FORMULA FOR HOPE
John 16:12-15; Romans 5:1-5
…we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.
Let’s turn verses 3-4 around—invert them. I think it would go something like this: We are never disappointed in our lives because we have hope, hope comes from character, and character comes from endurance and endurance’s builder is suffering. We can boast in our sufferings because we know the future that is ours because Christ in his ultimate sacrifice has made us right with God.
Disappointed may be too soft a word here for our generation. In the original text and context, the Greek actually means "disgrace" or "put to shame." Try reading verse 3 that way: We are never disgraced (or put to shame) in our lives because we have hope….
I don’t know about you, but when I am disappointed or disgraced or shamed, hope is usually not the first word that comes to my mind; yet, I want it to be! And when I experience disappointment, disgrace or shame, boasting in my sufferings is not my first inclination either. What about you? How much more palatable it is to deflect the shame and send the blame onto someone or something else; how tempting it is to race from disgrace and avoid all contact with the original source of the suffering.
To deflect, blame or avoid the person, the place or the source of the problem will not sustain us for the long haul; but hope, hope in God, can and will get us through anything we have to face. Let me ask you, Where is your hope this morning? Do you have it with you or did you leave it at home? Do you find hope in something like your house or your investments? Do you experience hope when you attain a goal you’ve always wanted to reach or when you see your child or grandchild succeed scholastically, artistically, or athletically? It is true: such experiences can give us a real rush, but they only make us happy. What we really need in our life is hope!
One of the signs of success from the era in which I came of age was to own one’s own home. So, when I bought my home, I felt proud, successful; I was Mary-Tyler-Moore-spin-around-and-throw-your-hat-in-the-air kind of happy. And now, seven years later, as $10K a year is still going into the bank’s account instead of my own equity, I have to acknowledge that this symbol of success is also a source of suffering.
The director of a medical clinic told about a terminally ill young man who came in for his usual treatment. A new doctor on duty that day said to the man, "You know, don’t you, that you won’t live out the year?" As the young man left, he stopped by the director’s office and wept. "That doctor took away my hope," he sobbed. "I guess he did," replied the director, "Maybe it’s time to find a new one."1
1 Our Daily Bread, December 19, 1996. Upper Room Publishers.
It appears to me that we, this community, need to find a new kind of hope, also. Churches get confused so easily about hope. Typically, a congregation places its faith in a strong and well-kept building, a balanced budget, a famous church supper, and even a great Sunday school curriculum for its children, yet that same congregation is much more likely perceiving its success through a Saturday- Night-Fever mindset (you know, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive, ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Stayin’ alive, yeah!).
Like the terminally ill young man, congregations can place their hope for survival in short-lived substitutes for hope. The real hope, the only kind of hope worth seeking after, worth stretching toward, and worth hanging onto for dear life is the hope that comes in God.
God created us, gathers us, provides for us, and is with us because God loves us. Do you believe that God loves you, really loves you? I know that God loves us because God gave over his son to reconcile the world to himself. Jesus willingly, lovingly, took our sin upon himself and obliterated it on the bloody beams of the cross. God through Jesus has done this amazing, unimaginable, love-beyond-compare thing for me, for you, for us, and so I bow before that amazing grace and seek to keep my hope in God alone.
So, how do we do that—keep our hope in God alone, not falling back to the old patterns of wise investments, balanced budgets and the like? God has given us the formula for hope within God’s self, the Trinity. The church’s complex doctrine of the Trinity states comes down to this: there is one God in whom there are three "persons" who share one "substance." The three persons are named Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the one substance is called God. Where’s my "easy button"?
The formula for hope is not contained in the diagram of three persons sharing one substance. What we really need to know deep down in our hearts and minds is that our God is in three persons to provide all that we need to live as purposefully and creatively as God designed us to live. Yet life is not without its pain; in the midst of our disappointments and fears, and particularly in episodes of shame and confusion, we can’t reach for the easy button, we have to reach for God.
Think about the letter "H"… the two vertical lines. One line represents God. God loves us at all times; everything that God does is because God loves us. The second vertical line represents the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s job is to guide us and teach us and fill us with the power and grace of God’s love. When we feel the Holy Spirit alive and kicking inside us and among us, great things for God start to happen—that’s the glory piece. If God is the love, then the Spirit is the power. So where does that leave Jesus in this formula for Hope?
