Our theme today is “Cultivating a Life of Curiosity.“

As much as I thought about that, I could not get myself past the show, Ted Lasso on Apple TV. I will play a clip so you have a better idea of what I’m talking about. To set up the clip, Ted was a soccer coach in America who was hired to coach an English football team. In this scene there are two of the main characters, Rupert, who used to own the team, and his ex-wife. Rupert has just acquired significant ownership of the team and he has just announced that his new wife will be joining him and his ex-wife in the owner’s box every game. He bought enough stock in the team that he could set the line up if he wanted to, because he doesn’t like the way Ted’s coaching the team. They ended up making this wager that if Rupert wins, he gets to set the lineup for the rest of the season. But if Ted wins, Rupert doesn’t go near the owner’s box and he lets his ex-wife alone.

Are we curious? Do we ask the questions?

The point that Ted was making is that too quickly we become judgmental just as Rupert was, but unless we ask the questions, we will never truly understand one another. It is far easier to judge, to make snide remarks, and to write people off than it is to get to know them and try to understand them,

That’s not how Jesus lived. Jesus went to people and he asked questions. He asks Zacchaeus, why are you in the tree? He asked the Samaritan woman at the well, why are you at the well at this time of the day? He asked the questions of people because he wanted to get to know those people. He wanted to hear their story because when we hear each other’s stories we understand each other so much more and can have more grace for one another. That’s where our empathy comes from, our compassion.

We have these Proverbs, these wisdom teachings of Jesus in Matthew 7:7-14. Remember I said context matters. This is what Jesus was saying to those who believed in him, who followed him, and for them this was his expectation. They were to do unto others as they would want to be treated. We have to remember that.

Jesus is Jewish, he’s talking to a Jewish audience, and it’s about how they are different from the rest of the community. That’s a huge part of Judaism. What makes them distinct? That may be harder for us to know in this context. If you don’t know a lot of people who are Jewish, we might be able to answer the question of how Amish people make themselves different in our community. That might be an easier question for us to answer because they do the same thing. They have ways about them that make them distinct.

Christ was calling us to be distinct. In our world, we should live differently. We shouldn’t blend with society. Here are some things that we are to do.

Ask, Seek, and Knock. We have to be looking for God, asking for God’s help. But this scripture gets taken advantage of. I think it’s because of the descriptions that he gave because it sounds like we should just ask for material things. I don’t believe that God is some type of ultimate Santa Claus. That if we ask for a beautiful house, somebody’s just gonna call us up and give us a beautiful house. I don’t think it works that way.

This is where people sometimes lose their faith when there’s a diagnosis and they ask for healing, but they don’t get a cure. I wanna say that we don’t know what healing looks like and sometimes maybe being whole is joining eternity. That’s a hard one and I know that.

But I do think if we ask for the gifts of God, think back to our last season with “The Economy of Jesus.” The gifts of God, are love, grace, compassion, empathy, self-control, and patience. Those gifts, if we ask for them, God will help us find them. If we look for a way forward, if we ask God, to help us to figure out where we are to go or what we are to do, the path will become clear to us. It may not be where we wanna go or it may not be what we wanna do because God doesn’t work like that.

I think that leads us down to the narrow gate. So the easy road is the wide gate. Do you remember where it said? it leads to destruction. It’s the narrow gate and the hard road that leads to life. That’s not what we wanna hear. We wanna hear that we can just ask God for a nice, easy life and it will all be roses and sunshine, and everything’s going to work the way we want it to. We’re always gonna be happy and we’re never gonna experience sorrow or pain, but that isn’t it. That’s not the story of Jesus. Jesus was the one who was willing to die on the cross for us because of his love. That is not an easy road.

But in order to do all of this, I think that there is a level of humility that Jesus is also calling us to.

It didn’t say that in the scriptures. It did not say, you must be humble. But, I think that there’s a humility and a vulnerability that is also needed. We don’t like either of those words. Our society says when people are vulnerable, then they’re weak, or they’re losers.

I disagree and I think that Jesus modeled for us letting go, and being vulnerable to meet people where they are. I think that we are called to meet each other, to get to know each other, and to ask questions.

We have to be willing to acknowledge that we don’t know everything. We don’t know everything that we think we know. We have to own that. We don’t know everything and we don’t have everything that we need. Not really. You may have the physical comforts that you need, but if you look within yourself, do you have all of the love, grace, compassion, patience, and peace that you need? My guess is if we’re honest, none of us do.

That’s where we can be more curious. We can be curious within ourselves, what is that within me that drives me to act like that? What is it within me that makes me think that I’m not loved? Maybe that’s an old story you need to reexamine.

Meister Eckhart’s quote invites us to approach life as a child because they haven’t lost their curiosity yet, and we can work on building our curiosity muscle. We can work on being more curious and asking more questions.

That’s actually how we’re going to bring ourselves together because none of us holds the real truth. But the truth is in the midst of our stories. With humility and a sense of curiosity, we can seek to understand and have more empathy.

This past week on Thursday night, we had the Clatterbucks here for Mocktails & Meaning.

The Clatterbucks lost their transgender son to suicide almost a year ago. They named the pain and sorrow that they still carry around. He was surrounded by people who loved and affirmed him for being who he was. But the rhetoric in our county, state, and country was so hard. It told him that he was not welcome. It wanted to erase him, and so he did.

How we treat others matters.

What we are called to do is to love. What are the two commandments? Love God with all of our being and love our neighbor as ourselves. There’s a third because that means you have to love yourself.

The next thing to do in every moment is the most loving. What is the most loving thing I can do in this moment? That’s what God wants us to do. And I told you I was going to end every sermon with these words because I think we need to be thinking about this right now. We need to be thinking about what we are telling the children by our actions and our words. What are we teaching them that they are learning for when they are adults? The wisdom of Stephen Sondheim.

“Careful the things you say, children will listen. Careful the things you do, children will see and learn. Children may not obey, but children will listen. Children will look to you for which way to turn, to learn. Be careful before you say, listen to me, children will listen.”

May it be so. Amen.

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 As we start to talk about meaning, meaning answers the why.

As I was thinking about this and the fact that it’s Lent, I’m wondering if any of you gave something up for Lent. You don’t have to raise your hands, this can be internal. I’m not going to put anybody on the spot, but if you did, my question is why? Why did you choose to give something up for Lent? Because I think the why is important.

