The Unlighted Candle

On All Saints Sunday, we remember the saints who have gone ahead of us into glory. But do we really remember ALL of them? After nearly 2,000 years of Christian witness, many of their names are now forgotten. This sermon reminds us of the saints who were influential in the congregation that I now serve. Maybe it will remind you of saints in your own faith tradition.

All Saints Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year. On that day, we remember beloved friends and family members who have been gathered into glory. The sad truth is that, as the years go by, the list of people that I remember gets longer and longer; and I know that it’s the same for all of you. Before our worship is over, you will have an opportunity to light a candle in memory of those folks. In just a few minutes, the remembrance table will be full of flickering candles, each one testimony to loved ones and to memories that we hold dear. Something struck me last year as I surveyed the sea of lighted candles that stood on that table. Some of the candles weren’t lighted. Now, on a practical level, it’s impossible to know how many of you will want to light a candle; and since I want to be sure that there are enough candles available, some of them will be unused. But it got me to thinking. How many candles are not lighted because we have forgotten people who influenced this congregation? How many candles would be lighted if we remembered all the saints of this church who have gone before us? There wouldn’t be any candles left unlighted! Why, we would have lighted candles filling the sanctuary, spilling out into the parking lot, and extending down the road in both directions!

Let’s take a short trip through time and see if we can get a look at some of those saints. Our first stop is a brief one, and we can’t get a very clear look at much of anything. After all, we’re two hundred years in the past, in the year 1815. Through the mists of time, we can see a weathered-looking man walking along the bank of the Stillwater River. It must be Abraham Snethens, better known as “the Barefoot Preacher.” He founded Christian churches in this area after a great revival took place in Kentucky. But we only get a brief glimpse of him, and then we continue our journey.

We settle down in the year 1837, the year that our congregation was founded. We’re in an old brick building that looks like a schoolhouse. Many years later, this will be the southeast corner of Iddings Road and State Route 571; but right now, we’re in the middle of a field. Elder John Williams is preaching to a small congregation of worshippers. We know his name because he was the first preacher of this church. But we don’t know the names of the people who are listening to him: all the people who are thirsty to hear God’s word, and who will later help to organize their group into a congregation.

Our next stop lands us in the middle of a real ruckus! It’s 1879, and a new church building is under construction, taking shape around us. Mary Wheelock’s family donated the land that we’re standing on, and a Mr. Flack is directing the construction. Workers are digging clay from the field right across the road, while a kiln next to it is baking that clay into bricks that will be used to construct the building. We don’t know the names of all the men who are working so hard. We don’t know the names of their wives who keep them well fed, or their children who probably come to worship here. But we can certainly see their legacy. We’re sitting in it!

We move on, and we’re suddenly sitting in a very cold church sanctuary! We’re surrounded by members of the congregation – all men – who are voting on whether to dig a basement under this church building in order to provide a kitchen and a dining room, and so that a coal furnace can be installed. Until now, lanterns placed under the pews have provided heat for the worshippers. It’s a difficult decision! But in the end, the vote is to dig the basement. And we don’t remember the names of any of the people who made that decision.

As we continue to move ahead through time, we catch glimpses of many different scenes. We see wedding dinners and funeral luncheons, potluck meals and potpie suppers, days of work and evenings of fellowship. We see many more decisions made. Do we build a new addition on to the existing building? Do we purchase the Van Riper Farm? Do we remodel the sanctuary? Do we sell the parsonage? At every step, men and women work together, share fellowship together, and make difficult decisions.

Who were the people who did all these things? We know some of their names; but most of them are lost in the mist of the past. Who were the women who raised families, cooked food for dinners, and made new worshippers feel welcome? Who were the children who first heard about the love of Jesus within these walls? Who served on boards and committees, gave of their time and finances to help this congregation grow, and worshipped faithfully in this sanctuary? We may not know their names, but we know who they were. They were the saints of this congregation; and today is the day that we remember them.

So this morning, after we have all lighted votive candles in memory of our loved ones, I will light one final candle – the tall, white taper right in the center of the table. It is in memory of all those whose names we have forgotten, but whose legacy is all around us. Today their candle will burn brightly!

Something New

Are you frightened or excited when God promises something new? You'd think that the answer would be "excited," but maybe not. After all, "something new" means change; and we don't always like that! This sermon considers some things to remember when God calls us to change. Maybe some of them will be helpful to you!

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. It’s a secret that only we pastors know; so please don’t tell anyone that I told you. That scripture reading that we just heard – the one from Isaiah? (Isaiah 43:16-21) we hear it all the time. We hear it at denominational gatherings and at clergy training. We read it in inspirational emails and in devotional books. Sometimes, when we open the Bible, it even falls open to this text in Isaiah! But that text makes our blood run cold. It scares us out of our wits. It makes us want to jump in bed and pull the covers up over our heads!

You are probably wondering why this text is so frightening. There’s a simple answer. It says that God is going to change things. Change things! Now, believe it or not, we pastors don’t like change. Change is OK if it’s our idea. Change is fine if it’s what we want when we want it. But change that’s God’s idea, the change that God wants when God decides it’s time for it… that kind of change is scarier than a Freddie Krueger movie! And that’s exactly the kind of change that God is talking about here in Isaiah. “Forget about the past!” God is saying to us. “I’m doing something new! Look – it’s all around! Can’t you see it?” And if we clergy are honest with ourselves, we can see it. But we’d much rather just close our eyes and pretend that it’s not happening. After all, we’re all comfortable with all the stuff that we learned in seminary: how to preach and how to teach and how to lead a committee. We like the way that things have always been. And now, God is telling us that we might have to do something new? Why, the nerve of God!

