The Monster on July 26 a Sermon by Edgar Hat=yes

Other than comic books, I hadn’t read many personal books growing up.  I had an explosion of reading at the end of HS/beginning of college.   I took a liking to Steven King’s writings.  I got so engrossed in a character while I was riding on the subway train.  After exiting the train, as I approached the turnstile, I felt as if I couldn’t talk.  The character I was reading about was mute.  I quickly came to my senses but oh the joy of a good book.  There was a lull in my reading frenzy followed by another explosion when JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series hit the stands.  I couldn’t wait to get to the next one but was always sad to get to the end, because I didn’t want the book to end.  When our children were born, we made sure we read to them every day.  They loved books and one in particular is The monster at the end of this book.   

This book and my up and down book reading reminded me of how I read the Bible.  A lot of people read, know, and love the beginning story of creation.   In the beginning God created (that was my sad attempt at James Earl Jones impersonation (Star Wars fans will know who he is)...the seventh day He rested...God walked and talked with Adam in the cool of day...the setting was picturesque, pure, and pleasing to the senses...throw in vegetarian eating (an awesome start to a book)...enter the serpent...the apple...the fall and exile...birth and murder...a created people...the flood...a rainbow and a new beginning.

Genesis provides all the makings of a movie blockbuster... intrigue, death, conniving, love, action.  It’s a good read that captivates you to keep going. But by the time Leviticus and Numbers rolls around, the rollercoaster rides on a downhill swing.  It picks up again around Deuteronomy, coast for a little bit before making upward and downward swings again.  And if you are like me, I never wanted to read the end of the Bible because there was a monster, quite a few actually, at the end of the book.  I dabbled but relatively stayed away from the book of Revelations way into my adult years.  Many folks are scared to read Revelations because of God’s judgement on His people. 

Many people are scared because it involves the devil, spiritual warfare in real life, is characterized with dragons, death, plagues, scorpion like creatures...Because of my fear, I never knew the very end of the Bible that Isaiah foretold chapters and centuries before. 

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days...my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.  In other words, our swords, our weapons of war are beaten into plowshares, because no more will there be war over each other’s land and possessions.  The old things, the old ways gone, never to return.  Yet because of my fear, I never really knew this.”

Nor my favorite part of the whole bible, which happens to be in Revelations, where it says:  

“The angel showed me a river that was crystal clear, and its waters gave life. The river came from the throne where God and the Lamb were seated. Then it flowed down the middle of the city’s main street. On each side of the river are trees that grow a different kind of fruit each month of the year. The fruit gives life, and the leaves are used as medicine to heal the nations.”          -Revelation 22:1-2  

The Bible as a whole is a story of God’s love and a strong desire to be with, closely work in and through the lives of His creation.   We can see this theme happening throughout the book.  As we change lenses to get a closer perspective (Star Wars fans will know what I’m referencing), today’s reading comes from the gospel book of Matthew.  

He wrote to a specific audience around 85-90 AD.  

Jewish Christians were living in a period of post-temple destruction, which occurred in 70 AD.  Temple worship was no longer central for Jews who followed the old faith traditions and Rome still occupied the nation.  Jews and Jewish Christians faced high taxes, exile, persecution from Rome, and many were killed during the war years or fled to other nations around the world.  

Jewish Christians were also harassed by Jews because of their new faith.  Matthew’s main purpose in writing the gospel was to show his audience that Jesus was the promised Messiah.  He was the one talked about in the stories and written about in the “Old” scriptures, and that God’s promises had been, were being, and will continue to be fulfilled.

So as we read and try to understand scripture, it is imperative that we see it from the lens of the people, time, culture, and setting, for which it was written.  The trouble occurs when we replace our own time, culture, language, and understanding with the setting of the writer.  We will miss out on a lot of what God has to offer if we fail to recognize who the book was it written to, when was it written, what was going on at the time, and what was God’s active, sovereign work over creation in that particular setting.     

So that’s Matthew as a whole.  Now we can change the lens again (Star Wars fans) to go deeper into today’s scripture.  What was Matthew talking about when he mentions so many times the kingdom of heaven.  If we compare Matthews gospel to the other two Synoptics, we see that they use kingdom of God instead.  Matthew is not referring to God’s dwelling place heaven.  Some scholars believe it was just a way to circumvent the use of saying the name for God. 

