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Sermons
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Sermons preached each Sunday and at special services are archived on this page. Sermons are listed below by date preached, from most recent to least recent. You can search the full text of the sermon archives with the search feature, or filter sermons by preacher, liturgical season, or a specific date.
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Real Hospitality
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Title: Real Hospitality
Preacher: The Rev. Bill Roberts
+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This morning we are having our second Mass on the Grass, and there are four ways in which it’s déjà vu all over again:
First, just like back in July, this is my first Sunday back after being on vacation; second, just like back in July, I’m preaching; third, just like back in July, I’m with the [St. Gregory's worship] band(!); and fourth, and much more significantly, our lessons last July and this morning are about hospitality.
Last July, we heard the story of Abraham’s hospitality when three angels disguised as men visited him. This morning, the author of Hebrews alludes to that story when he writes, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it” (v. 2).
Let’s take a close look at the first two verses of the reading from Hebrews. The first verse is translated “Let mutual love continue.” A more literal translation from the Greek is this: “Let brotherly love continue.” Apparently the translators wanted to be gender neutral, and decided that “Let brotherly and sisterly love continue” was just too awkward! But however it’s translated, the Greek word in this first verse is one that you all know, even if you don't know that you know it! Anyone know what the Greek word for "brotherly love" is? {{Congregational Response}} [philadelphia: phil― love; adelphia― brothers]
So the first verse is “Let philadelphia continue,” which most literally means “Let love of brothers continue,” and which in the context of this reading means, “Let love of your brothers and sisters in Christ continue.”
Now let’s look at verse 2: “Do not neglect to show philoxenias, for by doing that some have entertained strangers unawares.” If philadelphia means “love of brothers,” what do you suppose philoxenias means? {{Congregational Response}} [philo― love; xenias― strangers.] So the most literal translation of the second verse is this: “Do not neglect to show love of strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels unawares.”
And notice that for Christians, for us, the definition of “hospitality” is love of strangers.
So the author of Hebrews is reminding us this morning that we are to practice both philadelphia and philoxenias― love of brothers and sisters in Christ, and love of strangers.
Hospitality, of course, requires a host. What are the qualities of a good host?
Henri Nouwen, the late Dutch Roman Catholic priest, wrote this in his now classic book Reaching Out (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc, 1975):
“Poverty makes a good host.” And then Nouwen goes on to say that “two forms of poverty are very important, the poverty of the mind and the poverty of the heart” (p. 73).
Here’s what Henri Nouwen describes as “The Poverty of Mind”:
“Someone who is filled with ideas, concepts, opinions and convictions cannot be a good host. There is no inner space to listen, no openness to discover the gift of the other. It is not difficult to see how those ‘who know it all’ can kill a conversation and prevent an exchange of ideas” (p. 74)
And here’s how Nouwen describes “The Poverty of Heart”:
“A good host not only has to be poor in mind but also poor in heart. When our heart is filled with prejudices, worries, jealousies, there is little room for the stranger. In a fearful environment it is not easy to keep our hearts open to the wide range of human experiences. Real hospitality, however, is not exclusive but inclusive and creates space for a large variety of human experiences” (p. 75).
Poverty of Mind and Poverty of Heart have been in short supply in our current debates about immigration policy and about the Islamic Center in New York City. The voices of xenophobia― the fear of the stranger― have all but overwhelmed the voices of Christian philoxenias― the love of strangers.
Henry Nouwen also wrote about a special kind of host― the teacher. This week many of our children went back to school, and in another two weeks our Sunday School will start again. So here’s what Nouwen wrote about teaching:
“When we want to speak about the ‘spirituality of the teacher,’ two aspects of the task ask for special attention: revealing and affirming.
“The hospitable teacher has to reveal to the students that [the students] have something to offer. Many students have been for so many years on the receiving side . . . that they have lost confidence in themselves and can hardly imagine that they themselves have something to give. . . .
“[The hospitable teacher will] help the students . . . [reveal] the beauty of the gifts they are carrying with them. We will never believe we have anything to give unless there is someone who is able to receive” (p. 61).
In other words, the hospitable teacher practices “Poverty of Mind.” As Nouwen goes on to write, the hospitable teacher also practices “Poverty of Heart”:
“What is revealed as good, worthwhile or as a new contribution [by the student], needs to be affirmed. . . . The good host is the one who not only helps the [students] to see that they have hidden talents, but who also is able to help them develop and deepen these talents so that they can continue their way on their own with a renewed self-confidence” (Ibid.)
One of the things I most cherish about our parish is how we welcome the stranger on Sundays, and how we reveal and affirm the many gifts we have to offer that nourish and renew our life together.
May God grant us the poverty of mind and heart to continue growing both in philadelphia and in philoxenias. Amen.
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| Sermon Date |
Sun 08/29/2010 |
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Truthfulness or Truthiness
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Title: Truthfulness or Truthiness?
Preacher: The Rev. Meredith Woods Potter
Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.”
Those words of Jesus in today’s Gospel would not have been received well in my family when I was growing up. For although we five children didn’t always agree, fighting three against two and two against three was just not permitted. My siblings and I were forbidden to quarrel or speak angrily to each other. I probably was punished more often for arguing with my sister than for anything else I did as a child. The family motto, repeated at least twice daily by our mother, was "peace at any price," And when my sister and I clashed over things as minor as whose turn it was to set the table, we would be sharply reminded that Jesus taught us to love one another. I grew up believing that it just wasn’t Christian to disagree. And as we grew older, we continued to assume that politics, for whom to vote, and whether our government should take the Marines out of Nicaragua were not subjects for polite or even safe dinner table conversation.
