Esther’s Story

Esther 7:1-10, 9:20-22 – So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther.  ² On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.”  ³ Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me — that is my petition — and the lives of my people — that is my request.  ⁴ For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king.”  ⁵ Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?”  ⁶ Esther said, “A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

⁷ The king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that the king had determined to destroy him.  ⁸ When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman had thrown himself on the couch where Esther was reclining; and the king said, “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?” As the words left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman’s face.

⁹ Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stands at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on that.”  ¹⁰ So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.

Esther 9:20-22   ²⁰ Mordecai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,  ²¹ enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same month, year by year,  ²² as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor.

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The last time I was here with you I preached on the subject of Wisdom. And I mentioned I’d never heard a sermon on wisdom before. (Which BTW another pastor friend commented the same thing, so it’s not just me.)

This week, again, I’m preaching on something I’ve never heard anyone preach on before: the story of Esther. The reading you heard a few moments ago is from the end of Esther’s story, which is what the lectionary gives us to work with – and I was wondering where the rest of the story was. And I discovered there are no other readings from the book of Esther in the lectionary.

I thought: that’s just not right! Esther’s story is central to the Jewish faith, which of course is the foundation for our Christian faith. Our Jewish brothers and sisters have an important holiday called Purim that is a celebration of Esther’s life. So why has this story not been read and preached on?

As I thought about that question, I noticed two things. First, the book of Esther doesn’t mention God. God’s presence is assumed throughout the whole story, and so is prayer, but God is not mentioned by name.

But I think more important, for preaching, is that it’s an awkward story to talk about in church – because it centers around (what I think of) as the Big Three Things In Society: Money, Gender, and Power  – all of which can be awkward to talk about at any time, but more so when you have all three subjects together at the same time and you’re in church.

Therefore the story of Esther is both practical and timely; and so are the lessons we can draw from it.

The setup – the back story – for Esther’s story is the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem. You recall that the Babylonians destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the Temple in 587BC. They took the Jewish people captive to Babylon, and left behind only the poorest of the poor to work the land so it wouldn’t go completely wild.

The Jewish people lived in Babylon under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar and then briefly Belshazzar, and their prophet at the time was the prophet Daniel. We know all these things from book of Daniel.

But what the Babylonians didn’t see coming was a huge massing of power in Persia – the part of the world we call Iran today. The king of Persia conquered Babylon less than 50 years after the Babylonians conquered Israel. The Persians basically moved in: they claimed everything in Babylon, including the Jewish people. So without physically moving very far (if at all), God’s people were now living under Persian rule.

The Persian Empire was huge and massively powerful. To give an idea: at its largest, the Empire stretched from India (halfway between Africa & Australia) all the way to Ethiopia in Africa. This was power and wealth like the world had never seen. And the Persian empire lasted over 200 years.

As for Babylon’s foreign captives – the Israelites and other nations that Babylon had conquered – unlike in our world today, the Persians did not see foreigners as a problem. The Persians saw foreigners as free labor – in other words, slaves. This is why our closing hymn for today is Lift Every Voice and Sing – it’s a song of the end of slavery and the birth of freedom.

So if there is a big picture idea for the book of Esther, it’s that the empires of human beings, and the oppression they bring, don’t last forever – but God does. The Babylonians were unbeatable for 50 years. And then the Persians beat them. The Persians were unbeatable for 200 years. And then the Greeks beat them. And then the Romans beat them. Closer to our own time, the Holy Roman Empire of the Habsburgs was unbeatable for almost 400 years. On the other hand, the Soviet Union lasted only 69 years. The empires of human beings do not last – but the reign of God does. And God works within all these human frameworks, in ways that surprise us… and through people we would never expect……… like a young teenage orphan girl named Esther.

How Esther lost her parents we don’t know. What we do know is she was adopted by her uncle Mordecai, who was related to King Saul, and therefore was from the royal family and was treated as such by the Babylonians. But under the Persian Empire, Mordecai was just another servant in the court of the Emperor.

The name of the Persian Emperor was Ahasuerus (in Hebrew) and Artaxerxes (in Greek). I’m going to call him Artaxerxes because it’s easier to say!

So one day when Mordecai, Esther’s uncle, was resting in the courtyard of the palace, he overheard two eunuchs plotting to kill King Artaxerxes. I should mention the book of Esther talks a lot about eunuchs because there were quite a few of them in the palace. Artaxerxes had the bad habit of taking men from the peoples he conquered and forcing them to serve in the palace, particularly taking care of the royal harem, and he made them eunuchs so they wouldn’t bother the harem. And I’m sure this did not go over well!

At any rate, when Mordecai overheard this conversation between these two men, he reported it to the emperor. The guilty parties were executed, and these events were written down in the permanent court records of Persia… and then promptly forgotten.

Some time later, King Artaxerxes gave a massive banquet for his officials and all his buddies. He was showing off the wealth and the power of his empire. This banquet lasted 180 days: almost half a year of eating and drinking and being merry!  As this festival was drawing to a close, Artaxerxes added one more huge seven-day feast, and Queen Vashti was also permitted to give a seven-day feast for herself and her women.

On the seventh day, King Artaxerxes commanded Queen Vashti, who was very beautiful, to come to the men’s banquet wearing her crown, so all the men could see her beauty. The Bible doesn’t say this, but many Bible scholars and commentators say that the Queen was commanded to attend the banquet wearing only her crown.

Queen Vashti said “no”.

And the men took great offense, and they consulted together, and decided that Vashti was out, and her place and her crown would be given to someone “better than she”.

So the search for a new queen began. And the court officials were sent throughout the Empire looking for beautiful young virgins who just might please the Emperor. And this went on for years. For years, they looked.

Esther stayed hidden as long as she could, but eventually she was caught up in one of these sweeps, and she discovered what the process was for these young women. They were to live in the palace for a whole year, being served and trained by their personal eunuch. They were given beauty treatments and skin treatments and perfume treatments… you get the idea. They were being prepped for the king.

After a year’s worth of treatments and training, each woman would be sent to the King for one night, and if he wasn’t 100% sure he had found his new queen, that woman would then be moved into another wing of the palace where she would live… until and unless he called her by name: which hardly ever happened. (I can’t imagine a more boring existence!)

When Esther’s turn finally came, she took the advice of her eunuch, whose name was Hegai – and he was really pulling for Esther BTW, he did a really good job with her – and she put all of his advice to good use. And at the end of the night, Esther was chosen! The Emperor set Vashti’s crown on Esther’s head, and she became the queen.

After some time passed, there came an imperial official named Haman who King Artaxerxes really liked, and he promoted him quickly. And at Haman’s request, Artaxerxes passed a law that everyone in the empire must bow down to Haman whenever they saw him.

After the law was passed, Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman. Mordecai was a true believer in God, and he only bowed down before God.

Haman was so enraged by this that he plotted to destroy Mordecai; and not only Mordecai but all the Jews – all of Mordecai’s people. And Haman cast lots to decide on what day this would happen. (The word for lots in Hebrew is purim – that’s where the name of the holiday comes from.) So Haman cast lots to choose the day of the destruction of the Jews. (below: Haman picks a date)

Haman then went to the Emperor and got permission to wipe out these “strange people”, as he says, who “have different laws and do not obey the king’s laws”. The Emperor says, “here’s my signet ring, go do whatever you want to do.”

When Mordecai hears this, he sends a message to Queen Esther, telling her to talk to the king on behalf of her people. But Esther answers: there’s a law that says nobody can enter the king’s presence without being invited. The penalty is death – unless he holds out his golden scepter. I could be killed, she says.

Mordecai answers:

“You won’t escape what’s coming. And who knows? Perhaps you have come to the throne for just such a time as this.”

I want to highlight that thought for a moment – because this could be true of any of us, at any time, when we least expect it. God puts us where we are, just as we are, according to God’s wisdom – which none of us can see right now. But who knows? Maybe you are here for just such a time as this.

So Esther prayed to God, and then took her life in her hands and went to see the king. And Artaxerxes held out the golden scepter, and she lived.

Esther then invited the king, and Haman (his #1 man) to a banquet she has prepared. And while they are eating, the king asks her: “what is it that you wanted? What is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom it shall be yours.”  And Esther answers: “Please come again, both of you, to another banquet tomorrow.”

These dinners, of course – and the fact that there are two of them, are an indication that Esther is about to make a BIG ask. And she’s counting on these two men to be her champions, to be her heroes – at least that’s what the men are thinking.

So Haman, feeling very sure of himself, went home that night and built a gallows in his backyard to hang Mordecai on.

But that night the king couldn’t sleep. So he ordered a servant to go and find the Palace’s Book of Records – the history of the kingdom – and read it out loud to him.

And when he hears the story of Mordecai, who exposed the conspiracy against the king’s life – and he hears that Mordecai was never thanked for what he did, the king was troubled. At just that moment, Haman was seen peeking around the corner, and the king asked him: “Haman – what should be done for someone the king wishes to honor?”

Haman figured he’s the one who’s about to be honored, so he told the king:

“Such a man should be given a royal robe that the king has worn, and a horse the king has ridden, and a royal crown on his head, and he should be led through the city by noble officials calling out “give honor!”

The king answered: “Go quickly, and do everything you’ve said – for Mordecai.”  Of course Haman was humiliated – but he did it.

Later that day, the king and Haman are at the second banquet with Queen Esther. And the king asks again: “What is your petition? What is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom it shall be yours.”

And Queen Esther answers:

“If I have won your favor, let my life be given to me… and the lives of my people… for we have been sold… to be destroyed and annihilated.”

The king is enraged and he answers: “who is he and where is he that has presumed to do this?” And she says: “This Haman right here – he is a foe and an enemy.” And at the king’s command, Haman is hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai.

And because an edict that’s been sealed with the king’s seal cannot be undone – all the Jewish people are still in jeopardy; so at Artaxerxes’ command, Mordecai writes another edict giving the Jewish people the right to defend themselves and to take plunder as they are able – and the king seals this edict.

Now in the royal city, most people understood that this was a political standoff and they just pretty much ignored both edicts. But in the rest of the empire, people didn’t know this; and close to 75,000 people were killed in the skirmishes. This was a very costly thing for the emperor – that self-serving Haman cost him a great deal.

After all this there was peace for the people of Israel and honor for Queen Esther and Mordecai. And that’s what’s celebrated at the holiday of Purim.

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As we step back now and look at this story through 21^st century eyes, many books have been written about Esther in the years since then. And people have commented that books written in our time make Esther sound almost like a Disney princess: a beautiful woman, in a rags-to-riches story, and she and her prince live happily ever after.  But that’s not really how it went.

This “Miss Persia” contest that Esther found herself in – along with thousands of other women – was not something any of the women ever wanted for themselves. And the eunuchs who prepared them for this competition were not nuts about having their life’s work involve nothing more than making women look beautiful, for a king who most of the time couldn’t care less. Nobody ever asked any of these people:

“how do you feel about this?”

Their voices were silenced – the voices of both the men and the women.

And yes, the palace might have been pretty, and there was at least decent food there… but there was no leaving the palace once you were inside. It was kind of like Hotel California – you can check out anytime you want but you can never leave.

Esther gave her very best effort, every day of the time she spent in the palace. She made friends among the eunuchs, and she cared about them, and listened closely to the eunuch who was assigned to her. She took her one shot with the king and gave it her very best effort – in spite of the fact the king was much older than she was, and a foreigner, and was a different religion than she was. And she was courageous in the presence of a man who thought nothing of ordering the slaughter of her entire nation.

Bible teacher Rachel Held Evans, of blessed memory, once wrote this about the story of Esther:

What does it mean to be… the people of [God]—when… you’re being ruled by violent and godless pagan kings? Is God still on the throne when the fate of his chosen people is left to the whims of kings like [Artaxerxes]? How are the powerless [supposed] to respond to power?[1] 

The first message of the Book of Esther is that God is in charge.

This is always true, no matter what we see around us, no matter what socio-political machinations are going on, no matter what the people who think they’re in charge are doing. And BTW some interesting observations: Not once in this story does Artaxerxes make a decision on his own – did you notice that? He’s always asking his friends, his buddies, even his wife. But in the entire Book of Esther he makes no decisions on his own. This Emperor has no clothes; and his power is, in a sense, an illusion; because God is behind the scenes, using the small and the weak and the unimportant people to bring humility to the powerful.

God put Esther in a place where she could save her people. God put Mordecai in a place where Artaxerxes owed him his life – and this set in motion a series of events that, in a matter of 48 hours, changed the direction of an empire.

In the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul writes that in spite of all appearances to the contrary:

“…we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

In the end, Esther goes down in history as what the Jewish people call an “eshet chayil”—a woman of valor. This orphan girl with no power or place in society, rises to become the queen.

Jewish scholars point out that the name Esther in Hebrew is similar to the word “hidden”  — and she was indeed hidden in plain sight, and revealed at just the right time.

Rachel Held Evans concludes that the story of Esther is a story about how we can live as God’s people in a society where God is not a priority.

Specifically: we pray, and we do our very best, and then leave the rest in God’s hands. Because no matter how you look at it, ultimately God IS in control… and so long as we are seeking God’s will, we will always be – like Esther and Mordecai – safe in God’s hands. AMEN

[1] Rachel Held Evans, on her blog – https://rachelheldevans.com/blog/esther-actually-rabbi-rachel

Searching for Wisdom

Proverbs 1:20-33  – “Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice.  ²¹ At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:  ²² “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?  ²³ Give heed to my reproof; I will pour out my thoughts to you; I will make my words known to you.  ²⁴ Because I have called and you refused, have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,  ²⁵ and because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof,  ²⁶ I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when panic strikes you,  ²⁷ when panic strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.  ²⁸ Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but will not find me.  ²⁹ Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD,  ³⁰ would have none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof,  ³¹ therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices.  ³² For waywardness kills the simple, and the complacency of fools destroys them;  ³³ but those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster.”

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Psalm 19:1-14  To the leader. A Psalm of David

The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.  ² Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.  ³ There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard;  ⁴ yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun,  ⁵ which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy.  ⁶ Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and nothing is hid from its heat.  ⁷ The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple;  ⁸ the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes;  ⁹ the fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.  ¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.  ¹¹ Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.  ¹² But who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults.  ¹³ Keep back your servant also from the insolent; do not let them have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.  ¹⁴ Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

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Mark 9:30-37  –  They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it;  ³¹ for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.”  ³² But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

³³ Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?”  ³⁴ But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.  ³⁵ He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”  ³⁶ Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them,  ³⁷ “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

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Each of our scripture readings for today talks about wisdom, but each reading takes a different approach, so we’ll spend some time with all three. Taken together, they help us understand how wisdom fits into a believer’s life – and, sadly, how often wisdom has been lacking in human history.

For so many of us, as we look back over our lives, the wisdom we learned as children from our parents somehow seems to have become outdated. The world has changed; it seems like things we once valued are no longer considered as important as they were. Respect for others, for example, is now sort of quaint and old-fashioned; and honesty is often seen as impractical.

The fact is, God’s truth and mercy and standards have never changed, because God never changes. Some people might think that that makes God backwards – but God is actually waaaaaaay ahead of us, and is calling us to catch up and catch on.

Let me give a real-world example. This story is not accurate in every detail, but it’s based on something that happened a few decades ago. There was a mid-level executive in a corporation who became aware that the company he worked for was considering a plan, a course of action, that would most likely lead to legal or financial trouble if it was approved.  This person also knew that the person suggesting the plan was his boss’s boss. So this guy was in a Catch-22. If he spoke up and pointed out the weaknesses of the plan, he might lose his job. But if he stayed silent – protected himself and his job – what would happen to the company?

In a situation like this, what’s the wise thing to do?

Life presents us with questions like this all the time. This is why it’s so important to talk with God every day; to have a time each day that’s just for us and God and nobody else. This is also why we need to pray for wisdom – and not just pray, but actively seek wisdom.

So what exactly is wisdom? It’s not just ‘smarts’. Education is a good thing, but it can’t give us wisdom. It’s like the old saying says: education tells us a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom tells us not to put the tomato in the fruit salad.

So is wisdom power? Not exactly. Wisdom is a powerful thing, but many people who have power don’t have wisdom, and many people who are wise don’t have power.

The dictionary says that wisdom is having a combination of experience, knowledge, and good judgement. Experience takes time to gain; knowledge takes effort; and good judgement, I believe, is mostly a gift from God – which is why we need to talk to God every day.

Today’s scriptures give us some clues and point us in some good directions. Let’s start with Proverbs…

Our reading from Proverbs today comes from the first chapter of the book of Proverbs. It’s interesting to note that, while the book of Proverbs was used back in the day mostly as a textbook for young men in ancient Israel, the first and last chapters of Proverbs are written in the voice of a woman.

The Bible doesn’t give this woman a name, so for today I’ll call her Lady Wisdom, because she comes from royalty, from the courts of God’s kingdom. She’s not a goddess, but she’s not exactly human either. It might be best to think of her as something like the voice of the Holy Spirit – not the Holy Spirit himself but the Spirit’s voice. Her words are words that God wants us to hear and act on.

As Proverbs chapter one opens, Lady Wisdom is crying out in the streets. Something has gone wrong in her beloved city! She is angry, and aggravated, and she is speaking a prophetic message.

Lady Wisdom calls out to the young, the naive, the simple… and to people who are just not listening… people who know what’s right but refuse to do it… people who know what’s best but refuse to choose it.

Let me give a modern-day illustration of the message she was sharing: It’s as if the people of her city have been given a choice between a filet mignon for dinner or a Big Mac. Why would anyone even need to think about this decision? Why would anyone choose a Big Mac, with its lack of flavor (and tiny size these days) – why would anyone even pull up to the drive-in, knowing there’s this beautiful steak, perfectly prepared, with sides of a salad and mashed potatoes and gravy, all waiting at home, where you can sit in your favorite chair and eat with the people you love?

And yet… there’s a line of cars down at the golden arches…

Lady Wisdom makes fun of them! She says: “How long are you gonna love being simple? How long are you gonna mouth off and sing that stupid song about ‘two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun’? How long are you going to hate what’s good and choose what’s worthless?”

Lady Wisdom then starts describing three different kinds of fools! There’s the Simple – people who in theory could learn, who are capable of learning, but refuse to. Then there’s the Mockers and Scoffers – people who are just downright rude, arrogant, and cynical. And then there are the Fools – people who refuse to act wisely or do what God says to do.

Through the voice of Lady Wisdom, God calls all three kinds of fools to repentance.

But still the fools don’t listen.

So Lady Wisdom says: OK. You ignored me. My words were not threats, they were warnings to change course before it’s too late. But you didn’t listen, and now it’s too late.  Trouble is on the way, like a whirlwind, she says: distress and anguish and panic, but when you call on me I won’t be there.

That’s the thing about ignoring Wisdom: people can get away with it for a while; but if we insist on continuing to be unwise, eventually it catches up to us. All the ignorance, all the sarcasm, all the cynicism, all the abusing of the powerless – going against what God has taught us – we have sown the wind and we will reap the whirlwind.

“Therefore,” Lady Wisdom says,

“they shall eat the fruit of what they have done… and I, Lady Wisdom, will not be found; because waywardness kills the simple, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but anyone who listens to me will be secure…”

Those who listen to Lady Wisdom, even when other people don’t, will live in strength, not in fear. They may see a little trouble here and there, but they will be able to endure and thrive.

The remaining two scriptures for today assume that we, the listeners, are seeking wisdom and are listening to God. These two scriptures teach us how to listen and what to listen for as we listen to God.

Starting with Psalm 19: BTW this Psalm has been called “one of the greatest lyrics in the world”[1]. It has been set to music by Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Haydn, and many others. In the Jewish faith, this psalm is also said or sung every Sabbath and on every holiday. It is a bringer of joy as well as a bringer of wisdom.

Psalm 19 can be broken down into three sections: (1) Creation praising God; (2) the glory of God’s law; and (3) a prayer to God – a prayer of thanks for the goodness of God’s word.

As New Testament believers, we may find it difficult to get excited about the Old Testament law, the Ten Commandments, and the book of Deuteronomy. But think what life was like back then. What we have in our Bibles describes one of the most well-defined and well-developed codes of laws in the ancient world. God’s words were the foundation of a nation that lived in peace and prospered. This was back in the time of the judges, when people owned their own land, lived their own lives, and worshipped God on the Sabbath. Other than the tithe, there was nothing in terms of taxes because there was no central government.

This BTW is why, when the people asked God for a king – essentially wanting to trash the whole system that God had set up – the prophet Samuel gave the people a whole list of things that a royal government would do: it would tax them for the king’s palace and the king’s army; it would take their daughters as perfumers and their sons as warriors – Samuel goes on. By contrast, God’s way of organizing society was both wise and almost burden-free. But the people weren’t wise enough to keep it; they demanded a king like everybody else had.

So the Old Testament law was amazingly wise and amazingly good… if it could be lived. If it could be kept. The psalmist prays that God would keep us away from insolence and mistakes and rebellion and other hidden faults.

And the psalmist asks, and we also ask, that God would forgive us, and help us to see and turn away from the sins that we can’t see right now; that God would not let sin win out over us. The psalm then ends with a prayer we’ve heard many times; it’s often used to start a sermon: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” It’s a good prayer for preachers to pray, but it’s not just for preachers.

Finally in our reading from the gospel of Mark, Jesus talks about wisdom as it relates to power and greatness.  The conversation in this passage takes place immediately after Jesus broke the news to the disciples that he was about to be betrayed and killed. The disciples are confused, and they’re afraid to ask questions. Once they’re out of earshot of Jesus, they start arguing over which one of them is the greatest.

I’m sad to say this arguing over who’s the greatest is still a problem among some Christians, as we learned a few decades ago with the scandals surrounding Jimmy Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart and other celebrity preachers. (These kinds of preachers are still with us today, still deceiving people and still trying to make themselves rich and powerful by misusing God’s word.)

But Jesus turns the concept of greatness upside down – because human values are not heaven’s values. Do we really think money means anything in the kingdom of God? In heaven, gold bars are used for paving-stones, like bricks, to build roads with. The apostle John describes this in Revelation 21:21. He says:

“²¹ And the twelve gates are twelve pearls, each of the gates is a single pearl, and the street of the city is pure gold…”.

What God values is kindness and a generous spirit, and that we listen to God. To follow the way of Jesus is to value the marginalized and to minister to “the least of these”.

To illustrate this, Jesus takes a little child and sets him on his lap. Back in Bible times, children were on the lowest rung of society. They had no rights; they had no standing. In fact in that society – at least in ancient Rome – if a baby or a child wasn’t wanted, he or she would be dropped off in the town square and left there, presumably to die.  (The early Christians BTW objected to this practice and adopted quite a few of those children – the early church became famous for it.)

So here is this child, the lowest of the low in that society, resting in the arms of Jesus. And Jesus says to the disciples: “whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me.”

