Lord Teach us to Pray (Luke 11:1-13)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 7/28/13

If there is one thing in the church today that most people know they should be doing more of and yet find themselves struggling at it, it would most likely be prayer. We know we should be praying, we know that we should be doing it more than just at dinner time and before bed. We know all throughout scripture we are told to pray, we even use some of these passages as catch phrases to remind us to pray such as Paul’s “pray without ceasing.”  We sing songs about prayer exclaiming that we should take it to the Lord in prayer, and yet prayer for so many of us is one of the hardest parts of being a Christian. Most of us don’t really know how to pray. This is not an attack on any of us, it is part of our human condition.  In fact Paul even says in Romans 8,  “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”  Paul himself admits that we do not truly know how to pray and that we need the Holy Spirit’s help. Maybe even more reassuring than this is that in our passage for today, Jesus’ own disciples are unsure about how to pray and so they ask Jesus the simple question, “Lord, teach us how to pray.” As we start to dive into Jesus’ response on how to pray, it seems only fitting that we first stop now and go to the Lord now asking him to teach us how to pray this morning.

                                                ( Time of prayer)

            Lord teach us to pray. This is the request of the disciples of Christ. Now we can assume that they had something in mind when they asked Jesus this question, after all, prayer had been an important part of their Jewish faith.  At that time there were customary times and places at which they would pray daily, and if for some reason they were not able to get away to pray at that said time, there were memorized prayers that they could recite whenever possible. The disciples were most likely familiar and accustomed to these types of prayers and so in asking Jesus to teach them how to pray, they were probably asking for some practices particular to the teachings of Christ. Jesus’ reply was then probably not what they expected because Jesus did not give them a practice, but instead he taught them about the nature of prayer.

            Jesus does start of his answer to the disciples by giving the disciples examples of words to say. These words probably sound somewhat familiar to us since they make up part of the Lord’s prayer that we say every week. When we read it Luke it sounds strange, it sounds choppy, parts seem to be missing. This is because the Lord’s prayer we say is more derived from Matthew’s version which seems to be more eloquent. Could it be that the direct, straightforward, even choppy sounding version that we here in Luke has more to teach us than just words? Could Instead of just giving us a prayer to pray, could it be that Jesus is teaching us how to pray?

            I believe that this is the case, and that Jesus is showing us that there are so many types of prayers, and so he helps us to understand what types of things we should pray for. Jesus starts his prayer by saying, “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.” This may be the most important lesson on prayer that Jesus gives. We start our prayer addressing God, we do not start our prayer talking about ourselves. This shows us that prayer first and foremost starts with God. It also reminds us of the nature of God; that God’s name should be revered. It reminds us of the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent nature of our God. It reminds us that this is not just a conversation with your best friend; this is an experience, a relationship with the Almighty!  Finally this beginning phrase reminds us that the primary goal of our prayer is seeking for God’s will to be done. We pray so that we may work with God in bringing forth the Kingdom of God. Bishop Cho uses a short prayer that sums up the beginning of this prayer. He prays, “God, your will, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.” Jesus teaches us that prayer first and foremost starts with seeking the will of God.

            Next Jesus recognizes that we do in fact pray for our own needs, and so he teaches the disciples, “Give us each day our daily bread.” Jesus’ words here are clever and well thought out.  First it teaches us that God gives what is necessary. Jews at the time would have heard this phrase, give us each day our daily bread, and would have instantly thought back to the time of the Israelites in the dessert. They would have remembered that the Israelites asked the Lord for bread, and so manna came from heaven.  The instructions from God were to gather only what was needed for that day. Most listened to the instructions and found that they had neither gathered too much nor too little, but others tried to keep and hoard bread for the next day only to find that the next morning the bread was bad and full of maggots.  Remembering this story, the disciples would have understood that when Jesus says give us each day our daily bread that he means to ask for only that which is needed. At the same it is a reminder that each day is a day that we should go to the Lord in prayer.

            Jesus’ words go much deeper than this as well. The next question to ask is what does Jesus mean by bread?  The initial response would be that Jesus is telling us to turn to God for our daily necessities: bread, water, clothing, shelter and this is correct. Jesus has also taught however many times about seeking the bread of heaven. By using the word bread Jesus is telling us to seek the Lord in prayer for both our physical needs as well as our spiritual needs as well.

            Finally Jesus concludes the prayer by telling the disciples to say, “And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.” Jesus reminds us about one of the most neglected forms of prayer, the prayer of confession. Jesus reminds us to confess our sins before the Lord and to seek forgiveness, however he adds a little caveat at the end. Not only is confession and pardon something between God on us, but is something we should do with each other. After all we have just learned about the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is why prior to communion we confess our sins together, this is why we pass the peace, and this is why together we hear the words of pardon, “In the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven.” This is something that should not be taken lightly.

            After teaching the disciples the manner in how one should pray, Jesus changes gears quite quickly and begins to tell stories. First he tells a story of a man who has an unexpected guest arrive late at night, and has no bread to feed them. He goes to his friend and neighbors house and asks for some bread. The friend originally does not want to unbolt the door because it will awaken the whole family, but the friend does it anyway. What is at play here is the idea of hospitality. It’s great to live in the south because this idea of hospitality still exists here, but imagine what you have learned and multiply it. Hospitality was something that every person was expected to provide, and failing to do such would not just end up having you labeled as rude, but it would bring shame upon the whole family.  This hospitality is why the man having an unexpected guest was expected to provide bread for him, and this fear of shame is why the neighbor gave opened up his door and gave  him bread.  Jesus uses this story to teach the disciples about the nature of God and the nature of prayer.  He explains that if a neighbor who doesn’t want to help but does because of a sense of hospitality opens the door for you, then why would you expect less from the host of hosts? 