Is the why, because it’s something that you always do? Does it give you something to talk about with friends? Do you wanna prove to yourself that you have some self-control so that when it comes to Easter you can pat yourself on the back? Why? Or is it because that’s what the church used to tell you to do? I remember those days.

As I told the children, we assign meaning to things, to people, and even to experiences. If I asked what was your first car, you probably remember it, because that was a significant point in your life. I know some of you are just getting there. You’ll remember it.

Our parents are important in our lives and their words and how we experience them affect us deeply. Because they’re an important person to us.

Seeing a spectacular sight. That’s what’s different for each of us.

The Northern Lights is on my bucket list. I went to Maryland for a trip and Pennsylvania saw the Northern Lights. I have lived in this county all my life and I go to Maryland once and you all see the Northern Lights. That’s an experience that once you’ve done it, you remember that.

It might be a smile or a hug from a child that we deem priceless.

Now, I’m wondering how many of you looked at the picture to the left and what meaning you assigned to that picture. That is the oldest slave shack to still exist in the United States. It is in the Virginia Chipokes Plantation State Park. Now that you know that, that might change what you were thinking about that picture.

As we begin to get into these parables today, there’s a few things that I want to name before we go there.

The first thing that we need to remember with all scripture is, that it doesn’t matter what scripture you open to and read, all scripture was written for a specific time and a specific audience. In fact, the reality is those writers had no idea we would still be reading their works 2,500 years later. If you think about the Hebrew Bible, and placing so much value on everything they said. They didn’t know at the time that they would become part of the number one bestseller of all time. That’s good to remember that it wasn’t written specifically with us in mind.

It’s also good to remember that, for that time, they understood what a kingdom was. There are all of these parables that refer to the kingdom of heaven. They were reminded of their history when the kingdom of God was under King David, and that was a wonderful time for the Jewish people. That was a time under David and Solomon. Life was good. But they also know that there are bad kingdoms, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and now the Romans.

The Romans, we call it an empire, but it’s the same idea. That there is one leader and he’s deciding exactly how life is going to be. The good, bad, and the indifferent. Being part of God’s kingdom or the kingdom of heaven was a good thing. Good things came out of that because God’s not the same as the kings or the emperors. God is a different kind of king. But, that kingdom language today is associated in our country with Christian nationalism, which has a very definite political position that I do not support.

So, I’m not going to use the language of the kingdom of heaven when I talk about the scripture. I’m just naming that for you the meaning behind that.

It’s also good to know that the Greek word that is used for the kingdom is Basilea. Basilea means the spiritual reign. The future physical manifestation of God’s rule, and it encompasses the authority, sovereignty, and royal power of God, as well as the community of believers who acknowledge his lordship. I’m going to refer to it as the beloved community. I’m just explaining my language and why I’m doing it that way.

I know this is a lot of unpacking before we get there, but I’m going to leave a lot of unpacking of the parables to you. The other part is we have to remember that in a parable, there is always a surprise factor. Parables were their stories meant to tell the truth about God and about the way God would want life to be oriented. But they’re also meant to shock us and make us go, well, that’s ridiculous.

Last week I had said to you that it’s good to ask questions of the scripture.

If there’s a scripture that doesn’t sound right, sit with it and pray about it. Look it up, look at other places, look for other words. You can do a Google search on a particular word and it’ll tell you other passages that that word is used in and you can go a little deeper because it’s in the questions that we get to the meaning. After all, this is about meaning today.

What we want to know is what truth does this name about the beloved community of God? The actual scripture says the kingdom of heaven. So it begins with the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. So what is this trying to tell us? Or we could say, what is the surprise that something that small can have a huge impact? We know that seeds are small, and some seeds will grow into a tree eventually such as an acorn will grow an oak tree. But the tiniest of seeds don’t usually grow us the largest of plants, shrubs, or trees. But it does remind us of the potential.

The potential for every small thing. Whether it’s a small thing you do. Whether you feel like you are a small person, what can you do in this situation? You might be able to do quite a lot just by doing small things that can have a larger impact. The yeast. I considered bringing in my sourdough starter and sitting here working with bread in front of you today. But, you know, what’s the point of the yeast? Why would you hide, and we always hide, yeast in the flour? Because it helps it to rise. It helps it to become more than just flour. Put too much yeast in it and I’ve blown the top off my sourdough starter. That’s a thing, a little bit can transform it.

The hidden treasure. This is a great one. Do you remember what I said about that? That’s where the man goes and he finds a treasure. Then he re-buries it, sells everything he has, and buys the plot. Buys that that piece of land. Do you have any questions about that? Don’t you wonder why he reburied it? If you found it, why would you put it back in the ground? Why not keep it? Go sell it. Display it. Do something with it. Give it to somebody. But he didn’t. He put it back in the ground. Why did he buy the rest of the land? My thinking is he thought that there was more. What does it teach us?

There is this sense that once you find a little bit, you want more of it and you’ll do whatever you can to get more of the beloved community.

How about the merchant who finds the pearl and sells everything he has for one pearl? Does that bother you? Would you do that? Would you sell everything that you have? Maybe not for a pearl, but what would you do to know that you are part of the beloved community of God? Because that’s what the pearl is. That’s what the pearl represents. What would you do for that assurance that you are part of the kingdom?

Then we have the net that they cast and a fish of every kind is brought in. The beloved community of God is inclusive. Later, we’ll figure out who’s the righteous and who’s the evil. But first, God wants everyone to be invited. Everyone comes into the beloved community of God and we’ll figure it out later.

Then, there’s the scribe that says that there is old wisdom and that there is new wisdom.

I look at that and hear there’s the law and the prophets and there is Jesus. Jesus says, I did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill it. There’s the old wisdom and the new wisdom and they exist together. There is the way we’ve always done it and the new things that we can do. They can exist together and we can determine what is the best wisdom for this time.

It is with Jesus. So the law still stands, but Jesus brought in all these Gentiles with the Jewish community, those who the Jewish community had thought were outcasts. Jesus says, no, they’re not, they’re part of the community. Everybody, it’s that inclusive net. Everybody’s coming in.

Because at the end of the day, love wins.

