Sleeper, Awake!
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008
Fourth of Lent
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Ephesians 5:8-14
Theme: “Christ will shine in (through) you”

8For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— 9for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. 10Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. 11Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; 13but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

I remember as a 7-, 8-, and 9-year old, playing in the dirt in the back of our yard – against the back wall of the property there was a stretch of bare earth all the way across. I would – in retrospect, terribly wastefully, since we WERE, after all, living in the middle of the driest desert in the world – drag the garden hose back there and lay it down and build up a small mountain of dirt to cover the nozzle, and then turn on the water and watch in amazement as the water poured out of the inside of the mountain – just like a spring, and turned what had only a few minutes earlier been nondescript dusty, dull rocks into precious, colorful, brilliant stones.

I imagined coming across agates and rubies and sapphires and maybe even a DIAMOND. Never mind that I had less than a clear understanding of what any of those stones might look like if I came across one in the rough. But I was dreaming.

The colors and shiny glints that sparkled from those wet stones in the sunlight made me realize how different something can look after just a few critical changes.

It struck me as odd that in our text this morning an article seemed to be missing in a couple of places – Paul writes “for once you WERE darkness, but now you ARE light” … did someone leave out the ‘in’? It would seem to make sense for him to say “For once you were IN darkness, but now you are IN light” … but what we have is Paul saying we ARE in and of ourselves – by our very nature – or our acquired one – one or the other – darkness or light.

Have you ever known someone of whom it could be said “They could light up a room when they walked in”? Or perhaps the contrary – you’ve known someone who by simply walking into a room DIMMED it, somehow – by their affect, by their attitude, by something as seemingly inconsequential as the expression on their face or the tone in their voice?

This section of Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus comes in the middle of a warning – to keep away from all immorality, all drunkenness, greed, he hits the big no-no’s, but he also includes vulgar or silly talk. He’s laying out a description of what someone who carries the light of Christ inside them might look and act like, literally.

Notice, he doesn’t say “be happy and smiling all the time”. As a rule, though there are moments of joy and happiness – even extended ones – in this life, it would be less than honest to walk around with a smile to show off your third molars all the time. Life doesn’t work that way.

But how would you be able to TELL, then, if someone has the light of Christ in them?

There is a sense of calm, an assurance, a peace. Not cockiness, not an in-your-face attitude that yells “I KNOW WHAT’S RIGHT AND YOU DON’T”, but a humble spirit, a generous heart, a welcoming and engaging attitude – one that let’s the stranger know that he or she is important and worth GETTING to know.

Friday night at the Power Team presentation in Tappahannock, they kept repeating a line as they approached the time of decision at the end – “Jesus loves you just the way you are, and cares too much for you to leave you there!” I realize it is what I would call an example of bumper sticker theology. Understanding that their primary audience – the people they have the most impact on – are youth and children, there is, at least initially, a need to boil the message down to something that can be easily remembered – and easily built on through follow-up.

So here’s the unpacking of that message: following Christ IS about accepting his love for us, it IS about understanding that, no matter what we’ve done in our lives, however vile, however mean, however low, however unscrupulous, however twisted, God still loves us through the person of Jesus Christ. In asking Christ to be Lord of our lives, we make a commitment to follow him, to follow his example – to the point of making him the rule of our daily living. And THAT part, that following on a daily, hourly, minute-by-minute basis, CHANGES US. The thing is, it’s not the act of obedience that is changing us, though that is part of it. It’s not the submitting on an hourly, daily, and weekly basis to what JESUS would have us do at any given moment, in any given situation, in whatever circumstance we find ourselves, though they are all part of it – it is the presence of the Holy Spirit that is both prompting and … securing, shining and polishing us up to be gems, to BE light – yes, be IN the light, but BE LIGHT as well – we can be sources of light OURSELVES.

It isn’t that we are THE source of light. The given is that GOD is the source of light for ALL of us. Notice that Paul says “Now IN THE LORD you are light.” What he is saying in a positive way is that, apart from the Lord we ARE darkness. So we stand on that promise. That if we are in the Lord, we become children of light.

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

This past Wednesday night we concluded our Winter Bible Study in discussing the Ministry of Friendship. The only verse I read that evening was from the Gospel of John, the 15th chapter, the 15th verse. Jesus tells his disciples that he no longer calls them servants, for a servant doesn’t know what his or her master is doing, but rather he calls them friends, because he has made known to them everything that was made known to HIM by HIS father. In other words, we know what God is about the business of doing in the world, and we are a part of it.

We are friends of Christ, and we are friends to each other. The water of Christ has rinsed the dust, the grime, the ‘nassness’ to use a Maccubbin family word – off – and out – of us and made us to shine in the light of God.

We often pray that God would make us – as a church – a beacon in our community. Caleb got a really cool birthday present last weekend. It’s an LED headlamp. It has three different settings. You push the switch on the side once, and 1 of the LEDs lights up. You push it again, and three light up. You push it a third time and all 7 Light Emitting Diodes light up. Pushing the switch each time tells the diodes to come on, to ‘wake up’, as it were.

Which setting do you think provides the most light? The last, of course. It’s not that there is NO light on the other settings, it’s that there is MORE light when all the lights are on … it’s easier to find your way around, easier to see the way you need to go, easier to … read, to move forward, to see how those who are around you are doing, when all the lights are on.

In the same way, the Spirit wakes us to the realities of Christ in our lives. And as we become aware of that movement, that change in demeanor, in attitude, in thought pattern, we seem to awaken as though from a sleep that has kept us quiet and inactive for far too long.

My prayer is that we, as a family of faith, as children of light, as a beacon of the light of Christ in Warsaw, and Richmond County, and on the Northern Neck would be in tune enough – with the Holy Spirit and with each other – so that the light that shines through us would beckon, would gather – would ATTRACT those who have been walking in darkness all their lives to find in that light a warmth and welcome and a purifying power that will cleanse, and heal, and make them whole, just as it continues to purify, cleanse, heal, and make us whole together.

Let’s Pray.

Much More Surely
Sunday, February 24th, 2008
Third of Lent
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Romans 5:1-11
Theme: Assurance of salvation – the grace of God predisposed to reconnect with us

1Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Tomorrow is Caleb’s birthday. He’s going to be 10 years old. It’s hard to believe that an entire decade has gone by since we welcomed him into our family and into this world.

We celebrated his birthday yesterday. He had several friends over, along with his grandparents and Leslie’s brother Scott and HIS family. It was, all in all, a good day. Good play, lots of laughter, graciously generous gifts, and not TOO much getting on each others’ nerves.

Before getting too far into today’s message, a disclaimer needs to be made: Though this is not a Father’s Day message as such, I am going to be touching on issues of parenting – of Fathering – and the marks of a loving father, knowing full well that there may well be some of you hearing this whose point of reference for a loving father is not your biological father, but rather another male figure in your life: an Uncle, an older brother, a teacher, perhaps someone who did not come along until later years, but who filled that void in your life who took on the role of a father. It is to THAT person, to whom I would ask you to turn your thoughts in trying to put a face to the concept – to the idea and the ideal of a loving father or parent.

If you are still SEARCHING for that person in your life, I would encourage you to search patiently, diligently, prayerfully, with openness to who God might put in your path who could be that person for you.

On with the message:

I spent most of the time watching the proceedings of the party. Helped a LITTLE around the edges, took a few pictures, and threw away the wrapping paper as it came off the gifts, minor things. A couple of things came to mind during the party that I chose to tend to – a couple of short phone calls – one to take and the other to make, which took me away from the festivities.

I consider myself a loving father, for the MOST part. Not anywhere NEAR perfect, as you’ve heard me share from here or on one or another Wednesday evening Bible Study on occasion. I would much rather use myself as an example when things go wrong – because in my mind they so often DO – than to find an instance to point to someone else and say “That’s not the way to do it” – it goes back to having a plank in my own eye and trying to take a splinter out of someone else’s. It works better to work on the plank first.

But like I said, I think for the most part I’m a loving father – but even as such, there are times when I fall so far short of the mark – the goal – of fatherhood that I wonder about my fitness as one. That is usually in a particularly dark moment. I don’t have them very often, thankfully, but they come around on occasion, and I have to ask myself: will that that I just did – or didn’t do – be what Hannah and Caleb and Judson think of when they are asked to picture God as a loving parent at some point later in their lives, and will it stop them from being able to do that?

