Kenwood United Methodist Church

All sermons are the property of The Reverend F. Elizabeth Givens and delivered on the date indicated.

Sermons are kept on the website for several weeks.  Scroll down through this entry to see past weeks.

A Journey to Hope: Choosing Traveling Companions

Lent 1, Off Lectionary ~ Mark 10:13-16

Kenwood UMC ~ February 21, 2010

 

Our theme for Lent this year is A Journey to Hope.  Lent is always a journey—it is the season before Easter, the season when we must travel with Jesus on the journey to the cross.  It is a season when we examine how Christ took on fully human form and suffered along with us, and carried our sins onto the cross.  So this season, we’re using our backpack each week to remind us of our journey, and the things that we need to be carrying with us, as well as the things that are excess baggage that we need to remove along the way.

This week we’ve got some band-aids and wraps and some scar remover as well.  Those are to cope with those wounds that we get along the journey.  And I find that most of the time the source of those wounds is one another.  As humans, we have a unique ability to inflict pain and anguish upon one another.  This is one of the most difficult things to come to grips with as we grow up and loose our innocence—our relationships with others are not always a source of grace and strength.  Sometimes they can be a source of pain and struggle.  Sometimes, even the people we love deeply, can block our journey to Christ.

And Jesus has something to say about that this morning.  Our passage of scripture from Mark this morning is one that we usually use to talk about the importance of children.  But this morning I’d like for us to look at it from a slightly different angle.  Here we have Jesus teaching, and people were bringing children to Jesus hoping that he might touch them.  And the disciples—well, they show their humanity.  They shoo the children away.  Have you ever done that, or seen other adults do that?  Something supposedly important is going on and a curious child approaches and is told to go away. But Jesus becomes irate with them, and tells them not to block anyone’s access to him.

He tells them not to block the way to him.  For children—or for anyone—Jesus finds it unacceptable for the disciples to stand in the way of anyone approaching him.

Now, I am going to bet that we’ve all got people—or maybe habits—that block our path to Jesus.  I am going to bet that you have someone or something in your life that is wrapped around you like this heavy chain, weighing your backpack down on the journey—clocking your path to Christ.  It may be a relationship from the past that you can’t move beyond.  It may be a spouse who is on a different journey and is trying to hold you back—intentionally or not.  It may be a colleague who would rather see you work all the time instead of taking time for the things that are important, like faith and family. 

And those people are just like the disciples—blocking your path to Jesus.   They may not intend to do it.  They may just be trying to protect you—but they are getting in the way of your path to Christ.

What’s a traveler to do?  Find some new traveling companions for the journey.  Seek out people who will encourage you on your journey to hope.  Find people who you can talk to about your faith or your questions or your doubts.  Find people who will offer you relationships that will bring you closer to Jesus, not stand in the way.

            I have two friends, Laura Beth and Jill, who I met when I was in graduate school in Atlanta. They had gone to college together at William and Mary, and discovered a mutual love for travel.  I’ve enjoyed being friends with them over the years and following their adventures as traveling companions.  Looking at them from afar, you wouldn’t necessarily think they would mesh really well together as traveling companions—they are in many ways very different.  But together they have been on trips to Maine, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Austria and Prague, Slovenia and Croatia, Vermont, St. Thomas and St. Johns BVI, and, most recently Morocco.  I was asking Jill about their travels this week, and she talked about this latest trip to Morocco and said,

I couldn’t have done this trip with anyone else – it’s a testament to our friendship and general traveling compatibility that we did 2 weeks on our own planned itinerary, 2 females traveling alone together deep into a 3rd world Muslim country.  I don’t mean to imply that Morocco is at all unsafe or that we did foolhardy things, but it is a very different place, and you need a good friend like LB in order to make a trip like that work and be enjoyable.[1]

I love that last line—you need a good friend to make a trip like that work and be enjoyable.  I’d say the same thing about the journey of faith, only I’d say you probably need a few good friends, traveling companions, to make the journey of faith work and be challenging and enjoyable.  Where do you find those relationships?  Right here.  Some of you have already developed them.  But if, this morning, you are longing for such a relationship, a person who can encourage you and travel with you on the journey, we have some folks who are ready to be traveling companions.  We have some men and women whom I have identified as encouragers and uplifters who have volunteered to walk with anyone who needs a good companion for the journey.  They will have coffee with you, talk on the phone or e-mail, invite you to be a part of a small group, listen to your questions and contribute their own.  If you’d like such a traveling companion, I want to invite you to call or e-mail me, or to take a card out of the pew rack right now, write your name on it, the best way to contact you, and traveling companion. You can place the card in the offering plates when the offering is collected, and I’ll be in touch tomorrow to get you connected with your traveling companion.

Our traveling companions matter.  Our friends along the journey will either block our way to Jesus, or they will walk with us, drawing us closer—and making the journey that much richer along the way.  On this first Sunday of Lent, I invite you to take a look at who is on the journey with you.  Make sure they are partners and encouragers.  Make sure they are friends in faith who know how important it is to cultivate friendship with one another, and, most importantly, friendship with Jesus.  Amen.

 

**********

Marks of a Maturing Christian: Commitment

2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 ~ Transfiguration Sunday

Kenwood UMC ~ February 14, 2010

 

 

            We’ve been in our house about 5 ½ years, and over that time we’ve redecorated all the rooms except 1—the kitchen.  Of course, the kitchen is a major project—lots of wallpaper to remove being one of the largest.  So this week, we were making plans and thinking about it, and just for kicks we grabbed a loose piece of the border…and it turns out it was not very firmly attached and we pulled all of it down in about 10 minutes.  Whatever our plans were, whatever our timeline was, pulling down that border meant we had made a commitment to the transformation—whether we were ready or not.

            Since early this year we’ve been talking in worship about the marks of a maturing Christian.  In other words, we’ve been talking about the kinds of things we should be working on as we continue on our journey of growing with Christ.  We’ve talked about servanthood as the posture of a Christian towards others.  We’ve talked about the importance of being present in worship with the community—and were immediately challenged to live that out by the snow.  But I think a forced absence from the worshipping community drives home the importance of presence—it’s hard to stay connected when we’re not together.  We missed forgiveness and surrender—we’ll try and pick them up some more later in the year.

            But today we’re turning to our final characteristic, the final thing that we need to do as Christians to be growing on our faith journey—and that is to make a commitment.  And when we make that commitment it will transform us.

            One of the ways we talk about commitment in our world is talking about commitment to a relationship with a friend or a significant other.  About nine years ago, an animated movie captured the hearts of many people with it’s humorous story about commitment.  The movie Shrek tells the story of a nasty ogre who tries to reclaim his swamp from an invasion of fairy tale people—who are way too nice and sweet for his liking.  The invasion has been orchestrated by an evil Lord, who promises Shrek his swamp back if he will go retrieve the Princess Fiona and bring her back so that the evil Lord will can marry her and claim her kingdom.

            Shrek goes on his mission—but when he meets Fiona and begins to develop a relationship with her, he is transformed.   He feels like he doesn’t have a chance with the beautiful princess, but also cannot live with himself if he doesn’t confess his love for her.  In this scene he does just that, bursting into Fiona’s wedding to the evil Lord.

Play Shrek clip.

When Shrek confesses his love, Fiona makes a decision.  She decides to show him her true self, which she has hidden all along—she, too is an ogre.  Next in the movie she makes a commitment to Shrek—a commitment to stay an ogre and to stay with him.  It’s quite a transformation, and a wonderful Valentine’s day love story.

            But it also reminds us of a powerful message: when we truly commit to following Jesus, we will be transformed.  After Moses encountered God and received the law at Mount Siani, his face glowed from the encounter with the Lord.  He veiled his face because the slowing made the people uncomfortable.  And later, when his face stopped glowing, he kept his face veiled so no one could know the glory of the Lord had faded.  Sounds like a strange game, doesn’t it?

            But now that Christ has died and been resurrection, there is no need, Paul says, to hide from God’s glory—we have seen it in all its fullness, and God’s glory in Christ has redeemed us.  And, Paul writes in verse 18, all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

            When we see God’s glory, we are transformed.  Like Fiona was transformed by Shrek’s love, we are transformed by the love of God in Christ.  And the life of maturing Christianity is being committed to living as transformed people.