            He then goes on to give another example. He asks the disciples to imagine not a friend this time, but rather an evil man. This evil man is asked by his children for fish and for eggs,  would the evil man try to trick his own children by giving a snake whose scales may feel like a fish, or a scorpion who when rolled  up may briefly look like an egg?  The answer is of course no.  Jesus goes on to explain, if even an evil man provides for his children and does not deceive,  why would we expect anything different from the good and loving God?  Jesus uses these  two examples to teach the disciples about the nature of God. That God is one who will hear our needs, that God is one that will respond.

            We then of course have Jesus saying this famous phrase to the disciples, “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.   Many of us may even know the song, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these shall be added unto you, alleluia. Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you, alleluia.” It is a phrase, a song that some of us may treasure. I am afraid however, that it is often treasured in the wrong ways.

            So often we hear these words ask and it will be given unto you,  seek and you will find, knock and it will be given unto you and we hear these as words of entitlement. I am part of generation Y ( barely I must add) or what is sometimes called the millennials. There is another nickname for this generation, that is generation me. It is considered a generation of narcissists, who don’t just strive to succeed but expect it. It is a generation that expects to obtain everything that they desire,  which is why there is the nickname generation me, because everything focuses on the self.  As much as others like to look at our generation and agree with this stereotype, I feel as though when look at how many people, from many generations pray we find that others share many of these traits with my generation. After all so often when we pray it is about us.  If we are honest with ourselves, how often do we pray for something specific to happen in our lives compared to how often we pray for God’s will to be done?

            When we read this section of our scripture for today about asking and it shall be given to us, seeking and we shall find; it often feeds into our own narcissism. It makes us think that all I have to do is ask for something from God and God will grant my wish. We begin to view God less like an Almighty deity in which we serve, and more like a magic genie who is required to grant our wishes.  So then what do we say when what we pray for doesn’t come true. What happens when we pray to get accepted to a certain school and get rejected? What happens when we pray to get offered a job, only to find that they have hired someone else? What happens when we pray for the healing of a loved one and they pass away?  I am not making light of these situations, and it is not that I am taking prayer lightly, but these are honest questions that many of us will ask sometimes in our lives. We pray to God asking for something, sometimes that prayer comes true and we give all the glory to God for it, but what happens when it doesn’t? Do we get angry at God?  We just read that God is not evil, that God hears us and answers; we just read that ask and it shall be given unto us? Why then don’t we always get what we want?

            R. Alan Culpepper, dean of the school of theology at Mercer University argues that we are often we do not pay attention to the verbs, ask, seek, knock.[1] Far too often we come to the door as those who feel entitled. Our prayers more often than not take the form of demands rather than petitions. We come to God as if we come to a server at  the restaurant, “May I get the house special” when in reality it is just a polite way of saying I want it, give it to me. Culpepper argues that these words, ask, seek, knock, are words that indicate that we who come before God are like beggars. We have nothing, and ask for God’s generosity.  We don’t demand God’s justice, we ask for God’s mercy. When we come to prayer like a beggar, like one not even worthy to ask for a crumb, then we start to understand the whole passage better. We understand what it means that God will provide, we don’t try to gather and store our heavenly bread, but celebrate each day for our blessings. When we come to prayer as a beggar, we begin to see how truly dependent we are on God, and how God truly does provide.  And it is for this reason that we like the disciples shall come to Christ and start by saying, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

                         

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[1] New Interpreter Bible Commentary Volume IX pgs 238-289

A Better Answer (Luke 10:38-42)

Sermon as preached on 7/21/13 at Lambs and Evington UMC

When I was in school, especially when I was still in high school I remember dreading different formats for tests.  Teachers found many different ways to test our knowledge about any particular subject. For me, the easiest questions were the True or False questions. You would be given a statement and had to determine whether or not it was true or whether it was false. They were the easiest to me because it was cut and dry, the statement was either true, or it was false. There were other forms of questions however that was not as simple, including the multiple choice questions. What I hated about multiple choice questions is the older you got the more sophisticated the questions would get, and eventually you would have a statement such as, “which of the following best answers the question?” It was that best that would always get me. It means that you good give a correct answers, you could even argue with the teacher after the fact that you were not wrong, and yet it was not the best answer for the question. For example a question could be, F Scott Fitzgerald is best known for which novel: A) Moby Dick, B) This Side of Paradise C) A Tale of Two Cities, D) The Great Gatsby.  As you go through the question you can eliminate  Moby Dick because that was written by Melville, and you can eliminate a Tale of Two cities because that was written by Dickens. But then you left with This Side of Paradise and the Great Gatsby which both seem to be correct answers, because both were written by Fitzgerald. A judgment call has to be made then to determine which he is best known for and therefore you would choose The Great Gatsby. The questions become much harder when there is a good answer, and yet there is a better one.

