Learning to Fall

            What does it mean to be church in this time and place?  We remember that the church was the center of life for many Americans in the 1950s.  Every Sunday the pews were filled, the CE classrooms were bursting with children and there were plenty of resources to keep the church going.  Growing a church was easy because all a church had to do to get new members was open its doors.  In many towns and cities at that time, the only way a person could connect to the community was through the church.  In many circles the only way to legitimize a relationship was marriage in the church and later on legitimizing families through baptizing children in the church. 

            The times have changed since the churches hey day of the 1950s.  Now, we are doing more funerals than baptisms.  A majority of mainline churches have experienced extreme declines in membership and shrinking financial resources.  In our anxiety we think that if we just change the music, or add a contemporary evening service, that will bring the people who will save our church.  However these small changes aren’t turning things around for many of our churches because our culture is shifting away from the church.

            As a community of faith we feel very much like the exiles to which the Prophet Jeremiah preached to in this mornings reading.  In the aftermath of the Babylonian invasion of Judah the Israelites wondered where did God go?   Their temple was destroyed and their king had been taken off in chains.  These were the two things that God had promised them, God’s presence in the temple and political power.   Prior to the invasion Jeremiah had warned the people that if they kept doing what they were doing:  worshiping other Gods, not caring for the poor and ignoring God’s commandments, that calamity would fall upon them.  Perhaps it was the people alone broke the covenant but I wonder if maybe God didn’t keep up the divine end of the covenant.  I am sure there were many in Judah who did lived faithfully according to the covenant and yet their way of life had died in the ashes of their destroyed temple.   So it would seem for the mainline church.  Didn’t God promise to protect those who kept the covenant??

In the gospel reading, when Greeks came to the festival because they wished to see Jesus, they were not looking for the real Jesus, but their version of Jesus.  They were seeking a savior, a miracle worker, a protector, someone so full of power that he will keep them from catastrophe.  Instead of a superhero, they found an ordinary man resigned to his fate of death, “Very truly I tell you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”  (John 12:24-25)  These are hard words to hear because our human instinct for survival gets in the way.  It is as preacher Barbara Brown Taylor puts it in her sermon on this same scripture “hard to preach the gospel to people who are scared of death of dying.”[i]  Because Jesus keeps telling us that we have to follow God’s will even it takes us to the cross and “It’s hard to preach self preservation in the presence of the cross”[ii] 

You see when individuals and organizations get anxious about its survival they become inwardly focused.  Rather than continuing to seek the common good, we who are anxious about our survival only seek what is good for us, hanging on to our resources with tight fists only to have it fall through our fingers anyways.  What the great recession of 2008 has taught many of us is that as much as we try to seek security with jobs, nest eggs and real estate, we can lose it all in a heart beat.  We fall as we get the pink slip, we fall as our retirement savings dwindle, we fall as our mortgages go upside down.  However it is only after we’ve fallen we begin realize that “There are worse things than falling to the ground that could happen to a grain of wheat.”[iii]  Since the market fell, I had suffered two lay offs, one by the church that I was serving as associate pastor and one by a church media center where I was serving as director.  Beloved and I had to bring $11,000 to the table to sell our home in Big City because our mortgage went underwater and we were the lucky ones because at least we were able to sell our home.  It was only while I was falling that I learned the power of letting go and trusting that God will provide.   

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” 

What the gospels tell us is that death needs to happen before resurrection.  Naturally we are more interested in learning to rise than in learning to fall.  But in the season of Lent, we are called to empty ourselves to make room for the resurrection that Easter brings.  In dying to the world’s ways of consumerism, survival by any means necessary and domination we become open to God’s new life in us in ways we’ve never imagined. 

Today the church does not look like it did sixty years ago.  In sixty years the church will not look like the church of today.  That is because God is continually doing a new thing.  “The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant…I will put my law within them, and I will write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:31, 33)  God constantly changes the church by breaking down that which is causing the church to die so that something new will take its place.  This is all to the glory of God in building God’s kingdom here on earth.

