The Ripple Effect: An Open Book

Oct. 20, 2013 The Ripple Effect: An Open Book Pastor Carol P. Taylor

Psalm 119:97-105 New International Version

97 Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.
98 Your commands are always with me
and make me wiser than my enemies.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.
100 I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.
101 I have kept my feet from every evil path
so that I might obey your word.
102 I have not departed from your laws,
for you yourself have taught me.
103 How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 I gain understanding from your precepts;
therefore I hate every wrong path.

105 Your word is a lamp for my feet,
a light on my path.

John 17:13-19 Good News Translation

13 And now I am coming to you, and I say these things in the world so that they might have my joy in their hearts in all its fullness. 14 I gave them your message, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but I do ask you to keep them safe from the Evil One. 16 Just as I do not belong to the world, they do not belong to the world.17 Dedicate them to yourself by means of the truth; your word is truth. 18 I sent them into the world, just as you sent me into the world. 19 And for their sake I dedicate myself to you, in order that they, too, may be truly dedicated to you.

The Ripple Effect: we never quite know what effect we may have on another person. We have all heard those stories of how one person made a difference in the life of someone, by a seemingly small thing said or done. When we live out our faith, we are causing ripples that can have quite an effect on others!

READ GOSPEL LESSON.

I am using GNT here while the NIV is up on the screen very deliberately. In Bible study, it can be very helpful to use different translations.

I love that they use the word “Dedicated” here for “Sanctified”

To be sanctified means to be set apart, separated, saved to be used for specific purpose. In the NT this word is also translated “holy”.

...sanctification is the same Greek word as holiness, meaning a separation. Separated, set apart for a purpose!

Jesus was sanctified, separated FOR US, dedicated for our use.

Just as this beautiful baby has been 'dedicated' for God, set apart so that she can make that choice one day, so we can be dedicated, set apart for God to use for God's purposes. When I say 'we' I mean each of us as individuals, because we never know what effect we may have today! But I also mean 'we' as a church, to help our members, our community (like with Hands of Faith...Trunk or Treat, visting homebound members, and so on. so we, individually and as a church can be dedicated, set apart for God to use for God's purposes.

How do we know God's purposes.....

well, they are here...in the Bible!
Well, yes ok, but the bible is hard to understand sometimes.

Though as mark twain said, it ain't the parts of the bible I don't understand that bother me, it's the ones that I DO!

Richard Foster in Life With God

Pay attention to the recurring themes of the stories of the Bible: God loves human beings; human beings always seem to want what they can't have; God is grieved and angered when human beings rebel but pursues them and forgives them anyway; God is involved not just in the lives of the chosen people, but in the lives of all peoples, and in the concerns of every living thing in creation.

why read the bible? Its confusing, it hard to understand.

yes it is, this is not the latest popular novel or biography. And you can't read it the same way you would read one of those! The Bible is a collection of books of historical events, poetry, instructions, stories that can be hard for us to relate to! Jesus talks about seeds and wheat and chaff, fish and bread as a meal. There are stories of miracles that are just unbelievable..i mean REAALLY unbelievable! And some of the prophecies, well they are scarier than a Stephen King story!
Yes! The bible is challenging! But there's a big picture here....all those events, poems, instructions, stories, and prophecies point to one theme. God is with us!

R. Foster again.....The divine assurance thundering throughout the ages is also a divine invitation: I am with you will you be with Me? This dynamic is the absolute unifying center of the Bible. Every story in the Bible, no matter its twists and turns, whether the human characters are trustworthy or untrustworthy, whether the story is sad or happy, is built on this clarion call to relationship.  {God says} “I am with you- will you be with Me?” 

The bible has survived, parts of it, for thousands of years! There must be SOME reason for that!

And yes the bible is relevant today. There is comfort in the bible, written in beautifully poetic language...to everything there is a season,

Isaiah said that God's word WILL accomplish it's purposes and on the day the mountains will sing and the trees will clap their hands! That verse right there can get you through a tough day.

