Who He Is

Who He Is

July 21, 2013

presented by the Reverend Jack Williams 

I want to thank the deacons of First Parish Federated Church for inviting me to share in worship with you on this Sunday and the next two Sundays.  It is an honor and also humbling to stand in the pulpit where so many fine pastors have stood.  My appreciation goes out to you, the congregation and to Pastor Donna Muise for this opportunity.

What would happen if you were at a social gathering, and since you are part of that 25 percent of Mainers who identify as practicing Christians, you are asked by a skeptical or perhaps curious person, who is the person Jesus that you worship?  Who is Jesus? You are now on the spot, and perhaps, like so many of us New Englanders,  religion is not something we talk about. We keep our beliefs to ourselves. We try not to offend anyone, so we keep away from discussing our religious convictions.  But this person asked you. What are going to say.  Who is Jesus?

For these next three weeks I want to dig into three questions with you: Who is Jesus?  What difference it makes?  And finally, Now what?

These three questions are at the root of who we are as Christians and I think it is important that we are versed in having an answer to them.  Here they are again.  Who is Jesus? What difference does it make? Now what?

In the familiar reading from Luke’s gospel, we hear if Jesus’ visit to the home of two women, Mary and Martha. Why do you suppose Mary sat and listened to Jesus’ every word?  Yet her sister Martha felt it necessary to put on a good home cooked meal for him.  Both were important things to do, but our Lord says, Mary has chosen better and it will not be taken away from her. Did Mary recognize something in the man from Galilee that Martha did not?  What would you do if Jesus showed up at supper time at your home? Is there a time when listening is the most important thing to do? Maybe it says something about taking time to listen to God.

In Matthew’s gospel, after Jesus’ disciples have been out for a few days of spreading the news about Jesus and God’s Kingdom, the 12 disciples meet with Jesus for a report of how things went.  The disciples have news from the towns they went to. They healed people of all sorts of diseases in Jesus’ name.  The disciples shared their stories with Jesus and then Jesus asked them a question.  Who do the people say I am? They told what the people were saying. Some say you are a prophet or Elijah come back to life.  Then Jesus asks them the most important question of their lives, the most important question for us as followers of Christ.  “But who do you say I am?” When Jesus asked his twelve disciples, “And how about you, who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus responded to him, ”God bless you Simon. You didn’t get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am.”

The Gospel of John  begins with these familiar words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word, referring to Christ. John goes on to tell us that the Word, that creative God became flesh and lived in the person of Jesus.

Back in my days at seminary I had a wonderful professor named Russell Pregeant. Dr. Pregeant is a New Testament scholar and a United Methodist pastor.  While what he said in class should have been obvious to me by that time in my studies, it was not.  Dr. Pregeant said ,“The teaching and life of Jesus shows us what God is like.” In other words, if you want to know what God is like, study the life of Jesus.

Theologians, who specialize in Christology,  the people who are the experts on who Jesus is, have written many books. And I have quite a few of them on my library shelf.  I have read them and I must tell you, none of them can hold a candle to what I learn from just reading the Bible. 

This morning, we read from a short letter to the Christian Church in Collosae.  The letter is one of four letters of Paul known as the prison letters. They are called “Prison Letters” because Paul wrote them while he was a prisoner in Rome from the years 61-63 CE. Paul was a prisoner in Rome, chained to a Roman soldier guard, but as a Roman citizen, was allowed more respect than a common criminal who was not a roman citizen.

While a prisoner in Rome, he probably wrote many letters, only 4 of which we have in our Bible. They are Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and a very short letter to Philemon.

Colossians will be at the heart of our learning for this Sunday and the next two Sundays. The church in Collosae was founded by a disciple of Paul’s named Epaphras. Epaphras is mentioned in the letter as a skillful teacher, fellow servant, and a faithful minister of Christ.  The letter is written to the church in Colosae both to encourage them and to teach them. Of all the letters of Paul, it has, in my view, the best answers to: who Jesus is, what difference it makes, and what now.

Allow me to elaborate on chapter 1:15-18 of Colossians  to help us more fully answer, “Who is Jesus?”

 ^15-18 “We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen”.  If we study the life and teachings of Jesus, we can understand the nature and character of God. Just consider the story of the prodigal son, or the woman caught in adultery. Time and time again, Jesus shows us that God is a just and merciful God.

We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment.

          The book of Genesis begins this way, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth…  And Colossians tells us that Jesus was there as part of the creative force that made the heavens and the earth.

          The Gospel of John begins in a similar way:  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people…. And the Word became flesh and lived among us.

       And so, Jesus is the Word, which is God’s creative agent. Jesus is this Word.

