John 7:37-39
Acts 2:1-21
“Water & Fire”
Preached Sunday, May 28, 2023
This morning I want to tell you three stories.
The first story goes back to the very beginning, Genesis 1:1-2: “When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was in complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”
That wind from God that hovered over the deep at the beginning of creation was God’s ruach. A Hebrew word meaning breath and wind. The breath of God that hovered over the deep at the beginning of our creation story, is the Holy Spirit, one of the three persons in our Triune God. And the world ruach, that first reference to the Holy Spirit, right at the beginning of our Scriptures, is a feminine word, as are other words used to refer to the Holy Spirit in our Scripture, such as the Greek sophia for wisdom. So as I am telling you stories this morning and talking about the Holy Spirit, you’ll hear me use she to refer to the Holy Spirit. So as the Holy Spirit hovered over the deep, the chaos, the primordial waters of creation, she had a direct role in the creation of the universe, and it’s the start of a long-standing connection between the Holy Spirit and the gift of water.
She was present in the waters of creation. She was present as the flood waters receded and a rainbow, a sign or promise and covenant, appeared in the sky to Noah and his family. She was present in the parting of the Red Sea, when God led the Hebrew people out of slavery, out of Egypt. She was present as the next generations crossed the Jordan River and into the promised land.
And then, she was present with Jesus in the water of the womb, for when one member of the Trinity is found, they all are. She was present in Jesus’s baptisms, in both the water of the Jordan and the dove descending. She was present in the water that gushed from Jesus’s side during his crucifixion and then subsequent resurrection.
The story of our faith, from the beginning of creation to the wider story of Jesus - to today, can be traced through water and traced through the Holy Spirit.
And if that story that I just told you sounds slightly familiar - it’s because you just heard that story retold in our Baptismal covenant as we baptized two young children of God. We trace the Holy Spirit’s presence above the water of creation to her presence in the water here today that we baptize with. Because when we baptize children of God, of any age, we are placing ourselves in the story of the Holy Spirit, in the story of our Triune God, in the story of creation, in the story of God’s salvific acts, in the story of our faith. When we baptize with water, we don’t just baptize with water, we baptize with water and the Spirit. What we are saying is that story that we just told, the story of the Holy Spirit’s presence in all of history, that is our story too. That God, through water and the Spirit, has incorporated us into the story, grafted us in, adopted us into the family as children of God. Thanks be to God for that!
The second story I want to tell you today is the story of Pentecost. In the Christian tradition, Pentecost is 50 days after Easter, following Jesus’s resurrection and his ascension to heaven. So, today! Pentecost was a Jewish holiday celebrating the harvest and the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai. Here this Scripture from Acts 2:
“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?’”
The Scripture continues that the disciples, empowered and overcome by the Holy Spirit, preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they tell of how God became human among us in Jesus, how he died and yet rose again, and how eternal life through Jesus is promised to us as well. And each person there understood them, heard them speaking in their native tongue, the language that they were born with, the language of their home countries and mothers, the language of their minds and hearts… And so on that day, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that Spirit which is present in water and breath and wind, and on the day of Pentecost, fire, on that day, 3,000 people from every corner of their known world converted and were baptized in the name of The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Incorporated into the story of our faith, adopted as God’s children.
Many people call that first Christian Pentecost “the birthday of the Church.” Because on that day, God through the Spirit, through fire and water, gave birth to the Church, empowering new disciples of Christ, adopting so many into the family of God - and then those disciples, having been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, would then go out and continue to share the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and baptizing children of God.
And from that first Christian Pentecost on, which not only birthed the Church but immediately pushed that Church out, to reach new people, different people, reaching across borders and ethnicities and languages, reaching across any line of divisions…from that first Christian Pentecost on, the Holy Spirit continues to work within, through, and despite that Church. Within, through, and despite US, to birth new things, to ever reach outward, to expand to new people, to cross any line of division, to bring the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to ALL people. Thanks be to God for that!
And so now let me tell you a third story… But it’s a story that I can’t fully tell. Because it’s not just one story but all of your stories. The stories that belong to each and every one of you. The story of how that same Holy Spirit that was present at creation, that was there in the waters of your baptism, how that same Holy Spirit adopted you as a child of God. The story of how that same Holy Spirit that came down as tongues of flames at Pentecost and birthed the Church and crossed lines of divisions and empowered the disciples to spread the Gospel - the story of how that same Holy Spirit fills YOU and empowers you to spread the Gospel. The story of how YOU, yes, each and every one of you, is a beloved Child of God, claimed in baptism, and filled by the Holy Spirit to spread the love of God to all peoples.
Tell yourself your story now. Think about how the Spirit of Water and the Spirit of Fire is the Spirit that lives in you. How has God’s loving, empowering, and transforming Spirit been active in your life? Always, since the moment you came into being.
As Methodist we talk about how the Spirit is active in our lives as grace. That the Holy Spirit, God’s grace, is always being offered to us, always being given to us, even when we don’t realize it. That the Holy Spirit, God’s grace, transforms our lives and our hearts to be more like God’s. That God’s Grace, the Holy Spirit, redeems us by Love, for Love. And how God’s grace, the Holy Spirit, never gives up on us, that continues to work within and around us to sanctify us, to make us more like God, to make our Love more like God’s love, to always push and empower us to better love God and love neighbor.
