Simple Gifts - Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss

Borg- Religious Tradition

'Guide Me, Oh Thou Great Jehovah'.

'Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" given 2-21-16

            Here, at the beginning of Lent, this morning’s Gospel, Luke 13:31-35, looks ahead to Jesus’ Passion. L:uke says Jesus has “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (9:51). We are on a journey with Jesus that shall lead to the cross. Jesus moves steadily toward the capital city, toward what awaits him there. And as he does, without a thought for himself and his fate, he takes a moment to warn us about our fate. He takes a moment to call us to repent.

            Lent is the season of repentance, 40 days of honest reflection upon our identity as sinners, yet sinners who, by the grace of God, are being redeemed in Jesus Christ. We are being redeemed through the work that Jesus goes to do in Jerusalem Yet we shall not be redeemed unless we repent. Jesus calls us to repent.                            

            In years past the church seemed preoccupied with this message. There was a day when, if you asked someone “What do they do at church?” they would respond, “Church is where you go to be told that you are a sinner and that you need to get down on your knees and repent.”                                 

            We don’t tend to hear that message as often in churches today. Today, we are usually told that we are basically good people who are doing the best that we can, and the best that we can is good enough for God. God loves us, just as we are, blemishes and all. Talk of sin is so depressing, a put down.                                         But that was not the message of Jesus. He was on his way to Jerusalem. And it is in Jerusalem that we will discover that our incomplete and broken human nature is seriously blemished by our sins. Sins so serious that we shall conspire to put the Son of God to death on a horrible cross. And he was put there, not for the things that we usually call ugly and evil, but for the things that we call good. He was nailed to a cross by religious people, all of whom thought that they were following scripture, doing the will of God.

            And they did it in our name—yours and mine. Remember the words of Caiaphas in John 18   “It is expedient that one man should die for the people”

            Therefore Jesus’ cross stands as a stark warning to us of the perils of our complicity as well as our sin. Yet, by the grace of God, the cross stands for us as a sign that God forgives, that Christ takes our sin on himself, bears it, forgives us, and gives us new life.

            Therein is our hope, our only hope in our sin. Jesus moves to Jerusalem, not to punish but to call to repentance. He promises a people who have a long history of turning against the prophets, of ignoring the truth, a vision of forgiveness and new life.

            One of the most detrimental, evil notions abroad among us is the idea that, “People don’t change.” This attitude can keep someone  trapped in the hell of addiction, or inappropriate relationships, or poverty, or just plain old fashioned consequences. Once a drunk, always a drunk. You can’t fight genetics. You can’t fight human nature.

            This attitude tells us in effect, that we arrive here in this world fixed at birth, finished. All of life consists of simply replaying the tapes that were implanted in your brain when you were born. Life consists of a whole host of determinisms. Once your gender, or your socioeconomic level, or your skin color has spoken, what can anybody do?      

            But Jesus doesn’t buy into that malarkey. Even at the end, even as he moves toward his own certain death, Jesus calls on people to change and grow and turn their lives around.. He calls on Jerusalem to repent. We might have thought after all of the teachings of the Law, after the centuries of prophetic warnings, it would be too late. But it’s not too late. There is still time to repent.

            And there’s time for you and me as well. Jesus may well have more faith in you than you have in yourself. I know. Old habits die hard; you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I know a leopard can’t change its spots,,,yaddda, yadda, yadda. But I also know that, in Jesus, there is an irresistible power unleashed in human life.

            There is a spiritual power greater than that of our own devising or imagining. The Genesis creation story says that you and I were made in God’s image. It  was stamped upon us. Admittedly, we have defaced that image terribly with our sin. Yet God intends to have God’s way with us. By the grace of God, we can learn, we can be humbled, we can change.

            And that can happen even in the midst of our wounds and failures. .Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, a virtual ode to hopelessness, contains the following remarkable sentence: “The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”

            Repentance can be painful. It often comes because we have exhausted all our human cunning plans and schemes and have nothing left but the taste of ashes in our mouths. Caught in the web of our failures—we finally give up and call out to God in surrender. Such moments do indeed bring breaking. Yet Christians understand that it is in such breaking, in such stooping and humility, that our true selves are discovered. Here is a stooping that leaves us standing taller, a breaking that makes us strong.

            In the spirit of Lent and of Jesus, I therefore want to invite you to honest consideration of your life. Where have you been broken by the world? Have you allowed it to make you stronger, or more bitter?  How have you wandered far from God’s way? What are those habits, those inclinations, those propensities that need to be changed if you would live the abundant life? How have you strayed from God’s design for your life?

            The good news is, Jerusalem can repent. The good news is, Jesus means to have you, to have all of you, you as you are meant to be. The good news is, you can change. The good news is that that power I mentioned a moment ago is the power for us to change—sometimes even when we aren’t aware that its work is going on. That power is the power of the Holy Spirit, and it is the power that drives us, calls us, invites us, beckons to us, yearns for us to turn our lives around and repent.  To look deep inside us and around us and discern God’s Will for us, for our lives and to write God’s way on our hearts.

            But, like they say in the TV infomercial ads—“Wait! There’s more!” When God’s way is written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we discover that God’s will and our will become one and the same. Not only will we not want to be perpetually angry with our brother, or sister not only will we not want to commit adultery or carry grudges, we won’t commit adultery, we won’t nurse anger, and we won’t even notice that we don’t do it. That’s freedom! Our wills have been blended into God’s will.

