November 23, 2014 Exekiel 34:11 - 16, 20 - 24

For thus says the Lord God:

I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down,

says the Lord God.

I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice. Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken.

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SERMON

This is Reign of Christ Sunday, and it is the New Year’s Eve of the Christian Calendar. In Advent we will start a new liturgical calendar, but this day Christ the King is the last, the pinnacle. At the conclusion of the Christian year, the church gives thanks and praise for sovereignty of Christ, who is Lord of all creation and is coming again in glory to reign. As sovereign ruler, Christ calls us to a loyalty that transcends every earthly claim on the human heart. From the beginning of time to its ending, Christ rules above all earthly powers! And as you do at the end of the year, you look back, and you imagine forward, and I want us to do that together, to go through the seasons as one body looking on the reign of Christ in the life of this church.

Change to purple stole.
We began last year in Advent, with the color purple, and much celebratory anticipation of Christ to come. There was the Presbyterian Youth Group PYGS Dinner at the Smith house and we dressed up in ugly Christmas sweaters and played White Elephant, a week or so later the Women’s Support Group did the same in the Rembold’s House exchanging beautiful ornaments, all impressed with Amber winning the quiz, guessing which nativities were from which countries and matching the baby Jesus’ with their nativity. There was the excitement of the Young Families Birthday Party for Jesus contrasted by the quiet of the Longest Night Service where we came in from the cold and sang O Come, O Come Emmanuel, and prayed, lighting candles and wandering into the fellowship hall like Mary Mary Joseph looking for room at the Inn and being greeted with warm tea. There was sledding, and caroling, and everyone pack in at the manse, and then came the tone chimes welcoming us in on Christmas Eve. Alex made the perfect Children’s Sermon that night which lead through the homily and created the wonder as we joined in Silent Night, and all was there, in the silliness, in the mystery, in the celebration, of Christ incarnate. Change to white.

What is “Christmas”? It is three words: God in flesh; or four syllables: in-car-na-tion. The Gospel according to John (1:14) tells us, “The Word became flesh and lived among us, … full of grace and truth.” God’s only Son is born among us in order to save the world. This is the message of Christmas, and the Christ candle at the center of our advent wreath was lit and from it a sanctuary full of carolers sining silent night with flames ablaze. Then we continued singing, the next Sunday at our Hymn Sing we shouted out one hymn after another and rejoiced with our favorite Christmas songs. As a congregation we told it on the mountain of Anthony Lakes, joining to ski and snowboard and snowshoe, and have fun, and no one was hurt, and there as much as anything else, was Jesus at Christmas time.

Then came Epiphany, a day for commemorating God’s self-manifestation to all people. The word “epiphany” means “appearance” or “manifestation” of God, and has roots in the word for sunrise or dawn. Epiphany celebrates the appearance of the Lord in the midst of humanity. The Christmas stories of the birth of Immanuel declare the divine entry; Epiphany extols the revelation of God to the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. On this day all of Ginger’s knit nativity were finally together for Childern’s time. The PARTY Group met, the Deacons gathered, we had committee meeting night, and session set its budget without fuss, I hosted a thank you party for Staff, and as Christ was among us as we degraded the church and our lives started getting back to normal, while slightly normal Louise celebrated her 90th birthday, joining Mardelle Ebell, and soon would come Betty Kuhl, and Anne Kirkpatrick. Molly led us in a church wide discussion of same sex marriage and I saw Christ in the conversation and as usual the way you deal with tough issues by sticking together despite your differences.

Then Sunday immediately prior to Ash Wednesday celebrated the Transfiguration of the Lord, because this event marked a transition in Jesus’ ministry in which he “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51), where he would die. In Jesus’ transfiguration, we are assured that Jesus is the hope of the ages. We are transformed into the new being in Christ as we join Christ in his death and resurrection in Lent and Easter. The Safety Policy Committee met and fluidly handled issues and protocol and we began to really see the efforts of our work take hold. Change to purple stole. We saw that in the midst of the waiting of Lent there would be an Easter. We began with Ash Wednesday celebrated by inviting Methodist Church.