The short horizontal bar represents Jesus. He is the bridge between God and the Holy Spirit. He joins the expanse between earth and heaven by his reconciling work on the cross and thereby creates the peace which surpasses all understand. Peace from the Son connects the love and the power of God and the Holy Spirit. Without Jesus, we have no direct connection to God. Without that connection, there is no reason for our hope, no promise of peace, no gift of grace.
People cannot live without hope. Throughout history, human beings have endured the loss of many things. People have lost their health, their finances, their reputations, their careers, even their loved ones, and yet have endured. The pages of history books are filled with those who suffered pain, rejection, isolation, persecution and abuse; there have been people who faced concentration camps with unbroken spirits and unbowed heads, people who have been devastated by Job-like trials and yet found the strength to go on without cursing God and dying. Humans can survive the loss of almost anything – but not without hope.2
2 KenBoa.org. "People Cannot Live without Hope" June 24, 2010.
Hope in God is the only true means we have to rely on when trials come—and they do come, don’t they? Yet because we have a triune God of love, power and peace, we should catch ourselves when we behave as others do who have no hope. We can, instead, boast in our sufferings.
We can face the difficulties and burdens of our lives because hope makes it possible for us to understand complicated things, like the Trinity. The formula for hope, however, is not at all complicated. Inverted, converted, reverted or perverted, Paul explained it best: suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us. God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
Friends we have all we need to succeed in stayin’ alive in the church, the body of Christ. The only thing left to do now is to get out there, spin around, throw your troubles in the air, and boast, boast, boast cause your livin’ with hope, livin’ with hope! Amen.
May 26, 2013/First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick/The Rev Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
THE POWER TO BELIEVE
Acts 2:1-21; John 14:8-17
"I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you."
A Sunday School teacher taught her class to recite the Apostle’s Creed by giving each child one phrase to learn. When the day came for the class to give their recitation before the congregation, they started out beautifully.
"I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth," said the first child.
And so it went perfectly until they came to the child who said, "He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty: from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead."
As you may know, the next line was, "I believe in the Holy Spirit…" but there was no voice, and an embarrassing silence began to fill the sanctuary. Finally, a little girl spoke up and said, "Uh, the little boy who believes in the Holy Spirit is absent today."1
1 Duncan, King. Dynamic Preaching: Filling the Hole in Our Hearts.
Jesus was absent from the house in which the 120 believers were gathered together for the day of Pentecost. He had instructed them to "wait in Jerusalem"; the believers were waiting for they-didn’t-know-what; they really must have been thinking and feeling that Jesus was going to be absent for the rest of their lives.
Ten whole days had passed without any change or any appearance of this so-called Advocate Jesus said God would send to help them carry on the ministry of Christ; this Advocate would be a comforter and encourager to them during their trials and times of despair. I should think that an embarrassing silence was building among them; doubts could fill a huge empty place like that when God doesn’t act on our time table. Doubt could even become their undoing if this Advocate did not show up soon. They were slipping, everybody could feel it; how slippery is the slope to hopelessness.
Do you have a problem with hopelessness? Do you feel trapped in your present-day way of life? Do you think that life is too hard, and it might be better to throw in the proverbial towel and forget about goals, dreams and visions for a better future? Are you burdened and stifled by problems with finances, stress at work or at home? Are you discouraged that life is never going to get better than it is right now? Are you tempted, like Philip was, to say, "Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied."
How satisfying, it would be, wouldn’t it, if we could see God in person, if we could recognize God’s acts of grace, if we could understand the mysteries behind the miracles of God we witness. We then could vow before the Lord with complete trust, "I’ll be satisfied as long as I walk, let me walk close to thee."
What was it that the disciples in Acts were waiting for? Was it a physical energy, maybe a shield of strength? Was it control, dominance? Maybe; but even those quantities have their limits. Jesus promises his followers an Advocate. So, I think what those 120 disciples were waiting for was a certain power, the power to believe.
