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.

That’s Enough

Sunday November 8, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Kendra Mohn

Readings:
1 Kings 17:8-16
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44

“I’d rather poke a hot stick in my eye!” Gary Johnson
“Grace, gratitude, and generosity” Mick Roschke
“That’s Enough!” Kendra Mohn

A place is consumed by the vocabulary and language that comprise it. Mt. Zion is no exception. These are both memorable quotes for their oft-repeatedness and how they help plant and root many a good idea and feeling in our congregation.

Today we focus on the gratitude shown by the widow and the generosity that poured forth from it, all prompted by the grace she admitted was bestowed upon her. Today, Pastor Mohn confessed her compassion for these women who have NEVER known the feeling of having enough.

Many of us have never known or really tasted the insecure feeling that comes from feeling there is truly nothing between us and the end.

Our lives are more fragile than we like to admit.

It would be all too fine if we could just say, “All will be fine and God will take care fo everything as we would like.” This can be every bit the lie. People really do lose their jobs, lose their homes. It would be, yes, disingenuous to stand in front of these people and say, “all will be fine”.

The truth is “You’re never going to have enough”.

The security you seek is elusive.

We all have “that list of things we’re going to buy when we have enough” … the next replacement appliance around the corner, another “shiny thing” that rears its head. Requests, from Church or therwise, put a knot in our stomachs … what if my family needs it, what if we don’t have enough. Truth is …

You never have enough to stave off death. Never.

Someone may say, “Keep your pennies, dear widow … you’re going to need them” to which the widow replies “Why? So I can die Wednesday instead of Tuesday?”

Why does the widow give?

Because she knows the freedom that comes with having lived so close to death. The rest of us seek the security and happiness that will keep death away. To have enough to do that is our elusive quest. And, the truth is, there is never enough .

If, rather, what you want is to breathe freely, live life to the fullest , live in the sun, live a life for God, you already have more than enough!

That’s enough … I’m ready to retire.
That’s enough … it’s time to make a decision.
That’s enough … it’s time to run the marathon.
That’s enough … I’m leaving
That’s enough … it’s time to eat, dinner’s ready.

God is ALWAYS present in that precious moment of recognition when “that’s enough”. And that moment is now.

Now is the moment to say that’s enough. I have identified my calling as a child of God. I have recognized my part of a living community. I have enough.

The thing about the widow is she’s so fragile. She had nothing left to fear. She had the true freedom to intimately know grace, gratitude and generosity.

When will we have enough? There will NEVER be a better, more perfect moment than now.

The Gift of Truth

Sunday October 25, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Kendra Mohn

Readings:
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Romans 3:19-28
John 8:31-36

Audio sermon file:

http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/742/58C601D0-DCE7-3A92-D3CC-F0C2A1474183.mp3


Pastor Mohn started off today by remembering somewhat vividly the actual day she was confirmed by saying …

“We’re not supposed to be old enough to remember anything that happened 18 years ago!!”

Welcome to thirty-something!

She remembered there was “no film in the camera” and she has only memories of that day. She remembers the feeling of the Pastor’s hand on her head. It prompted her to add that it’s really a pity we don’t stop to recall this moment or other significant moments in our lives much more often.

In the life of a believer, affirming one’s Baptism is very profound. The Gospel made Pastor Mohn mildly (?) upset as it conjured images of a culture that thrives on competition and designating fault. We like to think we have some handle on “THE Truth”, some license on it, so to speak.

But the REAL truth is not a dogma or ideology. We spend a ton of capital trying to convince others that we have some ownership of the one truth, that we have the best, most compelling argument. As a culture, we stress competition over cooperation, education and tolerance.

Luther was tormented by the notion that he could not be righteous enough … because, as h realized, righteousness is a gift.

TRUTH is a lot like righteousness. Truth is also a gift … given freely. It comes in the name and form of aJesus, bestowed in the waters of Baptism, a promise that frees us to live better … no matter what the truth us.

We should ask God more often to guide us through unchartered territory rather than seeking the truth we can not find. Like some of the qualities like humility and character and goodness of heart spoken of in this blog back in September, these gifts come from what C.S. Lewis calls the great principle of inattention – they come when, rather than seeking them in futile vain, we focus on something more eternal. God will then provide the gift.

Maurice Boyd described a friend who said “I wonder if I’m licking the right boots?” He thought, “How terrible to be licking anybody’s boots!!” He then said something I’ll never forget …

The greatest quality of friendship is its disinterestedness!

It, like the truth, comes not when you’re willing to over reach to find it or attain it (when that will never work). It comes when you’re just being yourself. THAT unlocks the door behind which you eventually taste true friendship.

And truth, humility, righteousness, character, all live on the other side of that door .

I Fought The Law and … the Law Won

Sunday October 4, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Kendra Mohn

Readings:
Genesis 2:18-24
Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12
Mark 10:2-16

Audio sermon file:

http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/742/3A4B34FD-DC40-3F81-58B9-C324151FAF33.mp3

Divorce is very often very emotional, fraught with despair, pain, but sometimes also relief. When the Pharisees question Jesus about divorce, though, it is ALL about testing Him.

They’re not thinking about people in pain when they pose the question. They are not saying, “ How can we honor unity in the midst of a broken relationship?” They’re not saying, “How can we minister to the broken-hearted?”

What they are asking is “What does the letter of the law say?” This is actually an insult to Jesus who, in fact, created the law.

Today’s text is not so much about divorce as it is about “loopholes around the law”. The Pharisees are acting more like bookish lawyers paid high retainers to “find an out” than to serve some higher good or honor the intent of the law rather than exploit “the letter“of it.

We’ve heard the speak before:

“How little can I give to the Church and still be faithful?”
“How many times do I HAVE to forgive someone some offense?”

If you question the law, one thing you can certain of is the conversation will be a short one.

You want the law?
YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE LAW!!!

We often think the law (if we can find the loophole, will be on our side. Good luck with that one. It reminded Pastor Mohn of the song ...


“I fought the law … and the law won!”

But … if you can talk your way out of the law, you really don’t need Jesus. But understanding the letter of the law will help us. We need Jesus … and the Pharisees don’t get that!

You know who gets it? Children get it. Pastor Mohn told a wonderful story about Annika … that while feedng her goldfish crackers while singing, Annika gave the sign language for “more”. Upon giving her “more” crackers, she continued to sign. What she wanted was more singing!!

