Do You Love Me?

April 26, 2015                                                                                   

John 21:15-17

Story: A pastor was teaching a Sunday school class about the 23rd Psalm. He told the children about sheep, that they weren’t very smart and needed lots of guidance, and that a shepherd’s job was to stay close to the sheep, protect them from wild animals and keep them from wandering off and doing dumb things that would get them hurt or killed. 

He pointed to the little children in the room and said that they were the sheep and needed lots of guidance. Then the pastor put his hands out to the side, palms up in a dramatic gesture, and with raised eyebrows said to the children, “If you are the sheep then who is the shepherd?” 

There was an awkward silence. 

Jennie, a young second-grader, said, “Jesus: Jesus is the shepherd.” 

The pastor, obviously caught by surprise, said, “Well, then, who am I?” 

Jennie thought for a moment, then said with a shrug,

“I guess you must be the sheep dog.”
—Patrick T. Gray, theadvent.org/sermons/pg050706.htm. Retrieved October 17, 2006.

Prayer

We start the transition process in earnest as of this past Monday night when I presented the council with an outline & time line of the transition process. You can get yours today in the gathering center… needless to say… after the presentation they felt very over-whelmed. You see… my role here is to poke you… prod and challenge you to think differently about ministry. I will not change anything at Good Shepherd. Any change will come from you… and in fact… you already know what you need to do… you really do! Furthermore… none of what I will share is all that new… you’ve heard most of this before. So… in the end… I asked the your leadership this question to think about, and I offer it to you as well…

What will Good Shepherd need to do to be effective for God?

And today’s message is a clue…Do You Love Jesus?

Today is often referred to as “Good Shepherd Sunday” which refers to Jesus as the Good Shepherd. This often means we hold Jesus up as a shepherd who watches, cares, and protects over us… his sheep. Isn’t that just wonderful?... we’re sheep!

If you know anything about sheep… you know then that sheep are often pretty dumb… they’re stinky… smelly…and prone to wandering off. While the metaphor may be appropriate… it’s rather insulting… But it’s probably important for us to remember and before we think to much of ourselves none of us are nothing more than lost sheep and in need of a shepherd… ie… Jesus.

And… Jesus uses this sheep imagery in our reading today to challenge Peter not only in his faith… but also his commitment.

Jesus says, Do You Love Me?

Let’s keep in mind that Peter and all of Jesus’ friends have wandered off… Yes… this same Peter who said he would follow, defend, protect, love, and never turn away from Jesus has been called out. And now… Peter is feeling the weight of his failure. Keep in mind that Jesus hasn’t dismissed or been critical of Peter. Jesus has forgiven and still loves Peter and all his friends.

Jesus hopes Peter has learned something not only about himself, but has learned something about Jesus as well. That Jesus is about love & forgiveness & grace.

Some believe this story is the charge for pastors to be shepherds over their flocks… feed my sheep… give great sermons… bible studies…visit people… care for the sick & lonely and be the shepherd.

I suggest this story is all about Peter and not about pastor’s or congregations. This is about Peter and in turn us as a lost sheep… and after-all we have a little bit of Peter in all of us. So… Jesus wants to know… Do You Love Me? This is an intentional question from Jesus. Jesus is looking for a decision from Peter. Jesus is also looking for a decision from us as well.

Lutherans get nervous here… “Make a Decision.” Here’s the distinction… this is not a question of faith… Faith is the Free Gift of God. In baptism, God took care of that… however, we have the propensity to always abandon Jesus… all his friends did and in the end had to make the decision to follow Jesus again. This is why Luther believed in daily communion with God.

Our gospel story Peter is a broken man and in need of forgiveness and grace. Jesus is asking Peter and us to make a decision… Peter… “Do You Love Me?” When Jesus called Peter at the start Peter was a fisherman. Jesus calls him to be a disciple-maker… A fisher of People. After Jesus dies, Peter reverts back to fishing for fish. Jesus comes and challenges Peter to make a decision… Do You Love Me?

Calvin Miller in his book, “Into the Depths of God” shares a story of when he was first married… When Barb and I were first married, we moved to Kansas City, where I continued my seminary studies. She had never really seen me as a student, at least not in “her” house. Late one night I was reading Augustine when she came to me, slipped her arm around my back and said, “Do You Love Me?” “Yeah,” I said. “Sure I love you.” never missing a paragraph of Augustine.

