The Sorrow Tree

Mark 1:12-13

He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts;

and the angels waited on him.

Winston Churchill once said, “If you're going through hell, keep going.

Chippie the parakeet never saw it coming. One second he was peacefully perched in his cage. The next he was sucked in, washed up, and blown over.

The problems began when Chippie's owner decided to clean Chippie's cage with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She'd barely said “hello” when “swwwooooooooooppppppppp!” Chippie got sucked in. The bird owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag. There was Chippie—still alive, but stunned.

Since the bird was covered with dust and dirt, she grabbed the little bird and raced to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and held Chippie under the running water. Then, realizing that Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do...she reached for the hair dryer and blasted the pet with hot air.

Poor Chippie never knew what hit him.

A few days after the trauma, the reporter from the Galveston Press who had initially written about the event contacted Chippie's owner to see how the parakeet was recovering.

“Well,” she replied, “Chippie doesn't sing much anymore—he just sits and stares.”¹

The unfortunate story of Chippie the Parakeet has been told and retold by preachers and motivational speakers—who are not always the same people, by the way—for many years now. I can picture poor Chippie as each calamity arrived so quickly, so unexpectedly—the tornado and then the dust storm, the monsoon rain and then the hurricane—all of it leaving little Chippie less than chipper. On his perch, the parakeet tends just to sit there and stare. Poor, poor Chippie. The storms of life had stolen his song.

We can be sucked in, washed up, and blown over by life, too. None of us is immune from calamity. It crawls in under the cover of cancer, slithers forward with a smile on its face and then, at just the right moment, strikes with fangs and poisons so painful we cannot even find the breath to scream. It shakes our hands and twists our financial arms behind our backs so fast we are trapped. We can only sit and stare. Somewhere through the wild storms, our songs may be silenced, too.

The wildness experience of life is an equal-opportunity employer; none of us completely escapes. Jesus walked his lonesome valleys; he hungered in the wilderness; he questioned God's reasons--and so shall we: Why God? Have you forsaken me? Why that traumatic childhood abuse; why that difficult diagnosis; why the loss of love or the loss of my loved one; why trials and tribulation; why such insidious temptation coming at me to gain what I should not possess; why did I eat of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge; why not trade all my sufferings upon a tree of sorrow?

So it was that when the Hasidim pilgrims vied for those among them who had endured the most suffering, who was the most entitled to complain, the Zaddck told them the story of the Sorrow Tree. On the Day of Judgment each person will be allowed to hang one's unhappiness and sufferings on the branches of the great Tree of Sorrows. After all have found a limb from which their miseries may dangle, they may all walk slowly around the tree. Each person is to search for a set of sufferings that he or she would prefer to those he or she has hung on the tree.

In the end, each one freely chooses to reclaim his or her own assortment of sorrows rather than those of another. Each person leaves the Tree of Sorrows wiser than when he or she arrived.²

Mark expends very little space to Jesus' temptation in the wilderness—thirty-three words!--when Matthew gives six verses. Does this mean that Mark is disinterested in the wilderness part of Jesus' journey? Is he more eager to just get on with the healing and teachings of Jesus? We might be tempted to draw this conclusion and give the whole “Temptation of Jesus” episode the same amount of brain power as it takes in the time to read verses 12 and 13. However, that would be a mistake. Mark does consider the wilderness temptations extremely important, just examine the language he uses.

Jesus didn't happily walk into the wilderness, drying his hair from the river and wondering where he would spend the night. This wilderness test was not just another item on Jesus' to-do list. Mark says the Spirit “drove him out” immediately! I see pushing and shoving, jabbing with sharp weapons in those words. In “Tempted by Satan,” I see relentless and harsh spiritual battering of the Lord, bruising him, bearing down on him without one break in the severity of Satan's salacious temptations, so that Jesus could barely catch his breath let alone gather his wits about him.

Picture it: Jesus has the driving Spirit and Satan, too, but then Mark adds the detail of wild beasts—I see saber-toothed evil around every rock and behind every bush, waiting to pounce hard and heavy with one intent only: to devour Jesus. Wild beasts in the ancient world were often considered the harborers of demons unleashed and frenetic, roaring and warring. The only comfort Jesus had came from angels who waited on him—maybe they dressed his wounds, but they could not prevent him from being wounded. And for 40 days, the Lord's pains and sorrows collected in one long chain of misery. Jesus was going through hell the whole time, yet he kept on going. He didn't stop, sit and stare. Jesus loaded up his sorrows and marched out into the wildness of civilization, to do what God sent the Son here to do: not to condemn the world—not to steal its song and end its life—but to save the world.

Satan and the wild beasts may have thrown everything possible at Jesus to break his spirit, end his mission and thwart God's plan for humanity; but in the end, Satan failed; he could not steal the Savior's song.

Sin can steal our song like nothing else. We are vulnerable, but we are not to give up; we are created for great things, not to spend the rest of our days sitting and staring, chirping out a note once in a while.

We all will travel in and out of songless wildernesses, yet shall we triumph, We all are vulnerable to the world's devils, yet we shall triumph. We all are prone to temptation, YET, triumph we shall because that is God's plan of salvation for us through faith in his Son, Jesus our Christ, who died on the cross, the ultimate tree of sorrow.

Jesus--taking all our sins and sorrows upon himself—was hung on that tree; he died on in our place so that we may live to sing God's praises not just for another day, but for forever.

The journey to the Tree of Sorrow is the purpose of the season of Lent; no matter how sucked in, washed up and blown over we may physically or spiritually be, Jesus has saved us from a silent and certain death. How can we keep from singing? We are wiser for taking this Lenten journey to the Sorrow Tree. Now we know that there will come the day, one glorious, triumphant day, when “poor, poor” Satan will be the one who never knew what hit him. Amen.

February 26, 2012

First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, Maine

The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

1Lucado, Max. In the Eye of the Storm: A Day in the Life of Jesus. Nashville, TN. 1991, p 11.

2Cavanaugh, Brian. TOR, The Sower's Seeds found at www.inspirationalstories.com.

TRANSFIGURATION

Mark 9:2-9

“This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”

Even people with perfect hearing need hearing aids—perhaps not the kind that increases the decibels of a speaker, but the kind of aid that fulfills the first duty of love: the first duty of love is to listen.”¹ The syndrome of selective hearing is perilously “high-pedestaled” in our world; its roots burrow deeply—and with our permission. Is it not a sign of success … status... and superiority to multitask impressively, to use personal listening devices in spite of the occasion, and to flash the latest version of Apple technology indiscriminately?

Selective hearing, however, is not just a syndrome of the times; listening has been a challenge to humanity for centuries.

