let freedom ring

Scriptures:

Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Luke 9:51-62

 

A recording is available here.

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Just a few short weeks ago I had the privilege of visiting Mount Rushmore with my family. I’d never been to Mount Rushmore before and was told the lighting ceremony was something not-to-be-missed, so we arranged our plans for the kids and I to experience our first-ever visit just as the evening event started.

If you’ve not been for the lighting, I commend it to you.

The evening starts with a twenty-minute video sharing the history of the leaders depicted on the mountainside, and it includes the lighting as well as the flag retreat for the night.

The auditorium was brimming with people, nearly every seat filled, and yet it was silent enough to hear an owl hoot somewhere off in the distance of the park forest. I noticed the owl making noise and started relishing the night views of the natural surroundings to the human-created auditorium structure, and I lost track of the video somewhere around the closing remarks on George Washington.

But then I heard words that I’ve just not been able to shake. These words are so very familiar to us. They’ve been seared into our brains through history classes and even radio commercials as we approach our Independence Day tomorrow. I heard the words that Thomas Jefferson penned on July 2, 1776 that were adopted on July 4, 1776, The opening words to the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The Declaration of Independence was the moment when we as Americans decided we wanted our freedom from Great Britain. Our Founding Fathers sought to break away from the fiscal, political and religious repression of their country of origin. They wanted freedom in their new land – our homeland. The words that Thomas Jefferson penned, particularly this opening statement, have long been considered a statement on human rights, those moral principles or norms, which describe certain standards of human behavior, and are regularly protected as legal rights.

Freedom.

Jesus is about to be “free” of his earthly body in today’s Luke text. The narrative begins with a reference to Jesus’ future ascension into heaven, readying the disciples for their ultimate mission following Pentecost. When Jesus departs, the disciples continue his ministry of bringing about freedom to all the world. They are hesitant. They are unprepared to be the leaders Christ has been training. The disciples don’t know how to respond when challenged.

“Temptations around the use of power will face the disciples in the future…The disciples have already been told that when they are rejected, they are simply to shake the dust from their feed and announce that the kingdom of God has come near. Retaliation of any kind is not an option for disciples.”[1]

Judgment belongs to God alone.
Retaliation is unacceptable.
Persecution eliminates freedom.

Jesus Christ rebukes his disciples for defaulting on vengeance and anger toward those who reject them or Christ. They will be rejected, we will be rejected, but in those instances we must offer grace over rage. The life of Jesus Christ models choosing not to punish those reluctant to support him, and instead inviting believers to journey alongside him. The disciples are instructed to keep focus on the mission by looking and pressing forward.

Following Christ, a life of freedom in Christ, is not easy. Proclaiming “I will follow you wherever you go” has major life implications – God’s call on our lives means that other loyalties are no longer first. A life of freedom in Jesus Christ means that family, community, tradition, and the like are no longer our top priority. God must come first, and from that everything else will flow…we will be free.

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul introduces a gospel claim and a missional cause[2] in his opening to the fifth chapter:  Christ has set us free, so our lives and actions are to reveal that freedom. Jesus Christ preached freedom, lived freedom, and offered freedom to all. We have the opportunity to live into the freedom of Jesus Christ, and also the responsibility to work toward ensuring others live into their God-given freedom, as well.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all… are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”[3]

We need the courage to live into it.
Freedom is NOT the absence of encumbrances. “Entanglements are the means by which freedom becomes meaningful.”[4]

Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel may have been free from concentration camps, but he was not without burden.  In his landmark story of the Holocaust, Night, he penned:

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed …,” Wiesel wrote. “Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live.”[5]

Although he survived the camps, and was technically free, liberated from imprisonment, Wiesel did not live a life of freedom. Any life where there is an experience which deprives an individual of a desire to live is not a life of freedom. Until he passed away this week, Elie Wiesel was in bondage to the memories of his time in hell on earth.

Paul tells the Galatians in verse 13 that freedom means love: “For you were called to freedom…only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.” Loving your neighbor as yourself seems an easy thing to do, except we must first learn to love ourselves. But, what does that mean? It means recognizing our sacred inner beauty given by our Creator and recognizing that also others possess a sacred inner beauty. Our call to freedom to love yourself and others is a call to receive from Christ first and offer to our neighbors with the very same receptive heart.

When Paul speaks about the spirit versus the flesh or the law, he’s showing us an alternative director for our lives. Allowing the Spirit of Freedom to guide our decision making doesn’t mean disobeying local laws, it means that we get to claim our identity as Children of God. Declaring this identity grants us chance to love others more than ourselves, and to work for their equality as God’s children.

Recognizing the sacredness of all of God’s children, Wiesel chose to speak out and become an activist. His stage was international, where he worked, to ensure that victims received freedom, in spite of his own long night imprisonment. In his 1986 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech Wiesel stated:

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere,” he said. “When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe.”[6]

Freedom is not separation from relationships, rather it is a feature of relationships that becomes apparent as a result of our relationships with Jesus Christ. When we acknowledge our relationship with God by our very nature as the created of the Creator, and when we long to serve and be in relationship with Jesus Christ, we must ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen our relations with our neighbors and strangers. We are free when we give and receive love.

