2020-10-05 Age of Anxiety Overcoming the Creeps

Age of Anxiety:  Overcoming the Creeps

John 1:1-18

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15(John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

We had some fantastic services over the Advent/Christmas season, didn’t we? The singing of Christmas carols, the decoration of our church, the retelling of these ancient, familiar, beloved stories of Christ’s incarnation. Is there anything more enjoyable for Christians than Christmas?

In anticipating this Sunday morning more than a month ago, I shared these words with you, “ever feel anxious in the dark?  Do you feel a lot of darkness in the world?”  Darkness gives me the creeps.

There is a lot to feel creepy about in the world today.  Not knowing what we know now about our world situation, I feel like the darkness is closing in upon us.  Violence in Iran and Iraq, wildfires in Australia, another church shooting, you have heard these stories and more. 

As I shared those words with you, I was not thinking as much about the global darkness as I remembered experiences of darkness.  Walking into a dark room may give you the creeps.  As you may have learned, I learned to slide my hand on the inside of a doorway before entering a room when the room was dark.  Now, of course, I use the flashlight on my cell phone to find an unfamiliar light switch.  There was other darkness during my childhood that was more than creepy. I remember.  

I remember laying in on a sleeping bag in a church in Washington, D. C. listening to the pop of gunfire.  I remember looking out on parts of the city that were darkened by blackouts and seeing the glow of fire.   In the morning, walking through a burned-out street where riots had been.  I remember body counts displayed on the evening news.  I remember being on a bus and hearing about another political assassination.  To me, as a child, those were dark times.  Creepy 

Here is the Good News that was proclaimed then and is for us today!  God has come and moved into our lives, overcoming the darkness around us and in us that we might dwell richly in the Light.

Remember, with me, the book of Genesis.  The books whose name means, “In the beginning.” God says “light,” and dark chaos comes alive with light.  John’s gospel reminds us that Jesus is light as the first light of creation.  Later in this gospel, Jesus will call himself, “light of the world” (8:12; 12:35).

John’s gospel does more than simply announce the advent of Light. John also admits (1:5) that the “light shines in the darkness and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.” 

Jesus intrudes into the world’s chaos and evil. The NRSV says that the darkness “did not overcome” the light, a good rendering. The old KJV rendering is “the darkness comprehended it not.”

John delights in the use of double entendre; therefore, we are justified in both renderings as either “overcome” or “comprehend.” 

The darkness has been unable either fully to comprehend or to overcome the brightness of the Light of the World.

Even a big crowd in church on Sunday morning is still a minority of people in town. Most of these non-attenders are not hostile to the Christian faith; they just don’t get it. For them, Christmas is a holiday, a grand time to eat and drink too much, to spend too much, and to travel too far. When Christians gather to sing, “Joy to the world, the Lord has come!” the majority of the world he came to save just doesn’t get it. They “comprehend it not.”

God, having tried to speak to us down through the ages, in the incarnation at last “spoke to us through a Son” (Heb 1:2). But most people still look at Jesus and see only a historical figure who said a few interesting things and then faded into obscurity. They “comprehend it not.”

The world that the Word created did not know him. He lived among his own, and his own didn’t receive him. What a sad irony: God finally speaks clearly, decisively in an embodied word, and the world comprehends it not.

John illustrates what kind of light Jesus brought into the world.  

For instance, John introduces Jesus at, of all places, a wedding, more accurately, the bash after the wedding. (John 2:1-11) During the festivities, the wine runs out. Jesus’s mother anxiously tells him that the wine is gone. Jesus brusquely replies, “What has that to do with us? It’s not our party.”

“Do whatever he tells you,” Mary says to the servants. Jesus tells them to fill the stone water jars to the brim.

The party is shocked that the water turns to wine. John says this was “the first of his signs” and that “many of his disciples believed in him.” The first of his “signs,” his first wonder, produced 180 gallons of wine? What’s the spiritual good in that? And what on earth did his disciples believe about him? 

It is only the second chapter of the Fourth Gospel; Jesus has not yet preached or taught.  Whereas most of the people at the party probably scratched their heads, saying, “How did he do that?” a few came away from this weird moment believing in Jesus.

Questions remain. Whenever the Light of the World is present, even at an allegedly secular occasion such as a post-wedding bash, expect the unexpected. And expect confusion. In all this, John surely wants to say, “Hold on to your hats. Welcome to the world now that the light has come.”

It’s a marvel that anybody encountered the Light and said, “This is God’s light shining on us.”  It’s a theme—listening but not hearing, looking but not seeing—that recurs in the Fourth Gospel. 

Jesus the Light of the World shines, but people just don’t get it. “This message is harsh,” said his disciples when he tells them that he is the bread come down from heaven whom they must devour (6:60). “Give us a word,” asks the baffled mob in Jerusalem (7:36), and Jesus says, “My word finds no place in you. You can’t take what I have to say to you” (8:37, 43).

