Two Winds, One Spirit

The election is over. Finally. This seemed to me to be to be the election season that would never end; and maybe some of you feel the same way. And now, we are called to begin the work of reconciliation. Here are my thoughts about that, and about the Spirit that leads us on.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the wind this week. Maybe that’s because last Sunday, a strong cold front blew through this area with lots and lots of wind. That wind last week was pretty strong; strong enough to blow my heavy plastic Adirondack chairs all the way across our deck! And last week’s wind couldn’t compare to the power of hurricane winds. Hurricane winds move a lot more than plastic deck chairs. Hurricane winds push boats up onto the beach, carry cars away, and destroy small buildings. But the most powerful of all winds are tornados. When they hit, house trailers, semi trucks, and even whole houses can be destroyed and scattered across the countryside like so many matchsticks. We ignore the power of the wind at our peril.

In the biblical text, the wind has long been identified with God’s Spirit. That Spirit blows where it wants to, and brings about all kinds of things we never expected. And sometimes the Spirit moves with the power of a hurricane! Writer Annie Dillard reminded us of the power of the Spirit when she wrote, “Churches are like children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT…. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets.” If you think that she’s exaggerating, just look at how the Spirit moved on the very first Pentecost. Jesus’ disciples gathered one morning to pray, share a pot of coffee, and eat a few doughnuts; but then the Spirit blew through the room like a hurricane and everything changed. They were all filled with the spirit and could suddenly speak languages that they had never even heard before! The flames that danced on their heads that mroning get all the press, but it was the wind of the Spirit that blew those flames in! When the Spirit moves with that kind of power, it can cause a lot of commotion! Some of the people in Jerusalem that day were puzzled, wanting to understand what had happened; but others were less than impressed. They just laughed, saying that all the disciples were drunk. I’ve often wondered if any of the ones who laughed stayed around long enough to hear the sermon that Peter gave later that morning – the one that converted three thousand people. I imagine that, while some stayed, others went home jeering. Maybe they were even some of the Jews who ended up persecuting the Christians. Whenever the Spirit blows with hurricane force, it causes a reaction, both in those who are filled with it, and in those who aren’t impressed at all.

I wonder if much of the social upheaval that we are seeing these days is a result of the Spirit blowing with that kind of hurricane force. The Black Lives Matter movement insists that blacks be treated fairly, not targeted because of their skin color. The LGBTQ community is asking that they have the same opportunities as everyone else in society. People who take the threat of COVID-19 seriously are asking that everyone wear a mask to protect those who are the most at risk. And environmental activists remind us daily that our entire planet is at risk. It seems to me that the Spirit is blowing powerfully in our country today, insisting that all people are equal, urging us to care for others as much as we care for ourselves, and reminding us that that God asks us to be stewards of creation, not its exploiters. And that movement of the Spirit has sparked violent reactions from those who are threatened by it. White supremacists surround protestors who support Black Lives Matter and threaten violence. Mobs gather weapons and march on the offices of governors who dare ask them to behave in consideration of the common good. Corporations that harvest fossil fuels and clear-cut forests pay millions to be able to use the earth solely for their own profit. Yes, whenever the Spirit blows with power, there are those who feel threatened, because they don’t like the changes that the Spirit brings.

But even as we witness the incredible power of the Spirit blowing through our society, stirring us up like leaves that have fallen on an autumn lawn, we remember that the Spirit doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes the Spirit works in whispers that are almost too faint to hear. When that happens, the wind of the Spirit is less like a hurricane and more like the breath of a sleeping baby, almost too faint to perceive. The Spirit spoke to Elijah that way. Elijah had run to Mount Horeb to encounter God, expecting to hear God in the blowing of a mighty wind, in a great earthquake, or in the midst of a fire. Instead, Elijah heard God’s voice as a whisper that was almost too faint to hear. I’m convinced that while the Spirit sometimes moves through our world with hurricane force, that same Spirit works in the human heart through whispers like the one Elijah heard. Those whispers remind us of who we are as the people of God; and of what we’re supposed to be doing. God calls us to be compassionate, patient, and loving with all people, not just the ones who share our political and religious convictions. God calls us to listen to others, opening our ears more than we open our mouths. God calls us to act with conviction, but to base those convictions on the good of others. I do believe that the Spirit blows through our society, upending our old assumptions and overturning our dysfunctional systems; but I also believe that we focus too much on that hurricane force and neglect the Spirit’s whispers.

Maybe that’s one reason why our country is in such bad shape right now. We have watched the Spirit sweeping through our society, and we have taken sides. We love the Black Lives Matter movement or we loathe it. We support our elected leaders or we detest them. We forget that behind every movement, every opinion poll, every vote are people – real, human beings – who have reasons for doing what they do. We feel anxious, afraid, and threatened; and so do they! We have focused so much on which opinion others have that we have missed the people who have those opinions! We have neglected the whispers of the Spirit calling us to listen to one another, to have compassion on one another, and to remember that our own reactions to what happens in the world around us are not the reactions of everyone! Compassion, patience, and humility are in short supply these days; and the Spirit is trying her best to remind us of that.

