"From Generation to Generation...There is Room for Every Story" a sermon on Matthew 1:1-17

Matthew 1:1-17
“From Generation to Generation…There is Room for Every Story”
Preached Sunday, November 27, 2022

I have shared before that part of the story I use to define myself is that I come from a line of strong Methodist women.

Working backwards we have my mother, Judy. She raised her children in The United Methodist Church. She is a lay leader in her church, a certified lay speaker, and, generally, a woman who is seemingly unafraid to step out in her faith to help others.

And then we have her mother, Alice. Alice was also an example of faith to me: she raised her children in The Methodist Church and when I was a child, attended church with her grandchildren every Sunday. I loved watching her when she sang in the choir. Admittedly, I loved it more when she sat with us in the pews and I got to hear her sing. Still to this day, I get a shiver when I sing some hymns, because I am hearing her voice in my head.

Then we have her mother, Marjorie, a Methodist woman and a force to be reckoned with. I’m told she had a heart for social justice and was a woman before her time, working toward racial integration, founding the Youngstown chapter of the United Nations Association, holding a position in the national PTA, and driving around the country to help get her alcoholic brother in rehab. I only knew her the first handful of years of my life, but it meant so much to me when my grandmother and my mother told me they saw her in me.

And for the first time this week I learned that her mother, Norma, was heavily involved in one of the precursor organizations that would become what we know as United Methodist Women - and what in just the last year has changed its name to United Women in Faith.

I’d love to learn more about these women and the generations that preceded them and perhaps some day I will be gifted with that opportunity. And for today, when I reference the 4 generations of Methodist women who came before me, I am shaping my own story too. That I am who I am because of the generations that came before me.

Do you see where I am going with this? When Matthew takes the first 17 verses of his chapter to trace Jesus’s genealogy, he is not just laying out the facts, it is not a simple classroom assignment of Jesus’s family tree. Just as I am shaping a narrative about myself through the 4 generations of Methodist women, Matthew is defining who Jesus is through the generations before him. And genealogy was a well-known genre of the time. Readers would know the references and the narrative that Matthew was shaping about Jesus through his genealogy - but for us, we’re not quite as familiar. So let’s take a little bit of a closer look this morning.

First, the key figures laid out in the first verse:
“An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

By saying that Jesus is a son of Abraham, Matthew is linking Jesus to the Israelites and to God’s people. Abraham is the father of the Israelites and it was through Abraham that God adopted the Israelites as God’s people, God’s children. And it was through Abraham’s lineage that God promised to bless all humanity. Matthew is telling his readers that Jesus is that long awaited son of Abraham through which they all would be blessed.

Now, “son of David” is a line that Matthew likes a lot - in verse 1 it’s the first of 10 times he uses it in his Gospel. He is trying to establish here that Jesus is royalty - a king. And it was from David’s line that the Messiah was to come. That’s why Jesus’s lineage is traced not only through David to Solomon but all the way to Jechoniah who was the last surviving Israelite king at the time of the Babylonian exile.

So right of that bat, Matthew is saying that Jesus is the Messiah, the one who God promised through the father of all the Israelites, Abraham, to bless all of humanity and he is the rightful heir to the King of the Israelites, descended down through the generations from David to Solomon to Jechoniah to the day of Jesus's birth.

Tying Abraham and David to Jesus are pretty obvious in their meaning and intent but there are somethings hidden here that only a really astute reader would notice. And here’s where things get a little crazy. Have you all seen this meme online? It conveys when someone is trying to explain a really complex thing that makes people think they’re crazy? Well, I am going to try and simplify as much as I can because Matthew isn’t holding anything back.

We need to note that there are 14 generations listed in the line of David. Which means he left out 3. He didn’t leave out three because they were scandalous black sheep - and we’ll get to some scandal in the genealogy in a minute - but he left them out - because the number 14, in Hebrew, signifies David. Each letter in Hebrew has a numerical value and when you add the letters in David’s name together…you get fourteen! So it’s another nod to the reader that Jesus is in the line of David, a king who would come and save the Israelites. Moreover, Matthew actually intentionally misspells a couple names in the line of David on purpose. Asa became Asaph - a poet featured in the Psalms and Amon became Amos - the famous prophet. Now, some translations into English, like I believe the one I read today, aren't in on the wordplay so they’ve taken them as misspellings and changed them back to their “intended” names but you’ll see a little footnote in the Bible saying as such. But to his initial readers, they would have noticed the play on words with the names subtly changed - so when they are reading the genealogy of Jesus, they are not just thinking about the Son of Abraham who would bless all humanity, and the Son of David through which a king would fulfill all their hopes, they were also thinking of the a Messiah who would fulfill all the hopes of the Psalms and the Prophets. And this person, centered in our history, in our worship, in our prophecy, in all our hopes and dreams - this person, is Jesus…and that is the story Matthew is crafting in listing the genealogy of Jesus. It’s quite a theological statement and it sets up the expectation of Jesus and who he would be.

…But believe it or not, Matthew is not done making important points in this list of names.

There are four other names that would have popped out to his initial readers: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. It would not have been normal to list four women in a patriarchal genealogy so that in of itself is unusual but it’s not necessarily that they are women that makes them of note. If that were the case, perhaps Matthew would have chosen some…well…more respectable women. Like the matriarchs of the Israelites, like Sarah, Rebecca, or Rachel…but no, he goes Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. I’d love to spend time breaking down each of their stories for you if you don’t know them - but each of their stories is a new sermon in and of itself. But a couple common threads hold them together: All of these women are non-Israelites or connected to non-Israelite families. Caananites and a Moabite…and even beyond that, all of these women are associated with sex scandals. A woman who had to force her in-laws to do right by her after being widow, pretending to be a prostitute so they would sleep with her to give her a son. A woman who was a prostitute A woman who laid at the feet of a man to trap him into marriage - that’s most likely a euphemism. And Bathsheba…a woman who was raped by King David and then David had her husband killed.

