Weekly Sermon
Sermon was not taped August 29.
THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
August 22, 2010
Pastor Ed Foster
Scripture: Isaiah 58:9b-14; Psalm 103:1-8; Hebrews 12:18-29; Luke 13:10-17
“Remember the Sabbath”
Our lessons today all speak, in one way or another, about the Sabbath day. Of course, Sabbath isn’t a word we use much in regular society anymore, and in fact, for some reason, not even much in church anymore.
We remember the story, of course. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and in six days God created everything that is, ending on the sixth day, creating humankind. On the seventh day, God rested from his labors. He called all that he had created good and established that seventh day as a special day, a holy day, the Sabbath day. God commanded that everyone take that day as a day of rest, not working but instead, using the gift of that day as an opportunity, both to recover from the week’s work and to worship and praise the God who had given us all these good things in creation.
Still, remembering the story only encourages us to ask, “What is the Sabbath day for?” For us, who are Christians, who celebrate our Sabbath day on the first day of the week instead of the last day of the week; because we are celebrating the resurrection of our Lord, we can fairly ask, “What is Sunday for?” Is it for football or NASCAR, if that is your thing? Is it for gardening or getting away from your job for a while?
In New Orleans, Sunday is for the Jazz Brunch in the French Quarter. This is why worship attendance at the early services in that fine city remains the best attended.
One of the answers given by the younger generation, and why they say they find it hard to come to church, is that Sunday is for family. It is the one day when the whole family can sleep in, eat Sunday breakfast together, talk, play, and sit out on the porch drinking coffee and reading the paper together. For them to include worship as a part of that Sunday morning family time is a big thing. If they are going to come to worship, it needs for them to strengthen their family, not keep them apart.
This, of course, leads us back to the conclusion that for us, the Sabbath, for us Sunday, it is for worship.
That brings up another question, “What is worship for? Why do we come to worship? Why do we give up Jazz Brunch and omelets with the family? Why do we get out of bed on the one day most of us can sleep in, put off that coffee on the porch, and come?”
For many, still today and for much of history the answer has been to learn about God and to learn about how to live a happier and more fulfilled life. Starting way back when hardly anyone could read and reaching clear to today, one of the main purposes of worship has been to learn about God and the Christian life; to hear once again God’s promise; to learn God’s will; to come to understand how the world and the life God envisions for us is different from the world and the life we see. In many places and for many people this remains a vital aspect of why we come to worship.
For others, the purpose of worship has been to come and be a part of the church community and the church family. Again, this is a wonderful part of the gift of the Sabbath day. It was especially precious back in those days when most of us were rural, living so far from our neighbors. That was the only time when many of us saw someone other than our family, and that was at worship on Sunday. It was a big deal, to come and see someone other than your spouse and your children for a few hours. It gave lots of folks a bit of respite from the harshness of frontier life.
We also come to worship to experience the presence of God. Jesus promises that wherever two or three of us are gathered, there Jesus will be in the midst of us. We come to this place each week to reap the fruits of that promise, to experience God’s love, God’s forgiveness, and God’s grace. We come to feel the presence of our Lord and to be filled once again with his spirit, to be fed at his table, comforted in our sorrows and our worries.
The leader of the synagogue believed the purpose of the Sabbath, the purpose of worship, was to fulfill your duty to God. That, from the very beginning, and surely from the time God gave us the commandments, we have understood that remembering the Sabbath day is not optional; that we have a divine and holy duty to rest from our labors and worship God.
Jesus, though, seems to be depending upon another tradition; a tradition nearly as old as the leaders; one that does not replace the duty of remembering the Sabbath day, but rather one that focuses the intent of our observance.
Instead of basing his understanding of that Sabbath on the tradition that focuses on the creation, Jesus remembers the tradition that began with the Hebrews who had been saved from slavery in Egypt. For in Deuteronomy, the Sabbath day becomes a celebration of freedom, a celebration of deliverance and salvation.
So, what are we set free from? We proclaim that we are set free from sin, and surely we are. We are forgiven of our sins. We are set free from the eternal consequence that we so deserve. We are forgiven, and we are promised that God will not punish us for our sins or hold them against us. In the end and on the final day, we too, though we are sinners, will receive the gift of eternal life. We are also quite literally set free from sin. We come to this place each and every week, and God changes us. God transforms us and makes us into people who do not want to sin. If only for a moment, if only in small but important ways, we are changed here and we are set free of our sinful selves.
Jesus also calls us here to set us free from worry and fear. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. This weekly trip to church is a tonic for our souls, a vision of reality beyond what we can see anywhere else. In this place and in our worship, we are reminded once again and time and time again that we are truly safe in God’s care. The world outside is indeed out to get us, but the God who loves us is trustworthy and faithful. We are indeed safe in his care.
God also calls us and commands us to come to worship; to free us from ourselves; to free us from our selfish and self-centered notions that life is really about us. God calls us and commands us to come here each week to be reminded that it isn’t all about me. It is about God. It is about my neighbor who needs my love, my care, and my forgiveness. God calls us here to free us from ourselves.
