Sunday, August 11, 2013

Ready or Not! Sermon given Aug 11, 2013

Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23 
God Himself Is Judge
A Psalm of Asaph.
50 The Mighty One, God the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.
3 Our God comes; he does not keep silence;
before him is a devouring fire,
around him a mighty tempest.
4 He calls to the heavens above
and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
5 “Gather to me my faithful ones,
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
6 The heavens declare his righteousness,
for God himself is judge! Selah
7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me.
22 “Mark this, then, you who forget God,
lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
23 The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
to one who orders his way rightly
I will show the salvation of God!”

Luke 12:32-40
32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Watchfulness
35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
opening humor: “Honest Church Signs” (these are likely the work of someone with good imagination and a lot of time...maybe NOT actual displayed signs)

“If we put a lame phrase up here will you come to our church?”
“Your tithe is important to us.”
“We think our use of power point will draw young people like moths to a flame.”
“Do you only sing songs written before 1900? So do we!”
“Easy on the new ideas, all who enter here.”
My personal favorite: On a Presbyterian Congregational Church sign! “We have a female pastor and most of us are ok with that.”

Psalm―vision of immensity of God, yet personal, recognizing individuals who live in covenant to be faithful, and honoring God in thanksgiving! Having that attitude of Gratitude :)

(READ GOSPEL LESSON)

Our Gospel lesson compares to parts of Matthew's gospel again. The section immediately before this says “Do not worry!” and then, here, Jesus says fear not! This is part of a long section that includes parables...stories and 'preaching' to bring home His point of God comes first. Our earthly stuff and worries are nothing compared to heaven!

Watching...in Bible, the word, “watch” or “Keep” means to be watchful, keep close tabs upon, guard. In other words to pay close attention! For example, if you watch your neighbor's house while they are gone, you pay more attention than you might otherwise. So too here, 'watching for the Master” means to pay attention, to keep track and notice the very moment of the arrival!

be dressed and ready for service...
servants waiting for master from wedding banquet. Servants, ready to work and care for the master! The master of course is Jesus. What is this banquet?
The wedding banquet is The body of Christ, come together for eternity. All believers, and Jesus said he would not lose even one of his sheep!

The wedding banquet, is for the marriage of Jesus who is the bridegroom, and the bride....the Church! The worldwide church! All of us! This church, all other churches and people who are truly honoring Our Lord and working to achieve God's plan here on earth..Jesus said over and over in the Gospels, “the kingdom of heaven is near.” Jesus brought the Kingdom near, and His followers are to help bring it to fruition.

We are to keep watch...paying attention to the details, ready for anything to happen, especially ready for the best of all possible things to happen-for the Lord to come to take us to that banquet! Meanwhile we live our Kingdom lives, helping to bring the love of the Lord to each other and to the world. Paying attention to the needs of others, and helping to fulfill those needs. Did you notice in the passage, the Master dresses and serves the servants? Jesus washed the disciples' feet.

The phrases Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven appear in Gospels total of 85 times! But what does it mean!? It means of course heaven, our final reward, but it also means something for the present time.

Our VBS this week was theme Kingdom Rocks, and there were stories of royalty from the old testament and Jesus of course. The stories help reinforce the ways that we can “Stand Strong” for God. God's Love helps us stand strong and the Bible, prayer, family and friends, and trust in God help us.

It's fun and it made great points to the kids about ways of helping our faith.

But I think it's hard for us sometimes today in this era in this country to get the whole kingdom metaphor. The Hebrew Scriptures, over and over refer to God coming to be the ultimate King of the people. Royalty was something people were quite familiar with. The concept of complete control by only one person was what they understood.

But the VBS stories were powerful. King David of course, told about writing the 23rd Psalm after his life was in danger! Nehemiah taught about the power of prayer in rebuilding the City wall after Jerusalem had been destroyed.

One story was Queen Esther, the Jewish woman who, by winning a beauty contest, became the queen of King Xerxes, and saved the Jewish people from being annihilated by the power hungry Haman. Her story includes her relative Mordecai saying to her, “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

I knew someone who felt that was a key verse for them, that they had been called to a certain ministry task for just such a time.

Indeed, who knows, maybe we have become the United Church for just such a time as this?

This is a time of huge changes within 'organized religion'. Although I am beginning to think that phrase is an oxymoron.

Nationally, even world wide, there are changes happening. There is unprecedented fervor for the Word of God in Africa and parts Asia, where persecution is strong. Yet in Europe and the US, mainline churches are closing everywhere.

Our merger is a radical solution that other churches are undertaking. There are many mergers happening within denominations. To do what we have done tho, incorporating 2 denominations is still unusual, it's a bit 'out there'. And others are paying attention to what we merged churches are up to!

In an article on successful mergers, there were several key points. The most significant is that the church members are committed to a larger vision. The merger itself is just a step towards this Larger Vision.

