There's Nothing I Can Do Here.  Jesus?

6/17/2013

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Erin Seigmiller

 It’s quite the collection of texts this morning! I struggled with this for  EVER, and I’m still not sure if my theme really works. But we’ll just use our  imaginations and a shoehorn to get them all to fit! Ultimately, my theme,  “Seriously, God’s in charge”  is quite nicely laid out  in our psalm.
In my favorite translation of the bible, The Message, the 5th psalm 1 - 8 runs  like this:

 Listen,  God! Please, pay attention!
 Can  you make sense of these ramblings, 
my  groans and cries?
 King-God,  I need your help.
 Every  morning you’ll  hear me at it again.
 Every  morning I  lay out the pieces of my life
 on  your altar and  watch for fire to descend.
 You  don’t socialize with Wicked,
 or  invite Evil over as your houseguest.
 Hot-Air-Boaster  collapses in front of you;
 you  shake your head over Mischief-Maker
 God  destroys Lie-Speaker;
 Blood-Thirsty  and Truth-Bender disgust you.

 And  here I am, your invited guest --
 it’s  incredible!
 I  enter your house; here I am;
 prostrate  in your inner sanctum,
 Waiting  for directions
 to  get me safely through enemy lines.

 You  can’t see it, but Wicked, Hot-Air-Boaster, Mischief-Maker and Truth-Bender are  all capitalized. They are like named characters in the drama that is our lives.
But God once again shows us who is in charge, who has real, and ultimate  authority. The psalm also lets us know where we are, and gives us some good  advice.  We are invited guests, unlike Wicked. An invited  guest who  is received into the “inner sanctum” and we’ve been promised a foolproof (thank
goodness!) plan to navigate the “enemy lines” of our lives. The second stanza  holds the advice (which is echoed in many other passages), leave the pieces of  your life on God’s altar, and keep watch.

 So,  God is in charge. And has the ultimate authority. And is in command of all  things. Right. Clearly this is the case in our first old testament lesson about  Ahab, Jezebel and Naboth. Ahab wants what he can not have. What I didn’t  understand at first about this was this - at the time, in Jewish tradition a
person couldn’t just sell their land, it was held by them in trust almost, for  their family’s sake. For future generations. So, selling it, or trading it was  out of the question. Naboth wasn’t just being fussy, he was on the right side of  the law on this one. Ahab, couldn’t have it, until Jezebel fixes it all up for
him. God is not impressed, sends Elijah to chat with him. and set him straight  on the consequences of his actions. Bam - where the dogs licked up Naboth’s  blood, they’ll be doing the same with yours. Ouch! What the lesson doesn’t tell
us is that Ahab goes on to be penitent, and God is merciful to Ahab. Jezebel,  not so much.  Anyway, once again, God is clearly in charge in this  passage.

 In  the second lesson Paul does go on a bit (as he is wont!) but the gist of this  passage - I think, anyway - is that God set this whole thing up, and we need to  have faith that God knows the business of being God. So, having said that, and
knowing that Jesus has paid up front for our tickets, there isn’t anything we  can do to drive this relationship. Once again, God has the key. We just need to  trust Jesus to get the job done, because clearly we are unable to get it  together, Law or no law, our efforts are not the key “because  no one will be justified by the works of the law.”  At  the time, Paul and the early christians in Galatia and elsewhere, were dealing
with the influx of non jews into the christian fold, and they were just trying  to work things out.  The last line in the passage, “for  if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.”  reassures  us that we shouldn’t feel bad that we can’t save ourselves, the jews had The  Law, and if they weren't saved by that, then nothing but Jesus will! 
 
*
there is more interesting stuff here, but no time to work it in - so lets talk  about this sometime over coffee! 

