Holding Up the Holy Staff

Exodus 17:8-16

Veteran's Day Recognition

                The great spiritual leader trudged to the top of the hill and stood above his Hebrew people as they defended themselves in battle.     At the time of the conflict, the Hebrew people were in exodus from Egypt and were worn down and weary from woeful wandering in the desert wilderness (Deut. 25:18).   As such, they had appeared to be an easy target for an attacking nomadic people, named for us in this morning’s lesson as the Amalekites.  

            Amalek, chief of the Amalekites, was the grandson of Esau.  Recall that Esau is known to us by way of the Book of Genesis as the hairy-skinned hunter and slightly older twin of Jacob whose parents are Isaac and Rebekah.   Further recall that Jacob had a supplanting grip on his Esau’s heal at their birth and that Jacob also eventually completely cheated Esau out of his birthright.    There was fierce enmity between the two; so strong that at one point Esau had been determined to kill Jacob (Gen. 27:41).  Though they eventually had a measure of reconciliation, the bloodlines of Esau (known in the Bible as the Edomites) were historically in conflict with Jacob’s bloodlines (known in the Bible as the Israelites).     Given this bad blood, it makes additional sense why Esau’s grandson, Amalek, an Edomite chief, saw an opportunity to pounce on the Israelites as they were escaping to a holy promised land.

            The exodus of the Israelites, however, was sacredly safeguarded.   Moses was the central representative spiritual leader of God’s holy bond with his Hebrew people.    Every step of the exodus, including every lament and every attack upon them, was thus taken in the merciful, delivering power of the Almighty.

            Today’s passage from Exodus is the first time we meet Joshua in the Bible.   Moses had instructed him to lead the fight against the Amalekites.    It may seem like Joshua, as the military leader, would have the greatest influence on the outcome of the conflict.   This is true enough in terms of how the bloody battle was fought on the ground.    But again, this battle was also one being fought from the heavens.   There can be absolutely no underestimating how powerful and inspiring that sight of Moses was to the faithful engaged in defending their people.   The act of raising his holy shepherding staff high up was the great hope and empowerment of the Israelites.    It’s how they were reminded of God’s powerful presence and divine promise of deliverance during that battle in the wilderness of Sin.

            When I read of times and places and people in the Bible, I find it helpful to use my imagination to help me really relate to it all.   So as I reflected on this morning’s scene over the past few days, I found myself picturing Moses (and try as I may and might, I just couldn’t quite shake the image of Charlton Heston) standing atop the rock lookout point in the park near the top of Schooley’s Mountain.   I envisioned him standing there with his holy staff uplifted triumphantly high as myself and many people act in defense of an enemy attack down below in Long Valley.   In my mind’s eye, the power of the great spiritual leader’s presence stirred my faithful passions and energized me for the mission.

            Stepping away from this sidebar of imagination, let’s get back to the text.   Adding depth to this historic account is something else we are told.    We are told that for all his faithful stamina, Moses was unable to stand tall for the whole battle.  He was unable to continuously hold up the holy staff, that emblem of holy hope.    He was only human, after all, and who knows how long that defensive fight went on.   Yet the powerful symbol of the staff needed to continue to be on display for the benefit of the bedraggled Israelites in battle.   

            The good news is we are also told Moses was not alone in this important mission.    He had his older brother Aaron and a loyal friend named Hur by his side.    Seeing that their spiritual leader physically needed support, Aaron and Hur found a rock for Moses to sit and rest upon.    As you heard the Scripture read, did you catch what they did next?   They didn’t take turns holding the staff … that was truly for Moses alone to do.   Instead, they each took and lifted up an arm of the seated spiritual leader.    This faithful act of support enabled the holy staff, the reminder of God’s abiding and strengthening presence, to remain above the fray. 

            What a beautiful image this is of a leaders working together as a spiritual team at a time it was desperately needed.   And, I may be the only one, but I also interpret this three-part blessing over those in battle as symbolic of the Holy Trinity.   God’s blessed presence has always been and continues to be as community.  

            How does this written account of an ancient event come to bear on our more recent human history?    Why might this witness be important for us to embrace and emulate as spiritual heirs of God’s promises to the Israelites?   Especially at a time when our country remains engaged in freedom-defending, democracy-building wars? 

            This past Friday was 11-11-11, a fun date to say but much more importantly to remember.    It was the 93rd anniversary of eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 when an armistice for the cessation of hostilities was signed between the Allied Western Front of World War I and Germany.    The New York Times reported that day how the US State Department had made the armistice announcement at 2:50 A.M.., and that the end of the war was declared at 6 A.M. Washington time.    A year later, President Woodrow Wilson officially birthed a new American federal holiday, Armistice Day, to honor those who had died in the world-shocking war and to help further encourage peace. 

             As we all lamentably know, lasting world peace was not realized and so World War II and the Korean War soon after grasped the heal of the first great conflict.   More dutiful war dead and surviving veterans needed to be remembered and honored.   In 1954, Armistice Day was therefore declared by President Eisenhower to be henceforth known as Veterans Day.   And so it remains … now incorporating honored memorials and celebrations for all those serving our country through other major conflicts including the Vietnam War, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom.

