"The Next Fifteen" Acts 14: 19-28

While at the presbytery meeting Tuesday during the sharing of the bread for communion, these three points suddenly arrived in my mind for Sunday's sermon: 1. the desire of first fifteen 2. when the church was ready to expand, it split, which reminds us how we must work to find the next fifteen 3. hope of reunion and a future fifteen who are in our midst now

I also thought of this story I had read earlier in the spring:

Lillian Daniel describes the church she served in New England preparing for the anniversary fo the laying of the cornerstone of their church building. Two years of preparation; special anthem; guest speakers; feast planned. Then, one month before the celebration, someone doing research discovers that the 75^th anniversary had actually taken place the year before. The news travels through the church like lightning. Has it ruined the celebration? At the next board meeting, they begin to discuss the anniversary plans, and someone notes that it took over a year to build the building; that the first worship service was not until the second year. So they note that the real intent was to celebrate their first worship service in the building. Now they have the correct dates” Lillian Daniel, When “Spiritual But Not Religious” Is Not Enough (14-16).

what themes are running through your mind as we approach this joyous Bicentennial celebration?

Reflections on "Welcome to FPC" Genesis 17: 1-8; Romans 12: 3-8

When I picked the sermon topic, I had in mind the gathered crowd for Rally Day.  In my mind, that meant members of the church who were getting back into gear for the fall.  As the week progressed, I discovered the high school soccer team (men's) were going to be in attendance, which meant that we would have at least 20 visitors, who were also younger than the average member in attendance.  As I worked through the sermon, I kept asking myself, "How does this sermon get heard by non-Presbyterians who are 16-18 yrs. old?"  I'm not sure I arrived at the best answer, but it did change my approach to the sermon.

About Wednesday, the beach illustration came to me as I reflected on being the church.  I loved the illustration, but I had a lot of trouble shaping a sermon to make it fit (note to self - not a good practice to shape the sermon to the illustration!).  What finally came together was a somewhat desperate attempt to get a sermon, since I had to preach one!

I found the N. T. Wright quote to be very powerful, but it also kept me boxed in a bit. At one point I thought about scratching the quote and then focusing on a personal relationship with Jesus, but I decided that if I believed Wright to be correct (I do), then it lacked some integrity to just ignore his thoughts because they made the sermon more difficult to write.

“Welcome to FPC” Sept. 8, 2013; FPC, Troy;

Introduction:  "Welcome to FPC" Genesis 17: 1-4; Romans 12: 3-8; Rally Day

Introduction:  Welcome to First Presbyterian Church on our Rally Day celebration.

We have spent the last year reflecting on and celebrating our 200 years of ministry in Troy.  I hope you can join us next week as the Bicentennial year culminates in a blow-out worship service!

Ironically, even as we have focused on this church’s ministry, I had several people request sermons on what makes us uniquely Presbyterian.  So for several weeks this fall, I will be reflecting on what it means to be Presbyterian. 

This morning, I want to begin with the broader context of what it means to be the church by reflecting on two things:  First of all, the primary purpose of the church; secondly, the greatest challenge we have in being the church.

Move 1:  First, the primary purpose.

a.            IN his book “Simply Christian, N. T. Wright reminds us that the early church did not understand itself to exist for the primary purpose of providing a place for developing spiritual potential.  *(See end of sermon for complete quote)

Nor did the church understand itself to exist for the primary purpose of being a place to escape from the world.

Nor did it understand itself to be a place where people would come to get saved.

Now all those things could and did happen, but they were by-products to the church’s primary purpose.

b.            Primary purpose was to announce to the world that God had acted in Christ to save and redeem the world, and that by the power of the Holy Spirit God was still at work in the world.

1.      The church stands as a witness to the world that God is alive and in our midst.

2.      All we do ought to act like a giant billboard or FB post or Tweet and say, “God is alive.” “God is at work” “God is saving the world.”

c.             Why did you come through these doors today?

1. Maybe kids choir?  See Bibles handed out?  Rally Day –start to the fall?   Soccer coach “suggested” you come and worship with him.

2. do not know why.  But no matter what brings you here, my prayer is that you leave knowing that God is not done with you; that God is not done with the world.

3. The God who called Abram and made covenant with Israel, the God who sent Christ to save the world, this God is still at work.

d.            And God invites you to be part of that ongoing work.

1.      We read Paul’s letter to the Romans in which he describes for the early church how God has given different gifts to different people in their church.