Speaking  of Jesus ... Our gospel from Luke is a vivid story that uses a situation with  Simon the Pharisee, where Jesus is preaching to him through the genuine  gratitude shown by the woman in our story. She has been forgiven much, and is
moved to such depths of gratitude that she washes Jesus’ feet with her tears and  dries them with her hair. She anoints his feet with healing, and I’m assuming  wonderful smelling ointment. It’s messy. As living often is. And Simon, sits
back and judges her to be sinful, and he wonders why Jesus lets her even come  close  to  Him, let alone touch him, and contaminate him. Jesus feels that Simon clearly  doesn’t get it. Simon needs a story of his own. He learns. How often have we  played the role of Simon, judging others? The unnamed woman isn’t there to seek  something from Jesus, she was there to give Him something, her Gratitude. She  was in touch with it, and she willingly, overwhelmingly, shared it with Jesus.
Again, echoing our second reading, that rule-following, or subscribing to a  certain theology will not be saving us, but Jesus will. We are saved by Grace  alone. Once again, God’s in charge. Now, the first three verses of the next  chapter have been tacked on to this challenging story, and I had a hard time  figuring out why it was there. I listened to the podcast on the workingpreacher  that suggested that a whole sermon could be made of these three verses. One that
explored that women were everywhere in Jesus’ story - from Mary, his mother, to  Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Susanna to the “many others”, Jesus was followed by,  supported, cared for and financed by women. It wasn’t as one of the podcast  commentators said, Jesus just going around doing his thing with these 12 guys.  There was a movement, and Jesus had more than just a few young men convinced!
One of the commentators suggested that if we were going to be familiar with the  names of the apostles, we should be familiar with the names of the women that  figured large in Jesus’ life and ministry! I quite agree.

 If  there has to be conclusion to this sermon it is to remind us all once again of  our psalm this morning. Lay it all out for God, trust that you’ve been given the  right invitation into the best house ever, and have faith that God has a plan
for you through the “enemy lines” of your life!

amen.
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Are you free indeed?

10/29/2012

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John 8:31-36 Reformation Sunday 

In talking to people inside and outside of the Church, I have come to the conclusion that there are two basic spiritual needs people have, and they are sometimes in conflict. We all have a basic need for security, and we all have a basic need for freedom.

Now, there are churches which offer people mostly security. They tend to be rigid in their beliefs, and offer a complete life-and-belief system which you have to buy as a complete package. You are not supposed to try to think things out for yourself, just accept everything they teach, do everything they say, and you will be saved. Many people find this very comforting. They don't have to work it out themselves, just accept it. You know a church is mostly offering security when their main evangelical emphasis appeals to fear: “Where are you going to spend eternity? In heaven or in hell?”And very often these churches are growing and thriving when other churches are in decline. A lot of people crave security and are willing to trade their freedom for it.

However, not everybody has an overriding desire for security. Many people find the rigidity and rule-following nature of these churches is oppressive and confining. That's one of the reasons many people don't go to church, in fact. The church of their childhood was oppressive, and they don't want to go there. Or they hear and read of churches like this – which tend to be more vocal in the media – and are horrified at the thought of getting into their clutches.

These people have a stronger yearning for freedom. They want to work things out for themselves, they don't want an institution telling them what to believe. They want to be able to do whatever they want, without worrying about whether it is against somebody's rules or not.

The trouble is, without God, there is no lasting freedom. Anybody active in AA or NA or any 12 step program will tell you that you have to put your trust in a higher power, or you will never be free of your addiction. And we are all addicted to sin. There is always something that trips you up, no matter what your standards or principles are. There are always instincts that get the best of us, selfishness that destroys relationships, fear and anger that interfere with our enjoyment of life. And so we don't have the freedom that we crave, after all.

I really think that God was puzzled by us humans. God created us for good, to be God's children and friends, and we turned aside and did all sorts of evil and violent things. God called Abraham to make a new kind of humanity, and still people went violently wrong, and his descendants ended up as slaves in Egypt. God freed them and gave them explicit instructions through the Law of Moses – and for the most part it failed to bring them closer to God. God sent prophets to point out where the people were going wrong – and that didn't work either. Finally God had to come down here Godself to tell us – and when God became human, then God understood. We are slaves to sin. We can't help it. No matter how hard we try, we are going to screw it up somehow.

I think it was at that point that God realized that we are the way we are because that's the way God made us. We are deeply flawed because that's the way we were born. So Jesus proclaimed that we were forgiven, but honestly, we found that hard to believe. That's the tragedy of humanity – we know what we should be like, but we cannot attain to it. So Jesus went to the cross, declared forgiveness even as they were killing him, took all the blame for all our sins on himself, so that we could finally really believe that God wasn't mad at us anymore – that God accepted the blame, that it was okay that we were not perfect. And it's at that point, when we become aware that we don't have to live in fear of death and God's judgement, that God loves us and wants us to be God's dear children – that's when we are freed. The Son has made us free, and we are free indeed.

And in finding this freedom, the freedom from guilt and shame, the freedom from fear and anger, the freedom to live life in love and acceptance and joy, we also find true security. Because no one is more secure than the one who knows that they live in God's love, which is stronger than death.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be moved,

and though the mountains shake in the depths of the sea...”

“The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold.”