As a side note, this is one of the many reasons I like working with refugees. It’s not a political thing for me; it’s doing what Jesus said to do, and it is always a joy.

Anyway, generosity to the ‘least of these’ is the wisdom of heaven. It’s the same wisdom God exercises when God looks at us. It’s God’s mercy and God’s generosity that saves us – it’s a generosity that extends all the way to the cross, which is what Jesus is trying to explain to the disciples.

Jesus will not be dying on the Cross in order for God to be gracious and merciful; Jesus will be dying because God is gracious and merciful. Because God wants us to live and not die.

Jesus also dies because the powers-that-be, religious or otherwise, can’t grasp the radical grace and generosity of God. In the wisdom of God, greatness is not measured by status, wealth, achievement, reputation, or hard work. It’s measured instead by things like mercy and generosity of spirit. It’s much easier to be great in the eyes of the world than it is to be great in the eyes of God; but in the end, only one opinion matters.

As an example: I was on a Zoom call this past week with a classmate who is currently serving in South Sudan in Africa. (In Sudan, the Christians live in South Sudan, and the Muslims in the north, in Sudan and Darfur.) He lives near the border, and he’s in the process of building a school where both Christian and Muslim children can learn together. It’s not a safe place for him to be; and it’s certainly not a place where he’s going to build a career or become famous. But my classmate isn’t thinking about those things; he’s there to do God’s work, and to teach children how to care for each other across religious differences. This is wisdom: not as the world defines it, but as God defines it.

Greatness on Jesus’ terms is risky. It might mean setting aside comfortable lives. It might mean welcoming the vulnerable, or feeding the hungry, or clothing the naked, to visiting the sick and imprisoned. God’s wisdom calls us to express our relationship with God, and our love for God, in the way we treat others – especially those in need.

This is the wisdom that Jesus teaches, and the wisdom that Lady Wisdom recommends. Do we have the courage to follow?

Let me encourage each one of us to keep on searching for God’s wisdom, and keep on praying for wisdom. It’s not always easy to recognize, but it is always worth the cost of looking. God’s wisdom is literally the foundation of the earth, and of the heavenly kingdom where we will all live someday.

So let’s pray:

“Lord Jesus, help us to see where we lack wisdom, and help us to turn to you for guidance. Help us to turn away even from the sins we can’t see; and don’t let sin win out over us. We want to live into the beauty and grace of Your wisdom. We ask this for your Name’s sake, and for the sake of Your people. AMEN.”

[1] CS Lewis

To God Be the Glory

Psalm 29 A Psalm of David

Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.  ² Ascribe to the LORD the glory of his name; worship the LORD in holy splendor.  ³ The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over mighty waters.  ⁴ The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.  ⁵ The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon.  ⁶ He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox.  ⁷ The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire.  ⁸ The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.  ⁹ The voice of the LORD causes the oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare; and in his temple all say, “Glory!”  ¹⁰ The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever.  ¹¹ May the LORD give strength to his people! May the LORD bless his people with peace!

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1 Corinthians 10:23-31  – ²³ “All things are lawful,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.  ²⁴ Do not seek your own advantage, but that of the other.  ²⁵ Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience,  ²⁶ for “the earth and its fullness are the Lord’s.”  ²⁷ If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.  ²⁸ But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, out of consideration for the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience – ²⁹ I mean the other’s conscience, not your own. For why should my liberty be subject to the judgment of someone else’s conscience?  ³⁰ If I partake with thankfulness, why should I be denounced because of that for which I give thanks?  ³¹ So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.

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Mark 7:24-37   – ²⁴ From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice,  ²⁵ but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet.  ²⁶ Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  ²⁷ He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”  ²⁸ But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”  ²⁹ Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go – the demon has left your daughter.”  ³⁰ So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

³¹ Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.  ³² They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him.  ³³ He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue.  ³⁴ Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”  ³⁵ And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.  ³⁶ Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.  ³⁷ They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

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Welcome to the final installation of our summer series on hymns!

Today’s hymn is a bit different from the ones we’ve looked at before. The hymns we’ve done up to this point were over 500 years old, and they were inspired by events around the Protestant Reformation. Because of this, there was a lot of heavy theology in those songs.

Not so much with today’s hymn. Today’s hymn comes from a more recent time and is closer to us and where we are today, than the hymns we’ve looked at so far.

Today’s hymn – To God Be the Glory – comes from a time when revival was on people’s minds and hearts, both spiritually and socially. This was the time of the ‘camp meetings,’ when people would worship outdoors, sometimes for days, camping on-site. The camp meetings were designed to reach the lost for Jesus, and to raise money to feed the hungry and help the poor.

The story behind To God Be the Glory is a very personal one – both in terms of who wrote it, and in terms of the faith being expressed in it.

Let me start today with the story of the hymn-writer, because her life was truly miraculous.  The woman who wrote To God Be the Glory was Frances Jane Crosby, better known as Fanny Crosby. She was born in 1820 and died in 1915 – living almost 95 years! – and she was active in ministry for most of those years. She lived most of her life in New York City. Her ancestors included some of the Mayflower families: Puritans who came to the New World to escape religious persecution. (Just as an aside, Fanny Crosby was also related to Bing Crosby – they shared a common ancestor.)

Fanny Crosby was a lifelong Methodist – Methodist Episcopal, since the United Methodist Church didn’t exist back then. She started writing hymns at the age of six. That’s remarkable enough, but what makes it even more remarkable is the fact that Fanny Crosby was blind. Historians are not sure whether she was born blind, or if her eyes were damaged by treatments for an eye infection when she was six weeks old, but the net result was Fanny never remembered being able to see.

But she never let her blindness hold her back. At a very early age, Fanny Crosby set herself a goal: she wanted to

“win a million people to Christ through her hymns, and whenever she wrote a hymn she prayed it would bring women and men to Christ, and [she] kept careful records of those reported to have been saved through her hymns.”[1]

(Which, by the way, should be an encouragement to all of us: if a work of art touches us, if it inspires our life in some way, it’s a good thing to write or email the people whose creativity blesses us. The vast majority of musicians and authors and poets and other creative people never know whose lives they touch by doing what they do – and it can be a great encouragement to them to hear from someone who has been blessed by their work.)

I don’t know if Fanny ever hit that “one million” mark, but her hymns certainly touched many lives, and they still do.  I pray that God will likewise give each one of us a vision of what we are created to do that will bless others.  And just one more side note: Fanny Crosby wrote hundreds of hymns during her lifetime, some of which you might recognize: “Blessed Assurance”, “Tell Me the Story of Jesus”, and “Near the Cross” among many others.

Fanny Crosby attended school at the New York Institute for the Blind, which she entered at the age of 15 – and then she joined the faculty at age 22. She taught English, rhetoric, and ancient history. (There wasn’t much this woman could not do!) And in her spare time, Fanny was also a lobbyist: she spoke before both the Senate and the House of Representatives in Washington DC on behalf of education and schools for the blind; and she was personal friends with Presidents James Polk and Grover Cleveland.

Fanny married a fellow teacher from the New York Institute – a man who was also blind, and who just happened to work as an organist on the side. You might think this would be handy for a hymn-writer to be married to an organist, but ironically the two of them never actually collaborated. Their ministries were in different places.

The couple had one child together, who sadly died in infancy. Other than that they did well; but as time went on they discovered they didn’t get along all that well as a couple, and eventually Fanny and her husband Van separated. They never divorced; they remained in touch with each other, and remained friends, for the rest of their lives.

(Hell’s Kitchen: )

As a woman living alone, Fanny learned how to live on very little. Even though she had a job, and even though she had some royalties coming in from her poetry – as John Wesley taught, Fanny gave away anything she didn’t absolutely need. Eventually she ended up living in Hell’s Kitchen in New York City, and then in the Bowery – both locations that movies have been made out of, for how miserable the conditions were back then. Fanny lived during the times those movies are made about, and she personally provided for the needs of immigrants and the poor while she lived among them.

The hymn To God Be the Glory was written around 1870 and published between 1870 and 1875. Oddly enough, the hymn was heard first by British musicians while they were visiting New York, and they took it back home to England, where the hymn became wildly popular during British revivals of the late 1800s – and in fact was included in the British Methodist Hymn Book in 1933.

But To God Be the Glory was never widely known here in the United States – until it was discovered by Cliff Barrows, the music director for the Billy Graham Crusades. Cliff Barrows introduced the hymn to the Crusades in 1954 and its popularity took off.

So with all of this as background, what’s the message Fanny Crosby wanted to share in this hymn?

Different people have answered that question in different ways. Some people have said the hymn is “a planet-wide call to worship”. Others have said it’s a description of how people are redeemed, and how redemption works. For me, the best place to start is I Corinthians 10:31, where Paul writes: “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.” To God Be the Glory.

With all of this said, I’d like to turn to our scripture readings for today, which point in the same direction.

In Psalm 29, King David, the author, starts off by saying “ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.” David goes on to praise (1) the greatness of God that can be found in nature; (2) the greatness of God that can be found in God’s word, the Bible; and (3) the greatness of God expressed in the praises of God’s people as they worship in the temple.

So what exactly is glory? If someone asked for a definition, what would we say?

Glory is a word we hear a lot in the Bible, and we know glory is a good thing. David comes close to answering the question in Psalm 29, where he says God’s voice thunders, and controls mighty waters (I was thinking: if you’ve ever tried to control water at all, even in a bathtub, you know how tough it is to get water to go where you want it to go. But God can control water!) He says God’s voice breaks cedar trees, and makes the land itself skip, and “flashes forth flames of fire”.

Glory is incredibly powerful; but it’s also incredibly good. The dictionary defines ‘glory’ as renown, fame, honor, magnificence, splendor, grandeur, majesty. ALL of that wrapped up into one.

But the greatest glory is that God was willing to set all this glory for us and for our sakes.  Paul tells us in Philippians 2:7 that Jesus laid aside his power and glory:

“… taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.” – Philippians 2:7-11

That’s what God’s glory is all about.

In our New Testament reading today, in I Corinthians 10, Paul talks about glory from a different angle. He says “do everything for the glory of God”. In other words, whatever we do should shine God’s glory back on God.

Paul gives an example from a controversy that was going on back in his time. Back in his day, the early Christians used to argue over whether or not to eat meat that had been used in the worship of pagan gods. In those days most of the meat in the marketplace had, at one time or another, been used as an offering in pagan worship. There wasn’t much other meat available. Some believers believed it was wrong to eat this meat because of its association with pagan worship – and for them, not eating it was the right thing to do. Other believers believed that, since pagan gods are false gods, and therefore not gods at all – and because all things are given to us by the REAL God – it made no difference that the meat had been waved around in front of an idol. It meant nothing because the idol was nothing – so it was perfectly OK to eat.

Paul agreed with the latter argument: the idols were nothing, and it’s OK to eat. BUT if someone raised the issue – if someone said “hey! This meat you’re eating came from idol-worship” – then Paul says abstain from that meat for the sake of their conscience. It’s better not to violate someone else’s conscience.

So bottom line, believers are free to do what we know is right; but we are not free to put a stumbling block in front of someone else.  To the best of our abilities, people should be able to look at the way we live and give thanks and glory to God for what they see in our lives.

To God Be the Glory being sung at Royal Albert Hall, London

Our last reading for today is from Mark chapter seven, where we read about two miraculous healings that Jesus performed. In the first healing, a Gentile woman approaches Jesus and says her young daughter is being held captive by an unclean spirit, and she asks for her healing. She knows when she asks that she has two strikes against her in society: she is Gentile, and she is a woman. Social etiquette at that time said that either one of these reasons was enough that she should not be speaking to Jesus in public. But she has heard better things about Jesus, so she doesn’t give up. And when he says to her “you don’t throw the children’s bread to the dogs” (which seems to me like a very un-Jesus-like comment – my guess is he was opening the door for her to put her faith into words) – she answered him “yes Lord, but even the dogs eat what falls from the children’s table.” And Jesus honors her faith and answers YES.

For the second healing, of the deaf man, Mark gives us a lot of detail about what Jesus did physically, but there’s one detail that’s easy for us as Americans in the 21^st century to miss. Mark tells us that Jesus and the disciples were passing through a region called the Decapolis. Very few Jewish people lived in the Decapolis; so most likely this man was also a Gentile. This might be one of the reasons why Jesus took him aside and said “don’t tell people about this”.

Jesus – when he was alive on earth – was sent for the people of Israel; the time of the Gentiles had not yet come. The inclusion of Gentiles – non-Jews – into the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been predicted and prophesied in the book of Genesis. God’s promise to Abraham was: “In you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” But till Jesus came, the Jewish people were the only people to whom the Word of God had been given. They held the Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments, and all the teachings of the prophets.

The Gentiles weren’t invited in (they sometimes came in anyway BTW) but they (we) weren’t invited in as a group until after Jesus’ resurrection.  In the book of Acts, when Peter was called to go to the house of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, he shared the Gospel – and the entire household believed, and they received the Holy Spirit. This was the beginning of the call to the Gentiles.  This caused a scandal among the early believers, until people understood that Gentile believers were a fulfillment of prophecy.

So all of these scripture readings come together to give us glimpses of God’s glory: God’s glory in nature, in the Psalms; God’s glory in our relationships, in the book of I Corinthians; and glory in our relationship with Godself, in Mark’s Gospel.

In the hymn To God Be the Glory, Fanny Crosby gives glory to God for all this, and specifically for three things that she mentions. She gives glory to God for the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, which takes away our sin and opens the door of heaven to each one of us. She gives glory to God for the promises made in the Old Testament, which are fulfilled in Jesus. And in verse three Fanny gives us a glimpse of what we will feel when we first see Jesus in God’s Kingdom in the world to come.

In the end, when we are reunited with God face to face, we will see God’s glory. Revelation 21 describes something of what we will see in the Eternal City of God. John writes:

“I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.  ²³ And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.  ²⁴ The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. ²⁵ Its gates will never be shut by day — and there will be no night there. ²⁶ People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.” – Revelation 21:22-26

That, brothers and sisters, is the glory that is our future.

Glory is the business of eternity. For those of us who love Jesus, we will be surrounded by glory, forever and ever. For all these reasons and more, we can join with Fanny Crosby in singing “To God be the Glory!”  Let’s sing verse 1 one more time…

[1] Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Crosby

Fairest Lord Jesus

Daniel 7 – In the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head as he lay in bed. Then he wrote down the dream:  ² I, Daniel, saw in my vision by night the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea,  ³ and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.  ⁴ The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. Then, as I watched, its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a human being; and a human mind was given to it.  ⁵ Another beast appeared, a second one, that looked like a bear. It was raised up on one side, had three tusks in its mouth among its teeth and was told, “Arise, devour many bodies!”  ⁶ After this, as I watched, another appeared, like a leopard. The beast had four wings of a bird on its back and four heads; and dominion was given to it.  ⁷ After this I saw in the visions by night a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth and was devouring, breaking in pieces, and stamping what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that preceded it, and it had ten horns.  ⁸ I was considering the horns, when another horn appeared, a little one coming up among them; to make room for it, three of the earlier horns were plucked up by the roots. There were eyes like human eyes in this horn, and a mouth speaking arrogantly.  ⁹ As I watched, thrones were set in place, and an Ancient One took his throne, his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, and its wheels were burning fire.  ¹⁰ A stream of fire issued and flowed out from his presence. A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood attending him. The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.

¹¹ I watched then because of the noise of the arrogant words that the horn was speaking. And as I watched, the beast was put to death, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire.  ¹² As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.  ¹³ As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him.  ¹⁴ To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.

¹⁵ As for me, Daniel, my spirit was troubled within me, and the visions of my head terrified me.  ¹⁶ I approached one of the attendants to ask him the truth concerning all this. So he said that he would disclose to me the interpretation of the matter:  ¹⁷ “As for these four great beasts, four kings shall arise out of the earth.  ¹⁸ But the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever– forever and ever.”

¹⁹ Then I desired to know the truth concerning the fourth beast, which was different from all the rest, exceedingly terrifying, with its teeth of iron and claws of bronze, and which devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped what was left with its feet;  ²⁰ and concerning the ten horns that were on its head, and concerning the other horn, which came up and to make room for which three of them fell out– the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke arrogantly, and that seemed greater than the others.  ²¹ As I looked, this horn made war with the holy ones and was prevailing over them,  ²² until the Ancient One came; then judgment was given for the holy ones of the Most High, and the time arrived when the holy ones gained possession of the kingdom.  ²³ This is what he said: “As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth that shall be different from all the other kingdoms; it shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it to pieces.  ²⁴ As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them. This one shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings.  ²⁵ He shall speak words against the Most High, shall wear out the holy ones of the Most High, and shall attempt to change the sacred seasons and the law; and they shall be given into his power for a time, two times, and half a time.  ²⁶ Then the court shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away, to be consumed and totally destroyed.  ²⁷ The kingship and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the holy ones of the Most High; their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them.”

²⁸ Here the account ends. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly terrified me, and my face turned pale; but I kept the matter in my mind.

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Psalm 45 To the leader: according to Lilies. Of the Korahites. A Maskil. A love song.

My heart overflows with a goodly theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.  ² You are the most handsome of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever.  ³ Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your glory and majesty.  ⁴ In your majesty ride on victoriously for the cause of truth and to defend the right; let your right hand teach you dread deeds.  ⁵ Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you.  ⁶ Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever. Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity;  ⁷ you love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;  ⁸ your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad;  ⁹ daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir.  ¹⁰ Hear, O daughter, consider and incline your ear; forget your people and your father’s house,  ¹¹ and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him;  ¹² the people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people  ¹³ with all kinds of wealth. The princess is decked in her chamber with gold-woven robes;  ¹⁴ in many-colored robes she is led to the king; behind her the virgins, her companions, follow.  ¹⁵ With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king.  ¹⁶ In the place of ancestors you, O king, shall have sons; you will make them princes in all the earth.  ¹⁷ I will cause your name to be celebrated in all generations; therefore the peoples will praise you forever and ever.

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Mark 10:42-45 – So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.  ⁴³ But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant,  ⁴⁴ and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.  ⁴⁵ For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

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Welcome to Week Three of our sermon series on favorite hymns! So far in the series we’ve spent some time with the hymns All People That On Earth Do Dwell, and also And Can It Be.

This week we change gears a little bit. Our hymns so far have been songs written by people whose names we know, and whose stories we know.

Our hymn this week, Fairest Lord Jesus, while it is very loved in many countries and many churches, not much is known about who wrote this hymn and why.

What we do know is that the words were written in the year 1662 by a Jesuit Catholic priest living in Münster, which is now part of Germany.

To give an idea of what else was going on in the world at that time: 1662 is the year that Samuel Wesley was born – the father of John and Charles Wesley. And 1662 is also the year that the first Book of Common Prayer was approved for use in churches by England’s Parliament. This is important to us because our Order for Sunday Worship and our Service of Word and Table in the front of our hymnals were “borrowed” in large part from the Book of Common Prayer; and other denominations have done the same. People around the world worship every Sunday using words from the Book of Common Prayer.

So 1662 was an important year in terms of faith-related things; and Fairest Lord Jesus just kind of snuck in with all the rest. People back then loved this song; they passed it around from person to person and church to church, and they translated it into other languages – not because anyone was trying to make it famous – but because people just plain liked it.

Fairest Lord Jesus was finally published and printed about fifteen years later in a German hymnal. I have a photo of one of the first publications: this is what it looked like.

The title at the top of the page surprised me though – and not in a good way. In German it says, “Jesus Uber Alles” – the translation of which is “Jesus Above All” – which of course is true. What made me do a double-take was – and some of you might remember this from World War II – the phrase “uber alles”. This was used by the Nazis in WWII. They sang a song called Deutschland Uber Alles, which means ‘Germany above all’. Those words became so hated during WWII that I don’t think anyone has used the phrase uber alles ever since then.

This hymn, of course, was written long before WWII. But this is a very good example of why people should never take words that we use to praise Jesus, and use them to praise other things or other people.  What’s holy is holy; what belongs to God belongs to God. Jesus uber alles… and only Jesus.

Today we’re going to reclaim these words, because it makes a difference who rules the world! Today when we say that Jesus is above all, these are words of praise and words of joy. They are good news for all people.

So this simple tune and text became popular in Europe, and in the American Colonies; the Moravian Church knew it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they taught it to the Wesleys. The tune was also re-used by composers like Franz Lizst and Vaughan Williams. When something becomes this popular, it becomes almost like a folk song: something that sounds familiar whether we’ve actually heard it or not, because we’ve sort of grown up with it in the background of our lives.

We don’t know for sure exactly how this hymn came to the United States, but many people think that the version we know, that’s in our hymnal today, came to us through Canada.

So that’s the history. More important to us is the faith meaning. How does this hymn reflect Bible truths? How does this song teach us God’s word, or help us to praise God? Fairest Lord Jesus does all these things.

The words are borrowed from a number of scripture passages, including the passages we heard read a moment ago, so let me start with today’s readings. The first reading was Daniel chapter seven: and as we listen to Daniel, his writing sounds like something taken from the book of Revelation… like the end times. The prophecies in the book of Daniel usually have two meanings: one that would have meant something to Daniel and the people of Israel back in the 6^th century; and a second meaning that they knew nothing about, that’s meant for us. And for those of us living in the 21^st century, we don’t really know what these words meant to Daniel. But we can see how they parallel Revelation.

Daniel says, starting in chapter 7 verse 13:

13 “As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him.  14 To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.”

Jesus himself quoted verse thirteen (in Mark 14:62) when he said: “you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” So Jesus clearly said that this prophecy in Daniel applies to him. And the prophecy is mentioned again in the book of Revelation (ch 1 v 7).

Because of this, we can know for certain that Jesus is in charge, Jesus is God’s right-hand man – and at the same time Jesus is also one of us – and that’s a great comfort. The more a person experiences things like oppression or depression or just plain being pressed by the powers-that-be in this world, the more this message is good news.

Our second reading for today was Psalm 45. This psalm is subtitled “Ode for a Royal Wedding: A Love Song”.  And I’ve seen this used at weddings. In Psalm 45, the groom represents Jesus, and he is described with these words:

“You are the most handsome of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever.  ³ Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your glory and majesty…”

[Side note: when scripture talks about Jesus carrying a sword, it usually represents the word of God, which is sometimes called the ‘sword of the Lord’ in scripture. It does not mean Jesus is going to go around killing people!]

