Epworth United Methodist Church

Epworth United Methodist Church
The Rev. David Weekley
January 23, 2010
1 Corinthians 12:12-31

A More Excellent Way

Yesterday was our youngest daugther’s birthday. I cannot believe she is twenty-two years old? Where did the time go?

I remember when our children were very little; every new thing they explored, every skill they mastered assured me of how special they are, and how smart they are.

Of course these things are all true!

It’s just that, way back then I thought they were the smartest, the youngest geniuses in the world.

Today I simply smile, perhaps with a bit of nostalgia, as I listen to new parents making similar observations and predictions about their toddlers.

Some of the comments go something like these:

“My Lucy could read The Cat in the Hat by age three and wrote her first letter to grandmother in kindergarten!”

“You should see Andrew. He made all-district in baseball and got all A’s this year in middle school!”

Last week I came across what may be the current number one example of egomania emanating from one person today in the form of a teenage girl named Kaitlyn DiBenedetto.

Kaitlyn taught herself the drums at age 5 and picked up the guitar at age 11.

After playing supporting instrumental roles with a number of local New Jersey rock bands, she broke off on her own at the ripe old age of 16 to form the band, “Just Kait.”

Just Kait is a band featuring, well, just Kait!

She literally plays and records every instrument- drums, bass and guitar- and lays down her own vocal tracks as well.

As a 17-year-old high school senior, Kait released her first cd last August.

In Just Kait’s music videos, Kaitlyn changes her wardrobe, including glasses, hats and wigs, as she is filmed playing all the instruments and singing all the parts.

But wait a minute: doesn’t the very word band imply more than one person? Doesn’t it mean a group of people coming together around a common purpose- to create music?

What happened here? Did Kaitlyn grow up unable to play nice with others?

Was the first word she learned “mine”?

But the point here is not to diminish the talents of people such as Kaitlyn BiBenedetto.

She clearly has musical talent and ability to be able to accomplish everything she has in the world of pop-music.

I am simply referencing her as an example of what our Scripture text is not about.

As Paul points out in this first letter to the church in Corinth, in some Christian communities there’s a serious problem; it is the problem of some people trying to play all of the instruments.

Paul is attempting to teach this young church, as well as us Christians today, that all of us are in the band and we all have an instrument to play.

The quality of the music we produce as a church depends upon each one of us, as individuals, using our gifts for the benefit of the whole.

Rather than the example of a band, which did not exist in the time of Paul, he uses the example of the human body to make the point.

If the body were all an eye, it would be a monster and could not function at all.

As one commentator writing in Homiletics

Expresses it: “The message in terms of Paul’s image of the church reveals two distinct themes: the reality of heterogeneity and the necessity of homogeneity.”

When we cannot appreciate this truth, the church often becomes unable to function.

One humorous ditty that addresses when this happens comes from a Vietnamese Christian by the name of Phong Ngo who writes:

Oh, give me pity, I’m on a committee,

Which means that from morning to night,

We attend and amend and contend and defend

Without a conclusion in sight.

We confer and concur, we defer and demur

And reiterate all of our thoughts.

We revise the agenda with frequent addenda

And consider a load of reports.

We compose and propose, we suppose and oppose

And the points of procedure are fun!

But though various notions are brought up as motions

There’s terribly little gets done.

We resolve and absolve, but never dissolve

Since it’s out of the question for us.

What a shattering pity to end our committee.

Where else could we make such a fuss?

In the Greek language heterogeneity literally means many.

It may be one of the most overlooked words in this passage, and with it the idea that the body of Christ is supposed to be diverse!

A church is composed of many members.

Even in a largely Japanese-American congregation such as Epworth, each person is unique.

And as Paul points out, every one of the members matters to the same degree.

Last week when I walked up to the Safeway Starbucks to get a cup of my favorite coffee, the “coffee of the day, with an add shot” I asked the person working there why no matter which Starbucks I go to, I can always depend on my order tasting the same.

She told me that Starbucks puts its employees through rigorous training to ensure that every venti, no-whip, sugar-free Caramel Macchiato is precisely the same as the next.

Starbucks wants loyal customers who know that they will get the same exact order and taste at the Safeway or the airport or the local corner Starbucks café.

This type of product uniformity is great for coffee drinkers like me, but it’s terrible in producing healthy ministry in our church.

If every person were a visionary leader, nobody would complete a single project.

IF everyone were administrative- minded and conversations about program and budget lacked input from creative-minded people, you would end up with well-organized committees that are detached from the needs of the community.

Without those who are servant-minded, nobody would count the offering, plant and care for the trees and flowers, or take care of the Communion vessels and elements.

Paul reminds us that there are as many gifts as there are members, and each of us has a unique gift to offer God and the community of Christ called the local church.

The Greek word Homogeneity means something like ‘sameness’ or ‘oneness’ and is more difficult to discuss in church classes and congregations.

The apostle Paul discusses the idea of homogeneity in the Christbody in terms of the unity of a shared vision and purpose.

In modern language we might say it is, “being on the same page.”

But the truth is that local churches often do ministry through committees, boards and teams, and these are not exactly synonyms for unity and cohesiveness.

Why? Because different gifts, life experiences and perspectives often lead to different agendas,

The result is disunity- and one more hostile, horrible meeting to attend!

So we need passages like this one from 1 Corinthians to help us move beyond dissension to the more excellent way- the way of true Christian love, a love that is willing to engage in honest, vulnerable conversation to arrive at, to achieve true unity in Christ.

The kind of unity Paul calls us to moves beyond and deeper than personal experience and agenda; it asks us to put Christ first in our lives and our common life in the church.

Paul reminds us to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice [Romans 12:15].

The writer of Hebrews encourages us to “provoke one another” to love and good deeds.[Hebrews 10:24]

Why? Because we are not a one-person band, we are not called together so our particular gift can take over: we are called to take our place for the health and well-being of the body of Christ that is the church.

In describing a healthy church Paul says it takes both diversity and unity: heterogeneity and homogeneity.

Serving in the church and living out our gifts- may we all do both, because it is all good, if we do it for Christ- vacuuming the floors, serving meals, creating art, singing in the choir, counting the offering, meeting as committees- it is all good, if we do it for Christ.

That’s the ultimate point Paul makes; it is the more excellent way.

Remember, God made “All” of us to be the “Many” for the “One.”

So, use your gifts always so the church can have beautiful diversity in its unity.

Amen.

Epworth United Methodist Church
Rev. David Weekley, Pastor
January 10, 2010
Isaiah 43:1-7
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

“The Sea All Around Us”

The late Rev. Laron Hall, who served as pastor at First United Methodist Church here in Portland before his death due to complications from H.I.V./AIDS in 1994, preached a sermon about Christian Baptism that I will never forget.

Two years earlier, following a Christmas Eve service, Rev. Hall had received a nasty letter from a young man who had come to that service; most likely he came knowing that Laron was ill with H.I.V.

He accused the church of being a dead church because Rev. Hall was openly gay, and because he had preached a sermon on Christmas Eve that said Christmas is God saying to everyone, “I want to be part of your life; I want to be in your life. And no matter what other people say, no matter what you say, I love you.”

The young man had a real problem with this concept of God’s grace.

Oh, he had no problem accepting this grace for himself; it was clear from his letter he believed grace applied to him and others who shared a similar view and theology.

But the young man had a real problem extending God’s grace to people this young man despised.

His thinking was that if he despised these people, then God certainly must despise them, too.

So the young visitor declared that until First United Methodist Church started pointing the finger of harsh judgment at “sinners”, it would be a dead church.

Rev. Hall said the young man ended his letter saying, “I’ll be praying for you”; to which Laron remarked, “Well, that’s good news and bad news. It’s good news to know that we’ve got someone out there praying for us. It’s bad news that he’s praying for us to fit his image.”

As Rev. Hall went on the say, for two thousand years the Christian Church has been preaching the good news, the gospel of God’s unconditional love, a love that is not choosy, but universal, a love that does not have to be earned, because if it has to be earned then it is not love.

For more than two thousand years we’ve been teaching and preaching that God loves us because we are God’s children, and because it is God’s very nature to love: this has been our message, but it is a message that still confuses and mystifies us.

It’s a message that confuses us exactly because it is such a mystery.

We cannot figure out why it should be so, or how it could be so.

