June 4 - Sermon for Communion

Galatians 5:20-21, Romans 5:1-5

Are you getting enough fruit in your diet? The new food pyramid guidelines suggest that everyone include 2 or 3 servings of fruit in a healthy, well balanced diet. But, being your pastor, rather than your dietitian, I am less concerned about your strawberries and cantaloupe, and more concerned about a different kind of fruit – the “fruits of the Spirit” that Paul writes about in Galatians. These spiritual fruits also make for a healthy and well balanced life. And each Sunday in June, we’ll take a look at a few of these fruits, suggesting some recipes for including more of them in our daily routines. The hope is that we will grow more and more into the spirit filled Christians God is calling us to be.

Now, are you getting enough country music in your diet? If you have a country music deficit, we’ll address that, too. Because, as Harlan Howard, dean of Nashville songwriters has wisely said, the definition of country music is “Three chords and the truth.”

This morning’s fruits are Love and Joy. Let’s begin with Joy – the fruit that seems to grow naturally when we are most in tune with God’s creation. And let’s start with an old favorite cowboy song. Well, it’s not a cowboy song. But, it’s sung by a cowboy. Well, it’s not actually sung by a cowboy. It’s sung by an actor playing a cowboy. But it’s from Oklahoma. Not the state of Oklahoma. The Broadway musical Oklahoma. And it is written by the famous cowboy composers, Rogers and Hammerstein. I think it’s Roy Rogers and Slim Hammerstein. Anyway, let’s take a listen:

O what a beautiful Morningfrom Oklahoma
There's a bright golden haze on the meadow
There's a bright golden haze on the meadow
The corn is as high as an elephant's eye
And it looks like it's climbing right up to the sky
O what a beautiful morning, O what a beautiful day
I've got a beautiful feeling, everything's going my way

The reason “O What a beautiful morning” is a classic song is because it expresses human beings’ soul felt response to the wonder of creation. How many of us, when asked when we feel closest to God, answer “When I see a gorgeous sunset, or on a trip to the mountains, or days when I’m fishing?” Lots. Creation connects us with our Creator God in a primal way. It’s always been that way. Think again of Psalm 8, that we read this morning. Thousands of years ago, the Psalmist was just like us, looking up at the summer night sky, seeing the starscape – the universe stretching out beyond all human understanding. “When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have created . . . O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
The most reliable trigger for JOY is the wonder of creation – whether in its largest or smallest manifestations: The heavens are huge. A baby’s toes are tiny. But when we look at either one, JOY and awe well up inside us.
JOY is a quite distinct spiritual experience. Sometimes it is confused with happiness – or people attempt to substitute happiness for joy. But there is a big difference. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard people say that Happiness is about external circumstances, but joy is about your spiritual state.
I want to get to the clue that Paul gives us in the word “Re-joice” Rejoicing – like RE- peating, Re-turning, Re- flecting is ReFlexive. It begins with God’s action – and then reflects it back to Him. The favorite Christmas hymn, Joy to the world – REPEAT the sounding joy! Repeat repeat the sounding joy. Rejoicing, which is what Paul tells us to do, is a reflecting back of God’s joy.
That makes Re-joicing is really another way of saying “Thank-you”
My internet buddy Peace Bang’s (Victoria Weinstein) deal on thank you as a spiritual discipline fits here.
My parents raised me to write thank you notes for everything, and to basically understand that without people’s help there is no life and you’ve got to thank folks. All of that emphasis on thanking people really influenced the person that I am today: a person who is attentive to blessings and really, truly grateful. I may be a cranky, nasty wench, but boy, I’m sure not an ingrate.
As you all know, I spend a lot of time grousing in my head about the state of the world. but If I did not spend at least as much time thanking God for my blessings as I do bitching about the brokenness of the human species, I couldn’t bear to stay here. My inner voice of anger and disappointment with myself and other humans would drown out the music of what’s really going on, and although I’d probably survive in body, my soul and spirit would be numb and dead.
But mostly, I just don’t get it when people accept generosity and don’t express thanks. It just seems to me that their lives must be kind of impoverished for that, because I know that when I express thanks, it has the pleasant effect of prolonging the goodness of whatever I am thanking someone for.
Training ourselves, training our children to say thank you is not just a matter of etiquette. It is a shaping of our souls to fit them for rejoicing. Re-joice.