The psalm continues:

“In your majesty ride on victoriously for the cause of truth and to defend the right; let your right hand teach you dread deeds.  ⁵ Your arrows [again, representing Jesus’ words] are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you.  ⁶ Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever. Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity;  ⁷ you love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;  ⁸ your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad…”

These words describe what it will look like in heaven on the day when Jesus is married. And guess who the bride is? Scripture says it’s the church – all of us together – the Bride of Christ. Here’s what Psalm 45 says to us:

^“10 Hear, O daughter, consider and incline your ear; forget your people and your father’s house,  ¹¹ the king desires your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him;  ¹² the people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people  ¹³ with all kinds of wealth. The princess is decked in her chamber with gold-woven robes;  ¹⁴ in many-colored robes she is led to the king…”

That’s going to be our wedding!

Going back for a moment to verse 8 – did you catch the words “ivory palaces” in there? There’s an old hymn by that name? It goes:

“My Lord has garments so wondrous fine,
and myrrh their texture fills;
its fragrance reached to this heart of mine,
with joy my being thrills.
Out of the ivory palaces, into a world of woe
Only his great eternal love made our Saviour go”

This hymn talks about Psalm 45, and Jesus, and the love story between Jesus and God’s people.

The hymn Fairest Lord Jesus, #189 in our hymnals, talks about the same events. The hymn doesn’t mention us by name but our presence is implied, because we are the ones who are singing praises to the groom.

There’s one more writing I should mention that helps shed light on what the hymn is about. Back in the 300s AD there was a famous priest by the name of St. John Chrysostom. The time when he lived was a difficult age to live in: false teachings were starting to creep into the church; and the Roman Empire was in decline… and with all this going on, Chrysostom was trying to help people understand how Jesus could be both God and human at the same time. He wrote the following words, where the first part of each sentence talks about Jesus as a human being, and the second part of each sentence talks about Jesus as God. Check this out – he wrote:

“I do not think of Christ as God alone… or man alone, but both together.

For I know He was hungry… and I know that with five loaves He fed five thousand.

I know He was thirsty… and I know that He turned the water into wine.

I know He was carried in a ship… and I know that He walked on the sea.

I know that He died… and I know that He rose from the dead.

I know that He was set before Pilate… and I know that He sits with His Father on His throne. […]

And truly some of these I ascribe to the human… and others to the divine…

For by reason of this, Jesus is said to have been both God and man.”

(note – this is only a portion of what Chrysostom wrote)

Does this make sense?

With these thoughts as a starting place, let’s take a look at the verses in this beautiful hymn…

Verse one tells us that Jesus rules over all of nature, and that Jesus is more beautiful than anything we can find in nature! It also tells us that Jesus is the child of both God and humanity. For these reasons the hymn-writer loves and honors Jesus, the savior who – as the Psalm says – gives to us glory, joy, and honor.

In verse two, Jesus is compared to the beauty of nature. Think about it: Why is it that people will drive for hours to sit in a tent or sleep at a campground? How many times have we heard people say “I feel closer to God in nature than I do in church”? There’s a reason for this – because nature reflects God’s goodness and God’s beauty. God created all these things: the meadows, the woods, the flowers of spring – for us to enjoy. God’s creation is an absolute wonder!

Then the hymnwriter turns and looks at Jesus and he says: Jesus is more beautiful, Jesus is more pure… he makes the sad heart sing!

The apostle Paul writes in the book of Colossians:

“[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible… all things were created through him and for him. ” (Colossians 1:15-17)

This is why we worship.

In verse three the hymnwriter continues, but he shifts gears a little. He heads in the same direction as the author of Psalm 19 who wrote: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” (Psalm 19:1)  Our hymnwriter starts talking about how beautiful the sunshine is (especially for those of us who live in Pittsburgh and see a lot of cloudy days!); and how beautiful moonlight is, and how amazing it is to gaze at the stars. “But,” he says, “Jesus shines brighter,” “Jesus shines purer” – even beyond the angels in heaven.

Verse four sums it all up: “Beautiful saviour, Lord of all the nations.” You hear me talk a lot about other countries, and how other people worship in other places. I think it’s important to be aware of all God’s people around the world, and to join in the worship of all God’s people. Human beings are the crowning glory of God’s creation, whether we come from Asia or Europe or Africa or Australia or America. All of us together reflect God’s glory, especially when we worship our Creator together, in every place and every language, singing “glory and honor” to God.

Is there anyone who would not want to be in the choir on that great day when Jesus returns?

So why is Jesus Lord? Because he came to save God’s people from sin and death. The apostle Matthew tells us: “[Mary] will bear a son, and… name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matt 1:21) And the apostle Paul tells us: “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (I Tim 1:15)

So this hymn of praise – as sweet and simple as it sounds – helps us to worship Jesus in a way that is worthy of our King. It’s not complicated; it’s not sophisticated; and it doesn’t need to be. Jesus said that in order to enter the Kingdom we need to become like little children: unsophisticated and trusting.

The truth is: Jesus is the ruler of all nations and all worlds. Jesus is both the Son of God and the child of humanity. And our job is to praise him, because he is of greater worth, and more beautiful, and more full of glory than anything else in creation. We say along with Paul, “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…” (Philippians 3:8)

Jesus promised us a crown if we remain faithful to Him. Therefore:

“Thee will I cherish; Thee will I honor, thou my soul’s glory, joy, and crown.”

AMEN?

Let’s sing that last verse one more time…

Charles Wesley: And Can It Be

Acts 16:26-34  – Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.  27 When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped.  28 But Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”  29 The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.  30 Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  31 They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”  32 They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.  33 At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay.  34 He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

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Psalm 51:1-12  A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.  ² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.  ³ For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  ⁴ Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.  ⁵ Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.  ⁶ You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.  ⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  ⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.  ⁹ Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.  ¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.  ¹¹ Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.  ¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.

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Romans 8:1-8 – There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,  ⁴ so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  ⁶ To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.  ⁷ For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law– indeed it cannot,  ⁸ and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

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Welcome to the second installment of our summer sermon series featuring stories from the hymns! This Sunday we’ll be focusing on a hymn written by Charles Wesley: And Can It Be, which is #363 in our hymnal.

This hymn is one of my personal favorites. It has a special place in Methodist history, as well as in the hearts of many Christians around the world, particularly in the UK. This hymn almost always makes the “Top 10 Favorite Hymns” list in England, currently residing at #6. It’s not as well known in the States; but the churches here that know it, love it.

As with all hymns, it helps to know the back story: when was it written, why was it written, what inspired it? We’re very fortunate with this hymn that Charles Wesley wrote extensively in his diary about what he was thinking and experiencing in the days leading up to writing this hymn.

The text of the hymn was written in 1738: 38 years before the United States became a country. It was written in thanksgiving to God for Charles’ conversion on May 21^st of that year. The words were set to a number of different tunes over the years, but the best-known (and nowadays really the only) tune was written in the early 1800s. The music is said to have been influenced by the music of George Frederick Handel (who wrote Messiah) – which could help explain why it’s a little bit challenging to sing – and also why it’s worth the effort.

Back to the story: By the year 1738, the Wesley brothers – John and Charles – had already:

• started ministries to the poor in Oxford
• founded the Methodist movement (Methodism was a movement at the time – meant to reform the Church of England)
• gotten ordained
• ministered all over Great Britain and in parts of the American colonies – including evangelizing Native Americans and visiting slave plantations in Georgia
• preached in the dockyards of Bristol

They had done all these things, for which the Wesleys became famous – without ever experiencing, on a personal level, the salvation of God or the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives!

The Wesleys accomplished all these things based on their intellectual knowledge of the Bible and what it says God requires of people. The message of Jesus, his forgiveness, his death and resurrection, his mercy to sinners – even though this was in their heads and in their preaching, it hadn’t yet touched their hearts. Which goes to show it’s possible to know a lot about God, and sit in church every week, and read the Bible and pray, and not actually know God. It’s possible to grow up in the church – like the Wesleys did – and dedicate one’s life to serving the church, without grasping that the real church – the body of Christ – is the family of God, and has nothing whatsoever to do with a human institution.

Both John and Charles, in 1738, were sensing that something was missing in their lives and in their faith. They were touched very deeply spiritually when they got to know some local Moravians. The Moravian movement was a Protestant movement that started in the Czech Republic, predating Martin Luther by about 100 years. The Moravians were persecuted and driven underground in their home country; and they became refugees of conscience scattered all through Europe and the Colonies, which is how the Wesleys met them. (Side note: some of those Moravians came to Pennsylvania and founded the town of Bethlehem PA!)

The Moravians were known for having very personal relationships with God. They were known for a simple way of life that included a lot of scripture reading and prayer and singing; their faith was not complicated – it was easy for the average person to grasp; but at the same time it ran very deep, and it required a very deep commitment. And in May of 1738, the faith of the Wesleys’ Moravian friends began to sink in with the brothers, and both John and Charles experienced what they called “spiritual awakenings”. Charles came first, by three days.

I want to share with you Charles’ faith experience, in his own words, paraphrasing into modern English (because the English language has changed a bit in 300 years!)

The date, as mentioned before, was Pentecost Sunday, May 21, 1738. On that day Charles Wesley was feeling very ill, and was recuperating in the home of some friends who lived in London. The fact that Charles was not in church on a Sunday tells us how lousy he was feeling. He was resting on the sofa in living room of the house… and I’ll pick up with his own words… Charles writes:

“I woke up in hope and expectation of God’s coming. At 9:00AM my brother (John) and some friends came, and sang a hymn to the Holy Spirit, which gave me great comfort. In about a half an hour they left, and I started to pray using words similar to these…”

(side note: the words Charles is talking about praying were taken from Scripture. Charles had a habit of praying the Scriptures, which is always a good idea! Talking with God about what God has said opens our hearts and minds to understanding God, as well as opening dialogue. Anyway, on that day, Charles was praying – and quoting the scriptures, he said):

“O Jesus, you have said ‘I will come to you’; and you have said ‘I will send the Comforter to you’; and you have said, ‘My Father and I will come to you, and make our home with you’. You are God and you cannot lie; I totally trust your promise; may it come true in your time and in your way.”

Having prayed this, (Charles says) “I was about to go to go to sleep in the quietness and peace of the house, when Mrs. Musgrave came in (or so I thought by the sound of her voice) and she said, “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, arise and believe and you shall be healed of all your infirmities.”

(Charles writes he was not entirely sure the voice he heard was that of Mrs. Musgrave; he also wasn’t sure who she was talking to. He only heard her voice from the next room. Charles continues with his story, saying…)

“I wondered what motivated her to speak in this way; but the words cut to my heart. I sighed and said to myself, “Oh that Jesus would speak this way to me for my recovery of body and soul. […]

“I rose and opened the Bible nearby, and the first words I saw were: “And now, Lord, what is my hope? truly my hope is in thee.” And then I opened the book again and read Isaiah 40:1 –

“Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God: speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sin.”

(Side note: these also happen to be the opening words of Handel’s Messiah, and Charles Wesley and Handel knew each other. Coincidence?)

(Charles continues: ) “I now felt totally at peace with God, and rejoiced in the hope of loving Jesus. My mood for the rest of the day was mistrust of my own weakness, which I hadn’t known until now. I saw that I stood by faith, always by faith, which kept me from falling, even though I am always sinking deeper in sin. I went to bed still very aware of my own weakness – and I humbly hope to become more and more weak – to be more confident of Jesus’ protection.”[1]

Charles wrote later in his journal that the Spirit of God “chased away the darkness of [his] unbelief.”[2]  Two days later, on Tuesday May 23, he wrote:

“I woke up under the protection of Christ, and gave myself up, soul and body, to him.”[3]

The very next day, May 24^th, his brother John had the experience we’ve all heard about, where his heart was “strangely warmed” while at a worship meeting of the Moravians in London. John immediately shared this good news with Charles.

Charles wrote:

“Towards ten, my brother was brought in triumph by a troop of our friends, and declared, ‘I believe.’ We sang the hymn with great joy, and parted with prayer.”

What a difference a day can make! Before these few days, John and Charles Wesley were struggling to do God’s will in their own power, and they were constantly running into roadblocks and discouragement. After these events, their ministries caught fire – and changed the course of history, worldwide.

Do we want to make a difference in our world, and in the lives of our relatives and friends? Then we need to follow in the footsteps of the Wesleys: reading the Bible, hearing and believing God’s promises, and praying! All Godly work begins and ends with prayer.

All of this is the context in which today’s hymn was written. Let’s open the hymnal now to #363 and follow along with the text. Again I’ll need to sort of ‘translate’ this into 21^st century English. But starting with…

Verse 1

“And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour’s blood?” Charles, as a new believer, can hardly believe he’s been accepted into God’s kingdom! He takes nothing for granted. He does not even begin to think that he’s got a seminary degree, and experience in preaching, or anything like that. As the apostle Paul once said, these things are like filthy rags next to the joy of knowing Jesus. But the words Charles uses here could almost be taken from the world of investing. To have “an interest in” something is to be a part-owner. It’s like Charles has just bought stock in KOG – the Kingdom of God.

And what a humbling investment this is! The blood of Jesus, shed for every sinner, covers you and me and Charles Wesley. We are all totally equal in the blood of Jesus: equally in need of forgiveness, and equally saved. Charles says: “can it be?” We haven’t done anything to earn it. We haven’t paid for it. Jesus paid for this KOG stock with his life – and gave it to you and me for free.

Charles goes on: “Died he for me? Who caused his pain? For me – who him to death pursued?” Again, confessing that our sin is what makes Jesus’s death on the cross necessary.  “Amazing love! How can it be that you, my God, should die for me?”

Verse 2

“Tis mystery all: the immortal dies” – This thought is beyond human understanding. God, who by definition lives forever and cannot die, has found a way to die – for our sakes.

“Who can explore this strange design?” Charles asks. People have spent the last 2000 years trying to explain how Calvary works.  How it is that Jesus’ death on the cross saves us? How is it that the immortal God could die? And why was it necessary? You want to start an argument among theologians? Toss these questions into a roomful of them and shut the door.

Charles Wesley says: “In vain the first-born seraph tries to sound the depths of love divine”. How can anyone measure the depth of God’s love? We can’t. God’s love cannot be comprehended. Even the citizens of heaven, the angels themselves, can’t put it into words… can’t find the end of God’s love.

Charles says, “Tis mercy all! Let earth adore” – Our job is not to figure out  ‘how’ but simply to accept God’s mercy as it’s offered, and worship Jesus. “Let angel minds inquire no more.”

Verse 3

In verse three, Charles turns his attention to Jesus specifically. “He left his Father’s throne above (so free, so infinite his grace!)” That phrase in parentheses is an exclamation of praise to Jesus that Charles can’t help it, he just has to put it in there.  He goes on describing Jesus: “Emptied himself of all but love, and bled for Adam’s helpless race.”

THAT is the Christian message in a nutshell. For all of Adam’s descendants, this is all we need to know, and it’s all we need to share. Jesus gave up everything: his throne in heaven, his intimacy with God, and his very life – for people who were and are unable to save themselves. That’s the gospel message, right there.

Charles says: “Tis mercy all, immense and free, for O my God, it found out me!”  It’s all God’s mercy, from beginning to end; it’s none of our doing. God searches us out; and if we’re honest, we know that God is so far above us and so perfect that being in God’s presence – just the way we are – would destroy us, because we’re not able to stand in God’s perfect, holy presence and stay alive. But Jesus changes all this. His love for us changes the whole story.

Verse 4

Verse four refers to the events in Acts 16 where Paul and Silas had been thrown in jail under false accusations after having cast an evil spirit out of a young woman. They were in prison, singing songs to God (while the other prisoners listened) when there was an earthquake. The foundations of the jail were shaken, and the cell doors popped open, and the prisoners were free.

Charles Wesley says it was like that for him, when he finally saw the truth and mercy of Jesus. He says: “Long my imprisoned spirit lay, bound up in sin and nature’s night” when God’s eye “diffused a quickening ray” – (“quickening” is an old-fashioned word meaning ‘to bring back to life’.) So just one glance from God brought Charles to life.

He continues: “I woke; the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went out, and followed thee.” Just like Paul and Silas in that prison, God set Charles Wesley free not only from his sin but from all his efforts to be good or to be holy. And once he was free, Charles was then able to follow Jesus the way he’d always wanted to.

Verse 5

Verse five is Charles’ reflection on all that has happened. “No condemnation now I dread” – all the fear of judgement or hell is totally gone: not because of anything Charles has done, but because of what Jesus has done.

“Jesus, and all in him, is mine.” – What an amazing thought that is!  It’s not just that Jesus saves us. It’s not just that we get to go to heaven. It’s that we now have Jesus AND EVERYTHING ELSE.  All things in heaven and on earth are in Jesus, and in Jesus, all of it is ours. Think on that for a moment. We are, as Charles says, “alive in Jesus, our living Head, and clothed in God’s righteousness.” Everything that Jesus has, is ours, in Him.

Given this truth, Charles – and every one of us – can be bold enough to approach the eternal throne of God “and claim the crown (of eternal life) through Christ my own.” (“My own” is an old-fashioned way of saying “my beloved.”)

It is never about what we do. It’s about what Jesus did. In him each one of us has a crown of life waiting for us, waiting for our arrival in God’s kingdom. Picture that for a moment, as we look around this congregation. Picture a crown on each head.

Jesus gave it all for us – so that we could be with Him forever. Jesus gave these crowns to us. And for that reason (and many more) we sing His praise.

Let’s sing vs 5 (hymn #363) one more time…

No condemnation now I dread; Jesus and all in him is mine;

Alive in him, my living head, and clothed in righteousness divine

Bold I approach th’eternal throne

And claim the crown through Christ my own.

Sources include:

The Journal of Charles Wesley

https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/blog/may-21-1738-charles-wesleys-experience-of-assurance

Also  https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/john-and-charles-converted

[1] https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/blog/may-21-1738-charles-wesleys-experience-of-assurance

[2] https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/john-and-charles-converted

[3] https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=article&aid=26139

The Old One Hundredth

Psalm 14 To the leader. Of David

Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is no one who does good.  ² The LORD looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God.  ³ They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one.  ⁴ Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon the LORD?  ⁵ There they shall be in great terror, for God is with the company of the righteous.  ⁶ You would confound the plans of the poor, but the LORD is their refuge.  ⁷ O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion! When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.

Psalm 100 A Psalm of thanksgiving

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth.  ² Worship the LORD with gladness; come into his presence with singing.  ³ Know that the LORD is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  ⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name.  ⁵ For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

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Today’s sermon is the first installment in a little mini-series. We’re going to take a summer vacation from the Lectionary for just a few weeks, and from now through Labor Day, I’d like to share with you some stories and inspirations from some of our favorite hymns.

The hymns, and the stories behind them, are as different as the people who wrote them, and as different as the times in which they were written; but they all have in common a deep commitment to God, and a deep desire to say “I love you” to God, and to worship God with a joy that comes from deep inside and can’t be held back.

The hymns we will be taking a look at have touched the hearts and inspired the faith of believers for generations. In a way, they’re kind of like the soundtrack to our lives with God.

Today we lead off the series with Hymn #75 in the United Methodist hymnal – a familiar hymn for most of us: All People That On Earth Do Dwell, which we just sang a moment ago. This hymn shares a tune with our Doxology, and I’ll talk about that in a moment. But I wanted to ask you to open your hymnals to #75 so we can refer to it.

Before I start talking about the hymn itself, I want to put it in context. When was this written? Why was it written? How was it written? Who wrote it? And how did people react to it when it was new?

All People That On Earth Do Dwell was first published in the year 1551 (the hymnal says this in little tiny type at the bottom of p. 75).  This is one of the older hymns in our hymnal, but it’s not the oldest.

The year 1551 takes us to the period of history known as the Renaissance, and also right smack in the middle of the Protestant Reformation. When this hymn was written, Martin Luther had been dead for about five years; and the Protestant Reformation he helped to start was growing like a weed.

Before the Reformation, most church music was Gregorian chant (or chant of some kind). The service – or the Mass – was usually chanted by clergy or monks, because only religious people knew Latin. Before the Reformation, the everyday people in the church pews were basically just spectators – they didn’t participate at all except to take communion.

The Protestant movement changed all that. Protestant leaders taught that the people should be able to worship God in their own language: they should be able to hear God’s word from the Bible in their own language; and they should be able pray and sing and respond to God in their own language.

There was just one problem: back then, using a language other than Latin in worship was illegal. You could be arrested for it.  The law of the land and the law of the church were not separate, and someone with enough money and education could be both a prince and a bishop at the same time. The people had no way to appeal the law.

But around the same time, music itself outside the church began to change. The Renaissance period saw the addition of all kinds of harmony, including four-part harmonies for singing. We see this in our hymnal today: two parts for women, two parts for men: soprano, alto, tenor, bass. This arrangement of voices, which is taken for granted today, was relatively new during the Reformation: and kind of like rock music back in the 1970s, this “modern stuff” was not always welcomed in the church.

Anyway, the leaders of the Reformation started creating hymns by translating poetry from the Bible for the people to sing in their own languages. They borrowed the music: sometimes from folk music, sometimes from classical, and sometimes from songs that were sung in local taverns. Which, by the way, does not mean the early Protestant hymns were ‘drinking songs’ – that’s a nasty rumor that’s been passed down through the centuries. A tavern song was a song sung among friends while having dinner at the local pub – which was the only place to eat out back then. The local pub was the Eat ‘n’ Park of its day: a place to bring the family and the dog, and an instrument if you played one. That’s where some of these tunes came from.

But back to the Reformation: by this time, Martin Luther had already translated the Catholic Mass into German – that was back in 1526 – and he included songs for the congregations to sing, which were also in the German language.[1]  Martin Luther made a comment at that time on the state of worship in the churches, and what it was like to worship back then. He said:

“Merciful God, what misery I have seen.” He said, “the common people [know] nothing at all of

Christian [teaching]… and unfortunately many pastors are well-nigh unskilled and incapable of

teaching [them].”   

This was the result of centuries of worship in a language the people didn’t know.

This is why Martin Luther risked his life to translate the worship service into German. Luther knew what it was to worship God from the heart; Luther knew what a joy it was to worship God in a language he understood; and he wanted his fellow believers to share that joy:: the joy of coming into God’s presence with mind and heart and spirit full of the knowledge of Jesus, along with one’s brothers and sisters in the faith. But how could that happen, if the people couldn’t understand what was being said or sung?

Martin Luther took the risk of creating and offering new ways of worship, and so did a number of the other reformers. As the Reformation spread, the worship service and songs and scriptures were translated into other languages besides German and exported to other countries, including English.

But as we know, change does not come easily. The sad truth is, in the 1500s, at least two dozen wars were fought between Protestants and Catholics in Europe. Two dozen wars in a single century, fought over how to worship God.

One of the many results of this was that many Protestant leaders ran for their lives: and they ran to Switzerland. They ended up in Geneva, and many of them gathered around John Calvin who lived there. (Calvin was the founder of the Presbyterian church.) Under Calvin’s guidance, and following Luther’s example, these theologians took the Book of Psalms from the Bible and began to set it to music.

