Christ the King, Christ the Crucified

CHRIST THE KING, CHRIST THE CRUCIFIED                                                                                             

Jeremiah 23:1-6; Luke 23:33-43

“Today you will be with  me in paradise.”

It’s puzzling and perhaps somewhat disturbing, isn’t it, to be celebrating Christ the King yet studying Christ the Crucified on the same Sunday? How can we do both? How can Christ be both? Maybe we are being challenged to accept that both Christs are necessary to know that Christ, and Christ alone, is the reason for our hope and the promise of our salvation. Both King and Crucified are not to be separated.

It is understandable that we tend to separate Christ the King and Christ the Crucified because that’s how we study the life of the Lord—and the human brain likes to compartmentalize. Sunday by Sunday we move through the scriptures: we hear readings from an Old Testament text and a New Testament one.

We approach the scriptures this way for the gift of fullness—both texts are related to each other—though it can be quite unclear how they complement one another. The parts are put together on each Sunday to shed whole light on God’s testimony of truth.

Who is this Jesus? Who is this Christ? I do not think there are enough words in any language to give us a complete compilation and comprehension of just who our Savior is. Let’s look at these two texts together and collect our common thoughts of what we do know about him.

In Christ the King, we have a king

·       who is crucified;

·       Who forgives even the very people who nailed him to the cross;

·       Who, while hanging on his cross, grants salvation to a criminal nailed to a cross next to him;

·       Who brings a criminal into Paradise with him rather than banishes him from heaven;

·       Who stands in solidarity with us amid our suffering;

In Christ the Crucified, we find that

·       The cross of Christ is not just about Jesus’ death.

·       The death of Jesus was a death that speaks volumes against evil.

·       Like the criminal, we may receive salvation even before we die.

·       Our Savior sees our suffering.

·       Our Savior is willing to hang with us in our suffering.

·       Our Savior understands our suffering and seeks to redeem it.

As I said, the texts do complement each other. Jeremiah also gives us an understanding of what God does—and who we are called to be in his Son’s name. We are

·       not to scatter nor destroy the sheep of God’s pasture;

·       not to drive God’s people away from God;

·       to attend to them and their needs, for we are the hands and feet and voices of the Son;

·       to gather the scattered remnant and bring them into the fold, which is the Church;

·       to encourage the ostracized and oppressed to become faithful and fruitful;

·       to become like shepherds and guide the flock, go looking for the lost ones, to heal their woundedness, and share the hope we have even when evil is done to them;

·       to lead the way out of fear & dismay by faith in Christ the King and Christ the Crucified.

Earlier this month, the great musician and composer, Leonard Cohen, died. He composed the amazing song, “Hallelujah.”  Mr Cohen clearly had a deep understanding of life and love. He said, “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

We all have cracks in us, don’t we? The cracks in our personal lives—as well as our life together as Church—we bring many names: weakness, character deficiency, vulnerability, sinfulness, selfishness, apathy, let’s begin to think of those “cracks” all of us have as the very same places where the light of Christ wants to and can shine in, if only we were open to it.

Listen to what can happen in our lives and, more importantly, the ways our world can get off the cross if we know Christ the King and Christ the Crucified: If we admit to the cracks in us rather than keep them a secret, then we can ask Christ’s Light to shine through those very places.

When we allow ourselves such exposure not only will others be healed and helped, so will we. As members of Christ’s body, as members of his Church, we share the grace of Christ the King and Christ the Crucified.

We belong to Christ, who is King and Crucified, and his passion mission in our ministry is to:

• Shed light on all that justifies and validates hatred and violence so we can expose evil for what it is;

• Shed light on those who have been ignored, overlooked and silenced; and

·       stop pretending ignorance is acceptable, that prejudice is acceptable; that war is acceptable.

Don’t be afraid! Let’s look for the cracks in us and around us; these all are places where the light of Jesus Christ longs to come in. It is the world’s brokenness that Christ the King grants the promises of his amazing grace. It is in the world’s great suffering that Christ the Crucified suffers with us in solidarity because he loves us.

This is how Christ is King and Crucified at the same time: he knows what it is like to be broken, beaten, betrayed, accused; he desires to stand in suffering and in solidarity with us. for his name’s sake. That’s when Christ shines his light of love, forgiveness, mercy and peace, and he is King.

When Christ walks with us every step of this hard-won way, he is Christ the Crucified. Christ can do both roles at the same time. He can do anything and everything. Is it any wonder that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Light of the World?

Let’s carry this light, for this light is salvation: it belongs to Christ the King, Christ the Crucified…and Christ, our Everything. Amen.

November 20, 2016

Croydon Congregational Church, UCC

The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

Cake on My Pillow

I Kings 19:4-8; John 6:35, 41-51

“And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water.”

Dorothy had her wicked witch; Narnia had its White Witch; Snow White had her wicked queen; Alice in Wonderland had the Queen of Hearts. And Elijah, well, he had his own wicked queen, and her name was Jezebel!

When Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done basically killing all of her beloved prophets of Baal, she vowed to take Elijah’s life in the same “sworded” way…and she intended to do it within the next 24 hours. When Elijah heard this news, he arose and ran for his life.