Jesus’ words in today's Gospel contrast sharply with my upbringing. For Jesus not only warns that families will be divided by strife, his words seem to suggest that there are times when brothers and sisters should quarrel; times when children need to challenge and oppose their parents, times when even loving Christians will be deeply divided.
To understand why the Prince of Peace would even suggest that he had not come to bring peace but rather division, we need to understand the circumstances and the audience to whom he was speaking. As traditional practicing Jews began to follow Jesus, they experienced discord in and among their own family members who were still clinging to the old Jewish law and who didn’t recognize Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. These differences in the basic understanding of how to be in relationship with God had to have caused strife among family members. The teachings of Jesus challenged all the Jewish customs from table fellowship to the very meaning of family. These deep differences in understanding of family life and commitment were further stressed as Gentiles became believers and were forced to cast out their old Pagan ways, many of which were still held by their family members and loved ones. To bring Jesus into any home - whether Jew or Gentile - was to stir up conflict and division. Some of us today who have experienced inter-faith marriages within our own families can relate to the strife that occurs when believers and unbelievers clash over basic issues not only of belief but of lifestyle.
Clashes between believers and unbelievers challenge us to determine what is the truth and who is speaking the truth. That was the concern of Jeremiah in our first lesson. And it is still difficult to determine what is truth in today’s world.
Stephen Colbert, the Comedy Central comedian, satirizing the evening news, coined the word truthiness. In his comedic way, he was making fun of public (and often “official”) pronouncements that sound like truth and even pass for truth but are questionable and illusive. As we look back on events of recent years, we can only wonder how we bought into our government’s truthiness about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, how we continue to be fed truthiness from auto manufacturers and pharmaceutical industries about safety and reliability of their products, how truthiness about our economy and unemployment daily feeds both our hopes and our anxieties. The difficulty of distinguishing truthfulness from truthiness must certainly be contributing to the indecision of the jury in the trial of our former governor.
Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel warn Christians that there will be costly divisions when we become the truth-tellers and “whistle-blowers,” when we upset the political applecarts in our government - whenever we challenge truthiness.
There was a construction company where I once lived in which the workmen accepted the long-standing culture of taking home leftover materials from building jobs. For years the construction workers had convinced themselves that neither the company nor the customer would notice small discrepancies: a few extra boxes of cement or tiles, a couple extra pounds of nails, a few sheets of wall board. One of my neighbors remodeled his kitchen and finished his basement with such “leftovers.” But then one day, a crew boss who is a devout Christian began to question this practice in his company. Truthiness told him that it was a long-accepted part of the company’s culture; but truthfulness told him that it was stealing. And so he began to keep a record of the exact amount of materials used on the jobs in which he was in charge. Suddenly the workers were being held accountable for the supplies signed out to them. They became furious. A huge division broke out among the workers over a few bags of cement. This division between the workers and the crew boss led to physical violence in which the crew boss was badly beaten. This incident is a shocking example of the kind of division that can occur when someone has the courage to upset the applecart of socially acceptable custom - when truthfulness challenges truthiness.
Distinguishing truthfulness from truthiness is a task for each of us. Whenever belief rubs up against unbelief, there is apt to be strife _ the kind of strife that Jesus warned of in today's Gospel. A Christian living in a non-Christian home may be in a constant battle; a Christian worker may be subjected to discrimination, ostracization, and even dismissal from his job when he tries to carry Jesus' way of life into the workplace. Christian young people today often have to struggle to make moral and ethical decisions in their school environments. Jesus warns us of the fire his words can bring to our lives. He warns us of how uncomfortable and costly it can be to follow him - to stand up for the beliefs he has taught us. Jesus himself had to endure the Cross; he warns us to expect to endure no less in our own lives.
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| Sermon Date |
Sun 08/15/2010 |
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It's My Treasure
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Title: IT’S MY TREASURE
Preacher: The Rev. Dennis E. Lietz, Deacon
I have often heard it said that many writers gain the inspiration for the stories they write from the Bible and there exist many examples which lead one to believe the truth of this claim. One such example might be the classic movie, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” which was shown on our local PBS channel recently. This movie was filmed in 1948 and stars Humphrey Bogart. It is a western which begins in Tampico, Mexico where we find a couple of American drifters. The first is Fred Dobbs who is begging on the streets and taking on jobs wherever he can find them. He meets up with another American, Bob Curtin, who is in a similar situation. The two of them overhear an old prospector, Howard, telling his tales of gold to the locals and they get the urge to go prospecting. They get Howard to join them to provide the experience that they lack and together the three travel to the Sierra Madre mountains where Howard leads them to the gold. They begin mining and extract a considerable amount of gold from the mountain. All well and good it would seem but Dobbs and Curtin really listened only to the first part of the tale that Howard told. They listened only to the part about the gold even though they heard the entire tale. They failed to listen to the part where Howard warns of what gold does to men. Consequently, they fall victim to the toxic nature of gold. Greed sets in and Dobbs is first to succumb. He begins to lose both his trust and his sanity and lusts to possess the entire treasure. He also begins to become paranoid, believing that his two partners are out to kill him so that one of them can gain the entire treasure. His suspicions lead the others to become uneasy too but they are not quite so susceptible. Curtin too becomes greedy but he differs from Dobbs in that he has a conscience. He saves Dobbs from death in a mine cave-in, something that it is doubtful that Dobbs would have done for Curtin. Howard, on the other hand, is like a faithful dog. He is really not along for the gold but rather for the thrill of the hunt. The gold, if discovered, is simply gravy to him but that gravy is delicious once one tastes it.
