Here I Am, Christ Gave All

Sermon for November 8, 2009 - 23rd Lord's Day after Pentecost

Mark 12:38-44

There’s a pastor we know in Omaha named Vanessa. For years, she’s been leading a non-denominational church in a rough area of North Omaha. It’s so rough that another denomination lets them use their building for free because they don’t have a way to do the vital ministry needed. It’s not a perfect ministry, but there is something amazing about what Pastor Vanessa is doing in North Omaha.

She is giving her life and all she has for Christ’s ministry with people who desperately need to hear and know, to taste and see God’s love. There are gangs ruling the neighborhood – an area crippled by crime and poverty. And yet Pastor Vanessa and the church keep reaching out to the community. They do so much with so little: peace walks, education events, even an after school program to keep kids off the streets and teach them about the love of God in Christ. There’ve been over a hundred kids coming (there aren’t even a hundred people worshipping on Sundays). They feed them, and it’s the best meal some of the kids eat that week, though sadly, it’s sometimes a meal few of us would even eat. And Pastor Vanessa is right in the middle of it, giving all she has to Christ and Christ’s ministry that people in North Omaha might have the chance to hear and know the good news of God’s love.

I tell you about Pastor Vanessa, not because she’s extraordinary, but because she fits a type. You’ve heard the phrase, “Cut from the same mold?” Well, Pastor Vanessa is cut from the same mold as the widow in our gospel reading from Mark. Now I’m sure that some of you already think you know where I’m going with this. This is a familiar passage often read and preached about the time a church does a finance campaign. Yes, this passage does teach us about giving as disciples of Jesus. But let’s not jump to conclusions. Often, we’ve heard it preached that because the widow gave everything she had, even her last few coins, we should give away every penny we are entrusted with as well. There are two things in this passage that lead me to believe that this is the wrong conclusion.

First, the passage begins with Jesus warning the people and the disciples not to be like the scribes, the teachers of the law – some of whom were probably present. Of course, Jesus is making a generalization and there were undoubtedly some very faithful and devout scribes. Yet, he’s critiquing them generally for always having an ulterior motive, like wearing their work clothes out and about so that people will notice them and heap honor upon them. It’s like if church choir members were to go out to lunch after worship wearing their robes just so that everyone would know they’re fancy, I-sing-in-the-choir Christians.

And Jesus says, “They devour widows’ houses” and then pray long prayers just to seem pious (Mk12.40). Now, I couldn’t find anywhere how they devoured widows’ houses exactly, but here’s a way they might have. According to the Law in Leviticus 27, the priests had great control in the price of land and property if it had been dedicated to the Lord. As preacher Walter Burghardt suggests, “Perhaps they mismanaged the widow’s property” that had been held in trust; “perhaps they took their houses as pledges for debts”; or, perhaps they took advantage of widows’ hospitality and love for the Lord, thereby convincing them to give everything to the Temple. Jesus says the scribes are doing this, even while knowing that throughout Scripture God insistently commands that we care for the least and the lost, characterized as widows and orphans. In this light, when Jesus points out the widow in the Temple offering her last penny, he’s doing so not because she’s an exemplar of generosity, but because she’s a victim of an unjust religious system. And isn’t that sometimes true today, with phone scams, and even pastors, badgering widows and the elderly to give more and more of their money?

This passage and the widow’s mite is about more than money, and the second thing that leads me to believe this is what Jesus says directly after this passage in Mark’s gospel. Leaving the Temple area, one awestruck disciple points out the large stones and beautiful buildings to Jesus. But Jesus replies, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down” (Mk 13.2). In that matter-of-fact phrase, Jesus essentially says, That widow’s offering is all for nothing. She’s giving to a cause that is unworthy of her gift, unworthy of her life. She’s given “all she had to live on” to an unjust structure.

So then, how are we to read this passage of warning and the widow? Well… Let’s think about the widow’s coins for a moment. They were insignificant – worth about a penny total – and they were given to an unjust institution that Christ said would soon pass away. Her coins represented all she had to live on, all she was. Now, imagine that each of our lives is like the widow’s coins; we’re each a collection of coins. So what are we made of? What do we live on? See, God made us each as a set of coins, a set of characteristics, abilities, interests, and skills that together make us who we are. God made us this way so that in offering our lives together we might work with God in the creation and redemption of the world. What makes you you? What coins are you made of? Do you sing, or dance, or listen well? Do you enjoy golfing, or cooking, or teaching? Are you good at painting, or sewing, or writing?