And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.  In other words, Jesus is the head of the church and the church is the body of Christ. So when someone says a particular pastor is the head of the church, that is not true. Christ is the head of the church.  A person may be a leader or teacher, but Jesus is the head of the church.

At the end of John’s Gospel we find a passage of scripture that is read every year, on the Sunday after Easter. It is the familiar story commonly called the confession of doubting Thomas. You remember the way it went. After Jesus’ crucifixion,  the 11 disciples are hiding out in the upper room of a house near Jerusalem. Jesus had appeared to them on Sunday night of the first Easter.  But Thomas was not with them and could not believe that Jesus had appeared. Thomas tells his fellow disciples, “unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails, and my hand in his side, I will not believe.

So one week later, the 11 disciples, including Thomas  are in the locked room of the house again. Jesus appears among them and says to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”

Thomas’ answer is his confession of who Jesus is, “My Lord and my God.”  Jesus is our Lord and our God. And then Jesus says encouraging words for us who were not eye witnesses way back then, ”Blessed are those who have not seen, but have come to believe.”

          Do you believe that Jesus is God incarnate? Do you believe he is Emmanuel, God with us?  Like Thomas, would you be willing to exclaim, “My  Lord and my God.” Do you believe he is the head of the church?  If you know and believe these things, the blessed are you.

          Next week we will consider what difference Jesus makes in our lives. The “So What question.”  And two Sundays from now, we will answer the question, “So now what do we do?” In the mean time, remember who Jesus is, and think about who you are in bearing his name as a Christian.

Things Not Seen

THINGS NOT SEEN

Genesis  15:1-6; Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-34

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

In 1967, I was in the second grade, and way back then prayer was still a daily part of the opening of the school day. During one of those opening exercises, I remember being, for the first time in my life, embarrassed by my faith. Perhaps you remember the routine? After pledging allegiance to the flag and singing a patriotic song, we would sit down and “the voice” coming out of that black box high on the wall of the classroom would tell us to pray.

On that particular day, I bowed my head, folded my hands, and prayed… and prayed… and prayed. Pretty soon, I began to hear soft giggles; my classmates were chuckling. I opened my eyes to see what was so funny…and everyone, including my teacher, was staring at me. They were laughing because I was praying too long. I did not hear the command to stop praying. The children laughed at me; but I have kept the faith all these years.

If I said we are going to go around the room right now, and I was going to ask each one of you to answer the question, What is faith? Some of you would think that was just fine; you’ve got some ideas about what faith is—trust, belief, confidence, hope.

However, others of you might have quite a different reaction. Even though you know the answer, you might panic anyway, look quickly down at your feet. You might begin to pray exceedingly hard, “O Lord, O Jesus, please don’t let her call on me; please God. Please God! I’ll do anything you want, just make her not see me even though I’m sitting right in front of her! Let George answer…or Marion…or Frank or anybody! Please God! Make me invisible! Please God! Please God!” I know well that prayer of supplication; I used to pray that prayer in seminary a LOT! It works only about 50% of the time. Smile; today the odds are with you!

The book of Hebrews has the best definition of faith that a Christian could ever want: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Well, what does that mean? Faith is trust; faith fills us with hope; faith convinces us of a reality that though we cannot yet see it, we trust that it is as real as if it were standing right in front of us, 12 feet high and bright green.

God calls us to be faithful, and to prove this point, the author reminds us of Abraham who was called by God to leave his homeland, his father, his family, and everything that was familiar to Abe to go, as God said, “to a land that I will show you.”

God did not ask Abraham if he wanted to go or if he thought it was a good idea or if he might want a change of scenery. God said, “Leave, go, and I will show you. I want to give you all that my kingdom has to offer.”

It seems to me that Abraham exhibited the kind of belief that Jesus was teaching his disciples in our passage from Luke: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” There’s a reason to have faith in God—he’s got plans to give us all that the kingdom has to offer. What an awesome thing to live knowing that God has good gifts in store for us when we are faithful!

How appropriate this passage about faith is for us today. We are on the boundary of new territory because we made the difficult decision to go to a ¾ time pastorate at annual meeting. Instead of being downcast, sorrowful or embarrassed that we have had to take that step, let’s go another way: let’s dedicate our journey in this unfamiliar territory to the future God has planned for us.

We agreed to begin a formal venture toward transformation called “New Beginnings,” a program from Disciples of Christ denomination. The church council has a conference call this Tuesday night at 7:30 to learn more about this opportunity. Let’s join together in faith pursuing New Beginnings and the benefits it can bring to our congregation. Do not be afraid, my friends; join in no matter who you are or where you are on your personal faith journey: skeptics, bring your doubts; wonderers, bring your questions; curious, bring your inquisitiveness; enthusiasts, bring your energy; and believers, bring your assurance of things hoped for, your conviction of things not seen.

