didn’t jive with how they remembered the carpenter’s son. Mark writes that, “He could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them” (v 5).
Finally, in verse 5:10, these words are written, “And David became greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him.”
When Jesus went to the cross, he was heard to say, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And when Jesus was hung on that tree to die, they hung a sign over his head. Do you remember what it said? “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”
The scribes and the Pharisees despised Jesus, Jesus was too radical; he was disloyal; he would not answer to any earthly king, let alone the keepers of the law.
And the people felt betrayed: He was not the military Messiah they were expecting to conquer the world and set it at their feet. I wouldn’t doubt it if somebody went home that Friday night and said to their family, “Nothing of importance happened today.”
There’s one more important difference between King David and King Jesus. David became greater because the “Lord was with him.” Jesus on the other hand, is the Lord. And that’s the good news today, friends: Jesus is the living Lord who reigns in heaven and walks with us everyday.
Is it not good to know not only that the republic for which our flag stands survives 233 years after our declaration of independence from Ol’ King George, and also that our Lord and King, Jesus the Christ, stands and reigns to this day, 2000 years later.
He is alive and because he is alive we can worship him and put our trust in him, but he needs to see that we’re alive with our faith and our loyalty and commitment to the very mission for which he came to earth, for which he sent out the twelve disciples two by two: to save all people from their sins that they may one day live with him in paradise.
The mission may be filled with discomfort and rejection, but we need to take nothing for the journey—no bread, no bag, no money in our belts—except the staff of faith for protection and direction, and a tunic of hope for endurance and assurance. Let’s take this journey, friends; let’s live for the Lord, and let something of great importance happen today, Confess that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, forever and ever, Hallelujah! Amen.
“He ordered them to take nothing for their journey…”
On July 4, 1776, King George III of Great Britain made an entry in his daily journal: “Nothing of importance happened today.”
What people of the king’s time thought of him sometimes mattered which side of the “pond” they were on. The patriots in the Revolutionary War would make effigies of him and burn them. They would throw rocks at pictures of the monarch and burn down the houses of known loyalists in the colonies. To all those people in the colonies, he was not a hero, but an evil tyrant.
The Loyalists in the Revolutionary War loved the King. They would hang pictures of him on their walls and would salute the flag of Great Britain every day. They would hold tea parties for King George III. For most Loyalists, he was a hero, almost a god.
So which kind of king was he? An evil tyrant or an idolized hero? I think he was probably both, depending upon which side of the “pond” one swam in. Most of us have had the experience of perceiving someone one way and then hearing someone else describe that same person as the exact opposite. Who is right? Is anybody wrong? Humanity is complex; we can be both depending on which side of the relationship we’re on.
Two of today’s lessons focus on kings. As I studied the passages this week, I began to sense similarities and differences, so I lined up qualities of King David in one column and Jesus in another, each as inferred or stated in just the scripture we read today.
First, I wrote down general knowledge or background information that we know about them.
They were both related (remember the lineage chart at the beginning of Matthew); they were 30 years old at the beginning their official work; they were both identified as shepherds—David of sheep and Jesus of people; and they were both kings. Yet, the kind of kings they were, were quite different, depending on which side of the Galilean Lake one lived.
Let’s look at the two passages again for noting dissimilarities. What do you see in David’s story that is oppositional to what happens in the story about Jesus?
In David’s story, the 12 tribes come to David at Mount Hebron, the fourth holiest place in Judea (Abraham Isaac, Jacob, Rebecca, etc all buried in a cave there), and proclaim, “Look, we are your bone and flesh” (v 1b). David’s reputation of being a great warrior was known far and wide. His flesh and bone wanted to be in covenant with him.
In Jesus’ story, Jesus returned to Nazareth, where he grew up and where a lot of his relatives still lived, and they said, “Is not this the carpenter, the Son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas (Jude) and Simon and are not his sisters here with us?”
His flesh and bone rejected this hometown boy; he was no hero to them. Instead, they thought he was either crazy or arrogant or both and they took offense at him (v 3c).
The tribes made a covenant with David. “So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel.
When Nazareth rejected Jesus, he was heard to say, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house” (v 4).
David built a city for himself and named it, “City of David.”
Jesus, on the other hand, was chased out of more cities and towns than one could count; people were always plotting against him, trying to kill him, to get rid of him. His rejection in his own hometown made it impossible for him to reach and teach the people about the kingdom of God coming near. He was too familiar to them.
What he was teaching and claiming just didn’t jive with how they remembered the carpenter’s son. Mark writes that, “He could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them” (v 5).
Finally, in verse 5:10, these words are written, “And David became greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him.”
When Jesus went to the cross, he was heard to say, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And when Jesus was hung on that tree to die, they hung a sign over his head. Do you remember what it said? “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”
The scribes and the Pharisees despised Jesus, Jesus was too radical; he was disloyal; he would not answer to any earthly king, let alone the keepers of the law.
And the people felt betrayed: He was not the military Messiah they were expecting to conquer the world and set it at their feet. I wouldn’t doubt it if somebody went home that Friday night and said to their family, “Nothing of importance happened today.”
There’s one more important difference between King David and King Jesus. David became greater because the “Lord was with him.” Jesus on the other hand, is the Lord. And that’s the good news today, friends: Jesus is the living Lord who reigns in heaven and walks with us everyday.
Is it not good to know not only that the republic for which our flag stands survives 233 years after our declaration of independence from Ol’ King George, and also that our Lord and King, Jesus the Christ, stands and reigns to this day, 2000 years later.
He is alive and because he is alive we can worship him and put our trust in him, but he needs to see that we’re alive with our faith and our loyalty and commitment to the very mission for which he came to earth, for which he sent out the twelve disciples two by two: to save all people from their sins that they may one day live with him in paradise.
The mission may be filled with discomfort and rejection, but we need to take nothing for the journey—no bread, no bag, no money in our belts—except the staff of faith for protection and direction, and a tunic of hope for endurance and assurance. Let’s take this journey, friends; let’s live for the Lord, and let something of great importance happen today, Confess that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, forever and ever, Hallelujah! Amen.
June 30, 2009
OVERCOME WITH AMAZEMENT
Mark 5:21-43; 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27; 2 Corinthians 8:7-15
“Then, one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw Jesus, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.”
“She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,
for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.”
Jesus preached the shortest sermon of his life when he said to Jairus, “Do not fear; only believe.” Five words, two commands, one broken-hearted father. Can you imagine how he must have been feeling that day? There he was, a ruler of the synagogue—a position in his day that carried a lot of prestige and power.