The widow gave “all she had,” which could be just about her last two coins. But it could also be about her whole life, her whole self. In giving “all she had,” she’s saying, “Here I am, Lord. I trust in you. You’ll take care of me. I want to serve you in your kingdom.” It’s not about money then; it’s about offering ourselves as holy and living sacrifices in union with Christ’s offering for us. As a collection of coins, each of us is able to hold back, or give freely to God and God’s mission. This is what we are created for – to share God’s love, to be all-in for God. And so, as we read our passage today, we can each ask ourselves, “Am I throwing myself into God’s hands with the faith of the woman? Am I putting my whole self before God saying, ‘Here I am: use me; mold me; make me into something you can use to share your love with others’?” Are we saying that with our lives, with our collection of coins? Or are we saying, “Here ya go, God; I’ve got a little left over to give you – a little time here for prayer, a few bucks here for the poor”?

That’s the way of life for a disciple of Jesus – giving ourselves fully to God and others – but the trouble is that there are so many other things vying for our interest and our commitment, so many things we give our lives to. What things vie for our time, our attention, our talents, our worry? What do we give our lives for? Work. Family. Retirement concerns. Children: their education and future. These aren’t necessarily bad things, but as Christians we’re called to put God first and use our work, our family lives, and our interests to serve God.

Yet, even underneath the different things that hold our attention, fear of scarcity is what ultimately prevents us from giving our lives more fully to God and others. We don’t give more time to worship and witnessing, to ministry and service, to being a family, because we’re afraid there’s not enough time. We don’t give more money through the church for the ministry of Christ, or to the United Way, or any other great ministry, because we’re scared there’s not enough money. We don’t offer to help in this or that ministry, because we’re afraid that we’re not good enough, that there’s not enough of “me” to get the job done. This is what our passage is about: we are created to glorify God in all we do and share God’s love with the world, to bring God’s kingdom, but we’re afraid we’re not _whatever_ enough.

But here, we’re losing focus. This passage is not about us; it’s about God in Christ. From the very beginning, the Gospel of Mark has been about proclaiming the “good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” who will set at liberty those who are oppressed, who is the Savior of the world (Mk1.1). Christ is the model, the mold from which the woman is formed. He gave up his life into the hands of an unjust structure, that we all might live free from sin and inherit eternal life through him. When Jesus points out the widow’s offering to his disciples, he’s trying one last time to teach his disciples that the Son of Man will be given up into the hands of those who will torture and murder him. She is an imperfect symbol of who Christ is at his very core: one who gives himself and his life fully to God that others, indeed the whole world, might know God’s love. Christ frees us from fear of scarcity so that we can give ourselves fully to God and others.

With this in mind, let’s listen to a little bit of a song by Matt Papa called “Here Am I, Send Me” from his album Your Kingdom Come.

Matt Papa’s song is the verbal response of the widow: she says, “Here I am, send me.” Before it was her response, it was Isaiah’s. And before time began, this response is the Son’s response to the Father in the Spirit, offering himself fully for the salvation of the world. And because it is Christ’s response to the Father, we too can live each day saying to God, “Here I am, send me.”

With the scribes and the widow, Jesus teaches us a double lesson: the way God loves is by offering Godself fully for creation through the Son; and the way we follow Christ and live into the kingdom is by giving all of ourselves to God and others. Christ gave himself fully for the sins of the world, destroying sin’s power over us. Christ gave himself fully so that we can give ourselves fully to God and others. Christ is the model, the mold from which we each are formed: we exist for the blessing of others. This is what Scripture repeatedly shows us: Adam, a blessing for the creation; the creatures, a blessing for Adam.; Eve, a blessing for Adam and the creatures; Israel, blessed to be a blessing; Christ, the blessing for the world; and us, a blessing for others that all might know the love of God in Christ. Giving ourselves away fully is what we were created for. Christ shows us this through the woman in a broken way – broken because she’s unjustly exploited, even in her generosity. And then Christ shows us this truth through his death and resurrection: we are created to give ourselves fully to God and others in Christ’s name, and Christ has freed us from fear that we might do just that.

Sermon for All Saints Day - November 1, 2009

Isaiah 25:1, 6-9

1. all saints day history and practice.

- Origin: honoring martyrs on death anniversary and then moved to one day

o In the early years Christians experienced periods of harsh persecution.

o In the 4^th Century, neighboring churches began to interchange feasts, honoring martyrs from each other’s communities.

o As more an more people were martyred, it became impossible to hold separate events for each, so the early church named a common day.

o Eventually, in the 9^th Century the celebration on the 1^st of November of the saints was extended to the entire Church.

- but...it's really about honoring God whose grace and power and love is plainly evident in the lives of the saints.

o On All Saints Day, we don’t worship those who have died.

o We worship God, always.

o And on All Saints Day, we worship God especially for the way we have seen and experienced God’s love and power at work in the lives of those who have gone before us, those we call “Saints.”