Are we committed to a larger vision? Are we committed to The Kingdom of heaven? To help others see that the Kingdom of heaven has indeed come near? Whatever our specific vision as a church is, it is all about the Kingdom of heaven!

NT Wright
The establishment of God’s kingdom means the dethroning of the world’s kingdoms, not in order to replace them with another one of basically the same sort (one that makes its way through superior force of arms), but in order to replace it with one whose power is the power of the servant and whose strength is the strength of love.

This is what Jesus is talking about in our Gospel lesson. Keeping our eyes on the future...the Kingdom of Heaven, taking care of God's people. Helping to bring to our community the Shalom of God, the perfect peace, wholeness, protection that existed in the Garden and will one day prevail for eternity.

John Ortberg
Community is not built through sitting in the same building and singing the same songs. It is forged in the fires of life. When we know each other deeply ― the good, the bad, and the ugly ― community is experienced. Community grows when we learn to rejoice with one another, celebrating life. Roots grow deep when we know we are loved by others and are free to extend love to them as well. Finally, community deepens and is built when we commit to serve each other and let others serve us. This process of doing ministry and humbly receiving the ministry of others is critical for healthy community life.

Our busy August, including our just completed VBS, the upcoming Book Bag Bash, the August 24 Lay Leadership Retreat-- are all ways in which we are living out our vision, our purpose. We will grow and learn together if we continue to live putting God first. As our Psalm says, those who offer gratitude glorify God! Are we grateful today for how blessed we truly are? And are we living out that gratitude!

Barbara Brown Taylor:
Every morning when you wake up, decide to live the life God has given you to live right now. Refuse to live yesterday over again. Resist the temptation to save your best self for tomorrow... Live prepared! ...{Live your life} ready for God, for whatever happens next, not afraid but wide awake, watching for the Lord!


Let us pray: Holy God, help us to live more attentively and more purposefully for You. Help us to better live as you have called us, not for our own desires but only to glorify you. In Jesus Name, Amen.


Sunday, August 4, 2013

Treasures Sermon given at United Church of Beloit Aug 4, 2013

Psalm 107
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story―
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
3 those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south.
4 Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no way to a city where they could settle.
5 They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.
6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
9 for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.
43 Let the one who is wise heed these things
and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord.

Luke 12:13-21 (NIV)
The Parable of the Rich Fool
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

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I suspect a couple of you are thinking Oh NO! We give her a few consecutive weeks in the pulpit and It's a sermon on stewardship!

No it isn't. I am NOT going to tell you to give more money to the church! Well unless you want to!

I am using the Lectionary gospel lessons as I preach, the lectionary is the set of 'prescribed' readings that churches can use or not as they feel led. Each week there is are readings from the Old Testament, the Psalms, an Epistle, and a Gospel lesson. If one were to go through the entire lectionary, in a 3 year time span, you would have read/and or preached most of the Bible.

psalm is about those who have wandered, no home, no permanence (perfect for hands of faith week...) Their hunger and thirst is physical from being in the desert, but I suspect the Psalmist here is also speaking metaphorically, telling a story, about a spiritual hunger and thirst, which God satisfies!

The Psalmist reminds us to 'let the one who is wise ponder these things' and the Gospel lesson is about a 'fool'! Interesting contrast there, isn't it?

Gospel lesson from Luke, this one of many of Jesus' parables.
Parables. simply defined a parable is “usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle” Merriam-Webster online dictionary ...an earthly story with 'heavenly meaning”

Jesus did not invent the parable, in fact rabbis of this era told stories like this all the time. Jesus did polish the art of story telling :)

Jesus' story here refutes the belief of that time that if you were right with God, you would be blessed materially. A rich person was viewed as being blessed by God. Jesus is not reinforcing this belief is he? In fact, when God says, “you fool!”...the word used here in the original Greek means not only someone who is not bright, acting unthinkingly, but it also means a non believer! Jesus' story equates the rich man with someone who is not believing or cherishing God. He is not wealthy because of his faith, but in spite of it.
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Is Jesus speaking to us about possessions or about our preoccupations?

treasures are not just material things! Also attitudes. That is why we sometimes pray for forgiveness for 'thought, word and deed'

Gerald May in Addiction and Grace
I am convinced that all human beings have an inborn desire for God. Whether we are consciously religious or not, this desire is our deepest longing and our most precious treasure. It gives us meaning. Some of us have repressed this desire, burying it beneath so many other interests that we are completely unaware of it. Or we may experience it in different ways―as a longing for wholeness, completion, or fulfillment. Regardless of how we describe it, it is a longing for love. It is a hunger to love, to be loved, and to move closer to the Source of love.