            Impossible you say. Precisely. It’s as impossible as unlocking the door from the inside with no key. It has to be done by divine intervention. Something has to work upon us from beyond ourselves. That is exactly what God announces through Jeremiah in his New Covenant. That’s exactly what Jesus’ was trying to tell us

            “With human beings it is impossible, but not with God,” said Jesus, “for all things are possible with God” (Mk 10:27).                                                        

            Decades before the civil rights movement really took hold in the South, a white woman was a member of a church located in rigidly segregated Southside, Virginia. Her teenage son was killed by a car full of intoxicated joyriding black youths. The bereaved mother said, “I don’t understand why I don’t hate those drunken colored people.” She paused. “I guess God has given me a forgiving heart.” All things are possible with God.                                                                                            Twenty years ago, a young black man named Michael Griffith, was attacked for no good reason ten years ago in Howard Beach, Brooklyn, by a band of white teenagers. His mother, who was frequently seen reading her small Bible during the trial, says that the pain of her son’s death has not diminished over the years.                    

            “Sometimes I sit here and cry,” she said. But speaking of the three men still in prison for the attack, she said, “At night I pray for them. I ask God to forgive them. When I talk to people about that, they say ‘You’re crazy; how can you feel that way about somebody who killed your son?’”                                                                       Yes; crazy. St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Has not God  ”made foolish the wisdom of the world’?

            These two women are examples of the power of the Holy Spirit at work. They did not even know how they had received this power that they had in their hearts, but once they’d experienced it, they knew it was “not their own doing, but a gift from God” (Eph 2:8).

            This is New Covenant that Jeremiah spoke of.  God writes it on our broken hearts. It becomes like breathing. It happens, because God gives it. The urge to violence and revenge went no further because of those women’s reactions. The cycle of bitterness came to a halt before the power of their deeply internalized Christian faith.

            These two women were women of prayer. They sought God’s will precisely at the point when human nature wants to go in another direction. The Lord’s will, Jeremiah teaches, cannot be stopped by the disobedience and sin of human beings, but as people of the New Covenant, our part is to pray daily that our wills would be conformed to his.

            We can do it.. It’s not too late. Even on his way to the cross. Jesus calls on Jerusalem to repent. Even on the cross Jesus forgave those who nailed him their in our names. We can be forgiven. We can forgive. We can change. We can grow. We can repent And that is the good news.

"Tempted in the Wilderness" given Feb. 14

The water must have still been dripping off Jesus from his Baptism in the Jordan when he found Himself  wandering the rocky Judean wilderness. Here, the first three Gospels agree, he fasted forty days and forty nights, and was tempted. Afterwards, Matthew and Luke tell us-- as a kind of obvious afterthought-- He was hungry.

Many Christians struggle with that story.  Why did Jesus, who our faith tells us was so good-- perfect in fact-- need to fast in the wilderness? How could the Son of God be tempted? And what's all this talk about the devil? Do we believe in that? What do these temptations mean?

All of those are good exegetical questions. Dealing with them-- trying to find answer to them can enlighten and enlarge our spiritual horizons. But there's a deeper question that underlies all these questions. It's not so much a question of Biblical criticism or Christian Doctrine as it is a life question.  It permeates this story as well as our lives.  The question occurs to each of us, I suspect, when we hear this story, because it's so utterly basic to our human nature.

You and I read this text and we find ourselves asking "Why am I tempted? And what do I do about it? How do I deal with these feelings and thoughts and attitudes and impulses? Why won't they go away?" 

We're all of us tempted in our lives-- at all the ages and stages of life-- in one way or another. Se all have struggled, are struggling, will yet struggle with the lure of making our existence go a little smoother by an ethical short-cut, now and then.

"I’ll tell mom the dog ate the cookies."

"I’ll tell teacher the dog ate my homework."

"I forgot about this exam! That kid who sits in font of me is pretty smart. And he always drops his right shoulder when he whites. I can copy his answers without petting caught."

"I know I said I’d go out with Jim. But Bobby is so much cooler and he just called up and asked me out. If I tell Jim I have the flu, I can go out with Bobby."

"Suzie won't mind if I borrow this. After all, we’re sisters-- what's mine is hers and what's hers is mine--right?"

"I really like this blouse, but my card is maxed out and I'm broke. I wonder if the clerk is watching?"

"Go ahead man, try it. You'll like it. It's really a cool high."

"What the heck, I'll deduct it. Tue IRS will never figure it out."

"I know that company has holdings in the gaming industry, but it sure as a good investment."

"Maybe we do need a gun in our house, in this day and age. I can hide it where the kids ‘ll never find it."

“One little lottery ticket won’t hurt.”

"I'll do anything to get an A, professor."

"Why not, she'll never find out if we're discreet. And it's not really cheating if no one gets hurt."

What a neat idea! All we have to do is make sure that Congress doesn't find out."

“It’s not exactly a quid pro quo-- but I’d really like to see him get that pardon.  And I have made a lot of contributions.”

“What a day! Boy could I use a beer or two right now”

You and I are capable of finding ourselves under the pressure of temptation at any time--or all the time. Men and women succumb to temptation from the White House to our house--from Presidents to TV Preachers.  Parents, pipe-fitters, plumbers, profiteers and physicians--we all of us who walk in the wilderness of this world are tempted at times by the easy out, the quick buck, the slick justification, the fast answer, the white lie, the nu-guilt cheap thrill. 

We’re tempted to lie to our loved ones, lie to our colleagues, and most of all, lie to ourselves. We even, like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden story, are tempted to lie to God.

"The woman tempted me and made he sin. It wasn't my fault God. Blame her, not me."

"No, no, it was the serpent who made me sin. I wouldn't have done it if it hadn't of been for that old devil Satan"

Remember the Late Flip Wilson's story about the preacher's wife who came home wearing a new dress?

"Honey, why in the world did you buy that dress? You know we can't afford it."

