/Sermons

9-3-2006 JHP Back to school.rtf

Sat, 3 Mar 2007 02:37:26 GMT

Sermon: Living our Faith
Jane H. Peifer
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
September 3, 2006

BACK TO SCHOOL SUNDAY
Text: Deuteronomy 6:1-15a
Purpose: To encourage parents and everyone to live their faith in a way that embraces and nurtures our children in the faith, and our faith tradition.

Passing on our faith to our children is a tricky thing…because kids are really smart, and they usually end up picking up the way we really feel about church and God and such more than all the stuff we teach them about God. So all the Sunday school classes in the world can't make up for grandparents and parents and teachers and mentors who don't really love God, who don't really love their neighbors and who don't believe that God loves them. Now that is a sobering thing.

This is what Moses is preaching about. Here in Deuteronomy he is charging the people with the tenets of the revelation he received from God. He is preaching a sermon! Deuteronomy is the longest sermon in the Bible, and perhaps the longest sermon ever. The Plains of Moab where he delivered this sermon was the last stop on the 40-year journey from where God's people had been released from slavery to the Promised Land of freedom where they were headed. God's people had experienced a lot as a congregation: deliverance, wanderings, rebellions, war, God providence, worship, guidance, providing food. . . .and they have heard a lot from God: commandments, covenant conditions, sacrificial procedures, and now --- here they were ready to cross over the Jordan River --- to possess the land God promised them. Moses makes sure that they do not leave any of their experiences behind, nor that that leave behind any memory of God's dream for them and God's deliverance of them. ``Do not forget'' Moses kept saying.

Moses --- in these first 11 chapters of Deuteronomy      wraps it all up for them and says to them . . .
Listen obediently, Israel. Do what you're told so that you'll have a good life, a life of abundance and bounty, just as God promised, in a land abounding in milk and honey. Listen, Israel! The Lord is our God the Lord alone. Love God, your God, with your whole heart; love God with all that's in you . L ove God with all you've got! Write these commandments that I've given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children; t alk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; t alk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and fo reheads as a reminder; Inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.
                                                                                          (Message)

These words became Judaism's confession of faith . . . or the shema as it is called. Hear, O Israel; The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

Jesus would have grown up reciting these words morning and evening with his family, so that when a lawyer stood up once to test Jesus with the question . . ``Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'' Jesus asked him what is written in the law, and the lawyer answered correctly. ``You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.'' And Jesus said, ``Yep, you got it. Do this, and you will live.''

God's dream for this world is not all that complicated. It is not hard to understand . . . . it is just a tad difficult to live, and it is in the living of it . . . .that we truly teach our children.

Mister Rodgers was a favorite television show for my children and me , and unfortunately, we lost this great communicator with children in 2003 , when he died of cancer at age 74. Mr. Rodger's mission was ``to use his ``Neighborhood'' to persuade young viewers to love themselves and others.'' I'm sure there is no way to qualify this statement, but I would guess that Mr. Roger's did in his lifetime as much religious education as most churches put together. His main message to children never changed (and neither did the show very much over the years) . His message was ``You are lovable just as you are'' . . . but he also asked them to be better than they might be on their own --    by being kind, being open, and using their imaginations. He taught children how to share, how to deal with anger, and how to be tolerant. And he soothed them with rituals. . . like putting on his sweater and changing his shoes with the little toss in the air. Mr. Rodger's ministry was based on his belief that . . . ``At the center of the universe is a loving heart that continues to beat and that wants the best for every person. Anything we can do to foster the intellect and spirit of emotional growth of our fellow human beings, that is our job he said. Those of us who have this particular vision must continue this work against all odds. Life is for service.'' he believed.

So, Loving God whose loving heart beats at the center of our universe . . .and truly believing that that bigger-than-the-universe-God loves even me . Those two realities are the vision and the impetus for loving others , for nurturing people . . . which in the end changes our world. And which is the vision of this congregation. Trusting God following Jesus receiving the Spirit , w e nurture people and change our world. . . a nd when we have been given children as our congregation has been given , we have a tremendous responsibility to live out this vision.

Cornnelia Lehn, Canadian Mennonite, in a little booklet called ``Children and Faith'' would agree with Mr. Rodgers that one our main tasks as parents and teachers of children is that we value them in their present lives. She writes that Jesus demonstrated by his actions and words (when he picked up a child and proclaimed them the greatest in the kingdom) that he valued children in their own right and not just as future adults. ``Children are living right now.'' she writes . . .
``They have mental, emotional and spiritual needs that must be met. God has given them active minds. They have many questions they want to know about God and about death and about life. God has given them a longing to be loved and understood. If they do not receive love and understanding they wilt and some even die like plants without sun and rain. and . . .They need to experience forgiveness and to forgive others.''

These are all ``life in the Spirit'' skills that children need to experience with us day in and day out. . . .and we must learn to talk about our faith in ways that are simple and concrete, but even more than knowing how to talk about our faith . . . we just need to love them and keep them by our side
as we live God's love in the world . . .so that their imaginations can stay open and nurtured and alive.
Sometimes we think we are teaching them when in reality we are just completely loosing them
. . .like the little boy who cried and cried all the way home after his little brother was dedicated at church one Sunday morning. His Dad had asked him 3 times what was wrong and finally he was able to say what was troubling him . . .``The pastor said that she wanted us brought up in a Christian home, and I want to stay with you guys!''

In 2001, several educators from General Conference Mennonite Church, compiled a list of ideas fo r nurturing faith at home. It used to be that the religious education of our children was very centered in our homes (some of you will remember being raised with regular family worship, Bible reading, praying, writing to missionaries) , . . .but sad to say, our families now are more centered around the sporting event schedule, or the parent's work schedules , or the music, dance and art lessons. Obviously there is nothing wrong with these activities unless they become the center around which every other family activity revolves , because then our children are misled about how important our faith in God really is.

I'm not suggesting that this is easy . . .and to be honest I'm kind of glad I don't have to deal with the tension of all of the things available for children to participate in, but I'll leave you with this list of suggestions (ideas for us as a congregation and for parents of children at home) .

Celebrate the Christian Church Year Calendar
This means that Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Good Friday, Ascension Day, and Pentecost are bigger days on your families calendar , than Mother's day, 4 ^th of July, Valentines Day and President's day or Labor Day. Mark these days of the Christian calendar in some way in your household -- a special meal, or time of worship, some tradition you assign to each days or seasons so that your household begins to live in the rhythm of the Christian year.

Remember the Sabbath
Make Sabbath time each week as a family. Prepare yourselves for a day of rest. Make plans for activities that are restful and celebrative not work for any of you. Take a break from household chores including homework, do not turn the television on, play games, enjoy nature, have some friends over, take time for ``faith questions'', sing together, make something to give to someone who needs to know God's love . If this feels like a stretch begin by doing it for 3 hours/week, and gradually increase it as you begin to feel the benefits of Sabbath rhythm. Work and rest. It is essential for our living … and for the most part, we have lost it.

Pray together
Prayer is also essential for faith growth. And kids are great pray-ers. Learn from them.
Pray daily. In morning prayer thank God for another day and ask for God's blessing and guidance throughout the day. My friend and Chester and Sara Jane's daughter Sara and her husband Gerald had some sort of a parting blessing for each of their children each morning when they went to school. Ask Tim what he remembers about their morning blessing.

At mealtime, thank God for the food you have to eat. Hold hands and be silent together. In the evening, reflect back over your day and identify what makes you sad, or angry or sorry or happy. Use objects to assist in your prayer . . . .a candle to light, something to pass around the table at mealtime, a prayer shawl for the family member who is particularly sad or needing prayer.
Or, collect the cards that are sent to you for a specific reason (Christmas, birthday, sympathy, get-well), and pray for the person who sent it to you one each day.

Finding God in the Stranger
When we practice hospitality, we become more like Christ. Greet new neighbors with a bag of chocolate chip cookies, or a pot of soup. Invite them to your home and/or to your church. Plan apartment or street parties. Help out with community services. Be deliberate about visiting t hose who are sick, lonely or in prison and take the children with you. Your actions teach far more than your words.

Create Birthday faith rituals
Birthdays can be special faith markers. Make a habit of sharing faith stories and faith affirmations on birthdays. The birthday person recalls how God has been faithful in his/her life in the past year. Others in the family can share how they have seen God at work in this person's life. These can be spoken or written gift blessings. Certain milestone birthdays should be honored in a special way, for example, for 12 year olds, 16 or 50.

Foster Relationships
If you live in a home without children or youth, become a foster parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle. Adopt a family with young children and treat them as your own. Households with children may wish to adopt a grandparent, an older person who does not have children of their own. Be deliberate about building loving relationships.

Create a Prayer Garden at home
Create space out-of-doors for a prayer garden. It doesn't have to be big. Plant flowers, herbs, vegetables. As your household works together with the earth and growing things, talk about how God is so good at growing things, and express your thanks to God. Spend time alone with God in the garden. If you have produce to share, bring it along to church. If you do not have outdoor space, plant a dish garden or a grouping of indoor plants as a way to be in touch with God's goodness and life giving spirit.

Religious education at home
The church cannot provide adequate Christian instruction during 50 minutes of SS a week, so set aside time each week at least an hour to immerse your household in Bible stories and teachings. And that is one of the exciting features of this new curriculum that we are celebrating today. It is designed to help families to keep the conversation and activities and stories going at home. Michelle has explained to us all about that feature of this new curriculum.

I hope that these suggestions may have sparked some ideas of your own , and I pray that all of us --- parents, teachers every person in our congregation is mindful of how our speech, our actions, our attitudes, our praying, our singing, our stories --- all that we are and all that we do reflects our love for God, and our neighbors as ourselves. . . and that our children will catch that vision as they walk with us day by day.

I leave you with this Quaker blessing for the home:
Make our homes, we pray
         places of friendliness,
         refreshment,
         and peace;
         where you become more real
         to all who dwell there
         and to those who visit.

We pray these things on our own behalf
and on behalf of each other, our fellow believers,
amidst whom our children learn to live
as your disciples. Amen.

7-23-2006 JHP Colossians intro.rtf

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 02:44:22 GMT

Sermon: Colossians Introduction; part 1 of 5
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Jane H. Peifer
July 23, 2006

Texts: Colossians
Resource Book: Colossians Remixed; Subverting the Empire by Walsh and Keesmaat
Good News: Jesus Christ sets our ``constricted by empire'' imaginations free.
Purpose: To empower the Blossom Hill Community to re-imagine the world as if Christ, and not the powers, were sovereign.

Today we begin a 5 part study of the book of Colossians. And I am quite excited about this study . . . for this reason. There is a book that has opened new windows for me concerning the similarities between the Colossian Christians and us (Christians in the 21^st Century in the western hemisphere)

Two years ago, InterVarsity Press published this book called ``Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire by Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat. Brian and Sylvia are married. Brian is a chaplin at the University of Toronto and Sylvia is Assoc. Professor of biblical studies at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto.

I give you all of this background about the book because we are going to use it liberally in our study of Colossians. I am doing an introduction to our study today and then on August 6, Jon Eisenberg will be preaching on chapter 1, I will do chapters 2 and 4, and Doug will preach on chapter 3 (in the August Sundays.    Of course the study will be most meaningful for you if you are here all 5 Sundays (which I realize is unlikely during the summer)

These authors conclude that ``Colossians is a subversive [letter] for subversive living, and it insists that such an alternative imagination and alternative way of life must be formed and sustained in the context of community.'' (pg 9) so . . . the purpose of these 5 weeks of study for us . . .is that
the Blossom Hill community's imagination will be ignited and empowered to more and more live according to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and not according to the lordship of the empire in which we live. May God help us to listen carefully to the words of Paul for the Colossians because . . . .
our imaginations have been captured by the empire under which we live in much the same way as the Roman Empire captured and controlled the imaginations of the Christians in Colossae.

These ancient words are words of life for us     in the midst of a culture of violence and greed and broken promises. May God's grace ignite again our imaginations of who Jesus was and is ---for what he died, and for how his resurrection promises light and hope, in this rather dismal landscape of life in the 21^st Century.

Walsh & Keesmaat begin the first chapter with a conversation with William. William was a former student of theirs, and they use William's experience to describe the effects of postmodern thought
on young people. The term POSTMODERN is used to describe the times we are living in now.
In the past, we had the age of Enlightenment, the age of science and rationalism, more recently . . . . the age of modernity. These are things that are just in the water we drink. We are influenced by these powers at work in our culture whether we like it or not and very often we are not aware of them at work. The conversation with William describes some of the effects of postmodern culture on our youth and young adults. . . and to a lesser extent all of us.

I think that we as older adults also experience the forces of the culture but because we were formed in different eras, we are less wired according to the current culture. . . . . but the experience of our young people must be of utmost importance to us because it can help us wrap our minds around the realities of what it means to grow up under the influence of empire and therefore know what we have to do who we have to be . . . as a Christian community to live as people freed from the grip of empire --- freed by Jesus Christ.
(I will say more about this ``empire'' idea it is larger than our government system)

Brian and Sylvia met with William after not seeing him for some time. After college William worked in international finance in London for a while and now he was in law school and he announced to them that he had decided he was now a theist. (a theist is someone who believes in God) When they asked him what that means . . . he said, ``Well, I guess that I've concluded that autonomy isn't all it's cracked up to be. I no longer believe that I am totally in control of my life. There is a higher power --- God with whom I must be in relation.''

William found that living with the self-image that he was all that he needed --ended up being pretty lonely and confusing, and ``his international finance experience, in which people made their fortunes and moved massive amounts of capital around the world every day, had been less than exciting and definitely not fulfilling. . . . This was quite a step for William, they write. Even tho he had been raised in a Christian family . . . he had been very estranged from the church during college. And then William added . . .

``This doesn't mean that I'm reading the Bible on any regular basis, though.''
``And why is that?'' they asked.
``My problem with the Bible is that as soon as I open it I bump up against the absolute. Actually, it punches me in the face whenever I read this book.''

You see, ``For William there is an incredible tension between his lived experience and what he meets in the biblical text. In his life everything is temporary, partial, and changeable. He does not live in a world of unchanging, hard-and-fast absolutes.     (some of us did grow up in a time when there were many absolutes --things that were not questioned things that never changed--things you could always count on) But, for William, life is fundamentally a matter of interdependent relationships of people and things. And relationships are, by definition, dynamic, changeable and in process. Everything is always in the air.

This Colossians text (as well as much of the Bible) proclaims Truth (with a capital T) which in William and many young adults today is beyond their life experience. --- no one thing is truth above all others. ``If there is one thing that William and his generation are certain of, it is that there is no certainty. Certainty needs to be abandoned because it claims too much for any human perspective.'' ---no human being is capable of claiming THE TRUTH!

Since humans are King there is no one truth. Altho yesterday as we watched the beginning of the Tour de France time trials the announcer said ``This is the moment of truth in the race of truth.''

Postmodernity insists that all moral codes, (what is right and what is wrong); all normative frameworks, (things that are true for everyone in all places); are just inventions of people in history. (pg. 24)

So how does someone like William (who indeed recognizes his need for a relationship with God)
read a text that seems to be set in stone and is full of absolutes?

Well . . . . .with a lot of suspicion, we can be sure.

Afterall . . . .Colossians begins like this: ``Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God
(who says its God's will?) Paul? That is convenient!
to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ in Colossae
         (so that means there are those who are UNfaithful??) just brothers? who decides that??

These are the questions that jump out at William. But we shouldn't be hard on William for ``not believing'' or not being able to accept the scriptures as instructive and relevant . . .He is simply and honestly reflecting the reality of how we are ALL overshadowed by forces in our culture . . . .by the powers of the empire--- that strip us of the ability to imagine beyond the way things are - beyond a human context . . . and these authors are suggesting that our reality is very similar to the reality of the Colossians (living under the shadow of the Roman empire) when Paul wrote this letter to them.

Walsh and Keesmaat do a very thorough job of describing our postmodern context and it has been very difficult to figure out a way to recap it in a 20 minutes sermon, so I realize that I am oversimplifying things when I only mention a few of the forces at work in us . . . . as members of this postmodern culture.

One identifier of postmodern culture is that it is a culture of BETRAYAL. Young folks who have been formed in these years live with a deep sense of betrayal. ``Someone has told them a story, spun them a line, about the good life, and it has proved to be a lie.'' (pg. 22) And…``Betrayal can breed either rage or numbness'' . . . .and I think we can see the effects of both all around us. It is reflected in the apathy of spirit among many----it is reflected in the fact that here in the US our rate of personal violence is far beyond that of other developed nations.

``FACT: In 1998, from among 26 industrialized nations, 86% of gun deaths among children under the age of 15 occurred in the United States.'' There is some kind of rage going on around us…and in us?

Another reality of our times is that ``scientifically proven'' no longer means anything to a postmodern consumer. . . because we have learned that anything can be ``scientifically'' proven. . .
just as we've learned that people can make the Bible say anything they want. AND many terrible things have been done in the name of ``science'' and/or ``religion and the Bible.

The more alive question of our time is: Show me!         ``What will this idea accomplish? What are the implications for my life and the life of our culture and planet?'' (pg. 24) These are the questions a postmodern mind is asking.      NOT . . . .can you prove it?? or . . . .is it truth??

Walsh and Keesmaat write: Because our culture lacks a unifying story and we no longer have rational explanations or justifications to anchor us, ``postmodern culture fills the boredom of our time with a carnival of worldview options and consumer-directed faiths.'' (pg. 24)

There are a million ways to think and believe and you pick the one that works for you now just as you would pick out a new pair of shoes at the mall. We basically all live in one big mall of choices.
and ``postmodernity is all about keeping your options open . . .and not closing down new experiences, perspectives, rituals and beliefs without first trying them out.'' . . because the next one you try might be your lucky break. . . . and we can see how this kind of keeping all options open is at least disquieting unsettling . . .       and at worst --- paralyzing.

On the other hand . . . .when people embrace a single story what they consider to be truth, (as Christians embrace the Biblical Story) it creates for them a personal identity (this is who I am); it provides a grounding for ethical decisions (this is how I behave because of who I am); and it provides a passion for life in history     (this is what I believe about life --this is what I care about what gets me out of bed in the morning).

What is true for many in our culture today is that people have traded belief in a single story with a whole array of fragmented stories . . . .which leaves people feeling fragmented, numb and basically bored. Whatever! This all gets more complicated when we begin to see how the same people who are feeling fragmented, numb and bored . . run full tilt on the highway of technology and information believing the myth that things really will get better, if only we freely investigate the world by means of technological power & prowess.

The myth is . . . ``If we do these (certain) things, then we will realize our highest aspiration, (which is) economic growth. This belief in the progress of autonomous humanity (people power) is the underlying faith or religion of Western culture.'' they write. (pg. 30)

Belief in the ability of people to ``conquer the world'' is all around us, and many times over we are astounded at what people have been able to do. So it is easy to put our ``trust'' in the ability of people to solve our problems. I think this is most obvious in the realm of healthcare. Healthcare technology and expertise is phenomenal! The amazing things that Drs. with the help of technology and research are able to do in the human body is far more than I can imagine. . . . . on a good day so yes…it feels like it's only going to get better and better. . . .and so we continue to expect that there is a way to solve all problems if we just have the time and technology to figure it out. But . . . something is wrong with this picture. . . . with this belief that things are getting better and will continue to do so.

The reality is . . .``International tensions have increased over the last one hundred years, the environment continues to be raped, and as the rich get richer, . . . poverty, starvation and homelessness and misery increases for the majority of the world's population.'' pg. 30 There is something wrong with this picture.     We are being led to buy into something that is bigger than reality . . . and we don't even remember making the choice to do so.

Paul writes in chapter 2 of Colossians:

``See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him (in Christ) the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.'' (2:8-10)

Might Colossians have something to say to us today?
Now I want to reflect just a bit on this idea that we are living under empire. Walsh and Keesmaat describe 4 elements of an empire:
         An empire is:
1.       built on systemic centralizations of power
2.       secured by structures of socioeconomic and military control
3.       religiously legitimated by powerful myths
4.       sustained by a proliferation of imperial images that captivate the imaginations of the population.

These authors observe that ``global economic structures (in our day)reveal centralizations of power'' (59) ``Most major corporations use the equivalent of slave labor to produce clothing, toys tools and some foods. Most of this labor is done by people in Asia, Latin America or Africa.'' . . . .and much of it is done by women and children. Many of you are also aware of the policies of World Bank and the International Monetary Fund which keeps countries in the South dependent because of perpetual debt. ``For every dollar that is sent in foreign aid to Africa, four are returned in the form of debt servicing.'' (footnote on 59)

The question for us is -- ``In the face of an empire that rules through military and economic control, what is the shape of a community -- that serves a ruler who brings reconciliation and peace -- by sacrificial death -- rather than military might?'' This is the question -- we must continue to ask.

What about how empires use powerful myths? In Rome the story was Pax Romana which said that the reason that Rome needed to continue military oppression of other nations was because of peace. Rome was the bearer of cosmic peace, fertility and prosperity. (pg. 61) Does this sound familiar?

We don't have to look far to see that . . .``Like Rome, the United States describes itself as a nation chosen by God to bring democracy and freedom to those parts of the world ``backward'' enough to endorse a different system of government and different economic priorities from those of global capitalism.'' (pg. 62) . .. so we now have Pax Americana. ``The American empire finds salvation in economic progress and global control. Paul writes about salvation rooted in Christ.''

Lastly, empire is sustained by images that capture the imagination of the people. These images are on our shoes, our jackets, our shirts, our cell phones . . we see them on our televisions every day on billboards, computers, on Floyd Landis' biking jersey.. and we are shaped by the message they communicate . . . which is . . .

``A finite world can sustain infinite growth, economic growth is the driving force of history, consumer choice is what makes us human, and greed is normal.''

That's the message these images sell us. Walsh and Keesmaat conclude that ``If we live in an empire, it is the empire of global consumerism.'' (pg. 85) So . . . the question of this series is . . .
If this is true about our lives . . . then ``What is the Christian community to do? How do we speak and live the gospel in this kind of cultural context? How do we shape our imagination (together) as followers of Jesus in such a way that we are set free from constricted imagination of the empire?''

and . . . their advice is that we listen to Paul . . who was following the prophets in holding out the vision of another way --- a way beyond the constraints of empire
I hope that I have at least opened the window for you to reflect with new eyes on the culture around you . . . or the realities that you feel living in this culture . . but may not have been able to name.

In closing I will read a paraphrase of Colossians 1:15-20 that Walsh and Keesmaat wrote -- a poetic paraphrase that reflects what Paul might say to us in these days.

In an image-saturated world,
         a world of corporate logos all over the place
                  permeating your consciousness
         a world of dehydrated and captive imaginations
                  in which we are too numbed, co-opted
                  to be able to dream of life otherwise
         a world in which the empire of global economic affluence
                  has achieved the monopoly of our imaginations
         in this world
Christ is the image of the invisible God

Christ is the image par excellence
         the image above all other images
         the image that is not a façade
         the image that is not trying to sell you anything
         the image that refuses to co-opt you
Christ is the image of the invisible od
         the image of God
                  a flesh-and-blood
                  here-and-now
                  in time and history
                  with joys and sorrows

He is the source of a liberated imagination
         a subversion of the empire
because it all starts with him
and it all ends with him
         everything
         all things
whatever you can imagine
         visible and invisible
         mountains and atoms
         outer space, urban space and cyberspace
         whether it be the Pentagon, Disneyland, Microsoft or AT&T
         whether it be the institutionalized power structures
         of the state, the academy or the market
all things hav been created in him and through him

he is their source, their purpose, their goal
         even in their rebellion
         even in their idolatry
he is the sovereign one
         their power and authority is made-up at best
                  parasitic at worst

In the face of the empire
         Christ is before all things
                  he is sovereign in life
                  not the pimped dreams of the global market
                  not the idolatrous forces of nationalism
                  not the insatiable desires of a consumerist culture

In the face of a disconnected world
         where home is a domain in cyberspace
         where neighborhood is a chat room
         where public space is a shopping mall
         where information technology promises
         a tuned-in, reconnected world
In the face of this disconnected world . . .
         all things hold together in Christ.

And this sovereignty takes on cultural flesh
And this coherence of all things is socially embodied
         in the church.
                  against all odds
                  against most of the evidence
In a ``show me'' cuture where words alone don't cut it
         the church is
                  the flesh-and-blood
                  here-and-now
                  in time and history
                  with joys and sorrows
                  embodiment of this Christ
         as a body politic
         around a common meal
         in alternative economic practices
         in radical service to the most vulnerable
         in refusal of the empire
         in love of this creation
                  the church reimagines the world
                  in the image of the invisible God.

In the face of a culture of death
         a world of killing fields
         a world of the walking dead
                  Christ is at the head of the resurrection parade
                           transforming our tears of betrayal into tears of joy
                           giving us dancing shoes for eht resurrection party
And this glittering joker
         who has danced int eh dragon's jaws of death
         now dances with a dance that is full
         of nothing less than the fullness of God
                  this is the dance of the new creation
                  this is the dance of life out of death
                  and in this dance all that was broken
                           is reconciled
                           comes home
                           is healed
                           and is made whole
                  because Grace makes beauty out of ugly things

And it all happen on a cross
         it all happens at a state execution
                  where the governor did not commute the sentence
         it all happens at the hand of the empire
                  that has captured our imagination
         it all happens through blood
                  not through a power grab by the sovereign one
         it all happen s in embraced pain
                  for the sake of others
         it all happens on a cross
                  arms outstretched in embrace
         and this is the image of the invisible God
                  this is the body of Christ.

(parts of pg. 85-89)

8-14-2006 JHP Colossians part3.rtf

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 03:43:49 GMT

Sermon: Colossians, part 3
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
August 13, 2006
Jane H. Peifer

Text: Colossians 2;
Resource book: Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire by Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat.
Purpose: To encourage the Blossom Hill community . . . .to remember and be rooted in the story of God's suffering for all of creation through Christ, so that our imagination is free to guide our living.
Good news: In Christ, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

Thursday morning, my husband Daryl had a flight scheduled to Chicago. He called while he was waiting in a line to get through security in Philadelphia --he said was several football fields long. This latest uncovering of plans to blow up airplanes flying from England to the US creates yet another scare in our country and beyond. And just in case we are beginning to forget the terror of 9/11, there are two recent movies to help us remember those images and re-convince us of our need to protect ourselves from our enemies: ``United 93'' and ``World Trade Center'' opened in theatres recently.

There are a lot of things to be scared of these days. Even Charlie Brown is feeling it. In a recent comic strip, Lucy approaches Charlie Brown and Linus (who is holding onto his blanket sucking his thumb of course), and she says, ``What are you two standing here looking so worried about?'' Charlie replies, ``We're afraid of the future.'' Then Lucy says, ``Are you worried about anything in particular?'' and Charlie answers, ``Oh no, we're worried about everything!'' and Linus adds, ``Yes, our worrying is very broadminded.''

Well, even Paul was worrying . . . . it seems in this letter to the Colossians. He writes in 2:1, ``For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you . . .'' -----worried about you.

It appears that Paul was worried that the Colossians would be carried away by other ``philosophies'' other ways of thinking about our existence and about the world . . .and in response to his worry, Paul is very forthright and clear in making ultimate and absolute claims about Jesus Christ. . . .in order to protect these new Christians.
         Paul does not shrink from proclaiming the mystery of God which is Christ himself
         ----as the ultimate knowledge and wisdom of the world.

Paul does not shrink from proclaiming the reality that Christ is the head of every ruler and authority in the world even when they do not acknowledge it.

Paul does not shrink from proclaiming that Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them triumphing over them.

Paul does not shrink from explaining that the elemental spirits of the universe look like they are the wisdom and knowledge of the world, but in reality they are full of human prideful self-indulgence, he writes.

These absolute --- conclusive ``this is THE truth'' statements that Paul makes are a bit much to take for post-modern readers (wouldn't you say?) Paul just seems a bit too sure of his own opinion to make much of a mark in a post modern context. This proclamation of truth -- most likely was not a problem for the 1 ^st C. church, but it sure is a problem for those of us immersed in post-modernity.

Postmodernity describes the times in which we are living, and one of the characteristics of our culture in these days is skepticism that there is any thing that can claim to be truth with a capital T. Postmodern thinkers are convinced that all worldviews are just that ---the view of the world from someone's particular viewpoint. There is no one story no one vision no one orientation or worldview that is absolute!
And ``once we let go of absolutes, nobody gets to have a position that is anything other than a position.''
(pg. 100)
Paul clearly had a position!! ``So what are we to make of a text that claims to be rooted in a Christ ``in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and understanding???''          (pg. 101)

Is it believable ? Is it livable ----- Is it truth ----- in the 21 ^st century?? One of the things we are up against within ourselves . . . is the thinking that . . Truth is not found, nor does it ``come'' to us from any place beyond the real world. Instead . . . we are conditioned to believe that truth is made, it is produced by someone or some group who has an agenda, and in order to protect that agenda . . . . some sort of power is in place.

Doesn't this sound like what Paul is doing? Heralding his own take on things and calling it truth!!
Something inside of us gets very suspicious. . . . if we are honest.

These authors Walsh and Keesmaat suggest that we first ask our postmodern suspicious questions of the ``philosophy'' that Paul describes as his concern in this chapter. So first, we will take a look at what Paul is worried about. He writes in verse 8, ''See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.'' We are going to try to unpack the philosophy that Paul is worried the Colossians will buy into . . .to see if it fits what postmodern thinkers are skeptical of. Does it espouse truth that is made to sere someone's agenda?

First of all, t he philosophy is obviously preoccupied with captivity, because Paul warns the Colossians not to be taken captive by any deceitful and oppressive regime of truth that parades itself as something bigger than what it really is just a human creation. Secondly, as a regime of truth, it seems that the philosophy depends on deceit for its power. It has to hide the fact that it is a mere human construction, a human tradition. Therefore it imposes multiple forms of constraint on people: --do not handle do not taste don't even touch (vs. 21). So this philosophy is preoccupied with power, and precisely for the purposes of exclusion. If you don't do this and you do that, you are out. Verse 16 suggests that there are those who play watchdog for the ``truth'' --they are the gatekeepers. Paul warns them in verse 16: ``Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths.'' . . .so we notice that Paul is concerned about the deceptive nature of the philosophy, that it is posing to be something that it isn't. A nd thirdly, the philosophy that Paul is warning the new Christians about in Colossians has clear techniques and procedures which are enforced disciplines. These are things like are described in verse 18, ``Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking.

Well . . . it looks and sounds like Paul is warning them about being captivated by a way of thinking and being that sounds really good, but in the end is just another human construction. That is what Paul is worried about.                                                       (pg. 105-106)

And now the hard question we need to ask is . . . Is what Paul is proclaiming about Christ just another regime of truth,         or is there something different about what Paul is proclaiming to be the ``kingdom of the beloved Son'' . . .as he says in chapter 1 verse 13. ``God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.''
Is ``the kingdom of the beloved son'' something different . . .or is it just another constructed regime of truth?
And of course, if we are brave enough to ask that question of what Paul wrote to the Colossians, we really are asking it of the whole Bible! Is the truth with a capital T . . . that Paul proclaims . . .something different from all other humanly constructed truth?

The answer is YES . . . for these reasons .

Walsh and Keesmaat do a wonderful job of reflecting on how the Bible, if taken seriously, prevents and inhibits us from using the Bible as an absolute with which to strongarm people.   (pg. 107) . . . even tho that has so often been done in Christian history. They say, as have our Anabaptist theologians have said, that it just is not there! They point out two characteristics or dimensions of the Biblical story which do not allow it to be used in absolute ways.

The first is that the Biblical story is a story of suffering. ``From God's decision to make covenant
with a creature that had nothing but violence in its heart (Gen 8-9); to the story of God's knowing the Israelites pain in Egyptian bondage, and God's commitment to set the people free (Ex 3:7); to the abrasive tradition of the psalms of laments (Ps 44 and 88 among others); and to the weeping prophets (especially Jeremiah, Amos and Hosea) . . . . an ``embrace of pain'' has characterized the biblical story from the beginning.'' (pg. 107) Humanly constructed regimes of truth generally do NOT admit weakness like the Biblical story does. ``It is important to notice that . . . it is not just that God empathizes with the pain of the people and creation but that God --- in God's self suffers.''

The 6 million dollar question is always . . why do bad things happen to good people? Or . . . how can God be all powerful and all loving at the same time, if God has the power to keep bad things from happening to those he loves which is all of humankind, Why wouldn't God use power to stop evil?

The God of the Bible seems to put limits on that power, in order not to force the hand of those he created as free creatures, and unfortunately . . . many of those he so lovingly created . . . choose the way of evil and violence, and so . . .yes, bad things do happen to good people, at the hands of good people who choose bad ways those who choose evil. And God suffers through all of this with us,and the Biblical story reflects it all. The Biblical story refuses to cover up or deny the suffering. (pg . 107) This is not your typical regime of truth.

Walsh and Keesmaat conclude that ''A story that has God intimately involved with suffering, and that sees violence to be the root of the human predicament, should foster a worldview that rejects all violence, including violence to those who radically disagree with us.''      (pg. 108)

This was a huge challenge for the Colossians --- and it is a huge challenge for us -- and there are too many stories of ways in which followers of Christ embrace violence as a way to deal with evil in the world.

Secondly, the Biblical story is a story of redemption of all of creation. It is not exclusive. It may seem that because the Bible tells us that the Israelites were a chosen people , that this would mean that the Biblical story has favorites and is exclusive, but what we hear throughout the Bible is that Israel is chosen to be a light to the nations ----      the agent of God's reconciliation of all creation and all peoples. God just needed a people to begin with. . . and so he chose unlikely candidates --- a very old couple --- Abraham and Sara.

``In the Bible, Israel is called to be a priestly kingdom and a holy nation not so it could be a regime of truth that exists for the exclusion of others, but in order to play a role in the restoration of the whole human race.'' (pg. 108) And not just the whole human race . . .but all of creation: the stones . . . the land . . .the donkeys . . .the trees and hills . .the mountains. These created things and beings are all referenced in the Bible as interacting with the creator God.

So, yes, there is a big difference between the ``kingdom of the beloved son'' that Paul proclaims . . and just another humanly constructed . . .regime of truth. In chapter 1 where Paul writes . . .``God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son . . .'', he is making a direct allusion to the exodus tradition. Paul encourages his readers/hearers to give thanks to God who has enabled them to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued them/us from the power of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Now . . . says Paul, we experience an exodus liberation in Jesus.''    (pg. 109)

The kingdom of the beloved son is a kingdom rooted in forgiveness and welcome, and so if the rulers and authorities -- regimes and empires that so oppress people are to be defeated, they must be defeated not by further violence, but by sacrificial love. . . as modeled in Jesus. ``The powers of evil are defeated not by some overwhelming display of divine power,       but by the weakness of Christ's death.'' (Andrew Lincoln, pg. 110)

``Paul is worried! He is convinced that evil is very real,         and that it is oppressing the Colossian community both from without and from within. If they are to be liberated, then this evil must be defeated, but it cannot be defeated on its own terms. Evil expects to engage in a battle of strength against strength, hatred against hatred . And as long as those are the terms, it remains victorious. The thing that is different about the TRUTH that Paul proclaims is that the whole biblical drama -------- the whole tradition of the embrace of pain declares that evil is defeated when it is allowed to expend itself in demonic fury on that which it hates the most, the Source of all good. Jesus' death on the cross illustrates this battle between good and evil.
``The cross was ``the victory of weakness over strength, the victory of love over hatred. It was the victory that consisted in Jesus' allowing evil to do its worst in him, and never attempting to fight it on its own terms.
When the doer of evil had made its last possible move, Jesus had still not been beaten by it. He bore the weight of the world's evil to the end, and outlasted it.''                (pg. 111)

This is the TRUTH of the gospel, but it is not proved and it cannot be argued -- until an embracing, forgiving and shalom-filled dynamic community of God's people --formed by the story of Jesus ---- live it and BE it. Phillip Kenneson is quoted in the book, ''Too often appeals to the objective truth of the gospel have served as a means for the church to evade its responsibility to live faithfully before the world. Too often Christians insisted that the gospel was . . . true regardless of how we lived. What our world is waiting for, and what the church seems reluctant to offer, is not more incessant talk about objective truth,
but an embodied witness that clearly demonstrates why anyone should care about any of this in the first place.''                                     (pg. 128)

This sounds like what Paul is worried about, or at least what he is hoping and praying for ---for the little group at Clossae. He says he wants their hearts to be encouraged, and for their community to be united in love, SO THAT they may have all the riches of assured understanding. Paul is saying that it is when their hearts are encouraged because of their unity in love, that they will understand the truth of the gospel more fully -- that they will get that settled firmness in one's faith, and feel a deep confidence in the truth of the gospel.

Is that your experience? Has your faith --- your assurance that the Biblical story is true and trustworthy ---
been strengthened when you are embraced and cared for in a community of believers? Are you less likely to be captivated by other philosophies and worldviews when you are embraced by a loving, forgiving and compassionate community? I think so . . . it certainly is my experience. If this is true what might it mean for our churches? What becomes important? What does this tell us about how to be the body of Christ?

For me, it affirms the covenant we adopted here at Blossom Hill this spring . . . .      that we are all about nurturing people.

People who tend to abandon Christian faith --- or refuse to consider it, often do so because they find it is irrelevant, judgmental, coercive, sexist, racist, or because there is internal fighting and lack of compassion in the church community. Rather than experiencing the church as a place of profound hospitality , love and acceptance, forgiveness and a place for healing . . .. too often folks are left outside because their questions and doubts and sufferings are not tolerated. And so . . . the community in its life together-- does not make its worldview any more plausible than any other. Next week Doug will help us reflect on chapter 3 where Paul gets much more specific about what it means to live as children of the suffering God.

In closing I leave you with these words of Paul in chapter 2, verses 6-7. ``As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord,        continue to live your lives in him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.'' (2:6-7)

May it be so with us.

8-6-2006 Jon Eisenberg Colossians part2.rtf

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 03:43:29 GMT

Sermon: Colossians Introduction; part 2 of 5
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Jon Eisenberg
July 23, 2006

1)       Intro
a)       Excited to speak this morning; speaking is one of my favorite parts of my ministry with InterVarsity, but a little nervous bc
i)       I'm used to speaking to people 10-20 years younger than myself, not older.
ii)      I'm used to using video, humor, stories and irreverence
iii)     I'm new to Mennonite Circles
b)       Jane talked about pomo and empire;
i)       Being born in 1971, I've grown up part of the first entirely pomo generation
ii)      I studied philosophy specializing in the roots of pomo at a secular university
iii)     I've ministered to and with pomos since my own conversion in 1991
iv)      I'll focus more on empire, but given who I am there will be pomo throughout
c)       In prepping, God challenged me with two questions that I want us to think about:
i)       Do we covet a lifestyle of total dependence?
ii)      Does our coveting this type of life inspire those around us covet such a life?
2)       Setting the Stage:
a)       Remember Paul writing at end of life, from prison in Rome to church in Colossae
b)       Colossians:
i)       False teachers threaten to lead them astray, blending Christianity with other popular religious systems (partially because they)
ii)      Living under Roman Empire
c)       Before going to the text -- Can we relate to Paul's audience?
i)       Are we encouraged to corrupt/blend our faith?
(1)      On one hand, free to practice religion . . . BUT
(2)      Emphasis on sacred vs secular and private vs public fracture life implying faith isn't all encompassing, it doesn't need to be 24/7 (this points to the empire)
ii)      Are we under an empire?
(1)      Video: Made by InterVarsity's media and communications department for another purpose, but fits well here:
(a)      How does that hit you? Can you relate to it? Do you feel those questions/statements? Do they influence the decisions you make?
(b)      Especially at end I feel assaulted by images that aren't pictures of God's Kingdom (3000 images per day not of K(God))
(2)      What is empire's myth?
(a)      Myth = picture of reality that glues people together catalyzing sustained action in a particular direction;
(i)      Don't think real/unreal or True/False think vision statement;
(ii)     Pomo speak metanarrative ultimate picture of truth that governs how we live our lives (micronarrative)
(b)      What's empire's myth?
(i)      Quotes from video
(ii)     individualistic, independent acquisition/progress, globalism/materialism solves all worlds problems (environment, poverty, hunger, etc)
(iii)    Fueled by pomo/nihilism
1.       Nothing is stable or true so don't look below surface
2.       do what feels good in the moment
3.       Since nothing really lasts (no metanarrative), ignore morality (it only accomplishes guilt)
4.       Constantly seek to do that which makes life more pleasurable
(iv)     Rooted in dealing with our own knowledge of being finite/limited (called shame or Void and resulting inadequacy, vulnerability, anxiety
1.       Marketing seeks to create/exploit this feeling, presenting the product as the solution
2.       Overall, world on quest to make selfe/life/world better
3.       Called business strategy, but that's just code for contemporary religious system; religious systems (metanarratives) tell you how to act to get a good future
iii)     Can you relate to Paul's audience? Are you feeling the Empire pressing in on you?
(1)      Not just about world `out there' me and technology
(2)      Applies to us in church as well my story:
(a)      About 4 years ago I asked to address a structural problem no expertise, just desire to change structure so more students get deeper encounter with Jesus
(b)      2 years ago class (clueless so go to learn from experts)
(c)      Rob ``that's what I want to do when I grow up'' Breakfast ---
(d)      Call Rob wants you to interview (with VERY prominent national Chrisitan Foundation) for position where he'll train you to be him
(e)      Opportunity of a lifetime
(i)      Move to Orange County
(ii)     Spend life traveling world giving away tens of millions of dollars
(iii)    May sacrifice Jen's calling, co-parenting, life with kid but worthy it
(iv)     After 5 months and the short list not where God has me know
1.       not done with ministry task
2.       not true to my values
3.       IV strategic
4.       BUT, am confirmed as next generation leader
(f)      Aha Empire has entered the picture
(i)      B4 I was just trying to help students meet Jesus during a critical time of life (feeling consistently exposed financially, emotionally, etc.)
(ii)     NOW next generation leader in getting resources to K advancing mission
1.       Shape national conversation (road warrior)
2.       Get things done (get out of my way)
3.       Progress
4.       Lots of scaleable models and numbers scorecards
5.       I'm worth 5x my salary (I deserve it! daily bread isn't good enough)
6.       Pursuit of a VP/Director position (what about people meeting Jesus?!!
(iii)    Think:
1.       confirmed calling to vocational ministry
2.       pursue progress, accomplishment, resume builders
3.       Sure I say I want to advance Kingdom of God, but is my process/action advancing God's kingdom or the empire?!
(3)      I'm not alone. Often we're tempted to let the other empire's ideas shape how we do God's work.
(a)      Some may be leadership (God does call leaders to influence structures)
(b)      Some may be caring for children (Jesus says these are top leaders)
(c)      Not about what action/strata you're on but what shapes why you do things and what you're pursuing.
3)       As we start to feel that, Let's go to the text -- how does Paul exhort the church at Colossae?
a)       He starts:
i)       Thank God for them bc receive Gospel `good news' of the birth of a new Caesar the empire will continue (remember Caesar is understood as a son of God)
(1)      Focusing on Gospel is to commit treason!
ii)      Praying for them to know God's will, so they can walk in it, strengthened by God and bearing fruit
b)       So know I want to tack down for us simple questions like God's will and Bearing Fruit
c)       Key Ideas:
i)       Rescue from Dominion of Darkness into Kingdom of Light (redemption)
(1)      Not about getting paid to recycle
(2)      Slaves bought by new master
(3)      Still slaves, but master changes; freed into good slavery, not free to do anything
(a)      Good News: Jesus has bought us from empire, chaining us to himself (and himself to us)
ii)      Creation Imagery
(1)      What is the character of the new master?
(a)      Gen 1:28-30: Make a garden that grows itself as our home
(b)      Gen 2:15-17: Commands us to eat freely from the self-sustaining Garden
(2)      Genesis/God myth (God's will):
(a)      Original intent: We're all creatures, who were created to live in garden that God made and grows, eating freely from God's provision (naked w/o shame)
(b)      Since we distrusted God committed to redeeming creation
(3)      Jesus is visible image of this invisible idea
(a)      Trinity Jesus as dependent child (creature), relying on Father/God
(b)      Spends his life (literally) loving everyone to manifest God's character and restore shalom
(c)      we share his inheritance resurrection; firstborn from dead
(4)      As siblings of Jesus and (bc redeemed/adopted) children of God we live like Jesus
(a)      So confident in God's provision despite our creatureness that we're radically committed to the well being of everyone around us.
(b)      Redeem people from a faulty view of God, into the Shalom of the Garden that God wants us to live in
iii)     But this is hard, it flies in face of prevailing empire
(1)      Tertullian (AD 150) described life under the Roman empire this way:
(a)      It becomes evident that the entire crime with which they charge us does not consist in any wicked acts, but in the bearing of a name. The issue is not the name of a crime, but the crime of bearing a name. Again and again it is the name that must be punished by the sword, the gallows, the cross or the wild beasts.
(b)      Bear name say we're creature and it can work differently
(c)      Empire has to assert power, punish
(d)      But Jesus says I get knocked down but I get up again.
(2)      Are we under such an empire? Do we face such consequences?
(a)      May say know true that compared to many places we aren't subject to immediate death
(b)      But this view of immediate shows empire's influence, which is more insidious
(i)      Our lives are at stake when making decisions about work, neighbors, strangers, just more slowly, almost imperceptibly
iv)      Paul knows/feels this too, so exhorts us to Hold on (v 23-24)
(1)      Paul glad to be in chains if it helps with redemption of others
(2)      Bear Fruit receive redemption (lives are fruit) but that means we help others get redeemed
4)       Summary of two empires and Paul's exhortation
a)       Same ``problem'' shame/void/inadequate
b)       Empire: cover self take for self create shame in others to get live in death
c)       Kingdom of God: Be naked, receive from God, Love others Resurrected into life
i)       Some may say this doesn't work or God not really like that, but remember that that's what got us into myth in the first place; we were creatures without shame originally
ii)      NOT about being good person, doing certain things but depending on God
d)       Conclusion
(1)      I started with two questions:
(a)      Do we covet a lifestyle (against the empire) of total dependence (by being radically for the people around us)?
(b)      Does our coveting inspire those around us to covet this life?
(2)      May wonder about `covet'.
(a)      Covet bad right? Depend on what?
(b)      Covet = long for (because we think it's really good for us)
(c)      Covet language/tactic of Empire of Consumerism
(d)      Worship from worthship; ascribing worth to something
(e)      Covet and worship closely linked, if not the same
(f)      Honestly: We All covet things, let's covet the right things and help others do the same thing
(3)      Repeat questions with silent reflection then we'll pray Lord's Prayer together.

