Sermon for December 15 from Luke 1 "Mary"

So…

Believing is hard!

We’ve certainly established that over the past two Sunday’s. As Jim Eggleton pointed out two weeks ago, and what I pointed out last week with Zechariah.

Joseph, as Jim told us, was trying to believe what was unbelievable.

His fiancé was pregnant, a reality that ended their engagement, and Joseph wanted to be kind to her even though this must have been a horrible shock to him, so made arrangements to send her away to a place where she could have the baby unnoticed, when an angel came to him in a dream and told him to believe that Mary’s pregnancy was God’s doing.

Unbelievable.

And as I said last week, Zechariah struggled to believe as well.

Doing his two week per year duty as a Levite he ended up in the Temple lighting the incense, when an angel appeared to him too. He told Zechariah a crazy unbelievable story about Zechariah and his wife having a baby even though Zechariah and Elizabeth may have been in their 80’s and Zechariah struggles to believe.

Because…

Believing is hard.

Anyone who suggests otherwise perhaps hasn’t really had to believe stuff that just made no sense.

As a kid I remember we were told that our government had decided to do the impossible. We were going to send people to the moon.

And as a nation, we were going to have to trust science, that even when it made mistakes, was ultimately going to enable us to be the first, if not the only, nation to put people on a dark rocky object 239,000 miles away from us, a trip 30x farther than a trip around the globe.

It was unreasonable. It was unbelievable. It was impossible.

And then it happened.

Believing is hard, which is why even now there are folks in our world who insist the moon landing and moon walks are a fabrication, because they struggle to believe what seems impossible.

But then there’s Mary…

An angel came to Mary, a young women, already in an arranged future marriage contract, and told her that she was about to become pregnant with God’s child.

You understand that getting pregnant in these circumstances would set aside the engagement and cause severe financial penalties. This was bad, about as bad as it could get.

And yet Mary, unlike any of us in similar circumstances I think, believed. But she had a question.

Now I’ve always wondered why Zechariah’s question and Mary’s were handled so differently by the angels sent to visit them. I have suggestion, though it may not satisfy some of us who are a bit more skeptical.

But I think Zechariah’s question was one based on the assumption of impossibility.

He knew the biology. He knew how Elizabeth would have become pregnant. They had tried. It hadn’t worked and in Zechariah’s mind that ship had sailed. They were past that. Biology had happened and fertility was no longer possible.

Of course, nothing is impossible to God, and Zechariah knew that, but Zechariah ventured that all this all seemed just not going to happen.

Zechariah couldn’t believe.

But Mary’s question, if you will indulge me was different. It was based on possibility, not impossibility. It wasn’t, “no way this is going to happen”. It was rather it was “how?”

She’s asks, “But how can this happen when I am not married.” It’s not a question based in skepticism, but a question of curiosity, of process, of “don’t you need a husband and a wife, just asking”.

It’s believing we could land men on the moon, just absolutely unaware of how that was even possible… no matter what Jules Verne wrote in those amazing books.

It is the same believing we are invited to participate in every Christmas, to believe that God could and would and did and does love us so much that he would send a son, not as a conquering king, but as a small helpless child, revered by Magi, and chased by a mad King, sung to by angelic choirs, and greeted by of all possibilities shepherds.

The boy who grew up as a good kosher son of a carpenter and his wife until one day, at the riverside he was baptized by John.

It is a crazy story.

It is in so many ways an unbelievable one.

But it is one which we can doubt, or as Mary did, one we can believe.

And I hope and pray that today it is the latter.

“Believe”!

Amen!

Sermon for December 8

So…

Doubters, gonna doubt!

As Jim Eggleton pointed out last week (and God bless Jim and Elizabeth and Candy and Edgar and Marilyn for preaching while I was in the hospital and home mending) doubters gonna doubt.

There are those in our communities, maybe even in our families - that doubt the Christmas story or at least some parts of it. They doubt perhaps that Christmas was in December. Or they doubt that the stable was in a field all off by itself. They may even doubt there were angels.

And the truth is, some of those doubts may have merit. Biblical scholars admit they are not at all sure that Jesus was born in December. The bible doesn’t say.

And the lonely stable? Well again, all the bible says was that Jesus was born and laid in a manger! Where the manger was, well that’s not clear.

But doubts about the Christmas story are nothing to afraid of. As Jim pointed out the Christmas story is all about believing what on the surface is unbelievable, that God sent his son to be with us.

So, as Jim said, “believe”!

But I’d like to add that doubt has always been part of the Christmas story!

Doubt isn’t always a bad thing, because doubt means that you are thinking hard about something and trying to make sense of what sometimes makes no sense, at least to you.

Back in seminary we talked about antinomy’s, two perfectly reasonable ideas that are on the surface contradictory. Like the idea that a baby born in Bethlehem 2000 years ago can somehow be our savior today! But of course, that where Jim’s, “believe” comes into play.

The Christmas story begins, of course, well before Christmas. It begins with the reminders in the Old Testament prophets that God was going to send a Messiah, a new leader, a King like David, at some point.

There would be one who would come who could set people free from their sins, something the Mosaic Law had made clear was impossible under human effort.

The story continued, rising and falling in the background of scripture like the breathing of a contented infant, until Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah was doing his turn in the Temple.

So, if you thought the Christmas story actually began when Mary and Joseph found out they were going to have a baby, nope.

It goes a lot further back, back to when the children of Israel, the progeny of Jacob left Egypt, and formed into tribes named after Jacob’s and Joseph’s sons, including Levi, the tribe given cities, not land as their inheritance; and with them the responsibility for the Tabernacle and then the Temple, and the worship of God.

From Levi came the Levites, the priests and the High Priests, and the responsibility for the sacrifices and ritual in the Temple, like filling and lighting up the incense burner in the Holy Place that by its smoke would forever symbolize the rising of the people’s prayers to God.

And Zechariah a Levite, on his two-week stint once a year to be at the Temple, was chosen by a throw of the dice to be the one that day to go and do that holy duty.

In many ways Zechariah reminds me of our Deacons, setting up the communion table each month. Doing their duty, a little humbled, and perhaps a little afraid that somehow, they would mess up the table.

So intensely focused on the job at hand that the thought of God suddenly showing up in the form of an angel is not even remotely in their heads.

But then God did, sending an angel to let Zechariah know what was about to happen!

He and his wife would have a son, and name him John, and that he would be like Elijah to the coming Messiah, and all this, when Zechariah and Elizabeth were old!

It was a lot to take in, and a lot to believe. Zechariah struggled. And Zechariah doubted!

It was too hard to believe. It made no sense. Why would God do this, now?

But isn’t that just the way God works. Not in straight lines, but jubilantly coloring outside the box.

The challenge is to overcome your doubts and believe.

Zechariah struggled, and God gave him the gift of silence, or maybe that was for Elizabeth!

In any case, in nine months the silence would be broken, and this once doubting dad would announce this forerunner of the Messiah by declaring, “His name is John!”

Don’t be afraid to doubt. God can handle all the doubts you could ever muster.

And then “Believe”!


Amen!

Sermon for October 6

So…

When was the last time you were contagious?

For most of us it was probably the last time we had a cold or possibly the flu. Some of us are a little bit on the older side may even remember being contagious with things like measles and mumps and chicken pox!

I remember one vacation trip Sue and I took from Otisville to Alleghany State Park years ago. Katie was probably about 2 and Brian about 5. Katie and Brian were in the back of the car still in their pajamas since we put them in early in the morning and the car was stuffed with camping and vacation stuff!

We got part way across NY Route 17 and stopped for a quick diaper change and as Sue unzipped Katie out of her sleeper, she discovered that Katie had chicken pox. First day of our vacation, a three week vacation, and we were headed to a place with lots of other children, many who had not had chicken pox.

So, Sue spent all week with Katie on the back of her bike riding the roads and significant mountains of the State Park, so that no other kids would get infected, because Katie was contagious.

When was the last time you were contagious?

Recently, Sue and I went to a newer restaurant in Middletown called Frontera Tacos and Tequila. We have had such good meals there and even more important I suppose, we have had great family times; including a dinner the night before Sue’s big retirement party in July.

And we talk about it. A lot!

Several people we have told tried it out! BTW, Monday night is half off Margarita Pitchers, just saying!

We talk about the tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, burritos, charro, zesty coleslaw, and even the setting! Ask me and I will tell you about it. Don’t ask me and I will tell you about it!

And I will bet that you have a similar story about some place, some experience, some people, that quite frankly you enjoyed so much you couldn’t stop talking about!

About the class you attended, the beach you visited, the cruise line you sailed on, the folks you met in your class, the moments that made you laugh, and giggle, and cry with joy, the experiences and people that you remember because they touched your life.

Just like Naomi touched Ruth’s life.

The Old Testament Hero of today’s sermon could be Ruth. After all, she is the Gentile who becomes the great grandmother of King David. Her faith, a seed sewn by Naomi, grew into a towering oak, and her meeting of Boaz, her future husband was clearly guided by God, an amazing story.

But Naomi…

She of deepest faith in the face of overwhelming grief is the real hero.

The story goes that she married and had sons and traveled far from home only to lose her husband, and then her sons, but somehow, somehow, managed to keep her faith intact.

Faith in a God who loved her and had a purpose for her life, even though, as she told the folks back in Bethlehem when she got back, right now it was all unclear. And she told them that she had been through bitter times.