            And that means that the practice of our faith is not a Sunday only kind of thing.  It’s not enough to worship on Sunday, pray occasionally and meals and check “faithful” off on our to do list.  The loving Spirit of Christ, when we are committed to it, transforms everything we do and all that we are.  And when we are maturing Christians committed to our journey with Christ, that transformation grows deeper and more meaningful with each year.  As we grow, we discover places in our lives that lack full commitment—and we challenge ourselves to grow deeper.

            May each one of us know God’s true, deep and abiding love for us this morning.  And may we commit to receive his love and let us transform us in every aspect of our lives, so that we may live as Christ’s disciples in this broken world.

Amen.

 

********************************

Marks of a Maturing Christian:  Surrender and Trust

Fifth Sunday After Epiphany, Year C ~ Luke 5:1-11

Kenwood UMC ~ February 7, 2010

This photo, called le mani del pescatore shows the hands of a fisherman mending nets.  You may reflect on it as you read the Gospel lesson below. taken by Filippo, from Palermo, Italy.  It us used by permission under the Creative Commons Attribution License and was downloaded 1/4/10 from www.scripturepics.org)

Luke 5:1-11, NRSV

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

5Once while Jesus^* was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, ²he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. ³He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. ⁴When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ ⁵Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ ⁶When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. ⁷So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ ⁹For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; ¹⁰and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ ¹¹When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

(Italicized emphasis mine)

In the last week we’ve learned a lot about surrender and trust—especially how we surrender to Mother Nature.  There was a great article on Richmond.com last week before the January 30 snow about how Richmonders handle snow: http://www2.richmond.com/content/2010/jan/27/snow-coming/.  The New Yorkers among us will find it amusing, if no one else does.  I do have to wonder—why all the panic and obsession?  Perhaps it is because the weather is one thing in this world that we still have no control over.  We can’t make it stop snowing.  Or raining.  Or…well…anything.  All we can do is surrender to what is happening, stock up appropriately, and decide to use it as a time for family fun and rest.

In the Christian faith, surrender means giving ourselves over to a power beyond ourselves.  Specifically, it means giving ourselves over completely to the Eternal One—God Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.  And, it means one thing more—trusting that this Eternal One loves us deeply and cares for us eternally.[1]

That journey that we all take toward surrender and trust is what we see happening in our Gospel lesson this morning.  This is a call story from the fifth chapter of Luke.  Up until this point, Jesus has ministered by himself.  He has already done a lot—proclaiming, healing, casting out spirits, preaching to the crowds.  This last activity is where we find him this morning, preaching to the crowds who have gathered by the Sea of Galilee, crowds so eager to hear him that he has to commandeer the boat of Simon Peter, a local fisherman.  He finishes his sermon from the water, and then turns to Simon and his buddies and says, why don’t you throw down your nets and catch some fish?

Now, Simon is skeptical.  This guy Jesus is obviously not a fisherman.  He’s got the hands of a carpenter and also seems to have the heart of a rabbi.  But a fisherman?  No way!  Peter says, you know, we’ve been fishing all night and haven’t caught a thing.  But—and here is the first step—“if you say so, I will let down the nets.” Peter is willing to take the first step.  Even though he barely knows Jesus, Peter is willing to take the first step.

How about you?  Are you willing to take the first step and surrender?

Sometimes, I find, we get a pretty good sense about Jesus, but we want to take our time.  We want to feel him out, check him out, make sure he’s really worth giving our lives to.  The challenge with that is that when we do that, we can put him off forever.  And Jesus cannot possibly work through us—or work on us—when we are holding him at arms length—at least maybe not to the extend that he can do when we surrender.

When we keep Jesus (or God) at arms’ length, and we say, well, I think I can do this pretty well myself, we are like Peter saying, “I am not sure this can happen, God.”  I can remember thinking that about making my first commitment to do Disciple Bible Study, a 34 week introductory study of the Bible.  I thought to myself 34 weeks?  I am not sure this can happen.  Reading the Bible every day and meeting with a small group?!  I am not so sure this can happen, God.

But what happens when the disciples surrender?  Jesus uses them.  He powerfully enters their lives and transforms them—and not just into really, really good fishermen.  Jesus uses them to transform the work with God’s love.  And just in case you are thinking, “yeah, but these were the DISCIPLES for heaven’s sake,” let me remind you of the words shared by one commentator I read this week, “The fishermen were not called because of their qualifications, character or potential.”[2] Ordinary people, just like us. No qualifications for discipleship—in fact, a pretty thin resume.   Ordinary, everyday people who surrender to Jesus and become….well…extraordinary.  Not because of anything they do but because of his power at work in them.

Surrendering to Jesus is what makes ordinary people like us into Christ followers.  And without surrendering to Jesus, we can’t grow in our faith.  Because finally, growing in our faith is not only about what we do and the goals we set.  It is about what we allow God to do in us.  What will you allow God to do in you this week?

Note:  For further reflection, read The Hole in Our Gospel (www.theholeinourgospel.com) the story of Rich Stearns’ surrender to God in his live and how it transformed his heart for the poor.

**********************

Marks of a Maturing Christian:  Keeping Sabbath

3^rd Sunday After Epiphany, Year A ~ Nehemiah 8 1-2, 5-6, 8-10

Kenwood UMC ~ January 24, 210

Well, I am sure that Nehemiah is one of your top three books of the Bible, one you turn to again and again, and you know all about this story, right?  Right—if that’s the case you need to consider a calling to be a Biblical scholar.  Let’s take a minute to learn a little bit about this story from the Old Testament.

The book of Nehemiah, along with the Old Testament book of Ezra, tells a story of remembering and returning.  It tells the story of the Jewish people after 538 B.C.E., when King Cyrus of Persia issued a decree that allowed them to return to their homeland.  This was after the period of the kings and Israel and Judah’s prominence as an imperial leader.  This part of the story of God’s people happens after the empire has crumbled, the people have been conquered and forced to leave their homeland.  For generations they have now lived in Exile, separated from the land that God had promised them, wondering if God’s promises were really true, and hoping against hope that they were.  You know this place, don’t you?  The place apart, the place at a distance, where we look and hope and wait for God.

And now they return.  Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story of this return, and of the rebuilding of the Temple and the re-establishment of the Jewish people in their promised land.  One of the things we learn from reading these books of the Bible is that this return was not as easy as everyone had expected.  People had forgotten the old ways, and they were restless.  For this and other reasons, the priest Ezra gathers ALL the people at the Water Gate and begins to read to them the laws of Moses, also called the Torah.

What Ezra is doing here is bringing the people together in worship so that they can remember and return to the way of life to which God has called them.  And the people respond with joy—they gather eagerly, they stand, straining to hear what the words say, and they weep with joy to hear once more the word of their God.

I’d like to talk today about this story as a paradigm—a model—for how and why we keep Sabbath, or worship.  It is so easy for us to think of going to worship as one more engagement on the week’s calendar, something to check off the to do list.  But as we think about what it means to be maturing in our faith, one of the things God expects of us, and one of the things we expect of each other at Kenwood, is to be in worship each week.  We don’t expect that because we take attendance or want to keep track of everyone—we expect it because we know that worshipping regularly  will reshape us—it will help us remember and return, just like it helped the people of Israel.

This week I asked people on my Facebook page to tell me why coming to worship is important.  I got some great responses.  And those responses told me that there’s a lot of truth in this Biblical story.  I’d like to take a minute to take a look at some of those comments and look at how they reflect the same needs and desires of our Biblical story.

One person said coming to worship is important because you are not sure exactly what to expect, but know somewhere in the message you will find direction.  Wow.  The people of Israel were looking for direction.  They had returned to the promised land, a land they thought they knew—but they were floundering.  They needed to return to corporate worship to find purpose and direction in life.  And so do we.  We need to return to corporate worship so that we can find direction and God’s guidance, whether we are journeying through familiar territory, or someplace quite new.

Now, sometimes what we get out of worship isn’t so much about the direction or inspiration we glean from what we say or hear or sing.  Sometimes it is about being together.  And one person said that, when they said “I come to worship because you need the fellowship to build you up.”  That gets to the community focus of worship—you can worship God anywhere—but there is a significant importance to being with the community in worship.  That’s why Ezra brought all the people together—he didn’t visit in their homes, or get them to tune into the TV or internet (OK, he couldn’t have done that, but you get my point).  We need to be together.  I’m all for getting worship out to people who can’t come—whether they are sick or imprisoned, or confined for other reasons—but we need to be together.  There is something about being in community that shapes and forms us.