        As I faithfully reflect on the heart-wrenching reality of ongoing warfare in our world, I find this morning’s Bible passage reminds us of a central duty for all people who profess trust and hope in our promise-giving, spiritually delivering God.    We are to be spiritual leaders.   We are to hold up the holy staff.   We do so by uplifting prayer and faithful witness for all of our veterans and all of our active men and woman of the armed forces, that they may know God’s constant, safeguarding and powerful presence is alive within their hearts and minds.  As Father David Sivret, who served as a chaplain and was severely wounded during Operation Iraqi Freedom tells it, “In all the sermons, I tried to focus on God’s saving acts and how He is compassionate in love, there for us at all times, no matter where we find ourselves.”[i]   

            “The Lord is my banner,” declared Moses following the military victory of Joshua and the Israelites over the Amalekites.    The Hebrew word for “banner” that is used in Exodus 17:15, is not a reference to some colorful fabric.    It translates to simply mean a symbolic rallying point.    The rallying point is belief in God’s power to deliver all humanity from evil, to lead us all into holy promises for peace and justice, freedom and equality.   We hold high and together this rallying point like a holy staff belonging to the Good Shepherd, the Savior of the World, Jesus Christ.   Amen.     

           

           

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[i] What Was Asked of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers Who Fought It (2006)

Power Vines

John 15:1-11

  

            This past week of widespread power outages inspires me to ask a question of us this morning -- where are the power lines for our church?

There are power lines threaded throughout all of the communities where we live and work.    We generally do not take notice of their power-full current carrying presence … until they get damaged and we lose our light, our heat, our hot water, our sense of security and our air of normalcy.   These past several days we’ve certainly been forced to take notice.    Untold numbers of autumn-leafed tree branches were suddenly adorned with several inches of heavy wet snow from a hundred-year Saturday storm.     As very, very many broke off they brought thick black electric vines down with them.   Cautiously driving around in the aftermath revealed these snapped snakes and provided a narrative as to why the electric grid was devastatingly shut down most all the week.   I know I’ll not soon forget the image and experience of driving on Parker Road and barely passing under an arc of low-bent power line from a long, broken branch.     

With interrupted power came interrupted life.    Roads and schools and stores and work places were closed.    Regular routes and routines were anxiously altered.    Finding an open gas station was meandering guesswork.   We worried about ourselves, our loved ones, our neighbors.    And we waited with a tremendously uncomfortable feeling of being at the mercy of the power company as they rolled out the massive restoration process.    

Keep everything you just experienced this difficult week in mind as we go back to the inspired question -- where are the power lines for our church?    Our sanctuary, Community House, and manse sat dark and cold for about five days.     But does this mean our power lines as a church were down?

Let’s turn to our Bibles for an answer.   Specifically, let’s revisit the Good News of Jesus Christ.   As we do, we are unquestionably reminded that our power as a church did not go off even for a millisecond this past week.   Nor can any storm at any time ever damage and interrupt it.    Our buildings may be powered by JCP&L, but as a church we are a much more powerful company.  We are a different JCP&L … we are Jesus Christ’s People and Light!    At all times -- and especially when the way is dark, anxious and uncertain – Jesus shines through us.  His Light is constantly on, His power grid forever flowing, and He is always illuminating a path to peace of mind, hope, and strength. Nothing on earth and in the universe can shut-down the people that God empowers through the Light of Christ.

In this morning’s Gospel lesson from John 15, this faithful truth is relayed by using the community imagery of a vineyard.    You may immediately picture in your minds a vineyard where the rows of vines are all neatly manicured and picturesque.    This was not the case in biblical times.    The vineyards of ancient Israel were huge, heavy, ancient and “trailed along the ground covering large areas.”[i]   Sounds a bit like the downed tree limbs all around us this week.  In order for the vine branches to be able to bear good fruit, vineyard workers had to constantly check them.   Most importantly, they needed to keep them propped up on small supports.   If no support was offered, the vine branches broke away from the parent vine, withered and died.   A broken vine could not simply be replanted to bloom again the following season; it took years for roots to go deep enough to bear good fruit. ^[ii]       

Jesus grew up surrounded by vineyards.    He knew their historic and contemporary significance for the well-being of the community.    He knew about the great need for deep roots, for endless supports, for constant cultivating.  He understood the utter importance of bearing healthy fruit for the good of the community at large.    He especially understood the vital significance of the parent vine, the life-flow of all the vine off-shoots.   Drawing from this real world example, John records Jesus as identifying Himself with it.  He quotes Jesus as declaring, “I am the true vine.”  He also has Jesus declaring His followers to be the vine branches.     