The phrase, kingdom of heaven/God, was never really defined but rather used as a simile or metaphor by Jesus in His parables to describe God’s ever present, ever working in and through, sovereign reign over His creation.  The Christian readers of Matthew’s time knew this language and discussed what it meant for them in their time.  How can we Christians today make sense of the language?  Parables are confusing in themselves let alone try to figure out what the kingdom of heaven is.  So let’s take a closer look at what the scripture is saying. The kingdom of heaven is like:

·       What happens when a farmer plants a mustard seed in a field? What happens when a woman adds a little yeast to a large amount of flour?

·       These two speaks of the abundance of God’s kingdom

·       What happens when someone finds treasure hidden? What happens when a shop owner is looking for fine pearls?

·       These two speaks of giving up all you have for the one treasure - eternal life.   

·       What happens when a net is thrown into a lake?

·       This one talks about the time of judgment.  The end of the age. The monster at the end of the book.  It also speaks to the beauty of God’s grace and love for those who choose Him.  

Matthew uses many other parables in reference to God’s kingdom.  Who will and will not get in, people keeping others from entering, inheriting the kingdom, being childlike, the least in the kingdom, people from everywhere enjoying the feast in the kingdom with the patriarchs, and with Jesus.  The kingdom of heaven is near.  The kingdom of God is here.  The kingdom of heaven is future looking.  The kingdom of God is never static or central but always moving yet ever present with time and outside of time. 

It is also revealed through the Holy Spirit to those who are willing to see and hear God’s truth.  Jesus spoke about the kingdom in parables to the people, but explained their meaning only to the disciples.  He told them- the prophets of old longed to see and hear what you witnessed.  The mysteries of the kingdom were being revealed to them when most were “seeing but could not see and hearing but could not hear”. 

So, I ask you Christian, if the Holy Spirit is allowing you to see while others are blind and hear while others are deaf, what are you doing today with the knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom.  What are you doing today in the face of racism in America? 

I shared yesterday in a zoom meeting how white women clutch their purse when they see me walking down the street towards them.  When they do that subconsciously or consciously, they are not seeing Edgar the preacher, fireman, teacher, farmer, father, husband, human being and child of God.  What they see is the stereotypical image of a black man as thief. 

What are you doing today Christian as the 1st and second wave of Corona virus cases are increasing?  Are you recognizing the harvest in the fields?  Are you continuing to do the work of God, safely, while not allowing fear and/or isolation govern your life?  Jesus says the “harvest is plenty, but the workers are few.”  So what are you doing today Christian in the face of hunger, mental illness, understanding systemic racism in all its forms , opioid addiction, jobless rate increase, health crisis, depression, homelessness, misogyny, or human trafficking?  More and more people are in need of help these days. 

What are you doing today, Christian? 

If we were to write up a parable for our time today, it could be: The kingdom of heaven is like when a Christian allowed the Holy Spirit to open their eyes and open their ears.  People were not seen as objects or lesser than and everyone fought together against the spiritual forces waging war against the soul.  Lord we pray that your kingdom come soon in order for your Will to be done on this earth as it is in heaven.  Amen.

Strange Faith: Healing from Luke 8 on July 12

What is it that you love most about worship? And what is it that you miss the most?

Les Kirby’s sister stopped by on Wednesday and was telling me about her church.

Like us haven’t met in person, but they have figured out that when they do, they won’t be able to sing, and they won’t be able to hug. She said, “so what’s the point, we can get the rest watching the service on the computer!”

I think that is a pretty understandable expression of what we want and need in our worship experiences, not just the transcendence of God with us, but the fellowship of us being together.

The faith community gathered has its own power for us! In being together we feel healed, redirected, encouraged to go back into the world and be like Christ.

So, while online worship is good and helpful especially when we just can’t safely gather, being together feels better. It is a visible expression of the body of Christ, and in the gathered crowd our faith grows.

Sheila Moore said the other day that she hurried back from shopping so she could be at home for the Friday Zoom Prayer meeting, because in that space the power flows and we all feel energized.

So, it’s not that God can’t move over the wires connecting us by Zoom or Facebook or Youtube, just like this morning. It’s just that we yearn for more!

And in these two stories from Luke’s gospel, we see the power of the gathered faith community for what it is in that context, then and now. In community, God does miracles!

Now you may be surprised by that idea, that this crowd on the shore of Lake Galilee is a faith community!

Sometimes I think we a bit arrogantly assume that the Jewish communities and even some of the Gentile communities Jesus encountered were without faith, but clearly that isn’t true.

Sometimes, like us, there was more faith or less faith, but often, Jesus saw faith and called on that faith to strengthen it and invite it to step up to a new level!