Jairus’ responsibilities involved being the administrative head of the synagogue. He was the president of the board of elders and responsible for the good management of the synagogue. Not only that, he was responsible for the conduct of services—he did not usually take part in them, however; but he was the one who assigned the ritual duties and made sure that, in our terms, the bulletin was followed exactly as written—nothing changed, nothing omitted.
Jairus was a man of great importance in his synagogue, but “something happened to him when his daughter fell ill” (Barclay, p 126). No longer would he view Jesus as an outsider, a dangerous insurgent who confronted and threatened the Jewish hierarchy. None of that “rebellion” mattered any more because his beloved child was “at the point of death” (Mk 5:23a).
Jairus, the dignified ruler of the synagogue, feeling powerless and caring nothing for his personal dignity and pride, completely overcome with grief, dropped all his prejudices about this wandering rabbi and fell at Jesus’ feet, weeping, begging him to heal his 12-year-old daughter: “Come and lay your hands upon her, so that she may be made well, and live” (Mk 5:23b).
Now let’s turn for a moment to the unnamed woman, because that’s how Mark tells the story of these healings, right? Her story interrupts Jairus’ story.
This woman is outcast in her society. Her family, friends, those who knew her were bound by Jewish law to take a wide berth around her. She was unclean! Banished! Nobody else even sees her; it’s like she is invisible, and she is sick unto death. She, like Jairus, believed that Jesus had healing powers that could change her life.
Where did this woman get the strength to make her way to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, then to push her way through the “great crowd gathered around him” (Mk 521b)? Imagine the press of the flesh! It was a lot like trying to make your way through the crowds at the Strawberry Festival!
She had to break through all kinds of human barriers and laws that were in place to keep certain people out, people who were undesirable, leprous, possessed, different—and nothing sent people running like a dead body or a bleeding woman.
She was weak but she had faith, and in her weakened condition she encouraged herself toward Jesus. He was the only hope she had left, “for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well’” (Mk 528).
Jairus, his unnamed daughter and the bleeding woman fared far better than what happened to a 16-year-old boy in Connecticut a few days ago. He was the subject of an exorcism at the Manifested Glory Ministries Church in Connecticut. This "healing" is supposed to chase out the gay demon that purportedly possesses the boy. The exorcism was filmed and posted on line by the church!
The video, which is very disturbing, shows the 16-year-old lying on the floor, his body convulsing, while members of the small Connecticut church stand over him, yelling, screaming, at the tops of their voices for the demon to come out of him. Apostle and Prophetess of the church, Patricia McKinney, said, “We don’t hate homosexuals. I just don’t like their lifestyle.” She also defended the action by saying that the youth is 18. The boy confirmed he is 16, but otherwise declined to comment, citing the advice of his pastor [emphasis mine] (Mail Foreign Service Last updated at 3:57 PM on 25th June 2009). Well, somebody’s not exactly speaking the truth.
The point is that what happened in the MGM church in Bridgeport, CT, was not anything like how Jesus healed people. There was abuse disguised as love in that church’s dealing with the boy. But with Jesus miracles, not exorcisms, are the path to healing and new life; Jesus uses Kingdom ways to release us from our dis-ease.
When the woman simply reached and barely touched Jesus’ cloak, the Lord felt it. Even in the midst trying to move through the crowd, he was “Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’” Mk 5:30).
Jesus knows a “faith touch” when he feels it. He is not an impersonal healer; he’s not into screaming at demons, either. Jesus wanted to know the identity of who touched his clothes and received power from him, not because he was angry but because Jesus is a personal healer. He knows the whole truth about each of us; and he responds in Kingdom ways to our deepest needs and hurts. “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease” (Mk 5:34).
When Jairus fell begging at Jesus’ feet, Jesus immediately picked him up and set out with Jairus to heal the daughter. Imagine Jairus’ anguish when Jesus stopped to find out who touched his clothes. Even the disciples were incredulous about Jesus’ question. Can’t you just hear them now, “Are you kidding me? Look at all these people…you want to know which one of them touched you!?” But Jesus does not operate within the human barrier of time.
The woman came forward “in fear and trembling” (5:33) and told him the whole truth about her life. As Jesus was blessing the woman into a new, a “clean” life, he overheard the news from Jairus’ messsengers that it was too late; no one could save his daughter now: she was dead. Yet, Jesus softly spoke to the now small-and-broken father who no longer resembled a ruler of anything, “Do not fear; only believe” (Mk 5:36b).
Jesus is our healer, too. He is the one who is always there for us when we are feeling ostracized or outcast, isolated and ashamed, sick and sorrow-filled. Jesus iis the one who is always there for us when we feel broken and defeated. All he asks of us is to tell the whole truth about our lives. We put into words that have sound the truth we know hides way and deep inside. Is there something that you need to tell Jesus today? Is there something that is dying inside of you that needs a resurrection? Are you afraid? Do you need a faith touch? Ask for his help, seek his healing power; knock at the door of new life and it shall be opened to you.
Barbara Brown Taylor, voted one of the twelve best preachers in America, says of this passage that “Mark addressed all of us who suffer from the human condition, who are up against things we cannot control” (“One Step at a Time” from The Preaching Life).
Each and every one of us as individuals and as a community have been in situations that seemed impossible to heal. Are you in one right now? Is there a place where you have little or no control and you are frightened of the possibilities? Are you even confused about what being healed by Jesus means? One theologian (John Pilch) tells us that “Healing is the restoration of meaning to people’s lives, no matter what their physical condition might be” (SAMUEL @ www.ucc.org. Reaching out in faith involves incredible risk. Are you willing to take the risk to receive healing and new life from Christ?
Imagine yourself as the father of the 12-year-old girl. Do you not feel winded by the long run to the sea—your lungs burn and your muscles cramp, and yet you push yourself to go faster because you are on a life-and-death errand. Aren’t you afraid that something might happen to her while you are away from home? Isn’t your heart already breaking because you feel so helpless to do anything to save your child’s life? Do you feel like a “bad father” and are you filled with regret over the things you did not do…or did do that you shouldn’t have? Will you risk it all—your job, your reputation, your personal pride, your own life even—to turn your life over to Jesus?
Imagine yourself as the woman who has been ostracized for 12 years with no one coming near her, disdaining her. And you’re so very, very tired. Your disease has taken everything you’ve got—your health, your money, your relationships—to get to this point of desperation. The only thing that has not been stolen from you is your faith. Will you risk it to reach out and simply touch the hem of the master’s cloak?
Imagine you are the sick child. You do not know what is wrong with you; you don’t understand why you’re hurting so bad, you’re burning up with fever, and you’re scared because this time Mom and Dad cannot fix it. You’re suddenly faced with the realization that death make take you away from all you know and all whom you love. You are overwhelmed by the darkness all around you. Will you risk your life to be touched by Jesus and hear him say, “Talitha koum!”? I should think that it would have been better for that 16-year-old boy to hear, “Son, get up!” rather than “Get out of his belly, you gay demon!”