12-2-2006 JHP Advent 1- Love lights the darkness.rtf

Sat, 3 Mar 2007 02:39:29 GMT

Sermon: Advent 1, Year C
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Jane H. Peifer
December 2, 2006

Texts: Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25:1-10; I Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-36
Good News: ``the days are surely coming when I will fulfill the promise.''
Purpose: To encourage folks to be in touch with the suffering of the world and
to establish little habits that generate hope.

I have to admit (or confess is probably the better way to say it), that it feels to me some days that this world is in the process of falling apart. I don't talk much about this gnawing dread I feel. I don't talk much about what looks like an unraveling to me, or self-destruction. As excited as I get about each new baby here and as excited as I get thinking about having my own grandchildren sometime I do worry about what kind of a world they will grow up in. What will their life be like when they are 20 years old? What will be facing them?

My main worries fall along a couple of lines:

The environment we cannot keep taking without giving back. There is not a bottomless pit of resources on this planet that can continue to sustain our excesses. There is a great bumper sticker on a car that sits along the street in Lancaster that says: ``Don't worry about the environment it will go away.'' And that is what worries me. I have not seen Al Gore's movie ``An Inconvenient Truth'', but spent time this week reading the book. I think the title is wonderful, ``An Inconvenient Truth.'' It so well describes the reality of the wealthy in the world who consider themselves entitled to everything they can pay for (which is a whole lot.) It is certainly ``inconvenient'' to have to face the truth that decisions about how I live, even if I can afford it, have global consequences. That is certainly ``inconvenient''. Gore writes that, ``We are witnessing an unprecedented and massive collision between our civilization and the Earth.'' (pg. 214) It is certainly ``inconvenient'' to have to acknowledge the evidence that our planet is warming up, which creates a whole raft of consequences. God created the earth to live and move and produce and reproduce with a certain amount of greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere. But, our lifestyles have been adding mostly carbon dioxide (80% of greenhouse gases) to the mix for many years, which is creating and will continue to create problems for all of us. Gore writes, ``When we burn fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal) in our home, cars, factories, and power plants, or when we cut or burn down forests, or when we produce cement, we release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.'' (pg. 28)

And the earth is warming up consistently: which is causing the glaciers all around the world to melt; which could deplete drinking water supply for 40% of the world's people. ``The hottest year recorded since the Civil War was 2005.'' Just this Friday, December 1, set a new record by about 10 degrees. And as the oceans get warmer, storms get stronger . . . .which is so inconvenient. The increase of hurricanes, particularly category 4 and 5 hurricanes, is not an accident. Global warming not only increases precipitation worldwide but, at the same time causes some of it to relocate and the result is drought and famine in other places. Gore writes (pg. 116) ``Unbelievable tragedies have been unfolding in the part of Africa that includes southern Sudan to the east of Lake Chad, where genocidal murders have become commonplace in the region of Darfur. In Niger, just to the west of Lake Chad, the region-wide drought has contributed to the famine conditions that put millions at risk. There are many complex causes of the famine and genocide, but a little-discussed contributing factor is the disappearance of Lake Chad, formerly the 6^th largest lake in the world. Lake Chad has disappeared in the last 40 years.''
And many in our world refuse to face these realities

Another reality that many in our country refuse to face is that this country was built on violence and greed. There are no two ways about it. We cannot deny that. At our last Executive Board meeting, Steve Cheramie Rising Sun, a Mennonite pastor of Native Christian Fellowship in Atmore, Alabama brought a newly released documentary for us to view about the deep, deep wounds that Native Americans continue to live with in our country. One of the things that remains with me from the documentary was the large number of treaties that the US government has broken with Native Americans over the years. Consequently many of their communities suffer poverty, alcoholism, and depression in proportions overwhelming. This documentary calls for apology from our government. Native leaders say that in order to heal, their communities are going to have to receive official apology from the US government. This is far deeper a matter than returning land or money or resources --- it is a matter of the soul, and the native peoples of this country continue to suffer the consequences of the greed, injustice and violence of the American government and its people. May God have mercy on us.

Another worry I have is that the ``freedom of speech'' and ``freedom of religion'' that we enjoy is eroding. And I fear that we could see the day when those of us who will pledge allegiance only to God, will be seen an disloyal, unpatriotic and no longer given alternative opportunities for service and expression of our faith. But even as I say that, I am made aware of another thing I worry about. And that is that as a white middle class American I am blinded most days to the reality that the things that I think are eroding have eroded a long time ago for the poor in our country, for African Americans and Latinos who are regularly profiled on our streets and in our places of business. All African Americans with whom I have talked with about this have their own current stories about being followed in stores, being stopped for no reason by police, and being harassed and stared at. Vince Whitman, pastor of Crossroads Mennonite Church just told about being apprehended recently by police in Lancaster city because he was black. Just last week, 3 African American unarmed men were shot by NYC police, for one of them it was the day of his wedding. The police fired 50 rounds of ammunition at unarmed men.

And I worry of course about the war and how it is so destructive. It is so destructive to the earth and the peoples of the earth. And I worry about how it is shaping a generation of Americans veterans. The evidence is not good. The Ground Truth film last Sunday night at James Street was very sobering.

And another thing, I know entirely too many young people right now struggling with cancer. Cancer is turning up all over the place it seems.

So, as you can see, once I allow myself to get started I have no trouble finding the things that worry me and weigh me down. But in my place of privilege, I don't have to think about these things every day, and so I often don't. Mostly because I don't like how it leaves me feeling -- powerless and vulnerable in the face of huge problems too big to even know how to approach them. And, because I have the choice to ignore the things that worry me, I can convince myself that these things don't really affect me every day. I can feel happily hopeful, ready for the fun of the holidays.

I think this is why the texts for the first Sunday of Advent are always kind of difficult to know what to do with. You see, this business of waiting with longing for the coming of Jesus really only has meaning when we are desperate for salvation because we need to be delivered from life as we know it. I admit that isn't the case for me. My life is actually really good. But I know many for whom life isn't good. And more and more, their suffering, if I allow it, becomes mine.

Jeremiah was one of the prophets that carried God's promise of rescue to the children of Israel long ago when they were living in one of the most troublesome periods in Hebrew history. In the years leading up to the fall of Jerusalem in 587BC, which was then followed by the Babylonia exile, everything that could go wrong did go wrong . . . and Jeremiah, the prophet somehow was there in the midst of it all, speaking and living and writing the hopeful words of God as he heard them.

He wrote -----
The days are surely coming, says the LORD ,        when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he will execute justice and righteousness in the land.

Oh, that must have sounded so good . . . e ven though I imagine it sounded like a pie- in-the-sky idea to some of them ( m aybe even to Jeremiah some days). But his stubborn hope kept hope alive for the rest, I suspect. When we do allow ourselves to feel the weight of life as it is, we need people like Jeremiah. T hank God for people like Jeremiah!

The gospel writers are another set of people gone before us who carried the hope, who carried the light in the darkness. Luke is the gospel writer we'll hear from this Advent and Christmas season. In our text for today he recorded something that Jesus said that is very similar to what Jeremiah wrote. Jesus told his disciples:

``There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see `the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory. . . . .

And then Jesus went on to tell them not to get worn down by their worries about things but to ``be on guard'' and to ``stay alert at all times'', praying that you will have the strength to make it through . . . a nd in the end stand before God. Jesus said to the disciples on the night before HE was killed,
Do not let your hearts be troubled, Bel ieve in God, believe also in me. And then he ended this last great teaching for them with these words . . . I have said this to you , so that you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world.''

The message to the children of Israel , t he message to those with whom Jesus walked and the message to us is the same. There is more to the story than we can see and therein lies our hope! Thanks be to God!

And as Marilyn McEntyre has written, ``If we realized, (even now and then), how securely and ultimately we are held in God's arms, if we could meditate on Jesus' words not to fear anything that destroys the body (including all of the real things we worry about) then we might occasionally look around and recognize in our worldly habitat a playground of possibilities.''
                                                                        ( Weavings, XXI:5 Security, pg. 12)

What I want you to remember from today this first Sunday of Advent is this: Yes, your worries are founded. Things are not good in our world. And it's OK for you to think about those things. I n fact , if you're not in touch with suffering in some way you should probably find a way to get in touch with it. There is plenty of it around. Because it is only when we are in touch with suffering that we really become in touch with the hope that lies within us, the grace of God, the promise of God. If we close our eyes to reality and to the suffering that goes on in us or all around us any happy hope that we hold our is hollow. But, when we open our eyes and face the realities of what is really happening in this world and in our own country and in our own communities ---- but continue to have hope, then we speak as Jeremiah as Jesus.

As Richard Rohr has written: ``The genius of Biblical faith is the grace to keep one foot firmly in both camps at the same time --- the world as it is ---- and the world as it should be.'' Once we open ourselves to our own sufferings or the sufferings of those around us , remember this, real hope comes in very small packages. So establish little habits in your life that generate hope for you and those around you.

Rose Marie Berger, who has an article in the latest Sojourner magazine writes this:
         Sometimes we actually create despair and depression in our lives when we only fight losing battles. ( Times w hen we take on things much to o big for us , or we don't do anything because we can't change things) It is mandatory that we yoke ourselves to disciplines that generate hope and that is best done by doing less better and by loving in parti cular, rather than in general. This habit of small ``successes'' generates creativity, a sense of well-being, a generosity of spirit rooted in satisfaction. It generates hope.''     (Sojourners, Dec. 06, pg. 29)

And I found a great example of what she is talking about. In the same issue of Sojourners, Meg E. Cox wrote an article about John Perkins entitled ``Living Beyond Hatred''. Some of you will know but just to tell you about John a bit. John Perkins was born into a sharecropper's family in 1930. He is now 76 years old. He was raised by his grandmother because his mother had died of malnutrition. He left Mississippi as a teenager to make a fresh start in California after his brother was killed by a police officer. He made out quite well in California, got married and had a family and a career. John had not been raised in church, but his oldest son insisted that his parents come to church with him. New to the whole Biblical story John was ``moved by the Bible characters and their stories of hope and overcoming, so he believed the gospel and he threw himself into the life of faith with the same high-voltage energy he had given to his professional ambitions. He was soon on his way to becoming a leader in California's evangelical subculture but he couldn't get Mississippi off his mind.'' And in 1960 the Perkins family returned to Mississippi in the heat of the Civil Rights movement. (pg. 24)

In this article, the author tells the story of a university student, who in the 1980s had been reading some of John Perkins writings about the civil rights movement. And so he arranged to meet John at a Shoney's in Mississippi in order to ask John the hard questions he was struggling with. And to get a hold of what it takes to make big changes in society . Here is what happened:

Sojourners Dec 06, pg. 24
Marsh, …was staying with his grandmother, and he didn't dare tell her about his visits with Perkins. ``Although she was a very pious woman,'' explained Marsh in an interview, ``she held very traditionally Southern views on race. She would have been horrified to know I'd been spending my days with people involved in community organizing and civil rights.''
``She's a Christian,'' Marsh told Perkins. ``First thing in the morning she opens her Bible, an old, worn, red Scofield edition, and does her devotions. She prays and listens to sermons on tape. But she won't give an inch on her racial views. She thinks Martin Luther King was nothing but a troublemaker.''
``Well, he was,'' Perkins pointed out.
``She thinks slavery was a good thing!'' Marsh had never told anyone this about his beloved grandmother.
Perkins took a bite of his hot fudge cake. ``Does your grandmother like blueberries?''
Marsh was bewildered. ``I don't know.''
``I love blueberries,'' the then-50-year-old leader said, and in great detail he described all the ways he loved to eat blueberries: freshly picked, over ice cream, in blueberry pie. ``I always keep blueberries in my refrigerator. When we get to the house, I'm gonna give you a bag of blueberries, and I want you to take them to your grandmother and tell her they're a gift from me.''
Marsh was completely disappointed. ``It took me years to realize what he was showing me,'' he said. ``His wisdom was deep, penetrating, profound, Eucharistic …''

You know, everyone always talks about the stress of Christmas, all the hussel bussel, the shopping lines, the traffic, the cards to write, the parties to plan, the relatives to navigate, and for some, these are real burdens. But these things are a joke when laid alongside things like: war, poverty, racial violence, cancer and other diseases, the abuse and deterioration of our planet earth. I hope that during this season, you keep reminding yourself of what is really worth getting all fussed up about and then that you ask God to help you carry the light into the darkness in some small way. May we be generators of hope like Jeremiah and Jesus in this dark world. May we all be bearers of blueberries.

I invite you now to bring your thoughts, your own confessions, worries, your hopes to God in these moments of silence.

12-31-2006 JHP Christmas 1- Love lifted me.rtf

Sat, 3 Mar 2007 02:39:38 GMT

Sermon: Christmas 1: Love produces growth
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Jane H. Peifer
December 31, 2006

Texts: I Samuel 2:18-20, 26; Psalm 148; Colossians 3:12-17; Luke 2:41-52
Good News: God's love's grows us up, and we love because we are loved.
Purpose: To encourage God's children to accept and embrace God's love for them, so they are freed to do the work of love in the world.

We have been talking about love this Advent season. The writers of our Mennonite Advent series have drawn our attention to the ways in which God's love is revealed to us, especially in the promise and birth of God's son, Jesus which we celebrate in this season. The song that our children sang again today perhaps best describes what this Adv ent season has focused on: `` W hy did he come???? He came down, that we may have love, that we may have peace, that we may have joy. '' And the Christmas hymn we sang earlier, ``Lo ve came down at Christmas. '' And we've been sending each o th er out with the blessing ritual including the words, ``May God's love be revealed to you, and also to you'', we respond. Love indeed cam e down at Christmas.

The writers of the materials quote the words of Julian of Norwich who wrote after a near-death experience in 1373: There is no created being who can know how much and how sweetly and how tenderly the Creator loves us. God is endless delight. God is maker and l over and keeper of all that is.

It is this ``maker and lover and keeper'' who is revealed to us this season. And this morning I want to explore what it means for us to really know God as our maker, our lover and our keeper. And then out of that place of embracing and being embraced by God's love , we are given the task to do the work of love in the world. It is our main task. I n fact, I'd like to say that it is our ONLY task, to do and be the work of love in the world .

Maya Angelou has written a poem entitled ``Touched by an Angel'' that describes the life-changing gift that God's love is to humankind.
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain,
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

Love really does change us. Love really does set us free. Look around and reflect on your own experiences when you have been loved without condition or when you have loved without condition. Something in us and around us is shifted. Love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls, and sets us free. And what we celebrate in this season is the God who so loved the creation, the world that he took on the form of one of us, and chose to live, suffer, and die as we do.

The incarnation (big word for God becoming human) is first and foremost a gesture of love from the God who created us in love and who loves us even now. I've come to believe that one of the biggest mistakes people make about God is that they align God with the powerful in the world. Somehow the power of God and the human power of the powerful in the world get linked --- and we think it is all of God. We mistakenly assume that those who have wealth and power and fame and influence have God on their side because things are going their way. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth.

Listen to Mary's song after she was visited by the angel and given the news that God was coming to her with love and that she would carry the long awaited Messiah. She said :
         My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor        on the lowliness of his servant. (an unknown, young, ordinary maiden) She continues,
God's mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. God has shown strength with         his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.     He has brought down the          powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; He has filled the hungry with good things,
        and sent the rich away empty. . . . .

This love from God is not just some mamby-pamby-feel-good loveyness. It is a just love. It is an unlikely love, an unusual love. It is a love that is particularly revealed to those who have nothing else or at least to those whose life depends solely on the mercy of God. As Mary reflects and as the prophets cried out God's love and compassion breaks down walls of distinction between peoples. It upends or stands on its head all relationships of domination and hierarchy. God's love then continues to be revealed in the life of Jesus as he over and over again turned the status quo upside down by speaking words of healing, and nurture and encouragement to those most needy, poor and outcast.

Jesus' own words about what he knew he was called to do on earth (which were echoes of the prophet Isaiah's words) reflect what God's love really is all about. At the start of his ministry, Jesus stood in the synagogue and read from the scroll of Isaiah . . . The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free. This is the love that came down on Christmas. It is a shocking love. It is a love not earned. It is mercy. It is grace.

Theologians argue about whether God cards more about the poor and needy in the world. Richard Rohr writes: There's a phrase that has become common in the world of theology today: the preferential option for the poor. It means God is biased toward the poor, toward those who live in unjust situations. Some people think this is some strange new theology. We Franciscans are aware that Francis always believed that, so it is certainly 800 years old. And yet if you go back and read The Sermon on the Mount, it's obvious that it's 2000 years old. In fact, if you read Exodus, it's 3200 years old! God always takes the side of the poor and the voiceless, he writes.
         (from ``Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the 12 Steps, Radical Grace, pg. 33)

If that is true then, how is it that the church has so often instead been a place for put-together people? Perfect people who have their act together. People who have answers for all the questions??? Powerful people? How is it that people in trouble have often said that the church is the last place they would have thought of to go to for help?? How can this be?

My theory is that it is because too often people (in the church) don't really know that God loves them just the way they are and so they pretend to be something else. And too often church people also don't remember that God is busy forgiving them every single day. ``Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.'' Jesus prayed. And I suspect that Jesus is praying that for us every day.

But, you may be protesting in your mind, God doesn't just want us the way we are. God wants us the way God wants us. God wants us to be Christ-like, not human-like. God wants us to be nice people. It's true, the admonition in the Bible for how believer's are to behave is quite difficult. To which we must ask: How do we get to be nice people? By trying real hard? By pretending things are OK when they aren't? By disciplining ourselves? By comparing ourselves to those who aren't as nice, therefore feeling pretty nice by comparison (At least I'm not THAT bad!)? These are all tactics that we use but that take us no-where. If we can really accept the truth that God loves us just as we are then God has something to work with.

Someone has said that there are basically 2 types of Christians in the world: Those who understand God as a God of love and those who understand God as a God of vengeance and judgment. And the difference between those two understandings affects everything else. (You may want to test that in your experience.)

The Apostle Paul must have been one of the former --- someone who really believed that God loves us because he began the text for today in his letter to the Colossians with these words: As God' s chosen ones, holy and beloved . . . holy and loved . . . God's choice . . . God's chosen ones. Do you remember what it was like to be chosen for the pick-up ball team? (Or not chosen) This is a million times better and everyone is chosen for this team, none are left behind. We are beloved children of God . . . not just loved, but sought out and chosen and loved.

In the early church, there was a story told of a young girl who lived with her parents in a cottage at the edge of a dense forest. ``Don't wander too far into the woods,'' they told her. ``You might get lost.'' A warm summer's day with birds singing and winds calling, however, carried the girls' feet deeper and deeper into the cool underbrush. The shadows were long before she realized how lost she was. Yelling and crying, she dashed one way and the next, not finding home and working herself into convulsions of panic.
Meanwhile, her parents were worried as well. In the dusk of evening they called her name and made forays into the woods. As thoughts of all t he worst fates attached them, they organized villagers and other neighbors into search parties. By dawn the young girl was sleeping exhaustedly on a bed of pine needles, and only her father was left of the many searchers. As he stumbled into the clearing and saw her, his footsteps broke branches and set birds twittering. The noise awoke her and she saw him. Jumping to her feet she ran toward him, arms outstretched. ``Daddy, Daddy!'' she cried. ``I found you!''
                                                               ( Emphasis, Vol 36, #4, pg. 79 )

It is so easy to assume that WE are the ones doing the choosing or finding when instead we are the chosen ones, sought out by God which reminds me of the hymn we sometimes sing (HWB 506). I sought the Lord and afterward I knew he moved my soul to seek him, seeking me. It was not I that found, O Savior true, no, I was found of thee. So, we are chosen, beloved children of God . . . and turning back to Paul's letter what are we to do? Paul writes: clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. And we are to: bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another; we are to forgive each other . . . just as the Lord has forgiven us and, above all we are to clothe ourselves with love . We are to put on love, as we put on clothing. We are to wear love so that it is the first thing people see when they look at us because we are wrapped in God's love. They can see it. And we are to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. We are to allow the peace and love of Christ to be at the very core of us. We are to allow it to rule us, to rule our hearts. It is the place out of which we decide how to be. And we are to know the word of Christ we are to embody it so that we are able to teach it and help each other live it. And we are to be thankful. Whatever we do, we are to give thanks to God through Christ.

This is the main task required of disciples of Jesus. Because we are chosen and beloved children of God we are asked to embrace God's love to the extent that we are changed by it, that we are nurtured by it, that we grow because of it. Too often, our problem is that we work at doing the work of love because we know that's what we are to do but we have not wrapped ourselves in God's love and so the result then is all mixed up. (We have the right words, but the wrong clothing) And if you are like me, I know when that is happening inside of me. And I usually know when that is happening inside of someone else as well. You can see it. So when you find yourself in a situation where you are havin g trouble loving, STOP. Settle into God's love yourself as you would settle into a plush arm chair which isn't always easy to do. That is our first task.

Phillip Bennett talks about this difficulty in his little book entitled, ``Let Yourself Be Loved''. He writes ( page 4-5): It is still not easy for me simply to let myself be loved by God. I find lots of reasons to avoid the all-embracing Presence: I seek distractions, I turn my prayer into a project, I wander off in fantasies and planning. Like a fidgety child who climbs in and out of a parent's lap, I want God to hold me but then I pull away. I do and I don't want to let myself be loved unconditionally. This inner ambivalence is, as both theologians and psychologist tell us, a normal part of the human experience. We long for love and yet part of us fears it. In our reaching out to God and to others we are never completely of one mind: we can feel both love and hate, approach and avoidance, eager passions and cooling distance. We want to be known yet we also want to hide; what most attracts us also scares us the most. Accepting our ambivalence toward God and other people can help free us from an unrealistic perfectionism in which we expect ourselves to be without doubts and resistance to love. Knowing that our hearts are never completely undivided and free of anxiety , allows us to accept the variety of hopes and fears that well up within us as a normal part of our humanity.

Despite all our continued resistance, unconditional love is always there waiting for us. When we have run through our many ways of resisting, God is there with arms outstretched, waiting to embrace us as we are. …When we discover in our hearts a mysterious sadness, an unexpected anger, a vague, unnamable fear, God is there with us not to take away the feeling but to meet us in it; to lead us through it into a deeper acceptance of ourselves and others. As we open daily to God's love that surrounds us, we become increasingly sure that we can trust this love to be there, no matter what life may bring.

When I was asked to write something for our congregational web page about ``who we are'', these are the first words that came to me. ``We are well-loved children of God. Sometimes we know that, and sometimes we don't. When we know it, we are humbled and nourished and eager to love as God loves. When we don't know it, we listen poorly, work too hard and st rive to be better than we are.''
I truly believe that statement, and I pray that          as a congregation, we will continue to grow in our awareness of God's love for us and all people, so that we are freed to do the work of love in the world. May God's love be revealed to each one of you and to all of us together.

1-14-2007 JHP Good Wine.rtf

Sat, 3 Mar 2007 02:39:47 GMT

Sermon: Good Wine
Jane H. Peifer
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
January 14, 2007

Texts: John 2:1-11; I Corinthians 12:1-11 ; Psalm 36:5-10 ; Isaiah 62:1-5
Good Ne ws: Jesus Christ is a sign of the change from law to grace: water to wine: mundane to celebration.

Read John 1:1-18; 1:35 - 2:11 (from New Living Translation)

Our focus today is on the story of Jesus turning water into wine at the Cana wedding -- and as I read preaching helps this week, it amazed me how many preachers take this opportunity to talk about marriage, or even worse, about weddings. There is an obvious connection of course, but I don't think this story about running out of wine at a wedding is about a wedding . . . which illustrates the challenge: how to discern what people's stories are really about. That is why I began today by reading the first chapter of John to you, the story before the story of what happened at the wedding.

The gospel of John begins very dif ferently from the other gospels -- the other stories of Jesus' life and ministry. John begins very differently than Matthew, Mark and Luke. Mark begins with a very pointed thesis statement: ``The beginning of the good news of Jesus Chris t, the Son of God, '' and then he grounds his story in the prophet Isaiah's words about sending a messenger ahead of Jesus, and moves quickly into Jesus' ministry. Matthew and Luke take t he story back to the beginning -- (to the beginning of Jesus that is)-- with Matthew anchoring his story in a long genealogy beginning with Abraham and Luke gives us lots of details about Jesus' birth.

John, on the other hand, uses eternity rather than history as a backdrop for his story about Jesus. John wants to establish right from the start that the story of Jesus can only be understood if we realize that Jesus is the incarnation of the eternal, divine Word, the very essence of God. John wanted to make perfectly clear that this Jesus fellow was from God and was God in fact. And the deeds and words of this Jesus are the deeds and words of God. So he began, ``In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.'' This title of Word (logos in Greek) for Jesus is a title carefully chosen and it takes us back to creation when God spoke (the word) and all was created. It also reflects back to the words of the Torah and the words of Jewish wisdom, which were the ways that God was revealed to the people. So John is saying that this Jesus is the Word, the new and true revelation of God. It is he who speaks God's words NOW. It is he who is the source of life as God is the source of life. No longer the Torah nor wisdom -- but Jesus -- is the eternal Logos of God, the eternal word of God. This is the story behind the story that John is wanting to communicate.

John (the writer of this 4 ^th gospel) is speaking out of a new community of faith that over and over again found itself up agai nst a rigid form of Judaism which he refers to as Judeans. This rigid form of Judaism evolved out of the destruction of their temple, the temple in Jerusalem, the very house of Yahweh. The place where God was revealed to them was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 which totally upended the Jewish people, and a segment of Judaism emerged as a religion of the book with the Pharisee rabbis as the primary interpreters.

The gospel writer John is writing out of this context where his community was in ongoing conflict with 2 groups: the new ingrained Jewish establishment as well as some Christian communities who were ``in great danger of reproducing in the name of Jesus the very system of hierarchy and institutional rigidity that Jesus had railed against.'' So it is these realities that John (the writer) was up against and helped to shape the way he told the story.
Wow, this sounds like times haven't changed much. This is a familiar struggle among Christians today isn't it? The power of institution-based religious tradition and authority on the one hand , and fresh, community-based insight into God's call on the other. This struggle feels very familiar to me as I expect it does to many of you as well. So we can imagine the context that this story was written out of right from the start. John does not reach back into the ``religious institutions'' to establish the authority of Jesus but rather to the abiding presence of a Jesus who speaks God's word, who is God present. John is saying that the test is no longer obedience to the law but rather faithfulness to the grace and the truth that now can be SEEN and REC EIVED in this person Jesus.

Wes Howard-Brook observes in his article entitled, ``In the beginning was the Word , '' that John's gospel seems to set up this challenge to its readers: Whose side are you on? Are you with those from God or those from the religious esta blishment??? Verse 6 of John 1 established the fact the John (the Baptist) was from God: God sent John the Baptist to tell everyone about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. And verse 19 tells us that the priests and t emple assistants who came out into the desert to where John was baptizing people , were sent by the J ewish leaders back in Jerusalem . . . and in their inquiry to John about who he was , they indicate that they need to know what to say to those who sent them (they were clearly accountable to the religious authorities).

So, whose side are we on? John asks us as well. Where do we come from? Who sends us? Are we on the side of looking to the long established and institutionalized church for how we are to be the body of Christ in the world or are we on the side of listening carefully to the winds of the Spirit and the discernment of the community in order to know God's call for us?

Now, it is not fair to have to choose between these two and hopefully we don't have to. Hopefully the long established and institutionalized church is also listening carefully to the winds of the Spirit and the discernment of the community in order to know God's call! And besides that, there is something to be said for the long established traditions and authority of the church. There is security in the establishment of the church. It feels good to be able to say when asked about my faith, ``Oh, I'm a Mennonite.'' It may not communicate anything worthwhile, but it helps me to know who I am. Or it feels good to be able to rest in the commitments and values of our inherited faith especially in times when we're not sure what we believe, ``My church'' believes thus and so -- we might hear ourselves saying. Establishment is secure. It is steady. It is predictable. It has boundaries. It knows who is in and who is out. It is years and years and years of experience. It has answers for a lot of questions. It has careful rules , which when followed , work for most people. It is predictable (did I say that?) It has power and influence and usually money. It feels safe to some. That's the problem, religious institutions tend to create deep rutted and well worn paths that too often serve some and exclude others.

John and his community, in this 4 ^th gospel, are willing to tell the story of Jesus in a way that openly addresses the religious establishment of the day regardless of the consequences.

And now to the story for today, the Mother of Jesus starts it all off at the wedding in Cana where she insinuates that Jesus should do something about the wine situation. She seems to take Jesus by surprise because he wonders aloud. So what does that have to do with me , or you for that matter , and then he adds, ``My time has not yet come.'' So what is ``his time?'' It seems that ``his time'' is his final confrontation of the powers, his final revelation of God's glory . . . because at the last supper, he says in chapter 13: The time has come for me, the Son of Man, to enter into my glory, and God will receive glory because of all that happens to me. Jesus , in this little exchange with his Mother , did not seem r eady to begin the journey. But Mary was ready . . . and she instructed the waite rs to ``do whatever he tells you '' . . . which didn't leave Jesus much of a choice.
Now I'd love to know whether Mary knew what Jesus would do. Did she know that he was going to use the jugs standing near by ---- the stone water pots used for Jewish ceremonial purification purposes? Did she know that is what he would do? Or did she think he would create some instant coins and send the stewards down to the market to buy more wine? Did she know how he would solve the wine problem? Obviously, We don't know whether or not she knew, but it seems as if she was ready for this boy she had raised to ``show his stuff.'' because she knew very well that he had come from God and was God.

Being nudged by his Mother , Jesus looked around and spotted the familiar water pots used for ceremonial washing . . . and he asked the servants to fill the six jars with water , and so they did. And when they were all full to the top with water , he told them to dip some out and take it to the steward which they did. And of course the steward was astounded by the good quality wine. He called over the bridegroom and complemented him on the amazing wine . . . and noted that most often the weaker wines are left for the end of the celebration but that he obviously had kept the best until last. And we don't know what the groom said or did after that.

John, the story teller, then picks up and writes in verse 11: Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. So, the very first story John tells about Jesus' ministry . . . is this story. And he calls what Jesus did, a sign , the first of his signs . We must ask, ``What was this `turning water into wine' a sign of? Was it a sign that Jesus could perform miracles? Was it a sign that Jesus was obedient to his mother? Was it a sign that the disciples needed in order to believe? Was it a sign that Jesus was the son of God? What was it a sign of?

It was a sign that something new was happening. It was a sign that the old was passing away, indeed all things were becoming new. By using the old familiar water jugs that they used for Jewish ceremonial washing -- as the vessels to als o hold the new really good wine -- Jesus was giving t he signal that the glory of God -- the kingdom of God -- was among them right there at the wedding. He was announcing that he had come from God and that God is a God who provides plenty of really good wine for everyone. God is a God of grace upon grace upon grace. No longer is there wine only for those who can afford it, only for those who are invited to the banquet. Jesus was announcing the coming of God's kingdom, the revelation of God's presence and power . . . which is a kingdom of justice and peace and enough for all. Jesus was announcing that the water jugs that had held the important and necessary water for washing and purification according to the law , were now transformed and brimming full with the best wine in town, a call for celebration and feasting. ``The purification jars no longer held the power to cause celebration!'' (Wes Howard-Brooke) God was doing a new thing.

Accordin g to John's story . . . F rom Cana, Jesus proceeds immediately to Jerusalem , and there confronts the corrupt temple system. John puts this story of overturning the tables and running out all the merchants and animals immediately after the story about the water turned into wine . . . probably for a reason. It seems that John is not wanting to paint Jesus as someone who just fixed things on the surface (by providing a wedding banquet with lots of really good wine) . . . so he immediately tells the story of how Jesus messed with the establishment, with the religio us system that had lost its way . . . t he temple, a vibrant and alive experience with God that got hardened into an institution over time. And as we know this ``word'' of God continued to challenge the religious status quo until they did what all entrenched institutions do -- they handled it, and put him away ( or so they thought. )

I find the challenge of this sermon quite difficult because if I am honest I know that I also want to take refuge in the wings of established church rather than taking refuge under the wings of God. I know that I hold onto and want to hold onto things as we have always done them in Christian tradition . . . and in our Mennonite tradition in particular . . . rather than even acknowledging that God is always embodying the old with something new. I know that sometimes I can't see the new, or I don't want to see it.

The challenge of knowing when to confront the religious status quo with new understandings of God's revelation and light is already a challenge for us as members of Lancaster Conference. And this week, on Friday, we will learn whether or not the challenge will become greater. On Friday, the results of the vote of whether Lancaster Conference will ordain women for pastoral leadership will be announced.

Now it is easy for me to point fingers at Lancaster Conference as an institution that is stuck in a patriarchal history that is no longer open and responsive to the movement of the Spirit . . . but I recognize that I have the same tendencies within me also -- the tendency to resist the mystery of God's movement in this world. We cannot point fingers without acknowledging our own reluctance ``to let go and let God.'' and the cliché goes. There are just other settings where we hold on to what is.

Deborah Smith Douglas reflects in an article entitled ``Unfailing Treasure'' (Weavings XX:6 Nov/Dec 05, pg. 12): Left to our own devices, we all tend to ``put God off''not realizing that God ``wants to give us something.'' We have inherited the ancient tendency to forsake God, the mysterious ``fountain of living waters'' that we can neither possess nor control, and . . instead . . we put our trust in ``broken cisterns that can hold no water.''

The prophet Jeremiah used that image when he wrote: (Jer. 2:13)
For my people have done two evil things: They have forsaken me --- the fountain of living water the jars full of really good wine. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all.

We humans are inclined toward unhappy preoccupation with failing treasure, unaware, of the point at which our organizations, our positions, our traditions, our experiences, and our doctrines, etc. begin to possess us. And we become ``church people'' rather than ``God-people'' . . . .who gather together as God's people, (which is called church.)

Douglas writes, Sometimes, it seems we must lose what we cannot keep . . . in order to find w hat we cannot lose.

Prayer:
Lord of abundant wine. Lord of steadfast love, of faithfulness, of trustworthiness, of refuge. Lord of the feast, you give us drink from the river of your delights. For you are the fountain of life, and it is in your light, that we see light. Help us, O God, to be able to see your light -- to be able to hear your call whether it is in the midst of what is, or what could be. In thanksgiving and praise, we pray in the name of Jesus, who is the total revelation of your word, and your dream. Amen.

3-4-2007 MichelleD The hen and the fox.rtf

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 01:37:47 GMT

Sermon

March 4, 2007
Luke 13:31-35
Michelle Dula

One of my more vivid childhood memories is from time when I was probably around eight or nine years old. That particular summer my sisters and my brother would walk about ½ a mile down a dirt road to some woods my father owned. We would spend the afternoon building forts from broken branches and twigs we found lying around. We had great fun imagining we were orphaned children who were able to survive in the woods because we knew how to make great forts.
Well one particular afternoon there was a thunderstorm rapidly approaching as was common in those sultry summer afternoon,
but in the trees we couldn't see it coming until it was almost upon us
and the cracks of thunder made us head for home. I remember being terrified since we were a little ways from home but as we ran out of the woods with the rain pouring and the lightning flashing there was our mother with the car waiting for us. She had come looking for her orphaned children who now desperately needed a ride home. I still remember the great sense of relief as I climbed into the safety and shelter of that car.

We have already heard some of the images of shelter in our readings for today. In Genesis 15 God is a shield promising to protect Abraham.
In Psalm 27 God is light and will hide me in shelter. God will conceal me under the cover of a tent. God will set me on a high rock. Each of these is of a God personified into human terms. God is hiding, protecting, moving.

But the most moving image is the image in Luke. -Jesus longing to protect his children as a hen gathering her young. Each of these passages provides shelter as protection from something outside that seeks to harm.

This passage in Luke begins with the Pharisees trying to protect Jesus
warning him that Herod is trying to find him. What's this the Pharisees are trying to protect Jesus? While Luke gives the Pharisees a better rap than the other gospel writers do, some scholars believe that their warning is not sincere and is actually a trap.

Jesus replies, ``Go and tell that fox for me,
`Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.' In other words, you can come get me if you want but you won't succeed until I have accomplished what I came to do. Jesus seems to know that his life will end in Jerusalem.
And now is not the time.

But Jesus is not concerned with himself. He is concerned about his children. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!''

You were not willing.

Here the image of Jesus is as a mother hen that longs to protect her children to gather them into safe shelter. But they are not willing.

Today if you visit Jerusalem - on the western slope of the Mount of Olives
there is a small chapel called Dominus Flevit. Inside the chapel there is a high arched window that looks over the city. Down below in front of the altar is a mosaic medallion of a white hen with a golden halo. Her red comb resembles a crown, and her wings are spread wide to shelter the pale yellow chicks that crowd around her feet. There are seven of them, with black dots for eyes and orange dots for beaks. They look happy there. The hen looks ready to spit fire if anyone comes near her babies.
The medallion is rimmed with red words in Latin.
Translated into English they read,
``Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!''
The last phrase is set outside the circle, in a pool of red underneath the chicks' feet: you were not willing.''

Why weren't they willing to find the safety of the wings?
Was life fine just the way it was, did they not know what they were missing or were they too busy chasing the fox.
Why aren't we willing to find safety in God's wings?
Perhaps we think we can make it on our own. Perhaps we forget there is a shelter. Perhaps we hold ourselves up in false shelters like other people, books, technology, silence. Or perhaps we are afraid it will make us targets.

The fox and the hen are a common combination in children's stories.

The fox is usually portrayed as sly, cunning, not to be trusted, and also a little dense. The hen usually wins in the end because she doesn't give up
and outsmarts the fox. In Luke the fox is Herod, a Jewish leader who really just functions as a puppet of Imperial Rome. He feared Jesus so much that he used intimidation and fear tactics to try and ensnare Jesus and those who followed him.

It makes me wonder who or what is the fox in our lives that threatens to eat us or at least chases us around? Perhaps it is whatever tries to entice us away from being a child of God. Maybe it is fear or maybe it is arrogance. Maybe we don't feel worthy or maybe we feel self-sufficient.
Maybe we are too busy or maybe we are numb. Maybe we find false security in the fox. All of these things and many more seek to entice us in…. and then chase us around. Oh for a little shelter in God's wings.

There is a lot of irony in this passage. Perhaps the greatest one is that we are to put our trust in the hen when the fox is on the prowl and could eat the hen in one gulp. We are to place our trust in that which can be eaten. Perhaps we will be targets.

So why do we risk it? The fox is lurking trying to confuse or entice us away from that safety. Why do we seek shelter in those wings? We seek shelter in those wings because it is home. Anywhere else is false shelter.
I've recently seen the word unsheltered people used instead of homeless people. If we do not find shelter in God's wings we will be homeless.

God has called us by name like the mother hen calling her chicks.
For being in God's shelter reminds us of whose we are. We relearn our identity as a child of God. Being in God's shelter gives us time to quit shaking in our boots on account of running from the fox and it gives us new perspective on life. We remember that we are children of the mother hen not children of the fox. We are God's beloved children.

I recently heard of a retreat center in Switzerland called L'Abri which is French for shelter. At this retreat center you are free to come and spend a few days or a few months as a shelter away from your daily life. Here you can do theological study and attend lectures or spend time alone.
One of the expectations though is that you participate in the life of the retreat community by helping in the garden, cooking, cleaning, whatever is needed to keep the community functioning.

This strikes me as a fitting metaphor for what shelter in God is like.
It is a place to learn and grow but also time to clean house clean out what is cluttering our lives. It is a time to tend the garden of the soul and a time to bake and stir up that which gives us sustenance. It sounds a bit like heaven to me. And all of this is wrapped in the loving presence of God's wings as we are reminded whose we are.

There is something else about this hen image of Jesus that is quite revealing. Barbara Brown Taylor writes about this posture of the hen,
she writes ``this is the most vulnerable posture in the worldwings spread, breast exposedbut if you mean what you say, then this is how you stand. What Jesus is is a mother hen, who stands between the chicks and those who mean to do them harm. She has not fangs, no claws, no rippling muscles. All she has is her willingness to shield her babies with her own body. If the fox wants them, he will have to kill her first. Which he does, as it turns out. He slides up on her one night in the yard while all the babies are asleep. When her cry wakens them, they scatter. She dies the next day where both foxes and chickens can see herwings spread, breast exposedwithout a single chick beneath her feathers. It breaks her heart, but it does not change a thing. If you mean what you say, then this is how you stand.''

This is the paradox. God wants to give us shelter but does not want us to remain sheltered. Like Jesus, we are called out to bring hope and healing to the world. Jesus knew his way would not be popular with the world and would make him a target.

But he lived out his call anyway because he knew no other way. And this is our call too -To mean what we say even if it makes us targets. When we do that we create shelter for others. We open the tent, shine the light, and invite others in to share in the warmth.

Oh, that we too might be hens, that we act to protect and that we mean what we say. With God's help may it be so.

3-11-2007 JonE Free Food.rtf

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 01:39:00 GMT

``Free Food''
March 11, 2007
Jon Eisenberg

Sometimes God answers our prayers in weird ways. But he always responds. Let me tell you a story.

I went to bed last night struggling with how to begin. So I asked God for help as I drifted to sleep. Suddenly, about 1:30, Erika's voice pierces the silence. ``Mommy . . . . pee pee.'' A pause. ``Mommy . . .. pee pee.''.

I supposed I should be excited. Erika initiated potty training a couple weeks ago and this is the first time she's woken in the night to use the potty. And I was excited, but not that way. All I could think was `` why tonight?! Why me?! '' An hour later, with Erika kinda back to sleep , I crawled back into my bed trying to calm down from an hour of internal rage .

You see, I love to teach/preach. But stories like this are more than typical. Preparing to teach is consistently a time of living, sometimes intensely, the passage. Worse, I'm usually confronted in a profound way with how little I actually believe, or at least how often I choose not to believe God. This feels particularly relevant to the Isaiah, so before I talk about the passage I'm going to back the story up a couple weeks.

When Kate asked me to speak, I gave a tentative yes. It's my standard response. I want time to hear the topic and pray about my response. She gave me the texts for this week, and I was immediately drawn to Is. 55. Honestly, this was mostly because it felt the easiest I've studied this passage in depth on several previous occasions. I said I'd speak. But it didn't stay easy.

Last Tuesday, I set aside a couple hours first thing in the morning to sit with the text and list to what God is saying to me and might be saying to us. I choose Tuesday because my mom generously drives from Bethlehem every Tuesday to spend the day with Erika so we can work. Often I leave first thing Tuesday for a trip, but I didn' t have appointments.

You see, it's been a long couple months. The snow storm a couple weeks ago interrupted that week. Since a good chunk of my work responsibilities involve traveling which I schedule 2-3 weeks in advance, the impact feels even larger to me: a week of meetings to reschedule AND a `dead' week two weeks later since meetings didn't get scheduled.

And Erika's been sick a lot. We've gone through 3 rounds of antibiotics. AND she's really generous. It's cute when you read a book and she tries to offer her sippy cup to the tiger. It's less cute when it results in Jen and my 3 ^rd round of antibiotics.

Between it all, I feel like I've had a totally unproductive first quarter. While there's never a good time for such extended unproductive times, right now feels particularly inopportune: I'm in the middle of a complex and very political season at work.

3 years ago I approached my boss offering to address a key structural problem in our efforts to help college students grow in love with Jesus. Now I'm seen as being 18 months in front of anyone else in the organization in implementing what our President has identified as the direction we need to be moving with respect to funding the organization. There's talk of reproducing my efforts around the organization, but the talk's not always associated with ME reproducing the strategy (if you know what I mean) . A season of ineffectiveness doesn't help my case.

But do I want my case helped? To reproduce my success is to take a job traveling 50% of my time between DC and Maine. I miss Erika just traveling 20-25% of the time. But to not pursue this opportunity may stymie my career in InterVarsity. What about beyond? How do I balance work and family? And then the bills start talking .

God, why do you feel so absent? Where is the good life? Doesn't advancing your Kingdom include my family? You promised to provide, where is it? Have I done something wrong?

So, I needed a couple uninterrupted hours with God. Except there was a big accident on 222, so my mom was late. I was having fun with Erika . T hen Jen came down and the complex question of schedules started. Since we're both working 60 hour jobs in 30 hours a week , we're constantly negotiating who can work how much and when. In this case, there are 3 national and/or regional meetings coming up that we both need to attend but our family situation will only allow one of us to attend.

Two hours later, we'd had a productive conversation about our feelings. We even made 1 of the decisions. But the trickiest situation was left unsolved, feeling as unresolvable as ever. And I've either lost my time with Jesus, or will fall even further behind at work.

Ughh. When will this end?! Lately I feel like I spend more time looking for God's `good' provision, fighting through the increasingly loud question: `Am I just fooling myself pursuing God and inviting others to follow me?'

I feel trapped . Fortunately, Jen was on the scene. She encouraged me not to lose time with God. So I go to starbucks.

Now being the scholarly type, I don't start with time in scripture. I have to know the context for the passage I'm about to read. So I pull out one of my favorite OT theologians for history. A nd wouldn't you know the above story seems to parallel Israel's situation.