"The devil made me do it. I was just browsing at Marshall’s and he whispered in my ear, 'Donna, that's an awful pretty dress. And it’s on sale! It sure would look good on you. Why don't you try it on?'" So I tried it on, and he whispered 'My, my, that dress sure is flattering on you. Why don't you go ahead and buy it.' So I did."

"Well, why didn't you just say, 'get thee behind me, Satan!’??”

"I did! And then he said, 'It looks good from back here, too!'"

We all know the truth. And the truth is, it’s not the snake's fault, or Adam's fault, or Eve's fault, either.

In his signature song Jimmy Buffett writes, “Some people say that it’s the woman to blame-- but I know... it’s nobody’s fault.” And then at the end of the second verse: “...I know.. well it could be my fault.” And then at the end of the last verse:  “... I know.. it’s my own darned fault.” 

We know too, don’t we? It is our own darned fault. It's my responsibility when I freely chose what I know to be wrong. And in the wilderness of this world, you and I can end up choosing the wrong all the time. We feel guilty when we are tempted. But I'll tell you something-- the only time we really need to feel guilty is when we succumb.

Look at your own experience. Toke a poll of the people you know. It's only those who would seek to be obedient rather than self-serving who are tempted. It's only those who have a conscience who must struggle with it. It's only those who try to do right who are vested. The willfully disobedient aren’t tempted--they've already sold out!

Look at Jesus in the desert. We're not tempted when we stray from God. We're tempted when we try to follow most closely. Jesus isn't in the desert because he has departed from the Creator's will. Our Lord is in the desert because He's tying to listen for, and clarify God' will for His own life and ministry.

To be tempted is an indication that we're on the right track, that we still have a conscience, an active sense of right and wrong.  To be tempted is an indication that we still have a purpose in God's plan.  Ho be tempted is a sign of our strength. After all, we're only tempted to do those things that are within our capacity.

That's self-evident if we think about. You might personally find Pierce Brosnan extremely attractive. But you can't be tempted to violate your marriage vows with him. Not at least until you've met Pierce Brosnan. Until you do, all you can do with Pierce Brosnan is, to use one of Jimmy Carter's favorite biblical phrases, "lust in your heart".  But that of course is in itself a temptation. (And a whole other sermon for that matter!)

The greater our graces and our gifts, the greater our temptations. The fierceness of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is witness to His power.

Transform these stones into bread. Why not?  He could do it. Why not build a ministry around feeding the hungry?  God knows there are plenty of them, in Jesus' time and in our own.  Why not just devote His life to meeting material needs--His own included?  But that was not the Creator's will far Jesus’ ministry.  To have done so would have been praiseworthy, but Jesus was called to do more.

Jump from the pinnacle of Solomon’s' Temple and fly? Why not? He could do it.  Why not build a ministry around religious prestige and glory?  Why not displace the chief priests? Why not soar to the top of the religious hierarchy and really reform the faith of Israel?  To have done such a thing would have been a great accomplishment for anyone. But that was not the ministry that God was calling upon Jesus to perform.

Assume political authority over the kingdoms of this world.  Why not?  He could do it. Why not kick out Caesar and run the world the way it should be? Why not build a ministry based around political power?  Why not build a kinder, gentler Roman Empire? Why not start the Realm of God on earth right now? It would have been the greatest political accomplishment in History. But that was not what God was calling Jesus to do in his life and ministry at that moment.

Wealth, Glory, and Power.  None of these temptations seemed to be inherently or obviously evil in and of them. Each choice could have led to considerable good in the world.  And every one of them would have been easier than the cross.

Jesus would simply have had to sell Himself on the proposition that they were goon enough--worthy of His time and energy-- worthy of His very life.  Ultimately, Jesus realized that they were not.

Wealth, Glory, and Power.  Every single one the temptations that you and I struggle with in the desert places of our lives ultimately boil down to one of these three. Wealth, Glory, and Power. Jesus faced the three eternal temptations of humankind and conquered. Jesus’ struggle in the desert was our struggle as well.  Jesus’ victory is our victory as well. And that is why the perfect and sinless Son of God was tempted in the wilderness.

Why am I so tempted in the wilderness of my life?  Because I am human.

Because I have a conscience and I know the difference between right and wrong. Because I strive to walk in integrity and stand up for the right. Because I am trying to lead a decent, God-honoring, faithful life.

            What can I do about it?  How do I wrestle with all these temptations? How can I honestly deal with these feelings and impulses?

I begin bf honestly admitting them to myself. I acknowledge, without guilt or recriminations, that they flow from my strength and not my weakness. I realize that I cannot be tempted to do anything that is beyond my power to commit. Christ helping me then, I also cannot be tempted to do anything that is beyond my power to resist.

I turn my temptations over to the One who made me. I lean on my Savior for strength.  In the desert, He faced the same temptations that I face-- Wealth, Glory, and Power. In the wilderness, My Lord met them on a much greater scale, and conquered.

Through His Spirit, I can choose to conquer too. At His Table, fed on the Bread of Life, I am nurtured and transformed. In His service, I find all that I need to confront my temptations and emerge victorious. Though His worship, in His love, I find the forgiveness I need to persevere and return to the struggle, renewed an empowered to try again, if I fail.  In Jesus Christ, you and I can conquer.

Let us pray,

O God, you know us through and through. You know the many choices we face every day. We choose between right and wrong. We choose between compromise and conviction. We choose between greater and lesser evils. We choose, above all, what will be important to us in this life. As you strengthened Jesus to choose rightly when Ho was tempted in the desert, so strengthen us, through your Divine Presence and Holy Spirit, that when we face temptation, we might walk through this wilderness in the paths most pleasing to you.                                                         Amen.