We remembered that from dust we came, and to dust we shall return as Lent is a season of spiritual discipline and preparation, anticipating the celebration of the death and resurrection of Christ. The Inquirer’s class met and reflected on their faith along with their sponsors. We ate together, learned together, and shared together, which moved us toward the Last Summer where we silently took communion and went from the church out into the world with ashes on our forehead, hoping that new life that is beyond the power of death, knowing we must die with Christ who was raised for us. That new life requires a daily surrendering of the old life, letting go of the present order, so that we may embrace the new humanity.

Change to white stole:

Then early in the morning, too early perhaps, many of us from various churches and no particular church gathered shivering at the interpretive center for the ministerial association’s Easter Sunrise Service. We came back to our own, celebrating Easter the day of the Lord’s resurrection and the season of rejoicing which commemorates his ministry until his Ascension, and continues through Season of Easter. Easter is a new way of life — in which we are "dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 6:11), called to "walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4). Every year, for fifty days, the church celebrates and rehearses this new way of life in the Season of Easter — as we await its completion in the fullness of Christ's reign (what we celebrate today). We watched the children hunt eggs in the playground and smash cascarones in the front of the church confetti flying with the joy of a tomb broken open. We ate, the Miles family amazing spread and I got three deviled eggs! A few Sundays later Ginger Preached Earth Day and Jim led us in communion followed by Youth Sunday and an unbelievable Youth auction where all youth were supported and you the congregation thought about how to include each one and Christ was there in you. We celebrated our teachers and graduates and Luke taught us about Israel and Palestine and preached for us a witness of peace and understanding. The Nominating Committee met and prayed and sought the gifts of the congregation to fulfill its needs, and the response was beautiful and profound with new leaders emerging and responding to the call. Our Easter truly led to Pentecost

Change to Red Stole

where we threw balls of yarn and told one another how we saw one another being Christ in the church, the community, and the world, and instead of multiple balls of yarn all going at once, you wanted to pause to hear the witness of one congregant giving thanksgiving to the next, for the ways you serve in open door or backpack, or on orchestras or choirs, or other boards, or teaching, or being friendly and welcoming it went on and on and was beautiful. It was truly the Day of Pentecost, the celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church. On the Day of Pentecost we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit descending in a mighty rush of wind and flame to inspire the church’s proclamation of Christ’s rising and to empower its mission and ministry to the world.

With that fire of Pentecost we moved into Ordinary Time, with serving, life giving, acts of a cacaughany of kids and youth filling the sanctuary for Vacation Bible School and 15 participants on the Youth Mission Trip to LA whose work and witness are still flowing through the PYGS, the wonder of which they shared with us in a creative and inspiring Sunday Worship on Trinity Sunday. It celebrates the unfathomable mystery of God’s being as Holy Trinity. It is a day of adoration and praise of the one, eternal, incomprehensible God, and through rituals of stone and speaking the youth left us in wonder. We worshiped outside and served simultaneous for Miners Jubilee and Worshiped in the Park half wishing we could do every Sunday just being out in the community in the beauty of the environment, which was followed up by the youth and families hiking to heaven and coming back to down for the start of confirmation class. Session Retreated and set goals, and the swing of the calendar year set us back in motion with a full class for Lectionary Bible Study, Sunday School, and Youth Group Wednesday Dinners. We celebrated Arlita’s generous ministry and have watched her continue to serve and we have welcome Susan in the office and watched her learn the confusion that is the Presbyterian form of government. We carved pumpkins and celebrated O’Hana Fellowship Events which have brought us eve closer as a community if Christ.

Then came a time of grieving as we moved toward Alls Saint’s day and after reading the old Testament since Easter Moses passed away, followed quickly by All Saints,

Change into White Stole

All Saints’ Day was established as an opportunity to honor all the saints, known and unknown, giving glory to God for the ordinary, holy lives of the believers in this and every age.
Christ the King / Reign of Christ. I watched you serve one another by baking and making food, by attending funerals, by remembering one another’s grieves in prayers of the people, and by caring for one another throughout the weeks. Though there was the sadness of death, I saw Christ so alive in you.

Then we moved back toward ordinary time

Green Stole

for a brief moment and Mark began to meet with each staff member as we set our six month goals, and shared where we saw Christ in our work. Places like Larry has already thought of what he wants to play for Easter, and Luke after witnessing the true community that the youth have created hopes to move them into serving more, Amber’s job description was better defined and the church smelled like cleaner last Wednesday and Susan last week began to really use the blog and Facebook to reach about 70 people with each post. There was inspiration and excitement in the work of the staff and their goals, likewise, there was inspiration and excitement as the church raised its stewardship funds and dreamed of who they wanted to be, and people offered ideas of their gifts and how they might serve, and an incredible list of was made and offered to session giving hope to their leaders that there are those willing to serve with the gifts to do so.