John says that when you see the light, you are a new creation, Genesis 1 all over again. The light does shine in the darkness for you. “But those who did welcome him, those who believed in his name, he authorized to become God’s children, born not from blood nor human desire or passion, but born from God.” (John 1:12-13) 

Furthermore, if you stay in the light: “If you remain faithful to my teaching...then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (8:31-32). These words proclaim God’s gracious solution to the problem between you and God: “You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you” (15:3 NRSV).

We can render the verse, “light shines in the darkness and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light,” in yet one more way than “comprehend” or “overcome.” It could also be, “The darkness has not overtaken it.” 

The darkness doesn’t “get it” in the sense that the darkness doesn’t grasp the Light. In John 12, Jesus warns his disciples to walk in the light lest the darkness “overtake you.” Same verb.

Talk with any person who works for a ministry and is responsible for raising funds, like Eric Lane, at the Fellowship Mission in Warsaw.  If you ask, “How is it going?”  You may hear as the answer, “We are always one step ahead of financial disaster.”  That is all that it takes.    The darkness has not overtaken the light.

Paul says in Romans 12 that we should not “overcome evil with evil but overcome evil with good.” In other words, we respond to evil in the world as God has answered in Christ. Let light shine. 

We don’t overcome evil with the ways of the world—through force, violence, retribution, or lying. We overcome evil as Christ—love showing up, light shining into our darkness.

Good news! The Light of the World has come to us, has moved in with us, and nothing will overcome this light!

2020-02-05 Core Values Prayer

I apologize that the footnotes did not copy with the script of this sermon.  References shall be given upon request.  

Core Value Prayer

“In all we say or do, we believe prayer honors God and brings comfort, power, and connection to people.”

“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Luke 18:1

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through

wordless groans.” Romans 8:26

“God, are you there?"

Have you prayed that fox hole prayer? Have you called out in the loneliness of the night, "God, are you there?" Maybe it was the death of a parent, or divorce of your parents or death of a child, or abuse of a family member? Perhaps for you, it is an illness that will never go away. Maybe your business collapsed, or your job disappeared? Know that you are not alone in the fox hole, I am right there with you praying with you, "God, are you there?"

The Yearning of the Heart

Our hearts yearn to be free of pain. "Every person you meet today is hurting deep inside from something. Go gentle into this good day." LS.  Look around the sanctuary this morning.  Look at the faces that smile back at you. Not one of those faces does not have heart pain.

When the pain of the heart gets terrible enough, we will pray. Let me introduce you to Chad and Kathy Robichaux.  Chad and Kathy's life work is through a foundation they created, Mighty Oaks Foundation. "Chad and his team are dedicated to helping America's Military Warriors and their families suffering from the "unseen wounds" of combat such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Their effort is on the front line to intercede and end the climbing 23 per day veteran suicide rate and the current and tragic 80% plus divorce rate."

Chad tells a story that begins with being a dedicated public servant and a police officer who responded to the call to duty post-9/11. "After eight deployments in the Afghanistan War on Terror, their family spent years recovering from the hardships associated with combat."

Chad was hell to live with. He returned home because his own PTSD had become so bad in the field that he had become useless. The same PTSD created a mindset where he made choices that fractured his family. Kathy encouraged him to do something with all of his hate, energy, and anger. So, he began martial arts and ended up being the Professional MMA World Champion. Along with being champion, came temptations to which he gave himself.

No longer living together with Chad, Kathy kept going to church with the kids. Here is the teaching point this morning. Kathy went to church and prayed. Her hate and anger toward Chad was so great that she could not pray any prayer except, "God, help me see Chad like you see Chad." For Chad's part, his anger, hatred, and loneliness drove him into a closet each evening with a pistol. For weeks he struggled to shoot himself to stop his internal pain. What the bad guys on the street or in Afghanistan or the MMA ring could not do, Chad was doing to himself. He was bringing himself to defeat. In desperation, he returned to Kathy and asked for her help. She took him to church and found a mentor for him. After a year of discipling by his mentor and having come to Christ, Chad was able to control his memories. For me, the pivot to restoration and health began in Kathy's simple prayer. "God, help me..." The prayer was simple and direct. Like the prayer, "God, are you there?" The simplicity of the prayer "God help me" does not undermine its power.

The simplest is often the best. For example, there are three simple things that all people want and need to hear. "There are three phrases people yearn to hear: "I love you," "I forgive you," and "Time for supper," Leonard Sweet. When we pray, the still quiet voice of God replies, "I love you." When we pray to layout our shame, the still soft voice of God answers, "I love you, and I forgive you." When we hunger and thirst for God, Jesus sets the table of communion with his body and blood and invites us by saying, "I love you; I forgive you; and its time for supper." Prayer is a relationship with God. The simplicity of the prayer does not undermine its power.

What do Jesus and Paul say about prayer?