India Gains Independence - Rare Video

When the saints go marching in - New Orleans street music

"An Ol' Chunk of Coal" given Feb. 10, 2016

All throughout my ministry there have been people who wanted to get me to join the choir. And all throughout my ministry, I've succeeded in dodging them. It's not because I don't like to sing--I really do. Part of my descent is Welsh and the Methodists of Wales are supposed to be great singers--especially in choirs. It's not that I don't have a nice voice--at one time in my life I was told I had a three octave range--which is pretty good in case you didn't know. It's not because I don't have any experience.  I sang in choirs in high school and in college.

The problem is, I can't carry a tune in a bucket anymore.  I love to sing, and I have aloud voice, When I sing, what I sing sounds pretty good--inside my head. It used to sound pretty good outside my head too. But that was before I started smoking in college. The next semester I was dropped from the college choir.

  I quit smoking almost thirty years ago, but my voice never came back.  I had a gift from God—and I squandered it. Now, regardless of how good it sounds in my head, what comes out of my mouth is a tossup. It  might sound okay, or on the other hand it might be about as close to the way the music is written as a small child’s finger paintings on the refrigerator is close to a painting by Van Gough.  I sing so badly and so loudly that I've been known to lead an entire Adult Sunday School class into the vocal basement just by starting them off singing "What a Friend we have in Jesus".

Over the years, I've gotten resigned to this disability. And it is a real vocational handicap. There's a definite something that musical ability can add to a Pastor's pulpit ministry. Whatever else you want to say about ol' Jimmy Swaggert, he could play Gospel music on the piano the way Jerry Lee Lewis plays Rock n' Roll. I saw some Televangelist on Christian Television the other day playing the saxophone to his congregation in the best Bill Clinton tradition. I have a number of African-American clergy friends who can on the spur of the moment tell their keyboardist to slide over and launch into an impromptu solo.

But I'm not envious. No ma’am, not me. Well, not much. The truth is, every now and then I come across a hymn or a song that I'd like to share with you. And I wish I could sing it, instead of just quoting it. I'd be so much cooler.  But as Christians we are called to be merciful—as God is merciful. So I guess you'll just have to imagine the music.

The song I want to share with you tonight was sung by the late Johnny Cash.  I'm not a great Country Music fan, but Johnny was one of the three or four Country Music singers I really liked. I've mentioned this song more than once in sermons without having the words written down, and the next to last time I preached on it, somebody from the Berwyn church gave me a copy of the lyrics the next day. The song is called "An Old Chunk of Coal."

Hey, I'm just an old chunk of coal

But I'm gonna be a diamond someday.

I'm gonna grow and glow till I'm so blue vein perfect,

I'm gonna put a smile on everybody's face.

I'm gonna kneel and pray every day

Unless I should become vain along the way

I'm just an old chunk of coal now Lord,

But I'm gonna be a diamond someday

I'm gonna learn the best way to walk

I'm gonna search and find a better way to talk

I'm gonna spit and polish my old rough self

Till I get rid of every single flaw

I'm gonna be the world's best friend

I'm gonna go around shaking everybody's hand

Hey, I'm gonna be the cotton pickin' rage of the age

I'm gonna be a diamond someday.

Johnny's right. However rough, ugly, ragged and messy are your and my edges, by diligent polishing, by steady pressing, by being challenged and rubbed and tried and worked over long enough, the diamond within any lump of coal, within any person will emerge. The song is right. We are indeed, each and every one of us, a dirty old chunk of coal. But there is also a beautiful diamond waiting to emerge from every single one of us.   And it can only emerge with the help of God working in our lives.  Only through grace, only through wisdom gleaned from life’s circumstances, only with enough prayer and spiritual growth and discipline, only through effort, only through the love of God extended to us through the ministry of others can that diamond eventually shine forth.

We're not born a blank tablet. You and I are formed by the limitations and possibilities of being human. Through no fault of our own, fate, heredity, and environment deal us an opening hand in the game of life. As we grow up, our parents and friends, our experiences and the opportunities we receive continue to play an important role in determining the person we will become. But that's not the end of it.

There are conscious choices that you and I  make in our lives.  And there is the responsibility we take for the consequences of those choices. Shall I finish school or drop out? Should I train for this career, or seek that training? Shall I marry this person, or that one?  Shall I hang out with this group of friends, go into the army, go to college, the peace corps, seminary? Shall I move away from home, or stay home to take care of my aging parents? Shall we put Gramma in the nursing home, have this operation, be a stay-at-home parent, become a foster parent?

All these possible choices--all these circumstances. Some are beyond our control. Others lie in the very palms of our hands. All of them together help to make you and me who and what we are. Like Jimmy Buffet says, it's enough to drive you crazy if you let it. What makes all this tolerable, what allows us to bear this terrible burden of freedom, the consequences of fate, the cost of being human, is nothing more or less than the grace of God.

There's no doubt that without that grace, we will on our own, inevitably mess things us, squander our gifts. The plain fact hard fact is that we cannot make it all the way alone. On our own, we'll start smoking because it seems cool, we'll get our girlfriend pregnant, we'll lose our temper and punch somebody out, well tell the boss where to stick this rotten job, we'll go for the fast bucks we can make instead of for the good that we can do. On our own, we'll inevitably mess it up.

Oh, we might attain quite a bit of what seems like success in the world's eyes. But they'll always be something missing at the center of our lives, an emptiness, a feeling of what was the point? Alone, without God in our lives, you and I will never reach our fullest potential.  We'll never become the total, real, live, grown-up human beings that God calls us to be.  On our own, we cannot knock all the rough edges off the lump of coal without being eventually cracked by the very same pressure that can make us into that diamond.

That is the real meaning of what it means to be a human being. That is the truth that the church tries to point to by the much maligned doctrine of original sin.  That’s what it means to say that we are dust. That we are always less than we are capable of becoming.