And that's really why I start with the story. Based on our congregational meeting a few weeks ago, I'm pretty sure I'm not alone . I 'm not going to comment on solutions. I just want us to recognize ourselves in the text in hopes that it helps God's voice stand out .

You probably know the story. Generations ago, God called Abraham who had Isaac who had Jacob, who God renamed Israel. It's the beginning of God's family of chosen people. After centuries of wandering all over the Middle East, God gave Isreal David as King. It was a great time for Israel. And i t sounds like it will last: God promises to keep His representative on David's throne.

But it doesn't. More g enerations later, Israel is in exile. The eternal throne doesn't exist; how could it, Israel doesn't e xist . The people have been carried off and dispersed; most are living in a land not their own among people not like them. Some say God was never that good. Others are saying `it's our own dumb fault why didn't we know better than to follow (choose your evil descendent of David) when he started going a astray?

Either way, they're trapped. Will life be ok? Can God rescue them? Will he? How long will they have to wait? God, why do you feel so absent?!

Can you feel it? For me, it's the ``uggghhh'' moment I just described. The moment I'm tempted to give in, to give up.

And it's in this environment that God sends His prophet:
Come you thirsty drink till you're filled, it's on me .
Come hungry eat t ill you're filled, still free .
Delight yourself in God's free abundance. Turn away from the costly stuff that leaves you hungry. Why do you want to be left unsatisfied anyway?
Look closely, for you're calling a nation of people that you don't know (that are different)
Can you see `em? T hey're running to you.

Would they believe this? Do you? I mean, how often does Starbucks give out free drinks? Or, Panera give out free bread?

I'll digress for a moment. My senior year in college I started what some have called hibachi ministry. I bought a portable grill and on nice days I'd go buy a bunch of burgers, chips and sodas and grill in the quad outside my dorm. I'd blast music, bring a Frisbee or a football. And I'd offer food to anyone who passed by. It was awesome. I became an hibachi ministry addict of sorts.

Now the crazy thing is that more often than not people wouldn't even accept take out from my hibachi. A great example happened just a couple years ago while I ministered to Elizabethtown Students.

It was the 1 ^st or 2 ^nd day freshman were on campus. I took a couple upperclassmen from the fellowship with me as I positioned my hibachi strategically between dorms and the dining hall. My only anxiety was not have enough food. But without exception everyone just walked by. One group of guys saw us on his way back to the dorm, ``why didn't you make us stop?! I can't believe I went to the caf over a cookout!''

Now I've a lways thought people were crazy to prefer caf food. But lately, I'm not sure what I'd do. It's easy to think there's a catch; I'm always looking for the catch. Free food for those in need sounds like a hollow cliché . I mean, just look at the world around us: Iraq, Iran, the environment . . . closer to home, there's busyness that keeps me from family and friends, work demands more time, there's competition with co-workers just to keep jobs , kids, abuse in the church . Isaiah's offer sounds more like a nice, but empty promise. Continuous exile feels way more likely.

Am I alone? The exact way is probably different, but I suspect we all feel `exiled' in different ways pretty regularly.

A s I've reflected on this text, I think the key question for us is `what do we expect deliverance from exile to look like?' (repeat)

Is 55 is the final chapter of the 4 ^th Servant Song. Over the course of Isaiah's prophecies, he uses these songs to tell Israel about the Messiah God will surely send to deliver us. This one is closely tied to Jesus, and thus is closely linked with our Lenten season.

The servant song begins in ch. 53 and describes the S uffering Servant. Back in Isaiah's day, this passage was understood to talk about the Messiah. Unfortunately, shortly before Jesus' arrival, Rabbinic tradition changes; the suffering servant is Israel, NOT an individual. So, in an incredibly ironic move given that the text says the deliverer will be overlooked, Israel misses Jesus the one sent to deliver us from our exile from the fullness of God's Kingdom, the one sent to satisfy us at no cost to ourselves.

And we can miss that deliverance too, if we're looking for the wrong thing.

Now I'm not sure that the text really gives us that clear a picture of what it will look like. The details are fuzzy. Isaiah operate s at the level of values/images instead of specifics. But that may be a better thing . It compels us to be attentive, to daily trust. We can't rest on a fomula; we can't get ourselves out of exile; we can't satisfy ourselves.

So what are those values/images? What should we look for? Expect? I'll hig hlight just a couple .

God actively gives us a delig htful abundance as we trust him don't worry about whether this makes sense of not on a daily basis. As the text reminds us, God's ways and our ways aren't the same. In the end, choosing to trust God , turning from distrust, results in experiences of His compassion that will more than satisfy those places left thirsty and hungry by our exiling ourselves through unbelief.

It's gonna happen. Prophets do a great job of using things right around us to make God tangible. Here, Isaiah uses rain: r ain, or more recently snow, comes to water the earth so it can produce/sustain life. That's really tangible lately right? It's all over the story I just shared; ironically, it's what's been making m e feel exiled/alone, etc. Well, then God's been really tangible lately. Because God tells us through Isaiah that His word is the same way when God says something, it's gonna come to pass. Look for it and go for it , don' t doubt it. In this case, we need to b oldly acknowledge your need , your thirst, and ask for provision ; live as though not in exile, even before deliverance is fully realized .

Now if you get to know me, you'll hear me talk over and over about all scripture through the lens of Gen 1-11. Today's no exception.

Is 55 ends with the promise that thorn bushes will be replaced by cypresses and nettles replaced with myrtles. It's as though we're moving backwards through the curse the exile into the Garden God intended
for us .

In Gen 3, the ground is cursed. Instead of fruit trees that grow themselves, the ground makes thorns and thistles. We still eat plants, but it requires sweat from our brow.

We live like this because the first Adam went with the woman to the serpant who asked `did God really say ____?' They judged for themselves that it wouldn't be bad, and went against what God said would work best. This story played itself again and again for Israel: Egyptian captivity, 40 years in the desert, Assyrian captivity, etc. It keeps playing itself out in us.

Before this tragic event, God made the plants grow themselves and he commands, in Gen 2:16, us to eat freely from what he grows for us. And there's a river in the Garden. We can eat and drink at no cost to ourselves.

But it started with Adam and Ha-Adama deciding what provision should look like rather than trusting God's provision. That's why I'm so insistent that we don't doubt God's goodness, or question the promise to deliver from exile based on our preconceived ideas of what deliverance looks like.

When Israel is in exile, God promises deliverance, telling them what to look for. in the servant song ending with Is 55 He tells them exactly what His servant, the Messiah, looks like. But they miss it because the promise of bread without price doesn't make sense. They have a different plan for deliverance.

So we get Jesus, the second Adam . He moves through the temptations we all face, successfully trusting in God to work for His good. Lent is the celebration of the climax of these temptations. As Jesus approaches Jerusalem, he has choices to continue to the cross or not. Against human wisdom, he keeps going. And God comes through , delivering Him and all who call on God as He did from exile from God's care . As with the rain in Isaiah, in Jesus God's character and provision become tangible; God compels us to live out of exile, even as deliverance is happening.

So what's the catch? We must admitting where we're at. We must acknowlede we're thirsty, hungry, unsatisfied. We need to listen to God's voice promising to provide and take what he offers. We must ignore our captors' voices telling us God won't come through, telling us continual, unmet longing is all there is. If we don't do this, we'll never really know if the offer is for real.

So are there places in your life today, this Lenten season, that you feel like you're in exile? Where you feel hungry, thirsty, unsatisfied? What do you expect deliverance to look like? Do you see God? God's already moving to respond. Look for it. Live towards it.

``For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace. . . . Come, listen to God, eat what is good, and delight yourself in His abundance.''

3-18-2007 JHP An Extravegantly Reckless God.rtf

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 01:08:54 GMT

Sermon: Lent 4: An Extravantly Reckless God
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
March 18, 2007
Jane H. Peifer

Texts: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Good News: God is a safe hiding place. God's welcome of us is reckless.
Purpose: To encourage folks to learn to live in complete honesty before God . . . repenting when we become aware of ways we are deceiving ourselves, others and God.

This well known and mostly loved parable that Anne Marie just read is the third of a series of parables that Jesus tells in response to the grumbling Pharisees who were upset because he was keeping company, actually even eating with sinners. And of course , the sinners loved him. They kept coming near to Jesus to listen to him. Luke tells us it made the Pharisees and the scribes sick to see a rabbi associate with sinners. So, Jesus tried to help them understand what he was doing by telling them three little stories. All of these stories are ``lost and found stories'' where something valuable was lost and then was recovered.

The first parable is about sheep, 100 of them. The second parable is about silver coins, 10 of them. Jesus points out in each of these first two stories that even they, the Pharisee , would certainly take the time and energy to look for 1 lost sheep out of 100. And any sensible woman would look for 1 lost coin out of 10. And that both of them would want others to rejoice with them for having found these lost valuable things . Then Jesus added that the joy that is felt and expressed upon finding something valuable that has been lost is just how it is in heaven when one lost sinner turns around and comes home. There is more joy in this, Jesus said, than over the 99 sheep or the 9 coins that never got lost in the first place.

The psalmist in Psalm 32 reflects that same joy. . .
Oh what joy for those, whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin in out of sight, whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty!! Oh what joy there is when the slate is cleared, when the lost one is found, when the sinner repents. Oh what joy there is for everyone, for the seeker and the sought after. It is just plain joy!!

T hen Jesus goes on to tell this third parable which is about sons, just two of them. The first parable was about sheep, 100 of them. The second was about coins, just 10 of them and now this is about people, sons, and there are only 2 of them. Which ups the ante quite a bit!

I started out saying that this is a MOSTLY a loved parable because whether we find this an endearing ``happy ever after'' kind of story or not seems to depend on what is going on in our lives. How we view this story depends on whether we find ourselves with the ``needing grace'' son or if we find ourselves with the ``got-me-covered'' son. The story isn't nearly as good for the elder son as it is for the younger son.

Personally, I always liked this parable. Sometimes preachers ask you to think about which character you identify with and I never could really identify with the younger son. I'm not nearly that impulsive nor recklessly adventurous. I am much more of a pleaser, so I can't imagine demanding my share of the inheritance, which would create tremendous conflict in the family. In fact, I might even be willing to forgo some of my inheritance in order to keep peace in the family even if it's a surface kind of peace. I would choose that. That is certainly the way I felt as my siblings and I divided my Mother's things after she died.

The thing that I've most loved about this parable is the picture Jesus painted of God in this story. It really is an amazing picture. A parent who was so misused, who yet keeps watching and hoping and then runs with abandon at the first sight of that irresponsible son coming back. I loved that image of God. It is so open, so inclusive, so welcoming, so unconditional.

And the elder son, well, growing up as the youngest in a family I couldn't really identify there either, or so I thought. Until there was one Lenten season about ten years ago when this story caught me off guard and stopped me in my tracks. At the congregation where I was one of the pastors, we were about 8 months into a very painful journey. One of our members confessed to his wife and the leadership of the congregation that he had been living a double life. The tentacles of his choices deeply affected many in the congregation and it affected me especially because he had been a trusted friend who was a great encouragement to me in the years when I was first exploring pastoral ministry. Plus our families were close personal friends. We had been in small group together for years. This incongruity in his life was not apparent to us, we felt very betrayed.

He confessed, repented. As far as I know, he didn't hold back any of the truth but unloaded it all. And I think in that process, he experienced the joy that the Psalmist describes of being forgiven by God, of having his record cleared, the guilt relieved. Even though the consequences of his actions had wrecked havoc in his family plus other families in our community and church, which we now ha d to deal with , I think he really did experience the joy of finally being able to live in complete honesty.

In the midst of all of this confusion I needed to prepare to lead worship for the forth Sunday of Lent. I turned to the scriptures for that week and found that the whole service was wrapped around this parable. I was paralyzed. My view of this story suddenly changed. I did not like this cutesy little story anymore. I did not like how the church has for decades interpreted the character of the father to be like the character of God. I was convinced that this was not right, somehow we have wrongly made this out to be a picture of God. It must mean something else. It is naïve to accept a God who welcomes sinners with open arms, I reasoned within myself; a God who doesn't even wait to see if there is a proper confession; a God who doesn't require any penance; a God who rejoices and wants to celebrate over someone who has created sheer havoc for the family, for the whole community. Suddenly, this was not a picture of God I could deal with.

The grace of this experience for me was that my brand-new reaction to this parable shocked me into acknowledging my own pain. And I was able to at least see far enough to know that something was very wounded inside of me and that I was in no shape to lead that worship service. I found someone to take my place, and in fact, I didn't even go to church that Sunday. Daryl and I drove to the next town and stayed in a motel just to get away, which was the beginning of my journey of healing.

I will never forget the strength of those ``elder brother'' feelings. I was not ready to rejoice because the lost had been found. I was quite content to stay outside the banquet hall as long as he was in there, for as long as it was going to take until I felt like going in. And I didn't expect it to be anytime soon.

For the first time in my life, I clearly identified with that older brother . B ut , what I am more convinced than ever about is that the picture that Jesus paints of God in this parable really is the God we read about in the Bible. Few of us are ready for this kind of radical grace but I'm more and more convinced that this is the God we serve.

I am again accepting that image of God as gospel. It really is good news. But now I have a much deeper respect for how radical it really is. I accept it now with awe and it comes with great challenge rather than with the shallow ``of course that is who God is'' understanding of those years before this parable rocked my boat. I no longer have so many answers for how others should act, but instead just continue to be amazed and called by God's radical display of grace and love, even for those whose actions hurt me.

Ernest Campbell, former pastor of Riverside Church in New York City said this: ``The biggest problem with American Christianity . . . is that we have a Loving-Father gospel in an Older-brother church.'', and this experience pointed out to me that my own woundedness had temporarily convinced me that we needed to be an Older-brother church where sinners are made to pay for their sin appropriately; where grace is measured and reasonable. But as I began to acknowledge and deal with my woundedness, I too was welcomed by the recklessly lavish love of God, a love of open arms that was safe, a hiding place for me and the pain I was swimming in.

This parable really is all about God , and a radical story it is. I have to think that perhaps a few of the Pharisees saw the light when Jesus originally told the story. Normally we call this the ``Parable of the prodigal son''. Prodigal means `` extravagantly wasteful'' which describes the son's behavior as he took his part of the inheritance and wasted it through extravagant living. Barbara Brown Taylor suggests that what we really have here is the ``Parable of the prodigal father''. She notes that the parable itself mentions nothing about confession, nothing about repentance, nothing about forgiving others. ``In fact, the loving father sees the son long before he even makes it home and rushes out to embrace him before the boy can get out a word of his well-rehearsed admission of guilt. And that's what is so hard to take: Few of us would deny the possibility of forgiveness, to those who repent, but we want it to be earned by a healthy dose of penance. We want people to PAY for their sin. Our sense of what is right is violated by this extravagant example of instant, no-strings-attached forgiveness.

After all, what kind of a world would this be, if we all made a practice of rewarding sinners while the God-fearing folk are still out in the fields doing the work?? That is what happens in the parable. The elder son cuts himself off from the Father's love and remains out in the field.

Brown writes: ``The father knows that he has lost both of his sons, the younger to a life of recklessness, the older to a life of angry self-righteousness. The younger son has returned but the older is still out there wanting his father to love him as he deserves to be love because he has stayed where he belonged, because he followed orders, because he did the right thing.

And indeed, the father does love him but not because he deserves it. He loves him for the same reason he loves his younger son which is simply because it is in the nature of the Father to love his sons. This parable is about who the Father is, not about what the sons have or have not done.

But oh, can we deal with this kind of a God? A God who gives us not what we deserve but simply what we need: unconditional love and mercy. God is not a clinging, controlling parent but a liberating `` letting go'' kind of parent. It is amazing how much freedom the father gave to his child. Certainly he could have said NO. He could have ordered him to stay home on the farm. Certainly he could have refused to turn over his half of the inheritance. In the ancient Near East, fathers had that sort of power, as most parents have but, this father seemed to love his son enough to trust him, to let him go, to let HIM decide to either succeed or to fall on his face.

God is like that with us. We are created as free creatures. God has created us with a resounding YES, ``Go ahead, live life to the fullest''. God seems to say `` Now there are some things that I'm warning you about, there are some things that will make my whole dream of creation work for everyone if you follow them and I hope you will (10 commandments) but, you are free to go with my blessing and love to live life in this place I have created for you. '' That is how God releases us to live.

Now we all know there are consequences in life, there are costs for our decisions. Sometimes it feels as if it would be easier if God was some sort of indulgent parent following after us and cleaning up after our messes and in fact we rail at God sometimes because she doesn't do that.

It is kind of like the story of the mother who wanted very much for her teenage son to clean up his room. He was always leaving socks, shoes, papers, food, all over his bedroom floor. She talked to him about it. She lectured him about it. She pleaded with him. It made no difference. His room was still a mess. Finally, she decided she would clean his room herself, but charge him a quarter for each item she picked up off the floor. By the end of the week, she had picked up twenty items and handed him a bill for $5.00. He reached into his wallet, pulled out a $5.00 bill and handed it to his mother and said, ``Keep up the good work, Mom. You're doing a great job!'' We would all agree that is bad parenting. She should have just allowed her teenager to live in his own mess, let him feel the consequences of his choices. That is what God does for us.

God does not promise to pick up after us. God just promises to be that safe, loving parent who gives us total freedom, who waits with loving hope for us to come home at the end of each day or at the end of ourselves. There is more than one way of being lost. But there is only one way of returning home.

The psalmist describes it this way . . .

When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.

Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself . . . ``I will confess my rebellion to the Lord''

God is waiting. God responds the same to those who fall away because of bad choices and to those who fall away because of self-righteousness. All are gathered in, all are welcomed home by the extravagantly wasteful love of God.

I invite you as we move into our time of confession to search your own lives and souls for those places where you need to get honest with yourself, with others, and with God.

Let's spend some moments in silence as we come before God. . . .

Now turn to the back of your bulletin for the confession/reconciliation litany and prayer.

Confession/reconciliation
         Leader: The Scripture says, ``No one who believes in him will be put to shame.´´ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, ``Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.´´ Romans 10:11, 12 NRSV
         Leader: Who will call upon the Lord today?
         People: We will call upon the Lord today.
         Leader: We are all invited to call upon the Lord today. Let us bring ou r selves to God in prayer.

Lord, your boundless and extravagant love is shocking.
We can scarcely take it in.
We know that we do not deserve that kind of love and embrace
         and so we sometimes resist your welcome --- your call.

Forgive us.
Help us to be honest with ourselves and with you about the ways in which
         we are running away --- wanting to do it our way
or the ways in which we are standing outside the banquet hall angry at how lavish your love is for those who come sniffling back to you

We recognize, God, that our inability to believe in the lavish outpouring of your love . . . affects how are able to love others
Free us, O God, from the need to judge and condemn and point fingers.
Free us, O God, to love as you love.
(pause)

         All:     Saving God, we call upon you for you alone can save. When we find ourselves wandering in a wilderness, we call to you.
         Leader: When we face temptations ( pause ), we call to you. When our souls hunger for what only you can provide ( pause ), we call to you.
         All:     In the morning and in the evening, we will call upon the Lord.
         Leader: Our generous God provides for us.
                  Amen.

O taste and see that the Lord is Good, number 86 in the green book Sing The Journey.

4-8-2007 JHP Easter - Why walk when you can fly.rtf

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 01:09:16 GMT

Easter Sunday Sermon: Why walk when you can fly?
April 8, 2007
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Jane H. Peifer

Texts: Year C: Acts 10:34-43; Isaiah 65:17-25; John 20:1-18
Good News: Jesus is alive. Jesus is Lord.
Purpose: To inspire folks to follow Jesus, the Lord of all, who invites us to fly!

It's not often that the sermon comes to me in a song, but it happened this week. A song by Mary Chapin Carpenter captivated me in these last two weeks. It's called ``Why Walk…Fly'' and it goes like this…

Sing verse 1 of ``Why Walk When You Can Fly?''
         words and music by Mary Chapin Carpenter, Why Walk Music Publisher

         In this world there's a whole lot of trouble baby
         In this world there's a whole lot of pain
         In this world there's a whole lot of trouble
         But a whole lot of ground to gain

         Why take when you could be giving
         Why watch as the world goes by
         It's a hard enough life to be living
         Why walk when you can fly!?

I think this question is the perfect Easter question . . .Why walk when you can fly?

Resurrection is about wings, about breaking out. It is about seeing beyond what is. Resurrection is God's resounding YES to the powerful and destructive NO of Good Friday. In rais ing Jesus, God said YES to his S on's life that was ended so brutally by the powers in this world that were dead set on stopping the way of wings that Jesus proclaimed.

You see , Jesus came with the mission and passion in his belly to bring good news to the poor ( instead of left over news and bad news that is so often the lot of the poor and powerless in society). Jesus came with the mission and passion in his belly to proclaim release to the captives, to give wings to those burdened down. He came with a mission and passion in his belly to bring new eyes to the blind and to let the oppressed go free, to open the way, to give them wings, to release them from the things that hold them down. Jesus came to proclaim a new time, a new way, God's way, the kingdom of God on earth. And we are part of that kingdom , so why would be walk when we too can fly???

I had breakfast one morning this week with one of our sages here at Blossom Hill, brother Tesfa, and he said a most interesting thing. He said that we as the church so often get into a rut. He said that the problem is that the longer you operate out of a rut the deeper the rut gets and it isn't long until the rut gets real comfortable and warm. Down in a rut, you can't feel the winds, and you can't see the sun and the landscape very well.

The call of this Easter sermon, indeed the call of the resurrection is to take flight on the wings of the Spirit of God who says YES to far more than we can ever ask or imagine.

Sing verse 2
         In this world there's a whole lot of sorrow
         In this world there's a whole lot of shame
         In this world there's a whole lot of sorrow
         and a whole lot of ground to gain

         When you spend your whole life wishing
         watching and wondering why
         It's a long enough life to be living
         Why walk when you can fly?

It's sure is a long enough life to be living. Why would we walk when we can fly? The passage in Acts 10 (that Curt read) comes right after Peter's encounter with Cornelius, the Gentile military man. Now Peter is one who certainly began living with wings after the resurrection! This is the same person who was not able to follow Jesus through this past week. I imagine he wanted to, but this Jesus fellow was so out-of-the-box it was so risky to associate with him and what was happening to him was so terrible. Peter actually denied he even knew Jesus to a servant girl. It wasn't even a temple authority or a Roman soldier who was asking if he knew Jesus. It was just a servant girl, which demonstrates the magnitude of Peter's anguish and fear.

But here in this text we find a different Peter. We find Peter giving witness to Jesus boldly! He was in the home of Cornelius who lived in Caesarea. Cornelius was a Roman military officer, not a Jew, not one of God's chosen people. The strange thing is that Cornelius was visited by an angel when he was praying who told him to go to Joppa and ask for a man named Simon Peter.

Now Peter had also just had a vision while he was praying where a sheet was lowered from heaven laden with all kinds of animals and birds and God told him to kill and eat. But Peter responded with what he knew from God's law. ``By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.'' And the voice then said ``What God has made clean, you must not call profane.'' This happened to Peter three times and then the visitors looking for him from Caeserea knocked on his door.

Believe me, Peter was winging it. He was following something far beyond his own inclination, far beyond what he had learned as a devout Jew, far beyond what he knew so well as Torah law and righteousness. He was winging his way right out of the rut!!

So now we have Peter in the house of this Roman military commander who is saying to everyone gathered there , `` All of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say, Simon Peter.'' Wow what an opening!! And so Peter begins and tries to make sense of his own visions and of his invitation to this house, not a place he would normally go. He started out, ``I truly understand that God shows no partiality.''

Now, wait a minute Peter, God shows no partiality???? Where did you get that? Yahweh God called the Jewish people to be God's people!!! And it's against God's law for Jews to associate with OR visit Gentiles. You can't go changing the rules Peter!! Peter continued winging it with this new layer of truth that he was starting to see, ``I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation ANYONE who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God.'' This was huge! God shows no partiality. Could it be true? Then Peter continued to explain a bit more about Jesus. ``You know the message that God sent to the people of Israel it was a message of peace and it was the message that Jesus Christ is Lord of all.

The affect of the resurrection and the Holy Spirit on Peter was immense. It gave him wings that he didn't even know that he had! Here he was proclaiming boldly that Jesus Christ is Lord of all which was a very political and dangerous statement to make. And he was making it in the house of a Roman military man to boot! If Jesus is Lord then the emperor isn't and that spell s trouble. (You understand!)

But Peter now seems not to notice the risk involved in proclaiming what now burns as passion in his own belly. In one of Peter's earlier sermons to his own people he said, ``Let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.'' It's an amazing witness for someone who had been so afraid. His wings were showing!

We must listen carefully to the witness of these early disciples who experienced daily life with Jesus and then watched as the powers made a public spectacle of him hanging him up in public view. There were other ways used to execute people in those days but crucifixion was reserved for those who challenged Roman rule or for defiant slaves ( basically the same thing).

Jesus' death was inevitable. It is what happens to those who challenge the system of domination. It had happened to John the Baptist before him. And it happened to Steven, Peter and James after him. And it continues to happen today in many places in the world.

Good Friday is a collision between the passion of Jesus, the passion of peace and the domination system of his time. And if the resurrection hadn't happened, we wouldn't even know about the story because Jesus would have just been another Jew crucified by the Roman Empire in a bloody century, there were 1000s of such executions carried out in those days.
         Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary by Marcus Borg, pg. 271

But God said a resounding YES to this man, his beloved Son , a nd gave him wings to rise up out of death demonstrating that death does not have the victory in God's plan. And how do we know that the resurrection actually happened? Because the disciples continued to experience Jesus. They continued to know Jesus as someone present with them, even though his presence now was quite different.

Now it was a presence that was everywhere and a presence that gave them wings. And Jesus is among us now, the Christ is everywhere, beyond al l limits of space and time.

Sing      And . . . . in this world there's a whole lot of golden
         In this world there's a whole lot of pain
         In this world you've a soul for a compass
         and a heart for a pair of wings
         There's a star on the far horizon
         Rising bright in an azure sky
         For the rest of the time that you're given
         Why walk when you can fly.

Indeed, why walk when you can fly and besides that the resurrection needs witnesses!!

Dorothee Soelle writes:
``Resurrection is the sign of a power that changes life . . . The resurrection has need of witnesses, for the resurrection does not function for the sake of Jesus' return to his father, but for the sake of liberation of all people from fear and submission to the powers of death.''
                           Sojourners, April 2007, Melinda Berry column ``Living the Word''

Peter continued to tell those gathered there in Cornelius' house that amazing day: That the message (that Jesus is Lord of all) spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil … for God was with him.'' (Acts 10:37-38)

Peter continued: ``We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but GOD --- GOD raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses (and to those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.) Peter said, ``He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. ''

Jesus is Lord of all and all who believe in him, all who trust in him, are forgiven for all their sins and are given new life. They are set free. They are given wings, no longer tied down by the burdens of this life but free to fly with the assurance that someone greater than themselves will carry the burden on their behalf. This is very good news, news that you'd think we'd grab a hold of and never let go.

But the sad part is that we aren't ready for that much freedom. Actual flying is much harder than it looks. In order to let go and fly on the wings of the Spirit we have to confront our own limitations and we don't like to do that. We don't do well when we don't know if we can handle something or make it happen. When we can't calculate all the risks and unknowns of flying, we easily settle back into that warm and comfortable rut where our vision is minimal, and our imagination is stilted.

In the Mennonite rut, it feels as if all change and even redemption is dependent on us that we somehow are capable and even responsible to bring about God's kingdom on earth. In the rut, the weight of the world's ills is often paralyzing. We have to find a way to stop these insidious wars. We have to find a way to reverse global warming. We have to find a way to stop the spread of cancer and AIDS. We have to find a way to stop domestic violence and violence in our streets and in our schools. We have to find a way to stop conflict in the church. Yes to all of these things but sitting in the rut is hardly the place to start. In the rut we are bound by what other people think. In the rut we are bound by tunnel vision, the way things have always been.

In order to get free, fly with the risen spirit of Jesus in this world, which is the call of the resurrection, we have got to be attentive to what is going on inside of us. Are we afraid? Of what? ; Are we anxious? Why?; Are we lonely?; Angry?: Sad?; Confused?; Frustrated?; Just plain tired?? These are all normal human emotions but ones that can keep us in the rut. It takes courage to trust. It takes courage to love without condition. It takes courage to break out and it begins by getting honest with ourselves and with God.

I'm taken by the question that the angel asked Mary when she went to the tomb in Luke's gospel. The angel asked her, ``Why do you look for the living among the dead?'' I think it is a good question for us to ask ourselves: Why do we look for the living among the dead? Why do we look for life, or expect life, out of the things of this world when all of it is fleeting in the end anyway???

It is because of the resurrection. Because of God's resounding YES to Jesus and NO to the rut that we have been given wings, wings to get us up out of the rut where there is air to breath and where we can see for miles. Resurrection is living with imaginative and energy!

Why would we walk when we can fly?

Let us pray:

Dear Jesus, our risen Lord, we confess that we identify with Peter before the resurrection too often. We lack courage. We're scared to trust in you. We want to stay in control and so we don't let go. We are even sometimes embarrassed to say we know you Jesus. Forgive us, O God. Help us to wing it as Peter did. Help us to trust more deeply, depend on you for more, to allow your spirit to set us free, to ride on the wings of the Spirit. We come to you now, Lord Jesus, in the silence, each of us, and all of us as a body. SILENCE. Prepare us, O God to celebrate your son Jesus together, as we remember him resurrected at this table.

Communion

5-6-2007 JHP Michelle Dula commissioning.rtf

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 02:14:27 GMT

``From one teacher pastor to another''
Michelle Dula's Commissioning sermon
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
May 6, 2007
JaneH. Peifer

Texts: Matthew 4:18-22; Ephesians 4:1-7; 11-13

This is indeed an exciting day! For you personally Michelle, but just as much for us as a community, to have lived and worked with you in our life together as a church; to watch the development of your call and gifts; and to now be able to confirm that and give you a more formal place of leadership with us, is just really exciting!

Michelle, preparing for t his morning has had a strange déjà v u feeling to it for me. Our journeys have been similar in some ways ; both of us having been teachers and then being called into pastoral ministry later in life. I began thinking about how being trained and gifted as a teacher will serve you well as you begin this journey of pastoral ministry. In many ways the roles of pastor and teacher are interchangeable. I noticed in th e passage that Mary Ellen read that pastors and teachers are actually linked together in the list of gifts that have been given . So , you come already prepared for the work of pastoral ministry in many ways.

For example , you've been trained to break things down into steps for learners. This skill will serve you well . I've learned over the years that sermons work best when I only try to say one or two things. And I must be careful that those one or two things are very basic things, not because these people are not smart, but because the basic struggle of learning to live by faith is what we all have to return to again and again. As a teacher you have had to know how to break things down into understandable parts. T his skill will serve you well.

Another gift of your teacher training is knowing how to understand and teach to a variety of learning styles. What communicates to one does not automatically communicate to all. This will also serve you well. And in this classroom, not only do you have the challenge of communicating with a variety of learning styles, this classroom includes everyone from a 2 month old baby to a 100 year old woman - a range of 100 years - so your skills of communication, listening and adapting will be well utilized here.

You have no doubt learned through your many years of teaching some really good ways of managing and organizing a group of people in order to accomplish a given task. This too will serve you well.
You will have lots of opportunit ies to use your skills of organizing people and projects and programs. Pastoring requires some good organizing and administrative skills , and you come with those.

I imagine that you have learned over the years how to correct or discipline those who are not able to follow the rules in the classroom. And you also have no doubt learned that building strong relationships with your students takes care of quite a bit of discipline matters that might come up, which is also true when you are a pastor. So what you have learned about being attentive to your students ' needs and desires will serve you well in building relationships as a pastor and in helping people recover from their mistakes or avoid others.

Now there is the thing called grades that teachers have to deal with, you have learned how to critique, to challenge, to evaluate students all the while keeping in mind the objective of making them better students. The wonderful thing is that we don't do grades here. We don't even do pass/fail. Everyone here gets an automatic A. Or another letter grade we sometimes use here is N for normal. This is a real perk of being a pastor, no grades and no report cards. And even when you are tempted, don't do it!

One other thing that all teachers are aware of is the parents of your students. I suspect that in your teaching experience many of the parents were a huge help in your classroom. You had parents who wanted to partner in positive ways with you as teacher. But all of us teachers know that there are other kinds of parents as well ; some who, for whatever reasons, intimidate us; some who are always sure their child is not being treated fairly; some who are so absent that we worry about their children; some who are so angry from their own school experience that their involvement at school with their children is automatically negative. Dealing with parents of students is a challenging part of being a teacher.

And now as a pastor you have the wonderful opportunity to know the parent/creator of these people just as intimately as you know your own creator/parent. Of course in the church we all too have our own earthly parents and family stories , but the bottom line for all of us is that we are children of God. God is our parent. God is our loving, involved and always present parent. God is one of those parents that all teachers are grateful for.

In fact, as we heard Paul encouraging the Christians in Ephesus:
There is one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father, one God and Mother of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

The very God of the universe is the parent of us all who loves us and calls us and walks with us and helps us, a present and involved parent. And every one of the people whom you will ever be given the privilege to pastor, Michelle, is a child of this parent God. You need not fear, nor be intimidated, nor worried, because the very God of the universe is there to parent those whom you will pastor. You are just a helper in the process.

So, Michelle, I thank God with you for the teacher gifts that you bring as you become a pastor. They will serve you well.

Now, I want to leave with you just a few pitfalls of pastoral ministry. It is easy to over function as a pastor, meaning that it is easy to fall prey to the expectation ``it is all up to me''. And it is easy to fall prey to what you imagine others are expecting of you rather than staying focused on equipping the people for the work of ministry. It is a big trap that you no doubt will fall into from time to time. It is hard not to get caught thinking that you have to meet these people's expectations.

Here's a little story that illustrates the craziness of trying to please people:
There once was an old man whose grandson rode a donkey while the two of them were traveling from one city to another. The man heard a bystander say, ``Look at that old man suffering on his feet while that strong young boy is sitting.''
So they switched places. The old man rode the donkey while the boy walked.
However, he then heard someone say, ``Look at that: a healthy man making that poor young boy suffer.''
So the man and the child both rode the donkey until they overheard someone say:
``Would you look at that those two men making that poor animal suffer.''
So they both got off and walked until they heard someone else say,
``Look at that: a perfectly good donkey not being used.''
In the end, the boy decided to walk, while the old man carried the donkey.

The work of pastoral ministry is not a work of pleasing everyone in your care. Ministry is NOT work that is all up to you. The work of ministry belongs to the whole community. And if you spend time and energy worrying and trying to negotiate all of the opinions and ideas and the visions and the criticisms that will come your way you will grow weary in no time at all.

Perhaps Paul knew something about this as he wrote to the Ephesians. I like the way the New Living Translation puts it. Ephesians 4:11- 16 in New Living Translation

11 (God) He is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ 13 until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of this body and church. 16 Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

It is not all up to you, and never will be. It is God, through Christ, who has given you the gifts of leadership, Michelle. And your job is to develop and deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ more and more so that the gifts you've been given can be used as God sees fit for the building up of the body of Christ and for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry.

As pastors, it is easy to neglect the work of this deepening dependence on God because there are so many things to DO. But the work of deepening your relationship, your friendship with Jesus is absolutely the most important work you will ever do. It is your lifeline, your energy, your insight, your joy.

Flora Slosson Wuellner writes:
It is a living relationship, not duty, not service, that is the heart of our faith. Service rises spontaneously from the life of the relationship. ``Abide in me'' says God through Jesus Christ. To abide is not the same as to imitate. A fish does not imitate water, a bird does not imitate air, a branch does not imitate the vine. They ABIDE within that which gives them life and strength.

``Weavings: Abide in Me'' March/April 07, pg. 42-43

And Michelle, that is my prayer for you. That you, more and more, find yourself deeply abiding in the vine, the tree of life, Jesus Christ and all the rest of ministry will take care of itself.

And lastly, reflecting again on Peter, this one who displays for us so many of the struggles of discipleship. Peter is the one who was grilled by Jesus with that one piercing question asked three times over: ``Peter, do you love me?''; ``No really, do you love me?''; ``Peter, do you love me?''

One writer suggests Jesus did not ask: ``Peter, do you promise to be good?'' or ``Will you never let me down?'' or ``Do you understand everything?'' or ``Will you never make a mistake Peter?'' Jesus did not even ask ``Can I trust you, Peter?'' but instead, he asked ``Do you love me?'' and ``Do you love me?'' and ``Do you love me?'' Love is the rock on which Christ builds the church, there is nothing stronger.

                                    adapted from ``Not . . .do you promise to be good'' pg. 199
                                    Present on Earth: Worship resources on the life of Jesus
                                             Iona Community; Wild Goose Worship Group

So, Michelle, may your love for Christ and for Christ's body deepen each day as you take on the privilege and responsibility of being a pastor. May God's love and grace be poured out on you!

5-27-2007 JHP Pentecost Promises.rtf

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 02:14:56 GMT

Pentecost Promises: presence and partner
May 27, 2007
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Jane H. Peifer

Text: John 14:8-27; Romans 8:14-17

Today we celebrate the coming of God, to be with us. Next to the resurrection, Pentecost is perhaps the most significant Christian celebration. And y et in the Christian church Pentecost is sometimes, too often I'd say, passed over without much notice. And certainly not celebrated with the pomp and circumstance that Christmas gets, the other time we celebrate ``God's coming down''.

Not just the church, but our whole culture has picked up on Christmas, many probably misunderstanding the whole thing. But still, the coming of Jesus gets about 2 months of focus in our culture. And, in the church, we sing dozens of familiar songs, we decorate, we read cherished passages of scripture. We have Advent candles and we do Christmas pageants a nd have Christmas Eve services, a ll to celebrate and commemorate the coming of God in the birth of baby Jesus , Emmanuel, God with us. All good stuff.

Then there is Pentecost, the other coming of God. It too, was a predicted and promised coming in our scriptures. It too, involves incarnation, God coming to dwell among us. And frankly, if you read the story of the event of the coming of t he Holy S pirit from Acts 2 this coming was accompanied by a great deal more fanfare and public response than Jesus' birth was. But our culture makes nothing of it, and in the church we sometimes don't do much better.

I think there is a reason actually that Pentecost is underrated and under-celebrated. You see, babies are something we can relate too, and fuss over (we did it here today), b ut Spirit is another matter. We can't see Spirit, we can't hail it down, we aren't sure it exists, and what if whoever recorded that day's events for us was a little off, perhaps seeing things or imagining things - all those language s and everything. The suggestion that they were drunk probably was not far off.

We aren't alone in our questions and our skepticism and our wonderings. In fact, in John's gospel we have a record of four of the disciples' questions to Jesus when he tried to explain to them who he was, where he was going, what God would do next and why. Tesfa read from John 14, starting at verse 8 where Philip asks his question, but let's look back at chapter 13, beginning at verse 33. Here Jesus begins to tell the disciples about his leaving them. He said, ``Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you. Where I am going, you cannot come.

Peter is the first to speak up (verse 36 ) `` Lord, where are you going?'' And Jesus said, ``Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterward.'' H ardly a satis fying answer. Peter continued, ``What do you mean, Lord?'' ``Why can I not follow you now?'' ``I would go anywhere for you, I will lay down my life for you.'' ``I don't understand.'' Jesus said, ``Oh really, Peter??'' You will lay down your life for me? Actually, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.'' So, that's Peter.

Then in verse 1 of chapter 14, Jesus must have picked up on the disciples ' confusion, their anxiety, their fear of what was going to happen, because he said, ``Don't let this throw you, guys. You trust God, don't you? Then, trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father's home, and I'll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And besides that, you already know the way to the place where I am going. Then Thomas chimed in. ``Lord, we do NOT know where you are going. So, how can we know the way?'' If we don't know where you are going??!! Jesus said , `` Thomas, I am the way. And if you know me (as you do) then you will know my Father also. From now on, you know him and have seen him (because you know me and have seen me ) .''

And then Philip jumped in, ``Lord, show us the Father, and THEN we'll be satisfied.'' Jesus said back to Philip, ``Philip, have I been with you all this time, and you still do not know me?'' Just listen. Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. It's that simple, Philip. Believe me that I am in God and God is in me. But, if you can't believe that, then just look aroun d and see what I am able to do (because of God, my Father). And Philip, here is a promise. All those who believe in me will also do the good things that I do and in fact, many will do greater things because I am going to the Father. And so, if you ask for anythi ng, in my name, I will do it. I promise.

Jesus continued, You see, my brothers and sisters, God is going to come to you, this time in the form of Spirit, to be with you forever in all places at all times. This spirit of truth from God will be IN you (not just beside you as I have been). I promise, my friends, I will not leave you alone as orphans. I am coming to you. S o then, the disciples must have w ondered, ``Is he coming or going?'' Jesus continued, (verse 19) ``In a little while, the world will no longer see me ( because I'm going) but you will see me (because I'm coming to you). Because I live, you also will live! Jesus said. And on that day you will know that I am in my Father and you are in me, and I in you.'' At which point they must have been totally confused.

Judas (not Iscariot) spoke up next. He said to Jesus , `` So, how is it, that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to others?? Just HOW will you do that?? Whereupon , Jesus again repeated the same thing that he had sp rinkled throughout this story. ``Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.'' And, ``Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.'' All of which did not answer Judas's question of HOW is that going to happen???

So you see, it's not hard to understand why the church hasn't known quite what to do with the coming of the Spirit God. Even Jesus, it seems had a hard time explaining to the disciples what he knew God was going to do and how he would come. Jesus ends this dialogue by trying again to reassure them, and help them understand ( verse 25). Jesus said, ``I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the HOLY SPIRIT, will teach you everything. And she will remind you of all that I have said to you. Now, peace, my brothers and sisters. Peace to you. You don't have to understand it all. I leave you with my peace. Don't worry, rest in my peace. Do not let your hearts be troubled, don't try to figure it all out. And for sure, don't be afraid. You won't be alone, ever again. I am telling you these things now, while I am still here so that when it all happens, you will get it. Now, get your things together, we need to be on our way.

The disciples' questions are our questions, very often. With Peter we ask Jesus not just ``Where are you going?'' But, `` Where are you? Where are you when we pray for those who are sick and they die anyway? Where are you when innocent random people are killed in our neighborhood? Where are you when the church in some places is militant and justifies killing for the sake of our freedom? Where are you, God?? ''

And with Peter we ask, ``Why? Why don't you fix things? Why don't you show yourself more often, revealing your power and grace?? Why don't you keep evil from happening, if you really love us? ''

And with Thomas we a sk, ``How can we know the way? How in the world can our little efforts make any kind of substantial difference anyway? How are we to know what to do with the shape our world is in? How can we survive without more to go on than a spirit? ''

And with Thomas we say, ``Show us. Show us, God, and we promise we will get it! Just show us what you would do and what we are to do. Tell us what to do. Make it clear.''

And finally with Judas, we s ay, ``How does it work, Jesus? How is it that you say the way is plain?? We don't get it!! It sure doesn't look plain! '' Indeed, the disciples' questions are our questions.

Jesus began this whole dialogue with his disciples by reminding them of the greatest and newest commandment , `` I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.''

Maybe this is one of the reasons why the coming of the Spirit is not celebrated more in the church. When Jesus went home to be with God the baton was passed to us, and we're not sure we want that much responsibility. It is easier and more fun to celebrate the coming of God in the form of a baby and it is easier to let the work to Jesus as well, when he comes back as he promised.

It's this in-between Spirit living that makes us uneasy. But, just as Jesus said would happen, he went home to be with God and in his place God sent the Spirit to be present with all of us, all of the time and to partner with us, and teach us, in the work of love in this world. We no longer have an excuse. God's Spirit has come into the world as presence with us and as partner in the work of love.

Richard Rohr writes this, ``Faith is so rare - and religion so common - because no one wants to live between first base and second base. Faith is the in-between space where you're not sure you'll make it to second base. You've let go of one thing and haven't yet latched onto another. Most of us ch oose the security of first base (life in the spirit) , yet faith happens in the in-betweens, th e interruptions, the thresholds ( p . 190 ).

There is no greater comfort than the presence of God. We know that presence in all kinds of ways, most recently for me, it has been in `being with' people. Coming together as a community following the murders in our neighborhood illus trated so well the strength of `being with' that the Spirit of God provides. Then again on Monday, when Daryl and I went to Harrisonburg to `be with' those who were saying goodbye to our friend Lee Eshelman. The Spirit of God is a great power of comfort and courage when we are grieving and sad, fearful and worried. And the Spirit of God is a teacher, a guide, an Advocate for us in this wilderness between the bases. How wonderful is that?! We can do anything when we have a good Advocate, someone who is supporting us and vouching for us. The work of love becomes easier and more doable when we can partner with the great lover of the universe , and that is what the Spirit of God is for us. And the spirit of God is dynamic and full of surprises.

So, I'm writing this sermon on Thursday afternoon, and the phone rings. And the caller introduces himself as Chris Francescani from ABC news in New York saying that he is writing a piece on the murder of the Haines family and wondered if I would be willing to talk to him. Now you must understand, I do not like to talk to reporters nor be interviewed spontaneously but I had just written the words… ``We can do anything when we have a good Advocate, someone who is supporting us and vouching for us. The work of love becomes easier and more doable when we can partner with the great lover of the universe and that is what the Spirit of God is for us. ''

It's as if God wanted to give me an opportunity to tell this stranger what I believed. He asked me what I tell the people in my congregation or community to help them deal with this tragedy. I stumbled around and then all at once there was a loud buzz in the phone and it cut off, which gave me extra time to think about what to say and so I wasn't nervous. W hen he called back, I decided to tell him about the sermon, and what I was reflecting on . I said that when we are afraid we very often experience the presence of God through the presence of other people, this ` being with' idea , a nd how the Community Service we held provided that for us as a community.

The presence of the Spirit is phenomenal, when we are willing to do the work of love in the world.

