Youth Dialogue Sermon on Following Christ

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14

Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20 Page 693, BCP

Galatians 5:1,13-25

Luke 9:51-62

Youth Sermon

June 30, 2013

Katie: In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.  Please be seated.

Our biblical readings today provide us with many things to reflect upon.  But if I were looking for a theme, I might look at the various types of personalities of people who express their faith and belief in God.

Connor: Well, what if we were all like Elisha?    

James:   What do you mean, Connor?

Connor:   What if we would only follow God by demanding the spectacular?

Katie: I see what you mean.  What if I would only remain an Episcopalian if I could see Father Phil beamed up to the U.S.S. Heavenly Enterprise before my very eyes?  Beam him up Lord Scotty, or I won’t believe!

James:  Well, I guess if you had Trekky demands then you might have to give up your faith.  I suspect Fr. Phil will leave this world in a more standard way.  There have been no Assumptions since the Virgin Mary.

Katie: I’m glad that Elisha got to see his shock and awe so that he was able to believe that God would bless his ministry just like God blessed Elijah’s ministry.

James:  Does the Bible give us heroes in order to make us feel inferior in our ordinary lives?

Connor: I don’t think so.  I think the point of the Bible is to give us examples of faithful lives in order that we might learn to accept and develop our own original relationship with God.

Katie:  Connor, I grant you that….you are an original….throw away the mold type of guy.  I think that Gospel reading shows us that Jesus is dealing with some different attitudes of some of his followers.

James:  One of the attitudes is “Agree with me or else.”

Connor:  Or else what?

James:  Or else I’ll call down fire from heaven as a way of punishing you for not agreeing with me.

Katie:  We still have many “boom boom” prophets today.  Some people are so certain of their own views that they think that every earthquake and hurricane is God’s punishment on people with whom they disagree.

James:  And you notice that Jesus rebuked them for their very destructive judgments.

Connor: Jesus was also concerned that his followers did not mistake over-confidence for faith.

Katie:  What do you mean?

Connor:  Some were certain that it was a “piece of cake” to follow Jesus.  And Jesus warned them about being too sure of them selves.   Our lives of faith do not exempt us from hardship and difficult situations.  And there are things that could happen that might challenge our faith.

James:  We can have faith in God without being too proud of the way in which we know and understand God.  There are too many people today who are so certain about their way of believing in God. 

Katie:  Sometimes the ones who are overconfident end up losing their faith when they experience some difficult situations.  I think Jesus is telling us to be realistic about what it means to have faith and follow him.

Connor:  We get no exemptions from the general conditions of what can happen to anyone in this life.

James:  There is another type of person who thinks that following Jesus is too much trouble; they think it interferes with their lives.

Connor: I know what they mean….it is difficult to be such a superstar basketball player and still follow Christ.

Katie:  Yeah, right…What Jesus might be saying is if anyone thinks that following Christ is not good for their lives, their careers, their families, then don’t do it. 

James: But this also means that they must not understand Christ if his life and teachings are not good for their lives and their career and their families.  I also think that Jesus exposes the fact that often when we say, “I can’t,” it really means “I won’t.”

Connor:  Well, Jesus does allow us the freedom to be ignorant about him and all sorts of things.

Katie:  I think that St. Paul has some important insights for us.  He is more concerned that everyone works to know the fruits of the Spirit.  They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  These are important virtues that we must learn to practice no matter what we do in our lives.

Connor:  The fruits of the Spirit are compatible with everything that we do in life.  We don’t need to be called to the priesthood in order to be called to the fruits of the Spirit.  We need these virtues to learn excellence in living, no matter what our occupation is.

James:  I think that what we learn from our readings today is that we need to find our original relationship with Christ.

Katie:  I think that Christ invites to follow him in very individual ways…ways that fit the gifts of our personality and the situations of our life.

Connor:  But we also follow Christ in our communities.  We have learned to follow Christ in our Episcopal community at St. John the Divine.

James: Did you ever think that we might be following Christ in the wrong way?

Katie: What do you mean?

James:  Well, the Episcopal Church is very small; St. John’s is very small.  There are lots bigger church than ours.  There are religious people who shout much louder than we do about our faith.  Should we worry about our future relevance as a church and a parish?

Connor:  Will St. John’s always be here?  Will it lose its place and relevance to enough people to keep it going?

Katie:  People who shout the loudest about their faith often get the most attention.  I think as Episcopalian that we have some important things to preserve, even though we don’t shout so loudly about our faith.

James: Yes, the Episcopal Church believes that faith and science go together.  There are so many expressions of the Christian faith which don’t accept more recent understandings about science and about people.

Connor:  I think it is important that we find our faith relevant to the world that we live in.

