Third Sunday of Lent -- March 8, 2015

 A Forgetful, Forgiving God

Guest Preacher:  Ruling Elder Keith Mihelcic

Exodus 20:1-17

Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

                                   

John 2:13-22  The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

I know, I know. You’re thinking what is up with three readings - in a row! You ought to thank me, I almost put the Psalm reading in there too! Trust me, I think I know what I am doing! I wanted them to all come at you like that. Boom -boom-boom! I guess I just wanted to try to recapture the effect that it had on me when I read these passages.

Do not get me wrong, it’s not as if when I read these three passages I immediately had an idea for a sermon pop into my head. That hardly ever happens. Usually one passage will pop out at me I will let that marinate for a bit. I will kick it around in my head, re-read it a few times a day. Usually, something will come to me - an idea, a theme, a general outline - something that I believe I can work with.

Sometimes it comes relatively easy. Sometimes not so much. This week was neither hard, nor was it easy. I was just a bit lost, I suppose. I read the passages several time, but nothing was really jumping out at me. I guess I could have forced something, but usually when I do that I end up throwing away an almost written sermon, at the last minute, in order to go in a different direction.

Usually, like most people who preach. (notice I did not call myself a preacher; I just think of myself as someone who preaches sometimes. Think of it this way, just because you can bake a cake that does not make you a pastry chef!)

But I digress, I usually, like most people who preach, pick two passages from the lectionary readings. Out of those two I will typically focus on one and maybe, manage to work in the other reading as well.

This time it was different. As I mentioned, I could not come up with any one idea that I really liked. Then, as I was reading through them all again, in order, just like we heard this morning, it hit me. I think I know why this sermon wasn’t coming so easily.

Let me preface this by saying that no one likes to be told all about themselves. You know that moment. It’s awful. We have all had moments in our lives when someone - a wife, mother, brother, sister, friend, etc - has taken us to task. However, what makes these moments worse is when you know, in the very depth of your heart and mind that the other person is right. All that you can do is listen.

I think that is what God is doing in these three passages. He is telling us all about ourselves. I believe that we should listen.

Let us start with the Exodus passage. The Ten Commandments. What exactly are the Ten Commandments? Sure, obviously, they are commandments. Well, duh. I mean, commandment is in the title.

This is an instruction manual. A behaviour manual for the human race, if you will. We obviously were not then, and are not now, going to figure it out for ourselves. I mean, think about it. Have we really come that far from those days? Sure technology has advanced the way we break the Commandments, but it hasn’t changed that fact that we still break them. Constantly.

We don’t bow down to actual golden calves these days. Instead we bow down to and create idols of a myriad of other things. We sit in front of a box and let it entertain us, we bury our faces in our phones and our computers. We make idols out of all of these things we have. Things that really do what? Distract us. Amuse us. Make us feel good. At least temporarily, they do. Where does that get us?

Think about some of the ways that the Lord’s name in used these days. If that is not taking his name in vain what is?

Consider this: when is the last time you truly rested on the Sabbath?

Have you heard the way that some kids talk to or about their parent’s these days? Very little honor there.

We don’t kill each other with rock any more. We have bombs and guns for that.

People still commit actual physical adultery these days, for sure.  Why do that? Get all the lust you want by turning on the TV or getting on your computer.

People still steal, but now people can steal with a few keystrokes.

We all still lie and we all still covet, Oh my, how we all still covet.

God knows how people are. When I say the way “are” I don’t mean he knows how we are in this day in age. God knows man and what is in him on a level we can’t comprehend. He knows that we need to be told how to not behave badly. We need reminders of what bad behavior is.

I have heard  many preachers divide the  the Ten Commandments divided into two parts. 1-4 are about how our relationship with God should be and 5-10 are about how we should interact with each other.

These are reminders from a holy God as to how we are to interact with Him and with all of those around us. Think we don’t need reminded these days? Turn on the news or read a paper.

Then we get to Paul in 1st Corinthians. At it’s heart it is a really affirming passage. It speaks of the power of the cross of Jesus Christ to save. Read it a little closer, though. Between the lines if you will.

There is a huge difference in the thought process of God as opposed to the thought process of man. Verse 25 says it all, “For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength”.

