March 26, 2017 Matthew 9.9-17

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And Matthew got up and followed him.

And as Jesus reclined at dinner in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ But when Jesus heard this, he said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding-guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.’

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I as your pastor like to go out. I like to dance, scratch that, I love to dance. I like to get dressed up, as much as you can in this jeans and a t-shirt town. I like to listen to live music accompanied by a glass of wine. I enjoy giving friends and acquaintances hugs around the room and I like evening’s casual banter, and the celebration of there being something to do after 7pm. It makes me feel alive, to be in a moment that won’t happen again, that requires showing up. Its fun, and usually, I think I do the balance well, of not going overboard, especially considering my job. But, there are some who would say, that especially considering my job, I shouldn’t be getting dressed up, dancing, drinking, or staying out late.

But then we have this scripture, and others - like Jesus’ first miracle, changing water into wine - after the wine was all drunk, and possibly the guests also, it being supposedly quite late, at a wedding feast, where I would imagine was also dancing. So scriptures like these, make people’s black and white rules, a lot harder to stand by and this scripture also. Jesus here is shunning the piety of the Pharisees and in contrast he is reclining, reclining at dinner in the house of the tax collectors and sinners. And I guess, if your Jesus, you don’t have to worry about sinning along with them, but there are many today who would say to sit with sinners is sin itself, that it is pure temptation to go for a drink, for a dance, for an evening past your bedtime, and for some it may be too tempting, but that is another sermon another time.

That said, Jesus isn’t ignoring the sin of anyone, Jesus notes that the sinners are just that, sinners, but he also includes the Pharisees in his critique. When they ask, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’Jesus says, ‘Those who are well, have no need of a physician, (but instead) those who are sick.” (aka those who are not sinners have no need of Jesus) but then Jesus redirects the critique to the Pharisees, implying that they too are not without sin, “Go and learn what this means,” he says, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Jesus here isn’t calling for their piety, he is calling for their humility. He continues, “For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners,’ I imagine him looking at the Pharisees with a stare that makes them know their sins are included. Therefore, Jesus here is saying, sin is putting ourselves in the seat of the judge, instead of pulling up a seat at the table. Its a reminder that none of us are too good that Jesus didn’t come for us, nor are any of us too bad that Jesus didn’t come for us. Therefore, what Jesus wants is to sit with us, to eat a meal, to share a drink, and to recline in the camaraderie of evening conversations, even if your the pastor, or a congregant of the Presbyterian Church.

Its hard for me, as pastor because I feel like whenever I walk into the Tap House, or country swing at the VFW, or rock out at Lone Pine, or sit and listen to Shannon Grey sing folk songs at Lefty’s on a random Thursday, I am being judged against the Pharisees picture of God. After explaining this, a friend said, “Its great because your Pastor Katy, and when you walk in, it changes who the church is, and can be.” But what that tells me, is that the church is known for it’s judgement, and its leaders likewise, just like the Pharisees. The church is known for judging sinners, rather than sitting down and accepting them, rather than sitting down and accepting we are them, rather than recognizing that by our sheer distancing ourselves, we are missing out on a chance to sit with Jesus.

Now I don’t think we are a judgey congregation, the farthest from it perhaps. We are pretty loving and accepting, especially of those in our congregation and those we know. But I don’t think this is only about being non-judgmental in between these walls, and in our social circles. It is also, about literally going out, beyond these walls, or our social circles, or fellow disciples who believe and behave as we (do). It’s about seeing Matthew at his corrupt tax-booth and inviting him to dinner at a place ill-repute, and settling in, reclining at the bar, with his friends and ours and treating people as people. It about when the Pharisees come, with their words of judgement and rules for rules sake, sticking up for the outcast, and reminding the Pharisees who the church is, not one of fasting and mourning, but one of celebration because - Christ is here with us. Its about giving the Pharisees a glimpse of what the church can be and who Christians can be, a people who like to dance, or even - scratch that - love to dance, a people who enjoy getting dressed up - even if it is merely jeans and a t-shirt, a people who like live music accompanied by a cold beer, a congregation that even at the tap-house, or the ski hill, or the Elks, or someone’s home, wherever folks are gathered after 7pm, enjoy giving friends and acquaintances hugs and catching up in ease of evening conversation. What if this was how Christians were known?

