Harvest and Spring

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 3/22/15



Read John 12:20-33

Image Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library

It is that time in the calendar when spring is finally here! This week we have already had some beautiful days, and even though we have seen some rainy ones as well, at least it is not snow, right? As spring begins to roll in there is so much that I look forward to. There is March Madness of course, but I really look forward to hikes in the mountains, grilling some hot dogs and hamburgers with friends, and just so many other activities of enjoying the beauty of creation as it begins to sprout from its hibernation in the dark cold days of winter. Although spring is here and all the joys that seem to go with it, our scripture from the lectionary this morning seems to miss this memo. In our scripture today Jesus does not talk about the joys of spring, but rather speaks about the time of harvest, and the death of plants. In particular Jesus speaks about wheat saying, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” At the time of harvest in the fall, what is called “Winter Wheat” dies leaving it seeds in the ground to grow throughout the winter and be ready for spring. Still growing up in the suburbs of Richmond not really growing up around farming, I have to admit when I think of harvest season, I don’t think of wheat, or any other produce for a matter fact but one; pumpkins.

            To me nothing signals harvest time like Pumpkins. This is probably because it coincides with Halloween and the tradition of making Jack-O- Lanterns. For our family, going to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins to carve was one of the highlights of the season. It was so much fun to bring them home, cut them open, and to cut crazy faces in to the side of them, and then light them up at night for all the neighborhood to see. I remember one year as mom was cleaning out the pumpkin and saving the seeds in order to roast them, I asked if I could have a seed or two to plant. Now no one in my family is known for their green thumb. We did not have a garden, but rather just patches of soil around the house for flowers. I asked if I could plant one of the seeds on the side of the house where there weren’t many flowers, and my mom said sure, probably thinking nothing of it. So I took that seed and planted it, and every other day I would come out and water it and check on it. To everyone’s surprise, a few weeks later a huge vine started to grow in the soil. Weeks later to the dismay of my mother that vine continued to grow, choking out the flowers all around it. Finally a little lump began to grow. Unfortunately the story does not have a happy ending for me; the exterminator came and sprayed for pest which I think ended up killing my pumpkin; but the joy that it brought me to see a pumpkin grow out of something that we had carved up and killed, stuck with me for a long time.

            And that was just from one seed. Imagine what would have happened if instead of roasting the rest of those seeds we planted them in a large garden. That one pumpkin, that was now dead, could produce a whole patch of new pumpkins. I think about my pumpkin as I read our scripture for today, and it begins to make so much more sense to me. For although the calendar on our walls may say that it is spring, time for new life, our Christian calendar tells us it is still this season of Lent. Whereas Easter, like spring, is the celebration of new life, in particular the new life Jesus Christ bring through his own resurrection; Lent is the time that prepares us for that new life. It is no coincidence that in the Northern Hemisphere then that Easter takes place in the joy of Spring, while Lent for the most part takes place in the dead of winter.  For us to understand the joy of Easter and new life, we must first grapple with the reality of death.

            As Jesus approached the end of his own life, this is the reality that he tried to share with those who would listen; that in order for there to be new life, there must first be death. Our scripture starts with some Greek Gentiles coming to Jesus. This is an extraordinary event in its own right since Jesus was Jewish. We know that Jesus came to save the whole world, but that wasn’t as obvious to the Jewish believers at that time. And so Phillip and Andrew go and tell Jesus of the Gentiles request. To this Jesus responds to the disciples in such a typical Jesus way. He tells stories and analogies of his own death and how the hour has come. In essence he tells the disciples that the gentiles, in fact all the world will get a chance to see him when he is lifted up; that is when he is killed, lifted up on the cross. This message of Christ’s redemption through death would seem totally unheard of for the disciples except for that short parable about the grain of wheat. Jesus uses something that the disciples are familiar with, and through it Christ’s death begins to make sense. For me it makes more sense in terms of my pumpkin. Unless that pumpkin is killed, taken of the vine and carved open, it will not bear the seeds needed for new life. Likewise Jesus can come and live and teach us about God, but through his death we are able to receive new life.