After all, like that young man who wrote to Rev. Hall years ago, we know plenty of reasons why God would or should not love certain people, or certain types of people- so the idea of God’s relentless unconditional love is nearly impossible for us to comprehend.

The great Swedish filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman once directed a movie called, “The Magician.”

It’s the story of a magician travelling through Sweden in a wagon.

He does not speak, he just performs his act.

So he looms as this great, mysterious presence wherever he goes.

One day the magician and his company were invited to have dinner with the mayor of a town in which they were performing; the mayor also invited all the leading citizens of his community.

The doctor is there, the head of police, teachers and lawyers and business people were there.

They eat together, and then the magician puts on a show for them.

What follows next is remarkable as the guests react in a variety of ways to this mysterious person and performance.

Some of the guests even react violently, attacking the magician and inflicting physical harm.

Some act manipulatively, trying to get favors from the magician; others simply mock him, insult him, and have nothing to do with him.

The scientist among them is especially uneasy with the magician’s silence.

He keeps trying to engage the magician in a debate, but as he continues to refuse to speak, the scientist turns to the magician’s wife and says, “Your husband contends there is a power in this world that cannot be explained. But that would be disastrous for science if it had to accept the unexplainable, for if there is the unexplainable then we would have to reckon with the possibility of God.”

Well, grace is exactly this kind of mystery: the unconditional love of God is unexplainable.

Some people even find the idea of God’s unconditional love offensive at times, especially perhaps when considered available to people whom we do not like or approve!

Still today we hear two Scriptures that declare this very grace of God, this unconditional love as God calls us all by name and offers all of us love through Jesus the Christ.

Jesus’ baptism was an epiphany, a divine revelation that tells us who Jesus is and what he is here for; it is an act that tells us who God is and what God is up to.

Jesus is baptized, and then the heavens open, the door into sacred mystery swings open, and the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus “like a dove.”

Then a voice came from heaven, “You are my son, my beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Jesus’ baptism really doesn’t explain much; the mystery is still there.

It simply makes the mystery known, telling us that Jesus was loved, and was given power by God to live out his identity.

This is a good day for us to remember our own baptism as well; to recall to mind that we have been baptized, and to consider what God was doing and saying as we were.

The Church has baptized people from its very beginning; doing it because Jesus told us to go into the world to make disciples, baptizing them as a public declaration of the mysterious love of God.

In the beginning, only adults were baptized and only believers who had studies the teachings of Jesus.

For some time that seemed like the best way to proceed: first you came to believe certain doctrines, specific creeds; you came to a certain understanding, and then you were baptized.

The order was: first you found God through Jesus, then you were baptized.

But soon after early New Testament times, the Church realized it had been missing the whole truth and point of baptism.

By limiting baptism to indoctrinated adults, it was making the grace and love of God a prize to be earned, a gift for some, but not for others.

It was actually attempting to make the mystery of God and God’s calling each of us by name into something we could explain and manage ourselves, i.e. when you understood and loved God, that’s when God would love and know you.

So some in the Church declared that God is not like that at all.

God’s love is not conditional; it’s a given.

God’s love is there first; John Wesley named this, prevenient grace.

That’s why many churches began baptizing babies, because this is what the love of God is like: it is ours from the very beginning.

It is ours even if we don’t know God.

Baptizing babies was a very symbolic way of proclaiming the sacred mystery of God’s love and grace.

Of course some still argue about all of this, and there are some churches that say that unless you know what’s going on it’s a meaningless ritual.

But that is saying that it’s as if our human understanding and awareness are what activates God’s love and grace; and that is like saying God’s love is conditional!

Sometimes people come to me and tell me they want to be baptized again, that they were baptized as infants but don’t remember it and now they’ve had a spiritual experience or awakening and so they want to be re-baptized.

They tell me they were not really aware of anything when they were baptized, and it was not something they chose.

And I tell them that that is exactly the point: your baptism is a declaration that God loved you and called you by name before you ever knew it, before you had the sense to know or to choose it; God loved you before you understood or even felt it.

As Rev. Laron Hall put it, “Before you prized God, God prized you. And even when you do not prize God, God prizes you. You are precious in God’s sight. And it isn’t just baptism that makes it so, just as it wasn’t the baptism of Jesus that made him God’s beloved. Baptism is a way of proclaiming who we are, whose we are.”

Baptism doesn’t change God’s opinion of us, of course, but there is something very important that does happen in baptism, that did happen when we were baptized.

God not only told us who we were, told the world who we are, but God also claimed us for a special purpose, claimed us for a special mission.

In baptism we are called to live as God’s children, to live into all that are called to become, to allow God’s love to shape the way we live.

This is the gift of the Holy Spirit at baptism: God at work in us.

I know what some of you are thinking.

No infant can possibly know that God has claimed them and given them a special purpose; and this is true.

That’s the job of parents, and the task of the Christian community.

We’re the ones who need to say to those children and even the adults who come to baptism and say, “You know, you are really something special; that’s what God says about you. You have a special name, a calling and a sacred purpose.”

It’s a little bit like a story I heard about a little boy in Alabama who had no shoes and was standing on a grate one winter day trying to warm his feet.

A woman came along, and her heart went out to this child, and she said to him, “Where are your shoes?”

And the boy told her he had no shoes.

SO the woman took the child to a nearby department store and bought him a pair of shoes, and some socks and a sweater.

As they were coming out of the store the little boy was so excited to show his family what he had gotten he started to run off down the street.

But all of a sudden he stopped, turned around and walked back to the woman.

He thanked her, and then he said, “Could I ask you a question? Ma’am are you God?”

The woman just laughed and said, “Oh, no, I’m just one of God’s children.”

The boy said, “I knew it! I knew it! I knew you were related!”

Baptism tells us who, and whose we are- beloved children of God.

How or why it should be so is a mystery, and some people try to dispute and deny it.

But Baptism is God’s word on the subject.

You are God’s son and God’s daughter, whether you declare it or even accept it; this is just the way it is.

The Scriptures say that, sooner or later, we will all know this as we return to the One who loves us and calls us by name.

There are many people in community right now who are ill, some of them may be dying.

Rather than despair, this is the time for us all to grasp the hope that is ours in Jesus our Christ.

Baptism is a declaration that we belong to God, whether in this life, or in the life eternal, we belong to God, and it is God to whom our spirits return when life here ends.

In her book, “The Sea Around Us” Rachel Carson writes, “For the sea lies all about us. The commerce of all lands must cross it. The very winds that move over the lands have been cradled in its vast expanse and seek ever to return to it. The continents themselves dissolve and pass to the sea, in grain after grain of eroded land. So the rains that rose from it return again in rivers. In its mysterious past it encompasses all the dim origins of life and receives, in the end, after, it may be, many transmutations, the dead husks of that same life. For all at last return to the sea- to Oceans, the ocean river, like the ever-flowing stream of time, the beginning and the end.”

We believe that Jesus our Christ is our beginning and our end; as Scripture puts it, our Alpha and Omega.

So remember your baptism; remember, and be thankful. Amen.

Epworth United Methodist Church
Rev. David Weekley, Pastor
01-03-10

Communion Meditation on the Word

When I was a graduate student in the Phenomenology of Religion at Miami University, I took a class in African Religions. One of the ideas I learned in that class has remained with me all these years- the belief that words have a very real, literal power to effect change.

I was reminded of this as I read this morning’s gospel reading from John 1:10-18. The gospel itself begins like this, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the word was God” and later, from the section we read today comes John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us…”

I cannot think of a better focus as we enter a New Year and decade together than to consider the power of our own words, especially when contrasted with God’s Word that became manifest in and through Jesus the Christ.

We use lots of words in a day.

There are words that describe. There are words that question. There are words that motivate, or amuse; words that call for attention.

One of my favorite illustrations of words that amuse comes from IBM’s Watson Center, where a supervisor had placed a sign in the restroom right over the sink that read, “THINK!”

The next day, when he went into the same restroom, right below his sign, next to the soap dispenser, someone had carefully placed another sign that read, “THOAP!”

Yet there is another use for words, less common-

Rather than merely describing an action, sometimes words can be employed to accomplish something themselves: in this case a words itself becomes the action.

We typically reserve these types of words for sacred, life-changing and often solemn occasions: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”, “With this ring I thee wed”, “We commit our sister to her final resting place, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, but her spirit we commend to God.”