The True Vine and His vine branches cover the ground of God’s massive vineyard, the Church.    We exist to be an interwoven community whose life-flow comes from Christ.  Our purpose is to constantly work together in order to provide the crucial supports needed to bear good fruits (that is, faithful works) everywhere wild, sour grapes are choking the life and light of God’s good Creation.    As the church, we faithfully affirm in word and deed that when worldly power lines go down, Christ’s power vines stay up!

I saw so many healthy power vines throughout these recent difficult days.    Each caused a surge of gratitude to flow through me.   A few examples …

Last Saturday evening in the heart of the heavy snow, one power vine called my mobile phone to let me know we had an FPC family on the way to the Community House to seek emergency shelter for the night.     We wove power vines together soon after to make this happen.

In need of shelter for myself and the girls once the lights and heat went out, another power vine in the congregation offered us – and quite a few others – a generator powered warm place to stay when we were in town. 

There were also the power vines that worked to clear the church yard before going on to clean out the sad state of the main Community House refrigerator.

Still other power vines found ways to communicate and collectively make a decision not to cancel or postpone yesterday’s festive Mistletoe Market; a decision that then ushered lots more power vines into play for the good of our whole community.   

As offshoots of the True Vine, we prayed for the exhausted utility workers and emergency personnel laboring through very long days and nights.   Further, we turned to the True Vine to sustain our hearts and minds during hours of deep frustration and slips into despair.  The unfailing life-flow reached us in several forms … such as through a prayerful, Biblically grounded sense of security and through small supports put in place by family, friends, neighbors, and strangers.

As God’s power grid, as God’s vineyard, we strive to abide at all times in the True Vine, in Jesus.    Abide is a very powerful word.    It signifies that we do not work for Jesus, but in and with Jesus.[iii]   In the original Greek language, “abide” can be further translated to mean “not to depart,” “not to perish,” and “to remain as one.”    As we abide in Jesus, we therefore also abide in one another.  We do not abandon one another, let one another perish, or let one another remain in isolation.   A contemporary translation of John 15:6 has Jesus saying it this way – “When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relationship is intimate and organic.”[iv]  

The good fruit of this intimate, organic relationship is love -- real, deep, divine love; the amazing, selfless love that only comes from the life-flow of our Lord.   In the midst of many other feelings this week, I trust you also had a strong sense of being lovingly cared for.  And I trust you felt compelled to love others, especially those enduring the same inconveniences and hardships.

All week long, I kept in mind that today is our scheduled Stewardship dedication.  And my goodness, when we embarked on our Stewardship campaign several weeks ago, we had no way of knowing how poignant our theme of “Keeping the Light On” would be considering the events of this week!    So here we are today bearing fresh witness to the light and love of Christ shining strongly come what may.   Your financial pledge for the coming year of vineyard life is one very vital expression of your gratitude for this amazing gift that never goes out and continues to be cast forth from Fairmount Presbyterian Church.    It is not first and foremost a commitment to a human organization; it is above all an offshoot abiding in the True Vine.   It is a measurable, vital portion of good and faithful fruit that will help maintain and further grow the beautiful deep roots we have in this community.      

So the inspired question isn’t really “Where are the power lines for the church?”   It’s “Where are the power vines?”    Praise God, these are faithfully in view everywhere around us.  Check your mirror.   Scan the face of the person next to you.   Be grateful for the unbreakable, unifying, abiding connections we have as JCP&L – Jesus Christ’s People and Light!    Amen.      

           

           

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[i] “Weavings” magazine, September/October 2001, p.11

[ii] ibid

[iii] ibid, p. 14

[iv] THE MESSAGE

Light Duty

2 Corinthians 4:1-7

            History tells us of ancient cultures that considered the sun to be a god.  It’s not hard to understand this perspective if we imagine not having our scientific knowledge about what that blindingly brilliant, sometimes scorching circle in the sky is.     I imagine I would have felt negatively judged by this “god” whenever it went into hiding or whenever it singed my skin.    I imagine I would have felt blessed by it when ray to ray reached me and made me feel alive and I realized it helped grow things I needed to survive.     Praying to this “god” and asking its mercy would have totally made sense.

            From the very beginning of our Bible, however, we are clearly taught that the sun is not a supernatural being.  It is a splendidly designed creation of the one God of our biblical faith.   Therefore, we do not worship the largest object in our solar system; we worship the eternal power that brought this super star into being.    We don’t thank the sunshine for brightening our days and growing our lives … we praise God for giving our world this vital, illumining gift.   One Bible commentary sums this up nicely by saying “the writers of the Bible consistently separate light from its Creator, making it an index to the divine.”[i]    

            As an indicator of the Almighty, the sun rightly has a symbolic purpose on our spiritual journeys.  It reminds us that there is at all times a higher power – God -- reaching out to us, always providing for the basic necessities of life and conquering darkness.    Having created the sun, we are reminded that our God is a steadfast steward constantly caring for Creation.   So reminded, we are inspired to respond to this original, purest light in our lives with gratitude that energizes us to be in worship, to be in fellowship, and to be in faithful service.  