When we cast aside the desires of our flesh and impulse reactions to rejection in order to seek a life of Christ-like love, we become free ourselves to offer freedom beyond ourselves. Freely accepting God’s Spirit as the guide of our lives produces new fruit. Our lives change when we live into the freedom of God; we don’t have to work at being kind, it just comes effortlessly. The Spirit brings new motivations to our heart and we bear joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control as it’s result. We don’t even have to strain because it’s natural. That’s real freedom.

And,
Freedom is the presence of hope.

Dum Spiro Spero means While I breathe, I hope. The Provincial Congress of South Carolina adopted these words as the state motto in March 1776. In the year of Independence, the forefathers chose words of hope as their guide. A state ripe with controversy – secession, slavery, war, segregation, poverty, and racial issues – still resides in hope for the future.

I want to live in a world where hope prevails, because hope means there is care and concern for something beyond the current and present. I want us to anticipate a better tomorrow. Freedom demands we have great expectations.

While I breathe, I hope:

I hope that I can be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ.
I hope to help my children know the depth of love God has for them.
I hope to adequately demonstrate what God expects of the beloved.
I hope I will display God to all whom I meet.
I hope to be courageous.
I hope I can forgive.
I hope I may love.
I hope everyone will experience equality.
I hope we’ll stop harming one another.
I hope that children will go to bed with full tummies.
I hope our veterans will receive the medical care they need.
I hope the Spirit will bend my will to match God’s will for me.
I hope that I can be kind.
I hope I will speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves.
I hope to not hate.
I hope I live spreading joy.
I hope I care for our planet well.
I hope I will give back.
I hope I’m a strong leader.
I hope to welcome the stranger.
I hope I’m not selfish.
I hope I’ll one day pray without ceasing.
I hope I will never stop learning.
I hope to experience and respect other cultures.
I hope I exhibit empathy.
I hope for the day disparaging words no longer exist.
I hope we’ll stop oppressing one another.
I hope God will work through us.
I hope God will work in spite of us.
I hope we won’t be silent when we shouldn’t be.
I hope the world will experience peace…one day.
I hope we can look at people’s hearts rather than their skin.
I hope we will forget about gender and just love.
I hope that when we face evil, we will summon capacity for good.
I hope we all will act rather than just speak.
I hope we quit forgetting injustice.
I hope the world stops betraying her people.
I hope our focus becomes on the laughter of children.
I hope we create hope.
I hope we encourage compassion.
I hope we learn to show grace.

         …I could go on…

 While I breathe, I hope we may live into Christ’s freedom.
And, I hope we want to do the necessary work to enhance freedom for all of God’s children.

Jesus tells his new followers that they must choose when they say they want to follow him. We can’t live both in the current and also in the future Christ gives us. We must make the decision that will bring us life, love, and freedom. It’s a hard choice to make! It may mean leaving behind family, jobs, friends, or homes. It may be lonely, we may face betrayal, and we may suffer, but Jesus doesn’t promise us an easy life, he promises us a free life.

Church, as we leave from this place celebrating our independence and national pride with cookouts, fireworks, parades, pool parties, and wearing our red, white and blue, I encourage us to consider how we define liberty. “Discerning what God has done in Christ and what Christ has done for us shapes the way we love our neighbors, and loving our neighbors helps us to see what God has done.”[7]

Freedom requires us to live so that all may be free. Christ’s freedom is not for one person, but for every person. We must go today into the world and fight for another. We need to let the world taste the unending love of Christ through loving your neighbor. Our missional cause begins with letting the Spirit change our motivations. We are called to live free, and labor for the freedom of others.

Let mercy flow.
Let compassion prevail.
Let hope abide.
Let freedom ring.

Amen.

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[1] Elaine A. Heath, Theological Perspective on Luke 9:51-62 in Feasting on the Word: Year C, Volume 3, page 192.
[2] Mark Douglas, Theological Perspective on Galatians 5:1, 13-25 in Feasting on the Word: Year C, Volume 3, page 184.
[3] Declaration of Independence, 1776.
[4] Douglas, 184.
[5] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elie-wiesel-dead_us_57781653e4b0a629c1aa51bb
[6] http://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/07/remembering-elie-wiesel/489905/
[7] Douglas, 188.

mind your manners

This sermon was preached on Sunday, August 9, 2015 at First Presbyterian Church in Nebraska City, NE. A recording of the story is available here.

The scriptural reference is:
Ephesians 4:25-5:2

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In seventh and eighth grades I participated in Junior Cotillion. This meant that on Thursday nights once a month I would don a “Sunday” dress and spend two hours learning social education through etiquette and ballroom dance with peers from my school and neighborhood. We’d learn things like, door holding decorum, proper table settings, thank you note writing, filling in dance cards, buffet line protocol, and, most importantly how to balance the plate of cookies on our laps while wearing a dress, holding a cup of lemonade, daintily using a napkin, and carrying on polite conversations with neighbors to our immediate left and right. Twice a year we’d really get gussied up for the Spring and Holly Ball, which meant enjoying a three course meal with all of the proper place settings; it also meant that we could potentially earn prizes for winning ballroom dance contests or being caught using “exceptional manners” by any of the adult chaperones. If we behaved well enough, when we graduated the program we just might have been asked to stay on as a high school teaching assistant for the upcoming middle school classes. Now, I’m not usually one to brag, but I was asked to serve as an assistant in both high school AND college, and yeah, I occasionally won a prize for manners or dancing.

