Sermon from Luke 7:24-35 for October 28

What is the right attitude for a follower of Christ?

Here in Luke 7:24-35, Jesus goes into full teaching mode, and asks the crowd how they see themselves in light of John’s ministry and in light of his own.

What Jesus seems to be after is an understanding of what God’s people are to be like, what they are to value, and how they are to live. It is the same values he had just reminded John’s disciples about so they could convey to John the Baptist that indeed, he, Jesus, was the Messiah!

So, Jesus asks the crowd…

When you went to see John (and by implication, when you come to see me) what are you looking for?

Is it a prince or a king? Someone dressed in a Brooks Brothers suit, or a robe and a crown or in priestly regalia, someone who fulfills the role of a political or economic or religious authority?

Or did you go looking for a prophet? Yes, that’s it!

Someone you knew would be living a simple, possibly even ascetic life. Someone who was like Elijah, preaching repentance and a return to the work of healing, casting out demons, and ushering in God’s presence.

This prophet you went to see, I’m telling you, was the real deal!

He is the second Elijah, preparing the way for the Messiah, the one whom after your repentance and baptism, invites you to step through the veil into the Kingdom of God that is already here, inviting you to a new way of life, new values, and new hope.

So, look around! What do you see? Messiah is here!

Messiah, you understand, isn’t Elijah. Elijah’s job was preparation!

You needed to get your head and your heart in the right place.

Now that you are prepared, you need to start putting resurrection power to work, bringing hope and joy and love and acceptance to a very broken, very angry, very hurting world.

But, Jesus points out, there are always some who don’t see it.

They get caught up in the details, the problems, and lose their sense of awe and joy.

Which is why Jesus takes up the rather absurd criticism by some of John, that he was too austere and judge-y, and of Jesus that he was too fun and joyous!

Jesus seems to suggest you just can’t satisfy some people! And that is because their world view is all about them, not the Kingdom of God.

Jesus says that sometimes people are like children who played a fun dance melody and then a funeral song, and are mad at everybody because they didn’t do what the children wanted, to dance to the joyous music and then cry at the funeral dirge.

The rules are, they believe that when we play the flute, you dance. We sing a dirge, you cry. We are the masters of our world! It all about us! You have to do what we want!

But Jesus will have none of that, making sure the people understood that this was childish thinking.

You need to see the world not from your selfish an sinful desires, but from God’s point of view and understand God’s delight when tax collectors are repenting and being baptized, and dead people are being raised to life.

Resurrection power at work.

All of this is hugely challenging, because it is not our natural way of being. We like focusing on our stuff. We want the world to work the way we want it to.

But Jesus calls and reminds us to quit focusing on our stuff and instead raise up our heads and see that the Kingdom of God is breaking out all around us.

So, what is the right attitude for a follower of Christ?

To always be looking to see what God is doing, ready to sing praise, and share the good news with everyone that Messiah is in the house!

Amen.

Sermon from Luke 7:18-23 for October 21

So…

What would you need to see, to believe that Jesus is the Messiah?

In Jesus third encounter in Luke’s 7^th chapter, we see Jesus in conversation with some of John the Baptist's disciples who have come to ask Jesus an important question. Are you the Messiah?

It’s a fascinating one, because many of us believe that John always knew that Jesus was the Messiah. But that is not what Luke seems to believe.

We have also many of us come to believe that this message from John is from John in prison (which Luke does not say) and that John, facing execution is perhaps confused and depressed. Maybe not.

What Luke does seem to suggest is that John is curious. He has heard about the healing, the casting out of demons, the feeding of the hungry, and the challenges to the Pharisees and scribes, and what John wants to know is…

Are you the Messiah?

John is according to the scripture the forerunner of the Messiah. John himself says he is too. He knows Messiah is coming and that he should be looking for him, but while Jesus is sure doing wonderful things, does that make him the one who will baptize with fire.

And Jesus response is revealing. He is not mad at John. He doesn’t accused John of forgetting. He doesn’t wonder about whether John is about to fold his tent and go home!

Rather he praises John, for being faithful, for staying the course, for being bold in very trying circumstances.

Because the question, see is an excellent one.

You Jesus are doing Messiah work, are you he?

John understood that the mark of the Messiah would not be kingdom building in any traditional sense. The Messiah would not be co-opted by the politicians or the religious authorities.