While this passage is mainly comparing believers and unbelievers, are we that different from the Jews and Greeks that Paul is talking about? We think that we are pretty smart sometimes. I know I do. I also believe that we rely on our own strength way too much. Especially when you consider that the creator of everything is on our side and in our corner. Paul tells us we have Jesus. The power and the wisdom of God on our side. Yet we still don’t trust God’s wisdom. We still don’t rely on his strength.

Then there is the John passage. What a passage. Angry Jesus. But first, a word from the prophet Malachai. (More Scripture!)  “ I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years”.

What a passage! That describes Jesus perfectly at the temple. Who can stand when he appears. Apparently, no one can! This picture of Jesus has always stood out in my mind.

Here is Jesus so mad that a harsh rebuke will not suffice! He makes a whip! He is flipping over tables! He is confronting those in positions of authority and telling them all about themselves. Why at this time? Why at this place? What was going on here that caused such a visceral response from the person who extols living peaceably and turning the other cheek?

Well, to be certain Jesus had the right to do what he was doing. I have read in a couple of commentaries and study Bibles  that Jesus was showing his authority here. That is, he was putting people on notice. He was doing a task that only he had the proper authority to do.

Yet, I think there is more to this. I always picture Jesus as very frustrated during all of this. The reason why? These people are just not getting it. If I may quote my study Bible directly, Jesus “has a zeal for God and keeping holy ordinances holy”. Why does he feel so strongly about this?

This is his Father’s house. It is not a place to be abused. This is a place to draw near and worship. A place to be still and know the Lord. We need that. We need that holy place we can go to. Now, I am not talking about a building. If you really read the text Jesus was not talking about a building. We all know that now. In hindsight even the disciples knew it. Jesus, when he was talking to the leadership of the day, made a direct correlation between himself and the temple because that is the place where the Holy Spirit now rested. That was the only temple that mattered in the long run.

But Jesus knew how important that relationship with himself, with God, is. That is one of the reasons, in my opinion, that he is so heated about this. Jesus knows what we need. We need as direct a path to God as we can get.  We need not to encumber ourselves in that journey. This can be done when we put obstacles in our own way, or when we trip over the ones already there.

Jesus knows what we really need and this day at the temple he had enough of seeing people clogging the path to God.

When you think about it I guess it can get a little depressing. I wrote an outline for this sermon and I had these section heading for each of the readings labeled as such. Mind you this is from God’s perspective, at least in my opinion.

Exodus - This is how you people need to behave

Corinthians - This is how you people think

John - Just stop it already!

Like I said. Kind of depressing. I think that the main thing is that we have to keep this in perspective. Yes, we are sinners. And, yes, we are good at it. Yet we are forgiven and loved beyond measure.

My older brother, being a typical older brother, believes that he know a lot more than me about various topics. One of his favorite sayings, usually when we are talking about music, is “I have forgotten more about music than you will ever know”. God can say a similar thing.

God has forgotten more about us than we will ever know about ourselves.

We were made for relationship with God. Each and every one of us. Jesus knows this.

We were not made to hate, kill, envy or lust. But we do. We always have and we always will.

All of this talk of commandments, and the way we think, and what we really need in our lives, do we really need to be reminded of all of that?

I believe we do need to be reminded.

Not that we should dwell on our own sins or dwell upon all of the evil in the world. But we must think about it. We need to think about the ways we all go astray and the things that get in the way of us deepening our relationship with God. To paraphrase Paul, we need to start thinking like Jesus. We need the mind of Christ.

What is the end result of all of this? What if we obeyed the commandments just a little better, individually and as a society? What if we started thinking just a little more like Jesus? What if we all tried to remove just some of the clutter in our spiritual lives? Where do you think that would leave us? Where do you think that would leave the world?

I know where it would leave us. It would leave us in a much better place. It would leave us really meaning it when we prayed “on earth, as it is in heaven” because we would be actively trying to make that happen, bit by bit.

Second Sunday of Lent -- March 1, 2015

How Jesus Ruins Everything

https://soundcloud.com/emsworthup/march-1-2015-11-25-05-am

NOTE: Sermons are aural events; they are meant to be heard, not read. The text below -- which was not delivered exactly as written -- may include errors not limited to spelling, grammar and punctuation of which the listener might be unaware and with which the preacher is unconcerned (h/t: Rev. Slim Wilson)

Mark 8: 27-38 

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” ²⁸And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” ²⁹He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” ³⁰And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

³¹Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³²He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

³⁴He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. ³⁶For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? ³⁷Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? ³⁸Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

So if you were sleeping on Thursday night, like a normal person, you might have missed the latest controversy to blow up the Internet. 