 And yet we each of us have within the potential of becoming what Paul calls real lives sons and daughters of God. We each come into this world both broken, and blessed at the same time. Try as we might, we cannot deny the fact of our inescapable need for the Transcendent--for the Divine in our lives. To hunger for meaning, for a sense of purpose, for God is to be human. Ultimately, we cannot deny our human-ness.

And it is only when we can come to admit all that--that we are human, that we have a God-shaped hole inside us,  that we are inevitably unable to manage our own destinies alone, that true freedom and possibility enter our lives.  And is it is then that we at last start to become whole.

Then, as new men and women in Christ, armed with the under-girding strength of our Creator, aware of the endless possibilities and hope available thanks to our Redeemer and the power for growth and change that comes from the Spirit, we can overcome, we can conquer, we can straighten out the mess we've made of our existence and for the first time, really take control. Then, we can begin to be whole.

Then, God helping, you and I can at last  begin polishing the rough, ragged edges of our selves. The, and only then, through God's grace, can that  dirty old lump of coal begin to grow into the beautiful diamond it was always meant to be.                             

Let us pray,

Holy God, before you we feel the limitations of our human power and possibilities. We thank you that your forgiveness and grace are as eternal as your righteousness. We thank you that you offer us a future with you that is as bright as diamonds. Teach us to never doubt your love, but to always place our trust in you, through the grace of Jesus Christ our example and Redeemer.                                                                          Amen.

'Listen to Him" given Feb. 7, 2016

             As this morning's Reading opens, Luke tells us that Jesus had been preaching and ministering and healing in the Galilee for some time. The very same atmosphere of expectancy that had grown up around His cousin John the Baptizer, now apparently attached itself to Jesus. People were looking for miracles left, right, and center. After all, He was the Messiah, wasn't He? Or was He? 

            Everyone was no doubt beginning to wonder when He would make the big move. When would Jesus take the step from minor league traveling preacher to proclaiming Himself as Messiah? When would He bid the boondocks good-bye and head for Jerusalem and the big time?

            Everybody knew, it would have to be in Jerusalem. You couldn't be a prophet in Israel, much less Messiah, without making it in the holy city of Jerusalem.  Remember the song : “New York, New York”? “If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere..” The only questions were when?  And what would Jesus do to announce His Arrival? How would He usher in that Kingdom He kept preaching about? And the Disciples must have wondered, what would be their place in that coming Holy Realm? How would Jesus do it?

            But above all, they must have agreed, the real question was when? It had to be soon!  They could hardly wait. Those questions must have gone through their minds on that day when Jesus took James and John and Peter aside and said to them,

             "Come with me.  I have something to show you."

            Their expectations must have been running wild. Is this it? They must have wondered to themselves. Is it all going to start now? They must have barely been able to control themselves as they headed out onto the plains of Jezreel and up the slopes of Mount Tabor. Their emotions must have been palpable-- proud to be chosen, sure of themselves, more than a bit nervous, but above all, excited, expectant.

            By the time Jesus finally got them up the mountain, things would have changed. Maybe it was their emotional excitement, combined with the physical exertion of actually climbing the mountain that made them pass out as soon as they reached the top.  Mount Tabor is no gentle hill. Or, maybe after they finally got up there, Jesus started praying and they simply got bored. And then they felt let down, and so they laid down for a little nap. If so, it wouldn't be the last time they'd fall asleep on Jesus as he prayed.

            In any case, when they once more opened their eyes, Peter, James and John perceived that something extraordinary was happening. Human words are inadequate to describe what it must have been like. Luke, who must have gotten the account at least second, and more likely third or fourth hand, simply states that "Heaven opened." All at once, Moses and Elijah were there, talking to Jesus.

How did Peter, James and John know it was Moses and Elijah? The Gospel accounts don’t tell us/ Did they have a big “M” and a big “E” on their chests? Likely not.

            Had the moment finally come? Was this it? Would they see the Divine Plan revealed at last? Was the change going to come now? Moses and Elijah were, after all, the great Biblical experts on change and development. Wasn't it Moses, who'd led the people from slavery in Egypt into the promised land?  The giver of the Law. Hadn't it been Elijah who'd chastised the people for whoring after heathen gods and brought them back to the worship of the God of Israel, converting the nation to righteousness? The greatest of the Prophets. These two were going to help Jesus? Wow! This was gonna be good!

            James and John and Peter must have been convinced that it was all going to start right then and there, before their very eyes. The Kingdom-- the Reign of God on earth. A totally new world-- with Israel at the top. A totally new Israel-- with them at the top. A totally new era. A totally new environment. A totally new ecology. A totally new economy.  All wrapped up in a bright blue ribbon and served on a silver platter, courtesy of Jesus.

            Surely now, that promised Kingdom was going to start! A totally new cosmos-- economically healthy, technologically sound, politically stable, just and peaceful. They looked at Jesus, who was apparently still speaking with Moses and Elijah. And the three disciples must have been literally holding their breaths, standing on tiptoe, waiting for all the changes to begin.

            And then the change did start. But it wasn't what they must have been expecting. The grass beneath their feet didn't get any greener. The sun over their heads didn't shine any brighter. The rain didn't fall down from the sky any more abundantly. The Judean wilderness below them didn't suddenly grow green with crops.

            There were no great changes in technology that transformed human life.