I read part of an essay by Christian writer Jen Hatmaker last night. She wrote it on the eve of the recent election, not knowing what the results would be. Her opinion, though, was that it didn’t matter who won – at least, not as far as our behavior as Christians is concerned. This is what she wrote. “[Regardless of who wins this election,] Our marching orders are the same. We are still about the same things we've always been about! We will still love our neighbors and resist fear. We will stick up for the marginalized and protect the vulnerable. We will show up for the hard work of good citizenship and remain faithful to God and [to] each other. We will insist on bringing hope and grace and strength and love to this busted up world. We will not malign people out of fear or confusion. We will love God and love people; and that is the same basic plan it has always been.” Love God and love other people. That’s what the Spirit is whispering to us right now, even as she sweeps through the world bringing changes yet undreamed of. “This is the day that the Lord has made,” said the psalmist. “Let us rejoice and be glad in it!” As we rejoice, let’s listen for the whispers of the Spirit. It is through her love and wisdom that God will lead us on.

The Red-Eyed Monster

 Halloween is monster season! What is the most frightening monster of all? Dracula? King Kong? Godzilla? It might be one that lives inside each one of us. This sermon takes a look at it and suggests some ways to deal with it.

This is the season of monsters. They’re all around us at Halloween time: mummies, vampires, and things that go bump in the night. If we like movie monsters, there are a lot to choose from: King Kong, Godzilla, Dracula, and Frankenstein’s monster. Sometimes we laugh at them, like the creatures in “Men in Black;” and sometimes they scare the pants off us, like the alien horror in the movie “Alien.” But we can’t get away from them, especially during this season of the year. Now, monsters are nothing new. Throughout history, people have imagined monsters as the cause of things that frightened them. The sea, for example, in ancient Israelite lore, was the home of the chaos monster named Leviathan, which no human being could control. Later on, Leviathan was joined by leathery-winged dragons, fearsome giants, and the Kraken, a giant sea serpent that could drag whole ships down to the ocean bottom. Eventually, people realized that monsters could be part of their character; and they imagined human vices as monsters. In the play Othello, Shakespeare called jealousy the green-eyed monster, an emotion that can lead to dreadful behavior. “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy,” the character Iago says. “It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.” In Shakespeare’s play, jealousy is the downfall of the hero Othello, who kills first his wife and then himself because he has been duped into believing that his wife has been unfaithful to him.

As powerful as jealousy is, though, there is another emotion that is more powerful still: the red-eyed monster of anger. If anger were visualized as a monster, it might have red eyes that glow with passion, powerful claws to grip its victim, and powerful wings to fly from one person to another. Anger seems to have our whole country in the grip of its claws today. Which of us isn’t angry about something right now? There are certainly lots of things to be angry about! You might be angry at the people who refuse to wear a mask and put others at risk for the COVID virus; or you might be angry at the people who insist that you wear a mask, threatening what they see as your civil rights. You might be angry at the actions of our government; or you might be angry at the people who are protesting against the government. The Democrats are angry at the Republicans, the Republicans are angry at the Democrats and we’re all angry at the COVID virus that has completely disrupted our lives.

As odd as it may sound for me to say it, there is nothing wrong with anger in itself. We all get angry at situations that we think are unfair. Job got hopping mad when he lost everything he had; and we get mad, too, when we look around and say to ourselves, “This isn’t right! Things shouldn’t be this way!” The trouble is that when anger takes over, we lose control of ourselves. The very first instance of anger in the Bible took place not long after Adam and Eve had been expelled from the Garden of Eden, in Genesis 4:1-8. Cain was angry because he thought that God was being unfair to him. Did you notice that God never told him that his anger was wrong? God told him to watch out, because if his anger took over, things would go from bad to worse. “If you do not do what is right,” God warned Cain, “sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must master it.” We know the end of the story. Cain’s anger did indeed get the better of him, and he murdered his brother Abel in cold blood.

I’m going to get scientific for just a minute. The emotion of anger causes what scientists call a “fight or flight” response. It makes us want to run away, to escape what makes us angry; or we want to take action. Running away works if you are being threatened by a bear. These days, though, renegade bears don’t usually make us angry. We can’t escape the things that make us angry today; so we turn to violence: violent thoughts, violent words, and sometimes even violent actions. 19^th century American politician Robert Green Ingersoll said that “Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.” Anger makes us do things that we would never, ever do under normal circumstances! But we’re angry, right? We HAVE to do SOMETHING! And therein lies the problem. What do we do with the anger that all of us feel? I’m going to suggest a three-fold approach to anger: recognize it; name it; and use it as power for change.

We need to begin by recognizing our anger; and that isn’t as easy as it sounds. Lots of people don’t even realize that they are angry! “Oh, no,” they say, “I’m not mad. Everything is fine!” Of course, everything isn’t fine at all. When we push our anger under the surface, it doesn’t go away at all. In fact, it can burst out as physical conditions: depression, high blood pressure, or digestive problems. Suppressed anger can even lead to a heart attack or a stroke. So let’s be honest about it. We’re all angry about something – every single one of us.

That leads to the next question: “What are we angry about?” After we’ve recognized our anger, we need to name it. There are all kinds of things to be angry about these days; and I’m just going to mention some of them. The biggies, of course, are the COVID virus and the political situation. I’ve already mentioned those; they’re old news these days. But other problems that you consider to be smaller may actually be causing you more anger than these big issues! Do you have a neighbor whose cat insists on digging in your petunias? Do you have a co-worker who isn’t pulling his share of the load? And how is your family doing? Do you have a relative who is a real jerk? Maybe you’re angry about issues that arise over the upcoming holidays. Thanksgiving and Christmas cause more anger in our society than any other time of the year! Relatives you don’t especially like insist on visiting; visitors cause more work for their host than they probably should; and disagreements over politics and religion get out of hand. Anger? We practically swim in it during the holidays! It’s OK to be angry! I’ll say it again: we get angry when we feel that a situation is unfair. So, now that we’ve recognized it and we’ve named it, what do we do about it?