This is one of the places where I really struggle with the wonderfully technological world we live in.  There are virtual churches springing up all over the internet.  People who connect in to worship from their own home computer or Blackberry, and worship with others while they are physically alone.  I am not sure how I feel about this—I am glad they are trying to connect.  But I value physically being together to support one another.  It will be interesting to see how this all evolves in the coming years.

For us, I believe it is important to come together as a community.  It is important to laugh and cry together, to shake hands and hug one another, to celebrate with one another.  It is important to be in fellowship to build one another up.

A final comment that I wanted to share that someone left on my Facebook page was that going to worship is about equipping yourself to stay the course.  And that begins to speak to the habitual, regular nature of worship.  For worship to truly be forming for us, it needs to be a habit.    It needs to regularly and consistently equip us for our lives of faith.  We need to be here weekly.  If you are sick, don’t come share your germs—otherwise, be here.  That may sound harsh, but I think it is a reasonable expectation that is set before us as God’s people.  We need to worship together regularly and habitually.  It’s a part of who we are as God’s people.  It’s a mark of someone who is on a maturing faith journey.

***********

Marks of a Maturing Christian: Servanthood

2^nd Sunday of Epiphany, Year C ~ 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Kenwood UMC ~ January 17, 2010

There is nothing like incredible tragedy to refocus us, to stir in us deep feelings that we need to do more, and be more, is there?  This week has been one of those weeks, as our hearts go out to brothers and sisters in Haiti—already one of the poorest nations in the world—who now are trapped in the aftermath of an enormous earthquake and all the death and destruction it caused.  To be clear, the Hatians are victims of natural disaster.  Nothing they did—last week or generations ago—brought this upon them, any more than the horrific things that happen to us are a result of something we did.

But it is an opportune time for us to pay attention to the feelings that are stirring in us, feelings of wanting to help and feeling helpless, feelings of wanting to give back.  I want to observe that these are very good feelings.  And I want to acknowledge that like you, I have felt my compassion tugged mightily this week.

But I also want to challenge us.  Because as Christians, we should not need to wait for earthquakes or house fires or hurricanes to stir these feelings in us.  As people on a journey of faith, we should feel this call to serve and give back on a daily basis.  Growing in our servanthood is one of the things we should each be doing on our Christian journey.

Servanthood is a word we hear thrown around a lot, but not always defined.  It is not enslavement—that is when someone forces you to do something that you do not want to do.  Servanthood is when you voluntarily give yourself to serve others—or God—because you desire to do it.  And as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians God has given each one of us unique gifts so that we can serve.  In other words, God expects servanthood of us, and equips us to carry it out.  Each one of us, using the gifts God has given us, can serve God and our neighbor in unique ways.

One of my spiritual gifts is teaching, and that is one reason I find so much joy in tutoring students at Elmont Elementary or facilitating small groups.  You might have the spiritual gift of encouragement, and so visiting with those who are discouraged could be the way you find joy in serving.  Each of us is uniquely gifted, and each one of us has a place that God has invited us to serve.  And not just serve the people we are comfortable with, but the people who make us uncomfortable as well.

I think we sometimes want to support people who are servant leaders, and we think about people who are missionaries or relief workers or work with the homeless or hungry in our own city.  But we fall into the trap of expecting other people to fulfill the role of servanthood, and forgetting that as Christians, we are each uniquely called and gifted for that role.

In their book The Ascent of a Leader (1999), Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol and Ken McElrath tell of a woman who has a dream in which she wanders into a shop at the mall and finds Jesus behind a counter.
Jesus says, “You can have anything your heart desires.”
Astounded but pleased, the woman asks for peace, joy, happiness, wisdom and freedom from fear. Then she adds, “Not just for me, but for the whole earth.”
Jesus smiles and says, “I think you misunderstand me. We don’t sell fruits, only seeds.”[1]

My friends, we are the seeds.  We are the seeds of peace, joy, happiness, wisdom and freedom from fear in this world.

As we move through the next several weeks we will be thinking about the things that God expects us to be doing as we grow in our faith.  Here at Kenwood, our desire is to create a climate of expectation and support—so that we uphold God’s expectation that we are all growing in our lives of faith, and so we support one another in that expectation.  Because we expect all Christians to be involved regularly in servant ministry, we want to help you think about how to do that, and then live it out.

Now, your ministry of serving others may take on a weekly or monthly pattern, like calling or visiting shut ins, volunteering at ACES, tutoring at Elmont or working with our children and youth right here at Kenwood.  Or your ministry of serving may occur in more intense periods, when you go on a short-term mission trip or volunteer for Mission to Hanover, or serve in a high intensity volunteer capacity at Kenwood, like directing our upcoming capital campaign.  But think about your life and its patterns and routines?  Is serving your neighbor among those routines?  If it isn’t, think about and then act on a way it can become a part of your life.  If servanthood is already a part of your life, think about how you can take it to the next level—how you can grow in your service to God and others.

As we look towards building a Ministry Center—and your Building Committee will begin the design process for the building next week—we must keep this idea of servanthood in front of us.  This building will be a place where we can serve the community—through a food bank, adult day care, a community garden, a preschool, housing the homless and so much more.  This is not a building for us.  It is a building for us to use to serve others.

Why do we serve?  Because servanthood changes us.  It transforms us more deeply into children of God.  Servanthood begins with us doing something we believe God has called us to do in order to help another.  It ends by realizing that along the way we have become more Christlike.  We have been served and transformed.

Our hymn of response is called Serving, and will be projected on the screens in front of you.  The tune is Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee.

************************

The Journey Begins

Baptism of the Lord, Year C ~ Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Kenwood UMC ~ January 10, 2010

If you were here last week, you will remember that I talked about the importance of staying on course, and that sometimes, the life of faith can be the less traveled course. I talked about using google maps this summer to plot an alternate route, and getting frustrated because the program kept telling me to go back to the most well traveled route—even though I knew it wasn’t the road I needed to be on.

Our faith life is a lot like a journey and this week we’re going to focus on what comes before we choose the particular route—and that is the starting point.  We all begin somewhere.  Whether we are plugging a trip into Mapquest, buying airline tickets, setting up your GPS or just pulling out a good old paper map—which was my favorite plaything when I was a kid, since I am the child of a life-long VDOT employee—whatever navigation we are using, we have to have a starting point.  The journey cannot happen without it.

And as Christians, we all have a common starting point.  Baptism.  Baptism has many meanings, but one of the most important is that it is a beginning point in our walk with God and with the Christian community.  Now, there are a couple of major ways that churches understand baptism.  One way is to put the emphasis on what we are doing—the choice we are making.  In the United Methodist tradition, as well as many others, we place the emphasis not on the choice we make, but on God’s action of extending grace and salvation to us.  We believe baptism is about God’s action of love towards us.  It is about God claiming us as a beloved and precious child—often even before we are able to realize we are beloved and precious because we are too young.  But it isn’t about us.  It is about God working through us.

That is where we have a connection with Jesus baptism.  Jesus’ baptism was all about his identity.  It was the moment when his public ministry began, the moment when God said this is my son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.  This is Jesus’ commissioning service.  It all begins here—the public, in-your-face, I’m going to turn your ideas of religion upside down part of it anyway.

And baptism is our starting point as well.  From the moment of our baptisms, when we receive God’s grace through the symbol of water, it all begins.  What all begins, you are asking?  Our response.  You see, if baptism is all about what God does, well, then, what comes next is about what we do in response to God.  Now, the grace doesn’t go away—in fact God keeps on lavishing on us grace upon grace.  But we begin living faithful lives in response.  And that journey continues throughout our lives.  Without it, without the challenge and the gift of seeking to grow in our relationship with God, well, life becomes devoid of meaning.  We need the journey.