Bitter.

The times.

The situations.

The experiences.

But somehow, not Naomi was not bitter. She was still full of faith.

And, she was beloved by her daughters-in-law!

Just think about that!

Ruth and Orpah were willing to leave their families to be with this woman of grace and love and faith, who in the face of overwhelming odds believed that God still had her life in his hands and in his plans.

Is your faith that contagious?

Do you live in such a way that no matter what, people around, especially the ones closest to you see Jesus in you? See your faith, your grace, your love?

And if not, is it time to start building a faith that can handle the storms, the griefs, the challenges, the problems.

Sure, there is more to the story, soon their will be a son who will be a grandfather to Kind David.

But this story, well, it is about tow amazing Old Testament heroes, Ruth for sure, but Naomi too.

May God bless you with that kind of contagious faith!

Amen!

Sermon for September 29

So…

Have you ever felt like, perhaps, you weren’t really ready to be a leader?

I remember way back in Junior High offering to run for my homeroom’s president, way back when they did thinks like that. Our student senate had an elected representative from each homeroom.

I lost. The vote was 25-1. I’m the only one who voted for me. Then I got asked to run for Senior Patrol leader in my troop. I lost that vote too, but got asked to serve as the SPL’s assistant.

Have you ever felt like, perhaps, you weren’t really ready to be a leader?

It’s the time of year when the congregation’s Nominating Committee starts looking at our officers, that is Elders and Deacons, and tries to figure out who they think God may be calling into service for the next three years.

Let’s be clear. Being on the Nominating Committee is a hard job! Because many of us have no time, no energy, no particular experience that would make us good choices. And at least some of us don’t want to be leaders.

Plus, many of us have no idea what an elder does, nor what a deacon does in this particular congregation. Many of us think that the folks who are officers, ordained to be so, must be super spiritual, or super talented, or have strange and exotic spiritual gifts, like showing up to meetings.

Or maybe they are just nuts!

Elders oversee the church. They think and dream about the future, about what God might like this congregation to be doing over the next year, five years, twenty years, and they deal with the nuts and bolts of running an institution with electric bills, insurance, and staff.

It’s a mixture of pragmatic, who shovels the snow and who preaches and prays. They consider salaries and how often to celebrate communion. They think about whether we should do four Christmas Eve services, so everyone can celebrate the birth of Christ, and they if we can get a concrete sidewalk in before winter.

Yes, they are mature members of the congregation, often who bring rich personal experiences into the conversation. Yes, they are also folks who believe deeply in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

But they are also folks who though massively busy, are willing to sacrifice their energy, intelligence, imagination and love, to make this community of faith the most faithful it can be!

And our Deacons are similar, except in one regard. Instead of looking out for the spiritual and temporal work of the church, they are focused on the needs of the neediest among us.

They make Thanksgiving baskets, some sixty last year, and purchase, assemble, and deliver backpack food supplies for 20 children each month, a total of 80 plus bags with two breakfasts and two lunches for the weekend in each one.

They honor our Senior church folks with two legacy lunches each year, they run a hospital supply closet, they manage a food pantry that is now feeding almost 30 families a month. They hustle, and pray, and help, and care!

To be an officer requires time. It requires energy. It can be challenging to work with a Session of nine Elders and a board of 13 Deacons. So, if you can’t do the time, the energy, intelligence, imagination, or love, don’t!

You certainly don’t want to be wasting other people’s energy, intelligence, imagination, and love by not being there and not doing your part!

But…

If you see a burning bush that is not consumed, be aware!

God may be calling you!

You get to choose whether to answer, whether to approach, but as God reminded Moses, be aware of the ground upon which you are walking – because this ground and that ground, all of it, is God’s!

And lest you think perhaps that you have a pre-condition that disqualifies you from leadership, remember God called Moses.

Yep, he certainly was a hero of the Old Testament.

An adopted son of Pharaoh, an Israelite, for sure.

But Moses was also a murderer who ran from the law and hid in Midian tending sheep until God’s theophany, a burning bush, caught his eye.

By all accounts Moses should have been disqualified. But God doesn’t work in human ways. God chooses whom God chooses, even the likes of you and I.

And God called. And Moses response, well, was a bit wishy-washy?

Who Am I, he said?

Who am I to be doing any of this stuff you are telling me I am supposed to do, or am going to do?

As in, going and telling Pharaoh to let your people go! Not only is Pharaoh going to laugh me out of Egypt, but so are the Israelites, your people.

I got nothing, he said.

Or so Moses thought. Just like a lot of us think.

We got nothing. But God has always been in the business of using quite unlikely characters, with quite unusual ideas to do God’s work.

Several years ago, Briana Moore, now Briana Moore Sudarto, was on the Board of Deacons, having been elected a few years earlier as a Youth Deacon, and then had come back as a young adult.

She suggested the idea of a 5K to raise money for back then, the Building Fund. All the Deacons who were there back then will tell you that they thought she was nuts. They were polite about it, but since none of them were interested in running 5K couldn’t imagine who would. But Briana could. She ran, and she had lots of friends her age who ran, and they would come to a 5K, more than they would come to anything else.

And so, our Deacon’s, believing in two of our congregation’s values, “No Rules Church”, and “We can try anything once” said a reluctant yes.

Who could have imagined that this past Deacon’s 5K would raise $5500 for the Ronald McDonald House, the charity that housed Briana and Steve and family in both Albany and Pittsburgh while Liliana was cared for, and has done so for countess others, all because one person said yes to serving?

Not everyone can lead. Even Moses believed he couldn’t lead.

Moses tried that one, told God he couldn’t, even said “Who Am I to lead”, to which God responded that Moses wasn’t going to lead by himself, that God if fact was coming along too.

So…

Maybe you are feeling that, perhaps, you aren’t ready to be a leader?

Ok. Lord, cue the burning bush!

Amen!

Sermon for September 22

So…

What do you do when it seems God has forgotten about you?

Maybe you have never had that experience, that you felt as if God had abandoned you. But, one of the challenges of sharing our vibrant faith with others, is that at least some of the folks we know and love you seem distant from faith, have spent some time in their lives wondering if there even was a God.

Battered by life, by events beyond their control - and some perhaps in their control - but which then got out of control, they have hurt so much that they can’t imagine a God who loves them and who would let them suffer, no less want good for them.

They’ve endured the loss of loved ones in tragic shootings, auto accidents, drug overdoses, suicide, and they themselves have had battles with disease, depression, failed relationships, discrimination so harsh it left them breathless - leaving them broken, feeling faithless, tired and scared.

They feel alone and forgotten.

And then we come along and want to talk about our wonderful love of Jesus, often without a whole lot of sense of the pain and misery they are living with. Approaching our friends who are broken and struggling, with our stories of God’s amazing grace sometimes just misses the mark.

But not all stories of faith are about grand successes. In fact, most of the Old Testament stories of those we consider “heroes” are not really stories about their success, but about God’s using them in spite of their lack of success!

Many of these “heroes” are simply folks like us, clinging to faith in the darkest struggles, and then seeing God’s amazing love peeking through on the other side of the storm.

Joseph was indeed one of the great heroes of the Old Testament.

Joseph who became the hand of Pharaoh, was one of those suffering servants. Yes, it was Joseph who saved his family in a time of great famine. Yes, it was Joseph, the son of Jacob, the son of Issac, the son of Abraham!

Yet it was also Joseph who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. And it was Joseph, the one with the coat of many colors, who ended up in prison forgotten, alone, and seemingly without hope.

God is good, all the time.

God will not leave you or forsake you.

But that does not mean that God will not let you wander, struggle, hurt, even wonder where God is at times.

Joseph was in prison after being sold to traders who then sold him to a Captain of the Egyptian Royal Guard. Then, having been accused of trying to seduce his master Potiphar’s wife, he ended up in prison.

Life it seemed couldn’t get any worse.

And then it did.

Joseph was known as one who could interpret dreams. It was a spiritual gift given to Joseph, one he had used, and that had unfortunately gotten him in bad graces with his brothers, when he told them about a dream where he would rule over them and they would bow to him. Ouch.

But now, maybe, this new opportunity would offer him a way out of jail.

Pharaoh’s own personal servant and his chief cook ended up in jail too. And they had dreams. And it got around that Joseph could interpret dreams and so they came to him.

Joseph used his gift and used it wisely, explaining that God knew all dreams. For Pharaoh’s personnel servant the news was good! For the king’s cook, not good at all.

Finally, it seemed that God had remembered Joseph!

Except that Pharaoh’s servant forgot about Joseph. And so, Joseph continued to languish in prison!

There are lots of us who have been there. We have felt lost and defeated. And for all of us in the church who have felt that sense of abandonment, there are many, many more outside of it.

We know here in our brains that sometimes, when God has us in a low place, it is because the storm up high is even worse.

And we know in our hearts that God has plans for us. But it’s hard to stay believing when it hurts. And Joseph was hurting.

But…

Then Pharaoh had dreams he didn’t understand. And that personnel servant suddenly remembered Joseph. And Pharaoh called for Joseph, the one who could interpret dreams, and save Egypt, and his family and all of Israel, and was made the number three ruler in all of Egypt.

So…

What do you do when it seems God has forgotten about you?

Stay faithful.

Call out to God.

And remember, with the help of friends who understand, that even in the darkest place, God still has plans for you. Just saying.

