February 5, 2012 Gospel: Mark 1:29-39 Psalm 147:1-11, 20c
1st Reading: Isaiah 40:21-31 2nd Reading: 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
“In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him.” I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I used to enjoy hunting with my family. We learned, even as little kids, how to move through the trees and sagebrush quietly. If we were going to have deer to eat that winter we’d have to be. We’d watch where we stepped. And while we were watching our feet, we could look for deer sign, footprints and droppings that could tell us how long ago a deer passed by that way.
Hunting involved a fair amount of walking, but it also involved a lot of waiting. We learned to sit quietly. Maybe hunting was good practice for church and church good practice for hunting.
In the Old Testament lesson, the Israelites had been taken into exile. They were complaining against God. And God answers them. “Don’t you people know anything!? I am in charge,” God says. God reminds them of everything he’s done, such as stretching the heavens and other important jobs. God reminds them that God is powerful and strong. God reminds them that they are faint, weary, and powerless. But God’s power is relational, it is for sharing. It is love. “Those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Those that wait quietly and watch for God will see God’s power and receive it. Power is for sharing. If you read about how the Israelites got taken into exile, you’ll see that they had been powerful, but they misused their power, so God took it away. Now that they find themselves powerless and calling on God, even in an accusing way, God will respond and share power to tip the power balance back to them.
Their waiting was a long process. Most of those who were taken died before they could come back into the land of Israel. Much like the waiting and wandering that happened in the wilderness before the Israelites came into the land of Canaan, where the generation that left Egypt was not the one that inherited the land.
Waiting is more than just wasted time. It has taken a long time for me to learn that and I am still learning it. I was the one who loved geometry because it showed the shortest line between 2 points. I do not take the scenic route, I take the fastest route. There is A and there is B and I just want to get from A to B. I married someone who doesn’t even have A or B in his awareness. Where is the car parked? Who cares? If you wander the parking lot long enough you’ll remember or stumble upon it. Nick enjoys the process. I gain a lot from being around him since I am the opposite. I try to think like him when I am stuck in traffic or in line at the grocery store. It isn’t just about getting from here to there, but I try to see what else is happening in that moment. Maybe I’m supposed to pay attention to a frazzled clerk at the store and offer a cheerful hello. Maybe I’m supposed to hold the door for someone or pick up a piece of litter. Maybe I’m being delayed so I miss a car accident later in the day. Believe me, sometimes it is a stretch to understand why I can’t get from here to there in the quickest way. Maybe I’m meant to see a rainbow or a sunset or a clump of clouds that reminds me that I’m not the center of everything, that there is a bigger plan and a powerful one that is looking out for the powerless and frazzled.
In Paul’s letter, he is also waiting and watching. He has the Gospel to proclaim, the good news to tell. He could jump right in with his stump speech, but instead he looks around him. He thinks about what would make the good news make sense to a certain group of people. He listens to their stories. He finds out what is important. He takes on characteristics that people will identify with. Then he shares the good news.
Some might call that flexibility “flip flopping.” But Paul knows himself and his bottom line. He’s got to get this most important message across. The rest is just window dressing. How you share it doesn’t matter to God, nor does what you eat or what silly rules you follow, or what culture you are part of. I can just imagine Paul trying on different accents, different clothes or disguises. But he’s not trying to trick anyone. He’s just trying to fit in with and understand another person’s thought process in order to help them connect with God.
Often the church says we want young people to come. Using Paul’s example, maybe we ought to dress the way they do, with our jeans falling down or tramp stamp showing. Maybe we ought to try to talk the way young people do. That wouldn’t be authentic. And we would be doing it for the wrong reasons, because we want our church to grow, which is selfish. Paul did it because he wanted other people to hear a word of hope and love. He was doing it for the sake of the other person. But that doesn’t mean we couldn’t use more accessible language, so that people who came here wouldn’t need a translator to understand what was going on, but would immediately know God’s love plain and pure?
Simon’s mother-in-law knew what it was like to wait. She had likely been suffering from Malaria for ages. This is a disease that, once you get it, it keeps coming back when you’re tired or worn out. Malaria kills about 1800 people every day and yet it is preventable with nets around the bed. The Lutheran Church has recently rejoined the malaria initiative. We’re so good at this that The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation works with us to get mosquito nets to countries where malaria is prevalent. We could go in to these places and preach all we wanted, but people would continue to die. The good news in this situation, looks like a net, so we become nets, we bring nets to protect people.
The people who were sick in the town waited. If you had been in Capurnaum that day, you would have kicked yourself if you hadn’t gone to Simon’s mother-in-law’s house and waited, even if a hangnail was all you could come up with as a reason. And Jesus healed many people, and gave them a certain level of new life. Jesus could have stayed there in Capurnaum and healed everyone. I would probably have been one of the ones complaining that he didn’t. But if he wanted to turn around the system of oppression that caused so much illness and vilified people with certain illnesses, he couldn’t stay there. He had to move on. He had bigger systems to address, leaders to confront, tables to overturn. There were people waiting for a deeper healing—for justice and hope. And if he wanted to extend new life to go beyond the grave and not be limited in time, he had to cross that boundary into death itself and shine the light of life and love there also. And if he wanted to have anything to offer people, he needed to do a kind of waiting, too. He headed out when it was still very dark to pray, to communicate with God, to wait on God instruction, to meditate on a saving word.
Even Jesus had to wait. Maybe that’s what I’ll remind myself with next time at the grocery store. Jesus surely waited with his mother at the market. He waited until he was older to learn the carpenter’s trade. He waited until his 30s to start his public ministry. Jesus even waited on the cross. He made the most of that time with prayer and by reaching out to two criminals on either side of him . Waiting is a fact of life. It isn’t if we will wait, but how we spend that waiting time that makes the difference. We can spend it complaining. We can spend it balancing time alone with God and helping others and we will find God helping us, too, through others.
What are you waiting for from God? What might God be waiting for from you?
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Sermon for January 29, 2012
January 29, 2012 Gospel: Mark 1:21-28 Psalm 111
1st Reading: Deuteronomy 18:15-20 2nd Reading: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13
When I was in High School, our Sunday School teacher was Mike Fish. Each Sunday my mom would ask us what we learned in Sunday School we’d tell her that we didn’t do our lesson. Instead we went out for donuts. My mom thought we were taking advantage of Mike. Certainly it cost him a few bucks to buy us all donuts. This was hardly Christian Education in my mother’s mind. But if I had known my Bible better, I would have been able to quote to her what it says in 1 Corinthians, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”
Our outing to Dunkin Donuts was more than just an exercise in poor eating habits and more than just taking advantage of poor Mike Fish—it was a time of building relationships. Mike wasn’t just driving us across town, he was conversing with us about our week. He was helping us make the connections between our lives and our faith. He was helping us to see that our faith helped us make decisions in school and at home. He helped to see and name God’s grace in our lives. And he was showing us that he cared and that didn’t take any kind of curriculum at all. We didn’t know it, but we had learned something in Sunday School on those days we went out to donuts with Mike Fish and he was building us up with his love for us. I have to say, I think he was as relieved as we were that he wasn’t teaching that boring curriculum.
I want to encourage you to share a time someone built you up. Maybe it was a compliment or some assistance of some kind or just someone loving you. Please turn to someone near you and share a time when someone built you up. Would anyone be willing to share with the whole group?
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians this morning, he tells us that what matters most is what builds people up, and what builds up the body of Christ, the community of believers. Even though all things are lawful and God will love us no matter what, we still need to be careful of what might lead another astray. We need to love one another and do what is best especially for the most vulnerable members of the body who might misunderstand. Thankfully we don’t have this issue anymore about eating food offered to idols because it sounds a little contentious. Much of the food in the marketplace would have been first offered to idols. There was also the issue of eating in the temples of idols. You and I and Paul know that these idols don’t exist and don’t have power, but a new believer might not know that and might follow the example of a more experienced believer and get led astray.
Even though we don’t have this specific problem in our context, we can still learn something from this reading and that is that all our actions ought to be based on what is loving, especially to the most vulnerable. The loving thing to do for someone who is just coming to faith or weaker in the faith is what is going to be most helpful to them to help them keep on track. It isn’t just about my faith, or what is lawful or helpful for me, but we have to look out for others.
This reminds me of how young people often fall away from the church, but when they have kids, sometimes they come back. They look at these new little people and want to share something of what they had when they were a kid. They want to give these vulnerable little children a foundation for their faith. Even though they didn’t choose for themselves for several years to go to church, for these little ones, they go out of their way to go to church and often take what they learn there into daily life—into prayer, into service, into interactions with the homeless or elderly. Sometimes we get to put aside our own preferences in favor of love and relationship.
In the Gospel reading for this morning, Jesus finds himself in the Synagogue. This is one of the first things he does in the Gospel of Mark. Suddenly there was a man with an unclean spirit. If Jesus hadn’t been there, certainly the people there would have thrown the man out. That seems like the right thing to do because it is what is best for the community. This man is disruptive. No one can hear or pray because he’s interrupting the service. But Jesus doesn’t do that. He doesn’t just go right on with his teaching, either. He stops and acknowledges the man and the spirit within him. But he thinks creatively. He needs to value the man—he is one of God’s children. He is one of the vulnerable that needs protection. But he also has this unclean spirit. It may be disruptive to the community, but think what this poor man is going through. The spirit is ruining every minute of his life, not just during church hour. So Jesus uses his authority to separate the man from his demon and get rid of the one causing the problem.
