God's Wide and Wonderful Welcome-Part 4-7-17-11

THE READINGS (Contemporary English Version))

First reading: Genesis 11: 1-9
At first everyone spoke the same language, but after some of them moved from the east and settled in Babylonia, they said: Let's build a city with a tower that reaches to the sky! We'll use hard bricks and tar instead of stone and mortar. We'll become famous, and we won't be scattered all over the world.
Then the LORD came down to look at the city and the tower and said: These people are working together because they all speak the same language. This is just the beginning. Soon they will be able to do anything they want. Come on! Let's go down and confuse them by making them speak different languages--then they won't be able to understand each other.
So the people had to stop building the city, because the LORD confused their language and scattered them all over the earth. That's how the city of Babel got its name.

The Gospel Reading: Matthew 15: 1-16
About this time some Pharisees and teachers of the Law of Moses came from Jerusalem. They asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples obey what our ancestors taught us to do? They don't even wash their hands before they eat." Jesus answered:
Why do you disobey God and follow your own teaching? Didn't God command you to respect your father and mother? Didn't God tell you to put to death all who curse their parents? But you let people get by without helping their parents when they should. You let them say that what they have has been offered to God. Is this any way to show respect to your parents? You ignore God's commands in order to follow your own teaching. And you are nothing but show-offs! Isaiah the prophet was right when he wrote that God had said, "All of you praise me with your words, but you never really think about me. It is useless for you to worship me, when you teach rules made up by humans."
Jesus called the crowd together and said, "Pay attention and try to understand what I mean. The food that you put into your mouth doesn't make you unclean and unfit to worship God. The bad words that come out of your mouth are what make you unclean." Then his disciples came over to him and asked, "Do you know that you insulted the Pharisees by what you said?"
Jesus answered, "Every plant that God in heaven did not plant will be pulled up by the roots. Stay away from those Pharisees! They are like blind people leading other blind people, and all of them will fall into a ditch." Peter replied, "What did you mean when you talked about the things that make people unclean?" Jesus then said: Don't any of you know what I am talking about by now?
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God’s Wide and Wonderful Welcome-Part 4 7-17-11
God, You call us to see You in all of creation. Give us new eyes and new hearts. Give us the wisdom to greet each person as a possibility of Your revelation. Amen
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God’s wide and wonderful welcome just keeps getting better and better. God invites us to places as yet unknown and sends people into our lives to both lead the way and walk beside and behind us. And sometimes, the Truth comes in the strangest packages. I hope that today we can think together about some of those precious packages of grace also known as “somebody”.
Taken out of context, it may seem that the story of the Tower of Babel makes little sense in our tracing of God’s wide and wonderful welcome throughout history and time. But if we look again, it makes very much sense indeed. The story of God’s people told in the Bible takes many twists and turns, some of them confusing indeed. In the beginning of the Old Testament, in the first 11 chapters of Genesis, the stories focus on the creation and story of humanity in general. Right after the story that we read today, God calls Abraham and the stories focus on one people—the people of Israel. That nation is the focus of the rest of the Old Testament. With a few exceptions, the Gospel narratives of the New Testament also focus on God’s chosen people, the Jewish people or Israelites. Pentecost, which we celebrated a few weeks ago, brings the story full circle and the rest of the New Testament reaches out into the whole world, or at least the whole world of that time. You might think of it as a story that is thick at both ends but thin in the middle. And this story is all about language and culture and difference. So, if we are to understand fully, God’s wide and wonderful welcome, we must understand all that we can about difference.
Let’s look at what actually happened in this place called Babel or Babylonia. It’s actually a simple story with extremely profound ramifications. It seems that everyone spoke the same language, so they were all able to understand each other. They got this idea to build a tower that would reach the sky. Since they were all the same, no one disagreed with this plan. They set out to make a name for themselves, to become very famous and decided to use the finest, sturdiest building materials they could find. They were quite pleased with themselves and planned to have great power. God, though, looked at what they were doing and became concerned. God knew that no good would come from the people all being the same. No one would challenge what they were thinking and they would soon believe that they no longer needed to believe in God. So, God, the Bible says, ‘confused’ their language and scattered the people all over the world.
And just how does this almost not-so-nice story fit into God’s wide and wonderful welcome, you may well ask. We know for a fact that sometimes God has to speak pretty loudly to be heard above the clamor of our everyday lives, and I suspect that God had to do just that what with all the noise of building and hammering, and all those folks chattering about how famous they were going to be when their tower reached God’s heavens. Suddenly, God acted, and they had to work to communicate—to even come together in the same place—to know what the other wanted or hoped for, dreamed or thought about. And this is where it gets good.
These folks in Babylonia had completely missed the point—they thought that they could be God, could reach as high as God, could be so famous that they were independent of God, that, in fact, they simply would not need God at all. But God called them to return to a real relationship of worship and trust in God, not in themselves. And, at the very same time, God gave to us the gift of difference. Letty Russell calls it “riotous difference”. And so this wide and wonderful welcome invites us into a community of difference—of different perspectives, languages, cultures, histories and dreams—a difference that encourages us to seek out the gifts and joys hidden behind the everyday realities of all of our lives and the lives of those who look absolutely nothing like us at all.
Think about it for a minute. If all birds looked like bluebirds, would we ever appreciate the exquisite blue of the bluebird itself? If all the trees were weeping willows, would we truly admire the sweeping sway of the willow in the wind? If everyone talked like everyone else, would we not be bored in an instant? And, worse yet, if everyone thought and believed like everyone else, how in the world would we ever grow, ever be called to live into more than we currently experience? But God knew better—knew that we needed each other to challenge and prod and even argue at times. Whether you experience this story as truth or myth, think of the grace that God allows us to experience when we take seriously our need to learn to communicate and appreciate each other.
And yet, we are oh so afraid of difference. No matter how hard we try to open wide the wonderful welcome afforded to us by God, we stumble as we run head long into ‘somebodies’ that don’t always see eye to eye with us.
There’s something from our Gospel lesson that we can take into our growing place this day. It seems that there were some very strict teachers of the Law of Moses called Pharisees. They were part of God’s chosen people we spoke of earlier and they were very serious about obeying every teensy-tiny letter of the Law. They confronted Jesus. “Your disciples eat with dirty hands. You know that is against what our religion teaches. Why don’t you make them obey the law?” Jesus turns it back on them and accuses them of perverting their own laws when it benefitted them. He denounced them and, in general, ticked them off pretty badly. Jesus had a knack for pushing the envelope of his time. He taught the crowd and said, “Don’t you get it? It isn’t what you put in your mouth that puts you out of relationship with God, it’s the words that come out of your mouth that breaks that relationship down.” His disciples, always trying to make nice with the powers that be, say to him, “You’ve gone and made the Pharisees mad again, Jesus.” Jesus, frustrated again, says, “Stay away from the Pharisees—they don’t know the way, and they will just lead you down the wrong path.”
Jesus calls us to a higher understanding of difference. He wants us to know that difference—those people who do things differently from us are not inherently wrong or bad. What really matters is what they say, what kind of relationship with God they exhibit. But we, much like the Pharisees, seem to get caught in the Law of What We’ve Always Done, or the Law of What Keeps Us Comfortable. Jesus calls us to open our eyes and ears to what people are saying and doing rather than whether or not they conform to what we’ve always known and look like what we think they should look like. And that’s a wide and wonderful welcome indeed.
Nevertheless, we must push ourselves to understand why we struggle so much with those who are different—those who are “stranger” to us. We are so quick to label folks as ‘strange’ rather than looking for the gifts their ‘strangeness’ brings to us. Each person who walks into our sacred circle—a circle we say is open to all—brings new ways of worshipping God, new ways of expressing who God is in their lives, and new ways of being the hands and feet and voice of God to each of us. We must push through the decades, even centuries of self-serving comfort that tells us that it is ok to reject those who don’t look or sound like us. We must talk with each other about how to make this place a place of welcome for those who are different from us. And we must have a plan for never letting ourselves off the hook, when someone’s challenge takes us by surprise or dares us to look at God in a new way.
Think back to God’s original plan—God intended for humankind to multiply and fill the earth—the glories of difference a direct reflection of the glorious multitude of the ways God sends love to the earth. As far back as the tower-builders in Babel, people thought they had a better idea. Nevertheless, God challenges them again—gives them and us another chance to rejoice in the ‘riotous difference’ in creation, in perspective, in gifts and in understanding. God gives them and us another chance to celebrate the expanse of creation—to push beyond our comfortable viewpoints and embrace all that God has for us to experience. Let us go forth to enter into the fullness of God’s wide and wonderful welcome this day and all the days to come. Amen and Amen.