Jesus and Paul teach a great deal about prayer. I am not going to record all they teach. I am sharing just a sample. Jesus teaches about prayer often; here is one significant lesson. From the Gospel of Luke 18:1-8, "Jesus was telling them a parable about their need to pray continuously and not to be discouraged. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him, asking, 'Give me justice in this case against my adversary.' For a while he refused but finally said to himself, I don't fear God or respect people, but I will give this widow justice because she keeps bothering me. Otherwise, there will be no end to her coming here and embarrassing me." The Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. Won't God provide justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he be slow to help them? I tell you, he will give them justice quickly. But when the Human One comes, will he find faithfulness on earth?"

The request is simple. Pray always. Pray often. Pray today. Pray now.

The Apostle Paul wrote extensively about prayer. Here are just two examples. Research finds that "to worry" is helpful from the point of view that one feels like they are doing something. However, Paul says prayer is better. Philippians 4:6, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Often, I hear people say, "I don't know what to pray or how to pray." No worries, Paul tells us. The Spirit will lead us. Romans 8:26, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

Rather than worry, Pray always. Pray often. Pray today. Pray now. If you don't feel like you have the words, that's better; the Spirit will pray through you. Just pray. Just be in the present with God.

“Oh, God, now what?”

Therefore, we know that in all we say or do, we believe prayer honors God and brings comfort, power, and connection to people. So how do we pray? We make prayer too complicated. Just talk to God. Just talk to Jesus. "Jesus is not looking for deep insights or great thoughts from us when we pray. Jesus is just looking for us and wanting to be with us." LS

The high and mighty of our world may help us understand that low and meek may be the best prayers. "In an interview with Ireland's RTE One news and information channel (June 2013), the U2 frontman [Bono] opened up about his belief in Jesus, his prayer practice, and the way he and his wife instill religious values in their children. "I pray to get to know the will of God because then the prayers have more chance of coming true — I mean, that's the thing about prayer," Bono told interviewer Gay Byrne. "We don't do it in a very lofty way in our family. It's just a bunch of us on the bed usually, we've a very big bed in our house. We pray with all our kids; we read the Scriptures, we pray."

Years ago, I learned a simple prayer to pray.  It is, “Please, God!” When you begin to pray the prayer, place a comma between the words “please” and “God.” We come to the Lord with our pain,  requests,  urgencies,  demands,  needs,  wants, and desires. Pray until the comma disappears in your mind. Now, “Please God” becomes a mantra that changes the focus from “my-need” based pray to a lifestyle response where I live my life to “please God.” Pray this simple, “Please, God” prayer until the comma disappears.

Water Witness

To end with, I would like to use an illustration from natural science. Here is a “water witness” to the power of prayer. Dr. Masaru Emoto was a Japanese author, researcher, and entrepreneur who claimed that human words impact the molecular structure of water. Dr. Masaru Emoto studied the effect of words on the crystallization of water. His technique was to expose water to spoken words and prayers. He would then freeze the water and examine the crystalline structure of the water. His results were profound, often beautiful, and sometimes disturbing. 

https://youtu.be/tAvzsjcBtx8.

If words affect water, then how much more do prayers, affect us? We are 60% water. Words we say change us. If words affect us, how much more does prayer affect us? I can only imagine how prayer creates "the eternal" in our bodies. Make the water of your soul into beautiful crystals by practicing prayer. After all, "In all we say or do, we believe prayer honors God and brings comfort, power, and connection to people."

2020-01-24 Dad's Eulogy

Romans 10:14-15 

But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’

Dad’s feet are beautiful – he brought good news. 

‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’  Dad brought good news through his love of history.  Dad loved history.  One of my great surprises when I began attending public school was to find out that some people did not spend their vacations going to civil war battlegrounds.  Dad and mom loved to learn the heritage of family, of country, and of the Bible.  How many of you participated in or witnessed one Dad and Mom’s Last Supper drama’s, Madrigals or Living History Cemetery Stories?

There were times a person would have to scoop the Biblical Archeology magazines and books of Indiana Native Americans off the couch to find a seat. There was always a historical story to be shared or recreated.  I knew that they had been to the cemetery to check on our ancestors when the Ford Crown Victory was sagging down to its axels because they had so many broken headstones in the trunk.  They would pick up the head stones, restore them and reset them in the ground. 

‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’  Dad brought good news through his love of nature.  Dad loved God’s creation.  Dad loved the beauty of the earth.  It’s fitting that across the road from his home of birth, what was the land of his grandfather’s farm is now the Baugo Creek County Park. He fed the deer. He fed the racoons.  He chased off the possums.  For some reason, they were not invited to the evening feasts of old bread and dog food. 

He was an Eagle Scout and attended and worked at Pioneer Scout Camp, on Gordy Lake in Cromwell, Indiana.  To be a child or a grandchild of Bill meant that you had to learn to steer a canoe down a river. It was a right of passage. 

            He loved to communicate with animals.  Whenever we would go on a family camping trip.  We set-up camp.  Mom cooked supper and Dad would pull two quarters out of his pocket.  He’d strike them together to make a chirping sound to see if he could raise a chipmunk or squirrel.  Dad loved to hike.  He led us through the Smokies, the Rockies and the Grand Canyon.  