When we read this, we may believe that this man had schizophrenia or another mental or physical illness. It might mean addictions. It is hard for us to interpret “demons” on our own context. There are evils in this world that we can name—oppression, injustice, greed, etc. Maybe Jesus cast them out. Maybe the man was a victim of other people’s rumors and bullying. Maybe Jesus cast that out just by valuing him with his time and helping him. What bad things could other people say about him after that?
We, the church, believers gathered together, are Christ’s body in the world. Jesus had the authority to value and love people and so do we. He had authority and he used it to help people, especially the most vulnerable, and that’s our job, too. We are so used to a majority-rules perspective, but God’s way is counter-cultural so that we are especially called to look out for the minority and the weak.
On Reconciling in Christ Celebration Sunday, we remember our welcome statement that we welcome all people regardless of any differences. It is written there at the beginning of your bulletin. A couple of years ago we added “regardless of sexual identity” to our list. Fifty years ago, race was a bigger factor in what divided us. Today, perhaps income is one thing that is dividing us. So many things can divide us. But God commands that we love, that we be united, especially with people we might especially like not to be. It isn’t just about feeling good, but about being honest about how we participate in oppression and how we do let our prejudices keep us apart. A word from God isn’t always easy to hear, but we can be sure it is based in love and all about building up which is good for everyone. If we are members of the body of Christ, we want the weakest members to be strong, too, because that is good for everyone.
What is Jesus casting out of your life? What is Jesus casting out of our community? Are we ready to let it go? What is life-giving in our world? What is death-dealing and how do we participate in it? Let us instead participate in Jesus’ building up work of love.
1st Reading: Deuteronomy 18:15-20 2nd Reading: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13
When I was in High School, our Sunday School teacher was Mike Fish. Each Sunday my mom would ask us what we learned in Sunday School we’d tell her that we didn’t do our lesson. Instead we went out for donuts. My mom thought we were taking advantage of Mike. Certainly it cost him a few bucks to buy us all donuts. This was hardly Christian Education in my mother’s mind. But if I had known my Bible better, I would have been able to quote to her what it says in 1 Corinthians, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”
Our outing to Dunkin Donuts was more than just an exercise in poor eating habits and more than just taking advantage of poor Mike Fish—it was a time of building relationships. Mike wasn’t just driving us across town, he was conversing with us about our week. He was helping us make the connections between our lives and our faith. He was helping us to see that our faith helped us make decisions in school and at home. He helped to see and name God’s grace in our lives. And he was showing us that he cared and that didn’t take any kind of curriculum at all. We didn’t know it, but we had learned something in Sunday School on those days we went out to donuts with Mike Fish and he was building us up with his love for us. I have to say, I think he was as relieved as we were that he wasn’t teaching that boring curriculum.
I want to encourage you to share a time someone built you up. Maybe it was a compliment or some assistance of some kind or just someone loving you. Please turn to someone near you and share a time when someone built you up. Would anyone be willing to share with the whole group?
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians this morning, he tells us that what matters most is what builds people up, and what builds up the body of Christ, the community of believers. Even though all things are lawful and God will love us no matter what, we still need to be careful of what might lead another astray. We need to love one another and do what is best especially for the most vulnerable members of the body who might misunderstand. Thankfully we don’t have this issue anymore about eating food offered to idols because it sounds a little contentious. Much of the food in the marketplace would have been first offered to idols. There was also the issue of eating in the temples of idols. You and I and Paul know that these idols don’t exist and don’t have power, but a new believer might not know that and might follow the example of a more experienced believer and get led astray.
Even though we don’t have this specific problem in our context, we can still learn something from this reading and that is that all our actions ought to be based on what is loving, especially to the most vulnerable. The loving thing to do for someone who is just coming to faith or weaker in the faith is what is going to be most helpful to them to help them keep on track. It isn’t just about my faith, or what is lawful or helpful for me, but we have to look out for others.
This reminds me of how young people often fall away from the church, but when they have kids, sometimes they come back. They look at these new little people and want to share something of what they had when they were a kid. They want to give these vulnerable little children a foundation for their faith. Even though they didn’t choose for themselves for several years to go to church, for these little ones, they go out of their way to go to church and often take what they learn there into daily life—into prayer, into service, into interactions with the homeless or elderly. Sometimes we get to put aside our own preferences in favor of love and relationship.
In the Gospel reading for this morning, Jesus finds himself in the Synagogue. This is one of the first things he does in the Gospel of Mark. Suddenly there was a man with an unclean spirit. If Jesus hadn’t been there, certainly the people there would have thrown the man out. That seems like the right thing to do because it is what is best for the community. This man is disruptive. No one can hear or pray because he’s interrupting the service. But Jesus doesn’t do that. He doesn’t just go right on with his teaching, either. He stops and acknowledges the man and the spirit within him. But he thinks creatively. He needs to value the man—he is one of God’s children. He is one of the vulnerable that needs protection. But he also has this unclean spirit. It may be disruptive to the community, but think what this poor man is going through. The spirit is ruining every minute of his life, not just during church hour. So Jesus uses his authority to separate the man from his demon and get rid of the one causing the problem.
When we read this, we may believe that this man had schizophrenia or another mental or physical illness. It might mean addictions. It is hard for us to interpret “demons” on our own context. There are evils in this world that we can name—oppression, injustice, greed, etc. Maybe Jesus cast them out. Maybe the man was a victim of other people’s rumors and bullying. Maybe Jesus cast that out just by valuing him with his time and helping him. What bad things could other people say about him after that?
We, the church, believers gathered together, are Christ’s body in the world. Jesus had the authority to value and love people and so do we. He had authority and he used it to help people, especially the most vulnerable, and that’s our job, too. We are so used to a majority-rules perspective, but God’s way is counter-cultural so that we are especially called to look out for the minority and the weak.
On Reconciling in Christ Celebration Sunday, we remember our welcome statement that we welcome all people regardless of any differences. It is written there at the beginning of your bulletin. A couple of years ago we added “regardless of sexual identity” to our list. Fifty years ago, race was a bigger factor in what divided us. Today, perhaps income is one thing that is dividing us. So many things can divide us. But God commands that we love, that we be united, especially with people we might especially like not to be. It isn’t just about feeling good, but about being honest about how we participate in oppression and how we do let our prejudices keep us apart. A word from God isn’t always easy to hear, but we can be sure it is based in love and all about building up which is good for everyone. If we are members of the body of Christ, we want the weakest members to be strong, too, because that is good for everyone.
What is Jesus casting out of your life? What is Jesus casting out of our community? Are we ready to let it go? What is life-giving in our world? What is death-dealing and how do we participate in it? Let us instead participate in Jesus’ building up work of love.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Sermon for January 15, 2012
January 15, 2012 Gospel: John 1:43-51 Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
1st Reading: 1 Samuel 3:1-20 2nd Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
When I was growing up, we lived in Albany and my grandparents lived in Lebanon. It is about a 20 minute drive between the two. About once a week we’d go to my grandparents’ house for dinner. What a blessing to live that close to family! We’d drive home at what seemed like late at night but was probably more like 8 pm. It was so dark on Highway 34. My dad always made us feel safe, driving us carefully home—our car full of sleepy children. I always wondered how he did it on those dark nights. He always kept his eye on the white line on the side of the road. But even better was when he could get behind another vehicle and let them lead the way.
Jesus said, “Follow me.”
In today's Old Testament reading, Samuel is called to be a leader. Sometimes we might be reluctant to call ourselves leaders—at church or in our communities. We are humble. We can think of a hundred reasons why not to be. Many people feel uncomfortable speaking in public. In fact, that is one of the greatest fears people face. We’re afraid of letting other people down—that maybe we can’t meet their expectations or we might not be able to get everything done that we’re committed to. No one can anticipate every possible situation we might face, so it isn’t possible to be prepared for anything and everything. Being a leader means thinking on your feet.
But I would argue that we are all leaders. Some of you serve on church Council or Mutual Ministry or Endowment Board or one of our committees. I would count parents as leaders, too. And grandparents are leaders. There isn't one of you that I haven't seen being a leader at one time or another.
Some people have used the phrase, “What would Jesus do?” I don’t think it could hurt anything to think of that phrase when making decisions. Maybe it got thrown around a little too much and may have become a little trite. I started seeing jewelry with it written on there, “WWJD?” I thought to myself that if you want to ask what Jesus would do, you could start with Jesus certainly wouldn’t wear that bracelet!
I could never have become a pastor if I thought I’d be expected to do what Jesus would do. There are probably some people that expect that of me. And I think of that sometimes when I see someone asking for money on freeway overpass and other times I am not as generous as I’d like to be. It is an expectation that I will never live up to, not even for a moment.
If we could do what Jesus did, why would we need Jesus? And Jesus doesn’t ask us to be him. But he does ask us to follow him.