Amen!

Sermon for September 15

So…

When have you wanted God to act so bad you were willing to make an unthinkable bargain?

We all, especially this week, are reminded how often folks we know and love have prayed, asked God for a miracle, a miracle that didn’t come. They and we are devastated, that a God we believe knows us and loves us leaves us out in the cold, struggling and suffering in sometimes just horrible circumstances

It is easy in situations like these to lose your faith!

You may believe God is there, that God is even listening, but that God for reasons you certainly don’t understand doesn’t answer, or answer in a way you can live with.

We all know the story of Jesus death, of his time in the garden weighed down by the sins of the world, suffering cruel and heartless punishment while innocent, and then dying a tortured death, mocked, and for the most part forsaken.

We know, we believe that God understands our pain, and that God has taken on that pain at Calvary, but…

I remember years ago seeing the picture of a young woman with the word “forsaken” tattooed on her cheek. I’m pretty sure the photo was from a movie or a video game, not a real situation. But, and I don’t know why, that shocked me and made me cold and angry, because while I knew it wasn’t real, I know that is very many places.

People are rejected, labeled, set apart, left to suffer and struggle and die.

It doesn’t help when we think of people jumping from the towers in NYC to their deaths, or when we think of our dearest loved ones suffering with diseases and illnesses and random shootings and tragic accidents.

And we ask, where is God?

And while it might appear that Hannah’s ask was not one that was produced by the same kind of suffering, in Hannah’s mind it was.

God had forsaken her, left her to be mocked by her husband’s “other” wife and her children.

We can argue that Hannah’s childlessness was not like being locked in a cage and forgotten as has happened again and again in history. Not like being left to hand on a cross, or dying in a plane that you know is going down into a field or into a building.

But the sense of abandonment – that is just as real. “I have failed, and for reasons I cannot imagine, I have been forsaken!”

For Hannah, having a child was everything. She joins te women of scripture who also wished for a child, and the missions of women who once hoped, but whose hopes were dashed, by circumstances beyond their control, betrayed by a body that wouldn’t, couldn’t, and didn’t.

Hannah without any knowledge on her part, represents a community of those who hope, but who see hope evaporating.

That is, until for reasons know only by God, she in a moment of anguish and pain chooses to pour her heart out to God once again in the Holy Tabernacle, and God answers.

Elkanah was a good man, who tried his best.

He was a product of his time, living in a world where what mattered was progeny, where more children were better, and where a wife who could not have a child could be divorced and another added who could have children.

He loved Hannah.

But children were everything. Inheritance was everything. Progeny were your wealth. And Hannah couldn’t. He wanted to spend his life with her, she meant everything to him. But…

So, Hannah went and asked. She poured out her heart before God. She wept. She argued with God, the God who had denied her.

She must have know the chances of a child were very slim. She had no knowledge of the gynecology we know now, about all the parts in the right places, and about fertilization and egg attachment, and of all the things on the inside that can go wrong.

But she had not conceived, and she was unwilling to give up asking!

Jesus tells a story about widow who continues to harangue a corrupt judge until he gives her what she wants and needs. Persistence in prayer. One wonders if Jesus had Hannah in mind.

“Ask,” Jesus says. “Seek”. “Knock”. Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Keep your prayers arising. Because…

There is a bit of comedy in this scene, and you might have missed it.

Eli, the high priest at the Tabernacle is an awful high priest. He let’s his sons run rampant through Israel, doing awful things. And then he sits in judgement on Hannah.

At least until diminutive and deferential Hannah gets up in his grill and lets him know a thing or two about faithfulness.

Do not! I repeat, do not mess with a woman sharing the agony of her soul with God unless you want a good whooping!

And Eli, chastened, speaks God’s blessing on Hannah, “You may go home now and stop worrying. I’m sure the God of Israel will answer your prayer.”

Hannah asked big! She believed. She struggled. And she suffered.

And then, and only then, God answered.

Then Hannah did the unthinkable.

She returned her blessing to the Lord who had blessed her.

And she brought Samuel back to the very same tabernacle after he had been weaned, to live in the presence of the Lord his whole life.

What is it you need to be talking to the Lord about?

What is your big ask?

For understanding? For clarity? For blessing? For purpose?

Ask. Seek. Knock. The God of Israel will answer your prayer.

Amen!

Sermon for September 8 "Noah"

So…

How many of you remember Sunday School? And many of you learned about Noah and the ark?

Do you remember what the teacher taught? Or do you only remember what you learned!

Who was Noah, what did he do? Not all of you went to Sunday School, and some of you perhaps maybe didn’t pay attention, but for those of you who did,  what do you remember best?

For most of us, it is the animals, right! Lions, tigers and bears, oh my!

But we forget that Noah also brought some animals for dinner on board!

Like those two cows named buttermilk and hamburger. You can’t really teach that in a Sunday school class!

So, it’s possible that our beloved Sunday School teachers left out a few parts of thee story. Like, what exactly is a cubit?

Here is the conversion! Some estimate that this ark was about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. By comparison, this sanctuary is 50 feet long and thirty-six feet wide, give or take.

That ark that God wants built is nine times as long as this room and at least twice as wide, and from this floor almost three times as high. And this building Noah is building needs to be water tight, be able to float!

This invitation to follow God’s call in faith is hard!

But Noah says, “yes”!

So, what hard thing has God called you to do recently? Are quibbling about it? Saying to yourself that you don’t have time, energy, skills? Maybe you’re, perhaps, just not into building arks?

Or is it, that perhaps you are unwilling? Ouch!

We have been studying the book of Hebrews at the Wednesday night Bible Study. It is so much fun.

And, yes, this is a straight up advertisement for Bible Studies! 

We are starting one tonight on Spiritual Gifts, plus there is one on Wednesday mornings at 10:00am, where we will be starting a study on the character of the Apostle Peter, and you are always invited to consider starting another study at a day, time, and place that works for you.

Tonight, we will have coffee, tea, and desserts. At your bible study you can choose. Just saying…

Wednesday night we meet at the Miedema Farm where Janet Miedema heads the table, often flanked by Penny on one side and Krista and baby Landon on the other.

And we talk and laugh, we pray, and we honestly discuss the scripture. No rose-colored glasses in this bunch. No Sunday School answers permitted. And punsters are welcomed and encouraged, Les, Jim, and even Janet sometimes jump in with zingers.

It is, all in all, a rather a pretty honest evaluation of what we are reading and what we think about it! And…

How we are doing as disciples.

Last week it was Hebrews 11, which among other things says, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.”

It wasn’t raining. The skies were not cloudy. There were no weathermen to predict a Category 5 hurricane in the community where Noah lived.

Rather what Noah had was the assurance of God, that a storm was coming and that he, Noah, needed to do something about it.

What has God been tugging at your heart about? What has God set before you as an opportunity for service to his kingdom that you can do as an act of praise and thanksgiving that will honor God and grow your faith?

Building an ark is no easy task. Keep in mind while the directions are clear, they are not exactly detailed. And to my knowledge, dimension lumber from Home Depot was not yet available.

Three decks, an opening under the roof a cubit high all the way around the top of the ark. Three decks. A really big door. And what is a cubit?

I don’t remember Genesis telling us how long this building project took. It doesn’t say how many people worked on it. All is it tells us is that Noah built an ark.

All it says was that Noah was faithful.

So, what is God calling you to do?

· Fill a Flood Bucket, or help organize the Flood Bucket filling?

· Going to North Carolina to remediate houses

· Help with EMPOWERkids or EMPOWERyouth

· Be on the Safety or Welcome or Graphics Team

· Be on the Communication or Small Group or Creative Worship Team

· Or the Maintenance Team or IT Team

· Or help with the Deacon’s Food Pantry

· Or help with the Turkey Dinner

· Or invite others to come to worship

What is it God is calling you to do?

And will you, like Noah, say yes, “Here I Am, Lord” send me.

Amen!

Sermon for September 1 from Acts 10

So…

Sometimes God uses crazy circumstances to change us.

Because sometimes, and I know this will come as a shock to some of you, a few of us are, well, a bit hardheaded.

Sometimes we think we know it all.

Sometimes, we have always done it a particular way, and we are really comfortable doing it our way, and we are not really open to doing something new.

But God wants to show us that there are not only other ways, but that God really likes using ways that surprise us and teach us, and open us up to God’s renewing presence, and enable not only to grow in new ways, but to also reach new people who can’t be reached doing the same old, same old.

As some of you know, my spouse Sue retired from teaching this past year, and on Tuesday will NOT be going to the Superintendent’s day at Minisink Valley Central School System. God help us all!

Sue was trained first as a physical education teacher, a job she never actually worked at, and then after a small inheritance from her parents, and Brian being in High School and Katie in Middle School, she went back to get her M.S. in Special Education.

The reality is that Sue has always and forever been a teacher. She teaches not so much by intention, but by inspiration. She simply desires - deep in her soul - to help others understand how to do things, so they can do them too, and get as much enjoyment out of them as she does.

How to ride a paddleboard, plant a garden, do auto repairs, crochet at 100 miles an hour without looking at the project while being a lefty.

So, working to teach an adult or a child how to learn to do something when they don’t learn things in the same way everyone else does, is perfect.

I remember, years ago, folks talking about one special education teacher who seemed to think that the way to help a special education student understand was to take them to a smaller classroom and give them the same instructions that didn’t understand before, but do it in a louder voice! 