God calls us and commands us to come to worship and be set free from death; to be set free from all the forces and all the powers that separate us from the love, care, and presence of God. God indeed loves us so much that he commands us to come to worship, so that we will not miss out on the great gift that he has prepared for us here. It is the gift of life, and that life is eternal.
That poor woman had been not only in bondage to her disease for 18 long years, but all that time she was also in bondage to all of the ways that her illness had limited and stole her life. The leader of the synagogue was right. Jesus could have waited 4 or 5 hours and healed her after the Sabbath was over, but why would he? What better day to be set free, than on the day of freedom? What better day to receive the gift of life, than on the day we celebrate the gift of God’s creation?
Today is the Sabbath day. It is the day of freedom. Come. Come and be set free. Come. Come and be made alive. Amen
THE TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
August 15, 2010
Pastor Ed Foster
Scripture: Jeremiah 23:23-29; Psalm 82; Hebrews 11:29—12:2; Luke 12:49-56
“Patience & Perseverance”
I think we human beings are impatient by our very nature. We want what we want when we want it. Indeed, I think it started with Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel on the very first family road trip. Cain had to have been asking, “Daddy are we there yet?”
I know that I’m not the most patient person. When I go to the grocery store and fill my cart, I usually take a moment to check which lane is really going to be the fastest. I don’t like to wait, and the fast lane is rarely the fastest lane. I have seen people lined up 5 or 6 deep, while the regular lanes were empty. They have even installed self-checkout lanes, but if you have a bunch of fresh produce, it is the longest of the bunch. I’m not very patient about such things, and so I will actually take the time to figure out which lane will be the fastest.
We are, I think, by nature impatient beings. From the very beginning, the idea of waiting for things, no matter how good they might be has not been a road map to success. No, instead patience is a learned trait, not something, most of us at least, are born with. That surely has to be true of our generation more than ever before.
We loath having to wait for anything. If there are more than 4 cars in the drive-through, we will pass it by to find one that is less busy. We can pick up a cell phone and speak to whoever we want to, right at that moment, no matter where we are or where they are.
I can type any question my son might ask into Google, and within less than a second, I can be showing him a picture of a Venus Fly Trap or the story of Blackbeard the pirate.
We have fast food, fast lives, and we don’t have much patience for having to wait.
So it is that we also don’t have much patience for waiting on the Lord.
Faith is though, often all about waiting. Faith is about believing in a promise that has not yet been fulfilled. It is about trusting in a salvation that is not yet complete. Faith is often about patience.
The author of Hebrews put it this way in last week’s second lesson,
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is trusting in a promise that is not yet fully fulfilled. Faith is waiting patiently upon the Lord.
In last week’s lessons we heard about Abraham and Sarah, who even though they were too old to have children, believed God’s promise. They believed that God would give them as many children as there are stars in the sky and grains of sand on the seashore. They believed that promise, and God called that belief righteousness.
They never saw the culmination of that promise. It wasn’t for generations that their descendents were so numerous. Look now, we who consider ourselves descendents of Abraham and Sarah, we are indeed as numerous as the stars in the sky.
God promised them a homeland, but they spent most of their lives as nomads in the land that God had promised them; but they believed, and now they have a homeland in the kingdom of God.
God promised them that they and their descendents would be a blessing to the entire world, but they never saw the fulfillment of that promise. Now, their descendent, Jesus the Christ is the blessing of all creation.
They believed. They were patient. They persevered in the face of all the odds that came against them. They believed when it seemed impossible. They believed when it seemed foolish and silly. They believed when it seemed like they had been waiting their whole lives, and God who is faithful kept his promise to them.
Again this week, the author of Hebrews goes through a litany of the Old Testament heroes, who persevered in the faith; some of them with success and some of them with pain and suffering, but all of whom continued to wait on the promise. They are witnesses to us of the character of our faith. They are examples, to be sure, but they are also promises to us that God is faithful and that God’s promises are sure.
We are impatient people, impatient by nature and by training, and we can surely be impatient with God. When we pray, “Jesus save me.”, we aren’t much concerned with waiting on the Lord. When we are in need, we don’t want to wait too long on the promise. We want action. We want drive- up service. We want God to answer our prayers right now.
That isn’t our fault. I really do believe that is the way we are made. We learn patience. Faith grows. We learn to wait on the Lord. We learn from our own experiences, and we learn from this great cloud of witnesses.
We are impatient by nature, and I think that impatience is often a good thing. God made us this way for a reason. Our impatience has caused us to reach for the stars, to not be satisfied with the way things are and to strive to make things and our world better. That impatience has caused us to work for justice, peace, and for prosperity for all. That impatience has made us refuse to accept that the world can’t be made better.
Impatient people that we are; we are tempted sometimes to give up on God and decide that if God hasn’t done what we wanted, that we must take care of it ourselves. Sometimes we try to prop up the promise with all manner of ceremony, pomp, and circumstance. Sometimes when the promise seems too far away, we blame ourselves for not having enough faith.