The story is told of King Edward VII. His grandson, Prince David, and the King had a good relationship. Still, David was a child, and adults in England during that period, particularly royalty, were not known to be attentive listeners to children. At dinner one evening, Prince David tried unsuccessfully to get his grandfather's attention. The child was reprimanded immediately for interrupting the king's conversation, so the child sat in silence until eventually he was given permission to speak. When the king asked the prince what he wanted, the young boy said, “It's too late now, grandpapa. It was a caterpillar on your lettuce, but you've eaten it.”²

When I was Youth Pastor in Georgetown, MA, I was given the opportunity to preach once every other month. First Congregational Church has a large sanctuary, complete with exposed beams and upper balcony. There was a good sound system to compensate for the expanse. One summer day, in the middle of a sermon, a husband and wife got up from their pew toward the back of the room and marched forward, to the third pew from the front. Everybody noticed; I kept preaching but my eyes were focused on them. When they reseated themselves, the wife shot me a poisoned flaming arrow with both eyeballs.

After worship, she treated me to one of those exotic excursions up one side of me and down the other. “I can't hear you; you need to speak up!” Turned out, Mrs H had eaten a caterpillar. The next week she secretly, sheepishly, confessed to me that the week before, when she “persnicketedly” paraded down the aisle, the real problem turned out to be that her hearing-aid batteries had died.

When Jesus paraded Peter and James and John up a high mountain, our Lord had been telling these disciples that he would soon suffer and die yet his message was rejected by them. Such teaching was simply too painful to hear, too hard to conceive; it was unbearable news. So, Peter took him aside and began to take Jesus on one of those exotic excursions (Mk 8:32a). Peter and the brothers James and John could hear what the Lord said, yet they would not listen. They were failing at the first duty of love.

Each of us can recall a time when we were too preoccupied with our own issues to listen to someone who needed us to hear them. Listening, authentic listening, requires us to put down, tune out, move away from anything that distracts our listening to the one who desperately wants us to hear them.

Writer and preacher Charles Swindoll once found himself with too many commitments in too few days. He got nervous and tense about it.

“I was snapping at my wife and our children, choking down my food at mealtimes, and feeling irritated at those unexpected interruptions through the day....Before long, things around hour home started reflecting the patter of my hurry-up style. It was becoming unbearable.

“I distinctly remember after supper one evening, the words of our younger daughter, Colleen. She wanted to tell me something important that had happened to her at school that day. She began hurriedly, 'Daddy, I wanna tell you somethin' and I'll tell you really fast.' Suddenly realizing her frustration, I answered, 'Honey, you can tell me, and you don't have to tell me really fast. Say it slowly.' I'll never forget her answer. 'Then listen slowly.'”³

People in general spend about 40% of our waking hours listening, yet most of the time we are listening at 25% of our actual capacity. Here are three hearing aids that will help all of us:

• Listen with your eyes. Approximately 80% of communication is nonverbal. Facial expressions and body language usually tell the real story. Look at people when you listen to them.
• Listen with your heart. Be sympathetic. Tune into the emotions behind the words.
• Listen to the people around you—your family, your friends, your coworkers, even strangers. Every moment of every day each of us wants not only to tell our story but to have our story really heard.

Listening is hard work. Peter, James and John found that out. They loved hearing what Jesus had to say until Jesus said some things that were too hard—not just to hear, but also to bear for the words filled them with fear and the meaning was not clear. No wonder they were so frightened on the Mount of Transfiguration! Enters God, in a cloud.

I was in the mountains near North Conway earlier this week. It is hard to take in the complete view when one is driving. If you get lost in the awe of God's creation, you're apt to crash right into it! Winding through a steep mountain road, I could see ahead of me the presidential range, and there was the snow I've been longing to see, shining so brightly before me even though the distance was very far.

Thing about the mountains—whether in New Hampshire's February or Montana's July—is that clouds, dark or bright, can become suspended there, along the steep peaks and hidden plateaus—so that they actually seem to lay down upon the mountains, reposing to consider their next flight.

“Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” (Mk 9:7). If the first duty of love is to listen, then the Christian's primary duty is to listen to Christ. To listen truly to Jesus Christ means this: to trust what he says, to use what he teaches, and to practice what he preaches. Christ is the beloved Son, the only Son, and God sent the Son to us not only to suffer and die for our sin, but after three days to rise again so that death is conquered and we who live in him also rise. God's love for us through the sacrifice of his son, the only son, must not be kept under cover, locked up in temples and tabernacles, frozen in sanctuaries and mosques.

God's message through Jesus Christ is meant to transfigure the world—to change the world in which we live so that it shines, shines, shines. Jesus is the light of the world, and his light is spread not by building booths to hold him in and keep him for our eyes and ears only, but by speaking his word in ways that the deaf may hear, the blind may see, the prisoners, freed; the sick, healed; the hungry fed; and the thirsty satisfied—beyond all measure.

To Christ, let us listen with our eyes—to see what the Lord desires to show us. Let's listen with our hearts, to receive and believe in God's Son, the beloved. Let's listen to him!”

What does Christ have to say to us that we need to hear?

Perhaps Christ wants to talk with us about how we are treating family members, co-workers or friends. Maybe he wants to talk to us about our discipleship or our faithfulness to his Church? He may want to talk with us about some undesirable behavior that has crept into our life. Or maybe, and quite likely, Christ wants to offer us encouragement as we live our lives.

The time is now for the syndrome of selective hearing to give way to the power of elective hearing. We lay ourselves down on God's mountain, we listen to the Son's teaching and desire to understand; and as clouds move out, we shine with God's great light; and we can do it with our own two hands, and our own two feet, when we listen with our own two eyes, and our own two ears, responding to the message we have heard from the one true heart that loves us all.

Friends, check your batteries. Listen slowly! To hear is to see, and to see is to know, and to know is to love, and to love is of God. If we fulfill the first duty of love and listen, we won't be eating any more caterpillars and better than that, we shall hear the voice of the Lord, for God is truly still speaking. Amen

February 19, 2012

The First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME

The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

1Paul Tillich, 1886-1965, a German-American theologian.

2John Kramp, Getting Ahead by Staying Behind (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1997), p 137.

3Bits & Pieces, June 24, 1993, pp. 13-14.

BOW THE KNEE

Mark 1:40-45

A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.”

The leper came to Jesus begging him, kneeling in front of him. This untouchable knew what he was asking, thus he begged; and he knew of whom he was asking it, thus he kneeled. There's no doubt in the leper here. When he uses the “if” word, it's not the way you might be thinking. The “if” is not a word of uncertainty. The “if” is a statement of faith. “Teacher, I know that you have the power and authority to make me clean; there's no doubt in my mind that 'if you choose, you can make me clean'” (Mk 1:40).

Where did the leper come by his faith? He certainly did not get it from his religion. After all, leprosy was a punishment from God. Moses had said so. According to the Old Testament book of Leviticus (13:45, et al), the person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!'”

In one touch of Jesus' healing hand, with one soft and cleansing caress, not only is the leper healed of his disease, but he is also restored, body and soul, not just to health: he is alive again to family, community, and temple. The leper is brought back to life—working and worshiping and living among those to whom, the moment he was diagnosed,he was as good as dead. In fact, no one on the “inside” even knew if the one they had cast “outside” was dead or alive, nor did they care much, so long as they themselves did not sin before the synagogue.

