Love Each Other, from 1 John 4:7-21 on November 15,2020

So, how is the loving each other going?

Covid and politics have made that really hard! People we thought we knew, trusted and loved, acting in ways we just can’t wrap our heads around.

Folks who are even angry at each other.

Years ago, I took training in conflict resolution. And, they talked about levels of conflict.

Levels 1&2 were considered creative conflict, where people with different ideas and agendas and even passions talk about all their many solutions, and out of it often comes a great new plan that takes parts of everyone’s ideas and incorporates them.

Then everyone buys in and gets to work.

The unity of the whole is more important that the many individual pieces. The bigger mission of the team or the company or the family take precedence. Nobody is crowing that they are more important and so should be treated special.

Some of the most effective organizations show off this creative ability often. By being able to get good ideas from many sources, they shine, they keep the best talent, and they succeed in remarkable ways.

But there are also level 3&4 conflicts.

That’s like the football team where the big name running back complains publicly that they aren’t being given the ball, or the wide receiver complains publicly they are getting thrown the ball.

The conflict is no longer a matter of creative discussion in the team meetings that will result in consensus and buy in, but has now spilled out into the public arena.

And people start choosing sides both inside the organization and outside. And insidiously, some folks take to doing everything they can to widen the cracks that are now showing to the world.

Level 5 conflict is death. It is when everyone involved has chosen a side and now will not talk to each other, will not come to the table, are not interested in compromise. Where the only future is separation. Think Hatfields and McCoys!

But there is another way! The way of Christ, following Jesus.

John describes it here in 1 John 4. And he makes it clear, “God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him.” By the way, that includes folks who don’t agree with you, and whom you may in your worst moments think aren’t so bright.

God loves them, and wants you to love them too. Otherwise, perhaps, John suggests, you have never really known God. Perhaps, your life has never really been filled with God’s love.

After all, really loving others means being willing to go to a cross for them!

I have been reading a book, ever so slowly entitled, Herding Tigers, by Todd Henry.

You probably have heard the saying that somethings are as difficult as “herding cats”. Well this book takes that idea and suggests that working with strong, motivated teams of very creative individuals is like herding cats on steroids.

Herding Tigers makes the case that wildly creatives teams can do amazing things because they have such amazing energy and ability, but that the conflict can go from level 1 to level 4 in a flash.

So, for managers who work with creative teams, they need special skills, in order to allow for the creativity, but also build in high levels of unity and support.

Just because someone sees the world differently than you doesn’t mean they are a bad person you need to abandon.

Instead, assume that they are in fact a great person with a different perspective you need to see, that you need to understand, so that not only can you love the person, but also so you can take into account their unique perspective!

But in the world of Covid and politics, so many people are so busy taking what should be level 1&2 conflicts, creative opportunities, and joyfully and even gleefully making them into level 3&4 conflicts.

They are encouraging folks to argue and fight, disagree to the point of leaving, tearing open what could be wonderful caring and creative communities not just outside the church, but even inside it.

All, flying in the face of what the author John tells us our Lord wants.

“My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God’s children, and we know him.”

You know what happens when we love God and each other and the people God has entrusted to our care?

Miracles!

Downstairs, the Thanksgiving Baskets line the halls. Love made real in our giving!

Downstairs, the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes are stacked high. Love made real in our giving.

And right here, the pledge cards collected from God’s people are filled with a gesture of love, as people thought through and prayed through what they decided they could give this year! Love made real in our giving.

Because it is in what we give to others, our time, our energy, our openness, our thoughtfulness, that we revel God’s presence in us.

I was in an online seminar this past week about people’s first impressions of a church, and what we as God’s people can do to make new folks engagement with us, something that might move them to come and join with us.

And you know what was said? What it is that moves people from an initial look to engagement?

Our thoughtfulness.

That we obviously took the time to think about what it would be like to first encounter the crazy people at the Otisville Church, and what visitors would need online and in person to help them feel like they are loved, welcomed, wanted, and would forever be cared for here!

Because it is just like the culture has been telling us forever, people go where everyone knows your name, where they have friends, where no matter who you are you will be accepted.

Love one another.

