Choices, all of us make them every day. We have to choose what clothes we’re going to wear, what coat to put on, what we’re going to eat for breakfast, whether we’re going to get groceries today or wait until the snow has melted or the temperature has improved. We choose whether we’re going to support one political candidate or another, or none of them. We choose whether we’re going to go out or stay home.
There are some of us who really believe that we’re here today because we chose to come. But is that really true? And some of us believe we made the choice to follow Jesus.
Let’s look again at the scriptures beginning with Jonah. God’s word came to Jonah and called him to get…”up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh! They’re in a bad way and I can’t ignore it any longer.”
First off Jonah did make a decision. It was to go in the opposite direction. Then, after some particularly persuasive circumstances, Jonah decided to listen to God’s call to go to Nineveh. He turned around and headed straight for the big city.
Friends, was it Jonah’s choice, really? Or…could it be that God had chosen Jonah and he, God, wasn’t going to change his mind about that? He didn’t want anyone else for this job.
What about the fishermen Jesus invited to…”Come…” Was it their choice or God’s? Did they have another option? They could have said, “No, I’m too busy. Maybe later.” But they didn’t. Was it their choice or did God just know that they would follow Jesus? What do you think?
Let’s get back to our choices. Are we here as God’s church because of our choices? Or…are we here because God chose us, because he called us and then we came?
Are there other examples where God called people and they were reluctant to answer his call? What about Moses? Or Gideon? Or Elijah? Or Abram? These men didn’t totally trust God at one time or another. Moses didn’t think he could speak for God to the people. He didn’t think they would listen to him. He tried to talk God out of choosing him. But God wanted Moses, so God gave him Aaron and he went.
Gideon wanted all sorts of proof that the voice he heard was really God’s voice. When God did everything Gideon asked Gideon had no choice but to follow God’s call to lead the people into battle.
Elijah, after he had massacred the prophets of Baal with God’s help, and after Jezebel threatened to get even with him, then he ran for dear life. He went into the wilderness to die. He’d had enough. But God had other plans. He hid in the mountains until God whispered to him and then he went to anoint the king, Hazael, God had chosen.
Each of these men was called to perform a particular piece of work for God. And at one point or another they wavered. But God didn’t. He had chosen them and he didn’t change his mind. He didn’t want to change his mind because he knew they were perfect for the task he had for them.
So, when we feel that tug on our heart to do something we’ve never done before, something we don’t feel equipped to do should we turn and go the opposite direction like Jonah? Or…should we do like Simon and Andrew and drop everything and follow the Teacher?
Even if we do decide to go the opposite direction what if we feel the tug of the Spirit again? Do we want to take a chance and keep going…or should we stop and turn back? Remember what happened to Jonah?
Choices, we do have them but I’m convinced that if God had called us then he has chosen us and it’s not likely he’s going to change his mind. We do have the freedom to choose to go the opposite direction but that might not be the wisest decision to make.
Thank God the disciples didn’t say no. Thank God Moses did go to Egypt and lead God’s people through the wilderness to the Promised Land. Thank God for those who have preceded us, the ones who taught us in Sunday school, the ones who mentored us, the ones who shared their faith stories with us. Thank God for them and their courage to answer God’s call.
God still calls us to particular work. And it’s not just to preach or do mission work. I believe everyone of us is called. And yes, we do have a choice. God doesn’t twist our arms but…don’t forget Jonah, or Moses. If God calls then he wants you and no one else. How will you answer when God calls you?
Thanks be to God for his gracious patience. Amen.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Come, See, and Know
Think about everything you’ve learned in your life. How did it happen? How is it that some of us know about soil and seeds and some of us know about building things with wood and some of us know how to do plumbing and some of us understand electricity and how to put it to work. Other people seem to know how to heal and comfort people and others have the skills of knowing the law and politics.
How come we don’t all know the same things? And how does it all happen? Why am I a pastor? And why are some people teachers or carpenters or farmers or managers or salespeople? Why and how, haven’t you ever wondered these things?
Samuel was an apprentice for Eli because his parents had made the commitment to dedicate him to the Lord. There in the temple he “heard” God call his name. How come God chose Samuel? Why?
The psalmist tells us that God know everything completely about us. He searches our hearts and he just knows. The psalmist can’t even imagine all the thoughts of God. He just knows that God knows. God knows us inside and out.
John tells us the story of Philip and Nathanael. He tells us that Jesus knew Nathanael before they were introduced.