Rather, the Messiah would head out into the communities of the faithful and unfaithful and lead them all towards God, not with a sword, or with a fancy Temple, but by making the kingdom of God real right where they stood.

What does Jesus tell John?

“Go and tell John what you have seen and heard. Blind people are now able to see, and the lame can walk. People who have leprosy are being healed, and the deaf can now hear. The dead are raised to life, and the poor are hearing the good news. God will bless everyone who doesn’t reject me because of what I do.”

That’s it: God will bless everyone who doesn’t reject me, because of what I do: heal the sick, raise from the dead, cast out demons, and bring hope to the folks on the bottom of the social and religious order. Amazing!

So…

What would you need to see, to believe that Jesus is the Messiah?

And going a step further, what would you need to see to believe that Jesus is building his kingdom in a particular place, like, let’s just say, the Otisville – Mt. Hope Presbyterian Church?

The key to a healthy kingdom church, is not how big or small it is, not how fancy or simple its building is, not how many or few staff it has, not how many or few programs, whether it’s worshiping numbers are large or small, or even if the pastor drives a Nissan Sentra or a Lamborghini.

What determines whether a church is a kingdom church is whether it is in the business of raising the dead, casting out demons, healing the sick, and bringing good news to folks who desperately need to hear good news.

The measure of a church that is following the Messiah, is that it is doing what Jesus did.

So, what are we doing?

And how well are we doing it?

Last Sunday we had a baked potato luncheon and cake auction. It was all really good fun, and $2100 was raised to send folks to Texas the end of the month to rehab houses there,,and to then to get ready to send folks to the Carolinas and/or Florida to do more Rehab.

Today we dedicate flood buckets!

Next Sunday we raise money through the CROP Walk to feed the hungry!

On October 31 we entertain hundreds of children and families in a really safe way at our Trunk or Treat!

Then we gather all kinds of seniors for a fun luncheon at our Legacy lunch!

Next we send out  Operation Christmas Child boxes around the world!

After that we hand out as many as 60 Thanksgiving Baskets to families who need food!

And that doesn’t even count the backpacks with food going home to children in food scare homes each weekend, or the medical supplies we keep on hand for people who need them, or the ministry the Elizabeth and Sue and Penny take to the Park Manor nursing home the first Sunday of the month!

It doesn’t count the music that the Otisville Brass Quintet takes to Southeast Towers and Elant and Braemar, and Castle Point throughout the year, or the music that (Joe and Bob and Phil and Mike and Becky) take to Valley View Nursing Home and all kinds of other places.

In some ways it just scratches the surface of all the amazing things that we as a church and as follows of Jesus do to make the kingdom real in the hearts and lives of the least of these.

So John’s question, one filled with joyous possibilities, was are you the one?

And Jesus said, “take a look around, the kingdom is here!”

And that is who we are! Kingdom people doing kingdom things…

Raising the dead…

Healing the sick…

Casting out demons…

And bringing hope to those who need it most.

Making a difference every day, in Jesus name!

Amen.

Sermon from Luke 7:11-17 for October 14

So…

“I see dead people.”

For those of us who have been around a long time (since the movie debuted in the last century) we may remember a movie called The Sixth Sense, starring Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osmet.

The story by M. Night Shyamala, is actually from the horror genre, though in many ways it is a story of hope and redemption. Willis, a psychologist is trying to help a boy who says he sees dead people, come to terms with his problem. In the process Willis discovers that he himself is dead with his own unfinished business, keeping him from moving on.

“I see dead people,” has since the movie become a bit of a meme, applicable to all kinds of situations where it seems that a situation or group of people are simply unable to move, change, or act lively. They are dead and I see them!

It reminds of one potential disciple of Jesus who complained that he couldn’t “come and follow” because his father was ill and he would need to be present for his burial as tradition required. To which Jesus replied, “let the dead bury their dead”.

Pretty harsh it seems. Forget tradition, forget family, take up your cross and follow me.

But it also suggests two very different approaches to death.

It’s either “let the dead bury their dead” or as our Presbytery’s mission statement says, “practice resurrection everyday”!

When the presbytery first adopted this particular mission statement I was a bit unimpressed, as I am with almost everything that is done at the higher governmental levels both secular and religious.

Skeptical for two reasons, one, because for me at least at that time, resurrection was reserved for the religious event we call Easter, that is Jesus bodily resurrection. Applying it daily seemed to diminish, in my thinking, that pinnacle event.