Of course the Psalms themselves were songs (in yet another language). The Psalms had been the hymnal of ancient Israel and they were originally written in Hebrew, to be sung in the Temple. You might notice from time to time when you read the book of Psalms that there are musical instructions here and there: things like “To the leader, with stringed instruments” or the word Selah which basically means “instruments can play here”.

So the theologians who gathered in Geneva translated the book of Psalms from Hebrew into their own languages and then set them to music; and they called their hymnal The Geneva Psalter (which means Psalms).

Published in 1551, The Geneva Psalter is believed to be the first hymnal ever published. It became an instant best-seller all through Europe, and within a few years it had been translated into other languages and had sold over 100,000 copies – enough to put it on the New York Times best-seller list, if such a thing had existed back then.

And out of all the songs in this best-selling hymnal, #1 on the Hit Parade, the best-loved, best-known, most-often-sung hymn was this one right here. Hymn #75 was called the “Old One Hundredth”, because the words are taken from Psalm 100. You can still see that title in our hymnal, at the bottom of the page.

One other side note I should mention about hymn-writing back then: unlike most songwriters of our day, hymn-writers back then only wrote the words, not the music. The melodies – or the tunes – were taken from other sources. This is important because the way most hymnals are put together – including our own – it’s assumed that the words to the hymns have a certain rhythmic syllable pattern, the way a lot of poetry does.

So taking a look at hymn #75, and counting the syllables:

All crea-tures that on earth do dwell  (8)

Sing to the Lord with cheer-ful voice (8)

Him serve with mirth, his praise forth-tell (8)

Come ye be-fore him and re-joice. (8)

There are eight syllables per line, and four lines, in every verse. We have the same syllable pattern in the words of our Doxology, which is why we can sing the Doxology to the same tune.

By the way, what’s really weird is when you find other hymns with the same syllable pattern and start mixing them up. For example, I discovered this past week that Just As I Am also has the same syllable pattern. So you could sing it this way (singing the words to the tune of the Doxology):

Just as I am with-out one plea

But that thy blood was shed for me

And that thou bidst me come to thee

Oh Lamb of God I come, I come.

Is that weird or what?? Hymn-writers have always known this is possible, and they write their words in such a way that they can be matched to music that already exists. I wanted to share this because, if you’ve ever wondered why we sometimes find in our hymnal really weird tunes to familiar texts (or really weird words to familiar tunes) – that’s why.

But enough music history. Let’s take a look at the Old One Hundredth.

Imagine for a moment that you’ve never heard a hymn before. Imagine you’ve never heard a religious song in your own language. Then imagine someone placing this hymnal in your hands for the very first time. You are now able to sing God’s praise with your own voice, in your own language, with all of your friends and neighbors singing with you! What a joy!

This hymn is the hymn that got everybody talking. It’s a song of praise and thanksgiving to God. We’re not sure exactly when the words were written, but some people believe the Psalm was written to celebrate the completion of the temple in Jerusalem. This song would have been sung as people gathered in the Temple in Jerusalem – not in the little neighborhood synagogues, but thousands of people coming together in the heart of Jerusalem for worship. (Any of you who remembers what it was like to sing at one of the Billy Graham crusades, you know what it’s like to sing God’s praises with a huge crowd of people. There’s nothing like it.)

The words of the hymn tell us – they reassure us – that we are God’s creation and we are loved by God and cared for by God. The words call us to praise God for God’s faithfulness.

In Jewish tradition, Psalm 100 is also a Sabbath prayer. This adds a whole new layer of richness and meaning. As we know, the Sabbath is a day of rest and peace: a day without work, without stress, without all the demands of everyday life. So meditating on – and singing – this psalm is meant to calm us and center us; to pull us away from the worries of the world and help us focus on the goodness of God.

The other psalm we read today, Psalm 14, was written by David, and it says similar things. David describes a somewhat darker world in which people do evil, giving no thought to God – “but” – David says – “the Lord is our refuge”. “When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people… Israel will be glad.” (v. 7)

For this, and for many other reasons, Psalm 100 calls “all people that on earth do dwell” to make a joyful noise to the Lord.

And the earth itself makes a joyful noise! If we wake up in the morning, and step outside first thing, before everyone leaves for work – before the noise of traffic and machinery starts up – we can hear all of creation praising God. We hear the birds – with all their songs – singing about breakfast and family. We hear a stray cat nearby, meowing for food. We hear a dog barking in the next yard, or a baby waking up in the house across the street. We may hear a couple of squirrels chattering to each other as they run away from the cat.

Or if we go outside at night at the end of the day, we hear crickets singing, and watch the fireflies taking off from their hiding places. As night falls, and peace returns to the earth, the sounds we hear in the evening make us feel restful. All the earth is always making joyful noise to the One who created it.

Where it says “worship the Lord” and “come into his presence” the verbs in the original Hebrew language are plural – as in, “all y’all worship the Lord; all y’all come into His presence”.  In fact, in the original Hebrew, every verb in the entire psalm is plural; so these words are meant for each one of us, all believers, in all times and in all places.

All of us are called to come into worship with a song in our hearts. This may be difficult sometimes, considering how hectic Sunday mornings can be; but it honors God that we come in singing.

The psalm says, remember that God made us. “Without our aid He did us make” as the hymn says. We were formed by God’s hand. If you or I – if we make something, like a work of art, it belongs to us. It’s not just that we own it (which we do) but it’s an expression of ourselves, of who we are. It’s the same way with God. God made us; we are an expression of God’s self; and we belong to God no matter what.

We are also, the Psalm says, the sheep of God’s pasture. I’ve been thinking lately about what exactly that means: how do sheep experience life? What do they think or feel?

From what I’ve read, in spite of their fairly large size, sheep are basically defenseless creatures. They don’t have much in the way of claws or teeth to defend themselves. They depend on their shepherd for protection, and for direction to good food, and for clean water, and for health care and for the care of their offspring.

The shepherd knows this. The shepherd knows every sheep by name, knows their character, knows their personality, knows exactly what each sheep needs. As the sheep mature and get to know the shepherd, they learn to trust the shepherd – and they won’t trust anyone else.

“O enter then His gates with praise; approach with joy his courts unto…” because our shepherd is a good shepherd; and we are safe; and we are provided for; and we are cared for; and our shepherd is trustworthy and dependable – not just to us, but to our friends and to our children and to our children’s children.

“Psalm 100 tells us to shout it out [with joy]! We praise God loudly for who God is. The psalm tells us to “know” that the Lord is God and that God is good – and this is not just an intellectual knowing; the Hebrew word describes a “deep and intimate awareness of God’s identity”.[3]  We know God by heart. We know that our good God will give us good things, and only good things.

Worshiping God in song shapes us; it helps make us who we are. Because God is our Shepherd we belong to God, and no one else can claim God’s authority or ownership over us. In Bible times, Kings and Caesars and Pharaohs used to claim that they were the “shepherds of the people” – but they never had the right to say that. They never had the right to take that place in the peoples’ lives. By saying that, they set themselves up against God as God’s competitors. Only God has the right – or the ability – to be our shepherd.

So we praise God at all times and in all places: we praise God in the wilderness (as the sheep of his pasture); we praise God in the gates (as we come home to rest); and we praise God in God’s courts (in the church). “For why! The Lord our God is good; his mercy is for ever more; his truth at all times firmly stood, and shall from age to age endure.”

When we sing Hymn 75, we join with Christian believers from the past 600 years, and with Jewish believers from the past 3000 years, and with believers from all over the world who sing the same song in different languages. Together we praise the one God and celebrate God’s goodness and faithfulness.

Jesus is our Good Shepherd… no matter what… no matter where we are… no matter when we live. We can trust our shepherd, who is the one who laid down his life so that we could live. His presence bring us the greatest joy a person can possibly know.

Let’s sing hymn #75 one more time, just verse one, in praise to our God…

---

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid

Kingdom Civics

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12-19

David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand.  2 David and all the people with him set out and went from Baal-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the LORD of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim.  3 They carried the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart  4 with the ark of God; and Ahio went in front of the ark.  5 David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the LORD with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.

So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing;  13 and when those who bore the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling.  14 David danced before the LORD with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod.  15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.

16 As the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.  17 They brought in the ark of the LORD, and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being before the LORD.  18 When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts,  19 and distributed food among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, to each a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people went back to their homes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Psalm 24 Of David. A Psalm

The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it;  2 for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.  3 Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?  4 Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully.  5 They will receive blessing from the LORD, and vindication from the God of their salvation.  6 Such is the company of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah  7 Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.  8 Who is the King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle.  9 Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.  10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

² I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven– whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows.  ³ And I know that such a person– whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows–  ⁴ was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.  ⁵ On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses.  ⁶ But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me,  ⁷ even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated.  ⁸ Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me,  ⁹ but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.  ¹⁰ Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PREFACE: Today’s sermon was written before the tragic events that took place in Butler, PA on Saturday evening, July 13, 2024 – just an hour’s drive north of our churches. We continue to pray for the recovery of those injured and for the families who lost loved ones, and for all the town of Butler. These events moved me to make some changes to what I originally wanted to say on Sunday, but I think the main point is still very relevant: as Christians, we are first and foremost citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven; our citizenship on earth is secondary. But because we are Christians, it is important for us to exercise our earthly citizenship in a way that brings honor to God.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This month of July has been a month full of patriotic holidays!  It started off with the Fourth of July a couple weeks ago.  Then a few days ago, I heard from a classmate in South Sudan, who said his country just celebrated their Independence Day on July 9. (South Sudan has now been its own country for thirteen years – can you imagine being so young?) And then, for our French cousins, today is Bastille Day.

Our scripture readings from the lectionary the past few weeks, including today, have a good bit to say about what it means to be patriotic – to be a good citizen. Specifically, I see two common threads throughout these readings:

• A focus on the kingdom of God, which is closer today than it was yesterday; and
• Civics!

Civics is an old-fashioned word! It’s a subject that used to be taught in high schools, but by the time I got to high school in the mid-1970s, it was gone. Some of you here might remember it though. Civics might be best defined as “the study of the rights and duties of a citizen”.

Personally, I think it was a mistake to stop teaching civics in our schools. I think our young people need to know what their rights are, and what their responsibilities are, as citizens of this country.

But for today we look at citizenship from a different angle: today we think about what civics means to us as citizens of the Kingdom of God. What are our rights as God’s children? And what are our responsibilities as citizens of God’s Kingdom?

God’s kingdom is where our eternal citizenship lies; that’s where our eternal life is. And yet, being citizens of God’s kingdom should also make us better citizens of our earthly country. Today’s readings help us to understand some of what this means.

I’d like to start with the Old Testament. For the past few weeks – in fact, for the past month or so, we’ve been reading about the life of David – who was probably the greatest king ancient Israel ever knew.  As a quick summary: over the past few weeks, we have seen David anointed by the prophet Samuel to be the king of Israel; we’ve seen David become famous for killing the warrior Goliath; we’ve seen David became a personal servant of King Saul and the best friend to Saul’s son Jonathan.  But King Saul turned out to be unstable, and he began to mistrust the people around him, especially David; and David had to leave Saul’s court in order to stay alive. David gathered together a band of friends who became sort of ‘good mercenaries’, making their living protecting the farmlands and borderlands of Israel.

After King Saul and Jonathan were killed in battle against the Philistines, David was found in the city of Hebron, and was made king – and that’s where his throne was for the first few years of his kingdom. But after consulting with the leaders of Israel, particularly the military leaders, it was decided to move the capital to Jerusalem.

This made sense for a whole lot of reasons: Jerusalem is on the top of a very high mountain, so is easy to defend; it’s also known for its olive trees and other crops. Jerusalem is where God’s tabernacle was set up, so Jerusalem became known as “the Holy City”.  There’s just one thing lacking: the Ark of the Covenant, which was captured in battle and then retrieved, but never brought all the way back to Jerusalem. So in our reading today, David and his men go to the house of Abinadab where the Ark was placed, and bring it up to Jerusalem with great celebration. The reign of David and the reign of God are both now well-established in Jerusalem.

Of course there was no ‘separation of church and state’ in ancient Israel; but even so, it’s clear that religion and state were not one and the same. David lived in a palace; and the ark of the covenant lived in the tabernacle. Why it is that David lives in a palace, while the ark of God is only in a tent: that will be the subject of an interesting conversation in the near future! But we’re not there yet.

For now, II Samuel 5:10 tells us, “David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him.” And as David became greater, life got better and better for the citizens of Israel.

David’s kingship is often mentioned in other books of the Bible as being a foreshadowing – or a prophecy – of the kingdom of the Messiah. Jesus is called “the son of David” for many reasons: first, because Jesus was descended from David; second, like David, Jesus was anointed king long before he was actually crowned. In fact Jesus’ coronation hasn’t happened yet. We are living in the time in between his anointing and his crowning.

Third, like David, Jesus earns ‘a name for himself’ early on in life. And fourth, like David, who sets up a temporary home in Hebron, Jesus also sets up a temporary home in the church. Both kingdoms still need to move to their final location: David moving the capital to Jerusalem, and Jesus moving the Church into God’s eternal Kingdom.

So we’re not ‘home’ yet.

I think it’s worth asking the question: “why the delay?” What’s taking so long? Why would God ask David to wait 15 years after his anointing before becoming king? And why would God ask Jesus to wait so very long to be crowned King of kings and Lord of lords?

I think the reason might be the same in both cases: in order to save lives. Every person’s life is precious in God’s eyes, because we are all made in God’s image. Looking at Israel’s history: if David had been crowned King by Samuel at the age of 15, while Saul was still king, it would probably have started a civil war in Israel – a war that would have cost thousands of lives. And if Jesus had been crowned King immediately after his resurrection, thousands and thousands of people would never have heard the Good News that Jesus is the Messiah. They would never have heard – we would never have heard – the Gospel message. We would never have had the chance to become followers of Jesus, citizens of the Kingdom.

It takes time for people to share this good news with their neighbors – and people in other countries – the news that Jesus is the Son of God, and has been raised from the dead, and that in Him we are free from sin and death. Matthew 24:14 says, “the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” We haven’t reached all the nations yet. That effort is still ongoing.

Speaking of which, you may have heard of an organization called Wycliffe Bible Translators – they have offices in both the UK and the US. Their mission is to translate the Bible into all known human languages. They estimate, at this point, that about 97% of all the people on the planet now have at least part of the Bible in their own language. (That’s not 97% of all languages though; they’re still missing over 1000 languages.)

So we’re getting there! But we’re not there yet. Jesus is waiting until the full number of believers is in, before receiving his crown. So in both cases – both with David and with Jesus – the coronation is delayed so that the maximum number of lives can be saved.

As citizens of the Kingdom, another one of our rights and responsibilities is to throw out lifelines to the people who still need to know Jesus. And we, as the Church, are in the process of doing that.

Meanwhile, the people of God look forward to the arrival of the City of God. And as Jesus said: “in my Father’s house there are many mansions… I go to prepare a place for you…”. A place in God’s mansions is one of the things we are promised as citizens of God’s Kingdom, and THE KINGDOM IS COMING!

~~~

In the Gospel lesson for last week, Jesus came to his hometown of Nazareth, and taught in the synagogue, and the people of his hometown were not happy about it. They said, “Where does he get all this?” “Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t he one of us?” “Isn’t this the son of Mary?” And they took offense at him.

Calling Jesus the “Son of Mary” might have been meant as an insult. (After two thousand years, we can’t be 100% certain about the use of the language.) But back in those days, children were usually called by their father’s name: as in, “son of Joseph”. It’s possible that calling Jesus “the son of Mary” was a reminder that Jesus’ parentage was in question. The people Jesus grew up with knew him –  well enough to know Mary had been pregnant before she and Joseph were married. So were they dragging skeletons out of the closet? Could be. (Of course, either way, it would have been much more accurate to call Jesus the “Son of God” – but they hadn’t figured that out yet.)

This interpretation seems to fit Jesus’ reply. He said: “Prophets are not without honor, except in their own hometown…”. The peoples’ lack of faith in him made it impossible for Jesus to do miracles there, except for a few healings.

(Nazareth)

We should note that the people of Nazareth were not without faith, in a sense – they were members of the synagogue; they were devoutly Jewish; they believed in God. They just weren’t convinced by Jesus. They weren’t believing in the right direction… or better yet, they were not believing in the right person.

But what we see in this passage is that God wants to partner with human beings in revealing the Kingdom of God to the world. God wants to partner with you and me, in making God’s salvation known. Our faith, our trust in Jesus, makes a difference – every single one of us.  “God delights to reveal Himself to Humanity through humans.”[1]

So – since Nazareth wouldn’t receive Jesus, Jesus sent out the disciples, with the power to preach and to heal and to cast out demons. And their message is: THE KINGDOM IS COMING! THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS HERE! As citizens of the Kingdom, one of their responsibilities – and one of ours – is to share that good news.

~~~

Which brings us to our reading for today from the apostle Paul in II Corinthians. This is a really odd passage. Paul says there is this person who was caught up into the third heaven and witnessed all these amazing things that defy description… but what on earth is Paul talking about?

What Paul is saying is this: there was a person who was caught up in the Holy Spirit, into Paradise, who caught a glimpse of God’s Kingdom that’s coming, and who witnessed things that were absolutely beyond human imagination.

What Paul doesn’t say is that he’s talking about himself. Paul was the person who saw these things. Why does he not say this? Because Paul didn’t want to show off. In fact if anything, Paul wanted the Corinthians to know about his weaknesses, so that God’s strength and power could shine through his weaknesses. Paul wanted people to hear his preaching about the cross of Christ, the sacrifice that Jesus made, and its power to save, and the fact that THE KINGDOM IS COMING! That’s the only message Paul is concerned with.

For us, as citizens of the Kingdom, our weaknesses give God opportunities to show the world around us God’s strength and God’s love.

The other reason Paul doesn’t name himself as the person who had this vision, is because – at that time in the history of the church – there were false teachers around who called themselves “super-apostles”. Paul mentions them back in II Corinthians chapter 11. He says these “super-apostles” claimed they had done all kinds of spiritual things, and had seen miracles and visions. They bragged on themselves. They maintained flawless images in public. They said they were better than any other teacher or minister. And they played one-up with people of other religions and nations and ethnic backgrounds.

But behind the scenes, out of the public eye, these “super-apostles” took advantage of God’s people: lied to them, cheated them, took their money, and sometimes even abused them.

Paul reminds the Corinthians – and us – that it is impossible to say “Jesus is Lord” and mean it, and then turn around and try to control or manipulate or abuse people: because people are created in God’s own image; and Jesus gave his life to save each one of us; and we belong to God – not anyone else.

Paul says, “God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.” Paul turns the boasting of these “super apostles” upside-down. Paul, with his ‘thorn in the flesh’ – whatever that was (we don’t know) – it was given by God for this purpose. It leaves room in Paul’s life for Jesus to shine through Paul’s weakness. Paul rests his authority not on his own knowledge or experience but on “the power of the One who raised Jesus from the dead.”