As he traveled toward Galilee he met Philip. He invited him to… “Come, and follow.” What he learned, what he saw was so exciting he could hardly wait to tell his friend about Jesus. He invited him to… “Come, and see.”
And when he was almost there Jesus talked like he knew him. When Jesus described to him how he’d seen him sitting under a tree earlier Nathanael called him the Son of God, the King of Israel. It sounded like Nathanael stayed to follow Jesus because he knew him.
Have you ever had someone ask you about your faith, about your belief in Jesus? Have you ever found yourself stumbling to explain what it is that draws you to the church, the Body of Christ, and Jesus? Have you ever finally arrived at a point where you just say, “Come and see for your self?”
Friends, that just may be what we’re to learn from these lessons today. It just might be that all we have to do is invite folks and let God do the rest. It just might be that we make it way too difficult. Maybe we should follow the example of Philip. “Come, and see for yourself who this Jesus is.” That may be all God calls us to do in the beginning. Invite our friends to come, and see.
So, lets take notice this week. Pay attention to see where God is active and when the opportunity presents itself invite your friend and neighbor to “come and see.”
Thanks be to God for his all-knowing grace. Amen.
How come we don’t all know the same things? And how does it all happen? Why am I a pastor? And why are some people teachers or carpenters or farmers or managers or salespeople? Why and how, haven’t you ever wondered these things?
Samuel was an apprentice for Eli because his parents had made the commitment to dedicate him to the Lord. There in the temple he “heard” God call his name. How come God chose Samuel? Why?
The psalmist tells us that God know everything completely about us. He searches our hearts and he just knows. The psalmist can’t even imagine all the thoughts of God. He just knows that God knows. God knows us inside and out.
John tells us the story of Philip and Nathanael. He tells us that Jesus knew Nathanael before they were introduced.
As he traveled toward Galilee he met Philip. He invited him to… “Come, and follow.” What he learned, what he saw was so exciting he could hardly wait to tell his friend about Jesus. He invited him to… “Come, and see.”
And when he was almost there Jesus talked like he knew him. When Jesus described to him how he’d seen him sitting under a tree earlier Nathanael called him the Son of God, the King of Israel. It sounded like Nathanael stayed to follow Jesus because he knew him.
Have you ever had someone ask you about your faith, about your belief in Jesus? Have you ever found yourself stumbling to explain what it is that draws you to the church, the Body of Christ, and Jesus? Have you ever finally arrived at a point where you just say, “Come and see for your self?”
Friends, that just may be what we’re to learn from these lessons today. It just might be that all we have to do is invite folks and let God do the rest. It just might be that we make it way too difficult. Maybe we should follow the example of Philip. “Come, and see for yourself who this Jesus is.” That may be all God calls us to do in the beginning. Invite our friends to come, and see.
So, lets take notice this week. Pay attention to see where God is active and when the opportunity presents itself invite your friend and neighbor to “come and see.”
Thanks be to God for his all-knowing grace. Amen.
Monday, January 9, 2012
Change
First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.
God spoke: “Light!” And light appeared. God saw that light was good and separated light from dark. God named the light Day, he named the dark Night. It was evening, it was morning—Day One. Genesis 1:1-5 MSG
First there was nothing, just a watery chaos…and darkness, total absence of light. Then God’s voice thundered over the emptiness and there was “light” and “light” was good. Everything changed when God spoke, when Light entered the darkness.
There still wasn’t anything except the watery abyss…and light and darkness. Then God separated it with “Sky.” There was water above and water below, water everywhere, nothing but water.
Our world is 70% covered with water. Our bodies are 60% water. Our world as we know it can’t survive without liquid H2O. If you don’t believe it go on a water fast and see how you feel without taking in any of that colorless, odorless, nourishment. You will begin to act very strange and without it you will die. The same thing happens to the soil if it doesn’t receive water in the form or rain or snow. Without water seeds can’t germinate, plants will not grow or last long without water.
Water also creates change. Enough of it all at once has the power to create drastic changes to the environment. Just look at the pictures of what the Missouri River did where it went out of it banks this summer.
Isn’t it interesting that God began creation with water. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus’ ministry began after he had been baptized in the Jordan River. Isn’t it interesting that our lives begin with us surrounded by water in the form of amniotic fluid.