And two, skeptical because if we were to see resurrection power at work, I very much doubted that it would be because some government thought it was a good idea.

I will admit my approach to all of this has changed, though not because I am suddenly of the opinion that government structures are anything more than a necessary evil. A view all healthy Calvinists should have, I think, because Calvinists, and those of the Reformed way of thinking, believe sin is at work in all people and especially in governments, well-meaning or not.

So still skeptical, but with changed thinking motivated by New Testament stories such as this one, where Jesus meeting a funeral procession coming out of the Village of Nain, practices resurrection.

This is not the only story where Jesus brings back to life someone who has died. Jesus is singularly unimpressed by death. It is simply a state of being that can be changed if needed.

Just as Jesus raises Lazareth, he raises the widow’s son. He weeps at the widow’s sorrow, and perhaps, and this is speculation, remembering the sorrow his own mother felt at her husband Joseph’s death.

In any case, Jesus determines, as he does in so many encounters with ordinary people in difficult circumstances to do something, to practice resurrection every day, to not leave a person in misery, but rather to put God’s grace to work in a very transforming way.

He could have and should have let the funeral procession pass by. He should not have troubled himself with this woman’s needs. He should have never ever walked up to the casket and put his hands on a dead body.

But thanks be to God he did!

He chose in the moments when he could have avoided involvement, to get involved. He chose to “make a difference”. He chose to practice resurrection! He saw dead people, and made them alive!

It is our calling as well, as scary as that thought may be. We are called to see dead people and then to practice resurrection!

So how does that happen?

Well one, we have to be looking for situations were people are struggling with the power of death, not only physical death, but spiritual, material, and emotional death.

Turn on the TV and take a look at Mexico Beach, Florida.

Read the newspaper and note the power of the opioid crisis.

Take a listen to the folks around you at work or at school, and ask what form of the power of death are they grappling with?

And then, ask, if resurrection power was present here, what would happen?

The other day one of members came by to talk about a group of children she has become aware of that don’t have enough to eat. They are living in really tough circumstances and need some resurrection power.

So, she sat with some of our Deacons and asked some great questions about how our leaders are getting food into the mouths of hungry children. Seeing the power of death, she decided to apply resurrection power.

It is what we do.

Instead of standing by and letting the funeral procession pass by, we go to the casket and bring resurrection power to bear.

Jesus went over and touched the stretcher on which the people were carrying the dead boy. They stopped, and Jesus said, “Young man, get up!” The boy sat up and began to speak. Jesus then gave him back to his mother.

I see dead people, but I practice resurrection every day. How about you?

Amen.

Sermon from Luke 7:1-10 for October 7

So…

Who are the Gentiles in our world?

This story of Jesus and the Centurion is all about this rather remarkable decision by Jesus to extend the Kingdom of God beyond the typical Jewish boundaries to folks who are not Jewish.

By Luke’s definition, Gentiles in those days are the equivalent to those who do not participate in the church today.

They may be people of faith, strong faith, but who are not part of the regular worshiping community we see on Sunday morning?

Some of them, Luke seems to be suggesting might be willing to become part of the faith community, if there was a pathway in that made sense to them. Not necessarily the ones we normally think of either.

Because for Gentiles, even going to meet Jesus, or having Jesus come to them and their place of work, play, or living can be uncomfortable.

Is it possible, that there are some folks that we are not reaching as the Otisville - Mt. Hope Presbyterian Church, because we don’t know how, haven’t really considered reaching out to them, or, perhaps even worse, haven’t even noticed that they are there?

And then, how could we change our mission strategy so that we could more effectively reach that group, who, though outside the church, are not necessarily outside of the possibility of vibrant faith.

And who is it, that could help us reach across the barriers to do what is likely to be uncomfortable to us, but might create a comfortable environment for them?

It is often said that it is hard for a tiger to change its stripes, and that it can take a battleship five miles of travel before it can come to a dead stop so it can reverse direction.

Churches like our can be tigers; powerful, amazing, really good at what we do. But change is not really our thing. Our tiger stripes make us look cool, especially to other tigers. But we can be invisible to others.

And we can be a bit like battleships, really hard to maneuver once moving in a particular direction. While we like saying we are a “no rules church” even we have habits and ways of doing things that can be quite counterproductive in a new cultural situation.

My father used to say “I don’t drink, and I don’t chew, and I don’t go with girls who do.” Having been born in 1929 that may have made some sense, but I’m not sure it works in 2018.