This afternoon as I participate in the ordination of a friend into the priesthood of the Alternative Catholic Church I will be sharing in such a use of words; it is a real privilege to participate in such sacred rituals, words, and spaces.

According to Scripture, there was a time when God uttered a Word in just such a life-changing and instrumental way.

The prologue to John’s gospel describes it for us this morning.

Actually from the beginning to its end the Bible testifies again and again to the power of what God accomplishes through a word.

Listen one more time to the beginning verses from the gospel of John, “In the beginning was the Word, in the beginning was the Word, not the deed,

And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

The very first book in the Bible, Genesis declares, “God said, Let there be light, and there was light.”

God did not build some kind of light-generating machine; God spoke light into being.

In fact, on each day of creation we are told that God spoke a truly creative word for the creation of the stars, the sky, the land, the seas, the plants and animals, and even for human beings.

The creativity and power of God’s Word reaches its peak in the New Testament, when God’s Word becomes human and lives among us in the person of Jesus the Christ.

NO longer limited to speech, now God’s Word actually takes human form and begins to walk among us as a living, breathing expression of God’s power, truth, and grace.

Now, Word, deed, flesh and spirit all come together in Jesus to show us most clearly what God desires for each of us.

What does Jesus, God’s Word, teach us about what God desires for us: in a word, transformation.

The gospel of John tells us that the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen God’s glory, grace and truth in him; Jesus made God known to us.

This was not easy.

John tells us that “Jesus was in the world…yet the world did not know him. When he came to his own, his own people did not accept him.” [John 1:10-11]

The truth is that Words often have to overcome tremendous resistance and rejection before they can change the world- just ask anyone who works for justice and social, political change!

Why else are there so many books like “Stubborn Twig” and “Snow Falling on Cedar” written, and plays and movies produced about the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII if not because it takes many words, and repeated stories to begin to make permanent change.

The goal is to change this past injustice so another injustice will never replace it, not only for Japanese-Americans, but for ALL people.

The gospel of John reminds us, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born not of blood or the will of the flesh, but of God.” [John 1:12-13]

The point is that transformation begins when a word is received, and a person begins to believe it.

When we receive what God is saying to us through Jesus, and when we believe it, than our lives are changed forever; because it is then we discover that we are eternally loved and guided by the very One who created us and the world we live in.

Now we may begin to have a fresh perspective on God, and what God desires for this world and for our lives.

As John expresses it, “From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” [John 1:17-17]

The Word of God has come to us in Jesus to do the work of transformation, shifting our perspective from law and condemnation to grace and truth.

Grace and truth: these are not merely words; they are the new reality that God is already creating through Jesus Christ.

So, how do we receive this Word from God and these words of Jesus; how do we believe them and allow them to work real change in us and in the world?

As we begin a New Year, there really is no more important question to focus on.

1. Receive: receiving grace means accepting God’s love as a pure gift- a gift that comes to us unearned, undeserved and unsolicited, out of the endless expanse of God’s loving heart. God loves and accepts us simply because God wants to love and accept us. There is no good we can do to get God to love us more, and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less. The love that comes to us through Jesus the Christ is overflowing and unconditional; as John puts is, “grace upon grace.” [John 1:16]

2. Believe: Along with receiving God’s grace comes believing God’s truth, the truth revealed through the life and teaching of Jesus. This is a truth that has the power to change the world. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday we celebrate this month, once shocked our society with a profoundly simple and truthful Christian message. This was in the midst of intense racial inequality and injustice not only in the South but all across the nation and the world. In many ways it was not unlike our world today. During a Sunday morning sermon at Montgomery’s Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Rev. King was preaching about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. At the end of the message Rev. King concluded with these words, “As I look into your eyes and into the eyes of all my brothers [and sisters] in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say to you, ‘I love you. I would rather die than hate you.’

As we enter this New Year and decade together, may this statement, so beautiful and so radical, so challenging and so Christ-centered, be our as well: “I love you. I would rather die than hate you.”

May this be a truth we can embrace today, and put to work through our lives to transform our world.

Amen.

Unison Prayer following Communion:

I believe in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God- the source of all light and life. I believe that God sent Jesus the Christ into this world so that all may be bathed in divine light and know the true source of life. On the witness of the disciples, I believe that Jesus was crucified, died and buried- then brought back to life that we may also have new life. I believe the Word of God still speaks today to those who have ears and hearts to listen. I believe, with the power of the Holy Spirit, that my life can be a witness to God’s living presence and grace. Amen.

Epworth United Methodist Church
Rev. David Weekley, Pastor
12-27-09
Luke 2:41-52

What’s Your Status?

As some of you know, I sometimes dabble on the website community known as “Facebook.”

When I connect to Facebook and go to my “wall” a question pops up, ‘What’s your status?’

The question really means something like, “What’s going on in your life?”

But the question took on another meaning when I viewed a young college student lamenting going to Christmas parties to hear over and over again parents asking each other about the colleges and universities their college-bound children were applying to; the student spoke about how bad it makes him feel when state universities are put down.

I wrote back to him and said he was viewing some pretty immature parents trying to gain social status through their children’s college applications.

Afterwards I thought about the word, “Status”: it can have many meanings, from something as innocent as “What’s new in your life” to this whole artificial thing known as “social status” that too many people take seriously, from the labels on their clothes, the cars they drive, to pushing their kids to go to the schools they hope will give them [the parents] social status.

After this experience I started thinking about Jesus’ social status.

If social status in the way our culture defines it is held in such high regard by many parents and young people these days, perhaps it is no wonder that church attendance and membership is in decline everywhere you look: who wants to be seen with a “loser”?

But wait one minute!

According to every poll recently taken about what people appreciate, value, and try to emulate through the people they associate with, things like fleeting interpretations of social status are nothing compared to valuing people who are really smart, even oddly smart.

Mental_floss magazine is dedicated to seeking out those who are thought of as “quirky and smart” in our culture.

It recently chronicled what they named as ‘The New Einsteins’- geniuses who are able to think outside the box and arrive are unimagined places.

Here’s a few of their choices:

· MIT physics professor Marin Soljaaic was tired of waking up in the middle of the night to the chirping of his cell phone’s low battery alarm. He thought that since our phone can do just about everything else, why not have them plug themselves in when they need charging? So he invented “WiTricity,” the first step towards wireless electricity. Magnetic coils can resonate at a frequency that makes other coils across the room resonate. So now there is this wireless transmission of energy that can help our phones recharge themselves without having to wake us up!

· An anonymous Doberman/Border collie mix dog made this Einstein list by performing successful cancer surgery on its owner! The dog was obsessed with a mole on its owner’s leg, sniffing at it for months until eventually biting it off! The woman’s doctor later confirmed the mole was cancerous and that her dog may have saved her life. Tumors release toxins, and it turns out that these toxins smell enough for a dog to small them. So today, trained dogs have detected lung and breast cancer with almost 90% accuracy.

Now, go back in time with me a little more than two thousand years.

The Passover festival in Luke 2 was like a gathering for religious Einsteins, geniuses of the faith.

People poured into Jerusalem from all across the land.

They shared meals that stretched into the hours, even rivaling some of your mochi parties!

Conversations focused on theology, culture, and religious life.

As the annual event drew to a close, everyone began to head out to travel the long distances to home: everyone but Jesus.

Probably travelling in a large crowd of family and friends, his parents were already a day away from Jerusalem before they realized their son was missing Joseph and Mary’s clan would have been watching each other’s kids along the journey- this was not uncommon for how extended family operated at that time in the near east. [it’s like the original, “Home Alone” story so popular as a Christmas movie today!]

As it turns out, the people who were actually watching Jesus were all the brightest and the best of Jerusalem’s religious, theological leadership.

Long after the crowds had left the Passover conversations continued as a 12-year-old asked and then answered difficult theological questions.

In that temple, Jesus, even as a 12-year-old, taught not only the elders of his own day but he taught us: those of us who claim as our status to be Christ followers in a postmodern culture today.

One thing we know about this time in the temple is that Jesus taught with authority.

UC-Berkeley chemical engineer Jay Keasling is one of those named as “new Einsteins” in mental_floss magazines. He defines genius as, “someone who is extremely bright, extremely creative, who thinks completely outside of the box.”

Well, this is clearly a definition that fits 12-year-old Jesus.