That was brought home to me over the holidays when I had the chance to see Up in the Air, the recently released movie with lots of Oscar hype that stars George Clooney. Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a corporate downsizing expert who spends his life flying all over the country and firing people.  His entire existence is built around being on a journey.  He doesn’t have a home base except for a suitcase and a hotel room.  He is constantly on the move and that journey defines his life.  And when his boss hires a young graduate with new ideas about moving his job into a virtual environment where he can fire people without leaving the comfort of his own office—without making the journey—well, it scares the heck out of Ryan.

And you know what?  It should scare the heck out of us, too. The idea of being stagnant in our faith lives, of falling out of touch with God, of relating to God in a removed way rather than in person—that should make us shudder.  Because God has given us an identity in our baptisms—we are God’s beloved children, each one of us precious in his sight.  It’s an amazing gift.  And all we have to do in response is keep growing into it.

Now, we’re going to spend the next five weeks in worship talking about how that growing happens.  We’re going to talk about living a life of servanthood, about keeping Sabbath, about forgiveness, surrender and trust, and finally, commitment.  But today….today we just want to remember.

Because baptism in our tradition is about what God does, we do not re-baptize.  God doesn’t need a do-over—since God is God, he gets it right the first time.  It’s a trait I often long for.  But we do remember our baptisms.  Baptism is a touchstone.  When we remember out baptisms, using the symbol of water once more, we are able to look in the mirror again and realize that we are God’s beloved children.  It is important to come to the water regularly.  If you have a Catholic background you know that at the entrance to Catholic places of worship there is a container of holy water.   You are invited to dip your hands into it each time you come into worship, and remember your baptism.  We don’t do it quite so often, but it is important to do it regularly.  On this Sunday of the year, or any time we have a baptism, you are invited to come to the font, to touch the water, to remember your baptism, and be thankful.

You see, returning to the moment our journey begins will keep us in touch with where we are right now on the journey.  It will remind us how loved and precious we are.

Will you turn with me in your hymnal so that we ca share in the reaffirmation of our baptismal vows.

Now, if you have not been baptized, we invite you to participate as well, knowing that thinking about these promises and experiencing the water can be a means of grace through which God may be leading you to beginning the journey of a relationship with Him.

***********************

Staying on Course

Epiphany, Year C ~ Matthew 2:1-12

Kenwood UMC ~ January 3, 2010

We do not have a GPS system in our cars, but instead use the Google Maps application on our phones when we find ourselves in need of navigational help.  With google maps you can plug in your current location, plug in where you need to go, and you get a route mapped out for you that you can follow, through the map or through a list of directions.  It all works very well—as long as you can get a cell phone signal.

This past summer on our annual vacation trip to the Florida Gulf Coast, we used the navigational help quite a bit on the way home.  We had learned on the way down to Florida that there was a huge amount of interstate construction in Georgia, and we wanted to avoid it on the way back.  I plotted a course up Route 1 in southeastern Georgia, and I knew approximately where I wanted to get back on the interstate to bypass the construction.

But a funny thing happened with the navigation system.  It was NOT happy that we were not on the interstate, and it kept trying to reroute us every few miles to take us back to the interstate.  The map program just knew we were not staying on the most well traveled road, and it wanted us to get back there.  What it could not know was that the well traveled road was not the best choice at this point.

I’ve always loved Robert Frost’s poem about that, The Road Not Taken.  Most of us probably recall hearing it, or studying it at some point.  It ends:

“two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”[1]

The road not taken, in this case, in my case last summer, and in the case of the magi as they left the manger, is the well-traveled road.  And choosing to take the less traveled road makes a big difference.  In the case of the magi, it meant that Herod was unable to find Jesus and kill him.  In the case of our journey this summer, it meant that we were able to avoid some nasty traffic and see some railroad towns with character.

Choosing the less traveled road.  The road of discipleship is a less traveled road in our culture today.  Even if we were to argue that America is still a Christian nation—which statistics tells us it is not in numbers—we can tell from our experience that there are many people who say they are Christian who do not truly practice a life of discipleship.  It is a less traveled road.

And along that road, there will always be things that pull us back to the more traveled way.  Things that compete for our time and our devotion.  Things that look tempting to us.  But the less traveled road makes the difference.

The magi did not stay on the course they intended to take.  But their encounter with Jesus changed them.  The scriptures don’t say how it changed them.  It says they worshipped him and gave him gifts and were warned in a dream not to return to Herod and so they went home by another way.  The magi did not stay on the course that they intended to take—but they stayed on the course which was the faithful road.

I expect that most of us sitting here know the road we intended to take in 2010.  If you’re a student, you are in the middle of a school year, you know the path in front of you.  You are already enrolled in after school activities like soccer or Scouts.  If you’re an adult, you probably already have some things on your calendar in the year ahead—meetings, tasks to do, projects to accomplish.  You know what night are must see TV for you, and when your favorite author is coming out with a new book.  You have made your resolutions—and you probably know yourself well enough to know how successful you will be at sticking to them.  You know what your intended road is in 2010.

But what about the less traveled road?  What about the road that God is calling you to take?  Can’t you hear God, in the midst of all your plans saying, “yes, this is all well and good, but I’d like you to go in this direction.”  We do a good job of blocking out that voice because we think we are pretty good at charting our own course.  But in this first week of a new year, I want to invite you to listen to it.  I want to invite you to listen to God and think about the less traveled road, the road of faith, the road of discipleship, and where God wants you to travel on that road in this new year.

You see, that’s the good news for us this morning—we are not alone.  Like the magi, we have a guide on the journey, one who can help us choose the road before us.  When we listen to God in prayer, when we study the scriptures, when we have conversation with friends in Christ, the path will become clear.  It will not always be the easy path or the most popular path—but it will be the path God has for us.  And it will make all the difference.

Let us pray:

God, in this new year, we turn to you.  We turn to you with a desire to become more faithful, a desire to grow in our relationship with you.  However you will lead us this year, help us to listen to the guidance of your voice.  Give us the determination and courage to follow where you lead.  And keep us on course, Lord.  Help us remember that just as you placed a star in the sky to lead us to the Christ child, so you lead us on the next stage of the journey.  Help us to stay on course, step by step, turn by turn, so we may grow into the people you have created us to be.Amen.

***********************

Shaped By Starlight

Advent 2, Year C ~ Malachi 3:1-4

Kenwood UMC ~ December 6, 2009

Malachi 3:1-4

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. ²But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; ³he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. ⁴Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

We tend to think of this season as hopeful—that’s what we talked about last week.  The hope that comes as we await the birth of the Christ Child.  And we do prepare in hope.  But along with that hope comes honesty.  And the season of Advent also invites us to prepare for Christ’s coming with some honesty about ourselves.  And so today we turn to the stars, not as a sign of hope, but as white hot balls of gas and fire which we correctly fear to encounter.

Our scripture reading for today comes from Malachi, one of those minor prophets in the Bible whose book we pass over if we read too quickly.  Malachi is a prophet who offers God’s word in a time of great restlessness.  The people of Jerusalem have returned after the Exile, they have rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem, worship is happening there once more, but something is missing.  The glory of the Lord has not yet returned.  All is ready and people are waiting restlessly on the Lord’s coming.  What must happen for it to occur?

The answer the people longed for was a formula or a certain time and place, or a few more things to be put into place, and then, surprise, the Lord would come.  And we tend to think of it that way, too, don’t we?  If the tree is up, and the cookies get baked and the packages mailed and I come to church on Christmas Eve, then the Lord will come.  Right?

No.  This time of preparation is not only about a nostalgic family celebration on Christmas Day.  It is about whether we are really ready for that magnificent and terrifying day when the Lord comes—a day, Malachi says, when the Lord will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver.

The refiner of metals has a fire hotter than anything we know—we might even say he has a fire as hot as that of the stars.  It melts the hardest substances, making them like putty in his hands. A refiner’s fire is the forced-air, white-hot blaze that melts metallic ores and brings their impurities to the surface for cleansing. And so we will be refined and reshaped by the starshower that accompanies the coming of our Lord.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the renowned German Lutheran pastor and theologian who was also a leader in the Nazi resistance, writes on this theme in a Advent sermon from 1928:

It is very remarkable that we face the thought that God is coming, so calmly, whereas previously peoples trembled at the day of God . . . . We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God’s coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God’s coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. The coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news for every one who has a conscience.[1]

What Bonhoeffer is getting at here is that the coming of the Lord should make us stand up and take notice.  In his day, he believed all those who had been silent while the Nazi regime continued to expand its reach needed to repent and reform.  So, too, should his words make us suddenly feel accountable for the injustices we have ignored, the greed with which we have cooperated, the lost whom we have forgotten.  We should, in fact, feel so accountable that we begin to repent and change.