Now… it’s hard for a woman to go from that wonderful euphoria of a honeymoon to nearly being ignored. So she leaned a little closer and said a second time, like Jesus said to Peter, “Do You Really Love Me?” And I said, “Sure I love you.”

Again I went on reading. And then she asked me a third time. “Sure I love you,” I repeated, getting a little exasperated. “Your mother loves you, the world loves you, and I love you… and I’m busy.”

It’s the only time in 40 years of marriage that I heard her swear.

When people ask you questions of love, and most certainly when Jesus asks you, the world must stop and you must answer them earnestly…. Jesus is asking… Do You Love Me?

Will You Make a Commitment?

Jesus asks Peter a 2^nd time… “Do You Love Me?” The language used here is emphatic… and Jesus’ tone has risen… Peter…. DO YOU LOVE ME? In the first Do You Love Me Jesus is looking for a decision… now Jesus is looking for a commitment. Peter responds in a wimpy tone… Yes, Lord, I love you. Often our response is the same… were more comfortable splashing on the surface. The deeper water is dangerous and unpredictable.

I remember talking with someone about participating in an event… they emphatically said, “No… I’m not going to do that.” I asked why? They responded, “You stretched me to far last time. I was way out of my comfort zone… and I didn’t like that… No!!”

Miller quotes Ian Thomas, “The tragedy of the People of Israel was 40 years in the wilderness. Every day they spent in the desert could have been spent in Canaan. For God had given them the land, but they would not believe that God who had brought them out was the God who could bring them in.”

Will You Live by the Will of Jesus?

Jesus asks Peter a 3^rd time… and even more emphatically… PETER>>> DO YOU LOVE ME?

The previous “Do You Love Me’s” were about Decision & Commitment. Now Jesus wants Peter’s and our total submission and we rarely grant this to anyone. Again Miller says, “It is hard to abandon what we want in favor of what God wants.” God wants all of us… not just the times we think it’s good for us. When we submit our will to the will of God, only then, will we experience the kind of life God has in store for us. Perhaps even the kind of faith community we dream about,

Do You Love Jesus?

Closing:

Do we want to be effective for God?

God already Loves Us… Forgives Us… Loves Us

Jesus asks us, Do You Love Me?

o    Can I decide and say earnestly… Yes Lord, I love You.

Jesus asks, Do You Love Me?

o    Yes, Lord, I commit my life to you.

Jesus asks… DO YOU LOVE ME?

o    YES… LORD, I WILL LIVE MY LIFE FOLLOWING YOU!!

See You Out on the Road!

Expanding the Soul

Lent often lends itself to deepening the soul. We often try to omit things from life believing it will somehow create a deeper sense of meaning for us. Lent often beckons the soul to searching... in our desire to find meaning we participate in those things we think will draw us closer to the creator... the source... God. We give up what we believe gets in the way of us living a truer life with meaning and hope. 

In many ways I like Lent. It offers an opportunity to gain perspective. There aren't many times during the year that lend itself to reflection and perspective making. Sure... these activities can and do happen at other times, but Lent seems to focus humanity a little more forcefully to looking at the soul. Even those who don't have any faith practices are often times influenced by those who participate in a Lenten practice as a way to deal with the mid to late winter blues. Especially those of us who live in the cold and snowy north.

So we practice Lent. We take intentional time to reflect. It's a time for introspection and learning and a time to grow closer to our self and to God. Dr. Wayne Dyer states, "human beings need to expand the soul... To develop a way to draw closer to our source... our creator... our God... as a way to experience real life." Of course... Dyer isn't necessarily talking about the Christian faith, but he is on to something I believe Lent offers those of us who are Christian. That being...the desire of God, is for humanity to come close to God. Dyer goes on to say we are created with a bit of the divine in us which he believes is the key to experiencing a greater reality of life in the here and now.