A few weeks ago when we visited Ephesians we discussed the transitional prayer in the middle of the letter. As you recall: “The letter begins with encouraging worship and praise for salvation in Christ Jesus… and continues with encouragement in perseverance through social and personal life dimensions as new creations in Christ. The prayer in the middle exists as the rooting, centering, grounding point of this letter to the Ephesians. First: Be thankful for your salvation. Next: Allow me to pray for you, providing you a foundation. Finally: Continue on as new members of the body of Christ.”[1] Today we come to a portion of the epistle entitled “Rules for the New Life,” which appears to be aptly named given the words we’ve heard read in the verses. But I’m bothered by the subtitle of this part of scripture. Something about the word “rule” doesn’t sit well with me, and I’d be willing to bet that the same word doesn’t sit well with y’all either, does it?

Rules.

Rule. Can also be known as: law, instruction, and regulation. Rules are also decrees, statutes, or directives. Pertinent to us, another synonym to rule is canon – like, our Biblical canon. Rule. The word sounds like such a strong word when we talk about the Gospel message and the other canonical books of our testaments. Did God really give us a rulebook? Well, back in 1995, rapper Killah Priest wrote a song entitled, B-I-B-L-E: Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth. Rules are instructions, so maybe these words today from Ephesians are rules for the new life as followers of Christ. This passage lists virtues and duties of the transformed community of believers. The apostle imitates the Ten Commandments in format here, giving first those prohibited behaviors before detailing embraceable behaviors, and we consider the commandments to be rules, right? I’m still bothered by the term rule, however. I get stuck there, because I don’t see anywhere in the passage a list of consequences, and when we have rules consequences follow directly.

To me, this passage is about community and dignity within. This passage is about a life of gratitude. G. Porter Taylor states that, “while at first glance this passage resembles a long list of prescribed and proscribed behaviors, in actuality it is centered on the converted life of the baptized.”[2] He explains that baptism brings about new life as a new creation and the theme of this epistle section is behavioral changes from conversion. If we step back in the text to the grounding prayer, verses 16-17 in chapter three provide the roots to us understanding the verses in chapter four: “¹⁶I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, ¹⁷and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.” As baptized, converted children of God, we are privy to the love of Christ. Because we’ve been given this love, we now live lives of gratitude, respect, and in the knowledge that all are God’s beloved children who shall be treated with favor.

The mission statement of the National League of Junior Cotillions is this: To act and learn to treat others with honor, dignity and respect for better relationships with family, friends and associates and to learn and practice ballroom dance. While the Ephesians were probably not regularly practicing the foxtrot, the cha-cha, the waltz, and other ballroom dances, we can be certain that they were practicing treating others with honor, dignity and respect. They worked regularly on their relationships with one another; family, friends and associates. In three words, I’ll sum up our verses today. And I’m sure we’ve all heard these words harshly spoken in our direction a time or two in our life:

Mind your manners.

“So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another” (vs. 25). Our scripture passage begins with truth as a building block of the foundation for life together. We can’t live in harmony if we are being false with one another. We must stop lying. We have to speak truth, but we must do it in love. We all now belong to the body of Christ and are members of the body together, so let’s treat each other accordingly. A shaky foundation will only cause the building to rock, crack and eventually crumble. Speaking truth to our neighbors, I think, is the hardest piece of this scripture. How often do we think one thing about someone but say or do another? Like, omitting our true feelings believing that it’s just because we don’t want to hurt their feelings over something simple like not enjoying their taste in music as we occupy the passenger seat of their car, so when asked we say the song on the radio is a great tune, even if we detest what we’re hearing. Often, though, we’re guilty of not speaking truths because we can’t manage to face the other with the root of our issues about them: they are abusive, but we’re afraid they will reject us if we confront them, so we just play nice for the sake of peace. But this is precisely what the apostle is telling us NOT to do: don’t play nice just for the sake of peace, because peace will not exist where falsehood lives. It seems so simple, yet it’s not. But, it’s the most important piece because it’s where we begin. Stop lying. Speak truth. And do so in love to one another. Speak the truth that will not bear hurt, rather increase the love of the community of Christ.

I believe that we too often see today’s passage and get hung up on a different verse about speaking, however. Our eyes speed read past the part about lying and move onto the part about saying ugly things: “²⁹Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.” Don’t get me wrong, this is important. I might even go as far as to say imperative, however this verse is too often misinterpreted as an individual is not allowed to formulate, hold or share an opinion about another person, thing or situation due to the harmful nature of speaking about another. This interpretation is incorrect. The verse here is encouraging us to choose words of grace, but it’s not condemning us for holding and sharing an opinion. A concern for evil speech runs throughout all of Scripture as words do have the power to destroy. But they have the power to construct, also. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing will be our closing hymn today, and we will sing a prayer asking God to tune our hearts to sing God’s grace and praise. We cannot build a relationship based on lies, but we can choose to speak words of grace to and around our brothers and sisters, therefore not grieving them, the Holy Spirit or ourselves.

