Thoughts on...
August 16: 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
New Testament Lesson: John 6:51-58

Pondering food...

We've all heard the saying, "You are what you eat." So, what are you?

Why is it when we get together with family and friends we eat too much of all the wrong foods?

Why do we use food to comfort us? What is your favorite comfort food?

If you were on a deserted island with only one food to keep you alive, what food would you want?

Food is needed for life, some foods are better than others. Some have anti-oxidants and vitamins that our bodies need for fuel and to fight off disease, others have fat and sodium that make them taste better and tell our bodies we want more. I wonder if there is a food that packs a strong nutritional punch and a craving for more?

Jesus said, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." Jesus throughout John chapter 6 is trying to draw the crowd to a new understanding of the work of Jesus in the world. The crowd loved the miracles and the fact that Jesus provided them food to eat that filled their bellies and brought them comfort.

But Jesus wanted them to know that he was more than just physical food. He was a food that could fill their souls. To offer them a sense of purpose and hope in their everyday life. A non-food that could offer them comfort when life got hard.

Jesus said, "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life." This is a hard concept to get our minds around. John Calvin wrote, "Eat my flesh and drink my blood - better to experience than to understand."

Jesus came to minister to our whole person: body, mind and soul. Jesus provides physical food, he teaches us through parables and lessons, ministering to our intellect, and also Jesus touches our soul and offers us hope. Through the meal at the Lord's Table, Communion, we experience first hand how Jesus comes to us as a whole person: Body, Mind and Soul.

You are what you eat.

Thoughts on...
July 19, 2009: 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
New Testament Lesson: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Busy work and interruptions. What is our mission, our focus? What needs to be done? We can get busy doing a lot of things; doing programs that are unfocused and unintentional, being interrupted by every little piece of paper and phone call. Without quiet reflection, we just keep filling our time while running ourselves and the church down.

Our Scripture places the quiet time and need for rest and reflection next to a call for compassion. Compassion means action. It has been said, "you cannot be compassionate without doing something to help another." Jesus shows us what compassion looks like in Mark 6. Jesus knows what the people need. Reading in between Mark 6:34 and 53, sometimes the people need teaching, at other times it is simply the need for food, and often the people need healing. All three are a part of Jesus' ministry everyday, it is the focus of his ministry.

Rest and reflection informs our compassion and doing. Rest and reflection clears our minds to see what the people need and to respond with compassion. It prepares us for the work that God can do through us. Take time out to refocus, to gather energy and to listen to the still small voice of God that calls us to do.

Thoughts on...
July 12, 2009: 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel Lesson: Mark 6:14-29

Choices...we all have to make them. Some are harder than others. Some lead to hardship and pain others to grace and acceptance. Herod had a choice to make. He had heard John preach and was perplexed, perhaps mildly interested in John's message of repentance but there was fear there as well. Herod was not living a picture perfect Godly life. His life was more of a soap opera in nature.

On that fateful day Herod was living it up, it was a party and the beautiful daughter of Herodias was dancing for Herod and his friends. With too much partying in his system, he offered her anything she wanted. The daughter of Herodias went to her mother, "What should I ask for?" The response, "John's head on a platter."

This is where Herod's big choice comes in, does he go back on his promise and save John from death or does he simply give Herodias and her daughter what they want?

Yes, it was a difficult decision, to save face or stand up for what was honorable. Herod chose to save face. It was a dark day. Grace did not abound and Herod had to live with the decision, and I'm certain it tormented him.

Life throws us curve balls, hard decisions must be made, and in the end we must live with the choices we make. Life is not easy and as it turns out easy choices aren't as easy as they seem for in the end they cost you more than you could ever imagine.

Thoughts on...
July 5, 2009

This week we are off lectionary as we celebrate July 4th, Independence Day. Our scriptures of the week are as follows:
Deuteronomy 10:12-13, 17-21: What does God require of us as a nation?
Psalm 72: A Prayer for Justice and Righteousness
Galatians 5:13-26: The Proper Use of Freedom
John 8:31-39

Freedom is the word of the day. The "Jews who had believed in Jesus" misunderstood the freedom that believing in the truth could give them. The truth that Jesus was lifting up was the presence of God that is found in Jesus and the freedom was not from oppression by another, but freedom from sin that separates us from God.