I think there is a difference. For one thing, he’s already been there, so we’re not alone. Jesus probably felt alone at certain times in his life, especially as he cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
“WWJD?” comes a little close to works righteousness. If we could just do as Jesus would do, we might think we could save ourselves—from regret, from despair, from the fires of hell. But Jesus did as Jesus would do, and he still endured suffering. He descended into hell according to some. He even occasionally had regrets. If we could just do as Jesus would do, we might think we could save others—from hunger, from suffering. Jesus did as Jesus would do although he did some miracle healings and casting out demons, he did not eradicate disease and pain. That was one question that Dick Morris asked me plenty of times. If Jesus said, “You will do greater things than these,” why can’t we just go cure hospitals full of people? He was really grappling with this gift of healing because he’d seen it working in India, but it wasn’t always immediate or complete like he thought it would be. Instead of eradicating all diseases and pain, Jesus promised to accompany us on our journey through pain and disease and suffering. Jesus promised to be with us through that and to bring us through that to new life.
Maybe a better question would be, “What would Jesus have us do now that we have new life because of him?” Or Martin Luther would put it this what, “What are we freed for? Now that we are free because of God’s gift of love and grace, who are we freed to be?” We are partly freed to be a follower.
Freedom was a word that meant a lot to Martin Luther King, Jr. The slaves had been freed long before, God had freed Christians through Jesus death and resurrection, and yet the freedom he experienced, as an African American was limited because of unjust laws in this country. Some call him a prophet. We would all think of him as a leader who took this country forward toward justice and equality.
But I think he was only doing what Jesus asks this morning, following him. Even Martin Luther King, Jr. was unable to do what Jesus would do. We know he had affairs. He hurt his family. He sinned. He took advantage of people who respected him. He put himself above the rules.
But despite his shortcomings and failures, Martin Luther King, Jr. did follow Jesus, experience God’s grace and forgiveness, and become a leader who I would say walked with Jesus as his follower. It was because he was following Jesus that he took a non-violence approach. It was because he was following Jesus that he wasn’t afraid to be arrested for standing up for what was right. It was because he was following Jesus that he took risks to go where he wasn’t welcome and to say what wasn’t popular to say. He faced the authorities and he wasn’t alone, because he was following Jesus.
When you are following someone, you don’t always know where it will lead. Jesus says later to pick up our cross and follow him. As a follower, we don’t know what that cross might be. For Jesus it was literal. For the rest of us, we won’t be sure what our particular cross is until we find ourselves carrying a heavy burden and great suffering. Following Jesus also means following him through the grave to eternal life, to great joy, and to relationship with him and all of God’s Creation. Maybe we focus on the cross too much, but certainly Jesus experienced great joy in life and satisfaction and pleasure, too—he liked a good party as much as anyone, especially when he was providing the good wine.
Phillip also extends an open-ended invitation. He says, “Come and see.” He doesn’t tell us what to expect. He doesn’t say what a life of faith looks like because it is different for every person. He just extends the invitation and leaves it open so that whatever happens happens. A life of faith means coming and seeing and being open to whatever happens. And it means extending the invitation to others. It might mean inviting people to church, but more than that it is inviting them into relationship and connection, just as God has invited us into relationship and connection. That’s what I often think of as I pass those people holding signs by the freeway off ramps—not about the money I’m not giving them, but about the conversation I am not having with them and the relationship I’m not building. But there are other places where I can build those connections in a safer environment, like the pantry or with folks that call the church asking for help and maybe that it is more appropriate.
Jesus calls us today to follow him. He is saying to you, “Follow me.” As we leave this church this morning, Jesus is saying to you, “Follow me.” I can’t tell you what that looks like, because he’s saying it to you. It is your life. It is your particular context. But know that when you’re driving those back roads, your stomach full from the generous table God provides, and your hearts full from time with family and friends, to give thanks to God. And when the night is dark, and you’re afraid you might go off the road, to let God light the way home and to be the kind of leader that is also a follower.
1st Reading: 1 Samuel 3:1-20 2nd Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
When I was growing up, we lived in Albany and my grandparents lived in Lebanon. It is about a 20 minute drive between the two. About once a week we’d go to my grandparents’ house for dinner. What a blessing to live that close to family! We’d drive home at what seemed like late at night but was probably more like 8 pm. It was so dark on Highway 34. My dad always made us feel safe, driving us carefully home—our car full of sleepy children. I always wondered how he did it on those dark nights. He always kept his eye on the white line on the side of the road. But even better was when he could get behind another vehicle and let them lead the way.
Jesus said, “Follow me.”
In today's Old Testament reading, Samuel is called to be a leader. Sometimes we might be reluctant to call ourselves leaders—at church or in our communities. We are humble. We can think of a hundred reasons why not to be. Many people feel uncomfortable speaking in public. In fact, that is one of the greatest fears people face. We’re afraid of letting other people down—that maybe we can’t meet their expectations or we might not be able to get everything done that we’re committed to. No one can anticipate every possible situation we might face, so it isn’t possible to be prepared for anything and everything. Being a leader means thinking on your feet.
But I would argue that we are all leaders. Some of you serve on church Council or Mutual Ministry or Endowment Board or one of our committees. I would count parents as leaders, too. And grandparents are leaders. There isn't one of you that I haven't seen being a leader at one time or another.
Some people have used the phrase, “What would Jesus do?” I don’t think it could hurt anything to think of that phrase when making decisions. Maybe it got thrown around a little too much and may have become a little trite. I started seeing jewelry with it written on there, “WWJD?” I thought to myself that if you want to ask what Jesus would do, you could start with Jesus certainly wouldn’t wear that bracelet!
I could never have become a pastor if I thought I’d be expected to do what Jesus would do. There are probably some people that expect that of me. And I think of that sometimes when I see someone asking for money on freeway overpass and other times I am not as generous as I’d like to be. It is an expectation that I will never live up to, not even for a moment.
If we could do what Jesus did, why would we need Jesus? And Jesus doesn’t ask us to be him. But he does ask us to follow him.
I think there is a difference. For one thing, he’s already been there, so we’re not alone. Jesus probably felt alone at certain times in his life, especially as he cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
“WWJD?” comes a little close to works righteousness. If we could just do as Jesus would do, we might think we could save ourselves—from regret, from despair, from the fires of hell. But Jesus did as Jesus would do, and he still endured suffering. He descended into hell according to some. He even occasionally had regrets. If we could just do as Jesus would do, we might think we could save others—from hunger, from suffering. Jesus did as Jesus would do although he did some miracle healings and casting out demons, he did not eradicate disease and pain. That was one question that Dick Morris asked me plenty of times. If Jesus said, “You will do greater things than these,” why can’t we just go cure hospitals full of people? He was really grappling with this gift of healing because he’d seen it working in India, but it wasn’t always immediate or complete like he thought it would be. Instead of eradicating all diseases and pain, Jesus promised to accompany us on our journey through pain and disease and suffering. Jesus promised to be with us through that and to bring us through that to new life.
Maybe a better question would be, “What would Jesus have us do now that we have new life because of him?” Or Martin Luther would put it this what, “What are we freed for? Now that we are free because of God’s gift of love and grace, who are we freed to be?” We are partly freed to be a follower.
Freedom was a word that meant a lot to Martin Luther King, Jr. The slaves had been freed long before, God had freed Christians through Jesus death and resurrection, and yet the freedom he experienced, as an African American was limited because of unjust laws in this country. Some call him a prophet. We would all think of him as a leader who took this country forward toward justice and equality.
But I think he was only doing what Jesus asks this morning, following him. Even Martin Luther King, Jr. was unable to do what Jesus would do. We know he had affairs. He hurt his family. He sinned. He took advantage of people who respected him. He put himself above the rules.
But despite his shortcomings and failures, Martin Luther King, Jr. did follow Jesus, experience God’s grace and forgiveness, and become a leader who I would say walked with Jesus as his follower. It was because he was following Jesus that he took a non-violence approach. It was because he was following Jesus that he wasn’t afraid to be arrested for standing up for what was right. It was because he was following Jesus that he took risks to go where he wasn’t welcome and to say what wasn’t popular to say. He faced the authorities and he wasn’t alone, because he was following Jesus.
When you are following someone, you don’t always know where it will lead. Jesus says later to pick up our cross and follow him. As a follower, we don’t know what that cross might be. For Jesus it was literal. For the rest of us, we won’t be sure what our particular cross is until we find ourselves carrying a heavy burden and great suffering. Following Jesus also means following him through the grave to eternal life, to great joy, and to relationship with him and all of God’s Creation. Maybe we focus on the cross too much, but certainly Jesus experienced great joy in life and satisfaction and pleasure, too—he liked a good party as much as anyone, especially when he was providing the good wine.
Phillip also extends an open-ended invitation. He says, “Come and see.” He doesn’t tell us what to expect. He doesn’t say what a life of faith looks like because it is different for every person. He just extends the invitation and leaves it open so that whatever happens happens. A life of faith means coming and seeing and being open to whatever happens. And it means extending the invitation to others. It might mean inviting people to church, but more than that it is inviting them into relationship and connection, just as God has invited us into relationship and connection. That’s what I often think of as I pass those people holding signs by the freeway off ramps—not about the money I’m not giving them, but about the conversation I am not having with them and the relationship I’m not building. But there are other places where I can build those connections in a safer environment, like the pantry or with folks that call the church asking for help and maybe that it is more appropriate.