Katie:  Especially in how we practice justice towards all people.

James:  I think that the Episcopal Church still has a place in this world, even if we are not people who are over-confident about being the only way of understanding things.

Connor:  I think we owe it to keep our church alive.  I think we owe it to keep St. John’s alive and well with our support.

 Katie: The stewardship committee of St. John’s is having a summer appeal to help our parish.

James: I think St. John’s is a good investment; it is a place to develop leadership; public performance, musical talents and skills.

Connor: It is a place where can explore our faith with honest acceptance.

Katie:  It is okay to be a small church too.  In this small parish we have the opportunity to feel like we belong; we don’t have to be lost in the crowd.  And we know that we are needed.

James: Can you recommend the summer campaign for giving to St. John?

Connor: I can.

Katie: Easy for you to say, since you’re not writing the check….but I agree.  We have a calling to be at St. John’s here in Morgan Hill and follow Christ in the way that we can.  And we hope that we do it with an attitude of non-judgmental love and acceptance.  We hope we can know the fruits of the Spirit in our lives.

James: So now that we’ve made a shameless plug for the stewardship campaign of St. John’s, what else can we say?

Connor: Love God, Love Christ, Love your neighbor, be local in your faith and support St. John’s as a community of faith that has a mission today, tomorrow and into the future.  Amen.

"I Can't" Usually Means "I Won't"

6 Pentecost, C p 8, June 30, 2013   

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14  Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20

Gal. 5:1, 13-25   Luke 9:51-62  

 Lectionary Link

  What is it that lifts the human spirit when we watch those who participate and compete in the Special Olympics?  We are really touched when persons who struggle with their impairments put forth a heroic effort and compete for the sheer joy of it and give their unqualified effort.

  And I would assert to you that the great issues are rarely about issues of ability; they mainly about issues of will and choice.

  The main duty of every parent is to convince their children that when they say, “I can’t,” it probably means, “I won’t.”

  What kind of parent would require their children to do things that they were unable to do?  Yes there are probably some compulsive and driven parents who have unrealistic expectations for their children but the vast majority of parents only ask their children to do things that fall well within their ability to do.

   Another task of a parent is to encourage their children to be realistic about their abilities and willingness.  Sometimes in youthful pride children are more confident of their abilities than they should be because they are not realistic about what is required of them in a task.    In our appointed Gospel, the writer has collected an interesting group of traditions about Jesus and his disciples.

  The disciples of Jesus seem to be clueless about his mission.  They believe him to be an end of the world apocalyptic General.  And so when a village in Samaria does not cooperate with their supply needs for the mission, they ask General Jesus, “Shall we call in the fighter jets and have them Napalm the village?”  We are told that Jesus rebuked their ignorance.

  What is the work of God and Christ about anyway?  It is not about fire bombs from heaven to convince people about God; no, it is about the inside job that God is trying to do on all of us.  It is about the call of God in Christ.  That is how God intends to change this world.  God wants to do with through the free wills of men and women.  The call of God upon our lives is the way in which God wants to persuade this world to be better.

  The call of God is offered to everyone and when Jesus came, men and women were challenged to answer  that call.  And Jesus offered some rather crisp assessment about the call to discipleship.

  For one who was so sure that he wanted to follow Christ, Jesus told him to be realistic about what is involved.  How many people have started out as wide-eyed optimistic Bible-believing with certainty about God, only to go through the maze of loss and disillusionment and end up as pessimistic atheists or agnostics?  Some of the most devout have had their faith ruined on the rocks of life.  So, Jesus encouraged a potential follower not to think that he would be exempt from the standard requirements of life if he chose to follow him.

  Then Jesus addressed the great dilemma in life when most people say, “I can’t,”  they really mean, “I won’t.”  And that is when Jesus began to speak in his exaggerated speech to challenge them about his calling.  It is like Jesus was saying to them:  “Tell me what you really think of me!  If you think that following me is going to be bad for you and your family, then you probably should not do it.  If you think that I am asking you to do something that is bad for you, then you probably should not do it?

  The standard excuse in life is not a matter of ability but a matter of will.  If we have money to buy season tickets for sports events and boats and items of luxury, do we have money to buy a couple of new wells for villages in Africa without water?  The issue is never ability, the issue is always choice.  God and Christ are never asking us to do what we cannot do, but they are always asking us about matters of our choice to challenge our will.  The call of God is mostly about our will and not about our ability. 

  The greatest hindrances to the call of God are the ordinary things in life:  Like when we let ourselves think that the call of God is in competition with the good of our own life and the lives of our family.  And what does Jesus say: “If that is what you are thinking then you do not understand God or me.”   