As we celebrate Independence Day and consider the freedom that we have here in the USA, it does not compare with the freedom that we find in the truth, the presence of God. Genuine freedom does not come from boasting about being the greatest, or even, the most blessed, freedom is found in living according to God's Word, for then "we will know the truth, and the truth will make us free."

Thoughts on...
June 14, 2009: 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Old Testament Lesson: I Samuel 15:34-16:13
Gospel Lesson: Mark 4:26-34

The word for the week is Imagination. Dreaming up the impossible out of the highly unlikely. Samuel is guided by God to pass through all of Jesse's boys in search of the next king. Imagination is openness, openness to see the possibilities, to hope against hope. It was imagination that was needed to see the little boy in the pasture who was not allowed into the sacrifice because he was still too young, to trust the power and presence of God to shape David's character and anoint him as king long before he was ready to take the throne.

Parables spark our imagination as well. They lead us to openness of understanding, to look at common experiences in a new light. Parables spark us to "perceive the power and presence of God in a new and immediate way."(Feasting on the Word)

What can we imagine about our church? How might the power and presence of God shape our congregation? What can we imagine about our individual lives? How might the power and presence of God shape our every day activities?

Thoughts on...
June 7, 2009: Trinity Sunday
Old Testament Lesson: Isaiah 6:1-8

Trinity Sunday celebrates how we encounter God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. While this language is not perfect, it is helpful in order to express some reality of our faith. As we encounter God in our worship, we respond to the presence of God in a number of ways.

1. The presence of God fills us with awe. The throne, high and lofty, is a place of royalty. The seraphs covering faces and feet remind us of the holiness of God. We feel the grandeur of God full of power in the powerful voices shaking the threshold and smoke filling the house.

2. In response to the power and royalty we come before God in humility. The prophet Isaiah declares, "Woe is me." Realizing our unrighteousness, "I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips..." we humbly stand in the presence of God knowing that we are not worthy and yet can go nowhere else.

3. As we receive forgiveness and our guilt is burned away, we respond as did Isaiah, "Here am I; Send me!" God's forgiveness draws us into service rather than away from it.

The structure of our worship service follows this form of response. In our gathering, praising, confessing, praying, hearing and responding, we are responding to the holy God who claims us. Worship is a meeting ground between God and humanity. It is how we meet and interact with our Sovereign God.

Thoughts on...
May 31, 2009: Pentecost
New Testament Lesson: Acts 2:1-21

A lot of Pentecost is about diversity. Ethnic diversity for sure as the list of all those that were present accounts. Joel prophesies about the last days when young, old, male, female, slave - all prophesy. No shortage of differences in that list either.

What unites them? A wild, amazing, perplexing experience. Something they had never heard, or seen, or experienced. The Holy Spirit draws all from their own experiences together - in their diversity they are unified to prophesy, to challenge the status quo, to speak with one voice. This was not an attention getting device used simply to draw attention but an experience that changed the lives of those who are present.

Isn't that what the church is called to do? To challenge the status quo, to draw attention to the need for changed lives. The church is to be more hodge podge and random rather than structured and comfortable but only if the Holy Spirit is truly moving within the church.

Remember the Sunday School Song? "The church is not the building, the church is not the steeple, the church is not a resting place the church is the people." The church is more than our own little congregation that meets in particular building. When we all get to heaven more than our congregation will be there. All those who call on the name of the Lord will be there. What a hodge podge picture that will be. I for one look forward to it and am afraid of it all at the same time. Amazing and perplexing.

Thoughts on...
May 10: 5th Sunday of Easter
New Testament Lesson: Acts 8:26-40

Our Lesson this week is a message for those who...
believe they are not good enough
have done too many wrongs
ask the question, how can anyone love me?
experience humiliation and who have been ostracized by society.

The Ethiopian Eunuch was beautiful, rich and powerful yet in the eyes of the Jewish tradition he was an outcast and was forbidden to even enter the temple. No one was allowed to talk with him, or have a meal with him, or even touch him.

He had gone to Jerusalem to worship, he knew there was something there that he wanted and yet he did not find the very thing in which he sought. Only in the desert did he find Philip, a deacon walking along the road, who the Spirit of God had placed there for just such a time as the Eunuch's passing.