2. definition of a saint:

- A “saint” is any person who is being sanctified to God through Jesus Christ. (gbod.org)

o “Saint” comes from words that mean “holy” and/or “consecrated” (=set aside as holy)

o “Sanctified” means “to make holy”

- Really, it means being made more and more like God, because we’re created in the image of God.

o What’s God like? Loving. Helping. Forgiving.

o So when God helps us do these things – love, forgive, help – we’re becoming more like God, sanctified, holy. We’re being saints.

- But that doesn’t mean we’re perfect.

- Saints are honored b/c through them God gives us hope and inspiration.

o Through others, God gives us models of Christian living – that’s being a witness. Through others, God gives us hope because we can see that God is working in the lives of ordinary people just like us.

o As saints, God desires that through us, others would see and know and experience God’s love.

- So, celebrating All Saints Day is important because it gives us a time to celebrate God’s work in the lives of those we know and love – as well as those who lived long ago.

o It helps us see God’s continued work and faithfulness.

- But, it also has a strange effect: remembering the lives of the saints and God’s work through them, actually makes us more saintly.

o Through the saints, God loves us into our own future as saints.

3. Context of Isaiah 25: Promises, and Hope, and Waiting

- The current reality is bleak.

o it's certainly not what the people of Israel believed was God's good plan for them.

o God created them and called them God’s own and intended that they'd live in relationship with God and spread God's love to all people.

o Instead, they were experiencing major brokenness.

§ Under David and Solomon, there was a united monarchy for the nation of Israel. Then it ended.

§ Northern kingdom of Israel; Southern kingdom of Judah.

§ Northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians in 722bce

§ Now, the southern kingdom of Judah is on pins and needles wondering if they’re next as the next country to the south.

· (And, indeed, they do eventually fall, but to the Babylonians of the Persian Empire in 586 bce.)

o Major brokenness. Rather than sharing God's love with the nations, the nations are threatening to destroy them.

o This is their reality.

- And yet, in the midst of this anxiety, what is the word from the Lord? What does God say to the people thru the prophet Isaiah?

o ⁶“On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food…” and

o “[The Lord] will swallow up death forever. ⁸Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth…”

- This is their hope for a preferred reality in the midst of an awful reality. It’s God’s promise for them, and for all people, for all people will be gathered around that feast.

o This is what the people are waiting for. This is what they’re looking forward to. This is what keeps them going when all seems lost.

4. Claiming God’s Promise:

- Through the words of the prophet Isaiah, God fills us with hope, so that the people can live into the preferred reality.

o This isn't just pie in the sky, empty hope.

o This hope is filled with the transforming power of God. With hope, God pulls us into God's preferred reality; God draws us into the hoped-for reality.

- And the same is true for us.

o As we celebrate the saints and God’s work in their lives, what we’re really celebrating is that God is making each and every one of us more fully into saints, and transforming our current reality into God’s preferred reality.

o We take time to remember the saints, because in so doing we remember that God was at work in the lives of countless generations before us.

§ And when we remember this, we are able to see and believe that God is also working in our midst, in us, in our church.

- Claiming It: God is loving us into our future (Rob Bell in Sex God).

- Martha Speaks (a cartoon on PBS)

o Martha’s a talking dog (which is unique b/c other dogs don’t talk in this cartoon)

o There’s a dog that barks constantly.

o The dog’s owner always comes out yelling at the dog and calling it a “bad dog.”

o Martha gets chased by the dog, but somewhere along the way starts calling the dog “good dog.”

o She says it. Then the owner says it. A parrot even says it.

§ And the dog starts behaving better.

§ The reality was that the dog seemed pretty mean – current reality.

§ But then, speaking to the dog as Martha would like him to be (“good dog”) actually brought about change in the dog – towards a preferred reality.

o This works with spouses too.

o And it also works with us as Christians. God calls us saints, works in us, and reminds us on All Saints Day that we are all saints and all on the way to a grand, all-cosmos, all-the-time, feast.

5. What About Our Preferred Reality?

- A vibrant and diverse congregation with life changing ministry impacting people of every age, class, and ethnicity:

o A people who are known thru town as embodying God's inclusive love for all people;

o A people thru whom God makes true, in part, God’s promise through Isaiah – that God will host a great banquet with all people.

o This is who God is calling us to be.

- We can see glimpses of this reality, ye, overall, our reality is not god's preferred reality for us.

- God fills us with hope so that we can live into the preferred reality.

- How does God fill us with hope and love us into our future?

o Through the witness of the saints remembered well in our congregation.

§ We tell the stories of those recently gone and those long gone. We learn from them. We grow in hopefulness through God’s work in their lives.