  What the words of Jesus confronts us about is:  If we are saying the demands of God’s call are not good for our lives or our family, then we are building false and phony reasons for saying, “Oh, God, I surely can’t do that; it would be too hard for me and my family.”  If the call of God is incompatible with our lives, then indeed it is unrealistic.  But Jesus was really saying, “Don’t go there, if you are trying to cover up your, “I can’t” with an, “I won’t.”  It is your will that is the issue, not your ability or the demands of God.

  Most things in our life come down to the issue of our will.  And often we can be so programmed into our social, family and cultural patterns; we literally do not feel very free.  Sometimes when we don’t feel very free it’s because we have accepted so many commitments.  And the call of God is a reminder for us always to re-evaluate our priority and commitments so that we can truly express our freedom.

  The reading from St. Paul gives us a clue to true freedom.  True freedom for St. Paul was the experience of the Holy Spirit in his life.  To know the Spirit is to know true freedom.  This freedom is expressed in a positive response to the call of God when we say I will and I can.

  What are the expressions of freedom of the Holy Spirit?  They are the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience., kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  The fruits of the Spirit are the powerful ways in which we say to the call of God, “I will.”  And are any of these fruits bad for our family life, our church life, our personal lives or the life of this world?

  The God that Jesus preached was not a God who bombed people into submission with fire from heaven; the God of Jesus was a God who gently called people to follow what is good.  The God of Jesus is the one who placed the Holy Spirit within us to empower us to true freedom to answer the call of Christ.  And what is that call?  It is a call to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  And that call is freedom and it is good for us, for our families, our parish and our world.  Let us give up our excuses and let us say, “I will and I can follow Christ, through the wonderful fruits of the Holy Spirit.”  Amen.

Called to be People Whisperers

5 Pentecost, Cp7, June 23, 2013   

Isaiah 65:1-9 Psalm 22:18-27

Gal. 3:23-29   Luke 8:26-39

  One of the things that has happened in Christianity due to its success is an attempt to reduce story and narrative to teaching, philosophy and theology.  And in the process of making a narrative into propositions of truth or falsity, the entire nuance of the story truth is lost and people are left arguing about doctrines, belief and faith statements.

  In the way that I approach interpretation, I look for the great principles or structures that seem to be the motive of the Bible stories and then I look for a contemporary corresponding example to illustrate and make it come to relevance for me and some others who for better or worse place themselves to overhear my talking mind in my sermons.

  A recent cinematic and cultural phenomenon has come to be called “horse whispering.”  And now we have “dog whisperers” or “pet whisperers;”  these are people who in their practice seem to have such a “way with animals” that they have a calming effect upon animals but also even have a liminal crossing over participatory state of seeming empathy to make them claim specific communication with animals.

  And from this notion of a “whisperer,” I have frequented to use this a metaphor for the psychiatric healing ministry of Jesus.  I would call Jesus, the ultimate people whisperer; ultimate because of the accounts of the effect that he had on a host of people in a variety of conditions and that this whispering effect of Jesus has extended beyond his life in his body here on earth.

  It must also be honestly noted that the whispering effect of Jesus did not have universal effectiveness; there were religious people who were angered by him and not effectively whispered by him.  And then there were those Roman local officials who were not whispered either, since they are the ones who carried out his crucifixion.  So even the whispering of Jesus was limited in its effectiveness; the condition of receptiveness of the whispered was also important.  Certainly a horse whisperer is probably not omni-competent to be able to tame all horses which is why horse whispering probably needs many practitioners.

  Whispering pertains to a style of how to be with people; I think the wisdom of the style of how to be with people in the very best way is the loving intent behind the Holy Scriptures.  And we find many personalities and many kinds of whispering and many story details of how and when it is done.   The mistake of some biblical interpreters is to make cultural details absolute and miss the big “whispering” principle.  This would be like a modern doctor determined to continue to practice bloodletting as a valid medical procedure because some physicians in the past thought it was an effective treatment.  A physician who practiced bloodletting in the past thought that he or she was practicing care for the patient; the motive of care is the principle, not the detail of bloodletting.

  Whether Elijah, Jesus or Paul, they in their own ways had come to be “people whisperers” and they did their whispering based upon the fact that they knew themselves first to be whispered by God in such a profound way that this divine whispering impelled them to whisper people.

  People whispering might be said to be a graceful way of engaging another person toward their well-being in their body, soul and spirit.

  Elijah, Jesus and Paul believed that people whispering involved building a community around a relationship with God which was not just about clergy arguing about religious doctrine and having a means of income from a religious profession; people whispering had to do with the art of living together, the art of having a life orientation characterized by faith, love, hope, patience, courage and self-control.