            This must have been a difficult message for the disciples to hear. This man that they loved so much, the one that they are following and learning from is telling them that he must die in order for there to be new life. This is even a tough message for Jesus himself. He prays, “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say--' Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.” Jesus was scared; it is not like he wanted to die. Scripture says that his soul was troubled, but Jesus knew what needed to be done. He knew that in fear he would want to ask God the Father to spare him, but that his whole reason for coming was in order to be lifted up. Lifted up on the cross for all to see, so that whoever sees and follows may have new life. That by being lifted up in his death, he may be lifted up and exalted for the life that he brings through his resurrection. As we prepare for Easter, for the resurrection of Christ, for new life, we are first confronted with death. We are confronted with the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and at the same time we are also confronted with the reality of our own death.

            Recognizing that Jesus brings us new life, reminds us of why we need new life in the first place. We are sinners and have fallen away from God, and we will die. More than this however, is that in our scripture Jesus tells us that if we are to inherit this new life, then we must like Jesus lose our lives. He says, “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Now this sounds a little backwards, if Jesus died so that we can have eternal life, why must we lose our lives as well? Paul explains this conundrum in the sixth chapter of his letter to the Romans, “ The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.”  In other words we must to die to sin in order to have new life. This is both literal and metaphorical. The result of sin ever since the Fall from the garden of Eden is death. This means that because of sin we will die, and in our death sin no more. But just as Jesus if died to sin and rose again, then through Christ we too can expect eternal life after death. This is the literal understanding of dying to death. Metaphorically, through Christ we are able to die to sin, to shred away it’s  hold over us and start a life anew with Christ. This is much like the conversation Jesus has with Nicodemous about being born again. Nicodemous was thinking literally, He couldn’t figure how one could physically be born again. But Jesus was speaking metaphorically, that one must start a new life with Christ through water and Spirit. And just as eternal life is brought through death, so too is New Life brought through death to sin. As Jesus says, we must be willing to lose our lives in order to save them.

            This again reminds me of my pumpkin. As we brought that pumpkin home to be carved, long before I even had the idea of planting a seed, there was first a messy job that had to be done. After cutting the top off of a pumpkin, are all of the seeds just right there for you to easily grab? No, especially in bigger pumpkins those seeds are mangled and intertwined in the goopy, stringy, nasty innards of the pumpkin. You have to scoop all of that nastiness out and then somehow separate the seeds from the goop. This is neither a fun, nor an easy task. Maybe we are a lot like those pumpkins. We have the potential for new life that Christ has given us, we have the potential to share it with others so that they too may grow, but our seeds of new life are surrounded, entangled in our stringy, goopy, messy sin. In order for those seeds to be planted, in order for that New Life to begin in and through us, we must allow God to hollow us out. To strip us of that nasty sin that entangles us and separates us from God.

            While this may sound easy, it is something that all of us struggle with. For some reason we love our stringy mess. We have become comfortable with the goop inside of us, and are afraid to let it go. It has become a part of us, just as the stringy innards are part of the pumpkin. But though they are part of the pumpkin, it is not usually what we need. We need the seeds. When cooking we need flesh of pumpkin so we can make pumpkin pie, and pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup and many other delicious foods. The innards are part of the pumpkin, but it is not what makes the pumpkin good. Sin is the same for us. Sin is part of us. There is no human on Earth that is without sin, if there were, then Jesus’s challenge of “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,” might have gone a little differently. But just because sin is part of who we are does not mean that it is what makes us good. It is not part of humanity that God created, looked at and called good.  But we have become so used to sin being a part of us, that to give up those things that separate us from God, to have our sin scooped away by God makes us feel empty. And we hate to be empty.