In listing these women, Matthew is implying several things about Jesus and who he will be: He will expand God’s blessing beyond the Israelites, to the Canaanites, the Moabites, the Gentiles…He is also saying that God works through all kinds of people - through foreigners, and scandals and women…And of course, Matthew’s genealogy ends with Mary - a woman herself who would have been associated with a scandal - an unwed pregnant mother.

So Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus moves not just vertically, down through the ages, generation to generation - it also moves out, horizontally, ever expanding, widening the circle of the understanding of who the Messiah was for.

You know, lately I’ve seen a lot of talk online about encouraging teachers to not assign family trees but instead to have students make a circle of care. The reasoning behind this is that family trees are a privilege that not everyone has. Some may not know their family tree through reasons like adoption. Others may be cut off through their family trees through trauma of some sort. And then, especially for many Black students, their family trees reflect the horror of slavery that isn’t addressed when the project is assigned at a young grade. So, instead of family trees - circles of care are encouraged to take their place. Now what is a circle of care? A circle of care starts with an individual in the middle and then it radiates out from there to include all who have loved and cared for them, blood or otherwise, and it continues to radiate out, showing a net of love and care that has formed that person into who they are today.

And while Matthew’s genealogy is certainly a vertical approach, through the generations, to explain who Jesus is, it’s also a horizontal one…but it’s Jesus in the center and then all those who HE cares for radiating out. And in that first circle, they may have assumed that the Messiah was only going to come for a certain type of people or one type of person or just the Israelites…but in Jesus’s lifetime, those in his circle of care included lowly fishermen, hated tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, outcasts, widows, children and the least of these…his circle of care didn’t look like what people expected it to look like. In our baptismal vows we confess that Jesus has opened up his church to all people of all ages and all nations and all races - every gender, every orientation, every type of person out there. Jesus’s circle of care encompasses each and every person in this world. Jesus’s circle of care NEVER stops, it includes every person ever born.

And ever since Jesus, we have seen followers of Jesus working to spread the Gospel message that Jesus loves you, yes, even YOU, to more and more people, helping our circles of who we care about look a lot more like the all encompassing circle of Jesus’s love and care.

Jesus loved those whom they didn’t expect him to. And then Paul went to the Gentiles. Who went to, who went to, who went to…The church SHOULD ever be growing more inclusive and more diverse and when we are more inclusive and more diverse we are that much closer to loving all those that Jesus loves - and that’s everybody: drag queens and immigrants and sex workers and the disabled and chronically ill and any person who is on the “edge” of our society - we are called to expand out our circles of care to them…because Jesus loves them and we are too.

And yes, that all comes back down to Jesus, the Messiah, Son of David and Son of Abraham - who would bless all of humanity, who is the rightful king of the Israelites, who is the fulfillment of the law and prophecy, who was sung about in the Psalms - who is the one in which we find hope - hope that God is never done with us, and hope that generation to generation, God’s love would every continue to expand through us.

This Advent and Christmas season, may we expand our circles of care and love, sharing the love of Jesus with all.

Amen.

A Wesleyan Covenant Renewal Hymn Sing

A Wesleyan Covenant Renewal Hymn Sing

Welcome & Announcements

Call to Worship (Adapted from David Tripp, England, 20th Century, United Methodist Book of Worship)

L: As we begin this time of renewing our covenant before God, let us prepare ourselves for worship with prayer.
P: O God, we are yours! We are your people. We are your children.
L: We come together to recognize you as Lord of our lives and to thank you for your Grace.
P: And we come today to recommit ourselves to our relationship with you.
L: Search us and know us.
P: Remove anything that holds us back from you.
L: May your Spirit be with us now, speak your Word to our very souls.
P: And have mercy on us, today and always.
All: We pray in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Intro to a Wesleyan Covenant Renewal Service

Today we will share in a Covenant Renewal Service together. While this type of service predates John Wesley and Methodism as we know it, it was implemented by the Wesleys as an integral part of Methodist Societies. It is a service that has traditionally been held on New Year’s Eve or Day. When held on New Year’s Eve, it will often go by the name Watch Night Service. While a Covenant Renewal Service is apt at any time in the life of a congregation, the start of the new year is a natural time to hold it. At the beginning of a new year, we often take time to take stock of our lives, evaluate what is important, and re-commit ourselves to those things. As Christians we recognize that there is nothing more important than our relationship, or covenant, with God.

Covenant is not a term we use very often in our modern society. In the simplest terms, it means agreement. The covenant through most of the Hebrew Bible is this, from Exodus 6:7: “I will take you as my people, and I will be your God.” This covenant still holds true. With the coming of Jesus, Christians add in the covenant made by his cross and resurrection, From Romans 8: “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” In both of these senses, our covenant with God can be used as a synonym for our relationship with God.

A Covenant Renewal Service seeks to remind us of the importance of covenant with God, of mutual relationship, and we therefore promise ourselves anew to be God’s people, adopted into the family of God through Christ.

In this service you will notice a mix of modern and traditional language. Much of the wording used today came from Wesley himself. The phrasing may seem odd to our ears but that’s okay - it reminds us that we are participating in an act that followers of God have done throughout the ages - recommitting our whole selves to God.

We will begin our service today by singing “Come, Let Us Use The Grace Divine,” a hymn written by Charles Wesley and traditionally used for Covenant Renewal Services. The hymn is based on Jeremiah 50:5:

“They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, and they shall come and join themselves to the Lord by an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.”

