Sunday, May 22, 2011

"going on a safari" Acts 10: 9-18; Exodus 13: 17-22

Here's my last sermon for the next three months!


Going on a Safari” may 15, 2011; FPC, Troy

Introduction: The journeys we read about in Exodus and Acts this morning – those were important journeys.

Lots of journeys in the biblical text.

Wise men.

Abraham and Sarah.

Road to Emmaus.

My journeys this summer as part of the Clergy Renewal time pales in comparison to those biblical journeys. Partly because I'm not really trying to get anywhere!

But as we begin the Clergy renewal time when I will be on a journey away from here and you will be invited to journey down the paths of your faith development, let's take few minutes and reflect on journeys.

Move 1: did you notice that God sent the Israelites on a roundabout way.

a. I sort of like that image.

    1. Not the direct path.

    1. Not the fastest way.

    1. Mapquest – gives you options like fastest, avoid highways, scenic. Apparently, God chooses roundabout way so that the Israelites can prepare for their destination.

    1. Avoid the Philistines.

    1. Go through the wilderness. An experience that would take a while, but also a journey that would shaped their faith as God's people.

6. The time in the wilderness became part of their faith story – for generations they would say, “Remember when we were traveling through the wilderness and Moses went up on the mountaintop and came back down the Ten Commandments...” or “remember when we were in the wilderness and the people turned against God and God was still faithful...”

7. a reminder that God is at work in our journeys shaping us.

  1. There is no timetable on the roundabout way.

1. no rush – Taylor tells the story of a woman who was lost on the country roads trying to find Taylor’s house. She was eventually pulled over for speeding. She said to the officer, “I am sorry. I know that I was speeding, but I’ve been lost for the last forty minutes and I cannot find Tower Terrace anywhere on this map.” “Well, I’m sorry about that too, ma’m,” he said, writing up her citation, “but what made you think that hurrying would help you find your way?” (134) Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church

  1. You are invited to retrace your faith journeys.

    1. Flags.

    1. Really cool visual image.

    1. But I suspect you will find that the real growth in your faith is what took place between those flags. Whether every significant moment of your faith journey took place in Troy, or if you have a different spot on the map for each moment, it is what took place as you moved from flag to flag that speaks to the heart of how God was at work.

    1. Most of us will find that we did not check the fastest route when drawing the maps of our faith journey.

    1. But, look for how God was at work in the roundabout ways you traveled. How God has shaped and changed you leading up to this point.

Consider where God might be leading you.

Move 2: Dreaming on the journey

a. We read a powerful, familiar story in Acts about this dream Peter has – a dream that changes him and his understanding of how god will be at work.

    1. When we read this story, we focus on the dream and the change.

    1. We seldom notice that Peter was staying in someone's house.

    1. You know how it is to be in someone else's house – you notice things that you would never notice at home; your senses are accentuated in the strange place.

    1. Who knows if Peter were at his kitchen table eating lunch if he would have had this dream.

    1. But on his journey, in strange surroundings, he has s dream that changes his understanding of how God works in the world.

6. And, of course, we notice that the men went on a journey to find Peter, the one who can share with them about what it means to be follow the resurrected Christ.
b. My point – as you retrace your faith journey, allow yourself to dream.

    1. certainly as I retrace some significant moments along my faith journey and revisit some important people who impacted me, I hope to not only rekindle memories from long ago, but dream about the future God has in store for me and for us when I return.

    1. Those memories might remind you of that dream from long ago that somehow got lost along the way.

    1. Or, the time to reflect may open you up to new possibilities for what God is doing in your life.

c. peter's dream changed him – he was still Peter, the one spreading the good news of Christ's resurrection, but he had a new understanding of what that meant.
Move 3: I love the image from Exodus of the pillar of fire that greets the Israelites in the morning, goes before them all day and then is with them in the night.

a. A reminder that God travels with us.

b. By day and by night, God provides the light for them to find their way.

Conclusion: Before portable DVD players and Ipods and playstations that plug into the power outlets in the car, my family used to travel on vacation.
To pass the time we would sing, or read or play word games.