My, my; things were NOT looking good for Elijah! He’s a man on the run, hiding out in the wilderness, collapsing under a lone broom tree, and begging the Lord to take his life, “I’ve had enough, Lord!”

Elijah has worked his heart out, run his buns off, prayed for rain to come to Israel after 3 years of drought—which it did—and he has killed hundreds and hundreds of false prophets—this should be an accomplished man! He had been zealous for the Lord, he wanted to reunite Israel with Yahweh. Elijah should have been ecstatic! Yet, he wanted to die, right there on the spot.

Under that broom tree, however, is one lonely, famished, discouraged, depressed man. He is definitely in his “alone place.” Think of a time when you were in your “alone place.” Just look around, as Elijah must have done, and what do you see? Nothing but barrenness; loneliness; a deep sense of forsakenness—that’s what it feels like to us under the broom tree, and surely that’s what it must have felt like to Elijah in that place, too.

How many of us have arrived at a place of depletion—physical, emotional, spiritual—where we’ve “had enough?” Certain times in our lives, we just want to scream, “I’ve had it!” “No more!” “I can’t take it anymore!” Not a fun place to be, is it?

So, friends, now you know how Elijah felt. If he were a baseball player sliding into home base just under the catcher’s glove, Elijah could not have come in any harder or faster under that solitary broom tree in the desert. Exhausted, despairing, defeated, the broken prophet prayed, “It is enough, now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” (I Kings 19:4b).

Perhaps Elijah had hoped that the events on Mount Carmel would change Ahab and Jezebel and the leadership of Israel so they would worship God instead of those fatally false fools of Baal.

But that’s not what happened. All Jezebel saw was red—red fury, red hunger and the red blood of Elijah spilled all over the ground by her very own hand.  [She was not a fan.] No wonder Elijah asked that he might die; he’d never felt so frightened, so depleted, so alone in his life.

Elijah was frightened; he was depleted, but he was not alone. There’s someone else there, under that broom tree; can you guess who it is? Yes; it’s God, God is there, in Elijah’s alone place.

How do we know God is there, under the broom tree, in that alone place? We know because . . . there’s cake on Elijah’s pillow.

The first sign of God’s presence is God’s provision for Elijah’s physical needs: rest and replenishment. God is aware we need these things and wants us to have them. “Sometimes the most spiritual thing a person can do is get enough rest and replenishment” (www.enduringword.com /commentaries/1119.htm); Elijah lays down his burden, his whole body, and God takes care of the rest—literally.

“Suddenly, an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again” (vv 5-6). These are not small needs!

Any old bread might have been provided, but God brings bread that’s still warm from the hot stones; and who doesn’t love the aroma and warm taste of fresh-baked bread?

The angel touches Elijah during his second sleep; “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you” (v 7). There’s more cake on his pillow, more water in his jar, and more strength for the journey ahead. The Lord knows Elijah needs strength because he’s about to travel 200 miles over 40 days to Mt Sinai where God revealed himself to Moses, where God will reveal himself to Elijah.

God provided food and water and strength for Elijah’s journey, and God continues to provide for all his people. Maybe you haven’t woken up recently with cake on your pillow, but maybe you’ve experienced a situation that you thought was a lost cause, yet it’s been worked through. Can you see in that place that you were not, after all, alone? God shows up, friends. How do we know?

We know because God sent his son Jesus to be for us the Bread of Life. In our New Testament passage from John, Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35), and that’s an awesome, amazing promise that no one else ever has or ever will make.

But don’t place a period where God has spoken a comma—Jesus isn’t finished yet! He reminds the people, “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. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51). Nothing less will give us the strength we need for the journey.

Donald Trump has his money; Dentist Walter Palmer has his blood trophy; American Pharoah has his Triple Crown, and the world has its seven wonders, yet none of those things is comparable in the least to the Good News, the Good Food, we have today.

We have Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life. He is the bread (or cake) that comes down from heaven, so that we may eat of it and not die” (John 6:50).

How great is our God?! God provides for his people in all times and places—Adam had his garden, Noah had his ark, Elijah had his broom tree—and we have our Savior.

Let us believe in him fully, call on his strength for our journey, and receive the full and fulfilling promise for which he died: eternal life, with him, with God, in heaven. Enough said! Amen.

August 9, 2015

Woodfords Congregational Church, Portland, ME

The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Guest Preacher

WHY LISTEN TO HIM?

WHY LISTEN TO HIM?

John 10:11-21

Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why listen to him?”

There are five years between my brother Stephen and me; there are seven years between my brother Robert and me: Five years is a significant distance between siblings, but not as long as seven. Seven years between the oldest child and the youngest leads to some confusion in the youngest child: He thinks he has three parents.

Rob would ask my mother if he could, say have a cookie, and if she said no, Rob would go to my father and ask if he could have a cookie. If my father said no, Rob was not out of options; he came to me to get permission to have a cookie and, of course, I said yes. That way he could have a cookie, and I could have one, too! We had a good thing going, until the parents caught on.