People are HUNGRY! Hungry emotionally and spiritually, Hungry for love, a sense of belonging, wholeness, fulfillment, for peace...for Shalom! The wholeness, peace and protection of God. People were hungry, physically, emotionally and spiritually, 2000 years ago, that's why Jesus referred to himself as the Bread of Life, as Living water! People are hungry today, literally going hungry, going without food, yet every single day 263 million pounds of food are wasted in this country. And yet people go hungry. And they are hungry, emotionally and spiritually, yearning to know that they are loved, cared for. That there is more to life than scraping by every day, that there is hope and rest. That there is shalom.

That is why we do Hands of Faith, VBS and Book Bag Bash, Meals on Wheels, why we support Caritas and other local groups and missionaries in this country and abroad. To help people know that someone cares! there is satisfaction for their hunger. Their hungers! the physical and the emotional and spiritual hungers!

Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness,
of understanding, of peace. Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God - the rest will be given. -Mother Teresa 

THE TREASURE OF THE CHURCH

St. Lawrence was martyred in 258 CE, but we remember him not for his martyrdom. We remember him as the Archdeacon of Rome. His responsibilities included maintaining the sacred vessels of the small, struggling church and distributing alms to the poor. While he was Archdeacon, the Governor of Rome took Pope Sextus captive and demanded, "Where is the treasure of the church?" The Pope would not tell, and they tortured him to death. 

Next the Romans took Lawrence captive. "Where is the treasure of the Church?" they demanded, threatening with the same fate that befell the Pope. Lawrence replied, "Governor, I cannot get it for you instantaneously; but if you give me three days, I will give you the treasure." The governor agreed. Lawrence left. 

Three days later he walked into the governor’s courtyard followed by a great flood of people. The Governor walked out onto his balcony and said, "Where is the treasure of your church?" Lawrence stepped forward, and pointed to the crowd that accompanied him – poor families, the disabled, those considered to have no value to that society. "Here are the treasures of the Christian church."

these are the treasures of the Christian Church. The ones who hunger and thirst physically, emotionally and spiritually. The ones who God cares for and satisfies, through God's own followers! The ones called “the Least of these” are the treasures. And so are we, if we treasure others as God treasures us.

You do know that God treasures you, right?
There is a great quote by Max Lucado
“If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning… Face it, friend. He is crazy about you!”

God treasures each and every bit of God's creation, especially us! When we recognize that we are loved so well, so treasured, we want to live out that love. Love doesn't need to be saved up like a possession, love grows best when
we give it away!

Share a bit of that love today! Get to know one another! Reach out to someone you don't know at all, by helping with our church outreach events and with other opportunities in our area. Reach out, right here in church, to someone you don't know well, share a story or two. Sit down to coffee or tea together or a meal.

Henri Nouwen
When we invite friends for a meal, we do much more than offer them food for their bodies. We offer friendship, fellowship, good conversation, intimacy, and closeness. When we say, “Help yourself…take some more…don’t be shy…have another glass,” we offer our guests not only our food and our drink but also ourselves. A spiritual bond grows, and we become food and drink for one another. In the most complete and perfect way, this happens when Jesus gives himself to us in the Eucharist as food and drink. By offering us his Body and Blood, Jesus offers us the most intimate communion possible. It is a divine communion.

In a few moments we will share in that Divine Communion. We will pray together the prayer taught by Jesus. That prayer that helps us to recognize we pray in community, we reach out in community. We grow in love by giving it away, by giving of ourselves-- And yes, of our treasures.


Let us prepare for that Divine Communion by singing together Let Us Break Bread Together.  

Friday, August 2, 2013

Weigh to go ME!

Wow! I am down a total of 32 pounds in 31 weeks. Thank you God for helping me find a healthy plan that i can live with! thank you Spark People website for great information and tracking tools and community to help along this path! (SP is free! www.sparkpeople.com)

Has it been easy? Not always. There have been days where I was tired, hungry, ornery...and blew the plan. But there have been a LOT more days of feeling good, feeling empowered! feeling, dare i say it? beautiful and strong! Feeling muscles work as i walk...my arms look more toned, and being able to carry grocery bags with ease. I walk faster, further and enjoy it more. 

and i have learned that one mess up of the plan is not a disaster. Just log-track the foods and water and exercise, and journal. Get back on track, and pay attention to what i was feeling and thinking that led to 'blowing' the plan. Then i can take steps to avoid more disasters. Paying attention to the details of of the food tracking, looking at the total intake of carbohydrates and protein helps me see where i might need to adjust my plan. 

and the clothes problem! the clothes i wore the last 2 summers are huge on me now. I got out jeans I hadn't worn in ages, i was too fat for, and now the jeans are too fat for me! 
GREAT problem to have :) 

SO today is a new day, a new day to eat clean, nourishing foods, to be active and enjoy my healthy lifestyle. and it's a new day for YOU too! Join me!