Only 53 days earlier, Jesus at his last supper challenged the Twelve to believe…in whom he is, what he said, and what he did. Why this challenge? Because after Jesus was gone to the Father, his disciples would have the responsibility and the honor of emulating for others who Jesus was, teaching others what Jesus said, and doing unto others what Jesus had done for them.
No way they could do all that they had been commanded to do by Jesus without the presence and power of God—the Holy Spirit—guiding, leading, comforting, assuring—and to be sure, prodding and poking, pushing and pulling them into the way of action-oriented, faithful, and loving servanthood. Neglecting the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, many people are prone to wander into the bad-attitude zone, and even to sour in quiet desperation, like the grumpy old grandfather who visited his family one Sunday afternoon.
After visiting for a while, the grandfather laid down to nap, and his grandson decided to have a little fun by putting limburger cheese on his grandfather’s mustache. Soon grandpa awoke with a snort and charged out of the bedroom saying, "This room stinks!" He made his way through the house and irascibly came to the depressing conclusion that "This whole house stinks!" In desperation, the grandpa ran out the front door and into the yard, only to conclude that "the whole world stinks!"2
Without the intervention of the Holy Spirit, 120 deeply discouraged disciples could very well have come to the same, rotten conclusion. "This whole believing in Jesus Christ thing stinks!" When "Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting" (Acts 2:2). That was the end of the sitting- around kind of faith for them!
All 120 in the band of believers were empowered to speak the languages of the international pilgrims in Jerusalem that day of Pentecost; to speak the Good News of Jesus Christ into their lives so powerfully, so effectively, so satisfyingly, that more than 3000 disciples were converted to Christ’s way that one day! That’s one "darn" good day at church, if you ask me!
So, you might be asking, How do I get this power to believe? Each of us has the tools already, you know. The first tool is the Word of God—you gotta spend time in it. If your excuse is you don’t understand the Bible, all the more reason to find somebody who can speak your language and interpret the Word for you; before too long you will be able to do the translating yourself! The second tool is prayer, spend time in it; you can do it anywhere: prayer is portable. We have our iPods, iPhones, iPads, what about iPrayers? Dedicate time to be with God—God deeply desires to listen and speak with you, too!
The third tool is worship; you have a loving and accepting community right here; you have a pastor who loves you and longs to lead you; there are believers among us ready to share their faith with you. The power to believe is upon us, can’t you see something like tongues of flame alighting on us?
The power to believe, the Holy Spirit, is available to us every moment of every day. It can keep us from the slippery slope of hopelessness; it satisfies our desire to know that God is surrounding us all the time. The power to believe is centered in the power of the Holy Spirit: use it; never lose it! For the great and glorious day of the Lord is coming; the portents are beginning to show. Start calling, friends; call on the power to believe for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Amen.
May 19, 2013/First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME/The R
PRESTIDIVINATION
Acts 16:16-34; John 17:20-26
Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.
Prestidigitation is sleight of hand—magic tricks accomplished with objects such as coins or cards, disappearing from one place and surprisingly reappearing somewhere else. I learned one just for this sermon. (Demonstration) Now, a magician is never supposed to reveal the secret, but I am no magician, so I am going to show you how it’s done. (Next Demonstration)
Not really "magic" now, is it? The coin didn’t truly disappear from my hand and jump into my pocket. The magician sets a scene to look like one thing happened while something else was going on—that’s the sleight, the trick.
Fortune tellers perform prestidigitation, too; they magically get money out of your pocket into theirs and they make mucho bucks doing it. Ever since the invention of money, "fortune-telling [has been] a commodity within the marketplace."1
1 Feingold, Ken (1995), "OU: Interactivity as Divination as Vending Machine", Leonardo, Third Annual New York Digital Salon 28 (5): 399–402, doi:10.2307/1576224, JSTOR 1576224
In Acts 16 we see that two astute businessmen had made quite a lot of money from this commodity in the marketplace; they must have been dancing in the streets every day, believing there was no end in sight to their earning power—unless something unfortunate happened to their slave girl, like illness or death.…they did not plan for "prestidivination."
