The scripture text for our contemporary words this morning is this, “That they may be one as you father are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us.” – John 17:21

The setting for this prayer of Jesus follows the meal with his disciples. On the evening before he was arrested, it follows his washing of the disciples feet and his emphasis on the commandment to love one another. It’s part of a lengthy prayer in the gospel according to John, a prayer which Jesus offers to his Father, for his disciples, and for those who love him. Who would believe in Jesus as a result of what the disciples would do later.

You and I are included in this prayer. The Gospels mention Jesus going off by himself to pray. But except for what we call the Lord’s Prayer, and the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. We don’t know much about what Jesus prayed.

Here we hear him praying for his first disciples and for us. The theme of the prayer is that all may be one, that is, united. As he and the Father are united. He prays that his disciples may be united with him and his father and with each other.

I’ve titled this sermon Untied or United. They both have the same letters, but the different arrangement of the letters leads to very different meanings.

Untied means not held together by any bond, not restrained, not joined in unity, free from outside control, as typified by such remarks as I’ll do it my way or I’m numero uno or other self centered attitudes.

On the other hand, united means made one, combined, no longer separate, acting in unison, concurring, dwelling in unity.

Notice that united does not mean total uniformity. We can have differences of opinion or personality. and still be united. Clearly, Jesus prayer is for the disciples and for us to be united rather than untied. The big question is, united for what?

Both the Old and New Testaments make very clear, that we are to love God and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. In other words, human life is essentially about relationships, relationships with ourselves, with Jesus and God, neighbors, fellow workers, church members, the natural world, society, and our nation. We’re related to all those in some way.

To love God is not to have some fuzzy warm feeling. It’s to obey God’s commands. To love our neighbors is to seek God’s love and work for their good, Jesus says, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” – John 13:34. The unity of Jesus and the father is the template for the unity of the disciples with Jesus and the father, and with Jesus and each other.

Lest, we inadvertently fall into a trap by assuming that untied is always bad and united is always good.

It’s important to acknowledge that the situation is not absolute, but very nuanced. It’s good to be untied to the attitudes and actions that are banned by the 10 Commandments. It’s good to be untied to having other gods, to making idols, to taking God’s name in vain, to steal, to commit adultery, to murder, to bear false witness, to covet. It’s good.

Likewise, It’s bad to be united with what may be good for a political party to win elections rather than what is good for our country and all our people. But most of the time it is better to be united than untied.

So where does this point us?

God loves and accepts us as we are. We do not have to meet a set of preconditions in order to be loved by God. But God does not expect or desire us to remain as we are at this point in our life. God’s plan is for us to become more like God. In other words, more holy as God is holy. We won’t fully attain that, but that is the goal.

Let’s look at two examples, one positive and one negative, that show us what becoming more holy means. In Jesus telling, a priest and a Levite came upon a man who had been injured and robbed. They both felt untied to him and passed by, leaving him lying on the road. A Samaritan also came upon him, but he felt united with him, pitied him. Dressed his wounds, took him to an inn, paid the innkeeper to take care of him, and promised to pay any additional costs for the man’s care. That Samaritan was becoming more holy, more like God.

On another occasion, Jesus told about an older brother who came in from working in the farm fields to discover music and dancing going on. He asked what was happening and learned that his younger brother, who had left home, taking his inheritance that he subsequently wasted, had returned home, and their father had joyfully welcomed him back. and ordered a festive celebration to begin. Despite entreaties from his father, the older brother refused to go in. He wouldn’t join the party referring to your son rather than my brother, thus revealing. that he was untied to his brother. He was not becoming more holy, more like God.

If our goal is to be more united with Jesus and with one another, what are we to do?

Let me offer several things for you to consider. First, We can acknowledge the truth of Jesus teaching that he is the vine and we are the branches. If we abide in him as he abides in us, we can be united. We can grow and bear fruit, becoming more like God. Because apart from him, we can do nothing. It is only as we are united in him that we grow more holy.

Also, we often hear the words, the truth will make you free. But that overlooks the first part of what Jesus said. “If you continue in my word, You are truly just my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” – John 8:31-32. It is as we are continually learning about Jesus and his teachings that we will learn the truth about God and the human life God intends for us.

To have another figure of speech that is helpful, we can think about a wheel with a hub and spokes leading out from the hub. Then we can also realize that it is only as we move toward Jesus as the hub, that we are getting closer and more united with him and with each other.

We can do more praying, especially more listening for what God is calling us to be and do. We can do more reading of the scriptures, especially the four gospels.

Getting to feel less untied and more united requires more than an attitude or a feeling, it requires action.

The epistle of James puts it quite frankly, if a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says, Go in peace, keep warm and eat your fill and yet does not supply their bodily needs. What is the good of that?

We can also move toward being more united by deliberately and appropriately living into our congregation’s recently adopted mission statement. We can make changes in our governance structures. We can offer our increased personal involvement and financial support. Becoming more united calls for action in how we use our financial resources.

Jesus observed some rich people putting gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins, and he remarked that she had put in more than all the rich people because they contributed out of their abundance while she, out of her poverty, had put in all she had to live for.

Becoming more united also leads us to become more and more generous by increasing the percentage of our income we give for our congregations ministries to welcome and help our neighbors. To do that necessitates giving a higher priority to our neighbors needs than to our own wants. That’s not easy. It means saying no to some of our expenditures on ourselves as we seek to be more united with Jesus, with the father, with each other, with our neighbors near and far.

The good news is that we are not expected to become united all by ourselves. We are called to be intentional and faithful about our decisions and actions, but we do not have to become united all on our own. Our Lord has promised to help us every step of the journey. He has said, “I am with you always to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:20. We can encourage and help each other.

Remember also the Apostle Paul’s assurance that nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God, in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

So sisters and brothers in Church of the Apostles United Church of Christ, will we be untied or united?

Sermon Given by Rev. Milton Gockley

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During the Bosnian War back in the late 90s, the Serbs had completely surrounded Sarajevo and shells and bombs were being dropped. It was dangerous to go out into the street and yet in the middle of that violence, the symphony players, the orchestra players came out to the middle of the square and started playing music.

They started playing because they needed to give the people hope. Hope that violence didn’t have the last say. Hope that there is another day to come.

I didn’t find any pictures of that, but I found this picture from 2015, where the Baltimore Symphony came out during riots in the city. Again, they tried to bring the people hope. That we can live a different way, we can make different choices, and goodness and love can win.

That’s our story. That’s the Christian story. That goodness and love will win the day, rather than violence.

In the midst of everything that’s going on, we can be overcome by our fears. But we have to remember that we worship a God that is bigger than us, that is bigger than our fear, that is bigger than our issues, and who is calling us to be part of the solution rather than the problem.

We are called to see how our brothers and sisters, our siblings, are struggling. Those who are being discriminated against because of the color of their skin, or their language, or their sexual orientation, or their disability. We need to see how they are being hurt. And we need to be part of the solution to making this a better world for everyone.

The story that I shared about Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1-8) is his call story. Isaiah had a vision. This wasn’t something that physically happened. He said it was like a dream, but he wasn’t sleeping. So, we don’t think that an actual hot coal touched his lips or burned his lips. But, in it God qualified him to be a prophet.