            Dad loved cats.  This was a love that was passed down to his daughter but did not make it down to his son.   But here is the story of the most loved cat.  Mom had a stroke just about the time that Dad was retiring from full-time appointment.  She became sensitive to animal dander and did not want to have an animal in the house.  For years, we would visit and find a “No Pets” sign on the front door.  

            Then one day a cat showed up and needed their help.  He was a gigantic feral cat.  This cat was greatly subdued as he sat on their porch as he had a target arrow running through is upper torso.  Dad and Mom took him into town.  Woke up the vet and waited for the cat to come out of hours long surgery as the arrow was removed and the hole repaired.  Of course, he came home.  Of course, he could not go outside.  Of course, he ruled the house.  He was given the name “Con” because he conned death. 

‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’  Dad brought good news through his love to create and to recreate.  He rebuilt an old fishing cottage at Epworth Forest.  

He helped me rebuild a 1941 Plymouth Business Coupe as my first car.  Rebuilt an 18ft wood ribbed Old Town canoe.  Rebuilt a wood runabout speed boat.  If he did not have it, he made it.  

He fixed things up for people.  He fixed things up for a college girls’ campout.  He led or attended many mission trips to St. Thomas, Jamaica, the middle west and Southern states.  

‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’  Dad brought good news through his love for Mom.  Dad loved Mom.  He was the lanky young man, a junior in high school, walking up the to the front door of Betty’s home through a snow drift, not seeing the back doorway that was shoveled out for his arrival.  He was there to pick up his date to the winter dance. They married weeks after Mom graduated from high school.  

Let me share with you from Dad’s own words.  My dad’s love for my Mom was never separate from his love for God.  They went hand in hand. 

Corinne Reads:

I graduated from Jimtown High School the next May and started to work that July for the New York Central Railroad in the car repair yard at Elkhart. I was driving home one afternoon thinking about driving past Betty’s house when I had a head-on collision with another car. 

I awoke in the hospital corridor waiting to go to emergency surgery.  I had many stitches. Still, no life-threatening injury.  I wondered why I was spared, especially when I heard reports of the other young man, a student from Manchester College, who was still in a coma after many days.

A year later, Betty and I were married and began housekeeping in the basement of our home. At the same time, we worked on finishing the upstairs.  The next spring our pastor announced that the church would pay the $25 cost for anyone to attend a Christian vocations conference in Indianapolis on the weekend following Easter. Betty and I decided to go, and it would be an excellent way to get a weekend away.

I  signed up for classes on missions, church music, and pastoral ministry. The course on missions was helpful. The class on music was fun as the professor from DePauw, who led it took us to serval different churches to hear their pipe organs. We didn't get back in time to go to the pastoral ministry class. That evening we skipped the recreation session planned and went to a movie. "A Man Called Peter" was playing. It was the story of Dr. Peter Marshall, who was pastor of Washington D.C. Presbyterian Church and who had also been a chaplain of the US Senate.

After praying about it, the following Thursday, we went over to our pastors and told him and his wife we had decided to go into pastoral ministry we felt that was where God wanted us to be.

‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’  Dad brought good news through his love of God.  Dad loved God. 

Dad loved God with his mind.  He was a scholar.  I always remember him with a book or two in his hands or by his chair.  

He was a shield.  He worked long hours at the church. Many nights I woke up to the sound of someone at the door and dad would do out to find a desperate youth.  He worked for peace and justice – even in a county seat town.  Because of his working with police, the prosecutor and with local drug dealers to bring awareness and resolve to the parents of youth, someone threw a brick through his church office window to warn him off. 

Dad enjoyed a good youth party – Mom was the razzle dazzle. Dad was the cheerleader and logistics coordinator.  So many youth would gather in our home and dance that the floors gave way.  The trustees came to inspect the damage.  In a time and a church when dancing and cards where strictly prohibited, the men knew the importance that the youth find Jesus.  Rather than condemning the activities, they rebuilt and reinforced the floors so that ministry could continue. 

His faith was not just a Sunday morning in front of a congregation faith.  He lived it.  It was common for us to pick up hitch hikers on the road to Florida to see his dad and stepmom, my grandpa and grandma.  Once in Georgia, I think, in the middle of the night, the hitch hiker climbed into the back set with Corinne and I.  Dad drove the woman to her hometown.   

He was always willing to help someone at the door.  Often, it meant that the food came from our cupboards.  I do not know how many people followed a call into the clergy or into lay ministry as a result of his saying, “Yes”, to God.  I know two really well.  My sister and I are testimony to the groundwork of faith that he laid. 

‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’

He taught me how to dunk a donut in my coffee.

Taught how to build a campfire.

Taught how to bait a fishing hook with a worm.

Taught how to prime a hand water pump.