…before our birth, we float in amniotic fluid, which provides temperature stability, cushioning, and a necessary presence within collapsed airways to help stimulate lung development. Amniotic fluid is a clear, watery fluid that is filtered out of the maternal via the amniotic epithelium into the amniotic cavity. A large portion stems also from the fetus itself (from the skin, the umbilical cord, the lungs and the kidneys). The makeup of the amniotic fluid is thus quite complex, with many maternal and fetal constituents. The main constituents are water and electrolytes (99%) together with glucose, lipids from the fetal lungs, proteins with bactericide properties and flaked-off fetal epithelium cells. Its quantity changes over the course of the pregnancy (20 ml in the 7th week, 600 ml in the 25th week, 1000 ml in the 30th to 34th week and 800 ml at birth). From the 5th month the fetus also begins to drink amniotic fluid (400 ml/day). Close to the end of the pregnancy the amniotic fluid is replaced all 3 hours, stressing the importance of this exchange between the amniotic fluid and the maternal compartment.
Now we can understand how very important, and necessary, water is to our survival. And that is why the sacrament of baptism uses water as a symbol, a symbol of life, a symbol of change, a dying and rising again to new life, a cleansing, a cleansing from our sinful lives to being changed … from the inside out when we are baptized with the Holy Spirit.
People change when they are baptized with the Holy Spirit. It may or may not happen when they are baptized with water. But when it happens they’re changed from the inside out. Jesus was different after he was baptized. God confirmed that He was indeed His Son.
When people receive the Holy Spirit God confirms that we are His sons and daughters and we’re changed. We’re different than we were before. And as we mature we continue to change as we learn to wait upon God and His Spirit, as we learn to let the Spirit correct, control, and guide us.
Think back 5 years. Are you the same as you were then? I don’t think you are. I know I’m not. Physically as we age our bodies change but I’ve also noticed that my spirit, my soul, has changed over the years. I know I’m not the same person I was 5 years ago and I imagine you aren’t either.
It’s inevitable that things, and we, change. And there’s more change coming for us. Who knows what 2012 will bring us? One thing is certain. One thing won’t change. God will continue to be there for us. He will continue to provide for our world and us. He will continue to love us, to heal us, to teach us, to guide us home. He is the one Constant, reliable Force when all around us everything is changing.
Today we are going to reaffirm our baptismal covenant with God. Together we will be reminded of that day when we made the decision to be baptized or someone made that decision for us. And ever since that day we have been changing, and with God’s grace we will continue to change.
Thanks be to God for his unchanging grace. Amen.
God spoke: “Light!” And light appeared. God saw that light was good and separated light from dark. God named the light Day, he named the dark Night. It was evening, it was morning—Day One. Genesis 1:1-5 MSG
First there was nothing, just a watery chaos…and darkness, total absence of light. Then God’s voice thundered over the emptiness and there was “light” and “light” was good. Everything changed when God spoke, when Light entered the darkness.
There still wasn’t anything except the watery abyss…and light and darkness. Then God separated it with “Sky.” There was water above and water below, water everywhere, nothing but water.
Our world is 70% covered with water. Our bodies are 60% water. Our world as we know it can’t survive without liquid H2O. If you don’t believe it go on a water fast and see how you feel without taking in any of that colorless, odorless, nourishment. You will begin to act very strange and without it you will die. The same thing happens to the soil if it doesn’t receive water in the form or rain or snow. Without water seeds can’t germinate, plants will not grow or last long without water.
Water also creates change. Enough of it all at once has the power to create drastic changes to the environment. Just look at the pictures of what the Missouri River did where it went out of it banks this summer.
Isn’t it interesting that God began creation with water. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus’ ministry began after he had been baptized in the Jordan River. Isn’t it interesting that our lives begin with us surrounded by water in the form of amniotic fluid.
…before our birth, we float in amniotic fluid, which provides temperature stability, cushioning, and a necessary presence within collapsed airways to help stimulate lung development. Amniotic fluid is a clear, watery fluid that is filtered out of the maternal via the amniotic epithelium into the amniotic cavity. A large portion stems also from the fetus itself (from the skin, the umbilical cord, the lungs and the kidneys). The makeup of the amniotic fluid is thus quite complex, with many maternal and fetal constituents. The main constituents are water and electrolytes (99%) together with glucose, lipids from the fetal lungs, proteins with bactericide properties and flaked-off fetal epithelium cells. Its quantity changes over the course of the pregnancy (20 ml in the 7th week, 600 ml in the 25th week, 1000 ml in the 30th to 34th week and 800 ml at birth). From the 5th month the fetus also begins to drink amniotic fluid (400 ml/day). Close to the end of the pregnancy the amniotic fluid is replaced all 3 hours, stressing the importance of this exchange between the amniotic fluid and the maternal compartment.