What if we were known for loving all? What if we were known for accepting all? What if we were known for sticking up for the outcast? What if we were known for our propensity for celebration because we had the assurance that Christ was with us, because we had the assurance that Christ loves us? What if we let go of our piety enough that there was no place we could not go, no thing we could not do in moderation, no one with whom we could not sit? What if then when we walked in to a bar people said, those are the Christians known for their love?

March 19, 2017 Matthew 7.7 - 14

“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find;
knock, and the door will be opened for you.
For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds,
and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law of the prophets. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

***
There are times it seems God has gone behind the cloud, times of waiting in the cool, just hoping for that day when the sun will shine on us, in the green grass of the pasture, as if it were our wedding day. We put our hopes and dreams into our prayers and pray whole heartedly - God bring me a husband, God let me have a baby, God what about a friend with whom to travel and talk, God will you fix my relationship with my family, God mend my relationship with my spouse, God bring my beloved back from death, God help me get this job, God pay off my credit card, God heal my arthritis, my back pain, my COPD. God let me run around again like a child without a care in the world. Bring me your warmth, Holy One behind the cloud.

But we don’t realize, it isn’t God’s warmth for which we are asking when we ask those things. We are asking for fixes that won’t guarantee our flourishing.
A new husband, or spouse, or the current one with whom things are hard, won’t fulfill our desire for love, until we know we are loved and learn to ourselves,
- a new, or current spouse, may only perpetuate our brokenness if we haven’t first healed our own wounds,
a baby may make us feel more alone with increased responsibility and a lack of freedom,
we may exhaust new friends, running through them one by one, because we are asking them to fill an empty spot we do not know is there,
our family may spend more time together, but it may never be a deep source of relationship, until we are able to accept others and the past as they are, and seek ways and boundaries for us to be us and them to be them in the present,
wishing for our deceased beloved to return keeps us away from looking for a different future
our new job may not produce fulfillment,
financial stability might be merely that and bring a new set of worries,
our healing of chronic pains may allow us to be equally distracted by other lesser ailments.
Sometimes we are asking for fixes that won’t guarantee our flourishing. Just because we ask, doesn’t mean its what we should receive, or that its the right time to receive it. But God isn’t holding back. God is seeking something beyond our imagining, something so unfathomable that it cannot come from human asking, seeking, knocking.

The scripture says, “Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone?”… If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him! It doesn’t say the child is given bread, and we too may be asking for bread, it may seem like the easy answer, its right in front us, the easy fix, but God’s is seeking something far deeper. God seeks that we might not hunger but be full. God is answering us with good things, the likes of which are beyond our asking.

God is seeking that before a spouse, we may know that we are never alone, that God is with us always.
That before a baby we know that God is our strength, and that strength is our freedom.
That before healing our marriage, our marriage with God becomes so strong we learn to love ourselves,
That before kinship with our family, we may learn to be embraced by the entire family of God, brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters, all of us adopted by the Great Parent.
That because we are full of God, we learn to be a friend who gives rather than takes.
That we believe and hope in a future without our deceased beloved,
because we know the promises of God.
That before a new job we learn contentment in simplicity.
That before a perfect credit score, we lavish in the riches of God’s bounty.
That before healing our ailments, that we may couple the power of hope with the assurance of God’s presence with us in our pain.
That instead of bread, we knew God’s answer of good things.
What if these good things were what we had?
What if these were our answered prayers?
What if these were who we could be in God?
What if in the middle of our darkest hour we felt God’s blazing presence such that nothing, nothing could diminish God’s light, that nothing, nothing could give us a chill, that all was God burning like the sun on our face, Radiant Beaming Fire, glowing so strong.