            We as humans desire to be full. We gorge ourselves at all you can eat buffets so we can get that painful satisfaction of fullness. We pack our schedules so full that there is no time for anyone, especially God, and we celebrate this and call it a productive day. We pack our houses and pockets with whatever it is that television tells us we need, and then we go back out next we to get more, striving to have our lives feel full. We love to be full, in fact in our consumeristic society today it feels like we worship being full. We worship having everything, doing everything, consuming everything. It has become a ruler over us because we are so afraid of being empty. But Jesus says, “Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.”  Our need to be full, our desire to consume, our want to hold onto our sin will now be driven out and it is time for us to be emptied. And this is only possible through the God who emptied himself, taking on the form of a human,  humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

            In order to experience New Life we must like Christ be willing to empty ourselves and die to sin. We must be willing to let God hollow us out, to remove all of the messy strings of sin that somehow make us feel full, and in doing so reveal the seeds of eternal that once were hidden. As the sin is slowly scooped out of us, we may actually find that there is comfort in the emptiness. For the first time in our lives we may actually find peace and stillness. For the first time in our lives we may have allowed room for the Spirit to dwell within our very beings. Like a plant that must first die in order to bear fruit, we must be willing to die to sin, so that the seed of life may be revealed.

If It Was a Snake

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 3/15/15


Read Numbers 21:4-9

Read John 3:14-21

Image Courtesy of Hermanoleon Clipart

“Snakes, Why did it have to be snakes?” This famous line from Indiana Jones perfectly sums up the fear of snakes that we as humans have had for centuries. This adventurous archeologist who had already been chased by a tribe of indigenous people with spears, who had already outrun that huge rolling boulder as a Temple collapsed around him, is now petrified of snakes. Studies have shown that the fear of snakes is one of the most common fears that humans have today. Even though I never really thought I was much afraid of snakes, I had even held some at the zoo when I was younger; seeing one about a year ago just outside of the parsonage stirred up something. I was looking out of the great big bay window and looked down into the shrubs and noticed they were moving. Finally I was able to trace the curled body of great big black snake. Even though I know they aren’t poisonous and are actually good for keeping rodents away, there was still something a little off putting about this massive snake right in front of the parsonage. That fear grew even more a few weeks later as I was cutting the grass. If you have been to the parsonage you know the back yard has a small narrow hill on the side of the house. On the riding mower the best way to cut it is do drive up it, throw it in reverse, and the go up again. As I reached the top of the hill near the gate, my little friend started to poke its head up out of nowhere in a not very friendly way just a few feet from my shin. You better believe I got down that hill real quick which isn’t really that easy to do, because before you can reverse you have to pull up the blade, and then throw it into reverse and then hit the peddle, but you better believe it did it the fastest I had ever done before. Even without a real fear of snakes, snakes can still be pretty terrifying.

            The Israelites in the desert can attest to that.  After being freed from slavery in Egypt the Israelites wandered in the desert for years and years. It seems that throughout the time they were complaining, almost like kids on a long trip crying,  “Are we there yet.” They were hungry and so they complained and God gave them Manna, bread from heaven to eat. The people got tired of eating Manna and complained again, and God provided quails for them to eat. Again the people complained this time that they were thirsty, and God provided water to them from a rock of all places. Finally the people were complaining again. Why is this taking so long? Why did you lead us out of Egypt just so we could die out here? I want to go back. This time their complaints were not met with appeasement from God as had been the case before. This time, matters got worse giving the Israelites something to really complain about it. For as they wandered, down from the hills came poisonous snakes, that began to bite the people killing them. The Bible these snakes as snakes of fire, probably describing the burning pain they felt from where they were bit. In the midst of this panic, the people returned to Moses repenting and asking for help.

            The way in which God works in saving the Israelites in this story is fascinating. God tells Moses to make a serpent statue out of bronze and to put it on a stick. Moses then tells the people that whoever gaze upon the serpent statue will be safe, and whoever has been bitten by a snake and looks at the statue will be healed. It is strange that the very thing that heals the people and prevents them from dying, is the very thing that is killing them in the first place. I have to imagine however that looking at the snake statue was not easy. If had lost loved ones to the snakes, it would be a painful reminder of your loss. Staring at that snake statue would be terrifying. You know that looking at it will bring you healing, but it certainly hard to look at a fake bronze serpent, when there are snakes of fire all around you nipping at your ankles. The fear of your circumstance around makes it difficult to focus on what is right in front of you; the thing you need more than anything.