            We absorb this ever present, life-sustaining holy light each time we profess our belief.  Believe – as surely as the physical sun rose this morning -- with your whole mind, heart and soul that the light of God’s divine goodness and love envelops you and is cast through you wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

            I felt reminded of this while away on a brief retreat at the shore last week.  I took lots of photos that reflect God’s radiant presence.   My favorite by far was the one snapped right after supper one day.  I had gone out to a pavilion overlooking the ocean.  It was dusk – that emotive time of descending into darkness, of beginning the wait for the next day’s sunshine.   As I scanned the horizon, I, with tremendous delight, noticed a rainbow.  I had never seen a rainbow on the ocean.   Not only did I capture the image, I meditated on how that prism of light seemed to reach right from the heavens and from other parts of the world to touch the waters that were rolling to the shoreline where I was standing.   I may not have been able to see the sun illuminating it, but I knew the sun was powering its presence.  And it was not lost on me that about one week earlier I had seen and taken a photo of another rainbow – one that appeared across the street from the manse and seemed to be bridging eternal resting places with eternity itself.    The light of God’s goodness and love envelops us each day!

            Believing in the unfailing, far reaching yet intimate and loving light of God, our voices join the chorus of Scripture.    Along with Psalm 18:28, we sing “My God turns my darkness into light.”   Along with Psalm 43:3 we gratefully ask for further guidance, singing, “Send forth Your light and Your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You dwell.”   And with Isaiah 60:19, we identify where our very deepest trust in this world resides by affirming “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.”

            I believe we should faithfully interpret Isaiah’s prophecies about everlasting light as symbolically pointing to our Lord Jesus Christ.   To profess Jesus as God incarnate, that is, as God in the flesh, is to also understand Jesus as completely one with the Light that has been shining upon darkness since the beginning of all.  

            According to Matthew, Jesus’s ministry began only after He faithfully defended against the Adversary’s God-dimming temptations in the wilderness.    Jesus marked this world-changing event by fulfilling what Isaiah had prophesied in Isaiah 9:2, indicating that through Him, divine light shines on all people dwelling in deep darkness.    Created, enveloped and redeemed in the light of eternal love, we live as Jesus’ friends and faithful disciples.   We confess Him and Him alone to be the Light of the World.  We marvel at how the place of his birth was presided over by a bright star, and how his death was overcome by a triumphal burst of Easter morning radiance at his tomb.  

            Our duty as the enlightened in the Lord is clearly pronounced in this morning’s Scripture by the Apostle Paul.    To whomever lives blinded by the darkness of sin, we are to proclaim “the light of the Gospel of the Glory of Christ.”    We are to be as diligent in carrying out this duty as, to use the metaphor found in today’s lesson, a slave.   Stated another way, we are to devotedly give up ourselves to the will of another, to our God.  We are called to stand with arms outstretched, ready to continuously catch and to spread the Light of Christ above our own interests and agendas.    Reflecting Christ to the world may sound heavy duty, but the power above and within us is always on, forever shining on us individually and collectively, and so ours is truly light duty!

            Last week, I talked a bit about Paul’s firmly grounded spirituality.     A further example of this is found in another metaphor he offers us in 2 Corinthians.   We honor and go about our light duty as “clay jars.”    We are earth-ware, Son-baked vessels.    This way of imaging discipleship is especially inspiring because it reminds us that God loves us and needs us and uses the Son to strengthen us even though we are indeed fallible and fragile.    This is another way we are light duty -- our individual design is not heavy duty the way certain containers are meant to carry all the weight.    We are designed to each carry only a portion of the weight of God’s awesome glory in Christ.

            Our being light bearing vessels in Christ is what our current stewardship theme is all about.     I’m very grateful that father and son, Rick and Nick Frost, two very faithful members of FPC, have prepared to lead and inspire our stewardship this season.    You’ve have hopefully received their letter and we will be hearing from them here momentarily.  Before I step away from the pulpit, though, I have this question -- when you read or hear the stewardship theme of “Keeping the Light On” what first comes to mind?  

            I know I get the old Tom Bodett Motel 6 T.V. commercial running through my head – “We’ll leave the light on for you.”  I also think about keeping the lights on … as in making sure we have money to pay the bills.    Also in this mix I hear a sweet song from the musical Godspell reminding me that in Jesus I am the light of the world.  

            Yet another thing that comes to my mind is Thomas Edison’s invention, the electrolier.  This was a first of its kind overhead light fixture hung in the First Presbyterian Church of Roselle, NJ, making this church, in 1883, the very first in the world to be lit by electricity.    I’ve seen the electrolier because it still hung when I was the student pastor there in 1995.   I preached my first sermon right next to that historical light.    While we have powerful single bulbs that cast greater light today, in order for the electrolier to really shine it was made up of 30 bulbs.    It was a cluster of light, or to put it even better way, a congregation of light.     Symbolically, then, it worked very well to remind Christians back then that they needed to stick together to keep the light of Christ shining!  

