Sermon from Matthew 26:47-56 for Maundy Thursday

So…

After the Seder feast, Jesus and his disciples traveled to the garden to pray. It seems that this was a regular practice for Jesus. Coming to the end of the day, he took time to set all that happened in context, and then gave it all over to God.

In fact, it would be a great practice for us all, if it is not already. Put the day in context, remember to whom the day and you belong, and then let it go in prayer:

“Lord, the day is done. I can’t change it Lord; I can’t fix it. What has happened has happened and into your capable hands I commend it. I will no longer fret or worry or even be concerned with it. It is done and so am I, and so now to bed and to sleep in order to awaken to a new day in your service. Amen.”

And all would have been well, except that one of the disciples, Judas, had disappeared on the way to the garden, and had arrived with what Matthew tells us was a mob, a group stirred to action by Judas’ earlier visit with the Temple authorities to plot Jesus arrest.

Judas’ reasons aren’t real clear. Perhaps he wanted money. Perhaps he thought Jesus would start the revolution so many Zealots hope for. It my have not even been clear to Judas, making Jesus question all the more challenging and difficult.

“My friend, why are you here?”

It could be that Jesus was asking why Judas had arrived late, or why Judas had betrayed Jesus. It may have even been a more existential question, “Judas, do you understand who you are and what part you have been called to play, and what these actions of your will do to your own soul, tear it to pieces.

“Judas, by these actions, these choices, you have decided to what God would love you not to do, to sell your heart to someone else, to sacrifice your love for God, and more importantly God love for you for a pittance. But it is your choice to make. Love God as God has first loved you, or to reject God, and live and die on your own terms.

“It is the final choice in a life of #mefirst choices, the ultimate following of self-centeredness, and from this, I cannot save you, for you refuse to be saved.” I

In Jesus question, we hear Jesus final offer of love, and we see Judas’ final refusal.

But is a great and powerful question, one that Jesus asks of us.

My friends, what are you here?

To take up your cross and follow me?

Or to betray me?

As followers of Jesus we are given an opportunity. We get to choose; choose to follow Jesus or betray him.

Tonight, we once again consider our choices as we come to the table of the Lord.

Amen.

Sermon from Matthew 21:1-11 for Palm Sunday

So…

The good news is Jesus is King. Hallelujah! Hosanna in the Highest!

The bad news is we don’t want a King! Crucify Him!

I know this may seem a bit harsh, but the reality is, it is truth!

We humans like being the rulers of our own lives.

Look at public discourse, the stuff on Fox News and MSNBC. How much of what is argued about is the complaint that others should not have the right to dictate how we live!

The ongoing debates about taxes, medical marijuana, guns, borders, even abortion all have to do with who gets to decide what you do with your time, energy, money, and stuff.  Are you the King of your Kingdom or is someone else?

We live in a democracy and like it because of its promise that we will get to decide our destiny, but are deeply perturbed when that turns out not to be true and things don’t go our way!  Why?

Because we want to live in a world that is not based on compromise, or even on grace, but in a world where our needs, our desires, our hopes and dreams take precedence. Some call that freedom. Others note that is also the stuff of original sin. #MeFirst

Jesus as King sounds like a good idea, unless Jesus as King would act Kingly; because when Kings act Kingly they generally are empowered to tell us what to do and when to do it and for how long; even to tell us what are to believe.

The good news is Jesus is King. The bad news is we really don’t want a King!

And to be sure, we are quite conflicted about it all. We want the right to decide for ourselves most things, most of the time.  We want to be independent, the rulers of our own small universe. But, here’s the rub…

We are not at all sure that other people should be able to decide for themselves.

We like freedom, but only when it applies to us, not when it allows others to be free to do what we don’t approve of.

We love the idea of Jesus being King with all the pomp and circumstance and are willing to celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem! Yet at the same time we prepare to join the crowds to condemn him if being King means that he gets to decide what we can or can’t do or be.

We want a king who will follow our agenda, not be a king with his own.

In the Chronicles of Narnia written by C.S. Lewis, the Lion character in the seven books is called Aslan. He, for Lewis, is the Christ figure whose overwhelming love in the book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe results in Aslan’s sacrificial death.

But we are reminded by Lewis in several places that Aslan is not a tame lion. He is powerful beyond all imagining - but chooses to be gentle and humble unless confronted by those who choose evil.

Remember, this Jesus is the one who in the passage right after our Palm Sunday reading in Matthew, cleanses the Temple! Sweet Jesus it appears he is not; but rather a true King and Lord. How ironic!

Yet there is something about this Jesus that is different! He doesn’t sweep into power with a sword. Rather he comes and asks to be invited in; to become your Lord and Savior and King by your choice, a choice added by the Holy Spirit for sure, but by your choice none-the-less, made King by you placing the crown upon his head; a crown perhaps of thorns.