It wasn’t your standard Internet scuffle.  The controversy wasn’t over war or peace, Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal.  It didn’t include the usual suspects like politicians, climate change or immigration policy.  Those squabbles are child’s play in comparison to the debate that began percolating on Wednesday afternoon and morphed into a full blown, international controversy on Thursday night.  The latest Internet-fueled controversy to divide families, friends, co-workers and even members of the U.S. Congress had to do with a dress. 

The debate was over this question:  Did the mother of the bride wear black and blue?  Or gold and white? 

A few days after a wedding on the Scottish island, a member of the wedding party was posted a picture of a dress on the Tumbler website and asked her followers for their feedback.  The photo soon was posted on Buzzfeed, Facebook and Twitter.  At its peak, more that 670,000 people were simultaneously viewing the photo.  Every one had an opinion, it seems, about the color of the dress.  And everyone was convinced that he or she was right. 

At the heart of this silly on-line debate was a curious mystery – how could different people see the same article of clothing so differently?  Like many questions, the answer hinges on the question of perception, how people interpret the world through different lenses.  But in the case of the dress color, it isn’t about ideology, or politics, or race.  Whether you see the dress as black and blue, or gold and white, has to do with how your brain processes visual information.  Every human being’s brain is wired differently, and the dress controversy certainly illustrates that fact. 

You and I look at the same photo of a dress.  I say it’s white and gold.  You say black and blue.  Which one of us is perceiving reality and which one of us is not?  The answer, as best as I’ve been able to figure, is this:  what did the creator of the dress intend the color of the dress to be?  I’ll save you the trouble of going to the Google when you get home.  The dress designer says it is black and blue.  Then again, that’s the perception of the designer.  Maybe the designer got it wrong as well.

This is all slippery, unsettling stuff.  What makes blue blue?  What makes gold gold.  Is color only in the eye of the beholder?  And it’s exactly the same kind of question being considered in our scripture this morning.  What makes the Messiah, the Messiah?  What does the Messiah look like? What is the Messiah supposed to be and do and behave?  In our text today, Peter thinks he knows what he’s seeing when he looks at Jesus.  Peter’s brain has been trained and wired in such a way that his perception of The Messiah is one thing.  And he is soon to discover that Jesus’ perception is quite different, in a way that will soon unsettle all the disciples.

Just remember what Peter has witnessed in his time with Jesus up to this point.  What Peter has seen is Jesus at his most dazzling. The gospel of Mark provides a narrative in the first eight chapters that seems to go out of its way to highlight Jesus’ amazing power.  Jesus has going head to head, toe to toe with Satan and emerging victorious.  Jesus casting out demons, calming a storm, healing countless sick, giving sight to the blind, raising a girl from the dead, feed 5,000 people with some scraps of bread and fish, and walking on water. Wow.  For the first eight chapters of Mark, what we see when we see Jesus is power, power, and more power.  Power over sickness, power over death, power over Satan. 

Peter sees all powerful stuff happening when Jesus is around and he is pretty sure that he has figured out the puzzle.  Peter is pretty sure that he knows exactly who Jesus is and says it out loud.  – Jesus is, indeed, the Messiah.  The hope of Israel.    Peter thinks Israel has finally gotten what they’ve been waiting for since forever -- a successful, powerful Messiah. 

But what Jesus has in mind for the future of his ministry is very different from what Peter is anticipating.  Because Jesus perceives with the mind and eyes of God, and Peter has the mind and eyes of a human being.  And Jesus tells his disciples that, from this moment on, their lives will be lived in the shadow of the Cross. 

Sigh.  Big sigh. Jesus has ruined everything.  What once was a beautiful picture of a light-filled and powerful Messiah has been transformed to black and blue suffering. 

Jesus paints a clear picture. No parables this time.  No folksy metaphors for what is about to happen.  Jesus speaks clearly about suffering, rejection and death.  Over and over again from this point on in the gospel of Mark.  And at every point, the disciples don’t see what Jesus sees. 

