We Can't Do This Alone

The love and forgiveness of Christ is the only answer to the world’s brokenness.

Yesterday, June 28^th 2014 was a historically significant anniversary. It was the 100^th anniversary of the assignation of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that triggered World War One. To be honest that date of that event was not in my working knowledge until the news reported about it this week. Before now June 28^th was just June 28^th. For some that date is a day of mourning for others it is a day of commemoration and for some it is a day to honor the assassin because they believe he was a freedom fighter.

Today also marks an anniversary of an event. Three years ago baby Kate went missing. I remember this date because it happened when we first moved to this area. We have been here three years now.

Somewhere in the air between Dallas and Detroit my daughter is making her way home. It’s her birthday today. So June 29^th is a day of celebration in my house but for the last three years it has also been a day that reminds me that the world is still broken.

Psalm 121 starts: “I look up toward the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, the creator of heaven and earth! May he not allow your foot to slip! May your protector not sleep!”

As much as we want there to be peace and goodness in this world, evil, brokenness and sin persists. Let’s talk about the word sin for a minute. The word sin has been used as a weapon of accusation to define those who are outside of acceptability.  But the word sin means estrangement from God. Sin is anything that separates us from our relationship with God. I get questions from time to time about whether something is or is a sin. Is that thing more important than your love for God? Then yes it is. Does that thing point you in the direction of the love of God? Then no. It is not sin.

Sometimes, some people need a little further explanation, so Moses wrote down 10 really good examples of things to do and not do, that everyone would agree, would keep people on the right track toward God. You can find those in the Bible in the book Exodus.  Find chapter 20 and there you have it.

This is the last Sunday of our “Noah” series. The abbreviated version of this story we tell our children is a delightful story with a happy ending. The part I read earlier we leave out for good reason.  It’s ugly. It’s difficult. It’s not something, for which most kids are ready. It’s about brokenness.

God saw that the world was corrupt and full of violence so God decided to destroy the earth with a flood but one man found favor with God and it was Noah. God delivered Noah and his family from the flood. Happy ending. God set in the clouds a rainbow as a sign of his everlasting covenant. Happy ending.

Noah planted a vineyard.

I had a conversation with my friend who operated a winery for a time and is now a pastor.  She said that it takes about two years for vines to produce grapes for a harvest worth of making wine. She also said it would take about 6 months to make a good dry wine as they probably made back in biblical times. So it was at least two and half years since Noah his family survived the biggest Natural disaster ever. The bible says Noah got drunk. Was Noah’s mind on honoring God? Did Noah’s actions point his spirit toward God? Two and half years passed after God told the survivors to be fruitful and multiply. Babies were born, crops were planted seasons passed. The wine was ready to drink.

Just because the blessing comes does that mean the relationship with God is over? The flood is passed. God promised not to do that again. The wine is ready.

It is easy to see Christ’s saving love when someone who is so estranged from God through their behaviors comes to themselves and comes back to God.  It is miraculous to see such a conversion. But that story is the unusual one.  Most of us seem pretty good. Most hide their sin pretty well. Life is generally pretty good. The blessings of life flow; we meet life’s challenges; but in each one of us there is the potential for good or for evil. Each day and each moment we are given the choice to turn to God or to turn away from God.

If the purpose of the flood was to end sin, to end evil, or to end brokenness it is clearly a failure. Ham, Noah’s son and the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness. A few verses are devoted to just How cursed Ham’s family will be because of this. This is the last interaction that we have with Noah and his family in this story. It says he lives 350 years after the flood but the last thing he does as far as the story goes is that he curses his grandson because of what Ham did.

Noah woke up and saw/learned what Ham did. It wasn’t just Ham it was himself. He had gotten drunk and passed out. Sometimes we forget ourselves we make decisions that don’t honor God. Not that God loves us less but that we remove ourselves from God presence. We focus on wrong things and go in wrong directions.