Remember: If special education students could learn the way regular education students did, they would be regular education students!

You heard that I assume?

Special education students don’t learn some things in the way that many of us do. To them, the instructions don’t make sense. They would love to learn the traditional way, but can’t for all kinds of reasons. But what is needed if we want them to learn is different instructions!

And I kind of hope you are beginning to see where this is going.

It may be, and I’m just testing the waters here, that in God’s Kingdom, some of us are special ed students. We need the basic instructions delivered in a special way. Kind of like Peter, who God though needed a dream filled with inedible food, non-kosher food, that he was told to get up and eat. “Gross”, he thought! “No”, God said, “yummy and good for you!”

Sue was teaching 7th & 8th grade science and social studies. As a person with a B.A. in History and who’s senior thesis was on the Presidency of John Quincy Adam’s, why social studies. I may have had to write her History Class paper in college. Just saying.

But science? Yeah!

Sue loves earth science, she actually has her own rock collection. She loves biology, even had a bug collection. He mother was a Zoology major in college, her father a Chemical engineer.

And when it comes to explaining concepts to Special Ed students, she excels, particularly when they do their homework, show up to class and have parental support; none of which happen all that frequently.

But her absolute trump suit is laboratory experiments.

You can teach the formula for finding the volume of an irregular object.

Yawn, I’m already asleep. Or…

You can demonstrate it!

God’s people struggle with the very clear teachings of Jesus that we are to go into all the world and invite others, from cultures and languages and nations and lifestyles that are radically different than our own.

We are told, even commanded to call others into discipleship with us, to come and sit at the table with us, to worship with us, to be filled with the spirit with us, and even to show us how to be faithful disciples when we get stuck!

And when we get stuck, God often tries to get us unstuck. Sometimes with a gentle sermon, a thought in prayer, a hymn that we keep singing but don’t seem to notice is asking us to do something.

And sometimes God has to go a step farther and go full Dinozo on us, and sometimes God just has to introduce us to differentiated instruction, understanding the gospel, in a new, vibrant, life-changing way.

Because far too often we think, we have it all together.

Our traditional way of doing stuff is blessed and sacred.

We thinking we are the church when we aren’t being the church!

Because the church filled with the spirit is always in motion, changing with the power of the spirit to be able to reach new people and new generations and invite them to come and follow Jesus with us.

No hiding in cocoons allowed!

No resting on a great history of being out there and doing it - when we aren’t out there doing it now!

So…

Do you know how to measure the volume of an irregular object?

First you get an empty 55-gallon drum that has been used for food and has been cleaned out good…

And then you convince the janitor to put a spout on it an inch or so down from the top…

And then you convince said janitor to put the drum out in a flat, level place and fill it with water so it can warm up and drain off safely when you are done…

Then you recruit a student to put on their bathing suit and come to the class with their swim goggles and a towel…

Because the student, who is an irregular object, is going to slowly lower him or herself into said drum, while the other classmates measure in graduated cylinders the volume of the displaced water until said swimmer is completely immersed…

Because if special ed students could learn the way regular education students did, they would be regular education students!

And sometimes, the church needs to hear the basic biblical instructions in a new way, in order to understand to what we are being called. 

And Peter said, “These Gentiles have been given the Holy Spirit, just as we have! I am certain that no one would dare stop us from baptizing them.” So, Peter ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and they asked him to stay on for a few days.”

Sometimes God asks us to step up and out of our cocoons, so God can use us as the Spirit-filled disciples he has made us, butterflies if you will, ready to make new friends and new disciples in all kinds of crazy places.

But only if you are willing!

So, are you willing?

Amen!

Sermon for August 25 Out of the Cocoon

So…

Sometimes God can use what looks to us to be a disaster, as a new beginning. Amazingly, God uses willing disciples to make that beginning.

Are you willing?

Sometimes, as followers of Jesus, we are invited to step out of our comfort zones.

Of course, we like our cocoons. They are warm and safe. Well, at least they are safe from the possible threats we can’t see. But they also blind us to the possibilities of meeting new friends, doing things that are way beyond our comfort zones but might turn out to be really amazing, and …

They make it impossible to unfold our wings and become the amazing butterflies, the amazing spirit filled people God intends us to be.

I want you to think for a moment, what is one thing you would do if you weren’t hiding in that cocoon you have built for yourself? What is it we as a church could do, if we weren’t hiding in the cocoon we all gather in?

Now turn to your neighbor in the pew and tell them something you would love to do, or that you think the church could do, if we were not hiding from God’s spirit.

Some of you are a bit quiet! Perhaps the spirit hasn’t spoken to you yet? Or more likely, you are still doing your best to hide!

This week Sue took our neighbor and her three girls down to High Point State park to try both kayaking and paddle boarding.

One of the great gifts of being a kid is sometimes you have no idea what you should be afraid of, so you will try anything. And sometimes succeed, and sometimes fall off the board, but as many of us have discovered, falling off a paddle board at 6 or 9 or 12, is a lot easier than at 62.

So, one of the secrets of life, God’s life in you, the presence of God’s Holy Spirit, is to say yes to all of those “out of Cocoon” experiences early and often!

Because sometimes in life we get so cocooned up that we wouldn’t, couldn’t ever do what some others of our friends are doing with regularity for God’s kingdom.

Going to North Carolina to rehab houses of complete strangers. Going and finding Jen D’Esposito and saying yes to helping with the EMPOWERkids program or the new Youth program Jen and some others are dreaming up that will start January 1.

We have a friend at Loon Lake we just love. Odette is in her 80’s and she and her husband Gene live fulltime on the Lake. Gene was an architect and Odette was a supervising nurse of a Long Island operating room.

They are both smart, gracious and wonderfully funny. But Odette in particular is just a cocoon waiting to unravel!

Because she has decided she never wants to get Alzheimer’s disease, and so, she has decided to take all kinds of “out of the cocoon” classes and remain a butterfly.

First, she decided to learn Spanish – in her 80’s. Okay. Then, she decided that because she is a lefty and learned to knit as a lefty, that she should now learn to knit as a righty!

Who does that! I mean really! You know who does that – butterflies.

They come out of the cocoon and discover a whole new life that has amazing possibilities, including being able to fly.

BTW, I have this crazy idea for our children’s and youth programs. You’d never know it, but I have ideas! I know I come across as a mild-mannered preacher, but underneath, wild and crazy lives. And you should see my wings!

I have this idea, stolen fair and square from my crazy friend Rich Hong, of building the morning worship spot for EMPOWERkids program into a set that has, among other things, two towers made of furnace filters and carefully taped together for structural integrity, with multi LED par cans at the bottom’s shining up, ready to dance with multi colored light as the worship music blares during the EMPOWERkids opening.

Take that, you coffee swilling Café lovers!

And when on those Sunday’s at 9:30am, when the EMPOWERkids worship is upstairs, I would like the towers up here! Just saying. I actually like to dance. I dance badly, but the spirit don’t care!!!

Now, to be clear, I may be a butterfly, but anyone who knows me knows that a builder I am not, so which one of you is God calling out of your cocoon?

Peter was in a cocoon of a sort, although Jesus had made it clear that cocoons were, wel,l passé. They were nothing more than a temporary place of transformation. And the Holy Spirit had really made a mess of the cocoon, because joy, and power, and love and transformation were regularly blowing holes in them left and right.

But like some of us, even though we are really butterflies at heart, we do like to crawl back into the assumed safety of the chrysalis.

“Why”, Peter asks, “did you send for me”?

Peter, one of the great heroes of the New Testament, one of the great disciples and apostles, was still struggling, it seems to me, with what the Holy Spirit was doing, to all kinds of people, heretics like Samaritans, and proselytes like the Ethiopian, and even official persecutors like Saul.

But this, this was a step into territory even Peter was at a loss to understand, a Gentile and a Roman army centurion, a leader of the official occupation army in Israel.

Peter was being asked to do what no good Kosher man would do, go into a Gentiles house and sit and listen to his story. It was scary. It was dangerous. But it was also a moment where a butterfly filled with God’s spirit was needed.

Peter went in. Peter listened. Then Peter told the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. And then…

Well, listen to what it says in Acts 10:44-48.

“While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit took control of everyone who was listening. Some Jewish followers of the Lord had come with Peter, and they were surprised that the Holy Spirit had been given to Gentiles. Now they were hearing Gentiles speaking unknown languages and praising God.

“Peter said, “These Gentiles have been given the Holy Spirit, just as we have! I am certain that no one would dare stop us from baptizing them.”

Peter ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and they asked him to stay on for a few days.”

So…

Sometimes God asks us to step up and out of our cocoons, so God can use us as the Spirit filled disciples he has made us, butterflies if you will, ready to make new friends and new disciples in all kinds of crazy places.

But only if you are willing!

Are you willing?

Amen!

Sermon from August 18

So…

Sometimes God can use what looks to us to be a disaster, as a new beginning. Amazingly, God uses willing disciples to make that beginning.

Are you willing?

Lots of us, as I said last week, are willing to listen to God and to consider God’s claims on us. But we aren’t always willing, like Ananias, to get up and go and do and make a difference!

Not all of us are willing to go to Namibia and start an elephant proof garden. Or to New Bern North Carolina to rehab houses. Or go to Purdue for the Triennium with a bunch of crazy teenagers.