Romans 8:14-17
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
         but you have received a spirit of adoption.
When we cry, ``Abba! Father!'' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit
         that we are children of God, and if children , then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ
---- if, in fact, (and here's the kicker)
                  we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

This work of love in the world is not easy. And if we engage in it, we will suffer. Just like the disciples, we live with many fears, doubts, confusions, and questions. But if we are willing to do the work of love in this world and suffer with Christ we are promised, assured, guaranteed to be accompanied by the very Spirit of God. And there is no other presence so empowering, nor any other helper so helpful, nor any Advocate so strong. May God's Spirit be poured out on us. Let go of the security of needing to know and follow the Spirit into the world.

Communion - Pentecost May 27, 2007

After the Day of Pentecost, the followers of Jesus gathered often in their homes to eat together and break bread "with glad and generous hearts." Their joy and compassion, being contagious, attracted many others to the way of Christ.

Day after day, new believers were baptized and joined the table fellowship. No longer strangers but friends, they were bound to one another in love and unity as the body of Christ. Strengthened by the sharing of bread, they became eager, confident witnesses of God's mercy and love in the world. (Acts 2:46; I Corinthians 10:16-17; 12:12-13; Ephesians 2: 19-22)

We are called to be and do the work of love in the world but we are not called to do it alone. God is present with us, and God partners with us in this work.

Coming to the table of the Lord means that we are willing to be broken and kneaded and baked in order to become bread for the world. In sharing in the meal of bread and cup we remember together the brokenness of Christ's body for the sake of the world. And we again commit ourselves to the ongoing work of love in the world, through the power of the Spirit poured out for us.

Scripture: (break the bread)
On the night of the last supper that Jesus had with his disciples he took the bread from the table and gave thanks for it and then broke it saying This is my body, broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

And he also took the cup of wine, gave thanks and poured it out for them to drink, saying. This cup poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
Prayer:
Our gracious God, we have once again heard the call to be and do the work of love in this world. We acknowledge that we sometimes do not feel able or even willing to follow. Forgive us God, when we are timid or fearful about sharing your love. Pour out anew, today, your Holy Spirit. Fill us and empower us as your people, your children, in the world. Help us to trust you beyond our fears. Meet us here at the table as we eat and drink together. May your spirit of love and grace fill us and go with us. In Jesus name, Amen.

8-12-2007 JHP Healing - Stretch out your hand.rtf

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 18:25:56 GMT

Sermon: Healing Series 2: Stretch out your hand
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Jane H. Peifer
August 12, 2007

Texts: Psalm 138; Isaiah 42:5-9; Mark 3:1-6

I begin today with a story entitled: ``His name is Glenn'' written by a young mother of two children.

``Come on T.J., let's get going,'' I repeated to my four-year-old for the umpteenth time. Always hurrying, always rushing, always late. I balanced the lasagna in one hand, the baby in another, and waved encouragement to my son with my leg. ``We've got to get this dinner to the homeless people.''
On the way to church, T.J. (as always) was shooting rapid-fire questions at me. ``What are homeless people? What do they look like? Why are we taking them dinner? Will they talk to me?'' And the most important question, according to T.J., ``Do they like trains?'' I can't remember my answers, I'm sure they were vaguely politically and psychologically correct, approved by child-rearing gurus and homeless advocates alike. I'm also sure those answers made very little impression on our preschooler.
Although we arrived at the church late, our guests were later still, which led to an anticlimactic moment for my child. He quickly became distracted with being four years old and I quickly became distracted with ``homemaker'' insecurity. Will my lasagna stay warm? Did I make enough? My version of lasagna is often soupy; did this one turn out all right? Will something this rich upset their stomachs? Should I have fixed something blander?
Finally the bus arrived and our guests alighted. T.J. ran and hid behind my legs, suddenly shy about meeting so many new people all at one time. I felt myself also becoming shy not a natural trait for me and stuttering, wanting to say the right things. Welcome? How was your day? What does one say to someone so far removed from the life my family knows?
I gave up on true communication and opted instead for silliness, cracking lame jokes as I helped serve dinner. Then seconds. Then thirds. These people were hungry! My self-centered concerns about whether they would like the meal or not were a waste of time. They just wanted some good, hot, food and plenty of it. Thankfully, we did have enough and as I watched them fill their stomachs, I felt my heart become equally full.
I gathered my family and we were walking toward the door, when one of the guests started walking alongside us. He was going to the restroom. T.J. decided one new person wasn't nearly as intimidating as fifteen, so he piped up, ``What's your name?''
``Glenn,'' the gentleman answered. ``What's yours?''
``T.J.'' He paused. ``Do you like trains?'' (This can make or break a relationship with my son.)
``Yep,'' answered Glenn. And he smiled. A snaggle-toothed grin that could have belonged to any grandfather on this earth.
He and my beautiful child exchanged some more equally pertinent information. Then Glenn walked into the bathroom.
On our way home, the barrage of questions flowed forth like a stream. ``Where did you say Glenn lives? Why couldn't we stay and play with Glenn longer? Can we have Glenn over to our house to play?''
The pat, vague, politically correct answers wouldn't come. Instead, I wanted to ask T.J. the questions. How did you do it, Baby? How did you cut through all the stuff floating around in that room and get the very essence of this whole experience? What made you think that a t i red, hungry, not-so-sweet smelling ``homeless person'' might be a train-loving human being whom you could connect on a very real level? Was it really as simple as this? Was it as easy as asking the man his name?

(``His Name is Glenn'' by Tina Foster Caldwell, Weavings XVIII:5, pg. 36)

I begin with this story today because I think the child in this story, TJ, illustrates for us the posture of God. God and TJ (a 4-year old and one of those called the greatest in the kingdom) aren't burdened with the stuff that gets in the way for most of us. God and TJ see one person as they see another person, as someone who has a name, and as someone who just might like trains.

I remember being challenged by my own children's desire to pick up hitchhikers and to invite a stranger to come and live with us, we had an extra bedroom after all. I remember being challenged by my children to just ``stretch out my hands'' to any and all. I remember squirming inside as this mother squirmed.

God is a God of outstretched hands. And God invites us to stretch out our hands as well, for our own healing and for sharing with and serving others. In the Old Testament, God is described as ``stretching out his hand'' in an act of protection. The psalmist describes it this way in Psalm 138:

Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
         you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies;
you stretch out your hand,
         and your right hand delivers me;
The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me;
         your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
         Do not forsake the work of your hands. O God.

And in a song of gratitude after God delivered the children of Israel from the Egyptians who held them as slaves, we hear language that describes their experience of being protected by the hand of God from Exodus 15:

Pharoah's chariots and his army God cast into the sea;
         his picked officers were sunk in the Red Sea.
The floods covered them;
         they went down into the depths like a stone.
Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power----
         your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy.
In the greatness of your majesty you overthrew your adversaries;
         you sent out your fury, it consumed them like stubble.

At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up,
         the floods stood up in a heap;
         the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea,
The enemy said, ``I will pursue, I will overtake,
         I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them
         I will draw sword, my hand shall destroy them.
You blew with your wind, the sea covered them;
         they sank like lead in the mighty waters.

Who is like you, O Lord among the gods?
         Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
         awesome in splendor, doing wonders?
You stretched out your right hand, and earth swallowed them.

Wow, what a victory song that is!! A victory song for God, the one who's outstretched hand gathers up and protects and saves and heals those who are enslaved.

Now, granted, it is hard to hear such rejoicing over the violent death of their enemies, but I'm realizing that I have never been a slave, nor have I ever been in such a desperate, desperate situation as the Israelites were under the rule of the Egyptians and so, I probably can't understand the joy and celebration of being delivered that we hear in this song. I would venture to say that many of us have never been given the opportunity to literally experience the saving outstretched hand of God because few of us have been in places or situations where our lives were held in the balance by enemies or oppressors who ruled over us.

We need not feel guilty about that and I'm not saying that we need to go out and find a way to be oppressed so that we can be set free. We just need to figure out how not to forget that it is by God's outstretched hand of blessing that we exist and have our being.

God knew that the forgetting was going to be a problem for people. ``Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery'' we read in Deuteronomy.

Another valid question about this song of victory over the demise of the Egyptians is, ``So what about the Egyptians?'' ``Where was God for the Egyptians?'' we ask. I don't know, except to notice the warnings of the prophets for the children of God. Isaiah indicates that God's posture toward those who live and act unjustly is different than God's posture toward the poor, sick and oppressed.

Isaiah 3
Hear, O heaven, and listen, O earth;
         for the Lord has spoken;
I reared children and brought them up,
         but they have rebelled against me. . . . .

Ah, sinful nation,
         people laden with iniquity,
offspring who do evil,
         children who deal corruptly,
who have forsaken the Lord,
         who have despised the Holy One of Israel,
         who are utterly estranged! . . . .

When you come to appear before me, . . .
         bringing offerings is futile;
         incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation----
         I cannot endure solemn assemblies with[ iniquity.]

Your new moons and your appointed festivals
         my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me,
         I am weary of bearing them.

When you stretch out your hands,
         I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
         I will not listen;
         your hands are full of blood.

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
         remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes;
cease to do evil, learn to do good;
seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

Perhaps this is why healing often is paired with the need for confession as we hear in the book of James.
James 5:13-16. The Prayer of Faith
Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

If we are not willing to invite God to examine our motives and actions or lack of action in our relationships, especially with those who are poorer than we (in whatever way), then, it seems, God's posture may change. The prophets repeat God's judgment of those who in any way take advantage or disregard the needs of others for their own gain.

I really do not like this message, but we cannot ignore the call that echoes throughout the scriptures, old and new testaments, that how we live in this world matters to God. How we treat people in the world matters to God. The Egyptians were bullies, they were slave drivers, they were greedy oppressors and God delivered the people from their grip miraculously. And so the joyous song we heard from the lips of those who were saved.

And then (as is so often the case) those saved forgot that they had been miraculously delivered and they began to ignore the needs of the poor, the orphans, the widows, the homeless, the jobless, those on the margins, the immigrant, and God speaks harshly about their forgetfulness through the prophets!

When we stretch out our hands to God as a child reaching up to their parent, wanting to be picked up and held, protected and healed, we must come with humble hearts, being willing to hear what God has to say to us. And what God has to say may not be what we have asked for. It might even be more than we ever imagined or it might be an invitation to confess and change our ways. But that is where the mystery of healing begins. And it is important that we not spend too much energy trying to figure out the mystery. We don't know why God sometimes heals miraculously and sometimes doesn't. It is a mystery unknown to us.

We have been reflecting on the posture of God that reaches toward us, that is bent toward creation as protector and healer, but also we witness God as hiding and/or withholding his right hand of deliverance. In the same way, we watch Jesus as he traveled around Galilee. He attracted those who needed healing and disturbed others, mostly the powerful ones who didn't know they needed healing.

Last week, Doug reflected on the story of when Jesus healed the blind man and asked him ``What do you want me to do?'' And today we hear Jesus say to the man with the withered hand, ``Stretch out your hand.''

Jesus, in keeping with the invitational posture of God again in this story invites the man with the crippled hand to reach out. But, Jesus (like God) in the same story also expresses anger when people miss the point. In Mark 1, verse 40 we have the story of the leper who came to Jesus and said to Jesus, ``If YOU choose, you can make me clean.'' Mark then writes: ``Moved with pity . . .Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said, ``I do choose. Be made clean'' and the leprosy was gone.

Now what is interesting is some ancient manuscripts of this story translate the word ``pity'' as ``anger''… ``moved with anger, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him''. Biblical scholars normally consider a more difficult reading such as this to likely be the original one, because translators generally tend to smooth over difficult readings, and so ``pity'' is used because it seemingly makes more sense.

It is more probable that it should be translated as anger rather than pity, not at the man with leprosy but at the injustice that lepers experienced in everyday life. His anger was, no doubt, at the social system that marginalized people and disregarded sick people as outcasts, people to put away and fear. I think that made Jesus, the healer, angry.

Jesus was not willing to protect the Pharisees, the law-makers, and keepers and so he said to the leper ``I do choose''. And he reached out and touched him (which was of course unheard of in that day, you were considered unclean if you touched a leper). Jesus here again illustrated God's change in posture toward those who disregard the poor.

By the time we get to chapter 3 of Mark, where Jesus heals the man with the withered hand, Jesus' critics are watching closely and Jesus seems to blatantly disregard their concerns about the Sabbath laws. He calls the man forward in the synagogue, so all can see, it seems and then he first addresses those who he knows are wanting to catch him disobeying Sabbath laws.

He says, ``Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?'' They were silent. (Who wouldn't be with that kind of a question?) They must have been thinking, ``Of course it is lawful to do good and to save life but, but, the law says . . . And besides that we don't like this healer guy. He is upsetting the order of things around here (namely who is sick and who is not!)''

The text tells us Jesus got angry again at how hardened their hearts were. And then he turned to the man and said, ``Stretch out your hand my brother.'' He stretched it out, and it was restored. The man with the withered hand got what he needed, but so did the Pharisees. They went out and immediately conspired about how to destroy this troublemaker.

Mark's gospel illustrates over and over how that even a ritual as important as the Sabbath is subordinate to the needs of people, according to Jesus. People are more important to Jesus than anything.

I want to close with a reading entitled ``Of Such is the Kingdom'' This is Jesus speaking.
         Present on Earth: Worship resources on the life of Jesus , Iona Community, pg. 205

I ... (Looking around)
I…
I…
I did not come to lounge about with the leisured classes; I came to heal the sick.

I did not come to patronise the wealthy; I came to preach the good news to the poor.

I did not come to speak for the always articulate; I came to listen to the voiceless.
I did not come to be shown what was wrong; I came to tell those who say, 'We see, we see'
that their clear vision is in fact blindness and their clear thinking is undermined by ignorance.

I did not come to speak words of peace; I came to make signs of peace,
knowing that the reconciliation God requires might cost me your friendship.

I did not come to identify problems; I came to meet people, for people are always more important
than their problems as life is always greater than its failures.

I did not come to build a casualty clinic and call it my church;
I came to announce God's kingdom where all are taught and touched by each other,
where all are sisters and brothers of each other, where justice and peace join hands
and conviction and commitment share the same lodging

Jesus, the healer is among us today, as he is every day. And Jesus, the healer hears the cries of the humble, the poor, the sick, and all those who are willing to come to him empty handed. And I've come to believe more and more that much of our own healing takes place when we reach out our hands to those around us in love and service.

Today you will have the opportunity to come to the table of the Lord where the hands of God, the hands of Jesus are stretched out for you. When Jesus gathered with his disciples on that last evening of his earthly life he told them as he broke bread with them that his own body was going to be broken and laid down for their very lives, that his blood was going to be spilled as a sign of a new covenant with them. And today we continue to re-enact the eating and drinking with our Lord in order to remember, in order to receive what we need to live. As preparation, I invite you to pray with me acknowledging together before God the things we need to lay down as we reach out to receive God's healing touch.

Let us pray . . .
Sing the Story, #172

Before I take the body of the Lord, before I share his life in bread and wine, I recognize the sorry things within: these I lay down. (silent prayer)

The words of hope I often failed to give, the prayers of kindness buried in my pride, the signs of care I argued out of sight: these I lay down. (silent prayer)

The narrowness of vision and of mind, the need for other folk to serve my will, and every word and silence meant to hurt: these I lay down. (silent prayer)

Of those around in whom I meet my Lord, I ask their pardon and I grant them mine, that every contradiction to Christ's peace might be laid down. (silent prayer)

Lord Jesus Christ, companion at this feast, I empty now my heart and stretch my hands, and ask to meet you here in bread and wine which you lay down. AMEN

9-16-2007 JHP The journey continues.rtf

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 18:28:03 GMT

Sermon: The Journey Continues
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
First Sunday in new space
Jane H. Peifer
September 16, 2007

Text: G enesis 12:1-9; Exodus 40:34-38
Purpose: To call the congregation to respond in faith to the challenges and opportunities of this new building transition.
Good News: God calls us to continue the journey of walking, praying, crying, serving, changing, loving, dancing . . .

Well, here we are! Ten months and 4 days after that rainy Nov 12^th Sunday morning last fall when we had our ground breaking ceremony. Those of you who were here will remember how Andy had members of the building committee stand at the 4 corners of the new addition and we tried to imagine what it would be like to have a building that took up that much space of our then parking lot!

Following that service I remember waiting a few weeks (I believe)        until finally the diggers moved in and they started moving the dirt. They dug up the back parking lot they really dug it up! The huge hole for the water retention basin was dug out and then filled in with those huge pipes and crushed stone. Throughout the winter we parked on the gravel in the back without lines to guide us. The well drillers worked through the cold winter, digging the hoes in order for this place to use the temperature of the earth to assist us in heating and cooling finally the 26 wells were in

In the spring the footers were dug and the concrete was poured and quickly, within a week, the walls and the roof emerged as the framers scrambled over the structure like busy ants on an anthill. Some of those days I think there were at least 100 workers here this place was crawling with hard hats. And then things slowed down at least it seemed so. But still, everyday, there was someone working - pulling new wires, setting the plumbing, pouring the curbing - CHANGING something from what was, to what was to be.

I watched all of this changing day after day, week after week, and mostly ignored it when I could. There was one day when they were scraping the shingles off of the roof above my head that I decided to go home. For the first stretch of this journey I would occasionally peak my head out the end door to see what was happening.
As long as that door was in place the new building was still ``out there,'' not something I necessarily thought about each day. Many days passed without any interaction on my part with the workers, or even my checking to see what progress was made.

But then the day came when they removed the door and made the opening to the new part larger. They covered it with plastic so that connecting to the new space was still not easily accessible but I could see through the plastic dimly. The next week they put a zipper in the plastic         so that it now became a door (of sorts) and we could walk through a door between the old and the new. And we did, trying to imagine what this new space was going to be like. I started to give tours as friends and family were interested ``This will be my office, this is the kitchen, the prayer room, etc.''

The new space now was part of the old space, they were connected, we could walk from one to the other, and I did quite often. The daily work continued and color began to show up on the walls and tile and carpet on the floors and sinks and toilets and lights and countertops and refrigerators. What had been an outline of footers now was being transformed daily into this new church - space for us and those who will join us here.

Now, we have moved in. New furniture has arrived. Bulletin boards are hung. Mailboxes are labeled. We are here. And believe me, things have changed. It ain't nothin' like the old church! No longer is the DSL and phone wires all tangled up at my feet in my office. No longer is my office the catch all for us pastors, nursing mothers, offering counters, and who knows what else. No longer is a phone call a simple task of picking up the phone and talking - there are buttons to push and flashing lights to answer and we have to dial 9 to get out. No longer is there one key. No longer can I be at the refrigerator in 14 steps or in the bathroom in 8 steps. No longer are we the invisible church on Delp Rd now we too have become prey for the church marketers. No longer does the church that we have known as ``our church'' look anything like ``our church.''

As the demolition crew worked this week in the old part tearing out walls, knocking down studs, I found myself feeling kind of sad . . . along with Tara Sang and little Julia Fisher. Julia (just 2 years old) told her Daddy Jim that she wanted to go ``to church'' although they were standing in it! We knew what she meant ``our church'' was no longer there.

Even one of the demolition crew expressed his hesitancy to me in ``destroying a church.'' He said it just didn't feel right to be ripping apart a church but said he guesses it is because there is something better coming after this. I assured him that in order for something new to be born usually something else needs to die. I think that is true, although the dying part is never easy.

I've been reading a book that says that, ``Congregational transitions always affect people's relationship with God.'' I wonder how that is true for us. I know that change (in general) affects our relationship with God.
Changes often raise questions like, ``Where is God now?'' or, ``Who are we now?'' and therefore, ``Who is God now?''         Does God cause change, protect us from change, or empower us to respond to change? What is God calling our congregation to be and do within this change?

Richard Rohr makes a distinction between change and transition which has been helpful for me.
He writes: ``There is a difference between change and transformation. Change happen s when something old dies and something new begins … I am told that planned change is as troublesome to the psyche as unplanned change, often more so. We feel manipulated, forced and want to blame it on someone ! But change might or might not be accompanied by transformation of soul. I 'm afraid it usually is not. If change does not invite personal transformation, we lose our souls in the process .

Rohr goes on to say that FAITH is the simple virtue that is needed to move us through change, to be transformed by whatever change we've been faced with. He writes that faith is a rare thing because it feels like NOTHING in the face of changes that uproot us. When we need things to return to the form that is familiar to us faith feels abstract and it doesn't feel like it actually addresses the uneasiness we are experiencing. ``Faith goes against the grain,'' he writes. (Radical Grace, pg. 292)

So, as you might have guessed, today I call us to live by faith, to walk in faith, which is the first part of our covenant statement. We have said in our covenant
We commit ourselves to love and trust God (to have faith) to provide for the journey (even though it feels strange and we don't know where it will lead)
We commit ourselves to love and trust God (to have faith) when we are sure; when we do not know; and when we disagree and
We commit ourselves to love and trust God (to have faith) for the future life of our community.

This building change has been in the making for a long time and in April of 2005 we first used the litany entitled ``Prayers for the Journey'' you'll find this litany in our bulletin today. As you see under the title we didn't know where or when this journey would end. I don't know that I ever want to replace those question marks with a date. God's call for us to continue the journey of transformation is never-ending. I invite you to read this litany with me again now.

L        We are on a journey.
All      A journey of faith.
A journey of trusting God.

L        We come with thanksgiving.
Wom.     We give thanks for your Spirit, O God
         which is the very life of us.
Men      We give thanks for your call, O God
         the call to be a sign of your kingdom on earth
         the call to reach beyond these walls
         inviting others to follow Jesus with us

L        We give thanks for God's provision.
Wom.     We give thanks for the building we ha d
         for the many ways in which it provided for us.
Men      We give thanks for the children
for their life and energy, their laughter and play.
All       We give thanks for each new person
joining us on the journey.

L        We seek your guidance, O God.
All      Be in our planning.
Wom      Be in our disagreements.
Men      Be in the interruptions and in the setbacks.
All      Be our vision.
Enable us to believe beyond what we can see.

L        As we build with bricks and mortar, O God
All      We submit ourselves to be built more fully
         into a dwelling place for your Spirit.
         Amen.                                                                            JHP, 2005

And the journey continues. Where is God taking us? What is God ending at Blossom Hill? What is God beginning at Blossom Hill? It seems that these would have been questions that Abraham and Sarah asked when God told them to pack up and move. ``Where is God taking us?''

I want to lift up just two parts of Abram and Sarai's journey that is most encouraging to me. In verse 1 where God says to Abram, ``Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land THAT I WILL SHOW YOU,'' God promised to show Abram where to go when he needed to know. I think it is significant to ask the question, ``Where is GOD taking us,'' rather than just ``Where are we going?''
The first is a question of faith; the last is just a question.

God promised Abram that God would show him the way that he would know where to turn when he needed to know. We so often want to know in advance, but that isn't how God guided Abram and Sarai. In verse 9, ``And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.'' It seems that Abraham, Sarah and their entourage took a step and then waited for more direction. Then they took another step and then waited, and then another . . . journeying by stages toward the Negeb (which is a very expansive area by the way not a particular point on the map). I can't quite imagine starting out on a journey without any more direction than they were given

Later in Exodus --- we again read about how God's people journeyed following God's direction.
Whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, the Israelites would set out on each stage of their journey; but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, before the eyes of all the house of Israel at each stage of their journey. Exodus 40:36-38

Journeying with God is not a very exact science, that's for sure.

I'd like to build on an image that Walter Bruggemann has written about. I think it could be helpful for our transition during these days and months to imagine ourselves in a river the river of life (an image we encounter numerous place in the Bible as a place of nourishment where God dwells.) This river has three currents moving simultaneously; the current of lament, the current of assurance, and the current of promise.
(When God Speaks Through Change: Preaching in Times of Congregational Transition , Craig A. Satterlee, pg. 61)

As we are in this ``river'' of transition together, you may find yourself swimming in just one of those currents exclusively or you may find yourself moving from one current to another, maybe even sometimes erratically.
You may be swimming along quite excitedly in the current of promise or assurance, but all at once find yourself totally immersed by the current of lament as you remember with sadness something that will never be the same again in this church. I'm hoping that this image can help us live into the journey of transformation that we now face.

I want to look briefly at what might be involved in each of these currents. First of all you need to know that there is room, that it is appropriate, for you to lament during transition. The current of lament is in this river of life we're in. We need to be able to name the things we are loosing with the changes we are making. I named some of those things in the beginning of the sermon     but I'm wondering if you might have other things to add to that list. What losses are you aware of as we continue on this journey of transformation? There is and will be a current of lamentation on this journey. (invite responses )

A second current in the river of transformation is a current of assurance . You need to know, and we need to remind each other, of the assurances of God's presence that are happening all along the way. As Bruggemann writes, ``God is not a prisoner of circumstances. God is here in our circumstance now but also far beyond what is.'' We can be assured of God's presence all along the way, even when we can't feel it, perhaps especially when we can't feel it. That is our faith that rare, but simple virtue, which I spoke of earlier. Faith is assurance of things not seen.

Thirdly, there is the current of promise, the current where vision is clear and we can see far into the future with excitement. You need to know, and we need to remind each other, of God's promised future for the kingdom of God on this earth, in this place for those who gather here and go out from here. God is creating the kingdom routinely on this earth in places where people are listening, and trusting and following and imagining. God's promised future is concrete, specific, local and small, which means US - we are part of God's promised future.

God's promised future is grounded in God and in Jesus, the Christ.       It has nothing to do with whether or not we have a new building. In fact, we know all about being a construction site right now, and we will be forever a construction site because God's promise is that all things are being made new - all the time (unless we decide not to get into the river of transformation).

Which brings me to the invitation of this morning. I invite you to step into the waters of transformation again this morning. Some of you already are swimming out ahead in the current of promise with excitement and vision and new ideas. Others are hesitantly wading into the water, lowering yourself into the current of assurance, feeling rather hesitant, but exercising your faith that God is guiding us and keeping us. I imagine that there may be some of us who are just standing on the bank, waiting to see, feeling resistance to the reality that we are now a medium size church almost large church with a fancy new building

The invitation this morning is that we all gather in the river knowing that there are many currents at work in us and around us as we are transformed into God's people in this new place, as we bend and resist and listen and imagine and mourn and laugh and dance, as we live by faith together.

Change happens. Transformation is a choice. Come, all of you step into the waters of transformation the waters of God's Spirit and the waters of the power of the resurrection that surprised and delighted and troubled the disciples over and over again.

I will close now with words taken from Proverbs 8. This was my morning reading on Friday and I was taken with call of these words the call of wisdom which is so very important for us as we surrender to being transformed people of God.

Philip Newell has written this form of Proverbs 8

Wisdom calls to us from the crossroads of life.
She raises her voice and says:
`To you, O people, I call. My words are to all who live.

Come to me, you who lack understanding.
Hear, for I will speak gracious things
and from my lips will come what is true and right.

Seek my teachings instead of silver and my knowledge rather than gold
for wisdom is better than jewels.
and everything else you desire does not compare with her.

I, wisdom, will offer you awareness and strength of soul.
I walk in the way of right relationships and along the paths f peace.
I give knowledge and understanding to those who love me.
God created me at the beginning of time
long before the creation of heaven and earth.

When there were neither heights nor depths I was brought forth.
Before the mountains and hills were formed I was there.
When the moon and the sun were established,
when the sea and earth were filled with creatures,
I was beside God like a playful artist and daily God delighted in me.

I rejoice in the inhabited world. I love the human race.
So now, my children, listen to me.
Watch for me in the morning and wait for me at night.
Hear my guidance and be wise,
For those who find me find life, but those who lose me will lose their way.'

PRAYER
In the silence of our hearts, O God, we listen for wisdom that we may find our way in this river of transition and transformation. In the silence of our hearts, O God, we commit ourselves to live by faith even when we don't know exactly what you are doing with us. We bring you our lament. We know you are with us and we promise to embrace the ongoing promises of the resurrection in this place in this time. May we all surrender ourselves to the currents of your Spirit Amen.

10-14-2007 JHP When we forget to give thanks.rtf

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 18:28:46 GMT

Sermon: When we forget to give thanks
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Jane H. Peifer
October 14, 2007

Text: Luke 17:11-19; Psalm 111

I find that one of the hardest parts of preaching a sermon is figuring out how to start. So today I am cheating by beginning with the beginning of someone else's sermon. Joyce Hollyday, who was then the Associate E ditor of Sojourners Magazine , preached a sermon on this text which was published in Sojourners in 1987. I t is exactly what I needed to begin my sermon so I'm using her story.

She writes:
Twelve years ago, on an October afternoon,       I was on a bus heading from Lewiston, Maine, where I went to college to Boston, where I was going to catch a plane to Pennsylvania to my grandfather's funeral. I remember very sharply the feelings of grief and loss I was experiencing; my grandfather's death was the first major loss in my life. I was feeling very alone, which wasn't difficult, because there were only three other people on that bus. I was feeling very sorry for myself on that long, three-hour lonely bus ride.

The bus stopped about an hour outside of Boston, and a woman got on, a woman I will never forget .
She was in her 70s, and she had a shock of bright, white hair on top of which sat a red, knit stocking cap. She looked around the bus and saw 38 empty seats, and then came right over to where I was sitting and sat next to me. She plopped herself down and said, ``Praise God what a beautiful day!''

Well, it WAS a beautiful fall day , b ut I was rather resentful of the fact that she was enjoying the beauty of the day and I felt unable to, s o I smiled rather weakly at her. After a few moments, she looked right at me and said, ``So, what's wrong with you?'' I decided I would tell her exactly what was wrong with me, and certainly she would be overflowing with sympathy for my plight. So I explained to her that I was on my way to a funeral , and I was feeling a great deal of loss.

She seemed to show absolutely no sympathy. Finally, after a few minutes, she said, ``Well, tell me about your grandfather.'' I was very glad for the opportunity, because I figured that i f I could prove to her that this wasn't just a run-o n-the-mill grandfather, but my favorite-person-in-the-world grandfather , then indeed she would understand why it was that I was so discouraged. So I started to talk to her about him , about the long walks we used to take and how he more than anyone else in my life had instilled in me a sense of love and a ppreciation for creation, e specially for sunset s , because that's very often when we took our walks.

I talked for quite a while about what a wonderful person my grandfather had been, and after a few moments she looked at me and said, ``How good of God to have given such a grandfather to you.'' I was very touched by her response. And I think that simply encountering her on that bus transformed me and changed my attitude as to how I went home to deal with the funeral and the grieving that my family was going through.

Joyce goes on to say ,
I thought of this woman as I read this gospel lesson. It's about healing, to be sure, and it's about faith , but most of all it's about gratitude.

And I agree. T hat is where the Spirit led me this week as I reflected on this story of Jesus and the 10 men whom he healed of leprosy . This story is about gratitude and who is grateful and who is not and perhaps why.

To set the context a bit, I invi te you to look at what Luke tells us in verse s 11 and 12 , `` On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. '' Jesus wa s on the way to Jerusalem. Back in chapter 9 of Luke , verse 51 he began this journey to Jerusalem . It says i n 9:51 , `` When the days drew near for him to be taken up, Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. '' T here are all kinds of amazing things that happen on the way to Jerusalem , this story being one of them .

First of all, Jesus and his disciples attempted to stop and stay in a Samaritan village , but Luke writes that they would not have him because he was headed toward Jerusalem . This points out that the Samaritans had a different understanding of what and where the center of religious life was , or where God dwelt . F or the Samaritans , religious life centered on the temple of Mt. Geirzim. Samaritans were clea rly the ``other '' to Jews , the unfaithful , and the despised . Samaritans and Jews were not friends. They didn't agree about important things.

So , when the Samaritans in that village did not welcome Jesus and the disciples to stay there , Jesus' disciples were quite offended and asked for permission to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them . J esus strongly rebuked them and instead said, ``N o , we just need to go.'' S o they went on to another village, Luke says.

Luke tells us more stories of how people a long the way respond ed to Jesus         as he tells them who he is and what it means to follow him , to be a disciple . Interestingly enough we find a whole list of unlikely p eople who display ed faith according to Jesus. In this story today, it is someone who has leprosy , which means they are `` unclean , '' who is also a Samaritan , a foreigner according to Jesus . Read through these chapters of Luke and notice all of the unlikely people who display faith according to Jesus.

T he village that Jesus entered in our story today was on the border between Galilee and Samaria , and one source I read indica ted that it is believed that those with lep rosy from both Jewish and Samaritan villages were sometimes banned from their villages to live together . Their illness , which created a barrier between them and their kin and th eir communities , provided a common bond between them and other people with leprosy . The suffering that they shared bonded them and broke down the other barriers that existed between them as Jews and Samaritans , which is not terribly unusual. You can probably think of a time in your life when you fou nd yourself in the same shoes as someone you didn't p articularly appreciate , but your common ailment or predicament bonde d you in a new and strange way.

In this case , Samaritan and Jewish people who had leprosy lived together and were outsiders together. So together they called out to Jesus (from a distance of course , they could never get close to anyone with leprosy ) , ``' J esus, Master, have mercy on us ' . When Jesus saw them, he said to them ` Go and show yourselves to the priests. ' '' He didn't say anything about healing them, but they obviously knew what ``going to the priest'' meant , because Luke tells us that as they went they were made clean.

This means that they went before they knew whether or not they were healed. They went because they had faith , or just thought it was worth the risk . O therwise you wouldn't go through the humiliation of the p rocess that the priest put you through to pronounce you clean (which I'll tell you about in a minute) .

Now the other question is , which priests were they to go to? To the Jewish temple , the holy place for Jews (in Jerusalem)? O r , to the rival Jewish temple for Samaritans ( at Mt. Gerizim)? As I said earlier t his was one of the barriers between Jews and Samaritans ; they did not agree about where the holy place of God was!

Jesus names this barrier , this argument between them , by saying ``Go to the priest.'' I imagine that Jesus' instruction to ``go to the priest'' probably made them all aware once again of their differences. These two religious groups , Jews and Samaritans , w ho both had Abraham and Sara h as their spiritual ancestors , developed side by side each charging the other as being debased and corrupt. As the gospel writer John notes in chapter 4, verse 9 , in the story of the woman who met Jesus at the well , ``Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans . ''

This sounds a bit too close for comfort. Why is it that so often we get most incensed about those closest to us who ``don't get it'' or who we consider to be misled or ignorant? It makes me wonder if, in our context, it mirrors how we might view other Christian groups who see things differently. Even closer to home, how we might view other Anabaptist or Mennonite groups who understand the things of God differently than we do? Where are the barriers we live by? I take note of all of this in order to underline the significance of the Jewish/Samaritan conflict in this story.

Why did Jesus send them to the priest? Because in the law, as is recorded in Leviticus 13, we have this which both Jews and Samaritans would have regarded as important.

Leviticus 13:45-4 6: ⁴⁵ The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled; and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, `Unclean, unclean.' ⁴⁶ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.

Leviticus 14:1-9 : The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: ² This shall be the ritual for the leprous person at the time of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest; ³ the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall make an examination. If the disease is healed in the leprous person, ⁴ the priest shall command that two living clean birds and cedar wood and crimson yarn and hyssop be brought for the one who is to be cleansed. ⁵ The priest shall command that one of the birds be slaughtered over fresh water in an earthen vessel. ⁶ He shall take the living bird with the cedar wood and the crimson yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the fresh water. ⁷ He shall sprinkle it seven times upon the one who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease; then he shall pronounce him clean, and he shall let the living bird go into the open field. ⁸ The one who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water, and he shall be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, but shall live outside his tent for seven days. ⁹ On the seventh day he shall shave all his hair: of head, beard, eyebrows; he shall shave all his hair. Then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean.

So that is why they had to go to the priest. The priest had to take them through a long process of examinations, shavings, sacrifices, washings, and waiting, until it was safe for them to return to the community. This was not just a quick sprinkling of cleansing water and then back home again.

It seems that all 10 of them didn't think twice about what they needed to do to get clean. However, the Samaritan, as soon as he realized that he was healed, he turned around and ran back, falling at Jesus' feet. He realized that Jesus had just healed him. Not only was he healed from the awful disease, he was also freed and healed from the tyranny of social divisions because Jesus, a Jew, had done this for him, a Samaritan.
It was miracle! A traveling Jew named Jesus had healed him, a Samaritan. He got it, and he turned around and came running back, praising God. But the other 9 (who were presumable Jewish) headed straight for the priest without looking back, anxious to get back into their positions in their communities
So much that they didn't stop to say thank you. Could it be that their sense of entitlement blinded them from the reality of their healing?

Now, we really do not know what the 9 were thinking as they headed to the priest. We just know that they didn't come back to say thank you to the one who had healed them, and to give praise to God for this most amazing thing in their lives. That is what I want us to think about today. What I have been asking myself this week is whether or not being grateful is connected with whether you are an ``outsider'' or an ``insider''? Is having social, economic and/or religious power, or not having social, economic and/or religious power connected with being grateful, or the impulse of being thankful? Are you, am I, more likely to be grateful if we are in a situation where we are powerless and where we unexpectedly receive grace, gift, healing?

I think we are. When we receive a gift that jumps across boundaries that we ourselves do not have the power to cross - when we are the ``outsider'' but we are treated as an insider by no power of our own - we are inclined to be overwhelmed with gratefulness. We know that there is NO WAY that we could have made this wonderful thing happen on our own; besides that, we don't even deserve it.
The Samaritan and the Jew, as outsiders when they have leprosy, pull together in their begging. They both feel powerless under the oppression of their illness and the oppression of being considered ``unclean'' in their communities. However, once they are healed, there seems to be a parting of the ways and the Samaritan is again the outsider. The Samaritan alone comes back to Jesus to give thanks and praise God. This man had lived with the deep pain of being an outsider in more than one way and now experienced the release of being healed. And, not only had he been healed of leprosy, but he had experienced the miracle of being healed by someone who had no business healing him. He is overcome with gratefulness, and I like to believe that his sense of gratitude spun him around and sent him back to express it to the one who made it happen.

This is not a sermon to make us feel guilty for the times when we have not been grateful. Instead, my hope is that this sermon will make us more aware of how we are propped up by our privilege as mostly white, middleclass, educated, wealthy people who live with many social, economic, religious, and educational layers of privilege that convince us that we somehow can control what happens to us. In the process we are blinded to the many, many ways that God is intervening in our lives day, after day, after day. We go on our merry way forgetting to ever say thank you because we don't even notice (not because we are necessarily ungrateful people).

It is a trap! Those of us who have the intelligence, money, influence and power to make a lot of t hings happen are very susceptible to being ungrateful people. When we have the power to make our own world go round it is very easy to forget who really makes our world go round. It is very easy to feel entitled. That ``I'm entitled'' feeling might work for a while, but most of us can count on facing something in our lives that puts us in a place where our ``entitlements'' are not honored and then we need to figure out how to live. Unfortunately, we don't have much practice doing it. The Samaritan did not feel entitled to experience healing - he probably never dreamed it could happen. He was simply blown away by it, which compelled him to come back and say thank you.

Joyce Hollyday, whose story I began with, writes, ``Faith without gratitude is incomplete faith,'' and then she tells another story about ``a US church worker who spent two years with Salvadoran refugees in Honduras.'' This woman, Yvonne Dilling, told her that,

As soon as the refugees began to make a new camp, they set up three committees. There was the committee of education and the committee of construction a nd there was the ``committee of joy.'' Celebration was as basic to the life of the refugees as teaching their children to read or building a latrine.

One refugee woman once asked Yvonne why she was so serious all the ti m e , why she walked around looking so burdened down. Yvonne talked as I am sure any of us would have about the tremendous suffering of the people, the grief that she felt every day, and her commitment to give all of herself to the struggle of the refugees .

T his woman looked at her and just said, `` You're not serious about our struggle. Only people who expect to go back to North America in a year work the way you do. You cannot be serious about the struggle unless you play and celebrate and do those things that make it p ossible to give a lifetime to the struggle .''                            ``Gratitude'' by Joyce Hollyday, Sojourners Magazine, June 1987

It seems the status of being a refugee had freed these people to see clearly that their very lives depend on the gifts of God in their midst. They've learned to make praise and thanksgiving and celebration an important part of their lives in order to survive the trials they regularly live with.

So the next time you catch yourself forgetting to say thank you or you hear yourself saying, ``I should be grateful but,'' just stop! Rather than beating yourself up over your forgetfulness or negligence, ask yourself seriously why you don't feel grateful. Are you assuming that you are in control of your own destiny        and that you are responsible for all that happens or doesn't happen to you?

I think this reality for us is what Jesus meant when he used the metaphor of how hard it is for a camel to get through the eye of a needle. We must be transformed by Jesus, by the very Spirit of God, in order to live as dependent and grateful souls even as we are among the privileged in this world. W e must be converted again and again. For a very tangible example of what it means to live as dependent and grateful just observe the children among us.     Watch them, and learn from them!

Let us pray:
Our gracious God, open our eyes so that we can see clearly how privileged we are and then transform us into your disciples who never take any of it for granted or consider ourselves entitled to receive your gifts. Amen.

11-18-2007 JHP Singing Gods Song.rtf

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:16:57 GMT

Sermon: Singing God's Song
Jane H. Peifer
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
November 18, 2007

Texts: Psalm 98; Luke 21: 5-19

A recent survey was done of Mennonite Church USA members and in answer to the question, `` How often do you read or study the Bible on your own? '' 32 % of them indicated that they read the ir Bibles daily . W hen we here at Blossom Hill answered the same question , only 8 % of us indicate d that we read our Bibles daily. I n fact the highest percentage was that 28 % of us read it several times a year, f ollowed closely by 26 % of us who read it several times a week. On Friday, the Pastoral Team met for a whole day to figure out what to do about that , and here is our plan.

No - I am just kidding. S ort of . . .

We did spend part of Friday reflecting on the information gathered by the survey and one of the striking realities is the amount of time we are (or are not) reading the Bible. That makes us ask honestly why that might be so. I suspect that there are a whole range of explanations for this statistic among us. I doubt that blatant disregard for the Bible is one of them.

One of my hunches is that the Bible is too often used as a tool of oppression to push, or punish, those who do not conform to the church's expectations . Even worse , h istory has proven that t he Bible, when in the hands of privileged and powerful Christians , is sometimes used to destroy rather than build up. W e don't want any part of that , so w e don't know what to do with it . W e know we don't read it literally , but how do we read it? For some of us I would guess that r eading the Bible raises more questions than it answers.

The text for this week from Luke is one of those difficult texts that sometimes feed into interpretations that propagate the very thing that Jesus was warning against. Some lift these verses straight out of Scripture and plunk them un-reflectably into our present day situation. W e end up idea s like: the unrest in the Middle East is God's will because Jesus said it m ust happen before the end comes and so, bring on the violence so that Jesus can return!

When we visited the Temple Mount this summer and admir ed the beautiful mosaics of the Muslim mosque that now stands out as the centerpiece of the temple mount , w e were told about Zionist groups who come to visit the mosque . T hey are told that the mosque needs to be des troyed before Jesus will return, which obviously makes them welcome the violence that goes on to reclaim the Temple Mount . These are Christians who are praying and working for the destruction of the mosque in the name of Jesus.

W e know that Christians have been known to take texts like this one and read it as part of the formula of a timetable for the end times. A s one writer wrote , `` This passage is less about predict ion and more about prescription '', prescription about how we are able to be and act when these things happen.

This particular story is almost identical in the gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke. Mark 's gospel is considered the oldest, so often scholars can tell that both Luke an d Matthew drew from Mark's writings . All three of these accounts stand in sharp contras t to the comforting, beautiful, words of Psalm 98 that we heard in the opening today : The Lord has made known his victory , he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations , He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.

And Jesus' words here in the gospels also stand in sharp contract to the words of Isaiah in chapter 65: ¹⁷ For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,and its people as a delight. ¹⁹ I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. ²⁰ No more shall there be in itan infant that lives but a fewdays, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime… ²⁴ Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I willhear. ²⁵ The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,the lion shall eat straw like theox; but the serpentits food shall bedust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD .

So how is it going to be? Nations rising against nations, kingdom against kingdom, great earthquakes, famines and plagues, dreadful portents and great signs from heaven? What is going to happen? It can't be both that's for sure! Or can it be? Might Jesus be suggesting that things are not as they appear? Might Jesus be suggesting that beyond what we see and experience there is a song of love and peace being sung by the angels?

This section of the gospels is called apocalyptic literature. We need to understand what that means in order to understand this text. As one author described, ``Apocalyptic literature is meant to be encouraging - it promises hope for the future.'' Another author wrote that a pocalypse simply means ``thrown open'' or ``laid bare.'' I think it is both of these things. Apocalyptic words reckon with the truth of how things are, or how we can expect them to be. The truth is laid bare, but Apocalyptic words at the same time give guidance and hold out hope for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear beyond what is happening, beyond what is. Apocalyptic literature is meant to give hope and encouragement because things are not as they appear to be . There is more, there is another way, there is a song being sung by the angels.

Apocalyptic ideas developed and prospered when the Jewish people experienced the crises of Roman power and religious oppression - when they needed words of hope because of the violence and persecution going on. These words were written to acknowledge the reality of life for the oppressed and persecuted, but assures them that their suffering is not in vain. They suffer for the better way that Isaiah described which is not yet visible except in the faithfulness of God's people.

It is interesting to note what happens right before this text in Luke 21. At the beginning of Luke chapter 21, Jesus pointed out the poor widow who dropped 2 small copper coins into the temple treasury. He commented to the disciples that she had given more than the rich people who gave a lot because they gave out of their abundance, and the widow gave our of her poverty. Jesus said to the disciples that it may look like the rich are the faithful and generous ones, but remember, things are not as they appear . The poor widow is the real picture of faithfulness and generosity.

The disciples were standing there taking in the beautiful, beautiful temple in front of them. This immense, elaborate dwelling place for God, built of enormous stones piled on top of each other, created a permanent, solid, dependable place for God and the worship of God. The temple was the seat of their covenant with God It had to be protected at all costs!