There was nothing about Isaiah that made him special in, that’s why I shared that reading of it because I loved the way it brought in so much more of the story, including how unprepared Isaiah felt because God qualifies. the called. He doesn’t call the qualified. Hear that again.

God qualifies the called. He doesn’t call the qualified.

So all of the things that we are called to do, we may not feel prepared to do. We may not feel like we’re ready to do it or qualified, or worthy, but God calls us anyway.

God will give us what we need to do the task we’re called to do. God will qualify us. So, when our fears, like Isaiah’s fears, of not being ready. Because I think that’s probably closer to the story. I don’t think anybody, when God calls, says “Yes! I was waiting for this! I’m perfect! You knew it!” Because that person’s not ready.

But that God comes to us and the only thing that fights our fear, is perfect love. That’s what God brings. Perfect love. Perfect love casts out all fear. That’s what we say. So, we allow that love. We have to accept that love. Because we have a choice there. That’s what makes it faith. We have a choice. We’re not forced to say yes to God. But God calls to us and looks for our yes, looks for us to turn to God and say, “help me, help me in this. I’m not ready to do this. I’m not prepared. Help me do this.” Then we will find the strength, the comfort, the courage to do things that we never thought we could do, to go to uncomfortable places.

I talked again about the Trinity, and how you understand the Trinity.

I did have a nice Catholic diagram that was trying to say, God is this and is not this, and I read a piece by a colleague that said, in seminary he tried to define the Trinity and his professor said, “In 2,000 years no one’s defined the Trinity, so how do you think you’re going to do it in a paper?”

I thought, how do I think I’m going to do it in a sermon? But God can be experienced in so many ways. Some people experience the Creator God.

This is the Milky Way over Colorado. I got permission from God. That picture showed up on my Google Chromecast and I was like, “I love that picture.” That is a picture I can connect to. And he gave me permission to use it in worship.

You hear some people say this, that they connect to God when they’re in nature, when they’re out in the woods, at the beach. With their hands in the dirt, seeing the sights, being part of creation. Some of us really connect to God through the stories of Jesus. Through those stories that help us to know how to live.

Because that God with skin on did a lot of the same things we do. There were lots of issues with other people that he walked into and helped. We can walk into those issues too and help others. Then others prefer the Spirit, divine, holy one, higher power. The words you use are not as important as your ability to connect with God in some way, in whatever way works best for you.

That’s how we know this. The idea of the Trinity didn’t come out of the Bible. The closest we have is, is Matthew 28:19, where Jesus says in the Great Commission, “Go out and baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” We call that a Trinity.

What I want you to do this week is listen deeply within yourself to what is God saying to you?

What are you hearing in your innermost self? What’s truest in your heart? I use the words of the still small voice inside. If that doesn’t relate to you, then listen to the people around you. Where do you hear God? Listen there, in whatever way works for you, to what is God asking you to be about. Because every one of us has a purpose. We are still called to love.

If nothing else, we’re called to let go of those boxes that we try to put people in. Because if we’re honest, none of us fits in a box. There is no one that a box fits perfectly. We’re complex creatures and we have to learn to love one another and we have to learn to love others.

So I’m wondering, what is God calling you to do today? What is God calling you to be about? There’s good work to be done in the world.

I’ve been promoting the education piece, Pennsylvania is at an intense unique point in time where we are going to change the way we fund Pennsylvania public education. We have to. The way we’ve been doing it has been declared unconstitutional. They have to do something different. How they do it differently remains to be seen. But there’s some of us that are doing a 40 day flood to our legislators, saying “You’ve got to fix this. You can’t let this go on. The children in poorer school districts need a good education. They deserve it just as much as everyone else. So let’s fix the system.”

We also have a group that’s getting together that’s worried about homelessness or affordable housing and especially in Lancaster. I mean, we heard that’s a state issue. Affordable housing is an issue across the state. There’s all kinds of bills in Harrisburg right now to try to address it. But if affordable housing is the thing that keeps you up at night, then talk to me about that. Because I can help you get connected so your voice can make a difference.

Whatever it is. Everyone can do something because it can be as simple as a smile. It can be as simple as allowing someone else to be heard. So much of life is about recognizing and acknowledging one another.

Let us be about this very important work that God has put before us.

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If you have been in the church for a while, then you recognize that today is Pentecost Sunday.

Pentecost is the 50th day following Easter. The normal Pentecost reading is one where we have all those names that nobody wants to get stuck with. All those names that nobody can pronounce and be ashamed of fumbling through them.

Then we have this experience of tongues of fire and wind. But, my sense is that most of us probably have not experienced tongues of fire and wind that way. That’s not how we’ve experienced the Holy Spirit. In talking with the Worship Commission in preparation for this Sunday, what they said to me was, “you know, it seems like the Holy Spirit is really hard to understand. We’re really not sure that we know that much about it.”

So I put this graphic here because the Holy Spirit is confusing. Just in Scripture alone, all of those things represent the Holy Spirit. It is represented in wind and in fire, but it’s also represented by the hand of Jesus, by a dove that descends, by anointing oil. Sometimes it’s a cloud, sometimes it’s a seal, sometimes it’s in water at baptism. There’s so many different images for the spirit, that the spirit is confusing.

I thought rather than sit with the Pentecost and what happened, where we give credit for the church being created, I thought it might be worthwhile to just try to unpack a little bit about the Spirit.

In these readings that we had today, John 15:26-27 & 16:4b-15, we heard some things about the Spirit. The Greek word is paraclete, which in the NRSV gets translated as advocate. But the word comforter is a lot closer to what it really means. It’s not just one who goes before you, although the Spirit does help us intercede in our prayers with God. But it also said that the Spirit comes to us in our weakness, The Spirit pleads our case, like the advocate, but the Spirit also convinces the world of its sin. And it explains or brings the availability of God’s goodness. It brings deliverance from judgment. It guides us into all truth, and it tells us about the future. The Spirit praises Christ.

All of those things are just in the scriptures that we read this morning about the Spirit. The Spirit really is like a first responder that’s coming to us, that is with us whenever we need it.

All we need to do is ask for the Spirit’s guidance, for the Spirit’s comfort and help in whatever situation we’re in.

Then, it’s up to us to listen. That’s where I think, probably more than anything, we miss out. Because, I think, the Spirit even comes to us in ways that we didn’t ask, in ways that we miss, because we’re so focused on our own agendas and what we’ve got to do. It comes in gentle ways.

So, there’s a lot of ways to experience the Spirit. But the Spirit is there to help guide us to remember that Jesus is our helper. That Jesus is there for us to help us with our sin. In fact, sin here, in this scripture that I read, means not abiding in Jesus. It’s a theological understanding of sin rather than a moral one, right?

Sin can also be the injustices that we allow within our communities, within the bigger county, state and world. When we allow people to be hurt, that is not of God. Actually, that’s the challenge with listening to the spirit is that we have to determine what is spirit and what is ego.

For me one of the big ways in which I tell the difference is that spirit will always lead us towards life, towards wholeness and peace, love and joy.