For some of us, even just making up bags of food for our local food scare families with our Deacons seems a step to far.

Our willingness is weak, partly, because while the Holy Spirit in us is willing, we are holding back.

Unlike Philip, the Deacon, who showed us two weeks ago how to get up and go and share your faith with even folks like the heretic Samaritans and then last week how to run a marathon while sharing your faith with an Ethiopian.

Now, like I said the challenges can be easier and harder. Teaching a group of kids in the EMPOWERkids Sunday morning program, isn’t too scarey, or shepherding around a group of teens to a corn maze and pumpkin picking? Really, that is pretty safe stuff.

But how about sharing your faith with a guy who has come to your city to hunt you down and take you to court, have you tried by the Sanhedrian, and possibly executed for believing that Jesus is the Messiah!

That’s why Ananias is a fascinating example of a true disciple.

Note, he isn’t flashy. He doesn’t appear in the gospel stories before this incident and never appears in the scripture story again. He is there just to do what God has asked him to do at that moment in time! Kairos, that sacred moment.

It has got to make you wonder, what is it that God is asking you to do?

What is it that you have been being prepared for that God is asking you to get up and go and do and make a difference?

It is easy, really easy to just do what you have always been doing. It is easy to not rock the boat of our simple faith. It would be just crazy to jump in and do the next hard thing God is calling us to do, because what if it stretches and grows your faith? Stretching hurts!

Recently I have been to see a Physical Therapist because my back was hurting.

When I bent over my back would catch and I would get this fiery sensation across my backside down the back of my leg and calf and leave me with tingling in my foot for maybe 15 minutes or more after I straightened up.

So the PT and the PT Assistant both made me stretch in directions that quite frankly hurt! Now, I realize that stretching is for my own good, but there is this deep-down human cry that comes into my brain that says if stretching hurts I shouldn’t do it.

But stretching has the power to relieve hurts. It untightens muscles and make flexible what wasn’t flexible. New freedom of motion follows and the possibility of new growth, and even relief from the pinching pain that debilitated.

But the only way there is to stretch and to hurt what hadn’t been stretched in a long time.

And as a somewhat unwilling participant, I might have been not working very hard on it! So Shannon the PT assistant reminded me of the PT motto, “feel free to hurt yourself so I don’t have to hurt you!” Okey dokey!

Stretch! Work harder! Go the extra mile so that you can grow, even if that means doing what is really hard! Even if that means going to see Saul.

Don’t be that comfortable disciple! Be like Ananias! Stretch! 😉

Ananias, is to talk with and care for Saul, a well-known agent for those who would persecute the church, of whom Ananias says, “Lord, a lot of people have told me about the terrible things this man has done to your followers in Jerusalem! Now the chief priests have given him the power to come here and arrest anyone who worships in your name.”

To which God replies, “Go!”

Don’t be that comfortable disciple! Be like Ananias!

Go and take the good news of Jesus to this man who has persecuted other disciples just like you, and help him as he struggles with his new found understanding of who Jesus is.

Stretching your faith is essential to having faith. Use it or lose it may not be completely accurate, but its close enough. You can forget how to ride a bicycle, and when you get on one after lots and lots of years, you can crash and need 10 stitches. Just ask Deb O’Connell.

Use your faith, stretch your faith, put it to work on a new adventure. Listen to the Spirit when it invites you to step out and step it up. Teach, lead, help, support, go, do, and be like Ananias.

Because, sometimes God can use what looks to us to be a disaster, as a new beginning. Amazingly, God uses willing disciples to make that beginning. Like Ananias. Like you!

Are you willing?

Amen.

Sermon from August 11 from Acts 8:26-40

So…

Sometimes God can use what looks to us to be a disaster, as a new beginning. Amazingly, God uses willing disciples to make that beginning.

Are you willing?

Lots of us are willing to listen to God and to consider God’s claims on us. But are we willing, like Philip, to get up and go and do and make a difference?

Philip, you may remember was a Deacon, a Deacon who believed that all believers need to get busy sharing the good news with everyone. Not a real surprise, because our Deacons, at least, are crazy!

You may have heard we have a food pantry. And in the last two weeks our Deacons have purchased and moved 83 cases of food into our basement for folks who need food help, for a total cost of $166. They get stuff done, in Jesus’ name!

So, it should come as no surprise that a Deacon, Philip is doing it again!

Last week Philip was with Samaritans, the heretics who had rejected traditional Judaism, at the time of the split between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel. They, the Northern Kingdom, had created their own nation and their own version of Judaism and a separate capital city called Samaria.

They were roundly despised by traditional Jews, but Philip didn’t care.

He knew that the gospel was to be preached to everyone everywhere, and even though Samaritans were not welcome at the banquet tables of traditional Jews, they were welcome at the banquet feast of the lamb slain, Jesus.

Jesus had told his disciples, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And he said, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

So, that’s what Philip was doing! How about you?

Sometimes God can use what looks to us to be a disaster, as a new beginning. Amazingly, God uses willing disciples to make that beginning.

Are you willing?

Philip then found himself in the desert. Not sure how that works, but there he was and there he hears a man reading from the Old Testament.

When was the last time that happened to you?

Keep in mind, regular folks in Philip’s day did not ride in chariots. This guy wasn’t driving the horses. He was sitting & reading. So, big chariot.

And that meant he was somebody big, important and powerful. And it was clear, God had prepared him and Philip for a conversation.

This is kind of like taking a stroll over to Micks’ Market to get Jeff a bacon, egg, and cheese on a hard roll, no salt, pepper or ketchup (just saying) and finding yourself standing in line next to, I don’t know, a huge celebrity, just as they just happen to say, “I wonder why a church would use the hasktags #tiedyechurch #comesharemypew #noruleschurch.

What would you do?

I hope you’d say, well…

“That’s my church, and I would love to tell you why!”

Of course, there are few things that make this man in the chariot a bigger deal. One, Philip had to run alongside a chariot to keep up, and two, he had to assume that this was a new potential disciple of Jesus, riding in a chariot.

Did you notice that the guy in the chariot doesn’t have a name? We assume that’s to make sure you notice three other things about him, that he was African, that he was a eunuch, and that he was reading a scroll of Isaiah that he had in his possession.

So, in reverse order, note this. God was already at work in this man’s heart. This man wasn’t carrying that scroll and reading it out loud for no reason. He was being moved by the Holy Spirit, just like Philip for this meeting and it’s outcome!

No matter where you go, no matter who you meet, as a disciple of Jesus, you must assume that God is already at work in the hearts and minds of our new acquaintances!

We do not meet people by accident. We meet people, new as well as old friends, by God’s doing. So, be prepared!

Two, he was a eunuch. In general, eunuchs were castrated males by intention or accident, who were often given responsibility to do intimate and extremely high-level work with females because there was no danger of impregnation. It is what it is!

And this man, we are told, was an ambassador for Queen Candace of Ethiopia. He had been in Jerusalem, possibly on a diplomatic mission. He was a top shelf diplomat, possibly someone interested in following Judaism, but because he was a eunuch, unable to participate in the Temple rituals, and to gain full acceptance as an Israelite.

But all that made no difference to Philip! Because he knew it made no difference to Jesus!

The Messiah had gathered with tax collectors and prostitutes, and fishermen, and shepherds, Gentiles, and Samaritans, and saw only their heart’s relationship to God.

Which is why his nationality, Ethiopian, and color, black, didn’t matter either.

Philip knew that what God loved was a heart open to God’s love, a life ready to be lived to make a difference, and transformed mind that rather than thinking about why God shouldn’t love someone else, marvels instead that God loves them, and that God has asked them to love others.

Philip climbed up into the chariot, one very big chariot, and shared with the Ethiopian the good news about Jesus, about Jesus fulfilling Isaiah’s prophesy, and told the Ethiopian that if he wanted to be a disciple, he was in.

And so, somewhere in the desert between Jerusalem and Ethiopia another outsider was invited inside through the waters of baptism!

In those waters, he become family!

Because…

Sometimes God can use what looks to us to be a disaster, as a new beginning. Amazingly, God uses willing disciples to make that beginning.

Are you willing?

Amen.

Sermon for July 21 from Acts 7

So…

Sometimes, God uses disasters to do miracles.

Last week we saw the incredible wonder of the early church taking on the problems of the unequal distribution of food. The leaders immediately jumped in and found a solution that really met the needs.

Instead of denying that there was a problem, that some widows might have been being treated differently because they weren’t the right kind of Jews, a subtle racism, they immediately picked the best disciples among them who spoke Greek and all had Greek names, and put them to work to fixing the problem!

It was amazing!

Of course, we also noted that they were all men, those Deacons, suggesting that while fixing one problem they may have missed another because widows it turns out are all women.

But soon they even fixed that, because as Todd noted in his sermon last week by the time of Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Paul was having the letter hand-delivered by a Deaconess named Pheobe!

It was all good! The church was growing. Even priests were joining the church! It was crazy, it was wonderful!

And then Deacons started preaching! Well kind of.

The truth is, some folks outside the church decided that the church was a threat to traditional Judaism, and because Stephen was a bold and eloquent speaker, they decided that he should be arrested and put on trial.

And when Stephen said that he saw Jesus standing next to God, that was enough for some to argue that Stephen had committed blaspheme and needed to die.

And they dragged him out to an open area, and they stoned him to death.