2.      Those gifts are all needed to do the work of the church.

3.      God has given each of you unique gifts because God knows that those gifts are needed in the world.

Together, using our gifts, we live out our primary purpose to announce to the world that God has acted in Christ to save and redeem the world and that God is still at work in our world.

Move 2:  Greatest challenge to being the church – the tendency to see the church as our church, not as God’s church.

a.              the summer after my Freshman year in college, I worked at a Presbyterian camp in Port Aransas, TX as one of three lifeguards/cooks/maintenance men.

The camp was about a block from the beach, so much of the camp activity revolved around the beach, as did our off-duty activities.

We arrived in Port Aransas on the Saturday night of Memorial Day week-end.  We went down to the beach (they allow cars on this beach), and discovered a giant party.  Cars parked one after another down the beach; people walking up and down, mingling with anyone and everyone;

It felt like we were in a giant outdoor stereo as seemingly every car on the beach was tuned to the same station.

We began walking down the beach meeting people to the sound of "Welcome to Electric Ave."

It seemed like a party to which everyone was invited.

On a good day, the church is like that. 

Fast forward to the 4^th of July, the next big week-end at Port Aransas.  By then the three camp staffers had become part of the Port Aransas scene. In our minds, we were islanders, and in fact we carried with us the “residence” cards that we would use if to get back to Port Aransas if there were an evacuation.

That week-end as people gathered on the beach in similar fashion, we no longer saw it as a party we wanted to join -- instead, we were part of the Port Aransas crowd that saw all these visitors as intruders to our beach. the loud music was now a source of irritation, rather than an invitation to join the party.

In just a few short weeks, we had gone from seeing the beach as a place to be shared and instead saw it as our private domain.

On a not-so-good day, the church acts like that.

b. The church lives in that tension.

1.      We hear the call to extend ourselves to others, but we really like having our own little comfort zone with people who support and nurture us.

2.      we understand that God sends us into the world, but we cling to the familiarity of our church surroundings.

3.      We speak glowingly of our church, but then forget that the church exists for God’s purposes not for us.

c. At our best, we provide a place of nurture and challenge for people even as we extend ourselves to the world. Not an easy balancing act, but then being God’s witness in the world is not necessarily easy!

Conclusion:  Welcome to First Presbyterian Church – an imperfect gathering of those who announce to the world that God has acted in Christ and continue to be at work through us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

*“According to the early Christians, the church doesn't exist in order to provide a place where people can pursue their private spiritual agendas or develop their own spiritual potential. Nor does it exist in order to provide a safe haven in which people can hide from the wicked world and ensure that they themselves arrives safely at an otherworldly destination. Private spiritual growth and ultimate salvation come rather as the by-products of the main, central, overarching purpose for which God has called and is calling...that through the church God will announce to the wider world that he is indeed its wise, loving and just creation; that through Jesus he has defeated the powers that corrupt and enslave it; and that by his Spirit he is at work to heal and renew it” (203-204). N.T Wright, Simply Christian

"Welcome to FPC" Genesis 17: 1-4; Romans 12: 3-8

This sermon begins sort of a "mini" series on being Presbyterian that was requested in a couple of different ways during the grab-bag preaching series from the summer.

The context for the sermon is Rally Day, which we hope means some people starting back to church as they try and get their fall routines into order.

I am also aware that the soccer team from the high school is planning on being in worship, which means we will have 20 young men who are not Presbyterian (well, one is) sitting in our worship service.

What do we Presbyterians/Christians have to say about who we are and what we do?  What makes us uniquely Presbyterian?

I have been thinking about an experience I had the summer in college when I worked at a Presbyterian camp in Port Aransas, TX.  it was about a block from the beach.  I was one of three lifeguards/cooks/maintenance men.  We arrived in Port Aransas on Saturday night of Memorial Day week-end.  We went down to the beach (they allow cars on this beach), and it was a giant party in stereo.  Seemingly every car on the beach was tuned to the same station.  We began walking down the beach meeting people to the sound of "Welcome to Electric Ave."  It seemed like a party to which everyone was invited.  By the time 4th of July rolled around, we had become part of the Port Aransas scene.  That week-end as people gathered on the beach in similar fashion, we no longer saw it as a party we wanted to join -- instead, we were part of the Port Aransas crowd that saw all these visitors as intruders to our beach.  the loud music was not a source of irritation, rather than a party to be joined.  the church stands in that tension -- we hear the call to welcome any and everyone; we find ourselves preferring the group that we know.