§ We also see that God is working in us too. And we start naming and claiming it.

- We share in the foretaste of that great banquet that God will host when we celebrate Communion and extend Christ’s table to others.

o We share in the thanksgiving with the saints through the ages, as is said in our Great Thanksgiving prayer.

o And through the bread and the cup, God fills us that we might be the body of Christ for the word, redeemed by his blood; that we might be the arms of God’s love, the invitation to relationship with God, the witness of God’s kingdom on earth.

Back From Chile

As you've noticed, I haven't posted in a while. There's a good reason for that: I've been in Chile for about two and a half weeks, and we're back!

I'll share some more of that experience in the future, but for now, I just wanted to explain the absence.

Teaching on Holy Communion and Liturgy

This week we celebrated our Worldwide Communion with God in the Body of Christ. Rather than preaching, I taught about the Sacrament of Holy Communion (Eucharist) and our liturgy (the work of the people). Here are my notes.

Today, you’ll notice that I’m not preaching. Two things have led me to this:

1. Often, we read one or two scriptures, but sometimes only one, and we begin to think that the only scripture that matters is the one the pastor preaches on. Through the reading and hearing of Holy Scripture, God speaks. The preacher, hopefully, expounds upon this message and lays it out in a way that people can see and know God’s activity in our midst. But Scripture is always Holy.

2. I believe that it’s important that we speak about and teach about why we do the things we do in worship – and as a Christian community in general.

So, I’m teaching today on Communion.

Have you ever heard someone say about Christian worship, or a particular church’s worship style, “It doesn’t do anything for me”? I have two basic answers to this.

- I’m sorry. We are all different and different things help us connect better with God and each other. Maybe there’s another way we can worship that will help you connect as well, because this way does help many connect with God and others.

- BUT, you’re wrong: our worship does do things to you – or rather, through worship, God does things to you – of which you are unaware.

o Worship forms us. The things we do and the things we say matter and that’s we do things in patterned, repetitious ways. We call these things, these ways of worship, liturgy, which means, the work of the people.

Today is World Communion Sunday.

- On this day, we receive a special offering that generally funds scholarships and educational opportunities for people here in our country and around the world.

o Specifically, about 50% is used for non-anglo people for scholarships and/or training for service through the church.

- Connection with the Sacrament of Holy Communion?

o Communion = “sharing or exchanging intimate thoughts and feelings” or “coming together”

o Sacrament = “ an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace” – connecting every part of our beings, physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally with God and others.”

o Education is one way of sharing and exchanging intimate thoughts and feelings, so supporting people’s education helps in building the communion, the connection of people called the Body of Christ.

o And in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, we celebrate and give thanks that God in Christ through the Spirit connects us all as one body as we share in the one loaf and the one cup.

§ And as we share in the loaf and cup, we take in Christ’s body and blood, which is taking in Christ’s life, death, and also his resurrection.

So let’s look at the words we say, and what we do in celebrating the Sacrament of Holy Communion and talk about what they mean, and how God is working through our praying them together. (HYMNAL, 7)

- Invitation – ALL; God’s grace is for everyone.

- Confession and Pardon

o Mt 5:23 talks about not offering gift before the altar without being reconciled with others;

o 1 Cor 11:23-34 speaks of receiving unworthily, and insists on examining oneself before receiving; but really, Paul’s focus is on waiting for all to be present before celebrating the meal.

o Finally, when we confess at the point in the service, it’s as a response to hearing the word and being convicted by it – whereas confessing at the beginning of the service acknowledges our general sinfulness.

o In confessing our sins and forgiving one another during worship, God forms us into forgiving and forgiven people.

- The Peace – we’re forgiven and reconciled, so we celebrate.

o Traditionally, it was with a kiss of peace and this is still so with the wedding – the kiss comes as a sign of the peace of Christ in the community.

- Offering – The Sacrament is always part of the offering in our worship.

- The Great Thanksgiving = Eucharist = thanksgiving; it’s not about death, it’s about life and should be celebrated not mourned. This prayer forms us, it reminds us who we are and whose we are. It is our basic testimony, our witness to the world of God’s great love.

o Opening – praise and thanksgiving

o Praise for God’s mighty and saving works throughout history.

o Joining with the COMMUNION of saints – all those sanctified by God through Christ.

§ Sometimes, and most beautifully, sung.

o Praise for Christ specifically.

o Institution Narrative – about Christ’s meal with his disciples.

§ Not the “Last Supper” really. J

o Mystery of Faith: just the way it sounds.

o Epiclesis (“Pour out…”) = invoke – invite the Holy Spirit to be at work in the Sacrament.

§ “Pour out” – not just dribbles, but all over us, like a pitcher.