As Christians, as baptized Christians, baptized by water and fire, baptized by the Holy Spirit in the name of Triune God, that is all of our stories. The details are different. The road to get there is different. And still, it is all our stories. Thanks be to God for that!
These stories are all connected. The story of our baptisms, the story of Pentecost, the story of our lives. I pray that in our being reminded of our stories today, we would remember that we are beloved children of God, remember that we are empowered to share the Gospel of Love with all people, and remember that the Holy Spirit is always active and present in our lives.
Thanks be to God for that! Amen.
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Thursday, May 25, 2023
Call to Worship Based on Matthew 14:13-21 / Communion Sundays / John 6:35
L: Bread of life,
P: Feed us with your Love.
L: Bread of Life,
P: Feed us with your Grace.
L: Bread of Life,
P: Feed us with your Word.
L: Bread of Life,
P: We are hungry for you.
L: Bread of life,
P: Feed us till we want no more. Amen.
P: Feed us with your Love.
L: Bread of Life,
P: Feed us with your Grace.
L: Bread of Life,
P: Feed us with your Word.
L: Bread of Life,
P: We are hungry for you.
L: Bread of life,
P: Feed us till we want no more. Amen.
Call to Worship based on Romans 8:26-39
L: As we come together for a time of worship this morning, let us begin with some affirmations. Repeat after me. “I am loved by God.”
P: I am loved by God.
L: “You are loved by God.”
P: You are loved by God.
L: "And there is absolutely nothing you can do about it."
P: And there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.
L: "Thanks be to God for a love like that!"
P: Thanks be to God for a love like that! Amen!
Call to Worship based on Matthew 13:24-30, 36-40
L: Faithful God, in a world of sin,
P: Help us grow in love.
L: In a world of weeds,
P: Help us bear fruit.
L: In a world that desperately needs you,
P: Help us plant the seeds of your Kingdom.
L: Faithful God, here and now, tend to us.
P: We come before you in worship and pray, open to your Word. Amen.
Friday, May 19, 2023
Call to Worship Based on Psalm 65:1-13 & Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
L: Holy and Extravagant God, your goodness overflows upon the earth and upon us.
P: God is so good!
L: Creator God, you plant seeds of love, water with grace, bear fruit with joy.
P: God is so good!
L: Divine Sower, your arm reaches into every corner of our world, all of creation is blessed by you.
P: God is so good!
L: We know we are also blessed by your extravagant grace, so let us come together in worship, proclaiming:
P: God is so good! Amen!
Call to Worship based on Deuteronomy 26:1-11 & First Sundays, New Pastor, Transition
L: Holy and generous God, you created us out of the dust of the earth.
P: Help us tell our stories.
L: Your steadfast love has been active in the generations before us, in the faith of our forefathers and foremothers.
P: Help us tell our stories.
L: You know each of us intimately, knitting us together in our mother’s wombs, counting the hairs on our heads.
P: Help us tell our stories.
L: You have been good to us, your Spirit always with us, shaping us, guiding us, never abandoning us.
P: Help us tell our stories.
L: In this time of transition and new beginnings, root us in our stories. Root us in your story. Today in worship and with our whole lives,
P: Help us tell Your story. Amen.
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
"Surrounded by Gods" a sermon on Acts 17:22-31 & John 14:15-21
Acts 17:22-31
John 14:15-21
“Surrounded by Gods”
Preached Sunday, May 14, 2023
Last week I got to share some images from my continuing education trip to Turkey and Greece that I took with the conference this last fall. Today’s Scripture also fits with a site that I was able to visit. In Acts, Paul is at the Areopagus or what is known as Mars Hill. It is here that the Athenians had many statues and temples of their gods. Now, several temples remain nearby and you can see them from this spot - including the famous Parthenon, a temple to Athena. They believed that this hill was where the 12 main ancient Greek gods held their first court. So the Athenians marked this as a holy place with lots of statues of gods - it was also an intellectual place where people would come, preach, lecture, listen, and learn.
Today, Mars Hill is really just a rock, slick and slippery with many people traveling over it, littered with trash from tourists, many of the statues gone…Here are some pictures of the area…
Now, among the statues there was a Statue of an Unknown God. This wasn’t terribly out of the ordinary for them. See, the Greeks were a superstitious and very religious people and they believed there were many gods - small gods and big gods - and sometimes even small gods could become big gods and they wanted to cover their butts in case a god got mad that they didn’t have a statue for them. What!? You’re not honoring me!? And then wrath would follow. So they had fire insurance by the statue of the unknown god.
And Paul saw that statue and he preached to the Athenians about Jesus Christ, his death, and resurrection.
And when looking over this text for today, it made me wonder, if Paul came to the church of America, looking around at our figurative Mars Hills, what would he say? He might say what he said to the Athenians - “You are extremely religious in every way.” He would certainly see the crosses and churches everywhere. Probably more than he ever could have imagined in his wildest dreams…But, would he also see the other gods, the other idols, that surrounded all of us. While we aren’t like the ancient Greeks with their temples and statues, we certainly have many idols or gods in our lives - even if we don’t tend to think of them like that.
The God of Country, The God of Economy, the God of Social Status, The God of Corporate Success, The God of White Picket Fences, The God of Beauty, the God of the Status Quo, The God of Political Party, the God of Being Right, even the God of the images of ourselves that we cling to…and we likely could go on and on.