Jesus was a genius, and the all the gospels are filled with examples and stories about his outside the box thinking; it is perhaps the very thing which led to his arrest and crucifixion.

Jesus had no patience whatsoever with fleeting social status.

Mark uses an interesting wordplay on the word ‘authority’ in order to call attention to the uniqueness and impact of Jesus’ teaching.

Synagogue-goers were “astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

The point is that Jesus had an actual authority that was very different from those in the role of spiritual authority.

His teachings had a far greater impact than theirs.

He was able to forgive sins [Luke 2:10].

He had rule and reign over evil spirits [Luke 6:7]

His authority among people was lived out through the experience of being with them, not over them [Luke 10:42-43]

Today we may personalize this idea of Jesus authority by asking ourselves a few spiritually formative questions:

· Why do I trust the authority of Jesus?

· What are the most obvious ways Jesus’ teachings have changed me over this last year?

· If I did not trust Jesus’ authority, how would my choices have looked different this past week?

· In what areas of my life am I not giving Jesus the authority I need to in order to truly change for the better?

Mary was probably as embarrassed as she was shocked to discover her son was missing, and still at the temple, studying and talking with the elders as one who had authority even among them.

In response to her surprise at finding him still there, Jesus simply asked, “Why were you worried and searching for me? Didn’t you know that I must be here, in my God’s house?”

Jesus was consumed by scriptural education; we know this because the gospel tells us the religious leaders were amazed both by his understanding and his knowledge [Luke 2:47].

You see, this is a two-part statement: Jesus could answer questions posed by the temple rabbis because he knew the Scriptures. But he also showed understanding, which likely came from the questions he asked.

In rabbinical education, little value is/was placed on simply possessing information about God and Scripture.

Rabbis wanted to know if students had internalized, owned, wrestled with and understood the information Scripture provided

This was demonstrated through questions, not answers.

This 12-year-old Jesus did not just know about God, he knew God.

Somehow in the education that was part of his divine-human experience, Jesus had come to personalize and internalize who God was/is.

This may lead us to questions of our own this first Sunday in Christmas:

· What does Sunday worship feel like to us: more information to acquire? Something to get through on the way to our traditional lunch? Is the message just something to endure, or is there something to learn?

· Which is a more truthful expression for us: “I know about God” or, “I know God”?

· Do we chase answers for the spiritual questions we do not have answers to?

Are we in touch with our doubts, and are we trying to address them?

As Jesus grew older we are told he grew in wisdom and understanding, and in the love of God.

So, as followers of Christ, how are we doing?

Are we getting wiser? Are we gaining love?

Although these things are sometimes to measure in terms of our spiritual status, we can take a look back over the last couple of years and ask how we have changed.

Let’s try it:

· How has God made me wiser today than I was two years ago?

· How have I matured over the last two years?

· How has my reputation with others changed these last two years?

· Is my reputation better, worse, or the same?

· How would my family, friends, and church say I’ve grown over the last two years?

Christian therapist Henry Cloud offers a simply paradigm for understanding Christian growth: Growth= Grace+Truth+time.

The genius of Jesus is that he is full of grace and truth.

Over time, we should be able to see Christ’s life and teaching causing us and our church to grow and to change.

The new Einstein’s of mental_floss magazine are discovering how to grow organs, cure plagues, sniff out tumors, and help the blind to see.

Jesus desires that we should accomplish much simpler, yet equally profound things: deepening our souls and changing our lives.

Are we giving Jesus, our Christ, a chance to change our status, our understanding of what status really is; a chance to change our worlds?

Epworth United Methodist Church
The Rev. David Weekley
December 20,2009
Luke 1:39-45

Mary’s Song

Last week’s wonderful presentation by our Sunday school class and youth, “Night Max to Bethlehem” reminded me of a Sunday school Christmas program from several years ago; it was a first grade class who decided to get together and write their version of the nativity story.

Just like our presentation last week, this classes’ interpretation was more modern than the traditional story.

Yes, there were the familiar cast members: there was Joseph, the shepherds, three wise men, a brilliant star and shepherds- with an angel propped in the background.

But Mary was nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly there were loud moans and groans coming from backstage, behind the bales of hay.

Apparently Mary was in labor.

Soon afterward a doctor arrived, complete with white coat and stethoscope.

Joseph, with a relieved look on his face, took the doctor to Mary and then began pacing back and forth in the “waiting room” just outside the inn.

After a few moments the “doctor” emerged with a big smile on her face and announced, “Congratulations Joseph, it’s a God!”

Christmas really is about seeing things differently.

It’s about breaking tradition images and moving outside the box.

Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, during which Elizabeth proclaims her song and is responded by what we know as Mary’s song, the Magnificat, is far more than two women meeting together- it is the announcement of Jesus as the Messiah, as Savior to our world.

Unlike the culture surrounding her, or our culture today, Mary’s unplanned pregnancy is not a problem for her. It is a reason to rejoice in what God is doing for all the people on earth in hers and in every generation to follow- including us.

And the child Mary carries will be a mighty but an untraditional king, a king who lives outside the box as well: this is a Messiah God will use to bring down the powerful from their thrones, from their arrogance.

This is a Messiah who will go out seeking the least, the last, the outcast and the lowly of heart.

The real Christmas should shatter our cultural expectations and push us also to move outside the box- including the beautifully decorated gifts boxes we have come to associate with this season.

At its best, Christmas moves us to see things differently- to see between this meeting of Mary and Elizabeth the beginning of God’s ability to turn the world upside down.

I am reminded of the word, “iconoclast”, which literally means, “image breakers.”

To be an iconoclast is to literally be a person who attacks traditional images, ideas or institutions.

Every Christmas we celebrate Jesus as an iconoclast when we acknowledge that in Jesus God is turning the world upside down, as Mary proclaims, “he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. God has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” [Luke 1:51-53]

Have we forgotten?

To celebrate an iconoclastic Christmas is to worship an iconoclastic God.

But this image-breaker named Jesus is not devoted to destruction, like the word may sound.

Actually the work of an iconoclast is usually very creative and constructive.

According to the business magazine, “Fast Company”, iconoclasts, “do what tradition-minded people say cannot be done, and they do it by seeing things differently.”

I found myself watching a Walt Disney Christmas special recently and I realized how he was an iconoclast.

This was someone who could have been satisfied with a living of making decent illustrations, or drawing cartoons on paper.

But he had a vision outside the box; he realized animation’s full potential when he saw his cartoons animated on a big screen- that’s seeing things very differently.

More recently, think about Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who began a service in the mid-1990’s called Backrub.com. They changed the name to Google, which is a play on the word googol, a term used to describe the number 1 with a 100 zeroes behind it: in other words, Google, according to their vision, is a web tool that can organize an infinite amount of information- which it does today.

Walt Disney and Google are iconoclasts in today’s world, seeing things differently, shattering traditions and making contributions that are creative and constructive- from this perspective we can see and we can say that Jesus is our first iconoclast.

Which brings us back to Mary and Elizabeth, who see things not for what they are but for what they might become.

The traditional culture of their day would imprison Mary and Elizabeth in the role of second class citizens, with more shame placed upon Mary as an unwed mother. But neither Mary nor Elizabeth buy into this interpretation of their lives, and so when Mary greets Elizabeth she exclaims, “Blessed are you among women…”
With the help of the Holy Spirit Elizabeth sees that God is breaking human and cultural traditions and doing things differently, by sending a Savior to the world through a young woman named Mary.

So what could it mean for us to celebrate an iconoclastic Christmas?

Maybe it could mean that we get busy together to become creative and constructive, seeing things not for what they appear to be but for what they might become as we live into faith together.

Mary invites us to see things differently and to find joy in a new place- in the gift of God’s love.

This is truly good news for all of us, in the midst of economic turmoil, layoffs, investment looses and personal instabilities in our lives.

When the world around us does not appear to care, the song of Mary and the message of the gospel is that God loves us and cares about us.

When the immediate future seems uncertain, God promises to do great things for us.

Yesterday one of our grown children told us that they are not giving any gifts to the adults in our family because, after all, Christmas is for the kids and they want to give them a lot of presents. I was saddened by this, not because I am not receiving a present from them, but because of what they think Christmas is, and what they are teaching their children that Christmas is.