Taught how to shoot a rifle and change a tire 

Taught how to use a wood rasp and a plainer. 

Taught how to use a hand drill.

Taught how to hang drywall.

Taught how to be generous with those asking for help. 

Taught how to give an hour and a half of work for an hour of pay. 

Taught how to be patient and kind.

Taught how to be humble.

Taught how to practice faith. 

Taught how to love people. 

Taught how to love God.

‘How beautiful are the feet of the one who brings good news!’

How beautiful are your feet, Dad. 

2020-01-12 Age of Anxiety: Overcoming the Creeps

Age of Anxiety:  Overcoming the Creeps

John 1:1-18

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15(John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

We had some fantastic services over the Advent/Christmas season, didn’t we? The singing of Christmas carols, the decoration of our church, the retelling of these ancient, familiar, beloved stories of Christ’s incarnation. Is there anything more enjoyable for Christians than Christmas?

In anticipating this Sunday morning more than a month ago, I shared these words with you, “ever feel anxious in the dark?  Do you feel a lot of darkness in the world?”  Darkness gives me the creeps.

There is a lot to feel creepy about in the world today.  Not knowing what we know now about our world situation, I feel like the darkness is closing in upon us.  Violence in Iran and Iraq, wildfires in Australia, another church shooting, you have heard these stories and more.

As I shared those words with you, I was not thinking as much about the global darkness as I remembered experiences of darkness.  Walking into a dark room may give you the creeps.  As you may have learned, I learned to slide my hand on the inside of a doorway before entering a room when the room was dark.  Now, of course, I use the flashlight on my cell phone to find an unfamiliar light switch.  There was other darkness during my childhood that was more than creepy. I remember. 

I remember laying in on a sleeping bag in a church in Washington, D. C. listening to the pop of gunfire.  I remember looking out on parts of the city that were darkened by blackouts and seeing the glow of fire.   In the morning, walking through a burned-out street where riots had been.  I remember body counts displayed on the evening news.  I remember being on a bus and hearing about another political assassination.  To me, as a child, those were dark times.  Creepy

Here is the Good News that was proclaimed then and is for us today!  God has come and moved into our lives, overcoming the darkness around us and in us that we might dwell richly in the Light.

Remember, with me, the book of Genesis.  The books whose name means, “In the beginning.” God says “light,” and dark chaos comes alive with light.  John’s gospel reminds us that Jesus is light as the first light of creation.  Later in this gospel, Jesus will call himself, “light of the world” (8:12; 12:35).

John’s gospel does more than simply announce the advent of Light. John also admits (1:5) that the “light shines in the darkness and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.”

Jesus intrudes into the world’s chaos and evil. The NRSV says that the darkness “did not overcome” the light, a good rendering. The old KJV rendering is “the darkness comprehended it not.”

John delights in the use of double entendre; therefore, we are justified in both renderings as either “overcome” or “comprehend.”

The darkness has been unable either fully to comprehend or to overcome the brightness of the Light of the World.

Even a big crowd in church on Sunday morning is still a minority of people in town. Most of these non-attenders are not hostile to the Christian faith; they just don’t get it. For them, Christmas is a holiday, a grand time to eat and drink too much, to spend too much, and to travel too far. When Christians gather to sing, “Joy to the world, the Lord has come!” the majority of the world he came to save just doesn’t get it. They “comprehend it not.”

God, having tried to speak to us down through the ages, in the incarnation at last “spoke to us through a Son” (Heb 1:2). But most people still look at Jesus and see only a historical figure who said a few interesting things and then faded into obscurity. They “comprehend it not.”

The world that the Word created did not know him. He lived among his own, and his own didn’t receive him. What a sad irony: God finally speaks clearly, decisively in an embodied word, and the world comprehends it not.

John illustrates what kind of light Jesus brought into the world. 

For instance, John introduces Jesus at, of all places, a wedding, more accurately, the bash after the wedding. (John 2:1-11) During the festivities, the wine runs out. Jesus’s mother anxiously tells him that the wine is gone. Jesus brusquely replies, “What has that to do with us? It’s not our party.”

“Do whatever he tells you,” Mary says to the servants. Jesus tells them to fill the stone water jars to the brim.

The party is shocked that the water turns to wine. John says this was “the first of his signs” and that “many of his disciples believed in him.” The first of his “signs,” his first wonder, produced 180 gallons of wine? What’s the spiritual good in that? And what on earth did his disciples believe about him?

It is only the second chapter of the Fourth Gospel; Jesus has not yet preached or taught.  Whereas most of the people at the party probably scratched their heads, saying, “How did he do that?” a few came away from this weird moment believing in Jesus.

Questions remain. Whenever the Light of the World is present, even at an allegedly secular occasion such as a post-wedding bash, expect the unexpected. And expect confusion. In all this, John surely wants to say, “Hold on to your hats. Welcome to the world now that the light has come.”

It’s a marvel that anybody encountered the Light and said, “This is God’s light shining on us.”  It’s a theme—listening but not hearing, looking but not seeing—that recurs in the Fourth Gospel.