What we need is not more crackers, but more of Mom’s lovely voice caressing our eardrums and our hearts, more of Mom’s love for us. We need more of God’s love for us. You want the law? OK, but it won’t help you.

LOVE … is why we come together every Sunday … for “more”.

It’s ALL Happenin’ Here!!

Sunday September 27, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Mick Roschke

Readings:
Numbers 11:4-6,10-16,24-29
James 5:13-20
Mark 9:38-50

Audio sermon file:

http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/742/F79E6EA8-8543-AAA2-DCBA-FE4FEAB44CFA.mp3


Are we open-minded enough to those of different gender, sexual preference, age, color, race? Do we ever proclaim that “others are not following US”? … and thus try to fashion God in OUR image?

Pastor Mick shared a very interesting notion today – that maybe we want to be open, but we’re still too insecure in ourselves …

“If you knew me, would you (still) like me?”

Maybe it’s the old Woody Allen delivery of the old Groucho Marx line:

“I wouldn’t want to join any club that would have someone like me for a member.”

Our insecurities can lead us to get defensive about not being gifted as others are – “they’re not following US”. Pastor Mick shared a great story about someone at a Church once handing out brochures exclaiming:

“It’s ALL Happenin’ Here!!”

His response was “Don’t Believe It!”

Sometimes, “it’s happening somewhere else”

... and we must be big enough and inclusive enough to recognize that and accept it and even proclaim it. Women, children, the deprived, the lonely, the poor are in our midst and it’s no good hiding from that fact. We have to dive in and get used to it.

We are often judgmental, in viewing the world Top down. In the Delcaration of Independence, women were seen as 75% human, African Americans a scant 60%! In Mark, today, we are reminded that God does not play favorites.

There are no insiders!

The outcast, the marginalized are held up by Jesus through US, through true fellowship.

And here’s the Good News. THEY, those very outcast and marginalized, those held at bay by US, have something gifted by The Spirit to GIVE US. It is reciprocity at work. Not only are these 100% human beings to whom we give time, money, treasure, food, clothing, BUT there is something to receive FROM them, something of The Spirit.

Today, EVERYONE has something to bring AND something to receive.

People are waiting, in Pastor Mick’s words, for the Church to not just be a sleeping giant! God is ready to “get prayed up” and get excited again. We want to be a church where everybody’s revved up to learn from everyone else, EVERYONE …

… because The Spirit is present in some form in each and every person – for the goodness of all!

The Cost of Ambition

Sunday September 20, 2009
Lay Preacher: Vince Prantil

Readings:
Jeremiah 11:18-20
James 3:13-4:3(a), 7-8(a)
Mark 9:30-37

Audio sermon file:

http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/742/786C9C59-967D-0367-BC70-1B6CCF7383CF.mp3


I read the New Testament texts for today … laced with stories of ambition … and I heard a voice. It was a voice of Maurice Boyd, Senior Minister of 5th Avenue Presbyterian Church in NYC ….

And he said if you’re going to talk about ambition, you need to recognize its ambiguity. It can be a very healthy and pretty destructive. We need to say Yes to it and No. We blame people for having it and not having it:

We say of her “Oh, she’s sooooo ambitious!”

And we say “The problem with him, ya see, is he has no ambition.”

No matter what you think about it, ambition has an energy about it … it makes our wheels go ‘round. It can bring out the best in us: ingenuity, discipline, determination. But, in excess, it can become immoral and demonic.
In James, we are asked what pursuits are worthy of children of God.

“If there were dreams for sale, what would you buy?”

We all have dreams, don’t we? We’re all striving for something … buying something? What is it we’re striving for? What are you buying?
… ‘cause everything you’re after’s got a cost. Every day they cost us 24 hours and, in the end, they cost us our life.

The Masoud, the Israeli Secret Service, says it can get anything from anybody with one or a combination of three things: sex, power & money. What does this say about what we really want??

What really drives us?

Is it the promotion? the new car? the new boat? the title of “greatest”? And are we willing to kill for it? To covet out of bitter envy and selfish ambition?
God knows that if we ask for these things, we ask with wrong motives”… God’s not in the wish-granting business … and God knows that these greedy motivations deceive us.
If you want something so bad we’ll do anything to get it, they’ve really got you and we will find our ambition becoming demonic. What drives us is our basic principle and we can’t expect more from our basic principle than it can deliver …

Is that really so difficult? Well, Boyd says, then let’s make it very simple …

If you put self at the center, you’d better prepared to be find your outer limits … and that can be very lonely.

If what you’re after is power … then you’d better forget about affection. It’s difficult to be after both.

If you’re interested in justice and not in mercy … you’d better not make any mistakes

If what you’re after is security … forget about ecstasy

If you seek comfort, you might have to relinquish meaning

If you’re consumed by your work … you’d better keep one eye on your relationships

If you’re ruthless on the way up … don’t root for kindness on the way down

It’s hard to be after the things we think will satisfy our earthly desires and the ones God created us for …. What dreams are we buying? … and if we manage to succeed, will what we get be worth what’s it’s costing us?

There’s a great little picture book – Hope for the Flowers … self-described as ‘a tale – partly about life and lots about hope – for adults and others’ … in which two caterpillars, Sprite and Yellow come upon a pile of caterpillars rising into the sky as far as the eye can see. “Do you know what’s happening?” one says to another. “I just arrived myself. No one has time to explain. They’re so busy trying to get where they’re going – up there,” came the reply. “But what’s at the top?” Stripe asked. Again, the reply:”No one knows that either, but it must be awfully good because everyone’s rushing there.” There’s only one thing to do reasons Stripe and he jumps right in. Caterpillars climb atop one another, pushing, shoving, and knocking each other indiscriminately off the pile in an all-out effort to “get to the top”. Eventually Stripe pushes through the clouds only to find there’s nothing “up there”. “High up there”, he concludes, “only looked good from the bottom”. And he climbs back down.Pastor Mohn said it very similarly back in March:“If that’s all there is, we wind up right where we started.”It’s a zero-sum game, you only climb the pile if you’re willing to knock your neighbor off. Our neighbor becomes our obstacle, our enemy rather than our brother, only someone in the way of our ambition for “what’s up there”.So Stripe heads down the pile telling everyone he sees that “there is nothing up there” and that they would be so much the better for building cocoons; that they could fly if only they become butterflies. “I saw a butterfly – there CAN be more to life,” Stripe realizes.The pile of caterpillars climbs on, ignorant of the beauty contained within each of them. There is in each of us a butterfly … and Pastor Mick said it best when he said “You need not be perfect, you need only to be the ‘perfect you’. God has had a plan for you since you were in the womb. You just have to find out ‘what that is’ because it doesn’t come with blueprints”. And we won’t find it by knocking our neighbors “off the pile” only “to wind up where we started”.