We are much more enlightened nowadays, we have so much more knowledge about medicine and diseases and healing. We have made the connection between body and spirit and have started attending to the needs of each for the one who is ill. We have figured out that the touch to patient's body, mind and spirit—these three—is all important. Attending to all these needs can make a huge difference between curing and healing, surviving and thriving, wholeness and holiness.

Today, there hang on doors to patients' hospital rooms canvas bags with pockets in them, and each pocket contains a different supply for the staff and visitors to put on or use before having contact with the patient. In one pocket are yellow plastic gowns, another face masks, another holds gloves and still another looks like it holds some clear tubing. Outside every room is a canister that dispenses antibacterial foam, which we use before we enter that room and after we leave it.

When I was first starting out in chaplaincy last fall, I came to a room with this apparatus on the door, I confess that a couple of times I passed that patient by. I was worried, I guess, that I might catch physically whatever contagion that patient had, and I walked on. Yet, not two steps did I take before I felt it: that crashing, crushing wave of guilt. I felt my steps grow heavy, and my heart felt even heavier. I had let a millisecond of doubt in the form of the big question, What if? deter me from my mission.

Unlike the leper, my “if” was not a statement of faith; it was a matter of spiritual malfeasance. And so I went back, not to the rooms but to the people. So many hands reached out for mine—some were shaking from weakness brought on perhaps by age or alcoholism; some could not look at me and some could not understand why I was there. Yet even those who could not speak nor find courage, reached out for the touch of a hand, the touch of a hand that was not mine but his.

Compassion is not a requirement, a law; a mandate; it is the open door of discipleship. Compassion is the cross upon which Christ's disciples carry the leprous ills of humankind before the Lord, begging because we know the depth of what we are asking and kneeling because we know the glory of whom we are asking. If you choose, Lord, to make us clean then we exchange ritual for righteousness, we are liberated for your work and humbled by your majesty.

As the dreaded disease slid off the leper's oozing skin, so did the perpetual, painful punch of being banished from community begin to slide from his spirit. The man who had become a leper, unclean before all, becomes a man again, acceptable and accepted. And yet, God's son, who had become a man to make us all clean became unclean, unaccepted and unacceptable, in that one gesture of extending his hand. When Jesus touched the leper, Jesus exchanged places with him. Jesus took the man's un-cleanness upon himself, and he carried it the same way he carried the sins of humankind, our sins, to the cross. Why did he do it?

Christ's ministry in the world was all about touching peoples' souls for God; for bringing hearts and minds living outside in rejection by choice or by shunning to the center of the healing, holy circle of the beloved community that God created for all.

Pay attention. Christ did not heal because he was supposed to, he healed because he wanted to. IT is his choice. Look again at verse 41: “Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean.”

Knowing who the Lord who gives you life is and what it is that the Lord requires of you is to be touched by holiness. We are changed. We may be loathed to kneel in subservience to earthly powers, but there is no better way to come before heaven. Bow the knee. In every gift—in every poverty—in every circumstance and every victory, bow the knee. I leave you with the words of a Christian hymn that has come to mean so much to me:

There are moments on our journey following the Lord Where God illumines ev’ry step we take. There are times when circumstances make perfect sense to us, As we try to understand each move He makes. When the path grows dim and our questions have no answers, turn to Him. *Bow the knee; Trust the heart of your Father when the answer goes beyond what you can see. Bow the knee; Lift your eyes toward heaven and believe the One who holds eternity. And when you don’t understand the purpose of His plan, In the presence of the King, bow the knee. There are days when clouds surround us, and the rain begins to fall, The cold and lonely winds won’t cease to blow. And there seems to be no reason for the suffering we feel; We are tempted to believe God does not know. When the storms arise, don’t forget we live by faith and not by sight. Bow the knee.... February 12, 2012 !st Parish Federated Church The Rev Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

SOMEONE WE CAN FOLLOW

When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.”

A woman in St Petersburg, Florida, saw the image on a potato chip; someone else saw it on a piece of toast. Another saw it in a water stain. A couple in Canton, Ohio, thought they saw it in the wood grain of a door in their house. The image was so striking that the couple cut it out of the door and took it with them when they moved to another house, because just the thought of it encouraged them.

What is this image all these folks have seen that they cannot bear to part with it: “it” is the image of Jesus Christ. Usually these images make the news; are auctioned on Ebay; or even passed on to give encouragement to others, as was the case with the image in the wooden door. In an NBC online poll, 41% of the people who responded concerning the image claimed that they saw Jesus, too. It makes sense that Jesus' image should appear in a door, after all, Jesus did say, “I am the door” (John 10:7).

Have you ever noticed how often Jesus appears on the covers of Time and Newsweek? Statistics have shown that when Jesus appears on the cover, there is a spike in the magazines' sales. Considering the cultural conversation these days, Jesus is still a very popular person. If we can find him in a taco, a cheese puff and a potato chip, people must be looking pretty hard to find him.

Why look for Jesus in a rock slide, tree trunk or building reflection? Perhaps we are looking for the same miracles that all those who brought their sick and demon-possessed families and friends to the home of Simon Peter's mother-in-law. The word of Christ's whereabouts and the miracle he performed for the woman must have spread like wildfire through the countryside because within a matter of hours, Mark tells us, “That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door” (v 32).

The townspeople were smart to seek the Son of God, for Jesus came out from behind the door, and then and there “cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons” (v34a). The people kept arriving all through the night; good news travels fast even without Facebook, twitter and email.

People of the 21^st century are not so different from those who lived in the 1st century. Everyone needs

to heal, to get rid of the demons that have taken up residence in our bodies and minds, hearts and souls. How desperate we are to find him, for many marvel at the miracle of his face on the facade of a building, a tree root or a brain scan. Such things make the news, sell magazines and gets the world wondering. How is it that we can see his face on the inside of an orange but not acknowledge his sacrificial love bleeding out on a tree? Why is it that we will be healed by Jesus of the deadliest disease of all, sin, and yet not respond to this unmerited gift of being saved from death as Peter's mother-in-law did by getting up at once and serving him? Serving Jesus means to follow him not only during the times we are confident and secure but most especially in the dark nights of faith, terrifying times of wandering in spiritual wildernesses, and across the many battlefields in life.

In December 1944, the US Army and its Allies were on the offensive. For six months they had rolled on with relentless precision across Western Europe. There seemed to be no stopping them. But suddenly one day in that December, a major portion of the mighty Allied juggernaut ground to a halt. A brilliant counter offensive had been launched by the Germans.

A few days before the Allied operation, German soldiers dressed in American uniforms, together with American jeeps, were parachuted behind American lines. They carried no weapons; their only mission was to discover the roads over which reinforcing Allied armies might travel and change all the signs which pointed to strategic towns and villages. And this simple task of turning signposts to give wrong directions had deadly consequences.

When the Allies called for help as the Germans attacked during in the Battle of the Bulge, many of the reinforcements never arrived. You see, whole battalions were lost trying to find their way across a countryside where the signposts were either down or turned in the wrong direction.