I imagine that most of you feel pretty much the same way that we pastors do. We may love to read these verses from Isaiah and imagine what delightful surprises God has in store for us, but we don’t want to change so that we can enjoy those surprises. We like doing things the way that we’ve always done them. You’ve all heard the joke that asks “How many people does it take to change a light bulb?” Well, here’s the church version of that joke. “How many church members does it take to change a light bulb? Change?!?!?” Now, I have to be absolutely honest. Our congregation doesn’t mind changing light bulbs. In fact, during the last few months, we have changed all of our old light bulbs and replaced them with high-efficiency, low-cost lights. So, see – we’re happy to change light bulbs! Beyond that… Well, we’re not so sure. But God keeps pestering us, tapping us on our shoulders and whispering in our ears that things are changing.

And we all know that. Why, just look at the neighborhood around us. All kinds of people are living there now, not just farmers like the ones who built this church from the ground up. Lots of fancy new homes now stand on fields where corn used to grow. Instead of complaining that things have changed, maybe we should get to know those people around us and ask them what they need. We could even reach out to them, and invite them to join us in reaching out to others. Actually, I think that’s exactly what God is calling us to do; and it isn’t something new, at all. It’s really just doing what we’ve always done – reaching out in mission to the people around us. But we will have to do that in new ways, because the days that we grew up in are long gone. All of us will have to change – you and me both!

The New Beginnings program is going to help us to do just that. Over the next six weeks, small groups will meet in homes to discuss who we are as a church, what our gifts and talents are, and what we’re passionate about. We’ll find out who is living in the area around us, courtesy of the high-tech marketing research that helps advertisers encourage us to buy their products. That same research is going to help us figure out what their spiritual needs are, so that we can reach out to them in mission. And then, we’ll match our congregation to that mission field – and we will decide what adjustments we need to make in order to meet the needs of the folks around us. Maybe we’ll only have to change some light bulbs. But maybe we’ll have to change a little more than that.

Now, I have a confession to make. Over the last month or so, I have been preaching sermons that will help us start thinking about the changes that God is calling us to make. You might remember some of those sermons. I encouraged you to remember that that God wants only the best for us; and that God wants to partner with us as we discern how to move ahead. I reminded you that God is much greater than we even imagine; and that God can accomplish things that we could never even dream of doing. I talked about the kinds of people who help the church move ahead – clear-eyed prophets who can envision the future, cheerleaders who encourage us to keep going when it’s difficult, and comforters who hold our hands when we’re afraid. And I suggested that we might have to adjust our glasses every now and then as we reevaluate what we always thought we knew. Those are important things to remember as we plan for the future as a faithful congregation of Jesus Christ.

But what if you’re not participating in the New Beginnings program here at Nashville. What if you can’t join in one of the conversation groups for one reason or another? Does this text from Isaiah have anything to say to you? Oh, my, yes, it certainly does. I’ll bet that something in your life has changed recently. Let’s face it, things change all the time, whether we want them to change or not. And that change might not be the kind of change that you wanted. In fact, that change might be downright threatening. Maybe you’re dealing with an unexpected illness – yours or that of a loved one. Maybe a close relationship has come to an end. Or maybe your job situation has changed. I want to remind you of the very same things that I just touched on a minute ago. God wants only the best for you; and God is waiting for you to ask for his help as you figure out how to move ahead. God is greater than you can imagine; and God can accomplish things that we could never even dream of doing! People in your life will help you as you decide where to go from here. Some will comfort you when you are discouraged. Others will encourage you when life is tough. And still others will see possibilities that you didn’t see. They’re all there for you. And as you move ahead, you might have to adjust your glasses a little bit. Sometimes, what we’ve always believed isn’t true at all. The path ahead is much easier when we can see clearly what’s on it.

Oh, yes, change is coming. In fact, change is here already! “Don’t dwell on the past!” says God. “I am doing a new thing! Don’t you see it?” The good news is that God is ready to guide us, to comfort us, to inspire us, and to encourage us as we meet the challenges – and the blessings – that those new things are already bringing to us. And that is good news, indeed!

All One

What did Jesus mean when he prayed that his people might "all be one"? Are we supposed to all be the same? This sermon takes the reader around the world to visit three different types of Christian worship. They are not all the same, but the worshippers are "all one" -- at least, in the sense that Jesus intended! Will you journey with me?

We’re going to take a trip today, far afield from our little church here in Ohio. But don’t worry, you won’t have to fly on a crowded airplane or risk getting seasick; and it won’t cost you a penny. We’re going to use our imagination as we travel across the ocean and join three other Christian churches in worship on this World Communion Sunday. Ready? Settle in and relax as we prepare for departure.