One of our favorite games that also ate up lots of time was “Going on a safari” The first person would begin with 'I';m going on a safari and I'm taking an...” and then fill in the blank with something that began with an “A.” Maybe an “apple”

The next person would then say, “i am going on a safari and I am taking an Apple” repeating what the person before them had said, and then would add a “B” item.

As the game progressed, each person would have to repeat what everyone else was taking and then add something that fit the next letter of the alphabet. By the time you got to “Z” there was quite a collection of things to take on the safari.

You could play it again and again and the items would change, although some seemingly appeared every time.

I am going on a Clergy Renewal, and I am taking with me, (there's not enough time for the whole alphabet) but I am taking with me the knowledge of the love and support of this congregation who has willingly joined with me on this Clergy Renewal adventure; I am taking with me a hope for new dreams and possibilities; I am taking with me the God who is always before us, behind us, the God who surrounds us and travels with us every step of our journeys.

You are going on a Clergy Renewal. What are you going to take?

Amen.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Reflections on "Signs" Acts 2: 42-47

If you were looking for some pre-sermon reflections, you did not find them.  The blog was down one time when I tried to offer some thoughts, and then I never returned for a second try.  That may be fitting since this will be my last blog until after August 15th.  

As I have mentioned previously, the chapel and sanctaury gatherings often have a very different feel to them.  This was particularly true last Sunday as I shared the illustration taken from the Pastor Nominating Committee's interview of me 12 years ago.  In the chapel, the illustration seemed to capture the congregation's imagination; in the sanctuary, it came across like a ho-hum story that the congregation couldn't wait for me to finish.  Of course, I never know if that is related more to my delivery or more to the moods of the people gathered in the pews.

After the service, someone asked me if by definition a sign from God ought to be so clear and obvious that there is no chance for differing interpretations.  While I like that sound of that (I suspect most of us would like the idea that we cannot miss signs from God), I do not believe that is true to how we experience God.  Of course, you can push the other direction and end up with the sense that signs from God are purely human imagination.  I do not believe that to be true either.  Although I did not makes this point, I wonder if the gospel  is found in the effort we make to interpret the sign or follow the sign.  In other words, I'll take my chances with someone who is focusing on what signs God might be sending them, particularly if the person is doing what those early Christians did and praying, gathering around the Lord's Table, and being in fellowship together.  In fact, the sermon would have been stronger if I had emphasized more how we create an environment for seeing signs from God.

