Making Choices

You know, life is all about making choices and our lessons really seem to point to that quite clearly today.  You probably make hundred’s of decisions everyday without really thinking about it.  To give you a few examples:  one of the choices you probably made was what to wear to church today.  Another might have been whether or not to eat breakfast.  You might have to decide where to go to eat after the service.

Some of the new choices we are faced with in today’s world are whether or not to get vaccinated and will you wear a mask.  Then there is the question of where do you feel safe to go - to church, to school, to the supermarket, to a rock concert?  Our grandson was exposed to COVID on the first day of school - the girl sitting in front of him tested positive for COVID.  

The movie theaters have reopened, but do you feel safe there?  What about flying?  We have tickets to fly to Kansas City for a Provincial meeting the first week in October.  In all the questions you have to decide if you feel safe in our Brave New World. 

For younger kids the choices might include whether to do your homework or watch TV or go play ball for an hour before dinner.  Older kids might have to decide whether to go to school or to skip for the day.  There are all kinds of choices out there.  There’s alcohol, drugs, tobacco,  promiscuity, or shoplifting.  There are all kinds of pitfalls waiting for us out there.  

Some of those choices should be governed by how we’ve decided to live our lives – if we’ve actually made that decision yet.  This is exactly what Joshua is talking about in our first lesson.  The Israelites are in the Promise Land and the conquest of Canaan is over – the land has been parceled out – and now the covenant with God is being renewed.  “Choose this day whom you will serve... as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  

They had a choice – they could worship and serve the gods their ancestors had in Egypt, the gods of the Amorites, or Yahweh.  And they make their decision – “We, too, will serve the Lord.  He brought us out of Egypt, he did great signs, and he protected us.”  They will worship God and try to live their lives in a way that is pleasing to God.

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We see a similar kind of dynamic working in the Gospel lesson.  We’re picking up the end of last week’s lesson.  Jesus is telling the people that he is the bread of life, and he came down from heaven, and the people are looking at him like he just landed from Jupiter.  “What are you talking about!”  

 

My first year in Huntsville, a man got a box and set it up on campus and started preaching to the students who passed by.  One of the students from St. Stephen’s heard him and called the church.  He didn’t like what the guy was saying - it didn’t make any sense to him.  And he wanted Fr. Jim and me to go up on campus and set this person straight and tell him what God was really like.  

Some of the followers were feeling the same way about Jesus himself.  They’re probably not much different from you and me.  Most of us come to the church searching for deeper meaning in life; something beyond our humdrum existence and our petty problems.  We’re looking for something bigger than we are.  We want a God who can rescue us when we’re in trouble; a God who can take care of the problems that we can’t solve.  We want a God who does not abandon us when the going gets tough; one who understands us; our emotions, our inadequacies, our sins - and who can love us and forgive us anyway.  And here is this man talking about eating his body and drinking his blood, so they made the decision not to follow him anymore.  

Now Jesus is sitting there with the original twelve and he asks them, “Do you want to leave also?”  Peter speaks for the twelve.  He replies, “Lord, where would we go?” --  You see, they've left their homes and families, their jobs and careers.  “You alone have the words of eternal life.”  No one else inspired them like Jesus did.  No one else made their hearts burn within them.  No one else spoke of heaven and life with that kind of authority.  No one else cared about what happened to them.  Why should they turn anywhere else.  

“You are the Holy One of God.”  Jesus had given them the faith they thought no longer existed.  He had renewed their hope for the future.  They understood that this man was different - there was a completeness they felt in his presence that they had never felt before.  You see, God draws us to Himself with longings that we can neither understand nor describe.  It is that spirit that the twelve are hanging on to.   

Words alone are never sufficient to describe our encounter with the divine.  They can never catch the essence or the emotional impact that God has on us.  That’s what the twelve were experiencing - an encounter with the Holy One of God.  And they trusted, that even though they could not fathom what Jesus was talking about, that God was going to work and to move and that one day, some way, they would understand.  