It’s a heavy burden to bear. A sobering realization that how I am with them is going to affect how they think about God. Maybe not their complete understanding of who God is, but on some level, perhaps not even on a conscious one – I will be in there. That goes for all of us who have interaction with children – whether our own or someone else’s, whether in a structured environment like school or Sunday School, or in random encounters around town or at ball games, at Wal-Mart or Food Lion, or Family Dollar.

Our faith and scriptures tell us to be kind to one another – even to our enemies, but especially so to children, to be gentle and loving, to be patient, to be willing to teach, and listen, to laugh and play. Don’t ask me to quote THOSE particular verses, but the overall thrust of the Gospel, as well as those places IN scripture where we SEE Jesus interacting with Children – it was in a welcoming manner – in contrast with how his disciples were apparently treating them.

We have this image of Jesus as welcoming, loving and accepting. By extension, and understanding Jesus to be God the Son -- God incarnate, we can apply THOSE same attributes to God the Father as well as God the Holy Spirit.

And here is where we get to the intersection of our text and our lives.

Kids will be kids. They will get distracted, they will be careless, they will forget something they’ve been told to do. It happens all the time. My family is no exception. I was no exception. I would venture to say that no one here went through their childhood without at least once goofing up. How did our parents respond? How did WE, as parents, respond?

Did we laugh it off, or did we fly off the handle? Did we yell, or did we gently remind for the 34th time in the last hour to do the same thing yet again? Did we threaten, or did we take the time and energy to correct, gently and perhaps with a little humor, and in the process create a lasting memory of how we would LIKE to be remembered as a parent?

You see, we’re all kids. We’ve all been there. We’ve all “goofed up.” We’ve all done what should not be done. We’ve wandered away. In some instances, we’ve actively RUN away – From God, from Jesus, from the gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit.

And our image of what might happen to us if and when we come back around to ask forgiveness for what we’ve done – or failed to do – is on some level based on our own experience in our own lives, or worse, on an image of a wrathful, vengeful, dispassionate God who would just as soon let us burn as come to faith and a relationship with him – a person that is divorced from the image and the person of Jesus Christ to the point of being someone entirely different.

Paul is telling us in this passage of a God who is the opposite of that. He is telling us that God INITIATED the reconciliation that we are beneficiaries of before we were even in the picture – before we even LONGED for that reconciliation – before we even realized we were in NEED of that relationship – God as a loving creator and father made provision for us.

You see, the one thing that God does better than create is love. And he’s already done the creating – at least the INITIAL creation – God DOES engage in creation every day, minute and second of our lives – but God is working on teaching us to love – to love as he did while he was with us in the person of Jesus – and teaching to love like that is the work in progress. It was begun in the incarnation, and continues through Christ’s present body – the church.

So God has given us – has SHOWN us – how it is to love – to reconcile – especially when the one with whom you are trying to reconcile initially rejects you – or even kills you.

There is nothing to fear in God. There is nothing to fear in entering into relationship with Jesus Christ. There is everything to gain – everything to know, to feel, to experience, to find. God has saved a place for us – for all of us – at his table. The invitation is open.

Let’s Pray

Rest On Grace
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
Second of Lent
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Romans 4:1-17
Theme: The Grace of Salvation

1What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? 2For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 4Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. 5But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. 6So also David speaks of the blessedness of those to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works: 7“Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin.” 9Is this blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We say, “Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.” 10How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, 12and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised. 13For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. 16For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) —in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. ”

It seems a little involved, doesn’t it?

I mean, HONESTLY, all this talk of Abraham before circumcision or after circumcision, righteousness or unrighteousness being reckoned here or reckoned there … this is, truthfully, one of those places in the Bible where people’s eyes start to glaze over pretty early in the reading.

I don’t blame you.

Mine did.

And yet, it’s there. As part of scripture, it is part of what we hold to be central to our faith, so we have to do something with it. We have to make a good-faith effort (no pun intended) to wrestle with it and try to understand it, trusting that the Holy Spirit with guide our thoughts and enlighten us along the way.

So we take a step back, and take a deep breath and dive in.

The issue Paul is discussing is, in simpler terms: How do we obtain salvation? WHEN do we ‘become eligible’, as it were?

His beginning point is, as was made abundantly clear in our reading this morning, the starting point for any good Hebrew: Abraham. It is critical to begin there because it is through and FROM Abraham that the Hebrew people base their understanding of the covenant between them and God. If it didn’t start with Abraham, it didn’t start. It IS not. It never WAS.

The reason Paul is going back to Abraham is even more precise, more definitive, more finely drawn.

He is asking his listeners at what point within Abraham’s life did he come to righteousness – or in something more like our words: a saving relationship with God?

If we can follow the argument, it goes something like this: Did Abraham have faith in God enough to be considered a child of God BEFORE he lost his foreskin or AFTER?

I don’t mean to be irreverent, I don’t mean to be flippant, and I’m not making light of the matter. But there you have it. When it boils down to it, it seems that that was what Paul spent a LOT of his time fighting against.

We’ve read it time after time. Paul against the Judaizers – those who held that to be fully CHRISTIAN meant that you had to first be fully JEWISH – that to include following the dietary laws, observing the Sabbath laws, and all the rest of the 326 laws, in order to be able to become a follower of Christ.

So Paul goes back to the very foundation of the Hebrew religion to argue his point. Was Abraham, the founding father of the faith, the one who laughed when God told him he would be the father of nations at the robust and fruitful age of … well, over ninety, at the very least – who left his home and traveled to a land he’d never seen before and established himself there based on God’s direction to him, who received the promise from God and entered into the covenant agreement WITH God that would extend even to today, was ABRAHAM in relationship with God BEFORE his circumcision or did he enter into relationship with God AFTER the circumcision?

Paul’s point is pretty clear. Abraham was already in relationship with God before he followed the instructions that God gave him so that anyone who cared to would be able to tell without asking that there was something different about this Abraham fellow – something important enough to make him mark himself in such a permanent way. Humans are not known for growing back parts that get cut off.

The point we would do well to remember this morning is that it was not – and never HAS been – about DOING something to GET to the point of salvation; it is about DOING something BECAUSE of having BEEN GIVEN THE GIFT of salvation. Beginning in verse 13, Paul says,

13For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. 16For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham…”

Those are startling words, freeing words, blessing words, but they are words that, insofar as they empower us with the truth they speak of how we enter into relationship with God, they also call us out of an almost-natural sense of entitlement to salvation – by virtue of what we’ve given, or what we’ve suffered, or how much we’ve been involved in church, or how much TIME we spend in Bible study, or prayer, or in committee meetings, or in associational meetings, or on mission trips, or listening to missionaries speak, or preparing and delivering meals to the community, or shut-ins, or any of that – don’t think I’m saying DON’T do those things – DO do those things—JUST BE CLEAR ON WHY we do them.

WE DO NOT DO THEM IN ORDER TO OBTAIN SALVATION. WE DO THEM IN GRATITUDE FOR THE GRACE BY WHICH WE HAVE BEEN SAVED.

We do them in obedience to God’s command to care for each other. We do them in response to God’s call to be in relationship with each other – and to have that relationship be called a loving one. We do those things as a way of showing our loving response to God because it is THROUGH those things that we draw closer to God and hopefully get to know God better.

So what does it all mean for us here at Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

It means that we acknowledge, we understand, we wrestle against the urge to live in a mindset that says ‘I did this – whatever ‘this’ is, therefore I deserve salvation’ about ANYTHING in our lives. It is truly faith that came first, not action; faith in what God’s promise means to us, for it is the promise of relationship – and not just any relationship, but a relationship with the maker of the universe, who knit us together in our mother’s womb – who knew us before we were born, and who loves us beyond measure.

God God’s self is inviting us to rest on grace. Can we take God at God’s word?

Let’s Pray

Changed by His Glory
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
Last of Epiphany/Transfiguration Sunday
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Matthew 17:1-9
Theme: The transforming power of the Lordship of Christ

1Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” 6When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. 9As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

This is a safe place to come, isn’t it?