Therefore we will not fear, though our congregation seems to be dissolving and disintegrating. Therefore we will not fear, though we don't have enough money to pay the pastor any more. Therefore we will not fear, though a host of personal troubles assails us. The Lord of hosts is with us! The God of Jacob is our stronghold!

And because God discovered that we really can't help screwing up all the time, God said, “What they need is a piece of me inside them!” So God sent us the Holy Spirit to be inside us, changing us from the inside out. So we don't have to try and try to live up to what God wants – God is making it happen as we live and pray and help one another out. We don't have to go by what someone else says. “No longer shall they teach one another, saying, Know the Lord!” But we all know within ourselves that God is with us, freeing us, leading us, loving us.

Our neighbours need to know this. Many of our neighbours are still living lives of desperation, still slaves to sin, living in fear. We are a part of God's solution. As God became human to rescue us, we can reach out to others with that same rescue. We can say, “Your freedom is here. Your security is here. Yes, you can have it all. It is found in Jesus.” Thanks be to God! Amen.

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Holy Trinity Sunday    June 3 2012

6/1/2012

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Trinity Sunday June 3 2012 Our Saviour's

How to explain the Holy Trinity?  The short answer is, you can't.  Take a look at the fans up there on the ceiling.  There are three blades, but they are whirling around so fast it looks like just one blur.  And if you stuck your hand in there to try to stop it so you could see each blade clearly, it would hurt like blazes!  That's the kind of thing that happens when you stick your mind into the dance of the Holy Spirit to try to stop the action so you can examine each person separately – your head hurts! Everything God does is done by the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  You can't separate them.  But you can tell them apart.

Sometimes people try to describe the difference between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, by different things that God does.  They talk about God the Creator, God the Redeemer, and God the Sustainer.  Now this would be very tidy if we knew that God the Father was the Creator of the world, and God the Son, Jesus, was the Redeemer of the world, and God the Holy Spirit was the sustainer of our faith and life.  And indeed they are.  

But Creation, for example, involves all 3 persons of the Trinity.  In Genesis 1 God says, “Let US make human beings in OUR image.” Plural right from the start. And in Psalm 104 it says, “When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.” And in Colossians 1 it says about Jesus, that “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created.” So it seems that just making the Father the Creator won't work.  The Son and the Holy Spirit are Creator, too.

This is also the case with our redemption or salvation.  Yes, it was Jesus who died on the cross, but he was doing it by the Father's will, and it was the Father who raised him from the dead.  And it is the Spirit who warms our hearts and sparks faith in our minds so that we can embrace the cross for our salvation.  So Jesus is our Saviour, and the Father is our Saviour, and the Spirit is also our Saviour.

And it is the same with the sustaining that we receive from God.  Yes, the Holy Spirit comes to us to awaken God's gifts in us and fill us with joy.  But the love we have is poured into our hearts by the Father.  And Jesus promised to be with us always, to the end of the age.  So the Holy Spirit is the Sustainer, and Jesus is the Sustainer, and the Father is the Sustainer.

Are you thoroughly confused yet?  All three persons of the Trinity are present in whatever God does, but we do identify some things more with one and some things with another.  The point is, God comes to us in many different ways; we experience God's presence in many different ways.
In our first story this morning, Isaiah experienced the presence of God in the temple.  And we think, well, of course, that is where people are supposed to experience the presence of God!  But to tell the truth, that does not always happen, does it? We come to church, to the sacred space, hoping that God will make God's self known to us. It is not always as dramatic as Isaiah's experience, not by a long shot. But God is there, and God does become known to us. 

But worship is not the only place that we can experience the presence of God. Many people experience God's presence through Creation.  I must say, that when I walk in the woods,  I often feel very close to God. I think that is why the hymn “How Great Thou Art”  is so popular. Sometimes God the Creator is our first experience of God.

And some people first experience the presence of God in the midst of a crisis. It may be that they need healing, or it may be that they need forgiveness, that something is wrong, drastically wrong with their lives.  In the midst of their brokenness, they cry out, and God is present with them. The work that is so closely associated with Jesus, the work of healing and forgiving and saving, is some people's first and most powerful experience of the presence of God.

And still others first experience God in the love and acceptance of the Christian community.  The Holy Spirit binds us together in love, with all our differences and our quirkiness, and this is a powerful testimony to the presence of God.  When, as the Body of Christ, we are Christ to one another, in reaching out, in hugs, in smiles, in casseroles, in prayers, in water and bread and wine – that too is the presence of God.