This King Jesus enters Jerusalem riding on the back of a donkey; and in Matthew’s gospel, not a male donkey, but a mother with her young colt. No pretense or artifice, no white stallion in full armor like the one ridden by Pontius Pilot through another gate accompanied by Rome’s finest military.

No proclamations of being the best, the most powerful, even the smartest. Jesus does not even declare himself as King. Rather he teaches and leads with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love.

Jesus comes to Jerusalem in a quiet symbolic moment that the disciples would never forget, a pivotal moment, a Kairos moment, one where the meaning of time pauses even as the physical clock continues to tick.

Jesus teaches in the Temple. And he gathers his disciples close, and soon they are in an upper room with a Seder feast. He invites them to follow. He never compels.

There is much that is about to happen in the week ahead, that makes clear that this King is like no other.

For this King will offer himself as the sacrificial, the one whose death takes away the sin of the world. Indeed…

The good news is Jesus is King.

The bad news is we really don’t want a King!

The best news, is that if you are willing, you can take up your cross and follow him.

Amen.

The Spirit Empowers

Sermon from Acts 16:1-15 for March 18

So…

Of all the things that are happening in your life right now, what is the most essential thing?

Being bombarded with all the complexities of life including the incessant blare of social media we sometimes get distracted from the essentials.

But keeping those essential things essential is the mission, otherwise we lose focus, get distracted or worse lost, and never get done what matters.

If you were to sum up your mission in life in one sentence, what would the sentence be?

Go on, take a minute and see if you can figure out a great mission statement for your life!

What? A minute is not enough? Well certainly not if you haven’t spent any time thinking about why you exist and what you are supposed to be doing with your life.

But that seems rather crazy doesn’t it. Not knowing who you are, why you are here, and what you are supposed to accomplish.

I mean, if that’s true, then it’s no surprise that you get up in the morning, wander through the day and go to bed wondering if anything you said or did mattered!

If you have no idea what you were supposed to accomplish, you can’t possibly know if you accomplished any of it!

But what if you made for yourself a mission statement! Something short and pithy, that encapsulates who you really want to be, and that drives your to accomplishing things that would fulfill that statement, like

From today on, I am always going to be the most fabulous me possible!

I particularly like that one, Or

As a child of God, I am going to make God proud of me today!

At the end of the day, you can look back and see all of the things you did and said that you realize made God smile, that made God glad that you are here and working on his kingdom, that you are a brother or sister to Jesus.

Or maybe your statement is

As a disciple of Jesus, I am going to introduce everyone I meet to God’s love.

I mean then you might say something, or you just might do something! Pay for the donut and coffee for the folks in car behind you. Take a lineman out of the road trying to get your power back on a hot coffee and baggie of cookies. Or stop by your town or village DPW and give them a bunch of extra mailboxes to hand out.

BTW, Deacons, how about that next year. Cookies and valentines to the Village and Town DPW?

A mission statement sets before you the big picture. In order for it to come true, you have to make some measurable goals. But the statement sets the agenda, reminds you of the final objective, and keeps you focused when you realize you are getting lost in the weeds.

God’s people are often just like a child with ADD or ADHD. We are so distracted by life, we forget who we are and what we are supposed to be accomplishing! Every shiny trinket catches our attention. And its only when we finally fall still that we go “oh, opps” and try to get back on track.

And just like we as individuals should have a mission statement to keep us focused, so should the church; and not just the big “C” church, but this particular outpost of the kingdom of God.

What is our mission statement? What is it that guilds and undergirds all of our efforts? Can you articulate it?

Listening to the Apostle Paul in Acts as he takes the gospel to the Gentiles, it becomes clear that he had a mission statement that propelled him through life.

He knew he was to introduce everyone he met to Jesus Christ, and in particular, every Gentile; and in order to do that, especially in the Gentile world, he had to make some choices about what he was going to do and not going to do

Imagine Paul hanging out on social media all day! Not happening!

On the other hand, all of us can imagine Paul tweeting about introducing Lydia to the way of Jesus! Badda Bing, Badda Boom!

And Allison and Sue and Tammy and all the rest – she was really into purple!

Some people are really confused about Paul’s wanting Timothy to be circumcised, but it fits Paul’s mission statement. He, Paul, needed to be able to move between Jews and Gentiles with ease as he shared the gospel. And he needed a team that could do the same.

Not being circumcised was going to be a problem for Timothy to move in Jewish circles, so Paul, suggested and Timothy decided. The mission matters. The mission makes things clear!

If wearing a suit to worship got in the way of his mission, Paul made clear, no more suits. If eating park got in the way of his mission, no more pork fried rice.

And if doing church as we have always done it gets in the way of extending the kingdom of God, we quit doing church as we have always done it. Radical, I know!

