Mark 9:2-10
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the perfect storm. Not the George Clooney movie but the “Perfect Storm” that seems to be rising in our society. The elements of the storm are the changes in our economy, the overwhelming tide of technology and the seeming break up of our culture with rising divorce rates, the break-up of the family, the failure of our justice system and man’s increasing inhumanity to his fellow man.
From Man was made to Mourn: A Dirge, 1785:
'Many and sharp the num'rous ills
Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves
Regret, remorse, and shame!
And Man, whose heav'n-erected face
The smiles of love adorn, -
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn! Robert Burns
Why did Jesus take Peter and John up on the mountain with him? Wouldn’t it have been better for Jesus to just be alone with Elijah and Moses? Wouldn’t some quality time with the Law-Giver and the Prophet prepared Jesus for the days ahead, when the perfect storm of the corrupt Jewish system, the corrupt Roman legal system and the sins of the whole world would be laid on his back would overwhelm him to the point of death?
Jesus knew what was ahead for him and he also knew what was ahead for Peter, James and John. Not just in terms of his crucifixion and resurrection but in the fact that they would lead the early church. They would live here after Jesus had ascended, they and the believers they would disciple would live through the life-changing day of Pentecost, the perilous times of the break-up of the Roman Empire. Some of the disciples would be killed for their beliefs but all of them would have to show a dying world the truth about God in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit through their lives and through their actions.
So the events of the Transfiguration were as much for Peter, James and John as they were for Jesus. They were the ones who would be able to look at each other and say “Remember when we were up on the mountain with Moses and Elijah and we heard God speak?” They would need that memory, that assurance, in the times to come. That was true in the past for the disciples and the early church but it is also true for us. But, I can hear you asking; God doesn’t move or speak like that in our time.
Oh yes he does. He does through healing our bodies and our minds and our souls. We used to talk about it a lot more. When I was a child it was called having a ‘word of testimony.’ We would have services where folks would stand up and give that word, to tell how God had changed their lives. Today it seems we are too embarrassed to stand up and tell or we are so sophisticated we write off the actions of God as coincidence, they way things are or ‘luck.’
Part of being disciple, being a disciple of Jesus Christ is knowing your story and seeing God in it. Part of walking together as Christians is hearing from each other where God is working in places that we might not otherwise recognize. We, in the best of times, point out each other’s gifts and weaknesses in love and that responsibility, accountability and agape love is one of the ways we can navigate and lessens the impact of the ‘perfect storm.’
It has been pointed out to me recently that as a preacher I have what’s called a narrative style. That means I am more of a story teller, I talk about the big picture of Scripture and how the stories of our lives with fit into that big picture now and into eternity. It also means that I don’t often give you three points and an illustration. There is something different for different people in the message. But today I want to make it very clear the importance of what we can do in the face of the ‘perfect storm.’
1. Any small change in any one area lessens the overall impact of the whole storm, makes it less than total, less than ‘perfect.’ So, what you say, what you think, what you do, MATTERS. It may be true that our culture is falling apart at the seams. But that is counter-acted with personal responsibility and accountability. We are each responsible for our own actions. Down to simple things like complaining. If you are unhappy with the way something is in your life, don’t just spread your unhappiness around. Take responsibility for your own feelings, go to the person and talk to them about the problem. That’s the only way that problems get solved. Complaining to other people just puts a stumbling block in their way and makes their journey so much harder. And if you are listening to someone complain, then it is your responsibility to either call their attention to it or simply walk away. Remember the example of the tube of toothpaste, once you squeeze the toothpaste out, one those negative words leave your mouth, it’s impossible to put them back in again. So it starts with personal accountability and responsibility, no matter if you are two years old or 102.
2. Though change may start with us as individuals, it must also be part of the nature of the church. Things like radical hospitality, taking prayer-covered risks with resources and time, intentional spiritual formation, living sacrificially in all areas of our lives. How do we impact the perfect storm? By being willing to follow God’s leading to change, to be transformed. Last week, when the African-American lady walked into the service, there were a variety of reactions. Some of you were open enough to share your reactions with me and I was very surprised and interested in those reactions. What I want you to think about is how you felt at that moment, when you saw someone very different walk in the door. It was a bit unsettling. Many of us, including me, thought OK, what does this mean, what should I do? And that sense of being off-balance, feeling unsure, it the place where God works. When we are sure of ourselves, sure of our control over the situation, we don’t need God. In the storm we are out of control and we must rely on Him. The situations where we feel off-balance and unsure are the norm not just an occasional experience. But living life with God through prayer and fasting, solitude and submission, celebration and Sabbath, we grow to feel confident in His power and his shelter in the storm.