First, we’re going to Italy – to Rome – to St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, that enormous cathedral that is the sometimes called the mother church of Roman Catholicism. As we enter St. Peter’s, the size of it is overwhelming! Why, you could put 10 churches the size of ours into this space and still have room left over! We realize that we are surrounded by priceless art. The Pieta by Michelangelo, for example, is right over there, so close to us that we could reach out and touch it if it weren’t protected by a glass panel. The interior is so magnificent that it takes us a moment to realize that worship that is going on right in front of us. And when we focus on that worship, it is as splendid as the surroundings. The priests are clothed in beautiful vestments of red, gold, and white. The altar cover is glorious with traditional Christian symbols embroidered with gold thread. The chalice that holds the sacramental wine appears to be hammered gold itself, and is encrusted with priceless jewels. The priests are chanting reverently, and the worshippers are listening in rapt attention. Everything is worthy of royalty! But, after all, God is the King who rules the universe, and Jesus is seated at his right hand; and this worship is meant to remind us of that. We drink in atmosphere for a few minutes, appreciating the splendor of the place and the reverence of the Mass. But now it’s time to move on.

We are going next to Russia, to a little Russian Orthodox church on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. This little church managed to stay under the radar when Christianity was outlawed by the Communist Party, and its parishioners have been quietly worshipping here for generations. As we enter the small wooden building, it takes our eyes a while to get used to the dimness. The room is heavy with the scent of incense; and the only light is from candles, each one sending a wisp of smoke that mingles with the incense. And there are a multitude of candles! On our left, a table is filled with lighted candles, with worshippers praying silently in front of it. On our right is a small chapel with more candles. More worshippers are over there kneeling in prayer. And everywhere, the walls are covered with icons, images of the Holy Family and of the saints. These images are used for prayer and meditation in the Orthodox tradition. Each one of the icons has its own candle, too. There are no pews in this church, and the worshippers are moving around from place to place – first to the table of candles, then to an icon, then to the chapel. Many of them are praying with knotted prayer ropes, each knot a reminder of a specific prayer. Although the priest is chanting a liturgy in Russian at the altar and a small choir sings the responses, no one seems to be listening to them. But then we realize that what looks like chaos is actually just a different style of worship, meant to transport the congregation into heaven itself! The chant of the priest, the songs of the choir, and the icons of the saints all remind the worshippers that they are in a sacred space where time as we know it is meaningless and everyone encounters God in their own way. Now that we understand that, this Russian Orthodox worship makes more sense. But we have only a few moments to imagine ourselves with the saints in heaven, and then we need to move on once more.

Our final stop is in Africa – in Nigeria, to be exact, a country that has experienced explosive growth in the Christian faith in the last few decades. When we arrive, we find ourselves on the outskirts of a village. On a nearby dirt road, people are converging on a small, thatched structure. Their faces are happy as they talk to their traveling companions and call to friends who are still a distance away. In the small hut, we can hear singing and the sound of native instruments. As we come close enough to peer inside, we see a plain room with a floor of beaten earth. The only ornamentation is a plain wooden cross sitting on a rough-hewn table. But the hut is crowded with people singing together joyfully. In fact, they are dancing with joy as they sing songs of praise to God in their native language. And that singing continues for quite a long time! Finally, a tall man steps apart from the crowd and begins to pray. All the worshippers throw their hands in the air, lift their faces to heaven, and respond, “Amen! Amen!” After the prayer, the joyful singing begins again. We turn to one of the worshippers and ask, “How long will the singing last?” “How long?” the woman replies. “Why, as long as it takes! What better way to spend our time than praising God!” We realize that all this singing isn’t the introduction to their worship; the singing is their worship! After we join them in singing for a few minutes, it’s time for us to return home to our little Protestant church here in west central Ohio.

If the situation were reversed and our newfound Christian friends from around the world visited us, what would they think? Our Roman Catholic friends might wonder why our worship is so informal. We have no priest chanting the liturgy – just a person in a plain white robe (and a woman, at that)! And why is our sanctuary so plain? Shouldn’t worship of heaven’s King be a little more elegant? Our Russian Orthodox friends would be astounded to find that we sit in one place to worship! How can we respond to the moving of God’s Spirit if we all do the same thing at the same time? And only three candles? This wouldn’t seem like worship in heaven to them at all. Our African friends might be the most surprised of all. “You mean that you just sit there?” they would say in surprise. “Where is the joy in your worship? And you mean to say that you stop after an hour? What if you’re not finished worshipping yet?” Oh, yes, our own worship would seem very strange to them, at least as strange as their worship seemed to us.

It’s good to remember that when Jesus said, “I pray that they may all be one,” he wasn’t asking that everyone be the same. “One” doesn’t mean “identical.” No, Jesus wants something else. He wants a Church that is unified in its goal to love God and others, to follow Jesus Christ, and to seek God’s will through the Spirit. We don’t all need to be alike to do that. In fact, we can only witness to the variety of traditions and cultures around the world if we aren’t all alike! The Spirit speaks to some in one way and to others in another. But that same Spirit binds all of us together in love.