            Personally I’m bad at looking at what it is that I need. Most of that comes because I am quite an unorganized person. My desk is lined with papers and books and still it seems the ones that I need are not there when I need them. Heather on the other hand is a very organized person. She has tried to help me with my organization skills, giving me folders and boxes designed to put specific things in. Still, when I need that one book or that one paper it is nowhere to be found. I call out, “Heather, have you seen my book?” “Did you look on the shelf.”  “I’m looking right now and I don’t see it.” Then Heather will come in, and in a matter of seconds will pull the book I need right of the shelf. “If it was a snake it would have bit you” she says.

            If it were a snake it would have bit you. Often this is how it is for us in our matters of faith. We look for God and God is right there in front of us and yet we still don’t see. In light of our scripture from Numbers, this phrase takes on a new meaning as well. In John, Jesus compares himself to this serpent on a stick saying, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Just as the Israelites looked upon the snake and were saved, those who look upon Jesus are too saved. And then we get what is probably the most famous Christian verse, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whomever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. This is the classic bumper sticker, bookmark, coffee cup verse. It is usually the first verse that we learn in Sunday school. This verse is so popular that a decade or so ago it was commonplace to see a John 3:16 sign in the stands of a baseball or football stadium. As Christians we love this verse as it seems to sum up perfectly God’s love for us and message of salvation, but the truth is that when it is taken out of context we lose a little bit of Jesus’s message. Because in John 3:16 we hear about God’s love, we hear about the promise of eternal life, but we really don’t get the full picture of what our response to that grace looks like.

            We hear in this popular verse about God’s love for us, we hear that Jesus died for the whole world, that all who believe in him shall have eternal life. This verse speaks about God’s grace freely given for us, but it leaves us wondering, if salvation is available for all the world then why wouldn’t everyone want it? Both of our scriptures shed light on this question. Jesus says that in like the serpent  held by Moses, the Son of man must be lifted up. This phrase “lifted up” means two things. The first thing it tells us is that the Son of Man, that is Jesus, must be exalted. Jesus must be held above everything else in our lives; our jobs, our family, our nation, our hopes, our dreams. Jesus must be lifted up above these things. It means we must turn our focus, turn our gaze upon the one that is saving us. Like the serpent on a pole, if we do not look, if we do not follow, then we are not saved.

            So whereas salvation is available for all, we have to accept. Jesus says, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God ” Jesus did not come to condemn, Jesus came to save. In Christianity we like to view Jesus as a judge, and rightfully so. In fact in the Apostle Creed we even say, “From whence he shall judge the quick and the dead.” We read Matthew 25 and Jesus separating the sheep from the goat, and we get this vision of Jesus the judge. But just because Jesus is judge, does not mean that Jesus came to condemn, Jesus came to save. Jesus has given us the opportunity to follow him; that through faith we may be saved. This is the opposite of condemnation, this is salvation. With this free gift right in front of us, it is we then who condemn ourselves. It is we as our scripture tells us to stay in the dark rather than walk in the light of the Lord.  When we refuse God’s grace, we heap condemnation on ourselves.

            But why would anyone choose that, why would anyone choose their own condemnation? Sometimes something so obvious that is right in front of us, can be the hardest thing to see. Like the saying goes, “If it was a snake, it would have bit you.” It can be hard to see the snake right in front of you when you are worried about all the others around you. Just like I am sure it was hard for the Israelites to trust in looking at the bronze snake, when all the other serpents were biting at their heels. When the snakes bite in our lives, we too can get distracted. We too can take our gaze off of the one who saves us. When those bills pile up, when there is trouble at home, when we are fighting health risks or have lost a loved one, those things bite. When we battle our own demons, whether its addiction, or anger, or depression, or apathy or whatever it may be, our instinct becomes to look away. Our instinct is to focus on the darkness we are in, instead of lifting up Jesus Christ.

