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!
Monday, September 30, 2019
Monday, September 23, 2019
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!
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!
Monday, September 16, 2019
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?
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!
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!
Monday, September 09, 2019
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!
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!
Tuesday, September 03, 2019
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!
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?
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 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!
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!
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