We have all kinds of healthy options for dealing with that red-eyed monster. Some people cope with their anger by exercising. I’m a great one for walking – just walking. Walking on the bike path can get rid of some of the physical tension that is part and parcel of anger. Other people concentrate on a hobby. Focusing on something else can help to defuse the anger. It even helps just to talk about it! Find a good friend who won’t judge you, and spill your feelings. Talk about that anger! Just talking about it will help to lessen some of its effects.

But there is something else that we can do, something that is very biblical. We can do what Jesus did when he was angry. He did what he could to change the situation. A man with leprosy once came to Jesus and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus answered, “I am willing! Be clean!” and he cured the man of his leprosy. (Matthew 8:2-3) Now, none of us are Jesus; and we can’t do all the things that Jesus could do. There are some situations that we just can’t fix. But there are others that we can help to change. Many doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and therapists have chosen medical careers because of a desire to help people. They were angry that people died needlessly, and they did what they could in response.

Jesus did something else, too. He named the people who were responsible for the situation. In Matthew 23:13-32, Jesus condemned the Jewish religious leaders for their emphasis on rituals that actually kept people away from the God they were trying to worship! “Woe to you,” Jesus proclaimed over and over and over again, saying, in effect, “This isn’t right! It needs to change!” We can do that, too. We can call out people whose behavior oppresses others. We probably won’t choose to do it on a soapbox in the middle of the square, but we can do it on Facebook, through letters to the editor, by contacting our local, state, and national representatives, and in the voting booth. Speaking out is a great way to deal with anger. Near the end of the musical “Ragtime,” the character Coalhouse, who is full of anger at the injustices that he has suffered, sings about the effect that speaking out can have. “Proclaim it from your pulpit,” he says, “in your classroom, with your pen. Teach every child to raise his voice; and then, my brothers, then will justice be demanded by ten million righteous men!” Words are powerful; and when we are angry at injustice, they have to potential to change the world.

Anger doesn’t go away by itself. Besides, as soon as we get rid of one reason to be angry, another will pop up in its place. There are as many reasons to be angry as there are mushrooms in a spring forest! But when we recognize our anger, name it, and take action to change the situation, our anger can be a force for good. When the red-eyed monster threatens to overwhelm us, let’s do what Jesus did – speak out and take action. We never know what might happen when we do. We might even help to make the world a better place.

The Soul of Our Nation

 In this very political season, it is wise to remember who we are and what we stand for. We in the church of Jesus Christ are Christians before we are Democrats or Republicans; and we have an obligation to lift our voices in support of the values that we hold dear. This sermon will explain in more detail what I mean by that.

When I visited Norway a few years ago, I visited the home of composer Edvard Grieg. While I was there, I enjoyed a piano concert of Grieg’s music. It was a real treat for a music lover like me! Norwegians say that Grieg’s music embodies the soul of their nation. That’s because Grieg was a master at capturing experiences in his music. His quiet, lyrical pieces recall the sunlight falling on the long-awaited, first green grass of spring. The low, deep chords in some of his compositions reflect the mysterious depth of the fjords, and the darkness that covers Norway during their long, cold winters. And when you listen to his composition “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” you can’t fail to picture the fabled trolls of Norway frolicking in their mountaintop caves with their knit hats and their long beards. From a spring morning in Norway to the gloom of a mountain cave, Grieg captured it all.

It got me to wondering: what music embodies the soul of our United States? We have a huge country to capture! What music reflects all of that? We might choose the music of the American west. When we sing “Home on the Range,” we remember the sturdy pioneers who helped to settle the West; and when we listen to Grofé’s “Grand Canyon Suite,” we picture the vastness of that awe-inspiring natural wonder. But we might choose something very different: the music of Stephen Foster, for example. We hear “Way down upon the Suwanee River,” and we think of the Old South with its plantations and cotton fields. The world-renowned Kentucky Derby always plays one of Stephen Foster’s compositions, “My Old Kentucky Home,” just before the horses begin to race. Other folks would remind us that we can’t forget our cities; and they might choose the music of George Gershwin: “Rhapsody in Blue,” perhaps. Its wailing clarinet and syncopated rhythms reflect both the sophistication and the quirkiness of New York City. And on the Fourth of July, surely we would all agree that the marches of John Philip Sousa capture the soul of an America that is afraid of nothing! Who can hear “The Stars and Stripes Forever” without getting a few goose bumps of pride that we are Americans?

There are lots of choices when we think about music that embodies the soul of our nation. We’ll probably never agree on just one; and that’s OK, because we are a vast, diverse nation both in natural resources and in our people! But whatever the soul of our nation may be, no one can dispute that the church of Jesus Christ has helped to make it what it is. That’s good to remember in this election season. We tend to think that politicians have shaped the soul of our nation; but Christians are, and have always been at the heart of our country. We Christians are not (and should not be) a political group. We are, as this morning’s scripture describes us, “a royal priesthood, a holy nation… the people of God” (I Peter 2:9-12). But the church of Jesus Christ has always influenced our nation for good. Our own soul – the soul of a church that is loyal to Jesus Christ above anything else – has helped to shape the soul of our nation into something that we can point to with pride.