Now we can understand how very important, and necessary, water is to our survival. And that is why the sacrament of baptism uses water as a symbol, a symbol of life, a symbol of change, a dying and rising again to new life, a cleansing, a cleansing from our sinful lives to being changed … from the inside out when we are baptized with the Holy Spirit.
People change when they are baptized with the Holy Spirit. It may or may not happen when they are baptized with water. But when it happens they’re changed from the inside out. Jesus was different after he was baptized. God confirmed that He was indeed His Son.
When people receive the Holy Spirit God confirms that we are His sons and daughters and we’re changed. We’re different than we were before. And as we mature we continue to change as we learn to wait upon God and His Spirit, as we learn to let the Spirit correct, control, and guide us.
Think back 5 years. Are you the same as you were then? I don’t think you are. I know I’m not. Physically as we age our bodies change but I’ve also noticed that my spirit, my soul, has changed over the years. I know I’m not the same person I was 5 years ago and I imagine you aren’t either.
It’s inevitable that things, and we, change. And there’s more change coming for us. Who knows what 2012 will bring us? One thing is certain. One thing won’t change. God will continue to be there for us. He will continue to provide for our world and us. He will continue to love us, to heal us, to teach us, to guide us home. He is the one Constant, reliable Force when all around us everything is changing.
Today we are going to reaffirm our baptismal covenant with God. Together we will be reminded of that day when we made the decision to be baptized or someone made that decision for us. And ever since that day we have been changing, and with God’s grace we will continue to change.
Thanks be to God for his unchanging grace. Amen.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Hope
Choose Wisely-Roddy Hamilton
Words for the beginning of New Year worship
Choose wisely
the words you will use
this new year time
Choose wisely the words
you wish to use to fill this sacred space
in the first few hours of the year
Will it be a word of justice
or one of compassion
a word that holds forgiveness
or one that invests in peace?
For this word
shapes the beginning
and it is in the beginnings
hope is begun
Whether that hope lasts
is ours to decide in later days
but whether it has hope at all
is ours to decide now
Choose wisely the word
you speak in these fresh hours
for The Word has chosen now
to speak of us
Hope, on this first day of the New Year we hear God’s words for us from Isaiah, the Psalmist, Paul, and Luke, words of hope for us.
The writer of Third Isaiah is speaking of the delight he has because of what God has done and is going to do for his nation, a nation that has been literally destroyed and is now just beginning to be rebuilt. It hasn’t happened yet, in fact the task looks impossible, but his hope, his faith, is that God will be true to his promise and will again make Jerusalem a city that nations will look up to as an example of how much God loves his people.
The psalmist, Paul, and Luke write about all that God has done. They remind us that God has indeed kept his word. This spinning piece of space debris is perfect, ideally created, for us. It’s just the right environment for us. When God uttered the word it became everything it was intended to be, a home for all God’s children. The psalmist believes that every piece of creation gives, or should give, praise to the Creator. And some days can’t you just feel it? Haven’t you felt it, the air surrounding you just filled with joy and exuberance? Maybe that’s happened this past week.
Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, speaks of a different hope. The hope of acceptance, the hope of being received into a family, of being loved by a family, the hope of being forgiven, of having the slate wiped clean of all offenses. He speaks of the hope of not having to jump through hoops to be one of God’s children.
Some of us might not be able to understand what that’s like. Can you imagine never experiencing the unconditional love of a parent? Some of us can, and then to one day to wake up and realize that everything’s changed…we find that we are loved. We really can call on God. We can whisper “Papa” and he hears us. He stretches his hand out and we take a hold of his finger and we know, no matter what, we are loved.
We’ve hoped. We’ve dreamed. We’ve prayed for this moment and when it comes we can hardly believe it. Some one has taken all our burdens, all of our anxieties, and we’re free. We’re no longer on the outside looking in but we’re inside, we can’t believe it’s happened to us, and we really are part of the family. And we’re filled with such joy that we think our hearts are going to burst.
Luke tells us the story of when Joseph and Mary took the baby Jesus to the temple to be given as a holy offering to God. Can you imagine how these two must have felt coming into that space, two young parents who have been spoken to by angels and have been given the responsibility of raising the Messiah? The prophet Isaiah thought the rebuilding of the Temple was huge, what about raising and caring for God’s Son? I imagine their hope was that they didn’t muck this up. God wouldn’t let that happen but still…
But then to have two people, first Simeon and then Anna, take the baby and give him their blessings and prophecy about his life. They both probably wondered what God was doing. How could they possibly do everything right? But they had hope and faith that God would keep his promises to them.