Author Margaret Feinberg tells the story of her time as a senior student at Wake Forest University taking a class under Maya Angelou. They spent the first three weeks of the semester, more than one-third of their time together, learning names. These were not names of authors or historical figures to be memorized for an examination; rather the names were those of their classmates. In each class meeting for the first three weeks every student took turns introducing him or herself to the instructor and classmates, clearly spelling their name for everyone. In each class meeting everyone swapped seats and repeated the ritual. Additionally, they were to address one another as “miss” or “mister” in the class. Margaret says this of her time in the course: “More than a decade later, the greatest lesson I learned from Maya Angelou is from those first three weeks. She did more than teach a lesson about human dignity – she allowed me to experience and partake of it firsthand.”[3] Dignity means recognizing that another has self-worth and respecting yourself enough to see your own self-worth, too. Taking time to know another is intimacy. Knowing another’s stories and calling her by name implies a desire to be in relationship with God through relationship with one of God’s own. Margaret continued, “Maya Angelou didn’t just want us to have information; she wanted us to take part in the process of transformation. She didn’t just want us to know about human dignity; more than anything, she wanted us to treat other humans with dignity.”[4] To be formed in Christ is to be formed of value and dignity and favor.

Spiritual formation is work that requires intentionality. It requires a willfulness to grow. Spiritual formation is not something that takes place overnight, but over a lifetime. Spiritual formation is impossible without working towards a life imitating God. “¹Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, ²and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (5:1-2). The entirety of Jesus’ life and ministry was teaching us to be imitators. Imitating God means sacrifice, of self for others – in our community, in our family, of behavior, of addiction, and possibly, of life. Our God is the one who imparted wisdom to us through a living, breathing version of himself for the purpose of injecting Christ-likeness into our lives so that we may be formed into Christ through the Spirit, living in love worthy of sacrifice.

Ever-present with us on this transformation is God through the Holy Spirit who has marked us for redemption. The Spirit is essential to the community for without the spirit there is no worship, no community, and no hallmark of virtue. In our baptism we are marked as Christ’s own through the Spirit like Christ was marked in his baptism. This mark means that we belong to Christ, which in itself carries responsibility. Verse 30 instructs us “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,” for we exist in an ongoing encounter with the living, loving God in Christ Jesus. “The nature of love, is to love and to grow in that love,” according to Taylor. “No one willingly disappoints the beloved; certainly no one makes the beloved grieve.” In short, we should not “wish to do anything to grieve God, because of our love for God in Christ. Therefore, we joyfully turn toward those acts that bring God joy and away from those that do not.”[5] Living in the presence of the Spirit allows for continuous refining of the individual and the community. God, through the Holy Spirit, invites us to follow the example of Christ’s surrender to God, through imitation, understanding that our lives are pleasingly sacrificial as well. Being transformed into Christ means a conscious decision to do away with behaviors that spurn God and reject community.

I grew up in a family that requires manners, and to this day I will most likely respond with an appropriate “ma’am” or “sir.” I’m teaching my children these same life expectations, as well. Luke, nearly four, he loves to be a gentleman by holding the door open as we walk through, and he knows good and well that we expect him to use his manners. Lilly is learning, but she’s getting the hang of them. Some might think (and I’ve been told) that I’m hard on my children, but they have a born-and-bred Southern Mommy, and I don’t care. We expect manners in my family. To me, minding manners means showing regard. Addressing someone as a “ma’am” or “sir” is thoughtful. Showing respect and gratitude are second nature. I like to think that using my manners and requiring them of my children is helping us to live more fully into the Christian community of believers that we see in Ephesians. I choose to believe that being polite is being graceful. Deep down, minding my manners means recognizing the holy in myself and in the other, and I believe that’s what imitating God looks like on the most basic level.

To God be the glory. Amen.
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[1] Katie Barrett Todd, sermon preached on August 2, 2015 at First Presbyterian Church in Nebraska City, NE: Rooted and Grounded.
[2] G. Porter Taylor, Ephesians 4:25-5:2 Theological Perspective in Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 3, pg. 330.
[3] Margaret Feinberg, The Organic God, pg. 68.
[4] Ibid, 68.
[5] Taylor, pg. 330.

peace! be still!

This is a sermon delivered as pulpit supply at First Presbyterian Church in Lincoln, Nebraska on Sunday, June 21, 2015. 

The scriptural references for this sermon are:
1 Samuel 17: 1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-49 and
Mark 4:35-41

A link to hearing the sermon is here.
You may also subscribe to my podcast on iTunes here, to receive the most up-to-date postings of my sermons if you’d like.

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Usually I would post the text of my sermon, however I deviated a bit from the text during the worship service in which it was recorded. I woke this morning with a healthy anxiety about preaching because I feared that it “wasn’t enough” in the scheme of what really needs to be said, so I prayed. I asked God to fill me where my words might be insufficient. I am normally a manuscript preacher (since I’m new at this and don’t do it regularly enough to feel fully confident using an outline or less), which is why I can normally post my manuscript. Today was slightly different, however.

In lieu of sharing the manuscript, I encourage you to listen to the sermon recording and enjoy a few of the “extras” that I am including below. Thank you for taking the time to listen. I pray that the words God spoke through me are as refining to you as they are me, and that we would be moved to follow the commands we hear and actions we see from Christ. Prayers are simply not enough anymore.