  I believe that it is a main calling in everyone’s life to be a people whisperer; namely, how can we learn to be better at gracefully engaging people for their well-being.  Family, society and parish life requires that we do whispering.  Parents have to spend sleepless nights whispering a baby who will not be comforted.  They have to whisper their children in persuasive ways towards personal excellence.  In our lives, we also are blessed if we can experience very individual and personal whispering by being befriended by someone who seems to have a gift of “having a way with us” such that we let down our protective guard to allow oneself to be ministered to in unique and special ways.  There are all sorts of people whispering that needs to be done in this world; if there is failure and turmoil in our world, we might rightly blame that there has not been enough match-making that has occurred to achieve compatible whispering to occur between the parties that truly could benefit with mutuality between the whisperer and the one to be whispered.  We understand that Jesus left this world in his bodily presence because in being in us as the risen-Christ, the whispering work of God is expanded.  Jesus of Nazareth could not effectively whisper everyone; he left the legacy of the art of whispering as the way in which people are to be together.

  We could decry the lack of serendipity in the failure for the whisperers and whisper-needy to be matched.  Elijah, Jesus and Paul came as those who were whispered by God and so went forth to whisper others and to promote communities that would be committed to the whispering care of others in this world.

  And that is why we have the church; not to have an exclusive club with strict rules for membership.  We have a church in order to remind ourselves about the greatest human dynamic of all.  Being whispered and learning to whisper.  We learn to be whispered in integrating the care of others as well as integrating all of our life experience into a usable personal database to be made evident and available to whisper the people whom we are called to be with in graceful and caring ways.  The nuances of whispering are endless and most of it happens in very un-self-conscious ways.  A smile, a gentle encouragement of a child, picking up trash in the street and unwittingly being noticed by a neighbor a block away; there are endless modes of whispering.

  Today, let us be like Elijah; find the still small voice of God’s whispering presence.  Let be like Paul in finding good reason for different people of different backgrounds to love each other in a faith community.  And while we may not be trained in the ancient medical art of exorcism, we do have the ability to be a calming and peaceful presence to the lives of many people in our lives.  And we don’t have to do so by upsetting the pork futures in our locations.

  The psalmist wrote, “As a deer pants for water, so my soul longs after God.”  This expresses the beginning of whispering.  We long for that which is More than Us as a way of learning to integrate everything that happens to us in the wisdom of learning a life orientation, a life art to learn where things go and fit in our lives.

  My prayer for all of us is that we would receive and know ourselves having been whispered by God, by Christ, by the Holy Spirit, and by significant people who have been in our lives.  And from having been whispered we too have taken up our calling to whisper others in knowing and unknowing way, since to know Christ and to be in Christ is to be in a community of people who are committed to “people whispering” in this world.  Amen. 

Children Can Be "People Whisperers too"

5 Pentecost, Cp7, June 23, 2013   

1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a  Psalm 42

 Gal. 3:23-29   Luke 8:26-39

 Lectionary Link

  Have you ever been to a circus?  Have ever seen someone who works with animals?  With wild animals?  Have you seen a lion tamer?  Or have you seen someone who teach a dog to do amazing tricks?

  Have you ever taught your dog some tricks? Can you get the dog to fetch a ball?  Or roll over?  Or sit?  Or does your dog train you to feed it whenever it wants?

  Some people have a special gift with animals.  A person who can tame a wild horse is sometimes called a horse whisperer.  A horse whisper has such a calming effect upon the horse so that the horse will become very friendly and peaceful.  Sometimes a horse is wild and seems to be angry because the horse has been taught to be fearful and not trust anyone.

  Did you know that as people we can have things that make us wild?  Do you know what can make us wild?  Pain, loss and fear can make us wild.

  Do you ever remember falling and hurting yourself and all you can do is scream in pain; you cannot do anything else.  Pain makes us seems as though we are wild.  Fear also makes us seem like we are wild.  Losing important things and people in our lives makes us have a sadness and this sadness controls our lives.

  Just as a wild horse needs a horse whisperer; we as people need people whisperers.

  When we hurt ourselves, we need our parent or someone with us to hold us and help us, to give us a band aid.  We need someone to calm us down from the wildness caused by pain.

  When we are afraid, we need a people whisperer; we need someone with us to show us that we are safe and that everything is okay.

  Jesus was a wonderful person because he was a people whisperer.  Jesus knew how to calm and tame people from the wildness of pain and fear.  We have many stories of Jesus helping people when they suffered from pain and fear; he gave them hope and encouragement and he made them peaceful and calm just to be with them.

  And Jesus wants us to be people whisperers too.  He wants us to learn how to be with each other when we are hurt by pain and fear.  Everyone has pain and fear at some time in their lives and so it is very important that we learn how to be people whisperers with each other.

