6-21-09 Sermon  #3 in the Making Church Series

 Acts 4: 32-5:16  

There was this guy, Joseph, who heard what Jesus’ followers were saying and took it to heart.

There was this other guy, Ananias, who heard what Jesus’ followers were saying       ....saw what Joseph did...Ananias saw Joseph’ visible reward, his new name, Barnabas ( or son of encouragement).  What a role model!  Everyone wanted to be transformed like Barnabas.

This story is about what happens when we try to follow role models,

We either become children of encouragement or victims of fear.

When we are truly encouraged, we are open to transformation.

 But when fear gets in the way, it can cause us to do strange things: deceive others, become ill, have a heart attack!  Take Ananias, we don't know what keep him from authenticity.  We don't know what he was afraid of.  We do know that fear of living truly did him in.

What does a community do about fear? 

Authentic community creates safe places for addressing fear and working through our experiences and issues.   That’s what healthy families do, isn’t it? 

They make places where a child can say to her father, “Daddy, I’m afraid of the dark…”

 Where a husband can say to his wife, “Honey, I just don’t know how I’m going to get through today…" 

What do we need each other for anyway?  

It is one of the strangest quirks of western human character that we seem naturally determined to “go it alone,” until something, a force of nature, a relationship disaster, a bad day starts to crumble the walls of our life (What was that song, and the walls start tumbling, tumbling…)

Gordon Cosby often remembers when he experienced those crumbling walls during the last days of WWII.  When men are involved intensively in a common danger and do not know whether they will be around the next night, let alone the next week, they move with directness to satisfy human need to be heard and to be known.  Even gruff and untutored men listened without judgement and treated with tenderness each other's stories.  Deep bonds of friendship were forged. (Elizabeth O’Connor, Servant Leaders,Servant Structures, p. 8)

But most days we act as though we shouldn’t depend on each other unless a catastrophe absolutely demands it, an ice storm, an accident, a terrible end to a relationship, a devastating mental illness…….(you can fill in the blanks, can’t you?)  and even then, we often recede from the other’s space of pain as we have so thoroughly trained ourselves to.

Jesus said, it oughtn’t to be so.   Come along with me....any time, don’t wait for disaster.  Learn to share your lives, share my life in yours. 

When the Church of the Savior in Washington D.C. bought a building for their Servant Leadership School, locating themselves in what was then one of the most squalid neighborhoods of the city, an artist among them placed a lifesize statute of a figure, the teaching Christ, on the sidewalk out in front.  

ON the sidewalk.  Elizabeth O’Connor remembers, 

            When Jimilu was placing this new figure of the teaching Christ in our ghetto street, {a companion piece to the figure of the Servant Christ across the street in front of our medical facility for homeless men], she was aware that 

passersby averted their eyes as though art was not something intended for them.  Finally a woman stopped and asked, “How long is he going to be 

here?”

            “Oh, he’s going to live here,” Jimilu replied. “He is here to stay.”

            “Well, then,” said the woman, “I will take a look.”  (SLSS, intro).

 Jesus is here to stay.

Earlier this year we did a worship exercise prayerfully exploring what quality of Christ we hoped would develop in us.  some of the responses were:

            Unconditional love

            Kindness to those in need

            Love of everyone regardless of race, sex, ability, age, etc…

            Patience            (3)

            Understanding (2)

            Faithfulness

How do we get there from here???

Maybe some of us are reluctant to draw apart and learn from Jesus with each other because we’re stuck in the 60s.  We’ve gotten a picture in our minds of a never ending, naval gazing “kum-by-yah” circle.  Put your hands together and twiddle your thumbs.

We tend to be action oriented people.  And we can get there from here. 

 A small group can be drawn together by a common active purpose,  It can be folks responding together to a need God shows them in the world.“It” is singular-a whole created by integrated parts with a common purpose.An authentic small group may work together, but it is not task oriented. The task does not define them, Christ doe. It is Christ oriented.