The good news today is that Jesus’ power to heal our lives can cross any and all human barriers we put in his way. We can trust Jesus with the whole truth of our lives, and he WILL make us well one way or another. Remember the words of the Lord for your own healing today:
“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
“Son, do not fear; only believe.”
“Little girl, get up!” (Little boy, get up!”)
Tell Jesus the whole truth; run to the Lord with every concern; be touched by Christ. In his words and in his touch we can seek—and find—the freedom of new life that comes from the healing power of a faithful relationship with Jesus Christ. And if these words don’t convince you of what Jesus can do in your life, how about these, Run; Reach; Rise and do everything in his name and as your heart warms with a growing faith, you will not only be made well, you will also be overcome by amazement because with your new way of life, you will see how the Kingdom of God has come near to you. Amen.
June 28, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, Maine
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
“Then, one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw Jesus, fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.”
“She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,
for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.”
Jesus preached the shortest sermon of his life when he said to Jairus, “Do not fear; only believe.” Five words, two commands, one broken-hearted father. Can you imagine how he must have been feeling that day? There he was, a ruler of the synagogue—a position in his day that carried a lot of prestige and power.
Jairus’ responsibilities involved being the administrative head of the synagogue. He was the president of the board of elders and responsible for the good management of the synagogue. Not only that, he was responsible for the conduct of services—he did not usually take part in them, however; but he was the one who assigned the ritual duties and made sure that, in our terms, the bulletin was followed exactly as written—nothing changed, nothing omitted.
Jairus was a man of great importance in his synagogue, but “something happened to him when his daughter fell ill” (Barclay, p 126). No longer would he view Jesus as an outsider, a dangerous insurgent who confronted and threatened the Jewish hierarchy. None of that “rebellion” mattered any more because his beloved child was “at the point of death” (Mk 5:23a).
Jairus, the dignified ruler of the synagogue, feeling powerless and caring nothing for his personal dignity and pride, completely overcome with grief, dropped all his prejudices about this wandering rabbi and fell at Jesus’ feet, weeping, begging him to heal his 12-year-old daughter: “Come and lay your hands upon her, so that she may be made well, and live” (Mk 5:23b).
Now let’s turn for a moment to the unnamed woman, because that’s how Mark tells the story of these healings, right? Her story interrupts Jairus’ story.
This woman is outcast in her society. Her family, friends, those who knew her were bound by Jewish law to take a wide berth around her. She was unclean! Banished! Nobody else even sees her; it’s like she is invisible, and she is sick unto death. She, like Jairus, believed that Jesus had healing powers that could change her life.
Where did this woman get the strength to make her way to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, then to push her way through the “great crowd gathered around him” (Mk 521b)? Imagine the press of the flesh! It was a lot like trying to make your way through the crowds at the Strawberry Festival!
She had to break through all kinds of human barriers and laws that were in place to keep certain people out, people who were undesirable, leprous, possessed, different—and nothing sent people running like a dead body or a bleeding woman.
She was weak but she had faith, and in her weakened condition she encouraged herself toward Jesus. He was the only hope she had left, “for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well’” (Mk 528).
Jairus, his unnamed daughter and the bleeding woman fared far better than what happened to a 16-year-old boy in Connecticut a few days ago. He was the subject of an exorcism at the Manifested Glory Ministries Church in Connecticut. This "healing" is supposed to chase out the gay demon that purportedly possesses the boy. The exorcism was filmed and posted on line by the church!
The video, which is very disturbing, shows the 16-year-old lying on the floor, his body convulsing, while members of the small Connecticut church stand over him, yelling, screaming, at the tops of their voices for the demon to come out of him. Apostle and Prophetess of the church, Patricia McKinney, said, “We don’t hate homosexuals. I just don’t like their lifestyle.” She also defended the action by saying that the youth is 18. The boy confirmed he is 16, but otherwise declined to comment, citing the advice of his pastor [emphasis mine] (Mail Foreign Service Last updated at 3:57 PM on 25th June 2009). Well, somebody’s not exactly speaking the truth.
The point is that what happened in the MGM church in Bridgeport, CT, was not anything like how Jesus healed people. There was abuse disguised as love in that church’s dealing with the boy. But with Jesus miracles, not exorcisms, are the path to healing and new life; Jesus uses Kingdom ways to release us from our dis-ease.
When the woman simply reached and barely touched Jesus’ cloak, the Lord felt it. Even in the midst trying to move through the crowd, he was “Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’” Mk 5:30).
Jesus knows a “faith touch” when he feels it. He is not an impersonal healer; he’s not into screaming at demons, either. Jesus wanted to know the identity of who touched his clothes and received power from him, not because he was angry but because Jesus is a personal healer. He knows the whole truth about each of us; and he responds in Kingdom ways to our deepest needs and hurts. “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease” (Mk 5:34).
When Jairus fell begging at Jesus’ feet, Jesus immediately picked him up and set out with Jairus to heal the daughter. Imagine Jairus’ anguish when Jesus stopped to find out who touched his clothes. Even the disciples were incredulous about Jesus’ question. Can’t you just hear them now, “Are you kidding me? Look at all these people…you want to know which one of them touched you!?” But Jesus does not operate within the human barrier of time.
The woman came forward “in fear and trembling” (5:33) and told him the whole truth about her life. As Jesus was blessing the woman into a new, a “clean” life, he overheard the news from Jairus’ messsengers that it was too late; no one could save his daughter now: she was dead. Yet, Jesus softly spoke to the now small-and-broken father who no longer resembled a ruler of anything, “Do not fear; only believe” (Mk 5:36b).
Jesus is our healer, too. He is the one who is always there for us when we are feeling ostracized or outcast, isolated and ashamed, sick and sorrow-filled. Jesus iis the one who is always there for us when we feel broken and defeated. All he asks of us is to tell the whole truth about our lives. We put into words that have sound the truth we know hides way and deep inside. Is there something that you need to tell Jesus today? Is there something that is dying inside of you that needs a resurrection? Are you afraid? Do you need a faith touch? Ask for his help, seek his healing power; knock at the door of new life and it shall be opened to you.
Barbara Brown Taylor, voted one of the twelve best preachers in America, says of this passage that “Mark addressed all of us who suffer from the human condition, who are up against things we cannot control” (“One Step at a Time” from The Preaching Life).