This great cloud of witnesses is there surrounding us to proclaim both the promise and the nature of our faith. God is good, they tell us, full of grace and mercy. God will save us from the evil in our world, even though we may experience pain and suffering and be subjected to every kind of misery. God is faithful, even when it seems impossible; even when it seems foolish to believe; even when it seems like we have been waiting our whole lives.
We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who are there to support, encourage, and teach us that we can trust God. We can have faith. We can patiently wait on the Lord, for our God will keep his promise to us, even if it takes our whole lives. Amen.
THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
August 8, 2010
Pastor Ed Foster
Scripture: Genesis 15:1-6; Psalm 33:12-22; Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-40
“Anxiety Free Life?”
The journals continue to report that both here in the United States and around the world the number of people being treated for anxiety disorders continues to grow. Anxiety disorder is the new term for what 20 years ago we called neurosis, and in years before that, we called it nerve problems.
Now, in these last years we have developed a number of wonderful treatments for these problems. Both counseling and medications are helping people to cope with and deal with their anxieties.
Still, the fact remains that even with all of this new help, people are anxious. We are afraid. We are nervous, and we are scared and with good reason, don’t you think? We are bombarded with messages of all the things that we ought to be afraid of; diseases that might kill us, natural disasters all over the world, far away and close up, that might destroy all that we have and all that we care for. There are wars, criminals and terrorists. The economy is weak, and who knows how bad things will get?
It is a simple fact that we live in a dangerous world. In this dangerous world there are lots of things of which we are rightfully afraid.
Indeed, anxiety has become a way of life for many of us, so much so that it seems the trick to modern life isn’t learning to live free of anxiety and fear, but instead, the trick is learning how to cope with the stress and anxiety that are a part of all of our lives. We have become so accustomed to our anxiety, that we don’t really know how to exist without it.
A seminary professor asked her students one year to fast during Lent. Because a number of them had health problems, they decided instead of fasting from food for those 40 days, they would fast from anxious thoughts. One young member of the class asked quite seriously, “If we don’t think about those things, what will we think about instead?” The class all laughed nervously, but there were also a lot of agreeing nods of the head.
We are trained to be fearful, to be on guard, to be on alert all the time. From the time we are young, we learn that this world is a dangerous place; that only the strong and the alert survive. From that first time another child steals our toy, we learn we have to hold on to what we have and worry about who might take it. From the first time we have our heart broken, we realize that we have to worry about who might hurt our feelings. We become anxious.
Lesson after lesson teaches us not to become too complacent; not to be too trusting; for when we let our guard down, that’s when we get hurt. That’s when things go awry. It is that self preservation that becomes a way of life. Anxiety becomes our constant companion, our treasure, and our God.
Jesus came into this scared, anxious world, and he said something amazing “Have no fear little flock…” God has already taken care of our lives. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God has given us his kingdom. God has given us eternal life.
There is nothing for us to fear anymore; nothing at all. It is God’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom. God and his kingdom are now our treasure. That is where our heart should be. That is where our hopes and dreams should be. That is where our lives will be.
Some find the rest of this passage a bit disturbing, and in our anxiety- filled lives it is all the more anxiety producing. The idea of selling all that we have and giving it to the poor runs counter to everything we know. We have been well taught that we must hold on to all that we have. It is our protection and our security. Just the thought of giving away all that we have is terrifying.
So too the idea of living our lives focused only on God’s return, living as if Jesus were returning today, seems foolish and laughable. We can’t really live as if Jesus’ return and Jesus’ kingdom were the most important things in our lives. I have a test tomorrow that I must study for, bills to pay and responsibilities to take care of.
Of course, this kind of talk doesn’t just make us nervous; it made the disciples nervous too. In the verse that directly follows this passage, Peter asks Jesus if this parable is just for them or if it is for everybody. It seems Peter wants to know if they are to take this literally, or if it is one of those general kinds of parables from which they are to take a lesson, but not too seriously.
These commands only make sense in light of this wonderful promise. God has given us his kingdom, so that we have nothing to fear, and that changes everything. This is again is about faith; faith that brings real generosity, generosity born out of our knowledge that our real treasure is in heaven and not here. It is a generosity born out of love for our neighbor in need and not out of our need to make God happy. It is a generosity born out of faith that we don’t need our things, because we have God.
These parables are about faith; faith that brings a hopeful anticipation of our Savior’s return; faith that faces the world in a sure and certain confidence in God and God’s faithfulness to his promises. This is about faith that drives away fear and allows us to live a life free of the anxiety of everyday life.
It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? God is pleased to give us his kingdom, and that treasure has the power to free us from worry, fear, and anxiety. But, of course, we are still anxious. Where will such faith as this come from?
First of all, hear the words again. Let them fill you up. Let the spirit of God make them real in your hearts. This is the word of the Lord, your Savior and your God, “Have no fear little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Here these words again and again. Write them on your heart, and then live this faith. Take the terrible (and yet wonderful) risk of generosity, of service, of steadfastly preparing for the Lord’s return. Grasp on to this promise, make it your treasure, and know the joy of God’s kingdom; the joy of (if only for a moment at a time) an anxiety- free life. Amen