Me or We

Matthew 6:25-34   (NRSV)

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

I just want to start by saying thank you to everyone who offered up suggestions on sermon ideas for next year.

         You have given me some great ideas

And you still have a couple of weeks to get the ideas in before I take a couple of days to try and really listen where I believe God through the Holy Spirit is wanting me to help lead this congregation.

Secondly, I encourage you to ask yourself where God is inviting you to help lead here at Meridian Street. 

In our membership vows we promise to support the church with our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service and our witness.

When we all use our God given gifts in the way that God intended --- our impact on the world grows massively!

So please fill out your "Please Consider Me" form

This past week I had the opportunity to travel to Kansas City to join together with 2500 other United Methodists and dream about the future of the UMC

It was a short trip

I left home at 5am on Wednesday and caught a flight so that I could be at the Church of the Resurrection by the time the conference started at 9am

Friday, as the conference ended I flew back to Indy (my 8pm flight was delayed repeatedly --- and I got home at 3:30 am) just in time for Anne Swope's funeral yesterday morning.

While in Kansas City

         We prayed together

                  challenged each other

                           sought solutions to the terrible spot that the church is in right now

                                    and dreamed about what might be next after the General Conference in May

I left feeling hopeful

         that despite whatever happens --- a new expression of the UMC will be born

But we were also were reminded that we have been in this predicament before --- with good, well intentioned people on both sides of an issue using the Bible to support their individual understanding of scripture

Our opening worship began with two UMC bishops reading scripture

         1 Corinthians 14:34-35

in all the churches of the saints, women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

1 Timothy 2:8-15

I want men to pray everywhere by lifting up hands that are holy, without anger or argument. In the same way, I want women to enhance their appearance with clothing that is modest and sensible, not with elaborate hairstyles, gold, pearls, or expensive clothes. They should make themselves attractive by doing good, which is appropriate for women who claim to honor God.

A wife should learn quietly with complete submission. I don’t allow a wife to teach or to control her husband. Instead, she should be a quiet listener. Adam was formed first, and then Eve. Adam wasn’t deceived, but rather his wife became the one who stepped over the line because she was completely deceived. But a wife will be brought safely through childbirth, if they both continue in faith, love, and holiness, together with self-control.

What made this reading so striking was --- both bishops were women

It wasn't that long ago that woman were finally granted full clergy rites in the UMC --- anybody have any idea when that happened?

         1956

In 1980 Marjorie Matthews was the first woman consecrated as a bishop in the UMC

         She was elected in our jurisdiction and served in Wisconsin

And then we were reminded of another difficult time in the church

We merged, as a denomination, in 1939 --- to end the separation that resulted over slavery and created The Methodist Church from the Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist Episcopal Church South and Methodist Protestant Church.

The Southern church only agreed to union after a compromise created a jurisdiction based exclusively on race — not geography.

Nineteen black annual conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church were placed in the Central Jurisdiction and the white conferences were placed in five regional jurisdictions.

        

In other words, we created our own Jim Crow rules within the Methodist Church

I hate to say this --- but neither of those battles are completely over

         Women clergy are in many places not considered equal to a man

Do you remember the challenges when Cindi Alte was named interim senior pastor when Bill Schwein left?

Probably not --- because we hate history and love nostalgia

Or as Rev. Junius B. Dotson, the General Secretary of the Board of Discipleship said in quoting William Faulkner:

         The past isn't dead and buried

                  In fact, it is not even dead

If you are not sure you believe me --- just go Google "NC Conference Women in Ministry" and watch the video they created this past June – you will be shocked (https://vimeo.com/335862568)

My friends we have a long way to go

NO matter what happens next May --- it will not be over

         You cannot legislate change

But Meridian Street will continue to strive be open and welcoming to ALL no matter what happens

Last Sunday I asked you an important question --- and I encouraged you to ponder it this week --- I hope and pray that you have.

I asked you:

         HOW BIG IS YOUR GOD?

It is an important question because most of us create small personal gods that we worship in our own image

         They may be athletes, political parties, nations, or even ourselves

And too often our god's that we create are

·       angry

·       vengeful

·       doesn't like the people we don't live

·       forgives our mistakes, but not the sins of others

·       tribal, and xenophobic

Need I go on?