A new moral issue arises when a fourth American appears on the scene and the three must decide just what to do with him. They can not agree but finally do agree that the simplest way to dispatch him will be for the three of them to shoot him simultaneously, thereby avoiding have the full responsibility fall on any one of them. Fortunately for them, the opportunity to accomplish this never occurs for a gang of bandits appears wanting the guns of the Americans. In the ensuing gunfight, the fourth American is killed by the bandits and then the bandits are driven off by the Federales, the ruthless Mexican police. But they discover that the fourth American has left a young widow behind in America.
Howard is then called off by local villagers to revive a young boy that has nearly drowned. There he saves the boy and becomes a local hero, treated like royalty. Dobbs and Curtin go on alone but Dobbs worsens to the point that he finally does attempt to kill Curtin. But Curtin survives and crawls off and is nursed back to health by the members of Howard’s village. Dobbs is now alone and ultimately is captured and killed by the bandits who take the guns and discard the gold believing it to be simply bags of sand used to provide weight to bundles of furs which were intended to be sold. In turn, the bandits are captured by the Federales and promptly executed. Curtin and Howard arrive on the scene immediately after the execution and learn that there are no bags of gold among the things the bandits had. They ride off to the scene of the capture only to be preceded by a windstorm that disperses the gold to the earth from which it came. The movie ends with Curtin and Howard bursting into laughter over the joke that nature has played on them. They realize that their wealth has been a fleeting thing and plan their futures with Howard deciding to return to his village where he has been promised a comfortable life. Curtin decides to go back to America where he plans to carry the news of the death of her husband to the young widow. Who knows what may happen after that? They both have become aware that their treasures indeed are where their hearts are.
So the words of Jesus became meaningful in this 1948 movie but what of us in 2010? Do they still hold for us? Consider what Jesus said, “Sell your possessions and give alms”. The only possessions that Dobbs, Curtin, and Howard owned were bags of gold. Dobbs could not give them up and lost his life over them. Curtin and Howard discovered, through no choice of theirs, that the gold could be discarded and they would still be well off, perhaps even better off. They could now concentrate on their fellow human beings and gain the kingdom.
We may not have bags of gold but we each possess the equivalent. Remember the prophetic words of Howard in the movie. He made it clear that it was not the gold itself that was the problem but rather it was what it did to men that brought trouble. So it is with all possessions. None of them has undesirable physical properties but each of them can be the source of attachment for us. It is when we become attached to our possessions that problems arise. We have then fallen in love with our possessions and where our treasures are is now where our hearts are. We must then give up our attachments thereby moving our hearts from our possessions to the important things, those around us in the kingdom of God. What are these attachments? It may be to money of course but it may be also to such things as collections, or a desire for security disguised as making more money, investing in more stocks, or buying more things.
Perhaps it is an attachment to behaviors or a habit. Maybe we just want to do things our way. Maybe it even is an addiction.
Others may find that their attachments are attitudes or thoughts. They may not be open to considering new ideas. They have become very attached to their own way of thinking.
For some of us, the attachment may simply be to attachments. We do not even realize that we have them.
This is not an easy Gospel and we may simply shrug it off as too difficult. But it is very clear. We are responsible for how we deal with our attachments and we will have to answer for our actions. We will be held accountable for what we have done with our attachments, our possessions.
Actually, Jesus has told us that God is more than pleased to give us the kingdom but it must be our most prized possession, our treasure. That is where we are to put our hearts. Our idol in the movie should be Howard who was not in it for the gold, at least not to start with. Now let us go beyond that and strive for the kingdom which God has given us. THANKS BE TO GOD!
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| Sermon Date |
Thu 08/05/2010 |
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Gathering and Giving
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Title: Gathering and Giving
Preacher: The Rev. Bill Roberts
+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our first lesson this morning is from Ecclesiastes. It’s a word that sounds like ecclesiastical, and with good reason― they’re from the same Greek root word which means a “gathering.” Originally it meant a political gathering, something like a New England town meeting, but St. Paul adopted it for church gatherings.
Ecclesiastes is written by “the Ecclesiastic,” which is translated as “the Teacher,” although a better translation might be “the gatherer” or “convener.” In any event, the king has gathered his subjects to deliver a depressing message: “Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”
The word “vanity” in English has two distinct meanings. Usually we think of vanity as something like “excessive pride.” A vain person is a stuck-up person, especially when it comes to his or her personal appearance. But a second meaning of vanity is “futility,” which is the opposite of “utility.” Utility has to do with usefulness; futility has to do with uselessness, worthlessness, emptiness. In fact, the Latin root of vanity means “empty.”
With that meaning of vanity in mind, let’s continue our reading:
“I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven;”― and his conclusion?― “it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with.” And why has he reached that conclusion? “I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity”― futility, uselessness― “and a chasing after wind.”
And now the Teacher gets to the heart of life’s vanity― the heart of life’s futility― which is death.
“I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me— and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.”
And then the Teacher speaks words that I’ll bet have resonated at some time with every one of us here this morning:
“What do [we] get from all the toil and strain with which [we] toil under the sun? For all [our] days are full of pain, and [our] work is a vexation; even at night [our] minds do not rest.” That last phrase, “even at night our minds do not rest,” is even more poignant in its literal translation: “Even at night [our] hearts will not lie down.”
Thomas Aquinas was probably the most influential theologian of the Middle Ages, and today the Church honors him with the title “Angelic Doctor,”― or, to use the original meaning of the word “Doctor,” “Teacher.” On the Feast of St. Nicholas in 1273, Thomas was celebrating the Eucharist when he heard Jesus talking to him. Jesus asked Thomas, “What would you like as a reward for your good deeds?”
What would you say if Jesus asked you, “What would you like as a reward for your good deeds?”
When Jesus asked Thomas, “What would you like as a reward for your good deeds?” here’s what Thomas said: “Only you, Lord. Only you.”