When you walk in the door on Sunday mornings, or Wednesday evenings, on some level you breathe sigh of relief and relax … because … you’re home, you’re among family, you are with people you care about and who care about you. You are where you know what to expect, right?

After all, the whole “worship, church, Sunday school” atmosphere – they’ve been a part of our lives in most cases … our ENTIRE lives. We have a Sunday morning routine, and if we stick to it, it helps us mark our days. We have some sense of the passage of time, even if it involves becoming aware of how others in our family of faith are wrestling – as we have at one point or another – with the frailty of the human body. That has been made patently clear to us in the last week and weeks through the experiences of our brother Elwood, and our sisters Jean and Doris Jean.

So we come to church to seek some sense of reassurance that we are on the right path, that we are heading in the right direction, that whatever may have happened in the intervening 6 days, we are still, to a greater or lesser extent, heading TOWARDS God and not AWAY from God.

As a college student, for a couple of years I took a break from the familiar and visited unfamiliar churches – attended services that were to a degree similar to what I’d grown up with, but were equally different. On several occasions I and my roommates visited the Assembly of God Church in town. One of my roommates had been … smitten … and I don’t mean that in any negative sense – by the charismatic movement that was sweeping through American Christendom in the late 70’s and early 80’s. They were opportunities to explore the different expressions of faith that we enjoy here in the States.

It also happened to coincide with an exploration that was taking place internally in MY life – my pilgrimage of faith – where I was able to study, not in an academic sense, but in more of an experiential sense – how I wanted my faith to impact my life – or indeed if I even WANTED it to.

What I came away with from those services in the charismatic tradition was … exhaustion, to be honest. To one who was unaccustomed to the level of emotionalism and spiritual ecstasy that you are capable of experiencing in a charismatic worship service, I was usually completely wrung OUT by the time the service was over. The emotion, the energy, the life-changing decisions that took place in those services were draining in the best sense of the word … but I wondered how one could maintain that level of engagement over a protracted – an extended – period of time. There are only so many times that you can fall on your face, lay prone on the floor, and ask God to forgive your wretched lack of self-control before it too becomes more of a performance than a true expression of repentance.

That, I suppose, is what has, in the long run, drawn me to the more liturgical expressions of faith. There is a measuredness about it. A sense of pacing yourself, I suppose. Though even in that, I sometimes miss the sense of abandon that comes with the emotional release I found in a charismatic service – chaotic as it may have been, there was a catharsis – a transformation, a change – that took place that I have only rarely found outside that experience.

So I wonder what it must’ve been like for Peter, James and John on top of that mountain – and after. There was evidently an awareness of the significance of the event – Peter offered to build dwelling places for Jesus and Moses and Elijah. He wanted them to hang out together. They were his ultimate role models, I guess.

They’d all spent enough time with Jesus to begin to understand that he WAS who he was telling them he was. They were finally beginning to understand the full implication of what it meant to have God say to them in this vision – LISTEN TO HIM. In case you are wondering, the phrase is in the imperative form. It’s not a suggestion or a recommendation from God. It’s a commandment. “Imperative” comes from the same root as Empire or Emperor.

Peter and James and John KNEW they’d experienced something terribly significant in the ministry of Jesus. They KNEW they wanted to mark it. They knew it was a turning point in THEIR lives – as well as Jesus’ life. It wasn’t until later that they realized the full implication of the vision.

How long has it been since you experienced a life-changing encounter with God?

To be truthful, there is a part of me that has to wonder how HEALTHY it is to repeatedly live through these tremendously moving and seemingly life-changing events. From an emotional perspective, I know that as humans, we can accustom our bodies to a constant barrage of almost anything. Some young men become addicted to the adrenalin rush they get from engaging in extreme sports – jumping off bridges or skyscrapers attached to bungee chords or parachutes – others become addicted to the attention that is garnered from having some crisis going on in their lives each day or every other day – at least once a week. There are babies that can only go to sleep in the middle of a raucous party – music blaring, lights flashing, people yelling. We had our very own example of that up here in the choir a few minutes ago, courtesy of Chloe Garner. Here she was in her grandmother’s arms, surrounded by the whole choir singing their hearts out, and she was fast asleep. Not that I’m hoping that will be the case LATER in life, but there you have it. There is no end to what we can adjust to if we see no alternative to it.

Is it any wonder that we seek solace, seek comfort, seek PREDICTABILITY when we come through those doors on Sunday mornings? Our lives are, even here, in rural Virginia, bombarded with change – changing demographics – our neighbors don’t look like they used to – changing mores – what we hear on the radio or see on television isn’t the same as what it used to be – changing values – whether we like it or not, the children and grandchildren of those people we grew up with have to varying degrees walked away from any semblance of what had been, up until a few years ago, the accepted norms of society. We are faced with what seems to us a downward shift in all aspects of life – moral, spiritual and ethical.

I was speaking to a man yesterday who was one of the earliest members of Thalia Lynn Baptist Church, if not a founding member, who shared with me of his burden for a lifelong friend – a fishing buddy, he called him, who was 87 years old and had yet to ask Jesus to be Lord of his life. I asked if this man attended church anywhere. My friend replied that he did – that he attended Thalia Lynn Baptist Church. His wife was a member, but he had never taken that step of asking Jesus to be the Lord of his life. I was almost overwhelmed with the sadness of the situation. Though I don’t know who my friend was talking about, I am pretty sure that I would know the man he was talking about if he named him. And I wondered if I would have ever asked myself if he had given his life to Christ if I had known his name.

You see, there’s this thing that goes on – especially in American Christianity – but not only. And it is that idea of … guilty by association. Not in the negative sense here – but in the sense that … if I move around close enough to where the action is, I should be able to blend in and be considered part of it.

The problem with that is, it doesn’t work like that. Jesus tells us we HAVE to engage. We HAVE to believe. We HAVE to trust, and have faith, and proclaim and LIVE every day as though it were the day that he will come looking for us in order for it to be effective for us.

And even that part – the “effective for us” part of it is secondary. It’s a side-effect. Salvation is secondary to obedience. We are here primarily to help break in the Kingdom of God. And the Kingdom of God is risky. That’s why we include the phrase ‘risk something big for something good’ in our benediction and commissioning. There is nothing better to risk than that which will break in the Kingdom. And how does that look? It is as close as the person sitting next to you or in front of you or behind you. There are certain spaces empty this morning, but that’s okay. Even in the existence of these spaces, we are faced with what we can do to break in the Kingdom. I’m not saying that a full sanctuary equals breaking in the Kingdom, but it is a starting point. And it is a challenge.

We come to church seeking comfort and safety, but we need to understand that whenever we are in the presence of God, we must redefine what it means to be “safe”. Being in the presence of God is the … CAN be the LEAST comforting place TO be, and still want to be there … does that make sense?

God is about changing us. Changing the way we see the world, changing the way we see ourselves, changing the way we act and talk, and live. And that is risky.

So the hope and the prayer is that, whenever we come together, and understand ourselves to have been in the presence of God, that we will come away from this event with the knowledge that God has changed us. Maybe a lot, maybe a little, but God HAS changed us. We are more than we were when we came in and we are less than we will be tomorrow, and yet we are in that pilgrimage, and as unsafe and as risky and as uncomfortable as it may be, there is no safer place to be than holding God’s hand, because he’s got HIS hand outstretched to us, to walk alongside, and to guide.

Let’s Pray

Strengthened Among You
Sunday, January 20th, 2008
Epiphany 2
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Theme: Fellowship of believers, growth in the Spirit

1Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, 2To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: 3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— 6just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— 7so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul’s letters to the Corinthians aren’t the first letters that come to mind when you are asked to name the great love letters of history.

Let me read a couple of sample letters to you:

First:

I and my heart put ourselves in your hands, begging you to recommend us to your good grace and not to let absence lessen your affection... For myself the pang of absence is already too great, and when I think of the increase of what I must needs suffer it would be well nigh intolerable but for
my firm hope of your unchangeable affection...

Second:

I love you, I cannot live without you... I would like to go through life side by side with you, telling you more and more until we grew to be one being together until the hour should come for us to die. Even now the tears rush to my eyes and sobs choke my throat as I write this... O my darling be only a little kinder to me, bear with me a little even if I am inconsiderate and unmanageable and believe me we will be happy together. Let me love you in my own way. Let me have your heart always close to mine to hear every throb of my life, every sorrow, every joy.