The Roman Empire didn't fall. King Herod didn't disappear. The corrupt Temple priesthood didn't go away. No great and shining cities sprang up. No powerful dams were suddenly present in the rivers.  There were no startling new developments in communications, or transportation, or economics, or politics.             None of the great changes they were waiting for occurred. Instead, Jesus Himself began to change. His face started to shine. His body began to glow. The light coming from Him literally bleached His clothes a pristine white. His very presence was transformed, right before their eyes. It was as if a veil had been lifted from their eyes, and for the first time, His true nature became apparent to them. The Son of Humanity, the Son of God, the paradigm for human life on this planet was at last revealed for who He truly was. And then a voice came to them-- from Heaven.

            "This is my Son, my Beloved. Listen to Him! Follow Him!"

             And in that way, the Divine Plan was indeed made clear to Peter, James and John. And in a myriad of different ways down through the ages, that same message has been made clear to all who have followed Jesus ever since.

            It's not that the world is going to be changed for our convenience. No, it's us— we, you and me, who are supposed to change. And then, the world itself will be changed-- by us. It's humanity itself that is going to shine. When Jesus shone, everything around Him picked up that luminescence. The grass, the sun, the sky, the birds, the insects, even the very mountaintop itself all shone with the light of Christ's Presence. And last, but certainly not least, like Moses coming down from the mountain, James and John and Peter must have begun to shine from the light of God within them as well.

            "Listen to Him" said the voice. Do what He suggests. Model your life after Him. Do as He does. Heal the sick, minister to the lost, visit the imprisoned, stand up for justice, feed the hungry, turn the other cheek, love your neighbor, work for peace, be generous with your gifts and with yourself. Just as He does.

            Change your life and change your self according to His example. His Holy Spirit will show you the way and give you the strength. And everything that you have been longing for-- justice and peace and equity and hope and change in this broken world will follow. And everything you have been praying for—a better world, and peace of mind, and harmony, and emotional health, and personal stability, and meaning, and purpose, and forgiveness, and joy in the living of your own life will follow.

            Listen to Him. But don't betray His ministry. Don't alter His teachings. for your own convenience. Don’t soft-pedal his teachings or the hope he offers. Above all, don't try to modify His priorities to make them fit yours. Just listen! And follow. And grow. And glow. And change your own self.

            You and I see so many people in this world who are miserable, in pain, hurting, depressed and joyless. We see so many people in this world trapped in bad life situations, in futile relationships, in destructive patterns of living.  You and I see so many people in this world paralyzed by guilt, anger, and self-pity.  Some are responsible for their own fate. Others are the victims of the sins and/or ignorance of others.     

            "Why did God let this happen?" they ask—and we ask.  Those people think they are hurting because no one loves them. They think they are depressed because their lives are empty, meaningless, lonely.  And  they think that because those things have happened, it proves that God doesn’t care-- much less love them.

            And so they get angry-- angry at their situations, angry at other people. . They live in such profound anger that they react in anger to everything-- lashing out at others for minor things, spoiling events and ruining other peoples' lives with their anger.  But the truth is that when push comes to shove, they’re really angry at God

            We see so many people who retreat from life, making themselves hard and cold against the world. We see so many people in this world trapped in anger,  or depression,  or addiction,  or compulsion,  or self-pity. They’ve tried to fill up what they see as the emptiness of their lives and their dreams with liquor or drugs or gambling or sex or food. They don’t realize-- it’s really the emptiness of their spirits that they can never succeed in filling.

            "Why doesn't God change things?" they demand. And Jesus replies to them-- with His life and His ministry and His Transfiguration and His Passion--

"Change yourself first. Change your heart. Change your mind. Change your life. Let me in. I’ll give you hope.. I’ll show you how."

            Sisters and brothers, we all of us have things about our lives, our selves, our history,  that we'd like to change. For some of us those are things about the way we live in the world. For others those things are buried in our inmost hearts. Some of those things are apparent to everyone who meets us. Others are known only to ourselves-- and to our God. 

            Change is never easy. It’s easy to cop-out and tell yourself that you’re emotionally scarred forever, or too old to change, or that it’s too hard to change, or too expensive, or that nothing will really work anyway-- people can’t really change who they are. It’s even easier to kid ourselves that we’re doing just fine they way we are. The sad truth is that far too many of us won’t get serious about changing ourselves until our old destructive habits and sins have blown up in our faces and ruined our hopes and dreams and careers and families and bank accounts.

            If we’re lucky, we’ll finally break down and admit that our lives have become unmanageable. So we go see a shrink, or join a 12 step group, or see a marriage counselor, or ask the Doc to prescribe Prozac, or start keeping a journal, get liposuction, grow a beard, get a tattoo, buy a pair of cowboy boots, trade in the old pick-up for a sports car, or maybe even trade in the old spouse for a newer, blonder model.  But the truth is, on their own, none of those things-- nothing outside us can really help us change.

            If we’re really lucky--- if we’re blessed—we recognize and listen to someone sent to us by God to guide us. Somebody wise and experienced, who clues us in, and we start to look inside.  And once we’re in there, we come face to face with what we’ve done, with who we’ve been, and with who we can become instead. And we realize-- we can’t become that person on our own.  We need someone bigger than us.

            And the blessing is that once we’re in there, sooner or later we will encounter a faint image of that someone-- a tiny spark of the Divine-- the Imago Dei present—the presence of God’s Holy Spirit that dwells  within each of us.       And the blessing is that the opportunity for you and me to change, to grow, to let that internal spark of the Divine shine forth, to become the whole and authentic people that God invites us to be, is present at that moment. And the blessing is, we have a model for that growth, a model for our changed lives-- a real human life,  lived on this earth in total harmony with our Maker’s Will-- Jesus, the man for others..