            We are light-carrying fixtures, Son-baked earthen vessels, prisms refracting Christ’s Light.    Our light duty is to point to the life-giving, life-sustaining, life-resurrecting power of God that envelops the world by grace and through faith.   We worship, fellowship and lovingly serve our neighbors in this sacred shine.    In the infinite wisdom of God, stewardship of Creation was tasked to humankind under the energy of the physical sun and in the illuminating truth of the Son, Christ Jesus.    I pray for us all to act as energized stewards who fully embrace and faithfully execute our light duty – not just during a stewardship campaign, but every single time the sun rise and sets.   I pray we deeply accept and are inspired by the truth proclaimed in Colossians 1:13, for glory be to God, we have been “rescued from the power of darkness and transferred … into the kingdom of the Son.”  Amen.

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[i] “Light” in the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, p. 509

Your God-Guarded Heart

Philippians 4:1-9

            For the first half of this week, I was blessed with some time away while on Newton Presbytery’s annual clergy retreat.   It was held once again at the Stella Maris Retreat Center in Long Branch.   This was my second such retreat and among the many benefits of being there is the hospitality offered by the Roman Catholic Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.     Having felt some spiritual renewal thanks in part to the ministry of this order, I returned home and wasn’t at all surprised to find myself reading an inspirational news report about a nun in another location.

            Her name is Sister Margaret Geary and she faithfully resides in Baltimore.    One day earlier this year, while all of her sisters were away for a convention, this 85 year entered an elevator at the convent.   Once the doors shut on the cramped space, and before it moved even a millimeter in the shaft, the elevator promptly broke down.   There wasn’t any way for her to pry the doors open.  Fortunately, she had a cell phone with her.  Unfortunately, she could not get a signal.  Predictable, right?   Although the phone proved to be of no help, she also had with her some water, some celery sticks, and some cough drops.   Equipped with these simple provisions, she settled in for what turned out to be four trapped nights.

            How would you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, handle being in this situation?  And would your faith have helped you endure it?  

            The water, celery sticks and cough drops were not Sister Margaret’s only provisions.   She possessed another essential provision that helped her survive – prayer.    Prayer not only helped her endure this ordeal … it also transformed it.    Through prayer, she began to consider the crisis a “gift” she found herself rejoicing in.    In an interview with CNN, this is what she had to say – “It was either panic or pray.   I believe that God’s presence was my strength and my joy.  I felt God’s presence immediately.”   

            So rather than struggle against circumstances beyond her control, she reoriented herself in the Lord.  She experienced God guarding her heart and mind.  She considered the crisis an opportunity for spiritual growth.   She experienced a deliverance from despair long before she was physically rescued.    She rejoiced!

            “Rejoice in the Lord, always; again I will say, Rejoice … the Lord is near … do not worry … in everything bring your requests to God … and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ.”   

            Sister Margaret’s faith-filled experience beautifully highlights these magnificent words of the Apostle Paul, words found in verses 4-7 of our lesson this morning.    Paul penned them to his cherished friends in the Philippian church.  What was his overall purpose for writing this emotional letter?   He wanted to strongly encourage the Philippian church to be a community exhibiting joyful trust in the Lord at all times, through all circumstances.    

            This exhortation to rejoice, to fully trust that God is good and on guard for us, is not some saccharin spiritual sentiment.    The substance of these words is not at all artificially manufactured and overly sweet.  They were not proclaimed to falsely flavor any unpleasant, painful, bitter experiences.    That wasn’t Paul’s style.    He was not one to write from the perspective of some sideline consultant.   

            You may recall from study of this Bible book and from sermons in recent weeks, Paul wrote this letter from a Roman prison cell in the midst of a grave time of trial and to people whom he very much knew and loved.     He wrote hope-filled words as a potent witness to the power and peace of Christ.   He was practicing what he preached.   And his example followed the example of our Lord’s centering prayer in the Garden of Gethsamene.   

            Paul’s spirituality is far from false and flimsy.  It is firmly grounded in concrete relationships, complex realities, and above all in Christ Jesus.

            When we fully believe in the power and peace of Christ, in that which guides and guards our lives without fail, our hearts and minds are opened to joy.    The rejoicing Paul preached about does not exist in isolation.    As part of a grounded spirituality, this joy is steadily companioned by such realities as pain and fear.  

            Reflecting on this, on Paul’s truly faithful view of joy, a colleague in Australia has written this question, “Why do we leave joy to those who compose songs which make happiness sound like pastry and conjure a false image of a ‘victorious’ life of constant highs?”[i]     

            Happiness like pastry makes me chuckle, but it also makes the point, again, that Christian rejoicing is not just a light, fluffy sweet kind of glee.     It’s the glee firmly, radically grounded in the trust that Jesus has experienced the depths of all human despair, that Jesus is present with us through every moment of our lives, and that in Jesus, God guards our hearts and minds.   The presence of Christ is our constant cause for deep, resolute joy.   As William Barclay wonderfully affirms, “The Christian can never lose joy because [the Christian] can never lose Christ.”[ii]

             “Rejoice in the Lord, always; again I will say, Rejoice … the Lord is near … do not worry … in everything bring your requests to God … and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ.”   