And how could they? In the disciple’s religious imagination, the Holy One of Israel should be about accomplishment, glory, wisdom, and above all, power.  Power to defeat the Romans, not to be killed by them.  Power to be the living breathing hope of Israel, not a dead criminal on a cross.  The disciples are scandalized, confused, maybe a little embarrassed.  Probably even angry.  Wasn’t the Messiah supposed to save them?  What good is a dead Messiah?  All of Jesus’ gloomy talk is going to completely destroy this ministry.  Doesn’t Jesus know that?

 And Jesus tells Peter to get a grip.  This is how its going to be. 

Jesus turns to the crowd that had been following him around and says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake and the sake of the gospel, will save it.”  Jesus is very clear about what it means to be his follower.  Suddenly, following Christ isn’t about power, power, and more power.  Suddenly, following Christ isn’t about success and glory and accomplishment and wisdom in all the ways we think about it as human beings.  Suddenly, following Christ isn’t about solving problems and making life easier.  Following Jesus is about complicating your life in ways you never imagined.  And it begins by being willing to lose everything.

You know that question – how do people make it through life without faith?  After hearing what Jesus has to say, maybe a better question is – why would anyone want to go through life with faith?  At least in this guy.  Because what Jesus is promising to the disciples in this text doesn’t look very promising.  In fact, you wonder why anyone would want to follow Jesus at all. 

The first half of Mark’s gospel is all about how to live.  Throughout the first chapters, Jesus gives instruction of one kind or another on how to best fashion our lives.  And then, at this moment, Jesus makes the turn and begins to show us how to die.  Playing it safe is no longer an option, says Jesus.  There is sacrifice expected.  Death stops being a reality to be feared, but one to embrace.  Now that we have been given new life in Christ, Jesus shows us how to give it up or give it away.  And much to the crowd’s disappointment, and maybe to our own, Jesus points to the cross and insists that it is the only way we will be saved.

Jesus could not have chosen a more vivid and terrifying image than the cross.  In first-century Palestine, the cross meant one thing – death, the cruel tortuous death that awaited anyone who dared threatened Caesar’s kingdom.  The Romans put up crosses like billboards advertising Caesar’s supremacy and the fate of anyone who dared to challenge it.  Jesus’ hearers knew exactly what taking up the cross meant.  In 6 AD, they had watched the Romans crucify 2000 Galilean insurrectionists.  Imagine the impression that must have made on the disciples.  Imagine the impression this must have made on young Jesus. 

This invitation to lose one’s life is a terrible slogan for the Christian church.  Nobody is much interested in dying or picking up an extra burden for the sake of the gospel. What Jesus is saying here is not going to attract flocks of people to our sanctuaries. At least, not people who would join a church because it makes them feel good or confirms their own way of living or doesn’t require much of them in the way of change or growth or sacrifice.

If the church were really following Jesus, we would say that if you’ve been viewing your faith as a security blanket to make you feel warm and cozy, it’s time to give it up.  If you’ve been using your faith as a weapon to judge and exclude other people, stop it.  If you have been coasting on something you once believed a long time ago and are not currently wrestling with your whole heart about what it means to follow Jesus, you better start struggling.  If your goal as a church is merely to survive, give up that idea right now.  Jesus embodies a different logic --the logic of the cross that says it is only in suffering and struggling and dying that we will be saved.

That sound you hear in the gospel text today as Jesus makes the turn to the cross is the ideal of a powerful Messiah crumbling.  Some of the sounds we hear in the pews these days are the sounds of our perceptions of the church of Jesus Christ beginning to fall apart.  And that is good news. Because when our beliefs begin to unravel, we learn to quit worshiping our own beliefs, our own experiences, our own community, and finally begin to worship God alone. 

Jesus ruins everything for Peter because Peter’s perception of who Jesus should be, blocked his ability to see Jesus as he is.  We are also guilty of this.  We assume that we know what we know about God’s intention for us, so much so that even a powerful word from Jesus cannot dissuade us.  We still live as people blinded by our prejudices and preconceptions of the way we think things should be for us.  We think if we are faithful enough, our lives will run better.  We think if we are smart enough, our church will get better.  And Jesus comes along and ruins everything.   Thank God.

Because we have so much more to learn.  Because the God revealed in Jesus Christ shows up not in our successes, but in the broken places.  Like Peter, we are often disappointed that we do not get the God we want, the God we’ve been taught to worship, or the God we believe we have a right to expect.  Like Peter, we want to hang out with a winner who attracts the popular crowd.  Not a suffering servant who very may well get us killed as well.

