Things Change. God Doesn't.

This morning's sermon was written by Marilyn Kendrix of the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ. The Council of Conference Ministers of the UCC wrote this morning's worship service in its entirety -- including this sermon -- to give us local church pastors a break from worship design after we have not only been going full steam for two months, but also have skipped our post-Easter vacations. I hope that you find it life-giving; and I sincerely thank them for supplying this morning's worship materials!

God has indeed reordered our world. The way we were before seems so long ago, and we find ourselves living in a new reality. We have discontinued practices that we thought were unchangeable. It turns out that “the God who made the world and everything in it does not live in temples made by human hands.”

I can remember a Sunday practice from my childhood. Many Sundays after church, my mom and dad would load us kids up in the family car and we would go for a Sunday ride. No destination in mind, Daddy would just drive. Invariably he would get lost somewhere on Long Island. In my younger years, I would cry because I was afraid that we were lost. But my dad would say, “You aren’t lost. As long as you are with Mommy and me, you can’t get lost.” As I grew, I came to understand that; and to find comfort that, no matter where I was, if I was with my parents, I could never get lost.

In these long weeks, when we’ve been cloistered in our houses, even though we’ve been right at home, many of us have been feeling lost. We went into this time of “Stay Safe, Stay Home” fearing deep in our hearts that being physically separated from our faith communities would cause us to be separated from God; fearing that if we were not in our familiar pews, we would not be able to find God. We thought we needed our church buildings, our beautiful sanctuaries to feel God’s warmth enveloping us in love. But it turns out that “the God who made the world and everything in it does not live in temples made by human hands.”

Friends, it’s not only the separation from our buildings that has us feeling off kilter. We’ve all been living through a nightmare, an international nightmare. Some of us have lost loved ones. Some of us live in fear of losing loved ones. Some of us are suffering from the virus. Some of us are suffering from lost income because of the virus. Some of us are bored from too many days looking at the same walls. Some of us are forced to work at home. Some of us wish that we could stay home and not work, endangering ourselves and our loved ones to keep essential businesses open for the rest of us. Some of us, the heroes among us, are working in hospitals and nursing homes, working as EMTs and police officers and fireman and orderlies, many of whom are overwhelmed and over-worked trying hard to keep people alive. Some of us don’t know if we can continue to watch as more and more people get sick and die. This is indeed a long, national nightmare.

Those people whom Paul encountered in Athens had some inkling that there was a God whom they did not know. Paul had observed as he walked around the city that they had objects of worship in their temples, and that among them was an altar to an “unknown god.” He understood that these were people hungering for an experience of the holy. And so he told them about the one true God. He let them in on the secret that the one true God could not be confined to their temples. He shared with them that the one true God was not far from each of them, not far from each one of us. He let them know that “in God, we live and move and have our being.” And Paul told them about Jesus – how he’d lived and how he’d died. But most of all, he told them about how he’d been resurrected. He shared with them the saving balm of the Good News that we are a resurrection people. He told them, and he is telling us still, that death does not have the final word.

We are living in a time when we need to remember every day that we are a resurrection people. These are indeed hard times that we are going through. These are times when it seems as if we have been abandoned by God. But Paul is right here, speaking to us from 2,000 years ago, reminding us that no matter how bleak the time, God is still Emmanuel, God with us. He is reminding us that we are God’s people, and that no amount of sheltering-in-place can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. No tiny microbe can take away from us the truth that we are a resurrection people.

When I grew up and had children of my own, we would sometimes take those Sunday rides after church. And we would purposely turn down streets that we’d never been on. We would jump off of the interstate at an exit that we’d never taken before. This was before GPS, and we would always lose our way. We grown-ups had to look to the sun for direction and keep turning until we found a familiar street or a business that let us know what town we were in. But in the back seat, out children just looked out the windows, not worried about a thing because they knew that they could never get lost while they were with their parents.

We are in a difficult time right now. We feel lost and afraid that nothing will ever be the same. Nothing will ever be like it was before. But we’ve also learned so many things in this time. The most important thing we’ve learned is that “the God who made the world and everything in it does not live in temples made by human hands.” We’ve learned that no matter what, “in God, we live and move and have our being.” Things change, God doesn’t. We can never get lost. We have Jesus as our Guide and God as the foundation of our lives. We have the Holy Spirit filling us with such love that it just has to spill over onto others.

Things change. God doesn’t.

Things change. God doesn’t.

Thanks be to God!

Sharing Life

Each year on Mother's Day, my congregation celebrates Gifts of Women Sunday. My sermon today reminds us of all the gifts that women share to uplift us and help our lives to be full and rich!

Today is Gifts of Women Sunday. I always have difficulty deciding what to preach on that day. Now, that’s not because there are so few Bible texts about women. On the contrary; it’s because there are so many! Should I preach about Esther, the Jewish queen who saved her people from certain death? Maybe I should preach about Deborah, the Israelite judge who led her people into battle against an army with nine hundred chariots of iron. Or I could preach about Shiphrah and Puah, the two midwives who refused to follow Pharaoh’s order to kill all the newborn Hebrew baby boys when the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt. Wise, courageous women are everywhere in scripture! Even though the notorious women like Jezebel and Delilah seem to get all the press, the gifts of loving, faithful women have been vital to the story of God’s people.