In the short time that I’ve been your pastor, I’ve witnessed actions in your community that reflect a desire to build God’s kingdom here in Tiny Town.  At the faith forum last week I heard conversations about where the needs are in the city of Tiny Town and how we can use the resources that God has blessed us with to bring new life to our town.  The world may think us foolish for making programs that aren’t about contributing to our bottom line, which is about membership and money.  But in turning away from our anxiety over our institutional survival and turning towards Gods way of building God’s kingdom here on earth we open ourselves to becoming church in ways we’ve never imagined before.   

God calls all churches to be God’s hands, feet and voice in the world to sustain God’s creation.  Let go and have faith that God will provide us what we need to do God’s work in the world.  May it be so.  Amen

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[i] Barbara Brown Taylor “Learning to Fall” Sermon Delivered at Festival of Homiletics May 2011.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Ibid.

For God So Loved the World

“For God So Loved the World”

            “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  (John 3:16) These words have been immortalized not only in our scriptures but also in our secular lives, most especially on Sunday…afternoons.  At any sporting event you can see this passage everywhere…in every end zone, in every crowd shot there is always someone holding up the placard that says: “John 3:16”  And now we have the Bronco’s quarterback Tim Tebow wearing  the words John 3:16 under his eyes as sun block.  What is it about this verse that has captured our imagination so much especially at sporting events?  Is it because faith gives one a leg up?  If so, then why did the Bronco’s lose in the playoffs?  Wait a minute, they were playing against the Patriots…maybe skill trumps faith.  Now Tebow is in danger of losing his job to Peyton Manning…I guess faith doesn’t save football careers.

            In this season of Lent one of the things we contemplate is our salvation.  What does it mean to be saved? How do we become saved?  Is salvation for everyone in the world or only reserved to those who have faith in Jesus alone?   Is salvation freely given or is it earned?  And does salvation work here on earth as well as it does in heaven…you know does faith in Jesus help us win the big game, get the great jobs and succeed in winning a Grammy. 

When I was a little girl growing up in the Catholic Church I had a healthy curiosity concerning the things that the nuns and priests were teaching me and much to their consternation I was not afraid to question what they were teaching me.  For instance I was taught that the only people who were saved, that is the only ones who were going to go to heaven were Catholics, and only the good ones at that.  Oh sure there were exceptions such as babies who were not baptized that would go to limbo but everyone else was condemned to eternal damnation. Well that didn’t seem fair to me.  At that time I was friends with a bunch of Baptist girls down the street and I had a hard time believing that were they not going to heaven because they weren’t Catholic.  What about the people in other countries, you know the starving children in China that I heard about every time I tried to not eat my vegetables, these kids didn’t even know about the Catholic faith, were they condemned as well.  How could a God who loves the world so much send over half of all creation to the fires of hell just because they weren’t Catholic? 

Fast forward to seminary, as you can salvation was a hot topic of discussion in and out of the classroom.  Many of us who grew up in the church had been taught to believe that Christianity was the only way to salvation.  For many of us, salvation through the belief in Jesus was of great comfort because could know what we needed to do to be saved.  However some of us felt that this notion of salvation through faith alone in Jesus was quite disturbing because it implied that God’s grace is reserved for just a few insiders.   What we learned is that salvation is not an either/or supposition.  If we are saved by belief in Jesus alone than it makes salvation a purely human accomplishment, thus taking away possibility of God’s ability giving us the gift of grace freely however if salvation is God’s initiative alone then we are in danger of taking God’s grace for granted and not responding to it, it is what theologian Dietrich Bonheoffer calls “cheap grace.”  Ok, are your heads ready to explode…yep mine too.

It wasn’t until I was a hospital chaplain that I learned the true meaning of salvation and the heart of the verse John 3:16.  I was assigned to the cardiac care unit; there I met many patients face to face with their mortality, many for the first time.  Most were forced to consider major lifestyle changes to accommodate their weakened hearts.  For some it was a matter of changing their diet and activity level, for others it meant adding a pace maker or medication to get their heart to beat normally and still others had to consider major surgery, cardiac bypass or a valve replacement to heal the damage done to their heart.  Needless to say, the fear of death was a prevalent in the cardiac care unit as patients and their families made decisions regarding their medical course of action.  However, I met a woman who faced her future with no fear.