You see, Advent is not merely a time to prepare in hope, but also a time to prepare in repentance.  This is a season when we can take stock, when we can examine our lives.  We know that God has invited us into relationship with him through grace beyond measure.  But we also know that God invites us to participate in that relationship by extending grace to others.  In order to fully prepare for the coming of Christ, we must be honest with ourselves about the places where we have fallen short, the places where we have been less than God what wants us to be.

This will not be an easy process.  It will be painful.  Just as painful as stepping into the white hot fire of a star. It will change us.  But it will also give us a new start, in the same way that a new school year or a new neighborhood or a new job fills us with a sense of renewal and new life.  Preparing for God’s coming with repentance can fill us with an immeasurable joy as we find ourselves more ready to meet our Lord.  And our Lord is coming.  Emmanuel is coming to dwell among us once more and save us from the darkness.  We can and we must prepare ourselves to walk in his light.  Amen.

****************

Catch A Falling Star

Advent 1, Year C ~ Luke 21:25-36

Kenwood UMC ~ November 29, 2009

I will freely admit that I am a city girl.  Not a big city girl—New York, Chicago, London, San Fransisco are fine to visit.  But for living day to day I want a decent sized city—Richmond, Charlotte, Atlanta—and the resources it offers—festivals, dining options, cultural opportunities for my kids, diversity.

But I’ve spent a bit of time in the country, and one of the things I love about country life is the stars.  When you get away from all the lights that city living creates, and get out into the inky blackness of a night sky, there is nothing like the stars you can see—is there?  There are hundreds of thousands of them winking away up there, with a promise of mystery and possibility.  And when you see a falling star against that kind of sky it is truly amazing—you think it must be falling to earth somewhere just over there, and if you could only run fast enough you could catch it.

Are we ready to catch a falling star?  That’s the question we ask ourselves this morning.  In the midst of all the signs in our world and our lives, in the midst of signs that we can easily interpret in the words of this scripture from Luke as distress among nations, are we ready for our redemption which is drawing near?

It is easy during this season of Advent to focus on remembering the past.  Remembering an unmarried teenage mother giving birth in a barn.  Remembering poor shepherds without enough money to find their next meal who are bowled over by an angelic message.  Remembering a powerful king who lashed out with anger when his power was threatened by the birth of a child.

But Advent is not only about remembering.  It is also about preparing, preparing for that day, that moment, when Christ will come again.  It is about being ready, in our hearts, for the moment when the unwed teenage mother and the poor day laborer and those who live in daily fear of terror attacks will suddenly find themselves released from injustice and redeemed.

That moment of redemption seems almost impossible, doesn’t it?  When we wake to news of a terrorist attack in Russia that strikes out of no where.  When we are fearful of what will happen whether we do or don’t build up troops in Afghanistan.  When we are wondering if our job is secure and if the economy will ever recover.  That moment of redemption gets lost amidst fear and hopelessness.

But that’s the gift we give the world in Advent.  Our confidence and hope in God’s redemptive plan for the world.  Our confidence and hope that no matter how lost and hopeless things seem, the signs of God’s redemption are already here, living among us.  We must just be ready to grab hold of them.  When we see the falling star, we must be ready to catch it.

Just like when, “[d]uring a sudden tornado, the staff and children of a Canadian summer camp took refuge in a shallow ravine. They huddled there through driving rain, lightning, and a howling wind that twisted the branches every which way. The children were calmed by staff who sang silly campfire songs and eventually worship songs. Later that evening, when the storm was over, that same staff was treated to one of the most achingly beautiful sunsets. The next day the children were asked about their experience and one said, “I was so scared I couldn’t even cry, but I knew we would be okay because the ravine made me feel like I was sitting in God’s hands.”[1]

That child was ready.  He wasn’t without fear.  But he was ready to see the care and salvation God was offering in the midst of chaos.    He was ready for God’s justice and righteousness.

What about you?  Are you ready? Not is the house decorated, are the presents bought and wrapped.  But are you ready?  Are you able to see God in the midst of the chaos of the world?  That’s what Advent is about.  Confessing that fear has gripped us for far too long.  Fear has clouded our vision of the stars, our vision of God’s majesty and promise.  Advent is about finding a place to see the stars, and then finding hope.  Finding hope and confidence in God’s purposes for the world.  And being so confident, so ready for justice and peace, that when the time comes, when the moment arrives, we are ready to catch the star, to grab hold of hope, to live into the world of peace.

Are you ready?  Are you looking?  The day is coming and now draws near, O people.  Be alert and be ready to witness the redemption of our Lord.

*********

The Promise of the Future

24^th Sunday After Pentecost, Year B ~ 1 Samuel 1:4-20, 2:1-10

Kenwood UMC ~ November 15, 2009

Have you ever found yourself in a place in life where you were devastated, and completely discouraged about God’s possibilities for your life?  There are many circumstances that bring us to that place: tragedy, death, job loss, the unraveling of a relationship.

If anyone should be devastated about God’s possibilities for their life, it should be Hannah.  In an age where polygamy, or the practice of men having more than one wife was common, Hannah was the barren wife, the wife who could not have children.  And, of course, in the time in which she lived, the only value of a woman was placed in whether she could have children and provide heirs for her husband.

And, of course, while Hannah’s husband, Elkanah, continued to love her faithfully, she was not supported by her community, particularly not be her rival wife Penninah.  The scripture say that Penninah irritated her—the specific Hebrew meaning is that Penninah caused her to thunder or tremble.  Have you ever had that shaky feeling in the pit of your stomach whenever you saw someone who irritated you?  Hannah lived with that constantly.

But the amazing thing about Hannah is this:  she did not give up her faith.  She had every reason to.  But she believed and trusted in God.  In fact she believed and trusted in God so much that she made a promise to God.  If he would grant her a child, she would dedicate that child to the priesthood.  It is an extraordinary commitment.

And as she is praying fervently, making that commitment, the temple priest, Eli,  sees her and assumes she is publicly drunk because she is intensely talking to herself.  He goes to investigate and she again has the courage to speak the truth, to stand up to Eli’s accusations and boldly proclaim her faith.  Her belief in God’s promises leads her to take action, to demonstrate by her commitment that she will be a part of God’s new creation in the world.

I know you’ve had barren times.  Times when you were not sure of the way forward—or if there was a way forward.  We all have.  And our church has also had barren times.  Helen Thurston speaks to me of the time when she grieved for Kenwood, when worship attendance was around 50, when children were not present, when she worried about the future of her church.  Those times come for lots of reasons, but they also invite an opportunity to hope, and to step out boldly on the promise of God’s new creation.

In the last several years, we’ve made some commitments.  We’ve committed to being more flexible and creative in worship, even though that may be scary sometimes.  But we know that making that commitment to be more flexible and creative in worship will allow God to work through us to reach more people.

We’ve committed to reaching out more to help those in need.  Everyone who ever signs up for the Kenwood Cares tutoring program, helping kids at Elmont, thinks, is this the right ministry for me?  Can I do this?  And you know what—I’ve never seen anyone fail at it.  We’ve committed ourselves to our neighbors in Mission to Hanover.  And last year we took a huge first step in committing the proceeds of our Fall Festival to someone else—someone beyond ourselves.  When the Fall Festival first began as a Brunswick Stew, I am told that it’s purpose was to raise money to pay the church’s insurance bill.  And it continued for many years as a fundraiser to raise money to support our operating budget.  But a couple of years ago, Kenwood’s leaders made a decision—a faith commitment.  Why, they wondered, should be hoard the proceeds of the largest community outreach event we do?  Why shouldn’t we use it to help others.  And so now we do.  Last year we helped the Shan family.  This year the Festival proceeds will help us go help others in Appalachia.   We’ve made a commitment to use that money to be a part of what God is already doing to bring healing and new life to other parts of our community and world.

And, you know, when Hannah made a commitment, do you know what happened?  She gave birth to Samuel, who would become one of the most powerful leaders of Israel, and who would inaugurate the reign of great kings in Israel.  Her commitment allowed God to work through her to do amazing kingdom work.