According to the early Christians, the church doesn't exist in order to provide a place where people can pursue their private spiritual agendas or develop their own spiritual potential. Nor does it exist in order to provide a safe haven in which people can hide from the wicked world and ensure that they themselves arrives safely at an otherworldly destination. Private spiritual growth and ultimate salvation come rather as the by-products of the main, central, overarching purpose for which God has called and is calling...that through the church God will announce to the wider world that he is indeed its wise, loving and just creation; that through Jesus he has defeated the powers that corrupt and enslave it; and that by his Spirit he is at work to heal and renew it “Simply Christian, N. T. Wright (203-204). 

Paul reminds us that we all have different functions that are needed for the whole to function as it should.

Reflections on "A Personal Call Story" Isaiah 6: 5-8; I Corinthians 1: 17-31

Either of these texts could have been explored more fully in the sermon. They each had a reason for being connected to the sermon, but that probably had more to do with what I was trying to do with the sermon than a detailed interpretation of the texts.

It was a fun sermon to preach, although I worried about it being too personal.  In my initial brainstorming, I was going to open with the comment about Peter Marshall and then spend the sermon telling my own call story in more detail that is found.  I decided along the way to the sermon that I wanted to broaden the topic in hopes of not being too egocentric in the sermon and to be more intentional about inviting others to see themselves in the sermon.

I made two changes after the Chapel service.  I took out the Tom Are, Jr. quote because I decided it needed more unpacking. While I agree with him at one level, I also want to cling to the idea that God calls us to specific tasks as well.  I also took out the Buechner quote as the conclusion. Again, it felt like a pretty significant quote being used as a throw-away comment.  Either of those quotes could be the basis for a full sermon.

I also found myself free-lancing from the sermon text quite a bit, so the following is not as close to what I actually preached as it sometimes is.

“Grab Bag:  A Personal Call Story" Isaiah 6: 5-8; I Corinthians 1: 17-31; FPC, Troy; Sept. 1, 2013

Introduction: Peter Marshall, the renowned preacher and chaplain of the United States Senate, reportedly preached his "call" sermon every year on the anniversary of his call to ministry.   Perhaps he used that sermon each year both as a guide for those who were seeking to hear God’s call in their own lives and as a reminder to himself of how own call.

When I was began seminary, I read his biography, A Man Called Peter, and then as each fall semester began for the next five years.  In part, to be reminded of the strong sense of call he fell to ordained ministry.

This morning I invite you to reflect on your own call story, and I will share a bit of my call story as we consider how God calls us.

Move 1:  First of all, I encourage you to tell your call.

Story.

a. Learn to tell others about how God has called you.

1. Put it in your back pocket to be pulled out when you need it.

2. Not to brag, not to make you seem holier than others, but so that you share about your life in the context of your call to follow Christ.

3. When you tell it, you claim it.

            b. Telling our call stories also shapes how we respond to God's call.

1.       When I was a young boy, I drank the last little bit of a bottle of Drano that I had taken out of the trash to use as a canteen.  My mother found me next to the bottle in the back yard spitting up and rushed me to the emergency room.  I remember drinking something (maybe orange juice) in the car on the way to the emergency room to try and counteract the poisonous Drano. 

As my parents tell the story, the doctor was astonished that there was no damage. He told them that the day before another young child had swallowed a similar liquid and had burned his voice box and would have trouble talking.  This story became part of my call story -- I understood that the ability to talk was a gift from God and I had to use my voice -- maybe as a lawyer arguing cases or, as it turns out, a minister preaching every week.  

2.      That story is also one reason I have always gravitated to the Isaiah call story -- the burning coal touching Isaiah's lips as he hears the call to go and prophesy.

3. That story has followed me and shaped decisions I have made about how I heard God’s call.

Move  2:  Clues as you listen for God’s call.

a.  The signs of God’s call may change.

                        1.  When I was interviewing with the Pastor Nominating Committee in KY, I walked into the sanctuary there and immediately had the sense that this was the place where I was called to lead worship and preach.  From that first step into the sanctuary, it was a done deal, at least from my side of things.  

2.  When I arrived in Troy to interview with the Nominating committee, I anxiously looked forward to walking into the sanctuary to see if I would get the same sense of call.  When I walked into the sanctuary, however, I looked down at the carpet (understand, I had never been in a church with a pattern on the carpet in the sanctuary) and was so caught up in their being a pattern that I had no sense of this being the place where I might be called to lead worship and preach.  