Let us sing.

Opening Hymn
Come, Let Us Use The Grace Divine, UMH 606

As we sing, please pass forward prayer cards to be shared.

Sharing of Joys & Concerns

Litany of Thanksgiving (From Covenant Renewal Service, UM Book of Worship, changed response)

Let us give thanks for all of God's mercies.

Sung Response: “Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices” (Now Thank We All Our God, UMH 102)

O God, our Covenant Friend,
you have been gracious to us through all the years of our lives.
We thank you for your loving care,
which has filled our days and brought us to this time and place. R

You have given us life and reason,
and set us in a world filled with your glory.
You have comforted us with family and friends,
and ministered to us through the hands of our sisters and brothers. R

You have filled our hearts with a hunger after you,
and have given us your peace.
You have redeemed us, and called us to a high calling in Christ Jesus.
You have given us a place in the fellowship of your Spirit
and the witness of your Church. R

You have been our light in darkness
and a rock of strength in adversity and temptation.
You have been the very Spirit of joy in our joys
and the all–sufficient reward in all our labors. R

You remembered us when we forgot you.
You followed us even when we tried to flee from you.
You met us with forgiveness when we returned to you.
For all your patience and overflowing grace. Amen.

Hymn of Thanksgiving
Now Thank We All Our God, vs. 3, UMH 102

Invitation to Generosity

Doxology

Scripture Lesson
2 Chronicles 34:29-32

Gospel Lesson
John 15:1-8

Proclamation of Covenant Renewal (Adapted from Wesley’s Covenant Renewal Service, United Methodist Book of Worship)

Siblings in Christ,
The Christian life is one that strives to love God and to love neighbor as self.
We recognize that, first and foremost, we belong to God.

We first entered into the Christian life through baptism,
Where we were adopted as children of God and heirs with Christ.

This is the covenant we made with God and
Christ sealed it in his death and resurrection, that it might last forever:

On the one side, God promises to give us new life in Christ,
the Source and Perfecter of our faith.
On the other side, we are pledged
to live no more for ourselves but only for Jesus Christ,
who loved us and gave himself for us.

From time to time we renew our covenant with God,
especially when we reaffirm the Baptismal Covenant
and gather at the Lord's table.

Today, however, we meet, as the generations before us have met,
to renew the covenant that binds us to God.
Let us make this covenant of God our own.

Baptismal Remembrance Hymn
Baptized in Water, FWS 2248

Invitation to Renew Your Covenant with God (All from Wesley’s Covenant Renewal Service, United Methodist Book of Worship)

Commit yourselves to Christ as his servants.
Give yourselves to him, that you may belong to him.
Christ has many services to be done.
Some are more easy and honorable,
others are more difficult and disgraceful.
Some are suitable to our inclinations and interests,
others are contrary to both.
In some we may please Christ and please ourselves.
But then there are other works where we cannot please Christ
except by denying ourselves.
It is necessary, therefore,
that we consider what it means to be a servant of Christ.
Let us, therefore, go to Christ, and pray:

Let me be your servant, under your command.
I will no longer be my own.
I will give up myself to your will in all things.

Be satisfied that Christ shall give you your place and work.

Lord, make me what you will.
I put myself fully into your hands:
put me to doing, put me to suffering,
let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you,
let me be full, let me be empty,
let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and with a willing heart
give it all to your pleasure and disposal.

Christ is the Savior of his servants. [edited]
He is the source of all salvation to those who obey.
Christ will have no servants except by consent;
Christ will not accept anything except full consent
to all that he requires.
Christ will be all in all, or he will be nothing.

Confirm this by a holy covenant.

To make this covenant a reality in your life, listen to these admonitions:

First, set apart some time, more than once,
to be spent alone before the Lord;
in seeking earnestly God's special assistance
and gracious acceptance of you;
in carefully thinking through all the conditions of the covenant;
in searching your hearts
whether you have already freely given your life to Christ.
Consider what your sins are.
Consider the laws of Christ, how holy, strict, and spiritual they are,
and whether you, after having carefully considered them,
are willing to choose them all.
Be sure you are clear in these matters, see that you do not lie to God.

Covenant Admonition Hymn
Take Time to Be Holy, vs. 1, UMH 395

Second, be serious and in a spirit of holy awe and reverence.

Covenant Admonition Hymn
How Great Thou Art, vs. 1, UMH 77

Third, claim God's covenant,
rely upon God's promise of giving grace and strength,
so you can keep your promise.
Trust not your own strength and power.

Covenant Admonition Hymn
Standing on the Promises, vs. 1 UMH 374

Fourth, resolve to be faithful.
You have given to the Lord your hearts,
you have opened your mouths to the Lord,
and you have dedicated yourself to God.
With God's power, never go back.

Covenant Admonition Hymn
I Surrender All, vs. 1, UMH 354

And last, be then prepared to renew your covenant with the Lord.
Fall down on your knees, lift your hands toward heaven,
open your hearts to the Lord, as we pray:

Hymn of Invitation to Covenant
Are Ye Able, vs. 1, UMH 530

Covenant Prayer (At this time, any who are willing and able may come and kneel at the altar as they pray. Others may remain seated as they wish and assume an internal posture of prayer where they are.)

O righteous God, for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
see me as I fall down before you.
Forgive my unfaithfulness in not having done your will,
for you have promised mercy to me
if I turn to you with my whole heart.

God requires that you shall put away all your idols.

I here from the bottom of my heart renounce them all,
covenanting with you that no known sin shall be allowed in my life.
Against your will, I have turned my love toward the world.
In your power
I will watch all temptations that will lead me away from you.
For my own righteousness is riddled with sin,
unable to stand before you.