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Bulletin – 10am – 6.21.2015
This is the bulletin from the service in which the sermon as recorded.

They-Met-to-Read-the-Bible-scored-hymn
This hymn/prayer was written by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, published on 6.20.15, and I shared it as our closing prayer in worship this morning. 

I read this book, Peace is an Offering, as the Children’s sermon in conjunction with Mark 4:35-41, quoted pieces of it in the sermon, and also used pieces for the charge and benediction at the close of worship. 

Lastly, but certainly not least by any measure, I shared these names in our Prayers of the People and continue to carry them with me, as I hope you will, too:

Cynthia Herd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Honorable Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, Rev. Daniel Simmons, Sr., Rev. Sharonda Singleton,  Myra Thompson

bits and pieces of the whole

This is a sermon I delivered on Trinity Sunday, May 31, 2015, at Palmyra Presbyterian Church in Palmyra, NE.
You will find a link to hear it preached here.

The scriptural basis for this message is: Isaiah 6:1-8 and John 3:1-17.

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Vacation Bible School season is upon us and my mind is constantly swirling with thoughts of the Creation story in Genesis since I wrote a resource for a local church based around this theme for their VBS this year. I keep thinking about how when God speaks, things happen. Everything that God made was intentional, with purpose, and was considered “good.” I’d like to think that our translation of the word “good” just doesn’t quite suffice the way that God felt when sitting back on Day 7 and relishing what was created. I’d like to think that the reaction was more like, “That’s AWESOME!” Can’t you just picture God sitting back, with feet propped up on the ottoman, and feeling a pride that would make just about any person’s chest burst open? Can’t you imagine God was so giddy with excitement over Creation that God started a dance party right in the living room with Jesus and the Holy Spirit?

As I’ve lived in the midst of these three scriptures this past week: Genesis 1, Isaiah 6, and John 3, I’ve lived into the reality of the Trinity. On Day Six of creation, God made male and female, giving us the charge to be fruitful and multiply and giving us the command to be caretakers of all that God had created through out the days before our creation. Most importantly, however, when God created humanity, God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…” according to verse 26. Let us create. God intentionally involved the other members of the Trinity in our creation – God spoke, Christ was our bodily model and the Holy Spirit filled us with the breath of life. Even from the very beginning, the first chapter of our scriptures, God’s mystery is revealed to us through the Trinity. So, there’s your dance party: God, Jesus and the Spirit have the music turned up, their feet moving and they are reveling in the beauty of all that has been made in THEIR image.

Nicodemus is an interesting character. Nicodemus was a leader of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews, and his spiritual life hinged on avoiding condemnation if at all possible. Scripture tells us that Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, or by the cover of darkness, for the purpose of asking questions. Nicodemus is a man who understands the bits, and he can grasp the pieces, but he can’t really picture the whole, much less understand it. When he greets Jesus, he calls him Rabbi, which lets Christ (and us) know that he recognizes who is Jesus. That’s a start. He understood that Jesus was important, that Jesus must come from God. Nicodemus, a highly spiritual man, comes to God to start asking questions of faith and does so in darkness with the hopes that he won’t be recognized. However, God knows us and Jesus knew Nicodemus by the questions he asked. Once Jesus began describing life and birth and renewal, Nicodemus was lost. He didn’t understand the double meanings of Christ’s words. He wasn’t familiar with all of the faith customs despite being a teacher of Israel, and he most certainly wasn’t able to grasp the heavenly things about which Christ was speaking. Nicodemus was limited, but he wanted to learn. He feared he’d be noticed so he came in hiding. He could understand parts but not the whole. And yet, he still came to God, asked the questions and displayed a faith that makes some of us stop and question our own. Do we have the courage to come to God and admit that we don’t understand?

If there’s one topic that will stump even the most prolific pastor or the most influential teacher, it’s the Trinity. So, given that Nicodemus couldn’t understand it when Christ was speaking in double entendres, and given that we probably ourselves can’t accurately articulate the natures of the Trinity, we shouldn’t shame Nicodemus too terribly. Verse 12 says: “If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” When one is going through seminary and the process of ordination, one always sweats the examinations on the floor of Presbytery or before committees for fear that “the question” might be asked of them. “The question” has many wrong answers because they are all so limited in our human capacity of understanding, and yet we still ask “the question” of others. I think we ask because we deeply desire the knowledge and correct verbiage to fully grasp it’s meaning, knowing that we individually don’t possess accurate adjectives. What is “the question,” you ask? … How do you understand The Trinity? The easiest answer is “God as three in one,” but even that doesn’t fully define the natures of God. So, we settle for “the great mystery of faith” being our answer. Because, friends, that’s exactly what it is: it’s not of earth, it’s of heaven – it’s a Great Mystery of Faith. Can you blame Nicodemus for his misunderstandings?

Pslam 139 has always been one of my favorite pieces of scripture. I share it with parents who are sending their babies off to college as a gentle reminder that God is there, too – with them and with their student. God is ever-present. If you read through Psalm 139, you will arrive at verse 6, which I think accurately describes our attempts, and Nicodemus’ attempt to understand God: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is so high that I cannot attain it.” Rest in that for a moment – such knowledge is too wonderful – we cannot attain it. We cannot attain it. We will not attain it. Y’all! No matter what we do, no matter how much we study scripture or theology, no matter how high we rise in the ranks of our faith traditions, we will not be able to attain the knowledge of God! And you know what, that’s perfectly okay.