Are you ready for a new beginning? Are you willing, like Abraham, to step out of the familiar, to leave behind the struggles and weariness we’ve become accustomed to? Are you willing to become completely dependent on God, trusting that God has every intention to be with us on our unknown sojourn to a new beginning?

I am well aware that there is some grumbling among the congregation about this new program. “We’ve tried this before; it never works; nothing ever comes of it,” etc. I’m not letting that reaction stop my conviction in its tracks, neither am I going to give in to any negativity.

What I am doing, without any embarrassment for my faith, is to urge, cajole, beg, encourage, affirm, appreciate and plead with you to commit yourself to the future of our church, whether or not you’re a fan of the particular direction we are taking. I am praying, “Please God, please Lord, please Jesus, help my beloved congregation have faith in things we cannot yet see!”

By working together, doing whatever it takes, walking the walk and talking the talk, grumbling, mumbling, stumbling, side by side, until we reach the Promised Land that God longs to show us, we shall be triumphant, we shall live into the new beginning that God so wants to give us.

So now I am going around the room and asking each and every one of you to do the following, not for me but for the good of the kingdom:

·         never stop praying, even if people are laughing at you-- it’s impossible to pray too long or too much.

·         Never be embarrassed for believing in God’s promises of what is yet to be;

·         and always, always, always seek the kingdom of God first, for it is God’s good pleasure to give us all good things not seen. Amen.

August 11, 2013

First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME

The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

Would Be Followers

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14; Luke 9:51-62

“Follow me.”

image from Pinterest.com

Luke tells the story of three would-be followers of Jesus; they all had something in common: they had no idea the level of commitment it takes to be a follower of Jesus Christ. The first volunteer was completely clueless to the practical aspects of following Jesus…like not even having a settled place to sleep, but at least his heart was in the right place. The second and third had excuses that sounded like two other words many of us use in daily life: “but first….”

It’s pretty much a but-first world (you can do with that phrase what you want!) Before we make a commitment, doesn’t it always seem like there’s something else we have to do first? Is it because we want it all…or maybe we believe we have to have it all…or we need it all to have the good life we want? The “but-first let me…” comment reveals a difficult insight about our willingness to commit ourselves to Jesus. We don’t want to have to choose between his way of life and ours.

Let me give you an explanation from one of the world’s great theologians, Dr Seuss. 
The good doctor nailed the human condition in his “children’s stories”; his knack of doing so is probably the reason we never tire of his tales. Seuss wrote a poem about a character named Zoad whose struggle to make a chancy choice resembles our own resistance, too:
Did I ever tell you about the young Zoad? Who came to a sign at the fork of the road? He looked one way and the other way, too. The Zoad had to make up his mind what to do – Well, the Zoad scratched his head, and his chin, and his pants. – And he said to himself, "I’ll be taking a chance. If I go to Place One, that place may be hot, so how will I know if I like it or not? On the other hand, though, I’ll feel such a fool If I go to Place Two and find it’s too cool, In that case I may catch a chill and turn blue. So Place One may be best and not Place Two. Play safe," cried the Zoad, "I’ll play safe, I’m no dunce. I’ll simply start off to both places at once. And that’s how the Zoad who would not take a chance went no place at all with a split in his pants.

Split pants are one thing—they almost always can be mended; yet, a heart divided between the wants of this world and requirements of faithful discipleship usually makes one a would-be follower of Jesus…more like his fan, not his follower. Jesus does not need nor want more fans; he wants followers who commit themselves to living as he lived, loving as he loved, giving as he gave, and sacrificing as he sacrificed.
If you’re like me, you might be wanting to ask Jesus why following him has to be all or nothing. Why can’t we have it both ways, Jesus? Do you really expect us to drop everything, to change all our plans, to follow you? Well, yes, that’s exactly what Jesus expects.

The reason Jesus expects us to make the unconditional commitment to follow him is because what Jesus does makes a difference in the world…TODAY. Do not be fooled; this difference Jesus makes to our lives is not about what will or will not happen to us after we die. It is all about being Christ right now to the hungry, homeless, sick, poor, naked, addicted, lonely, widowed, orphaned, outcast and imprisoned.

A would-be follower will say to the hungry child, I will feed you, but first I have to go home and cook my family a meal. A real follower will take the hungry child home right away, and feed that child—and his family—at the followers’ own table. You see, action is key; when Jesus says, “Follow me,” he means, “Be me; be my body in the world right now.”

We have received new members into our church family this morning. You have made promises to us; we have made promises to you; yet the most important promise of all is the one we make to Jesus Christ: 

“I will follow you wherever you go” (Luke 9:57b).