Through Christ, God has offered to be your God again
if you would let him.

Before all heaven and earth,
I here acknowledge you as my Lord and God.
I take you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for my portion,
and vow to give up myself, body and soul, as your servant,
to serve you in holiness and righteousness all the days of my life.

God has given the Lord Jesus Christ
as the only way and means of coming to God.

Jesus, I do here on bended knees accept Christ
as the only new and living Way,
and sincerely join myself in a covenant with him.
O blessed Jesus, I come to you,
hungry, sinful, miserable, blind, and naked,
unworthy even to wash the feet of your servants.
I do here, with all my power, accept you as my Lord and Head.
I renounce my own worthiness,
and vow that you are the Lord, my righteousness.
I renounce my own wisdom, and take you for my only guide.
I renounce my own will, and take your will as my law.

Christ has told you that you must suffer with him.

I do here covenant with you, O Christ,
to take my lot with you as it may fall.
Through your grace I promise
that neither life nor death shall part me from you.

God has given holy laws as the rule of your life.

I do here willingly put my neck under your yoke, to carry your burden.
All your laws are holy, just, and good.
I therefore take them as the rule for my words, thoughts, and actions,
promising that I will strive
to order my whole life according to your direction,
and not allow myself to neglect anything I know to be my duty.

The almighty God searches and knows your heart.

O God, you know that I make this covenant with you today
without guile or reservation.
If any falsehood should be in it, guide me and help me to set it aright.
And now, glory be to you, O God the Father,
whom I from this day forward shall look upon as my God and Father.
Glory be to you, O God the Son,
who have loved me and washed me from my sins in your own blood,
and now is my Savior and Redeemer.
Glory be to you, O God the Holy Spirit,
who by your almighty power have turned my heart from sin to God.

O mighty God, the Lord Omnipotent, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
you have now become my Covenant Friend.
And I, through your infinite grace, have become your covenant servant.
So be it.
And let the covenant I have made on earth be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

Passing of the Peace

Hymn of Invitation to the Table
Here I Am, Lord, vs. 1 & 3, UMH 593

The Great Thanksgiving (Suggested The Great Thanksgiving for New Year, Epiphany, Baptism of the Lord or Covenant Renewal” (UMBOW 58-59))

The Lord’s Prayer

Holy Communion

Prayer After Receiving

Lord, may we who have renewed our covenant with you through Word and Prayer,
And who have strengthened that covenant at your table,
May we now live out that covenant with our lives and actions,
Being the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood, for the world. Amen.

Closing Hymn
Blessed Assurance, UMH 369

Benediction

May we leave from this time of worship today with the assurance that we are God’s children, that God’s love never fails, and God’s covenant is forever and ever. Now go in peace, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

"Our Money Story: Restore" a sermon on Genesis 33:1-17 & John 21:1-19

Genesis 33:1-17
John 21:1-19
“Our Money Story: Restore”
Preached Sunday, November 13, 2022

Let me tell you a story that matters.

Once there were two brothers, twins! They moved around a lot in their mother’s womb, pushing against her and causing her to wonder what she got herself into. I think a lot of pregnant women think that! And so her children were born, the first came out red and hairy and his mom gave him the name Esau. The second brother came quickly after the first, holding on to his heel. And she named him Jacob.

The two boys grew up and Esau loved being outdoors. He was especially good at hunting. Jacob, meanwhile, was more of a quiet, subdued type who preferred staying at home. They may have been brothers, born on the same day, raised in the same home - but they were very different people. And still, they loved one another and Jacob loved Esau - especially when he brought home fresh game and it was made into stew. Truly, a good stew is the way to a man’s heart. But the thing was, Jacob and Esau’s mom, her name was Rebekah, she played favorites. She loved Jacob more. Maybe that was the start of a rivalry between the brothers. Many brothers are rivals but it’s got to cut a little closer to home when the thing you are competing for is your mother’s love.

And so, one day, when Jacob was making stew and Esau came back from a hunt, famished, Esau asked Jacob for some of the soup. Jacob, said, sure - but it will cost you your birthright. That’s a high price to pay for a bowl of soup! But Esau thought little of his birthright and said, sure!

The brothers continued to grow up and Esau married two women - it was normal in those days for men to have multiple wives - but these women were foreigners, from a different tribe - and because of that their in-laws didn’t much approve of them. And so, very likely, this was another sore spot in the brothers’ relationship.

And so, while Jacob and Esau’s father was on his deathbed - his name was Isaac - Isaac summoned Esau and asked him for one last dying wish. Will you go hunt for me? Bring back game and make me some of that delicious stew - as I said, a good stew is truly the way to a man’s heart - bring me some of that delicious stew that I might enjoy it one last time. And after that, I know I am going to die, so I will give you my final blessing. So Esau, a dutiful son, leaves to do his father’s last will.

But Rebekah, the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau, she was eavesdropping on this whole conversation. And the thing about Isaac, about her husband, at this point in his life, he was practically blind. So she said to the son she loved most, “Jacob, go get two goats from our flock so that we can turn them into stew, I will give it to you to serve your father and then YOU will get his blessing instead of your brother.”

“But mom,” Jacob must have replied, “that won’t work. Even if he’s blind, Dad will know I’m not Esau - he’s hairy and I’m not.” But his mom said, “Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan.” So she made the soup, dressed Jacob in his brother’s clothes, and covered his arms in the hide of the young goats.