So why should our bibles be open?

Because God is LOVE. And it says Life ain't about you and me.

Oh I wish it were, I think if I were in charge of the universe for a few days, I could REALLY shape up a few things! But what God is interested in is how we care for each other, how we recognize God in each other. Yes God is in every human being...sometimes we have to look pretty hard! But God is in every single person and all of creation. That's why our covenant says we seek to reach out in God's extravagant love, we affirm!

This week I was prepping for a  funeral and one of her favorite verses is Psalm 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.”

and I looked in my bible..and was reminded that the verses immediately before that are " The stone  the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;   the  Lord  has done this, and it is marvelous  in our eyes."

Jesus referred to this Psalm when he was talking about going to the Cross. The stone that was rejected, was Jesus. He endured the rejection –the separation from God, that should have been ours! And became the cornerstone of faith, of the church, of our lives. This is the Day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!

The Bible is a LOVE story. That's why we have it, that's why we need to read it, even when it's hard to understand, even when it bothers us, because over and over God says to us I LOVE YOU, Love me and love others!

Jesus sanctified himself for us, dedicated himself, set himself apart, for US. On the cross, He was separated in another way...separated from God, his father (whom he said, “I and the father are one”) but on the cross, covered in OUR SIN, Jesus endured the full separation from God that made him the bridge between us and our perfect Holy God. Jesus became totally separate from God, dedicated himself FOR US. For you and me, purely out of Love. We are to be set apart too. Not to isolate ourselves, but to be in relationship with other believers to carry out the work of God―to make the Kingdom happen here on earth.

Let God's love ripple through you, through your life. Allow that love to flow from you to others and see what the effect is!

Let's pray

Loving Lord God, thank you for your word that challenges, inspires, teaches, scolds, but most of all, shows us your love. Help us better grasp your love and allow it to work in us and through us to better this community and this world in Your name. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.  

Come to the Table, Sermon at UCB October 6, 2013 World Communion Sunday

Come to the Table 

Exodus 12:11-17

11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.

12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

14 “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord―a lasting ordinance. 15 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.16 On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.

17 “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.

Matthew 26:26-30

26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the {new} covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

30 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

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Today is World Communion Sunday, when Christians all over the world partake in Communion, also known as The Eucharist, the Lord's Supper. So today we, here in Beloit and all over the world are truly in community with one another! In reading up on this I learned that this tradition was started in 1936 by the Presbyterian Church USA! A few years later it was endorsed by the Federal Council of Churches, now known as the National Council of Churches, and promoted worldwide. The NCC site says, “  On this day we celebrate our oneness in Christ, the Prince of Peace, in the midst of the world we are called to serve – a world ever more in need of peacemaking.”

The tradition of World Communion Sunday reminds us that we are much more than one church on one corner of one town ...that we are a part of the whole Body of Christ!

Many churches do communion in their worship service monthly as we do. Some offer it weekly, others quarterly. Some traditions offer communion every day! Which, may not be a bad idea, come to think of it, since scripture reminds us that ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God....

Communion, or the Lord's Supper, is the climax of the worship service. It helps remind us of the sacrifice made by Jesus and the Grace...the unmerited favor, undeserved mercy, forgiveness, and love poured out for us daily, but especially at the table.

There is something special about sitting down to a meal together, isn't there? Jesus knew this...there are several stories of Jesus dining with friends, and of course the miracles of providing enough food for thousands of people!

But I have to confess, as a mom, and as someone who has dealt with some food obsessions, I have often thought that it would be MUCH more convienient if we didn't need to eat quite so often! Wouldnt it be easier to just eat one meal a day!

But I've come to believe that God made us this way on purpose, for a couple of reasons. One that we are supposed to recognize our dependence on God's provision. If you know you and your child are going to be hungry again in a few hours, you need to plan! And hopefully, when we have enough food, we are reminded to give thanks for God's provision. We are God's children, needing sustanence morning, noon, and night! God provides, we are able to live our lives because of it and ideally, we care for others as God cares for us. There is a lovely circle of life here!