No matter how many times Jesus tried to teach the Pharisees the correct order of authority in God’s family, they either did not get it or would not allow it. They wanted to be in charge. They liked the power; they wanted the authority over the people. When Jesus challenged their authority, showed them how and where they had misinterpreted God’s law to their own benefit rather than that of the people, they didn’t like it one bit.

They fought Jesus on an intellectual level, and when that did not work out, they got mean. They plotted to kill Jesus. They could not do it themselves; and they dared not ask the people to do it for them, because their evil ways would be exposed. So they found a scapegoat in Judas, and he was happy to do their dirty work; thirty pieces of silver would certainly buy him a lot of cookies! And we all know how that turned out, don’t we?

If we are with Jesus, instead of against him, then we need to understand that Jesus has authority over our lives, and his authority comes from God; it’s not anything that we give him. To know the Good Shepherd is to know that we are helpless sheep who have gone astray, and without Jesus in our lives, we will die.

The society in which Jesus preached and healed, taught and comforted, was an agricultural one. The people knew about sheep. So when Jesus introduced himself to them as the Good Shepherd, they were familiar with the job of a shepherd.

Jesus takes this knowledge they have of a shepherd’s physical job and leads them to a higher understanding of the spiritual work and protection that only the Good Shepherd can give.

Though there is a multitude of truth to pursue in this passage about the Good Shepherd, I want to spend this time with you this morning looking at just one:  the Good Shepherd is willing to die for the sheep [vv 11-13].

A shepherd will put his life on the line to protect his sheep, and he hopes that he will not die in the process. Sheep are very vulnerable animals; wild predators are everywhere: waiting, watching, thirsty for blood and hungry for flesh, always ready to take the life of a sheep and feast on death. There is no thought, no concern, no love for the enemy here. There is life; there is death; and nothing can change that.

The Good Shepherd, Jesus, goes way beyond physically protecting his sheep. He is not only willing to die for his sheep, he went to the cross to die in our place. He laid down his life for us, his sheep, because we are mortally and morally vulnerable to the forces of evil present in our world today.  

We may deceive ourselves into thinking we are not vulnerable to these predators, but that would be a deadly mistake. Scripture tells us that there is a very real force of evil in the world, and it is very personal…it knows your name, your social security number, and even your password on your computer.

For instance, in Chapter 5 of First Peter, the apostle warns us to “be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers [and sisters] throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of suffering.”

There are spiritual predators everywhere: waiting, watching, thirsty for sin and hungry for souls, always delighting to rip us away from the Good Shepherd. C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters shows us the insidious, disastrous, destructive mayhem that evil can cause.

“So long as we live in a world struggling under sin, Satan will still struggle for our mind. Jesus protects us by reminding us of truth—truth that nothing will shake us from Christ’s grip….Jesus protects us from evil’s combat for our [souls] by instilling truth in us, body, mind, and soul, so that we will ultimately not be deceived.”[1]

There’s a popular Christian colloquialism that says, “If you have trouble sleeping, don’t count sheep, talk to the shepherd.” It’s cute, it has its place, but there’s something with far more depth that will remind us of how amazing, strong, wonderful, fierce and protective our Good Shepherd is. We know it as Psalm 23. Let’s say it together (bible p ____).

The Pharisees tried to discount Jesus, our Good Shepherd, at every turn. At the end of the passage, we read, “The Jews who heard these words were again divided. Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?” 21 But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

No! A demon can do no such thing, but the Good Shepherd can not only open the eyes of the blind, but he can open the ears of the deaf, the mouths of the mute, and the hearts of sheep who recognize his voice, follow him beside still waters, lie down in green pastures, and are led in paths of righteousness for his name’s sakes.

How life-giving it is to know that our shepherd, the Good Shepherd, will supply our need so that one day, someday, we too shall dwell in the house of the Lord, forever. I cannot think of any better reason to listen to him!

Amen.

April 26, 2015

First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME

The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

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[1][1] Smith, Rev Russell B. “A Sheep’s Life: A Sermon on John 10:1-21.” IIIM Magazine Online, Volume 4,, Number 2, January 14 to January 20, 2002. www.thirdmill.org.

THE GIFT OF GENEROSITY

The Gift of Generosity

1      Timothy 6:17-19

They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

This is a sermon about generosity. You could consider it the “Stewardship Sermon”; after all, it is that time of year!  However, today’s message is about much more than the amount of money one gives to the church, to charity or to children. I feel it’s important to stretch our understanding of generosity, and what better day to do it than on the day we honor Mothers?  What better embodiment of generosity of spirit, time and finances do we have than that of our mothers? “Being truly generous is being selfless in the service of others…it's a complete giving of one's self for the sake of love of God and neighbor [and family] in every sphere of our lives.”[1]  

Generosity, for Christians, is to be a way of life, a part of one’s personality, as deeply and inseparably embedded in our spiritual makeup as is our DNA in every cell of our bodies. Generosity is one of the nine fruits of the spirit; and you can find all nine listed in Galatians 5:22. The fruits of the Spirit are the qualities that bring us closer to the person God creates each one of us to be. I also believe that most mothers’ hold the highest hopes and say the deepest prayers that their babies will grow into children and then into adults who live out these qualities throughout their lives.