            Our scripture for today is a perfect example of the difference between the good choice, and the best choice. Our scripture starts with Jesus and his disciples being invited into the house of two sisters Martha and Mary. When they entered the house Martha did all that she could to provide hospitality to their guests. She slaved away in the kitchen preparing them something to eat, cleaned up to make sure they would be comfortable there; In essence Martha did everything she could to show respect to her honored guest. While Martha was doing all of this however, her sister Mary simply sat at the feet of Jesus and listened. Finally sick of the fact that her sister was not helping her, Martha speaks to Jesus and tells him, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." Many of us may be surprised by Jesus’ answer as he replies, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

            When we hear this our first instinct is to question what has Martha done wrong? After all many of us here are Marthas. We always try to keep up with the best of our responsibilities, most of us are eager to be hospitable to guests, and so why does Jesus seem to rebuke Martha? The thing is Martha has done nothing wrong; she has done what is good and what is expected of her. In fact if anybody had done anything wrong it seems to be Mary. Mary neglects her responsibility to help her sister and simply sits at the feet of Jesus. That action in itself is more of a wrong at that time than many of us recognize when we read scripture through the lens of our modern world.  In those times women were not seen as equals to men, and there were certain gender roles and responsibilities that were expected to be done by women. Especially in the presence of guests, women were expected to be the servants to their male guests. Mary had rejected this responsibility. Even worse than this, women were not supposed to sit at the feet of a teacher; this was seen as a privilege for the men. In our scripture we find Mary rejecting these social cues; neglecting her responsibility to  serve as well as sitting in a place of honor that society deemed her not to be worthy of.  In light of all of this we can see that Martha is in fact doing what is good; she is doing what is expected of her, she is performing acts of hospitality to her guests. Jesus never says what she is doing is wrong, instead he says, “Mary has chosen the better part.” Mary has chosen the better part.

            So what then is the better part? Why is what Mary does better than what Martha does? To answer that question we must understand that this story in Luke does not sit in a vacuum by itself. It is a continuation of a theme that Jesus had started earlier in the chapter. Before arriving at the house of Martha and Mary, Jesus was asked by a scribe what was necessary to get into heaven. Jesus asked what is written in the scriptures, and the man replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” Not satisfied with the answer the scribe asked Jesus and who is my neighbor. And so Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan.  It is one of the best known parables in the Bible.  In the story a man is beaten and robbed and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest happens to walk by, but sees the man and crosses on the opposite side of the road. Likewise, a Levite, ( who were helpers of the priests)  came saw the man and crossed on the opposite side of the road. Finally a Samaritan, ( who were outcasts of society) saw the man beaten and took care of him, took him to an inn and made all the provisions necessary that the man may be completely taken care of. After he told this parable Jesus asked, which of these is the neighbor, and the scribe responded, the one who showed mercy, and Jesus says “Go and do likewise.”

            In the encounter with scribe, Jesus makes clear what the Lord requires of us, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Through the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus teaches the scribes, teaches the disciples, and Luke through his gospel teaches us the reader what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. To leave the story there would be to only explain half of the commandment that Jesus had given. We would only know what it means to love our neighbor; we wouldn’t know what it means to love the Lord with all our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our strength and with all of our mind. For this reason, it is so important that we have the story of Martha and Mary follow right after this parable.

            It is as if through the actions of Martha, God is showing us the danger of only following half of that commandment. After all Martha is loving her neighbor as herself, maybe even more than herself. She has invited them in, she has prepared a space for them and is making the feel as welcome as possible. What is lacking for Martha however, is an understanding the need to love God with all our hearts.  Service is good, even great; but if it does not start with a love for God than it is nothing more than a distraction.

            It is easy for us to do the same in our lives, to get distracted by the responsibilities in our lives, even the noble ones, even our service.  How often do we get distracted by our work, even by our families so much so that we push God to the wayside? Even in church we can get so devoted to different groups and activities, responsibilities and meetings that we forget that the reason we are doing all that we do is because God loves us, and because we love God. All of these things are good, all of the things are important, and yet when we lose sight of our love for God because of them we like Martha become distracted. We must seek the better answer.

            And so through the actions of Mary, Jesus teaches Martha, his disciples, and all of us what it means to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind. Mary recognizes the presence of the Lord in her midst and puts everything aside to be in his presence. Mary risks the consequences of breaking the social norms, all so that she may hear what the Lord has to say. It is in fact quite amazing paradox that by simply doing nothing but stopping and listening, that Mary is doing so much and risking so much.

            As we heard from Barbara last week, the focus of this year’s annual conference was Lord teach us to pray. I won’t harp on this too much because it is our scripture for next week, but one thing that must be pointed out is that as I have talked to many people after this annual conference, both clergy and lay, the consensus is that this was one of the best and most powerful annual conferences that we have had in a while, and everyone can identify why. It is because this annual conference first and foremost focused on prayer; focused on being in the presence of God and hearing the word of God. Not only did we open and close every session with prayer, but with each decision that we made we went to the Lord in prayer about it. We asked for God’s discernment for each topic. The Annual Conference truly was focused on loving God and experiencing the love of God.

            I must make a confession though, going into the conference I was definitely a Martha. I knew the reputation of Bishop Cho, I had even experienced his prayer centered leadership style at Pastor’s Convocation in January, and I must admit that heading into annual conference it made me a little nervous. I thought to myself, that’s great and all, but what if we spend too much time in prayer? What if we don’t get to everything on the agenda?  The days are condensed down from what they used to be several years ago, what if we run out of time. And of course the worst of all, what if we don’t break on time for lunches and dinners?  Other than the last question, these were legitimate questions, because the business aspect of the conference is an extremely important issue since we only meet once a year. And yet as we dove into prayer each day  found that we did in fact have time for business. And those who had been to other annual conferences may have realized that the debates and arguments were not as heated,  not as long as other conferences. That discussions were truly discussions, and that people disagreed with each other, and felt comfortable enough to voice their disagreement, and yet the animosity experienced in previous conferences did not seem to be there.  We loved the Lord with all of our heart and soul, and the business still got done.