I think that’s the biggest piece that I want you to focus on. The parables can be confusing, but no matter what happens, our focus needs to be on doing the most loving thing. I do believe that love wins. By doing what we can, we make meaning of it. Meaning is not something you can buy at the store. It’s what you do. It’s how it affects you.

The other thing this tells us is that we’re not responsible for the outcomes. God takes care of that. God takes care of it and God will judge.

So at this moment, what are we learning? What are we learning right now in our lives? I’m not going to answer that question. That’s a question for us to sit with. What are we learning? What is the meaning that we want to make of this time in our lives? This time we are living through together. What do we want this to be? What meaning do we want to give to this?

I know there’s a lot of people that are scared. There’s a lot of chaos, and it can feel like every day is a new day in many ways depending on what else is going on in our lives. We are called to let love win, we need to be reminded that we are resurrection people and that before you get to rise, there has to be a death. We’re anxious as we see systems breaking. But a just system, which we don’t have, we don’t have just systems. A just system cannot come in until the systems that are in place are broken. I know that’s not good news. But remember, we go through the pain.

We go through the dark night, and in the end, love wins. There is resurrection, there is new life, there is justice, love, hope, and peace. We don’t know when that’s going to happen, or how it’s going to happen. But I’m going to read this to you every week. Because everything is meaningful. This time that we’re living through, not only do we need to think about what it is for us, but we need to be thinking about what we are telling and teaching our children in this moment.

Because they’ll need to remember this. So this is, these are the first couple of verses to the finale of Steven Sondheim’s musical, “Into the Woods”. “Careful the things you say, children will listen. Careful the things you do, children will see and learn. Children may not obey, but children will listen. Children will look to you for which way to turn, to learn what to be, careful before you say “listen to me”, children will listen.“

May it be so. Amen.

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What brought you to church today?

And I don’t mean your car or your spouse. You had a lot of other choices this morning and maybe going out for breakfast sounded better. But you came here instead. I want you to think about why you came. Why did you make this choice? I’m asking you because that’s where I get into a bit of it in the scripture.

This scripture, Luke 4:21-30, is the rest of the story from last week. If you were here last week, you know Jesus has come back to his hometown of Nazareth, he’s gone into the temple, and they handed him a scroll.

He read from Isaiah. He essentially announced his ministry is going to be about bringing good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and freedom for the oppressed. This has been fulfilled in your hearing. Last week I argued that that’s what they were supposed to be doing anyway.

Not everybody in that picture is happy. Jesus is the one reading the scrolls, but the other people are not necessarily happy about what he’s saying. But they are amazed that he had the gall, that might be the church’s word for it, to say that he’s going to fulfill all of this.

But he didn’t stop there. They’re excited and they know this guy, Jesus grew up here. This is Joseph’s son. So, they have some expectations of him that play into this. But then what happens is he tells them this story.

He gives them an example of two healings that took place. The widow of Zarephath and Naaman. Now, for those of you who don’t recognize those stories, let me give you the backstory.

The Widow of Zarephath was someone that Elijah came across, she and her son were starving, there had been no water, they were at the last of their oil and flour, and she was about to make the last loaf of bread so they could eat. When Elijah shows up and says, Make that big enough so I can have some. And he says, don’t worry about the rest. She does it. She trusts. And indeed, they never run out of food until it rains again.

Naaman is a Syrian commander who had conquered Israel as part of the spoil, he took an Israeli girl as a prisoner to work in his house. He had sores on his body and she says, if you go and talk to the Jewish prophet, he will tell you how to get rid of that. He listens to the girl and he does what the prophet tells him.

So it sounds like two good stories, right? Here’s where I sat with my wonderment and I invite you into my wonderment. Why did they go from, “wow, this guy’s something”, to the rage where they wanted to drive him off the cliff? After he tells those stories, they drive him out to the cliff. Just think about that. I sat with that question. I thought, well, he had to of pushed their buttons. So, what buttons did he push?

I think we can tell in what he said, he talked about healing to others, to people who weren’t part of the Jewish faith. That’s part of it, but I don’t know that that would put them into a rage. He had to have said something that hurt them personally, and you can get a mob to rage easier than an individual because they get that mob energy. But where I landed on this is wondering if he didn’t.

The way they understood what he said if it didn’t tell them the healing they were seeking, the reason they showed up at the synagogue. He didn’t come for them. He came to take care of others. This is where my mama bear could get mad enough to drive someone off a cliff. If I was there seeking healing for my daughter and you told me that my daughter doesn’t count, that would drive me. Then I will find rage.

That’s why I called this sermon “Not What We Want to Hear”, because we think we’re doing it right.

We think we’re doing all this stuff the way we’re supposed to, and I have empathy for those who were in the synagogue. I mean, there were certainly some Jewish leaders there or religious leaders there, but there were also probably others who were coming and looking for something from God of which it could have been healing. I’m going to come with my wounds, my baggage, my hurts, and my cares. I want God to do something with my stuff. But, Jesus just said, my stuff isn’t it. He’s going to take care of other people. Wow.

Can you feel that? I don’t say that because I think Jesus doesn’t care about us. Because I think Jesus does. I think God cares about all of that. I think Jesus was trying to get their attention because they were only focused on their needs and what they wanted.

Jesus is saying, you need to look around. You need to see the hurt and the pain in other people.

Right now, the price of eggs is in the news. I went to Stouffer’s and I don’t usually buy my eggs at Stouffer’s, but I checked the price of eggs.

Well, that made my jaw drop. Then, I went to buy them at the central market. I saved money by going to the market. Because Levi looked at me and said, “I don’t care what the market does. The price of grain didn’t go up. The price of chickens didn’t go up. My price of eggs doesn’t go up.”

How many people do we recognize or see among us who are trying to decide if they’re going to pay their rent or get their medication? How many people at the grocery store do we see who are not even going to the egg aisle? They’re buying mac and cheese because you can live on that. Been there, done that. You can live on cans of beans. It’s not the most nutritious diet, but you can afford it if you don’t have much to spend.

How do we see those people? Do we acknowledge those people? Because there’s something that I’ve learned in ministry. It’s that when we stop worrying about ourselves and start thinking about how we’re doing things for others, we can be healed in the process. Our stuff gets healed. We find healing that we may not even know we need in the process of caring for others.

