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Who is Jesus?

May 062012

Fifth Sunday of Easter
Acts 4:5-12 and 1 John 3:16-24 (accidentally used Fourth Sunday lectionary texts)

• A Facebook friend of mine who apparently also rents property out said they noticed a new tenant’s Olympic medal, and wondered who on Facebook had met Olympic winners. Well, I was a childhood friend with Nelson Diebel, Olympic swimming champion, 1992 Olympics in Barcelona (look him up on wikipedia or google) and yeah, I’ve seen his medals.

Think of a “brush with celebrity” that you may have had, and tell someone about that event…

• How about your spouse or significant other? Tell someone about what is special about that person? Or, who is someone you would like to meet, and why?

• Who is your #1 teacher… Why? Tell someone about this person and what makes them your favorite teacher.

• Last night at church there was a Mother/Daughter banquet… Tell someone something special about your mother.

• How do you feel about Jesus? What do you love about Jesus?

Tell someone about this…

• I wonder if the world really knows Jesus. It doesn’t take much encouragement to get us to talk about the people we love, and we spend our lives getting to know the significant people in our lives better. In fact we know it can be dangerous to ask a new parent (or esp. a new grandparent) to tell about their baby because you might be there for a while!!

We bump into a celebrity in the grocery store or see one on vacation and we go gaga…

But the world doesn’t know Jesus. If they DID, oh think of the possibilities.

From scripture today… Jesus is:

• Healer, even when he’s not around. Peter healed a lame beggar in Jesus’ name. Jesus is healer, even absentee.

• Cornerstone, worthy of building upon. Basing life on. Trusting in.

• Savior. Imagine you’re in a car wreck, an EMT saves you. Later, you meet. What do you tell people about the person who saved your life? How do you interact with that person? Jesus is savior!

• Jesus is love personified, perfect in love and action (1 John 3:16-18)

• Jesus Alone is worthy of praise. Jesus is worth telling about. And the world needs to hear about this Jesus.

• Hymn 454 Glorious Is Thy Name Most Holy

PK where are you?

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May 012012

Hello, both of you who read this

I’m filling in some of the gaps, but it’s been since Valentine’s Day that I posted last… I haven’t preached every week since then, but I have preached some.

Let’s see. There’s been a Youth Sunday, the District Superintendent spoke one Sunday, the Bishop spoke another one, there were two Cantata Sundays, and at least one Sunday of a presentation by a missionary. So that’s five out of the last ten Sundays or so.

Anyhoo. I’m filling in some of those gaps.

Next time I leave a gap, make some noise!

Why A Miracle?

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Apr 222012

from John 6:1-15. John’s reporting of the feeding of the 5,000.

• Imagine the enormity of this event. 5000 men. (HersheyPark stadium seats 16,000… every man with say one woman one child… imagine speaking to such a crowd… imagine the time to feed (imagine the time just to commune our worship!)

• Miracles are weird. They bother people. (From Leif Enger’s Peace Like A River (PLAR. 2001): “Real miracles bother people. They rebut every rule all we good citizens take comfort in. When a person dies, the earth is generally unwilling to cough him back up. A miracle contradicts the will of the earth.”)

Miracles are UNREASONABLE and they DEMAND a response.

More I think about feeding of thousands more I think I’d lie awake at night, that wasn’t supposed to happen. I want to know more about this guy, and it is out of my comfort zone.

• Another selection from PLAR: “People fear miracles because they fear being changed, though ignoring them will change you also.”

(imagine telling about this miracle. Imagine not telling)

• Why miracle? (John 6:14 “When the people saw that he had done a miraculous sign they said This is truly the prophet who is coming into the world”)

This miracle shows God’s ability beyond shadow of a doubt. No natural explanation. In some cases undeniable just by sheer enormity (as setup: huge crowd, wilderness. Another account in Matthew says they were in wilderness for days. You can’t blame this on people not really being hungry or just eating the snacks they had brought with them…)

• Another selection from PLAR: “No miracle happens without a witness. Someone to declare, Here’s what I saw. Here’s how it went. Make of it what you will.”

• This miracle: nurture belief in Jesus as God’s anointed one… this is no ordinary prophet. Worth paying attention to. Worth learning about, following, living for.

This is no ordinary God.

Purpose of miracle: So that they may know & believe that Jesus is Lord.