It is an expansive peace. It is not about retracting. It’s not about dividing us. The Spirit doesn’t want us, like the disciples, to be hold up in a room, shuttered from the world.

That’s why the Spirit breaks in that way comes to them and says, “it’s okay.” In that Pentecost story from Acts 2 that we didn’t read, the Spirit comes to all of these people. People that would have been from Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, and Jordan, and says, “you need to work together. Stop dividing. Come together.” They were able o come together and agree. That’s the beauty of the Spirit.

But when we hear things within us that encourage us towards mean spiritedness or violence, that is not of God. That is of our egos. So telling the difference is something that’s the most important thing. Because the Spirit does come in different ways. We might be like Samuel, who actually hears the voice calling him. Or it might be like Elijah, where the Spirit is not in the wind or the fire, or the Earthquake. But the, Spirit is in that still small voice within.

That’s the one that I particularly relate to because I find that the spirit more like nudges me. I’ll be walking along and all of a sudden somebody’s name will come into my mind. Like, “Yep, you haven’t talked to that person in a while.” So often when I do that and I’m thinking, I’m late, I should have called them last week. I should have gone yesterday. But, I get there and they look at me and they say, this is the perfect time for you to be here because we put all that other stuff on ourselves.

But the spirit is there, if we’re just paying attention to those little nudgings.

If you feel called to call somebody, if they’re coming to your mind, do it. Pick up the phone. Give them a call. They may need to hear from you right now. There may be something going on that you don’t know. Or maybe, you may be like Mary and actually see a vision of an angel.

There’s so many ways to experience the spirit. I heard a colleague speak this week and was talking about the spirit in a very prescribed way. I think the church has tried to control the spirit. The church has tried, just like we’ve tried to control God. Instead of thinking and remembering that we are made in the likeness of God, we try to make God in the likeness of us. We try to control what the Spirit does and we say, “this is Spirit, but this isn’t.” Maybe I’m doing that too with this mean spiritedness versus wholeness and love, but I think there are so many times we want to put a frame around what the Spirit is, who God is or who Christ is, and the answer is actually yes and much more.

Our versions of God and the Spirit and Christ are too small. We can’t comprehend all of God. We can’t comprehend all of the Spirit or even all of Christ. Jesus was our best way to know God and it gave us an understanding of who God was as one of us. But that was just a piece and there is so much more.

So I hope that you think about the Spirit and I put this picture because it’s a transformation. It’s striking because usually a caterpillar will go into a cocoon or a chrysalis in order to transform and it appears to be doing that without it. It’s going right from caterpillar to finding wings.

How might we transform if we listen to the spirit? What is the spirit calling you to be about today? If it’s calling you towards love, peace and joy, then it is the Spirit. And it is not just of you. And I hope you choose to follow. May it be so.

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Testimony is a word that we don’t use a lot.

Testimony is what the evangelicals do. Those people that we don’t want to be. That’s what the white protestant churches said. We don’t want to be like those people. They force people to have conversion moments. That’s not who we want to be. I want to say today that I think we have done ourselves a disfavor in this because testimony can be as simple as sharing our story.

Just as Emmanuel did last week, for those of you who heard or were here last week. Testimony is just about sharing a piece of our story. That is how we encourage one another in faith. It hurts us that we don’t do that more often.

I will admit that those testimonies, the way some churches have put them out or created them, it’s almost like there’s just this formula. As long as you say that you’ve received Jesus into your heart, then you’re good. That’s all that needed to be done. We know that there’s a lot more to it.

When I think of my story, it’s not a once and done thing. I’ve had many moments and my faith has grown through the moments. I think that’s part of what’s supposed to happen. The heartaches that we all carry, the pain that we have gone through, the struggles. When we admit that, we can see the places where our stories may connect or they may touch. They’re not the same. It’s not the same pain. It’s not the same struggles, but there is something about going through the pain and the grief that helps us grow, in our stories and in our faith.

I want to start today with the scripture that was read for us, 1 John 5:9-13.

Let me begin by saying that I should never assume what you know or do not know. This scripture that was read comes out of the first letter of John. That is not the same thing as the gospel of John. It is a letter further to the back of the Bible when you’re looking for it. It is meant as a type of testimony. It is meant to encourage the faith of the believers of the faithful. The scripture that we read was all about testimony. For as much as I’m not really a fan of the word testimony, it appears God’s going to make sure we talk about it today.

God says, it begins with saying if you believe human testimony, if you believe the story of another. If you believed Emmanuel’s story last week, if you believe the story of anyone else you’ve talked to, any of your friends or family, then you should believe God’s story even more. Some people set it up like that, it means that God’s story is the only testimony that humans aren’t. It’s not meant to do that. It’s meant to just say, Our stories are true and God’s story can be trusted even more because our stories do change over the years when we get some distance away from the event where our perceptions change about it, but God’s story doesn’t change and it comes down to the simple verse.

It was verse 11, 1 John 5:11. “The testimony is this. God gave eternal life to us and this life is in His Son.” It’s meant to jar our memories or to be a parallel, almost a paraphrase of John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only son. That whosoever believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life.” It’s meant to help us connect the dots and say, “Oh, I’ve heard that before.” That’s a good thing to remember. It’s naming that God stands opposed to the world because the world is the way in which our capacity to hurt one another. We have a tremendous capacity to create pain and conflict with each other, and God’s love is in opposition to that.

Then the scripture that I read from John’s gospel, John 17:6-19, I heard that as well, it’s unique.

Let’s start there. It’s unique in that it’s the first time we get to hear Jesus pray about the disciples specifically. Usually when Jesus prays, he goes off by himself. It says Jesus went off into the mountain and prayed. We don’t hear much about it. We hear it in the Garden of Gethsemane. There we get to hear some words of Jesus. But this time, Jesus is praying to God about the disciples right in front of the disciples. So they’re hearing it. It’s meant to be a blessing. Jesus wants the disciples to understand that they are blessed.

Now I want to say, I want you to understand that you too are blessed.

You’re not just blessed so that you can pat yourself on the back and feel good about yourself, but that you are blessed to be a blessing. You have a story so that you can share it. and encourage others.

Jesus knows that the disciples are about to face one of their hardest times. When Jesus is arrested and taken away and crucified, they are going to feel like their world has fallen apart. He wants them to know that he has asked God to be with them, to protect them. It says it a couple of times, protect them. He wants them to know God is with them even when they don’t feel like it.

This is where this touches my story.

Some of you know, some of you are aware of parts of my story, but one of the parts of my story is that my father died when I was two years old. My father was a UCC minister. But I have absolutely no memory of him. So, through my life, I have tried to figure out who he is. Just because I thought it would be appropriate, I put a picture of him here for you to see.

This past week, I went to clergy convocation. Clergy convocation is when all four conferences in Pennsylvania, so all the clergy of Pennsylvania in the United Church of Christ, were invited to gather and it’s a time of learning, but our focus was on healing. Healing me. Healing you. Healing us.

At that convocation, A gentleman came up to me and said, I was a friend of your father’s. They went to F&M together. They went to the seminary together. He said, I need to talk to you. I was both excited and scared at the same time. Anxious in all those ways. I thought, “oh, there’s so many questions I have for you.” Because I really wanted to know who my dad was as a pastor. What was his thing? What was his specialty? Where were his passions?