Each and every one of us as individuals and as a community have been in situations that seemed impossible to heal. Are you in one right now? Is there a place where you have little or no control and you are frightened of the possibilities? Are you even confused about what being healed by Jesus means? One theologian (John Pilch) tells us that “Healing is the restoration of meaning to people’s lives, no matter what their physical condition might be” (SAMUEL @ www.ucc.org. Reaching out in faith involves incredible risk. Are you willing to take the risk to receive healing and new life from Christ?
Imagine yourself as the father of the 12-year-old girl. Do you not feel winded by the long run to the sea—your lungs burn and your muscles cramp, and yet you push yourself to go faster because you are on a life-and-death errand. Aren’t you afraid that something might happen to her while you are away from home? Isn’t your heart already breaking because you feel so helpless to do anything to save your child’s life? Do you feel like a “bad father” and are you filled with regret over the things you did not do…or did do that you shouldn’t have? Will you risk it all—your job, your reputation, your personal pride, your own life even—to turn your life over to Jesus?
Imagine yourself as the woman who has been ostracized for 12 years with no one coming near her, disdaining her. And you’re so very, very tired. Your disease has taken everything you’ve got—your health, your money, your relationships—to get to this point of desperation. The only thing that has not been stolen from you is your faith. Will you risk it to reach out and simply touch the hem of the master’s cloak?
Imagine you are the sick child. You do not know what is wrong with you; you don’t understand why you’re hurting so bad, you’re burning up with fever, and you’re scared because this time Mom and Dad cannot fix it. You’re suddenly faced with the realization that death make take you away from all you know and all whom you love. You are overwhelmed by the darkness all around you. Will you risk your life to be touched by Jesus and hear him say, “Talitha koum!”? I should think that it would have been better for that 16-year-old boy to hear, “Son, get up!” rather than “Get out of his belly, you gay demon!”
The good news today is that Jesus’ power to heal our lives can cross any and all human barriers we put in his way. We can trust Jesus with the whole truth of our lives, and he WILL make us well one way or another. Remember the words of the Lord for your own healing today:
“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
“Son, do not fear; only believe.”
“Little girl, get up!” (Little boy, get up!”)
Tell Jesus the whole truth; run to the Lord with every concern; be touched by Christ. In his words and in his touch we can seek—and find—the freedom of new life that comes from the healing power of a faithful relationship with Jesus Christ. And if these words don’t convince you of what Jesus can do in your life, how about these, Run; Reach; Rise and do everything in his name and as your heart warms with a growing faith, you will not only be made well, you will also be overcome by amazement because with your new way of life, you will see how the Kingdom of God has come near to you. Amen.
June 28, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, Maine
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
June 22, 2009
Inside and Out: How to be a More Beautiful Person
I Samuel 15:34-16:13; Mark 4:26-34; II Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17
GOOD NEWS: God knows who we truly are because he looks inside our hearts and not on our outward appearance.
MESSAGE: Grow in your relationship with God, through his son, Jesus Christ, and you will become a more beautiful person inside and out.
She sang, “I Dreamed a Dream,” and a frizzy-haired 47-year-old Scottish woman, named Susan Boyle, knocked the world off its axis. With over 11m hits on YouTube, this plain-faced, , bushy-eye-browed woman is living proof that the old adage is true, you cannot judge a book by its cover.
For the three judges and millions of witnesses, the heavenly sound that came out of Susan's mouth could only have come from the heart and soul of an angel. No one on either side of the Atlantic Ocean would ever have imagined the beautiful voice tucked away inside this odd-mannered woman. Today, she is living proof of “Fronti nulla fides,” which translates, “never have faith in the front” (Juvenal, Satires II, 8). And what we have learned about Susan since that night is that regardless of the strength and beauty of her voice, she is just as vulnerable to exhaustion, mood swings and fear as the rest of us.
The Good News for us is that God looks upon our hearts and not on our outward appearances when he considers who we really are. God never judges us by our packaging. God never keeps faith in the front we present to the world. No amount of beauty or brawn can hide our true hearts from God. We may be able to fool others about who we are, but we will never fool the Lord.
So, instead of trying to be perfect on the outside, why not explore how to be beautiful on the inside? Each scripture today can speak in its own way to this idea. The more we allow God to grow in our hearts, the more we walk by faith and not by sight, the more beautiful we will become on the inside; and a beautiful person on the inside radiates beauty on the outside.
Among many truths, one message today's scriptures reveal is this one: As we grow in our relationship with God, through faith in his son, Jesus Christ, we will become more beautiful, inside and out.
The anointing of the young and ruddy shepherd boy, David, as future King of Israel, demonstrates not only that God knows what is in our hearts, but also that God chooses us for the strength of our inner beauty and not for the attractiveness of our outer appearances.
Of the eight sons of Jesse, David was the least likely candidate to be king. Even Samuel the prophet, who was sent to do the anointing, was dumbfounded as son after handsome son was rejected by God. Samuel's problem was that he used human standards to judge who should be king.
The prophet is admonished by God for his supposition: “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look upon the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart” (16:7).
(1)
In I Samuel 17, David's heart is proved when he faces the giant Philistine, Goliath, with only a slingshot, five smooth stones and a heart beating with the unwavering belief that there is a living God in Israel. David's relationship with the living God empowered him to defeat the Philistines on his own. No king's armor or warrior's bravery were needed. Time after time, David showed courage and steadfast love for the Lord.
We also know that there were times when temptation overruled his heart, and David grieved God with his sin. Still, the scripture says that God loved David...David was a man after God's own heart (I Samuel 13:13-14).
We might think that God loved David so much because he was courageous and confident and strong...but those are human ways of judging others. No, God loved David because of his truthful and trusting heart. When David was confronted with his sin, he was broken by it. He fell on his face and asked the Lord's forgiveness. True repentance makes us beautiful in the sight of the Lord. In Psalm 51, David writes,
(6) Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
(17) The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
What else makes us beautiful in the sight of the Lord? Let's look at the parable of the Mustard Seed.
In a world that confuses size with power and price, the parable of the mustard seed (“the smallest of all seeds”--at least at that time) presents a contradiction. The mustard tree grows very large, so large birds can make their nests in its branches. How can something so large come from a seed so small? And why does the mustard seed have anything to do with having a beautiful heart?
I see this parable as an experiment in encouragement. It is a parable about trust. William Barclay wrote, “Never be daunted by small beginnings” (Barclay, The Gospel of Mark, p 110). This parable once again shows us that human criteria do not apply in the kingdom of God; God looks at the heart of the matter.
In this story, Jesus is teaching that size or relative power at the beginning of the journey does not indicate the final result. “God's mysterious power as shown by the seed's growth cycle can be compared to how the gospel works in the hearts of believers” (Life Application Bible Commentary; Mark, p 115).