            Jesus knew a little something about darkness. Jesus took on our humanity, felt our pain, our hurt our fears, and for it he bore our sins on the cross. Jesus felt the physical pains of the whip, the nails, the crown of thorns, and the pain of asphyxiation on the cross. He also felt the emotional pains of being betrayed by one of his disciples, denied by another, and the pain of having his mother and loved ones watch him as he died. Jesus bore our humanity. A little while ago I mentioned that scripture said that like the serpent, Jesus must be lifted up. I said that lifted up meant to things, and the first is that Jesus must be exalted, put above everything else in our lives. The second meaning of Jesus being lifted up is more literal, it is talking about the  cross. Like the serpent, Jesus must be put lifted up on the cross for all to see. But why?

            Well, as you have heard the story of the Israelites in desert did you ever stop to think it was a bit odd? That as the people are being attacked and killed by snakes, God tells Moses to hold a statue of a snake of all things up for all to see. The people had to gaze upon the very thing that was killing them in order for them to be saved. The same is true with Jesus on the cross. Humans are plagued with the disease of sin and death. This is not what was intended for us. We were supposed to live long and prosper in the garden with God until another serpent entered in and tricked us into following our own desires. From then one we have continued to strive not for Godly desires but for our own, and the consequence of these actions which we call sin, is death. But now, God has come to Earth, as a human, as one of us, and was lifted up on the cross for all to see. Like the serpent in the wilderness, when we gaze upon Jesus on the cross, when we gaze upon God incarnate, we gaze upon that which is killing us, ourselves.

            Looking at God as human, suffering on the cross, convicts us of our own sin. It reminds us that without God we are slaves to sin and death. It reminds us that we are the ones who are killing ourselves. It is our sin, our desire to follow what we want that leads to our own condemnation. And maybe this is why we are afraid to gaze at the cross, maybe this is why we are afraid to lift Jesus up. Maybe this is why we choose condemnation over salvation. Because staring at the cross, lifting Jesus up is painful. It convicts us of our own flaws and faults. It calls for us to repent and to change our lives. It calls us to let go of trust in ourselves and put it the hands of Jesus.  It calls us out of the darkness that we are comfortable with, and into the unknown of the light. And when we step into the light all of our flaws become visible for others to see as well. We’d rather hide, we’d rather heap condemnation on ourselves than face the fear and the uncertainty of lifting up Christ. Lifting up Christ makes our pain and our troubles all too real, and in our fear we get distracted from the fact the gift of salvation is right there for us, if we would only trust in the Lord, if we would only turn our eyes upon Jesus.  God’s unmerited grace is right there in front of you, inviting you towards salvation if you would just allow yourself to accept it…. If it was a snake it would have bit you.  

A Taste of God

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 3/8/15




Read Psalm 19


As a kid growing up I went through two big phases of things that piqued my interests. First came my love for dinosaurs, but next came my love for space.  This probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to most of you, it’s no secret that I am a huge fan of Star Wars, but my love for space went much further than just the movies. In my room at home I taped planets to the top of my wall and had little glow in the dark stars to admire as I went to sleep. I had the order of the planets in our solar system memorized and loved when we would get to make models of it in class. My mom often took me to the Science Museum of Virginia, and there my love for space grew even more. There were experiments dealing with gravity, with air pressure, and even a model moon landing capsule that you could climb into. If you were really lucky, the IMAX theater would be showing a movie about space.

            As I grew older my passion for space may have waned a little, but I am still at times find myself amazed by it. Nothing beats a meteor shower that lights up the night sky. Nothing can put your rough day in perspective like coming home at night to a sky lit up, and where the constellations are so bright you have no trouble finding them. Even in college when space was the last thing on my mind, I remember being sad the day scientists decided that Pluto wasn’t really a planet.