As Christians... we believe this to be true. We believe we were created and God made humanity in God's image (Gen. 1:26). In Gen. 2:7 God took some soil and made man and breathed life into the man. So... I believe it is true that within each of us lives a bit of God. A bit of the divine that seeks the divine. And each of us has this pull of the soul that yearns for something greater than ourselves. Something that provides hope, meaning, and understanding. Something that is often missing in our very full and busy lives. The reality is that the divine is not missing... we've chosen to crowd it out with other things. 

So... we experience Lent as a way to expand our souls towards the divine in hope that we will discover our true self's and live a more real life. Lent can do this... but there is a cost. For the soul to expand towards God... the fake self... the phony self... the ego of self must die... it must leave so that the soul might reach out and take God's hand. Jesus says in John 12:25... "If you give up this world, you will be given an whole new world to live." This is the expansion of the soul.

As you continue to live this Lenten season don't reflect so much of what your giving up or missing... think of it as drawing closer to the divine within your soul and reaching out to grab hold the hand of God as you begin to live a more authentic and real life.  

    

     

God is Doing a New Thing

In Isaiah… God gave the Israelite's an opportunity to go back to Jerusalem. For the most part… they were 2^nd generation Hebrews who were the kin of those who were exiled to Babylon some 70 years before. Some of them were pretty comfortable in their new surroundings… They had built a life and were not going anywhere.

However... some could see this new thing God was going to do. It was going to be a new way of life with God. You see… those that were exiled were not faithful to God… thus Jerusalem was destroyed. The people were told to forget the past mistakes of their kin and to be faithful and God would create something new.

So… some went… what about you… Do you see this new thing God is creating?

What do you see?

Isa. 43:18-19 is a favorite passage of mine. God shouts out... "Forget about the past, I'm creating something new, There it is... Do You see it?

I share this as I begin a new venture at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Royal Oak, Mi. as an Intentional Transition Pastor. The bulk of my work with congregations as I've shared previously is to help congregations may pastoral and ministry transitions. In other words... I help congregations or as I like to call them "Faith Communities" CHANGE! And we all know how we all love that word... CHANGE.

At my previous call, Cana Lutheran, Berkley, Mi. uncertainty, anxiousness, hurt, and change all played a role in what now is a new creation. We were able to work through all those things and come out with a new understanding of ministry and mission to the community. They have a clearer sense of who they are and what their mission to the community is. In fact... they have a stronger foundation from which to build off from than previously. I believe I can say with certainty... God is going to do some amazing things with Cana in the future. 

Now I begin work with another faith community at Good Shepherd. I'm excited about entering into what God will do with them. They are anxious, grieving, and generally wondering what's going to happen over the next several months. It's to be expected... their long time pastoral leader retired and now they have to look at themselves and say, "What Now" and that's why I'm there. To help them discover the "What Now" in their ministry.

It won't be easy because CHANGE is coming and many people... especially people in the church... don't like change. But it's coming whether they like it or not. I won't make them change... but they will all on their own... Why? because First... I'm not their former pastor. I am who I am... that being much different from their former pastor just because I'm me! 

Secondly... it's a new day and things have changed from yesterday. In fact... life changes everyday and so we make changes if not daily... many times a week. Change just is... 

Lastly... it's an opportunity to look at the way we've always done it and do it different'y in the future. It's also an opportunity to look at ourselves and how we can as God's people have greater impact in our community. Most importantly... it is an opportunity to strengthen our faith and make new commitments to being a disciple of Jesus.

Like the Israelite's back in Isiah's time God is giving them an opportunity to forget about the past and to do a new thing. And in the end... God will do some amazing things with them and through them.

Now it's time for a transition to take place. A time to let go of the past. A time to be open to the work of the Holy Spirit. A time to open our hearts and minds to the Word of God. And a time to create something new... 

It sort of reminds me of the song from the "Byrds" "Turn Turn..."

My new friends at Good Shepherd... 

Do YOU see it?  

Quote from the writings of Martyred Arch-bishop of El Salvador Oscar Romero which seems appropriate... 

“We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This empowers us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.” 

Come with Me

Jan. 25, 2015                           

Mark 1:14-20

Story: "There will be a meeting of the Board immediately after worship," announced the pastor. After the close of worship, the group gathered at the back of the sanctuary for the announced meeting. But there was a stranger in their midst. He was a visitor who had never attended their church before. "My friend," asked the pastor, did you understand that this is a meeting of the Board?" "Yes," said the visitor, "and after that sermon, I'm about as bored as you can get!"