3.  Perhaps the hardest part of hearing the call to come to FPC, Troy was convincing myself that God might be calling me here even though I did not have "call" experience in the sanctuary.

4.  Moses heard God’s call through the burning bush – once!  God still communicated with him in other ways.

5. If you heard God’s call through the comment of a person in Church school, it does not mean that is the only way you will hear God’s call.

b:  Be wary about linking God’s call with worldly success.

1.  There is a lot of what we call prosperity gospel being shared this days.

2. The idea that if we are really following God’s call, we will find ourselves inundated with worldly riches and success.

3.  When Paul challenges the Corinthians to consider their own call, he reminds them that their call is a call to boast in the Lord, not in their own riches.

4.  In fact, he describes the “foolishness of the gospel” that they choose to follow as judged by worldly standards.

5. Our calling connects us with what God is doing, which often does not mean worldly riches and success.

c:  Do not limit your sense of call.

            1. We often only think of God’s call as it relates to church activities – is God calling me to be an elder; or is God calling me to participate in a mission trip.

           

            2. This is how it is described in Wendell Berry’s wonderful novel Jayber Crow. As a child, Jayber lived in The Good Shepherd orphanage. He describes it this way. “For as

long as I could remember, I had been hearing preachers tell in sermons how they had received “the call.” … Not one of those [preachers] had ever suggested that a person could be “called” to anything but “full-time Christian service,” by which they meant either the ministry or “the mission field.” The finest thing they could imagine was that an orphan boy, having been rescued by the charity of the church, should repay his debt by accepting “the call.”  Wendell Berry. Jayber Crow, pp. 42–43

3.  The God who engages all the world calls us to a wide range of tasks in lots of different places.  We do not check our sense of call at the church doors.

            4.  Used in Chapel service but cut from Sanctuary service sermon:  [ IN fact, Presbyterian minister Tom Are challenges our sense of call to link with the way of life to which we are called.  He notes:  “The call is not to be a preacher or teacher or doctor or mother or father or elder or deacon or orthodontist or floor manager at Macy’s — even if you are any of these things. The call of Jesus is not to a particular job, but to a way of living life, no matter what job you have. When Jesus calls, you don’t get a new job; you get a whole new life. Tom Are, Jr. 11/11/12 Sermon “It's a Whole New Life”]

            d. Do not limit by your sense of what God is calling you do by your own lack of expectation.

1.      I am reminded of what Catherine Marshall, Peter's wife, wrote about him:  "Always Peter felt inadequate for the tasks to which God called him,”

2.      It is sometimes easier to find reasons we cannot do that which we believe God calls us to do than risk ourselves by following God’s call.

3.      But as Catherine Marshall went on to note about her husband – “because he knew God had called him, he also knew he would get the help he needed" (The Best of Peter Marshall, Catherine Marshall, xi).

4.      Do not limit what God is doing with your life.

Conclusion:   [This one is from the Sanctuary service]  The sermon is entitled “a Personal Call Story.”

It is your call.  Amen.

  

Conclusion from the sanctuary service:   [Frederick Buechner once described calling this way: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”  Frederick Buechner. Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (1973), p. 95

Listen for God’s call and follow.]

"A Personal Call Story" Isaiah 6: 5-8; I Corinthians 1: 17-31

Peter Marshall, the renowned preacher and chaplain of the United States Senate, reportedly preached his "call" sermon every year on the anniversary of his call to ministry.  When I was in seminary, I read his biography, A Man Called Peter, as each fall semester began, in part, to be reminded of the strong sense of call he fell to ordained ministry.

This week I will be sharing parts of my own call story with the hope that it will help others consider how God calls them.  One of the challenges, of course, is to get people to think of call as more than just to ordained ministry or the things that we do as part of our church work.

When I was a young boy, I drank the last little bit of a bottle of Drano that I had taken out of the trash to use as a canteen.  My mother found me next to the bottle in the back yard spitting up and rushed me to the emergency room.  I remember drinking something (maybe orange juice) in the car on the way to the emergency room to try and counteract the poisonous Drano.  As my parents tell the story, the doctor was astonished that there was no damage.  He told them that the day before another young child had swallowed a similar liquid and had burned his voice box and would have trouble talking.  This story became part of my call story -- I understood that the ability to talk was a a gift from God and I had to use my voice -- maybe as a lawyer arguing cases or, as it turns out, a minister preaching every week.  that story is also one reason I have always gravitated to the Isaiah call story -- the burning coal touching Isaiah's lips as he hears the call to go and prophesy.