Signs” May 15, 2011; Acts 2: 42-; FPC, Troy
Introduction: I preached my first sermon on this text from Acts at the church I attended during college. After 4 years of participating in the life of the church and being nurtured by that congregation, our college group was asked to lead worship, including preaching the sermon.
I shared that sermon time with two classmates. We picked this text from Acts that describes the first Christian community of faith because of the important role that particular church had played in our lives during our college years.
I have preached on this text on several occasions over the years, and I am always drawn to the powerful description of community it provides. If we were to look this text up in most Bible commentaries, we would read about community.
But as I read this traditional post-Easter text recently, the phrase “awe and wonder came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles,” captivated me.
Signs and wonders....”
To add to the mix, in the last few weeks I have had more conversations with people about signs they have noticed and how to know whether it is a sign from from God than I can remember.
Maybe that was sign that I ought to preach about signs!
A few thoughts on signs.
Move 1: If you are looking for signs, you can often find them.
a. Author quoted Dr. Richard Wiseman who studied lucky people in his 2003 book the Luck Factor. Wiseman did an experiment where he asked two groups of people (self-ascribed lucky or unlucky) to count photographs in a newspaper. The unluckies spent several minutes flipping through and carefully counting the pictures. The lucky knew the answer in a few seconds. How? On page two, Wiseman had inserted a printed message in two-inch-tall type: “Stop counting. There are forty-three photographs in the newspaper.” The lucky people, always on the lookout for the unexpected good fortune, spotted it right away. The unlucky people, whose minds are usually closed to such signs, missed it completely.” Rich Like them: My Door-to-Door Search for the Secrets of Wealth in America’s Richest Neighborhoods, Ryan D’Agostino (27)
b. Consider those early Christians who saw signs and wonders.
    1. Most of them had never seen Christ his first go around.
    2. Most of them had never seen the resurrected Christ.
    3. But they had heard these stories – stories about the Son of God who lived among the people; stories about his crucifixion; stories about the empty tomb; stories about the resurrected Christ.
    4. The stories compelled them to believe in the the Risen Christ and the God who sent Christ.
    5. They believed in a God who was alive and in their midst.
    6. They looked for signs of God's activity.
    7. They discovered signs.
    8. Not to say that the signs were merely something created by the imagination of those early followers of Christ.
    9. But, expecting to see signs of God at work opened them up to what God was doing.
      c. Notice that these followers were not just sitting around hoping that they would see signs.
          1. Acts describes them as devoting themselves to the apostles' teachings and fellowship, breaking bread together and praying.
          2. They created an environment in which they could see the signs from God.
Move 2: Interpreting the signs often works best after the fact.
a. Snowy, January night in Troy, OH. The Pastor Nominating Committee gathers at the church for a phone interview. At the appointed hour, the phone call is made to an interviewee in KY.
I was the person to be interviewed. I have been at my office with the door closed for 15 or 20 minutes to make sure that the Pastor Nominating Committee from First Presbyterian Church in Troy, OH.
Introductions; about 5-7 minutes into the first answer, John cousins interrupts.
I called home as I waited. “Leslie, you're not going to believe this.. Maybe it's a sign from God!” we ministers look for signs, too.
15-20 minutes later. Another phone call; briefer introductions; start to answer the first question again; 3-5 minutes into it; John Cousins – this still isn't working; we care going to have to go to a committee member's house; roads are awful due to bad weather; may take awhile;
Another call home; another guess that God might be saying we shouldn't even have the interview;
Over an hour later, on the third phone call, after answering the first questions for the third time, everything seems to be working.
To top off the evening, the hour long phone call never showed up on the committee person's phone bill.
I have heard that story told as an affirmation of God's call for this congregation and me as its minister. “if we could make it through that interview, it had to be the right call!”
I'm glad we did not have to find out, but I suspect that if things had not worked out here and the congregation has sent me packing shortly after my arrival, the story of those phone calls would have been interpreted as a sign that the committee had ignored.
b. The Greek word for “awe” used in this morning's text can also be translated as “fear.”
    1. what is the difference between “fear” and “awe” as this story of the early church is told?in this story?
    2. The context in which the early church looks back and says, “Yes, God has been in our midst.”
    3. They tell the story as people who have experienced the power few the Risen Christ in their lives and their world.
  1. Part of growing in our faith is telling our story and interpreting how we have seen God at work.
    1. There is great power in identifying the signs of God's presences as we reflect over our lives.
    2. The Risen Christ comes alive for us and for others as we interpret what God has done.
Move 3: Act in faith in the moment.
a.
a. Think about those Israelites whom Moses was preparing to lead.
    1. Here comes this guy with a story about talking to a burning bush.
    2. This guy who tells them that the God who sends him is named, “I am who I am.”
    3. What will it take for them to believe him and follow him into the wilderness?
    4. Moses knows the people are going to need a sign or two.
    5. God gives him a couple of signs.
    6. Put your self in their place – Moses tells the story; he then offers a couple of signs.
    7. What are you going to do?
b. Step out in faith.
  1. The Israelites could refuse to follow and write those signs off as magical tricks.
  2. The Israelites could ignore the signs and tune Moses out.
  3. Ultimately, the Israelites have to act in faith.
  4. They have to believe that what Moses does is a sign from God./
  1. Later, in the Promised Land they can look back, tell the story and confirm that it was a sign from God.
  2. But in that moment, they have to act in faith.
  1. The good news we hear this morning is that God sends signs for us.
  2. The challenge – we have to act in faith
Conclusion: In the opening pages of Willa Cather’s wonderful novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop, one priest says to the other, “Where there is great love, there are always great miracles.”
There is no greater love than that we God has for us that we have discovered in the resurrected Christ.
There will be signs.