            Can you recall a time in your life when you felt trapped?   Mentally or physically?  A time when you felt locked in, locked up, looking for hope?   Did you pray to the God of your protection?   Did you rejoice in what our Lord has done for you and experience release?        There are all sorts of circumstances that can drive us to experience a tension between panic and prayer, between resigning and rejoicing.   When experienced without a grounded spirituality, panic triggers feelings and behaviors of despair, isolation, and various degrees of self-destruction.      But panic balanced with the kind of grounded spirituality modeled by Christ and by the Apostle Paul, the kind rooted in deep prayer that trusts in the constant presence of our good and guarding God, can indeed lead to a tremendous sense of calm in any time of anxious uncertainty.

            This grounded spirituality is nurtured through Christian community.    Personal discipline is never quite enough to sustain it, for each of us is not called be just one part of Christ but to be part of the whole body of Christ put together in God’s grace.   In our lesson this morning, we should not overlook the fact that Paul gives a concrete example of God guarding hearts and minds through community.

            While in prison, Paul had received a report about a conflict between two women leaders of the church in Philippi (and how wonderful that Paul names and credits them with being co-workers of the Gospel).    We aren’t told what the tension was between Euodia and Syntyche.  We are only told that they were not “of the same mind” in the Lord.     In this deeply loving letter, Paul does not reprimand these two friends for acting unfaithfully.   He does not discredit their leadership because they were experiencing a disagreement.    Instead, he urges them to reconcile with the help of their church family.   This urging is not a demand, which, given Paul’s apostolic authority he well could have made.   His urging is instead gentle consolation and encouragement for this interpersonal and therefore communal crisis.    It pairs up beautifully with the call for gentleness Paul gives during his exhortation for everyone to always rejoice in the Lord.     God guards our hearts and minds through gentle, loving, firmly grounded and fully joyful community.    I so rejoice every time FPC exhibits this good news!

            “Rejoice in the Lord, always; again I will say, Rejoice … the Lord is near … do not worry … in everything bring your requests to God … and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ.”    Amen.

           

                                   

           

           

           

           

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[i] http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/AEpPentecost17.htm

[ii] The Daily Study Bible Series, The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, p.75

Giving Voice to God

Psalm 19

World Communion Sunday

October 2, 2011

            Inspired by our contemporary culture at large and by the Holy Spirit persistently tapping me on the shoulder … I recently created a blog.    A blog is a way of self-publishing on the computer internet.     On the down side, there isn’t a print copy of what is published.    On the up side, little to no money is needed to create a blog and there is potential for a local, national and global group of readers.   

            All sorts of blogs exist.  Some simply work like personal diaries for anyone interested in following the blogger’s life.  Some are a public forum for promoting ideologies, organizational agendas, and academic discourse.     For example, as I study the Bible, I do so using print commentaries as well online blogs by professors and pastors.   Other blogs are a perfect tool for creative types to share their arts with any and all whom they’ve managed to attract to their blog.   According to one study published in February of this year, over 156 million public blogs exist.[i] 

            The blog I created, titled “Word Windows,” (http://wordwindows.blog.com/) is a new, faithful, and creative online homestead for me.    Many of you may know that I enjoy taking digital photos of nature.   Many of you may also know that I dabble in writing poetry.    Both of these, along with sermon and song writing, are ways I feel God connects with me and personally calls on me to share the Good News.   I express myself to share how blessed I feel with gifts that have saved, sustained and strengthened my faith journey as well as companioned other people on their walks with our Lord.

            On the “Word Windows” blog, I post a photo I’ve taken that I feel glorifies our Creator and then I write some form of prayer poem about it.   This fusion of image and word is intended to point to the beautiful, abundant, peaceful life with God we have in our Lord Jesus.   

             When I created this blog a couple weeks ago, I didn’t know I’d be preaching about Psalm 19 on this World Communion Sunday.  When preparing for the sermon each week, I always check the common lectionary – a church calendar oriented, ecumenical, world-wide list of suggested Scriptures for preaching and teaching.   Psalm 19 was on the list for today.  And the moment I read it, I really understood it!   What it teaches is pretty much how the Word Windows blog works in my life and what I hope it conveys to those who visit it.

            Psalm 19 brings a full, faithful witness to two primary ways God connects with us.   It points to how our Creator’s inspiring, instructive, authoritative “voice” comes to us through the awesomeness of the natural world and through the written word of Scripture.     

            Unfortunately, church history is pockmarked with problems regarding modes of divine revelation.    

            For Christians, there is strong, central consensus about God being most fully revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.  We come to know this revelation by reading the Gospels and by welcoming the Holy Spirit to interpret His holy truth for us in the context of our lives and our faith communities.  

            Global debates rise up, however, about how God may or may not be additionally revealed.   We accept that Jesus, as witnessed to in the written New Testament, is God’s fullest revelation.  But folks get into disagreements about how much authority to give to other means of divine revelation, such as, and specifically, whether God’s nature is additionally revealed through the natural world.   Suffice it to say, there is a lot of thick theological grass to tread upon in trying to create consensus.