The good news is that the Jesus we get is the Messiah we need.  The Messiah who lowers himself to join us in our earthy, stumbling humanity.  The Messiah who sheds every bit of heavenly glory to enter the little hells we have created.  The Messiah who abandons all the trappings of power so that God can get close enough to embrace us and redeem us at our places of weakness and brokenness. 

Perhaps this is what Jesus meant by saying that those who want to save their life – along with all our expectations for what Messiah should be – will lose it and those who are able to shed those expectations and the lives they’ve built around them will find life.  True life.

In the last paragraph of his great book entitled Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis has these important lines:  “The principle runs all through life, from top to bottom.  Give up yourself and you will find your real self.  Lose life and it will be saved.  Submit to death – the death of ambitions and secret wishes.  Keep nothing back.  Nothing in us that has not died will ever be raised from the dead.  Look for Christ and you will find him, and with him, everything else thrown in.” 

Let it be so for us.  Let us keep nothing back.  Let us look for Christ in own lives and in the life of our church.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

Lent at Emsworth U.P. Church

Wednesday Evenings During Lent

February 25, March 4, 11, 18, 25

6 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Community Presbyterian Church of Ben Avon

Come and gather with our brothers and sisters at Community Presbyterian Church of Ben Avon for an evening of dinner, worship and study.   The topic of our study during Lent will be, “The Jesus Creed,” based upon the book by Scot McKnight.   

The Jesus Creed is based upon Jesus’ words in Mark 12:29 – 31.  The words Jesus speaks are taken from the Shema from Deuteronomy 6 –

“Hear O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”

We will study what it means to follow the Jesus Creed – in our writing, learning, praying and living. 

Some weeks, the program will be intergenerational, with everyone together.  Other weeks, we will separate into age-specific activities for children, youth and adults. 

Brochures with more information are available in the narthex, or talk with Pastor Susan.

South Sudan Trip Information

You have three upcoming opportunities to learn more about Pastor Susan’s trip to South Sudan with five other pastors from Pittsburgh Presbytery.

Monday, March 2 at 6:30 p.m. at Pittsburgh Presbytery.  All six team members will be making a presentation to the International Partnership of Pittsburgh Presbytery.  Also of interest will be an update on Malawi, including a report on the recent flooding as well as an update on the trip scheduled for this summer, 2015.

Sunday, March 15 at 11:00 The Rev. Sharon Stewart will be our guest preacher and present her perspective on South Sudan and what she experienced there.

Sunday, March 22 at 11:00 a.m. Pastor Susan will be discussing the trip as part of our regular worship service.

Worship Schedule for March/April

Sunday, March 8         Elder Keith Mehelcic preaching at 11:00 a.m.

                                    (Pastor on Spring break from March 5 – 15)

                                    Sunday school at 9:45 a.m.

Sunday, March 15       Rev. Sharon Stewart preaching at 11:00 a.m.

                                    (Rev. Stewart is one of the pastors from Pittsburgh Presbytery who

                                    traveled to South Sudan in January.)

                                    Sunday school at 9:45 a.m.

                                   

Sunday, March 22       Prayer group for Emsworth U.P. at 9:15 a.m.

                                    Sunday school at 9:45 a.m.

                                    South Sudan Worship with Pastor Susan at 11:00 a.m.

Sunday, March 29       Prayer group for Emsworth U.P. at 9:15 a.m.

                                    Sunday school at 9:45 a.m.

                                    Worship at 11:00 a.m. (Palm/Passion Sunday)

Thursday, April 2         Maundy Thursday/Good Friday supper and service at 6:00 p.m.

                                     (Community Presbyterian Church of Ben Avon)

Sunday, April 5            Easter worship at 11:00 a.m.

First Sunday of Lent -- February 22, 2015

A Dust-Filled Faith

https://soundcloud.com/emsworthup/february-22-2015-11-20-36-am

NOTE: Sermons are aural events; they are meant to be heard, not read. The text below -- which was not delivered exactly as written -- may include errors not limited to spelling, grammar and punctuation of which the listener might be unaware and with which the preacher is unconcerned (h/t: Rev. Slim Wilson)

Mark 1:9-15

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”           

Well, the weather totally trashed our observances of Transfiguration and Ash Wednesday, so most of us are beginning Lent at somewhat of a disadvantage. 