We live in a time when many of the important signposts have been torn down or turned around—moral signposts, ethical signposts, theological signposts. It is no wonder that we lose our way in life; it is no surprise that many believe they are following Christ onto the serving fields, yet find themselves lost and defenseless on the battlefields because they thought they saw his image on a slice of toast, a dried and brittle leaf, a cookie. Some elements of our daily lives have caused us to go in wrong directions. We are so easily fooled, so inexplicably lost, so utterly confused.

Jesus has told us where to find him. He is with the sick, the hungry, the oppressed; the frightened, the lonely, the lost. No image can cure ailments give strength or protect from harm—even if you cut a hole in the door and carry that image with you wherever you go. Only the saving Lord, the one real healer and the granter of amazing grace will do. Imagery in water stains and rock slides can never bring and be Christ to the sick and sorrowing, the hurt and the hungering, the frightened and the thirsty; no, that ministry belongs to those of us who keep our eyes on him, follow him in the direction he leads, serve those along the way who desperately need to personal touch of God.

Yesterday, as I was beginning to write this sermon, I was called to the hospital, to ICU, where a gravely ill woman and her family had just been through a horrendous night. I did not know them; I may never see them again, for the patient was going to be transported to a hospital in Boston to save her life.

As I leaned over the bed to let her know a chaplain was with her now, I looked into her frightened eyes. I held her hand and her grip on mine let me know that she would not let go. She was intubated and could not speak with her voice, but she said volumes to me with her eyes.

A chaplain goes into a hospital ICU with clear and certain purpose during a most uncertain time: to bring the presence of God, the power of prayer and the gift of strong faith to the person in the bed and those gathered around it.

The one thing I was most aware of at that particular time, yesterday, was that I was a vessel for the presence of Christ to flow through. We are not the Christ, yet the Christ can be seen and felt in us, through us, around us. I needed and wanted to be the living image of Christ for this woman in that hour. In other words, I turned myself over to Jesus, so that it was he in my eyes looking into her eyes. It was his hand with my hand holding onto her hand.

If 41% of pollsters can see Christ's image in a piece of wood, then it seems pretty clear to me that they are desperate to see him; so desirous are they that they settle for an inanimate image. How unsettling this knowledge should be for those who serve the Lord. If everyone is looking for Jesus, then the way for him to be found is embodied in the living flesh and blood of those who follow him to serve him.

When Peter went out early that morning to hunt for the missing Jesus, he went out because he was nervous about the crowds gathered around his mother-in-law's house. Peter was very anxious about the innumerable needs of the people, and he was fearful of what they might do if they learned that the healer they sought was not available to them. Simon found Jesus in prayer, and he was a bit impertinent with the Lord. “Everyone is searching for you” (v 37). If only Peter had understood that Christ could comfort and heal through him, perhaps he would have avoided his anxious fever and done as his mother-in-law had done, that is, to rise up and begin to serve the Lord's people himself.

Christ is the Lord, someone we can follow all of our days. There is much to be done, and the path is not always level and smooth. There will be rough places to travel; mountains to climb and battlefields to cross for the sake of the one who poured out his life on the cross and then rose from the dead. Christ is Lord and invites us to his table today, that we may eat and drink of his passion, filled with his spirit to serve all those who are in need of a Savior. When we come to this table of the Lord, let us eat his body and drink his life's blood, that he may love and heal, forgive and uplift all who are looking for the direction, power and strength that only the Son of God can give. Be the eyes, be the hands, , be the very image of Christ alive in this world. Amen.

February 5, 2012

First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME

The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

The Desire of Your Heart

Matthew 6:19-21, 25, 33;

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Let's play a game of Family Feud. Forget about the feuding part but try to guess how Americans on an informal survey answered this question: What is it that keeps you up at night? Family? X! Health?
X!X! Food, Shelter, Clothing? X!X!X!

The Number One Answer to ‘What keeps you up at night?” Survey Says: Money.

Between 2007 and 2009, a survey said that the number one thing that was keeping Americans up at night was money. That answer probably does not come as a surprise to any of us. We are in the midst of the worst financial times in this country since the Great Depression. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in Washington, DC wrote a 673-page report as to the causes of these terrible financial times. Not surprisingly, the causes fell along party lines, with the Democrats blaming Greed, and the Republicans claiming that banks were demanded to make home loans to folks who could not really afford them. The FCIC report was probably 672 pages too long for all that we gained from it.

Through these difficult days, even if we are among those who have done everything right, we are still affected by the pulsing pain of the economic hardship gripping our country. It is the rare person, I think, who is not worrying about money these days. We have all been witnesses to or even knocked down by the dominoes of over-consumption as they fall one after another these days. In one way or another, large or small, each of us has played a part in the out-of-control financial situation our country is in.

We have lived in this nation these past prosperous years on three assumptions: (1) our income will always go up; (2) the stock market will always go up; and (3) housing prices will never go down. When I bought my condo in 2006, I was so happy that I was making this investment and it was going to provide for my future—I was going to be set for life! I don't even dare find out how much my home is not worth any more.

Our lives become out-of-control when we take as timeless truths our over-assumptions, and when we get caught up in over-consumption of something (anything), whether it's money, food, sex, possessions. If we want to get a handle on what's going on in our financial world then the answer is not to budget better, invest smarter, or save more. The best way, or perhaps the only way, to get at the root causes of all that is keeping us up at night is to examine our issues through the voice of spiritual language.

According to the Catholic Church, there are seven deadly or cardinal sins; they are “deadly” because these particular sins put our salvation in danger. The first three sins as we know them today are lust (Gr. luxuria), gluttony (Gr. gula), and greed (Gr. avaritia). Whatever we lust after, we shall never be satisfied; however much we consume nor how fast we eat and drink of it, we shall never be filled; and no matter the extent of our riches and possessions, we shall never have enough. Spiritually, we are out of control when we engage in these behaviors because we leave no room for God; we have no desire to seek God first.

Jesus in Matthew 6:19-21(p 6) is very clear about where we need to focus our desires so that salvation shall be ours. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

When Jesus spoke these words, remember that he was talking to thousands of peasants and people scourged by sickness, sin, selfishness and demons of all types. They were simply folks like you and me who were looking for antidotes to their first-century out-of-control lives. In our humanity, we are all vulnerable to the same sins. We have to make spiritual choices about where we place our treasure. Placing our “treasure” in front of God means we add idolatry to our sins. The Bible is full of examples of people making egregious mistakes, committing heartbreaking sin because they take their focus off God and place it onto earthly, fleshly desires. Adam and Eve lusted after the forbidden fruit; the Israelites worshiped a golden calf and pagan gods; and today we get caught up in a desire to worship our desires. Why?

What we know about humanity is that it is easier to put our faith in gods we can see rather than a God we cannot. Golden apples, golden calves and golden bank accounts—all are a reflection of our culture's encouragement to desire more, more, more. Yet, the God who commanded us to honor the sabbath, to say no to lesser things so that we can say a greater yes to God, to trust that God will keep the promise to be with us always no matter what, has one more antidote for the out-of-control lives: “Strive first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Mt 6:33, p 6).