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The problem is that when you make that decision to follow Jesus, to walk in the ways of Yahweh, you might think that everything is going to be just fine and you’ll never have any problems again.  Actually, there are preachers who make a lot of money by preaching exactly that.  The truth is you’re still going to have problems and troubles, because we live in a broken world.

Remember that choice you have to make?  Not everyone chooses for God, not everyone chooses to do the right thing.  Making that choice is not always easy.  In our lesson from Paul, he talks about standing against the wiles of the devil, and the powers and principalities that come against us.  And he tells us how we can stand against all the assaults of this world.  

There are times and places that we actually feel like we are under assault.  When I used to teach 8^th grade math at a junior high school in Alvin, at one time it got the point that every time I walked into the building I would begin to feel oppressed.  I wasn’t the only teacher to feel that way.  Seemed like the other Christian teachers began to feel that way also.  We formed a group and met at the school early on a regular basis and prayed for the school, and gee, the oppression eventually went away.  Wonder of wonders!

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Back to Paul - he gives us a formula for standing up against opposition and oppression.  He tells us to be strong in the Lord and to pray at all times.  He tells us to be aware that things are going to happen to us that are going to try to draw us away from the Lord.  He says to put on the whole armor of God.  

Paul had been in prison when he wrote this and he had watched the soldiers put on their armor day after day and he thought of a way to use that to teach others how to do battle with these powers that seem to try to drag us down, and to be able to keep the faith.  He says, “dress yourself as a soldier dresses for battle.   Put on the belt of truth.”  You’ve heard the saying, ‘the truth shall set you free’ – if you keep the truth before you, around you, then you won’t be distracted by lies and distortions others tell you.  

Next, you put on the breastplate of righteousness – that’s the knowledge that you are of God, made in his image and you have chosen to follow Jesus and therefore or righteous before God.  And that doesn’t change regardless of anything you do or that happens to you.  

Third, you put on the shoes of peace, that wherever you walk you strive to bring peace, not strife.  It’s not just proclaiming the gospel of peace, but it’s conducting your life in such a way that you demonstrate peaceful ways of co-existing with those around you.

Fourth, you must take up the shield of faith, that piece of armor that catches the darts and arrows that the enemy throws at you to distract you from the task at hand or to throw you off the course you have set for yourself.

Next you put on the helmet of salvation.  Jesus Christ loved you so much that he gave his life for you – regardless of who you are or what you have done.  Once you have made that choice to follow Jesus, that salvation can never be taken away from you.    

And the last thing you do is take up the sword of the Spirit – which is the word of God – given to us as our only offensive weapon.  When you are not sure of what to say, fall back on the word of God – scripture is a great offense as well as a defense.  Use it carefully to inspire and attract those who do not know Christ to become seekers of God’s grace; to experience for themselves how the light of Jesus can redeem their life.  Use the word to draw others to God.

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Joshua says, “Choose today who you will serve.”  Not who you will “worship.”  Sitting in the pews to worship is for beginners.  You only get out of worship what you put into it.  That’s very true – not just with God, but with all your relationships.  You might say that you love someone, but if you never do anything that demonstrates that love, how long do you think they’re going to believe it?  When we make a commitment to God, we need remember that it includes service.  Choose today how you are going to serve the Lord.  Amen.

Where am I going?

For whatever reason, Sam has been singing the opening lines from Paint Your Wagon a lot lately, and it’s gotten stuck in my head. “Where am I going, I don’t know.  When will I get there, I ain’t certain, all I know is I am on my way.”  Do you ever feel like that?  Not sure where you are going or how you are going to get there?  Or even what to do once you do get there?

Sam and I had the pleasure of spending the past week down in Galveston with 20 other retired clergy couples.  There were also 7 members of the Church Pension Fund who led us through a series of talks, exercises and discussions designed to help us look at our life and our goals for living out our retirement and Christian vocation as couples.  The Credo conference that I attended in September did very similar things, but was focused only on clergy.  But this conference acknowledged that spouses are an important part of our life, planning and future.  

