Checkpoint John the Baptist

Sunday December 6, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Mick Roschke

Readings:
Malachi 3:1-4
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6

Audio sermon file: http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/742/C4E400EA-405D-3B4A-2C30-D23C57582841.mp3


To be a Christian, by definition, is to be open to change your way of thinking. In our Earthly lives, we too often allow change to be driven by necessity; we change in response to external circumstances; we change only after having received ultimatums.

ADVENT comes from the roots “ad” meaning “toward” and “vent” meaning “within us”. In this season, we want to look into ourselves so we may look more clearly outward. Pastor Mick’s wife teaches 5th grade. One day in class, someone was misbehaving. When asked, 20 of the 31 students claimed it was one particular student. Even when confronted with the evidence, he student denied it was them. We choose, too often, to contest our behavior rather than being open to our struggles.

The truth is we don’t ever “get to Christmas” without

(a) Being honest
(b) Hearing John the Baptist, “the eyes of change” and
(c) Concentrating on the “NOW” and not just “the later on”

There are many dangerous trappings along the journey. Rivers have always symbolized boundaries & crossings. Pastor Mick storied that this brought up conjurings of Checkpoint Charlie at the Berlin Wall, complete with mirrors, rude & mean border guards, dogs, the whole nine yards. You never knew if you would be permitted to leave (or re-enter), get through to “the other side”.

The key is there are ominous checkpoints for us along our way. And you can’t get to Christmas without passing through Checkpoint John the Baptist. At this advent border, something happens … a new beginning, a new start … where, if you repent, you cross over to the land of the vulnerable who can be transparent to their transgressions.

On “the other side”, it’s those who have the least who teach us in Advent.

Steal away to Jesus – across Checkpoint John the Baptist – and you’ll cross the border to be with those who are the true spirit of Christmas.

The Cold Within

Sunday November 15, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Mick Roschke

Readings:
1 Kings 17:8-16
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44
Audio sermon file: http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/742/32412560-C6F9-D6ED-5C5D-97491FA7BA9A.mp3

We give Thee but Thine own,
Whate'er the gift may be;
All that we have is Thine alone,
A trust, O Lord, from Thee.

May we Thy bounties thus
As stewards true receive
And gladly, as Thou blessest us,
To Thee our first-fruits give!William W. How, 1823-1897


A 1936 relic, Craig’s Wife, is a golden oldie in which a wife is so possessive and perfectionist about her possessions, that she alienates those around her, even (& especially) her real friends.

http://www.filmwalrus.com/2008/02/review-of-craigs-wife-1936.html

Pastor Mick reminded us that this movie brought back the old adage that …

Those who live to themselves often are usually left to themselves …

Today, we contrast that image with hat of the widow … who had nothing, but, in so, had everything. Jesus cautions us to look inward at the Pharisee and scribe in each of us. Hey had the best seats in the synagogue, they were learned in the law, they took advantage of their status, power and prestige. Like Craig’s wife, the scribes and Pharisees manipulated resources and those around them. Whenever you use your authority against your fellow man, something’s out of whack.

They did not see the widow. She was invisible to them.

In C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, The Devil warns his apprentice of the utility of “moderation” …

http://www.stpaulserin.org/uploads/Beyond_Prudence_and_Moderation_11-08-09.pdf

Author C. S. Lewis wrote a delightful book, from the fictional point of view of an evil tempter.The Screwtape Letters is a classic. Screwtape is the mentor of Wormwood, a devil apprentice. Wormwood is a tempter in training. The demonic mission is to win souls for Satan. In one letter, Uncle Screwtape advises Wormwood that moderation is a key to keeping his patient away from devotion to the Christian faith. Screwtape writes, “Talk to him about ‘moderation in all things.’ If you can get him to the point of thinking that ‘religion is all very well up to a point,’ you can feel happy about his soul. Through moderation we grow immune to the real thing, which is lifechanging.

Our gospel lesson today frames two snapshots of opposing ways to be religious. One is a show. The other is genuine. One is about pride. The other is about humility. One is superficial and conventional. The other is profound and extraordinary.

The scribes, Jesus says, make a show of their religion, put their money into the temple treasury and help keep the established program going. Jesus sits opposite the treasury
and observes the traditional stewardship campaign from the
sidelines. Many people put in large sums, but a poor
widow comes along and drops in her penny.
Apparently, the large sums don’t add up to as much in the eyes of the Lord as the two copper coins that added together amount only to a penny. The smallest possible gift is the greatest because it is extravagant!

The widow’s mite was all she had. That gift, though a
drop in the bucket to the temple treasury, was everything to the poor widow. The large sums of the more wealthy represented a token, a portion of their surplus, money they could live without, funds that they wouldn’t miss because their pockets were deep. But the copper mite of the poor widow represented the life-changing devotion of a big heart.

Today, Jesus tasks us to be extravagant in our generosity. He wants us to give up “calculating before sharing”. At the Ecumenical Institute in Chicago, Pastor Mick shared, there was a service with “two collections”. Into the first, you were asked to give. When the plate was passed a second time, people were told to “take from the basket what they needed”. This so reminded me of a great story told by Pastor Gary Johnson. He was walking in Detroit with his good friend, Dick Martzoff, when a beggar asked for money. Dick reached for all the change in his pocket and told the man, “Take what you need”. He took it all.

Then, realizing he really need enough change to make a phone call, Dick ran after the man and asked for enough to make the call. The man reached into his pocket and took out all the money and said “Take what you need.”

Pastor Mick capped off this powerful sermon with a great poem, The Cold Within … warning of our innate ability to be Scribe-like …

http://www.jannah.org/articles/poems.html#8

THE COLD WITHIN

Six humans trapped by circumstances,
in bleak and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood,
or so the story told.
Their dying fire in need of logs,
the first man held his back,
for,of the faces around the fire,
he noticed one man black.
The next man looking across the way,
saw one not of his church,
and couldn't bring himself
to give the fire his stick of birch.
The third one sat in tattered clothes
he gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use,
to warm the idle rich?
The rich man just sat back
and thought of the wealth he had in store,
and how to keep what he had earned
from the lazy, shiftless poor.
The black man's face bespoke revenge
as the fire passed from his sight,
for all he saw in his stick of wood,
was a chance to spite the white.
The last man of this forlorn group
did naught except for gain,
giving only to those who gave,
was how he played the game.
Their logs held tight in death's still hand,
was proof of human sin.
They didn't die from the cold without,
they died from the cold within.
We can be like the rich man, cold within, who just sat back, thinking how to keep what he had earned from others … or we can glow within like the humble widow who gave extravagantly from her first fruits.