God knows this about us. God created us in the image of all three natures of God knowing that while we are good and beautiful, we are not complete. We, our individual selves, each one of us are not complete…because we are just one small piece of something so much greater than ourselves. We were made by an artist, given the shape of the son – the artist in flesh, and given life through the Spirit that flows freely from that artist into and around each and every creature designed. The great mystery of faith made us to be the bits and pieces of the whole. Each of us is designed with gifts that bless others. Each of us is designed with faults and failures that require us to rely upon blessings from our neighbors. None of us can thrive alone. Nicodemus shows us that none of us can grasp the fullness of God or God’s intentions, either. And it’s all okay because God said we were “very good” and commanded us to be caretakers of creation, and then God rested in the pleasure of their work.

Looking at John 3, we first encounter the Trinity in verse 5: “⁵Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.’” The further we read the more it becomes clear to us: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son to save it, but only those born of the Spirit have eyes to see and ears to hear these heavenly things. All three pieces are critical if we are to see the light and then testify to it. Nicodemus struggles to see the light, coming in darkness, living in darkness and doubt and confusion. Thankfully, God holds nothing back.

Presbyterian Outlook Editor, Rev. Jill Duffield explains this text accordingly:

This complete kenosis is certainly evident in the exchange between Nicodemus and Jesus. Jesus starts with talk of new birth – birth from above – and when Nicodemus can’t wrap his head around that Jesus says, “Well, think of it this way, you can hear the wind, see the effects of it, even if you can’t see it and you certainly can’t control it, you know it is real.” Being born of water and the Spirit is like that. Jesus keeps on, making the connection to the story of Moses and the serpent – surely a story with which a Pharisee would be familiar! However, Jesus is setting up the story with something even greater in mind: If that lifted up serpent saved, how much more will the Son of Man? But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He moves to the why of it all, that verse that has been called the gospel in miniature, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” This is a life or death matter and God will stop at nothing to save the world. The Triune God, distinct, but not divided, refuses to leave us in the dark, even if we show up in the middle of the night, confused and questioning.[1]

The Triune God refuses to leave us in the dark. Amen! Praise God. Isaiah, like Nicodemus, realizes before God that he is unqualified and inadequate for what has been presented him. In Isaiah’s calling, we see a man who recognizes the holiness of God, the perfection of God and the light of the truth of God, and immediately doubts his calling because of the reality of his uncleanliness. Verse 5 syas: “⁵And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’” Then we see that he is offered a cleansing and a chance to separate his calling from the doubts his feels. When God speaks to him, he readily accepts. Similarly, Nicodemus hears Jesus speak about light overpowering darkness and, although we don’t know what happens to Nicodemus from the John text, we can assume that he claims his new knowledge and departs from his doubts and fears. When the light is presented to these two, it overpowers the dark and they become more free.

         The God who created us is a God who lives in relationship with Gods-self and therefore desires to relentlessly pursue relationships with each of us individually. This God sees the whole picture and invites us to step from the darkness of doubt, inadequacy, ignorance, fear, and confusion to realize our perfection as pieces – bits and pieces of the whole that God is still actively creating. We have to be willing to bravely approach the throne of grace, however. We must say what we feel that we lack so that the artist can paint light into our darkness. We must live through our confusion so that the Spirit can help us testify to the truth. In Faith Speaking Understanding, Kevin Vanhoozer writes, “Scripture is filled with examples of persons either accepting or blocking these divine offers. The most striking example is perhaps Mary’s response to the ‘offer’ of bearing the Son of God: ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word’ (Luke 1:38) — in other words, yes!”[2]

         Dag Hammarskjold is by our standards a man of great achievement. He was the Prime Minister of Sweden, he served on the Board of the Nobel Foundation (the people that award the Nobel Peace Prize), and he was the Swedish ambassador to the United Nations, among many other things. Hammarskjold is also a man who lived many years of his life in the dark, a darkness that led to more than three years of intense darkness and many additional years without the light, giving him a life of silent anguish and turmoil. In a memoir writing of his time without light, he shared about his darkness and said, “at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone – or Something – and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.”[3] He later spoke about how God used the darkness to prepare him for the light, in saying, “For all that has been – Thanks! For all that shall be – Yes!”[4]

         We are not going to understand the great mystery of faith, but we have a God who loves us too much to leave us languishing in the dark. When Nicodemus approached Christ we saw the mercy of God in Christ’s explanation where shame could have been a more appropriate response to a religious leader. When Isaiah failed to see himself worthy of a calling from God, the Spirit flew to him through the seraphs and cleansed him, helping him to claim his calling. When you were created, God rejoiced. When you walk through doubt, the Spirit meets you, and when we all fall short of the glory of God, Grace wins out through the life, death and resurrection of Christ. God is relentless – God wants you and me to live into our creation. Claim the perfection, let go of the darkness that overshadows, and live into our creation as bits and pieces. We may not always see the whole, but God does. And God delights in what we can and will all be when we accept that we are pieces, parts, and bits of something so much greater and more majestic. Friends, God wants us to step from dark into light and say “yes!” or “here am I, Lord.”