 Being a part of the body of Christ is not about attending church; it’s about following Christ wherever he leads us and doing whatever he does.

When Christ says, “Follow me,” He asks no more of us than he did of his first followers: Peter and Andrew, James and John: they jumped out of their boats, laid down their nets, and never said “but first let me say good-bye to my father”; they followed him even though they had no idea where he was going, what each day would bring or how it would all end in Jerusalem.

Think about Mary. When God sent his messenger to this young girl, she gave over her body, her reputation, her very self to give life to God’s Son—“let it be with me according to your word,” she said.

The Body of Christ, real followers of Jesus, daily lay down their nets, leave their boats, and hand over their bodies for his use. “Let it be with us according to your word,” real followers say.

Are you a would-be follower, yet desire to be a real follower of Jesus? Then an examination is necessary. Ask yourself: Does Jesus make a noticeable difference in my life? Can others see him in me? Do the grace, mercy and love of God made incarnate in Jesus override my plans, dreams, and hopes? Does my faith shape my life, or do I shape my faith to fit my life?
I think these are very important and intriguing questions to pose to this body of Christ, as we are about to go into our annual meeting and make decisions that will deeply affect the ways we minister in Jesus’ name for the next year and beyond. Our choices, played out in our votes, will likely reveal whether we are would-be followers, could-be followers or real followers of Jesus Christ.

Is it fair for us to stand around scratching our heads and chins, wondering what to do when Jesus is urgently calling to us, “Follow me”? Shall we put our hands to the plow and look back on our glory days, or shall we plow ahead, in a straight line for Jesus, and give all the glory to God by serving his son in the fox holes of faith?

The choice is not simple but it is life-changing, life-expressing: forget about trying to go in two directions at once; let’s turn our faces, with Jesus, toward Jerusalem. Let’s choose to be a church not of Zoads; but of chance-taking Christians, real followers of Jesus Christ; it makes all the difference to the world. Amen.



June 30, 2013
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

Why Should We Tithe?

This week's sermon was, again, preached by the leader of our Men's Ministry, Mr . Thomas Leach. Thank you for another wonderful presentation! 


Malachi 3:8-10

Google courtesy photo 

We are entering that time of the year when we are going to approve a budget for 2014. I know all of you are getting excited when you hear that I am going to preach a message on tithing.

I consider myself a biblical preacher. Therefore, I will preach the full counsel of God. It is not an option for me; it is an obligation. 

Secondly, we would be keeping you from a great blessing if we did not preach on the subject of giving.

The Bible only deals with three things: 

•  Our relationship to God 
•  Our relationship to each other 
•  and to God's creation.

We call that stewardship. I do not neglect preaching on the other two things; and I will not neglect preaching on stewardship.

Stewardship takes in more than money. A. W. Fagan said, "Tithing is only a small part of what the Bible says about giving. And giving is only a small part of what the Bible says about stewardship."
It takes in our time, talents, and testimony. We have a responsibility to pass down an earth that is not polluted for our children.
However, for this sermon today I want to give a biblical basis for tithing.

I. TITHING WAS GOD'S PLAN.

I am not making this up as I go. There is a biblical basis for tithing.

1. The first step in tithing is acknowledging God's ownership. God owns everything. You can pretend it is yours all you want. However, I can assure you that you can lose it.

-God created man and woman and placed them in a furnished garden. They had everything they needed to survive. God told them they could eat of all the trees of the garden except one. That one tree was His tree.

-Guess what? They did not appreciate God's restriction. The Devil tempted them into believing they were missing something.

It was as if God gave Adam and Eve 10 apples. It was a gift to them. He wanted them to give one of the apples back to him. The reason for this is that they would acknowledge that all the apples belonged to Him, not just the one they gave Him.

Now here is the point; they would not have any of the apples had it not been for the graciousness of God. However, they sinned thinking God held out on them.

Do you believe God owns everything? If you are not tithing, you are not acting like it! He gives with one hand and expects us to put one back in His other hand.

-There was a large supermarket next to a church. The pastor asked if they could use some of the parking spaces on Sundays. The owner said, "You can use the spaces every Sunday of the year except one." The pastor said, "That's fine, but why can't we use it that Sunday?" The owner said, "Because I don't want you to forget that it is my parking lot!"

2. The second step in tithing is expressing our gratitude to God.

-In Genesis 14 a league of kings came up against Sodom. They plundered the city and took Lot as a hostage. One man escaped and told Abraham. He armed his servants and pursued the kings. He routed them by night, freed Lot, and took the bounty.

-The King of Salem met him and blessed him, priest of the Most High God. He blessed Abraham; and Abraham paid him tithes.
This is the first time tithing is mentioned in Scripture. Abraham was so grateful for the victory God had given him he would not even take any of the spoil.

