2/1/15---Love God: Be Known by God

Back in High School, I was not someone you would classify as "in the know." I was not very popular (shocker, right?). I didn't know when the next big party was. I didn't know where people were going after the football game. I was not privy to the latest gossip or rumors. I did not know who disliked who, or who liked who, unless I saw it. I felt like I was constantly "out of the loop." 

I felt like a second-class citizen in my high school, almost. That was until I befriended someone on the baseball team (which then turned out to be several members of the baseball team). Suddenly, I knew what was going on behind the scenes. I was being invited to parties with the cool kids. I quickly discovered something that both excited me and opened my eyes: the popular kids played by their own rules. Where kids' one desire is to be accepted, they were able to use that against them, or at least take advantage of that. Some will do anything to feel loved and accepted...

The first century Christians in Corinth also played by their own rules. The Corinthian church had a strong faction of intelligent, wealthy, prominent, and sophisticated members who believed that Christians were not bound by the law of abstaining from the consumption of meat products, specifically the meat offered to idols. The reason was "simple" for them who were "in the know." They could eat the meat because idols did not exist. Idols had no power since there is one God, as proclaimed in the Shema (which was a piece of "insider language" saying that the Lord is one).

But in the Corinthian church there were also ordinary people whose incomes and habits allowed very little meat in their diets. For these folks who "didn't know any better," eating meat offered to idols threatened faith by drawing them back to the idolatrous cultures from which they had only recently been converted to the Christian faith.

This was also true for me. I couldn't be seen with certain people or in certain places unless I wanted to lose my status as a popular kid in the know. 

As in my high school, there are groups ("cliques?") of people who are "in the know" and that "don't know any better." I think part of the joy of being a Christian is that I live differently now. I know that "anyone who loves God is known by him." Part of what happens to us when we love God is that we love or neighbor with boldness, courage, and faith. That means that we entrust, we gift, we show that being "in Christ" is far better than being "in the know." Jesus offers us a life that is not concerned about knowledge, status, or popularity, but with God and our neighbor.

Yes, we are free from the law because Christ fulfilled the law. We are free to be known and loved and to simultaneously love God and neighbor. It is through Christ we are free. Thanks be to God.

See you Sunday!

1/25/15---"Gone Fishing"

There is some irony in this Sunday's message title as it relates to our sermon series title: "God is Here." It brings out the divine truth that God is omnipresent; God is "everywhere at once."

So God is "here, everywhere." Anyone at any given moment in any given location can claim that "God is here."

Even when we are gone fishing. 

During the holiday break, I did go fishing. I went to South Florida with some of my family to go on our annual "Mackerel Massacre." We did well, but not as well as we had in the past. There was one winter where we yielded 3 dozen mackerel and everyone went home with their fair share. This time, though, a dozen fish in the boat satisfied us, and I took none home for myself.

Why were we satisfied this year? We ended up with 1/3 of the fish that we did a few years ago, so why were we OK with that? I think we now accept the fact that filling our boat a few years ago was a special occurrence. It may happen again, but it doesn't every time. 

We accept the dozen we caught because we know we prepared and we fished as if we were going to catch 3 dozen. We were ready. But now, I am afraid that we don't expect to catch many ever again. Perhaps we should, but at least our preparation and work is the same.

I relate this to the command from Jesus, the invitation to fish for people:

Mark 1

16 As Jesus passed alongside the Galilee Sea, he saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” 18 Right away, they left their nets and followed him.  19 After going a little farther, he saw James and John, Zebedee’s sons, in their boat repairing the fishing nets. 20 At that very moment he called them. They followed him, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired workers.

Simon and Andrew did not know what to expect when they followed Jesus. Yes, they probably knew that Jesus was a teacher, but they had no idea where Jesus was going, who was with him already, or how many people he had in mind that he expected or wanted to "fish" for. James and John didn't know what to expect, either.

But they were ready. They dropped their nets, left their boats, their families, the future they expected for themselves, and followed Jesus.

I normally look at this story through the lens of sacrifice, and notice how much these disciples gave up in order to follow Jesus. But perhaps this was not so much a sacrifice as it was an opportunity for these men to fulfill something that God placed in their hearts; an opportunity to follow someone worth following; an opportunity to embrace the unexpected...