Prayer

Last week I told you that I would be having a 2 part sermon… last week was about the invitation… “Come and See”.

I left you with 2 questions to ponder.

     What is your favorite thing about Cana and the life we share here?

     Would you be willing to invite someone to come and see this favorite thing about Cana?

Have you considered these questions?  Did you invite anyone?

Our gospel story from Mark is an incredible… 4 guys by all appearances give up everything to go with Jesus. Jesus says, “Come with Me.” Vs 18… “Right then, they dropped everything and went with him.” Some translations say, And immediately they left everything and followed Jesus. With emphasis on the word “Immediately”.

Can you imagine doing this? Leaving everything behind to follow a guy you’ve never met and at best have only heard about. I can tell you… I couldn’t do that. I can tell you when I heard God’s call to become a pastor… it took me 2 years to discern and figure out, and almost another year to get rid of stuff.

Does that mean we are failures because we didn’t drop everything at that moment and followed? Does it mean we are less faithful than Andrew, Peter, James, and John?

Well… in the coming chapters… Mark will show us these guys aren’t all that stellar either.

Each of us must follow Jesus for ourselves. You may never have to face the decision of whether or not to die for your faith, but every day you face the decision of whether or not you will live for it.

A quotation from the book Jesus Freaks

So… when Jesus asks, “Come with Me”

What Does This Mean?

1. Are you interested in the Invitation?

Last week… Philip asked Nathanael to “Come & See” So… I asked “Come and See”  Come and See this Jesus among us. This Jesus who can teach us… comfort us… bring healing to our spirit. Come and See Jesus… talk with Him… Listen to Him… See His work. Begin to put your faith in Him… drop the defenses, un chock the wheels.

2. Listening to the Noise

Jesus proclaimed the kingdom is both “fulfilled” and “Yet” coming. There is always a time and a place that Jesus invites. It’s a spiritual time or “Kairos” time and it’s a chronological or “Chronos” time… and time is not specific to either. Kairos time is more spiraling and undefined… Chronos time is more defined and straight. Life isn’t always linear nor spiraling.

The most powerful straight line winds ever recorded blew across Mt. Washington, NH at 190 mph and recorded cyclone winds in tornado alley have been clocked at 300 mph.

So… we live in the tension of 2 worlds… we can feel the presence of God and the pull of the world. So… there is a time of waiting & listening.

3.Trust and Faith

Jesus’ 1^st followers were just average guys… some might say otherwise… but they were just guys who went to work every day believing God would sustain them through their work. I believe Mark’s depiction of these guys leaving it all behind is inspiring.. not so much as to drop it all and follow… but if they were willing to follow Jesus… then Jesus would somehow take care of their needs.

When I decided to work toward becoming a pastor I needed both college and seminary. I didn’t know how I was going to do that… the time… 8 years… and the cost. On paper it didn’t look like I could do it. But I knew it was the time and I knew I needed to do it. I needed to put my money where my mouth was. If I trusted in God’ provision it would work… and here I am. If we are to follow… we are to trust in Jesus.

4. Gifts and Passions

Jesus’ friends were simple guys doing everyday work. They were fishermen… carpenters… tax accts…. Housewives… etc. They were living out the kind of work they were good at… what they were gifted to do… and maybe not. You don’t have to go to seminary to do God’s work. We Lutheran’s have messed up the priesthood of all believers into thinking you need to be credentialed in something in order to serve.

I believe we can be followers of Jesus by being a teacher… a welder… a construction worker… a nurse… a server at a restaurant. You can follow Jesus by being a volunteer at a senior center. You can follow Jesus by being a police officer… firefighter… a cook or custodian… a medical tech… a lawyer… a business owner… or homemaker.

Maybe you love what you’re doing or maybe not so much… but your contributing towards others well-being. I think you get the point… you don’t need to be a pastor or church worker to follow Jesus. The fact is it’s probably better you’re not… you see you can follow Jesus in any number of ways. The point here is to follow Jesus by imitating Him and to treat others with the same respect, love, patience, and care as he would. And if the work you do is what your gifted at… all the better.