God's Wide and Wonderful Welcome-Part 3-7-10-11

THE READINGS (THE MESSAGE)
First Reading: 2 Corinthians 8: 9-11
You are familiar with the generosity of our Master, Jesus Christ. Rich as he was, he gave it all away for us—in one stroke he became poor and we became rich. So here's what I think: The best thing you can do right now is to finish what you started last year and not let those good intentions grow stale. Your heart's been in the right place all along. You've got what it takes to finish it up, so go to it. Once the commitment is clear, you do what you can, not what you can't. The heart regulates the hands. This isn't so others can take it easy while you sweat it out. No, you're shoulder to shoulder with them all the way, your surplus matching their deficit, their surplus matching your deficit. In the end you come out even.

Gospel Reading: Luke 19: 11-26 (portions)
Reader Two: While he had their attention, and because they were getting close to Jerusalem by this time and expectation was building that God's kingdom would appear any minute, he told this story: There was once a man descended from a royal house who needed to make a long trip back to headquarters to get authorization for his rule and then return. But first he called ten servants together, gave them each a sum of money, and instructed them, 'Operate with this until I return.' "When he came back bringing the authorization of his rule, he called those ten servants to whom he had given the money to find out how they had done.
"The first said, 'Master, I doubled your money.' “He said, 'Good servant! Great work! Because you've been trustworthy in this small job, I'm making you governor of ten towns.'
"The second said, 'Master, I made a fifty percent profit on your money.' "He said, 'I'm putting you in charge of five towns.' "The next servant said, 'Master, here's your money safe and sound. I kept it hidden in the cellar. To tell you the truth, I was a little afraid. I know you have high standards and hate sloppiness, and don't suffer fools gladly.' "He said, 'You're right that I don't suffer fools gladly—and you've acted the fool! Why didn't you at least invest the money in securities so I would have gotten a little interest on it?' "Then he said to those standing there, 'Take the money from him and give it to the servant who doubled my stake.' "They said, 'But Master, he already has double . . .' "He said, 'That's what I mean: Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up holding the bag.
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God, You welcome us into Your kingdom. Show us, step by step, exactly what that means. Open our eyes and our hearts to hearing You. Teach us to love each other, all the each others, now and to come. Amen
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Some of you may be wondering how our scriptures fit into our theme of God’s wide and wonderful welcome. Some of you may have heard the Gospel lesson and said, “Here it comes, she’s going to talk about money and giving”, and you would be right, except that I believe that by combining our ongoing theme of God’s wide and wonderful welcome with a new understanding of what it means to participate fully in the reign of justice to which we are being welcomed, that we will come away with a new, much more useful way to look at all these things.
Let me assure you of one thing—there are few, if any, pastors who strive to live authentic, transparent, God-driven lives who like to preach about that dreaded word “money”. And while some of that is because we know that many folks in the congregation will shut down and turn off the minute they figure out what the pastor is up to, it is mostly a reflection of our own conflicted relationship with money in our lives. Philip Yancey, a contemporary Christian author expresses our dilemma rather well. He says, “I feel pulled in opposite directions over the money issue. Sometimes I want to sell all that I own, join a Christian commune, and live out my days in intentional poverty. At other times, I want to rid myself of guilt and enjoy the fruits of our nation’s prosperity. Mostly I wish I did not have to think about money at all.” And, on that point, I agree.
The problem with that approach is that Jesus said more about our relationship to money and material things than he did any other single issue. So, if I fail to speak to you of such things, I fail to follow the example of the one who made the way into God’s wide and wonderful welcome so very plain and clear. So, I am going to trust you, my friends to not turn off and tune out, while I speak some of what I have learned about money and “things” along the way.
First, I have learned that it might be easier to talk about money when you don’t have any. When I have no money, I am much more able to speak about what others should do with their money than what I should do with my little mite. And many of you, are getting along on not very much money—let me be clear and upfront about that. However, If you walk away from this sermon, feeling guilty or ashamed or ‘less than’, I will have failed to correctly communicate what I believe God’s word says to all of us—from poverty stricken to wealthy to “I’m doing all right for now”. I pray that we will allow God’s Holy Spirit to show us the deeper truths and send us from here rejoicing in what God has given us for this day.
Scripture is clear about money—it, along with everything else we enjoy—comes from God. We are entrusted to use if for the right purposes, and there will come a time when we must account for how we have used all the generosity of God in our life.
That’s what the word “stewardship” means. When we are a steward, we acknowledge that we are caring for whatever we have been given for the true owner of it all. And I am talking about all of creation—which, of course, is another sermon itself—as well as that which we have been given as individuals and specific communities. Today I want us to look at ourselves—at what scripture says to us as individuals living in community.
We start with our Gospel lesson. It is important to note that in the Gospel of Luke, this is the last parable that Jesus tells—the last teaching story that he uses before entering Jerusalem for the last time to begin the week of his passion, death and resurrection. Even at the end, Jesus wants us to understand this notion of stewardship. Let me summarize the lengthy story that we heard read so well by Linda and Laura. A ruler gets called away. Before he leaves he hands out some money to some trusted employees to invest for him while he is gone. When he returns, he calls them to account for their investments. We hear about the first three he interviews. The first one has invested well and doubled the ruler’s money. The second one did half that well, and the third one let his or her fear of failing keep her from doing anything at all. She wanted to believe that it was enough to simply keep the investment safe. Alas, she was wrong and the ruler was very displeased. The one who had earned the most interest was given the additional money from the one who did nothing. When the onlookers told Jesus that this was unfair, he responded that it was very fair—that we are called to take risks if we expect to reap the benefits. The version we read today is almost humorous in its conclusion: “Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up holding the bag.”
Are we any different than those in the story? God has given us everything in this life—rich or poor, talented or waiting to discover our talents, living into our gifts or seeking to discover what those blessings of God. Jesus does not let us off the hook because of the amount or kind of assets that we have—we, all of us, will be given the opportunity to show God what we have done with all that we have been given.
And, here is where it gets tricky. Some of you have asked me to explain the Biblical concept of tithing. Tithing brings with it two important concepts: the amount one gives and the faithfulness with which one gives it—equally important, I believe. God, in the Old Testament, commanded that tithing was a simple matter of giving 10% of all that one has. God also commanded, in that Old Testament, agrarian society, that the giving be from the “first fruits”—not the leftovers, but what comes into our lives first. And God commanded that this giving be ongoing and faithful.
Some of you come from families and traditions where 10% tithing was a thing that was modeled for you from a very early age. For the vast majority of you, this concept may seem demanding, even harsh. Please know that God does not intend it to be so. Giving to God, in whatever amount, with whatever talents or gifts, is our response to being welcomed into God’s wide and wonderful welcome. God’s love, God’s grace, God’s love and God’s welcome is freely given and freely experienced by all of us who answer the invitation. Over time, we will explore this concept of tithing further, if you like, but for now, let’s look at it as faithfully giving a certain gift that you dedicate to God every week, without fail—whatever that percent or amount is now or may come to be in the future.
By giving back a portion of what God has freely given to us, we participate in something bigger than ourselves. Paul’s words in our reading today explain all this to the young church in Corinth: Remember how generous Jesus was to all of us—he gave it all away—in one moment, He became poor and we became rich. Here’s a way for you or for us to respond: keep doing what you started, don’t forget what it is all about—you have been doing the right thing for over a year. You know you can finish what you started. All it takes is making a commitment—then you will do all that you can because the hands are controlled by the heart. No one works any harder than anyone else. And what you can’t do, someone else can, and vice versa. It all works out to be even in the end.” Ok, so maybe I changed the words a wee bit along the way, but this is what I think Paul would say to this young church here in Central Florida.
And so we give—as a way of sharing in God’s will for this world and as a way to make a difference. We give of heart and soul, of wealth and talent, of time and energy—not because God requires it of us. We give in response to all that we have been given, as an act of worship, as a way to be a part of what God is up to in this world, as a way to say “there’s more to life than just material things”, as a way of telling the world that God has made a difference in our lives, and, finally, we give because by giving in all these things we grow richer in God’s grace. As we come to understand that by giving our time, our talent, and our treasure in response to God’s wide and wonderful welcome into all that God is about, we enjoy a deeper experience of God as we go about our lives as faithful stewards of all that we have been given. And God just keeps on welcoming, widely and wonderfully, inviting us into a deeper life—deeper than anything we ever imagined, a life that will enable us to participate in God’s very reign, to make a difference in the lives of others and to spread the Gospel here, in this place, and to the world beyond. Amen and Amen