White Stole

These are but a handful of ways I have seen the risen Christ in you and I remember them on Christ the King Sunday and I wonder on the News Years Eve of our church year where you have seen Christ in our midst, where have you seen us serve one another, be a family, serve the community, serve the world and creation, feed the hungry, comfort those in darkness, and celebrate Christ’s power, Where did you see God this year? And as Advent comes, where you will look for God in our coming year? What do you believe has yet to be fulfilled? Because Christ has come, Christ reigns supreme,

November 16, 2014 Judges 4:1 - 7

The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, after Ehud died. So the Lord sold them into the hand of King Jabin of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-ha-goiim. 

Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help; for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and had oppressed the Israelites cruelly twenty years. 

At that time Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the Israelites came up to her for judgment. She sent and summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, 

“The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you, 

‘Go, take position at Mount Tabor, bringing ten thousand from the tribe of Naphtali and the tribe of Zebulun. I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the Wadi Kishon with his chariots and his troops; and I will give him into your hand.’” 

***

My father is an American History professor, and growing up we went to battlefields, lots of battlefields. Do you know how many battlefields there are in the US? Lots, and my dad knows them all, seemingly by heart, the dates, who fought, who led, who won, the terrain and the little stories like some general’s breakfast interrupted and left on the table. The four of us would uncrumple out of the packed car and onto the field, my dad pointing up some hill, or over the Potomac, or across a bridge and explain, “Washington crossed this river on Christmas Eve,” and my sister and I were to notice the river’s width and imagine the dark of night and the icy winter current, but alas, I tended to notice the tire that was polluting the water, or the freshly manicured grass - as my sister and I judged battlefields not by their historical significance but by their susceptibility to cartwheeling. And so, in reading Judges, I imagine the battlefield both as a place of war and place of play. 

I imagine the writer of Judges a little like a one sided amateur history buff describing the play by play and ascribing morals and meaning beyond conclusive evidence. It is often the victors who write history, and this instance is no different. I imagine him pointing, saying, ‘The battle took place in a pass between Megiddo and Taanach, near the confluence of streams which form the river, the Wadi Kishon. The land was fertile and the route one of trade, and therefore the area was prized. The Israelites, lead by Deborah and Barak were on Mount Tabor, and the Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, was in the low places. The the amateur author summarizes and surmises, ‘The people stopped following God - so they were oppressed, they found a godly leader - so they won in a battle and were freed. Specifically, Ehud died, and the the Israelites did what is evil in the sight of the Lord. The Lord sold them into slavery and they cried for help. The Lord sent the prophetess and judge Deborah, who sent out the armies and leaders to a position at Mount Tabor, saying, “I will draw out Sisera, to meet you by the Wadi Kishon with his chariots and his troops; and I will give him into your hand.’ What Deborah had was strategy, this can be proved, what cannot is that God was on one side or the other, or part of the fighting at all.

Likewise, in our own culture, it would be easy to look at the American Civil War, and believe that God destined the North to win because of slavery, and while slavery is evil, so is war. Just as I don't see God in the oppression, I don’t see God in the fighting. Perhaps this too comes from my dad. He would describe, the battle of Gettysburg, “It came in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, the Southern Army under Lee invaded the North.  Now, what is important to know is that Gettysburg has a series of ridges and hills in the shape of a fishhook, the curve facing north. The Union was on the heights, and the South under Lee kept attacking, in a three day battle. The last part, later named Pickett’s charge on Cemetery Hill, was up a gentle slope on open country.” These are the facts, but then my dad had a way of making history real. He’d continue, “You sit on top of that hill and you realize, there was no way the Confederates were going to make it, and you imagine what it would be like to try and be massacred, and you imagine being the Union up there with a panoply, 13,000 guys charging up the hill toward you. Some might say it is a place of victory, but paramountly its a place of death.”  Looking back, I am surprised he let us cartwheel on battlefields across the country. But perhaps, understanding the weight of history helped him see the value in peace.