Jesus the Light of the World shines, but people just don’t get it. “This message is harsh,” said his disciples when he tells them that he is the bread come down from heaven whom they must devour (6:60). “Give us a word,” asks the baffled mob in Jerusalem (7:36), and Jesus says, “My word finds no place in you. You can’t take what I have to say to you” (8:37, 43).

John says that when you see the light, you are a new creation, Genesis 1 all over again. The light does shine in the darkness for you. “But those who did welcome him, those who believed in his name, he authorized to become God’s children, born not from blood nor human desire or passion, but born from God.” (John 1:12-13)

Furthermore, if you stay in the light: “If you remain faithful to my teaching...then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (8:31-32). These words proclaim God’s gracious solution to the problem between you and God: “You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you” (15:3 NRSV).

We can render the verse, “light shines in the darkness and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light,” in yet one more way than “comprehend” or “overcome.” It could also be, “The darkness has not overtaken it.”

The darkness doesn’t “get it” in the sense that the darkness doesn’t grasp the Light. In John 12, Jesus warns his disciples to walk in the light lest the darkness “overtake you.” Same verb.

Talk with any person who works for a ministry and is responsible for raising funds, like Eric Lane, at the Fellowship Mission in Warsaw.  If you ask, “How is it going?”  You may hear as the answer, “We are always one step ahead of financial disaster.”  That is all that it takes.    The darkness has not overtaken the light.

Paul says in Romans 12 that we should not “overcome evil with evil but overcome evil with good.” In other words, we respond to evil in the world as God has answered in Christ. Let light shine.

We don’t overcome evil with the ways of the world—through force, violence, retribution, or lying. We overcome evil as Christ—love showing up, light shining into our darkness.

Good news! The Light of the World has come to us, has moved in with us, and nothing will overcome this light!

2019-12-01 Hope Can't Wait

Hope Can’t Wait

Matthew 24:36-44

God’s Promised Day Can’t Wait

There are few things in life harder to do than to wait.  The waiting exponentially increases if that for which we are expecting is a particular person.   Remember the agony of wanting to make everything perfect for your specific person's arrival.  You shop to get the right food.  Your search to find the right music leads you to those songs you share.  You layout the perfect clothes to wear.  Set up your plans.  Make your arrangements.  And at every moment along your journey of preparation, you can't help yourself from sharing your anticipation with every friend and stranger.  You cannot contain your enthusiasm. You cannot wait!

Then, the unthinkable happens!

[AT 11:11 Watch the video: "Plans."]

The person for whom you are preparing everything shows up a day early!  We can't wait; then, what we want shows up at our door - and we are not ready!  We have been "out surprised" by the very one for who we prepare a surprise.   Like a young lover who is caught off guard by the early arrival of his girlfriend, he wants her there but not until he is ready to pull off his surprise.  

Waiting for hope is a lot like that.  We make all kinds or preparations, then, without notice, it’s standing outside our door.  

God’s Promised Day

We know this time of year as "Advent," We watch for the salvation of God to come into the world.  We are summoned to "be on the look-out" for the signs and stories that point us to a greater future than we could ever have imagined.

For what are we looking? For what are we watching and waiting?  We sing about a "noel," a natal, a birthing.  Like parents knowing the end of the pregnancy is at hand but not the exact day or time, we wait. We anticipate.  Though we expect the birth, the birth is not the focus of our yearning.  We are awaiting the person whose delivery is eminent. 

In this week's First Testament text, Isaiah 2: 1-5, the prophet introduces his listeners to the promise of a new reality, a new existence beyond anything the people could have ever envisioned. Isaiah does not just speak about some new military triumph, a majestic show of force that will liberate Israel from all of her enemies. Instead, Isaiah proclaims that there is coming, in some undisclosed future, the birth of a new world and a new reality. A Day of the Lord when "He Shall Reign Forever and Ever." 

In this new reality, "all the nations" shall recognize the Lord's sovereignty and shall "stream" to the Lord's mountain without gladness and jubilation.  Isaiah's vision the pathway to the Lord's mountain, to live under the reign of God's righteousness, is open to all peoples, for all are hungry for God to "teach us God's ways" so that "we may walk in God's paths" (v.3) of peace and justice.

In this newly envisioned world, God will act as the "judge between the nations." This divine arbitration shall lead the nations of the world "to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks" (v.4). Peace will reign, for this world that follows the reign of the Prince of Peace "shall not learn war anymore."

Isaiah's promise is the first proclamation that Yahweh will act as Redeemer, for this world, delivering it from all its misery and injustice.

Handel’s Messiah

The most famous solo in Handel's oratorio masterpiece is the soprano solo, "I know that my redeemer liveth." Handel's "Messiah" is every bit as Christmas as eggnog and Santa. From the very start, people sensed how vital it would be, and the organizers behind its world premiere were so worried about the crowds that women were told not to wear hoop skirts and men were told to leave their swords at home. It premiered during Lent because Handel conceived it as an Easter piece, but the first third of it is about the birth of Jesus, and it quickly became associated with Christmas even more than Easter. 