            Walking on the edge of that thicket, I suggest we take a good stroll with none other than C.S. Lewis.  He had this to say – “Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and infinite majesty.  I had to learn that in other ways.  But nature gave the word glory meaning for me.  I still do not know where I could have found one.”

            I understand C.S. Lewis to be saying that he learned and accepted the historic story of God’s glory through reading and being taught God’s Word in the Scriptures.    The special, written revelation that led to our Bible was primary.   But no written words could capture the magnificent scope of God’s glory.    This was impressed on his mind and soul much more so through the inspiration and revelation found when experiencing the incredibly expansive, exquisitely detailed, life-thriving creation God has given us in the natural world.

            Throughout the earliest years of my life, I did not read nor was I taught the Bible.   God was intuitively grasped and not in print for me.    I didn’t begin studying the holy written word in earnest until I was hired to work at nearby Camp Johnsonburg while in college.   I recall how those 400 acres of splendid nature “spoke to me” of diversity and of cycles of life existing in, for, and to God’s glory. I’d always found nature fascinating and beautiful, but not until I read the Bible did I understand it all as testimony to our Creator.   So I take the insight of C.S. Lewis, and encourage you to do so, because I really get it.   And it helps us to get and appreciate the strong duel witness to God’s revelation that is at the heart of Psalm 19.    Another scholar sums it up by saying “creation and law, nature and word, complement each other, together bearing fuller witness to God than either alone.”   Additionally, this same scholar makes the excellent point that by “hearing the voice of God in creation, hearing the voice of God’s Law, we can join the voice of the Psalmist in the Psalms final section … praying that our words, our voice, be acceptable to God.”[ii]

            This Psalm is a wonderful, holy word to lift up on this World Communion Sunday.    All kinds of people in all sorts of places across our world receive God’s written and natural revelation.    This is common ground for all Christians.   And this truth sets the table for how we are about to celebrate God’s fullest revelation through Jesus, the Word made flesh.  

            As God’s most authoritative voice, the same voice that was present and breathing upon the formless void at the beginning of all creation, Jesus spoke instructions at the Last Supper.     He instructed every single one of his friends to remember him and commune with him through the repeating of his words during a meal of wine and bread.    He continues to reveal the loving, reconciling reality of God to every brother and sister in the faith through this ritual, this sacrament.    The Lord’s Supper is celebrated because we follow the written word in the Bible to do so.   And as we do, we have a tangible experience of holy presence.  This happens by way of two elements drawn from nature – the fruit of the grapevine (remember, we are the branches, Jesus is the vine!) and the grains that make life-sustaining bread.   

            I’m pleased to say that World Communion Sunday was originated with the Presbyterian Church.   The intention from the start, back in 1936, was for it to be a special Sunday of global, ecumenical togetherness around God’s Word.    It is a time to celebrate our oneness in Christ, the Prince of Peace, in the midst of the world we are all called to faithfully serve.[iii]     And so we are here to do so today.   

            As we share in the responsive litany found in your bulletin, may the written words inspire you to regularly reflect upon God’s glory throughout the natural world and centrally in the Scriptural witness to Jesus.     I have a feeling I’ll have at least one new Word Windows blog post to create in joyful reflection upon today’s worship!  Let us now prepare our hearts for this revelatory feast!  Amen.

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[i] "BlogPulse". The Nielsen Company. February 16, 2011. Retrieved 2011-02-17.

[ii] Fred Gaiser, Prof. of Old Testament, Luther Seminary @ www.workingpreacher.org

[iii] http://www.ncccusa.org/unity/worldcommunionsunday.html

My Beloved

Philippians 2:1-13 

Open your heart as I share this brief, beautiful story involving two people, a park bench, some Twinkies, and some soda.

It’s a story about the day a young boy living in a big city decided he wanted to meet God. He figured it would be a long trip to get to where he could meet the Almighty. So he grabbed a suitcase and packed it with sustenance for the anticipated long journey -- a few Twinkies and a six-pack of root beer. It turns out he paused at a neighborhood park only about three blocks from his home. There he saw an elderly woman seated on a bench, staring at some pigeons. Since it was early afternoon, he figured it was about time for a snack. So he sat next to her. Then he sensed she might be hungry. So he opened his suitcase and offered her a Twinkie. She accepted and gave him back a warm, radiant smile. The smile was so beautiful, he wanted to see it again. So he offered her a root beer. Again, she paid him with her kind appearance. They didn’t really talk. They just spet time being together. Before long, it began growing dark. The boy decided he’d journeyed enough for the day and that it was time to return home. Before he did, he offered the woman a big hug. She gladly accepted and reciprocated the loving, unifying gesture.

As he passed through the front door of his home, the boy’s mother was surprised by the look elation on his face. So she asked what he’d been up to. He replied, “I had lunch with God, and you know what? She’s got the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen!”