What does it take to satisfy us? Often when we reach the end of the rainbow, the top of the pile, the pot of gold doesn’t quite have the luster we had imagined. And if what dreams you’ve bought don’t satisfy, more of the same won’t either.

“I learned this from my friends who have sailboats,” Boyd whispers, “No matter how big your sailboat is, somebody’s always got a bigger one!” If I only had a bigger house, a wealthier husband, the boss’ office … and it doesn’t work. Arguing “which among you is greatest” is moot.

Sometimes we know how to spend, but not how to buy. … we tend to spend on the trivial and we’re often willing to pay a lot for it. If we equate “the pursuit of happiness” with sex, power & money, we grant ourselves the God-given right to exploit our neighbor or “do whatever we have to” to get what we want.

There's two morals to the story and they're what Maurice Boyd calls God’s Great Joke. I think it's a two-parter ...

Part I is that, in the end, these things don’t satisfy. There’s less on top of the pile than we imagine. Material rewards won’t satisfy immortal longings. Worldly possessions are not enough for other-worldly creatures.

So then there’s things James says are worth our going after them … character, humility, good-heartedness, sincerity. Pursuits worthy of children of God. How do you attain these things?

God’s Great Joke Part II: … is that …

These things you can’t get by going after them! … and the harder you try, the farther you are from getting them … Imagine trying to be humble and finally saying “Wow, I’m the greatest at humility!” It doesn’t ring true.

There are some people that are desperately trying to be happy and they’re some of the most miserable people on Earth. Out there, there are some people desperately trying to be original and they’re not even interesting. Because they’re after something you can’t get for the reaching.

These things come only by what C. S. Lewis calls “the principle of inattention” – they can be yours ONLY when you’re not looking for them.

… you only get these heavenly things, when you’re after something else, something ULTIMATE and ETERNAL.

Well … that doesn’t sound very concrete, does it?

Perhaps, the good news is that God has endowed all of us … you and I with what Boyd called A Lovely Ambition?

… something you don’t have to try hard at all to do or to be or to chase
… something you are so gifted at that when you find it, it’s as if you’re remembering it more than ever having learned it

… and when you’re “doing this thing” … telling a story, singing in the choir, playing in the band, helping others find their calling, dancing, nurturing K5er’s, loving your children, … well that produces a certain kind of person, the kind that says, well …

… it doesn’t matter if I ever sing at the Met as long as I sing with dignity and purpose
… it doesn’t matter if I paint a masterpiece so long as I paint with creativity, the best way I know how


… because when you’re doing these ULTIMATE and ETERNAL things, those other things … humility, sincerity, the good heart … fly up and land on your shoulder …you get all that thrown in!!

Unsought … it’s God’s good gift … given when least expected.

What do we really value? True worship someone once said is to put the right value on the right thing … rather than chasing after trivial things God did not create us for …

… if you do what you’re gifted to do, if you’re after ‘the perfect YOU’ and you do it with discipline and integrity, God says… THAT is ambition enough

Amen

There’s a Crack in Everything

6th Sunday of Easter, May 17, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Kendra Mohn

Readings:
Acts 10: 44-48
1 John 5: 1-6
John 15: 9-17


Audio sermon file:

http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/742/B360F0E2-1D02-B2DA-323C-441252BCF9A8.mp3


There was a WAY COOL moment that came at the start of today’s service, when the Sunday school kids came out and sang:

David Brooks in an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times described the Grant Study http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/opinion/12brooks.html) in which a cadre of young men from Harvard are followed and studied for the better part of their adult lives. The researchers were looking for, in part, indicators of happiness in the subjects’ lives. When did they attain it? Why and under what circumstances. What were the major factors that played into obtaining it and maintaining it. And these clues to what proffers happiness?

There was barely a correlation with any of the indicators we have most bought into believing are the main determinants. These were people who were given nearly every opportunity, had doors opened for them and full access to factors deemed necessary for success in life. And the most interesting conclusion was that there seems no way to indicate what will make one person happy and another falter at the brink: not your emotional state in your thirties, not money, not good relationships, not plenty of supportive family and friends, not a faith community.

People who have every reason to be happy are not.
People who have no reason to be … are content.

Interestingly, in the Bible, Jesus NEVER talks about being happy!!!!!

If we lead a Jesus-life, we lead a life abiding in God and God’s love, serving one’s neighbor. In love and service, there is joy. If, in the end, you end up happy about it, well that’s a by-product of a well-lived life, not an end to seek in itself.

The advice Jesus gives is to love. Even in the Grant Study as described by David Brooks, one subject finally says …

“Happiness is love. Full Stop.”

Jesus invites us to look at life differently … to view it as service to others. A month or so back, I blogged about an interesting half-fact/half-fiction book and movie entitled the Peaceful Warrior. It’s still worth a look-see if for no other reason than one interplay of dialogue between a young athlete and his mindful mentor:

“Hey, Socrates, if you know so much, why are you working at a gas station?”
“It’s a service station. We offer service. There is no higher purpose.”
“ …Than pumping gas?”
“Service to others.”

There's even a poignant scene at the very end of the movie about what it is we think will "make us happy", but never will. And, if you want a harkening back to last week's sermon ... a great scene where Dan tries to visit his mentor one last time .... only to find the gas station "manned" by someone new, Socrates nowhere to be found. Like Philip in today's scripture reading, like Jesus on the Road to Emmaus, now-you-see-Him - now-you-don't .... off with the wind.

In today’s scripture reading is Jesus’ Farewell Discourse … (John 13:31 – 17:26). It says a lot. It’s meat on the bones, but it’s so counter-intuitive. Jesus’ topsy-turvy world. And precisely because it’s so counter-intuitive, it bears a lot of repeating.