God's Wide and Wonderful Welcome-Part 2-7-3-11

FIRST READING—Hebrews 13: 1-3, 13, 16
Stay on good terms with each other, held together by love. Be ready with a meal or a bed when it's needed. Why, some have extended hospitality to angels without ever knowing it! Regard prisoners as if you were in prison with them. Look on victims of abuse as if what happened to them had happened to you.
So let's go outside, where Jesus is, where the action is—not trying to be privileged insiders, but taking our share in the abuse of Jesus. This "insider world" is not our home. Make sure you don't take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship—a different kind of "sacrifice"—that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.
SECOND READING—Luke 4: 14-21
Jesus returned to Galilee powerful in the Spirit. News that he was back spread through the countryside. He taught in their meeting places to everyone's acclaim and pleasure.
He came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written,

God's Spirit is on me;
[God chose] me to preach the Message of good news to
the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, "This is God's year to act!"
He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, "You've just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place."
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God, give us the grace to see You when You welcome us into Your grace, or into a new place of spiritual depth. Give us the grace to welcome others to everything we have in You. Be our vision, our mission, and our light. Amen
Today is often called Freedom Sunday, that Sunday that falls closest to Independence Day. And on this Freedom Sunday we celebrate the freedom that allows us to meet here in this place without fear of bodily or material harm. We celebrate all the freedoms we enjoy and say thank you to all who have fought in so many ways and at so many times for our freedom. May we never forget that it is the courage of those who came before us who enable us to talk of all sorts of freedom today. Nevertheless, may we continue to remember that we are not wholly free until all of humanity is free and that we must continue to work for freedom in our own world and lives. Today, we are graced to meet together, to worship together, and to be grateful together. Let us move boldly into God’s wide and wonderful welcome as we honor those who have done so in other times.
Before the first person every stepped across one of the numerous doorways we have called Open Circle, I was driven by the belief that all of us, young and old, need a place to be at home—just as we are, comfortable in our own skin, finally free from the demands to change who we are or at least to pretend to be something we are not—and I do not necessarily only mean as it relates to sexuality. But as I entered into what is certainly the last half of my life, if not last third or last quarter, and began to watch my friends and colleagues do the same, it became clear to me that, time is indeed short and waiting to find God’s wild and wonderful welcome was not a good plan at all. I sat with those thoughts for probably 5 years before I came to be your pastor. As I authored a training curriculum for nursing home staff and worked with those staff to try to get them to understand the damage of requiring our elders when they entered those unfriendly places known as nursing homes, to either “go back into the closet” or “batten down the hatches on an existing closet even further”, I came to have a passion for finding or creating, if need be, a place where faith is free and open and one is welcome because of who you are—gay, straight, trans, bi, rich, poor, healthy, sick, young, or old or in-between and not in spite of who you are. And God continued to work on my heart and make ready a plan for what became Open Circle.
I am convinced that Open Circle is here because people, all people, need a place where it all makes sense. Perhaps those of us who have passed the mid-mark of our lives, need it a little more as we have come to a time in our lives when we may feel a stronger need for life to ‘make sense’ as we face numerous transitions in our lives. But that takes a very special place, a place full of peace and grace. It takes a place where all are welcome, and where the world in all its difference and splendid creation are represented. I believe that we are intended to have a full array of ministries someday—ministries that will bring all of God’s wild and wonderful welcome into this community and communities beyond. I believe that we are called to minister especially to those who grieve and those who are facing great loss as they age. My vision for this place is to be a place so free from guilt and blame that all prior pain is absorbed by grace. As we spoke last week, it is in community, this community where God’s word becomes incarnate and God’s welcome is felt by all who enter these doors. And it is this community who will, as our scripture says today, go out into the streets to offer God’s wild and wonderful welcome to young and old, parents and children, grandparents, those without homes, those without friends, those without God.