Or as John says a bit later, “If we keep on loving others, we will stay one in our hearts with God, and he will stay one with us.”

May it be so, even in the days of Covid and politics. Amen.

On Fire: Tested from Acts 5:1-11 on November 8, 2020

So,

Imagine yourself being at worship one Sunday, and someone comes into the service, puts a check in the offering plate and then drops over dead!

That would be just insane. Yet that is basically what happened in Acts 5:1-11

Welcome to one of the strangest stories in the New Testament!

Especially so, since it immediately follows the story of the faith community’s willingness to let go of property and things in order to take care of those who were in need.

The Christ followers in Jerusalem had come to understand at the deepest level that in order to see God’s blessings flow, then God’s blessing of them had to flow out into the community.

Once we stop blessing others, we stop being blessed, individually and as a faith community. Our open hands and open hearts are the conduit to God’s blessing for us and for others.

The transformation was amazing to see, because everyone, filled with the Spirit, did what they could do to make a difference. So, when the story of Ananias and Saphira opens, we are quickly confused and deeply uncomfortable!

And while for the us the juxtaposition seems very jarring and harsh, that clash seems to be essential to Luke’s story. It is his intention to help us see the power of the Holy Spirit when it is present in a faith community. We are to see here that, as Martin Luther once said, that security can become for us the “ultimate idol”.

And God doesn’t tolerate idols.

Luke wants us to see that the Christian Community being blessed is dependent on the community passing the blessings along! I can’t say that enough times!

Being blessed is dependent on us passing the blessings along!

Some of us studied this story in the Wednesday night bible study a few weeks back, and we really struggled with the deaths of Ananias and Saphira, partly because we were trying to see them in the light of God’s mercy and grace.

How could a loving God demand the lives of his servants simply because they lied?

It seemed just the opposite of what Jesus had been teaching about forgiveness and God’s love.

Why couldn’t Peter simply forgive them? Why couldn’t God?

And don’t get me wrong, those are excellent questions and ones I don’t pretend to have a good answer to.

I am aware, and I am quite willing to share with you what I do know, that our God is amazing, and while forgiveness and love are some of God greatest attributes, holiness, righteousness, and justice are others.

So, Ananias and Saphira’s plotting to lie to the Apostles about the money earned on the sale of a piece of property they didn’t have to sell, and money they didn’t have to donate, and for which there was no requirement that they give the whole amount was a really bad plan! Cheating on God is always a bad plan!

They had seen the power of the Holy Spirit.

They had seen the way it moved people to gratitude and generosity.

But for some reason, what it also did for them was to move them to try and act like everyone else, while keeping a secret about the amount of the sale, from God, from the faith community, and then going another step and lying about it!

What is at work here is not the Holy Spirit, but the spirit of pride.

They wanted to look good.

They wanted the praise of the people around them without any understanding that God and God’s servants would know all about their deceit.

It is a hard and harsh lesson, that while God loves us and forgives us, God is also willing to discipline us when we wander completely outside his grace. We are to be people filled with the Holy Spirit, growing, learning, listening.

And, plotting, lying, and giving into pride are not part of the plan.

Once we stop blessing others, using the gifts God has given us to bless others, we stop being blessed, individually and as a faith community.

We have an opportunity to open hands and open hearts so that we become the conduits of God’s love.

It matters. It is a really big deal!

We are God’s children, faithful, and ready to move heaven and earth on God’s behalf, to be a blessing every day.

May it be so, in Jesus name! Amen!

On Fire: Blessed from Acts 4:32-37 on November 1, 2020

So, do you feel blessed?

In this season of Thanksgiving, in spite of the election, and in spite of COVID, do you sense that in some way that God has blessed you?

Are you planning to take time to gather with the ones you love and celebrate the grace God has surrounded you with, the blessings material and otherwise, the relationships with family and friends near and far, which have sustained you over the last year?

Some of you know that old hymn “Count your blessings”.

It goes like this:

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Refrain:
Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your blessings, see what God has done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will be singing as the days go by.

It seems to me, that one of the great blessings of the Thanksgiving season is our counting and recounting of the blessings. Seeing them. Naming them. Sharing them.