What things is Jesus talking about? Look at verses 31 and 32: Do not worry about what we will eat or what we will wear or what we will drink because God knows that we need these things, but strive first for the kingdom of God....” In one sentence we have the secret to the conundrum of why less is usually more.

Less is more when we worship God and not our desires. Less is more when God is in first place, not last. Less is more when our hearts weigh all our actions and our attitudes, our pursuits and our purchases, on the scales of God's kingdom and righteousness. When we are generous toward God, God delights in our faithfulness; God knows that we have our priorities and our desires straight. When we are faithful with a little, God will give us much more. Therefore, less is more.

Take your own internal survey and ask yourself, Is my concern about my earthly treasures keeping God up at night? If you and I serve our treasures, our desires, before we serve God, then we are turning away from God, and that's what keeps God “up at night.”

God wants us first. And God wants to be first in our lives. If we would rather not be devoured by moths and rust, if we do not want to lose ourselves to a thief that can steal our souls as well as our treasures, then it's time to take God's word seriously. In order to strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, there are three steps to take.

The first step is best described by the Greek word: metanoia. Metanoia is the moment when we suddenly realize we have been moving in the wrong direction. Metanoia means to repent, turn back to God. All of us are probably in need of repenting with some or all of our treasures. Repentance with our treasures is not about making a new budget, moving our investments, or fully funding our IRAs . The tithe is treasure repentance. The Bible is full of commandments to bring the first fruits, the first tenth of one's treasures to God. The promise in is that we will receive even more treasures in return.

Sacrifice your best lamb, a tenth of your fields of grain, or a few pigeons, and God will return to that one a multitude in return. We're not much into sacrificing lambs these days, but neither are many of us in the habit of sacrificing a tenth of our treasures, either. Yet, the tithe is what God requires. God is not interested in our lambs and grain. God is interested in our attitude that we should bring with gladness the best of who we are and what we have been given to honor God, to say in effect, “God I bring my very best to you because you are the most important treasure in my life. I seek you first.”

Go home today and look at your treasures. Do you pay God first? Is the first check you write from your paycheck to God? Do you give to God cheerfully or resentfully? It makes a huge difference.

We live in difficult economic times. It's natural to want to hang on to our treasure to protect ourselves. We want to make sure we have more than enough to meet any needs that might arise. We store up whenever we can and whatever we can because we afraid, anxious, worried, stressed.


Storing up treasures on earth is not the antidote to the out-of-control life. Relying on ourselves to provide for our needs rather than relying on God's promise to care for all our needs is just not a faithful practice. It goes against what we have been told is good and right.

When we started the “new year” in September, I preached a sermon series called “Putting God in First Place.” Who knew that we should end up here with the very same message? This sermon series on Antidotes to the Out of Control Life comes to the same conclusion.

The most important antidote to our out-of-control lives is simple and profound: show God that God is the most important part of your life by putting God in first place; giving God your first gifts, your best gifts, a tenth of all your treasures. And a tremendous thing will happen to you: All true treasures like sabbath and peace, trust and gifts...and so much more shall be added unto you and yours in ways that will boggle your mind.

God is good all the time. Rely only on God, for things should not be the desire of our hearts or less we perish for lack of an antidote for the out-of-control life. Choose life, friends; this life God has prepared for us so that we may not succumb to humanity's insanity. Choose the Christian life so that we may think more deeply, see more clearly, listen more effectively, savor life more fully and most of all serve God completely. Let's let go of worldly desire and assumptions so that tonight and every night we shall sleep well, knowing we rest in the care of an all-embracing God. Amen.

January 29, 2012
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

The Contradictory Life

PAUSING IN A DANGEROUS PLACE Luke 10:25-37

“A Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him he was moved with compassion.”

· Review from last week: “Why Bad Things Happen to Smart People”
◦ Direction, not intention, determines destination.
◦ Arrival at our desired destination requires us to align our direction with our intention.
◦ We must connect the dots of each decision we make along our path in order to reach our intended goal – the picture we have of how we want our lives to look
◦ Failure to connect the dots causes people to end up making decisions that lead to bad (and unintended) outcomes.

· The name “Samaritan” doesn't pack the same punch for us today as it did in Jesus' day. Instead of “Samaritan” you might try inserting “Al Qaeda” or “Hitler”; perhaps pimp or child molester or rapist. That deep-in-the-belly repulsion we feel is similar to what the lawyer who tested Jesus would be feeling at the mention of the Samaritan.
· This lawyer knows Jewish law inside and out, backwards and forwards, and every which way from Sunday, the way the late Senator Byrd knew the constitution of the United States.
· This Lawyer asks Jesus, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” The lawyer already knows the answer Jesus is supposed to give; he's an expert in the law. You might even say that the Law is the lawyer's gospel. He may even figure that he knows the law better than Jesus does.
· What the lawyer doesn't bargain for is that the “teacher” is about to teach him something he doesn't know — the difference between the Law as gospel and the Gospel as law. The distinction is huge! It's one thing to recite the laws; it's a whole different country to live the Law. Anybody here ever exceeded the speed limit?
· We may know Christians who can recite Bible passages chapter and verse and think they know more about God and Jesus than we do – that they are better Christians than we are. Again, it's one thing to recite the words but it's a whole other story to live the Word.
· The lawyer seeks “to justify himself” (10:29) and asks, “And just who exactly is my neighbor?” And that's when he leaves the gospel in the ditch for his first love, the Law. As that happens, he gets lost.
·
· It is very easy to get lost along the way to our intended destinations.
Our inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness sometimes sends us off in wrong directions, which as we know explains why bad things happen to smart people.