So in essence, this conference helped us address that burning question in Sam’s mind, “Where are we going...”. I think the disciples, after the death of Jesus had some of these same burning questions.  Where am I going?  What do I do next?  How do I get to my next assignment?  If you remember last week, after baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch, Philip was whisked away by the Holy Spirit and set down in Azotus.  But mostly the apostles had to walk where ever they went.  

In today’s lesson from the Acts of the Apostles, our focus is on Peter who is preaching to the household and friends of Cornelius, a Roman Centurion.  Peter is breaking a lot of rules just being in Cornelius’ home and preaching to these Gentiles.  Because the leaders considered this new sect to still be a part of the Jewish religion, they insisted that only Jews were acceptable in their movement.  They wanted to limit who could be included in God’s salvation.  But God had other ideas and He was beginning to spread his net over all people, not just Jews.  

So even though these are not circumcised believers, as Peter preached, the Holy Spirit fell on them all and they began to speak in tongues and extol God.  This is one of those examples where the disciples/apostles had to make an about-face and hurry to catch up with what God was doing in this place.  They not only had to accept the gentiles, but they realized that they also had to baptize them. 

When Peter got back to Jerusalem, he had to defend his decision before the counsel.  He had done at least four things that were wrong.  He stayed with Gentiles in their house.  He ate their food.  He preached to them.  And He had them baptized.  The church was not happy with Peter.

But Peter, even though he had broken the rules, knew that he had done what God wanted him to do.  And that was more important that any rule that had been imposed.  God’s will, not mine, be done.  So, what does that mean for us today?  It means when God leads the way into something new, whether we like it or not, whether we agree or not, we at least need to pay attention.  

The Gospel lesson tells us that we are to abide in God’s love – to obey the commandment is to love one another as God has loved us.  It also tells us that we are no longer servants, but friends.  That means something special - it has deepened the relationship between us and God – we are no longer slaves, but now are friends because the master has made known to us what he is doing in the world.  God is always navigating new pathways into our broken and torn world, and we sometimes have to run to keep up with what he is doing and the way he is reaching out to all people.  

His desire is that all should be saved.  In Chapter 2 of Acts, Peter preaches his first sermon and says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  Not if they are good enough.  ..  Not if they believe exactly like us...  Not if they are without sin...  But if they call on the name of Jesus, then they shall be saved.  

Our two lessons from John both speak of love and abiding in the grace of the Lord. Jesus also says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.”  To many of us, in our humanity, question whether we are good enough to be chosen, but the truth is that we are all created in the image of God and he has chosen every single one of us.  All we have to do is answer his call to love, both God and one another.

And if we love him and choose to follow him, then we need to be prepared to go to uncomfortable places and live into the kind of love that he has for all creation.  When I started the journey with God, I told him, “If you open the door, I will step through it.”  That’s the way I’ve lived for the past 18 years.  Walking through open doors and trying not to look back when a door closes.  Following where God leads and very grateful that this last door he opened was right here at my home.

I’m not sure where I will go from here.  I have several short term plans for next month and Sam and I want to do some traveling.   Our collect says, “You have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding...”  We plan to continuing to follow the Lord, because he has already led us into more wonderful places and relationships than we could have imagined.  I plan to continue preaching the love of God to those who will listen and to seek his will for our lives.  I also plan to continue singing a new song to the Lord whenever and wherever I can. I know that God is going to be here with you after we leave and that he will make a way for us to return someday.  

I believe that God has great plans for Grace Church, but you need to be willing to step into whatever role God has for you in follow him.  What is your plan for following the Lord?  What doors are you willing to step through for the Lord?

Love abides and grows

Today I want to focus on the second lesson - the letter from John.  This weekend feels to me like love is in the air.  Sam and I just celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary and I talked briefly about love yesterday at the party.  It seems so appropriate this morning to talk about love because some form of that word appears 27 times in our second lesson this morning.  Twenty-seven times, I think maybe John is trying to tell us that love is important. 