The Primary purpose is to become more like Christ. 

Some of us may be reluctant to try this type of learning, growing fellowship because we know the goal of perfect human community is so very, very far beyond our reach. I love what Jean Vanier said about this as he worked through learning to live with developmentally different adults. 

Stop wasting time running after the perfect community. Live your life fully in your community today. Stop seeing the flaws---and thank God there are some! Look rather at your own defects and know that you are forgiven and can, in your turn, forgive others and today enter into the conversion of love, and remember, pray always. Jean Vanier, Community and Growth

So, How do we get there from here?

Jesus models the creation of small groups of folks who trust each other to help us hear the quiet voice of God: guiding us, constructing relationships that help us change, become more like Christ, overcome the obstacles in ourselves that hold us back and keep us from growing into the full stature of Christ. (SLSS p. 24).

Groups who learn to:

-Pray together, listening

-Talk honestly with each other about our lives.

-Be there for each other, on a regular, weekly basis, and in between-to walk, talk, occasionally eat together.  We do this with co-workers, we do this with friends, why should we not do this together with our sisters or brothers in Christ? .

Can you imagine trying to do this with all the people in an entire church?

It sounds exhausting, terrifying,

A group of a few will do, 12 at the most. (That was as many as Jesus could handle!)

 

Think right now of 2 others you can imagine sharing your journey with in an honest and trusting way. __________________________

Think right now of what you might ask another about the faith journey. 

______________

Think right now about what you need others to help challenge you to do?

_____________

What prevents us?  I suspect it is reluctance to be formed in the image of a Christ we can’t quite see.  A man who we’ve come to think of as simplistic rather than simple, as a loser rather than a winner, as irrelevant –or at best a curiosity, rather than the center of our very being.

What prevents us?  It’s hard to present ourselves as anything less than perfect, to be really authentic with our strengths and weaknesses.  It hard to be human.  But it's who we are. And It's who God loves toward the perfection that only God can create.

When Jesus gave his big sermon, the first words out of his mouth were: "Blessed are the poor in spirit." There are a number of ways to translate "poor in spirit," but on an intellectual level, the best translation is "confused." 

Blessed are the confused. If you ask why Jesus might have said that, then I must point out to you that confusion leads to a search for clarification and with that search comes a great deal of learning. For an old idea to die and a new and better idea to take place, we have to go through periods of confusion. It is uncomfortable, sometimes painful to be in such periods. Nonetheless it is blessed because when we are in them, we are open to the new, we are looking, we are growing. 

And so it is that Jesus said, "Blessed are the confused." Virtually all of the evil in this world is committed by people who are absolutely certain they know what they're doing. It is not committed by people who think of themselves as confused. It is not committed by the poor in spirit.               -M. Scott Peck, Further Along the Road Less Traveled

As we continue to think and pray about who we are becoming, may you find partners in the authentic journey with Christ.

Christmas prayer 2008

Pastoral Prayer 12-24-08 7pm

Gracious God,

Today, as the snow fell, strangers exchanged smiles in crowded stores, cold fingers dropped coins into Salvation Army buckets,
Today, as the snow fell, family generations free for a few hours from work or school gathered in homes, grateful for warmth, for fragrant pots on the stove, for the joy of reading a familiar story, sharing Christmas.
Today, as the snow rose, lovers thought of their beloved far away, keeping watch in Iraq, in Afghanistan, on boats and in planes, of their beloved working in makeshift hospitals in refugee camps, flood zones, and earthquake ravaged towns, teaching in rain forests and villages.

Tonight, as the stars rise, we gather in plain country chapels, suburban mega-churches, and ancient cathedrals.
Tonight, as the stars rise, worshippers in Bethlehem are passing through an Israeli checkpoint while mothers, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and more tuck their children in with prayers that the night will be quiet, no bombs, no raids.
Tonight as the stars sire, veterans are remembering holidays far from home, are gathering where heat rises on city streets, sharing the day’s end as they create makeshift shelter for the night.