3. The worst place to stay in the perfect storm is in the harbor. That was brought home to me early on in our time here when we saw Paul Minor anchoring boats out in the river in the face of a tropical storm. We can’t huddle down in these four walls and hope America and the world will right themselves without our help. That is the motivation behind Peter’s comment about building three dwellings on the mountain for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. They couldn’t stay on the mountain and we can’t stay here within the physical walls of this church or within the social boundaries of our church friends and family. As Christians, we hold the keys, the answers to the two things that all humans fear the worst, death and meaningless-ness. In Christ death has been conquered and we each have a purpose, a life to live that is meaningful and world-changing. We cannot stay in the harbor; we must sail out into the teeth of the wind, the violence of the storm, keeping our eyes on Jesus, our hearts sheltered by God, our actions empowered by the Holy Spirit.
I will praise you in this storm, the song says. The heavens declare his righteousness, says the Psalmist. God will take care of you, o’er all the way, through every day, God will take care of you, even in the midst of the perfect storm. So set your course straight into the wind, knowing your anchor holds and that we are nto helpless and alone, but empowered and free.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Where is your joy?
This section of Mark (1:40-45) has been picked apart time and again by scholars and theologians who focus on the action of Jesus. He healed the leper and then told him not to tell anyone. This seems to be in direct opposition to Jesus’ final words in Matthew 28, his instructions to his disciples in Matthew 28:19:Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
How could Jesus want to keep himself a secret? The term used here is the ‘messianic secret.’ Some of the theories include that Jesus wasn’t ready for all the attention or that he wanted to distance himself from any nationalistic group that would have forced him to be a political leader instead of a spiritual one. But there has never been, as far as I know any good reason offered as to why Jesus would have asked the man to keep silent. For the healed leper’s silence goes against the grain of all that we know Jesus and the kingdom of heaven to be about. The action of God in our lives, healing, saving, changing, transforming is something about which we cannot be silent. Jesus said that even the rocks and stones would cry out in glory to God if women and men were silent.
Let’s look at it from the leper’s point of view, for each of us are standing or have stood in the leper’s sandals. He was, for all intents and purposes, permanently scarred and permanently on the outside of the community and of any relationships at all. He was literally untouchable. When anyone came near him, he had to shout “Unclean, unclean’ so they would stay away and not be infected by his disease or the social uncleanness imposed upon him. His disease had forced him into a life of solitude and suffering.
Each of us may not be physically infectious, and with modern medicine we are unlikely ever to be. But we are human and to be human is to be flawed and broken. We have the innate capacity for selfishness, to put ourselves first over and over again. We don’t mean to do it, we don’t want to do it but it seems sometimes that we can’t help it. Remember what Paul said in Romans 7:15 15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. And we are very good at using that verse to justify our own actions. I mean, if I can’t help being a sinner then I may as well enjoy it.
And it does seem like the ‘sinners’ are having all the fun. But there is a desperation and a violence to the world’s fun that isn’t joyful and life-giving but joyless and despairing. That sort of fun focuses on escaping from reality in drugs and alcohol and mindless sensuality and on a violence that depends on dominating other people and controlling situations that makes us more god-like and makes God Himself unnecessary.
Our joy is the leper’s joy. For we have been given a way out of our wretchedness. We have been given not simply an escape but away to celebrate and live fully into what it means to be saved, to be changed. The leper went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the word. He couldn’t keep it to himself. And if we truly have had an encounter with the living God we cannot keep it to ourselves either.
Where is your joy this morning? It is easy to put our expectations for joy in other people, in things and money and circumstances. We put off joy thinking that it will come when we have a baby, or the baby learns to sleep all night, or the kids are all out of the house or we get a new house or a new job or a new wife. And all that is is a hamster wheel of futility. Joy is right here, right now.
What is it? Joy is the conviction of God’s presence within us and the openness to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Joy is the conviction of God’s presence within us. He is there with you all the time. An important part of prayer, of real prayer is the silence and stillness to come face to face and heart to heart with the One who created you and loves you more than any person ever could.
What concerns me about the Church today is that we seem to have lost our joy, we seem to have forgotten our first love. When I look out at you even during the most upbeat songs, when it seems you couldn’t help but feel and remember the saving grace of God, I see people trapped in their own worlds, too frightened or too self-aware to raise a holy hand in praise or even to smile. Some days I feel that church is no more than the Rotary Club with musical instruments. We recite a creed that we adhere to, we listen to a sermon that we mentally agree with, we make announcements about events and programs, we pray to a God that may or may not be listening and we participate in some dry and mysterious ritual and then we go home.