No matter how small we deem the seed of faith in our hearts, God can and will make it grow, if we are but willing to build the right relationship. The right relationship is with God's son, Jesus Christ. Understanding God's truth is linked to one's relationship with Jesus. If we keep Jesus at a distance, we can only observe his love from a distance. If we get close to Jesus, we understand his love from within. Jesus' love within us makes us beautiful, inside and out.
(2)
When I read Paul's words in his letter to the Corinthians, I am captured by the beauty of his joy. He embodies the beauty and love that comes from deep relationship with Jesus Christ. He is a walking witness to the incredible change that God can effect when the Lord lives in our hearts—Paul was transformed from persecutor to peacemaker, all from a close encounter with the risen Lord on a dusty road, traveling to Damascus.
From Paul we learn that one who walks by sight sees only the visible...and what is visible is temporary. The one who walks by faith will see beyond the visible to what is invisible, permanent and eternal (Preaching Through the Christian YearB, p 309).
What are we talking about here? We are talking about looking at the world the way God looks upon the world, by examining the hearts of his people. We are talking about the Christian's dual existence: the one we live in a mortal body on earth and the one we live in Christ, through the eyes of faith and a heart filled with love.
Walking by faith and not by sight is the culmination of believing that what is visible to the mortal mind is transient and what is invisible is eternal. “The life of faith by definition transcends bodily existence as it draws its sustaining power from the risen Lord whom we know but cannot see, except with the eyes of faith” (PTTCYB, p 310). A life walked in faith makes us beautiful, inside and out.
We have examined at least three qualities that when allowed and encouraged to grow within our hearts make us beautiful, inside and out. We tend to think that we are stuck with the heart we are born with, that if it is selfish and weak from the start it will be selfish and weak at the end. If our hearts are trepidatious and vulnerable through most of our lives, we think we are too late to make an exchange for courage and strength.
This is how mortals think; it is not how God looks on us. God looks beyond the visible, beyond appearances, and sees the eternal good, the inextinguishable light that can shine from our hearts.
God gives all the growth, all the beauty the world has ever heard or seen, whether it is an angelic voice from a woman named Susan or the new eyes of faith from a man named Paul, who was blinded by the beautiful light of Jesus Christ.
And what have we learned about being beautiful? We have learned that God looks inside our hearts to judge us and not upon our outward appearances; we have learned that we are to trust in small beginnings, for in God's hands they shall bring inspirational results; and we have learned that to walk by faith and not by sight reveals the promised hope that lies beyond this world; the invisible eternal, heaven's home, the kingdom of God.
David was small, young and ruddy looking, yet God could see the light in his heart and that light shone on his face, in his eyes, throughout his life.
Mustard trees were considered a nuisance, yet they demonstrate the promise that large, heavenly benefits can come from small, earthly beginnings.
Faith gives us vision beyond the visible to the invisible, beyond what is temporary to what is eternal.
The ways of God are loving and beautiful; Jesus came to earth to teach us about God, and how to be loving and beautiful, too.
Go ahead and dream the dream; the more we allow God to grow in our hearts through developing a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ, the more beautiful we become, inside and out. Amen.
June 14, 2009
First Parish Federated Church, South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
GOOD NEWS: God knows who we truly are because he looks inside our hearts and not on our outward appearance.
MESSAGE: Grow in your relationship with God, through his son, Jesus Christ, and you will become a more beautiful person inside and out.
She sang, “I Dreamed a Dream,” and a frizzy-haired 47-year-old Scottish woman, named Susan Boyle, knocked the world off its axis. With over 11m hits on YouTube, this plain-faced, , bushy-eye-browed woman is living proof that the old adage is true, you cannot judge a book by its cover.
For the three judges and millions of witnesses, the heavenly sound that came out of Susan's mouth could only have come from the heart and soul of an angel. No one on either side of the Atlantic Ocean would ever have imagined the beautiful voice tucked away inside this odd-mannered woman. Today, she is living proof of “Fronti nulla fides,” which translates, “never have faith in the front” (Juvenal, Satires II, 8). And what we have learned about Susan since that night is that regardless of the strength and beauty of her voice, she is just as vulnerable to exhaustion, mood swings and fear as the rest of us.
The Good News for us is that God looks upon our hearts and not on our outward appearances when he considers who we really are. God never judges us by our packaging. God never keeps faith in the front we present to the world. No amount of beauty or brawn can hide our true hearts from God. We may be able to fool others about who we are, but we will never fool the Lord.
So, instead of trying to be perfect on the outside, why not explore how to be beautiful on the inside? Each scripture today can speak in its own way to this idea. The more we allow God to grow in our hearts, the more we walk by faith and not by sight, the more beautiful we will become on the inside; and a beautiful person on the inside radiates beauty on the outside.
Among many truths, one message today's scriptures reveal is this one: As we grow in our relationship with God, through faith in his son, Jesus Christ, we will become more beautiful, inside and out.
The anointing of the young and ruddy shepherd boy, David, as future King of Israel, demonstrates not only that God knows what is in our hearts, but also that God chooses us for the strength of our inner beauty and not for the attractiveness of our outer appearances.
Of the eight sons of Jesse, David was the least likely candidate to be king. Even Samuel the prophet, who was sent to do the anointing, was dumbfounded as son after handsome son was rejected by God. Samuel's problem was that he used human standards to judge who should be king.
The prophet is admonished by God for his supposition: “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look upon the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart” (16:7).
(1)
In I Samuel 17, David's heart is proved when he faces the giant Philistine, Goliath, with only a slingshot, five smooth stones and a heart beating with the unwavering belief that there is a living God in Israel. David's relationship with the living God empowered him to defeat the Philistines on his own. No king's armor or warrior's bravery were needed. Time after time, David showed courage and steadfast love for the Lord.
We also know that there were times when temptation overruled his heart, and David grieved God with his sin. Still, the scripture says that God loved David...David was a man after God's own heart (I Samuel 13:13-14).
We might think that God loved David so much because he was courageous and confident and strong...but those are human ways of judging others. No, God loved David because of his truthful and trusting heart. When David was confronted with his sin, he was broken by it. He fell on his face and asked the Lord's forgiveness. True repentance makes us beautiful in the sight of the Lord. In Psalm 51, David writes,
(6) Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
(17) The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
What else makes us beautiful in the sight of the Lord? Let's look at the parable of the Mustard Seed.
In a world that confuses size with power and price, the parable of the mustard seed (“the smallest of all seeds”--at least at that time) presents a contradiction. The mustard tree grows very large, so large birds can make their nests in its branches. How can something so large come from a seed so small? And why does the mustard seed have anything to do with having a beautiful heart?