We are entering that time of the year we call on God and thank him for his blessings. Do you have anything for which to be grateful? How do you express that gratitude to God?

-If Abraham commenced tithing, Jacob continued tithing. He had an experience with God and committed himself to tithe. Zacchaeus got right with the Lord and was willing to give back four times as much as he had taken. Jesus accepted him, and he was so grateful that his pocketbook flew wide open. There is something about getting right with God that elicits our giving.

II. GOD'S PLAN WAS PUT INTO PRACTICE.

1. Moses commanded the tithe. Leviticus 27:30, "The tithe is the Lords," "But preacher, tithing was under the law and we are under grace." It is a disgrace to grace that Christians should give less under grace than the Jews did under the law.
Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek before the law was ever written. The Christian lives on a higher plane than the law. It is the plane of love.

-By the way, marriage was before the law, as well. I will allow you to make your own application there. The point is they were both incorporated into the law.

-The word tithe means tenth. That formula simplifies our giving. You are to give God a tenth of what you earn. That makes giving fair. It does not matter how much you make, you can pull your share of the load by giving a tenth.

2. Jesus commended tithing.

-Matthew 23:23 "You ought to have done these things and not leave the other things undone." Jesus did not come to eradicate the law. He came to fulfill the law.

3. Paul challenged the churches with this message.

-1 Corinthians 16:2 "Upon the first day of the week let each one of you lay by in store as God has prospered him."

-The problem in our text is that the Jews had abandoned this practice. There was a curse upon the land. What could they do? They could bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.
This means if they wanted to solve the problem here is what you need to do. Bring your offering to God. How much of it! The whole of it! Where should I bring it? You are to bring it to God's house. Why should I bring it? Therefore, there will be meat in my house.

III. TITHING HELPS US TO FOCUS ON GOD'S PURPOSE.

We need to regain a balance today between those who ignore the tithe completely and those on the other hand who legalistically promote the tithe. The tithe may not be explicitly taught in the New Testament; but neither is it explicitly denied. As a Christian, you won't go to hell because you do not tithe. However, tithing does say something to God;
 Do we appreciate what He has done, is doing, and will do? 

 It says something about us. It lets us know where our priorities lie. It says something about our sacrifice, are we tithers or tippers? 

 It says something to other people. It says I care for you, It says we believe God's work is important.

-The purpose of the tithe is to grow us spiritually. The purpose of the tithe is so there will be meat in God's house. The Leviticus did not receive a portion of the land. They received the tithe from the other tribes so they could carry out the work of the Temple. When you tithe, you support your ministers and the ministry.

-U.S. News reported that the biggest givers to churches are between the ages of 65-and 74. If that is true, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that our churches are going to face some serious challenges in the future if other age groups do not pick up the slack.
-Are you doing your part to make sure the church and its message are getting out to the next generation?

IV. TITHING COMES WITH A PROMISE.

-Luke 6:38 says, "Give and it shall be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap.

1. God promises that when we tithe that He will consecrate the other 90%.

-You can do more with the 90% than you can by keeping 100%

2. God promises that He will bless us.

-There was a church in Oklahoma that guaranteed the members if they did not receive more than they gave, the church would refund their money. Today, I make you the same promise. If you do not receive more than you give to this church, the church in Oklahoma will refund your money.

Seriously, our motive for giving is not to receive more. However, if our attitude is right in our giving, God will open up the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.

The invitation this morning is from God. He says test me and see.

-You say, "I have never been challenged to tithe." 

You have now.

 I am asking you to commit to giving one tenth of your income to the Lord. If you accept this invitation, you will soon realize that tithing is not the end of our giving; it is only the beginning. 

I call it the teething stage for baby Christians. Soon you will be giving a tithe and an offering. (Remember, the tithe is His already. The offerings are what we give above the tithe.)

You say the economy is bad and I cannot afford to tithe. I say we do not tithe based on the economy. We tithe based on the promises of God. You cannot afford not to tithe!

-Did you wait until you could afford it to get married?
-If you wait until you can afford it, you will be like the couple in this poem.
The bride bent with age, leaned over her cane
Her steps uncertain needed guiding
While down the church aisle, with a wane, toothless smile, comes the groom in a wheelchair gliding
Who is this elderly couple thus wed
You will find when you closely explore it
This is that rare, most conservative pair
Who waited until they could afford it?


If you wait until you can afford it, you will never do it.

A Father's Love

Our Father's Day service was led by our Men's Ministry!

Thomas Leach shared the following sermon :

A small boy's definition of Father's Day: "It's just like Mother's Day only you don't spend as much."
Definition of a father... "A father is a man who carries pictures in his wallet where his money used to be."