Jesus calls us today to follow him. He is saying to you, “Follow me.” As we leave this church this morning, Jesus is saying to you, “Follow me.” I can’t tell you what that looks like, because he’s saying it to you. It is your life. It is your particular context. But know that when you’re driving those back roads, your stomach full from the generous table God provides, and your hearts full from time with family and friends, to give thanks to God. And when the night is dark, and you’re afraid you might go off the road, to let God light the way home and to be the kind of leader that is also a follower.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
January 1, 2012
January 1, 2012 Gospel: Luke 2:22-40 Psalm 148
1st Reading: Isaiah 61:10-62:3 2nd Reading: Galatians 4:4-7
This has been an interesting year for me, pregnant most of the year and now a new mother. I’ve really enjoyed hearing everyone’s stories. The book “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” has a little advice to parents who receive too much advice, to either just ignore it, or if someone is being especially obnoxious, and repeatedly tearing you down, you might need to say something. I have received very little advice, a few sideways looks about being a vegetarian, but what else is new? Instead I got to hear about a part of people’s lives that most people hadn’t told me about before. Through the years I’ve heard many of your faith stories, stories about growing up, about work and family and illness and loss and marriage and divorce. This year I’ve really enjoyed hearing pregnancy stories and birth stories and parenthood stories, which make up a big part of people’s lives. I discover this as I’m acquiring stories of my own and have very little else I care to talk about than boast about my happy, genius infant. It has really been a privilege to hear these stories and now to share the raising of my son with you as I bring him to church and activities and pass him around so that you too may eventually be part of his memories.
At this point we don’t have too many expectations of our baby. We hope he tracks objects around the room and spend much of our time with him trying to evoke a smile or a coo. We certainly have hopes for him. In not too much time he will be able to grab on to things, toys and hair and glasses. We look forward to him scooting and crawling and pulling himself up and eventually walking. Of course along the way he’ll fall a few times, there will be bruises and scrapes and tears from his injuries. We can picture him putting on his own socks, feeding himself, using the toilet, using sentences, going to school, riding a bike. We anticipate he will get his heart broken one day. He’ll do a lot of embarrassing things. He will get sick. He will get frustrated. Who knows what he’ll be when he grows up or what kind of professions will exist in 20-30 years or what kind of world we’ll live in.
Jesus, too, gets a trip to church. So take these stories and these expectations and insert baby Jesus. Insert Messiah. Simeon and Anna have been waiting their whole lives for this. Simeon can now scratch it off his bucket list. Anna never left the temple and as a result she didn’t miss the arrival of the Messiah there. Her devotion had been of one who was invisible, but here he was visible, in her presence. I’ve seen some people excited to see a baby, but this was more, this was seeing God.
I often think when I look at Sterling that I am seeing a miracle, the way that all the things I ate were reorganized by his DNA to make his little blood vessels that feed all his cells, the way my body makes all he will eat for six months—the perfect food for his needs, the way he develops a little more each day, now able to get his fist in his mouth on a regular basis, now able to vocalize pleasant sounds, now able to realize that when he hears our voices we are nearby and he isn’t alone, when all those things were impossible last week or even a day or two ago.
How much more of a miracle did this Messiah seem? Was his every move considered evidence of his wisdom, his holiness, his godliness? Did his parents look deep into his eyes to see God there—to see if they had heard right at his birth?
The miracle of Jesus is that miracles we might have ordinarily missed are brought more to our attention. Miracles happen every day right in front of us, reasons to be thankful and joyful. An old man lives to see his dream realized. An old woman devotes herself to God. A child is adopted into a new family. A slave is freed. People share a vision of hope. A sick person receives a transplant. A family who loses a loved one, knows that loss was not in vain but that someone was given new life because of a gift of an organ. Cancer is in remission for three people in our congregation. Grandchildren are born. Some find jobs. Some find purpose and hope. Some help each other. Some learn to care for others and to give of themselves.
There is a darker tone to Simeon’s prophecy, too. Jesus would do a lot of great things but he was destined for the falling of many nations, too. He will be opposed and a sword will pierce the soul. This is one way to know that Simeon isn’t just flattering them. He is telling a deep and scary truth. The Messiah has a lot of good things going for him, but no life is without controversy and trouble. That’s part of what it means to be human.
Sterling had a little cold last week. I was surprised how calm I felt—I guess I thought I might panic. He never had a fever or more than just a sniffle and cough or I might have been more upset. I told him that this was the first of many colds he’d have. There would be plenty more illnesses and most worse than this one. Our struggles shape us as much or more than our successes. We need the challenges so that we stretch ourselves, so that we learn to strive, so that we learn to appreciate when things go well.
Even God has challenges and struggles and God will take all these and make something good out of them. Certainly Jesus had difficulties, illnesses, scrapes, and embarrassing moments. I’m sure he learned from them that they aren’t the end of the world, to pick himself up, dust himself off, and keep going. So when the Pharisees started questioning him, when the disciples were particularly trying, when his mother didn’t understand him, when the centurions mocked him and told him if he was the son of God to get down off the cross, he didn’t falter and lose hope. Instead, sure of who he was and centered in God’s love, he endured and didn’t lash back in anger. He did what he needed to do, even submitting to torture and death to show us the way through to eternal life. Showing us that life’s difficulties don’t mean we’re alone, but instead, we’re in good company—God has been there after all. Our friends and relatives and even enemies have all been there—in times of suffering. We’ve all been there.
Simeon and Anna show a level of enthusiasm for this child that God has for all of us. In my new mom’s group there is one mother who has adopted a little baby girl. She and her husband waited a year and a half for this child. They had a few hours notice that this would happen. There are many proud mothers at this group. Can you guess who wears the biggest smile? It is that adoptive mother, of course. God had one of God’s own, Jesus Christ, and had big expectations for him, but prepared him well for his task. And God has also adopted the rest of us and is just as proud, with many hopes and expectations, calling us by name, wanting the best for us, raising us in God’s “forever family,” and loving us as if we were God’s own, because we are.
We get a lot of messages from the people around us about our value. Some people treat us with disdain as if we are less than. They thrive on tearing other people down. Others encourage us. Most of us have both kinds of people in our own biological family. Those encouraging, loving ones are the voice of God in our lives, the voice of adoption, the realistic voice, the positive voice of Simeon and Anna. I encourage you to find the Simeons and Annas in your life and to be the Simeons and Annas in the lives of those around you.
1st Reading: Isaiah 61:10-62:3 2nd Reading: Galatians 4:4-7
This has been an interesting year for me, pregnant most of the year and now a new mother. I’ve really enjoyed hearing everyone’s stories. The book “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” has a little advice to parents who receive too much advice, to either just ignore it, or if someone is being especially obnoxious, and repeatedly tearing you down, you might need to say something. I have received very little advice, a few sideways looks about being a vegetarian, but what else is new? Instead I got to hear about a part of people’s lives that most people hadn’t told me about before. Through the years I’ve heard many of your faith stories, stories about growing up, about work and family and illness and loss and marriage and divorce. This year I’ve really enjoyed hearing pregnancy stories and birth stories and parenthood stories, which make up a big part of people’s lives. I discover this as I’m acquiring stories of my own and have very little else I care to talk about than boast about my happy, genius infant. It has really been a privilege to hear these stories and now to share the raising of my son with you as I bring him to church and activities and pass him around so that you too may eventually be part of his memories.
At this point we don’t have too many expectations of our baby. We hope he tracks objects around the room and spend much of our time with him trying to evoke a smile or a coo. We certainly have hopes for him. In not too much time he will be able to grab on to things, toys and hair and glasses. We look forward to him scooting and crawling and pulling himself up and eventually walking. Of course along the way he’ll fall a few times, there will be bruises and scrapes and tears from his injuries. We can picture him putting on his own socks, feeding himself, using the toilet, using sentences, going to school, riding a bike. We anticipate he will get his heart broken one day. He’ll do a lot of embarrassing things. He will get sick. He will get frustrated. Who knows what he’ll be when he grows up or what kind of professions will exist in 20-30 years or what kind of world we’ll live in.
Jesus, too, gets a trip to church. So take these stories and these expectations and insert baby Jesus. Insert Messiah. Simeon and Anna have been waiting their whole lives for this. Simeon can now scratch it off his bucket list. Anna never left the temple and as a result she didn’t miss the arrival of the Messiah there. Her devotion had been of one who was invisible, but here he was visible, in her presence. I’ve seen some people excited to see a baby, but this was more, this was seeing God.
I often think when I look at Sterling that I am seeing a miracle, the way that all the things I ate were reorganized by his DNA to make his little blood vessels that feed all his cells, the way my body makes all he will eat for six months—the perfect food for his needs, the way he develops a little more each day, now able to get his fist in his mouth on a regular basis, now able to vocalize pleasant sounds, now able to realize that when he hears our voices we are nearby and he isn’t alone, when all those things were impossible last week or even a day or two ago.
How much more of a miracle did this Messiah seem? Was his every move considered evidence of his wisdom, his holiness, his godliness? Did his parents look deep into his eyes to see God there—to see if they had heard right at his birth?
The miracle of Jesus is that miracles we might have ordinarily missed are brought more to our attention. Miracles happen every day right in front of us, reasons to be thankful and joyful. An old man lives to see his dream realized. An old woman devotes herself to God. A child is adopted into a new family. A slave is freed. People share a vision of hope. A sick person receives a transplant. A family who loses a loved one, knows that loss was not in vain but that someone was given new life because of a gift of an organ. Cancer is in remission for three people in our congregation. Grandchildren are born. Some find jobs. Some find purpose and hope. Some help each other. Some learn to care for others and to give of themselves.