On a busy weekday morning I was paged by the nurses of the cardiac unit to intervene in a family situation.  “Edna” had just been told by her doctor that she needed a valve replacement in order to survive the latest injury to her heart.  Edna decided quickly that she was done with surgical intervention and that she just wanted to go home to let nature to take its course.  Edna’s daughter did not agree with Edna’s decision.  When I came into the room, Edna was in her bed, connected to IV’s tubes and monitors.  Over the beeping of the machines her daughter argued with Edna, urging her to get the surgery, “Mom if you don’t get the surgery, you won’t be able to breath and you’ll choke to death…Mom, if you don’t get the surgery your heart will stop and we won’t be able to do anything about it….Mom, if you don’t get the surgery you’ll just drop dead.”  Edna listened to her daughter just nodding her head.  I tried to talk to them both but in her Edna’s daughter kept interrupting me with more arguments as to why Edna should get the surgery.  Eventually I had to ask the daughter for a moment alone with Edna so that I discuss with her the reasons for her opting not to get surgery.

The atmosphere in the room calmed down considerably when the daughter left.  I asked Edna how she came to the decision to not get surgery.  She replied, “Because I’m not afraid to die.” 

“Really” I asked “Why is that?”

“Because no matter what happens I know I’ll be OK.” She said

I continued probing “How do you know that to be true?”

“Because John 3:16 in the Bible tells me so.” She stated.

Unfortunately my beeper went off and I had to leave.  I asked her if she’d like me to come back later and she said yes, and asked me to bring my Bible so we could read it together.

When I came back to Edna’s room that afternoon with Bible in hand, I was taken aback by what I saw.  Gone were the wires, the monitors and IV tubes.  All there was was Edna in her bed waiting to be discharged.  The room seemed strangely quiet without the beeps and buzzes of the monitors that had previously kept track of Edna’s vital signs.  I sat down and opened the Bible to the Gospel of John chapter 3.  I asked her if she would like me to read her the whole chapter rather than just a snippet to which she enthusiastically agreed.  It was then, sitting in a hospital room, reading scripture with a woman fearlessly facing death that I finally got what salvation was all about.  It was all about our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, that we are saved by grace through faith.  I witnessed Edna facing her future graciously through her faith in God just as Jesus faced the cross.  Edna had eternal life her whole life long, not only because she believed in the promise of resurrection from death that Jesus had on Easter morning, but also because she had the close and abiding relationship with God that Jesus did. 

God’s love is abundantly poured out for the whole world so that all, not just a select few, can experience the good news of God’s love and grace freely given to all.  This salvation, this relationship with God, is what propels us to move beyond our fears to do God’s work in the world.

May it be so.  Amen.

The Joy of Covenant

            I would like to begin this morning’s sermon with a big thank to this congregation for all of the hospitality that you have shown beloved and myself since we’ve moved to Tinytown a week and a half ago.  The visits, the warm wishes, and especially the food were very much appreciated as we went about the work of settling into our new home.  I just wanted to let you all know that the dishes that you brought the food in are in the kitchen on top of the checkered table cloth.  All dishes not claimed by the end of the day today will be sold in a rummage sale next week.

            Moving to a new place is an exciting yet overwhelming task.  In the short time that we’ve been here, Beloved and I have had to find a new place to go grocery shopping, gas our cars, get our hair cut (ladies you know how important that task is) and even open new bank accounts which I tell you was quite an adventure.  Thanks to the Patriot Act our interview with the Banker was quite extensive, not only did we have to give her our previous banking history but we also had to give the banker our past and present employment information as well.  When the banker asked me who my supervisor was at my current place of employment, I thought for a second and then said, “well God of course.”  To which she replied, “I can accept that.”  It helps that I am the pastor of the church next door, because thank goodness she didn’t ask for God’s phone number to verify my employment.