Don’t go searching for "prestidivination" in the dictionary; you won’t find it. I made it up. It’s a play on prestidigitation, and it does not stand for sleight of divine—as if God, Jesus or heaven would play tricks on us.
Prestidivination gains its meaning from two divine/Godly actions being accomplished at the same time—one event that we can see, and one that we likely miss because it’s happening over here…or behind the curtain…seemingly apart from and/or completely unrelated to the first.
When Paul finally grew annoyed enough that he wanted that slave girl to "be quiet already," he cast out the spirit that enslaved her. She was free. Not only did Paul cast out the demon (and restore quiet), but Paul’s faith in Christ also set the slave girl free from her enslavers.
Another example of prestidivination in this passage is the saving of the jailer’s life. When Paul shouted from inside the prison, "We are all here," many salvation begins to tumble all over the place--the jailer’s life was saved because he did not fall on his own sword, and he no longer feared
his enslavers—the Roman magistrates; yet he was also saved for everlasting life with when he received his baptism in Jesus Christ.
If Paul hadn’t been so irritated by the slave girl’s predictions; if the slave girl’s owners hadn’t been so angry when their hope of making money was gone; if the mob hadn’t gone wild on behalf of the slave owners; if the magistrates hadn’t bought the lies the slave owners told and been so afraid of the mob that they threw Paul and Silas in jail….
…If Paul and Silas hadn’t such confidence in the love of Jesus Christ, so that they could sing praises to God from the deepest bowel of the prison; if Luke hadn’t written this account of the early church exploding across Europe in the book of Acts . . . IF…IF…IF! So many ifs!
Christ doesn’t need "If-fers." Christ needs followers, believers, carriers of the faith. Christ needs us to "go viral" with the good news that God is with us. Christians might live in the "IF" of what might be, but we are called to follow in the Way—the Way of Jesus Christ. This faith we have been offered is a faith that happens over here and over there, in the sight of God and to the sleight of none…a faith that can sing praises to God at midnight….a faith that can say to our demons, our addictions, our diseases, our temptations, and our failings, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I order you to come out of me!!"
What holds you captive? Is it stress over money? Is it fear about the future? Try singing praises to God. What imprisons you today? Is it an unhealthy relationship? Is it an unfulfilling career? Strengthen your relationship with Jesus Christ first, and relationships with the important people in our lives and the contributions we make to society will be strengthened and fulfilling as well. Become one with Christ, one with his community. Oneness is the way to heaven.
We can learn about oneness through the actions of the jailer. No—I don’t mean deciding to fall on your sword! I mean, call for the light—the light who is Jesus Christ. Don’t you know that we have a Savior who does something for us that no other god in the universe—past, present or future—does for his followers: Our Christ prays for us!
Christ’s prayer is that we may all be one, a community in unified in God’s love—Jesus prayed, "As you Father are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us … that they may become completely one, so that the world may know…that you have loved them as you have loved me..." This unity, this love, is shaped like the cross of Christ. You see, glory cannot be separated from crucifixion—this is the ultimate prestidivination. Amen.
May 12, 2013
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
Love Has Its Reasons
Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8
"…This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus."
The ancient city of Philippi was located along a main trade route between Rome and the East. Philippians had the luxury of being considered Roman citizens, which afforded them some handsome benefits. They were allowed to buy and sell property, exempted from land and poll taxes, and entitled to protection under Roman law. For all intents and purposes, they spent their days living in MORE—more wealth, more possessions, rights, and presumably more happiness.
Howard Hughes’ was a man who firmly believed that MORE of everything would lead to happiness. You might even say that more was his middle name. "He wanted more money, so he invested his enormous inheritance and increased it in just a few years to a billion dollars. He wanted more fame, so he went to Hollywood and became a filmmaker and a star. He wanted pleasure, so he used his fabulous wealth to buy women and any form of decadence he desired.
Howard Hughes may have been counted among the wealthiest of people on earth in his day, but in the end he could be numbered among the poorest of souls. For all that Hughes had gained from his relentless pursuit of MORE, not one thing was "significant enough to bring meaning to his life."1 He died emaciated, drug addicted and horribly disheveled.