There is a darker tone to Simeon’s prophecy, too. Jesus would do a lot of great things but he was destined for the falling of many nations, too. He will be opposed and a sword will pierce the soul. This is one way to know that Simeon isn’t just flattering them. He is telling a deep and scary truth. The Messiah has a lot of good things going for him, but no life is without controversy and trouble. That’s part of what it means to be human.
Sterling had a little cold last week. I was surprised how calm I felt—I guess I thought I might panic. He never had a fever or more than just a sniffle and cough or I might have been more upset. I told him that this was the first of many colds he’d have. There would be plenty more illnesses and most worse than this one. Our struggles shape us as much or more than our successes. We need the challenges so that we stretch ourselves, so that we learn to strive, so that we learn to appreciate when things go well.
Even God has challenges and struggles and God will take all these and make something good out of them. Certainly Jesus had difficulties, illnesses, scrapes, and embarrassing moments. I’m sure he learned from them that they aren’t the end of the world, to pick himself up, dust himself off, and keep going. So when the Pharisees started questioning him, when the disciples were particularly trying, when his mother didn’t understand him, when the centurions mocked him and told him if he was the son of God to get down off the cross, he didn’t falter and lose hope. Instead, sure of who he was and centered in God’s love, he endured and didn’t lash back in anger. He did what he needed to do, even submitting to torture and death to show us the way through to eternal life. Showing us that life’s difficulties don’t mean we’re alone, but instead, we’re in good company—God has been there after all. Our friends and relatives and even enemies have all been there—in times of suffering. We’ve all been there.
Simeon and Anna show a level of enthusiasm for this child that God has for all of us. In my new mom’s group there is one mother who has adopted a little baby girl. She and her husband waited a year and a half for this child. They had a few hours notice that this would happen. There are many proud mothers at this group. Can you guess who wears the biggest smile? It is that adoptive mother, of course. God had one of God’s own, Jesus Christ, and had big expectations for him, but prepared him well for his task. And God has also adopted the rest of us and is just as proud, with many hopes and expectations, calling us by name, wanting the best for us, raising us in God’s “forever family,” and loving us as if we were God’s own, because we are.
We get a lot of messages from the people around us about our value. Some people treat us with disdain as if we are less than. They thrive on tearing other people down. Others encourage us. Most of us have both kinds of people in our own biological family. Those encouraging, loving ones are the voice of God in our lives, the voice of adoption, the realistic voice, the positive voice of Simeon and Anna. I encourage you to find the Simeons and Annas in your life and to be the Simeons and Annas in the lives of those around you.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Christmas Eve 2011
Christmas Eve 2011 Gospel: Luke 2:1-20 1st Reading: Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 96 2nd Reading: Titus 2:11-14
Long ago, when God created the heavens and the earth he wanted all living things to be family. That’s why he made Eve from Adam’s rib. Adam got the idea. He said, “This one is at last flesh of my flesh.” There was relationship. There was family. And because God wanted Adam to regard all of creation as family, God allowed the first humans to name all the animals. That way humankind would learn to respect and love nature. To name something is to give it value. And humankind was charged with caring for the land and cultivating it and caring for it so that it would continue to thrive and support life, both human and animal. All the earth was created to be family.
But we soon forgot we were family. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the snake. Cain slew his brother Abel. Violence, jealousy, and hatred are part of our human story, too, as we well know and have experienced.
God tried everything to get us to understand that we are family. God brought foreigners into our midst to show us different points of view and that we are all loved in God’s eyes and have something of value to contribute. God sent messengers to remind the people of what was most important, prophets who threatened and promised and shared visions of what God really had in mind. God allowed the chosen people to be taken into captivity to show us how important it is to be family and then released them to start again on this quest to be family.
We just weren’t getting it.
So God decided to come down here and show us what it meant to be family. But first God needed to find a suitable family for the Christ child. God sent an angel to find the perfect family for his son.
The little angel was nervous. This was a big job, to find a good family for God to grow up in. The angel had never been part of a family, but he wanted to do his job well, so he went off to do some research and find out what family was.
First he came to a family of penguins huddling close in the cold. One penguin parent protected their young while their spouse took a long trip to find food and bring it back to them. The angel asked them, “What does family mean to you?” The penguins replied, “It means sharing responsibilities. We’d never make it if we didn’t share the work load, huddling to keep out the cold and taking turns going out to get food.” The angel was very impressed. As he watched, a penguin mate brought food for the family and the penguin that had remained, prepared to take the long journey to the edge of the ice where fish could be found. The angel thanked them for their help and went on his way. He would be sure to look for a family that shared responsibilities.
Next the angel came upon a family of monkeys high up in a rainforest canopy. They were swinging among the branches and making faces at one another. One had made himself a hat out of leaves and was showing off to the other monkeys. Another was trying to snatch that hat right off his head. The angel watched them for a few minutes and then asked them the same question, “What does family mean to you?” They answered, “Being playful! We all have work to do, food to gather, nits to pick off each other, danger to watch out for. But we always make time for play and laughter together. That’s what family is for.” The angel saw how much fun they were having and decided he would look for a family that knew how to be playful and have fun.
As the angel traveled, looking for just the right family, he came upon an ant hill. The ants were very busy traveling here and there, carrying bits of plant matter and food. The angel stopped to watch them, impressed with their industriousness. He said to them, “I’m looking for the ultimate family. What does family mean to you ants?” They said to him, without hesitation, “Working together! We are small and it might not seem that we can do much. But together we put away enough food for winter. We break down leaves and plants and carry them piece by piece to feed our colony. We fight off attackers many times our size—all because we work together.” The angel watched them a little longer scurrying this way and that. As the angel went on his way, he knew he would need to find a family that worked together.
As the angel traveled on, he came to a family of humans. One of the young ones kneeled in prayer at her bedside. The angel listened to her prayer. She thanked God for all her blessings. “Thank you for mom and dad and grandma and grandpa and Fluffy and Spot. Thank you for food and toys. Thank you for my teacher and for popsicles.” This really touched the angel. The angel decided that a grateful heart would be something that he would look for in a family for the Christ child.
When the angel returned to the heavens to share what he had learned, he told God that he had found many wonderful families and learned a great deal about what it meant to be a family. He wondered how God could possibly choose when there were so many great families on earth.
And when the angel went out into the night sky that Christmas Eve to sing, he was full of anticipation to see what family God chose. As he sang the words of praise at our Savior’s birth, “Glory to God in the heavens and on earth peace and goodwill to humankind,” he remembered the words of Isaiah, “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us.” And he heard the angel of the Lord say to the shepherds, “to you is born this day a Savior who is the Messiah.” And he saw the child among the cows, horses, people and sheep in the manger. And he saw the magi, still a long way off coming to worship the child. And he saw the hay cushioning the child and the bands of cloth wrapping him. And he knew that God had found the perfect family, that the child was for all of us, we are all his brothers and sisters, we are all children of God, we are all one family with each other, people of all kinds, and even plants and animals.
And because of that family relationship that we all have with each other, we share the responsibility with all people. We take offerings that benefit people throughout the world to help them through earthquakes and famines and natural disasters and we get together and make quilts or do service projects that benefit people in need. We stop and talk and laugh playfully with lonely widows in the store and wish them a Merry Christmas. We work together with people we barely know to feed the hungry bringing food to the blue barrel in the entryway and distribute it to our brothers and sisters close by. We give thanks for our blessings and live lives of thankfulness. Christmas is about God making us all family with God and with each other and living like family throughout the year.
This night is about God making us God’s family and us becoming family of each other in the process. It is like any family. There are disagreements. Some family members seem to have it all together while the black sheep still seem to cause trouble. There are know-it-alls and ne’er-do-wells. There those that are successful and those barely making it. There are those who are miserable and those that are happy. Whoever we are, we still need each other, we’ve all got something to offer, and we’re all the apple of our Father’s eye. So let’s take after our father and be generous and grateful and forgiving and show love to each other because that’s what it means to be family.
Psalm 96 2nd Reading: Titus 2:11-14
Long ago, when God created the heavens and the earth he wanted all living things to be family. That’s why he made Eve from Adam’s rib. Adam got the idea. He said, “This one is at last flesh of my flesh.” There was relationship. There was family. And because God wanted Adam to regard all of creation as family, God allowed the first humans to name all the animals. That way humankind would learn to respect and love nature. To name something is to give it value. And humankind was charged with caring for the land and cultivating it and caring for it so that it would continue to thrive and support life, both human and animal. All the earth was created to be family.
But we soon forgot we were family. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the snake. Cain slew his brother Abel. Violence, jealousy, and hatred are part of our human story, too, as we well know and have experienced.
God tried everything to get us to understand that we are family. God brought foreigners into our midst to show us different points of view and that we are all loved in God’s eyes and have something of value to contribute. God sent messengers to remind the people of what was most important, prophets who threatened and promised and shared visions of what God really had in mind. God allowed the chosen people to be taken into captivity to show us how important it is to be family and then released them to start again on this quest to be family.
We just weren’t getting it.
So God decided to come down here and show us what it meant to be family. But first God needed to find a suitable family for the Christ child. God sent an angel to find the perfect family for his son.
The little angel was nervous. This was a big job, to find a good family for God to grow up in. The angel had never been part of a family, but he wanted to do his job well, so he went off to do some research and find out what family was.