After that experience, Thomas found it impossible to continue his writing. When his companion, Reginald, urged him to get back to his work, Thomas refused. “Reginald,” he said, “I cannot, because all that I have written seems like straw to me”― or, as another Teacher once wrote, “All is vanity and a chasing after wind.”
But occasionally rays of light fall even on the Teacher’s empty landscape.
“This is what I have seen to be good: it is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us . . . because God keeps [us] occupied with the joy of [our] hearts” [5:18-20]; “I know that there is nothing better for [us] than to be happy and enjoy [ourselves] as long as [we] live; moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. I know that whatever God does endures forever. . . .” [3:12-14].
For the Teacher, the futility of all our gathering― the gathering of wisdom and the gathering of wealth― is only redeemed by the giving of God― the giving of wisdom and the giving of wealth― for our enjoyment. That’s the message in our reading from Ecclesiastes, and that’s the message in this morning’s Gospel [Luke 12:13-21].
“Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly.’”
Now notice what the parable says. It’s not the rich man who produced abundantly; it’s the land of the rich man that produced abundantly! We owe so much of our productivity to God’s giving, to the gifts of creation, the circumstances of our birth, our genes, and our opportunities.
“And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store”― the literal meaning is gather― “my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will [gather] all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’’
This is the very question the Teacher in Ecclesiastes has already answered:
“There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God; for apart from God, who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases God, God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner God gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God.” [2:24-26].
And Jesus concludes, in full agreement with the Teacher, “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
The eighteenth century English poet Alexander Pope wrote these famous words: “To err is human, to forgive divine.” The message in this morning’s readings is this: “To gather is human, to give divine.”
May God give us the grace to be “rich toward God” by our giving. Amen.
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| Sermon Date |
Sun 08/01/2010 |
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Nailed!
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Title: Nailed!
Preacher: The Rev. Bill Roberts
+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This morning is special for me because it’s one of those wonderful occasions that only happen when someone serves for as long as I have in a parish. Over 20 years ago, on March 12, 1990, I presented Carrie for Confirmation. A few years later she became the Senior Acolyte, and almost 3 years ago, on September 22, I officiated at her marriage to Tony. And now, this morning, I will have the privilege and joy of baptizing their first child. And as it happens, our first reading this morning is about baptism, so let’s begin there:
“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
This first sentence is an excellent summary of what it means to be a Christian― having received Jesus, we live our lives in Jesus, rooted in Jesus, built up in Jesus, and abounding in thanksgiving. And not only is it a wonderful summary of what it means to be a Christian, it’s also a straightforward sentence. Unfortunately, the rest of this passage isn’t straightforward at all! So, because this is a sermon and not a seminar, I’m going to get to the heart of it.
“See to it that no one takes you captive. . . .” We don’t need to go any further with this sentence. The Gospel is about liberty, not captivity, especially when it comes to forgiveness, as we are about to see. Paul puts it this way in Galatians 5:1: “For freedom, Christ has set us free” (5:1).
“For in [Jesus] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily―”
Here Paul is referring to the incarnation. In his Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes the incarnation this way: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself” (5:19). And of course the classic description of the incarnation comes from the Gospel of John: “and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (1:14)
― “and,” Paul continues, “you have come to fullness in Jesus. . . .”
Think of it! It should leave us breathless! God is fully in Jesus and we are fully in Jesus. Years ago, when I was in Father Hanner’s Confirmation Class, he explained it like this: “You can’t add 1/2 and 1/3― you need a common denominator; and Jesus is the common denominator between God and us!”
The rest of the passage is extremely difficult, so I’m going to give you a totally inaccurate translation of the words, but a totally accurate translation of their meaning:
“In Jesus also you were crucified with a spiritual crucifixion, and you died in the crucifixion of Christ; and so when you were buried with Jesus in baptism, you were also raised with Jesus through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in your sins and the not-yet-crucified reality of your existence, God made you alive together with Jesus, when he forgave us all our sins, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.”
In other words, while the soldiers were nailing Jesus to the cross, Jesus was nailing our sins to the cross.
And what that means is this: every sin that you and I have ever committed, and every sin that you and I will ever commit, were all nailed to the cross and forgiven before we were even a gleam in our parents’ eyes!
Baptism is the Sacrament that God has given us so that we can say “Yes!” to what Jesus did for us on the cross. And this morning, on Jacob’s behalf and for Jacob, we will say “Yes!” to what Jesus did on the cross for Jacob, and for us.
So now let’s turn our attention to the Gospel.
“[Jesus] was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.’”
The first word of the Lord’s Prayer is Father. Or, to be more accurate, Abba, the Aramaic word Jesus used when he prayed to the God. The closest English equivalent to Abba isn’t “Father”― it’s “Papa,” or “Daddy.” Abba is a word of intimacy between a father and his child, a word of love and affection. And Jesus tells his disciples that they, too, are to call the Creator of heaven and earth, Abba.
And then we have five petitions or prayers, and all of them ask Abba to do something.
The first two petitions are in the passive voice, because they are based on an ancient Jewish prayer which was developed at a time when it was considered presumptuous to ask Abba directly to do something. These two petitions ask Abba to make his name revered throughout the world, and to establish his kingdom in the world.
The last three petitions are in the active voice because Jesus urged his disciples to ask Abba directly for what they needed: “Ask,” Jesus said, “and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
William Barclay, in his commentary on Luke, notes that these three petitions cover the whole of life: present need; past sin; and future trials.
