New paths in our deserts

Click on the links below for the Bible passages.

Isaiah 43:16-21

Philippians 3b-14

Isaiah (rather his followers) are speaking to their people who have now been in exile for so long they do not see anyway out. They have very little hope that things will change and are feeling trapped in their current conditions.

Have you ever felt that way? Have you felt that way about parts of your life, your work, or even your church? Trapped, with no way out, with nothing discernible going on. Just struggling to survive.

I know I have and so did the people Isaiah is speaking to. Isaiah tells them in verse 18, "do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old," yet in v. 16 and 17 he reminds us of the magnificent things that God has already done – the major stories that all the faithful know and hold dear.

Is he telling us to forget our roots? To leave behind what has made us who we are? Are we to pretend that we don't view the world and the things that happen to us through the eyes of one who has traveled in these shoes for a very long time, through our experiences good and bad, our hopes, our fears, our traumas and our desires. Reality is a fragile thing – it wraps itself into our brain completely composed of what we see, feel, hear and know combined with what we have experienced. Just ask someone who has gone through an experience with you. It is so odd to talk with my brother about childhood events. Our realities are so different at times, yet we were both there at the same event at the same time - and our stories barely resemble each other.

Isaiah is reminding us that we can not get stuck in our realities.  We can not continue to look longingly at the past. Isaiah is talking not just to the Jewish people but even for us today. We can not allow our circumstances, our desserts, our wildernesses those spots that we feel lost in, to trap us. If we allow it they will. We will keep struggling for survival, our churches will continue to struggle for survival, our jobs will continue to make us miserable if we keep looking back at them and thinking of what we had and lost. If we look at them and compare them to what we want and don't have, if we look at them and think about the good old days without ever imagining our horizons there will never be a path through our wilderness.

Isaiah reminds us that God is making new things. New things spring forth and can be something that is completely unexpected like a river in the desert or a road in the wilderness. God is all about taking the least likely thing and bringing it into a life that it could have never known by itself.  Have you ever walked through an abandoned parking lot and caught site of the most beautiful flowers appearing out of broken pavement?  That is true for us too.

When we surrender to God in these difficult times, in the times when you see no way out. You never know what you are going to get. It will be unexpected, it will be ten fold more than you ever hoped for, and you may even be the one that is helping someone else out of their desert. You just never know.  That is the beauty of a new thing created by God.

We are reminded that we were formed in God's image. WE are beloved! We are made to praise God. We are being transformed if we accept the invitation God has given us to his grace. Look at the objects that I have passed out (sand stone, geodes, shells) If God can create something so beautiful from these, what more can he do with us who are formed in his image. What fruit can come from us if we allow these new things to spring forth and open ourselves up to them? If we continue being stuck in the way it was, what may have been, or how it should have been, we will only see the desert. If we can find a way to praise God in where we are in this moment we can begin to see a place for the new thing to start. What can we praise God for today? Where have you seen God in your desserts?

Paul saw this in Philippians 3:13 - “Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.”

What lies ahead of you?

The Covenant

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Have you ever had to wait for something? Wait a really long time? You begin to lose faith that it will happen, you doubt the person who said they were going to do it, you become frustrated and if you are anything like me anger is soon to follow frustration.

You know we are not that different in essences from our early patriarchs and matriarchs. Do you think Abram and Sari were any different? They had been promised descendents when the Lord had called Abram in Genesis 12. God had said “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12: 2-3) This happened when Abram was 75. He is now a hundred and has yet to have a child. He has a vision and a conversation with God in it. He is frustrated. Where is his great nation? Not a single child yet? Sarai was frustrated – remember honor for a woman was having children and she has none.

They are stuck. Then Abram has another vision. This time the Lord says “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” (Genesis 15:1) Abram probably was afraid. He is hearing from God now after 25 years. He does not have any children and really wants to ask God where is his nation now? (Of course I imagine it with a bit of sarcasm because after 25 years you start to doubt it will happen) Abram actually asks “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Abram is actually calling God out on this.

