November 26 Jim Kauth

The “Judgement of Nations”, today’s reading from Matthew, is about the second coming of Christ, it follows immediately after the parable of “The Talents” which is also about the second coming. It may seem both emphasize good works as a means to please God and thus secure salvation but that assumption would be a mistake. A closer look at today’s reading from Matthew will show what truly pleases God, faith in Jesus, our Lord. You see, our faith in Jesus produces right attitudes and those right attitudes are shown to God and the world by our good works. Good works are not what please God; right attitudes which are the fruit of Faith please God and give glory to God. Did you listen to the statements in Matthew; I was hungry, you gave me food, I was thirsty you gave me drink; I was a stranger you made me welcome. Each of those statements shows a right attitude. It is the right attitudes that bring favorable judgement but more importantly it is your right attitudes that show you are already a citizen of the kingdom of Heaven. God’s judgement just reflects what you already are. And for those of us who are blessed with Faith in Jesus, God’s favorable judgement is our fountain of hope. There will be justice!

Both this reading and the one from Ezekiel are about the second coming and the second coming is about God’s judgement. For us God’s judgement gives us hope. We Christians profess our faith and the right for God to judge us. In accepting the right for God to judge us we accept God’s Lordship. Because Jesus is our Lord, we have hope.

Both of these readings use similes, primarily that of sheep and shepherd. We live in a ranching and farming community, we, as a community have some understanding of the simile of a good shepherd and sheep used in Ezekiel and Matthew. Some of us may even have first-hand experience with sheep and herding sheep. This hands on experience helps us understand the nuances of the simile of sheep and herding and it doesn’t take much, a 4-H sheep project is enough to know what sheep and sheep handling can be like. Knowing this you understand how fitting the comparison of sheep to us truly is! We sheep need a good shepherd and that “Good Shepherd” is Jesus.

When Matthew talks about Christ coming and sitting on a throne to pass judgement on us sheep our only first-hand knowledge of judgement is from our legal system in court, but the judgement from our Lord Jesus is much more. Being judged by Jesus is like standing for judgement in the US Supreme Court. There will be no appeals; there will be no higher court to go to. When Jesus our Lord passes judgement on us it will be a just judgement.

Our western culture doesn’t have first-hand experience living under a monarchy, a Lord. Intellectually we understand what a monarchy is but we have no personal experience with this form of government or with royalty. When the title “Lord” is used in Ezekiel we automatically think of God. This is how Christians are taught to think. But we Christians who live in a democratic society have no true understanding of the nuances that the kingly title of “Lord” carry. We have no hands on experience to inform us. What little experience we have of kings is from news reports and they usually are negative. The Bible does show kings in this light but not all kings.

In 1^st Samuel God’s people demanded that God give them a king and God listened. God recognized that power corrupts and left detailed guidance for those who would rule as king. Some of this guidance for the making of a good king also can make a good shepherd. In Ezekiel and Matthew’s time the people they were talking to understood intellectually and through first-hand experience what it meant to be a good shepherd and what it meant to live under a good king.

As I pointed out earlier, there’s a few of you who understand what makes a good shepherd but none of us have any experience with kings and living under a king’s rule. We don’t appreciate fully what the Bible is talking about when Jesus is called “Lord” and “King” at least not in the way the people during Ezekiel and during Matthew’s time understood.

But we do understand and we do have first-hand experience with citizenship. Earlier I said God’s judgement reflects who we already are. I want you to know, if we have the right attitudes and act like citizens of God’s Kingdom we are citizens of the kingdom of God. So what makes a citizen of God’s Kingdom?