            There is such a beauty, an awe and wonder that space presents. It is the final frontier. It is so vast and large and it is almost impossible to comprehend. In that awe and wonder, I feel as though something about God is being revealed. It was after all a star that led the way for the Magi to find Jesus. The psalmist for our scripture this morning certainly seemed to agree that space spoke to the wonders and glory of God. The psalm starts out, “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech,
    and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words;  their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth  and their words to the end of the world.” The psalmist recognizes that space, that nature itself proclaims the wonders of God. Space is so incomprehensible and yet it is something that God not only comprehends, but created. Without words the heavens proclaim God’s handiwork to the end of the world, the psalmist says. As we admire space, as we admire nature, we sometimes can catch a small piece of that song, we can get a small taste of God revealed to us, but it often leaves us wanting more. We want more answers, we want to understand this awesome and amazing God who can create such amazing things. In the vastness of space we feel so small, and even so distant from God, and we want something to draw us closer.

(Image Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

            As we stand in awe of God in the splendor of God’s creation, it may be surprising to us that what can draw us closer, what can give us a greater taste of God revelation is the Law; that is God’s commandments and precepts. When we think of beauty and awe and wonder we do not normally think of law. Law seems crude, crass, a means to and ends. The psalm describes the Law as perfect, reviving the soul, righteous, and causes rejoicing in the heart. This is probably not how we often think about the Law of God. The Law is not just a list of requirements to keep us and check and make us be “good.” That is where we in today’s society often get it so wrong. For the Israelites, the Law provided a way for the people to be in covenant with God. The laws were not arbitrary, and the laws were not just legalistic or moralistic, the Law was designed to bring you closer to God. Even in the Bible we see that over time this understanding was often lost. The Pharisees became staunch defenders of the Law and the letter of the Law. For them following the Law was the ends in and of itself. But Jesus reminds us of its true nature. The Pharisees get angry at Jesus because he breaks the command of not working on the Sabbath. But what was he doing, healing someone. The Pharisees had lost the intention of the Law.  It makes sense then when Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is he replies, “'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Loving God and loving People, isn’t that Thomas Road’s motto. It is not that Jesus says this replaces the Law, but that all of the Laws of God hang on this, loving God and loving people.”

            When I was in college I joined a fraternity, Kappa Sigma. Before I became a full-fledged brother there was a ten week period called pledging that I had to go through. During this pledging period, me and the other pledge brothers had many rules we had to follow. We had information about the history of our Fraternity and its principals that we had to memorize and would be tested on almost weekly. We had mandatory meetings with the brothers sometimes to discuss business, sometimes to do outreach, and sometimes just to hang out. We were assigned mentors that we called Big brothers to help us not just through the pledging period, but also throughout our time in the fraternity. We had mandatory study hall to make sure that as we were studying our materials for the Fraternity that we stayed on top of our school work as well. Finally we had this little book, the book with all of the information in it that we needed to know. This book was to be treasured and cherished, you did not lose this book, you did not let away from your side, and you didn’t come to a meeting without it.

            Now as I was going through all of this pledging it seemed kind of ridiculous. It was intense trying to memorize all of that information and to be at all of those mandatory meetings. The rules seemed overbearing and made life a lot harder at the time. As I went through the process however and when I was finally initiated it all began to make sense. All that we did, all of those rules, all of that studying made me learn more about the organization I was joining and love it even more. That mandatory time spent with brothers, and the times we sought out each other’s help on our own, helped us to bond with each other and grow together. That time we had together, though tough, was priceless and I came to love it.

            The Law of the Lord is in a way similar to this experience. As Jesus showed us, the laws were not arbitrary, they were designed in order to help us love God and love people. As we follow the Law, we don’t do it like a checklist that gets us to heaven; that misses the point entirely. And we certainly don’t follow the Law as a way to judge and call out others. The Law draws us closer to God, and draws us closer to each other. If this is the case, then like me and my experience in my fraternity, following the Law and the instructions leads to a greater love and appreciation for the One you are following. The Law makes us in fact fall more in love with God. It makes sense then why the psalmist would celebrate the Law, rejoicing in the heart and calling it perfect. It makes sense now that it is described as being more desired than gold and sweeter than honey. If nature and the wonders of space can give us just a taste of  God’s wonder, the Law can give us that sweet taste of honey. The Law can draw us closer in a relationship with God and with each other.