The words "I know that my redeemer liveth" comes from the celebrated passage in Job 19:25: "I know that my redeemer [go' el] liveth." The Hebrew word for "redeemer" is "go' el."  The "redeemer" in Hebrew tradition was the nearest relative of another, and so was charged with restoring the rights of another and avenging any wrongs perpetrated upon that relative. "Go-els'" "rescued" those who were in dire straits and helped to put them back within the mainstream of community and commitments to shared relationships. A "go-el" brought one who was lost home again.

Micah (4:1-4) quotes this prophecy from Isaiah, and we have already seen how Job declares (19:25-27) "I know that my "go-el" (my Redeemer) lives and that in the end, he will stand on the earth." This message of a divine redeemer, of a God who would deliver the people from death to life, from a world of oppression and injustice into a world of peace and harmony, was paramount to the people.

The Economist

Today opens up before us, this season of "watchfulness" and "waiting" for the first signs of our new "go' el," our new "redeemer" that God reveals to us. 

What this "go' el" will do for this world is spelled out in Isaiah's prophecy, and its nothing less than a complete transformation of this world and its ways. 

We are not looking for a world changer.   The Economist did a unique international feature called "We All Want To Change The World" (16 November 2019), 41-42. The editors of the #1 global magazine for politics, economics, and demographics call this the new status quo: the global rumble of revolving protests by people who want to change the world.

 Jesus doesn't come to "change the world."  Jesus comes to "save the world." We are not preparing for the arrival of a change-agent. We are preparing for the coming of the Savior of the world. "We all want to change the world." But there is only one who can save the world. "The Redeemer."

            The world needs a Savior. We cannot save ourselves, although Pelagianism teaches "you-can-save-yourself-if-you-just-try-hard-enough" Christianity. 

I need a Savior. 

You need a Savior. 

The world needs a Savior. 

Check out he adds, companies say, "Let Us Save You." They want to save us from pain, money wows, old age, wrinkled clothes, corrupt politicians.  

The market can't save us. 

The government can't save us. 

We can't save ourselves, either. 

The definition of someone who spends more than he/she makes as a "negative saver." We all become "negative savers" when we try to save ourselves.

No, we need a "go' el," we need a Redeemer. We need a Savior. And Jesus saves us not by some magic trick of a god machine, swooping down as some super-hero and rescuing us. 

Jesus saves us by entering into our story, becoming one of us, and suffering with and for us. Jesus did not parachute onto the world on some clean, cushy, puffy clouds from heaven. Jesus was born INTO the world in painful bursts of blood, sweat, tears on a bed of hay where itchy mites and other insects lived and were his first greeters. 

“God so love the world”…

The Redeemer began life in pain. He ended life in pain.

No ear may hear his coming,

But in this world of sin,

Where meek souls will receive him, still

The dear Christ enters in. 

("O Little Town of Bethlehem")

Enters into to... 

A world of slavery, sex-trafficking, pedophilia, 

A world of Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Mussolini, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, 

A world of lying, cheating, stealing, trolling, bullying, slandering.

The Redeemer enters our world of sin and death, not to defeat the powers and principalities of our society on their terms. 

The most beloved passage of Scripture, John 3:16, makes it clear that the salvation of the world is caught up in the salvation of every person in the world. And, John 3:17 makes clear our Redeemer does not meet evil with evil.  “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

The Redeemer came to set you free from sin and death. 

The Redeemer came to set me free from sin and death so that you can sing, I can sing with you, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." 

The event you are waiting for, like a birth, is really a person you are waiting for.  The hope that you want to carry you through is knocking at your door.  The Redeemer is here to save you. 

But in saving you and saving me, our Redeemer is saving the whole world, and the whole of life, the whole of history.

"For God so loved the world" that God saves it. 

Christ saves the world in you and me.

We do not have to wait for this hope. It’s here. 

2019-12-08 Peace Can't Wait

Peace Can’t Wait

Matthew 3:1-12 

You can't wait for peace any longer.  

Is there a heaviness to your spirit today.  Maybe you just cannot wait for peace.  Peace is a spiritual fruit.  “Bearing fruit” is the key to John’s message.  The only way to know if there has been repentance is with fruit.  Radical message that being a descendant of Abraham was not enough.  One had to have faith and action like Abraham as well.  John warns against “resting on your laurels.”  It is not enough to just claim Abraham as your Father.  A changed heart has to follow.  “The Christian equivalent of ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ Is ‘We have Christ as our savior.’  While trust in Christ’s salvation is a first requirement, it is not the last” (Douglas Hare, Interpretation: Matthew).

Do you want peace in your life? Bear the fruit of repentance.  

Repentance leads to reconciliation and grows peace.