We all, myself included, give in and worship at the altar of these gods, these idols. So what do we do? Start with soul searching to determine what idols have sway in our lives. What in our lives trumps God and the greatest commandments to love God and neighbor as self? Or what idol do we try to shoe-horn God into? Common examples of this are things like “God and Country,” or the prosperity gospel where we tie together wealth and faithfulness, or when we wed our understanding of health and wellness together with prayer.
There is a song by Jimmy Needham that helps us discern and identify idols in our lives. In the song “Clear the Stage,” he sings:
“Anything I put before my God is an idol
Anything I want with all my heart is an idol
And anything I can't stop thinking of is an idol
And anything that I give all my love is an idol”
So…we are surrounded by gods, by idols. Where is the hope in today’s sermon?
We may be surrounded by false gods but we are also surrounded by the God of Love. Paul says that God gives life and breath to all. That God is never far from all of us - as close as our next breath. We just need to breathe, to reach out, and God is right there. As Paul says, “In him we live and move and have our being.”
The Gospel reading today is also the God of Love assuring us that we have been sent an Advocate, the Holy Spirit who is ALWAYS with us, who will not leave us orphaned, who abides in us, that fills us and surrounds us.
When we think about the pitfalls and temptations of false gods that we can so easily fall into, it can be overwhelming…it is then we are need to turn our attention, our souls, and realize we are COMPLETELY surrounded by the God who is Love and in that…everything else, all the false gods, all the temptations and the pitfalls, they all seem so small…Because they are. And they are not worth our devotion or lives and all the time and energy we pour into them.
It makes me think of the hymn - that we actually sang last week - “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” - will you sing it once through with me now?
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.”
To close, let’s go back to the practical for a moment - to divest from the idols gods that surrounds us and reach for and find the God of Love that is in and all around us, we can ask ourselves these questions as part of our discernment:
Is this thing that I am pouring myself into in line with God’s commandments to love God and love neighbor as self?
Or is this thing being placed above or even level with God, that Divine Love which should be above all else?
Does this thing that is asking me for my time and energy, my devotion, does it fit into God’s desire for Love and abundant life for all? Or am I trying to shove or force my image of God to fit into this other thing?
Lastly, if I breathe deeply, and turn my whole attention to God, how does this other thing react? Does it lash out in anger, fear, or defiance? Or does it peacefully fall into line with God’s will?
All of us have discernment to do - and as we are always surrounded by idol gods that are always asking for our attention, vying for our devotion, this process of discernment is something we must always keep and carry with us so that everything else can fade, and first and foremost, we keep the God of Love who abides in us and is always with us, front and center in our lives.
Amen.
John 14:15-21
“Surrounded by Gods”
Preached Sunday, May 14, 2023
Last week I got to share some images from my continuing education trip to Turkey and Greece that I took with the conference this last fall. Today’s Scripture also fits with a site that I was able to visit. In Acts, Paul is at the Areopagus or what is known as Mars Hill. It is here that the Athenians had many statues and temples of their gods. Now, several temples remain nearby and you can see them from this spot - including the famous Parthenon, a temple to Athena. They believed that this hill was where the 12 main ancient Greek gods held their first court. So the Athenians marked this as a holy place with lots of statues of gods - it was also an intellectual place where people would come, preach, lecture, listen, and learn.
Today, Mars Hill is really just a rock, slick and slippery with many people traveling over it, littered with trash from tourists, many of the statues gone…Here are some pictures of the area…
Now, among the statues there was a Statue of an Unknown God. This wasn’t terribly out of the ordinary for them. See, the Greeks were a superstitious and very religious people and they believed there were many gods - small gods and big gods - and sometimes even small gods could become big gods and they wanted to cover their butts in case a god got mad that they didn’t have a statue for them. What!? You’re not honoring me!? And then wrath would follow. So they had fire insurance by the statue of the unknown god.
And Paul saw that statue and he preached to the Athenians about Jesus Christ, his death, and resurrection.
And when looking over this text for today, it made me wonder, if Paul came to the church of America, looking around at our figurative Mars Hills, what would he say? He might say what he said to the Athenians - “You are extremely religious in every way.” He would certainly see the crosses and churches everywhere. Probably more than he ever could have imagined in his wildest dreams…But, would he also see the other gods, the other idols, that surrounded all of us. While we aren’t like the ancient Greeks with their temples and statues, we certainly have many idols or gods in our lives - even if we don’t tend to think of them like that.
The God of Country, The God of Economy, the God of Social Status, The God of Corporate Success, The God of White Picket Fences, The God of Beauty, the God of the Status Quo, The God of Political Party, the God of Being Right, even the God of the images of ourselves that we cling to…and we likely could go on and on.
We all, myself included, give in and worship at the altar of these gods, these idols. So what do we do? Start with soul searching to determine what idols have sway in our lives. What in our lives trumps God and the greatest commandments to love God and neighbor as self? Or what idol do we try to shoe-horn God into? Common examples of this are things like “God and Country,” or the prosperity gospel where we tie together wealth and faithfulness, or when we wed our understanding of health and wellness together with prayer.
There is a song by Jimmy Needham that helps us discern and identify idols in our lives. In the song “Clear the Stage,” he sings:
“Anything I put before my God is an idol
Anything I want with all my heart is an idol
And anything I can't stop thinking of is an idol
And anything that I give all my love is an idol”
So…we are surrounded by gods, by idols. Where is the hope in today’s sermon?