The bottom line is that when the wrapping paper is cleaned up and the decorations are put away we need to join Jesus, the good shepherd, in working for a better world for all people, especially the outcast, the poor, the lost and the lonely.

We need to join Jesus in a world where the powerful are held accountable and the powerless are given support and opportunity.

This is Mary’s song of an iconoclastic Christmas. Mary invites us to sing with her not only at Christmas but every day of the year.

Christmas is all about moving from what to what might be, from seeing what is to what may become, for all people.

This is what Elizabeth did as she welcomed an unwed mother with joy.

And this is what Mary did when she rejoiced in her pregnancy and God’s spirit with her.

And this is what Jesus did when he entered the world to save us from our broken and limited vision of life, and to declare God’s love and justice for all people.

Today, may we join this movement as Christian Christmas iconoclasts.

One closing image from the poet William Blake:

“To see a World in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a Wild Flower.

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour.”

I wish you all a very merry and iconoclastic Christmas!

Amen.

Epworth United Methodist Church
Rev. David Weekley, Pastor
December 13, 2009

Full Joy

Let’s start with a question this morning: what does joy look like?

If you had to come up with a picture of joy, or a universal symbol for joy, what would it look like?

Would it be the smile of a groom catching the first glimpse of his bride coming down the aisle on their wedding day?

Might it be a mother holding her newborn child?

Could it be the faces in a crowd of people when an end to war is announced?

Joy is an indescribable emotion much of the time, it is hard to explain and difficult to put into words, yet when you see it, it’s unmistakable, and when you experience it, it is unforgettable.

Hopefully, we’ve all seen it; and even more we’ve all felt it.

So , how might you describe this thing called joy?

Sometimes, especially around this time of year, there are some who believe coming up with a symbol for joy is not difficult at all, that we actually already have one- the dollar sign.

I guess they might be right.

I remember when I was a kid, and on my birthday I was always excited when one of the cards I opened from a grandparent contained a crisp dollar bill; if it were a five dollar bill, I was really happy!

I was talking to someone I know a few weeks ago who expressed real joy about a trip he had made to Las Vegas, where he had won several hundred dollars in a slot machine: he was really, really happy!

And at the close of this rough financial year you can safely bet that the dollar sign and the sound of cash registers ringing will bring sweeping smiles to the faces of retailers all around the state, nation, and planet.

Yes, from the excitement of your very first paycheck to that feeling when you discover a $10.00 bill stuffed into the pocket an old pair of jeans, it’s impossible to argue about the emotional influence money has on all of us.

At Christmastime, the season considered by many to be the most joyful time of all, this connection of joy with the dollar sign grows even stronger.

Our Christmas joy is often measured by our ability to purchase presents.

If you don’t agree, try telling your kids, spouse, or best friends that this year Santa is forgoing the gifts and instead is just giving out hugs.

At Christmas, joy is not found in a hug from someone in a red suit; it’s in unwrapping hoped-for presents, like the latest version of Halo for the Xbox 360.

But here’s the problem: the Bible paints a very different picture of joy, and offers a very different symbol for it as well.

This is not to say that presents, and gift-giving are bad.

Giving gifts is great, receiving them is lots of fun and money is- in God’s world- often a means for temporary peace and stability, just ask those who do not have it.

But this is not really joy; at least it is not biblical joy.

Zephaniah is one of the least read Old Testament prophets.

In this morning’s verses he starts out with a warning, a brutally honest reminder to the children of Israel of their need to turn away from the earthly ‘gods’ they have been going after, to say farewell to the other signs of status they’ve been striving for, and turn once more to the Holy One.

If they fail to do this, Zephaniah says that one day all the temporary joys they’ve been chasing will fade away, and it will be time for a necessary Day of Judgment, or serious re-evaluation of their values.

But then, in the closing words of this prophetic voice, Zephaniah offers an incredible picture of real, genuine, biblical-style joy.

He speak of a day when a new leader, a new King of the people will have entered into the midst of the people and by his life and example, take away false gods and temporary joy, and all fears.

There will come a day, there will be a time, Zephaniah says, when women and men will “sing aloud” and “shout”, when they will “be glad and rejoice” with all their hearts.

This true, authentic joy will well up not as the result of piling up enough money or achieving a certain level of temporal success.

No, this lasting joy will be found in the discovery that God finds joy in us, in you!

Biblical joy, real joy, comes from knowing without fear and without fail that, “The Lord your God is with you…and will rejoice over you with singing.” [Zephaniah 3:17]

The real reason joy is so essential to the celebration of Jesus’ birth we call Christmas is because in this birth, in the entrance of that baby born in a Bethlehem back alley, God tells us that Zephaniah’s prophecy has come true!

The truth is that so much of what we label as ‘life’s joys’ are really just temporary pleasures, stuff that will come and go and make us feel good only for a moment.

In The Story of Joy, Adam Potkay argues that most of us actually live rather joyless lives, and the reason is simple.

Rather than focusing on the real joy found in Jesus the Christ, which is a shared and a communal joy celebrated among a congregation of friends and family, we sell out for simple pleasures that are often both solitary and momentary.

Proclaiming Jesus’ birth to the poor shepherds standing in the field, the angel makes it clear there is only one symbol, one picture of real joy, as the angel says, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, Christ the Lord.” [Luke 2:10-12]

The beautiful thing is that, unlike everything else in this world, when your joy comes through Christ, it is a joy that can never be taken away from you.

Apart from God, all the joys of life will someday be stolen, destroyed, or simply end.

The money will run out, the kids will grow up and become busy with their own lives, and the illnesses can kill us, or return for another try.

And one day, life here will end.

But when we are connected to God through Christ, we understand that the life God gives us is forever, and the peace God gives us surpasses all of our human understanding.

Years ago during Advent season, the Baxter Theater in Cape Town, South Africa, used to present a pantomime- i.e. an interactive story in which the audience was invited to participate.

One hot summer afternoon [remember that Christmas in South Africa comes in the middle of their summer] the presentation of “Jack and the Beanstalk” was going really badly.

The audience was lethargic from the heat, and the play seemed really boring.

Eventually the lead actor playing the part of Jack waved his hands, stopped everything, and stepped to the front of the stage and asked, “What are we going to do?”

To his surprise a little girl sitting off to one side yelled out, “Let’s sing!”

Inviting the girl onto the stage the actor asked, “What shall we sing?”

Taking the microphone, the little girl began to sing, “If you want real joy, let Jesus come into your heart,’ a chorus she had learned in Sunday School.

When the girl finished there was silence, then the whole theater burst into applause.

That moment of child-like, simple joy breathed new life, energy, and a little magic into the afternoon performance.

Joy is found not so much in the material gifts we give and receive, but in the gifts we are ourselves to others, and the recognition that they are also precious gifts.

The joy in the gift of Jesus, the Christ child, is an invitation for us to be a source of joy in the giving of ourselves and in the receiving of each other through the love of God.

As someone one said long ago: Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.” [unknown]

Amen.

Epworth United Methodist Church
Rev. David Weekley, Pastor
December 6, 2009
Luke 1:68-79

Advent Communion Meditation

This morning’s reading from the gospel of Luke is known as Zechariah’s Benedictus. It is the prophecy of a priest named Zechariah.

A child has just been born to Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth; this child will grow up to become John the Baptist, the one who will prophecy the coming of Jesus, call people to repentance [i.e. to change the direction of their lives] and who will actually baptize Jesus in the Jordan River.

Luke tells us, “his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy.” [Luke 1:67]

The word we sometimes use today to indicate an attractive, powerful leader or superstar is “charismatic”, and it literally means someone who is the recipient of the divine gift of being ‘filled with the spirit.’

Filled with this charisma, this Holy Spirit, Zechariah rejoices through this prayer because he senses that God is doing something new, making a bold decision to enter into human life and rescue people from their hopelessness and despair.

Zechariah prophecies, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; you will go before the Lord to prepare the way, to give knowledge of salvation to God’s people by the forgiveness of their sins.” [Luke 1:76-77]

In these verses Luke is telling us about both a Mighty Savior [i.e. Jesus], and the prophet of this Savior [i.e. John the Baptist].

Luke is also reminding us that God does not generally work alone: when God something there is usually at least one human person involved, sometimes two, an often times an entire community.