Abide in God’s love for you.
Love your neighbor.

It’s a new model, a new system, and we’re not always trusting of it. We like for life to be transactual. We like to know for what goes into the box, what comes out. We like to know the price and value of things in which we invest our money and time and effort. We like to know the rules of engagement up front and we like to understand them. In another NY Times O-Ed piece entitled "What You Don't Know Makes You Nervous" (http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/what-you-dont-know-makes-you-nervous/), Dan Gilbert points out that "money doesn't makes us happy - certainty does". There's beaucoup research to indicate that uncertainty raises hormine levels indicative of stroke and heart attack; rats that were always shocked or never shocked exhibited lower stress levels than rats who "never knew" when they woukd be shocked. Those who were uncertain when they would be shocked sweated more profusely, their heart beat faster.

We are frustrated when we either don’t understand the rules or when we’re not allowed to play into them as we think we should, i.e. when they don’t seem transactual. Point in case, asking to bring something when we’re going to someone’s house for dinner. God and others tell us, no, we can’t. But we buck it. We don’t get not putting in for what we know we’ll get out.

And if the system breaks, we don’t understand. We like a very predictable world where everything makes sense. And the transactual model works well for driving and banking and maybe even dating. But there are at least two entities where it breaks down miserably: evil and God.

If you’ve ever lost your job, suffered a loss of a loved one, been hurt terribly by someone, had your trust betrayed, then you know the rules don’t apply. The good news is it’s the same way with God. You can’t earn your way into dinner or offer anything He can’t already, hasn’t already provided.

You can not pay God back. He asks you to Pay it Forward (another good movie, by the way …

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_It_Forward_(film) ). It’s not transactual and it’s not fair by our normal definition(s). If we pay out and don’t receive in return, we feel cheated. The fault in our reasoning is that we forget we were blessed with something to pay with in the first place. We suffer from a lack of understanding of our own initial conditions in the game.

Pastor Mohn shared a great story that Dan Magnuson shared with her. In Leonard Cohen’s poem The Anthem (http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Leonard_Cohen/215 ):

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.

There is the notion that it is in life’s imperfections that God shines through. In the cracks, in the places we lose, where we struggle, that where God shines through. That’s where flowers grow in the sidewalk … in the cracks. In the cracks God sees opportunities to shine His grace through for those open enough to look for it.

The world sees unrequited love as foolish. Jesus sees it as a calling. Jesus takes the crack called servanthood and sees it as a privilege, much like Socrates, the service station attendant in A Peaceful Warrior. Jesus sees death as a means to salvation.

The command today to love one another affords us the opportunity to get close enough to things the world calls folly. And if we get close enough, we will see the light of God’s grace shining through.

As the fledgling professor in Good Will Hunting, the one deemed less successful for his having loved his wife through years of cancer instead of seeking out the awards of academia, tells his lost patient …

Oh, Will, those little things they call the imperfections. They’re the best part. They’re the part you’ll laugh about. They’re the part you most love about one another.

And, as The Anthem says, … forget your PERFECT offering …

You can add up the parts but you won't have the sum

You can strike up the march, there is no drum

Every heart, every heart to love will come but like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.

That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.

I Don’t Know Why I’m Doing This …

5th Sunday of Easter, May 10, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Gary Johnson

Readings:
Acts 8:26-40
1 John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8

Audio sermon file:

http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/292/0E84B48B-6191-A778-54B1-BFC8FDD1DACC.mp3


There was a WAY COOL moment that came at the start of today’s service, when the Sunday school kids came out and sang:

I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.
Where?
Down in my heart!
Where?
Down in my heart!
I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart,
down in my heart
down in my heart to stay

.… and for a few magical, marvelous moments, it lifted and charged the room. For those wonderful couple of moments, everyone had a smile on their face and we were filled with … joy.

How does this happen?

Sometimes it takes The Spirit … riding on the wind; a voice, a suggestion, an inkling that you’re supposed to do something, go somewhere, say something. On the winds of the Holy Spirit, we are often nudged to be a part of something that, at the time, we seem not to understand.

“I don’t know what made me go there. Something in me called me, made me stop by,” we say. And, invariably, there’s the feeling of “I’m so glad I did!”

And that something would not have occurred to you had you not allowed that something to “blow you into the life of another”. On some level, it’s a conscious decision. Philip is called by the Spirit and nudged to “go … to a dangerous road”. And the wonder of it all is “He got up and went”. He probably doesn’t understand why as reason would have it that he shouldn’t want to go, it was not prudent to go, it was a swarthy stretch of road. Philip probably had a day planner and a to-do list, a day full of appointments. But he forewent that.

He is “called” to approach the Queen’s “right hand man” – the guy who guards the money, has the power, influences authority, has the Queen’s implicit trust. He’s dark-skinned, obviously a foreigner, not from Israel. He has personal drivers, a limo … he’s obviously “got it goin’ on”. And, for all that, he’s got “something missing in his life”. He has the great job, the cool robes and it’s still “not enough”. He’s struggling with a passage in Isaiah and …

And something tells Philip … “Hey, go talk to that guy …”

That something is the gift of the Spirit through Baptism … to serve.

Philip “knows this guy”. Philip knows this guy is rich and he knows he’s NOT in this guy’s class. And this Ethiopian eunuch asks what the meaning of the scripture is and Philip fills him in … he tells the story of how Jesus conquered death and sin NOT by way of money or power or leverage, NOT with generals and an army, but by humility.

The eunuch’s response: when he next sees water, he says “What’s t stop me from being baptized, right here, right now?” What a great response!!

So what’s with Philip and the Spirit? Tell your story, write your song, say your piece when you hear a calling. Your witness is all God asks. God’ll take care of the rest. Lead the horse to water. God’ll take over from there.

The cool part? The eunuch goes dancing away after dipping himself in the waters of baptism. He was singing like the little kids this morning:

I’ve got the peace that passes understanding,
Down in my heart,
Where?
Down in my heart!
Where?
Down in my heart!
I’ve got the peace that passes understanding,down in my heart
down in my heart to stay.

I’ve the got love of Jesus, love of Jesus
Down in my heart,
Where?
Down in my heart!
Where?
Down in my heart!
I’ve the got love of Jesus, love of Jesus
down in my heart,
down in my heart to stay.