But when we gathered, I decided that I needed to listen. I didn’t end up asking any questions. I just received his story. What he wanted to tell me was the last conversation he had where my dad told him that he was okay dying at 26. That was okay. That all he wanted was to spend as much time as he could with my mother and I. What that told me, which I think was underneath all of my questions, was that my dad loved me. That’s what I really needed to hear. More than anything else. The rest is frivolous in comparison. It wasn’t what I thought I wanted. But it was what I needed. His testimony affirmed me.

We can do that for one another. That’s who we are called to be. We’re called to be people who are willing to open up our lives and share the hard stuff.

Because everybody’s got that safe superficial stuff. But we’re supposed to look at the hard stuff. Because that’s who we are. When we can see each other’s stories, that’s when we break open our hearts, we learn to have more compassion for others. Then we can walk with another. Not because we’re better or because we have any special gift, except that we’ve gone through the grief. We know what that’s like.

We can encourage one another.

I will encourage you because I can tell you, God can handle all of your words. Because I spent years railing at God for the situation of my life.

I just had the opportunity the other night to listen to another person’s story who told me about how they were physically and emotionally abused as a child by a stepfather. I said, me too. Me too. I know what that’s like. They didn’t know that about me. It’s amazing the places where our lives connect.

But we are blessed to be a blessing to others. That’s who we are.

But when we keep our stories to ourselves, then we’re denying that. We’re holding back that encouragement that is meant for someone else. Because we are not alone. We have one another and the Spirit is here encouraging us to be here for each other. To be a shoulder to cry on, to be one who laughs with us, who celebrates with us, and will walk with us, even through the valley of the shadow of death. That’s who we are.

In John 17:13, it said “And now I am coming to you. I have told them many things while I was with them So that they would be filled with my joy.”

Have you looked for the joy in your life? What does that look like to you? Where do you see the joy of Christ?

Because let’s celebrate that. Our white Protestant pietism gets in our way and we can be the chosen instead of acting like we’re here for a celebration.

Let’s celebrate that love and grace. Let’s have a good time because that’s part of who we are. and who Christ calls us to be. Thanks be to God.

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Join us as we celebrate Pride Month at Church of the Apostles UCC!

On Sunday, June 30th, we’ll cap off the festivities with a free screening of “The Grove,” a poignant documentary showcasing one church’s journey in embracing love for all. Proudly fostering inclusivity, we invite you to join us for this special film event at noon, following our 10 AM worship service and 11 AM social hour. Light snacks and refreshments will be served before the movie. See you there for a day of community and celebration!

I want to go back to that first scripture (1 John 4:7-13) about love because a lot of times when we talk about love, I think we’re a little confused about what kind of love are we talking about?

It’s not just the feeling that we have. It’s not a romantic type of love. It is a caring type of love. But more importantly, it’s a verb. It’s an action. It’s love. Love is put into action. Loving someone else means you do something about it. Which is why I talked about the caring cart and what we have done in collecting these personal care items. You love somebody by doing something.

I think it is just that easy and that difficult because we don’t always know what loving someone looks like. What action is a loving action? But I’ve said in the past, and I’m going to repeat that. I want us to hold this question.

What is the most loving thing I can do?

If that is the question that we hold in our being every day. Then when we run into a situation or we encounter someone, we can bring that question to mind. What is the most loving thing I can do right now? We will get an answer. We will know what to do. If we listen to our hearts, God will tell us what the most loving thing to do is.

On Thursday, April 18th, the most loving thing I could do was go to this rally called Justice for Education at J. P. McCaskey.

Because the point of the rally was to help show our legislators that we care about this issue. Now I’m going to give you a little bit more information about the issue if you haven’t been following it in the news.

Our system for funding education in Pennsylvania has us ranked 45th out of 50. Even more importantly, last spring a commonwealth court ruled that it is unconstitutional according to the Pennsylvania Constitution. We have to change the way we fund education in Pennsylvania because not every child in Pennsylvania receives the education that they need. That’s has been proven.

So, now it is dependent on our legislators on how to change that. Last summer, there was a Basic Education Funding Commission that had a series of meetings across the state to understand ideas. It was half Republican, half Democrat. This is bipartisan. They went back to Pennsylvania and they have come out with a new plan.

What we are saying is you need to vote for this plan. The plan is in the 2024-25 budget and you need to vote for it. You need to codify it. You need to make it law so they don’t just do it this year, but they continue to do it because it’s a seven year plan. So doing the first year of a seven year plan and not doing any more isn’t really going to get us far. We got to keep doing the plan until we get to where we should be with that. That’s the education justice issue.

Now you might be thinking, social justice. Do you know what my schedule looks like?

I’ve got enough going on in my life right now. I want to affirm that we do have enough going on in our lives right now. I know that. I know that a lot of us are overwhelmed. That we are filled, we feel like we’re pulled in so many different directions by so many different priorities and we don’t know what to do with that.

In the midst of all of that, I want to say, it’s also matters that we pay attention to what’s happening in our world, to how other people are being treated. We need to do whatever we can. Maybe you can’t go to a rally, but you can be kind to the next person you meet, or act in a loving way.

I also want to name that we talked about the fact that social justice and compassionate justice is part of who God is calling us to be.

When we talk about “what does home look like?”, Home is a place that accepts you, that recognizes you and affirms your humanity. Because at the end of the day, that’s what it’s about.

It’s about looking at another person, regardless if they are like you or not. Regardless if they have the same political position as you or not. That’s really big right now. Recognize their humanity. We all still want to be respected. We all still want to belong and feel that we matter. We all want that.

So here comes our story today from Acts. Philip and the eunuch.

This is a social justice story. Did you know that? It’s a huge social justice story. Philip and the eunuch are both in places they don’t belong. Philip and the disciples have been chased out of Jerusalem because the Pharisees are out for them. They want to squash this Christian thing that’s going on and the Romans want to squash it because they thought if they killed the leader the movement would die and it didn’t. So now they got to go after the next level.

The Apostles have left Jerusalem and Philip is going around all different kinds of places. The spirit, which is what happened at the end of this story, the spirit just picks him up and puts him somewhere else. But for this story, he’s on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza.

Now I want everybody to just take a deep breath, because we know something about the road from Jerusalem to Gaza right now, do we not? I hope you do. I hope you’re paying enough attention to know what’s going on in Gaza and Israel. That’s the road they’re on.

Philip hears this eunuch reading. That means he is emasculated. The question can be asked, “Why is that the feature that is brought out in this scripture?” He’s an Ethiopian. It also tells us that he’s the treasurer. He mines the treasury of the queen. He’s in a chariot. That’s why I chose this picture, this image of it, because he’s in a different class than some others. He has privilege. He has a driver because he is in a chariot, and he may even have a bodyguard. Because he’s that important.

The part that they tell us in this story is that he’s a eunuch. He’s been emasculated. To the Hebrews, that means he is not a man. Because he cannot procreate, because his body has been altered, he is not welcome in the temple. So even though he’s been to Jerusalem, he would not have been welcome. He needed to stay out with all the other people, with their leprosy, their bleeding, and the other things that made them unworthy of walking in.