5. A Commitment to Love.

Lastly… to commit to embrace the values of love and forgiveness and inclusiveness as Jesus did. Jesus says in John 13,“we are to love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus demonstrates how we are to love and forgive, and invite. At the heart of following is “Being” a Christian NOT “Becoming” a Christian.

When we make this commitment… we are invited into and promised a faith community by the grace of God, apart from ourselves. And this is something we all live into because it’s not always easy to love and forgive people. The cool thing is… the invitation is always present.

Closing:

In the end… we are invited to “Come & See”  then follow… to go with… to “Come with Me” as Jesus says… So that we might experience and live into his promise and benefit more fully from the identity of Jesus’ life. Not about being better followers… but rather knowing and experiencing Jesus more deeply.

Come and See

Jan. 18, 2015                                                                                                

John 1:43-51

Story: Moses, Jesus and an old man went golfing. Moses teed off, and his ball went down a waterway, the water parted, and the ball rolled across within four inches of the cup.

Jesus then teed off, and the ball hit near the water, skipped across on top of it and came within two inches of the cup.

The old man teed off next, and the ball went crooked, hit a tree and bounced. A squirrel picked it up and ran with it across the green. An eagle swooped down, caught the squirrel, flew high up into a thunderstorm and got struck by lighting, which made him drop the squirrel. The squirrel dropped the ball, which hit a terrapin and rolled into the cup.

Jesus said, 'Nice shot, Dad.'

--Loyal Jones and Billy Edd Wheeler, eds., Hometown Humor, USA. Over 300 Jokes and Stories From the Porch Swings, Barber Shops, Corner Cafes, and Beauty Parlors of America (Little Rock, Ark.: August House, 1991), 128.

Prayer

This is going to be a 2 part sermon. There are a few instances in our lectionary that lend themselves to a series or multiple parts. This is one of those instances.

So… today is Part 1 and it is the Invitation…. “Come and See”

Next week….and I hope you come back… is the Commitment… “Come with Me”

As I’ve said previously about the stories in John’s gospel… they seem to be about regular people encountering the real Jesus. Meaning… these are real stories of just regular people. And these encounters really make us think about how we perceive the real Jesus.

They’re stories of real people who encounter the real Jesus on their own terms and these people aren’t the sort of people we would normally associate Jesus with. They’re just average people living life and trying to do the right thing. Yet… Jesus seems to time and again invite them to come and see.

To come and see what he is all about.

To come and see if indeed he is the real Messiah.

           To come and see if their lives can be different.

Have you ever tried to win an argument?  Sure we all have… Often it rarely works out like we think. Even when we know we are right… even with all the facts on our side… we’ve still have not won. Oh… maybe for the moment… but all to often while we’ve won… we’ve lost by harming the relationship we’ve had with the other person all in the glory of being right.

Much like our story today with Philip… Philip had all the facts he knew Jesus was the one… the Messiah. Philip knew he had the trump card and could trump Nathanael’s snarkey remark. Rather than doing all of that… Philip just invites Nathanael to “Come and See.” There was no coercing… no threats… no facts… no eternal banishment. Just an invitation to “Come and See.”

Former ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson in his January 2003, “The Lutheran” magazine article says,

“ Come and see. How joyfully and spontaneously a child interrupts a parent with the urgent invitation to come and see. With delight, we go and see the child’s creation — a drawing, sand castle, Lego house. With words of praise, we see their latest accomplishment — balancing on a skateboard, mastering a piano piece, pouring their own juice ....

Come and see. Why does that simple, clear invitation become so disturbing, so difficult to extend? The invitation to see Jesus has an urgency about it that many of us find uncomfortable, if not impossible, to convey. 

Come and see Jesus. It’s not an invitation to observe Jesus from afar. Rather, it’s the call to share in his sufferings, to entrust one’s whole life to the promise that this one is the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Come and see Jesus is the invitation to live by faith and to be turned toward our neighbor. It’s the invitation to come and die, to lay down one’s life for the sake of the gospel and the neighbor.”

-—Mark S. Hanson, “Come and see Jesus.” Reprinted with permission from The Lutheran, January 2003 issue, copyright 2003, Augsburg Fortress.