What about our commitment today?  As a community we are standing on a threshold.  I believe God wants to create a new future for us, a future when we will be an even greater leader of ministries of compassion and caring in this community.  Our facility expansion is part of that.  Our desire to add a new part time staff person in 2010 to equip leaders in our children’s youth and other ministries is a part of that.  God wants to create a new future for us.

But it is only going to happen with our commitment.  It is only going to happen when we have faith enough to say, yes, God I believe you are doing something new, and I submit myself to be a part of it.  I give my prayers, my time, my energy and my financial support to your promise for our future.  With your commitment, God will do fulfill amazing promises through the life of this church.  Without your commitment?  Well, without your commitment God is handicapped.  Without Hannah’s commitment of her son, there would have been no Samuel, no one to anoint Saul or David. No one to give them wise counsel.  Without your commitment, we will be missing something, something that God believes is essential to God’s future—otherwise God wouldn’t have brought you here.

In just a moment, you are going to have a chance to respond to God’s future, God’s promises, with your commitment card for our 2010 operating budget.  And it’s a financial commitment, to help us decide how far out in faith we can step.  But it is more than that.  It is your commitment of yourself to what God is doing at Kenwood church.   Let this be a season when God’s promises come to life in the future of our ministry together at Kenwood.  Amen.

******************************

Defined By Generosity

Enough Series, Week 4 ~ Genesis 28:18-22

Kenwood UMC ~ November 8, 2009

Genesis 28.18-22

18 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. ¹⁹He called that place Bethel;^* but the name of the city was Luz at the first. ²⁰Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, ²¹so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, ²²and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you.’

Recently I had reason to read through notes from leadership meetings at Kenwood in the 1930’s and 40’s. I found it interesting that those notes were full of struggle about finances.  Will we have enough to pay the orphanage offering for the year?  What about the benevolences?  And the pastor?  Can we renew the insurance?  The meetings were full of worry and concern, and certainly this was a time, coming out of the Great Depression, when there was widespread economic stress.

Nevertheless, I found myself mourning the lack of joy and excitement about ministry and mission.  I understood it, but I mourned the attitude of scarcity and fear, the preoccupation with hoarding and saving up for tomorrow.

You know, we were not created to hoard.  We were created to be generous.  We were created with the desire to give, the desire to care for others.  But like the leaders of Kenwood in the early 1930’s, we often have a tendency to hoard, to keep all we have, worrying about that rainy day.  We do this because we are afraid of the unknown—of what lies ahead.  We also do this because we think, well, if I give too much away, there won’t be enough for me.  And it’s all about me.  Isn’t it?

When we surrender our lives to Christ, we defeat those voices of fear and selfishness.  When we surrender our lives to Christ, we are able to trust in his care for us.  We are transformed from within and we are able to make careful, thoughtful decisions and know that we can take care of ourselves—and we are also able to find joy in giving back to God and giving care for others.

The Bible is clear that one of the defining practices of God’s people is that we give back to God a portion of the best that we have.  In the Bible, that is called the giving of the first fruits—the first part of the harvest—or it is called the tithe.  In today’s scripture reading, we have an example of one of the fathers of our faith, Jacob, promising to return to God a tithe—one tenth of what he made—in thankfulness for God’s gift of life to him.

Although as Christians we are no longer bound to all the Laws of Moses in the Old Testaments, most Christians agree that the tithe, or the practice of returning a tenth to God, is a good guideline for us, and a practice that is pleasing to God.

Let’s think a little more about the tithe using these ten apples on the altar and these words from Adam Hamilton.

(Play clip “Tithing and the Ten Apples”)

Now, I know from personal experience that tithing can be a struggle.  I’ve looked at that 10% and I’ve started to think of all the things I could do with that money—I’ve wanted to take a bite from the apple.  But I also know from personal experience that tithing can be rewarding.  It can fill you with a sense of thanksgiving and generosity which simply can’t be felt any other way.  And if you don’t feel like you can begin with a tithe, you can grow into it.  Begin at 2 or 3%, and grow a percent each year.  But be intentional.  Be intentional about what you give back to God.  It is a habit that will shape you.

Bring intentional about giving a portion of our income back to God changes us.  When we take one step towards generosity, we become more generous.  When we make generosity a habit, an intentional practice, suddenly we find ourselves joyfully generous in many more ways—in our attitudes, with our time, and certainly with our resources.

Now, I want to be clear that we don’t give to God in order to get something back in return.  It isn’t like investing in a money market fund.  We give back to God because it is an act of praise and thanksgiving for all God has given to us.  And it doesn’t end in the tithe.  One of the things the practice of the tithe does is begin to reshape us spiritually, reshape our commitment to Christ.

A few weeks ago I was at an event with a few people from Kenwood where we heard Tony Campolo speak.  And one of the things Tony talked about was that wonderful hymn “I Surrender All,” and how it so defines the Christian life.  And Tony said, you know, it doesn’t go like this:

One tenth to Jesus I surrender, I surrender one tenth.

It’s I surrender all.  We give our all to Christ.  We give our all in our patterns of attending worship, in our prayer life, our Bible reading, our participation in small groups, and in our giving.  And when we give, we are transformed.  We are able to see in new ways the blessings we already have, the things that have been hidden because we have lacked generous spirits.  Being defined by generosity changes us—it draws us closer to Christ.

This morning we have included in your bulletin an insert titled Personal Goals and Commitment.  It invites you to think about what you will give back to God next year.  I want to ask you to take a moment now to fill out your Personal Commitment and to place it in your Bible.  It’s between God and you, and it is about how you will choose to honor God.  May it be a reminder for you in the coming year of how God invites each of us into a relationship with Him, an active and living relationship that is defined by generosity.

************************

Cultivating Contentment

Enough 3 ~ Philippians 4:1-14

Kenwood UMC ~ November 1, 2009

Philippians 4:10-14

It was the night or morning of February 12 this year when I got one of those 3 am phone calls which is never good news.  In this case, it was one of Mary Beth and Nigel Selby’s neighbors calling to tell me about their house fire, and to let me know how to be in touch with them.  As I talked with Mary Beth that night, she in Florida, and I just a few miles away, really had no idea of the depth of loss that we were talking about.

As the days and weeks unfolded, there was a lot to process—emotions, logistics, relocating.  But one of the most daunting tasks for the Selbys was the inventory.  Just a few weeks ago after we discussed this Enough emphasis in our Finance Committee, Mary Beth pulled me aside and told me I could share their story.  She wanted me to share what an awakening moment it was to inventory every single thing in their household that had been lost in the fire.  As she really started to list the clothing, the Tupperware, the knick knacks, the toys, she realized clearly that it was too much—and that it didn’t really make her happy.  What made her happy was the safety of her family, the caring and support of her family, friends and community.  What made her happy could never really be quantified on an inventory list for an insurance company.

That’s true isn’t it?  What brings us happiness or contentment in life is not our possessions, but something far different.  The apostle Paul names that source of contentment as faith in Christ who strengthens him.  And that’s what we know in our hearts.  In our hearts we know that our lives “do not consist in the abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15).  But we struggle.  We struggle to keep our contentment grounded in God.  We find ourselves straying easily, trying to make ourselves happy with things, possessions.  We may say that our possessions don’t bring us contentment—but often our actions do not back up that message.

So how do we break out of this trap of seeking happiness through stuff?  How do we become reoriented to finding contentment through our faith in God and living out God’s purposes for us?  On this All Saints Sunday, when I think of the saints in my life, those who have modeled faith for me, they have all shared that characteristic, of finding their contentment, their happiness in God alone.  And I want to be like them.  I yearn to know God more, to cultivate peace in my life.  Don’t you?

So what do we do when we start to turn to our possessions to make us happy?  What do we do when we’ve had a bad day, and our instinct is to cheer ourselves up by going and buying something: a new album on iTunes, a new piece of jewelry—or even just a milkshake at Sonic.  How do we manage that desire we have to take control and make ourselves happy?

First, start asking yourself this question as it relates to possessions: How long will this make me happy?  You know, I’ve got this pair of really cure shoes—red and white striped ballet flats—they were so cute in the store—I was glad to buy them.  But I’ve worn them about twice.  I have very little to wear them with.  Mostly they sit in my closet and I look and them and feel guilty that I ever bought them.  They did not make me happy for very long.