The United States, for example, is one of the most generous nations in the world. If you consider how many Americans donate money to a charity, volunteer their time, or offer help to complete strangers, we rank 5th in generosity in the world! That figure was generated by the World Giving Index and published by the Charities Aid Foundation after a survey of 195,000 people in 153 countries worldwide. That generosity didn’t just appear. It is a result of our Christian heritage that has taught us to help others. We all know the story of the Good Samaritan who stopped to help a stranger in need (Luke 10:25-37); and we take that story seriously. We donate our money, our time and our possessions; and our generosity has worked its way into the soul of our country. I, for one, am proud that it has.

There’s something else that makes me proud: the fact that our country considers all people to be equal under the law. We all know what the Declaration of Independence says: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It sounds very much like the book of Galatians that says: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for all are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). We Christians don’t believe that anybody is better than anybody else. A white man who is the CEO of a Wall Street investment firm is no better than a poor black girl who lives in the inner city. God created all people equally in the divine image. Now, we don’t always do very well in putting that into practice. It’s easy to fall into the trap that “we” are better than “they” are, especially in this day when Americans are so divided and disagree on so many things! But throughout our history, Americans have fought for the rights of not just a few, but everyone; and I am proud of that.

We Americans have a long tradition of hospitality, too. We have welcomed millions of immigrants over the 241 years of our history! They have come from England, Ireland, and Wales; from Germany, Denmark, and Norway; from Italy and Greece and Russia; from India and Laos and Cambodia; from Syria and Lebanon and Jordan; and I haven’t even begun to name all the countries in Africa that were home to millions of slaves who were brought here against their will! We are a country of people who originally came from someplace else; and America has always welcomed those strangers. Inside the base of the Statue of Liberty is a plaque containing a poem by Emma Lazarus. I’ll bet that you are familiar with its final lines: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door! That’s what we do, we Americans, we welcome people; and that hospitality is part of our Christian heritage, too. The book of Hebrews gives us this advice: “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13:2) We are a country whose arms have always been open wide to welcome those people who needed a welcome the most; and I am very proud of that.

Generosity, equality, hospitality. We Christians helped to put these virtues into the soul of America. Since our country was founded, they have been part of the cornerstone of who we are and how we do things. They are so much a part of our country that we take them for granted! But we Christians can’t stop proclaiming them; because some Americans want us to forget them. Some people are unbelievably greedy, like the character in the 1987 movie Wall Street who believed that “Greed is good.” We Christians need to keep proclaiming generosity. Some Americans are full of prejudice. They look down on anyone who isn’t just like they are, whether those people are women, homosexuals, or people of color; and they want the laws of our land to reflect their prejudices. That’s why we Christians need to keep proclaiming equality. And some Americans are afraid. Because they are afraid, they want to close our borders to people who aren’t just like we are. Is that protection of our own citizens or prejudice against foreigners? I don’t know the answer to that, and time will sort it out. What I do know is that our scriptures tell us to practice hospitality, and we Christians are called to encourage it.

Our country isn’t perfect. All of us know that, especially during these difficult days! But with God’s help – and with our Christian witness – things can get better! During this very political season, as we ponder who we will support when we go into the privacy of the voting booth, I invite you to pray for our country; and then to think seriously about what we can do to improve it. Remember the words of John F. Kennedy, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” It’s what we’re called to do, as good citizens – and as good Christians.

Living in Unity

 This is World Communion Sunday, a day when I like to remind my parishioners that we aren't the only Christian community in the world; and the more we know about people in other countries, the less likely that we are to stereotype them negatively. I hope that this sermon is a good reminder for you, too.

One of the sporting events that Fred and I look forward to every year is the Tour de France. It is the largest and arguably the most prestigious race in professional cycling. During three weeks in the summer, the cyclists travel over 2,000 miles all around France, over level ground and over mountains, finishing at last in Paris. This year’s Tour was one of the most exciting races in recent memory! 176 riders who rode for 22 professional bicycling teams took part in the race; and I’ll be happy to give you more details if you are interested.

Right now, though, I want to talk not about the race itself, but about the cyclists who rode in it. This year, they came from 30 different countries: from France, of course, but also from Australia and Israel, from Luxembourg and Russia, from Slovenia and Ireland, from South Africa and Spain, from Kazakhstan and Colombia. They often don’t speak one another’s language. Yet, they not only get along, they frequently become the best of friends. I heard a story about two men who competed together one year: one was from Denmark, the other from Sweden. Even though those two countries are located very close together geographically, they don’t speak the same language. These two cyclists, though, cobbled together their own language – a little bit of Danish and a little bit of Swedish – and understood one another very well. When they are racing, they are fierce competitors. Every man rides for his own team, hoping that they will win one of the prestigious prizes that are available. And every bicycle racer is not the same. Some of them are sprinters. These men can summon a tremendous burst of speed in the closing meters of each day’s stage to win the daily race even before the entire race is decided. Others are climbers. They lead the way up the mountains, riding up inclines that I might not even attempt to walk! They all have something in common, though – their life is bicycling; and their lives are organized around their health, their physical condition, and how well they can perform on their bicycle. Although they are from different nations and have different skills, they understand one another very well. They have the same priorities in their lives; and they have the same goals.