As the Voices of Zion also sang today … “Now all the vault of heaven resounds …”
The vault of heaven opens when we walk away from our own lives into the life of another.

Through your witness, God can lead them to a place where they will realize that it wasn’t ever the money or the Queen’s trust that matters. It’s in the waters of baptism that the light’s turned on. The eunuch in all of us is going to have to keep reading (and wrestling) with scripture, keep working on his baptism, but, and here’s the onderful thing, he’s going to “pass it on”, “pay it forward”.

Soon, on some given day, he’s going to say “I don’t know why I’m doing this, but …”

Someone out there, maybe today, maybe tomorrow is longing. They’ll cross your path. And, if you heed the call and brave the dangerous road, something glorious will happen. And in that moment, like Philip, you will be swept away, like Jesus on the Road to Emmaus, you’ll “be gone in an instant” to leave that someone pondering what just happened. And their eyes will be opened to a new light. They will go on joyfully singing, a changed person, with a new smile and a new outlook on life, riding on that wind that brought you to them, spreading that joy that’s filling their heart.

WebKinz Jesus??

4th Sunday of Easter, May 3, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Kendra Mohn

Readings:
Acts 4:5-12
1 John 3:16-24
Psalm 23
John 10:11-18


Audio sermon file:

http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/742/28F5BE7B-F100-1240-2A9F-99895836F6A0.mp3



Perhaps too often, Pastor Mohn offers, we tend to picture Jesus (or see artistic renditions of Him) as blonde with flowing hair, like the cute, stuffed animal sheep we buy our kids in the store, aka WebKinz (www.webkinz.com). They’re soft, cuddly, romantic and, in the end, unlike “the real thing”. As in the Psalm today, the green pastures Jesus will lie beside us in goes hand-in-hand with the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Along with Blonde Barbie Jesus is another Jesus we meet in today’s scripture texts. And, yes, there’s a dirty (and real) side of what goes along with “I am the Good Shepherd”. The reality is Jesus is moving around the world saving His sheep from the wolves, but THAT Jesus doesn’t always look like the one in the frame at the top of the stairs.

The reality is often so very different from “the idea”.

Much like parenting or the proverbial oil change, the job can often be dirty (and painful) in the details.

The Good Shepherd knows His sheep and they know Him. Pastor Mohn shared a story about a “shepherd” in Minnesota who’d had his sheep stolen while at the County Fair. While visiting the County Fair one county over, he found that a farmer there had stolen them. When he approached them, the sheep received him and they KNEW HIM. But Pastor Mohn cautioned us to “wait a minute”. Here’s the Hollywood, Hallmark moment when we tend to romanticize, when the music changes to a “happy ending crescendo” and the Webkinz sheep “comes to be”. But that’s “the idea” that we tend to romanticize. The reality is often different, if we can be truthful with ourselves long enough to resist Hollywood, Hallmark and Webkinz.

It’s not altogether only a sweet story.

WHY do the sheep know their shepherd? When it’s snowy, rainy, storming, he opens the barn door to let them seek warmth; when they’re hungry, he fills the troughs and feeds them; when they’re scared, he’s there to calm them and comfort them. They know the source of their life. When Jesus says He knows his sheep and they know Him, this is NOT a warm and fuzzy story. This is a stark reality.

Pastor Mohn remembers a dirty story of a calf birthed by her father in the mud room of their home. It was a difficult, dirty, messy birth IN THEIR HOME! The calf came too early, too cold, too afraid, but their shepherd, her father, was there to “make it OK”. He would bring the mud and gunk and filth into his own home to save that calf. The mud and blood and dirt and afterbirth, the fear, the mess, the disgusting mess – this is not the stuff of Webkinz.

It is the stuff of Baptism!!

Through all the mess and gunk of your life, God brings you into the warm waters, he gets right in with you and brings you out clean and safe and OK on the other side. There’s no barrier between Jesus and the mess in your life.

When we say that Jesus lies down before us in green pastures, it is because we know He’s there in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. When we say He’s the Good Shepherd, it’s because we know there are wolves out there.

What you won’t see in any Hallmark card or Hollywood movie or cute Kinz website, is that, in the Easter season, Jesus is out there between us and the wolves, to bring us through the mud and the gunk and out the other side.

We’re Never Ready

3rd Sunday of Easter, April 26, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Gary Johnson

Readings:
Acts 3:12-19
1 John 3:1-7
Luke 24: 36b-48


Audio sermon file:

http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/742/98E11702-3847-ED9E-C464-E6BC7F531D74.mp3



Just previous to today’s text, Pastor Johnson points out, Paul has just cured a crippled man. The crippled man starts jumping and hopping around, singing. You know this guy. He walks funny. He stands out. He has two heads, he’s different …

But this ends up one happy guy. He knows his cure is a blessing.

Often we either don’t know or have forgotten what our true blessings are. We think we know what we need. And Paul gets this. He says “I know what you ‘think you need’, but you are children of God and here … THIS is enough”. He asks “Why do you wonder at this?” and then proceeds to remind them they “killed the Author of Life”. We think we know, but we have to constantly be reminded that we really don’t.

In Luke, today, it’s as if the apostles have all seen a ghost. Again, the greeting “Why are you frightened?”. While in their joy that Jesus was alive, they were still disbelieving.

We are very much like the Israelites and the apostles. We can wrap our heads around “dead”. We get hopelessness and uncertainty. We know about shaking our heads and giving up. We can sink our teeth into that. But “he’s raised from the dead” or “he’s cured … and he’s singing and dancing”? Much less so ….

Today’s story is NOT about death. It’s about a birth.

Much as in Luke’s Christmas story … it’s the BEST … full of the mysterious, the weird, other-worldly, the aura of disbelief … as there, here we are reminded that no matter how ready you are “to have a baby”, you’re NEVER ready!!

You know what’s coming – BUT when it’s upon you, as ready as you thought you were, you’re not ready. Your reaction is to count fingers and toes, to stare almost dumb-faced.

Yoday we witness a grown-up version of “fondling the new birth”. Resurrection? No matter how often it was prophesied, we seek the wound in which to place our unbelieving hands.