·         We seek to bring people together; 

⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers

·         We are committed to God; 

⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart, because they will see God

·         We are sensitive to the needs of others; 

⁴ Blessed are the ones who mourn, because   

       they will be comforted                                                                    

·         We know we are helpless without our Lord; 

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, because

theirs is the kingdom of heaven

·         We recognize we don’t see the big picture but God does;  

⁵ Blessed are the meek, 

        because they will inherit  

 the earth

·         We yearn for a deeper relationship with Jesus;    

            ⁶ Blessed are the ones who hunger

      and  thirst for righteousness,                

because they will be satisfied                                                                                                           

·         We gently correct one another;  

⁷ Blessed are the merciful, because they will be shown  

        mercy

Do any of these statements sound familiar, yes, they are the beatitudes. These right attitudes of a citizen of heaven are also the attributes God demands of a King. The type of king God requires is a king whose life is an example to the king’s subjects. Divine Kingship is not about power and control it’s about right attitudes and leading by example. Listen again to what Ezekiel and Matthew say, listen to what God says God will do for His people:

·         I will seek you out and brings you all together

·         I will give you shelter, feed you, heals you, make you strong

·         I will give you peace

·         And I will correct you

God leads by example, these are the same attitudes God demands His citizens show each other. We understand leading by example because we also demand these same attitudes from our leaders, though our leaders don’t always exhibit these right attitudes and they don’t always lead by example. Yet our Lord and Savior Jesus, does exhibit these attitudes and He does lead by example. With a leader that exhibits these right attitudes and leads by example, that leader instills confidence in his subjects and with that confidence comes trust. With trust we can accept his authority to lead. And by his example we can confidently hope for justice. This hope for justice and this trust that we will receive justice is critical because our lord does two other things as Ezekiel and Matthew tell us.

·         Our Lord convicts us

·         And our Lord will judge us

Today, this Sunday, we celebrate “Christ the King”. We celebrate Christ as our leader who shows by example the right attitudes a citizen of heaven must exhibit.

Christ’s leadership by example instills confidence in us. Because of this we can trust in Christ and because of this trust we now can confidently hope for justice and accept his conviction and judgement of us. Will we follow our Lord? Will we commit to Jesus, will we accept His authority? While you choose, know this, God has already committed to us. God has chosen us already. We know this because God has made a covenant with us. We are God’s people; we are citizens of the Kingdom of God. All praise and glory to Christ our King.

November 19, Matthew 25:14-30

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who was leaving on a trip. He called his servants and handed his possessions over to them. To one he gave five valuable coins, and to another he gave two, and to another he gave one. He gave to each servant according to that servant’s ability. Then he left on his journey.
“After the man left, the servant who had five valuable coins took them and went to work doing business with them. He gained five more. In the same way, the one who had two valuable coins gained two more. But the servant who had received the one valuable coin dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money.
“Now after a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The one who had received five valuable coins came forward with five additional coins. He said, ‘Master, you gave me five valuable coins. Look, I’ve gained five more.’
“His master replied, ‘Excellent! You are a good and faithful servant! You’ve been faithful over a little. I’ll put you in charge of much. Come, celebrate with me.’
“The second servant also came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two valuable coins. Look, I’ve gained two more.’
“His master replied, ‘Well done! You are a good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful over a little. I’ll put you in charge of much. Come, celebrate with me.’
“Now the one who had received one valuable coin came and said, ‘Master, I knew that you are a hard man. You harvest grain where you haven’t sown. You gather crops where you haven’t spread seed. So I was afraid. And I hid my valuable coin in the ground. Here, you have what’s yours.’
“His master replied, ‘You evil and lazy servant! You knew that I harvest grain where I haven’t sown and that I gather crops where I haven’t spread seed? In that case, you should have turned my money over to the bankers so that when I returned, you could give me what belonged to me with interest. Therefore, take from him the valuable coin and give it to the one who has ten coins. Those who have much will receive more, and they will have more than they need. But as for those who don’t have much, even the little bit they have will be taken away from them. Now take the worthless servant and throw him outside into the darkness.’
“People there will be weeping and grinding their teeth.