Think of it like this; you may have a bad memory chip on your motherboard.  While replacing the damaged microchip, you may rid yourself of the defected part, you still can't operate well.  You need something else.  You need a software upgrade.  It’s a two-step process.  

Repentance (The Renewing of the Mind)

Let's start with the message of John the Baptist from today's Gospel lesson.  John meets us out in the wilderness. 

"I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."

It's a two-step process.  Clean up and fill up.  You have to clean up before you can fill up.  You may think that the water baptism, the baptism of John, is a clean-up.  The water represents the cleansing power of God.  It also represents dying with Jesus.  It washes us clean as we die to ourselves.  When I die to myself, I give up.  I am in John’s wilderness.  

The wilderness is where we find ourselves after cleansing before we are where God wants us to be.  The wilderness is where we learn who God is and who we are to God.  The wilderness is when we are our most rebellious.  The wilderness is where we empty ourselves of the shame, blame, pain, name, and game.  We lay down the shame of past actions and thoughts; we lay down blaming others for our situation.  We lay down pain, physical, emotional, or imaginary.  We lay down our ego and need to have our name blazed on everything.  And, we lay down our game playing that keeps us victimized and everyone else the persecutor.  

The wildness is where we lay down our lives.  If we lay down shame, blame, pain, name, and game, we may be cleansed yet still feel unsettled and powerless to live our life for God.   Left in the wilderness, we may say, "if this is all there is God, then I don't want it."

It's the second part of the message that fills us up.  John baptizes to clean.  Jesus baptizes with Spirit to fill!

Let me run around this tree one more time. 

"The Greek word metanoia, poorly translated as 'repent' in the Bible (Matthew 3:2, Mark 1:15), quite literally means 'to change your mind.' Until the mind changes the very way it processes the moment, nothing changes long term. 'Be transformed by a renewal of your mind,' Paul says (Romans 12:2), which hopefully will allow the heart to follow soon. —Fr. Richard Rohr. "Changing Our Minds." Published on the Center for Action and Contemplation online. March 29, 2016. https://cac.org/changing-our-minds-2016-03-29/

Repentance leads you to change your mind about the condition of your life.  When you change your mind about your life, you lay down all that is a barrier between you and God.  Like a freshly washed, empty coffee cup, you are open to the pour of coffee.  Jesus pours the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives you your second baptism.  

Reconciliation (the indwelling of the Holy Spirit)

We often have been told and say that Jesus comes into my heart.  Jesus sitting on a throne in my heart is a beautiful thought but not biblical.  If Jesus is sitting anywhere, he is seated at the right hand of God the Father as by biblical testimony.  It is the Person of the Holy Spirit that is within us.  Of course, I am splitting hairs because Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are all three the Godhead of the Trinity.  Putting your finger on any part of the triangle is to put your finger on the triangle. 

Jesus taught us that when he leaves that he would send another to be in us.  So, which is better to have Jesus with us or to have Jesus in us as the Holy Ghost?  In the Gospel of John, Jesus breathes the Spirit into his disciples.  In the Book of Acts, the Spirit comes and enters each person all at once. Jesus' baptism is having the Person of the Holy Ghost, burning a fire in your gut.  

We often think of reconciliation as the righting of relationships between people and groups. I am going out on a limb this morning, church until you are in touch with, and until you are nurturing a relationship with the One that lives within you, reconciling with others shall be difficult at best and impossible most of the time.  We need is to pay attention to the One who dwells in us.  Tim Johnson puts the question this way, "Am I intentionally cultivating a deep and profound relationship with the Person living within me?"

If you say no, reconciliation needs to occur in you.  

If you say yes, you already know.

John cleans up the vessel.  Jesus pours in the Holy Ghost.  When John and Jesus finish, God reconciles us.  

Peace (completeness, wholeness, and restoration).

You may be stuck in the wilderness.  You may feel burned out, resigned, just waiting for your graduation to heaven.  Or, you may be singing the old Peggy Lee song, 

Is that all there is?

Is that all there is?

If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing

Let's break out the booze and have a ball

If that's all there is 

Or, like so many Christians, you may think that the church is a social service club.  Here is the Goods News of Jesus Christ.  You do not have to wait for the peace of Christ anymore.   You can develop a relationship with the Person who lives with you.  You can activate the fruit of the Holy Spirit that Jesus has given you.  Paul teaches, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."  These are the signs that the Spirit is doing its work in you.  Do strangers experience these in you?  More importantly, do the people who know you best and are around you most know you in these ways?  Yes, No, most days, some days?

Do you want to grow the fruit of the Spirit?  Peace, among other things? Intentionally cultivate a deep and profound relationship with the Person living within you.  Repentance is an invitation to a new way of life which is demonstrates the fruit of Spirit. Being a son of Abraham or being born again isn’t enough- your life must change, and your actions must bear out that reorientation. Are you willing to be changed by the good news?  Repentance (Renewing of the Mind) leads to reconciliation (The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit) and grows peace (completeness, wholeness, and restoration).