He would say, “War and battle are traumatic, obviously.  As far back as the Greek poet Homer centuries before Christ, we can read of stuff that looks like PTSD. So people try to cope with the trauma of war in various ways. Societies do so by assuring themselves that the war achieved something worthwhile. In the case of the Civil War North, the achievements seemed clear and compelling--emancipation and preservation of the Union (and with it, democratic government.) Lincoln summed this up masterfully in the Gettysburg Address.” My dad would say admiringly, and then admittingly, “Other times, like World War I, after awhile what exactly had been achieved seemed much more problematic.”

“For the Israelites, the achievement was that they survived as God's chosen people, with that implied. Moreover, victory offered comforting proof of the power and steadfast love of their God. In the brutal world of that time and place, these were marvelous things. But to many of us (long before I ever came along),” My dad humbly injects, “Jesus changed that equation. His times atop hills were spent teaching us how to live, praying and finally of course dying for us.” 

In writing this sermon, I laughed thinking that somehow those countless battlefields we visited were finally coming in handy for understanding the battle strategy of this scripture. Little did I know, my dad was the one preaching all along, because and what could have been more a sign of peace then two little girls cartwheeling on what was once a battlefield. After the battle at Mount Tabor and the Wadi Kishon, Deborah sings poetry, “Lord I will sing, I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel.” and the finale of the whole song recounting the battle ends with, “and the land had rest forty years.” I imagine Deborah’s singing was my sister and cartwheeling, both signs of peace, to be preached from hill tops

November 9, 2014, Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people,

“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac;

…“Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Then the people answered,
“Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. The Lord protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for the Lord is our God.”

But Joshua said to the people,
“You cannot serve the Lord, for the Lord is a holy God. God is a jealous God; God will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then God will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good.”

And the people said to Joshua,
“No, we will serve the Lord!”

Then Joshua said to the people,
“You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.”

And they said,
“We are witnesses.”

He said,
“Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

The people said to Joshua,
“The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey.”

So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem.

***

You cannot serve the Lord, Joshua says, and there is a way in which I concur. I cannot give back even one tenth of my day, for my time is limited - it is 24 hours to God’s from alpha to omega. I can not give one tenth of my gifts, for I know not how to bring a sunset, nor change the leaves in fall. I cannot serve the Lord, for the Lord is a holy God. I cannot give back the gifts of the Lord, but for me and my house I am going to try. I am going to raise up my camera and try to capture the way a lake turns silver in the gloaming under a full moon, and then try to share a piece of the dusk and I pray that 1/1millionth is captured and transcends the film, and makes someone’s day a little better, and little closer to the holy. I am going to stop and give thanks for the golden leaved lake of the backyard maple and point it out and try to share like pointing out one leaf of the entire tree. I cannot serve the Lord, for the Lord is a holy God, but for me and my house I am going to try.

Joshua says, “God is a jealous God; If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then God will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good.” It is hard to put away my foreign Gods, to not think that a Pinterest page will transport me from where I am to a dream of a life, to not think that if I run one more mile I will be more of who I want to be. But I look at the time after pages of images and I know that I would have been happier curled up with a good book or getting one chore done, and I run that one more mile and it helps me to forget unattainable standards of health and bask under the unattainable glory of a mountain valley on a uncharacteristically warm and foggy November day. No I cannot truly serve the Lord, but for me and my house I am going to try. I am going to try to remember where the God of my heart lies, and not the lies of other Gods. For me and my house, I am going to try.

Over and over the people and Joshua repeat, “Whom will you serve?” “We will serve the Lord,” It is a liturgy that needs repeating. We cannot say it only once, for we cannot truly serve the Lord, but we can always try. This is a new November, a new stewardship campaign, we could simply do the same as last year and not notice like a new years without a goal. But instead each year we say it over and over, we are going to serve the Lord, for me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord, or at least we are going to try, and I think it makes a difference, because each year, I have seen more and more of you involved in this ministry, in the ministry of our community, and in the ministry of family and home, I see us grow and try, and keep trying,

list of ways - looking around congregation


I have seen us grow, a am thankful for the ways we in this church try
we have never quite made it, we can never fully serve the Lord, we cannot give back even one tenth, but we can and do try, and I tell you, in this house of God, we serve the Lord. Alleluia Amen.