As the disciples stood admiring this solid, secure, beautiful structure, Jesus said, in essence, things are not as they appear, my brothers and sisters. The day is coming when not one of these stones will be left upon another, they will be thrown down. Jesus said, what appears to you to be solid and powerful will be thrown down. They couldn't imagine it and of course they wanted to know WHEN this would happen. Jesus didn't answer except to say that there will be those who will deceive you with the notion that they know when - but don't fall for it.

You see Jesus' words to the disciples here came in his last days and Jesus spent most of those last days in the temple teaching. Luke 21:37 says, Every day he was teaching in the temple, and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives, as it was called. And all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the temple.

Jesus was preparing them (and himself probably) for his own suffering and death (and resurrection). He knew that things were not as they were going to appear , and yet he knew that things would be as they would be. The powerful system of the temple and the Roman authorities would not stand for someone who challenged them as Jesus did. They would not stand for someone who challenged things as they were, where the rich and powerful controlled the lives of the poor and powerless. Jesus knew that what he was going to go through suffering and death was not what his disciples expected to happen.

His words here are words of warning. It seems that his words mirror what he knew his own journey would entail very soon. Jesus told them that when they live in the way he has taught them, that the lowly are lifted up, the captives are set free, the sick are healed, the peacemakers receive the kingdom of God. When they live ``the way'' they will also suffer as he knew he would suffer. He said in verse 12, ``T hey will arrest you and persecute you , they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons , you will be brought before kings and governors . and then he said in verse 13 This will give you an opportunity to testify - to tell the truth, to say what is really happening, to say how you see it, how it REALLY is and not just how it appears! When you are dragged in you will have a wonderful chance to speak, to testify!!

The thought that I should welcome being dragged in front of my opponents because it will give me a wonderful opportunity to testify scares me (to put it mildly!) At the very least I would need to have my talking points on paper so that I could count on making some sense. But did you hear what Jesus said next? He said in verse 14, So make up your minds NOT to prepare any talking points in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. What are these words? What is this wisdom?'' they must have wondered.

Jesus encouraged the disciples with what he knew was going to be difficult. He knew, because he was one of them and it was difficult for him as well to confront the powers of evil. Yet he also knew that God had never, and would never, leave him on his own. The difficulty of this testifying comes clear when we follow Peter at the time of Jesus' arrest and trial. He wasn't able to even stay identified with Jesus, let alone testify, at least not at that point. When the servant girl noticed him around the edges of the crowd and suggested that he was one ``of them'', Peter denied that he ever knew Jesus, in fact he denied it 3 times. Jesus knew it was going to be hard. Jesus knows it is hard.

So you see, this text is perhaps less about prediction than it is about prescription about how to respond in the face of war and violence. Who is speaking apocalyptic words to us today? Who is laying bare the truth and at the same time saying, `` There is more, things are not as they seem ? Have hope. Stand fast. Testify to the truth!! Expect the worst!''

Theologian Ched Meyers (who I think is a personal friend of Leo and Iris), has written a commentary on the book of Mark, I believe. He wrote an article on this text one week after the beginning of ``Desert Storm'', then published in Sojourner magazine in April 1991. Ched points out that all three gospel writers, Mark, Matthew and Luke ``were written within a generation of the greatest historical apocalypse imaginable in their social world, the Roman-Jewish war of the years 66-70, which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem and the [demolition] of the second temple.'' (Gethsemane Awakening'' Sojourners Mag April 1991)

He wrote: I believe Mark, the first evangelist, wrote during the darkest days of that war. The crisis fundamentally shaped his work, giving it a decidedly apocalyptic character.
And then he asks: What does it reveal to us about t he true character of war and our response to it?

Ched then proposes: Mark's story is structured around 2 fundamental ``moments'': The inbreaking of the kingdom of God which we hear about in the first chapter of Mark and the outbreak of war, which is in Mark 13 (parallel text to the Luke 21 text)

The inbreaking of the kingdom is evident at the beginning of Mark's story. Jesus came to Galilee, r e claiming the good news of God, and saying, ``The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.'' The outbreak of war is reflected in Mark 13: W hen you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

So we have 2 things going: the inbreaking of the kingdom of God and the outbreak of war. Both of these events were very real challenges for Mark's audience, as you might imagine. Ched writes, The kingdom , full of the possibility of transformation and new life , demanded costly discipleship and the war, with its manic militarism also demanded a costly choosing of sides. The two moments co-existed . . . but must not be confused . . . for one was the right or opportune time God's time ( kairos - God's kingdom) a nd the other only pretended to be .

When the disciples asked Jesus when this would all happen he warned them about being deceived by those who would demand their allegiance as supporters of the war, the fighting. Ched writes: In every war, there is at least one great transgression that is used to legitimize the use of force . . .and the greater the transgression is . . . the more passionate people get about the need for war. History bears out that very often the real reason for war comes out much later.

For loyal Jews of Mark's time the abomination was the Roman siege of Jerusalem and the temple. The destruction of their temple was an abomination of abominations! If they cared at all about God and truth and covenant and goodness, they must join in the violence that will preserve their temple! That was the battle call!
But what is Jesus' counsel? When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and thos e inside the city must leave it. Jesus said they must leave, which seems to be advice to ``run away'', and let others fight for the city's freedom?

Ched writes, Under such pressure . . . which is often heralded by adherents to a just war reasoning . . . the church has historically withered. S o, no wonder Jesus war ned them: You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. Jesus called his disciples to ``see beyond how things appear''. He called them to sing a new song - God's song, even when singing it would land them in a heap of trouble.

The gospel writers are telling us that WAR is not the answer (which is the only way that dominant systems know how to do business) but that NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE (the Jesus way) is what actually attacks the system at its root. Nonviolent resistance is the testimony (spoken and lived) that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. Luke 21:15)

War is a symptom of the dominant system. Nonviolent resistance attacks the system at its root. The kingdom of God breaks into our world each and every time we live hope in times of despair, each and every time we repent of our sins/mistakes/whatever and we ask for forgiveness rather than make excuses or become defensive. We forgive those who wrong us, hurt us. (Think about the impact of the forgiveness extended by our brothers and sisters at Nickel Mines last year, no one knew what to say)

The kingdom of God breaks into our world every time we extend understanding and hospitality to the stranger, every time we testify to the hope that lies within us. Every time we have the courage to sing God's song when singing seems ridiculous. When we live ``from the bottom up'', we have stepped outside the limits of this time into God's eternal time and in that place time no longer dominates us. In that place we live in the power of the resurrection that breaks the bonds of death and violence. In that place we are transformed by the love and power of the one who knows all about our suffering, all about our struggle to discern the powers, all about our need for popular identity.

The word from this Christ who lives within us is hope. Things are not as they appear , indeed they are much better!

Ched finishes his article with these words:
Clarity, courage, and resistance are, no doubt, a lot to expect. They are, however, the counsel of the gospel in the apocalypse of war. If we have eyes to see, and ears to hear, we know that'' when we see these things taking place he is near, at the very door'' (Mark 13:29)

Jesus gives witness to a hopeful future, even as evil seems triumphant. May God give us courage, clarity and the hope of God's song in our heart.

12-9-2007 JHP Advent 2- Breathe Hope.rtf

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:17:35 GMT

Sermon Advent 2: Breathing Hope
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Jane H. Peifer
December 9, 2007

Texts: Isaiah 11:1-10; Romans 15:1-13; Matthew 3:1-12

There once was a young man who went on a cruise by himself. He had never been on a cruise before, and he found himself among mostly older folks . But he noticed a few days into the cruise th at there was a younger woman who kept sidling up to him in the most unlikely spots. She seemed to recognize him , at least by the look in her eye. Finally, he said to her, `` I'm sorry, but I don't have a clue who you are. Should I know you? ''

`` Oh, no ,'' she said , `` I didn't mean to stare at you . It's just that you look so much like my first husband. ''

Taken aback, he stammered and offered her a quick condolence. And then asked hesitantly what had happened to her husband.

``Oh, '' she said cheerfully , ``I've never been married . . . yet.''
                                                               ( Emphasis, Vol 37, Number 4, Nov-Dec 2007, pg 52 )

Now that is hope and expectation!

Other thoughts about hope:
Emily Dickenson writes :
Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul,
And sings the tunes without the words . . . and never stops at all.

Emerson describes hope with these words:
The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

Martin Luther King Jr. said ,
If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving,
You lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all.
And so today I still have a dream.

Vaclav Havel wrote
Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

And finally , Mother Teresa said
To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.

This morning, I hope to put some oil in your lamps s o that h ope stays alive and well in you. S o that you continue to breathe hope, even in these dark days of winter , even in these dark days of shootings in our community and of war making in our world.

Susan began our service today with the words of the prophet Isaiah w ho (as one author put it) is the grand master of covenant prophecy. Isaiah, in much of his prophecy expresses his hope for a new king.

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse
         And a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him
         The spirit of wisdom and understanding
         The spirit of counsel and might
         The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord
[This king's] delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

Isaiah literally was expressing hope for a new ---just and righteous earthly king to rule over the people

The prophet Jeremiah also talked about the branch of David ( Chapter 23, verse 5 )
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

These prophets came at a time when God's people were struggling big time . They had lost their way. T hey had been ruled by kings who did not look to Yahweh for guidance . Their lives were falling apart they were no longer living by the covenant that they had made with Yahweh. These prophets gave voice to God's call for them to repent to follow Yahweh , t he God of justice and righteousness, a nd to stop putting their trust in wicked and self-serving kings.

Isaia h's work spanned about 50 years, from 740 through 690 BC . During this time, Assyria was the threatening superpower to the whole region . Israel (which was the northern part of David and Solomon's kingdom) had been split off from Judah (the southern part) for nea r ly 300 years (since 960BC) .

Because the Assyrian war machine was always a threat to all of them , Israel was desperately seeking ways of forming alliances that might hold them back. Israel and Syria became par tners , some of the time . Sometimes they made efforts to include Judah , both friendly and threatening efforts , but Judah tried to retain its own identity , although that looked different depending on the king who was on the throne

Some of their options to protect themselves from Assyria were:
·         Join Egypt, the only nearby strong nation, in opposing Assyria.
·         Join the Israel-Syria confederation in opposing Assyria.
·         Declare allegiance to Assyria and become a vassal province of that empire in hopes of reaping enlarged borders when the fighting was finished
·         Ally with Babylon, the restless eastern province of Assyria, in hopes of an overthrow of Assyria which would get them independence in their remote mountainous location.
·         OR, stay neutral from all international alliances, relying solely on Yahweh for protection and deliverance.

This last o ption was the advice of Isaiah and the other prophets. The prophets said, `` This is the only path open to t hose who truly believe that Yahweh is sovereign over all nations. You must continue as a witness to the surrounding nations rather than becoming a subservient vassal to Assyrian gods and culture. ''

That is the vision that we have proclaimed in Isaiah 11 . Isaiah strides into the marketplace and poetically crafts this stirring portrait of a true savior in Israel. `` He will emerge out of David's family; He will separate himself from the political machines of the nations, with all of their hullabaloo. His eyes will rest on the poor, alien, homeless, disenfranchised outsiders, and his political platform will proclaim justice and hope for everyone . In so doing, this great leader will turn back the threats of the nations, and instead raise a banner of peace around which all of them might rally.'' ( Emphasis , Vol 37, Number4, Nov-Dec 07, pg. 53 )

Isaiah, the prophet, was the voice of God breathing hope into a desperate people . He was c alling forth , predicting , that there one day would be such a king. There would be a king whose primary and central platform for leadership would be justice for all, and mercy, and right relationships and peace.

This doesn't feel too far away from our experience . We are still a year away from the election but already our news is given to the promises of the candidates. We too are hoping for that kind of a king , that kind of a president. We hope for t he kind of a leader who will right wrongs and stabilize social systems that have been eroded by corruption and injustice and greed . We hope for the kind of leader who will channel our technological advances t o address the environmental crisis that we are experiencing . We hope for a leader who is willing to use less so that more people , here at home and around the world, can have what they need to live .

We hope for the kind of leader who would stop rewarding the rich and taxing the poor . W e long for a leader who would recognize the double talk about nuclear arms - who would instead be committed to dialogue and relationship building with the leaders of other nations. We hope and we long for there to be justice in our prison system s o that all peoples can be assured of a fair trial and adequate representation. We long for leadership priorities that address the schools in our inner cities and assure healthcare access for the poor.

We, too, long for a leader whose delight and trust is in the Lord.

So, Isaiah's words give us hope as well. Can you imagine it? Isaiah 11: 6-9 says :
6The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together,and a little child shall lead them. 7The cow and the bear shall graze,their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. 9They will not hurt or destroyon all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lordas the waters cover the sea.

In the meantime, Paul, in Romans 15, shifts the focus on to us. The whole onus isn't just on the king. The people of the king must live as people of the dream NOW, even as we wait for the blessed promise.
The first 3 verses of chapter 15 say it all:
We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, (Isaiah's image is all to do with strong animals/weak animals) a nd not to please ourselves.     Each of us must please our neighbor f or the good purpose of building up the neighbor.    For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, ``The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.''

Jesus is a strong king who did not use his strength to walk all over the weak. He did not he does not rule in order to please himself . Jesus is a strong king who instead t akes on the troubles of the troubled. Jesus is the king from whom we must learn . And Jesus is the king who is coming again.

Paul goes on in his letter to the Roman house churches to say :
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction , so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

Paul here affirms the role of the scripture to encourage us in this time of ``already not yet'', t his time when we have Jesus with us to transform our living a nd yet we long for the time when Jesus will come again and rule the earth with justice and peace . We have in the scripture not just ancient stories that are irrelevant in our present context , b ut stories that shed light and truth on a much larger scale . The dream of God is found there. The God who rules with justice and righteousness and t he God who breaks down barriers and walls instead of building barriers and walls like most earthly kings.

The stories and histo ry recorded in the scriptures are provided for us SO THAT we are encouraged to remain steadfast - to keep on keeping on , a nd SO TH AT we live and breathe hope as the people of God.

You know, w hen we are encouraged by someone or something w e feel braver and stronger - more ready to face whatever it is we are facing. That is the gift of these stories of God and God's people in the scripture. And thank goodness the Bible includes the stories of when people messed up that gives us hope as well.

Anna Carter Florence notes that courage is the first step toward freedom. She writes, ``Take away someone's courage and you can be pretty sure that they won't make a move to change their circumstances. '' Isn't that why the leader's first job, in any liberation movement, is to empower the people with their own courage?

S he goes on to point out that in any totalitarian system, ``the leader's first job is to cripple the people with their own fear. '' There is no doubt that instilling fear is easier than instilling courage (or hope). That must be why so many churches, so many governments, choose to motivate their people with fear rather than encouraging them; it's cheaper, it's quicker, and it's effective.

Encouragement, on the other hand, takes time . `` It takes patience and r epetition and mind-blowing love '' , she writes , `` It takes words of God, uttered over and over again until they are inscribed on our hearts: Rejoice. Praise the Lord. The root of Jesse shall come.'' Encouragement and hope are definitely acts of faith.
                                             ( Lectionary Homiletics , Vol XIX, Number 1, Dec 07 Jan 08, pg. 18 )

And then Paul writes in Romans 15 : May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul was writing to a real motley crew of new believers worshipping together in house churches in Rome. The distinctive between Jews and Gentiles , slaves or free, was a constant battle for them. You know how it is when you can convince yourself (in your head) that someone who is very different from you is just fine as they are . You can convince yourself (in your head) that they are a beloved child of God too, but you just can't stand how they think , or how they act, or how they talk a nd so you struggle to accept them and to love them.

In v erse 7, Paul writes , Welcome one an other , therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God (with all your problems!) . You've heard me say this before, b ut I really am convinced that God is most likely much more concerned about HOW we get along with each other in the midst of our differences t han about the content of what we are actually differing about.

Paul is telling these Jewish and Gentile believers again by quoting a number of scriptures from God's word that ``the promises given to the patriarchs , G od's truth and mercy , are not restricted to the Jews but through the ministry of Jesus Christ are offered also to Gentiles. This shepherd/bread/king who came and lived among us - a king who emptied himself and laid down his power at the feet of his accusers - did so for the sake of all people , not just the Jews.

Jesus , through his life here among us , h as given us a window into the very heart of God. If God was willing to stoop low enough to become one of us , t hen that is a God I want to be connected to , and it gives me hope. If God was willing to lay down k ingly powers and godly position, and take on the life of a servant and become the son of a peasant girl and her boyfriend , then t hat is a God I want to surrender my life to , and it gives me hope. If God of the universe willingly suffered and died rather than calling in the forces of the universe to crush the enemy, then I want to be part of that kind of a world , and it gives me hope!

The picture that Isaiah paints for the people of God is an amazing promise of p eacefulness and love y et to come in its fullness. But, through our repentance and obedience , it can be now as well and it is now as well. The kingdom of God is here. Breathing hope means being willing to turn away from out own agend a s and contribute to the justice that we long for. (That is what John the Baptist was fussing about out there in the wilderness as he prepared the way for Jesus.)

Someone has said when we look around our lives , on e of the laziest t h ings to do is find refug e in cynicism. It is tempting for all of us to pull back and say the world is what it is and we can't change it. What is hard, what requires risk, boldness and audacity, is to hope .

In closing I pray with Paul,
May the God of hope fill all of us with joy and peace in believing, s o that we will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

May it be so with you and with me.

12-23-2007 JHP Advent 4- Peace on earth not peace of mind.rtf

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:18:48 GMT

Advent 4: Peace on earth . . . not the same as peace of mind
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Jane H. Peifer
December 23, 2007

Text: Matthew 1:18-25; Romans 1:1-7

Philhaven Hospital puts out an occasional newsletter which includes tips and helps for managing life. Here is an excerpt:

Home for the Holidays: Easing Family Tension
It's that time again to trek home to visit your family:
         your father who says the opposite of everything your spouse says
your brother who rambles on and on about the expensive electronics and gadgets he buys his wife and kids
         your Mom who still insists you should have been a doctor.

Each of us wishes f or a Normal Rockwell-type family, bu t the reality is that most of us can relate more to ``The Simpson's'' or the family in ``Every body Loves Raymond.''

They write,
These are helpful tips to keep in the back of your mind to relieve some of the anxiety and discord that can occur over the holidays.

·         Accept that your parents aren't perfect.
·         Cabin fever will prevail. Putting everyone into close quarters is bound to light fires.
·         Have a sense of humor. Let Mom and Dad ' s little jabs roll off. It might be interesting to see what their reaction is when you don't react to them.
·         Reschedule the holiday. If you can't make it on the big day, or you can't deal with being with the whole family, try to schedule a visit around that time.
·         Open your heart and close your mouth
·         Consider the gain: What good will come of arguing with each other?
·         Make peace before it's too late. Accept the past as the past and let it go.

So, if this is the kind of advice that we need to manage the holiday activities, what happened to ``peace on earth'' that we sing about and underline on our greeting cards? The thing that grabbed me about this list of tips to ``ease family tension'' is all the advice of what to do with the parents and now WE are the parents!! Who knows what contortions our kids have to go through in order to get themselves ready for a day and a half in our house!?

I've been reading a book these last few weeks entitled The First Christmas: What the Gospels really teach about Jesus' Birth, written by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. They end their preface with this sentence: God's dream for us is not simply peace of mind , but peace on earth.

I think peace of mind is more what we desire, or at least to ``keep the peace.'' Too often, trying to make peace on earth messes up our peace of mind or does it? As one author put it, ``we tend to want a ``kind but remote God,'' not a God who really change things on earth. (An Imprudent Hope, by Julie Polter, )

This is not what God's dream was and/or is for the world. Peace on earth at the time when Matthew and Luke wrote their stories had all to do with what this humble birth meant personally AND politically! So if we don't want both peace of mind and peace on earth, then we probably don't want this baby Jesus, because ``[these stories] are comprehensive and passionate visions of another way of seeing life and of living our lives.'' (pg. viii)

Borg and Crossan point out that the very names used for Jesus like Son of the Most High, Son of God, Savior, Lord, Bringer of Peace were all names used to identify the emperor at the time Caesar Augustus!
It doesn't take much imagination to realize how political the birth of this baby was.

Zechariah, Elizabeth's husband, father of John the Baptist, was filled with the Holy Spirit (when he could finally speak again). Listen to his words cued into the ``political'' inferences.

Luke 1:68-79
⁶⁸ `Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
⁶⁹ He has raised up a mighty savior for us
in the house of his servant David,
⁷⁰ as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
⁷¹ that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
⁷² Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
and has remembered his holycovenant,
⁷³ the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
to grant us ⁷⁴ that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear, ⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness
before him all our days.
⁷⁶ And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
⁷⁷ to give knowledge of salvation to his people
by the forgiveness of their sins.
⁷⁸ By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us,
⁷⁹ to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way ofpeace.'

Zechariah and Mary's songs clearly reflect the anguish of God's people who lived in fear of their enemies during those days. The unusual birth of Zechariah and Elizabeth's son marked the beginning of God's presence and movement among them, according to their covenant with Yahweh. And, as we heard in his song, Zechariah was filled with joy at the prospect of God coming to set things right on earth to bring peace on earth at last!

Are you aware that we really have two different birth stories in the Bible? Matthew's story is 31 verses long after his genealogy, which starts with Abraham and goes to Jesus. Luke's story is 143 verses long and he also includes a genealogy, but only at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. Luke's genealogy starts with Jesus and goes to Abraham.

The stories and genealogies have a few similarities, but more differences. So, does that matter? Borg and Crossan suggest that Matthew and Luke told the story in a particular way for a particular reason. If you really want to know what they think the reasons are - you need to read the book! But, for this sermon, suffice it to say that their opinion is that we have different stories because Matthew and Luke wrote for different reasons. Therefore, they included specific details (or left them out), which is what we do when we tell stories.

It is interesting, in keeping with our theme today, that Matthew is the one who reflects the political and social tensions which surrounded the birth of Jesus more than Luke. Clearly Matthew's main character is Joseph. Matthew names Mary only 3 times in chapters 1 and 2, but Joseph he names 8 times. Luke names Mary 11 times in his first 2 chapters, but only names Joseph 3 times. ``Matthew's story is clearly about Joseph and his dilemma socially and politically and it is also about Herod and his unsuccessful attempt to kill Jesus.'' (pg. 10)

One of the most striking differences between these stories is the settings the location where they take place. According to Matthew : Jesus is born in Bethlehem, they flee to Egypt to escape Herod, and then they settle finally in Nazareth (after Joseph was warned in a dream that the Archelaus (Herod's son) was now ruler and equally as ruthless). According to Luke: The angel visited Mary in Nazareth, when the call came for the census to be taken Mary went with Joseph to Bethlehem to be counted (where Jesus was born),       and then after taking Jesus to Jerusalem to be blessed they returned to their home in Nazareth.

Actually the only things that are the consistent between the stories are the names of Jesus' parents, Mary and Joseph, that Jesus was born in Bethlehem near the end of the reign of Herod the Great, and that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And of course, you will all recognize that the ``traditional Christmas story'' that we all know is a composite of both Matthew and Luke's versions.

Does any of this matter? Borg and Crossan say ``no'', but what is helpful is the richness of paying attention to the details. ``Meaning grows larger, not smaller'' when the details are noticed. These authors are clear to point out that they do not pick apart these details in order to debunk the stories in any way or say they aren't true (pg. 23) but in order to enrich and broader the meaning for us today.

This reminds me of the line that our guide, Glenn Witmer, kept using this summer as we visited the Jesus sites the place where they are pretty sure this happened or that happened. Glenn would always say, ``It doesn't have to be factual to be true.'' I'm pretty sure these authors would agree with Glenn. Their point is that paying attention to the distinctiveness and details of the nativity stories is how we really enter into the possibility of understanding what the stories meant in the first century when they were first written and therefore what they might still mean for communities of faith today. (pg. 24)

Clearly these stories inspire us as stories of ordinary people doing ordinary things     in response to the call of God to do something in the world in their time. If and when we can allow ourselves to believe that God takes our history seriously enough to enter it with us, then we too enter the story and hear the call. Whether or not Matthew's story is actually how it happened or whether or not Luke's story is actually how it happened is no longer important.

Looking at Joseph's story (that we have in Matthew 1) we realize that his call to discipleship came through an angel who asked for something pretty extraordinary. Joseph was asked to carry out his original plan to marry his fiancée Mary and to raise their family together, even though her pregnancy clearly did not involve him.

This way of handling the social embarrassment of Mary's pregnancy was not what Joseph planned to do. He had planned to divorce her quietly. That is what any respectable man would do in his context in his day. In fact, it would have been acceptable for him to publicly shame her, but he couldn't, he loved her so. Just when he had decided to divorce her quietly, God asked him to go further. An angel came to him in a dream when he was sleeping (we learn in verse 24) and said that he did not need to dismiss Mary, he did not need to divorce her.

The angel (however it came to Joseph) told him that he did not need to be afraid to take Mary as his wife because the child she was pregnant with was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The angel told him that it was a boy-child who would be his son to raise and he was to name him Jesus (for he will save his people from their sins).

And then in the story Matthew adds the note that this all happened to Joseph in order to fulfill what the prophet had said: ``Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, ``God is with us.'' When Joseph aw o ke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord c ommanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son and he (Joseph) named the baby Jesus.

My challenge for us today is two-fold. First, notice the details of the Biblical stories. There is often more than meets the eye. Secondly, I invite you to reflect on your own experiences. When have you made plans about something in your life which seemed like the right thing to do, the prudent thing to do, but then something else happened? Maybe you had a dream from God in the night or, as we often say nonchalantly, it just occurred to you. Maybe someone gave you unsolicited advice or counsel which was more pertinent than they even knew. Or, you just didn't ``close the deal'' on a decision because it just wasn't sitting right with. Or, you happened upon a scripture text or an inspirational writer that spoke directly to you about a decision you were making. And, because of this ``intervention'' or ``revelation'' you changed your plans.

Like Joseph, maybe all at once you knew that the prudent thing you planned to do would be absolutely the wrong thing to do, and so you stopped, and listened, and went another way. (An Imprudent Hope, by Julie Polter, ) It may even have been a way that didn't necessarily give you much ``peace of mind'' at first, maybe a way that created problems for those close to you who don't want you to change. But, perhaps by following what you now knew you had to do you discovered a deeper peace and satisfaction.

This is the story of Joseph. He had no idea that this little baby growing in Mary's womb was going to announce the kingdom of God and call people to follow him. He had no idea how scandalous his ``son'' was going to be for the religious, political and social powers at hand. He had no idea the anguish he would experience as his boy would be killed. He didn't know the extent of what his decision to take Mary as his wife would be. Joseph's response to the call of God on his life meant that he was choosing to cooperate with the emerging ``reign of God'' peace on Earth as his then unborn boy would preach and live out in real human history. (Discipleship Now, by Bonnie Greene, )

I imagine that Joseph probably didn't know what he was in for, which is always the case with us as well. One thing that I see demonstrated in Joseph's story is the reality that change comes AFTER redemption or revelation. Usually God's love and grace and forgiveness is revealed to us first and then we are empowered to change. We so much want it to be the other way around because then we can control it, and we can see it. Then we KNOW what we did to earn God's grace and favor and we know what we did to make a difference.

For Joseph, he was willing to surrender his idea of what was right to do in order to follow what he heard from the angel, and it was a totally different way. Richard Rohr calls this spiritual growth. He writes in his book Radical Grace (pg. 168),
``Spiritual growth is the willingness to surrender of images (our ideas of what we should be and do) in favor of the True Image (God's direction and leading). It is a conversion that never stops, a surrender that never ceases. It is a letting go of self-serving and self-created images of self, of others and of God. Those who worship the images instead of living the reality simply stop growing spiritually.

It seems that many people, religious people in particular would sooner relate to images than to the reality where both despair and God lie hidden. Until we walk with this despair (where there is no peace of mind), we will not know that our hope was hope in ourselves, in our successes, in our power to make a difference, in our image of what perfection and wholeness should be. Until we walk with this despair, we will never uncover the real hope on the other side of human achievement. Until we allow the crash and crush of our images, we will never discover the real life beyond what only seems like death and despair.''

Joseph somehow was able to take the comforting ``do not be afraid to take her'' words of the angel to heart; he trusted those words of comfort beyond the despair that he felt.

God is with us just as God was with Joseph. ``God with us'' is neither sentimental nor remote. God is with us warts and all in this place and in this time. ``To live that truth is nothing less than to claim all ground as holy ground,     to see the messy work of being human as God's work too, to have our ends and means flipped and tested. Nothing is obvious when ``God is with us''. . but all is potentially blessed.''

An Imprudent Hope, by Julie Polter,

Phil ippians 4:4-9 : 4 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵ Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹ Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
.

2-23-08 JHP Lent 3 Thirsting for God.rtf

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 15:12:23 GMT

Sermon: The Power of Thirst
Lent 3 February 23, 2008
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Jane H Peifer

Text: John 4:4-42; Exodus 17:1-7

The interpretation of this story has very often focused negatively on the woman who met Jesus at the well that day. Many times this woman is painted as an immoral, loose woman who is redeemed from her fallenness by Jesus, who names her sin and saves her. Along with that, Jesus is made out to be more like a hawk who SEES and CEASES rather than SEES and LOVES. Of course, interpretations are not usually all wrong or all right. But, one time, during seminary, I had an experience with this Bible story that has forever changed how I read and hear it.

John Bell, a hymn writer and composer, is part of the Iona Community in Scotland. He also is an amazing story teller, preacher and teacher, which is illustrated by this teaching experience I had with him.

He read the story of the woman at the well to a group of perhaps 40 of us who had chosen his workshop. Then he directed our attention to a line-up of pictures of women which he had laid on tables around the perimeter of the room where we were meeting. There were pictures of all different kinds of women: young, old, poor, wealthy, funny, smart, worn out, energetic just about every image of woman you can imagine.
He must have had 200 or more pictures laying single file on the tables around the room.

His direction was for us to walk single file around the room by the pictures, looking for the woman who, in our opinion, looked most like the woman in this story. How did we imagine her? What did she look like?
We were to go around as many times as we needed to and pick up the one that we thought was her. Then we were to gather in small groups and tell each other why we choose that picture.

So I began to think about this woman. I realized that I had a picture of her in my mind according to the interpretation I had heard most often that I described earlier. But, as I thought about it, if she had 5 husbands, she most likely would have been older than my mental picture of her. No where does it say that she was divorced from 5 men, maybe they all died. If so, her body was do doubt worn down from grief and providing for herself and her children. Women without husbands were on their own, sometimes just out on the street. Even if her husbands had not died, they could by law just put her out, she had no recourse as a woman. So, because she most likely had a very hard life, I began to look for a really tired and worn out woman.

I found her in the line-up. She was stooped in her 50's at least, tired looking but hard, spunky and resourceful. I knew it was the only way she had survived.

That exercise has shaped how I read this story ever since. Instead of judging her as an immoral person I continue to be amazed at the depth of this woman, at her honesty and the quick and insightful dialogue she carries on with Jesus. This is the longest recorded back and forth conversation in the gospels. There are 13 exchanges between this woman and Jesus, and their conversation progresses from the surface of things to the heart of things quite quickly. She had no trouble following him.

Even though the whole conversation started because JESUS was thirsty, the conversation soon uncovered the thirst for freedom and life that was a constant longing within her. Within the exchange between them she moves from calling Jesus `Jew' to `Sir' to `Prophet' and finally she wonders, ``Could this man be the `Messiah'?''

Perhaps what most moved her was how Jesus acted in a way that was new and fresh, something totally outside the bounds of what was socially acceptable. In fact, at first, his action made her wary of him. What was he up to? He, a Jew, addressed her, a Samaritan (unheard of!). Most Jews tried to avoid contact with Samaritans because they considered them outsiders. Although Jews and Samaritans shared the Pentateuch (1^st 5 books of the Old Testament) as scripture, Samaritans claimed that Mt. Gerizim was the location of the cultic center, not Jerusalem (as the Jews claimed). So, Samaritans were religious people, they were not Gentiles! They were not pagan. They just didn't believe quite the same things as the Jewish brothers and so they avoided each other and ``did not share things in common.'' (John tells us)

Actually, passing through Samaria was the shortest route to get from Judea to Galilee, but Jews never went that way. In Verse 4, John writes ``But he had to go through Samaria,'' which suggests that Jesus HAD to go through Samaria for reasons beyond geography. He knew he had to go there carrying ``the gift of God.'' Avoiding Samaria was not an option for the Son of God!

Perhaps these are the very things that piqued her interest and drew her in. Here was a man who risked stepping out of the boundaries that so often left her thirsty and hungry, despised and alone, to draw water at noonday rather than in the early morning when the other women gathered at the well. Either her reputation or perhaps her suffering had created a strange barrier around her. This man walked right through that barrier.

I found a wonderful poem by Rumi, the ancient mystic poet that I think says what Jesus was saying to the Samaritan woman.

I have come to drag you out of your self
         and take you to my heart.
I have c ome to bring out the beauty you never knew you had
         and lift you like a prayer to the sky.

If no one can recognize you, I do
         because you are my life and soul.
Don't run away, accept your wounds and let bravery be your shield.

It takes a thousand stages for the perfect being to evolve.
Every step of the way I will walk with you
         and never leave you stranded.
                  (Rumi : Hidden Music, translated by Maryam Mafi and Azima Melita Kolin)

Jesus offered ``the gift of God'' and ``the gift of living water'' to her. He said, ``If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, `Give me a drink,' you would have asked him and he would have given you lining water.'' ``I would like that,'' she said, ``but how do you get that living water? Where do you get living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well that I come to every day?''

Jesus responded, ``This water satisfies just for a while, but the gift of living water from God comes from a well that never runs dry. And, when you drink of this water it will gush up inside of you like a spring and carry you forever.'' ``I would like that.'' she said, ``I would love to not have to keep coming here everyday for water.''

It seems that as Jesus leads her in conversation from the practical need for water to the heart of the matter, the gift of living water that we need for living. She follows, but in a sort of dreamy way. Yes, I would like that. Wow that would be wonderful! It wasn't hard for her to imagine a life other than what she knew, she longed for it every day. And again, she no doubt was thinking, ``Who is this Jewish man who is talking so gently to me?''

Then Jesus turned the conversation by saying, ``Go, call your husband and come back.'' She said, ``I don't have a husband.'' It just came out easily. After all, it was the truth. I mean, which husband? There had been 5 of them, but no longer.

``I know,'' said Jesus, ``You are right about that.'' There have been 5, haven't there? And the one you have now hasn't married you. It is true. I know.

She was shocked that this stranger knew about her life and the shame of it all washed over her and she bristled in defense. ``Well, I know you Jews see it differently than we do.'' In her defense, she came back to the surface with a theological statement. And Jesus said, ``Yes, but woman, believe me, none of this is going to matter in the end because true worshippers will worship God in spirit and in truth (it doesn't matter from which mountain). God is spirit and those who worship God must worship in spirit and in truth.''

She softened again and said, ``I know that some day a Messiah will come and it will all be clear to us'' (which was an amazing statement of faith). And Jesus said to her, ``I am that one, that would be me, the one who is speaking to you.''

We don't know what she said next because John cuts away and tells us that just then the disciples came back from their food run. Now THEY were shocked. There he was talking to a woman. There he was talking to a SAMARITAN woman, but they didn't say anything.

She was setting her jar down now and she was running down the path toward her village. She was running and laughing and stopping everyone she met, telling them about what had just happened. She was telling them how this Jewish man who didn't know her actually knew her, and how he knew everything about her. He knew all about her hard life and he offered her water that quenches all thirst.

``Could it be?'' she began to wonder as she hurried along. ``Could it be that he is who he says he is, the Messiah? Could it be?''

Some who saw her coming ignored her. Some she told were too busy and wouldn't listen to her fussing. Some even pushed her away, but others listened and went out to the well to see this man she told them about. They invited him to stay, and Jesus ended up accepting their invitation and many in that village believed. They believed the woman and they believed Jesus. Within a few days many of them said, ``We know that this is truly the Savior of the world.''

I can't help wondering about the disciples. The last we hear about them is their concern that Jesus eat something. After all, they went into town in order to get food and then when they get back Jesus wouldn't eat. When they insisted that he eat he said to them, ``I have food to eat that you do not know about.'' So, of course they thought that someone else must have brought him food. Then Jesus goes into this thing about the harvest and the sower and the reaper. What in the world is he talking about? I tend to think they were totally confused, which is pretty much how it is, isn't it? Some days we get it, like this woman did, and some days we don't, like the disciples.

This story reminds me of when I was a kid and sometimes when I begged for a snack, my Mom would say, ``You're not hungry, you are just sleepy.'' I, for the life of me, could not understand what sleep had to do with what I wanted to eat! But, as a mother, I could see it in my children just like my mother could see it in me. Our hungering and thirsting for ``stuff'' is very often a cover-up for some much deeper yearning inside of us. Jesus understands that the ordinary thirsting and hungering that we experience are all tied to the deeper longings we live with, but that we so often never acknowledge the deeper longing.

Jesus knew that coming to that well for water was part of her work everyday. He knew she had to go there. He knew that she had to get water at the community well everyday in order to live. But, he also knew that it was going to take more than water from Jacob's well to ever really nourish her, and he wanted her to experience that living water.

Our need for living water is so often disguised by the thirsts and hungers in our lives. So what is this ``living water'' or ``gift of God'' that Jesus shares with her? I believe that gift of God is love. Jesus knew her and still loved her. Never before had she experienced such love. Her message to her village was, ``He told me everything I had ever done. He knows all about me, and he still loves me.'' Isn't that the miracle?

Jesus showed her how all things (even the daily trip to the well for water) contribute to the awakening of thirst for God. It is all in us. We all hunger and thirst for more than we know how to satisfy. But our daily hungers and thirsts can lead us to that deeper place of living water if we are attentive to what is going on inside of us. In reality we aren't really hungry for food or thirsty for fame;     hungry for power or thirsty for someone's attention; hungry for a companion or thirsty for a pay raise. Instead we are hungry for love. We are hungry to be known and loved by God at that deeper level.

That is the first line of the Baby blessing we use when we bless our babies: ``You are known and loved by God.'' Our little ones know that more than they know anything else, but as we grow, we have life experiences and relationships that make us question that gift of God. I'm convinced that many of us really question God's love for us.

Love is the living water that becomes a spring in us that gushes up to eternal life. Love is the living water gift of God that never runs dry. Love is the invitation. Allow yourself to be loved. Know that God knows all about you and loves you just the same.

Douglas Burton-Christie describes his journey in an article entitled The Birth of the Word in the Soul (Weavings, XXIII:I, pg. 20) He describes being raised as a devout Catholic boy. He went to Catholic school, was an altar boy, was baptized, had first communion, was confirmed, but over the years, he somehow lost hold of the thread of faith that he had through those years. Life got busy, and he had all he needed, and didn't see any point of including faith as part of his life. But, he was drawn to a circle of friends for whom faith was crucial. Although he couldn't quite understand why, he enjoyed how vibrant and alive these friends seemed to be.

``Faith seemed to be for them a living thing, something like a pulse that shaped everything in their lives. Also, it was for them a framework of meaning, a way of understanding themselves, God, and the world. I had none of this, not the life pulse nor the framework of meaning. I think I resented them for it. And I was determined to resist them, to show them that I could live my own way, even if beneath the surface I was really not so sure of my way or where I was going.''

Then he tells about deciding to join these friends for a weekend retreat.

`` So I protected myself. I attended the talks and listened, but did not really grasp what was being said. I observed my friends as they opened themselves more and more to the mystery of the faith at the center of their lives. I was completely outside all this. I could neither understand it nor participate in it. And while I was relieved at having been able to resist the force of this faith that I perceived more and more as a threat, I was also disappointed. I wanted it more than I realized, more than I was willing to admit to myself.
         This, I think, helps to account for my wistful mood that Sunday afternoon as I sat on the bus heading for home. I had survived the weekend. Nothing had changed. I had successfully resisted all attempts to win me over to a life of faith. But I did not feel happy. Instead I felt uneasy, agitated, confused. I had become aware of a strange longing for something I could not n ame. Was it faith? I could not really say. I still could not really make sense of faith, or grasp what it might mean to believe in God, at least in the way my friends described it a compelling, encompassing sense of love and belonging at the center of their souls. Certainly my own life was not bereft of love. Then what was this hunger I felt? And how did one feed such a hunger? I had no idea…
         Then something strange happened. I felt what I can only describe as a strong sensation f warmth coursing through my body. No conscious thought accompanied it.''

If you want to read they whole story, let me know, but I was taken by how God basically just wrapped him in love poured living water on him. He didn't pray any particular prayer, he just began to acknowledge his desire for more, and God came. Jesus did the same thing for the woman at the well.

As Rumi wrote, Jesus says to each of us -

I have come to drag you out of your self
         and take you to my heart.
I have come to bring out the beauty you never knew you had
         and lift you like a prayer to the sky.

If no one can recognize you, I do
         because you are my life and soul.
Don't run away, accept your wounds and let bravery be your shield.

It takes a thousand stages for the perfect being to evolve.
Every step of the way I will walk with you
         and never leave you stranded.
                  (R umi : Hidden Music, translated by Maryam Mafi and Azima Melita Kolin)

I light the Christ candle again this morning and invite you to come, opening yourself to God's love. Allow God to love you, far beneath the surface of your daily hungers. Invite God to wrap you in love, to know you and love you. If you desire this, come and light a candle to symbolize your desire and acceptance of God's love.

3-2-08 JHP Lent 4 Blinders to Faith.rtf

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 15:12:36 GMT

Sermon: Blinders to Faith
Lent 4: March 2, 2008
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Jane H. Peifer

Text: John 9:1-41; Psalm 23; I Sam 16:1-13; Ephesians 5:8-14

This is one of my favorite Bible stories. I love the way in which John , or whoever the writer is, tells the story . It's a real ly funny story! T he ironies are huge and obvious, except to those who should know, but don't . John so cleverly puts us , the readers , on the inside track with Jesus and the blind man.
We are given the opportunity to see how silly the arguments are , how fo olish the concerns of the ``religious'' are , how quickly people work to ``explain away'' something that they don't understand, something mysterious, something like the healing of blindness. This story takes us to the inside with Jesus, to have us identify with the blind man

I must confess that I have personal reasons to like this story so much . As a woman called to be a pastor I don' t have to work hard to imagine what the blind man must have felt like . He was called by G od , or touched by God; he had his eyes opened by Jesus . This was a really wonderful thing , except that it caused a big problem for people, particularly the people of God. Similarly, the people of God have had a problem with women as pastors. First of all , they have had to figure out if God really call s women to be pastors , then, secondly , if indeed a woman is called by God , then what are they doing to do? I fee l for this poor fellow , I know from experience that it doesn't feel good to be the reason for such a big problem .

But , I don't think this story is about women called to ministry . I think John wrote this story in a way that makes it easy for all of us to identify with the blind man so that we become more aware of the barriers to faith , the blinders we all wear . I t is the se barriers or blinders that I want to look at with you today.

Jesus asked his disciples on numerous occasions and in a variety of ways ,        `` Do you have eyes and fail to see? Do you have ears and fail to hear? A nd do you not remember? '' These are questions that disturb me , and make me ask: What am I missing ? What are WE missing , not seeing , and not hearing? And what is it that keeps us from seeing the work of God in the world? Those are the questions of this sermon.

Within the first 7 verses of this story , the man born blind is healed by Jesus and then the bru-ha-ha begins . John tells us a whole lot more about the response and resistance to the work of God than he does about healing . The healing part is the simple part of this story . It simply seems as if the healing was the object lesson for the question that the disciples posed to J esus that day. The disciples had asked a question that came out of their understanding that illness was caused by sin , so they asked, ``Who sinned , this man or his parents?'' w hen they saw the blind man .

A s Jesus so often did , he offered a third way . H e said it was neither the man nor his parents , but that t he man was born blind so that the work of God might be revealed in him. He was born blind so that the light of God would be revealed in him. So this whole healing happened as a SIGN of what Jesus had come to do .

L et's look first at the experience of th e blind man. First of all, he never asked to be healed. I imagine that he had lived with not only the burden of no sight but also the st igma of being considered a sinne r . S o , it could be h e never dreamed of being healed , or maybe it was part of his prayer every day . Either way , with no initiation of his own , on this day Jesus just walked up and spat on the ground , made a little mud with his spittle , rubbed it on the man's eyes and told him to go to the pool of Siloam and wash. The man did as Jesus told him, and after he washed, he could SEE!

Then we don't hear any more about the disciples, and Jesus is absent in the story until the very end , but the life of this man gets rather complicated! H is neighbors were impacted by this sign of God. They kept arguing whether he was t he same man or not . The man kept saying , ``Yes , it ' s ME , it is ME. Believe me ! I imagine him wide eyed trying to take i n all the new scenes and sights, only half paying attention to the commot ion of his neighbors and family , Can you imagine being able to SEE for the first time in your life , as a grown man ?

Finally , o ne of the neighbors said , `` So , if this is really you , if you really are the same guy , just how did it happen that your eyes were opened? '' The man said, ``W ell, this man who they called Jesus came up to me , made some mud from the dirt , spread it on my eyes , told me to wash in the pool of Siloam and when I did , I could see ! Seeing brings a whole new dimension to life, I must say! '' `` S o where is this man? '' they asked him. The man responded, `` I have no idea. I never saw him before. I don't know what he looks like. I don't know where he went. ''

This used-to-be-blind guy doesn't know much . He can see , but he doesn't know the right answers to the questions . So they took him to the Pharisees , the ones who are to know about these kinds of things, the things of God . (I doubt that felt like a very safe place to go because of the ``sickness equals sin'' thing. ) They took him to the Pharisees , to s ort it all out, and verse 14 warns us that this is not going to be a happy meeting.