  We need to know how to be with each other in pain and fear.  When your friend gets hurt on the playground what do you do?  You try to help them; you run and get help, you call 911 if they are really hurt badly.  When people are in the hospital what do you do?  You visit them, you send them cards or flowers, you pray for them, you let them know that you care.

  Why?  Because Jesus wants us to be people whisperers.  Jesus wants to know how to help each other when we have pain and fear.

  Can you say today, “I will be a people whisperer when people are in pain or fear?”  Because I want to be cared for too when I have pain or fear.  Amen.

Noah's Ark Puppet Show: Vacation Bible School

Vacation Bible School

Puppet Show

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

We are Water and Rainbow People

God’s Salvation is God’s Promise to us

Characters:

Narrator

Noah

Noah’s wife: Emzara

Noah’s Son : Shem

Shem’s wife: Sedeqetlebas   (nickname? Sadie?)

Noah’s son: Ham

Ham’s wife: Ne’elataum’ak  (nickname?  Nellie?)

Noah’s son: Japheth

Japheth’s wife: Arbasisah  (nickname?  Arby?)

Animals for the ark (see inventory)

Jesus

Disciples of Jesus

Songs: Arky, Arky   (five verses to be sung as the puppet story develops)

             Mr. Noah Built an Ark,  (to Old MacDonald)  see the words below

             Here come’s Jesus, See him walking on the Water

Puppet Show

Narrator: (can be any puppet including an animal puppet)

A long, long time ago the great cities of the world were built upon famous Rivers.  The Tigris, the Euphrates, the Nile are some of the most famous big Rivers.  Cities were built upon rivers because people need lots of water; for bathing, drinking, for growing food and for shipping and travel.  But people in the past did not have the weather service.  They did not have weather satellites and so they did not know when rain and floods were coming.

When snow melted in the faraway mountains in the spring and when there was spring rain, the river valleys around cities would flood.  And since most people only travelled a few miles from their home in their entire life, their entire world would flood.  The entire river valley would flood and cover entire cities.

Once upon a time there was a man named Noah

(Scene 1)

Voice of God:  Noah, Noah, Noah, I need to speak with you.

Noah: Am I hearing voices? Who is speaking to me?

Voice of God:  Noah, this is the Lord God.  I want you to do something important.

Noah:  Okay but why me?

Voice of God:  Noah, you are a good man of with faith and you have an important mission.

Noah:  What kind of mission?

Voice of God:  You have to save your people and also the animals.

Noah:  Why do I need to do that?  Everything seems just fine.

Voice of God: Noah, I am giving you a warning about a big flood that is going to come.  You need to warn people.  And you need to do some to save your life.

Song: Arky Arky, verse 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMQjYJdtwoc

Noah:  What can I do?  I can’t just run away?  Where can I go?

Voice of God: Noah, I want you to build a big boat, an ark and you can put your family on this ark during the flood.

Noah:  Okay but I’m not a sailor or a boat builder.  How will I know how to build it?

Voice of God:  I will give you the instructions and you have to follow them exactly.

Song:  Arky Arky, 2nd. verse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMQjYJdtwoc

(Scene 2, showing the progressive building of the ark)

(Props.  Saws and axes, hammers)

Narrator:  So Noah obeyed God and started to build the ark.  He got his sons to help him.  But his neighbors thought that he was crazy.

Neighbor 1: Noah, what are you doing?

Noah:  I’m building an ark.  God told me that there was going to be big flood.  You too should start building your own ark so that you can survive the flood.

Neighbor 2:  Ha! Ha!  Ha!  Noah you are crazy.   It not even raining and we don’t get much rain.  Noah, you have lost your mind.

Neighbor 3:  Let’s go and leave this crazy man alone.

Noah:  Please listen to me and get to work building your own boats so that you can survive the storm.

Narrator:  The neighbors did not listen to Noah; they laughed at him and went away.  But Noah obeyed God and followed his instructions to build a big ark.  And soon the big boat was finished.  And God spoke again to Noah.

Voice of God:  Noah, you have built a very big and strong ark.  And now I want you and your family to round up animals and load them onto the ark.  Make sure you get mommy and daddy animals so they can have babies after the flood.

Noah:  We need everyone help rounding up the animals.  Let’s get to work.

Noah’s wife: Emzara:  I’ll get the rabbits.

Noah’s Son : Shem:  I’ll go find the Lions.

Noah:  You better be careful!

Shem’s wife: Sedeqetlebas   (nickname? Sadie?):  I like birds.  I’ll get some bird seeds and get them to come onto the ark.

Noah’s son: Ham:  Do I have to get the alligators.

Noah:  Yes you do.