Maybe you’ve guessed where I’m going with this on this World Communion Sunday. Those bicyclists are not all that different from we Christians who come from all over the world. We live in very different places; and we don’t speak the same language. We come from different cultures; and we have very different backgrounds. Even here in the United States, although we may speak the same language, people who were born in New Hampshire, California, and Alabama will have grown up very differently. But we’re all on the same team, and we have the same goal: all of us are trying to follow Jesus Christ the very best that we can.

The reality is, though, that we often don’t get along very well. It is so tempting to believe that our way to be Christians is the only way, especially in this day when we are suspicious of one another, and mistrustful of people who are from other countries. There’s a lot of stereotyping going on, and it’s easy to buy into it. We’ve all heard untruths about foreigners. We’ve heard that Mexicans are lazy; the French are rude; Colombians are drug dealers; Russians are religion-hating Communists; and all immigrants, no matter where they are from, want to come to this country to take our jobs. But these stereotypes only divide us in a time when we need to be united! Mark Twain once said that “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”  And, indeed, the more that I travel, the more that I learn that people are people everywhere. They love their children; they are proud of their accomplishments; and they want to make their lives better.

The Christians that I have met are just like we are, too. They are trying to follow Jesus as best they can in a world that is often hostile. I met families in Russia who had a space set aside in their homes for religious icons, despite the old Communist policy that outlawed Christianity; and many had continued to attend small local churches throughout the Communist era. I met people in Denmark who told stories of caring for the property of their Jewish neighbors during World War II when those neighbors were carted off by the Nazis. They kept that property in pristine shape, because they wanted to be both good neighbors and good Christians. And I visited a church in Scotland that has hosted both Roman Catholic and Reformed worship during its 700-year history, and has witnessed both violence and reconciliation between those two factions of the Christian faith. I have been inspired by all of it! I know that there are good Christians all over the world, because I have met some of them!

Now, you might not be able to travel. Some of us can’t, for physical or financial reasons, or just because traveling may not be appealing. But I encourage you to learn about the people of other countries. There are plenty of TV channels that highlight life in other countries if you can’t go there yourself. You’ll find out how similar we really are, even though we are different in many ways! Whether we realize it or not, we are a global community of faith; and we need to care for each other even as we care for the world around us. “How good and pleasant it is,” says Psalm 133, “when brothers and sisters live together in unity.” On this day when Christians all over the world will celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion, I invite you to pray that one day, the unity for which we yearn will be not just a dream, but a reality.

Building on the Ruins

 How can we rebuild our society? It's broken, and we all know it. COVID-19, police brutality, political corruption, and ideological polarization -- what do we do about it? Where in the world do we go from here? This sermon offers the beginning of an answer. I hope it will be helpful to you.

I invite you to take a journey with me to the land of Israel, a land rich with history that has been inhabited for thousands of years. As we stand in the countryside, we see that the landscape is dotted with small, flat-topped hills. Each one is silent evidence that a city once flourished at that location. We’re going to explore the interior of one such hill, a large one that sits where two ancient trade routes crossed. During the four thousand years of its existence, that hill has watched civilizations rise and fall.

On the very top of the hill, a the remains of a Roman structure are evidence that a garrison of troops was once quartered there. The remains are businesslike, constructed of sturdy masonry blocks, typical of Roman efficiency. Its military days are long past, though.

Beneath the Roman ruins lies a city from the Iron Age, perhaps one from the glorious days of Solomon. The city is well-planned, and its buildings are large for their day. In the far corner of one such building, we find storage jars, still intact after almost three thousand years. Someone was careful to make sure that provisions were stored well.

Deeper still is a layer that yields very little. We find only a grinding stone, a small oven, some pottery fragments, and a circle of stones that may have braced a tent support. Perhaps this was once the home of wandering nomads like Abraham.

By the time that we reach the lowest level, we have travelled more than four thousand years into the past. We are all the way back in the Bronze Age, before the technology needed to produce iron had been discovered. But even here we find evidence of habitation! We uncover a massive building, at least two stories tall, that might have been a palace or a temple. Built of mud brick on a stone foundation, it was built to last for generations. That building lies in ruins now. All of it has been destroyed: intentionally leveled and then burned. The building blocks of mudbrick have been toppled from their foundations. They rest at odd angles that no builder ever intended. The foundations have been torn apart. The building stones that once were carefully arranged to support the structure are now in disarray, scattered over the whole area like huge grey marbles. In one corner, we find lumps of charcoal among the foundation stones. Was it once furniture that was burned in the fire; or wooden beams that formed the frame of the building? It’s a bit of a surprise! We don’t expect to find a disorganized ruin at the bottom of such a big hill! How can a place that has been occupied for such a long time sit on a foundation like this? And yet, here it is. This place that was inhabited for over four thousand years is built on ruins.

Nowadays, we don’t build on ruins. We aren’t like the people of ancient civilizations who rebuilt on the foundation of what existed before them. We would much rather get rid of the remains of the past. Oh, we might keep a few mementoes – a brick or two from the old schoolhouse where we went to kindergarten – but then we get out the bulldozer and tear everything down. We get rid of all the mess and smooth out the ground so that we can build on a clean site. But we can’t always do that. Sometimes, when parts of our lives have fallen down around our ears, we have to build something new on the ruins that lie around us. And that’s not always a bad thing. The past can provide a very good foundation on which to build as we move into the future.