I also have a funny (sort of) story about being called to particular places.  When I was interviewing with the Pastor Nominating Committee in KY, I walked into the sanctuary there and immediately had the sense that this was the place where I was called to lead worship and preach.  From that first step into the sanctuary, it was a done deal, at least from my side of things.  When I arrived in Troy to interview with the Nominating committee, I anxiously looked forward to walking into the sanctuary to see if I would get the same sense of call.  When I walked into the sanctuary, however, I looked down at the carpet (understand, I had never been in a church with a pattern on the carpet in the sanctuary) and was so caught up in thier being a pattern that I had no sense of this being the place where I might be called to lead worship and preach.  Perhaps the hardest part of hearing the call to come to FPC, Troy was convincing myself that God might be calling me here even though I did not have "call" experience in the sanctuary.

Paul challenges us to "consider your own call, brothers and sisters," in the context of realizing that our call is not built on that which we might boast because we are called to "boast in the Lord."  We often think about interpreting our call in the context of our successes (if we are really good at it, God must be calling us to do it), but Paul challenges us to consider how we hear our call as ones who carry to the world the message of the cross, which is "foolishness" to the world.

As I ponder how to preach on call, I am playing wiht these images from others:

1.  This is how it is described in Wendell Berry’s wonderful novel Jayber Crow. As a child, Jayber lived in The Good Shepherd orphanage. He describes it this way. “For as long as I could remember, I had been hearing preachers tell in sermons how they had received “the call.” … Not one of those [preachers] had ever suggested that a person could be “called” to anything but “full-time Christian service,” by which they meant either the ministry or “the mission field.” The finest thing they could imagine was that an orphan boy, having been rescued by the charity of the church, should repay his debt by accepting “the call.”  Wendell Berry. Jayber Crow, pp. 42–43

2. "Well, this is what I believe: The call is not to be a preacher or teacher or doctor or mother or father or elder or deacon or orthodontist or floor manager at Macy’s — even if you are any of these things. The call of Jesus is not to a particular job, but to a way of living life, no matter what job you have. When Jesus calls,

you don’t get a new job; you get a whole new life. Tom Are, Jr. 11/11/12 Sermon “It's a Whole New Life”

3.  Frederick Buechner once described calling this way: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”  Frederick Buechner. Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (1973), p. 95

4.  :  “When I'm honest, it irks me that God called Moses through a burning bush, and God has sent nothing of the sort in my direction as far as I can tell.”  The Godbearing Life:  The Art of Soultending for Youth Ministry, Kenda Dean and Ron Foster (74)

5.  Yaconellie quoting Henri Nouwen , The Inner voice of Love:  “It is not going to be easy to listen to  God’s call.  Your insecurity, your self-doubt and your great need for affirmation make you lose trust in your inner voice and run away from yourself. But you know that God speaks to you through your inner voice and that you will find joy and peace only if you follow it.”  Michael Yaconelli, Messy Spirituality,

6.  Tony Campolo says that whenever anybody asks him, “How were you called into ministry?” he replies that when he was a little boy, his mother used to say to him, “You were brought into this world to love other people in the name of Jesus Christ, to serve other people, especially the poor and the oppressed. Do you understand that, Tony?” People ask Tony, “How did you get called to the ministry?” and his response is that he never once was called, his mother decided!
(By the way, sometimes people tell Tony that parents can’t decide things like that for they children. His response is, “Why not? Everybody else is telling their children what to do with their lives: the media, their peer group, the counselor at school. What is wrong with a parent standing up and saying, ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’ My calling to serve Jesus Christ came from my mother and that’s a good place for it to come from. I advise all mothers and fathers to do that for their children.”) (1) Tony Campolo, “Becoming What God Intended You to Be,” sermon and interview broadcast, Chicago Sunday Evening Club 30 Good Minutes, January 25, 2004. www.csec.org.

I am reminded of what Catherine Marshall, Peter's wife, wrote about him:  "Always Peter felt inadequate for the tasks to which God called him, but because he knew God had called him, he also knew he would get the help he needed" (The Best of Peter Marshall, Catherine Marshall, xi).