In our first reading, the writer of Hebrews is clear: “Stay on good terms with each other, held together by love. Be ready with a meal or a bed when it's needed.” And referring to our story of Abraham and the heavenly visitors from last week, the writer continues: “ Why, some have extended hospitality to angels without ever knowing it!” This writer calls us to treat prisoners as if we were in prison with them, abuse victims as if the abuse had happened to us. It doesn’t take much to extend those words to include those who are ill, or in pain, or in emotional turmoil. To treat all of those folks as if their infirmity or issue is happening to us, because it is happening to another child of God, calls us to open even wider God’s wide and wonderful welcome. Look at what comes next—it is not enough to stay inside these walls. The writer reminds us, “ So let's go outside, where Jesus is, where the action is—not trying to be privileged insiders, but taking our share in the abuse of Jesus.” For it is outside as well as inside where Jesus is. And finally, the writer commands us: “Make sure you don't take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship—a different kind of "sacrifice"—that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.” Particular acts of worship, worship that requires us to use our resources, our hands, and not just our speech. As we plan together, think together, enlarge our thoughts together to explore and celebrate what God has in mind for Open Circle, we will do well to remember these words of challenge. God’s wide and wonderful welcome, indeed!
Letty M. Russell, feminist theologian and minister, writes of God’s welcome in her final book, Just Hospitality: God’s Welcome in a World of Difference. She talks about the concept of hospitality as it relates to creating a safe space—a space perhaps as I described earlier in my own vision for Open Circle. She relates the concept of safe space to the Hebrew tradition of “Sanctuary” which is rooted in a tradition of ‘cities of refuge’. God commanded the people of Israel to create places of sanctuary—places where no blood could be shed—where, regardless of their past lives and actions, people were safe. Over time, this concept was expanded to include all people, not just Israelites, and the notion of sanctuary and “the sanctuary”, or “church” as we call it began to flow together. According to Russell, “The word “sanctuary” comes from the Latin sanctus, which means “holy”. The Latin sanctus comes from the Hebrerw kaddish, meaning “holy”. The right of protection for all persons is derived from God’s holiness and provides the basic theological understanding of hospitality in both Hebrew and Christian Scriptures: Human being are created by God and are to be holy, and to be treated as holy or sacred.”
Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, author of some of the world’s finest books on suffering and God’s grace, also notes that the concept of sanctuary relates to human beings. He states: “Every human being is a dwelling of God—man or woman or child, Christian or Jewish or Buddhist. Any person, by virtue of being a son or a daughter of humanity is a living sanctuary whom nobody has the right to invade.” Now we know that there are many places in the New Testament where our bodies, our very selves are referred to as sanctuaries, temples, holy places. And so, we are sacred, each of us, our hearts, our souls, are all sacred before a living and loving God.
God calls us then to extend this wild and wonderful welcome in ways that protect each other and all of creation. Who are we to welcome then? Or, in other words, who is it that needs this safe space, this wild and wonderful welcome of God? For this we turn to Jesus’ reading in the temple in Nazareth. He stood up, and he read from Isaiah: God's Spirit is on me; [God chose] me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the burdened and battered free, to announce, "This is God's year to act!"
Jesus handed the scroll back to the assistant and sat down. And then he said, “today, this has come true in your hearing.” I believe as we move forward into a full expression of God’s wide and wonderful welcome in this place and in this time that God will honor our actions—this remains God’s year to act! Amen and amen!

God's Wide and Wonderful Welcome-Part 1-6-26-11

Genesis 18: 1-15
GOD appeared to Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent. It was the hottest part of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing. He ran from his tent to greet them and bowed before them. He said, "Master, if it please you, stop for a while with your servant. I'll get some water so you can wash your feet. Rest under this tree. I'll get some food to refresh you on your way, since your travels have brought you across my path." They said, "Certainly. Go ahead."
Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. He said, "Hurry. Get three cups of our best flour; knead it and make bread." Then Abraham ran to the cattle pen and picked out a nice plump calf and gave it to the servant who lost no time getting it ready. Then he got curds and milk, brought them with the calf that had been roasted, set the meal before the men, and stood there under the tree while they ate. The men said to him, "Where is Sarah your wife?" He said, "In the tent."
One of them said, "I'm coming back about this time next year. When I arrive, your wife Sarah will have a son." Sarah was listening at the tent opening, just behind the man. Abraham and Sarah were old by this time, very old. Sarah was far past the age for having babies. Sarah laughed within herself, "An old woman like me? Get pregnant? With this old man of a husband?" GOD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh saying, 'Me? Have a baby? An old woman like me?' Is anything too hard for GOD? I'll be back about this time next year and Sarah will have a baby." Sarah lied. She said, "I didn't laugh," because she was afraid. But he said, "Yes you did; you laughed."

SECOND READING—Matthew 25: 34-40
“Then the [Ruler] will say to those on his right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by God! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why:

I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.'
"Then those 'sheep' are going to say, “What are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the [Ruler] will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'
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God, you created us and you rejoice in us! Teach us all that we need to know for today and keep us open to learning more tomorrow. Thank you for reaching out and touching our hearts, expanding our minds, and healing our souls. Thank you for calling us your children. Amen