We are surrounded by ruins right now. We are sitting among the ruins of what we once relied on. Our physical security has fallen down around us as COVID-19 silently invaded our environment without our knowing it. Our emotional security has tumbled down like a house of cards, because our nation has become so polarized that even our own families sometimes condemn us for what we believe. Even the institutions that are supposed to protect us have been unmasked as imperfect. The police departments who are doing their best to maintain civic order have been infiltrated by white racists who treat Black citizens more severely than they do Whites. Where do we go from here? We sit in the ruins and look around us at the jumbled mess of our old ways of life and wonder, “How in the world do we rebuild?” The answer is that we find a good foundation on which to build, and go from there.

But what foundation is that? Is it medical science? That is certainly a part of a good foundation, but it’s not all of it. Medical science can do many things, but it has its limits, as the COVID crisis has shown us so clearly. Is it the stock market? Heavens, no! It bounces up and down like a yo-yo, and sometimes it collapses. That’s not a good foundation, either. Is it unquestioning obedience to authority? Some people say that it is. But that won’t work, either, since the authority in our nation is bitterly divided, and we all know it. Besides, all human authority is sinful and limited. No, that’s not the foundation that we want! Where can we turn for the foundation on which to rebuild wisely?

Our strong foundation is found in the Holy Scriptures, and in the 2000-year-old Christian tradition that has evaluated and reevaluated itself as it has tried to faithfully follow Jesus Christ. How do we build on that foundation, though? We begin with ourselves. We’re all pretty good with our relationships with Jesus. We all know how to pray and meditate; we all seek the guidance of the Spirit in our personal lives; and we all know that Jesus is walking beside us through tough times. But when we talk about rebuilding on the ruins of our society, we have moved beyond a personal relationship with Jesus into the realm of the community. Are Christian voices being heard as we join in doing that?

Let me give you just one example of what I’m talking about. The Bible talks a lot about being not only a community of faith, but a faithful community, too. A faithful community not only cares for itself, it cares for others, too, who are not a part of that community. Deuteronomy, for example, says over and over that God has a special love for “the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant,” people who had no way of supporting themselves in that ancient world. “[God] defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow and loves the immigrant, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are immigrants, for you yourselves were immigrants in Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:18-19) Are we speaking up for the immigrants who have had their children torn away from them, and put into detention centers where they get no medical care? Are we speaking up for the children, who have been torn away from their parents and put into camps that are thinly-disguised prisons? As Christians, our voices should be speaking out on their behalf, and working to build a world where even people who are not citizens of our country are treated fairly. What about young adults in the foster care system who are removed from their foster parents when they turn 18 and are left to fend for themselves. Are we raising our voices about that? And let’s not forget the widow who has to get by on only her monthly Social Security and can’t afford to get her leaky plumbing fixed? Are we raising our voices on her behalf?

Of course, the Bible doesn’t just talk about the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant. The Hebrew prophets condemn the rich who have amassed their money by taking advantage of the poor. (What do you think that Jesus would say about loan sharks masquerading as payday lenders?) Jesus condemns anyone who doesn’t care about other people who are not just like they are. (What do you think the parable of the Good Samaritan is all about?) And from the first chapter of Genesis, the Bible calls us to care for the earth. Jesus even tells us that God cares about sparrows! (What do you think Jesus would say about our abusing the earth in the name of profits?)

The world is in ruins right now; and we Christians can help to rebuild it. But we can only do that if we not only know what the Bible says, but also raise our voices in support of those God cares about: the poor, the oppressed, the immigrant, and even the earth itself. The scripture is our secure foundation for working together to build a world that is full of opportunity and justice for all; one where all men and women – Black, White, Brown, and any other color of the rainbow – will have truly be equal. Jonathan Martin recently wrote: “I am an optimist by nature, and hopeful by choice, because I believe in a God who resurrects the dead. And I hear bright, clear prophetic voices from the margins refusing to let the center ignore them, sons and daughters speaking truth, elders who tell stories of faithful resistance… and people who are waking up for the first time. …I have moments when I can glimpse something of what could and must yet come, and it is beautiful. And yes, I do believe in being the change you want to see in the world… [and] focusing on the small things you can change: all the things I am not only supposed to say, but really do believe.” We can help to build on the ruins by standing on a firm foundation, by raising our voices so that we are part of the conversation, and by holding on to hope so tightly that it becomes a part of us. And may the Spirit guide us as we do it.

Is It Time Yet?

 We are impatient people. We want what we want when we want it. But sometimes "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" isn't good advice. My sermon today explores why.

I’m going to begin today’s sermon with a quiz. Don’t worry; it’s an easy quiz. All you have to do is to raise your hand.

First, raise your hand if you have ever taken a car trip with children. If you don’t have any children, but you took a car trip with your parents when you were a child, raise your hand, too.

Now, keep your hand up if the children on that car trip were impatient. If you were one of those impatient children, you keep your hand up, too.

Finally, keep your hand up if you were ever stuck in traffic with impatient children. And if you were an impatient child stuck in traffic in a car with your parents… well, you know the drill.

OK, you can put your hands down, now.

I don’t know how many of you raised your hands, but I’ll bet it was most of you! What memories do you have of those trips when you were stuck in traffic with impatient children in the car? Are they happy memories – or are they a little bit painful?