Paul’s letter says Rejoice even in circumstances that cannot make us happy. This is not a recipe for spiritual fruit salad: Suffering plus perseverance , a dash of character, chill one hour with hope .. . Turning this into a formula results in theology that leaves a bad taste in our mouths: “You should be glad your spouse left you, your truck broke down and your dog died.” That would make a terrible country song. And Paul’s not saying that either. He’s saying, We rejoice because God’s work is a mystery that we cannot see completely. But we know that God is in for the long haul. God will bring something joyful, even out of pain.
Joy is a long crop. It’s born in what God has done, nurtured with thank yous and a willingness to endure what we cannot understand. But when we bite into those joyful moments of life, it is a feeling that can not be compared.

Here’s a country style snapshot of such a moment:
Artist/Band: Clark GuyLyrics for Song: A Nickel For The Fiddler
Chorus Well it's a nickel for the fiddler. It's a nickel for his tune. It's a nickel for the tambourine kind of afternoon. And it's a high holiday on the 21st of June. And it's country music in the park and everybody's ruined. Instrumental break Well it's fountains full of dogs and kids. And it's freaky apple pie. And it's the ones who came to play. And the ones just passin' by. And it's coats of many colors. And it almost makes me cry. Lord it's ice cream on a stick. And it's somethin' you can’t buy.

Each and every day – The Spirit offers opportunities for joy and rejoicing. Include 2-3 in your daily spiritual diet.

Love.

Wasn’t that joy music upbeat? Well, now let’s turn our attention to the Spiritual Fruit of Love. What’s the common denominator between country music and the Gospel when it comes to love? Perhaps Patsy Cline can tell us:

Written by Floyd Tillman (As recorded by Patsy Cline 8/24/61)
I love you so much, it hurts me
Darlin, that's why I'm so blue
I'm so afraid to go to bed at night
Afraid of losing youI love you so much, it hurts me
And there's nothing I can do
I want to hold you my dear, forever and ever
I love you so much, it hurts me so

I love you so much it hurts me.
Yep. Country music in a funny way, and Christianity in a profound way, share this insight into life: The greatest of all good involves pain. Love hurts.

Love that is easy, or painless; Love that requires no sacrifice and no change; Love that involves nothing but pleasure . . . well, country music doesn’t sing about that. Merle Haggard has a song, “It’s not love. But it’s not bad.” And that’s true. It’s not bad. But it’s not love. It’s not a spiritual fruit. It’s more like sugarfree bubblegum. Ok for a while. But you couldn’t live on it.

It is true that love hurts when a person loves another person, as Patsy sings. When you love someone you give up something to them. Your parents, your children, your friends, your church, your God. A healthy love is a love that puts the beloved’s best interest ahead of oneself. That makes it bittersweet.

The spiritual fruit of love is a bittersweet fruit. – It takes a certain amount of effort to add it to your daily spiritual diet. But when you do – there’s nothing more satisfying, more healthful for you. There’s not a better spiritual fruit than love.

We started with a morning song – The last song also begins in the morning, and includes a walk under the night sky – like the Psalmist. It’s Big Al Anderson’s bittersweet song about trying to find a better word for love.
A BETTER WORD FOR LOVE Al Anderson/Gary Nicholson
HERE’S ANOTHER MORNING SOON SHE’LL BE WAKING UP
I WATCH HER AND WONDER IF THERE’S A BETTER WORD FOR LOVE
SO MANY TIMES I’VE TOLD HER IT NEVER SEEMS ENOUGH
SO I KEEP SEARCHING FOR A BETTER WORD FOR LOVE
MUMBLING STUMBLING WONDERING WHEN I’LL FIND A WAY
I KNOW SHE KNOWS, THERE’S NOTHING MORE TO SAY
TONIGHT WHEN I’M OUT WALKING I’LL ASK THE STARS ABOVE
IF OUT THERE SOMEWHERE THERE’S A BETTER WORD FOR LOVE

The ultimate expression of love – of God’s love – is also of a love that is bitter sweet. God searched and searched for the words to tell us how he loved us. Then, at the fullness of time, God sent, not more words, but the Word – his Son Jesus Christ. God’s greatest act of love was giving his life for us in the cross of Jesus Christ. It was God’s perfect love for us that was willing to bear the worst of life’s pain. And it was by this pain that, as Paul writes, the love of God is poured into our hearts.
As we come forward to share the bread and the cup around the table that Jesus has set, we receive his life, his love, poured out for us, poured out into us. At this table we encounter love. At this table we are filled with joy. May we come fully open to receive the gifts of God.