This is a communion picture. It’s about that invitation to say, I see your pain and there are choices. There are options. There’s hope. There’s hope in our faith. There’s hope because every person that comes to this table gets a piece of bread and a cup of juice. You don’t have to pay. We don’t have indulgences anymore. We got rid of them. You don’t have to prove your worthiness to come forward. You just come forward and you will receive the bread and the cup that we believe brings about forgiveness and wholeness and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

That’s what we can offer and we can choose to be people who listen to each other.

Sometimes that makes a world of difference. If someone just gets heard, if we are willing to listen to somebody else’s pain, that’s the point of the Compassion Team, they’re there to listen to our pain, anything you want to share, anything that you need to talk to somebody else about, they’re there to listen.

Hopefully, we can ask some good questions because I’ve also learned that it’s not about telling people how to get better. We all have to find the answers within us. So it’s about asking good questions. We can do that. We can be people of empathy and compassion for others. We can be people who want to make a difference in the environment. We can be people who want to make a difference with people who feel victimized right now, LGBTQ+, people of color, and immigrants. We can be a source of safety, and of peace. Of maybe even love and acceptance that they haven’t found anywhere else.

So the question is, who will we be?

How will we respond to Jesus’ call to say, it’s not about our healing, it’s about the healing of others? We’ll receive healing in the process. I do believe that. But it’s not about doing it for us. It’s about doing it because other people need us. Other people need to know the love and compassion we have found, the forgiveness we have found, and the grace. It is about mercy.

So, is that who we’re willing to be? Are we willing to reach out to our siblings and undo the knots of fear? Are we willing to liberate the vulnerable from the prisons of poverty? Are we willing to offer comfort to those who are fearful? Are we willing to step out of the box that we have created as Church of the Apostles because that’s the way we’ve always done it? Are we willing to let those sides down and explore other ways of being?

That’s your decision. That’s for you to seek in your heart.

May it be so. Amen.

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I would like us to think about what God’s love looks like.

How does that feel if you had to describe God’s love? What would you say about it? I’m going to invite you into a little bit of theology with me because I think you know more than you realize.

Think of a Bible story that you know. Whatever comes to mind. How was love present in that story? Now, I need the extroverts to talk.

The way the widow gave all that she had, she did not hold back. So that’s what love looks like. Love looks like giving what you have and being generous with what you have. That’s God’s love.

The good Samaritan. I love the fact that we have this whole window on the good Samaritan. If you didn’t recognize that before, that is the good Samaritan window where the person helps. God’s love is reaching out to those who are in need and helping. Jesus says, “Go and do likewise.” – Luke 10:37

Matthew 25:40, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” It’s about reaching out and doing something. It’s not just this ethereal peace.

When is God showing us a love that calls us to be more than what we are or who we are at this moment? I think there’s this balance between the God who loves us and says that we are loved and worthy just as we are in this moment and the God who wants us to know that we have the potential to be more than that, to be better than what we are, to be more loving.

It is in the scripture from 1 John 4:8, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

What do we do with that? What does that look like? What is striking to me is that this scripture is meant to be an encouragement, but it’s also meant to tell us that everyone who loves then knows God, whether they put it in that kind of language or not.

It’s a very inclusive love. It’s not God loves these people because those are the people we love. And these people over here they’re not that loving so God must not love them either. What I hear in the scripture is God loves period and we’re the ones who want God to hate our enemies. But I don’t think that’s what this says.

This says God loves. God is love.

We’re the ones who play these childish games and want people to be out of God’s love. This is hard. It’s simple and hard. It’s simplistic, we are to love everyone. Some people are not very lovable and that’s hard work, but that is God’s expectation on us.

I mentioned in the Come Sunday that I’ve been sitting with who we are to become with our new vision and mission.

We’ve been living into that now for a year. So what are we becoming? Well, I think we’re becoming the beloved community. We’re to be about building a beloved community. So, that means we need to be love. Does that make sense? In order to be beloved, we need to be love. So how do we be love? How do we love others?

Well, one of the things that came to me as I sat with that was to show up and listen. That’s how you love. You love by showing up and listening rather than telling others what they need to do. But if we listen to them, if we help them, if we ask them questions, they probably know what they need.

It’s about listening, really listening. I think there are so many people in this world who are hurting because they feel like no one’s listening. I mean, they’re saying the pandemic of this year is loneliness. We can be all together and yet we’re lonely because we don’t let anybody else know those dark things that circle in our brains, those places that we don’t like to share.

Last week, Craig Gross was here with you. I know Craig well and Craig calls it his drawer. He said he has this drawer of dark things that he only opens so much. Then he closes it again because nobody else needs to see the dark things that are in the drawer.

Here in Lancaster County, we like to put a lot under the rug and we hide things there. We were taught to hide things. You don’t talk about your dirty laundry. You keep things private. You put on this stiff upper lip, right? Hold your chin high. Even if your world’s falling apart, unless we find a safe space to let ourselves fall apart, we’re all just a hot mess and we have to be able to create that safe space, which is part of our vision, creating a safe space for those who are vulnerable or afraid.

The reality is we’re already sitting here. Some people aren’t here who need a safe space now more than ever. So we need to be clear about who we are.

When we get to the annual meeting today, I put together an overview of what has happened over the past year and where we’re going.

As I was doing that, I was struck by the fact that my brain wanted to say the outreach commission did this and the property commission did that and the education commission did this and the parish life commission did that.

I stopped myself and I realized that’s the way we have defined it a lot of the time. Instead of saying, we did this and we did that. Do you hear the difference? I heard the difference. I felt the difference when we go from this group and that group to being one group. What have we done and what will we do next?

That’s what this morning is about. It’s about going out and being love.

But I’ll tell you, as I said before, this is hard work. There are two things that you need to do to do this. You need to love. To go places that feed you or do things that feed you and that fill your cup. Go places that inspire you and bring out life in you where you feel invigorated rather than drained wherever that is.

Last Sunday I went to Longwood Garden. It’s gorgeous. The new conservatory is beautiful. Take time, put yourself in places where you see beautiful things, wherever that is.