And Jesus says “Touch me”

The irony is … we’re more ready for death than birth. We are given 6 weeks in Lent, like 9 months of pregnancy … to wrap ourselves around what we’re not ready for. So what? So here’s the “so what” …

God will get us out of our tight places, believe it.

And where’s the tightest place you’ll ever get?

It’s shoulder-wide and 6 feet deep.

Whatever tight spot you’re in right now, today, God has already made the sacrifice to get you out of it … while it’s easier to say “so what?”, don’t let anybody else ever tell you otherwise.

You may be tempted to not believe this. You may have trouble wrapping yourself around this. But God has made the sacrifice to “raise you up out of this tight place”.

And He will ……

The Default Scenario

2nd Sunday of Easter, April 19, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Kendra Mohn

Readings:
Acts 4:32-35
1 John 1:1-2:2
John 20:19-31

Audio sermon file:

http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/742/2A62828C-3EDB-9FDF-1876-102DE4792F9A.mp3

Pastor Mohn began with the notion that she and Thomas “are good friends”. Often the Sunday after Easter is left to seminarians and associate pastors to preach on Thomas on what’s often a lightly attended 2nd Sunday of Easter service. Pastor Mohn was admitting it was getting tough to come up with new slants on Thomas and she was, ultimately, “saved” by a 47 year old British woman named Susan Boyle.

Susan appeared on the British “American Idol” Britain’s Got Talent. The newest YouTube video to break records was written up in yesterday’s NY Times. Perhaps in response to Susan answering that she wished to be as successful as Elaine Paige, an actress and singer in British musical theater, the audience (and the judges) were somewhat sneering and laughing at her "dream" ... apparently not expecting much from the woman who, until recently, had been taking care of her ill mother. And all this before they heard her even open her mouth to sing. Everyone in the room, in a moment of anticipation of what would follow, bit lips and hid their faces or stared through slits in their upheld hands. And then she sang. Jaws dropped, eyes popped, and the audience was carried away to a standing ovation throughout her rendition of the ballad “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luRmM1J1sfg ).

There’s a deeper connection of faith, Susan Boyle and the doubting Thomas as Pastor Mohn points out. Something connecting the faces that doubted they would hear anything they’d ever care to remember. We all struggle to have faith, to believe. Susan Boyle doesn’t have the outward appearance we are taught from an early age to associate with “stardom”. We accentuate the young and the physical and allow it to take our attention from the substantive. Sometimes we are led to "believe" that dreams are only for the young, only achievable by the svelt even with all the examples around us that speak quite to the contrary. We become so "certain" that you have to look like Elaine Paige to sing like Elaine Paige. We search and yearn for certainty so much that we bottle it with a prescriptive recipe: in the absence of the voice, we judge "what will occur" on false pretenses, on appearance of what it ought to look like. And barring evidence to the contrary, we simply choose to doubt rather than believe.

When we can’t absolutely have certainty, we settle for doubt instead of faith.

Doubt, not faith, is the default scenario.

We want certainty. And if we can’t have it … because we weren’t there when the tomb was opened … or because someone doesn’t “look the part”, we choose NOT to believe.

When we have certainty, there’s no need for faith. The challenge is when there is no proof. Pastor Mohn astutely points out that faith … the choice to believe in the absence of proof is always a progression. It must be actively constructed (through effort). One does not call it out of thin air. It is difficult!

What is also sooo fascinating about Susan Boyle’s singing “I Dreamed a Dream” is that the song is about a woman dying, a woman convinced that the end is, for her, imminent. The lyrics, almost ironically, point to the young as being those who fall prey to the tigers that come out in the night. Hear the words she sings:

There was a time when men were kind
When their voices were soft
And their words inviting
There was a time when love was blind
And the world was a song
And the song was exciting

There was a time
Then it all went wrong
I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living

I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream to shame
He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride
But he was gone when autumn came

And still I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather
I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

And Susan Boyle turns this ballad of lost and broken dreams torn asunder by soft thunder into “a bright beginning”. She imbibes the lyrics with a breath of hope as if to announce that …

…between certainty and doubt … THERE … lies a thing called faith

Faith in things unseen, faith that an unemployed woman of 47 can call from within herself the voice that would stir countless to rise from their seats. In his all-too-human stance, Thomas, like all the Britain's Got Talent judges, has made up his mind, to forgo faith for doubt. From where, then, comes faith in the unsung hero, the unemployed older woman with The Voice, faith in The One who came to conquer death for all?

If ever there was a metaphor for the Resurrection in full view, here it is … what our humanity sees so much as an ending was the most glorious of beginnings. Susan Boyle helped show us all again. One chapter's close gives rise to the opening of all that's to come after. "I will make a new thing", Jesus says.

Please forgive one last venture into Britain’s Got Talent. In that same NY Times article was a link to another Britain, a cellphone salesman, Paul Potts, who early on in the history of the show dreamed of singing opera. He chose to sing Nessun Dorma from Puccini’s famous opera, Turandot ... the aria made most famous as the chosen encore for tenor Lucianno Pavarotti. Paul Potts delivers the aria exquisitely
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA), a piece I still associate with Easter and Jesus rising from the dead only because of the building to the crescendo ending of the aria in which the character sings of desperation that he must rise above … he sings “I will conquer, conquer, conquer (Vincero, vincero, vincero)” These words belted out in song for me bring visions of the rising that only comes through real pain and suffering ... and I see Jesus rising and finally conquering death for all.

Paul Potts breaths into Nessun Dorma perhaps in a way different from Susan Boyle, but just as convincing, a reason to believe that, while we tend to doubt that Jesus will arrive in a older, more worn out package shy the perfect body or luxurious teeth, a package dressed up as Susan Boyle or Paul Potts ... although we tend to doubt that good things will come so packaged, Jesus is full of surprises.

Yes ... between certainty and doubt, there IS faith. Just ask Susan Boyle and Paul Potts.

In a moment after Susan Boyle is finished singing the judge Simon Cowell says (jokingly) "he knew all along she was going to do something extraordinary". But the truth is almost no one did. We are, most of us, Thomas-like at least in this regard. We actually choose to doubt. Maybe it's the safe choice. As Jesus says today, though ... blessed are those who risk "safe", who are bold enough to believe EVEN before Susan sings - blessed are those who choose not to give entirely into the stereotypes of glitz and bodily beauty. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed ... in One who rose from the dead to conquer sin and death, once and for all

Vincero!