• Prayer that our actions and reactions may point to You / Bell Skit* / Hymn 529

*This scripture was selected today to go along with a handbell skit in which a picnic basket tells his point-of-view of the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 and his story is punctuated by handbell selections.

They Want to See Jesus

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Mar 252012

John 12:30-33

Fifth Sunday of Lent

• This weekend’s Middle School performance of Willy Wonka (stage adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1964 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

What’s the draw about Willy Wonka?Sweets. Celebration. Color. Fantasy. Child-like and care-free. Life.

All of this points to the world that needs sweetening, needs life, needs celebration. Fallen from Eden.

The Candyman makes the world taste good.

And the world tastes good because the Candyman thinks it should.

• This weekend’s movie release of The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins 2008), $19.7M opening night record for non-sequel movie, second to Harry Potter and Twilight series.

What’s the draw?Well-written adolescent lit, exciting action, appealing to guys and gals, underdog, stick-it-to-the-man, struggle.

The world is broken and life is hard, and there is an oppressive ruling class (us v. them).

• John chapter 12, Greeks want to see Jesus.

What’s the draw?Some of both. Redemption of life.

Jesus came: 12:46 light in darkness. 10:10 life abundant. 10:28 life eternal. 4:10 living water. 6:35 bread of life. 8:32 truth & freedom.

• Greeks want to see Jesus and they approach disciples who have Greek names because they (the Greeks) see that Jesus has something they want.

(People may approach you if they see that you have something they want.)

And people want life. And rest. And redemption.

• So invite them that they may find that here, in Jesus,

And live in such a way that people will want to have what you have.

• 117 We Come, O Christ, to You

The Gospel You Can’t

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Mar 182012

Ephesians 2:1-10 and Ezekiel 37

Fourth Sunday of Lent

• Spring must be here… daffodils emerging. Deadlooking bulbs, now looking alive… no wonder they’re a sign of Easter hope, of cancer hope.

Yet the dead appearance a bulb has is not the death talked about in Ephesians b/c natural cycle of dormancy and growth. No dormancy and expected growth author of Ephesians is seeing, just death.

Like Ezek 37, the dry bones. A valley of bones. That’s death. That’s not dormant, that’s death. Them bones aren’t gonna grow flesh themselves and walk.

But God makes it happen. Not only that but God invites Ezekiel to be part of it, witness and prophet.

• What is the death in Ephesians?

It’s hedonism (pursuit of pleasure above all else).

It’s immaturity (verse 3 you were like children).

It’s disobedience to will of God.

It’s the ethos of today: spirit of tolerance, if it feels good do it, if nobody gets hurt…

(excursis on goodness apart from God? Personal value as standard for ethics, but personal values are personal and fluid, and try as we may, not universal. Even if ppl did come to consensus, value by consensus is best we can do? How about value based on unchanging and infinitely good, external but intimate God. Whose design, goal, and interest is good (2:10). Life is sacred and meaningful because it is endowed by God. The cure for society’s ills is the willful submission to God’s leadership and LORDship.)

Destructive spiritual power (verse 2). Like cancer, rampant growth of the unintended and unwelcome.

Read Verse 1 again.

• Verse 6: However, God is rich in mercy. Act of God to bring back to life, as in valley of dry bones. God’s great mercy and love.

Why? To show future generations How Great Thou Art (verse 7).

• Gospel = good news = life. New life. Restored life.

• salvation is God’s gift (8). Not your accomplishment. Endowment, not entitlement.

And God intends for us to use it well, to share with world How Great Thou Art.

• The Gospel you can’t. You can’t earn it, you can’t do it, it is a gift.

What can you (do)? You can receive (the gift) believe (the Gospel) and achieve. Live in submission to God and in mission to world.

• Hymn 505 Love Lifted Me

“Preach”

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Feb 192012

Mark 9:2-9 and 2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Transfiguration Sunday

• Sometimes you see in the newspaper or esp. online soldier’s surprise visit with family and it makes you smile… Josie’s pride over Christmas visit of soldier nephew Steve V. active duty – several folks in the congregation… joyful reunion that encourages and strengthens both family and soldier

That’s how I think of the transfiguration… Jesus has been on his chosen assignment for some time now – thirty odd years, let’s say, since he was deployed on his mission of salvation and reconciliation. And though he keeps in regular contact with father (and his commander), actual reunions are rare.