As we begin this New Year, we have hope. The hopes I have are revealed in this poem by Roddy Hamilton…
Still (a new year blessing)
May God still shape this community as a place of life
that lives that life to the full
May The Word still move us towards justice
and let that justice disturb our souls
May our names still be known
and loved by all who speak them
May faith still deny what we consider answers
and set us free instead to explore the questions
May the Spirit still enable us to believe into tomorrow
by trusting what she does in today
And may God still surround us and embrace us
with grace, imagination and a love that will not let us go
Friends, I pray that these are your hopes and that together with God we can see them come to be. Thanks be to God for his grace. Amen.
Words for the beginning of New Year worship
Choose wisely
the words you will use
this new year time
Choose wisely the words
you wish to use to fill this sacred space
in the first few hours of the year
Will it be a word of justice
or one of compassion
a word that holds forgiveness
or one that invests in peace?
For this word
shapes the beginning
and it is in the beginnings
hope is begun
Whether that hope lasts
is ours to decide in later days
but whether it has hope at all
is ours to decide now
Choose wisely the word
you speak in these fresh hours
for The Word has chosen now
to speak of us
Hope, on this first day of the New Year we hear God’s words for us from Isaiah, the Psalmist, Paul, and Luke, words of hope for us.
The writer of Third Isaiah is speaking of the delight he has because of what God has done and is going to do for his nation, a nation that has been literally destroyed and is now just beginning to be rebuilt. It hasn’t happened yet, in fact the task looks impossible, but his hope, his faith, is that God will be true to his promise and will again make Jerusalem a city that nations will look up to as an example of how much God loves his people.
The psalmist, Paul, and Luke write about all that God has done. They remind us that God has indeed kept his word. This spinning piece of space debris is perfect, ideally created, for us. It’s just the right environment for us. When God uttered the word it became everything it was intended to be, a home for all God’s children. The psalmist believes that every piece of creation gives, or should give, praise to the Creator. And some days can’t you just feel it? Haven’t you felt it, the air surrounding you just filled with joy and exuberance? Maybe that’s happened this past week.
Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, speaks of a different hope. The hope of acceptance, the hope of being received into a family, of being loved by a family, the hope of being forgiven, of having the slate wiped clean of all offenses. He speaks of the hope of not having to jump through hoops to be one of God’s children.
Some of us might not be able to understand what that’s like. Can you imagine never experiencing the unconditional love of a parent? Some of us can, and then to one day to wake up and realize that everything’s changed…we find that we are loved. We really can call on God. We can whisper “Papa” and he hears us. He stretches his hand out and we take a hold of his finger and we know, no matter what, we are loved.
We’ve hoped. We’ve dreamed. We’ve prayed for this moment and when it comes we can hardly believe it. Some one has taken all our burdens, all of our anxieties, and we’re free. We’re no longer on the outside looking in but we’re inside, we can’t believe it’s happened to us, and we really are part of the family. And we’re filled with such joy that we think our hearts are going to burst.
Luke tells us the story of when Joseph and Mary took the baby Jesus to the temple to be given as a holy offering to God. Can you imagine how these two must have felt coming into that space, two young parents who have been spoken to by angels and have been given the responsibility of raising the Messiah? The prophet Isaiah thought the rebuilding of the Temple was huge, what about raising and caring for God’s Son? I imagine their hope was that they didn’t muck this up. God wouldn’t let that happen but still…
But then to have two people, first Simeon and then Anna, take the baby and give him their blessings and prophecy about his life. They both probably wondered what God was doing. How could they possibly do everything right? But they had hope and faith that God would keep his promises to them.
As we begin this New Year, we have hope. The hopes I have are revealed in this poem by Roddy Hamilton…
Still (a new year blessing)
May God still shape this community as a place of life
that lives that life to the full
May The Word still move us towards justice
and let that justice disturb our souls
May our names still be known
and loved by all who speak them
May faith still deny what we consider answers
and set us free instead to explore the questions
May the Spirit still enable us to believe into tomorrow
by trusting what she does in today
And may God still surround us and embrace us
with grace, imagination and a love that will not let us go
Friends, I pray that these are your hopes and that together with God we can see them come to be. Thanks be to God for his grace. Amen.
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