By my way of thinking, the best chance—the highest hope and the finest opportunity—we have to ensure that our children have the ability to survive and thrive, physically and spiritually, in this chaotic, oppressive, and unchivalrous world is to baptize each tiny and precious child into Christ’s death and resurrection (as we have done with Luna today) and stick with them every small step of the way into maturity.

Baptism begins with a few drops of water caressed upon the child’s head, but there is so much more to do after the sacrament is conferred, and not to follow through with the vows we all make to teach each baptized child how to be a Christian, how to live the Christian life, is tantamount to a mother giving birth to a baby and then abandoning it without a thought as to its survival in the present, let alone its future. The chances of survival, let alone success, are less than slim to none, whether we are talking birth or baptism.

Paul’s words to his protégé Timothy show us a way to pulverize those dismal odds: that way is generosity. Listen: “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. “ The mature in their baptism—the truly faithful—are, in Paul’s words, “to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share” (v 18).

“Generosity is usually thought of in terms of material generosity, but it’s bigger than that.  Generosity is doing or giving more than necessary.  It is going above the bare minimum required to maintain civility.  It is doing more than just what is required by social standards.”[2]

That definition does not even come close to filling the bill for Christians, however. We are called to be generous because God is generous. God richly provides us with everything to enjoy—not just what we need but everything to enjoy. That’s amazing generosity. And what is even more amazing is, God desires to be generous to everyone, not because they deserve it, but because God is generous.  Said another way, mothers always love their children, not because their children always deserve it, but because they are mothers, and mothers love their children. (There are certainly times when mothers may not like their children very much, but they always love them.)

The gift of generosity, like a mother’s love, comes from spiritual power that freely and flowingly expresses “kindness towards others…it refrains from judging, it believes the best of another. It gives the other the benefit of the doubt. It seeks to see life through another’s eyes and to walk in her or his shoes.”[3] When people put up with you when you really blow it; assume the best of you after the worst has come out of you; forgive you when you behave unforgivably; recognize your shortcomings and yet look past them unless they see a chance to help you overcome them, they are giving you the gift of generosity.

That is what being spiritually generous, as opposed to begrudgingly generous, is choosing to do more than necessary because of who we are in God because of Jesus Christ and not because of what the other person deserves.  And, in living generously at all times, in all places, under all circumstances, and with all people, Paul promises that we will “store up treasure for [ourselves] as a good foundation for the future, so that we may take hold of that which is truly life” (v 19).

What is truly life? Truly life is worth taking hold of; truly life is setting up a good foundation for our future; truly life is doing good; truly life is being rich in good works; truly life is being generous and ready to share; yet, truly, since my mother died last September, I’ve worried, wrestled and wept about the significance of my life without her in it. In my worst moments, the only comfort I can find is in the truth that my mother truly lives with Jesus now, and I will see her again one day.

The sacrament of Christian baptism, like the love of a dear mother, opens us to the ultimate gift of generosity: that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. The truly life is truly in Christ; thanks be to God for the generosity of salvation: the treasure we have stored up in heaven God is using to build the foundation for our place in the truly life. Amen.

May 10, 2015

First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME

The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

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[1] Ray, Paul A. “Generosity.” January 10, 2011. www.tonguesoffire.blogspot.com

[2] Wende, Meredith. Pastor Meredith. “Fruit of the Spirit, Sermon Two: Kindness, Gentleness, Generosity.” First United Methodist Church, Wharton, TX. Sunday, August 14, 2011

[3] Hamilton, Adam. “The Secret of True Wealth.” May 12, 2013. www.cor.org

WHAT’S THE HOLY SPIRIT TO DO?

John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15; Acts 2:1-21

Prayer: Creator spirit and Giver of life, pour out your spirit upon the whole creation. Come in rushing wind and flashing fire to turn the sin and sorrow within us into faith, power and delight.[1]

“When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.”

Pentecost, the birth day of the church is not a one-time event that occurred 2000 years ago. The Holy Spirit did not disappear once the tongues of flame fizzled out, the violent winds died down, and the dialectally enhanced crowds sobered up and became confused again. Nope. The Holy Spirit was just getting started, and thanks be to God, the Holy Spirit is alive and active today.

We need the Holy Spirit not just on specials days, but every day because the Christian walk is a difficult one. We cannot travel this faith journey alone; we are not capable of saving ourselves; and most of all, the Lord from the very beginning never intended for us to be alone. Can we give God an Amen for that?

In the Holy Spirit we have an advocate, a comforter, a helper, a counselor, an intercessor and teacher. In these roles, the Holy Spirit will dwell within us; bear witness to Christ; remind us of the miracles and mysteries, the purposes and promises of our faith; and show us that we can trust God as father, God as Son, and God as Spirit, three in one and one in three.

This passage from John is part of Jesus’ farewell discourse. Before he goes to the cross, Jesus explains to his disciples that he must go away.  Their hearts are heavy with sorrow; they’re practically speechless. They cannot imagine anything that could make this situation palatable.   