            This is the lesson that Martha and Mary teach us; that we must first seek after God. We must first love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, souls, strength and minds.  When we do this we find that there is still time for our other responsibilities and our service, but not only is there time, we find that this service and these responsibilities, and transformed by our love for God. By taking the time to be with Christ, we are able to more than if we had used that time for other responsibilities.  We must not ignore these responsibilities, we must continue to love our neighbor as ourselves, but we must first and foremost do this through seeking the better answer; we must love our neighbors through our love for God.

A Year With the Christian Calendar

Ok, so I know that this isn’t my first year with Christian calendar, in fact it is my twenty-fifth. I have of course experienced many of the nuances of the seasons from Advent and Christmas, to Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost, and of course ordinary time and all of the special days scattered throughout the year. Growing up I had of coursed celebrated many of these seasons (and even understood some of them!). In college and in seminary I learned more about the calendar in depth, and yet for all of my experience and training, there truly is something eye opening about experiencing the Christian for the first time as a pastor. These are some of the things that stuck out to me from my first year in service. There are many seasons and special days that I will not mention that were still greatly important to me, but the following examples are the experiences that have surprised me, and that have taught me the most over the past year.

 

1) The Christian Calendar Reorders Time

            What do I mean when I say that Christian Calendar reorders time? We live in a culture that lives its life within the boundaries and context of many different calendars; some more obvious than others. When we think of calendar, we in the West of course think of January first as the beginning and December 31 as the end. Those who are in school or who are teachers may have another calendar they go by, beginning in late August or early September or and going until May or June. Many businesses have a fiscal year that begins in July. In other words, we order our lives around these calendars, but when we truly follow the Christian Calendar we find a calendar that is different, and sometimes seemingly in opposition to these other calendars that lay claim to our lives. This is not a new concept, I even remember having this explained to me in seminary, and yet it is totally different once you experience your vocation dedicated to a calendar different than the other calendars you had been living within the boundaries of ( for me, this was the school calendar in particular).  My first Sunday was the first Sunday of July, I had just graduated from seminary turning the page on that chapter, and I had just opened a new chapter in my life through the beginning of my ministry.  While my life was at the crossroads of the end and a beginning, the Christian calendar was right in the middle of Ordinary time. It was a reminder for me that despite all the new and wonderful things going on in my life, both the joys and the fears, that the story of God of love continues on. It was rather humbling, reminding me that I am but in one moment somewhere between the already and the not yet. As the September approached, a new school year started, but not for me, I was still in the middle of ordinary time. And finally as Christ the King Sunday arrived in November, I remember how odd it felt to be ending a year, and starting a new one, a month before we in the western culture celebrate the turn of our calendars. Living in the Christian Calendar reordered time for me in that while as I said a realized I was but in a certain moment between the already and the not yet, I somehow, almost paradoxically, was able to live the entirety of the salvation narrative.

 

2. The Advent/ Christmas Battle

            This dilemma too is nothing new, it is something that pastors have been griping about for ages, and yet until you are a pastor you don’t really get it.  In seminary I thought I got it, but I didn’t. What I am referring to is of course the need for churches to skip past advent straight to Christmas. When you start a new year in the calendar (Advent is the beginning of the Christian Calendar) what is it saying when the first thing you talk about is little baby Jesus? What does this say about the span of time prior to Jesus? What does it say about our view of the importance of what we call the Old Testament? How do we learn about our need for God incarnate, if we don’t take time to listen to the prophets’ warnings? All of these questions seem to be neglected because we want to sing our favorite Christmas hymns and celebrate the coming of our savior before we take time to prepare for what that means. This dilemma I expected; what I didn’t account for was how quickly Christmas was over. That once we were finally in the Christmas season, Christmas was over for most people. They didn’t want to sing those hymns anymore, they didn’t want to hear about the little baby, it’s time for Jesus to grow up now.  For wanting to rush into the coming of Christmas, it is truly amazing that we fail to celebrate it in its fullest.

 

3. The Easter Hangover

            No I don’t mean the sheer fatigue that accompanies the festivities of Holy Week, and no I don’t mean the inability to move after sinning boldly as gluttons at Easter dinner. The Easter Hangover I refer to here is one that came about three weeks into Easter. The first two Sundays of Easter were great! After a long but meaningful Lent,  preaching about the good news of the resurrection, the forgiveness of our sins, grace and so on seemed to just easily flow from my lips. Then I got to a point where I had to stop and ask, what now?  I can’t just say the same thing four weeks in a row. Where do I go from here? It was on Ascension Sunday when I realized that my questions were probably not that different from those of the disciples. Jesus is resurrected and now ascended, what now?  It truly taught me to wait, to pray, to stop trying to run ahead of where God was leading me. Most of all, it gave me a greater appreciation for Pentecost. Pentecost was as if a weight was lifted from my shoulders; the spirit was with us, and now we had a direction to go.

 

4.  The End or the Beginning?

            Christ the King Sunday marks the end of the Christian calendar, but unfortunately it is a day that is less emphasized in some of the less liturgical churches. For this reason I knew about the day, but it truly was like experiencing it for the first time. I got all excited to talk about soteriology and eschatology. I was excited to talk about the Kingdom come and to talk about communion and our foretaste of when “Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.”[1] I was excited to talk about that anticipation of the coming Christ. Jump forward to next week, and it the beginning of Advent and what else am I talking about than the anticipation of the coming Christ. It may be the greatest transition in history of calendars, that the end and the beginning, though so completely different, focus on the same hope. That in the beginning of our journey to its end, we truly live in a world in need of Emmanuel, God with us, and that as we begin and end each Christian year we know  that our hope is real, because we have experienced it each day of our lives by putting ourselves within the salvation narrative. For me that truly is the beauty of the Christian Calendar.