At this point, it is sorely tempting for me to start naming the names of modern-day “super-apostles” – but I will just say this: it is essential to be aware of what’s going on in Christian circles and movements and churches beyond the boundaries of the United Methodist Church. Every denomination is focused, of necessity, on its own plans and issues. But all of us need to be aware of each other. We need to have contacts and friends outside our own denomination, with whom we can compare notes and share experiences. As Paul said, the hand can’t say to the foot, “I have no need of you.” We all need each other.

~~~

So if some of the “super-Christians” who are in the news today, or on TV, or online, puzzle you or trouble you; if you’re not sure where they’re coming from, or what they believe, or how they justify what they say from the Bible… a Christian friend in another denomination is a good friend to compare notes with. Find out where these ‘super-Christians’ come from; find out what their denomination is; find out what church they belong to. Find out what they teach, and who taught them.

And above all, compare what they say against scripture.  Do they believe what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount? Do they believe what Jesus taught about the last judgement, when God will say, “you gave me something to eat”, “you gave me something to drink”, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me…”, “I was in prison and you visited me”? Do they understand what Paul says in this passage, when he says that having “a thorn in the flesh” is better than being proud and self-justifying?

Paul gave up his platform in order to serve God. Paul had been THE ONE up-and-coming Pharisee: he was student of Gamaliel – the greatest religious scholar of his time; he was a total purist where it came to scripture – so much so that he persecuted the early church, tracking down believers in Jesus from city to city, arresting them and dragging them back to Jerusalem to face charges of heresy. But after Paul met Jesus, Paul said, “I count everything as filthy rags next to the glory of knowing Jesus.”

Paul is happy to be seen as weak for the sake of the Kingdom of God. And in his weakness, God’s power is made known. Jesus overcomes any darkness, weakness, sickness, or trouble in our lives – not necessarily by removing it right away – but Jesus overcomes it to reveal God’s grace, mercy, compassion, and love.[2]

Real Christians do not live problem-free lives. Real Christians don’t always come out on top. And real Christians don’t grab for power – they share what they have with people who don’t have as much. Real Christians talk about how God has had compassion on them, and has seen them through tough times. Christian maturity comes as we recognize our weaknesses and our limitations, and learn to rely on the power of Jesus living in us.

This is important because people who don’t rely on God – people who build themselves up instead – are the ones who end up abusing people, spiritually or otherwise. Look for the people who aren’t perfect, people who (like Paul) turn the spotlight off of themselves and shine it on Jesus.

People who are spiritually trustworthy have one source of power and authority: God. Citizens of the Kingdom of God have the Holy Spirit living in them. They build others up, and they grow people together instead of splintering them, or excluding them, or creating hierarchies of acceptability.

Bottom line, a person who is spiritually trustworthy – a person who is a citizen of God’s Kingdom – knows that THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS COMING – and Jesus sits on the throne – and that person welcomes the opportunity to lay everything at the feet of Jesus.

And so we citizens of the Kingdom, doing our civic duty – we pray: Lord have mercy; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, Lord Jesus. AMEN.

[1] Working Preacher website

[2] CMJ

Out of the Depths

2 Samuel 1:1-27 : After the death of Saul, when David had returned from defeating the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag.

² On the third day, a man came from Saul’s camp, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. When he came to David, he fell to the ground and did obeisance.  ³ David said to him, “Where have you come from?” He said to him, “I have escaped from the camp of Israel.”  ⁴ David said to him, “How did things go? Tell me!” He answered, “The army fled from the battle, but also many of the army fell and died; and Saul and his son Jonathan also died.”  ⁵ Then David asked the young man who was reporting to him, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan died?”  ⁶ The young man reporting to him said, “I happened to be on Mount Gilboa; and there was Saul leaning on his spear, while the chariots and the horsemen drew close to him.  ⁷ When he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. I answered, ‘Here sir.’  ⁸ And he said to me, ‘Who are you?’ I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’  ⁹ He said to me, ‘Come, stand over me and kill me; for convulsions have seized me, and yet my life still lingers.’  ¹⁰ So I stood over him, and killed him, for I knew that he could not live after he had fallen. I took the crown that was on his head and the armlet that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord.”

¹¹ Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them; and all the men who were with him did the same.  ¹² They mourned and wept, and fasted until evening for Saul and for his son Jonathan, and for the army of the LORD and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.  ¹³ David said to the young man who had reported to him, “Where do you come from?” He answered, “I am the son of a resident alien, an Amalekite.”  ¹⁴ David said to him, “Were you not afraid to lift your hand to destroy the LORD’s anointed?”  ¹⁵ Then David called one of the young men and said, “Come here and strike him down.” So he struck him down and he died.  ¹⁶ David said to him, “Your blood be on your head; for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have killed the LORD’s anointed.'”

¹⁷  David intoned this lamentation over Saul and his son Jonathan.  ¹⁸ (He ordered that The Song of the Bow be taught to the people of Judah; it is written in the Book of Jashar.) He said:  ¹⁹ Your glory, O Israel, lies slain upon your high places! How the mighty have fallen!  ²⁰ Tell it not in Gath, proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon; or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice, the daughters of the uncircumcised will exult.  ²¹ You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor bounteous fields! For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, anointed with oil no more.  ²² From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back, nor the sword of Saul return empty.  ²³ Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely! In life and in death they were not divided; they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.  ²⁴ O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you with crimson, in luxury, who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.  ²⁵ How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan lies slain upon your high places.  ²⁶ I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; greatly beloved were you to me; your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.  ²⁷ How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished!

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Psalm 130 – A Song of Ascents

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD.  ² Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!  ³ If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?  ⁴ But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.  ⁵ I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;  ⁶ my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.  ⁷ O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.  ⁸ It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

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Mark 5:21-43:   When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea.  ²² Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet  ²³ and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.”

²⁴So he went with him. And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him.  ²⁵ Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years.  ²⁶ She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse.  ²⁷ She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,  ²⁸ for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.”  ²⁹ Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.  ³⁰ Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”  ³¹ And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, ‘Who touched me?'”  ³² He looked all around to see who had done it.  ³³ But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth.  ³⁴ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

³⁵ While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?”  ³⁶ But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.”  ³⁷ He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.  ³⁸ When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.  ³⁹ When he had entered, he said to them, “Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.”  ⁴⁰ And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was.  ⁴¹ He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!”  ⁴² And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement.  ⁴³ He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

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I had no idea when I picked this coming Tuesday to launch our grief support group that this Sunday’s scriptures would focus on loss and grief! God has a way of using even the lectionary in surprising ways!

A moment ago we read the stories of three people who were suffering different kinds of losses. The first was David – who was not quite king yet – suffering the loss of his best friend in the world, Jonathan, and Jonathan’s dad, King Saul. The second story is about a woman whose name we don’t know, who was suffering from a disease she didn’t understand that was slowly killing her. And the third story is about a man whose daughter was very ill and at death’s door.

During one of life’s trials, David wrote in Psalm 130 – which we also heard a moment ago – “Out of the depths I cry to you O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice.”  This is a prayer that anyone who is grieving can take hold of and pray for themselves and for their loved ones.

David called this psalm a “song of ascents” – a song that was written to be sung as the people of Israel walked up an eighteen-mile-long hill to worship in the temple. It was a tough climb, but there was joy waiting for them when they got there: the joy of God’s presence. David writes his song from the bottom of the hill, to the God who is waiting to welcome him at the top of the hill.

Each of the three people we meet in scripture today are all in their own way climbing a mountain: not physically but spiritually or emotionally. For each one of them, God brings healing in unexpected ways. God never abandons people to their grief. God is always with God’s people, by our sides in the hardest of times, giving us strength beyond our strength.

Let’s take a look at how God does this for each of these people.

Starting with David: If you’ve been here the past few weeks, our Old Testament readings have been about the life of David. Two weeks ago we heard the story of how the prophet Samuel anointed David as a teenager to be the next king of Israel; and last week we heard the story of David and Goliath, and how David defeated the giant with nothing but a slingshot and a stone… which is how he became King Saul’s son-in-law, because King Saul had promised his daughter in marriage to anyone who would kill Goliath. So David went, in one day, from being a young man keeping sheep to being the husband of King Saul’s daughter, and also the best friend of King Saul’s son Jonathan.

David’s feelings of love and loyalty for Saul’s family ran deep. But the relationships weren’t always easy; particularly when King Saul started having… episodes, for lack of a better word. He would fall into fits of rage and paranoia that sometimes turned deadly. At one point Saul became convinced that David was trying to take over the kingship, and nothing David or Jonathan could say could convince him otherwise.

Finally David had to flee for his life. He remained loyal to Saul and to Israel, but he had to live somewhere else. Jonathan helped him escape, and their farewell is one of the most moving stories in the Old Testament. Friendships that deep are rare, and need to be cherished; and to have to walk away from one is heartbreaking.

For the next few years David basically led a group of traveling mercenaries around the countryside, helping keep Israel’s farmlands safe, and fighting battles now and then to keep Israel’s borders secure. As our reading for this week begins, David and his men are resting in a town called Ziklag after having defeated the Amalekites in a border skirmish.

While David and his men were at Ziklag, a messenger came running from the camp of King Saul. Saul and the Israelites had been fighting the Philistines, and the messenger ran up to David with his clothes torn and dust on his head – signs of grieving. He said: “I have escaped from the camp of Israel.” David of course immediately asks what happened. He is told: the battle went badly. Israel’s army turned and ran, and the Philistines chased them, killing as many as they could; and King Saul and Jonathan are among the dead. And silently the messenger hands to David what he has brought from the battlefield: King Saul’s crown and his armband.

David tears his clothing and weeps.

In one day he has lost his best friend, his king, and half of his best friend’s family. As he begins to process this horrific loss, David picks up his harp and writes a lament for the people he loved. He sings:

“Your glory, O Israel, lies slain upon your high places! How the mighty have fallen! […] ²³ Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely! In life and in death they were not divided; they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions…”

David ordered that this song was to be taught to all the people of Judah – so that everyone could sing it and grieve together this terrible loss.

David never ‘got over’ this loss. There is no ‘getting over’ a loss like this. Later on in life, after he became king, David went searching to see if anyone from Saul’s family was still alive, and he discovered that Jonathan, his best friend, had a son who was still living – who was not at the battle because his feet were deformed and his caregiver took him away to safety. King David brought Jonathan’s son to live with him in the palace for the rest of his life, out of love for his friend.

And the people of Israel sang: Out of the depths I cry to you O Lord – O Lord, hear my voice…

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Then we come to the New Testament, where we basically have two stories in one. There’s a common thread between the two stories: it’s not something that’s actually spoken in the scriptures, but people back then would have known it. It has to do with the law of Moses: Moses had taught the people that some things in life make a person (as they put it back then) ‘ceremonially unclean’ – that is, the person would not be permitted to go in the temple and worship until they had rested, or healed, or bathed – whatever needed to be done. In these stories, both the woman and the child have become ceremonially unclean. An important part of the story is watching how Jesus handles this.

The story begins with Jairus, a leader of the local synagogue. He comes to Jesus one day, and he is beside himself, desperate, crying, “please come to my house! My daughter is dying. Please come lay your hands on her and heal her so she will live.” The love of this father for his daughter is palpable.

It’s worth pointing out that not every religious leader in Israel back then believed Jesus was wrong. Jesus did have run-ins with the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the priests, but not all of them. Some of them understood what Jesus was saying, and Jairus was one of them.

But it’s also interesting that Jairus believed Jesus had to physically come and touch his daughter. A short time before this, a Roman centurion had asked Jesus to heal his servant, and when Jesus said he would come, the centurion answered: “don’t trouble yourself. All you need to do is say the word. Like you, I’m a man under orders who has people under me: and I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”  Jesus answered: “even in Israel I have not found faith like this! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed in that very moment.

But Jairus needed a physical touch; and Jesus was OK with that too. God understands our needs and meets us where we are. So Jesus starts to walk towards Jairus’ house.

While they’re on their way – with disciples and a large crowd following – unnoticed by anyone, a woman slips up behind Jesus and touches his robe. She does this because she has been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years. And the minute she touches Jesus’ robe she is healed.

She does this on the sly, because she knows she’s disobeying the law of Moses. The law says any woman with a flow of blood is unclean, and anyone who touches her is unclean. But this woman is desperate. And it looks like she’s gotten away with it… until Jesus turns around and says “Who touched me?”

In a crowd full of people, she knows she’s caught.

She comes forward, trembling, and tells Jesus the whole story. Basically she has been experiencing a twelve-year-long period. She has been to every doctor, and has spent all her money, trying to get well, but nothing has worked. The constant loss of blood has worn her body out; and on top of that she’s a social outcast because she’s considered ‘unclean’.

For us here in the 21^st century there’s an easy fix for this condition: a month of birth control pills re-sets the hormone balance, and you’re fine. Life returns to normal. But back then that option wasn’t available. Back then what she had was a slow and certain death sentence from a loss of blood.

Our Lord Jesus, when he heals, he doesn’t just heal the body. He heals the heart as well. Jesus was not angry at her for breaking the rules; in fact he praises her boldness, her daring to defy an unfair law. He calls her “daughter” – putting her on the same level of innocence as Jairus’ twelve-year-old. He says, “your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed.”

It’s interesting that in Greek the word “healed” is the same word as “saved”. This woman is healed – she’s going to live – but more than that, she is no longer an outcast. She is right with God, and is once again welcomed by people.

So this story has a happy ending… except for one thing: as Jesus was still speaking with this woman, some of Jairus’ friends arrive from his house. They say: “Don’t trouble the teacher any longer – your little girl is dead.”

The words cut through Jairus’ heart like a knife. “Out of the depths I cry to you O Lord…”

Did this woman’s delaying Jesus cost his daughter her life? I’m sure the thought crossed his mind.  But Jesus overhears the message and turns to Jairus and says, “don’t be afraid, just believe.” And he takes Peter, James, and John – the same three disciples who witnessed his transfiguration – and they go to Jairus’ house. When they get there, the mourners have already arrived, and are grieving loudly.  But Jesus says, “the girl is only sleeping” and puts the mourners out of the house.

Why would Jesus say this? Because certainly the mourners knew otherwise. But Jesus is about to break the same law that the woman broke: he’s about to touch an unclean body – because back then dead bodies were also unclean. What the people didn’t understand – and wouldn’t understand until after Jesus’ resurrection – is that nothing on earth has the power to make Jesus unclean. In fact just the opposite: Jesus is the power of cleanness, of health and of life. When Jesus walks in, sickness is over and death is dead.

So the mom and the dad and the disciples and Jesus go to where the girl is lying; and Jesus takes her hand, and says, “little girl, get up” – and she does!

Imagine her parents. Imagine their faces. Out of the depths… out of the depths they hear Jesus saying, “get her something to eat.”

~~~

David wrote in his psalm:

“O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.” (Ps 130:7)

The woman who was healed is no longer alone. She has been seen, and encouraged, and healed.  And Jairus and his wife are no longer alone – their grief is gone, and their daughter is back!

For us today – Jesus is with us also. We are not alone. Even today, as impossible as it seems sometimes, God still brings life out of death, salvation out of uncleanness, acceptance out of loneliness. Because Jesus went through death himself, and overcame it, that great adversary has been defeated.

In God and with God, we have hope even in the darkest of times.

In God and with God, faith brings outcasts home, and dead people to life.  As someone once said, “our most daring, faithful efforts will be met with God’s merciful, healing touch”[1].

In God and with God, the difference between “life here and now” and “eternal life” is a false dichotomy. In God and with God, eternal life begins now – today – and goes on forever.

And so with David we sing:

“I wait for the Lord; my soul waits; and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning…”

God’s eternal sunrise is coming soon. The dawn is already breaking! AMEN.

[1] SALT

Fathers Day 2024

1 Samuel 15:34 – 16:13  – ³⁴ Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul.  ³⁵ Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the LORD was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel.

The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.”  ² Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the LORD said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’  ³ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you.”  ⁴ Samuel did what the LORD commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?”  ⁵ He said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

⁶ When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is now before the LORD.”  ⁷ But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”  ⁸ Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.”  ⁹ Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.”  ¹⁰ Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has not chosen any of these.”  ¹¹ Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.”  ¹² He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The LORD said, “Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.”  ¹³ Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.

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Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15 A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath Day

It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;  ² to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,  ³ to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.  ⁴ For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

¹² The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.  ¹³ They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God.  ¹⁴ In old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap,  ¹⁵ showing that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

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Mark 4:26-34

²⁶ [Jesus] also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground,  ²⁷ and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.  ²⁸ The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.  ²⁹ But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

³⁰ He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it?  ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;  ³² yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

³³ With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it;  ³⁴ he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

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We have quite a few red-letter days this week! First and foremost, Happy Fathers Day to all you dads!  We also celebrate tomorrow, the birthday of John Wesley, without whom we would not be here this morning. Later on this week, on Thursday the 19^th, we celebrate Juneteenth; and the 19^th is also the 60^th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And then the following day, June 20, is the first day of summer. So we have quite a week ahead of us!

For today – this being Fathers Day – I thought it might be good to consider the question “what does it mean to be a man of God?” Of course as a woman I have no first-hand experience at this, so I’m going to have to rely on the word of God – which is always a good foundation.

The question “what does it mean to be a man of God?” also follows up very well on Cindy’s sermon from last week. She spoke in part about the fact that leaders who serve God flourish, while those who seek their own gain falter; she spoke about the need for all of us to discern between godly men and ungodly men, and also to discern truth from lies in the public marketplace of ideas. She also talked about our need to be personally responsible to God for our own integrity. And her conclusion – that we should not lose heart but rather fix our eyes on God – is both solid and timely advice. In our scriptures for today, we can see these things working out in real life situations.

So what is a ‘man of God’ like? What are his characteristics? Let’s take a look at the men in our scripture readings: the prophet Samuel; David as a shepherd-king; and Jesus as our teacher and saviour. We’ll start with Samuel.

Samuel’s name literally means “God has heard”. His mother named him this because God heard her prayers for a son; and Samuel’s life reflects the truth that God hears his peoples’ prayers. Samuel is a godly man. We see this first in the fact that he is sympathetic to others – in this case toward King Saul.

In today’s reading, we hear God commanding Samuel to anoint David as the next king of Israel – which was very difficult for Samuel to do. But to anoint a king while another king is still living could well be considered an act of treason – and this is not something that was in Samuel’s character to do. On top of that, Samuel liked Saul personally; he wanted Saul to be a good and godly king. But when Saul deliberately disobeyed God’s commands, God told the prophet that Saul’s kingship was over. And Samuel, being a loyal friend to Saul, was deeply grieved. Samuel’s heart was faithful to his friendship with Saul, even though – as it turned out –  the two men never saw each other again on this earth.

The next thing we notice about Samuel is that he communicates openly and honestly with God. Samuel is very up-front with God. This is not always easy because God is perfect and we human beings are not; God is all-powerful and we human beings are not. People tend to be a little shy around the Almighty, because God is so much bigger and better than we are. But Samuel isn’t afraid; he is confident in God’s love.

Because of this, Samuel does what God commands; he says ‘yes’ to God. God says “go and anoint the next king” and Samuel doesn’t argue. He does, however, ask for more information. He says to God, basically, “how can I do this safely? Because if Saul finds out he will kill me” – which is likely true. Notice Samuel does NOT say to God “please find someone else” or “if I do this I’m going to die”. Instead, Samuel asks for guidance; he listens to God’s answer and then does it – both for his own safety and for the sake of the nation.

Then Samuel acts with discretion and wisdom. He travels to Bethlehem and leads a time of worship as God has instructed him, and the people praise God, and everyone is safe. If Samuel had come to Bethlehem and said “don’t tell anyone, but God has told me to anoint David the next king” – it would probably have started a civil war. Instead Samuel speaks peace to the people of Bethlehem, and his real assignment is carried out quietly behind the scenes.

We also see Samuel continuing to listen to God’s voice as he meets the sons of Jesse. As Samuel meets each young man, God says: “No, not this one.” “Nope, not this one either.” Finally Samuel asks, “is this all of your sons?” And when he’s told there’s one more, he says, “bring in the youngest please.” And at last the shepherd-king stands before Samuel, and God says, “anoint this one”.

Samuel was a servant of God his whole life long. For all of us, the younger we start serving God, the better. As the old saying says, one of the greatest gifts we can give our families and our friends (and the world around us) is “a long faithfulness in the same direction.” Samuel served the people, and God, with honesty, discretion, and wisdom – his whole life long.

Next we come to David. We meet David both in Samuel’s story and as the author of our psalm for today.  In Samuel’s story, we meet a young man who has spent most of his life caring for sheep.

Caring for sheep is a common occupation in the Bible. From a social standpoint, shepherds were usually considered sort of the bottom rung of the social ladder, because their work was hard and dirty and smelly. It’s important to remember that Jesus was called both the “son of David” and “the good shepherd”. So if David and Jesus were both good shepherds – and they were – what makes a good shepherd? What does it take to be a good shepherd?

I figured this might be a good question for Google. And it was! I asked Google, and I was taken to a website written by a working shepherd. This shepherd named seven things that shepherds need to be:

1. Tough at heart. Not hard-hearted, but tough in the sense of courageous, ready and able to fight off predators. David himself describes in the scriptures some of the times when he fought off bears and lions with nothing but a slingshot. Today, shepherds have more sophisticated tools, but they still need to be brave and strong to defend the sheep.
2. Willing to work hard. Shepherds provide food for dozens of sheep at a time – and sheep food is physically heavy. Shepherds also, when sheep get stuck somewhere, sometimes have to pick sheep up bodily and carry them to safety. So the job is physically demanding.
3. Willing to be humble. He said even the best shepherd will face difficult, life-and-death decisions.
4. Willing to learn new things – he said, “shepherding takes you out of your comfort zone”.
5. Have great physical endurance –– staying with the sheep in all kinds of weather – in sleet, and snow, and rain – keeping them alive under these conditions.
6. Have the ability to observe – he has to get to know the habits of each sheep personally.
7. Have the patience of a saint – because sheep will try your last nerve. And then again the next day.

So: a shepherd needs to be tough, a hard worker, humble, willing to learn, have great physical endurance, have the ability to observe, and be patient.  David used his time as a shepherd to develop all of these qualities; and he also developed a profound, intimate personal relationship with God. David understood that God shepherds us; and David reflected God’s character when he cared for his sheep.

In addition, David knew how to keep a confidence. His anointing by Samuel had to be kept secret until God’s timing was right. As things turned out, David defeated Goliath; entered the service of King Saul – as a soldier and as a musician; was the king’s son-in-law; and was the best friend to the king’s son Jonathan. David kept Samuel’s secret for 15 years before he finally became king. In all those years he served Saul and his family faithfully.

In our psalm for today, David sings the praises of God. This psalm was written as “a song for the Sabbath Day.” David wrote it for use in worship; for a congregation to sing. And David was a man who knew how to worship.

He sings: “It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;  ² to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night…”  Three thousand years later, people are still singing David’s words. A man of God knows that it’s a good thing to sing thanks and praise to God.

Then last but never least we come to Jesus – who is known as the “son of David”, born in the City of David, Bethlehem.

As a man of God, Jesus teaches God’s truth to the people. He teaches by way of parables – stories that make people think, and ask questions, and really consider God’s words.

Jesus teaches about the Kingdom of God. And he says God’s kingdom is like a mustard seed. I don’t know about you, but as a gardener I’ve never planted mustard seeds. But I hear mustard grows wild in California, and out there it’s considered an invasive plant! It can grow up to six feet tall, it’s very pretty with yellow flowers, but it grows in dense thickets, and basically spreads like crazy. Tough to get rid of once it’s growing.

Jesus says faith is like that.  It starts small, and then grows and spreads like crazy. But we who toss the seeds might not ever get to see the growth. Those of us who follow Jesus, our job is to toss out the seeds – the word of God, the story of Jesus. It’s God’s job to water and grow the seeds. Our job is just to be faithful in the planting.

This past weekend at Annual Conference, our Bishop told us that, according to recent polls, there are over 800,000 people in Western Pennsylvania who have no affiliation with any church or faith. She said to us: this is our mission field! We are not lacking in opportunities! We need to be out there tossing seeds.

So we plant the seeds. And the seeds start small – like a young shepherd. Like a baby in a manger.

Jesus teaches the people that God’s kingdom is real. It may seem to start small but it doesn’t stay small. Like a shepherd boy who grows into a king. Like a carpenter from Galilee who saves the world.

So what does it mean to be a man of God? Adding it all up, a man of God is someone who is willing and able to be:

• Sympathetic to others
• Faithful in friendship
• Communicating openly and honestly with God
• Doing what God asks him to
  • Not without questions – but asking questions as needed
• Listening to God
• Acting with discretion and wisdom
• Having made a lifelong commitment to God
• Speaking peace to people
• Like a shepherd in his care for God’s people
• Singing God’s praises
• Passing God’s truth on to the next generation by tossing the seeds of faith

I don’t know that it’s possible for any one human being to master all of things; but we can certainly shoot for them. And as we do – when we do – we become a blessing to the people around us, to the world around us, and to the generation that follows us.

So we pray today: “Lord, make us faithful; help us to be faithful like Samuel; and like David; and like Jesus. To your honor and glory. AMEN.”

Being God’s Person

1 Samuel 3:1-20  Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli. The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.  ² At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room;  ³ the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was.  ⁴ Then the LORD called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!”  ⁵ and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down.  ⁶ The LORD called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.”  ⁷ Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.  ⁸ The LORD called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy.  ⁹ Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

¹⁰ Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”  ¹¹ Then the LORD said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.  ¹² On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.  ¹³ For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.  ¹⁴ Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.”

¹⁵ Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli.  ¹⁶ But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” He said, “Here I am.”  ¹⁷ Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.”  ¹⁸ So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, “It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to him.”

¹⁹ As Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.  ²⁰ And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD.

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Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 To the leader. Of David. A Psalm

O LORD, you have searched me and known me.  ² You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.  ³ You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.  ⁴ Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely.  ⁵ You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.  ⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.

¹³ For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  ¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.  ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.  ¹⁶ Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.  ¹⁷ How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!  ¹⁸ I try to count them– they are more than the sand; I come to the end– I am still with you.

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Mark 2:23 – 3:6 One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.  ²⁴ The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?”  ²⁵ And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food?  ²⁶ He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.”  ²⁷ Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath;  ²⁸ so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand.  ² They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him.  ³ And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.”  ⁴ Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.  ⁵ He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.  ⁶ The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

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If today’s group of scripture readings were a bouquet of flowers, we would have a very odd mix of shapes and colors in this bouquet! We have an Old Testament lesson that’s often associated with the Advent season; we have a Gospel lesson on the subject of Sabbath-keeping (which I’ve already preached on a bit); and we have a Psalm written by King David that focuses on God as our Creator and Designer.