There is a story told about John who spent most of his later life as an exile on Patmos Island.  It is said that John would be brought out to preach to the people and he would say, “God is love.”  Each time he said the same thing.  Someone asked when he was going to say something else, and he replied, “God is love.  When you learn this, then I will teach you something else.”  

In our second lesson, John begins, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God.”  We often think of love as being a warm fuzzy kind of feeling toward other people, or an attraction to someone or something.  When Sam and I went to marriage encounter, we were taught that “love is a decision.”  It is a decision that needs to be made on a daily basis.  That funny little feeling that couples get that leads them toward marriage will not last a lifetime in the same way.  It is an attraction that can lead them toward love, but that love must mature and grow if it is to last a lifetime.   But in its early form, it is not the kind of love John is talking about here.  John uses the word, Agape, in both its verb and noun forms, throughout this reading.  

The Greeks have actually 6 words for love.  I’m only going to name 4.  There is Eros - the kind of love that is primarily sexual in nature.  It is the kind of love that keeps the species alive and can be the foundation for the bond of marriage. There is Phileo - a brotherly love or warm tender affection between people that draws them to be friends.  There is storge - the kind of love parents have for their children, it is the bond between family members.  

Then there is Agape -  Agape is defined as:   The unconditional love that sees beyond the outer surface and accepts the recipient for whom he/she is, regardless of their flaws, shortcomings or faults. It’s the type of love that everyone (should) strive to have for their fellow human beings. Although you may not like someone, you decide to love them just as a human being. This kind of love is all about sacrifice as well as giving and expecting nothing in return. The translation of the word agape is love in the verb – form: it is the love demonstrated by your behavior towards another person. It is a committed and chosen love.

Agape is the kind of love God has for us.  It is intentional.  It is God’s intention to treat us with love, even when we are not very lovable.  It is the glue that can hold a marriage together through rocky times.  It is the bond that can hold a family together when things go wrong. And it is the one thing that can hold a church together when people’s personalities rub each other the wrong way causing conflict.  Agape love is what we should be striving for as a congregation, because it is only through agape love that we will survive and grow strong.

Sam and I will be gone during this next week.  We are going on a “retreat” designed for retired clergy couples - yes, I know that I don’t always act retired.  We have been required to read a little book called “Strength for the Journey” in preparation for this retreat.  It is a little book that is designed to help us integrate all areas of life into a well-rounded balanced life.  It includes using prayer, ministry, study, movement and uses of technology and the arts to keep us centered in Christ.  Sometimes we think that going to church several times a month, and saying grace at the table before we eat and maybe a bedtime prayer is enough.  But God really wants more from us.  In our gospel lesson for today, Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.  Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.”  

I think one of the most important things is being able to hear God when he speaks to us.  It takes practice and awareness to hear God.  God will lead us, guide us, direct us, nudge us for all kinds of reasons; sometimes to help us and sometimes so that we might help others.  But we have to know what his voice in our life sounds like.  

Most of you have heard by now that I have been declared ‘cancer free’.  It was the quickest journey down cancer road that I can imagine. Two months, that’s all it was.  Now I have a medication that I am being required to take for 5 years - one pill a day.  Well, I’m going to credit God with the miracle.  The miracle is not that He took away the cancer.  He didn’t.  The miracle was in the timing.  My doctor told me he wanted me to get a mammogram.  I ignored him.  The Clear Lake Breast Center called to set up an appointment time and I said no because I just didn’t want to go through that.  About a month later they called again - and this time I said yes.  I’m sure I was nudged by the Holy Spirit.  To catch this thing at stage zero was the miracle.  The actual malignant portion was 4 mm at it’s greatest dimension. 

The surgeon and his team used their God-given talent to remove the cancer and start me on the journey to healing.  I believe that God has a purpose for each of us and he gives us our talent and our love to further his purpose on earth, whether it’s healing, or encouraging, or feeding or comforting, or teaching.  And I believe that each of us is called to grow in love, and the way we do that is by being in community.  I believe that we are called to minister to all people we meet in some way and it’s so much easier to do that when we work together.  