Now this pair of shoes, my black Danskos, on the other hand, bring me constant happiness.  The only downside to these shoes is that my husband hates them.  They are comfortable, I can wear them with anything, they were a great purchase!

How long will this make me happy?  Start asking yourself that when you’re about to make a purchase and sooner or later you’ll be able to discern between things that do bring long-term satisfaction, and things that are just satisfying a need for happiness in the moment.

Another question you can ask yourself is, what is the long term impact of this choice?  We’ve learned to ask that question about the vehicles we drive and how they consume gasoline.  We’ve also learned to ask it when it comes to choosing paper or plastic bags or using reusable bags.  But we can ask it about lots of other things.  What is the long term impact of not having time in the morning and not packing a lunch but just grabbing some fast food at lunchtime.  Well, $5-6 a day and unhealthy eating for starters.  It seems like an easy solution that will make you happy when you can sleep in and run out the door without packing a lunch—but it has a long term impact.

And finally, a question you can begin asking yourself is, “is there another way I could use my time, money or energy that would draw me closer to God?”  If we really believe that our relationship with God is what brings us contentment and purpose in life, then we need to reflect that with the patterns of our lives.  We need to reflect that in how we spend our time, whether worship and prayer is a part of our lives, and we need to reflect that in how we allocate our money.

And only you can make the choice.  Only you can choose how content you will be.  You choose what your life will be about.  You invite God into your heart to reframe and reshape you.  And you can begin today.

**************************************

Wisdom and Finance

Enough Series, Week 2 ~ Luke 15:11-16

Kenwood UMC ~ October 25, 2009

Luke 15: 11-24

11 Then Jesus^* said, ‘There was a man who had two sons. ¹²The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. ¹³A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. ¹⁴When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. ¹⁶He would gladly have filled himself with^* the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. ¹⁷But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! ¹⁸I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’ ” ²⁰So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. ²¹Then the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”^{* 22}But the father said to his slaves, “Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; ²⁴for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate.

I can imagine the prodigal son standing there, living his dream life, buying what he wants, eating out all the time, redecorating when it pleased him.  And then I can imagine him standing and staring at his checking account and going, “wait, where has all the money gone?”

Did you know that the word prodigal does not literally mean someone who wanders away, which is what we often think of when we hear this story?  Prodigal literally means someone who is given to wasteful luxury or extravagance.  Prodigal is this man who goes and squanders his inheritance in luxurious living, and then asks, “where did it go?”

It’s probably a feeling we have all experienced to some degree.  All of us have had a week or a month or a holiday season when we spent faster than we thought and we’ve had a moment of “where did all the money go.”  Many of us have sat down with our tax return and looked at that adjusted gross income figure and said, really, where did it all go?!

There are two easy and practical answers to that question, where did it all go.  The first is, impulse buying.  You know, you go in the store with two things on your list and come out with 4.  You are at a craft show and just can’t pass something up.  All those things add up!  The second answer, for Americans, is that our money gets frittered away eating out.  The average American eats out four times each week.[1] At $5 a meal as a minimum, that’s $20 a week or $1,040 a year.

What’s a Christian to do?  How do we get out of this trap of spending, spending, spending, relying on credit when we don’t have cash.  How do we stop letting money manage us and get wise and start managing our money?  I believe it begins with practicing our faith.

Let me ask you a question.  Have you ever, as you have read or heard the stories in Genesis 1 and 2, understood that we were created to accumulate money and possessions?  No, you haven’t.  We were created to live in God’s image and to be stewards, or caretakers, of the earth.  Money is a tool for doing that.  Not a means to itself.  And did you ever hear Jesus say love your possessions as you love yourself?  No it was love your neighbor as you love yourself.  That’s the second purpose we have as God’s people: to love our neighbors.  Money is a tool to accomplish that.  Money is a tool that we use as God’s people.  And how we spend our resources reflects our commitment to God.

So if we are going to accomplish God’s purposes for our lives, and to live as committed Christians, we need to set worthy goals.  We are trained, aren’t we, to save for vacation or Christmas or other major purchases.  Those are goals we set.  But what about the goals that are beyond what we want to own or how much it will cost to educate our children.  What is your sense of purpose in life?  What do you think, in particular, God has created you to be and do?

Included in your bulletin today is a two-sided insert, and on one of those sides is a worksheet titled “My Life and Financial Goals.”  I invite you to take it home and give it some thought and prayer.  It invites us to consider our life’s purpose, goals that will help us accomplish that purpose, and then financial goals that can help accomplish our life’s goals and purpose.  As you ponder your life goals, I want to challenge you to make at least one of them relate to your faith.  To grow in your faith every year, to grow in your time spent in serving the poor—there are lots of faith-related goals you could set.

Now, once we’ve set goals, we then need to develop a committed pattern of living that will allow us to accomplish those goals.  To accomplish our life’s goals, and not be pulled off course by the temptations of the world as the prodigal son was, we have to have a disciplined approach to managing our money.  And to do that, we need a budget and spending plan.  Some people can do this on their own, others turn to a financial advisor or counselor.  But to get you started, we’ve included a budget worksheet for you on the back of the purpose and goals worksheet.  It outlines major expenditure items, with a suggested percentage for each.  Those percentages come from the popular Christian financial planning author Dave Ramsey.  I invite you to take a while this week to compare your reality with those suggested percentages, and learn where you might make a difference.  David Saunders has also put together this display of financial planning resources for us as well, and I invite you to come and take at look at them after worship.

But, for all of us as Christians, there are six key principles we can follow, based in scripture, which can help us all move toward more healthy money management.  As I go through these, don’t worry about remembering them or writing them down.  We’re going to give you these static clings with the principles written on them as you leave worship today.  And I would encourage you to explore them further, to use them as devotional material and look up the scriptures they come from.

The first principle is to pay your offering first.  If we put God first in our giving, we are more likely to put God first in our living.  Don’t wait until you see what’s leftover and give that to God.  Give to God right away, off the top of your monthly income.

Next, create a budget.  I talked about this a moment ago, but let me make an analogy.  I workout regularly, try to eat right, and want to maintain a healthy weight.  In order to do that I get on the scale regularly.  And the number that appears there holds me accountable.  It’s a reality check, and lets me know when I need to be more careful.  A budget does the same thing for our finances.

The third principle that can guide us as Christians is to simplify our lifestyles.  This principle is so critical spiritually that I’ll focus on it during next Sunday’s sermon.

It is also important to establish an emergency fund.  That’s a fund that is separate from long-term savings or regular checking, and is a fund you use for emergencies.  Dave Ramsey recommends beginning with $1,000 and building it to three months worth of income.  When you have this kind of fund and the car needs new brakes or you need to replace your air conditioner—you don’t have to use your credit card and get trapped in a cycle of debt.

Fifth, pay off your credit cards, use cash/debit cards for what you buy and use credit wisely.  There are lots of folks out there who can help you get out of credit debt, and lots of strategies to do it.  If you find yourself in this situation and need help, I will be glad to help you find a resource to assist you.

Finally, practice long-term savings and investing habits.  Saving for the sake of saving is not Biblical.  Saving for long-term goals and purposes, such as retirement or a college education or an emergency fund, is Biblical and purposeful.

Now, I know this has been a lot of information, for many of us a lot to process.  But  let me bring us back once more to the prodigal son, the one who lived wastefully.  How does the story end?  He comes home.  He comes home and his father embraces him.  And as we turn away from a world focused on consumption and begin to focus on wise financial practices that are aligned with God’s purposes for our lives, God will welcome us home with loving arms.

************************************

When Dreams Become Nightmares

Enough Series 1 ~ 1 Timothy 6:6-10

Kenwood UMC ~ October 18, 2009

1 Timothy 6:6-10

Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; ⁷for we brought nothing into the world, so that^* we can take nothing out of it; ⁸but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. ⁹But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

This week I met someone who was born in another country, but moved to the States twenty years ago with her husband and small children.  One of the reasons for her move was a health issue of one of her children, and her belief that in America those issues could be better addressed and the child have a better chance at success in life.