§ “Make them be for us…” – not just a symbol, but the real deal. Christ’s sacrifice is an eternal sacrifice, the once and for all. We’re not re-sacrificing Christ, but we are living into that memory. And he will always be the sacrificed one, the risen one.

§ “that we may be fore the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood” = we pray that God would make us into what we already are in part – Christ’s body, the witness of God’s love, in the world.

§ “By your Spirit make us one” – unity

§ “until Christ comes in final victory” – this is foretaste, a little meal, before the big and glorious feast. We’re not done because God is not done with Creation.

Where's God?

Sermon Outline for September 27, 2009 - 17th Lord's Day After Pentecost
Exerpts from Esther
Psalm 124

Sermon Outline:
Story of life – the seeming absence of God
- Where did you see God at work yesterday or today?
- We have days – or sometimes many days – in which we seem to have no answer to the question, “Where did I see God today?”
- Examples
o It seems that lately I’ve heard of a number of young people, teens and tweens, who have tried committing suicide. For people so depressed, what do you suppose their answer to “Where’s God?” is? What could lead someone to such a low point, except seeing nothing in life with any meaning, purpose, or value? When in severe depression, it’s unlikely that one would see the God who is good in too many places.
o Yet, even for those of us not struggling with depression, seeing God and pointing out God’s activity is still difficult.
§ How many didn’t have an answer to my opening question?
§ Sometimes, we just get so caught up in the daily-ness of life that we miss seeing God at work in our midst. Or we don’t attribute things to God.
- And this train of thought leads us directly to the Book of Esther.

Enter the Book of Esther – it’s a whole book, ten chapters, without even mentioning God…in the BIBLE! What’s up with that?
- By it’s very nature, we believe God has uniquely made Godself known through Holy Scripture. Scripture always tells us about God, and about us and our relationship together, right?
- So what’s up?

Summary of the Story of Esther (No God…or is there?)
- There once was a king named Xerxes (AKA Ahasuerus in Heb) who ruled the Persian Empire from 486-465bce. His Empire was huge, encompassing modern-day Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Israel-Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey.
1. Following a strange and suspect course of events, King Xerxes finds himself single and in need of a new queen.
a. Sends out servants; gets all the hotties; brings them back for year-long beauty treatments, etc.
b. One of the women brought in for the “Ancient Persian Bachelor Show” was a Jewish woman named, Esther.
i. She was an orphan, but was raised by her cousin Mordecai; he told her not to say anything about being Jewish (it wasn’t a great thing – the Jews still stuck out and were different in society).
ii. The king likes Esther and makes her his Queen.
2. Mordecai, being the loving father-type figure, always hung out around the King’s palace walls to hear how Esther was doing.
a. One day while doing this, he overheard two of the King’s servants planning to assassinate the king.
b. Mordecai told Esther, Esther told the King, it checked out, and the King was saved.
c. Esther gave her cousin-adopted dad, Mordecai all the credit and it was recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Persia.
3. Meanwhile, a man named Haman rose to become King Xerxes’ right-hand man with a great deal of power and authority.
a. It was customary for everyone to kneel down and give such authority figures honor as they pass by. Mordecai would never do this, because he was a Jew and committed to worshiping only God.
b. Haman DID NOT like this. He wanted to kill Mordecai, but it wasn’t enough just to get him.
c. Haman wanted to kill all the Jews – that’s how upset he was at Mordecai.
i. He and his servants cast the lot to select a day and month to annihilate the Jews throughout the Persian Empire (the 12th month, the 13th day).
d. So Haman goes to the king and says, There’s a certain people throughout your lands whose customs are different from those of all other people and who do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will put ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury (375 tons) for the men who carry out this business (3.8-9).
i. King Xerxes agrees without question, and Haman has the decree sent out to every end of the empire in every language and script.
4. Mordecai (and Jews all over the empire) heard of Haman’s plan with the King’s approval and broke down. They tore their clothes, and put on sackcloth and ashes – the universal signs of mourning.
a. Mordecai goes to Esther and asks her to step in, talk to the king, and save her people.
b. She tells him she can’t because if anyone goes before the king unannounced and the king doesn’t extend his scepter to him or her, then he/she must be put to death.
c. Mordecai is insistent and says, essentially, Do you think that just because you’re in the palace that you alone among the Jews are safe? You’ll be killed too. And besides, don’t you think that your position might be the way to save our people?
d. At this, Esther agrees, goes to the king, and he extends the scepter.
5. King Xerxes asks Esther what she wants – I’ll give you anything up to half my kingdom. She’s cunning about this and says she wants Xerxes and Haman to attend a banquet with her. They do.
a. At the banquet, Xerxes again asks what Esther wants. She continues the set up: I want both you and Haman to come to another banquet tomorrow, and there I’ll tell you what I want.
b. After the first banquet, Haman passes by Mordecai, who doesn’t even acknowledge Haman’s presence.
i. This just enrages Haman. He goes home complaining to his wife and friends. They suggest he just build a gallows and have Mordecai killed, with the King’s permission, the next day.
ii. Haman sets it up.
c. In a strange course of events, the king decides to honor Mordecai for detecting the assassination plot. Haman is commanded to lead Mordecai around the city in a parade of honor. This further infuriates Haman.
6. The next day, Esther, Xerxes, and Haman have their party. Xerxes asks what he can do for Esther, and this is what she says.
a. “If I have found favor with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life – this is my petition. And spare my people – this is my request. For I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation” (7.3-4a).
b. King Xerxes replies, “Who is he? Where is the man who has dared to do such a thing?” UH-OH
c. Esther replies, “The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman.”
i. At this, without much delay, King Xerxes has Haman hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai. And then he raises Mordecai up to replace Haman.
7. But, apparently even the king can’t change the law in the Persian Empire. So, under the insistence and direction of Esther and Mordecai, the King writes another law giving all the Jews permission to defend themselves from attack ordered in the previous law.
a. So, on the 13th day of the 12th month, when Haman’s law condemned the Jews, Mordecai’s law freed them, as they defended themselves from annihilation.
b. Thus, Mordecai instructed all the Jews to always celebrate the 14th and 15th days of the 12th month with a feast and with the giving of presents and food to one another and the poor. This is to celebrate that the people were fated for destruction but God turned their fate into destiny.