We only have a month left together, but God has something wonderful in the works for Grace church.  I know that you are going to be blessed by God’s plan for Grace.  You’ve hear a couple of times now about the ‘Blessing Box’ that has been proposed for Grace.  I hope that the vestry will follow through with this idea and you will all embrace the concept to make it a reality to help fight hunger in Alvin and especially in our neighborhood.  I didn’t realize until recently how large our low income community was.  The Blessing Box, especially on weekends and during the summer, may be the only source of food some children will have.  We initially stock the box and the idea is, take what you need and give what you can.  Working and praying together, Grace Church can become a beacon of hope here in Alvin.  

May God bless you and keep you, feed you and encourage you, and grow you into the church that He wants you to be.   Amen.

Peace be with you!

Listen to the sermon.

Every year, the same lesson is read for the Sunday after Easter. Last year, on the second Sunday in Easter, I preached on Thomas and the four things that he missed out on by not being there on that first Sunday when Jesus appeared to the disciples the upper room.  Those four things were affirmation, affirmation of the resurrection that Jesus was alive.  Second was the peace that Jesus offers.  Third was the sending out of the disciples; and the fourth was receiving the Holy Spirit.  This year, I want to focus on the peace that Jesus brings into our lives.

The gospel lesson says: “the disciples were locked away for fear of the Jews.”  And Jesus appears among them saying, “Peace be with you.”  I know that the disciples needed that message then, and I know that I need that message now.  I need the reality of His peace in my life right now.   And I know that I am not the only one.  

The Very Rev. Kate Moorehead, Dean of St. John’s Cathedral in Jacksonville, Florida, wrote a sermon focusing on “that day” -  “When it was evening on that day...  the first day of the week” - that day when everything changed.  That day may be a very different day for each of us.  It might be the day we graduated from college, or the day we married that special person, or that day when a loved one died.  It might be that day when you got that special job or opportunity, or that day when your child was born.  Or it might be that day when you were diagnosed with cancer - . . .   It was the day when everything changed...

That day was the day - when the risen Lord came into their lives offering peace; the peace that passes understanding; the peace that takes away fear and apprehension; the peace that allows you to go on.  For the disciples, this was the difference between hiding away in that upper room for fear of the Jews, and being able to go out and tell the story of the risen Lord with boldness.  It didn’t happen all at once - but over a period of 50 days, from the first day of the Resurrection until the day of Pentecost.  It was in living d growing into that peace and the power of the risen Lord that the disciples became bold witnesses to the gospel.  Now, how do we tie into that kind of power and peace?

Over the past 3 days, I have had to admit that I am very anxious - not about the cancer - I know that God will take care of it in his own way, very probably using those people who have offered up their lives to help others overcome disease and injury - the doctors and nurses, the medical personnel.  I’m not worried about the cancer.  What I find myself worried about are the procedures themselves.  To be honest, I don’t like pain or even the prospect of pain.  I don’t like to go to the dentist - although I have a great dentist - just the shot to deaden my mouth and the recovery from that, makes me wish I were somewhere else.  I suppose if the cancer was far enough along to cause me pain, I wouldn’t be so worried about the procedures.  

And God has been so very gracious - at every step of the way, but there you have it - I’m afraid.  I would beg your prayers - that our Lord Jesus sooth my anxious fears and give me the same confidence that he gave to the disciples in that upper room so many years ago.  I have been using my meditation techniques to help overcome my anxious mind and by tying into scripture such as - 

“I can do all things through God who strengthens me...”

“Lord, you do not give me anything that you and I together cannot handle...”

“Lord, give me your peace that passes understanding, and take away my anxious fears...”