It turns out living faithfully for Jesus can be very dangerous.

It also turns out that righteous indignation can be fatal. Because as this story illustrates, it is always possible to be very pious and very wrong.

Because we have lived our lives in a time and place that values freedom of speech and freedom of religion, for the most part people of faith from all walks of life have lived at peace. Not always, but for the most part.

I have lived long enough to remember the presidential campaign between Jack Kennedy and Richard Nixon and the open conversations about how afraid some people were that a “Catholic” would become president.

It seemed so odd to me, living in a neighborhood of Polish immigrants who were all Roman Catholic and wonderful neighbors.

And I remember the adult class in Sunday School at the church I grew up in that talked with great concern about all the cults and -isms around us, making sure we all knew how bad and different they were, like those who practiced Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and cults like the Mormons.

That in spite of the fact that the Governor of Michigan was George Romney, a Mormon and a Republican, the father of Mitch Romney, the current Senator from Utah.

And all the guys and girls I hung out with in Junior and Senior High were for the most part Jewish. We played together in band and orchestra and jazz band and took classes together and pretty much all had our first beers at a party together, behind Aaron Weizbrat’s house!

He was an amazing drummer. And now a doctor. And he had beer!

And who knew back then, that my sister would marry Sanjay Gillani, and have three amazing kids, Jay, Nikki, and Arun! Sanjay was born and raised in New Delhi, India, and who as a good Hindu went to a good Jesuit High school. Only he can rock tie dye crocks!

And now, I am learning to live next door to a Buddhist Community on the West and a Hasidic Community on the North and I think, thank God I live in a nation that believes in free speech, and the freedom of assembly, and the freedom to worship as you choose.

Not one where if you testified that you saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God, you would be dragged out of the Temple and stoned to death.

It turns out living faithfully for Jesus can be very dangerous.

It also turns out that righteous indignation can be dangerous.

There was no opportunity for sanity in that mob. There was no discussion of different views. There weren’t any facts that both sides could agree to as truth. There was just anger.

Stephen knew his Old Testament. He was a very smart literate follower of Jesus. He spoke with passion and wisdom. But in the end, it didn’t matter, and because the anger had been inflamed, Stephen became its first victim.

And Saul, who was later to be called Paul was there.

And the fledgling church was squeezed out of Jerusalem, like toothpaste out of a tube.

But here’s the thing. Sometimes God can even use what looks to us to be a disaster, as a beginning. Because…

Soon in Samaria…

And soon in Syria…

And soon in Ethiopia…

And soon in Ephesus, and Corinth, and Rome and beyond …

There were new followers of Jesus being added to the church.

Sometimes God can use a disaster, to make a difference. Just saying.

Amen.

Sermon for July 14 from Acts 6:1-7

So...

When presented with a problem, what is your go to solution?

Fear and trembling? Anger? Denial? Or thoughtful 

action?

Remember last week when I mentioned that while the community around the followers of Jesus loved them, they were a bit intimidated by them?

So much so, that they didn’t join in because they weren’t really sure if they were at the same spiritual level, if they were holy enough?

It sounds crazy. We are not more spiritual, we Otisville Church folks!

But maybe, without intention, that is the vibe we give off? Sigh!

We want to be open, available, approachable, because we have something to share, to teach, to help others learn about, Jesus!

We are not more holy!

But we probably should be looking for more ways to share the amazing grace we have discovered with the community in less intimidating ways.

So, I guess I can understand some of the community’s awe. We are amazing. But what folks don’t see and didn’t see in Jerusalem was the problems of a growing church.

It turns out that some of the Greek speaking widows had begun complaining that in the distribution of the food, they were getting less than the Aramaic speaking widows.

And the irony is overwhelming!

On the one hand, lots of people were afraid to join the church because their perception was that the church people had their lives together and were way holier than them, while at the same time inside the church things were getting uncomfortable as some folks realized that part of the church’s basic mission failing.

And the problem was growth.

As a church grows the systems needed to keep it going, the leadership needed, even just the resources needed, have to grow as well. When you have a group of twelve disciples, one leader works.

When you have a community in the hundreds, you need all twelve of those Apostles teaching and leading smaller groups. But when you get to thousands, you need to expand the leadership exponentially.

In Jerusalem, there were now at least 2000 followers of Jesus!

And if those 2,000 were in house meeting groups of 20 people each, they would need 100 leaders, who knew and understood the gospel, including its amazing invitation to treat each and every person, no matter what, as if they were brothers and sisters of the Messiah, you know, just like Jesus did!

No exceptions because of their profession, their gender, even their status. In Christ there is no Jew nor Greek, no male nor female, no slave nor free.

You must treat them as siblings of Christ, even if _________. They are family! And it was going to get tougher.

Right now, the issue was widows, poor and in need, unsupported by their families, who needed food. But at least they were Jews who were following Jesus.

Yes, some had grown up as Jews in Israel and spoke a kind of a street Hebrew called Aramaic, so kind of like real Jews. And then there were the others, who might have been converts to Judaism, or who grew up outside Israel, who spoke Greek, so kind of like second class Jewish followers of Jesus.

And those kind of like second class followers of Jesus noticed that somehow in the crazy growth in leadership, the idea that all followers of Jesus are sisters and brothers to the Messiah was somehow being missed, particularly in the distribution of food, because the “real” Jewish widows were getting more and better food, than the “less real” Jewish widows.

The Apostles had a problem! A big problem!

And they needed quickly and definitely to establish that in the community of faith, no individual or group was to be treated with anything less than honor. They needed to find additional leadership that understood the faith clearly including it’s call to folks very different than the Aramaic speaking disciples.

Because the reality was that soon the faith community was going to include Samaritans, and Gentiles, and former soldiers, and even an Ethiopian government official.

They needed to find the best of the best of the followers of Jesus to see to the task of caring for the poor. So, they chose Deacons, that is servants.

They chose seven men, all who if you notice had Greek names, to lead the ministry. They were more than qualified by faith, but were chosen as well for this task because they could speak to those widows in their native language Greek, and assure them that their complaints had been heard and solved.

The seven: Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and also Nicolaus, were joined later by others, including women (sometimes it takes the church a while to see that while dealing well with one issue, we might be missing another – widows are women don’t you know).

And the church grew as more and more were being added daily to its number, So the need to grow more leaders was growing too; leaders who not only knew the gospel well, but who were willing to lead small groups in order to teach and share the faith.

Just the twelve were not enough!

Even in a church the size of ours we are badly under leader-ed.

Just to disciple and care for our 350 members, plus the many folks who are part of our family who are not members, we would need between 20-30 small group leaders. And to be honest, an additional pastor.

Not because the one you have isn’t amazing, but because this community of faith is itself so amazing that it needs an additional pastor to continue to grow. And what stands in the way of that additional preacher/teacher, money.

Our youth are going to Purdue! Thank you, Kelly! Our Mission Team is going to North Carolina. Thank you, Allison! But there are so many other opportunities to put our faith to work. Are you ready to lead? Let’s talk!

Amen.

Sermon for July 7 from Acts 5:12-16

So…

Is it possible that no one outside our church group would join us because we are so fabulous, just too cool for school?

I don’t know if you were aware, but there are studies out there that suggest that some of the folks who do not come to worship, who do not participate in a church, don’t because they think they aren’t worthy!

Did you hear that?! They think we have our stuff together, and so, since they perceive themselves as not having it all together, that they can’t come, wouldn’t be welcome, wouldn’t fit in, would stick out like sore thumbs.

And remember, it doesn’t matter at all if we think they shouldn’t feel that way. They do. And so the task of the church fellowship is to open every possible avenue of interaction so that folks outside the church feel like being inside the church is like coming home!

There was a story about a poor family that was struggling to get by. They didn’t have enough food, enough clothing, and their house was cold and drafty.

Finally, some folks for the Methodist church nearby noticed and came to help. They brought some good healthy food. They brought clothes for the parents and the kids. And best of all, they got the house insulated and set up a fund so the family would have fuel to heat the house.

By now the folks from the church were so excited by how everything had worked out, they somehow got it in their heads that perhaps the family would show up for worship the following Sunday.

And when they didn’t they were a bit curious, so one of the more nosy of the members (not that a church like this would have nosy members) checked to see just what had happened.

And it turned out that the family realized that in their new clothes that they looked so good, that they went upscaled and visited the Presbyterian Church instead! Welcome, welcome, welcome! You’re looking good! Just saying!

The story is a bit of fun, but to be clear, not exactly what is happening here. In fact, almost the opposite is happening. Many non-church folks feel like their current way of living not be welcome in a typical church. The #tiedyechurch. The #comesharemypew church! What’s a pew?

Some of these folks are amazing, wonderful, gracious, loving, but in relationship to a church wildly self-conscious, uncomfortable and nervous.

They think that they are not traditional enough to be thought of as just one of the bunch.

They don’t have grey hair, they do have tattoos. They don’t know any of the songs we sing, but they love some rock and roll, country, alternative, and pop. Not much of that sounds like church music.

We followers of Jesus can be a bit stuffy. A bit aloof. Sometimes less than accepting. A bit judge-y, perhaps. Not mellow or open or loving, or most of all, much like Jesus, who could sit with tax collectors and sinners, and be loved and admired by them.

It turns out it is not necessarily a new problem. Peter and the crew, it seems, were also scaring off people, although it seems for a different reason. They were scaring off people because God’s power was so obvious in them.

