Sermon for July 31, 2022 on Luke 12

Ephesians 2:1-10

Ephesians 2:1-10 

English Standard Version 

  When you're eating a great chocolate chip cookie, do you stop and think about the flour, or do you simply enjoy what it has become?  

  When you're watching a sunset, I doubt that you are pondering the various wavelengths of light and how they might be bouncing around the atmosphere before reaching the receptors in your eyes.

  When you are listening to someone sing, are you thinking about the years of practice they had up to that point, or simply enjoying someone skilled in their art?

  When we're appreciating something beautiful, we often don't think about everything that it has taken to get to that point.  We focus on the present, on the masterpiece, and forget about the history.

  The same can be true of salvation.  As Paul clearly states at the beginning of this, we were dead.  We forget that.  We're focused on the fact that we're alive in Christ, that we're something beautiful now, claimed by God through the waters of baptism and marked as Christ's own forever, but it's helpful to remember where we've come from, because it makes us all the more grateful when we remember that we were dead, but are now alive in Christ!

  In the same vein, when we gather around the throne of grace for eternity, we won't be thinking about what has come before, about our sinful past -- we'll be lost in the moment, lost in wonder, love and praise.

Acts 6:1-7

Acts 6:1-7 

English Standard Version 

  A few things to note in here -- first of all, there was a daily distribution.  From the very beginning, the church was caring for widows and those in need.  It's been a part of the life of the church from the start, to care for one another, particularly those with less.  And it's daily -- not just on special occasions.  When some people pray for daily bread, sometimes there are others who help them receive it.  The church has always been known for this, even for caring for people outside of the church.

  Second, the importance of preaching and serving.  The church can't simply be one thing or another -- it needs to be both, but not everyone is great at both, so labor is divided to ensure people's gifts are used appropriately.

  Finally, notice that prayer is emphasized, too.  It's not just preaching -- that should be rooted in prayer.  

  Faith is never something you do once and then walk away.  It's a consistent action, comprised of people with different gifts doing different things, caring for ourselves and one another, vertically focused on God but also horizontally caring for one another.

Luke 8:1-3

Luke 8:1-3 

English Standard Version 

  We in the church don't do a good enough job lifting up the women who were part of Jesus' ministry.  They weren't just there on Easter, going to the tomb while the disciples cowered in fear.  They were there throughout, because their lives had been transformed, and they were supporting the ministry of Jesus with their financial means.  They sacrificed to support the ministry.  

  The church is comprised of so many people doing so much work.  It's easy to name a few famous figures, and to look at the local church and see some individuals, but the church is a quilt, sewn together with so many lives, and to only look at a few is to miss the beautiful thing that God is continuously creating, a community where each square intersects, each thread ties into another, and they all come together to form something beautiful.  

  Pay attention to the details.  They matter, deeply, and eternally.

Psalm 28:6-9

Psalm 28:6-9 

English Standard Version 

  Remember where this Psalm started?  David was crying out for God not to be silent.  Here, we have David's heart exulting in the Lord, and giving thanks in song.

  The Psalm is a movement.  Some of it is likely prayed in anticipation of God acting.  Our lives are a movement -- at times we're crying out for mercy, at times we're praying for vengeance, at times we're rejoicing.  Like David, we shift as the world turns around us, as our heart beats within us.  Like David, we're human, flawed, and in need of a source of strength and ears to listen.  

  The Psalm also moves from the individual to the communal.  In the beginning, David was praying for himself.  Here at the end, David's praying for the community.  As we grow in faith, our attention span should broaden as we recognize the needs of those around us and care for one another.  As we grow in faith, we think less about ourselves and more about those around us, praying that they, too, learn to exult, learn to cry out, learn to lean into the grace and power of God.

Psalm 28:3-5

Psalm 28:3-5 

English Standard Version 

  If we're comfortable, we love to think of God as loving and merciful, and we easily turn our noses at the thought of God's judgment.  But if you're being oppressed, or if you're a victim, how much despair does it bring on if you don't have the idea of a just God to turn to?  Then you have to take judgment into your own hands, if God's not going to do it.  But if we think of God as just, and needing satisfaction to set things right, then that frees us to love, because we trust that God will make things right.  We may not always like the way God does this, but at least we can see logic to it, rather than just forgetting about things that have been done to us and focusing only on love.  When we truly set justice into God's hands, then we're free not to take it up ourselves, because we trust that the things that have been done to us matters -- God cares about them, and God will ensure a price is paid, even if God has to pay it through the life of Jesus Christ, God's own son.