We may be surrounded by false gods but we are also surrounded by the God of Love. Paul says that God gives life and breath to all. That God is never far from all of us - as close as our next breath. We just need to breathe, to reach out, and God is right there. As Paul says, “In him we live and move and have our being.”
The Gospel reading today is also the God of Love assuring us that we have been sent an Advocate, the Holy Spirit who is ALWAYS with us, who will not leave us orphaned, who abides in us, that fills us and surrounds us.
When we think about the pitfalls and temptations of false gods that we can so easily fall into, it can be overwhelming…it is then we are need to turn our attention, our souls, and realize we are COMPLETELY surrounded by the God who is Love and in that…everything else, all the false gods, all the temptations and the pitfalls, they all seem so small…Because they are. And they are not worth our devotion or lives and all the time and energy we pour into them.
It makes me think of the hymn - that we actually sang last week - “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” - will you sing it once through with me now?
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.”
To close, let’s go back to the practical for a moment - to divest from the idols gods that surrounds us and reach for and find the God of Love that is in and all around us, we can ask ourselves these questions as part of our discernment:
Is this thing that I am pouring myself into in line with God’s commandments to love God and love neighbor as self?
Or is this thing being placed above or even level with God, that Divine Love which should be above all else?
Does this thing that is asking me for my time and energy, my devotion, does it fit into God’s desire for Love and abundant life for all? Or am I trying to shove or force my image of God to fit into this other thing?
Lastly, if I breathe deeply, and turn my whole attention to God, how does this other thing react? Does it lash out in anger, fear, or defiance? Or does it peacefully fall into line with God’s will?
All of us have discernment to do - and as we are always surrounded by idol gods that are always asking for our attention, vying for our devotion, this process of discernment is something we must always keep and carry with us so that everything else can fade, and first and foremost, we keep the God of Love who abides in us and is always with us, front and center in our lives.
Amen.
Monday, May 8, 2023
"Show Me the Father" a sermon on John 14:1-14
John 14:1-14
Acts 7:55-60
“Show Me the Father”
Preached Sunday, May 7, 2023
As many of you know, I had the opportunity to take a trip to Turkey this past Fall as part of a Conference-led continuing education trip.
By far my favorite place was in the city of Pamukkale, which went by the ancient name of Hierapolis. Pamukkale means cotton clouds and it is a UNESCO world heritage site for these calcium deposits that cascade down a hill. It looks like ice and you’d think the water would be freezing cold but it’s not - it’s calcium and the water is actually famously lukewarm. Which, when St. John wrote in Revelation about lukewarm Christians - guess what, it was directed toward Christians who lived in this region. Anyway, it is actually the only sight left like it in the world. There used to be more but climate change has dried them up. And even the ones in Pamukkale have been affected by extreme drought. Here is a picture I took but here is what they used to look like. They actually truck in water on a regular basis and spray parts of the side of the hills so that the cotton clouds don’t evaporate.
So, as we toured the area our tour guide said, “You have some free time and way up there in the distance…is the site of the martyrdom of Saint Phillip, if you’d like to take a walk.”
So let’s take a minute here and talk about St. Phillip. Phillip was one of the 12 Apostles and is known for spreading the Gospel through Greece, Turkey, and Phrygia. And the extra-Biblical tradition goes that, in about 80 BCE, Phillip, while preaching, converted the wife of the city proconsul and this upset her husband so he and his companions were crucified on a hill - Phillip continuing to preach the Gospel even as he hung from the cross. Other tellings have him beheaded. So this spot that the tour guide said we could take a walk to, was the believed site of his martyrdom, his tomb, and then a church that was built there to venerate him.
Now, keep in mind, it was like 104 degrees in the shade on this day. So at the time only me and one other person were crazy enough to make the trek up the hill in the heat. And here are some pictures - and there are actually two ruins of churches. There is the first that was built not long following the martyrdom of Saint Phillip and then the church that was built right next to the site of the first church when the first church was destroyed by an earthquake…and again, here are some pictures…
And so, let’s stop on this beautiful image that doesn’t do it justice but you can tell - God was showing off that day. And while looking out at this scene, at or near the site of his martyrdom I prayed the prayer to St. Philip - those are prayers that traditions that place a higher emphasis on the veneration of saints have - and this is the prayer:
“O Glorious Saint Philip, at the Last Supper you said to Jesus, ‘Lord, show us the Father and it will be enough for us.’ Help us make this our prayer also and to seek God in all things. Obtain for us the grace to know the Father and Jesus Christ whom He has sent - for in this does eternal life consist. Amen.”
And in that moment, in that experience, I had no doubt that I had been shown the Father. That God was revealing Godself to me in that beautiful and ancient space, through the natural world and that feeling of thinness between this world and the next - that was the presence of God. Through light breaking through the clouds. An experience of being shown God’s presence in this world.
Admittedly, many of us find it easy to see God in the natural world. And there is nothing wrong with this! The God of creation wants to reveal Godself to us and I believe, made creation expressly to convey beauty and wonder. And that’s actually one of our stated values here at Grace: “Beauty through Wonder.” That we see the beauty in the natural, created world around us and through that, wonder at the beauty and Divinity of the Creator.