I see this parable as an experiment in encouragement. It is a parable about trust. William Barclay wrote, “Never be daunted by small beginnings” (Barclay, The Gospel of Mark, p 110). This parable once again shows us that human criteria do not apply in the kingdom of God; God looks at the heart of the matter.
In this story, Jesus is teaching that size or relative power at the beginning of the journey does not indicate the final result. “God's mysterious power as shown by the seed's growth cycle can be compared to how the gospel works in the hearts of believers” (Life Application Bible Commentary; Mark, p 115).
No matter how small we deem the seed of faith in our hearts, God can and will make it grow, if we are but willing to build the right relationship. The right relationship is with God's son, Jesus Christ. Understanding God's truth is linked to one's relationship with Jesus. If we keep Jesus at a distance, we can only observe his love from a distance. If we get close to Jesus, we understand his love from within. Jesus' love within us makes us beautiful, inside and out.
(2)
When I read Paul's words in his letter to the Corinthians, I am captured by the beauty of his joy. He embodies the beauty and love that comes from deep relationship with Jesus Christ. He is a walking witness to the incredible change that God can effect when the Lord lives in our hearts—Paul was transformed from persecutor to peacemaker, all from a close encounter with the risen Lord on a dusty road, traveling to Damascus.
From Paul we learn that one who walks by sight sees only the visible...and what is visible is temporary. The one who walks by faith will see beyond the visible to what is invisible, permanent and eternal (Preaching Through the Christian YearB, p 309).
What are we talking about here? We are talking about looking at the world the way God looks upon the world, by examining the hearts of his people. We are talking about the Christian's dual existence: the one we live in a mortal body on earth and the one we live in Christ, through the eyes of faith and a heart filled with love.
Walking by faith and not by sight is the culmination of believing that what is visible to the mortal mind is transient and what is invisible is eternal. “The life of faith by definition transcends bodily existence as it draws its sustaining power from the risen Lord whom we know but cannot see, except with the eyes of faith” (PTTCYB, p 310). A life walked in faith makes us beautiful, inside and out.
We have examined at least three qualities that when allowed and encouraged to grow within our hearts make us beautiful, inside and out. We tend to think that we are stuck with the heart we are born with, that if it is selfish and weak from the start it will be selfish and weak at the end. If our hearts are trepidatious and vulnerable through most of our lives, we think we are too late to make an exchange for courage and strength.
This is how mortals think; it is not how God looks on us. God looks beyond the visible, beyond appearances, and sees the eternal good, the inextinguishable light that can shine from our hearts.
God gives all the growth, all the beauty the world has ever heard or seen, whether it is an angelic voice from a woman named Susan or the new eyes of faith from a man named Paul, who was blinded by the beautiful light of Jesus Christ.
And what have we learned about being beautiful? We have learned that God looks inside our hearts to judge us and not upon our outward appearances; we have learned that we are to trust in small beginnings, for in God's hands they shall bring inspirational results; and we have learned that to walk by faith and not by sight reveals the promised hope that lies beyond this world; the invisible eternal, heaven's home, the kingdom of God.
David was small, young and ruddy looking, yet God could see the light in his heart and that light shone on his face, in his eyes, throughout his life.
Mustard trees were considered a nuisance, yet they demonstrate the promise that large, heavenly benefits can come from small, earthly beginnings.
Faith gives us vision beyond the visible to the invisible, beyond what is temporary to what is eternal.
The ways of God are loving and beautiful; Jesus came to earth to teach us about God, and how to be loving and beautiful, too.
Go ahead and dream the dream; the more we allow God to grow in our hearts through developing a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ, the more beautiful we become, inside and out. Amen.
June 14, 2009
First Parish Federated Church, South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
May 25, 2009
A NEW PLOT IN LIFE
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Good News: Every one of us is important to Jesus.
There is a story quoted in baseball circles about Earl Weaver (when he was manager of the Baltimore Orioles) and his experience with a born-again outfielder named Pat Kelly. As the story goes, Kelly is said to have told Weaver he had learned to walk with God, to which Weaver is reported to have replied, “I’d rather have you walk with the bases loaded.” The Christian walk is incomprehensible to those who are not motivated by Christ.
Trouble in the Bible
For the apostles, the bases might have been loaded, yet there was still an empty spot on the roster—they had eleven men instead of 12, the number Jesus had originally chosen. They figured they needed to get their numbers back up to twelve. Twelve is an important number in the Bible: 12 sons of Jacob, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 disciples of Jesus, and the 12 thrones in heaven. Eleven would never work.
Yet, 120 people were smooshed into this “upper room.” How were they to choose one person from that number to replace Judas? Who was qualified? Who would do it? I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I would want to be known as the one who replaced the guy who betrayed the Savior of the world to the Romans. We all know what happened to him in the place affectionately known as “Murder Meadow.”
Time between Jesus’ ascension and Pentecost was 10 days. Two hundred forty hours of living like sardines and watching each other grow old called for a desperate act—the formation of a church nominating committee and a church election. . It seemed a good idea to hold a committee meeting, as any church would do, while they awaited further instruction from Jesus. They had not heard the prophecy that “God so loved the world that he didn’t send a committee.”
Trouble in the World
We often have a difficult time dealing with waiting. When we don’t see something happening, we assume nothing is happening. Perhaps we even feel that Jesus is ignoring us or has forgotten us, that we are not important to him. This concept is one idea we must never believe. Each one of us is as important to Jesus as if we were the only person on earth.
Jesus is at work in our lives all the time, but silence and/or perceived inaction makes us very antsy. If the wait becomes unbearable, we may wander into the territory of thinking He is telling us one thing because that is what we want to or expect to hear, Sometimes we choose to hear the safe thing, which soothes our nerves but does little to witness to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
A middle-aged farmer who had been desiring for years to be an evangelist was out working in the field one day when he decided to rest under a tree. As he looked into the sky he saw that the clouds seemed to form into the letters P and C. Immediately he jumped up, sold his farm, and went out to P-reach C-hrist, which he felt was God’s leading. Unfortunately, he was a horrible preacher. After one of his sermons, a neighbor came forward and whispered in his ear, “are you sure God wasn’t just trying to tell you to P-lant C-orn?
Jesus had the farmer right where he wanted him, planting corn. Yet, the farmer seemed to think that planting corn was not important enough so he sold the field of purpose for a field of dreams. He did not know how important he already was to Jesus. He did not recognize that he already had all the gifts he needed to serve Jesus. He was a planter and a harvester for the Lord, not a preacher. No one job in the kingdom is more important than another. No one job in the church is more important than another, but all jobs, gifts, pursuits in a church are to witness to the Resurrection.