Of all of the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer, which is the only one that Abba has already answered unconditionally? {{Congregational Response}} [Forgive us our sins]
And the only petition that Abba has already answered unconditionally is also the only petition in which we do something. After asking Abba to “Forgive us our sins,” we declare and assure him “for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”
In a little while we will hear the familiar invitation, “As our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say,” and we will pray the Lord’s Prayer. When we ask Abba to “Forgive us our sins,” will we really be ready to say, “for we ourselves― right now― forgive everyone indebted to us”?
Here’s what Robert Farrar Capon writes about forgiveness and the Lord’s Prayer in The Parables of Grace [Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1988), pp. 70, 71]:
“The Gospel truth is that forgiveness comes to us because God in Jesus died to and for our sins― because, in other words, the Shepherd himself became a lost sheep for our sake. . . .
“We pray in Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are forgiven in Jesus’ death and resurrection, and we forgive others in Jesus’ death and resurrection.”
So now, let’s baptize Jacob into the death and resurrection of Jesus, and into the community of the Lord’s Prayer.
Amen.
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| Sermon Date |
Sun 07/25/2010 |
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Choosing the Better Part
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Title: Choosing the Better Part
Preacher: The Rev. Bill Roberts
+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today at the Nine O’Clock Service we are celebrating our first Mass on the Grass for this summer. Does anyone want to guess when the very first ever Mass on the Grass was held? {{Congregational Response}} [the story is in this morning’s lesson from Genesis.]
“The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day.” We can certainly appreciate what “the heat of the day” means with our recent sweltering temperatures! And we can also imagine the oak trees and the grass leading right up to Abraham’s tent.
“He looked up and saw three men standing near him.” Christians have traditionally seen the three men as an intimation of the Trinity.
“When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, ‘My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.’ So they said, ‘Do as you have said.’”
Offering hospitality was an even greater virtue and value in the ancient world than it is today with all our hotels and motels ready to welcome us at the end of a day’s travel. In Old Testament times, travelers had to rely on the kindness of strangers to give them lodging.
The story is told that one day Abraham invited a wayfarer into his home and offered him the same lavish hospitality he offered the three strangers. But later that evening he discovered his guest worshiping a pagan idol. Abraham was so outraged that he threw him out of his tent and chased the man away. No sooner had he done that than the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him: “I’ve been putting up with that man for years and years and years, and you can’t put up with him for one night?!” So Abraham immediately went out and searched for the man, and brought him back to his tent and redoubled his hospitality. [from The Torah, A Modern Commentary, W. Gunther Plaut, ed. (New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1981), p. 125.]
“And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, ‘Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.’ Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.”
(It’s interesting to note that the three men are eating milk and meat together! In other words, the Lord and his two companions aren’t keeping kosher!)
“They said to him, ‘Where is your wife Sarah?’ And he said, ‘There, in the tent.’ Then one said, ‘I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.’”
Notice the traditional social arrangements. Abraham is free to be seen in the public spaces― outside his tent― as well as within his own tent, but Sarah must stay in tent. So the three visitors talk to Abraham about Sarah, but they never see Sarah nor talk to her directly. And it’s only because Sarah overhears their conversation that she learns that she will have a son.
What a contrast to the situation we find in this morning’s Gospel!
“Now as they went on their way, [Jesus] entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.”
Martha is the head of this household, something very rare in practice and almost unthinkable in principal in New Testament times, let alone the Old Testament times of Abraham and Sarah. And as the head of her household, she welcomes Jesus into her home, just as Abraham had welcomed the three strangers. As unsettling as it may be that Martha is the head of her household, it gets even worse!
“She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying.”
Listen to what Tom Wright, the New Testament scholar and Bishop of Durham, England, has to say about this passage
“. . . Mary was behaving as if she were a man. In that culture, as in many parts of the world to this day, houses were divided into male ‘space’ and female ‘space,’ and male and female roles were strictly demarcated as well. Mary had crossed an invisible but very important boundary within the house, and another equally important boundary within the social world.
“The public room was where the men would meet; the kitchen, and other quarters unseen by outsiders, belonged to the women. . . . For a woman to settle down comfortably among the men was bordering on the scandalous. Who did she think she was?
“. . . to sit at the feet of a teacher was a decidedly male role. . . . To sit at someone’s feet meant, quite simply, to be their student. And to sit at the feet of a rabbi was what you did if you wanted to be a rabbi yourself. There is no thought here of learning for learning’s sake. Mary had taken her place as a would-be teacher and preacher of the kingdom of God.
“Jesus affirms her right to do so” (N. T. Wright, Luke for Everyone (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), p 130-131.
“But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’”
During the past several weeks the Church of England has been preparing and then meeting for its Synod― which is like our General Convention. The major question before them was whether it was time to allow women to be consecrated as bishops and to serve as bishops in the Church of England. In the lead-up to the Synod, our own Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, was invited to preach at Southwark Cathedral, just south of the Thames in greater London. Word came from Lambeth Palace, which is both the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the national church’s central office, that our Presiding Bishop could not wear her mitre― the distinctive bishop’s “hat” which looks like a flame― when she preached. Presumably this was in order not to offend the opponents of women bishops just before the Church’s Synod was meeting to discuss the question. The resulting furor in both the Church and secular press in England was soon known, predictably, as “Mitregate!”
After two long days of debate, the Synod voted this past week to allow women bishops. Now it’s up to the individual dioceses in the Church of England to ratify the decision.
It’s already late Sunday afternoon in England, and it will be interesting to see how some of the English preachers handled this morning’s Gospel!
For us, for whom the issue of woman bishops is fairly settled, the challenge of this morning’s Gospel will be different: For me, the challenge is this: what is distracting me from listening to Jesus and choosing the better part, and what am I going to do about it?