This is the moment when Jesus not only introduces the Holy Spirit but also explains how the Holy Spirit will be their Helper in building the Church after Jesus ascends to the Father, when they will see him no more. What’s the Spirit to do?

1)      Prove the world wrong in its beliefs about three things(16:xx): sin—the greatest sin is not to believe in Jesus; righteousness—only the righteous will gain heaven; and judgment—we shall all be judged for the ways we have lived.

2)      Guide us into all truth (John 16:13a)—the Spirit works day and night to be a holy bridge that transverses the chasm between those who believe and those who do not (yet) believe.

3)      Declare to believers the things that are to come (John 16:13b)—the Spirit shows us that all that has gone on before is being fulfilled day by day.

4)      Glorify Jesus—the Spirit declares to us what Jesus has already told us; God’s message of love and mercy, reconciliation and redemption has never changed.

Just as the disciples needed the Holy Spirit to carry out the call to build Christ’s church, we also need the Holy Spirit in our lives. Life can be very difficult for Christians. The “world” (the unbelievers) plots against those who follow Jesus. We see every day on the news that there is persecution, angst, sadness, fear and death at the hands and on the lips of rogue nations and evil groups like ISIS and the Taliban.

They have declared war on Christians. We need strength, courage, help and comfort to face all the hardships the world can throw our way.

The Holy Spirit is the Advocate, the Helper, the Comforter, the Interpreter we need by our side and in our hearts to stay strong in a hostile world.

·         We can turn to the Counselor for help in staying the course when we feel defeated.

·         We can count on his leading us in the way of truth, especially when we feel so lost.

·         We can rely on his proclaiming only Jesus’ teachings and not false truths from phony prophets.

·         We can trust that He interprets the truth heard from Jesus correctly for life 2000 years after Christ and after Pentecost, and

·         We can dig into the scriptures because he makes the teachings of Jesus relevant to each new generation. This is what the Holy Spirit does.

Many of us have had experiences with the Holy Spirit functioning directly in our lives. Others have questions like, how will I know it’s the Holy Spirit speaking to me? What does the Holy Spirit sound like or feel like?

It’s important to ask these questions, and what I say to you right now is that if you resonate with these quandaries, then I believe the Holy Spirit is already speaking to you.

Sometimes there are no words, instead there’s an unexplainable tugging, a feeling compelled to go, to do, to say, to soothe; yet, beware: if there’s a leading to the refrigerator in the middle of the night, that’s not a tugging, that’s a temptation!

Remember the functions of the Holy Spirit are to prove, to guide, to declare and to glorify Jesus Christ. Any other errand is worldly, not heavenly.

I challenge all of us to increase our awareness of and our willingness to respond to the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives.

·         People who trust the Holy Spirit recognize his calling in their lives. They listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and they obey his leading.

·         People who experience the Holy Spirit in their lives take risks for Jesus Christ and do not hide their faith from the world. These folks find comfort when life is hard; find direction when they are lost, and find peace when everything is falling apart.

·         People who know the Holy Spirit are willing to receive from the Advocate, respond to the Helper, rejoice in the Comforter, and re-voice the promises of the Intercessor.

The gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church is something to get excited about! The Spirit arrived in the world 2000 years ago on the rush of a violent wind and appeared as tongues of fire people’s above the disciples’ heads. How we should yearn for another day like the first Pentecost!

How awesome would it be if we could hear the rush and see the wind blow in once again and renew our tired faith.

How electrifying would it be to feel and see the fire of the Spirit come alive in the Church today.

Howard Thurman, great preacher and theologian said, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. As yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

On this Pentecost Sunday, come alive with the Holy Spirit. Work with him and allow him to guide and lead, teach and proclaim the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that Christ is coming back for us someday.  

There will be no more farewells, only joyful hellos. Get fired up, be ready, and give thanks to God for this brand new day of Pentecost! Amen.

May 24, 2015

First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, Maine

The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

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[1] Huey, Kate Matthews. “Spirit for All.” Weekly Seeds @ UCC.org.

CHILD OF GOD

Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17

“All those led by God’s Spirit are God’s children.”

The passage from the gospel of John is so familiar to us, that I thought I would preach on Paul’s letter to the Romans instead. I don’t know if that frustrates you or elates you, but let’s see what happens!

The question that pops out at me from this section of Romans is this one: Do you know who you are? Perhaps you’re thinking right now, “That’s silly; why are you asking that? I know who I am, and YOU know who I am!” I would say that you’re half right. It is possible, probably probable, that I know who you are more than most of you know who you are.

How many thought of your name first? There’s something about you that is much more important than your name. It’s whose child you are: You are a child of God. “Maya Angelou once told an interviewer, ‘"When I found that I knew not only that there was God but that I was a child of God, when I understood that, when I comprehended that, more than that, when I internalized that, ingested that, I became courageous."[1] 

Can’t you just hear her saying those words, deep voice, the rhythm and pause of a poet, the wisdom of a saint, a speaker of Truth.