Psalm 28:1-2

Psalm 28:1-2 

English Standard Version 

  It's the easiest thing in the world to look at other people and assume they don't have problems, or at least big problems.  Some of the most heartbreaking stories in the press are when internationally-known people are revealed to suffer from massive problems -- we remember when Robin Williams committed suicide.  We all assumed that he had the perfect life, but underneath, there were storms greater than he could handle.

  Here is King David, man after God's own heart, crying out to God, lifting up his hands in pleas for mercy.  He's hopeful that God is not silent, for without God's assurance, he'll descend to the pit, to death, to oblivion.  Heartbreaking, no matter what he has done -- the vision of a man laid bare.  No matter what he has achieved, in that moment of despair, he is no different than any other soul on the planet.

  You're not alone.  You're never alone.  Everyone has problems.  Everyone has issues.  All of us are crying out, in some way, to God, hoping to hear God's voice.  

  As a friend of mine once said, maybe you're the answer to someone else's prayers.  Maybe they need to hear God's voice of assurance speaking through you.

  Or maybe you simply need to hear that God is more than a silent figure in the sky.  God hears the cry of people, and our hands are not lifted in vain.  

Genesis 9:24-29

Genesis 9:24-29 

English Standard Version 

  I was listening to a podcast on Leviticus the other day (I know, I know...) and they were talking about how the Levitical declaration of the priests mirrored the story of Noah and the ark which mirrored the creation story which reminded us all of baptism and I was simply amazed.  First, I give thanks to those Bible scholars who connect the dots on how God acts with consistency throughout Scripture.  Secondly, it's amazing to me how God is always pointing us beyond something to the greater glory that lies behind and above and around.  It's astounding to me how it all is woven into one beautiful tapestry, filled with the glory of God, each thread pulling on another, working together, pointing towards something we can't quite wrap our minds around and yet our souls hunger for.  The story of Noah, the podcasters say, is one where humanity is dragged through the waters and comes up at the end and experiences God's blessing.  This is the story of baptism, one where we are washed clean by the waters.  We manage to mess up on the other side of it, as Noah is lying around drunk and naked, but the process is pointing forwards, to Christ, when Christ will do what we cannot -- finally break the power of sin over us.  Thanks be to God for the ways God helps us see and continues to pursue us, even when we mess up, time after time.

Genesis 9:18-23

Genesis 9:18-23 

English Standard Version 

  Well, nobody is perfect, right?

  It's interesting that this episode is included.  Here's Noah, having been the one shining light for humanity in a dark time, enduring months upon months in the ark, before finally leaving behind the ark to re-start humanity.  What does he do?  He gets drunk and lays around naked.  

  What's interesting here to me is the way Noah's two sons treat their father.  Noah has erred and embarrassed himself, but Shem and Japheth don't make him feel worse -- they treat him with dignity and return him to respectability by covering him.  They don't rush off to tell someone else like Ham does.  And that's a world of difference.

  You're going to see people down on their luck.  You'll see people having a bad day.  You may well meet someone on the worst day of their life.  

  How will you treat them?

  With grace and mercy, the same you'd hope to be offered, or as a story to tell?  Too many people in the world are too eager to pull out their phones and take a picture, moreso than they're willing to pull out their compassion and serve to return someone's dignity.  As the church, we should always be mindful that we are all in need of such compassion from Christ, who gives it freely.

Genesis 9:12-17

Genesis 9:12-17 

English Standard Version 

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  Do you think of this when you see a rainbow?

  I don't.  Well, I sometimes do, but mostly, I just admire them for their beauty.  I don't think about what stands behind the beauty.

  We do this with a lot of things in life -- we admire them for their beauty, or their power, but we don't think about what stands behind them.  We don't think about the Creator, when the creation is intended to point to the Creator.  God made beauty and love, which is why we ache for these things in the depths of our souls, because we were made for them, but so often we only admire what's on the surface and forget about the One who stands behind them.

  So go in search of beauty and wonder in the world, and when you find them, remember to praise the God behind them.

  And go and create beauty and love and wonder in the world, and point to the God who inspires.  In so doing, we tell the story about the God of love who creates out of love.

  Every rainbow is telling a story.