But he wants to learn. The piece that we need to pay attention to is what Philip does. Philip doesn’t care. Philip doesn’t ask about any of that. He doesn’t talk about the fact that he’s a eunuch. He doesn’t say, “Hey, since you couldn’t get into the temple, I’ll help you out.” He just says, Do you know what you’re reading? The guy says, Essentially, no, I need help, and invites him into the carriage, and Philip goes.

Then they find water, and even more than teaching him, oh my gosh, he baptized him. That means he is part of the body of Christ. He is welcome. Room has been made for him. Even though the religious authorities would have shun him, even though he was everything that they said no to, he was welcomed and baptized into the family and God blessed it.

It’s very interesting. Something else I learned when I was doing my research is there is a verse in Matthew 19:12. You want to read it because it never comes in the lectionary. We never read that verse. We read the verses before it and after it, but we never read that verse, and it’s all about eunuchs. Eunuchs that are born as eunuchs. Eunuchs that are emasculated by someone else’s choice and eunuchs who allow it so that they can be part of the kingdom. You need to think about that in all of our things that we do.

Because we are called, as a congregation, to make sure that everyone feels welcome. That’s what we say. Inclusive refuge, Anyone who is powerless or afraid, Anyone who needs refuge is welcome here.

This isn’t easy. We’re going to make mistakes. I picked this picture on purpose because you see what’s going on in this picture? All the white people are making a demand of the black woman and we’re very good at that. We’re very good at expecting them to fill our expectations without finding out what they need or who they are.

But we are called to compassionate justice. So, what I want to suggest is that I think right now with our congregation, we are at a point where it’s time to set up a justice team. This is what I would like the team to do. I would like the team to interview the congregation. Because I want to know. I want us to know. What keeps you up at night? What wakes you up at three o’clock in the morning? Which issue? Because there are a lot of social justice issues on the table right now. The education justice is just one issue, but there are so many. So I want to find out what is the number one issue in our congregation?

Then we’ll decide how best to work in that area. What difference can we make in our Lancaster community? Because I think we can make a difference in our Lancaster community. But we need to do our research first. I’ve learned from the organizers that you start with research meetings. So we need to do an internal research meeting first and find out what our priorities are. Then I have resources that I can connect us to in the community so that we can work. We’re going to work with people who are already doing the work. So that we can make an impact in this community. Because we want to. This is not just about coming in here to serve us. We want to make a difference with people. I heard that during our discernment process for the vision and mission. It matters why we’re here.

Reverend Roland Forbes, some of you may know Rev. Forbes from Ebenezer Baptist, he always says, “What would happen if your church disappeared? If your church disappeared, would the community notice?” And we want the community to say, don’t disappear. We need you. You are vital in this community. That’s our call to action. So, if you are interested in being on a social justice team, then come talk to me and we’ll put that team together because we make the way by walking.

We’ll make mistakes. We’ll fumble, we’ll stumble, but we can make a better community and we can share love with others.

The story of Philip and the eunuch, in several ways, an outsider, expresses the inclusive love of God for all. All are invited to come home to God because love is simply part of our nature. Love is from God. The invitation is as simple as it is every time we make it. When you endeavor to love your neighbor and live in peace with each other, there’s always room for you, no matter who you are or how you think you don’t fit in.

No matter whether you’ve been coming to church a long time or not a long time. Welcome home.

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This image of Jesus as the good Shepherd is one that I think we really love.

I think it’s one of those beloved things. So I did choose a shepherd image that is not maybe as comforting as some. I know in the church up the road at Salem, UCC of Roherstown, they have a Good Shepherd window that is the normal Good Shepherd image with Christ carrying a lamb across his shoulders. My grandparents always sat so that it was directly in front of them. So, that’s where I sat too. That image is comforting to me because we always think that we’re the one sheep that Jesus would leave the 99 to rescue. But maybe that’s not really who we are. Maybe we’re one of the 99 that get left out.

I think there’s a lot that comes into this idea of Jesus as shepherd.

If Jesus is our shepherd, then Jesus is the one who is to be guiding our lives. The one that we look to for answers. The one we listen to, more than our own desires.

That’s where the rub is, isn’t it? Because we want to be independent people. We want to do life our way. That’s the American way, but that’s not the Christian way. The Christian way says we follow Jesus. He’s our guide, He’s our model, and He’s the one directing where we go and what we do.

There’s a couple other points that he makes in this passage and I think we have a tendency to get caught in sort of this nostalgic feel good “We’re special because Jesus would do anything including lay down his life for us.” That’s true and it’s also true that we probably are more in the 99 and we need to think about that one that Jesus will go off to rescue.

Because that one is going to be one of the vulnerable in our society. One of the ones who is shunned or pushed to the edges, marginalized is a word we use a lot today. One who doesn’t have a voice in the public square. One who is discriminated against. So I just want you to stop and think. This is a question for you to contemplate.

Who is that today? Who, who are the vulnerable in our society today? Who are the ones without voice?

Because that’s who Jesus wants to take care of. That’s who Jesus wants us to take care of.

Then we have this other piece, John 10:16 says, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” There will be one flock, one shepherd. What I hear in that is this idea that they’re all welcome to the table. In fact, if there’s not room at the table, then we need to make the table bigger.

But we’ve spent millennia, Big Church has spent millennia deciding who’s really worthy and who’s not. Who’s welcome and who’s not. But that’s not what this says. This is Jesus inviting everybody, looking at us to say, how are you living that out?

I hear that in our Inclusive Refuge and in our Compassionate Justice. But it matters how we’re living. That’s something for us to think about.

Then we have Psalm 23. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.”

I don’t know about you, but this was the first piece of scripture that I memorized. I had the whole thing memorized because when I was a young teenager my mother taught me to be afraid of strangers, particularly the people in our town. Our town wasn’t a safe place to be. It wasn’t a big town. She had me walk to piano lessons for a mile and a half every week by myself. It was a different world. People don’t have kids walk a mile and a half by themselves anymore. Maybe in the city to get to school. But at that time she set up that situation so I would repeat the 23rd Psalm all the way to piano lessons and back because I felt like that kept me safe. It worked for me. Nobody bothered me. They might have thought I was crazy, “Hey, there’s that kid again mumbling to herself.” But they left me alone.

That scripture evokes a sense of comfort within us. But if you read it seriously, there’s hard stuff in that scripture. We love that we’re invited to lay down in green pastures and walk beside still waters. We love that. We love that our cups will runneth over.

But there’s also that whole piece about walking through the valley of the shadow of death and making a place for me at the table of my enemies.

I saw a post this week by our associate conference minister who suggested that this is a psalm that you could take and meditate on every day because every day there’s a piece of it that would work for you. And I would encourage you to do that.

It is about comfort. It is about reminding us that God is with us through everything, through the highs and the lows. Through the good and the bad, the gratitude and the fear.

But then I wonder, do we think about God being with us all the time? Do we think about that? Do we think about God seeing the choices that we make? Monday through Saturday? Or just when we walk in the Sanctuary?