Now THOSE are love letters!

… Or are they? What our society has come to label ‘love’ is a somewhat distorted, shallow reflection of what true love is.

Henry VIII penned the first one in 1528 to Anne Boleyn, unfortunately while he was still married to Catherine of Aragon, his first of six wives. King Henry was desperate for a male heir, and ended up plowing through 6 wives in order to get one. Even having written that beautiful letter to Anne 5 years before they were married, he only allowed their marriage to last 3 years before he fabricated charges against her and had her executed for treason in 1536.

The second was from James Joyce to his at-the-time mistress Nora Barnacle, who eventually DID become his wife, but not until several years after they had met and had at least two children together. She would later confide to her sister that she was terribly disillusioned in her marriage, that James drank too much and that she didn’t understand his writing and hated to accompany him to his ‘artists meetings’.

We call the divisions in our Bible ‘books’, and, more often in the New Testament, ‘Letters’ or ‘Epistles’ – which is just another word for letter. And it is, I think, helpful to remind ourselves now and then that what we have come to regard and understand as scripture is also something else. When we call our Bible ‘scripture’, as with anything that is Holy or important, or foundational for us, we tend to add an element of … otherworldliness to it. We look at it as sacred, of course, which it IS, but in doing that we sometimes lose touch with that initial reason for the writing of the words. In this case, it is a real letter from a real person to a real group of people who were dealing with serious and thorny problems after Paul has had to move on to another place – prison, in Ephesus, by most scholars’ estimation.

I have never been in prison. I hope I never have that experience. But I can imagine that the biggest enemy – the biggest psychological trauma – would come from inactivity. I cannot imagine the loss of freedom, the inability to get up and go when and where I may be needed. Moving around has become such a major part of what I do that it is almost inconceivable to not be able to do it. And yet, it is what Paul was faced with. While travel in the first century was considerably more difficult, hazardous, and relatively expensive than it is for us today, compared to previous centuries it was almost a walk in the park. The Pax Romana – that period of peace imposed by the existence of the world power of the time – the Roman Empire – allowed for trade and travel to flourish. Though still at the mercy of the weather and the occasional band of bandits, the ability to travel on roads built by Rome throughout the empire made Paul’s missionary journeys that much more possible.

For him to have been able to take at least the four journeys we have clear evidence of during the course of his ministry would have, I imagine, given him a travel bug that was rare even in those times.

And here he was, sitting in prison, when HE gets word – perhaps through a letter, or a message sent through a person – about what is going on at the church in Corinth.

And he pours his heart out to them. His love for them is evident in the opening lines of the letter.

3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus,

“I give thanks to my God always for you …” Paul’s not just being polite, he’s not just going through a formality. I truly believe he sincerely means every word he writes – or dictates – to the folks in Corinth.

It is evidenced further in the passion with which he argues his points later in the letter. With as much passion as we heard earlier … in those letters written by Edward and James … only this is a passion that is lit by an eternal flame – the flame of the Holy Spirit.

But in a larger sense – and this is where a simple yet heartfelt letter becomes scripture – as time has passed and different congregations – congregations beyond the one in Corinth to whom the letter was first written – have read and studied the advice, and arguments, and pleading and yes, even berating that comes through in Paul’s writing, we begin to see that it is not just Paul that is writing to us, but it is God.

There IS, in truth, an element of otherworldliness that comes into play when I make that statement. It is a statement of faith to believe that – to speak that – and to hold to the idea that in some way that is not easily or empirically or maybe even theologically clear, God is communicating to us through the words on these pages. Paul’s words are infused with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is, on some level, the Holy Spirit speaking to ALL of us – from that first group of believers who received the letter that was physically addressed TO them, all the way to today – to this group of believers who can simply reach out and pick up one of any number of copies of a book that includes that same letter and have it apply to OUR lives.

So the question always boils down to what does that mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton, on this cold January morning in 2008?

Paul’s initial words, before he gets into the heavy deep and real – and messier parts of what is going on with the church in Corinth – are words of encouragement. They are words that are intended to remind them – and us – of just what it is that we are recipients of in the person of Jesus Christ.

5for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— 6just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— 7so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Did you hear the number of times Paul uses absolutes in those phrases? (Re-read). Paul is trying to convey to his brothers and sisters in Corinth just how much Christ has done for them. He is essentially saying that, when it comes to relating to each other – as well as to the world – in the Spirit of Christ, there is nothing they are NOT capable of doing. The catch is capacity vs. ability. While we may well be capable of doing something, actually DOING it is an altogether different thing. I have the capacity to run a mile. Actually RUNNING a mile is a whole different animal. I have the CAPACITY to smile and shake hands or hug someone who has said or done something that has hurt me deeply in the past. Actually DOING it is a whole different animal. I have the capacity to let that hurt go. Actually DOING it is a whole different animal. But read on to what Paul says next:

8He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord
Jesus Christ.

So not only has Christ provided us with the tools we need to BE in fellowships with one another and to practice BEING the BODY of Christ in the world, he has also provided us with what we need to ACHIEVE that fellowship. He’s given us the whole package. I guess the question becomes: are we going to actually open it up and pick up what’s inside?

Paul’s closing words in the opening passage stand as a promise for us.

9God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Note, he doesn’t say ‘with’ his Son, Jesus Christ, but the fellowship OF his Son. Yes, of course the former – fellowship WITH Christ, is the central part of our relationship with God, but we also get the added benefit of having access to the fellowship OF Christ – that is, his body. And that is where Paul speaks to US here today. Because that fellowship continues – from then until now and into the future – however long God gives us – to learn what it means to love in the name of Christ, to live in the way of Christ, to BE in the name of Christ.

Let’s Pray

You Know the Message
Sunday, January 13th, 2008 (Communion)
Epiphany 1 – The Baptism of Christ
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Acts 10:34-43
Theme: Knowing – and Living – the Gospel

34Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, 35but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. 37That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: 38how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42He 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. 43All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

We know the message. At least we’ve heard it enough to be able to repeat it – sometimes verbatim, sometimes in paraphrase. But we do. If we’ve spent any extended time in church – and I think it is safe to say that the majority of us here in this room have – even if it was as a young child in Sunday School, somewhere in the back of our minds there is something of a recitation we could give that would sum up our understanding of “The Gospel”.

What would that understanding be? What would it reflect? What ‘stuck with us’ from what we heard as a children, as teenagers, as young adults? What is interesting about the question is that the answer depends on when you HEAR the question. If you’d asked me this question when I was, say … 17, my understanding of ‘The Gospel’ or to put it another way, my understanding of what it meant to be a Christian would have been a fairly extensive list of things I wasn’t supposed to do. Not that I did many of them – very few if any, really. Living the gospel meant refraining from cursing, lying, stealing, cheating, ‘loose living’, smoking, drinking, staying out late at night, disobeying my parents, and generally being a good little boy – or young man, by that point.

It was a fairly straightforward proposition. It meant ethical, healthy living, obedience to authority, respect for the laws of both God and Man.

If you had asked me this question just a few years later, when I was 26 or 7, the answer would have been a little less … certain. A little less clear, even. I think I would have made the same list, but the delivery would have been much less self-assured. By that time, I’d been through some life experiences that helped me realize that the assumption that I had as a 17 year-old, that for the most part I had a handle on things, that there were some things that WERE, in fact, black and white, was one that I could not stand by so readily any more. It’s not that the meaning of the Gospel had changed, it was that my attitude towards the Gospel, and what implications my understanding of the Gospel meant in terms of living it in my daily life had shifted, and that had made all the difference.

There was a degree of internalization, a sense of ‘making the faith my own’ that took place over those 9 or 10 years that could not have happened before. I’m not saying that everyone is supposed to go through this in their early and mid twenties, I’m just saying that that was the way it happened in MY case. It can actually happen at any point in your life, if you just let it.

Questions to think about: when did that ‘internalization’ happen in your life, or has it yet? Looking back, can you say you’ve gone through a process like that, where you examine what you say you believe, and for lack of a better phrase, “put it to the test” – you got through a life event that is either deeply moving or terrifyingly traumatic and it makes you stop and reassess what you think is important.