The story is told of a group of children who played together all the time. Summer heat or winter cold, they could be found enjoying one another’s company. One day, a costume party was announced, and all the children began to dream of what they would wear on that great day. That is, all but one. This little fellow sat in his room and wept because his family was poor and he had nothing to wear. When the other children learned of their playmate’s sorrow, each one went home and found his own costume. One was a lion, another a knight, a third an astronaut, a fourth a firefighter, a fifth a butterfly. Each child cut a piece off that costume and took it to the child who had none. That child’s mother sewed all the pieces together to make the colorful suit of a jester. When the day of the party arrived, the prize for the best costume was won by none other than the little fellow in the jester’s suit. His costume was the most beautiful of all. Friends, the Body of Christ is just like this colorful suit. We come in all colors, and we come from all cultures and traditions. We worship in many different ways and in many different kinds of places. Our missions are varied. But when we work together, we are united in God’s kingdom of love. On this day when, all around the world, we gather around this table to which the Lord invites us, my prayer is that we may truly all be one.

Adjusting Our Glasses

How much do we know? I mean, how much do we REALLY know? Sometimes we think that we know, but what we think we know isn't reality at all. If that makes even a little bit of sense, you might want to read this sermon. You'll find out that even Jesus didn't always know what he thought he knew -- and neither do we!

What words would you use to describe Jesus? Humble? Compassionate? Wise? I’d use all those words, and I imagine that you would, too. But how many of us would describe Jesus as rude? Abrasive? Arrogant? That’s not the Jesus that we know! But in this little story that you just heard (Matthew 15:21-28), all those descriptions could apply to Jesus. Now, we usually clean that story up quite a bit. We soften the tone of Jesus’ responses, and we make his interaction with the Canaanite woman a polite one. But let’s take another look at that story. It’s actually an emotional interaction, and a powerful commentary on the fact that we don’t always know what we think we know!

As the story begins, Jesus and his disciples are in foreign territory, up the Mediterranean coast to the north of Israel. That’s not Jewish territory. That’s pagan country! Jesus’ reputation must have preceded him, because a woman appears out of nowhere. She’s not a Jewish woman. She’s a pagan. In fact, she’s called a Canaanite. That name is loaded with negative baggage! In the Old Testament, the Canaanites insisted on worshipping Baal, the fertility god of that area, even when they knew about the God of the Israelites. That made the Canaanites worse than dirt! So when any Jew said the word “Canaanite,” it was said with a curled lip and a sneer. This person who wanted to see Jesus was not only a Canaanite, but a Canaanite woman, one of the lowest of the low. And she wanted Jesus to do her a favor! How brassy could she possibly be?!

Oh, she was brassy, all right. She kept yelling at Jesus until the disciples were sick of her. “Hey, Jesus! Son of David! I need your help! Hey, you! My daughter is possessed! Hey! Hey! Over here! HEY!!” Finally the disciples asked Jesus to do something about her. But Jesus continued to ignore her, this woman who was yelling for help with all the power of her lungs. And what did he tell his disciples? “She’s not my responsibility. I wasn’t sent to help some pagan woman. My job is to help the Jews; and she isn’t a Jew!” Wow! That’s a rude response! It makes us wonder what in the world Jesus was thinking! The answer is that Jesus was thinking exactly what his culture had taught him. We are all products of what we have been taught; and Jesus grew up believing that the Messiah would be sent to help the Jews! Remember that Jesus was human as well as divine. And humans believe what they have been brought up to believe. We do that every day of the week. We believe what people have taught us; and sometimes those beliefs aren’t very good ones. Five hundred years ago, people believed that women couldn’t think for themselves; they needed men to take care of them in every way. Two hundred years ago, people believed that African-Americans were inferior to whites; and that slavery was ordained by God. Today, some people believe that every single Muslim man and woman is a terrorist. All those beliefs are simply wrong! But we seldom stop to really examine what we believe and why we believe it until something – or someone – stares us in the face and forces us to take a second look.

That’s exactly what this Canaanite woman did to Jesus. She made him take a second look at what he had always assumed. The text says that “the woman came and knelt in front of him.” I doubt that their meeting was that calm and polite. I think that, instead, when the woman saw that Jesus was ignoring her and walking away, she ran after him until she caught up with him. Maybe she even threw herself down in front of him so that he had to step over her! He couldn’t avoid her; and this time, her cry of “Lord, help me!” was right in his face. Surely Jesus would take note of her now! And he took note of her, all right. But his response to her was not only rude; it was downright insulting! It was so insulting that, quite frankly, I’m surprised that this story ever made it into the gospel. Jesus called this Canaanite woman – this mother who only wanted help for the daughter she loved so much – Jesus called her a “dog.” His exact words were, “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” Now, the impact of this insult is lost on us today. Calling someone a “dog” is no big deal in our society. Why, some sports fans even call themselves “dogs” (notably the Cleveland Browns fans who sit in “the dawg pound”). But in Jesus’ day – and still today, in some places in the Middle East – calling someone a “dog” is very similar to calling an African-American “the n-word.” The worst thing that we might call a woman today is the word that begins with “b” and ends with “itch.” And even that insult pales in comparison with being called a “dog” in Jesus’ day.

I can’t help imagining Jesus abruptly turning on his heel and walking away from the Canaanite woman, leaving her open-mouthed in shame and anger and frustration. But as he was walking away, happy to be rid of this irritating woman once and for all, she yelled something after him. She turned being called a “dog” on its head, and made a comment that was impossible for him to ignore. “Yeah, yeah, well, OK… You can say what you want to. But even the dogs get to eat the crumbs that fall off the table!” And her comment stopped Jesus dead. I can see him in my mind’s eye, frozen in his tracks, the impact of her words shattering what he has been brought up to believe. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” When Jesus turned and looked at her, he saw her in a whole new light. This woman – this person whose ancestors had been Baal worshippers – this person with no status at all in Jesus’ estimation – had cut through all the rhetoric and gone right to the heart of the matter. Either all people are worthy of God’s grace, or no one is. Jesus had believed that he was sent only to the Jews, but this pagan woman had opened his eyes to a greater truth. “Oh, woman, your faith is amazing,” Jesus replied. “Your request is granted.” The text tells us that her daughter was healed from that very hour.