Pentecost

The sermon just wasn't good enough to post. I meant well. Babel and Pentecost make such a great contrast, but I just couldn't pull it off. It is sort of funny that on a Sunday in which communication is the theme, the preacher had trouble communicating.
Here's something profound, instead. I got it off the bulletin my friend Bill Capel put together for the church he's "pastoring":

"I want to pay a simple tribute to God the Holy Spirit. The Spirit, the ruha elohim is feminine gender in the Old Testament, neuter in the New Testament, but never masculine.
"It operates quietly - sometimes it comes with a mighty roaring wind and thunder and lightning. This is exceptional. Most of the time, it works quietly and is at work in the churches of Asia, in the societies of Asia, in the whole global development.
"In my church, the liturgy every Sunday speaks of the Holy Spirit who brings all things that exist, and all the things which are to exist in the future, to perfection. That is the job of the spirit: to bring everything to perfection. The Spirit is quietly at work.
"Would that we have the sensitivity to see where it is at work and become available, so that we can truly become the instruments of the Spirit. That is the commitment I hope all of us have."
- Paulo S Mar Gregorios 1922-1996, (India)

Sunday's Sermon - May 20

Acts 16:16-34

Freedom is the subject of our scripture lesson for the day. If you look at it carefully, the themes of freedom and enslavement or freedom and imprisonment or freedom and security are woven into every thread of the story. The questions, “Who is free? Who is not?” echo throughout the narrative. “What does freedom mean? Who can be free? Who has the right to take away freedom, and from whom can it be taken away? Can civil society afford the cost of freedom? When is the line between the freedom to practice one’s religion a license to interfere with someone’s economic interests?”
All of which is just to say that issues of gaining or losing freedom and the boundaries around liberty are as current and pressing now as they were 2000 years ago. So let’s look at the story from Acts and see how freedom and what kind of freedom, marked the life of Paul and the early church.

Freedom for a slave girl.

The story opens with a somewhat strange story about a slave girl who follows Paul and Silas around Philippi, declaring everywhere they went “These are servants of the most High God, who bring news of salvation.” On first impression, the thought of this overzealous cheerleader chasing Paul around town is sort of funny. None of us have cheerleaders like this. You might think it would be sort of nice, at least for a while. And the fact that what she says happens to be true makes it better. But, nonetheless, after a few days, it sort of interferes with Paul’s mission. Can you imagine teaching a class where one of the pupils calls out “Great teacher! You’re a real super teacher!” or how would you like to go to be followed around the office, from meeting to meeting, trying to get a report done before deadline, but having one of your co-worker’s teenage daughter following you, shouting, “You’re doing a great job there! You’re really being efficient!” Or, Moms, how about around the house, the loudest child (and you loud children know who you are) shadows you, telling you over and over what a great job you’re doing with the shopping, the disciplining, the laundry. Would you have the patience Paul did? To wait several days, trying to ignore her, until finally, he just got fed up? Finally, Paul had had enough. He has to deal with her.
The girl is possessed of a spirit. I’d tell you what that meant, exactly, except for the fact that I don’t know. We’d probably understand her as mentally ill. Or with a behavior disorder of some sort. Her owners apparently were exploiting her condition, charging for people to listen to her strange outbursts. But as for understanding what was really going on with her, the scripture only gives a clue. The Greek says she had a “pythonic” spirit. Whatever was inside her was wrapped around her soul like a python around a rabbit, squeezing her true life right out of her. . Did she know that she was possessed? There’s no indication that she did. She probably didn’t know any different. This strangling, crushing spirit was just her life.
Which is the thing about this slave girl that makes me wonder about how free I really am. What snakes have I let wrap themselves around my soul that I don’t even admit to myself are there? I was thinking about this poor girl when I heard a story about Oprah – who spoke at a Commencement ceremony this last week. Remembering the girl Paul freed, I want you to hear a piece of what Oprah said: I beseech you to remember what Harriet Tubman spoke concerning her sojourn to bring slaves out of the South. She said that she could have liberated thousands more if she had been able to convince them that they were slaves.
Freedom is a mark of the Easter church. In humility, we might consider the possibility that we are not as free as we would like to think. AT this very moment, we may have a python of pride, greed, envy, guilt, anger . . . wrapped around our hearts. And, like the slave girl, we don’t even know we need to be freed.
But the good news is that the name of Jesus Christ, that Paul invoked to draw the spirit out of the girl, is still as powerful, still as effective, still as mighty as it was back then. Freedom bestowed in the name of Jesus Christ makes one free indeed.