So it was in this right place, at the right time, reading the right scripture that the Holy Spirit changed the Eunuch's life. All the shame, humiliation, desperation, and rejection was erased and he felt the acceptance of Christ through the words and actions of Philip as he explained the Isaiah passage, (the suffering servant text) to him.

Thank God for Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Thoughts on...
April 26: Third Sunday of Easter
New Testament Lesson: Acts 3:(1-11), 12-19, (20-21)

Are you looking for a miracle? Who isn't? Miracles remind us of God's presence in the world. They assure us that we are not on our own but there is a God who is bigger and stronger than any of us.

The early church must have felt powerless. Jesus had been crucified and they were powerless to stand up to the Roman government because of their fear. Following the resurrection, the apostles were charged to go out into all the world sharing the message of Christ but how could they present the power of the risen Lord without the risen Lord physically present?

In Acts 3, the Apostles are given the power to perform a miracle and the crowd gathers around them in curiousity, fear and amazement. And here opens up a teaching moment. This miracle is followed by a sermon explaining the basis of the miracle itself.

In the crowd's ignorance, they misunderstand the miracle. The miracle is not that the lame man was healed, although it is an amazing event in his personal life, the miracle is that God's power is still at work in a world that sought to kill it. This miracle reveals the power of God and our need for repentence as we doubt and even ignore the power of God in our life everyday.

We look for visual miracles that are easy to see and have the wow factor. Visual miracles definitely affect us. But there are quiet miracles that bring greater comfort in the midst of our everyday life, quiet revelations that offer us hope, peace and even faith. In repenting of our sins, and turning to God our sins are wiped out and remembered no more. That is the greatest miracle, that in our ignorance we are granted forgiveness and a deeper relationship with the one we often times ignore.

God is at work in this world offering us power for life, repent and believe the Good News. We are forgiven.

Thoughts on...
April 19: 2nd Sunday of Easter
New Testament Lesson: Acts 4:32-35

Sharing is the first word that comes to mind when reading this Acts passage.

Questions for reflection:
What is easy to share? What is hard to share?
What would make you want to share?
How much should you share?
When should you share?
With whom should you share?

Think about children sharing: if you want something you cry "Share" but if you have it and someone asks you to share there are a couple of reasons for not wanting to share.
1. you are still playing with it
2. you're afraid of what someone will do to it - will they break it? will they refuse to give it back?

The early church was founded on sharing. "The whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions..." vs 32 The question begs to be asked, is this the way the church today is suppose to be? Are we to sell everything and put it into the church pot and then have the church redistribute it among the members as they have need? Many a cult has been born out of this concept. If this idea of sharing no longer works in our world today, what can we glean from this passage? What can we learn from the sharing of the early church?

Caution against consumerism?
What unites us as a congregation?
Rallying together when someone is in need - phyisically, emotionally, spiritually.
Giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

Join us Sunday at Efland Presbyterian Church to find out just what direction the sermon takes.

Thoughts on...
March 22: Fourth Sunday in Lent
Gospel Lesson: John 2:13-22

I'm struck by the journey of life and its many ups and downs. Each major life event presents us with an opportunity to choose how we respond. Will we be graceful or fight it tooth and nail? John sets before us a journey that takes us either to the light or to the darkness.

"For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God." (20-21)

John is a fan of dualisms in his gospel. It's either black or white. Are you attracted to the light or to the darkness? An optimist or a pessimist? Do you seek after goodness or evil? We control how we respond to life changes. A thin thread of light can grow into a radiant beam over time as our faith grows stronger in the decisions we have made and as we put our trust in God.

Thoughts on...
March 15, 2009: Third Sunday in Lent
Gospel Lesson: John 2:13-22

What does it mean to be the church? Is the church defined by its building, those gathered, its worship?

Jesus was outraged by what he found at the temple as he went to celebrate Passover. People were selling animals and changing money. It was all about what was happening inside. Folks were travelling a good distance and would need an unblemished animal for sacrifice. What was going on inside was not technically out of bounds, it was all a part of the worship process.

What's wrong with the money changers and sellers setting up close to where their wares would be sacrificed? Jesus cries out, "Stop making my Father's house a marketplace." This isn't worship, this is convenience. You are too comfortable. You are going through the actions but it has lost its meaning.

Jesus shakes up the comfortable temple and leaves those gathered asking by what authority do you do this? Jesus says, "Destroy the temple and I will raise it in 3 days." Jesus has stopped talking about the physical building and is now refering to his death and resurrection that is to come.