Genesis 9:8-11

Genesis 9:8-11 

English Standard Version 

  If you're the strongest party in a relationship, you don't have to limit your options.  You can set the rules how you want.  We see this in sports all the time -- the sports teams get the cities to give them hundreds of millions of dollars to build stadiums for teams owned by billionaires, because the team has the power to threaten to leave.  They're in the stronger position.

  God is clearly in the strongest position of all.  God created us, and God can un-create us, starting all over with a new set of people that would probably grumble less.  But God chooses to continue to make covenants, because it's the language of relationship.  God chooses to promise not to destroy the world again, because then we don't live in constant fear of a consuming fire devouring us all.  God chooses to limit God's ability to punish us for the sake of love.  That's how much God loves you!  God voluntarily set aside that use of power so that we could learn of God's love!

Sermon on John 6 for July 17, 2022

Genesis 9:1-7

Genesis 9:1-7 

English Standard Version 

  Something interesting happens here in Genesis 9 after the flood.  In summary, God is setting up a system where people are held accountable for their actions.  Noah is given permission to eat animals, but they shouldn't eat the flesh with the life in it -- the premise being that in doing so, Noah is acknowledging that life is from God alone.  And secondly, there is a system where a reckoning is required for anyone who kills another man.  Before the time of Noah, it has the feeling of a lawless time, where people did what they wanted with impunity.  Here, though, there are consequences.  People have to think about what they're doing.  They have to care for one another, because it matters how they treat one another.  It's not a free for all.  We see a system where there are guardrails, because there is a need for them.  And we're setting ourselves up to look deep into history for a Savior, for one who will come and free us from the propensity to sin, from being captive to evil, so that we might be free for life.  It's on the distant horizon at this point, but it's pointing forward to Christ, even now!

Genesis 8:20-22

Genesis 8:20-22 

English Standard Version 

  Humans get it wrong sometimes, don't we?  Pick an event from the last 20 years, and it's not too hard to imagine God getting frustrated beyond the point of keeping us around.  Human history isn't always one consistent move from highlight to highlight... the Crusades, the Inquisition, a few World Wars, etc.  

  And yet, God is faithful to God's promise.  While the earth remains, the seasons continue, and life goes on.

  God makes promises, and God keeps God's promises.  What a relief -- in the midst of a consistently changing world, we can rely upon God to keep God's promises, no matter what.  So when Jesus says that he comes to save, and that he will not lose a single soul that has been entrusted to him, and that he will seek you out.... those are all promises you can rely upon!

Genesis 8:13-19

Genesis 8:13-19 

English Standard Version 

  The initial COVID lockdowns were hard.  I understand why we had them, but it was really tough not to see people.  We're not made to live like that, isolated from others, stuck indoors.  It was such a relief to be able to leave home and go and see people.  

  That's the sense I get when I read this passage -- the lockdown is over, and God sends them out.  The ark was always intended to be temporary.  You can't stay inside, away from the world.  There was a time and a place, and then God sent Noah and his family back out into the world.  

  In a way, we reenact this every Sunday.  We gather to worship in the sanctuary, but we don't stay there -- we're sent back out into the world with the knowledge and confidence that God is with us.  

  God is constantly gathering and sending.  It's the rhythm of life.  The tricky part is to remember to worship, to breathe, in the parts where we are gathered, and then to use that energy as we are sent out, to love and to serve.

Genesis 8:6-12

Genesis 8:6-12 

English Standard Version 

  Don't give up.

  Don't give up when you've sent out the dove and it hasn't come back with anything.

  Don't give up when you're waiting on the dove, uncertain if it will come back.  

  Don't give up when the dove has returned with signs of hope, but that hope hasn't been realized in full yet. 

  Don't give up. 

  Just because hope is on the other side of the horizon, that doesn't mean that hope isn't alive and at work.

Genesis 8:1-5

Genesis 8:1-5 

English Standard Version 

  Can you visualize Noah and his family in the ark, putting a scratch mark into the wall every day they were in that floating menagerie?  I hope they didn't get seasick.  I really hope that the elephants didn't get seasick.  I've been seasick before... it's no fun.  

  I'm certain there were days that Noah found himself staring over the edge at the featureless water below, wondering if the waters would ever reside.  Would life ever go back to normal?  Or would they float on the ark until they ran out of supplies, then draw straws for whomever had to sneak up behind the lion so they could eat it?  

  So many stories in the Bible require patience.  It's hard to sit back and wait for God to act... we want to be busy, to be productive.  It's the American way, right?  