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Sun 07/18/2010 |
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Hello, this is God calling
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Title: "Hello, this is God calling"
Preacher: The Rev. Meredith Woods Potter
Texts: 1 Kings 19: 15-16, 19-21
Luke 9: 51-62
Cell phones have become an indispensable extension of most of our lives. Because we usually carry them in a pocket or purse, they have the power to interrupt and disrupt our lives. (preacher's cell phone begins to ring.) Suppose one day your cell phone rang unexpectedly, and it was God calling. The ringtone doesn’t identify the caller, so if you’re like me, you check the display to see who’s calling. But the display only says: OUT OF AREA. If you’re in the middle of a meeting or driving on the expressway (or preaching a sermon), you may decide not to answer the phone - not to let the phone interrupt what you’re doing - you assume if the call is important the caller will leave a message. But what if curiosity gets the better of you, and you actually answer God’s call. Then you may really wish you had let the call go to voice mail, because now you’re forced to respond. Unlike many cell phone calls, you can be assured that a call from God will disrupt your life!!
Both of our readings this morning tell of lives being disrupted by a call from God. In our reading from the Book of Kings, Elijah had become discouraged and had even deserted his post after King Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, had tried to have him killed. But God calls Elijah again and mobilizes him from his despair by giving him new marching orders. Elijah is told to return to Damascus where his life would surely be in danger, and to alienate the king even further by helping to overthrow him. Elijah is instructed to anoint a new King for Israel as well as a new king for the Arameans, Israel’s not-so-friendly neighbors to the North. God tells Elijah that only after that mission is accomplished will he be able to anoint a new prophet as his successor. What God is asking Elijah to do is downright dangerous. He is not calling Elijah to preside over a couple of ceremonial enthronements. God is asking Elijah to initiate revolutions in two kingdoms. Elijah wants to retire (some of us know the feeling) and God agrees that it is indeed almost time for Elijah to lay his mantle upon a new prophet. But God disrupts Elijah’s retirement plans for one last assignment. “Start two revolutions; then you can retire.”
Our first reading ends with the interruption and disruption of yet a second life. Elisha receives his call from God second hand. Elisha, a farmer, is plowing his field when Elijah throws his mantle over him. His life of tilling the soil has become forever disrupted, for he is soon to assume the authority once held by Elijah. Elisha responds to God’s call by saying farewell to his parents and preparing a sacrificial meal which he then distributes to his neighbors. His life as a farmer is suddenly over as he prepares to become Elijah’s heir - a position fraught with all the dangers and disruptions to his life that his mentor, Elijah, had endured.
Our gospel continues the theme of lives being disrupted by a call to serve God. Jesus has “set his face” toward Jerusalem. His route from Galilee to Jerusalem is through Samaria. No hospitality greets him in that land. It is a dangerous and hostile journey. It is his last journey, his death march. And on this final journey, three men come forth to join him - three lives with the potential of being disrupted by God. Each of their responses illustrates how human beings can “waffle” in response to God’s call.
The first would-be disciple represents the person who gives an immediate and reckless response - but with no conviction. Without counting the cost of his response, the first aspirant blurts out: “I will follow you wherever you go” but whenJesus replies that he will need to give up home and security, the cost of discipleship proves to be too high for the first responder.
The second would-be disciple invokes the “family responsibility”excuse. The Torah was clear that one is required to honor “father and mother” and so the second aspirant expressed his obligation to home and family. His life can’t be disrupted now - maybe some time in the future when his parents are no longer living, but not now.
The third would-be disciple’s response is conditional - it is a “yes, but” response. It is a “sometime in the future when it’s more convenient” response.
The responses of these three would-be followers illustrate how often we too find plausible excuses when God calls to disrupt our lives. How often are we enthusiastic about serving God until we realize how costly our response might be. Soon after I had left academia to go to seminary, a former colleague said to me, “I wish I could have entered the ministry, but I couldn’t give up the security of tenure for such an uncertain future.” I refrained from asking him if he thought I had been given a different choice!
And how often do we let work or family commitments take precedence over making a major commitment to the Church. We rationalize such choices, but the bottom line is that we’ve responded, “yes, but” to God. “Yes, we intend for our children to attend church school each Sunday, but not until after the soccer season is over;” “Yes, I intend to tithe to the Church, but not until I get my children through college,” “yes, but. . .”
Can you imagine Stephen consenting to address the Council, providing he wouldn’t get stoned? Or Paul and Barnabas responding that they would gladly go to Iconium but only if God would guarantee that they wouldn’t be arrested? Or Jesus “setting his face toward Jerusalem” expecting a different outcome? Unfortunately, when God calls to disrupt our lives, our response has to be unconditional. Jesus’ response to the would-be followers in today’s Gospel seems harsh, but the demands of participating in God’s reign present us with a higher loyalty than our commitments to careers or obligations or even family responsibilities.
In the very last line of today’s Gospel Jesus likens this challenge of unconditional discipleship to that of a farmer plowing a field behind a single horse-drawn plow. One can only produce a straight furrow by looking forward to the distant goal. If one turns around and looks back - even for a second - its impossible to maintain a straight line!! And even if we have our eye focused on the goal, we may never reach that goal. For God’s disruptions in our lives are often part of God’s preparations for a future we’ll never know. That’s what trust and faith are all about.
When that call comes and it’s God on the line, what will be your response? Will you send God’s message to voice mail until it’s more convenient to respond? Will you answer, “yes, but”? Or will you have the courage to have your life disrupted by God and reply, “I will follow you.” One thing is certain. You will receive that call!