If reaching a new world of Gentiles is going to happen for the church, it may be that we need to be flexible on methods while being quite clear about the message, much like Jesus was: Centurions were welcome!

Jesus was always interested in those not yet in the community of disciples, and he was always willing to go and make new ones, even of Gentiles.

And mind you, Cornelius was not ordinary Gentile. He was a Roman soldier, a commander of soldiers, who was assigned to Herod Antipas or Pontius Pilate by the Roman government, to be the occupying army.

He was a follower of the Jewish faith at some level. And, he was open to a growing faith. He was respected and loved by Jews and Gentiles alike. And he was concerned that a beloved servant was dying, so much so, he arranged for emissaries to go to Jesus to see if Jesus could heal him!

Jesus tells the disciples in several places that the fields are ready for harvest but they need to get more workers to bring in the harvest, and that they need to go and get the harvest.

Let me make this clear: us too!

It’s interesting that Jesus doesn’t seem to think the harvest is going to be found inside the church, but rather out in the fields. But sometimes we struggle to recognize fields!

Wednesday night  at Bible study, and yes you are welcome to come anytime, we were talking about a later chapter in Luke’s gospel where Jesus sends out 72 disciples on a missionary adventure to  invite people into the Kingdom of God, and I suggested that perhaps that is what our church needs to do, gather up 72 of us and go and make more disciples.

And Derrick asked a really good question, “where do you find these fields ready to harvest if they are spread out into a hundred individual homes?” A great question. Spread out is a problem. But what if they were all in the same place some of the time?

My response was an observation I made the other day, that about noon here in Otisville, the traffic is crazy: people getting their mail, going into the liquor store, into Micks and into the other store.

And going to the nursery school to pick up kids. There are parents and kids all over the place, traffic is tied up, parking is a mess, but most importantly… I don’t recognize any of these kids or their parents.

A whole slew of young parents and kids right across the street from the church, and I don’t recognize anyone.

Not only that, but from the door of the nursery school, the church looks pretty uninteresting. Nothing shouts “open” or “there for you in your time of need” or “bring the kids and they will have fun and so will you.”

Yes, there is the EMPOWERkids sign, but it is small. Yes, there are the service times, but from that venue across the street, the church could be a tiny congregation of twenty people on Sunday morning with an old creaky organ, an old creaky bald pastor with no young kids, and not a person under 80 in attendance.

It turns out there is a field right in our front yard and yet we have not sent the requisite 72 to gather in the harvest.

And what other fields are we missing?

And if we really want any of those folks to follow Jesus, which by the way is the point, what would be willing to do or change to make them comfortable?

We will not change the message. We will not change the teachings of and about Jesus!

But what about worship times and worship styles? What about when we have EMPOWERkids, the day of the week and the time?

What about going all the way to crazyville and raising our giving so we could add an associate pastor for Families and Children?

And what would we have to do to be prepared for folks coming from the other fields we have decide to harvest, maybe even some folks stuck at home for whatever reason?

Could we livestream our church services for folks who can’t get here on Sunday morning, but could watch from home or later in the day? Could we open up for them ways to give so they could be good stewards too?  

And how do we as a church raise up disciples who are willing to look for fields ready to harvest and then also ready to grab a partner or two or three and begin dreaming of ways to get every family that has a kid in fall sports on one of the fields in Otisville and Mt. Hope to worship and children’s time each week, even if that isn’t on Sunday.

Could we start a Bible Study at Devan’s Gate?

When do we take the Legacy lunch on the road?

When do we become like Jesus, ready to go to a Centurion’s house, if that means that an ill man might be healed, and another might experience the Kingdom of God?

Go, Jesus said!

Amen.

Sermon from Jonah 4:1-11 for September 30

So…

Have you ever felt like Jonah?

Peeved that the way you wanted events turn out, didn’t happen. Where you felt aggrieved because you felt like punishment was mandatory, that someone should have been voted out, that the team that won it all should have lost it all!

I don’t watch much football for that reason!

Because inevitably the team I want to win with all my heart finds a way to lose, almost as if they know it’s me wishing them to win, so they drop the ball,  throw an interception, step out of bounds, or get a ridiculous and flagrant penalty literally on purpose.

And there are teams I despise, because although other people loved them I call those folks lunatics) want them to win.

Take for example the New England Patriots fans, please. 