Would you make different choices if you thought about the fact that God was watching you all the time?

I think God is watching us all the time and nudging us, like the shepherd, prodding us in the right direction. Sometimes we go, and sometimes we say, “Nah, not today. I don’t feel like it today. I’d rather binge watch Netflix today. Because that’s all I can manage.” That’s not the end of the world. We’re still forgiven. But it’s not all easy. Right?

A Place at the Table

That’s the theme for today. With this picture, I think any of us would take a place at that table. That looks like they’ve got a wonderful assortment of food. There’s plenty of food, plenty of good fellowship.

But what if it is a table with people that you would consider enemies? This isn’t about us just sitting down with our families on Thanksgiving. This is about us, the Catholics, and the Protestants of Ireland sitting down at a table together back in the 90s. This is about Israelis and Palestinians sitting down at a table now and not talking about all the pain, but just talking more deeply so that they hear the hurt in each other. Because everyone’s hurting.

We have to remember the humanity. That’s the beauty of the table, I think. Is that when we sit down at a meal together, then we start talking about more than the weather and the social pleasantries, and we can really hear what’s on one’s heart. If one feels safe enough to share.

We recognize that we all have essentially the same goals. We all want to be loved and we all want to feel like we belong. We all want to feel like we matter in this world. That it matters that we got up today. That we’re above ground, as I’ve heard people say. We all want that.

The Africans have a word called “Ubuntu”. Which means, “I am because you are.” and “You are because I am.” We are interconnected. And we forget that. We forget that we’re interconnected. We forget that we need one another.

So we need to make a bigger table if there’s not enough room. Because everyone deserves a place at the table with everything that they bring to that.

That can be a challenge because there’s some people I would not want to sit down at a table with. And I bet you have a list too. There’s definitely some people I would be like, “Really? Not that one. Anybody but that person, please.” But sometimes God calls us to those places where we have to sit down with that one.

Our United Church of Christ has called in this season for prayers of peace. There’s actually a place on the website where you can submit your own prayer of peace. I’m going to be sharing one written by the Reverend Dr. Nora Faust this week with the conference. She is our associate conference minister about being a peacemaker.

But there is so much war in our world right now. So much conflict. I feel like our country is headed to the brink of that ourselves. In the way we are divided so deeply. We need to find ways to talk to one another. To see one another and to figure out how we move forward together.

There was a news piece this week about speaker Johnson and the commentators thought it was terrible that as a Republican speaker, he was going to have to rely on Democrats to get a bill through. And I thought, Hallelujah! We have to recognize that it can’t be all just my people. Well, all my people are going to vote for it and we’re going to make you do it. Regardless of what you think. We have to come together and find how to compromise. It’s the only way we go forward. We’ve got to get rid of the sharp lines we have. In our country, in our community, they’re here too.

So, I encourage you, if you’re inclined to write, I encourage you to write. If you’re able to get on the internet, put your prayer in there. There’s not a lot of prayers yet, but it’ll get published. It’ll end up on the UCC website. You can tell us about it. We’ll all go on it and see it and celebrate with you. Doesn’t have to be your best work ever, but it matters that we be involved in bringing about peace. I think that’s who Jesus calls us to be. May it be so.

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This is one of those days that I think everybody really likes. It’s Palm Sunday.

This is the celebration. This is a high point of the church year. Jesus is coming in. He is in charge of this scene. He tells them exactly what to do. He’s not the large and in charge Jesus that we hear in John’s gospel, but he still is orchestrating the events.

He knows, tells them exactly what to do. It appears from the scholar’s point of view, looking back at this, that he’s completing the prophesy from Zechariah 9:9-10.

Jesus is coming in riding a donkey from the east side of Jerusalem from Bethany and Bethesh. At the same time, Pilate and a whole. legion of Roman soldiers are coming into Jerusalem from the west. Because they also know it’s Passover. And there is a history that during Passover there have been riots. So Pilate is bringing extra soldiers in to keep the Roman peace. They don’t want any trouble. They don’t want any uprisings.

So here, you’ve got this humble man coming from the east and you’ve got Pilate and the war horses coming from the west.

If you’ve read Zechariah 9, you’ll understand how that is all part of that scripture. We are called to sit up and take notice. We are called to pay attention to what’s happening in this scene.

Look at the difference, and notice it. Look at where the love and the compassion is.

So, Jesus comes in during the day, and at night, he goes back to Bethany. He goes back to the house of Simon the leper. This story of his anointing, Takes place in all four Gospels. It is worth noting when they happen and how they happen. And who. Because, in some situations it becomes a character. The woman is named as Mary. Most times the woman is not named.

So what I find interesting when I have a passage like this that occurs in four different gospels, number one, sit up and take notice. It must be an important story or it wouldn’t be in all four gospels.

Then I look at what’s different about Mark. What’s different in this story? Matthew and Mark’s versions are the closest. Now, remember, and I actually put them in that order, because Luke’s is so different, and even John’s is different. But Mark’s would have come first. Mark’s gospel was written first. Matthew definitely used Mark when he was writing his gospel. So those are the closest.

Both of those accounts, the woman, it’s an unnamed woman, and she anoints his head. Now, you have to stop and think about what does that mean? What does it mean to be anointed on the head? Well, anointing is an ancient Jewish practice. It was done to the kings. This is also important. It was done to David and to Solomon. They were anointed as the kings of Israel.

So, it’s meant to make us think, is Jesus a king?

It is also done when something is marked for holy purpose or that the holy is there. Think about Jacob anointing a pillar of stones because he encountered God.

So, there’s something holy and divine about Jesus. This is recognizing that also. She breaks open this jar, Mark is the only one in which she breaks the jar.

It is Nard, and Mark has Jesus tell us it’s because she’s anointing me for burial, which also is foreshadowing that he knows he’s going to die, according to Mark. He knows he’s going to die, and I even think you could go as far as to say she’s anointing him because she knows they’re not going to be able to anoint his body after his death.

But I kept sitting with this, but why did she break the bottle?

It only happens in Mark. I went looking for other scholars to say something about that, and I didn’t find them. Not that they’re not out there, but I didn’t find them. So I had to sit with it myself. Why was it important?

Because that’s the thing about Mark. Mark uses the least number of words he has to. It’s the shortest gospel. Things are explained briefly. So for him to use that word, and it’s the same word that they use in the story about the Gerasean, sometimes they call him the demoniac in different versions. The crazy man who’s out and he breaks his chains. There is this breaking. It’s definitely breaking. She specifically breaks the bottle.

But what I came up with were two things. If you break the bottle, that means you’re using all of it. You’re going to use the whole bottle at once. Which means Jesus is going to be overwhelmed by that oil and that smell. Both for himself, he’s going to smell that for the next few days. Because remember, they didn’t take showers every day like we do. So that smell is going to be with him, reminding him, reminding others as they encounter him. I think it is also part of this foreshadowing that not only was the bottle broken, but he will be broken. His body and his heart will be broken by the events of this week.

We need to sit up and take notice. We need to notice this.