            As Christians following the Law of God can be quite confusing. Some may say, “Didn’t Jesus live and die so that we don’t have to follow the law anymore?  Others will point to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians where he says, “⁵ He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances.” Jesus Christ’s ministry to the world can make it seem as though the Law has become obsolete, but if we really read what Jesus and Paul and the other early writers were saying we find that this is not that case. . Through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, God established with us a new covenant by Water and the Spirit. By establishing this new covenant, Jesus did abolish the laws in the fact that the Laws do not save us, but Jesus’s ministry was not a rejection of the Laws, but rather a fulfilment of them. It goes back again to how and why we are reading them. If we are following the laws as a means to be saved, then we have missed the point of Jesus’s atonement for sins If on the other hand we are using the laws to better know God and to grow in a right relationship with God and with others then the Law is still sweeter than honey to our lips.

            In this season of Lent it is this sweetness that we desire to taste. This season is a time in which we remember that new covenant that we have entered into through our baptism, and we strive to honor and life out that commitment. It is the Law, or maybe it is easier for us to say the Scripture, that helps to convict us of our sins and lead us to the changes necessary for growing closer to God.  This is why for many Lent is such a bittersweet time. No one really wants to be convicted of their sin. No one really wants to admit their faults, and not many truly want to repent, especially if that means they have to change the lives they know and have grown comfortable with. For this reason Lent can be a difficult time, as we wrestle with our own faults. As we wrestle and as we are convicted however we begin to grow closer and closer to God. That which once hindrance to our relationship, is no longer a stumbling block. As we grow in closer relationship with God we realize that we were convicted not because we are worthless, but because we are precious in God’s sight and God wants more for us than the life we are living today. The Law, Scripture, the Word of God, whatever you want to call it in today’s context can help convict us, can help lead us through the Spirit’s discerning, and can be that sweet honey upon our lips.

            As we approach Scripture, and in particularly the Law, we should approach it with a certain preparation in our hearts. We should prepare ourselves for the power that it holds, and pray for God’s guidance that we may rightly speak and live out that which we read. It is why the psalmist ends with a line that you may have heard before. It is a line often used by pastors as a prayer before their sermon, but it should also be our prayer each and every day as we seek to be led and serve God. “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord my rock and my redeemer.”

            This should be our earnest prayer each and every day. We should pray that what we utter day to day is acceptable in God’s sight. We should pray that our hearts are stirred by the majesty of God, both through the wonders of nature but also through the wonders of his Word. The psalmist gets this. Thomas McGrath points out the uniqueness of this psalm that, “star gazers and tree huggers will welcome verses 1-6 while the Ten Commandments crowd will salute verses 7-13” But doesn’t the uniqueness of this psalm in a way sum up the majesty and wonder of God. That through different means, both nature and Scripture, God is revealed to us and draws a wide array of people into this wonderful new covenant.  And in this covenant, may it be our hearts desire to live out the commitments that we made before God and each other.  May we truly love God and love one another. May we pay attention to  nature’s declaration of God glory. May follow the Law of Lord in a way that draws us closer to Christ, making the precepts of the Lord more precious than gold, and sweeter than honey. But most of all as we strive to live as a covenant people, may the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts, by acceptable in in thy sight, O Lord,  our Rock, and our redeemer.

A Dream Deferred

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 3/1/15

Read Mark 8:31-38

Image Courtesy of Pitts Theology Library

Ever since I first read it in High School, Langston Hughes’ poem “A Dream Deferred”  has spoken to me and in a way haunted me.  “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore—And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags  like a heavy load.   Or does it explode?.” I absolutely love this poem; the heartbreak, the desperation, the lingering hope are all so powerful. I recently stumbled across this poem again and it got me thinking. What happens when we are called to intentionally defer our dreams?  You see, this poem speaks to the external circumstances that crushed or at least delayed dreams of many African Americans in the early part of the 20^th century. Issues such as segregation, unjust laws and even War forced many to postpone or delay their dreams. My question on the other hand is what if our dream was obtainable, but we were called to let it go? Would we do it?