Jesus had the glasses of tradition firmly in place when he met the Canaanite woman; and those glasses showed him a woman who wasn’t even worthy of his respect. But after their encounter, Jesus saw someone very different. He saw a fellow human being who was in need. Jesus realized that the glasses through which he saw the world were a little bit fuzzy. Our glasses are fuzzy, too. Are we as willing to adjust our glasses as Jesus was to adjust his? Every one of us needs to adjust the glasses through which we see the world every now and then. If we don’t, our vision will become more and more distorted, and we will wander further and further away from the truth. Now, it’s hard to adjust our glasses! We all get used to looking through distorted lenses. But, ah, how much clearer things become when we do that hard work!

Do your glasses need adjusting today? Did you learn things when you were a child that don’t seem quite so right today? Is there a Canaanite woman in your life that you are rejecting just because of something you were taught long ago? I can’t help but remember the lyrics of a song from the musical South Pacific: “You’ve got to be taught to be afraid of people whose eyes are oddly made, and people whose skin is a different shade. You’ve got to be carefully taught. You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late, before you are six or seven or eight, to hate all the people your relatives hate. You’ve got to be carefully taught.” This morning, I invite you to start adjusting your glasses. I don’t know exactly how you need to adjust them; but I know that if you ask Jesus, he’ll be glad to help you. He is the only one who knows the fullness of truth, and he knows how distorted our glasses really are. After all, he has adjusted his own glasses. And he knows something else. He knows how very liberating it is to be able to see clearly at last.

The Wide Angle Lens

You can't capture the awesomeness of a vista without a wide-angle lens. That's true where our faith is concerned, too. If we don't look through a wide-angle lens at God every now and then, we'll end up focused only on our problems. If you're not sure what I mean, read my sermon!

I grew up with cameras. My father was a professional photographer; and so, my childhood vocabulary included “film speed,” “f-stop,” and “darkroom.” I knew how develop photographs while I was still in grade school, and I could use an industrial photographic drier long before I could drive a car. But photography has changed a lot since my dad was in business. These days, cameras are digital, photos are stored on a computer, and negatives don’t even exist. In fact, the kind of film that I used to use isn’t even made any more! But some things haven’t changed at all. Taking a good photograph still involves more than standing in front of a tourist attraction and holding up a selfie stick! In fact, some of the best photographs aren’t of ourselves at all, but of the world around us. And although capturing images of what’s around us no longer means holding up a light meter and fiddling with camera settings, it still involves some choices.

One choice that we still have to make is what to use as the focus of the photo. Are we going to focus on something very small, something very large, or something in between? Usually our photos are those in-between shots – a photo of the gathered family in front of the Christmas tree, for example. From time to time, we decide to take a picture of something very small. I took a recent photo of a tiny grasshopper that had settled on the windshield of my car; and it was a good enough picture that I could see the ridges on the little guy’s hind legs when I enlarged it. (It was a very lucky shot!) And every now and then, we want to capture a whole vista. Those are the photos that have the potential to take our breath away! Who doesn’t stand in awe of a picture of the moon rising over the ocean; or of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains? Ansel Adams was a master at taking those kinds of photos. It’s tough to get that kind of photograph with a pocket-sized digital camera. To really capture the vastness of a landscape, you still need a camera that has a wide-angle lens. That kind of lens captures a wide field of view, the kind of view that we don’t often stop and enjoy. Oh, when we’re on vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains, we might park the car at a pull-off spot and look around in awe. But every day? No, we don’t look through a wide-angle lens every day. But maybe we should, especially on the days when everything seems to be going wrong. On those days, we tend to bury our noses in our problems and ignore what’s all around us. And there’s a good reason for that. We concentrate on what’s bothering us because we want to figure out a way to get rid of it! If you’re walking with a blister on your heel, you’re not very likely to be thinking about the beauty of the scenery along the way! But even – maybe especially – in the middle of difficulties, we should be looking through that wide-angle lens every single day!

Let me tell you why a wide-angle lens is vital to our spiritual health. Come back with me to the Middle East in the year 586 BCE. In that year, the Babylonians conquered the nation of Israel, burned the city of Jerusalem, carried off everything that was in the Temple, and dragged the people off into exile. The kingdom of King David and King Solomon that had lasted over 400 years suddenly was no more. Imagine how the Israelites must have felt! Their nation was gone. Their holy city, Jerusalem, was gone. The temple that had stood in Jerusalem was gone. They were afraid that their god was gone, too. And they had to endure the sarcasm of the Babylonians who reminded them again and again that their gods were stronger than the god of Israel! If you read Psalm 137, you will catch a glimpse of their despair. It begins like this.

“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.

There on the poplar trees we hung our harps.
There our captors asked us for songs; our tormentors demanded songs of joy.
They said, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’
How can we sing the songs of the Lord while we are in a foreign land?”