****
The kingdom of heaven is like this congregation.
The master gave his servants Lynn Roehm and Bob McKim coins of these engineering type minds and little did I know the precision with which they backed up a trailer on to a hitch, using hand gestures I had never seen, what would carry them through the day picking up food for the Backpack Program. They calculated everything. The weight of the trailer on various pickups, the weight of the trailer loaned by Ryder Brothers vs. the weight and hauling capacity of the one loaned when necessary from our friends at the Nazarene Church. They calculated the cost of various food items at Winco and Costco, and the cost of their time vs. the number of stores they visit. They calculated the time and efficiency of the food bring brought on a wrapped palate vs. the time when it wasn’t ready, twice. They calculated how long we could be in and out of Costco vs. the amount spent and how many dollars per minutes that would be, and how some months were lower or higher than another months depending on the school calendar and the reserves. They calculated which were better, regular hot dogs or polish dogs with sauerkraut, and who would treat this time the $3.18 cents it costs for the both of them with a large soda (and they are going to correct me after this sermon for not getting exact) and were slightly thrown off kilter when Bob offered to pay for mine, upsetting their evenness of turns. They calculated how many carts we needed, and who would get what food item, and how to position the boxes of Nutri-grain bars so the checkout person could scan the boxes from the outside, and when Bob should walk to the bring the truck around, and which class at the high school would be at the correct time to unload the trailer. They also loved when people walking around the store would ask them if they lived way off in the woods or were preparing for the rapture, and instead they got to tell them about their church’s community ministry that fed kids. I liked that part too. That was a coin I have been given too. But the coins of calculating, God gave Lynn and Bob McKim each these coins, according to their ability, and they are out investing them at Costco and Winco once a month.

God gave a super shiny coin to Karen-Kolb Schoneigh, it asked to take me to lunch the other day, as it had on occasion in the past, and I wasn’t sure what was the reasoning was, but unlike other times with other people, I didn’t think I was in trouble, (though, I have rarely been in trouble, it is my head’s go to), and I prayed that she was well and this wasn’t an, I or someone I love is really sick visit. Anyway, we met and she just checked in on how I was doing, about particular personal things I have shared with the congregation, and in general. It was so thoughtful, I was completely floored, but it isn’t the first time I have seen Karen check in on me and others. So much so that at the end of our conversation she asked how the Irvines were doing and did I have their address so she could write to them and check in sending care to their new home in Madras. She also, had noticed a gift of a new congregant and asked what I thought about asking that congregant to participate in a special way. It was a perfect idea, and one that took really noticing and caring and thinking about people, and this is a coin the master God gave Karen and it shines so bright, even if it is mostly at work in the exchanges behind the scenes, going unnoticed.

I saw another coin, and I have seen it a lot lately, and it has a great affinity for details, follow through, and helping others. God gave Linda Moxon this amazing coin. It is so precise that she knows after crafting the worship leader/nursery schedule/communion server/setup/usher greeter/everything under the sun schedule, who is gone what weekend, and then when they come home how they enjoyed it, or who needed to switch dates for sickness that we can be praying for, and who might be out of town for a day school, etc, etc. Because of this coins attention to detail and follow through, it is really good at pitching in and helping. I watch Linda offer to drive people to church and back, bring a meal, or visit with them in the car when they have a long trip. That same attention to detail is required to teach preschool where everything is always happening and Linda invests this coin by teaching out little ones Sunday School. That same attention to detail helps cut Advent Banners for hours while keeping conversion going. The master gave Linda Moxon an amazing coin for details, follow through and helping others and it is bringing forth the kingdom of God.