Unlike the story before it on the other shore of Galilee with the man possessed by a demon, and the pig farmers, this community is not only is excited to see Jesus, but they want to see God’s power at work through Jesus.

But as is often the case, they were not necessarily ready for how that power was going to play out, just as I suspect we aren’t ready for God’s power today.

We want God to come among us. We want God to touch our lives. But there is always some trepidation when God’s power is unleashed in that it will change things, and well, we don’t like change very much!

We’re nervous about what God will do and how God will change things and change us. And what God does may challenge us to live in bold ways like we never have before!

So, it’s into this faith community gathered on Galilee’s shores that the President of the Synagogue comes and kneels at Jesus’ feet.

It turns out that his only daughter, just 12, is gravely sick.

He comes full of faith and hope to ask Jesus to come to his house and heal the child. He hopes that Jesus will come quickly and that the healing process will come quickly as well.

This is a big moment for Jesus, because if the healing takes place, the Synagogue’s president is in a position to make Jesus even more famous and renown than he already is! And the crowd heads to the leader’s house!

But, we know a bit more about Jesus than perhaps the President of the Synagogue or the crowd did. Perhaps even more than the disciples, because we know that while meeting the President of the Synagogue may have been nice, Jesus had no interest in fame, or renown.

His interest was only in doing the work God had called him to, a gentle reminder that Jesus has little interest in many of the things we often worry about, focused instead on calling us to great faith, often the opposite of fame and power and money!

Our calling, like Jesus’, is to be focused on the kingdom, focused on God’s work in this world, and focused on growing disciples.

And then Jesus stops dead to ask who touched him!

If it wasn’t such an important moment one could almost see this as written for a Monty Python sketch, as the disciples look around hopelessly and in absolute disbelief that Jesus wants to know who of the hundreds of people around him touched him.

It could have been the synagogue guy. It could have been one of them. Everyone is in close, jostling for a place near the master and he wants to know who!

Because it matters! The who!

Because in the next moment he takes a lowly terrified woman, who by ritual standards because of her bleeding should never have been allowed anywhere near Jesus, in fact anywhere near the crowd, because she was unclean…

And Jesus, caring not a whit about her ritual uncleanness, restores her not only to health, but almost more importantly, to her community, so that no one can ever question if she belongs as part of them.

Though the scripture makes it sound as if she only touched the hem of his garment, Jesus makes clear she has touched him, that healing power has moved and has healed her, and that he now wants to meet the person of faith who simply believing, has been set free.

She bows at his feet in abject fear.

The penalty for her audacity could be permanent, painful and swift. Instead, Jesus raises her up publicly to full communion in the house of faith, as a person who is whole, holy, restored, and an example of what faith is all about!

“You are now well because of your faith. May God give you peace!”

The child of the man of renown waits while the outcast women is healed. In the kingdom of God, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

God does not care about fame or power or money. What God cares about is your faith.

And in a quiet room, with only a child, her faithful parents, and just three of the disciples, he raises the dead girl to life, telling the parents to say nothing.

Because faith brings no fame or power or money.

What it brings is restoration.

A woman to her community. A child to her parents. And you and I to God and each other.

And every person of faith, be they black or white, Canadian or Swede, gay or straight, young or old, handsome or rugged, working or unemployed, healthy or ill, restored to full communion in the Kingdom of God!

You and I have been restored!

And now we are invited to go and find others to invite back home! Amen

The Struggle is Real from July 5

The Struggle is Real by Elizabeth Orengo

Today’s passage shows us the very human side of the Apostle Paul. He is considered one of the most influential leaders of the early Christian church. He was crucial in spreading the gospel to the gentiles during the first century through is missionary journeys. And he started dozens of churches. That’s not a bad resume. Some would say, he’s someone we should look up to as an example of a good Christian, right?

Let’s see – he was influential, he could preach the gospel so good speaker, he was a self-starter or entrepreneur, definitely a leader, so yeah, by those qualifications, he’s pretty good.

But let’s not forget before he met Jesus, he was Saul of Tarsus and his primary occupation was persecuting Christians. Hey, nobody’s perfect.

That’s why today’s passage always strikes home with me. Because it’s REAL! I see myself in this passage. I know the sermon title is cliché but it’s true – the struggle is real! What struggle? Well, life!