We Lutheran’s need to awaken the grace DNA in us and invite others to “Come and See,” and experience the difference Jesus makes in our lives. This is the gift of the church… not because we need to improve the building… or programs… or the bottom line. We need to invite because of the need to be healed and freed by the grace of God.

CLOSING:

I would like to leave you with 2 questions to consider.

What is your favorite thing about Cana and the life we share here

What is it that draws you here and why you stay?

What’s so fantastic about this place that brings you back week after wk?

Would you be willing to invite someone to Come and See this favorite thing about Cana?

We do this all the time… we share with excitement the things we love. My favorite seafood restaurant is the Sun Set Café on Cocoa Beach. They have to die for crab legs. They are the largest, sweetest, and you get a lot of them for a small price. We always share what we love because we want people to know about it… and we readily share. Remember… it’s only an invitation… you don’t have to sell it… that’s not your job… leave that to the Holy Spirit.

My friends… the invitation to Come and See is the future of the faith community, and it rests on our willingness to invite others to share and experience what we’ve already found…. That being Jesus.

Not our buildings… as wonderful as they are.

Not our programs… and

Not the bottom line.

We need to invite because people need to experience the grace and love of Jesus.

That was the spirit in which inspired Philip and Andrew to invite Peter and Nathanael to Come and See…

It’s the same Spirit that will empower all of us to invite others to Come and See too.

Moving Into the Neighborhood

Jan 4, 2015                                                                                       

John 1:1-18

 

A couple of weeks before Christmas, an elderly man in Phoenix telephoned his adult son in New York. He said, “Son, your mother and I have been married for 40 years, and I just wanted to call and tell you that we’ve decided to get a divorce.” 

His son was aghast. He said, “Dad, that’s terrible! Don’t you and Mother do a thing until I’ve had a chance to come and talk to you. I’ll be on the next plane to Phoenix!” 

They hung up, and the son called his sister in Chicago. He said, “Sis, Dad just called. He told me that he and Mom are getting a divorce.”

His sister said, “Like heck they are! I’ll meet you in Phoenix, and we’ll talk some sense into them.” 

She hung up and immediately telephoned her father. She said, “Dad, brother just called me and told me that, after 40 years of marriage, you and Mom have decided to get a divorce. Don’t you do a thing until I’ve had a chance to talk with you. I’ll be on the next plane to Phoenix.” 

Her father hung up, turned to his wife, and said, “Honey, both kids are going to be home for Christmas, and they’re paying their own way!”

Prayer

VIDEO: Amena Brown

I love this video from Amena Brown, it not only tells the story of God based on our gospel story, but goes on to describe what God does for humanity. I especially like the part when she says, “The word became flesh, but moved into the neighborhood.”

I also like John’s gospel for it’s refreshing look at how God interacts with people. The story’s seem to be more complete and poignant our human story… not that the other gospels don’t… but John’s seems to do this better for me. Look at the Wedding Feast… The Samaritan Woman… Nicodemus… The Feeding of the Thousands… Lazarus…  For me… the stories in John seem to have a personal aspect to them and in my view so does our story today. For me… this story is where the fairy-tale of faith ends and the flesh and blood reality of my faith begins. It’s where my identity as a Jesus follower draws its roots and the messiness of life meets the light of the world.

As David Lose says, “Christmas reminds us of God’s decision to become one of us, to take on our lot and our life that we might have hope, and to share our mortal life that we might enjoy God’s.” 

So… for me… our story from John’s gospel puts flesh and bones on my faith.

I remember when I was on internship I had to do a children’s message on this story. It didn’t go well… I mean how do you tell 3-6 year olds the Word was God… the Word was in the world… the Word became flesh? And being in an academic frame of mind… well this didn’t impress to many people.

So… what is God saying to us today?

While I’m not the brightest rock in the pile… I’d like to believe I’ve learned a couple of things over the past 10 years of being a pastor. So… kids… let’s give it a try… OK!

John is writing from a cave on the island of Patmos off the coast of Ephesus (modern day Turkey) around the year 90. He’s the only living witness to Jesus left of which there are very few of his generation left. John is writing to a Christian Community who has forgotten the identity of Jesus. This group is much more ethnically diverse & includes people who have Jewish, Samaritan, & Greek backgrounds, and this community is arguing about the identity of Jesus.