*Tonight, as the stars rise, in Zimbabwe, in home after home, under trees, by dirty river banks that are the nearest thing to home some can find, parents cradle children emaciated by hunger, by cholera, remembering a young Jewish Mother bringing her child into a dangerous world, remembering Christmas.

*Tonight, as the stars rise, old men are worshipping the Christ child on tatami mats in small Japanese villages with words passed down from Meiji days.

*Tonight, because it is Christmas, our memories of the past and our hopes for the future twine together with others all across this globe, in this one promise:

*God is with us in Jesus Christ, slipping into our world in the low light of a cow warmed cave, cradled by a young woman who has made herself vulnerable to God’s need, sheltered by a young man of quiet action, watched with awe by shepherds drawn down from the hills, sung to by a chorus of voices spanning time and space, solemnly greeted by those wise enough to wait. Struck by wonder at the very idea, as it sinks in on the scent of a baby’s fresh skin and milky breathe, this is the most powerful thing in the world, so tiny and vulnerable, so irresistible.

God with us, tomorrow, as the sun rises, stay with us, be that vulnerable power that prompts us to lay aside what would hurt those you love. Weave us into the story that is renewed each time we accept your invitation to live into it. Wrap us in your Holy Spirit trusting the tomorrow that has you in it, let that be enough for us and let us be enough for those you love, the lonely, the lost, the hungry, the sick, those whose names we do not know, and those with so many names they no longer remember who they are.. AMEN

Disclaimer: This text serves as the “jumping off point” for the sermon actually preached at Readfield United Methodist Church on 12-14-08 by the Rev. Karen L. Munson © “Prepared to Believe”
Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11, Psalm 126,1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24, The Gospel According to John 1: 6-8, 19-28
Teaching high school students means accepting a certain amount of cognitive dissonance on a regular basis; it’s the rub that comes from interaction of diverse ideas, practices and generations. Right now the place rubbing me is studying Hinduism while preparing for Christmas. The point I want to pick up from Hindus this morning is the way more and more Hindus are adamantly stating that they practice “Dharma,” not religion.
They’re not the only ones who want to distance themselves from the word, “religion.” The popular term for westerners is “spiritual.” I’m not at all religious, but I’m very spiritual. I think that’s a sign of religion in the process of being reinvented.
It seems like there are several approaches to religion:
1. Attack. A string of recent best sellers blame religion for all that is wrong with the world.
Christopher Hitchens’, “God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope’s awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix. … Writes reviewer Michael Kinsley God should be flattered: unlike most of those clamoring for his attention, Hitchens treats him like an adult. (Barnes and Noble review, www.barnesandnoble.com )
Or take Sam Harris’s recent bestseller, “The End Of Faith,” Since the publication of my first book, “The End of Faith,” thousands of people have written to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as Christians generally imagine that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own. The truth is that many who claim to be transformed by Christ’s love are deeply, even murderously, intolerant of criticism. While we may want to ascribe this to human nature, it is clear that such hatred draws considerable support from the Bible. How do I know this? The most disturbed of my correspondents always cite chapter and verse. (Preface to “The End of Faith”).
2. The flip side, of course, is those who USE religion TO attack, with scripture used as a weapon and doctrine as ideology. The evidence is on the front page of our news sources daily.

3. Another approach is “ignore it and it will go away.” We see this position outside the church, but also inside the church (in the uncritical embrace-wait out the storm). Some examples might be Latin rite worship, “my favorite three hymns,” the only scripture that really counts….any favorite can become “all I need.” The flaw is the “I,”. an inward turn that loses sight of Christ beyond my limits.