Paul Harvey's definition of a father... "A father is a thing that is forced to endure childbirth without an anesthetic.... A father never feels worthy of the worship in a child's eyes. He is never quite the hero his daughter thinks, never quite the man his son believes him to be, and this worries him, sometimes. Therefore, he works too hard to try and smooth out the rough places in the road for those of his own who will follow him...Fathers are what give daughters away to other men who are not nearly good enough, so they can have grandchildren who are smarter than any body's is. ." --Paul Harvey

When God created man and woman, He said that it was good. He made them in His image and in His likeness. He put the wholeness of who He really is and divided it between the both of them. Together Mother's and Father's are a fine balance and representation of God! God reflects a side of his nature and identifies with women! 1. Unconditional Love 2. Extreme Patience 3. Deep Pain and Self Sacrifice 4. Nurturing Care

Men are so different!

One night a wife found her husband standing over their baby's crib. Silently she watched him. As he stood looking down at the sleeping infant, she saw on his face a mixture of emotions: disbelief, doubt, delight, amazement, enchantment, skepticism. Touched by this unusual display and the deep emotions it aroused, with eyes glistening, she slipped her arm around her husband. "A penny for your thoughts," she said. "It's amazing!" he replied. "I just can't see how anybody can make a crib like that for only $46.50." feb98
The lost art of fatherhood...

According to David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values in New York City and co-founder of the National Fatherhood Initiative: 
*Forty percent of American children currently do not live with their biological fathers. 
*Seventy percent of juveniles in state reform institutions grew up with one or neither parents. 
*Forty-three percent of adult inmates grew up in single-parent homes, mostly without dads.

It has been said, "A child is not likely to find a father in God unless he finds something of God in his father." Recently a pastor asked a preschool class in a Sunday school to draw a picture of God. He intended to use them as an illustration for his Sunday sermon. Toward the end of class, the children were excited to show him their work. They came up with rainbows and men with big hands. Finally, his daughter showed him her picture: a man with a suit and tie on. "I don't know what God looks like," she said, "so I just drew my daddy instead." What an awesome responsibility.

No father is perfect! Father's you are great people of influence in the lives of those little ones.
God through His Word models for us the picture of a great father.
Text: Luke 15:11-32

I. A Father's love physically provides for his family.

In the story of the prodigal son, you see the picture of the heart of Father God. You see in this heart that this father was one that provided well for his family.
Both sons had bright futures with personal promise and fulfillment because of their father's provisions.
Provision: "Mommy, if the stork brings us babies, and Santa Claus brings us presents, and the Lord gives us our daily bread, and Uncle Sam provides us with Social Security, why do we keep Daddy around?" jun98

It is the most natural thing for a father to take on the responsibility of providing for his family. It was so understood that it was a part of the teaching of discipleship.
Text: Phil 4:19

II. A father's Love is protective!

It is the kind of love that loves and let us goes! However, runs to the aid when necessary!

A man told this story about his teenage daughter, Misty. She was waitressing at a restaurant when we showed up with a group of friends. Soon we became engrossed in our food and conversation. Meanwhile, a man at a nearby table, probably 15 years Misty's senior, began flirting with her. She ignored his request for her phone number, but he persisted. Finally, she stopped what she was doing and leveled her gaze at him. "Do you see that man?" she said, motioning toward me. The patron turned in our direction. "That's my dad," Misty continues. "We have the same phone number. If you want it, get it from him."

However, not over protection! Therefore, our heavenly father is also protective!

III. A Father's Love is Authoritative

Notice that the father does not request a celebration he announces one and it happens.
His voice is rather authoritative.
Our bark though is really worse than our bite! The lion was proud of his mastery of the animal kingdom. One day he decided to make sure all the other animals knew he was the king of the jungle. He was so confident that he by-passed the smaller animals and went straight to the bear. "Who is the king of the jungle?" the lion asked. The bear replied, "Why you are, of course" The lion gave a mighty roar of approval. Next, he asked the tiger, "Who is the king of the jungle?" The tiger quickly responded, "Everyone knows that you are, mighty lion" Next on the list was the elephant. The lion faced the elephant and addressed his question "Who is the king of the jungle?" The elephant immediately grabbed the lion with his trunk, whirled him around in the air five or six times and slammed him into a tree. Then he pounded him onto the ground several times, dunked him under water in a nearby lake, and finally dumped him out on the shore. The lion--beaten, bruised, and battered--struggled to his feet. He looked at the elephant through sad and bloody eyes and said, "Look, just because you don't know the answer is no reason for you to get mean about it!" jan98

IV. A Father's Love is forgiving

A father's forgiveness is not prolonged!
It gets right to the point and moves on!
Notice that through out the entire time of his son's absence seek him for revenge or rescue. It does not matter what you have done. It does not matter how long you have done it. Now he does not take things lightly but if you truly come, seeking forgiveness it is yours.
God give you always a second chance.