The pace of his assignment is picking up, he’s getting nearer his objective, and he’s told his company a bit about the mission and the company’s not sure what to think… takes a few squad leaders with him and goes on a little divine recon. Meets with Moses and Elijah and receives divine affirmation for the mission, God’s “atta-boy”, keep on keepin on, you got it. This is my son whom I dearly love. Listen to him! Don’t get distracted by other things, listen to Jesus! He’s the one.

And Jesus (I imagine) is re-invigorated.

Great thing to be reinvigorated, receive affirmation as you’re about to undertake something difficult. Set aside some of the hindrances, get past stumbling blocks, focus on the important.

• I’ve been at Ctown some thirty odd weeks, deployed on a mission, and recently reinvigorated. Not supernaturally but internally, in this body

with this infrastructure (people moving, visiting, leading), ability to examine and expand

• Mark 1:38 let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out… there are folks that don’t know Jesus, don’t know the gospel – Gordon L’s (he died last week) prayer was for them, and that is our purpose

• light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ…. How folks need Jesus now, how are we preaching it… how we continue to preach it… preach the gospel at all times, if necessary, use words.

My nickname is “Preach,” given to me by some friends on the “fringe” (outside the church)… Be in relationship, invitational, attractive.

• transfiguration energized Jesus and benefited disciples, who were seeing beyond shadow of doubt that this Jesus the Nazarene was indeed something marvelous and wonderful.. that they would dedicate the rest of their lives to his service and celebration.

• be encouraged, be encouragement

• Hymn 512: My Savior’s Love

I stand amazed at the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be, how marvelous, how wonderful is my savior’s love for me.

More Than Chocolates, More Than Roses

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Feb 122012

From John 15, Exodus 16

• Singles Awareness Day is coming up… (I shared statistics from http://www.theromantic.com/valentinesday/trivia.htm)

I asked the congregation for their responses:

Expressing love — marital or friendship. In what ways? How often?

(responses included hugs, kisses, intentional time together)

For marriages lacking in the affection department Dr. Willard Harley (psychologist, marriage guru, author, owner of http://www.marriagebuilders.com/ ) recommendations… (http://www.marriagebuilders.com/graphic/mbi5010_qa.html)

• How about expressions of non-romantic love? Love of children/parents, teachers, mentors, friends, neighbors… intentional time with. And whether you’re in a romantic relationship or not, there are a lot more people you can share non-romantic love with than one…

There are many ways to express love, and does it ever get old, really?

Intentionality is key.

• Holy Communion (literally “with unity”, sharing) is holding hands with God, intentional presence with. It’s an expression and celebration of God’s love. There is an element of communion, of course, that is sober and reflective as you consider your own sinfulness that drove Christ to self-sacrifice, but to dwell on just the penitential aspect of communion without celebrating the love in communion would be like recognizing a birthday by only recounting the pains of labor. Communion is holding hands with God, or intentionally spending time with someone who’s important to you.

I don’t know about you but I want that. I think it’s the sweetest thing to see a couple that’s been married for 65 years that wants nothing but to hold hands. It doesn’t get old.

• And as we looked at a number of ways to celebrate love, there’s more than one way to celebrate communion.

Picture the Last Supper, a dozen or so folks gathered at one table. Jesus passes the bread around, each takes a piece. Maybe their hands touch as they pass the bread. Jesus passes the cup around, each takes a sip. They’re sharing not only Jesus’ life but each others lives.

Fast-forward two thousand years and we have a few ways that we have changed how we take communion… intinction, where we receive from a common loaf and cup (as perhaps Jesus’ disciples did), or in the pews with the individual cups and cubes, where we all partake at the same time…

• Communion is a gift of God. We read earlier from the book of Exodus. I included that today to show how God gifted the people with manna not once in a while but every day, and exactly sufficiently. Then I read from John 15, where Jesus adjures the disciples to stay connected to him (as the Dr. Harley love list).

• In communion we celebrate God’s love and we celebrate community. And it is good. Better than chocolate and roses.

• Proceed from message into The Great Thanksgiving

A Day in the Life

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Feb 052012

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

Souper Bowl of Caring Sunday

Mark 1:29-39

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

• Today will be Super Bowl 46: the rematch. SB42 MVP Manning v. Brady (5^thSB, 2sbmvps, 3^rd would tie Montana’s record). A hundred players anxious to prove their worth. What motivates a player? Do best. Victory. Glory. Coach. A hundred players know that today is the day to do their best.

• Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, Today is a gift…

• I’m a fan of John Wesley, but it’s tough when you measure up to a workaholic… I read one resource that said JW thought little of the man who did not pray for 4 hrs a day… by the way, JW did not have any children and he married late, nevertheless…

• A day in the life of JW. Rise 4am for prayer. 5am preach the first sermon of the day. Expected fellow preachers and layfolk to be there. If not preaching then riding to next preaching engagement, or praying, or writing.

If not engaged in one of these acts of piety, involved in acts of charity. Visiting sick and imprisoned, overseeing education of laborer’s children (& laborers), overseeing medical clinic for those who couldn’t afford it… Fasted twice a week, lived simply and gave away the bulk of his income. Traveled 4,500 miles a year by horseback, preached over 40,000 times, wrote 32 volumes of sermons and commentaries.

An impressive man. A man driven by desire to save souls AND to better lives. Died at 87, did not know the meaning of “retirement”.

• A day in the life of Apostle Paul. Started to think about Paul and the passage from 1 Corinthians 9 about Paul wanting to relate to people of all walks of life so that he might reach them for Christ, and thought about my friend Billy, whose enthusiasm for evangelism rivals a sports fan’s enthusiasm for their team. Billy (and I imagine Paul) hates to miss an opportunity to talk to someone about Jesus, why? That none may perish.

• A day in the life of Jesus. First chapter of Mark, Jesus has recently called four disciples to follow him, and they go to Peter’s home town. On the morning of the Sabbath Jesus teaches in the synagogue and casts a demon out of a man. After church they go back to Peter’s house, and after he heals Peter’s mom, the people of Capernaum bring the sick and possessed to him until after sunset.

After a hard day’s work, get some rest, no? Some folks don’t even go to work tomorrow because of watching SB today! But no, Jesus, who was up until after dark, arises well before sunrise to pray. Jesus, the very Son of God, chooses to start his day on his knees before God, and then instead of taking it easy, heads off to the surrounding towns to do it all again.

• History, mystery, gift… only currency is present, spend it for the glory of God, guided by church’s mission to reach out to everyone with the love of Christ and to make living, growing disciples of JC… or personal mission, if you have one… or UMC’s if you don’t: make disciples of JC for the transformation of the world. Know mission, get to know people, that none may perish and that some may know God. This Is What You’ve Been Trained For…

• Margaret Clarkson, who was born in 1915, was a teacher in a gold-mining camp in northern Ontario, Canada. It was a lonely life for this woman, but she also knew that this is where God wanted her to serve Him. She had a great desire to be a missionary on a foreign field but because of her health was unable to go. One day she was reading again the verse John 20:21, “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” While meditating on this verse she wrote the words to a hymn that has become a favorite during missionary conferences, “So Send I You.” Maybe after reading the words to this hymn a person would fear the call to missions. But, what a person must understand is that when God calls, He gives such a great desire that all else is unsatisfying and empty.

• Hymn 310 So Send I You

A Promise and an Appeal

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Jan 292012

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
Deuteronomy 18:15-20 and 1 Corinthians 8:1-13

• A bit of what’s what… The Deuteronomy passage is about Moses and the power of God which is so awesome that people were frightened of it, scared to death. And God says to the people “I will raise up a mediator, someone like you, someone from among you, who will speak my words.”

Moses was such a prophet. There were many other prophets. Jesus Christ certainly was fully human in order to be completely relatable to humanity.

God promises to provide a go-between.

• [aside] The power point just has some words I want in front of you:

“The living core of the Christian faith is revealed in Scripture, illumined by Tradition, vivified in personal Experience, and confirmed by Reason.”

“Our mission is to reach out to all persons with the love of Christ,
and to make living, growing disciples of Jesus Christ.”

• Paul on food and freedom. Culture of animal sacrifice, then question about eating meat from marketplace (which had likely been sacrificed to idol): Is eating it participation in idolatry?

Paul’s answer: “No, but…” If someone, another believer, a less-experienced believer sees you doing it and imitates you and falls because of it, you share responsibility for their fall.

∴ Act out of love for them. Put aside what YOU are strong enough to do, for their benefit.

• Application: Paul appeals to community over license. Your faith informs your behavior. Let your behavior be moderated by love.

All is permissible, but not all is beneficial (1 Cor. 6:12). You have the freedom to do anything, but not everything is helpful. Kids, listen up!

• What is beneficial? That which is edifying, building up, good for the community.