But what about the places where it’s a little harder to see God? That day, on that hill in Pamukkale, I saw God. And yet…it was a little strange when I remembered that this was actually the site of a pretty gruesome and tortuous murder. And we’re reminded of the darkness of the human heart, of our capacity to hurt one another, with today’s reading from Acts - the Martyrdom of St. Stephen, the first martyr of Christianity. When you think about humans hurting other humans, our capacity for violence, our tendency to hurt and even kill - where is God in that?
As easy as it is to see God in nature, in beauty, in love and blessings and miracles…what about all the turmoil, strife, war, disease, death, and pain in this world? Do you ever look at our world, see the headlines, see the news - or even see what’s going on in your own life - and wonder, “Where ARE you God?”
It is then we pray, “Show me the Father.”
It makes me think of the mystic St. John of the Cross and his poem, “Dark Night of the Soul.” He writes of the soul’s journey through dark nights and eventually seeking and experiencing union with God in those dark places. The poem itself was written by John when he was a prisoner. The phrase “dark night of the soul” has come to refer to those trials that we go through in life, our darkest, most “Where are you God?” moments, that, through it all, we come to experience God more closely than before, and through it all, our relationship with God grows stronger than it did when all was seemingly well.
I also think of St. Julian of Norwich (side note: I really just wanted to see how many times this Methodist preacher could work in Saints into her sermon - I’m up to 5 and I couldn’t let them all be men so here’s one final saint). St. Julian fell gravely ill with what was thought to be the black plague and she thought she was going to die, she was administered last rites and her priest and mother sat by her bed for 6 days. And in her illness she had 16 visions of God’s divine love in which she claims she fully experienced the suffering and love of Christ’s crucifixion. When she woke, alive and not dead, when she woke from that near death experience, from then on she had a deeply mystical relationship with God and was forever changed.
To be clear, I don’t think God causes dark nights of the soul, near death experiences, or the depths of human pain and darkness in the world. God does not inflict suffering on us and the world to teach us lessons - God doesn’t work like that. But because we are human, at some point - actually more like points, plural, in our lives, we will be staring into the void of ourselves, our lives, and our world and we will ask, "Where is God in all this?” And I believe, it is then, we can pray the words that St. Phillip gave to us from today’s Gospel reading, “Show me the Father.” And God will reveal God’s self to us.
Because while it is easy to see God in the light, God is also in the darkness. While it is easy to see God in beauty, God is also there in the middle of the ugliness of the world. While it is easy to see God when all is going well, God is there when everything falls apart. There to cry and lament and rage with us. There to wipe away our tears, there to catch us when we fall. There to just BE with us and reveal God’s self to us. Cause there is no where in this world, no situation too heartbreakingly awful, no depravity too deep, literally no where in this world - where God is not. As the Psalmist said in Psalm 139:
Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and night wraps itself around me,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
Let our prayer be, in every situation, in light and in darkness, in joy and despair, on days wen it is easy to see God at work and on days we can barely even believe - let our prayer always be, “Show me the Father.”
Amen.
Acts 7:55-60
“Show Me the Father”
Preached Sunday, May 7, 2023
As many of you know, I had the opportunity to take a trip to Turkey this past Fall as part of a Conference-led continuing education trip.
By far my favorite place was in the city of Pamukkale, which went by the ancient name of Hierapolis. Pamukkale means cotton clouds and it is a UNESCO world heritage site for these calcium deposits that cascade down a hill. It looks like ice and you’d think the water would be freezing cold but it’s not - it’s calcium and the water is actually famously lukewarm. Which, when St. John wrote in Revelation about lukewarm Christians - guess what, it was directed toward Christians who lived in this region. Anyway, it is actually the only sight left like it in the world. There used to be more but climate change has dried them up. And even the ones in Pamukkale have been affected by extreme drought. Here is a picture I took but here is what they used to look like. They actually truck in water on a regular basis and spray parts of the side of the hills so that the cotton clouds don’t evaporate.
So let’s take a minute here and talk about St. Phillip. Phillip was one of the 12 Apostles and is known for spreading the Gospel through Greece, Turkey, and Phrygia. And the extra-Biblical tradition goes that, in about 80 BCE, Phillip, while preaching, converted the wife of the city proconsul and this upset her husband so he and his companions were crucified on a hill - Phillip continuing to preach the Gospel even as he hung from the cross. Other tellings have him beheaded. So this spot that the tour guide said we could take a walk to, was the believed site of his martyrdom, his tomb, and then a church that was built there to venerate him.
Now, keep in mind, it was like 104 degrees in the shade on this day. So at the time only me and one other person were crazy enough to make the trek up the hill in the heat. And here are some pictures - and there are actually two ruins of churches. There is the first that was built not long following the martyrdom of Saint Phillip and then the church that was built right next to the site of the first church when the first church was destroyed by an earthquake…and again, here are some pictures…
And so, let’s stop on this beautiful image that doesn’t do it justice but you can tell - God was showing off that day. And while looking out at this scene, at or near the site of his martyrdom I prayed the prayer to St. Philip - those are prayers that traditions that place a higher emphasis on the veneration of saints have - and this is the prayer:
“O Glorious Saint Philip, at the Last Supper you said to Jesus, ‘Lord, show us the Father and it will be enough for us.’ Help us make this our prayer also and to seek God in all things. Obtain for us the grace to know the Father and Jesus Christ whom He has sent - for in this does eternal life consist. Amen.”
And in that moment, in that experience, I had no doubt that I had been shown the Father. That God was revealing Godself to me in that beautiful and ancient space, through the natural world and that feeling of thinness between this world and the next - that was the presence of God. Through light breaking through the clouds. An experience of being shown God’s presence in this world.