You go through a sea change, a paradigm shift – where what you base the way you live and act changes from one thing – say, the approval of family and friends and/or society, to the approval of God.

Sometimes they are graciously in conjunction, and sometimes, sadly, they are at odds.

Peter was about to experience just such a conflict coming out of the situation we find him in in today’s passage. These words are being spoken to Cornelius, a Roman centurion – a man in charge of a hundred soldiers, a man of leadership, with great responsibilities, but more specifically, a gentile.

The paradigm shift is found in this: up until now, the predominant thought among the People of Israel was that God’s covenant and special relationship was for the sole benefit of … the People of Israel, and no one else, except those who chose to convert and become People of Israel. Peter was one of them. He was the leader of the church in Jerusalem. But here he was, being called in a vision by God to go to the house of Cornelius, a Roman and a Gentile, and share the Gospel with him.

And thanks be to God, he did. He does. That is what we are reading. You see, God didn’t ONLY send a vision to Peter, but also to Cornelius, instructing HIM to send for Peter to come to HIM, because he had something “important” to share with him.

And that important something turned out to be the Gospel, which he spelled out simply and straightforwardly in just a few sentences, summed up in verse 36: “preaching peace through Jesus Christ”.

Unpacking that phrase can become a life’s devotion … or a life OF devotion.

Is that what stuck with us from the gospel we learned or heard as children?

It doesn’t seem to be necessarily the most popular theme to pick up on, if a sampling of preaching were to be taken on any given Sunday. There are more than few voices from which we can hear of how the world is dying and going to hell in a hand basket. There are other voices from which we can hear the dissection of the meaning of the words Peter used in his sermon to Cornelius. There are still others that will go to the other extreme and make this message out to be saying that it doesn’t matter what you do in life, God loves you and would not send anyone with good intentions to Hell, so disregard that idea altogether. Jesus died for everyone, so everyone is covered – no worries.

I confess I fall somewhere in between or maybe it is more honest to say that I’d rather not even be on the same spectrum to begin with.

You see, there is an inherent mechanistic view in those positions that I don’t believe applies to the Gospel. There is a cause-effect understanding that almost completely eliminates the element of relationship that is intrinsic to the Gospel. It is almost a continuation of the Old Testament Hebrew understanding that in order to be in God’s good graces, one must perform certain tasks at certain times of the year, must refrain from certain actions, must keep from certain contacts, and, regardless of the condition of one’s heart, one’s SPIRIT, if one meets THOSE specified requirements, one is IN.

Does that sound familiar?

The good news, the Gospel we like to call it in shorthand, is that God is about the business of reconciling the world to God’s self. It is what we heard last week, and it is what we will continue to hear as the year goes on. It is the foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because it was THROUGH Christ that God was working that reconciliation.

And what we are celebrating today, what we are observing this morning, is the representation of that reconciliation through the sharing of the bread and the wine.

It is an observance, an ‘ordinance’ we call it in the Baptist tradition, which connects us with other Christian traditions the world over. Granted, there are radically different understandings of what taking the bread and the wine mean, there are different ways of doing it, of offering it, of serving it. In our case we don’t use wine but grape juice. We mix it up a little and sometimes serve the little cubes of loaf bread and pass out tiny cups of juice to each person. Today, we are sharing from a common loaf and dipping the bread into a common cup before eating it. Again, the specifics are not that critical. It is the symbolism that carries the weight of the event for us. The single loaf, whether cubed or here whole reminds us that we are part of a common body: the body of Christ. The juice, whether served out of one same bottle and divided into individual little cups for health reason, or provided here inside a single cup, reminds us that we are partakers in a common sacrifice, the sacrifice of Christ’s blood shed on the Cross for our collective sins.

How will we live out the meaning of this meal – this Gospel – in our lives? I invite you to come to the table, and when you leave, to be as bold as Peter in your living out of the Gospel this week.

(Communion)

Sharers in the Promise
Sunday, January 6th, 2008
Epiphany
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Ephesians 3:1-12
Theme: The Church is teaching Heaven

1 This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— 2for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given me for you, 3and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, 4a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. 5In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: 6that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 7Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power. 8Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, 9and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; 10so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.

Welcome to the New Year.

Welcome to a whole set of new opportunities, challenges, problems, and vexations. And we’re not even a full week into the year yet!

If you are like me, you might welcome the New Year in with an odd mixture of anticipation and dread.

There is much to anticipate for the coming year. There always is. We are a people of hope, born of the promise that God will continue to be with us and guide us as we seek to do God’s will.

As a people of faith, we are invited to live the future into the present, and it is an essentially hopeful act. We are charged with being part of the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God. You’ve heard me say that before, and that hasn’t changed. It hasn’t changed since last year, or the last four and a half years, or in the last 175 years, or in the centuries since Paul wrote this to the Christians in Ephesus. In fact, it hasn’t changed since God made the covenant with the people of Israel long before Paul dictated those words.

But as a people living in a broken world, we experience everything living in this world throws our way. We suffer illness, we experience death as a loss, we age, we slow down, we can’t think as clearly or as rapidly as we once could, we miss friends and loved ones, we have disagreements and arguments, we get our feelings hurt, we suffer broken relationships. We face the unknown and it wears on us. As much as we’d like it not to, it does.

So we put our faith into practice. We engage with a community – a family – of fellow believers and hope to find in that congregation a place to call home. As Reverend Espy shared Wednesday evening, we find a welcoming spirit – even when the people don’t know us from Adam.

It is that hopeful openness – that welcoming spirit – that is worth noting and worth celebrating, worth encouraging, worth GROWING, because it is one of the purest expressions of what God is about the business of doing – which is reconciling the world to God’s self.

You know which phrase jumped out at me when I read the passage to prepare this message? From the title, you can tell the first part that caught my attention – that of the mystery of Christ being that the gentiles – that is US, folks – have become fellow heirs, sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. That means the covenant that God made with the people of Israel was extended to the rest of the world through Christ’s coming.

But what STOPPED me on my second reading of the passage was further in – beginning in verse 8, but picking up in verse 9: “to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”

My first reaction was ‘did I read that right?’

“To the Rulers and authorities” is a phrase I’m used to reading in the Bible, but usually it is followed either by the phrase ‘here on earth’, or something to that effect.

THIS time it says ‘heavenly places’. Which is okay, but then you have to go back and look at the first part of the sentence: “so that through THE CHURCH the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known”.

Does that say what I THINK it says? That WE are teaching HEAVEN what God is about?

I guess it’s as appropriate a time to stop here as anywhere for a bit and try to imagine the unimaginable.

Picture yourself as a heavenly being. Go ahead. Wings if you want, twenty feet tall if you want. Whatever color hair you want – the FACT of hair BEING PRESENT if you want – if you even want to PICTURE yourself with a body – the details aren’t important. Here’s what is: you are eternal. You have spent eternity in the presence of God, along with the host of beings that surround God. There is a timeless quality to that presence that makes the concept of eternity irrelevant. You don’t get tired, you don’t get bored, don’t hurt, or weaken, or cry.

What do you know of reconciliation, if you’ve never suffered separation, or loss, or the pain of absence?

That’s what Paul is saying. We are the embodiment of what God was doing when God came into the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. We are the body of Christ. The revelation – the EPIPHANY, if you will – of God in Christ was for the express purpose of bringing about the reconciliation of the World to God’s self.

And we, as his living body are charged with that task. That is what WE are teaching HEAVEN insofar as we remain faithful to it. So the question is first, how in the world can we EVER hope, as frail children of dust, as imperfect, selfish, proud, ignorant, arrogant, appallingly shortsighted humans EVER teach anything to ANYONE, much less HEAVENLY RULERS AND AUTHORITIES?

The fact of the matter is, we can, and we DO. One way or the other.

We can also shoot ourselves in the foot in the process, defeat our own purpose; we can negate any good we’ve done with a passing remark. I don’t need to spell that out for us. Most if not all of us have been in situations or lived through circumstances where church people acted like anything BUT the body of Christ.

But we CAN teach, we CAN model, we CAN BE the presence of Christ in this world. And you know why? Because we are not doing this under our own strength. We are not depending on our own insights – though that comes into play in our applying our faith to our lives – we, like Paul, would do good to consider ourselves “the very least of all the saints”, and get on with the task of sharing that mystery, that gospel, the good news that God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us all.