Thanks be to God for the Great Mystery of Faith. To God be the glory, in Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit. Today and forever more. Amen.

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[1] Rev. Jill Duffield, Trinity Sunday – May 31, 2015. Presbyterian Outlook online: http://pres-outlook.org/2015/05/trinity-sunday-may-31-2015/
[2] Kevin Vanhoozer, (“Faith Speaking Understanding,” page 193).
[3] Richard Foster, ed., The Life With God Bible, Harper Bibles, NY 2005, pg. 161.
[4] Ibid.

how can i?

The scriptural references for this sermon are:
Acts 8:26-40, 1 John 4:7-21

A link to the audio recording of the sermon is here.

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Thin places are those places where you just know that the presence of God is upon you. They are the places where you can feel the Holy Spirit at work in marvelous and mysterious ways. Thin places are those places that you long for and crave when you are feeling spiritually empty because they are the places where heaven seems just above the tips of your fingers when you reach toward the sky. Thin places are the places God presents to you as holy, sanctified and purifying to your soul because you know that God created those places for the very purpose of reconnecting with Christ as the Spirit dances in and around you. These are the places where you know without a doubt, deep in your gut, and every fiber of your being rejoices because these thin places are the places where God lives in us and love is absolutely perfected in us.

A follower of Celtic Spirituality defines thin places accordingly: “A thin place,” she said, “is a place where the boundary between heaven and earth is especially thin. It’s a place where we can sense the divine more readily.”[i] Our scriptures are full of references to thin places, starting in the Garden of Eden, including Mt. Sinai, the Tent of Meeting, the Tabernacle, the Temple in Jerusalem, deserted places where Christ would withdraw to pray, etc. Some would even say that the very pew where you sit today is a thin place for them. God’s presence is more real and tangible in a thin place, often allowing us to experience spiritual intimacy, renewing us for life in the world where sometimes God doesn’t seem near enough.

One of my thin places is tucked away in the mountains of North Carolina where God’s allowed me to meet some incredible saints who have shaped my life and ministry, and where when I’m feeling depleted, God shows up in the wind that blows across the porch and the sun that shines on the waterfall by Lake Susan. It was in Montreat that I had the pleasure of hearing this Acts text preached by a woman who became to me like Philip was to the Ethiopian Eunuch. I had met Aimee Wallis Buchanan four years before I heard her preach this text, but when I met her I had no idea the impact she would have on me. Aimee was (and still is!) one of those persons who would be a living and breathing thin place because when you were around Aimee you were in the presence of God. When I heard Aimee share this message at the College Conference at Montreat, I was running late to the worship service with my students, and I did not, if I’m being honest, did not want to sit through a worship service at all. I much preferred the idea of socializing with friends and colleagues to sitting in a pew and listening to a sermon, even one from a friend. And then God spoke to me. I don’t remember anything else from her sermon other than the refraining “how can I, unless someone guides me” from Acts 8:31. That stuck with me and Aimee became God’s vessel to meet me in Montreat, in a thin place, and touch my heart that night.

When we arrive at this text in Acts, a lot has been going on in the new worshipping community. The church has gathered, experienced Pentecost, been persecuted to the point of Stephen’s death and is at this point beginning to spread beyond Jerusalem into Judea, Samaria and into the world. The community is following the leadership of God through the Holy Spirit and fulfilling the Gospel narrative of Christ by proclaiming the gospel far and wide, across barriers and in spite of persecutions. The book of Acts is a book of hope for the church through the disciples closest and nearest to Jesus Christ.

God sends Philip, a not-very-well-known apostle, on the road. Luke’s scriptures like to send people on roads, and I think they are journeys that represent early church versions of thin places. Philip goes down a wilderness road and meets a man who recognizes him as one who can answer his questions of faith. The very unique thing about this meeting is that this man is a eunuch, which according to Deuteronomy 23:1 means that his physical state as a castrated male means that he’s not allowed to worship in the assembly of believers. When a person is not admitted into the assembly of believers it is because he/she is considered “unclean” or “unworthy” and often “less than.” Philip doesn’t see the Ethiopian this way, however. Philip sees a man who is reading the scriptures and asking questions about God – a man who desires to know and understand. What’s more, Philip doesn’t just see a man wanting to learn scripture and about his faith, Philip sees a MAN. Philip sees someone who has been treated by society as an outcast, someone who isn’t allowed to worship with believers, and someone who isn’t even considered a man anymore because of his physical state. Philip, on this thin place journey, meets a man and exhibits God’s love to this man. Philip personifies 1 John 4:11, “Beloved, since God loved us so much, we ought to love one another.”