            And the blessing is that when we finally realize and accept that Spirit-given power to change our personal inner world-- we’ll find ourselves changing the world around us. And the blessing is, as I said-- that possibility lies within each and every one of us .  And the blessing is--  when you and I finally surrender to, and claim that power-- that is when we will finally begin to shine.       And the hope, the vision, the Kingdom that Jesus kept talking about will finally come--when enough of Christ’s people have claimed and accepted and Him and His Holy Spirit into their hearts and their lives. Amen.

"The Greatest Gift" given Jan. 31

Whenever a text like I Corinthians 13 comes up in our three year Lectionary cycle, it makes a problem for the preacher. After all, what can I say about love, that Paul doesn't say better? What anecdotes, or sermon illustrations, or even jokes can I come up with, that would even begin to be adequate to speak about love? Indeed, what anecdotes or illustrations could I use that you haven't already heard?  What can I say about love?

Did you read Love Story?  "Love means never having to say you're sorry"?  Perhaps you remember Burt Bacharach’s philosphy -- "What the World needs now is love, sweet love"?  Or maybe you believe along with Lennon and McCartney that "Love is all you need". Of course,  I could quote Scripture about love.  "Love your neighbor as yourself", "Beloved, let us love one another", "Greater love has no one...".

There's a lot I could say about love, but you've likely heard it all.  Our culture is saturated with sayings and songs and stories, movies and books, ideas and expectations-- all of them claiming to tell us everything we ever wanted to know about love.  But do they really?

George S. Kaufman is said to have told Irving Berlin that the lyrics to his famous song “Always”  ought to be rewritten. How realistic really, is it to sing, “I’ll be loving you, always”?  Kaufman suggested a more true to life lyric-- “I’ll be loving you,  Tuesday”

Love is the most abused, over-used, mis-used word in the English language. We go to war for what we call the "love of country". We seduce and lie to one another for a momentary physical gratification that we call " romantic love". We beat our spouses, because "we just love them so much". We smother and patronize, cripple and kill and betray, all in the name of love. We’ve even forgotten how to spell it. “L-U-V”

Maybe I'm cynical. But it strikes me that our culture has taken something very precious indeed, and callously co-opted  it.  We have turned the very name into a catch-all for some pretty ignoble petty tricks that we play on one another. And yet, somehow, the real meaning of love has somehow, always managed, just barely, to shine through.

I'm afraid that it may have been the life of Jesus and the rise of Christianity that began this mass debasing of the word "Love". When Our Lord came, among us, He showed us the real and substantial power of love. When His disciples and the earliest Christians actually began putting His teachings to use in their lives, they unleashed a force that transformed the mightiest Empire the world ever knew.

But that Empire rallied. Politicians realized that if they could not control Christianity and its message of love, they could at least appropriate the name. They could confuse the populace as to what love really was, and utilize that confusion for their own ends. In 325, a Roman general named Constantine painted the cross on the shields of his soldiers and won a battle that made him Emperor.

The Roman Empire became officially “christianized”. Thus, politicians converted and became bishops, and bishops became princes.  But by that time, the co-opting of Jesus and His teachings about love had already been accomplished.

Today that misuse has permeated our way of thinking. It's only by the grace of God that the true message of Jesus, torn and battered, still survives. It is only by the grace of God that a people who know what love means, still survive. You and I are called to be that people. We are the ones, invited by God to speak the word of love to the world today.

Which word? No doubt you’ve already heard about the three Greek words for love-- eros, philios, and agape –sensual love, love for family and friends, and unselfish love. Agape is different than, but no less intense than eros . It is different than, but no less binding than philios.

Christian love, unselfish love, Christ-like love, the love the Greeks called "Agape", is a love that moves and challenges and transforms both lover and beloved.  

In this morning’s Epistle Reading, the Apostle Paul has been naming and commenting upon the various spiritual gifts that came come to believers. Spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues, interpretation, healing, and prophecy  have become a source of profound contention within the Corinthian congregation.

               Then Paul begins to talk about love— not as an emotion, but as another gift of the Holy Spirit—the greatest gift of all, in fact.    It's not just a word that means "I like the people who go to my church".  It is more than friendship, more than fellowship, more than mutual dedication to a shared cause. And yet all of these are part of it.

               Paul makes it clear. It is greater than faith, or hope, or any of the so-called charismatic gifts. In fact, it does not matter what other gifts you or I may possess. It does matter what works we do. It does not matter how much spiritual wisdom or academic knowledge we possess. It doesn’t matter how correct is our personal theology, says Paul. None of these matter the tiniest bit-- if we do not have love in our hearts.

That's the word of love you and I are called to speak, and to live out.  Our misconceptions and preconceptions make the word sound trite or idealistic, hopelessly powerless in the face of evil's seeming might.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.   You can’t stamp out love in the human heat. Neither can you hide its true nature for very long. Christian love is a lot more than a simple “warm and fuzzy” feeling.

Unselfish love for one another is nothing more or less than our limited, human version of God’s love for creation. Such love literally makes the world go round. The Epistle of James tells us that “God is Love.”  So love is at the very heart of who we are—and of how we live and be in the world. Just as God’s love is at very heart of creation itself.  In the 14^th Century a Sufi poet and mystic known as Hafiz wrote,

          “The sun never says to the earth: 'You owe me.'

        Look what happens with a love like that,

        it lights the whole world.”

Agape is a love that is tough- minded, active and realistic.  It's not something that only happens in the Sanctuary on Sunday --it is a seven-day-a-week commitment of our total self. Such love happens not only in the church-- but on the job, in the living room, in the classroom, at the bank, in the hospital, on the street --anywhere we encounter another in need of love in a world full of hate and anger.

It means living with care and compassion for others and with concern for the world. And miraculously, if we allow it to, that concern and compassion will eventually become in every sense of the word, unselfconscious, natural, a part of who we are.