Verse 14 says ``Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.'' Whoops.
He was in trouble. Jesus was already in trouble with the Pharisees , but the man with new eyes who was a sign of God's work was also in trouble! You see , f irst century Judaism defined community identity around three religious practices: circumcision, food laws, and Sabbath observance. A challenge to the Sabbath , doing work on the Sabbath ,      was seen as a challenge to the very definition of the community . (A ll of this became even more of an issue after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in the year 70 CE , which was about the time this gospel was written. Scholars conclude that 75 - 80 years after the birth of Jesus is the earliest this gospel was most likely written , so at the time that John was writing this story the conflict between the temple Jews and followers of Jesus was pretty hot. )

W hen the writer tells us that this ``healing'' had happened on the Sabbath we are being warned about the seriousness of the situation. The Pharisees (taking on their role as interpreters of the law , protectors of the faith) questioned this man. They too asked him how he had received his sight.       The man explained how it had happened. ``He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.'' (His explanation was getting shorter , no sense giving all the details , probably w ouldn 't make any difference , and I would guess that his fear kept him from elaborating much .)

The Pharisees deliberated among themselves . Some said , ``This man (Jesus, that is) is not from God b ecause he does not keep the Sabbath . '' Others said , ``But if he is not from God then he is a sinner , and how can a sinner perform such a miracle , such a sign?'' And so they went back and forth on this point.

Then they turned to the blind/seeing man (who I imagine is just looking all around , still trying to taking it all in or else covering his eyes because he's not accustomed to the light. ) ``So , what do you say about this man who made you see? (a crucial question) It is your eyes that he opened , who do you think this Jesus is?'' The man said , ``He is a prophet.''

This man doesn't know much, but he does recognize the work of God when he sees it , es pecially when he experiences it! S o he told the Pharisees , ``He is a prophet.'' And they all understood a prophet to be one who brings a word from God (whic h was troublesome because that meant that the man thought Jesus was from God , but not as troublesome a s the rumor going around that Jesus was the son of God) .

Verse 18 tells us that the Pharisees basically didn't believe the man's story at all . BUT , they must have been a bit curious about the whole affair because they called in the man's parents to test their conclusion that it was all a hoax . They asked his parents , ``Is this your son?'' ``Yes , '' the parents nodded. `` Was he born blind? '' `` Yes , '' they nodded. ``Then how is it that he now sees? '' the Pharisees asked them.

His parents answered . (J ust a side note here : it is really unique that John does not have the father speaking for the m other as would have been customary in that patriarchal society. Instead we hear from the man's ``parents'' ) T hey say , ``We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind , but we have no idea how it is that he now sees , or who it was that opened his eyes. You'll have to ask him , he's a grown man! Let him speak for himself . Y a know, when they grow up, we have no control over their choices! I don't know what we did wrong ; God knows w e 've tried to be good parents .''

The writer here gives us the inside track again . You see, this Jesus thing was ripping the community apart. T he temple Jews had already declared that anyone who confessed that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue . T hese poor parents were in a bind. How can they support their son and celebrate his new eyesight knowing that Jesus had done this , and not get thrown out of their community , out of the synagogue?

A gain the Pharisees called in the blind man (who is still just looking all around trying to take it all in) and they press him. ``Give glory to God. P lease uphold the things of God and tell us that you know that this man who healed you is a sinner. He is NOT from God. Please tell us you agree! ''

What 's a no-longer-blind man to do? So , he just again simply said , `` I don't mean to mess with you , but I have to tell you that the only thing I know is this : I used to be blind , but now I see. I don't know what else to tell you! ''

It wasn't what they wanted to hear , so they tried again. `` Now , let's review this again. Just what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? ''

`` I have already told you, and you are not listening. Why do you want to hear it again? '' He thought maybe they were really getting interested and that's why they wanted to hear the story again , so he asked them , ``Do you also want to become his disciples?''

Whoops! That was not a good thing to say. They were offended by his suggestion and clarified quickly that he might be a disciple of this man, Jesus , but THEY were disciples of Moses . God had spoken to MOSES , and as far as this man Jesus is concerned , they have no idea where he came from.

By now the no-longer-blind man was gain ing some clarity and confidence and so simply said , ``Your logic is astonishing. You say you don't know where this man comes from , and neither do I, frankly''
But this I DO know: He opened my eyes. I never before was able to see. Now I see. So, I figure that since we don't see this every day , in fact never before have we had someone who could open the eyes of the blind and help them to see, a nd since seeing is a good thing , and all good things come from God : h ow in the world would someone who is not from God be able to do such a thing? '' he asked them

The Pharisees didn't like his logic . They didn't like his audacity in trying to teach them about the things of God ! T hey drove him out of the synagogue. I t was what his parents feared would happen. That's the story of what happened to those who tried to make sense of what Jesus had done : a sign of God revealed in this man's healing

Now is when Jesus shows up again , after the man was thrown out of his community . Jesus heard about what had happened and went looking for him. W hen he found the man , he asked him if he believed in the Son of Man. I t seems that the man still did not know WHO the Son of Man was , but he knew that he believed. S o , when Jesus identified himself as that one called the Son of Man , the man fell down and worshipped him. ( This is one of the rare times when we read about someone `` falling down to worship Jesus'' . Us ually we hear about people just following Jesus. )

So, what are the things , the barriers , the blinders that the people in this story display? I've come up with 4 barriers to faith that I see in this story. I name them unbelief , theology , fear , and arrogan t power .

First of all the man's neighbors and those closest to him just didn't believe him. They wouldn't believe their eyes . Since it was beyond them to imagine that someone who was blind could be made to see they decided tha t it must be 2 different people: a blind man and a man who can see (who look alike I guess) .
O ne of the barriers to faith is the simple issue of ``not believing'' what we see .

Secondly it seems as if theology got in the way , particularly for the Pharisees . The story starts out with the `` theology'' or the belief that the disciples asked about , that illness is caused by sin. The theology said: I f this man is bl ind , it must be because either his parent s or he have sin ned . If illness is caused by sin, then how can some one's sin be so easily reversed. This probably was a barrier for their believing .

T heir theology , their belief about God , who God was and what God did in the world , made the m suspect the whole thing because the event took place on the Sabbath . S ince they believed that those who do not honor the Sabbath are not from God , then they really didn't have to go any further.

C losely related to theology is KNOWLEDGE . ``We KNOW,'' the Pharisees said (verse 24) , `` that he is not from God '' O nce you KNOW something , seeing beyond it is difficult . I n verse 28 we hear them again saying what they KNO W , which is, `` We KNOW that you are a disciple of Jesus but WE are disciples of Moses. '' W hat they knew , what they understood to be true in the past in their experience , blinded them for this new thing that happened in their midst.

So, is theology a bad thing? No , theology just is. It is the study of God. It is trying to put words to the mystery of God . W e are helped immensely by those who make this their life work . BUT , when the knowledge gained keeps us from seeing beyond what we understand to be true , then it serves as a blinder to our faith , a barrier for our belief. All theology must be held loosely , it seems to me , so that when God does something new , we are open to it . This is one of the reasons Anabaptists have not had creeds that they recited. Again, there is nothing wrong with creeds, but the movement of God is dynamic and cannot be captured in a 12 line verse .

Thirdly, f ear wa s a barrier for the parents in particular ( although I would imagine it true for the Pharisees as well) . Fear kept the parents fr om supporting their son's story. Fear kept them from being able to celebrate with him. They were afraid of what had already been pronounced by the Jewish leaders : that anyone who believed in Jesus would be put out of the synagogue. Their fear blinded them and bound them from publicly supporting their son's experience .

L astly, a rrogant power , the attitude and belief that we are the ones who know and the ones in power , and how dare you challenge our knowledge and our power . In verse 34, we witness the Pharisees rash and harsh arrogance as they throw him out. Their power , their arrogance , blinded them and kept them from seeing.

Someone has said: ``There is none as blind as those who won't see.'' I believe that this story challenges us to be aware of the barriers , the things that keep us from seeing the signs of God in the world and therefore keep us from developing a deeper and more trusting/faithful relationship with Jesus.

Sometimes when we are confronted and told about someone's experience with God or someone's miraculous healing, we just refuse to believe that it is true, that it really happened. Other times, we reject the new thing because it does not match the theology and tradition of the church and we aren't convinced God does new things. Yet other times, we reject the new thing because we are afraid, afraid of what might happen to us if we align ourselves with the new. Finally, we are sometimes just arrogant or our position of power is challenged by the new and it shakes the very core of us.

The gift of this story is that it puts us on the inside with Jesus and the blind man and helps us to see how foolish and blind people sometimes are; how foolish and blind we sometimes are. May God help us to see and to trust more, as God always wants to heal us and give us new eyes. May God help us to see.

3-23-08 JHP Easter Sermon.rtf

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 15:12:45 GMT

Easter Sermon 2008
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Jane H. Peifer
March 23, 2008

Text: Psalm 118; Matthew 28:1-10

The story goes that there was a man who died and went to heaven and when he got there , he met St. Peter standing by the gate. He asked St. Peter if he could enter, and Peter said , ``Well, fir st yo u have to be able to answer a question.'' ``No problem . W hat is the question ? '' said the man . St. Peter said , `` The question is: What is Easter? '' The man thought just a bit and then said , ``Oh, I know , that is the day that some fellow discovered America, isn't it?'' Needless to say, he wasn't allowed to go through the gate.

A second individual came along , and was asked the same question. `` What is Easter? '' asked St. Peter.
And this person said , `` Oh, is n't that the day when th at big jolly fat man with a bag of toys comes and visits c hildren and gives them presents ? '' Needless to say, that person also was not allowed go in.

T hen a t hird person came up to the gate a nd again St. Peter asked , ``What is Easter?'' S he said , `` Easter? Well that's the story about the man who died, was buried, and on the third day came alive and rolled the stone away from his grave. '' St. Peter was pleased that there was finally someone who understood what Easter was about . J ust then , the woman added , ``And then he looked out and saw his shadow, and he went back inside for 6 more weeks of winter.''

Now, I'm not so much worried that people don't know what Easter is as I am concerned about Christians who are not moved by it , or transformed by it. I'm more concerned about Chr istians for whom Christ's resurrect ion doesn't impact their living; C hristians whose lives are basically centered on their fears and the things that undermine their security .

Christoph Blumhardt writes: The resurrection does not consist solely of what happened in the past, nor does it consist of what we happen to believe dogmatically about it , these are not the essential things.
We do not gain much by just accepting that Christ died and rose again. M any people believe this, but nevertheless [they are miserable people.]

Believing in the resurrection is of no help unless we experience Jesus as alive ; unless we experience Jesus as the Spirit in the world that casts out fear that transforms fear into joy as happened to the women that first Easter morning. So , what does it mean to ``experience Jesus'' as alive or to experience the resurrection in our living ?

If Jesus is the best picture we have of God , since as John writes, ``No one has ever seen God , '' then we must pay close attention to how he lived , and we must pay particular attention to how he behaved in the face of tremendous fear . W e must pay REALLY close attention to what happened at the culmination of this tragic story of violence done to a man who was innocent of any crime because the resurrection of Jesus is the key for us and for our living A fter it surely looked like e vil, violence and death had won, God said ``No'' to death and raised Jesus from the dead . This makes all the difference in the world , between fear and love , between living a life centered on fear and self-protection and a life centered on trust and love and hope and joy and peace .

One of the things that the apostles wrote about after reflecting on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus was that , `` Perfect love casts out fear, '' ultimately because of the resurrection . The resurrection is about perfect love , Jesus' insistence on living love even to the end , staying obedient to his mission even though it got him killed. And God's reversal of his death, his resurrection , is witness to the power of love in the world .

God's love for this world and for all of us is fierce , it is wild! The prophet Hosea describes God's compassion and loving care even when the people were being ungrateful , ( Hosea 11:3b-4 ; 7 )
I took them up in my arms; (says the Lord) but they did not know that I healed them.
I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love.
I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks.
I bent down to them and fed them.
and further down he says
My people are bent on turning away from me ...
This is a wonderful picture of a God who loves and grieves when people do not remember the commandments for living, those 10 things that make it possible for people to live together in the world. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.

God's love for the world is so great that he sent his only son Jesus to live here and Jesus said:
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Peace I leave with you , my peace I give to you.
I do not give as the world gives. (The world dishes out fear all the time!)
Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

Paul, who founded and supported new and growing communities of God's people, prays that we would understand God's love: I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:18-19)

Finally, we read in I John, chapter 4:
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them.
Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the Day of Judgment , because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love , but perfect love casts out fear. F or fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.
We love because he first loved us. (I John 4:12, 18, 19, 21)

Because Jesus stayed with LOVE even as he was falsely accused and hung on a cross, and because God raised him up from the dead, we know that love and the way of love overcomes death and the way of death. And by that we are saved.

That is what the resurrection is all about! That is why this is the highest day of celebration on the Christian calendar. We celebrate that LOVE has undone HATE and VIOLENCE and even DEATH for all time! That is wonderful, wonderful news! Thanks be to God!

Rather than worrying and arguing about whether or not the resurrection actually happened, we need to be asking ourselves whether or not we experience the resurrection in our lives. We should be asking ourselves whether or not the love of God and the love that Jesus displayed in his being willing to die for the sake of love for all is a love that is operative in our lives, day to day. The sad thing is that so many people today claim to believe in the resurrection, and yet it means so little to them. It has no effect on their lives.

Something we often hear Jesus saying is, ``Don't be afraid.'' It seems that fear is a common human experience that impacts all of us. Sometimes it is buried in us; sometimes it is not buried at all, but takes our breath away (we are scared to death!). Sometimes we use it to hurt others; sometimes we create whole institutions around fear (homeland security for example). Many times we don't even know it is at work in us and other times we deny it and call it something that sounds nobler. I would venture to say that FEAR is at the bottom of most every conflict we find ourselves in, and interestingly enough, we see it in the gospel story as well.

I decided to read back through the passion story according to Matthew to see what various characters in the story did with their fear. As I said, we all have it; it's just a matter of what we do with it. First, let's look at Judas through the lens of fear. Could it be that he was gripped by fear rather than greed (as we often are told)? If it was fear in him, what did he do with it?

Matthew 26:47 and following tells the story of Judas making arrangements with the chief priest and elders to arrest Jesus. I'm imagining that when Judas began to feel the fear of being associated with this man who was going to be captured by the Romans and the temple authorities, he made sure he was on the side of those with the real power (even if it meant betraying his friend and teacher). That's what he did with his fear

What about Caiaphas the high priest, the other chief priests and the temple council? What did they do with their fear? Verse 65 says the high priest tore his clothes and yelled, ``He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict? '' and the others answered ``He deserves death.'' And then they spat in his face and struck him; and some slapped him . Obviously, those who were threatened by Jesus, were afraid of how popular he was with the people (the otherwise powerless people), afraid of his obvious power to heal and perform other miracles. They used their power violently to quiet the fear within themselves.

Another interesting thing about the religious authorities is that in chapter 27, verse 62 we learn that after all of their fuss about Jesus performing miracles on the Sabbath, their fear makes them disregard their own laws about the Sabbath. They went with their guard of soldiers and sealed the stone on Jesus' tomb, on the Sabbath! They were fearful that what he said about rising on the third day would be used by the disciples as a cover to steal Jesus' body from the tomb. Their fear drove them to disregard their own concern about honoring the Sabbath. Their adherence to the law in the face of their fear all of a sudden went out the window.

What about Peter? What did he do with his fear? Verse 58 tells us that Peter followed at a distance and then sat with the guards in the high priest's house, to see what happened next. He wanted to know what happened but he was scared to be identified with Jesus, so he hid in the crowd. Verse 74 then tells us that when the servant-girl pointed him out and others began to recognize that his accent was Galilean, Peter cursed and swore at them, and he outright lied, said he didn't even know Jesus! His fear came out in angry words and his fear made him tell a lie; to deny the truth that he knew in his heart of hearts!

In chapter 27 of Matthew, we find Judas again as he watched Jesus be condemned. He no longer could manage the guilt of betraying Jesus. His fear of facing the reality of what he had done became greater than his fear of being powerless with Jesus. He threw down the money, and went out and hung himself. Judas's fear cost him his life.

We can see how much fear there is in these stories, and we can see people reacting to their fear, which is not foreign to us either. We know it well.

Now, let's look at what Jesus did with his fear. One of the times we witness what is going on inside of Jesus during this horrid week is when he went to the garden. Matthew 26, starting at verse 38:
Then Jesus went with (the disciples) to a place called Gethsemane and he said to his disciples, ``Sit here while I go over there and pray.'' He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee a nd began to be grieved and agitated. Then Jesus said to them, ``I am deeply grieved , even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me , please. I need to know you are close by watching . And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed desperately to God!

What did Jesus do with his fear? He named it, asked for his brothers to be with him in it, and he called out to God. He didn't lie or hide or get defensive. Instead, he faced his fear and named it. He told the disciples that he was very afraid! He called for help from his community. He asked his brothers/friends to be with him, and he cried out to God. We don't know what he said to God, but I imagine he was very honest about how scared he was.

Fear also gripped those who witnessed the resurrection. In the account that Carl read for us we are told about how scared the guards were and how scared the two Mary's were. (Ya know, thank goodness the Biblical story includes these details. Thank goodness we haven't been handed a sterile record of the events but instead we have a story that includes the stuff that we experience in life today as well; basic stuff like FEAR and BEING AFRAID!) When the earth shook and an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and rolled back the stone and sat on it, they were all scared of course!

Verse 4 reads: For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. We would say they were ``scared to death,'' frozen with fear, paralyzed with fear! The women must have been frightened as well, because the angel said in verse 5 (to the women), ``Do not be afraid (it is interesting that the angel did not tell the guards not to be afraid); I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised from the dead and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee, there you will see him.''

Verse 8 then tells us that the women left the tomb quickly with fear AND great joy! As they ran to tell the other disciples, Jesus appeared to them and they fell down, not in fear now but in overwhelming joy and relief and they worshipped him. We witness the women's fear being turned into joy. As far as we know, the guards remained paralyzed by their fear.

So, my challenge to you on this resurrection morning is this: Listen to the words of the angel, ``Do not be afraid,'' and remember what Jesus did with his fear. First, recognize when it is FEAR you are responding to. Secondly, stick together; let those close to you be with you in your fear. And finally, cry out to God for help to see you through!

Jesus didn't strike back. He didn't use the power that was at his fingertips to prove his identity nor to crush his enemies. He instead absorbed the fear of the world, and transformed it into joy which is our salvation and the salvation of the world. It is the promise of resurrection that we live with now and it is the promise of resurrection that will carry us all into life eternal.

Beth is going to lead us in singing ``In the Bulb There is a Flower'' as affirmation that many times our fears blind us to what God is up to. But just as the flower blooms out of a seemingly dead bulb, and the butterfly is set free after being bound in a dingy chrysalis, so we are set free and given joy even when our life circumstances are far from easy or satisfying.

Thanks be to God for the victory of life over death pronounced when God raised Jesus from the dead!

4-6-08 JHP The Heart of the Matter (Road to Emmaus).rtf

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 15:13:47 GMT

Sermon: The heart of the matter
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
April 6, 2008
Jane H. Peifer
Text: Luke 24: 13-35; Acts 2:14, 36-41; I Peter 1:17-23

Mary Stevenson had a hard life. She wrote this poem in her early teens in the late 1930s, but it was not credited to her until the 1980s. This simple poem has been an inspiration to many. You no doubt are familiar with it; it is one of those poems that has been printed on most everything imaginable - mugs, T-shirts, plaques, etc. It is entitled Footprints in the Sand .

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,
"You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during
the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one
set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most,
you have not been there for me?"

The Lord replied,
"The times when you have
seen only one set of footprints in the sand,
is when I carried you."
Mary Stevenson
Copyright © 1984 Mary Stevenson, from original 1936 text, All rights reserved

I begin my sermon with this sometimes over-used poem because it illustrates the first point of my sermon. As I began working with this text, I was stopped with the words of vs. 15 ``…while they were talking and discussing , Jesus himself came near and went with them . '' I find that first verse so heart warming! Jesus went with them, they didn't know it, but he was there with them. It is why he is called, ``Emmanuel, God with us.'' There was more going on than what they could see, just like in the poem. There is always more going on that we can see.

Cleopas and his companion had been revisiting the events of the last week as they walked along the road headed out of Jerusalem. Most recently, that very morning, there had been the report of the women who came back from the tomb saying that they saw a vision of angels who told them that Jesus was alive. Some of the disciples went to check it out and, sure enough, it was as the women described; Jesus was no longer there. So Cleopas and another disciple were mulling these things over as they walked. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them but they did not recognize him, their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

You know, when something happens as frightening and tragic as the execution of your teacher and the one who gave you hope, along with the added shock that his body was now no longer in the tomb where it was laid, it is no wonder that these two did not recognize Jesus! They thought he was gone! He was the last person they would have expected to see on the road. His execution and now disappearance was foremost on their minds. It is no surprise that they didn't recognize him.

The real crux of their anguish was that, as they said, ``We had hoped he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.'' That dashed hope was the heart of the matter for them. Even though Jesus had told them what was going to happen to him at least 3 times as far as we know, they didn't take that to heart apparently it was too hard to go there with him. They either didn't hear him at all or just kept hoping it wasn't true, thinking maybe he was speaking in parables or something. They just kept hoping that he was the one who was going to finally redeem Israel.

Just this past Friday, we remembered the day 40 years ago when the hopes of many in our country were crushed. It was the day that Martin Luther King Jr. was shot in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968.
Many had hoped that he would help to bring about justice and equality between blacks and whites, between rich and poor, and between the powerful and the powerless. His assassination 40 years ago, something many of us remember, blew a hole in that hope.

So it was for these two on the road to Emmaus. They had in their minds the kind of Messiah who would finally make a difference for them, who would conquer their enemies and give them freedom and peace, who would give them power and make them strong. But it wasn't to be, it seemed. As peasants, the disciples, even though their hopes were really high, it wasn't the first time they were disappointed. So they figured they just needed to return to life as they knew it. They were walking back home to try to pick up the pieces and go on.

But, there was a whole lot more going on than they could see. The one who came up alongside them to walk with them was a whole lot more than they could ever explain or imagine. This is what John Eldredge calls The Eternal Truth Number One : `` Things are not what they seem. The re is more going on than meet s the eye. Far more!,'' he writes. He claims it is a truth we need to reckon with in life. Our interpretation (based on the facts of our experience) is rarely the whole story. There is always more going on than meets the eye.

It is like the story of Jacob's dream in Genesis when he saw a ladder going up into heaven, and he finally says, ``Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it. '' (Gen 28:16) That seems to be what happened to these two on the road, after they realized it was Jesus who walked with them. ``Weren't our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road? '' There was more going on than they could see.

There is more going on than we see. We too often think we're seeing all there is to see, so we draw conclusions, make judgments, and draw lines in the sand. It takes humility to admit that we may not be seeing everything there is to see.

The other fascinating thing that I noticed in this story is that both Jesus and the 2 on the road had no trouble seeing the blindness of each other and were quick to point it out. When the man who joined the disciples on the road asked what they were talking about, they might as well have called him blind! They said, ``You mean to tell me that you don't know what is going on, what we are talking about? Are you blind, or what?''

The stranger (who we know is Jesus, but they didn't) called them foolish for not seeing the real picture! ``Oh how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to bel ieve all that the prophets have declared! '' (verse 25) Don't you get it? Don't you understand that the Messiah needed to suffer these things and then enter into his glory? Jesus then proceeded to retell the whole story beginning with Moses and all the prophets ending up with himself (although they still had no idea it was him).

So Cleopas and his companion saw perfectly well how this fellow traveler was blind. And this fellow traveler, Jesus, saw perfectly well how the other 2 were blind. This is true about us as well. It is so common for us to know exactly where the blind spots are for each other while being completely unaware of our own blindness. Worse than that is when we refuse to consider the possibility that we may be blind, that there may be more to the story than we can see. We are all guilty of this. It is what happens to us when we stay in our heads.

Jesus pointed it out to them when he said they were ``slow of heart.'' What is the connection between the heart and the eyes, I wonder. What is the connection between the heart and being able to see?

We know the end of the story. Cleopas and his friend got to the cut off that went to their village their home and this fellow traveler continued walking as if he were going on. But, they urged him to go with them, especially since it was evening and soon dark. The verb here translated as, URGED, is most likely what they needed to do because in Mediterranean culture, spur of the moment invitations are common, but the person invited would not just accept the invitation at first. No doubt there was banter between them until the invitation was expressed with great urgency only then did Jesus accept their invitation.

So, we're told that Jesus went with them to their home and he was invited not only to stay the night but he was invited to their table for supper. Most likely, not all travelers were invited to eat with the family.
Eating together meant that a bond ran deep among all those around the table. It was a heart thing.
It IS a heart thing eating together, sharing food with each other. It is something we do from our hearts, not from our heads (even though our mouths are located on our heads).

It was then, at the table, that Jesus took the bread blessed it and broke it, and gave it to them. At that moment their eyes were opened and they recognized him. ``Oh my goodness, this is him! It is Jesus. It was Jesus who was walking with us,'' they said. ``I KNEW something was strange was going on I could FEEL it, but I couldn't put my finger on it. He really is alive!'' (Meanwhile Jesus vanished from the table, and he was gone again.)

Well, they were so excited that they headed right back to Jerusalem, yet that night! Obviously, it was not ``life as usual'' after all. ``There must be much more going on than we can see,'' they began to realize. All the talking and analyzing and the figuring and the explaining that went on in their discussion on the road, none of that heady stuff helped them to see. It was when their hearts were engaged, when they sat together at the table in their home, that their eyes were opened to the truth and to the One who was truth. Their eyes were opened to the One who said that he would have to suffer and die because suffering for the sake of love is the way to life; life now and life forever more.

Like Peter wrote in his letter to the exiles, (Epistle reading, I Peter 1:21-23) ``Through Jesus, you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are set in God.'' There is still hope, and it is now a hope that can no longer be taken away! Continuing on in Peter's letter, he writes, ``Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. '' Love is the authenticating sign of a renewed life. They will know we are Christians by our LOVE.

That is where Jesus took Cleopas and his companion that day on the road. He took them to the table, where love was exchanged, heart to heart. He took them to the table where he broke open to them again, the sign of God in the world, which was not what they expected. It was beyond what they could see until love was exchanged and then they could see it.

In a very fascinating take on this story, Jim Douglass, who wrote The Nonviolent Coming of God, observed that scholars have not been able to determine where the village of Emmaus was located. This may mean that Luke included this story as an illustration of God's larger messianic vision of suffering love. (By the way, this story is not found in any of the other gospels.) But, the book of I Maccabees (from the Apocrypha) tells the story of how Judas Maccabeus led his Israelite rebel army to victory over Gentile forces at Emmaus. In preparation for the battle, Judas urges them ``to cry to heaven that God crush the enemy army lying before them at Emmaus . Then all the Gentiles will know that there is one who saves and liberates Israel.'' (I Maccabees 4:11), which sounds very much like what the disciples say to Jesus on the road, ``We had hoped that he was the one to liberate Israel. ''

In addition, we find in the writings of Josephus (whose writings record a lot of the history about these times) a reference to Emmaus as the place where Israelites again HOPED to be liberated. The Israelites were part of an attack on a Roman company at Emmaus which resulted in the destruction of Emmaus when the Romans retaliated. So, these two other references to Emmaus have caused Jim Douglass to wonder whether or not, and I quote:
`` The road to Emmaus is the way of messianic violence and self-destruction. So long as Cleopas and companion were on that road their eyes were kept from recognizing Jesus as he tells them why the messiah must suffer and die , rather than kill. Only at the table are their eyes finally opened , when his breaking of the bread recalls the recent breaking of his body . Suddenly they are transformed . Their violent messianic vision of Emmaus is transformed into one of suffering love (``The Way to Emmaus'' by Jim Douglass, , April 6 lectionary article).

Jesus broke open for these two disciples, the heart of the matter. Jesus who preached nonviolence and turning the other cheek and loving enemies lived it even to the end. Then God raised him up, proclaiming victory of life over death, hope for our living. This was beyond what they could explain or control, or even understand. It was, it is, a matter of the heart. That is where we all need to live: in and out of the place of suffering love, the place of serving and loving rather than conquering and killing.

John Eldredge writes, ``The heart is central. That we would even need to be reminded of this only shows how far we have fallen from the life we were meant to live , or how powerful the spell has been … The subje ct of the heart is addressed in the Bible more than any other topic , more than works or service, more than belief or obedience more than money, and even more than worship. ''

So, remember these things:
1. There is always more going on than you can see. The heart is the heart of the matter.
2. God is with you sometimes walking beside you sometimes carrying you
3. If you stay in your head, you will not see God, because your eyes and your heart are connected.
Prov 3:5 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.
Matt 15:8 - These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

I will close with a final quote from Eldredge:
`` What more can be said, what greater case could be made than this: to find God, you must look with all your heart. To remain present to God, you must remain present to your heart. To hear God's voice, you must listen with your heart. To love God, you must love with all your heart. You cannot be the person God meant you to be, and you cannot live the life God meant you to live, unless you live from the heart , u nless you love as you are loved. ''

And I am convinced with Paul that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38)

Thanks be to God!

4-20-08 JHP Sabbatical Sermon.rtf

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 15:13:58 GMT

Sermon: Sabbath Eyes and Ears
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
April 20, 2008 (last sermon before May- July sabbatical)
Jane H. Peifer
Text: Mark 8:11-21 ; I Peter 2:2-10

Wayne Muller has written a book entitled Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in our Busy Lives , and he begins his book like this:

In the relentless busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythm between work and rest.

All life requires a rhythm of rest. There is a rhythm in our waking activity and the body's need for sleep. There is a rhythm in the way day dissolves into night, and night into morning. There is a rhythm as the active growth of spring and summer is quieted by the necessary dormancy of fall and winter. There is a tidal rhythm, a deep, eternal conversation between the land and the great sea. In our bodies, the heart perceptibly rests after each life-giving beat; the lungs rest between the exhale and the inhale.

We have lost this essential rhythm. Our culture invariably supposes that action and accomplishment are better than rest, that doing somethinganythingis better than doing nothing. Because of our desire to succeed, to meet these ever-growing expectations, we do not rest. Because we do not rest, we lose our way…

In our drive for success we are seduced by the promises of more: more money, more recognition, more satisfaction, more love, more information, more influence, more possessions, and more security. Even when our intentions are noble and our efforts sincereeven when we dedicate our lives to the service of othersthe corrosive pressure of frantic over activity can nonetheless cause suffering in ourselves and others.

A ``successful'' life has become a violent enterprise. We make war on our own bodies, pushing them beyond their limits; war on our children, because we cannot find enough time to be with them when they are hurt and afraid, and need our company; war on our spirit, because we are too preoccupied to listen to the quiet voices that seek to nourish and refresh us; war on our communities, because we are fearfully protecting what and do not feel safe enough to be kind and generous; war on the earth, because we cannot take the time to place our feet on the ground and allow it to feed us, to taste its blessings and give thanks…

…the standard greeting everywhere [is]: I am so busy.

We say this to one another with no small degree of pride, as if our exhaustion were a trophy, our ability to withstand stress a mark of real character. The busier we are, the more important we seem to ourselves and, we imagine, to others. To be unavailable to our friends and family, to be unable to find time for the sunset (or even to know that the sun has set at all), to whiz through our obligations without time for a single, mindful breath, this has become the model of a successful life.

Our lack of rest and reflection is not just a personal affliction. It colors the way we build and sustain community, it dictates the way we respond to suffering, and it shapes the ways in which we seek peace and healing in the world…

…the Chinese pictograph for ``busy'' is composed of two characters: heart and killing.

THOMAS MERTON:
There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence… [and that is] activism and overwork…
To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence.
The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.

So , I am going to take a sabbatical to reclaim some of that inner wisdom .

This is my last Sunday here with you until August 3^rd. My "break or change from my normal routine,'' which is the definition of a sabbatical, is for the months of May, June and July. I do not take this opportunity, this privilege, lightly, but am grateful to our Administrative Team for encouraging me to plan for this time away.

The planning began more than a year ago when I began working on the proposal for a grant that the Lilly Foundation offers for clergy and congregations. Their grant is called "National Clergy Renewal Program.''
They offer about 120 grants a year to clergy of all denominations across the nation, so the competition is stiff. Unfortunately, we were not one of the lucky ones. But, it was a good process to have to articulate it all. This is what I wrote a year ago:

The purpose of this time of renewal is to provide me and the congregation opportunities to see with new eyes. Jesus once asked his disciples, ``Do you have eyes and fail to see? Do you have ears and fail to hear? And do you not remember?'' (Mark 8:18)

Jesus asked the disciples these questions right after he had fed 4000 people right in front of their eyes. He had just multiplied food; he had just fed a huge crowd of people with only a few fish and some bread. Right after, the Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven. Mark says, ``Jesus sighed deeply in his spirit and he left them, got in the boat and crossed over to the other side.'' Then his own disciples who had forgotten to bring bread were trying to figure out what they were going to do with only one loaf. Jesus cautioned them about the Pharisees by saying, ``Watch out, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.''

They had no idea what he was talking about, and so thought it must have something to do with the fact that they had forgotten the bread. Yeast bread? When Jesus became aware of what they were saying he said (vs. 17), ``Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not get it? Are your heart s hardened? Do you have eyes, but fail to see? Do you have ears, but fail to hear? And do you not remember? ''

The questions that Jesus asked his disciples and others, numerous times make me wonder where and how I am blind and deaf. How do I not really get it; do not really understand the things of God? How are we (as a congregation) blind and deaf and do not really understand the things of God? I'd guess that we are not much faster learners than Jesus's disciples most of the time.

As Muller (whose book I read from at the beginning) reflects, this problem of poor eyesight and loss of hearing is created and made worse by the loss of Sabbath rest in our lives. Most of the time, we are running entirely too fast. We are distracted and too tired to even be able to see and hear God's movement in the world. And so I wrote in the proposal a year ago, " desire time and space to be still and to look and listen,'' to God, to myself and to the church universal. I also reflected on behalf of all of us here at Blossom Hill that:

We (as a congregation) are experiencing many changes in 2007:

We have outgrown our facility, and are therefore building a large addition, and renovating the existing space.
We have added administrative staff for the first time.
We have hired a second Associate pastor.
We are struggling with our conference affiliation.
We have been through and are in the midst of major transitions as a congregation.
We are typical privileged North Americans. We recognize the traps and attachments of our driven culture, but we struggle to know how to live as unattached free Spirit-led people of God in this world.

So we look forward to a renewal time in 2008, I wrote in the proposal, which will hopefully assist all of us in catching our breath, and in examining what God is really doing within us, among us and beyond. May we be given new eyes for what is and the courage to live out God's call to us in this place into the future.

That is my prayer for this time of sabbatical renewal, for myself personally and for all of us as a congregation. My prayer is that you will assume with me a mindset of sabbatical for these months. Don't just stop and wait for me to return. Hear these questions for yourself and listen to and look in new ways.
In these months you will hear a variety of new voices on Sunday morning. (Daryl and I will be visiting other churches.) I invite you to hear with me the questions of Jesus:
         Do you have eyes but fail to see?
         Do you have ears but fail to hear?
         Do you not remember?
We will all be assisted in this just by getting out of normal routine.

The epistle reading for today comes from a letter written by Peter (or one of his community on his behalf) and it is written to encourage the people in exile in their Christian living. As I reflected on this text this week I realized that in this section of I Peter 2 the writer makes 3 commanding statements which are:
·         Verse 2, long for the pure spiritual milk
·         Verse 4, come to Jesus
·         Verse 5, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house
So the commanding verbs here are LONG, COME and LET (or ALLOW); give permission, submit and yield yourselves to something bigger.

Verse 2 begins with the phrase, "Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk.'' I imagine that most of us have had the opportunity to witness a newborn rooting for their mother's breast. They look just like baby birds with their mouths open, longing for milk. The instinct and longing is so strong in newborns that whenever they are held in someone's arms they will turn their heads with their mouth open, hoping to find that breast that they know holds all that they need!

Peter said to long for God like a newborn infant longs for milk, SO THAT you will grow up strong spiritually and SO THAT you may grow into salvation (if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good). When you get a taste of the goodness of the Lord, long for God from deep within your body and soul. This longing to have our souls fed goes on inside all of us, but it is so easily masked by busyness and by the many things to which we attach ourselves instead. My desire during these months is to stop and pay attention to the longing in my soul and I encourage you to do the same.

Joan Chittister writes:
It is a wonderful moment in the spiritual life when we come to realize that the experience of longing for something is not evil, not "sin,'' not selfishness. It is the voice of God leading us to discover new parts of creation in ourselves , new experience of creation everywhere. We have been taught to fear desire rather than to reflect on it as the lodestone of the heart. How sad. (Called to Question: A Spiritual Memoir, pg. 98)

So, long for the pure spiritual milk of God like a newborn infant longs for milk. We're going to have to slow down in order to get in touch with that longing within us.

Then, Peter totally shifts metaphors and writes, ``Come to him, a living stone.'' Peter moves from the image of a babe sucking at the breast of its mother to a stone, but not a hard, dead stone; a living stone, which takes some imagination.

This reminds me of our friends in Virginia. Their son Andrew was about 4 years old when, as he and his parents were riding along in the car one day talking about an older aunt who had died, Andrew asked a number of questions about things that die. His parents said ``Yes, animals die and plants die and people die.'' After a long silence, Andrew said simply, ``Then I want to be a brick.'' How insightful of that little 4 year old! It would be a lot easier being a brick some days, don't you think?

But Peter's image is not one of a dead cold hard stone, but rather a living stone! That is the image Peter uses to describe Jesus, which is an image for God that Peter would have heard over and over again in the synagogue:

The LORD is my rock , my fortress, and my deliverer,my God, my rock in whom I take refuge ,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalm 18:2

And who is a rock besides our God? Psalm 18:31

O come, let us sing to the LORD ;let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Psalm 95

So this image of stone, or rock, would not have been a new one for Peter. The prophet Isaiah had said long before :
Therefore says the Lord God, " See I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation (a foundation that can be trusted ) '' Isaiah 28:16

Rocks are solid, they are sure. We do not panic when standing on something as solid as a rock. Peter pushes this metaphor further when he calls Jesus a LIVING stone.  He then says all of us should be like living stones.

Erland Waltner, who wrote the Believers Commentary on I Peter, writes that this is a rather daring metaphor. Since stones are not naturally associated with life, it takes some imagination. He goes on:
The Greek word lithos here does not mean natural rock, but rather a stone that has been hewn and dressed , readied for use in construction. (pg. 74)
So Peter is suggesting that we all be ``living stones'' who allow ourselves to be shaped and readied for use in the building of a dwelling place for God's Spirit.

Peter writes, ``Come to him, a living stone though rejected by mortals (this would have referred to Gentiles around them),         yet CHOSEN and PRECIOUS in God's sight. Come to this one who is the foundation of the house, the cornerstone of the kingdom. Come, and, like living stones (yourselves), let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.''

Waltner writes: This is the horizontal dimension of coming to Jesus . Coming to Jesus is not only an individual conversion ; i t also includes becoming part of a household and of a people.

This sense of "home'' would have stood in contrast to the people's experience as aliens and exiles in the world. Peter is writing to them telling them that, "In a world in which they are ' not at home, ' they not only have a true spiritual home for themselves , but they are themselves, as a community , to be ' a home for th e homeless. ' '' (Believers Commentary by Erland Waltner, pg 75)

Peter writes, "Come to Jesus and allow yourselves to be built together into a dwelling place for God.'' You'll notice he does not say, ``Build a dwelling place for God,'' but ``let yourself be built into a dwelling place for God.''

I carry within me the questions that Jesus had for his disciples: Do I have eyes and yet do not see? Do I have ears and yet do not hear? I invite you to ``come to Jesus'' with me and listen to what Jesus may have to say to us. I invite you to also allow yourselves to be shaped and molded by the Spirit of God so that we will together become a home for God and a home for the homeless in our world.

This is not work that we do as individuals, it is work that we are called to together, as Peter so strongly affirms at the end of this segment:
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people , but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. I Peter 2:9-10

We are God's own people, built up and built out of many different living stones, all standing on the cornerstone rock of Jesus SO THAT we can proclaim the mighty acts of God who called us out of darkness into marvelous light. Praise be to God! That is the affirmation, that is grace, that is God in our midst!

Some of you will remember that since we affirmed our covenant statement in 2005 we have from time to time given you some leading questions for your reflection and prayer. The last set of questions was distributed on Sept. 16, our first service in this space. I have prepared some questions today for your reflection and prayer during this time of sabbatical and renewal.

First, I want you to think carefully about whether or not you observe a day of worship AND rest in your week. Obviously if you are here, you are doing the worship part, but what about the rest? Then I've included questions that come from Peter's letter:
        What is your deepest longing?
         What keeps you from coming to Jesus?
         How might we let ourselves be built into a spiritual house?
We have put a card with these questions in your mailbox and there are a few lying outside the office if you want a second one, or if you do not have a mailbox.

As for what I will be doing besides goofing off…
As I said earlier, "I desire time and space to be still and to look and listen.'' In addition to some time with my immediate family and my extended family, I have planned 2 times of retreat with Susan Classen. (Susan is a Mennonite woman who spent 10 years in El Salvador during the war and who now directs a retreat house in Kentucky.) I will attend a day retreat led by her here in early May (when she is coming to Lancaster area) and then I am going to Kentucky for a 7 day silent retreat (with her guidance) in July. In May I am also attending a day and an half seminar led by Cynthia Bourgeault, author of a book on Centering Prayer, a form of prayer that I have begun to practice in the last 6 months.

This stack of books has been growing over this past year. These are ones I hope to read, sprinkled with some good novels of course. I will share my reading list with you before I go.

During times when I'm at home I hope to establish a rhythm of rest; prayer and meditation; exercise and nesting (doing those house things I rarely get to do that so nurture me). I hope to do some things with my hands and do some writing. I will be journaling for sure, and perhaps there will emerge another children's book.

Even though I will not be here next Sunday, I will be available and in the office until May 1. Michelle, Doug, Marlin and Susan will be carrying the pastoral tasks during my absence. Michelle will be increasing her time to ½ time and so will serve as the point person, but you should feel free to contact either of the pastors or elders if you need to.

I covet your prayers as I promise to pray for each of you. May we all drink of the pure spiritual milk of the Spirit and allow ourselves, as a community, to be built into a dwelling place for God!

8-24-08 JHP Mercy triumphs over judgment.rtf

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 18:49:57 GMT

Sermon: Mercy Triumphs over Judgment
August 24, 2008
Jane H. Peifer
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Text: James 2:1-13

Often in working with a particular text , like this one from James , I will write it out on paper to see more clearly what is being said - what commandments or admonishments there are , what questions are asked , what if, so, therefore or buts are used . I sometimes get a much better feel for the text that way .

When I did this with James 2:1-13 , this is what I think James is basically saying :
My brothers and sisters , do you , with your acts of favoritism really believe in Jesus? Listen my beloved b rothers and sisters , y ou have dishonored the poor . If you show partiality, you commit sin. You have become a transgressor of the law. Judgment will be without merc y to anyone who has shown no mercy. So , you do well if you REALLY fulfill the royal law according to the scriptur e: You shall love your neighbor as yourself, b ecause , ``Mercy triumphs over judgment.''

That is the message from James in this chapter and I invite you this morning to reflect with me about what it means to ex tend mercy rather than judgment to each other.

Lucy (from the Charlie Brown cartoon) illustrates the mix we often experience when it comes to mercy and judgment . Lucy asked Charlie Brown ``Why do you think we're put here on earth, Charlie Brown? '' ``To make others happy'' he said. Lucy thought a bit and then said ``I don't think I'm making anyone very happy . Of course, nobody's making me very happy either. '' T hen she yelled and pointed at Charlie , saying, ``S OMEBODY'S NOT DOING HIS JOB!!! ''

It is so easy to decide how others are not doing their job and so we pass judgment like Lucy . Lucy then goes to talk to Linus (who is holding his blanket and sucking his thumb) . She said, ``Charlie Brown says that we're put here on earth to make others happy.'' Linus pulls his thumb out of his mouth and says with astonishment , ``Is THAT why we're here?'' and then he says thoughtfully ``I guess I'd better start doing a better job , I'd hate to be shipped back!''

`` Judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy. '' James writes. You might risk being shipped back if you don't extend mercy to others.

Some background on this writ er we have called ``James . '' T here are 2 James' in the New Testament . One is the son of Zebedee , and one is a brother to Jesus. Their dates would indicate that the person who wrote this letter was a brother to Jesus. This letter is not addressed to a particular church ; instead , it appears to be a general letter written to numerous churches. S o James's teaching here about showing partiality i s not necessarily what is happening in a particular church , but clearly this issue is something that the new churches struggled with a lot , particularly when they gathered to worship.

We're told about this problem in one of P aul's letter s : I Corinthians 11:17. Paul writes : Now in the following ins tructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, to begin with, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe it. T hen Paul goes on to describe how when they gather for the Lord's supper some h ave plenty to eat and eat it while others don't have anything to eat and so go hungry. Paul shows his anger at their practices when he writes: What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter I do not commend you!

W e know at least that the house churches in Corinth struggled with this issue of the haves and the have-nots , and we aren' t surprised because we know the tension too. We recognize the struggle. We know our own tendency to pass judgment on those who have less than we do or are less resourceful than us rather than to simply extend mercy.

Instead of some eating and others going hungry (as Paul addresses with the Corinthians) James uses the illustration of how we show partiality when we get excited about wealthy resourceful people in our community and ignore those who have less to offer , or we fall all over ourselves to welcome some newcomers but barely notice others. We show partiality.

Then James asks an interesting question: Why do you d ishonor the poor when they are n't the ones who give you trouble ? He asks: Isn't it the rich who oppress you? Isn't it they who drag you into court? Isn't it they who blaspheme the name of Jesus? Aren't they the ones who have persecuted you for being followers of Jesus ? If you are going to show any partiality wouldn't it be against those who have persecuted yo u and not the poor?