It’s a shame, really, because there is a liturgical logic to the days leading up to the observance of Lent.  The transfiguration points us to the glory of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.  Up on the mountaintop, the door between this world and the next cracks open for a moment, and the light reveals the glory of the Son and the love of the Father for Jesus and for us.  It’s a disorienting moment for the disciples, and I’m not sure that they knew what to make of it any better than we do.   But there is no mistaking the reassuring voice of God breaking into the mountaintop scene, proclaiming who Jesus is.  The voice reminds us that Jesus is the beloved one, the Son of God, the One we can listen to and trust.  The voice reminds us that we can’t stay up on that mountain, but we have to follow Jesus down, down, down.  All the way down the mountain toward Jerusalem and right smack dab into the mess that trip will entail all the way until Easter morning.

If transfiguration reminds us who Jesus is, then Ash Wednesday is the day on which we are reminded who we are – human beings, just in case the fact had slipped our minds.  If transfiguration reminds us of Jesus’ divine otherness, Ash Wednesdays reminds us of our human ordinariness.  The words, “You are dust and to dust you will return,” is a shocking yet obvious reminder that our time as creatures on earth is limited.  If you ask me, I think Ash Wednesday is designed to shake us up a little, maybe a lot.  At least it might make us take inventory of the direction in which our lives are going.  The ashes imposed on our foreheads or hands remind us of our mortality and sin, but also give us the assurance of God’s forgiveness and salvation.   Ash Wednesday means time is running out for everyone, but it’s still not too late to turn our lives around.

So we missed transfiguration and Ash Wednesday.  But we still have Lent.  And the season of Lent tells us it’s to get going.  To get closer to God, to close the gap or remove the roadblock between the human and divine.  Which, when you think about it, is a completely futile endeavor since the stumbling block of being merely human is one we cannot change.  And yet we take on the challenge of Lent each year.  Each year, we vow that we will get it together.  To repent.  To change.  To live as if we actually believe what Jesus says.  That the good news that the kingdom of God has come near.           

But, lets be honest.  Most years, Lent doesn’t even leave a mark on us.  Not really.  And I will be the first to admit that I’ve totally failed at living up to Lent.  And I bet you’d admit the same. 

Oh, if we give up chocolate or sugar, we might end up a slightly skinnier version of ourselves.  If we give up social media, we may end up with slightly more rested, less bug-eyed version.  If we give up coffee, we’ll sleep a bit better.  If we participate in a Lenten study, we may adopt a more holy outlook for a few weeks.  I have one friend who gives us swearing every year and she’s certainly much nicer to be around during Lent.  And all of those are good Lenten practices.  All of them can be useful and faithful ways to observe the 40 days stretching ahead of us until Easter.  They are certainly more challenging than limiting our Lenten practice to hitting a different fish fry every Friday.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

But will our observance of Lent change us in a way that lasts?  Will we come through this wilderness time not merely improved, but changed in a real way?  Will anyone notice?  Will Lent leave a mark on us?  Does it matter if it doesn’t?

Maybe some brief historical perspective would help.

All of our biblical evidence suggests that the earliest Christians were, to put it mildly, somewhat odd.  The first Christians stuck out like sore thumbs against the backdrop of the Roman Empire.  They just couldn’t help it. They were zealots, certain that Jesus would return any day, and troubling the authorities so much with their strange ways of speaking and living that they often got themselves eaten by lions or executed in other horrible ways. 

After the first Christians figured out that Christ wasn’t coming back anytime soon, they put a wooden cross on the wall and settled back into their comfortable routines.  After the world didn’t end as Jesus said it would, his followers stopped expecting so much from God or themselves.

So they lost their enthusiasm, their zeal.  Little by little, Christians began to get comfortable.  They began to stop standing out so much in a crowd.  They blended in.  They did not make a fuss about injustice.  They did not love boldly.  They did not get arrested or eaten by wild animals for standing up on behalf of poor orphans or widows.  Christians became, in fact, model citizens.  They decided to be nice rather than holy. Somewhere along the line, Christians forgot that the soul of Christ’s ministry is risk and vulnerability.  They began to value the safety of large buildings and state approval.