God’s wide and wonderful welcome reaches out to all of us, young and old, rich and poor, member and newcomer. There’s a special place I like to go. It’s in St. Augustine at the Spanish Mission, Nombre de Dios. It’s one of my sacred places—places I go when I need to feel especially close to God. Now look at the front of your bulletin. This is a photograph of a statue of Jesus that is a relatively new addition to the gardens, cemetery, outside altar, and bayfront sanctuary. There is also one of the largest crosses you will ever see, but this new statue caught my eye the last time I was there just a few weeks ago. See the way his hands are held wide—all the way open to receive anyone who passes by. It just seemed a good way to picture God’s wide and wonderful welcome. Arms outstretched—waiting, watching, working with us to spread the good news of radical and complete acceptance.
We have spoken often in the last few weeks about entering and being in a place of God’s exceeding abundance. I understand and appreciate that this is a concept that is foreign to most of us—that we are more comfortable with zero sum economics—that notion that there is only so much to go around and that if you have it, then, more than likely, I don’t. Or a social economy where someone has to win and someone has to lose. These are the rules that we grew up with; they make sense—regardless of whether we are at the top or the bottom, we can use these ‘rules’ of life to explain where we are. But these arms wide open don’t suggest this at all. These arms wide open convey no sense of limits on God’s abundance and Jesus’ welcome into a community of faith. And so we are left with a quandary. Where do we fit in these arms wide open? And, are there those who don’t fit at all? Surely there are some boundaries, rules, guidelines, and ways to be sure.
Seems so easy to pronounce—that all are God’s children! What about us? Are we all God’s children? Are there times when we don’t feel like God’s children at all? Are there those who feel or seem pretty darn far away from those arms open wide? God’s exceeding abundance calls to us—are we ready to step up and step in? Are we ready to make room in our church, our hearts, and our minds for all those who long to step in with us? This week, it seems that I have more questions than answers. More quandary than certitude. More challenge than assurance…is it so hard to say ‘welcome’? Is it so hard to feel welcome?
Each week you look on as the invitation to the table is extended to all—no rules to obey, no hoops to jump through, no barriers—just come. All are welcome at this table. Come, taste and see how good God is. So, we say it—but…What does welcome truly mean? Who needs it? Whose job is it to offer it? What risks become ours when we say “welcome”? What is this “hospitality” of which both our scriptures speak?
Though I don’t often consult the dictionary for biblical concepts, in this case it proved interesting. The American Heritage Dictionary defines hospitality as "welcoming guests with warmth and generosity, having an open and charitable mind, receptive." I found it fascinating that the two aspects are combined in the definition—welcome, warmth, generosity AND having an open mind, receptive to those you are welcoming.
For a more specifically Christian take on the notion of hospitality, I took a look at the Rule of St. Benedict. Though written more than 1500 years ago, it was here that I found the most direct correlation to our Gospel lesson. Written as guidelines for the community of monks founded by Benedict of Nursia, the Rule says this about hospitality: "All who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for the Lord himself will say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me…You must honor everyone." Is it possible that a rule for monks written so long ago is still valuable today as we celebrate the community we call Open Circle? Indeed it is. But the Benedictine Rule doesn’t end there. In a modern version, the Benedictine "Rule for a New Brother," we are told: "The community is the first place where you will make God’s kingdom incarnate…accept with gratitude the companions God gives you to go with you on the way…your task is to build up one another as members of one body…the way of Jesus leads to communion with all people."
In this community—this first place we make God’s kingdom incarnate, we are called to accept with gratitude all those that God gives us with which to make the journey. I struggle with that sometimes. If we accept with gratitude all those who travel with us, we must be willing to change, to grow, to become more than we are before we said “welcome”! Do you remember the words of our Rite of Membership? They are oh so important here. Of the new members we ask, “Will you challenge this community to be the best version of itself and to live up to the things we say we believe?” And, “Will you allow yourself to be changed, shaped and transformed by this community, living into your called identity as a beloved child of God? And, then, to those of us already members, we ask, “Will you challenge these new members to be the best versions of themselves, and to help them live up to the things they say they believe?” And, finally, “ Will you allow yourself to be changed, shaped and transformed by these new members, living into our called identity as a beloved community of God?” We say “I will” and I suspect barely think of the impact of the words. Nevertheless, this is the answer to the question of what hospitality looks like here in our community. This is true hospitality—that we both challenge each other to be the best we can be and allow ourselves to be changed by the touch of another—new friend, old friend, even the stranger who tarries with us a while.
Today is Pride Sunday for us, mostly determined by the fact that 27 of us went to St. Petersburg yesterday and walked in an anything but homogenous conglomeration of MCC’ers from 7 different churches. It got me to thinking, how is it that this rather interesting mix of folks from so many different places, ages, cultures, and backgrounds can all be transformed into a noisy, celebrating bunch who had one thing in common—the belief that God loves us just as we are and welcomes us into this wild and wonderful place of radical acceptance. Just like that, no matter what. Now some of you know that Rev. Troy Perry, founder of MCC worldwide, was the Grand Marshall of yesterday’s parade. And I want to tell you this: he has not missed the wonderful community quietly and not so quietly growing up here in this three-county area. And while I had to tell him where The Villages are, that did not diminish his special words of welcome that he quietly whispered to me prior to the parade. He said something along these lines, Nancy (meaning Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson) tells me you are raising the roof up there!” And we hugged and grinned at each other in instant recognition that the hospitality that we extend here in this place each week is born of the blessing of knowing just one thing: that we are all God’s children and we are all welcome at the table… just as Troy Perry said over 40 years ago! Come taste and see, indeed!
And, so here we are—just at the beginning of exploring what this welcome looks like in the flesh, in the gathering of folks we call ‘Open Circle”. And we will not stop here—we will wrestle with this task until we develop for ourselves a kind of welcome that will call us to be more than we currently are and encourage all those who walk through these doors to join us in the journey. Hospitality, then becomes much more than smiles and spoken word—it is the essence of worship and communion. Growing out of worship as we celebrate God’s grace and generosity, hospitality is our response to the wild and wonderful welcome we have received from God in our lives. My friends, indeed, welcome to Open Circle! Amen and Amen.

The Power of Three--Trinity Sunday--June 19, 2011

The Readings--(The Message)

The Scripture:
II Corinthians 2: 11-14

And that's about it, friends. Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. Do all that, and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure. Greet one another with a holy embrace. All the brothers and sisters here say hello. The amazing grace of the Savior, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you.

The Gospel:
Matthew 28: 16-20

Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. The moment they saw him they worshiped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.
Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Creator, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age."
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The Power of Three 6-19-11
God, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, fill our hearts with a desire to walk in your ways. Grant us your perfect peace and set our feet to dancing in the knowledge of your everlasting love. Amen