I wondered , ``W hy is it that we rarely are in situations where the poor are the favored ones in a group and the wealthy, confident, resourceful ones are ignored or dismissed , or asked to sit in the back ? Why is it that very often it IS the wealthy in money, education, experience and/or power who are honored most among us ?

For the culture of James' time , f or those who were reading his letter , it is helpful to realize how much ``in group'' and ``out group'' issues ruled the day. The lines were clear and it was normal social practice to keep them that way. One commentary (Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels ) describes the basic Mediterranean attitude about people groups like this: A person' s in-group generally consisted of one's household, extended family and friends. The boundaries of an in-group were fluid ; in -groups could and did change, sometimes expanding and sometimes contracting. Persons from the same city quarter or village would look upon each other as in-groups when in a ``foreign'' location, while in the city quarter or v illage where they lived , they may be out-group to each other.

This reminds me of the feeling of kinship I have when I see a conservative Mennonite family in an airport , or as I did this summer when touring a concentration camp near Vienna, Austria. G iven their distinctive dress , I know that t hey are one of my group , but back home here in Lancaster County our differences set us very far apart. I'm always tempted, but never been brave enough , to introduce myself to them as a Mennonite minister .
I suppose my fear is that they would not own me , so I protect myself by not approaching them (more about that later) .

Quoting again : In-group members are expected to be loyal to each other and to go to great lengths to help each other. They are shown the greatest considerations and courtesy; such behavior is rarely, if ever extended to members of out- groups . Persons interacting positively with each other in in-group ways, even when n ot actual kin, become ``neighbors,'' but strangers can never be in-group members ( pg. 88 ) according to what we understand about basic social rules of Mediterranean culture.

This information tells us that James ' s words were for a church made up of all kinds of people , which was not something they were used to . These new Jesus churches were calling and bringing in people from all strata of economic, social and religious groups. James was speaking about how they treated each other when they gathered for worship. B eing in a group beyond their in-group was a real problem for them.

This ``showing favoritism'' that w as happening within their fellowship was the cultural norm . I t was expected behavior to flatter and show partiality toward the rich, but James was clear that it must not happen in the church . Jesus 's way is another way.

James , in the footsteps of his brother and teacher Jesus , is calling his readers to remember that if there are indeed any favorites in the kingdom , it is the poor : Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? he asked. After all , Jesus had said to the disciples (according to Luke at least) : Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

So is this in-group / out-group reality somet hing we struggle with? I'm reminded of the Mennonite name game.
Our tradition has been small and homogenous enough that there are certain last names that clearly identify people as Mennonite or Amish. M any times our large family trees intersect enough , or our Mennonite institutions (colleges, conferences, agencies, MCC) are small enough , that we can make connections . I know someone that you know who knows someone that I know ; born-and-bred Mennonites just kind of automatically play this game .

Newcomers to our churches are lost in this game , they cannot participate - they aren't related to any Mennonites , nor did they serve with MCC. They aren't connected to the in-group . Their only connection is Jesus and the mercy of God . Many testimo nials are told by newcomers who say , `` People are friendly and welcoming, but when my last name makes it impossible for them to play the ``who ' s related to who'' name game , I don't know what to say and they don't know what to say , and the conversation ends in awkwardness. '' T he exchange ends. The poor-in-connection are ignored and do not feel welcomed.

I also remember a time when I was talking with a single mother about finding a church that had a good youth program, and since ours is still in its infancy , I was helping her think about other Mennonite congregations that would be a good place for her teenagers. When I suggested a particular Mennonite church , she said immediately , `` Oh no, I've seen the kind of cars in their parking lot. I know I wouldn' t be able to fit there. ''
And before we pass judgment on that church , we may want to take an honest look at our own parking lot.

James writes: `` Judgment will be without mercy , to anyone who has shown no mercy. '' We risk being shipped back if we don't extend mercy .

In May , as part of my sabbatical, I attended a day and a half seminar outside of DC at the Shalem Institutle of Spiritual Formation . Cynthia Bourgeault was the speaker. Cynthia has studied and taught in a number of Benedictine monasteries in the US and Canada. An Episcopal priest, she is well known as a retreat and conference leader, teacher of prayer and writer on the spiritual life. Her theme for our time was what she calls ``The Divine Exchange . '' She says that the mercy of God has something to do with exchange , noting that the root of the word mercy means ``exchange . '' God's mercy is known and manifested in exchange.

It is the nature of life that we will carry someone else's burden and that someone else will carry ours. This exchange is where God is revealed and felt. Everything that increases ``exchange'' increases life and all that decreases ``exchange'' decreases or diminishes life. For Jesus, the main sin is hoarding or clinging , Cynthia said . All self-protecting blocks the flow of God's mercy. When we open ourselves to the exchange , to the giving and receiving , wherever we find ourselves , then the mercy and love of God can flow and does.

Sometimes what we are hoarding or clinging to is our grievances , the ways in which we were ``done wrong . ''
We sometimes hang on to things for decades, we hold it tight, and over time it shapes us. Cynthia encouraged us to loosen our grip, to throw open our arms (she literally had us do that). She said, ``Turn to the person next to you and throw open your arms to them. Then turn to them, clench your fists and wrap your arms around yourself to protect yourself. Notice the difference you feel inside with those gestures.'' When we open ourselves to the exchange then the mercy and love of God can and does flow. This exchange is both vertical and horizontal. In order to experience the mercy of God we lay down those heavy burdens that we carry and God, the great lover of the world, pours out mercy upon us.
The Divine exchange: We give over. We receive mercy. We surrender. We receive mercy. We open ourselves. We receive mercy. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. The divine exchange.

The same exchange then is also horizontal. I open my arms to you, you open your arms to me and the mercy of God flows freely. But, we know it doesn't always work that way. Sometimes we open ourselves, make ourselves vulnerable with another person and they don't return the favor and we close down. Cynthia says that is why we need to always live in the axis of the vertical and the horizontal. We need to be aware of the connection to the mercy of God as we are living out our days here on earth. (This is part of the symbolism of the sign of the cross that Catholic brothers and sisters practice.)

When we are faced with a difficult relationship or a difficult situation, when we feel the need to protect ourselves, Cynthia said the first thing to do is to throw open your arms to that person, that situation, and in so doing we are given all the creative resources of the Spirit of God. We can then make decisions about what to do next. When we consciously throw open our arms in situations and relationships that are threatening and hard for us, we then are given access to all kinds of creative full-of-mercy solutions. She said this doesn't mean we will always just roll over and give in, it simply means that in the flow of God's mercy you have at your disposal what you need to make good decisions.

Victim mentality, living as if you have been done wrong all of your life, makes you spiritually blind. You cannot see because you are not surrendering to the flow of God's mercy. There is no exchange. Closed fists will get you closed fists, she said. Cynthia would basically agree with Charlie Brown when he said we are here on the earth to make people happy. Her words were, ``We are created to discover and fulfill the great exchange of God's mercy and love, to manifest the glory of God, to complete the exchange between the invisible and the visible, the vertical and the horizontal.'' The world, the horizontal axis, operates only on that plane and is not aware of the vertical. Jesus calls us to become bi-axial people being able to live in the world but not of the world. She said that this is why psychological analysis alone will not give us life in the end. We must make the vertical connection; we must be bi-axial people open to the exchange of mercy from God, open to the exchange of mercy on earth.

Turning back to James' letter in verse 8, ``You do well if you really fulfill the ROYAL l aw according to the scripture, ` You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ' '' (New Interpreter's Study Bible, NRSV) The adjective ROYAL implies that the love command is the law of the kingdom. Remember Jesus' response to the lawyer when he asked which commandment was the greatest: the LOVE COMMAND. ``You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these 2 commandments hang ALL THE LAW and the prophets!'' Matt 22:37-40

I close today with words from Cynthia's book, ``Mystical Hope'' (pg. 97-98)
It takes enormous courage to live the Christian gospel, which is quintessentially a path of ``dying before you die.'' It takes tremendous courage to move forward in hope, knowing ``Whether I live or die, I am the Lord's'' This courage is beyond the capacity of the ego, and a Christianity lived only ego-deep will ultimately betray itself.
But in the contemplative journey, as we swim down into those deeper waters toward the well-springs of hope, we begin to experience and trust what it means to lay down self, to let go of ordinary awareness and surrender ourselves to the mercy of God.
In plumbing deeply the hidden rootedness of the whole, where all things are held together in God's mercy, we are released from the grip of personal fear and set free to minister with skillful means and tru e compassion to a world desperately in need of reconnection.
If we, as living members of the body of Christ, can surrender our hearts, reenter the righteousness,
and listen for the hope that holds all things together it will again guide us, bot h individually and corporately, to the future for which we are intended. And the body of Christ will live and thrive, and hold us tenderly in belonging.

Belonging that belongs to everyone.
Belonging that has nothing to do with last names and Mennonite connections.
Belonging that is the mercy of God.

The prayer of St. Ignatius that we have used here at Blossom Hill for some of our prayer vigils illustrates the idea of a Divine exchange. Pray with me.

Take Lord and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will , all that I have and cal l my own . You have given it all to me to you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will . Give me only your love and grace. That is enough for me. Amen.

09-07-08 JHP Community at its best.rtf

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 20:04:38 GMT

Sermon: Community at its best
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Jane H. Peifer
September 7, 2008
Texts: Matthew 18:15-20; Ezekiel 33:7-11; Psalm 119:33-40; Romans 13:8-14

``Community at its best'' is the title that emerged as I worked with these texts. Community at its best is community that goes beyond the expectation that we all like each other. Community at its best is when our relationships are based on something beyond what either one of us brings to the table . Community at its best is when we can name each other `` Beloved , '' as God names us regardless of our differences. Community at its best is fighting , caring enough to confront and to challenge each other , because it matters Community at its best is when everyone knows your name , and much, much more and it ' s OK .

I read a story of a little boy who came to S unday school every week with a ``Hello , my name is'' sticker taped in the middle of his chest. E very week the stick er said the same thing: ``Hello , my name is I HAVE A NUT ALLERGY. ( Weavings, Vol XXIII, #4, July / August 2008 ) We know that nut allergie s carry with them serious health problems and so it is understandable why this little boy's parents made sure people knew this about him. The author then goes on to imagine what she would put on her ``Hel lo'' sticker about herself . M aybe , `` Hello , my name is , I'm more sensitive that I look'' she wrote . Or, `` Hello , my name is , I'm tired .''

I wondered what it would be like if we wore name tags that were statements of confession like , ``Hello , my name is , I have a bad temper !'' o r ``Hello , my name is , I haven't spoken to my sister for years '' or , `` I don't tithe on my income '' or , `` I'm having an affair '' or , `` I stole something this week '' or , `` I'm holding a grudge , I refuse to forgive him '' or , `` I have a problem with pornography '' or maybe , `` I'm a Democrat and I plan to vote for McCain .''

What would your sticker say this morning? What is true about you that you generally do not share with this community?

It is very easy to come and go every Sunday and not move much deeper in this community of people than the niceties of greeting each other - handshakes and hugs and a surface, ``Hi, good to see you.'' Those of you who are in small groups may have gone deeper with the people in your group, but maybe not. Maybe the people in your small group would have no idea of the truth you carry around inside of you.

Sometimes I worry that we don't really know each other very well, and that therefore we are only able to do community with a small ``c;'' certainly not community at its best. This is one of the huge leaps we have to make in order to understand the teachings of Jesus. Life in the Old Testament and the New Testament was based on community. Individualism as we know it, power of the individual, was not something they understood. No one was able to make it on their own; they needed each other for survival. They only understood themselves as a member of the group, whatever group they were in - usually a family, religious or geographical group

We understand ourselves as individuals with individual rights who gather in community (which is a big difference). Many of us have numerous communities that we are a part of, and often we know the community of people where we work or live better than we know each other here. I think all of these realities of our context make Jesus' teaching here in Matt 18 difficult for us. We first have to adopt a communal understanding of life in order to really get a hold of what Jesus is teaching
Those of you who have lived in intentional communities have experienced a closer reality to what Jesus is teaching us here. Jesus is telling us that sin, forgiveness, accountability and reconciliation always have communal dimensions and are to be part of community life

One writer wrote:
``Two'' is the basic unit of community identified in verses 15, 16, 19, 20 (of Matthew 18).
Two is the unit at the level of the sin; (if someone offends you)
Two is the minimal unit necessary for witness; (take 2 or 3 with you)
two is the foundation for the search for truth (if 2 of you agree )
two indicates the presence of God.'' (whenever 2 or 3 are gathered, I am there.)
(Carmen Nanko-Fernandez, Lectionary Homiletics, vol XIX, #5, pg 50)

These instructions that Jesus gave about what to do when someone in your community offends you are attempts to preserve community, because the assumption is that sin always has social dimensions. Sin always impacts the community in some way or another.

Before we look further at Matthew 18, it is interesting to reflect on the OT text for today, which comes from the book of Ezekiel. Catastrophe had fallen on the children of Israel. Babylon had invaded them in the 6^th century and Ezekiel was one among them who was able to hear the voice and reason of God, rather than either denying that things were falling apart or despairing over the fact that things were falling apart. Because of Ezekiel's ability to hear God, God tells Ezekiel in chapter 33, verse 7 that HE is charged with being a watchman for Israel. And, if he does his job, if he warns the people of their sin when God tells him to, then (if they disobey) their death will come from their own sin. BUT, if Ezekiel does not warn the people when God tells him to, then God will hold Ezekiel responsible for their deaths

First of all God is very serious here about Israel's sin. Either way, Israel's refusal to repent means death for them. But then God goes on to tell Ezekiel what to say when the people complain that their sin is weighing them down and that their life is not worth living. God says, ``Tell them please that I take NO pleasure in punishing the wicked. My deepest desire is that they turn from their wicked ways and live. All of their sins will be forgiven if they simply stop living and acting in ways that break the tenants of my covenant.'' God says, ``I will forgive them, all of it, and invite them to begin anew.''

Eugene Peterson paraphrases it this way: A good person who sins , can't expect to live when he or she chooses to sin. It's true that I tell good people, ``Live! Be alive!'' But it they trust in their good deeds and turn to evil, that good life won't amount to a hill of beans. They'll d i e for their evil life. On the other hand, if I tell a wicked person, ``You' ll die for your wicked life,'' and he repents of his sin and starts l iving a righteous and just life, being generous to the down-and-out, restoring what he had stolen, cultivating life , nourishing ways that don't hurt others , [that person] will live. (The Message, EZ 33:11-13?)

So sin, wrong living, is very serious, at least to God it seems. God gives Ezekiel (someone who has proven his faithfulness to the covenant) the responsibility of confronting the people with their sin. Which, I guess is, God's idea of community.

But that is in the Old Testament, what about in the New Testament? Well, we find basically the same thing in Matthew 18. In the paragraph right before the text for today, are these words from Jesus:
If any of you put a stumbling block before on e of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes! If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have 2 hands or 2 feet and to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into the hell of fire.

So, sin, and especially causing someone else to sin, is very serious according to Jesus as well. If we keep on reading in Matthew 18 we find, ``Sin is serious, part 2'' in verses 23-35, the parable of the unforgiving servant. Jesus said that, when the servant whose debt was forgiven ungratefully turned around and demanded that his fellow servant pay up or go to prison, the unforgiving servant deserved all the punishment that he got. Any one of us, who refuses to forgive a brother or sister from our hearts, deserves, and will get, the same punishment from the Lord God above.

Now, sandwiched in Matthew 18 between these two ``sin is serious'' parts, is the wonderful grace of Jesus. Right after that awful part about throwing your sinful hand, eye and foot out the window is the grace-filled reminder of how God does not enjoy punishing the wicked but instead will go to all lengths to rescue just one of us if we get lost, or turned around:
If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, [Jesus said] , and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he find s it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the 99 that never went astray. So it is NOT the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost. (vs. 10-14)

In this same chapter, Matthew, tells us that: Peter came and said to [Jesus], ``Lord, if another member of the church sins agains t me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?'' Jesus said to him, ``Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy times seven.''

Community at its best holds both the seriousness of sin and the seriousness of forgiveness at the same time.

I think we could handle this middle part of Matthew 18 better if we just had to deal with the sin part with each other and not the forgiveness part. Or, maybe even the other way around; if we could only just deal with the forgiveness part and not the sin part. In fact, I just kind of wish God would let us out of this all together!! But, clearly, God lays this responsibility at the feet of any in the community who will listen like Ezekiel

Listen to it again: ` If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. ¹⁶ But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. ¹⁷ If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. ¹⁸ Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Matthew 18:15-18

There are a number of things about this that I don't like very much. First of all, as I said earlier it infers that within the community of believers YOUR sin is MY problem and MY sin is YOUR problem. Folks, do you realize how far we are from this kind of thinking? One writer imagined it this way:
Imagine somebody sinned/offended/hurt you. (in your church) . Here is what you are to do: first you go to your offender. What? If I was the one offended, why should I go point out the other's mistake? I should wait for a call and wait to be asked forgiveness. I am hurt! Well, thi s seems not to be the way around according to Jesus. Jesus say that you go tell your brother or sister what they have done to you. If they don't listen , don't give up. What? I have already submitted myself to shame once going after this person. Remember , I'm not the evil doer! Again , you are to move away from your own self-righteous through and feelings. Go back to your offender, this time take 2 or 3 witness and go talk to your brother or sister again. This is nonsense , but you do it anyway. Unfortunately, your brother or sister does not listen to you but now you have witnesses on your side and even though you want to throw them out at this point , Afterall, the others heard it too Jesus said , No , g o to the church and explain what has happened so that the community can deal with it and call the brother or sister to account , offering accountability and forgiveness and then if that doesn't work only then , it is time for you to quit a nd let go of your grievance
(Claudio Carvalhaes, Lectionary Homiletics, Vol XIX, #5, pg. 52)

This kind of loving accountability is so foreign in this day and age of individual rights and litigation to settle wrongs experienced by people. There is a consumer mentality: there are lots of choices, there are other churches. There is a lack of patience: we don't have the time to go through that kind of process. There is individualism: people can live their lives how they want to; it is no skin off my back.

The other thing that I don't like is that evidently, how we do this, here on earth, has eternal consequences.
Jesus said, ``Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.'' This language about ``binding'' and ``loosing'' comes from the practice of the rabbi's, and describes what they were given the authority to do. They were the authoritative teachers and interpreters of the Torah.

In the same way, the decisions of the local congregation regarding the behavior and beliefs of its members had divine sanc tion, Jesus said. And , d iscipline was necessary for the well being of the community. The gift is that, the community was not alone. The presence of the living Lord was promised as the c ommunity sought God's help . (W. Eugene March, Lectionary Homiletics, vol XIX, #5, pg 49)

Verse 20: For where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, I am there among them.'' Again, in the very last verse of Matthew's gospel are these comforting words, And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matt 28:20)

It seems, unfortunately, that the church, when it takes this Matthew 18 passage seriously, sometimes becomes legalistic with it, and punitive rather than restorative and reconciling (as Jesus seems to intend). We have those stories in our Mennonite history. So, if we are going to take this passage seriously there are a couple of things we need to notice, which will help us in not using the passage legalistically, but in the Spirit of reconciliation which was intended.

First of all, I want you all to notice that this is not addressed to leaders of the community. Jesus said, ``If another member of the church sins (against you) Go and talk to them about it. Now, too often in our churches it goes like this: If another member of the church sins against you, you go to the pastor and ask him or her to deal with that person. That is mistake No. 1 These are guidelines for the whole community, in its life together. These are not guidelines for the leaders.

Secondly, I would guess that the way you've thought about this passage is: If someone sins against you, talk to them. If they don't listen, take 1 or 2 others with you. If they don't listen, take it to the whole church. And if they still don't listen, kick them out. That is not what Jesus said. He said, ``If the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.'' And when we ask how Jesus treated Gentiles and tax collectors we realize that he did not exclude them in any way. In fact, they are always objects of his attention; they are objects of his mission. The most obvious was when he called Matthew to be a disciple. Matt. 9, verse 9: Matthew was a tax collector. In Matt 11:19, Jesus is accused of being a friend of tax collectors and sinners!

So, when or if someone does not respond to the admonishment of the community when their sin is pointed out to them, we are to treat them with the same spirit as a shepherd would demonstrate in leaving 99 sheep behind, and going off to find the lost one. It is a posture of attentiveness, or pursuit, not one of cutting people off, shutting them out. But, at the same time, when sin has occurred in the community, when people have been hurt by the actions of another member, there are all kinds of levels of healing that need to take place. My experience is that sometimes when the offender has repented and has experienced the grace of God's forgiveness, they expect that those who have been hurt should be able to feel the same. But, those who have been hurt are perhaps still dealing with the effects of the sin and healing has to take place in their lives in order for them to truly forgive from their hearts.

I don't have to tell you how complex and difficult this is, do I? It isn't at all hard to understand why it doesn't happen much in the church, or why we ignore this passage except for those sins we just can't ignore. It is very hard to hold these two serious things together. Sin is serious, and so is forgiveness. Community at its best is when both are held and expressed side by side.

Finally, another thing that is curious to me about Matthew 18 is how Matthew begins the chapter. The disciples come to Jesus and ask, ``Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?'' Now you realize that the unstated question which lies alongside that one is, ``Who is NOT the greatest, who is the loser? Who sins?'' Jesus surprises them all, I suspect, when he picks up a child and says to them, ``Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.''

So what does this have to do with our text for today? Well, I think if we just watch how our children solve their disputes we might get some clues. If one of them refuses to share the toy they are playing with, the other will protest in some way. Children have little capacity to hide their feelings (they don't need name tags to say what is going on inside!). The way children do it is rather messy sometimes and embarrassing to their parents, BUT following the scuffle, things are usually fine, and they don't have any trouble coming to the same church together even though one of them was not willing to share last week.

I think it is significant that these passages are all in the same chapter. Honesty about ourselves with each other (whether you put it on a name tag or not, deeper relationships, knowing we need each other, etc), confrontation, and repeated forgiveness holds a community together. That is where we need to begin.

Someone has written: ``When it's natural to have serious conversations about real life with each other, that's when you can start practicing corrective discipline.'' May God continue to open us more and more to be authentic disciples together.

Prayer using Psalm 119: 33-40
Teach us, O Lord, your way.
Give us understanding so we will live according you your way
Lead us to live your commandments
Turn our hearts to you and not to selfish gain.
Turn our e yes and give us life
Confirm you promis e , which is for those who fear you.
In your goodness and righteousness, O God, give us life.

09-28-08 JHP Ezekiel18 Turn and live!.rtf

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:07:01 GMT

Sermon: Turn and Live!
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
September 28, 2008
Jane H. Peifer
Text: Ezekiel 18; Philippians 2:1-11

The prophet Ezekiel had a huge job a job of international proportions! He was a refugee whom God called to speak to his fellow refugees , some of whom were his own people and some who were peoples of the surrounding nations. He had been deported with his fellow Jews and also some exiles from some other Near Eastern countries to Babylon in the year 597 BC . T his book in the Bible is the result of the call he got from God 4 years later to warn his fellow refugees ( there in Babylon) to `` Turn from their wicked ways and live . '' T hat was God's message ; that was what God asked Ezekiel to tell the people. ''

Ezekiel was charged with words for both Jerusalem and the surrounding nations. God had called Jerusalem to be a spiritual and moral example to the nations , but they were failing in their leadership to do so . Instead of leading the nations , the city had rebelled and instead become LIKE the nations , and God was not pleased . So , God gave Ezekiel t he job of warning them about their sin and their wickedness and their losing their way , whic h impacted the way , God's way , was made known in the world among the nations . God's desire and God's plan for Israel and for the nations was freedom , not enslavement by some empire somewhere.

From the time of Moses th e name for God , Yahweh , described the One who delivered people from misery , from slavery at the hands of oppressors . So the call was for the people to turn back to Yahweh and be free . ``Turn and live ! ,'' proclaimed Ezekiel .

We hear this ``call to life'' in 3 places in the book of Ezekiel, placed strategically at the beginning of the book in chapter 3, at the beginning of the judgments against Israel, and then we find another call to life in chapter 33, closer to the end of the book where he pronounces judgments against the nations. Today we are looking at chapter 18 , which is a call to life sandwiched between 2 chapters of doom . C hapters 17 and 19 pretty much pronounce death to Israel for not keeping the covenant , but chapter 18 is different. In chapter 18 Ezekiel calls the people to embrace LIFE! So we have 3 ``calls to life'' in what otherwise is a harsh judgment of Israel and the nations.

Listen as I read chapter 18 from The Message . Listen particularly for the argument that goes on between Ezekiel and the people . The people had staked out a position from their experience; they had a particular world view and it was one crystallized in a pithy proverb : `` The fathers eat sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge .'' W e might `` say once a problem , always a problem .''

Ezekiel 18
God's Message to me: "What do you people mean by going around the country repeating the saying, `` The parents ate green apples, The children got the stomachache? ''
"As sure as I'm the living God, you're not going to repeat this saying in Israel any longer. Every soulman, woman, childbelongs to me, parent and child alike. You die for your own sin, not another's.
"Imagine a person who lives well, treating others fairly, keeping good relationships does n't eat at the pagan shrines, doesn't worship the idols so popular in Israel, doesn't seduce a neighbor's spouse, doesn't indulge in casual sex, doesn't bully anyone, doesn't pile up bad debts, doesn't steal, doesn't refuse food to the hungry, doesn't refuse clothing to the ill-clad, doesn't exploit the poor, doesn't live by impulse and greed, doesn't treat one person better than another, But lives by my statutes and faithfully honors and obeys my laws. This person who lives upright and well s hall live a full and true life. Decree of God, the Master.
"But if this person has a child who turns violent and murders and goes off and does any of these things, even though th e parent has done none of them eats at the pagan shrines, seduces his neighbor's spouse, bullies the weak, steals, piles up bad debts, admires idols, commits outrageous obscenities, exploits the poor "do you think this person, the child, will live? Not a chance! Because he's done all these vile things, he'll die. And his death will be his own fault.
"Now look: Suppose that this child has a child who sees all the sins done by his parent. The child sees them, but doesn't fo llow in the parent's footsteps doesn't eat at the pagan shrines, doesn't worship the popular idols of Israel, doesn't seduce his neighbor's spouse, doesn't bully anyone, doesn't refuse to loan money, doesn't steal, doesn't refuse food to the hungry, doesn't refuse to give clothes to the ill-clad, doesn't live by impulse and greed, d oesn't exploit the poor. He does what I say; he performs my laws and lives by my statutes.
"This person will not die for the sins of the parent; he will live truly and well. But the parent will die for what t he parent did, for the sins of oppressing the weak, robbing brothers and sisters, doing what is dead wrong in the community.
"Do you need to ask, 'So why does the child not share the guilt of the parent?'
"Isn't it plain? It's because the child did what is fair and right. Since the child was careful to do what is lawful and right, the child will live truly and well. The soul that sins is the soul that dies. The child does not share the guilt of the parent, nor the parent the guilt of the child. If you live upright and well, you get the credit; if you live a wicked life, you're guilty as charged.
"But a wicked person who turns his back on that life of sin and keeps all my statutes, living a just and righteous life, he'll live, really live. He won't die. I won't keep a list of all the things he did wrong. He will live. Do you think I take any pleasure in the death of wicked men and women? Isn't it my pleasure that they turn around, no longer living wrong but living rightreally living?
"The same thing goes for a good person who turns his back on an upright life and starts sinning, plunging into the same vile obscenities that the wicked person practices. Will this person live? I don't keep a list of all the things this person did right, like money in the bank he can draw on. Because of his defection, because he accumulates sin, he'll die.
"Do I hear you saying, 'That's not fair! God's not fair!'?
`` Listen, Israel. I'm not fair? You're the ones who aren't fair! If a good person turns away from his good life and takes up sinning, he'll die for it. He'll die for his own sin. Likewise, if a bad person turns away from his bad life and starts living a good life, a fair life, he will save his life. Because he faces up to all the wrongs he's committed and puts them behind him, he will live, really live. He won't die.
`` And yet Israel keeps on whining, 'That's not fair! God's not fair.'
"I'm not fair, Israel? You're the ones who aren't fair.
"The upshot is this, Israel: I'll judge each of you according to the way you live. So turn around! Turn your backs on your rebellious living so that sin won't drag you down. Clean house. No more rebellions, please. Get a new heart! Get a new spirit! Why would you choose to die, Israel? I take no pleasure in anyone's death. Decree of God, the Master.
"Make a clean break! Live!"
So the first argument that Ezekiel disputes is the idea that God punishes the children for the sin of the parents for 3 and 4 generations. The people had not made this up; we find it in the Torah in the Decalogue, Deut. 5:9, which is one of the lists of the 10 commandments. It says: You shall not bow down to them (idols) or worship them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the 3 ^rd and 4 ^th generation of those who reject me but showing steadfast love to the 1000 ^th generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

So the people had this drilled into them. Children experienced the consequences of their parent's choices.
Ezekiel, according to what he heard from God, challenges this assumption that children pay for the sins of their parents, and he gives 3 examples of how it works between generations. Basically he was saying that those who sin will die for their wickedness and those who live according to God's covenant and commandments will live. Ezekiel refutes the idea that ``once a problem always a problem.''

Just this week, Ken Nissley, who works for Lancaster Victim Offender Reconciliation Program (LAVORP), told me a story of someone who started out arguing the same thing as Ezekiel's audience. This man, who had had his 4-wheeler stolen about a year ago here in Lancaster County, ended up getting it back with the police's help, but it had about $1000 worth of damage done to it. A young man and an adult were found responsible for the theft and damage. Because LAVORP has been doing the work of bringing victims and offenders together for the juvenile court system here in our county, this case came to LAVORP. A meeting was set up between the victim and the young offender this week. The adult was not part of the process because the court still has no defined process for getting adult offenders to participate in LAVORP.

The victim, the man whose 4-wheeler was stolen, was very eager for the meeting, partly because he wanted to get restitution for his losses. He also seemed very interested in telling this young man what he thought. Ken said that the LAVORP facilitator arrived a bit early, as did the victim. The two of them chatted a bit, and the victim shared that he really did not expect that the young man would show up. Well, to his surprise, just a few minutes late, the young man did show up and the meeting progressed according to the guided process led by the facilitator.

Even though the young man started by stating his apology and remorse for what he did, when the victim of the crime got his turn to respond, he spend 5 or 10 minutes "preaching" about how bad young kids are these days, speaking angrily to the young man about his role in the horrible thing that happened to him. He was convinced that not only ``once a problem always a problem'' but all young people are a problem and going to the dogs these days. He said it was no wonder, since people don't know how to raise children anymore these days. Bad parenting breeds bad kids, and there are plenty of them around! What's the use, it's in their blood. They are bad from the day they are born! (I'm imagining things he might have said things the people in Ezekiel's day might have said)

That's the fatalistic view we all sometimes have. ``What can you expect? Her parents weren't any better; remember how they did this or that? I'm not surprised she's a problem; you can even see it in her grandparents! Don't bother spending too much on him; it's a lost cause. Do you know his family?''

God through Ezekiel -denies the connection between generations. It's not true, Ezekiel said. Only those who sin will have to pay the price for their sinning. Those who turn from sin will experience life! Turn and live!

In verse 19 we find Ezekiel responding again to the people's struggle to understand that how they live, the choices they make, makes the difference. They have options! Their fate is not decided for them. If you live upright and well, (Ezekiel said) you get the credit. (You are free) If you live a wicked life, you're guilty as charged.

I want to take just a moment here to point out what sins Ezekiel lists as sins that bring about death. We have 3 longer lists starting in verse 6; 10 and 15 and then in verse 18 we have sort of a summary list of 3 things a wicked person does: oppress the weak, rob brothers and sisters, and doing what is dead wrong in the community (something that hurts the community we can assume).

Millard Lind in T he Believers C ommentary reflects on what we need to know about economic justice in the OT. First of all, what we believe about God means that theology and economics (who has what goods and how much) are completely related. Loving and following God means that we will care for the poor on God's behalf. Secondly, any difference noted between social classes is simply to make sure that the rights of slaves the rights of the poor and the less privileged are protected. Again, being a child of God means that we will protect and advocate for the poor on God's behalf, not pander to the rich and powerful. Thirdly, economic justice means that social structures are horizontal and not vertical. For purposes of economic justice, Israel was to have a horizontal tribal structure consisting of a covenantal interrelationship of tribes, clans, and nuclear households. Again, loving and following God had social and economic ramifications about how people were to organize themselves!

It's amazing the ordinary earthy things God s cares about!!

So, when Ezekiel is talking about the people's sin, it has a whole lot to do with economic and social justice; a whole lot to do with the disparity between rich and poor, between strong and weak between slave and free between leaders and followers. These are at the core of the sins that Ezekiel names. His call is that the people will turn away from their greedy, self-serving living and follow the dream and desire of God's covenant for all humankind. `` Turn and live ,'' he calls.

In verse 29 we find evidence of another argument that the people made. It's one that parents hear all the time!
It's not fair! It's not fair. The people in Ezekiel's audience apparently liked it the other way: when you could ride on the coattails of generations of faithfulness. What do you mean, Ezekiel, that the goodness of my parents doesn't benefit me in any way? That's not fair!

Well, Ezekiel said, it seems to me that you are the ones who aren't very fair. How is it fair for a good person who decides to turn away from their good life and begin sinning to continue to experience fullness of life? How is it fair for a bad person who decides to turn away from their bad choices and begin following the call of God to die for their good choice? You are the ones who aren't fair! Ezekiel said.

Back to the LAVORP story: The man whose 4 wheeler was taken was anxious to unload his frustration about what happened and he did. He still expressed the anger that he had nurtured all this time, even though the young man sincerely confessed and apologized right away. He still delivered his speech of doom even though the young man obviously was very sorry for what he had done. He was still convinced that all kids are bad these days. Thank goodness the young man was able to listen to the victim's anger anyway.

Ken said that then the young man again explained how sorry he was for his past actions and began to share how his life has changed and he is determined to do better in life. He said he wants to take full responsibility for his part in the incident and pulled $200 out of his pocket which he gave to Victim on the spot. The Victim was aware that the young man had also been involved in other incidents with other neighbors and he asked him about those incidents. The juvenile shared how he has already paid off over $1,000 in restitution to others through his two jobs and he intended to pay this victim whatever he asks as soon he can, hopefully within the next month.

As the older man heard and connected with the offender's story his attitude changed dramatically and the two of them began to share about other things that were happening in their lives. The man shared about how his teenage son has had a hard time finding a job and the offender offered to help him fill out an application at a KFC, where he was working and thought he could likely get hired there. Later on the victim shared that he works in a masonry business and told the young man that if he is ever interested in getting into this work which can pay $20 per hour even as a mud mixer, and he will be happy to give him a reference. They exchanged phone numbers. The victim then agreed that if the young man pays him for half of the damages to his 4-wheeler, he will be satisfied. The young man agreed to pay the balance by the end of October. Both parties separated with a transformed attitude towards each other.

This is gospel folks! This is good news!! This is what Ezekiel is talking about.

Every day we each have the opportunity to make new choices. It doesn't matter what happened yesterday. It doesn't matter what choices your parents made. It doesn't matter what choices your friends, your spouse or your kids make. Each day you and I have the opportunity to turn away from sin and the things that destroy each other, yourself and the earth. Each day you can choose to turn and live!

Now it's true that all choices have consequences (as we are all watching in the financial scene in our country these days) and we often have to live with those consequences long after we've decided to turn and live. The young man who met with the man he had wronged this week at LAVORP knows that very well. He has been working 2 jobs and saving every penny he can in order to pay for the damage done when he made bad choices. But, even so, he is clearly now a free man. He's got that ugly monster off his back! His freedom is evident first of all in his ability to even have the courage to meet with the man he wronged. His freedom is evident in his ability to stay with his apology even as the victim ``preached'' at him. His freedom is evident in his commitment to give up his hard earned paychecks in order to pay back those he had stolen from. This young man is obviously experiencing new freedom in his life.

The story that Julie read to the children is such a wonderful reminder of how our sins weigh us down and keep us from living fully and truly. Our sin sits on us and makes our stomachs ache. It trips us up and just makes life miserable. So the call is here today and every day for us as well. Turn around! Turn your backs on your rebellious living so that sin won't drag you down. Clean house. Get a new heart! Get a new Spirit! Make a clean break and live!

All it takes to get a new heart and a new Spirit is the willingness to be willing. The willingness to be willing is the grace of God, pure and simple. When you feel the desire inside to make some significant changes for the better in your life, that is God at work within you. God is your desire to change. Your desire to follow to make good choices is God at work within you. Turn and embrace that desire and more life than you can ever imagine will be unleashed within you

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul reminds the believers that ``it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for God's good pleasure.'' Phil 2:13 God is not pushy. God doesn't make ultimatums.
God cares deeply about all of the details of your life and God needs your permission to help you with them. Turn and embrace the ultimate power of the universe. Turn and live!

Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams, in his Christmas message in 2002, said this in describing the irony and the mystery of how small and poor Christ became for our sakes:
We have to look at ourselves hard, and ask what it is that makes us too massive and clumsy to go into the ``little space'' where we meet God in Jesus Christ. It may be our wealth and security, it may be our ambition, it may be our images of ourselves as powerful or virtuous or godly or not worth much, ugly, a mess

We need to remember what Christ says again and again -that there is no way into [God's] little space without shedding our great load of arrogant self-reliance, bluster, noisy fear that dominate our thinking, and our fantasies about what might be .
( The Poverty of God: Love in the Ruins, by Deborah Smith Douglas, Weavings Xviii:6, pg 13 )

We have to look at ourselves hard, and ask what it is that makes us too massive and clumsy to go into the ``little space'' where we meet God in Jesus Christ.

Prayer:

God, help us to see what needs to be laid down
Is it worry about the future?
Is it arrogance knowing we are right?
Is it self-doubt?
Is it worry about what others think of us?
Is it anger?
Is it grief?
Enable us, O God, to surrender/yield to your Spirit within us. Help us, Oh God to turn and live. Help us to see. Amen.

10-26-08 JHP The law of love -- greatest commandment.rtf

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:44:53 GMT

Sermon: The law of love
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
October 26, 2008
Jane H. Peifer
Text: Matthew 22: 34 46; I Thess. 2:1 8; Psalm 1

Michelle called us to worship with the words of Psalm 1 verse 1:
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.
My question is, `` What is this law of the Lord which we are to meditate on day and night? W hich one? ''

According to the tradition of the Jewish rabbis dating from the 2 ^nd Century , the Torah (the first 5 books of the Old Testament) contains no less than 613 laws. 365 were prohibitions - things they were NOT to do , and 248 were commands - things they were to do.

A lready in Jesus' day the Jewish teachers , the Pharisees , were wrestling with all of these laws . They debated how they all relate to each other , whether they could be grouped into theme groups of laws , and whether all 613 of them perhaps could even be summed up in one or more basic commandment . T hey no doubt discussed among themselves often , ``W hat IS the primary obligation of God's people? '' S o , when the Pharisees heard that this man Jesus had silenced the Sad d ucees ( which was another group of experts on things religious) , they thou ght that perhaps the ``I s there one most important law?'' question would be a good one to use to challenge Jesus. It would test the honor of this man who was shaking up the Jewish establishment and astounding the crowds with his wisdom and teaching . Just what might J esus say is the greatest commandment?

So, I'm guessing that the question was an honest question, but Matthew tells us righ t out that they were testing Jesus. They had been trying to trap him , and this was the third attempt . In chapter 16 they ca me together (Pharisees and Sadducees) and asked Jesus for a sign from heaven which Jesus refused to give them. In chapter 22 verse 18 the Pharisees partnered with the Herodians and challenged Jesus with the question Doug dealt with last week , ``Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not? , '' a real loaded question!

And now here in verse 36 we find the Pharisees again up to their devilish testing . O ne of their group a lawyer was picked to ask this question , since it was concerning the law . T he Pharisees were not only experts in the law but they were also the keepers of the keys to the law . It was their job to make sure that God's people lived according to the laws given to them by God . They weren't necessarily nasty people ; they were devout, sincere, and called to be the keepers of the law and they took their role seriously . So the question they had for Jesus was a fairly simple question but it came as a challenge ; it wasn't an innocent question by any means . T he Pharisee lawyer asked Jesus , ``Which commandment in the law is the greatest?''

Don't you love it when you know you are being tested by someone's question? You just sense that the question comes with some agenda attached. You know in yo ur gut that there is a right way and a wrong way to answer the question and you could easily get caught either way. This is what the Pharisees were hoping to do with this question . If they could just catch Jesus disregarding some important part of the law , i f they could just catch him red handed with hypocrisy or , worse yet , disrespect for the law , they would have the evidence that they needed to do away with him .

Regardless of their desire and attempt to trap him , this was a ve ry valid and important question. `` Which commandment in the law is the greatest? '' It was a good question.

Jesus responded this way :
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your min d. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Well , Jesus ' answer showed serious respect and commitment to the law . He linked together 2 laws : Deut. 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 . These two laws had not been put directly together before. A lthough the theme of loving God and neighbor is echoed throughout the early scriptures, ne ver before had they actually been linked like this .

First of all, Jesus' identification of the greatest and first commandment as being Deut 6:5 could not be disputed by the testing Pharisees. These were words that were and are the backbone of the Jewish community . It is what is called the shema , and it begins like this :
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might.
Jesus said that this commandment is the greatest, and that there is a second commandment that is just like it. Then he quoted the second part of Leviticus 19:18: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The Pharisees would have known that all of chapter 19 in Leviticus lays out a vision of a world marked by human relationships of justice and just plain practical compassion for one another. So, ``love God with your whole being and love your neighbor as you love yourself'' came straight from the law. Then, Jesus added that everything in the law and the prophets hangs or hinges on these two commandments.

Jesus' answer, which came directly out of Jewish tradition and teaching but was put together in a way that it hadn't been before, met the Pharisees challenge in a way that stopped them. They didn't come back to him with another question, which makes me ask, ``What was happening inside of them?'' How did they get to the place where the content of the very law that they knew so well got lost in the mix of their being threatened by Jesus' obvious authority and power? The question was a good one and I imagine an honest one, but the posturing for position, authority and power clouded the nugget of truth: that they had all been taught and formed as the people of God.

Jesus then took the opportunity to ask them a question that really went to the heart of the matter at hand. The issue at the heart of the confrontation between Jesus and Jewish officialdom was Jesus' messianic authority; was he really the Messiah? So Jesus asked them, ``What do you think of the Messiah, the one whom you are looking for? Whose son is he?'' The Pharisees answered his questions in a way that reflected mainstream Jewish faith at the time. They said, ``The son of David'' They clearly expected that the Messiah would be a descendant (or a son) of David who would triumph over Israel's enemies and rule even more mightily than David had. Jeremiah 23:5 is one of the places in their scriptures that promised them a Messiah coming from David. The days are surly coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. Jeremiah 23:5

The Pharisees answered just as Jesus expected them to and it was partly the right answer. Then Jesus added this simple question, ``If David calls the Messiah his Lord (as he did in one of the Pharisees' favorite psalms, Ps 101) does this not imply that the Messiah is more than a mere human descendant of David? David certainly wouldn't call his son ``Lord'', would he?'' Jesus asked.

For Matthew, who is telling us this story, the correct answer is that the Messiah is certainly David's son (which he establishes. in chapter 1: An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham) but even more importantly, Matthew wants his readers to know that the Messiah is God's son. He illustrates this idea in the later part of chapter 1 when he tells the story of the Holy Spirit coming to visit Mary just as the scripture foretold: Look, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel which means, God is with us. Matthew lays out both of these things in his first chapter; the Messiah is the son of David AND the Messiah is the son of God.

The Pharisees were not able to give an answer to Jesus' observation and question about David not calling his own earthly son Lord and then, Matthew tells us, no one dared to ask him any more questions from that day on.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as if they didn't ask any more questions because they were convinced that indeed Jesus was the son of God. It seems more probable that their silence was because Jesus had challenged them to see with new eyes; to see the breadth and depth and length and width of God's love. But, rather than go there, they were more determined than ever to eliminate this one who challenged them and their authority as keepers of the law.

I imagine that perhaps they wrestled consciously or subconsciously with questions like these:
What would happen to US if we allowed this man Jesus to keep influencing the people?
What would happen to US if LOVE was the highest and only commandment?
And who are WE if Jesus IS the Messiah?

As I worked with this story this week, and listened for what teaching God might have for us, I asked these questions:
Why is it that we, like the Pharisees, are more comfortable with a list of things (365 things) we are not to do and a list of 248 things we are to do as God's people, rather than 1 simple commandment with 2 parts: Love God and love neighbor?
Why do we as individuals and as a church exert so much energy trying to understand rather than using that energy to simply spread the love of God?

The opening words to this week's readings in the Sacred Space prayer book included a quote from The Cloud of Unknowing which was written in the 14^th Century. (I guess we aren't the only ones who struggle with the human tendency like the Pharisees to ``think our way through'' life rather than ``love our way through'' life.)

``Our intense need to understand will always be a powerful stumbling block to our attempts to reach God in simple love, and must always be overcome. For if you do not overcome this need to understand, it will undermine your quest … It will replace the darkness which you have pierced to reach God , with clear images of something which, however good, however beautifu l, however Godlike, is not God… So, therefore, never give up your resolve, but beat away at this cloud of unknowing between you and God with that sharp dart of longing love… And so I urge you, go after experience rather than knowledge. On account of pride, knowledge may often deceive you, but this gentle, loving affection will not deceive you. Knowledge tends to breed conceit, but love builds. Knowledge is full of labor, but love, full of rest. ''

I will spend the rest of the sermon trying to unpack the wisdom that lies in this quote because I think it goes to the heart of the challenge we live with.