Admittedly, many of us find it easy to see God in the natural world. And there is nothing wrong with this! The God of creation wants to reveal Godself to us and I believe, made creation expressly to convey beauty and wonder. And that’s actually one of our stated values here at Grace: “Beauty through Wonder.” That we see the beauty in the natural, created world around us and through that, wonder at the beauty and Divinity of the Creator.
But what about the places where it’s a little harder to see God? That day, on that hill in Pamukkale, I saw God. And yet…it was a little strange when I remembered that this was actually the site of a pretty gruesome and tortuous murder. And we’re reminded of the darkness of the human heart, of our capacity to hurt one another, with today’s reading from Acts - the Martyrdom of St. Stephen, the first martyr of Christianity. When you think about humans hurting other humans, our capacity for violence, our tendency to hurt and even kill - where is God in that?
As easy as it is to see God in nature, in beauty, in love and blessings and miracles…what about all the turmoil, strife, war, disease, death, and pain in this world? Do you ever look at our world, see the headlines, see the news - or even see what’s going on in your own life - and wonder, “Where ARE you God?”
It is then we pray, “Show me the Father.”
It makes me think of the mystic St. John of the Cross and his poem, “Dark Night of the Soul.” He writes of the soul’s journey through dark nights and eventually seeking and experiencing union with God in those dark places. The poem itself was written by John when he was a prisoner. The phrase “dark night of the soul” has come to refer to those trials that we go through in life, our darkest, most “Where are you God?” moments, that, through it all, we come to experience God more closely than before, and through it all, our relationship with God grows stronger than it did when all was seemingly well.
I also think of St. Julian of Norwich (side note: I really just wanted to see how many times this Methodist preacher could work in Saints into her sermon - I’m up to 5 and I couldn’t let them all be men so here’s one final saint). St. Julian fell gravely ill with what was thought to be the black plague and she thought she was going to die, she was administered last rites and her priest and mother sat by her bed for 6 days. And in her illness she had 16 visions of God’s divine love in which she claims she fully experienced the suffering and love of Christ’s crucifixion. When she woke, alive and not dead, when she woke from that near death experience, from then on she had a deeply mystical relationship with God and was forever changed.
To be clear, I don’t think God causes dark nights of the soul, near death experiences, or the depths of human pain and darkness in the world. God does not inflict suffering on us and the world to teach us lessons - God doesn’t work like that. But because we are human, at some point - actually more like points, plural, in our lives, we will be staring into the void of ourselves, our lives, and our world and we will ask, "Where is God in all this?” And I believe, it is then, we can pray the words that St. Phillip gave to us from today’s Gospel reading, “Show me the Father.” And God will reveal God’s self to us.
Because while it is easy to see God in the light, God is also in the darkness. While it is easy to see God in beauty, God is also there in the middle of the ugliness of the world. While it is easy to see God when all is going well, God is there when everything falls apart. There to cry and lament and rage with us. There to wipe away our tears, there to catch us when we fall. There to just BE with us and reveal God’s self to us. Cause there is no where in this world, no situation too heartbreakingly awful, no depravity too deep, literally no where in this world - where God is not. As the Psalmist said in Psalm 139:
Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and night wraps itself around me,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
Let our prayer be, in every situation, in light and in darkness, in joy and despair, on days wen it is easy to see God at work and on days we can barely even believe - let our prayer always be, “Show me the Father.”
Amen.
Tuesday, May 2, 2023
"Jesus the Good...Gate?" a sermon on John 10:1-10
John 10:1-10
“Jesus the Good…Gate?”
Preached Sunday, April 30, 2023
Let’s start today’s sermon with an English lesson….Okay, I wasn’t sure what your reaction would be to that. Who liked English class? Who didn’t?
Alright, either way - bear with me.
Now, for the start of our English class - what is a metaphor? (answers)
That’s right, a metaphor is a comparison between two things that are otherwise unrelated.
Can anyone give me any examples of metaphors? (answers)
Life is a highway, she has a heart of gold, he is a tall drink of water…
Okay, second part of our English class - what is a mixed metaphor? (answers)
So a mixed metaphor is when you take several metaphors and use them together in a way that would make no sense given a literal reading.
This one is a little harder but can anyone give me an example of a mixed metaphor? (answers)
Mixed metaphors are things like: “When the going gets tough, the early bird gets the worm.” “We need to iron out the bottlenecks.” “I’ll be here until the cows come to roost.” We…kind of know what they mean, right? Cause we’re familiar with all these metaphors, but when you put them together, they don’t really make any literal sense.
Now, let’s switch over from English class to theology class: What are some of your favorite metaphors for God? (answers)
What about God as Fortress, God as Mother Hen, God as Gardener, Holy Spirit as Dove, Wind, Fire, Jesus as Brother, Friend…
So now, more English class meeting theology class, what does it mean to say all language for God is metaphorical? I’ll go ahead and answer that one on my own: All the ways we talk about God are metaphors because there is no finite human language that can fully encapsulate an infinite God. Metaphors get to the sense of the thing…but they don’t fully get the thing. And we want to know God and relate to God, to this holy Divine mystery which we can barely begin to grasp knowledge of…and so we use metaphor, to understand God in terms of what we know.