            All of us have dreams. Many of us share in similar dreams. There would be no such thing as the American dream if it wasn’t something shared by so many. What is that American dream? To become successful in our jobs, To have a house to call our own, To have a spouse and children and be able to provide for them with the best education, best extra-curricular activities so that we may leave them in a better position than even we ourselves are in. The dream is to be able to be self-sufficient and not rely on anyone else.  Our religion sometimes even feeds into this dream that we have. Sadly God is viewed by many Christians around our country as a means to achieve our dream. If we pray hard enough, if we give enough to our churches, if we are there every Sunday in Worship then God is going to bless us. God is going to make sure we have the money we need and then some. God will make sure our children get into the school of their dreams. God will get us the job that we want or the dream house we have been saving for. God will take away any burden, any hardship, any suffering we may be facing. If we truly believe, then God will make our dreams a reality.

            Jesus however explicitly tells us that this is not the case. In our passage this morning from Mark Jesus talks about his own suffering that is to come. He openly declares that the chief priests and elders will reject him, and that he will be killed. Peter responded the same way I feel many Christians would today. Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes him. This word rebuke had already been used in the Gospel by Jesus usually when he was casting demons out of people. In essence, Peter is calling Jesus mad, saying that he is acting possessed. Peter believes that Jesus is the Messiah, but in his mind there is no way that the Messiah would be called to suffer; that’s not how the dream went. The Messiah would come and use the power that Jesus has already demonstrated that he has, and use it to destroy the enemies of Israel and return nation to its glory. In Peter’s mind the Messiah would not be called to suffer, for if that were true the Messiah’s followers would be called to suffer as well.

            But in fact that is exactly what Jesus is saying, and Jesus doesn’t say so lightly. “Get behind me Satan” Jesus cries out to Peter. Imagine the position Peter is in. Peter was bold enough to call out him leader and his boss, to practically call him possessed; and now he is the one who is being called Satan. Peter questioned whether Jesus knew what he was talking about, and Jesus makes it abundantly clear that what he said was no mistake. He tells Peter, “For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." He then calls out to the crowd, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?  

            A life of discipleship, a life of following the Messiah, is a life in which there will be suffering. As Christians we hear Jesus calling us to take up our cross and follow him. Unfortunately, this means at times we must put down our own dreams to lift up that cross. We must take our minds off of human things, off of those personal dreams, and set our minds upon the things of God. If we don’t believe this is true, If we still doubt that Jesus is really calling us to put aside the things of this Earth, then just look at the story of the man who just lost his father. When the man asks Jesus to let him first bury his father’s body before following him, Jesus replies, “Let the dead bury the dead.”

            Following Jesus is no joke. Jesus asks a lot of us, but it is nothing that he has not already done for us. Still I feel like many of us are today are just as bold as Peter was. We say to God, “ Um God, are you sure you know what you are talking about here? Instead of calling us to suffer with you, wouldn’t it be better if you showed people how great you were by making your followers dreams come true? Wouldn’t it be better if you just gave to us everything we ask if we ask hard enough and are good people?” Now we might not actually say that to God, but isn’t this often what our actions are saying. But Jesus calls us to set our minds not on our earthly dreams, but to set them upon Christ. We are not called to gather up things that make this world better for ourselves, in fact we are called to  lose our lives for Christ. Now this is certainly a difficult thing to ask, and please do not here me saying that I have gotten it right, but God knows I have failed. God knows that I have missed opportunities for ministry or service because it did not fit my plan, it was not part of my dream of schools, or jobs, or even ordination. God knows I have been quiet in the face of injustice because of the fear of how it might affect my dream, my status, or even what people thought about me. God knows I have failed, and God knows you have too, and so it is in fact such a blessing that we are able to gather together for Worship in this season of Lent, able to confess of our failures, confess that we have been earthly minded, and strive together to take up our cross, to intentionally put our dreams on hold, so that God may come first.

            So what happens to a dream intentionally deferred?  Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore—And then run. Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.   Or does it explode? I think it does explode, for when our dreams are put aside for the sake of Jesus, there is a power in it,  like an explosion, that cannot be contained.