Small gods can control our lives, but it requires a BIG GOD to change our hearts

Abraham Joshua Heschel was born in Poland just prior to the First World War --- his family tree consists of preeminent European rabbis on both sides of his family.

He grew up with a very traditional Jewish education and became an Orthodox Rabbi.

In 1938, Rabbi Heschel found himself arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Poland.

Just a few weeks before the Nazi invasion of Poland, Heschel escaped and slowly made his way to New York.

Rabbi Heschel believed the teachings of the Hebrew prophets were a clarion call for social action in the United States and he worked tirelessly for African Americans' civil rights and against the Vietnam War. 

He became a close confidant of Martin Luther King, Jr.

In 1962, in his book The Prophets he argued that prophets do not speak for God so much as they remind their audience of God's voice for the voiceless, the poor and oppressed.

He writes:

Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profane riches of the world. It is a form of living, a crossing point of God and man. God is raging in the prophet's words

He also wrote these simple but powerful words:

         “Few are guilty, but all are responsible”

Rabbi Heschel is reminding us of the moral teachings found in the biblical story and how each generation must renew their charge to form a “community not indifferent to suffering, impatient with cruelty and falsehood, and continually concerned for G*d and every man.”

Of course: “Few are guilty, but all are responsible” is not a principle that can be applied in a court of law and is not a standard that can or should be enforced by any policy.

However, within this prophetic call, is a reminder of the aspirations of our society and just how out of reach that ideal remains for too many. 

The claim that we are all responsible leads to a lifetime of questions

But while sitting in the beautiful sanctuary of the Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City what struck me was the first part of this statement.

         "few are guilty"

In one brilliant stroke Rabbi Heschel is saying that, yes there are some who willfully cause injury to others because they fail to treat them as fully human,

         but the vast majority harbor not malice, but insufficient concern. 

We are not a country made up of bigots, but a society that is still yet to come to grips with how corrosive it is to become indifferent to the lives of those who are regarded as other. 

To accept the notion that all of us are responsible for the marginalized, oppressed, put-down and belittled groups in our society is a tough pill to swallow.

         But it is the clarion call of Jesus.

                  It is the essence of what it means to be a follower of Jesus

We are called to strive for God's kingdom --- not ours

         It is what we prayed a few minutes ago

                  "Thy kingdom come

                           Thy will be done"

And the only way to get there is to move beyond our "me centric" religion -- in which we create a multitude of God's to meet our every whim

·       We must move beyond our "me centric" reading of scripture --- where we elevate scripture that supports our position and let the position of the breadth of scripture reign true.

·       We must move beyond our "me centric" belief that Christianity is about my personal salvation and instead seek God's kingdom and not our own.

If you’re becoming a Christian with your own happiness as your main goal, you will be disappointed in a severe way.

Following Jesus is not about your happiness, it’s not even about you.

It’s about love — which is something we choose to give time and time again.

It’s about sacrifice, serving, giving, forgiving — and then doing it all over again.

Following Jesus teaches you more about selflessness than you ever wanted to know.

At the heart of it, following Jesus is all about sacrifice.

About the giving of yourself, in ways big and small.

• It’s about offering forgiveness when you’ve been hurt.
• It’s about giving your time though it’s not always convenient.
• It’s about choosing to respond with love when you’d rather respond in anger.
• It’s about sharing your possessions --- even when you want to store them away.
• It’s about putting others needs and desires before your own.

I could go on and on, but it always ends with the same formula:

         You before me. And we before me

We live in a world that despises the sacrificial side of following Jesus and tries to wish it away.

They fool us to thinking that being a Christian is about doing what makes us happy.

         Affirming our beliefs and whims

And the second we feel less than happy, they encourage us to bail, to abandon ship and to stop investing in Jesus and each other.

But they’ve got it all wrong.

Because the more we give, the better we become.

Being a Disciple of Jesus is not self-seeking, and it will always cost you.

How are we to love God?

         Jesus tells:

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: You must love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Jesus is pretty clear --- if you want to follow Jesus it is going to cost you.

And the only way to transform this world that at times seems to be spiraling out of control --- is when we put God first.