“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find;
knock, and the door will be opened for you.
For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds,
and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Who would we be with the Father’s assurance? We would be the people of God. We would know such peace, we would live in joy, we would speak hope, we would bow in humility, we would cry in thanksgiving, we would rest in comfort, we would attest to healing, we would have a clarity for kindness and grace in servant hood, we would walk in the Spirit, in the light of the Lord, and see Our Father’s radiant face without ceasing.

March 12, 2017 Matthew 6.1-6

‘Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
‘So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.
But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.
6But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

***
It is easier to show up here for an hour, than it is to walk into our bedrooms, shut the door on our things to do, and just look out window, or close our eyes, and settle into a prayerful place, listening for God. It is easier to say grace for a meal before us and the hands that made it, than it is to take a walk through the field and give thanks for the bounty and the farmer. It is it easier to list off the people and desires on our prayer list than it is to ask, “God, what should I be asking You, how do You want me to view this situation, what do You want me to do right now, and wait for an answer.” It is easier to put our offerings in the plate than it is to ask God where our time and tithes and talents should be spent. Unfortunately, letting God lead us has never been easy.

We, and those in the scripture, to whom Jesus is talking, want God to show up in the time we have put God in, be it before bed, be it before meals, be it at our rising, be it at our sermon writing, be it in this hour, be it when we give alms, or serve others, but that’s our timeline, not God’s. God is asking us for more than an hour once a week, more than our public displays of faith, more than our volunteering, or even our callings. God is asking for a relationship with us, and while some of that in enhanced by doing, it begins with being. And being with God, beings with setting aside time to be with God.

If we were to look at time with God like a math problem, there are 24 hours in a day (except for this last one - ugg). If the Biblical mandate is to return to God one-tenth of our gifts then we should return to God 2.4 hours of our day. Lets say half of that we are sleeping which God also created us to do (even if the national time change disagrees). So what remains is 1.2 hours a day which should be returned to God. There are many ways to do this, and we as a congregation are really good at the serving God part, so lets keep that. If half of our offering of 1.2 hours of time is serving God, that leaves 40 minutes a day to spend with God. We know how we serve but do we know how you spend time with God? What would that look like? What does it look like for us to spend time with God. Listening, praying, just being?

I remember as kid laying on my back watching the clouds and thinking about things, wondering if there was a God, what my birth-mom might look like, whom I might marry when I grew up, would it be Collin Son my second grade crush, what would be my job, President, author? I couldn’t have guessed any of it, but I felt the divine presence surrounding me there on my back. Today, in adulthood, that divine presence looks like a drive with my phone off and my music on and lots of time to think and talk to God and listen. It looks like sitting on the couch with herbal tea and a friend who will pray with me and help me think about God. It looks like walking into my room and kneeling under the window and sighing, attempting to let go of my to-do-list and just listen, perhaps hearing the words, “just rest in me.” and before I get up, telling me wait, to settle in just a little longer, just a little deeper.” But in the past week, I as your pastor, who is supposed to be good at spending time with God, have maybe spent an hour and a half of those four weekly hours with God and this was a really good week. I am trying to be intentional, for goodness sakes this was scripture with which I was charged, but it’s hard to carve out time from other things, to be with God. I have so many other priorities that I put in front, and I think you understand this too. Because how would you measure your time with God? How many times have you gone into your room and closed the door and just listened, and asked, “God, what questions should I be asking, how should I spend today?”

If we were to use the same math problem, to return to God a tithe of one-tenth of our gifts of time, that would mean that 36.5 days a year should be dedicated to God, in Biblical times, it was every Sabbath, like we have every Sunday. Let’s split it again, into half spent serving God, and half spent being with God. That means about eighteen days would be spent Serving God, and I have no doubt that we First Presbyterian, each do far more than this. We are really good at serving God. I think we are too good at serving God though, because we have ignored being with God. “Love the Lord your God with your heart and soul and strength, and your neighbor as yourself,” is the Golden Rule right? Half of that sentence is loving God, half is serving God, but notice which comes first, love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and your strength.