I can remember when I was a child, maybe 10 years old, and my mom and dad, my sister and I all drove over to Indianapolis for the Indy 500 time trials. On the way back, we got stuck in traffic. Those were the days before interstate highways, and the only way home from the race track was right through the center of town. It was also before cars routinely had air conditioning. It was broiling hot that day – at least, it seemed that way to me – and we got stuck in traffic right next to a big, loud, smelly semi-truck. There we sat. I remember it so vividly! I was hot; I was thirsty; I was bored; and all I wanted to do was to get out of that traffic jam so that we could go home! I tried to remember that episode when our own children were small and we traveled with them. That memory might have made me a little more patient when one of them asked for the ten-thousandth time, “Are we there yet?” No, not yet. “How much longer?” A little while yet. “How much longer is a little while?” You know the routine. We’ve all been through it.

Right now, we’re all traveling together along our journey of life; and we’re stuck in a traffic jam. Except that this time, the jam isn’t with automobiles on a highway. It’s a jam that has been caused by COVID-19. We don’t want to be here. We’re tired; we’re bored; and we just want to get out of it and have some normalcy to our lives! But, just like that long-ago traffic jam in Indianapolis, we’ll get out of it when we get out of it; and not a minute before. We can’t pull off on another road, or veer over and drive down the sidewalk. We’re stuck. We are all incredibly impatient to get this COVID thing over with so that we can get back to living the lives that we are used to living: eating out, going to sports events, and going to church! Most of you know by now that our church council recently decided that we will not reopen for physical worship until the first of the year. None of are happy about that, because we want to go back to worshiping in person! We’re impatient! We’re like the children who keep asking, “Are we there yet? How much longer?” Well, we’re not there yet; we don’t know how much longer it will be before we can worship together again; and deciding that we aren’t going to wait any longer will only make matters worse.

The text that I read you this morning is a stark warning about forging ahead at all costs (I Samuel 13:1, 5-14). Saul was a military man; and his military training told him that waiting too long to go into battle could be costly. Samuel, though, had told him to wait, because Samuel was the only one who was authorized to offer a sacrifice to God. But while Saul waited, he became more and more concerned. The Philistines had a huge army; big enough to frighten even a seasoned army commander. Some of Saul’s men saw it and ran away to hide. Others deserted. The men who stayed with Saul were frightened out of their wits: “quaking with fear” in the words of the text. More of them deserted. Finally, Saul decided that he had waited long enough. He offered the sacrifice himself; and no sooner had he done so than Samuel showed up. “What a stupid thing to do!” Samuel told Saul. “Who told you that you could offer this sacrifice? Because you haven’t followed God’s orders, you will lose the kingdom to someone else.” Sometimes we need to wait, even when we don’t want to wait at all.

The book of Ecclesiastes says that “for everything there is a season.” (3:1-8) As I read part of that passage a few minutes ago, I’ll bet that you didn’t like some of the options nearly as well as you liked others. “There is a time to weep and a time to laugh.” Laughing is wonderful; but no one likes to weep. “There is a time to keep and a time to throw away.” Keeping is easy, but throwing away… It’s a lot harder! Just ask anyone who has ever cleaned out their attic. “There is a time to be born and a time to die.” We’re good with being born – who doesn’t love babies? -- but we’d just as soon skip that death thing. We don’t get a choice, though. Both of the options are a part of life, whether we like it or not. Ecclesiastes might well have added, “There is a time to go forward and a time to wait.” Right now, whether we like it or not, we’re in a time of waiting.

So, let’s change the question that we asked when we were children. Instead of asking, “Is it time yet?”, let’s ask “What time is it?” It may not be time to gather for physical worship, but it’s time for several things. It’s time to love and support one another. Right now, we need all the love and support that we can get, no matter who we are! It’s terribly difficult to constantly monitor our health condition so that we don’t catch COVID, which might be lethal for some of us. We could all use some TLC! It’s time, too, to have compassion for those who are hurting; and many of us are hurting right now. Some of us are suffering from chronic conditions that are making our lives difficult, while others are facing difficult medical conditions. If you know someone who fits into one of those categories, give them a call, write them a note, or sent a text message! You have no idea how uplifting it is to hear from a friend saying, “I just wanted to know how you are doing.” It’s time for something else, too. It’s time to discern how we will move on from here. When we do open the sanctuary for physical worship again, it will probably be with some significant changes. How will we worship together safely? How will we do mission when we can’t gather to assemble blessing bags or wrap Christmas gifts for our adopted families? How can we safely gather for fellowship? COVID will be with us for some time in the future, vaccine or no vaccine; and we need to make plans for the future taking that into account. It may not be time to gather together again, but it’s time for love and support, for compassion, and for discernment. If we do all of those things while we are waiting, I don’t think that our time of waiting will be wasted. And I’m pretty sure that God won’t think so, either.

The Story Goes On

 What is your favorite Bible story? Is it an exciting one; or is it a peaceful one? Whatever it is, I'll bet that you learned it in Sunday school. Today would be Rally Day if we could physically gather in church, the day that everyone gathers for another year of Sunday school. This year, though, things are different. One thing is the same, though -- we are still part of God's story of salvation. My sermon today explains what I mean!

Once upon a time, there were three little pigs…
Once upon a time, there was a girl named Little Red Riding Hood…
Once upon a time, there was an enchanted princess who slept in a tower…
Once upon a time...