· Andy Stanley (The Principle of the Path) writes that what so often trips up us smart people is that we are on a happiness quest not a truth quest. The happiness quest trumps the truth quest and before we know it, we're the ones in the ditch on the side of a dangerous road.
· Look at Lindsay Lohan. Is this a woman who pursues her own happiness over facing her own truth? Did you see the shock on her face when she heard “90 days in jail” and her name in the same sentence? Did you see the expletive sketched on her fingernails? Did you hear her defiance outside the courtroom? “I am NOT going to jail!” She's the talk of the town — but not the way she had dreamed of when she started out.
· The truth is, she already is imprisoned! She can't admit it; perhaps drugs and alcohol help her keep the truth from herself. She fell off the path to stardom a long time ago and hasn't been able to find her way back — and she won't, until she can speak of the real reasons she's where she is today. She needs a good Samaritan to help her out of the ditch she's in and show her the way out of the dangerous place.
· Being deep-in-the-belly honest with ourselves is tremendously difficult. We want to have “lawful” reasons for making the choices we make; it's too hard sometimes to admit the real reasons behind what we do. Selfishness is not a Christian value. So we set out in defense of our personal happiness on what Stanley calls a “Justification Safari.”
· Basically, after we have decided to do something that we think will aid in our happiness, we have to set our brains to the task of justifying why it's OK to step off our intended path.
· For example, It's like trading in one SUV for a newer, flashier, more expensive model and justifying the higher car payment (that's not, by the way, on our path to financial security) by telling ourselves (and others) that we made the trade for better gas mileage. We can trade in one SUV for another for a number of reasons, but good gas mileage isn't one of them.
· And so it goes with the priest and the Levite. Each refused to help a fellow Jew; Luke doesn't tell us why each holy man “passed by on the other side” of the road, but we can make an educated guess that as soon as they did so, their justification safaris began. They told themselves, “Coming into contact with blood (or a dead body) would make me ritually unclean for my work in the temple”; but the real reason they avoided the man is, ”it's too dangerous to stop here and help that man because I could end up in the ditch myself.” “It will make me late for my appointment.” Etc.
· Because they are unwilling to pause in a dangerous place to help their brother, the two holy men show that they are more concerned with themselves than with the needs of their neighbor. Like the lawyer, they wanted a choice about which neighbors they had to love.
· The Samaritan, however, is willing to pause in a dangerous place to show mercy and compassion — to love his neighbor first -- before considering his own comfort, his own happiness. He sees the truth in the situation.
· When happiness points in one direction while wisdom, truth, integrity and common sense point in another, that's when smart people end up in really bad situations and start doing really stupid things.
· People have a hard time leveling with themselves, whether we are talking SUVs or the gospel.
· As long as we are lying to ourselves about why we are making the choices we make, it will be impossible for us to get to where we want to be. To find the path to where we want to go, we must break the cycle of self-deception. Pretending that our choices are prudent and lead to our intentions gets us sooner or later stuck in a dangerous place. That dangerous place is away from the God who gifted us for the journey and sent us his son to lead us in the Way.
· If you're pausing in a dangerous place right now, be honest about the situation. What's the real reason behind the choices you're making? Without this kind of brutal honesty with ourselves, we surely will make unwise choices.
· Like Lindsay, What we won't know will hurt us. Truth sets us free; lies hold us captive; each is a path. Which choice will we make? Which path shall we take?
· Being honest can be painful; we can feel beaten and bloodied and left for dead as we go through the cleansing process. But it's worth it, because
◦ When we learn to tell ourselves the truth, we will know exactly where we are and understand then how to get to where we need to be. We give up the justification safaris in exchange for the God quests. For one thing I know:
◦ There is a savior who is willing to pause in our dangerous places and lift us out of the ditches we have gotten ourselves into.
◦ There is a savior who, at the cost of his own life's blood, brings us to the inn where our wounds are dressed and we are fed, clothed and cared for until our savior returns to settle our account.
◦ There is a savior who does more than pay our bills, he forgives us our sin and heals our transgressions.
◦ Yet what does this Savior require of us? Simply this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
· The parable of the Good Samaritan is a story for travelers on the path — a scriptural GPS (global positioning system) if you will – “guiding us in the only direction God desires: the way of love and compassion for ALL (emphasis mine) others”#.
· This is his promise; this is his power; this is his path; and this is our hope. “Do this, and you will live” (10:28).

July 11, 2010
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

THE PATH II: Why Bad Things Happen to Smart People

2 Kings 5:1-14; Luke 10:1-11, 16-20


“But his servants approached him and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it?
How much more, when all he said to you was, 'Wash, and be clean?'”


*Let's begin by recapping a few items from last week's message:
Jesus had turned his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51)
Christians are most faithful when we turn our faces to Jesus and make Jesus the path in which we walk so that we can reach our rightful destination
The principle of the path is this: Direction, not intention, leads to Destination.

*Said another way, the actions we take and the decisions we make in our lives do not necessarily lead us to the destinations we intend for our lives. Consider this example:

The last thing they heard was the piercing whistle of an oncoming train. Moments later, dozens of mostly Latin American immigrants who crossed the tracks instead of using an underground passageway to reach a beach party in this seaside resort were dead or injured, their body parts strewn among the rails. Spain's deadliest train accident since 2003 took place during a nationwide ritual on one of the longest days of the year called Noche de San Juan, or the night of St. John, when the blazing Spanish sun sets at 9:30 p.m1.
The young people on their way to this beach party to celebrate the summer solstice had every intention of going out and having an awesome night; it was never their intention to be killed and maimed. The underground passageway was the correct path to take, yet it was clogged up with people and seemed to be taking too long to get through it to the beach. So they changed direction which led to a deadly destination. Direction, not intention, leads to destination.

Andy Stanley writes in his book, “Generally speaking, we don't abandon the clearly marked paths because we are looking for trouble. There's always something about the alternate routes that is powerfully appealing.”2

The healing of the Aramean General, Naaman, tells us something of the consequences of a decision to leave the clearly marked path, namely, the instructions of Israel's great prophet, Elisha. Fortunately for Naaman, his servants are able to talk some sense into him and get him back on the path to a cure for his leprosy. If he had continued in the direction he chose, Naaman would never have found the healing he needed — his intended destination... See if you can pick out the places where and why Naaman left the Path:

VV 10-11 Elisha sent a messenger to him saying “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean. But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, 'I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy.'”
Naaman left the path when he got angry, insulted by what he perceived as disrespectful treatment from Elisha.
Naaman expected that because he was a very important person, “a mighty warrior,” (v 1) that Elisha would make a big flashy show out of healing him.

Anger and Arrogance set Naaman on a different path, one that would not lead him to his intended destination, the healing of his leprosy.

V 12 I picture Naaman walking heatedly in circles, his armor clanking and protesting as loud as the man himself. He was shouting at no one in particular, while all his men watched. “'Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than ALL the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?' He turned away in rage.”


VV 13-14 Naaman gets going in the right direction; he gets back on the path with some wise guidance from his servants. He had come a long way; brought expensive gifts, and frightened the King of Israel to reach his intended destination. There had been a lot of fanfare, a big show, but none of that got Naaman to where he wanted to be. Yet, Naaman's men knew the Principle of the Path (this is not something Andy Stanley made up). “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, 'Wash, and be clean?'”

If we make ourselves our own destination, if we make decisions that lead us in directions that do not lead to the destinations we desire, all we end up doing is wandering around in a circle of life marred with regret, illness, and despair. Is that where we want to go, how we want to live? Of course not, yet the misdirected decisions we make reveal why bad things happen to smart people.


I do not believe God intends for bad things to happen to us, but when they do, God is always certain to lead us back in the right direction, if only we learn to discern his plan and agree to the adventure. God created for great things, yet “we all have a propensity for choosing paths that do not lead in the direction we want to go”3 and then we wonder where we wandered, how we got lost.

There are three points to remember about being lost: 1. We never get lost on purpose; 2. We never know exactly when it happens; and 3. The road we are on always determines where we end up.

You see, direction decides everything. The decisions we make are not isolated events — each one is a step in a certain direction; these steps when we take the time to connect them determine our destination.

Imagine you are looking in the rear view mirror of your car. What do you see behind you? Where you've been, of course Now, think about where you are in your life today and try to pick out the decisions you made — the steps you took -- that determined the direction(s) you have traveled along your life's journey, the ones that got you to where you are today.