The church is all about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is not about the comfort that you find in a particular building with familiar people surrounding you in worship. The church is to be on the move. Knocking over the tables of complacency and tearing down the walls that separate us from the community. To be the Church is to reach out with the love of Christ and minister to those around us.

Reflection Questions

Reflection Questions from Fredrick Buechner's book, Listening to Your Life.

When you look at your face in the mirror,
what do you see in it that you most like and
what do you see in it that you most deplore?

If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are most important to you, what would it be, in twenty-five words or less?

Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you would most like to undo?
Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember?

Is there any person in the world, or any cause, that if circumstances called for it, you would be willing to die for?

If this were the last day of your life, what would you do with it?

Thoughts on....
March 8, 2009: Second Sunday of Lent
Gospel Lesson: Mark 8:31-38

Mark 8:31 begins "Then he began to teach them..." this is a new phase in Jesus' ministry, Jesus begins to give private instruction to the disciples and public instruction to the multitude that is gathered. In the first of three teaching moments, Jesus informs the disciples that "the Son of Man" must undergo great suffering, rejection, be killed and after three days rise again.

Peter rebukes Jesus, stop this talk about suffering, rejection and death. These are worldly experiences not something to be experienced by the Messiah. Show us the glory.

Peter did not like the way Jesus was allocating his time. The Messiah is to reign in glory not spend time suffering, being rejected and dying. Peter thought he was focusing on the divine as he tried to protect the status of the Messiah. But Jesus was showing the disciples another way.

Human thinking would have us focus on happy times, the glory-filled times when our connection with God is clear. Human thinking would have us forget about what goes into discipleship, the struggle and the denying of self. Jesus shows us that how we spend our time in the process is important. We can't jump from the baptism, to the transfiguration, and the resurrection, we can't have only the happy, glory-filled times. Jesus in the suffering, rejection and death made a more complete picture of a Messiah that comes to us in all of life, not just the good times.

Thoughts on...
March 1, 2009: First Sunday of Lent
Gospel Lesson: Mark 1:9-15

When life is good we feel good. There's a spring in your step and a lightness in your heart. But these good feeling do not last forever. At some point disappointment raises its ugly head, bad things happen and that lightheartedness disappears in a cloud of dismal disgust. How do we respond when life knocks us down?

Life was good for Jesus, he heard the comforting words of his heavenly Father, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." But affirmation is quickly replaced with temptation. There in the wilderness Jesus is confronted by Satan and wild beasts. The recipe for a bad day I'm sure and there were 40 of them in a row. How would Jesus respond when life seemed to knock him down?

"Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God." Jesus did not forget the connection he had with his Father. As God affirmed him in his baptism, God affirmed Jesus in the wilderness with the presence of angels. The angels didn't fix the situation, didn't make Jesus' bad day better, but they did offer their presence. And when Jesus made it through those 40 days, he went out proclaiming the good news. God is with us, God protects us, God heals us.

In the midst of life's struggles, the loss of job, the disappointment of lost relationships, when health disables us, know that God is present walking with us. The bad day, the difficult circumstances are not taken away but we are not alone. In the end, perhaps we will be made stronger in our understanding of God and God's presence in our life. And we too, will be able to proclaim the Good News; God is with us, God protects us, God heals us.

How will you respond to life's disappointments?

Thoughts on...
February 22: Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday
Gospel Lesson: Mark 9:2-9.

Peter, James and John accompany Jesus up a high mountain where Jesus is in the presence of God the Father and in that is illumined, transfigured by a bright light. For Jesus it is a moment of recharging his battery, reconnecting with his Father. For Peter, James and John it is a terror inducing event. Having not seen this before, they were not present when Jesus was baptized and the heavens opened up and the Spirit descended upon him, this was a first, a sight too amazing to see or comprehend.

There were words spoken, from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; Listen to him!." In fact the disciples had heard many words about who Jesus was and how he was to experience both death and resurrection. But still they did not understand fully. Only in time would they "get it."

Like Peter, James and John, what we see and what we hear do not always align within our minds. One does not always enhance our understanding of the other. Like the blind men who are each put in front of different part of an elephant and asked to tell what an elephant is, we do not always acknowledge the different ways in which we experience Christ in every aspect of our life.