Some are claiming Jesus was not who he said he was… and that he was not the Messiah. Others are saying Jesus was not really from God, nor that he was one with God. Perhaps, this sounds familiar… we hear this a lot even today. Maybe some of you have thought this way. So… John… the last living eye witness to the real Jesus is writing to the church saying… “Jesus is the real deal.”

Therefore, John starts his gospel, not with the birth of Jesus as Matt & Luke do, and not with the baptism of Jesus as Mark does, but at the beginning of it all…. John is taking us back to the creation of it all.

In the Beginning

“In the beginning was God”…. John does this to remind the faith community he’s writing to as well as us today that Jesus goes back to the beginning and that this is the foundation of faith. Gen 1:26… God says, “Let Us make humans in our image, and in our likeness.” So John starts with the Word that was God and was with God as a means to communicate with this faith community that they have forgotten what is most important. And John gospel is fitting for us as well… because in many ways we have forgotten what is most important as well.

And We See this as God Working thru Humanity Vs 6… “God sends a man named John to tell about the light.” John is the Baptist shows up proclaiming someone is coming… So John… our gospel writer wants us to see that God is using others to proclaim what God is going to do.

God sends you & me to do this as well. Most of us dismiss this…. Most of us can’t believe God would use me. Most of us don’t see how God could use us… we’re nobody special. Look around you… I see smiles from people that you help… I see tears of joy on you when you are the face of God to someone. I see the gifts and passions you have. I see your faces when someone not part of this community gives a complete Thanksgiving Dinner to help a family in need. Because of this proclamation… John says in Vs 12…”Some of you put your faith in Him.”

Of course for me the cool part is God Moved into the Neighborhood.

Vs 14… God becomes human & lives with us.

God moved into the neighborhood.  Did anyone see the movie Avatar?… Jake a paralyzed ex-marine learns of a mission to a distant newly discovered moon of earth that is inhabited by characters called Na’vi.

To get to this place he has to become a Na’vi… in order to do this he must make an Avatar of himself to be like them. The government has MRI type machines that re-make you into an Avatar Na’vi character which takes you into the Na’vi world. Reality & the virtual worlds are meshed so convincingly no one can tell the difference. In the end… the movie is about good & evil.

In the movie… Jake sort of becomes a Christ figure… Jake comes from another world into the Na’vi world and becomes one of them. He spends time with them… eats what they eat…drinks what they drink, and loves them. Jake then sacrifices himself to save the Na’vi people. Evil is defeated and the Na’vi people live.

Like-wise God became one of us in the person of Jesus. God thru Jesus ate & drank… suffered… experience our pain… and loved us. God thru Jesus became intimately involved in our lives. This is what we have just proclaimed & celebrated over the past couple of weeks… “Emmanuel”… “GOD WITH US”

Close with a story from Jamie Clark-Soles… “If the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us, if the Word of God came out of the birth canal of a woman’s body, grew, ate, went to the bathroom, sometimes bathed, struggled against demons, sweated, wept, exulted, transfigured, was physically violated and rotted away in a tomb just before being gloriously resurrected, then the Bible must have flesh on it.

If a valley of dry bones can live again, then bones and blood and bread and flesh and bodies should never be left behind when trying to understand the grime and glory of scripture. Any interpretation that denounces the material, created order, including our own bodies, should be suspect. From birth to death our bodies swell and shrink, are wet with milk, and sweat, and urine and vomit, and sex and blood, and water and wounds that fester and stink and are healed and saved and redeemed and die and are resurrected.

If you can’t glory in or at least talk about these basic realities in church while reading scripture, then haw can scripture truly intersect with or impact life? We might  as well just go and read a Jane Austen novel; though I doubt we’ll ever be transformed or made whole or saved by it.”

As we enter this new week of this New Year in which the Magi come with their gifts and God is revealed once again thru their witness… let’s be open to the newness of the good news that refreshes our hearts and minds, that we too can see God with Us in our community.