I have forgiven the New York Giants for that Superbowl fiasco where the Buffalo Bills punter forgot which way the ball was supposed to go, and I will, before I get to heaven I hope, forgive the punter.

But sometimes its much, much harder than that, and not just a game.

This week talking with the father of Kristopher Hicks, the young man killed in the Chillis restaurant in the Syracuse area was a stark reminder.

He is aware that sometimes innocent young men are wrongly convicted of crimes they didn’t commit, which is why in New York State the death penalty is no longer in force. But he would rather it be, and that it be applied to the man who took Kristopher’s life, and I can certainly understand why.

In some ways I think, he feels like Jonah did. That it is too unfair.

The Assyrians, you see, with their capital city of Nineveh, had destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel. They had killed many in war, displaced thousnads, had created hundreds of thousands of refugees, which they settled in other lands they had captured.

The northern kingdom of Israel, as opposed to the southern Kingdom of Judah, where the city of Jerusalem was, became Samaria with it’s despised Samaritans, named after its capital city. Samaria was with its mix of imported peoples and races and religions never again properly part of the Jewish nation.

And Jonah, like everyone he knew, wanted God to feel as he did about Nineveh. He wanted it destroyed!

Which is why Jonah was so peeved at God for saving the people of Nineveh. The Assyrians were the sworn enemies of the Israelites. What Jonah wanted was their destruction, their punishment for all their many and grievous sins!

Instead, God offered them a chance to repent, and damn it, they did, and then God went and did what Jonah wanted God to never do, he saved them.

Giving credit where credit is due, Jonah at least was honest. He didn’t pull any punches with God. He didn’t try to hide his feelings. He was in conversation with the Lord, as a prophet he listened and he spoke to God, even though he was deeply troubled by God’s mercy.

I have often said in the past when people come and talk to me about their deep-seated anger with God over what they see as a grievous harm done that God seems to have not noticed or even forgiven, is for them to have it out with God.

My suggestion is to go out into one of the fields at the Miedema Farm or the Pierson Farm or the Ketcham Farm and tell God exactly what you think of how God is handling the world. Let me assure you, you would not be alone in any of those fields because there are a lot of people mad at God right now, especially after this year in politics.

I suggested you tell God what you think, how you think things should have gone, and how you think the world should be run. And one of two things will happen, a lightning strike will take you out!

Or you will be out standing in an empty field with a whole lot of pain and hurt now off your chest.

Just be aware of what may happen next.

One possibility is that you will be asked to get busy fixing the wrong you see!

Because now that your eyes are finally open, it is not God who needs to get to work, but you! God has been calling to serve, to go, to make a difference. You have just finally got the message!

The other possibility is similar to what happened to Jonah: a reminder of who you are and who God is.

I love this plant story. Oh my. A bean plant that grow in a day and shades Jonah!

Jonah is angry, hot, and tired, so God in his mercy grows Jonah some shade. I mean is that cool or what, double entendre intended!

Jonah’s immediate response should have been thanksgiving, offering a sacrifice of praise to God who saw his servant in need and blessed him.

But not Jonah! And so often, not us!

Jonah doesn’t see the blessing. He doesn’t see God’s love and provision. He doesn’t understand that he is unworthy of God’s moving of heaven and earth on his behalf, even perhaps challenging the laws of nature.

All Jonah understands, is his own overwhelming anger and disappointment, caught up in how he wants God to be, not how and who God is.

And when the plant dies at God’s command, Jonah doesn’t give thanks for the gift of temporary respite. Rather he chooses to be angry about his circumstances, missing the mercy, the grace, the love of God that has been extended to him.

“Jonah, the plant is mine, the Ninevites, and the Assyrians are mine, and you are too.”

I confess there are those I find really hard to love, some I simply choose not to associate with, and even those who I am sure God should dislike, though I suspect in reality God loves even Patriot fans. Sigh!

But I am also reminded of that little Sunday School song, imperfect as it is, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

And I remember that those children have turned into adults and that God still loves them!

And that as a follower of Christ I am called to love them too, even if I don’t understand them, even if I am mad at them, even if I think that justice should prevail in their lives on behalf of those hurt by them, because in order to follow Christ, I am to take a cross and follow him, and in doing so am still called to love them…

because…

He first loved me, imperfect, arrogant, selfish, silly, and totally unrepentant about the Patriots…

Amen.