When he went to go serve his dad the food, Isaac was confused. Are you really my oldest son, Esau? The voice is off but you brought me the delicious soup and your arms are hairy, you even smell like him…so he ate the soup and then blessed Jacob, thinking he was Esau. He gave him the best blessing, meant for his oldest son.

When Esau returned and brought his father stew made with the game from his hunt, his father was extremely distressed. And that’s an understatement. The poor dying man’s heart could barely take it and his whole body trembled violently. And he put two and two together and realized his youngest son had deceived him and said as such to Esau. And Esau, Esau was devastated - he fell to his knees, let out a cry filled with agony and wept - tears of distress and tears of anger. He was so mad at his brother. First he took his birthright from him. How stupid he was to be so young and naive and to trade it for a bowl of soup. And now this? He trembled with anger.

He practically begged his dad: “Bless me too! Didn’t you save a blessing for me?” Now, we might be thinking, why can’t Isaac just say the same thing to Esau that he said to Jacob? But that’s not how blessings worked back then. Isaac had blessed Jacob that he would be powerful, that his brother would be his servant, that he would have grain and wine aplenty. What was left to bless Esau with?

So Jacob gave Esau a blessing - that he would make himself a home, that he would live by his sword and serve his brother…but that he would be able to get out from his brother’s controlling grasp.

Talk about settling for a lesser blessing.

And Esau was beyond furious. He was tired of his brother’s scheming and planning. He was tired of the rivalry. Tired of competing for his mother’s love. And so he let his anger get the best of him and he started hatching his own plan. He would wait until his father had died, wait until the time of mourning was over, and then he would kill his brother.

But their mom caught wind of all this and sent Jacob away, to find women to marry, to start a life, and to wait until the day when Esau’s rage had abated.

Many years pass. Jacob gets married to two sisters, Rachel and Leah. They have children together. Jacob gets into some more trouble with his father-in-law…but that’s another story for another time. And so Jacob decided it was finally time to return to where he came from…and to make things right with Esau. But he was afraid of his brother, afraid of his rage, afraid that not only he would be killed but that so would his wives and his children. So he sent a messenger to his brother, to tell him: “I’m coming home. Please be kind. To me and to mine.”

His messenger returned and said, “Esau got your message and he’s coming to meet you…him and 100 men.”

100 men!? Why would he need so many? Surely to kill Jacob and all of his family. But Jacob, Jacob always had a plan. From stew for a birthright, goat skin on his arms, the trouble he’d gotten into with his father-in-law…his plans had worked every time. So he set aside a huge amount of gifts - goats, rams, and ewes, camels, cows and bulls…and he sent each ahead with a servant, in four groups, to meet his brother on the way. Each time his messenger was to tell Esau that this was a gift from his brother - no, not just from his brother, a gift from his servant.

And we know the rest of the story, Ken read it from the Scripture this morning. Esau met Jacob and tried to give back the gifts that he had been given asking for his kindness. But Jacob insisted - he knew he had done wrong by his brother. His other plans that involved his brother…those made their relationship all wrong, broken. It split them apart. This time, this plan, he wanted to make things right again. And Esau, who Jacob was so sure was coming to murder him… Esau accepts the gifts, accepts him, forgives him, meets him with kindness. And in that act, Jacob tells his brother that seeing his face again was like seeing the face of God - you know you’ve messed up and might deserve judgment, but there is only warmth and forgiveness there.

Let me tell you another story that matters. And since I took so long to tell you the last story, you’re going to get the cliff notes version of this one.

At the Last Supper Jesus told Peter that he would deny him three times. Peter swore he would never, he loved Jesus, how could he do such a thing? But Jesus was arrested and Peter was afraid for his life and he lied about knowing Jesus. Not once, not twice, but three times. He was ashamed of himself. He must have felt he had broken his relationship with Jesus, with his friend, his teacher, the person he loved and looked up to the most in the world. And on top of that, it was the last thing he did before Jesus died….but that’s not the end of the story. Jesus came back and came to Peter on the beach - and when Peter realized it was him, Peter got to Jesus as fast as he could and then Jesus asked him three times - do you love me? And three times Peter said yes. And three times Jesus said back, then feed my sheep.

Peter is given a chance to make his relationship with Jesus right again - and it’s not just the words, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” It’s also the new story and new direction that Peter has for his life. One - that his life no longer belongs to him. And two - that he will work the rest of his life for right relationship: right relationship with God and right relationship with the rest of the world, as Peter would live the rest of his days doing just what Jesus asked him to do, to feed his sheep.

These are two stories that matter. This sermon series we have been talking about stories that matter - money stories and faith stories, more often than not, they are one in the same.

We told the story of Judas’s betrayal of Jesus for money…but how he was still welcomed at the table.
We told the story of the Israelites in the desert, complaining that they’d rather be enslaved than be hungry and free - and God still fed them manna, re-writing their story.
We told the story of the man who walked away from Jesus grieving because he had many possessions and how we should open our hands to the poor and the needy.
We told the story of the widow who gave away all she had, a story of caution for churches and those who have the responsibility of gifts given to God through us, to use them for the good of all, to build God’s Kingdom here and now.
We told the story of Jubilee - of what could be on the day when all debts are forgiven, all burdens released.
And today we told two stories of right relationship being restored: two brothers and the giving of gifts and Peter and Jesus AND Peter and the whole world, the rock on which Jesus would build his church would go on to do what Jesus commanded, to feed his sheep.

And we are all called to right relationship. Right relationship with God, right relationships with each other…and our relationship to money can either help restore right relationship or a broken relationship with money can cause further brokenness. I’m NOT saying you have to have money to have a right relationship with God and neighbor - that’s not what I’m saying at all. More so, how you view and use your money is going to impact your relationships. With God and with neighbor. I don’t think I need to lay those out - we see it in our world and we’ve talked about it through all the stories we’ve told in this sermon series.