Where, church, is your joy? By following the leading of the Holy Spirit to this place this morning, by claiming in faith that Jesus Christ was and is the very Son of God, you have been snatched from the very gates of hell, from your own uncleanness, from your own loneliness and meaningless-ness.
Being a Christian is not like a being a Rotarian, it is not a dues-based, social society. It is a way of life, a way of living, a way of rejoicing that God has paid the price; that He is here now and forever, that eternity doesn’t begin the moment we stop breathing but that eternity is part of every breath we take.
As I have been writing and working with the class material for the Confirmation classes, I have been struck by one question again and again: Why be a Christian? In a world of options and opportunities, why bother? Why would the young people of today want anything to do with us? I’ll tell you why: Because there is an answer to the darkness and violence. There is meaning and hope and a real future full of joy. And that answer stands not just at the foot of the cross but that answer stands at the door of the empty tomb and asks “Why are you crying?” And the world responds: They have taken away my Lord and I don’t know where they have laid him. The world has robbed us of Jesus and we have let it happen. But stop crying and look up, listen to the voice of the one that you think is simply the caretaker, for he is much more than that. He is the Son of God and He sits at the right hand of the Father. All healing, all infection and sickness is wiped away.
Church, where is your joy? Your Joy is here not just in this place but in the God who makes it and us holy. God is here and is as close as your own breath. Be still, be quiet and listen and smile. And let your joy be unconfined for you have been set free, free to love and laugh and live even in the face of death and lost hope. Are you at rock bottom this morning? Good, for if you will look up into the face of Jesus and ask for his healing, he will change you in ways you can’t even ask for or imagine at this moment. He will put a song your mouth that you can’t help but sing. If you are at rock bottom, get ready for the adventure is just about to begin.
Are you just marking time, just living life, going along to get along, distracted by taxes and soccer and job deadlines and the economy? Wake up! Don’t let the world put you to sleep. You are already living in the eternal day. Go back to the moment you knew God was real and that this life was the one for you. Remember that excitement, remember that joy? Recapture it for that is what gives life zest and purpose and excitement.
Have you never experienced that? Have you always just hung around on the edges, wondering what all the fuss was about, doing what you thought was socially acceptable and trying to get by with just being a good person? Well, let me tell you: that will never be enough. There is no grace without the realization that you and I are sinners, we cannot make it on our own. Just being a good person will never be enough. But right in front of you stands the One who can make it all come out right, who holds the keys to heaven and hell. What does it take? One step, one moment, one heartfelt prayer: “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” And that my friends, is the first step along a journey that will take up all the rest of your life, a wild, free and exciting life that is full of mountains and valleys, rough seas and smooth sailing, worship in the most magnificent cathedrals that men’s hands have ever built and worship under nothing but the God-breathed vault of the open sky.
You, too, like the leper can go out and proclaim freely what Jesus has done for you living a life of deep-seated joy, knowing you are forgiven and free.
How could Jesus want to keep himself a secret? The term used here is the ‘messianic secret.’ Some of the theories include that Jesus wasn’t ready for all the attention or that he wanted to distance himself from any nationalistic group that would have forced him to be a political leader instead of a spiritual one. But there has never been, as far as I know any good reason offered as to why Jesus would have asked the man to keep silent. For the healed leper’s silence goes against the grain of all that we know Jesus and the kingdom of heaven to be about. The action of God in our lives, healing, saving, changing, transforming is something about which we cannot be silent. Jesus said that even the rocks and stones would cry out in glory to God if women and men were silent.
Let’s look at it from the leper’s point of view, for each of us are standing or have stood in the leper’s sandals. He was, for all intents and purposes, permanently scarred and permanently on the outside of the community and of any relationships at all. He was literally untouchable. When anyone came near him, he had to shout “Unclean, unclean’ so they would stay away and not be infected by his disease or the social uncleanness imposed upon him. His disease had forced him into a life of solitude and suffering.
Each of us may not be physically infectious, and with modern medicine we are unlikely ever to be. But we are human and to be human is to be flawed and broken. We have the innate capacity for selfishness, to put ourselves first over and over again. We don’t mean to do it, we don’t want to do it but it seems sometimes that we can’t help it. Remember what Paul said in Romans 7:15 15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. And we are very good at using that verse to justify our own actions. I mean, if I can’t help being a sinner then I may as well enjoy it.