 

 

P.S. I do indeed recognize the irony of writing this during Ordinary time and not at the end of the Christian year.

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[1] United Methodist hymnal pg.10

The Servant Leader (Luke 7:1-10)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC 6/2/13

When I was going up before the board to be commissioned, I remember one of the questions they really asked a lot was what is servant leadership?  Now the answer to the question seems pretty self-explanatory, it’s a leader that leads through service, and yet and they kept pushing me to explain it deeper, I realized that not only describing what is a servant leader is difficult; I also realized that being a servant leader is difficult.   Out of all of their questions, which I assure you there were many, and despite the nerves and the sweat and the tears of those interviews, I still remember one question that I really struggled to answer.  What person in the Bible best describes your understanding of a servant leader? Of course there is a wealth of great leaders in the Bible, from Noah to Moses, David and Deborah, John the Baptist and of course Jesus; and yet it was so hard for me to pick one as the shining example of a servant leader. And then I read this scripture for today, it is quite a gem that we have from the book of Luke, a short ten verse story that many may not be familiar with, and when I read it I almost shouted out loud, aha! There’s your servant leader, the centurion is the example of a great servant leader.

            So what makes the centurion such a great servant leader?  Well first a foremost the centurion recognizes the power of the role that he is in.  A centurion was a military leader in charge of a company of a hundred men. In fact that’s where the title centurion comes from, a hundred just like century means a hundred years. The centurion was also powerful enough at that time to have his own servants, or slaves. This is not the time to discuss this as an ethical issue, as we must remember the historical context of this story. As I said earlier however, is that the first great strength of the centurion is the recognition of the power he has. He says, “For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this,' and the slave does it." The centurion does not cower from the power that he, but instead embraces it; he knows the ways in which he can lead others.

            Recognition of power for many leaders however, can become a problem. A sense of entitlement can develop, and as we see so often in our society today, that power can be abused. The centurion still is different; while it is true that authority is given to him by his commanding officers; his power as leader was earned through his compassion, care and service to those he lead. We of course see this in our story, we have a servant, somebody viewed as a nobody in that society, and yet when the centurion finds out that the this slave is close to death, he does all that he can in his power to help him. That includes reaching out to a complete stranger. We must remember that the centurion is a Gentile, not a Jew,  he reaches out Jesus, someone who he has no business associating with, because it provided hope that his servant may be saved.  We can assess that this is type of action is not out of the ordinary for the centurion, that he has always lead with great compassion and respect. We hear the words of the Jewish elders whom he sent to Jesus telling Jesus about the centurion saying, “He is worthy of having you do this for him,
 for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.” Once again we hear about the centurion’s great respect for those he leads. Although he is not Jew he helped to build the synagogue for them.  All of these examples go to show that the centurion truly did serve those who was leading, in effect became an even stronger leader because his power was not just simply given to him, but earned by the ways in which he served.

            Finally, we come to the last great sign of a servant leader. So far we have noted that a great leader serves those whom they are leading, and we have also noted that a great leader recognizes and appreciates the power that they hold. And yet in our story we find a point of tension.  The centurion realizes that in the midst of his compassion for his servant, he had not truly respected who Jesus is. On the one hand this is a practical statement.  Jesus is a Jew, and for him to come into the house of a Gentile and heal the servant, he would become deemed unclean by the Jewish laws. The centurion realizes that he has asked to put this guest in a difficult position, and so he sends messengers again deferring to Jesus saying, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed.” While the centurion’s respect for Jesus was one hand because of the practices of the Jewish law, on the other hand we can see that the centurion recognizes Jesus for who he is, the Son of God.”  We can see this in the previous statement, he tells Jesus that he himself, a centurion mind you, is unworthy to have Jesus come under his roof and implores him to speak and let the servant be healed. Speak the word and let my servant be healed!” What an amazing statement of faith! The centurion recognizes the power of Jesus, that with a word the slave can be healed. And then in the greatest form of recognition the centurion says, “For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this,' and the slave does it.”  The centurion is saying, look at the power that I have, a command people and they listen, and yet do not have the authority that you do.  This creates a tension that is the last characteristic of a great servant leader. That although a servant leader recognizes the power they have, they first a foremost recognize that all authority belongs to God. Secondly, though a great servant leader serves the needs of those they lead, the also recognize that service to Christ comes first. And yet we see through this story that the two things are not mutually exclusive. That though the in the power and glory of Jesus the centurion deferred his request, that Christ is also filled with the same compassion for the servant and heals them. And though the centurion claims to not be worthy in the presence of Jesus, Jesus affirms the centurion saying, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."

            Servant leaders are called to live in that tension of serving those they lead and serving the will of God; the tension of recognizing the power they have, and that at the same time they have no power. Brothers and sisters, today I tell you that we are all called in some way to be servant leaders. To recognize the power that we have in our lives to serve others and at the same be completely obedient to the will of God. And yet, like the centurion discovered, when we submit to the will of God, we can do far more than what we could alone.

Tongue Twister (Acts 2:1-21)

Sermon as preached 5/19/13 at Lambs and Evington UMC

 

Our scripture for today is quite a tongue twister. It’s one of those scriptures that you cross your fingers and hope that you are not asked to read it out loud. Just look at all of the names, “Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,  Cretans and Arabs.”  This is a scripture that even pastors struggle to get through when reading it aloud. Without all of these names, these regions of the world, our Pentecost story would look very different, and would not be nearly as spectacular and beautiful.  That is because each of these names, Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,  Cretans and Arabs,  not only represents a person that was gathered on that wonderful day, but it shows us that magnitude of God’s love and grace. It shows us that the power of the Holy Spirit has come for all of the world.

