For any of you who may be interested, I am posting links to sermons...
Community Before Individual Liberty
Monday, May 16, 2016
Sunday, May 8, 2016
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Expectations
We have talked before about how we are sometimes unable to see what
actually is because we are expecting something else. Many of the most brilliant
scholars of Jesus’ day simply could not get their heads around His reality.
They knew how Messiah should come. They knew what Messiah would do. When Jesus
came looking enough like Messiah to make them wonder, the ways that He was
different than their expectations sealed their decision - He couldn’t possibly
be the long awaited one.
Their de facto blindness also prohibited them
from entering in to what they had in Him. While everyone else was rejoicing in
the healing of sick people, or the raising of the dead, the experts were
seething and plotting. They couldn’t even join the celebration of wholeness!
How tragic is that?! But it begs the question of me. How much of Jesus do I
miss because He is not what I expect Him to be?
Advent is a deliberate slowing down in order to
take notice - to see what is really there. And to live in the appreciation of
what is rather than in the disappointment of what isn’t. How many real
treasures do I pass over because they aren’t the shiny plastic things I am
looking for? Advent invites me to look at what is actually in my hand - to
examine it to determine worth before discarding. Advent assumes there are
things on the way worth investing myself in. And, of course, if I don’t invest
myself in these things on the way, how will I recognize the true value of what comes
when I get where I think I am going?
Arrival requires recognition. How ever will I
recognize when I have arrived if I haven’t paid attention to the markers along
the way? Arrival will become like so much of the rest of my life in which I
look back and wonder what that was all about. I will never arrive anywhere
because I am constantly on the rush to the next thing. Advent pushes me to
notice - to tarry - to stop a while - to take still pictures - to engage in the
moment. Only by doing so will I recognize arrival and be there for it.
Time is one of those things that simply flows
along. We choose whether it will be empty or full. Jesus was born in the
fullness of time. I want to recognize those kinds of moments. I don’t want to
miss Him, expecting something else. I
want to treasure every step of the journey to arrival.
And so, setting aside expectations,
we wait with undemanding expectancy.
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Advent 1 :: Thanks As Entrance (Luke 1:5-25)
a once in a lifetime moment
to stand before the Lord
bringing the sacrifice
He had carried into
that
holy place his own
longings – unspoken to any
but Elizabeth – who shared
them at a deeper level than
even he.
His service was
interrupted
by great good news
His prayers were answered!
His longing fulfilled!
His dream come true!
Perhaps long
longing made
it impossible to receive
without the incredulous
questioning of an
imperious angel – who
brought something a little
extra. Silence. A long silence.
He could not speak
his joy
because he had not spoken
his gratitude.
Joy muted is still
joy
but it is not the same
Joy is meant to be
shared
sung – laughed – wept
His was kept silent.
He was unable to
enter fully
into his joy
His joy
kept out by
silence when
thanksgiving
provided entrance.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Prayer in a Time of Terror
The nature of “terror
fatigue” being what it is, we might be forgiven for not including some green or
black on our Facebook profiles to express solidarity with the other nations
attacked on Friday the 13th. Regardless, while distractions abound,
we do want to think about how to respond meaningfully – prayerfully – to the
realities forcing their attention on us from every corner of the world.
It is important to remember
that, although there are obvious flesh and blood perpetrators, our enemies are
not primarily flesh and blood; rather, they are the principalities and powers
that lie behind the systemic evil encouraging such dehumanizing terror. Paul’s
directs the church at Ephesus to put on the defensive armor described, and to
stand firm, holding the ground that God has already taken. In addition to that
defensive posture, built on the Roman militaries tortoise model, Paul begins
and ends his instruction with the challenge to pray.
With that in mind, it might
be helpful to think about how we might take Paul seriously, joining our voices
in the chorus of prayer ascending in the wake of this most recent terror. One
way to do that would be to reflect on your emotional reaction upon hearing the
news last week. That initial response might be a good place to begin your
intercession.
If you found yourself angry –
begin by praying your anger. There are numerous angry psalms that instruct us
in this kind of praying – where we cry out to God on behalf of those who have
been violated in unspeakable ways. We don’t just pray about our anger – we pray
our anger – we lift it at volume into the heavens, joining in solidarity with
those whose humanity has been disregarded. We call for justice – we lift the
perpetrators to God, perhaps with instructions on what He ought do to them. And
we choose to trust Him to do what is right and righteous. Finally, we pray that
the core emotions of love and joy inform our response.
If, however, you found
yourself saddened – begin by praying your sorrow. Let your tears mingle with
God’s, weeping over what we have done with the beauty He created, weeping for
lives lost, families shattered, children orphaned, promises now impossible to
keep. Again, the psalms give us many examples of sorrow that cries out for
comfort – the wails in grief. And so we pray that the Good Shepherd would
create a place of hospitable comfort in the presence of faceless enemies,
hiding in the shadows of the valley. And we pray that love and joy would inform
our sorrow with hope.
But if your initial response
was fear – begin by praying your fear. Enter into the nights of terror with
those who feel every bump, who hear every whisper of threat. Help them carry
their fear well – and to the Father. There are psalms that give voice to
defining fear, that are built on faith strong enough to cry out in the dark,
that bring us to the awareness of a present help in time of trouble. One who
has come to us, walking across the seas. One whose presence is peace. And, as
we pray, we lean into love and joy which enable us to face our fear with
courage, knowing we are never alone.
The invitations that our
emotions present give us a place of action as part of the Body of Christ –
prayer is our first and most powerful response to any reality. And, always, it
is rooted in longing – “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth, as it is
in heaven.” Amen and amen.
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Lust
Oh God, creator of all we are as
persons - desires, hopes, dreams, longings, bodies - all. Forgive me for the
many ways I reduce myself and my fellow travelers to objects in my hungry quest
for false satisfaction.
Forgive me for the secret fantasies
which turn people into property for my satisfaction. Forgive me for the way
that, in my quest for love I settle so easily for lust - satisfying a deep
thirst with the salty water of ongoing longing. Forgive me the second long look
which turns beauty into a collection parts. Forgive me for the hidden sins of
the mind where elaborately constructed fantasy of relationship prevent me from
investing fully in the gifts you have given in those around me. Forgive me the
continual obsession with unreachable perfection - in myself and in others, a
conforming to the world's ways that surely results in the crushing death of
collapsing possibilities. Forgive me the deceptions and justifications which
allow me to go where I should not go and see what I should not see.
O Lord, please help me to invest in
the hard, self-sacrificing choices of love rather than to take the shortcuts of
lust, which lead me where I don't want to go. Teach me the unspeakable value of
myself and my fellow travelers so I am not tempted to regard myself or them as
anything less than the image of God. Grant me modesty of thought and the
ability to blush without shame at things which ought not be spoken. Give me
courage and strength to turn away.
O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,
have mercy on me, a sinner.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Gluttony
Oh God, creator and giver of all my
appetites and desires, forgive me when I try to satisfy my hunger for You with
anything but You.
Forgive my
exaltation of the desires of body and mind to idolatrous levels demanding
obscene piles of foods for both. Forgive me the full-focused, obsessive
pilgrimage for exactly the right vinegar or coffee or CD or , and the picayune
critique of the vintage waters, and the need to have things "just
so." Forgive me the trained
inability to wait, even for a moment, for what I want - what I have convinced
myself I deserve. Forgive me for entertaining myself into mindless oblivion.
Forgive the relentless quest for the new, the best, the latest, the
revolutionary - when what I have, works well.
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