Paul wants the Romans—and all followers of Jesus Christ—to live up to their heritage as Children of God. Not an impersonal God have we, but a loving, interpersonal, invested, sacrificial parent who gave his only begotten Son to the world—the place of the flesh—so that all the other sons and daughters would inherit the greatest gift God has to give: eternal life. 

That’s what it says in John 3:16. Children of God should not perish, God desires that all of his children have everlasting life.

What does it mean to be a child of God? The first thing, perhaps the most important thing, is that God will forever watch over and care for you. Being a child of God is not a sometimes-on, sometimes-off relationship. No, being a child of God is being in a permanent relationship with the Almighty. You cannot leave it, even if you wanted to. God never, ever let’s go.

Paul writes of our adoption by God, but it’s not the kind of adoption with which we are familiar. In Roman society adoption gave a child the full rights of a biological child. So when the parents died, their estate was divided among all the children, biological and adopted alike. Paul’s point is that since we are children of God we are also heirs to all that God has to give.

To be a child of God also means that God knows exactly who you are—you do not have to be born again for God; you are a child of the God who knows you—inside and out, hair by hair, cell for cell, gene for gene. I wish God did not know me through and through sometimes, but that’s what repentance is for, that’s what my brother Jesus accomplished on the cross, and that’s why grace is such a gift…we do not deserve it, but God desires to grant it.

There is one Father Boyle, a Jesuit, who works with gang members in East Los Angeles. This priest has put together a team of physicians trained to use lasers to remove tattoos. The process of tattoo removal is extremely painful—they say it’s like having hot grease poured onto their skin. So why do they want it done? Why did Father Boyle call in the team of doctors?

Think about this: when a tattoo is removed from an ex-gang member, it’s like the member is having his or her slate wiped clean—they’re set free, perhaps you could even say, they are born again.

There’s nothing about going back into a mother’s womb to be born again, it’s about being transformed, receiving not a new lease on life, but a new peace in one’s life. The tattoo gives way to a birth mark—God’s mark imprinted on the heart of each person who endures the pain that it will take in order to be transformed. In Father Boyle’s mission, the young men and women receive a new identity—child of God.

One more thing about being a child of God: true freedom is knocking at your door. There’s a common retreat activity called, “Speaking Truth to Lies.”  Participants are asked to write down on index cards two or three lies about themselves that they needed to get rid of. Not lies like, My hair is blonde, or I’ve lost 30 pounds in 30 days. “These are lies we live our lives by; lies that we die little deaths by:”[2] “I don’t have a problem with alcohol or drugs.” “I grew up in a loving home”; “My marriage is fulfilling.”

These lies hold us captive when God created his children to be free, to speak truth about God and about themselves.

Friends these lies mess up our understanding of who we are. They keep us obligated to living in the flesh, according to the flesh, which means we will die for a LIE! That is about as absurd at Nicodemus trying to figure out how to be literally born again. Listen, The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirt that we are God’s children, and one by one a child of God.

Write this on your hearts! I am a child of God: God is in a permanent relationship with me; he is always watching over me. God knows me through and through, better than I know myself. If I ask for forgiveness, he will grant me grace. God gave me my true identity; his mark is already on me. I belong to God always and forever.

Child of God, God wants you to be brave in this world so that you can share his love with those who don’t yet know who they are, let alone whose they are. It’s a lightning-strike, exhilarating moment when we realize bone for bone, double-helix for double-helix that one is a child of God. When we understand that, when we comprehend that, and more than that, when we internalize that, ingest that, we, like Maya Angelou, will find courage—the courage to heal, the courage to love, the courage to “cry out, Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15b), “I am your child!

“Teach me the things of heaven that I will, in broad daylight and not under the cover of darkness, rejoice to preach the good news of John 3:16, for that’s what it truly means to be a beloved child of God! It’s so good to know who I am!” Amen.

May 31, 2015/First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME / The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

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[1] —From interview with The Times-Picayune.

[2] Duncan, King. “Do You Know Who You Are?” Dynamic Preaching April May June 2015, p 57.

THEN THE WIND CEASED

Mark 4:35-41

Then the wind ceased, and there was dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid?”

In ancient days, the people who mastered the seas controlled the world. By conquering the Mediterranean Sea, the Romans ruled not only the seas but also the continents upon them. This is one of the reasons the Romans became so powerful, so terribly powerful. We should take notice then, that the disciples in the boat with Jesus on the Sea of Galilee, men who had spent most of their lives on the open water, fishing in all kinds of weather, they are skilled sailors, yet they are overcome with fear when a storm blows up while they are sailing “across to the other side” (Mk 4:X) at Jesus’ request. While it’s only conjecture, I wonder if some of them might have been moaning, “Why did he want to cross at night! Jesus! Couldn’t he have waited till morning? Then we could at least see what was about to kill us! We might have had a fighting chance!”