Monday, May 9, 2011

Reflections on "Change Your Ways" Acts 2: 36-41

Ended up being a fun sermon to preach. The 3000 people image worked for me and helped me find an entry into the text.  I struggle on days like Mother's Day when I want to acknowledge that event, but am not sure how far to push an illustration to connect Mother's Day to the sermon.  It worked okay, but felt a little forced.

I was particularly struck by the sense of desperate people.  I think that point has real traction in our world, but I wonder how desperate many in our congregation feel, so it may put some outside of the sermon without a way to find themselves in it.  I didn't say it, but the thought crossed my mind that it is harder for us to hear the saving grace of Christ in our comfortable lifestyles and world than it is for people whose lives really are desperate.


Change Your Ways” May 8, 2011; Acts 2: 36-41; FPC, Troy
Introduction: 3000 people;
Chapel: look around the chapel and in your mind double the number of people here; no, triple the number; no quadruple; no 100 times the number of people here now.
100 times our number here
Sanctuary: Look around the sanctuary and then double how many people are here; doubling it makes it a pretty good Easter crowd or Christmas Eve crowd; the sanctuary is full;
then triple it – now you are talking about filling the aisles with chairs; the entry ways with chairs; the narthex with chairs; and then pumping the service outside to the sidewalks where people would be standing if we tripled our crowd; they say that when Peter Marshall, he Presbyterian minister who served for many years as Chaplain to the Senate, when he served a church in GA and then later in Washington, DC, they would have to open the windows so that the overflow crowds lining the sidewalks could hear him preach,
quadruple what you see here...okay, think about 15 times
3000 people heard about Jesus; 3000 people heard that he had been crucified and then raised from the dead; 3000 people wanted Jesus to be a part of their lives.
Wow. I hear that number and I do not know what do do with it. If I knew why 3000 people repented and baptized that day, we would have that problem here today.
What can we learn from this incredible story?
Move 1: Begins with the heart
a. What a powerful description we have of the people listening being “cut to heart.”
    1. No surprise that Acts uses this description.
    2. Earlier we read Luke's account of the Risen Christ walking down the road to Emmaus with the disciples who do not recognize him.
    3. When they later realize they had been walking with Jesus, they note that they should have known because their “hearts were burning.”
b. Think about that for a moment.
    1. Begin with the heart.
    2. Not a specific issue.
    3. This week I was sitting around talking a to friend who is a carpenter. He asked if I'd been doing some work around the new house. “yes, “ I replied. He said he figured I had since I had carpenter fingers. “Carpenter fingers?” The skin just beyond the nail (sort ofthe cuticle area) looked pretty beat up. To which I had to confess, no that's not carpenter fingers, that's Richard's bad habit of biting my nails, or fingers, or whatever presents itself.
    4. Peter is not calling on the Peter to give up a bad habit. To stop biting their fingernails, or eating fast food, or watching less television.
c. Peter is inviting people to change their approach to life.
    1. Start at the heart, and change.
    2. Repent, and be baptized.
    3. Begin a whole new life where you give yourself over to the one who can and has raised the dead.
3000 people wanted to change their hearts that day.
Move 2: Power of the Holy Spirit.
a. How is it possible to make these changes? Only by the power of the Holy Spirit.
b. Mother's Day.
    1. remember the influence our mother's have had on us.
    2. I suspect that many a mother has wished their children would change their ways.
    3. Sometimes mother's are successful.
    1. Minister in KY told the story of a 7 yr. Old boy causing quite a distraction in the pew. Moving around, making noise, and all the while his mother is trying to make him stop. During the sermon, the young boy's actions really became a distraction. Then, in the middle of the sermon, the young man straightened up, literally, quit a making noise, quit moving; seemed to listen for the rest of the sermon. The minister asked the mother on the way out what she had done to get him to suddenly start behaving. The mother seemed a bit embarrassed and hesitant to tell the minister, but he insisted she reveal her secret. So she told him that she leaned over to her son and said, “If you don't change your ways and behave, Pastor is going to lose his place in the sermon and have to start it all over!”
    2. I still do not cross my legs when I sit wit my robe on because my mother told me that it didn't look very dignified for a minister to sit like that in front of the congregation. As if that change makes me dignified.
    3. My point is that mothers at their best can perhaps make us change certain behaviors, but Peter is not talking about minor changes.
  1. Peter wants those who gather there, Peter wants us, to give our lives over to God.
1. that requires the power of the Holy Spirit.
2. It demands that we return to the heart of who we are and open ourselves up to God.
3000 people wanted to be led by the HS that day.
Move 3: 3000 people.
a. Desperate people.
    1. I had a conversation recently with a person who was telling me their life story that included 40 years of being an alcoholic.
    2. Started at age 15.
    3. is now wondering if he or she can change.
    4. How do you change 40 years.
    5. I heard a sense of desperation in the person's voice and in their story.
    1. when I reflected on the 3000 who repented and were baptized, it occurred to me that it was 3000 desperate people.
b. who else but desperate people will give their lives over to following the resurrected one.
    1. they had not seen Christ.
    2. They had not had the experiences with Jesus like Peter had had.
    3. They were just listening to Peter describe this incredible God who resurrected Christ.
    4. And they had this need.
    5. this need for more in their lives.
c. 3000 people.
      1. Some were probably feeling desperate because of their job situations.
      2. Some were probably feeling desperate because of their problems with their spouses.
      3. Some were probably feeling desperate because they were at a point in life when they were looking back and realizing that they were not where they wanted to be in life.
      4. Some were probably feeling desperate because of personal demons that seemed to be controlling their lives.
5. In other words, the 3000 people were a lot like us.
Conclusion: 3000 people – but, really it was just 1 person + 1 person + 1 person + 1 person...
It was not a group decision to follow the resurrected Christ;
it was not a group decision to change their ways.
It was not a group decision to invite the Holy Spirit into their lives.
It was not a group decision to Repent.
3000 people; but what really matters is what you choose to do.