Seems like there’s nothing in common between these three; but after some time looking them over, I began to detect a common theme, and that is: how to be – how to go about being – God’s person in a world that encourages us to be anything but.

We see, for example, Jesus being confronted by the Pharisees, and yet remaining faithful; we see Samuel living in a place where he is surrounded by corruption, and he remains faithful; and we see King David wrestling with uncertainties that come from within, but still he praises God. So how did these people remain God’s people in difficult circumstances? And how can we do the same?

I’ll start off with the psalm. As he writes this psalm, King David is, mentally and emotionally, in a place where he has become very aware of just how totally and thoroughly God knows him. For every one of us imperfect human beings, to stop and think about how well God knows us can be a bit… awkward? Unnerving? To think about the fact that God knows every thought, every daydream, every little thing we do… as David says, ‘God, you know when I sit down, you know when I get up, you can see my very thoughts, you know every word before I speak it’. David says, “such knowledge is too wonderful for me.” And the word wonderful here does not mean “how exciting!” but rather “how incomprehensible!” It goes beyond understanding, how well God knows us.

David says, “How weighty to me are your thoughts – how vast the sum of them!” But in the end, after David has tried to take in all the fullness of God’s knowledge, he says – with the confidence of a child who knows his Father loves him – “I come to the end – and I am still with you.”

David is so very much God’s person!

Was David perfect? No; far from it. He messed up bigtime sometimes, including committing adultery with Bathsheba and then arranging for the death of her husband Uriah. But David knows God. He is confident in God’s love, because he knows that the content of God’s character doesn’t depend on what David does. David knows – maybe because he’s been forgiven so much – just how much love God is capable of.  There is no fear in God’s love. Human love is never perfect. We try; but things can go wrong sometimes. Wires can get crossed. But not with God. I think we can relate to David when he says, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it’s too much to grasp.”

We can feel David’s love for God in this psalm – it’s very personal and very deep. David wrote this psalm not just as an ‘I love you’ to God but also for use in worship. He wrote these words so that we can use them to express our love for God. This is a good psalm to make into a prayer – on Sunday or any day.

David’s final words are “I come to the end – and I am still with you.” It’s the contentment of a child in his Father’s arms.

How can we be God’s person? Like David, we can be confident in God’s love. We can receive God’s love. Sometimes it’s easier to give love than it is to receive it, because giving is a position of strength, and receiving is a position of vulnerability and trust. If we have confidence in God, and confidence in God’s love for us, it leads to confidence in living – in spite of the fact we’re not perfect. We have a God who forgives. We have a Lord Jesus who died so that we could be forgiven.  We are God’s people when we trust that God loves us.

With this as a solid foundation, we can now turn to our Old Testament reading from Samuel; and we need the foundation of love as we enter into this tragic story. In this reading from I Samuel, we see the prophet Samuel as a boy – probably ten to twelve years of age – living in the temple and serving as the assistant to the high priest, Eli.

Samuel is the son of Hannah, a woman who had been unable to conceive for many years, and she prayed and promised God that if God would just give her a son, she would dedicate him to the Lord’s service. She kept that promise, and that’s how Samuel ended up serving in the temple at such a young age.

One night, while everyone was sleeping, God called to Samuel. Samuel mistook God’s voice for Eli’s voice, and he went running to Eli – but it wasn’t Eli who’d called him. This happened two more times. Eli finally figures out that God is calling the boy, and he tells Samuel to say, “speak Lord for your servant is listening” (which by the way is pretty good prayer to pray just about anytime).

Samuel obeys Eli, and God shares with Samuel some tragic news: the house of Eli is about to fall, because Eli’s sons have been blaspheming God over and over. Specifically, they have been verbally abusing the worshippers that came to the temple; they have been stealing the offerings people were giving to God and claiming them for themselves; and they were forcing the female servants in the temple to have sex with them. Eli, their father, didn’t take part in any of this, but he didn’t stop them either.

Can you imagine what it was like being in Samuel’s shoes the next morning? Samuel loved Eli – Eli was like a father to him. The Bible says “Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli.” (v 15)

Samuel lay awake the rest of the night.

In the morning, Eli called for Samuel and commanded him to speak. He said:

“May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.”

So Samuel told Eli everything.

Eli was honest enough to acknowledge the message was true and had indeed come from the Lord. He said, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.” It sounds like Eli has completely given up… which was probably the root of the problem.

As a result of this – and scripture doesn’t tell us exactly how this came about – but the people of Israel began to see Samuel as a faithful servant of God; they learned they could take both their concerns and their offerings to Samuel, and Samuel wouldn’t mistreat them. Scripture says, “all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba [that is, from the north to the south] knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD.” (v. 20)

Samuel’s story shows us a young man who is honest and faithful; a man whose life encourages us to stay faithful to God, even in a world – especially in a world – where people frequently blaspheme God.  Blasphemy is an old-fashioned word basically meaning insulting or showing contempt… for God. Or in the case of Eli’s sons, misrepresenting God – putting lies in God’s mouth – saying that God said things that God never said.

How can we be God’s people in a world where these things happen every day? Where people misrepresent God, and teach things as Gospel truth that cannot be found in the gospel? Where people twist or misuse the scriptures or the sacraments?

Samuel gives us an example: listen to God, be faithful to God, share God’s word with honesty and compassion. God’s word, spoken honestly, contains the power of heaven – and people who hear it, will trust it.

Finally, saving the best for last, we have our Gospel reading about Jesus. The passage we heard this morning deals with Sabbath-keeping: what is or is not permissible on the Sabbath?  As I’ve mentioned before, the Sabbath is meant to be a gift from God for God’s people. But during Jesus’ time there were so many rules and regulations about how to observe or not observe the Sabbath that it had become – in many ways – a burden rather than a joy.

In Mark’s gospel we are given two examples of times when the Pharisees questioned the way Jesus was keeping the Sabbath.  The first example, about picking grain and eating it on the Sabbath, is a bit outside our 21^st century experience both from a cultural and a religious standpoint. But the second example makes a lot of sense to us. I’ll pick up in Mark chapter three, verse one.

Jesus is in the synagogue, and a man is there who has a withered hand. This would have been not only painful but it would have limited his ability to make a living and care for his family. The reading says “they [that is, the religious authorities] were watching [Jesus] to see if he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they could accuse him.”

Jesus does indeed heal on the Sabbath. He calls the man forward in front of the whole congregation. He asks:

“Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?”

No one dares to answer Jesus. Mark says, “he looked around at them in anger… [and] he was grieved at their hardness of heart.” Why would it NOT be God’s will for someone to be healed on the Sabbath? The Sabbath is supposed to be a blessing for God’s people! It was never meant to be an excuse for not helping someone in need. So Jesus says to the man, “stretch out your hand” – and the hand was restored. Imagine the joy this man and his family shared when he got home!

But the Pharisees went out with the Herodians – their political enemies, opposing parties! – and conspired about how to destroy Jesus. And correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t believe conspiracy was lawful on the Sabbath – or any other time!

Looking at Jesus’ example – how does this show us how to be God’s person when the world around us doesn’t approve? Like Jesus, we can do good for people in need, even if it’s not popular; even if we’re criticized for doing it. We can provide – as we often do – food, clothing, Bibles – things that God has given us to share.

We’ve seen today three things we can do to live as people of God, in a world that may not approve:

1. Like David, we can be confident in God’s love – knowing that God’s love doesn’t depend on us.
2. Like Samuel, we can listen to God, be faithful to God, and share God’s word with honesty and compassion.
3. Like Jesus, we can do good for people in need – even if it’s not popular.

Finally, God has placed within each of us specific gifts to share. How and where do the gifts God has given us connect with the needs of today’s world? This is something to pray about… so let’s do that. Let’s pray.

Lord, we have seen this morning how Your people responded to Your call to be the people of God. We ask you now: call us to be Your people. Show us how we can be faithful to You in our own time. Help us to see what you’ve given us that we can share with our world in Your name and for Your honor and glory. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.

Trinity and Aldersgate

Isaiah 6:1-8 – In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple.  ² Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.  ³ And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”  ⁴ The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.  ⁵ And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

⁶ Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.  ⁷ The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.”  ⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”

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John 3:1-17 – Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.  ² He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”  ³ Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”  ⁴ Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”  ⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.  ⁶ What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.  ⁷ Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’  ⁸ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  ⁹ Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”  ¹⁰ Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?  ¹¹ “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.  ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?  ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.  ¹⁴ And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  ¹⁷ “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

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For the past few weeks we have had Sundays on which multiple holidays were being observed, and today we continue with that trend! Today is Trinity Sunday – a day to reflect on the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  This past Friday was also Aldersgate Day (which we observe today) – the day when John Wesley had an experience of the Holy Spirit that basically launched the Methodist movement. And I should also mention that on this day in history, back in 1521, the German monk Martin Luther was declared “an outlaw and a heretic” by the Edict of Worms – which basically launched the Protestant Church.

So we’ve got some rich history today!  Without Martin Luther there would never have been a Protestant movement; and without the Wesleys we would not be sitting where we are sitting where we are today. And of course, without the Trinity, none of these things would have happened!

Looking at all three of these events… it’s fairly easy to see how we got to where we are today; but it’s not all that easy to understand how these things happened at the time. What I mean is this: Why was it that the Catholic Church back in 1521 couldn’t see that Luther was speaking the truth? They know now that Luther was right – but why not back then? Why was it that John and Charles Wesley both had been priests for years before they were sure they were saved? And the answers to both of those questions were influenced by how people understood and experienced their relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Answering these questions in detail would take longer than we have this morning. I recommend to your reading any parts of the journals of the Wesleys, or any of the writings of Martin Luther that you can find on Google. For today, though, here’s where we’re headed:

I’ll start off with a brief description of the Trinity. Then we’ll take a look at what today’s scripture readings tell us about the Trinity – first in Isaiah and then in the Gospel of John. And finally we’ll listen to what John and Charles Wesley had to say as they struggled to understand God, and what it means to really have a living faith as a Christian.

So starting off with a brief description of the Trinity: God is a mystery in so many ways! When we really think about God, our minds boggle. When we go out on a starry night and look up at the sky and try to imagine the One who created every star, and every planet that revolves around every star, and every living thing on every one of those planets… God is way beyond anything we can grasp. For most of us it’s enough to know that God is big enough, and powerful enough, and creative enough, and enough of an artist and a scientist, to design, create, and maintain everything we see around us. I like what one website had to say about creation:

“Describing the nature of God is not rocket science – it’s more difficult than that!”[1]

The second thing I want to mention is that the word ‘trinity’ is not found in the Bible. In fact if anything the Old Testament seems to argue against the concept. God says at the very beginning of the Ten Commandments: “Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One… and you shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Deut 6:4-5) Jesus said this was the greatest commandment ever given, and that the second was like it: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

The idea of the Trinity grew out of the early church – during the first few hundred years after Jesus’ resurrection. The concept came about as people talked about the Old Testament scriptures alongside their own experiences of God. Here’s the complexity they were trying to describe:

Jesus said, “the Father and I are One.” (John 10:30) So when the disciples were talking to Jesus, they were also talking to God; and when Jesus spoke, he spoke God’s words with God’s authority.

At the same time, Jesus sometimes spoke about God the Father as being distinct from himself. Jesus said the Father had sent him. Jesus prayed to God while he was on this earth – and this was not Jesus talking to himself, he was talking to God.

Jesus also taught the disciples that the Holy Spirit is a guiding presence in the lives of God’s people, and that the Spirit would arrive on Pentecost. Jesus described the Spirit as “power from on high” – and he said the Spirit couldn’t come to us while Jesus was still on earth, which is why Jesus needed to ascend to God before the Spirit could descend (so to speak).

So we see in scripture that God is God, and Jesus is also God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and God is the Creator, and Jesus is the Redeemer and the Holy Spirit is the Comforter. And these three roles generally speaking don’t overlap.

I like to sum it up this way:

“In a world saturated with divine presence, we have a God ‘in whom we live and move and have our being.’”[2]

God the Father created us; Jesus saves us; the Holy Spirit indwells us… and yet all three persons are one God. (Does this make sense? If yes – great! If not – you’re in good company!)

Turning to our scripture from Isaiah, at first glance this passage seems to have very little to do with the Trinity. The prophet Isaiah is describing a vision of God that he sees while he’s in the temple. This is a mystery to begin with: how could God fit inside the temple? Isaiah himself said, “the hem of his robe filled the temple”. In other words, God can’t begin to fit inside this building – just his hem is enough to fill it, metaphorically speaking. And yet, in some very real way, God is present in the temple.

One of the interesting things about the Old Testament is that, in ancient times, it was totally OK to be faced with a mystery without feeling compelled to solve it. In our culture today we like to have everything analyzed and explained. How did this get here? What caused it? How did it happen? What is it made of? There are good reasons why we ask these questions.

But in the ancient world it was perfectly OK to say, “this represents God in a way that we don’t fully understand” – and just leave it at that. So Isaiah doesn’t feel it necessary to explain what he’s telling us. We do, however, see hints of the Trinity in this passage. First off, God is called holy, holy, holy – three times holy.

Second, God says, “who shall go for us?” – with the word ‘us’ being plural. Is this kind of like the British “royal we” – where the king always talks about himself in the plural? Or was God talking about the other persons of the Trinity, when God said ‘we’? Isaiah’s words are not clear on that; the question remains open.

Then in his vision, Isaiah sees himself as “a man of unclean lips living among a people of unclean lips”. But God provides the cleansing – which parallels what Jesus does for us – and then God asks, “Whom shall I send?” – a question that’s frequently asked by the Holy Spirit. So we catch a glimpse here of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, working together but not specifically named. Isaiah, of course, answers God’s question by saying: “send me”.

Next we turn to the Gospel of John, chapter three, where we see Jesus in conversation with the Pharisee Nicodemus. We looked at this passage not too long ago, leading up to Calvary. Today we look at this conversation again, more in terms of the ‘new birth’ that Jesus describes. Jesus says that God’s people are “born of water and the Spirit” – that is, physical birth and spiritual birth. Both of these things need to happen in order for a person to have eternal life. Jesus explains it this way: “what is born of the flesh is flesh, what is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  And the fact that human beings can be described as both flesh and spirit – it’s a kind of duality, and an echo of God’s image in us.

But in order for life in the Spirit to be open to all of us, Jesus must go to the Cross. He says to Nicodemus: just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so that all who looked at it would live, so Jesus will be lifted up (on the cross) so that all who believe in him can be cured of sin and live.

The Holy Spirit plays a part in bringing people into God’s Kingdom through being ‘born again’ or ‘born anew’ as Jesus says. So it’s God’s love + Jesus’ sacrifice + the Holy Spirit’s new birth that adds up to salvation for humankind. It’s a mystery that’s not easily understood.

But with all of this as backdrop let’s listen now to the witness of John and Charles Wesley.

The Wesley brothers were raised in a deeply religious household by their father, Samuel, who was a pastor, and their mother, Susanna, who was also a brilliant theologian in her own right. So the Wesley boys were “PKs” – preachers’ kids. If you’ve known any PKs, you know preachers’ kids typically struggle with their faith, because it’s not easy to be raised as children in a church that’s run by your parents. Talk about living in a fishbowl! PKs tend to be a little bit rebellious and they ask a lot of questions and they really wrestle with the faith. I have been blessed to be friends with a number of PK’s in my life, and I love them dearly because they’re very insightful and they ask good questions. And when they wrestle with the faith it’s an honest wrestling.

Both John and Charles grew up and attended seminary at a college called Christ Church in Oxford. Christ Church College is a stunningly gorgeous place! It was built in the 1400s or 1500s and it contains fountains, and flower gardens with walls around them, and a chapel decorated in marble and gold. If you’ve ever seen the Harry Potter movies, some of the exteriors of Hogwarts were filmed at Christ Church Oxford, and the dining hall in those movies was inspired by the dining hall at Christ Church Oxford. Christ Church is one of my favorite places on the planet – I never get tired of wandering around that campus!

The thing is – as John and Charles Wesley quickly realized – Christ Church Oxford is the world’s pinnacle of privilege. It’s the best of the best of the best. Both of the Wesley boys were accepted into the school on academic merit; they were not rich enough to afford it; they were good enough scholars. And now they were surrounded by the kind of wealth that most people can’t even imagine. And they realized that, in many places (not all places) the Church of England back in the 1700s was often attended by people with wealth; church was a place to be ‘seen’.

At the same time, literally only a few blocks from Christ Church, stood the Oxford Castle and Prison. This was a place for criminals, but not just hardened criminals. Pickpockets, petty thieves, and back in those days it was even a crime to be in debt. People who couldn’t pay their debts were thrown in prison. How you’re supposed to earn money to pay off your debts while you’re sitting in prison is a mystery – and of course it was a misery as well, for the debtors’ wives and children.

John and Charles Wesley looked at this system, and they saw injustice, and they heard the call of scripture to show mercy to the poor and the hurting. They and their friends pledged themselves to be members of a “Holy Club”: to study scripture together and pray together, and lead disciplined Christian lives, and finding ways to do good for people in the prison: collecting money; educating their children (schools were not free back then); teaching housewives the basics of first aid and medicine.

This kind of practical, down-to-earth spirituality was considered a bit methodical by the Wesley’s classmates, who poked fun at them and called them ‘Method-ists’ – and the name stuck. What was meant as an insult, the Holy Spirit took as an honor.

The Wesleys did all these things motivated by their intellectual understanding of the scriptures. The Bible says ‘do this’ so we do it. The Bible is God’s word and we believe in God.

But the Wesleys had a nagging feeling that this wasn’t enough. So they signed on to travel to the New World – to be missionaries to the Colonies (back before the Colonies were America) – and they ended up in Georgia.

Things didn’t go very well for them there. Charles really didn’t like Georgia – I gather it was too hot and humid for him – and he went back home to England pretty quickly. John stayed for awhile in hopes of reaching the Native Americans with the gospel. Meanwhile one of the young women at his church in Savannah developed an interest in Mr. Wesley – and he was not really in the mood to be interested in. Let’s just say things did not go well. John Wesley slipped out of the colonies and hightailed it back to England.

John and Charles both – separately but at the same time – went through a period of deep discouragement. They had worked hard; they had taught and preached about the faith well; but their experience in the colonies left them questioning their own salvation. They knew all the right stuff; they were doing all the right things; but their hearts were discouraged. At the same time they both noticed a kind of spirituality in a movement from Germany called Moravian. John said the Moravians were passionate in prayer, fearless in adversity, cheerful with each other, free of evil speech.

John writes that he was starting to say to himself, “I should give up preaching. How can I preach to others, [when I don’t] have faith myself?” You can hear how down he was. And he shared this thought with [a Moravian preacher friend], and asked whether he should [quit preaching]. [His Moravian friend] answered “By no means.” And John asked, “But what can I preach?” His friend said, “Preach faith till you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.”

I suspect his Moravian friend saw more in John Wesley than Wesley saw in himself in that moment. Around that same time John wrote:

“I went to America to convert the Indians; but, oh, who shall convert me?”

God rarely leaves questions like that un-answered for very long. I think most of us are familiar with the story of how John found himself one night attending a Moravian meeting in Aldersgate, London, on May 24, where he “felt his heart strangely warmed” – and his life was never the same after that.

But today I’d like to share with you more about Charles Wesley’s story. Charles’ story is not as well-known, or as dramatic… but for myself, I’ve always found his story inspiring because he’s a musician, and I can relate to that.

Charles’ experience with the Holy Spirit happened three days before John’s. It was Pentecost Sunday – May 21, 1738. On that day, Charles opened his Bible for a word from God, and put his finger on a text that described in detail the mighty work of God in his life. The passage was Psalm 40:3 and it said:

“He hath put a new song in my mouth…. Many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord.”

This became a prophetic word in Charles’ life: he went on to write thousands of new songs – most of them hymns – some of them even set to music by the composer George Frederick Handel of Messiah fame.

Charles describes his experience of fully coming to faith in a hymn called And Can It Be.  I love this hymn; it’s one of my favorites. Three days after this hymn was written, John had his “heartwarming” experience.

After these things happened, the brothers found that many churches and pulpits were closed to them; the society people in London didn’t consider it ‘proper’ to be ‘enthusiastic’ about your faith. So the brothers took to the fields and the factories and the town squares… anywhere where people would listen to the Good News of Jesus.

The emphasis John and Charles placed on the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer went on to influence the Holiness movement, the Pentecostal movement, and the Charismatic movement, as well as the Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church. And the Church of England was influenced, too, whether they like to admit it or not.

I’d like to finish the story of John and Charles Wesley today by reading Charles’ own description of his conversion… And Can It Be.  If you like you can follow with me in the hymnal – It’s #363  Charles wrote:

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

‘Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies!
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love Divine!
’Tis mercy all! let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more.

He left His Father’s throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace;
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free;
For, O my God, it found out me.

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness Divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

AMEN.

Trinity Sunday – Aldersgate Sunday – May 26, 2024

[1] https://cmj-israel.org/learn/mystery-trinity

[2] SALT, https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/6/1/relationships-are-who-we-are-salts-lectionary-commentary-for-trinity-sunday

Pentecost 2024

Acts 2:1-21 – When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  ² And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  ³ Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

⁵ Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.  ⁶ And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.  ⁷ Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?  ⁸ And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?  ⁹ Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,  ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,  ¹¹ Cretans and Arabs– in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”  ¹² All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”  ¹³ But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

¹⁴ But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.  ¹⁵ Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.  ¹⁶ No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:  ¹⁷ ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.  ¹⁸ Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.  ¹⁹ And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.  ²⁰ The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.  ²¹ Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

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Psalm 104:24-35 – ²⁴ O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.  ²⁵ Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great.  ²⁶ There go the ships, and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.  ²⁷ These all look to you to give them their food in due season;  ²⁸ when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.  ²⁹ When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.  ³⁰ When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.  ³¹ May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works–  ³² who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke.  ³³ I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.  ³⁴ May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD.

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John 15:26-27 ²⁶ “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf.  ²⁷ You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

John 16:4-15 “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.  ⁵ But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’  ⁶ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.  ⁷ Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.  ⁸ And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:  ⁹ about sin, because they do not believe in me;  ¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer;  ¹¹ about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

¹² “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  ¹³ When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.  ¹⁴ He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.  ¹⁵ All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

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The arrival of the Holy Spirit – promised by Jesus in the gospel of John, and coming on the disciples as we heard in the book of Acts – took place 50 days after Easter, after Jesus’ resurrection.