Clearly if the purpose of the flood was to eliminate sin, it failed. I have said all along that this is a story about how God saves. God made provision for Noah and his family to survive and to live abundantly. It a story that teaches us a lot but it is an incomplete story. It is incomplete because in the end brokenness persists.

The story only finds completion in Jesus Christ. Where there was brokenness in the story of Noah only a curse followed.  God sent Jesus to show us his unconditional love and forgiveness. Forgiveness never excuses sin. Forgiveness doesn’t make sin okay. When we forgive others it doesn’t make their sin acceptable. But it releases us to live our lives more fully. It frees us to love unconditionally.  

Part of Jesus’ formula for forgiveness is accountability.  If someone sins against you go to them. If they don’t listen bring a witness, if they still won’t listen bring it before the church.  It’s not that it’s just swept under the rug. Never, never, never. If you have been violated and someone asks you to just forget about it, to let it go then it hasn’t been dealt with. The only way to defeat evil is to stand up to it in the name of Jesus Christ. If we sweep sin under the rug it goes unchecked and it lives on. When it is confronted it loses its power over us.

Noah faced death through the flood waters and he came out on the other side. And yet sin persisted. Jesus came and offered us freedom from sin. Not that we would be super-people but that we could lean on him for strength and restoration.

We go through the waters of baptism. And yet we continue on through this life and we face trials and temptations, sin and failure. But when we share in his death and resurrection we have the source of eternal life living in us. We drink from the living waters and we will never be thirsty again.

The love and forgiveness of Christ is the only answer to the world’s brokenness.

God has called us to trust in Him and come together as one family.

If you spend time worrying about the brokenness of others and determining whether God loves them then I’m afraid you may have missed the good news that Jesus came to bring.

When you recognize your own brokenness and you submit yourself to God and quit holding others to some arbitrary standard then you are getting close.

We have to be intentional. Just as each day of the calendar can bring to mind the good and the bad of history, so to in each of us there is the potential for good and bad.  Be intentional about the good and let the family of God strengthen you.

When, out of thankfulness and trust in God for the life given to you, you lift the burden of another and allow them to help you with yours, then you’ve got it!

So how is it with you today? Can you offer the love and forgiveness that Jesus has offered you? 

Honoring God

Happy Father’s Day! This is one of two days (the other being my birthday) when I get to call the shots. Yes, yes me calling the shots.  I did a little research (www.english.stackexchange.com) and the earliest use of the term “Call the shots” comes from a book about the Civil War. 

Occasionally the Yankees would interfere with culinary activities. In one instance during the Atlanta campaign federal artillery opened on a group of Rebs as they were cooking their noon meal. One of the number was sent to a point of observation to call the shots so that the cooks could lie down after each salvo until the shells passed over.

Calling the shots could mean warning those around me of coming danger but I was thinking one of the varieties of ways in which I was schooled in basketball last year when I challenged you all to a game of HORSE. Calling the shot: saying ahead of time what was going to happen.  I believe the shot called the “McHale” is one that did me in.

Of course just because you call the shot doesn’t guarantee that you will land the shot.  So even if I call the shots on Father’s day…well, you know, no guarantees of success.

The shot that I would call is to have food that is pleasing to me. *pulls out gas grill* There is nothing like the scent of meat being prepared on a grill. A hamburger, brats…Alex even makes a nice pizza on a grill. Even the smell of charcoal briquettes as they ash over has become a pleasing scent to me because I have been conditioned to expect wonderful things to come after.  I’m calling the shot! Grilled food tonight! Whether or not grilling becomes a reality is another matter.

My family does treat me well; they ask me what I want for Father’s day. I used to say I just want to spend time and enjoy each other. But now I just send them an email link to my Amazon wish list. It’s terrible, I feel really selfish but I know that when I want to honor someone I want to know! I want to know what would make them happy.  So I send the list.  There are fewer surprises this way but that’s okay. I truly want the time together and to have a good day, however if my providing a list makes it easier for them to celebrate the day why would I not provide it?