And the people in the community loved them, but they weren’t sure if they would be welcomed, if they were holy enough, if they would fit in.

So maybe, just maybe, today, as we approach the table of the Lord, we should think about how we would bridge that gap, how we could bring to this table everyone who ought to be here to experience God’s love and forgiveness who isn’t.

Who is God calling you to reach out to, and what would have to be different to enable them to get here?

Let’s band together to by this time next month make sure that we have invited one more to come.

It’s not likely that the community will line up the sick so our shadows will fall on them and heal them. But maybe, we should be striving to be a community that is so known for God’s presence in its midst that people want to come.

May it be so today as we, God’s faithful people, make a difference, in Jesus Name!

Amen.

Sermon for June 30 from Acts 4:32-37

So…

What has God given you to use for his glory?

Challenging question don’t you think. Most of us are perfectly happy with the idea that God has blessed us and given us stuff.

On the other hand, that God may want it back, or want for us to use it on God’s behalf is a bit touchy.

We live in times where everybody is either mad or scared that someone is going to take their stuff, and potentially use it badly, to do stuff they don’t agree with. That’s the political reality. But it can also challenge and change the way we read and hear scripture and God’s call to us, so we need to be really vigilant in listening to what God is saying through the Word.

It turns out that reading this passage without considering the context in Jerusalem right after Pentecost, or what God has blessed you with to use for God’s glory, is to miss the wonder and joy of this passage.

They had just experienced Jesus’ resurrection and the amazing gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. They were literally on fire and ready to make a difference. And so, they did!

So, I have a story for you!

It turns out that at Rachel’s school in Namibia, a donor from Britain made sure that all the boys on the boys’ soccer team got uniforms. What a cool gift! That is fantastic.

But what if I also told you that there have been no donations for the girl’s netball team.

Well, you could say, “hmm, that’s unfortunate”. Or, “ahh, that is not my thing”. Or you could say, “there are kids here in the US that need uniforms, I want to do something about that first”.

Or you could say, “Huh, I wonder how much uniforms cost, because I might be willing to make some sacrifices in order to see that a child, even one far away, even from a different country, even a different race, even a different economic group, gets a uniform.”

You see, I was over at the Otisville Convenience store by the gas station when this woman approached me and said, “You are Reverend Farley aren’t you!” My first reaction was to run! But I fessed up.

She said, “Orrin and Kelly and Evangline came to our church to tell us about Rachel in Namibia, and we were wondering how much school uniforms cost.”

So, I texted Rachel in Namibia and said, “How much are uniforms?” And she told me the story above. Imagine Rachel, the collegiate volleyball player being cool with the idea that the girls don’t have uniforms? Makes you want to do something!

Now, think about those apostles and followers of Jesus meeting in small groups and hearing that folks right there at the table, widows, orphans, servants, slaves, children, seniors, didn’t have enough to eat, were sleeping on the streets without shelter or blankets, that some of them didn’t even have the basic necessities of life.

They wept, they prayed, and then they got busy. Doing exactly what we do, and even more. They took what God had given them as resources, and began using them to make a difference.

They even took money out of the bank to do it, since in Jesus’ day - like our own, some wealth was kept in owning land and property, so they cashed out some of what they had, to do what they knew God wanted them to do.

And they did it unafraid, excited, full of hope, because everyone in the community of faith was doing what they could.

So, what has God given you to use for his glory?

Maybe a family, a car, a house, an income, children, teenagers, some talents, skills, and abilities. Maybe you have time during the day to help feed hungry folks, or time on the train to and from NYC like Elizabeth, to make cool projects, email a person who needs a pick me up note, or write a little testimony about how God has touched your life.

Maybe you are blessed to have started your “giving” early in life, and are tithing, or working on it as God leads you. Maybe your kitchen table like Janet’s could host a bible study.

Or maybe you love teenagers and can’t wait to corrupt some teens in Youth Group once your 2-year-old is a bit bigger. I got to tell you, there is no more fun than bringing a two-year-old to a youth group meeting and watching the older kids play with and care for that little one.

Maybe you are a great photographer, or a graphics artist. Did you see this week’s tie dye “O” on our Facebook page! We are #tiedyechurch! Many thanks to Sue West and her daughter for that!

What as God blessed you with?

Deep faith, a love for struggling people, amazing organizational skills, that in the context of this community of faith could help us do what God has called us to do to make a difference?

“In a powerful way the apostles told everyone that the Lord Jesus was now alive. God greatly blessed his followers!”

May it be so today, as we, God’s faithful people, Make a difference, in Jesus Name!

Amen.

Sermon for June 23 from Acts 3:1-10

So…

On your way to church today, what did you see?

One person in the community is looking for their dog who went missing, a Siberian Huskey. Did you see it?

Or maybe you were so busy arguing with the kids or your spouse you didn’t see anything? That’s an assumption. My father made us sing as we went!

One of our church members reported excitedly that they saw the Mount Hope Police this morning. They said it was really hard to miss with those red and blue light flashing in their rear-view mirror.

Let me be clear, if you are in that much of a hurry to get to church that you get a ticket from the Popo, you let me know, because I am so proud of you!

Rushing like that to church so you don’t miss a second of this amazing community of faith.

I’ll make you a deal. If you tell me how much the ticket was, I will make a contribution to the church in your name for the same amount, so you don’t have to worry about your offering that Sunday!

So, on your way to church today, what did you see?

Peter and John are headed to the Temple after Pentecost, which we discovered last week was their regular big church gathering. They also were part of small groups, where the real spiritual growth was going on, but…

They made it a principle of their faith that they would go to “big” worship. It was that important to them. You can skip worship, just like you can skip the gym. You miss once or twice, no bigee. But…

In time, too much no church, just like too much no exercise means a flabby…spirit! Not ready, not resilient, not prepared for challenges, or injury, in danger of overuse pain because your spiritual flexibility and strength is less that optimal.

They decided not to skip worship! And on the way they saw something.

Not a deer and fawn on the lawn, not the dashboard doing 45 in a 30, not houses, and cars, and optional stop signs.

They saw people. And in particular, they saw a neighbor in need.

And it occurred to them that maybe with the power they had been given by the Holy Spirit that they could do something about it.

Note, they didn’t do what they couldn’t do. That is always a good excuse, “well Lord, I couldn’t help because the need was greater than I could do anything about.”

God said he loved the world. What God asked of us was to love our neighbor. And the paralyzed man at the door of the Temple was their neighbor.

They didn’t have money for the paralyzed man. But they still could put the power of God to work, bringing healing and making a difference!

I have been thinking a bit about our mission statement, our vision and our values as a congregation. Sometimes it is good to go back to the basics and ask:

Who are we?

What are we trying to accomplish?

And what makes us unique?

Understand those three things can really sharpen up what happens on Sunday morning and during the week, because it allows you to focus on what is essential, and potentially to walk away from what is taking time, energy and resources, but really is only tendential to our special calling as the Otisville – Mt. Hope Presbyterian Church.

It needs work, it needs refinement, but I had to laugh when after looking at it six or seven separate times, yesterday one of our core values just popped up in a discussion, “Dream Big, Scale Back”.

Several years ago, I asked Mark Yuengling who was working locally as a set builder for some off-Broadway shows, if we could change the sanctuary into the site of the empty tomb for our Easter services.

He said he would think about it and get back to me and he did. Across the front of the church was a canvas painting of a hillside with a tomb, with a large round tombstone. On Sunday morning as the service started, the tombstone rolled away, and angel came out and Bill Byrne dressed as a Roman soldier fainted.

It was amazing! But as Mark pointed out, it was all an illusion, meant to evoke a sense that you were there. And he was the one who said, in theater, in order to help the audience feel like they are there, you dream big, and then scale back.

You take the wildest of dreams, and then say, but of this what can we do, to be found being faithful.

Peter and John didn’t have the finances to drop gold coins into the paralytic man’s hands. But they did have something else, something far more valuable, and opportunity for this man to find the healing he needed and wanted, if he was will to stand up.

It is what we do as a church do all the time. We dream big and scale back to fit what we can do; think Rachel’s Elephant-free Garden in Namibia.

Backpacks with breakfast and lunch for every kid in a food scare house attending the Otisville school.

Wheelchairs, walkers, commodes, and other hospital aids for folks who need help right now.

And funds for the Ronald McDonald house so folks who need to stay for just a day or two and do so with our scholarship help.

And that is only the beginning, because every Sunday, on our way to worship, we see, we remember, we pray for, and we reach out to folks who need the power of God in their lives, and then, instead of walking by, we do something.

So, on your way to church today, what did you see?

We, God’s people, are called to Make a difference, in Jesus Name!

And so, we shall. Amen.

Sermon for June 16 from Acts 2:42-47

So...

We have been meeting at Janet Miedema’s house for our Wednesday night bible studies, and as always, they are a free-for-all.

The coffee is hot, the desserts are delicious, but what makes the gathering is the comedy. Yes, we are studying the bible, and by that I mean we, at home, read the Scripture passage, this week it was Hebrews chapter 3, and we individually (and sometimes as couples) read the study guides questions and come up with what we think is a good answer.

But I have got to be honest, it goes off the rails as soon as we start talking. This is not your aunt Gertrude’s bible study! It is in fact, a small group, a life group, a discipleship group that has at it’s core a few minutes of bible stuck in the middle.