MOM... I'm Pregnant

Dec. 21, 2014                                                         

Luke 1:26-38

Story: It was the day after Christmas and Pastor Mike was looking at the nativity scene outside when he noticed the baby Jesus was missing.

Immediately, Pastor Mike went to call the police. But as he was about to do so, he saw little Jimmy with a red wagon, and in the wagon was the little baby Jesus. 

Pastor Mike walked up to Jimmy and said, “Well, Jimmy, where did you get the Baby Jesus?”

Jimmy replied, “I got him from the church.”

“And why did you take him?”

With a sheepish smile, Jimmy said, “Well, about a week before Christmas I prayed to the little Lord Jesus. I told him if he would bring me a red wagon for Christmas, I would give him a ride around the block in it.”       beliefnet.com

Prayer:

Our gospel story today can be a really confusing story to many outside of the faith community. Heck… it can be a confusing story for some of us in the faith community. Physically speaking… and given the context of our story… your 15 year old daughter comes home from school one day and says… “MOM… I’m Pregnant!”…

This can be a jaw dropping moment… a wide-eyed pregnant moment…

And…. A huge… loud… W…H….A…T!!!! as a response.

Luke doesn’t tell us the reaction of Mary’s parents or for that matter Joseph’s. Mathew’s gospel records Joseph’s reaction to some extent… as he tries to distance himself a bit… only to have an angel correct him. So… humanly speaking we can over-lay our assumptions and feelings on Mary as well as her parents & Joseph’s. And say… WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!!

No matter how you spin this story it still going to cause quite a stir in the community. And… given the context & Jewish culture of the time… this would have made the front pages of the leading gossip columns for sure. So… whether or not you believe this story… there are a couple of things going on I believe can give us reason for hope and joy this Christmas season.

First… There is Blessings in our life.

Before Mary says yes to anything we see from this story that she is BLESSED. The angel Gabriel greets her saying, “You are truly Blessed.” Does Mary see herself as blessed? Probably not so much… We tend to see Mary as a model of faith and indeed very blessed. We tend to believe Mary believes in God’s promises. Yet… as we see in the story Mary is confused as the angel tells her that she will have a son. She wonders how this will happen… since she’s not married. And… she is well aware of how and where babies come from… Yet the angel states… “God is pleased with her… and favors her… and has great plans for her.”

Blessing is a wonderful thing… sadly it’s a rare thing. We live in a world geared towards rewards & punishments. Often we see blessings as a transaction…whether at work, school, or even at home… we’ve been conditioned to expect people to give us what we deserve. We’ve been conditioned to do or not do something in order to receive blessings. True blessings operate differently. Blessings are never deserved… but always a gift. Blessings have nothing to do with what we do, but just in our being.

I saw this report about a secret Santa in Kanas City, Mo. Let’s watch…

As you can see… blessings are not an indicator of what we’ve done. And given where our country has been in recent weeks look at the blessings despite it all. We are both blessed and the giver of blessings.

Secondly… Trust

I think most people have a hard time believing God favors them… and in turn… have a hard time trusting God. Mary initially didn’t… “How can this Happen?” As Mary’s trust settles in she opens herself to the work of the Holy Spirit.

The same can be for us as well…

One of the hardest times for me is when I wait for my next assignment. I have no idea by and large where I will go. It creates quite a bit of anxiety… but more and more as I trust and I become open to the work of the Spirit… I trust that God provides.

What’s important to see here is that Mary is not the exception… but rather the example of what can happen when you believe and trust that God does notice, favors, provides, and blesses. The angel tells Mary her aunt is also going to have a child… and Mary knows she is old… so… if Liz is trusting in God… If I’m trusting… you can as well. Then Mary says, “Let it Happen.”

How Might We Say YES?

How might we imagine how God is noticing us?

How in the circumstances of our lives may God be favoring us?

How might you be the angel of God announcing blessings to your friends, family, or neighbors?

Can we believe the Lord is with us and has great plans to do great things through us?

CLOSING:

P: Greetings Favored Ones…

    The Lord is with you and plans to do great things through you.

C: How Can This Happen?

P: Whether at work or school, whether at home or in the world, the

    Holy Spirit is with you and will guide you in all you do and say,

    so be a blessing to the world.

C: Let it happen as you said.

Amen…