The result of this divine intervention, this gift of charisma, will be that “the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. [Luke 1:78-79]

But notice again that while the gift of these two children is a work of God, like all of God’s action in the world, peace does not exist in a vacuum either: peace also requires human action, human cooperation with the divine.

There’s a new movie coming out this month called, The Human Factor.

Directed by Clint Eastwood, and starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, this movie is also about charisma, God’s Spirit at work through a cooperative human being and community.

Talking about the movie, Clint Eastwood remarked, “Mandela has great charisma…he had the charisma to bring the country together. The unique way he does it is what this story is all about.”

Eastwood’s new movie tells the story of how Mandela worked to unite his racially and economically divided country in the mid 1990’s.

Nelson Mandela was elected South Africa’s first black president in 1994, after spending decades as a leading opponent of apartheid, the white government’s official policy of racial segregation.

His opposition to the policy of apartheid had resulted in 27 years in prison, but in 1990 he was released, and then, in 1994 elected president.

In 1995 South Africa hosted the Rugby World Cup Tournament.

Now, Rugby was a white people’s game, and the South African team was entirely white, representing a country that was 80% black.

The team also bore a symbol, a leaping gazelle called a ‘springbok’ that reminded most black South Africans of the country’s racist history.

A black president who had spent 27 years in prison opposing racism, faced with a white Rugby team; you might think Nelson Mandela would not look favorably on those players.

But you would be wrong.

Mandela arrived at a press conference wearing a rugby jersey and cap with a springbok on it and said, “These are our boys now. They may all be white, but they’re our boys, and we must get behind them and support them in this tournament.”

The very next day the Springbok team coach took the whole team to the prison where Mandela had spent nearly three decades of his life behind bars.

The coach said, “This is the cell where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. He was kept here for 27 years by the racist policies of our government. We tolerated his imprisonment for all those years, and yet he has backed us publicly. We can’t let him down.”

The tournament opened, and the Springboks played beyond everyone’s expectations, making it to the final game.

President Mandela was in the stands, wearing a Springbok jersey.

During a timeout, he brought a South African children’s choir out of the stands, and they led 65,000 people in singing a black African miner’s song.

When the Springboks went back on the field, they were unstoppable.

They won the world rugby championship, and for the next twenty-four hours whites danced with blacks in the streets of South Africa.

Perhaps for the very first time, they saw each other as one community, citizens of a multiracial country.

Zechariah prophesied, filled with the charisma of God, “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” [Luke 1:78-79]

This prophecy came true again in the 1995 Rugby World Cup Tournament.

The way of peace appeared in an inspiring and instructive way.

It required a gift, a charisma from God- and it required human cooperation.

Can we here today take this Scripture and story to heart as we prepare for Christ’s coming among us?

I am not a Nelson Mandela, this I understand. But I also was imprisoned for twenty-seven years, bearing the burden of being a transgender person in a country and a church that discriminates and often condemns people like me and other members of the LGBT community.

I told my story to you, because I believed you, too understood discrimination and judgment.

My hope and prayer was that together, with the charisma of the Spirit, we would move forward into a new sense of community, and together create a truly multiracial, multicultural and truly diverse community known as Epworth United Methodist Church.

I realize it has only been four months, yet so far this is not what has happened.

My experience is that we remain economically and racially divided, perhaps even divided over LGBT issues as well; I do not know.

What I do know is that I hear complaints everywhere about my salary and the church finances, about the car you surprised me with and graciously gave to me two years ago when our old Volvo was unfixable and I had taken at $17,000.00 salary cut to come here as your pastor.

What I do know is that I hear complaints that I am not friendly enough, not in the office enough, not in the Japanese-American community enough, not anything enough.

Well, I certainly believe I am friendly, and caring, and spend as much time in my office as is productive- doing most of my ministry outside the office, as in most church communities.

I am not an extrovert, in fact I am pretty introverted, but I love talking with people one on one, and if you invite me to tea or coffee or just to visit, I will gladly visit with you.

What I do know is that one of our newest members told me she has found a different church because after trying to become part of this faith community for over a year she still feels like an intruder.

This is not what I expected as the result of sharing my story, or as the fruit of more than two years as your pastor.

This is the time of year to reflect and to meditate on the rich mixture of divine charisma and humanity that came to earth, and to us, in Jesus.

It is also the time to take seriously what Jesus’ life can teach us and about the way God can work through us both as individuals and as a community, if we will allow it.

After all, Jesus was both fully divine and fully human, and both are essential for walking in the way of peace; both can be present in us as well.

There are three things for us to ponder in our minds and hearts today and in this advent season:

1. Jesus honors the humanity of every person he meets: As the letter to the Hebrews points out, “Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God.” Jesus does not despise the humanity of the people he meets but honors everyone as a child of God.

So did Nelson Mandela, when he said about the Rugby team, “They may all be white, but they’re our bots, and we must get behind them.” And so did the coach of the rugby team, who said that because President Mandela backed them publicly, “We can’t let him down.”

2. Jesus also knows that divine gifts such as charisma require human community to really be effective: Even Jesus needed John the Baptist to become, “the prophet of the Most High…to go before the Lord to prepare the way.” [Luke 1: 76] Zechariah needed a community to hear and to respond to his charisma [i.e.Spirit] filled prophecy and to respond in faith. President Mandela needed the Springbok coach, and the Springbok coach needed Mandela, and they both needed a diverse community of blacks and whites willing to support the team together.

3. Finally, the combination of charisma and humanity leads us to a new way of living together in this world- what Zechariah calls, “the way of peace” [Luke 1:79] Peace is not simply escape from the hands of those who hate us, or rescue from our enemies, or even a period of time in which we are free from violence- be it verbal or otherwise. No, peace is a way of life in which we serve God without fear or bigotry.

The way of peace and community is not simply the absence of conflict; it is the presence of holiness and righteousness and justice: this means being devoted to God, and dedicated to a right relationship with God and with one another.

Holiness, righteousness and justice- these are the qualities of a life of true peace.

In this season of Advent can we honor our common humanity?

Can we move beyond economic, racial, ethnic, gender, generation, or any other sense of division?

Might we share in Jesus honoring of our humanity, and learn how to love and respect each other?

Jesus the Christ is with us, among us, and supporting us as we walk the way of peace in our diversity: May we not let him, or each other, down. Amen.

Epworth United Methodist Church
Rev. David Weekley, Pastor
Nov. 29, 2009
Luke 21:25-36

Attentiveness

This Thanksgiving holiday has been an eye-opening one for me.

Everywhere I have gone, from stores, to a favorite breakfast restaurant I visit about once a month, has led to people sharing with me how they are affected by the holiday “blues.”

In some ways I was relieved, because I thought it was only me, or only me and my family experiencing this sense of sadness, depression, as I watched hoards of people in traffic, in stores, and in the media apparently really happy and full of joy by this “holiday season,” especially as they poured onto the highways to shop on ‘Black Friday.’

Secretly I wondered who was so enthralled by the ads and the glitz when everything I see and hear and read speaks of economic and social depression.

Personally, my life is currently overwhelmed with the plight of a former parishioner who has just been convicted of first degree sexual assault and now facing a mandatory confinement of six and ½ years in the Wilsonville prison, having to leave her own family behind.

This is a woman I know to stand up for the rights of immigrant people who, as it turned out are the very people accusing her in hopes of obtaining a “green card” through their ten year-old daughter’s accusations…

This is a Christian whom I argued with from time to time because she seemed so judgmental towards her own Caucasian people that she endangered us with her politics; it seemed unfair to me- now she is accused and convicted by the very people she so sought to empower…

It took me back.

It took me back to days when I never had to consider the possible accusations from youth when I took them home from events;

I never had to think about a counseling appointment alone in my office with a troubled parishioner or member of the larger community.

It took me back to a time of trust…

Today’s gospel reading reminds me that Jesus warned us that there would be days like this.

When you read from Luke 21 it is clear that there is anxiety all over the place, and people attempting to make money on this anxiety.

Last week I talked about the bookshelves in a recent Barnes and Noble Bookstore I visited, filled with 12-21-2012 prophecies.

I have a young family member whose life is filled with stress about the possible end of the world in the next three years.

I do my best to console him, telling him there have always been those who try to predict the end of the world as we know it.

The point is, that Jesus reminded us that there would always be times like this.

First, you have your natural signs, which are always around because natural catastrophes are always present on this planet.