It’s all about the relationship. Beyond any made-up holiday it’s about the relationship.  Proverbs 23 says “Pay attention to your father, and don’t neglect your mother when she grows old.  Invest in truth and wisdom, discipline and good sense, and don’t part with them. Make your father truly happy by living right and showing sound judgment. Make your parents proud, especially your mother.”

So there you have it: my perfect holiday a grill, a gift and God. I’m calling the shot!

Father's Day is about loving who your kids are and
nurturing them to be the people God intended them to be.

Now if I expect these things I had better make provisions for them. If I don’t drag this grill back home and hook up the tank it’s my problem.  If I get flowers and chocolates it probably because I didn’t send the email.  If my kids don’t know God then I need to keep telling them the good news about Jesus Christ until they do know God. Amen?

In the Scripture today Noah is off the Ark. All the animals are off the Ark.  Noah built an altar.  An altar is a place where God is honored. And Noah took of every clean animal, and of every clan bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. God smelled the sweet savor. But it wasn’t a barbeque. This wasn’t a cook out on the beach next to the boat. This was worship.  God made provision for food he said in chapter 9 All animals, birds, reptiles, and fish will be afraid of you. I have placed them under your control, ³ and I have given them to you for food. From now on, you may eat them, as well as the green plants that you have always eaten. 

The law concerning clean and unclean food has yet to be established (Lev. 6:3-7, 13-19  Deut 14:6-8).

*Clean and Unclean Game*

The only rule that God gives them is that they cannot eat anything that still has blood in it.

The clean animals that are mentioned and are given as a burnt offering is for worship.  The law concerning what is clean and unclean has yet to be established either. Leviticus 22:18-24 lays it down; it’s basically flawless male from the cattle, sheep or goats. Quadrupeds that chew the cud and also divide the hoof 7 pairs of each type of clean animal.  I wonder how Noah knew which ones were clean?

However he determined which animals were clean, the Sacrifice was a pleasing scent to God. Perhaps he knew it would be pleasing because it was a good gift. Perhaps he gave his best like giving flowers and chocolates is a nice thing to give because they are pleasing gifts to give.

My wife did ask me what I wanted for Father’s Day and I did send that email link to my Amazon wish list. I suspect that she picked something from that list.  I know that I will be pleased with whatever was chosen. Imagine in a few days’ time one of my children makes a terrible mistake or makes a really bad decision and they know it. Imagine them staving off my disappointment and anger by going down that list and purchase me an additional item on that list.  Will that make everything okay again?  Of course not. What if mistake after mistake and violation after violation gets followed with more and more gifts. Would you even accept them anymore? 

The worship that Noah offered was good but it doesn’t and won’t ever excuse evil. The prophet Isaiah said on behalf of God, “Your sacrifices mean nothing to me. I am sick of your offerings
    of rams and choice cattle; I don’t like the blood of bulls or lambs or goats.¹² “Who asked you to bring all this when you come to worship me? Stay out of my temple!
¹³ Your sacrifices are worthless, and incense is disgusting.

God spoke through the prophet Hosea and said, “People of Israel and Judah,
    what can I do with you? Your love for me disappears more quickly than mist
    or dew at sunrise. ⁵ That’s why I slaughtered you with the words of my prophets.
That’s why my judgments blazed like the dawning sun.  I’d rather for you to be faithful and to know me than to offer sacrifices.”

I’d rather for you to be faithful and to know me than to offer sacrifices.

You have been given so much.  You have been given daily bread.  The needs of your spirit are fulfilled when you come to God in Jesus name.  The needs of your body are met in the food that God provides.

Through Jesus Christ you have been given the gift of eternal and abundant life. You have been given spiritual gifts that make you a unique child of God and are to be used for God’s glory. 

The most important thing God Gave you is himself. God of creation came and became one of us. God became human and showed us the way. Jesus came and sacrificed himself.  Jesus died for our sins and became the perfect sacrifice so that we can have all the things that God intended for us.

