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!