You see God has given out so many coins to this congregation,

Shirley and Dale - pride in Granddaughter
LaVonne knowing every detail of the church’s financial history,
Georgia Wells - grocery shopping for people
Spencer Smith - Writing the cards for Deacons
Jean Geddes - quiet love
Betty Kuhl - the steadfastness of her friendship with others
Phil Anderson - calming and redirecting kids
Jess Defrees - patience
Peter Ellingson - someone who knows a ton and could lead the Finance Committee is amazing at asking clarifying questions about processes and for clarity.
Dotty Miles - meals for the Bakers, and all those who had brought food, many of which were mentioned by name like the Carrs breakfast casserole.
Shannon Moon - Report from Buildings and Grounds - a page of major items
Cliff Schoenigh - a quick e-mail to help with an update to the Personnel Policy
Kyra - planning young families events
Sharon Defrees - writing science curriculum for our elementary schools. Robbie - Sharon favorite teacher., Dallas biology and land reclamation,
Judy Baker Girl’s Science from LaGrande. Daughters
Judy Baker’s care for her brother
Ginger Rembold - playing jazzy
Our secretary, Susan telling Bev that I would want her to call.
Mark Ferns - Bev. Cary. Hug.
Annie - noticing and giving a hug
Gary Yeoumans - deep care for LaVonne
Roxanna offering to drive the Martells.

This is a tiny bit of what I have seen or heard about in a couple weeks. I am one person, and I know many of these are just that tip of the iceberg, that tiny bit on top of a much bigger source of giving, serving and investing in the master’s kingdom of heaven. I believe that this church and it’s congregation are like the first two servants.

And yet, there are people in our church, who have said to me that there are a few in this congregation who do all the work and a lot who do only little or nothing, who bury their coins in the ground for safe keeping. I agree there are some in this congregation who do a ton, I would say there are many, many, who do a ton. We can so easily see have invested their coins and come back prosperous for the Master’s kingdom. But I see no one, who is not giving in their own way, what they can. Each time I have heard the critique, I have racked my brain to find the servant in this church who has buried their coin, and when I think about those who on the surface could be seen as doing more, I know the rest of that ice-berg, and think of all the various ways those people give, to their families, and their community, and their friends, and their animals, or the earth. It is not always so simple to add up like a trip to Costco, or a number of meals delivered. Other times I know, maybe they are just trying to live with depression, make their marriage work, heal from abuse, caregiver for family etc. Yet even those whose stories run deep, still give so much and I see it.

I likewise don’t believe in a God who is going to toss someone into outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth. I believe in a God who has given all of us coins, and is going to do everything to help us invest them. I believe we have an abundance here. And so, I challenge you next week, and this month, to try and count the money, to try and count the gifts shared, to try to count the wealth of service in this congregation. This is part of my job as a pastor, I am supposed to look, I am supposed to keep a keen eye on the way God is at work in you and I am only seeing the top of the iceberg. I am going to put a sheet in the Fellowship Hall and in November I invite you to write down everything you see of coins shared. You can use names or not, it can be inside this church and outside of it, it can be as varied of gifts as God can imagine. But I want us to write it down for this Stewardship Season, and this will be the end of your sermon, you will write it, you will bring forth the kingdom of God, you will tell us of the hope, and what it means to you. Amen.

November 5, 2017, Revelation 21.1-6a

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, 

for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 

made ready as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 

I heard a loud voice from the throne say, 

“Look! God’s dwelling is here with humankind. God will dwell with them, and they will be God’s people. God will be with them as their God. 

God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. There will be no mourning, crying, or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 

Then the one seated on the throne said, 

“Look! I’m making all things new.” 

God also said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 

Then God said to me, 

“All is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. 

To the thirsty I will freely give water from the life-giving spring.”

***

I kept getting angrier and angrier at the last presbytery meeting. The moderator was told he needed to open the meeting with a devotion, and instead of just reciting a prayer, or scripture to begin us, he preached his first of two sermons that weekend, one official in worship, and this other, which was sweet and personal, but out of place, as things tend to be when people are told to say something because something has always been said. He had forgotten that the old earth had passed away and a new one had begun. 

Then, later on, supposedly in celebration of the 500th year of the Protestant Reformation, another pastor commandeered the agenda and gave literally another sermon, this time using a cliched book from ten years ago, which attempted to explain church’s declining membership by pointing out that the church goes through a reformation every 500 years and we were just in one of those now. The pastor preached about this shift intending to give the presbytery delegates hope, but I didn’t need a book to do that. I didn’t need some faulty historical prediction. I didn’t need an excuse because I was already celebrating. I had seen the new heaven. But then all three of the retired and remotely located pastors voiced loudly that we needed to discuss this old earth and sea, and the Presbytery never had time to discuss things like theology when clearly everyone wanted to discuss it, they thought. But I didn’t want to discuss abstract theology and the death of the church, mine was a practical theology based on life, for I new the former things had passed away.