We have much work to do --- but we cannot do it alone

Through the power of the Holy Spirit we can become carpenters for God's kingdom.

Let us pray (Wesley’s Covenant Prayer)

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you,
Praised for you or criticized for you.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and fully surrender all things to your glory and service.
And now, O wonderful and holy God,
Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer,
you are mine, and I am yours.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
Let it also be made in heaven.  Amen.

Is Your God Big Enough?

2 Corinthians 3:17-18   (NRSV) 

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. 

Last Sunday, as we were being blessed by Dr. Fulbright, I realized I needed to change what I was planning on doing this week. Actually, what I was planning for today, I will do next week, but what I planned for next week, will just have to wait.

As Dr. Fulbright talked (and remember, I had the opportunity to hear her twice) I was struck by a thought.

One of the things that keeps us bound is our perception of God.

And my hunch is --- for most of us --- our God is way too small!

In Genesis we are told:

God created humanity in God’s own image,

        in the divine image God created them,

            male and female God created them.

                             Genesis 1:27 (CEB)

And while I trust that to be true --- I think that we have in reality turned that phrase on its head.

          Humanity created God in their own image

                   In our personal image we created God

Too often, without even realizing it --- we have substituted a paltry and puny God for the great and gracious God made known in Jesus.

We’ve manufactured a god from our fears who is limited, narrow and tame – a little god who does nothing saving, surprising or amazing.

This small god we have made diminishes our souls and shrinks our world because this meager god is strictly local.

The little god is stingy with mercy; there is only enough for our kind of people – our nation or tribe or race or family or social class or religious group.

There is not enough love in this god to go around

This diminutive god doesn’t have the capacity to change anything in our world or in us;

the best we can hope for from such a god is sympathy and advice.

This tiny, tin god is a totem for the status quo, so we hope less and less for the justice and peace that would transform and change everything.

What many of us need is to recover, or maybe even to discover for the first time --- is a sense of wonder at the mystery and absolute magnificence of God.

The God revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ is vast beyond our comprehension, beautiful beyond our appreciation and wonderful beyond our imagination.

God encompasses everything we understand and fail to understand

what we have discovered and what remains hidden

what is near and what is far

God is above and beyond

among and within

high and holy

close and compassionate.

And God’s love is breathtakingly all-embracing.

Paul captures this well in this powerful prayer from the Letter to the Ephesians:

I ask that he will strengthen you in your inner selves from the riches of his glory through the Spirit.  I ask that Christ will live in your hearts through faith. As a result of having strong roots in love, I ask that you’ll have the power to grasp love’s width and length, height and depth, together with all believers.  I ask that you’ll know the love of Christ that is beyond knowledge so that you will be filled entirely with the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)

In 1952, J. B. Phillips wrote a small but provocative book entitled Your God Is Too Small.

The idea behind this book is that we have many notions of God which are simply inadequate for God.

Since our ideas about God are flawed, our behavior toward God is often equally flawed.

·         If we see God as a benevolent grandfather, we tend to take God’s mercy for granted and overlook God’s judgment.

·         If we think of God primarily as a stern and harsh disciplinarian, we are likely to emphasize God’s punishment and overlook God’s grace.

Perhaps the greatest problem Phillips addressed was our tendency to make God into a bigger version of ourselves

we try to create God in our own image.

We make God think like us --- and react like us --- and feel like us.

Thus, not surprisingly our perception of god has the same biases, and prejudices that we have.

Too often, we become the yardstick against which the character of God is measured.

Our worship of this kind of "god" quickly degenerates into a worship of ourselves.

          But that is a discussion for another day.

In order to live out our Wesleyan understanding of grace --- we must have a BIG God

Do you understand what I mean by our Wesleyan understanding of grace?

What makes us unique as United Methodists is our understanding of how God operates in the world.

While someone from the reform tradition believes that a person must seek out God --- and invite God into their lives

          We believe that God comes to us FIRST

We call this PREVENIENT GRACE

Prevenient grace refers to the grace of God in a person's life that precedes conversion (or salvation).

The word "prevenient," considered an archaic term today, was common in the King James English and simply means to "go before" or "precede.

What makes this important is that we believe that this is true in EVERY PERSONS life.