And we do that through the power of the Holy Spirit. When we surrender our lives to the life of Christ, we invite the Holy Spirit to continue working in us on an ongoing basis. We enter, in an elemental sense, into a covenant with the Holy Spirit to mold us, change us. To make us more like Jesus and less prone to all those things I mentioned earlier – selfishness, ignorance, insensitivity, shortsightedness, arrogance, pride.

So the invitation on this, the first Sunday of the CALENDAR year, is to reaffirm that covenant – not just with Christ, but with the Christ in each other – that in this year we would SO be like Christ TO each other that the world – and that means our neighbors, our friends, our relatives, people we meet at Food Lion or in the doctor’s office, or walking in the mall, and those rulers and authorities in HEAVEN – the ones we tried to imagine ourselves to BE a few minutes ago – will begin to understand what reconciliation TRULY means – what God is REALLY doing in a world that, generally speaking, has forgotten what it even looks like, and a heavenly host that has never seen that aspect of God until the coming of Christ will know God that much better through OUR living into that reconciliation.

Let’s pray.

On Being Ransomed
Sunday, December 16th, 2007
Advent 3
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Isaiah 35:1-10, Luke 1:46-55
Theme: Living in Joy

Isaiah 35:1-10

1 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus 2it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. 3Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 4Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.” 5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; 7the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. 8A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. 9No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. 10And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Luke 1:46-55

46And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

Advent is a tricky time.

We are called to engage in an act of anticipation – of waiting. But it is, essentially, an exercise. The event that we commemorate, the birth of Christ, has already occurred. What we are asked to do is to take ourselves back, spiritually, emotionally, theoretically, to that time and place, first century Palestine, through the words of the prophet Isaiah and Mary the mother of Jesus. We are asked to ponder, like her and like the children of Israel SINCE the time of Isaiah, the coming of the Messiah.

Our task, if you will, as Christ followers, is to relate that sense of anticipation, of expectation, of awaiting, to not only the anticipated SECOND coming of our Lord, but also to what Christ’s coming into our own lives involves on a daily basis.

We have our Advent Wreath to help us mark the weeks as they go by, with a candle for each Sunday; one to remind us of the Hope we have in Christ, the next to remind us of the Peace we have through him, the third to remind us of the Joy we find in him, and the last to remind us of the Love of Christ, before lighting the candle that represents Christ himself in the middle at the conclusion of Advent.

We are asked to do that, if we follow the liturgical year, each Advent season, regardless of what is going on in the world around us, regardless of what is going on in our congregational lives and our personal lives.

And sometimes that can be a source of tension. As believers we understand – or at least we TRY to understand – the eagerness with which the people of Israel anticipated the coming of the Messiah. We try to set in our minds what it would have been like to live under a foreign occupying army, our fate and the practice of our faith controlled – albeit temporarily – by forces belonging to the only world power in existence at the time: that of the Roman Empire. These forces more often than not were at odds with our understanding and worship of God. They were in some cases antagonistic to the most essential and basic claims of our faith.

So as part of our exercise, we try to come up with questions that spring from the contemporary context of the SCRIPTURE, but that relate to OUR present-day context.

The questions that come to mind are, honestly, difficult to pose if one has, to any degree, lived a life of dedication TO the pursuit of working out what Christ’s coming into our DAILY existence MEANS.

They are difficult not because we can’t imagine the context from which they come – although that CAN be a challenge – but because we lose touch with how WE were BEFORE WE knew Christ. So we forget to a degree what the questions were – if we indeed HAD any – BEFORE we decided to BECOME Christ followers. In those instances where we made that decision as very young children, it is doubly so because we tend to let those memories blur into the background of our minds. I realize I am making a generalized assumption in framing the issue like that – as though I am speaking to a roomful of Christ followers. I realize I am probably NOT.

Please understand if you are here and you are not a follower of Christ, or if you are unsure of where you stand in relationship to this whole business of “living in faith”: we are not leaving you out of this conversation. We are engaging in this discussion not JUST for our benefit, but for the benefit of anyone who might be listening in. We don’t claim to suddenly receive all the answers when we become Christ followers. We don’t claim to understand all scripture. I want everyone to know that in this quest – in this working out of our faith – we are willing to admit to question for which we may not receive answers while in this life. We DO claim to live in the hope that we will one day – most likely in the NEXT life – come to an understanding that will make sense of it all, or put everything into a perspective of which we are not capable while ‘treading this mortal coil’ that will render the questions we have now either moot or irrelevant.

So what are we to do? We are still engaged in the study of scripture, and if we are true to our heritage, in accepting scripture as sacred, we actively seek to understand it in our own context as well as the original context in which it was written.

So we have before us this morning two very different passages. One written by one of the great prophets of Israel hundreds of years before the coming of Christ, the other written by a follower of Christ after his death, quoting Mary’s words spoken (or some say sung) a few months before Christ’s birth.

What do they say to US, here, now, having been written twenty-eight hundred and two thousand years ago, roughly?

If you step back from them, there is a resonance in the tone of the writing of the two, a similarity in the themes.

There is recognition of the goodness and the majesty of God.

There is a hope expressed, a confidence in the eventual outcome of what are otherwise grim circumstances. We find in the book of Isaiah the stories of the deportation of the vast majority of the people Judah into Babylonian exile – a pivotal, traumatic, and defining moment in their history. In the life of Mary, we find her pregnant and unwed, facing the scorn of her family and neighbors, perhaps even her entire community.

The realities of the two instances are not being denied. It wasn’t just by accident that Jesus’ first reading at the synagogue at the beginning of his public ministry was from it. The people of Israel found in Isaiah’s passages words of comfort, hope, and encouragement when they faced times of crisis because they knew they had been through it before and that God would be with them regardless of how their present circumstance might seem.

The words of Mary echo the words of Hannah after the birth of Samuel, in what is called the Song of Hannah, found in 1 Samuel chapter 2. To read the Song of Hannah is to hear again the words of Isaiah, and again to find a statement of faith in the sufficiency of God despite what present reality seems to dictate. That parallel was not lost on those early Christ followers who first heard it and who came from a Hebrew tradition, and we would do well to treasure these words in our hearts as well.

The fact of the matter is, we live in a world that surrounds us with a reality that denies that there is any hope, any peace. Just in the past two weeks we’ve been horrified to hear of multiple instances of violence resulting in seemingly random, inexplicable deaths of innocent victims at the hands of pathetically sick individuals – whether by car bombs in the middle east somewhere or in a mall in the middle of our nation, or even in a center dedicated to the training of missionaries, or the parking lot of a church.

We are faced with circumstances that demand of us: what do you see here that would be a justified cause for joy? And what does it mean for Jerusalem Baptist church at Emmerton?

Within our own congregation, we have been faced with the news of a brother who is once again facing the possibility of a protracted battle with cancer. While it is not yet certain, simply coming to terms with the POSSIBILITY is a daunting task in itself; one which from past experience – again, within our own family – would lead us to give UP hope, to wrestle unsuccessfully with despair, to spend sleepless nights worrying about his welfare as well as our own.

We need to always be reminded that, as dismal and hopeless as a situation may seem, for a believer, for a Christ follower, there is an ultimate hope that truly CAN override any fears and sorrows, any worries and cares we may face in this world.

So what do we draw from our passages this morning?

We find in them a courage born not of reliance on our own skills, but rather a reliance on a reality that we cannot yet see – one which is infused with joy because we are in the hands of the one who loved us so much that he gave his life for ours, he ransomed us.

It seems a comment out of left field in the Isaiah passage – in the last verse – verse 10:

10And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

I’m sure it was as much a practice in ancient times as it is today – to hold someone for ransom.

The people of the tribe of Judah had been held in exile for decades in Babylon. Mary was facing an exilic existence away from the accepted norms of her society. But God stepped in and ransomed them all. Their response was hope and joy. And that ransom, along with the same hope and joy is still offered to us today, through Christ Jesus.

Let’s pray.

On That Day
Sunday, December 9th, 2007
Advent 2
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Isaiah 11:1-10
Overwhelming, Surprising, Unexpected, Enduring and Unfettered Love

1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 2The 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. 3His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; 4but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. 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 destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
10On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

I had a wonderful experience last night.