  But sometimes, we're floating in an ark, and God's solution is months ahead of time.  All there is to do in the moment is sit and wait for God.  Maybe there's some ... stuff... to shovel while we wait, some mouths to feed, some prayers to be said.  Until the ark comes to rest, and then some while after that... we wait.  And we rest.  And we let God lead.

Sermon on Judges 16 (7/10/2022)

Genesis 7:17-24

Genesis 7:17-24

English Standard Version 

  What absolute sorrow and heartbreak.  It's hanging there in every verse, as deep as the waters as they crept over the mountains.  You can imagine watching this from the outside, watching as the floods crept higher and higher, slowing devouring the fields and the hills and the mountains until there was nothing left, this monster eating the world with an insatiable appetite, devastating life and all that were living it.  It's like being in a room with the lights off and watching someone slowly close the door, so that shaft of light grows more narrow by the second until there's just a sliver, and then boom... gone.

  These days, the front pages give us this same feeling.  The shooting in Chicago on the holiday is heartbreaking, to read about those people, those families, where hope vanished in a flash.  Violence claims so many lives, you can almost feel hope slipping through your fingers and you wonder if its another monster, creeping across the hills and up the mountains, devouring the world.

  But look -- there on the waves, tossing to and fro, there's life!  There's still hope, because all is not lost -- one little ark, a bathtub in the ocean, filled to the brim with life and promise of a tomorrow, for all has not been lost.  In a giant storm, there's one small grain, floating forward, hanging on until it can be planted back into the ground.  Hope is still there in the midst of the flood, and it's just waiting until it can blossom once more.

  There's hope, too, in the world today, even if you have to search among the waves.  There's a grain, a seed, waiting to be planted, to blossom once more.  Friends -- look for the hope.  I promise it is there, even if you have to search behind every wave, behind every shadow threatening to devour.  Hope will not be lost to the depths.  The sun will rise tomorrow, and that little grain of hope will still be riding the waves, waiting, watching.  Hope lives on!

Genesis 7:13-16

Genesis 7:13-16 

English Standard Version 

  One of my all-time favorite movies is The Hunt for Red October.  I watched it enough that at one point, I'd learned most of the Russian in it.  There's a scene in the movie where Sean Connery is describing the reason that he told the Russians he was defecting was based on Cortes' burning of his ships when he arrived in the new world.  I can still hear Connery saying, "As a result, his men were well motivated."

  Sometimes, when you commit to a way, you leave things behind.  You're forced to press on, even when you aren't sure what lies ahead.  That's what I think of when I read of God closing the door behind Noah and his family.  They were shut in, and had committed themselves to the Lord and to the Lord's path, not knowing what was ahead.  

  They were right to trust in God, as we are right to trust in God.  We know not what lies ahead, but any other path is folly in the midst of the storm.  So do not fear committing yourself to the one who is not only worth of your trust but also strong enough to save you from whatever storms may rage.  Nothing else can deliver you from the ultimate storm.  Entrust yourself to the ark, and let the waves bash against the door, as you are safe, even in the storm.

Genesis 7:7-12

Genesis 7:7-12 

English Standard Version 

  So they go into the ark, and they're in there with all the animals and it's loud and cramped and uncertain, and surely the neighbors are watching and wondering what's going on... and for 7 days, nothing happens. 

  I've never noticed that before (which is a good reason to keep reading Scripture, because you notice things you haven't seen before).  They're in the ark, and they're just waiting.  God told them to get in the ark, but maybe it's sunny and 70 outside and Noah's thinking he could have squeezed in a few rounds of golf while he waits.  Or maybe they're thinking they could have looked harder for the unicorns.  Or maybe they're starting to wonder if the whole ark wasn't a giant waste of time and resources, and if the neighbors are laughing, perhaps they're on the brink of abandoning it all?

  We don't know what those 7 days were like, but I'm guessing there have been times in your life when you know what that felt like.  When you were waiting.  Maybe you're there now.  We think we know what's going to happen, but God's timing is different than our own.  So we're just waiting.

  What's the old saying -- God is never late but always on time.  But God's timing and our timing... they don't always line up.  We want immediate action when we step into the ark.  We want immediate answers to prayer. 

  Sometimes we're left to wait.  

  But don't leave the ark.  The rain is coming.

  Don't give up on God.  God's still at work, even if it feels like you've risked everything to build a boat and you don't see any clouds. 

  God is here, and God is faithful.