And it does seem like the ‘sinners’ are having all the fun. But there is a desperation and a violence to the world’s fun that isn’t joyful and life-giving but joyless and despairing. That sort of fun focuses on escaping from reality in drugs and alcohol and mindless sensuality and on a violence that depends on dominating other people and controlling situations that makes us more god-like and makes God Himself unnecessary.
Our joy is the leper’s joy. For we have been given a way out of our wretchedness. We have been given not simply an escape but away to celebrate and live fully into what it means to be saved, to be changed. The leper went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the word. He couldn’t keep it to himself. And if we truly have had an encounter with the living God we cannot keep it to ourselves either.
Where is your joy this morning? It is easy to put our expectations for joy in other people, in things and money and circumstances. We put off joy thinking that it will come when we have a baby, or the baby learns to sleep all night, or the kids are all out of the house or we get a new house or a new job or a new wife. And all that is is a hamster wheel of futility. Joy is right here, right now.
What is it? Joy is the conviction of God’s presence within us and the openness to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Joy is the conviction of God’s presence within us. He is there with you all the time. An important part of prayer, of real prayer is the silence and stillness to come face to face and heart to heart with the One who created you and loves you more than any person ever could.
What concerns me about the Church today is that we seem to have lost our joy, we seem to have forgotten our first love. When I look out at you even during the most upbeat songs, when it seems you couldn’t help but feel and remember the saving grace of God, I see people trapped in their own worlds, too frightened or too self-aware to raise a holy hand in praise or even to smile. Some days I feel that church is no more than the Rotary Club with musical instruments. We recite a creed that we adhere to, we listen to a sermon that we mentally agree with, we make announcements about events and programs, we pray to a God that may or may not be listening and we participate in some dry and mysterious ritual and then we go home.
Where, church, is your joy? By following the leading of the Holy Spirit to this place this morning, by claiming in faith that Jesus Christ was and is the very Son of God, you have been snatched from the very gates of hell, from your own uncleanness, from your own loneliness and meaningless-ness.
Being a Christian is not like a being a Rotarian, it is not a dues-based, social society. It is a way of life, a way of living, a way of rejoicing that God has paid the price; that He is here now and forever, that eternity doesn’t begin the moment we stop breathing but that eternity is part of every breath we take.
As I have been writing and working with the class material for the Confirmation classes, I have been struck by one question again and again: Why be a Christian? In a world of options and opportunities, why bother? Why would the young people of today want anything to do with us? I’ll tell you why: Because there is an answer to the darkness and violence. There is meaning and hope and a real future full of joy. And that answer stands not just at the foot of the cross but that answer stands at the door of the empty tomb and asks “Why are you crying?” And the world responds: They have taken away my Lord and I don’t know where they have laid him. The world has robbed us of Jesus and we have let it happen. But stop crying and look up, listen to the voice of the one that you think is simply the caretaker, for he is much more than that. He is the Son of God and He sits at the right hand of the Father. All healing, all infection and sickness is wiped away.
Church, where is your joy? Your Joy is here not just in this place but in the God who makes it and us holy. God is here and is as close as your own breath. Be still, be quiet and listen and smile. And let your joy be unconfined for you have been set free, free to love and laugh and live even in the face of death and lost hope. Are you at rock bottom this morning? Good, for if you will look up into the face of Jesus and ask for his healing, he will change you in ways you can’t even ask for or imagine at this moment. He will put a song your mouth that you can’t help but sing. If you are at rock bottom, get ready for the adventure is just about to begin.
Are you just marking time, just living life, going along to get along, distracted by taxes and soccer and job deadlines and the economy? Wake up! Don’t let the world put you to sleep. You are already living in the eternal day. Go back to the moment you knew God was real and that this life was the one for you. Remember that excitement, remember that joy? Recapture it for that is what gives life zest and purpose and excitement.
Have you never experienced that? Have you always just hung around on the edges, wondering what all the fuss was about, doing what you thought was socially acceptable and trying to get by with just being a good person? Well, let me tell you: that will never be enough. There is no grace without the realization that you and I are sinners, we cannot make it on our own. Just being a good person will never be enough. But right in front of you stands the One who can make it all come out right, who holds the keys to heaven and hell. What does it take? One step, one moment, one heartfelt prayer: “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” And that my friends, is the first step along a journey that will take up all the rest of your life, a wild, free and exciting life that is full of mountains and valleys, rough seas and smooth sailing, worship in the most magnificent cathedrals that men’s hands have ever built and worship under nothing but the God-breathed vault of the open sky.