1 Wilkinson, B and DM. The Dream Giver for Parents. (Sisters, OR: Multonomah, 2004), pp 45-46.
Paul says that not one fleshly ambition we might pursue in our lives will ever come even close to the value of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord…and Paul should know; he had it all. "If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh," he writes, "I have MORE..." (Phil 3:4b). At first glance, Paul appears to be more of a braggart than anything else, and nobody likes a braggart. Yet, Paul has good reasons for his boasting, and he goes on to list all the ways he believed he had been made righteous by the Law.
It’s not that the Law is a bad thing, because it isn’t: today, people are still willing to fight battles all across this nation to keep monuments engraved with the Law outside their courthouses, village greens and public buildings. What Paul wants us to realize is that the Law cannot save us, only the love of Jesus Christ saves. The Law does not make us perfect; only the love of Jesus Christ does. The Law can
never breathe life into the dead, only Christ’s love can resurrect the dead.
Paul’s message to the church at Philippi and to us today is that knowing Christ is the only way to be made righteous before God. We must not fool ourselves into thinking that our rituals, rules and regulations are true faith. The law and all the other pursuits we seek in the name of the "church" are likely religiosity, look-alike impressionists masquerading as faith. In the end such practices are worthless.
Such actions cannot bring about righteousness or secure salvation any more than money can buy happiness or fame can buy true love.
Knowing Jesus Christ surpasses the value of everything else we could ever hope to gain in this life. Paul prayerfully pleads before the Philippians, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own" (3:10-12).
Paul yearns for his beloved Philippian church to chase after no fleshly thing, only to turn all its focus and energy, its hope and its mission upon the "surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus" as Lord.
Say these words to yourself, "Christ Jesus has made me his own." Frankly, friends, I am at a loss to conceive of why Christ would make me his own: I do not deserve his love, yet he gave it for me on Calvary. I may not be able to understand the why of his love this side of heaven, but I do know that divine Love has its reasons. So in feeble gratitude for Christ’s making me his own, how else can I respond but to pour out the very best of me upon the Lord.
And that’s what Mary is doing with the expensive nard, pouring out all of it upon her savior’s feet. I think as the fragrance of Love filled that room she knew the gift was hardly enough to thank him for raising her brother Lazarus from the dead, for being her teacher and protector, for being the Lord, the Messiah, come personally for her.
So Mary leaned down and wipe her savior’s feet with her hair and her tears. I am at more of a loss to explain what was happening to Mary in that moment, I can only say she did what she did because that kind of Love has its reasons.
As Christ is nearing Jerusalem and the Crucifixion, we are nearing the cross as well. Are we making the effort during this Lenten
season to know Christ Jesus as our Lord, or are we merely going through the religious motions that accompany this season? Are palm branches waving, flowers blooming, and Easter-basket filling the sum total of faith in our holiest week of the year? Not if we know Jesus.
Knowing Jesus IS a strange thing for us who are used to being self-sufficient, organized, ruled by Roberts, and independently minded—outspokenly so—because this knowing means heeding his voice like sheep following a shepherd, loving one another like a master washing his servants’ feet, or abiding in him like branches on a vine. Knowing Jesus does not mean changing who we are; it simply means knowing whose we are.
We belong to Jesus Christ; he made us his own by dying in our place upon the cross and thus making us righteous before God. We could not accomplish righteousness on our own, but we can express our gratitude by living as he lived: healing, visiting, teaching, feeding, clothing, releasing and proclaiming his love. And if anyone should ask you why you are doing those things, if you really know Jesus, you might simply respond, "Love has its reasons." Amen.
March 17, 2013/First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME/Rev Donna Lee Muise,
Grace and Disgrace
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
"But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion;
he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him."
Grace is receiving mercy that we do not deserve. What then is disgrace? Disgrace is dispensing shame upon those who do not deserve it. Grace is good because it comes from God through Jesus Christ, and disgrace is bad because its source is sin through human self-righteousness.
Franklin Graham, son of evangelist, Billy Graham, tells his story of living as a prodigal in his book Rebel with a Cause. Franklin was a rebel; in fact, he openly opposed every value and every virtue his parents stood for, including the Christian faith. He smoked, he drank, he cursed, he caroused; he did it all. At the height of his rebellion, Franklin Graham was kicked out of a conservative college in Texas for taking a co-ed off campus for the weekend and piloting a rented plane to Florida.