To see objectively what is happening in our lives, not from the point of view of our trials and troubles, misgivings and issues, but from the observatory of what God has done on our behalf. What God has done, not only blessing us with needs met, but also blessing us with opportunities – to be a blessing to others!

Someone said recently that the challenge in life is to see your glass as half full, not half empty. Someone else noted with a bit of irony, that perhaps we should also notice that we have a glass, and perhaps, something to put in it!

And that seems to be what is happening in the early church community in Jerusalem after Peter and John’s release from prison. The community is seeing God at work and feeling amazingly blessed.

It is as if they now understand that God can provide in all kinds of situations, and that they don’t need to worry about going without, because as fast as they are giving what God has given them away, God is busy refilling their cups.

I have shared this before but one of the great gratitude stories I have heard is the one Carolee Union shared at one of our church retreats. Carolee unfortunately has since passed away, going on to her great reward, but before she did, what a blessing she was for us.

She told us of her gratitude journal, a book she created to force herself to look and see what God was doing to bless her, even when she was not paying attention, or when she felt just overwhelmed by life.

She said that one morning she sat at her table and was just struggling with no idea what to write in the gratitude book. And then a beautiful cardinal came and sat on her window sill, and so she opened her Gratitude Journal and wrote: “Thank you today for the gift of that beautiful red blessing!”

And as her mind turned more and more towards gratitude, little blessings became more obvious and then were added to the book.

Do you feel blessed?

Sometimes when we are struggling with life, in a true wrestling match with illness or jobs or a lack of income or family issues or even addiction, we just don’t see what God is doing on our behalf!

We don’t see how God is suppling our needs, including our NEED to be generous.

You heard me, didn’t you?

We don’t see how God is supplying our needs, including that essential spiritual NEED to be generous.

We as God’s children, need, right down deep in the center of our souls, in the center of our spirit, in the center of the Holy Spirit’s presence in us, to be generous!

That’s what was happening in Jerusalem!

The children of God were mimicking their Lord and Savior, using all that God had given them, to take care of God’s people, just as God had been doing for them.

Mimicking is how children learn. We all know that.

Lately our grandson Noah has been taking sticks and plastic hangers and whatever he can find and making chainsaw noises, because he saw his father put on the chaps and goggles and ear protection and cut up logs up at the cottage at Loon Lake.

Noah even found a strap of some kind and hung it over his ears as ear protection as he cut up all those imaginary logs! As Rachel said on Friday, “I never thought I would tell my toddler, ‘let’s go upstairs to play with your chainsaws before bed!’”

Because he is mimicking what he has seen his father do, just as these folks in Jerusalem as now mimicking what they have seen their Heavenly Father do for them - use his resources to take care of the least of these.

Even Barnabus, the son of encouragement, jumps in to do what he can, and sells a piece of land so that the folks who need a blessing have a blessing, and becomes himself a conduit of God’s love.

It is often said that the Dead Sea is dead, because everything flows into it, but nothing flows out of it. So, if you are feeling a bit dead inside, consider all the ways you could take your many blessings and share them with others.

The opportunities are endless!

Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, Thanksgiving Baskets, and food for the backpacks we take to the Otisville Elementary School to help some children who need a breakfast and lunch on the weekend.

We can send a card to someone who we know needs a blessing, we could make that phone call, or stop by and visit with an old friend socially distanced.

Taking some of the Holy Spirit’s energy in us and volunteer at the food pantry or offer to come up to the church and organize some of the stuff we have accumulated and not used for 6 months.

You see, as our faith grows, our need to control our destiny through wealth slips away. Then it is replaced by first, a desire to relieve the suffering of others and second, a desire to grow the Christian community through the resources God has blessed us with!

So, do you feel blessed?

If so, what are you doing with your blessings?

Use them to bless others!

In Jesus name! Amen!

On Fire: Brave from Acts 4:23-31 on October 25, 2020

So,

I suspect, since you are here in worship this morning, that you are a person who prays! Yes?

And, maybe you have made it into a regular discipline. If so, congratulations. Connecting yourself up regularly to God’s presence, Jesus’ passion, and the Spirit’s power is a really, really good idea!

Or perhaps you are the kind of person who prays when you remember, when things are going rough, or when you become aware of someone in need.