There is no denying that the stories we told are all faith stories and that they are money stories too. They are so intertwined that we can’t separate the two out.

Before I wrap this sermon up, I’d like to tell you one more story that matters…but it’s not my story to tell. That money story and that faith story is yours. What your money story is, how you’ve let go of parts, let God re-write it, how it continues to take shape, and how you use your gifts and resources to seek right relationship with God and neighbor.

That’s your money story. And it’s your faith story. And it’s no one’s to tell except yours.

AND, know you are not alone in your story - here in this space, we are all seeking right relationship:

Right relationship with God.
Right relationship with neighbor.
Right relationship with the world.
Right relationship with our money narratives that shape how we interact with God, neighbor, and world.

Your story is your own - and you are not alone.

Together, may we all share our stories and seek right relationships.

Amen.

“Obtained an Inheritance” an All Saints sermon on Ephesians 1:11-23

Ephesians 1:11-23
“Obtained an Inheritance”
Preached Sunday, November 6, 2022

Have you ever received an inheritance?

Perhaps for some of us, we have been left money when a family member died. Or perhaps a piece of jewelry or something special to us and our loved one that was passed on to us. Or even something we gave them - I know I have this little glass penguin that I gave to my grandmother when she was alive. Some of us, I know, are left with the responsibility of their parents’ or siblings’ houses when they die - and that’s a whole other story, less of an inheritance per say and more of a responsibility to care for.

When we think of the word inheritance we think of large sums of money, estates..perhaps we think of the stereotype of spoiled heiresses or we think of crime movies that start with the reading of a will…

On this All Saints Sunday, I would encourage us to realize that we all have received an inheritance worth far more than anything that can be left behind in a will.

First, from those who we have called saints of our lives, we have received all they had to teach us, all the love they had to give us, and all the memories and moments that makes us who we are because of their love for Christ and us. By saints of our lives, I am referring to those people in our lives who we call saints. Not a saintdom decided upon by an institution, not a saintdom based on miracles performed or any other sort of rubric…but a saintdom based on how they loved Christ and how they loved their neighbor and how they loved us while we shared time with them on earth. These are those people who have the opportunity to remember today and give thanks for. These are the people that we will have the opportunity to remember today. To read their names, to light candles…

And to give thanks for them and all that they have given us - the inheritance they passed on to us. Not an inheritance of things but an inheritance of showing us how to live a life of love. Of showing us what it means to follow Christ, what it means to be a saint. Perhaps of how they participated in a local church community. Of how they talked about their faith. Of how they helped those in need. Of how they had love for us and for others. They left us an inheritance of Love - Love for God, love for neighbor, love for us.

Let’s take a moment and we’ll just do 2 or 3 - does anyone want to lift up a way that a saint in your life left you an inheritance of love? To go ahead and share that aloud….

(Sharing)

That’s one of our inheritances. For which we say, thanks be to God!

And secondly, in Christ we have obtained an inheritance far beyond any other!

Our short but very theologically dense passage today from Ephesians uses the word inheritance three times. I’m going to quote from that passage now for the three times it’s used. But Paul is particularly wordy and uses run-on sentences in this passage - including the longest sentence in the New Testament! So I’m going to use some ellipses here and there to help illustrate our inheritance in Christ.

“In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance…so that we…might live for the praise of his glory.”
“In him you also,...were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people”
And then the last one is part of a prayer toward God: “that…you may perceive what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints…”

Now normally we think of inheritance as something we receive after someone dies. And in the traditional usage of that word, that’s what it means. But the inheritance we have in Christ is not something we have to wait to receive - Christ has already given us his inheritance, in the here and now. Christ’s inheritance is being a beloved child of God. Christ’s inheritance is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Christ’s inheritance that we obtain through believing in Christ is enabling us to live a life for God’s praise and glory, loving God and loving neighbor. In other words, living the life of a saint.

Living the life of a saint…here and now. Today we remember the lives of those we’ve loved who have died. And let’s be honest, sometimes in death, people do get a little white-washed. We don’t want to “speak ill of the dead.” We might forget the rough edges and remember the good times. Or not - each and every relationship is complicated. But, often, in general, we give someone the title of saint AFTER they die. But our inheritance of having everything we need for sainthood is given to us, here and now, in this life.

So what do we need for sainthood?

We need love. Simple as that.

One, we already have God’s love. We are God’s beloved children, adopted by God, and thus full heirs with Christ - and we’ve obtained that inheritance through Christ!

Two, we need the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And we know we have that. The Holy Spirit is given to all of us. The Holy Spirit is our inheritance in Christ. The Holy Spirit is God at work in our lives, here and now, and is with us all, never farther away than our next breath.

And three, we need Grace. Grace is God at work in our lives and God, through the Holy Spirit, is always at work in our lives. As Methodists we have a specific term for the grace that helps us to love better - and we call that sanctifying grace. Sanctifying as in - to make sacred. What is it to be sacred in the Christian tradition? It’s to resemble God or to be of God. And who and what is our God? Our God is the God of love. So we believe that every day, God gives us sanctifying grace - that is, every day, God works in our lives to help us make choices and actions that allow us to love God and to love neighbor as self. And overtime, day after day, we get better and better at it. We find we can more easily choose and show and share love. This is the work of sanctification - the work of becoming more like the God of love - the work of being a saint, here and now.

And well, we have all three of those things! Isn’t that a marvelous thing when you realize we have all we need to live our lives as saints? We have all we need to choose and show and share love every day - love of God, love of neighbor, love as self.

We already have everything we need to be saints!