We all have different things that do that for us. So think about what it is for you and make sure you’re including that in your life and remind yourself that to be love involves our faith and faith is risky. It’s scary sometimes. Faith is about believing in something that we can’t prove. Hope. We have to hold hope. Hope is about thinking something is going to happen that hasn’t happened yet. And love is about holding people in our hearts, even the people that are hard to hold.

This is from Facebook. It was posted by a book company, which turns out was Celtic Spirituality Book Company. I felt very good sharing it.

May it be so. Amen.

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If I would ask you, who are those in our culture you would name as blessed?

Think about that. Who does our culture say is blessed? I think about people who have extravagant materialist things such as houses or cars. People who have a good stock portfolio. People with large incomes. People who have achieved their dreams. Those are the people that our culture lifts up as blessed.

But who do we as the church name as blessed? Well, the word Makarios in Greek means blessed or to receive God’s favor. So, who is it that God prefers in the world? Well, God prefers the poor, the widow, the orphan, the stranger in our midst. Those are the people God tells us over and over and over to care for. That’s who God prefers. God is looking for us to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned, and welcome the stranger.

So, let’s remind ourselves again about who Matthew’s audience is.

Because remember, we’re not in Mark, we’re in Matthew. Matthew is writing to this specific group of people who are Jewish and believe in Jesus. Scholars believe that they lived in Antioch of Syria in about 90 AD, which means they know that the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.

They are still under Roman occupation and will be for another almost 400 years. There’s not much sign of that changing. They are living in a time where they are doing too bad. It’s believed that they’re not the destitute, but they know the destitute. They see it. They know of the people who are in need. And they, in trying to find God, are also trying to figure out how they still live obeying the Jewish laws and following what they know of Jesus.

Matthew Chapter 5 is written to help them know more about Jesus and what Jesus calls for. They try to stay in their synagogues and they get forced out. They don’t have a place to be. They are literally forming the first churches. They’re trying to come together and form churches and they still carry that Hebrew Bible belief in blessings and curses. That idea from Deuteronomy choose life or death. God wants us to choose life, but if we choose badly there are curses that come with. Like last week with the sheep and the goats, you either choose well, or you don’t choose well.

This was still the time that Jesus lived in, and it’s the time that Matthew’s audience lives in, even though it is 60 years later. They are under an authoritative regime that is taxing them so that the wealthy can maintain power and have their extravagances and others are losing everything. Because, once you don’t have the ability to pay your taxes, then they start taking your land, your cattle, your animals, and your property. If you speak out against the empire then you’re arrested, and the penalty for speaking against the empire is crucifixion. Don’t miss that, because that’s important in Jesus’ story. That’s why Jesus is crucified, because he was a threat to the empire.

Yet, Jesus starts his first teaching in Matthew with this long sermon, and it goes on into chapter seven.

I don’t know how many of you watch the series on Amazon Prime called “The Chosen’, but “The Chosen” has a great scene about this. Their interpretation is that they have the character of Jesus say, “I’m giving them a map to know where to find me.” Matthew 5:1-11 is a map. Think about that.

Jesus is saying he is going to be with the poor, with the grieving, with the humble, with those who seek justice, with those who show mercy, with those who are listening for God, with those who make peace, and those who are harassed for being themselves, that’s where Jesus is.

Then, that last line, Matthew 5:11, if you follow me, if you look for righteousness, if you hunger for righteousness, then you also will suffer. But your reward will be great in heaven.

My friends, I think that we need to be honest about where we are in this time and place.

We are living in a time when there is authoritarianism that is trying to rule our lives. They are trying to gain power from the very bottom in Hempfield School District, who doesn’t have a contract for teachers. All the way up. They want to take away freedom.

We are exhausted and afraid. We just need to admit that. Life right now is hard. Admitting your problem is the first step in healing so we need to name that we are exhausted and afraid. The antidote for being exhausted and afraid is awe and wonder, so we have to shift our focus from the stuff we hear on tv to god. Remember that, Jesus First.

We need to shift our focus and realize that we too are loved no matter what you are dealing with in your life, you are loved and you are worthy. You are accepted and you are welcome here. This is a safe space for you. We claim that in our vision that we want to be that safe space for people to be themselves. We want to offer comfort and strength, not because we have answers, but because we are on a journey ourselves for our own answers. We will walk eachother home.

Now, I want to invite you into a few moments of peace. I have the most awesome pictures from the James Webb telescope.

I’m going to begin with the words of God to Job. “Then God said to Job, ‘Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you know. Who set its measurements? Surely you know. Who stretched a measuring tape on it? On what were its footings sunk? Who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang in unison and all the divine beings shouted? Can you bind the chains of the Pallades or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth the Maserath in their season or guide the bear with its children? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth? Can you lift up your voice to the clouds so that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings? So that they may go and say to you, here we are. Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind? Who can tilt the water skins of the heavens when the dust runs into a mass and the clouds cling together?'” – Job 38:4-7

“Then Job answered the Lord, ‘I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand. Things too wonderful for me, That I did not know here and I will speak. I will question you and you declare to me I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye see you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” – Job 42:1-6

From Psalm 104 “Bless the Lord. Oh, my soul. Oh, Lord. My God. You are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty, wrapped in light as with a garment. You stretch out the heavens like a tent. You set the beams of your chambers on the waters. You make the clouds your chariot. You ride on the wings of the wind. You make the winds your messengers. Fire and flame your ministers.”

I invite you this week to take some time in nature.

Take a few moments and watch the leaves fall. Appreciate the colors. Put yourself in a place that feeds your spirit.

I’m attracted to running water. So, Brubaker Run makes a beautiful sound. Or if you can walk down the path at Doorworth Park, walk down to the Little Conestoga. Just listen to it or appreciate all that you see, all that our natural world, all the ways that our God is showing us that we’re going into a cycle of death.

That is true, but joy will come in the morning and there will be a resurrection in the spring.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

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When I approach scripture, I usually look for what is it that catches my eye, or what draws my attention.

That phrase, catching people, was the phrase that stood out for me. I want you to think about, if I ask you to catch a person, think about what your body would do.

Would you be like the rugby player on the left, where you come in like this and take them down? Or are you going to catch them with open arms like the right? Because to me, that is drastically different.

This is my struggle with evangelism because when we talk about evangelism, when I think about evangelism, my experience of evangelicals is it’s the rugby takedown. They’re coming for me and they’re going to grab me and take me down. They remind me that I need to say that prayer or I’m not.