It’s not a bad thing. Every prayer counts and every prayer makes a difference, in you and in God’s plans.

Of course, we all know the idea is to pray early and often, but if you find that your prayers are perhaps a bit haphazard that’s okay too.

Almost all of us have had times of great enthusiasm, as well as times where life’s events have overwhelmed our schedules and left us at the end of the day, almost prayerless!

Instead of feeling bad, the best solution is the one most fitness expert’s give their charges that have fallen off the fitness plan!

Start again! Don’t feel bad. No guilt! Just do it!

The idea is to pray when you can, and then look for ways to add to your prayer times. Maybe instead of listening to the radio in the car on the way to work once in a while, take a few moments to pray first.

Or before you watch the evening news offer up a prayer, and certainly right after, please pray!

The bottom line is prayer matters!

And not only individual prayer, but also what is called corporate prayer! That is the prayers of the gathered, the body of Christ lifting up our words of thanks, as well as our words of supplication, that is asking God to work in our situations for healing and more, and intercession, that is asking God to work in the lives of others.

It's something we do on Sundays four times as the community of faith gathers and connects. We share both joys and concerns at 9:00am, 9:30am, 11:00am and at 5:30pm (until next Sunday when we will meet at 4:00pm after the Time Change).

In fact, as a church we are known for our praying, and often have people contact the church or church members to ask us to pray, to ask for prayer blankets, or connect with a worship gathering so they can add prayer concerns and joys.

And as an advertising aside, be sure to note that you can add prayer concerns to our Church App’s prayer wall (https://tithely.app.link/Otisville-Mt-Hope-Presbyterian-Church) or send a note to me to add you to our Facebook Group called “Prayer Concerns”, a private, hidden, Facebook group, just for joys and concerns.

And here is the golden ticket – we will pray! And we will see together what God has in mind to do when God asks us to gather and then promises to be in our midst!

We pray fearlessly, boldly, bravely, because we know with confidence that God will be moving in the lives of his people because of our prayers.

But today’s story about Peter and John and the healing of the lame man suggest another possibility for prayer. Prayer can move God. But prayer can also move us!

Sometimes I think we get it in our head that prayer is all about moving God. And I’m not sure that is mistaken. God desires that we pray and God is moved by our prayers, especially when the community prays with focus and determination.

But prayer is also about moving us, focusing our attention, reminding us of our calling, unifying the community so that when we are done praying, we are ready to head out into the world, knowing God is with us as we confront the issues we have just prayed about.

Just like what happened to the followers of Jesus who prayed after Peter and John’s return that God would make them brave to continue the very ministry that had gotten Peter and John in trouble.

Luke tells us “the meeting place shook. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and (they all) bravely spoke God’s message”.

They prayed and God answered! Whoo hoo! If only every prayer was like that!

But look at what they prayed for and what the answer was!

They prayed they would be empowered to do the very work God had called them to - without fear, and God’s answer was more Holy Spirit.

You see, it turns out prayer matters! But what you pray for also matters!

And sometimes, unlike these disciples in Jerusalem, I think we pray to be timid!

I suppose you might want to disagree with me, but I think it’s true. Being the answer to our own prayers - could, I’m just saying - be a lot of hard work.

We want healing, but are not always on board with becoming the healers.

We want people to find jobs, but are not necessarily offering to be come the ones offering jobs, or telling each about jobs. And on and on it goes!

We want our students and teachers to thrive, but are not necessarily ready - personally – to become the supports our students, parents, teachers and administrators need right now.

We want a little space perhaps to be able to have what a friend in state government work called “plausible deniability”.

Thinking, well, maybe God didn’t answer that prayer. Or someone got in God’s way.

When in fact the problem might actually be that we were willing to pray, but not willing to be part of the answer God sent!

You and I!

Peter and John came back and they prayed to be brave!

What are we praying for to happen to our church?

Are we ready to be brave?

May it be so, Lord Jesus. Amen!

On Fire: Over Forty from Acts 4:13-22 on October 18

 When the Spirit moves, we go! 

And when we go with the Spirit, things happen! 

People notice when people are healed and ask questions! 

And sometimes they get upset! 