Isn’t that a really great feeling? It’s like when you get a craving for cookies or an itch to bake and you haven’t done it in awhile and you walk into your kitchen and you open the pantry and you realize - you already have everything you need! You can bake cookies here and now.

But we also have a bonus ingredient: We have the examples of those whom we call saints in our lives. Those are like the chocolate chips in our cookies - they just make everything better. We have all we need - and we can look to the examples of those who are saints, who have shown us and others their love for God, we can pull on our inheritance from them - our memories, our lessons learned, all the love shared - and look to their examples to know where to go - with everything we could ever need - to choose love every day, love of God and love of neighbor as self - to be a saint.

And so today as we read the names of those who have died in the last year and light candles in honor and memory of the saints of our lives…and as we share in Holy Communion, a meal which surpasses all boundaries of time and place - even the boundary of death - a meal that we share with all the saints of earth and all the saints in heaven - As we do all this, may we remember and give thanks for all those who have shown us and the world the love of Christ. And may we follow in the footsteps of those saints, knowing that we have all we need through the inheritance we’ve obtained through Christ - and live as saints, here and now.

May it be so. Amen.

"Our Money Story: Release" a sermon on Leviticus 19:9-10; 25:8-12 and Mark 12:38-44

Leviticus 19:9-10; 25:8-12
Mark 12:38-44
“Our Money Story: Release”
Preached Sunday, October 30, 2022

I want to share some headlines with you today.

“High school student saves for over 2 years to buy his friend a new wheelchair”
“Texas teen Alondra Carmona is giving up her entire college savings to help pay for her mom’s rent and prevent her being evicted.”
“89-Year-Old Pizza Deliveryman Gets Surprise $12k Tip”
“South Carolina principal takes night job at Walmart to support struggling students”

These are just 4 headlines out of thousands in this genre of headlines. I believe these headline writers and many who read them, think these are feel-good news stories. And many read them and share them on their social media in just that light - their hearts warmed by the good deeds we do for each other.

However, I would argue, along with others, that these are anything BUT feel good news pieces. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to see people helping people. We want to see more of that in our world. We want to see more of people’s hearts moved to kindness and love. And, underneath these stories, the headlines expose a dystopian society where things are not as they should be, where people, collectively, are not being cared for - that our society would put people in these situations in the first place. I think we create these feel good headlines because we’re afraid to look at the dystopian and unjust aspects of our world. An article on a friend buying a friend a wheelchair will get more clicks than an expose about how insurance is failing to care for the basic needs of mobility, how families are going into debt to afford wheelchairs, and not to mention how often airlines break them with no recourse for compensation and etc, etc.

So let’s look at those same headlines again but at the situations lying just beneath the surface.

“High school student saves for over 2 years to buy his friend a new wheelchair” becomes “Kids having to care for kids as insurance, poverty, and generally an ableist society fails to care for basic mobility issues for those in need”

“Texas teen Alondra Carmona is giving up her entire college savings to help pay for her mom’s rent and prevent her being evicted.” becomes “Texas teen puts her own future at risk - not to mention the criminal costs of a higher education - because of lack of safety nets and the pit of generational poverty” - with a smiling picture of her

“89-Year-Old Pizza Deliveryman Gets Surprise $12k Tip” becomes “What kind of society do we live in where 89 year olds have to work to get by while others can tip exorbitant amounts”

“South Carolina principal takes night job at Walmart to support struggling students” becomes “Man works around the clock at a rate that will be detrimental to his health because our society fails to care for kids in poverty”

Again, I am not diminishing the high school friend, the teen who helped her mom, the person who tipped the driver, the South Carolina principal - I am not diminishing their acts of kindness and their generosity - I am wanting to highlight how these feel good stories are actually revealing the nightmares of our society - of injustice and inequity and lack of support, especially for those in poverty and those living with disabilities.

And I am not the only one, by any means, who has noticed this trend in the headlines. Many have chosen to satirize this genre of headline that brings the absurdity of using these as feel good stories to light. I’ll just share two cause we could do this all day.

“Heartwarming: Local 9-year-old starts driving for Uber to pay for his mom’s cancer treatment”

Or this keen observation:

“Every heartwarming human interest story in america like ‘he raised $20,000 to keep 200 orphans from being crushed in the orphan-crushing machine’ and then never asks why an orphan-crushing machine exists or why you’d need to pay to prevent it from being used”

Alright - now that we’ve established that this is a thing in our society, let’s make a headline out of today’s Gospel lesson.

Here’s the feel-good/don’t look too deeply at it version: “Widow gives away her last penny to her church in extraordinary act of generosity”

And now here is the headline that looks at the dystopian reality underneath the feel-good fluff piece:
“Widow’s house is devoured by her church. She is left penniless and will die if no one cares for her.”

The most common or popular or long-withstanding interpretation of the story of the widow’s mite is more in line with that first headline: Look how generous this widow is! Go and do likewise. But that’s not what the text, or what Jesus, says.

This isn’t a text on percentage giving. This isn’t a text about the spirit in which a giver gives. This isn’t a text about trusting in God. These are all worth talking and preaching about…but it’s not what is behind this passage in Jesus pointing out the widow’s giving.

To know what this passage is about, we have to ask ourselves: Given the Jesus we know from Scripture, who prioritizes human needs - heals the sick, feeds the hungry. Who puts human needs over sabbath, who says human needs trump religious law. The Jesus who criticized the established religion for their lack of care for the least of these…Would that Jesus be happy to see a widow become destitute? No! Of course not.

We just need to look at the verses right before the widow’s giving, they are not often read together but they are essential to understand why Jesus points out the widow’s giving. The context is important: “As he taught, he said, ‘Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.’”