But in the middle of that Babylonian exile, an amazing thing happened. One day, somebody lifted his eyes out of the dust and looked through a wide-angle lens. That somebody started saying things like, “God is still here! God’s temple in Jerusalem may be gone, but God is still here! The heavens are still here. The earth is still here. God will get us out of this mess, even though I don’t know how that will happen!” And from the time of the Exile comes the text that we heard just a few minutes ago (Isaiah 40:21-31). “Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? God reduces the rulers of the earth to nothing! Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all of these? Why do you complain, ‘My cause is disregarded by my God’? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth! He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. They will soar on wings like eagles! They will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint!”

“Look through your wide-angle lens!” Isaiah is saying. “Stop focusing on your problems and look around! God has everything under control even if we can’t see it.” Isaiah even compares human beings to that little grasshopper that rested on my windshield last week. People are tiny things when they are compared to the God who spoke creation into existence. Even a great nation like Babylon is like a piece of dry leaf that the wind whisks away. “Why are we so worried?” Isaiah asks. “God is bigger than any problem that we have. Remember to look through your wide-angle lens!” That isn’t a bad thing for us to remember now, either, as we are sometimes overwhelmed by our own problems. And today’s church does have problems. We are split into hundreds (if not thousands) of denominations, most of whom don’t even talk to one another, let alone work together. We have differing opinions on how to understand the Bible, and because of that, we have differing opinions on what to do about social problems – both here in the United States, and around the world. In some places, Christians are persecuted for their faith. You can’t even carry a Bible in North Korea; and in the places that gave birth to our faith, Christians are being murdered every day by Muslim extremists. Local congregations have problems, too, don’t they? Many churches are operating at a deficit. Our own income hasn’t been enough to cover our expenses since the first of the year. We have very few young families, and no young children at all who attend church on a regular basis. And our congregation is getting older. Who is going to carry on our mission here as the years go by?

I don’t have a solution to any of these problems. But I do have a suggestion. Let’s take a look though our wide-angle lens. Let’s focus not on what’s wrong, but on what’s right! Let’s focus on the fact that God is way bigger than we are, and God has promised to remain faithful to us. Let’s focus on the strengths that God has given us, the kinds of strengths that allow us to run and not to grow weary. We all have gifts, talents, and resources, and those allow us to do the ministry to which God is calling us. If we lift our eyes out of the dust, we might even see opportunities that God has put right in front of our noses so that God can guide us into the future!

Yes, we need to look through that wide-angle lens now and then, especially when we start saying “Woe is me!” It’s always a good thing to listen to what Isaiah said so long ago: “Why do you think that God doesn’t care about us anymore? Don’t you know? God is everlasting. God never gets tired. God understands everything! God gives us strength even when we don’t think we can go on another step. In fact, God gives us so much strength that one day we will fly like eagles” as God’s Spirit carries us aloft and bears us along on the wind!

Prophets, Cheerleaders, and Comforters

Ministry is hard work! That's why all God's people, not just the pastor, should do some of it. Why, even Moses needed some help! If that surprises you, read my sermon to learn that story and to find out what you might be doing to help minister to God's people.

I can really identify with some of the characters in the Bible! Maybe you feel that way, too. Some of them just jump out of the pages of the Bible and reassure me that I’m not alone in what I’m feeling. I can identify with Mary, Martha’s sister in the gospels. I know how she feels when she just wants to sit at Jesus’ feet and learn, but her sister nags at her to get up and do something useful! (Does that sound familiar to anyone?) I can identify with Jeremiah. When God called him to be a prophet, his first reaction was, “But I don’t know what I’m doing!” I’ve said that many times myself. But the character who resonates the most with me is Moses. Now, Moses is one of the most revered characters in the whole history of Israel. Moses is liberator, pastor, prophet, and priest. He is God’s right-hand man; the one who talks with God like a close friend. Deuteronomy tells us that he is one of a kind; that “no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.” I can’t claim to be anything like that! But the Moses in this story (Numbers 11:4-6. 10-17, 24-30) isn’t Moses the liberator, Moses the law-giver, or Moses the high priest of Israel. No, in this story, Moses is the overworked and the frustrated! And that I can sure identify with!

In this particular story, the Israelites are complaining – again! They have complained ever since they left their slavery in Egypt; and they’re still complaining! This time, they’re complaining about the food that they have to eat. The miraculous manna that God provides isn’t good enough for them; they want the kind of food that they remember from Egypt. They remind me of three-year-old Mindy who wants a box of crayons. But she doesn’t want just any crayons, she wants crayons just like her friend Samantha has! So her mom looks all over town to find those crayons – spends a whole afternoon, in fact, looking for the crayons that she wants – and brings them home in relief.  But when Mindy’s mom gives her the crayons, she lifts up pleading eyes and says, “But I wanted a package that has mint green in it!” It makes you want to give up and cry, “Just take me now, Lord, I can’t do this anymore!” And that’s pretty much what Moses said to God, because he’d had it up to here with the Israelites! “Why have you brought this trouble on me?” he asked God. “Why did you tell me to take care of all these people? I can’t carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me!” Can’t you just hear the frustration in his voice? “I’ve done my best,” he’s crying, “and it never seems to be enough!”