If churches today used this criterion for planning its future, what are we doing today as a church today that we might keep doing and what might we eliminate from our pursuits? Each one of us is important to Jesus and each one of us has an important role to pursue in his church.
God’s Grace in the Bible
The gifts to be an apostle were already gathered in that upper room. Peter listed the requirements: (1) The new apostle must believe in the resurrection, for the resurrection is the one thing that defines Christianity from all other religions. (2) The new apostle must know Jesus as a result of living with Jesus. (3) The new apostle, in traveling all the days with Jesus and the other eleven, must be able to work with the remaining apostles.
By these requirements, two names came to mind: Joseph/Barsabas/Justus and Matthias. Matthias was chosen, but I want you to notice HOW he was chosen. Matthias met the proper requirements of an apostle, but requirements were not enough. Something more was needed. In fact, two more steps were necessary before Matthias would be confirmed to his new position.
The next steps in the process included (1) Prayer. “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of the two YOU have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place” (Acts 1:25); and (2) casting lots to determine which man would become number 12. Matthias, of course, “won.”
Very, very little is known of Matthias, and even less exists to testify to his work. His physical gospel has been lost, but we do have a few of his quotations preserved in the works of Clement of Alexandria.
“We must combat our flesh, set no value upon it, and concede to it nothing that can flatter it, but rather increase the growth of our soul by faith and knowledge.”
Is Matthias not testifying to the supreme importance of the Christian’s heart and soul? A place was chosen for Matthias, but what about Barsabas?
Was Barsabas left out? How do you suppose he felt? Maybe he knew the disappointment that so many of us experience when we are turned down for the prized position we’ve worked so hard to get. In an age of terrifying unemployment rates, how does one keep going after being rejected time after time? Many are driven to near hopelessness, while others have the faith to keep going, keep searching.
God’s Grace in the World
Each one of us is important to Jesus, and each one of us has an important role to pursue in Jesus’ church, and so we must be ready for a new plot in life. This new plot is of Christ’s own choosing. We make ourselves ready for the journey by preparing our hearts and souls through faith and knowledge of our Lord and Savior.
None of us knows enough about Jesus, yet he knows everything about us. Why does he bother to know everything about us? The answer is so simple, because each of us is important to him—he wants to know everything about us; and because he knows everything about us—he knows our hearts—he will choose the best P-lot in life for us, Whether that plot includes preaching Christ or planting corn, He has a place for us.
If we are uncertain about which direction to go, we can pray as the apostles prayed: “Lord, you know my heart. Show me the path you have chosen for me to take in this ministry.”
That’s a scary prayer for many folks, and fear is a reason we miss out on so much of life that God wants to show us. We want to be careful what we pray for because we just might get it! What if we get a sign to go somewhere or do something we don’t feel we are ready for? Then what are we supposed to do?
Two words: GET READY! You see, the thing about Barsabas is that even though he was not chosen this time to fill the twelfth spot, he was READY to do so. He knew that Jesus had a role for him to play in his resurrection witnessing. He knew he was just as important to Jesus as any of the other 120 folks in the upper room; he knew he was just as important as any of the eleven, and he knew he was just as important as Matthias. He may not have been given the title of “apostle,” yet, He kept himself ready to serve the resurrected Lord. We can take from the experience of being “not chosen this time” that we must always keep ourselves ready to do what Jesus needs us to do.
Friends, we do not get our importance from fancy titles; we are already important. Our titles may inform others of what role we play in the church, but they do not confer any special powers or privileges. They do not give us worth; we are already worthy.
· We do not need to be called a missionary in order to witness and show hospitality to strangers.
· We do not have to be a trustee to care for the facility.
· We do not need to be a choir member to sing a new song.
· We do not need to be a preacher to tell somebody about how good the Lord is, and that the He loves us for all time.
· We do not have to be an usher to welcome somebody into the house of God.
· You do not have to be on the Christian Ed Committee to teach someone about Jesus and his love for us.
· You do not have to be a deacon to show compassion and loving concern to others.
Rather than seeking a title or special position, I think it is better for us to understand ourselves as Jesus does: a person so important to him that he would go to the cross, die and be resurrected for us, even if we were the only person on earth.
When we leave here today, we can go out and walk with the bases loaded, or we can go out and walk with Jesus. The difference in the walks is mighty. With the first you score five runs, maybe slap a few hands as you round the bases and stamp your foot on home plate. With the second, you’re found ready and willing to hit it out of the park. People are instantly on their feet—are they cheering for you? Oh, no! They’re praising the Lord because you have testified to his power at work in you. That power is offered to all who are ready to step up to bat.
Those who step up to bat are given titles, but they do not mean very much in the world today. They offer no privilege, no power, no entitlement. Yet, in the church, in our faith, they mean the world to us:
· Jesus has titled us “Witness”: And you shall be my witnesses… (Luke 24:48)
· Jesus has titled us “Friend”: And I have called you friends… (John 15:15)
· And God has titled us “Beloved”: “You are my Beloved…” (Luke 3:21-22)
Beloved, let us love one another; let us discover how important we are to Jesus and express it to others, that they, too, may be given a new plot in life, a life built on Jesus Christ, for this is the true calling and purpose of the Church. Amen.
May 24, 2009
The First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Good News: Every one of us is important to Jesus.
There is a story quoted in baseball circles about Earl Weaver (when he was manager of the Baltimore Orioles) and his experience with a born-again outfielder named Pat Kelly. As the story goes, Kelly is said to have told Weaver he had learned to walk with God, to which Weaver is reported to have replied, “I’d rather have you walk with the bases loaded.” The Christian walk is incomprehensible to those who are not motivated by Christ.
Trouble in the Bible
For the apostles, the bases might have been loaded, yet there was still an empty spot on the roster—they had eleven men instead of 12, the number Jesus had originally chosen. They figured they needed to get their numbers back up to twelve. Twelve is an important number in the Bible: 12 sons of Jacob, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 disciples of Jesus, and the 12 thrones in heaven. Eleven would never work.
Yet, 120 people were smooshed into this “upper room.” How were they to choose one person from that number to replace Judas? Who was qualified? Who would do it? I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I would want to be known as the one who replaced the guy who betrayed the Savior of the world to the Romans. We all know what happened to him in the place affectionately known as “Murder Meadow.”
Time between Jesus’ ascension and Pentecost was 10 days. Two hundred forty hours of living like sardines and watching each other grow old called for a desperate act—the formation of a church nominating committee and a church election. . It seemed a good idea to hold a committee meeting, as any church would do, while they awaited further instruction from Jesus. They had not heard the prophecy that “God so loved the world that he didn’t send a committee.”