In a groundbreaking scholarly work on this text, Addison G. Wright says this about our understanding of the story of the widow’s mite:

“It would seem that the only way out of these acute difficulties is quite simply to see Jesus' attitude to the widow's gift as a downright disapproval and not as an approbation….Jesus’ saying is not a penetrating insight on the measuring of gifts; it is a lament, ‘Amen, I tell you, she gave more than all the others.’ Or, as we would say: ‘One could easily fail to notice it, but there is the tragedy of the day—she put in her whole living.’”

If the large sums given to the temple treasury were doing what they were supposed to be doing, then that widow should have been the recipient of those gifts, pulling her out of destitution, not her giving her last, causing her house to be devoured. Let’s be real, in giving all she had, with no safety net, she would die.

What does this new understanding of the widow’s mite mean for us?

For churches and religious organizations who function on the gifts of others, it cautions us to use the gifts we are given wisely and responsibly for the welfare and benefit of all of God’s children. For my preaching, especially during Stewardship season, well, it certainly cautions my asks for the money and to make sure how I frame it to you. When we talk about Stewardship, it’s not giving for giving’s sake. It’s giving so that the widow and the least of these can be taken care of. The Biblical or Christ-like drive behind talking about stewardship and giving is to take what we are given and use it for the least of these - for the widow, for children, for the sick…for the marginalized. To use our gifts, the gifts we are given - as individuals and as a larger church - to build God’s Kingdom, here and now.

Speaking of the margins - you know what I mean by saying “the marginalized” right? So those people that society pushes to the edge. We don’t want them in the center view and so we push, push, push, until they are on the edges of society, where they can easily fall off. The disabled, the poor, the different…anyone not exactly what society tells us we should be, they get pushed out. And this isn’t new - there have always been people on the margins. And so in Leviticus, God gives a command to the Israelietes to leave the margins of their fields unpicked so that those who are in need can come and glean what what is there, to harvest and to eat. Perhaps part of giving is first not over-consuming, only taking what we need so that there is something for all.

Now, most of us here today don’t have farm fields. And if we did, it’s no longer a practice to not harvest it all, and not many are walking through fields looking to glean. And so we’re challenged to take these Biblical understandings of giving and caring for the least of these and apply them to our money stories today and how we live them out.

Perhaps it is still literal gleaning ministries - there are ministries who take the misshapen or ugly produce that they do not sell in grocery stories - nothing wrong with it, just not up to shelf-standard, and repackage it and give it to the needy and hungry.

Perhaps it’s just starting with measuring our own consumption and what is needed and what is extra. Perhaps it’s giving what we do not need for survival to those who do need it for survival - ala John Wesley saying to give all he can and he hoped he would not die with two extra coins in his pocket to rub together, he’d rather have given all he could.

Perhaps it’s things like giving without knowing the recipient - like giving new items like these today that will go to Genesis House for women and children escaping domestic violence.

Now most of these things mentioned are individual things - and there are definite systemic things at play too.

I think the context of Jubilee - where every 7th, 7th year, debts are forgiven, land is returned to its original owners, slaves are freed, and the land and animals rest - the context for Jubilee gives us a jumping point for our dreams of what systemic change could look like. We might think a modern day Jubilee is impossible - but maybe that’s because we’re not dreaming big enough, and we’re not advocating and acting towards that day. A day where there is forgiveness of debts: of student loans, of medical debts, of outlawing predatory loans and interest rates. Of land recognition and returning land to Native tribes. Or becoming more aware of the slave labor that makes many of our goods and working toward more ethical consumption. Of re-imaging prison labor laws that fuels much of modern day slavery… All these things are happening, on some scale, small or large, in our country today. The work of Jubilee - of reimagining our whole economic systems and how we fail to care for the least of these and those on the margins - it’s hard work. It’s much easier to try and sweep our realities under the rug, to distract from them with a quote on quote, heartwarming headline. And we ARE called toward kindness to one another - kindness on an individual level. And kindness on a systemic level which means working together for change - working together with our hands and feet and hearts and minds and words and dreams and yes, our giving too, for those who can give to create a more just world, a world more like God’s Kingdom.

So where do we begin? The driving theme behind this sermon series, “Our Money Story” is that stories matter. By re-thinking and re-imagining our interpretation of the Widow’s Mite, moving it from a story of praise to a story of lament for the widow and condemnation for those who misuse her gifts…it opens our eyes and our hearts to our own reality and the issues in our society today. It breaks our hearts for what breaks God’s heart. And perhaps it also opens our eyes for the ways our money stories need to be re-imagined to be revolutionary in creating God’s Kingdom.

So let’s dream together using Leviticus as an example of reimagining what could be - and figuring out where our money stories and faith stories fit in. And sharing those stories that spur us and others on to more faithful living, giving, and using the gifts they are given. Our stories are big enough to lament at the times we, others, even the church, have failed to take care of the least of these and those we love. We can confess our failings, individually and systemically, regarding using our money for the Kingdom of God and the care of all. And we can praise and celebrate the ways we see God’s love and justice in action in our world, where people are being cared for, fed, healed, where Jubilee is being proclaimed and carried out. Our stories are big enough to contain our dreams and prayers and actions for the day when all gifts that are given are used for God’s Kingdom: to care for all, for love of God and love of neighbor as self.

The last two weeks I’ve concluded my sermons by asking “What’s your money story? Your faith story? And how are the two intertwined? This week I want to take it a step further and not just ask what your story is but ask: How can we reimagine not just our individual money stories but our church’s money story, our society’s money story, our collective money stories, so that all of God’s children are cared for?

May it be so.

Amen.