And so, in a way, all language for God is also a mixed metaphor as God is all these things, and more, at once. And today’s Gospel text is certainly a mixed metaphor. In it Jesus calls himself the gate, the shepherd, and the gatekeeper - all in the same metaphor. So he is the gate, the one who opens the gate, and the one who walks through the gate… And then we get this really really great line of Scripture:
“Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.”
Well, duh! Jesus, your mixed metaphors are confusing and any English teacher would have taken points off your writing assignment had you turned this in! I am the gate, the gatekeeper, and the Shepherd. Huh?
“Jesus the Good…Gate?”
Preached Sunday, April 30, 2023
Let’s start today’s sermon with an English lesson….Okay, I wasn’t sure what your reaction would be to that. Who liked English class? Who didn’t?
Alright, either way - bear with me.
Now, for the start of our English class - what is a metaphor? (answers)
That’s right, a metaphor is a comparison between two things that are otherwise unrelated.
Can anyone give me any examples of metaphors? (answers)
Life is a highway, she has a heart of gold, he is a tall drink of water…
Okay, second part of our English class - what is a mixed metaphor? (answers)
So a mixed metaphor is when you take several metaphors and use them together in a way that would make no sense given a literal reading.
This one is a little harder but can anyone give me an example of a mixed metaphor? (answers)
Mixed metaphors are things like: “When the going gets tough, the early bird gets the worm.” “We need to iron out the bottlenecks.” “I’ll be here until the cows come to roost.” We…kind of know what they mean, right? Cause we’re familiar with all these metaphors, but when you put them together, they don’t really make any literal sense.
Now, let’s switch over from English class to theology class: What are some of your favorite metaphors for God? (answers)
What about God as Fortress, God as Mother Hen, God as Gardener, Holy Spirit as Dove, Wind, Fire, Jesus as Brother, Friend…
So now, more English class meeting theology class, what does it mean to say all language for God is metaphorical? I’ll go ahead and answer that one on my own: All the ways we talk about God are metaphors because there is no finite human language that can fully encapsulate an infinite God. Metaphors get to the sense of the thing…but they don’t fully get the thing. And we want to know God and relate to God, to this holy Divine mystery which we can barely begin to grasp knowledge of…and so we use metaphor, to understand God in terms of what we know.
And so, in a way, all language for God is also a mixed metaphor as God is all these things, and more, at once. And today’s Gospel text is certainly a mixed metaphor. In it Jesus calls himself the gate, the shepherd, and the gatekeeper - all in the same metaphor. So he is the gate, the one who opens the gate, and the one who walks through the gate… And then we get this really really great line of Scripture:
“Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.”
Well, duh! Jesus, your mixed metaphors are confusing and any English teacher would have taken points off your writing assignment had you turned this in! I am the gate, the gatekeeper, and the Shepherd. Huh?
This passage of Scripture today is confusing so I don’t want my sermon to muddy the waters anymore so I am going to come right out and tell you what I want you to hear for today’s sermon takeaway:
Our God is always bigger and more than one thing. Our God cannot be contained in any one figure of speech or metaphor or idea of what or who God is. Our God can’t even be contained by as many metaphors and descriptions that our finite minds could ever come up with in the course of our lifetimes. And anytime we get content with our image of God, when we get comfortable with who we’ve decided God is to us, it is then that we should challenge ourselves and each other to expand our view of God.
Let’s take today’s Gospel lesson and sermon for example - Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. It always is the fourth Sunday after Easter, where we focus on texts from Scripture that use this metaphor of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. From the 23rd Psalm, and partially in our Gospel lesson today. The famous “I am the Good Shepherd” is actually the very next line after today’s Scripture reading ends but still Jesus in today’s reading is calling himself the Shepherd who calls the sheep by name and they know his voice. And there are other Scriptures throughout the Bible that refer to Jesus as the Shepherd.
Jesus as Shepherd, as the Good Shepherd, is certainly a metaphor for God that sits comfortably with us and is comforting to us. And there is nothing wrong with that! I’m not saying to give up metaphors for God that are meaningful to us. The metaphor of God as the Good Shepherd is a deeply meaningful and beautiful one. And today, we won’t be diving into it more deeply because we have done so in the past and I am sure there will be occasions to do so in the future…so what about the other metaphors in this Gospel passage?
If I’m being honest with you this morning, I would admit that the metaphors of Jesus as the Gate/Gatekeeper make me deeply uncomfortable. So much so that I debated just…skipping over this passage for today. Maybe preaching on the 23rd Psalm or the Epistle lesson…anything else so I wouldn’t have to touch Jesus as Gate with a ten foot pole…Which is exactly why I pushed myself to preach on this passage and to expand my understanding of and metaphors for God.
Now, I have been uncomfortable with the idea of Jesus as gate because I have primarily heard it used in an extremely exclusivist way. Used in a way to close all other dialogue or even, combined with a misuse of the thieves and bandits line, used in an anti-Semitic way against our Jewish siblings.
But, here’s what I found out when I dived deeper into the metaphor of Jesus as the Gate…The passage immediately before this in Scripture, is Jesus healing a blind man. You might remember him from a couple months ago during Lent. He’s the man who, upon seeing him blind, the disciples asked the wrong question of “Who sinned?” and upon seeing him healed, the Pharisees never believed he was blind in the first place and the Scripture says, “they drove him out.” Outside of the community. Outside of the gate.