                Because what happens on that day of Pentecost?  We know the story pretty well. It was after Jesus ascended into heaven, and he told his disciples to gather and wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. And that’s how we find the disciples in our scripture for today. They are gathered together, with many other Jewish followers from all over the world.  “And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”  What an amazing scene!  Violent rushes of wind, Tongues on fire resting on the shoulders of those gathered there, and to cap it all of the followers, began to speak in other languages.  It was such a spectacle that those who were observing what had happened thought that the followers were drunk.  But of course they were not drunk, they were filled by the Holy Spirit, and celebrating in its power and glory.  We here this story, we picture it in our own minds, we find the story to be captivating, but at the end of the day we may still be asking ourselves, So what?  This amazing moment happened about two thousand years ago,  what does it have to do with my own life?

                And yet this text has everything to do with our own lives.  This text teaches us so much about us both as a community of believers, and also it teaches  us about us about ourselves as individuals. So let us first look at what this story has to teach us about the church, or about the community of believers. Prior to this moment, the disciples and the other followers of Christ, had actually been able to follow Christ, walk with him, follow him, and learn directly from him. Jesus then ascended into heaven, and the followers of Christ were left to figure what to do next. Other than the disciples there was not real organization, there was no structure for how to proceed. Other than the life and teachings of Jesus there was no guidance on what type of ministry to do next.  And so the followers of Christ listened to what he commanded, and they waited for the Holy Spirit. This text is that moment in which a random group of followers, turned into a community of believers through the power of the Holy Spirit.  This is the moment in which followers from all around the known world became united. This truly is the beginning of the church.  (We) Many churches still celebrate this wonderful occurrence each week in worship, without really recognizing it. (We)   Many churches recite the apostle’s creed each week as an affirmation of faith. It is a way for us as Christians to reaffirm our beliefs in our  “God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord. Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontus Pilate, was crucified dead and buried. The third day he arose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, where he sits at the right hand of God the father Almighty.”  And then when come to the next line in the creed, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy catholic church.” When we say catholic we don’t necessarily mean Roman Catholic like we think of the world now, but when we say the holy catholic church we mean the universal church; we are talking about the whole community of believers.  And yet when we read, or recite the Apostle’s creed we may find it to be strange that the Holy Spirit and the Holy catholic church are both lumped together in the same sentence. After all we had a whole paragraph to talk about God the father and about the life death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ; but here we have a sentence to talk about the Holy spirit, and half of it talks about the church.  At first it seems as though the Holy Spirit is getting the short end of the stick; but when we read our scripture today we come to find out that the Holy Spirit and the church are so integrally  tied together. God sends us the Holy Spirit to lead us, and the Church could not exist without the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Our scripture today is the story of when the two unite. It  is as  I said earlier when the church was formed, because the Holy Spirit had come to unite a random group of followers, and to lead them in the way of the Lord.

                This Pentecost story is also important to the church because it is a foretaste of what is yet to come. It is a reminder of what the church will be like in the end of times.  We can see this in Revelation, chapter 7 which says, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God,who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”  All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² saying: Amen!
Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!” ¹³ Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?” ¹⁴ I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵ Therefore, “they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. ¹⁶ ‘Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them,’^[a] nor any scorching heat. ¹⁷ For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd;‘ he will lead them to springs of living water.’^[b]‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

            What a beautiful vision of what it will be like. Where every tear will be wiped from our eyes and we will gather as one, though we are multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, and sing praises to the Lamb.  Does that sound familiar people from different tribes and languages coming together and singing praises? Well it should because it what we have going on in our scripture for today.  The beginning of the church and the church in glory is made up of all people gathering together to praise the Lord. But as believers of Christ we can work towards that vision today. It reminds me of my time in South Africa.  I was blessed to be able to visit South Africa for 11 weeks, and many of those weeks me and a few other students from Duke, stayed at a Methodist seminary in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.  We frequently ate, learned, and served with them, but maybe what was the most meaningful time there, was the moments in which we were able to worship with them. One thing to point out is that South Africa is very different than the US; we have one official national language English, while South Africa has twelve official languages, and many others that aren’t official.  South Africa also has a difficult past, where the English and Dutch colonized the many tribes, the English and Dutch descendants even fought each other, and until 1994, the country was under what was called the Apartheid rule, which meant that those who were not English or Afrikaans (which is the name for the Dutch descendants) were oppressed and had very little rights. And so here we are 4 Americans, gathering in South Africa only 12 years after the Apartheid had ended, with South African Christians who were English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu and many more and we were worshiping together. I remember one service in particular in which seven different languages were spoken. We prayed in Xhosa, sang in Afrikaans, heard the scripture in Portuguese, and the sermon in English, and so on. I remember singing along with one of the songs in Zulu having no idea what I was saying, and yet feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit binding me closer to every one worshiping with me. And to top it off we gathered together and recited the benediction together in our own native tongue, saying the same words, just different languages.  This experience was a reminder that the universal church is a church made up of so many different people, and yet we are all bound together by the Holy Spirit.