Love-- unselfish Christian love means no more and no less than being willing to place the good of another ahead of my own comfort, my own convenience, and eventually even ahead of my own personal good --simply because I have dared to take Jesus at His word and follow His example, by standing up for love in a hate-filled world.

It's a realistic and achievable way of living and being in the world that will sooner or later call us to reach out, to touch and heal, to aid and succor the homeless and the helpless. It is a way of non-violent witness that will sooner of later call us to stand up for justice, to go against the tide of popular opinion if needed, and might even bring us under the yoke of persecution or imprisonment.

.           In his book, All Rivers Run To The Sea, Eli Wiesel writes of his family, living in Hungary during the dark days of the WWII, waiting for the Nazis to arrive at their door and take the to the labor camp.

            He tells about a peasant woman by the name of Maria. Although a Christian, Maria was almost like a member of this Jewish family.  During the early years of the war she continued to visit them, but eventually non-Jews were no longer allowed entrance to the ghettos. That did not deter Maria. She found her way through the barbed wire and she came anyway, bringing the Wiesels fruits, vegetables, and cheese.

            One day she came knocking at their door. There was a cabin that she had up in the hills. She wanted to take the children, of which Eli was one, and hide them there before the SS came. They decided after much debate to stay together as a family, although they were deeply moved at this gesture. He writes of her:

            “Dear Maria. If other Christians had acted like her, the trains rolling toward the unknown would have been less crowded. If priests and pastors had raised their voices, if the Vatican had broken its silence, the enemy's hand would not have been so free. But most thought only of themselves. A Jewish home was barely emptied of its inhabitants before they descended like vultures.

          I think of Maria often, with affection and gratitude”, he writes, “and with wonder as well. This simple, uneducated woman stood taller that the city's intellectuals, dignitaries and clergy. My father had many acquaintances and even friends in the Christian community, not one of them showed the strength of character of this peasant woman.  Of what value was their faith, their education, their social position, if it did not arouse their love.  It was a simple and devout Christian woman who saved the town's honor.”

That's the love Paul is talking about in I Corinthians 13. That's the love Jesus preached and taught and lived out and gave His life for. Agape is a way of believing and living that will enter into us and empower us and overwhelm us and transform us.  It will ennoble us and save us.

For Paul and his church, that meant sitting at the same table with Greeks and Jews, servant and free, men and women, in order to commune in fellowship and worship in mutual respect and honesty.  That was a fairly radical notion in Paul's world.

For us and for the church in our day, the call of love, the call of Christ must include white and black, Hispanic and Asian, men and women, young and old, GLBT  and straight, welfare clients and working people. All of us worshiping the same God, all kneeling at the same altar, all striving for and praying for the same dream of Christ's coming Realm of equity and justice and love.  That’s still a fairly radical notion in this world.

Such Love is not easy-- but it's far from powerless. In our century we have seen its power-- from India to the American South, from the Philippines to Poland to the former Soviet Union to Serbia. Make no mistake. Active love, agape love, unselfish concern, non-violent and caring involvement has literally changed the face of the globe.

Frederick Buechner writes:

The love for equals is a human thing--of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles.

           The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing--the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.

            The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing--to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints.

             And then there is the love for the enemy--love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured's love for the torturer. This is God's love. It conquers the world.

Perhaps that's why the demonic forces of racism, and hatred, and entrenched self-interest resist it so strongly. The powers and the principalities will always try to twist and divide the power of love. The forces of sin and self will always try to dilute and co-opt the power of Jesus' message and ministry. And they will—if you and I allow it to happen.

More and more I come to believe that it is no accident that the church of Jesus Christ is so divided, so relatively powerless in this world. More and more I have to ask myself, is it an accident that so few have tried to harness the power of unselfish love? Jesus, St. Francis, George Fox, the Wesleys, Gandhi, Dr. King, Dorothy Day, Florence Nightingale, Ceasar Chavez, Archbishop Tutu-- the list is impressive, but all too short. What is really amazing is not that they tried and succeeded, but that so few others have dared to try it.

The world changes, love endures. But love must speak to each age in its own idiom. The tactics of love must meet the needs of the time. I believe that people in each age can hear the word of love-- but the word must be articulated properly for that particular moment in history. I confess that I don't know the way to speak the word of love for our age in a way that could set it on fire. I wish I did, but I don't.

I wish, I pray that someone could speak the transforming word of love for North America in the first decade of the Third Millennium. I wish that word could be spoken in such a way as to unify and electrify us into action that would transform the world.  I pray, I hope, I trust that will happen.

          In the meantime, we who follow Christ have a call. We are called, as Paul called the Corinthians, as James called his readers, to love one another and the world around us. If we do nothing else, we in the church of Jesus Christ can do this.

We can become and remain a community that cares about its members, that reaches out in compassion and mission to the world around itself, that shows by example how to love, how to live together in peace and harmony. Remember what the pagans said about the early church? "See those Christians, how they love one another."

The most wonderful insight of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians is that love— agape-- will endure. This world and all its troubles may pass away, but love will last. In a world where there's nothing quite as sure as change, love is a remarkable and unique phenomenon.  And yet the seeds of that love are present in the deepest heart of every single one of us.

Nations will come and go.  Kings and presidents will come and go.  Economic systems and political systems will come and go.  Communities can even come and go. You and I will one day all be gone.  But love will endure.

Let us pray.

                                                                                                                                           Living Christ, come quickly now into this broken and love- starved world. We are surrounded by the principalities of sin and the powers of death. Yet we know, we can trust your promise of victory. Teach us to love boldly and with courage, that our lives and witnesses may shine forth with the transforming power of your love. Let your Holy Spirit enter into our hearts and make us new. Let your power enter into our lives Lord, and make us one with you. Amen .