For us in the church today, it’s the beginning of what some churches call “ordinary time” – no more changing of colors (except for Trinity Sunday), and no more big holidays until we get to Advent. The season of Pentecost is, for us – for the church – a time for growing in the faith, for studying scripture, and for growing as the Body of Christ, and that’s what we hope to be doing for most of the rest of this church year.

But today we celebrate the arrival of the third Person of the Trinity. Pentecost is sometimes called “the birthday of the church” and rightfully so.

Christianity of course grew out of the Jewish faith; and Pentecost is related to the Jewish holiday of the Festival of Weeks. This was a harvest festival, 50 days after Passover, and the focus of the celebration was on the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mt Sinai. At that time God revealed Godself and God’s plan to God’s people through the Ten Commandments. So it’s fitting that God reveals Godself even further on Pentecost through the sending of the Holy Spirit.

In Jewish history, the coming of the Holy Spirit was predicted by the prophet Joel, who wrote:

“it shall come to pass afterward, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days I will pour out my spirit.” (Joel 2:28-29)

Today, on Pentecost, we celebrate the fulfillment of God’s word as given by the prophet Joel.

So let’s dig into the story, starting with the events in Acts chapter two. As the scene opens, the disciples are gathered together in Jerusalem, in obedience to Jesus’ command on Ascension Day – when he told the disciples to “stay in Jerusalem until they have been clothed with power from on high.”

Where exactly in Jerusalem the disciples are, the Bible doesn’t say; but it seems from what’s described in this passage that they were somewhere near the Temple. We believe this is true because the house where they were gathered had crowds of people outside it – people from all over the known world who were going to the temple to worship. And the crowds passing on the street outside were close enough to hear what was happening in the house.

All of a sudden there was a loud sound like a rushing wind, and tongues of fire appeared, one flame resting on each person in the room. (Side note: in both Hebrew and Greek, the word “wind” is the same word as “Spirit” – so this truly is the arrival of the Holy Spirit.) The Spirit filled the disciples – both men and women – and they began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit led.

Nothing like this has ever happened in Scripture before. This was something totally new that God was doing. And these were not made-up languages: they were real foreign languages that the people on the street outside could hear and understand. The people outside – who were from all over – stopped and listened as they heard people praising God and telling about God’s great deeds of power in their own languages!

These people who were listening responded in a variety of ways – which is usually what happens when God’s truth is being shared. When Jesus taught, he was called a prophet by some people and a madman by others. When the apostle Paul taught, some people said he ‘had the voice of a god’ and other people tried to stone him. God’s word always bring different reactions; and those reactions say more about the people listening than they do about the message. God’s word is truth, and God’s word reveals hearts.

In this case, on that first Pentecost Day, in the crowd outside the room, some people were curious. They asked, “What does this mean?” They wanted to know more. Some people were amazed; some people were troubled; some were confused; some poked fun and said ‘aaaah, they’re just drunk’. If the first disciples got this wide a variety of reactions to the sharing of the gospel, we should not be surprised when we also get a variety of reactions to God’s word when we share it. God’s word reveals hearts.

At this point, Peter rises to the occasion and preaches the very first Christian sermon. He tells the crowd: the people you are hearing are not drunk – it’s too early in the morning to be drinking. What you hear is the coming of the Holy Spirit that the prophet Joel predicted (as we read a few moments ago). Peter quotes Joel’s prophecy, and then he continues with more of what Joel said:

“in those days I will pour out my spirit… I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Joel 2:30-32)

So the very first Christian sermon ever preached, was preached on the second chapter of Joel, and the message was: “The Day of the Lord is coming!” And the Day of the Lord is not something pleasant in this message: it is darkness and blood and a dreadful day. But “all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

So if we think our days are dark… that the times we live in are dreadful…  the Day of the Lord is coming, and it won’t be easy. BUT “all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

You might say that this was the first-ever altar call. And BTW the word “all” in this verse means “all”. All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone, no exceptions.

Side note: Miracles alone are not enough to lead people to faith. Hearing people speaking in tongues caught the crowd’s attention – but it didn’t make believers out of them. It is the word of God spoken that brings people to faith. It is the word of God alone that has the power to change lives, and to save people from the troubles in this world.

And by the power of the Holy Spirit, and by the word of God preached by Peter, three thousand people were added to the church that day. In the morning there had only been a few dozen members of the church; now there were three thousand.

So for us today, what does all this mean? For God’s people as a body of believers, what is God’s word for us today?

First, many theologians have pointed out – rightly so – that Pentecost reverses the curse of the Tower of Babel back in the book of Genesis. Many of us remember that story from Sunday School. This took place back before Abraham, before Moses, before Israel, in the very early days of human civilization. The book of Genesis says:

[At that time] the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. [And they learned to make bricks] 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” 5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower… 6 And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” (Genesis 11:1-9, selected)

This is a story that’s meant to explain why there are so many different peoples and nations and languages on the planet. But from a spiritual point of view, the problem God was dealing with was basically human cockiness. The people say, “Let us build for ourselves… let us make a name for ourselves…” – that’s what the people were saying. Of course, God’s word and God’s law had not been given yet, so people didn’t know right from wrong, at least not very clearly. So to keep them from going too far too fast – and to keep them from imagining it was even possible to build one’s way to heaven – God created different languages and divided the people up into different groups.

But here, today, on Pentecost, that curse is reversed. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the disciples are speaking in tongues, and all the people are hearing the same message in their own languages. What’s more, the crowd that is listening on that first Pentecost day is extremely diverse: migrants from all over the world, men and women, slave and free, from north and south and east and west, every race and tongue – everyone heard God’s word in their own languages, and the new church members represented all these peoples and groups. What’s more, in that new church – as Luke records in the book of Acts – “all the people held all their possessions in common, and gave to anyone as was needed.” No one lacked for anything in the early church. Everyone was provided for. So the Spirit brought a re-unification of people that hasn’t been seen since before the Tower of Babel.

Second, Pentecost brings to reality what Jesus taught in John’s gospel. Jesus said that this gift coming from heaven would be a paraclete – a word whose meanings include “comforter”, “helper”, “advocate” (that is, in the legal sense), or “intercessor”. This is what the Holy Spirit does. The Spirit testifies to the truth of Jesus as the Son of God; and the Spirit’s presence will be better for us – in this life – than Jesus actually being physically here on earth. As Jesus remarked, he was very limited when he was here physically in this world. But now, having gone back to God, Jesus can send the Spirit to guide all believers everywhere at all times.  The Holy Spirit will guide us into truth, and the Spirit will give all glory to Jesus.

Side note of course: if all the glory is going to Jesus, it is not going to human beings – which is one way, when we’re listening to celebrities, politicians, religious leaders, business leaders, newscasters – powerful people of any kind – when they talk about God or Christianity, if they are promoting themselves, they’re fakes. Charlatans glorify themselves; people who speak the truth, who speak by the power of the Spirit, give glory to God and not to themselves. People who speak by the power of the Holy Spirit give all glory to Jesus.

Third, the Holy Spirit gathers the church – the body of believers – and opens opportunities for ministry. The church can exist without a building, and in fact it did for many hundreds of years, and still does in countries where it’s illegal to be Christian. It is the Spirit who teaches us to believe in Jesus; it is the Spirit who builds the household of God; and it is the Spirit who leads us in fulfilling God’s mission and God’s calling. The church, gathered by the Holy Spirit, is at once both simpler and more profound than anything the world has to offer.

When I think of Pentecost, of the movement of the Holy Spirit in our times, I often think back to the Jesus People movement back in the early 1970s. One of the very first Christian rock bands, back in the days before there was such a thing as a ‘Christian rock band’, was called 2nd Chapter of Acts (appropriately for Pentecost). One of the singers in the band describes on her website how she came to believe in Jesus (and I’m shortening this for time):

She had met a few of the Jesus People, and she wrote:

“These Jesus People… claimed to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I wanted the same Spirit to fill my life. A group of Jesus People gathered around me… praying for me and singing in the Spirit. Suddenly I had a vision of heaven. I saw Jesus. I loved him so much! I started toward him… but I could not touch him… because of my sin. Somehow I knew I could never earn His favor… I kept thinking “how could he love me?”

And she fell asleep that night asking, “How could God love me?” and she woke up the next morning saying, “How can he love me so much?” She had come to faith in her sleep that night! The next day she shared these words with her friends: “All I know is that I love Jesus. And Jesus loves me.”

These are simple words of a new faith, but a profound experience of the Spirit. The Jesus People back then had no degrees in theology; they had no idea from a scriptural point of view what they were doing; and most of what they knew they learned from a friend while sitting cross-legged on someone’s living room floor.

But the power of the Holy Spirit was there – and they welcomed into the faith the hurting, and the hungry, and the poor, and the addicted… and people of different races and nationalities and backgrounds – much like the first Christians on Pentecost welcomed people from all over the known world. And if these kids had any theology it was learned from Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.

It was a simpler time back then. Was the movement perfect? No. Were there issues? Yes. Were there people who hung out just to make a profit selling love beads? Yes. But on the whole, at that time, this movement of faith was sweet and simple and real, and very much led by the Holy Spirit. And I have a feeling that we as a society may be on the edge of a movement of the Spirit like that again. I’m keeping eyes open for it.

With that thought in mind, let me close with words from one of the most famous converts of that era – Bob Dylan. We don’t hear as much from him these days – he’s now 82 years old – but he wrote a song a few decades ago that’s basically a prayer. It’s called “What Can I Do For You?” and these are the words:

“You have given everything to me
What can I do for You?
You have given me eyes to see
What can I do for You?

“You have laid down Your life for me
What can I do for You?
You have explained every mystery
What can I do for You?

“Pulled me out of bondage and You made me renewed inside
Filled up a hunger that had always been denied
Opened up a door no man can shut and You opened it up so wide…
What can I do for You?”

On this Pentecost may this be our prayer. AMEN.

Pentecost – May 18, 2024

Ascension and Mothers Day

Scriptures for Ascension

Psalm 47 To the leader. Of the Korahites. A Psalm

Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy.  ² For the LORD, the Most High, is awesome, a great king over all the earth.  ³ He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet.  ⁴ He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah  ⁵ God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.  ⁶ Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises.  ⁷ For God is the king of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm.  ⁸ God is king over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.  ⁹ The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted.

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Ephesians 1:15-23

¹⁵ I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason  ¹⁶ I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.  17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him,  18 so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints,  19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.  20 God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,  21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.  22 And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church,  ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

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Luke 24:44-53

⁴ Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you– that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”  ⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,  ⁴⁶ and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day,  ⁴⁷ and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  ⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things.  ⁴⁹ And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”  ⁵⁰ Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them.  ⁵¹ While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.  ⁵² And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy;  ⁵³ and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

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 Scriptures for the Seventh Week of Easter

 Acts 1:1-12

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning  2 until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.  3 After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.  4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me;  5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”  7 He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.  8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.  10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.  11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”  12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away.

Acts 1:15-17  In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) and said,  ¹⁶ “Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus–  ¹⁷ for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.”

Acts 1:21-26   ²¹ So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,  ²² beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us– one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.”  ²³ So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias.  ²⁴ Then they prayed and said, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen  ²⁵ to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.”  ²⁶ And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.

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Psalm 1:1-6

Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;  ² but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.  ³ They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.  ⁴ The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.  ⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;  ⁶ for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

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1 John 5:9-13

⁹ If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son.  ¹⁰ Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son.  ¹¹ And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  ¹² Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.  ¹³ I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

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John 17:6-19   “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.  ⁷ Now they know that everything you have given me is from you;  ⁸ for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.  9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.  10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.  11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.  ¹² While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.  ¹³ But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.  ¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.  ¹⁵ I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.  ¹⁶ They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.  ¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  ¹⁸ As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

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Happy Mothers Day – to all mothers, grandmothers, stepmothers, future mothers, and all who celebrate their mothers! Today is also the final Sunday of the Easter season: next week begins Pentecost. And today we also observe Ascension Day.

Ascension was actually this past Thursday – 40 days after Easter – but we will be talking about it today. In fact the focus of most of our scriptures today is on the Ascension. The end of the Easter season has a lot of connections to this event… which makes sense: Jesus’ resurrection logically brings us to the Ascension.

There are additional scripture passages that have to do with this week in the church year – more than we have time to read this morning; but to give just one example: the disciples who witnessed Jesus’ ascension would have been immediately reminded of the Old Testament story in II Kings where the prophet Elijah ascended into heaven. Elijah is the one prophet in the Old Testament who never died. He’s also the one prophet who joined Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. When Elijah’s time came to leave the earth, the prophet Elisha – who was a prophet-in-training so to speak – was with him. The two men were traveling, and Elijah kept saying to Elisha “stay here, I need to go on ahead.” But Elisha kept saying to him, “as the Lord lives and as you live I will not leave you.”  Finally Elijah said to Elisha, “what is it you want? What can I do for you before I am taken from you?”  Elisha answered, “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit.”

What a bold thing to ask! Back in those days the Holy Spirit was not well known. Only a few men and women of God had ever received the Holy Spirit. Elijah was one of them. And Elijah said to Elisha, “you’ve asked a difficult thing; but if you see me when I’m taken from you, it will be yours.”  Not long after that, a chariot of fire appeared and separated the two men, and Elijah was taken into heaven in a whirlwind. And Elisha cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elijah disappeared into heaven. Elisha saw it all; so his request was granted.

As witnesses of Jesus’ ascension, the disciples would certainly have remembered Elijah’s ascension, and they would certainly have remembered the work of the Holy Spirit in that event. So what happened between Elijah and Elisha very much ties in with both Ascension and Pentecost.

The version of Jesus’ ascension which we read in Luke’s gospel is a shortened version of what he wrote in the beginning of the book of Acts. In Luke’s gospel, the apostle mentions the disciples feeling doubtful and confused as to why Jesus had to go. The disciples knew the story about Elijah but they didn’t understand why Jesus couldn’t stay.

This happens a lot in the life of faith: we can know the scriptures without really understanding the whys sometimes. But praise God, Jesus doesn’t leave us with our questions. We need Jesus – just as the disciples did – to teach us and guide us into the future.

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus leaves the disciples with these instructions. He says: You are my witnesses. You will be the ones to proclaim to all the nations repentance and forgiveness of sins in My name. But before you do this I will send you “power from on high”. Jesus tells them: “stay in Jerusalem until this power arrives.” And then Jesus blesses them and ascends into heaven.

Of course Jesus was talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, which makes sense – and we will be talking more about that next week. But there’s more to the Ascension than just this. First, there’s Luke’s longer version in the book of Acts; and second, there’s a conversation Jesus has with his Father God just before his Ascension. Both of these have a bearing on what the disciples are going to do after Jesus is gone.

In the book of Acts, Luke tells us Jesus “presented himself alive to [the disciples] by many convincing proofs, for forty days.” So the disciples – at least some of them – doubted the reality of Jesus’ resurrection. This is understandable: nobody ever survived a crucifixion. The apostle Matthew tells us in chapter 28 of his gospel that after the resurrection, “when [the disciples] saw [Jesus], they worshipped him; but some doubted.”  It took some time for the disciples to get their minds around this reality of Jesus coming back to life.

Luke also tells us that before Jesus ascended, he took time to “teach them about the Kingdom of God”.  Contemporary scholar N.T. Wright teaches that the Kingdom of God is the central point of the Bible and of our faith – not so much ‘going to heaven when we die’ but rather living in the kingdom of God both now and in eternity.  Jesus taught the disciples all this; and then he said, “wait in Jerusalem until the promise of the Father arrives” – the Holy Spirit.

The disciples then ask Jesus, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Even after everything they’ve heard and witnessed, the disciples are still thinking in terms of a human kingdom that will be brought in by power, to defeat the Romans and reestablish the line of King David. (You’ll notice people today still make this mistake! There are people today who seem to think their country is God’s gift to the world, and what benefits their country benefits God’s kingdom.) Jesus corrected this kind of thinking very quickly. He said: “it is not for you to know the times or the periods the Father has set.” This tells us that God’s kingdom has more to do with when than with where. It’s the time, not the location, that’s important.

Jesus doesn’t stop there. He says “But you(!) – but you – will receive power and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.”  The word ‘you’ is plural – all the disciples – the people who knew Jesus and were witness to his resurrection, and all of us who believe because of their testimony.

In both Luke’s gospel and the book of Acts, the apostle’s focus is on the promise of the Spirit to come. Wait for the Spirit. (Which BTW is good advice just about anytime – wait for the Spirit; wait for the Spirit’s leading.)

Having said all these things, Jesus then ascended into heaven and was seen no more on this earth. But Jesus is not exactly gone. We have Jesus’ word; we have Jesus’ teachings. We have his mandate to be witnesses to his resurrection and to the coming of his Kingdom. We have the Holy Spirit – because for us, Pentecost has already come. By the power of the Spirit we have the body of believers that has been made into the family of God.

We also have another great treasure: one we may not think about all that often. We have all the prayers of all the people who have prayed for us. We have Paul’s prayer for us in our reading from Ephesians. We have Jesus’ prayer for us in John 17. And we have the prayers of our mothers.

On Mothers’ Day it is so appropriate we remember this! I don’t know a single woman who doesn’t think about God when she gives birth to a child. The miracle of new life is overwhelming. I have never met a mother who doesn’t pray for her children, even if she’s not sure she believes in God! “Lord protect my child” – is always a mother’s prayer.

And then the prayer that Paul prayed for the Ephesians is also for us – for the church now as well as then. Paul prays to God the Father of Jesus Christ, and Paul asks for seven things for us:

1. we would have a spirit of wisdom
2. we would have a spirit of revelation
3. we would grow in our knowledge of Jesus – not just knowledge in general but our knowledge of God. Are we learning more about God, day by day? and if not, why not? All Christians everywhere are taught to read scripture, pray, and keep fellowship with others in whom the Holy Spirit lives.
4. Paul prays that we would have the eyes of our hearts enlightened. There are a lot of things about God that go beyond what our minds can grasp. To truly know God we need to know God by heart. This is one of the reasons we sing praise rather than just speaking it. So Paul prayed that our hearts would be enlightened.
5. Paul prays that we would know the hope we have been called to. And what is hope? I think my favorite definition of the word “hope” comes from the movie The Shawshank Redemption. If you’ve seen it you’ll never forget the final words of the movie: “I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.” Hope is more than a feeling – hope is taking action and moving towards what we hope for.
6. Paul prays that we would know the riches of Jesus’ glorious inheritance (this inheritance of course is mostly in the future – so Paul is praying for our eternal lives)
7. Paul prays we would know the immeasurable greatness of Jesus’ power. Do we know this? Or are discouraged because in our world evil so often wins? Can we see beyond the immediate present to God’s “forever kingdom”?

These are all the things Paul prays for us. And then last but never least! Jesus himself prays for us!

Jesus’ prayer is found in John chapter 17, which is one of the readings for the final Sunday of Easter, so it’s appropriate for today. In this prayer Jesus is speaking directly to God the Father, who Jesus knows intimately and loves more than life itself. Jesus would never ask for anything that would displease his Father. Here’s what Jesus prays for us:

Father, these people who are following me – all of them are yours. I’ve told them about you, Father, and they have kept your word. They know that I came from you. Now I’m coming home to you, Father, but they’re still in the world. Make them one as you and I are one. I have protected them and guarded them like a shepherd. Now, Father, keep them and guard them (notice BTW the echo here of a mother’s prayer – the tenderness of our savior for us). Protect them by Your name, Jesus prays.

He says: Make my joy complete in them. Father I have given them your words. Keep them safe now – they don’t belong to the world any more, just like I don’t belong to the world. [BTW when Jesus prays about ‘the world’ he doesn’t mean ‘planet Earth’ so much as he means ‘worldly ways of doing things’ – as opposed to the ways of God’s kingdom.]

Jesus continues: Protect them from the evil one. Let truth make them holy; your word is truth. Now I’m sending them into the world the same way you sent me, Father. Make them holy in the truth.

Jesus prays all these things for us!! Do you think God the Father would say ‘no’ to a prayer like this? We are most definitely in the best of hands.

On this Ascension day, when it may seem like Jesus has left the earth and left us to our own devices – we are not alone.  Our mothers have prayed for us. The apostles have prayed for us. Jesus himself prays for us. We are covered and protected and supported in more ways than we know.

Our job now is to bear witness to this truth that has been made known to us: that Jesus is alive, that God loves us, and God’s kingdom is very near. And if we ever feel alone, or unequal to the task, remember all the prayers and all the people who have prayed for us – and be encouraged. AMEN.

Easter 7 – May 11, 2024 – Ascension and Mothers Day

Easter 6 – Love and Joy

Acts 10:44-48

⁴⁴ While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.  ⁴⁵ The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles,  ⁴⁶ for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said,  ⁴⁷ “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”  ⁴⁸ So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

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Psalm 98 A Psalm

O sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory.  ² The LORD has made known his victory; he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.  ³ He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.  ⁴ Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises.  ⁵ Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody.  ⁶ With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD.  ⁷ Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it.  ⁸ Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy  ⁹ at the presence of the LORD, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

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John 15:9-17   ⁹ As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.  ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.  ¹¹ I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

¹² “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  ¹³ No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you.  ¹⁵ I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.  ¹⁶ You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.  ¹⁷ I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

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This morning we are still in the season of Easter, but not for much longer! We have a number of special days this week. Today of course is Cinco de Mayo, and yesterday was Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be With You). And where it comes to religious holidays: this Thursday is Ascension Day – the day when Jesus returned to heaven. We would normally observe this on the following Sunday, but the following Sunday is Mothers’ Day – that will be our focus next week. And the week after that is Pentecost! So enjoy the joy of the season of Easter while it’s still with us, and get ready to wear red two weeks from today.

Our three scripture readings for today – from Psalms, Acts, and the Gospel of John – all lead us to the same place: a place of joy!  More specifically, bearing fruit – works of love – for the sake of joy. Each reading comes at it from a different angle, but joy is the destination.

I’d like to start with Psalm 98. The psalm starts out with the words “sing to the Lord a new song” – it’s a cry of joy. God has done unbelievably wonderful things – victory and vindication in the sight of all the nations. This victory had a specific meaning when the psalm was written, but these verses also describe the victory of Easter, written 1000 years before Easter actually happened. And the psalmist says “make a joyful noise to the Lord” and “break forth into joyous song”.

Have you ever noticed when the Bible talks about joy it almost always talks about music and singing? There is a joy that I think can only really be expressed through music.

Take our pianist, Beatrice, as an example. She is a joy to listen to isn’t she? And as a musician – although I can’t begin to play the things she plays – I know the joy she feels when she plays. She takes joy in sharing the thoughts of the composer; she takes joy in the instrument she plays; she takes joy in the sheer beauty of the music, and she takes joy in sharing it with all of us. And her joy is contagious!

Psalm 98 says, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth!” God created all of creation for joy! God created every living being for joy – both for God’s joy in creating, and for our joy in being created. This is what life is about – both now and in eternity: joy!