Freedom from crushing, enslaving spirits is the first kind of freedom that marks the church, the second is more lyrical - it is the freedom to sing.

Look again at the story. When the slave girl was freed from her evil spirit, her owners realized that they weren’t going to be making much money off of her anymore. Paul and Silas have interfered with somebody’s money machine. And you and I both know there is no easier way to get in trouble than to mess with somebody’s income. The owners seize Paul and Silas and drag them to court. Now, they don’t say, these guys are interfering with the way we were exploiting our worker. They don’t say, we’re suffering a loss of income because these men did something good for a poor person. No, no, no. When guys like this cause a stink, money is never going to be the issue. It’s always going to be “a way of life” that’s threatened, or disorderly conduct that is objectionable. Remember when we talked about “It’s not about the money?” Well, when freedom and justice cost people some of their fat bankroll, and their financial cushion, it’s not about the money! It’s always about some great principle about to be violated. When you hear stuff like that, you remember this story. And you lay down your last dollar on this sure bet: It is about the money.
And somebody is going to pay. Paul and Silas are stripped and beaten are beaten and thrown into prison before they even have a trial. Their feet are fastened in stocks, which makes it very difficult for the prisoners to sleep. Sleep deprivation is not a new torture. It is an old one.
Midnight comes and Paul and Silas are awake, in pain, and in prison. And they are singing. Songs sung in the darkest hour are the sweetest songs there are. They are freedom songs. Victor Frankel, a doctor who survived Nazi death camps during WWII and went on to author a brilliant book called, “Man’s Search for Meaning” wrote
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
This last of human freedom – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, is the freedom that Paul and Silas demonstrate while they are in chains. It is Christ’s freedom, to suffer but not to give way to bitterness or hate. To meet meanness with forgiveness and answer curses with a prayer.
The amazing thing is that freedom to choose singing and prayer, even in the darkest hour, is one of the characteristics of the God’s Easter people. We are Christ’s followers, and this freedom to sing in the dark is Christ’s gift to each of us. No matter what difficulties, what disappointments, what losses we must face, “How can we keep from singing?” For our faith is in the God who gives us freedom to sing.

Freedom for a slave. Freedom to sing. What other kind of freedom is there in this story? Freedom to save.