And then Jesus says… “I am the gate.” In other words - you can’t exclude this man. You can’t exclude anyone. Because I am the gate and you may shove people out, but I invite them all in, through me, to an abundant life. This blind man had never known a place to call home, a community that accepted him, and Jesus is now offering that to him and making it clear that through him, there is always room to come and enter abundant life.
And in the passage right after this, Jesus says “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” Which works against using Jesus as gate in exclusivist terms.
I’ve also seen Jesus as the gate as the protector of his sheepfold - such as when Jesus and disciples were praying in the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus the Gate stood between his disciples and the arresting soldiers, protecting them and keeping them safe in the garden.
AND gates are not like doors - you can see through them. And this made me think of, and excuse me for throwing another metaphor into the mix, sieves. That Jesus as the Gate is the sieve (hello mixed metaphor) that helps us filter out all the things in our lives and world that keeps us from abundant life.
So Jesus as the Gate is Jesus as the one who invites all who have been excluded into abundant life, Jesus as the Gate is the one who protects those who follow him, and Jesus as the Gate is the one who filters out that which keeps us from abundant life.
In conclusion, for me, by pushing myself to dive into a new metaphor for God, by challenging myself to expand my view of God, I now understand God just a little bit more - I’ve gained an understanding of Jesus not just as the Good Shepherd…but as the Good Gate too - mixed metaphors and all. And perhaps you have too.
May all of us ever strive to know God better, to dive deeper, to claim new metaphors, and to never stop seeking to know God more.
Amen.
Our God is always bigger and more than one thing. Our God cannot be contained in any one figure of speech or metaphor or idea of what or who God is. Our God can’t even be contained by as many metaphors and descriptions that our finite minds could ever come up with in the course of our lifetimes. And anytime we get content with our image of God, when we get comfortable with who we’ve decided God is to us, it is then that we should challenge ourselves and each other to expand our view of God.
Let’s take today’s Gospel lesson and sermon for example - Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. It always is the fourth Sunday after Easter, where we focus on texts from Scripture that use this metaphor of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. From the 23rd Psalm, and partially in our Gospel lesson today. The famous “I am the Good Shepherd” is actually the very next line after today’s Scripture reading ends but still Jesus in today’s reading is calling himself the Shepherd who calls the sheep by name and they know his voice. And there are other Scriptures throughout the Bible that refer to Jesus as the Shepherd.
Jesus as Shepherd, as the Good Shepherd, is certainly a metaphor for God that sits comfortably with us and is comforting to us. And there is nothing wrong with that! I’m not saying to give up metaphors for God that are meaningful to us. The metaphor of God as the Good Shepherd is a deeply meaningful and beautiful one. And today, we won’t be diving into it more deeply because we have done so in the past and I am sure there will be occasions to do so in the future…so what about the other metaphors in this Gospel passage?
If I’m being honest with you this morning, I would admit that the metaphors of Jesus as the Gate/Gatekeeper make me deeply uncomfortable. So much so that I debated just…skipping over this passage for today. Maybe preaching on the 23rd Psalm or the Epistle lesson…anything else so I wouldn’t have to touch Jesus as Gate with a ten foot pole…Which is exactly why I pushed myself to preach on this passage and to expand my understanding of and metaphors for God.
Now, I have been uncomfortable with the idea of Jesus as gate because I have primarily heard it used in an extremely exclusivist way. Used in a way to close all other dialogue or even, combined with a misuse of the thieves and bandits line, used in an anti-Semitic way against our Jewish siblings.
But, here’s what I found out when I dived deeper into the metaphor of Jesus as the Gate…The passage immediately before this in Scripture, is Jesus healing a blind man. You might remember him from a couple months ago during Lent. He’s the man who, upon seeing him blind, the disciples asked the wrong question of “Who sinned?” and upon seeing him healed, the Pharisees never believed he was blind in the first place and the Scripture says, “they drove him out.” Outside of the community. Outside of the gate.
And then Jesus says… “I am the gate.” In other words - you can’t exclude this man. You can’t exclude anyone. Because I am the gate and you may shove people out, but I invite them all in, through me, to an abundant life. This blind man had never known a place to call home, a community that accepted him, and Jesus is now offering that to him and making it clear that through him, there is always room to come and enter abundant life.
And in the passage right after this, Jesus says “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” Which works against using Jesus as gate in exclusivist terms.
I’ve also seen Jesus as the gate as the protector of his sheepfold - such as when Jesus and disciples were praying in the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus the Gate stood between his disciples and the arresting soldiers, protecting them and keeping them safe in the garden.
AND gates are not like doors - you can see through them. And this made me think of, and excuse me for throwing another metaphor into the mix, sieves. That Jesus as the Gate is the sieve (hello mixed metaphor) that helps us filter out all the things in our lives and world that keeps us from abundant life.
So Jesus as the Gate is Jesus as the one who invites all who have been excluded into abundant life, Jesus as the Gate is the one who protects those who follow him, and Jesus as the Gate is the one who filters out that which keeps us from abundant life.
In conclusion, for me, by pushing myself to dive into a new metaphor for God, by challenging myself to expand my view of God, I now understand God just a little bit more - I’ve gained an understanding of Jesus not just as the Good Shepherd…but as the Good Gate too - mixed metaphors and all. And perhaps you have too.
May all of us ever strive to know God better, to dive deeper, to claim new metaphors, and to never stop seeking to know God more.
Amen.
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