What call stories do you have?

Reflections on "Grab Bag: Why Forgive?" Luke 6: 37-38; 2 Corinthians 2: 5-11

Sermon went ok.  I enjoyed it, particularly working with David Lose's comments (Move 2) on the story of the sinful woman.  Probably would have made that the primary text if I were to pick the texts again.  I have referenced him twice in recent sermons (from different blog resources), which makes me want to see what he has written lately.

The sermon left me wanting to explore two areas more:  the idea of forgiving but not forgetting (reading Jeremiah 31 as the text) and reflecting on Paul's letter that we read in the context of how forgiveness impacts the whole community.

the fourth paragraph of the sermon below (about grab bag sermons) was actually shared before the Scripture reading, along with the suggestion that if the listeners had a go-to text for forgiveness to feel free to reflect on that while the sermon was being preached.  I think that made the opening illustration more powerful since I went straight into the rest of the sermon without talking about the ongoing preaching process.

“Why Forgive” August 23, 2013; Grab bag series; Luke 6: 37-38; 2 Corinthians 2: 5-11

Introduction:  Ernest Gordon, in his book through the Valley of the Kwai tells the story of being held captive by the Japanese during WWII. He was a non-believer until he experiences the literally lifesaving help from Christian prisoners.  Being a follower of Christ changed his life and the way he lived and viewed his imprisonment.

When the soldiers arrived to liberate the camp where Gordon was being held, the soldiers were so “infuriated by what they saw that they wanted to shoot the Japanese guards on the spot.  Only the intervention of the victims prevented them.  Captors were spared by their captives. (230).

An unimaginable act of forgiveness that was made possible because they Gordon and others lived out Jesus’ call to forgive.

This morning as my last grab bag sermon of the summer, I want to reflect on the question one of you submitted that asked “Why forgive?”

Move 1: partly we forgive because forgiveness is about us.

            a. "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” Oscar Wilde

b. Forgiveness allows us to move on.

1.            To not forgive hurts me more than it does the person who has hurt me.  

2.            Surely, you know a person who plays the same story over and over – the story of how they were wronged. 

3.            It gets told again and again, refined and expanded.

4.            In the retelling, the person remains captive to what has happened. 

5.            Long after the sin has take place; perhaps long after the person who committed the sin has forgotten what happened, the person is still holding on to the sin.

6.            It keeps us from moving forward.

7.            It continues to live in me until I forgive.

8.            Forgiveness releases us from that bondage.

c.      Forgiveness allows us to move beyond our selfish tendencies.

1.       Number of studies has found that narcissists are less likely to forgive others. They see others’ transgressions against them as a debt and want them repaid. 

2.      It is not about the act of forgiveness that must be mutually lived out, but about what the person can do for me.

3.      Interestingly enough, narcissists are also less wiling to forgive God for their problems or troubles in their own lives.”  the Narcissism Epidemic:  Living in the Age of Entitlement, Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell, 245)

4.      The world shrinks to only being about the person. 

5.      Forgiving pushes us beyond ourselves into engaging others in meaningful ways.

Forgiveness is about us.

Move 2:  Partly, Forgiveness is about the person being forgiven.

1. We read in the Gospel of Luke Jesus telling us to forgive.

1.  If we look to the next chapter in Luke, we read about the sinful woman who finds Jesus in the house of the Pharisee and brings a jar of ointment and uses that and her tears to bathe Jesus’ feet and then dry them with her hair.

2.  The Pharisee is perturbed that Jesus will associate with this sinful woman and let her wash his feet.
3.  Jesus asks the Pharisee the question:  if a creditor forgives two debtors, one who owes 50 denarii and one who owes 500 denarii, who will love him more?
4. The Pharisee rightfully answers that the debtor who owes the 500 denarii.
5. Jesus then transitions that story into a comment on how little hospitality the Pharisee has shown Jesus compared to the great love shown to him by the sinful woman.
1. Then we get it.
2. The woman shows what it is like to be forgiven.
3. She is overwhelmed with gratitude.
4. As David Lose writes about forgiveness:  “Forgiveness also gives you back yourself. You see, after a while, being indebted, owing others, knowing yourself first and foremost as a sinner — these realities come to dominate and define you. You are no more and no less than what you’ve done, the mistakes you’ve made, the debt you owe. When you are forgiven, all those limitations disappear and you are restored, renewed, set free. So, yes, forgiveness is everything.” David Lose insight from http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=2601
5. The woman who has been forgiven has a new lease on life.
6. Paul describes that in his letter to the Corinthians.  Apparently someone in their community of faith has sinned against another of them, and they are being very hard on the person.
7. Paul calls them to “Forgive and console him” so that he “not overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.”
8. Paul recognizes that for the man who has sinned to move forward in his life, he has to be forgiven.
2. We who know God’s forgiveness should know that sense of gratitude and that opportunity for new life.
2. When we forgive, we offer that gift to others.
3. We invite them to new life.