So God in God’s wisdom spread the workload around. God called for seventy elders to come to the Tent of Meeting, the place where Moses went for executive conferences with the Almighty. When the elders arrived, God gave some of the Spirit to them, too, so that they could share Moses’ load of caring for all the people. Even two elders who didn’t go to the Tent of Meeting were given a share of the Spirit! What a relief for Moses! God gave power to a whole bunch of people to share the workload and to help with the people’s needs!

I think that every pastor feels like Moses at one time or another. Now, I don’t mean to suggest that every congregation complains about their lot in life!  On the contrary, I think that most congregations are loving, grateful, and even affectionate. But everyone has problems, the workload is heavy, and there’s always something more that should be done. We Christians have the very same needs that the Israelites had. We need guidance in the wilderness that we call life; we need encouragement that we can keep on keeping on; and sometimes, we just need somebody to listen to us when we are more than a little nervous about what the future might hold. Oh, yes, caring for God’s people is more than a full-time job!

It seems to me that God’s answer for overloaded, frustrated Moses is a pretty good one for us, too. No one has to do the work of ministry alone. Moses didn’t have to do it by himself, and no one today has to do it alone, either! I don’t think that God ever intended anybody to do ministry alone. And we’re way ahead of the Israelites! We don’t have to ask God for a share of the Spirit, because we Christians already have that! We may have different abilities given to us by that Spirit, but we’re all capable of doing the work of ministry in one way or another. We’re can all help in the work of ministering to the people of God, and of helping to meet their needs. One of my colleagues is convinced that there are really only three main tasks of ministry. We need prophets; we need cheerleaders; and we need comforters. I agree with her, and when the church works as a team on these tasks, their ministry is the most effective. No one person can do every task of ministry all the time. Even Moses needed some help! So, what are those jobs all about, anyway?

First, we constantly need to reevaluate where we are headed as the people of God. Where are we going as a congregation? What activities should we spend our time and talents on so that we serve God the best that we can right here? In other words, what are the goals of our ministry here at Nashville UCC? The prophets among us can help us to discern those goals. Now, lots of folks have the idea that prophets are wild-eyed, ragged people who stand on street corners shouting out a warning that the world will end tomorrow! But that’s actually not the Bible’s idea of a prophet. A prophet was simply someone who spoke for God, someone who could help remind the people who God was calling them to be. I know that there are prophets in this congregation. Some of you are men and women with a vision for the future, and a willingness to talk about it to get other people on board. And you may be a little frustrated right now, because not many of us are paying any attention to you! But I hope that you’ll keep talking, because you are excited about the ministry of this congregation, and you are willing to work to help move us along!

A second task of ministry is to encourage, to help others believe that they can and will get where they want to go! The people who do that are the cheerleaders. Just like cheerleaders who lead the crowd in cheering for the football team, cheerleaders in the church are those saints who always have an encouraging word for the rest of us. Their cheers are a little bit different from the ones that the high school cheerleaders use. Instead of yelling loudly, “Hold that line!” they whisper quietly, “You’re doing a great job!” Or they say “Thank you” for the work that we do. And sometimes they even say, “You know, you really have a gift for that. You are a blessing in my life!” We have cheerleaders here at Nashville. One gives me a hug every single Sunday and tells me “That was a great sermon!” It’s always reassuring to hear that, especially on days that I think I’ve done a miserable job. And did you know that our peanut brittle brigade has their very own cheerleader? If you help with that fundraiser, you know who she is! At every single session, she says “We can do more! Let’s work another half hour! This is going to raise money that other people need!” I can’t tell you how much I owe to the cheerleaders in my own life – and I’ll bet that you do, too.

Finally, the church needs comforters. Comforters have ears that are always ready to listen when someone is afraid, or troubled, or grieving. They take time for us when we need someone to talk to. They listen when we want to share joys, sorrows, frustrations, and fears. Comforters have open arms, too. They give hugs when others are feeling down. They send cards to folks, and they go to visit members who are home bound. And they always know when we would appreciate a phone call “just to check in.” This congregation is full of comforters! Many of them are in our prayer ministry. Those folks are ready to drop everything and kneel in prayer for someone else when the need arises. And lots of others aren’t in any organized group. We just know that we can always go to them when we’re troubled and they won’t turn us away.

Have you recognized yourself yet? Whether you’re a prophet, a cheerleader, or a comforter, we’re all part of this wonderful ministry team that we call the church! So, team, let’s get going! Prophets, clean the lenses of your binoculars! Cheerleaders, pick up your pompoms! Comforters, open your ears and your arms! We’re travelling together towards the Promised Land! Our journey won’t be easy; and we know that we’ll hit some speed bumps along the way. We’ll make it in the end, though, because Jesus is our coach, the Spirit is our power, and our creator God is traveling with us wherever we go. We’ll going there together, and we’ll get there together! And hopefully, along the way, we’ll even enjoy the journey.

Plans and Potential

Does God have a plan for my life? And does God have a plan for our church? Absolutely! But how we live out that plan is, in large part, up to us. If you'd like to know more about that, you might want to read this sermon.

Back in June, a group of us from our church enjoyed a Dayton Dragons game on a Sunday afternoon. Although it was a hot day, we had a great time! It was a memorable game for me because it was the first time we had ever taken our grandson Tanner to a baseball game. And he liked it! He liked the hot dogs; he liked the ice cream; he liked the “baseball men” who wore numbers on their backs; and he especially liked the bounce house in the children’s area!