Whenever there is an earthquake or a tsunami you have those who “will be confused by the roaring of the sea and waves” [Vs.25]

These verses seem to be describing what we have witnessed in recent years, such as the roaring of the seas and waves of the 2004 Asian tsunami.

Faced with these interpretations, it is really important for us to remember that apocalyptic language is meant to be more symbolic than literal in its interpretation.

When I thought about today’s gospel reading I was reminded of the story of a television evangelist who was hawking is book on the radio; it was a book about the end of the world.

“Buy this book”, the evangelist said, “and you will learn how to read the signs of the times so you may know that Jesus is coming very soon.”

On impulse, I called this evangelist’s toll-free number and asked the representative to please send me a book for free.

She said she was sorry, but she could not do this.

Then she said that if I complied by giving her a current credit card number she would send me the book for a mere $15.95.

So I said, “Well, you do not understand. I cannot understand why you are asking for money at all if you really believe Jesus is coming before the end of this year. You won’t need money and should be giving these books away!”

Suddenly, the operator was no longer standing by to place my order.

The point is that there are always natural catastrophes, and human created ones, that tempt us to say the world’s end is near, or that the world’s end SHOULD be near.

Still, life goes on and when it will all end, God only knows.

In this gospel story, I believe Jesus is asking us to stand among those who stand for what is right and just and spiritual in the interim: “stand up, stand up and raise your heads.”

In this morning’s gospel passage Jesus challenges us to face today and tomorrow with faith rather than with fear.

Jesus says, “stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

The earlier fig tree parable really reminded the disciples to really look around for the signs of God’s realm in their midst, the signs of justice, mercy and love rather than focusing constantly on the anxiety of the daily news, filled with calamity and disaster.

The truth is that when we can identify and name the fears, anxieties and distractions of the people around us, then we can begin to offer them and ourselves hope and help through a journey with Jesus the Christ.

If our anxiety is setting off alarms everywhere we go, maybe it is time for us to step back, take a deep breath and offer a prayer to the One who will make all things new.

There is no better way to lower your heart rate, your blood pressure and your body temperature than to do a breath prayer….

It is one way to slow down, communicate with Christ- remembering, as Jesus reminds us, it is our God who is in charge, not COSTCO, Walmart, or anyone who is asking us to focus on spending money as the reason for this season.

Let’s do a breath prayer together this morning. I hope it is something you can utilize in the days and weeks of stress that are sure to come this season, along with all the joy and celebration:

As you breathe in, I invite you to pray, “Thank you God for being with me….

And as you exhale, continue the prayer saying, “in every season of life.”

Let’s do this together one more time: inhale, “Thank you God for being with me…

Exhale, “in every season of life…”

So, why think about the end times at all?

Maybe for this reason:

Many of us have a clock radio on our bedside table. Every evening upon retiring we are faced with a choice.

We can set the radio for “music” or “alarm”.

Of the two, music is by far the most pleasant; then our favorite radio station will arise and ease us into wakefulness- a process that can take some time, as I have experienced.

On the other hand, it is a process that may not happen at all!

Many of us, myself included, have learned that the music setting is just a bit unreliable.

The morning concert may be so relaxing that it just works its way into our dreams and we oversleep..

So some of us have learned that if you really want to wake up at a special time there is no substitute for the “alarm” setting.

We may hate it when the thing goes off in the middle of our deep sleep or wildest dreams.

It might sound raucous, and it might make us jump.

Still, it forces us to make a choice, doesn’t it?

Do we want the alarm of waking up to this day and what it asks of us?

Or, do we want to remain asleep, when the consequences of staying asleep are simply too costly, in the long run?

The Scripture passages that sound the warning of an impending change to all that we know are a lot like our radio alarm clock.

No one likes them; their message is disturbing, especially in the middle of the darkest time of the year.

Still, this is exactly why they are in our Scriptures: their very function is to disturb us, to shake us up and blast us into the most precious time of the year, when the new light of God’s creation comes to us in the form of a newborn child we have come to name as Jesus, the Christ.

Let’s close together with our breath prayer once again: “Thank you God for being with me….in every season of life.”

Amen.

Epworth United Methodist Church
Rev. David Weekley, Pastor
Nov. 22, 2009
Hebrews 10:11-14, 19-25
Mark 13:1-8

Let Us Provoke One Another

One of my favorite passages in the epistles are these words from Hebrews, “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” [Hebrews 10:25]

Usually we use the word ‘provoke’ in an antagonistic sense, like annoying someone or some action that leads another person to anger or something irritating.

In this passage from Hebrews however, ‘provoke’ is used as a positive act, leading to love and good deeds.

It’s an interesting twist in the use of this word.

Jesus does a similar twist as he speaks about the destruction of the temple.

This section of the gospel of Mark is often used to provoke people into fear about the end of the world, but this is obviously not what Jesus is talking about in these verses.

A disciple comments on the grandeur of the temple, and Jesus responds by referring to its destruction; but is he really speaking about the temple, or is he thinking about his own approaching death, or reminding everyone that an earlier temple built in the days of Solomon and considered indestructible was destroyed?

While we cannot answer these questions, one point is obvious: nothing in this world lasts forever, whether we are thinking about persons or anything made by human hands.

The disciples listening to Jesus that day wanted to know the exact date when what he was talking about would happen, and in this regard, not much has changed over time.

The history of Christianity is filled with individuals and groups who have formed exactly because they predict when the world will end, promising to read “the signs” of an imminent end of the world in such events as earthquakes, wars and other calamities.

For some reason people appear obsessed with wanting to know when the world is going to end, and if it will be anytime soon.

I was reminded of this the other day when I was in a Barnes and Noble bookstore.

There was an entire section filled with book about the current fascination with the date 12-12-20012; this is the newest prediction of the day the world as we know it will end.

Some folks are hoping to make a lot of money before this happens, I guess!

But the point Jesus makes, and one we need to focus on, is that nobody can answer this question, and it is a complete waste of the life and the time we do have to try to figure this out or worry about it.

We have more important things to do while we and the world are here; things such as provoking one another to love and good deeds.

With Thanksgiving holiday this Thursday, now is a good time to think about our gratitude for this world, for the gift of life, and for opportunities to love and encourage other people.

In the biblical tradition, God’s realm is characterized not by everlasting stone buildings, but by justice and well-being for all people, creatures, and even the earth itself- so working in struggles for equal rights for all persons, working against poverty, hunger, racism, sexism, and violence is a way of expressing our thankfulness and faithfulness simultaneously.

A world in which all such struggles achieve their goals would truly be a cause for thanksgiving.

While it is easy to imagine that such a world is unrealistic, both our readings today remind us of the importance of trusting in God; when we trust God as the one who desires to bless us and the world, thankfulness becomes easier and contentment naturally increases in our lives.

So, as we celebrate our Thanksgiving holiday this week, maybe we can include in our reflections some ideas of concrete ways we might provoke one another to love and good deeds.

I will close today be sharing two stories, both are about religious institutions, one is the story of a church, and the other is about a Shinto shrine.

In a large city there was a church designed by a famous architect. It was a beautiful stone building of classic Gothic design, with lovely stained glass windows.

Over time the church became the site of many baptism, weddings, funerals and worship services.

The members of that church loved their building, so when the neighborhood became ‘rough’ and people like themselves began moving to the suburbs, they decided to move as well.

And move they did- literally.

Stone by stone, the church was taken apart, each block was labeled, loaded onto trucks and moved to the suburbs!

Out near the local university there was a great site for their church building, and this is where they rebuilt it.

Expensive new homes were being constructed in the same area, and young families were moving in, so it seemed a promising location.

No longer were they a church surrounded by crime and urban decay, but a church by a university in a safe and respectable location.

The people loved their church.

They loved it so much they did not want anything to happen to it.

So even though they located near the university, they refused to allow student groups to use it.

They drafted very strict rules and policies for outside groups, so strict in fact, that most outsiders gave up trying to use it.

The people of the new neighborhood quickly got the message, and not many of them joined the congregation.

The old members continued to travel there for awhile, but over time their numbers dwindled.

Finally, there was simply no one left to love that church, so the denomination dissolved the congregation and sold the building to a nearby hospital that wanted the land for expansion.

One day a huge crane appeared in the churchyard and a wrecking ball smashed the stone building into pieces until nothing was left of it, and that was the second and final time those stones had been separated from one another!