We need to notice where we are in the story. We know this isn’t the end of the story, that we’re coming back next week for an ending that we could not see at this point. But this is the point in the service where we shift from palm to passion. I do hope that some of you come on Thursday and come on Friday to experience the rest of the story before we get to Easter. That I’m giving you a little bit of this passion because we do need to sit up and take notice.

In that scripture, the one that I read, Mark lines out three groups of people. The first group identified are the scribes and the Pharisees who want to get rid of Jesus and Judas Iscariot joins them. There’s the group of people that includes the woman with the ointment who loved Jesus and whose love is extravagant. Right? This was a very expensive ointment. This is an extravagant love of someone. Then there’s a third group that just doesn’t understand. Which is probably where the rest of the disciples are. That’s a running theme in Mark’s gospel. That the disciples don’t get it. And maybe that’s where we are too.

But without saying it, Mark is asking us to think about which group are we in? Do we want to get rid of Jesus too? Will we be the ones part of the crowd yelling for Barabbas on Friday night? Are we part of the group that loves Jesus enough that we will be able to stand and watch and allow our hearts to be broken? Or are we just part of the group that doesn’t understand?

Now, I’m going to say it’s time folks to sit up and take notice what is happening in our community.

This has been a hard week and there are other churches that are celebrating that God’s will was done yesterday. But this week was not about love and was not about compassion. I heard more hate, violent speech, and threats this week than I have in a very long time.

We are called to be about love. I have to find within myself a way to be merciful, because we are to be about compassion, not violence.

Sit up and take notice.

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If you came today for a feel good sermon, you picked the wrong day.

If you came hoping that there would be a lot of images, because I usually use a lot of images, there’s only one. This is a very different sermon. It almost looks like it’s very black and white. Because there’s a lot of words, white words on black backgrounds. I don’t mean it to be quite that black and white, because I believe in a lot of grey in this world.

I want to start by defining some terms.

One of the things that we need to know is definitions on what is sin or trespasses.

In the Ephesians text, the word trespasses is used. So sin and trespasses are essentially the same thing, both of which are in opposition to God’s benevolent purposes for the world.

It’s something that opposes God. Not trespasses as in our contemporary, meaning you stepped on my property and I didn’t want you to. Trespasses as in something that is going in against what God wants, or in opposition to God, or even away from God.

Salvation, or being saved, means being reconciled with God again.

That’s the whole journey of the Bible, is that we started with God, somehow we broke off from God, we stopped following God, we tend to follow with our free will, we tend to go our own ways, and we forget about God, and we need to be reconciled with God. That is being saved or that is what salvation is.

Grace is God’s favor that is given to us.

Mercy is also used and mercy means compassion or the word also can mean pity. So God can have compassion on us or grant us favor when we don’t deserve it.

We’ve done nothing to deserve it. Those are important points that you just need to remember when you look at these scriptures.

I’m going to focus on John 3:16-17. Then, a couple verses out of the Ephesians text.

This is probably, at least by John 3:16, the most recognized scripture of all. I don’t know that everybody knows what it says, but we paint it on our barns and we make signs and take them to ball games.

John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

But there’s a piece of that that I think we forget or we gloss over. That is that word “Whoever” or the old language was “Whosoever”. Some of the more contemporary ones use everyone, but that everyone believes in him.

I lift that because that’s not what we’ve practiced. That’s what it says, but then we said, “You don’t look like us, you don’t talk like us and you don’t act like us. So, sorry, that doesn’t apply to you.” How dare we? Who do we think we are?

That’s not me saying that to just you. That is the church, Big C. We’ve been doing this for years. Saying who’s in and who’s out. Who’s really saved and who’s not. Because they don’t follow or believe the way we do or think the way we do or look like us.

Whoever believes in him means we don’t get to choose.

I found a beautiful quote by Mary McLeod Bethune. She was a black woman who grew up in the Jim Crow South. She has been described by Alan Dwight Callahan as an educator, activist, and presidential advisor. She was born in 1875 and died in 1955. Here’s her whole quote:

“….Did you hear that word, ‘whosoever’? That whosoever means you. Not just white people. Not just rich people. You! This is where your human dignity comes from- from God, our creator and savior.” – Mary McLeod Bethune

There are no qualifications. Whosoever. That means inclusiveness that we have been talking about. That everyone is invited in. Everyone is invited to the table. Everyone.

Now, I want to look at John 3:17 because I think we often forget this one too. We stop at 3:16 and we forget to read the rest of it. “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

It’s not about judgment and condemnation.

In fact, we are the ones who by our choices create consequences. God’s not condemning us. We’ve lived with that for a long time.

The church, Big C. has made a lot of money, gained a lot of power and influence over making people feel guilty, feel ashamed, and by scaring them. That’s not what John 3:17 says. What this says is that God loves us first and foremost, and that because of God’s love, we’re not condemned, but saved.

But that didn’t suit us. So we’ve manipulated this. That’s where we’ve been wrong.

Christ is our experience of God. Emmanuel, God with us.

We have had an experience of God in Jesus Christ, and we have been reconciled. That’s the story of the cross.

Our sinfulness, it exists, but it does not define who we are. We are broken and whole at the same time. We hold that. We do not understand it. That is the mystery. We don’t know how we can be broken and whole at the same time. But those are the words. That’s what’s there.

We are created not to be perfect, but to be whole and to have an abundant life. Created to be saved, to be reconciled, in spite of ourselves.

That’s where the Ephesians text comes in.

“But God who is rich in mercy…” Let’s say rich in compassion “…he loved us, that even when we were dead through our trespasses, sins, and transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved.” – Ephesians 2:4-6

I want you to read this and I want you to think about it. When we read these passages, what do we learn? Did you catch anything that was the same out of both John 3:16-17 and Ephesians 2:4-6?

Here are some of the things that I saw. I see that both of those passages lead with God’s love. God’s love is where it starts and ends. That’s the most important thing. We are saved by love. The love that we have, that we did nothing to earn, except that we are God’s creatures. We are part of God’s creation. And we are loved just as we are. We don’t have to prove our worthiness. We all fall short, but God loves us anyway. It’s not about having to be worthy. We are good just as we are, with our brokenness, with our frailties, our sins, our trespasses. We are loved.

Everyone is loved, regardless. Christ came to help us understand that we’ve had this reconciliation.

That was Christ’s message. If you look at the stories over and over, Jesus goes out and meets people where they are, and reminds them that they are loved and forgiven. Their faith is what drives it. Their sins are forgiven. “Your faith has made you well.” – Luke 18:42

Someone asked me, after a sermon the other week, if I believe that everybody’s saved. And I do. Because of these verses. It’s right there. I do believe that everyone’s saved, except that we still have a choice from the very beginning. We have a choice to say, “No thanks, God. I’m doing it on my own.”

Right now the church is frustrated and struggling because so many people are out on their own or asking God, “Where were you? I needed you. You told me I was out. You told me you didn’t have love for me. You’ve already lied to me once, I don’t know if I can trust you again. Even if the world’s falling apart.”

That’s where we are today. That the world is falling apart.

People are looking for where they can find answers. Where are they loved and safe? And the question is, is that us?

Our vision and mission says yes! Our vision and mission that we discerned says that God expects us to love everyone, to welcome everyone, and to help everyone know that they are okay.