When we hear someone say, “Once upon a time…” we know that a story is coming; and that story will probably take place in a world that is far different from ours. It might be a world where animals talk, or where a wolf dresses up like Grandma, or where a princess can sleep in enchantment for years and years. And we know that the story will turn out well. The three little pigs will outsmart the big, bad wolf; Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother will be rescued by a brave woodsman; and a handsome prince will awaken the princess with a kiss, and they will live happily ever after. The most popular modern stories end well, too. Frodo Baggins throws the One Ring into the fires of Mt. Doom, saving Middle Earth from destruction; Harry Potter defeats the dark wizard Voldemort through the power of sacrificial love; and the lion Aslan makes the whole world right in the end. Maybe we love these stories so much because we hope that, at a deep level, they are true. After all the difficulties, the problems, and the suffering, we want everything to eventually turn out all right.

Today is the day that many churches call Rally Day. They invite all their families to gather again after their summer vacations, and Sunday school begins for another year. Rally Day won’t be taking place in many churches today. For some, the reality of the pandemic has meant that they can’t physically gather together. Other churches have no families to gather, and children’s Sunday school is just a distant memory. Our congregation, sadly, fits into both categories. But I don’t want to ignore Rally Day, because it reminds us of the important things that we taught our children in Sunday school, and the things that we learned ourselves.

What did we learn, back in the days when we went to Sunday school ourselves with well-scrubbed faces, freshly-washed church clothes, and shoes that shined? Why, we learned the stories, of course! We learned stories that we love to this day; and we learned the lessons that those stories taught us! When we learned the story of Noah, we discovered that God cares for the animals just as much as he cares for us human beings. When we learned the story of Moses and the parting of the Red Sea, we found out that God can do all kinds of wonderful things. When we learned the story of David and Goliath, we realized that big bullies don’t always win. And when we learned about Jesus, we found out how much God loves us!

We’ve known those stories for years, now, and maybe we think of them only as scraps of our childhood. Some of us have put them on the shelf next to “Fun with Dick and Jane” and “The Cat in the Hat.” After all, we’re older now and we don’t need those stories anymore. These days, we talk about adult topics like “the theology of prayer” and “the formation of the canon” and “why bad things happen to good people”; and those are all good things to discuss, but we mustn’t forget about the stories, because those stories tell us who we are. Those stories may be from long ago and far away, but we are in them, too. They are our stories!

Here, let me show you what I mean. Let’s take a close look at the story from Mark that I used as this morning’s scripture reading. You probably learned it in Sunday school as an example of Jesus’ love and power to heal. It certainly is that! But that story invites us in, and it invites us, too, to learn something about ourselves in the process. Let’s look at the characters. We see Jesus, the crowd that has gathered outside the house, the paralyzed man and his friends, and some teachers of the law who were in the crowd. I’ll bet that the homeowner was there, too, even though he isn’t mentioned. Which one of these people are you today?

·       Are you one of the crowd who really wants to hear what Jesus has to say, and is willing to be stand outside the front door in order to hear it? Are you so thirsty to hear the Word of God that you are willing to be inconvenienced so that you can get closer to Jesus?

·       Are you one of the friends of the paralyzed man, who care so much for him that they take apart a roof to get him to Jesus? Is there anybody that you love so much that you would dig through a roof to get help for that person?

·       Are you the paralyzed man himself, who is amazed to find himself healed? Maybe you have been healed yourself, from a physical or emotional wound that you believed you would carry for the rest of your life. Maybe you didn’t even believe that Jesus could help you, until you were amazed to find that the pain from that wound was gone!

·       Or maybe you are the homeowner, who is fuming mad at the mess that these people are making. You’re concentrating on all the money that you’ll need to repair your roof, angry that your quiet, peaceful life has been disrupted. Lots of people feel that way today. In particular, there are many people who would just as soon that the Black Lives Matter movement would just go away, because it means making changes to the way they live and the beliefs that they hold. Are you one of those people?

·       Are you one of the people who looked on, realized what had happened, and praised God, even though they hadn’t been healed themselves? Maybe you’ve never been healed yourself, but you’ve seen all the people who have been changed through God’s grace, and you praise God anyway.

·       Or are you one of the teachers of the law who is scandalized by what Jesus says and does? Lots of people are still scandalized by Jesus, you know; because Jesus disregards all kinds of social customs in order to help people, even if we don’t think they deserve it. We don’t much like it when Jesus turns our world upside down to forgive and heal.

Yes, you’re in this story somewhere! You might even be more than one character. That’s the power of stories from the Bible: they are mirrors in which we can see ourselves, if we are brave enough to look into them. And every single story in the Bible is like that. We can find ourselves in the story of Joseph, whose brothers hated him because he was daddy’s favorite; in the story of Moses, who was called by God to do a job that he thought he couldn’t do; in the story of Esther, who left some crucial details out of her resumé when she auditioned to be the queen, and then risked everything to help her people; in the story of Peter, who was full of confidence, sure that he knew it all, only to betray the friend that he loved the most.

And all these wonderful stories are woven together into one great big story – a story that began with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. And just like all good stories, it has a happy ending. In fact, the ending of the story might be the very best thing about it! We can read it in the book of Revelation: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with people! God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away!” (Revelation 21:1-4) Everything will turn out all right in the end, and we will all live happily ever after!

So, here’s the very best story that was ever told! Once upon a time, there was a God who loved his creation so much that he refused to abandon it. That God came to be with his creation in a very special way: in a man named Jesus, who showed everyone what God is like. Finally, God sent his Spirit to be with us forever, to comfort us when we are in despair, to guide us when we are confused, and to help us remember everything that has already happened. We are right in the middle of that wonderful story; and it hasn’t ended yet. The story is still going strong after all these years! And thanks be to God that it is!