It is not just some people whom God seeks out --- it is EVERYONE

In order to trust that --- you must have a BIG God

          A God who is bigger than our rules

          A God who is bigger than United Methodism

          A God who is bigger than even Christianity

That probably got some of you uncomfortable

          But are you limiting God?

When we start putting constraints on whom God’s grace can touch we need to recognize that we are limiting God

Timothy Jones in Finding Freedom through the Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace shares a story about taking his daughter to Disney World.

Our middle daughter had been previously adopted by another family. I am sure this couple had the best of intentions, but they never quite integrated the adopted child into their family of biological children. After a couple of rough years, they dissolved the adoption, and we ended up welcoming an eight-year-old girl into our home.

For one reason or another, whenever our daughter’s previous family vacationed at Disney World, they took their biological children with them, but they left their adopted daughter with a family friend. Usually — at least in the child’s mind — this happened because she did something wrong that precluded her presence on the trip.

And so, by the time we adopted our daughter, she had seen many pictures of Disney World and she had heard about the rides and the characters and the parades. But when it came to passing through the gates of the Magic Kingdom, she had always been the one left on the outside.

I thought I had mastered the Disney World drill. I knew from previous experiences that the prospect of seeing cast members in freakishly oversized mouse and duck costumes somehow turns children into squirming bundles of emotional instability. What I didn’t expect was that the prospect of visiting this dreamworld would produce a stream of downright devilish behavior in our newest daughter. In the month leading up to our trip to the Magic Kingdom, she stole food when a simple request would have gained her a snack. She lied when it would have been easier to tell the truth. She whispered insults that were carefully crafted to hurt her older sister as deeply as possible — and, as the days on the calendar moved closer to the trip, her mutinies multiplied.

A couple of days before our family headed to Florida, I pulled our daughter into my lap to talk through her latest escapade. “I know what you’re going to do,” she stated flatly. “You’re not going to take me to Disney World, are you?”

In retrospect, I’m embarrassed to admit that, in that moment, I was tempted to turn her fear to my own advantage. The easiest response would have been, “If you don’t start behaving better, you’re right, we won’t take you” — but, by God’s grace, I didn’t. Instead, I asked her, “Is this trip something we’re doing as a family?”

She nodded, brown eyes wide and tear-rimmed.

“Are you part of this family?”

She nodded again.

“Then you’re going with us.”

I’d like to say that her behaviors grew better after that moment. They didn’t. Her choices pretty much spiraled out of control at every hotel and rest stop. Still, we headed to Disney World on the day we had promised.

In our hotel room that evening, a very different child emerged. She was exhausted, pensive, and a little weepy at times, but her month-long facade of rebellion had faded. When bedtime rolled around, I prayed with her, held her, and asked, “So how was your first day at Disney World?”

She closed her eyes and snuggled down into her stuffed unicorn. After a few moments, she opened her eyes ever so slightly. “Daddy,” she said, “I finally got to go to Disney World. But it wasn’t because I was good; it’s because I’m yours.”

It wasn’t because I was good; it’s because I’m yours.

That’s the message of outrageous grace --- but it takes trust in a BIG God to believe that could be true.

The challenge is to trust in a God that is greater than we can even fathom

          A God that has way more love and compassion than we could ever dream of

JB Philips suggests: 

[God] must not be limited to religious matters or even to the “religious” interpretation of life. [God] must not be confined to one particular section of time nor must we imagine [God] as the local god of this planet or even only of the Universe that astronomical survey has so far discovered.

But putting our trust --- our faith --- in a God that loves so large is dangerous.

Because this same God wants us to love the same way.

What would it look like if we sought to live our lives with the same kind of love as God.

The truth is -- we do --- we just need to let our hearts see the fullness of God's love and quite trying to make God into our own image.

What do I believe? Day 1

That is the question that was given to my CnC (Confirm not Conform) Adult class last night.  The issue isn't what have others told me I SHOULD believe --- the question is what do I believe.  The other assignment was to find some type of spiritual practice and do it every day for the next week.  So I have decided to put them together.  My practice will be to write (journal) every day.  We will see how well I am able to do it.  My goal is to do it first thing in the morning --- but time will tell . . .