Eventually, someone suggested it was time to bring the church back to its senses and the Bible offered some clues to how it could do that.

The people of Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness learning what it meant to trust YHWH.

Elijah spent 40 days there until he heard that small still voice of God on the same mountain where Moses spent 40 days listening to God’s giving of the law.

And then, there were the gospel stories about Jesus and the 40 days he spent fasting and praying and being tested in the wilderness.

So the early church engaged in the season of Lent.  40 days.  To remind Christians what it is to open our eyes and see what remains when all the comforts are gone.  To venture out into the wilderness like the people of God had been doing for centuries.  To remember what it is to live by the grace of God alone and not what we can do for ourselves.  After all, even Jesus had to have that time of testing and tribulation.  Lent became a practice for Christians to remember who they are and what their lives are to look like.(1)

I’m not sure even Jesus knew what his life was to be about before he encounters John on the banks of the Jordon.  It seems Jesus discovered more about himself as time went on.  Walking town to town.  Eating with tax collectors.  Healing lepers.  Eating grain on the Sabbath.  Using the wrong fork and knocking over accepted ways of being. Worrying more about being holy and obedient to God, not so worried about being nice.  Not fitting into the religious establishment of Jerusalem but opening people up to what God is doing.

But it all begins in the wilderness for Jesus.  In the desert.  Jesus is out there in the middle of nowhere and, what’s more, it is the Spirit of God who put him there. 

And the thing about wilderness is that all the markers you usually depend upon to tell you where you are and who you are have vanished.  Gone.  Wilderness is disorienting beyond description. 

Jesus was led out into the wilderness to find out what it meant to be Jesus.  And what happened in those 40 days freed him from every thing that would attempt to distract him from his true purpose.  And he learned to trust the Spirit that drove him out there.

I think the sin that dwells within all of us is not so much the propensity to do what is bad or harmful, but a mistrust of God’s promises to us.  The voices we hear every day tell us we cannot or shouldn’t trust God – you may go hungry, you do not have enough, you are not enough.  All of us are naturally insecure in so many ways. 

But even Jesus’ trust in God was something he had to learn.  Our impulse may be to say, wasn’t it enough that Jesus was Jesus?  Wasn’t it enough for him to hear, “You are my beloved Son?”  Wasn’t it enough for him to be baptized?

Jesus had to do the work of Lent just as we do.  Out there in wilderness.  The long days of prayer.  The long days of hunger.  Of feeling lonely.  Of not knowing when it would end or how it would end.  Jesus had to learn what life feels like with no pacifier, no anesthesia, no comfort but God alone.  He had to learn to trust where God was going to lead him, just like we do.  And he had to learn to discern between the voice of God and every other voice that would show him a short cut, an easy way out. 

We are in a wilderness place, brothers and sisters.  I’ve heard the anxiety in your voices.  I’ve seen the fractures in relationships between people in this congregation.  Some of you want to go in one direction.  Some of you want to go in another direction.  Others just want to sit where you are and not move because every path out looks much too dangerous.   And just as it was for the Israelites, out in the wilderness it’s easy to begin blaming one another.  It’s easy to blame people who aren’t here anymore.  It’s easy to blame the people who never showed up to begin with.  Maybe you blame your pastor or the session.  Maybe you blame yourself.  Or maybe you blame God.  Maybe you are just sick of the wilderness and just want to go back.

Or maybe the Spirit drove us out here for a purpose.  Maybe we need to learn something here.  Maybe we need to endure the temptation that tells us to save ourselves by any means necessary.  Maybe we need to trust ourselves less, and depend upon God’s provision once and for all.  Even if we hate everything the angels have to offer us in their bag of tricks.  Even if we’d rather be eaten by a wild beast lion than spend one more minute out here in this dust-filled nightmare. 

When I was in South Sudan, you want to know the one thing that frightened me more than anything else?  It wasn’t the dust or the prospect of disease.  It wasn’t the rats in our rooms or the guys with machine guns.  It wasn’t dangerous roads or the land mines hidden on the side of them.  What frightened me most is that I would come home and be mean to you, saints.  That I would come home and say terrible, thoughtless things like, “Why are you complaining – you with a roof over your head and clean water and reliable electricity and a place to worship on Sunday even if it is running out of money and people?  Who are you with your first world problems when the majority of the world can even begin to conceive of how good you have it?” 