As I’ve mentioned before, I was born and raised in the church. I’ve never really strayed or rebelled against the church. I may have gone a few months over the course of my [ahem] years of not attending because I was “in between” churches but I never considered myself “unchurched”. So when I read this passage and see that someone like Paul who commands with such authority, who starts churches, who calls people out, who is bold and confident to preach the gospel anywhere his feet takes him actually STRUGGLES with SIN then I think to myself – WOW, if this guy who in some religions is known as a Saint can have issues, then I‘m not in bad company!

That’s why this passage in Romans is often referred to as the Christian Experience because it talks about the Christian life. It talks about the struggle only Christians have – that push and pull between wanting to do what is good (following God) and doing what is bad (sin). You see, non-believers don’t have this struggle. Because of sin (through Adam), we were already at odds with God – so sin is not the non-believers problem. Once we are converted, once we change and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, that’s when our struggle with sin begins. We are now fighting between doing what we know we should do as followers of Christ and fighting against what our flesh wants us to do. This is what Paul is talking about in chapter 7.

What I like is that he’s not talking about it from a lofty, pulpit, preachy place – he’s talking in the first-person. He’s speaking of his experience as a Christian in verses 14-25. Paul is describing his own personal struggle with sin. What?? Paul struggles with sin? The Apostle Paul?? That can’t be right!? Me, yes? I can’t speak for you, but ask yourself, do you struggle with sin?

Now you may think, “I’m a good person. I may make little mistakes, tell the occasional white lie, but I don’t SIN.” Well, look at this way. The fact that you categorize them as “mistakes” and “lies” already means you know they are wrong – you are already struggling with yourself. That means the Holy Spirit is working in you, course correcting you to stay on the right path. That inner voice – that’s the struggle. If you weren’t a believer, that inner voice wouldn’t be there, that struggle wouldn’t be there.

Let’s go to the text. Verses 14-17:

14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. 15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

Like all good leaders, Paul is trying to problem solve. Is the law (the Law of Moses) the problem or is it me? Let’s get to the root of the problem. Well, it can’t be the Law – that’s holy, righteous and good. It came directly from God! So, I have to be the problem! Then we see his frustration with himself! And this is where I see myself so often! I know what I’m supposed to do and yet I don’t do it!!

It’s like exercising. We all know we should exercise daily. And we may start off with good intentions on January 1. We get our gym memberships or buy some home equipment and new workout clothes and we’re excited and motivated. Week one we’re feeling good, the endorphins are in high gear. Week two we skipped a few days because we worked late, we went out, we wanted pizza for dinner, or [insert your own excuse here]. Week three we find more excuses and our struggle continues.

That’s how I see this inner struggle we have with sin. But Paul does something in this text that adds a new element and kind of takes the guilt off our shoulders.

Our desire as Christians is to want to do that which God’s Law defines as good. We don’t want to do what the Law calls sin. I picture this like a tennis match where I’m the ball bouncing from one side of the court to the other – I want to do the right thing (whack), but I don’t (return), but I want to do right (whack), but I mess up again (return)…how do we stop the insanity?!

Paul describes this as being weak in the flesh which is why we are overpowered by our sinful nature! Verses 18-20:

18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

If Paul struggled with his sinful nature, what hope do the rest of us have of conquering it? This problem is serious! So much so that Paul refers to himself as “a miserable person” or in some translations “wretched.” He even likens his struggles to being a slave to sin. This nature is so powerful, he’s being controlled by it! Have you ever felt controlled by your sins? Verses 21-24:

21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

Let’s step back for a minute. Have you noticed a theme throughout the text? There’s a whole lot of “I” going on in here!

“I want to do”

“but I don’t”

“I do what I really”

“I, I, I, I, I”!

Where is God in all this struggling?

Where is there some Proverbs 3:5 trust & understanding?

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

I do this a lot, too. I try to solve my issues on my own. I think too often that God has bigger things to deal with that I should be able to deal with my own issues. Since I know I’m doing wrong, I should be able to course correct on my own. I know that causes a lot of the struggles I face and it’s not necessary.

The desperate struggle in our life as Christians to do what is right under our own power – I’ll say that again – under our own power – leads to complete frustration and failure – even the Apostle Paul says this is his experience! So, I ask again, is there hope? Are we meant to keep struggling endlessly? No, we are not; there is HOPE! That hope can be found in Jesus Christ!

Verse 25:

25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

My friends, until Christ comes again and we are transformed, we are going to struggle between doing what is right because we have become children of God and what is wrong because of sin. But don’t despair. Look to the Cross. This is where we will find forgiveness and strength and healing. Remember, when you struggle and fail – not if, but when – you’ll be in good company. His name is the Apostle Paul and he didn’t do so badly. Amen.