You see, Satan tries to distract us from God’s love and goodness, by placing small doubts and fears in our minds.  It is in overcoming them with the promises of God that we are given the strength to move past them into the future that God has prepared for us.  It is when we are at our lowest point, that Jesus shows up - and everything changes.  “Peace be with you.  My peace I give to you.”  He soothed the anxious fears of the disciples that day in the upper room, and he can soothe our fears also.  

One of Fr. Fred’s heroes was Julian of Norwich, an anchorite who lived in the presence of God.  In one of her encounters with the risen Lord Jesus, he gave her this message: “All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.”  It is a message in which we understand that God created all things, and he holds them in the palm of his hand.  We belong to him and if we allow him to, he will take care of us.

I’m reminded of one of my favorite movies, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.”  Dev Patel plays the part of Sonny Kapoor, the owner of the hotel.  His favorite saying is “Everything will be alright in the end.  If it is not alright, then it is not yet the end.” -  “All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.”

Our Lord Jesus comes to us at out lowest point, and tells us, “Peace be with you...  My own peace I leave with you.”  It is the peace that passes understanding, that takes away our fear.  It is when Jesus tells us, “Don’t worry.  I’ve got this!  I’ve got you!”   Amen.

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Hallelujah! Christ is alive!

(Shuffle papers on the lecture. Look around frantically.)  Well, where is it? I know I left it right here on the lecture – and now it’s gone. Sam, did you move it?  Gary?  Janice?  Did either of you take it with you? I know I left it right here, and it obviously isn’t here now.)  How many of you have every lost something, and you know exactly where you left it – or at least are pretty sure where you left it? But when you go back looking for it, it’s gone, just disappeared?   I think most of us have had that experience – and probably more than once in our lifetime.  It happened to me on Friday when we got in to start the noon service - We have a tendency to live pretty fast lives and especially when we are in a hurry we forget things or lay things down without thinking about it.   

Well, around 30 AD people didn’t live lives as fast as we do today. At least I hope they didn’t. They didn’t have phones ringing in their ears (literally). They didn’t have baseball and TV and movies and theater and Nascar all vying for their attention – taking them away from church and family on Easter morning. Oh, wait; they didn’t have Easter morning either, did they? 

I’m told that many years ago, there were missionaries on a remote island who were teaching a group of natives about Jesus.  These natives had never heard the gospel story.  They were filled with joy and hope as they learned about Jesus, what he did and said.  Then came Good Friday and the missionaries told them about the arrest, trial and death of Jesus.  Not knowing the rest of the story, they went away with     heavy hearts at the devastating loss of this Jesus whom they had learned to love.  Then on Sunday morning they returned to the missionaries under the shadow of death and were (as Paul Harvey would say) told the rest of the story - the resurrection.  Their joy at learning of the resurrection of Jesus was unbounded.  They leapt for joy and danced around singing and rejoicing.  I think we’ve lost that kind of response to the resurrection story.  Yes, we are happy about it, but in a reserved way.  “Oh yes, Jesus died for us, and he was resurrected and that means we will have eternal life.”  Where’s the “Hallelujah!  Christ is alive!”?  

That first Easter morning was the day after the Passover according to John.  Jesus had been buried in a hurry – but they knew he was dead and they knew he was buried and they knew exactly where he was buried – and they had seen the stone rolled in front of the tomb.  So when Mary saw the stone rolled away, she was very confused.  She ran back to the disciples and told them that Jesus was gone.  Peter and John ran to the tomb.  John being younger reached the tomb first and looked in.  The scripture said that he believed – he believed that Jesus was gone. The scripture also says that they didn’t yet understand the scriptures.  Peter went inside to look around and John followed him in.  So being men, they simply decided there was nothing else they could do.  They may have believed that Jesus had risen and gone to the Father, but there was nothing more they could do.  So they let it go, and they went back home.  Not unusual for the disciples, they misinterpreted the meaning of the empty tomb. Since Jesus had risen and gone to the Father, they accepted that they would not see him again.  