If you had eighteen days to spend with God, where would you go, what would it look like, what would you look like, how would it feel, how might it change you as a person, how might your deepened relationship with God seep into all of your life? What would that eighteen days look like? Would you write cards, would you sit on horseback in the highest mountains, would you ski with your spouse, would you be someplace warm, would you hole up in a cabin with a fire and books, would you quilt, or craft, or cook, or build, or sing, or watch kids, or hike, or paint, would you sit on your porch or at your front window and watch the clouds move from grey to the pastel blue of sky, and in those moments would you give thanks and listen for God’s voice? And why, why aren’t we doing it?


We, myself included, have put too many things, in front of that relationship. The first thing in our life should be our relationship with God, the second thing our health - mental and physical, the third our relationship with our family and those we love, and lastly our occupation, even if it is a pastor, even if we are a teacher helping so many students, even if we are retired spending time with friends and serving others, none it is the same as our own personal relationship with God. This should be the number one priority in our life, but so many things get in the way. It isn’t easy, and I am not scolding, I am talking to us all. So what needs to change? What needs become less so our relationship with God can become more?

Personally, I think I can spend less time on social media, less time planning, less time obtaining stuff. I think I can take a hard long look at my to-do list and ask God what really needs to be done, and what is a meaningless chore or activity? I think firstly, I have to schedule time with God, but I need your help too. I need to work less, instead of the twenty-something weekend days I over-worked last year. I need to stick to my already full job description and focus on visiting and preaching which I love, teaching and studying which is essential, and do far fewer administrative tasks, but I also need your help, I need us as a church to not be busy for busy sake. I need us to ask ourselves, honestly, what our church calendar would look like if half of it was spending time with God and then half serving. I need us to ask ourselves are the gazillion programs and service opportunities we are planning, making ourselves and others so busy that we are cutting into our congregation’s time with God? One way to tell is to ask, Do things like Vacation Bible School, Church Mission Trip, Greening/Decorating the Church at Christmas Time, Newsletter Articles, God’s Gift Shop, and Open Door four days a week feel like a burden or a blessing? Those feelings either way are telling us something. I need us to ask ourselves, how many hours those events take for each person? If we are spending more than 40 minutes a day, or more than four hours a week, serving God, than I have to guess that it might be cutting into our time being with God. I think this because, I regularly hear the word, “burnout,” and I rarely hear the word, “fulfilled,” unless one of us have gotten back from a trip. That too is telling us something First Presbyterian. We are doing a really good job practicing our piety before others, giving alms to those in need, praying out loud, but it is at the expense of going into our rooms and closing the door, and nurturing our relationship with God. We have to commit and promise to ourselves and one another that the piety of busyness, and the idol of control, are not going to bring God’s kingdom here any faster or any stronger, if we are not even allowing God to BE in our lives. We need to nurture that relationship with God.

This relationship is something we can do as individuals, but we as a church can also nurture our relationship with God together: we can worship in meaningful ways that stretch and deepen beyond rote and tradition, we can sit by one another and pray in times of need, we can laugh and play together in celebration, we can sit at a meal together, we can love one another as truly our sister or brother in Christ, and you know, part of that is what will happen naturally if we allow time to be with God. We don't need to calendar it up. We just need to sit and pray, “God, what questions should I be asking You, how do You want me to view this situation, how should I spend today?” and then we listen for an answer, but to do this, we have to put time with God first. May it be so.

March 5, 2017 Matthew 4:1-11

Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.

The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” 7Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 1Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only God.’”

Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

*****

I want you to do some imagining, and like a prayer I want you to close your eyes and just imagine…

Where is your wilderness? Where is the place that you long to be? Where can you stay for longer than you intended and never want to leave?
What happens when your there? Is there laughter or silence? Is there stillness or play? Is there joy or peace, peace, peace?
What does it smell like, fresh pine, the dirt of earth after a rain, wood shavings, or the smell of salt air and the touch of sea? Are there vast cloudscapes or a canopy of trees, or is your wilderness the place which most feel like home.

Are you there alone, like the mornings with the light reaching in before everyone has awoken, or is it in the evenings clicking off the music before bed and then turning off the lights and locking the front door after a good book on the couch.

Or you there with those you love, are you sitting in a hammock with an old friend, or watching children build a snow fort and slide down the hill until they pass out the greatest sense of tired on the way home?