He writes: "The drive home from Texas was dreary. Maybe by driving slow I was prolonging the inevitable; I would have to face my parents. I knew they had to be disappointed in me--I was! They had invested a lot of money in my education, and now I’d messed up.
"I drove through the gate and started up the road to our home, imagining the lecture my parents would give me. So many other times when I had come home I could hardly wait to say hello to everyone. But no joy this time. I felt so badly when I finally reached the house. Then I saw mama standing on the front porch and I wanted to run and hide in the nearest hole. It was one of the few times I can remember not wanting to look her in the eye.
"When I walked up to her, my body felt limp. I barely had the nerve to lift my head or extend my arms for a hug. But I didn’t need to. Mama wrapped her arms around me, and, with a smile, she said, ‘Welcome home, Franklin.’" 1
1 Steven Molin, http://www.lectionary.org/Sermons/Molin/OT/Isaiah%2043.01-7,%20We’rePrecious.htm.
2 Deffenbaugh, DG. Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume2: Lent through Eastertide, p116.
Franklin’s long drive home from Texas was equal to the slow journey home for the prodigal son, who "came to himself" as he was standing at the feeding trough with the pigs, wanting to eat their slop. "The younger son personifies what appears to be a universal human perception that worse than death is the feeling of being lost, especially when this condition has been brought on by one’s own lust, greed or arrogance"2.
Let’s visit some great disgracers in the Bible and examine where they entered the "troughs."
Eve cavorted with the devil denying God’s power and ended up teaching the world to sin.
Adam went down for an apple and when he stood up, he was naked.
Noah had a few too many drinks and woke up naked in his daughters’ bed.
Lot pitched his tent on the road to Sodom and had only a salt shaker left to show for it.
Moses refused to clock the rock with his staff, and never crossed the threshold of the Promised Land.
Jonah ran in the opposite direction from God and ended up the protagonist in a whale of a tale.
David spied a woman in the tub and gave a whole new meaning to the name BATH-sheba.
Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and ended up spilling them and his guts in a field.
Peter denied Jesus 3 times and found himself standing among the Lord’s enemies.
Thomas doubted Jesus’ return and made a bet he couldn’t keep.
Paul slaughtered Christians and ended up a blind, whimpering fool eating dirt on the road to Damascus.
Disgrace is a terrible thing, and it has but one course of treatment that brings a cure: repentance. Repentance literally means to change one’s mind. If we are merely sorry for what we have done, chances are high that we will sin again in the same way, because repentance is not simply a matter of agreeing with God that you’ve been a bad boy or girl; it’s not glibly promising God or anybody else that you won’t do it again. This shallow understanding of repentance results in a mere mouthing of guilt, the minimizing of the shame and horror of the sin. That’s immature repentance, baby repentance. And it shows the sinner just doesn’t "get it."
A prisoner was particularly sleepy in his GED class. He did not even try to stay awake, but put his head down on his desk and slept. The teacher quietly walked around the classroom and noticed the sleeping student; the teacher gently tapped the man on the shoulder, and then walked on. A little later, the teacher again made his way past this fellow's desk, and he was still sleeping soundly. He gently tapped him again.
The third time around, the teacher grasped the fellow by the shoulder and gently shook him. The young prisoner awoke, jumped to his feet, and then threatened the teacher, "If you ever do that to me again, you're going to get it!" The threatened teacher backed away from the student and made his way to the door, where he beckoned for the guard, who escorted the student to the "hole" (solitary confinement).
A month later, the student was released from solitary confinement and returned to his classroom. He made his way to the teacher to "apologize." "I'm really sorry about what I said to you," he explained, "but I think you misunderstood me. What I said to you was, 'If you ever do that again, you might get it.'" That, my friends, is baby repentance.3
If we regret what we have done, then there is hope for us; and it means that transformation can happen; that radical, positive, fruit-bearing change is on the way. This mature repentance is evident in Jesus’ parable. The prodigal son "messed up" completely, and he knew it. He had deserted his family and squandered his inheritance. Yet this young man, realizing his great transgression, identified where he went wrong and confessed, "Father I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am not worthy to be called your son."