Mary wasn’t quite in the same place emotionally as the men. This was something of a devastating loss for her. For many of us, it’s important to be able to go to the place where our loved one is buried. It allows us to feel close to that person – even when we know “they” aren’t there. Sitting by the graveside can become a place where we meet and speak with God about how much this person meant to us. It can be an acknowledgement that we’re going to miss them, that they were an important part of our life. Even though we know they are gone, it helps us to feel close.  

Mary had gone to weep, to mourn - to grieve in the only way she knew how - to be near Jesus even in death.  But now even that was denied her.  And she missed that opportunity to feel close – to grieve at the tomb where his body lay.  She stayed and not being able to accept that he was gone, she asked the gardener, “If you have carried him away, please tell me so that I may take him away.”  She wasn’t expecting to see Jesus – only his body, so when the person she thought was the gardener called her by name it surprised her, but she recognized the voice speaking her name.  

When we are terribly grieved; when we feel all alone; when we are lost and don’t know where to turn; it is then that the Lord speaks to us.  Through the pain and confusion, Jesus calls us by name.  And he says, “I am here.  I will sustain you.  Do not cling, but go and tell others that I live, that I will come to them also, in their hour of need.”  

The message we receive is that because Jesus has risen and has ascended to the Father, he has escaped the prison of this earthly life and is now available to anyone who need him.  There are stories of children who have never been to church, never heard the name of Jesus,` who in a time of great need meet and are sustained by Jesus.  When we feel the most lost, when we are the most hopeless, that is when Jesus comes to us, in our pain, and through our confusion.  He is there.  He is here!  He is risen.

You are called to continue the story – it is your turn to go out and to tell others that Jesus Christ has indeed risen from the dead.  Our presiding bishop, in his address from Jerusalem reminded us that “Because He lives, we can face tomorrow.”  I can face tomorrow!  You can face tomorrow!     Regardless of what tomorrow brings! 

Alleluia!  Christ is risen!

Cleaning house, Jesus style

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I was cleaning out the fridge this week, and found all sorts of moldy and rotten stuff that had been neglected for too long, and I thought, we really have to pay attention to things or everything goes to hell in a hand basket.  That’s why spring cleaning is so necessary - to get rid of all that ‘stuff’ that has accumulated over the year, or sometimes over the years plural.  

I’m reading a fluff of a book called “The Junkyard Man” and it centers around a hoarder who has collected so much stuff that you can’t even find a pathway through his house or his yard.  It sounds sad, but there are people who are like that.  I look around at our stuff and wonder if we are becoming hoarders.  I mean, I have 4 trumpets and multiple containers in 3 different locations for all of the crafts I have started or want to start.  It’s such a pain to go through all that stuff and decide what to keep and what needs to be thrown away.

And then you read today’s gospel lesson and there is Jesus, clearing out the temple from those who have turned it into a market place.  Oh, and maybe I need to clean house, too!  I believe more than anything Jesus is calling us to spiritual housecleaning.  That’s a lot of what Lent is all about - spiritual housecleaning.

When Moses brought the Israelites out of Egypt, they were in need of spiritual cleansing also.  Moses almost wore himself out trying to be judge for the people who came to him for help.  So God made a way - rules to live by - rules to govern behavior - a covenant with the people of God.  “I am the Lord your God.  You will be my people.”  It is a covenant relationship based on mutual trust and respect.  God sets out in this covenant what he expects of his people based on his own standards of holiness.

In the first part of our service, we/I recited the summary of the Law.   When he was asked what the most important law was, Jesus replied, “The first commandment is this: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is the only Lord.  Love the Lord our God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and all the prophets.”  (Mark 12:29-31)

And the lawyer asked him, “well, who is my neighbor?”  I learned a long time ago that communications depends on understanding and defining terms in the same way.  Two people can say the same thing, but if they define the terms differently, there is no communication.  The lawyer wanted to restrict who he could treat as himself, but Jesus busted it wide open when he indicated all people - even your hated enemy. 

Jesus brings the law down to two greatest commandments – this is the lens through which all interpretation is to be understood.  All 630 laws are to be interpreted in light of loving God and loving your neighbor and the 10 commandments.