4. A fourth approach is to engage-find out what its all about. Practice makes perfect, whether its practice of prayer, understanding scripture, discovering what mission is all about, experiencing the joy of worship. None of these can be thought through. None of these can be understood through observation. All of them come to life when we choose to critically, intentionally enter the practice of faith.
What’s the difference between religion and dharma? What’s the difference between religion and spirituality? I think what speakers want it to mean is the difference between uncritically accepting a set of ideas, ideas that we see rationalizing behavior splashed across front pages, and practicing intentional life formation.
We are in a time of redefining…. a straining against constraints.
Could this be what God is about in the nativity?
Sam Harris is right. Religion can’t solve the world’s problems.
Christopher Hutchins is right. Religion can become spiritual thought and experience reduced to a formula that no longer stimulates wonder or points to a satisfying meaning to life.
But it doesn’t have to.
Religion as a set of principles has no more power than capitalism, Marxism, communism, atheism, or any other ism our best efforts can come up with. God is no ism and no ism can contain God.
Those who call themselves “spiritual” instead of religious, followers of dharma instead of religion, are after a more intentional and critical practice. That’s good.
But if they follow a set of principles, they will eventually recreate the same problem, a certain way a thing must be done, a tradition that must be honored, a due that must be owed.
So we come to the cognitive dissonance of Christmas itself. It makes no sense. Who would believe it?
A baby will set it all right, all the problems of the world…..right.
A baby needs US, doesn’t it? Until the baby becomes a he, becomes a she, and we find ourselves needed to touch him, to smell her, to cradle a soft capped head on our shoulder and say shhhh,
In grand language that may sound a little archaic to our ears, Howard Thurman put it this way,
Oscar Wilde says in his “De Profundis,” There is always room in an ignorant man’s mind for a great idea. It is of profoundest significance to me that the Gospel story, particularly the Book of Luke, reveals that the announcement of the birth of Jesus comes first to simple shepherds who were about their appointed tasks. After theology has done its work, after the reflective judgments of men from the heights and lonely retreats of privilege and security have wrought their perfect patterns, the birth of Jesus remains the symbol of the dignity and the inherent worthfulness of the common man.
Stripped bare of art forms and liturgy, the literal substance of the story remains, Jesus Christ was born in a stable, he was born of humble parentage in surrounding that are the common lot of those who earn their living by the seat of their brows. Nothing can rob the common man of this heritage-when he beholds Jesus, he sees in him the possibilities of life even for the humblest and a dramatic resolution of the meaning of God.
If the theme of the angel’s song is to find fulfillment in the world, it will be through the common man’s becoming aware of his true worthfulness and asserting his generic prerogatives as a child of God. The diplomats, the politicians, the statesmen, the lords of business and religion will never bring peace to the world. Violence is the behavior pattern of Power in the modern world, and violence has its own etiquette and ritual, and its own morality. (Howard Thurman, The Mood of Christmas, New York: Harper and Row, 1973, page 11.)
So God comes to us irresistibly, In fact, I believe that’s a mark of truly meeting God. We find God utterly irresistible. The only way we can resist God is by dying a little ourselves, suppressing the joyful recognition and response, choosing to be blind rather than letting the light dazzle our eye, cutting off our hand lest it offend us by reaching out and touching something so extraordinary and finding that it is so real we can never touch anything without reverence again.
John announces it, the innocent revolution, where we encounter the unbelievable in our practice of the possible.

It is not enough to hang out with Christians if it means that we fail to see Christ in and between us, or even in and between those who do not call themselves Christian.
It is not enough to be called Christian. In fact, it can be an impediment if it means we stop looking for Christ.
We’ve got to be vulnerable to the presence of God.
In honor of the angels prayer’s placed on our Christmas tree this year, I close with a few more words from Howard Thurman:
There must be always remaining in every [one’s] life some place for the singing of angels-some place for that which in itself is breathlessly beautiful and by an inherent prerogative throwing all the rest of life into a new and created relatedness. Something that gathers up in itself all the freshets of experience form drab and commonplace areas of living and glows in one bright light of penetrating beauty and meaning-then passes. The commonplace is shot through now with new glory-burdens become lighter, deep and ancient wounds lose much of their old, old hurting. A crown is placed over our heads that for the rest of our lives we are trying to grow tall enough to wear. Despite all of the hardness of life, despite all of the harsh discords of life, life is saved by the singing of angels. (Thurman page 10.)
Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is working through me,
........because the Lord picked me out and commissioned me for the job.