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Sun 06/27/2010 |
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Radical Gospel
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Title: Radical Gospel
Preacher: The Rev. Bill Roberts
Text: Galatians 1:11-24
+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Paul is being attacked. Paul is being attacked because he is too radical. Paul is being attacked because he says things like this:
“. . . we know that a person is justified”― put right with God― “not by the works of the law [of Moses] but through faith in Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 2:15).
And because Paul believed that, Paul also believed this:
“There is no longer Jew or Greek [Gentile], there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
Even today that’s a radical statement for some people, so imagine how radical it was 2000 years ago!
Paul is being attacked, and so Paul is fighting back. That’s what Paul’s letter to the Galatians is all about.
Here’s the background. Galatia was a region in what today we call Turkey. Paul went to Galatia, founded a Church which included both Jews and Gentiles, and then moved on to other places.
Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem, some members of the Church, when they heard what Paul was doing, were infuriated because these Jewish Christians believed that Gentiles had to become Jews before they could become Christians, and that included being circumcised and keeping kosher.
So they sent their own missionaries to the Church in Galatia to undermine Paul’s authority. They said that Paul was a second-hand Christian because he learned the gospel from Peter and James in Jerusalem. They said that Paul was a second-hand apostle because he was under Peter’s and James’ authority. And they said that Paul was an impostor apostle because he preached a radical and false Gospel. When Paul heard that, he wrote his letter to the Galatians.
Please take your lectionary insert and turn to this morning’s reading from Galatians:
“I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it”― by Peter, James or anyone else― “but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Paul then goes on to describe why he was the most unlikely person to have believed in Jesus, and the most unlikely person to have given a free pass to Gentiles:
“You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.”
But then a most remarkable thing happened:
“. . . God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles. . . .”
The literal translation of “God, who had set me apart before I was born . . . so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles” is this: “God, who had set me apart from my mother’s womb . . . so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles. . . .”
The reason I wanted you to know the literal translation is because Paul was referring to two Old Testament prophesies. The first is from the prophet Jeremiah (1:4-5 lxx): “Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the Gentiles.’”
And now from the prophet Isaiah (49:1, 6 lxx): “The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me. . . . [And] he says, ‘I will give you as a light to the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’”
Whatever else Paul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus may have been, it was not a call away from Judaism, but a prophetic call to fulfill Judaism by bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles.
Paul continues, “Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days; but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord’s brother.”
Who is Cephas? {{Congregational Response}} [Cephas is Aramaic word for “Rock” = Peter]
Listen to Paul’s confrontation with Cephas in the next chapter of Galatians (2:11-14), and to Paul’s description of his enemies:
“But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood self-condemned; for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
One of the current buzz words in the church today is “radical hospitality.” But Jesus invented “radical hospitality” 2000 years ago when he welcomed sinners and ate with them, when he healed the sick, and fed the hungry, and forgave even those who nailed him to the cross. And Jesus called Paul on the road to Damascus to be the church’s champion of “radical hospitality,” to make the Church a welcoming home to Jew and Gentile alike.
None of us can aspire to Paul’s greatness; but each of us can aspire to his “radical hospitality”― a “radical hospitality” we can practice every Sunday when we greet visitors and newcomers at the beginning of the service; a “radical hospitality” we can practice when we pass the peace to one another in the middle of the service; and a “radical hospitality” we can offer after the service wherever we may go in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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Sun 06/06/2010 |
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Volcano!
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Title: Volcano!
Preacher: The Rev. Bill Roberts
Texts: Romans 5:1-5; St. John 16:12-15
+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Please take out your lectionary insert and look at the Collect.
Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
That has to be the clunkiest Collect in Christendom! Just to take one example: what on earth does it mean to “worship the Unity?” Worship God, yes. Worship Jesus, yes. Worship the Holy Spirit, yes. Worship Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yes. But worship the Unity? Worship a concept? How does a prayer like this get written?
Think of a volcano, like the one that recently erupted in Iceland. There’s lots of fire and ash and then lava starts flowing down the side of the volcano. Then, as the lava flow gets further away from the fire at the top, it begins to cool, and then solidify, and then finally it’s just cold rock.
When Jesus erupted from the tomb on Easter and the fire of the Holy Spirit fell on his disciples on Pentecost, the Church was like that Icelandic volcano! The Church was on fire! It was such an exciting time!
When people have that kind of powerful experience three things happen. First, they want to understand it; second, they want to celebrate it; and third, they want to live it.
So the first thing Jesus’ disciples wanted to do was understand their experience, but this was difficult for them because they were Jews, and as Jews they believed there is only one God, and that made them a peculiar people because everyone else in the world believed that there were lots of different gods.
When Jesus called God “Abba” or “Daddy,” that wasn’t a problem, because “Daddy” was just Jesus’ breathtakingly intimate way of praying to and talking about the one God whom the Jews had always worshiped. But when his disciples looked back on Jesus’ life, and death, and resurrection, they realized that the reason Jesus called God his “Father” was because Jesus was, somehow, God’s Son. And then, when the disciples experienced the wind and fire of the Holy Spirit, they realized that this Spirit of God, this Spirit of Jesus, was also God.
This volcanic experience of God is reflected throughout the New Testament, including in this morning’s readings:
In Romans we read, “Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ . . . because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. . . .”
And in John’s Gospel we read, “When the Spirit of truth comes . . . He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine.”
So these volcanic Jews, who believed in one God, had to figure out how God could be the transcendent Father who created us; and the Incarnate God who walked among us, and the power of God within us; in other words, how the one God could be God above us, God with us, and God in us.
Eventually, the Church decided that this volcanic experience of God could only be understood by a made-up word, Trinity, a word which combines the word for three― Father, Son, and Holy Spirit― and the word for Unity― one God.
But when experiences are turned into words, the lava is already beginning to cool, and when the words become prayers like this morning’s Collect, the lava is cold indeed!