First he came to a family of penguins huddling close in the cold. One penguin parent protected their young while their spouse took a long trip to find food and bring it back to them. The angel asked them, “What does family mean to you?” The penguins replied, “It means sharing responsibilities. We’d never make it if we didn’t share the work load, huddling to keep out the cold and taking turns going out to get food.” The angel was very impressed. As he watched, a penguin mate brought food for the family and the penguin that had remained, prepared to take the long journey to the edge of the ice where fish could be found. The angel thanked them for their help and went on his way. He would be sure to look for a family that shared responsibilities.
Next the angel came upon a family of monkeys high up in a rainforest canopy. They were swinging among the branches and making faces at one another. One had made himself a hat out of leaves and was showing off to the other monkeys. Another was trying to snatch that hat right off his head. The angel watched them for a few minutes and then asked them the same question, “What does family mean to you?” They answered, “Being playful! We all have work to do, food to gather, nits to pick off each other, danger to watch out for. But we always make time for play and laughter together. That’s what family is for.” The angel saw how much fun they were having and decided he would look for a family that knew how to be playful and have fun.
As the angel traveled, looking for just the right family, he came upon an ant hill. The ants were very busy traveling here and there, carrying bits of plant matter and food. The angel stopped to watch them, impressed with their industriousness. He said to them, “I’m looking for the ultimate family. What does family mean to you ants?” They said to him, without hesitation, “Working together! We are small and it might not seem that we can do much. But together we put away enough food for winter. We break down leaves and plants and carry them piece by piece to feed our colony. We fight off attackers many times our size—all because we work together.” The angel watched them a little longer scurrying this way and that. As the angel went on his way, he knew he would need to find a family that worked together.
As the angel traveled on, he came to a family of humans. One of the young ones kneeled in prayer at her bedside. The angel listened to her prayer. She thanked God for all her blessings. “Thank you for mom and dad and grandma and grandpa and Fluffy and Spot. Thank you for food and toys. Thank you for my teacher and for popsicles.” This really touched the angel. The angel decided that a grateful heart would be something that he would look for in a family for the Christ child.
When the angel returned to the heavens to share what he had learned, he told God that he had found many wonderful families and learned a great deal about what it meant to be a family. He wondered how God could possibly choose when there were so many great families on earth.
And when the angel went out into the night sky that Christmas Eve to sing, he was full of anticipation to see what family God chose. As he sang the words of praise at our Savior’s birth, “Glory to God in the heavens and on earth peace and goodwill to humankind,” he remembered the words of Isaiah, “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us.” And he heard the angel of the Lord say to the shepherds, “to you is born this day a Savior who is the Messiah.” And he saw the child among the cows, horses, people and sheep in the manger. And he saw the magi, still a long way off coming to worship the child. And he saw the hay cushioning the child and the bands of cloth wrapping him. And he knew that God had found the perfect family, that the child was for all of us, we are all his brothers and sisters, we are all children of God, we are all one family with each other, people of all kinds, and even plants and animals.
And because of that family relationship that we all have with each other, we share the responsibility with all people. We take offerings that benefit people throughout the world to help them through earthquakes and famines and natural disasters and we get together and make quilts or do service projects that benefit people in need. We stop and talk and laugh playfully with lonely widows in the store and wish them a Merry Christmas. We work together with people we barely know to feed the hungry bringing food to the blue barrel in the entryway and distribute it to our brothers and sisters close by. We give thanks for our blessings and live lives of thankfulness. Christmas is about God making us all family with God and with each other and living like family throughout the year.
This night is about God making us God’s family and us becoming family of each other in the process. It is like any family. There are disagreements. Some family members seem to have it all together while the black sheep still seem to cause trouble. There are know-it-alls and ne’er-do-wells. There those that are successful and those barely making it. There are those who are miserable and those that are happy. Whoever we are, we still need each other, we’ve all got something to offer, and we’re all the apple of our Father’s eye. So let’s take after our father and be generous and grateful and forgiving and show love to each other because that’s what it means to be family.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Sermon for October 23
October 23, 2011 Aimee Bruno Gospel: Matthew 22:34-46 Psalm 1
1st Reading: Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 2nd Reading: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
I almost wish it was Valentine’s Day, today, because we have here in the readings a series of love letters. We’ve got Paul’s love letter to the Thessalonians. Even though we didn’t read it, we’ve got in Leviticus God’s love letter to the Israelites showing them how to love each other. And in the Gospel, we have an invitation to pour out our heart to God and to our neighbor and to ourselves in love.
I remember being a kid at Valentine’s Day and having to fill out a valentine for every kid in class. Sometimes it was a stretch to think of something nice to say about every single person, but a good exercise to remember that each person had their good qualities. Of course my best friends always got the cuter valentines—there was a Valentine hierarchy, but everyone was included.
Paul is giving the best Valentine to the Thessalonians. He even complains a little about the Philippians there, although you wouldn’t know from reading his letter to the Philippians that there was a problem. It probably is not a good idea in your love letters to each other and loving interactions with each other to drag in some complaint about someone else. We call that triangulation. Nowadays we know that if someone comes to us like this, the proper thing to say is “Paul, maybe you want to talk to the Philippians about that.” Otherwise we end up participating in gossip and it never gets resolved.
Paul is speaking so tenderly to the Thessalonians. He cares so much for them that he wants to continue to share the Gospel with them and encourage them and feels they will be receptive. He is confident in their relationship. He urges them to share what they’ve learned with others and take that love to another level. He has given to them of his own self, just as Christ gave of himself, and expects them also to give of themselves to others.
He uses images of a wet nurse, a strikingly feminine image to show how deep his feelings go just like the deep bond between a mother and child, including the giving of one’s very body, a physical connection and sharing life. Maybe preaching about breast feeding might make some people squirm, but I sure have been reading a lot about it lately trying to prepare myself. It is the most amazing process in that the mother makes the exact nutrition that the baby needs from the early nutrient rich colostrum that gives an immunity boost, to a transitional milk, and then the more watery milk that is the right mixture of sugars and vitamins and fats to nourish the baby as it grows bigger. As the baby’s needs change, the mother’s milk production changes. Then there is the physical connection, the eye contact, the getting to know and trust each other, the mother being available when she’s needed and the baby having that security. All this creates such a strong bond and a good, healthy beginning to life until the baby can get its nutritional and physical needs met in a different way. Maybe we could look at that mother’s milk as a love letter to her child. Paul uses this image to show how he and the Thessalonians have a mutual relationship in which he provides what they need to start out in their ministry and how they will grow and develop and maybe even someday provide that healthy start for another new life that will grow and thrive and share the good news of God’s love.
Then we come to the Gospel. We are still in the section of Matthew after he’s cleared out the temple and made everyone really mad and they are still trying to catch him in a trap. He confronts their malice with a picture of love. They are being less than loving. They are trying to trick God. Their whole lives are based on selfishness and greed rather than loving their neighbor. Jesus is reminding them about love being at the center of it all. He says to love God with every part of their being. Jesus says we should love God with the entirety of the heart, without holding anything back, giving all attention and feeling to God. Jesus says we should love God spiritually, with all our soul, not holding anything back, giving all our spiritual life to God’s purpose. And he says we should love God with the entirety of our mind. Loving God and using our brains are not mutually exclusive.
But it can’t just be about loving God—it has to come through and be shown in the love of our neighbor, too, and in our love of ourselves. Love should be reflected in every area of our lives. It can be a feeling we have toward another, although we are to be loving regardless of how we feel. Love ought to be reflected in our actions toward ourselves and others. Love ought to be a key part of our spiritual lives, our physical lives, our work and our play. It is at the root of everything we do.
Sometimes the hardest thing can be to love ourselves. We are taught to give of ourselves, make sacrifices, disregard our own needs. But look how Jesus loved himself. He loved himself so that he never compromised who he was for others. He was self-assured and centered in love. He used his brain and his gifts and he didn’t hide any of that. He took breaks when he needed it, going to pray by himself and to rest. He took care of himself and even took time to go and be with family and go to parties and weddings. Those of us who would rather give, give, give and never care for ourselves, can’t find any backing in scripture to do that. I would encourage you to find that love to take care of your own needs and don’t put them off. When we’ve cared for ourselves, that equips us better to care for others. Who can know what it means to love a neighbor without knowing what it means to love ourselves, too?
So now to loving our neighbor: This can also have its own difficulties and pitfalls. It isn’t always clear what is the loving thing to do. In order to love someone, do you have to like them? What about tough love? Where do you draw the line with helping a friend or family member? Should you let people walk all over you and take advantage of you because of this commandment to love? We didn’t read from Leviticus this morning, but I’d like to encourage you to take it home and read it. It gives some hints about what is the loving thing to do. It talks about being fair and impartial. It reminds us not to speak ill of our neighbor or to lie or kill. It reminds us not to harbor hatred for others. It advises us to warn our neighbor in a loving way when they are causing problems. It reminds us to forgive and not to judge.
We miss part of the context here because we don’t live in that day and time, but I get to look this stuff up and tell you about it. Not being partial to the poor or deferring to the great means that we put everyone on equal ground. Justice means that we all start out the same with all the same resources, so it does mean feeding the poor and providing housing for the homeless and sheltering the widow and the orphan. It means equalizing us. It was a little like socialism.
The main thing Leviticus reminds us of is that we are not in charge, but that God is our LORD. God at the center means that love is at the center. We’re going to have to decide for ourselves how we live out this love. What love looks like from one day to the next may not be exactly the same thing. We learn through trial and error what loving really is. We never write the perfect love letter, but are always in the process of composing it and decorating it with glitter and lipstick kisses. But we don’t hold that letter back because it is imperfect. We keep on giving it and receiving them in return until God enfolds us in God’s most perfect love.