Yes, we talk about our answers to each of the questions, but inevitably someone says about one of them, “That was a really lousy question!” And then its on.

Plus, we talk about life, and how were doing and what is happening and who needs prayer and why.
We talk about Derrick’s regular visits by the Jehovah’s Witnesses where we have him convinced, I think, that he should invite them to worship some Sunday!

And together, we try to figure out how to be faithful disciples in our day-to-day lives.

I reminded the group that Sue was retiring this June after 21 years of time working for Orange County Office of the Aging, the Middletown School district and 17 disconnected years at the Minisink Valley Middle School as a 7&8 grade special education Science and Social Studies teacher.

Because she’s retiring, we had a financial guy, actually two of them, over to talk to us about what to do with her retirement income, and one of them asked, “well, do you want to leave anything for the kids?”

I get it, they want to know if we want to put all our resources in something like an annuity, where you get more income, but at the end, the money is gone.

And while I am thinking about that, she says, “no, we plan to use it all!” And don’t worry, me being me, I already shared that with Brian, Rachel and Katie.

Because the bible study, our small group, was thinking about eternity, about how you live now, so that you can live in God’s presence forever! About the choices we make, the distractions we deal with, the ease of getting off track and saying we love God and we are serving him while spending all our time and energy doing all kinds of other stuff!

Small groups, life groups, church families, tribes, bible studies, whatever you call them, are a way, smack dab in the middle of the week, to keep you focused, keep you praying, keep you laughing, keep you on the way of Jesus, just like it was 2000 years ago for the apostles and disciples and followers of Jesus in Jerusalem!

You can meet at church like the Wednesday morning bible study does, ten women and me.

Or you can meet at a house like we do at Janet Miedema’s with coffee and last week ice cream and the week before Katie Jackson’s blueberry heaven.

I’ve heard of a men’s small group that meets at a bratwurst pub and eats lunch and has beverages.

I know of a mom’s small group that meets at a church’s fellowship hall and the kids play while they exchange prayer concerns and do bible study in the midst of all kinds of interruptions.

And, of course, the old Bible and Brew idea, plus my friend Jay’s “tasting” bible studies.

Why do they do all this?

Because they wanted to be together!

Because they want to do what they could to sustain and grow their faith!

Because they wanted a place to share what they have seen God do and what they needed prayer for, and they wanted to know that someone was praying for them, and they were not willing to go more than a couple of days without that kind of spiritual support.

After Jesus death and resurrection, Ascension, and the arrival of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the community of faith was not going to just go back to the same old, same old.

They went to the Temple. They saw the big worship experience there, and really understood its meaning now. But they wanted and needed more. So, they got together in small groups.

And they ate together, and they prayed together, and they studied together, they shared with and cared for each other, together.

I am always amazed by the number of church folks who are and are not in bible studies or small groups. Because it is the place where God’s people grow the fastest and the strongest, hands down!

So, if you are interested in being part of a small group, or think that you would be willing to host or lead a small group, let me know.

Summer has its challenges, but fall is coming. Would it be nice to have a bunch of new small groups for people to consider being a part of.

“Everyone liked them, and each day the Lord added to their group others who were being saved.”

We, God’s people, are called to Make a difference, in Jesus Name!

And so, we shall. Amen.

Sermon for June 9 Pentecost

So…

Legos!

And to be clear, this not about Legoland, although that seems to have caused almost as much controversy as the Tower of Bebel.

Rather, it’s about building a tower of brinks and tar, instead of stone and mortar.

I’m not sure why that matters, maybe because stone wasn’t readily available, so they could make bricks using mud and fire. And as for using tar instead of mortar, maybe that was because mortar, which is made of sand was hard to find, but pools of the sticky gooey black stuff was floating in pools of water nearby.

In any case, the people of the time decided to band together and make a great tower, a huge tower, one that would scrap the sky as it were, and would make them world famous, so cool, as a symbol of their self-made status, totally self-reliant, the most amazing people on the planet ever, and it seems, totally oblivious to God’s presence and power.

Part of the reason they were able to do all of this, Genesis tells us, was because, oddly enough, they all spoke the same language. This is after the flood Noah floated around in, so, maybe they were all related?

In any case, the tower, built of brinks, was to be a symbol of their self-reliance. They were planning to show the world they were their own Gods, that is until the God of time and space intervened.

So…

How many of you know how to Babel?

Have any of you tried talking to a baby recently? That’s what they do, at least for a while, they babble.

Noah, our grandson, talks a lot. We just have no clue what he is saying! He likes to say Nanananana, so, my wife Sue, his Nana, likes to believe he’s talking about her.

For those of you who were here for the Mystery Dinner Theater know there is a lot to talk about.

But he also likes to shout, so who knows. He babbles, talks using sounds, shaping them in his mouth, kind of testing to see which ones get a reaction.

Do you remember which word you said first when you were a kid? Was it Momma, or Dada, or was it the all famous, NO!

Of course, at some point we will talk, most of us, anyway. And talk, and talk, and talk. We all as we grow and mature and begin to communicate with the others around us so we can get what we need, make ourselves understood, help others too.

Going beyond babbling to talking is a huge developmental change because when we can communicate, we can get things done!

As is true in the story about the Tower of Babel; a story that would have been very familiar to the folks in Jerusalem, because it is one of the big stories of the Old Testament, and would particularly have come to mind very easily after Pentecost.

Why?

Because way back in time God had separated people by languages, and now God was putting things back together!

Tons of people were in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost, or the Festival of weeks, as it was known, fifty days after Passover, a celebration of the wheat harvest, and there they heard all about Jesus death and resurrection.

But, and ere’s the crazy thing, they were hearing about Jesus death and resurrection in their own native languages!

Yes, the people in Jerusalem were all Jewish. Yes, they all understood some Hebrew. But their native languages, that is the languages they spoke at home, and with their friends, and out in the places of business, were all different!

Natives from Jerusalem spoke Aramaic, a different dialect of Aramaic from the Galileans. Most business in Jesus’ times throughout the Roman Empire was conducted in Greek.

People from Rome would have spoken Latin. And the people from the area of Iran would have spoken Parthian and even other languages were possible, since Acts 2 mentions Arabia and even parts of Egypt.

So you see it was a miracle, and a miracle, and a miracle!

One, everyone, no matter their language, the one they thought in and understood in, heard the gospel in their language.

Two, the speakers were the disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit, able, and most importantly, willing, to share God’s amazing love with people they didn’t know, and presumed they couldn’t communicate with.

And third, the separation of people into languages God had instituted at Babble turned around, so that all could see not the amazing power of people, but the amazing power of God!

In Christ and through Christ, by God’s action, we are filled with the Holy Spirit and made able in all situations to do what God has called us to do, because God has given us what we need to do it!!

We, God’s people, are called to Make a difference, in Jesus Name!

And so, we shall.

Amen.

Sermon for June 2 from Matthew 8:1-17

So…

What are you afraid of? Spiders? Mice? Presbyterians? Just asking!

And what would you do, if you could do it, unafraid?

Going in a slightly different direction, what is it that is holding you back from being God’s complete person, giving your whole life to follow Jesus?

One of the things that astounds me about Jesus is his seeming lack of fear.

In this story, he was not afraid of the leper, though everyone else thought the leper was contagious.

He was not afraid of the soldier, even though everyone else thought soldiers were the enemy.

He was not afraid of Peter’s mother-in-law, even though she was sick, feverish, and a woman.

He was not afraid of the religious authorities, priests, scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, or the Sanhedrin. Or for that matter, the Romans.

He was not even afraid of demons.

So, if Jesus can heal a leper, and a soldier’s servant, an ill woman, and a person with a demon, unafraid, what about you?

Not only is it possible that you could be healed if that’s what you need, but you could also become one of God’s healing people!

As we will see in the week’s after Pentecost, God’s people in the church did all kinds of healing ministry: physical healing of wounds and sores and even of death; but also healing of emotional wounds, and spiritual injuries, and even economic nightmares, like the ones plaguing the widows and orphans of Jerusalem.

The apostles grabbed a few really faithful believers and told them to get to work making sure hungry people were fed. Unafraid they went at it, because they knew God’s power was at work in them!

Far too many of us live life scared.

We don’t have to…

The power and presence of the Holy Spirit is available to us!

I was talking to Mallory Hunter on Thursday. Mallory is Wes Hunter’s granddaughter. She came to Otisville to honor her grandfather and to be with the family. She put the picture boards together with Jesse I think and then delivered them to the church Thursday night.

She has moved from tiny little Otisville to LA to pursue a career as a dancer, singer, and model, and so far has done really well. She has her own music video. She has appeared in a music video with Cardi B, and with DJ Kaleed (I’d say look them up, but make sure you consult a 20 or 30 something before you do, and have an AED handy!)

And she said there are a bunch more coming.

But it’s what she said about that move to the craziness of LA that reminded me of what the Women’s Conference told our women a few week’s ago.

Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do scared!

It all seems too big, too risky. But if you don’t, aren’t you being less than what God made you to be. To be a blessing, whether feeding the hungry or making people want to sing and dance?

We God’s people have been called…

To love boldly, to live boldly, to care boldly, to give boldly, and to grow boldly, no matter the circumstances.

Because it is what Jesus would do! And it is what we do together!

We are called to Make a difference, in Jesus Name! And so we shall. Amen.