            And that leads to our last point for this morning.  This Pentecost story not only teaches us about the church as a whole, but it also teaches us as individual believers. As I said, the universal church is made up of so many different people, and each one of us is a part of that.  Just like those who were gathered on that day of Pentecost, each one of us come from different places. Now we may not come from different tribes on countries like in our story, but each one of us has our own story that has brought us here. Not one of our stories is alike, and yet in all of differences we are all united by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Our differences also means that we each have unique gifts, experiences, and stories, that can be used to serve the Kingdom of God.  Our scripture for today tells us that each one of us play a role in the ministry of the Kingdom of God. It says, “ 'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
 Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” The great news about the Holy Spirit is that we are all able to receive its guidance and power.  Each and every one of us have a special calling in our lives. Sons and daughters shall prophesy, upon both men and women in those days I will I pour out my spirit. No matter who you are, no matter what circumstances, the Holy Spirit has a way for you to serve God and to testify to the glorious name of Lord and savior Jesus Christ. So like those followers on the day of Pentecost let ourselves be ready to receive the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Let us be ready for it to lead us in whatever direction it calls us. Let us be ready to see how the Spirit can not only strength and empower our own lives, but how it may be leading us all, as a community of believers, and a church, as those who are so different, and yet are united by the Spirit’s power. Let us listen for the Spirit’s calling, and when we hear it, let us respond boldly, so that the world shall see us, and wonder what is going on there? Are they drunk? No they are just filled with the Holy Spirit.

Where Do We Go From Here? (Acts 1:1-11)

Our scripture for today may be one of the most baffling, most spectacular, and yet this Sunday is probably one of the least celebrated Sundays in the Christians church. Today is Ascension Sunday, the day in which we celebrate Christ ascending from Earth into heaven. We celebrate this fact every Sunday during  our Affirmation of Faith when we say, “he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty” and yet how often do we talk about it during the life of the Church. We talk a lot about the birth of Christ as we prepare for his coming during Advent and celebrate it during Christmas. We talk about Christ’s struggle with temptation in the desert during Lent and then there of course is Holy Week; we celebrate his Last Supper with the disciples, we remember his death on the cross, and of course we celebrate the good news that Christ rose again from the dead for the forgiveness of sins. Last week I lamented about how little we talk about the activity of the Holy Spirit, but at least we celebrate it once a year with the celebration of Pentecost (which is next week by the way). All of these things are important to talk about because they help us to relive the good news of the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit and the Church.  Still, in the middle of this retelling of the story of Jesus Christ and the formation of the Church, why do we seem to neglect Christ’s ascension? We even talk about Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, and yet if we left the story at that, Jesus would still be walking the globe, or would have died again. When we think about it in those terms we start to realize how crucial the ascension truly is. So why do we so rarely talk about it? Is it because it is a difficult issue to believe? I don’t think that is the case because if we as Christians believe in the resurrection of Christ, then why would his ascension be any harder to believe? It seems as if the reason we don’t know how to address it. I have to admit as I read the scripture for this morning, as I prepared to write this sermon, I ended up staring at a blank computer screen for half an hour asking myself, What am I supposed to say about this? Where do I go from here? And then it hit me, that is one of the important questions of the scripture. Where do we go from here?

            In our scripture for today the disciples are in a crossroad in their ministry. For three years or so they have been following Jesus, listening to his teachings, following his commands, walking in his footsteps, literally.  We as Christians use the term following Jesus so often, and when we say it we mean that we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior and that we live our lives according to his will. We have to realize however that when we say that the disciples followed Jesus, they actually followed him. They followed him in deserts, the followed him into towns, the followed him up the side of mountains, and they followed him across seas. You can imagine the panic attack that happened when their leader was killed, but that panic was short lived because Jesus rose from the dead, and the disciples once again had their leader to follow. So here they are once again following their leader when all of the sudden Jesus tells them that they must stay in Jerusalem and wait. Wait? We are followers we don’t wait we follow. Then after speaking to the disciples some more, Jesus ascends into heaven, leaving the disciples staring into the clouds. Think about their confusion, their frustration, their fear, because they had been literally following Jesus for three years now, through stormy seas and dry land, and now Jesus ascends to heaven and the disciples had to come to the realization that they could no longer physically follow Jesus. So they had to ask themselves the tough question, how do we follow Jesus now? Where do we go from here?

            We can imagine that the disciples had a difficult decision ahead of them; what are they going to do now? On the one hand they could fall apart; they could throw up their hands and say, “our savior is gone, there is nothing more that we can do.” As they stood there staring at the heavens where Jesus just ascended to, it could also have been easy for them to sit there on their hands and simply wait for Jesus to come back. This is made even easier by the fact that Jesus told them to stay in Jerusalem. If the disciples were anything like me, their instinct would have been to make a plan on what to do next; where to go from here.” They had been following Jesus watching him serve and teach and I am sure that they learned that this was some of their responsibility as followers of Christ to do the same. If they were like me, they would have made a plan of action, and then tried to immediately implement it based upon our own desires and our own understanding of what we think is best. Yet this seems to be the tension that is happening here in our scripture. On the one hand Jesus is telling the disciples to stay in Jerusalem, to not try to follow him (as if they could if they tried), and to not disperse but to stay together.  On the other hand Jesus is telling his disciples to stay in Jerusalem, and we understand that this is because they have work left to do there. How are we supposed to both stay and wait, and at the very same time follow and serve? Doesn’t waiting seem contrary to everything that Jesus did while he was here on Earth?  He seemed to be always on the go, with the disciples on his footsteps, teaching, preaching, serving, and healing. Wouldn’t waiting be dropping the ball on those special ministries? At the same time, the disciples had always been followers, always just been behind Jesus watching what he did and listening to what he said, and then followed the examples. Jesus has ascended now, what are they to do? They know they should be in ministry, but where should they serve first? How should they go about doing it?  I can imagine at this time there were so many questions going on in the minds of the disciples.