Ham’s wife: Ne’elataum’ak  (nickname?  Nellie?):   I’ll go get the peacock.

Noah’s son: Japheth:  I’ll go lead the elephant.

Japheth’s wife: Arbasisah  (nickname?  Arby?):  I’ll find the chipmunk and the raccoon.

(Procession into the ark)

(The ark can have a ramp and the animals march into the ark)

Song: Verse three:  The Animals came in twoosies twoosies…..

(Clouds and rain and rising water)

Noah:  Ship Ahoy!  All aboard.  Pull up the loading ramp.

Neighbor:  Noah, open up.  Let us in.

Noah:  There is no more room.  Remember that I told you to build your own boat.  Sorry.

Song: Verse 4:  It rained and poured for forty daysies, daysies..

(Window openings in the ark will allow Noah’s family members to stick their heads out and speak)

Ham:  Wow!  There is lots of rain and lots of thunder.  I’m glad Dad obeyed God.

Arby:  I’ve never ridden in a boat; this will be fun.

Shem:  I don’t know; those animals will probably start to smell and they might wake us up when we try to sleep.

Alligator:  Those people shouldn’t flatter themselves.  They will smell too if they don’t take showers.

Noah:  Everyone be quiet.  Time to sleep.  Good night.  Let’s thank God for sending us a warning to help us save our lives.

Song:  Mr. Noah built an ark ,  to Old MacDonald had a farm tune.

Narrator:  It rained for forty days and forty nights.  Noah and his family and their animals were safe on the ark.  But it soon stopped raining and the flood water began to go down.  Noah wanted to check to see if it was safe to get out of the ark.  So he sent a dove out of the ark.

Noah:  Look, Dovey has returned and she has an olive branch in her beak.

Dovey:  Noah, I found this on an olive tree and the water has gone down and the ground is dry enough to get off the ark.

Song: Verse 5,  The sun came out.

(Animals and people get off the ark)

Rainbow appears in the Sky

Noah:  Look at the lovely rainbow and all of the beautiful colors.  I wonder what that means?

Voice of God: Noah, this rainbow is a gift to you of my promise.  I promise you that I do not destroy the world because I love and care for the world.  Whenever you see a rainbow remember the promise of my love and care.

Noah:  Thank you God for saving our lives and the lives of all of the animals.  We promise to be good keepers of your world.

Song:  Chorus verse, “Rise and shine and give God the glory.”

Final Bow.

Suggestions:

Use the water theme for the week.

Water at creation.

Genesis 1:1-9

1In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

3Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

6And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. 8God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

9And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.”

Noah and the Flood.

Genesis 6

6When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, 2the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose.

3Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.”

4The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown. 5The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.

6And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7So the Lord said, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

8But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord. 9These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. 10And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth.

13And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. 14Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. 21Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them.”

22Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

Genesis 7

7Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. 2Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; 3and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. 4For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”

5And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. 6Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. 7And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth.

11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

13On the very same day Noah with his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons entered the ark, 14they and every wild animal of every kind, and all domestic animals of every kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every bird of every kind—every bird, every winged creature. 15They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.

17The flood continued forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; 20the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.

21And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings; 22everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. 24And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days.

Jesus Walking on the Water and Calm the Stormy water

John 6:16-21

16When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

Water and the meaning of Baptism

John 3: 5 ff.

5Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’

Is the Gospel Only for Excessive People?

4 Pentecost, C p6, June 16, 2013   

2 Samuel 11:26-12:10, 13-15  Psalm 32

Gal. 2:11-21   Luke 7:36-50  

Lectionary Link

   Do you think that the kind of faith and religion that gets most of the attention in the world is due to the excessive natures of the people who have been the formative personalities of our faith tradition?  Let face it; non-excessive people are just plain boring or at least they are not newsworthy; they don’t give you any historical markers.

  So we tend to write history based upon public heroes; the ones who are best known because of their excesses.  There has been a post-modern attempt in some circles to write an anti-hero kind of history It would be called “quotidian” history, meaning everyday life or the mundane.  What if  history were written from the notes discovered in the receipt books of a bakery in Paris, what would the history look like?  Well, some might say boring. Others might be fascinated with such details.

  The Bible is about mostly heroic excessive personalities.  King David was excessive; he even arranged the murder of one of his soldiers because he wanted the soldier’s wife.  Paul was excessively fanatic; he was complicit in stoning murders of the followers of Jesus.  So, his conversion was dramatic and he became excessive in the other direction.

  The Gospel personalities are also excessive personalities.  When is the last time you did a liturgy of washing feet with tears, anointing feet with perfume and then wiping them with your hair?  A rather excessive way of saying, “Thank you Jesus.”  If you have had seven demons cast out of you then you make the Gospel records too.