Vincero!

Vincero!

When You Recognize Him

Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009
Preacher: Pastor Gary Johnson

Readings:
Acts 10:34-43
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
John 20:1-18




Audio sermon file:

http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/742/E81B8D00-6FC5-42AA-5911-D7C3E043033E.mp3

Pastor Johnson started interestingly by pointing out that today is NOT a day to convince you, but rather a day to testify to you: Jesus is raised from the dead. It’s more than a myth, more than a mystery, more than a fable, more than a tale.



God is not in the business of losing.

God is not in the business of coming in second.


Death loses. Death comes in 2nd to life. Oh, death, where is thy sting?

God shows NO partiality in the crucifixion:

ALL are now included.

And we all needed saving. For we all have tombs … places where we crawl, where “nothing will get better”, that cell where all hope goes to die. We roll the stone in front of our dark cells where we continue to live with our grief, our fear, our confusion about whether “it’s going to get any better”.

The Good News today is that if you ask God to push that stone away from your tomb of loneliness, brokenness, anxiety and fearfulness, God can’t wait to roll it away and lead you out into the light and the garden.

The story now ends differently because God’s in charge.

Just as He calls Mary by name at the tomb, He knows your name. He tells Mary “not to hang on to Him”. And He tells us we cannot hang on either. He comes in and out of our lives. And we, just like the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, often don’t recognize Him. He could be the gardener, a service station attendant, or a child.

What Pastor Johnson did was then tell a story about when he was involved with Project Head Start helping a young boy, Tyrone, raised by a single mom. I seriously recommend you click on the audio sermon link at the top of this blog post because I cannot recount his story with ample emotion or passion. Each inflection and pause are a part of the experience so please allow yourselves that luxury.

What happens briefly is that Pastor Johnson was with Tyrone when he was called to attend to an old woman far out in the country on a very rainy night. He had Tyrone in the car and muscled his way most of the way until he hit a road not traversable by auto on 4 wheels. He locked Tyrone in the car and carried on by foot. Upon returning, his body froze … through the torrential downpour, in the dim of the remaining light, he saw what looked like someone in the car with Tyrone. Upon rushing the car and opening the door, he found out it was the biggest, muddiest, dirtiest, HAPPIEST dog imaginable. Tyrone looked Pastor Johnson in the eye and, figuring he was expected to give some explanation, simply said, “I couldn’t just leave him outside.” Upon returning home with Tyrone, what Pastor Johnson remembers resolutely was the look on Tyrone’s mom’s face. He said:


“It must have been what Mary’s face looked like when she realized Jesus wasn’t dead."



Jesus slips into and out of our lives. He’s where he’s least expected and at the least expected times. And when you recognize Him, you’ll see life, not death; hope, not despair.

I Smell What You’re Steppin’ In

Sunday, March 29, 2009
5th Sunday in Lent
Preacher: Pastor Gary Johnson

Readings:
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33



Audio sermon file:

http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/742/87919B9F-7560-28C7-4A7D-431C8E878FE5.mp3


Pastor Johnson focused on the New Testament text from Hebrews today, particularly two key verses:

Verse 7: In the days of his flesh ….
Verse 9: … and having been made perfect

Verse 7 refers specifically to Jesus having become human while divine. In coming into this world, He experiences humanity as we know it. He gets hungry, he feels pain, he gets tired and short-tempered. He has cried loudly and shed tears … much like us in our moments of despair. He gets brokenness, temptation; he knows what it’s like to “not fit in”, to be betrayed, to feel abandoned by his closest friends, to be tortured and crucified. It’s hard to believe there’s anything we’ve fretted over that he did not experience or could not understand.

Pastor Johnson shared that in our congregation just this week … collectively experienced death, grieving, unemployment, surgery, incarceration, homelessness. It’s easy to believe our collective hurt is not felt, that our prayers are to no avail. “Have you ever been in that place where you wondered if God heard your prayers?” Pastor Johnson asked.

But Jesus today tells us this is not the case. He asked that the cup of his crucifixion pass by him, but it was not in the plan. Sometimes Jesus does not intervene to make the sorrow go away, but he is there to go through it with us. Just this past week, Pastor Mohn wrote a telling Lenten devotional about wanting to have a friend travel along side us and “Go first …” when there’s something unexpected or a rocky road just ahead. She makes a convincing case that Jesus is that friend when no friend, even our best friends, don’t or can’t tow that line with us. In “the days of His flesh”, Jesus knew what we go through when times are rough and He says he’s right alongside of us and willing to “go first” and then along with us … every step of the way.

I have a former student I consider a very good friend … probably the best student I ever had the privilege to teach – NOT because he’s smart .. he is … ,but because he has a keen sense of what matters in this world and is mature beyond his years. I dearly love a favorite expression of his. He is apt to use it when you share a bad experience with him. There comes the moment you need a pat on the back and he says

“I smell what you’re steppin’ in …”

Translation: he’s been there and he knows it’s no fun. Sometimes you just want to know you’re not all alone. And Jesus knows this too. He “smells what we’re stepping in every day”. He smells what the culture of his time made the children “step in”. He knew they were the misbegotten and they were not valued. And he told those who would “keep them away” to allow the children to approach him.

The moral of the story is … there’s nothing you’ve felt that He doesn’t know.

And verse 9 tells of his “having been made perfect”. Pastor Johnson shared that the translation does not mean he’s “got 100 on the test”, he’s error-free. The translation more accurately means “he’s come to the fullness of his life” … having come to the point of fulfilling his purpose in a bigger plan.

Along the way to “having been made perfect”, everyone of us will move toward fulfilling our purpose in God’s plan … but that road will be strewn with “stuff we’ll step in” and, boy, some days it will surely smell. In the grit and grime of your life, Jesus smells what you’re steppin’ in. In the old Gospel song “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” , the lyrics go:

Have we trials and temptations
Is there trouble anywhere
We should never be discouraged
Take it to the Lord in prayer

Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share
Jesus knows our every weakness
Take it to the Lord in prayer

Are we weak and heavy laden
Encumbered with a load of care
Precious Savior still our refuge
Take it to the Lord in prayer

Do your friends in spite forsake you
Take it to the Lord in prayer
In his arms he’ll take and shield you
And you will find your solace there
And you will find your solace there

Jesus says “You’re not alone. Keep on trucking. I’ll ‘go first’ and ‘step in it’ with you” … because The Plan needs all its participants, the tapestry needs every thread; there’s true meaning in your journey …

He knows exactly how you feel.