Notice that so often we are taught not to question God, not to doubt our promises, to accept with with faith alone. This is useful, but not always practical. We are human after all. We become frustrated, our sense of time is different than God's and lets face it living in limbo is not something humans do well. It is not something I do well. Waiting is excruciating for me. I am so frustrated when I have to wait for a long time. But you know what Abram is showing us it is okay to get frustrated, to ask God, to question God. God will answer, and sometimes we won't understand that answer either, but God is working in it.

God answers our Abram with a promise to make his descendents as numerous as the stars. I can just imagine Abram rolling his eyes, “yep I heard that one before.” God can hear his doubt. God knows him inside and out, just as he knows us inside and out.

God makes a covenant with Abram. This is not just in a vision. It is not just a little promise easily broken. This was a full out covenantal promise. It was messy, it was smelly. It required great sacrifice on Abram's part. I don't know how much you know about love stock, but at least with cows, they don't mature until three. So essentially God is asking for animals in their prime. Ones that would be prized and valuable. He does not just request one but five. God has Abram cut them in half and keep the flies from them all day so that the sacrifice can be made to seal the covenant.

Covenants with God are hard work. It requires something of you. It requires sacrifice and attention and time. I am pretty sure Abram had other things to do that day then chase flies from a pile of stinking meat for the day. It was not easy work. God responds though. He seals the covenant by walking between the animals which represented that if he should break the covenant then he too should be torn in half like this.

The thing is that even after that Abram and Sari are impatient. I have to wonder if they were thinking like we often do very literally – that the two of them would parent that many children. Perhaps they didn't understand the Lord, or perhaps they just thought they could move things along, because in the very next chapter Sari tries to get her heir through Hagar and we all know how that ended. The thing is God does not renege on his promises. His covenant is still firm. A great nation will come from Isaac. A few thousand years later if you look down on the world from space we do look as numerous as the stars. This did not happen in our time, it did not happen all at once, or like they thought it should. It did not happen because of Sari and Abram's ill thought out plan of using Hagar. It happened because God chose for it to happen. It happened because Abram did his part in the covenant. It happened because God promised it to happen.

We make covenants with God. We make a covenant when we are baptized – we make it as a church and as an individual to help the person and nurture the person in Christ's love. We make a covenant when we get married with the other person and God. We remember God's covenant with all Christians when we celebrate the Lord's supper each month.

All these things require us to do something before our brothers and sisters in Christ. All these things require us to be present before God and God is present in them. They can be life changing events if we bring our hearts, minds and bodies in line with God for that moment and meet God in them.

So how do you come to the covenant? How have you gotten messy in upholding your covenant with God that was made in your baptism or confirmation? How have you waited for God's promises? We all make mistakes just as Abram and Sari did, but now is the time to begin anew to try and fulfill our end of the promises we made to God while trusting (even if we grumble) God will uphold God's end of the deal.

Do we need church?

Nehemiah8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

What is church? What is the purpose of the Church?

Why do people need a church?

I have met many people who tell me they don't need a church, they can do it on their own. They believe in God and that is enough. But is it?

Let's hear the story in Nehemiah this week.

All the people are gathered at the Water Gate – a place where all are welcome, and no one is excluded. The people ask Ezra to to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had given. They were asking Ezra to be their representative in reading and interpreting the Torah. It wasn't that he did it because it was his job – technically his job was in the temple not on the street. His job was inside walls in areas that not everyone could access, yet they asked him to read it to them and he did. He read and read and read to all the men and the women and the children. In the temple only the men would hear. They stood much like we do when we listen to the gospel, they bent their heads to the ground in a humble way showing they were ready to listen. Ezra read, and interpreted what they read so people could understand it. Even then they found it helpful to read together, to be together and to listen with open hearts. Even then they needed help hearing a message from God in the readings that was meant for them right in that moment. I am willing to bet just like today that everyone who walked away from that reading and sermons got something a little different out of it!