 Meanwhile, the elderly woman had returned home as well. Her husband noted her joyful aura and questioned what she’d been doing. Her reply? “I ate Twinkies in the park with God, and you know, he’s much younger than I expected!”

 This lovely story trumpets a spiritual truth … we believe we’ve met God when we believe we’ve experienced God’s loving, unifying presence. God may or may not look like what we’ve imagined. Yet we trust we’ve been in God’s presence because we’ve been encountered by something dressed in joyful acceptance and caring companionship. In this story, trust in this truth manifest itself in the simple, humble acts of sharing in a makeshift communion during an intergenerational pause to life’s hustle and bustle.

 There was a time when the Apostle Paul thought he knew exactly what it meant to share an encounter with God. Back when he was known as Saul the Pharisee, he taught that there were strict rules and regulations for such moments. It was, if you’ll recall our Old Testament teachings, rather legalistic. Failure to conform was why he targeted and persecuted a radical sect claiming to directly know the true Messiah of Israel. It wasn’t until that very Messiah personally met up with him one day, in a life-transforming experience of unifying love, that Saul became Paul. His understanding of encounters with God forever changed that day. Paul’s faith journey continued, but he was a changed child of God. He had emptied himself of hatred towards those he was persecuting, emptied himself of self-righteous swagger and of self-promoting ambition. His journey forward was in faithful imitation of the tremendous humility and radical obedience and other-focused selflessness of Christ.

 We know how very much Paul went on to do in and for our Lord. Our New Testament bears witness to it all. Beyond the Book of Acts, it does so in the form of letters he wrote to congregations he had varying degrees of influence in founding. What we have in this morning’s lesson is a letter to the Christian church in ancient Philippi. It is widely considered to be his most personal letter, based on biblical evidence that he and congregation had a very precious relationship (Acts 16:12-40).

 He wrote this letter during what to us might seem to have been a very “empty” and anxious time in his life. He was in prison. He was without a doubt well aware the risk of execution for his advocating the loving, unifying Gospel of Christ against the carnivorous world powers of his time. We might think being in that situation would have been a time of emptiness in the form of wallowing in self-pity, fearing the possible horror of his impending death, and such.

Yet for Paul, that was a time to reinforce the immeasurable joy of serving and trusting in salvation through Christ alone. It was another occasion for him to remind his good friends in Philippi to trust in and indeed rejoice in the Lord despite suffering. He exhorted them to work out all church conflicts with the same humility and self-emptying Jesus exhibited during his time of trial. Arrogant in-fighting and unity endangering unloving attitudes were not to come about as a result of his crisis, or any crisis they had stirring amongst themselves. And so he wrote a very tender appeal, speaking from his holy transformed heart, saying “If there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”

He reinforced this message with one particular word. It’s a small but wonderfully weighty word that I find anchors this passage. The word is right there in Philippians 2, verse 12. It appears right after the words I just read and after quoting an ancient hymn about the example and final glory of the Lord. Paul addressed the entire church family as his “beloved.”

The word “beloved” that Paul used is similar to and I believe rooted in a Greek word that commonly describes Christ’s love – agape. Agape means love, but it means more than being warm and neighborly. Specifically, it means love that is radically unconditional, always reciprocating, and voluntarily self-sacrificing. It’s the kind of unifying, sacrificial love that can well up in the trenches of warfare. Being in beloved community is how we honor the truth that the “story of Christ moves from separation to solidarity, and from difference to likeness, as Christ moves into the most despairing depths of human existence.”

How are you being beloved before God? In the great hustle and bustle of this world, where loneliness and endless, anxious searching for God are ever present, how do you remain mindful of the joyful, unifying love and ultimate glory of our Lord? How are you heralding it? Exhibiting it?

Your answer to this is personally your own. However, know that when Paul exhorted the Philippian Christians to work out their own salvation, he was not teaching that this is a private matter. In Christ, matters of salvation are always and forever about community, about being Christ’s Body. He was not advocating individual self-promotion in preparation for life beyond this world. He was heralding the power of church unity for the glory of the Lord in the here and now and for forever.

How are we, then, as a congregation, being Christ’s beloved? How are we helping one another to be of the same mind and the same love that was in Jesus? How do we help one another to be humble and obedient before God in this world that promotes sinful personal conquests in so many ways? Please, as you see one another in the days and weeks and months to come, share your responses together … keeping in mind the mind of Christ.

 When it comes to Bible translations, I mostly reply on the New Revised Standard Version that is in your pews. But it’s also quite good a good practice to read other interpretations. I find reading this morning’s lesson from Eugene Peterson’s THE MESSAGE is wonderfully inspirational. The teaching is the same as we’ve been discussing, but the language is just a bit more frank. So open your hearts to hear it as I conclude my privileged time in the pulpit this morning.

“If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead.”

Go find a spot in the middle of it all. Pop open some soda pop and break bread with a Twinkie. Selflessly make smiles happen. Believe you’ve met God because you’ve experienced God’s loving, unifying welcome. Amen.