The story of Esther as the explanation of the Feast of Purim – a celebration of God’s deliverance found in God’s providential care for the people of Israel.
- Purim from pur=lot – Haman cast lot to determine day of annihilation of Jews, but it became the day the people were delivered from near-destruction.
- Definition of providence:
o “the foreseeing care and guidance of God over the creatures of the earth”
o “God, especially conceived as omnisciently directing the universe and the affairs of humankind with wise benevolence”
o “a manifestation of divine care or direction.”
-
- Examples of God’s providential care alluded to in Esther:
o Haman’s wife Zeresh after Haman was forced to parade Mordecai through the city – “Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him – you will surely come to ruin!” (6.13b, NIV).
§ She’s not even a Jew, but she’s heard about the Jews and their relationship with the LORD and believes that they are indeed protected and blessed as God’s chosen people.

o When Mordecai hears about Haman’s plan to kill all the Jews, he pleads with Esther to do something and get the king to stop Haman. To convince Esther to speak to King Xerxes he says, “Do not think that because you are in the kings’ house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (4.13-14, NIV)
§ Who knows, Mordecai suggests, God might be able to work through your current position.
§ We don’t know how to interpret Mordecai here. Is he saying that God brought Esther to a position of power for a reason? Or is he saying simply that because she’s in a position of power, she ought to use it in a God-honoring way? I favor the latter, but I leave you to your opinions.
§ What Mordecai suggests, though, is that God is able to work through and within ANY situation. AND, that as children of God we’d do well to make ourselves available to work with God, as Esther does.

God is always there, even if we forget or don’t see. God is working through us, or others around us all the time. This is the message in the story of Esther. Through the wisdom and courage of Mordecai and Esther God provided a way of salvation for the people of Israel. Indeed, God is always present and active in the life of God’s creation.

We can also see this in Ps 124 that responds to Esther:
- “If the LORD had not been on our side – let Israel say – if the LORD had not been on our side…” we would have been destroyed, we would have died, the raging waters of life “would have swept us away” (124.1-2, 5 NIV).
- “Praise be to the LORD, who has not let us be torn by their teeth….Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth” (124.6, 8, NIV).
- This psalm is a hymn of praise for God’s providential care for us. The repetition in the first verses is meant to be a reminder and a call to worship, as if to say, “Praise the Lord who’s been on our side….remember, all you people, how God saved us from destruction, saved us when things seemed hopeless, saved us and made us whole….praise the Lord.” It’s instruction for worship, much like you’d find in a Black church (think of the movie Blues Brothers if you’ve never been).