I don’t know which is worse—trying to preach about the Trinity or having to listen to yet another preacher trying to explain it in yet another attempt to make it “make sense”. So, I feel a little between a rock and hard place, knowing that, yes, it is Trinity Sunday—the only Sunday in the Christian year where we are called upon to preach not about the teachings of Jesus, or the prophets of the Old Testament, or the historical narratives of the Jewish and Christian people, but rather about a doctrine that didn’t even come into being until 350 years after Jesus walked on this earth. And what is the question that caused the early Church to ponder and try to resolve the mystery of the trinity—it is this, if God is one God, why do we talk about the God-head as three persons?—we just sang about it—“God in three persons, blessed Trinity”—however, that question has never truly been answered in a way that it universally understood or accepted. The Church Fathers (and, yes, sadly it seems they were all men) met and pronounced simply that we would believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We find these declarations in creeds—you may have heard of them: the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed being the two most widely used. But saying it does not necessarily mean believing it and so the discussion continues to today.
Almost two thousand years later, along came feminist theory and theology, and one of the first things these women said was this: it just can’t be—we cannot have a God who is represented by an old man, a young man, and a bird (meaning the dove representing the Holy Spirit). What these brave women did, most of all, is allow us to challenge the traditional ways we have looked at God, to see beyond mere “names” for God and begin to talk about who God is and what God does in this world. We began to see that calling God “father” doesn’t work for some of us—that we need to work hard to expand our notions of the Eternal to include ‘acting’ and ‘being’ words. For some, God is a verb—a force of motion and action. For myself, I use a trinity of being words to describe God: creator, redeemer, sustainer.
Still we do not altogether understand. How is it possible that God places us squarely in the middle of this mystery and, seemingly, fails to give us the answers we seek. Perhaps it is because it is just that, a mystery. And while we have no need to completely understand the “how” of the mystery, we do need to develop language to convey to the world the “what” of the mystery. What is this God doing among us? How does walking with the Divine affect us? Why would anyone else want to do the same?
Many have tried to come up with explanations. Rev. Richard Fairchild, of the United Church of Canada, compares the doctrine of the Trinity to atomic theory. He says, “We all learned in school that everything in the universe is made up of atoms, which are themselves made up of tiny particles called protons, neutrons and electrons. That protons and neutrons together make up a nucleus, and that the electrons orbit around this nucleus sort of like the planets in our solar system orbit around the sun. But there is no scientist who really believes that this simple model fully explains the substance of matter. Nuclear physics is much more complex…. The most educated physicist will tell you we will probably never know everything about atoms and subatomic particles. The atomic theory is just a model that explains something about how atoms work. It doesn't tell everything about what they are.” He goes on to suggest: “So it is with the Trinity. The idea of the Trinity tells us something about how God is revealed to us, how God works in human events. But it doesn't fully tell us WHO or WHAT God is. And I guess that is the secret of this experience we have of God - this understanding we have of God as a trinity - it doesn't tell us fully - but it tells us some important stuff none-the-less.”
And so, this week, I have pondered anew, all of the ways that I have tried to understand the Trinity over the years. Probably the most common attempt to describe the Trinity is the one using the three forms of H2O (water)—ice, liquid, and steam—to illustrate the three forms of God in the Trinity. Strangely enough, that is one of the least satisfying for me because it completely fails to say anything about what God is doing in our midst. Some of you may have memories of other explanations that you have heard—if you want to share those with me, I’d be grateful for next year!
Many of you know that I treasure butterflies. Truth be told, it is because, as an adolescent, when I was the most miserable kid in all of Apopka, Florida, I secretly believed that I would one day hatch into a beautiful butterfly. This thought sustained me more than once when I found myself throughout my life in places where life and, sometimes, God, failed to make sense. This week, I got to thinking about the life cycle of the butterfly as a way to understand what God is doing in our lives, in our church, and in our world, as three distinct, yet unified, processes.
In the first place, the butterfly, which starts as an egg, hatches into a larva or caterpillar. Creation occurs! Catepillars do little other than crawl around and eat leaves and flowers. They eat almost constantly, as the creative process continues as the caterpillar grows and develops. The caterpillar molts or loses its old skin many, many times as it grows and creation continues to get the caterpillar ready for the next step.
After some time, the caterpillar turns into a chrysalis. At this point, to the outside world, it appears that nothing much is happening. We know, however, that many, many things are happening. The caterpillar is being redeemed—transformed. Just as we are transformed by learning and following the teachings of Jesus, we are being transformed from within. We heard it last week: Paul calling us to be transformed from within by following all that we know about the reign of God’s justice as proclaimed by Jesus. As for our butterfly, although many scientists do, it is incorrect to call this stage in the life cycle, the resting stage—transformation is hard work whether in the cocoon of a butterfly or in the quiet spaces of your soul as you allow God to work in your heart through the teachings of Jesus.
I am reading right now, a book called “Wrestling with Grace”, by Robert Corrin Morris. This book was the source of our Centering Meditation today. It is a book about growing in faith in the midst of challenges. I would imagine that our chrysalis is quite challenged in its work of transformation deep in the cocoon it has spun for itself. This is what Morris says about growing up in God through challenges: “Challenge by challenge, we can let the image of God within us be provoked into a growing-up process…What will the next challenge be? Trying to serve God rather than [others]? Learning to say no when we need to and yes when that response is called for? …Taking time to go “into thy closet” to pray in secret? Developing a gift we’ve been given? Forgiving someone from our heart? Reaching out beyond our own comfortable group? Taking up our cross—for example, being willing to speak up against oppression in a situation where we can make a difference even though it may be risky?...More and more we become “partners of Christ”… Only in learning how to live this way do the deepest yearnings and powers of our own nature unfold in health, vigor, and grace.”
And we return to our butterfly process: finally, when the work is done, a beautiful, flying adult creature emerges. Flying in the spirit to places only dreamed of, the butterfly’s energy is sustained, just as is ours, by the Wind of the Spirit. And God, the Sustainer, as the Holy Spirit, infuses our very being, our every thought, our love for ourselves and each other. And the joy of this stage results in the planting of eggs, reproducing the species and the process time and time again. Likewise, as we fly free in the Spirit, as beautifully winged creatures, we reproduce the process in the lives of others whom God allows and leads us to touch along the way.
I do not know where each of you are in your three-fold process today. But I believe that you are all in a process much like the one I have described. Your presence here today is evidence of that seeking for something more or of your need to celebrate such great gifting by this God who creates, redeems and sustains us even as we are loved and treasured into being. Let this be a place where people can stretch their wings of grace and fly. Amen and amen!

