Sermon - What Time It Is

Preached on December 1, 2013, the first Sunday of Advent, at First Congregational Church of Tallmadge, UCC.

Scripture: Romans 13:11-14

¹¹Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; ¹²the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; ¹³let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. ¹⁴Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Sermon

Living by darkness or living by daylight. Living as one asleep or waking up. The apostle Paul asks us to think about our by these stark contrasts. “The night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” For all of the complexity of life, for all the shades of gray that we live in, sometimes it’s helpful to put life into stark terms.

Do you remember the parable of the two wolves that comes to us from the people of the First Nations? A grandparent says to the grandchild, “there are two wolves inside of you. One wolf is good, kind, patient, loving. The other wolf is evil, mean, selfish, full of hate. They are locked in a great struggle.”

The grandchild asks “which wolf will win?”

And the wise grandparent answers, “the one you feed.”

What kind of lives are we living? And what lives will we begin today? “You know what time it is,” writes Paul. “Now is the time for you to wake up.” And here is where I think that Paul’s metaphor is really helpful, because Paul recognizes that it isn’t just up to us. We are awake when the sun is out and we sleep in the darkness. We are affected by what’s going on around us, sometimes by light and sometimes by darkness.

Sermon - Mission:Impossible?

Preached on November 17, 2013 at First Congregational Church of Tallmadge, Ohio, UCC

Scripture: Isaiah 65:17-25

For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. 

I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed. 

They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord— and their descendants as well. Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

Sermon

The prophet tells of God’s promise to make new heavens and a new earth on which there will be no more weeping or suffering or violence of any kind, and I wonder if it seemed to those who heard it an impossible mission. The people to whom this vision was first shared were the Israelites who had survived two generations of captivity after the empire of Babylon conquered Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple, laid waste to their fields and vineyards, and took the people away into Babylon where they handed down their grief from generation to generation. And now they returned to the words of this impossible vision given by the prophet from God. God is about to create Jerusalem as a joy and its people as a delight, and no more will there be weeping. No more will people die before old age. No more will the homes they build or the vineyards they keep be taken by someone else. No more will they cry out to God and wonder whether God has even heard their cry because God will hear before they cry and answer while they are yet speaking.

And what’s more (as if all of this weren't enough already) God’s peace will be so complete that even the wolf will stop preying on the lambs, even the lion will change to a diet of straw, and eat side by side with the ox, and the serpent always biting at our heels, the very symbol of evil, will no longer be a threat to any breathing creature. It will get by eating the dirt as it crawls.

Can we believe this? Is someone putting us on?

"What no one else knew"

A mild-mannered, retired accountant with a pristine lawn in the south of England receives a letter one day which sparks an unusual desire to walk to a town in north England. So begins a novel called The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce. His walk becomes a journey of weeks. Along the way his character and his unusual quest invite the trust of strangers he meets. One day, while eating in a crowded city café, he shares his table and his teacake with a well-dressed man who opens up to him in a surprising way.

The silver-haired gentleman was in truth nothing like the man Harold had first imagined him to be. He was a chap like himself, with a unique pain; and yet there would be no way of knowing that if you passed him on the street, or sat opposite him in a café and did not share his teacake....  It must be the same all over England. People were buying milk, or filling their cars with petrol, or even posting letters. And what no one else knew was the appalling weight of the thing they were carrying inside. The inhuman effort it took sometimes to be normal, and a part of things that appeared both easy and everyday. The loneliness of that.   (pages 88-89)

I wonder, how life would be different if everyone wore a sign that told of the unique pain that each person carries, whether the pain is fresh or old, intense or almost forgotten. Might we be a bit more patient? More forgiving? More likely to show kindness?

When Jesus met a rich young man who was anxious about obtaining eternal life, there is a beautiful short line in the gospel: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him” (Mark 10:21). May God give us the vision to look at people in the same way.

Sermon - Lost and Found

Preached on September 15 2013 at First Congregational Church of Tallmadge, Ohio, UCC.

Scripture: Luke 15:1-10

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. ²And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” ³So he told them this parable: ⁴“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? ⁵When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. ⁶And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ ⁷Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. 

⁸“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ ¹⁰Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Sermon

 

We're talking about sinners today. If you've been waiting for a sermon on sinners, this is it. We need to talk about sinners because they are...we are...sinners are the topic of these parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin and the parable that Jesus will tell next about the lost prodigal son. Sinners are the reason he told them. Or, more specifically, the grumbling of the religious leaders about Jesus welcoming sinners is the reason he told these parables.

Sinners. Jesus welcomed them; Jesus ate with them; and this upset the religious leaders of his day. Now, given that this is what Jesus does, you would think that the religion of Jesus, the religion of Christians would not have the reputation of being petty and judgmental about sins. And yet that's just what people think of the Christian church. You who are here know better. You know that the church is not petty and judgmental, not holier-than-thou or self-righteous. Well, maybe we are those things sometimes, but that's our sin, and I pray that God is saving us from that sin more and more. In general, I don't think that we deserve the reputation we have. But there it is. Polls of people who do not have a religious affiliation show that many of them perceive the Christian church as petty, judgmental, prejudiced, and unwelcoming. Just exactly the opposite of what Jesus was doing when he was criticized by the religious leaders.

They thought that he should be more judgmental - that he should have some higher standards. How will people known right from wrong if there are no consequences for sin?  Sinners must be held responsible.

But how do you hold someone responsible for being lost? And what good does it do to complain that the lost shouldn't be found?