The 10 commandments boiled down to two – love God – love your neighbor.  The first four commandments help you understand how to go about loving God – don’t have any other gods, don’t make idols out of anything, don’t misuse God's name, and remember to spend time with God especially on that 7th day when you rest from your labors.

The last 6 commandments help you understand a little bit about how to love your neighbor.  Honor your mother and father – don’t steal, don’t commit adultery, don’t murder, don’t bear false witness, don’t covet anything that belongs to another…  Jesus is saying that we should always treat others in such a way that we demonstrate our love of God through our actions toward others.  He even defined that elsewhere in scripture when he said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  As selfish human beings, we sometimes have a hard time with that.  Our human nature wants to look toward our own creature comforts first.

Too often, we see Jesus as this gentle person – soft-spoken and meek – and then we get today’s gospel reading and see him making a whip of cords, and overturning tables and yelling at people – and it shocks our sensibilities.  Jesus sees his father’s house being turned into a market place - the people have taken several of the laws regarding temple worship and figured out how to make a profit from it - changing the Roman coin for the temple coin for the temple tax, - providing animals for sell for the sacrifice, etc.

But Jesus is getting ready to totally overturn the system and offer himself as a sacrifice for all time.  Jesus, in reducing his commandments down to two, in rebelling at the temple system, is not doing anything new – not really.  Other prophets have said before that this system of sacrifice is not what God wants.  We read in Micah 6:8   

`He has showed you, O man, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you?   To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. 

If we consider that Jesus is prefiguring the end of the sacrificial system, and we look at the timeline, it was another 40 years before the destruction of the temple and the end of the sacrifices.  Jesus’ tirade didn’t really make any difference in the system at that time.  All it really did was irritate the authorities and flag Jesus as being someone to watch – as someone who could be a trouble maker.  And so the countdown began - to Good Friday and the ultimate sacrifice. 

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Ever since Ash Wednesday, Danny has been threatening to put up on the signboard outside, in place of the sermon title, a sign that says, “It’s Lent.  Give it up!”  I know he’s only half joking, but its catchy so I put it up on Facebook today just to see what kind of response it gets.  Quite often in Lent, rather than specifically giving something up, God gives me something personal to deal with.  One year it was to walk with a cousin through his emotional turmoil and to wrestle with my own beliefs.  Another year I had a broken arm, but it ended up being fun because my temporary cast was a deep purple for Lent.  Then I got the real cast on Good Friday.  I had that one done in white and on Easter Sunday all the kids in the church got to sign my cast with brightly colored markers.  Sam and I left on vacation the next day so I got to show off that cast all the way to Virginia and back.  We still have that cast.  

The reason I’m telling you this, is that God has once again given me something to wrestle with during Lent.  Some of you know that I have been going through a series of medical tests for the last month.  I was just notified on Friday that I do have breast cancer, but the good news is that it is stage zero - meaning that it has not spread beyond the duct it started in. 

And I want you to know that through this whole process, God has been so very gracious.  (And ladies, this was picked up on a routine mammogram in a very early stage, so I would encourage you all to keep current on your mammograms.) It had been 3 years since my last mammogram but when the time had come, God spurred me on to get the mammogram so that it was caught early.  At this stage it is both treatable and curable.  He has placed me in a church family here at Grace who have been very supportive and caring.  I know that God is walking with me every step of this journey and that He is as close to me as the air I breathe.

🎶You are the air I breathe,  You are the air I breathe,

Your very presence, living in me.🎵

I am in the very palm of God’s hand and pray that I may continue to be his witness in and to the world.  

Obviously, we are early in this process, so hopefully we will be able to meet with the oncologist this coming week and look at a plan of action.  I am told that treatment should begin within 6 weeks and will probably entail surgery and possibly radiation.  I guess you could say that God is in the process of cleaning my physical house/ my body.  So I am asking you to keep Sam and I in your prayers as we walk down this path, and I will keep all of you in my prayers. 

Amen.

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