He “smells what you’re stepping in”.

The Meaning of Life

Sunday, March 22, 2009
4th Sunday in Lent
Preacher: Pastor Kendra Mohn



Readings:
Numbers 21:4-9
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21

Audio sermon file:

http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/742/A4C2B7BE-EF9F-9AAD-3179-51A15EC99BC3.mp3

Pastor Mohn confessed another of her moments when Erik asked “What are you preaching this week?” to which she replied “The meaning of life”. In what she called a weekly soup of personal conversations, on-line blogging and sermon preparation surrounding the weekly scripture readings, she found a voice of people hungering for an answer to “Why we’re here?” Is it for a comfortable retirement, a sense of self defined by our roles at work or in our family relationships …

Having been intrigued by the new Target ad campaign of redefining people’s sense of a vacation (spray-on sun tan skin colorant), Pastor Mohn elaborated on the sense of redefining ourselves. In the Old Testament and throughout today’s scripture readings there is the overriding specter that “things are not OK”. As we hear in Ephesians, we’re not OK., we’re dead through our trespasses, mired in sin, disobedient, living in the passions of our flesh, children of wrath.

People end up asking “How did we get this far away? How did we get this lost? It’s a huge question. And maybe part of the answer lies in having confused the meaning of life with the American dream. Pastor Mohn muses that she’s not against having dreams, but offer s this querie: As we chase ‘the proverbial American dream’, what answer do we find as we look in the mirror and ask ourselves, “If that’s all there is, where is the meaning in life?”

The dream that arguably posts the desirables as a two-person heterosexual relationship, a big house, 2 cars, a boat, the lake house, 2.3 healthy children who go to good colleges on full scholarship. When we’re honest with ourselves, we can hear echoes of it, desires for it in our own hearts and in our own actions.

The truth is not everyone has or even wants this dream. There are as many ways of living life as there are people living it. Truth is … if that’s all there is, we wind up right where we started.

There’s a great little picture book – Hope for the Flowers … self-described as ‘a tale – partly about life and lots about hope – for adults and others’ … in which two caterpillars, Sprite and Yellow come upon a pile of caterpillars rising into the sky as far as the eye can see. “Do you know what’s happening?” one says to another. “I just arrived myself. No one has time to explain. They’re so busy trying to get where they’re going – up there,” came the reply. “But what’s at the top?” Stripe asked. Again, the reply:”No one knows that either, but it must be awfully good because everyone’s rushing there.” There’s only one thing to do reasons Stripe and he jumps right in. Caterpillars climb atop one another, pushing, shoving, and knocking each other indiscriminately off the pile in an all-out effort to “get to the top”. Eventually Stripe pushes through the clouds only to find there’s nothing “up there”. “High up there”, he concludes, “only looked good from the bottom”. And he climbs back down.

Pastor Mohn said it very similarly:

“If that’s all there is, we wind up right where we started.”

It’s a zero-sum game, you only climb the pile if you’re willing to knock your neighbor off. Our neighbor becomes our obstacle, our enemy rather than our brother, only someone in the way of our realization of “what’s up there”.

So Stripe heads down the pile telling everyone he sees that “there is nothing up there” and that they would be so much the better for building cocoons; that they could fly if only they become butterflies. “I saw a butterfly – there CAN be more to life,” Stripe realizes.

The pile of caterpillars climbs on, ignorant of the beauty contained within each of them. The Israelites carried to freedom by God, find themselves complaining about the food on the road. Invariably, when we are distracted from what God says is the true meaning of life by the little things along the way – that is when the snakes come.

But we have a collection of at least a pair of the Bible’s most powerful and most quoted verses that say we are saved nonetheless.

Ephesians 2:8 … What God has already done … “For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your doing; it is a gift of God – not the results of works, so that no one may boast.”

Ephesians 2:10 … Who we are and what our purpose is … “For we are what He has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God created beforehand to be our way of life.”

Caterpillars were born to be butterflies – not climb piles of pillars.

There’s no mention in Ephesians about the boat, the college scholarships, our partner, our security, vacation or what’s presumably “up there”. Our cocoon, the beauty of the butterfly within lies in God’s purpose for us all – to serve our neighbor.

There is a wonderful movie called The Peaceful Warrior (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OchAhzYrQNw&feature=related )in which a young, talented college athlete seeking a spot on the coveted Olympic team can “only see gold”. He is befriended by an older and wiser man named Socrates running “a gas station”. Frustrated that the man does not ascribe to his passion for “possessions and material things”, the student spouts off:

“If you’re so smart, why are you working in a gas station?” to which Socrates replies:

“It’s a service station. We provide service. There is no higher purpose”

“Than pumping gas?”

“Than service to others”

In a story that so reminded me of that exchange, Pastor Mohn recalled a vivid memory of raking leaves with her Dad when she asked him “What’s the meaning of life?” to which he replied, “Well, you’re not going to find it standing around thinking about it. You’re not going to figure it out worrying about it or wondering about it.”

We find it only when we are Christ present in our neighbors’ lives, when we give so someone else can live, when we stop striving for “the gold” long enough to slow down and find out what’s going on all around us, when we live our lives for the sake of our neighbors, our siblings, our family.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.”

Just as God did not take the snakes away from the Israelites, but rather offered another route around the obstacle, God did not take away sin from the world, but offered His only Son to give us “a go around”. He offered this supreme example of how to live in service to one another.

THIS is the gift from God – the meaning of life – to give freely and fully, to become the butterflies he intended us to be, not caterpillars in search of “something up there” worth climbing over our brothers to attain … to become the peaceful warriors we were ordained to be, those who see the beauty of a body in flight on the gymnastic rings, a human butterfly, not a competitor to vanquish and conquer, to take from.

This is the meaning of life – but you have to “exit the pile”, and “leave the gym” to travel to the service station or the tree where lies the open cocoons … where, like a small caterpillar named Stripe or a young man named Dan, with counsel from a companion named Yellow or Socrates … we finally ... “slowly seemed to understand and somehow knew what to do”.