Friday, May 6, 2011

"Change Your Ways" Acts2: 36-41

Quick thoughts as the week comes to a close:

1. I love the image of "cut to the heart."  The heart is where we probably have to begin to change our ways if we are to change them in meaningful ways.

2.  Describing their generation as "corrupt" seems very contextual to the 21st century.

3.  With the prospect of having to change their ways, 3,000 were willing to join up with them.  I find that hard to imagine -- both 3,000 wanting to join (that would be a pretty big new member class!) and 3,000 who think that changing their ways would be a good thing to do.

Peace,

Richard

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Reflections on "It Does not Matter When" Matthew 16: 13-20

Not sure why I did not get any pre-sermon reflections on the blog last week.  Maybe, in part, because I did not have many pre-sermon reflections.  Well, that's not entirely true.  Knowing it was the Sunday we receive the confirmands, I had been reflecting on profession of faith and on the irony that the confirmands have lots of deadlines and demands to prepare to receive the "free" gift of Jesus Christ.

Preaching to the confirmands is always a powerful sermon experience for as I try to look them in the eye and make it a personal sermon for them.  I have learned through the years that as the sermon begins they are smiling and excited about the attention they are receiving, but often as the sermon goes on their faces get this kind of deer in the headlights look as if it is occurring to them that professing thier faith in Jesus Christ really is a big deal, or maybe they are thinking "I should worked a little bit harder in confirmation since this really does matter!"  I saw that same transformation happen this Sunday during the sermon.


It Does Not Matter When” Confirmation, 2011; May 1, 2011; FPC, Troy Matthew 16: 13-20

Introduction: Alex, Alex, Carrie, Sarah and Abbie – this sermon is for you.

The Presbyterian Church can be hypocritical, and I suppose I am confessing to being a hypocrite as the one who has led you through confirmation this year.

We have demanded you read the Bible, answer weekly reflections questions, outline 16 sermons, take tests, learn lots of information and meet certain deadlines (or almost meet then) so that you can profess your faith in Jesus Christ and receive the free gift God gives us in Christ. Sounds sort of hypocritical.