Forgiveness is about the person we forgive.

Move 3:  Perhaps most importantly, forgiveness allows us to live into the image of God in which we are created.

            a.  Jewish story – God chose to forgive before creating

                        1.  Story told that before creating God looked for4ward to see how it would work.

                        2. God saw betrayal and sin.

                        3. God realized that God would have to forgive.

                        4. So before creating, God decided to forgive.

            b. Fundamentally, God is a forgiving God.

            c. if we want to live into the image of God in which you were created, you need to forgive.  It is in our godly DNA, so to speak.

1.      Jesus forgives and models it for us.

2.      Jesus tells us to forgive.

3.      Not just because it is the right thing to do; not because it is the moral thing to do, although both might be true;  but because it is who we are called to be as children of God.

Conclusion: Bishop Desmond Tutu, as he reflected on the Commission on Reconciliation's work to bring about reconciliation.  On the other side, when I say "no, not quite," I have found breathtaking and, in fact, exhilarating the magnanimity of people, the incredible nobility of spirit of people who have suffered as much as they have suffered. So many of them are ready to forgive, which sometimes makes you feel as though you should take your shoes off because you are stepping on holy ground." http://commonwealmagazine.org/971209is/09129713.htm

Jesus invites us…Jesus tells us to step onto the holy ground of forgiveness.

"Why Forgive?" 2 Corinthians 2: 5-11; Luke 6: 37-38

It is hard to believe that this is the last of the Grab Bag sermons!  One topic -- talk about being Presbyterian (in reference to a series of articles about being Presbyterian in the magazine "Presbyterians Today") -- will be addressed in a 5 week mini-series starting on Sept. 8th.  A few other topics did not get "grabbed," but I'm going to try and work them in at some point over the next year or so.

Forgiveness.   This sermon grows out of this question that was submitted:  “Do I have to forgive?”  Included with the question were these two quotes:

From C. S. Lewis

We believe that God forgives us our sins; but also that He will not do so unless we forgive other people their sins against us. There is no doubt about the sec­ond part of this statement. It is in the Lord's Prayer; it was emphatically stated by our Lord. If you don't forgive you will not be forgiven. No part of His teaching is clearer, and there are no exceptions to it. He doesn't say that we are to forgive other people's sins provided they are not too frightful, or provided there are exten­uating circumstances, or anything of that sort. We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated. If we don't, we shall be forgiven none of our own.

From George MacDonald:

No man who will not forgive his neighbor, can believe that God is willing, yea wanting, to forgive him . . . .If God said, "I forgive you" to a man who hated his brother, and if (as impossible) that voice of forgiveness should reach the man, what would it mean to him?  How much would the man interpret it?  Would it not mean to him "You may go on hating.  I do not mind it."

I find myself struggling with Lewis' comment because it feels a lot like we have to do something to earn God's grace, rather than it merely being a gift.  I would be more comfortable speaking of our we are compelled to forgive because God has forgiven us. I suppose it depends on how you emphasize and interpret the Lord's Prayer.  "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us."  Is the second part a natural outgrowth of the first part or does the first part depend on the second part happening?

I find McDonald's quote interesting.  does it mean that we have to forgive to understand/accept God's forgiveness? That's a different perspective than I have generally had in that regard.

I have often focused my thoughts on forgiveness on how it impacts us -- to not forgive hurts me more than it does the person who had hurt me.  They move on, but I am stuck in what has hurt me and in some sense it continues to live in me until I forgive. But ultimately I think we forgive not because it is good for us because God calls us to forgive and Jesus models if for us.

I have also been thinking about people who say, "I can forgive, but I will never forget."  The passage from Jeremiah (I did not choose it for this sermon) speaks of a God "who will remember their sins no more."  If we model our forgiveness after God's forgiveness, can we settle for the ":forgive, but not forget approach?" 

Do you have any stories of forgiveness to share?