We need not make burnt offerings to God.  There is nothing that we can give that will compare to the gift that he has given us. There is nothing that we can give that will make up for the wrong that we have done.  God provided the sacrifice.  God has offered restoration and forgiveness in Jesus name. What we do need to sacrifice is our need to be at the center of the universe and to acknowledge that God is the only one who occupies that space.

The burnt offering is no longer necessary. What we offer God is now a thank offering.  We offer our lives as holy and living sacrifices as a way of saying thank you for the blessings that God has given.

God is telling us what he wants.  God prescribes what it is that will make him happy. Trust in His son Jesus. Find life in Him. Make your father truly happy by living right and showing sound judgment.

So how is it with you today in your relationship with the Heavenly Father? Are you giving flowers and chocolates or are you letting God call the shots? 

Reorientation

Good Morning! This is a very good morning.  We’ve been talking about Noah for a few weeks now.  It seems the hard part is over.  Noah was living a good life, God called him, Noah responded then the world fell apart, he was left adrift for months with his wife and sons and their wives. It must have been very disorienting to have to go through that experience.

You ever notice that when life gets predictable, maybe even comfortable something happens that upends everything?  The illusion of control is shattered. Sometimes I wonder why I even make plans beyond tomorrow because life offers such unpredictability. 

The unusually-calm waters of Lake Michigan as seen from the top of the
lighthouse at the entrance of the Ludington Harbor. 

The calendar is predictable. We frame our lives around seasons and events in those seasons. In December when the nights are longest we celebrate the Birth of Christ, the light of the world. In Spring when the earth awakens from its winter sleep we celebrate Easter, the triumph of Jesus over death.

This is one of the High Holy Days of the Church.  This is Pentecost Sunday, the day we participate in the celebration of the giving of the Holy Spirit and therefore a celebration of the birth of the Church.

But all of those things, all of those events around which we frame our worlds were, at first very disorienting events.  A baby born in a stable that will be the king of everything is very disruptive.  Death that is defeated is very disrupting to the very order of our understanding of what is and what is supposed to be.  And the Holy Spirit giving power to people to be transformed into something new has disrupted many a lives over the centuries including my own.

Before Pentecost, before his time traveling with Jesus the apostle Peter was a fisherman. Imagine his life. He and his brother working together, having an understanding that this is the way life is and will always be.  Then came the rabbi Jesus and all that happened with him. Then came the crucifixion of Jesus, his resurrection. The many appearances of Jesus over the next several weeks and then the day that the Holy Spirit came and rested on the gathered apostles and Peter spoke to the people and thousands came to believe that Jesus was Lord. What a change! What a transformation!

Where are you on that journey?  Are you waiting for Jesus to show up and call you? Or are you implanting the word of God in the people around you such that they come to believe that Jesus is Lord? Or are you somewhere in between?

If you have come to believe that Jesus is Lord you are on that journey.

Half of our task on that journey is to know Christ all the more. We are to ever open more of ourselves and let the Holy Spirit take up residence and take control for our transformation and God’s glorification. To do that we have to allow for a certain amount of disorientation in our lives. We have to relinquish control so that God can point us in the right direction.

Now is the day.  Always: now is the day. It’s just a matter of when you want to start receiving the blessings of God.  When do you want God to be in control? When you put the Kingdom of God first in your life.  When you make God the number one priority and trust fully in Jesus Christ to be your Lord, You will be guided into abundant and eternal life.

But you cannot serve two masters.  Either you will Love Jesus and work for his glory or you will submit yourself to the impermanent and ultimately unsatisfying pursuits of this world.

It can be a frightening thing, to give up the thought of being in control of your life.  But those who have done it can testify to the fact that when you get through being disoriented, God will reorient you and you will begin to see very clearly the path to shalom, the path to peace, wholeness, and well-being.

When God reorients us, our priorities change and when our priorities change so do our behaviors. 

Give me a list of what you do and I will tell you what you believe.  You can be taught what it means to believe like a child of God and you can even teach it to others. But if our behavior is contrary to what we teach, do we really believe it?

Noah was a man who obeyed God.  He obeyed God and did his life get easier? No. did God give him life and salvation because of his obedience? Yes.