Her story is echoed by almost all of us in America, because there is a conviction deep in our culture that we can work hard and achieve a better life.  That conviction is not one we are consciously aware of, but it is one that defines almost all of us to a degree: if we work hard, we can get more, and when we get more and achieve success we will finally be happy.  It’s the American Dream.

Except recently the American Dream has looked a lot more like the American Nightmare.   Our desire for wanting more has driven us as a country into a grim economic situation.  We extended ourselves in home-buying and credit, we figured if we just kept working hard enough it would all be OK.  And then, for the first time in many of our lifetimes, the bottom fell out last fall.

Adam Hamilton, pastor of The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City, writes in his book Enough that there are at least two diseases that have led to this nightmare: affluenza and creditits.  Affluenza is the desire for more and more and more.  It’s the disease that comes when we are never able to be satisfied with what we have, but instead always pursue more.  And affluenza leads to credititis—we use credit to buy stuff we can’t afford, living beyond our means, because something drives us to have it all—and credit makes that possible.[1]

As we’ve been driven to want more and more and more, we’ve accumulated stuff like all of that on the altar today.  Now none of this stuff up here is bad—stuffed animals, DVD’s, the spare set of golf clubs, lots of luggage.  It’s all perfectly legitimate stuff to have—it’s not illegal or immoral.  But the question is, do we need it?  Or is our desire for it taking over our lives and hearts.  Does all of this stuff, and our desire for it, start to get in the way of our desire for a relationship with God?  It has to.  Look up here—doesn’t the cross start to get lost in the midst of all this stuff?

Our real problem is spiritual, not financial.  Our real problem is that we have redirected the focus of our desire from God to possessions.  St. Augustine, one of the early church fathers, once said that his heart was restless until it found rest in God.  Now for many of us that isn’t a true statement.  The true statement is my heart is restless until I have enough stuff.

But our scripture today makes us stop and take notice. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

Friends, we are enslaved by our desire for stuff.  We are enslaved, not by money, but by the love of it—and all the stuff it buys.  And our enslavement to all this stuff has caused us to wander away from the faith.

So, what’s the solution?  The solution is to allow God to work within us to bring about a change in our hearts.  The solution is not to sell our possessions and go live with the poor—at least that is not the solution for most of us.  The solution is to start clearing away the clutter, to start examining our lives and our priorities and begin to shift the object of our desire.  We need to learn how to desire God instead of beautiful homes and computers and cars and sporting goods and trips and clothing and all of this stuff.

That need to reorient ourselves and make sure our desire is on God has been on the hearts of many church leaders as we look forward to constructing a Ministry Center on Cobbs Road.  This building is going to be beautiful.  It’s going to be new.  It’s going to be hooked into county water and sewer.  It’s going to have a beautiful kitchen and space to serve a meal for at least triple our current capacity.

But we’ve got to remember—all of that is stuff.  The Ministry Center isn’t about stuff.  It’s about ministry.  It’s about being better equipped to serve the poor through a food pantry or clothes closet.  It’s about being able to provide a place for senior adults to gather—both for simple fellowship and also in an adult day care setting.   It’s about providing safe walking trails to promote exercise and heath among the community.  It’s about providing a space to care for children.  The Ministry Center is about ministry—but boy is it easy to forget that and start to get tempted by the building and all the stuff that will go in it.

God calls us to reprioritize, to change our hearts, to study our lives and decide what is enough.  As we move through the next few weeks in worship together, we will be sharing tools that can help us with that reprioritizing.  We will be working through this together, as brothers and sisters in Christ.  But it begins here, with a desire for a change of heart, a desire to draw closer to God.           

---

[1] Adam Hamilton, Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity, Nashville: Abingdon, 2009.

When Things Are Broken

18^thSunday After Pentecost, Year B ~ Mark 10:2-12

Kenwood UMC ~ October 4, 2009

As some of you know last week Aaron and I went to see our favorite music group, U2, in concert.  On our way into Charlottesville on Thursday night for the concert, Aaron asked me to get out this parking pass and hang it on the rearview mirror so we could get where we needed to be to park.  I was hanging it, but the mirror was thick, and the hanger was small, and I was distracted….and I ended up ripping it.  Luckily, one of our companions had a sticker on that he had received when he got a flu shot, and we used it to repair the parking pass.

Unfortunately, some things in life aren’t quite that easy to repair when they get broken.  In fact, some things can’t be repaired at all.

I’d like to ask for a show of hands here. How many of you have been affected by divorce?  Yours, your parents, a friend’s a neighbor’s…raise your hand if you’ve been affected by divorce.

As I suspected divorce is something that has touched all of our lives.  And I have to tell you that when I came back to this scripture we are about to read from Mark, after choosing to preach on it a few weeks ago, I thought, what was I thinking?  I don’t want to tackle this!  Jesus says some really tough things about divorce here.  And I almost switched things out….and then I remembered that divorce is one of those things that has touched all of our lives.  So I decided we needed to spend this time on this passage.

And it is a tough passage to spend time with.  Anyone who is divorced and also a Christian—or wanting to be a Christian, winces at these words from Christ.

Read passage, Mark 10:2-12

Now, I know that this passage makes us uncomfortable, because all of us know of situations where divorce really did seem to be the best way forward.  But I think it is worth our time to look more closely at exactly what Jesus is saying here.

First, we have to remember that this is another time in Jesus’ ministry when the Pharisees are trying to test him.  They are trying to trip him up by pushing him on his interpretations of the law.  Well, let’s go back and take a look at the law that they are asking him about.  It is in the 24^th chapter of Deuteronomy, and here is what it says:

Suppose a man enters into marriage with a woman, but she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her, and so he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; she then leaves his house ²and goes off to become another man’s wife. ³Then suppose the second man dislikes her, writes her a bill of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house (or the second man who married her dies); ⁴her first husband, who sent her away, is not permitted to take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled; (Deuteronomy 24:4)

Now, this law is describing divorce, but it seems to be divorce based on whim and fancy.  It describes men divorcing women simply because they are objectionable.

Jesus is going to take issue with this kind of practice of divorce on several levels.  First, it is very focused on the man having power over the woman.  In his culture women were merely property, and men often did what they wanted with women without much regard for their feelings or views.  Secondly, this sending away of spouses because they are objectionable hardly speaks of a depth of relationship.  I think Jesus is reacting not only to divorce, but also to a way of viewing marriage that seems shallow as well as demeaning to women.

We also have to remember that this is the same Jesus who last week told us that we should remove stumbling blocks from our midst.  And we know, in our culture, that sometimes relationships get broken.  They become ripped and torn in ways that are not repairable.  And in those situations they become stumbling blocks.  And we need to remove them.  Our United Methodist Church as a denomination says this about divorce:

However, when a married couple is estranged beyond reconciliation, even after thoughtful consideration and counsel, divorce is a regrettable alternative in the midst of brokenness. We grieve over the devastating emotional, spiritual, and economic consequences of divorce for all involved and are concerned about high divorce rates.[1]

The reality of divorce as a regrettable alternative when a relationship is broken leads us to ask: what is the role of the church today in relationship to people who have experienced or are experiencing divorce?  The first role the church has is to support and cultivate marriages that are strong and deep.  The church can also acknowledge that marriage is difficult work, and support couples through counseling and other means.  But the church must also stand up for the vulnerable and the abused, just as Jesus did on many, many occasions.  No one should stay in a marriage where they are not treated as a precious child of God by their spouse.  And marriages that are broken and result in divorce create many vulnerable people.  Both spouses are vulnerable and hurting.  So are their children, parents and friends. Our job, as followers of Jesus, is not to condemn those who make the difficult decision to divorce.  Our job is to stand with Jesus and make sure that such decisions are not made lightly, and that when they are made, all the people involved can find places to begin to heal.

Providing a place to heal the deep hurts of life is unquestionably the job of the church.  As Jesus taught us, we open our arms to those who are broken—whether by divorce, illness, tragedy, job loss or any of the many things in this life that wound us.  As we gather as a community, as we gather at the communion table, we acknowledge that we are all broken people, but that our participation in the body of Christ can make us whole once more.  May those whose lives are ripped and torn find hope and healing in this place through relationships with one another and with Jesus Christ.

[1] From The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church - 2004. Copyright 2004 by The United Methodist Publishing House. Used by permission.

********************************************************