This is a sermon not about having a fighting chance—it is a sermon about knowing who Jesus Christ truly is. The disciples, even after they have come through the storm, still don’t know who Jesus is! They have traveled with him, broken bread with him, witnessed water being turned into wine, shared Passover, and they had stood fast by his side and set quietly at his feet, listening, yet they were still confounded enough to ask, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Many believers and non-believers alike are still confounded today; we wonder, “Who then is this? Who is this Jesus?”

Let’s look at v 38 more closely. By what name do the disciples address Jesus? Teacher. They call him Teacher for good reason: they’ve been with him day in and day out; night in and night out. He’s teaching them about God and God’s plan for salvation that is alive in Jesus. So it is natural for them to call him, “Teacher.” However, calling Jesus “teacher” teaches us that the disciples do not know who Jesus truly is. I think that this is not a case of mistaken identity, it is a case of misunderstood identity!

If you’re in a life-threatening storm on the sea, do you want to talk to the teacher of your class, or do you want to speak to the captain of the ship? Could a teacher save a group of fishermen from drowning when the fishermen could have saved themselves? They’re the ones in the boat with the most experience! Wouldn’t this scenario of misunderstood identity be like going to the high school football coach and asking him to perform open-heart surgery on you? Our lives—our whole lives (this one and the next)—depend on knowing who Jesus is.

In 2007, a man dressed in jeans, t-shirt and a baseball cap set out his violin case in the middle of Union Station during rush hour. He played his violin for 30 minutes and collected $32. That in itself was amazing, because if you watch the video of this occasion on YouTube, you will see that thousands of people passed by him, rushing for their trains and paying attention neither to the man nor to his music.  He seemed just another of the hundreds of street musicians who play in subways each year.

The man was Joshua Bell, a violin virtuoso; many of you have probably heard him or at least heard of him. Bell was asked to participate in this social experiment staged by The Washington Post and reported in a feature article by Gene Weingarten: would people pay attention to a famous musician if he was playing in a subway station rather than a concert hall?

“The renowned violinist posed as a street performer in the Metro to see if hurried commuters could recognize beauty in their midst. He wore a baseball cap, stood by the escalators in the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station in D.C., and opened his violin case for tips. (The case, by the way, that houses his multi-million dollar Stradivari violin.) To make a long story short: almost no one noticed him.[1]

The Washington commuters misunderstood the musician’s identity just as the disciples’ had not gleaned Jesus’ identity: neither group recognized beauty in their midst. And sometimes it seems to me, and maybe you’ve noticed this too, that we dismiss the full power and presence of the holy. How is it that so many Christians treat Jesus like a street musician rather than the divine virtuoso of salvation that he is? Is it perhaps because they believe a lie—that Jesus does not care for them?

When the disciples wake up the sleeping Jesus in the stern of the boat. They do not say, “Save us, Lord!” They ask, “Jesus, don’t you care that we are perishing?” We ask similar questions of the Lord.  “Jesus, don’t you care that I am hurting right now?” “Jesus, can’t you change this diagnosis?” “Jesus, don’t you care that Christians are being murdered in their own churches?”

Friends, the power in the Christian faith is dependent on our understanding, correctly identifying who Jesus really is. And one of the things this story tells us about Jesus is found in verse 41: Jesus is Lord over the sea—even the wind and the sea obeyed his commands. Therefore, if Jesus has such control over the sea, then he has control over the world. In John 16:33, Jesus says, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

 Are you afraid today? “Have you still no faith?” In John 16:33, Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." If Jesus is not the Son of God but just a really good teacher, or an insightful prophet, or a highly moral man as many of us have heard Jesus described by folks who prefer to keep Jesus earthbound and miracles are out of the question, I invite you to check out the Joshua Bell Experiment on YouTube.

“A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.”[2]

The children recognized the beauty of the music the man in the subway was playing. They didn’t care that he wasn’t dressed like a virtuoso; they didn’t hear the din of the crowd. The children strained against their parents’ pull just to hear one more note, one more beautiful sound because they had what the adults did not: an understanding that the man was the source of the holy sound. What they were hearing, feeling, experiencing was truly beauty.

Jesus is truly the Savior, the Savior who cares for us. When he is in the boat with us, we need not worry about the size of any dangerous storm that may threaten us. The size of our problem is never bigger than the God we serve. God gave us his only Son for our salvation. In Christ, we shall not perish, for Jesus is the Savior who cares—really cares. And his love for us is truly beautiful. And unlike the wind, his love shall never cease. Amen.

June 21, 2015/First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME/The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor.

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[1] Berenson, Tessa. “World-Famous Violinist Joshua Bell Performs in Union Station.” Newsfeed Society. Tessa Berenson @tcberenson. September 30, 2014.

[2] Washington-Post-Joshua-Bell-Experiment/html. ManiacWorld.com

Tell People April 5

TELL PEOPLE

Matthew 28:1-15

And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow.

So many Easter services I’ve attended in my life, so many Easters I’ve preached, and this week was the first time I noticed what a crash-boom-bang entrance the angel made: the great earthquake, the power to roll away the stone, an appearance like lightening, clothing white as snow. This is no pink, white-diapered cherub on a valentine card, friends; this is a full-blown meteorite-like blast into earth’s atmosphere, sonic boom and all! It was so frightening, the big Roman guards with their swords and shields fainted—“and for fear of them the guards trembled and became like dead men” (28:4).