Though the son expected nothing in return, he had hope for the first time since he had demanded his inheritance. The father's in the parable joyfully granted grace to his son, for he gave to this young man what he did not deserve.
God, "Our Father" watches for us, runs out to meet us in the person of Jesus Christ. In that moment when we who know so well how it feels to be lost that we can then proclaim in faith that greater than life itself is living with the knowledge that we have been found! Like the prodigal, we must see that being our Father’s servant is better than being a slave to sin in a place so far from our heavenly home.
Many of us here have found ourselves, at some point, in the slop, far from "home," broke or broken, sinner of sinners, and in desperate need of grace. We are the tax collectors and sinners that Jesus wants to sit down and eat with—and the Pharisees and the scribes just didn’t get it, they never could say, "I have sinned," all they could do was grumble.
There are already way too many grumbling Christians. Far better it is for us to re-turn to the word of God, to call sin by its biblical name, and to respond to Jesus’ invitation to the table with true, mature repentance and faith, for we have already received what we do not deserve:
instead of pig slop, we get a fatted calf cooked to perfection;
instead of loneliness with only swine around to commiserate, we get a party to which the whole town is invited;
instead of rags to wear, we’re dressed in a colorful robe, a ring is put on our finger, and our feet are slid into brand new sandals;
and instead of a stern look and a cold shoulder, we are embraced and kissed.
Such is the scandal of grace, of which the only disgrace is to squander the opportunity for great rejoicing, and the best response to all of this love is this, "Amen!"
March 10, 2013/First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME/Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
A Love Ne’er Too Far
John 21:9-19; Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
"Yes, Lord. You know everything. You know that I love you."Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep."
When Christ spoke to his disciples out on the water, he was instructing them to "steer themselves" in a specific direction—the right direction. The right side of the boat symbolizes the righteousness that Jesus Christ calls us to live as his followers. As any vessel steering toward the long low tone of the fog horn will crash into the south tower, casting our hope on any other Savior will lead to destruction.
I believe that Jesus is not standing ne’er too far from us, as far away as he may feel at times. Christ is as near to us as he was to the disciples in their boat that Galilean morning. We know what it is like to work as hard as possible and still come up empty handed. All night the disciples fished and yet had caught nothing; they felt like failures; they were just sitting there in their boat, nets empty, nothing to show for all their hard work.
Yet, within the stillness and behind the fog, Jesus was there! The disciples were able to hear the Lord speak to them, even though they could not identify him by sight. It was not as important for them to see him as it was to hear him, and though it was important to hear him, it was far more important to obey him, which leads us to the second section of this passage. If Jesus were to say to us, "Do you love me?" would we be able to say yes, and not only mean it but also prove it?
Probably many of us can identify with Peter and how his feelings were hurt by Jesus asking him three times, "Do you love me?" There is a reason for the Lord’s persistence. If we love Jesus, truly love him, then we must act on that love. We must dedicate ourselves and all our efforts into carrying on his ministry. That ministry is to feed and tend the sheep that belong to his flock. Love for Jesus must always be followed by action for Jesus.
We can see this formula in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. He was a man who took great delight in having Christians slaughtered. You could say that Saul had a nasty reputation…but he received a divine revelation. Granted, Christ had to knock the man to the ground to get his attention, blind him for three days, and send Ananais to restore his sight, but the point, at any rate, is that even as far as the old hate-breathing Saul was from the new greatest-of-these-is-love Paul, Christ love was ne’er too far from either one of them.
When Paul was ordained to his new role, he told Christ he loved him by spreading the Gospel throughout the known world to those who needed to hear it most. Next to Jesus, Paul was the greatest fisher of all.
We do not have to be the greatest fishers of all, but we do have to fish. We do not have to be the best shepherds of all, but we do have to tend the sheep and feed the flock. To love Christ is to serve him and to serve him is to love one another and all the others.
The trouble for all of us overworked and discouraged Christians is that we want to give up. We can’t see, feel or hear the love that comes from God. The fog is thick; the horn is silent; and something like scales seem to cover our eyes. This is exactly the time when Christ’s love is nearest.
