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.

Moving Through Grief

"Why do I feel the way I do? Why can't I get anything done? Why don't I feel like doing anything? Why do I cry at the drop of a hat?" If you are saying things like this to yourself, maybe you are joining many people in grieving what we have lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. My sermon today concentrates of the stages of grief. I hope that it will help you understand yourself (and others) a little better.

This morning, my message focuses on grief. We are all grieving right now. We are grieving the loss of friends and family who have passed away during the past month; and we are grieving the fact that we have not been able to mourn their loss with others. We are grieving the loss of eating lunch at Bob Evan’s with our friends, or spending an afternoon wandering the shops at the Greene. We are grieving the loss of events that we anticipated joyfully: graduation ceremonies, opening day of the baseball season, or taking a special vacation. In a larger sense, we are grieving the loss of a way of life that we are afraid might be lost forever! Just to enjoy the Troy Strawberry Festival on a sunny Sunday afternoon is impossible right now; and no one knows what will happen in the future.

Some of you are familiar with the work of Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. Just about 50 years ago, she studied the reactions of cancer patients who were coping with their diagnosis. She found that coping with grief is a process that moves through several stages. You can see those stages in the Bible as God’s people have struggled with their own grief. Hearing their reactions can help us deal with the feelings that we have right now.

When we suffer a loss, the first thing that we experience is denial.      Numbers 14:1-4

That night, all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt, or in the desert! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land, only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”

Back in mid-March when events began to be cancelled, I’ll bet I know what all of you said. “This can’t be happening! It will all be over soon, and we’ll go back to the way things were.” I said that. Remember what some people said? “Oh, this is all just hype that the press picked up. It’s not real.” We were all in denial. It’s just like experiencing shortness of breath and feeling like a heavy weight is on your chest (all classic symptoms of a heart attack), and saying, “Oh, I don’t need to go to the doctor; there’s nothing wrong with me.” What’s that clever saying? “Denial is not just a river in Egypt.” Now, there’s nothing wrong with denial in small doses. Denial gives us time to adjust to reality without being completely overwhelmed. Insisting to ourselves, “This can’t be real” keeps us mentally healthy even while we adjust to the fact that the situation is real. In the long run, though, constant denial isn’t a good idea. God didn’t lead the Israelites back to Egypt; and we can’t go back, either.

As they move past denial, some people get angry.                   Job 10:1-3, 8-9

I loathe my very life, therefore I will give free reign to your complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, “Do not condemn me, but tell me what charges you have against me. Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the schemes of the wicked? Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again?”

I talked about Job last Sunday when I considered how overwhelmed many of us are; and here he is again today. Job is a great example of someone who is sunken in the depths of grief. He simply experienced more than he could deal with! Job was white-hot with anger. And he took out his anger on God because there was no one else to blame. God is blamed all the time for tragic deaths and natural disasters. But in the current crisis, it’s easy to blame somebody other than God for the coronavirus and for our response to it. Lots of people are blaming China, and taking it out on anyone who looks Chinese. Some are even claiming that China manufactured this virus and unleashed it on the world! Others are blaming people in authority for our isolation: The World Health Organization, our state governors, even scientists and doctors! Still others (especially those who love conspiracy theories) are blaming technology; and some are even trying to destroy cell phone towers because they believe that some kind of radiation is causing the viral outbreak. Oh, the blame game is so easy to play when you’re angry! My guess is that we have all been angry about this pandemic at one time or another. And that’s OK! Anger is a normal, healthy response to grief. Dr. Kubler-Ross said that loss “is unfair. Anger is a natural reaction to the unfairness of loss.” God understands our anger. But we need to move through that anger to a more productive response.

After anger, many people fall into the depths of depression.               Psalm 6:1-3, 6

O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am faint. O Lord, heal me, for I am in agony. My soul is in anguish. How long, O Lord, how long? I am worn out from groaning. All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. My eyes grow weak with sorrow.

The psalmist was certainly despairing when he wrote this. “Life doesn’t seem to be worth living.” “I cry all the time.” “I can’t find any pleasure in anything anymore.” “I feel like I’m stuck.” These are the kinds of things that grieving people say when they are sunk into despair. Folks who deal with clinical depression know exactly what it feels like. Despair is like a bottomless pit that seems to go on forever. It is a shadow that sticks to you like glue and won’t let you go. Some people describe it as a demon that sits on your shoulder and whispers into your ear that things will never, ever get better. Despair is the Good Friday of our soul. It tries to convince us that God has forsaken us and left us to live in perpetual misery. But despair is a liar! God never forgets us! The prophet Hosea spoke on God’s behalf when he said, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my [people]. It was I who taught [them] to walk, taking them by the arms. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.” (from Hosea, chapter 11) God’s essence is love; and God has promised never to leave us alone. Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus; and he weeps with us, too, when we suffer losses.  If you are in despair right now, mourning a loss that seems to be too great to bear, remember that God is there mourning right along with you; and that your despair won’t last forever.

After all the denials, the anger, and the despair, we move towards the peace of acceptance and finding new meaning in our lives.              2 Corinthians 5:14b-18

We are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creation! The old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

When we accept what has happened, we begin to see our losses from a new perspective; and that opens the door to experiencing God’s peace that passes all understanding. Are we still angry sometimes? Of course. Do we still despair from time to time? Probably. But the anger and despair no longer control our lives. When we accept what has happened, we can allow God’s grace to flow over us and free us from the burdens that we have been carrying. Finding new meaning is Easter morning after the darkness of Good Friday. It is the rainbow that follows the hurricane. It is the joy and wonder that we feel when we realize that God is, once again, making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. To quote Dr Kubler-Ross once more: “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.” When you are a person like that, she writes, “You will be whole again. but you will never be the same… nor would you want to [be].” This is God’s intention for all of us: to move through our losses to the new meaning that God wants to help us create in our lives! If you aren’t in this place yet, don’t give up hope. Most of us aren’t there yet. We are all struggling with our losses in the midst of the hurricane, and we can’t see that rainbow yet; but God has promised that it’s on the way. Hold on to that promise! God will never forsake us! Thanks be to God!