In order to embrace the unexpected, the disciples show us that sacrifice is needed, however. They gave up their sense of security, their plans of continuing the family fishery business. 

But the call to follow Jesus was, and still is, a call worth embracing, for we know that God is here, everywhere, fishing with us. 

1/18/15----God is Here: God's Lamp

Growing up with my mom, I had to learn to listen to what she said, rather than simply waiting for plain directions. I used to love helping her prepare dinner, and I learned this about her most directly during those times with her. For example: sometimes I would forget to get out the butter, but she wouldn't tell me to get it out, she would ask me something like: "were these mashed potatoes made with butter?" I either had to find out if they were, or know that she was telling me that they weren't and, thus, that she was telling me to get the butter out.

We all have our quirks, and I don't mean to pick on my mother here. I mean to point out that in our relationships with one another, we have the great opportunity to actually get to know one another. In 1 Samuel 3, Samuel mistakes the Lord's voice for Eli's because he does not know the Lord. 

We have the same opportunity to get to know God. It's important to know the Lord if we are seeking God's word, otherwise we will not recognize it, or we will mistake it for something else. 

Samuel eventually hears the Lord's words so consistently and so clearly that he is able to anoint kings. That's way more impressive then supplementing mashed potatoes with butter, but both tasks require knowing the one you are following; they both require the ability to recognize who you are following and, thus, what they are leading you to do. 

This Sunday, we will reflect on God's presence and direction in our lives, since "God's lamp hasn't gone out." We will do this through fellowship,by singing to the Lord and praising God, by lifting up our prayers to God, and also by remembering our baptisms. Like the water that washes us clean, refreshes us, and gives us peace, the Lord's lamp guides us and reminds us of God's presence. Thanks be to God!

See you Sunday! 

1/11/14---God is Here: An Epiphany

Christmas is officially over. All of our decorations are down (for the most part, anyway), Christmas trees have been thrown out, lights shine around our houses no more, and things are "back to normal." Except, for God, there seems to be no "normal." God's very presence provides uncertainty, surprises, and unexpected twists and turns.

This past Sunday, we were reminded that God breaks into our "messy" lives to include us in grace, love, protection, giving us a place to call "home." God breaks into our everyday, normal lives.

4 John the Baptist was in the wilderness calling for people to be baptized to show that they were changing their hearts and lives and wanted God to forgive their sins. 5 Everyone in Judea and all the people of Jerusalem went out to the Jordan River and were being baptized by John as they confessed their sins.6 John wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He announced, “One stronger than I am is coming after me. I’m not even worthy to bend over and loosen the strap of his sandals. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

9 About that time, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. 10 While he was coming up out of the water, Jesus saw heaven splitting open and the Spirit, like a dove, coming down on him. 11 And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.”4 John the Baptist was in the wilderness calling for people to be baptized to show that they were changing their hearts and lives and wanted God to forgive their sins. 5 Everyone in Judea and all the people of Jerusalem went out to the Jordan River and were being baptized by John as they confessed their sins. 6 John wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He announced, “One stronger than I am is coming after me. I’m not even worthy to bend over and loosen the strap of his sandals. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

9 About that time, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. 10 While he was coming up out of the water, Jesus saw heaven splitting open and the Spirit, like a dove, coming down on him. 11 And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.”

Mark 1: 4-11 gives me an epiphany, "a realization that the gospel is down to earth. grounded in the real, tactile, sensual, world. So that's where God is; God is here. These verses make reference to river water, clothing from camels,  diet from bugs, and tying shoes, a bird analogy, and an interesting weather phenomenon." Mark's gospel here, provides an "earthiness."

In our woprship of the God who is here, may we be challenged by these verses to praise the real God (God is not abstract) who really loves us and has really embraced us by water and the Spirit, and by daily love and grace.


"Spirit is the real substance of God acting in creation...and yet Spirit is always tied to material---real water, bread, wine" and the elements of baptism.


See you Sunday!


Quotes taken from Elton Brown, Feasting on the Word.