You, too, like the leper can go out and proclaim freely what Jesus has done for you living a life of deep-seated joy, knowing you are forgiven and free.
Jesus’ fame spread like wildfire after he had cured the demoniac in the synagogue. It had spread so much that verse 33 says the whole city was gathered around the door. Some came for healing, some, I’m sure came just to see what might happen. They had no interest in being transformed by the power of God but wanted to see what it looked like for the spectacular and dramatic signs and wonders.
I am not here just to see a phenomenon
I am not here for experiential bliss
I simply come to the feet of the God I serve,
The one that I love
I am not here for the sake of the people’s praise
I have not come to see the thunder and rain
I simply come into courts of the King above
The one that I Praise
I want to find the way to his chambers
I want to be in the presence of the Lord
I am in need of his mercy and favor
Forever more
I am not here for the sake of a miracle
I am not here just to see the dead raised
Yes I believe in power supernatural
But that’s not why I’m saved
I’ve had enough of this life of a Pharisee
I want to know this Jesus who’s been loving me
I’m running into the temple just to see
The one that I love
I want to find the way to his chambers
I want to be in the presence of the Lord
I am in need of his mercy and favor
Forever more
I give my heart to the one they call Jesus
Seeking out first the very kingdom of God
You are the way and the truth I believe it
You are my phenomenon
You can move mountains whenever you want to
You can speak to the sea whenever it pleases you
Forgive me oh Lord if I’ve been a market place
Turn me upside down so I will seek your face
And if your presence comes into this place
So will the thunder and rain
Phenomenon – Rita Springer
From healing the demoniac, to curing Peter’s mother in law, to the mass healings in Galilee, it is easy and safer to focus on the phenomenon of Jesus. We can easily and safely say that we cannot do those kinds of works of power and so we get ourselves off the hook. But - "We are entrusted with a message too powerful to keep to ourselves, and we are part of a kingdom that can neither be defined by nor contained within boundaries." – GBOD 2/8/09.
In Jesus’ day, people looked to the community of faith for healing and wholeness. Do people look today to the church? No, they look anywhere but the church. The power of God is here, it is within us as we are transformed to live lives worthy of our call. To give a Gideon Bible is to pass on the powerful witness but it doesn’t and shouldn’t stop there. When we live lives that are indisputably changed by God, then we are living testaments and that is the phenomenon that God accomplishes everyday in us and through us. So this week, go out, live for God, live like Jesus taught us and know that the Holy Spirit is working in you to make it happen.
I am not here just to see a phenomenon
I am not here for experiential bliss
I simply come to the feet of the God I serve,
The one that I love
I am not here for the sake of the people’s praise
I have not come to see the thunder and rain
I simply come into courts of the King above
The one that I Praise
I want to find the way to his chambers
I want to be in the presence of the Lord
I am in need of his mercy and favor
Forever more
I am not here for the sake of a miracle
I am not here just to see the dead raised
Yes I believe in power supernatural
But that’s not why I’m saved
I’ve had enough of this life of a Pharisee
I want to know this Jesus who’s been loving me
I’m running into the temple just to see
The one that I love
I want to find the way to his chambers
I want to be in the presence of the Lord
I am in need of his mercy and favor
Forever more
I give my heart to the one they call Jesus
Seeking out first the very kingdom of God
You are the way and the truth I believe it
You are my phenomenon
You can move mountains whenever you want to
You can speak to the sea whenever it pleases you
Forgive me oh Lord if I’ve been a market place
Turn me upside down so I will seek your face
And if your presence comes into this place
So will the thunder and rain
Phenomenon – Rita Springer
From healing the demoniac, to curing Peter’s mother in law, to the mass healings in Galilee, it is easy and safer to focus on the phenomenon of Jesus. We can easily and safely say that we cannot do those kinds of works of power and so we get ourselves off the hook. But - "We are entrusted with a message too powerful to keep to ourselves, and we are part of a kingdom that can neither be defined by nor contained within boundaries." – GBOD 2/8/09.
In Jesus’ day, people looked to the community of faith for healing and wholeness. Do people look today to the church? No, they look anywhere but the church. The power of God is here, it is within us as we are transformed to live lives worthy of our call. To give a Gideon Bible is to pass on the powerful witness but it doesn’t and shouldn’t stop there. When we live lives that are indisputably changed by God, then we are living testaments and that is the phenomenon that God accomplishes everyday in us and through us. So this week, go out, live for God, live like Jesus taught us and know that the Holy Spirit is working in you to make it happen.
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