`` Our intense need to understand will always be a powerful stumbling block to our attempts to reach God in simple love, and must always be overcome. For if you do not overcome this need to understand, it will undermine your quest. ''

Many of us are information junkies and, in fact, if you aren't an information junkie these days you most likely will have to explain yourself:
``No, I don't surf the internet very much.''
``No, I don't watch the news every day.''
``No, I haven't read that book.''
``No, our church doesn't have a newsletter.''
Sometimes the reactions you get would indicate that you committed some huge sin!

Yesterday I attended the fall assembly of Atlantic Coast Conference and one of the things they are working on is how to best communicate and disseminate information to congregations, between congregations, etc. Around tables we were to talk about our ideas about this. One man at the table indicated that he worked for a company that designs web sites, and that in the world of information technology, if you can get someone's attention for even 30 seconds, you have really made a connection. So the goal of course is to design and arrange information in such a way as to connect and hold the attention of someone for even just seconds. That is considered a connection.

Information has become KING! I just spent 10 days with my daughter and her husband as they were in the throws of the first month of being parents. (I do have more pictures, if anyone is interested!) I was struck numerous times with the reality of how they went about gathering information for how to manage this new little life that they were now responsible for. (And I remember experiencing this same thing a year ago when my son and his wife were learning how to be parents.) There are more books about babies and parenting, methods and models, and growth charts than we can begin to count! I hear my kids talking with their peers about ``the eating books,'' ``the sleeping books,'' ``the pooping books,'' ``the green-babyfood books,'' etc, and then there are the blogs!! They have friends from here to Timbuckto who did this with their baby and then this happened etc. etc. Babies and baby products have been researched, studied, documented, consumer verified, yet somehow all of this information still does not make the baby do what we want it to do

And its not just babies. It's puppies too. Daryl and I got a new puppy this week and I took him to the vet on Friday and came home with a whole bag full of information about how to train him and feed him and get insurance for him and who knows what else. And yet somehow, even with all this information, Oliver still does not do what we want him to do!

We are information junkies! We love information. We need information. We don't know how to live or how to make decisions without information. And not just any information; we need valid information, and work hard to intellectually understand our lives and the things that impact us! Understanding is a very high value for we smart informed 21^st century ites.

There is actually nothing new under the sun. We are just like the Pharisees. We like the details. We like the clarity of 613 laws and we spend a lot of energy lining things up, putting things in columns and boxes and categories. Jesus calls us to see with new eyes: eyes of unknowing. Jesus calls us to love even when, especially when, we don't know. Can we go there?

No doubt you've been in a situation where you just wished you KNEW what to do. Jesus said there is just one thing to know and it is LOVE. That is the place we must always begin. ``You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. and you shall love your neighbor as yourself'' That's it, and as we all know, that kind of single minded loving is so very hard to do. It is so hard to stay in our hearts and not get hoodwinked by our thoughts. Our racing, obsessive thinking that always jumps ahead and concludes that love can't possibly give us the answers we need for this situation. That is why we keep pounding on God's door for answers to our problems. We don't want it to be that easy or that hard as the case may be.

`` Our intense need to understand will always be a powerful stumbling block to our attempts to reach God in simple love … Our need to understand will replace the darkness , which you have pierced to reach God, with clear images of something which, however good, however beautiful, however Godlike, is not God. So, therefore, never give up your resolve, but beat away at this cloud of unknowing between you and God with that sharp dart of longing love. ''

The writer here is suggesting that ``the cloud of unknowing'' is dark. That is what we say about not knowing, isn't it? ``I was in the dark about that.'' We know it feels like darkness when we don't know. Information (even difficult information) is better than not knowing.

Those who live with cancer have to learn to deal with the darkness of unknowing: ``How long do I have to live? Is the cancer growing? Would another round of chemo be worth it? How much suffering is ahead? Will I be able to handle it?'' Our medical community tries to help us with this darkness of unknowing by running more tests and trying more therapies and trying yet more drugs. Sometimes the information they get us is helpful, but more information never removes the reality of needing to learn to live in the cloud of unknowing. We all have to learn to live in the cloud of unknowing, because in reality, that is where we all live every day. We do not know what will happen tomorrow or this afternoon which might drastically change the shape of our lives.

Jesus said there is only one thing for you to remember in the darkness and it is Love. Love me as I love you and love your neighbor as you love yourself.

And finally…
`` And so I urge you, go after experience rather than knowledge. On account of pride, knowledge may often deceive you, but this gentle, loving affection will not deceive you. Knowledge tends to breed conceit, but love builds. Knowledge is full of labor, but love, full of rest.

Knowledge is full of labor but love is full of rest. It seems to me that the difference has to do with surrender with yieldedness. Knowing something can be quite burdensome, in fact. Now, of course it totally matters whether or not you make it a burden. It's not simply knowledge or the knowing that is a burden, but rather how we carry the knowing. Sometimes we are so married to what we know that we will defend it to the end. Sometimes we are so married to what we know that we aren't sure if we know ourselves separate from what we know.

I think this is partly what got in the way for the Pharisees. They knew the law so well that they weren't sure who they were when this upshot rabbi Jesus outsmarted them concerning the law. They needed to get rid of him .in order to save their dignity, in order to save themselves! They thought the law was THEIR responsibility; it was THEIRS, and what a burden it was. For us we might say the right answer is OUR responsibility, the right information is OURS, and that is when knowing becomes a burden: when knowledge is labor

But, when we are able to hold our knowing loosely, not having to hold it tightly in order to shore ourselves up in whatever way it does? When we are able to surrender our knowledge, to offer it as love and as gift, then we experience rest. Knowledge is full of labor .love is full of rest. And for some crazy reason we, like the Pharisees too often choose labor over rest.

May God help us to choose experience rather than knowledge. When information or knowledge becomes laborious for you, lay it down, give it back to God and move into your heart. Move into that sometimes dark place of unknowing where God is always present and waiting for you.

Psalm 1 paraphrase:
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, those who would have you believe that knowledge is power, that information is truth, and that right thinking is righteousness. But happy are those whose delight is in the law of the Lord, which is love. And on God's love they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper. Amen.

11-30-08 JHP Advent 1 The Hidden Face of God.rtf

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:33:52 GMT

Sermon: The hidden face of God
Advent 1: November 30, 2008
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Jane H. Peifer
Texts: Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; I Corinthians 1:3-9

Today is New Year's Day in the Christian calendar . It is the first Sunday of the Christian year. Sometime afte r the birth of Jesus became one of the Christian community' s yearly celebration s , they decided that they needed to prepare for the celebration of the coming of the Christ child more fully . S o they backed up 4 weeks before Christmas and created worship liturgies that helped people to remember their need of salvation - their need of a savior .

Advent was created to remind us that even as Jesus came and lived among us , taught us, healed us, walked with us , emptied himself to the point of death for us , and even though God raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand of God , the story goes on and on and on in us year after year. The end is yet to come . The kingdom is now , yes , but it is yet to come as well . A nd so we are in waiting . Advent helps us to remember that.

The whole Thanksgiving celebration came a long time afterward and is just a national holiday , not one on the Christian calendar , but this year Thanksgiving and Christmas bump right up against each other. I find it to be a bit hard to get in touch with our neediness , our desperate need for God's intervention (as we heard in Isaiah's words) after having celebrated Thanksgiving and having our bellies full. It's ha r d to feel very desperate for God's intervention when our struggles this week had more to do with too much rather than too little .

For some of us the Thanksgiving holiday means trying to manage (within our bodies and within our families) all the BIG , full spread traditional Thanksgiving meal s. (I would guess that at least some of you had more than one Thanksgiving meal.) `` How can we eat any more? '' we groan. How can we keep from stuffing ourselves and still let Grandma know that we are SO happy to have her pumpkin pie again ? !

S o as preacher on this first Sunday of Advent I ask : H ow in the world can I help us FEEL desperate for God's intervention and sal vation when our bellies are so full? How can we stay alert and attentive to the reality that the world as we know it will one day end (Thank God) and we will be ushered at last into eternity with God? And how can we make ourselves even care about the great triumph of God in the end when we are so well fed and satisfied now? That is the challenge for all of us : to keep alert and on our tip toes for the final coming of Jesus , e ven as we are well fed and well cared for ! It is hard to identify with the longing and impatience for that day that we hear in the words of Isaiah.

Or is it? A s Barbara Brown Taylor writes : ``The world can end any day of the week with a declaration of war or the death of a child or a grim diagnosis. '' ( Gospel Medicine , Cambridge, MA:Cowley Publications, 1995, 133-137. ) It doesn't take much imagination to be able to feel the anguish of those who are living in the throes of broken relationships , of an illness that is incurable , of the loss of a job , of gnawing grief , or of fear that is immobilizing. It doesn't take any imagination for some of us, because i t is our lives , i t is our story. Like our ancient ancestors who we find crying out to God in Isaiah , for some of us o ur world s have been flipped upside-down and the face of God sure seems far off .

It is true that the more rattled and shaken up that we are personally, the more alert we are overall. The more alert we are to our own longings, and the more alert we are to the pain of others and their longings.
I'd like to give you a few moments to reflect: What is going on within you these days? What are you afraid of? What is eating away at you? In what arena do you feel insecure maybe even desperate? Or, if your belly is just really full this morning and you are feeling very satisfied and content, then look around, remember the anguish you encountered in someone this week. Remember the things that you read or heard in the news: a Wal-mart worker was killed in a rush of Black Friday shoppers this week; remember the people in Iraq, in Colombia, in Haiti, in Zimbabwe, in India; remember the Palestinians, and the Israelis. Feel the anguish of those who live in pain and suffering, exiled from community. Close your eyes and reflect on your own anguish or the anguish of others get in touch with it, hold it. Don't analyze it, or even pray. Just name it and hold it and look at it.

And now listen as I read from Isaiah again. I'm going to begin back in chapter 63 where Isaiah lists all the great things God has done, which seems to be an attempt to call on God's graciousness - to call out God's favor.

Isaiah 63:7-64:1-12 (The Message)
7-9 I'll make a list of God's gracious dealings, all the things God has done that need praising, All the generous bounties of God, his great goodness to the family of Israel Compassion lavished, love extravagant. He said, "Without question these are my people, children who would never betray me." So he became their Savior. In all their troubles, he was troubled, too. He didn't send someone else to help them. He did it himself, in person. Out of his own love and pity he redeemed them. He rescued them and carried them along for a long, long time.
10 But they turned on him; they grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned on them, became their enemy and fought them.
11-14 Then they remembered the old days, the days of Moses, God's servant: "Where is he who brought the shepherds of his flock up and out of the sea? And what happened to the One who set his Holy Spirit within them? Who linked his arm with Moses' right arm, divided the waters before them, Making him famous ever after, and led them through the muddy abyss as surefooted as horses on hard, level ground? Like a herd of cattle led to pasture, the Spirit of God gave them rest."
14-19 That's how you led your people! That's how you became so famous! Look down from heaven, look at us! Look out the window of your holy and magnificent house! Whatever happened to your passion, your famous mighty acts, Your heartfelt pity, your compassion? Why are you holding back? You are our Father. Abraham and Israel are long dead. They wouldn't know us from Adam. But you're our living Father, our Redeemer, famous from eternity! Why, God, did you make us wander from your ways? Why did you make us cold and stubborn so that we no longer worshiped you in awe? Turn back for the sake of your servants. You own us! We belong to you! For a while your holy people had it good, but now our enemies have wrecked your holy place. For a long time now, you've paid no attention to us. It's like you never knew us.
1-7 Oh, that you would rip open the heavens and descend, make the mountains shudder at your presence As when a forest catches fire, as when fire makes a pot to boil To shock your enemies into facing you, make the nations shake in their boots! You did terrible things we never expected, descended and made the mountains shudder at your presence. Since before time began no one has ever imagined, No ear heard, no eye seen, a God like you who works for those who wait for him. You meet those who happily do what is right, who keep a good memory of the way you work. But how angry you've been with us! We've sinned and kept at it so long! Is there any hope for us? Can we be saved? We're all sin-infected, sin-contaminated. Our best efforts are grease-stained rags. We dry up like autumn leaves sin-dried, we're blown off by the wind. No one prays to you or makes the effort to reach out to you because you've turned away from us, left us to stew in our sins.
8-12 Still, God, you are our Father. We're the clay and you're our potter: All of us are what you made us. Don't be too angry with us, O God. Don't keep a permanent account of wrongdoing. Keep in mind, please, we are your peopleall of us. Your holy cities are all ghost towns: Zion's a ghost town; Jerusalem's a field of weeds. Our holy and beautiful Temple, which our ancestors filled with your praises, was burned down by fire, all our lovely parks and gardens in ruins. In the face of all this, are you going to sit there unmoved, God? Aren't you going to say something? Haven't you made us miserable long enough?
T he people's lament is that God has hidden his face from them. They recognized their sin , confessed it even and yet there is no response from God. WHERE IS GOD ?

Another place in the Old Testament where we find anguish over the hiddenness of God is in Job's story .
Job , a sincere and dedicated follower of God , lost everything: his family his job his wealth . Listen to him:

Job 23 (The Message)
1-7 Job replied: "I'm not letting upI'm standing my ground. My complaint is legitimate. God has no right to treat me like this it isn't fair! If I knew where on earth to find him, I'd go straight to him. I'd lay my case before him face-to- face; give him all my arguments firsthand. I'd find out exactly what he's thinking, discover what's going on in his head. Do you think he'd dismiss me or bully me? No, he'd take me seriously. He'd see a straight-living man standing before him; my Judge would acquit me for good of all charges. 8-9 "I travel East looking for himI find no one; then West, but not a trace; I go North, but he's hidden his tracks; then South, but not even a glimpse. 10-12 "But he knows where I am and what I've done. He can cross-examine me all he wants, and I'll pass the test with honors. I've followed him closely, my feet in his footprints, not once swerving from his way. I've obeyed every word he's spoken, and not just obeyed his adviceI've treasured it. 13-17 "But he is singular and sovereign. Who can argue with him? He does what he wants, when he wants to. He'll complete in detail what he's decided about me, and whatever else he determines to do. Is it any wonder that I dread meeting him? Whenever I think about it, I get scared all over again. God makes my heart sink! God Almighty gives me the shudders! I'm completely in the dark; I can't see my hand in front of my face."

Why is it that God so often seems hidden? Or, like Job, we're sure God's out there but certainly not within our reach. Ronald Rolheiser, in his book entitled The Shattered Lantern writes:
A hundred years ago, when Friedrich Nietzsche made his declaration that God is dead, he was not suggesting that God in the heavens had died. He was saying that God no longer mattered in everyday life. God is dead, he said, but his ``shadow is a long one, and we must first conquer this shadow.'' C ontemporary analyst Philip Rieff says much the same thing. In his view, our generation has an ambivalent relationship toward God: God has disappeared but we still have his calling card. God is absent but, because of our religious past, w e still have a sense of him. (pg. 18ff)

Or a screenwriter once depicted God as an actor who never speaks but never leaves the stage either. These images of religion as struggling with God's shadow, of an absent God whose calling card we still hang on to, describe in a general way our everyday struggle with faith and the hiddenness of God

Rolheiser writes:
We still have some experience of God, though rarely is it a vital one in which we actually drink, first-hand, from living waters. Insofar as God does en ter our everyday experience, most often God is not experienced as a living person to whom we actually talk, from whom we seek ultimate consolation and comfort, and to whom we relate person to person, friend to friend, lover to lover, child to parent.

Or, as Our Biblical ancestors would say: There's not so much face to face meeting with God these days. This makes it sounds as if they had seen the face of God at some point. Could that be? Did people really see the face of God? Do people really see the face of God? How do you know if you've seen the face of God? Is it even safe to see the face of God? We're told, in Exodus, that God spoke with Moses face-to-face. Listen to this where Moses was leading the people of God out in the wilderness after they miraculously were delivered from the Egyptians when the sea opened before them.

Exodus 33 ( The Message )
1-3 GOD said to Moses: "Now go. Get on your way from here, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt. Head for the land which I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying 'I will give it to your descendants.' I will send an angel ahead of you and I'll drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. It's a land flowing with milk and honey. But I won't be with you in personyou're such a stubborn, hard-headed people!lest I destroy you on the journey."
4 When the people heard this harsh verdict, they were plunged into gloom and wore long faces. No one put on jewelry.
5-6 GOD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites, 'You're one hard-headed people. I couldn't stand being with you for even a momentI'd destroy you. So take off all your jewelry until I figure out what to do with you.'" So the Israelites stripped themselves of their jewelry from Mount Horeb on.
7-10 Moses used to take the Tent and set it up outside the camp, some distance away. He called it the Tent of Meeting. Anyone who sought GOD would go to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp. It went like this: When Moses would go to the Tent, all the people would stand at attention; each man would take his position at the entrance to his tent with his eyes on Moses until he entered the Tent; whenever Moses entered the Tent, the Pillar of Cloud descended to the entrance to the Tent and GOD spoke with Moses. All the people would see the Pillar of Cloud at the entrance to the Tent, stand at attention, and then bow down in worship, each man at the entrance to his tent.
11 And GOD spoke with Moses face-to-face, as neighbors speak to one another. When he would return to the camp, his attendant, the young man Joshua, stayedhe didn't leave the Tent.
12-13 Moses said to GOD , "Look, you tell me, 'Lead this people,' but you don't let me know whom you're going to send with me. You tell me, 'I know you well and you are special to me.' If I am so special to you, let me in on your plans. That way, I will continue being special to you. Don't forget, this is your people, your responsibility."
14 GOD said, "My presence will go with you. I'll see the journey to the end."
15-16 Moses said, "If your presence doesn't take the lead here, call this trip off right now. How else will it be known that you're with me in this, with me and your people? Are you traveling with us or not? How else will we know that we're special, I and your people, among all other people on this planet Earth?"
17 GOD said to Moses: "All right. Just as you say; this also I will do, for I know you well and you are special to me. I know you by name."
18 Moses said, "Please. Let me see your Glory."
19 GOD said, "I will make my Goodness pass right in front of you; I'll call out the name, GOD , right before you. I'll treat well whomever I want to treat well and I'll be kind to whomever I want to be kind."
20 GOD continued, "But you may not see my face. No one can see me and live."
21-23 GOD said, "Look, here is a place right beside me. Put yourself on this rock. When my Glory passes by, I'll put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I've passed by. Then I'll take my hand away and you'll see my back. But you won't see my face."

Wow, Moses and God, speaking face-to-face, having an amazing back and forth conversation. Indeed, it seems as if they talked as neighbors. But at the same time as we hear Moses and God talking like good friends the hiddenness of God is plain as well. ``No one can see me and live.'' God told Moses

In Job's lament we heard the longing and the fear of the hidden God:
God is singular and sovereign. Who can argue with God? God does what he wants, when he wants to. God wi ll complete in detail what he's decided about me, Job concluded and whatever else he determines to do. Is it any wonder that I dread meeting God ? Whenever I think about it, I get scared all over again. God makes my heart sink! God Almighty gives me the shudders! I'm completely in the dark , Job admits.

Rolheiser goes on and asks: Why is this? Why is God not more alive within our ordinary lives and consciousness? (pg 20) He says there are two explanations, although I'd guess there are many more than that, but the two that he describes come from John of the Cross (who lived in the 1500s). J ohn of the Cross once wrote that we can experience the silence of God because God can be ``obscure'' OR because we can be ``blind'' . Put another way, an object can be vague (hard to see) for 2 reasons: because it is too far away -or because we have bad eyesight. So when God seems remote, or hidden, it could be either that God is far away or hidden from us or it could be that our eyesight, our attentiveness is not very good and we just can't see God, who is actually right here among us.

And I think we experience both of those realities a good bit of the time. The real gifts of grace are those moments when we feel embraced the by Spirit of God, the very life-blood of the universe, and we actually drink from the River of Life. We sense that God, as a potter, shapes us and loves us and is intimately involved in all that happens to us.

God is always more than we can comprehend or understand and we are always partially blind , there is more to see than what we see. After all, we only see thru a glass dimly at this point. It does seem to me though that full bellies can bring about a greater blindness. As Rolheizer puts it, ``When we stand before reality preoccupied with ourselves we will see precious little of what is actually there to be seen ,'' and then he includes a quote from Henri Nouwen:

One of the most obvious characteristics of our daily lives is that we are busy. We experience our days as filled with things to do, people to meet, projects to finish, letters to write, calls to make, and appointments to keep. Our lives often seem like over-packed suitcases bursting at the seams. In fact, we are almost always aware of being behind schedule. There is a nagging sense that there are unfinished tasks, unfulfilled promises, unrealized proposals. There is always something else that we should have remembered, done or said. There are always people we did not speak to, write to, or visit. Thus , although we are very busy, we have a lingering feeling of never really fulfilling our obligations…
Beneath our worrying lives, however, something else is going on. While our minds and hearts are filled with many things , and we wonder how we can live up to the expectations imposed upon us by ourselves and others, we have a deep sense of unfulfillment. While busy with and worried about ma n y things, we seldom feel truly satisfied, at peace, at home. A gnawing sense of being unfulfilled underlies our filled lives…The great paradox of our time is that many of us are busy and bored at the same time. While running from one event to the next, we wonder in our innermost selves if anything is really happening. While we can hardly keep up with our many tasks and obligations, we are not so sure that it would make any difference if we did nothing at all. While people keep pushing us in all directions, we doubt if anyon e really cares. In short, while our lives are full, we are unfulfilled. (Henri Nouwen, Making All Things New: An Introduction to the Spiritual Life (New York: Doubleday, 1981), pp. 23-24.)

So, here we are on the first Sunday of Advent. The Christmas parties are beginning to line our calendars. You're probably thinking some about what gifts you want to buy for whom, Christmas cards, decorating. It really is a fun time of the year and a high celebration for us as Christians!

But I encourage you, enter the season and walk through it gently and attentively. Do not allow the expectations of the season blind you further. I encourage you to stop, sit up and pay attention, look for God who is looking for you! God is at work in each of you and God is at work in our world.

Be watching and be encouraged by the words that Paul wrote to the Corinthians, when they were in a mess of trouble with each other. Paul wrote in his first letter to them:
I Corinthians 1:3-9
3 May all the gifts and benefits that come from God our Father, and the Master, Jesus Christ, be yours.
4-6 Every time I think of youand I think of you often!I thank God for your lives of free and open access to God, given by Jesus. There's no end to what has happened in youit's beyond speech, beyond knowledge. The evidence of Christ has been clearly verified in your lives.
7-9 Just thinkyou don't need a thing, you've got it all! All God's gifts are right in front of you as you wait expectantly for our Master Jesus to arrive on the scene for the Finale. And not only that, but God himself is right alongside to keep you steady and on track until things are all wrapped up by Jesus. God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with us the life of his Son and our Master Jesus. He will never give up on you. Never forget that.

I c lose with this blessing:
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)

May it be so for you and for me this season.

11-23-08 JHP Looking for Jesus in all the wrong places.rtf

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:40:14 GMT

Sermon: Looking for Jesus in all the wrong places
November 23, 2008 ( Christ the King Sunday )
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church
Jane H. Peifer
Text: Psalm 100; Ezekiel 34:11 , 16; 20 , 24; Ephesians 1:15 , 23; Matthew 25: 31 , 46

As I was reflecting on this text throughout the past week, a couple of things jumped out at me as I read the morning newspaper. On Wednesday, an inmate died at the Lancaster County Prison a few blocks from where I live. It is a suspected suicide.What caught my attention was this paragraph:
``Guarini (the warden) also would not release the man's name Wednesday afternoon because no next of kin had been notified. It will be difficult to notify someone, he said, because the inmate had listed no family, was from out of state, and no one had visited him since he arrived at the prison. '' (Intelligencer Journal, Nov. 19, 2008, page B1)

Also in the paper this week was a word from the national Agriculture Department:
``Some 691,000 children went hungry in America sometime in 2007, while close to one in eight Americans struggled to feed themselves adequately even before this year's sharp economic downturn .'' (Intelligencer Journal, Nov. 18, 2008, back page)

That reality was reflected here at home in Thursday's paper:
``Local food banks are hungry for more donations as community need has increased as much as 30 percent in recent months. Lindsay Hess, from Lancaster County Council of Churches said, `` Last year, we served about 1500 people a month. This year, our numbers are closer to 2500 a month. And we're seeing a 73 percent increase in the number of children we're serving .'' (Intelligencer Journal, Nov. 20, 2008, front page)

I'm sure its not news to any of you here that: there are hungry people in our community; there are people without enough clothing, without a place to live; there are immigrants who have come to our area, and no one is welcoming them; there are people in prison with no one to visit them; and there are sick people without health insurance who show up at our emergency rooms because they have no one else to help them.

The text for today, Matthew 25:31, 46 is a very familiar one. It gets quoted by Christians and non-Christians alike. I thought I knew what it meant, but I have learned some things that have opened this text in new ways for me, which is what I will share with you today.

First, for some background, in Chapters 24 and 25 of Matthew, after Jesus predicted the destruction of the temple, we find Jesus trying to answer the question of the disciples in 24:3 which was ``Jesus, tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? '' They wanted to know when and how the end of the age or the end of the world was going to come about. Jesus gave them all kinds of images and warning signs to look for, things like:
There will be wars and rumors of wars
Nation will rise again nation and kingdom against kingdom
There will be famines and earthquakes at various places
You will be persecuted because of your connection to me.
There are going to be many false prophets who will try to lead you astray
There will be angels with loud trumpets calling
This generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place

But, no one really knows or can know the hour or the day, so keep awake, Jesus said. Be vigilant. Then he told two parables describing vigilance: the one about the 10 bridesmaids with their lamps and the one we heard last week from Ervin Stutzman about the man who went on a journey, entrusted his property to servants and returned to find that some had made good on the money and some hadn't. Jesus ends by saying, `For all those who have, more will be given but from those who have nothing, even that will be taken away.''
These are all part of Jesus' answer to the disciples when they asked about the end of the age

Then Jesus returns to more of what is going to happen in the end. In the text you just heard he described the great judgment scene. The movement of this story is gathering and separating. Let's look first at the gathering part:
``When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of this glory. All the nations will be gathered before him . (verse 31)

Richard Gardner has written the Believers Commentary on Matthew (Believers Church Bible Commentary: Matthew, by Richard B. Gardner. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1991.), and he has guided my study of this passage. He notes that one of the questions that orients this story, according to Matthew, is ``Who is gathered?'' The translation of the Greek word would indicate that it is ``all the Gentiles'' or ``all the nations.'' Your Bibles, depending on the version, probably use one or the other. So, all the nations are gathered together when the Son of Man comes in his glory.

This is eluded to earlier in chapter 24, verse 14:
`` And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations: and then the end will come. ''
Again, later in Matthew in chapter 28 verse 19, we read the instructions for disciples of Jesus:
`` Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you .''
It seems that all humankind , everyone everywhere will be held accountable for their life choices, specifically how hospitable they are at the end of the age.

So, those gathered are all the nations, everyone, all humankind, and then the King pronounces the separation that is like a shepherd separating sheep from goats. The sheep go to his right hand (a place of favor) and the goats to the left (a place of disfavor). Verse 34 follows up on the picture we have of the Son of Man, or Jesus, sitting on the throne, the image of Jesus as king.

Now ``king'' is not a title used for Jesus very often in the Gospels, but in Matthew, as well as in a few other places in the New Testament, it is clear that Jesus is destined to rule on God's behalf in the end time. Jesus is named King, but clearly acknowledges God as his father so Jesus is operating less as judge himself, and more as lord of God's kingdom.
And then the king will say to those at his right hand, come you that are blessed by my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world ,
for you fed the hungry you gave the thirsty something to drink you welcomed the stranger you clothed the naked you took care of the sick and you visited those in prison.
That is how we most often hear this text. Is that what the king said?

No. The king said:
I was hungry and you gave me food
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink
I was a stranger and you welcomed me
I was naked and you gave me clothing
I was sick and you took care of me
and I was in prison and you visited me.
Just what is King Jesus saying to his disciples?

Jesus' listeners were not surprised that they would be rewarded for doing these acts of mercy, because it was a well known fact that those who were considered ``righteous'' did all of these things. All of these acts of hospitality and mercy are mentioned in Jewish literature as deeds that please God, so that was likely no surprise to them, and it doesn't surprise us either. The guilt I feel when I know that there are most likely hungry children within walking distance of my home reminds me daily of what would please God

What does surprise the disciples is that the king Jesus identifies with the needy ones. I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. What does surprise them is that their acts of mercy were actually acts of mercy on behalf of the exalted king himself! ``How could that be? When did that happen?'' they ask. They can't figure out what he is talking about. And then Jesus said, ``As you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me. '' Now remember, he is talking to ``all the nations.''

Gardner writes that the real crux of interpreting this passage is the identity of the ``least of these'' Jesus is talking about when he says ``the least of these who are members of my family.'' Most often we consider the ``least of these'' to be all the needy people of the world, those who have the least. But, Gardner writes that there is evidence in the book of Matthew that Matthew had a much more specific group of poor and needy persons in mind. I won't go into the details of that evidence (in which he outlines in 4 points the places in Matthew where he finds support for this interpretation (pg. 359)) but the upshot of his argument is that,
`` For Matthew, the conversation Jesus has with all the nations in the final judgment focuses on the way humankind has responded to Jesus in the person of his disciples, from the greatest to the least of these. The scene [we are looking at today] is anticipated earlier in Matthew 10, where the topic is Israel's response to the mission of the twelve , the Jewish community's response to the Jewish brothers and sisters who followed Jesus. (pg 359)

In Matthew chapter 10 we have the story of Jesus' instructions to his disciples. They are to go out to spread the news that God has sent his son Jesus to redeem Israel. They are to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons, but they aren't to worry about taking any money with them, no bags, no extra tunic, or sandals etc. He told them, ``If you pronounce peace on a town, and they do not welcome you, just go on your way.'' Jesus was preparing his disciples for what they could expect in taking the good news out to the Jewish communities and neighborhoods.

He finishes his instructions at the end of chapter 10, verses 40, 42:
`` Whoever welcome s you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me . Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, a nd whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous , a nd whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple , truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.

These instructions from Chapter 10 were for the disciples, who were going out to proclaim Jesus to the called out people of God, to the Israel Jewish communities and in our text for today Jesus is answering the BIGGER question of what is going to happen in the end. The setting is a cosmic one when King Jesus gathers ALL THE PEOPLES of the world together and separates them according to whether or not they extended hospitality and welcomed the least of his messengers (members of his family).

Gardner writes:
`` As this mission unfolds, Jesus visits the world through his disciple , messengers, who find themselves in hardship and need as they move from place to place. The blessed are those who have opened themselves to Jesus by welcoming his messengers and offering hospitality . The accursed are those who have rejected Jesus by rejecting his messengers and denying them hospitality. '' (pg 359)

So, we need to ask ourselves, where are we in this story if the needy ones are those spreading the message of Jesus? Certainly some followers of Jesus fit the description of poor and needy and we can each probably name some who really fit this description: people who are sacrificing their own security and prosperity in order to spread the gospel of God's peace. We all know those people. But is that US? Does ``hungry, thirsty, in prison, sick'' describe us? Does it describe Mennonite Church USA as a whole or, more broadly, the established body of Christ in the western hemisphere?

Or, are we the self-sufficient settled communities who have to decide how we will receive those who come to us and challenge our religiosity in the name of Jesus? Where do we find ourselves in this story? As followers of Jesus, are we prophets to the nations to the extent that we suffer? There are ways to be thrown in jail for resisting the powers in the name of Jesus. As followers of Jesus, are we fitting into the culture or are we at least experiencing some tension in our bones as we live the way of Jesus in our neighborhoods and in our workplaces?

How does it feel to you to consider that what Jesus is describing in this Matthew 25 passage is the judgment of how those around us receive the message of Jesus that we carry? How does it feel to consider that all the peoples of the world in the end are going to be judged according to how they receive us and the message of Jesus that we embody? I imagine that to our brothers and sisters in Palestine, in Ethiopia, in Columbia, it feels pretty good. And, in the same way, could it be that we will be judged according to how WE extend welcome and care and hospitality to the prophets that come AMONG us?

Have we welcomed those in the church who challenge us in the name of Jesus? Do we welcome those who come with a new vision, a new word, of gospel for our world, who refuse to believe and live it the way we have done for so long? Have we welcomed the prophets sent to our church, to our communities? When brothers and sisters have felt called to stand in front of the bulldozers that are posed to knock down houses of Palestinians at the hands of Israelis, have we welcomed them? Have we supported them? Have we supported their families back home?

When our four brothers were kidnapped in Iraq and held in prison because of their witness for peace, not war, did we offer them hospitality in our hearts, or did we criticize their decision to go in the first place, as too radical, not responsible? When brothers and sisters choose to withhold the portion of taxes that go for the making of war do we support them? Or, are we willing to help support those who deliberately live under the taxable income level so that their dollars do not support the outrageous level of our taxes that go for war making? Are we hospitable to them?

When our children, or others people's children, deliberately decide not to pursue high levels of education that they are clearly equipped to handle, in order to live and identify with the poor instead? Do we welcome them and their witness among us? When these people and groups do their fundraising among us, are we hospitable to them?

I personally, have been very challenged by this reading of the text. It makes a lot of sense to me and disturbs me and challenges me. The good news about the judgment in the end is that those who give their lives, those who regularly sacrifice home and food and comfort for the sake of spreading the peace and hospitality of Jesus, will be rewarded for their surrender and obedience to the narrow and hard way. But they are also rewarded now by the assurance that God considers seriously how people treat them. When persecution comes, followers of Jesus need not defend themselves against those who hate them and kick them and say nasty things about them, because God will settle it all in the end. We need not be burdened with settling it all now.

If you are like me, this is a whole new twist to this text, although I would guess its not the first time some of you have understood it this way. Can this text still be used, as it most often is, to see Christians as those who are gathered and then judged according to whether or not they extend acts of mercy and hospitality to the needy ones in the world? Is that common interpretation all wrong?

Gardner says no, the more common interpretation still has some merit, but he considers it a misreading of Matthew's intent. Gardner writes, ``Matthew's own agenda in the story is how the world receives and responds to Jesus, not how Christians respond to the world. B ut , at the same time, Matthew might not be unhappy with the new frame of reference we have given to his story. '' (pg 363)

Indeed, throughout the centuries, this judgment scene has inspired artists and poets and writers, and it has inspired Christian ministries of compassion for the hungry and oppressed, such as Bread for the World, Church World Service, and World Vision. Right here in Lititz, Matthew 25 is the name of a thrift store that has contributed $1 million dollars to local charities in the past 8 years. There is obviously nothing wrong with that kind of mobilization of acts of mercy in our world.

In Matthew's gospel, he also recalls the time when one of the Pharisees asked Jesus what the most important commandment was, and Jesus responded with what has become known as the greatest commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. Loving our neighbor is the place where we demonstrate that we love God.

Gardner concludes''
`` If we use the text at hand as an appeal to God's people to show compassion to all in need, we are going beyond the immediate story, but to beyond the biblical story! '' (pg 363)

Now for the irony of the title I gave this sermon earlier in the week: ``Looking for Jesus in all the wrong places.'' I expected and planned to shape the sermon around the words of Jesus that indicate that we find his face, his presence, in the hungry, lonely, imprisoned, sick ones in our world. I was going to suggest that is not usually where we think of going to find Jesus. I had even gathered some stories from Mary Ellen Dula who, as a chaplain, visits with people at Heart of Lancaster Hospital every Tuesday and Thursday, extending hospitality to them in the name of Jesus. She told me stories of how she has found communion with Jesus many times as she cares for people.

I also listened to Ruth Rudy this week tell of the many times in her teaching career when she saw and claimed the presence of Jesus within the most difficult students and found in them tremendous capacity to love and the desire to be loved. (I encourage you to ask both of them for their stories.)

We more often think that we will find Jesus in reading our Bible, praying, and coming to church you know: doing something religious. But there are more of you here who can also give testimony to the reality that we often are looking for Jesus is all the wrong places; that we have experienced over and over a communion with the spirit of Jesus in and among those most hurting in our world.

But, the beautiful irony for me personally this week is that I have been challenged to look for Jesus in a place I hadn't thought of: in the face of prophets among us, in the actions of those in our church who are pushing us beyond status quo, and in those voices who are sometimes the bothersome souls who never give it up, who will not be satisfied with the way things are and were. I confess that I've been looking for Jesus in all the wrong places and I wonder if it might not also be true for you. May God give us eyes to see and ears to hear

In closing, I invite you to reflect on those brothers and sisters who you know experience need and hardship because they are committed to spreading the message of Jesus, the message of peace. In the silence, pray for them and ask God to show you ways to support them.

Prayer:
Lord, we bring to you all our brothers and sisters here at home and around the world who suffer because of their commitment to live and share the gospel. We ask you for the courage to live and share the gospel in our own settings, knowing that you are always right here with us, even to the end of the age.

12-21-08 JHP Advent 4 Summoned and Sent.rtf

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 15:51:05 GMT

Advent 4: Summoned and Sent
December 21, 2008
Jane H. Peifer
Blossom Hill Mennonite Church

Text: Luke 1:26-38; Luke 1:47-55

Last Sunday we sang a new song - at least it was new for me. It is number 11 in Sing the Story , our purple spiral book . It is John Bell's text entitled , ``No wind at the window . '' He describes in new language the story of Mary's visit from the angel.

No wind at the window , no knock on the door;
No light from the lamp stand, no foot on the floor;
No dream born of tiredness , no ghost raised by fear;
Just an angel and a woman and a voice in her ear.

``O Mary, O Mary, don't hide from my face.
Be glad that you're favored and filled with God's grace.
The time for redeeming the world has begun
And you are requested to mother God's son.''

``This child must be born that the kingdom might come
Salvation for many, destruction for some;
Both end and beginning , both message and sign
Both victor and victim , both yours and divine.''

No payment was promised , no promises made;
No wedding was dated, no blueprint displayed.
Yet Mary, consenting to what none could guess
R eplied with conviction , ``Tell God I say, ` Yes. ' ''

Tell God I say ``Yes.''

I'm remembering the days when I was considering the call this congregation gave me t o be come their pastor. I wrestled long and hard because you see, I had decided some things beforehand t hat I had to let go of in order to say ``yes . ''

I had said often during my 8 years as a co-pastor working closely with a partner in ministry - t hat I would never want to be a solo pastor . I n fact, I was sure I couldn't be a solo pastor. And s o , with this call , I had to let go of what I was so sure about in order to say ``yes . ''

A nd, I was sure that to become part of a conference that didn't ordain women w as not a place where I wanted to go. And so , again , I had to let go of what I was so sure about in order to say ``yes .''

And , Daryl and I had decided that if we moved to this area again, we would live in the city and hopefully be able to walk to church . A s uburban church was not what we were looking for , and so I had to let go of what we were so sure about in order to say ``yes . ''

I'll never forget the feeling inside when I gingerly said , ``Tell God I say , ` Yes .' '' I don't know how to describe it , but I could feel walls come down inside of me as I spoke those words of surrender.

We hold out this calling of Mary as one of the greatest callings of all time . O ne writer compared it to the calling of Abraham and Sarah , the one s through whom God formed a covenant with humanity. ``Like Abraham (and Sarah) , Mary's great faith result ed in the birth of a new covenant and a new people.'' ( ``A Summons and Sending'' by Michaela Bruzzese; Sojourners magazine , Dec 08, pg 57 )

So yes, Mary's calling is unique and historic , but the reality is , God is calling people all the time . God's angels are calling . The question is , do we hear them and are WE able to say, like Mary , ``Tell God I say, ` yes ' ''?

There is nothing about Mary before her ``yes '' t hat suggests that she was a logical choice to be the bearer of a new covenant . She was not ready to be a mother , first of all . She was very young , especially by our modern and western standards . She wasn't married ; she hadn't even been with a man yet. She was not a logical choice she was not ready .

She was just an ordinary peasant girl . She had not been raised in the ways of royal families , a nd as the prophets said , this `` messiah child '' was to be a descendent of King David . She was n ot ready. She was not prepared to be the bearer of the new covenant. From all things obvious, she was a strange choice indeed.

But notice her response to the surprise visit of the angel. Her response tells us something about the inside of Mary. The angel said , `` Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you. '' Favored one? F avored one? S he pondered what sort of greeting this might be . The angel continued:
Do not be afraid, Mary for you have found favor with God. And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great a nd will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

Then , notice Mary's question. She said ``Wait a minute. HOW can this be?'' She didn't say ``Whoa This can't be! Not me, I'm not going there!'' Or , `` Wait a minute , IF this is true then something has gone very wrong , because I can't possibly do this . '' Or ``What! Why in God's name would you be coming to me with such a request . There's no way I am going to take this on , believe me ! Mothering the son of the Most High! ''

No Mary just asked ``How can this be?'' She received the message as truth . S he trusted her hearing , she trusted her intuition , her center , she trusted her knowing and beyond all of that , s he trusted God . And yet she was perplexed, and so asked `` So, h ow will this happen?''

And the angel said, `` The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most High will overshadow you. ''
And somehow this young, vulnerable peasant woman was able to surrender t o whatever it was that God was going to do through her. Somehow she knew that this really wasn't about her , b ut it was about God. She didn't argue that ``NO you must have the wrong person, Gabriel . You see, I'm not worthy of this kind of job . There's no way I can let the power of the most High overshadow me. I will be lost. I won't know what to do. I won't. I can't , No! ''

Not Mary . Somehow this unprepared young woman had within her a receptacle for God s o large that she was able to listen way beyond herself

And now the angel said something really important. Gabriel said:
Your relative, Elizabeth in her old age h as also conceived a son and this is the 6 ^th month for her (who was said to be barren . ) Mary , y ou see nothing will be impossible with God .
And then Mary said ,
Here I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word. '' Tell God I say ``yes''

As Kari Jo Verhulst writes ,
Mary risked so much in saying yes to God. Dire social consequences, to be sure: the end of her [engagement] The shame of her family quite possibly death by stoning. I imagine these threats struck her immediately upon hearing the angel's announcement and lodged in her stomach.

And to that the prospect of bearing a child whose future was so entirely out of her hands. Her dreams and plans, her visions of motherhood, all threatened. Then there was the weight that her baby would carry. So tiny, so fragile, born to carry the hopes and fears of all the years. How would he know? Would she be the one to tell the little guy a nd what would it mean for him?

Kari asks, (in light of all these things we imagine might have been going on in Mary's head),
What calmed her fears what eased her soul enough so that she would feel and hear
and trust the ``yes'' now rising from her belly?
Kari writes,
I imagine it was [the angel's] report of Elizabeth, now miraculously with child, that assured Mary she was not alone , a nd sent her, running, to her elder relative and friend. ( ``Risking Shame'' by Kari Jo Verhulst, , Preaching the Word, Dec 21, 2008 )

This is the ot her thing we must notice about Mary , h er impulse to go and be with one whom she co uld be assured would understand. These two women , one very young and one very old , hung together , held onto each other , and waited together , thus deepening in each other their faith in God a nd the reality that indeed with God obviously, nothing is impossible.

Mary's going to Elizabeth illustrates for us the necessity of hanging together . We cannot live this new life - keep covenant with God - alone. We cannot carry the call of God alone. And it seems that God does not want us to do it in isolation . How clever for God to have miraculously made two women pregnant with the news of the new covenant two women who already knew each other!
Indeed , the angels ' words really did have teeth in them when Gabriel said , `` The Lord is with you, Mary . Do not be afraid.'' Elizabeth was the flesh and b ones of God for Mary . Mary was the flesh and bones of God for Elizabeth, even as they were both carrying the flesh and bones of God's new covenant f or all people and for all time.

T he final thing I want us to notice about Mary is h er trusting openness to love gave birth to LOVE in the world.
The impossible became possible because of her openness - not because her goodness , or her abilities , or because she was prepared . The impossible became possible because she surrendered and was able to trust the proc ess without knowing the outcome, without needing to control it , without needing to know all that her ``yes'' would expose her to.

Her surrender - our surrender - to the call of God is always about much more than ourselves . What tremendous power of the Spirit is set loose in those who believe that ``with God nothing will be impossible.''
They are impregnated with prophetic vision radical courage and enduring compassion. ( Nothing Impossible , by Conrad Hoover. , Preaching the Word, Dec 21, 2008 )

Mary somehow understood that she was (in the words of Martin Buber) `` s ummoned and sent. '' She somehow knew that the angel's call was for more than her life. Revelation is never limited to our private relationship with God , b ut is a profound commitment to the world . We are to be a sign through Jesus of God's covenant with all humankind. Somehow Mary understood that , or at least was willing to carry that truth until she more fully understood.

God is calling people all the time. God is summoning and sending people all the time. Can you hear the call? A nd , like Mary , can you surrender without knowing all it will entail?

God desires people who offer their lives as spaces where good news is born. Mary's hospitality to God, [Sebastian Moore , in his book ``The Contagion of Jesus''] writes, shows thekind of surrender that leads to ``the forming of Christ in us as in her womb.'' When we surrender ourselves to God, the Holy Spirit overshadows our body and begins to form Christ's presence. Christians are weak people who make room for God. Discipleship is our unceasing struggle to welcome God into our midst, as Mary does, so that something unspeakably new and wonderful may be born in our world. With Mary, we pray: ``We are the servants of the Lord. Be it done to us according to your word.''(Isaac Villegas,''Pregnant with God'' The Mennonite, Vol. 11, No. 24, December 16, 2008, pg 2)

I will close with a poem by Mary Oliver entitled ``Wild Geese . '' She invites us to imagine wild geese as the calling Spirit of God .
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair yours and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
Are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees,
The mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the cl e an blue air
Are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
The world offers itself to your imagination,
Calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
Over and over announcing your place in the family of things.

And I add :
Whoever you are , no matter how lonely , no matter how unprepared
God offers Godself to your imagination,
Calls to you as angels, harsh and exciting
Over and over announcing your place in the family and work of God in this world.

So may you, like Mary, be listening…