Noah endured the storm.  He endured the storm of criticism from family and neighbors when he was building a giant boat.  He endured the storm of rain and flood waters took away his control.  He endured the devastation of the loss of everything and everyone he knew. He endured the storm of waiting for God’s promised blessing when it seemed to be infinitely delayed as he floated upon the water for months and months.

You’ve endured the storms of life haven’t you? More than anyone here can possibly know. But it happened for Noah: The flood waters dried up. Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dried. God spoke to Noah, “Go forth from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons, and your son’s wives with you…Be fruitful and multiply.”

Did life suddenly get easy at that point? My goodness no! There was nothing.  They had to start from scratch. But they had life. They had opportunity to build and to grow and to live a life devoted to the one that saved them from the storms of life.

I said earlier that half our task is to know Christ all the more.  If half of what we are to do in this life is to know Christ what is the other half?

To make him known.  To make Jesus Christ known to others.

That’s where we stand.  We stand on the shore where we have been delivered from all the storms of life to the dry land where we are given the great opportunity to plant the word of God in people’s lives so that they can come to know the life-giving, the all-loving, the saving love of Jesus Christ.

So how is it with you today?  Have you survived the storm? How is God now calling you to make Jesus know to others?  WHO is God calling you to plant the word of God into today?  We only have two jobs in life, to know Christ and to make him known.  Everything else supports or detracts from that mission.  Would you pray with me? 

Delayed Blessings

Anointed with God’s Blessing

                What were you doing in June of 2009? Can you remember? It was 5 years ago. Savannah turned 10 that month. It was the first year of the Obama presidency. In June of 2009 Bowe Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan.  I don’t know how he felt but if it were me I wouldn’t have expected to live very much longer after being captured by the Taliban. For 5 years he was a prisoner of war, but just yesterday president Obama announced that he is free as part of an agreement with the Taliban for a prisoner swap.

The thing is there were signs of life that kept his parents and the State Department going. He was captured on June 30; the Defense department classified him as “missing-captured,” On July 3^rd.  Two weeks later the Taliban released a video showing Bergdahl and his ID tags. In December of that year there were two more videos, then another video in April of 2010. Proof of life; signs of hope.  The State Department started making offers to swap prisoners.  And it took until yesterday to make it happen.

Delayed blessings. 

A trip to the lake last weekend meant that we had to get in the water.  It was
too cold to swim.  However after a long winter that didn't really matter. 

I’m sure it didn’t seem to that soldier that he was being blessed.  But he is on his way home.  Now he will have to begin the process of healing which may never fully happen in this life. But at least he gets the opportunity. That’s what we all have in common right now.  The opportunity to live this life today.

Jesus said “Come to me all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Are any of you looking to find some rest from the labors of life this morning?  Jesus is here with you. Bowe Bergdahl was a prisoner of the Taliban for 5 years and now he gets to have some rest.  Jesus offers us rest from the things that weigh us down.  Tell Jesus about the rest you need.  Open yourself to the rest that he offers it may look different than you expect.

In the story of Noah that I read from a few minutes ago the mountaintops were uncovered. It is our temptation; it is our desire to have “mountaintop experiences.” We want the miraculous healing.  We want the Special Forces to go in and rescue our citizens from their captors in dramatic fashion. But life is rarely like that. Sometimes the cancer doesn’t go away. Sometimes the sound of the helicopters never comes. And the future seems unsure.

We want the blessing and we want it as soon as possible.  But sometimes the blessing is delayed.  Often times the blessing comes in a way that is unexpected.

Noah could have got off the boat when it came to rest on the mountain top, when they were first exposed, but he waited. He waited for what? To see where things were going? For a sign from God? I don’t know what he was waiting for.  If it were impatient me; if I were on a boat for 150 days with a bunch of animals I would have balanced on the slipperiest rock outside of the boat I could find. Think about it it’s like staying on a boat from now until the end of October (no plumbing, no buffet). 