A simple message lies herein for the followers of Jesus Christ. His words to the Church are the same as they were to the first disciples: "Children, come have breakfast with me." His breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Amen.
April 14, 2013
The First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
LOVE BY DEGREES
John 13:31-35; Acts 11:1-18
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are y disciples.
Think for a minute about your stove at home in your kitchen. Can you picture the temperature knobs? How are they marked? My stove has Off, Warm, Low, Medium, Medium High, and High. Choosing the correct setting will bring the corresponding burner to the right temperature so that you can cook whatever you’ve placed in the pot or pan just the way you want it. It does not matter if its Farberware or Correll or the Wal-Mart brand. To achieve a delicious result, you need the right setting, the right temperature, and the right amount of time…of course, you need to watch over the pan, stir the food inside so neither burns up—I speak from experience.
At 211 degrees Fahrenheit, a pot of water is very, very hot; you certainly wouldn’t want to put your bare hand in it. What happens, though, if we raise the temperature of that water just one degree—to 212? At 212 degrees, a steam engine can haul a mile-long freight train up and over a rugged mountain pass. As scalding hot as 211 degree-water is, that water has no power to move a steam engine, not even by half an inch…what a difference one degree makes!1
1 McCartney, Bill. blind spots: What you don’t see may be keeping your church from greatness. Wheaton, IL. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2003, p 149.
Both of our scripture passages this morning reveal how 211-degree believers became two-twelvers. The temperature of the "burners" in Jerusalem and Joppa, is about to go from Medium High to High, and the Christian faith train starts to move. The high degree of love they are commanded to show to one another is the only steam that can keep their gospel train stuck at the station.
Acts 11 revolves around the hottest debate among Jewish Christians of that day: Is their newfound faith in Jesus Christ intended only for Jews, or is this faith also given to the Gentiles while allowing them to remain Gentiles—that is, uncircumcised, outside the Jewish Law. It’s the circumcised believers who are steaming mad at Peter.
Their question is not a question at all, it is scalding criticism. "Why did you go to the uncircumcised and eat with them?" After detailing his vision on Simon the Tanner’s rooftop and sharing its application to his present life-situation, Peter turns up the heat on his critics—not to wound them, but to move them forward: (1) because he loves them and (2) because the gospel is meant for all people all over the world. "If God gave [the Gentiles—Cornelius and his companions] the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?" (Acts 11:17).
Jesus knew that his impending death could severely hinder the faith of his disciples, and without their faith, the spread of the gospel would falter at 211. The Lord gathers all of his teachings, the meaning of his miracles, the intent of his journey on earth and his glorification to come, and sums all of it up in this way: "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35).
What’s so new about the idea of loving one another? We already do love one another, don’t we—how could we be a part of Christ’s church or take Christ’s name if we did not love one another? Yes; we love each other, but do we love each other to the degree that Christ has loved us?
Christ loved us so much that he was willing to go to the Cross, to suffer and die for us. He took our place. No known love has ever gone this far before for us. This "new commandment is a profound plea cried out to Christ’s disciples of every century that we will choose to abide in Jesus’ way of life and love." Time is too valuable to spend it caught up in technicalities like the Christians in Jerusalem did when Peter ate with the uncircumcised believers in Joppa.
Abiding in Jesus’ love is the one trait of Christian character that can bring others to Jesus Christ simply because they observe how we love one another. Likewise, Christians behaving badly outside of the new commandment also sends a message to the world—that we are hinderers—more concerned about standing in God’s way than being on God’s side.
In the midst of the Civil War, a certain pious person told Abraham Lincoln, "I hope the Lord is on our side." The President responded, "I am not at all concerned about that…But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side."2
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To be on the Lord’s side is to LOVE one another to the 212th degree. With love for one another, we will get through those rugged mountain passes that come into our lives from time to time. When we allow the love of Christ to take deep root in us, so that it flourishes in all that we do and say to one another, it is the first step in helping the world understand how a Christ-centered community is the hope of the world. Let’s set our love on HIGH and give thanks to the Lord for he is so very good. Amen.
April 28, 2013
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