1st Reading: Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 2nd Reading: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
I almost wish it was Valentine’s Day, today, because we have here in the readings a series of love letters. We’ve got Paul’s love letter to the Thessalonians. Even though we didn’t read it, we’ve got in Leviticus God’s love letter to the Israelites showing them how to love each other. And in the Gospel, we have an invitation to pour out our heart to God and to our neighbor and to ourselves in love.
I remember being a kid at Valentine’s Day and having to fill out a valentine for every kid in class. Sometimes it was a stretch to think of something nice to say about every single person, but a good exercise to remember that each person had their good qualities. Of course my best friends always got the cuter valentines—there was a Valentine hierarchy, but everyone was included.
Paul is giving the best Valentine to the Thessalonians. He even complains a little about the Philippians there, although you wouldn’t know from reading his letter to the Philippians that there was a problem. It probably is not a good idea in your love letters to each other and loving interactions with each other to drag in some complaint about someone else. We call that triangulation. Nowadays we know that if someone comes to us like this, the proper thing to say is “Paul, maybe you want to talk to the Philippians about that.” Otherwise we end up participating in gossip and it never gets resolved.
Paul is speaking so tenderly to the Thessalonians. He cares so much for them that he wants to continue to share the Gospel with them and encourage them and feels they will be receptive. He is confident in their relationship. He urges them to share what they’ve learned with others and take that love to another level. He has given to them of his own self, just as Christ gave of himself, and expects them also to give of themselves to others.
He uses images of a wet nurse, a strikingly feminine image to show how deep his feelings go just like the deep bond between a mother and child, including the giving of one’s very body, a physical connection and sharing life. Maybe preaching about breast feeding might make some people squirm, but I sure have been reading a lot about it lately trying to prepare myself. It is the most amazing process in that the mother makes the exact nutrition that the baby needs from the early nutrient rich colostrum that gives an immunity boost, to a transitional milk, and then the more watery milk that is the right mixture of sugars and vitamins and fats to nourish the baby as it grows bigger. As the baby’s needs change, the mother’s milk production changes. Then there is the physical connection, the eye contact, the getting to know and trust each other, the mother being available when she’s needed and the baby having that security. All this creates such a strong bond and a good, healthy beginning to life until the baby can get its nutritional and physical needs met in a different way. Maybe we could look at that mother’s milk as a love letter to her child. Paul uses this image to show how he and the Thessalonians have a mutual relationship in which he provides what they need to start out in their ministry and how they will grow and develop and maybe even someday provide that healthy start for another new life that will grow and thrive and share the good news of God’s love.
Then we come to the Gospel. We are still in the section of Matthew after he’s cleared out the temple and made everyone really mad and they are still trying to catch him in a trap. He confronts their malice with a picture of love. They are being less than loving. They are trying to trick God. Their whole lives are based on selfishness and greed rather than loving their neighbor. Jesus is reminding them about love being at the center of it all. He says to love God with every part of their being. Jesus says we should love God with the entirety of the heart, without holding anything back, giving all attention and feeling to God. Jesus says we should love God spiritually, with all our soul, not holding anything back, giving all our spiritual life to God’s purpose. And he says we should love God with the entirety of our mind. Loving God and using our brains are not mutually exclusive.
But it can’t just be about loving God—it has to come through and be shown in the love of our neighbor, too, and in our love of ourselves. Love should be reflected in every area of our lives. It can be a feeling we have toward another, although we are to be loving regardless of how we feel. Love ought to be reflected in our actions toward ourselves and others. Love ought to be a key part of our spiritual lives, our physical lives, our work and our play. It is at the root of everything we do.
Sometimes the hardest thing can be to love ourselves. We are taught to give of ourselves, make sacrifices, disregard our own needs. But look how Jesus loved himself. He loved himself so that he never compromised who he was for others. He was self-assured and centered in love. He used his brain and his gifts and he didn’t hide any of that. He took breaks when he needed it, going to pray by himself and to rest. He took care of himself and even took time to go and be with family and go to parties and weddings. Those of us who would rather give, give, give and never care for ourselves, can’t find any backing in scripture to do that. I would encourage you to find that love to take care of your own needs and don’t put them off. When we’ve cared for ourselves, that equips us better to care for others. Who can know what it means to love a neighbor without knowing what it means to love ourselves, too?
So now to loving our neighbor: This can also have its own difficulties and pitfalls. It isn’t always clear what is the loving thing to do. In order to love someone, do you have to like them? What about tough love? Where do you draw the line with helping a friend or family member? Should you let people walk all over you and take advantage of you because of this commandment to love? We didn’t read from Leviticus this morning, but I’d like to encourage you to take it home and read it. It gives some hints about what is the loving thing to do. It talks about being fair and impartial. It reminds us not to speak ill of our neighbor or to lie or kill. It reminds us not to harbor hatred for others. It advises us to warn our neighbor in a loving way when they are causing problems. It reminds us to forgive and not to judge.
We miss part of the context here because we don’t live in that day and time, but I get to look this stuff up and tell you about it. Not being partial to the poor or deferring to the great means that we put everyone on equal ground. Justice means that we all start out the same with all the same resources, so it does mean feeding the poor and providing housing for the homeless and sheltering the widow and the orphan. It means equalizing us. It was a little like socialism.
The main thing Leviticus reminds us of is that we are not in charge, but that God is our LORD. God at the center means that love is at the center. We’re going to have to decide for ourselves how we live out this love. What love looks like from one day to the next may not be exactly the same thing. We learn through trial and error what loving really is. We never write the perfect love letter, but are always in the process of composing it and decorating it with glitter and lipstick kisses. But we don’t hold that letter back because it is imperfect. We keep on giving it and receiving them in return until God enfolds us in God’s most perfect love.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Sermon for October 16, 2011
October 16, 2011 Gospel: Matthew 22:15-22 Psalm 96:1-13
1st Reading: Isaiah 45:1-7 2nd Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Really all of October has been Stewardship Month. We snuck it in on you, without you really knowing it. On the 2nd, we blessed the pets and thanked God for all of God’s creation. We talked and prayed about taking care of the earth and the animals that are gifts from God to borrow for a little while. Last week, we used the word “Rejoice” a lot and thought more about what it means to give thanks to God as a way of life. Today is commitment Sunday where we make out our estimate of giving cards and let the church know about how much we each intend to give in the coming year so we can make a realistic budget.
Stewardship has to do with God being in charge and us being stewards. It is about how we use what God has made and let us borrow. It is about God entrusting so much to us, and how we use and share and manage all that.
Let me go through the readings one by one and see what they each have to say about Stewardship. The first reading from Isaiah has the novel concept that God is the only God. The first commandment says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” It kind of sounds like there could be other gods, but Yahweh is the supreme. Here, God is saying that’s it—there is only one God.
Some scholars believe that the devil or Satan represents another god. It can be hard to answer the question about why bad things happen if you only have one God who is good. Some people answer that by explaining evil forces with the concept of the devil. Here in Isaiah, God claims responsibility for both the good and the bad, the light and the darkness, the prosperity and the woe. It can all be attributed to God.
I usually attribute all the good to God and all the bad to humankind. But who is to say what is good or bad since almost everything has some good and bad. And God can make good out of a bad situation. Even a victim of molestation can come through life as a survivor and help others in a similar situation. Joseph in the Old Testament said to his brothers, “What you intended for bad (selling him into slavery) God intended for good.” God used the evil hatred of the brothers to save a whole generation of people from starvation. It is no good to tell someone in the midst of a horrible situation that God intends it for good. However, looking for the good in any situation, or understanding that something good may come out of it later can be a helpful way to get yourself through something horrific. I also don’t believe that just because God makes something good out of it that God caused it in the first place. God gives free will and we choose evil sometimes, but God can make something good out of it.
So if there is only one God, who created everything, then everything belongs to God. That is our stewardship implication here. It is all God’s.
In the second lesson the major stewardship implication has to do with turning “to God from idols to serve a living and true God.” Of course one of the major idols we serve can be our money. It is a false god and we put our trust in our money more than anything else. We think it can make us secure. We rely on it. We try to get more of it. We are nice to people who have more of it. We use it to get people to do what we want. And we put a lot of trust in our possessions. The more money we have the more possessions we can get. We gather more junk around us than we can possibly use and we get caught up in storing it and keeping it up and acquiring new and better stuff and we get distracted. But also the more disposable money we have, the more people we can help and the more good we can do in our neighborhood and around the world. We can’t use it as an idol that we worship because then it controls us. Instead if we see it as a tool we can use for good, then we control it and hopefully make a better world from it.
Now we come to the Gospel. This is right after Jesus cleansed the temple and got everyone all worked up and determined to arrest him. The Pharisees and Herodians are trying to catch him in a trap. They ask him if they should pay taxes or not. This is sure to get him! If he says pay taxes, he is telling them to honor Caesar who is oppressing the Israelites and claiming to be god. If he says don’t pay taxes, he is telling them all to commit treason and rebel against Rome which will then attack Israel and destroy it.
Instead, Jesus puts them on the spot. He asks them to show him a coin of the empire. By doing so, they reveal that they are breaking the rule against graven images in the temple. They also show that they are profiteers of this temple system and that it is corrupt and they are part of the problem. This temple system, where they change the graven image money into temple money and sold animals for the sacrifices kept the Pharisees and Herodians in power and all the little people had to pay the fee to have any access to God.