Along with the rest of the family and part of the church family, I got to watch Hannah and Caleb in the Westmoreland Player’s production of ‘The Best Christmas Pageant Ever’.

Not to make it too fine a point, but the cast did a WONDERFUL job. We laughed, we cried, and for those of us who have at one time or another been Veggie Tales fans, “it moved me, Bob.”
If you are not familiar with the story, it involves the ‘good kids’ from a local church complaining about being in the Christmas Pageant AGAIN … nothing ever changes. The same girl plays Mary, the same boy plays Joseph, the same kids end up being angels, or shepherds or wise men – that is, until the Herdmans show up.

The Herdmans are six kids from a rough family – to quote the youngest, Gladys, they are the kind of family that child protective services is at their house every five minutes. They know nothing about how to behave properly in church, bully all the other kids, act like they don’t belong to ANYBODY, and generally wreak havoc wherever they go.

They find out about Church only because one little boy who is tired of losing his lunch to one of the older Herdman boys tells him about the refreshments they get whenever they go to church – cake, donuts, candy, cookies … and that is what draws the Herdman kids in. It happens to be around the same time that they are preparing the Christmas Pageant. Through a mysterious set of circumstances, involving threats to life and limb and ears, none of the regulars end up in their ‘traditionally assigned’ roles. And all the ‘important’ roles are filled by Herdman kids.

Everyone is in a tizzy about what is going to happen to the Christmas Pageant. Even the Reverend suggests that Grace, the director, use a near-fire in the church kitchen as an excuse to cancel the Pageant. She doesn’t, and the show goes on – with the cast never having run all the way through the play.

And that’s where the miracle happens. It is in the unexpectedness of the responses that the story becomes new. It IS new to the Herdmans – they’ve never heard the Christmas story before. They are hearing it for the first time. And they can’t help but react honestly and realistically to the situation. Imogene as Mary and Gladys as the Angel of the Lord really do break the mold that the characters had been poured into over the years. The angel of the Lord doesn’t just say ‘in the city of David, Which is Bethlehem’, but ‘They’re in the stable, behind the Inn, Jesus is in the manger!’ – just so the shepherds won’t wander all over God’s green acre – and she gives them a good shove in the right direction just to be sure they know where they are heading. Meanwhile, Mary burps the baby Jesus while she’s holding him. It’s a very unbecoming thing for the Madonna to do to the savior of the world, but a very natural thing for a mother to do to a newborn child after feeding him.

When the heavenly hosts break out into songs of joy … well … it’s not just with her voice that the angel of the Lord accompanies them – let’s just say I’ve never seen interpretive movement like THAT in any Worship service I’ve been in. It was the singularly most hilarious scene in the entire play – to worship with such abandon – what’s the phrase? “Dance as though no one is watching.”

What am I getting at, telling you about a play I saw last night? What’s the connection with the images from Isaiah this morning?

It is this:

God was about making something new in Bethlehem. In the coming of Jesus of Nazareth to a young girl and her new husband, God was showing us something as unlikely as the images we are presented with in the passage.

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

What is our immediate response when we think of a wolf and a lamb, a leopard and a baby goat, or a child – ANY child – playing near a venomous snake – in the NATURAL world – OUTSIDE our faith-informed biblical image library? The immediate response is “there’s no WAY that’s going to happen without SOMEONE or SOMETHING getting hurt, bitten, or eaten!”

“God Will”
Who keeps on trusting you
When you've been cheating
And spending your nights on the town
And who keeps on saying
that he still wants you
When you're through running around
And who keeps on loving you
When you've been lying
Saying things ain't what they seem
CHORUS:
God does but I don't
God will but I won't
And that's the difference
Between God and me
God does but I don't
God will but I won't
And that's the difference
Between God and me

VERSE:
So who says he'll forgive you
And says that he'll miss you
And dream of your sweet memory

And that is, I think, the whole point of the passage. Isaiah is painting a picture for us of just how transformative the power of God’s love is. If we can begin to picture those things actually happening, we can begin to envision what would have seemed like at LEAST as unlikely occurrences in our own lives and relationships.

We can actually SEE ourselves apologizing for the harshness of our tone in that one exchange just last week. We can seek out and forgive the one who wronged us so painfully all those years ago, or if they are no longer around, we can find it in our hearts to put away the hurt and the pain and let the memory fade with time as we have NOT let it until now. We can walk up to that one who was at one time our brother or sister and once again extend our hands and arms in an embrace that begins the reconciliation that is found in the overwhelming, surprising, unexpected, enduring and unfettered love of a God who came to earth to dwell among us, LIVE with us, and BE one of us in order to reconcile the relationship God intended to have with us from the very beginning.


Let’s pray.

Walking in the Light
Sunday, December 2nd, 2007
Advent 1
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Isaiah 2:1-5
Meditation on Hope (at conclusion of the Hanging of the Green service)

1 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. 3Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 5O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

I mentioned to you last Sunday that it was the last Sunday of the church year – the liturgical year. Today being the first Sunday of Advent is then the first Sunday of the incoming church year. So … Happy New Year!

I know it sounds a little odd to be talking about New Year when we’ve been conditioned to think of January 1 as the “REAL” New Year’s Day. By that count, we still have 29 days to go. Don’t worry, when January 1 rolls around I’ll still be wishing everyone I meet ‘Happy New Year’. I’m not saying we should break away QUITE that completely – into a mindset that flaunts its differences in the less meaningful aspects of life. After all, it’s just a DAY, for crying out loud. What MATTERS … what SHOULD matter MORE to us is how we LIVE that day … or ANY day, for that matter, whether we observe the liturgical calendar or not.

The thing that kept the people of Israel going, when they were defeated, when they were deported, when they were enslaved, when they were decimated and ridiculed, what drove them to overcome, what pushed them to maintain their sense of identity, what compelled them to observe the traditions and instructions that were handed down generation after generation was the HOPE they had in the coming of the Messiah.

It is that same Messiah who brings us HOPE today.

As we’ve noted, today is the first Sunday of Advent. The one that is farthest in time from the celebration of the coming of that Messiah. And just like the people who longed for a long-awaited Messiah from a distant and strange land, our day today would seem to echo that distance, that strangeness, and that longing for a time of peace and plenty.

We read about wars and famine, terrible acts of inhumanity between people and countries, we observe it each day on television or listening on the radio, or reading in magazines and newspapers or the internet. It would seem that the news of the world was almost designed to engender hopelessness in us, by its very nature. There may be a glimmer of good that shines through occasionally, but only very briefly at best, it seems.

But we are called by the Spirit of God to inject hope into the world. To present to the world the possibility that there really IS reason to hope – there really IS reason to believe that there IS A BETTER WAY.

And we are the vessels whereby that hope is injected. We’re the … spores … we’re the virus that is set to eat away at the hopelessness that would like to envelope the world! :-)

So we pay heed to the words of Isaiah:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”

To walk in the paths of God is to walk in the spirit of infinite creativity, of redemptive love and of unending mercy. It means that in accepting Jesus into our lives AS our Savior, Redeemer, and Messiah, we carry within these Jars of Clay that treasure that is available to all who call on Him. And in THAT CALL, there is unending HOPE.

O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

Let’s pray.

First Place in Everything
Sunday, November 25th, 2007
Twenty-sixth after Pentecost (Christ the King Sunday – last of the Church year)
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Colossians 1:11-20
Theme: Making Christ Lord of all

11May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. 17He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.


Let’s take stock.

Liturgically, today is the last day of the year. Next Sunday, being the first Sunday of Advent, marks the first Sunday of the NEXT church year. Although I love church history, and have read through the process whereby we came to HAVE a Church year and a secular year, I’m not sure I can explain to you why the Church year and the Calendar year differ, except to say that the Calendar year that is generally observed – the secular year – dates back to Roman times, is connected somewhat to the seasons of the year and the harvest cycles, and at least insofar as the names of the months go, is an essentially pagan construct, since they were named after various gods of the Roman pantheon or in honor or memory of one or another Caesar. Conversely, the Church year is based on events that mark for us events in the life and ministry of Christ.

All that being said, it simply bears noting that it’s not necessarily a BAD thing to be “out of sync” with the rest of the world on certain fundamental aspects of marking our existence. We are meant to march to the beat of a different drummer. We are called to be in the world but not of it. We are SUPPOSED to be something like square pegs in round holes.