Jesus Christ set aside the power of God Almighty (could do anything) in order to connect with us without overwhelming us. Met us on our level, to spur us onto the next.

John Wooden (UCLA Basketball coach, 1960s, 10 NCAA Championships in 12 yrs, 88-game winning streak) would be a poor basketball coach if he didn’t drill a team on the basics. A good coach doesn’t start out with the advanced stuff but moves the team through the foundations in succession. And btw, he was a devout Christian, considering his beliefs more important to him than basketball: “I have always tried to make it clear that basketball is not the ultimate. It is of small importance in comparison to the total life we live. There is only one kind of life that truly wins, and that is the one that places faith in the hands of the Savior…”

• Certainly we desire to mature in faith, and our mission is to make growing, living disciples – by engaging folks at all levels and saying Walk with me…

• What is beneficial is what edifies community.

Behavior informed by faith and moderated by love.

Prayer: that we may grow in faith & knowledge & love, and use what God has given us to bless others. Inspire us and build us up, Lord.

• Hymn 382 Be Thou My Vision

STER – On the Wesleyan Quadrilateral

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Jan 222012

Third Sunday after the Epiphany
from James 1

• Life is like a journey. Cliché, sure, but life demands examination, and life is big enough that we sometimes have to compare it to other things to understand it better, get a taste of it. One time Jesus sent disciples out with nothing but the clothes on their backs. At the end of the gospel of Mark, instructs them to go on ahead to Galilee, where Jesus goes before them. End of Matthew, instructs to go, make disciples, baptize, teach, and he will be with us. Last week we repeated God will not abandon, well it bears repeating today, as God equips and empowers us for the journey of life.

• So on the journey of life what are some of the tools we have?

• Scripture. (hold up my Bible, which is pocket sized so I can take it with me… covered with duct tape… filled with notes… The best color for a bible is read) Scripture. First and foremost. Our primary resource. The witness of God’s redemptive love come to fulfillment in JC. The Bible is the Church’s book for use in the community of prayer and faith. It is a living thing (wonderful words of life) and while its parts can and must be studied it is to be studied as a whole. (human teeth)

The Bible is testimony to what God has done, and invitation to interact, to respond. It is God-inspired and useful for teaching and training in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16).

In the Bible we find our identity, we find purpose and meaning. We find all things necessary for salvation in scripture, and there is no ingredient for salvation that is not found therein.

• What’s another tool in here? I have a flashlight to help me examine scripture, to shed light on, to illuminate. The way I interpret scripture is informed by the way those who have gone before me have interpreted scripture – I don’t have to start from scratch, but I can build on my spiritual parents, stand on their shoulders. We call this tradition. What my forefathers and mothers taught, what teachers and theologians have wrestled with for generations, even what the earliest generations of Christians believed, these things are the tradition that shed light on scripture (which is primary. Scripture, illumined by tradition).

• There’s another tool in here for the journey, a pair of boots. You know the bit about if a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one to hear it does it make a sound? If living scripture is left on a coffee table does it live? As scripture is illumined by tradition, in the journey of life scripture is vivified in experience, trying it out, stretching it, hitting the road. Look at that passage from James – we are to be not only hearers but doers; the foundation of faith in action is scripture put into practice in your personal experience.

• And you gotta ask if it all makes sense, if it fits (in this backpack), if it’s reasonable. God gave us brains not just to tell our hearts to pump and our feet to move but to examine and evaluate events in our lives. We use reason to look at situations, to look at tradition and experience, to look at scripture and its teachings.

• These four things – Scripture (first), illuminated by tradition, vivified in personal experience, confirmed by reason – form what’s known as the Wesleyan quadrilateral (from the teachings of John Wesley), and are tools that we have to examine and evaluate everything we come across on the journey. Armed with these tools (and the Holy Spirit, can I get an amen) we’re equipped to address things in our lives like death, life, growth, grief, change.

• Something happen? What’s scripture say about it? What have other believers throughout history taught about it? Can I live with it? Does it make sense?

Wesley believed that the living core of the Christian faith was revealed in Scripture, illumined by tradition, vivified in personal experience, and confirmed by reason. Scripture [however] is primary, revealing the Word of God ‘so far as it is necessary for our salvation.’

Wesley saw the Quadrilateral not merely as prescriptive of how one should form their theology, but also as descriptive of how almost anyone does form theology.

Prayer that God’s word would be living in us as we live and grow in faith and action. Every Day.

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