That doesn’t mean that everything works out beautifully.

For those who say, “No thanks, don’t need you, God”, there are consequences when we do that. Just as I think that there’s consequences when we look at, look at God and say “You told us that we’re supposed to love everybody, but we’re not.”

When we choose to do that, I think there are consequences.

We have had three people who identified as trans commit suicide in the last three to six months. I think some of that was in the fall of 2023, so I don’t think it was just in 2024. We just had another suicide, Ash Clatterbuck.

In my work in the community, I’ve had several people talk to me about it. Different people in different places that just brought up the subject. What are we doing? Who are we as a community?

Ash was loved and supported fully by their family, was loved and supported fully by the church, and yet they couldn’t handle the pressure of the community.

What does that say about us as a community? That’s bigger, right? That’s Lancaster. Lancaster City and County. What does that say about who we are?

We need to look at who we are, because it matters. It matters a lot.

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Today we have this verse, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Me.”

We have to sit with, What is the cross that we are called to bear? What does that mean? What does that look like? It does call for sacrifice. That denying of oneself. It does call for us to put the needs of others ahead of our own needs and wants.

It also sounds like it could be asking us to become martyrs. But rather than thinking about martyrs,
or of being a martyr, that’s not to be our goal. So that we would get the glory, of whatever glory there comes with martyrdom.

But it’s meant to be about pointing towards God. This is really important right now, in this time and in place that we live, because there are people who are trying to perceive themselves or saying that they are martyrs. Martyrs are not looking for revenge. Martyrs are people who are seeking righteousness and justice.

We say that we are about justice.

That’s important. That’s a very important distinction today. Because there’s a lot going on in our world. And It’s hard. Taking up our cross means that it’s going to be hard. It’s going to be painful.
And yet, we are called to do that.

We are trying to create God’s kingdom here on earth, which is not like ours. It is not about power, or money, or prestige. It is about love and it is about mercy.

So when we take up our cross, we need to be taking it up or bringing in more love and justice into the world. I struggled with this one mightily, because there’s plenty of people who feed on martyrs, they feed on people who are willing to give up everything that they have to please another person and that is not what this is saying.

The only reason to give up everything is for God.

It is not to please one’s spouse, one’s partner, or one’s friend. It is only to bring more love and light into the world. If what one is doing is not bringing more love and light than it is not of God.

I say that because I do think we have an example of one who bore their cross this week in our news, and that is Alexei Navalny. No he was not killed for his faith. But it is his faith that made him challenge Putin in the way that he did. It was his faith that brought him back to Russia after he had been poisoned and stand trial for allegations of going against the government in 2021. He had a long closing statement in that trial, but what stood out for me the most was that he said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.”

He said, he didn’t come back for glory. He didn’t come back for any publicity. He came back because he wanted the people of Russia to be free from Putin’s oppressive forces. It wasn’t about him, it was about something larger. And because of his faith, he was free. His faith made it easy, he said, to make the decision. That’s a powerful faith.

When you can trust that you are in God’s hands. All you are doing is following God.

I find it interesting that they combined Abraham’s story with this text of picking up your cross. This is a picture I took in Turkey, of the landscape and up at the top of the hill, it’s covered with sheep. There’s a whole line of sheep up there. Which is what I was looking for an image of for Abraham. I thought, Abraham in the wilderness, you know, Abraham walking through these, this the area of Mesopotamia and into Palestine and trying to find the place.

In our scripture today, Abram got a new name. He’s now Abraham. The point of Abraham story is that he is called and chosen. Because he listened and answered the call. That is Abraham’s only redeeming value. His only redeeming quality is that he answered the call of God to follow what God wanted. So he picked up his whole family and he took them all and said, Nope, this isn’t where we’re meant to be. God says, I’m to follow God, and I don’t know where we’re going. But we’re going on a trip. Going without a map. The only thing I know is God will tell me when we’re there.

The beauty of Abraham’s story, is that God stays faithful to him. Abram makes terrible decisions. That’s is really the beauty of Abraham, we find out that no matter how bad Abraham behaves, including denying his wife and letting the king have her,
to save his own neck. God doesn’t leave him. God stays with him. So the overall message seems to be follow God, and you will live.

Kind of the same message that Jesus has for us this morning.

In this hard text that we have to read, it’s about following Jesus, so that we live. What Jesus is asking is for is this giving up of oneself for the greater good.

Now there’s an interesting dynamic that we need you to know about from history. During the Roman Empire, there was a phrase “Pax Romana”, meaning the peace of Rome or Rome’s peace. In order to have Rome’s peace, the people were told that they needed to sacrifice. They needed to sacrifice, they needed to pay the exorbitant taxes, they needed to do the forced labor for Rome, and if they needed to die for Rome, then praise be. Let them starve to death or die for Rome.
But that was it, then you died for Rome.

I put these two pictures up, because these are from Turkey, these are from Istanbul when I was there. The one on the left is the last palace of the Ottoman Empire, which is as much of a palace that we have left of any kind of empire. Roman palaces aren’t they’re ruins now. So we don’t have an idea of what they look like. But this was the one built in the mid 19th century, and is still in good shape. That’s on the left.

On the right, is a picture of the houses that the people live in. I can’t I can’t take you back 2000 years, but this is in 2006. I’m sure that the houses on the right, probably have some better building materials than they did mid 19th century, although some of those may have still been there in the mid 19th century too. But it was the people on the left, telling the people that lived in the homes on the right, that they needed to sacrifice for the people on the left.
And I want you to think about that power dynamic.

When the wealthy tell you that you need to sacrifice everything you have so that they live, and you live like the people on the right.

This is where we talk about social justice.

In Jesus’s message, Jesus says “If we will deny ourselves and take up our cross for God”, and here’s the difference, “You will live.”

Jesus promises life, not death. Not death and just being a servant to the wealthy and to the empire. But Jesus promises life
because Jesus will be raised again. And eventually we are also promised that we get to rise with Jesus. That’s end game.

I don’t talk about salvation a lot. I’m not one who preaches that you’ve got to be saved because I believe we all are.
I believe we all are saved already. Not because of anything we have done. But because of the love and the mercy of God. Because like Abraham, we are going to make terrible choices.

But Christ is hoping that sometimes we’ll make the right choice to be the love and the light that the world needs.

It might be as simple as the love or the light that a friend needs to see. When they’re in a dark place. When they’re feeling like everything is going wrong. Maybe that’s what we can do. Maybe that’s the something good we can be up to.

As a congregation. We have named that compassionate justice is important for us. So this week I want you to sit and think about what is it that you are being called to do to bring more justice into the world?

What is Christ tugging at your heart with?

We can’t solve it all. But we can make small progress one step at a time.

There’s lots of issues right now. There’s lots of places where our society is breaking down. We need voices of justice.
That we make sure that all people have access to health care and education and that it works for everybody. That we are creating a world that we want our children to grow up in. That we’re making sure there is going to be a world for our children to grow up into.

So what what is the area that you are being called to? That is your question to sit with. What difference are you being called to make in this world? Who needs your help? Whatever sacrifice you can make, to put more love and justice into the world is what Christ is looking for you to do.

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