Then during the meeting, we looked at the Presbytery Mission Budget for grants and again I was perturbed. There were just as many historic programs that had to be covered by mission money, as new programs applying. Two of those historic programs herald from a time when Eastern Oregon and Kendall Presbyteries were joined under the Snake River Mission area. One of these mission projects was Shared Ministry which, from being on their board, I knew had a bigger budget then it could use and Shared Ministry literally tried to find ways to spend it. The other mission project, was the Ring Praise ministry, which the Executive Presbyter said her church no longer invited, as they gave the same program every year. I questioned if these ministries should have permanent funding when programs like Open Door and Backpack weren’t even funded because of lack of funds and our repeated applications were this year denied, due to an attempt to make ministries sustainable on their own. I didn’t need historic programs to be funded indefinitely because I believed in a God who is always making all things new.

Finally, the Executive Presbyter gave what was considered a report. We had to watch what looked like a church boy-band, slick, dyed, hair included, singing in an over-acted way, while walking on a giant Celtic cross. They were singing about the death of the church and asking questions about its future. I think half of what made me annoyed honestly, was the cheesiness of it, but the other half, was that by then, I was so tired of what I perceived as the presbytery’s myopia. We were supposed to answer a question in a group about the death of the church and this is what I raised my hand and said,

“When I was a camp counselor there was one day where all the former counselors would come back and remember all the previous year’s stories, of which, there were many. They had to do with the people that came before and the way camp used to be. It was a fun day of nostalgia and a little grieving the people who weren’t coming back that summer, and the ways camp had changed. Yet, after that day, the old stories weren’t allowed to be told when the new counselors showed up. It was time for creating new stories. Similarly, I feel like at Presbytery meetings and many other gatherings of the church, I’m attending a funeral of someone I never new. I’ve sat here and honored your grief, I’ve done it for a decade now, and at this point I believe our focus on the past is limiting our ability to see God in the present. This exercise alone is in and of itself what continues to bury the Holy Spirit.”

I had seen something they hadn’t, or at least weren’t recognizing, I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. There were some delegates that were dumbfounded, there were others that were hesitantly excited that there might actually be a way to move forward, and there was one, who near enough to my age, felt I gave her voice. After the meeting was over multiple pastors came up to me saying, I want to have a conversation about this, and they started asking questions, but by that point, we had been at the wake of a presbytery meeting for two days and I was ready to go. It made me wonder how many visitors in our churches for so long had watched the processional of what used to be, that they left. to go out in the world, and experience the God that was there, I imagine them seeing heaven on earth made ready as a bride beautifully dressed for her partner.

I thought about our church, how many times had visitors walked by our virtually empty pews, even those roped off, and perhaps they have felt they too were at a funeral. We know the names, whose families you remember, and of the time when the Johnsons, and the Cassidys, and the McKim, and the Lissmans filled pews with kids all in a line. You have a heart for families and kids, First Presbyterian, that piece of you will always be heaven on earth. Yet, interesting isn’t it, that many of the kids today have chosen for their parents, that they want to sit up front where the action is. From the front you can see that God is squirming, and giggling, and coloring away. I wish I could have told those visitors, God is here, it’s just further up than the people remember. What if we took that value of honoring children in worship and made a space for them at the front? Some churches solve the too many pew issue, in part by creating a children’s worship space for coloring, or children’s books, or play dough, or felt-figures of Noah and the ark and nativities you can touch with your hands. Is this the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, where we tell the kids, let the little ones to come me? Can you imagine the ways we would see God alive in the fervent rub of crayons, and in the sharing of figurines? 