God's provision is what the communion story is all about. It comes from the Jewish Holiday Passover, which is from the story of Exodus. Roger read a portion of that story. It's about the Jewish people's flight from Egypt, under the rule of a hard-hearted Pharoah. Moses received from God explicit instructions on the meal the people were to eat so they would have strength for their journey! It was to be eaten in haste, no time to let the bread dough rise, bake up flat breads and a young lamb, cooked precisely, and eaten quickly, with no waste. The Exodus story, including the miracles of the parting of the Red Sea, of drinking water coming from a rock, manna, food from heaven, is the foundation story of the Jewish people. The Passover Seder, one of their great holiday feasts, is the reinactment of that meal.

It was a passover meal that Jesus shared with his disciples for his last meal on earth. And he took that sacred tradition and added something to it. He made it His very own...saying “take, eat, this is my body.” “this is the blood of the new covenant.”

Jesus took this sacred celebration and made it new. He brought the tradition full circle to help believers understand the circle of God's provision for us, God's children.

When I saw the description of the next topic, communion, I wanted to share a non-Christian perspective. I am of Native American ancestry; I am a storyteller and dancer. There is an ancient belief held by many First Nations people in which the act of taking and eating food is a kind of covenant between two beings. There is a transmutation that takes place when the act of eating is done consciously and spiritually; a recognition that one form of life gives itself to another as an act of the most basic form of communion; what is eaten is reborn as the flesh of another. Many Native hunters are mindful of this sacred relationship and thank the animal they kill for giving its life so that they may feed their families. Prayers are said to thank the plants for providing food for us. There is an acknowledgment of the circle, the most basic symbol of Native spirituality. The grasses grow, and the hooved ones eat. We take a hooved one and we eat; we die and our bodies return to the soil and so the circle is completed and goes on.

― Krista Tippett, host of American Public Media’s  Speaking of Faith  radio show, sharing a listener’s e-mail. (From the  Speaking of Faith  e-mail newsletter, November 18, 2004.)

Henri Nouwen In what may have been his last interview before dying of heart failure on September 21, 1996, Henri Nouwen talked with Rebecca Laird, editor of the journal, Fellowship in Prayer, about prayer and forgiveness.

"....A biblical text that has been very, very important for me is the story in Luke 6:12-19 where Jesus spent the night in prayer on the top of the mountain. In the morning, he came down and created a community of apostles around him. Then, in the afternoon, with his apostles, he ministered -- he went out and healed and proclaimed the Good News. I've been fascinated by that because it basically says: prayer at night, community in the morning, ministry in the afternoon. Now night, morning and afternoon are symbols for the vision that Jesus starts. The three areas we have to consciously focus on are: first, communion with God -- prayer -- or being in solitude with God; secondly, creating community; and thirdly, ministry."

The Lord's Supper brings these all together. We pray, asking God's forgiveness, receiving God's mercy. Then we take the elements together, in community, with our church family and today, in community with others all over the world! And we minister as we pray for one another. Hopefully, we then go out of the service and care for each other too!

We work and live and love with other people. We laugh and cry with others. We celebrate births and mourn losses, and a lot of the time we do it over a meal. Jesus knew how important it is to enjoy a meal together and turned His very last meal on Earth into one that His followers could have together to honor Him. the One who created the universe SO VERY MUCH desired to be together with the beings created in His image, that he became one of us. Utterly vulnerable, as a newborn baby, as a man, traveling with friends who couldn't comprehend what he was telling them, sometimes not even having a place to lay his head...and again, becoming totally vulnerable on a Cross, enduring the worst punishment that humanity would dole out. Simply because of Love and yearning to be completely together with us.

The table is set for each of us. Let us come to it-together :)