Have you ever really thought about what you believe?  To sit down and write out what one really believes is a scary task.  It forces me to look with honesty at what is in the depths of my soul --- not just the politically correct statements that come out of my mouth.  As some of you read this (fortunately not many do) I will probably share heresies according to the "church."  I am alright with that --- I hope that you are too, but regardless --- this is about me trying to mine the depths of my soul and put words to the most perplexing (an ultimately impossible to understand) concepts of all time.

My intention is to take each day this week and lift up one concept.  Today I will look at God; followed by Jesus, the Spirit, the Bible, the Church and then who knows what.  I just hope I don't chicken out.  By then I might not be employed any longer, and looking for new opportunities!

One other comment, this is not about seeking a debate.  We all approach these concepts with different eyes and different world views --- I will respect yours --- please respect mine.

GOD

Who is God to me?  I believe God is creator.  Did it happen with a big bang, or Adam and Eve? --- I don't know (and don't really care).  My hunch is science has a better handle on it than the biblical texts but regardless, I believe in a God who is behind it all.

I love how Paul Tillich describes God.  Tillich called God being itself --- God is not a being among other beings.  The phrase that is often associated with Tillich and one that I have latched on to is "God is the ground of all being."  It goes beyond the scope of this today to dig into what that means -- but in as nutshell for me it means two things 1) God is.  Nothing really else needs to be, or can be, said about that.  2) God is not a theistic being living up in heaven.  That is probably the more troubling concept to many, because the church has continually taught that God is "up" there, sitting on a throne or judgment seat.  For me God is not "up" there but God is here.

That leads to another area that needs exploring.  I do not believe God is an interventionist God.  I don't believe Tom Brady played better football last night because his priest publicly prayed to God about it.  If God does intervene, God seems awfully shallow and capricious, and that is not the God I believe in.  I have written about this many times over the years.

So what does God do?  God gives us a moral direction and code that is constantly being revised and challenged in light of culture.  The challenge is to keep at the center what is at the center of God.  And to me, that is LOVE.  Scot McKnight and I would disagree on many things, but one thing we agree on is that the center of the Christian Biblical message is found it what he dubbed "the Jesus Creed".  The Jesus Creed really isn't anything more than the central conviction of the Hebrew Bible (the Shema) along with a passage from Leviticus 19:18.  In all three synoptic Gospels, Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is. 

“Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”  Mark 12

God came to teach us about LOVE!  If you don't learn anything else, but learn to love (truly love) the world would be a better place and more like the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed.  I will discuss that when I get to Jesus.

This certainly isn't a systematic approach to what I believe.  But it is an attempt on my part to state where I stand.  But at the end of the day I have to admit --- I really don't know.  God is beyond my capacity to really understand.  All I have is my experiences and the teachings that have been shared with me.  I am in no way a real scholar --- but

I seek to learn each and every day. 

I challenge you to honestly write down what is in your heart.  What do you believe about God (not what have others told you that you must believe).

What kind of God do you believe in?

I am always fascinated in how we as Christians understand God. I came across this sign the other day. At a first glance it is nothing but cute. But think about what this says.

The thing that gets me, is the implication that what we need in a god is one who is a life guard --- and what is a life guards job? To keep us safe. And our life guard is better than anybody else's life guard because our life guard isn't constricted to the natural laws that the rest of us have to live with. This life guard doesn't swim to save you from drowning, this life guard is so good that it can walk right out to you.

Again -- at first glance there is nothing wrong with it.
BUT, and you know me, there is always a but, what about those people who believe, but are still drowning? Still being ravished by cancer? Is this god fickle? Does this god like some people but not others?

As long as things are going smooth, this type of god makes lots of sense. But what if things aren't so smooth, and don't seem to be getting better. This type of god becomes nothing more than a pie in the sky, an unrealistic hope.

The BIG QUESTION is who is God and how does God operate in the world? Is God a rescuer? Is God a life guard? Or is God something else, and if something else, how in the world do we articulate that?

I believe that we as Christians need to develop a faith that is consistent. A faith that has integrity. It is a huge challenge, because to do that, we have to seriously examine much of the baggage we have about God.

Wish I had the answers, I just know, that God doesn't work the way that the sign suggests and it is time we start wrestling with how God really works in the world.