The second story is about Japan’s Grand Shrine of Ise, one of the country’s most prominent Shinto shrines.

The Ise shrine was built about 1,300 years ago, but it is not the same set of buildings that was originally built.

Every 20 years for the last 1,300 years, the shrine complex has been rebuilt in an exact replica of the original shrine.

After it is rebuilt, the sacred objects inside are moved, and the old shrine complex is burned to the ground.

It seems that some wise person from the distant past realized that genuine faith, if it is going to remain vital, must be reborn and rebuilt in each new generation.

“As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’ Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” [Mark 13:1]

“Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” [Hebrews10:24,25]

Epworth United Methodist Church
Rev. David Weekley, Pastor
November 15, 2009
Mark 12:38-44

When Less Is More

With Thanksgiving holiday quickly approaching, today is a good time to begin thinking and praying about all that we have, and all that we give thanks for in our lives.

A few years ago now a colleague shared a joke with me: A $100 bill, a $20 bill, and a $1 bill meet up at the paper shredder at the end of their lives. The $100 bill says, “I’ve seen the whole world during my lifetime. Why, I’ve been on cruises in the Caribbean, safaris in Africa and vacations in Europe .”

The $20 bill says, “Well, I have not done quite as well, but I have been to Atlantic City , Las Vegas , Reno , Disneyland , and Starbucks.”

They both turn to the $1 bill and ask, “How about you?”

Not wanting to be outdone, the $1 bill says, “I’ve seen the whole country as well. I’ve been from church to church to church…”

Then the $100 bill asks, “What’s a church?”

In this morning’s gospel reading from Mark, Jesus once again utilizes people to tell another story about what it means to follow him as a disciple.

By contrasting the scribe’s exorbitance to a widow’s sacrifice, Jesus gives us all a picture of what the life of a true disciple should be as we do our best to, “deny [ourselves] and take up [our] cross to follow Jesus [see, Mark 8:34].

This passage begins in the Temple , with Jesus saying, “Beware of those scribes, who like to walk around in long robes…” [Mark 12:38]

These days common attire is not comprised of long robes, so we might replace this with something like “beware those people who like to show-off their wealth through expensive clothing and accessories.”

I thought of these verses a couple of months ago when our youngest daughter, who is majoring in fashion design told us there are actually women’s handbags that cost more than $5,000.00!

Are these handbags better than ones costing less? Of course not; the issue is status, just as wearing those long robes was about status and privilege in Jesus’ day.

As I drove to church last Thursday morning I listened to an interesting program on National Public Radio; it was about the American obsession with buying “stuff.”

The program gave me some hope because the speakers all spoke about the need to move away from this obsession with buying “stuff” to embrace values that reflect respect and care for other people and for the environment.

As I listened I was reminded of this gospel passage, because Jesus is lifting up this point in his teaching at the Temple treasury.

It’s like this anonymous story:

One day a certain old, rich man of a miserable disposition visited a rabbi, who took the rich man by the hand and led him to a window.

“Look out there,” said the rabbi. “What do you see?”

The rich man looked into the street.

“I see women, men, and children,” answered the rich man.

Again the rabbi took him by the hand and this time led him to a mirror; the rabbi asked, “Now what do you see?”

“Now I see myself,” the rich man replied.

Then the rabbi said, “Behold, in the window there is glass, and in the mirror there is glass. But the glass of the mirror is covered with a little silver. No sooner is the silver added than you cease to see others but see only yourself.

This story reminded me of when part of my ministry was working in a homeless shelter a few years ago.

We depended upon organizations for dinner each night, and I came to know which group was bringing dinner most nights every week; they were more often than not church volunteers.

There was this one church I/we always looked forward to, because they were blessed to have a gourmet chef in their congregation and every week when it was their turn, he would bring in all these wonderful ingredients and make a true banquet for us.

We all helped together, and then we all sat down together, homeless families, staff, and the chef and church volunteers. We blessed the meal and ate together; it was a highpoint of each week.

I also came to know which nights I was not looking forward to- these were the church or other volunteer organizations that ran in with a few cans of chili thrown into a pan, a gallon of milk and some stale bread, maybe a head of lettuce for a salad, then ran out again without saying grace with us and without eating with us.

Like the rabbi’s story, it seemed to truly make a difference whether the people involved were looking into a silver-gilded mirror, or a window.

The gospel story from Mark 12: 38-44 gives us a glimpse into the attitudes and the coins that circulated around the temple in Jesus’ day.

The coin in question, a silver denarius, was worth about a day’s wage, so it was not small change.

Imperial coinage was circulated throughout the empire both to standardize trade in Rome and its territories, and to honor the current emperor’s status and divinity.

To avoid the use of such idolatrous coins, most first-century Jews continued to use local Jewish coinage.

The most basic coin of this period was the bronze or copper lepton [plural lepta], which avoided idolatry by inscribing natural or man-made symbols instead of humans on the coins.

At the time of Jesus a very common lepton in circulation was the one minted by Alexander Jannaeus [who ruled from about 103 to 76 B.C.].

It is like the one Christina Self brought in this morning, featuring an eight-rayed star on one side and an anchor on the other.

This is exactly like the coins the money changers exchanged for Roman currency in the temple.

The lepton’s monetary value was pretty small at the time- so small that it was among the least-valued coins ever made.

As you look at it, notice how the image was just stamped haphazardly in a tiny dribble of molten copper or bronze; the coins are not rounded, or finished, and weigh next to nothing.

It was very likely two of these tiny lepta, or “mites”, that the widow dropped into the temple treasury as Jesus watched.

Compared to the wealth of Roman coins Roman coins that the religious leaders and others were carrying around, these lepta were about as worthless as monopoly money; but the story is not about the value of coins, but about the values of loyalty, commitment, and sacrifice.

The “long-robes” of the scribes and their VIP seating at local parties are indications that they are more concerned with themselves than their community.

In addition, they “devour widow’s houses.” which is a way of saying that they preyed on perhaps the most vulnerable people in their community.

Widows who lacked male relatives had absolutely no status, and no prospects for income; they often resorted to prostitution in order to survive- a reality that still exists today, as a drive along 82nd avenue in Portland will affirm.

Some commentators have suggested that the scribes may have acted as guardians for some of these widows, but they did so by exploiting them, taking from them whatever money or property the women’s husbands may have left them.

By doing this, they broke their own Torah law from the Book of Exodus that specifically speaks against the abuse of widows [Exodus 22:22-24].

So when Jesus makes his remark about this particular poor widow dropping her two tiny lepta into the temple treasury, “all she had to live on” [Mark 12:44], the context suggests he is continuing his condemnation of the religious leaders and a corrupt community system that would exploit people like her and cause her to donate her last two pennies.

While some preach on this text as a stewardship sermon, imagining Jesus smiling at this woman’s generous sacrifice, it seems more likely he was probably shaking his head sadly as he spoke these words.

The verses give no indication the widow is being forced to give up her coins.

We actually do not know anything about her motivation other than she just dropped them in.

Jesus recognized that her offering, though less than a pittance monetarily, was far more valuable than the sum total of all the other coins offered that day.

This story should force us to ask ourselves: what would cause a person to voluntarily give away her last two pennies, especially to a community that continues to exploit her.

Maybe it is because the widow still believed that regardless of all that has happened to her, she still belongs to God.

Despite the corruption and exploitation going on around her in God’s name right in the temple, perhaps she has faith that God will still set things right in her life as she continues her faithfulness and extreme generosity.

So this widow continues to invest in her community, a community of faith, by giving her last two coins for the good of the whole,

This widow’s might [might, not mite!] is demonstrated through the strength of her faith.

She is not dabbling around with spare change for the offering; she is literally giving her all.

This is a great Sunday and a great Scripture to challenge us to think about how much we’ve invested in our community of faith.

It’s easy for people to look at how governments or even religious institutions have done less than hoped for with the funds given tot hem; and it can be a great excuse for withholding or cutting back on what we give.

But the widow invites us to focus instead on the currency of commitment to our community, trusting that God will take what we give and continue to use it for both God’s purposes and the good of the community. It is this kind of commitment that turns all of our gifts together into a mighty witness for God in this community and in the larger community in which we live!

I close with this quote from one of my favorite ‘saints,’ Mother Teresa who said: If you give what you do not need, it isn’t giving.

Amen.