Will some people miss the old ways, sure!

But what is our mission statement? Who are we trying to include in the kingdom? What is it that we can change that is standing in their way? And if we can change it, we do!

Because our mission defines us. It says who we are and what we are about! It keeps us from majoring in the minors, getting lost in the weeds, doing things that have no impact on reaching who we say we want to reach with the love of Jesus Christ.

We even get up and get out of the church so we can meet people who are not yet in church in order to invite them to worship with us, or for us to worship with them wherever they want, because our mission statement is all about inviting others to follow Jesus.

We, the OMHPC, are about inviting others to come and follow Jesus, learning to love and respect all of God’s people, and making a difference in this world!

Mission statements clarify who we are, what we believe, and what we are going to do. They cut away at all the stuff that doesn’t fulfill mission, and they encourage us to focus.

Just like our own personal mission statements.

I am here to introduce other to Jesus, and to help them become faithful disciples!

A mission statement that you can articulate in one sentence can make everything else in life clear. It worked for Paul, and it works for the church when a congregation decides to declare one. This is who I am, this is who we are, and now we get to work.

This is our opportunity to make clear what God has called us to do and be.

If you have suggestion for a mission statement for the OMHPC, be sure to send along your thoughts to Otisvillepres@hvc.rr.com.

Amen.

Sermon from John 6:1-15 for March 11

So…

If you want to make a difference in this world, being filled with the spirit is essential.

Did you get that?

If you want to make a difference in this world, being filled with the spirit is essential.

So, are you filled with the spirit? How do you know?

What are you doing that is evidence of the spirit working in your life?

And what is the evidence of the spirit working in the life of this church?

You remember, I assume, the Pentecost story: the disciples in the upper room, the  sudden arrival of the spirit, flames on the heads of the disciples, all of them, and then all of them headed out into the streets of Jerusalem speaking in different languages, telling the gospel story to folks visiting Jerusalem from all over the world!

It energized and enervated the church. The disciples were no longer shy, scared, unwilling, defeated. They were sent, empowered, directed, ready to take on the world.

And the community took off, both in terms of growth in numbers, thousands of new followers of Jesus were added to the church, as well as in growth of ministry!

So how do you know the church is filled with the spirit? It is growing, both in those who have been touched by the good news, and in those who have experienced God’s love through energized disciples!

Are you an energized disciple?

Being part of that early church was electric. Folks were joining at an astounding rate. The church was out making a difference! But with that came challenges!

Widows and orphans in particular had become part of the church because the church and its people were willing to love and care for them, but with them came the challenges of poverty. In the culture of the day, either situation could mean you had no viable way of financial support. No social security. No public assistance. No food stamps. No hot meals for seniors.

The church, in love, responded to their many needs, including their economic struggles, by trying to make sure that they at least got regular meals, as well as friendship, and a community of deep caring. Food was collected and shared with the widows initially by the Apostles. But it was both a growing blessing as well as a growing burden.

While the Apostles wanted to focus on preaching and teaching and prayer, they were increasingly tied down doing what is often called pastoral care; that is seeing that the new disciples not only had the spiritual food they needed, but also the practical necessities of life: food, shelter, and a community that accepted and respected them.

Then a new problem emerged in Jerusalem, a cultural one.

We often mistakenly assume that cultural clashes are a new problem for the church. That’s not even a little true. There have always been cultural clashes between what is established as the “practice” of the church, and what has emerged when the church has encountered a new and different culture than the one it was formally in: old vs. new

We are aware of the clash between Jewish believers and the new Gentile mission because Paul speaks about it in his letters and it is recorded in the book of Acts. It led to what is called the Jerusalem council recorded in Acts 15.

And some of us are aware of the cultural clashes between the new German independent principalities in the 1500’s and the Holy Roman empire, recorded in what we call the Reformation, a battle inadvertently waged by Martin Luther.

Some of us are even vaguely aware of the church and culture clashing over American independence!

Just so you know, Presbyterians were for it, because Presbyterians have always been for a separation between church and state! And that is because we have never, ever, trusted government, even elected government, though we like that much better, because we believe in total depravity.

Total depravity is a theological concept born of bible teaching that says that sin is everywhere, and so believe that government rarely has our best interests at heart, and so must always be watched with a jaundiced eye, suspicious of all promises made by people hoping to get elected and pad their own pockets!

What we forget, is the earliest cultural clash in the church, recorded right here in chapter 6, where Jewish widows who were born and raised in the Greek culture of the day (established by Alexander the Great’s conquests 300 years before) and who spoke Greek, felt that they were being treated less fairly in the food distribution than Aramaic widows, who had been born and raised in the established cultural of this part of the Middle east, and who spoke Aramaic.

Lest we miss the point, where in today’s world do we find the church straddling two cultures?