Pentecost of the Heart 6-12-11

Reading: Acts 2:1-21 (The Message)
1-4 When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them. 5-11There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were thunderstruck. They couldn't for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, "Aren't these all Galileans? How come we're hearing them talk in our various mother tongues? Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; Visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene; Immigrants from Rome, both Jews and proselytes; even Cretans and Arabs!
"They're speaking our languages, describing God's mighty works!" 12Their heads were spinning; they couldn't make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused: "What's going on here?" 13Others joked, "They're drunk on cheap wine."
14-21That's when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency: "Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight. These people aren't drunk as some of you suspect. They haven't had time to get drunk—it's only nine o'clock in the morning. This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen:

"In the Last Days," God says, "I will pour out my Spirit
on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy, also your daughters;
Your young men will see visions, your old men dream dreams.
When the time comes, I'll pour out my Spirit
On those who serve me, men and women both, and they'll prophesy.
I'll set wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below,
Blood and fire and billowing smoke, the sun turning black and the moon blood-red,
Before the Day of the Lord arrives, the Day tremendous and marvelous;
And whoever calls out for help to me, God, will be saved."
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God of rushing winds and quiet whispers, speak to us in ways that we can hear. Nudge us, show us your path. Wake us up and get us moving, speaking and talking, sharing the good news of your reign of justice and peace. Amen
Rushing winds, wildfire, people speaking in different languages—this is quite a scene—this event we now call Pentecost. And the whole affair is finished off with Peter preaching and quoting the Old Testament prophet Joel—making some pretty wild predictions. You’ve got to figure that the folks, these devout Jews from many lands, who witnessed these events were pretty blown away, confused, perplexed. Why they thought that all the believers were drunk even so early in the morning. This was crazy behavior, behavior that inspired awe and fear and chaos. And so, in the midst of this wild scene, enters the Holy Spirit.
Jesus came quietly, as a tiny baby…was born like one of us, grew up like one of us, worked like one of us for the first 30 years of his life. And then spent the rest of his life teaching us about God, and life, and loving each other. He turned the world upside down with his teaching about justice and love; he conquered death in his resurrection and at his Ascension, just last week, Jesus promised “power from on high” to those who follow him. This power came anything but quietly, and it filled the followers with such grace and might that they went out from there and changed the world. The coming of the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus promised, changed a miraculous story about a man who lived and died and lived again into the story of how the in-breaking of God’s rule of justice would change the world—when followers, of all ages, cultures and stations in life, went out from that place to spread the Good News.
And, then, we come along. God has been working all this time in the world, in the church, and in our lives. So Pentecost, for us, is not so much about gaining new power, but in recognizing the power already at work in our lives and, most of all, in our hearts. And while I am not limiting God—it is possible that God could send the Holy Spirit to us this day in tongues of fire and rushing winds, I do think that if we spend too much time looking at the ceiling we will miss the Truth—capital T—of the day.
Think of it like going to a movie. If you come late to a movie, the usher (in those places where they still have ushers) does not walk you in and then announce to everyone that you have arrived and, therefore, they are going to start the movie over. And, the usher certainly does not rush you to the projection booth (in those places where they still have those) and tell you that the whole crowd has been waiting for you to arrive so that you could run the projector and show the movie to everyone. No, you go in quietly and find your seat. And you “catch up” with where the movie is and all that has come before. I believe that “catching on” to what God, through the Holy Spirit, has been doing in our lives is a little bit like that.
We would be foolish to believe that today is the day that God starts working in our lives or in our church or in our world. For, in fact, God has been working in our lives and hearts since the beginning of time. We just need to catch up, catch on, take fire, and take flight. It is easy to get caught up in the outer plot of today’s story—it’s got all the visual effects of a great epic film. It is harder to tune in to the inner plot, but that is what God calls us to do. And the inner plot is the story of a journey, a journey of a heart turned to God. It’s the story of our coming to understand all that God has for us, and wills for us to be. It’s the story of our coming into God’s exceeding abundance in a real and tangible way. It’s the story of a people, a church, already at work with God’s help, becoming all that God would have the people of God to become. And we enter along the way on God’s timeline in this journey.
But, that’s not all. In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul talks about the power of the Holy Spirit removing any barriers between us and God. He compares us to Moses and the Israelites. You remember Moses. When he spoke to God, he put a veil over his face so that he could be in God’s presence without fear. And because the Israelites did not know that the story would end with Jesus, they had no real understanding of what God was saying to them. Paul insists that only through the power of Christ is that understanding made clear. In verses 16-18, Paul reveals the truth as he sees it: that when one turns to God, listens to the teachings of Jesus, accepts the Holy Spirit, there is freedom. And all of us, who live in this freedom, contemplating and living in God’s glory, are being transformed into all that God calls us to be.
And so, today, on this day called Pentecost, I invite all of us to enter into the journey, the inner plot that God is writing on each of our hearts every day that we are alive—whether or not we are aware of it. God’s grace is not dependent on our awareness in order to be present in our lives. God’s grace just is. Richard Heitzenrader, a Wesleyan scholar from Duke Divinity School defines this process through grace like this: “Grace is what God, by the Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit, is doing in your inner life.”
We spend so much time planning our journeys—telling God and anyone who will listen where we are going to go and how we will get there. We buy maps, travel insurance, and hatch complicated analyses of the best and proper way to go about doing things. And all of this is well and good, when we are, first of all, in touch with the inner plot already going on in our hearts and spirits. Most of us, I fear, really like running the projector—determining which movie will play next, what time it will start, whether or not it needs an intermission, and when it will end.
But the story is already unfolding and Pentecost invites us to catch up, catch on, take fire, and take flight. Paul, in Romans 12:2, calls us to this journey in no uncertain terms: He says: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” And so God invites us into a story of saving grace, a journey that will end us in a much better place than we would end if we write our own scripts with no reference to the Spirit of God who has been filling our lives with grace and salvation, long before we came to understand. It also tells the story of God’s gradual transformation of our lives, our hearts, and our minds as we get in sync with what God is doing in our lives and in our world.
This leads us squarely back to our place in the midst of God’s exceeding abundance. I hope, by now, you have begun to take a serious look at what that means for your life and for the life of this church. This is a great relief to me as your pastor. I did not have to come to this pulpit this morning and make anything happen. The fact is, God started that long before I even began to listen to the still small voice that would eventually land me here. It is not up to me to bring down the tongues of fire, or initiate the rushing wind. God walks before me, around me and within me, and sends the light of understanding into all our hearts so that we can find where we are in this journey of transformation through the love and power of the Holy Spirit.
And so, here we are today listening to the still small voice and the rushing wind that both speak of God’s will for our lives. Here is where we catch up, catch on, take fire, and take flight—moving with the ease of a loved one invited to join God on a marvelous, miraculous journey of change, and growth, of grace and peace. Here is where we stop and listen, remind ourselves and each other that God is already at work in our hearts and our lives. Here is the Pentecost of the Heart—the move from old to new, from fear to love, from limits to possibility. Here is where the Spirit says “come!” and here is where we say “yes!” Amen and Amen.

One Last Thing: Remember... 6-5-11

First Reading: Ephesians 1: 15-19

From the time I first heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of the holy ones, I have never stopped thanking God for you and remembering you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Savior Jesus Christ, the God of glory, will give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation, to bring you to a rich knowledge of the Creator. I pray that God will enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see the hope this call holds for you—the promised glories that God’s holy ones will inherit, and the infinitely great power that is exercised for us who believe. You can tell this from the strength of God’s power at work in Jesus.