There was a trust exercise that I learned many years ago, I have no idea how many, so we won’t count. But where you stood in front someone with your arms crossed and you were to fall into their arms. It was with open arms that you were caught, not taken down. Can you feel the difference?

This is the grace of love, right?

To me it is. I think that is who we are called to be. We’re called to be people who catch people with open arms. We catch people who are falling, who are struggling, who need a soft lane. We can come in and help them, help them to find, not even just a lane, we can find life, new life, the life giving water that is available through Jesus Christ.

This story is actually the calling of the disciples, even though it comes out of the fifth chapter of Luke.

You think, wow, by this time we ought to be somewhere further along in the story. But, you have got to remember that Luke is the one that gives us the large birth narrative. So the first two chapters are all about his birth. Then the third chapter is getting started in the baptism and the wilderness. The fourth chapter, he starts his ministry.

Luke is different in that respect. In Luke, he is already teaching and healing people before he calls the disciples. So he’s already active in the community. In fact, he’s already been to Simon’s house. He goes to Simon’s house because Simon’s mother-in-law is ill. You might remember that story because it’s also in Mark. But here, he doesn’t know Simon. He goes because the mother-in-law is ill and he heals her. And I guess he gets to know Simon a little bit.

Then he meets him again at the lakeshore. where Simon’s coming in. This Simon is Simon Peter, or who we know better as just Peter. This is the good news for us. We should love Peter because Peter makes all of the mistakes that we would make. He does it for us. And Jesus never once shames him or blames him. He accepts Peter for who Peter is and loves him just the same. Continues to have him right by his side, teaching him.

So here in this moment, they go out deep. Jesus does this wonderful teaching. Out in the boat, Jesus looks at Peter and says, go out into the deep water and put down your nets. This is where, if this was contemporary, at least in my head, I heard Peter saying, they’ve done that, don’t need to do it again. Right now I’m headed in for a good meal, a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow’s another day. Tomorrow will be good. Tomorrow we’ll catch. Are you kidding me? But that’s not it for Jesus. Yes, that’s not actually written in the book. The author is quite kinder to Peter. I hear more of Peter’s staff than the writer did, but they go out again. Peter says, all right, if you say so, but they go to deep water. That means they go to someplace they haven’t gone before. They go and try fishing in a different spot, not their local hole, favorite fishing hole, which brought them nothing. They’re going to go to deeper water. They’re going to go where Jesus wants them to go rather than where they’re comfortable going.

This is a metaphor, people. I want you to be thinking about the fact that that means that we will be called to go where we may not be comfortable.

Instead of going to all the comfortable places, the places that we like to go, because that’s where the fish, the people are. That’s why I chose this picture, that you got to be fishing somewhere deep to find a fish that big. Right? Look how he’s holding the fish.

Yes, I think about all these things when I take pictures, right? He’s holding it with open arms. He’s not just holding it up. That fish has some weight to it, right? Like this will be a strong man pose, but he’s not trying. He’s not even trying a strong man pose. He’s supporting that fish. I don’t know if that fish is gonna become dinner or not. I don’t know what kind of fish it is. That’s my ignorance. Maybe it’s a fish that you would rather put back into the water. But it’s that support.

That’s where I think Paul’s message (1 Corinthians 15:1-11) comes in too. That it’s not about being perfect. In fact, Paul’s story is that he was the worst. Paul is clear, “I was the worst sinner.” Paul specifically attacked the people who believed in Jesus. He was a Pharisee who went after the people who believed in Jesus and harassed them. Even almost to the point of death. He was a horrible person to the Christians, and Christ came even to him and invited him in to know the love and grace, the forgiveness that was available to even him.

I think that we are called to be those who are out catching people, catching people in that supported way.

But I’m afraid that we get caught up thinking about ourselves and what do we need? What’s wrong with our lives when there are others who are struggling? And need us to turn our attention out to them and maybe to look in places we haven’t looked before. Because friends, there are those among us in our community who are unsure of their housing, who are unsure of where their next meal is going to come from, who are unsure if they’re going to pay the rent or the doctor.

Those people need our support. They need the hope that we have based on our faith. They need to know that someone actually cares about them.

There’s also those with the hidden issues that we don’t see. Maybe their sitting down like this person, we might have a clue that there’s issues. They may have experienced a great loss. They may be struggling with how to move forward in life. They may feel like life is just crumbling around them. They don’t have that support system, and that is who I think we are called to be as we catch people and help them have a safe landing.

So I want you this week to pray about this. I want you to pray about who it is that God wants you to help.

Because when we call on God, when we put ourselves out there for Christ, the spirit will show up and you may be surprised by who it is that needs help. Maybe they won’t be in that deep of a water or that far out of their comfort zone because you may find out that someone’s hiding issues because we’re very good at that.

All of our German ancestry helps us to say, that’s my dirty laundry and I’ll keep it to myself. We come in here strong and proud, and sometimes the world’s falling apart. We need somebody to help us, to hear us, to affirm us. To encourage us to remind us that God still loves us.

I was in a hospital room this week and I said, remember, God is here with you. The person shook their head and said, “I don’t know.” I said, well, I’m here to tell you that I think God is here. Maybe you don’t feel that right now, and maybe this illness is in the way, but God still loves you. It doesn’t mean, poof, you’re cured. Doesn’t work that way. It means you will not be alone through whatever you are going through. You will not be alone.

We are called to come together, to be building the community of Christ, to be helping others know that they are not alone because right now life is hard.

I was in a conversation this morning where thinking about the pressures of the world and how they try to run our lives and we have to stand up for ourselves and determine what’s the priority.

Those are the decisions that we make each day, and God wants to be one of those priorities. Right up there with family.

We come together to remind ourselves of that. So that we can go out into the world and invite others to know that love and support that we have found here because Christ comes to bring new life to all by catching all those fish. They brought new life to the fishermen, to the community. It meant People were going to eat. Bills were going to be paid.

We trust and rely on each other. That is how we live. Sometimes our world and our country has us thinking about other priorities, but the reality is we will live and thrive when we are community and we help others in our community.

We need to think about what is the impact that we’re going to make. May it be so.