Trouble in the World
We often have a difficult time dealing with waiting. When we don’t see something happening, we assume nothing is happening. Perhaps we even feel that Jesus is ignoring us or has forgotten us, that we are not important to him. This concept is one idea we must never believe. Each one of us is as important to Jesus as if we were the only person on earth.
Jesus is at work in our lives all the time, but silence and/or perceived inaction makes us very antsy. If the wait becomes unbearable, we may wander into the territory of thinking He is telling us one thing because that is what we want to or expect to hear, Sometimes we choose to hear the safe thing, which soothes our nerves but does little to witness to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
A middle-aged farmer who had been desiring for years to be an evangelist was out working in the field one day when he decided to rest under a tree. As he looked into the sky he saw that the clouds seemed to form into the letters P and C. Immediately he jumped up, sold his farm, and went out to P-reach C-hrist, which he felt was God’s leading. Unfortunately, he was a horrible preacher. After one of his sermons, a neighbor came forward and whispered in his ear, “are you sure God wasn’t just trying to tell you to P-lant C-orn?
Jesus had the farmer right where he wanted him, planting corn. Yet, the farmer seemed to think that planting corn was not important enough so he sold the field of purpose for a field of dreams. He did not know how important he already was to Jesus. He did not recognize that he already had all the gifts he needed to serve Jesus. He was a planter and a harvester for the Lord, not a preacher. No one job in the kingdom is more important than another. No one job in the church is more important than another, but all jobs, gifts, pursuits in a church are to witness to the Resurrection.
If churches today used this criterion for planning its future, what are we doing today as a church today that we might keep doing and what might we eliminate from our pursuits? Each one of us is important to Jesus and each one of us has an important role to pursue in his church.
God’s Grace in the Bible
The gifts to be an apostle were already gathered in that upper room. Peter listed the requirements: (1) The new apostle must believe in the resurrection, for the resurrection is the one thing that defines Christianity from all other religions. (2) The new apostle must know Jesus as a result of living with Jesus. (3) The new apostle, in traveling all the days with Jesus and the other eleven, must be able to work with the remaining apostles.
By these requirements, two names came to mind: Joseph/Barsabas/Justus and Matthias. Matthias was chosen, but I want you to notice HOW he was chosen. Matthias met the proper requirements of an apostle, but requirements were not enough. Something more was needed. In fact, two more steps were necessary before Matthias would be confirmed to his new position.
The next steps in the process included (1) Prayer. “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of the two YOU have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place” (Acts 1:25); and (2) casting lots to determine which man would become number 12. Matthias, of course, “won.”
Very, very little is known of Matthias, and even less exists to testify to his work. His physical gospel has been lost, but we do have a few of his quotations preserved in the works of Clement of Alexandria.
“We must combat our flesh, set no value upon it, and concede to it nothing that can flatter it, but rather increase the growth of our soul by faith and knowledge.”
Is Matthias not testifying to the supreme importance of the Christian’s heart and soul? A place was chosen for Matthias, but what about Barsabas?
Was Barsabas left out? How do you suppose he felt? Maybe he knew the disappointment that so many of us experience when we are turned down for the prized position we’ve worked so hard to get. In an age of terrifying unemployment rates, how does one keep going after being rejected time after time? Many are driven to near hopelessness, while others have the faith to keep going, keep searching.
God’s Grace in the World
Each one of us is important to Jesus, and each one of us has an important role to pursue in Jesus’ church, and so we must be ready for a new plot in life. This new plot is of Christ’s own choosing. We make ourselves ready for the journey by preparing our hearts and souls through faith and knowledge of our Lord and Savior.
None of us knows enough about Jesus, yet he knows everything about us. Why does he bother to know everything about us? The answer is so simple, because each of us is important to him—he wants to know everything about us; and because he knows everything about us—he knows our hearts—he will choose the best P-lot in life for us, Whether that plot includes preaching Christ or planting corn, He has a place for us.
If we are uncertain about which direction to go, we can pray as the apostles prayed: “Lord, you know my heart. Show me the path you have chosen for me to take in this ministry.”
That’s a scary prayer for many folks, and fear is a reason we miss out on so much of life that God wants to show us. We want to be careful what we pray for because we just might get it! What if we get a sign to go somewhere or do something we don’t feel we are ready for? Then what are we supposed to do?
Two words: GET READY! You see, the thing about Barsabas is that even though he was not chosen this time to fill the twelfth spot, he was READY to do so. He knew that Jesus had a role for him to play in his resurrection witnessing. He knew he was just as important to Jesus as any of the other 120 folks in the upper room; he knew he was just as important as any of the eleven, and he knew he was just as important as Matthias. He may not have been given the title of “apostle,” yet, He kept himself ready to serve the resurrected Lord. We can take from the experience of being “not chosen this time” that we must always keep ourselves ready to do what Jesus needs us to do.
Friends, we do not get our importance from fancy titles; we are already important. Our titles may inform others of what role we play in the church, but they do not confer any special powers or privileges. They do not give us worth; we are already worthy.
· We do not need to be called a missionary in order to witness and show hospitality to strangers.
· We do not have to be a trustee to care for the facility.
· We do not need to be a choir member to sing a new song.
· We do not need to be a preacher to tell somebody about how good the Lord is, and that the He loves us for all time.
· We do not have to be an usher to welcome somebody into the house of God.
· You do not have to be on the Christian Ed Committee to teach someone about Jesus and his love for us.
· You do not have to be a deacon to show compassion and loving concern to others.
Rather than seeking a title or special position, I think it is better for us to understand ourselves as Jesus does: a person so important to him that he would go to the cross, die and be resurrected for us, even if we were the only person on earth.
When we leave here today, we can go out and walk with the bases loaded, or we can go out and walk with Jesus. The difference in the walks is mighty. With the first you score five runs, maybe slap a few hands as you round the bases and stamp your foot on home plate. With the second, you’re found ready and willing to hit it out of the park. People are instantly on their feet—are they cheering for you? Oh, no! They’re praising the Lord because you have testified to his power at work in you. That power is offered to all who are ready to step up to bat.
Those who step up to bat are given titles, but they do not mean very much in the world today. They offer no privilege, no power, no entitlement. Yet, in the church, in our faith, they mean the world to us:
· Jesus has titled us “Witness”: And you shall be my witnesses… (Luke 24:48)
· Jesus has titled us “Friend”: And I have called you friends… (John 15:15)
· And God has titled us “Beloved”: “You are my Beloved…” (Luke 3:21-22)
Beloved, let us love one another; let us discover how important we are to Jesus and express it to others, that they, too, may be given a new plot in life, a life built on Jesus Christ, for this is the true calling and purpose of the Church. Amen.
May 24, 2009
The First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise
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