Examples of God in minutia of life
- Some of us had a hard time answering where we’ve seen God active in our lives. This should not be. You know that God is active, or else why would you worship? Worshiping a God who is inactive and uncaring is worthless, but we worship a God who is present, active, powerful, and loving.
- So it’s not that God isn’t active or present, it’s that we sometimes don’t see very well. Let us look more closely, for we see God all around us.
o Yesterday, I saw God in the joy of children with special needs playing baseball as I watched my four-year-old nephew play. He has cerebral palsy and plays in a wheel chair.
§ In what was obviously hard for many of them, they were so visibly excited by the game and the experience of playing.
§ And the parents – what strength it must take daily for them to embrace the extra challenges of life. God is there, always.
o Or, when a person in grief finds solace and comfort in the listening ear of a therapist. God is present in that conversation, named or unnamed, God is there, for God promised that those who mourn would be comforted.
o Or in the sharing of gifts and time freely – you’ve set up, stocked, run, and taken down a huge rummage and craft sale. We ought to see God’s generosity and determination in those actions.
o And, when a person in crises and depression finds help, finds, comfort, and finds hope. God is there, for God deals in hope, God sows in hope, and God reaps in joy.

Tying It Together:
- And that’s the point of the story of Esther. The providence – the ever-present, powerful care – of God is always with God’s people, and indeed with all creation. So, though the story doesn’t overtly praise God, it explains a feast that praises God for God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to God’s people. It explains why people are to let loose and praise God with abandon for two days – because God saved God’s people from destruction.
- And God is still saving God’s people from destruction, each and every day. God is with us, even when we forget or don’t see.
- May we live in such a way that we may see and know God’s actions in and for the world. And may we be faithful enough to participate with God all the way: “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”

Welcoming Jesus

Sermon for 9.20.09 - 16th Lord's Day After Pentecost

Mark 9:30-37

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus interprets the way of God as welcoming children, and, therein, welcoming Jesus and God. This reminds me of some serious conversations I had with a friend a few years ago about having children. Getting right to the point, he felt called to have children and his wife didn’t. So we talked about possible reasons to for Christians to have children.

After much thought and reading, we could not come up with a logical, worldly acceptable reason to have children. Saying we have children in order to share our love, or to receive love from others, ends up being self-centered and hardly convincing when considering the possibility of another’s life – “Mommy, why’d you have me? Oh, because no one else loved me and I wanted someone to love me.” NO. There’s no good reason to have a child – they take up time and resources, they make people less productive, some studies claim they actually make couples less happy by raising all their worries. This is logical. This is how we make decisions in the world. Yet, my friends did have a child, Sarah and I have a child, and many of you have or have wanted children.

There may be no worldly logical reason to have children, but there is a biblical reason to have children: we have children because the God of love calls us to. God loves creation enough to give life abundantly, and we are called to be like God. Still, welcoming children, as Jesus teaches today, involves much more than just having your own children, which some are not able or called to do. When Jesus takes a child in the midst of his disciples and says, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me” (v.37), he’s teaching his disciples of every age about the way of God’s kingdom, a way that turns the ways of the world upside-down, a way that welcomes others when doing so is useless to you.

This teaching comes at the end of Jesus’ second prediction of his passion. They’re walking through the Galilee in relative isolation – no crowds, no onlookers, just Jesus and the disciples. He’s teaching them about the way of the kingdom, the way God has chosen to redeem creation and extend God’s blessing to all people. He tells them, “The Son of Man (Jesus) is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again” (v.31). This is the second time Jesus tells his disciples this, but still, Mark tells us, they don’t understand and, what’s more, they’re afraid to ask Jesus for clarification. Why?

Why were the disciples afraid to ask Jesus what he meant? One worthy explanation is that they didn’t want to be scolded again. When Jesus told them this the first time, Peter took him aside in question, and Jesus rebuked him sharply, “Get behind me Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things” (Mk8.33). With that response relatively fresh in your minds, would you want to ask Jesus for clarification?

Yet another explanation of their fear is suggested by their other conversation topic on the journey. Jesus must have either been lagging behind or walking ahead of them, in what they thought was out of earshot, and they began to argue about who was the greatest among them. They were traveling with God’s Messiah, the one whom scriptures foretold would bring God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven, and they were wondering who would get to be second in command, vice-messiah.

With this on their minds and hearts, it’s no wonder they couldn’t understand Jesus’ passion prediction; they were thinking of a different sort of Messiah. They expected the Messiah to lead a military revolution that would oust the Roman authorities and permanently establish God’s throne in Israel, kingship in the line of the great King David. A dead Messiah, even one who rose from the dead, didn’t fit their imagination of what God’s future was for them.

Still, it’s not so much their misunderstanding of God’s Messiah that clouded their minds. Their hearts were in the wrong place. They were self-centeredly focused on who would be greatest when the new king took the throne. But they knew this was wrong, for when Jesus asked about their argument, they were all silent – only to discover, much to their dismay, that Jesus knew what they’d been arguing about. Calling them together he teaches them another hard lesson: “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” (v.35).