            The problem is that as humans we seem to always want the answers immediately. We can see this with the disciples, Jesus had just told the disciples, “While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. "This," he said, "is what you have heard from me;

1:5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."  And what do the disciples ask Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?"  Jesus just gives them the command to wait for the Holy Spirit, and the disciples have to know the answer of whether or not this is the time in which Israel will be restored. We as humans have such a need to know all of the answers. We have such a need for control. When we don’t know what to expect, when we don’t know what to do, we start to freak out. Usually instead of waiting to discern what is the will of God, we try to jump in and decide what we think is best. We rush into making decisions, because we feel as if we always have to have an answer, that we always have to have the solution. But Jesus tells the disciples, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." In a time in which the disciples just wanted an answer, Jesus reminds them that it is God who is supposed to know all things, not us. That we do not know the will of God, nor are we supposed to. Our job is to wait for the Spirit to tell us her will, and then go out and follow it.

            It is so easy for us to get caught up in doing what we think we should be doing, and many times we do it out of compassion and love, we do it because we truly do want to serve God. Still we often forget the importance of waiting. This reminds me of a story of a Methodist preacher who was just assigned to a church in Georgia. The pastor arrived early to the church one day full of zeal, wanting to make a difference for that church. When he arrived the first thing he noticed was an old tree that was blocking one of the side doors of the church. The pastor thought that a way to show the church how committed he was to the church would be to cut the tree down for them so that they could once again use those doors, and that’s exactly what he did. The next Sunday the pastor arrives to the horror and anger of the members, because that very tree was planted by John Wesley himself when he came and visited Georgia, and now John Wesley’s tree was gone forever. We so often try to do the right thing, but don’t realize our need to wait for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

            We however mustn’t confuse waiting for the Holy Spirit’s guidance with doing nothing. Waiting for the holy spirit does not mean inactivity, it means receptivity. It means we must find ways in which we can prepare ourselves to receive the Holy Spirit’s guidance.  As most of you know, the past few months I have been the chaplain at the hospital once a week. I didn’t however just walk room to room talking to people, instead I had a pager that would go off whenever someone needed a chaplain. You would be surprised that this happened less than you think; usually a chaplain is only called for a crisis or for a death, so I would usually only get paged once or twice a night. And yet I was at the hospital waiting, preparing for when I might have to respond. I would eat as soon as possible so that I wasn’t caught without dinner. I made sure I drank plenty of water. At night, I would lay out my clothes on the bed next to me, even keeping my tie tied, so that if I received a call that I could throw on my clothes and respond to the call as quickly as possible. Finally the last thing I did before I went to sleep was to check to make sure the pager was turned on loud, so that I would not miss a calling. While most of my time on call at the hospital was simply waiting, it was not doing nothing; I had to make sure that I was ready to respond at any moment.

            The same is true with the Holy Spirit. Although Jesus tells us to wait, we must do all we can to prepare ourselves so that we don’t miss it. We must gather for worship, partake of the sacraments, study the Bible, and of course we must as Paul says, pray without ceasing. If we prepare to receive guidance from the Holy Spirit, then when she comes, we shall be ready to follow God’s will. Patience is a virtue, and a difficult one at that; we can’t rush into ministry, or we like the minister who cut down Wesley’s tree may actually do more harm than good. But when we are led by the Holy Spirit then we truly can make a difference in this world. So what do we do now that Jesus has ascended?  Where do we go from here?  We go where the Holy Spirit leads us.

 

Musings: Let Everything that Has Breath Praise the Lord

There are 150 Psalms in the Bible. They span an array of emotions from praise to anger, from sadness to joy. The way the Psalms end however tells us so much about life as well about our relationship to God. Psalm 150 ends by saying, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.”  While this is a psalm that I had heard throughout my life, recently it has become so much more meaningful to me. As most of you know I have been fulfilling some chaplain duties as part of Clinical Pastoral Education. During this experience I have encountered people in some of their most intimate moments: fear of surgery, grief from the loss of a loved one, uncertainty of a crisis, and loneliness from being in a nursing home for so long. While ministry in all of these circumstances is a challenge I’m honored to have the opportunity to experience, one challenge has stood out above the rest as being the most difficult. That challenge is providing ministry to those who are unresponsive, those who may not even be aware that I am there. At first this was a frustration; what type of ministry can I provide if they cannot respond? How can I help them? How can I reach them? As I was reading scripture to one of these patients one day, I turned to this psalm and it all seemed to make sense when I read, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”

As I looked at this patient their eyes were slightly open,  fixated on the wall, they could not speak, they could not move, they could not even eat, all they could really do is breath; and yet let everything that has breath praise the Lord. This person, just like every person, is a one who is truly loved by God. While the world may see them as old, decrepit, and taking up space and money while waiting to die; the Lord sees each one as a precious child. The same Lord who breathed into man giving him life, is breathing into each and every one of us. From a baby who takes its first gasp of air to those who are exhaling their last breath; the Holy Spirit sings praises to God. For as Romans 8 says, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”

 Soon we will be celebrating  Pentecost and how the church was formed through the power of the Holy Spirit.  While we are called to be in ministry with the “least of these” let us be remind that our ministry is not a ministry of “results” but a ministry of love.  We serve others not for some benefit that we will gain, and not even necessarily anything those we serve will gain either; but we serve because we love God and because we recognize the sacred worth of all of God’s children.  If we love in this way then just like the psalms we will experience both joy and pain, fear and comfort, anger and praise. Still, at the end of the day when we recognize that the breath of God is in each and every one of us, working between us in a delicate dance of inhaling and exhaling, allowing two strangers who may not know each other or who may not even be able to communicate with each other to share in a sacred moment of praise, then we truly can exclaim,   “ Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.”