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In the past two weeks we have had the opportunity to see some of the strongest, fastest and athletes who are at their best as we watch the Olympics. As the culture of our world is sort of on edge. I mean, it’s the culture of the U. S. But I think it’s all over the world. Everyone is anxious. There were some disagreements. There were some heated moments and some judging calls that they didn’t like. But overall, the Olympics reminded us of how community can work, where people who are from different countries can encourage each other, congratulate each other, work together for a common good, for the best in their sport.

There was kindness, there was civility, there was even honor. For me, one of the best moments was when the Brazilian won gold in the gymnastics. Simone Biles and Jordan Childs bowed to her because she fought hard and they fought hard to beat her in the other competitions. But in floor exercise, she won gold. They acknowledged her greatness.

That’s who we’re to be. We’re to be people who see the gifts in others.

Yes, we do our best, but we also want to lift up others because it is together that we rise. Not when we’re separated.

Today, we have this story from Joshua. My guess is that you probably don’t know a lot about Joshua.

We don’t talk about Joshua very often. For our Jewish brothers and sisters, he’s a major prophet. This whole book of Joshua is part of the larger history of how Israel came to be. It was not written as it was happening, it was written centuries or maybe even thousands of years later as the story of the people. It’s a reminder, just like the Exodus story, about how God continues to be present with people. How God keeps promises to God’s people.

So in this one, we have Joshua taking over for Moses. Moses did all of those wonderful things, but Moses doesn’t get to take the people to the promised land. That’s Joshua’s role. So, Joshua comes along, and the first thing Joshua gets to do is here in chapter three, they’re going to cross the River Jordan without getting their feet wet, just like they crossed the Red Sea.

I talked about that last week, that probably when I talk about the Exodus story of Moses you see Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments with the water going up and him standing there with his arms raised and the people crossing the river. Well, it sort of happens again. We don’t talk about the fact that it happens again when they enter the promised land. It’s not the sea. The water’s probably not as big, but they still send the Ark of the Covenant with the priests into the water. The water recedes, and the people walk across, safely, into the promised land.

That’s a great story. Then it gets messy. Because in the scripture that I read, it said, Joshua tells the people, God will drive out.

There are people that are in this promised land. They’ve been in this promised land. They’re living there. The promised land is Palestine, and we can’t ignore that today. So, what God had said was that God is going to move the people, and the first place that they go is Jericho, and you might know the story of Jericho, or maybe you know the song Joshua fought the battle of Jericho. That might ring a bell.

In that story, they’re able to overwhelm Jericho without any violence. All they do is walk around the castle, the fort. But then, I’m going to say, the human side takes over. The rest of the book is quite a bloody mess. Literally, it is about how they killed the people and burned them out, burned out the villages. All for the sake of the Israelites having the promised land.

It leaves us to struggle. Is this the God that we believe in? Do we believe in a God who would kill a group of people so that his people could have the land?

I don’t think that’s who God is. That doesn’t align with the rest of what I know about God in the Bible. What I see in God is one who is present with us. Who encourages us to work out our differences and to build the beloved community.

That’s what I see. That’s what I hear God doing. That’s what I see in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus doesn’t come in and he doesn’t kill the Pharisees. He doesn’t attack Rome. He builds community. He heals differences. And even the epistles. Paul doesn’t attack anyone. He tries to build groups of people who can work together and live together. Work through their differences. There’s several epistles written on that.

How do we work through the differences we have? Because we will have differences. But differences don’t need to end in violence.

What God said at the end of Joshua 1:1-9, I think is the heart to me of who God is. God says to us, “Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” – Joshua 1:9.

But as humans, we get scared. When we’re scared we tend to operate under our wisdom, rather than God’s wisdom.

When I think of the people that Joshua would have been leading, they were people who were probably born in the wilderness, raised in the wilderness, with stories of what Egypt was like, and Egypt was a place of cruelty and violence. You either did what the taskmaster said, or you were beaten, maybe even killed.

So, that was the the framework that they had to work from. Going into this promised land, they weren’t people who had been trained to farm the land. or to raise cattle or sheep or goats. They didn’t have that kind of mentality anymore. Because when they were in the wilderness, they were constantly moving.

All they knew is that is the man from heaven, which ends up stopping once during the promised land. Then they have to figure it out.

They could have worked with the people who were there.

Just as Israel could have chosen to look at the Palestinians when the State of Israel was formed and said, “How can we work with these people?” Rather than the choices they made. Even with the West Bank, when the lines were drawn, the West Bank was formed for the Palestinians. Instead of saying, “that’s theirs”, the Israeli government said, “but it’s supposed to be ours.” I haven’t heard that in the news, but they have the ability to say, and this story says, “this is ours. This land belongs to us. Despite what deeds you may have, despite how long your family may have lived there, thousands of years ago, God gave us this earth, this land.”

Instead of trying to work out a compromise, Israel came in with the bulldozers, eliminated the houses. The people had to flea with nothing and we wonder why there’s tension. We wouldn’t be where we are now if other decisions had been made, if other choices had been made, but they weren’t. So here we are.

How do we move forward being strong and creative? Not being frightened or dismayed.

The thing about fear is that when we’re in fear mode, all of the other possibilities go away. We go back to what we knew worked at some point along the way. The psychologist would say, go back to your reptilian brain. You’re not using your higher functions. You’re not using your best thinking. You go back and you become instinctual and it’s about surviving. It’s not about building the beloved community anymore. So how can we stop ourselves from going back in that fear?

The point is we have to trust God. We have to trust that God is in the midst of this, that God is in the midst of the Israel, Palestine, Palestinian, Hamas, Hezbollah situation.

I don’t know about you, but it’s not happening in my country. And I want to cry out to God about that. Let’s go, God. Enough people have died. Enough people have suffered. Make this right. But it’s not my call. It’s God’s. And I have to trust God enough to let go of what I want.

I struggled with this sermon, probably because it was something I didn’t want to hear.

That’s an interesting piece about it. Sermons. The ones you struggle with are the ones that you need the most. And when I think about what I experienced in the last couple days, over and over, the message was, let go and trust.

Whether it was Elsa, trying to control everything in Frozen with my grandson or Dr. Strange trying to come under a circle. You have to let go and trust that God is there. That God will bring us through this. That a way will become known. Even if we don’t know what it is now. We move forward and we work towards whatever builds community.