After the game was over, all the children were invited to come down to the playing field and run around the bases. They even got to high-five the dragon mascot Heater at second base! Of course, Tanner was thrilled; and he scampered around those bases like his pants were on fire! As I watched him run, my imagination took over. I saw Tanner not as a four-year-old, but as a grown man, a professional baseball player, heading from first base to second after hitting a line drive right between the third baseman and the shortstop. I imagined the crowd roaring, and his team cheering him on in the dugout. And then, I returned to the present. Tanner was once again just a little boy wearing a Cincinnati Reds jersey.

We do that all the time, don’t we? We imagine our children as adults. And whether we see them as farmers or bankers or doctors or dancers, we envision them as successful. And it’s not just parents who do that – grandparents and uncles and aunts do it, too. In our eyes, the future is rosy and full of potential, because our children are full of potential. Nothing is going to keep them down! And the best parents allow their children to decide what their own futures will be. Their parents don’t dictate those futures; they help them to shape it. Now, some parents are obsessed with molding their children into the image that the parents want. Maybe it’s a father who insists that his son play football when that son would much prefer to take art lessons; or a mother who insists that her daughter go to cosmetology school when what the girl really wants to do is take pre-med classes. That rarely works out very well. In the very best case, the interests of the child, the potential of the child, and the wisdom of the parents all work together to guide that child into a future that is fulfilling and rewarding.

God works with us the very same way. God doesn’t dictate exactly who we should be, or exactly how we should live our lives. God directions to us are actually rather general. “Love God before all else. Love your neighbor as yourself. Follow the example that Jesus gave us. Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.” Those are our instructions: love, humility, and justice. We can do those things in all kinds of ways! But that’s where the rub starts. We’re never sure exactly how to follow God’s instructions. The good news, though, is that God wants to partner with us as we discern exactly how to live out our Christian lives. And God is the kind of parent who knows our potential, listens to what we want, and then guides us into ways of living that are not only right for us as individuals, but also right for us as Christians! The old saying “There are many roads to Rome” is absolutely true when it comes to living Christian lives!

Many people, however, don’t realize that God works in partnership with us. Instead, they think that God is one of those dictatorial parents who decides in advance what his children should be doing, and then sits back and judges us when we don’t live our lives exactly that way. Those folks worry a lot. They don’t want to make any mistake that might make God angry. But God gives us a lot of freedom. God acts a lot like one of those GPS systems that give you directions. These days, lots of new cars have them built right in. When you want to get somewhere, you plug in your destination and a helpful voice suggests the roads you might want to take. But if you decide to take a different turn, that voice doesn’t say, “You idiot! You went the wrong way! I’ll talk to you again when you get back on track!” At least, mine doesn’t say that (fortunately)! Mine simply says quietly, “Recalculating route,” and offers new directions to help me get where I want to go.

So, am I saying that God doesn’t have a plan for us? Of course not! God’s plan includes love, peace, joy, and fulfillment in the lives of each one of us. Those plans aren’t just for God’s favorite few, either. Those plans are for everyone! That’s our ultimate destination, no matter what roads we take to get there. God plans for us to live lives that are loving, joyful, and fulfilled. And God has the same kind of plan our churches, although the destination is a little bit different. God’s plan for the church of Jesus Christ is for it to engage in mission and in ministry. I don’t think that God gives a hoot what kind of music we sing in worship, or how many potluck suppers we have, or even how many rear ends are sitting in the pews on Sunday morning. But God does care that we are spreading the good news of God’s love, and making disciples of those who have decided to follow Jesus Christ. We can partner with God to do those things in the very same way that we can partner with God to live our lives individually.

But how does that work? I’m glad that you asked! Churches can do the very same thing that individuals do when they are trying to discern what path they should follow in life. They listen to their own inner voices, and to the wisdom of others. They take stock of their own potential – things that they are good at, as well as things that they might need a little help with. They look around them at the needs of the world. And then, they try to match all those things. Fred Buechner famously observed, “Vocation is the place where our deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.” How better to discern what path we should follow, either as an individual or as a congregation?

We’re going to be doing just those things during the next several months as we join in New Beginnings discussion groups. We’ll be discerning our vocation as a congregation: the place where what we love to do meets the needs of the communities around us. I have no doubts at all that God has called this church to ministry. I have no doubts at all that this church has done great ministry in the past. I have no doubts at all that this church is doing good ministry right now. But that ministry can be improved; and when it is, I also have no doubts that other people will want to join us in doing it! Of course, we have doubts as we look at ourselves. We are concerned that there are very few young people in our congregation. We are concerned that older people are no longer able to be the church leaders that they once were. But I hope that we also see potential. I do! I see energy and enthusiasm for mission. I see people ready to do new kinds of ministry, although they may not be quite sure how to go about it. And I see young adults who are stepping up to be the leaders of the future.

Yes, friends, God has plans for us. God is eager to partner with us as we step out onto new roads that will take us into the future. God will help us realize our potential as we live out God’s plans for us here at Nashville UCC. When God looks at us, I’m convinced that God sees us not only as we are, but also as we might be some day as the Spirit guides us into the future. Thanks be to God!