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.
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