The people responded. They didn't just hear the word and leave. They cried and I imagine there were prayers too. This is what we do as well. We listen to the word, we have someone interpret the word and then we respond with our prayers and offerings. This is the model for the church. Then Ezra dismissed them, telling them not to cry because they were so moved by the readings of the Law, but that this day is holy to the Lord our God. Rejoice in it. Go and eat and drink and share with those who do not have any. He tells them do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

I think that this story is the story of the church. The church is not a building, it is not a place that only a few can come, it is the wide open world. It is inviting all to come and hear and see God. What does it mean to you that you are a Christian? If we do not understand how different our lives our with God then how are we to share that with others. The people hearing the word knew that it was meant for them. That their lives were different from then on. They were in a hard time, they did not have much joy or strength left to go on, and yet Ezra reminds them that the Lord is your strength.

Isn't that true for us today. The Lord is our strength. Hearing, reading, and coming together as a church reminds us of that. It helps us to help one another when we stray from the path. It does not have to be in a building, it has to be together with all people welcome. Do you think that the people would have had the same response if they had read the scrolls by themselves. If they didn't read and just thought about God? It brings us back to those important questions that you have to answer.

What is church?

What is the purpose of the Church?

Why do people need a church?  

More than Water

Click on the verse to read the text.

Luke 3:15-22

God is always reaching for us, pulling toward him.

In baptism we outwardly and publicly accept that pull, but the act of Grace we receive and is confirmed in the act of baptism is purely God's.

When we pour water or submerge someone and bring them up we remind everyone that when we accept this gift we die to our own selfishness and sin (separation from God). We rise out of the water we are born a new and washed clean from our sin. This does not mean we don't sin anymore, but that we now have agreed to unleash the Holy Spirit in our lives. To let the Holy Spirit guide us and work within us. That we no longer have to be controlled by sin because Jesus conquered all sin.

Baptism does not mean that we no longer feel the pull of sin. It doesn't mean that we don't sin, or that we don't feel the pull, but the good news is that we don't have to be. We have help if we choose it and if we allow the Holy Spirit to do its work we are not alone. Not ever.

The act of putting water on someone's head does not complete our act of baptism. We all have a part in baptism, not just the person being baptized. It is a community event. We as the congregation have a part. The thing with this crazy journey with the Holy Spirit is you can't do it alone. You forget, you loose sight, you become frustrated, you succumb to your own sin (or separations from God) sometimes unconsciously. It is so easy to do. You can easily loose sight of your commitments in baptism. The thing is God doesn't. God does not loose sight of it at all. God loves us still and yearns to forgive us when we are side tracked and bring us back to him. God tugs at our consciousness, but we have to accept it. We have to repent, or turn away from that. This can be very difficult to do alone. This is why we are in community. We (as Christians) make a commitment to support one another on our journeys – not just at the high points, births, baptisms, weddings but at the low points when life is not easy. When one of us feels lost, alone, broken. This is when we need to follow our collective commitments to uphold one another, support each other and give freely of our gifts and talents (see UMH p.44).

Let's face it – life is a hard road. It is easy to become side tracked, to loose hope, to feel alone, and to become isolated. In our baptism though we are not only accepting God's grace, but by being blessed in the Holy spirit we are unleashing the Holy Spirit in our lives. There is nothing that is too big, too bad, too far, too horrible for God. There is nothing that is so dark that Christ's light can not shine through and help us with. This is the glory of our baptism. Every time you see water, drink water or experience rain remember your baptism. Remember you are not alone, you are part of a family of other Christians that you have promised to nurture and that have promised to nurture you. Remember your vows (UMH pg 40) to reject sin and commit yourself to Christ, accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustices and oppression in what ever forms they take. Remember that you confess Jesus Christ as your Savior and that you promised to put your whole trust in his grace, to serve the Lord with all the church which is open to all people, ages, nations and races. Remember your promise to nurture one another by your teaching and example so that all maybe guided to accept God's grace for themselves and profess their faith openly. These are our commitments and God's promise to us is to always pull us, guide us, love us and help us on this journey called life. God's promise is to help us to overcome our separation to rest in his peace. Remember that in the water.