            All joking aside, as people of faith we all can claim God to be our ultimate supervisor.  One of the marks of discipleship is being accountable to the one who is the God of the promise and the God of the law and part of God’s law are the Ten Commandments which were read this morning from the Hebrew Testament.  The four thou shalts and 6 thou shalt nots cover how we are to live with God and with each other.  Some believe these commandments to be universal moral principals and would like to see the Ten Commandments in the public square, whereas others shy away from the commandments preferring to dwell on the promise of God’s grace freely given than on the anything that implies we have to earn that grace.  However it is as preacher Barbara Brown Taylor puts it, “Promise without law is like a tent without tent poles.  It is amorphous.  It will not hold up.  It will not hold up.  It looks one way to one person and another way to the next, with know way to tell which way is right.”[i]

            In order to truly understand what any passage the Bible is saying, we have to understand the time from which the scripture was written, the place in which it was written in, who wrote it and why it was written.  We remember that the book of Exodus tells the story of God saving the Israelites from slavery in Egypt through the work of God’s servant Moses.  The Israelites had been wandering in desert looking for the Promised Land and the longer they journeyed, the crankier they got.  When the Israelites encountered hunger and thirst they complained to Moses that they would have been better off staying enslaved in Egypt.  Moses would cry out to God, “What am I to do with these people?  They are almost ready to stone me.” (Exodus 17:4)  Then God would provide food and water.  And yet even though God was providing for their basic needs, the people continued to behave in ways that were irresponsible and detrimental to the community as a whole.  God needed to get the people back to a way of life that works for having a relationship with God and with each other.  God gave them the law.

            What is interesting is the form in which the Ten Commandments are written.  It is written just like a treaty between a king and his vassal-that is a person or nation that is dependant upon the king for land and protection.   There is a power difference between the parties of the treaty.  The commandments comes from God to the people, this is not a dialogue.  However, the Israelite people are free to agree or disagree with the terms of the treaty.  This is a binding agreement based on mutual commitment.  In it are promises and obligations, reliability and durability.

By using the form of a treaty that puts God in the role of King, the authors of the book of Exodus are trying to portray God as all-powerful and benevolent.  Had the authors used a treaty where the power relationship was equal, this would have put God on the same level as the people, which would have been problematic.  The purpose of the Exodus story is to promote the one God of Israel.  To show the people of Israel that the God of their ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Joseph has a plan and that God has the power to intervene in history to make that plan come to reality.  The people of Israel are thus utterly dependent upon this sole God and should show their gratitude to God by following the commandments. When people are dependent upon God of Israel, they are less tempted to follow the religious traditions of the gods of other communities such as Canaan.

            The language of the Ten Commandments may sound harsh but the intent behind them is not.  God knows what is life giving and what is not.  If you murder, steal, commit adultery, covet etc. etc. life will be miserable.  If you honor God, honor your parents and keep the Sabbath, then life will be good.  Obedience to the law does not earn the promise of God’s grace, that promise has already been granted by God unconditionally and forever.  Obedience to the law is a sign of belief in the promise and a witness of your faith.[ii]

            In this season of Lent we remember that God came to us to make a new covenant in the human form Jesus, not to have power over us but to be in solidarity with us.  To the world this way of sharing power with would seem foolish, especially because the way Jesus lived landed him on the cross. However the Apostle Paul states, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God… God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are so that no one might boast in the presence of God.” (1 Cor. 1:18, 28-29)  On Good Friday it would seem that death won, but Easter shows us that in the end, God’s love wins.

            In January you have called me to be your pastor and I was honored to accept this call.  We joyfully made a covenant together based on a relationship of mutuality and equality.  As your pastor I will not have power over you but I will share in God’s power with you in this community of faith.  The future holds so much excitement for all of us as we begin our journey together.  It may feel awkward at first as I try to learn your ways and you get used to mine.  There will be challenges ahead but I am confident that God will give us what we need to meet each challenge and together we will continue to fulfill First Congregational Church’s mission to be  “followers of Jesus Christ and servants of God, striving for love, truth, justice and peace within our congregation, community, and the world."  May it be So.  Amen

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[i] Barbara Brown Taylor “Promises” Gospel Medicine.46

[ii] Ibid 49