This lesson makes as much sense to the disciples as Jesus’ earlier teaching about his passion – his death and resurrection. To be a servant in Jesus’ day was to be the lowest of the low. Servants ate when everyone else had had their fill. Servants were little more than property in the minds of their contemporaries, so to be great by being the lowest servant was completely illogical. For them, rulers are great; rulers’ friends are great; servants are certainly not great, and neither are children.

People in Jesus’ day knew well the truth to our earlier discussion: children are worthless. Children didn’t make a person rich, or gain them any prestige. If anything, children were a burden that prevented wealth production. With children, you have to wait years before they’re able to make any significant financial contribution, and even longer before the cost-benefit balance shifts toward profit. To welcome children seemed ludicrous, yet this is Jesus’ example about being the greatest in God’s kingdom.

The message here is that if we, as fellow disciples of Jesus Christ, are to live into the kingdom of God, then we must be radically hospitable people. And indeed we must. A few years ago, our Annual Conference directed each local church to develop a Discipleship Plan directed at helping churches grow in faithfulness marked by six signs of discipleship: Radical hospitality, Heartwarming worship, Risk-taking mission and justice work, Systematic faith development, Gracious generosity, and Connectional joy and commitment. In an effort to place the ministry of our church more firmly in your hands as a congregation, I have enlisted the Administrative Council to write our Discipleship Plan, because having the pastor write it alone is worthless. Our church lives not by the life of its pastor but by the life, service, and witness of her people. I will help, I will guide, I will teach, and I will journey with you, but I lead with you as your servant.

Today’s passage speaks strongly about what it means to be a community of radical hospitality. Jesus teaches us that we are called to welcome children, and when we do, we welcome Jesus and God in our midst. We can feel good that we do, indeed, welcome children and others into our congregation. People don’t come to worship here often without being greeted and engaged in conversation. We have many great ministries geared toward the faith development of children.

Yet we know there are many who are excluded, or who are at least not included. Practicing radical hospitality means more than simply providing a place, more than simply saying, “If they come, we’ll make something for them.” It means actively reaching out, seeking out the lost, the least, and those whom the universal church has abandoned. It means meeting people where they are and talking to them as fellow brothers and sisters on the journey, getting to know them, and seeking to serve their needs. We cannot build anything for others and expect them to come without hearing their needs. Neither can we simply wait for people to come to the church looking for relief. Being radical, being a servant of all, means placing ourselves in positions where we can serve others. There is much work to be done as Jesus calls us to be servants of all, to children, to those like children, to those whom the world says are worthless. But this service is first a response to God’s love and care for us.

We pursue others, we welcome others, we serve others for no logical reason except that God pursues us, welcomes us, and cares for us. Most don’t come to faith in God and relationship with God through Christ and the Church through intellectual argument. Few of us sat down with a book on world religions, came to Christianity, and said, “Yes, that Jesus is for me. I believe.” More likely, through many experiences in life and the guidance of friends, family, and strangers, we began to recognize God’s insistent reaching for us. We began to realize that God is and always has been standing before us with arms wide open, smiling, and saying, “Come to me. Come home. You’ve traveled near and far. Come to me. I love you.”

That’s just like God, always ready to receive us even though we’re never worthy to be received. We’re never good enough, never who God created us to be. Instead, we’re dirty, ragged, sinful, and worn; yet, God reaches out to us anyway. We’re not worth anything to God. God doesn’t become more “Godly” by receiving us. Just as children are logically useless to us, we are logically useless to God, except that God has chosen to love us unconditionally and unfailingly. God loves us. God loves you, each of you, like you love a child, even a dirty, muddy, just-made-a-huge-mud-pit-in-your-yard child. God loves you.

And what can our response be to such love? Well, how does a child respond, even a dirty and utterly guilty child? She runs into your outstretched arms as you pick her up and smile through your frustration at a ripped-up yard. You embrace, and love is all that’s there, dirty as she may be. And God loves us more than that! God loves you and all that’s left for you to is to run like that child into God’s mighty and tender arms. No matter where you’ve gone, how far you’ve strayed, or what you’ve done, God loves you. So run to God. Let all that other stuff, all that fear, worry, and doubt wash away. Run to God. God is waiting patiently for your response. Turn to God. Turn away from the concerns of others, the concerns of greatness and fall into God’s love. God will show you the way of greatness. God will show you the way to serve others, and welcome God as you do.

Announcement About Conference Changes

This video announces the upcoming changes in the way we are organized for the ministry of Christ as an Annual Conference.

See this link for other details. http://www.umcneb.org/communication/um_connect/091809_special.htm?1253303494#ANCHOR4.

Basically, three conferences (Nebraska, Kansas East, and Kansas West) will be sharing one bishop beginning in 2012. There will be more information to come in the future.

more about "Announcement About Conference Changes", posted with vodpod