Lorax and How Bad Can I be

This was NOT a sermon, just a reflection.  I did a little bit of it for the kid's service, but just felt like I needed to send it out there.  Click on the purple links to listen to the song or read the scripture from this week.  Please feel free to leave comments.
Missy

Luke 3:15-22

"How bad can I be"

We were watching the Lorax tonight...again... with the kids and the song "How bad can I be" came on.  Besides being incredibly catchy it has a lot to say to Christians let alone a five year old 

I am drawn to this song in particular because we are celebrating Jesus baptism this week.  I keep thinking about what we can end up like if we just continue to do what "comes naturally" as the song says.  We are a selfish people who seem to try and fill ourselves up with everything else in the world, but what is drawing us - God .  We don't always look at the long term consequences, nor do we know them.  We can't usually see around our selves and our own ideas and wants to see that there may be something better, not only for ourselves in the long run, but for everyone, for the collective community that we share this planet with.

How bad can it be when we do what comes naturally?  Well in many places you can't drink the water. In our own dear Hudson River you don't want to eat the fish, and please do not fall off your kayak into it.  Our planet wastes 1/3 to 1/2 of the food it produces and we have millions starving to death.  We have places where our search for precious metals to create faster cell phones and computers have caused the land, the air and the water to be not only unusable but to be poisonous   We cut down our trees without replacing them, dump poisons into the environment and produce so much carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels that our global temperature keeps rising.  And then we have the audacity to complain when the weather is all messed up or we are hit by floods and storms we have never seen the likes of. I think sometimes the question should be "How bad does it have to get?"  How bad are we willing to let things get before we take a stand, before we shake ourselves out of our sugar induced stupors to respond?  I am not sure.

We could also look at it like this as well - how bad can it be when we do what comes naturally in our own lives? More people are dying of strokes, heart attacks and stress related issues than ever before.  We no longer take a Sabbath and no one has time to spend with family or friends.  The computer has replaced conversations and although we are connected to at least two or three devices for extended periods of time constantly communicating with one another more people are depressed then ever before. We are fixated by machines, novelty and new things and that seems to trap many people into constantly upgrading and playing and becoming ever more isolated.   How bad can it be to do what comes naturally?

I do know however that God is letting us have our free will.  We have the free will to destroy ourselves if we so choose.  Yet God is calling us, pulling us towards God.  We have a God sized hole in the middle of our souls and God pulls us toward him.  Do we fight it or do we accept it?  That truly is the question.  As a Christian who accepts that pull we accept it by becoming baptized.  We publicly give God free reign over our beings.  This is not a private act in most cases.  It is not supposed to be a private act.  Jesus didn't get baptized by himself so no one could see.  There were witnesses.  People heard God.  It was big! God claimed him publicly - just as he does for each of us who gets baptized. It is not a private act because we are a communal people.  We are agreeing to let the Holy Spirit in to our lives and our hearts.

This is also not just a safe little routine.  Have you ever experienced a severe rain storm?  Have you felt wind that could blow off a roof?  Have you watched flames consume anything?  These are the elements used in a baptism. It isn't a small thing, it is a big thing.  These are all things that mean the difference between life and death for us and we can not control them.

We need water.  This is our main symbol in baptism.  We use it daily.  We wash in water, we drink it, we clean with it, we spray it on our gardens, we watch it fall from the sky.  Yet this life sustaining water is dangerous.  Just as easily we can drown in it, it can destroy entire towns, it can create slippery roads on a winters evening.   This tension in the gift of water is supposed to be there.  God is bigger than we know.  God can control these elements when we can not.  God can harness a flood, and yet provide water in the desert for his people to drink.  This tension is important because when ever we see water we are supposed to remember our baptism and God.