If you were to plot them on a graph and then connected the dots, would the connected dots reveal the pictured destination at which you intended to arrive? We rarely end up in places different from the direction we have taken.

If you keep changing your major in college, it takes longer to get your degree doesn't it?You have to take more courses in the new field. If we keep changing courses in life, we postpone the arrival at our destination. When we get lost in life, we can't retrace our steps and start again without losing precious time. Connect the dots!

When we choose to connect the dots, when we turn our faces to Jesus and walk with him on his path, we could very well experience what the seventy disciples found when they went out among the people where Jesus sent them. Luke 10:17 captures the moment: “The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!”

The demons people face today work to lead us in wrong directions. A walk with Jesus can either cast them out or help us to live with the consequences of our actions. Jesus heals every situation; all we have to do is turn our faces directly on him.

Jesus connects the dots in our lives; he leads us to fulfill God's plan for us. He is the one sure way to the destiny for which we are created, to have our “names written in heaven” (LK 10:20b). Amen.

Questions: Are there disconnects in your life?
Are there discrepancies between what you desire in your heart and what you are doing with your life?
Is there an alignment between your intentions and your direction?

July 4, 2010
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor

The Path, Part I

Galatians 5:1, 13-25; Luke 9:51-62

“When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Luke 9:51

One third of Luke's gospel takes place while Jesus is traveling, and the first step of his journey begins with verse 9:51, when “he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” The road Jesus traveled was not planned out ahead of time. He didn't get a Trip Tick from AAA. He didn't use a GPS; he didn't even have a map; but then, he didn't need one.

It's not the one-foot-in-front-of-the-other road Jesus takes to Jerusalem that we contemplate today but the firm focus he follows that brings him to arrive “successfully” at his destination, Jerusalem, and to reach his ultimate destiny, the cross.

Jesus wants us to reach our own destinies as well. We do not have to go to the cross, because Jesus in his great love for us has covered that path for us. Something else is necessary. Today, through the urging of the Holy Spirit, my prayer is that as Christians and as Congregation, we can “set our faces,” not just on Jerusalem, but expressly on Jesus.

To “set one's face” means to focus intensely on a purpose, a goal, an achievement, an accomplishment, an intentional destination, and nothing can persuade you to veer off course, nothing can make you change your focus or make you turn your face away from your destination.

I invite you to contemplate your own paths as we spend our summer Sunday mornings exploring what author and pastor Andy Stanley defines as the Principle of the Path, which states simply, “Direction, not intention, determines destination.”1

I was talking about the Principle of the Path with Frank Thomas earlier this week. He looked it over (it's posted on my door) and then looked back at me and said, “To put it another way, 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions.'” Yeah; something like that!

The Path, you might have guessed, is more than a physical, geographical route. The path is our intention; that is, we set out intending to arrive at certain destinations: successful, wealthy, well educated, happy, Christ-like. However, sometimes we get distracted and make decisions that seem like

they shouldn't affect our intended destination, yet we so often find ourselves in places very different from where we intended to be.

And that's how the principle of intention works. “What's true geographically is equally true relationally, financially, physically, and academically.”2 It takes deep determination, as Luke would say, to “set our faces” and arrive where we said we were going to arrive – happily married, financially stable, physically fit, or academically accomplished.

In Luke's gospel, Christ is a walking, talking example of how to keep moving in the right direction despite the distractions that always seem to crop up.

When the Samaritans would not receive Jesus, the disciples wanted to incinerate the townspeople, but Jesus rebuked them. Why? Because such action would not get him to the Cross. Instead the moved on to the next village.
On the road, one man said, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus replied in such a way that the man needed to think about the hardship and homelessness the new disciple would encounter if he truly followed him.
Another man wanted to follow Jesus, but he was distracted, “First let me go and bury my father.” This man wanted to go in another direction first, before he followed Jesus; I wonder if the man wanted Jesus to wait for him while he took care of his father's remains. “Let the dead bury their dead.” If you're going with me, you have to go now — the direction is NOW.
Still another said, “I will follow you Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” And Jesus' answer is the same. The direction is now, not later, not after certain things happen.

There are so many temptations, so many distractions, in our personal lives that if we are not disciplined and focused, we end up traveling in a direction that does not lead to the destination we desire. When we go back, look back, put our hand to a different plow, the path we end up taking probably looks something like Interstate 710 in Los Angeles, which I think must be an example of California's “You can't get thyuh from hyuh.”

The same dangers arise in our Congregational life. I truly believe that if we do not set our faces on Jesus, our wonderful church will be plow-pressed to reach its God-given destiny. When we go downstairs into the fellowship hall for our annual meeting, we will have tremendous opportunities to set our faces on Jesus. What we must be mindful of deciding on directions that will not lead us to our hoped-for destination.

This church, like all true churches, belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ, and not to us, and so FPFC's destination must be Jesus. Annual Meeting is the place to make a conscious choice to set our faces on the people and places that need Jesus as much as we do. “For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit to a yoke of slavery” Paul writes to the Galatians but his words are so appropriate for us as well. We have to watch out for yokes that want to enslave us:
Zero percent financing and no money down...
but he's rich...
She makes me feel like I used to feel...
That's how business is done here...
No payments for 12 months...

Yokes like these turn us in directions that we shouldn't be going, unless of course our intended destination is bankruptcy, divorce court or prison, to name a few. If we want to go with Christ, as Christian and as Congregation, we have to keep going in the same direction Jesus is going.

Plowing through life in directions that do not lead to the destination that Jesus bought for us with his own blood – everlasting life with God in the new Jerusalem — sets us up into works of the flesh instead of life in the Spirit. Paul writes that the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit are opposed to each other “to prevent you from doing what you want” (Gal 5:18).

Doing what we want in the moment (the desires of the flesh) may feel good at the time, yet almost always leads us in a direction (behavior) that is not going to get us where we desire to go. And then we are shocked, dismayed or bewildered about what happened – it's kind of like seeing a moose at Long Sands: that's not supposed to happen!

If we want to be Christian, and Congregation, we've got to stay on the right path. We have to keep our faces “set on” on Jesus. We have to be careful about our choices and decisions. We have to choose the right path. “Simply put, you and I will win or lose in life by the paths we choose.”3

So, let's ask ourselves, Am I winning or losing in life by the paths I have chosen?

Then during the week, let's contemplate our answers to questions such as:

If I think I may be losing in life, how can I change the paths I have chosen?
Does my intention for my life line up with my current direction? [Can I get thyuh from hyuh?]
Is the path I'm on likely to take me where I want to go? Where Jesus wants me to go?

Next week, we apply the Principle of the Path to our daily lives and explore the puzzling phenomenon of why bad things happen to smart people.

We will look at what is causing the “disconnect” in our lives, in our relationships, and in our faith.

We will even discover ways to connect the dots between the choices we make and the outcomes we experience.

The principle of the path may not be as quantum as the theory of relativity, but it sure is a powerful way to put Christ's energy in our motion to get each of us – and our church -- going in his direction. This is how we get from where we are now to where we want to be: We set our faces, and our hearts, on the path to salvation. Amen.