I decided this morning to concentrate on two familiar women in the gospels: Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus. The story that I just read from the gospel of John is very brief, only three verses long (John 12:1-3); but it speaks volumes about women who share life in a world that is all too often filled with death. To appreciate that story, you need to know a little bit about where John placed it in his gospel. This story of a dinner party for Jesus takes place immediately after Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead; and John invites us to contrast the atmosphere in the two stories. The story that precedes this one – the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead – is permeated with death. Lazarus’ family and friends are mourning his untimely death, fasting and sorrowing together. There is no merriment, only mutual support in a time of grief. John tells us that when Jesus tells them to take away the stone from Lazarus’ tomb, they object, saying, “Lord, he has been in the tomb four days! There will be a bad odor.” Can’t you just see Lazarus’ friends wrinkling their noses in disgust as the stone is rolled away and the stench of death fills the air? There is no hint of life until Jesus arrives on the scene! Now, compare that story to the one that I read just a minute ago. Today’s story is filled with life! Lazarus’ family and friends are together again; but this time, they are filled with joy, eating and drinking in celebration of the life that Lazarus has regained. Even the stench of death has been replaced with the beautiful fragrance of expensive perfume. Everything has changed! The death that had shrouded the house of Lazarus has been replaced with life lived to its fullest!

So why did I choose this text to preach on Gifts of Women Sunday? Let’s take a closer look at that little story. Who is throwing the party in the text that I just read? Well, of course, Lazarus is the host; but Lazarus is reclining at table with Jesus, the guest of honor. The women, Martha and Mary are the ones who are keeping the celebration going! John tells us that Martha is serving, making sure that everyone has enough food and drink for the feast. She scurries back and forth from the kitchen to the table, serving bowls of lamb stew, plates of freshly baked bread, and bottle after bottle of the finest wine. And her sister Mary, not the domestic kind of woman, provides something equally important. She pours expensive perfume over Jesus’ feet that fills the house with its beautiful fragrance. Martha replaces the funeral fast with the finest food and drink; and Mary replaces the odor of death with the fragrance of life! There cannot be more of a contrast between the tomb of death and the house of life.

When I read this little story, I can’t help but remember all the women throughout history who have shared life even while everything around them was in the midst of death.

·         I remember Catherine of Siena, who, in the 14^th century, shamed local priests into returning to their city to minister to the people after those priests had fled the city out of fear of the Black Plague.

·         I remember Ann Hutchinson, 17^th century thinker in the Massachusetts Bay colony who led a Bible study for women when they were not considered capable of thinking for themselves.

·         I remember Harriet Tubman, who led over 300 slaves to freedom on her Underground Railroad, and never lost a passenger.

·         I remember Clara Barton, who tended wounded soldiers on the battlefield during the Civil War, and founded the American Red Cross.

·         I remember Audrey Hepburn, who worked abroad on behalf of UNICEF in the poorest parts of Ethiopia, Turkey, and South and Central America.

And I remember all the women today who are bravely spreading life in the midst of death. I remember our own Amy Acton, who advises our governor on how to keep the citizens of Ohio safe; but there are plenty of women who help to spread life in their own quiet ways. They are doctors, nurses, health-care workers, grocery clerks, custodians, artists, poets, writers, musicians, and myriads of other women who refuse to let death have the final word. Like Mary, they release the fragrance of life that overcomes the stench of death; and like Martha, they serve others so that they might enjoy the good gifts that God gives us so graciously.

On this day that we celebrate women, I invite you to give thanks for all the women who share life in the midst of death. I invite you to give thanks for all the women who have brought life into your life: your physical mother, of course, but all the other women who have given life to you mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. And then, sisters and brothers, I invite you to follow their example. As Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.”

Jeremiah's Hope

When things look hopeless, we tend to think, "Why make plans? There's no point in it!" Many people are feeling that way right now in the midst of this coronavirus pandemic. The prophet Jeremiah got an answer directly from God when he felt hopeless; and it's the same thing that God has to say to us right now!

The scriptural basis for this sermon is Jeremiah 32:1-15.