Interesting, isn’t it, that Jesus lives again, and those who put him to death are the ones walking around like dead men! Truth be told, they were dead men if they didn’t figure out how to cover up the fact that Jesus’ body was missing from the tomb—that he was alive, as the angel had told the women. So “some of the guard high-tailed it into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place” (28:11); it was a preemptive strike.

The matter was so serious they went up the chain of command to the elders, where they concocted the BIG LIE, offered the soldiers a handsome sum to “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble” (28:13-14) heh, heh, heh!

The chief priests and elders, the roman guards and citizens, their game plan was to tell people a lie, a big lie, as it turns out. There are people and whole countries today who tell people that it ain’t so, that this resurrection story, it never happened. There was some other explanation for the body of Jesus to be missing from the tomb. People just don’t become alive again.

Maybe you’ve had a friend or coworker say to you at Easter time, “If it helps you to believe in things like the resurrection, I’m cool with that, but I just don’t happen to believe in it, and I don’t see what difference it makes anyway.”

Does the resurrection make a difference to you, to the world? Well, if you’re a Christian, it better make a difference! You know, if Christ is truly risen from the dead, it’s the most important event in all of human history. And if Christ is not risen, then this whole Christian faith thing, the Church thing, this whole Christmas and Easter thing is a farce; it’s a BIG LIE and there’s no point of standing on Spring Hill before sunrise and no point to all the music and celebration; and no point to even take notice of the day at all; we can just abandon Easter to chocolate bunnies, peeps and Cadbury eggs.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not an event that we Christians can afford to be casual about. It matters that we believe in the resurrection. It’s “not a religious myth that coincides with springtime to inspire us with hope and positive thinking….” The resurrection of Jesus Christ is real, and it happened in his physical body—a body that could be seen and touched, a body that could eat and drink[1]. The resurrection matters! And here’s a little sampling of why:

The Law of Gravity is true, whether you believe it or not. Jump from a cliff at the Grand. If you live to tell, which you won’t, you will learn that the Law of Gravity is true, whether you believe in it or not.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ matters because it IS true! My sermon at the sunrise service this morning addressed the evidence for the resurrection. Now we are going to dig into the its meaning for Christians.

·      There is no substance to the gospel if Christ is not raised. If he’s not raised, then Christianity is just like any other religion of the week (the weak!). Might as well throw out the whole bible. If the resurrection is a lie, then all the gospel writers, the prophets, the history are simply tall-tale tellers.

·      There is no worth to the gospel if Christ is not raised. Perhaps you’ve heard people say, “It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you believe.” You can believe with all your heart that your car can fly. Drive it over the edge of the Grand Canyon and find out if it flies. We may be coming close to the time when cars will be able to fly, but right now, GM, VW, BMW and Cadillac are not offering this option. Faith is only as good as the object it points to.

·      There is no power to the gospel if it does not show us the way to face our sin problem. We need Christ to have died on the cross, taking our sins with him to the grave. We need him then to be raised from the dead because our sins remain in the grave so that we are righteous before our God, who is righteous through and through Christ died to pay our sin debt, but if Christ is not risen, then the penalty is not paid, we are not saved, and therefore faith in Him is waste of time.

Do not be persuaded that the resurrection is unnecessary to the Christian faith; that it’s an option; that you can take it or leave it; that it’s ok if you’re into that kind of thing; that it requires no pain or suffering; that Christians are happy peppy people because Christ is their potion.

Christ is not our potion, he is our portion. He has shown us the way to live and the way to love; the way to heal and the way to help; the way to serve and the way to be saved. Friends, if Christ is not risen, the gospel is worthless, believing in the gospel is worthless, and that hope beyond the grave is also worthless.

        “To the extent that God and His church make you feel good and increase your happiness, you get involved. But in the final analysis, the controlling value in your life is personal happiness. But that’s how a person lives if the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not true.”[2]

The good news of Easter is that this: If the grace of God and the fact of the risen Christ are a reality in your life, then, like Paul, you should be denying yourself and following Jesus, no matter how hard that may be.”[3] And let there be no mystery about living for Christ; it’s hard. Paul tells us in I Corinthians just how to do it: “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” (I Cor 15:58).

Work for the Lord is a life force for every resurrection believer in Christendom; it is the source of the Christian’s true fulfillment. If you want your faith to mean something really real in the world, then get to it. Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness. Live and work and believe all the time.

And for the love of God, TELL PEOPLE the truth! The resurrection is real and it matters—it matters to you and to me! Nothing less than the light of Christ and the eternal destiny of our souls is at stake here. Tell the People! Make this your most faithful Easter! Amen.

The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME

April 5, 2015

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[1] Player, JW. “Easter [1993]: Why the Resurrection Matters (1 Corinthians 15:1-19). April 11, 1993.

[2] Player, JW. “Easter [1993]: Why the Resurrection Matters (1 Corinthians 15:1-19). April 11, 1993.

[3] Ibid.