The Psalm talks about expressing joy through songs, through praising God with the lyre (that is, with a stringed instrument) and melody and trumpets and horns – it gets loud! And then… the psalm calls on the earth itself to sing for joy: the sea, and the world, and the floods, and the hills, and everything on earth.

This is speaking metaphorically of course… at least that’s how we normally think of it… but it depends on who you ask! From a religious standpoint, the ancient Jewish understanding was that creation itself is alive – not quite in the sense that you and I are alive, but in that the world is a living thing capable of praising God.

And then from a scientific standpoint – and this is not my own idea, someone told me this back in the 1980s as a theory – I just found out this past week that scientists are actually working on it! Check this out: we all know that everything that exists is made up of atoms – the ultimate foundation of reality in our world. And we know that atoms are made up of a nucleus that has protons and neutrons, and orbiting around the nucleus are electrons.

So here’s the thing: everything we see and perceive as solid is actually, at its foundation, always in motion. All the time. And motion causes sound. And if we had the right kind of receiver we’d be able to hear it.

That’s the theory I was taught. This past week I Googled the idea and it just so happens that a university in Sweden has been researching this very thing, and they put forth the idea that atoms do indeed make a sound but that the sound is about 20 octaves higher than the highest note on the piano, which is way too high for human ears to hear.

I can’t say I entirely understood this article – scientific digests are a little over my head – so I ran it past my brother the physicist.  He read the article and explained it to me a bit – I won’t go into all the details – but he said the idea was “intriguing”. In other words, it got his attention and he’ll keep his eyes out for more on the subject.

Personally I like the idea that all of God’s creation is singing – and that God (unlike us) can hear it!

I’ve also been told that the great conductor Leonard Bernstein once said – when he was talking about the creation story in the book of Genesis – he said he believed God did not say “let there be light” but he believed God sang it. Wouldn’t that make perfect sense? That what we see in the atom is an echo of God’s song? That all of creation, created by God’s song, is now singing back to God.

The psalm ends by promising that this God, who is so full of music and song, will one day judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

Then we turn to our reading from Acts – where this Godly righteousness and joy makes itself known in a brand new way.

In this passage we’re actually coming in, in the middle of the story. Our reading starts with the words “while [this was happening]” so the action is already in progress. To fill in the backstory briefly: The apostle Peter was visiting a friend named Simon. One afternoon Peter was praying on the roof of the house, when he had a vision of a sheet being lowered from heaven with some edible animals on it, and he heard a voice saying “rise, Peter, kill and eat”. But Peter looked at the animals, and he recognized them as animals that Jews were not allowed to eat. They were considered ‘unclean’.  So Peter said, “Lord, I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”  And the Lord answered, “do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

Meanwhile, nearby in Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a Roman centurion. He was a sympathizer with the Jewish people and he gave generously to the local synagogue. He had a vision of an angel who told him to send for a man named Peter who was staying in Joppa, so he sent a couple of servants and a soldier to go find Peter, and they brought Peter back to Cornelius’ house. By the time Peter got there, Cornelius had gathered his whole family, all his servants, all his relatives and close friends into his house. And he asked Peter to tell everyone the message that God had given Peter to tell them.

Here’s where we pick up the story: “while Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.” Peter was astonished – astounded – because up to that point, the Holy Spirit had only ever been poured out on Jewish believers. Up to that point, God had always been “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”. Now that’s all changing. Peter says, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And the whole household was baptized! And there was great joy, and the people stayed there, celebrating together, for days!

This is huge for us too – because if these Gentiles can receive the Holy Spirit, that means so can we. This day – this event – makes room in God’s kingdom and God’s family for all believers anywhere who receive the Holy Spirit, no matter who they are, no matter where they’re from, and no matter what they’ve done in their lives. If they have received the Holy Spirit then they are members of the family of God.

There’s a postscript to this story. When Peter got back to Jerusalem, the Jewish believers were very upset with him. Peter got an earful. They said: “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them!” This was SO forbidden by Jewish teaching. Jews and Gentiles never ate together in the same building. In fact a Jew was forbidden by Jewish law to even walk into a Gentile’s house.

Peter answered by telling the elders and the church in Jerusalem the story of what happened – and how the Holy Spirit had fallen on Cornelius and his family and his friends, just like the Holy Spirit had fallen on the disciples on the day of Pentecost, and how the whole family had been baptized and they were now believers. And the church’s answer was this: they praised God and said: “even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life!” And they celebrated. More joy!!

Then last but never least we come to our passage from John. This reading is part of Jesus’ final teaching to the disciples before his crucifixion, and Jesus is doing some really high-powered pastoral care here. He has just told them that he is going to die, but he says they will not be abandoned; he says this will be a road to deeper intimacy, and deeper friendship with Jesus. He says we’ll still be together. If we love one another, and live in Jesus’ love, we will live in Jesus and Jesus will live in us. Jesus’ whole message leads to joy – “that your joy may be complete” he says.

Jesus talks about God’s love, and his own love, and the Holy Spirit’s love, and that amazing relationship between the three-in-one God whose nature is love and joy. This kind of love and joy in life is what every parent wants for their children – and it’s what our heavenly parent wants for us.

Jesus says the way to become a part of this love and joy is by obeying the commandments. This might seem to be counter-intuitive. Obedience? To commandments? What does this have to do with love and joy?

Here’s the thing: the result of doing things God’s way is joy – even in the middle of hardship sometimes. It is Jesus who says, “I chose you, and I commission you to bear fruit that will last: specifically, works of love for the sake of joy.”

Another benefit of obeying God’s commands is that it puts us in a position to strip away the deceptions of this world. We talk a lot these days about ‘fake news’ and how we need to kind of ‘sift through’ what we hear. Love seeks a world in which “complete joy” is not just for a privileged few, but for everyone. So doing what God commands, proclaims our love for God and for every person, no matter who or where they are.

This is why the Gospel is so counter-cultural. Human cultures do not put a high value on obedience to God. Human cultures do not put a high value on God’s word.  But when we do things God’s way, acts of love shine in the darkness of the world around us and they bring joy.

Jesus wraps up his teaching by saying when we follow his commands, and demonstrate our love for one another, we are no longer his servants, but his friends. When we are chosen by God, and chosen by Jesus, and have received the Holy Spirit, we are no longer strangers – we are part of God’s family. As God’s family we bear fruit – fruit like kindness, nurturing, meeting each others’ needs, and joy – that will last into forever.

It all begins and ends with joy. Seek first the joy of God’s kingdom. AMEN.

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Easter 6 – May 5, 2024 – Love and Joy

The Good Shepherd – At the Border

Acts 4:5-12 – The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem,  ⁶ with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family.  ⁷ When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”  ⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders,  ⁹ if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed,  ¹⁰ let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.  ¹¹ This Jesus is ‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.’  ¹² There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”

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Psalm 23 (NKJV) A Psalm of David – The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.  ² He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.  ³ He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.  ⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.  ⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.  ⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

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John 10:11-18 – “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  ¹² The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away– and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  ¹³ The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.  ¹⁴ I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,  ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.  ¹⁶ I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.  ¹⁷ For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.  ¹⁸ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

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This morning is the fourth week of Easter, known around the world as “Good Shepherd Sunday” because the scripture readings for today focus on Jesus as our Good Shepherd: the one who heals our wounds, cares for us tenderly, and lays down his life to save ours. I’ll be focusing today mostly on the 23^rd Psalm.

I also wanted to share with you – as many of you know – I just returned from an intensive trip to our southern border a few days ago and I wanted to share with you what we saw and learned there. I can start out by saying our Good Shepherd, Jesus, is very much present at the border… very much present with God’s people there.

I went to the border, as you recall from the last time I was with you, saying I didn’t believe what we’re hearing from the media, and saying I wanted to know the truth.

I think we found the truth, as much as it’s possible in just a three-day visit.

I went to the border thinking that I’m able to discern what’s true and what’s not by reading between the lines in the news.

Boy was I wrong about that!

I went to the border wanting to return home and speak the truth.

That effort begins today but I hope and pray it won’t end today.

I went to the border, thinking I might find myself scared, or in danger.

We were not in danger, and I wasn’t scared.

I went to the border hoping to be fully present to the people I met, and hoping to share the love of Jesus. I came away feeling a bit overwhelmed with new information and experiences, and hoping we succeeded in representing well. But as our group leader Bri pointed out, “the reality is we are not bringing God to these places and these people, because God is already present.”

You are with us, Lord; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort us.

I went to the border, knowing this Sunday would be Good Shepherd Sunday, and praying that we would see our Good Shepherd in action at the border.

Jesus was there, and Jesus is there.

Our Lord is the Good Shepherd of all travelers – no matter where we come from or where we go. I’ve experienced God’s guidance on other journeys; it’s one of the reasons I love traveling. Our Lord truly shepherds us when we travel and brings us to people God wants us to meet. That works both ways: both for those who travel and those who are visited.

So let me tell you what happened!

First, by way of background:  I was traveling with a group of women – 18 of us – from across the United States. We are members of Women of Welcome, an interdenominational Christian group who see Jesus in the faces of the people coming to our borders, and we meet mostly on Facebook to study together and advocate together.

Our time at the border was organized by a group called Abara – which means ‘ford’, as in crossing a river. Abara is a faith-based ministry serving migrants and refugees on both sides of the border. They provide micro-enterprise opportunities for women migrants; they provide supplies for shelters run by other faith-based agencies; and they provide meals.

At Abara we learned first off that in making these visits we need to be aware of the need for self-care: we need to rest, eat, and hydrate. We need to care for ourselves, and not neglect our needs, so we can care for others. We were also advised not to try to learn everything at once: take notes, take pictures, ask questions.

One of the first things we discovered is that the media has misrepresented many things, not just the things we tend to hear about at home. For example, the media has misrepresented us – you and me. The refugees coming to this country have been told by the media that we Americans hate them. They are told to expect to be abused. One of the best things you and I can do is prove the media wrong, every chance we get. All it takes is a ‘hello’ and a smile.

We can trust our good shepherd to lead us in the paths of righteousness.

Our group was staying in El Paso, TX, and on our first day there we crossed the river to Mexico and spent the better part of the day in Ciudad Juarez. The two cities of El Paso and Juarez are twin cities a lot like Minneapolis/St. Paul: they’re separated only by a river. It’s just that, in Texas, that river also happens to be an international border – but that wasn’t always the case! For literally hundreds of years El Paso and Juarez were one city in Mexico with a river running through it. The region was, and is, truly a “bi-national region”. It’s only since 1850 that the river has been an international border – before then, the city was one.

The really striking thing, which you see and feel right away when you’re there, is the total lack of any sense of conflict. The people of El Paso and Juarez love each other and get along together. Many of them are related; and it is very common for people to cross the river every day to go to work or to go to school.  This helps explain one of the first things we saw when we arrived at Abara’s offices:

At Abara we learned even more about the media’s misrepresentations. For example: The city of El Paso has consistently been listed in the Top 10 safest cities in the United States – for decades! Right now I think they’re at #3 on the list. And while Juarez has had some problems in the past, safety there has improved a lot because the people demanded better. As visitors, our group was able to cross the border with no problems at all, both in a vehicle and on foot.

So what is the problem, then? And where are all the people coming from? What is causing this mass migration to our southern border?

The staff at Abara explained to us that the vast majority of people coming to our border right now, wanting to enter the United States, are coming from Venezuela – a distance of over 3000 miles.

You may have heard in the news that there are problems in Venezuela. There have been disappearances, boycotts, drug trafficking, narco-terrorism, corruption; the murder rate in Venezuela is one of the highest in the world. They have runaway inflation, and chronic shortages of necessities like water. Bottom line, though sources differ, almost eight million people have left Venezuela in the past decade. Not all those people are coming to America! Most of them travel to other South American countries, and those with money – about half a million so far – have gone to Spain!

But for those who decide to try to come to America – because of family or work or for a new start – there are no roads that can take a traveler from Venezuela to El Paso. There’s a place called the Darein Pass in Central America that is essentially a jungle – undeveloped, unsafe, and a haven for violent men. For people who choose to head for America, they risk their lives to do it. Many try to ride on top of trains, which is another kind of danger. People pass through rivers that run with sewage, and they deal with trees and bushes that have 1-2” long thorns on their branches. By the time the people get to our border they’ve lost just about everything but the clothes on their backs.

If people approach our border the legal way – which most of them want to do – they will approach a border official, and request asylum or some other form of immigration such as being a migrant worker; and then they wait. US courts are backed up; the wait for a court date to have one’s case heard can be weeks, often times months.

By the time people get to our border, they have nothing left but the clothes they’re wearing. Many are sick; many are injured; none of them have food or money. And when they arrive at our border they see a desert, and canals where the water has a deadly undertow, and a huge wall. So where do they go? What do they do? Should they try to find a space at an overcrowded shelter? Do they risk going over the wall, not knowing what will happen next?

Border Patrol agents we met told us the safest option for people who decide to climb the wall is to do it near civilization, not far away – and to locate Border Patrol immediately and request asylum – because away from civilization the mountains are dangerous and the desert is deadly. Chances of survival are best if they find Border Patrol right away.

Psalm 23 says, “He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.”  I didn’t see any green pastures there; the region is unimaginably dry. But people on both sides of the border take the time – and find the water – to grow beautiful gardens. The God-given impulse for life and for beauty are very much present and alive at the border.

Even so, sometimes we felt like we were walking in the valley of the shadow of death. We were literally walking where people have died. Where the countries come together, at the corner of Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico – in the distance, on a mountain-top, the statue of Christo Rey (Christ the King) stands with arms up, looking out over the nations, reminding us that Jesus sees and knows. Our shepherd is here, and justice is close at hand.

“You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows…”

We are, each one of us, anointed with oil. All of us equally are the children of God, no matter where we’re from, or where we are now; and we will all dwell in the house of the Lord forever – no matter which side of any borders we live on today.

Jesus said, “foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus is with these individuals, and these families, as they approach our border. Our Good Shepherd walks with them, guiding them and keeping them. The fact they even survive to make it to the border is a miracle in itself. Jesus said, “whatever you do for the least of these you do for me” – not because Jesus has a political agenda but because Jesus really was in their shoes when he walked this earth; and Jesus walks with these travelers now.

What gave me great joy was to see that, in both El Paso and in Juarez, God’s people are stepping up to help. More people are needed to be sure; but with Jesus’ help everyday miracles are happening.

On our first day, we visited a migrant shelter in Juarez called Casa Eudes [photo].  This shelter used to be a Catholic girls’ school and now is a shelter for women and children. It is run by Roman Catholic nuns and sisters who have the biggest hearts for their people. We spent a few hours here… one of the first things I saw when we visited one of the dorms was this: [Jesus photo]

In this place, we witnessed joy – especially in the children. And when the children were smiling, their moms were smiling. In this place each person has their own bed, and their own night-stand to put their belongings on, and they have newly-remodeled bathrooms with curtains on the showers – restoring the dignity of people who haven’t experienced dignity for a long time. The children have a beautiful playground to play on; they also attend lessons; and the women cook for each other. The place is neat and well-organized, like any Catholic school you’ve ever seen.

There was a sense that we were standing on holy ground.  And we weren’t told this directly, but it’s likely at least some of the babies we met were products of rape, because 90% of women making this journey on foot are raped. But the mothers love their children.

The sisters helped us all get to know each other – using the international languages of Jenga, laughter, and ice cream with gummi worms. It was a wonderful, warm afternoon. And we came away asking: why is this so hard? Or as our leader Bri put it, “How did compassion get so political?”

Later that day we drove to the Mexican side of the border and looked at the Rio Grande in the place where three states come together: Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico. At this point on the border the river is not very high, and we saw some of the local people enjoying a swim with their dog.

We also saw a lot of high-tech government equipment on the U.S. side of the river: cameras, motion cameras, recording devices… it would be impossible to cross the river without being seen. Border Patrol is always nearby, and anyone crossing will likely be picked up in a minute or less…

…which, for people who want to move to the United States, is exactly what should happen, because contact with Border Patrol is the very first step in the long process of becoming a resident of the United States.

While we were at this place we saw an obelisk marking the international boundary. You can literally stand in two countries at the same time here, as demonstrated here by Abara’s Executive Director Sami.

The next day we met with two border patrol agents.

We heard the same thing from the agents that we heard from people all over El Paso and Juarez: they said, “we are not what they say we are in the media.”  Border Patrol has been overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of people arriving, and there are not enough officers to handle everyone; the Border Patrol needs more people.

Members of the Border Patrol are trained to be law enforcement officers, but they’re being called upon to handle a humanitarian crisis – something they are neither trained nor equipped to do. This is part of the reason why there is such a high suicide rate among Border Patrol agents. What gets to them the most are the migrant children. The officers said: “we’re moms too; we don’t want to see children hurting.”

What they do have to work with is the border wall, and the cameras, and motion detectors both above-ground and underground. Border Patrol’s job is to be present in minutes or less whenever someone shows up on one of these devices. They said they need more walls in some places, but they don’t need walls everywhere. The entire stretch of the border does not need a wall, they said. In remote places where there’s no wall, they watch for footprints, which are basically impossible to hide in the sand.

One other major problem for Border Patrol is the drug cartels. Organized crime today is EXCEEDINGLY organized. They deal in drugs, human trafficking, the sex trade, and extortion. It’s also important for us to know, they said, that 80-90% of the people smuggling drugs into the United States are American citizens who enter the country by air.

Our drug consumption in this country is one of the major causes of death for people in South and Central America.

One thing that kept cropping up in the background of all these conversations is that so much of the security and technology at the border was developed in response to the September 11 attacks. I’ve been sensing this reaction to 9/11 in the background for some time; because as a pastor, our American response to 9/11 reminds me of people I’ve known who have suffered great loss and have never properly grieved that loss.

What I mean is this: when an individual fails to grieve, a part of that person shuts down – a positive part of that person. They may get locked into patterns of behavior and ways of thinking that were appropriate once but are harmful now. They may feel very alone in the world, cut off from others and even threatened by others. As a nation, we responded to 9/11 with a war overseas and fighting each other here at home – and that hasn’t stopped. As a nation we have never worked our way through the grieving process.

At least this is what I think I’m seeing, but I wanted to get a second opinion. So at one point in El Paso I pulled Sami aside and asked him about this. Does what I’m seeing make sense to him? Are we still grieving (or failing to grieve) as a nation? Is that what’s causing the problems we see in our country today?

Sami thought about this for a moment, and then he said gently but wryly, “Americans don’t grieve well in general. It’s not the American way. We tough it out. We push through, we keep going.”

And we talked about other things the nation hasn’t grieved: our history of racial oppression, and what’s been done to Native Americans. Horrible losses for these people groups, but losses for ourselves as well – because there is so much good in these ‘others’ that we’ve missed out on. I mentioned to him something I’ve shared with all of you before: my friend Denise’s fear of the medical profession, because Black people aren’t treated the same as White people by many doctors. I shared with him how my going to the doctor with her was, in her words, “like night and day.” Sami said this was something he’s also been learning just recently; that the same thing happens sometimes in hospitals in El Paso. As a nation we need to confess these things to God – bring them to the cross of our Shepherd – and then face them and grieve them. The longer we put it off, the more strident the public voices will become – and the more harm we will do to ourselves and others.

Our final visit was to a migrant shelter in El Paso. This shelter is a very short-term shelter – the people here are usually here for just a day or two, maybe three. Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church feeds and houses about 100-120 people every night in their gymnasium. The shelter is run by a guy named Mike, who retired from 26 years of service in the Border Patrol, and is now running this shelter in his “retirement”.

The people who stay here have already made first contact with Border Patrol – whether they surrendered themselves at the gate or came over the wall, they are here now; and they have appointments coming up with United States officials. Sacred Heart also provides a clothing bank, a diaper bank, first aid supplies, and chargers for cell phones. (Cell phones are essential because it’s how intake interviews are set up.)

Speaking of the clothing bank: Mike tells us being able to choose what they’re is wearing is a major way to restore a person’s sense of dignity.

Meanwhile, outside the shelter, a mural on the wall tells the story of Jesus and the priests and the people who built this place, and who come to this place; and people pray at the sacred heart.

The Shepherd’s Psalm says, “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”

As God’s children we can claim this promise for ourselves. There is no reason to be afraid to get close to people who are coming to this country for help. There are people in this country who want us fear the people who come to our borders – but that’s not God’s way. God is very present in El Paso and Juarez. The people coming to the United States have to cross a river to come to us; and we as God’s people need to cross a river too – the river of doubt and fear – to welcome them and to give them shelter, knowing that Jesus will lead us beside still waters.

So where is our Shepherd leading us? We don’t know that exactly, except… ‘home’. Our Shepherd leads us to a forever-place for all of God’s people. One thing seems clear though: we will find our Good Shepherd on the margins of society: with the Samaritan woman at the well; with the poor and the hungry and the sick; with the migrants crossing the border.

One of our fellow travelers, Brittani, who helped organize the trip, wrote this on the way home:

“The border is not [just] one thing. It’s teenage Raina and her five-year-old son playing Jenga while they wait… It’s Sister Krista and Mother Sofia living with and serving vulnerable women and children every day. It’s Mike… it’s the Border Patrol agents, trained for one thing and struggling to do another. It’s Fernando from Venezuela in the plane seat next to me… [And she adds:] There’s no reason it’s not me and our girls in that shelter. I was just born here.”

Britanni also, on the way home, figured out how to spot immigrants who had just been approved and released into the US. This is something we read about in our book club book, The House That Love Built. The author of the book also learned how to spot people who had been recently released. Brittani, who speaks Spanish, found a young man from Venezuela sitting next to her on the plane home, and struck up a conversation. He was 23, traveling alone, and had spent three days on top of a train getting to the United States.

Brittani then texted all of us who were still at the El Paso airport to tell us what to look for, and other travelers in our group – Clare and Jane on one plane, and Eve and myself on another, spotted more. Clare and Jane helped families from Venezuela and Ecuador find their way home; and Eve (thank goodness she speaks Spanish) spotted a young woman traveling alone, and explained to her that when we landed in Chicago, I would help her find her gate for her next flight.

Can you imagine being in foreign country, where you don’t speak the language, can’t read the signs, and all you have is a small bag and a plane ticket to a place you’ve never been before?

Saviour, like a shepherd lead us… let this be our prayer.

I think one of the biggest take-aways from this journey, for so many of us, is the incredible amount of privilege we are born into just by born American. And how very much, as Christians, we have an obligation to use what we have in service to others.

The question in my mind and on my heart right now is: how can we join Jesus in caring for the people who look to America for help? What small part can we play? I am going to be focusing a lot of my attention on answering these questions over the next few months. I will be actively looking for ideas and opportunities.

If this resonates with you please let me know. I’m sure our Good Shepherd will be leading us. AMEN.