  In the appointed Gospel today, we have a parable of Jesus that kind of explains the tendency towards the excessive and heroism in the Gospel literature.  The one who has been forgiven more loves more.  I guess in using Freudian terms, it would be saying that those who have excessive amounts of destructive energy and sublimate that energy towards constructive purposes, tend to do more and hence make the history books for doing memorable things.

  But what do you and I think about this doctrine of the sublimation of the excessive as being what is truly praiseworthy in the life of faith?  Are we to mourn the fact that we have not been excessive enough; we’ve followed the rules and played it safe and lived very ordinary lives?  Does the Christian faith have anything to do with living ordinary faithful lives with no great swings from extreme vice to extreme virtues?  Do we have to go out and look to be involved in extreme vice so that we can “really” appreciate forgiveness and redemption?

  We perhaps need to be careful about allowing Christianity to be just for people of “heroic” conversion involving moving from public notorious vice to confession and forgiveness.  We have perhaps been programmed by the Gospel literature only to appreciate this dominant literary theme.  Today we can see politicians caught in the act of vice and move to great redemption because all kinds of  Christians just love the excessive sin and forgiveness theme.  I think that America is unique in our television religion; we have dramatic preachers who spend most of the money they receive in order to stay on television and they do so by maintaining this story theme; extreme sin to extreme forgiveness and redemption.  It could seem as though of Christian parishes exist for people “living in recovery” so as to keep us from wrongly using our excess in addictive ways and learning to sublimate our addictive ways by an experience of the Higher Power of God’s grace.

  Let’s be honest about the Gospels.  The Gospels are dramatic literature.  They would not be the Gospels if they were but receipts and entries in a Jerusalem bakery journal in the first century.  As dramatic literature, their purpose is to evoke response from readers.

  And so we ask, what kind of evocative judgments are drawn from us today from our dramatic biblical literature?

  I think they ask us to be honest about our excesses.  We may not have dramatic excesses or we just haven’t been caught or they may not that exciting.  How exciting is it that one plays computer Solitaire for many hours in a day?  It is a rather excessive use of time, time that may actually have other beneficial uses but it does not make the charts for an exciting vice to be converted from.

  The woman who anointed the feet of Jesus was commended for her excessive act of devotion…one which I am glad has not become a continuing liturgical act in the church, particularly with my hair impairment.  Her excess horrified the religious host who was scandalized by its social impropriety.

  You and I are like this religious host as well; we make judgments from our individual perspectives.  Your excess is not mine so I can judge you as lacking; mine is not yours so touché!   We can be dueling judgmental people always feeling good about ourselves at the expense of others.  Though, if I only feel good about myself because of how I see that you are so bad, what good is my self-worth?   And that kind of self-serving judgmentalism is what the words of Jesus exposed.   

  What do we learn from the example of Jesus, who can also be the risen- Christ nature within us?  Well, Jesus kind of, accepts the individual weird.  As good parents we accept from our children their unique art work as wonderful gifts even as the older sibling might criticize the art as inferior and get a rebuke from us.  Jesus accepts our individual gifts as they are tailored to how we love because we have known special events of grace and forgiveness.  One of the secrets of life is to learn to sublimate, yes transform, the excessive energies of addiction and waste into the devotion that can focus upon what is truly worthy, namely, the risen Christ who is always before us as what we can be in a future surpassing state of excellence.

  Jesus was also inviting the excessively judgmental religious leader to accept extreme forgiveness for such obsessive use of his discernment for criticizing people and do something excessive toward God, namely, excessively practice forgiveness as a way of life.

  Let us embrace the dramatic biblical literature, not as condemning us for not having dramatic lives but as being instructive to us about the poignant metaphors as providing instruction and direction for our transformation.  The dramatic religious personality Paul who once in fanatic religious passion wanted to kill people who disagreed with him, became one who discovered in the dramatic passion story of Jesus the metaphor of personal transformation.   Instead of killing Christians, St. Paul went to “dying with Christ” as the chief metaphor of transformation in his life.  He wrote:  “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

  You and I are invited to the metaphors of transformation in our lives as we learn to tame and corral the energies, desires, affinities, preferences, passions, into beneficial acts of Christ-like behavior for the good of our world.  Let us accept forgiveness and celebrate our excesses with Christ-like sublimation of the energies of our lives for living the Good News.  Amen.

What is God Like?

3 Pentecost C June 9, 2013

1 Kings 17:8-16 (17-24) Psalm 146

Galatians 1:11-24 Luke 7:11-17

 Lectionary Link

  What is the Lord God like?  The writers of the Bible  use many words trying to answer that question.  They use poetry and stories and salvation history to try to relate to their reading community, what the Lord God is like.