Likewise, the Nominating Committee for Elders and Deacons expressed concern to Session about the abundance of slots to fill and the lack of members to fill them. It was a concern that drove me nuts because the issue is exemplary of our congregation’s sometimes hesitancy to get out of its box; we are Presbyterians, often called the frozen chosen, for good reason. The thing is, our membership has not decreased since I arrived, but something has changed, God has been at work and we were looking backward. Our Elder and Deacon job descriptions attempted to put God in our box, with tasks like, “hang banners according to the seasons,” rather than, “adorn the sanctuary to the glory of God.” God moves in banners, but God also moves when Sharon Defrees asks the Rohner’s for some stalks of corn, or the congregation brings in its bells. Likewise, we forget to ask visitors, what are their gifts and how they want to participate, and then to invite them, or even allow them to bring their own thing, their version of a new heaven or a new earth. When we began with lack instead of abundance we are always going to come up empty but when we look for our abundance, there will be that. God is making all things new. It has been proposed by the denomination that what if instead of membership, coming to worship, or at least our baptism, was how we measured someone’s calling to ordination as an elder or deacon. Because at this point, our stepping stones feel a little more like you have to join the club to serve it. That tends to feel yucky to millennials like me, even though they are as willing to serve. And what if serving didn’t come from standing committees, and instead, we set our values and our goals and people signed up on a task force to do that one thing, and if no one signed up to lead it, maybe we let that one thing go. Maybe we accepted that it was the sea, to be no more. I don’t know how the system would work exactly. It makes me nervous too, but then I remember, “Look! God’s dwelling is here with humankind. God will dwell with them, and they will be God’s people. God will be with them as their God.”

This doesn’t just go for the system of the church, but this holds true for you and for me, and for everyone who has gone before us, and who is to follow. We gather here to remember, and to honor them on this All Saints Day, but we also gather to remember and to honor a God, who says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” Similarly, we have a bell in this church that was given by someone that no one can remember, before this sanctuary was ever built. I am sure when that person passed away, it rang, and tears fell, and today, it will ring for them and for others and tears will also fall, but on most Sundays, if there is a child, or a child at heart, with a few spare minutes before 10:30, the bell also rings us into worship. It is a bell to remember the names who have gone before, but it is also a bell that reminds us that we have God of now, and always. 

There have been times when the bell hung silent, where no one came and pulled the string, but it did not mean that it could not sound. Likewise, in our grief, there are times where it is hard to praise, hard to see a future, and our tones fall silent. When I came to this church, I figured the bell was broken, a relic from the past, until Luke said, “We used to ring it when I was little.” I asked, "Why aren’t we ringing it?” “For awhile, we didn’t have enough kids,” he said. I noticed we had a lot of little ones, but Luke said, that the strength to ring took the kids being older and stronger, but then I said, “Can an adult help them?” Truth was, as a kid, I always wanted a bell to ring and as a grown up, that desire hadn’t diminished. So one Sunday, during Children’s Time, we taught the kids, but had grown-up, “helpers.” Today, it rings most every Sunday, whether there are kids or not, and especially I’ve noticed if Gary Ball is around. What we learned was, that, in order for the bell to sound, we needed to change our view of who could ring it, because the God for whom we ring, is of us all. We needed to change the idea that because a flock of kids had grown up and gone, it remained silent. A bell is never silent, just the ringer. Likewise, God is never silent, just the worshiper. We are called to ring out our praise, in a balance for what was once long ago, like the Reformation, and the Church of the fifties, and old formats and systems that once served us well, we balance with it the tones of children lined up and walking through the sanctuary to pull the string with grown-up helpers, and grown ups, like Gary Ball, who teach us how to be kids at heart. We balance it with those that will ring when we are gone, maybe when this building too is gone, but somewhere there will be bells and with them always the praise of God, and God’s promise saying, “Look! God’s dwelling is here with humankind. God will dwell with them, and they will be God’s people. God will be with them as their God.” From beginning to end, Alpha to Omega. Always. Bell