I might have said that if hadn’t learned something much more important while in that difficult and troubled place. 

What I learned instead was that – every wilderness is different, but what we share with every human being on this earth is that sooner or later, we will end up in that disorienting place.  And it leaves a mark that cannot be rubbed off or hidden.  Our wilderness is different from the wilderness of our South Sudanese brothers and sisters.  But what we share is the deep need to know where we are and where we are going.  Guilt isn’t the point. Anger isn’t the point.  Repentence isn’t about feeling bad about what we’ve done, or feeling bad about what we have, but about turning around and submitting to what God wants us to do. 

What was so remarkable about the people I met in South Sudan is that they knew very well they were in the wilderness and spent more time trying to discern the voice of God than finding someone to blame for their predicament, although I could come up with a very long list of villains.   Despite the fact that they had every reason to give up hope, or plot vengeance against their enemies, our partners in South Sudan realized that their time in the wilderness is a gift in the sense of bringing them closer to God. 

Jesus comes out of the wilderness and the first thing he hears is that John has been arrested.  Knowing who he is, knowing the power he commands, Jesus could take on the Roman government and establish God’s kingdom by force.  Jesus could rescue John and avenge his suffering.  But Jesus doesn’t emerge from the wilderness as a zealot ready to smite the human race on behalf of an angry God.   Instead, God’s kingdom comes through the One who goes to the cross so that history’s endless parade of victims can come to an end, and who resurrection will end the reign of death and violence. 

Lent begins for us, as it does for Jesus – by first knowing who we are.  And we are, as Paul tells us, a new creation in Christ through our baptism.  We are a new creation, co-crucified, co-buried, and co-resurrected with Christ, afflicted, then exalted.  Marked for life as God’s beloved.  Created out of dust by a love so deep, so broad, so high that it will sustain even in the wilderness.

In a few minutes we will sing a hymn, “O Love So Deep So Broad So High” with lyrics written by a 15^th century priest named Thomas a Kempis.  Kempis also wrote “The Imitation of Christ,” which contains this quote that I find incredibly encouraging : “The Lord bestows his blessings there, where he finds the vessels empty.” 

O love so deep, so broad, so high
how beyond all thought and fantasy,
that God, the Son of God, should take
our mortal form for mortals’ sake!

For us baptized, for us he bore
his holy fast and hungered sore;
for us temptation sharp he knew,
for us the tempter overthrew.

For us he prayed; for us he taught;
for us his daily works he wrought:
by words and signs and actions thus
still seeking not himself, but us.

For us to evil power betrayed,
scourged, mocked, in purple robe arrayed,
he bore the shameful cross and death;
for us gave up his dying breath.

For us he rose from death again;
for us he went on high to reign;
for us he sent his Spirit here
to guide, to strengthen, and to cheer.

All glory to our Lord and God
for love so deep, so high, so broad —
the Trinity, whom we adore
forever and forevermore.

We have to sit with the silence.  The loneliness.  The hunger.  The weakness.  The panic.

It is hard.  It is awful.  It is necessary.  We are empty vessels, worn out with worry. But that emptiness is not a sign that we are doing something wrong.  It is that God shaped space in us that only God can fill.  Nothing else on earth will do.  Not even church.  Not even this church.  If we allow the wilderness to have its way with us, we will fall out of love with everything that separates us from God, anything that isn’t God. 

But God is with us in wilderness.  God provides.  With angels that look an awful lot like the ordinary saints of our lives.  With this table and this holy meal to sustain us.  God has always cared for God’s people.

Thanks be to God.  Amen.

1. The historical review of Lent is adapted from Barbara Brown Taylor's sermon, "Lenten Discipline," in Home By Another Way.

The Lenten Season Begins Tonight

Fat (Shrove) Tuesday

Tonight, we'll be enjoying pancakes and bacon here at Emsworth U.P. Church with our friends from Community Presbyterian Church of Ben Avon.  Stop by at 6 p.m. and enjoy the fun as we celebrate the last night before Lent begins tomorrow on Ash Wednesday.

Ash Wednesday

Tomorrow, we will gather for an Ash Wednesday Service including imposition of ashes and the Lord's Supper at 11 a.m. and  7 p.m. at Community Presbyterian Church of Ben Avon.