Thomas Edison was working on a crazy contraption called a "light bulb" and it took a whole team of men 24 straight hours to put just one together. The story goes that when Edison was finished with one light bulb, he gave it to a young boy helper, who nervously carried it up the stairs. Step by step, he cautiously watched his hands, obviously frightened of dropping such a priceless piece of work. However, when the poor kid got to top of the stairs he accidentally dropped the bulb. It took the entire team of men 24 more hours to make another bulb. Finally, tired and ready for a break, Edison was ready to have his bulb carried up the stairs. Edison gave it to the same young boy who had dropped the first one. That is true forgiveness
God the Father is like that. He is continually giving us chances after forgiving us.

V. A Father's Love influences.

The younger son had discovered his true identity only in his father's house. His father had loved him enough to allow him to discover that for himself.
Now the older son did not value the identity he had so the father is tenderly teaching him.
Provides a role model.
Forgiveness, Trust, Acceptance, Guidance, wisdom.

Conclusion:

God made a real balance in the family of expressing His nature reflected through father and mother.
Men are you fulfilling your role as God intended.
Your love is really needed in your family and in the world today to truly represent God.

Kids need the love of their dads just as much as they need the love of their mothers. Marcy Lawrence of Richfield, Minnesota tells about one of her best friends in high school, Sue. Like many girls at that age, Sue had a steady boyfriend, and they saw each other several times a week. In addition, at night, when he would leave and back out of her parent's driveway, Sue would always flip the front-porch light on and off. When her father asked the reason, she explained that it was her way of saying, "I love you." 

A year after her high-school graduation, Sue decided to move into an apartment. One evening, as she pulled out of the driveway with the last load of her belongings, her father stood, somewhat emotional, at the front door, switching the porch light on and off, on and off, on and off. Dads, how do you sons and daughters know that you love them? How do you show it? How do you communicate it? One of the greatest gifts that you can give to your children is the knowledge that they are loved, fully and unconditionally by their father. 

In addition, there is some extra payoff when fathers openly and genuinely love their children...their children will find it much easier to relate to a heavenly Father, and to appreciate his love and acceptance...so dads, give your kids love...lots and lots and lots of love.

After a few of the usual Sunday evening hymns, the church's pastor once again slowly stood up, walked over to the pulpit, and gave a very brief introduction of his childhood friend. With that, an elderly man stepped up to the pulpit to speak, "A father, his son, and a friend of his son were sailing off the Pacific Coast," he began,
"when a fast approaching storm blocked any attempt to Get back to shore. The waves were so high, that even though the father was an experienced sailor, he could not keep the boat upright, and the three were swept into the ocean." The old man hesitated for a moment, making eye contact with two teenagers who were, for the first time since the service began, looking somewhat interested in his story. He continued, "Grabbing a rescue line, the father had to make the most excruciating decision of his life ... to which boy he would throw the other end of the line? He only had seconds to make the decision. The father knew that his son was a Christian, and he also knew that his son's friend was not. The agony of his decision could not be matched by the torrent of waves. As the father yelled out, 'I love you, son!' he threw the line to his son's friend. By the time he pulled the friend back to the capsized boat, his son had disappeared beyond the raging swells into the black of night. His body was never recovered." By this time, the two teenagers were sitting straighter in the pew, waiting for the next words to come out of the old man's mouth. 

"The father," he continued, "knew his son would step into eternity with Jesus, and he could not bear the thought of his son's friend stepping into an eternity without Jesus. Therefore, he sacrificed his son. How great is the love of God that He should do the same for us." 

With that,
the old man turned and sat back down in his chair as Silence filled the room. Within minutes after the service ended, the two teenagers were at the old man's side. "That was a nice story," politely started one of the boys, "but I don't think it was very realistic for a father to give up his son's life in hopes that the other boy would become a Christian."

"Well, you've got a point there," the old man replied, glancing down at his worn Bible. A big smile broadened his narrow face, and he once again looked up at the boys and said, "It sure isn't very realistic, is it? However, I am standing here today to tell you that THAT story gives me a glimpse of what it must have been like for God to give up His Son for me...

You see...I was the son's friend.

Let Life Come In

Let Life Come In!

I Kings 17:8-24; Luke 7:11-17

“Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.’”

When you raise a man from the dead, word about you tends to spread—fast and far, deep and near, it’s the compassion of the act we hear—and then each of us will wonder, where, O God, is my miracle?

Surely, the widows in both our passages this morning were wondering where their miracle was; they surely questioned why God had left them bereft and without protection from the ways of the world.        