Second Reading—The Gospel: Luke 44-53

Then Jesus said to them, “Remember the words I spoke with I was still with you: everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the psalms had to be fulfilled.” Then Jesus opened their minds to the understanding o f the scriptures, saying, “That is why the scriptures say that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. In the Messiah’s name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witness of all this.
Take note: I am sending forth what Abba God has promised to you. Remain here in the city until you are clothed with the power from on high.” They Jesus took them to the outskirts of Bethany, and with upraised hands blessed the disciples. While blessing them, the savior left then and was carried up to heaven. The disciples worshiped the risen Christ and returned to Jerusalem full of joy. They were found in the Temple constantly, speaking the praises of God.
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God, show us this day your will for us in all situations. Let us remember all that we know about You and your son, Jesus. And show us how to live and walk in the way of love and compassion and mercy. Amen

I am happy to announce that by the end of our story today, at long last, the disciples ‘get it’. And it’s a good thing because these disciples, who have not been the sharpest knives in the drawer throughout the last three years, are the very people to whom Jesus is entrusting the continuation of His earthly ministry. Indeed, Jesus speaks his last words to these disciples, words that would need to carry them through the planting of churches, spreading the word, and, ultimately great persecution.
So, let’s look first at the words. Most of us believe that last words are important words. We carefully craft goodbye speeches. Some of your favorite last words may have taken the form of that artfully crafted resignation letter from a job that you hated that may have sounded like this: I quit. And while I have your attention, here are a few things you should learn about running a business—dot, dot, dot…etc, etc, etc. In our personal lives, the last words that people say to us before they leave us either by distance or by death take on great significance. We all know of someone or perhaps ourselves who have lived with regret for last words spoken in anger. Terri and I try to end every single email or phone call with the words “I love you”, not just because we do love each other, but because we have a kind of unspoken agreement that should those be the last words one of us speaks to the other one, we want those words to be the right words.
When you are preparing for a leave-taking, you may spend several days crafting exactly what we want to say. I have to imagine that Jesus did the same—that last sermon had to have impact for the ages—enough spiritual meat to last for all time.
Last words are important words. Sometimes we do not know that those words are the last we will ever hear. It is unlikely that the disciples knew what was coming. But we must imagine that after Jesus ascended from their sight, they must have longed for a way to remember every syllable, every inflection of the words of this man who had taught them about life, and death, and living again.
Interestingly, if you ask people what were the last words of Jesus, they will often respond with “Father, forgive them” or “into thy hands I commend my spirit.” We know that Jesus spoke many words between Easter and this day of Ascension. But today, we look only at his last words. For this we re-visit our Gospel passage. In the version of the story we read today, Jesus says these words: “Remember the words I spoke when I was still with you: everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the psalms had to be fulfilled. That is why the scriptures say that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. In the Messiah’s name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witness of all this. Take note: I am sending forth what Abba God has promised to you. Remain here in the city until you are clothed with the power from on high.”
They walked out into the countryside and our writer tells us that in the midst of pronouncing a blessing upon them, Jesus is gone.
Let’s look at the words themselves: First Jesus calls them and us to remember all that He shared with them while He was still with them. He reminded them to remember how the words of Moses and the prophets were lived out through the events of His life—that is was prophesied that he would suffer and die and rise again. He reminded them that while it didn’t make sense to them at the time, it did make sense when they remembered His teaching.
He goes on to tell them that forgiveness of sins will be preached to everyone in His name. And he says: “you are witness of all this”. In some versions, the verb is active: “you are TO witness to all this”. And then he gives them his final directions: “Take note, or don’t fail to notice, that I am sending you what God has already promised. Stay here until you receive this gift of power from on high.” It is important for us to hear this story today, because it is the first half of the story that ends at Pentecost. Jesus leaves them on this day, ascending into the clouds; but they must still wait for the descending of the power from on high—the Holy Spirit—to come a week later. Is this one final test—to see if they will stay where he tells them to stay waiting for the gift? If it was, they passed.
What does all this have to do with us? I believe that God calls us all to be witnesses of these things and to witness of these things by our words, actions, and very lives. If we believe the same about Jesus, that we believe about ourselves and the people in our lives, last words are important. I am glad and somewhat relieved to discover that, at long last, the disciples truly understand. And that with power from on high waiting in the wings stayed put and followed the commands of their teacher and friend. The disciples, prior to the resurrection and just after, would have reached up and tried to grab Jesus’ robe as he ascended into the clouds. “Wait, wait, wait—we don’t get it—what are you trying to say? Don’t leave us—we need you, here with us.” I can almost see them throwing a little disciple temper tantrum—trying to control Jesus again.
But something happened to those disciples in the midst of Jesus’ final words. Jesus opened their eyes. And they allowed their eyes to be opened. In one of the great mysteries of the faith, these not-so-insightful disciples were finally ready for their eyes to be opened. I would suggest to you, that what happened to get them to the place where their eyes could be opened, was the pain, confusion, and despair that followed the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. The pain was real, it hurt to be confused and it felt awful to not know what happened. Even in the 40 days after the resurrection, their confusion surfaces time and time again. But they stick with it; they “sit with their feelings” as my AA friends say. They didn’t run away, they stayed through the hard part, and they out-lived the pain. And in the outliving of the pain comes the ability to see the glory. We see the story from the other side of the pain and it makes sense. And thus this mystery is not such a mystery after all—and their story is our story—the story of our lives—and we give witness to this to all who come after.
And as a church and as a people, we will face pain. We will see people we love go on to be with God. We will see relationships that we treasured fall apart. We will stand beside our own as they battle diseases large and small. We will hurt each other. But, we will come through it all to great victory, because that is the treasure that God in store for us. In the power of the Holy Spirit we will love each other through whatever we face as a people and as individuals and families. Today as we gather to sing our final prayer, take a look at that circle of friends whom God has placed in your life. The same disciples who slept through Jesus’ hour of agony in the garden were allowed to see the glory of His ascension into the clouds when His earthly story had come to an end. The same disciples—because they did what they had to do, through their confusion and despair and they become us—and we become them.
Before you think that I am ending this sermon today in the midst of despair and confusion, let me assure you that I am not. I am calling us to understand that our vision of who we are and will be are intimately tied up with and informed by all that we bring with us to the table. And we are all victorious, when we walk through the hard stuff to the other side—that the hard work is worth it—that growth and development of a church takes work—work that we are all prepared for through the working of the Holy Spirit. My prayer for you today is Paul’s prayer to the Ephesians: “I pray that the God of our Savior Jesus Christ, the God of glory, will give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation, to bring you to a rich knowledge of the Creator. I pray that God will enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see the hope this call holds for you—the promised glories that God’s holy ones will inherit, and the infinitely great power that is exercised for us who believe.” Exceeding abundance, indeed! Amen and amen!