Because that’s where the love and the peace and the joy of God are. It’s not in the fear. It’s not in the violence, the cruelty, the hate. It’s in the love. We have to lead from our hearts. Because that’s where the love is. May it be so. Amen.

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I first want to revisit a moment that we had last week when Jonathan was ordained. Because this is a moment that we really need to celebrate.

I want you to feel how important you were in this journey of his to this moment. It’s quite an honor when one of our own reaches that point where they are ordained. It was a great celebration for us.

I took this picture right after Lucy had put the stole on him. That is one of those once in a lifetime moments. You only get your first stole put on you once. That’s why it was so important. I coached Lucy so she knew what she was doing. She was really nervous about it, but it was so important for that to happen for them.

I want to lift up Jonathan, because Jonathan was like the farmer, who, while he was with us, was planting seeds. He planted seeds of love and joy with this entire congregation. With each person he met. As he had events that he was running, he empowered people. He planted seeds with people to take ownership of it and to grow it and to carry it out. He supported them in doing that and he lifted them up. He equipped them for the ministry. He was a seed planter among us. Even if that’s not how you saw him, I just want to name that that is what he was.

Last year, I preached on the parable of the sower, and I used this image, and Jonathan was really struck by this image.

I bring it up again, because we are transitioning to not having Jonathan around anymore. That is bittersweet. We are so happy for him and wish him the best in Connecticut. But I want to name that we also miss him.

But in this picture, the farmer is just frivolously planting seed, just throwing it out with abandonment. That’s not the way most of us who farm or raise gardens plant seed. We don’t just walk and throw seed. Because we want it to produce a crop.

This has been a very frustrating year for me as a farmer. Because we planted three rows of corn and three ears came up. In my first planting three rows, I got three stalks. So we planted again. Now, I’ve got about a row and a half.

A lot of it has to do with rain. We look for just the right soil. We get in there, and we pull all those weeds out and we churn up that soil. I admit, we have a rototiller, so before I plant, I make David go through it at least once so that that ground is really ready. We want to have that good soil.

But that’s not what God does. God just doesn’t do that. Plants everywhere. To see what happens. What I want us to talk about is, what does that tell us about who God is?

A lot of us know the Parable of the Sower. We know where it’s heading. I bet you could tell me where it’s heading. But what if we focus on what it tells us about God? Right?

The normal way to explain this, which, if you keep reading in Mark, Jesus goes on to tell us how we’re supposed to understand it. That we’re supposed to look at the different types of soil as our lives. It sort of leaves us with this, so clean up your life.

You clean up your life so that you’re ready for the seeds that God’s scattering.

If God is scattering this seed everywhere, I just want you to stop and think, does God really care that your life is already cleaned up and the perfect soil before God scatters seeds with you? When I think about that question, my answer comes down to, God accepts all the conditions of our lives.

Whether we’ve got it all together and we are the best soil waiting for God’s seeds or whether our lives are a mess. Some of us, our lives are a mess. Some days are better than others. Right? I think God accepts us and loves us and throws seed our way, whether we’re together or not.

So for those of us who’ve been felt like you were told by the church that you’ve got to get your life together so that you’re acceptable to God, I want to tell you, you’re worthy for God just as you are.

If your life is such that there are circumstances that are beyond your control, whether it has to do with health or situations that have happened that put you in a place that you wish you weren’t. God understands all of that. God loves us in whatever condition our lives are.

But if you’re doing really well, and you think that you’re running your life, well then, maybe we do need to look at our lives. Maybe we do need to look and see if we are allowing others to run our lives. To come in and choke out the good ideas and the good works and the Word of God that God is trying to plant in our lives.

Maybe we need to be more vigilant at paying attention to our lives.

Who are we listening to? Are we listening to people that are feeding us lies? That are just trying to divide us and make us angry? Or are we listening to words that move us to offer God our praise, to work towards love, hope, joy and peace?

Is there evil that is talking to us, that is trying to get our attention? If you prefer evil, evil personified then is Satan, I’m not fond of that, but is Satan trying to lure you away from God, from your relationship with Jesus?

A lot is happening right now about Christianity being conflated with our patriotism. So, I wonder if you believe that only real Americans are Christians, Do you look at the world and see the beauty of the diversities God has created? Or are you afraid that as white Americans, Christians, we’re losing something? Because they’re two very different postures.

If we’re afraid, there are people that will take advantage of the fact that we are afraid and they will make us more afraid. It’s what they will do so that they can run our lives. Or we can make sure that we are open to God’s love, joy, and peace and that we are peacekeepers. That we are the ones who are sharing love, who are helping groups come together, helping people come together.

Are we building communities, or are we dividing communities? Are we inviting people in, or are we pushing people out? Those are the things that we need to think about in our lives. Are we making our world smaller, or are we trying to expand? Because, I believe that we worship an expanding God. This God of Abundance.

This was a picture of my garden and some sweet peas that were not weeded. You know, God didn’t care that I didn’t weed that patch. Right? God would have seeded it anyway. Sometimes we’re even the seed. As I talked about Jonathan spreading seeds, sometimes, we’re the seed to take the word. Sometimes we need to be the farmer that’s sharing the word of God with others. Those that we share it with don’t have to be perfect. We can love everyone just as they are.

So the question is, what seedlings will we nurture?

Our mission and vision statement that we voted on last fall was that we believe that God is calling us to be inclusive and generous, to be a safe space for those who feel powerless and afraid. So, are we trying to nurture the little seedlings among us, those who are struggling with what to believe and how to follow Jesus? Or, are we judging people to make sure that they are the right soil? Whatever that might mean.

I think in those phrases, we are naming that we are not afraid. It’s the most repeated phrase in the Bible, do not be afraid. Our mission and vision statement implies that we are not afraid. That we want to live out our calling by God to love others. That we welcome those who are looking to learn about Jesus without requiring them to change.

Jesus reached out and invited people to know another way of living. That is what we are to do, to invite others to know the love we have found. To invite another to find the support we have found. To invite another to experience Christ’s grace and peace, and invite another to find community here.

It’s time to put our faith into action. By living in God’s abundance, rather than being trapped in a mindset of scarcity, we have many gifts to share. Let us be about it. Amen.

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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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