  What is the Lord God like?  The writer of the Psalms tells us:   The Lord is the one who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them;  and who keeps the divine promise for ever; and who gives justice to those who are oppressed, and food to those who hunger. The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind; the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;  The LORD loves the righteous; the LORD cares for the stranger; he sustains the orphan and widow, but frustrates the way of the wicked.  That is what the Lord is like.

  Is this what we really think God is like?  Those who see this world with hunger, oppression, sickness and  people neglected,  challenge this view of God whose existence would only be proved through realized justice and total eradication of hunger.  People who are trying to remove the word God as relevant to their lives want to challenge us theists as being intellectually impaired.

  We need to remind ourselves and all people who defend God poorly that the Psalmist did not write:  The Lord God forces justice to be practiced in the world.  God forces people to share their food so that no one is hungry.  God does not heal the blind because God does not permit blindness in the first place.

  Certain notions of God cannot be defended when this world is not exempted from random and non-random events of pain, suffering and afflictions?

  Perhaps the most adequate answer is that God is this pure freedom of creativity and rather than monopolizing all power through a divine tyranny, God allows a genuine degree of true freedom in everything within the divine environment.

  What would be totally unthinkable is the world as fixed and static entities that always interacted in robotic ways to avoid the competitions between systems which cause pain and suffering.  Automated, driver-less cars make sense for having no accidents; automated entities in this world would be lifeless and soulless life because potential conflicting peoples and entities is what characterizes genuine freedom and this is what makes us persons and not robots or machines.  We know ourselves to be people with a degree of freedom and we assume this is expressive of a greater being of creative freedom and it is not difficult to project personality upon this Great Being, because we believe the freedom that has created personhood, is a higher form of personhood than our own.

  So how would a God who cares for justice and yet permits freedom as the only conditions suitable for their being authentic personhood; how would such a God be and act towards us and everything that is not God?  How would God respect our freedom and yet instruct us to use our freedom in the best possible way?

  The task of any parent is to be a persuader since a parent wants a child to choose what is good and right.  This is what God is like; God persuades and lures us to surpass ourselves in excellence.  The Bible is a book written by very imperfect people under the influence of the divine lure to do what is right, just and loving.  The Bible heroes are those who as it were, “took the bait” from the divine lure and in their lives instantiated, lived out, what God is like.

  So have the examples of Elijah, Jesus and St. Paul.  In ancient times the child of a widow was very important to her life, not just for the obvious reason of mother-child relationship but also for continued connection with the father’s family as a social and economic safety net.  The prophets of God had to show what God was like as an example to us all?  Why?  In the play of freedom in this world we can become practitioners and victims of a kind of social Darwinism; living as though only the fit and the strong have the full right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  The weak have no right to survive; they are a drag upon the life of the strong and therefore expendable.

  In biblical religion this sense of inevitability of the rights of the strong and powerful is countered by the revealed law and by the witness of the prophets who remind us what God is like.  And even people who have law can limit the function of the law for the benefit of a privileged few.  Even the law can become but a regulation between rich and powerful people stepping on each other’s toes.

  St. Paul saw that the boundaries of Judaism in practice were too narrow; there were too many outsiders to Judaism.  St. Paul came to understand that God was not one to exclude and so he devoted his life to the inclusion of the Gentiles in the message of God’s love.  He wanted to show the Gentiles what God was like; one who loved justice and one who cared for the widow and orphan and for the poor.  If God was to be good news in this world, the news about God was to be an actual reality for the most embracing common good.

  Today, we have the great task in our lives to show this world that the word God has a functional reality in this world.  If we don’t live the reality of God as love and good news and justice, then we may be responsible for the creation of more atheists, people for whom God seems to have no useful reality.

  The Bible and the people of the Bible did not finish the work of justice and love in this world, because they were not perfect and neither are we.  The Bible only represents a cursory start to the never-ending work of love and justice in this world.  Today, we have the examples of Elijah, Jesus and Paul who showed us what God is like; God cares for the lives of the vulnerable and God does not have any outsiders.  Let us continue in this work of showing the people of our lives what God is like.

  People who profess God can can actually live very unloving lives.  People who do not profess God can actually live just and caring lives.  But why not profess God and also strive to be just and caring in our lives?  For us, there is incredible significance in the experience of knowing an inspired sense of Great Love and Justice that challenges the human ego as being the sole origin of such wonderful attributes.

  We confess God, as indeed the best way, to check the humanistic ego, because we know that the power of our dominion when the humanistic ego is not checked by Higher Love and Justice results in horrendous outcomes.

  Let us go forth and show this world what God is like.  Let us the live the good news.  Let us love one another, love mercy and justice and walk humbly with our God.  Amen.