We are and have been celebrating the fact that Jerusalem Baptist church has been IN existence as a congregation since August 5th, 1832 throughout this year.

We’ve had ample opportunity to reflect on and explore what that means over the last 11 months, we’ve made note of that passing of time by welcoming back former pastors; we had a model of what that first building may have looked like presented to Jerusalem; we have put together a scrapbook with pictures and notes that evoke memories of decades past; we have invited everyone to participate in a dress-up Sunday to remind us of what we used to wear when coming to church. We have welcomed Pastors and choirs of churches that were once a part of this congregation but which, for one reason or another, formed congregations independent from us. Just as we were formed out of what we call a ‘mother’ congregation, they also were born out of us. In some instances that birthing was painful, in others, joyful. We welcomed former members to our homecoming celebration that in some cases we had not seen in just a couple of years, and in other cases, we’d not seen in decades.

In each of those events, what has been quietly underscored, what has been brought to our attention, perhaps more on a subconscious level, but not focused on in an outright manner, has been the fact of change. To look around is to recognize the changes Jerusalem has been through – not just in the last few months or years, but over her lifetime as a congregation.

It is something that we are aware of in our own lives, certainly on a yearly, but also on a monthly and even on a weekly basis. We have said goodbye to members of our congregation and extended family who had been a part of us since our earliest memories. We’ve given welcome to precious little new lives that plant themselves in our hearts and give us reason to continue to work towards the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God on earth.

We have welcomed new members into our family who have expressed a desire to walk alongside, to put their hand to the plow, to join with us as we figure out what it means to say we are Christ-followers and to live that answer out together.

So, just as we sometimes find ourselves doing around our New Year’s celebrations on the ‘general’ calendar, we can also take time to reflect on the past year and what it has meant for us as a church family.

We have just celebrated a day of Thanksgiving, which is an observed CIVIL holiday, but which allows our nation as a whole to pause and give thanks – whether directly to God or simply in the spirit of gratitude – for what we have, and what we count as blessing, and for what we are anticipating becoming.

This past Wednesday, at the community Thanksgiving service, Michael Dawson, the host Pastor, offered a time in the service for anyone there to express THEIR thank for something in particular.

Thanks were expressed for freedom, for a place to gather, for a community with which TO gather, and for family – more than anything, almost, for family – both immediate family and that family that reaches beyond – the greater family that we belong to—the family that made the way for us and the family that follows behind, the family that surrounds and strengthens, that comforts, that consoles, that celebrates and rejoices.

The traditional ‘name’ for this Sunday is ‘Christ the King’ Sunday. It is the culmination – the peak – of the Church year. Calling it “Christ the King” Sunday reminds us of that fact – that ultimately, Christ IS to reign over all. It is what we proclaim, it is what we believe, it is what we struggle to work out on a daily basis, first and foremost in our OWN lives, and as we live it out, in the life of our community and our world.

So on this morning that marks the end of this year, I’d like to open the floor to anyone who would like to voice something for which you are grateful to God.

Since I’m already talking, I’ll go ahead and start: :-)

I’m grateful to God for a faith family that is engaged in the practice of faith – that really DOES consider it important – consider it CENTRAL to their life AS A CONGREGATION – to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. For recognizing disagreements and yet joining together to worship and ‘do church’ despite those differences. For faithfulness that is a clear reflection of God’s faithfulness to us – in giving, in praying, in presence, in friendship, and in standing beside each other in times of loss and sorrow as well as in times of joy and celebration.

(Voices of the congregation)

Amen, and amen.

Let’s pray.

Weary in Doing Good
Sunday, November 18th, 2007
Twenty-fifth after Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Theme: Renewing our Strength When we are Tired of doing what is right

6 Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. 7For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, 8and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. 9This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. 10For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. 11For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. 12Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. 13Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.

Bone weary.

Stumbling exhaustion.

Glazed-eyed.

It is true. There are times in this life of ministry that one wonders when the next chance will come around to grab a few winks, preferably in a row, preferably in a horizontal position.

The demands of making oneself available to a larger family than the one God has blessed me with as my IMMEDIATE family ARE sometimes high, and at times frequent if not nonstop. There are weeks which in retrospect become a blur, sometimes a haze of coming and going and meeting and talking and visiting and calling and driving, always driving.

It is a hard task, at times, but it is always tempered by joy. It can be exhausting, but it is still, even now, energized by something other than my own physical stamina – or lack thereof.

As you know, the pastors of the Rappahannock Association periodically get together – on the first Monday of each month – to visit and pray and spend time together sharing our experiences, joys, cares and concerns, in many cases sharing a particular burden with the group with the express purpose being to serve as encouragement to each other. It is a forum for questions as well as advice to be shared. I remember one of the early conferences I attended, one of the pastors prayed our opening prayer, and his words were “Thank you God that another Sunday is over.” This was coming from a pastor who had been at his church for nearly two decades at the time, and I remember being struck not by the thought, but by the honesty of the words.

Not that I was surprised either. The emotion behind it was not of disgust or disillusion with the responsibilities of a Sunday, but it was more a mixture of … loving exasperation and … maybe weary anticipation of the NEXT Sunday to come. It was the natural relief one feels when a difficult taks is done.

The world seemed to respond in stunned surprise at the revelation in reading the book of Mother Teresa’s writings that for the last 50 years of her life she felt totally disconnected from God – she had no sense of God’s presence in what she was doing. I heard or read a reviewer comment that perhaps that was the only way she herself would be able to identify completely with that portion of the population of India which she served so admirably and selflessly for all those decades.

There are literally countless millions who work just like her. Men and women, saints of God who give themselves completely to the work of the Lord and receive NO recognition, who seldom are named or even mentioned in conversations, and who pass into the anonymous annals of history but without whom the church would be a shadow of itself.

It is to them that we owe a debt of gratitude in this season of Thanksgiving, as well as, of course, to God, for building on the foundations laid by Christ and following the example set by Paul, those who had the right to ‘eat someone’s bread without paying for it’, as Paul writes, but who, like him, did not.

It is one of the most repeated nuggets of advice I’ve heard over the last four and a half years, from fellow Pastors and others – know who you are talking to. Know what their lives are, what their worries are, what they like and dislike, what MOVES them. And as much as I am able, I’ve tried to do that. At the same time, the burden of the ministry of PREACHING – not Pastoring, but PREACHING – is to call us ALL out of our comfort zone, to face us ALL with the demands of the Gospel as WELL as the blessings of it, to confront us ALL with the fact that we live in a world that IS too dangerous for anything but truth AND too small for anything but love.

So in sharing with you about feeling tired, I’m not limiting that feeling to the tiredness that comes from being a full-time minister. It is the same tiredness that comes from being a full-time student or sole provider, eighty-hour-a-week employee, grandparent, caregiver, errand-runner, behind-the-scenes coordinator, or full-time mother.

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton on November 18, 2007?

We are all called by God to a specific task – to love God. And we are all called by God to one Joy – to live the life given to us in such a way that IT will be our witness to HIS love for us.

I know you’ve heard me say it time and time again, but it bears repeating, because we need reminding. On those days when we look back on the week and wonder why we do it, wonder if there isn’t something better we could be about, wonder if we really ARE answering God’s call in carrying out the duties we are carrying out, WHATEVER THEY MAY BE – we need to find those answers in the combination of our prayer life, our devotional life, and the fellowship of believers we call our faith family. Because it is within this fellowship that God provides us perspective. It is in this fellowship that God provides us with the points of view that we couldn’t think of on our own, that we have trouble understanding, and that we NEED to see in order to WALK in the other person’s shoes.

We are all prone to the same trials, temptations and sorrows. We are all subject to the same stumblings. But thank God, we are all called to face them TOGETHER. God’s message to us is that we are not alone. We have a Savior who is also our friend. And we have the comforter – the Holy Spirit – to guide us along, to PROD us along, at times, and to illuminate our minds and FIRE our hearts as we follow Christ.

Paul’s exhortation to not grow weary in doing what is right is a word directed to a family of faith that is continuously learning that its source of strength is not in its own abilities and skills and talents, but ultimately on the wellspring that flows directly from the heart of God.

Let’s pray.