I have been sent to deliver good news
........to all who have been used and abused,
and to tend the wounds
........of those who are brokenhearted.
I have been sent to preach a message;
........a message that means freedom for the detainees,
........a message that will break the shackles and release the people.

I have been sent to announce
........that now is the LORD’s chosen time;
that the date has been set
........for our God to give the enemies of life their just desserts.

I have been sent to bring comfort
........to everyone who is grieving.
I am to provide for those who mourn in the holy city;
........to deck them out in bright flowers
................instead of sombre funeral clothes;
........to hand them glasses of bubbly
................instead of their bitter cup of tears;
........to set them singing and dancing in celebration
................instead of collapsing in despair.

They will be called the pillars of integrity,
........erected by the LORD,
................a magnificent display of what God can do.

They will rebuild what has long laid in ruins,
........they will construct something grand from what is now rubble.
They will restore cities that have been destroyed;
........places that have known generations of devastation.

This is what the LORD has to say:
“I love the way you do the right thing and give everyone a fair go.
........I hate it when people do the wrong thing and rip each other off.
I will be true to my word and reward you well;
........I will make an alliance with you that will stand the test of time.

Your descendants will be famous all over the world;
........your offspring will be talked about by people everywhere.
Everyone who sees them will know without doubt
........that I, the LORD, have set them up for life.”
Because of the LORD, I will sing and dance in celebration;
........everything inside me is bursting with joy over my God.
The LORD has decked me out in the splendour
........of faithfulness and integrity,
................clothes fit to celebrate a dream come true.
I am like a bride and groom dressed for a wedding;
........with flowers and jewels and everything done just right.

Indeed, just as the earth brings forth its vegetation,
........and just as rich soil causes seeds to sprout and grow,
so too the Lord GOD will produce a bumper crop of honesty and integrity,
........and all the world will see it and give due credit to God.

©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net



* Psalm 126

When you brought us home to Zion from exile, LORD,
........we had to pinch ourselves to be sure it wasn’t a dream.

Laughter and singing kept bubbling up in us;
........we were just over the moon!

Even the nations around us had to admit
........that you must have taken our side, LORD.
Indeed, we could only celebrate and thank you
........for the wonderful things you had done for us.

LORD, we need your help again;
........we are like dry creek-beds in need of rain.

We have worked with sweat and tears;
........let us reap the rewards with celebration.

Let those who laboured with heavy hearts,
........expecting nothing but despair,
come home with pride renewed,
........celebrating unimaginable success.

©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

* 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24

Whatever is going on, celebrate.
........Always and everywhere, pray.
................Come what may, express your thanks.

Indeed, as people in union with the Messiah Jesus,
........this is how God wants you to live.

The Spirit is working among you, don’t pour cold water on it.
........When you hear a message from God, don’t despise it.
Whatever is presented to you, check up on it:
........- if it proves to be good, hang onto it.
........- if it is corrupt in any way, don’t touch it.

I pray that the God of peace will personally clean you up and form you into people of thoroughgoing integrity. I pray that your whole beings — spirit, soul and body — may remain healthy and uncompromised when our Lord Jesus the Messiah comes. The One who is calling you is unswervingly faithful, and will personally get the job done.

©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net



* John 1: 6-8, 19-28

........Once there was a man on a mission from God, and his name was John. He gave a first-hand report about the light, spelling it out so that everyone could believe. He wasn’t the light, himself, but he made it his job to draw everyone’s attention to the light.
........©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net