He waited. It wasn’t until the dove brought the leaf.  And he waited another week and the dove brought a branch. He knew that’s where the blessing was.  He knew it was time to get off the boat. Mountain top experiences are out there. But it’s after you cultivate and it’s after you prune, and after you harvest.  It’s after the work that you get the harvest.  It’s then the fruits come. Then the anointing comes.  My friends it’s time to begin to cultivate what God has given us.  God has set us stewards of abundance so that we can be God’s blessing to others.

The time wasn’t right for Noah to leave the Ark.  Not until the Dove came back with the leaf, then the branch then not at all.

Before Noah sent out the dove he sent out a raven. The raven went out and found no place to rest. In Jewish tradition the Raven is an unclean animal. The dove is a clean animal.  The dove eventually found rest.  I remember another time in scripture that a dove found rest.  Jesus was baptized by his cousin John in the Jordan River and the Holy Spirit descended from heaven and RESTED on him in the form of a dove.

Jesus Said, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Noah sent out the dove and it brought back a leaf of an olive tree. The thing is about olive trees is that they don’t grow on mountain tops; they don’t grown in high elevations. So the waters of the flood must have receded quite a bit to the lower elevations an then to grow leaves.

Sometimes the smallest sign of life is enough to hold on to.

Poinsettia leaf in bible just a plant leaf. For me it’s a symbol. Olive leave is just a leaf why does it matter that the dove brought back the olive leaf? There is the fact about olive trees growing in lower elevations, also an olive tree is where we get olives and from olives we extract olive oil.  We as a faith tradition have consecrated, anointed things with olive oil for centuries.

 A few generations after Noah there was Jacob and Jacob had a dream, a dream where God promised to be with him and his family until his family is spread across the earth like dust. And all families of the earth will be blessed by his family. We know Jacob is the ancestor of our Lord Jesus and has indeed blessed the whole earth through him. Jacob woke from his rest and  consecrated the rock with oil and said,  If God will be with me and keep me and give me bread to eat “Thin this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, will be God’s house, of all that you give me I will surely give the tenth to you.”

He poured oil on the rock to consecrate it, to anoint it.

 The word “Christ” means the anointed one. It is in Christ Jesus that we have the blessings of God. It is through Jesus that the whole world is blessed. Jesus said we can come to him and find rest but he also says that we need to take on his yoke.  We need to eventually get off the boat.

 “It’s time to get off the boat”

St. Paul church you are in a position that many churches of this size are not in.  In many of them you will hear things said like, “If only we could pay the bills” well we can pay the bills. “If we had a gym like the big church down the street we could really attract the youth.” We have a gym. “If we had people who are qualified to teach and to build a teaching ministry that would really be something,” I’ve never seen a congregation with more experience and expertise in teaching.  We have the olive leaf. We may not have manifested the full blessing of God in this place but we have the leaf and the branch.  We have the promise of the blessing. It’s time to get off the boat.

“Our Mission”

If we had just one year to live how would we spend that time as a church?  Would we spend it building a building? Do we want to spend our precious time building facilities? Or should we be building people? You all have said that you don’t want to build a building. We have a facility, so we ought to be focused on building disciples. That means following an intentional path.  We have a discipleship team formulating that path. The skits that we see every Sunday are getting us ready for that path.  We have a hospitality team that will invite people into that process. You are already invited into that process. But our purpose isn’t just to grow the people that are here right now but is to go out into the world and to grow new disciples. 

The vision for this place that is emerging is to make this a place of community outreach. So that this place is a source of life, love and support for the people who live in this area. So that this place becomes a familiar comfortable place for the people who are our neighbors. A Day-care or a pre-school in this building would do that.  It would be an initial step into this place where we can build relationships with people and invite them into that process of growth in Jesus Christ. So that we can build disciples in this place.  We are not going to build a new building but we are going to fulfill our mission statement to “Know Christ and to make him Known.”

So how is it with you today? When we dedicate ourselves to resting in God we become the sacrament in the lives of others.

Would you pray with me?