We do it because we think it is important that you be informed and prepared as you make this important decision in your life.

I suspect in some ways one of your memories of confirmation will be about deadlines.

In our little world of confirmation, it matters when you get things done.

But that is now behind you, barely perhaps, but still behind you!

In the world of professing your faith and receiving God's grace, deadlines do not matter.

Move 1: It does not matter when you profess your faith because today is not your final destination.

a. Good news – you got it done on time.

b. Not so good news – you are never done.

    1. Your faith journey continues beyond this morning.

    1. You will surely have more days of clarity when you know

    1. Days that challenge you.
Move 2: It does not matter when because Jesus keeps coming back.
a. I read an article recently by William Willimon, the Methodist bishop and wonderful preacher, in which he made the point that Jesus appeared after his resurrection. Journal for Preachers: Easter, 2011, Vol XXXIV, #3, 38-41.
          1. It was not just sightings of the resurrected Christ.
          2. He appeared to his followers.
          3. In Willimon's words – Jesus kept coming back to the same old losers who had betrayed him.
4. The relentless desire of God to love us.
b. Parable of the vineyard.
1. No matter what time of day the person came to work, they were paid the same ways.
  1. It did not matter when they punched the time clock, so to speak.
  2. We read that parable and want to make it about what is fair.
  3. It's not fair that the ones who worked the longest were not paid more than the ones who barely worked at all.
  4. God's gracious ways are not about being fair, but about extending grace and love to us again and again.
6. If you don't get it early in the day, the n God comes again; and again; and again.
Move 3: It does not matter when, it just matters that you have claimed Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
a. A pivotal moment in the Gospel of Matthew.
          1. Who do people say that I am?
          2. It would appear that was an easy question – Elijah, or John the Baptist, or some other prophet.
b. Who do you say that I am?
1. Profession of faith – who do you say that I am.
  1. not so quick with their reply.
3. The question is no longer generic, but intensely personal.
  1. Peter steps up and claims Jesus Christ as the Messiah.
c. Today you join with Peter and make that claim.
1. not in some generic sense like the answer on a confirmation final question “Who is Jesus Christ?”
2. But in a very personal sense, as in you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
3. That does matter.

Conclusion: this summer I will have a chance to worship at Culpepper Presbyterian Church in Culpepper, VA, a place I went to worship when I visited my grandmother for 6-8 weeks over the summer. My Uncle Jake, a wonderful uncle and one of the great people I've known in life was Presbyterian. His wife, my aunt, was Baptist. So each week they rotated between the Baptist and the Presbyterian church. 
Uncle Jake liked it when we visited for several weeks in a row because it gave him an excuse to take us to the Presbyterian Church every week and skip the Baptist church. We were Presbyterians, after all.
Uncle Jake was an elder in that church, and he was close friend with the minister and his wife. Each summer included at least one dinner gathering with my family, my aunt and Uncle and the minster and his wife. I learned a lot about being a minister and about the church listening to them talk.
when I was telling my mother about our worshiping their this summer, she told me a story I had not remembered. She told me that I had my first communion in that church and was served by my Uncle Jake.
Pretty cool. I don't really remember it, but I like knowing that my terrific Presbyterian elder uncle served me communion.
Let me add that this took place when I was about 8.
A few weeks after having heard this story from my mother, it suddenly occurred to me – I was not baptized until I joined the church during the confirmation process, which was when I was about 13. and I know that we the Presbyterian church welcomes adults and kids alike to the Lord's Table, if they have been baptized. So what was my Presbyterian elder uncle doing serving me my first communion when I was 8.
I called my mom and asked her (my mother's a Presbyterian elder as well – she also reads my preaching blog, so I may be in trouble). “Hey mom, how could I have been served communion when I was 8 when I wasn't baptized until I was 13?”
After a rather lengthy pause, she replied, “Well, it was a wonderful moment no matter what!” End of conversation on that topic!
We create rules and deadlines. They have a purpose that is often useful and beneficial to us.
But, in the world of God's gracious loves, sometimes it does not matter when.
What matters is that today as part of your ongoing faith journey, you have claimed Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.  Amen.