And what was the Apostle’s solution? A lengthy two or three-year study? A committee of people who really don’t understand the issue and so feel no compulsion to solve the problem? Nope.

Their solution was to get a group of amazingly talented, high capacity disciples together, who loved God, who loved the church and its mission, and who loved the widows and orphans, and…

Who all had Greek names and who all spoke Greek…

And put them in charge of making the church thrive in this particular area of ministry, to the glory of God!

Do you see it?

Do you see our opportunity to be God’s people as we straddle new cultures?

So, again…

Where in today’s world do we find the church straddling two cultures?

And who among us should be looking for ways to take the good news of Jesus across the cultural divide in order to make the church of Jesus Christ amazing?

Is God calling you? Are your ears open? Are you willing to say yes?

Amen.

Sermon from John 3:1-8 for March 4

So…

Did you hear? I’m going to be a grandpa! I am officially old as dirt!  

Rachel is pregnant, somehow Brian is involved, and everyone in the family is thrilled!

Me? Well to be honest, I am a bit in two minds.

On the one hand, this sounds like great fun, totally spoiling a kid and then giving him back to his parents to try and unwind. Whohoo!

On the other hand, birthing is messy. I don’t know how many of you remember your own birth, but it probably was pretty traumatic.

You get started pretty simply, and I’ll leave it to others to explain that process if you are unclear, but it’s kind of like planting a potato. You find a good place, dig a bit, put a seed potato in place, and then after appropriate care you have a potato!

Easy Peasy.

Well except this potato is underground as it were, inside mom, and in order to have the potato, you have to get the potato out of the ground.

Yep. And that is the messy part. And it hurts. And the baby’s head gets squashed (another vegetable reference). And there is a lot of yelling, and that is just mom.

And then you are born, skipping, of course, the water breaking and blood and the baby needing a full-on bath, and the baby’s sense that they have been tossed unprepared into an alien world where they have to breath and eat and drink and begin to function as a fully formed human being!

It is, simply put, trauma central.

So, knowing that a grandbaby is coming, is okay. Spoiling him is the plan! But the birthing thing? Yeah, I want to be far away.

Which is why Jesus’ deciding to explain the becoming aware of the spiritual side of life as a “birth” makes me both queasy and a bit concerned.

Nicodemus came to see Jesus. He was a Pharisee, a member evidently of the Sanhedrin, the central governing council of all things Jewish in occupied Israel.

He, it seems, recognized Jesus as a spiritual authority, perhaps as Messiah, perhaps as a prophet, perhaps even as God’s son, and decided to come under the cover of darkness, or maybe just at night because then Jesus wasn’t overwhelmed by the crowds, to talk theology.

And Jesus immediately, it seems, sensing Nicodemus’ openness to dialogue, gives him a bone. “I tell you for certain that you must be born from above (or born again in some translations) before you can see God’s kingdom!”

This you understand is huge!

Jesus is engaging, as he always does with those who are open, in a conversation about the spiritual essentials!

If you want to have a spiritual conversation, if you want to live in a spiritual way, if you want to have spiritual power in your life…

You must have the spirit in you!

If you want to have a baby, you must have a baby in you. If you want to have the spirit, you must have the spirit in you!

You see the parallel, right.

To have a baby, you have to get pregnant. To be filled with the spirit, you have to be given the spirit.

To grow a baby you have to feed and water the baby. To be born of the spirit you have to feed and water the spirit.

To have a healthy child you have to eat right, exercise, cut out the caffeine, alcohol, donuts, and craziness. And you have to add good calories, nutrition, and take care of the mini me you are growing.

To grow the spirit requires the same: taking care of the temple in which the spirit will grow and live, as well as choosing to be the kind of person who lives out the spirit’s calling on your life.

Birthing a child is messy. Birthing the spirit is too.

It takes hard work, lots of help, the care and love of family and friends, and a great landing place. If we want to be spiritual as individuals and as a community, we need to make the church into a place where spiritual birth and then continuing spiritual growth is what we are all about.

A friend sent me a great quote yesterday by Carey Nieuwhof, someone I think a lot of. It goes like this:

We need to "Start thinking of our church’s as a digital organization with a physical presence, not a physical organization with a digital presence.”

What he is talking about is the need for every church that wants to live into the next generation to re-imagine themselves first and foremost as an online presence with a brick and mortar (or in our case a white clapboard) location.

We need to be visible to the world not as a building, but as a community of the spirit – a community that is changing the world and making a difference!

He is absolutely right! He is spot on.

We need to start thinking of our church as a spiritual family that is sperately and together changing the world. We are God’s children, filled with his spirit to go into all the world and make a difference, to introduce it to Jesus Christ, and then to help each other grow in faith and action.

Reborn as it were, by the Spirit.

So, even though birthing is messy, we need to get to work making a mess! Let’s talk!

Amen.