Not only do we want to understand our experiences, we want to celebrate them, too. Jesus himself told us how to celebrate his life, death, and resurrection. So we take the bread and wine and thank the Father for it, and then we ask the Holy Spirit to sanctify it so that the bread becomes Jesus’ Body and the wine becomes Jesus’ Blood.
And when we want to celebrate because the Church has new disciples, we baptize them “in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
But after a while the volcanic celebrations may cool, and get cold, and solidify, and then our worship becomes lifeless, and boring. . . .
And finally, not only do we want to understand and celebrate our experiences; we also want to live them. Those first volcanic disciples wanted to live like Jesus lived, and love like Jesus loved, and heal like Jesus healed, and feed people like Jesus fed people, and forgive like Jesus forgave. But sometimes the lava becomes cool, and then cold, and we’re not living very much like Jesus anymore, and we’re not loving very much like Jesus anymore, and we’re not healing many people, or feeding many people, or forgiving many people anymore.
And suddenly, like a spent volcano, we become dormant. And the question is, “how can we get active and volcanic again?” One answer is by following the same 5 Steps Jesus gave us in last week’s Gospel― Believe Jesus, Work for Jesus, Love Jesus, Receive the Holy Spirit, and Receive Jesus’ Peace.
Believing Jesus and Working for Jesus go hand in hand, in the same way that you can’t learn how to ride a bike or swim without first believing your teachers, and then actually getting on the bike or into the water! Loving Jesus, Receiving the Holy Spirit, and Receiving his Peace also go hand in hand, and it all comes together in this morning’s reading from Romans:
“Since we are justified”― put right with God― “by faith”― by believing―, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.”
“Sharing the glory of God”― there’s a volcanic motivator!
Paul continues: “And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings. . . .”
The sufferings Paul is talking about are the sufferings that happen when we work for Jesus. Just as Jesus suffered when people were threatened by the kinds of people he was healing, and the kinds of people he was feeding, and the kinds of people he was forgiving, and just as Paul suffered when he preached Christ crucified, so we too may suffer when we work for Jesus.
But even so, we too can “boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” And God’s love is the most volcanic power on earth!
The final key to being a volcanic disciple is being open to the new things that God wants to do in our lives. That’s what Jesus means in this morning’s Gospel when he tells his disciples― and us― “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. . . .”
Thanks be to God!
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Sun 05/30/2010 |
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Losing his cool
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Title: Losing his cool
Preacher: The Rev. Bill Roberts
Text: St. John 14:8-17, 25-27
+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In this morning’s Gospel Jesus loses his cool: “Have I been with you so long, and still you do not know me?”
Have you ever felt like Jesus? Have you ever wanted to take someone by the shoulders and shake him or her and say, “Have I been with you so long, and still you do not know me?!”
This is one of the few passages in John’s Gospel where we see Jesus at his most human, and who can blame him? His disciples have been with him for three long and intense years. They have heard him preach and teach; they have seen him heal people and even raise Lazarus from the dead.
And now, tonight, he’s running out of time. It’s the Last Supper. It’s his last chance to prepare his disciples for what’s coming, and suddenly he realizes that his disciples don’t even know the basics! “Have I been with you so long, and still you do not know me?”
But having vented his frustration, Jesus gets right down to work, and gives his disciples― and us― 5 Steps to knowing him.
Step Number 1: Believe me.
“Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves” (14:11).
When Jesus says “Believe me” the real meaning is “Trust me.” Of course then as now, words may be cheap, so Jesus tells his disciples to trust him if not because of his words then because of his works― his healing, his feeding, and his forgiving.
Step Number 2: Work for me.
“Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father” (14:12).
Jesus’ work is now our work because he is “going to the Father.” Now it’s up to us to heal, feed, and forgive. And yet, somehow, even though people are being healed, and fed, and forgiven through us, it’s still Jesus who’s doing it:
“I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it” (14:13-14).
Step Number 3: Love me.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (15).
Notice that Jesus does not say “If you keep my commandments, you will love me.” We can’t prove our love for Jesus by keeping his commandments, but if we love Jesus then keeping his commandments will naturally follow because all of his commandments are summed up in this one: “love one another as I have loved you” (13:34).
Step Number 4: Receive the Holy Spirit.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (15-17, 25-26).
To “receive the Holy Spirit” does not mean a kind a passive receiving, but like a receiver grabbing a football out of the air. We need to embrace the Holy Spirit so the power of the Spirit can break forth in our lives.
The Holy Spirit is often called “the Advocate” in John’s Gospel. The word is a Latin translation of the original Greek word for someone who is called alongside to intercede for another person, to plead for another person, or comfort another person.
Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “another Advocate” because Jesus is also our Advocate, as John assures us in his First Letter: “If anyone sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the perfect offering for our sins, and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1b-2).
The Holy Spirit is also called “the Spirit of Truth” not because the Spirit is truthful, though of course the Spirit is, but because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus who is the Truth.
If you’re ever tempted to act in an unchristian way, and suddenly remember the inconvenient truth that Jesus wants us to love one another as he loves us, that’s the Holy Spirit reminding you.
Step Number 5: Receive my Peace.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid” (14:27).
Peace is Jesus’ last bequest to his disciples before his death, and peace is Jesus’ first gift to his disciples after his resurrection: “Peace be with you.”
So those are Jesus’ 5 Steps to Knowing Him:
Believe him.
Work for him.
Love him.
Receive the Holy Spirit.
Receive his Peace.
“Have I been with you so long, and still you do not know me. . . Bill?”
I don’t know about you, but my shoulders are awfully sore.
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| Sermon Date |
Sun 05/23/2010 |
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