We are to remember that God is bigger than we know and more powerful than we can imagine.  When we are submerged or sprinkled with water we are told that in baptism we share in Christ's life and death and resurrection   With this act we die to our selves, to our own selfish ways and are given freedom from doing "what comes naturally".  We can choose life, we can choose to do something else, and if we don't we know it, we feel it, the pull is there.  When we are baptized we are born anew in Christ.  We are not trying to fight the pull of sin or separation from God on our own any longer, we are teaming up with a God who is bigger and more powerful than any sin can be who loves us and accepts us as we are.  God who walks with us even when we make poor choices, gives us strength and courage and continually pulls us towards him and his path.  This is baptism.  This is freedom.  This is a whole new life.  This is our journey.

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Time to soak up some light

Isaiah 60:1-6
Matthew 2:1-12

Epiphany! - “Sudden, surprising happening that changes everything completely!”¹

I love the definition of Epiphany that I found above from the GBOD worship planning web site this past week. Usually the only reference many of us have to Epiphany is the Scare-a-crow in the Wizard of Oz declaring he has an Epiphany, or if we have been in church for a while perhaps the idea that it has something to do with wise men. We use the word Epiphany to describe the 12^th day after Christmas. Often times the idea that Epiphany changes everything completely gets drowned out by the three wise men and the gold, frankinsense and myrrh. We think of the traditions and forget that this Sunday marks the beginning for us in the church to start to grapple with what Jesus' birth really means for us. It is time to seek our own Epiphanies – our own realizations about Christ that are surprising and changes everything completely! It is time to begin anew, to seek, to listen to God and to pray.

It is also a time of healing. Isaiah 60:1-2 especially reminds us that it is time to “soak up” some God no matter where we are in life. For the people of Israel this was the time period when they were returning to home. The people felt lost, broken, isolated. They had been forced into exile and were finally allowed to return home. When they did they found it destroyed, and what was standing had either gentiles living in it, or those Jews who were too poor for the government to bother to move them to exile. There were power struggles between those who stayed and those who left and everyone else. Not to mention just pure misery. (Isaiah 59:8-10). Yet God breaks in. God gives them hope about what is to come and God heals.

God does not break into the scene because anyone deserved it. God does not bring light into the darkness of this situation because anyone repented. God does not come because of anything they did or anything we do. God comes because God comes. God comes because we are his people and he pulls us to him. He calls us and beckons us and we get to bask in the light. God is the one that heals, that gives them the strength to rebuild and figure out how to be a nation once more. God comes and then they repent, and then they change, and then they become a collective people again.

This is an important lesson in this season of Epiphany. It is time for us as a hurting people, as a hurting church to just allow God to come. To stop struggling for power, for authority for control and allow ourselves to see the light, to turn our faces towards the light and away from the darkness that surrounds us. It is time for us to “Lift up your eyes and look about you.” As we begin this new time, as we experience the life changing good news of God let us pray for the light. Let us pray for each other and for our own Epiphanies. Let us bask in the light and glory of the Lord before we do anything else. Maybe, just maybe then we truly will be able to share the Good news of Christ. If we do not take the time to truly see what a difference following Christ makes in our lives, how are we to be a light for anyone else? If it does not make our communities any different than the rest of the darkness how is anyone else going to believe us?

So let us stop our hectic races to see who can be the first to fill up their calendar. Let us not even begin to think about what the church needs to do. Let us just listen. Let us just soak up some light and listen to what God is whispering for us to do next. Then we can repent – change the direction of what we are doing and be the light that calls out to the rest of the world.

1 http://www.gbod.org/site/c.nhLRJ2PMKsG/b.3879973/k.9C35/Lectionary_Planning_Helps_for_Sundays.htm accessed 1/5/2013