Then Jesus tells them a riddle. He’s going to let them figure it out for themselves. He says, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperors and to God the things that are God’s.” So what does that mean? God made everything, everything is God’s. Give God everything. So what is the emperor’s? He needs his image stamped all over everything—that’s how insecure he is. And the coin had the words in scripted on it saying that Caesar is god. He’s saying to give Caesar meaningless words and images and titles and give him a boost to his ego if that’s what the inferior guy needs. God is above all that. God has already left God’s mark on absolutely everything by giving it life, creativity, power, etc.
So that leaves the question for us about where our loyalty lies. Can we be good Christians and good citizens, at the same time? Can we be loyal to our country and God? It is a question that I’m not going to answer for you—I’d rather imitate Jesus on this one than stick my neck out. But also, God gave you a brain to decide.
It is clear that we should be loyal to God first. God gave us everything—didn’t withhold even his own Son. God made everything and shares with us. We can trust God completely so that’s where our loyalty goes first. That doesn’t mean we can’t also be loyal to our country. But we have to remember that our country is fallible. It is human-made and has flaws and we can’t always rely on it to protect us or look out for our best interests or to be loving and just. There are many times we can rely on it to do that, but at times it will fail to do that. So we have to be ready to ask the hard questions of our country and our citizens and understand our motivations and use our voice and our vote to try to make this country better, more just and fair and compassionate. We can also give to God what is God’s—everything, and still have something to give to our country, our service, our hope, our vote, our protest, our critique. And in the places our God and our country are on the same page we can rejoice.
The same is true of our church. Giving to our church may not necessarily be giving to God. Yet, just as we make up our country, we are the church. We have a say here to be more loving and compassionate and generous and to make decisions about where our financial gifts go. Sometimes I’m surprised that God only asks for 10% back from each of us. In our congregation we give more than 10% of your gifts to help others here and around the world between the benevolence we give to the Oregon Synod and King’s Cupboard, Backpack Buddies, Pastor’s Discretionary Fund and various other people and groups that you support in your giving when you write that on the memo line of your check or on your envelope. We also know that many of you give outside the church to places like Habitat for Humanity, The Sierra Club, The Heiffer Project and on and on, as well as volunteering your time to help others. We can also honor God when we use our money to support local businesses, buy American and/or sustainable products. We get to try to use everything for God’s glory. God has given us everything we have, let us share and use those gifts of God in ways that would please God and help our neighbor and give life to those around us.
My grandma used to give us $20 each year when we started school. That was a lot of money to us and we could really make it stretch. When we went as a family to spend that money on school clothes mom always reminded us to use it in a way that Grandma would have appreciated. Even though she had given it as a gift, we recognized how special a gift that was, and wanted to use it in the way she would have wanted us to. In the same way, God gives us many gifts, everything we have. And we can remember to use it in ways that please God and make our whole lives a “thank-you” note to God for all he has given us.
1st Reading: Isaiah 45:1-7 2nd Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Really all of October has been Stewardship Month. We snuck it in on you, without you really knowing it. On the 2nd, we blessed the pets and thanked God for all of God’s creation. We talked and prayed about taking care of the earth and the animals that are gifts from God to borrow for a little while. Last week, we used the word “Rejoice” a lot and thought more about what it means to give thanks to God as a way of life. Today is commitment Sunday where we make out our estimate of giving cards and let the church know about how much we each intend to give in the coming year so we can make a realistic budget.
Stewardship has to do with God being in charge and us being stewards. It is about how we use what God has made and let us borrow. It is about God entrusting so much to us, and how we use and share and manage all that.
Let me go through the readings one by one and see what they each have to say about Stewardship. The first reading from Isaiah has the novel concept that God is the only God. The first commandment says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” It kind of sounds like there could be other gods, but Yahweh is the supreme. Here, God is saying that’s it—there is only one God.
Some scholars believe that the devil or Satan represents another god. It can be hard to answer the question about why bad things happen if you only have one God who is good. Some people answer that by explaining evil forces with the concept of the devil. Here in Isaiah, God claims responsibility for both the good and the bad, the light and the darkness, the prosperity and the woe. It can all be attributed to God.
I usually attribute all the good to God and all the bad to humankind. But who is to say what is good or bad since almost everything has some good and bad. And God can make good out of a bad situation. Even a victim of molestation can come through life as a survivor and help others in a similar situation. Joseph in the Old Testament said to his brothers, “What you intended for bad (selling him into slavery) God intended for good.” God used the evil hatred of the brothers to save a whole generation of people from starvation. It is no good to tell someone in the midst of a horrible situation that God intends it for good. However, looking for the good in any situation, or understanding that something good may come out of it later can be a helpful way to get yourself through something horrific. I also don’t believe that just because God makes something good out of it that God caused it in the first place. God gives free will and we choose evil sometimes, but God can make something good out of it.
So if there is only one God, who created everything, then everything belongs to God. That is our stewardship implication here. It is all God’s.
In the second lesson the major stewardship implication has to do with turning “to God from idols to serve a living and true God.” Of course one of the major idols we serve can be our money. It is a false god and we put our trust in our money more than anything else. We think it can make us secure. We rely on it. We try to get more of it. We are nice to people who have more of it. We use it to get people to do what we want. And we put a lot of trust in our possessions. The more money we have the more possessions we can get. We gather more junk around us than we can possibly use and we get caught up in storing it and keeping it up and acquiring new and better stuff and we get distracted. But also the more disposable money we have, the more people we can help and the more good we can do in our neighborhood and around the world. We can’t use it as an idol that we worship because then it controls us. Instead if we see it as a tool we can use for good, then we control it and hopefully make a better world from it.
Now we come to the Gospel. This is right after Jesus cleansed the temple and got everyone all worked up and determined to arrest him. The Pharisees and Herodians are trying to catch him in a trap. They ask him if they should pay taxes or not. This is sure to get him! If he says pay taxes, he is telling them to honor Caesar who is oppressing the Israelites and claiming to be god. If he says don’t pay taxes, he is telling them all to commit treason and rebel against Rome which will then attack Israel and destroy it.
Instead, Jesus puts them on the spot. He asks them to show him a coin of the empire. By doing so, they reveal that they are breaking the rule against graven images in the temple. They also show that they are profiteers of this temple system and that it is corrupt and they are part of the problem. This temple system, where they change the graven image money into temple money and sold animals for the sacrifices kept the Pharisees and Herodians in power and all the little people had to pay the fee to have any access to God.
Then Jesus tells them a riddle. He’s going to let them figure it out for themselves. He says, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperors and to God the things that are God’s.” So what does that mean? God made everything, everything is God’s. Give God everything. So what is the emperor’s? He needs his image stamped all over everything—that’s how insecure he is. And the coin had the words in scripted on it saying that Caesar is god. He’s saying to give Caesar meaningless words and images and titles and give him a boost to his ego if that’s what the inferior guy needs. God is above all that. God has already left God’s mark on absolutely everything by giving it life, creativity, power, etc.
So that leaves the question for us about where our loyalty lies. Can we be good Christians and good citizens, at the same time? Can we be loyal to our country and God? It is a question that I’m not going to answer for you—I’d rather imitate Jesus on this one than stick my neck out. But also, God gave you a brain to decide.
It is clear that we should be loyal to God first. God gave us everything—didn’t withhold even his own Son. God made everything and shares with us. We can trust God completely so that’s where our loyalty goes first. That doesn’t mean we can’t also be loyal to our country. But we have to remember that our country is fallible. It is human-made and has flaws and we can’t always rely on it to protect us or look out for our best interests or to be loving and just. There are many times we can rely on it to do that, but at times it will fail to do that. So we have to be ready to ask the hard questions of our country and our citizens and understand our motivations and use our voice and our vote to try to make this country better, more just and fair and compassionate. We can also give to God what is God’s—everything, and still have something to give to our country, our service, our hope, our vote, our protest, our critique. And in the places our God and our country are on the same page we can rejoice.
The same is true of our church. Giving to our church may not necessarily be giving to God. Yet, just as we make up our country, we are the church. We have a say here to be more loving and compassionate and generous and to make decisions about where our financial gifts go. Sometimes I’m surprised that God only asks for 10% back from each of us. In our congregation we give more than 10% of your gifts to help others here and around the world between the benevolence we give to the Oregon Synod and King’s Cupboard, Backpack Buddies, Pastor’s Discretionary Fund and various other people and groups that you support in your giving when you write that on the memo line of your check or on your envelope. We also know that many of you give outside the church to places like Habitat for Humanity, The Sierra Club, The Heiffer Project and on and on, as well as volunteering your time to help others. We can also honor God when we use our money to support local businesses, buy American and/or sustainable products. We get to try to use everything for God’s glory. God has given us everything we have, let us share and use those gifts of God in ways that would please God and help our neighbor and give life to those around us.
My grandma used to give us $20 each year when we started school. That was a lot of money to us and we could really make it stretch. When we went as a family to spend that money on school clothes mom always reminded us to use it in a way that Grandma would have appreciated. Even though she had given it as a gift, we recognized how special a gift that was, and wanted to use it in the way she would have wanted us to. In the same way, God gives us many gifts, everything we have. And we can remember to use it in ways that please God and make our whole lives a “thank-you” note to God for all he has given us.
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