But here is the best part! The man who was healed was more than 40 years old. 

Now why Luke felt it was important that his readers of the Acts of the Apostles know this is anyone’s conjecture. Maybe because in those days 40 years old - was old! Maybe because his readers needed to have another reminder that he had been living lame since birth. 

And we don’t know why the man was lame. 

Sue and I have been watching a show on Hulu called “My feet are killing me” about two podiatrists and foot and ankle surgeons who tackle the most amazing foot and ankle issues. 

So, because we now have our degrees in TV Doctorhood, we are curious, for the lame man, was it his feet that were the problem or his ankles or knees or hips, or his muscles or tendons? 

We don’t know! What we do know is that God healed the man and now, the authorities are angry and confused, because Peter said Jesus did it! 

The men who have been part of this healing (and note, the formerly lame man is with them – pretty remarkable evidence, since it is likely everyone in the room had seen him begging outside the Temple) are not typical problem people. 

They aren’t villains, they aren’t rabble-rousers, they aren’t rioters and looters, they aren’t even heretics! They are plain old typical blue collars working stiffs, who don’t have an education, but now are chin deep in confronting the authorities with a problem. 

The authorities, Peter reminds them, “you folks” let Jesus be killed! They sent him to Pilate! They accused him of blasphemy! And all because of what he was teaching and who he implied he was. 

Now, they knew of the miracles and the stories of healings. But those events didn’t happen right in the middle of the Temple! And they didn’t happen with a man everyone had known for years and years was unable to walk. 

But here he was, exhibit A - and they had no idea what to do! 

Back to the foot doctors, Dr. Ebonie Vincent and Dr. Brad Schaffer sometimes are surprised too by the crazy stuff that happens to feet and ankles. But at least on the TV show, they know exactly what to do. Numb it up, cut it off, screw it together and off you go. 

It’s all miraculous too, but not like this. 

This healing has not only changed the lame man’s life; it has changed the relationship between the church and the Temple. 

Now thousands want to know about Jesus, and while the church is overwhelmed trying to scale up to a worshipping community of 5-8000 people, the Temple authorities are scared that their influence, and therefore their cash flow is going down the tubes. 

Imagine a church community that doesn’t need a big expensive building! That doesn’t need to heat and light up that building! That can shift its budget from wood and stone, to caring for and about people. 

Every church in the world right now is facing that new challenge. Asking… 

How do we care for the people God has entrusted to us? 

How do we love these people Christ has touched through his healing power? 

Especially when they don’t come here, when they don’t spend lots of time in our Sanctuary and Fellowship Hall and classrooms, when they don’t even live here, but live all over the world, but are part of our worshipping and rejoicing community because Jesus has touched their lives and healed them? 

“What do we do”, the religious authorities of Jesus day wondered, “when these healed folks don’t throw every coin they have into the massive cornucopia’s at the front of the Temple”? 

When instead, they use whatever resources they have, to instead grow the faith community’s ability to reach needy people? Because that is exactly what the church in Jerusalem was doing! 

Now don’t misunderstand, they still needed the upper rooms, they still needed the Apostles to preach and teach, they still needed to take care of the folks around them who needed dinner because where they came from that night, nobody offered them any. 

The community was safe and secure! But the institution was in danger! 

And when the institution is in danger, what happens? It clamps down! 

They said, “don’t talk about this Jesus!” 

“Don’t tell them about the miracle you just saw!” 

“Don’t be healing people!” 

“Don’t use the internet to bring hope to the world!” 

And then, they thought, the institution would be fine, unless… 

This was God’s doing! 

God at work in this. It has to make you wonder, doesn’t it? 

Did you know that according to Facebook, our page “Otisville Presbyterian” has reached just short of 8,000 people? 

You do understand we really can’t fit 8,000 people inside here? 

But the church isn’t a building, it’s a community of faith, it’s a body made of many parts, parts that aren’t necessarily in the same zip code. 

What matters is that we are bringing the healing grace of Jesus to the world, just like those Apostles did. 

And God is using our faltering efforts to build his kingdom! 

Because when we bring healing to this world… then the testimony of the church about the power of Jesus is redemptive! 

Amen? And Amen!