What was your first experience of the presence of God?  Was it in creation? Was it in a crisis situation?  Was it among God's people?  No matter how you first experienced the presence of God, your spiritual growth requires some experience of the others as well.  A person who finds God in nature, but who never comes to the realization that life is broken and needs a Saviour, remains a child spiritually.  A person who comes to God on their knees begging forgiveness, and yet who never joins in a Christian community, will have no opportunity for growth.  A person who lives happily in the love of the church, but who never is exposed to the wonders of creation, will never reach their full potential.

God is with us, God is all around us, God is within us, God is within the people around us.  There are so many opportunities to experience the presence of God. 

Isaiah met God in the temple.  The furnishings of the temple, the smoke of the incense, the carvings of the Seraphim, became windows through which God was able to reach out and touch Isaiah, and call him to ministry.

We call sacred, the things through which God makes God's presence known.  The church is a sacred place, because many people encounter God here.  The bread and the wine and the waters of baptism are sacred, because God promises to meet us there.  The whole world is sacred, too, because God reaches out to us through Creation.  And this gathering, this small, but powerful gathering, is also sacred, because God is present to us in each other.

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all here, right now.  And just as they cried out to Isaiah, “Who shall I send?”  God is still crying out for people to go for God.  And in the same way, we cry out, “Here am I; send me!”   And as we respond to the moving, urging, impelling work of God, we are caught up in the movement of the Holy Trinity, always moving, like the fan, refreshing, energizing, enabling us to be what God wants us to be.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.
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Mark, Chapters 14 and 15

4/1/2012

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I was having a really rough day on Friday when I wrote this. It all started when my dog bit someone. I know, I know, this is really bad. This made me feel horrible. I was really shaken, because I felt like a complete failure as a dog owner. And from there I started to think of all the other parts of my life where I feel like a failure. I have a nagging suspicion that if only I were a better Pastor, we wouldn't have to sell the building. And I am a terrible housekeeper. And this tapped into a huge well of emotions that have been building up for the last 60 years. I am a failure. I am inadequate. I am just not good enough.

  This was how Peter must have felt. He felt it was his duty to protect Jesus, and he was a complete failure at it. When he should have been keeping watch in the garden, he fell asleep. He tried again. He struck out at the people who came to arrest Jesus, but his attempt was pathetic. Then when he followed him to court, and people accused him of being his friend, he denied him. No wonder he broke down and wept.

  While Jesus I'm sure understood Peter's clumsy attempts to protect him, he also didn't appreciate it. Because Jesus knew that his destiny was to die, he didn't need well-meaning friends trying to talk him out of it. That made it only harder. And it was hard enough, as we can see from his agony in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus had his fair share of the normal human instinct of self-preservation. But he had to overcome it in order to do what he had to do.

  I wonder if it was only when God became human that God fully understood just how weak and flawed humans are. God had been struggling with his humans ever since God had created them. God had tried various ways of getting us to be obedient and faithful, and everything had either backfired or failed. So God became human, and realized the depth of our inadequacy. We honestly just can't help it, we were born this way. We don't want to be this way, but how can we do otherwise? We are always beating ourselves up because of our failures. And if we can't stand to beat ourselves up, we beat each other up, and that's even worse. And here we are, trapped in our human nature, longing for God but stuck in the mire.
  
So God did the only thing God could do to release us from this trap that God had unwittingly placed us in by creating us. God took the blame. Yes, God in Jesus took the blame for all the sins that we as humans have committed. Jesus allowed himself to be taken, and blamed, and tortured, and killed. This was God showing humans that God takes all the responsibility for our failures. They are nailed to the cross along with Jesus.

So, if Jesus has taken all the blame, I cannot and must not blame myself. I must not take my anger with myself and turn it outwards against my neighbours. Jesus knows our every weakness. Jesus knows how hard we try. Jesus knows how disappointed we are in ourselves when we fail. And God says, “My child, my own dear child, I love you and I will never leave you. No matter how you fail, I will never fail you. Allow me to help you. Allow me to lift you. Come to me, and I will give you rest.”

God never writes people off; God never gives up on people. Jesus didn't write Peter off, even after all his failures. After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to Peter especially. And when Peter didn't know what to do next, Jesus gave him instructions: “Feed my sheep.”

So, in all our failures, through all our sin, we hear the voice of the prophet Isaiah: “The Lord God helps me, therefore I have not been disgraced... It is the Lord God who helps me, who will declare me guilty?” Our sins and failures have been gently lifted from us by our Saviour, Jesus. His body given, and his blood shed, to take upon himself our sins, that body and blood now nourishes us and strengthens us for all our struggles. Thanks be to God! Amen.

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