What is your body doing, is it walking on the path, is it driving in the car on an open road with time to think? Is it the burn in your legs after a long hike or a good ski? Is it just being in water and moving through its current as your own? Or is it kids/grand kids, one on each leg as your arms surround them reading a story? Or is it your beloved and that nook you find just below their shoulder and the way their body snuggles in?

What does your wilderness lead you to believe about God? Do you have those moments where you remember why you are here, where you live into that purpose for which God created you? Do you remember who you are in those places? Do you remember whose you are?

These are the wildernesses to which God calls, and calls even Christ.

I invite you to open your eyes.

Jesus has just been baptized, the heavens opened up and the voice of God spoke you are my son with whom I am well pleased. After this point, he will start his ministry, healing and feeding, preaching and teaching, but before he goes the Spirit leads him out into the wilderness. For forty days and forty nights he goes to that wilderness place and leans into God.

Can you imagine all the things he noticed? If it were in Baker would he notice the tiniest alpine flower, or the stars of snowflakes landing on his arm? Would he have painted the slate-grey periwinkle of yesterday’s clouds? Would he watched the wind swirl over Anthony Lake and the snowstorm begin to pummel and find his place at home having water and lemonade in the evening light in the shelter of the storm.

I think Jesus needed this before he was tempted, before he started his ministry, and throughout his ministry, and I think these times away allowed him to be present and faithful when he was tested. In each of the devil’s questions you watch Jesus lean into God. ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only God.’” It seems to be Jesus is able to withstand these temptations because he has had time in the wilderness. He has been nurtured to the core. He is full.

And I think you and I First Presbyterian are two peas in a pod when it comes to this struggle of taking time to just spend time in our wilderness with God. We are a church of doers, and we have a hard time being. The other day Melissa Irvine led the Session Elders in a process to look at our church’s Mission and Vision Statements. She had us list the best things about our church. It took up two giant posters by the time we stopped for time, and I felt I could go on for days. High on the list were things like Open Door and Backpack and Youth Leadership and Buildings and Grounds and Vacation Bible School and Deacons and volunteering. The list was such that, when we boiled down who we were to its smallest form we came to the phrase, “Sharing God’s love.” As short as it was, just three words, it seemed to encompass it all, there was nothing we did that was outside it’s bounds.

In essence, “Sharing God’s love,” is why we at First Presbyterian do what we do. We welcome middle kids at Open Door in the morning, caring for them and feeding them, at Backpack where food goes home with students on weekends, as expressions of this love. Likewise, the church shares God’s love with youth and kids, and invites them both into participation and leadership, from things like ringing the church bell to serving on Deacons and Elders. Buildings and Grounds shares God’s love by constantly caring for the myriad of work that is done around the church, especially this winter, especially with our sewer, especially with our broiler, and some day, hopefully not soon, especially with our roof. Then there is the super tangible sharing of love that not only comes from the Deacons but everyone, from cards sent, meals delivered, prayers offered, and hugs and high fives given. Sarah Hall shared that her daughter Avery, who is often a hard critic felt God’s love in the welcome of our church. You are really good at sharing God’s love. Moreover, we are a church who shares God’s love by consistently volunteering both within our walls and out in the community, from hosting Youth Group Dinners, to your professions as teachers and farmers, and callings as grandparents and classmates. These are but a drop of how you share God’s love, but I want to think about that word, share.

Share is an action word. First Presbyterian we are church of doers. We are a people who set goals, agendas, tasks, and get things done, and rarely look back. And I have a feeling that forty days in the wilderness would quite possibly be our worst nightmare, but perhaps the best thing for us. We are really good at sharing God’s love but we aren’t so good at allowing ourselves to receive God’s love. So, maybe it is time to start looking into a time in the wilderness, to go to those places we imagined, to take the time to lean into God. If Jesus was allowed, so can we. If from this point Jesus found strength to pressure and continue his ministry, so can we. It is okay, it is encouraged, it is Biblical, it is the Spirit leading us into the wilderness to be with God