The unique thing about the whole story of Acts is that it’s intentionally an open-ended story because the story continues today in our churches. In his commentary on Acts, Professor Will Willimon says, “It’s a story worth retelling because it deals with issues which are always in season in the church: questions about the relationships between Christians and Jews, Christians and pagans; issues related to the Christian’s stance within the modern state; problems with prayer; the purpose of preaching and teaching in the church; and a host of other dilemmas which press upon the contemporary church with more relevance than the headlines of this morning’s newspaper.”[ii]

We’ve seen and heard a lot in the morning newspapers and evening newscasts these past two weeks, haven’t we? It’s almost too much to bear and it’s heartbreaking to sit back and watch. And, if we’re really honest with ourselves, we’re grateful that none of it is happening right here in our town, aren’t we. I spent a little time flipping through BBCAmerica and NBCNews “This Week in Pictures” articles online and here’s a bit of what I saw:

• School-aged children walking through piles of debris in Nepal to try and find personal family belongings. The road is not visible.
• Teenage demonstrators jumping atop police cars in Baltimore, Maryland. They have smiles on their faces.
• Police carry injured members of their force to safety following riots. They are gravely concerned and appear terrified. They are the law enforcement and they are terrified.
• Citizens using personal brooms to clean streets after rioting. They appear to be full of both shame and pride for their neighborhoods.
• An empty baseball stadium. The game continues, but the fans didn’t show.
• A four-month-old baby hoisted high by Nepalese army rescue workers after 20 hours of searching. Elation!
• Rescuers using a makeshift stretcher to carry injured persons from a flattened basecamp on Mount Everest following an avalanche. Fear and concern.
• Men shoveling inches of ash from atop their roof in the aftermath of the eruption of the 43-year dormant Calbuco volcano in Chile.
• Police spray tear gas following riots in Burundi over the unconstitutional third-term seeking of the sitting president.
• A field of almond trees lies flattened, dead in California from severe drought.

Rev. Aimee Wallis Buchanan shared the message of Stephen’s martyrdom for the faith, Philip’s courage on the Wilderness Road and the story of the man who wasn’t considered a man at all. When Philip encountered him reading the scriptures and asked him if he understood what he was reading, the response was, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” Philip then explained that the scrolls were alluding to Jesus Christ and he shared the gospel message. Then, the amazing happened: the Eunuch asked to be baptized and Philip baptized him! A man who wasn’t really a man in the eyes of the world claimed his title: Child of God. Philip was God to this man.

⁵God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. ¹⁶So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

I remember one of the last times I saw and was privileged to spend time with my friend Aimee before her passing: I was overwhelmed with a toddler who didn’t nap, a large five month’s pregnant with his sister, and struggling to get everyone peacefully fed while their dad was preparing for our evening worship. Aimee saw me, walked over to my table and asked to join me. I warned her of my ornery child and she joined me anyway. As it turned out, Aimee was battling a migraine during her time with us at the table and my child was less than sensitive to her medical situation, but regardless she took him and entertained him so that I could take a few bites in peace. Then, she proceeded to spend several hours later that evening, still with a migraine I’d assume, encouraging me about being in the ministry, being a mom, being a writer and just life in general. Aimee, in those moments, was God to me. She loved me in the only way I could have received love at that moment. Philip was God to the Ethiopian court official; he loved him in the only way that man could receive love at that moment – and in a permanent, beautiful love – by offering him a new life through the waters of baptism.

Our headlines recently are discouraging and heartbreaking. As I studied these texts and remembered the life of my friend and the way she loved everyone with whom she came in contact, and lived through the reality of life in our world today through headlines locally and internationally, I kept hearing her standing in the pulpit at Montreat saying, “but HOW CAN I, unless someone guides me?” Friends, how can we love the way 1 John demands us to love? How can we? How can we be God? How can we open ourselves up to the thin places where God meets us and transforms us? How?

We can because we know God.
We can because we love God.
We can because God love us.

In our denomination, when we baptize, we ask the following to the congregation: “Do you, as members of the church of Jesus Christ, promise to guide and nurture N. and N. by word and deed, with love and prayer, encouraging them to know and follow Christ …” We then offer a profession of faith where we ask and answer: “Will you be Christ’s faithful disciple, obeying his Word and showing his love? I will, with God’s help.”[iii] I imagine Philip’s baptism of the Ethiopian man was much less pomp-and-circumstance, but just as meaningful. I imagine they found a pond or brook or maybe even a puddle for the life-changing event. I see Philip standing over the man, potentially very nervous, and cupping the water to pour on his head. I also imagine a smile on the man’s face as the water runs over his head and face and he realizes that he is loved, he is wanted, he is claimed and he is a part of something so much greater than himself, his job at the court and his status in the empire. I imagine a simple, beautiful, meaningful moment between two men of faith who meet God in a thin place. And in that moment, I imagine these two men realize that God has guided them and that’s precisely how they will go about their days from that point forward. How can they? God will guide them.

 A lot has happened lately, here in our piece of the world and everywhere. It’s not been pretty and it’s made us question the state of humanity some, too. It makes us wonder, “God, how can I possibly love someone who would do that?” or think, “God, I don’t want to love someone who behaves that way.” or say, “God, I’m so done with that person!” How in the world can we be like you? How can we see persecution or execution and still offer love? How can we worry about people around the world recovering from devastation when we’re already so worried about ourselves here and now? Why do we want to even try?

¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.
²¹The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

God’s guiding us. God’s commanding us.
That’s how.

To God be the glory, honor, praise and gratitude. Now and forever. Amen!

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[i] Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts blog post: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markdroberts/series/thin-places/
[ii] Willimon, William H. Interpretation: Acts (Louisville: John Knox, 1988) 1.
[iii] Book of Order, Book of Common Worship, pg. 404.