To be a widow in biblical times, when the husbands are gone and then the sons, there is no one to protect the widow from abject poverty, to love away her loneliness, or to restore her faith after she abandons her hope.

 The widow of Nain would spend the rest of her days on the ledge of a living death. So when we read of widows’ tears, we must remember that her sorrow is not just the despair over a husband’s or child’s death, it is also a fear of the hungry, roaring lion lurking always at her door.

Picture the Lord as he reaches out his hand to touch the funeral bier—an act according to the Law that would render him ritually unclean—but Christ wasn’t thinking about the Law; he was thinking about the son…and he was empathizing with the woman. “You and I see the suffering of a widow at the loss of her son. What we do not see is the suffering of a woman who has lost everything. It is to this deeper suffering that Jesus speaks.”[1]

He was the embodiment of God’s compassion in that moment—the hands and heart, the legs and feet of a loving God who reached out to touch her right where it hurts, who walks beside us to share the weight of the burdens we cannot escape. “Don’t cry,” Jesus whispers; “Believe.” And life came in; the boy on the bier began to move and to speak. His shroud was shed, “and Jesus gave him to his mother” (Lk 7:14b).

The power of what faith can do was a normal, regular thing to Jesus, so in many respects he would not have thought of the raising of the Widow of Nain’s son as anything as mindboggling as a miracle. The witnesses in both processions—the ones heading into Nain and the ones heading out—they were the ones who spread that “m” word, miracle, all over Israel.

Neither Elijah nor Jesus was wearing one of those sign boards you once seen on homeless people in the city with words like, “The End is Near” or “Jesus is Coming.” The women could barely see straight for their despair; it’s highly unlikely they recognized either man as a miracle worker, nor as anything other than a regular ol’ Joe, let alone a great prophet of God.

When my step-father, Bob, moved in with us, I did not recognize who he was—a man sent from God—either. I didn’t really figure it out until he became sick—mesothelioma. Yet before he got sick, he was so good to all of us; but, of course, he was especially good, loving and kind to my mother. He respected her, he loved her. He even bought a big boat and named it after her! The Marcia Ann. When Bob married my mother, it was the happiest day of my life!

Bob did so many things for us; he took care of all the neglect we had experienced before—physically like putting a new roof on the house, fixing things, fixing us. For the first time in a very long time, everything worked in the house; everything worked with us as a family. Bob brought life into our house. He was a miracle to us, a gift of compassion from a gracious and loving God.

Bob was an Irishman, he did not get angry often, but when he got did, WOW! Clear the deck! But his anger was a righteous anger—almost always in defense of my mother. Elijah, I imagine, sounded like my step-father when he blasted one of us kids about the way we had treated my mother in some incident.

Elijah was incensed with God for rewarding the widow’s kindness to Elijah by killing her son. “Have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying?!!! O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again!” (1 Kings 17:21b).

After the diagnosis and learning what mesothelioma is, I prayed and prayed that God would spare my step-father. I had a dream one night. I was pushing a wheelbarrow in the dark, and at the end of a long road, bound on both side by tall evergreens, I went through a stone gate into a cemetery.

Crooked though they were, each grave had a cross on it, and all the crosses were gleaming white, so bright against the black, moonless night. I let go of the wheelbarrow, turned around and walked home, but the light stayed with me.

I do not have to interpret the dream; I know what it means. What I did not know at the time was that my prayers would lead me to identify the everyday miracle, the way God puts people in our lives, grants us blessings, works in our circumstances to bring life in and keep us going when we’d rather eat our last meal and die.

The Widow of Zarephath and the Widow of Nain were real people. Just like them, all of us have suffered losses in our lives that have near destroyed us…and yet...God provides the miracle by sending the one we need. Hear God’s compassion for you in your pain: “Don’t cry; believe.”

Jesus is the one whom God gives us that we may learn how to let life come inside us, where wheelbarrows of our hurts and disappointments and frustrations are filled to overflowing and weigh us down so grievously.  

What’s in your wheelbarrow? Wheel it to God; give it to God. Take up instead the simple tools of faith, like the widow’s last little bit of meal and oil, and trust God to feed you with all that you need for each day. Such shall then be your testimony.

Show others who hunger and are heavy-laden the same Christ-like compassion you have received. There are many invisible sufferers in our midst, they still cry to the Lord and weep, Where, O God, is my miracle?

Look in the mirror, brothers and sisters. You, me, we are their miracle. Raising people from the dead can be an everyday occurrence. Touch the bier, and those who mourn shall surely feel the hand of God and the compassion of Christ coming through just regular ol’ you and me. Are you ready for a miracle? Amen.

 

June 9, 2013

First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME

The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

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[1] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 3, Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1, p 117.