As Paul and Silas were singing, there was an earthquake, and the doors of the prison flew open, and the stocks were twisted out of the floor. The prisoners were no longer shackled. They were free – in the simplest way we know: Free to go. They could have stood up and walked out and disappeared into the night. But they didn’t go anywhere. Why?
The answer is amazing. Because they considered what would happen to their jailer. Indeed, the jailer woke up, ran down to check on his prisoners, saw all the doors of the jail, swinging on their hinges – and he figured that he’s prisoners were gone. He’d failed at his job. He’d be disgraced in front of the council. And he figured he’d rather die than be dishonored. So he drew his sword and was about to fall on it, to kill himself, when Paul calls out, “Don’t harm yourself. We’re all here.”
It was consideration and concern for someone who wasn’t a Christian that made Paul and Silas stay. They stopped to think about the consequences of their actions on an unchurched person. They stopped to consider what was going to happen to him. They stopped to try to see their freedom through his eyes and so, thought they were free to run away, they chose to stay. They chose the greater freedom to impact another person’s life for Christ.
The jailer is so amazed at their kindness that he immediately falls down, begging to know how he can be saved. Because Paul and Silas cared about what their actions meant for the jailer, he and his whole family were saved.
The point here is that how Christians handle our freedom determines other people’s openness to the Gospel. If we look out only for ourselves, using our freedom to run away from trouble and danger, we may escape. But we will not save anyone but ourselves. If the power of God moves in our lives – like a mighty earthquake – but all we do is free ourselves – we are not free indeed.
How Christians act in freedom
How Christians react to freedom
How we, the Easter people, treat our freedom
Impacts the unchurched, unsaved world. It either condemns them to death (the jailer was going to kill himself) of it opens up the way for them to ask, “How can I be saved?”
Do we consider how our freedom impacts others? Do we behave in a way that shows we care about their welfare, as well as our own? Do we ever exercise self-restraint, freely choosing to limit our freedom for the sake of someone else’s? As we do these things, we begin to show that we have true freedom – the freedom to save.
Freedom in Spirit
Freedom to Sing
Freedom to Save.
These are the marks of God’s Easter people. God grant that they become part of our lives.

The Old Melancholy Dane

That's what they called Soren Kierkegaard. I don't think I appreciated K. as much as I should have when I read him in seminary school. But as I get older, melancholy is growing on me. So are hats.

Here's something K. observed about freedom:

People hardly ever make use of the freedom they have. For example, the freedom of thought. Instead, they demand freedom of speech as compensation.

I'm guilty of that, certainly: Speaking freely before thinking deeply. But usually, eventually, I do think. And I'm profoundly curious about what other people are thinking. It's always a little heartbreaking to discover that someone I care about isn't thinking at all.

O, Freedom!

This week the worship "theme" is freedom, and all week I've had the camp song/spiritual going through my head:
O Freedom, O Freedom, O Freedom over me!
And before I'd be a slave,
I'll be buried in my grave,
and go home to my Lord and be free.
But, of course, I'm probably the only one who knows that song. Do YOU know that song?

Ready for adventure

This morning I got out "The Book of Common Worship" 1947 edition for a little change of pace in morning prayer. The "thees and thous" and "bestoweth"s can make it both a little awkward and very effective. Prayers can't be said quickly and unthinkingly when you are using this older language. And sometimes, perhaps because the idiom is a little antiquated, the meaning behind the words is especially fresh. That was the case for me this morning.

So I'm passing on one of the morning family prayers. Maybe your family will pray it together, too:

O Lord of all good life,

we pray Thee to purify our lives.

Help us each day to know more of Thee,

and by the power of Thy Spirit

use us to show forth Thyself to others.

Make us humble, brave, and loving;

make us ready for adventure.

We do not ask that Thou wilt keep us safe,

but that Thou wilt keep us ever

loyal to the example of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Make us ready for adventure. Hmmm.

Communications Workshop

Today Mahala (the church's admin. assist.) and I drove to Bloomington for a workshop on church communications. We learned lots of valuable stuff.
One of the things I'm going to remember most, however, will be the speaker's critique of many church comm. pieces which, she said, made people feel self-conscious or guilty.
Examples were a flyer for a kid's program that said, "Where children go to learn values", which implied that the parents didn't teach values.
Or a brochure for credit counseling that said, "When your monthly bills are larger than your paycheck - we can help."
Or a counseling program that said, "Problems can be overwhelming. We can help you get through them."
She said that nobody picked up those pieces, and nobody came for help. So she redesigned them. The credit counseling piece said, "Do you know someone whose bills are larger than their paycheck? Tell them we can help."
The counseling service slogan became: "When a friend suffers grief or loss, let them know about (the counseling center)."
Though nobody would pick up the literature for themselves, they readily picked it up when it suggested they were helping a friend. These redesigned outreach pieces were much more effective. Calls to the agencies went up, and lots of people were helped. Doesn't that make sense?
So - I had a stroke of genius. Here's how to get past the embarrassment people feel at admitting they have spiritual needs; the church needs to design a brochure with the heading -
"Is someone you know going to hell?"
Don't you think that's a great idea? Neither did the workshop leader.
But I made some pastors laugh.