Have you ever noticed that God has a habit of saying things that make us stop and say, “Oh, come on; you must be kidding!” God says that kind of thing over and over again in the scriptures. It started with Abraham and Sarah. God promised them a son whose descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky! That son didn’t come along for quite a while. When Abraham and Sarah were way past the age of having children, God showed up and told them that next year, that son would come along. Sarah didn’t exactly say, “Oh, come on, you must be kidding!” but she did laugh so hard that she nearly wet herself! But, sure enough, the next year, their son Isaac came along. And you remember Jonah. When God told him to go to Nineveh and preach repentance to them, he, too, said, “Oh, come on; you must be kidding!” But just in case God wasn’t kidding, Jonah ran the other direction as fast as he could. You all know how that turned out! Jonah had to spend three days of timeout in the belly of a big fish before he learned to take God at God’s word. Of course, the most famous person who said, “You must be kidding!” was Jesus’ disciple Peter. When Jesus told him that he would be killed in Jerusalem, Peter came right out and said as much! “God forbid, Lord,” Peter said, “this will never happen to you!” Jesus wasn’t a fan of Peter’s response. He called Peter “Satan,” and told him that he needed to change his attitude, because Peter was just getting in God’s way! Telling God, “Oh, come on; you must be kidding!” may not be a very wise thing to do, but it’s what people frequently say when God gives them instructions.

So it makes me wonder why Jeremiah didn’t say the very same thing. When God told him to buy a field from his cousin Hanamel, though, Jeremiah didn’t blink an eye. He bought that field, and made it absolutely legal so that no one could question the legality of his purchase. Now, the situation in Jerusalem was very serious at that time. When Jeremiah’s cousin came around selling that field, the Babylonian army was surrounding the city of Jerusalem. The Babylonians had the most powerful military in the world at that time. Jeremiah himself had told the king that Jerusalem wasn’t going to last much longer. “This is what the Lord says,” he had said to the king. “I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it. If you fight against the Babylonians, you will not succeed.” So why in the world would Jeremiah buy a field? Pretty soon, that field was going to belong to the Babylonians! If anyone had cause to say, “Oh, come on; you must be kidding!” it was Jeremiah.

But Jeremiah didn’t say that, because God gave Jeremiah a reason for that purchase. God gave him hope, saying, “Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.” Now, God didn’t give Jeremiah any details as to when or how things would get back to normal. With the hindsight that we have today, we know that the Babylonians did indeed conquer Jerusalem, and that all of the educated people were dragged off into exile in Babylon. It was nearly 60 years until they were allowed to return to their homeland. But we also know that they did return, and houses, fields, and vineyards were indeed bought once again in their land. When God gives us hope, we can count on it.

I can’t help but see the similarity between Jeremiah’s situation and ours. In Jeremiah’s time, the city was surrounded by a powerful enemy. Today, we have an invisible virus in our midst that is even more powerful that the Babylonian army. In Jeremiah’s time, the people were under siege, confined to their city with dwindling supplies of food. Today, we are confined to our homes, and grocery store shelves are frequently empty. In Jeremiah’s time, people were afraid that their way of life was coming to an end. Today… well, we are afraid of the very same thing. I’m pretty sure that some people feel not only helpless but hopeless. It’s a terrible thing to be threatened by a powerful enemy, especially when we are incapable of fighting it.

Let me switch gears for just a minute. Many of you are familiar with Winnie the Pooh and his friends. One of those friends is Eeyore, the downcast donkey. Even his name sounds dejected, doesn’t it? Ee-yore. One day, Eeyore was worrying, as he frequently does in the stories about Winnie the Pooh and his friends. “‘Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh,’ he asked, ‘when we were underneath it?’” Ah, yes… the worst case scenario. That’s what Eeyore was afraid of. And what was Pooh’s wise response? “‘But supposing it didn’t,’ said Pooh after careful thought.” What a wonderful example of living your life in hope! Sometimes I find wonderful theology in books that are supposed to be for children!

So, here’s the connection between Jeremiah and Winnie the Pooh. You can find all kinds of Eeyores in our society right now; and they give us all kinds of reasons why we should lose hope. We read daily about the lives that have been claimed by a virus that has the potential to kill us, too. We are warned that there aren’t enough test kits to go around so we can’t track where that virus has been or predict where it’s going. Predictions of disaster are everywhere: the stock market will crash, none of us will have any money, and our food supply will disappear. Some people even claim that the government is trying to take away all our civil liberties; and we will all end up as prisoners of the state! Can’t you just hear Eeyore: “Suppose a tree fell down while we were underneath it?” Our God, though, invites us to reject Eeyore’s pessimism and to live, instead, in hope like Winnie the Pooh. We won’t all die; the stock market will recover; and our food suppliers won’t leave us to starve. When someone predicts that our society will crumble beneath us, maybe we should remember Pooh’s wise response: “But suppose it doesn’t?”

So, here is God’s message to us in the middle of our own siege. It is the same message that God gave to Jeremiah: “Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.” Let’s update that message to fit our own times. Today, God might tell us, “You will be able to hold your grandchildren in your arms once again. You will be able to gather with friends once again. Although your life might change, it will not end in disaster! Your fear will disappear like the morning mist; because I am the Lord your God, and I am more powerful than any virus.” God’s message to us is an invitation to live our lives in joy instead of in despair. It is an invitation to live our lives with courage instead of being controlled by our fear. It is an invitation to look beyond the difficulties of the present to see the possibilities of the future. It is an invitation to live in the hope that God offers us – today, tomorrow, and forever.