First Parish Federated Church, South Berwick. June 27, 2010. The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor.

The Christian Compromise

Exodus 34; 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2; Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)
Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him.”
On Friday, February 12, “with hours to go before the opening ceremony, a luger from the nation of Georgia was killed after he lost control of his sled on the infamously fast track at Whistler and crashed into a steel pole.”1 All the OEC mentioned of the athlete's tragic accident in its opening remarks was, “The time for sorrow is now; the time for reason will come later.” Let the games begin, even though lives will be compromised.
In another Georgia, 115 years ago, the world also gathered to celebrate not human athletic excellence and Olympic dreams but human industrial, agricultural, and artistic excellence throughout the world. About six thousand exhibits were examined and beautifully designed medals were awarded. The Awards Committee awarded a total of 1,573 medals: Gold medals, 634 - Silver medals, 444 - Bronze medals, 495. [
Opening remarks on September 18, 1895 were delivered by Booker T Washington, a former slave, esteemed educator, founder of Tuskagee University, and civil rights activist. Washington's speech on the first day of the “Atlanta Exposition” (World's Fair) was probably the most important given at the 100-day event, and it is certainly one of the most eloquent and famous speeches ever delivered in our nation's history.
Washington's speech is so rich, I wish I had the time to read it in its entirety to you now. Yet, as time constrains us, I quote you his eloquent conclusion:
...May I repeat that nothing in thirty years has given us more hope and encouragement, and drawn us so near to you of the white race, as this opportunity offered by the Exposition; and here bending, as it were, over the altar that represents the results of the struggles of your race and mine, both starting practically empty handed three decades ago, I pledge that in your effort to work out the great and intricate problem which God has laid at the doors of the South, you shall have at all times the patient, sympathetic help of my race; only let this be constantly in mind, that while from representations in these buildings of the produce of field, of forest, or mine, of factory, letters,and art, much good will come, yet far above and beyond the material benefits will be that higher good, that, let us pray, God, will come, in a blotting out of sectional differences and racial animosities and suspicions, in a determination to administer absolute justice, in a willing obedience among all classes to the mandates of law. This, coupled with our material prosperity, will bring into our beloved South a new heaven and a new earth.”2
This speech about the races working together for the advancement and prosperity of all was brilliant. Instead of coming out swinging with vinegar and vengeance on his breath, Washington called all people to focus on humanity's best qualities of love, devotion, loyalty and relationship between blacks and whites, not only in the cotton states but throughout the world.
Washington's approach to the benefits of the quality and equality of race relations was met with criticism by future NAACP founder/leader, W. E. B. Du Bois. He renamed Washington's speech “The Atlanta Compromise.” It was a name that stuck. Du Bois believed that Washington's message was insufficiently committed to the pursuit of social, academic and political equality for the black race. Washington, Du Bois felt, had compromised the message and intentions of their race to seek equal rights and equal justice with whites.
Washington, I think, was insightful enough to look beyond skin color and political power and could see a shining “transfiguration” of race relations through the means of a “higher good,” which was, as he said, marked with a determination to “administer absolute justice, in a willing obedience among all classes....”
I would describe transfiguration as nothing less than the glowing glory of God shining from within and throughout a person—or a nation, or a race, or a people. The mystery of the “Big T” is that it's glow can be seen despite the disguise of human flesh and the great guise of human behavior. One who witnesses transfiguration has the ability to see beyond, behind, between body and soul of the other and discern the glowing presence of the divine.
The problem is that people often do not comprehend what they are seeing. This was certainly the case for Peter, James and John. They had no idea what to make of the Transfiguration of Christ on the mountain that day. They were so astounded, so frightened and so mesmerized, yet Luke records they “kept silent and told no one any of the things they had seen” (Luke 9:36b). They covered it up; they put a veil on it.
Both our passages from Exodus and Paul's second letter to the Corinthians speak of veils—Moses wore a veil across his face to protect the Israelites from the frightening, glowing evidence of his having been in the presence of Almighty Yahweh. In Second Corinthians, Paul speaks of our being able, because of Christ, to remove the veil over our eyes that we may see God face to face.
What Peter and James and John witnessed on the mountaintop, and what they heard spoken by a voice from the cloud, was meant to convince them, and so to convince us, not just of the divinity of Christ, not just of the holy company Jesus kept with Moses and Elijah. No, it's more than that.
“This is my son, the Chosen; listen to him” is revealed so that when they all return down the mountain they shall work more fervently because their eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; the veils of sin and death can be removed through an uncompromised faith in Jesus Christ.
Understand that Paul uses “veil” as a metaphor for what prevents us from seeing the full truth about God.”3 What might some of those veils be? Pursuits of power, wealth, and fame, for sure; turning away from the truth, whether it's about human safety or human slavery or anything else. Veils are any “thing” that blinds us from sight and insight of God's goodness, any thing that compromises our hearing and doing God's will.
When we choose the veil rather than the hard-won victory, we participate in what I am calling “The Christian Compromise.” The Christian compromise comes when we keep what we have seen and heard about God through Christ to ourselves; the Christian Compromise comes when we run straight to the crown and bypass the cross. The Christian compromise comes when we put ourselves first instead of last. The Christian Compromise comes when we care more about money and manna than we do about living by the Spirit and learning God's word.
Transfiguration is the cure for the Christian Compromise.
“The transfiguration of Jesus offers a glimpse of what is possible, not only for Jesus, but for all humanity.”4 The God who once brought Israel through the Red Sea now brings those who believe in the promise, rather than those who live in the compromise, out of slavery to sin and death and into the freedom of new life, the resurrection life.
Christian faith alive involves believing and trusting, seeing and doing God's will. Living the Christian faith gives one the ability to see the glow of the glory of God shining before, behind and between body and soul of our fellow travelers on this journey through life. And what that means is this:
If people do not know the promises of God, it is because Christians have not told it to them. If people cannot see the transfiguring light of Jesus Christ, it is because Christians have not shown it to them. If people do not feel the love of God, it is because Christians have not shared it with them. As long as Christians wear the veil of compromise, we remain in the darkness, in slavery to sin and death—our message of salvation is insufficient for the cause. The time of sorrow is ever present, and reason may not overcome it.
On the campus of Tuskegee University there is a statue of Booker T Washington. He stands behind a slave, lifting off a full-body veil—and the slave is coming out from under it, perched, ready to stand, with one hand pushing back the veil and one hand holding an open book. The inscription on the statue reads, “Lifting the Veil Of Ignorance.”
As long as we compromise our faith, the promise of freedom of new life in Christ will remained veiled. Christians are called not to compromise but to proclaim that the promise of salvation, freedom, is fulfilled on a cross. We have a responsibility to the Christ, not to the Compromise.
This is our lesson for all times, from the moments of Moses until Christ comes again: No cross; no crown. When that message is the one that sticks, then, and only then, shall we live in the ultimate place of promise: the new heaven and new earth where there is room and love for all. Amen.

First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
February 14, 2010
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor