Take as Your Guide 2-24-13

Take as Your Guide 2-24-13 God, sometimes we flounder about looking for what or whom to follow. Conflicting voices claim our attention and scatter our focus. We long for spiritual transformation in ourselves and in our world. Lead us, dear God, like a mother hen gathering her young. Call us with your voice and Holy Spirit. Amen Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Both Jesus and Paul are lamenting over the people who cannot be saved, so to speak. In Paul’s letter, he is talking primarily about those who refuse to hear the Gospel, letting the things of the world stay uppermost in their hearts and minds, filling their thoughts with everything but the Gospel of Christ. Jesus brings the same kind of lament over all of Jerusalem, God’s chosen people. Those same chosen people have a history of killing the prophets God sends to them and closing down their hearts to hearing God’s word and will for them. Is it beyond us to know what Paul and Jesus experience? Barbara Brown Taylor describes it like this: "If you have ever loved someone you could not protect, then you understand the depth of Jesus’ lament. All you can do is open your arms. You cannot make anyone walk into them. Meanwhile, this is the most vulnerable posture in the world --wings spread, breast exposed -- but if you mean what you say, then this is how you stand." If you have children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews, you can understand this first-hand. A parent will do anything to protect their child; sometimes, however, it is just not enough. Children will go their own way, often bringing great heartache to themselves and to their parents. Jesus and Paul--both willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to bring all the children to knowledge of God and God’s reign of justice—Jesus and Paul both suffer the heartache of knowing that certain children just won’t come. No matter how wide their arms may stretch, there are some who will not hear of the love of God. What do these scriptures say to us—mostly comfortable, mostly with some sense of God’s will for our lives, mostly willing to take on others’ needs as our own—what do they really have to say? They seem harsh, almost out of place when we happen upon them with little to no warning. We get uncomfortable in new ways. You see, I think there is more to this story than calling us to scurry under the protective wings of God. Some, here today, are discovering that they need God’s spiritual and emotional protection and I trust that you will find a place where you feel safe and loved. As for the rest of us, I believe that God is calling us to be the arms of the mother bird. After every oil spill, or hurricane, or tsunami, there are stories of mother birds risking and losing their lives to save the babies they have pulled underneath their wings. I never thought much about a bird being my hero, but when those stories make it to youtube or one of you sends me a link, I find myself honoring those mother birds just as I would honor any parent who would give their all to protect their young. And whether or not you have thought about it, we all have children knocking at our doors looking for God’s protection and safety. Some of these children are gay, many are not. Some of these children are transgender, many are confused. Some of these children are poor and some just different from other children. But some of these children will not live long enough for us to offer our wings of protection, though some will. It is easy, surprisingly easy, to resist the temptation to feel responsible when one of our LGBT teens commits suicide. It used to be easy for me. Then I experienced it up close and personal. In my casework days, long years ago—just about at the height of the AIDS crisis, I was assigned a child, William, 14 or 15, and obviously gay. Since there were no special programs in those days, (and, sadly, few exist today), he was sent to a group home because no foster parent was willing to deal with his acting out. He was miserable and he told me so. My hands were tied, I could not send him somewhere else and I, certainly could not tell him that I was gay—this being 1987. Not too many months after he asked me to move him, he committed suicide in the group home. And while I did not kick the chair out from under him—he did that himself—I certainly felt that I had helped tie the knots in the sheets that he used as a rope. That was 1987—I was new to casework and had only been “out” myself since 1982. Today, it is not 1987 and I’m blessed to be in a position where I can be just about as “out” as it is possible to be. Many of you do not share that similar blessing, but if you do, please do not hesitate to use your own identity as a building block for kids and young people to see that life is not over when you discover that you are gay or transgender or bi-sexual. We must begin to use our wings to shelter these children and adults who need us the most. There is another group of people who need our wings—while maybe not as dramatic as children committing suicide—many of these folks are just as desperate. These are adults—usually depressed, perhaps hopeless—who feel that God cannot possibly love them. These are the adults, both young and old, who have lived with the message of God’s hatred of their lifestyle or God’s condemnation of their addiction, mental illness, or poverty. If we are to be God’s wings, we must make room for these children of God. Let’s face it, if we just stand here, most of these folks will miss us entirely and pass on by. Even if we just open our wings and stand like giant statues, few will even notice that we are there beyond an initial stare. But, if we speak, if we call to them, they will most certainly stop in their confusion and pain to hear and see what we are about. Alan Brehm, in The Walking Dreamer, says this: “Faith enables us to move out of the essential hopelessness of our world and to step into the 'glorious liberty' that God is bringing to the whole creation through Jesus. It is a different path, a whole new way of life that sees the possibility of new life in every death, sees the light shining in the deepest darkness, and sees hope in the midst of despair." Listen to the words of Jesus when told that Herod is out to get him. “Tell that old fox that I am going to keep on doing what I am doing—healing the sick, ministering to the mentally ill”. Most scholars agree that some of the so-called demons which Jesus called out of people might well be modern day epilepsy, schizophrenia, and other neurological and psychological illnesses. So, what Jesus is saying, is “Fox or no fox, I’m doing what I’m doing—loving and healing. “ Jesus lets nothing interfere with his ministry. He excludes no one from the reach of God’s love. His message remains the same—go, do, heal, love. Lee Koontz says, “"It is an extraordinary statement on the grace of God, and also a compelling proclamation that no place stands exempt from God’s tender compassion and persistent love. Those who seek to follow Jesus must learn to view the world with no less compassion, no less forgiveness, and no less love." This calls us to a new way of being, a new way of reaching out, a new way of doing church. We are called by God, in both solitude and communal prayer and seeking, to new ways of doing things, to creatively reach those who need to be reached. As we sit and listen, pray and respond, we will sense that we are always covered by the wings of God’s perfect love. And we are present to the knowledge that God always grieves for those who will not hear or cannot hear, those who will not learn or have not heard of divine acceptance. This is the Lenten Journey in a nutshell—that we, already knowing the peace and grace from this God of radical acceptance and love, will become present for those who need us to reach our arms wide inviting them to gather under the wings of God. We know that Easter will come again—we are a resurrected people. During Lent, we take time to pray and to listen, to ask and to follow. This very act of separating ourselves for some special prayer and meditation is an act of faith—faith that when we honestly seek in humility and in the knowledge that we are called to be servants one to another—faith that we will hear the Spirit of God move among us—inviting, reviving, refreshing, and renewing our spirits for service. And, so, Lent calls us to action—the creation awaits our response to God’s gracious work among us. On this, the second Sunday of Lent we must choose either to leave this place unmoved by God’s Holy Spirit or surrender our own complacency and become open to what God is calling us to do. It’s a journey, my friends, and together we will continue to discover what God wants this church to be. God is alive and well and moving in our lives in mighty and wonderful ways. I trust us as a people and I can hardly wait to be a part of all that God is calling to become. Amen and amen.

Embracing Body and Soul 2-17-13

The Reading— Romans 10:8b-13 The word that saves is right here, as near as the tongue in your mouth, as close as the heart in your chest. It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what was done in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting God to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between us!” Scripture reassures us, “No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it.” It’s exactly the same no matter what a person’s religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. “Everyone who calls, ‘Help, God!’ gets help.” The Middle Reading— from A Call to Christian Embodiment by Rev. Jim Dickerson We need a spiritual practice that is, as Paul says, stronger and more powerful than what the world considers strong and powerful. We need the spirituality that sustained Jesus’ journey to and through the cross. God’s call and our times demand an enlarged, robust form of divine embodiment that clearly and cohesively integrates and expresses the social, ecological, and cosmic as well as the individual nature of our mystically embodied union and communion with God in Christ. Our current practice needs to become a more comprehensive prayer of embodiment with called, gifted and committed people of faith, hope and love in Christ to live and teach it. The Gospel Reading: Luke 4:1-13 Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when the time was up he was hungry. The Devil, playing on his hunger, gave the first test: “Since you’re God’s Son, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to really live.” For the second test he led him up and spread out all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once. Then the Devil said, “They’re yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I’m in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they’re yours, the whole works.” Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve your God with absolute single-heartedness.” For the third test the Devil took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, “If you are God’s Son, jump. It’s written, isn’t it, that ‘he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you; they will catch you; you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone’?” “Yes,” said Jesus, “and it’s also written, ‘Don’t you dare tempt the Lord your God.’” That completed the testing. The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity. God, it is easy for us to lapse into times and places in our lives where we no longer seek your will—where frustration and fear take us far away from you. Bring us back again, refresh our spirits, give us courage to live deeply into the right relationships you have designed to bring us love and life and peace. Amen The story of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness is always the Gospel passage for the first Sunday in Lent. I suppose it is to get us thinking about sin and lust and grandiosity and other temptations to which we fall prey along the way. Since temptation and sin are nothing new to most of us, this story of Jesus facing down the Devil always bears repeating. I looked for new truths and I found them. Rev. Elder Ken Martin, one of our own elders says this: “The word in today's text that is translated "devil" is diabolos. Literally, it means "the separator"...something that separates what should not be separated, something that breaks what should remain intact, something that fragments what should remain unified, something that destroys what should remain whole.” The Separator, now that’s a concept I can get into. If we look at the temptations of Jesus as our temptations too, then this concept of separation touches our bodies, hearts and minds. If right relationship with ourselves, each other and that is all the each other’s, and God, then the temptations of Christ show us precisely where our temptations lie. These temptations came at the end of 40 days of praying and fasting. There is nothing to eat in the desert. There is only sand—long, hot miles of sand where mirages play tricks on you and you come to believe that just ahead there is an oasis with water and growing plants; but, somehow you never seem to get any closer. Jesus had been there a long time. Biblical scholars point out two things about the number 40. Jesus was not the only person to have gone on a special ‘retreat’ of sorts for 40 days: Israel spent 40 long years in the wilderness waiting for God to show them the promised land and Moses spent 40 days with God on the mountain waiting for the words of the Law. The number 40 is usually thought to stand for a period of time that is really, really long. Nevertheless, we spend 40 days in Lent and while I don’t see much sand, I know that some of us are squarely in the center of a spiritual desert looking for meaning, looking for peace, and looking for God. Some of you may not be there now, but have been in the past. For some of you, your desert experience may lie ahead. But, it is almost certain that at some point in our lives, God’s spirit sends us—just as she sent Jesus—into the desert to learn of God and ourselves. What, then, can the temptations of Jesus teach us about our own desert experience? After 40 long, hot days, Jesus would have been famished. In walks ‘the Separator”. In this temptation, I kinda see the incarnation of Evil, as a swarm of bees with a voice. “What cha doing, Jesus? I’ve been watching you and I bet you are really, really hungry. Hey, Jesus, if you really are God’s child, make this stone here turn into a nice, warm, fresh-baked loaf of bread. Want some honey to go with your bread?” Jesus answered this swarming mass of bees, “God’s word says “you do not live by bread alone.” Stumped and stymied, the incarnation of evil has another idea. This time I see evil as a great black vulture—you know like the ones you see on the side of the road, magnified by 100 times. The bird leads Jesus high up on a hill. Out of the mouth of this disgusting bird come these words, “Here, look, all the kingdoms of the world are laid out before you. I have the earthly authority over all these nations and peoples. I can give it to you, if you will simply worship me.” Jesus, looking at the bird and not the nations, says, “Worship only God, serving and loving in God’s name.” Now seriously annoyed, the incarnation of Evil—this time a fire-breathing dragon in my mind—places Jesus on top of the tower on the temple in Jerusalem. “Go ahead, jump Jesus. If you are who you are, then God will send angels to protect you and to catch you so that not even your feet will be injured.” At this point, the fire-breathing dragon is so close to Jesus that he can feel the heat on his skin. Perhaps, jumping is the best option at this point. And you can hear all kinds of voices getting louder, “jump, jump, jump.” Jesus said to Evil, “it is written, don’t test God”. For now, the testing was done, and Evil slips away. The author builds the suspense by adding “until an opportune time”. While we may hope that Evil has been defeated, we know, on our hearts, that some other test, or encounter awaits Jesus; and, awaits us. Let’s look at some of the practical applications of each temptation. Now, I want to say up front, that no one’s wilderness or desert experience is the same. Yours may be completely different and that is valuable for us to remember; but in looking at Jesus’s desert experience, we may find some themes that resonate with our own. First, are you hungry? There are so many meanings attached to the word hungry—we can be hungry for food, hungry for sex, hungry for companionship or friendship, hungry for things, hungry for fame or power, or even, hungry for God. When Evil taunts him—“you must be very hungry, just do that little magic thing you do and turn this stone into bread”, Jesus, while certainly hungry for bread at that point, takes the focus off of his own need and says, “I don’t live just on bread”. The implication is clear—we are created as physical beings who need so much more than bread to keep us alive and well in our relationship with God. The layers of need and fulfillment are so deep that it would take sermon upon sermon to even begin to touch all the ways that God meets our needs. This temptation, more than the other two, however, brings our attention to the relationship between the physical and the spiritual. When we become spiritually less than what God calls us to—when, in our relationship with God, we become separated from God, we feel it in our bodies. When, in our relationship with ourselves, we become separated from our truest selves, we feel it in our bodies. Our bodies become our transmitters of God’s message to our souls. I really don’t like examples of my own life in sermons, but one example screams to be included here. Since I moved back to Florida now seven years ago, strange things have been going on in my body. Yes, I’m aging—don’t go there—but, more than that, somewhere along the way I stopped feeling a connection with my body. I knew that my sedentary lifestyle would get the better of my strong, yet fragile body, and yet, I persisted in some pretty unhealthy patterns. Most of you know that about 5 weeks ago, I, like some of you, was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. Suddenly, I got it—this body which had gotten me this far in life—never seriously failing me along the way—was telling me loud and clear that my lifestyle was out of line with what God intends for my life and my work. I won’t tell you that I have made a complete shift yet, but I’m working on it—seriously working on it. And, if nothing else works, those twice a day jabs in my fingers remind me that I cannot control my body, I can only control what goes into it and how I treat it along the way. I trust, that with God’s help and your prayers, that you will be able to see a transformation over the next year or so and rejoice with me that God finally got my attention and said, “You are not in right relationship with your body.” Each of these mini-transitions is hard and there are constant temptations—which sometimes I conquer and sometimes I don’t, but it helps to truly understand that the temptation is not the donut, the temptation is to ignore what my body needs if we are to stay in right relationship. And my spirit grows as well. Being present to my body has the additional blessing of enabling me to be present to God and to all of God’s children around me. Where are you in your body-spirit relationships? Just a question to ponder. Second, who do you want to be? Evil offered it all to Jesus—why just look, you can have all of this—all for the insignificant price of worshiping me. This temptation translates into the shortcuts we are sometimes tempted to take, the footprints we might leave on someone’s back as we climb the human ladder of success, using people to get what we want when we want it—you get the point. Jesus’ answer strikes us in the center of our hearts. “My worship belongs to God and God alone!” Can we face that same temptation as individuals and as the people of God. Keeping our eyes on God, and God as pure goodness, alone calls for us to spend time with God, to seek God’s presence and to learn to listen to God’s still small voice. It’s so much easier to listen to the loud voices in our worlds—God calls us to quiet our minds and listen. What do you hear when you listen? Third, how do you prove it? In what do you place your faith? In what might be the hardest temptation for us to understand, Evil toys with Jesus—trying to get him to prove that his trust is valid. This is hard for us because our friends, our families, our culture all say, prove to us that it is God you are following. Who is this God, anyway? When we take the time to know that God is the source of all goodness, all kindness, all love, we—ourselves—come to a place where the only “proof” we need is in our own changed perceptions of the relationships in our lives. The righting of the relationships between ourselves, each other and God brings us more and more knowledge of God. It will be difficult for some to grasp that knowing God means knowing how much there is yet to know, to seek, to learn. While we do not have magical powers to perform some great stunt to “prove” God’s existence, we are still prey for those seeking to discredit the good they see in your life and in the life of the church. Jesus did nothing to send the Evil away, he just stayed the course of his own spiritual journey. Are you able do stay the course of your faith? And so, this sermon, just like Evil’s time with Jesus, comes to an end. But, in that end, we are called—called to right all the relationships in our lives where we have allowed “the Separater” to split us off from our bodies and souls, each other, the Creation or God. Lent is a time for discovery, Easter is a time for rejoicing and all of life is a time for growing deeper in faith, in knowledge, and in truth. Amen and Amen.

Saying “Yes” to Spirit: Removing the Veil 2-10-13

God, it is so much easier for us to say “no” rather than “yes”. We say it to ourselves, to each other and to you. Forgive us when we fail to comprehend the power of saying “yes”. Show us this day what you would have us to learn. Use my words to bring glory to you. Amen Happy Transfiguration Sunday! What is transfiguration, you might ask? One of my young friends in Orlando loved Transfiguration Sunday. A very devout young man with a great sense of humor, he always called it: “The Sunday of the Great Holy On-Stage Costume Change”. It won’t surprise you to discover that he is a professional drag queen and was always looking for a way to change costumes without his audience realizing it.” But that gets me a little ahead of myself. Let me tell you a great story that we need to understand in order to grasp the meaning of our chosen texts. Some of you will remember that Moses had a bit of trouble with the Ten Commandments. He and the Israelites are in the desert and they’ve been there a long time. Moses has gone up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, the Law of God. He was there for 40 days and the Israelites have little to no patience. They convince the guy left in charge, Aaron, to build a golden calf so that they have something they understand to worship. When Moses comes down, sacred tablets in hand, he finds that the people have deserted Yahweh while he was gone. The consequences are not good. Moses and God are very angry. Moses goes ballistic and smashes the holy tablets to the ground and says some harsh words. Then God executes some harsh retribution. After the yelling dies down, Moses goes back up the mountain to try to “atone” for the sins of the Israelite people. Among other things, God gives the Ten Commandments to Moses a second time. As Moses comes back down the mountain, Aaron and the other leaders notice that Moses’ face is shining, bright as the sun itself. At first, they are afraid, but Moses calls them and the others to come and they do. This time they have not wandered away like children who have no ability to determine right from wrong. And Moses gives them God’s Law a second time. Then he covers his face so that the people cannot see the glow. Every time Moses speaks directly with God up on the mountain, he takes his veil off. He comes down and speaks the word of God to the people; and, then, the veil is pulled over his face again. This is because Moses’ face is reserved for the conveying of the relationship between God and the chosen people. As soon as that communication has been accomplished, Moses puts the veil back on because, so far, he is the only person who has seen and talked with God face-to-face. The others cannot bear to see his face since he has seen God. The time changes by many hundreds of years. Jesus has been teaching and healing and chooses three disciples to take up the mountain with him for what they believe will be a spiritual retreat of sorts and, perhaps, some R and R. Peter, John and James are the folks picked for this special occasion. When they reach the top of the mountain, the disciples sit down. Jesus begins to pray, and although the disciples are very sleepy, for once they do not give in to the temptation of napping. As they are watching Jesus pray, something mysterious happens. First his face changes—becoming dazzling white. Then he is all in white. Suddenly, Moses and the prophet Elijah, both dead for centuries, show up and begin talking with Jesus. They, too, appeared in a glorified manner. They were talking to Jesus about all that was to happen in Jerusalem, especially of his departure from this earth. Peter, who you will remember from other verses as the disciple who always had a bright idea, told Jesus that it was a good thing the others were there with Jesus so that they could build a dwelling for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus as a monument to the occasion. Just as these words came out of his mouth, a cloud came and completely surrounded them. They were, understandably, terrified. Suddenly, before they had time to react, there was a voice from the cloud, saying, "This is my Chosen one; listen to him!" The terror had quieted all of Peter’s other thoughts so that when the cloud lifted, and only Jesus remained, the three disciples kept quiet and told no one what they saw. From here, we speed forward only about 5-10 years at most. Paul is writing to the Christians at Corinth. And the subject of his discourse is this very story of Moses. However, since the ministry, death and resurrection of Christ, the story has a twist. The second letter from Paul to Corinth is written by a very frustrated Paul. The people have become negative—slandering each other and spending time in creating divisions instead of building each other up in Christ. They are also arguing over whether or not Paul’s ministry is the leadership they wish to follow. Paul, in his letter, explodes at them and questions their actions with honesty. Just before our chosen scripture, he reminds them that the Ten Commandments which brought punishment and condemnation were engraved in stone. Moses, carried them to the people, came with so much glory that the people could barely stand to look at him. Paul asks a penetrating question: “If there was this intense glory with the rules that brought condemnation, how much more glory will come with the ministry of the Spirit—that ministry which promises to restore and set the world right?” This glory, which accompanies the New Covenant, is everlasting and does not fade away like the previous glory. It is with this promise of hope, then, that we act with great boldness. People’s hearts were hardened by the Old Covenant, just like the veil that separated the glory on Moses’ face from people’s sight. Immediately, the point of Paul’s preaching is revealed—when someone turns to the Lord, Jesus Christ, the veil is removed. And then the line which gives us great hope and the chance for transformation: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”. Indeed, all of us now see with unveiled faces the glory of the Lord reflected in a mirror. We are, in fact, being transformed into the image of Christ, one degree at a time, for transformation itself comes from that same Lord. What does all this glory from glory and transformation mean for us here, very much firmly planted in our everyday lives, and most certainly, not on top of some mountain waiting for God’s divine word to us? First, the Transfiguration of Jesus—I think that God surprises us with the unexpected breaking through into Jesus’ and the disciples’ lives. Jesus was about to enter the most difficult time of his ministry. He went up the mountain to pray, to seek guidance and, perhaps, to ask for strength. Who should appear, but two of the men of God who would understand what was ahead for Jesus? The scriptures record that they talked with Jesus about the next steps in his ministry. It is not hard for me to understand that God would send these Spirit Guides to Jesus just when he needed them the most. God always answers our prayers, although not always in the ways we expect. Perhaps, the disciples needed to hear one more time, God’s affirmation of the identity of Jesus Christ. “Listen to him” says God, something we still do not very well. Paul leads us into the nitty gritty of transformation. God’s glory, because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is no longer hidden or veiled from us. Additionally, when we experience our solitary encounters with God, it radiates through our faces and all are welcomed into the “unveiling” of the transformation in our lives. God’s work of transformation is no longer hidden. And in the showing of the growth or transformation of each of us, one degree at a time, we experience community transformation as well. This sacred transformation is both free and freedom for us. It is free in that there is no price to be paid—it is through God’s grace that we are transformed. This great gift, freely given, is freedom to our souls, our hearts, and our bodies. God, through Paul, calls us to trust the process of transformation, one degree at a time. Here is where we become like the ancient Israelites or the feuding Christians at Corinth. This process feels like desert—we are often alone, waiting for our souls to catch up to God. It is not God who leaves us alone in the process, it is us, in our haste and impatience that causes us to feel deserted, or left in a desert of uncertainty. We want to know and, by the way, we want to know now. We want our faces to radiate with the knowledge of divine presence, the first time we encounter God. What is this one degree at a time thing—surely we have more important things to do than to wait for God’s word and call. And in our impatience to get to the destination, we miss the journey. Yet we journey one degree at a time, fully unveiled for all to see. God’s work in our lives shouts to those around us: it is pure freedom in the radically accepting arms of God that pulls us deeper and deeper into our relationship with God and lifts us higher and higher in our work as God’s people. When we travel together, each as each can, with faces unveiled for all to see, the Spirit takes hold of our time together. We are linked by the freedom of the unveiling of God’s presence by the life and work of Jesus Christ. Having grown together in the love of God on our collective journey—made unique by each traveler—we are transfigured and share the transforming love of God to each and to all. Amen and amen.

“Saying ‘Yes’ to Call: Putting Words in our Mouths” 2-3-13

The Reading—Jeremiah 1:4-10 Now the word of Yahweh came to me and said: “Before I formed you in the womb, I chose you. Before you were born, I dedicated you. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Bu I said, “But Sovereign Yahweh! I don’t know how to speak! I’m too young!” By Yahweh said, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ Now, go wherever I send you. Do not fear anyone, for I am with you to protect you. It is Yahweh who speaks.” Then Yahweh touched my mouth and said to me, “look, I am putting words in your mouth. This day I appoint you over nations and territories, to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” Our Middle Reading today is a reinterpretation of 1 Corinthians by Rev. Carol Even if I knew how to speak every language of earth and heaven, if I didn’t love you, it would all just be a cacophony of instruments banging with no meaning. Even if I had the key to all the secrets of the world and professed a faith strong enough to move a mountain, if I don’t love you, all that amounts to nonsense. I could give you and others everything that I possess. Then I, like Joan of Arc, could become willing to be burned at the stake for what I say I believe, but if I don’t love you, it is for naught. Love lasts and waits forever, love is pure kindness. Love allows for all freedom without jealousy, and does not pretend to be more that it is. Love doesn’t think it is better than others, it is never hurtful, doesn’t strike out in anger, and doesn’t keep track of how many times you hurt me. Love will never rejoice when something goes wrong for you, but will rejoice when truth prevails. Love never takes a break. When all the other gifts have ceased, perfect love will reign for all to see. Faith and hope are also important, but love is greater than all. The Gospel Reading: John 14: 21-33 Those who obey the commandments are the Ones who love me, and those who love me will be loved by Abba God. I, too, will love them and will reveal myself to them. Judas—not—Iscariot—said, “Rabbi, why is it that you’ll reveal yourself to us, and not to the whole World?” Jesus answered, “Those who love me will be true to my Word, and Abba God will love them; and we will come to them and make our dwelling place with them. Those who don’t love me don’t keep my Words. Yet the message you hear is not mine; it comes from Abba God who sent me. This much have I said to you while still with you; but the Paraclete, the Holly Spirit whom Abba God will send in my name, will instruct you in everything and she will remind you of all that I told you. ___________________________________________________God, we come into your presence today a little distracted. Our thoughts are other places. Call us back to you. Give us ears to listen and eyes to see. May all that I say bring glory to you. Amen. Put yourself in Jeremiah’s shoes just for a moment. There you are, minding your own business or trying to, and in comes God. This can’t be good, you think. Personal visits from God always mean something’s up and you kinda like your nice and quiet life just the way it is. But God walks in anyway. And then it comes—God speaks: “Before you were even thought of, before your mother even decided she wanted children, I had already chosen you. I dedicated you, and selected you to be a prophet to all the nations of Israel”. Whoa, God. Not so fast. I’m too young (and we can substitute any word you want here—old, shy, busy, tongue-tied—doesn’t matter to God) to speak on your behalf. Besides, I wouldn’t know what to say—you know me—a little distractible—I don’t stay on one subject very long and, anyway, this isn’t what I had in mind for my life right now;” “Stop right now!” says God. “Do not say that ‘I am too young.’ Go where I send you. There is no need to be afraid because I am going with you to protect you.” Then God touched my mouth and said, “I am putting my words into your mouth. This is the day your life changes: I appoint you over nations, countries, and states. It is your job to get rid of all that is unjust, and all that hurts my creation of earth and all its inhabitants. And then, it is your joy to build up that which is torn down and to plant new where old is gone.” And, just like that, God leaves you alone for now—alone with your thoughts, your protests, your amazement. I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted after this experience with God. It feels so real, so now. I need time to think, or, maybe I don’t. Perhaps this call to Jeremiah is God’s call to me and to you. I want to do what I always do when I’m trying to understand something. I need to take it apart. What, exactly does God say in the midst of our “can’ts and won’ts and don’t know hows”? I think it probable that most of us, at some point in our lives, have said “I can’t do this”. It doesn’t much matter what you thought you couldn’t do, the experience is similar. Some of you did it anyway, some of you tried and failed, and there may have been times when ‘can’t’ won and you did nothing. God is not a God of ‘can’t’. There are stories of can’ts all through the Bible—look at Moses—and the burning bush—similar to Jeremiah, he tried every ‘can’t’ in the book to get out of doing what God was calling him to do. Again God told him that the words Moses would speak would be divinely inspired as if spoken by God. Jeremiah isn’t the only prophet who experiences this—Isaiah also experienced God touching his mouth at the time of his call. This kind of call expects the spoken word—preached, taught, dialogued, and meditated upon. And, for many of us, speaking—particularly in public—ranks pretty high on the list of things we don’t want to do. So, why does God call Jeremiah and us to speak of God’s grace and transforming power. I believe that, once again, it is about relationship. When we speak to another person, they have the opportunity to see our faces, hear our tone of voice, witness our excitement first-hand. The ancient Hebrew Rabbis were said to prefer the oral tradition—that is, the spoken word—to the written one. Spoken words are alive with not only history, but present and future as well. Spoken words nurture relationships with each other and with God. So why, then, is it so hard for us to speak of the wonderful work of God in our lives. Unfortunately, the concept of who God is has suffered in my generation and the generations that come after me. I lived through “God is Dead!”—most of you did as well—I remember the fear that some folks felt with the publishing of numerous books and articles on the subject. The cover of the April 8, 1966 edition of Time magazine asked the question "Is God Dead?" and the article which accompanied the cover addressed growing atheism in America at the time. This debate kept many theologians busy during the late 60’s and early 70’s—the precise time that a lonely teenager in Apopka, Florida was feeling a “call” from this same God who was presumed to be dead by others. It was a time of great confusion for me and for many. On the one hand, I was trying very hard to live a life according to the teachings of Jesus and worship God in song; while on the other hand, many thought that Jesus was a “great teacher of morals and ethics” and God—well l, I could sing if I wanted to, but there was no God to hear my praise. What finally ensued—and it was a great undertaking--were the efforts of many theologians—Christian, Jewish, and otherwise—to redefine God in a way that contemporary people could identify and understand. The late 60’s and early 70’s were a time of great change across many religious, social, cultural, and political arenas, in the United States and across the world. In fact, the birth of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Churches occurred bolstered and nourished by some of these same changes. This was a similar place to the one in which Jeremiah found himself. His father was a retired priest, and we learn from other Old Testament stories, that his home town of Anathoth was a place where several priests were sent when they ran into some trouble or another. So, Jeremiah was a “preacher’s kid”, surrounded by other priests and used to theological conversations even though still an adolescent himself. The nation of Israel had once again strayed from the right relationship they once had with God. They built idols while armies amassed warriors ready to bring down the Israel nation which no longer focused on the God of Abraham. Isaac, and Jacob. Jeremiah is often called the “weeping prophet”. He was given a great love for the people to whom he prophesied. Because of this, his heart was often broken by the sins of the people and their denunciation of Yahweh. His second book of writings of the words sent by God is called “Lamentations”—not a cheery book at all. But, shy, timid, resistant, reluctant Jeremiah followed the commands of God and took the word of Yahweh-sometimes critical—often frightening warnings—to the people for some 45 years. It is not so different with us. We think we are not ready, not skilled, not gifted. We are reluctant to share the words that God has given to us—reluctant to take the risk of speaking. Our excuses are loud and long. Our yeses are soft, barely uttered—perhaps no one will hear me. But God steps into our lives and uses us—plain, everyday folks like you and me to speak—not just act, but speak as well. God has always chosen people like us—common, ordinary, faithful people like us. Every single person that God has used throughout time has been just one of us before God called. And when God calls, and we say yes, words somehow arrive in our mouths just as we utter them. And, like Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Moses we become prophets, spokespersons for the Lord. God has already written what we are to say. We know that Jesus Christ is the word of God incarnate. We have only to look at his life and work to know the word of God. God is not looking for theological proclamations or didactic presentations from any of us. To know the love of God through the grace of Jesus Christ is all we need to share. We talk so freely of God’s radical acceptance of and love for us—no matter what—gay, straight, short, tall, black, white, smart, not so smart, rich, poor—and, yet we keep it for ourselves. How can we do that? Surely it is worth allowing God to overcome our excuses, our perceived inadequacies, our timid reluctance, to bring someone else to this place of being and feeling loved by God. This place of being God’s beloved is giftedness beyond measure and encompasses all that you will ever need to step beyond your fear, hesitancy, and your focus on the possibility of failure. God will not let you fail when you step out and speak out about how your life has changed since you came to believe that God loves you exactly the way you are. God will not let you fail when you step out and speak out about this place where friends love to gather to share the experience of radical acceptance and inclusion. God says, “stop the excuses! Be who you really are…tell others what God’s sweet sense of love has done in your life. “ And together, we learn and grow, feel and rejoice, and listen and tell. And when God calls, we say “yes”! Amen and amen.